Why the Angles are so Important –and some insight about Suicide

We know the Angles are all-important.

Any planet on an Angle or, say, within two degrees of an Angle, or squaring an Angle tightly is going to command a front-and-center position in analysis.

Conjunct or square the Midheaven-IC axis: much will be said in terms of parental interaction, work-choice and demeanor, status, these dimensions focusing all-importantly within the personality development. We see Queen Elizabeth with Saturn conjunct the Midheaven, Hemingway with Uranus conjunct the IC (a most unusual family situation), Jackie Kennedy, Neptune on the Midheaven; Prince Charles, Neptune on the IC; Leonardo da Vinci, Saturn on the Midheaven (shunned by his parents from birth)..

Conjunct the Ascendant-Descendant axis: much will be said in terms of personal identity projection and public interaction. We see Audrey Hepburn with Neptune on the 7th; Hugh Hefner, Uranus on the 7th; Martin Luther King and Jacques Cousteau, Jupiter on the Ascendant; Tony Blair, Mars on the Ascendant; Judy Garland, Pluto on the Ascendant; Queen Victoria, Sun-Moon on the Ascendant; Beethoven, Uranus on the 7th (marked eccentricity).

The Midheaven is determined by the time of our birth. The Ascendant is determined by the place of our birth. The time and place of our birth give us the indelible, individual orientation each of us has toward our life. This Grand Cross of axes sights us, aims us into the developmental time and experiential space of all of life. The Houses issue from these Angles. We become, we are our Angles.

This is precisely why rectification can ONLY be accomplished through exacting reference to the Angles, not to some simple planetary placement in some House somewhere. The Angles, receiving Arcs and major transits throughout life development, respond symbolically to mark the time and place of birth. Determination of the proper Angles is the sine qua non of rectification in astrology.Disorientation

In the study of the onset or climax of critical illness, we see over and over and over again the activation of the Angles of the horoscope. We constantly see Pluto, then Neptune and Saturn in the main, along with the startling quindecile aspect, active within human systemic and somatic breakdown. –We sense that, under change (including aging) or some disorientation (disappointment), our mortal system easily falters.

We can see as well that the Arc or Transit of Neptune over or square an Angle of the horoscope corresponds most often to the elimination or blurring of ego definition, a “wipe-out” of some kind through drugs and/or alcohol, through delusion, through fantasy, through bewildering circumstance. This correspondence seems to occur more powerfully with the engagement of an Angle than it does even in relation to the Sun or Moon!

Suicide is, of course, the ultimate critical illness –and it is the third leading cause of death among American adolescents (In young adults, it is the second leading cause of death). World psychiatric experts see suicide as the result of holistic psychological pain rather than as the result of a specific psychological disease. Psychoanalyst Edwin Shneidman, who has studied suicide for some 50 years and is author of the leading text about it (The Suicidal Mind, Oxford University Press, 1996) writes, “We live our lives in pursuit of psychological needs. When an individual commits suicide, that person is trying to blot out psychological pain that stems from thwarted psychological needs ‘vital’ for that person.” –In short this is a short-circuit of our orientation within life, grown to its intolerable maximum.

Shneidman’s research points up that relationships with the father are more critical than relationships with the mother with reference to early warning patterns. Seeds of rejection are planted in the individual’s mind. Then there are the measures of success or lack of it –objective measurement and self-measurement. Those who feel they are “ambitious, capable, competitive, contented, fair-minded, intelligent, out-going, reasonable, secure, self-controlled, sincere, and sophisticated” are dramatically less liable to commit suicide.

The trait-labels ascribed to the “least successful” are “cautious, defensive, depressed, dissatisfied, frustrated, lonely, reserved, and vulnerable.” These traits mark the beginnings of disorientation, i.e., are deficit-significant.

–There is much more presented on this subject in Tyl: The Astrological Timing of Critical Illness.”

A key point can easily be made here: in the list of traits, note the emphasis of traits that are concomitant with the Angles of any horoscope!: parental interaction; success on the job; personal projection; perceived/objective status orientation.

When Ernest Hemingway shot himself (as his father had done), tr Pluto was exactly on his Ascendant Angle, with tr Saturn simultaneously opposed his Sun. SA Moon had just crossed his 7th cusp.

Actor Brian Keith, learning that he had cancer, committed suicide with tr Pluto exactly on his Ascendant, tr Uranus square his Moon, and SA Uranus opposed his Sun.

Michel Gauquelin committed suicide just as SA Neptune was leaving conjunction with his IC, opposing his Midheaven, with SA Saturn exactly square his Sun, and SA Uranus exactly opposed his Moon.

Adolph Hitler committed suicide with SA Pluto-Neptune exactly square his Ascendant.

All of these acts of suicide could have been anticipated –warded off?—astrologically.

Suicide ends confusion, frustration, and disorientation. “Ending it all” means just that.

The Angles figure prominently in such disorientation and, with clinical study of suicide, we learn that early-warning signs are so often all too clear as they accumulate. Tied with the astrology of the Angles, we can understand much about orientation and disorientation in life; purpose and process.