Management of Measurement Constructs
Marriage-Divorce Bromides

There’s a well-worn adage in astrology that says if there is a double-bodied Sign (Gemini, Libra, Pisces, or Sagittarius) on the cusp of the 7th or if the ruler of the 7th is in a double-bodied Sign, ‘there will be more than one marriage.’

The deductive logic behind the bromide is certainly clear. That it has been around for so long suggests there is some value to it. –And perhaps in these days of pre-nuptial agreements etc., it is to be considered strategically, in its place.

I had a wonderful marriage (1958), an amicable divorce 15 years later … and then a second marriage 16 years after that. –Saturn rules my 7th cusp and is in the double-bodied sign of Pisces. I don’t know that this is all that important in the scheme of things. Measurements of development activity in my life at the divorce period were much more eloquent with regard to significances, values, and eventuation.

There’s a more modern adage (and I have had a lot to do with its clarification and development) that suggests that the planet in hard aspect to the Sun/Moon midpoint colors the quality of relationships in one’s life. And further: transits and Arcs to the very sensitive Sun/Moon midpoint promise developmental significances in one’s relationships at the time, in archetypal terms of the planet involved. [For the very young, the significances usually focus upon the relationship between the parents.]

In my horoscope, Uranus=Sun/Moon, normally an impulsive, fractious focus. While I can identify that I’m perhaps not the world’s easiest person to get along with, I can also identify my need for my relationships to be unusual, special, unique, highly individual, even a bit off-the-wall … in order for the relationship to have something appealing, even magnetic for me. Additionally, with Uranus ruling the 9th, practically every high-focus relationship in my life, except for my first wife, has been with a foreign-born lady.

–A very quick look around the literature adds some light on these points, but I don’t think it brings home the bacon. For example, Pat Nixon –as somber, staid and marriage-anchored as I can imagine, had a Gemini 7th cusp! Her Mercury was in Aquarius and trine Jupiter. Don’t quite understand that in the light of the symbolic signals. —-Barbara Hutton (the 7-times married heiress) had a Libra 7th cusp, with Venus, its ruler in the double-bodied sign of Sagittarius AND at the Sun/Moon midpoint!!! …But wouldn’t that suggest marvelous marriage relationship capability? Does the Pluto opposition to her Venus twist it out of shape, to excess, in terms of potential.

Mickey Rooney has been married 8 times! He has Gemini on his seventh cusp and Jupiter=Sun/Moon. And his Mercury is tense in its aspect with Pluto as well!

Nicholas Cage has a history of fragmented relationships and divorce: Gemini on the 7th.

Al Gore has Aquarius on the 7th, but Uranus in Gemini!?

George Bush has a Pisces seventh cusp?

We must be very cautious with these teachings.

Practical Considerations We have to be careful, as ‘juicy’ as cursory case evidence can be, with sociohistorical perspectives: in the pre WWII generations … and all the way beyond … having a sexual relationship was difficult within the mores of the day. Marriage was practically mandatory for hormonal expression. –Of late, all that has changed: marriage is an endangered institution! [Note how the word “relationship” has taken the place of the word “marriage.”]

We have to be careful about age. –A 67-year old married female client asked me just yesterday, in all seriousness, if she would ‘meet someone’ in the near future! She has been long-married, but she does have Gemini on the cusp of the 7th and Mercury in a double-bodied Sign as well! At the present time in her horoscope, there are measurements that, for someone half her age, would certainly correspond to a strong romantic period. –Is this what was behind her inquiry?

But with ‘nothing happening’ in her reality in that department and other levels of development easily taking on the measurements’ symbolic spotlight, what can one say?

For a marriage to end at late age, it is grossly impractical in relation to estate management, insurances, relationships with grown children, especially when they are involved with the family business, etc. –Yet, I can remember suggesting to my 86-yer old widowed father, within conspicuous new-marriage measurements in his horoscope(!), the humor of the situation and its impracticalities. But shortly thereafter, he advised me that he was indeed having a relationship, and after a proper courting time, he married a 92-year-old lady!!!

Normally, at any age, the question about “meeting someone” is a hope not to be alone, usually during a time of growth, transition, change, ending. The relationship is a support group. And clearly, this was my father’s case and that of his bride, and all involved understood and smiled upon it.

What do you have to say about these observations? They are strongly part of every astrologer’s daily work.

Comment and develop on the Forum, please.