Sabian Astrology is an original character analysis psychology
created by Marc Edmund Jones

Character is defined as the aggregate of distinctive qualities belonging to an individual; or the stamp of individuality impressed by nature or habit. Marc Edmond Jones, creator of Sabian Astrology often quoted Heraclitus, “Character is Destiny” and Aristotle, “A thing is what it does.” Overall, the essence of our substance and the meaning of any specific event or person is indicated by the context within which we are born and take our conscious place in our world. This context is also known as Timing or our situation within the cycles and patterns of our Planet Earth as indicated by the geometrical numbering of the planetary positions in the Zodiac circle.

Marc Edmund Jones applied the principle he learned in a college comparative anatomy class that a single bone could identify the entire individual skeleton and general species. Therefore, a horoscope should form a single overall pattern or gestalt that then illuminates each specific detail of individual character or event meaning. The skeleton is the lasting character of an individual which also expresses the essence of the species or community that individual was born into and lived with throughout their life. Sabian Astrology studies the timing skeleton through the horoscope to explore both the individual as unique and also a specific example of the human species

The skeleton of each species defines the overall organization while allowing a full range of individual differences and even outer appearances. Humans extend the general biological principle with their fashions, props, personal accessories, and other imaginative symbolic trappings. Our core foundation, essential structure and inherent character arise from the reality and substance of our birth. With that first breath, the baby announces to the world that a unique consciousness has taken its place in the universe---this is the essential birth time and place used in Sabian Astrology to cast the horoscope.

The birth of a baby integrates two universal processes. First the birth is the leading edge of the evolution of the human species and its expression as the ongoing biological interaction with the current state of the Planet Earth. Even more generally, each baby’s birth is beginning of an independent, conscious development of the organized swirl of the molecules of the surface of the Planet that represent the precise local timing of the complex celestial dynamics from the Big Bang through the Solar System development to the current positions and momentum of Planet Earth.

Some mistakenly think our individuality is a conscious decision we make as convenient in light of the ideology or advice we currently accept. Those are all passing details at several removes from our actual character and personal reality. Sabian Astrology notes that as each of us is a child of our family, our society, and our times---even more we are born into the timing measured by the apparent planetary positions relative to the Zodiac cycle as seen at some specific place within a local horizon determined by the latitude.

Do you think you know the general climate for the month of January? Climatologists and geographers insist that is unknowable without also knowing the latitude and topography within the local horizon. January is a cold winter month in North America; a hot summer month in Australia and very special backdrop in the high mountain plateaus of equatorial regions. Each of us tends to assume that all reality is as we experience or expect it to be. However, Sabian Astrology recognizes that there are fundamental principles and metaphysical symbolism which are not at all limited to our personal comfort or assumptions.

The gestalt approach of Sabian Astrology allows an unlimited ramification of specific details to remain organized into a single meaningful entity. This personal gestalt is what we know as our own unique character. Few people realize that their personal perspective is not just the way it is, or how everyone sees things. Only when they have an opportunity to hear the differences between their chart interpretation and others do they begin to realize how much theirs is unique to them individually.

Generally, once an individual realizes their personal character gestalt, they agree that is their ideal of how they wish to be. The traditional astrological details of good and bad planets or afflicted aspects disappear in the larger understanding we all have challenges and opportunities that we each prefer to focus upon as fits our character not any other supposedly easier or more automatic Cosmic control. Any horoscope characteristic can be a source of power and accomplishment or of challenge and difficulty in Sabian Astrology.

Humans are conscious beings who express their inner Self and character essence through their situation and timing context. If all power is assumed to reside in distant or abstract Cosmic entities that inflict their will upon the creatures of the earth, then it follows that we humans are just cogs in Cosmic wheels and the victims of the interplay of these abstract forces. Such a view is the surrender of human free will and personal responsibility. However, in Sabian Astrology character is destiny and we each make our reality fit into our expression of self and context of community timing.

Astronomers, fascinated by their technology of mechanical clocks, telescopes, and algebra equations judge astrology in light of their traditional nonsense of the Constellations, saying the stars move about through the centuries, so Aries isn’t the same as it was for Ptolemy, their paradigm author. However, even Ptolemy recognized that the astrological Zodiac is based upon the solstices and equinoxes not the Constellations or fixed stars. Sabian Astrology charts timing which none of the sciences has yet to figure out as important in human understanding.

Ptolemy, the astronomer’s paradigm, believed in stellar influence or the power of stars to affect humans. However, the most powerful and indisputable stellar influence is sunshine. Solar flux is vital to understand the Water Cycle and thus the weather, agriculture and much of timing and interrelationships that control human life and development. Ptolemy states in his Tetrabiblios: The stars influence the weather. The weather influences people. Therefore astrological stellar influence controls human destiny. Totally illogical and philosophically silly except for those mesmerized by celebrity endorsements.

However, no horoscope charts sunshine or solar flux. Sabian astrology emphasizes it is far more important what an individual does to consciously control or adjust to sunshine, weather or any other objective situation. Just as sunshine has no clear or certain absolute influence upon each and every person, all the notions about astrology as fate or Comic determination are just lazy thinking worthy only of a Ptolemy-crazed astronomer.

Once the overall horoscope gestalt is diagnosed in Sabian Astrology, then each detail can be analyzed in light of that framework. If the details don’t gel together there are only two possibilities: either there is an error in one of the details or the overall gestalt includes an element of chaos or fundamental inconsistency. An overall pattern or gestalt does not imply simplistic categories or images forced upon every set of details. A good gestalt clearly expresses the inherent reality as it is, whatever it might be.

When the details all do fit together, the narrative of the horoscope is told over and over again in ever greater and more impressive integration throughout the narrative of the horoscope. The hallmark of good horoscope interpretation in Sabian Astrology is the single, consistent narrative of character and meaning highlighted by every facet of detail involved.

In Sabian Astrology individual character is unique; meaning is personal while the details of technical jargon are organized into concrete sequences and patterns. The observed planets represent the various lights or timing energies that express how the universal takes its unique configuration in our individual reality. Planets are what we all observe. Houses, signs and Zodiac degrees are how we measure the details of planetary position within various contexts.

In ancient times folks were known by their emotional responses and reactions as charted by the clearly visible and powerful Moon. In the 19th century folks were seen in terms of their social appearance while what might motivate them in their inner expression of Self was considered unimportant. In those times a person was described as an Aries or Capricorn based upon their Moon position or Ascendant.

In Sabian Astrology, the Sun represents the Individual Quest and what we each seek to express of our innermost essence. Newspaper astrology is based upon the older notions that an Aries has Aries ascendant, though Sun Signs by birth date are given as they what everyone can calculate. Such ‘horoscopes’ are never intended to be insightful or accurate. Are You a Libra or a Leo? The answer depends upon the astrological system being considered and the precise calculations made and the accuracy of the birth time used.

The work of an actual astrologer, casting a particular horoscope may often indicate that the birth time appears a bit off. I have had several examples of these questions coming up and further research proved out that the horoscope expressed the person and the birth time had been in error. There are techniques called rectification which re-engineer the exact birth time from the major events of an individual’s life.

There is also the question of artistry, timing and exactly what is most meaningful in any interpretation situation. Arguments over the precise result of astrological calculation can be intriguing amongst astrologers; however, Marc Edmund Jones noted that and accurate and meaningful horoscope interpretation at a specific time and situation may depend upon a technical error in calculation that highlights an overall chart gestalt more important right then. In seminars, Marc would even take a chart from one audience member and interpret it as if the horoscope suggested by another to illustrate the abundance of details in any horoscope can be used to indicate anything the astrologer wishes.

It is not objective precision or excellence in calculation that results in a meaningful, insightful and accurate horoscope interpretation. In Sabian Astrology the ultimate result of horoscope interpretation is a sharing of personal meaning that is validated by how it feels, how it unlocks personal understanding and how it settles doubts and clarifies what is most important.

The principles of ancient Euclidean geometry and Pythagorean symbolism create the context or Tao of Sabian Astrology. Over this detailed skeleton, the whole living reality of horoscope analysis develops. Interpreting a specific horoscope, such as YOUR birth chart involves casting the technical details of the wheel as background. Then the superstructure of the chart gestalt and personal narrative begins to take shape as an artistic and literary project.

As with any artistic or occult endeavor, integrity is the essential quality. It is only as the astrologer is committed to the Solar Portal, their personal quest to connect themselves to inmost center or Source that they inspire the focus of that inner light which illuminates their work. Otherwise, all that is involved are the forms and calculations which will describe the astrological details, but not any particular depth of meaning.

Sabian Astrology involves two quite distinct enterprises. The first is the study of traditional symbolism and relationships as they were developed and analyzed for millennia in light of human experience. The second is the art of finding the personal meaning, specific narrative, and unique gestalt of the individual character charted in an individual horoscope.

Sabian astrology is like literature or mathematics where the same limited set of alphabet letters or digits and the basic relationships of arithmetic or grammar underlie all calculation or literature. Sabian astrology is a philosophical explanation of personal psychology in terms of ancient metaphysics and universal symbolism. The depth and breadth of insight and occult background available to focus into any chart interpretation is a test of the astrologer’s personal quest.

The most general conclusion from Sabian Astrology is that each of us tends to have a far more distinguished and exceptional character and potential than the circumstances of our background and our personal initiatives has found occasion to develop either in our relationships in our community or within the depth of our own inner growth. Our horoscope indicates the potential we were born with as well as the life situations we naturally strive to make the scenarios of our life drama and narrative.

What we actually do with our lives and how much we succeed or fail either in our own estimation or the response and beliefs of our society is not fated and is not any part of what can be found in horoscope interpretation in Sabian Astrology. We may have a horoscope indication to be a center of attention in community esteem. That might mean a fellow from a distinguished political family could find the opportunity to manipulate their way into a winning political career.

It doesn’t guarantee that he would be a good leader, or as in George W. Bush’s case clearly indicates that combined with his overall chart indications that given the White House he would make a mess of things expressing in detail his personal limitations and overwhelming challenges.

The Pathetic Bundle Chart of George W. Bush

Marc Edmund Jones sought through his Sabian Astrology to bring Neo-Pythagorean symbolism into contemporary life as a Portal into the ancient Solar Mysteries which offered personal insight and psychological development with dramatic flair and Cosmic power. This was his expression of the ultimate achievement of his Inner Quest. He described what he did as ‘spade work’ turning up new ground to bring to light fascinating treasures unseen before. What would later develop from his finds was not a great focus for his efforts.

Born in the 19th century, at the age of five he experienced the role of pattern and sequence in nature from a visit to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago 400 years after the European discovery of this New World. How much was inherent pattern in nature or how much was the selection and polishing of chosen examples for the exhibit was not his concern then.

This World’s Fair was a totally exceptional experience which we have only the surviving commentary to view in wonder. It was the spectacular epitome of 19th century ability and understanding which only survived a short time.

Marc Edmund Jones had a personal interest in exact details and complex structures and sequences. He spoke of how he formed an interest in the inherent patterns and sequences in nature from a visit to the World’s Colombian Fair in 1893. The World’s fair in Chicago in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America is only a historical detail to us of the 20th century or later.

Looking at the photos of that magnificent architecture and construction is a delight in itself. For a five-year-old like Marc the Midway and Pavilions of the World’s Fair must have been as impressive as Disneyland today and more. Here is link to the full story and photographs of that amazing event.

Visit the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893

Marc Edmund Jones attended John Dewey’s experimental high school in Chicago until he dropped out in 1907 to pursue other interests. He set himself the task to read the Bible from the original texts in Hebrew and Greek. His familiarity was several languages, the difficulties of translation, and ways an author could express his feelings as well as his objective observations served him well in his decades of metaphysical research.

Eventually Marc Edmund Jones realized a special truth about Bible narratives, they were symbolic and expressive of universal psychological knowledge more than being literal descriptions of ancient magical events. He wrote a version of the Book of Daniel as a poetic description of the psychological process of maturation and integration of the internal elements of human psyche. This Marc called his Occult Master Thesis.

Reading the traditional metaphysical texts, including the Theosophical works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, he realized these were poetic descriptions of the personal experiences of their authors. They merged their feelings with their observations, their beliefs with their techniques, so that the result could only be fully understood by someone who also had some personal experience of their activities as well as their subject matter. From this insight eventually arose Sabian Astrology and the Sabian Assembly.

Occult Initiation and
The Portal of the Solar Mysteries
The Sabian Assembly

Visit the Sabian Assembly Occult Initiation and
The Portal of the Solar Mysteries-
The Sabian Assembly

Marc Edmund Jones studied both modern science and ancient metaphysical and occult texts. He realized they were not in conflict; rather they we totally distinct and separate disciplines. Science deals with objective observations that can be repeated by anyone over and over again. Metaphysics, astrology, literature and fine art deal with the unique personal impressions individual experience of the objective world made available to the world. Objective science uses creative imagination to develop hypotheses. Subjective artistry uses mathematics and organization as a background upon which to weave its beauty and emotional power.

Marc Edmund Jones became interested in writing scenarios for the newly emerging art form of cinema becoming a part of the early film community in Chicago, Cleveland then out in Hollywood as Cecil B. De Mille and D. W. Griffith were making movies in the area drawn to the community for its open space and moderate climate and nearby wilderness canyons, rugged terrain and abundant sunshine for shooting Westerns.

He learned from his involvement with the movie making community while he was also studying astrology and interpreting horoscopes gave him the opportunity to experience first hand how exceptional an individual could be while continuing to also express universal personal and community traits. Everyone had all the same planets, signs, houses, Zodiac degrees in their birth chart. However, these could be put together in an infinite array of unique configurations which became the background to how each individual created and reacted to his or her background and opportunities.

As a community of exceptional individuals with contrasting fierce passions and expectations, Marc Edmund Jones experienced how all communities were the same while each individual was unique. Applying these insights to the traditional meanings of the houses, signs and planets became his innovation of Sabian Astrology.

Everyone needs to study the details of traditional meaning for the planets, the houses, and signs and their relationships and interconnections. These comprise a vast traditional literature with diagrams and concrete relationships from the ancient world. For Aristotle, it was obvious that the world was composed of four elements: Earth and Water which were subject to gravity and fell if dropped; and Air and Fire which defied gravity indicating their heavenly origins by rising naturally. Without chemistry, physics or any form of detailed material analysis this was a reasonable explanation of general experience.

All repeating sequences can be represented symbolically by a circle. Euclid’s axiom at all circles are similar justifies using geometrical principles of circles for a wide range of analogies. Putting numbers to specific points in a circle involves various principles of arithmetic and symbolism which is the heart of the work of Pythagoras who also established a school of Occult Initiation which continues to inspire throughout time.

The universal patterns of Pythagorean symbolism are found clearly expressed by the dot patterns on a pair of dice. This is the heart of the Stars-n-Dice perspective (on Nav Bar). The original slogan of my 1984 Stars And Dice Book was: “If you can read the spots on dice, you can learn astrology!” That book went on to explain the signs, planets, houses, aspects, and orbs of technical astrology from those 12 dice-face patterns. It also introduced a simple oracle based upon casting a pair of dice several times. Later, I realized the hexagrams of the I Ching could also be understood through the dice cubes and their patterns.

Sabian Astrology uses the traditional geometrical analysis of the ancients to form its notions of Planets, Signs, Houses, Aspects, Orbs, and Zodiac degrees.Everything is established within a symbolic circle which is universal, eternal and undifferentiated. The first construction in Euclid is the equilateral triangle, illustrating that equal magnitudes will form a consistent figure with three sides. At a time when concepts in general and the concept of process in particular were known only to esoteric disciples geometric division by three became a Divine Gift such as the trine aspect in astrology.

The next simplest geometrical divisions of a circle by equal magnitudes are diameters as perpendicular bisectors. This division of the circle into four equal parts is the hallmark of Western philosophy. It emphasizes the eye-catching power of the straight line which makes perpendiculars easy markers for cardinal divisions.

Using a radius to mark off sectors on a circumference from the four points of perpendicular bisectors creates the 12-spoke wheel of the horoscope with its natural divisions into three set of four or four sets of three or overall 12 divisions of the circle. Seeking to expand these divisions, the numbers from 2 to 12 except for 7 and 11 have a lowest common denominator of 360. Thus fine analysis of a circle symbolism uses 360 degrees grouped into 12 sets of 30 which lie within 4 quadrants which have 3 equal sets within the circle. This is the fundamental metaphysical background for Sabian Astrology.

Marc Edmund Jones studied symbolism in detail. He was aware of earlier efforts to attach symbolic images to individual zodiac degrees. He took the opportunity in 1925 to merge the psychic abilities of Elsie Wheeler with his own detailed knowledge of each individual degree of the Zodiac. It was an experiment in channeling the insights of Theosophy through psychic vision to illustrate and illuminate each individual degree of the Zodiac.

Marc Edmund Jones prepared 360 3x5 index cards, writing in ink in the upper left hand corner each of the 30 degrees of the 12 signs. The rest of the card he left blank until he could establish the ritual wherein he would focus intently upon the Zodiac degree marked on the card and then write in pencil his notes upon what Elsie Wheeler’s psychic vision described as a scenario expressing that degree. Later, he expanded those notes to create his mimeographed Sabian Astrology lesson set, Symbolical Astrology.

The results of this experiment were the marvelous Sabian Symbols for the 360 degrees of the Zodiac. Unfortunately, Marc Edmund Jones had his own strong opinions upon what would be proper poetic imagery and the limits between psychic visions and hard occult facts. He never thought much of his Sabian Symbols and would have abandoned the whole experiment except that his students found them too useful to throw away.

Later, Marc Edmund Jones, believing in the 19th century view that published books should have only the best and most pure information in them book the notes he wrote on the original 3x5 cards into book form. He even eventually instructed his loyal students to stop using the earlier scenarios since they continued to annoy him. This annoyance arose from the Sabian Symbols being not just his own creation but a major psychic-occult insight beyond any one individual’s control. The final occult proof that books are no longer such sacred writ came as the book he published had a long section with 1001 notable nativities, many of which turned out to be inaccurate.

It was only with my development of my Stars-n-Dice Perspective, adding the Pythagorean insights of the Dice Cube to my experience with the I Ching and corresponding the 360 Sabian Symbols to the 360 hexagram line judgments of the central 60 hexagrams that it became possible, at least in my subjective personal experience to prove the value of original scenarios of the Sabian Symbols. They represent an expression of the universal occult structure based upon circles and geometrical divisions found in dice cubes, Sabian Astrology Zodiac, and the King Wen Sequence for the hexagrams of the I Ching.

The Sabian Symbols for the 360 degrees
of the Zodiac and
their correspondence to the 360 core hexagram lines of the Flux Tome (I Ching)

With today, 10 planets in Sabian Astrology, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Houses and 360 individual degrees, each with their own special symbolism there is a vast array of details to be studied and understood as personal background for horoscope analysis. One step is to study the presentation of Sabian Astrology’s approach of finding an overall horoscope gestalt and then interpreting each specific detail highlighted in the chart in light of that gestalt.

Horoscope Gestalt Analysis Explained

Another step is to review and study the meanings of the traditional details of astrology. Astrologers are famous for arguing endlessly over the words they choose to try to express their insights. It is far better to be able to relate directly to the various symbols and their traditional (and now modern) associations. Of course learning to understand the symbols requires reading many words from many sources to develop your own personal insights and understanding. Here is a circle diagram with the basic perpendicular bisectors related to the Ascendant (Horizon diameter). The Signs and Houses are shown in order as they would rise as the Asc or Ascendant at the left or Eastern horizon. The 10 planets are then listed with the signs they traditionally rule.

For a traditional explanation of the symbols or glyphs
visit alwaysastrology.com

All the planets are observed in the circle of the ecliptic which was established by the fact that when the Sun and Moon were both exactly along that circle for a new or full moon, eclipses happen. The ancients saw 7 planets or wandering stars: The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They put them in order by their observed daily motion which turns out to be the same as their positional order in the Solar System, except for the Moon which is very close to Earth and therefore appears very big and moves very fast. The Moon travels all around the ecliptic or Zodiac each month.

In recent centuries, three new planets were discovered, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Also a number of larger asteroids have been identified and mapped. Recently astronomers decided Pluto was too small. However, astrologers continue to regard Pluto as a full planet since it charts extremely powerful changes. For those who find ten planets and a number of asteroids too few details to track Arab astrologers calculated various Parts from the relationships amongst the positions of the planets to add to a horoscope.

The properties to be measured by a planet are the result of pure empirical observation and subjective analysis. First the planet is charted in horoscopes, and then charts with prominent characteristics involving that planet are considered. As a result characteristics are attributed to that planet and applied in all horoscopes. Newly discovered planets were unknown and without influence in the consciousness of those natives. However, they become quite salient to our understanding of that person and their life.

The set of ten planets in general use in Sabian astrology are further grouped into pairs. The Sun and Moon, also known as the lights represent the fundamental energies an individual expresses in their life. The Sun the personal Quest or what the native or individual seeks to express as their core mission in life. The Moon receives its light from the Sun and thus is reflective of other influences. It becomes the Individual Sustainment or emotional response of the individual to the energies and influence in the milieu.

The planets Venus and Mars are the closest in orbit to the Earth. Venus represents the Personal Satisfaction that we grab onto and hug close to us since it is the planet inside the Earth’s orbit. Mars is next outside Earth’s orbit and it expresses our intimate initiative or how we reach out from ourselves to affect our world and effect what we want.

The planets Jupiter and Saturn are the pair at the far distance in terms of what can be seen by the naked eye. They establish a regular conjunction between them every 20 years which was seen as the core structure of time and timing for the ancient world. Jupiter expresses Intimate Involvement or what sparks our enthusiasm and jovial good fortune. Saturn is the Core Foundation or Cosmic skeleton that maintains the structure of our reality and causes us pain if interfered with by careless activity.

These seven planets were assigned to rulership of the 12 signs by placing them along a diameter to the zodiac circle starting in Leo which was said to be ruled by the Sun since it the sign of the time of summer heat in the Northern hemisphere. The Moon took the next sign of Cancer as they were the pair known as The lights. The other planets in order were each given one sign from each hemisphere formed by the diameter.

Today, astronomers note that the background radiation of the Universe establishes a line from the original site of the Big Bang along the axis of Leo-Aquarius. Perhaps eventually they will figure out the rest of the astrological zodiac and planetary relationships. When new planets were discovered, they were given rulership over one of the pair of signs toward the Saturn end and working backwards. Three new planets have taken the rulership of Aquarius (Uranus), Pisces (Neptune) and Scorpio (Pluto).

Uranus and Neptune are the first two of the newly discovered planets whose orbits are such that they change signs only after a number of years. Jupiter changes sign about once a year thus a higher level or octave of the Sun’s motion. Saturn is slower and more irregular in its sign changes, taking about 29 plus a bit years to complete its orbit thus a higher octave of the Moon. Uranus has an orbit of about 84 years and the others being even farther from the sun cycle the zodiac over centuries.

Uranus was discovered in the late 18th century during the innovations and revolutions of that time. Marc Edmund Jones’ Gemini rising chart for the U.S. Declaration of Independence has Uranus rising in the first house. Uranus represents Creative Genius, the sudden, unexpected bolt from the blue that breaks old bonds and creates new realities.

Neptune was discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century around the time of the Mexican War in the U.S. and the great revolutionary upheavals in Europe. Neptune represents the Mysterious Attachment to ideals, beliefs or tidal waves beyond normal control which come upon us. Like the sea, Neptune indicates what may seem a diffuse, intangible influence when examined objectively—a mere mist or fog that enhances the romantic appearance and obscures hard reality. However it can gather into a great hurricane—then its power is extreme and irresistible—sweeping all along in its path.

The final new planet is Pluto representing one’s Ultimate Commitment or Personal Obsession. It is the outermost of the planets with an erratic orbit, so it is paired with Mercury the innermost planet with so small an orbit that it seems to turn about (become retrograde) and reverse course often. Mercury represents Personal Perspective or one’s individual way of seeing the world, like the personal camera one uses to make your own artistic image of your reality.

To fill out the possible values to be found on a pair of dice (eleven options 2-12) the boxcars or double six slot goes to the Earth itself represented in a chart by the Arabic Part of Fortune which represents the cosmic coin or lucky gift we each are given at birth. The Part of Fortune as a technical matter is calculated as the phase of the Moon converted to a segment of the Zodiac circumference marked off from the Ascendant.

The patterns on the dice cube and fully on a pair of dice are the symbolic expression of the Pythagorean number concepts or eidos which describe all the elements of astrology. The 12 signs of the Zodiac from Aries to Pisces are the most generally known details of astrology. They actually represent the first of the sequence of twelve cyclic divisions through the final or twelfth such division. The ancient Greek names referred to mythological expressions of these fundamental number sequence and their properties.

The Stars-n-Dice perspective is built upon the insight that the patterns on the dice cube express these fundamental Pythagorean principles. In modern math only abstract names for the mathematical sequence are noticed. Ancient number included meaning as well as sequence. Looking at the dice patterns the meaning of the signs can be seen without the usual confusion caused by the different nuance given to description in words with varying connotations.

Aries, the first sign has a total focus upon the one central point and prime goal. What that might be may change from moment to moment however, whatever it may be it is all that Aries cares deeply about. Taurus is the second sign which represents putting one foot in front of the other along a smooth path that may eventually get to its goal. Gemini is the third sign which is always aware that there are at least two diametrically opposed alternatives. Cancer the fourth sign is another cardinal point where the pattern changes from points along a line to a figure. Cancer is the sign of poignant feelings where the outer boundaries are clearly staked out and tender open space created within that structure.

Leo is the fifth sign, represented by the quincunx simple which means in Latin fifth of a set of 12. It is the most famous of the dice face patterns where the four corners of the four now have their central point clearly marked in as well. This is the sign of Crowning Glory or the cherry atop the sundae or the crown upon the human head which makes the person a prince as long as everyone else accepts that symbolism and status.

Virgo is the 6th sign which adds an additional dot to the box pattern; however in so doing it eliminates the overall pattern altogether. Virgo is Detailed Expression with the details all spelled out and exactly place though as a result there is little overall organization. This completes the first half of the zodiac and all the patterns that fit upon a single dice face.

Seven is a prime number which is not one of the many factors of 360 so it represents what is inside the cube rather than displayed upon its face. These next signs refer to the dice cube as a whole. Libra is the 7th sign representing Harmony and Beauty. The numbers along a line through a dice cube all add to seven. It is the central point within the cube that balances and organizes it all. Scorpio is the 8th sign. There are eight vertices or corners to the dice cube which control its form by containing everything else. Scorpio is the sign of secrets, power and passion.

The next set of signs are described by the pyramid of 10 dots—that is a row of four then a row of three, then two and a final completing dot on top. They can also be seen in the dice patterns of four and five, two fives, five and six but that takes a bit more imagination or practice to understand. The ninth sign is Sagittarius or the Open Channel or Clear Expression. It is the pyramid without its final completing dot so that it becomes an arrow charging forward to find its last remaining piece. The 10th sign is Capricorn which has all its dots in order or Firm Control with a place for everything and everything in its place. The 11th sign is Aquarius or Objective Understanding. It has an extra dot floating above the pyramid of ten where it has no involvement in that group but an excellent vantage point to objectively observe everything.

The 12th and final sign is Pisces or Feeling Tones and represents the primordial ocean of emotions out of which the single centered focus of the first sign or Aries will eventually arise. However, at this stage there are all feelings everywhere which may be totally intimate with anything or anyone at one moment and totally distant when focused intimately somewhere else.

At any time or timing situation observers would find each planet located at one specific degree of some sign which would be in some specific house of the horoscope chart. Every chart has all 12 signs in order from Aries to Pisces, 12 houses in order from first to final or twelfth, and ten (or eleven with the Part of Fortune) planets. How the planets are arranged or related to one another as well as how many signs or houses contain planets and how many are empty are what forms the individual gestalt of any chart.

One of the innovations by Marc Edmund Jones in his Sabian Astrology was the attention to negative space in the gestalt pattern of a chart. The specific details of planetary position by sign and house deal with what is positively seen on the horoscope. The overall gestalt pattern is determined by the open spaces surrounding those specific points of light. It is the areas of the horoscope wheel where there are no planets that are the most powerful in forming the background upon which the chart gestalt comes into play.

There are 10 planets in Sabian Astrology distributed somewhere in the 12 signs and 12 houses. That means there must be at least some of the houses and signs which do not have any planets in them and must be open space. Usually there is far more open space in a chart than detailed filled space, especially as Mercury and Venus are unable to get very far away from the Sun due to their close orbits to the Sun as Solar System center.

Marc Edmund Jones, Sabian Astrology and Classical Scholarship

Sabian Astrology arises from the transition from the 19th century to the 20th. Marc Edmund Jones is the new paradigm star of the transition from one timing era to another. There are many lessons to be learned in reviewing the history of the last decades of the 19th century and the first of the 20th.

His education was a mix of the best schooling available and his own original reading and research in Greek and Hebrew. He read the entire tomes of nineteenth century Theosophy as well as practices traditional astrology in the early decades of the twentieth century. From that background he realized that the traditional texts were expressing the subjective poetry of practitioners of the metaphysical and mathematical explorations of their time.

His experience as a pioneer of the early movie industry gave him an insider's vantage point upon the magic of the early twentieth century and the special reality of the group of exceptional and exaggerated personalities who yet remained a community of talented, skilled and all too human individuals. When the Great Depression shut down his opportunities to support himself and his wife, he returned to college and eventually took a pulpit as a minister and then continued his studies to add a Ph.D so he could call himself Dr. Marc Edmund Jones as well as the Cabalist and neo-Pythagorean master.

Sabian Astrology is part of Marc Edmund Jones work bringing Neo-Pythagorean principles to practical use in the contemporary world. Understanding the Book of Daniel as a work on psychological maturation he was able to realize the ancient references to occult initiation as a poetic description of beginning the process of inner integration which is psychological maturity beyond simple biological adulthood.

Marc Edmund Jones was a remarkable figure of the transition from the 19th to the 20th century who developed his insights into traditional metaphysics into his new perspective of Sabian Astrology. He considered his own efforts to be the first step or ‘spade work’ in the excavation, discovery, preparation and interpretation of ancient Pythagorean metaphysics for modern society.

The central insight of the Sabian Assembly and thus of working Sabian Astrology is that everything depends upon the Solar Initiation where the individual becomes free from Lunar Mysteries or obeying what they have been told by Authority to express their own inner light and energy and insight as part of their Individual Quest to become part of the Eternal Expansion from the original Big Bang, through us here-and-now today and on towards our more perfect union with the Ultimate Paradise transcending mortal existence.

It turns out that even understanding the notion of Solar Perspective is a rare and difficult achievement. Making the commitment and choice to become the Captain of one’s own ship off on an eternal voyage of discovery upon the seas, currents, waves and storms of Universal Timing is another difficulty made even more difficult as groups organized by a leader in hopes of assisting such efforts eventually become the same type of Lunar silliness as all of other groups. It is the conundrum of anarchist organization which as Orwell noted, work well in special circumstances (such as the Spanish Civil War) but eventually have serious problems with issues of government or politics as the initial revolutionary insights are absorbed by the routine realities of all communities.

At this point, as we set sail into this new year, new century, new millennium, and new Great Age we are all cut loose from what have been are Establishment anchors and routines. Some things will re-organize as the community routines which are primate reality. Some things will disappear forever with younger generations wondering how those strange medieval horrors and brutalities could have ever been believed—like confusing paper instruments for real values or property or wealth.

We live in interesting times where the lessons we believed for the last century are clearly proving wrong. It is as we are able to connect with the eternal lessons from millennia ago that we will be able to sail the high seas of current timing. The modern dissolved into the post modern and now we must realize the synthesis of the ancient and the Eternal Future. Sabian Astrology is an excellent guide in this individual personal process.

Examples of interpretation of horoscopes for the candidates for U.S. President now from the perspective of Sabian Astrology appear in the Campaign 2008 page through the Nav Bar since that is how I do horoscope analysis.

Also available from that page is the description of world events as Pluto changes sign marking an intense shift in the Ultimate Commitment of the World to a new style. World War I, World War II, Sputnik of the Cold War Space Race, Watergate, etc occurred with some of these sign changes.

The U.S. appeared in the world in its first Declaration of Independence with Pluto in Capricorn, and between the election in 2008 and the inauguration in January 2009 Pluto will move back into Capricorn again. This recent election is not just politics as usual. It is a whole new U.S National Reality!

Return to top of Sabian Astrology Page