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

Sabian Astrology was developed by Marc Edmund Jones from a practical re-interpretation of traditional texts and techniques. The essential difference between his work and others was that he did not slavishly take the texts he read literally.Rather, he assumed they were poetic descriptions done by folks who were personally involved and excited by their work.

There is an infinite difference between what you read for the first acquaintance with something and what you know that you read about described by a colleague who shares your experience and enthusiasm. Trying to add concrete understanding to an abstract text is terribly difficult.

However, those who have the practical experience of some field easily understand and appreciate the additional insights of others also working on similar projects. This is the ultimate and absolute difference between those who write from experience and those whose only experience is reading books from the official academic library.

The power of astrology and the horoscope is quite practical although unintelligible to those academics whose prior prejudice blinds them to simple reality. The essence of astrology is the mapping of timing which then can be used to explain specific details within that timing context.

Academic science has no theory of timing, no means to map anything relative to a set of timing cycles, and ultimately no understanding of anything except mechanical clock time. Therefore, the first step in appreciating astrology is to accept that not only crops and weather, but also all human activity are arranged in cyclic patterns based upon the celestial mechanics of the seasons.

This is more than just the patterns in the heaven since the seasons are developed by the interaction of the solar flux with the dynamics of the entire solar system, a unit from its origin in the Big Bang. All that is current new knowledge unknown to science or astrology until most recently.

What Marc Edmund Jones did have was a fundamental belief in the natural orderliness of patterns in all things. He also had personal experience with unusual individuals who excelled or exceeded the average person in some ways, yet were very typical folks in others.

The development of Sabian astrology arose from what was available in astrological knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century combined with a practical, concrete commitment to finding simple patterns on paper that could be related to simple patterns in human character and activity.

Sabian Astrology is the Original insight of
the Dean of American Astrology--Marc Edmund Jones

Sabian Astrology is the creation of Marc Edmund Jones who became a professional astrologer in the Hollywood movie community of the pre-World War I era. This gave him the opportunity to explore the horoscope analysis of unusual and extreme individual personalities.

After serving in the Great War, the movies were closed down by the Spanish Flu Pandemic. He moved to New York to work as a free-lance editor until the movie business would revive. While underemployed he spent his time reading the extensive works of Theosophy with the detailed occult philosophy of the prior centuries.

Having already read the New Testament in the original Greek and studied the Hebrew Kabala he was accustomed to detailed study of ancient sources. What was different about Marc Edmund Jones’ orientation was that he dealt with these esoteric materials as regular texts not sacred relics. He was also able to relate what he read to his own experience of being a working astrologer.

His occult master thesis, as he called it, was a recasting of the poetry of the Book of Daniel as a narrative of psychological self-development. Making sense of ancient texts rather than simply accepting them as supernatural revelations opened opportunities to tap their wisdom for practical, contemporary use.

Marc Edmund Jones developed Sabian astrology from the ancient texts and techniques seeing them as practical descriptions in symbolic poetry of the work of practicing astrologers. He used his own experience as a working professional astrologer to the eccentric and atypical Hollywood community to make direct connections with the ancient techniques.

He could see the strange language of these ancient texts as simple descriptions of the subjective feel and magic available through analysis with these techniques. He had no interest in Freudian psychology, so he made of his Sabian astrology an independent psychological analysis based in a few very simple propositions.

The first principle of Sabian Astrology is that the horoscope was the chart of a single event such as a person’s entry into the world as an independent and conscious expression of the time and timing from which he was born. As a chart representing a single integral whole, the horoscope therefore must be a complete gestalt bringing all the specific details into a single pattern.

The next principle of Sabian Astrology is the proposition that various details of astrology must represent and express the entirety of human experience as recognized by society. Individuals in their own subjective reality were unique and could be extreme without limit. However, society recognized only an objective set of various recognized types and divisions which were the common currency of each person in society.

The third principle of Sabian Astrology is that the interpretation of the horoscope involved the relationship of that individual entity to the set of all other things in social reality. The point of any horoscope analysis was to identify the unique details that described this specific subject in terms of the general patterns and situations of objective society as a whole.

Horoscope analysis in Sabian Astrology is a simple process given these three principles- gestalt pattern overall, the set and sequence of the signs, planets, houses, aspects, etc. as universal to all individuals in society; and connecting the individual details to the objective background.

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 dealwith what is positively seen on the horoscope. The overall gestalt pattern is determined by the open spaces surrounding those specific points of light.

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 that especially as Mercury and Venus are unable to get very far away from the sun. The outer planets travel quite slowly so they stay in the same sign for years.

In addition to the overall temperament in Sabian Astrology, determined by the open spaces between the planets in the individual horoscope, there is also the opportunity for a general alignment of the chart to a certain natural disposition. This is a patterning across the diameter of the horoscope which gives order to the entire gestalt in Sabian Astrology.

If there is a single opposition, two planets across the chart forming a straight line diameter (to the limits of the normal orb or play in the angle of 180 degrees for the opposition) this gives the native a clear tendency or disposition to see the world in the style of those two signs.

Two signs in Sabian Astrology across the zodiac from one another can only share the same style, in terms of being either cardinal, fixed or mutable. That means the individual with that natural disposition will see life in terms of actions and crises (cardinal), ideals and positions (fixed) or social interactions and relationships (mutable).

Not everyone has any oppositions in their charts. Those like myself where all the planets are in half the horoscope have an overall pattern determined by that negative space and the bowl formed by the planets in that one half.

Some charts have no half-chart overall gestalt at all in Sabian Astrology. Other gestalt patterns must be found for these natives (individuals with a natal horoscope. Some even with oppositions don't get a Natal Disposition in Sabian Astrology.

Those who don’t have one opposition with both planets in the signs of the same ilk can have a number of alternatives. Some like me have no oppositions and thus no natural disposition to see things in just one way. This would include those with one or more oppositions where the planets do not fit neatly into the same type of sign. Usually this comes about from having an opposition that is within orb over the line of a different sign than expected.

The other possibility is that there are two oppositions of the same quality of sign each. Thus the person has oppositions which individually would qualify them so two different natural dispositions. The result is that the person develops what is called a negative natural disposition of the third type. This again is an expression of the negative gestalt image. There is only so much emphasis that can be had, more than that produces its opposite some way.

These gestalt principles of Sabian Astrology are very similar to those of the Tao and I Ching. If there is an opposition of two cardinal planets and another of two mutable planets this creates a negative natural disposition in the fixed style. This is not the same as a positive fixed natural disposition; rather the person feels the lack of fixed ideals or positions and is motivated to correct that somehow.

Once the astrologer has determined the complete gestalt of the chart, every detail can now be related to that overall pattern. Finding the unique gestalt for an individual horoscope is a bit of personal magic by the astrologer. Sabian astrology gives a number of techniques; however, it is in the artistry of the astrologer’s designation of the overall gestalt that true measure of the astrologer is seen.

The details of the horoscope, the position of each planet in its sign, house and specific degree is the typical stuff of astrological texts with their lists and interpretation paragraphs. The Stars and Dice material gives interpretation of each of these details of astrology with the general illustration of the appropriate dice-face pattern associated with each of them.

The most detailed and yet the most poetic form of horoscope interpretation is the use of the Sabian Symbols for the exact degree of each planet, and house cusp. To use these symbols correctly it is necessary to realize the precise degree must be found in their geometrical magnitude, not the modern algebraic calculation of our astrological computer software.

We tend to think that there is only one mathematics and what we were taught in elementary school is truly God’s official language for constructing the universe. Modern science has assumed our mathematical formalism must be the universal language suitable for relating to space aliens. Actually, our mathematics is a derivative of our brain architecture and our genetic epistemologies as Piaget outlined them.

There are different number systems for the various branches of mathematics. Algebra equations use the real and imaginary numbers. Geometry used the natural numbers. The major difference is that geometry is based upon magnitudes and not abstract numerals. A magnitude must have a specific unit that is the measure of that magnitude.

In Euclid, a number is defined as a number of units. Therefore, geometrical number has a first unit and then the numbers start with 2. The Sabian Symbols do not make any distinction between the unit and the other numbers. They do count their numbers as natural numbers, integers starting with 1 and without any zeros except as the final digit like 10, 20, 30 degrees to a sign or 60 minutes to a degree.

What algebraic astrological software calculates as 0 degrees Aries00 is in geometrical horoscope analysis 30th degrees of Pisces. That 30th degree to be equal to all other zodiac degrees must have a full 60 minutes to its span. 30 degrees of Pisces 60 minutes would be the same in algebra notation as 0 degrees Aries minutes which are the same when you convert it step by step as 1 Aries 00 minutes.

Therefore Marc Edmund Jones originally specified that the degree for a Sabian Symbol begins at 1 degree 1 minute. The 60 seconds before 1 degree 1 minute, that is through 0 degrees 59 seconds, belongs to the proceeding 30th degree of the prior sign.

Later editors couldn't imagine geometrical numbers that start with 1 and put the infinite fractions or decimals before 1 as ratios not part of the counting number system. One must either convert all zeros to their preceding unit--30 for degrees or 60 for minutes or accept a modern 0 based zodiac.

This is true with each degree, what our computer software calculates as 10 degrees 0 minutes and 59 seconds is still in the 10th degree Sabian Symbol. It may seem a trivial or overly complicated technicality and in modern terms it is. Geometrical number is different and not given to multiple decimal places.

It would seem the poetry of the Symbols would be pretty general and applicable to anything one way or another. However, when you follow the exact rules for their use they work out much better. There will be a different Sabian Symbol to be used, and two Sabian Symbols next to each other are still very, very different.

Of course the more you are able to understand of the deep structure underlying the poetry of the symbolism the more you can appreciate the exact importance of each Sabian Symbol. This is not possible just from the words used, especially as each author uses different wording in each edition.

Only by the correspondence of degrees of the Zodiac to the lines of the I Ching and the 6-faces of the dice cube is it possible to divine the deep structure underlying them all. The fundamentals of this triangulation of ultimate meaning is given here.

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

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 Columbian 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.

Sabian Astrology grew out of Marc Edmund Jones' experience at this amazing exhibition at the age of 5!

Visit the Worlds Columbian Exhibition-- Chicago 1893

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.

My remarks upon Marc Edmund Jones as a person will be coming soon in the New Paradigm Stars pages accessible through the Nav Bar Science Paradigms. His education was a mix of the best schooling available and his own original reading and research in Greek and Hebrew. From his own personal understanding he later added advanced studies in biology and Education theory.

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.

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

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 next election is not just politics as usual.

The background for that election is the current presidency of George Bush 43. His tragic Sabian Horoscope Analysis is available right here!.

Sabian Horoscope Analysis of the Tight Bundle Chart of George Bush43

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