Mystery Chart No. 15 Revealed
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:48 pm
Usual Caveat: If you want to work with the Mystery Chart without knowing the name of the native, read no further.
The traditional forum is an odd place for a discussion of the chart of this particular native, but given his influence in astrology, we might wish to have a traditional look at his chart. If this had been done early in his life, the entire study may have turned out differently. Our native is the occultist, theosophist and astrologer, Marc Edmond Jones. What Alan Leo is in English astrology, Jones is to American astrology.
From an early age Jones was fascinated by geometric patterns. He liked seeing patterns and putting things together, and finding function in them. In 1903 at the age of 16, Jones made a Christian commitment, but the following year he began to study Theosophy. He would study it for the rest of his life. He didn?t come to astrology until 1913 when his chart was interpreted by one Ella Woods. He evidently taken by the subject and began to study horary astrology, which he would practice almost his entire life.
Jones would come to reject the astrology of the late 19th and early 20th century and remake it. His criticism of astrologer Elizabeth Aldrich was typical. In Jones? view she would look up anything that could possibly be of relevance and put it in the back of her mind. Eventually she would present her insights based on all the information she stored in her memory. In Jones opinion this was ?omen astrology? and he dismissed it as ?intuitive.? His dismissal of intuition over logic would probably surprise more than a few modern astrologers who know of his later work, but not how he arrived there.
Jones wished to base astrology on logic, but he had to base his logic on something. He tried to develop a history of astrology upon which to base his beliefs, but none existed in the early 20th century. At least none existed in English. He haltingly wrote one, in pieces. His history of astrology was largely based on what Theosophists had to say about the subject. Consequently Jones came to the conclusion that he was ?restoring? astrology to its original pure state. He called it ?Sabian Astrology.? When asked about his Sabian system he wrote to the inquirer:
In other words, he was making it up as he went along. No such system of astrology ever existed at any time. What he was also doing, knowingly or not, was laying the groundwork for psychological astrology. He detested prediction, despite his horary work, and if astrologers don?t predict then they must do something else. His system eliminated the distinction between malefic and benefic planets, dropped prediction in order to eliminate the ?fatalism? and claimed the planets and other symbols indicated ?potentialities? or possibilities in the individual. From here it was a short, easy step for Dane Rudhyar to graft psychology on to the symbols and a new astrology was born.
Jones? love of patterns is easily seen in his work The Guide to Horoscope Interpretation (1941). Jones divides the patterns formed by the planets in a circular chart into seven groups, and once properly assigned the astrologer can make generalized deductions from the pattern and use it as a basis for delineation. This is similar to what a traditional astrologer does when he determines temperament. I is a broad brush stroke used to understand the more specific delineations that follow.
Jones is also, to my knowledge the ?inventor? or ?discoverer,? if you will, of certain aspect configurations such as the ?T-square.? ?Grand Cross,? and perhaps others. If he wasn?t the first to use these things he surely laid the groundwork for them. An interesting contrast is in Jean Baptiste Morin?s Astrologia Gallica Book 23 Revolutions. Morin discusses the chart of Gustav Adolphus, King of Sweden. He pays particular attention to a configuration of Saturn opposing Jupiter, Lord ASC, and both being squared by Mars ? a T-square. He notes the effects of planets hitting these natal placements in solar and lunar returns and never once describes the original configuration as anything but an opposition and two squares. Jones would have jumped all over the T-square.
The configuration in Jones? chart that I find most striking is the trine from Mars to the MC, Saturn, and the Moon. Mars is Jones? lord ASC. In aspect with the planet of destruction (too strong a word for what Jones did but it fits) and the ruler of the 9th as well as the MC we can see Jones? work or activity will ?destroy? or radically change something and that something will be in the world of ideas. OR if we look at Saturn as structure rather than destruction we can still see him bringing about changes in the structure of something intellectual. Jones sanguine temperament tells us that we are not dealing with a violent or overtly aggressive nature, so despite Mars? involvement it is unlikely that we are dealing with a military type of change.
Jones? is probably best known as the astrologer who developed the ?Sabian Symbols.? In 1925 while living in San Diego California he took psychic Elsie Wheeler to a park where she ?developed? a symbol for each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac. Jones wrote these down and worked with them, but did not publish the Sabian Symbols until 1953. Despite his claims that these symbols were part of some original ancient astrology, there is simpy no evidence of degree symbols in any known astrological system until Jones published his book The Sabian Symbols in Astrology.
He was a tireless promoter of astrology and worked and lectured until his death in March of 1980, at the age of 91. For better or for worse Jones provided the bridge from what is, unfairly in my view, characterized as ?fatalistic? astrology to psychological astrology using a system of his own creation that had no historical basis despite his claims of antiquity.
The traditional forum is an odd place for a discussion of the chart of this particular native, but given his influence in astrology, we might wish to have a traditional look at his chart. If this had been done early in his life, the entire study may have turned out differently. Our native is the occultist, theosophist and astrologer, Marc Edmond Jones. What Alan Leo is in English astrology, Jones is to American astrology.
From an early age Jones was fascinated by geometric patterns. He liked seeing patterns and putting things together, and finding function in them. In 1903 at the age of 16, Jones made a Christian commitment, but the following year he began to study Theosophy. He would study it for the rest of his life. He didn?t come to astrology until 1913 when his chart was interpreted by one Ella Woods. He evidently taken by the subject and began to study horary astrology, which he would practice almost his entire life.
Jones would come to reject the astrology of the late 19th and early 20th century and remake it. His criticism of astrologer Elizabeth Aldrich was typical. In Jones? view she would look up anything that could possibly be of relevance and put it in the back of her mind. Eventually she would present her insights based on all the information she stored in her memory. In Jones opinion this was ?omen astrology? and he dismissed it as ?intuitive.? His dismissal of intuition over logic would probably surprise more than a few modern astrologers who know of his later work, but not how he arrived there.
Jones wished to base astrology on logic, but he had to base his logic on something. He tried to develop a history of astrology upon which to base his beliefs, but none existed in the early 20th century. At least none existed in English. He haltingly wrote one, in pieces. His history of astrology was largely based on what Theosophists had to say about the subject. Consequently Jones came to the conclusion that he was ?restoring? astrology to its original pure state. He called it ?Sabian Astrology.? When asked about his Sabian system he wrote to the inquirer:
The Sabian system is my own name for the reconstruction of the Chaldean or Babylonian science as far as I have been able to dig it out through sources here and there. That is, it is a recovery on my part not an invention. So far I have not been able to get much of anything in writing concerning it, and have nothing that I can send you although a little later on I will have a full correspondence course.
In other words, he was making it up as he went along. No such system of astrology ever existed at any time. What he was also doing, knowingly or not, was laying the groundwork for psychological astrology. He detested prediction, despite his horary work, and if astrologers don?t predict then they must do something else. His system eliminated the distinction between malefic and benefic planets, dropped prediction in order to eliminate the ?fatalism? and claimed the planets and other symbols indicated ?potentialities? or possibilities in the individual. From here it was a short, easy step for Dane Rudhyar to graft psychology on to the symbols and a new astrology was born.
Jones? love of patterns is easily seen in his work The Guide to Horoscope Interpretation (1941). Jones divides the patterns formed by the planets in a circular chart into seven groups, and once properly assigned the astrologer can make generalized deductions from the pattern and use it as a basis for delineation. This is similar to what a traditional astrologer does when he determines temperament. I is a broad brush stroke used to understand the more specific delineations that follow.
Jones is also, to my knowledge the ?inventor? or ?discoverer,? if you will, of certain aspect configurations such as the ?T-square.? ?Grand Cross,? and perhaps others. If he wasn?t the first to use these things he surely laid the groundwork for them. An interesting contrast is in Jean Baptiste Morin?s Astrologia Gallica Book 23 Revolutions. Morin discusses the chart of Gustav Adolphus, King of Sweden. He pays particular attention to a configuration of Saturn opposing Jupiter, Lord ASC, and both being squared by Mars ? a T-square. He notes the effects of planets hitting these natal placements in solar and lunar returns and never once describes the original configuration as anything but an opposition and two squares. Jones would have jumped all over the T-square.
The configuration in Jones? chart that I find most striking is the trine from Mars to the MC, Saturn, and the Moon. Mars is Jones? lord ASC. In aspect with the planet of destruction (too strong a word for what Jones did but it fits) and the ruler of the 9th as well as the MC we can see Jones? work or activity will ?destroy? or radically change something and that something will be in the world of ideas. OR if we look at Saturn as structure rather than destruction we can still see him bringing about changes in the structure of something intellectual. Jones sanguine temperament tells us that we are not dealing with a violent or overtly aggressive nature, so despite Mars? involvement it is unlikely that we are dealing with a military type of change.
Jones? is probably best known as the astrologer who developed the ?Sabian Symbols.? In 1925 while living in San Diego California he took psychic Elsie Wheeler to a park where she ?developed? a symbol for each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac. Jones wrote these down and worked with them, but did not publish the Sabian Symbols until 1953. Despite his claims that these symbols were part of some original ancient astrology, there is simpy no evidence of degree symbols in any known astrological system until Jones published his book The Sabian Symbols in Astrology.
He was a tireless promoter of astrology and worked and lectured until his death in March of 1980, at the age of 91. For better or for worse Jones provided the bridge from what is, unfairly in my view, characterized as ?fatalistic? astrology to psychological astrology using a system of his own creation that had no historical basis despite his claims of antiquity.
