April 2002

Planets in Transit by Robert Hand. Schiffer Publishing, 2002.

Robert Hand is a very knowledgeable astrologer. This book is a fine handbook, very useful when you want help in interpreting a transit, which is a planet in the sky connecting with a planet in a chart.

Hand covers all of the ten major planets, plus Ascendant and Midheaven. He delineates conjunctions, sextiles, trines, squares, and oppositions. He also talks about planetary transits of houses. There is a thorough discussion of each transit, with both positive and negative tendencies.

I’ll demonstrate with some brief excerpts concerning Saturn’s transit of the U.S. chart. Saturn is now in the U.S. sixth house. It will cross the horizon into the seventh house about May 1. Hand says about Saturn in the sixth:

"This is a critical time in your development. When Saturn enters your seventh house, your efforts to attain your goals and ambitions will begin to bear definite fruit if you have handled this house properly….You have to put everything in order; consequently this is a time of heavy responsibility and hard work."

The next planet which Saturn will conjoin in the U.S. chart is Mars. This happens this coming June and July, and again in February 2003. Hand says about Saturn conjoining Mars:

"This is often a time of enormous frustration, when you feel as if you are beating your head against a wall. It can also be a time when you accomplish a great deal of hard work. Its basic meaning is 'inhibited energy,' but it can also be 'disciplined energy.'

"The energy of this transit can produce feelings of intense irritability. The least little thing sets you off—and generally you are confronted with more than little things….It is likely that you put out energy that is threatening to others. They respond by trying to stop you.

"The energy of Mars wants to assert itself in every direction, but transiting Saturn signifies limitations imposed from without. You should take on only projects that are limited in scope. If you proceed with grandiose plans, you will probably encounter the worst effects of this transit.

"The combination of Mars and Saturn can signify a kind of cold, cruel anger which you should avoid projecting. If you get angry, bring it out in the open…"

Some might say that it’s time to curb the U.S. warrior energy. Let’s lean on Saturn’s wisdom.

March 2002

The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin. Ebertin-Verlag, Wurttemberg, Germany. 1972. Also 1940, 1950, and 1960.

The pages are falling out of my book, which has been a standby for 30 years. I once noticed a copy on Jim Lewis’s bookshelf, as well-worn as my own.

Reinhold Ebertin was a fine astrologer, with a brilliant mind. He used complicated astrological techniques which I haven’t even begun to probe. He is also known for a system called Cosmobiology.

However, the beauty of this book is that it is simple, succinct, and yet full of information. The title describes it, and I use it to give me hints of possibilities of planetary combinations, particularly where the concern is with three planets combined.

Ebertin worked with midpoints, which is the place on the zodiac midway between any two given planets. The character of this midpoint is brought out by a third planet sitting on that place. This book arose as a way to describe that midpoint place itself, and then combine it with each of the planets.

It is a masterful book, amazingly accurate, while at the same time providing a diversity of possibilities for any given combination. In a chart, the principle of the planets involved together is even more important than their sign, house, or aspect. Planets are the action terms in a chart. How do they work together?

For instance, the description of GW’s combination of Mercury/Pluto says, "Principle: the art of persuasion, suggestion." We then see Psychological Correspondences, and there are given both positive and negative. They are followed by both Sociological and Biological Correspondences. At the end of the page is Probable Manifestations, again both positive and negative. On the facing page, meanings are given for the Mercury-Pluto combination with Sun, with Moon, with Venus, and so on through each of the planets.

The Combination of Stellar Influences is considered a classic, and it is a goldmine of a handbook. Purchase the paperback, or keep your eye out for a hardcover copy in a secondhand bookstore.