Hermes and the Dangerous Years
One of the best things about this US trip has been the opportunity to meet and spend time with astrologers who have materials from Project Hindsight. I am currently staying with astrologer Bob Mulligan, who has some wonderful materials, and I have been able to immerse myself in them.
I am currently reading through Robert Zoller’s translation of Liber Hermetis, in which Hermes discusses the dangerous years for the native.
Hermes says:
“Take the distance from Saturn according as it is found in the nativity to the lord of the conjunction or prevention and project this from the Ascendant and wherever the end of the number falls, when Saturn arrives at that point by transit or to its square or opposition, then death will come or grave danger of the body or of things. Similarly, that year is dangerous when it arrives at the head or tail of the dragon or in their square with a malevolent planet aspecting the Sun.”
P24, Liber Hermetis, Part 1, Translated by Robert Zoller, Edited by Robert Hand, The Golden Hind Press, 1993.
Let us break this into digestible steps:
Identify the syzygy: The New Moon before birth is the conjunction, while the Full Moon before birth is the prevention.
Identify the lord of the syzygy: This is the ruler of the sign in which the per-natal lunation occurs.
Measure the zodiacal distance from natal Saturn to the lord of the syzygy, moving forward through the zodiac.
Project that same distance from the Ascendant.
Hermes then says to watch for Saturn’s transit to that projected point, as well as its square or opposition. These configurations signify death or grave danger to the body or to one’s affairs. Therefore, the technique should not necessarily be understood as a literal death timer. He also gives a related indication involving the
lunar nodes: the year is dangerous when they arrive at the same point or its relevant configurations, in conjunction with the other conditions he describes.
This caught my attention, so I decided to look at the nativity of Sharon Tate, who died on August 9, 1969.
Tate’s per-natal lunation was at Leo 0°31′. The lord of the syzygy is therefore the Sun, which is placed at Aquarius 4°.
The zodiacal distance from natal Saturn to the Sun is 239°.
Projecting this distance from Tate’s Ascendant gives Pisces 20°28′.
On the day of Tate’s death, August 9, 1969, Rahu (dragon’s head) was at Pisces 23°23′, with Ketu at Virgo 23°23′.
The lunar nodes move retrograde through the zodiac, and Rahu was therefore only about 3° from the point produced by Hermes’s calculation. Needless to say, Ketu was simultaneously at the opposite point in Virgo.
This is very interesting because Hermes explicitly identifies Rahu (Dragon’s Head) and Ketu (Tail) as another set of dangerous points in the passage. The nodal axis therefore falls remarkably close to the sensitive point produced by the Saturn-to-syzygy calculation.
I have not yet tested this technique across a sufficient number of nativities to draw any conclusions from it. For now, I regard Sharon Tate’s nativity as an interesting case study that came up while I was reading Hermes.
What caught my attention was the specific degree as a result of projection was within roughly 3° of the transiting Rahu’s (Dragon’s Head) on the date of death.
