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Ok, here is what I wrote before Tom?s discovery. I?ll go ahead and submit it anyway.

..............................................................................................................................................
This is the sort of thing one would expect to find in the work of modern astrologers, i.e. references to "crises" in the life without specifying the nature of the crises. Ibn Ezra does not care about your mid-life crisis. Noel Tyl might.
Here?s the original quote:
"Traditional astrology indicates that near your middle age a crisis will rear its head in your life. If this period is successfully spanned you can expect a prolonged life with a gradual heightening vitality. "

It just says ?a crisis?. We have to be careful to not make it the equivalent of a pop-psychology ?mid-life crisis?. And if crisis still sounds too modern ? well, the person who wrote that doesn?t speak in the language of pre-1700 astrology. It could be a modern reworking of an idea from a centuries-old text: ?A grievous time?.
There is a lot more psychology in traditional astrology than meets the eye, but fear is not the same thing as crisis.
I would say that a gripping and crippling fear makes for a pretty good crisis, and it doesn?t seem to be too much of a stretch to find crippling fear in the house that traditionally carried meanings of both Fear and Death. As you say, there is plenty of psychology in traditional astrology. That?s why it?s so interesting that they put Fear into the same house as Death.

But you?re right ? why the Sun and not the Moon? It may have to do with the diurnal motion as I mentioned. The Sun heading toward setting means the end of day, but the Moon heading toward setting does not mean the end of night. The Moon was said to sometimes be favorable in the 8th. Possibly in a nocturnal sign and a nocturnal chart, I forget. Also, the 8th is in an occidental quadrant of the chart ? more Moon-friendly. And the Sun is more of a vitality principle (with the Moon rather as ?embodiment?). When it?s in a house that doesn?t aspect the Ascendant there might be a ?disconnect? of sort, a lack of energy flow. Some ideas, anyway.

My 8th edition of A to Z has the same sentence [followed by more text, not a solitary sentence], so we can go back to 1943. Should we just call that traditional and rest there?


....................................................................................................................................


Here's my post-discovery contribution:
Everyone with the Sun in the 8th will experience this direction between the ages roughly of 40 and 50 depending on where in the 8th house the Sun is located. This then is a traditional indication that Sun in the 8th signifies a crises at what is considered mid life in 2007. It seems to meet the criteria of the quote quite nicely. The direction will occur at mid life and it will occur at a later age if the Sun is in the 9th and earlier if the Sun is in the 7th.
Oh dear, directions. Could someone please write a book about primary directions and give us the guaranteed one-and-only way to calculate them so life could become easier?

Using Solar Fire, the direction that matches the directed Asc. opposed natal Sun in the 8th of Worsdale?s ill lady is converse primary mundane, which was exact at 41 years 2 months. (I thought non-converse was the way to go). Using the same method I?ve come up with some ages when other chart native?s experienced the same direction of Asc opposed 8th house Sun. As you will see the ages are so varied as to make it questionable as to whether this is a mid-life issue. The size of the 1st house is a factor, as is the Sun?s location in the 8th. All ages listed are for the exact hit of the direction. All are Placidus houses.


The following have the Sun within 5 degrees of the 8th cusp, on the 8th house side of the cusp:
1. 38 years, 8 months
2. 42 years, 0 months
3. 37 years, 6 months
4. 42 years, 9 months
5. 31 years, 1 month
6. 39 years, 1 month
7. 23 years, 6 months
8. 35 years, 11 months
9. 26 years, 1 month
10. 24 years, 11 months

The following have the Sun place in the mid or late 8th house, but not within 5 degrees of the 9th cusp:
1. 65 years, 10 months
2. 58 years, 6 months
3. 50 years, 0 months
4. 46 years, 1 month
5. 63 years, 5 months
6. 54 years, 10 months
7. 47 years, 5 months
8. 45 years, 2 months
9. 58 years, 1 month
10. 45 years, 1 month

You can see that they range from 23 years 6 months to 65 years 10 months, so we can?t really talk of a mid-life issue. There is too wide an inclusion of adult years, especially in the northern latitudes of Worsdale?s (or anyone?s) England. Until the extended life spans of the last century or so, this could be said to happen anywhere from young adulthood to old age.

By the way, in the chart of the hit at 65 years and 10 months the Sun was still 15 degrees away from the 9th house cusp!

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I was going to write about Worsdale but I think I'll handle or try to the directions issue first. Yes, Kirk is correct, there are a variety of ways to calculate and use primary directions and many of the major authorities used different ones. The differences, however produced differences in hit dates from months to years at the end of life. To a modern this might seem significant, but it was less so to a traditional author. From my reading I've found that those who used primary directions did not use them the way modern astrologers use transits, i.e. the event or incident associated with the direction occurs on or close to the hit date.

Morin, a strong advocate of primary directions, in Book 23 of AG discussing the solar return of King Adolphus of Sweden notes the King was "under the influence of a direction that year" (quote may not be exact). In other words the hit date, which is not mentioned, is not all that important. What was important was the broad effect of a direction that occurs within a particular year. And for this reason whether we use Regiomontanus or Placidus or Ptolemy's method of directing it is not all that critical. Using the same chart the hits will occur roughly the same time. Directions are not explosions.

Directing the angles is a bit more curious. True when we direct planets, we do so clockwise according to diurnal motion. There are two ways to direct, in zodiac and in mundo. From what I've read when the traditional authors directed the angles in zodiac meaning they directed in the direction of the zodiac which is counterclockwise and they considered this a "direct" direction, not a converse. Worsdale used converse directions. Morin ridiculed them, but he directed the angles in zodiac, i.e. counter clockwise

Directing the angles is a problem in that the ASC and the MC do not move. The planets and the zodiac move over those points in diurnal motion. For this reason, I believe, Rumen Kolev, who knows primary directions as well as anyone in the world, does not offer directions of the angles in his extensive primary direction program.

I figured out what kind of directions were calculated by Solar Fire, and then promptly forgot it. Even using identical methods from the identical chart, a modern computer will produce somewhat different results than hand calculations that were dependent on sometimes dubious tables.

All traditionalists who used primary directions claimed they had it right and anyone who disagreed had it wrong. All traditionalists said that about everything. Worsdale is no exception. But like I said I think if we try to use primaries like transits we miss the point. If the Sun is within the eighth house and the native lives long enough, at some point the ASC will be directed to the opposition of the Sun. If the Sun is on the 8th cusp it will occur a lot sooner than it will if the Sun is on the 9th cusp. Depending on a lot of things, the opposition may fall during a period that is considered prior to mid-life or after mid-life. The term mid life is a bit vague anyway. We wouldn't put someone in their late 20s or early thirties in that category or someone in their early 60s in that category, but most people who have the Sun in the 8th will experience that direction at a time that passes for mid life in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The delineation quoted was broad and these things are not intended to be taken to occur in all cases. The word crisis is so broad that it can be taken to mean anything from a woman not on speaking terms with her sister to having one's house burn down. It is in fact whatever the native wants it to mean. In astrology a contact between the ASC and the Sun is important. An opposition is a negative or at least very difficult, and contacting a planet particularly the Sun in the 8th increases the difficulty. It makes sense that this is the source of the quote, whether the author realized it or not. It also makes sense that a modern astrologer might make the statement without realizing its source and therefore doesn't cite the reason.

Kirk's edition of A to Z contains more than mine does. I have the sentence I quoted then it goes into causes of death. I think the older versions of that text are the better ones.

Worsdale:

I quoted Worsdale not to show that he agrees with the blurb we are discussing, but rather to show that an almost certain primary direction to an 8th house Sun might be the source of that broad statement. It makes more sense to me than the setting Sun scenario.

Worsdale doesn't get a lot of ink possibly because his work was post 1700 and the book Celestial Philosophy's 2nd edition came out when 19th century astrology was about to have a significant impact. The other reason might be that Worsdale's text is obsessed with horrible violent deaths and insidious diseases. There is no "You're more sensitive than most people realize" in his stuff.

Worsdale must have been a workaholic. His method was to take every direction, direct and converse, progression, transit, etc arrange the hits in chronological order to about age 75 then look for clusters of celestial events that occur in a particular time and delineate from that. I wouldn't want to do all that with a computer. He would, however always delineate the nativity first then relate the developing events from that. He does mention one case of a man who lived a normal life, incurred the usual ups and downs and died from natural causes at an appropriate age. He practically apologizes for including it. Gentle reader, let's get back to the sickly and children kicked to death by horses, or perhaps burned alive, if you please.

But Worsdale is a fine astrologer despite his macabre avocation. He is well worth reading and studying. If you're not going to sit down and work with his charts, don't waste your money. You won't get anything out of it.

I have the reproduction published by Ascella. I believe there is a reprint available through Kessinger publishing.

Tom

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Tom,

You gave me a lot of good info concerning primaries. And the bit on Worsdale was great ? I?m becoming very interested in the few and obscure astrologers between the 17th and late 19th centuries. He must have been relatively solitary. Or maybe there were more practicing astrologers than is commonly thought ? they just kept to themselves and didn?t publish much. [I see you wrote more on him before I posted this ? I?m looking forward to reading it.]

If we direct the planets in mundo clockwise, and if Kolev has good reason to have nothing to do with directing angles, then why can?t we direct the Sun to the Descendant to get our ?crisis?? In doing so we get another powerful Sun-Asc. opposition. One could argue that a 9th house Sun would be just as likely to have the ?crisis?, but a 9th house Sun starts out in its joy and doesn?t have the ?built in? weakness and affliction that a natal 8th house Sun has. Also, the 9th house Sun would tend to reach the Desc. at around the normal death age for those earlier times with shorter life spans. A simple direction of the Sun to the Desc. (opposed the natal Asc.) sounds more vigorous and directly powerful than moving the angles around.

I suppose I?m about done with this.

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then why can?t we direct the Sun to the Descendant to get our ?crisis??
We can. It is my personal opinion that it doesn't quite fit what the author of the quote that started all this had to say. It is true that descending planets are not in as good a condition as those that are ascending, so there is a fit with the direction or progression to the DSC. The problem I have with that is that the crisis in mid life referred to would then take place when the Sun is angular. However the direction of something to the radical 8th house Sun seems to fit the symbolism better - again in my opinion. Obviously I can't say for certain why someone would believe Sun in the 8th indicates a crisis in mid life unless they tell us, so it is a case of one educated guess is as good as another.

Tom

22
You all got me wondering about this delineation:

"Traditional astrology indicates that near your middle age a crisis will rear its head in your life. If this period is successfully spanned you can expect a prolonged life with a gradual heightening vitality."

It just didn't sound like Rob Hand, for all the reasons expounded through your posts. And it isn't Hand!

I tracked it down to Robert Pelletier's "Personal Portrait" on astro.com.

But the dialogue to come out of this has been fascinating. I was racking my brains trying to think what would trigger a crisis in middle-age for an 8th house Sun. I could only think of some direction which brought the descendant to conjunct the natal Sun, but as you have all pointed out this doesn't mean a crisis. And an opposition to the Asc. makes more sense in terms of a threat to one's vitality.
Now I wonder what Robert Pelletier was thinking when he wrote that.

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i have sun ,venus and mars exalted in 8 in hellenic and equal house system and my dad passed away when i was 21,but i know many with such charts who didnt lose their dads.
I had a mid life experience when i nearly got bitten by a snake in Australia. Given the relaxed attitude of the Aussies down there to it all ?no worries mate, you could have died, but shit happens? i realised that life is meaningless.

signs in houses 8,6, and 12 and 2 have nothing in common with the rising sign , yet im surprised inconjunctions and dodeciles are seen as minor aspects, and dont understand why house 12 is bad but house 2 isnt.
have you read Julian Lee`s astrocartography site? He talks a lot about that

Mid Life Crisis

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[I had a mid life experience when i nearly got bitten by a snake in Australia. Given the relaxed attitude of the Aussies down there to it all ?no worries mate, you could have died, but shit happens? i realised that life is meaningless.]

woodwater,

I do apologise for the rampant's snakes behavior while you were here but you may have been in his territory perhaps? Was Mars and/or Neptune in Scorpio at the time?

I can look at the Astrocartograpy of your mid life crisis event if you wish to appease you?

Julie K

Re: Mid Life Crisis

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Julie K wrote:[I had a mid life experience when i nearly got bitten by a snake in Australia. Given the relaxed attitude of the Aussies down there to it all ?no worries mate, you could have died, but shit happens? i realised that life is meaningless.]

woodwater,

I do apologise for the rampant's snakes behavior while you were here but you may have been in his territory perhaps? Was Mars and/or Neptune in Scorpio at the time?

I can look at the Astrocartograpy of your mid life crisis event if you wish to appease you?

Julie K
i wasnt upset but if you wish to look i was born on 9 january 1962 at 14.15 in lisbon,portugal and the event took place around the 6-7 december 1996 in cape tribulation,north queensland.I had great fun too.

thanks

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Well for what it's worth Yikkes makes similar cryptic posts on other forums and disappears. His age I suspect.

I agree with Tom depends what Pelletier means by traditional. In 20th century astrology Uranus opposing it's natal placement and saturn opposing it's combine to generate a 'mid-life crisis'.

But of course this is the simplistic modern astrology not the complex psychological stuff. The later would say it all depends on a range of factors.

What do pre -17TH CENTURY astrologers say about saturn's 2nd opposition to the natal?

robin
________
Medical Marijuana States
Last edited by robin on Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Mid Life Crisis

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[quote="woodwater"][quote="Julie K"][I had a mid life experience when i nearly got bitten by a snake in Australia. Given the relaxed attitude of the Aussies down there to it all ?no worries mate, you could have died, but shit happens? i realised that life is meaningless.]
in cape tribulation,north queensland.I had great fun too.

Woodwater,

The Transits on Solar Maps have T Mars with Pallas Athene conj cutting through the Queensland Coast area, and the Natal Sun just west of the Daintree area. Had the snake bitten you, you could have died, depending on the type of snake. Some are extremely poisonous and this is why I asked about Neptune.
Cape Tribulation lived up to it's name and caused you some distress but it was not fatal I assume. :lol:
Julie K