Astrological Forecasts

We tend to hear a lot about ‘essential dignity’ and dispositors in traditional astrology, but very little is said about that all important piece of our astrological puzzle, the all ‘dasturiya’ which is the planet that rises directly to the east of any given planet. In traditional astrology, we come to take for granted that the disposing planet, that planet which owns the sign the planet or luminary we are examining. The disposing planet is often called the ‘lord’ because the disposer tends to ‘lord’ over said planet.  Let’s take Venus for example. She is said to be soft, and ever sweet and full of ardor. Place her in the sign, Virgo, and Mercury will act as her director.  Since Mercury is neuter, the person with this Venus may be more  drawn to the library, than to the boudoir.

Disposition, of course, is ‘old hat’ to most traditionalists and moderns alike, but what Abu Massar referred to as the dasturiya, seems to have vanished from the traditional lexicon. Hopefully we can remedy this situation, because the dasturiya, (especially of the Sun) is one of the most potent planets in the entire chart, goading the person to achieve. In a sense, the dispositor acts like a lord, while the dasturiya acts like a nagging wife. You just cannot avoid it! The ancients felt that the dasturiya of the Sun, especially important. According to the ancients, the Sun was the fountain of divine fire, which inspired man to find his purpose in life. To get a fire going, we need a spark. We might say that the dasturiya, especially that of the Sun, will act as a  divine  spark, igniting us to find own special greatness. To find the  dasturiya we need only look just east. In the case of the Sun, we look to the planet or luminary which rises directly previous to the Sun.

For instance, we can look at the chart of Abraham Lincoln, who according to the note in his mother’s bible was said to have been born ‘right at sun up.’  Thus, we notice, his Sun is right at the eastern horizon. Having the Sun here, btw, according to the ancients is one of the  the best places for the Sun, and it alone will give young Abraham the vigor to live a long and productive life. It will add to his ability to ‘get ahead’ because so placed it will enhance his sense of purpose, and most importantly, placed on the strongest angle of the chart, gives him the ability to act.

With the Sun rising, Lincoln will have a healthy ego, but placed in Aquarius, the Sun’s detriment, Lincoln will think in terms of the bigger picture. Such a person will not be what one could consider warm and gregarious, because when the Sun is in Aquarius, it is ruled by the grim Saturn. So Abe will be aloof, and considered even a bit cold. Perhaps given his Aquarius Sun, he might be well ahead of his time, and not afraid (to parody the Apple commercials) ‘think different. Given his times, he might have become a reformer, or even an inventor, one who would go far, because the dispositor or ruler of his beautifully placed Sun, the ringed planet, Saturn is also very strongly placed up at the Midheaven, or the noon position. The combination of the Sun in Aquarius disposed by Saturn in Sagittarius, will give him the zeal to push through is goals.  With Abe’s Sun placed at dawn position, and dispositor at noon, we already have confluent indicators that Abe will be an ambitious and mature young man who will take the long view, and have what it takes to go very far in life.

However, what sets Lincoln apart from other men of determination and ambition is because of his dasturiya. Money is a powerful elixir.They say that ‘power corrupts totally.’ There is a reason for this. Let’s face it, when a person gets to a certain stage in life, it is easier to keep the wheel going. Once a person ‘gets to the top’ it is human nature to try to keep on accumulating; to protect ‘whats mine.’   This is where the adage, ‘the rich get richer’ came from, because once most people get to the top of the pyramid, they spend the rest of their born days, grabbing more and fighting off competitors. It is Lincoln’s dasturiya,  the Moon which at sets him apart,  not just from other successful politicians, who ‘make it’ but from all presidents because she forces him to remember his roots. Detrimented in Capricorn, and also disposed by that powerful 10th house Saturn, it becomes the goad that sparks his altruistic zeal that made Lincoln stand up for every one of his subjects, not just the rich and powerful. When he said,  “that government, of the people, by the people and for the people, will not perish from this earth”   it was his Moon talking. We know from mundane astrology that the represents the common man. Because he did what the Moon forced him to do, take care of everybody in need, black, white and in between. And because of this, Lincoln stands out above all other presidents.

Now mind you, even though the Moon is Lincoln’s royal goad in life, we do not see ‘lunar’ features or temperament outwardly. This is because of ‘accidental’ placement. In charts, when it comes to ‘what you see’ it is the angular planets.  So with Lincoln, we see the overt characteristics like his very dark angular, some would call, Saturnian features (the Sun in Aquarius, angular 1^st with dispositor Saturn in angular 10). And indeed, Lincoln was not what you would call a touch feely kind of a guy. In fact, he was said to have been dumped by his first girlfriend who said he was ‘no gentlemen’ when they had returned from long walk with a pregnant woman, toting sleeping babe in her arms, and had never once offered to carry her load. When confronted with this, he said something to the effect of, ‘well, I figured if she wanted help she woulda asked.”  So instead of seeing a soft and round personage, the lunar dasturiya is placed in the 12^th a cadent, house, and nstead, acts like a subtle voice whispering from the shadows. In addition, like his Sun, Lincoln’s Moon is also detrimented. Since Lincoln is a man, the Moon will represent the women in his life. Mary Todd Lincoln was known to have suffered emotional stress, some said she was unstable. In addition, his mother was considered a ‘lose woman’ because it was said that she cohabited with Lincoln’s dad, prior to marriage.  Thus she was shunned from society, which out in the ‘frontier’ meant company. It was also said that she was a cultured and literate woman, but also a sad woman because of all the isolation. We see this in Lincoln’s placement of the detrimented Moon in Capricorn (the sign opposite its home base of Cancer). I think it in many ways, given that the Moon is his dasturiya, that he was deeply affected by her being an outcast, so that he remembered all the other outcasts and became a president who was ‘of, by and for the people’ not just some of them, but every last one of them.

This post was inspired by the brilliant work of Silva who did an amazing piece on the doryphory at our list Angelicus Merlin. Her astrological work,  each an exquisite lesson in itself, of which I am forever indebted, is not to be missed. Enjoy!

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