Page 38 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 1 Number 10 • June 2017

has dignity by Triplicity and a score of +3. Sondheim perceived his mother as having considerably more power than his father.
ere’s no aspect between the planets, and also no common ground. Pisces and Aries are averse—they can’t “see” each other. However, there are very strong ties that link the two planets. Mars in Pisces rules Venus in
Aries, making Sondheim’s mother the unquestionable authority in the relationship. However, Venus in Aries is the almuten of Mars in Pisces, with a total of 6 votes on Mars’ Board of Directors for Exaltation and Term.
is seems to describe a somewhat challenging relationship. His parents have little in common and rarely see eye-to-eye. His mother has more autonomy, but because his father has slightly more control over her than she has over him, she doesn’t get to exercise her power as freely or as often as she would like. But the powerful, mutual connections between Mars and
Venus keep both parents trapped in the relationship.
In the 9 p.m. chart, Saturn in Capricorn represents Sondheim’s father, while the Sun in Aries represents his mother.
Both planets are strongly digni ed, Saturn by Rulership and the Sun by Exaltation, but in this scenario, Sondheim’s father has a slight, but signi cant edge over his mother. e fact that Saturn in Capricorn sets its own agenda but the Sun in Aries does not will become important.
ere’s no aspect between the Sun and Saturn, but they’re square by sign, which suggests a certain degree of friction and con ict in the relationship. In this scenario, there are no Board of Directors connections between the two planets. ere’s considerable common ground — Mars in Pisces is the almuten of both planets
with 6 votes on each Board of Directors — but nothing tying either planet to the other.
Here’s the kicker: the Sun is applying to a square to Saturn with an orb of 9°28’. Taking a degree per year, we would expect the tension and con ict between Sondheim’s parents to grow ... and it did. When Sondheim was 10 years old, his father exercised his autonomy and left his mother, which resulted in a bitter, ugly divorce.
Con rmation isn’t the same thing as
recti cation, though.
e fact that the 9 p.m. chart so perfectly describes both the dynamic of Sondheim’s parents’ relationship and the timing of their divorce is encouraging, but it’s not enough to resolve the question of his birth time. I’m con dent that we’re in the ballpark, and that the signs on the angles are correct, but that still leaves about a 2-hour window. Absent an actual birth certi cate with o cial recorded birth time, we would have to rectify Sondheim’s chart to re ne the birth time.
Chart recti cation is tedious work, and few astrologers have the skills to do it well. You consider six to ten, accurately-timed major life events, and ne-tune the natal chart such that it responds as expected to the triggers of the life events. It’s a completely objective process that involves no interpretation, but quite a lot of work with the 90-degree dial looking for planetary pictures.
We’ve managed to resolve some of the con ict, and could argue that the 9 p.m. birth time merits a “B” rating rather than a “C” rating. But at the end of the day, I’m just not willing to invest the time interpreting a chart where the birth data rates below an “A.”
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