Page 21 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 2 Number 1 • Winter 2019

modern, humanistic, psychological and spiritual approaches to natal astrology. However, because neither Leo nor Carter understood the Essential Dignities or how to apply them to natal interpretation, a significant piece of astrology faded into virtual obscurity. Horary astrologers still relied on the Essential Dignities, but outside of this realm, few astrologers had ever heard of them.
The importance of the Essential Dignities cannot be overstated. Excising them from the language of astrology is like removing the vowels from the
alphabet. Modern astrologers could sense the vast power of the language of astrology, but without the Essential Dignities, they lacked the keys to unlock that power. This forced astrologers in the early 20th century to explore new options.
In Germany, the Hamburg School of astrology addressed the issue by ignoring the signs altogether. Alfred Witte, a German astrologer and amateur astronomer began his
writings in the early 20th century by studying historical astrological techniques. Like many astronomers of his time, he was invested in discovering
Transneptunian bodies. Witte failed to discover Pluto, but instead proposed four
hypothetical planets, Cupido, Hades, Zeus, and Kronos,
while in 1934, his collaborator, Friedrich Sieggrün proposed four more, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus, and Poseidon.
Witte founded the Hamburg School as an astrological method in 1923. What made his approach unique was that he eschewed the traditional 360° wheel and instead focused on midpoints and planetary pictures using the 90° dial, which emphasizes 8th harmonic aspects
(conjunction, opposition, square, semi-square, and sesquiquadrate).
This approach to astrology was rebranded as Uranian Astrology when it was brought to the United States in 1936, and his guidelines to interpreting these configurations was published as Rules for Planetary Pictures. Although a number of bodies have been discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune, none of them correspond to the hypothetical
Transneptunian bodies of Uranian Astrology.
Reinhold Ebertin broke from the Hamburg School methods and rejected the hypothetical planets. However, he embraced the idea of planetarypicturesandtheuseofthe90° dial, and emphasized the importance of statistical analysis of astrological interpretations. His approach became known as Cosmobiology. In addition
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