• Master Astrologer, Poet, Author, Artist, and Teacher

Reading Degree Symbols (1)

Reading Degree Symbols (1)

Reading Degree Symbols (1) 150 150 John Sandbach

A student asked me recently if one could base a complete reading of a chart on degree symbols, and without hesitating, I said “yes.” First of all, there is no such thing as a complete reading. Such an idea is as meaningless as saying, “I completely looked at the Mona Lisa.” There is always more to see in a chart, depending on what you are looking for, and how you are looking. And even when you see something in a chart there is the question of how to communicate, and then of course, the question of how what you communicated was received.

Degree symbols are doorways through which the intuition may enter into the realm of meaning, and most usually anyone who uses degree symbols repeatedly over time becomes more and more in tune with them, and clearer and clear in describing what was retrieved from that realm of meaning.

What each degree means is open to interpretation, and the number of possible interpretations is as great as the number of possible people who are working with them. At one time I asked Ellias Lonsdale – probably the leading expert on degree symbols – what he thought about my interpretations of the Chandra Symbols – which are found in my book “Degree Analysis Part II: The Chandra Symbols in the Horoscope.” He said he thought about half of them were right. I take issue with this assessment, because THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY TO INTERPRET A SYMBOL, THERE IS ONLY INTUITIVE CLARITY, OR THE LACK OF IT, AND THE LACK OF IT IS NOT WRONG, PER SE, BUT JUST WEAK AND/OR MISGUIDED – A DISTORTION OF THE PERSON’S IMAGINATION.

So you might wonder why, on this blog, I have written interpretations for each one of that newer set of degree symbols, the Omega Symbols. The answer is, to give you an idea of what I see in the symbol, irrespective of a particular chart, so that you may feel into this as being right for you at a particular time and place when interpreting a particular chart, or may, on the other hand, feel guided to see the symbol in a different way – a way which may be extremely different from what have seen, or maybe just a variation on my vision of it. And the same goes for myself. When interpreting a chart, I may read one of my own interpretations for a particular degree and decide that in the present context within which I’m working that the interpretation calls for something different than what I wrote.

The symbols are like little crystal balls in which you are to look, and if your intent is to bring the spiritual light into the physical world, you will see what you see, and it will be right for that moment.

Recently a friend of mine said, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great to have a book that has all the degree symbols in it with a picture for each one – a color picture!” Frankly, I find this idea at complete odds with what the symbols are all about. I would hate to see them pinned down with specific colors and forms. No – when you read a symbol, what is important is the picture or pictures it calls to your mind, and this needs to be your own intimate experience of the symbol, AND IS NOT TO BE LIMITED OR SPECIFICALLY DEFINED BY SOME VISUAL ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF IT. The symbols are in a VERBAL form so that they will be ALLUSIVE, a TRIGGER to the imagination. The symbol as stated in words on the page is meant to be a catalyst for whatever your inner vision calls up.

An extremely important idea to remember is that these symbols never occur in isolation. That means, when, say, you look up the symbol for the degree of someone’s Sun, that also have a Moon in their chart, and when you look up the degree for their Moon it is being influenced by their Sun degree, and vice versa. In other words, at its highest, the art of interpreting the symbols is not just the art of being able to understand the meaning of a particular symbol, but the art of synthesizing their various meanings.

Let me give you an example of this from the chart of a friend of mine. Her Moon is in the 17th degree of Leo whose symbol is “A giant squid sleeping in the ocean depths,” and whose Sun symbol is the 17th degree of Gemini, which is “Deep in a cave a large albino snake.” What strikes me here is that both symbols take place in dark, hidden places, and so this person has an exceptionally inward focus, maybe a need for privacy, shelter, a quiet space in which to meditate, dream, and go within. Another thing that strikes me is that both animals are special: the giant squid is so rarely seen that for a long time it was thought that it might be just a myth. And of course, albino snakes are rare – in this case we could imagine that the albinism is an adaptation to cave life.

Both symbols are in places that are very far away from the Sun. And of course, the sea in the one symbol, and the white color in the other, are symbolic of the Moon. So in both these symbols there is a very potent focus on Moon energy. And so this person naturally is more attuned to her emotional, instinctual self, the feeling aspect of her being, the part that flows with life in immediate fashion rather than being so involved in long-range goals and agendas, which is how the Sun energy – the Sun being the polar opposite of the Moon.

Also it comes to mind that if the giant squid made itself more known to humans, it most likely would be hunted and harmed, just as the white snake, if it came out of its cave environment would be harmed by the Sun. So this person very much needs the right environment in which to live, and it needs to be in a safe environment.

From here we might look at the degree of her Mercury, for since the Sun is in the sign of Gemini, it is disposed by that planet. Generally speaking, when looking at the degree of a particular planet, it is worthwhile to look at the planet which rules the sign that the first one is in, for it will show a controlling influence on that first planet. And remember, if a planet is in its ruling sign, it gains much power because of the great reinforcement of its energy which is achieved by that fact.

Back to top