One of the basic principles of numerology is that if you want to know what vibration results from the combination of two numbers, all you need to is ADD those numbers together. For instance: 3 + 7 = 10. The meaning of “3” is relating and dynamic interaction. “7” is transcending. When we relate (“3”) to the process of transcending (“7”) the result is freedom – “10.”
It always amazes me the way some of the simplest and most obvious ideas can take such a long time to be realized. A couple of days ago it occurred to me that if you want to see how two planets in a chart are combining their energy all you have to do is ADD the placements of the planets together.
For those of you who may not be aware of how to do this, you start by measuring the distance between the very beginning of the Zodiac – 0 degrees and 0 minutes Aries – and any planet you wish to obtain a numerical equivalent for. Always make sure you measure the distance forward through the natural order of signs in the zodiac. Once you have ascertained these quantities for all the planets, you may then perform any arithmatical calculations with them you so desire, including, of course the addition of any two planets to obtain a new point – which I have decided to call the “plus point.”.
After experiencing this stunning realization about adding the planetary positions together to arrive at their sum, I immediately starting thinking about the issue of midpoints. You see, to figure a midpoint, what you do is add any two planets together and then DIVIDE THAT SUM BY TWO. The result you obtain will be a point that is exactly HALF-WAY between the two planets. This is why in books by the cosmobiologists, those astrologers who specialize in the use of midpoints, they refer to them as “half sums.”
The dilemma in my mind (which didn’t last for long) is that a midpoint is supposed to represent the synthesis of two planetary energies. So, given that, if the plus point – that is the ADDITION of the two planets also represents a synthesis of the two planets, what, then, is the difference between the midpoint of a pair of planets, and their plus point?
The answer came to me readily: The midpoint shows where two planets connect – where their energy touches, so to speak – where they find common ground. The plus point, though, is something more intimate – it is where the energy of the two planets actually merges, fuses, synthesizes COMPLETELY.
Just to provide a more vivid picture of this, I want you to realize that in generating a plus point, what you are doing is thinking of the beginning of Aries as a place of starting on the zodiacal journey. To find a plus point what you do is find how far a planet has traveled from the beginning of
Aries on this journey, and take it FARTHER – EXACTLY as far as the other planet of the pair whose plus point you are trying to find. And however far this is, it will also be true that if you find out how far the SECOND PLANET has traveled on ITS journey, and then add to it the journey distance of the FIRST PLANET, you will arrive at the SAME POINT as you did when you added the second to the first. It’s another way of saying that if I add MY JOURNEY to YOUR JOURNEY we will arrive at OUR JOURNEY.
And so what are these plus points to be used for? Here is a list of some of the ways they can me employed. (1) As a powerful interpretative tools for the natal chart, by reading the degrees in which they fall, and by looking at any hard aspects the make to other planets. In doing this I would say that an orb of no more than three degrees should be considered, with 1 ½ degrees being more powerful, 1 ½ to three degrees being a weaker indication. One may also look at two plus points being in either conjunction or opposition, but I would not consider any other aspects when looking at aspects between a plus point and other plus points. (2) One can also look at transiting aspects to plus points, with conjunction and opposition being the most power ones. (3) One can also look at aspects between plus points of one chart and planets of another chart to determine how energies are functioning between two people in a relationship.
In short, everything you can do with a midpoint in a chart you can to with a plus point.
And I have good new for those of you who use computer programs to generate charts. Any astrology program that can can calculate harmonics can calculate plus points, and here’s how you do it. (1) calculate the 2nd harmonic and (2) print out the list of midpoints for it. THESE 2ND HARMONIC MIDPOINTS ARE THE PLUS POINTS, AND HERE’S WHY: When the computer calculated the 2nd harmonic it multiplied every planet by two, then when it calculated the midpoints of these “times 2” planets, it added them and divided them by two – but, of course the division by two was negated by the “times 2” performed to calculate the second harmonic, and so the result is simply a list of the additions of all combinations of pairs of planets! I will unabashedly admit that I take unmitigated pride in this piece of cleverness!
Here’s an interesting glitch I wish to tell you about – though it really isn’t a glitch. It has to do with the 0 Aries and 0 Libra points. Whenever a planet is found on or very near either of those points, what happens when you calculate the plus point between this planet and any other planet is that you will always get a plus point that CONJUNCTS OR OPPOSES the second planet, AND WHICH MAKES ALL THE ASPECTS TO OTHER PLANETS THAT THE SECOND PLANET MAKES (or, in the case of 0 Libra, the aspect plus 180 degrees).
I was teaching a class and I saw this very thing happening in the chart of my friend Sandra, who has Neptune in the 29th degree of Virgo, that is, less than one degree from the 0 Libra point. But here is the interesting thing: I can really see how the planet Neptune DOES relate to every single one of her planets, and functions as a kind of universal energy affecting every facet of her chart. I suspect this is always the way it will be when a planet is found at one of these special points (0 Aries/0 Libra) – that the planet which is at or near one of these two points will resonate with ALL the planets in the chart. I would love to have feedback on this.
And lastly I would like to tell you that it has been strongly on my mind to write analyses for each planetary pair, together with how each of the other planets, as well as the North Node, Ascendant, and Midheaven will affect each pair when it aspects their midpoint. But now I realize that what is more pressing for me is to write analyses for how each Plus Point is affected by each planet.