In the post I want to look at the inception chart for the city of Baghdad, founded in 762 as the capital city of the Abbasid dynasty, which dominated Arab and Islamic civilization for a period of 500 years until it was conquered by Mongols in 1258.
It is generally recognized that this inception chart of the city of Baghdad is an astrological election, likely the single most famous elected chart in the history of astrology. It is the deliberately chosen foundation for a religious dynasty.
[A note on the chart diagram – the symbol near the Midheaven that says ‘AP Spirit A’ is the Lot of Spirit – AP stands for Arabic Part – and the symbol to the right of the Midheaven with a small Sun and Moon symbol is the Sun/Moon midpoint.]
Looking at this chart in the light of my current work with the two major Lots of Fortune and Spirit makes sense of it at a whole different level – in fact, without the Lots it is highly problematic. The Lots are the key to the entire chart.
The chart has to be whole sign, and it makes luminous sense with that. If you do Placidus houses a few of the key planets change houses – most importantly it moves the Sun into the 8th house which vitiates the entire chart.
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The entire chart hinges on three inter-related points, one of which is a major Lot.
– The very powerful Ascendant conjunct Jupiter, with an orb of 7 minutes – Jupiter in rulership, the planet associated with religious authority.
– the Sun in rulership in the 9th house – the house of religion – in a tight trine with the Ascendant.
– The Lot of Spirit at 21 Virgo 43, which is tightly conjunct the Midheaven with an orb of 10 minutes. (Take into account that we do not know the exact values in the Ephemeris tables they used, so effectively Ascendant/Jupiter and Midheaven/Fortune are exactly conjunct for all practical purposes.)
I am completely convinced that the Lot of Spirit was put there deliberately and is the key to the whole chart. That is far too tight a conjunction to be coincidence.
[Note that the Sun/Moon midpoint is at 19 Virgo 15 which is conjunct the Midheaven with roughly a two degree orb. While I find it worth noting, it is questionable to say that was deliberately chosen. If it was, it further reinforces the strength and importance of the Midheaven.]
The two main Lots, Fortune and Spirit, are important because they are the only two points in the chart that combine and focus the three most important personal points in the chart – Ascendant, Sun and Moon.
In this chart the dominant aspect is the powerful tight trine between Ascendant/Jupiter and the Sun.
Given that, the Lot of Spirit focuses the combined power of that Sun/Ascendant/Jupiter combination to the Midheaven, which makes the Midheaven the most important and powerful point in the entire chart.
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Here are some features of the chart that are worth noting in detail.
With Jupiter on the Ascendant, it appears that Jupiter is retrograde, but if you check the ephemeris, Jupiter is stationing and changing directions in seven days, and only moves one or two minutes more before doing that – so effectively you have Jupiter at second station, stationing to go direct, right on the Ascendant – which gives it a lot of added emphasis.
The malefic Saturn is safely out of harm’s way in the cadent 6th house, averse the ascendant. Averse means it does not make a whole sign aspect to the Ascendant so the two are out of the line of vision of each other, hence have no way to affect each other. To a modern astrologer there is a problematic Moon/Saturn applying opposition, but traditional astrology does not recognize out of sign aspects – here Saturn and Moon are averse. So with Saturn averse the Moon and Ascendant and making a very loose trine by whole sign to the Midheaven it is set to be either mildly supportive or at least not problematic.
The problem point in the chart is the Descendant, and I think that was deliberately chosen to be as weak and problematic as possible. Mars is tightly conjunct the Descendant but is peregrine, and its ruler Mercury is in very weak shape – peregrine, retrograde, in the 8th house, under the Sun’s rays, further weakened by being conjunct the South Node. Mars on the Descendant and Mercury ruling the Descendant are weak by essential dignity, and Mercury is weak by accidental dignity also.
The descendant represents the enemies of the dynasty, and they are set up to be as weak and off-balance as possible. Yes, this empire is planning on having wars and enemies, but their enemies are not strong enough to prevail.
The Moon is not particularly strong, being peregrine in the 11th – and if you take the Moon as standing for the common people, they are not the strength or the focus of this chart. This is a chart for the ruling dynasty and the ruling classes, and the condition of the common people is an afterthought.
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Looking closely at the Midheaven, if you take the Lot of Spirit out of the picture it is actually quite weak, being ruled by the problematic Mercury in the 8th house, the same planet ruling the Descendant.
As we mentioned, the two main Lots, Fortune and Spirit, are the only two points in the chart that combine and integrate the energies of Sun, Moon and Ascendant. In this chart the Sun/Ascendant combination is particularly strong, and Jupiter is added to the mix being tightly conjunct the Ascendant.
The Midheaven gets the energies of the Sun plus the Ascendant plus Jupiter – it goes from being problematic to the pinnacle of power.
This is the chart of a deliberately planned long lasting religious authority based dynasty.
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There are some important things that I learned from doing this analysis of the chart with the Lots.
First, I am now virtually positive that we have lost a lot of the keys to using astrology; it was an art for initiates, and many if not most important techniques were never written down and were passed on orally, from teacher to apprentice or within families. Much of that has been lost.
I think that the Lots were one of their main techniques, and there is next to nothing in the literature on how to actually use them. What we have is the lists of various Lots, which I am convinced have some problems and deliberate and possibly misleading ambiguities. I agree with Lind Weber that the Lot names were mnemonics or handles that told very little about how they were actually used. Most importantly I am not aware of anything in the traditional literature pointing out that a Lot needs to be occupied by a planet or angle to be energized. Without that planet or angle, the Lot is an empty point of potential, waiting to be triggered by transit. In this chart is is hard-wired to be always energized by being conjunct the angle.
In evaluating the Lots I think this chart shows that it is important to take into account the component points in the Lot. In the case of these two primary Lots that is the Ascendant, Sun and Moon. This whole chart hinges on applying the power of the combined Sun and Ascendant/Jupiter to the Midheaven, which takes the Midheaven and changes it from a problematic point to the focus of the whole chart. Mercury, the ruler of the sign of the Midheaven, has very little weight here.
And finally, I now think that when doing an election it is worth it to carefully consider the placement and condition of the two main lots. Since the Lots are very time sensitive, changing their position always relative to the Ascendant, they can be a way to add another factor to fine-tune an election. Correctly used a Lot can be a focus of power and integration – just ask the Abbasid dynasty.