Comments on Sect article by Chris Brennan in Mountain Astrologer December 2010 issue
Chris, I read with great interest your take on the use of sect, and the Hellenistic method of using it. I use Medieval methods to help grade the strength and effectiveness of planets in a chart for several years now, and I feel sect is of moderately strong influence on how a planet manifests in a person’s life.
Your first consideration is the main reason I’m responding, for I feel it is not a “minor” consideration, but actually quite important. I realize this is from a Medieval standpoint (as you mentioned), but it is rooted in Hellenistic astrology. I agree a chart is either diurnal or nocturnal based on the position of the Sun either above or below the horizon. However, its positioning in the chart determines which hemisphere is the diurnal or nocturnal one, and thus which planets are in or out of sect. In other words, if the Sun is below the horizon, it is a nocturnal chart, but the southern hemisphere of the chart is the diurnal hemisphere. Or to put it another way, the Sun is always in sect whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal. And following that, in a nocturnal chart, Jupiter and Saturn would be in sect if they were in houses 1-6, and out of sect in houses 7-12 (actually above the horizon). (Aside from that: the Moon always rules the nocturnal hemisphere, but is not necessarily in sect in that hemisphere if it is a nocturnal chart. It is actually out of sect in this situation.) Why is this so important? Using my chart as an example: Sun is in 1st making it a nocturnal chart. Using the Hellenistic method in the article, all of my planets except Saturn would be in sect. Using the method I mention above, the exact reverse is true! (except for Mercury which is in sect in both methods due to it rising after the Sun) Saturn is the only other planet in sect! Now after 20 years of astrology, I feel I have a pretty good handle on how effectively my planets work for me (or I work for them). There is no doubt that my Saturn works very well/strongly despite being in a cadent house and retrograde (it is in rulership and has some beneficial aspects), as does Mercury in rulership and exaltation. But, I also feel that the planets that are out of sect are all somewhat amiss in their effectiveness (granted, there are other factors to consider with them as well). Not only that, but when I graded all my planets to find almutens, etc, it throws the whole grading system off if all the other planets are in sect and Saturn is not, and I end up with different almutens, etc. that make no sense in my life. I actually did a detailed analysis of this several years ago for a completely different reason, and one that I also feel well worth mentioning to the professional astrology community at large in response to both your and Kennet Gillman’s articles in this current issue of Mountain Astrologer. That is, how do you determine when a chart is truly nocturnal or diurnal for dawn or dusk births? We know that the ancients used the empirical sky as their palette in determining why to use certain methods of reading the stars. Based on this knowledge, one could ascertain that as long as there was daylight they would call it a diurnal chart whether the Sun was actually visible itself or not. However, my own experience has led me to believe the opposite actually. I am a pre-dawn birth less than a half hour before actual sunrise, yet my chart acts like a nocturnal one as far as I’m concerned after detailed study of the condition of my natal planets and how that has played out in my life. This really enforced in me the importance of the Ascendant and is one of the reasons why I prefer to use the Equal House System: to honor that importance. Kennet’s way of determining diurnal or nocturnal births in unknown birth time charts also indicates my chart is nocturnal, as when I was 24¼ or so, the company I was working for got bought out, I was offered severance pay, and used it to move across the country to SF Bay Area and I was introduced to astrology not long afterwards. When I was 18¼, my grandfather did pass on, but it did not alter the course of my life. From what I have seen since then in other dawn and dusk charts, I feel very solid now in just drawing a line right on horizon and if Sun is below, whether there is daylight or not, it’s a nocturnal chart as far as astrological analysis is concerned. However, I would like to hear what others’ experiences are.
Going back to sect: your second minor consideration is whether the planet has fallen into a masculine or feminine sign with diurnal preferring the former and nocturnal the latter. When a planet is in sect and in the best type of sign, it is then in Hayz and is considered even more effective. Both planets in my chart that are in sect are also in Hayz, and like I said before, they are the “smoothest” areas of my life in general. In addition to these considerations, Ptolemy, Maternus, Hand, and Brady all point out other considerations like masculine/feminine quadrants of the chart, what planets rise before and after the Sun, and what planets the Moon is applying to as affecting the strength of the in sect planets. I have not looked into these considerations in depth yet myself. They are also all very specific as to why each planet is given sect or not in diurnal or nocturnal charts based on the planet’s temperaments and how that mixes with the Sun and Moon’s temperaments – fascinating stuff!
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