...The idea I want to look at is the one I have been speaking about in this lecture. It is that astrology belongs inherently to that tradition which sees the whole manifested cosmos, and everything in it, as being brought forth by a hierarchy of principles, proceeding from unity into multiplicity by stages, stages in which each superior principle is the parent of a number of effects at a lower level, each one of which, in turn, has its own center and unity from which still further effects proceed at a yet lower level.

John Addey's two major studies, Harmonics in Astrology and A New Study of Astrology have just been republished by the Urania Trust, 396 Caledonian Rd., London N1 1DN, UK. The following is an excerpt delivered at the Astrological Association Conference, Sept. 1971 and published in Astrology Reborn by The Faculty of Astrological Studies & the Author. It is reprinted with the permission of the Astrological Association & Faculty of Astrological Studies. The Astrological Journal is free to all Astrological Association members. For details, contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

...The idea I want to look at is the one I have been speaking about in this lecture. It is that astrology belongs inherently to that tradition which sees the whole manifested cosmos, and everything in it, as being brought forth by a hierarchy of principles, proceeding from unity into multiplicity by stages, stages in which each superior principle is the parent of a number of effects at a lower level, each one of which, in turn, has its own center and unity from which still further effects proceed at a yet lower level.

Now, in this procession from unity into diversity it is the character and properties of the successive formative principles which determine the number and variety of the subordinate effects and also the number of stages through which they pass in their unfoldment.

For this reason the symbolism of number is an integral part of astrology; it is embedded in all the rules of horoscopy and we use it consciously or unconsciously, in every facet of our science.

Alongside this one may place the re-discovery of the fact, which has always been implicit in the rules of astrology but which I believe my own work has made clear, that the symbolism of number is expressed primarily (for us) through the harmonic relationships of planets in the circle. Let me explain and illustrate this.

Pythagoras taught that there were only nine basic numbers and that all numbers beyond nine were repetitions. Our system of numeration exemplifies this for we use only nine numbers plus a nought to indicate the return to unity and the beginning of a new cycle. (That is, when we reach nine we return to one with a nought after it).

What is the explanation of this? It lies in the truth that all things, between their innermost unity and their outermost expression, pass through nine stages.

Now I know there are those who believe that distinctions of this sort are merely arbitrary conceptions of the human mind which have no reality other than that given to them by our own thoughts. This is a heresy which has arisen as a by-product of an era of scientific materialism which cannot conceive of inner realities except in these terms.

With what order of truth are we dealing then, when we say that all things unfold through nine stages? It is the same order of truth, for example, which says that man is tripartite: spirit, soul and body. This is not an arbitrary distinction: it corresponds to a clearly definable reality. Furthermore, this example (of the tripartite nature of man) also has a direct bearing on the symbolism of the number nine, for, in fact, we are not dealing merely with one trinity--a "vertical" trinity one might say, thus:

Here we have a problem of nomenclature. Perhaps the terms static, dynamic and ideal are the most apt. For just as spirit is static, soul is dynamic and body is ideal (in the sense that it is through body that ideals are actualized and so made manifest), so we can say that spirit has static, dynamic and ideal aspects which are the source of all secondary static, dynamic and ideal elements, that soul has the same three elements and is the means whereby they are implemented, and that body has the same three elements and so is the vehicle through which they are all outwardly expressed. Thus we have a combination of two trinities which give us the nine stages through which all things unfold in passing from their innermost subsistence to their outermost expression.

Thus the number nine is especially connected with the process whereby the innermost root idea is ultimately connected to its outermost full unfoldment and expression.1

We can now ask how this fits in with our ideas about the number nine in astrology. Probably the most important manifestation of the number nine in practical astrology is to be found in the navamsa chart which is given such great prominence in Indian astrology. As was explained in a recent issue of The Astrological Journal 2, the navamsa chart is really a diagram of the planetary positions of a chart shown in terms of the ninth harmonic. (That is to say the chart is considered as having nine cycles of 40 degrees each: one complete zodiac from 0 degrees Aries to 10 degrees Taurus, one from 10 degrees Taurus to 20 degrees Gemini and so on). One statement I have seen about the navamsa chart is that it stands in relation to the radical map as the fruit to the tree. This we can now see to be appropriate, for the number nine in our diagram represents the complete realization, or fruit, of what is implicit in the number one or root idea.

Again the navamsa chart is said to show the marriage partner and the marriage generally. Here again we can now see the reason for this, for the two ends of this nine fold process are like two poles which must be brought together. "One" represents the root identity and original potentiality; "nine" represents the ultimate ideal to be realized. The bringing together of these two is symbolised in marriage.

Whilst casting about for an example of an outstanding marriage which might serve to illustrate this point, it was suggested to me that Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning might be a good case to take. Upon obtaining the natal positions of these two, I found that I needed to go no further than the first map I converted to the navamsa--that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.3 Here Venus is exactly on the 7th cusp in the navamsa and in trine to the navamsa Sun in 17 degrees Scorpio. Since Robert Browning had the Sun in 17 degrees Taurus we can see, without going any further, that the navamsa describes both the felicitous nature of the marriage and also something about the marriage partner. (The maps have other interesting features, too, of course.) One may mention in passing that this characteristic of the number nine, of marking out the successive stages of unfoldment of an idea, is the reason why, in numerology it is customary to add up the digits of any number in order to arrive at the root number from which it is derived.

This practice has always mystified me because of course, to add up hundreds, tens and units as if they were all the same thing, seemed illogical. But what one is really doing, when one adds up the digits of a number, is finding out what is the root number in which a larger number had its origin in a series of nine fold progressions.

Here we have a piece of occult lore which has seldom been clearly explained but which is now confirmable and explicable in scientific terms. This was brought home to me when we had all our collections of sun-positions in all the available collections of data held by the Astrological Association, subjected to harmonic analysis by computer. These included some 20,000 sets of birth data.4 This point can be illustrated by reference, for example, to the largest single collection of birth data: that of 7,302 Doctors of Medicine.5

In this collection of data the Sun's longitude at noon was tabulated according to the total number of times it occupied each degree of the ecliptic. This gave 360 totals showing the distribution of 7,302 solar longitudes. (The crude totals are given in The Astrological Journal, Autumn 1969.)

This distribution was then subjected to harmonic analysis in order to discover the rhythms present in the distribution. The analysis was carried from the first to the 180th harmonic. Each harmonic is numbered and described according to its amplitude and phase angle. 6

This harmonic analysis has many interesting features (for example, the harmonic which shows the highest amplitude of any of the 180 possible harmonics, is the twelfth--which may be said to correspond to the traditional twelve fold division of the Zodiac, showing that this has the most vigorous presence of all the rhythms governing this solar distribution), but the point with which we are here concerned is the procession by nines and the reader's attention is drawn to those harmonics which fall at intervals of nine places from the 7th, that is the 16th, 25th, 34th, 43rd, 52nd, and so on, all numbers of which the digits add up to 7.

I call these the successive subsistences of the number 7. Thus 16 is called the second subsistence of 7, 25 is the third subsistence and so on. (I do not know if any other term exists.)

Now if we show diagrammatically the phase angles of this series of harmonics, from the 7th to the 178th, by marking them on a 360o dial, we find that they are distributed in the circle in a manner which is anything but characteristic of a random distribution. All except one of the 20 phase-angles in this series fall virtually in one half of the circle, and the exception (the 52nd) has a very small amplitude. This is a remarkable result but it is only one of many similar ones which could be given. What it amounts to is this: that each one of these sets of birth data--doctors, artists, nonagenarians, etc.--are, when analysed in this way, just like different crystalline substances, each one characterised by a different numerical structure.

1. Thus Proclus says that the soul "proceeds enneadically (i.e. according to the number nine). . .that it may proceed to the last of things after departing from the monad." Quoted in Thos. Taylor's translation of the Timaeus of Plato: Princeton University Press, p. 124.

2. Harmonics and Hindu Astrology: Charles Harvey. Astrological Journal, Spring 1970.

3. Born 6 March 1806, 7.0 p.m., Durham.

4. These include the birth data of 7,301 Doctors of Medicine, 2,875 Artists, 2492 American Clergymen, 1,970 British Clergymen, 1,970 Control Group ditto, 1,024 Polio victims, 970 Nonagenarians and 710 Judges.

5. Extracted by Rupert Gleadow and Brigadier R.C. Firebrace from the Registrar of Medical Practitioners 1850-1900.

6. The amplitude shows the strength of each particular harmonic as a percentage of the mean distribution; the phase angle shows where the 'peak' of each wave-form falls in relation to the point 0o Aries, the wavelength of each harmonic being taken, for this purpose, as 360o in extent.