How many possible horoscopes are there?

Have you ever wondered why Golden Dawn and other esoteric Orders do not issue a book that gives every possible astrology chart and how to read them?

After all, many of our lessons provide suggestions for how to interpret a Tarot card when it falls into a certain postions in a reading and suggestions about how to read the effects of planets when they are in the astrological signs. And there must be an initiated view of how to read a horoscope, right? So why not just issue a book of all the charts that we might encounter and give us the official reading of them?

First, we want you to think. Sorry. Work and thought is a neccessary part of the system.

Second, do you realize how big of a book this would be? Seriously, have you ever pondered how many possible horoscopes there are?

Today, we are used to computerized printouts provided by astrology readers and websites. These generic readings are based on a system pioneered by Alan and Bessie Leo in the 1890s.

Alan Leo (born William Fredrick Alan) was one of the founders of The Astrologer's Magazine. One of the selling points of the magazine was that every subscriber got a free horoscope. Alan and his wife Bessie (born Ada Elizabeth Murray Phillips) needed to figure out a fast way to put a horoscope together. What they did was to write up a sheet for each aspect of a chart (rising sign, moon sign, etc.) which they assembled into a packet and mailed to the client. They made no effort to combine the effects of the aspects; such work was done by Alan, but it was more costly and involved a private consultation.

The system pioneered by the Leos was so effective that other astrologers rushed to copy their system for their own mail order businesses. In fact, it is the same system used by most modern astrologers, though a computer program does the actual compiling nowadays.

It is the figuring out how the aspects combine together that is the heart and butter of the professional astrologer's life. And their livelihood is perfectly safe because no one is going to sit down and come up with a blended horoscope, complete with interpretations for every possible situation and question that might arise, for every possible chart that might exist. When you pay for a private astrology reading, you are paying for a human being to "grok" the astrology chart and make the mental leaps necessary to blend all the aspects into a whole that actually applies to the situation at hand.

So how many horoscopes are there?

If one is only considering the seven traditional planets and the ascendent (rising degree of the chart), and is only concerned with the degree which they occupy, there are...

360 times 360 times 360 times 57 times 93 times 360 times 360 times 360

or

11539123163136000000 possible horoscopes.

You may have noticed that the math is not completely clean (57 and 93). The reason for this is that Mercury can never be more than 28 degrees away from the Sun, and Venus can never be more than 46 degrees from the Sun. For instance, you will never see an astrology chart where the Sun is in Virgo and Mercury is in Pisces---such a chart cannot exist.

(Some students may protest that such a chart can exist when one works with geomancy. It should be noted that geomancy charts are "randomly" or "spiritually" produced and the position of the figures bear no relation to the actual positions of the planets in the sky. In this article, I am merely talking about astrology; the number of possible geomany charts is figured the same way, but with a different set of numbers. For instance, only the house position matters in geomancy; in astrology each degree has its own symbolism.)

If you include the planets Uranus and Neptune, and the planetoid Pluto, the number of possible horoscopes increases to

538369330299273216000000000 possible horoscopes.

(It should be noted that because of the orbit times of these bodies that some of the possible horoscopes are unlikely to be encountered in one's lifetime---Uranus 84 years, Neptune 165 years, and Pluto 248 years.)

And if you want you can toss in the asteriods, comets and eclipses---but you will have to figure out the math yourself.

Even at a page per possible horoscope, that is a pretty thick book. I not going to haul it around---are you?

(I am not sure how much computer memory a pdf of such a book would take up---if you have an idea of how to figure that out, please leave a note in the comment section.)

Trollish editing

There was some trollish editing done today, and I was the troll (or at least, that is how I am going to tell the story). But before I begin my story, here is my daily horoscope from Astrology.com (iVillage):

Expect a setback. It isn't likely to be the end of the road for any project, but it is likely to tie you up for longer than you would like. If you handle it well, you draw the right kind of attention to yourself.

Well, that last part is not going to happen (because I am a troll). As for the rest of it, this is one of those days when my daily horoscope was correct.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an inquiry about some of the information on the Bast Temple website. I hoped that it was just a misunderstanding, and not what I really thought it was all about. Today, any doubts that I had about the situation was cleared up.

The original inquiry was about the authority of Bast Temple. The inquiry indicated that there was some confusion about where the lodge's authority was coming from. I honestly did not see how anyone could be confused about it. The inquiry expressed concern that some might mistake Bast Temple as a lodge of the Order this person was a member of.

Today, it become "Cease and Desist of using our legally trademarked 'service mark.'" In other words, do not use the name of our Order, or any of its variants without legal permission unless you are giving a link to us, or acknowledging your past membership in the Order.

So I can't tell you the name of the Order in question. Nor the subject matter. If you are really smart, you can figure it out. A long memory will also help.

Now ask me what I think that this is really about? Go on, I dare you. Or better yet, just take a wild guess.

That is right---one of Bast Temple's pages was showing up on the first page of the Google results for this Order. And if you put in Denver or Colorado into the search request, the Bast Temple's page would be the very first result.

(The page would also got a lot of first and second page hits for the subject matter that this Order specializes in if Denver or Colorado was included.)

And it was NOT the page that the concern was being expressed about. Furthermore, this page actually gave a link to the correct web address of this Order.

(Let me explain the importance of that. A few of years ago, the then-current leader [aka webmaster] decided to close shop; and when the original Head and founder of the Order learned what happened, the founder decided to claim that the site had just moved instead. I know the truth; I have the webmaster's original announcement archived in PDF form, though I did modify my pages to match the founder's story. Bast Temple was the first to link to the new site after the original web site disappeared.)

Now, I suspect that someone wanted me to erase every page that mentioned this Order. To literally, lay waste to the lodge's website. Instead, I spent the day being a troll and just crossing out the name of this Order, one of its members, and making a new full disclosure statement. Oh, I did delete one page which was scheduled for deletion this summer anyways. If they would have waited until after the June OFM, their request would have been fulfilled without no ill-will at all being exchanged.

The sad truth of the matter is that Bast Temple was not getting that many web hits from the name of this Order, and definitely not any new members. If they think forcing me to remove the information is going to increase their numbers, they are sadly mistaken. And if the person who started this process thinks that it is going to result in him getting any members for his planned new project that he would not have gotten otherwise, he is also sadly mistaken (a lodge reworking that Order's material).

(And does he actually plan on mentioning the name of this Order in connection with this project? Place your bets now.)

The simple truth is that we are involved in catering to different markets. Bast Temple would be more likely to blackball an applicant suitable to this other Order than actually let them into the lodge. Hence, we wanted to redirect without having to do the work of the application process. Except now, we cannot actually direct them to the place that they are more suitable to go before they apply---because we are not allowed to mention the name of the Order that they actually belong in (and I do not give links without talking about the site or group I am linking to). And forcing us to talk to an applicant in person more suitable for them (and not just redirect them before the application process begins) just means that we get to tell the truth about why I left that Order---trust issues abound after that story is related.

(And I so want to tell someone that story about now, but I won't online for STRICT legal reasons. I am a troll, not a muckraker.)

Full disclosure: For STRICT legal reasons, I have to be a troll. I was willing to redirect people to this Order, and mention that I found some small merit in the sytem before today's events. Now, I can't. And I might be a little annoyed also. Hence, I have became a troll. At least now, I have an excuse not to trim my beard or get a haircut---so it is not a total loss. Thanks. Now if someone could point me to a nice local bridge to spend my summer days under, everyone will be happy.