Zarathu Total Immersion Astrology©
GUEST ASTROLOGER:
Kt Boehrer, THE Declination Lady
(click for Short Biography of Kt Boehrer)
Reprinted with the Kind Permission of Kt Boehrer(copyright©, 2001 by Kt Boehrer, all rights reserved.)
Introduction to Declination
I began the study of astrology about age three and have never ceased the study
of astrology for any attenuated period of time since then. Since I was born
in 1923 you will quickly see that I have studied and worked with astrology
for nearly 75 years - a fair lifetime.
Eventually I became dissatisfied with certain limitations and certain failures
of astrology to measure up to the claims and expectations of astrologers.
By this I mean to say that perfectly straightforward astrological events that
should have manifested in a clearly discernible manner sometimes simply failed
to do so. Lunations, eclipses and progressed or transiting aspects either
simply didn't come off or occurred either too early or too late.
With a background in medical work I wanted certainty - exactitude. I could
not tolerate anything less in my profession and, clearly, I should, in fact,
I HAD to be able, for reasons of purely personal satisfaction, to find the
same exactitude in astrology that I found in the medical lab. It was precisely
this mind-set that led me to the questions and answers that I needed.
In working with astrology, we are working with a constantly fluid field of
energy in which activity occurs in more than one dimension of space. That,
of course, is the whole story. I realized that in working with longitude alone
we were working on a one-dimensional level with multidimensional propensities.
This is rather like saying that every person living in the penthouse of a
building at 310 Featherstone Avenue, that has 36 stories with 10 apartments
on each level, all have the same address: 310 Featherstone Ave. Technically
this is true - all 360 apartments would share the street number and address,
but in order to interact with each tenant we must have more specific identification
of location: some modifying information of location. That is what declination
is and what declination does for us.
So it is with declination. Every degree of the 360 degrees of longitude may
(must) be associated with a degree of declination. Any degree of longitude
will resonate through 90 degrees of declination (either North or South.) That
is to say that O degrees of Aries may extend from 0 to 90 degrees of declination.
And this is true with every other degree of longitude for every individual
degree of longitude will extend through 0 to 90 degrees of declination. By
identifying a planet's degree of declination we are able to establish the
degree of longitude that that planet is most strongly influencing. The process
may also be reversed so that identifying the degree of declination of the
planet's degree of longitude will provide yet another specific longitude that
is powerfully (and invisibly) being influenced.
This kind of comprehension opens up a myriad of possibilities: we are able
to - no! we are required to identify those influences in both time and space
that are being activated by declination as well as longitude. It is this concatenation
of events that will tell us the specifics of astrological events - not only
where but when and all the flexible combinations of those two factors. We
can begin to understand why one event works most powerfully while a similar
event hardly works at all, for the identification of the most powerful places
AND times of aspects is done through the application of both longitude and
declination: either one alone will not suffice, since it takes both to identify
the strength and power of a lunation. A planet going retrograde in a longitudinal
AND declinational degree will affect those people most strongly who have placements
at that particular degree of both longitude and declination, whereas the individual
whose planetary placement is not coordinated with the degree of declination
may experience little or nothing of the action.
Longitude identifies placement in space in one dimension. Declination defines
placement in space in a second dimension and where these two dimensions intersect
they interact when activated. It is this combination of influences that establishes
the power and exactitude of events in the chart and in the life. And these
conditions define not only the power/impact but also the timing of events.
The combination of longitude and declination provide us two very powerful
tools for prognostication of events: their magnitude and extent and their
timing.
It is important to understand and keep in mind at all times that there are
360 degrees of longitude and 360 degrees of declination and together they
form a grid of longitude and declination that locates an object exactly in
space in relation to the Sun and the planet Earth. The 360 degrees of longitude
are measured from East to West around the belt of the Equator but each degree
of longitude extends both above and below the Equator for 90 degrees.