Ascendant, Descendant, MC and IC

As the Earth rotates on its axis once in every 24 hours, an observer situated on Earth will detect
an apparent motion of the Zodiac. To better define motion, astrologers apply four cardinal
points to the Zodiac, almost like the north, south, east and west points on a compass. These
cardinal points divide the zodiac into four quadrants. The east point is termed the Ascendant
and is often abbreviated Asc. The west point is termed the Descendant and is often abbreviated
Dsc. The south point is termed Mid-Heaven and is often abbreviated MC. The north point is
termed the Imum Coeli and is abbreviated IC.

Retrograde

Think of the planets orbiting the Sun as a group of race cars travelling around a racetrack.
Consider what happens as a fast moving car approaches a slower moving car behind. At first, all
appears normal. An observer in the fast moving car sees the slower moving car heading in the
same direction. Gradually, the observer in the fast car sees that he will soon overtake the slow
car. For a brief moment in time as the fast car overtakes the slower car the observer in the fast
car notices the the slower car appears to stand still and even move backwards. Of course the
slower car in not really standing still. This is simply an optical illusion.

The brief illusory periods are what astrologers call Retrograde events. To ancient societies,
Retrograde events were of great significane as human emotion was often seen to be changeable
at these events.

From the vantage point of an observer on Earth, there will be three as four times during a year
when Earth and Mercury pass by each other on this celestial racetrack. There will be one or
perhaps two times per year when Earth and Venus pass each other. There will be one time every
two years when Earth and Mars pass each other.

Let’s examine the effect of Mercury Retrograde on the markets. First, let’s start with a review of
what Retrograde is.

In 30 days of time planet Earth will travel 30 degrees of the zodiac. But, Mercury is a faster
mover. In the same 30 days of time, Mercury will travel through about 120 degrees of the zodiac
– passing by Earth in the process. From our vantage point here on Earth, initially as Mercury is
setting up to pass Earth, we see Mercury in the sign of Aries. As Mercury completes its trip past
Earth, we see it in the sign of Capricorn. In other words, the way we see it here on Earth,
Mercury has moved backwards as it passed Earth. This is the concept of Retrograde. To the
ancients who did not fully understand how the cosmos worked, it must have been awe-inspiring
to see a planet move backwards in the heavens relative to the constellation stars.

There is a curiously strong correlation between equity markets and Mercury Retrograde.
Sometimes Mercury Retrograde events encompass a sharp market inflection point. Sometimes a
market peak or bottom will follow closely behind a Retrograde event, sometimes a peak or
bottom will immediately precede a Retrograde event. When you know a Mercury Retrograde
event is approaching, use a suitable chart technical indicator such as DMI or Wilder Volatility
Stop to determine if the price trend is changing.

Secret of Retrograde

Market pivots are often seen at retrograde points but if you look closer you will see a world of
information in that point in time and the entire secret of Gann in one technique. The 'pricing' of
the retrograde is always important and I use it every day on my telephone service to predict
support and resistance and forecast highs and lows. The simplest method is to use the square of
Nine with the planets longitude in the square. Mercury is the most common and will be
demonstrated here, but the technique can be used for all planetary aspects and eclipses. This
first chart is a 'big picture' summary drawn with Optuma's Gann Planetary Lines and using
Mercury Geocentric. I have marked only a fraction of the information here so as to not confuse
you at first but try and take a minute or two to study this. You want to focus on the wavy line of
the Mercury plots. There are three lines but remember this is just the computer using multiple
longitude translation so they will fit the data i.e. a retro at 285 longitude might be plotted at
5*360 = 1800 + 285 = 2085 price, or 2085-360 = 1725 price, etc. Look at the circled number '1's.
The lower one identifies the Mercury retrograde data at the top of a wavy line. Vertical to this
date circled shows the exact top price and horizontal to this date shows the price support and
resistance both future and past (remember future events can cast their shadows bakwards with
astrology). So we see that at the moment of the stopped planetary longitude motion the prices
change direction and the translated price is frozen in time to create future support and
resistance. Circled '2' is the next Retrograde point and it was a reversal price point and
horizontal to it were future price support pivots. Circled '3' is a top and major collapse dropping
down to try and find support near circled '1' horizontal. Circled '3' also shows horizontal support
and resistance both forwards and backwards. Now will we see that real use of Gann's square of
nine. On the date of the retrograde (or direct) we note the longitude in the square and this one
marked '1' was on May 18, 2015 at 13 Gemini or 73 degree longitude. Like in prior exhibits we
now move along that axis to find future time periods when Mercury's longitude will be on that
axis again. These are 111, 157, 211 etc.

This next chart shows the date when Mercury was at the longitude circled along the '73' axis.
These are noted with a solid circle and notations of Sqrt(retro) +2,4, 6. All were almost perfect
hits (and all tops) and shows the real secret behind the Square of Nine if you can follow it.
Origin Point

Gann said to get good results you had to start at the right beginning. We have looked at origin
horoscopes to do that and have had good success, but do you think there are other good
starting points to use? Of course! In the prior volumes I mentioned Sun/Moon cycles which God
gave to the Israelites to set up their calendar as well as other cycles. Each cycle usually starts
with a conjunction of two planets and the major one throughout time has been the
Jupiter/Saturn cycles of conjunctions nearly every 20 years. We will now look at these two
planets and see why they are so important.

Progression by Angles and Angle Returns

Before we leave this section on progressions like moving planets forward by the rate of the Sun,
we should consider a discovery of mine that suggests that the angle at birth can be progressed
by its own unique angle between it and another planet. For example in the Amazon chart Saturn
and Venus have 50.3 angle between them. I choose Saturn and Venus because they are almost
always bad when in aspect so we should see results if the theory works. Just as I moved Mars
forward by the 1.414 ratio, the actual ration between horoscopic pairs should be important. If
we divide Venus by Saturn we get 65.98/15.68 = 4.2 which is too big a factor do advance Saturn
by for short term work, so let's try Saturn by Venus. 15.68/65.98 = 0.2376 and since Saturn
moves slowly this should work by moving Saturn ahead 1.2376 ratio multiples and those
longitudes should be like an aspect to Venus. Doing this we have: 15.68*1.2376 = 19.41, *1.2376
= 24.02, *1.2376 = 29.2, *1.2376 = 36.78, etc. Each of these Saturn degrees was almost exactly
at a tradable pivot. The early years can't be seen too well because of the huge run up but on
close examination they were all very good entries.

While we are discussing AMZN and we have a good IPO starting date, I might review with you
the basic technique of setting up the trading pattern fractals that in the long run will make you
most of your money. The idea is that from an origin point all these various planets and angles
move forward and they all do the same thing, pattern wise. The easiest way to start is to take
Mercury and move it to the first big high or low and whatever degree that is (usually because it
is a sensitive horoscope harmonic), take all the other planets in turn and move them the same
number of degrees and ideally you will start to see the pattern emerge.