Nelson Mandela: a grand trine put to good use!!

An exercise in rectification using musical harmonics.

There are many ways to rectify the chart of a famous person, and this is what I came up with using the musical harmonics for Venus and Mercury when trying to rectify the chart of the great leader, statesman, and voice for change, Mr Nelson Mandela.

While a glance at the musical harmonics here revels nothing terribly exciting, there is more here than meets the eye.

Firstly, the axial harmonics (the left column) have EVERY planetary relationship with the Sun exactly resonant on some axial harmonic level (this is quite unusual, Mozart is the only other chart I have managed this feature with).

Now, those axial harmonics show us some interesting facts about the expanded aspects of Venus and Mercury (the ones we get by multiplying the difference between Sun and Venus by 4 and the distance between Sun and Mercury by 8, with proper reduction of their orbs).

We will notice that Venus has a “natural” harmonic value of 2/11, while its natural musical harmonic value is 6, meaning it is close to 1/6 = 2/12. When we multiply 2/12 by 4 we get 2/3 which is axial harmonic shorthand for the trine aspect. Now, when we multiplied this aspect to get the trine, we had to reduce the orb, so that the expanded musical harmonic for Venus reads “Major 6th, None” meaning there would not be a trinary relationship there if we were to consider this aspect in isolation. However, let’s take a closer look at what else is in a trinary relationship with that Sun. We will notice that both the Moon of this chart and it’s ascendant have a trinary relationship with this Sun, and that the Ascendant and Moon also share a trinary relationship, so the Sun is involved in a grand trine....this boosts the orb of our aspect by a factor of 3, and allows Venus to exert a virtual trine from its “natural” 1/6 position.

By the way, when I say “natural” with respect to Venus and Mercury, I am talking about the relationship which exists in the regular way we calculate harmonics. The expanded or “virtual” values for these planets are derived by treating their maximum possible longitude from the Sun as if it were an “opposition” and working from there. I give Venus a Maximum of 45 degrees, because the highest it gets is a bit over 46, and the lowest it gets is 45; and I give Mercury a max of 22.5 degrees because its actual maximum elongations (Highest is 27, lowest is 18) are symmetrical to this point, and it is a perfect division by 8 of the 180 degree half circle.

Back to this chart, and this time we’ll look at Mercury. Again, on the expanded aspect we see the words “Octave, None” which would say that Mercury, in isolation, has no resonant aspect with the Sun. The word “octave” tells us that it is very near to Mercury’s expanded  opposition point, but not close enough for the relationship to be considered resonant. Remember that in musical astrology, we consider conjunction and opposition to be equivalent aspects, and together they share the number 1. Mercury is tightly conjoined to Saturn, effectively doubling it’s orb for first harmonic involvement. This is plenty wide enough to bring Mercury’s “virtual opposition” into play.

To say that Mr Mandela is a great orator is an understatement, a strong relationship between Mercury and the Sun would therefore be implied in his chart. This strong Mercury/Sun relationship also brings Saturn’s pacement into higher profile with his Sun.

Regardless of what else we may think of Mr Mandela, his oratory style is always measured and disciplined (Saturnine traits), and his life was marked by much forbearance and suffering, such forbearance being rewarded in the long term so that he became a great statesman for his people. (Again Saturnine traits). When we think of revolutionaries, we look for charts with strong Uranus positions and square aspects, rarely do we see trines, but then rarely is a revolutionary leader actually able to broker such a lasting peace as Mandela did, and rarely, if ever, has a peace been brokered in the spirit of reconciliation after the manner which Mr Mandela has accomplished.

To me Mr Mandela represents the very best use of the trine energy. The trine is about harmony rather than about inertia, it is about harmonious action rather than being about ease. There was nothing easy about Mr Mandela’s lot, and so the Sun/Moon trine drove him to sue for harmony, and his Saturnine nature understood that harmony was not going to come easily.

In terms of difficult aspects, Mr Mandela has few, and those are largely based on this rectification (which may or may not be accurate, though the Mercury/Venus expansions in this chart are telling, and the only way to get enough oomph for the “virtual trine” from  Sun to Venus is to have this ascendant). 

The tension between Jupiter and Saturn tells us he is well aware of the difficult balance between progress and tradition. The square between Ascendant and MC shows a recognition of the tension between spiritual and material ideals. Mandela was not oblivious to the difficulty of the path he was trying to forge, but  he managed to find creative solutions for those tensions rather than allow the tension to dominate.

In more general terms, this chart is lacking the appeal to “cookbook astrology” that some other rectifications have, but a Pisces rising (quite close to 0 Aries), Sag MC, with the NN very close to that MC, has enough of the “potential world changer” about it to allow for a more nuanced interpretation of his other house placements. For instance, a 5th house Cancer Sun with both Jupiter and Pluto sharing the sign lends great gravity to his personality, and a certain amount of fun or good humor about his lot in life. 

Uranus in 12 suggests that his genius lay in a realm not easily accessible to him materially, and therefore requires either a spiritual approach or a global approach for him to access it. Uranus in Aquarius suggests his genius lies in interpreting “group mind”, and the musical association between Saturn, Mercury, and the Sun suggest that he has the ability to make use of such genius once he has found access to it.

Part of Fortune joining with his 9th house Moon, and part of Spirit with his 5th house Sun suggest that he was both lucky (Fortuna, Moon, Nine) and willful (Spirit, Sun, Five) which are a good combination in a man who would be a world leader. The grand trine which makes that possible (Asc, Sun, Moon) suggests that Mr Mandela is about harmony and reconciliation above and beyond any other motivating factor, and in the bitterly polarized world in which he lived, such an example was and is priceless.

Venus joining the South Node and the IC in 4, suggests he would always be charming, and that his purpose in this incarnation was to make a difference in the world, which he did in a very big way. Venus’ musical “trine” with his Sun adds a layer to that charm, bringing the gravity of Jupiter/Pluto and the charm of Venus together with his Sun, along with the stability of Mercury/Saturn to make him a far more irresistible force for change than might otherwise be perceived.

I short, the gravity of this man’s chart is not easily seen on the surface, but with a little work, this chart fits the remarkable life of the man who lived it.