Exegesis V4 Issue 58

Exegesis Volume 4 Issue #58

From: Janice & Dennis
Subject: orbits, resonance, number

From: Bill Sheeran
Subject: second pass through (#57)

Exegesis Digest Fri, 16 Jul 1999

Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:04:12 +1200
From: Janice & Dennis
To: Exegesis
Subject: orbits, resonance, number

It may not be immediately apparent that the orbits of planets and moons are structured physically by numbers, but the process that produces these spatio-temporal relations is resonance.

We get shown this in school science classes via the visual method discovered by the 18th century physicist, Ernst Chladni. "He mounted a thin metal plate on a violin, scattered sand across the plate, and found that when a bow was drawn across the strings the sand arranged itself in beautiful patterns. These arrangements, known as Chladni figures, develop because the sand ends up only on those parts of the plate where there is no vibration." (1) These places that do not vibrate are called nodes, and the lack of vibration is because waves of the same amplitude fully out of phase cancel each other out there.

Spiders learnt how to do this millions of years before scientists. "Spiders which build orbital webs can (and must) produce visual patterns from sound. If they did not, they would get stuck to their own webs. Not all of a sticky strand in a web is sticky. Along it are drops of sticky liquid, spaced at equal intervals, so that the spider may safely run along it by stepping between them. The spacing of these droplets is not done by measurement. Instead, the spider simply coats the entire strand with liquid, and then plucks; vibration arranges the droplets at (perfectly) equal intervals, just as it arranges the exact geometry of the Chladni figure. Both express the harmony between a physical pattern and the vibration which produces it. Vibration in time produces measurement in space. And the unity underlying both is number." (2)

Resonance is the physical process that seems to structure orbits in the solar system. That is to say, the spatio/temporal relations between the orbits result appear to result from resonance and mutual entrainment. The spacing of the planets is given (approximately) by Bode's law. The rings of Saturn and Uranus are banded in harmonic spacing, and the moons of the gas giants are likewise interlocked in their orbits. All this stuff is separately documented in scientific/astronomical literature. I have yet to see it all brought together by any one writer, for the very good reason that prevailing ideology does not permit it. None of these guys want to commit such a gross breach of scientific etiquette as to point out aspects of nature that appear magical.

If you think I am over-stating my case, I sympathise (or at least the scientific side of my Libran Ascendant does). But consider this: Luna always presents its face to Gaia because it is phase-locked. That's why we never see the dark side of the Moon. It has become entrained into its current orbit via resonance.

This is not the only manifestation of this particular phenomenon in the solar system. I have come across at least one other moon likewise phase-locked, though can't recall which one, and there may be others. And I seem to recall that Mercury only ever presents one face to the Sun, so it is likewise phase-locked.

There is nothing actually magical about entrainment, it only seems that way when the consequences are viewed in the resulting system. Resonance is a well-understood basic physical process that plays a key part in natural mechanisms at all levels of nature. Systemic consequences are best illustrated by considering the following historical scenario in which artificial constructions constellate a mutually-entrained system out of nominally separate components. Back in the days when clocks were mechanical, designs evolved that were wall-mounted. In the clock-maker's shop, an uncanny phenomenon was eventually noticed: even if clocks set at slightly different times were mounted on the same wall, they would all end up showing an identical time. The process of convergence was apparently driven by entrainment resulting from resonances interacting through the wall. The wall provided the physical medium for energy-exchange between the previously isolated component systems, allowing all to mutually-entrain and thus create a coherent super-system. All component parts are synchronously co-ordinated by the law of the whole, which is an emergent property of each newly-emerging level of the holarchy.

The consequences for astrological theory are obvious. Natural time cycles entrain both our personal biological clocks and our social organisation. Dr. Percy Seymour has been developing a general theory of paranormal phenomena, starting out as dutiful mechanist and then integrating insights from the frontier of the paradigm shift. Here's a few relevant selections.

"The methods of science, and developments in technology, have not only given us a means of investigating the distribution of matter and radiation in the external universe, but have also allowed us to investigate the spatial structure and distribution of matter on the small scale, and to reveal the links between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds. Much of what has been said in this chapter is eloquently expressed in the following quotation from "Mind in Science" by Richard Gregory:

"It seems that there is two-way traffic between perception and knowledge: between appearance and accepted reality. Technology extends the senses and the mind by setting up models for drawing analogies by which invisible relations, structures and laws may be discovered. At the same time it provides instruments so that the observer may be fed with quite new signals or data ... As science becomes 'objective' so the observer disappears. And yet new observations such as Galileo's out of the blue change for ever our seeing and understanding." [Gregory]

The subjective/objective interface, addressed here as a paradox. Knowledge can be personal, but usually this term is used in a collective sense. Perception is always personal, though generic components can be identified. New personal insights only ever produce new collective understanding on a consensual basis. In respect of this quote from Gregory, the most relevant fact is not included: some, if not all, of the professors who visited Galileo to see the moons of Jupiter in the telescope for the first time could not see them. Such is the awesome capacity of the brain to misinterpret/reject visual signals from the eyes.

"Our senses reveal to us the physical cycles of our environment. Biological evolution has brought about internal cycles in organisms which match some of the periods found in our geocosmic environment. The mechanisms responsible for these internal cycles are known as biological clocks. These clocks provide us with a sense of time. In the next chapter we will discuss the sense of time in biological organisms." (3)

Resonance does lots more than merely cueing natural development processes. It enables organisms to tune into other organisms and processes in their environment. The sonar used by whales and dolphins is but one example.

"Many animals can detect vibrations on the surface of still ponds or lakes, and then use this information for a variety of purposes. Whirligigs are small black beetles often found on takes and ponds. They move about the surface of the water in a frenzied dance to confuse their predators, and yet they do not collide with each other. They use their divided antennae, one part of which rests on the water surface, to detect the slightest vibration of the surface. They can distinguish between their own ripples and those produced by other whirligigs by some tuning process, which must be very similar to the tuning of a radio set to pick up the programmes being broadcast by different radio stations. The whirligigs are using the ripples they make as a kind of water-surface radar. As these ripples bounce off objects they can be used to locate the objects in much the same way as a ship's radar can be used to locate other ships. The ripples produced by its prey will be different from those generated by other whirligigs, so they can be used to locate and capture the prey. Water striders also use ripples to locate prey, and to communicate with each other. The number of ripples produced per minute by the male water strider is about nine times greater than that produced by the female. This type of tuning is based on the concept of resonance, which is a physical principle we will be using throughout this book, so we will spend a little time discussing the basic ideas."

"Small regular fluctuations can have large consequences if their frequency is equal to or extremely close to the natural frequency of the system to which they are applied. This is the basis of resonant tuning. A swinging pendulum has its own natural frequency; if we apply a force to the pendulum which has the same natural frequency, then the amplitude of swing of the pendulum will gradually increase over several cycles. The same applies to a child on a swing. The main physical principle involved is that when energy is fed into the pendulum, by pushing at its own natural frequency, then each small amount of energy is remembered and stored in the system. However, if energy is fed into the system at a frequency which is greatly different from its natural frequency, then it is not remembered or stored, and as a result it has no long-lasting effect."

"Many physical, biological and technological systems exhibit the phenomenon of resonance. The phenomenon is to be found on scales ranging from the very smallest physical systems right up to that of the solar system itself. It has now been established that the nucleus of the carbon atom has a resonant energy level which is essential to the process of building up the heavier chemical elements in the interiors of stars - this was a vital stage in the chemical evolution of the universe, and it made possible the eventual appearance of life on earth. Atoms and molecules respond resonantly to specific types of radiation, and ignore other types of radiation. Biological organisms respond resonantly to certain sounds and vibrations and ignore all others. Resonances between the orbital periods of the asteroids (sometimes referred to as the minor planets) and the orbital period of Jupiter seem to be connected with gaps in the asteroid belt, and resonance also seems to play a part in the dynamics of the ring systems of those planets that have such systems."

"Resonance is also the basis of our systems of communication which use radio waves to transmit information over large distances, often via satellites. This point was well made by Smith and Best, in their book "Electromagnetic Man": 'A radio receiver can detect and amplify the one very specific frequency of the transmitter to which it is tuned (a coherent signal) and which can be present in its environment at an intensity far below the overall background of electromagnetic signals from the power supply cables, other and unwanted radio transmitters, and atmospheric electricity from thunderstorms.' On a much larger scale, a radio telescope can be tuned to receive specific radio waves emitted from hydrogen atoms in the Andromeda galaxy, which is fourteen million million million miles from our Earth. Many insects that live just below the surface of the water can use special organs in their legs to detect underwater vibrations, and these can be used to locate prey and for navigational purposes." (4)

One suspects that we evolved with a fair degree of natural timing, and our sense of timing has atrophied, degraded by the artificial rhythmns of society. Many slaves of the capitalist system even have to work through the night, when, to regenerate their natural health, they ought to be sleeping. In pre-industrial society astrologers probably did more harm than good, foisting contrived timing advice on clients who ignored the option of tuning in to their bodily rhythmic messages and that inner sense that the time is right to do something.

Scientists have been researching the environmental relations of biological clocks. "The results of these experiments seem to suggest that most organisms possess fairly stable internal timers, which do not always correspond exactly with associated astronomical cycles, but that these internal timers have to be occasionally adjusted by external geophysical periods. This is rather like resetting ones' own clocks and watches using the radio time pips. It seems very likely, then, that the processes of evolution gave selective advantages to those individuals that had internal timers with periods very close to those of the physical environment of our Earth. This point was well made by J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson in his book "Biological clocks":

"In so far as all biological clocks are part and parcel of their evolving rhythmic environment, a good case can be made in support of the idea that biological clocks are both endogenous (of internal origin) and exogenous, but to different extents. Although the physiological clock may be endogenous in the usually accepted sense, it cannot be divorced from its genetic ancestry, which has arisen by natural selection. Thus the rhythms of plants and animals must have arisen, in an evolutionary context, from cellular phenomena which have subsequently been strengthened by natural selection."

Seymour refers to experiments by Prof. Frank Brown on the tidal rhythms of some marine animals, which "showed that light was not the only environmental cue used for the resetting of the internal biological clock, and that in this and other cases one cycle was insufficient to reset the clock. After a lifetime of research in this area of biology, Brown was led to the conclusion that many different subtle geophysical factors, including cyclical changes of the geomagnetic field, could be used by a variety of animals to reset their internal biological clocks. Some of Brown's experiments, on a wide range of living organisms, showed that the ability of many different animals to know the times of the tides, the time of day, the phases of the Moon and the time of year, could not all be explained in terms of light cues. He was able to demonstrate that the geomagnetic field in general, and its cyclical fluctuations in particular, could influence the biological clocks and internal compasses of many different species of animals. Experiments carried out by Professor James Gould, mainly on birds and bees, led him to suggest that the magnetic field of our Earth was second only to the Sun and sky in helping animals to know the time, their location and direction."

If the lives of some organisms are structured by the relation of the Sun to the local horizon, why not us? Clearly the collective patterns of human society are to some degree. It hardly seems unreasonable to assume that individual consciousness is to some degree structured by innate orientational (as well as temporal) programming.

"Dr Robert Becker suggested a mechanism for this interaction between the geomagnetic field and life. Starting with the well-known fact that there are electrical-potential differences between the various parts of a living body, he went on to suggest that this potential was an important controlling factor in the activities of the body. He further suggested that this potential system was frequency-sensitive, responding to certain frequencies and not to others. He concluded that over the aeons the biological clocks of every living organism had, in a sense, become phase-locked to specific pulsations of the geomagnetic field, since all life had evolved in this field."

"The endogenous and erogenous nature of biological clocks can be reconciled in a pendulum model of the clock. The rate at which a pendulum swings is determined by its length. Once the pendulum is set in motion, by a single push, it will continue to swing at a constant rate, but its amplitude will decrease, because it is losing energy all the time through friction with the air and in its bearings. In order to keep it swinging, energy has to be fed into the system at frequent intervals, which are either equal to the period, or suitable multiples of this period. The amount of energy which has to be imparted on each cycle will depend on its friction with the air and on its bearings. This is usually referred to as the damping of the system. It is this damping that will cause the pendulum to stop oscillating after a certain length of time, if the feeding of energy into the system is stopped at a particular moment. The larger the amount of damping, the more quickly the pendulum will stop. If there is no damping at all then, in principle, the pendulum will oscillate for ever, once it has been set in motion, even if no other energy is subsequently fed into the system. No damping also means that only energy fed in with exactly the natural frequency of the pendulum will be accepted, and energy fed in at any other frequency will be ignored. It also means that energy fed into the system at this frequency will be 'remembered', and the amplitude of the oscillations will continue to increase until the supply of energy is stopped. Damping has advantages and disadvantages. We have already seen that it will cause the amplitude to decay if no energy is fed into the system at appropriate frequencies, so this is a disadvantage. However, damping also means that energy fed in within a certain narrow range on either side of the natural frequency can also keep the pendulum swinging. This range is called the bandwidth of the pendulum. This increases with the amount of damping. We can use these ideas as a model for understanding the behaviour of biological clocks."

"Evolutionary selection determines the 'length' of the pendulum in such a way that its natural period of oscillation is matched the average period of a natural cycle, like, for example, the length of the day or the time between two high tides. The observed fact that in a laboratory biological clocks can go on for several cycles without exposure to obvious rhythmic cues in the environment, means that the damping in these clocks is relatively small. This means that the bandwidth is also small, and so the range of periods at which it will accept and 'remember' energy supplied to it will be narrow. In biological terms this means that these clocks can only be entrained by frequencies very close to the natural frequency of the system, and not by other frequencies. The number of external cycles needed to restart the natural oscillations, once they have died out, will also depend on the damping of the system and the amount of energy imparted during each cycle. If the amount of energy fed in during one cycle is large, then one cycle may be sufficient to restart the natural oscillations of the system. If the light cycle of day and night is the principal entraining mechanism of a particular clock, then, because the amount of energy imparted by each cycle is large, one cycle is sufficient to entrain the clock. The work of Frank Brown suggests that other rhythmic cues in the environment can act as entrainers of the clock, but because the amount of energy fed in by these cues may be considerably less than the photoperiodic cue of day and night, more cycles are usually necessary to entrain a clock when it has been removed from access to sunlight. In the case of solar-day rhythms, the alternative entraining cues might be daily changes in atmospheric pressure, or they might be the cyclical vibrations of the Earth's magnetic field, which are called the solar daily magnetic variation. In the case of clocks normally entrained by the varying height of water on a beach due to the tides, alternative cues might be the lunar tides in the atmosphere, or the lunar daily magnetic variation, if the organism possessing the clock is removed from the beach. The pendulum model is thus a very powerful model which enables us to understand the basic operation of biological clocks." (5)

"Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan was a French astronomer, but one of his most remarkable discoveries was in biology. In I729 he discovered that certain plants showed daily leaf movements, upwards and downwards, which were synchronized to the cycles of light and darkness, but persisted if the plant was placed in continuous dark. This was one of the first discoveries in the field of biological clocks. One of de Mairan's papers on the subject ended with the words, 'The progress of true science, which is the experimental kind, is necessarily slow.' Despite slow progress in systematic research, many people were aware of the response of certain plants to the daily cycle. Carl Linnaeus, the eighteenth-century botanist, made use of the basic principle to construct a flower clock. Such clocks, which were not uncommon in the formal gardens of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, consisted of a number of flower-beds, each containing a different type of flower, which was chosen according to the time of day at which it opened or closed. For example: the spotted cat's ear opens at 6 a.m., the African marigold opens at 7 a.m., the star of Bethlehem opens at 11 a.m., the scarlet pimpernel closes at 2 p.m. and the evening primrose opens at 6 p.m. It was thus possible to tell the time by noting which flowers were open and which were closed, to an accuracy of about one hour. Many plants and animals follow roughly twenty-four-hour rhythms, which are normally termed circadian rhythms. This term was first coined by Franz Halberg, a cancer specialist working at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who combined circa, meaning about, and dian, an early morning trumpet call or drum roll."

Many plants, for example the bean seedlings with which de Mairan made his discovery, follow daily sleep rhythms, raising their leaves by day and allowing them to droop at night. Some plants synchronize the opening of their blossoms with the activity rhythms of the animals that pollinate them. The plants and animals of the seashore often follow cycles that are synchronized to the ebb and flow of the tides. There are two high tides (and two low tides) per day, and the interval between the high tides is about I2 hours 25 minutes. Barnacles, clams, snails and oysters are active when submerged by the incoming tide, whereas the fiddler crab and many shore birds feed on the living organisms that are exposed by the ebb tide. Some of the animals of the intertidal zone have two sets of rhythms; one following the tide and one following the solar day. For example, the fiddler crab has an activity rhythm synchronized with the times of the local tides, and a daily rhythm of skin-colour change. Since the lunar day is 24 hours 50 minutes, it means that the two rhythms of the fiddler crab will synchronize at two tides during a lunar month and these two tides will be separated by about a fortnight.

We are all aware of annual changes in plant and animal life. The keen gardener must understand and use these annual changes if he is to make a success of gardening. We also know that migratory birds appear and disappear at specific times of the year, and that some animals hibernate in the winter. Indeed it was this realization that led early cultures to an interest in calendar-making and astronomy. Perhaps less well known are the cycles followed by some animals in which use is made of either combined daily and annual changes, or combined tidal and annual changes. An example of a combined daily-annual rhythm is shown by migratory birds. Many migratory birds rapidly increase their weight before they start their long flights, building up large deposits of fat which they use as food reserves en route. These fat deposits are laid down in spring, within about ten days, and there is another period of migratory Battening in the late summer, but the rate of gain is slower than in the spring. Experiments have shown that the start of these periods is controlled by the changes in the length of the day which accompany the seasons." (6)

It is most significant that human circadian rhythms are closer to 25 than 24 hours. This means that the diurnal cycle is subordinate to the entraining effect of the lunar day, and by implication, the solunar relationship cycle in toto. Lunations subdividing the year seem not to be a mere convenience; they provide a periodic impetus for organic development.

So the fact that 12 entire lunations compose the year must be a consequence of entrainment of the lunar orbit by the Sun. We know the Moon is phase-locked because we never see the `dark' side. Resonance has therefore produced both this eternal orientation and the number of months in the year, both consequences of the same physical process. Social consequences of this resonance are the calendar, the zodiac, and the numbers on the face of your watch. To extend the point a little further, what these three sociotemporal frames of reference have in common are twelve equal subdivisions.

Astrologers also have three frames of reference with a common structure of twelve equal subdivisions: the signs, houses, and aspects. Apparently all these frames of reference derive originally from the solunar relationship cycle, the 12 lunations per year resulting from gravitational entrainment of Luna by Sol and Gaia. Since organic development is timed by this temporal framework, it must be a pretty fundamental qualitative component of the local cosmos and nature. As such, it transcends physics, which is a scheme designed to explain space/time as a whole and to ignore any unique qualities of any locality. Physics cannot account for any unique features of the local cosmos.

My understanding of physics is pretty antiquated now, so I invite anyone to prove my memory faulty. If the number of lunations per year can be calculated from Newton's laws, or other equations, using the masses of the three heavenly bodies concerned, then the above declaration is either wrong or an overstatement of the case. If someone on this list can elucidate the origin of the number of lunations per year, I'd welcome being corrected on the matter.

(1) "Supernature", Lyall Watson, 1973, p101. (2) "Arachne Rising", James Vogh, 1977, p50. (3) "The Paranormal" Percy Seymour, 1992, p32. (4) ibid, p4/5. (5) ibid, p41-43. (6) ibid, p33-35.

Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 02:26:07 GMT
From: Bill Sheeran
To: exegesis
Subject: second pass through (#57)

I'm new to the list, so hello everyone Just to introduce myself, I'm a professional astrologer living in Ireland, active full time since 1986. Previously I was a research scientist. I do client work, a bit of teaching and quite a lot of writing. My main interests tend to hover around mundane astrology and the kind of stuff you've all been discussing on this list (to which I was referred by Candy).

> >All I'm saying here is that *if*
> >astrology is valid, i.e., it does address some measurable and definable
> >effect, then we can assume, for the sake of some initial guidelines, that
> >the effect must have a mechanism of some sort that produces it.
> >...SNIP...
> >The mechanism can be
> >mathematical, like the Maxwell Equations that describe the phenomenon of the
> >electromagnetic field, or they can be observed and tested, ...SNIP...
> >In either (or any other such) case, it is the ability to manipulate the
> >mechanism directly and test our understanding by observing results that
> >provides a very much more robust understanding that can ever be gained by
> >the use of statistics, clinical evidence, philosophical logic, etc. I agree with Candy in finding your definition of mechanism unusual. Especially the concept of a mathematical mechanism. If, as you mention above, a mechanism describes the means by which an effect is produced, you're implying that the mathematical equations cause the phenomenon of the electromagnetic field, to use your example.

Mathematics presents models which provide abstract descriptions (in terms of number in one or other of its various forms) of a system's behaviour. In many cases this allows predictions to be made if one can put values on the variables included in the equations. This is particularly true for systems which exhibit linear or very simple non-linear behaviour. It gets a lot more difficult with complex non-linear systems. Because they are usually not closed systems, but are instead open and linked through feedback and exchange to other systems, it is often hard if not impossible to fully describe the mechanisms involved. Where do you draw the line?

On the other hand, despite the difficulties with prediction, mechanistic modelling and repeatability which complex systems' behaviour presents, mathematics can nevertheless be used to attempt to describe the system's behaviour. Thus complex dynamical systems theory (for example) seeks to understand through modelling behaviour rather than describing mechanism. This is the landscape of attractors, lyapunov exponents and mathematical chaos concepts. It is based on topology and geometry, and whatever explanatory power such an approach has, it is independant of any knowledge of mechanism.

One of the interesting and confusing things about astrology is that it uses the predictable and effectively linear cycles of the planets to reveal information about a very non-linear context (life). This presents big problems if one takes a literal approach to astrology, or if one takes the Hermetic maxim "as above, so below" too close to heart. It is understandable that astrologers have a somewhat simplistic attitude to prediction given the paragon of predictability which is described by the primary feature of the language.

Order is seductive. Its presence fosters a sense of security. On the other hand, too much order produces stagnation, freezes processes (flowing water turns to ice) and evolution, and restricts the emergence of novelty. This sets up a tension, which is evident among astrologers in terms of attitudes to prediction, which is a function of order. For some it promises existential security and the ability to exercise control. For others it triggers thoughts about the need to feel the existence of free will.

Disorder on the other hand is pretty much universally seen as bad news. It creates existential anxiety. This bias towards order has resulted in a tendency to ignore the evidence of our own lives, which indicates the chronic presence of the unpredictable. There is always a limit to what can be predicted in living systems. An astrologer may correctly predict the car crash, but will be unable to predict what colour trousers the driver was wearing. Astrology has no tradition of integrating the reality of the unpredictable, and therefore paradoxically is disadvantaged when it comes to making predictions. Astrologers don't know how to take the unpredictable into account.

This is exacerbated by the cultural habit of separating the subject from the object and exploring the latter in an illusory isolation. In astrology this surfaces as the horoscope being seen as containing information which is to be decoded and saying something literal about the individual in isolation from any consideration of that individual's context. But the context has its own dynamics, and they are usually complicated and non-linear in nature. Whatever it is that the horoscope represents is not imposed on the client, but finds its form in emerging though the client-context 'complex'. And this happens to include the astrologer.

Thus successful astrologers will be those who take into account, consciously or otherwise, their understanding of contextual dynamics (which includes a degree of innate unpredictability).

> >The tradition of horary seems to state that the question expresses the
> >"nature of the moment" as defined astrologically, and would suggest that
> >these matters also somehow conform to celestial configurations. What is not
> >at all understood is how that might be.

> >If we are inherently sensitive to the celestial sphere, then so should our
> >activities be, and therefore what questions we might ask. And that's the
> >traditional explanation. Horary astrology really does present conundrums for those interested in exploring astrological modelling. It has been problematical for millennia - Ptolemy didn't like it, as it didn't fit his astrological theory. One of the interesting facts about horary practice is that it is not the 'moment of birth' of the question which is necessarily important. It is when the astrologer decides to take the question on board and do the horary work. For example, when the letter arrives, or the phone conversation is happening. The question is often born in the querent's mind long before the time used for the horary chart.

Unlike natal astrology, which following Ptolemy's lead, is based on the time of birth (usually inaccurate, especially before the 17th century, by which time astrology was in decline) with astrologer as mere translator of the code, horary highlights the central role of the astrologer in the astrological process. Instead of the usual separation, there is a highly significant interface between the astrologer as subject and horoscope as object in the context of the question at hand.
> >
> >I have just put forth a notion that may or may not have merit, but at least
> >involves concepts generally thought to be relevant to the astrological
> >effect. If there exists such an explanation that we can understand, and I
> >guess we're assuming we can, then whatever supports genethliacal can be
> >assumed to support horary as well. I'm not so sure about this. Horary practice makes clear a divinatory aspect to astrology which is at odds with some of the fundamental tenets of conventional astrology (in particular the emphasis on exact birth times and the notion of the objective astrologer). I'm not sure that either can be reduced to each other without some radical rethinking about astrology's nature.

Anyone interested in this topic should try to get their hands on "The Moment of Astrology" by Geoffrey Cornelius. It's currently out of print, but it is a very provocative read, and in my opinion, an important book. Expect to feel some cognitive dissonance while being glued to the page.