Aries Point

Meaning

The Aries Point is 0° Aries: the place where the Sun crosses the celestial equator going north at the March equinox, and the starting point of the tropical zodiac. It is not a body but a fixed point of reference, the same in every chart.

In midpoint astrology it is almost always used together with its partners, 0° Cancer, 0° Libra and 0° Capricorn, the two equinox and two solstice points. These four make the cardinal axis (or cardinal cross). On the 90° dial all four fold onto a single position, 0°, so "Aries Point" on the dial means all of them at once. A planet at 0° Cancer is on the Aries Point by square, one at 0° Libra by opposition. On the 45° dial the point also picks up 15° of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), the semi-square and sesquiquadrate positions.

The German name is Widderpunkt (Widder is Aries). English writers abbreviate it AP.

Origin and history

The equinox and solstice points had long been used in mundane astrology, for example in charts cast for the Sun's entry into Aries to judge the coming year. Alfred Witte, founder of the Hamburg School, gave the Aries Point a place in individual charts as a regular factor in planetary pictures [1].

In the order of factors printed in the third edition of the Hamburg School rulebook (1935) and its first English translation (1939), Witte put the Aries Point first, followed by the Sun and the Moon. He regarded these three as the "mundane" factors, the Earth's yearly cycle through the seasons and the Moon's monthly cycle, which act on life on Earth before any individual chart is considered. The planets came next, then the Node, Ascendant and Midheaven, and finally his hypothetical planets [1]. A later reordering of the rulebook in 1946 by Hermann Lefeldt changed this sequence [1]. The Witte publishing house still describes the Aries Point as standing for the cardinal cross, the most important mundane structure for the yearly cycle of life on Earth that arises from the change of the seasons [2]. Witte set great weight on the relation between the Earth's daily rotation and its yearly path round the Sun [1]; the cardinal axis marks the turning points of that yearly path.

In cosmobiology. Reinhold Ebertin's Applied Cosmobiology (1972) does not list the Aries Point among its factors: these are the Sun, Moon and planets plus the Midheaven, Ascendant and Moon's Node (pp. 4, 198) [3]. In that book 0° Aries appears only as a point of reference. On the 90° dial, 0° of every cardinal sign is the dial's zero (p. 11); midpoints are calculated as half-sums counted from 0° Aries (p. 199); and in solar arc work the 0° Aries mark of a second disc is turned forward by the arc (p. 38) [3]. Ebertin also reports that Witte, on his earlier degree disc, took 0° Cancer as the zero point (p. 8) [3]. This is what Applied Cosmobiology shows; Ebertin's other books may treat the point differently.

The Hamburg School today also uses the Aries Point as the starting point of one of its house systems. The Witte publishing house lists six house systems set from the personal points: Earth houses (from the cardinal cross, whose Cancer–Capricorn axis the school calls the "Earth axis"), Meridian, Moon, Ascendant, Node and Sun houses [2].

How it is used

The wider world. In the Hamburg School's basic meanings, as given by Ludwig Rudolph, the cardinal points stand for the general public: "the street", the many strangers one deals with in passing without getting to know them [2]. A planet or midpoint on the Aries Point is therefore read as a link between the individual and that wider world. Since the point is the same for everyone, it is also a way of connecting a personal chart to mundane charts.

Pictures. The Aries Point enters planetary pictures like any other factor: AP = Sun/Saturn means the Sun/Saturn midpoint falls on the cardinal axis; Venus = AP/Jupiter means Venus sits on the midpoint between the Aries Point and Jupiter. Because the AP is at 0°, the midpoint of the AP and any planet on the 90° dial is simply half that planet's dial position (or that plus 45°).

Timing. Because the Aries Point is a factor like any other, a planet in transit or direction that reaches it (on the 90° dial, 0° of any cardinal sign) is read in the same way as a contact to a planet, with the Aries Point's meaning of the public and the wider world.

On this site. In the Midpoints panel the Aries Point is an optional point, switched off by default; when switched on it is added at 0° Aries. On the 90° dial (the default) that automatically covers all four cardinal points, and on the 45° dial it also covers 15° of the fixed signs. It then appears in the trees, pictures, midpoint sort and clusters like any other point. It is a position in the tropical zodiac.

Examples

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879, 11:30 local mean time, Ulm), 90° dial:

• Close to, but not on, the point. Mercury at 3°09′ Aries and Saturn at 4°11′ Aries are 3°09′ and 4°11′ past the Aries Point, both beyond the widest orb the site allows (3°). The Sun at 23°30′ Pisces is 6°30′ before it.
• A midpoint on the point. The Sun/Saturn midpoint is at 28°51′ Pisces, 88°51′ on the dial, which is 1°09′ from 0°. With the default orb of 1.5° this gives the picture AP = Sun/Saturn.
• Pictures made with the AP. The midpoint of the Aries Point and Mercury is at 1°34′ Aries, and of the Aries Point and Saturn at 2°06′ Aries. Switching the Aries Point on adds both to the group of midpoints already crowding the first few degrees of the dial in this chart.
• Square, not conjunction. A planet at 0°30′ Cancer is at 0°30′ on the 90° dial, 0°30′ from the Aries Point, even though it is 90°30′ from 0° Aries in the zodiac.

See also

The Aries Point is one of the points shown on the midpoint dial; how it combines with pairs of planets is described under planetary picture.