Critical Degrees

[kimbobean64]

I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with this. I seem to have a preponderance of natal planets (10-12 depending on how you look at it) at critical degrees.

Natal Mercury, Venus, Mars, Neptune, Pluto, North Node, Vertex, Eris, Vesta and Lilith are all at critical degrees. Sun and Hades are conjunct to a critical degree with 1 degree orb.

My chart also has a grand cross consisting of the moon conjunct Chiron (8th house Aries) opposite Uranus (2nd house Libra) and Mars conjunct Venus (in Gemini/Cancer cusp 10th house) opposite Jupiter in 5th Capricorn. Pluto is in my 1st house and squares Venus and Mars. Saturn is conjunct Gemini midheaven.

I was born on May 10th, 1972 @ 1:55pm Eastern Standard Time (US) in Belleville, NJ.

The planets and points in their respective signs and degrees are listed below:
0 Aries Eris

26 deg Aries Mercury

29 deg Aries Vesta

0 deg Cancer Venus

29 deg Gemini Mars

20 deg Taurus Sun, Hades (conj to 21 deg)

8 deg Aquarius Vertex

29 degree Capricorn North Node

29 deg Virgo Pluto

I am pretty new at this but if anyone could offer some insight on the significance, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks J

[kimbobean64]

I left out my Neptune at 4 degrees Sag...

[Lithuel]

I don't know much about Critical Degrees, so you'll have to wait for another member of the forum to comment on those.

I did want to point out, though, that you called some things "planets" that are not "planets". The "planets" in astrology are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Out of convention, the "luminaries", the Sun and Moon, are also included in the above category. In my opinion, Chiron should be considered a planet if Pluto is, because it's bigger and closer to us, but not all astrologers agree. If Chiron's not a planet, then it's an asteroid.

Beyond that, everything else is definitely a non-planet. The North Node and the Vertex are mathematical points. Very important points, but nothing more than a mathematical abstraction. There is no physical body (planet, moon, star, asteroid, etc) where they are marked in your chart (unless, of course, they're exactly conjunct a physical body).

Eris, Vesta, Lilith, and Hades are all asteroids. These are significant and relevant, but not as much as planets and luminaries.

Hope this helps!

[kimbobean64]

Yeah – I guess my semantics are off...sorry to be confusing. I'm also still trying to navigate the site. I considered the luminaries and Pluto as “planets”, even though they are not considered to be by astronomers. For the purposes of this discussion, I consider the vertex and node as well as the asteroids as "points" but I should have made it clear that there were asteroids involved. Thanks for the clarification J

[astro11]

The cardinal, mutable and fixed signs each have critical degrees where if a planet is conjunct that degree in their sign, it will assume added power of expression in a beneficial way. There is no orb allowed in critical degrees, the planet must be exactly on that degree to have the strengthening effect.

Mutable signs (Gemini, Sagittarius, Pisces and Virgo): 4 and 17 degrees
Cardinal signs (Aries, Libra, Cancer, Capricorn): 13 and 26 degrees
Fixed signs (Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius): 9 and 21 degrees

0 degrees and 29 degrees are not critical. There are different theories out there about these degrees but the one I follow is that 0 degrees represents a planet in its infancy, its fresh but naive in regard to the planet's domain. 29 degrees is very well developed, so that planet's characteristics are very visible in the person.

Samantha Samuels
www.astronumerologywisdom.com

[MJ82]

If you're right about your chart, that's quite something!

I don't know a great deal about critical degrees, but I do have three planets that apply: Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto.

I'd be curious to see what others say on the subject

[MJ82]

p.s. are critical degrees widely considered by astrologers?

[astro11]

Most professional astrologers I know consider the critical degrees in natal analysis and in secondary and converse progressions. Personally I find they add a reliable extra source of knowledge about a person's strengths in the natal chart. When planets in progressions come to those degrees there always seems to be events strongly related to their expression.

[PisceanPallas]

Does the degree have to be exact, with critical degrees? No Orb? I imagine so?...

edit - oh yeah, just read the post above! Ah! Answered my question!!