for better or worse ~
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Here are Princess Diana and Prince Charles. These are draconic charts but using each other's NNode - his in Taurus, hers in Leo - the twin X-charts.
Charles has turned Diana from a Cancerian with an Aquarian Moon to a Gemini with Moon in Capricorn. Here was a friendly, modern, caring girl forced into a rigidly conventional, emotionally stifling mould which made her terminally unhappy (Moon in South Node.) Desperately lonely in a three-person marriage she became duplicitous to fill her emotional need (Scorpio X Ascendant), and eventually broke her silence to devastating effect. |
Diana's impact on Charles's life also moved his Sun into Gemini. He too, under the circumstances of their marriage of convenience, was driven into a life of duplicity in which he experienced his wife as a Sagittarian Moon, clearly enjoying more popularity and adulation than he could ever find comfortable with his real draconic Moon in self-effacing Pisces. His Gemini X SNode in this relationship is conjunct her X Sun, dwad Neptune and 'setting' Ceres on the X Midheaven, in addition to X Ceres conjunct the Dwad Pisces Sun; their twin public confessions of infidelity finally snuffed all life out of the marriage - and (Ceres again) he was bereaved of the mother of his sons..
Now, if you look at Charles as his mother Queen Elizabeth's son, to see how that constant continues to govern his life, her NNode swings his Sun from Scorpio into ... no surprises here! ... Leo, the sign of Kingship.
What is more, his Moon moves from 2 Taurus conjunct the Queen's tropical Sun, to 10 degrees Capricorn on her draconic Sun and the tropical Sun of both England and the UK. His position in the royal family obliges him to conduct himself correctly as the Prince of Wales and effectively to be wedded to his country. There is no room for sentiment. The passions that he has as a sensitive and intelligent man, which drive him to help people and the environment as much as he can, will always come second to his royal duty as long as his mother is alive. The tenth degree of Capricorn also turns up on his X Ascendant in relation to his father Prince Philip, and the X SNode falls on the England 1066 Ascendant; so both the royal parents are pulling him into the line of duty to his country! |
Philip's late Libra NNode propels Charles's Sun to the end of Aries in his own South Node, and it was he who insisted that his son endure the spartan conditions of Gordonstoun public school followed by rigorous military training in both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. Again we find X Sun - SNode synastry; one wonders whether all this toughening-up has in some respect lost Philip his son.
These charts show what, along the path of our souls' progress, we do to each other.
Incidentally, someone with the North Node of the Moon at or close to the Spring Equinox can only point you firmly at your normal, tropical pattern. It is such a blessing just to be able to be oneself! And as you may imagine, X-charts can reveal a great deal about the viability of a relationship even when there are no birth times or locations to work with. But it is not straightforward to take the next step ...
Only this year it became evident that adding the dwad, astrology's natural fractal, not only to nativities but to all kinds of secondary chart including, spectacularly, the Q-chart, provided depths of insight impossible in the radix chart alone. Encouraged by the clarity of draconic exchange charts, the next step was to calculate the dwad, and this was difficult.
Let me show you first of all how to erect an X-chart. Unless all the math is done by hand, the only quick way to create an X-chart in Solar Fire, my preferred program, is to employ User Arc direction. Here's the sequence:
1. Find the position of the partner's North Node that you wish to substitute for the radix NNode.
2. Express this in degrees and minutes of absolute longitude.
3. Subtract it from 360 degrees. Let's call the result R.
4. In the Progressions menu choose User Arc Directed and click OK.
5. Enter your result (R) in the User Direction Arc box and click OK.
6. The required X-chart appears in the chart list for you to open and study.
The problem with dwads arises from Solar Fire's inability to generate secondary charts from any other chart than a radix, which can be a nativity, mundane or horary in any zodiac, or a Return chart. So in this popular program, to create the dwad of any secondary chart including an X-chart it has to be converted first to a radix. How? There is always a way, and firstly, as a useful tip, this is all you have to do for any type of progression:
1. Select your progressed chart in the chart list.
2. Click Chart, Locality.
3. Enter the original place and timezone data and click OK.
4. The correct progressed pattern is now in your chart list as a 'natal' chart, based on the actual ephemeris date and time (which is always useful information to have) and can be manipulated to your heart's content.
This is not the complete answer for X-charts, however. You can certainly do this same tweak with the directed chart, and come up with a working radix with all the planets in the right positions - but not the angles. You have to calculate the dwads yourself and add these to the chart manually, using an editing program such as Photoshop Elements.
The only way to create a full radix draconic exchange chart is to re-imagine it as a type of sidereal. There is a facility in Solar Fire for generating a custom sidereal chart, and this is accessed through the Preferences menu. Here is the process you need to follow (it requires some patience till you get used to it!), beginning with the creation of the X-chart as a User Arc:
1. Find the position of the partner's North Node that you wish to substitute for the radix NNode.
2. Express this in degrees and minutes of absolute longitude.
3. Subtract it from 360 degrees. Call the result R.
4. In the Progressions menu choose User Arc Directed and click OK.
5. Enter your result R in the User Direction Arc box and click OK.
6. The required X-chart appears in the chart list.
7. Click Preferences, then Edit Settings, and then the Zodiac tab.
8. Enter result R again, into the box marked SVP on 1st January 1900 and click OK.
9. Select in your chart list the natal chart whose node is to be changed to the partner's node to create the X-chart. Open the chart and close it again to make sure you are working with this and not an earlier selection.
10. Click Chart, then Edit, then Copy and Edit.
11. In the chart data entry page that apears, click Zodiac, then in the drop-down list SVP ... where you will see, expressed as degrees, minutes and seconds of a sign, the result R that you entered. Click OK.
12. A custom sidereal chart for the chosen person will appear in your chart list. Holding down Ctrl, select this chart and the X-chart and open them side-by-side as Dual Wheels. They should be almost but not quite identical.
13. Check and make a note of the difference in degrees and/or minutes between the Sun positions in the two charts.
14. Adjust result R by this difference, and using the new figure,
15. repeat steps 8 - 12. The custom sidereal should now be identical to the X-chart made with User Arc. You have your radix draconic exchange chart.
16. NOW you can follow the process of converting the radix X-chart to its dwad.
17. Present the X-chart and its dwad in a bi-wheel and prepare to be amazed.
These charts show what, along the path of our souls' progress, we do to each other.
Incidentally, someone with the North Node of the Moon at or close to the Spring Equinox can only point you firmly at your normal, tropical pattern. It is such a blessing just to be able to be oneself! And as you may imagine, X-charts can reveal a great deal about the viability of a relationship even when there are no birth times or locations to work with. But it is not straightforward to take the next step ...
Only this year it became evident that adding the dwad, astrology's natural fractal, not only to nativities but to all kinds of secondary chart including, spectacularly, the Q-chart, provided depths of insight impossible in the radix chart alone. Encouraged by the clarity of draconic exchange charts, the next step was to calculate the dwad, and this was difficult.
Let me show you first of all how to erect an X-chart. Unless all the math is done by hand, the only quick way to create an X-chart in Solar Fire, my preferred program, is to employ User Arc direction. Here's the sequence:
1. Find the position of the partner's North Node that you wish to substitute for the radix NNode.
2. Express this in degrees and minutes of absolute longitude.
3. Subtract it from 360 degrees. Let's call the result R.
4. In the Progressions menu choose User Arc Directed and click OK.
5. Enter your result (R) in the User Direction Arc box and click OK.
6. The required X-chart appears in the chart list for you to open and study.
The problem with dwads arises from Solar Fire's inability to generate secondary charts from any other chart than a radix, which can be a nativity, mundane or horary in any zodiac, or a Return chart. So in this popular program, to create the dwad of any secondary chart including an X-chart it has to be converted first to a radix. How? There is always a way, and firstly, as a useful tip, this is all you have to do for any type of progression:
1. Select your progressed chart in the chart list.
2. Click Chart, Locality.
3. Enter the original place and timezone data and click OK.
4. The correct progressed pattern is now in your chart list as a 'natal' chart, based on the actual ephemeris date and time (which is always useful information to have) and can be manipulated to your heart's content.
This is not the complete answer for X-charts, however. You can certainly do this same tweak with the directed chart, and come up with a working radix with all the planets in the right positions - but not the angles. You have to calculate the dwads yourself and add these to the chart manually, using an editing program such as Photoshop Elements.
The only way to create a full radix draconic exchange chart is to re-imagine it as a type of sidereal. There is a facility in Solar Fire for generating a custom sidereal chart, and this is accessed through the Preferences menu. Here is the process you need to follow (it requires some patience till you get used to it!), beginning with the creation of the X-chart as a User Arc:
1. Find the position of the partner's North Node that you wish to substitute for the radix NNode.
2. Express this in degrees and minutes of absolute longitude.
3. Subtract it from 360 degrees. Call the result R.
4. In the Progressions menu choose User Arc Directed and click OK.
5. Enter your result R in the User Direction Arc box and click OK.
6. The required X-chart appears in the chart list.
7. Click Preferences, then Edit Settings, and then the Zodiac tab.
8. Enter result R again, into the box marked SVP on 1st January 1900 and click OK.
9. Select in your chart list the natal chart whose node is to be changed to the partner's node to create the X-chart. Open the chart and close it again to make sure you are working with this and not an earlier selection.
10. Click Chart, then Edit, then Copy and Edit.
11. In the chart data entry page that apears, click Zodiac, then in the drop-down list SVP ... where you will see, expressed as degrees, minutes and seconds of a sign, the result R that you entered. Click OK.
12. A custom sidereal chart for the chosen person will appear in your chart list. Holding down Ctrl, select this chart and the X-chart and open them side-by-side as Dual Wheels. They should be almost but not quite identical.
13. Check and make a note of the difference in degrees and/or minutes between the Sun positions in the two charts.
14. Adjust result R by this difference, and using the new figure,
15. repeat steps 8 - 12. The custom sidereal should now be identical to the X-chart made with User Arc. You have your radix draconic exchange chart.
16. NOW you can follow the process of converting the radix X-chart to its dwad.
17. Present the X-chart and its dwad in a bi-wheel and prepare to be amazed.
Because now we are looking at Diana again, with an extra level of information. At the centre of the biwheel is the X-chart based on Charles's NNode, surrounded by the planets, nodes and angles of its dwad. Outstanding is the activity of the nodal axes and Ceres.
With the Nodes symbolic of the soul's progress and Ceres the newly promoted planet of the Mother (often separated or bereaved), to find the dwad NNode with radix Ceres, dwad Ceres with the radix Sun and the dwad Sun with the radix NNode is perfectly descriptive of a karmic union whose over-riding objective was to produce children, heirs to the throne. It is also quite possible that the combinations of X Mars, NNode, Uanus and Pluto with dwad Sun, and X Ceres with dwad angles, Mercury and NNode in Aries, foretell the Paris car crash that cruelly bereaved her sons. And there too, in the dwad, is the sad, compliant conjunction, in Virgo, of Moon and Saturn. Compare this to the radix and dwad of her own draconic: |
Radix Jupiter is on the dwad descendant promising a wealthy marriage, but the dwad Moon-Saturn 'rises' in Cancer, and at the dwad IC is radix Saturn. Poor little rich girl! It is her tropical and its dwad that foretells the enormous fame that came to Diana Princess of Wales through her troubled life: there is a double Sun-MC conjunction and the radix Sun, conjoining the dwad NNode, is also on the dwad ascendant, opposite its 10th-degree Capricorn marriage cusp. It was her wedding to the future King of England that brought this initially shy beauty with her dwad Sun in Libra to unparalleled global stardom.
The Tropical has shown us who she knew she was as an individual.
The Draconic has shown us what she was committed to karmically as a growing soul.
The X-chart has shown us the path she was bound to tread as the wife of the Prince of Wales.
The Tropical has shown us who she knew she was as an individual.
The Draconic has shown us what she was committed to karmically as a growing soul.
The X-chart has shown us the path she was bound to tread as the wife of the Prince of Wales.
And what then of Charles? Adding the dwad to his X-chart from Diana's NNode is again revealing: as you would expect, Ceres is very much in evidence, her dwad near the radix MC, and radix Ceres with Pluto conjunct the dwad Sun. The union has brought him a mother for his sons. But his radix X-chart Sun is beset by an opposition of Moon (in passionate, popular Sagittarius again) and Saturn; the competitive strains in this relationship weigh heavily on him. No wonder he turned back to his old flame for light relief.
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Charles was born with Neptune at the IC; this is tantamount to building your castles upon sand, and I have often seen this pattern come up in cases of divorce, probably as the outcome of unrealistic expectations, broken dreams, the need to escape a bond that has become a prison. Neptune in this X-chart has moved from its shaky foundations at the radix IC to a dwad position in Scorpio near the radix midheaven. The whole set-up was illusory. It could only painfully dissolve.
It did that with a little help from his dwad X-chart Sun in the interrupted bond with Camilla. At 12 Taurus, this Sun is right opposite the offending Neptune, above. It was inevitable that he returned to his old love; the telling position is not only the irresistible seductiveness of the 'setting' dwad Pluto, but that wonderful conjunction of the dwad Moon and 7th cusp opposite Chiron 'rising'. His path with Camilla did eventually lead to what appears to be a quiet and very stable marriage after years of maverick behaviour and a lot of pain. Charles's radix Sun in this X-chart is in Virgo, and his Moon in Aquarius; nowadays in this supportive relationship he is probably freer than ever before to forge stronger links with the people he cares for and to put himself at the service of the many good causes he has championed all his adult life. The synastry between their twin X-charts is remarkable: Camilla's radix Moon-Venus in 4-5 degrees Gemini is right on Charles's radix Ascendant, and between them they make a lovely 'New Moon' where his dwad Moon-descendant in 18-19 Capricorn meets her 16 Capricorn dwad Sun. "Let nothing to the marriage of true minds/ admit impediment."
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We started with the current draconic; before researching this article I had never used the current draconic with the dwad. Having found out how to use the custom sidereal to generate a draconic radix, it was time to follow the work on X-charts by testing dwads in this closely related context.
I have stayed with the drama of Diana, and moved on to her death. The car crash that killed her with her lover Dodi Al Fayed took place on August 31st 1997 at 00h22m29s in the Alma tunnel in Paris, France, 48N52, 002E20. The impact of this tragedy was felt most intensely by those she left behind, most especially by her two young sons, Princes William and Harry. It is their CD charts, with the dwads, that I'd like you to look at.
I have stayed with the drama of Diana, and moved on to her death. The car crash that killed her with her lover Dodi Al Fayed took place on August 31st 1997 at 00h22m29s in the Alma tunnel in Paris, France, 48N52, 002E20. The impact of this tragedy was felt most intensely by those she left behind, most especially by her two young sons, Princes William and Harry. It is their CD charts, with the dwads, that I'd like you to look at.
Substituting the transiting NNode at 19 Virgo 43 for William's own, his setting New Moon is flung from dependent Cancer into burdened, grown-up Capricorn - and it's 10 degrees Capricorn once again! (This harsh twist of fate has possibly set in motion a sequence of circumstances that may drive his father, Charles, to live his own missionary life and hand over the role of Prince of Wales to his elder son. This possibility has been suggested in many quarters and this epochal chart seems to give credence to the idea.
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But would William accept it? I can find nothing yet in William's patterns except for the contrascion of his sidereal NNode at 11 Capricorn that pulls him firmly into line for the English throne.) The CD chart for his mother's death has the Capricorn Moon in his natal, tropical South Node, and now he has lost her; Cancer is rising with Neptune close to the Ascendant and the dwad Moon nearly conjunct. William is terribly vulnerable; he must have longed with all his soul to escape the overwhelming sadness and the unwelcome duties of royal mourning. The dwad Sun is almost precisely on radix Pluto; this trauma is truly life-changing for the young prince.
The pattern is consistent: Prince Harry's current draconic also brings Pluto and Sun together, this time dwad Pluto to Sun radix. He was born with a Moon-Ceres-NNode conjunction, so bereavement of his mother is an inevitable and huge challenge on his spiritual path. It may still teach this young firebrand (natally tropical Mars on his sidereal Ascendant) valuable lessons that his beloved mother had hopefully begun, in self-control, stability and practical coping.
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In the meantime his CD Sun is burning in Aries and all he is probably feeling, with his natal Scorpio SNode, is impotent rage.
(2013 - In the ensuing years we have watched a sometimes intractable Harry mature into a courageous, committed and responsible member of Her Majesty's Forces. He has dedicated himself to his mother's campaign to rid the world of the obscenity of land-mines. He is a declared target of certain terrorist groups. Wage Peace well, Harry!)
Natal Data:
Diana, Princess of Wales
1 July 1961 7h45 pm BST Sandringham, UK 52N50 000E30
HRH Charles, Prince of Wales
14 November 1948 9h14 pm GMT London, UK 51N30 000W10
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
21 April 1926 2h40 am BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
10 June 1921 9h46 pm EET Corfu, Greece 39N38 019E50
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
17 July 1947 7h00 am London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince William
21 June 1982 9h03 pm BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince Harry
15 September 1984 4h20 pm BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
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(2013 - In the ensuing years we have watched a sometimes intractable Harry mature into a courageous, committed and responsible member of Her Majesty's Forces. He has dedicated himself to his mother's campaign to rid the world of the obscenity of land-mines. He is a declared target of certain terrorist groups. Wage Peace well, Harry!)
Natal Data:
Diana, Princess of Wales
1 July 1961 7h45 pm BST Sandringham, UK 52N50 000E30
HRH Charles, Prince of Wales
14 November 1948 9h14 pm GMT London, UK 51N30 000W10
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
21 April 1926 2h40 am BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
10 June 1921 9h46 pm EET Corfu, Greece 39N38 019E50
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
17 July 1947 7h00 am London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince William
21 June 1982 9h03 pm BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
HRH Prince Harry
15 September 1984 4h20 pm BST London, UK 51N30 000W10
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