The 29th degree of the zodiac: the three sides of an enigma.
Often, as astrologers or students of astrology, we are surprised by a contradictory or curious aspect when studying an astral chart.
This is what happens when we meet people born in the sign change, usually a day before the change.
When we calculate an astral chart and verify that these people were born with the Sun in the 29th degree of any sign, we can say that they get a “special touch” that sets them apart from others.
Although it is the strongest position of this astrological aspect, the 29th degree of the rest of the planets is also observed in the position, in its change of zodiac sign.
Within the 30 degrees that make up each sign of the zodiac, one degree has always contained a certain mystique that arouses curiosity. The 29th degree seems to carry an omen and an opening; it speaks of a kind of uncontrolled karma and stands out among the other grades as a harbinger of change.
We are talking about the 29th degree of a sign: Not the 28th rounding; is the degree that covers from 29°00′ to 29°59′.
The usual definition of a 29th degree home planet still seems “wrong”.
The aura of completion implied by the degree evoked an interpretation of a “last chance” to do something good; from the point of view of karmic astrology (in the spiritual sense) perhaps an unrealized task in “past lives” (the unresolved shadow). While this definition may have merit, I don’t think the degree is so easy to define.
Characteristics of the 29th degree of any zodiac sign
The 29th degree seems to contain a quality of condensation, which I will explain in more detail later in the article. However, to begin with, many astrologers (including myself, in addition to having the Sun at 29 degrees in Libra) have observed a number of qualities in people who have planets or other factors at 29 degrees in their birth chart. These observations include:
1. Push the limits. The 29th degree seems to involve both borders and individual limits. There is a quality of risk in the individual, linked to the planet to this degree, as well as a need to see how far one can go. Examples include swimmer and writer Diana Nyad, with the Sun at 29° Leo, swam 100 miles from Cuba to Key West on her fifth attempt at age 64.
2. Futuristic Thinking. People whose 29th degree figures prominently in their chart often have unusual foresight, whether in business or in specific professional pursuits. For example, Walt Disney had Venus at 29° Capricorn in the 5th house of entertainment and children.
Jules Verne, science fiction novelist (20,000 leagues under the sea and other works), had Uranus at 29° Capricorn; He predicted the use of submarines, helicopters, air conditioning and guided missiles long before their invention.
Tim Berners-Lee, considered the inventor of the World Wide Web, has Jupiter at 29° Cancer.
3. Unusual childhood or prodigious tendencies. We often see the 29th degree on the charts of people who showed genius or great talent from an early age, or whose childhood was unusual in some way. Sometimes this talent can be in a specific area.
The French prodigy Jean-François Champollion, who obtained his doctorate in letters at 19, finally cracked the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs; he had Saturn at 29° Pisces, as well as a Midheaven at 29° Cancer and Venus at 29° Sagittarius. Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, a legendary musical prodigy, had a natal Venus at 29° Aquarius.
Degree 29 can also manifest as unusual birth-related conditions.
4. Tribal Goal. Within the parameters of free will, I believe that we are all born to achieve an individual goal and also to fulfill some sort of family destiny, with which our own direction may be intertwined. I think this explains, in part, why the aspects, signs and degrees, as well as the accentuation of the elements (air, earth, fire and water) and modalities (cardinal, fixed and mutable), appear in the line of families . .
Sometimes individuals have identities tied to the accomplishments of their ancestors. The person with a 29th degree birth factor has some sense of wanting or needing to achieve a family goal, although they may not be aware of this impulse.
Some examples are the French Emperor Napoleon III, who had a Sun-Mars conjunction at 29° Aries; he has the distinction of being both the first outgoing president and the last monarch of France. Lady Antonia Fraser, English author of historical biographies such as Love and Louis XIV, belongs to a family in which academic research is the hallmark, and she has Saturn at 29° Capricorn.
5. Foundation of Dynasties. Perhaps related to tribal purpose, the 29th degree also appears in letters from dynasty founders, or in artistic expression involving fictional dynasties. For example, Queen Catherine of Valois, matriarch of Franco-English royalty, was co-founder of the Tudor dynasty, along with her lover, Owen Tudor; I had Mars at 29° Capricorn.
Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the American Kennedy family, which produced a president and two senators, had Venus at 29° Virgo and Jupiter at 29° Scorpio. Director Francis Ford Coppola, with Pluto at 29 Cancer, rose to fame for bringing the Corleone dynasty to the big screen in The Godfather trilogy.
The 29th degree is also found in the letters of people whose work continues after their death.
6. A Dark Side. Often, a 29th degree placement can represent a dark side that a person struggles to process. King Henry VIII was a gifted monarch best remembered for his multiple marriages, his break with Roman Catholicism, and the beheading of two of his six wives; he was born with Pluto at 29° Libra, the sign of marriage as well as the sign of law – in his case, Catholic canon law.
Billy Tipton, also known as Dorothy Tipton, was a woman who lived her manhood to be taken seriously as a jazz musician in the 1930s, and had Neptune at 29 trine Cancer (aspect 120 degrees). .
7. The feeling of going it alone. Astrologer Bonnie Armstrong said, in essence, that the planet in the last degree of the natal chart is important because it “represents a point of solitude, describing the energy one must act on one’s own to accomplish one’s fate”. He noted that the energy was almost always such “that the person not only acted alone, but the accompanying feelings were also a kind of loneliness”.
Obviously, if the last degree of a planet is 27 or 25 or some other degree, that would apply to that planet. But any chart with a planet at degree 29 would then make it occupy that “point of solitude”.
Two people with the 29th degree as a point of loneliness were cousins Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. Mary was imprisoned by Elizabeth after being removed from the Scottish Government, so Mary operated on her own, without her country’s support. Elizabeth had him beheaded for his alleged involvement in plots to assassinate Elizabeth in order to become Queen of England.
Maria had Uranus at 29° Leo, the sign of monarchs, and often acted alone in her attempts to assert herself throughout her chaotic reign and imprisonment. Isabel never married and had no direct heirs; with his Neptune at 29° Pisces, his image and legacy were entirely his doing.
Janusian thought
No es un concepto nuevo que el grado 29, aparentemente unido a dos signos, contenga un simbolismo janusiano, portador de la cualidad del dios romano Jano, con dos caras, que miraba tanto hacia delante como hacia atrás y por el que se nombra el mes of January. He has the power to know the past and the future, he protects travelers as they depart and return, he sees the beginning and the end of all things, he opens and closes doors.
Although the Janusian influence is much more than its mythical symbolism of the past and the future.
Janusian thinking is considered a hallmark of creative thinking in its most basic form: bringing opposites together and creating a third entity in the process.
This mythological god inspired Albert Rothenberg (one of the main researchers of the creative process) to coin the expression Janusian thought, after having studied in depth the use of opposites in the creative process. He defines it as “the ability to simultaneously conceive and use two or more opposing or contradictory ideas, concepts or images”.
However, Janusian thought does not only have to do with creative art, even if that is where it manifests itself the most.
Arthur Koestler refers to this quality in his book on Janus. He identified the natural polarity that exists between self-affirming and integrative tendencies, order being a characteristic of the balance of the two tendencies.
This polarity can be identified in the axis of the zodiacal signs; you are not only, say, an Aries, but you are on the Aries-Libra axis. There can also be a type of polarity within 29th degree Janusian duality, only this tends to assimilate rather than balance.
Napoleon III, for example, with his Sun-Mars conjunction at 29° Aries, led his dynasty. However, he was also loyal to the sign that follows Aries: Taurus. Under his tenure, central Paris was redeveloped by clearing slums, widening streets and building parks. He was sometimes called “the socialist emperor”. He also contributed to economic development based on a new type of banking institution, which sold shares to the public and then used the money to invest in French industry. However, something was still missing.
Obviously, Napoleon III had to have a major vision to bring about the changes he initiated, something more to do with mutable mode than cardinal Aries or fixed Taurus.
the missing link
So what is the missing link?
According to Michele Adler: “Perhaps the missing link of the 29th degree is in the traditional dwadashamsa (or dwad) it occupies”.
The Dodecatemoria, also known as dwadasamsa, dwadachamsha, dwad or duad, is the division into twelve of a sign of the zodiac.
This technique was developed by Indian astrologers, who divided the 30° of the signs into 12 equal parts of 2.5° each.
The dwad (dodecatemoria) divides the 30 degrees of each sign by 12 into 2.5° segments, and each segment is represented and influenced by a specific sign. Thus, the 0.0°-2.5° arc of Aries is assigned to Aries, and the 2.5°-5.0° arc of Aries is assigned to the next sign, Taurus, etc.
This table shows that the 27.5°-30° segment of each sign is represented by the preceding sign. For example, Aries at 29 degrees falls into the Pisces dwad, Taurus at 29 degrees falls into the Aries dwad, Gemini at 29 degrees falls into the Taurus dwad, etc.
In short, the 29th degree not only carries within it the Janusian creative quality, but also embodies the three modes: cardinal, fixed and mutable.
According to the author, therein lies the explanation of the urgency and the overall expression of the 29th degree.
It should be kept in mind that the symbolism of the modes manifests itself in various ways in astrology, in addition to the 29th degree.
Depending on the date of birth, we can experience all three modalities through the positions of the progressed Sun. Within the three decans of each sign, the experience of the “trine” mode repeats itself again with the inclusion of all the elements of a sign.
For example, the first decan of the fire sign Leo (1°-10°) is ruled by the Sun; the second decan of Leo (11°-20°) is attributed to the second fire sign of Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter; and the third decan (21°-30°), Aries, is ruled by Mars. Thus, the three fire signs – fixed Leo, mutable Sagittarius and cardinal Aries – reside in the decans of the Leo sign.
Astrology seems to show us that the experience of the three modalities is worth considering.
It can be appreciated as the planets and angles move into new decans and new modalities by progression and direction. But the encapsulation of all three modalities in the 29th degree seems to function as a fractal of these larger shifts and may be a gift to people with placements in this enigmatic degree.
Those born with a planet or angle beyond the 29th degree of any sign may have a greater inherent need to express all three modes simultaneously (especially with the Sun).
Sometimes this can manifest as confusion or chaos, although creative solutions and applications of Janusian thinking tend to emerge from these conditions.
This enigma is best explained with the description of the modalities of the late Richard Idemon, in “The Magic Thread” he indicates: “Cardinal is centrifugal, it comes out of itself towards a goal. The fixed is centripetal, it goes towards inside from the periphery to the center Mutable is a function that pulsates and fluctuates back and forth.
Thus, the modalities form a substream at degree 29, with the ruling cardinal mode, the fixed now mode, and the mutable mode visualizing and assigning meaning.
The modalities also seem to reflect what André Barbault observed as the “three primary instincts found in all living things: self-affirmation, self-preservation, self-expression.”
This explains why a 29th degree placement in a birth chart can coincide with a nature that cannot resist obsession, devotion, urgency, and inspiration.
The 29th degree captures modalities with its mystical power of three into one, resulting in an energy that is clearly meant to be used, not feared.
References used
Predictive Astrology Cycles of Change Seasons of Meaning, Michele Adler
The Magic Thread, Richard Idemon
Janus: A Summary, Albert Rothenberg
Practical treatise on astrology, André Barbault