The Keyword System

Another article by an unknown person that I found on a BBS, that help me in my studies of Astrology.

Margaret E. Hone developed the keyword system. She is the Vice-President of the Astrological Lodge of London, Vice-President of the Faculty of Astrological Studies, and the author of "The Modern Text Book of Astrology". This text is what's used to train the students, both in-house and correspondence, of the Faculty of Astrological Studies. She strongly believes that each student must develop their own "system" as soon as possible and doesn't expect anyone to use her keyword system forever.

She teaches that, as in any profession, students develop their own ideas, first according to traditional teaching, then according to contemporary changes in opinion and lastly according to their own experience. She doesn't expect that any two astrologers will agree in all details of a chart, nor does she expect that any two will use the same phrases to explain a chart, but does assume that any reasonably competent astrologer will produce similar descriptions to any other astrologer.

In her system a few brief KEYWORDS giving a central core of meaning are suggested for each planet, sign and house, being modified by aspects between them. Her students are trained to avoid guesswork and to make a beginning by a literal, if stuffy, translation of a chart, factor by factor and, at first, in the same order. These stuffy phrases are then changed to comfortable sentences. What it does for students is prevent that horrible feeling, one we've all experienced, of thinking, "Oh, God! Where do I start with this?"

I think you'll see what I mean when I say that the first chart I tried to do was my son's. He has a grand trine, a moon that has no aspects except an exact opposition to the ascendant and a terrific opposition. He has Uranus conjunct Pluto in the twelfth opposing a stellium of Mercury Venus and Saturn in the late 5th and early 6th house. Then there's the fact that his chart is overwhelmingly water, but he distrusts all emotion and is the most strictly logical person I've ever met. That, for this student at least, is too much to comprehend. But the keywords let me break it down into manageable bits. When I fully understood one factor, I went on to the next. But at the first panicked moment, not only what it meant escaped me, I was awed by the sheer number of red and blue aspect lines. I was quite sure I'd never understand Astrology!

I'll give you the keywords, then a few examples.

PLANETS

Sun              Power, vitality, self-expression
Moon             Response, fluctuation, emotions, domestic, nurturing urge
Mercury          Communication (Mentally and by transport), reasoning ability, intellectual urge
Venus            Harmony, unison, relatedness, affection, social urge, value
Mars             Energy, heat, activation
Jupiter          Expansion, preservation
Saturn           Limitation, cold
Uranus           Change (revolutionary, disruptive, dictatorial)
Neptune          Nebulousness, impressionability
Pluto            Elimination, renewal, regeneration

SIGNS

In Aries         Assertively, Activity, I am
In Taurus        Possessively, stability, I have
In Gemini        Communicatively, versatility, I think
In Cancer        Sensitively, protectively, Devotion,  I feel
In Leo           Creatively, joyfully, magnetism, I will
In Virgo         Critically, detailedly, practicality, I analyse
In Libra         harmony, I balance
In Scorpio       Passionately, secretively, penetratingly, intensity  I desire
In Sagittarius   Widely, deeply, free-ranging, visualization, I understand
In Capricorn     Prudently, coolly, aspiringly, ambition, I use
In Aquarius      Detachedly, scientifically, imagination, I know
In Pisces        With appreciation of the intangibles, often
                    confusedly, understanding, I believe

Houses

1.   The person
2.   Possessions and feelings of the person
3.   Short communications. Mental interests.  Nearest relations. Neighbors.
4.   Home (the base)
5.   Creativity, risks, pleasures, love, children
6.   Service, work, health
7.   Others in close connection
8.   Possessions of or from others. Legacies, shared feelings.  Life force in 
      birth sex, death and after life.
9.   Longer communications. Travel.  More profound mental interests.
10.  Matters outside the home. Public standing. Attainments.
11.  Friendships.  Objectives.
12.  More secluded service. Retirement, escape, sacrifice.
      Hidden life of the subconscious and unconscious.

Signs As Commonly Grouped

Triplicities

   Fire         Ardent, keen
   Earth        Practical, cautious
   Air          Intellectual, communicative
   Water        Emotional, unstable, sensitive

Quadruplicities

   Cardinal     Outgoing
   Fixed        Resistant to change
   Mutable      Adaptable

Positivity and Negativity

   Positive     Self-expressive
   Negative     Self-repressive, receptive

Aspects

   Conjunction     Strength of meaning
   Opposition      Tenseness, need to combine
   Trine           Ease of working
   Square          Difficulty in working, but can energize
   Sextile         As trine, but weaker
   Semi-square     Difficulty
   Sesquiquadrate  Difficulty
   Quincunx        Strain, but often creative
   Semi-sextile    Lack of ease

Some examples may help make it clear. These are examples used by Margaret Hone in her book "Applied Astrology". The first would be for the Sun in Aries in the 9th house.

By keywords= Your power and vitality are used assertively in matters of travel and deeper study.

In comfortable language= You are a busy, forceful, energetic person, keen to get around, see other countries and use your brain for serious study.

Obviously, an experienced astrologer could go more deeply into Aries or the Sun or the ninth house, but this is enough to get a beginner started and to lead to further discussion with a client.

Another example she uses is Uranus in Aquarius in the 7th house.

By keyword= Your urge to be disruptive is used detachedly when dealing with others in close connection.

In comfortable language, You have a strong tendency to split from anyone with whom you have placed yourself intimately, either in marriage or in business. You will do this coolly and in an independent spirit.

She recommends making notes and also gives suggested categories under which to group the notes. Ultimately, one comes up with a large amount of information with which to develop a good, interesting synthesis. Just the number of times you've noted similar tendencies will help point you at major themes.

It's clearly not necessary to go to these extremes with every chart. Very soon, a student sees the keywords mentally and writes notes in their own language. But the more complex the chart is, the more helpful it is to break it down using some system. I personally find this one very helpful.

As a person looks at more and more charts they soon begin to see similarities between them and thus develops his or her own shorthand. When something new is learned, it's neat to go back to previous charts and see if you can verify your new information on those charts, too. My favorite discovery came in a chart of a dead soul. My husband and I were at my mother--in-law's house and I was asking her for birth details of my husband's brothers and sisters. My husband Greg is the youngest of six kids and his oldest brother and sister were both in Europe in World War II when he was born. So he doesn't really have the kind of relationship with them that people develop growing up together. In any case, she said, "Well, now, let's see. Richard was the oldest son..."

Together, Greg and I said, "There's no Richard, Florence!" And she said, "Didn't anyone tell you about him? He only lived a short time, six days or so, I think." She gave me birth data and I got both his Birth and Death certificates. In fact, he'd lived just six hours, not days. The cause of death was listed as "too small" which I suppose means premature. In any case, the one aspect that stood out glaringly was a Moon/ Ascendant square. So I looked at old charts and found seventeen that had that aspect. When I checked, fifteen had very difficult births. One had been revived from apparent death three times in the first week.

So I now ask anyone having that aspect about their births. I've never seen a book suggest that, but I believe it's generally true that where that aspect appears the likelihood of a difficult birth experience is indicated. And that was the very first time that I felt that maybe I could do this Astrology stuff after all!

That was a too long aside, but what I mean to say is that you can do a completely adequate interpretation without knowing everything. The keywords give you enough information to form a picture of a personality. Even a student knowing no more than the keywords can help someone. Of course, forever and ever one must keep learning. But this is an easy start.

Just one final point... One Monday at class I thought it was fun when someone asked about the 12th house. Everyone was typing in words and they were all the keywords. "Escape." "Service" "Hidden" "Unconscious". So whether or not we were trained to call them keywords, we all use them, by whatever name.