The Golden Helix - an essay in AstroGenetics

The Golden Helix - an essay in Astrogenetics

© copyright 1972, 2010 by Pamela A. Bennett ( now Pam Crane)

Since I began to study Astrology seriously a few years ago, I have, like many others, found its scope and its implications more and more exciting. Hitherto, the concept of an Universal Order had been little more than a day-dream, to be sternly rejected by the rationale of a practical English upbringing. No sooner had I become convinced of the validity of Astrology as a key to human understanding than it became imperative to seek out by whatever means its myriad correlations with the vast bodies of useful knowledge already amassed by Mankind and daily increasing. The fields for exploration are enormous, encompassing as they do all sciences, arts, ethics and faiths, all things hallowed to Man, and the most trivial of mundane events. This article is an attempt to focus, from a variety of angles, on the relationship between Astrology and heredity; and specifically upon the genetic structures, since there, in the DNA code, in the twist of the double helix, lies so far as is known the material key to the individual man.

Since the natal chart, the harmonic grouping of essential principles, is descriptive not only of the inner condition of a man, but of his bodily form (genotype) and its potential for growth (phenotype), since the inner and the outer man are entirely interdependent - as the increased interest in psychosomatic diseases is proving - then his cosmic pattern must correspond in some way with the ordered sequence of amino-acid bases that encode within the genes that same physical and developmental information.

So we have one man; and we have two languages to describe him with; and so far we lack for a means of direct and elegant translation. In addition the language of genes is still imperfectly understood, being only recently discovered, whereas the language of Cosmos has had its masters for many thousands of years. If the key to translation can be found, the science of genetics could greatly benefit from the new, astrological source of correlative significance as applied to given basic factors.

The clue to a possible line of approach was offered to me when pondering on the possibility of constructing a dial, similar in principle to Ebertin’s 90° circle, to facilitate the extraction of Quintile, Biquintile, Decile and Tredecile aspects from the chart, since I was beginning to find reasons for treating them with more than their usually accorded respect. I set to work to make myself such a dial; but try as I might, it could not be compressed into anything like the neat, economical alignment of degrees that distinguished Herr Ebertin's own. It refused point blank ... until I capitulated, gave up that effort, and allowed the degrees to follow their natural sequence from 0° to 360° but in a concentric spiral in which 0°, 72°, 144°, 216°, 288° and 360° aligned one beneath the other with their corresponding deciles similarly arranged on the opposite side of the circle.

This seemed to be the only satisfactory method, so I made a fair copy, pasted it on a card, and began to think about using it. (FIGURE 1)

It was then that I realised that it might find a far more interesting and perhaps even valuable use; for the circle had become a spiral, and the basis of the spiral was the 5th harmonic (with its subharmonic of the 10th, the decile), and fiveness was bringing me back again to an even more intense conviction of the significance of the Quintiles in relation to the whole Solar concept - the Leo principle, the perfect 5th, Sol, fifth note within the Octave (linking two important and different harmonics), Sol the Sun-soul or spirit of the individual man in his solitude, Love, life-giver, the creative, the pro-creative! ... Procreation, life-spirals, helices ... Once more I satisfied myself of another correspondence noted earlier, that the number of pairs of nucleotide bases encompassed by one complete turn of the DNA helix was in fact 10.

Here,  therefore, working at the molecular level, was the life-principle of 5 x 2. Additionally the rule of 4, fundamental to Astrology in the elemental triplicities of Fire, Earth, Air and Water, seemed to invite correlation with the four amino-acid bases, Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine, especially as they relate only in polarity; Adenine linked to Thymine might correspond for example to the Fire/Air polarity; Guanine linked to Cytosine might correspond to the Earth/Water polarity. The two Purines (Adenine and Guanine) could refer to the objective worlds of the mental/ physical (Air and Earth); The two Pyrimidines (Thymine and Cytosine) could refer  to  the  subjective worlds of the intuitive/ emotional (Fire and Water).

The genetic material - Desoxyribonucleic Acid - is composed of two helices complementary to each other and which twist symmetrically together in a right-handed double strand. The complementariness is due to the specific cross-bonding of the amino-acid bases as above-mentioned; the bases are linked by weak Hydrogen bonds across the central axis, and project from an outer helical ‘backbone’ of sugar-phosphate.

On the hypothesis that one of the base sequences corresponds with the cosmic birth-data, one might then propose that since there co-exists the complementary strand each individual has not only his natal chart per se, but also a shadow-chart - as it were a negative print - composed simply of the polarities of all natal factors. It might also be said then to embody Jung's concept of the Self and the Shadow.

Presently I shall come back to the question of the language of the helix; for now let me explain another reason for my delight that the Quintile dial insisted on forming itself into the equivalent of a helix: Lately, examining charts of known individuals for this range of ‘minor’ aspects (and allowing, I felt not unreasonably, a 2° maximum orb) I found that the planets thus brought into contact somehow reflected the flavour of the person, the taste of their living quality. Now, this is quite unprovable, since it stems from my own peculiar sensibilities, but suffice it to say that persons with Sun quintile Neptune tend to impart a quality of numinous translucence in what I sense as their life-light, while Moon biquintile Saturn surrounds one with a somewhat heavy and gradual atmosphere almost of sinister mystery. A Sun-Mercury biquintile Saturn that I know has a curiously slow liveliness, like the feeling of one of those frustrating slow-motion dreams in which all purposive actions seem to be dragged through treacle. These are pervasive qualities, emanations from the individual life-source, and a kind of mutual confirmation seems to be suggested in their association with 5-ness and thus in turn with the helix. Additional insight may be gained into the value of the five-fold principle in the study of Wiccan pentagrams; a different one is drawn for each specific act of invoking or banishing spirits of each of the four elements. Again we find 5-ness associated with the calling-up of life-forces.

In this context, if one takes the pentagram from 0° of each Cardinal sign, the resulting ‘cosmic quintiles’ (in fact 20 in all, over the four possible figures) lie in 0° and 18° of the Cardinal signs, 6° and 24° of the Fixed, and 12° of the Mutables; and it is especially interesting to note that two of these degrees - 24° Fixed and 12° Mutable - are remarkably close to those postulated as the ‘Astrologers' Degrees’ by Margaret Hone, these being 27° Leo-Aquarius and 11° Virgo-Pisces. I myself have observed that 6° Leo in particular appears to be a creative and dynamic degree-area; I have met people with Sun or Ascendant there who are quite distinctive if not unique, very often in the field of Art. These degree-areas would seem appropriate to people who are in some sense possessed of a cosmic consciousness, or who are sufficiently aware as to seek out the truths of life through harmonic understanding, the basis of all living arts and sciences. As the peak of a wave of this particular pattern, 24° Leo would extend its influence to the Mystics of 20° (e.g. Edgar Cayce) and the Astrologers of 27° before losing force in the trough.

One more very important philosophical structure based on the rule of five is of course the Tree of Life itself, with its ten Sephiroth - and these are linked not only by their 22 paths but also, traditionally, by the ‘lightning flash’ that passes through each Sephira in order from Kether to Malkuth ... bearing a curious resemblance to a descending helix! I do not know whether Rodney Collin made any study of the Tree before writing his Theory of Celestial Influence, but I find in it (opp. page 138) a diagram which precisely echoes my last observation; he links the glands in the human body in a spiral, giving their planetary correspondences, thus:

PINEAL Neptune - GONADS Uranus -ANTERIOR PITUITARY Saturn - POSTERIOR PITUITARY Jupiter - SOLAR PLEXUS Mars - PARATHYROID Venus - THYROID Mercury - PANCREAS Moon - THYMUS Sun.

The planetary order is exactly that of the lightning flash down the tree with the exception that Sun does not come in the order between Mars and Venus, instead it follows Moon in place of Earth, which is absent from the glandular sequence - presumably because the body itself is the Earth. However, in the actual diagram, since the Sun lies at the heart, visibly it remains in its correct position at the living centre. The concept of fiveness seems to me to have been popularly undervalued; and for the above reasons I made my dial, and rejoiced over the spiral.

Now I had a tool, it was time to put theorising into practice and to attempt some kind of substantiation of the growing idea.

What I did was to take as many family units as possible - that is, all those families for whom I have adequate data, although unfortunately certain birth-times have prevented the accurate calculation of the Ascendant, Midheaven and Moon for several of the parents - and plot their natal degrees in colour-coded groups, by simply pinning a tracing-sheet over the master dial, the Quintile spiral, and marking the father's planets, Asc, MC and lunar nodes in red, the mother's in blue, and the children in a clear colour-sequence indicating order of birth (which of course implies other avenues of investigation into the astrobiological system).

What I had hoped for, and half-expected, began to happen; and as more and more families were added to the file it became almost monotonously repetitive: axes began to appear strongly in all the charts, at the poles of which clustered groups of Suns, Ascendants, Rulers, Sun-rulers, MCs and Nodes. Sometimes actual polar groupings would be absent or nearly so, but still close clusters would form around the dial. I had been hoping that these would be a little tighter than they appeared; they spread over an orb of up to 3° on either side of the mean axis. Yet there was no escaping the fact that a distinct pattern emerged, within which this orb allowance seemed reasonably consistent (and in most cases over-generous). Perhaps, I wondered, it would be appropriate in this specific context to discard accepted notions of astrological accuracy in favour of a fresh approach to the pattern of principles.

Undeniably, related principles were recurring on these dial axes in multiples not only of the fifth but of the tenth harmonic of the whole zodiacal circle, including on the visible axis conjunctions, oppositions, deciles, quintiles, tredeciles and biquintiles. Was there some concrete tie-up with the property of the DNA helix encompassing its ten pairs of nucleotides? Could there perhaps be a link on a larger scale, that of chromosomal activity during cell-division? ... where the chromosomes themselves tighten and thicken into coils before aligning themselves around the equator between the two poles of a fibrous spindle - to  which poles eventually gravitate the two sets ofdaughter chromosomes for inclusion in a new nuclear membrane. Under such conditions chromosomal juxtaposition may be as important as planetary relationship or the specific arrangement of the macromolecules (the genes formed of the DNA sequence) themselves, as suggested by Schmitt, who held that such ordering of the genetic structures could be crucial to the regulation of specific activity, in addition to the information coded in the DNA helix itself. It would be worth looking into; hierarchic patterns of organization must have their equivalents on every level if we are to understand the Universe as a coherent entity.

The evidence in favour of Five as a key life-harmonic was strong; but there was equally no doubt that in family as well as other relationships there were bound to be links through the 8th-harmonic multiples, the 45° aspects, and these must be examined in comparison with the others. Plotted out in the same fashion as the first set of charts, they proved undeniably fruitful, again forming strong axial groupings. These, of course, still included the conjunctions and oppositions found in the 72° charts, so in both sets two important relationships were repeated on the ‘family axes’ obviously indicating the strongest ties of sympathy or heredity. The square and 45°/135° aspects still had to be counted in. Perhaps the rule of four was preferable to the rule of five? If any one system of axial groupings was to make a likely candidate for detailed comparison with the DNA coding system it must relate all aspects into a coherent geometrical pattern. The thing to do was to try to fit the ‘missing’ aspects into each framework. In fact, both systems (and the 90° dial can also be expressed as a helix of four turns) produced appropriately symmetrical patterns when all aspects were plotted; in the 90° chart the sum of the quintiles divided the circle into five visible sections, repeating the pentagram, and in the 72° chart the octave pattern presented itself clearly to the eye with its peak, as one would expect, every 9° out of the 72. In both, the 3-fold principle was similarly apparent. “How like X-ray diffraction patterns!” remarked a chemist friend, intrigued with the system. Logically so!

A clearer argument in favour of the quinary principle as a life-key I will presently advance; but at this point it would seem apt to examine the possible nature of the inheritance from specific harmonic links. It seems fairly clear that the zodiacal degree or area emphasis is the important factor here.

For example, in my own family, on the 72° dial, there is a neat cluster of three Mercuries - my own, and my two sons’. In each case it is the Ruler of the Ascendant. The two boys have these conjunct by 2°, and biquintile to my own by 1°. Through the sesqui-quadrate, however, these conjunct Mercuries relate to my husband’s ruling Venus in Aries and my own Capricorn Sun - and Mercury is also the Sun-ruler of each child, both having Sun in Virgo and Gemini Ascendant.

The elder boy’s Sun is square to his father’s, and biquintile to his Sun-ruler (Mercury again) by 2°; while the younger child’s Sun is tredicile to the father's Sun and square to the Sun-ruler. My husband’s Mercury was rising at the first birth, and his Sun at the second.

Any planets falling in the same quadruplicity are bound to express a very similar expressive life-quality. In this case I would expect both children to share my husband’s innate intelligence and adaptability, able and eager to devote themselves to the gathering of as much experience and information as life affords them, but with the inclination to put their versatility to practical use rather than let life remain an intellectual exercise.

The sesquiquadrates of their Virgo Mercuries to my Sun in Capricorn and their father’s ruling Arian Venus provide a most intriguing instance of harmonic relationship resulting in qualitative difference - or vice versa? .... Yet, since once given a specific note (e.g. the solar degree placing) its harmonics are already implicit throughout the total zodiacal body, this linkage suggests a shift of emphasis in the personal or physical inheritance rather than any radical change.

But what of the 10th and 5th harmonic links? It has been suggested that these aspects in a birth-map show endowment with a particular talent - a gift of God, if you like - and I have already explained my own impression that the same linked principles emanate a spiritual essence, a quintessence, that might indeed even prove descriptive of the Aura, if persons with auric vision could be found to contribute their observations to these researches.

On this account one might then assume that the inheritance through these vibrations would be of gifts and of the spiritual nature rather than of purely physical propensities or worldly characteristics. How these same assumptions will be proven in my own family remains to be seen, since the children are very young. These hypotheses, which to me make fair sense, must be submitted to careful investigation in families whose differing planes of relationship can be appreciated fully and in depth.

Returning to the observed family patterns, certain links, upon whichever harmonic vibration, recurred logically and consistently between parent and child, the two parents, and the children themselves. These were: Sun-Sun, Sun ruler-Sun ruler, Sun-Sun ruler, Moon-Moon, Moon ruler-Moon ruler, Moon-Moon ruler; Sun or Sun ruler to Asc or Moon’s Node, Moon or MC to Moon’s Node (this last very common and supporting my own conviction that the Nodal Axis is a Karmic or spiritual equivalent to the worldly MC, giving the individual his ultimate direction in life and true sense of personal value and purpose; a spiritual growing-point; and hence the great importance of Nodal transits, especially Returns to radical degrees from which charts can be erected to show the nature and purpose of each 18-year, 9-year and 41/2-year cycle of life-progress in relation to the planetary principle thus affected) ; also Asc-Asc, Ruler-Ruler, Asc-Ruler, and as often as not a grand mixture of these vital principles in ‘dumb-bell’ clusters across the dial. Mercury-Mercury, Venus-Venus, Mars-Mars and Jupiter-Jupiter also recur, sometimes three or four in a row out of a family of four or five. As one would expect from their less personal significance (Rulership excepted of course) the outer planets figure hardly at all in these clusters. Where they do align, it may be a clue to their general importance in a family line of evolved individuals who have assimilated these supra-personal qualities into the personal structure, creating a new kind of humanity - Midwich Cuckoos ..? (See John Wyndham’s SF classic!) As a general rule, not only the planetary principles themselves linked with great frequency, but also their dispositors, indicating the importance of ‘rulerships’ in any Astrological consideration, not only Asc-rulers and Sun-rulers but those of Moon, MC, etc.

So: as far as I can see, there is some definite system of harmonic planetary grouping that correlates with what we term hereditary factors. Undoubtedly on the physical plane we do find here their genetic equivalence; but since each principle, in Astrology, encompasses also far less tangible traits of character, behaviours, preferences, weaknesses, could we not assume that the DNA code prescribes these also?.. which would impute to that substance properties far more extraordinary than the average biologist would be willing to concede! - and, further, since the natal pattern is also in Astrological terms the seed-moment of future events shaping the individual destiny, one should be justified in saying that if the genetic code was found to correspond directly with the planetary blue-print, divination would be equally possible from either source!

Since we mention the time factor, I note with great interest that certain families of DNA sequences are specifically active in particular phases of development, for example in the early embryo. Could such sequences correspond with those other determinants of personal growth, the progressed or directed planetary aspects? Suppose these were all pre-coded in the genetic material, perhaps as part of single-copy DNA, where each sequence is unique and unrepeated?

And suppose that Repeating DNA, which is closely distributed throughout the total genetic information, imparting at each point an identical message, were a specifically ordered sequence relating to, firstly, the essential features of the human being as Homo Sapiens (the birth-chart of Mankind . . . ?) and secondly to the unique characteristics of the particular individual, and thus equivalent to the total information of the birth-chart? Since it has been suggested that Repeating DNA may serve to organise the genetic activity as a whole, such a correspondence seems quite possible, and might be well worth considering - especially as when centrifuged this material is shown to be considerably less dense than ordinary single-copy DNA, which could imply a substance serving to form a transposing link between pure vibration within whatever kind of etheric plasm and the forms taken by those harmonies crystallised within the cells.

This type of DNA, because of its reiterated sequences, replicates and re-associates with considerable facility and speed, since the complementary base-pairs are more likely to find a correct alignment and thus bind to each other. I necessarily bring in this factor, since it has a strong bearing on the laws of polar attraction that bring people into union (and events into synchronicity?) and here is that simple, powerful law of affinity working at the molecular level in the service of life and health, just as we find it operative in life on the world scale, to the same ends.

We know, in Astrology, how closely the natal degrees interrelate between people who become in any way intimate with one another (and the lack of strong connection between those who remain apart); would it not be logical to assume that the same fundamental relationship existed in every cell nucleus, irresistibly drawing the bodies and persons together? Rodney Collin attributes to sex a speed faster than thought; on such a level as this I would tend to believe him! In terms of intuitive experience it makes sense, and also in terms of life, of pure evolutionary survival; since where like calls to like with such insistence, and genetic structures match with ease, the same ease of attraction will work between the contents of sperm and ovum, thus ensuring a far higher rate of successful and faithful human reproduction. (It would be interesting to see if cases of apparent sterility were simply due to gross mis-matching of individuals.) It would seem that the majority of the higher organisms possess such repeated sequences - which in the above context seems logical, since the greater the complexity of a creature, the greater its vulnerability.

That different groups of this type of DNA should find expression in different body-tissues is also of interest, bearing in mind that similar specialisation is traditionally attributed to the planetary principles; and it may be that there are separate segments of Repeating DNA corresponding to the various planetary factors, each perhaps comprising a gene, and packed with all the necessary information relevant to the manifestation of the specific principle throughout the given life-span.

As a species evolves, so do the inherent repeated sequences that refer, one presumes, to its basic genotype. Mankind has evolved rapidly, especially in the intellectual, inventive and spiritual spheres; in that time he has not only identified ‘his’ visible planets, but in the past 200 years merely has sought out and found three - perhaps now four - more.

Have these additions to his knowledge, in parallel to his evolutionary impetus, been coded into his subtly changing genes? Such assimilation is held to occur in astrology; there should be a genetic parallel. Now, in theory, there should be a part of the human code that stands for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which before was possibly missing, save among the original mutants, hypersensitive perhaps at some most critical stage to the furthest radiations from our Cosmos, and thus ‘born before their time’? For again, the more complex the living being, the lower its resistance to radiation. High-level radiation kills us, bodily; could not therefore the lower levels transform? Apparently DNA damaged by ultra-violet radiation is capable of self-repair when exposed to visible light; what price the life-giving power of the Sun within  . . ?

Let us come back now to the idea of the repeated sequence as correlative with the natal diagram. There are alternative systems of planetary order, including the usual Astrological sequence from Sun through to Pluto, Node, Ascendant and MC; but having earlier remarked on the interesting and significant structure of the Tree of Life, it seems a good idea to take that sequence as a starting-point for the following train of ideas.

Suppose, then, that the basic sequence was set invariably throughout the human species to read Neptune - Uranus - Saturn - (Pluto) - Jupiter - Mars - Sun - Venus - Mercury - Moon - Earth (ie Asc, MC) - Node; that this extended version of the Tree-sequence formed the overall regulating order into which the details of the genetic code were subsequently fitted; how then might one, setting out to codify the degree-positions of these principles, effect a simple and explicit translation, dependent only on four base letters?

In fact, as I mentioned earlier, we do have the requisite four letters, if we take instead of A (adenine) - T (thymine), G(guanine) - C (cytosine) the polarities of F (fire) - A (air), E (earth) - W (water). For the moment we cannot allot specific elements to specific nitrogenous bases, lacking means of mutual identification; we can only proceed with the general idea.

Here, then, are the letters. Firstly, to determine the Zodiacal area, or sign, in which the planetary principle is active; there are three signs of each element, and the genetic code is read in groups of three letters, for the transmitting of information via messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid, with Uracil substituted for Thymine) into protein synthesis. Consequently (after rejecting various allocations of the single, double and triple letter, for reasons of significance) one could codify the twelve signs as follows:

ARIES           FF

TAURUS     EEE

GEMINI      A

CANCER   WW

LEO                FFF

VIRGO         E

LIBRA           AA

SCORPIO   WWW

SAG ITT.      F

CAPRIC.     EE    
           
AQUAR.      AAA

PISCES          W        


But so far we have only one and two letters to encode eight of the signs. In order to resolve them all into triplets, it seems natural to insert in the empty spaces those letters that designate the complementary elements in each case. Accordingly, our code for the twelve Zodiacal signs would read thus:

ARIES
FFA
TAURUS
EEE

LEO
FFF
VIRGO
EWW

SAG ITT.
FAA
CAPRIC.
EEW

GEMINI
AFF
CANCER
WWE

LIBRA
AAF
SCORPIO
WWW

AQUAR.
AAA
PISCES
WEE


In this way the polar relationships of the signs have been preserved, the triple letter being assigned to the Fixed quadruplicity since those signs are less likely than the others to stir from their elemental nature. The Mutables have here only one letter of their element, as they are by nature the most adaptable of the signs, and so less likely to adhere to a single elemental principle than the others.

Having established the sign placing, the degree area must now be specified. Charles Carter found significance in dividing each sign into twelve parts each of 21/2º, representing a series of twelve sub-zodiacs. (12th harmonic - or The Dwads?!! Pam, 2010) Since the emphasis in my observations so far seems to have been on degree-areas rather than precise points, it may be justifiable to define the degree-placings in this way, using the same coding system. Hence, of each sign (in the 12th harmonic -but, apart from Aries, phase-shifted if using the Dwad) :

00º  - 21/2º     FFA       21/2º   - 5º       EEE
10º  - 121/2º    FFF        121/2º - 15º      EWW
20º  - 221/2º    FAA      221/2º - 25º      EEW

5º   - 71/2º     AAF        71/2º   - 10º    WWE
15º - 171/2º    AAF        171/2º - 20º    WWW
25º - 271/2º    AAA       271/2º - 30º    WEE    

In this way each area occupied by a planet or any important factor is compactly described in two three-letter words; for example:

Neptune    Virgo 27º07'              EWW    AAA    (dwad WEE)
Uranus       Gemini 00º59'         AFF       FFA       (dwad AFF)
Saturn         Gemini 02º59'         AFF       EEE        (dwad WEE)
Pluto            Leo 04º00'               FFF       EEE        (dwad EWW)
Jupiter         Gemini 27º53'          AFF      WEE       (dwad EEE)
Mars            Cancer 21º58'          WEE     FAA       (dwad WEE)
Sun               Gemini 10º00'       AFF      FFF         (dwad AAF)
Venus          Aries 29º01'             FFA     WEE        (dwad WEE)
Mercury      Gemini 25º38'         AFF      AAA       (dwad FFA)
Moon           Capricorn 07º25'     EWW   AFF        (dwad WEE)
ASC            Taurus 27º30'          EEE       WEE       (dwad FFA)
MC             Capricorn 26º00'    EEW     AAA      (dwad WWW)
N.Node      Virgo 08º51'             EWW   WWE     (dwad FAA)

Working purely on the coincidence of four bases to four elements, this seems a not unreasonable working hypothesis. For actual translation, however, the bases and elements would have to be specifically related, and that must be done through examination of the quality of the nitrogenous bases for clues to their elemental affinity, and/or by trial-and-error comparison of Repeating DNA with coded planetary sequences from individual volunteers.

Another means of determination would be by assessing the physical endowments of the predominance of certain amino-acids in the human being, and comparing their effects with the traditional effects of planetary strength or interrelation, or zodiacal bias; then to relate the results of such comparisons to distinctive individuals from whom, hopefully, samples of Repeating DNA could be taken in conjunction with the cosmic data.

What I am attempting to offer is a reasonable basic hypothesis upon which to base such subsequent investigations by working groups with appropriate facilities for the kind of study involved. Obviously the isolation of the relevant genetic material would be not only a highly specialised but a slow and puzzling process. This kind of break-down of possibilities might just facilitate the search in offering clues as to the kind of base-sequences to look for in relation to the birth-data of the volunteer.

May I now propose my own idea of the Base-Element relationship. This is based on the following premise, that words with similar roots are inevitably significant of a common principle, despite the apparent differences of meaning in popular usage.

Accordingly, finding that Thymus gland, according to Rodney Collin, has a traditionally Solar connection, it appeared likely that Thymine had an affinity with Fire. An additional argument in favour of this is the change from Thymine to Uracil in the base sequences of Messenger RNA; Uracil is equivalent to Thymine minus one carbon and two hydrogen atoms; the remaining three bases are unchanged. It would be appropriate for Earth, Air and Water to retain their full functional identity in protein synthesis, while one could understand the need for a modification of the Fiery, vital Solar forces since various activities demand varying amounts of energy. So, if Thymine can be equated with Fire, its polarity, Adenine, must refer to Air. The nasal passages give air entrance to the human body, and it is at the back of these that we find the Adenoid glands (apparently as little appreciated by biologists as the Thymus).

Thymine is a pyrimidine - and here too we have a root that refers to Fire, ‘Pyr...’ - the second of the two pyrimidines being Cytosine. If we are to adhere to the idea of this pairing as representative of the Subjective, then Cytosine should be Water; and since ‘Cyto...’ is the root for ‘cell,’ and the cells are composed of an extremely high percentage of water, again we have support for that assumption.

Guanine remains to be allotted to Earth, forming the polarity to watery Cytosine, and the pair of ‘objective’ Purines with Adenine, Air. The root-significance, when related to guano, in which it is found and so for which it was named, would seem self-explanatory!!!

From all the foregoing, it is natural to speculate further that in addition to (1) the coding for Homo Sapiens and (2) the coding for the Individual, there should be added sequences, either in the same molecule (after all, there are about 450 nucleotide units to each human gene, if my sums are right, so there is plenty of room on the ‘page’!) or in other, phase-specific, repeating molecules, that are directly correlative to the progressed chart, and programming not only the detailed physical development of the man or woman, but also the ultimate deterioration of the body, and death. (On this account it is hardly surprising that radiation has been found to potentially shorten or lengthen life, since radiation alters the structure and thus the message of the DNA.) It has been discovered that even in the virtually identical Repeating DNA there are subtle variations from molecule to molecule - so even here, and perhaps more logically so, may lie the key to progress, growth, and decline.

We come back yet again to implications: not only is physical progression explicit in the planetary coding, but even more crucially, personal development; we come into the world not only with instructions on how to build our bodies of blood and nerve, meat and bone, but how to fulfill the potential of a Life.

Since both are represented by the same symbology, this life-potential must also lie in the DNA; and if it does, being thus part of the genetic make-up, then what are genes? What are genetics? What in fact can we say with assurance is inherited, unless the future as well as the past can be handed on from parents to children? ‘The sins of the Fathers’ may have some part in this, if one accepts the validity of family Karma; and to a considerable extent conditioning by the parents throughout childhood will help to shape an appropriate future, as is demonstrable both in astrology and psychology, and this is compatible with the concept of genetic inheritance as it is a result of family interrelatedness. However, there is so much of a person that is not traceable to biogenetic or environmental origins; the eventual manifestation of the free spirit of a man or woman is liable to be sharply differentiated from all that is held to be genetically possible.

Perhaps, then, returning to the original discussion relating to the 72° dial, the key to the uniqueness of the Individual lies in the relationships created through the 5th and 10th harmonics. Since the specific astrological natures of these sympathetic points or wave-peaks are so manifestly different, it is reasonable to assume that they bear no relevance to physical heredity. I believe that the physical structure is far more likely to be passed on through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th harmonics (or indeed the 12th/dwad) - although the idea of latent structural potential implicit in the 8th, and emerging into the child, should not be discounted, as such latency is known to work in heredity, for example in a normal budgerigar being ‘split’ for pied characteristics.

The heavy recurrence of 10th and 5th-harmonic groupings in family maps that I have studied suggests to me the underlying individual spiritual sympathies that bind the members of a family whatever their differences, and this supports as far as I am concerned the argument in favour of the perpetual evolution of the Individual on both the material (Earthly) and the spiritual planes; conception, gestation and birth being the gradual reunion of the developing spirit with a fitting physical vehicle within a suitably sympathetic family environment.

But does the coil of the 72° circle bear any direct relationship to the genetic structures? Surely it should. It carries all the principle aspects in symmetry within its framework - and is itself, unlike the 90° coil, divisible into twelve equal parts . . . ! of 6° apiece.

This fact implies an alternative approach to the original coding problem which would make the coding of specific ½-degrees a possibility that was nonexistent in the earlier hypothesis. Taking these 12ths of the 72° coil, through all five turns in section, to be once again represented by the zodiacal modes in their usual sequence, we have:

ARIES:
Aries 00º-06º Gemini 12º-18º Leo 24º-30º Scorpio 06º-12º Capricorn 18º-24º

TAURUS:
Aries 06º-12º Gemini 18º-24º Virgo 00º-06º Scorpio 12º-18º Capricorn 24º-30º

GEMINI:
Aries 12º-18º Gemini 24º-30º Virgo 06º-12º Scorpio 18º-24º Aquarius 00º-06º

CANCER:
Aries 18º-24º Cancer 00º-06º Virgo 12º-18º Scorpio 24º-30º Aquarius 06º-12º

LEO:
Aries 24º-30º Cancer 06º-12º Virgo 18º-24º Sagittarius 00º-06º Aquarius 12º-18º

VIRGO:
Taurus 00º-06º Cancer 12º-18º Virgo 24º-30º Sagittarius 06º-12º Aquarius 18º-24º

LIBRA:
Taurus 06º-12º Cancer 18º-24º Libra 00º-06º Sagittarius 12º-18º Aquarius 24º-30º

SCORPIO:
Taurus 12º-18º Cancer 24º-30º Libra 06º-12º Sagittarius 18º-24º Pisces 00º-06º

SAGITTARIUS:
Taurus 18º-24º Leo 00º-06º Libra 12º-18º Sagittarius 24º-30º Pisces 06º-12º

CAPRICORN:
Taurus 24º-30º Leo 06º-12º Libra 18º-24º Capricorn 00º-06º Pisces 12º-18º

AQUARIUS:
Gemini 00º-06º Leo 12º-18º Libra 24º-30º Capricorn 06º-12º Pisces 18º-24º

PISCES:
Gemini 06º-12º Leo 18º-24º Scorpio 00º-06º Capricorn 12º-18º Pisces 24º-30º

Each of the above 6º sections will additionally subdivide into 12 areas of ½°, again identifiable by zodiacal sequence. In this way a highly specific determination of degree placing can be coded in 3 x 3-letter words; and our original example would then perhaps become:

Planet        Position Code                       Possible DNA Translation
Neptune    EWW    EWW    FAA         GCC     GCC    TAA
Uranus       AFF        AAA    EEE           ATT        AAA    GGG
Saturn         AFF        AAA    EWW       ATT        AAA    GCC
Pluto            FFF        FAA     FAA         TTT         TAA     TAA
Jupiter        AFF         AFF     FAA         ATT         ATT     TAA
Mars         WWE       AAF    WWW     CCG       AAT     CCC
Sun              AFF        WEE    FAA         ATT        CGG     TAA
Venus          FFA        FFF     AAA        TTA          TTT      AAA
Mercury      AFF       AFF     WWE        ATT        ATT      CCG
Moon            EEW    AAA    AFF         GGC       AAA      ATT
Asc               EEE       EEW    AAF        GGG       GGC     AAT
MC              EEW     EEE      FFF          GGC       GGG     TTT
Node            EWW    AFF    EWW      GCC        ATT     GCC

(And of course now we have Chiron, Ceres, Sedna ... somewhere does a line have to be drawn? Pam, 2010)

Each primary, radix code might begin a gene sequence, to be followed by successive codes for progressed positions.

The question of polarities raises an interesting point at this juncture: in this triplet coding, the zodiacal signs retain their normal polarities as you see. But once there is any subdivision into smaller groups of twelve in order to identify degrees or areas, polarity swings away from its accustomed axes! For example, the proper complement of Sun AFF FFF is FAA AAA. It is immediately apparent that although the pole of Sun Gemini remains in Sagittarius, the properly complementary degree is not 10° but 25°! On the equatorial axis of the circle you have poles of likeness-in-difference, for though the signs are different, the degree is the same; but at an angle of 15° to that axis one finds (by the 2½° system of sign-division) the pure polarity - eg, as here the Aquarius area of Sagittarius opposed to the Leo area of Gemini. This gives us an important new aspect to consider in the interpretation of charts, the angle of 165°.

Now, apply this to the 72° coil, and what do we find? ... a very precise kind of polarity, in which the ‘poles,’ lying by normal degree-measure decile to one another, are properly complementary by virtue of their subdivisional affinity, the Aries sector of 6° lying opposite the Libra sector on the dial. Only when we come to divide again into ½º signs does the ‘swing’ phenomenon recur - in this system by only three true degrees to the given axis, so that the proper complement by Quintile affinity is located almost within orb of aspect. Our example now would read that Sun AFF WEE FAA is properly complemented by FAA EWW AFF; that is, Sun in 10° Gemini would find a spiritually sympathetic polarity in the Sagittarius/ Virgo/ Gemini area of the coil, that is, in 7º of Sagittarius. How much closer to an exact complement than the degree offered by the first system of coding! And in this respect the 90° dial is a non-starter, as it does not provide a satisfactory means of subdivision.

On such assumptions, it is plausible to accept the 360° ecliptical sign-sequence compacted into a 5-turn helix as a master-key to the genetic coding of every human being, and possibly of Life.

And how does this apply to cosmology on the grand scale? Returning to the DNA helix itself, we find a regular structure composed of two helical chains of sugar-phosphate to which are attached the hydrogen-bonded base pairs of Adenine-Thymine, Guanine-Cytosine, wound around a central axis. This helix, apparently in all proteins, and so in all living entities, is unvaryingly right-handed. Regular asymmetry; constant direction.There is a striking parallel to this formation in our cosmos (and here I am again indebted to Rodney Collin's bold and lucid vision); for a ‘time-exposure’ of the Sun's path as it encircles the parent galaxy in linear motion would show not simply a succession of temporal points, but a defined axis, around which the orbiting planets - and specifically the Earth - in their respective motions would form helices of varying regularity.

Now, Collin compared this model to an induction coil (FIGURE 2) through which might pass currents of varying natures and intensities, according to the planetary characteristics. It also reminds me strongly of another significant fact; that the super-heated states of matter known as plasma can only be contained in magnetic ‘bottles,’ that is, within magnetic fields set up by currents in conductors outside the plasma itself. This effect of ‘pinching’ can, in principle, at one and the same time both create the high temperatures and keep the plasma away from the walls of the material container.

Think of what that could imply! That the Sun, composed as it must be of such plasma, might not only be the source of Life, but also ‘kept alive’ by the action of the planetary fields due to the motions of those bodies, and prevented from coming into lethal contact with their complex and coldly ordered materials. So the often-advanced theory that our local star is ultimately liable to burn itself out may be wildly erroneous. Such stars as do ‘die’ may be those devoid of planets and thus of their protective and stimulating field.

Further parallels: the Sun is a hydrogenous mass, its orbiting planets being made of heavier matter, whether gaseous, liquid, or solid. In the DNA molecule, the central inter-base bonds are of hydrogen, the remainder of the helix comprising molecular combinations of the heavier elements, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus as well as hydrogen.

Here are four realms that resemble each other: the orbital paths containing planetary energies, the field containing plasma, the coil containing current, the Helix containing ... Life. That all should be related seems natural.

The arrested moment that delivers the Individual into the world and defines his further life is a precise section through those great concentric helices that entwine the solar core (comparable also to a slice of Earth-core that we examine for evidence of past prevalent conditions preserved in its matrix); and at such a moment the Earth helix is subject to a specific pattern of affects according to the direction from which the various travelling bodies are focussing their kinetic energies upon its path.

It is attractive to conceive of the DNA helix in toto as a frozen time-span, and its sections in sequence as a kind of natal atlas, an infinite series of charts. One could perhaps envisage then each complete turn of the helix, with its ten nucleotide pairs, as representative of one planetary principle at a specific point in space-time, coded through nine base-pairs and separated from the following sequence by a single-pair ‘full-stop’ - unless triplets are an unvarying rule in the code, in which case there might occur groups of 3x9 base-pairs, ended by a ‘nonsense’ triplet.

Where do the full circles and the Quintile dial coincide, if one is to expect some kind of coincidence that can be demonstrated in diagram? In effect, with the helix of 5 x Quintile divisions we have taken each 5th harmonic of the full 360° circle and divided it into 12, which gives us 60 divisions of the Ecliptic (comparable to the second/minute and minute/hour relationship on a clock-face), subdividing each 60th again into 12 to reach a circle of 720 sections (which is 2 x 360), and in this circle are contained all the major harmonics in periodic coincidence, except for the 7th  (which fails only by 1 x 720th !). This creation of 60 ‘zodiacs’ from the single ecliptical circle, each with its signs of 1/2° orb, may serve to throw added light on the vexed question of degree meanings. It could certainly make a more precise art of aspect interpretation applied both to the unique chart and to charts under comparison. On this assumption, aspects exact within the ½° would give a slightly more sympathetic vibration, however ‘hard’ the aspect, than those just another ½º wider; and a 6° orb would again add a little more ease. Could this not in fact be a clue to the allowable orb for any major aspect? For after 6°, the sequence of 12 x ½º signs repeats itself. This superfluity of significance after 6° certainly lends weight to the arguments of those who advocate moderate orbs.

Envisaging now the total circle with its three-fold hierarchy of zodiacs, and each Asc, MC, nodal and planetary position as coded in one or several helical turns (depending upon the degree of positional refinement, which of course can be pursued ad infinitum on the same basic system), the ecliptic ring might then be represented by a continuous coil, with its complementary coil in implicit partnership. (The astrological pattern for such a complementary coil is mathematically available to us in the vital system of Antiscia, or to use my own term, the Reflex degrees. Pam, 2010.) In its entirety, this is the ultimate key to Solar potential. It is the fullest expression of completed Manhood, and the longest name Man can write for himself.

If, as it were, Man is acquiring for himself a library of total experience, in his learning to become a Whole, then we might say that in each terrestrial life he may own, say, 14 books (the Ascendant, the Mid-heaven, the Nodal axis, and 11 (?) planets), and refer to as many more as he may read and assimilate in the time allotted him (the progressed positions); and it is the compressed sum of this information that may well be ordered sequentially in the Double Helix of DNA. Where else but through that coil, as in the Cosmos, should pass the current of Life? How else may we and all things live, but by becoming coiled? A short in the circuit feeds back future knowledge to our senses. How tiny the consciousness that creeps on from cycle to cycle! How vast that Consciousness that spans them all!

“Each atom is a reflection in flesh of the soul’s pattern” said Edgar Cayce (long before the properties of the hologram were discovered or the world of fractals explored!) Are we at last beginning to grasp the mirror?

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