Instructions for Casting Harmonic Charts

Harmonic charts are like no other charts and have their own special set of rules, but they are few, and well worth learning because harmonics are some of the most accurate predictive tools in the astrologer’s toolbox. They are so useful that they can quickly rectify a chart when a narrow span of time is known (born at breakfast, born at lunch), or when choosing between times (Was Bob born at 5 A.M. or 5 P.M.?), and reveals distinctions between twins. 

There are only two places online, of which I’m aware, to observe harmonics in use. One was the now defunct website of Dymock Brose ^[1]. The other is the website of Alice Portman, one of our most knowledgeable and notable contemporary astrologers. ^[2]

To novice astrologers, harmonics can seem daunting. The planets don’t adhere to the normal rules. In “normal” astrology, we are bound by the constraints of time and space that require Mercury and Venus to remain within forty-five degrees of the Sun at all times. Not so with harmonics. They can appear anywhere in the chart. In “normal” astrology, the Moon’s Nodes are always opposite each other. Not so in harmonics. They often make no aspect to each other at all; however they are either alternately conjunct or in opposition at every birthday. In “normal” astrology, the Midheaven is the zenith of the chart, but in harmonics, there are two Midheavens; the static Midheaven is still the cusp of the 10^th house just as in a “normal” chart, and the floating Midheaven, which can appear anywhere. The house in which it floats is significant. I've read where some astrologers have stated that the static Midheaven has no significance at all, but when you start reading them, you'll see that simply isn't true. They have all the same attributes as a natal Midheaaven.

Harmonics provide a way of seeing the causal patterns in a chart. Divide everything in the chart by two, and the oppositions stick out. Divide everything by five and all the quintiles appear. We can divide it by any number for which we can conceive, and each has an implication of its own. For instance, the fifth harmonic is associated with knowledge and skill, the seventh with creativity, and the eighth with effort, energy and its expression in the world, according to Working With Astrology (which also covers midpoints and Astro*Carto*Graphy) by Harding and Harvey. ^[3] SolarFire astrology software (and probably others with which I’m not familiar) will calculate harmonic charts for you. If you don’t have astrology software, you can create them free of charge at Astro.com by using the Extended Chart Selections options. You can also calculate them by hand, but it’s tedious work.

The most useful to me, and one of my personal favorites, are age harmonics, where we divide the chart by our age (or by whatever age we’d like to see), and the most definitive aspect reveals in a glance what’s important for the year. Very often, the most definitive is the closest aspect between two planets, but it might also be a stellium or a major configuration. Prove this to yourself now by calculating the harmonics for the age you married, or the age of some other highly significant year in your life. But first de-select all the asteroids, fixed stars and other extras with which novice astrologers like to clutter their charts. Use only the ten planets of our solar system, the Moon’sNodes and the Part of Fortune. When you’ve stripped the chart down to those basics and studied it, then you may add back Chiron, Transpluto, the East Point and the Vertex for a second look. If you simply must have all that clutter, experiment with it later. For now, keep it simple.

The other harmonic charts I use constantly are daily age harmonics. This is a harmonic chart calculated for whatever portion of the year we’d like to see into, zeroing in on a specific day, and read the same way as age harmonics.

1. To get the harmonic number for a specific day, enter 365.24220461 into your calculator’s memory, and then clear the entry field.

2. Now retrieve the Julian day of your birth.

In Solar Fire:

• Open your chart
• Click on Reports
• Click on Chart Analysis

Near the top right, find “JDE = ” a seven digit number followed by a decimal and six more digits. If you were born at any time in the 1900’s through 2099, the number should begin with a 24. Use only the numbers that precede the decimal.

Online:

You can use the Julian Day converter at 

• http://www.onlineconversion.com/julian_date.htm 

Ephemeris:

• You can also use your ephemeris, but it will require some counting and it’s important to understand that some of them use a different starting point from software. Don’t mix apples and oranges. You are likely to find the number at the bottom of the page where the phenomenon is listed.

3. Now retrieve the Julian Day of the day in question, past or future. Want to see what the harmonics were on your 16^th birthday? Your wedding day? If you will win the lottery on the next drawing? Call this your target date.

4. Subtract the Julian Date of your birth from the Julian Date of your target date.

5. Divide the answer by the 365.24220461 stored in your calculator’s memory. Click on “=”

6. The result should be your age at the time in question, followed by several digits after the decimal point. Use the first six of those numbers, and put them in the harmonic field of your software program.

Here’s an example: 

Stevie Nicks won a Grammy on February 23, 1978 

Julian Date: 2443563

Stevie Nicks birth date is May 26, 1948
Julian Date: 2432697

Subtract the Julian Date at birth from the Julian Date of your target date.
Equals 10866

Divide by 365.24220461 
Equals 29.750121

29.750121 was her age and the fraction of the year which had passed since her previous birthday. Because her birthday is in May, and she won the award nine months after her 29^th birthday and three months prior to her 30th, the fraction following the decimal is a high number. Her next age harmonic following this one would be 30. If she had won the Grammy the week after her 29^th birthday, the age harmonic number would look more like this: 29.019099. If she had won it the week before her 30^th birthday, it would look more like this: 29.9718992.

Casting a Daily Age Harmonic chart takes a bit more effort, but it’s not difficult, and once you’ve done a few of them, it becomes second nature. 

[1] members.ozemail.com.au/~dymock

[2] aliceportman.com

[3] Harding, Michael and Harvey, Charles. Working with Astrology The Psychology of Harmonics, Midpoints and Astro*Carto*Graphy. Arkana Books, a division of Penguin Group. 1990