Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Constructing the Natal Hexagram


Deriving the Hexagram According to One's Natal Horoscope 


Sample Natal hexagram construction:


ZODIAC
ELEMENT
SYMBOL
SUNSCORPIOWATER
ASCENDANTCAPRICORNEARTH
MOONLIBRAAIR

An individual desiring to construct their own natal hexagram would simply use their birth horoscope to fill in the middle two columns of the chart.  The contents of the final column are determined by the following schema*, which maps the astrological elements to the Chinese xiang (symbols):
: Greater YANG = AIR
: Greater YIN = EARTH
: Lesser YANG = WATER
: Lesser YIN = FIRE


Once the final column is completed, the three symbols are simply copied line-for-line to form an hexagram.

Resulting Natal Hexagram (from sample data above)
       (MOUNTAIN)
 ==>   =============  
==>    #41 (DECREASE)
       (LAKE)


A thorough treatment of this topic would offer some explanation for the ordering of the three signs used to compute the natal hexagram.  In Taoist literature, Mankind is often depicted or written as being crucified between Heaven and Earth.  That line of thinking can be leveraged here in the sense that the Sun can be held to represent Heaven's power.  Since the Ascendant is the quasi-literal intersection of Sun and Earth (it's the sign in which sunrise occurs at birth), we can argue this represents Mankind.  This leaves the Moon to represent Earth.  Both are YIN, and Moon influences emotion, also YIN.


**Corresponding Tarot trump: XX (JUDGEMENT)




This presentation is derived (with minor modification) from the works of: 
Charlie Higgins, “Mensionization Complementation: Construction of an I Ching/Astrological Natal Hexagram” (1997) 
**Steve Krakowski's, “An Ancient and Occult Genetic Code” (1996) provides the mapping between Tarot trumps and I Ching hexagrams.