The 45 Degree Dial

Example Chart: Gary Gilmore

December 4, 1940 6:30 am CST McCamey, Texas 31 N 08 102 W 14 Source: Biography, “The Executioner’s Song,” by Norman Mailer

There are many reasons to use a 45 degree dial, and both greater event description and more precision with timing are among them. As with the 90 degree dial, factors are entered on the chart by Mode. The Cardinal degrees begin with the 00 Aries at the top of the chart; the Mutable degrees begin with the 15 degree position on the chart form (and then continue around counterclockwise, so that a factor in 15 degrees of a Mutable sign would be placed at the 30 degree position on the dial. The Fixed sign entries begin with that 30 degree marker, so that a factor in 15 Fixed would occur at the 00 position on the dial, and a factor in 25 Fixed would be aligned with those in 10 Cardinal. As with the 90* dial, simply having the chart on the dial visually presents the standard “hard” aspects, and thus frees the astrologer to work with the more complex relationships between factors.

What you are seeing on this chart are: the solar arc factors for his execution on the inner most rim; his radix chart around the center ring; and the transits for his execution (January 17, 1977, 8:07 am, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.) Given a choice of methods, he chose to be shot by a firing squad for the cold-blooded murders of two people. He was the last man so executed in the United States.

A 45* working dial can then be attached over the chart dial to work with the same techniques that are used for the 90* dial, but here the object is to present a 45* dial example and to begin to explore the use of Daily Angles for timing and detail in delineation. If you’re able to print the dial, do so, and then draw one or more of his Daily Angles for that day: the Tropical set carries an MC of 15 f 53 with the Ascendant in 03 i; the “Sidereal” (the math being based on a precession corrected solar return LST,) MC was 16 ` 17, and the Ascendant in 18 Virgo.

Note that these are dynamic angles—they are moving throughout the day (and the MCs advance about one degree per day.) You will also be able to hold a working dial to the screen to evaluate the angles. (And if all you have handy is a 90* working dial, it’ll work!)

As you draw a given angle on the chart, use its AXIS just as you would for a 90* dial, and then interpret all the factors on the axis. A single axis is not asked to represent all the components of “the event story” for the day, and each is permitted to tell only the story that it does. And such angles address issues for “the day” (and not just the one event that, to an outsider, characterizes the day,) and the stories in the angles are those OF the native, they cover much subjective experience (so some details may not be verifiable by an onlooker.)

While you will easily find that the transiting Zeus (shooting… and the cremation that occurred a few hours after his execution) is on an angle, and that an angle crosses his directed Mars-Saturn, what does the angle that includes transiting Phaethon, radix Hades, and directed Sun tell you about the car ride from the prison to the place (directed House) of execution? As you assess the axis of this angle, you see that it includes both radix and transit Terpsichore and radix Arachne. He reacted wildly to the fact that he was shackled (restraints that wrapped around his legs—Arachne-Terpsichore) because he felt that this was a reflection on his pride and courage (Sun.) That 15 f angle picks up radix Photographia, radix Mercury and transit Atlantis. While in the van, riding from the prison to the filthy execution building, Gary showed intimate pictures of his girlfriend to the guards and held a letter from her. He was also listening to a song about a bird; where is Diana?

There is, of course (and, as always) a great deal more that the angles have to say, and for an example of how to use these angles for TIMING (ie., the execution angles align with Daily Angles) please refer to the Daily Angles chapter in “Architects of Time” for more on this chart and for examples using other charts, and explanations of the math.

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