What is Uranian astrology?
The Hamburg School's method in brief: six personal points, hard angles only, midpoints and planetary pictures, read on the 90° dial.
Uranian astrology is the method of the Hamburg School. It was founded in the early twentieth century by the Hamburg astrologer Alfred Witte (1878–1941) and developed with his colleague Friedrich Sieggrün (1877–1951). Their rules were collected in the Regelwerk für Planetenbilder (Rules for Planetary Pictures), first published in 1928.
It reads the same sky as any tropical astrology, but it reads it differently. It leaves out signs and rulerships as the main tools, and looks instead for exact geometric relationships between points in the chart.
Six personal points
Every chart has six points that stand for the person and their relationship to the world:
| Point | Stands for |
|---|---|
| Aries point (0° Aries) | the world, the public, the connection with others at large |
| MC (Medium Coeli) | the I: the person's own self and aims |
| AS (Ascendant) | the surroundings: the place, the people close by |
| Sun | the body, vitality, the day |
| Moon | the soul and feelings |
| Node (Moon's node) | connections, contacts, alliances |
Whatever touches a personal point is felt personally. That is why a Uranian reading starts there.
Hard angles only
The Hamburg School works with the hard angles: the conjunction (0°), the square (90°) and the opposition (180°), and their halves, 45° and 135°. Trines and sextiles are not used. All of these angles are multiples of 45°, which is what makes the 90° dial possible.
Midpoints and planetary pictures
The heart of the method is the midpoint: the point halfway between two factors. When a third factor stands on that midpoint, or in a hard angle to it, the three form a planetary picture, written A = B/C. Pictures are read as formulas: the meanings of B and C combine, and A is where the combination shows. See Midpoints and planetary pictures.
Eight transneptunian points
Witte and Sieggrün added eight hypothetical points beyond Neptune: Cupido, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus and Poseidon. They are used exactly like planets in pictures. See The eight transneptunian points.
Houses
Uranian astrology uses Meridian houses: twelve equal houses of 30°, counted from the MC, which is the cusp of the tenth house. Houses matter less than pictures.
Timing
Charts are brought forward in time with solar arc directions and transits. The moment a moving factor reaches a natal point or midpoint is the moment that picture becomes active. See Solar arc, transits and the graphic ephemeris.
How Hora Horoscope computes a chart
Hora Horoscope computes the planets from NASA/JPL's DE440 ephemeris, the same source used for spacecraft navigation. It uses the true lunar node and the classical orbits of the eight transneptunian points. The chart has 22 factors: the six personal points, the eight planets from Mercury to Pluto, and the eight transneptunian points. All of them are free to compute.