I have started doing sports astrology. Yeah, I know – what the hell, Mel? You go silent on here for months and now you’re doing sports astrology? Who even are you??
Look, I don’t even know anymore. But I’m coming off an exact conjunction of Uranus to my Ascendant, so things were always going to get shaken up this spring.
It’s NHL playoff season and the Oilers are doing well. I’ve never really cared much about hockey, but you can’t be a born and raised Edmontonian without having some fond feelings about the Oilers. I was born a few weeks after the Oilers won their first Stanley Cup, too. My dad always had the game on when I was a kid, so the sound of a hockey game fills me with warm and fuzzy nostalgia that my little Cancerian heart cherishes.
I was only briefly aware of sports astrology before, but playoff fever has caught on and I decided to start looking at the game charts to see if I could predict the winners. It has actually been really fun – but also aggravating, because I still have so much to learn.
There are two main methods for casting a chart for sports astrology:
- Horary Method: cast a chart asking who will win, at whatever time you decide to ask.
- Game Chart Method: cast a chart for the start of the game.
When using the first method, it’s easiest to frame the question as, “Will my team win the game?” Obviously if you don’t care about either side, you need to pick a different way to phrase it. But if you do care about one team over the other, then it becomes very easy to identify who is the first house/L1 is – that would be “your” team. The opponent is the seventh house/L7. (Note: L1/L7 means Lord of the First/Seventh – the planet that rules that house.) More on this below.
If you’re doing the second method, then you need to use the exact time that the game starts. For NHL games, that’s puck drop. This usually occurs 10 to 15 minutes after the listed start time, so it’s usually pretty reliable to cast a chart for 15 minutes after the listed game time. However, even a few minutes can make a difference so I always double-check my game charts after the game begins to see if anything has shifted with the exact time.
As for house systems, I’m using Regiomontanus. This is a common house system used in horary. I started off using Whole Sign Houses for these game charts, as it’s my standard house system for both natal and mundane astrology, but I quickly realized its limitations in sports astrology. I did try Placidus too, but I got better results using Regiomontanus.
I started off with the second method. However, I’m applying a lot of the same interpretive principles that are used in horary judgments. Caveat: I’m still very new to this and not an expert! Take everything you read here with a grain of salt and please let me know if you think I’m out to lunch. I find it’s useful to “talk out loud” as I’m learning – or rather, blog out loud. So here we go.
I recently read John Frawley’s 2007 book Sports Astrology, which was useful for providing a framework of interpretive techniques. However, the method it describes is for the first method of sports astrology – pure horary interpretation – and I have found that not all of Frawley’s techniques translate perfectly to the second method.
No matter which method you use, you mainly focus on the first and seventh houses and their rulers. As I mentioned above, in the horary method the first house is “your” team and the seventh house is their opponent. When reading a game chart (second method), the first house is the home team and the seventh house is the away team.
As a side note, you can see how this follows the general principles of mundane astrology, where the first house is the nation, city, etc. and the seventh house is their open enemies (among other things). Similarly, in natal astrology, the first house is you – your personality/body/self – and the seventh is your partner. (Who can also sometimes end up being your open enemy, heh.)
Start off by observing if there are any planets in either the first of seventh house. Any planet close to these house cusps (within about 3 degrees) will control that house, so that’s important too. Then look for the rulers of those houses.
There are so many things to consider, but here’s my short list of the main things I look at and synthesize before judging who will win:
- Essential dignity/debility of any planets in the first or seventh.
- Major aspects being made by any planets in the first or seventh.
- Accidental dignity of the L1 and L7:
- Combust (within 8.5 degrees of the Sun) – this is very bad.
- Under the beams (within 17.5 degrees of the Sun) – also bad, but not as bad as combust.
- Cazimi (within 17.5 minutes from the Sun) – this is very good.
- House position – angular houses are strong, succedent houses are neutral, cadent houses are weak.
- Other factors to consider with the L1 and L7:
- Are they conjunct the lunar nodes – North Node strengthens, South Node weakens.
- Speed and direction – the faster the stronger; retrograde is weaker; stations are weakest.
- Major aspects – the condition of the aspecting planet determines if this is good or bad.
- Besiegement – this is very bad.
- Planetary joys – a planet in its joy is stronger.
- Essential dignity/debility.
- Receptions between the rulers: is one dominant?
- How much light does it have (only applies to the Moon).
For major aspects and besiegement, note that the usual meaning of the planets doesn’t seem to apply to game charts. That is, aspects from Venus and Jupiter aren’t necessarily good and aspects from Mars and Saturn are not necessarily bad. Rather, it depends on how dignified that planet is. Right now, Jupiter is debilitated in Gemini so aspects from Jupiter are going to be more of a hindrance than a help. Similarly, in this context besiegement refers to a planet caught between two debilitated planets (not between Mars and Saturn like it usually means – unless those two planets are debilitated).
Another thing to note: a lot of people will only use the traditional seven planets in horary – no outers, so ignore Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. However, I have also encountered astrologers who will happily include these in game charts, and from what I’ve seen so far, I do think they are worth considering. Uranus has featured prominently in this year’s NHL playoffs and is also why I am having a harder time predicting the winner, I think. (Well, aside from being a noob.) Plus, I’m blaming Uranus for why I’m even interested in sports astrology in the first place.
Anyway, I will only consider the outers if they are very closely aspecting any of the other relevant planets, or in the L1/L7.
This has been a bunch of theory, so let’s put it into practice. Here’s the game chart of the Oilers vs. Stars game last night:
When I first looked at this chart, I thought that the Oilers would win. Here was my rationale:
- The Oilers are the home team so they are represented by Mars, which has lots of essential dignity in Aries and is conjunct the North Node (albeit separating) which strengthens; he’s also in his joy in the sixth so that is a boon.
- The Stars are the away team so they are represented by Venus, which doesn’t have any essential dignity, is combust, conjunct a debilitated Jupiter, and in the eighth.
- Mercury and Uranus are also in the seventh, so they will influence the Stars. Mercury doesn’t have any essential dignity in Taurus and is sextile Saturn, which I thought would be a limiting effect.
Given all of this, I thought the Oilers would come out on top. But they lost (damn). At first I couldn’t figure out why, but then I slept on it and the answer came to me in my dreams. Yes, I’m 100% serious – I do astrology while I sleep.
I missed the mutual reception between Mercury and Venus. Mercury is in the seventh house so he has a lot of effect on the away team (the Stars). While the L7 is Venus, who is not in a good spot, she’s also in mutual reception with Mercury and based on what happened in the game, it seems that this reception gave Venus an escape hatch from her bad situation being combust and conjunct a debilitated Jupiter.
I also wonder how much effect Uranus is having over these games. Uranus represents chaos and anarchy so he’s basically throwing a wrench into the proceedings.
I also wonder if Mars (the L1, representing the Oilers) being in the sixth weakened it more than I thought. I assumed because Mars is in his joy in the sixth, this would be a boon, but perhaps not – the sixth house is cadent, after all.
Based on all of this, when I look at the game chart for tomorrow’s game, I’m wondering if we’ll see the Stars come out on top again:
It’s a very similar story to what we saw last night: the Oilers are represented by Mars, which is strong in Aries and conjunct the North Node – although now that there’s about 8 degrees of separation, the North Node’s strengthening effect is likely a lot less than a few days ago. Mars is also in his joy in the sixth but again, I wonder if that’s really not such a boon after all given the sixth is cadent.
Meanwhile, the Stars are represented by Venus and she is still combust in the eighth house and conjunct a debilitated Jupiter. However, she is also in mutual reception with Mercury which might provide the Stars with the same boost that they received last night. Uranus is also a wild card, promising sudden changes throughout the game.
However, I’m praying that the puck drops at 6:41pm or later – because within that minute between 6:40pm and 6:41pm, Jupiter shifts from the eighth house to the seventh house. Observe – see what a difference a minute can make:
In this chart, Jupiter has shifted down into the seventh house. Given that Jupiter is debilitated, I think this would work against the Stars – possibly more so in the seventh than hidden in the eighth.
You’ll note that because these playoff games occur so close together, and at the same time of day or very close to it, the game charts are very similar throughout the series. This makes them more difficult to interpret and you really have to hone in on slight nuances – and get the exact time, because of how things can change in even just one minute.
One thing I haven’t talked about at all is the role the Moon plays in these game charts. I’m sure Lady Luna has an influence, but I need to do more research and testing to see what outcome she will have. Last night, the Moon was conjunct Pluto, trine Jupiter/Venus/Sun, so maybe that supportive aspect gave a boost to Dallas. And tomorrow night, the Moon will be exactly square Jupiter at the start of the game, which I could see being detrimental for Dallas given that it’s a hard aspect and the Moon is currently waning.
Let’s do one more chart – tonight the New York Rangers play the Florida Panthers in game 4 of the eastern conference final. Here’s the game chart:
The Panthers are the home team so they are represented by a debilitated Jupiter in the sixth, who is also combust. Not a good sign.
The Rangers are the away team so they are represented by a peregrine Mercury in the sixth. Also not great. There are no planets in the seventh, though the Sun is very close to the cusp so it would have sway over that house. Though, the Sun doesn’t have any essential dignity in Gemini so that doesn’t really add much to the interpretation.
However, looking over all of this, I think the Rangers will win. Mercury is in a better position than Jupiter, so that should help give them a boost. We’ll see!
I’m going to start trying out some horary charts instead of just working with these game charts. With hockey, you can’t know the date/time of the games in the final series until very late in the playoffs – so you can’t really predict the winner of the Stanley Cup until very late in the series. Heck, they only announced the time for Game 5 of the western conference this afternoon, which had been driving me nuts.
This is different from other sports, where all the details of the final game (date/time/location) are predetermined months in advance. Maybe I should start betting on football.
One final note: I’m sure you could use the city’s chart to gain further insight into whether or not the team will win the Cup – that is a huge event for a city and will show up in their chart. I’ve played around a bit with Edmonton’s chart to see if there’s potential for the Oilers to win their first Cup since 1990. I think there is a chance, though I’m not willing to make that prediction for sure! I’ve been meaning to do a post on Edmonton’s chart so I’ll try to get that posted sooner rather than later.
Have you seen bobrovskys chart when he won the cup? It was an exact jupiter return (nearly?) To the hour. Crazy! When he was ON FIRE Mars was in Aries (his mars sign) and then as soon as it dropped into Taurus… .
I hadn’t looked at Bobrovsky’s chart yet, no! I actually didn’t look at any of the players’ charts because birth times are usually impossible to confirm. I checked Bobrovsky and couldn’t find a birth time for him (if you have a source, please let me know). But you’re correct that he had an exact Jupiter return on the day the Panthers won the cup – Jupiter at 6 degrees of Gemini. This makes me think Jupiter must be very important in his chart – either angular and/or he’s a Sagittarius or Pisces rising. There are so many angles you can take to analyzing sports astrology! It’s a cool crossover between mundane, natal and horary.