Chart tone

[Lee]

In my correspondence course the teacher has just introduced the concept of the chart tone or signature, which one arrives at by determining the predominant element and the predominant quality (by counting the number of planets in the signs by quality and element), and then combining the predominant sign with the predominant quality and considering the resulting sign to be the chart tone or signature. In other words, if the predominant element were air and the predominant quality were cardinal, the chart tone or signature would be Libra.

I was just wondering, is this a commonly-used or popular technique?

Thanks --
Lee

 

[Astraea]

Hi, Lee. I have never heard of this concept before, but it sounds intriguing.

 

[dadsnook2000]

Misleading under some circumstances.

Hello, Lets look at an example. There are 2 planets in Aries, 2 planets in Leo -- yielding 4 planets in fire. The other 6 planets are split as follows: 1 in Taurus, 3 in Gemini, 2 in Cancer.
*** In this example we have Fire 4; Earth 1; Aire 3; Water 2. There are also Cardinal 4; Fixed 3; Mutable 3. This provides a tone or signature of Fire/Cardinal or Aries. Yet there are only 2 planets in Aries while there are 3 planets in Gemini. This could be very "iffy" under some circumstances in terms of focusing on Aries instead of Gemini -- or Mars energies instead of Mercury energies.
*** There are several approaches to determining the "essence" of a chart. Dispositors are used by some -- a planet in a sign is disposted by the planet ruling the sign it is in. You can create a chain of rulers in this way -- sometimes ending up with one planet, sometimes ending up with two planets who each rule the other.
*** I would go with your instructor's approach for course work. As you progress in your studies I suspect that you will go past this practice and utilize other approaches to grasp chart meanings. Don't get too overly concerned at this point. Dave.

 

[starsongs]

chart tone

Hi Lee...

I've used this technique before and have found it to be most significant when the chart tone (also known as final signature) is different from the Sun, Moon and/or rising signs.

There are so very many techniques, and would agree with Dave that eventually we personalize our style experimenting and choosing what to incorporate within it.

I personally usually look at the tone, and always look at the dispositors...

Good luck with your course..

Blessings
starsongs

 

[Minderwiz]

Yes I've seen the technique and have used it as one 'aspect' to consider. Thus if someone is say predominantly Water in terms of element and predominantly Mutable in term of mode then the 'signature' is Pisces.

However take a little care over this - how many of the placements are actually Pisces?, are there features of the chart which are definitely not Pisces type energy. Treat it more as a shorthand note, rather than a full judgement. That being said it can and does help in getting a 'feel' for the chart.

Edited to add - the points that Dave makes are very good - and better state the warning I made. Dave's right, as you progress you will use a wide range of factors to make your judgement.