When you look at a chart – any chart – what is the first thing you see? Do you see anything? Do you suddenly freeze up? Do you see a disordered mess of discrete descriptions? Do you see shapes and patterns? What I’ve trained my eyes to initially look for is an overall shape suggesting a “Hemisphere Emphasis”.
“Hemisphere Emphasis” is a shape or pattern, where all (or most) of the planets are configured in one half of the chart. Sometimes even squeezed into a single 90˚ quadrant (but that’s for another discussion). Now imagine, that you only had 10 seconds to look at a chart, would you be able to start a rewarding conversation with your client? Well you could if you had nothing more than a feel for the “Hemisphere Emphasis”.
A quick aside: in my astrological approach, learned under the tutorage of Noel Tyl, Master Astrologer, author, and teacher, I have been trained to use a psychodynamically based perspective. Wikipedia says psychodynamic means “… understanding the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience”. It’s in this “early experience” where we are initially formed and what influences our later growth. I’ve learned that an astrology chart can quickly guide us into understanding that development.
Hemisphere emphasis directs an astrologer’s mind to anticipate a behavior scenario developed during the earliest developmental times. Because it’s so easy to see perhaps it’s so easy not to trust. But trust we must!
There are four possible hemisphere emphasis scenarios: like the points on the compass they are northern, western, southern, and eastern. However in a chart the compass is upside down and flipped due to the way the heavens are brought down to earth. This is how it looks:
Each of these hemisphere orientations has an underlying vulnerability but each is very different.
To make it easier to see the pattern we will utilize a “piano key” chart first designed by Dirk Luykx, an assistant of Marc Edmund Jones, formidable Astrologer and author of “The Guide to Horoscope Interpretation” and many other influential books. In a “piano key” chart each planet is replaced in the same position with what looks like a piano key or black rectangular bar. I have modified it slightly in that I use two colors: black or red. If a planet is moving forward the bar is black and if retrograde, appears to be moving backwards, the bar is red. Additionally I will use a background pink color to highlight the hemisphere section.
As you look at these example charts I’m sure you will notice many other patterns. Good! These will be ignored, for the most part, so that we may keep a singular focus in this article.
Northern Hemisphere Emphasis
Here is private case which shows all the keys below the horizon. Feel it as all the planets trying to protect or defend, (perhaps building a moat around the castle), oriented around the 4th house. This suggest that the person is anchored to “unfinished business” stemming from the early home life. This could be anything related to family dynamics, emotional security needs, fractures within the home, a battle with family traditions, being denied the time to be a child, one parent overly influential. Here is a very subjective, everything happens between the ears, kind of processing. Although I might not know it yet. Obviously an important early routing that shapes life development. Simply think “unfinished business”.
In our private case this male was brought up in a very confusing and brutal home environment. At an early age he was placed in a home for boys and grew up without a stable family environment. How might this have influenced his own emotional stability? His own internal feelings of security and worth? His own need for a family? How would a lack of parental role modeling affect his understanding of how to be a father? Can these patterns repeat in his adult life? Have they? Good questions to start a good dialogue with your client. We can anticipate all of this from a quick glance at the chart.
As I indicated earlier the red bars show planets that were retrograde at the time of birth. Psychodynamically retrogradation suggests an indirect way of using the energies. A kind of censoring if you will or going back in before it goes back out. In hemisphere emphasis we see the retrograde planet almost wanting to be on the opposite side of the chart. So feel the red bar, in our example, which is tightly hugging the Ascendant but wanting to be in the western side. Feel the red bar bringing emphasis to the opposite hemisphere. In this case the western hemisphere. After you read the rest of this article come back to part and think what it might suggests.
Western Hemisphere Emphasis
Here’s another private case which shows all the keys (except one) to the western side of the chart. This has a 7th house, opposite to self-oriented 1st, or “others” feel. We are stepping from the 6th house which is below and stepping up into the 7th which is above. Out of the darkness and into the light of others. In other words people can see who we are or what we project ourselves to be. It’s about relating with (make or show a connection between) other people. It usually starts by giving of ourself first to another and then to those in a greater circle we know as the world. The question then becomes how much are we giving? Too much? In our need to relate, to feel wanted and special and appreciated, are we giving so much of ourself away that we have nothing of ourself left? Simply feel “giving yourself away”.
In this case that is precisely the issue. This person gives and gives and gives until there is nothing left to give. Might that be because this person doesn’t value them-self first? Because they are always giving do they put themselves in a position to be taken advantage of? And if so, then why? How might that workout in trying to build a one on one relationship? These are the kinds of questions that can be asked to have a meaningful dialogue. Yep! There is a southern hemisphere emphasis as well. And what are those red bars saying with one wanting to be right on the Ascendant (Mercury) and the other (Neptune) wanting to jump into the 5th house?
Southern Hemisphere Emphasis
Here’s public chart which shows all the keys (except one) to the southern side of the chart. This has a 10th house or so called objective, external, feel. Where the northern hemisphere suggests it’s all internal – that one is anchored somehow to the past – here we get the idea that things happen to us, that we might not be the wind behind our sail (someone else is, who?), that there might be no anchor, and thus without our own control we can easily be victimized or pushed around by our circumstances, easily led astray into what another wants us to do or become. Phew! Again there is a strong possibility that one parent was/is dominant that we are trying to please and measure up to or maybe trying to get away from them. Probable chip on the shoulder? Do you know anyone like that? How do you regain your own equilibrium? How do you become the master of your fate? Simply feel “potential victimization”.
I love this chart (even though the next chart could easily be used here as well) because of what the symbolism says to me. I obviously don’t know St. Bernadette personally (she was born in 1844) but what I learned is that she was a French peasant girl who saw 14 visions of the Holy Mother of Lourdes. Eventually entering a convent in Nevers, France and lived there until her death. Look at the chart and ask who became the wind behind her sail? And who or what became her anchor? It was her Catholic religion (see the 9th house), or Mother God, channeled into her visions (3rd house) of the Holy Mother (4th house). And doesn’t the 4th house planet seem to say “hey, I’m important to!”? See the singleton bar there (it happens to be the Moon in Leo)? She built her stability and life around the church. So much more we could say if we looked into the chart further and how, more importantly, St. Bernadette lived out her potentials. I like to think that we would’ve had an interesting dialogue!
Eastern Hemisphere Emphasis
Here’s a public chart which shows all the keys (except one) to the eastern side of the chart. And curiously southern hemisphere emphasis as well. (What questions might be forming in your mind now?) The opposite western hemisphere suggested “giving one’s self away” while here the suggestion is all about protecting and defending a very sensitive self.
See the Ascendent, your identity, how that identity talks to the world, how the world responds, somehow needing to overly protect oneself. A kind of “defensiveness” develops with a need to protect against disclosure. In some cases there is no giving away of self. But why? What happened so early in development that the ego felt it needed to defend itself and form a “cloak of protection” around itself? How might that work out in relationships with others? How easily would a marriage work, especially in the current times, if one of the partners was not able to open up to the other? Or maybe this person would be unwilling to work for or with others. The ego is so fragile! (And see the red bars in the 2nd wanting to jump into the 8th house.) Simply feel the “defensiveness”.
Now this does not mean that this person (nor any of those we looked at) will not succeed in the world. In fact some of the most independent ( “don’t need the help of anyone else”), success-oriented, highly individualized, self-starting, person’s in history have charts with an eastern hemisphere emphasis. In this chart, like him or hate him, it’s the chart of President Trump.
By all definitions a very successful individual in any area he has applied himself. But as successful as he is he does seem to have a very thin skin and is easily offended. Easily seen from his notorious use of twitter where he quickly defends and strikes back at anything that appears to be critical of him. See that bar on Ascendent (actually in the 12th house)? Would it surprise you to discover that it was Mars? In Leo? Squaring the MidHeaven? This suggests a dramatic, out in the open, need to be assertive, to fight and to defend. Again why? Can we surmise this defensiveness originating from the father?
And one wonders, because of this almost knee-jerk response, if he can be easily manipulated resulting in reinforced feelings of victimization (southern hemisphere). I haven’t read his biography so I don’t know enough to be definitive. But I would suggest over-compensatory behavior due to early childhood experiences like: his relationship with his father; his boarding school years; some internal expectations that he seems never able to meet, for starters. The bar in the 4th house (Moon in Sagittarius) feels like emotionally charged opining is leading the charge! Does it not?
Conclusion
Hemisphere emphasis is just a beginning into a fascinating dialogue with your client. Please keep in mind always! that people make things happen not planets. Needs make people act or react. We are not fated by any of these patterns to lifelong behavior patterns. If we have been victimized and have adopted a protective defense there is hope. If we are dragging around unfinished business from the early home we can finish it and move on. We can learn to honor ourselves by not giving ourselves completely away. We can learn to be less defensive and let others in. We can help our clients to become conscious and aware of these patterns. Once there is awareness then change can occur. The choice and free-will to change to whatever we want to become is ours. We are not our charts! How we have lived, how we have processed our experiences, who we want to be, suggest our true character and nature. But there’s no doubt that an astrological chart is an helpful guide in the process.