Gryphon Astrology Blog

[This Greek statue is the best representation of Mercury I know of. Look at that smile, those eyes - would you buy weapons from this boy?]

This article came from a wild and vibrant discussion on an email list (thanks for the idea, Caro!), and I wanted to use this format for explaining my use of the Lord of the Geniture (affectionately known as the LOG). As became clear from our discussion on the list, not everyone uses the LOG the same way, or attributes the same meaning to it.

What is the LOG?

The LOG is the planet that we should listen to, though typically do not. It is the planet which represents the qualities to which we should aspire, but it is more than just a bromide for the self-help crowd. When we seek good luck, ease, and general goodness in life, we should turn to the LOG. Are we tired of always picking the wrong spouse (spouses 1-4 were sort of okay, but that #5 really took me to the cleaners!) or the wrong job, or the wrong pet? Just go with the LOG for any of the above, and things will be more or less okay.

Why only more or less okay? Well, the level of okayness you may achieve depends on the quality of the LOG. Sometimes, we will see a chart where all possible candidates for the LOG are somewhat…lame. And the best we can do is a planet that is peregrine (neither in positive nor negative dignities) – it doesn’t mean the person will never find success in what they do (look at Karl Valentin’s chart, for instance), but it appears from anecdotal evidence that in such cases of a weak LOG, there will always be a drop of bitterness mixed in with any success the person achieves.

From my work with natal charts, I found that the house of the LOG will often be a place where things are a bit easier for the native. A person with the LOG in the 10^th house, for instance, would have an easy time with jobs. Or they might have an especially good relationship with their mother. The LOG in the 2^nd house might bode well for the finances. And a person with the LOG in the 5^th will never be…lonely or cold at night. However, these broad sweeping statements all depend on the nature of the LOG (Saturn in Capricorn as LOG in the 5^th, anyone…anyone?), its overall strength, receptions, house rulerships, etc.

William Lilly defines it as the planet with the most essential and accidental dignities in the chart. The idea is that you want to find the planet with the most essential dignities (the best-looking good guy in the chart), that will hopefully have some accidental strength so that it can throw its weight around. But what if the most likely candidate has little or no accidental strength? In my practice, I still take the most essentially dignified planet, but with the awareness that the native may have to work a bit harder to get to the LOG.

An example

Let’s look at the chart of Margaret Thatcher, which does not have very many good candidates for the LOG:

Margaret Thatcher, 9 a.m., October 13, 1925, Grantham, England, 15 Scorpio rising.

To determine the LOG, we first cast our eye about for any planets in essential dignity. The pickings are rather slim; the best we can do is Mercury in its term at 23.46 Libra. As far as accidental dignity goes, this is hardly an optimal candidate; it is a little too close for comfort to the malefic 12^th house, and even worse, it is combust by the Sun in its fall. Yet, despite these serious handicaps, this Mercury may well hold one of the keys to Thatcher’s political ascent and longevity as PM.

Mercury rules the 10^th house of career and fame, and is on one of the royal stars, Spica, promising an illustrious career. The prenatal eclipse Ascendant picks up this Mercury (with Spica), emphasizing its extreme importance in the nativity. However, because of the serious problems with Mercury (and Mercury’s nature, which has unique notions of honesty to begin with), Thatcher’s legacy has been controversial and generally regarded as deeply problematic. For instance, a 1996 inquiry revealed the Thatcher administration’s weapons dealings with Saddam Hussein to the tune of $2B (1B GBP).

This is exactly what we would expect from a combust Mercury (indicating secrecy and shady dealings) on the cusp of the secretive 12^th house. The tincture of bitterness is present even here, in the greatest of achievements. There is no other planet here that will save Thatcher from Mercury’s bad doings; the dispositor is peregrine Venus. Being peregrine means that Venus will not rap Mercury’s knuckles when it is up to any nefarious doings; rather, it will ask if it can please join the party.

But such is life. The LOG must be the best card we have; it does not have to be an ace to give grand success, and very often it won’t be. But the quality of that success does depend on the quality of the LOG.

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