Midpoints and Planetary Pictures

A midpoint is the point halfway between two factors of a chart. Witte calls it the "half-sum" (Halbsumme): add two positions and halve the result. He writes that the forces of two planets appear together at this point, which is the axis of symmetry of the pair.

From midpoint to planetary picture

Witte's definition is short: three planets form a picture when one of them stands in the middle of the other two. The app writes such a planetary picture as A/B = C, meaning that factor C lies on the axis of the midpoint A/B. Later books of the school rank three kinds of picture by strength, in this order: two factors in contact (A = B), a third factor on a midpoint (C = A/B), and two midpoints in contact (A/B = C/D). The app shows only A/B = C.

Say the Sun is at 10° Aries and the Moon at 20° Gemini. Their midpoint is at 15° Taurus. If Venus is near 15° Taurus, you can write Sun/Moon = Venus.

A midpoint always has a far point 180° away, here 15° Scorpio. Witte also writes that a midpoint acts on a planet in hard aspect to it, so on the 90° dial a factor 45°, 90° or 135° from the midpoint counts as being on the same axis.

Orb

In a natal chart, Witte says, a picture still counts when the middle planet is not exactly on the midpoint. For a picture formed by transiting planets he counts the day on which the middle one is exact. He gives no number on these pages, so the adjustable orb in the app is the app's own convention.

A narrow orb also makes the kind of lunar node matter. The true node and the mean node are two ways of computing the same point and can differ by about 2°, enough to move the Node into or out of a picture. The Uranian method sets no kind of its own, so the app uses the one chosen in Settings in both modes. This is general background and the app's convention, not from the pages cited below.

How the meaning is read

Witte reads a picture from the meaning of each pair and then joins them. He gives the midpoint Sun/Moon the meaning of friendship, parents and married life. In his example of Goethe's chart he reads one pair at a time and only then puts them together.

The app works the same way. It has a text for each of the 231 pairs and adds the role of factor C. A picture with a reading of its own is labelled "Written for this picture"; the others are labelled "Pair + third factor". All the wording is the app's own.

A picture that still lacks one factor has an empty place, which Witte calls a sensitive point (A + B − C). He writes that the picture takes effect when a moving planet reaches it.

In the app

• "Midpoints" lists the midpoint of every pair.
• "Planetary pictures" lists every A/B = C, tightest orb first.
• "Personal points" shows the midpoints on the axes of the Meridian, the Aries Point, the Sun, the Ascendant, the Moon and the Node.

With an orb of 1° any chart has a great many planetary pictures, and many arise by chance. Read the tightest ones and those with a personal point first.

Sources

Articles by Alfred Witte. Page numbers are those printed in the journal.

• "Das Verhältnis der sensitiven Punkte zueinander", Astrologische Rundschau, 1921/1922, page 148
• "Der erste Transneptunplanet Cupido?", Astrologische Blätter, July 1923, pages 52 and 53
• "Das Planetenbild", Astrologische Blätter, April 1924, pages 15 and 16

The app's own conventions: the orb, the order by tightest orb, the labels of the readings, the texts of the pairs and the role of the third factor, and the advice about entries that arise by chance.