Introduction
As I have stated in other twin papers, twin births are especially useful to this astrology. Why? Parents of twins usually know before birth they are having twins, so they pay especial attention to birth time. They do so because later those time differences are a conversation piece as well as forming part of the identity of the twins. So, birth time for twins is likely correct to the minute and the charts cast from them are also close to exact. Comparisons made between them are then based on correct astrology. That means twin births are especially good for testing a major principle of this astrological method, that planets on (≤2° orb) Angles are of primary importance in describing all our lives.

When one twin has a different sign on an Angle, their births are also useful for demonstrating the principle that astrological sets (aspects) ruling an Angle are of far more importance than those which do not.

Examples of this are shown in the samples below and in all of the twin papers on this site.

This is another short paper in a series about twins. It consists of three partial charts demonstrating the astrology for twins—a boy and a girl—born twenty minutes apart. The boy is retarded, while the girl is normal. The male was born first. I would have been happy to include a more politically correct and potentially less painful label for the retarded twin, but have never found one that made sense to me. I will not use "mentally challenged" because people with all kinds of mental problems are challenged, and, indeed, most of us are mentally challenged in one way or another. So, I have kept the label "retarded"--at least we all know what that means.

Biographical data was slim. For Twin No. 1 (the male), Astrodatabank simply stated “Belgian first-born twin retarded from birth.” Twin No. 2 (the female) contained the following information, “Belgian second-born twin born normal. She now lives with her family in Quebec, Canada.” The full Astrodatabank tag for Twin 1 is “Research: Twins 1949/6/06, No. 1, 11259.” That for Twin No. 2 is “Research: Twins 1949/6/06, No. 2, 11260.”

I have written other papers on twins with the goal of identifying the differences in their astrology which accounted for the differences in their experiences. Below are links to each of them :

I have already discussed astrological significators for mental retardation in my paper “Mental Retardation and Astrology’s Classic Malefics, Mars and Saturn.” That paper should be read before this one. Below is a link to it :

Briefly here, astrological significators found so far for mental retardation involve light/mars/saturn with influence a 3rd house and an Angle in the 1st and 3rd charts.

In dealing with these charts of twins, I am also including the 7th chart in the analysis, not because it contains retardation significators, but because it is challenging to read for both the normal and the retarded twin.

Below is a short summary of the areas of life covered by the three charts involved :

The 1st chart is a chart which describes the identity we formed in childhood and some of its somatic consequences—allergies and asthma, for two examples.

The 3rd chart shows intellectual talents and inclinations as well as various pathologies.

The 7th chart, the main chart of this method, contains a great deal of information about our lives. Theoretically, it is concerned only with matters pertaining to the 7th house, such as our relations with significant others, including marriage and business partners and close friends. However, it, too, contains information about health as well as our mind.

Before looking at the charts, I want to make available information about this astrological method:

This astrology uses the sidereal positions of the planets based on the Fagan-Bradley’s SVP.

Harmonics are taken from the sidereal position of the planets. The Egyptian harmonic, discussed in the paper “About This Method” (see Home Page), is used.

”Lights” include suns, moons, and moons nodes.

This method uses only conjunctions, applying and separating squares, and oppositions. Orbs for planets with lights is 5°; without lights, about 2.5°. Orb for MC/planet or Asc/planet is 2°. Planets so related to each other are referred to as in the same “set.” A set, then, is two or more planets (or an Angle) connected to each other through conjunction, square, and opposition within the defined orbs. The set is more active if it contains a light, and less active without one. Learning to look in terms of “crosses” can be helpful in rapidly finding planets that are in the same set.

Because this approach uses both a birth and conception chart and they share the same axis, birth houses usually overlap different houses of the conception chart. These are called “house overlaps.” House overlaps play an important part in this astrology as investigation of the charts below (and in other papers) will show. Throughout this paper I use the convention when writing about house overlaps of putting the birth house first, then the conception house. So, for instance, a “5th/1st” overlap refers to an overlap of birth 5th house with conception 1st house in that order.

Birth planets (including their harmonics) rule only birth houses. Conception planets (including their harmonics) rule only conception houses.

For a more thorough explanation of this astrological approach, refer to this site’s papers entitled “About This Method” as well as the one entitled "Chart Reading Rules." There is also a link to the method paper at the bottom of every paper.

About This Method

Chart Reading Rules

In the partial charts shown below, birth planets and their harmonics are inside the circle. Conception planets and their harmonics are outside the circle. Conception sidereal planets are red; conception harmonic ones, black. Birth sidereal planets are blue; birth harmonic ones, green. Occasionally, because of space limitations, I have had to violate this inside/outside arrangement, but the color coding remain constant.

Abbreviations used are b = birth, c = conception, and t = transiting. Even though the harmonic used for each chart is always two more than the chart’s number, in these papers I write the harmonic number the same as the chart number. For example, the 5th chart uses the 7th harmonic, but I have established the convention of writing harmonic planets for the 5th chart as, e.g., c5 mars, which reads, “the harmonic for the 5th chart for conception mars.

Now we can look at those charts.

The larger separation in degrees of their Angles also makes more likely that the twins will have different signs on some of their Angles. Different signs means different rulers. Then the significant set--in this case the one for retardation--for one twin may include the ruler of the Angle while the one for the other does not.

Sets No. (1) and (2) are nearly identical in the charts of both twins. Their biggest difference occurs between their Angles and their harmonic moons.

Twin No. 1 has c1 moon at 24 Gemini 26, while Twin No. 2 has c1 moon at 24 Gemini 59. Twin No. 1 has b1 moon at 16 Gemini 31, while his sister has it at 17 Gemini 07. These differences make are not appreciable in the lives of the twins and do not separate the experience of the one from the other.

The differences in degrees of their Angles is another matter. They do separate the experience of the one twin from the other. In this case, through their differing rulers. I have included their Angles in each drawing of a partial chart, but show them again below in table form:

Looking again at the partial charts above, we can see that in the charts of both twins there are two sets which contain light/mars/saturn—the planets involved in retardation.

Set (1) in both charts includes c sun, b1 mars, and c1 saturn. For the retarded Twin, Set (1) also includes B Asc. Influence to both an Angle and a 3rd house occurs through that b1 mars for the retarded twin because b1 mars rules B MC in Scorpio which is in c 3rd house. It does not for the normal twin because she no longer has B MC in Scorpio. Therefore, while the retarded twin’s Set (1) shows influence of light/mars/saturn to two Angles and a 3rd house, this set shows neither Angle nor 3rd house influence in the chart of the normal twin. The set is no longer on an Angle and the mars in it no longer influences an Angle in a 3rd house (which provides its 3rd house influence).

[Since it also includes birth mars, Set (2) tells the same story. The set includes light/mars/saturn, but for Twin No. 2 (normal) it has influence to neither an Angle nor a 3rd house. For Twin No. 1 (retarded), through b mars the set influences B MC in c 3rd house.

Therefore, in the 1st chart Twin No. 1 (retarded) has the full set of significators (and more) for retardation, while Twin No. 2 (normal) does not.

Again, Sets (1) and (2) for Twins No. 1 and 2 are nearly identical.

In Set (1) their greatest difference is between their b3 suns, which are at 14 Leo 37 and 14 Leo 41 for Twins No. 1 and 2, respectively. This change makes no difference is their experience of their lives.

In Set (2) the only difference between the sets is that Twin No. 1 has c mars at 1 Libra 56, while Twin No. 2 has it at 1 Libra 57. The difference is negligible.

Again, however, as happened in the 1st chart, Set (1) includes a version of b mars, this time, b3 mars, which for Twin No. 1 (retarded) rules B MC in c 3rd house. For Twin No. 1, then, the set shows Angle/light/mars/saturn/3rd. Twin No. 2’s set shows no influence to either an Angle or 3rd house.

I included Set (2) to show how much more astrologically belabored Twin No. 1 (retarded) is than Twin No. 2 (normal). Angle/light/mars/neptune/3rd in the 3rd chart is one of several significators for schizophrenia. As only one of the significators, it can manifest as anxiety or perhaps phobias. Note that Twin No. 1 (retarded) has the set in close aspect to C MC, while with Twin No. 2 (normal) it has passed nearly out of orb with C MC.

Therefore, in the 3rd chart Twin No. 1 (retarded) has the full set of significators for retardation, while Twin No. 2 (normal) does not.

The reader is not as acquainted with this form of astrology as I am. The above difference between influence of sets is approximately equivalent in genetics to the retarded twin having his retarded set "turned on," while it is turned off for his twin sister. His "retarded set" is incomplete, so it does not creat retardation.

In the other example on this site (link at top of page) of one twin being retarded while the other is not, the case is different. The non-retarded twin has mercury on an Angle in the 3rd chart. With his method, "on an Angle" is very potent and expresses throughout the individual's life. Mercury is the planet of speech, intellect, and communication. On an Angle it acts as an anti-significator for the astrological set that implies retardation. That is, we could say the Angle/mercury turns off a "perfectly good retarded set." The other, retarded twin does not have his mercury on an Angle, so his retarded set expresses as his retardation.

As happened in the 1st chart, this chart contains a second set which suggests retardation for Twin No. 1, but not Twin No. 2. It contained too many planets to fit easily into a partial chart, so I have put it in tables for both twins.

Set (3) is really spread out, something I like to avoid. Nonetheless, it is a functional set because it contains two lights. C moon is low enough to include b3 uranus in the set. C3 SN is high enough to include b saturn in the set.

Set (3) shows a lighted mars/saturn influence to an Angle (actually, two Angles) and 3rd house for Twin No. (1) (retarded).

Twin No. 2 (normal) shows Set (3) influencing two Angles, too, but not a 3rd house. Nonetheless, it contains many harmonic planets specific to the 3rd chart. So, it definitely refers to the mind even without having influence a 3rd house. The reason this set is not about retardation for Twin No. 2 (normal) is that she lacks the significators for retardation in her 1st chart. So here, at least in terms of retardation, it likely serves to support something like occasional and temporary semantic confusion or other forms of dissonant mental experiences.

These two charts—the 1st and 3rd—are sufficient to show retardation for Twin No. 1 (retarded) while failing to show it for his sister, Twin No. 2 (normal). More on this in the conclusion at the bottom of the page.

We continue now with the 7th chart to see what it contains. I know that it does not contain the significators for retardation. I explained why in the main paper on retardation. Briefly, for the many years when I was working only with the 7th chart, I was unable to find any consistent significators for retardation in a sample size of 20 individuals.

Sets (1) and (2) are identical in charts for Twin No. 1 and Twin No. 2. Each include light/mars/saturn.

In Twin No. 1’s (retarded) chart, however, Set (1) not only influences B MC (in c 3rd house) through b mars, but it includes B MC in the set. Set (1) has no Angular influence for Twin No. 2 (normal).

Set (2) also contains the harmonic variation of birth mars. So, for Twin No. 1 it influences B MC, while for Twin No. 2 it does not. Set (2) has no Angular or 3rd influence for Twin No. 2.

How do we interpret these sets since they are not part of the significators for retardation?

For Twin No. 2 (normal) we do not need to interpret anything about Set (2) because it influences neither an Angle nor a 3rd house. Progressing Angle only bring planets they contact forefront (into our experience) when within no more than 1° of the planet. When a progressed Angle passes through Twin No. 2's et, it will separate them to individual ones, except node/pluto, which are close enough in degree to each other they will be contacted simultaneously by a progressing Angle. Because of that, this set is simply a background set for Twin No. 2 (normal). It will have little play in her life.

However, Set (2) increases the dissonance (mars/saturn) in the family and social life (7th chart) of Twin No. 1 (retarded) because it influences an Angle.

Set (1) is a stronger set in terms of activity. It is still in the background for Twin No. 2 (normal) because it does not contain an Angular influence. However, it does contain a “3rd house” influence because it contains c mercury. Mercury is the natural ruler of the 3rd house.

For Twin No. 2 (normal), Set (1) is likely an astrological description of the fact that she has an afflicted (mars/saturn) brother (mercury).

For Twin No. 1 (retarded), Set (1) shows that because of his mental problems (mars/saturn/3rd), life with others (7th chart) is more complicated and troublesome (mars/saturn) for him than for his sister.

I would be remiss in my duties as an astrologer if I did not point back to that c jupiter at 25 Scorpio 20 conjunct B MC which I showed in Twin No. 1’s (retarded) 1st chart. Since it is non-harmonic, it occurs in all charts. Since it is conjunct an Angle, it is active--for Twin No. 1. It is not conjunct an Angle in Twin No. 2’s chart, in which that jupiter in Scorpio falls into the background. It suggests that despite all the frustrations this (now) man experienced because of his retardation, he was much loved and cared for (jupiter conjunct MC in Scorpio) and felt emotionally close in his family (jupiter, the greater benefic, in the sign of Scorpio, the sign of sharing and transformations).

Conclusion
The retarded twin (Twin No. 1) showed the influence of lighted mars/saturn to an Angle and 3rd house in both 1st and 3rd charts.

The normal twin, his sister, showed the lighted mars/saturn in her 1st and 3rd charts, but they failed to influence an Angle or 3rd house in her 1st chart. They influenced only an Angle in her 3rd chart. In terms of retardation, which requires that the significators be present in both charts, her 3rd chart set with Angular (but not 3rd) influence became either a dumb note or an expression of some temporary mental/verbal disturbance. Nor would it hold together as a set when an Angle progressed to it. Whatever it meant in her (mind/3rd chart) experience, it was not a symbol of retardation.

Twinflower, a member of the honeysuckle family
From Wildflowers of Michigan Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela

Data Acknowledgments
Letters following each name show the Rodden rating for data reliability.


Twin No. 1 (Male, Retarded) (A)
Birth: 6/06/1949, 1:00 a.m. MET, Antwerp, Belgium. From Astrodatabank by Lois Rodden and Mark McDonough. Eileen O’Connell quotes case in MH Ext. 4/1985.
Conception:8/28/1948, 10:00:23 a.m. MET, Antwerp, Belgium.

Twin No. 2 (Female, Normal) (A)
Birth: 6/06/1949, 1:20 a.m. MET, Antwerp, Belgium. From Astrodatabank by Lois Rodden and Mark McDonough. Eileen O’Connell quotes case in MH Ext. 4/1985.
Conception:8/28/1948, 10:21:21 a.m. MET, Antwerp, Belgium.




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