Mental Chemistry in the Birth Chart

by Bob Makransky
Life is like bodysurfing: Most of the time, youre just standing there, waiting for the right
wave to come; then when it does come, you have to hurl yourself into it at precisely the
correct moment and ride it to shore. If youre a little too slow or a little too fast or if it
wasnt the right wave youre left standing right where you were.
Dr. Marc Edmund Jones came up with a simple technique that indicates whether a person
is too slow, too fast, or just right in grabbing and riding the waves of life.1 He called it
mental chemistry, and it is shown by the combination of two horoscope factors:
1. Whether the Moon is relatively slow or fast in its daily travel;
2. Whether Mercury rises before or after the Sun.
The Moons relative speed shows a natives perceptual capabilities: how a person
processes information, whether his or her perceptions are alert (fast Moon) or deliberate
(slow Moon). The Moons daily travel is simply the difference between the Moons
longitude at midnight (or noon) Universal Time before birth and its longitude at midnight
(or noon) UT after birth. Because this averages 1310 (13.37) per day, we will define a
natives perception to be alert if the Moon was moving faster than this on the day of birth
and deliberate, if the Moon was moving more slowly than this.
In the words of Al H. Morrison: The fast Moon scans rapidly with a wide-open
search pattern. If there is anything going on, anything new or unfamiliar, anything
different from expectation, it is instantly perceived. In a complex environment, as most
social environments are, there are so many details and processes to notice that the fast
Moon native has his mind receiving an avalanche of input, fresh data.2
On the other hand, Where the Moon is slow in its apparent motion, the natives
perceptual capabilities are focused, or directed toward observing whatever the native is
motivated to seek, or has been conditioned to pay attention to, or whatever he fears. Other
information is simply not perceived, not observed. This leaves the mind relatively lightly
burdened, with minimal input of perceived data to process.3
The Moons speed, however, does not merely symbolize how fast information is gathered
and processed; it also describes how people gather themselves together and gird
themselves for action. The natives whose perceptions are alert move quickly to get on top
of a situation: Their immediate impulse is to attack. They like things to be clear and
definite and aboveboard, so they are nonplused by subtleties. When they have a bee in
their bonnet, they have no patience for any other point of view, nor are they interested in
exploring possible consequences and ramifications they dont even want to hear about
such things. They move by impulse and instinct; they make up their minds immediately,
and once their minds are made up, they cannot be budged or moved to reconsider. In
conflict, they try to take their opponents by storm, to overwhelm them, to give them no
space in which to move. Their actions and reactions are quick and decisive.

In contrast, natives whose perceptions are deliberate move slowly and hesitatingly: Their
immediate impulse is to draw back. They approach things by indirection, by outflanking
the situation, by bogging things down and operating under the cover of confusion. Where
the alert types act like sharks, the deliberate types act like octopuses hiding on the
bottom and masking their intentions in a cloud of murk. In conflict, these individuals
refuse to expose themselves but rather outwait their opponents, letting them make the
errors.
The other horoscope factor that makes up a persons mental chemistry is Mercurys
position relative to the Sun at the moment of birth. If Mercury is located earlier than the
Sun in the zodiac so that, at dawn on the birthday, Mercury has already risen (is in the
12th house) then the natives attitude is said to be eager. Whereas if Mercury is located
later than the Sun in the zodiac so that, at dawn on the birthday, Mercury is still
beneath the horizon (in the 1st house) then the natives attitude is said to be certain.
(See Table below.) The difference here lies in how people categorize information,
interpret it, and fit it into preconceived patterns, whether these be individualistic (eager)
or conventional (certain). This is a process of reason or self-consciousness rather than one
of knee-jerk response.
Mental Chemistry Table of Elements
BODY FACTOR TYPE
Moon Fast (moves more than 1310 in 24 hours) Alert
(relative speed) Slow (moves less than 1310 in 24 hours) Deliberate
Mercury Rises before the Sun (earlier in the zodiac) Eager
(relative to the Sun) Rises after the Sun (later in the zodiac) Certain
Note: When the Moon moves at, or very close to, average speed, the alert/deliberate
distinction blurs; likewise, when Mercury is conjunct the Sun, the eager/certain
distinction is of less importance. At these points, therefore, the Mental Chemistry
technique is not as revealing as it is at the extremes.
In the words of Leyla Rael, The Epimethean [certain] Mercury type of person tends to
react to life more cautiously and based on past experience (either his or her own personal
experience or according to traditional, cultural patterns). But while such a person is at
best thorough and objective, mentally free from many purely emotional prejudices, at
worst he or she can cling almost obsessively to obsolescent ideologies or display a
conservatism bordering on rigidity. The Promethean [eager] Mercury type of person tends
to leap into life with his or her mental antennae fully extended to receive information.
While such a person may be able to act based on a compelling inner vision of what is
possible and at best may be flexible, prophetic, and responsive to the needs of the
moment at worst he or she may be merely conniving, facile, and crafty, going this way
or that according to his or her own advantage.4
Another way of saying this is that the certain natives need to be sure of themselves
before they act they need to feel that their actions will meet the approval of their social
milieu. Thus, they are restrained and oriented toward goals and purposes. These natives

interpret the world in terms of a guiding philosophy of social responsibility in which each
member must do his or her own share, and they are scrupulous in observing their part of
the bargain. They play the game by the rules whatever they conceive those rules to be.
They are wary and dutiful, and they put their faith in principle and obligation.
The eager natives, on the other hand, are unrestrained and experimentative. They dont
need any social authority to sanction their actions, but rather they follow their inclinations
of the moment. They do what is expedient or convenient rather than what will be thought
praiseworthy by others. They are optimistic and freewheeling and able to bounce right
back whenever life slaps them down.
The Mental Mix
When there is a perceptive alertness combined with a rational certainty (fast Moon and
Mercury rising after the Sun), then the native is quick to react but possesses a powerful
governor on his or her impulses. An example of this alertcertain type is Abraham
Lincoln: He was a shrewd and opportunistic politician, but his conscience and sense of
responsibility for the consequences of his decisions made him a target for the radicals and
extremists surrounding him.
Contrariwise, when there is a perceptive deliberation combined with a rational eagerness
(slow Moon and Mercury rising before the Sun), then the native is slow to react but
possesses compensatory flexibility and adaptability. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded
Lincoln as president, is a good example of this deliberateeager type: He held fast to his
principles in complete isolation but always managed to come out on top first, as the
only Southerner to remain in the U.S. Senate after the secession of the Southern states
and, later, by successfully defending himself against a trumped-up impeachment.
In both of these cases, there is a healthy balance between the perceptual and rational
faculties: These natives are able to resolutely hold their ground in the face of confusion
and to marshal their resources effectively to deal with situations as they arise. They are
able to grapple directly with the problems of life and to take things as they come to
recognize which waves are the right waves and to know when to hold back and when to
jump forward.
But when perceptive alertness combines with rational eagerness fast Moon (alert) and
Mercury rising before the Sun (eager) or when perceptive deliberation combines with
rational certainty slow Moon (deliberate) and Mercury rising after the Sun (certain),
then the perceptual and rational faculties are out of balance. Natives of these types are
easily thrown off their stride or confounded by situations requiring quick decisions. They
dont really pay attention to what is going on around them, but rather only to their own
reactions. The alerteager types become flustered, and the deliberatecertain types
become obstinate. In either case, these unbalanced natives tend to fall out of
synchronization with the speed of their environment: Alerteager natives move too fast,
and deliberatecertain natives move too slow their suggestions and actions are
inappropriate.
Whereas the balanced types have self-control or an instantaneous analysis that reacts to

sudden changes by stiffening to attention, the unbalanced types tend to either overreact or
underreact alternating between overweening cockiness and fierce indignation with
no middle ground of calm discernment. Thus, they tend to waste their energies in
ineffectual posturing and are more interested in proving something or making an
impression than working with other people. These natives are too set in their manner of
being, too wrapped up in their own self-images, too self-satisfied, to make allowances for
changing conditions or different types of people they dont really know how to
interact. So, they tend to be escapists to obsess over a niggling sense of personal
privilege rather than effectively deal with the realities of the situations and
relationships in which they find themselves.
In the words of Dr. Jones, When the effective set of mind shows the combination of
rational eagerness and perceptive alertness, the life is usually characterized by an
altogether unnecessary impatience. The native is inclined to stumble over his own toes
most of the time, and he is apt to end up with actions and associations that not only fail to
fulfill their promise but often handicap him very seriously by exhausting every
potentiality of his make-up.5 Basically, what happens is that these natives are overly
intense and pushy. They tend to blow minor issues out of all proportion and, conversely,
to trivialize matters of the greatest urgency and seriousness. They run around in circles
and dont get anywhere. They set up a myriad of compulsive routines and are greatly
annoyed whenever these are challenged or abrogated by circumstances. They have a
fitful, flighty energy that is never comfortable or in repose; they are constantly fluttering
and fussing about, making this or that unnecessary adjustment to the environment, to
arrange everything neatly so that they can finally relax but of course, they rarely do.
They are constantly preparing for a future that never comes.
Chemical Imbalance
John Brown affords an extreme example of the alerteager type (see Chart 1): His natal
Moon was very fast (1513 per day), and his Mercury was six days from Greatest
Western Elongation, which is as far from the Sun on the eager side as it can get (earlier
in the zodiac).6 Brown was a rabid abolitionist and the instigator of the Potawatomi
massacre in Kansas, where many innocent people were killed; he then led an abortive
attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, aimed at fomenting a slave insurrection.
John Brown, likely more than any other single person, made any last-minute
reconciliation impossible between the North and South. He pushed an already strained
situation beyond the point of no return: The John Brown raid had jangled Southern
nerves fatally. It started a chain of hysteria like the great fear of 1789 in the French
Revolution. Rumors of slave insurrection popped up on every side.... Extremists on both
sides whipped up hostile sentiment between sections.7 The alerteager types are not so
much ignorant of consequences as they are contemptuous of them. They shoot from the
hip, push things to the limit, and stampede other people with their impatient absolutism.
In contrast, consider the opposite unbalanced type. According to Dr. Jones, When the
reason demands a continual certainty and the perceptivity tends to be deliberate, the
individual is apt to withdraw within himself to an extent that hardly is to his interest and
perhaps indeed to slip off into altogether abnormal practices and points of view.8 Such

deliberatecertain natives are perverse and contrary. They delight in phlegmatic

wrongheadedness, in controlling things by being in no particular hurry. They make good
diplomats, because they are willing to spend years holding out for the precise shape of the
conference table or the order of seating around it. They are more concerned with form
and decorum than with substantive issues. They tend to confuse indifference with
disinterest, obduracy with strength, stodgy pride with nobility of spirit. They will not
budge an inch from their inflated sense of dignity and righteousness until they are
completely overwhelmed by events, and then their responses are usually too little, too
late. They tend to be preoccupied with self-congratulations, gloating with smug pride
over a past that never happened.
William Jennings Bryan (see Chart 2) provides a very extreme example of the deliberate
certain type: His natal Moon was very slow (1147 per day), and natal Mercury was
three days past Greatest Eastern Elongation, which is as far from the Sun on the certain
side as it can get (later in the zodiac). Bryan is principally remembered today as a thrice
unsuccessful presidential candidate and the butt of defense attorney Clarence Darrows
ridicule during the famous Scopes Monkey Trial; however, Bryan championed many
Populist causes that were later adopted. Still, in typical deliberatecertain style, he tended
to look back rather than forward. Although he was well versed in the Bible, he was
ignorant of many other topics particularly economics, his supposed specialty. In
Theodore Roosevelts words, Bryan represented a kind of rural Toryism, which wishes
to attempt the impossible task of returning to the economic conditions that obtained sixty
years ago.9 Historian Richard Hofstadter points out that Bryans problem as a politician
was that, despite his brilliance in focusing the popular sentiment of the times, he always
followed behind his public rather than leading it.10
What counsel can astrology give to these unbalanced natives? This is not a terrible
affliction, nor is it uncommon half of all horoscopes are unbalanced. These natives
are likely quite content with exactly how they are. They may seek respect more than
effectiveness or economy of action. This counsel is directed more toward the balanced
half of the population who might wonder how to understand and deal with the unbalanced
types. The alerteager natives need to have their quirks indulged; learn to tolerate their
little obsessions and prerogatives that is, be as alert as they are and thus avoid their
tripwires. Conversely, the deliberatecertain types require a lack of bother or hurry a
patience greater than their own. This will prove to them that you mean business and thus
win them over. In either case, you can get the unbalanced natives attention and
cooperation by outdoing them at their own games: giving them the respect they need, so
that they feel comfortable and can open up and relax into a situation or relationship.
Dealing with the unbalanced types is a good spiritual lesson in flexibility and agility
exactly the qualities needed to catch lifes waves and ride them rather than get thrashed
by them.
Chart Data and Sources
(Note: The authors delineations herein are not birth-time sensitive; sources should agree
only on the date and place of birth.)
Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809; 7:13 a.m. LMT; Hodgenville, KY (37N34,

85W44); DD: M. E. Jones, The Scope of Astrological Prediction, p. 173 (according to

the midwife, the birth occurred about sunup); other sources give different times.
Andrew Johnson, December 29, 1808; 12:35 a.m. LMT; Raleigh, NC (35N46,
78W38); C: Caution, accuracy in question; Circle Book of Charts quotes Doanes
Horoscopes of the U.S. Presidents. Karum writes in AO-Science, Fall 1942: Born at
night, after the ball, from a biography by R. W. Winston.
John Brown, May 9, 1800; 3:00 a.m. LMT; Torrington, CT (41N48, 73W07); DD:
Penfield; Old File has 6:45 p.m.
William Jennings Bryan, March 19, 1860; 9:15 a.m. LMT; Salem, IL (38N37,
88W56); B: Dewey quotes Star of the Magi; attending physician Dr. Hill gives a little
after 9 in the morning. Sabian Symbols No. 148 gives 9:04 a.m.
References and Notes
1. Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, The Essentials of Astrological Analysis, Stanwood, WA:
Sabian Publishing Society, 1970, pp. 382 ff.
2. Al H. Morrison, The Hankar Crystal, in The Astrological Review, Vol. 44, No. 1
(Spring/Summer 1972), p. 24.
3. Ibid.
4. Leyla Rael, Discover Your Problem-Solving Style, in Dell Horoscope magazine,
December 1978, p. 49.
5. Jones, The Essentials of Astrological Analysis, p. 383.
6. Elongation is the apparent angular distance of a planet (east or west) from its center
of motion, the Sun. Mercurys greatest elongation from the Sun is only about 28, but at
times, the maximum can be as little as 18. For a complete explanation of the elongations,
conjunctions, and stations of Mercury in the natal, progressed, and transiting horoscopes,
see Bob Makransky, Thought Forms, available from www.dearbrutus.com
7. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, New York: Oxford
University Press, 1965, p. 605.
8. Jones, The Essentials of Astrological Analysis, p. 383.
9. Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted in Morison, The Oxford History of the American
People, p. 812.
10. Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, New
York: Vintage Books, 1989 (originally published in 1948).
2001 Bob Makransky all rights reserved
Bob Makransky started out as a systems analyst and computer programmer and has been
studying astrology for 30 years. He is the author of Primary Directions (1988), a treatise
on celestial sphere mathematics and house division, and Thought Forms (2000), an
explanation of the theory and practice of magic from an astrological point of view. Bob
lives on a farm in the highlands of Guatemala and runs a small resort hotel, which also
offers instruction in channeling, conducting past life regressions, and working with nature
spirits. He is available for astrological consultations at: www.dearbrutus.com