Is a Two-Hour Birth Window Too Coarse? Waves vs. Particles
Isn’t counting a two-hour span as a single double-hour a bit too coarse?
Most people who studied Western astrology before coming to Eastern systems get stuck here. But this isn’t a question of precision; the underlying logic is different.
Waves and Particles
Systems that use the stems and branches, like Bazi and Purple Star Astrology, are like “waves” in physics, while Western astrology is like “particles”; in mathematical terms, it’s the difference between geometry and algebra.
A wave is energy, like a ripple on water — a knife can’t cut it, because it’s continuous. A particle is a ball, and a knife can cut it — that ball is Western astrology in miniature.
Particles: The More Exact the Time, the Better
So Western and Vedic astrology both pursue the most exact time possible: they look at orbs, and when the time moves, the planetary degrees move, and the aspects change with them. Vedic astrology goes further still — even “what counts as the moment of birth” has its own definition in each school.
Waves: The Character of the Whole Span
And waves? A wave is diffuse, with no hard edge, so what’s taken is the character of the whole two-hour span, not the position at any one second. But diffuse doesn’t mean boundless — cross the line of the double-hour and you are in another wave. That is why yesterday’s chart differed so much between half past three and ten to five.
By the way, the East doesn’t only have waves. The Seven Regulators & Four Shadows I practice runs by degrees — shift the Life Palace a few degrees and you’re in another palace. It stands between the two.
Where I Stand
So my position is: you can’t say waves are wrong and particles are right. Both hold; if they weren’t accurate, no one would still be practicing these disciplines. Change the discipline and you have to change the logic, rather than forcing another system’s logic onto it.
To see what a chart cast by degrees looks like, you can cast your chart for free.