CD-B DIRECTORY

COSMIC DATA-BANK

THE GAUQUELIN SECTORS

Michel Gauquelin and Francoise Schneider-Gauquelin have become legendary for having shown through a rigorous scientific process that there is evidence of planetary influences at birth. Their initial work was first published in 1955 and brought upon them a storm of controversy from the scientific community and others. Twenty-five years later the controversy was still raging to the point where 193 eminent professionals including a clutch of Nobel Prize winners signed a manifesto declaring "there is no scientific foundation for this work". Despite initial setbacks, after 40 plus years of testing and confirmation by other researchers including the skeptics, the work of the Gauquelins has withstood the test of time. Click on his name for more information regarding  Dr. Gauquelin.

Neither Michel nor Francoise are still living. I include this page on my website to honor their work. While their research did nothing to support traditional astrology it did begin the much needed and long overdue examination of astrology by scientists. I can't speak for them, but for myself it has been a richly rewarding endeavour and they were a huge source of inspiration.

Briefly, the work of the Gauquelins may be described as follows. It identifies areas on a geocentric birthchart where planets exhibit strengths that surface in the personality of the individual.  If you want to discover if you have any of your birth planets in a Gauquelin Sector begin with your accurate geocentric birthchart. You will need to know the time of your birth for this exercise. If you don't know your time of birth you cannot determine Gauquelin Sectors.

Find the Ascendant - Descendant Axis and the MC - IC axis on the birthchart. They describe important angles of the geocentric birthchart. Once you have established these angles the Gauquelin Sectors are easy to calculate. According to the research there are four zones of strong intensity in a birthchart which are popularly referred to as the Gauquelin Sectors 1, 2, 3 and 4. In short notation I use GS1, GS2, GS3 and GS4. They are described below.

•         GS1 - 30° above the Ascendant and 10° immediately below it, 40° in total.
•         GS2 - 30° west of the MC and 10° east of the MC, 40° total.
•         GS3 - 20° below the Descendant and 10° above it, 30° in total.
•         GS4 - 20° east of the IC and 10° west of the IC, 30° in total.

GS1 and GS2 are the locations on a birthchart where planets are positioned most strongly to exhibit in the personality of the individual. When a planet is neither rising, (near the Ascendant), nor at its culmination, (near the MC), the Gauquelins describe the planet as being in a zone of weaker intensity. Planets located in GS3 or GS4 exhibit more strongly in the personality than planets outside any of the Gauquelin Sectors.

Of the nine planets in our solar system, only four, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well as Earth's satellite, our moon, have been shown at this point in time to exhibit definite character traits when located in the Gauquelin Sectors. The personality trait keywords associated with the four planets and Earth's moon in these zones are as follows:

Look at your own geocentric birthchart and see if you have any of the above five planets in a Gauquelin Sector, especially in Sectors 1 or 2. If you do, look at the keywords for that planet in the table. You will find that each of the words associated with the planet is very likely to apply to you.