The Valley of the Mean : Are We Judging Planets Against a Line They Rarely Occupy?

1. The Hook

Frequency distribution of Mars’ geocentric speed over 6,000 years (3000 BC – AD 3000). The blue dotted line indicates the “Mean Daily Motion.”

Before we exchange any words, I would like you to simply look at this blue dotted line. This visualization represents the daily speed of Mars over a span of 6,000 years, from 3000 BC to AD 3000, based on data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The blue line marks the “Mean Daily Motion of Mars”—approximately 0°31′. For millennia, we have trusted this value as the “Standard,” using it as the definitive yardstick to judge whether a planet is “Swift” or “Slow.”

However, the reality this graph reveals is a landscape quite different from our conventional wisdom. Look closely. In the immediate vicinity of the blue line we call the “Standard,” Mars does not linger nearly as often.
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Redefining Mercury’s Apparent Ecliptic Speed

Redefining Mercury’s Apparent Ecliptic Speed Using 200 Years of Empirical Astronomical Data (1900–2100)

Author

MINAKAWA Takeshi
Astrogrammar Research, Charapla Inc,
Yokohama, Japan
November 17th, 2025
[日本語版]

Abstract

Traditional astrological classifications of Mercury’s apparent daily speed—Slow, Average, and Fast—have historically been determined by conventional intuition rather than empirical astronomy. This study calculates 73,213 days of Mercury’s geocentric apparent ecliptic longitude speed from 1900 to 2100 using the JPL DE440s ephemeris and the Skyfield computation library. The resulting distribution reveals statistically robust boundaries based on quartiles and physically meaningful structures related to Mercury’s orbital dynamics. We propose a new five-tier classification—Ultra-slow, Slow, Average, Fast, Very-fast—which integrates statistical percentiles and dynamical constraints near retrograde stations. This framework represents fully empirical and reproducible standard for Mercury’s speed in both astronomical and astrological contexts.
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Why are there so few Sun-Mars oppositions?

[日本語]
The frequency of appearance in the Sun-Mars opposition is one-seventh of conjunction. The same result would occur on the collected charts from all over the world. Why? This is not an astrological anomaly, but an astronomical phenomenon.

Astrology from Observation

We understand things by observing facts. It’s no exaggeration to say that everything begins by observing phenomena. The same goes for astrology.
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Fear Not Mercury Combust

In Horary astrology, “Combust” of the principal significator often represents the seriously injured and weakness of the subjects. In the case of Nativity, receptions and aspects should be taken into account, yet the simple judgment of combust suggests the malign influence. Then, which celestial bodies have the highest frequency of combustions? It is, of course, Mercury. It has the closest orbit to the Sun and is only 28 degrees away from the Sun at most when observed from Earth. As a result, it has a more extended period of combustion and under the beams than other planets.
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