Critical degrees and how they affect you | AstroGarden (2024)

Firstly, these are the critical degrees:

0, 13, and 26 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn)

8-9 and 21-22 degrees of fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius); and

4 and 17 degrees of mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces).

The info on their significance has been minimal. For example, cafeastrology says just this - "These are considered sensitive, and sometimes strengthening, points. If a natal planet is found in a critical degree, that planet is thought to be emphasized and to assume more power in the life of the native due to its placement."

I've just found an excellent article which goes into much more depth and how each planet or angle might be affected if it falls on a critical degree. I thought we could check if it applies to us.

Some extracts from article pasted below:

Critical degrees show a cosmic restraint: natives will experience obstruction and frustration here (depending on the planet involved) until they learn to surrender their own will in this particular area of life. By denying satisfaction in external circ*mstances, natives are forced back upon their own resources: they have to find satisfaction within themselves. These degrees are neither benefic nor malefic: they deny external satisfaction, but increase self-reliance. There is an obstinate struggle here against hampering and isolating circ*mstances – usually self-created – and also a great reserve of fortitude and strength.

This strength is especially apparent when a planet or angle comes to conjunction with a critical degree by secondary (day-for-a-year) progression. Except for the progressed moon, whose effect is much weaker, there is usually a preceding month or so of personal limitation and frustration. Then, within a few weeks of the time that the progression is exact, a crisis occurs. The situation calls for a transcendence – moving up to a new level of grasp and control. The real significance of these critical moments in life is often properly understood only in retrospect over a period of months after the event.

Generally, your critical planets and angles reveal not only where you fume, but also where your greatest potentials lie. They are your true points of touch with the depths of your own humanity.

"There is an obstinate struggle here against hampering and isolating circ*mstances – usually self-created – and also a great reserve of fortitude and strength."

This is spot on for me. I have Mars at 26.04 Capricorn. Absolutely true, and I adore my Mars placement.

I have Mercury and Saturn at critical degrees. A crtical degree SATURN for chrissake! This Saturn squares my Moon and is alarmingly close to Venus.

To quote:

When your natal Saturn is critical you are gentle, sensitive, and aware; yet you tend to find life rather unresponsive and indifferent to you. You are ever the objective observer, even of yourself; this aloofness endows you with an ironic, even self-mocking, sense of humor. You tend to insulate yourself in your objectivity and resist committing yourself fully to what is going on around you. You are always conscious of yourself as an actor in the drama of life, which on the negative side inclines you to pose. If life at times makes you feel that your ideas and feelings are not being respected, it’s because you tend to play at life, refusing to take it – or other people – seriously in its own right. Your best quality is your conscious determination to keep your own participation in life as clean and free of ulterior motive as possible, which is the herald of a true personal integrity.

Interesting, and much I can empathise with,particularly the bit aboutbeing an observer.

I'd thought all planets at 29° or 0° are critical?

astrologyuniversity.com/study-materials/articles/75-critical-degrees

I guess there are different schools of thought.

Yes, these too, but referred to as anaretic degrees. Wondering if these are critical in a similar way.

According to Cafeastrology,

"Many astrologers consider 0 and 29 degrees of any sign critical degrees as well. The 0 and 29 degrees are more crisis-oriented points, especially in predictive work.

While the classic critical degrees above are thought to give added strength to the planet or body, the anaretic degree is more of a debilitating position.

In progressions, when, for example, the Sun enters the 29th degree, the native’s year can be crisis-oriented. If the Sun progresses to 29 degrees of Libra, for example, the sense of urgency and crisis can surround relationships. Divorce or jumping into a new partnership rather blindly may be the result of this urgency. If the Sun progresses to 29 degrees of Virgo, a big change might be made in work. Generally, decisions made at the time of the 29th degree can be hasty. "

My Mars is at 13 / Aries / 7th house
True N / 21 / Taurus / 8th
Uranus/ 17/ Sag/ 3rd
ACS / Libra/ 29

I looked at exact mentioned degreese

@astrokeen

Thanks for the additional information. I'll answer about my critical degree, even though it's not what you were talking about in the OP.

My Saturn's @ 0° Leo. I think I've had a weak sense of identity where structure is concerned. I mean some people have a healthy sense of ego based on their consistent habits and achievements, like: "I'm a person who rises early, always keeps a clean car, and I consistently create structures, like my garden is amazing every year." I think Saturn in LEO is especially driven towards that.

But for me, I'm always thinking of myself in the starting phase. "I plan to get really healthy" even if my diet has been healthy by other people's standards. And so on with other things, like astrology.

well my sun is at 8* Taurus... apparently a critical degree:

When your natal Sun is critical you have a strong will and determination, but very little fulfilmentin life. You feel misunderstood and unappreciated, out of step with the world around you. You have high ideals and a good heart, combined with a fierce pride and unwillingness to compromise. You are out-of-step with the world around you, but have an unwavering faith in your own worth. This is not so much a pride before people (though there can be a touchy, snobbish, or overweening tendency) as it is a pride before God. It’s difficult for you to reconcile the demands that the world makes upon you with what your own inner voice is telling you to do. You tend to find real life too real, too harsh, which lends a softness and sweetness to your nature and gives you a grumpy or brooding air (I don't really understand this, but ok. I can be grumpy ahaha!!). At your worst you are given to self-righteousness of self-pity. Your independent disposition and unwavering faith in your own worth is trimmed by a long period of servitude in which you must bend yourself to the demands of other people or the press of circ*mstances until the nascent humility, which is your most endearing virtue, truly flowers. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I don't want my nascent humility to truly flower!!!

Ok in reality, I would only agree with about half of it though, the bits I've made green.

Talking about 0*...I have Uranus at 0 Aquarius...do we think this is a critical degree or not? Here is Uranus:

If your natal Uranus is critical you are extraordinarily exacting, especially of yourself, and determined to carve out some special niche in the world wherein you are the undisputed master. You are a scrapper, with clearly defined goals in life; and you will not tolerate being crossed in your efforts to realize them. You are endowed with ingenuity and a marked originality in point of view, and you know it, which may make for unendurable smugness or complacency in your temperament. Your dogmatism and bluntness in speaking your mind often antagonize and repel others, even when you’re basically right. You possess a true moral courage, ever present but particularly noticeable in the face of adversity. You are characterized by a readiness to sacrifice yourself for other people or for an ideal.

Some of its true but I don't antagonise others. I suppose I could do if I were more honest towards certain people, or just generally. I don't like speaking about my views anymore.

Hmmm I seem to miss my planets being at a critical degree by just 1°. For example by Sun is at 25° Taurus, my Mercury at 7° Taurus, my Saturn at 25° Cap and my Mars at 19° Pisces.

However I do know someone with their sun at 26° Aries and what FruityLlama posted above sounds freakishly like them!

LOL

This mostly sounds about right to me (I've always been under the impression that anaretic degrees are their own specific type of critical degree).

"When your natal Mars is critical you possess great perseverance and endurance; but you usually find yourself in a rut, stuck in the same old dead-end situations. You don’t like being under pressure but often find yourself in that position because you put off decision-making or just let things slide until you’re absolutely forced to make a stand. You may harbor secret ambitions or dreams of grandeur, together with a secret fear of successfully realizing them; so you tend to carry an air of frustrated intentions around with you. On the other hand, you mix your caution with bravado and panache and an exceptional amount of personal charm. You have a sense of fair play and a determination to shield and protect other people, which is the hallmark of an incipient heroism."

I downloaded a free sample of this book and it says critical degrees for fixed signs is 15th degrees
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B071KLLWM4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509884153&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=critical+degrees

In my experience, I've seen this many times, the year in which a progressed sun moves from one sign to another is often marked by a crisis, which sets off the transformation.

A Cap friend who only barely allows the validity of astrology wrote to me in a panic one day, asking if I had any explanation for the sudden avalanche of tragedy that came down in her life. Many things were going very wrong at once, including the death of her beloved pet. As it turns out her sun had JUST progressed into Pisces that week.

Elvis died with his progressed sun at 0° Pisces.

I have other examples. It's kind of like the Saturn Return though. Many people get through it unscathed, but enough people struggle that the astrologers took notice.

I’m not talking about the progress interpretation

The natal interpretations seem gloom and doom

I have Pluto at supposedly critical degree 22 but according to another author the critical degrees for fixed sign is 15
He said I’m supposed to be malcontent, always disgruntled, can’t pave my own way etc. I mean I don’t think most of us really pave our own ways but I am hardly just a malcontent. And IMO aspects and placements already covered so much of our personality that it seems superfluous. The part about being disgruntled which is honestly untrue but even then you can attribute that to my heavy Saturn influence, sun square Pluto, Pluto in 7th

I feel like one author alone isn’t enough for a theory to be valid.

That happened to me, five years ago. A friend I mentioned elsewhere, pointed that out again to me last week.

Thanks for sharing that, anela. I do think there is something to it. My progressed sun is at 28° Aquarius so I definitely have some cold feet about what looms ahead. I'm also having unbelievable transits in 2019. I can see how things could fall apart drastically, I know the weak spots in my life.

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Here's a video on anaretic degrees if anyone is interested:

Lots of anaretic degrees in my family, I wonder if it's inheritable. My children would be getting it from their father since I have no planets @ 29°. My son's ASC @ 29° on my husband's Pluto, trine my son's Pluto which is also @ 29°.