Astrology found me through the internet and websites that calculated my natal chart instantly,

where I then dove head first into geocities and yahoo message boards & Tumblrs & YouTube; sorting out starseeds from antisemtic coded language & weird libertarian love n light discourse & trans neptunian objects & 20,000 named asteroids. I didn’t much care for the history of astrology - of course, I learned it was a 2000+ year old magical /scientific tradition that has gone through many stages and in my early 20s fervor I discarded the stuffy old men who lived in the Hellenistic world. Obviously, the newer techniques were better, right?

Until I discovered “Hellenistic Astrology: the Study of Fate & Fortune” by Chris Brennan and the concept of sect. Sect was lost until Project Hindsight, an organization dedicated to translating ancient Hellenistic astrological, mathematical & philosophical texts into English (many for the first time), began to share their research with the astrological community in 1995. One full Saturn cycle later, the astrological community has access to the ancient Hellenistic & Islamic foundations of astrology & techniques that bring a level of pragmatic specificity. I had forgotten that astrology is older than electric lights and computers and the printing press. I had not realized that astrology is based on millennia of observation, data collection, record taking & the sacred lineages of knowledge. There are techniques that have been lost, or worse, discarded because we did not know the why of it. Why does the Moon have one zodiacal ruler & Venus has two? Why does Saturn rule two signs in a row (Capricorn & Aquarius)? Why is Mars connected to Scorpio?

Sect is the concept that is based on day and night. If the chart is set during the day, when the Sun is high, or at night, when the Sun is hidden below the Earth, different planets are stronger or weaker. This schema of strong and weak planets helps the astrologer parse out which planets to focus on (as well as rulerships & placements to the angles) when analyzing the chart. Hellenistic astrologer ancestors broke down the sky into a system that feels intuitive to me - if you’re looking at a day chart, then the Sun & diurnal planets (Saturn & Jupiter) are the strongest. If your looking at a night chart, then the Moon & nocturnal planets (Mars & Venus) are strongest. Psychopomp Mercury is neutral, belonging to no sect and both at once. The day is ruled by the Sun & the night is ruled by the Moon. This framework doesn’t take into account any planet or body past Saturn - because those astronomical bodies cannot be seen without the aid of really cool complex tools that weren’t available until the late 1700s.

The concept of sect disappeared from astrological writings for a while - we don’t really see it mentioned in astrological texts past the later part of the medieval European tradition. According to Dr Ali A Oolomi, the Islamic tradition remained fairly unbroken until the 1800s with the use of sect being a cornerstone. But, because of our common enemies of colonialism & xenophobia & lust for control, there wasn’t a lot of cultural exchange between Europe & the Middle East for…a while. And when communication & trade began again, astrology was more secretive than ever. And so within a few generations, the concept of sect disappeared from European astrology, and thus, modern astrology.

To learn more about sect, I highly recommend going to master teacher Chris Brennan & the Astrology Podcast, in addition to his book.