Planetary Pictures
latin: Planetenbilder is a 20th-century German technical term without a classical antecedent.
Definition
Planetary pictures (German Planetenbilder) are three-planet combinations produced in the Hamburg-School Uranian-astrology technique by tabulating midpoints and noting which other planets aspect those midpoints. The astrologer builds an elaborate table of all midpoints in the chart, then notes which other bodies form close aspects to each midpoint; each resulting three-planet combination is read as a structural picture of the chart's themes. The codified keyword-significations are looked up in Witte's *Rule Book for Planetary Pictures* (Hamburg-School) or, for the related Cosmobiology school, in Ebertin's *The Combination of Stellar Influences*.
In Tradition
In the 20th-century Hamburg-School and Cosmobiology lineages, planetary pictures are the core interpretive output of midpoint analysis: midpoints alone are not read in isolation; rather, the three-planet picture (planet A at the midpoint of B/C) is treated as a single composite signifier with its own codified meaning. Holden situates planetary pictures as the German doctrinal answer to how midpoints should be read — as structural three-planet combinations with keyword interpretations, not isolated two-planet contacts.
In Practice
When you work in the Uranian-Hamburg or Cosmobiology methods you compute every midpoint in the chart (each unique two-planet pair has a midpoint), then identify which other bodies form aspects to each midpoint within tight orbs (typically 1°-2° for hard aspects). The resulting three-planet combination is read against the Rule Book (Witte for Hamburg School) or COSI (Ebertin for Cosmobiology), which gives a codified keyword-signification for each combination. The method extends to including the Uranian Transneptunian hypothetical points in Hamburg-School practice. Planetary pictures inform predictive work via solar arc and transit triggers to the midpoints.
Historical Origin
The technique is developed by Alfred Witte (1878-1941) and the Hamburg School in the early 20th century; Witte's *Regelwerk für Planetenbilder* (Rule Book for Planetary Pictures) is the foundational reference. Reinhold Ebertin (1901-1988) developed the related Cosmobiology school in parallel; his *The Combination of Stellar Influences* (1940 German / 1960 English) is the canonical Cosmobiology reference. Both lineages survive in modern practice; Holden's *A History of Horoscopic Astrology* (2006) gives the scholarly summary. Michael Munkasey's *Midpoints* (1990) is a major English-language synthesis covering both methodologies.
Etymology
Origin: German. Meaning: Planetenbilder — 'planet-pictures' or 'planet-images,' calque on the German pattern Bilder ('pictures, figures, images'). The English term preserves the German conceptual framing..
Further Reading
- Reinhold Ebertin, The Combination of Stellar Influences
- Michael Munkasey, Midpoints: Unleashing the Power of the Planets
- James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology