Reinhold Ebertin

Definition

Reinhold Ebertin (1901-1988) was a German astrologer, the founder of Cosmobiology and author of its standard reference, The Combination of Stellar Influences (Kombination der Gestirneinflüsse, 1940; English translation 1972). Building on Alfred Witte's Hamburg School, Ebertin pared astrology down to a focused toolkit — midpoints, hard aspects, the 90° dial, transits, and solar arcs — and deliberately set houses and soft aspects aside. His way of reading midpoints is still one of the most widely cited systems in modern Western astrology.

In Tradition

Modern Western astrologers treat Ebertin as the founder of the Cosmobiology school and the author of its definitive midpoint reference. Astrologers from distinct sub-schools acknowledge his standing: Tracy Marks calls The Combination of Stellar Influences a "classic" midpoint reference, and Clare Martin cites Ebertin's observations on nodal links between partners even though her method differs. They agree his work is the standard midpoint resource; they differ on how much of the Cosmobiology framework to take up with it.

In Practice

For the historian or working astrologer, Ebertin is the figure who turned the midpoint from a fringe device into a complete interpretive system. Using his method, you build a 90° dial of the chart, find every midpoint — the halfway point between a pair of planets — along with the hard-aspect contacts, and read each one as a planet-pair combination using the gathered symbolism of The Combination of Stellar Influences. His book gives, for each pair and "planetary picture," a guiding principle plus psychological, biological, and sociological correspondences. For forecasting, you project transits, progressions, and solar arcs onto the same dial with tight orbs. Ebertin's reach goes well past self-described Cosmobiologists: psychological and eclectic astrologers who never use the 90° dial still consult his midpoint tables, and his clinical, medical-astrology bent shaped the school's lasting interest in planet-to-body correspondences. The existing Cosmobiology entry covers the school; this one covers the person who founded it and set down its central reference work.

Historical Origin

Reinhold Ebertin (1901-1988) was a German astrologer who developed Cosmobiology out of Alfred Witte's Hamburg School of Uranian astrology and launched it as a school of its own through the Ebertin-Verlag at Aalen, Germany, in the 1930s and 1940s. His Kombination der Gestirneinflüsse appeared in 1940; the English The Combination of Stellar Influences followed through the AFA in 1972. He is named the founder of Cosmobiology in Clare Martin's Mapping the Psyche and the author of the "classic" midpoint reference in Tracy Marks's The Art of Chart Interpretation.

Etymology

Origin: Proper name. Meaning: Reinhold Ebertin — German astrologer, founder of Cosmobiology.

Further Reading

• Reinhold Ebertin, The Combination of Stellar Influences
• Tracy Marks, The Art of Chart Interpretation