The 2 Dudes Who Measured the Meter

I've been taking a bunch of notes and need to try to crank them out. This one is about two French Astronomers who were chosen to determine the length of the Meter by measuring the distance between the Equator and a Pole. The Distance would be divided by one ten-million would be the length of a Meter. Both Guys started out from Paris. One Guy went North and the other Guy went South and betweenst the twos of them they figured out the length and it was deemed that this would become the Meter. I'm American, we're all feet here, left-feet at that. The idea that measurements can be made related to the size of the World rather than some old Roman's smelly foot is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, it turns out that the measurements may be off, the story reads like a prequel to Wayne's World or Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Here's the Guys. Remember, the Virgo went North. The Leo went South.

Pierre-Francois-Andrew Mechan
b. Aug. 16, 1744 Laon, France

Sun 24 Leo; Moon Scorpio or Sagittarius; NN 24 Aries

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre
b. Sept. 16 (book says 16th, Wiki says 19th), 1749 Amiens, France

Sun 24 Virgo; Moon Scorpio; NN 17 Capricorn

The book that I haven't read is The Measure of All Things by Ken Adler. It's about how the Leo fudged his Data in order to make it work with the Virgo's Data and then didn't tell anyone. He supposedly goes a little crazy and then dies. He's a famous astronomer who discovered a bunch of comets, Hencke, for example, which was just in the news. Anyway, the two presented their work and the Virgo discovered the Leo's Errors after the Leo had died. You're supposed to read through the whole book in order to find out if the Virgo admitted the mistake or not. I assume that he didn't because Virgos are pretty practical people and they had worked for 7 years sailing around trying to gather the data. The Leo was in Spain just as War broke out and was thrown in jail for awhile because they thought he was a spy. Things just went wrong a whole lot and the Guys just wanted to get the damn project over with.

The whole story was kept under wraps until the writer, Ken Adler started reading their correspondence and realized, after 200 years, what had gone on.

It's interesting to check their charts first for trying to understand how the error could happen. The expeditions occurred between May 1792 and 1799.

The Virgo being a Virgo sorted out his calculations without a hitch. It's just that he had to decide later on what to do with the Leo's bogus calculations. The Leo got all snarled up, hence the Drama, when things didn't work he just used his Leonine creativity to fix them. And incidentally it turns out that his numbers weren't that far off and were for some reason more accurate than the mathematical figures would have been (I don't understand the reason).

Around the time that they were working on the project both Men's Mercury's went Retrograde by Progression during their 7 year voyages. Good old Merc Retrograde, I can see how that might not be the best situation for measuring the entire Globe. The Leo's Rx - 1796-97 and the Virgo's - 1797-8. Things just sort of don't go quite right during Mercury Retro, and the progression lasts for a really long time. The transits and natal Mercury's also flesh out the picture here. The poor Leo's progressed Mercury in Scorpio was hit by transiting Neptune in 1795. This accounts for his inability to think clearly but also the accuracy of his "creativity" and also why he decided to "fudge" the answers anyway and also maybe why he went insane from the guilt of what he had done. During these years the Leo's progressed Sun was passing over his South Node as well. Too busy to discover the Comets to spend time interpreting what that means I guess.

Both Men were born during Neptune-Pluto trines which fully explains their interest in Astronomy. Anything involving far-sightedness, like staring at the Heavens and surveying long distances, would come under these two planets working well together. The Virgo had the Trine very nicely aspected in a Kite Pattern with a Grand Trine of Neptune in Cancer trine Pluto in Scorpio trine Jupiter in Pisces. Sun was conjunct Mercury and opposing Jupiter. And Mercury is on the Aries point. This is a pretty sweet Kite. His Sun (will) and Mercury (thinking) could directly focus the energies of his Generation.

The Leo had the pizazz. His Neptune-Pluto trine was less spectacular. Mars in Cancer was conjunct his Neptune and Saturn was aspecting with a sextile. Mars and Neptune have charisma. Mars in Cancer gets pretty emotional when things don't go well and be less able to deal with a Mercury Rx progression. In 1801, right around the time that his nerves were getting the best of him, transiting Neptune hit his natal Pluto.

So, the part about the Secret that is buried for 200 years certainly seems like a Neptune-Pluto manifestation. Plus, the Leo's Mars-Pluto conjunction was opposing the Virgo's Mars-North Node. So it was on the Virgo's South Node. It was the Virgo's life lesson to learn how to balance his impulsiveness (Mars) with his coworker's.