The TED Lectures, 18 Minutes, The Tredecile

Every year in Monterey, CA great minds are brought together from all disciplines to share their ideas at an event called the TED lectures. The Speakers are given 18 minutes to sum up and present their most important work. Many of these lectures are then put onto the Internet for the rest of the world to listen to thus bringing these current ideas to everyone. Here's a link to the TED Conference site: http://www.ted.com/talks.

What's interesting Astro-Wise is that each Speaker is allowed to speak for 18 minutes. That's an time allotment. If it was arrived at intuitively or haphazardly I figured there must be some higher reason for the length of these lectures and decided to figure out how it translates from the 60 minute clock to the 360 degree wheel.

I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out which aspect this would translate out to. My Math is really rusty and I'm not sure I've got it right still.

18 minutes/60 minutes in an hour = x (unknown weird minor aspect)/360 degree wheel. Right? Ew.

I came up with the 108 degree aspect. This is the Tredecile. I don't know what the ferk that is and since these smaller aspects are really difficult for me to remember I figured this would be a good way to once again try to learn the aspect.

Tredeciles were invented by Kepler. They are used in Horary Charts. They belong to the 10th Harmonic. They are 3 times a Decile aspect which is considered "slightly good." Because of the multiple of 3 they are considered slightly more positive than the "slightly good" decile. No wonder I can't remember this stuff.

This is the definition I found for them (http://en.mimi.hu/astrology/tredecile.html).

"When activated the tredecile indicates some ease in achievement." That's kind of sounding like the TED Lectures... Maybe this will get interesting...

Were the people who invented TED Blog looking at the Astrology? Did they have another reason for picking this timespace?

I don't know. TED stands for "Technology, Entertainment, & Design." The lecture series was begun in 1984 specifically for those subjects. It certainly makes sense that the 5th Harmonic, ruler of the Golden Mean, would be involved.

It's unbelievably interesting to compare this with a description of the Tredecile that is available from an article on all the 5th Harmonic aspects that I found on AquariusPapers.com (referenced down below the quote):

Last but not least, we now take a look at the least-understood aspect in the series, the Tredecile, which precipitated this article for reasons I'll make clear shortly. This is a highly specialized aspect of 108 degrees, which besides being a mythological "Sacred number" symbolizing Divine Mother Energy, is also the complementary angle to the Quintile. Thus the Tredecile indicates a very special type of unique energy that complements whatever uniqueness, gifts, or specialized quintessence are occurring at the moment in a situation.

I have seen this aspect operate in several fashions, and all seem to involve a circumstance presenting itself that perfectly fits a unique gift or need, or a gift or unique quality that fits the need of a pre-existing circumstance. The Tredecile is complementary, interactive, and specialized, the "quintessence" of a thing perfectly complementing the "quintessence" of a circumstance. When active, it seems to bring forth unique qualities in situations that involve interaction to bring forth awareness, completion, polarization, or re-polarization. The points opposite the planets in Tredecile are often associated with how the energies manifest, some need being fulfilled, some promise brought to expression, or some specialized gift or talent completed.

I have given it the keyword "SERENDIPITY." I believe this is the best descriptor for how the Tredecile works its magic. So exactly what does this word mean? We are told the definition of Serendipity involves "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for" and "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident" and "good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries."

It is a word of relatively recent origin, invented by the noted author Horace Walpole in one of the more than 3,000 letters he wrote. Specifically, we read from dictionary.com that

In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that "this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word." Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of "a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of...."

from "Quintile, Tredecile, Decile, Biquintile" by Robert Wilkinson. http://www.aquariuspapers.com/astrology/2007/01/quintile_tredec.html

I got goosebumps when I read that. 18 minutes, Wow.