The Splay
We now come to the second most common planetary pattern (according to the Astro Databank): the Splay pattern. Robert Jansky preferred the more descriptive title the Tripod pattern. The Splay pattern results when three clusters of planets are uniformly distributed around the natal chart. The planets in each cluster typically form multiple conjunctions.
The Splay is the most difficult planetary pattern to identify. There are natal charts that defy categorization. They do not fit any of the seven planetary patterns discussed previously. They are too spread out, are too irregularly spread out, or lack defining features and focal points. The Splay pattern offers a possibility for those natal charts that don’t fit any other planetary pattern.
The Ideal Splay Pattern
Marc Edmund Jones and Jansky disagreed on the ideal characteristics for the Splay pattern. Jones argued that the Splay is a residual pattern, a classification for anything that doesn’t fit the other planetary patterns. He described it as neither even nor symmetrical in the distribution of planets. Jansky gave much more rigor to the definition of the Splay pattern. According to him, the ideal Splay (Figure 49) has the following characteristics:
• It MUST contain a Grand Trine;
• The pattern MUST NOT contain any oppositions, except when the orb does not exceed 10°; and
• The spread of each spoke (or ray) MUST NOT exceed 60° (the width of a sextile).
The logic behind Jansky’s narrower definition of the ideal pattern is to make the Splay pattern easily visible.
The Splay will typically contain at least one stellium by sign or house (or both).
The Splay Pattern Temperament
Stephanie Clement notes, “The personality of the Splay person might be easier to identify than the pattern itself. Here you find a person who has wide and varied interests, yet also has areas where profound attention is concentrated and directed” (Clement 2007, loc. 1045, Kindle).
The lack of oppositions in the Splay pattern results in individuals who are “free-wheeling,” according to Jansky. Operating from a sturdy base, they are difficult to upset or overturn. The requirement of a Grand Trine means they operate from a center of self-sufficiency.
Jansky refers to the Splay as the “pattern of genius.” Some individuals with a natal Splay pattern do demonstrate some sort of natural genius. The fact that the world does not contain a large surplus of geniuses is another reason that Jansky limits the definition of the ideal Splay pattern.
Once a Splay person overcomes the inertia associated with a Grand Trine, it can be hard to keep up with them.
Splay individuals tend to hold a rather narrow view of life. They tend to regard their way as the best way. They can’t see (and would never admit) that the solutions of anyone else are as good or better than theirs.
The sure-footedness of the Splay pattern can lend a heightened sense of self-worth to these individuals. They tend to have greater self-confidence and a stronger personality drive than other planetary pattern types.
Counseling the Individual with a Splay Pattern
Individuals with a natal Splay pattern tend to live life on their own terms. They have no problem being labeled “different.” When it suits their purposes, they are capable of conformity.
Great achievers with the Splay pattern tend to be rugged individualists who can stand apart from others and yet influence them. They can be a powerful influence through sheer force of personality.
Fixity of purpose is typical of Splay people. They’re unlikely to change their mind, unless it is beneficial to do so. Compromise is a life lesson that Splay individuals need to work on. Otherwise they can expect personal relationships to suffer.
Splay pattern people are well advised to focus their education on one specialty but with the possibility of pursuing several avocational studies that will become captivating ways to pass time in the future.
Splay individuals can diffuse their energies by engaging in too many projects at the same time. If they can avoid overcommitment and time their efforts right, then everything should work out okay.
If we include the possibility of the Ascendant or Midheaven serving as one of the legs in a Grand Trine, then the natal Splay pattern of Fidel Castro—communist revolutionary and former president of Cuba—includes a Water Grand Trine (Figure 50).
Jansky used a noon chart for Fidel Castro. The Astro Databank reports a birth time of 2:00 a.m., with a Rodden rating of DD, indicating there are conflicting, unverified times of birth. Curiously, both the 12:00 noon and the 2:00 a.m. birth time result in a Splay pattern. There is also a pair of oppositions in both birth times. In the chart shown here, Jupiter is opposed to both the Sun and Neptune.
Jansky included the natal chart for Babe Ruth as an example of the Splay pattern even though it includes an opposition between Mars and the Saturn-Uranus conjunction (Figure 51). Certainly, the Babe’s athletic genius was beyond question. A Water Grand Trine draws on the Moon, Venus, and Saturn. Although the Seesaw pattern is also a possibility for Babe Ruth’s chart, the Splay better fits his psychological drives and leadership.
Figure 52: Maximilien de Robespierre
The natal Splay pattern in the chart of Maximilien de Robespierre is near-ideal (Figure 52). It features a wide Fire Grand Trine between the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter-Pluto. There are no oppositions. However, the spread of one of the spokes is a trine, much wider than a sextile.
Several planetary pattern candidates exist for the natal chart of Generalissimo Francisco Franco (Figure 53). A case for the Seesaw pattern can be made by pointing to two opposing groups, one with an open space corresponding to a trine and the other being less than a square. A Locomotive pattern is possible, with Saturn as the leading planet. Mars is the apex of a Mutable T-Square with a Sun-Moon opposition. I favor the Splay pattern with the Moon, Neptune, and Pluto forming one group, the Mars-Jupiter semisextile forming a second group, and the remaining planets forming the third group.