Astrological Birth Control Not Same as Rhythm Method

by Milky Way Maid

With all the pressure being put on insurance companies and pharmacists to not cover or offer birth control supplies or information, women may be forced to fall back on more traditional forms of birth control. Astrologers have access to an alternative to the rhythm method (also known as the Knaus-Ogino method). And if practiced faithfully, the astrological method known as Jonas-Rechnitz (aka cosmic or astrological birth control or A-B-C) claims to have as good a record as the birth control pill in avoiding unwanted pregnancy.

Studies in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s showed a 97.7 percent success rate for the Jonas-Rechnitz method , on par with The Pill. According to what I have read about this method, the fertility cycle is not necessarily congruent with the menstrual cycle, and that this accounts for the phenomenon of conception during one's menses. Such occurrences are not deemed possible under current mechanistic understanding of the female cycle, so there has to be something else going on.

The major drawback of astrological birth control is that it cannot be combined with the pill. Women who want to hedge their bets cannot use both, thinking that when one method fails the other will kick in. Taking the hormones in the pills throws the woman off her natural cycle and onto one dependent on the date she started taking her pills.

Due to the fact that taking the pill became so widespread, all other natural forms of birth control were abandoned. I provide this information more as a historical footnote --- and as an observation about astrological cycles --- than as a viable alternative for most modern women who prefer to take their pills and forget about everything else.

OK, you ask, so tell me what is this method all about? The Jonas-Rechnitz method posits that the woman is most fertile when the transiting Sun-Moon angle is the same as the Sun-Moon angle in her natal chart.

If you have an astrological program, or have a chart service print up a chart for you, it may include the angle between the Sun and Moon somewhere in the small print.

If not, it is not too hard to calculate this angle. First, translate the placement of the lights in terms of the 360-degree circle. In other words, the first degree of Aries is 1, the first degree of Taurus is 31, and so forth as you go around the zodiac through Pisces.

Say your Sun is at 22 degrees of Cancer. You have three whole signs before it, each of thirty degrees. Three times 30 = 90, to which you add 22 degrees. The total is therefore 112.

And then say your Moon is at 8 degrees of Sagittarius, or 249 on the 360-degree wheel.
Subtract the smaller number from the larger; we do not deal with negative numbers here. 249 – 112 = 137. Okay, now we have a working number to find this same angle in charts of Sun-Moon angles for the upcoming months and years.

For example, in charts for the year 1973, the angle of 137 degrees occurs on Jan. 15, Feb. 14. March 15, April 13-14, May 13, and so forth. One would abstain from relations on those days, on the two days preceding and one day after. For extra “insurance” to avoid pregnancy, one may combine this method with the rhythm method which might add another 7-14 days of abstinence to the month --- not a great hardship when one considers that many health risks of taking birth control pills are completely sidestepped.

The real beauty of this system is that it can be used either for avoiding or for trying to get pregnant. The woman who has finally found the man she wants to live with long-term, has found a pleasant home to raise children in, and has saved up funds to help support the wanted child, can discontinue her pills and after establishing a natural cycle, can hope to complete her family.

In addition, women who have difficult side effects of taking hormone pills such as depression, crying jags, and so forth, find this technique to spare both them and their families the strain of living in the same household.

Inre to the sex of the child: A baby conceived on days when the woman was fertile according to this method, reflects the sign that the Moon is in when she conceived will denote the sex of the child. If the Moon is in “masculine” signs like Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sag, or Aquarius, then there is a high probability that the child will be male. If the Moon is in the “feminine” signs like Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, or Pisces, then there is a high probability that the child will be a girl.

Women who have a natal angle that is stressful, that is a conjunction (zero degrees), square (90 or 270 degrees) or opposition (180) tend to have high odds of conceiving defective, stillborn, or miscarried children, or have a problem pregnancy. In that case, the source book suggests that they try using the rhythm cycle to conceive a healthy baby.

Women who have a very irregular or spotty menstrual cycle are advised to try using another method to determine when they are most fertile. The method that is most often employed uses observation of mucus thickness to determine when she is ovulating. This is called the Ovulation Method or Billings method.

SOURCE: Condensed from “Natural Birth Control” by Art Rosenblum, Aquarian Research Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, 1973. Book does not list vendors of tables of Sun-Moon angles. I do not find such charts on the internet either, but there is this related article at http://www.astrologyweekly.com/astrology-articles/fertility-jonas-dicu.php