20-2 Considerations
20-2 Considerations
20-2 Considerations
CONSIDERATIONS
Volume XX Number 2
MayJuly 2005
CONTENTS
The Golden Section: A Cosmic Principle Theodor Landscheidt Michael Jackson Virginia Reyer The Trial of Michael Jackson Ken Gillman To Judge or Not to Judge Ruth Baker The Seventh House John Frawley Conversations with the Dead Edwin Stuart Time & the Law Axel Harvey A Princess & a General Walt Masters The Qualities: Astrologys DNA Ken Gillman 3 32 35 37 41 45 56 60 66
Remembering Shelagh Kendal, 80 Margaret Millard & John Willner Books Considered 84
These Considerations
OW CAN ASTROLOGY WORK? I dont know how it can, but it does. I experience it doing so all the time, is a typical astrologers response. We tend to mumble something about empirical knowledge and happily ignore the mechanics involved. In doing so weve let many of the findings of Theodor Landscheidt slip by unnoticed. He provided strong evidence for the actual workings in his different published papers, especially in the thought-provoking article on The Golden Section that we published ten years ago and proudly reprise here, with Christiane Landscheidts permisssion. It is a rueful reminder of the intelligence we have so recently lost. He was close to proving that it is the q and its ever-changing relationship to the different members of the planetary system that is the force that animates the horoscope. There is no smoke and mirrors mystique, no need for any as-above-so-below synchronicity, there are clear physical connections even if physicists have so far been unable to recognize them. Movements of the planets occur as they do because of the gravitational pull of the q. In turn, where they are, how concentrated they are in their different orbits, causes the solar forces to be reflected back and this prompts physical changes in the q itselfa billiard-ball affect. Theodor was able to predict different levels of solar activitysolar flares, sun spots and magnetic storms from the combined positions of the planets in their orbits, predictions that have proven to be correct. In turn, he successfully predicted the appearances of El Nio and La Nia, the irregular warming and cooling of the Pacific waters off the coast of Peru, and much else, based on his accurate forecasts of solar activity. And, as we all know, the differences between the q signs are directly related to the seasons, which in turn are due to our planets tilted orbit about the q. Combine the known effects of the q on our life on earth with the changes in our stars magnetism due to the varying positions of the planets and, to my mind, we have the basis for a physical explanation of the workings of astrology. This issue of Considerations appears at one of those moments in history that would be unheard of elsewhere but is so typical of life in these United States: the Michael Jackson trial is in progress. Both his birth chart and the one for the start of his trial are examined. All will probably have been concluded by the time you hold this in your hands, but at least you will see why everything went as it did. Theres plenty of other stuff to chew on in the upcoming pages. Dont let me hold you back. Enjoy!
Figure 1: Master cycle of the solar system. Small circles indicate the position of the center of mass of the planetary system (CM) in the ecliptic plane relative to the Suns center (cross) for the years 1945 to 1995. Heliocentric representation and marking the limb of the Sun make it easy to see whether CM is above or below the Suns surface. The Suns center and CM can come close together, as in 1951 and 1990, or reach a distance of more than two solar radii. Between these two extremes, the Suns orbital angular momentum can increase or decrease forty-fold.
center, marked by a cross, for the years 1945 to 1995. The large solid circle marks the Sun's surface. Most of the time, the center of mass is to be found outside of the Sun's body. Intriguingly, the Sun's rather irregular oscillatory motion is regulated by constellations of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Conjunctions and oppositions have the strongest impact. When Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune form a more or less wide conjunction, the Sun's center and the center of mass are wide apart; they can reach a distance of more than two solar radii. When Jupiter alone opposes Saturn, Uranus and Neptune on the other
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side of the Sun, the two centers come close to each other. Sometimes they make a very close approach as in 1951 and 1990. In the Sun's irregular cyclic motion between these two extremes its orbital angular momentum can in-crease or decrease 40-fold. If there is transfer of orbital angular momentum to the Sun's spin momentumand there is evidence of itthis can affect solar activity. I have shown that special planetary constellations linked to crucial change in the Sun's orbital momentum make it possible to predict solar-terrestrial events dependably. Thus my forecasts of energetic solar eruptions and geomagnetic storms, checked by astronomers and the Space Environment Services Center in Boulder, achieved a hit rate of 90% though the predicted events show a very irregular distribution. As to details, I refer to my book Sun-EarthMan (Landscheidt, 1989). I also forecast the end of the Sahelian drought three years in advance (Landscheidt, 1983).
Figure 2: The Sun's dynamics displays five-fold symmetry, thought to be reserved to the realm of life. "Big hands" with "big fingers" emerge, when the 9-year running variance of the Sun's orbital angular momentum is plotted. Big hands and big fingers cover cycles of solar activity with mean lengths of 178.8 years and 35.8 years, which are reflected in terrestrial cycles
The dynamics in the Sun's motion around the center of mass can be defined quantitatively by the change in its orbital angular momentum. The rate of change is usually measured by derivatives. In some respects the running variance yields more informative results. It applies the wellknown smoothing technique of running means over two, three, or more consecutive readings to a running variance, the square of the standard deviation. Figure 2 shows the 9-year running variance of the Sun's orbital angular momentum for the years 720 to 1070. And what does it reveal? "Big hands" with "big fingers"! These five-fingered hands were an utter sur-
prise to me when I saw them first on my computer screen. Scientists conceive that the Sun is a body of "dead" matter. As such the Sun should not display five-fold symmetry. Two-fold, three-fold, four-fold, or six-fold symmetry like crystals, but not five-fold symmetry reserved to the realm of biology. I realized at once that the unexpected pentadactyl pattern was hard evidence of the fact that the Sun's dynamics and life forms on Earth are subjected to the same structural laws. This unexpected extension of the domain of five-fold symmetry to the realm of "dead" matter is all the more important as planets and their constellations are involved in the generation of the pattern governed by the number five presented in Figure 2.
Figure 3: A fractal pattern in the Sun's dynamics. "Small hands" with "small fingers" appear within big fingers, when the 3-year running variance of the Sun's orbital angular momentum is pictured. Big encircled numbers mark the tips of big fingers. Small fingers below are indicated by small numbers. Big arrows and small triangles designate the start of big and small fingers respectively. Small fingers are related to solar-terrestrial cycles of shorter length. The vertical dotted line marks the initial phase (1933) of a big hand. This nodal point coincided with the establishment of Stalin's and Hitler's dictatorship and the Great Depression.
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a given factor reproduces the original object. Self-similarity on different scales is a preeminent feature of fractals. A good paradigm is an unending sequence of Russian dolls, one nestled inside the other. Fractal substructures become visible by amplification. The Nobel Prize-recipient Wilson has shown that renormalization transformations involving a change of scale can serve as a universal tool in research. If you do not get ahead in your research, choose a coarser or a finer scale. Figure 3 is the result of an amplification of the pattern in Figure 2. It shows the 3-year running variance of the Sun's orbital angular momentum. I was astounded when I first saw that there are fractals in the Sun's motion. The big fingers in big hands contain small hands with small fingers. The big encircled numbers at the top mark the tips of big fingers. The small fingers below are indicated by small numbers. Big arrows and small triangles at the bottom designate the starts of big and small fingers respectively. The vertical dotted line labels the start of a big hand in 1933. It should be noted in passing that this dynamically fundamental period coincided with the establishment of Stalin's and Hitler's dictatorship and the Great Depression. The preceding start of a big hand in 1756 was again a crucial period. The Seven Year's War in Europe gave Great Britain as an ally of Prussia the opportunity to establish its Empire by the conquest of India and Canada. In my book Sun-Earth-Man I have given an explanation why the Sun's dynamics, regulated by the planets, has an effect on human behavior.
years and the thinnest varves to very dry years. The analysis covers data from A.D. 700 to 1894.
Figure 4: Annual birth rates in U.S.A. since 1909, after Poir (1994)
Figure 4, from N. Pont (1994), demonstrates that HBFC's are also to be found in man. It shows annual birth rates in the U. S. A. since 1909. The U.S. population does not increase at a steady linear rate, but fluctuates in a big-finger pattern. The starts of big fingers (BFS or S) go along with minima and big finger tips (T) with maxima in the birth rates. The next bottom in the U.S. population cycle is to be expected around 2007, the next BFS. Half small fingers (HSFC = 42 months) are connected, among other relationships, with a well-known cycle in stock prices.
Figure 5: Annual-mean surface air temperature averaged over the Northern Hemisphere from 1850 to 1987, after Jones (1988).
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Figure 6: Association of the Palmer Drought Index, measuring the percentage of area covered by drought, with epochs of BFT's and BFT's, marked by arrows and indicators for start (S) & tip (T).
Another example from a wealth of inexhaustible relationships is presented in Figure 6. It shows the plot of the Palmer Drought Index for the U.S. from 1900 to 1989. The vertical axis measures the percentage of area covered by drought. Here big finger tips (BFT) come in, which represent maxima in the running variance of the Sun's orbital angular momentum. The arrows mark consecutive epochs of BFS's and BFT's. Up to 1933, the starts of big fingers (S) coincided with drought maxima and the tips (T) with minima. After the BHS 1933, indicated by an open triangle, the correlation with BF phases continued, but a phase reversal changed the rhythmic pattern. Now BFT's coincided with drought peaks and BFS's with bottoms. The new rhythm has been stable since 1933. So there is a good chance that it will continue till the next BHS in 2111. For some years around the next BFS epoch 2007, farmers in the U.S. should expect a wet climate. Up to now, both science and astrology have not been able to solve the problem of long-range drought prediction with their special means. Only when their faculties are united in a genuine interdisciplinary approach do solutions emerge that were not accessible before.
There is also convincing evidence that big fingers are dominant in relation to small fingers. Figure 7 from E. R. Dewey shows the response to a cycle in U. S. pig-iron prices. Flat triangles indicate the epochs of SFS's. The big arrow marks the BFS in 1867 that resulted in a phase reversal in the time series. Before 1867 SFS's coincided with bottoms in the prices and afterwards with peaks. Figure 8, after E. R. Dewey (1973), presents the percentile deviation of U.S. stock prices from the 9-year moving average trend, from 1830 to 1942. Flat triangles point to the epochs of SFS's that are related to extrema in the deviations. Fat arrows mark BFS's 1867 and 1933 which induced phase reversals. Before 1867 SFS's coincided with bottoms in the stock prices. After 1867 this pattern changed and SFS's went along with price peaks. The BFS 1933 induced another reversal, and SFS's again linked to bottoms in stock prices. After the BFS 1968 all deep international bottoms in stock prices1970, 1974 and 1982were closely connected with SFS's. This is why I had been predicting for years the
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next worldwide deep bottom in stock prices would occur in 1990. I wrote: "Because of the imminent ... event (SFS), the epoch of which is 1990.3, a bottom may be expected such as occurred in 1970, 1974, and 1982. But this will also be the start of a new rally." (Landscheidt, 1989). Both of these came about, the international bottom in stock prices and the ensuing rally with new record highs. The next worldwide bottom is to be expected in 1998, the coming SFS epoch.
Figure 8: Percentage deviations of U.S. stock prices from the 9year moving average trend for 1830 to 1942, after Dewey (1973).
Figure 9: Five-fold symmetry, represented by a pentagon, shows intimate relationship with the Golden section.
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Figure 10: Proportions of a Greek Temple that illustrate the Golden Section
In mundane astrology we investigate cycles from one planetary conjunction to the next one, from new Moon to new Moon, and so forth. When we come across a sequence of outstanding maxima that emerge at reasonably regular intervals, we automatically think that we are dealing with crest phases of a cycle the ascending nodes of which precede the crests by 90. We expect that special cosmic constellations should mark these zero phases. This inference, however, may be misleading. Cycles often possess inner structure that conspicuously deviates from the standard pattern of a sinusoidal wave marked by conjunction, opposition and squares. Figure 11 presents an instructive example. The meteorologists D. A. Bradley, M. A. Woodbury and G. W. Brier (1962) investigated 16,056 heavy monthly rainfalls observed at 1,544 U.S. weather stations from 1900 to 1924 (solid line) and 1925 to 1949 (dashed line) and looked for correlations with the Moon's phases (marked at the bottom of the figure). The peaks of the patent cyclic pattern are statistically significant. Yet they
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show no direct connection with any of the lunar phases. Thus, most scientists dismiss a correlation between the lunar cycle and rainfall. Yet there is a conspicuous connection that is easy to see when we know how to look for the golden section. Within cycles from full Moon to full Moon and from new Moon to new Moon the rainfall maxima coincide with the major (0.618) of the golden section, whereas minima go along with the minor (0.382). The arrows, I added to the plot, point to this unexpected exact relationship between the extrema of the rainfall data.
Figure 11: Heavy monthly rainfalls, observed at 1544 U.S. weather stations from 1900 to 1924 (solid line) and 1925 to 1949 (dashed line), after Bradley, Woodbury & Brier (1962).
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no exact connection with new Moon or full Moon. In a 6-month study at Ewell Technical College, wheat seeds were germinated every Friday. Six days later they were removed and measured for germination and stem length. Temperature was kept constant. The curve in Figure 12 plots the measured total stem growth per batch of 25 seeds. The horizontal axis measures weeks. The data of the 18th and 22nd week were spoiled; so the curve shows interruptions at these points. New Moon and full Moon phases are marked at the bottom by filled and open circles. Minor sections (0.382) within the cycles from new Moon to new Moon are indicated by open triangles pointing downwards. They coincide with peaks in the data. Minor phases (0.382) phases within cycles from full Moon to full Moon are designated by open triangles pointing upwards. They go along with minima in the wheat growth. This relationship is all the more important as the results published by N. Kollerstrom are corroborated by wheat growth experiments performed by L. Kollisko (1936).
Figure 13: Monthly sea surface and land air temperature anomalies 1961-1989 for the tropical zone extending from 20N to 20S, after Houghton, Jenkins & Ephraums (1990). Strong peaks designate ENSO events (El Nino + Southern Oscillation), a cyclic large scale atmosphere-ocean interaction with climatic effects throughout the Pacific region and far beyond.
The connection presented in Figure 13, from J. T. Houghton, G. J. Jenkins and J. J. Ephraums (1990), solves a seemingly untractable problem of climatology and meteorology: the prediction of El Nino. It represents a cyclic large-scale atmosphere-sea interaction which has climatic effects throughout the Pacific region and far beyond. It is the only true global-scale oscillation that has been identified so far. This phenomenon is also called an ENSO event because of its links with the Southern Oscillation, a fluctuation of the intertropical atmospheric oscillation. Every three to seven years normally cold waters over the entire eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean show a dramatic warming of several C which are as-
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sociated with very large anomalies in global weather (Peixoto and Oort, 1992). The inhibition of the upwelling of nutrient-rich cold waters causes the death of a large proportion of the plankton population and a strong decline in the numbers of surface fish, especially anchovies. Birds and tuna, which depend on small fish for food, leave or die. The gas from decaying fish and birds is said to be so powerful that it can blacken the paint of ships passing by. These conditions do tremendous damage to the Peruvian economy. The curve in Figure 13 plots the monthly sea surface and land air temperature anomalies 1961-1989 for the tropical zone extending from 20 N to 20 S. The stronger peaks indicate ENSO events. After the BFS 1968, marked by a big arrow, all SFS's, designated by open triangles, coincided with peaks in the plot. The same is true for all major sections (filled circles) within cycles formed by consecutive SFS's. In the case of SFC's longer than eight years, also the minor sections (filled diamond) went along with peaks. Troughs in the time series were rather exactly linked to midpoints (small arrows) in between consecutive crucial phases. Before the nodal phase of a big finger in 1968, the pattern was reversed. SFS's, as well as majors and minors with small finger cycles, coincided with troughs, and the midpoints between these phases went along with peaks. The SFC running from SFS 1990.3 to SFS 1998.6 is longer than 8 years. Thus, the minor in 1993, the major in 1995, and the SFS in 1998 should coincide with peaks in the monthly temperature anomalies. As to 1993 this has become true already. The years 1995/1996 and 1998/1999 should see further positive temperature anomalies. Now we may look back to Figure 6 to understand it entirely. The consecutive starts (S) and tips (T) form cycles of half big fingers within which the major (filled circles) alternatively points to maxima and minima in the drought covered areas. There is also a phase reversal in this pattern after the nodal point BHS 1933.
Figure 14: Distribution of energetic solar eruptions within the 11-year sunspot cycle, from EOS (1988).
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Figure 14, from EOS (1988), presents an important case: the 11-year sunspot cycle. Its inner structure has been openly exposed to inspection by a legion of scientists and even some engaged astrologers, but no one has realizedas far as I knowthat its maximum falls on a minor (0.382) of the golden section. So I bring a secret to light that has been patent all the time. It seems to be true: we are only able to see what we already know. Interestingly, the solar latitude around 35, where Sunspots first appear in a new cycle, is indicated by the minor of the distance from equator to pole. The bars in Figure 14 indicate the distribution of highly energetic solar eruptions within the 11-year cycle. They are also related to the golden section. The sunspot cycle is a fractal; it comprises two sub-cycles: rise to maximum and fall to minimum. The strong eruptions concentrate on the major (0.618) of the rising part, and on the minor (0.382) and major (0.618) of the falling wing.
Figure 15: Changes in the snow cover of the Northern Hemisphere between January 1973 and March 1989, from Houghton, Jenkins & Ephraumis (1990)
Figure 15, from J. T. Houghton, G. J. Jenkins, and J. J. Ephraums (1990), shows the changes in the snow cover in the northern hemisphere between January 1973 and March 1989. SFS's are indicated by arrow heads. The minor (0.382) within SFC's is marked by filled circles. Minima in the snow-covered areas coincide with SFS's and relative maxima with minor sections. Around 1993as could have been predicted from the patternthe snow cover reached a maximum again. The next minimum is expected in 1998. Now follows a rather complex example which corroborates our impression that Nature's imagination is more fertile than man's. Figure 16, from R. Mogey (1991), presents Wheeler's index of international battles. The data are structured by big finger cycles, the starts of which1867, 1901, 1933, 1968, and 2007are designated by triangles. Alternatively, these starting phases are related to minima and maxima in the number of
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battles. The next minimum of this kind, a peaceful period, should develop around the year 2007. Now the golden section comes in. We take the lengths of the respective big finger cycles and subject them to the golden section so that we get two inner points, the distance of the minor from the big finger's starting-phase and the distance of the major from this start. In our plot, the minor points are marked by filled circles and the major points by stars. We get a consistent alternating pattern, as with the starts of the big fingers. In the first complete big finger cycle on the left, the minor (filled circle) coincides with a peak in battles and the major (star) with a trough. In the following cycle the relation is reversed. Now the minor points to a trough and the major to a large peak, the First World War. The next cycle shows another reversal. The minor coincides with the battles of the Second World War and the major with a trough in the index. The Gulf war and the war in Yugoslavia consistently coincide with the star on the right. The epoch of this major phase is 1992. We are still living within the range of effect of this active phase. I stressed this already at a conference of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles in Chicago in 1992. Meanwhile we have got Somalia, Rwanda, and Yemen. Further forecasting is easy. The next period of relative peace is to be expected around 2007, and the next war peak about 2021. These are rather special forecasts because we are dealing with specific time series. This is different from working with symbols. Figure 17, from G. W. Brier (1967), shows rainfall, measured by U.S. stations, in relation to the lunar day from the Moon's lower culmination to the next one. We are interested in the subcycle designated by small arrows at the top. They run from lower transit to upper transit and from
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upper transit to lower transit. The minor sections (0.382) within these subcycles are marked by fat arrows. They coincide with maxima in the precipitation data.
Figure 17: Rainfall and the lunar day (24.85 h), after Brier (1987)
Chronobiologyresearch in biological clocks and circadian rhythms is a promising new field of science. Figure 18, from A. T. Winfree (1987), shows some results found in man. The displayed circadian rhythms run from midnight to midnight ( q A IC to q A IC). Start and restart of the respective cycles are marked by arrows. About 10 minutes before 3 p.m. the threshold is higher by half. As can be seen in the bottom plots, at the same time numbness from anesthesia lasts several times longer than at night. So we ought to visit the dentist in the early afternoon, just at the time indicated by the major of the golden section, marked by triangles. The curve at the top right plots the retention of alcohol in the blood. It reaches a maximum in the morning just after 9 a.m., at the time of the minor. Implications for the practice of medication and drinking are obvious.
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Figure 18: Circadian rhythms in the Golden section, after Winfree (1987). Within cycles from midnight (q A IC) to midnight, marked by arrows, threshold of tooth pain and duration of numbness from scandicain or lidocain injection show a strong maximum at the major (0.618) of the Golden section, whereas the minor is linked to a maximum in retention of alcohol in the blood.
and dark, never missing a beat, always felt deep in the chemical essence of what we are. We are well adapted to the pervasive rhythm of Sunrise and Sunset." This is also true of the rising and setting of the Moon and planets. Figure 19 shows a schematic representation of the diurnal circle. Sun, Moon and planets rise at R, reach upper culmination at UC, set at S, pass through the lower culmination at LC, and return to the rising point R. Actually, these are four cycles of different quality: from rising to the next rising, from upper culmination to upper culmination, from setting to setting, and from lower culmination to lower culmination. As these are real cycles that could have an inner structure, it is tempting to try what we get when we link individual birth times to the diurnal circle. The psychologist M. Gauquelin from the University of Paris was curious to do this. When he took the birth times of thousands of eminent professionals from
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well-defined vocational groups and investigated the corresponding distribution of Sun, Moon and planets in the diurnal circle, he got a highly significant deviation from the expected random distribution as to Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, sometimes also Venus. The frequencies were considerably higher about one hour and a half after rising and upper culmination, and to a lesser degree at the opposite points. Though Gauquelin's statistical work was state of the art and could be reproduced with new data, there was much criticism because the accumulations in the diurnal circle did not fall directly at or before the cardinal points rising, culmination and setting, but built up in between , and not even symmetrically. Yet I could show (Landscheidt, 1991) that the accumulations are exactly related to the cardinal points in the diurnal circle when the golden section is taken into ac-count.
Figure 19: Schematic representation of Golden section divisions within cycles formed by the rotating earth.
In our diagram, the origin of the diurnal circle of 360 is set at R, the rising point. We choose anti-clockwise direction, following the earth's rotation. To begin with, we look for the minor of the golden section in those four cycles we get, when we start from qualitatively different cardinal points. Multiplication of the circle of 360 by the minor 0.382 results in 137.5. This is where we get when we start at the rising point R, the
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origin 0. The respective position is marked by a filled circle at the bottom right. Starting from LC, S, and UC results in 227.5, 317.5 and 47.5. We have only to add 137.5 to 90, 180 and 270. If we get a value greater than 360, we have to subtract 360 to stay within the diurnal circle of 360. The four minor positions, all designated by filled circles, form a cross, I call Golden Cross 1. As we have seen, cycles can be nested in cycles because they are fractals. The horizontal semicircles from rising to setting and from setting to rising have got different qualities as day and night. The vertical semicircles with celestial bodies ascending and descending are qualitatively different, too. Thus, we also calculate the positions of the minors in the four semicircles. We get the positions marked by open circles, which form Golden Cross 2. I was rather surprised when I saw that these golden crosses mark just those directions in the diurnal circle singled out by M. Gauquelin.
Figure 20: Linear representation of the diurnal circle of t, y, u and w at the birth times of 11,000 prominent French professionals (top) and 19,000 eminent professionals from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany (bottom), after M. Gauquelin (1960) and J. M. Addey (1976). The peaks in this distribution consistently coincide with Gold Cross 2 (GK2) and the bottoms with Golden Cross 1 (GK1),
Figure 20, after M. Gauquelin (1960) and J. M. Addey (1976), is a global, linear representation of Gauquelin's results. The curve at the top plots the positions of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Moon in the diurnal circle for 11,000 birth times of prominent French professionals. The distribu21
tion for 19,000 birth times of eminent professionals from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany is plotted at the bottom. All of the peaks in both plots coincide with the directions in the diurnal circle indicated by Golden Cross 2 (GK2), whereas the bottoms go along with the sections of Golden Cross 1 (GK1). Arrows point to these crucial positions.
Figure 21: Mars distribution in the diurnal circle related to birth times of 2,299 famous sports champions (bottom) and 4,506 actors and scientists (top) with character traits similar to sports champions, after M. and F. Gauquelin (1976). All of the peaks fall exactly at sections of Golden Cross 2 (GK2), indicated by triangles.
The connection gets even more precise, when we isolate special planets and well-defined professional groups. In Figure 21, after M. and F. Gauquelin (1976), only the distribution of the planet Mars in the diurnal circle is shown. The distribution at the bottom was generated by the birth data of 2,299 sports champions. The plot at the top is related to the birth times of 4,506 scientists and actors with special biographies that stress character traits also found with successful sports champions. All of the maxima in the distributions fall exactly at the sections of Golden Cross 2 (GK2), indicated by arrows. Figure 22, after M. Gauquelin (1973), presents the distribution of Mars for quite a different vocational group: 1,345 painters at the top, 703 musicians in the middle, and 824 writers at the bottom. These are typical artists. Their biographies shun character traits usually found with sports champions. There is a complete reversal in the connection with the golden section patterns. Golden Cross 1 (GK1) is now narrowly correlated with peaks in the distribution and Golden cross 2 (GK2) with valleys. Yet in some respects the groups differ. The musicians and writers show a connection with Golden Cross 4 (GK4) in different regions of the diurnal circle. This is a new feature that deserves special attention.
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Figure 22: Diurnal Mars distribution based on the birth times of typical artists, after M. Gauquelin (1973). There is a reversal in the Golden section connections as compared to Fig. 20 & 21.
Figure 23: Schematic representation of Golden section divisions within cycles formed by the rotating earth as in Fig. 19, but based on the major (0.618) instead of the minor. The resulting Golden Crosses 3 (GK3) and 4 (GK4) are correlated with diurnal positions of q , e and planets beyond u at the birth times of prominent professionals.
groups. The plots showed the deviations from these expected frequencies in the 72 sectors. The results were published at the 6th International Astrological Research Conference in London. From this material I selected the results for Sun, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Then I chose for each of the five celestial bodies and each of the six professions the three strongest deviations from the expected frequencies and recorded how often they fell into 36 sectors of 10. I obtained the distribution presented in Figure 24. It was subjected to a Gaussian low-pass filter. The peaks alternatively conform with Golden Cross 3 (GK3) and Golden Cross 4 (GK4), derived from the minor. Out of 90 cases, 65 fall into 16 golden cross sectors and only 25 into the 20 sectors in between. A statistical evaluation of this distribution yields 2 = 28 for 1 degree of freedom. The probability that this pattern is the result of chance is less than 1 in 6 million. This outcome is strong enough to support a working hypothesis that can serve as a base for further detailed investigations. Naturally, these results have to be checked by replications with new data. Yet it should be kept in mind that the upshot conforms with a wealth of other relationships with the golden section that are to be found in many different
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fields and form a consistent pattern. It should be noted, too, that the golden section is a principle of nature, as we shall see in the last part of this paper
Figure 24: Special diurnal distribution of q, e, i, o and at the birth times of 10,464 eminent professionals from six vocational groups. Peaks consistently fall at Golden Crosses 3 and 4 (GK3 & GK4), and troughs at Golden Cross 2 (GK2)
Golden Aspects
The golden section divisions within cycles formed by the rotating earth may be considered a set of astrological aspects. The complete set emerges when we superimpose the two schematic diagrams in Figures 19 and 23, related to minor and major of the golden section, and compare all of those angles we find on the right and on the left of the origin 0. Imagine that you are standing at the rising point R, or 0, of the diurnal circle and are looking over to the setting point at 180. Then the superimposed golden section divisions on your right form the set 21.25, 42.49, 47.51, 68.75, 111.25, 132.49, 137.51 and 158.75. The angles 338.75, 317.51, 312.49 and so forth, on your left repeat the set on your right when subtracted from 360. If we extend the fractal beyond the semicircle and include the quarter circle, the golden section operation generates the additional angles 34.38, 55.62, 124.38 and 145.62. It is not an arbitrary procedure to divide cycles in halves and quarters. Obser-
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vation shows that spectral peaks can appear at twice and four times the driving frequency, or at half or a quarter of it (Burroughs, 1992). Statistical tests indicate that the twelve golden aspects in the complete set are reliable.
Figure 25: Angular separation of Sun and Galactic Center in birth charts of 600 celebrities. Results shown are from maximum entropy spectral analysis (plot on left) and Blackman-Tukey power spectrum (on right).
The result presented in Figure 25 shows that significant results can be achieved with relatively few cases. I took a sample of 600 celebrities from the German encyclopedia Das kluge Alphabet and measured the angular separation of Sun and galactic center. This makes sense as both of these elements are centers of regulation that are part of a cosmic hierarchy (Landscheidt, 1973). The left plot in Figure 25 shows the result of a maximum entropy spectral analysis of the distribution of the angular separations. The maximum entropy methoddeveloped by J. P. Burg (1975)is a new form of spectral variance analysis which shows much higher resolution than earlier methods, especially at lower frequencies. The four sharp peaks solely point to angles derived from golden section divisions: 137.5, 68.8, 47.5 and 34.4. The plot on the right shows the Blackman-Tukey power spectrum (Blackman and Tukey, 1959). It is much coarser than the maximum entropy spectrum, but can be evaluated by special tests of significance. The first two peaks are well beyond the 99% confidence level. Similar investigations into 108 strong earthquakes, 132 heavy volcanic eruptions, 1,024 scientists, and 988 chief
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executive officers have yielded highly significant results that corroborate the validity of the golden aspects, though in a more differentiated way than presented here. It would go beyond the frame of this paper to explain these additional results in detail. According to my experience, the interpretation of golden aspects in individual charts and also the prediction of trends by means of golden transits yield practical results that go beyond the possibilities of traditional astrology. I shall delve into this complex topic in a special paper focusing on practice.
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cated by the resonance ratio 1 to 2. No wonder that women have got a more stable health and live longer than men. Even mentally women are more stable. Yet there are always advantages and disadvantages. Now we can understand, too, why on the 17th day of the 28-day menstrual cycle the chance of a cure after breast tumor surgery is so much better than at other times in the cycle. The major of the 28-day cycle just falls at the 17th day (28 multiplied by 0.618 is equal to 17.3). Cancer is linked to disorder and instability. To fight it, the most stable phase in the menstrual cycle, the major section, seems to be best for a cure. Yet it should be taken into consideration that the menstrual cycle is an individual feature that can have different lengths in different women.
Considerations XX: 2
The exact length of the 11-year sunspot cycle appears, when multiplication by the golden number is applied to a half big finger (HBF): 17.88 years [HBF] x 0.618 [G] = 11.05 years [Sunspot cycle] Thus, it becomes apparent that the length of the magnetic Hale cycle and of the 11-year sunspot cycle is connected with fivefold symmetry in the Suns oscillations about the invisible center of mass of the solar system and the constellations of Sun and planets that generate it. We could also say that the length of these important cycles of solar activity can be explained in astrological terms. Yet this aspect becomes accessible only when we follow Kepler, Galileo and Newton, who integrated astrological or alchemical imagination with methods and insights of modern science. Astrologers should acknowledge as well as scientists that we need a genuine interdisciplinary approach that combines the all-embracing astrological world-view with recent results in progressive science. The more obvious 11-year sunspot cycle is much less prevalent in climatic data than the magnetic Hale cycle, though there are much more investigations looking for potential connections between the 11-year cycle and climate. The only solid link has been established by K. Labitzke and H. van Loon (1990). It correlates solar flux with quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), 700 mb height and surface temperatures.
Further Connections
Those readers, who have been patient enough to come to this point will be able to see the Golden section anywhere in the cosmic environment. J. L. Lehman (1994), stimulated by findings of Project Hindsight, has drawn attention to a special Mars pattern in the diurnal cycle which emerges when births during the day are separated from births during the night. In both of the separated groups only one maximum and one minimum appeared in the distribution, but such that the maximum in one group matched the minimum in the other group, and vice versa. A Pearson test reveals that these patterns reach a much higher level of significance than the Gauquelin "plus zones. If J. L. Lehman had been aware of the cosmic function of the Golden section, she would have seen a close connection with golden aspects. The frequency distribution of dayborn painters and musicians from the Gauquelin data shows a maximum close to 68.8 after rising, whereas the maximum of the night-born members of this group is near 68.8 before rising. Night-born politicians and actors show the same pattern. With military leaders and sports champions the maxima shifts from 68.8 to 111.3. It should be noted that 111.3 and 68.8 represent the major and minor of a half circle of 180. The two groups investigated by J. L. Lehman also result from a division into halves. This is only the rough picture. A closer examination
29
yields details that point to differences between the professional groups. It would be interesting to deal with the frequency distribution of Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in the diurnal circle related to the birth data of 1,053 lesbians, presented by F. Schneider-Gauquelin (1993). Some of the most outstanding patterns that could explain lesbian inclinations astrologically are not linked to Gauquelin "plus zones" but to golden crosses. Yet this would go beyond the frame of this paper. I hope that those readers who are in resonance with the golden section will do investigations of their own.
References
Addey, J. M. 1976. Harmonics in Astrology. Romford: Fowler. Arnold, W. I. 1963. Small Denominations and Problems of Stability of Motion in Classical and Celestial Mechanics. Russ. Math. Surv., 18, 85. Blackman, R. B., & J. W. Tukey. 1959. The Measurement of Power Spectra. New York: Dover. Bradley, D. A., M. A. Woodbury, & G. W. Brier. 1962. Lunar Synodical Period and Widespread Precipitation. Science, 137, 748. Brier, G. W. 1967. Rainfall and Lunar Tides. In The Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology, ed. R. W. Fairbridge, 815. New York: Reinhold. Burg, J. P. 1975. Maximum Entropy Analysis. Ph. D. thesis. Stanford University. Burroughs, W. J. 1992. Weather Cycles: Real or Imaginary? Cambridge University Press. Dewey, E. R. 1973. Cycles. New York: Manor Books. EOS. 1988. Transactions. American Geophysical Union. Oct. 18, 1988. 1. Fairbridge, R. W., & C. Hillaire-Marcel. 1977. An 8000-Year record of the "DoubleHale" 45-Year Solar Cycle. Nature, 286, 413-416. Friis-Christensen, E., & K. Lassen. 1991. Length of the Solar Cycle: an Indicator of Solar Activity Closely Associated with Climate. Science, 254, 698-700. Gauquelin, M. 1960. Les hommes et les astres. Paris: Denoel. 1973. Die Uhren des Kosmos gehen anders. Bern/Munich/Vienna: Scherz. Gauquelin, M., & F. Gauquelin. 1976. The Planetary Factors in Personality. Paris: Laboratoire d'Etudes des Relations entre Rhythmes Cosmiques et Psychologiques. Greene, J. 1979. Journal of Mathematical Physics. 20, 1183. Houghton, J. T., G. J. Jenkins, and J. J. Ephaums. 1990. Climatic Change: The IPCC Scientific Assessment. Cambridge University Press. Hrushesky, W. J. M., 1994. Timing is Everything. The Sciences. July/August, 1994, 36. Huntley, H. E., 1970. The Divine Proportion. A Study in Mathematical Beauty. New York: Dover. Jones, P. D., 1988. Hemispheric Surface Air Temperature Variations: Recent Trends and an Update to 1987. J. Climate, 1, 645-660. Kappraff, J., 1991. Connections. The Geometric Bridge Between Art and Science. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kollerstrom, N., 1984. Wheat Germination and Lunar Phase. Correlation, 4, I, 25-31. Kollisko, L., 1936. The Moon and the Growth of Plants. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Company. Kolmogorov, A. N., 1979. Preservation of Conditionally Periodic Movements With Small Change in the Hamiltonian Function. Lecture Notes in Physics, 93, 51.
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Labitzke, K. &H. van Loon. 1990. Association Between the 11-Year Sunspot Cycle, the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, and the Atmosphere: a Summary of recent Work. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, A, 330, 577. Landscheidt, T., 1973. Cosmic Cybernetics. Aalen: Ebertin. 1983. Solar Oscillations, Sunspot Cycles, and Climatic Change. In Weather and Climate Responses to Solar Variations, ed. B. M. McCormac. Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 293-308. 1986. Long Range Forecasts of Energetic X-Ray Bursts on Cycles of Flares. In SolarTerrestrial Predictions, ed. P. A. Simon, G. Heckman, and M. A. Shea. Boulder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 81-89. 1987. Long Range Forecasts of Solar Cycles and Climatic Change. In Climatic History, Periodicity, and Predictability, ed. M. R. Rampino, J. E. Sanders, and L. Koenigsson. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold, 421-445. 1989. Sun-Earth-Man: a Mesh of Cosmic Oscillations. How Planets Regulate Solar Eruptions, Geomagnetic Storms, Conditions of Life, and Economic Cycles. London: Urania Trust. 1990. Relationship Between rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere and Impulses of the Torque in the Sun's Motion. In Climate Impact of Solar Variability, ed. K. H. Schatten and A. Arking. Proceedings of a conference held at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Greenbelt: NASA Conference Publication 3086, 259-266. 1991. Der goldene Schnitt: ein kosmisches Prinzip [The golden section: a Cosmic Principle]. Meridian 1/92. 37-41 and 2/92, 31-35. 1992. A Holistic Approach in Astrology and Science. Matrix Journal, 1992 Summer, 23-38. 1994a. Astrologie: Hoffnung auf eine Wissenschaft? [Astrology: Hope of a Science?], Innsbruck: Resch. An English translation is not available. 1994b. Global Warming or Little Ice Age? Contribution to a festschrift published in honor of the geologist R. W. Fairbridge in the Journal of Coastal Research. Lehman, J. L., 1994. The Mars Diurnal effect: Gauquelin Sectors Meet Classical Method. Kosmos, 22, No. 2 (Spring), 22-46, and simultaneously in Astrology Quarterly, 64/2 Spring 1994, 3-25. Mandelbrot, M. M., 1983. The Fractal Geometry of Nature. New York: W. H. Freeman. Mason, B. I., 1976. Towards the Understanding and Prediction of Climatic Variations. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 102, 478. Mitchell, J. M., C. W. Stockton, and D. M. Meko. 1979. Evidence of a 22-Year Rhythm of Drought in the Western States Related to the Hale Solar Cycle Since the 17th Century. In Solar-Terrestrial Influences on Weather and Climate, ed. B. M. McCormac and T. A. Seliga. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 125-143. Moser, J., 1973. Stable and Random Motions in Dynamical Systems. Princeton University Press. Peixoto, J. P., and A. H. Oort. 1992. Physics of Climate. New York: American Institute of Physics. Poke, N., 1994. Social Dynamics and the Investment Cycle. Cycles, 45, 5, 256. Schneider-Gauquelin, F., 1993. The Planetary Effect in Ordinary People. Correlation, 12 (2), Winter 1993/1994, 16-19. Thumshirn, W., 1975. Unsere innere Uhr. Zurich: Schweizer Verlaghaus. Winfree A. T., 1987. The Timing of Biological Clocks. New York: Freeman.
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Michael Jackson
VIRGINIA REYER
ICHAEL Joseph Jackson, an exceptionally talented entertainer, is the seventh of nine children, the son of Katherine, a Jehovahs Witness, and Joe Jackson, a steelworker. In 1962 his father, a strict often ill-tempered disciplinarian, organized a family musical group, which Michael joined a year later when he was aged 6 years. By the time he was 11 the Jackson Five had already sold six Gold records, and he made his first solo record at 13. In the 1980s he was named Artist of the Decade. His album Thriller is the biggestselling solo record of all times and his earnings from it have been enormous.
Jackson was born the day following a full moon, with the w in n squaring the rising degree in d and applying to D u. The w at the equalhouse 10th cusp has brought him world-wide publicity, while the afflictions from the w D, the u S and the o X to the Ascendant have combined to stultify his psychological development. u S the Ascendant, combined with the u Z o and the w D u, has also
32
Considerations XX: 2
given him bad skin troubles. He has a disease called vitilago, which causes white spots to appear on his skin. He appears to have bleached himself in an attempt to cancel out the spots, which act destroyed his natural protective skin safeguards, making sunlight dangerous to him. There are also suggestions that he suffers from Lupus, an auto-immune disease. With i/ = IC (daring to bring about dramatic changes) he has undergone cosmetic surgery on several occasions. q A can relate to someone who undergoes a total conversion of the self in a moral or religious sense, but here it seems to relate to Michael Jacksons many attempts to physically alter himself. The Ascendant at 1650d is very close to the l of i at 1644d, and this has given him an excitable nervous personality. The i l has undoubtedly helped him in succeed as a dancer but it must be very difficult to live with. r A i is another indication of his great artistic abilities, as is the e/r midpoint at the IC. The square from the w to the Ascendant has given him an apparent carefree attitude, but because of w D u afflicting the rising degree there are emotional difficulties and problems in any kind of relationship. These problems are only heightened by the square from the 12th house t to e, his Ascendant ruler. Michael Jackson has been married twice. His first wife was Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis). They married on 18th May 1994 in a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic. They divorced on 18th January 1996. He married his dermatologists assistant, Debbie Rowe, on 14th November 1996 in Australia. This marriage, which has been called a rent-awomb arrangement, also ended in a divorce, on 8th October 1999. The second wife was given a multi-million-dollar payout to give up the rights of the two children from their marriage. She is currently suing in Santa Barbara Supreme Court to regain custody of the children.
The great wealth he has earned from his recordings is indicated by the w close to the 11th Placidus cusp (income from the profession) with her dispositor y strengthened both by its mutual reception with the angular MC-ruler, u, and by its close contact by antiscion to .
The square from t in s, the sign of its detriment, to the r A i and to his Ascendant-ruler e from the 12th house is very dangerous. With r and e being the co-rulers of his 5th house of children, play and games, to-
33
gether with the severe affliction of the w D u and o X the Ascendant, we see his desire to stay a child forever in Neverland (the name he has given to his home) and avoid growing up into us adult world. q A confirms his anti-social tendencies. These same aspects have led him to be accused of being a serial pedophile. u Z o, with u opposing the Ascendant and squared by the elevated w, is a warning that his darkest secrets could eventually come out into public scrutiny. He is a moody person who suffers from loneliness; with the q A in the 4th house, he is very much a lonely genius. These sharp aspects that involve the Ascendant also indicate intense paranoia, terrific illusions, and persecution feelings. He claims he is a victim of a conspiracy o on the 6th cusp points to poor health and difficulties with alcohol and/or drugs. Rumor has it that on more than one occasion he has checked into rehabilitation sanatoriums attempting to cure his alcoholic habits. In 1993 he was accused of molesting a young boy. The charges were dropped after he paid the parents over $22-million.
and has made a list of twenty-five enemies, which include famous Hollywood personalities.
His most recent accuser, a boy with only one kidney, claims he was plied with alcohol and then sexually molested in February and March 2003. Jackson turned himself in to the police to answer these charges at 12:05 PM on 21st November 2003 in Santa Barbara, California. He was booked at 1:53 pm the same day. The following day he was arrested at 10:24 AM (solar eclipse of 23rd November was at 114 c, D natal ). He was released on a $3-million bail. The arrest warrant alleges multiple counts of child molestation. Although brought up as a Jehovahs Witness, on 8th December 2003, just 16 days after his appearance at the police station, he became a member of the Nation of Islam. The coincidence of the dates is such that one is tempted to cynically suggest a relationship between the two events, this dramatic switch away from being a member of the Jehovahs Witnesses occurring simply to gather some form of support. Within days several heavyset members of the Nation of Islam were seen patrolling around the grounds of Jacksons estate, apparently guarding him from intruders. There is the clear indicator of u Z o paranoia in his horoscope, but there is also the religious-conversion indication of q A . His 2004 solar return, cast for the site of the trial, has the q at the IC, A t, from where it is S i at the MCunexpected attack on his reputation. e, the Ascendant-ruler, is retrograde in g, closely opposed by the w from the 9th houselegal problems.. The lunar return of 9th March 2005, at which time the trial was in its second week, has u at the MC opposed by t, both square to the Ascendant at Santa Maria. The unfortunate L is rising with the ^; there is a close conjunction of the two lights in n in the 5th house. The next lunar return, for 6th April 2005, has y opposing the q and the a Ascendantopposition from those in authority. t, the Ascendant ruler, is F y from the 11th, where t is A o. There is a wide w A i in the 12th house, with the w exactly C o. These are indications of restraints to his freedom.
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HE TRIAL began on 28th February 2005 with transiting r opposing Michael Jacksons (a showdown, initiation into the facts of life), transit i opposing his natal q (lifted overnight to highest pinnacle of fame, or dashed to the ground in ignominy), and, appropriately, transit e aspecting his natal r (his hidden actions and secrets are discussed openly in public).
Jackson is signified by the 7th house and its ruler, his accusers by the Ascendant and its ruler. Both of these rulers are exalted: the 7th house ruler, t, is in ; the Ascendant ruler, r, in n. There is a sextile from the 11th house r A i to the Ascendant, and a trine from the same conjunction to the Descendantat Jacksons birth there was a r A i at his IC, sextile to his Ascendant and trine to his u. Ruler of the Ascendant in the 11th house shows that Jacksons accuser was a child (11th house is the 5th from the Descendant) when he came into contact with the defendant. o at the 11th cusp could then relate to Jackson plying the young boy with alcohol, yet wherever o is can just as easily point to false testimony. The 11th house also represents the jury. The movement of the w will tell us something about events during the
35
course of the trial and how these affect both public opinion and the final outcome (w rules the 4th). The w is in the sign of her fall close to the 7th cusp, pointing to the intense public focus on the defendant. Her initial aspect is to F r, the significator of the prosecution, and this is just 4 off from being exact at the start of the proceedings. This tells us that the prosecutions initial statements had a positive influence on the jury. The w then trines i, moves on to trine the q, is G t, F u, and finally F e. Each of these contacts identifies different important phases of the trialthe aspect of the w to i, for example, probably symbolizes Jacksons unexpected appearance in his pajamas during the second week of the trial. The ws final aspect, its trine to e is the most important of this series of aspects simply because it is the final aspect the w makes before moving into the next sign. e is in the 12th House and n is the very worst sign e can be in; there the planet is extremely debilitated. It is also afflicted by its square to . e rules the 2nd (evidence of the prosecution) and 6th (defendants selfincrimination) houses, and is also involved with the 3rd house (the testimony of the witnesses the prosecution brings). The result of the trial depends, therefore, as it should, on the believability of the evidence and witnesses the prosecution presents. The inherent weakness of e, suggests these can be undermined and called into question by the defense, who will say the accusing boy is a liar. The placement of t, exalted in , the significator of the defendant, as the most elevated planet in the chart, suggests that such attacks on the truthfulness of the accusations will be successful. In a non-jury case both the judge and the verdict are signified by the 10th house, its ruler and planets located in the 10th, which makes sense as in that situation the judge is the sole arbiter and will decide the verdict himself. In the case of a jury trial, however, the situation has changed. Now it is the jury who hand down the verdict, while the judge presides over the trial and directs the jury whenever necessary. The Michael Jackson trial has a jury. The judge continues to be signified by the 10th house, its ruler and planets located in it, but which house now signifies the verdict? It would seem that it should be either the 11th house, which is where the jury is located, or the 4th house, which is where we find the final outcome of the trial. Verdict and outcome are not synonymous; the verdict is guilty or not on each of the various charges; the outcome is the result of the sentencing, which will be the result of a subsequent hearing on another date. Even so, allocating verdict to the 4th house appears more correct than placing it in the 11th. If this is correct, then with the w ruling the 4th house, we see that her first aspect is to r, the significator of the prosecution, and just as the w goes to r, so the verdict-outcome would appear to go to the prosecution, which means that Michael Jackson will be found to be guilty as charged.
36
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The following chart of my own, 'Will the hospital do me any good? is a telling example of a chart which at first sight does not look too promising. There is no planetary hour agreement (although by way of mitigation the hour ruler, r, is angular), the w is in the Via Combusta and not being within orb of any other planet is Void of Course at the time of the question, and the Ascendant is almost in the last degrees of d. However, this cannot be brushed aside as an invalid chart. The ascending sign of d and its ruler e describe the querent's mind and body accurately. e, significator of the querent is in the 6th house of bodily infirmity. r, the hour ruler, rules the 12th house of hospitals and the 6th house is ruled by t, significator of surgery. It was a complicated judgment because the querent was severely disabled and there were many factors to take into account, one of which concerned the total unsuitability of his wheelchair. Had I not judged the chart I would not have been able to give him the information he needed, which turned out to be correct and helpful.
W
38
Considerations XX: 2
ordinates of his residence as I was there with him at the time of the question.
There is no planetary hour agreement, but the hour ruler, r, rules the 12th house of confinement and is angular. The w is in the Via Combusta, but in view of the querent's state this is not surprising. Robert, as querent is signified by the ascending sign of d and by its ruler, e. This describes him accurately as thin, with piercing eyes and a razor-sharp intellect. e is in detriment in the 6th house of sickness. Lilly says, If the Lord of the Ascendant be in the 6th it protracts the disease and is an argument of much affliction therein1.
Sign y t y u r y t q Exalt t u r q Trip y t y w e t y y Term u t y r r e u r Face u t e y w y r y
q w e r t y u ^
Robert's illness is described by the sign on the 6th house cusp, x and its ruler, t, and by the w's sign, also x.2 The w is in the sign, triplicity, term and face of t, showing that Robert is totally controlled by his illness and disability. She is peregrine, in fall and Void of Course in the Via Combusta. The severity of the case is shown by the weak state of the 6th ruler, t, who is peregrine and in detriment. The sign on the 6th cusp, x is a fixed sign indicating an illness of long duration3. x is connected with bladder ailments4 and Robert's current trouble is located in the bladder. Lilly says that when the 6th house ruler is stronger than the Ascendant ruler (as it is in this chart), the disease is likely to increase. Places of confinement are represented by the 12th house and therefore r is the significator of the hospital. r, angular in the 7th house of the doctor,5 ruled by y, is strong and in her own term and also rules the hour. Although strong, r is afflicted by her application by square to a maliciously peregrine and detrimented t. The w separates from G r; one hospital appointment has been cancelled. Will the hospitalization do any good? There is no applying aspect between Robert's significator e and r the hospital, and, as mentioned, the w is Void of Course. The aspect between r and t is by a difficult square.
1 2
Christian Astrology, p.284. Ibid., p.282. 3 Ibid., p.248. 4 Ibid., p. 97. 5 Ibid., pp. 54 & 282. 39
t also rules surgery and is conjunct the fixed star Vindemiatrix. Ebertin writes of this configuration that it brings 'danger of injury' and Robson connects it with rashness. With t in detriment and peregrine, r applying by square aspect, and the w Void of Course, peregrine and in fall, an operation doesn't seem to be a very good idea. The 10th house ruler, u, rules the medicine or the treatment, and therefore signifies any drugs which will be given to Robert. u is posited in the 11th house of hope and confidence, but is in fall and retrograde. Lilly says that if the 10th house ruler is unfortunate the medicine is improper6. Therefore it doesn't seem that any prescribed treatment will have the desired effect. The presence of the L in the 10th does not bode well either. The pressing problem is the wheelchair, which as Robert's property is represented by the 2nd house ruler, the w. Its debilitated condition makes it the weakest planet in the chart. As the present chair is utterly useless I looked for a ray of hope. The w is almost within orb of a trine to fortunate y who also rules the 7th house of the doctor. With y so strong and conjunct the 11th cusp I thought that at least the chair situation might be improved in time. The end of the matter for Robert is shown by the 4th house ruler, the q. Angular in the 7th house of the doctor, the q is the natural symbol of those in authority to whom application would need to be made for the necessary funding should a new chair be recommended. The q is peregrine, but in the sign and triplicity of y and in mixed reception with the 10th house ruler u to whom he applies by trine aspect. The mutual reception between Robert's significator, e and that of the doctor, y, made me think that the doctor would be sympathetic to his special needs. I was not able to give Robert much by way of good news about his actual illness and he does not like prevarication. I told him that I did not think the doctors would advise an operation and that drugs would not be very effective. However, because the w, significator of the chair, was so nearly within orb of a trine aspect to y and because r and y are the strongest planets in the chart, I though that at least the chair situation would be improved. ^ is in the 3rd house of short journeys! The hospital doctors eventually decided that an operation would be too risky in view of Robert's weak state. A new drug was prescribed, but had to be abandoned because of severe side effects. But the doctors did decide that a new wheelchair was a necessity, and a mould was made and tried out with great success. After a much delay and frustration the necessary funding was agreed and Robert was provided with an excellent new chair which enabled him to get up from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day which greatly pleased him, even though his .general condition remained basically unimproved. Sadly Robert left us in 2001we still miss the comfort of his love.
6
Ibid., p. 282.
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A woman asked a horary: When will I meet a man? Her planet was closely conjunct two other planets, so I asked her, What about the two men that you are already seeing? They don't count! she replied. Indeed, the lack of any reception between these conjunct planets made this clear: they may have come together, but there was no glue to hold them tight. The opposition of first and seventh houses divides the chart into two. The eastern side, centered around the first house, is our side; the western side, centered on the seventh, is for the other people. So if the natal chart has most planets clustered around the Ascendant, we usually find the native comparatively self-contained. If most planets are on the other side of the chart, the native has a keen involvement with the outside world. When the Lord of the Ascendant or the Lord of the Seventh is placed near the opposite angle, the point is made all the more clearly. Lord of the Ascendant on the seventh cusp: you chase the boys. Lord of the seventh on the Ascendant: the boys chase you. A natal chart had the Lord of the seventh just on the first cusp, showing exactly that: the native was very popular with men. This planet, furthermore, was conjunct the Ascendant ruler by antiscion. As antiscion shows covert things, we see that she was forever being lured into illicit affairs. In the nativity, we can learn a great deal about the marriage and how the partners will relate to each other by studying the first and seventh houses and the relationship between their ruling planets. We must always be aware, however, of the other house of marriage: the tenth. The further back we look in the astrological literature, the more we find marriage located in the tenth, rather than the seventh house. The reasons for this are still relevant today. The tenth is marriage seen as a social function: the dynastic or royal marriage would be an example here. The seventh shows marriage as a union of two people. Especially when considering natal or horary charts for people of Indian or Pakistani background, the tenth can have far more to do with the issue than the seventh. There is a similar difference between the Arabian Part of Marriage and the Parts of Marriage of Men and of Marriage of Women. The latter relate to the tenth-house conception of marriage, while the former shows the seventh-house side of it. Morinus called the triangle of houses based on the seventh the Triplicity of Marriage or Love. He said that there are three ways in which man is joined to his fellow man. Most importantly, is that of the body, which we call Matrimony and which has the seventh house. Second in rank comes union by blood, which constitutes Brethren and Kindred, in the Third House. Finally comes that of simple benevolence or favor, whence do arise friends, in the 11th house.
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Considerations XX: 2
Union by body is not, however, always harmonious: we are just as tightly engaged when we are wrestlingso the seventh is also the house of open enemies. The astrologer does not have so much scope for judging battle charts nowadays, but this meaning of the seventh is still important. In judging charts for sporting contests, we weigh the first house against the seventh house to find out who will win. If the chart is a horary, we work mainly by the planets relative dignity. If it is a chart cast for the start of the event, dignity has little importance and we work primarily from the movement of the planets. Such event charts can give results of great accuracyeven to the extent of allowing prediction of the final score, as I have demonstrated on TV on numerous occasions. The problem is that the techniques do not work for day-to-day matches. They work excellently for the high-profile, one-off' games like cup finals, but are no use at all at 3 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, when fifty or sixty first-class football matches are kicking off at the same time, with similar charts. No help in winning the pools, then! The first-seventh axis is also what we consider in charts for court cases. In a straight contestan arm-wrestling match, for instancewe weigh the first and the seventh to see which is the stronger: that person will win. A trial chart has the notable difference that the case is decided not by wrestling one to one, but by the decision of a judge and jury. In a horary chart about a civil action, the relative strength of the rulers of the first and seventh houses is less significant than their relationship with the rulers of the tenth and the fourth. If the Lord of the first or the seventh has a lot of essential dignity, it usually shows that this person has right on his side. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily mean that they will win. The ruler of the tenth shows the judge, or, more broadly, the judicial system. It is not necessary to distinguish between judge and jury. If there is reception and aspect between the ruler of the tenth and one or other of the parties involved, that party will winright or wrong. The fourth house is they end of the matter, which phrase has a specific meaning in legal contexts: it is the verdict. In court, of course, everyone gets the verdict, whether they win or lose. In the chart, the verdict is like a prize: whoever gets to it will win. So if our horary shows the Ascendant ruler applying to conjunct the ruler of the fourth, we have good news: the querent gets to the prize and wins the case. Criminal cases are different, as they are not a straight fight: they are the person against the Crown. When considering the outcome, we must look at what is going to happen to the accuser's significator. If it is about to lose a lot of dignity, we see him being convicted. If improving its position, he will go free. These charts show with surprising frequency the significator entering its fall: the person is, quite literally, being down. As a general principle, it is remarkable just how literally we can take the
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astrological chart. As well as emotional partners, the seventh shows our business partners. Judgments on this matter need to be approached with a dose of common sense: it is easy to make judgments grounded firmly in fairy-land. We should not expect to find the kind of relationship between business partners that we would between husband and wife. It is not even significant that there is no reception between their planetsprovided that they both share an interest in the matter at hand. That is, translating the astrology into legal life terms: it doesn't matter whether or not they like each other; what matters is that they can work towards a common goal. Many judgments go astray by feeding the wrong expectations into the chart. Do we want a business partner with whom we will enjoy workingas we make our way to the insolvency courts; or do we want a partner with whom we can succeed? If the latter is the case, his planet must show some essential dignity, to show that he has some gifts to bring to the business. Ideally, however, it would be strong, but not quite as strong as our own planet. We don't want to lose control! The idea of partnership puts the doctor or the astrologer in the seventh houseif they are on the case at the time. Generally, doctors and astrologers, as people of learning, belong in the ninth. But if I am ill, my doctor becomes my seventh house in the chart for the illness. He is seen as my partner in the business of my getting well. Similarly, in a horary chart the astrologer is shown by the seventh house: the querent 's partner in arriving at the truth. If the astrologer asks his own question, he does not get the seventh as well as the first: one house is quite enough for anybody, astrologer or not. In charts on seventh house matters, meanwhile, we can assume that the seventh house has better things to do than signifying the astrologer, so we should not read ourselves into the chart. While the seventh is the house of those closest to us, it is also the house of those of least significance. It is the house of any old person. So if I ask out of idle curiosity, Will Madonna win an Oscar this year? Madonna would be given the seventh house. It is said to be the house of fugitives, but I have always found more success in taking the natural house of the person concerned. So when my under-footman goes missing, I usually take him as the sixth house (servants) rather than the seventh. A particular example of the open enemy is the thief. We may not know who he is, but the act of theft is considered as having made his enmity open, in contrast to the office gossip spreading scandal about us, who remains a secret enemy (twelfth house). If an article has been stolen the lord of the seventh is one candidate for significator of the thief. We do need to be careful here, as thief and spouse are both shown by the seventh. Seeing the significator of the lost object in the seventh house can lead us to start slinging accusations of theft. Experience shows that,
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Considerations XX: 2
more often than not, it means only that the husband has picked it up and forgotten about it. The planet associated with the seventh house is the w. On one level, the w is natural ruler of the peopleof any old person. But we must remember the basis on which our chart is constructed. The Ascendant is the place where the q rises. It is then, as it were, the natural place of the q. It is only fitting that we should then find the w, the celestial partner of the q, in the seventh, the house of marriage and of union.
EONARD First of all, there was Leonard. Ill talk about him first, because Leonard was an a and a likes to be first. Leonard was a typical Aries in that he projected a lot of self-confidence, at least on the outside. His rising sign was s and he had u and y very close to his ascendant, so he had dark hair and beard, dark eyes behind tinted glasses, a slightly imposing, serious manner, and a stocky build. He was a large, strong fellow, about 61 and well over 200 lbs. In high school he used to enter bench pressing contests, something I didnt hear him boast about but was mentioned in an altogether different context. Occasionally hed talk about things he did in his younger days (even though we were still in our Twenties at the time) that he later regretted. One of them involved a group of buddies who played cards on the weekends and who persuaded Leonard to invite his weightlifting coach to a game, during which Leonard conspired with his Bridgeplaying associates to cheat the coach out of a bunch of money. Another of these dark escapades was when he worked as a back-alley abortionist. He talked about one or two cases where the primitive water pressure method he used didnt work for some reason, causing the poor woman to start moaning in pain, while Leonard packed his stuff and made a quick exit. He had his w in c, which might make a person prone to stretching the truth, even where the negative side of things is concerned, but I dont
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think he was the type to exaggerate. One area in which you could see his c w at work, however, was in some of the big plans or schemes he came up with for his group of friends. One of these not-quite-realistic ideas was that all of usabout ten guys and girlswould work together as summer camp counselors in northern Michigan. We actually had an interview around a big table in a conference room somewhere in the suburbs, but only a couple of us ended up being offered jobs, which was not surprising, since others, including myself, were definitely not camp counselor material. Leonard could have done it, however, since he was an experienced elementary school teacher. This seemed an odd profession for such a big, intimidating man, but he had a surprising gentle manner sometimes and liked working with young kids. Perhaps it was connected with his s ascendant, q A r, and rising y F o in the 5th house. His sensitive side also came out in the poems he occasionally wrote, and which I only saw when they ended up in the attic of a house I rented that he had formerly occupied before moving out and leaving Detroit.
Im not sure why he left the city, since I had left myself on an extended journey, and when I came back, the circle of friends from the year before had drifted apart and Leonard was gone. He and his close friend, Walter, whom he had known since high school and had traveled to Europe and done many other things with, somehow ended up teaching school in Canada, where Walter was born. At one point they both bought motorcycles and on a return visit to Detroit rode into town wearing Viking-type helmets with horns on them.
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Considerations XX: 2
Back in Canada, according to what I heard, their sense of fun, adventurous spirit, and tendency to misbehave on occasion eventually went a little too farat least for the small town they were living inand several things they did, at least one of which involved the local ministers wife, led to their forced departure. They then went their separate ways, with Walter getting out of the teaching field and ending up in British Columbia, while Leonard was exiled to a school on a reservation further north in Canada. I dont remember the last time I saw him but I remember the last time I heard from him when we were both still in Detroit. He called me up and said to come over. I agreed to and Leonard, knowing my unreliability and unpredictability in those days, added, For sure! I promised, but got distracted by something I cant begin to remember and didnt keep my word. The occasion I do distinctly remember was one when we had spent the whole day together. Early in the day a group of us had taken some kind of drugsdowners, as we used to call themand then went driving around on various errands, urgent missions, or items of business. The main thing we had to do was go see this woman, Goldie, who managed the company that owned a number of properties we were going to be painting. This was Leonards latest schemefour or five of us painting houses together. Because of the drugs, I found everything we did that day, including the meeting, fascinating and sort of dream-like, even though I subsequently realized I didnt really want to paint houses. It was too depressingtaking these ghetto apartments or little houses in the inner city and slapping a coat of white paint over the interior, so they could be rented out again to some more poor tenants. But as we were walking toward Goldies downtown office building, I remember Leonardwho at the time was involved in an off-and-onagain relationship with an African-American woman who was the mother of one of his studentsmentioning to me the fact that he was only attracted to black women, and asking me why I thought that was so. I didnt really know what to say. Then later on that same day, in the evening, the others had gone somewhere else, while Leonard and I went to visit a mutual friend, Joe. We were talking with him while he lay on his living room couch and complained about how he hated his teaching job, Detroit, and life in general. Trying to shake him out of his negative mood, Leonard asked him what he thought about the fact that one day with no warningWhoom! suddenly your life is over. He said it twice in his deep voice. Whoom! What about that? But Joe had an answer for everything (Well, I dont have the nerve to kill myself, so what Ill do instead..). As we were leaving, Leonard said to me, That guy has it all figured outeven death. About a year later I heard that Joe had changed his life completely
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and was traveling around, sleeping in his car, and overextending his credit cards. I would guess that today he is alive and well and a lot more content than he seemed that evening, whereas Leonard died a few years later, just as he imagined. What happened was that he had married a Native American woman from the reservation where he worked and had a child by her. At the time of his death in mid-December 1971, he had gone on a trip somewhere and was hitchhiking back home, when the van he was riding in skidded on some ice, spun around, and Leonard was thrown out the back and broke his neck. Walter said they buried him in the woods. I started studying astrology not too long after that day with Leonard in 1969. A few seeds had been planted in my mind and then one day after I had taken some speed, I stayed up all night reading a book about how to calculate and interpret horoscopes, and the next morning I was an instant astrologer and started telling my friends all about themselves. More than thirty years later, Im still not very good at interpreting horoscopes, but what I now wish Id said to Leonard back then would concern his cw in the 8th house V u near his ascendant. He wondered why he was only attracted to black women, and I would explain about his w in c in aspect to u. Not only is such a man likely to be drawn to women from another country, culture, or race, but also the aspect between the w and u can indicate a preference for dark coloring in a womandark hair, eyes, and skin. It may sound shallow, but there are valid psychological reasons behind it. The other thing I would have mentioned would be the importance of channeling his restless c energy into something concrete. u needs to be anchored or grounded in something. If you let your c flights of fancy and emotion carry you away too far, eventually you get pulled back down to earth and the landing may not be a soft one. Leonard had already had his first Saturn return the year before his death, and the question is whether he learned everything from it that he should have. Suppose, for some reason or other, a person doesnt do whatever it is theyre meant to do, assuming most of us have some sort of purpose to serve in this life. What happens then? Is it possible that your life can be foreshortened because of mistakes you have made that took you down the wrong path? Im not really sure. Personally, I feel like Ive been saved again and again from bad choices Ive made along the way. However, I can say I did do an abrupt about-face when u came around the first time. I gave up the drugs and the carefree but irresponsible rootlessnesssince my w is in c alsoand decided to express this energy in a more intellectual manner, the way I had before the late Sixties caused everyone to start acting out their fantasies and living for the moment. People in general may be quite tired of hearing about how special the late Sixties were, but for many baby boomers those few intense years
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Considerations XX: 2
were both the best of times and the worst. Like many others, I felt more alive and packed more experience into that all-too-brief brief phase than I have during any comparable amount of time since. However, I also think there is such a thing as being a little too much aliveso alive that you may not live for very long. I think this is what would have happened to me, if I hadnt changed, and maybe it was what happened to Leonard. The bottom line is I dont know. I dont know if anything I could have said to him then would have made any difference, but I would have liked to have tried. I wish I could have given him some astrological advice and a little more insight into his complex personality, but since you cant talk to someone who has been dead for thirty years, I can only imagine the conversation we might have had.
IKE THE PILOT Of the many friendships I had in the late Sixties, one of the few that endured throughout the Seventies was with a fellow named Mike. Mike himself also had a friend named Mike, who visited him occasionally when he was in town. Ill call them Mike C. and Mike A. The two of them had known each other ever since they were kids, and Mike A. grew up to be a Navy pilot. I remember my friend, Mike C., saying that when they played dodge ball in school and Mike A. had the ball, he knew there was no escaping those sharp, beady eyes. Mike A. must have had good eyesight, because you would surely need it to land a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier at night in the rain, which he himself admitted could get a little hairy. I only met Mike the pilot a few timeslike I say, he was a friend of a friendbut on two of those occasions he asked me to do his horoscope. I dont remember the first time, but I do the second. He was in town while on leave and he and the other Mike had been out fairly late at a bar and stopped by my house on their way home and got me out of bed. Mike wanted me to look at his horoscope again, which I did, and I dont know what I told him, but Im sure it was fairly worthless. I think it says something, however, when a fellow has been out drinking and instead of trying to pick up a woman or do something stupid, he gets the urge to have his horoscope read. I wonder if he didnt have some sort of premonition about the futureor one possible future anyway. He was born (see Figure 2) with e in c just minutes away from an exact opposition to i in the 8th house. This might have given him some intuitive hunch about the circumstances of his death, especially knowing that his profession was an inherently dangerous one. His t was also in the 8th house, if you use equal houses, and his q at 0 c was also S i in the 8th. Those are just a few highlights from his chart. There were other relevant aspects, of course, such as his w and r in z, the respective rulers of his 10th house of career and his as-
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cendant, F imore aspects showing a connection to aviation, but also emphasizing the meaning of that 8th house i. That impromptu visit by the two Mikes was sometime in the midSeventies and I didnt see Mike the pilot again. In January 1983 I read a small article in the newspaper that said he had been killed while testing a plane that had been reconditioned. Apparently he was no longer taking off from the decks of ships at sea, but perhaps had gotten into something that was just as dangeroustrying out aircraft that had some kind of problem or work done on them. He was using a backup system to fly the plane in question, when for some unknown reason it went out of control and crashed in a cypress swamp outside of Foley, Alabama (near Pensacola FL) at 10:56 AM, Jan 28, 1983.
At the time of the crash, transiting y and i in c were both conjunct his e and opposite his i in the 8th. Their midpoint was only 3 away from an exact opposition to his i. Transiting t in n was also squaring both transiting i and his natal i. It seems obvious now that what I should have focused on in my quick horoscope reading for Mike was his upcoming i opposition, which happens to most people between the approximate ages of 39 and 42. Since i in his chart strongly aspected personal planets, this transit was all the more important. Astrologically, it would be one of the biggest things that would ever happen to him. The way to handle this transit is to be prepared to make major changes in your life. Better yet, dont wait for the changes to come along
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Considerations XX: 2
but anticipate them. Most people start feeling dissatisfied with their current life or suddenly develop some strong interest in something new or feel somehow that its time to do things differently, and these feelings must be respected and acted upon, as long as they dont involve behavior thats too irresponsible or crazy. My chart has some very similar aspects to Mikes. My w in c opposes i in the 8th, and my t is also in the 8th. At the time of his crash, I had recently quit my job and was working part-time while writing about astrology and philosophy in my spare time, which is what I really wanted to do. A few months later my wife and I moved to a different state where I knew no one, had no job, and had to start over from Square One at age 40. That was my mid-life crisis, but it was actually an exciting and creative time for me. I should have emphasized to Mike the importance of his upcoming i opposition and raised the idea of his getting out of flying airplanes entirely before his 39th birthday, since to continue to do so only would increase the odds of giving a negative meaning to that strongly aspected i in his 8th house. Where i is concerned, there is usually an element of surprise or unpredictability, and while its impossible to precisely anticipate accident-prone i periods and to stay at home in bed on those days, there are certain steps or precautions we can take to lessen the odds of something bad happening to us. I dont believe that we have total control over what i transits bring by any means, but you cant tell me that, for example, a driver who always fastens his seatbelt and follows safe driving practices isnt decreasing his chances of being in a fatal car accident, regardless of his horoscope. But on the other hand, if you engage in skydiving or auto racing or even testing jet aircraft, its obviously a different matter. Mike was a Navy pilot and it probably would have been hard for him to give that up and simply work behind a desk for a couple of years before he could retire from the military after 20 years with a full pension, but this is what he could have done. Im just sorry I didnt suggest it. HE TRAVELER The last person Id like to talk to here is Hugh. I first met him when we were college freshmen and eventually I became part of a group of classmates that included Hugh. One of Hughs big interests at that time was the outdoors. I remember the two of us teaming up in a physical education canoeing class our freshman year. At the end of our sophomore year, he organized a bicycle trip through New England that four of us went on. At the end of our junior year, I drove with him out to Colorado to work on a ranch for the summer, which again was his idea. A couple of things I especially remember doing with him our senior year were hiking up an Adirondack mountain, jogging 4 or 5 miles at night (something hardly anyone was doing in
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1965), and climbing a tall radio transmission tower that had recently been installed near the campus. At the end of our senior year he joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Hue, Vietnam teaching school. He came from a Pennsylvania Quaker background, and the Peace Corps stint might have been part of his conscientious objector status. I was a conscientious objector also during the war, but in my case it was made possible mainly through a family connection and I didnt even do any alternative service. As I mentioned before, I was occupied with the essential activities of being a hippie, taking drugs, and working as a substitute janitor. So after the two years were up, Hugh took an extended trip through Asia, which is when he first developed his love for the Himalayan Mountains, the surrounding countries and the people and cultures there. He came back on a visit to Detroit some time in 1968, bringing with him some fantastic Nepalese Hashish. At that time were all doing a lot of sitting around on someones living room floor, smoking and getting high, and listening to music. It was sort of a ritual or something of those times, but one that had very subtle or informal rules. When Hugh joined us on several occasions, several people later remarked about how his behavior was a little stiff or formal and how he was inclined to turn the smoking of this special hash itself into a kind of ritual, something that seemed a little foreign to us. Part of the reason for that may have been the time Hugh had spent living and traveling in Asia, while those of us in the States were practicing the art of just hanging out, being laid back and mellow, grooving, and being a part of the group. But it also was a part of Hughs personality. He was an b with his q S , and with a late degree of as his ascendant, this opposition was from the 1st to 7th houses in his chart. There was a part of him that was the loner and outsider. While the rest of us in college were living with roommates, Hugh was living by himself. I remember our senior year he lived down the hall from me in a small room that was a converted janitors broom closet. He was a person who needed his privacy but at the same time loved having friends, hooking people up together, and seeing that the people he liked were all part of a group. He was friendly, polite, courteous, and humorous, but yet there was something socially awkward about him at times. . It may have been this opposition between his b q and . intensifies and sometimes controls or shapes things, but there is often some deep unresolved issue or need inside of their exterior shell. Maybe with Hugh it was just the periodic need to withdraw in order to recharge or regenerate his sense of self, identity, and purpose, before he could rejoin the group. These two sides of his personality, if you will, eventually became part of a lifestyle. After coming back to the U.S., he adopted a very conventional appearance complete with unfashionable short hair and took
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Considerations XX: 2
whatever job he could getat first it was working for the New York City social servicesthat would allow him by living very frugally to save up enough money to return to Asia, where he would again live and dress very simply, travel lightly, and deeply explore the countryside and the mountain trails, mingle and make friends with the local people, take excellent photos of them, eat their food, and wear their clothes.
Eventually he became a professional tour guide for several travel companies and made Berkeley, California his home base. He wrote two books on trekking in the Himalayan Mountains, and settled into this routine of spending approximately half the year in one place, half in the other. He had finally found a way to turn his passion into a career, which I admired him for and eventually told him so in a letter. I myself had last seen him in sometime in the 70s, before I lost touch with my all friends and sort of withdrew from everyone else when I met my wife in 1979. I didnt hear anything from any of them all throughout the 1980s. Then in April of 1990, when retrograde in x was only 12 from an exact square to my q in the 11th house, my friends resurfaced. One thing does is to bring people back into your life again. Hugh and another old classmate had started wondering what had become of me and tracked me down in Indiana. After first writing a letter, Hugh called and we talked on the phone, at which point he put me in touch with several other old friends from college who were also living in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the fall I traveled out there to meet them,
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but Hugh was away on one of his trips. Then in February 1991, I heard from one of our mutual friends that Hugh had died in a freak accident. He was standing on the street waiting for a ride, after having just undergone minor outpatient surgery, when he fainted, hit his head on a curb, and suffered a massive skull fracture from which he never regained consciousness. At the time of his death, the main thing that seemed to be happening in his chart was progressed t only 8 away from his b q (which opposes ). t rules the head, of course, and rules things like losing consciousness, but although I could be wrong, I dont really see any compelling astrological reason why Hughs life had to end at that point. In our last conversation over the phone, I was talking about getting older and not being able to do certain strenuous physical things anymore like running. Hugh understood and expressed concern about how much longer his body would allow him to continue to earn a living in the same way. He never really asked for my opinion on the subject, as I recall, but since I dont always let that keep me from giving unsolicited advice, I now wished wed talked about the possibility of him making a major change in his life, along the lines of what others do when they retire or switch careers. This is what was called for in Hughs chart, I think, and the question in my mind is whether he responded to that call. Pluto is all about transformation and letting go of old things that you have outgrown or that no longer suit you. With Hugh, it wasnt just his body aging, but I think he was becoming weary of dividing his time between places that were half a world apart and where he didnt really belong to either world. Not only that, but the Asian mountain regions of Pakistan, Nepal, and Tibet were themselves changing. Hughs hauntsthe little known off-the-beatentrack places he loved, the unexplored, untouched nature of many of these remote villages and valleyswere increasingly being exposed to the outside world, and Hugh being somewhat of the purist that he was, must have been disturbed to see a way of life that he admired slipping away and the gradual appearance of satellite dishes, modern clothing, and increased evidence of the impact of tourism, even though Hugh himself was now a part of that business. This is how works, with pressure from both within and without to evolve, adapt, and survive. s strongest transit to Hughs chart, the square from x to his b q opposed to natal in g, would have taken place a few years earlier, from 1985 to 1986. I confess I dont know what exactly was going on in his life at that juncture, but it would have most likely been the point when, after 20 years of Asian travel, after writing his guide books, taking thousands of photos, and filling up boxes with journals and notes, he could have settled down, maybe gotten married, and decided what to do with the rest of his life. It seems to me that sometimes we come to a crossroads in our lifes
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Considerations XX: 2
journey and maybe miss a crucial turn, and instead of taking this different road, we just continue along in the same direction that eventually leads to a dead end. We all have to die eventually, of course, and death shouldnt necessarily be equated with failure, but if life is basically an inherent gooda process of learning, loving, surviving, and trying in our own little individual way to make the world a better place-- what is the point of dying prematurely while the physical body still has many years left to live? This possibility of making the wrong choice and taking the wrong road is what I prefer to believe happened with Hugh, because it makes more sense to my rational mind than the idea that he simply wasnt meant to live out the remaining 30 or so years of his life. I know that one approach is to humbly admit that some things are beyond our comprehension, that some Higher Power or Intelligence is involved, and that ultimately what happens is all for the best, and so on. But I cant always buy that. If we do have a certain amount of free will, even where is involved, then maybe by responding to in the most positive way that we can manage, we avoid having some kind of extreme life-altering event forced on us from the outside. This is the kind of thing I wish I could have said to Hugh during our last conversation, although it may actually have been too late. Its not too late to change as long as one hasnt burned too many bridges; and where is concerned, if we do make any irrevocable decisions, they should point us in the direction of opening doors rather than eliminating options, something that Hugh was engaged in at the time of his death. But I dont want to make any facile judgments or engage in any secondguessing. If we astrologers sometimes act as though we have a handle on events that others dont, maybe that is somewhat arrogant. But is it arrogant to think that an understanding of the planets can help us avoid some kind of predestined negative fate caused by them? I dont think so. After all, isnt that one of the main reasons we study astrology?
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Considerations XX: 2
On March 29, 1867, the British Parliament signed into law the Constitution Act of 1867. The Act declared in relevant part, "It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a Day therein appointed, not being more than Six Months after the passing of this Act, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be One Dominion under the Name of Canada; and on and after that Day those Three Provinces shall form and be One Dominion under that Name accordingly." Thus, the Constitution Act did not itself "create" the Canadian government but rather enabled and empowered the Queen to do so through parliamentary consent. Subsequently, by Royal Proclamation on May 22, 1867, the Queen set the date in question as July 1, 1867. That proclamation may be viewed at:
http://www.canadiana.org/citm/imagepopups/c060281_e.html
The proclamation states in relevant part, "We therefore, by and with the Advice of Our Privy Council, have thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do Ordain, Declare, and Command, that on and after the First Day of July One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be One Dominion under the Name of Canada." The absolutely most important fact in this analysis is that there is absolutely no mention in either the Proclamation or the Constitution Act of the notion that the first actual minute of July 1, 1867 shall be ignored. There is no mention of any specific time at all, much less 001 hours to the exclusion of 000 hours. As a matter of logic and common sense, 000 falls on July 1, 1867 and not on any other day. As a lawyer practicing in a common law nation whose jurisprudence borrowed heavily from the English common law (the United States) and as a dual citizen of Canada as well, I can attest for you my professional legal opinion that there is no principle at English common law which nullifies the first minute, 000 hours, of any given day as your friend suggests. If the new Canadian government had somehow undertaken a sovereign act at exactly 000 hours on July 1, 1867, that act would not have been illegal under the terms of the Royal Proclamation as though it had taken place on June 30, 1867. In sum, for all these reasons, you are right and your friend is wrong.
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HEN does one become President of the United States? My colleague Paul de Gruchy and I have been discussing the moment when the President-elect takes his (so far never her) oath of office. The time varies, but not much; it is usually a few minutes past Noon. So we have been searching out the sources which provide those elusive times. Well, it now turns out that this ceremonial moment may be irrelevant. Here is the text of amendment XX, section 1, of the Constitution of the United States: The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. On the other hand, article II, clause 1, section 8 of the original constitution says: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, [the President-elect] shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:- I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' I have no idea if amendment XX cancelled clause II.1.8 of the constitution. The amendment says nothing about the relation between the time of a President's taking office and the time of swearing-in. Confronted with this puzzle I turned to my cyberpal the Harvard law student, who took the time to send me a tentative reply. She asked me to point out that this is off the top of her head. Interesting question maybe Ill attempt to get a con law professor to tell me if there's any bite to this. Here is my take: article II (1) (8) specifies that the oath must be taken before the new President shall "enter on the execution" of his office... Thus, perhaps the old President's term expires at noon, and the new President's term "shall then begin." However, before the new guy takes any action as President, i.e., "executes" any of his duties, he has to take the oath. So he is President at 12:00, but he can't act as President until 12:05 or whenever he does the oath. That's a lawyerly answer for you, not sure if it helps. :)
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Considerations XX: 2
Here's a hypothetical. Say, for example, there's some bomb threat on Jan 20 and they're all in a shelter at Noon. The old President's term expires, the new President's term starts... While they're in the bunker, the new guy says "OK, by executive order, we're going to arrest every Arab in Washington DC and take them to Gitmo, today... Alert the troops." I would assume that such an order would be subject to attack under article II as being unconstitutional because he was executing duties without taking the oath. (This is assuming that the President has the power to make such an order, and I think that's open to debate depending on the current status of emergency powers, etc., but assuming it would be legally valid for him to do so had he taken the oath...) That said, article II doesn't say that the oath has to be done publicly or anything like that so I guess if they had counsel down in the bunker, she would say "Dude, before you do anything, real quick, repeat after me..." In fact, article II doesn't even say it has to be witnessed by anyone. That leaves us still uncertain, but for the time being I will assume terms of office begin at Noon.
HEN does one become prime minister of Canada or of a Canadian province? Unlike the United States, parliamentary states do not run like clockwork. Heads of governments can fall in any season of any year and the royal prerogative, while tightly circumscribed, is still the mechanism by which the democratic choice of any new head is confirmed. This fact is reflected in the swearing-in ceremonies of new prime ministers. The new guy or gal steps up and takes the oath, and immediately afterwards the Governor General (or Lieutenant-Governor if it's a provincial premier's oath-taking) signs in witness of the oath. Contrary to the US case (see above), witnessing is part of the process in Canada. As the monarch's representative, the GG or Lt-G sanctions the ceremony and turns it into an official act. The moment to take down for a horoscope is therefore the moment when that signature is scratched on the page. There is no law forbidding the GG from saying, "You rascal, I refuse you and your slimy cabinet!" Probably the GG would then be grabbed and given a large dose of Prozac by the ushers, but the incident would be a constitutional crisis and no-one would know who was legally in charge. In fact it would be a new kind of ball game, more momentous than a mere change of government. Until then, it's the signature that counts.
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HIS CONCERNS the deaths of two famous people. The princess of the title was born Diana Spencer, but became famous as the Princess of Wales. The second famous person was the great American general, George Patton. They may seem an odd couple, Princess Di and Old Blood and Guts, but their deaths were similar: both died as a result of automobile accidents. This article discusses the involvement of Neptune, Vesta and certain House Parts, in their deaths. NEPTUNE. I've asked astrologers, what planet, or planets, they
think of in connection with accidents. The usual answer is t, or i, or both. However, there is a book entitled The Astrology of Accidents, written by the great British astrologer, Charles Carter. In this book, Carter concludes that the planet, most closely connected with accidents, is actually o!
VESTA. The asteroid Vesta (}) is thought to indicate an either-
or choice. I suppose this can be traced back to the Vestal Virgins of ancient times. They vowed to do without sex, love, marriage and children, in order to devote themselves to serving the goddess Vesta, tending the sacred flame and all that. These vows were voluntary, but the asteroid } can indicate doing without something involuntarily! For example, a year or two ago, I went through a period when I was losing things. This was not voluntary. I did not make a decision to lose things; I didnt want to lose them, but I did. Looking at my transits, I found that } was crossing my Ascendant!
The same transit occurred to a married man, with more serious results. The inner ring of the bi-wheel at Figure 1 is his birth chart. The outer ring shows the transits at the time of his wifes death. Note transiting }, just 22' below the husbands Ascendant. At that position, } opposes his Descendant, symbol of his wife. Instead of losing miscellaneous items, as I did, he lost his wife. HOUSE PARTS. There are twelve Arabic Parts, represented by H (h), to be read H of h. This is a mathematical notation, signifying a func-
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Considerations XX: 2
tion. H is a function of the number in parentheses, which is a house number. The function H is in the familiar Arabic-Part format: A + B - C, as follows: Ascendant + C (h) R (h). There are functions within H: C (h) C of h represents the Placidus cusp of the Nth house; R(h) R of h represents the ruler of the Hth house.
Inner Wheel
Figure 1
Outer Wheel
Husbands birth
7:53 pm EST 8th January 1921 Munhall, Pennsylvania 40N24, 79W54
Death of wife
7:45 pm EST 7th December 1998 Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania 40N26, 79W59
In the ensuing pages, I will be using H (3) and H (1). H (3), H of 3, is the third House Part: Ascendant + C (3) R (3). It carries all the meanings of the third house. H (1), H of 1, is the first House Part: Ascendant + C (1) R (1). This is the same as: Ascendant + Ascendant - Ruler of Ascendant. It carries all the meanings of the first house.
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The Princess
Inner Wheel
Figure 2
Outer Wheel
Diana Spencer
7:45 pm BST 1st July 1961 Sandringham, England 52N50, 00E30
Princess Diana died in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris. The outer ring of the bi-wheel above (Figure 2), shows the planets at that time. The inner ring is her birth chart. Note that transiting o is at 27 34 , squaring Dianas H (3) at 28 07 a. According to Carter, o can indicate an accident. H (3) carries all the meanings of the third house. One of those meanings is automobiles, so this square indicates an automobile accident. Transiting o is also conjunct Dianas natal
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Considerations XX: 2
u at 27 48 . One of the meanings of u is tunnels. So o is indicating an automobile accident in a tunnel, which is exactly what happened! Since Diana died in that tunnel in Paris, there should be an indication of death. Transiting } is at 1 44 s. } can indicate giving up something. It is opposing Dianas H (1) at 1 43 x. H (1) carries all the meanings of the first house, which represents the native, especially her physical body. It was time for Diana to give up her physical body!
The General
Inner Wheel
Figure 3
Outer Wheel
George Patton
6:38 pm PST 11th November 1885 San Marino, California 34N07, 118W07
Car crash
11:30 am CET 9th December 1945 Mannheim, Germany 49N29, 8E29
George Patton remembered his previous incarnations! He remembered being a soldier many times before. He felt that he had been sent
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back to Earth to be a soldier again. He felt that he was destined to lead large numbers of soldiers in battle for a good cause. Patton did become a soldier, fighting in both World Wars. By the time of the Second World War, he had risen to be a general. He did lead large numbers of soldiers on the western front, and played a prominent role in our victory over Nazi Germany. He was then appointed military governor of part of southwestern Germany. At this stage, his job seemed to be done. When a man with a mission completes that mission, we might expect him to be recalled by a Higher Power. That seems to be exactly what happened! Car Crash. Patton set out in a car one morning, with an enlisted man driving. Patton was in the back seat, and several other officers were in the car. They were going hunting. The car collided with a truck. It was a low-speed collision; the kind of thing where you get out and look at the dents and exchange IDs. While this was going on, one of the officers noticed that Patton had not gotten out of the car. He stuck his head in the window and said, General, are you all right? Patton replied, I cant move! Nobody else had any significant injury; only Patton. He had a spinal injury, causing paralysis! I suppose it was some kind of whiplash thing. That Higher Power had taken a hand. Note that (see Figure 3) transiting o and u are aspecting Pattons natal u and o, respectively. Its a kind of reciprocal situation. Transiting u is sextile natal o. One of the meanings of u is trucks; o indicates an accident. So this shows an accident caused by, or involving, a truck. A sextile is a soft aspect; perhaps it indicates a relatively soft collision! Transiting o squares natal u. o is the accident, and one of the meanings of u is paralysis. So a truck causes an accident, and the accident paralyzes Patton! Does death appear in this bi-wheel? Not quite! Note that Pattons H (1) appears in the inner ring at 5 44 . It represents his physical body. Transiting } (giving up something) is applying to a conjunction with H (1), but is not there yet. It still has more than 5 to go. Significantly, Patton did not die then and there. He was taken off to a hospital, where he remained for twelve days.
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Considerations XX: 2
Pattons Death. The bi-wheel shown at Figure 4 again has Pattons birth chart as the inner ring. The outer ring shows the planets twelve days after the car crash. Note that, during that time, } moved into the conjunction with Pattons H (1). Then, and only then, did he give up his physical
George Patton
6:38 pm PST 11th November 1885 San Marino, California 34N07, 118W07
Patton dies
5:55 pm CET 21st December 1945 Heidleberg, Germany 49N25, 8E43
From consideration of these two deaths, it appears that Charles Carter was right about o being connected with accidents. } does seem to be involved in losing, or doing without, things. It can even signal death, the giving up of the physical body. The House Parts seem useful in death, as in any matter involving the meaning of a house.
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The Elements as Mixtures of Qualities Hot quality Fire element Air element Cold quality Earth element Water element Dry quality Moist quality
Each of the three signs in the Fire element, a, g and c, has an equal mix of heat and dryness. s, h and , the three Earth signs, combine cold and dry. d, z and b, the three signs of the Air triplicity, are a mixture of heat and moisture. And each of the three signs in the Water element, f, x and n, are formed by a combination of the cold and moist qualities. In what follows we will look closer at the four qualities and attempt to understand each of them. Not only are they the building blocks of the elements but an understanding of them can improve our knowledge of the twelve signs, of the planets themselves, and of aspects between pairs of planets. They are essential in identifying an individuals temperament. The four qualities, I submit, represent the very building blocks of astrology itself, its DNA.
1
Marion D. March & Joan McEvers. The Only Way to Learn Astrology. San Diego: Astro Computing Services, 1977.
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Considerations: XX: 2
Instead of starting with a definition of each of the four qualities, lets begin by seeing how they affect our everyday lives. Thats appropriate for the writer just now, its the middle of March and the equinox hasnt yet arrived. The view from the window is hidden by falling snow; a clear indication that later today therell be a need to again go outside with a snow shovel.
HE SEASONAL EFFECT Ptolemy associated the four qualities with the four seasons. He wrote:
And there are four seasons of the year, which are spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the spring has its excess in the wet because of its diffusion during the past cold, and with the heat just beginning. The summer has its surplus in the hot because of the proximity of the Sun to our zenith; the autumn has its excess in the dry because of the sucking up of the waters during the burning heat. And the winter has its surplus in the cold because the Sun is farthest removed from our zenith.2
When the q has a northern declination, when it is transiting between 0 a and 0 z, there is more daylight than darkness. As a result heat predominates over cold during this half of the year. At the opposite part of the year, through the autumn and winter months the q has a southern declination and the nights are longer than the days, the cold is then dominant over heat. See the left-hand circle, above. Between the solstice and the arrival of the q at 0 f, the land is more moist than not. In the other half of the year, from the longest day to the shortest, dryness predominates over moisture. This is depicted in the right-hand circle.
Lets consider what happens in nature here in upstate New York during each of the four seasons as the q passes through the different Zodiacal signs.3 SPRINGMOIST & HOT. Spring is work time. a: The days have just become longer than the nights. It is the time of the periodic resurgence of life. Life is being renewed: growth, buds and blossoms. Seeds, aware the danger from frost is now past, begin to sprout; sap at the roots of trees starts its mysterious movement toward twig and waiting leaf bud. Bulbs send up shoots to catch the sunlight and begin to manufacture food for the plant. This is a time of quickening, of replenishing, when winters vicissitudes arte eased. s: Fruit trees are in bloom, they are a magnificent sight, breathtaking in the expanse of profligate blossom. The first crops of the year appear in this time of promise and fragrant fulfillment. d: A time of relative quiet, serenity after the rush of sprouting and leafing and flowering, before the arrival of the fierce heat that will drive towards maturity and seed. It is a time to plant and tend seedlings, to pluck up those weeds that planted themselves, to mow grass and rake it, to hoe and spray and till and dust and nip off dead lilac blooms and tie up rambler rosesso much to do. The grass grows as much as two inches overnight. SUMMER: HOT & DRY Springs preparations must be consolidated in a summer of completion. An unmistakable clarity in the process and a meaning comes from the orderly procession of events: budding and blossoming, and fruiting; sprouting and growth, and seed; beginning and continuation, and conclusion, over and over again. Its on so grand a scale that we can miss the larger meaning in seeing only the detail. f: The leaf reached its maximum size for the time of maximum sunlight at the solstice. Now it settles down to work, its function is to use the sunlight and promote the spread of chlorophyll. Farmers have little patience now with outside interference. Theyre too busy with natures problems to be tolerant of man-made ones. Theres so much to do, so little time remaining; time for corn to be laid up, hay cut, wheat harvested. f is the rush of growth and the completion of blooming. g: Droughts. The urgency of f begins to relax. The grain is all harvested. These are long, hot days with high humidity, sultry days. We wear fewer clothes, to avoid getting overheated. It is a time of play, vaWhat follows owes much to the insights of the naturalist Hal Borland as depicted in his delightful This Hill, This Valley. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1957. 68
3
Considerations: XX: 2
cations, journeying and relaxation, not work. Natures time of haste is past; the pod, the fruit, the nut, and the seed-head are already formed and coming to completion. The egg is hatched; the fledgling already flying. Even the bees are less urgent in their rounds. Small rabbits scurry at the roadside, well past the nursling stage; and woodchucks, full of sun and succulence, begin to lay on the fat for hibernation. gs flowers are purple majesty, full-bodied, filled with sunlight. Already the brilliant green of active chlorophyll in the leaves of trees is beginning to fade, the bulk of its work done. The winds of g are laden with pollen, highly dangerous to susceptible persons. h: The days visibly shorten. Growth slackens. Gardens are full and overflowing with plants, but this is the last crop. It is still very warm; the time of the Harvest Moon. The last vegetables are picked and displayed for sale at roadside stores. A clear, clean sky, the air crisp without being chill, the wind dust free, not yet full of leaves. AUTUMNDRY & COLD Spring is all eagerness, summer hot laziness or sweaty haste; autumn is achievement and a measure of contentment. z: Bird migration. The earth begins to cool off. The winds seem stronger; it is often violent and stormy. Hurricanes are breeding in the Atlantic. Days shorten; the insect clock begins to run down, they are near the end of their days. Wild berries. The changing colors of the trees; leaves preparing to fall. Gardens are starting to look bare. First frosts, but warm days and temperate nights follow this first chill. Colorful, exuberant, full of lively spirit, z fever brings an inner restlessness. Things now come to fulfillment. z is ripeness and color and a time of completion. x: In the North the first snows arrive. The nights are long and chilling, full of stars and the crisp whisper of fallen leaves skittering in the wind. Mornings start with front lawns covered by frost. The cold begins to deepen. Those with stoves are busy cutting wood. Squirrels are frantically busy gathering. c: Thanksgiving. Cold, snow, leafless trees. As the days shorten new vistas open, the leaves have fallen and the horizon is there just beyond the bare trees. Darkness comes far too soon. WINTER-COLD & WET We wear more clothes to conserve the heat. We need artificial means to stay warm: fires, furnaces. : Christmas, a symbol of hope and faith reborn. Snow. Short days and long nights; the w and stars stand over a cold and brittle white world. is the depth of cold and darkness. We are past the solstice, the season of life is being renewed, but the days only lengthen slowly. The landscape is the ultimate of simplicity, stripped to essentials. Life has come
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down to its basics. The winds arrive from the farthest star in outer darkness, so remote and so impersonal are their voices. b: Bad times seem worse now, were winter-weary. This is the when of the deepest snow. It can be a miserable time: cabin fever; a time of silence and rest; neighbors are away in Florida. But the skunk cabbages are thrusting up through the snow, theres the promise that spring will comeeventually. n: The final sign of winter, akin to the womb of mankind. Thaw and mud; so much mud. We hear the voice of change in the sound of running water. Life is starting to stir. Birds are returning. Some of the frost is coming out of the ground. Daffodils and crocuses are appearing. Its time to tap maple trees; the sap is rising. Now as the sun crosses n, we witness the slow, persistent effort of the green world to achieve leaf and blossom and seed again. In this jovial sign, we see again the compulsion of life that animates the world around us, that will resurge in urgent force as the q crosses the equinox and moves into a. Much the same seasonal changes happen at all places in the Northern Hemisphere. There are of course variations: more heat closer to the Equator; much colder temperatures north of here. South of the Equator the seasons are reversed. Moist, warm earth is essential for the generation of life, and this is present after the snow has melted and the increasing sunshine has melted away the last of the frost, which occurs as the q passes through n, and moves over the equinox into a and spring. The heat increases, bringing plant life to maturity in the summer. The scorching heat of g dries the moisture from the earth and what little remains disappears as the q passes through hin southern parts the heat and lack of rain causes the dry earth to crack and turn into dust. Heat lessens following the autumnal equinox but by then little or no moisture remains in the earth. This is the dry season, the opposing side of the year from spring; it is the time of death. As daylight and the qs heat continue to reduce, saturnine cold takes over. What would be gentle rain in other seasons comes down frozen, as sleet and then as snow. The ground becomes frozen and frosted; the waters are iced-up. The coldness culminates when the q is in b. The season continues and daylight slowly increases, the snows, ice and frost melt, rivers flow freely again. The earth is warming up, becoming moistened by the run-off from snow in the high mountains, becoming a moist vessel in which life can again be generated.
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Considerations: XX: 2
Table 2:
a s d f g h z x c b n
Fire Earth Air Water Fire Earth Air Water Fire Earth Air Water
Spring Spring Spring Summer Summer Summer Autumn Autumn Autumn Winter Winter Winter
Moist & Hot Moist & Hot Moist & Hot Hot & Dry Hot & Dry Hot & Dry Dry & Cold Dry & Cold Dry & Cold Cold & Moist Cold & Moist Cold & Moist
Table 2 lists the Element & Season of each Sign together with the Seasonal Quality. HE FOUR QUALITIES Now it is time to discuss the meanings of the four qualities.4 We have seen how each manifests itself in nature during the four seasons. Hot and Cold are active qualities, opposites that relate to energy. Heat is mobile and expansive, moving from the center outwards in a centrifugal manner; it animates, invigorates and enlarges. A hot person is essentially active and mobile, using and generating energy; he can be impulsive, exciting and stimulating, with a passionate will, always acting in an expansive manner Cold is the opposite, it contracts; it concentrates, compresses and condenses; it retracts and focuses, it absorbs into itself what was outside in a centripetal movement. A cold person has little energy, what she has she will concentrate and save. By nature, she is defensive, inactive, resistant, indifferent, slow and profound. Heat attracts and indicates a social animal; cold repels and tends to be anti-social. The French astrologer Henri Selva5 writes that one can easily recog4
Lee Lehman provides a useful discussion of the qualities in her Classical Astrology for Modern Living. Whitford Press, 1995. pp. 26-46. 5 Henri Selva (pseudonym of A. Vls) born 8th June 1861 at 11 pm LMT in Antony, France: 48N45, 4E22. Died in 1952. Quoted by Friedrich Schwickert & 71
nize the influence of Heat in someone. There is spontaneity, energy, loftiness and vivacity; the individual is impulsive; you see courage, decision, initiative and enterprise; the heart rules the head; he or she acts morally, altruistically, nobly, helping and protecting others. People strongly influenced by Heat are happy, optimistic, enthusiastic, ardent, easily distracted and often reckless. They prefer being surrounded by people like themselves. By contrast, cold manifests in slowness, vacillation, fearfulness, discouragement, sadness and pessimism. A cold person tends to be reflective, indifferent, distant and inactive, enjoying the diversity he sees in others, but rarely sharing in ita typical couch potato. He is reserved and cold, generally unfriendly, with little or no communal spirit, someone who isolates himself from his neighbors. Ideally, the hot and cold qualities will be balanced in an individual, she will be able to adapt herself, acting or not as the moment warrants. Dry and Moist are also opposites, they relate both to how we think and to archetypal gender differences. In both senses dry is predominately masculine, moist predominately feminine. Moisture generates life; dryness will destroy it. Moisture is growth; dryness tends to wither, it diminishes. A moist person is intuitive and able to connect separate and distinct concepts; she is right-brained. Dry thinking is more logical, objective and object-oriented; it is left-brain thinking. Moisture produces archetypal feminine traits: a gentle passive nature, a sensitive soul, delicate sentiments, a dreamer, someone who can be unstable, changing constantly as styles change, but non-aggressive, submissive, rather capricious, and needing to lean on others for support. Someone strongly influenced by moisture, whether male or female, is easily impressed, has a vivid imagination, is very adaptable, versatile, easily assimilates knowledge and will take on the personalities of those she is with. Such people are usually devoted to their families, spontaneously kind, somewhat naive, and careless in their manners. A dry person is not at all as adaptable. He has a strong taut will, is persevering, somewhat inflexible and highly self-disciplined. When thwarted he can become stubborn, vehement and even violent. He tends to exaggerate, has difficulty changing to meet new circumstances, and has a voracious appetite. He can become a square peg in a round hole when confronted with a new or inappropriate concept that falls outside of his experience. In this sense, he needs to first discover or be told the rules and he will then live by them; he prefers situations that are clear, precise and well defined.
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Table 3:
We can now return to the relationship of a q signs element and its seasonal qualities, which can be expressed as shown in Table 3. Lets examine how these qualities, those that make up the elements and those for the appropriate season, combine to identify the characteristics that we find in each of the twelve q Signs.
leap into high flame; attempting to explore and leave his creative mark through romantic involvement with people and placesusually through his grandiose schemes. The expressive and creative power of fire works chiefly in regard to selfhoodthe native seeks outlets that permit the growth of an independent image of self. There is pride and selfconfidence, courage, audacity, initiative and ambition. According to Guido Bonatti, a stimulates animals to mate in order to preserve the species. Hot & dry in a season that is already hot and dry. The result is an increase in both heat and dryness, expressed as H+ D+ The q is in g in mid-summer, at the hottest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere). g represents a culmination, after which fruit, the foliage of trees and herbs will decline towards their destruction. Few seeds will germinate henceforth, few vegetables will become larger, and few animals will have the will to augment their species. By tradition g is a barren sign, the involvement of only masculine elements and absence of anything feminine (no moisture) explains why this is so. g is pure fire, creative fire, radiating warmth as from a hearth, usually an illumination for others, imposing warmth on things of the earth often through painting and sculpture. Those born during this period can be arrogant and overestimate themselves, their thinking being greatly influenced by their feelings, but they have great intellectual ability and organizing talent.
Hot & dry in a dry and cold season. The season modifies the element by reducing the heat and increasing the dryness, to give H- D+ There is little heat remaining as the q passes through c. Dryness dominates and cold is approaching as the length of daylight reduces to its annual minimum. Seeds and herbs are destroyed by frost, trees have lost their foliage, and many animals are forced to hide below ground. c has the lowest energy of the fire signs because of the oncoming cold, yet even so it may be seen as a firebrand moving through the air, ever in movement, dangerous when it comes to rest, seeking to leave a spark through the development of ideas. The expressive nature works through the mental realm rather than the physical, through altruistic idealism and a profound (often practical) grasp of how the world of man may be extended into the mental planethrough travel or education. Because of the dominance of dry, an individual born at this time truly understands and acknowledges authority, hierarchy and discipline, and can become a fine commander.
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Considerations: XX: 2
EARTH SIGNS (Cold & Dry) According to Henri Selva, dry and cold in combination create people known for their diligence, patience, obstinacy, prudence, rigid viewpoints, and conservative spiritthey can become lazy and inactive if cold predominates. Cold & dry indicates mental concentration, reflection, reasoning and gives good powers of observation. Such an individual has a restless spirit and tends to doubt, to negate; in any situation he will first of all see what divides and separates, the differences. He likes combinations, the mechanical and the exact; his brain enjoys the theoretical, and he will define systems of principles. Fixed rules are the basis of his life, and in the appropriate situation these can make him become a spiritual tyrant, a severe fanatic with an unquenchable thirst for revenge. He is selfish and has an egocentric attitude in all things. He always wants to know, and this covers just about everything from a curiosity about the most insignificant things of everyday life to the most profound scientific investigations. These are the signs of the engineer and the scientist. Cold & dry have come into a hot and moist season. The season reduces both the dryness and the cold, expressed as C- DAll four elements are involved here. Because of the season, this earth sign is warmer and wetter than the others, which makes its natives much more sociable than h or . s creates a temperate climate in which many sensible things happen, both of the species and the growth of plant life. Individuals seek to be fixed in one place, enjoying the rhythms of life of a conservative dependence upon the environment. They are industrious and obedient, think calmly and well, and are always patient and persevering. There is selfishness and physical beauty; conservatism, reserve, sensual love and fertility. Cold & dry enter a hot and dry season. This reduces the cold and increases its dryness, C- D+ Because of the seasons heat h has ample energy, but it is the dry quality that clearly predominates. h seeks to deal practically with the passing (ephemeral) things of the world, wanting to control the environment, usually through his occupation, and often finds the opportunity to provide an orderly or even rhythmic service to others. With its introduction of cold into the hot season, and its link with the coming dry season, h is less temperate and more destructive than the other summer signs. As a result some things die and are destroyed (the leaves on trees dry up), yet some seeds are germinated. The individual distinguishes himself from his environment, learning from experiences and experimentation, and using his well organized and talented brain to analyze the outcome before forming any conclusions. The absence of the Moist quality
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shows that this feminine sign tends to be sterile and materialistic; there is little here that is natural and spontaneous, all essential experience is derived second-hand and there is considerable tension. Cold & dry in a cold and moist season. This increases the elements cold but reduces its dryness, C+ DCold dominates. Guido Bonatti tells us that imprints on the earth element a distemperate coldness and dryness that is destroying and mortifying. Those born at this time, both animals and humans, tend to be small: below average size and weight. Trees will not grow branches or flower in this time; seeds do not germinate. The dominance of cold makes the native egocentric, a pessimist who is eager to dominate others. He is economical and reserved, somewhat inhuman, with a dislike of sentimentality. There is an urge towards change and movement, the fulfillment of which is usually translated as an upward aspiration, an orderly climbing of the social ladder, and he is greatly concerned with how others see him in the outer world. AIR SIGNS (Hot & Moist) Selva writes that Hot & Moist in combination indicate mobility in all things: in wishes, ideas, sentiments, etc. The combination creates a flexible character and spirit with lively impulses, impressionability, sensitivity, noble ambitions, intuitive and inventive gifts. There is subtlety, intrigue and quarreling. The emotions are easily stimulated although they tend to be superficial. An Air person has artistic ideas and feelings, and is usually skilful and magnanimous, a free and liberal spirit. Hot and moist facilitate contacts but also brings changes in objectiveson the sentimental plane as well as on the spiritual, the individual is too frequently distracted. This combination can produce an inspired personality who has a passion for life and the energy and spirit of individuality; yet it too often produces people whose ideas land them in hot water. Hot & moist enter into a season that is already hot and moist. As a result both the heat and the moisture are increased, H+M+ d is like only n in that its quality combination is in the right seasonal environment. As a result d is the Air sign that is nourishing and productive of growth. The extra heat denotes great enthusiasm and the extra moisture brings much socializing, the combination explaining how it is that d natives are so often described as social butterflies. d has a great capacity for study, combining reason with intuition, but he can too often be superficial and predatory, an imitator who has an explanation for all and everything.
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z b
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Hot & moist are placed in a dry and cold season. The result is a reduction in both the heat and the moisture of the element, expressed as H- MThe four qualities are to a degree balanced in this sign, just as they are in s, the other sign r rules. As a result, while it is the cardinal sign of the destructive dry season, z is temperate, neither totally destructive nor totally nourishing. Its natives possess an equilibrium between intuition and physical perception. They seem intent on establishing unity through discovering harmonies, shared experiences and communal responsibilities, and through bonds between the different sexes (notably through marriage or business ties). Because the heat quality has been diminished, there is a tendency to stay only on the surface of things, an inability to fully penetrate into a subject to any depth. Bonatti says that it thickens the air and makes it dense, causing harm to the branches of trees and their fruits, making them fall to the ground. Hot & moist are in a cold and moist season. The result is a reduction in heat that is accompanied by an increase in moisture, H- M+ Despite an absence of the dry quality, b is a destructive force. It brings humidity into the cold season, which manifests as heavy snow falling through frigid air. b is the coldest of the three Air signs. When not bogged down by transitory phenomenon, b has the ability, through original thought and perseverance, to come to conclusions, to finalize whatever is being considered. Despite having an elevated intuition, the native of this independent sign is by no means perfect, yet whether right or wrong he invariably brings conflicts to a completion, and ensures that progress will continue to move on to the next challenge. Selva says that this q sign has a close affinity with the principle of spirituality, the light of superior knowledge, from simple understanding combined with intuition to the sublime revelation of true ecstasy. WATER SIGNS (Cold & Moist) The mixture of the cold and moist qualities produces soft changeable natures, people who are indolent, incapable of energetic efforts, and who allow themselves to be directed by others. They are inherently passive, wanting physical inactivity, tranquility, silence and peace; they love their creature comforts and fear obligations. They attach great importance to the sentiments, usually romantic, and are given entirely to dreams and fantasy. Any feeling of happiness requires physical passivity. They need material prosperity to feel truly secure.
Cold & moist are placed in a hot and dry season. The intensity of both the cold and moisture are reduced as a result, C- MAll four qualities are combined in the first sign of summer.
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The temperate environment makes the water move; f is water as fluid it provides pleasantness and nourishment by which all animals and plants are nourished and live. It is changeable, reflecting the colors of the skies and landscapes around. It is concerned with the beginnings of life, with the fairyland world of childhood, which dissolves the world in its own mythologies. People strongly influenced by this sign tend to appear docile, soft and reserved, but they can be insistent when they want something. They are tenacious and will persevere in whatever they are doing. Their good memories and natural inspirations usually substitute for their lack of any intuition.
Cold & moist are in a dry and cold season. The result is an increase in the cold but a reduction in the moisture, expressed as C+ MThese people will create or break connections; they are emotionally cold-blooded, ruthless and martially inflexible. Cold predominates, making x frozen water, a shield of ice covering an unknown depth. It is water that is corrupted and brackish, quite still, able to strengthen very little, and offering little nourishment. Proud and persistent, x is often obsessed with death (in reality, with resurrection and redemption), that final dissolving of physical boundaries, with peering beyond the threshold of the material into the depths.
Cold & moist in a season that is already cold and moist. As a result both the cold and the moisture are increased, C+ M+ n can be viewed as pure water that has yet to come down to the earth, as vapor, still up in the clouds; a dematerialized state of being, out of touch with (hovering over or disincarnated from) the physical realm. It may also be seen as the boundless ocean, the source of life, the depths from which in the far long ago our distant ancestors crawled out onto the land. Its people are concerned with the idea of the poetical, with the life of spirit, only tenuously linked with the material realm, susceptible to the direction of others and to drugs. They are submissive and somewhat lazy, lacking ambition, with faith in what is unknowable, yet they will provide patient service to others.
Table 4 summarizes what happens when a signs qualities, as defined by its element, are combined with the qualities present in a season, as discussed above. The qualities of the element are not displaced, rather are they modified. As we have seen, the hot and dry qualities of the three Fire signs are adjusted in the different seasons. The springs heat and moisture increases the heat but reduces the dryness of a; midsummers heat and dryness greatly intensifies the innate heat and dryness of g; and the cold and dryness of late Autumn reduces the heat of c but exaggerates the signs dryness. These modified qualities are listed in the final column in Table 4
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Table 4:
Elements Qualities Modified by Seasonal Qualities Northern Hemisphere Element HD HD HD CD CD CD HM HM HM CM CM CM modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by modified by Season HM HD CD HM HD CM HM CD CM HD CD CM = = = = = = = = = = = = Modified Element H+DH+D+ H- D+ C- DC- D+ C+DH+M+ H- MH- M+ C- MC+MC+M+
Sign a g c s h v d z b f x n
There is I believe a distinct seasonal influence involved in all of Astrology. This is confirmed by astrologers from previous times, who modified the qualities of the q according to the season it was in when identifying an individuals temperament. This suggests that what is associated with the q passing through g, for example, varies according to ones environment, whether one is north or south of the Equator. In the Northern Hemisphere the time when the q is in g corresponds to the heat of midsummer; in the Southern Hemisphere it is associated with the greatest cold. This seasonal variation should be taken into account.
Later in this article we will discuss how the meaning of the q signs changes in the Southern Hemisphere and also how knowledge of the qualities enables us to interpret how a planet will fare in each of the signs, how two planets are likely to combine when aspecting one another, and to identify an individuals underlying temperament. Knowing the temperament tells us just how the person regards the world and how he or she is likely to react to any stimulus. To be continued
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STROLOGY, writing and politics were a passionate trinity for Shelagh as long as I knew her. In her own way she was able to embrace and be embraced by all three. As a keen political observer and commentator she enthusiastically witnessed the repatriation of the Canadian constitution, the raising of the new flag and the Quebec referendums from her home in Ottawa, Canadas capital. In the later 80s she moved south of the border near Washington DC where she was able to be absorbed in the machinations of US politics. As a native of Liverpool, England Canada became her adoptive home and she loved its history, unique positioning and relationship with Britain and the US.
Like the readers of Considerations I knew Shelagh as an astrologer. I first met her in 1978 when the Ottawa Astrological Society was in its infancy. Wary of astrologers and organisations Shelaghs reserve dissolved in our mutual devotion and respect for astrology. From that point forward we were colleagues and friends involved in both the local and national astrological organizations. During this period Shelagh also had a regular radio show where she would review the daily astrological phe-
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nomena. Diligent and thorough she brought astrology alive for her listeners. As a teacher and lecturer she was always engaging and as a busy counsellor she was always able to combine empathy with professionalism. In 1980 we began working together on a project of collecting Canadian data, both mundane and from celebrities. We divided the research and when it came to the celebrities Shelagh would contact the writers and politicians and I would contact the actors and hockey players. The day Shelagh received a note from Margaret Atwood with her birth details was as euphoric as the day I received a letter from Wayne Gretsky! In 1982 we launched our self published Charting Canada in Winnipeg at the national astrology convention. From then on Shelagh and I continued collecting the data and publishing it in Data Bank in the national astrological journal. Sixteen years later John McKay-Clements released his book of Canadian data The Canadian Astrology Collection dedicating it to Shelagh and me for pioneering the collection of Canadian data. Shelagh was a great contributor to Canadian astrology through networking, teaching and lecturing as well as her professionalism in her private practice. But others outside Canada also knew her through her writing. Besides her many articles she released her book Cycles of the Century in 1999 and she enthusiastically sent me one as soon as it was published. She had done a lot of groundwork for her daily radio show and knew intimately each cycle that was important in the year and how it affected each sign. But besides that it revealed her great love and knowledge of political history through the greater planetary pair cycles and outer planetary ingresses. Shelagh had integrated all three passions in the book. Shelagh was also very spiritually aware. In 1978 Isabel Hickey visited our group and Shelagh saw a way to claim both the spiritual and technical sides of her craft. She had a strong faith and I imagine that her crossing was smooth. As an avid conversationalist I also imagine she continues her astrological dialogues with the colleagues she was so fond of who went before. We miss her and give thanks for the times we were able to spend together. Brian Clark
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Remembering
Margaret Millard
1916-2004
R MARGARET MILLARD, a frequent contributor to Considerations and to other astrological magazines, died from Alzheimers disease on 13th November 2004 in Orono, Maine. Margaret has told us that she was drawn early to astrology by her sister, Elizabeth Large, but it was Cyril Fagan who stimulated her to really study the subject, which she did after hearing him lecture in Dublin in 1940. She subsequently worked with Alexander Marr and was a strong advocate of the work of the Argentine astrologers, Wendel Polich and Anthony Nelson Page, with the topocentric system of primary directions. Her book The Genetics of Astrology (1988) is an enthralling study of the topocentric system.
Although Margaret and I corresponded over many years, I never met her. I did however meet her sister Elizabeth. Margaret was born on the island of St Vincent in the West Indies, where her father, a geneticist, was employed, the family moving from there to England in 1926. She qualified as a medical doctor in Bristol. She and her husband Ben, a research chemist, moved to the USA in 1958, settling in Windham, Maine, where she worked first as an anesthesiologist and then as a pediatrician until her retirement in 1981. She also did volunteer medical work in Nepal, Nicaragua and India, and found the time to raise four daughters and two sons. Her book Casenotes of a Medical Astrologer was published in 1980. After retiring from medicine
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she became a full-time student at the University of Southern Maine, graduating with a degree in theater. She and Ben moved to Gloucester in England, but frequently returned to their lakeside cottage in Maine. Margaret was a Quaker, a prolific letter writer, a great traveler, and a superb astrologer. She had a knack of bringing together people who unknowingly shared similar interests in areas of astrology, and never hesitated to say what she really thought about something or somebody. She was very bright and able to identify true knowledge from plain showmanship. I will miss her amusing, always insightful comments on the abilitiesoften the lack thereofof some of the more prominent members of our profession whose lectures she attended. Ken Gillman
OHN Willner was a third-generation astrologer, an electrical engineer, a prolific writer, a keen student of the writings of Edgar Cayce, and the creator of the rectification program INCARN. His books included The Rising Sign Problem, The Twelve Houses, The Powerful Declinations, Astrological Revelations and The Perfect Horoscope. His latest book, on the Presidents of the US, is yet unpublished. Six of Johns articles appeared in Considerations. He was a talented man who will be sadly missed. He died on 11th December 2004. Ken Gillman
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Books Considered
A Learned Astronomical Discourse of the Judgment of Nativities
by Oger Ferrier Translated into English by Thomas Kelway
Originally published in London in 1593
GER FERRIER (1513-88) is not a name well-known to English-speaking astrologers nowadays, but he was famous for his proficiency in astrology throughout Europe in Elizabethan times. Ferrier was the personal physician to the Catherine de Medici, Henri IVs queen. Besides the present book, he wrote an important treatise on the plague and another on dreams. He is known to have been involved in a controversy with the Italian astrologer Jerome Cardan. According to John Gadbury, William Lilly plagiarized most of what he wrote on natal astrology in Christian Astrology (published in 1647) from this book by Ferrier. Indeed, Lilly lists Ferriers Judgment of Nativities as one of his main sources. There quite a few things in this slim volume that are not contained in Lillys bulky opus. Among these additional items there are the parts of the different houses (a subject Lilly and his followers virtually ignored), interesting descriptions of the planets and nodes in the twelve houses, and delineations of the different house rulers when placed in each of the houses. The section dealing with prediction seems to cover a larger range than does a similar one in Lilly; the items Ferrier covers are Directions, the Separator or Burner, Revolutions, Fridaries, Profections, circulation of Planetary Hours, eclipses and major conjunctions, and transits. Lilly provides greater detail on fewer predictive tools. There is also some difference of opinion in the subjects that both Ferrier and Lilly tackle. One such example occurs in the so-important Table of Dignities, Lilly gave rulership of the water triplicity to t by both day and night. Ferrier has the water triplicity ruled by r in the daytime and by t only in the night hours. Some of the Elizabethan phonetic spelling may give the reader initial problemsgyuer for giver, howers for hours, yron for iron, and so on. These apparent stumbling blocks quickly disappear once one has changed into a suitable doublet and hose, and voiced the first sentence or two. Besides, the spelling is very much part of the books charm. This book provides a fresh insight into astrology of an earlier time and it is strongly recommended to all astrologers who care about tradition.
Ken Gillman
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cRitchie, the one-time editor of the journal Above & Below, was informed by a university professor that astrology had no theory. This stimulated him go and investigate the theoretical background of our subject. The result is this fascinating book which describes the theories and hypotheses he has come up with. It makes for fascinating reading. He begins by briefly reviewing the findings of Michel Gauquelin and Suitbert Ertel and then responds to the standard set of critical questions all astrologers face from time to timeTwins have similar charts, but many have different personalities and behavior; Predictions do not come true; Interpretations are not specific enough. His thoughtful responses will be useful cribs for readers who are posed with these and similar criticisms. The author then gets to his theories. He begins by defining five organizing principles and relates these in turn to such as an individuals geocentricity, to as above & so below, to the horizon & meridian, and to the seasonal development cycle. He then moves on, in separate chapters, to relate: psychographic types to the four quadrants; astrological skills to the houses; lifestyles to opposing pairs of signs; essential urges to the planets; beliefs to aspects; an individuals development to planetary phases; and projection and transference to different stages of a planets cycle around the qwhether it is oriental or occidental, direct or retrograde. Simply listing the different associations and relationships proposed in this book, as I have done here, completely fails to do any justice to the writers theories. Each is compelling; each meaty enough to get the reader chewing over what is involved, to go to pull out charts to check if his ideas are as effective as McRitchies descriptions imply. We do need to be better at relating astrology to the different approaches sociologists and psychiatrists take in categorizing people, to find ways of translating what we know and use into terms more familiar to scientists and others. This book attempts to do just this, and the attempt is very good indeed. In the process it provides some excellent ideas for astrologers to consider, some intriguing fresh approaches to how one interprets a natal chart. Strongly recommended.
Ken Gillman
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