Newsletter 03 and 04-08

Astrology Institute Newsletter March-April 2008

Contents: New Look (next month)
conferences and publications
Providence and Relocation
Eliot Spitzer: an Incomplete Job

By Joseph Crane, March 13, 2008

Hello:

Hopefully this is the last pardon-our-appearance newsletter circular. Beginning next month we will look more readable, professional, and, of course, artful. In the meantime, below is a pdf of this newsletter in case you have difficulty reading any of the text below or the accompanying chart.

Conferences and Publications

*As many of you know, February featured a pilgrimage to the astrological highlands of mid-Texas, where I gave an evening talk in Austin on Dante for Astrologers, and a full weekend between Austin and Houston for an Introduction to Hellenistic Astrology. Both programs were very successful; the talks on Hellenistic will contribute to an online/e-mail follow-up for my book; the talk on Dante will become the summary of my next book-length work, which will be on Dante's Divine Cosmos.

If you are interested in pursuing studies of Hellenistic astrology individually, I have gathered together a number of different resources from different media. If you are interested in my work on Dante, let me know. There is so much rich astrological symbolism and view in the Commedia that one (I) can easily devise a course whereby I use this monumental work to devise a course on astrology's symbols and measurements. Let me know if you may be interested in this.

*The April-May issue of The Mountain Astrologer has an article introducing Hellenistic astrology, written by me. If you are interested, you will find it a useful and applicable to your chart. Reflecting the long lag between draft and publication, the example chart I used was for Rudy Guiliani. Fortunately for me, I did not predict that he would be the Republican nominee!

*Dorian Greenbaum has -- I hope! -- finished editing the next issue of Culture and Cosmos. This issue contains papers presented at an unusual and fruitful conference last year in London, which brought together scholars of ancient astrology and modern astrologers whose work is influenced by this astrology. Among the astrologers, this work contains papers by Rob Hand on the origins of whole sign houses, Deborah Houlding tracing the lists of the terms (or bounds) from Ptolemy, Dorian on the Lot of Fortune and Spirit, and by me on the astrological aspects and musical harmonics.

*In September, Dorian and I will present at the Blast Conference, held in Sedona, Az. from September 16-23. Not surprisingly, Dorian and I are part of a team teaching a day of Hellenistic astrology for this conference. This conference contains day-long programs on Vedic, Modern, and Medieval as well as Hellenistic astrology. When it was first held last year, it successfully brought together many of the best students and best teachers of astrology today, as I expect that this year will be no different. Consult their website athttp://blastastrologyconference.com/

Providence and Relocation

Having lived in Rhode Island for seven years now, I have discovered how reluctant its natives are to get in their cars and go anyway. (The rise in gas prices is simply a currently convenient excuse.) However, people from my area have a passing interest in other places, and I am therefore offering my relocation workshop for them. But you can come too!

Here is a link to the pdf for this workshop. Feel free to reply here if you are interested.

Eliot Spitzer: An Incomplete Job

Unless, in mid-March 2008 you have been drifting on a log in the middle of the ocean, you have heard about the sudden and cataclysmic fall of Eliot Spitzer, until yesterday the governor of New York. This has become an urgent topic of many a conversation, replacing Obama VS Hillary, to the relief of many.

Once the Mr. Clean of New York politics, his name will be henceforward linked with customers of high-end escort services and a poster-man for the extent of personal and political folly for on otherwise very smart person.

Over the past few days I have been awaiting some communication about Spitzer's birth time and have found none. What makes this job incomplete is that we will have to do with a chart without a birthtime, which is have included below.

Because there is no birthtime for this chart, we don't have an Ascendant and we don't have the twelve houses or places from the Ascendant. In this chart we see the Sun as being the first house and the other signs in order around the sign of his Sun, Gemini.

It's statistically probable that Spitzer's Moon is in Leo -- it changed signs at 12:18 AM the day he was born, so it's likely we're looking at a potent Moon-Venus-Mars lineup in Leo, governed by a Sun in Gemini. Simply using the signs of the zodiac as personality types, as is done in modern astrology, we see a person with strong ambition and energy, perhaps too convinced of his own personal righteous (all Leo), with the possibility of duplicity or living double (Sun in Gemini). One could say that his Venus-Mars conjunction in Leo points to a highly charged and maybe self-absorbed nature that can express itself sexually.

What predictive indicators would point to Spitzer's sudden demise? Because of no birth time yet, we have only a few possibilities. I will wait for the Hellenistic indicators for the birth time.

Interestingly, prediction seem to involve his Sun, the planet of leadership and the planet most associated with public visibility.

1. Making its last pass transitingUranusis square his natal Sun. This is the sudden and the unusual nature of what has transpired. The news of Spitzer's hidden life totally shocked everybody, including his more virulent opponents. His precipitous fall certainly has a Uranian topsy-turvy quality.
However, this this transit has to do with knowing the exact time of his birth, which we do not know. It's interesting that this transit is so recent.

2. Using secondary progressions of progressed-to progressed positions, Neptune square Sun was, for a sunrise chart, in January 2007. Using progressed-to-natal positions, this would have occurred in mid-year for a sunrise chart. Since Neptune is a planet of illusion and folly, it certainly seems relevant. This may also argue for an earlier birth time.

3. Using solar arc directions for a sunrise chart, Sun to Marswas only in January. This would indicate the sudden and climactic nature of his fall. This may also argue for a daytime chart, since it would mean that Mars is out of sect and more likely to act in an extreme manner. In fact, his reputation was to contend and fight even in situations where being more agreeable, even slightly pleasant, may be better for him. He called himself "The Steamroller" -- which does have the quality of a fixed Mars!

This will have to suffice for now, until we get a birth chart with a plausible time. When that happens, which will be soon, your next newsletter will have not only more information about this interesting person but will be in its new more professional format.

We will also look at the spring equinox and its mundane implications.

Joseph