Newsletter July 2009

Compiled by Joseph Crane

Content:
Joseph’s services
This month’s eclipse
Dorian Greenbaum and PhD
Interesting review
Meredith McBride and Astroloshop
Profiles: Sarah Palin, Michael Jackson
 

Happy rainy summer – if you’re in New England.  (Elsewhere it might be 120°)

This month I present an unusual newsletter featuring two articles by people in our community.  I asked Dorian to tell the tale of her recently completed adventure at the Warburg Institute in England and she replied very quickly.  I asked Meredith McBride to tell us of her commercial venture with clothes shopping by astrology.

We follow by looking at two charts belonging to people with uncertain birth times but of interest to us – Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson.  In both cases I look at a proposed birth time in the context of whether the chart itself is informative and an important event in each person’s life.
 

My Services and Fees

Sometimes people forget that my astrological practice includes ongoing work with clients and students.  At this time most of my work happens over the phone, although I am more than pleased for people to sto p by my office in Warren, RI.

  • First time sessions are 75 to 90 minutes and include natal and predictive interpretations in accord with the client’s current and lifetime concerns.  Fee is $120.
  • Follow-up sessions are about an hour and the fee is $85. 
    • As with first time sessions, a recording is provided afterwards.  If we work over the telephone I send charts prior to the session as e-mail attachments.
  • For more frequent astrological counseling that can happen over the phone or in person, the fee is $60 per hour.
  • For students, I do tutorials or client consultations on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.  We first meet to determine what your needs are and how to sequence your study. I can provide recordings if you wish.  Fee is also $60 per one-hour session.
  • Horary consultations are meant to be brief and the fee is $40; electional astrology (marriages generally) is $60.
  • I provide written interpretations – for example, a synastry/composite for a wedding gift or a natal chart for a child or newborn.  These are about three pages of text with charts and I charge $80.
  • If you are interested in a one-way taped reading, the fee is “priceless” because of my intense dislike for that kind of format.  Conversation is far better!

If you are or may be interested in any of the above, you can contact me at josephcrane@verizon.net or (401) 527-2035.

This Month’s Eclipse

People in the Western Hemisphere will not be able to see this magnificent total eclipse; if you’re in Asia you will lose the sunlight to the Moon for up to six minutes.  One recent newspaper article surmised that this may be the most-watched eclipse in history.

I will first discuss what the eclipse chart looks like and how one might use it.

How do we know that this is a solar eclipse? We first see that the chart contains a New Moon (Sun conjunct the Moon at 29 Cancer).  Then we see that one of the Nodes of the Moon (in this the South Node or Dragon's Tail) is nearby.  Because the node is only 1° away from the conjunction point, this is a very total eclipse; over a large part of the Earth one would see the Sun completely covered by the Moon.

How might we use such a chart? 

One can use this in a mundane way by looking at relocating the chart for various locations on the globe and seeing what the planetary energies tell us. One could also do an astrocartography map of a specific area of the world and see what planets occupy what angles.  In the previous newsletter we did this for the solstice chart and the country of Iran.

One can use an eclipse chart in a personal way by noting what personal planets or positions are conjunct or in opposition to the eclipse degree within three or four degrees. This could tell you how the eclipse would affect your own chart and your own life.

I have also found predicting based upon eclipses (compared to transits, progressions) to be rather unpredictable and would never base somebody’s astrological outlook on an eclipse alone.
Dorian Greenbaum’s Excellent Long-term and Large-scale Intellectual Adventure

Here is Dorian’s update.  Many congratulations to her!

My husband Don said, in the email about passing my viva [dissertation defense – ed.], that my 'long journey is over', but I think it's just beginning!  When I decided to do a PhD at the Warburg Institute in London (which took some convincing, both of family and the Warburg!), I really had no idea of how profoundly my life was going to change.  I can say without hesitation that the 3-1/2 years spent in London working on this degree have been some of the most satisfying and intellectually enriching of my life.  In addition to my own personal satisfaction, I've tried to bring the worlds of academia and astrological practice closer together, and I hope I've succeeded at that at least a little bit.

I arrived in London in October 2005, and in my first meeting with my supervisor at the Warburg, Professor Charles Burnett (who is both an amazing scholar and a truly wonderful human being), I completely changed the topic of my PhD research.  Instead of 'Belief in and Practice of Astrology from the Second century BCE to the Sixth Century CE', I suddenly blurted out 'You know, I'd really like to study the daimon in astrology.'  I can only think that it was my own daimon prompting that idea.  My first year was spent reading, translating astrological texts which contained information about the daimon, and writing an 'upgrade paper' -- every PhD candidate enters as an MPhil candidate, and at the end of the first year you submit a paper on which they judge your fitness to continue on to PhD.  I was fortunate to be upgraded on the first pass -- some do not get upgraded at all (but all of us writing papers that year were upgraded).

In February of my second year (2007), my supervisor and I planned and hosted an ancient astrology workshop, in which academics and astrology practitioners (and hybrids like me and Rob Hand) got together for two days and presented our work to each other, with lots of time for discussion.  Joseph presented a paper on Ptolemy's harmonics, astrology and aspects, and I talked about the Lots of Fortune and Daemon.  This workshop was a huge success -- especially for the astrologers, since the academics realised how much they could learn from them -- and the atmosphere was welcoming and respectful.  The list of attendees was a Who's Who both in astrology and academia: Rob Hand, Deb Houlding, Liz Greene, Bernadette Brady, Geoffrey Cornelius, Maggie Hyde, Patrick Curry, Angela Voss, Darby Costello, Meira Epstein, Francesca Rochberg, Daryn Lehoux, Wolfgang Huebner, Stephan Heilen, Giuseppe Bezza, Susanne Denningmann, Micah Ross, Joanna Komorowska and Francis Schmidt -- and my apologies to others there whom I've momentarily forgotten. 

In my last year we hosted a full-blown conference, From Masha'allah to Kepler (November 2008), in which some of the same people returned and new ones came to talk over three days.  It was another amazing experience.  If this can be one of my legacies to the astrological community, bringing everyone together, I'll be very happy.

My last year was spent writing my last chapter (which ended up being dumped for lack of space), revising and re-checking footnotes, and all the other excruciating things one does when submitting a dissertation.  I submitted my thesis at the end of April, and my Viva (Defense, to Americans) was last Wednesday.  The questions were tough, but fair (mostly on philosophical topics like fate and astrology).  I passed with minor corrections -- so now I have to decide whether to go to the graduation ceremony in December (I am leaning toward 'yes' -- this may be my only chance to wear the gown and the floppy hat!)  People have been asking, 'What are you going to do now?' and I have to say, aside from the two papers I've already agreed to give this summer, I'm not sure yet.  But the adventure is not over...

Dorian, just after finding out she'd passed her Viva; supervisor Charles Burnett on the right (photo by Don Greenbaum).
 

Interesting Review

As you will read below, Dorian edited a book of papers from the Hellenistic astrology conference in February 2007.  In the early autumn of 2008 this came out as The Winding Course of the Stars: Essays in Ancient Astrology, a special double-issue of Culture and Cosmos.  (Another book of papers from the subsequent conference on Medieval Astrology is forthcoming.)

The skyscript website contains review of Winding Course by Kirk Little from January 2009.  Although – in my estimation – he makes too much of an astrologer-scholar divide, the review is worth perusing.

Here’s the link: ---- http://www.skyscript.co.uk/rev_wind.html
 

Meredith McBride and Her New Commercial Adventure

It’s a pleasure to introduce a new person into our community.

Astroloshop™ is a website that provides astrology-based shopping tips for women. (Here's the link! http://www.astroloshop.com)  It's a personal shopping web site that uses astrology to find items that are in line with your individual style.  The purpose of astroloshop is to make online shopping easier than spending hours searching through web stores, which can be exhausting.  By clicking on your sign on our blog or "following" your sign on our twitter pages, readers find an entire archive of products to choose from that are so close to their personal taste, they feel as though they were hand-selected by their best friend.

Our readers also use Astroloshop™ to help them find more meaningful gifts for others.  I have been using astrology for years to help me shop for people I hardly know as well and point me in new directions for people I shop for regularly.  Sometimes we can be clouded by our own preferences when shopping for others.  By following the signs of friends and family, Astroloshop's readers can select a gift that suits the receiver.  

In addition to the web site, people can literally "follow" their sign on twitter and get a weekly update with a new item!  Here are some examples of Astroloshop's twitter updates:

Enjoy!

Joseph has been my astrology mentor for almost two years now and it is with his support and guidance that I have been able to make this dream of mine a reality.  Astroloshop™ already has lots of legs on which to grow and thanks to his teachings, I can be certain my recommendations are true to astrological interpretation.  I feel so lucky to know him. 

Happy astroloshopping everyone!!
 

Two Profiles With Uncertain Times: Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson

It is critical for our astrological practice that we work with charts with accurate birth times, for astrology is an interpretative art based on the fact of one’s time of birth.  It often happens, however, that with celebrities we have different times for them.  Many astrologers, especially those connected with Astrodatabank, do an excellent job sleuthing and helping astrologers judge the reliability of birth times. 

Because part of my work in this newsletter is to comment on the astrology of people in the news at that time, I occasionally use a chart and a more reliable time comes out later.  When this happens I include an update in a newsletter.

Because of their influence of the headlines in early July 2009, it’s fitting to look – again – at Sarah Palin and take a first and only look at a chart for Michael Jackson.  One or both may require future revision if a different birth time is confirmed.

The previously used time was for around sunset and placed her Aquarius planets in the seventh house.  This chart has some qualities that give me some confidence in it.

This chart indicates strength and importance of Sarah Palin’s marriage: Jupiter is opposing the Ascendant and Venus, the ruler of her Ascendant, is also in the seventh sign/house.

The fifth house, inhabited by the planets in Aquarius, is the place of children and also of entertainment and games.  I think of the importance of her children and also her interest in sports and hunting.

Her career as a politician is not easily arrived at with this chart.  The Moon governs her 10th house and MC and this tells us little.  Because the Moon applies to her angular Jupiter (in its own triplicity), the great benefic may have some influence. 

Two features of her Aquarius line-up fascinate me:

Sun is with both Mars and Saturn; Mars is in sect, Saturn is in dignity.  Both are under the Sun’s beams.  Ordinarily I would think of a Sun-Mars-Saturn combination as prone to insecure aggression or, at the least, self-righteousness.  (Neptune square Sun doesn’t exactly instill confidence or personal solar strength.)

Mercury is the planet that visibly rises ahead of the Sun and has a sweet sextile from an angular Venus.  More than the Moon itself as lord of the tenth, Mercury seems to indicate her career as a politician. 

It is important to note that Moon and Mercury, along with the other Aquarius planets, are in a fixed sign.  One drawback of planets in fixed signs – especially Moon and Mercury – are emotional and thought processes that do not change.  Her difficulties articulating positions may have at their root a great deal of trouble listening to others.

Let’s move to her current situation and its predictive indicators. An indication of a chart with a correct birth time is if important events seem to be reflected by the Ascendant and Midheaven degrees.

Here’s a triple wheel, including progressions and transits on the outside, for her resignation in early July.

I begin with her progressions.  It is interesting that in December 2008, upon her return to Alaska after running for Vice President, she has a progressed Full Moon.  This fits well with a major turning point arising subsequent to her mixed debut upon the American spotlight: does she try her hand at being a national leader?  Does she stay as Alaska governor and go into training and emerge later?  Or does she stay home? During the national campaign transiting Neptune was in conjunction to her Sun, making for a chaotic and confusing time.  A major re-assessment was in order, initiated by her or by others.

An indication of this chart being correct is with the progressed Ascendant that was exactly conjunct Neptune in April.  This was a time where she was beset by different ethics investigations as well as tabloid attention given to her children (and a certain ex-boyfriend).  Lack of clarity and power could easily overtake her during this time, and she would naturally feel victimized by different reversals in her life – whether she caused them or not.

I have found the Neptune/Ascendant progression very powerful in giving a valid astrological account for her current situation.

What has brought on her sudden resignation announcement in early July?  One may note that transiting Jupiter and Neptune were upon her natal Saturn.  Psychologically one may alternate between defiance and self-pity: both were on display during her backyard speech.  The trigger could be found with transiting Mars separating from her natal Sun and applying to natal Mars. 

During this time transiting Pluto has been in square to her Venus.  Was her marriage part of her decision?  If she has a Libra Ascendant, however, Pluto could have helped intensify everything else that was happening in her personal and political life.

My guess is that her announcement on a Friday afternoon before the Fourth of July weekend was based on feeling victimized and a strong dose of anger.

What next for her?  Recently she has taken to insisting upon entering the national political conversation: note transiting Jupiter is in Aquarius for the remainder of the year. 

During the run-up to the next Presidential campaign Jupiter will be in her 7th house.  Afterwards, by progression, Mercury is conjunct Jupiter and, during the next Presidential campaign, progressed Uranus is on her progressed Midheaven degree.  Expect anything!

 
Now we go to the more tragic matter of Michael Jackson’s sudden death.  It appears that he may have given different birth times to different astrologers.  The chart below is based on one given by a Vedic astrologer who states that Jackson consulted him frequently.
Michael Jackson’s chart with this time has certain attractions.

It is hard to look at this chart and not notice Moon in Pisces on the Ascendant – rising.  One can approach this in a simple way – this could cast him as a very sensitive and perhaps intuitive person.

On the other side of the chart is his Sun in Virgo and rising before the Sun is Mercury and Venus in Leo. This yields technical refinement and a strong performing style.

In between is Saturn – squaring his personal Moon and in trine to his artistic Venus.  We get a combination of personal woundedness and professional approach to his craft.  One gets the sense of a person who worked very hard at his work and used that to break into a difficult public audience and entertainment establishment.  He had to be twice as good as anybody else – and was.

There are other indications of his personal difficulties.  Mercury is important as it is rising out of the Sun and is also the dispositor for his Sun and Lots of Fortune and Spirit – and is in the twelfth house to them.  Mercury also has a potentially difficult square from Mars in Taurus.  In spite of its refinement, there was anger in his music; in spite of his meek personal style, he had no small amount of anger.

Michael Jackson’s life was filled with important events and indeed he had times of triumph and of humiliation – in front of a very large public.  It is one of the most painful events of his life that gives a clear indication that this birth time may be valid for him.

Below are his progressions and transits for the beginning of his criminal case for child molestation – the search of his house and his booking leading to his arraignment and subsequent trial.  Regardless of the outcome for the case or his personal responsibility for the charges brought against him, this event must qualify as traumatic.

Unlike Sarah Palin’s chart, Jackson’s progressions at this time were not terribly interesting.  A year and a half before he had a progressed New Moon; earlier in 2003 his progressed Moon passed Neptune but also Jupiter.  All these give his life indications that are ambiguous.

That is not so with his transits!  At the time his legal problems began Mars had been transiting his first house and had been in conjunction with his Ascendant and Moon – an assault on his personal and emotional life was under way.  At the same time transiting Pluto was very close to a conjunction to his natal Saturn/Midheaven placement.  Is there a clearer way to depict the complete disaster this event was on his public reputation?  He basically never worked again in public, and his death was only a few weeks away from his first concert appearances since the court case.

It is important to note that these transits involve the fast-moving angles Ascendant and Midheaven and may help us ascertain his time of birth with some confidence.  Clearly using this birth time with other events in his life would be of additional help.

Well this is enough for July.  I have some ideas for August but events in the world and in the lives of people we know may dictate what you read about next month.
 
 

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