Newsletter September 2009

Now that the conventional summer season is over and people are reviving some focus, there is much on the horizon for people interested in working with astrology.  In this newsletter I announce (right below) an afternoon workshop and we look at the kinds of stellar and planetary phenomena that we’ll examine in the workshop.  After important information about our courses over the internet, we will look at the chart and life of one of the last century’s great composers.

Workshop by Joseph Crane: The Autumn Sky and Its Meanings

This is the beginning of a new series of quarterly workshops: what does the night sky look like at this time of year?  We will orient ourselves to the stars that are most visible at the time – where they are, when they appear, how to find them.  We will also explore the astrological meanings of these visible stars.

In addition, we will look at planetary activity during the time; again, when you can see interesting movements, some important upcoming configurations and how they manifest in your chart. You will find out where the planets will be, and what they will be doing during the season.  We will then discuss how you might interpret some of these occurrences in the light of your astrological chart and life.

During this workshop we will train our eyes to look at the skies and train our minds to look at the rhythms of the sky’s movements.  Premium astrology and astronomy software will come to our aid!

Bring your natal charts and you can also discover how the autumn skies will affect you.

Workshop Time and Place:

October 3, 2009, 1:30-6:00 PM

Abby Goodman’s in Wayland, Ma.

Fee is $50

Contact me at (401) 527-2035 or at josephcrane@verizon.net  for more information about this program.

October 3, 2009 (after the workshop), 7:00 PM to whenever

Same place: Abby Goodman’s in Wayland, Ma.

(If necessary, we’ll work out carpooling arrangements.)

You are welcome to contribute a food offering and something to drink.

Please join in to congratulate Dorian on the completion of her doctoral program. Here’s a chance to forge new friendships and renew old ones with people of like backgrounds and interests in astrology.  Surely we’ll include some reminisces and maybe an astrological delineation of Dorian’s time at the Warburg.          

Contact Joseph Crane above, Dorian Greenbaum at dorian@goldtel.net
or Abby (especially for directions) at abbyscapes@comcast.net.

This Autumn’s Sky: Two Parts

We will be looking a bit at planetary motion during the October workshop as well as fixed stars.  Here’s a little of both.

When does a planet change apparent direction?  It is solely based upon its position with the Sun.  Conventionally, a planet’s change in direction is based on the planet’s speed relative to the earth and where the planet and the Earth are in their respective orbits around the Sun. For our purposes it’s much easier.

Last week Mercury went retrograde (9/7) and Pluto went direct (9/11).  Here’s the chart of the day Mercury went retrograde.

It’s most difficult to determine from a chart when Mercury is changing direction: here is Mercury, 21° to the right of the Sun as an evening star.  Sometimes Mercury is farther from the Sun when it goes retrograde but it always does so as an evening star.  Previously Mercury had been moving ahead of the Sun and recently it began to slow down and then went into a full stop – as it does just before the station.

Although Mercury’s station is 06° Libra, it will move back into Virgo and meet with the always direct-moving Sun at 27° Virgo on September 20. Soon it will emerge as a morning star retrograde and will finally go direct on September 29.

Pluto is a different matter entirely!  It moves very slowly, of course, and its relative speed and direction rely on whether the Earth and Pluto are on the same side of the Sun (direct) or on opposite sides (retrograde).  In 2009 Pluto only went as far as 3° Capricorn (last spring) and then it went retrograde.  Now that the Sun is moving closer to Pluto in the zodiac, the dark planet goes direct.  When Pluto changes direction it takes its time!  Pluto hovers around 0° Capricorn until early November.

(For a more personal depiction of this Pluto station – for it is at my Sun degree – here’s a radio interview on the topic that I did this month that you’re welcome to listen to.  There are also interviews with other astrologers. Here’s the link: http://www.contacttalkradio.com/hosts/chrisflisher.htm) 

I have also included Mars with this chart. You may notice that with Mars in Leo and Sun in Virgo, Sun is moving away from Mars and will do so steadily over the next several months.  In fact on December 20, with the Sun at the last degree of Sagittarius, Mars will be 19° and will go retrograde.  Notice that Mars must be much farther away from the Sun than Pluto when Mars changes direction.  This is one reason why Mars is seldom retrograde compared to Pluto.

That was the first part of the autumn skies: here’s the second part, a quick glance at some fixed stars.

This is the kind of thing that completely excites me: a diagram (from Starlight program) of Arcturus co-rising with the Sun in the Boston area (October 5th, 6:50am).  Above, where the blue and purple lines cross, you can also see where the ecliptic and equator converge at what we call 0° Libra.

You can see the fixed star Arcturus along the horizon with the Sun.  The Sun’s location in the zodiac at this time would be 12° Libra, yet Arcturus’ position is given as 24° Libra 22, a twelve degree difference!  This map is based on the physical location of Arcturus, not its closest zodiacal degree.

There’s more.  Notice below the Sun, along the purple line of the ecliptic, is the fixed star Spica.  As many astrologers know, the location of Spica in the zodiac is 23° Libra 12, very close to Arcturus – yet these stars are not at all close to each other.

Significantly Spica, although currently in the sign Libra, is in the constellation Virgo, and Arcturus is the most prominent star in the northern constellation Bootes.

For the fixed stars along the belt of the zodiac and therefore close to the ecliptic, using their nearest positions on the zodiac may be appropriate.  However, for stars like Arcturus, away from the ecliptic, we should consider using paranetella, of which the co-rising above is an example.

Arcturus and Spica, although close in zodiacal degree, have very different astrological meanings!  Spica is a Venusian kind of great benefic; Arcturus is a navigation star giving possibilities of prominence.

Here is from a chapter of my book Astrological Roots: The Hellenistic Legacy.

The bright and ruddy star in Bootes, also called Arcturus, is the nature of Mars and Jupiter.19N11. (1st magnitude.) Other Greek names were “Bear Guard” or “Bear Watcher” because of its proximity to the constellation of the Great Bear. This is the star of the warrior, and also one who can be trusted with confidences and with the nation’s treasury. Much has been made of this star over the centuries. The constellation itself rises horizontally and sets vertically and would have been a spectacular sight to our ancestors.  (p. 215)

The left hand of Virgo, or Spica from Latin, is given to Venus and Mars or Venus and Mercury. (1st magnitude) 23 Libra 50. This is the ear of wheat from the left hand of the maiden (Virgo) and is a star of the harvest season. Spica’s range of meaning includes abundance and innocent virtue. Natives are good at cultivation of the fields and accessing the bounty that comes from a good harvest. According to Aratus, the star represents the maiden who had walked amongst us during times when people were better, during the Age of Gold. According to Anonymous of 379, Spica may show one to have a religious and philosophical side and the native may be involved with religious ritual. (p 213)

We probably need to rethink how we locate fixed stars in our astrology.  The closeness in the zodiac – and distance in the sky – between Spica and Arcturus is an obvious example among many others.

We will go through the autumn night sky in detail during the October 3 workshop.

Astrology Education Programs

Although we host workshops and lectures occasionally, the bulk of our programs at The Astrology Institute are by private tutorial or supervision.  Up to this point the format has been fairly informal, based on whatever is interesting to the student at the time.  Recently I have heard from people who are interested in a more formal and sustained program of studies, much like what we have developed in the past. We are going go that route.

If you are interested in studying astrology with our school, I will be happy to send you a questionnaire and assessment – this is not an “application.”  It is merely to provide a general sense of your interests and experience with astrology so far.  If you are interested we would then design a program for you that would allow you to work with specific interests or to complete a certification.

Below is a list of our courses: their sequence, prices and procedures.

Courses 2009-2010

Foundational Courses

Astrology’s Sky: 
The structure of the zodiac and the signs of the zodiac; houses and house systems; Sun, Moon and Moon’s latitude cycle; the celestial sphere and its dimensions; planetary motion and cycle; locating fixed stars 
(8 segments)

Psychology and Mythology of Astrology’s Planets: 
Foundational meanings and applications of planets; relationship to signs 
(6 segments)

Natal Interpretation: 
Using elements and modes; houses as strength and area of life; aspects; using dignities and debilities 
(8 segments)

Modern Predictive Astrology:
Using transits, secondary progressions, solar arc directions, solar returns
(8 segments)

Symmetries and Harmonics: 
Astrology of the Modern Era: 5th, 7th, 9th harmonic charts; midpoints and introduction to planetary pictures 
(6 segments)

Introduction to Traditional Astrology: 
Characteristics of natal astrology in ancient and medieval styles, including fixed star interpretation 
(6 segments)  Prerequisite to #7, #8

Traditional Horary and Electional Astrology: 
Questions about profession, love and marriage, purchases, lost or missing items; selecting appropriate times for chosen events. 
(8 segments)

Hellenistic Astrology: 
Using houses, lots, and aspect configurations; planetary assessment; delineating life issues; predictive technique 
(8 segments)

Mythology of the Ancient Era: 
Religious and psychological dimensions; applications to astrology’s symbol systems
(6 segments)

Astrology and Ancient Philosophy: 
Relevant sections of Plato’s Republic and Timaeus, Aristotle’s Physics and Nicomachean Ethics, from Stoics.
(6 segments)

Each segment consists of assignments to be responded to in writing, and we will respond in writing to each assignment.  At the end of every second segment if you wish, we can have a free telephone conversation to discuss any questions or problems that come up. We recommend that you complete each segment within two weeks.

Cost:  $40 per segment for each course; payment due 50% at the beginning, the other half in the middle.

            If you’re interested, please contact me at josephcrane@verizon.netor (40) 527-2035 and I will send you the preliminary material.

This Month’s Profile:Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Part One

Not every reader of this newsletter is going to particularly know about this person, yet he might be one of the most interesting artists of the twentieth century.  For those who couldn’t care less about last century’s classical composers or life in the defunct Soviet Union, the astrology itself should be sufficiently interesting – as should be the story on a human level.

Because of the complexity of his chart and the abundance of astrological indicators, I have decided to split the discussion in two.  This is the first part; the second part will be in next month’s newsletter. 

Shostakovich was of the generation of composers after Bartok, Stravinsky, and Strauss, and he was thirteen years younger than his fellow Russian Prokofiev.  He is best known for his fifteen symphonies and fifteen string quartets which explore vast harmonic and emotional ranges.  Although most Russian composers were famous for adapting native melodies, some of Shostakovich’s most interesting pieces were influenced by Jewish folk music.  This latter fact would not endear him to the Soviet authorities. 

His most famous work was written during two Stalinist purges and, in between, during the “Great Patriotic War” of 1940-1945. Stalin had no hesitation about using Shostakovich as a propaganda tool and the composer was on record dutifully denouncing the “decadent bourgeois tendencies” of his contemporary music – much to the horror of those who knew that these were not his true beliefs. Shostakovich was no party lackey. Instead, he may have been a hidden dissident whose opposition to the Soviet regime and its policies was conveyed through his music.

Shostakovich remained controversial even after his death: a book Testimony by Solomon Volkov (1979), purportedly based on lengthy interviews with Shostakovich just before his death, portrayed him as a secret but adamant Soviet dissident.  The authenticity of Testimony is still being discussed.  It is clear, however, that Shostakovich was no great lover of the Stalinist regime and the Communist authorities who tried to control his musical life.  His response was to write much music that is testimony to his own pain and the suffering of his age.

A look at his astrological chart can provide some insights into this enigmatic and complex personality who was often on the front lines of history. Since there are many different kinds of techniques astrologers use, I shall survey his chart in a few different ways before looking at two interesting moments in his life.

Here is his natal chart, from the Sirius astrology program:

The birth time is based on a biographical citation and cannot be completely trusted, although I have some reasons to feel that it is a good approximation. I the future I will attempt a formal rectification.

Looking at his chart traditionally yields some interesting results. Using whole sign houses, whereby each the Ascendant degree marks the first house and the others continue around the circle, there are many planets in houses (or places) that are weak or difficult. 

When we see Aquarius rising we note the planet governing Aquarius, Saturn, is in the mediocre second house and is opposed by Mars.  Fortunately, however, Saturn has aspects from Jupiter and Neptune but they are in the sixth, a weak place.

Uranus conjuncts Moon, indicative of a restless emotional life, but in Capricorn and in the twelfth house, this can be a painful combination. Shostakovich was known to be constantly fidgeting, with a lot of nervous

energy, and was socially awkward with people who were not friends and colleagues. Moon applies to Jupiter exalted in Cancer – this should help -- but again Jupiter is in the weak sixth house.

Shostakovich has Sun in Libra in the ninth – this is the house “joy” of the Sun.  Sun also gets some benefit from the square from Jupiter, yet both Jupiter and Sun are cadent.  Additionally, Sun is in “fall” in Libra.            Venus, the planet of music among other things, is in this tenth house of profession.  This is the only visible planet in an angular house or even a fortunate place like the fifth or eleventh.  Venus is also aligned with the Lot of Fortune in Taurus in the 4th and is with the Lot of Daimon, also in the 10th.  This is a lot of focus on Venus!  We will even see more below. 

This strong contrast between Venus and other planets is reflected in the contrast between Shostakovich’s vocation and his public persona as spokesperson for his government. It hints as his antipathy toward being involved in public life, especially Soviet politics.  (He contemplated suicide after he reluctantly joined the Communist party in the 1950’s.) Shostakovich was not without strong beliefs, and in particular he loathed the violence and anti-Semitism of the Stalinist regime – but he did so quietly and among only close friends.  You could see this with the idealism of a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction – but in the sixth house. 

Shostakovich never opposed his Soviet masters openly but instead parroted the party line when necessary – in the hope that he would be left alone to do his work.  Had Shostakovich been a vocal opponent of the Soviets, however, being sent to the Gulag would have been a fortunate outcome for him compared to the alternative: many of his contemporaries were simply shot. Shostakovich was a musical prodigy from an early age who just wanted to be a great musician.  His opposition, his antipathy toward Stalin and the horrific times he lived in, he would express through his music.

One might also look at the opposition between Mars in the 8th and Saturn in the 2nd as indicating frustrated activity.  And because they’re in weak houses we seem to see more resignation than creative fury.  His is clearly a very tortured soul.  We will return to this opposition below!

Here’s another look at his chart and using possibilities from modern astrology.  I add it because it shows clearly an aspect configuration prominent in his chart.

There are two prominent features to discuss.

One is Venus, once again: note the conjunctions on either side of Venus: there’s Sun/Mercury on one side, Moon/Uranus on the other.  Venus is the midpoint of Sun/Uranus by ten minutes; to Mercury/Uranus by forty-one minutes; between Sun and Moon and between Moon and Mercury their midpoint is also Venus, by more than one degree.  This is a prominent configuration!

Taken together, they provide a picture of somebody with an independent mind (Mercury/Uranus) and a nonconforming spirit (Sun/Uranus) and integrated attitude toward life (Sun/Moon) but whose access to all this is through his music.  When he visited the West in the late 1940’s some people held banners imploring him to escape his handlers and defect to the West: this was not going to happen.  (Remember that Moon and Uranus are in Capricorn and in the 12th.)

There’s even more to see.  Every reader is going to notice that this second chart contains what’s called a mystic rectangle – a four-planet configuration with two trines and two sextiles so that there are also two oppositions between the planets.

There’s the opposition we’ve spoken of between Moon/Uranus and Jupiter; there’s an opposition between Saturn and Mars.  These two oppositions relate to each other by sextiles and so that in between there are trines between Moon and Mars and between Saturn and Jupiter.

These aspects bring together Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn into a very tight connection.  His Moon in the 12th wants to be left alone but must deal with many forces larger than his professional and personal life.   One also gets the sense of a great deal of inner turmoil and vicissitudes of career and reputation, especially since Mars is the lord of his 10th whole-sign-house of career.

Let’s note further the strength of these aspects. Not only are the aspects close in orb but there’s a path of application from one planet to another that is noteworthy.  Here it is, simply using degree numbers:            *Moon (6°) applies to Mars (8°) and Jupiter (9°) and Saturn (10°) and Neptune (12°). 

Therefore Mars applies to Jupiter and Saturn, and Jupiter applies to Saturn, Saturn applies to Neptune.  Note that the degree numbers increase as the planets become slower in motion. 

Notice that between the two oppositions there’s also a midpoint: the lunar nodes!  Here’s how this would read out:            Node = Moon/Jupiter =Moon/Saturn = Mars/Neptune = Saturn/Uranus

According to the 20th century school of Cosmobiology, the Lunar Nodes form an axis that relate to strong personal emotional relationships to others – on a small scale or large scale.

Moon-Jupiter gives a generosity and abundance to others; Moon-Saturn gives loneliness and mistrust; Mars-Neptune makes for confused anger or idealistic warfare. Saturn/Uranus is also there, vacillating between cautious conformism and impertinent eccentricity.  All of these were true of him.

Let’s move onto some of his transits for important turning points of his life.

The first is his sudden fall from official grace.  Although only in his late twenties, Shostakovich was already a leading composer: two years before he had produced the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mst’ensk District, a jarring piece of musical drama similar to what other composers were doing elsewhere in Europe.  Well, Joseph Stalin came to see it and hated it. 

In January 1936 an article entitled “Music or Muddle?” came out in Pravda that excoriated Shostakovich and others for bourgeois “formalist” tendencies that were contrary to the nature of good uplifting music for the people.   In a totalitarian state, a rebuke like this would get one sent to the camps or shot as a counter-revolutionary.  At this time and for some time after, this criticism put his life into a shambles.

Here are his transits for that fateful time in early 1936.

Here is his chart the day “Music or Muddle” was published.

Note he was having a Saturn return – if it was only that simple.  Joining transiting Saturn was transiting Mars in Pisces, making for both malefic in aspect to natal Saturn.  (Saturn is the domicile lord of his Ascendant and the dispositor for his Sun, Mercury, and Moon – not an unimportant planet!).  Not only was transiting Saturn and Mars upon his natal Saturn, but it was also at that time opposing his natal Mars in Virgo. (Mars is also the dispositor for his 10th house of career.)  So we have two malefic transiting two malefics, and, to be a trigger, Moon had just entered Pisces the day the article came out. 

Well, Shostakovich survived: he withstood performances of his music being banned and eked out a living writing film scores.  He saw many of his friends and colleagues being arrested and going to the Gulag – but not him.  Finally he was given a chance to “redeem” himself by writing a Fifth Symphony, which he noted as “A Response to Just Criticism” and publically apologized for his previous “formalist” tendencies.  (He would suffer another fall from grace in the late 1940’s.) 

His Fifth Symphony premiered in November 1937 to great public and critical acclaim and has become his most frequently performed and recorded work.  The question remains – is the work and especially its ending a message of heroism or oppression?  Here’s a link to a performance of the Fifth’s Finale conducted by Leonard Bernstein who later helped Shostakovich’s work be widely performed in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJFXqYEYd8.  You be the judge!  (Of course you might want to hear the preceding movements first.) 

His rehabilitation had begun. Within a year he was back in favor, having written a few more accessible (and wonderful) compositions.  However in 1941 the Germans invaded the Soviet Union and began to besiege his beloved Leningrad.  Shostakovich was ordered to leave the city and later that year wrote his Seventh Symphony, the Leningrad Symphony.  I find this an inspiring story and I’ll let Alex Ross tell it from The Rest is Noise (2007). 

Besieged Leningrad heard the symphony On August 9, 1942, under the most dramatic circumstances imaginable.  The score was flown in by military aircraft in June, and a severely depleted Leningrad Radio Orchestra began learning it.  After a mere fifteen musicians showed up for the initial rehearsal, the commanding general ordered all competent musicians to report from the front lines.  The players would break from rehearsals to return to their duties, which sometimes included the digging of mass graves for victims of the siege.  Three members of the orchestra died of starvation before the premier took place.  The opposing German general heard about the performance in advance and planned to disrupt it, but the Soviets preempted him by launching a bombardment of German positions – Operation Squall, it was called.  An array of loudspeakers then broadcast the Leningrad into the silence of no-man’s land.  Never in history had a musical composition entered the thick of battle in quite this way: the symphony became a tactical strike against German morale.  (P. 246)

I have enclosed another snippet from Youtube.com that is his famous “invasion” theme, a banal motif that he repeats over and over as movement toward cataclysm is presented. Was this a response to the Germans or to Stalin’s terror?  We are not sure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAzP54py0qI&feature=related

So what was his chart like when Leningrad heard The Leningrad?

If we wanted to trust this particular birth time, the transiting Sun was opposing his natal Ascendant and in square to his natal Venus. 

Interestingly we have another configuration of transiting Mars and Saturn with natal Mars and Saturn!  Now transiting Saturn is in square to the natal Mars-Saturn opposition and transiting Mars is coming to a conjunction with natal Mars – there is more emphasis on natal Mars here and less on natal Saturn.  You may also notice that transiting Jupiter was completing its conjunction with natal Jupiter and Neptune and had previously aspected the other planets – like Sun and Moon – in cardinal signs.  These were still difficult days for him but he had a cause and, at this time became a national hero.

You may also notice that transiting Neptune is at the last degrees of Virgo and is about to go into Libra and will conjunct his natal Sun by autumn of that year.  Subsequently, during the war years, transiting Neptune will form aspects to his many other planets in the cardinal signs.

Unfortunately more difficulties would await him.

To be continued next month.