Hello: Newsletter 04-2007
Today sandwiches two inauspicious days: Friday the Thirteenth and
April 15. May today be an island of sanity and happiness.
Contents:
Open Letter to Teaching Company -- May Astrology and Myth course -- Venus in this spring's sky -- past newsletter on astrologyinstitute.com -- 2008-2009 Lectures -- profile: not Don Imus but Kurt Vonnegut
Open Letter to The Teaching Company
I have been a regular satisfied customer of your products for several years now, gaining much from your courses in philosophy, literature, and music. I have also recommended your products to like-minded friends. This week I was offended by the cover of your latest catalogue: it featured a course on Philosophy of Science and a title that read, "Science or Pseudo-science?" In back was an illustration of the astrological zodiac.
I was offended because indeed I am an astrologer; I take pride in participating in an enduring tradition of Western culture and also a useful way to help others. Anybody who pretends that astrology is solely an empirical science is fit subject for ridicule, but most astrologers do not cast their work in this way. Statistical studies of astrological ideas can be helpful: they may support different astrological ideas but they can not be determinative for them. Astrology is not an empirical science but is an interpretive art that uses ordinary features of the visible sky. Astrology does not support the modern split between the empirical and the spiritual: this is what makes it so infuriating to both scientific and religious authorities (and pseudo-authorities).
Instead of using the twelve signs of the zodiac, a better background graphic to advertise the Philosophy of Science would have been William Blake's famous engraving of God measuring out the world. Creationism and Intelligent Design, more than astrology, fits better into this course's depiction of "pseudo-science." As a philosophical or religious conjecture there is room for Creationism and Intelligent Design, and I am sympathetic to the notion that Creationism saves the universe from purposelessness. Today there is a far greater danger of our science courses and research institutions being invaded by Creationism than by astrology.
The Philosophy of Science course you advertise seems to have merit: it is important for people to judge what is scientific and what is no. It is equally important, though, that empirical science take ownership of its own realm and not another's. If mistaken for a philosophy, "scientism" becomes gives a mechanistic and materialistic model that is spiritually nihilistic. One may learn and love science and recognize that there are more things in heaven and earth than in science as a philosophy. This is where astrology is particularly useful.
I will take advantage of your organization's suggestion for feedback from customers.
I would like to see a new course featured: the contribution of astrology to Western culture. We can discuss the Babylonian beginnings of observation, the Hellenistic synthesis of the world and sky into one cosmos, the medieval contributions of Aquinas and Dante, its impact on Renaissance humanism and the "scientific revolution," its re-discovery as part of Romantic and post-Romantic spirituality. (This leaves open the question of astrology's contribution to modern thinking, which could be another course.)
Spring Program Reminder: Note that the location has changed slightly.
Astrology's Mythic Background
Presenter: Joseph Crane
This course investigates a wide-ranging and compelling topic: the relationship between astrology and the mythic treasure of the West. We begin with the most universal symbols the planets and ends with different renderings of the twelve signs of the zodiac and their parallels in myth. This program is for people just learning astrology and intermediate students who want to brush up on their study of myth.
You will also learn about many of the stars and constellations of the Northern Hemisphere and their place in mythology and astrology.
Wednesday nights, May 2 - June 13, 2007
Arlington Senior Center
27 Maple St, Arlington, Ma.
$135
1. The Outer Planets and the Beginning of Everything
Are the outer planets about the gods they are named for Uranus,
Poseidon/Neptune, and Hades/Pluto, or are their natures to be instead found in other Greek creation myths?
2. Olympus and the Cosmic State
How do our designations of the planets correspond with the politics of Mount Olympus?
3. Venus, Mars, Mercury
We explore many of the more profound realms designated by these planets.
4. Mythologies of the Sun and Moon
We compare how different cultures treated the luminaries mythically. We will compare the Greek/Roman with Babylonian and Egyptian solar and lunar motifs.
5. Heroes and the Zodiac 1 (Perseus, Theseus, and Jason)
We look at hero motifs that particularly belong to the first six signs of the zodiac the Individual half.
6. Heroes and the Zodiac 2 (Heracles and the Zodiac)
We explore the cosmic dimension of the heroe's journey and especially the second half of the zodiac.
Contact Joseph at josephcrane@cox.net or (401) 527-2035.
Coming this summer— Astrology: Harmonies and Symmetries
Venus in the Spring Sky
This spring -- when we haven't had rain or a blizzard -- Venus has adorned the Western sky after Sunset. Briefly I would like to look at its development during the course of this time.
In early 2006, Venus was conjunct the Sun, but the retrograde conjunction. In the weeks following this conjunction, Venus would appear in the Eastern sky, before sunrise. Venus would have been retrograde upon first visibility in the east, but soon would turn direct. During this time Venus was a morning star or oriental, so it would rise before the Sun. Eventually, however, Venus would quicken in its movement and come closer to the Sun, and then fade into the
Sun's rays and a period of invisibility. Below depicts when Venus was back with the Sun, making its direct conjunction.
It doesn't matter what time of day we choose, as Venus is never visible in the sky at this time. However, within two months -- on December 27, 2006, Venus was fifteen degrees behind the Sun in the zodiac (Sun was 5 Capricorn, Venus 20 Capricorn), and was definitely visible in the sky. (Ancient astrologers rounded off all planets at 15 degrees as emerging from the Sun, although it would be earlier for Venus.)
This year's spring equinox included an unexpected treat -- the Moon and Venus following the Sun in the sky. For once the sky was clear and the planets were brilliant. Here is that configuration.
Here we would see the Moon rising from the Sun, as a thin crescent at the distance of 27 degrees from the Sun. Venus, at 03 Taurus, is 33 degrees and becoming bright. As Venus moves farther away from the Sun, she becomes more radiant. Check it out. Venus will continue moving more quickly than the Sun and will gain maximum elongation of 46 degrees in the late spring. To help you look for this, note the position of Venus in the west after Sunset of a clear night of Mother's Day. Here Venus is 44 degrees behind the Sun.
Since everything changes, after maximum elongation Venus will slowly begin to slow down and become closer to the Sun, and gradually be less bright in the sky, and when Venus moves in to about 30 degrees from the Sun, she turns retrograde. This happens on July 27. At that time Venus is a dim presence in the western sky and then moves into the Sun's beams. And so on, and on.
Joseph Crane Lecture Topics 2008-2009
The good news is that the older book is being reissued and the newer book is almost finished -- between now a few more tortuous weeks of work. The means more and better publicity, generated my myself and others.
I will be circulating an introductory letter and a list of lecture topics to go to different astrological groups and organizations. For the list of topics click here as a pdf, and you are welcome to look through it and even send it along. If you're in Eastern New England, it may give you a sense of what may lie ahead from me.
Contents of Newsletters on Astrologyinstitute.com
If you go to our web page, you will find a list of dates of previous
newsletters. To make things easier for you to find, we will be
providing a guide to the content of those newsletters on the web page
itself. There are many interesting essays and profiles there that
you might want to look through.
1/17/06: Essay on Intelligent Design
2/23/06: Profiles on Dick Cheney, Ariel Sharon
3/27/06: Profile: Russ Feingold
5/1/06: "Mozart Without the Outers"
2/25/06 and 6/26/06: Whole Sign Charts and Queen Elizabeth
8/24/06: Profile on Mel Gibson
9/21/06: Essays on Eris and Pluto, on Eclipses
10/4/06: Essay on "Traditional," "Classical," "Hellenistic" Astrology
1/1/07: Gerald Ford, Don Rumsfeld, and Britney Spears
2/1/07: Essay on Mercurial Mercury; Profile on Dick Cheney
This Month's Profile: Kurt Vonnegut
If not for having his a natal chart, we probably be looking at Don Imus' chart, as we have all seen his career collapse over the past week. May we watch his career and that of some others fade back into the setting sun. We do have a chart for the recently-deceased Kurt Vonnegut, though. His birth time is unverified and only rates a "C" on the Roddin rankings, but we have enough to work with, as long as we are careful with what we pay attention to. Here is his chart:
Some of us know or remember Vonnegut very well, others -- who are younger -- maybe not so well. He is known as a novelist whose works were funny, imaginative, highly ironical, haunting, and an easy read.
His biography is distinguished by traumatic wartime experience. As a soldier toward the end of the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans. He was held in Dresden in early 1945, where he was witness to the demolition of Dresden by allied fire bombing and was forced by his captors to dispose of piles of dead bodies. (Below we will note the astrological indicators during this time of his life.)
These events resurfaced in American literature in 1969, when, at the height of the Vietnam War, Slaughterhouse Five was published. This was his best-known work and stands as a searing antiwar document to this day.
First we look at Kurt Vonnegut's natal chart. If we were confident about his birth time, we could say much about Venus conjunct Ascendant. This configuration may have given him not good looks but personal charisma. We could surmise about his personal charm, but it may be more important that Venus is conjunct the Mars-like fixed star Antares, the "Heart of the Scorpion" -- Venus is best expressed with fighting purpose that would manifest in his private and public life. Also interesting feature of his chart is the configuration of planets with the Sun. Note Sun in Scorpio and what rises ahead -- Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. Mercury is clearly a planet of writing, Jupiter enhances it (and is rising from the Sun), and Saturn is in exaltation and in a strong eleventh place. The fixed star Arcturus, the pioneering star of the northern sky, culminates with Mercury, tell us more about his life's contribution. For Vonnegut's Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn are doriphoria or "spearbearers," and can be factors that can lead to eminence. (All these planets are in "sect" in a daytime chart.) What planet governs his three in Scorpio? -- don't say Pluto! It's Mars, of course, in Aquarius in the fourth from the Ascendant
but tenth place -- a predominating place -- from his Scorpio planets. Also, Mars is exactly opposite his rather flamboyant Moon in Leo. With Mars so prominent -- and also being out of sect in his day chart -- Vonnegut would have passion, anger, and outrage.
To what do we attribute his depression? We could start with the same Mars, stymied by a sense of futility and powerlessness. Using Neptune, the modern great malefic, we note that is is in partile square to Sun in Scorpio. (This is not helped by Sun being in the twelfth.)
What do we see in the astrology of late 1944 and early 1945? Lets start modern: merely transiting Pluto in early Leo, exactly conjunct his Moon and opposing Mars. This time for him was the most Plutonic one imaginable. By solar arc Pluto (!) was conjunct Jupiter -- on December 31, 1944. Highlighting the significance of this time for him was a progressed Full Moon, although that wouldn't be exact until the autumn.
Now to ancient timekeeping. I begin with his decennials, because I always do. Because Sun is in the twelfth, we begin with the other luminary, the Moon. His general time lord was Saturn during his adolescence and early adulthood, and at this time it was Mars who was the specific time lord for about fifteen months. This combination of malefics, and the specific time lord being out of sect, does not bode well for happy times. During the time he was captured and was present for the Dresden fire bombing, the fourth planet involved (using a method involving 129 days) was -- you guessed it, Saturn. Zodiacal releasing from the Lot of Fortune puts this time in Scorpio-Scorpio (more Mars) and his zodiacal releasing from the Lot of Spirit gives us Aries-Scorpio. Again, more Mars.
Vonnegot was 22 at his birthday before he was captured by the Germans, which is his 23rd year. This gives him a profection of eleven places (23-12=11). Again we see an influence of malefics -- more so if the birth time is correct and he has Sagittarius rising: Mars profects to Venus/Ascendant, and Venus/Ascendant profects to Saturn. He was captured during his second monthly profections (thank you, Penelope) which brings the profection of Mars, by year to Venus/Ascendant, to Capricorn, where Mars was transiting. The Dresden firebombing took place when the monthly profection reached into Aquarius, where natal Mars is. The ancient astrologers did not have transiting Pluto in their toolbox, and could have not caught Pluto transiting onto Vonnegut's Moon and Mars, or his solar arc onto Jupiter. Instead the malefics ably perform the work we might attribute to Pluto. It is clear from this example that one could note tremendous difficulties brought on my the two malefics, especially by Mars. No, I do not advocate eliminating Pluto -- I do advocate looking more closely at the influence of the malefics when horror occurs in the life of the individual, as it had for Kurt Vonnegut at the end of the Second World War.
A Personal Note on Vonnegut: I too read Kurt Vonnegut as a countercultural voice and I had different responses to different pieces. My personal favorite was Breakfast of Champions, and I cannot remember why I liked it as much as I did. This novel contained many simple cartoon drawings: one of them was a picture of a gravestone, and engraved was a name -- which I do not remember -- and a epitaph: "Not Even the Creator of the Universe Knew What This Man Was Going to Do Next." This stuck with me and became an inspiration to me and an influence in the future. I hope this "so it goes" may go better.
Next Month, unless another person becomes more newsworthy: Pope
Benedict
