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Here's Looking at You, the Stars and the World
05/25/2006
Dear Astrology Friends:
This will be a short newsletter, as I am toward the end of my manuscript. For those of you who know well the Boston Marathon, it is like having Heartbreak Hill, not the nice lope to Copley Square, at the end of the twenty-six mile endurance run. As I promised last time, I do have a presentation of Queen Elizabeth's chart.
(You may notice that this essay focuses on English examples, as does the chart below. What might one read into this One possibility is that charts at high northern latitudes allow me to make several relevant rhetorical points. Maybe I miss Dorian Greenbaum who continues to do great things at Warburg. Or I'm completely sick of the current political situation in America and any alternative will do -- but at least the Red Sox are in first place.)
Here is the information about the program.
The Arlington Center
369 Mass. Ave, Arlington, Ma.
Cost: $150
Presenter: Joseph Crane Progressions and directions constitute two major predictive techniques in modern and traditional astrology. Progressions move an entire chart according to some equivalence of time: in secondary progressions, one day of planetary movement from birth is the same as one year in the life of the person. For directions, positions move according to the movement of one factor. In solar arc directions, for example, all positions move at the same rate as the progressed Sun.
We begin the course with the well-known techniques of secondary progressions and solar arc directions, working with example charts and demystifying the technicalities.We consider alternative forms of progressions (tertiary) and directions (Ascendant arc). We will also look at progressions and directions from the solar return.
We will build up to a demonstration of the origins of these techniques, ascensions or "circumambulations" from the ancient tradition, or what we know as ?primary directions.
We will use example charts of notable nativities and our own.Okay: Now for the current Queen of England, who just turned eighty. In the next newsletter, along with a look at solstice charts, we will look at her chart in detail. Now I want to take a look at the presentation of the chart itself. Here it is in European format.
Capricorn, along with Sagittarius, are signs of southern declination: they are the most southern of the signs of the zodiac. And Elizabeth of England was born at a far northern latitude: therefore there will be small distance from the Ascendant and Midheaven. Using quadrant houses, we have a very uneven distribution of houses in her chart. Here first and seventh houses are almost sixty degrees, but her sixth and twelfth are only 19 degrees. This makes it very difficult to determine house rulers. With three signs and three planets of two signs in her first, it is difficult to assess it with any certainty. This is the "European" kind of presentation of the birth chart. The American version, given below, looks prettier but does not solve this problem.
We see clearly that her second house has three planets of three different signs. Over the past several years I have completed a conversion experience of sorts, toward a "whole sign" or "vedic" house system. I was initially worried that this simpler system would be yield more simplistic astrology, and found that clarity actually makes for better and more accurate information. You will quickly see the difference in clarity in the chart given below.
As you can see, all the Capricorn in the first house and therefore all of Libra is the tenth. The Midheaven in Scorpio falls well within the eleventh house, along with Saturn. Consider that here we can think of the Midheaven as many astrologers do, as a personal sensitive point, and not necessarily the tenth house cusp. And yes, Saturn's importance as conjunct the Midheaven has not diminished in importance.
Next newsletter -- I promise to discuss her chart at length. In particular I will focus on her "terrible year," in which her son Charles and Diana divorced and her palace burned down. Otherwise it was not an interesting year in her life.
Joseph