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Here's Looking at You, the Stars and the World
06/26/2006

 

Hello!

In this newsletter I discuss
(1) the summer solstice that just happened,
(2) more about the summer and autumn classes,
(3) updates on my manuscript, and
(4) the houses in the chart of Queen Elizabeth II.

First I venture a short note on two people. Dorian Greenbaum has had what appears to be a very successful year at the Warburg Institute in London. She will be spending the summer back home, before she ventures forth for another year in England. Her springtime adventure has been examining Valens and Plutarch on topic of the daimon. Not only has her book on Temperament been quite successful, but she has had her share of speaking engagements, in an attempt to educate the English people about astrology. Alas, Melanie Schlossberg moves to Houston, Texas, in a very short time. I trust she will have great success educating the Texas people about astrology. If there is news about you that you would like others to know, I would happily share it with others.

(1) The summer solstice occurred last Wednesday. "Solstice" means "Sun standing" and refers to the relatively stable length of the day and night at this time of year. You have probably noticed that it stays light out for about the same time each night. It will be several weeks before the days are noticeably shorter than they are right now. The summer solstice also means that the Sun is at its northernmost declination, about twenty-three and a half degrees north. This means that at the Tropic of Cancer, at 23.5 degrees north latitude, the Sun will culminate directly overhead. In the far northern latitudes, the Sun never does quite set: in Alaska, there is festiveness and baseball which lasts all night. (This contrasts with the winter solstice, when the Sun reaches the place of its southernmost declination, where the Sun culminates directly overhead atthe Tropic of Capricorn, 23.5 degrees of south latitude.) Observationally, this means that at the summer solstice, in the northern hemisphere, the Sun has the widest arc in the sky -- which is why the days are so long -- and the Sun will rise and set at its most northern positions on the eastern and western horizons. In the southern hemisphere this is also the case, but the Sun daytime arc is the shortest and the Sun seems more remote in the sky. This is the same as what we in the north experience during the Summer Solstice.Those of us who are familiar with Newgrange in Ireland, or remember the movie Raiders of the Lost Arc, note the importance of the Sun's northern declination to cast light Mundane astrologers will cast a chart for the moment of the solstice for the capital of a country, to remark on political events. I supply this chart here.



I am not a mundane astrologer. I do note that the Tenth and Fourth houses look well but the First has the two malefics there. The only interpretation I can give to the troubled First (governed by Sun in the twelfth) is that our difficulties would be self-inflicted. This is buttressed by Moon's application to Saturn.For those of us in New England, things grow worse: the Ascendant moves into a close conjunction with both Mars and Saturn. We have been hearing from the fearsome press that we're due for a major hurricane or earthquake, but I see no indications from this chart. However, with Ascendant in a fire sign and Saturn next to Mars, I wonder how hot it might become -- that is, if it ever stops raining.But again, I am not a mundane astrologer. These days I get weather predictions from looking at the rain pour down out the living room window.

(2) On the summer program:
This is a course on features of modern predictive astrology that everybody who practices astrology -- informally or professionally -- should know. Because modern techniques of progressions and directions are grounded in past practice, the last classes will examine original formulations of these techniques.
The course will be held at the Arlington Center on 369 Mass. Ave in Arlington -- near Arlington Center and many fine eating places.
The schedule is Wednesday nights from 7:30-9:30 (we eat dinner first).We meet on 7/5 and 7/12? - skip 7/19 -- continue 7/26 and 8/2, skip 8/9, and finish with 8/16 and 8/23.
Speaking of dinner -- perhaps some of us would like to have dinner together before the class.? We can set that up at the first meeting.
The fee is $150.
Since during the summer people often have to miss a session due to vacation, I do provide CD's with recording and charts for sessions you miss.
If you're interested, please contact me here. You're also welcome to show up at the first class on July 5.

 

The course description is below.

Progressions and Directions in Predictive Astrology

Progressions and directions constitute two major predictive techniques in astrology that are in continual practice.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 will then 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 first of all these techniques, "circumambulations" from the ancient tradition, or what we know as primary directions.

We will use example charts of notable nativities and our own.

 


In the autumn we're back with our ongoing work examining great thinkers of the past and their influence on astrology.? Last summer we looked at Plato; this autumn we'll take the heir of the Platonic tradition in the 3rd century, Plotinus.? This allows us to work meaningfully with the astrological purposes of Marsilio Ficino, who was one of the great lights of the humanist Renaissance. This is preliminary to a critical presentation of?Astronoesis, a work of modern astrology that has Plotinus' work as its inspiration. This program will occur sometime in 2007.

(3)As of June 16, 2006, 8 AM, in Barrington, RI, my manuscript was complete and I am now looking for a new title and specific publishing news. The event chart for its completion is rather grim but spin-able (thanks Pat T.) and at least occurs on the auspicious day of Bloomsday, the anniversary of the day upon which all the action -- if you wish to call it that -- takes place in James Joyce's Ulysses. This now title-less book is a survey of astrology's symbol systems and today's predictive techniques from the viewpoint of their origins in the Hellenistic tradition. This work is important because there is so much to think through in today's astrology, and because we tend to become dogmatic about our work. At the same time, there are some features of the ancient tradition that can be brought seamlessly into today's astrology and may improve it.


This morning, at the beginning of an article by an astrological friend about matters of mundane astrology and American politics, I found this sentence:The idea that we should be tethered to the opinions of the ancients is the kind of oppressive thinking that the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment threw off long ago, and we here in America are supposed to be products of that kind of thinking - or at least we used to be. We did learn in grade school that the American democratic experiment was partly based on Roman models and would be inconceivable about them -- why do they call the upper chamber of Congress the "Senate" American democracy was a response to a decaying age of absolute monarchies that coexisted with more progressive thinking in its day.

The Scientific Revolution and Age of Enlightenment did give us the outer planets but otherwise has been no friend to astrologers. When we were learning Western history in grade school, we were taught to revere the thinking of this era of intellectual history, as if what occurred before was just superstition and oppression. Fortunately this point of view is beginning to recede.More important to me, however, is my friend's use of the words "tethered" and "oppressive." One of the standards of all practitioners of traditional astrology is that their technique has a relationship to the lineage of past times -- past Golden Ages of astrology, actually. Yesterday's science may not be useful but yesterday's astrology, but, as human nature and our basic situations have not changed in thousands of years, the astrology of the past can be not only useful but important to astrologers.

(4) Queen Elizabeth and whole sign houses.


For many people familiar with astrology, the presentation of a chart according to whole sign houses looks funny. That may be the one factor that discourages people from adopting this system. I could only encourage people to persevere and my part is to help get the eye used to this format.This is a good place to talk some about whole sign houses. According to this system, all of Capricorn is her First and therefore all of Libra is her Tenth. Yet, as Capricorn is a northern sign -- see the previous segment on the solstices -- and because England is in higher northern latitudes, the distance between Capricorn's rising and culminating is small, which is why the MC falls in the Eleventh in her chart.How would one interpret this First of all, the MC as a point continues to be a personal sensitive point, just as in modern astrology. Ebertin et al. will talk about the MC point as an axis -- a line across the zodiac including the IC -- and calls it "the soul." Seeing that Queen Elizabeth has Capricorn rising, the position of her Saturn is very important and its importance is amplified by its being conjunct the MC. Does this help make her Saturnine by character Sure -- just ask Prince Charles and Camilla.On the other hand, the Tenth -- here being not Scorpio but Libra -- is governed not by Mars in Aquarius but Venus, that is oriental exalted in Pisces. With its conjunction to the benefic Jupiter, one could make an argument for Mars governing her place of action or occupation. Venus seems a wiser choice, showing Elizabeth's consummate grace and elegance over a long time with many ups and downs and much national change.Many features of Elizabeth's chart show her toughness. Before we think of her Venus in Pisces as somehow wimpy and overtly sentimental, note the trine from Pluto.
Enough said! Till the next time.

Joseph Crane

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