Skyscript Newsletter 14 - December 2023

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#14 December 2023

Newsletter Edited by Deborah Houlding

The Sun is in Sagittarius www.skyscript.co.uk/sagittarius.html

– Contents – • Skyscript News & Developments • Astro-Speculating the Triple Crown • Consultation Tips from a Long-Time Astrologer • Planetary Themes for December and January • Babylonian Myths, I: The Mythological Scene • Profiling Britney • The Sphere of Manilius (latest extract)

Contributors: Wade Caves • Ray Grasse • Dru Ish • Kayleigh Jean • Eva Sylwester

Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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IN THIS ISSUE

Swinging and Ringing in Changes This morning, a thick blanket of snow covers the ground. As far as the eye can see, everything – from the earth to the sky – is white, with no sounds from living creatures or traffic to break the stillness and serenity. Nature’s pristine marvel cannot fail to generate wonderment, the icy cold tranquillity forcing a moment of pause as a fast-paced year approaches its end.

Looking back, I see much to be thankful for, despite the turbulent ride of the receding year. For me, 2023 felt crazily busy, with too many plates spinning at the back of my brain while the forepart struggled to focus on objectives ahead. But I’ve had such support for the Skyscript projects I am involved in and such delight in being in a circle of supportive, wise and friendly astrologers who give reasons to smile, ponder and learn. It is lovely to feel a sense of connection and shared appreciation of this philosophical art with friendly colleagues, in full recognition of the diversity of approaches it engenders.

Looking at my natal chart, I see turbulence continuing for at least the next six months. But I take heart from the symbolism of the Sagittarian centaur’s galloping stance and sky-pointing arrow – nothing says onwards & upwards better than this! To everyone who supported Skyscript this year in any capacity, I wish you a bounce in your step throughout 2024, with endless reasons to realise joys and a steady balance to withstand any ‘slings and arrows’ that fate will surely fly in your direction at some time.

How better to show appreciation than to quote Roberto Beningni’s acceptance speech for his Oscar in the poignant movie Life is Beautiful (my Virgo Moon would never take me to this place, but Beningni has Jupiter angular on his IC, and it’s still Jupiter’s season, so let’s smile where we can) – Deb I am not able to express all my gratitude … such colossal joy. I would like to be Jupiter! And kidnap everybody and lie down in the Firmament making love to everybody! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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SKYSCRIPT NEWS & DEVELOPMENTS YouTube: youtube.com/@skyscriptastrology Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to the new Skyscript YouTube channel.

This month’s featured addition is a talk by Vasilios Takos about the astrology techniques used by Theophilus of Edessa, an 8th-century Greco-Syriac astrologer who served the caliphs of Baghdad. Theophilus contributed to the techniques of military astrology, using methods that always remain relevant, even in times of peace, because they set the template for rules applied in trials, legal matters or any kind of conflict chart. Vasilios presents the results of his own research into the Greek language texts contained in the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum1 where Theophilus transmits and develops the approach of Rhetorius and Dorotheus.

Vasilios takes us through several of his demonstrated examples.

Theophilus of Edessa on War & Conflict Charts Vasilios Takos vasiliostakos.com

This talk was first delivered as part of a STA student graduate conference in September 2021

New additions to our YouTube channel this month also include Wade Cave’s InMundo assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Sino Indian War of 1962 – more on InMundo below.

InMundo: skyscript.uk/inmundo We’re happy to announce that Skyscript’s new InMundo channel is up, and easy to access from the main navigation menu at the top of each Skyscript page. Unlike the general mundane astrology articles Skyscript already hosts, which offer evergreen research and instruction material, InMundo will feature topical and current events and explore major headlines from around the world through an astrological lens.

This ‘world astrology’ channel is being developed and driven by Wade Caves and will initially focus on Wade’s own work but will graduate towards including contributions from other astrologers over time. There will be a wide variety of articles and commentary, in short and long formats, looking at everything from politics to economics, and pop culture to arts & recreation.

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The GCAG is a 12-volume compendium of ancient Greek language astrological writings, excerpted from texts found in libraries throughout Europe, edited by Franz Cumont and Franz Boll and piblished as a series between 1898 and 1953.

Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

NEW MENU LINKS

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Top menu changes – and easier login to member’s area The site-wide top menu has been amended. It now includes links to: • a directory of articles on Skyscript – this is not currently in a good state, but I am very grateful to Jane Gristi, who has volunteered her coding skills to help me improve the index of articles in a project that is currently developing behind the scenes. Expect an update on this soon.

• a directory of useful astrological texts that can be accessed on the web. Some of these are hosted on Skyscript, but most link through to texts hosted elsewhere.

This is a very useful resource, with entries that can be sorted by author, title, date or host. If you haven’t visited this page in a while, it is worth checking out –if you find it missing an entry that you think should be included, let us know via the feedback form at the bottom of the page; we’ll add it in.

• the new InMundo section (see details on the previous page).

• the Skyscript Forum.

• a glossary of astrological terms – this is in the final stages of redevelopment and will be relaunched with many improvements soon.

• a Media section – a section in progress: for now, the link leads through to the Skyscript YouTube channel, but we are gathering a collection of audio files and ‘read-out-loud’ articles, so a new section will be developed behind this link, to hold a directory to videos, audio files, chart graphic collections and digital files that are not static web pages, including links to newsletters and flip-book media.

• the login to the Members area. I’ve found it awkward to drop to the bottom menu every time I want to log in to this area, so this amendment simply makes sense.

UPCOMING RETROS AT A GLANCE

Quick reference images of retrograde cycles and stationary points for 2024 and 2025 now displayed on the Skyscript home page

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GLIDE THROUGH LUNATION CHARTS & EPHEMERIS FILES FOR 2024

Be sure to notice a discreet feature in the lunations section of the Skyscript home page which allows you to instantly browse ephemeric files or lunation charts for the whole of 2024. Underneath the visible display of recent and upcoming lunation charts, a small panel is loaded with links to graphics that appear on screen as your mouse hovers over them. For example (as shown in the graphic below), hovering your mouse over N (for New) or F (for Full) of any month will bring the New Moon or Full Moon chart for that month into view. Hovering over the month name itself will display the ephemeris file for that month. To get a highresolution view, click on the link instead of hovering over it – then you will get the full scale image to view on screen or download as you like.

Have you seen this

youtube.com/@thelillylecture s

Old meets new on YouTube in this new channel which reads the text of William Lilly’s Christian Astrology out loud – lovingly brought to life by Jacqueline Stucki

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NEWLY ADDED & RECENTLY REDEVELOPED PAGES Two major pages have been updated with the content now also available for PDF download or easy online flip-book viewing:

Sign symbolism: Sagittarius the Archer skyscript.co.uk/sagittarius.html

As with the rest of this series, this article provides an in-depth exploration of sign symbolism, listing its rulership associations and considering details such as the fact that Sagittarius was anciently a very martial, war-like sign featuring a scorpion’s tail. It was originally a twin-headed Babylonian centaur with a human head facing forward and an animal head facing backwards – a pictorial detail which later cartographers morphed into the presence of a cloak flying behind the centaur’s head.

The Babylonian centaur – Pa.Bil.Sag – was very phallic, and like its Egyptian counterpart, it featured a front-facing human head, a bestial back-facing head (often a lion), the wings of an eagle and a scorpion’s tail (demonstrating association with the neighbouring constellation, Scorpio). The Scorpion tail evolved into reptilian or snake-like representaion in Arabic art, retaining the notion of Sagittarius being a sign that is sharp and harsh at either end

Some of the celebrities whose charts are featured in the page that explores the symbolism and traditional associations of Sagittarius

Planet symbolism: Jupiter – Lord of Plenty skyscript.co.uk/astrology_jupiter.html

The page on Jupiter has benefitted from an extensive makeover and now makes a great portal to get a handle on all things Jupiterrean. As well as exploring Jupiter’s astrological characteristics, mythology and expression as a psychological theme, it details its traditional rulerships and significations (metals, places, professions, illnesses, tastes, physical descriptions, etc). The page also considers the planet Jupiter’s pertinent astronomical information and concludes with an embedded flip-book presentation of Al-Qabisi’s ‘Nature of Jupiter’ translated into English, as published in the Skyscript Newsletter sries (issue #7, March 2023).

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NEWS & THANK YOUS JASON TAKES A BREAK & OFFERS A GIFT Jason Burns has been a pivotal member of the Newsletter team for over a year after he stepped in to develop the ‘Planetary Themes’ section for the month ahead with issue #3 in October 2022. With much going on in other avenues of his life, Jason is reining in some obligations and stepping back from leading that column for a while. He intends to be back, so this is an ‘Au Revoir’, not ‘Goodbye’. In the meantime, Wade Caves has kindly volunteered to hold the fort. Thanks to Jason and to Wade, because exploring mundane themes at a time when the world is particularly loaded with tension is never an easy or carefree task.

Best wishes, also, to Jason’s new family member, Marco, an adorable Monk Parrot cutie who hatched from his egg on 20 Oct 2023, as a Capricorn Moon formed a grand trine to Venus in Virgo and Jupiter in Taurus. Here is Jason bonding with Marco and looking dashing as he models a T-shirt he had printed up with the Skyscript Aries motif:)

“

Would you like?

Jason has some surplus astrology texts that he is offering for the benefit of Skyscript members. The three below are part of his first set and will be sent out for free to the first three newsletter subscribers who express an interest in the Patreon post that announces the circulation of this newsletter:

We think of Jupiter as the planet of increase and expect to prosper under its influence, because its liberating influence gives greater freedom to think and act for ourselves, less inhibited by closed options that limit our prospects and so determine our choices for us.

Whilst this is relaxing and generally pleasant, increased freedom calls for greater conscious awareness of what we do, why we do it, and how to balance the urge for instant gratification against the need to preserve for the future. If we fail to exercise caution and moderation, we might exploit unwise opportunities that later lead to financial failure, spiritual dissatisfaction, or the boredom and depression that accompany surfeit and over-indulgence. Jupiter doesn’t offer revenge but allows us to be the architects of our own destruction, freely offering enough rope to let us hang ourselves if we ask for it. As the supplier of the endless, bounteous feast, the ‘Greater Fortune’ knows that those whose greed exceeds necessity end up sick and sorry when they fail to selfimpose propriety.

• On the Fixed Stars (Hermes Trismegustus), translated by Rumen Kolev (*signed by Mr. Kolev)

From

• The Mansions of the Moon: A Lunar Zodiac for Astrology & Magic, Christopher Warnock

Jupiter: Lord of Plenty Deborah Houlding

• The Fated Sky: Astrology in History, Benson Bobrick

skyscript.co.uk/astrology_jupiter_.html

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TRIBUTE TO DAVID PLANT The problem with many ‘modern, psychological’ astrologers is they make it all about the ego; the problem with many ‘traditional’ astrologers is they haven’t worked on their ego – David Plant With sadness, I share the belated news of the death of David Plant, who passed away in December 2022 after a lengthy struggle with Cancer. David lived near Brighton, UK, and was a good friend of mine throughout the 1990s, when he gave constant support and encouragement as co-editor of The Traditional Astrologer magazine.

Many of you will be familiar with the excellent articles he wrote for that publication, which were among the first to be published on Skyscript. These include explorations of the life and work of Albiruni, William Blake, Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Copernicus, John Gadbury, Johannes Kepler, and William Lilly, as well as a host of articles that feature explanations of astronomical or traditional astrology principles, written at a time when few modern astrologers had insightful knowledge of those methods.

David also wrote a series of articles exploring the backdrop to William Lillly’s published horaries.

Those on Skyscript include his ‘Lilly & The Alchemist’, which surveys the philosophical implications of Lilly’s horary ‘If attain the Philosopher’s Stone’ (CA, p.442); and narratives on Lilly’s War Charts: ‘If Prince Rupert Should Gain Honour by our Wars’ (CA, p.452); ‘If His Majesty Should Procure Forces out of Ireland?’

(CA, p.455), and ‘If the Earl of Essex Should Take Reading?’, (CA, p.401 – best read in that order).

David and I lost touch with each other after 1999.

The Traditional Astrologer ceased publication at that time after the discovery of my Acoustic Neuroma, and we both dropped out of astrology.

I returned when I launched the Skyscript website a few years later, but David had redirected his interest more specifically towards the history of the British Civil War, after his ‘Lilly chart’ research kicked off a passion for exploring the battles of that period, which marked him out as a subject expert. He created an encyclopedic British Civil Wars website which later became the defining BCW Project (bcw-project.org), widely respected as an invaluable resource for academic researchers. Asked in a 2014 interview what prompted him to create that website back in 2001, David replied:

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I wanted to do something creative. I liked building websites, which still seemed slightly esoteric and experimental back then. Not many people were online compared to today. There weren’t so many websites. No Facebook, Youtube; Wikipedia was just starting up. I also had this vague idea of writing a novel set in Cromwellian times and had a folder full of research notes on the era. So I decided to build a site around that. I'm not an academic but I always liked reading history. I loved visiting historic sites around London where I grew up, especially the Tower of London, with its gory atmosphere.

Roundheads and Cavaliers were part of the ‘pageant of history’ as I understood it.

Later, I became interested in the 16th and 17th centuries as a transitional stage between the medieval and modern worlds.

After noticing the BCW website had ‘gone down’ this year, researchers started to make enquiries after David. His family was recently able to confirm the sad news. Luckily, much of David’s work has been captured in the Internet Wayback Machine, and there is now an ongoing project to get David’s BCW site and Wiki restored online. As explained in this post: “It will return, but in what timescale nobody currently knows; other than, it will return … if you are currently lamenting the demise of the site, please remember how easy it is to lose such a valuable resource”.

David was a wonderful, warm, supportive, and wise person, and it was my pleasure to work with him closely and count him a friend for a number of years. He had a great sense of humour (see p.23) and was a gentleman, a scholar and a true creative who originated all his own artwork and lived modestly yet covered all his own costs and made all of his work available for free replication under a Creative Commons Licence. Although I’ve only recently become aware of his passing, I cannot help but feel David with me in spirit of late, approving of efforts to ensure that Skyscript has a future that extends my personal capacity to steer it myself. vvvDH

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WRITE TO REPLY RE: ASTROLOGY SHOULD NOT BE POPULAR From feedback received on Patreon and in meetings, it is clear many of you appreciated the arguments Abigail Joy presented in our last issue about astrology suffering through attempts to make it popular.

But to every point of view there is an alternate point of view and we promised to publish any follow-up thoughts here. Thank you Eva Sylwester for sharing some counter-arguments on this issue.

A

strology Should Not Be Popular by Abigail Joy in SN issue #13 reminded me of a saying commonly attributed to Joe Biden: “Don't judge me against the Almighty; judge me against the alternative”. Joy presents understandable reasons why some consider it ideal to protect astrology from the pitfalls and growing pains of popularity.

What, however, is the alternative to allowing astrology to become popular?

In my recent essay anthology, Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces, I interviewed two members of my local astrology community about their experiences growing up Catholic during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Samantha Corey and Jeanne Bishop both stated that, while they didn’t raise their own children Catholic, they didn’t regret being raised Catholic. Being taught that there was more to life than the physical world paved the way for them to become astrologers.

Elsewhere in the anthology, I said as much about my own Lutheran upbringing.

Learning that God had a plan for each person’s life primed me to look for that when I later figured out how to read astrological charts.

However, we may not be able to count on a steady supply of disaffected Catholics and Lutherans to trickle into astrology indefinitely. Organized religion just isn’t as widely followed as it used to be in the Western world. Whatever problems the Catholic and Lutheran churches have, science as religion doesn’t seem to be a satisfying replacement.

There is a glaring vacuum in the collective spiritual discourse at the moment. If we don’t bite the bullet and step into it, someone else will, and that’s not guaranteed to be someone we’ll like. For better or for worse, the world is run by those who show up.

I don’t want astrology taught in public schools, and I do support the separation of church and state. I would, however, like to see astrologers speak with confidence in public conversations about spiritual matters. We have no less right to be there than more conventionally religious commentators such as Naomi Wolf or Rod Dreher, and we should act like it.

I would also like The Associated Press Stylebook to provide journalists and writers guidance on how to capitalize and properly use our most common vocabulary words, much like they currently do for every variety of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I’m not looking for enforced hegemony – I just want a place at the table.

Eva Sylwester astrologybooks.substack.com Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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Astro-speculating the Triple Crown A foray into ‘risky’ business by

KAYLEIGH JEAN Horse racing’s famed ‘Triple Crown’ comprises some of the most popular and largest-pursed races in the United States. They kick off on the first Saturday in May with the Kentucky Derby, followed by Preakness in Maryland, and finishing with the longest race, the Belmont Stakes, in New York. When Deborah Houlding shared in her lecture ‘Odds on Astrology’1 that she had used event charts and natal charts of horses to predict which horse might win a race, it really clicked and intrigued me. I have used astrology for trading for the last couple of years2 so the idea that angular planets help to identify potential winners of horse races instantly made sense. Plus, is there anything more beautiful than a horse in motion? Anything more exciting than watching astrology play out in front of you while ‘experts’ scratch their heads?

I got that spark of interest that gave me goosebumps, and I had to know more! Over the next few months, I attended a few live events and became a member of RTN (Racetrack Television Network) so I could stream races from home on the weekends.

The Method To recap from Deborah’s lecture, it is essential to look for strong connections between a horse’s natal planets and the angles of the race commencement chart, this being set for the place and start time of the race. Specifically, the Midheaven and Descendant seem to be the most sensitive. I retrieved both entry information and ‘foal’ data from equibase.com and set each chart for 6 am in the capital of the state each horse was born in. Most foals are born between midnight and 6 am,3 but since the exact time of the horse’s birth is unavailable, I take the Moon with a grain of salt; in the races I have done, the Moon has been less of a hint, and more of a distraction.

The most influential and reliable predictor for me this year has been the horse’s natal Sun conjoined the race commencement’s descendant. This proved the case with one of the Triple Crown winners, along with multiple local winners I saw live at Houston Race Park in Texas; it also proved true with the Kentucky Oaks (the Kentucky Derby for fillies) 2023 winner, Pretty Mischievous.

[Note by Deb] This was a 2-hour Skyscript member talk delivered to Body and Soul level members on 13th March this year.

To make this article fully accessible, restrictions have been removed from the recording of this presentation, so it is now free to access for all patrons and newsletter subscribers. The recording can be found in the showreel of ‘All Member Talks’ within the Member area – click the view all link next to this showreel to view any available talk recording in full screen.

2 I have used Optuma’s Gann Solutions Financial Astrology software (www.optuma.com/software) since 2021 to help identify timing factors in the markets, along with Time Trades (time-trades.com) which comes with a useful tool to graph planetary midheaven culminations directly onto short-term trading charts.

3 Extensionhorses.org explains how mares prefer the privacy of foaling at night. See ‘Horse Behavior at Foaling Time’: “One study, for example, indicated that approximately 80 percent of foals were born between midnight and 6 am”.

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Planets that fall closest to exactness on the Midheaven or Descendant angles quickly separate a horse out for further investigation. From there, contemplation of the race chart’s overall configuration and how the horse’s natal themes align in a broader sense help to make the final selection – as part of this, we might find confirmation in other details, such as the symbolism of the horse’s name, or jockey colours, etc.

I also consider a horse’s price. I have found, almost without fail, that if the favourite horse to win also possesses the best chart connections, that horse is extremely likely to win. But if everybody is already backing that horse, you might have something like 6-5 odds, meaning a risk of $5 returns only $1 in profit.

For those situations, I try to fit that horse into a multi-race bet such as a Daily Double, Pick 3, or Pick 4.

Otherwise, I try not to bet on favourites because, as Deborah mentioned in her talk, even the best chart is no guarantee. I’ve had multiple wonderful charts that produced unexciting results for which I have no explanation. This is where luck does come into it, I believe. From my experience with financial trading, I know how important it is to use my own transits, and I also pay attention to my lucky midpoints. I have consistently done better with this method when I have good transits to planets or the angles of my chart (lots of wins when Venus was on my MC this year, for example) or to my lucky midpoints. Because of this, like Deborah, I can’t really decide whether this method objectively ‘works’ or if it is somehow activated by the subjective, temporal luck of the astro-bettor, so make of that what you will!4

Kentucky Derby Magic The Kentucky Derby needs little introduction – this is the most popular and the oldest consecutively held thoroughbred race in the United States, clocking in at 10 furlongs or 1¼ miles. The bi-wheel chart facing shows the Kentucky Derby event chart in the inner wheel, with the natal placement of the long-shot winner, Mage, on the outside. You can see straightaway how Mage’s Sun connects with the descendant at the start of the race, where it neatly aligns with the event chart’s angular Jupiter, while both are strongly configured to Mage’s natal Jupiter which is also angular, within 5° of the race chart IC.5 After Mage romped home at 15-to-1 odds, many follow-up headlines brought out the Jupiterean theme, referring to Mage as inspirational and producing ‘Magic’ at the Derby that day. A modest beginner, I placed a $2 straight win bet and received $30 back. We had dressed up and watched from our local racetrack with my inlaws that weekend. This piqued our interest even more and was a delightful beginning to this hobby!

Data: Kentucky Derby: 6:57 pm EDT, 6 May 2023, Louisville, Kentucky; Mage, 6 am, 16 Apr 2020, Louisville, Kentucky; Regio cusps

[Note by Deb] This method expediates the possibility of identifying the winner, but because it scans through a lot of data quickly in search of the most reliable indicators, there is always a risk that some extra important detail is missed. With endless time we would want to look at more than transits and we would want to consider how the event impacts the chart of the jockey, trainer, or owner too. But that amount of scrutiny is impractical when there are numerous horses to choose from in any race, so overall this method, though not infallible, goes a long way with the focus kept on the horse combined with the general policy of maximising ‘lucky transits’ and avoiding periods of difficult transits associated with loss.

5 The name ‘Mage’ conjures up an impression of ‘old wisdom’ or magical expertise gained from deep-rooted knowledge, so fitting for Mage’s Jupiter in Capricorn which was so pivotal on the IC as it squared the Sun-Jupiter alignment on the desc.

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Preakness 2023 Preakness runs on the third Saturday in May, so it always falls two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. The Preakness event was a bit of a disappointment for me personally, because although I correctly picked National Treasure to win, my dog fell ill that weekend and needed to be taken to the emergency clinic (she’s fine now).

However, I did tell my husband beforehand about National Treasure, and the reasons are clear in the chart. Not only is his Venus exactly aligned with the Descendant angle, but Neptune is exactly conjunct his Sun at 27°ä (the degree where Venus is exalted) upon the 5th house cusp. Neptune was the Roman god and patron of horse racing, so it is hard not to see a good omen in this. NT’s chart just ‘fits’ the race chart symbolism so well overall, as does his name, the moniker treasure resonating perfectly with the strongly emphasised Venusian themes.

Preakness (inner): 6:50pm EDT, 20 May 2023, Baltimore, MD

National Treasure (outer): 6am, 17 Mar 2020, Louisville, KY

Belmont Stakes: Test of Champions Belmont Stakes, the epic 12-furlong finale to the Triple Crown, was memorable for us. My husband is far less risk averse than I am and has encouraged me a lot with this hobby. Having built up some credit card points, he suggested we use them to fly to Vegas for the weekend. With our flights and room comped, I really had no argument against it!

We decided to stake out at the sportsbook at the Wynn, which has a section roped off for horse racing comprised of viewing booths with desks and private monitors; perfect for me as I was bringing my laptop.

We were seated in the very last row, at which point the rest of the sportsbook’s regular seating opened up for all sports viewers. Before long, an older gentleman arrived and was seated in the viewing booth next to mine. He’d brought several thick magazines which were filled with tiny-font paragraphs and complexlooking charts for each race, and he leaned back in his chair frowning down at them through thick spectacles, hardly ever looking up. He appeared to be a serious, sharp bettor.

Manchester City was playing in the Champions League Game that day, and the sportsbook was packed behind us with rowdy Manchester fans in light blue jerseys sporadically screaming and jumping to their

Left: National Treasure in the homestretch with Jockey John Velazquez at Preakness Photo credits: Wass & Serio/AP

Facing page: Arcangelo ridden to victory by Javier Castellano in the Belmont Stakes Photo credits: Scott Serio/AP

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Belmont Stakes (inner): 6:50 pm EDT, 10 Jun 2023, Elmont, NY

Arcangelo (outer): 6am, 11 May 2020, Lexington, KY

feet, eyes glued to the massive screen to my right where that game was being broadcast.

We passed them our complimentary drink tickets, which they made happy use of.

Meanwhile, it took a little while to get my nerve up to ask questions to my neighbour, since he clearly knew what he was doing a lot more than I did. I was reopening horse charts that I’d already cast the week before, just to review them before placing my bets; glad for the little dividers separating our stations because I’m sure he would have thought I was totally loony for doing this!

As the main event drew closer, I started asking him questions about ‘handicapping’ the sport of betting on horses. Did he make money doing this across time? Yes. Did he place straight win bets or exotic wagers; did he like one type of wager over another?

Both, depending on the race and the horses in it. What did he use to pick his winners?

Following the horses’ breeders and trainers.

Eventually, we were able to get him to smile, laugh a few times, and give more than just one-word answers.

Later in the day, while the three of us were waiting for the main event, I asked him what he thought about Arcangelo, a beautiful dark grey three-year-old colt. He shook his head a little dismissively. He said something like, “I don’t have that one in any of my wagers,” and showed me his exotic ticket, a Pick 4. He had all the winners of the last 3 races correct, so his ticket was live, and he stood to make a nice profit if National Treasure came in first. However, I had seen that N.T.’s chart just did not line up as well with the Belmont Stakes chart as it had for Preakness.

I had picked Arcangelo to win the Belmont because of his Mercury so close to the Descendant, as well as the race Uranus conjunct his Sun; a shake-up! If Arcangelo did win, it would certainly be a surprise, because he had not competed in either of the prior Triple Crown races and, frankly, based on his price and on the reaction of our seasoned handicapper companion, Arcangelo seemed like he was truly being ‘slept on’ in this race. It helped that Arcangelo had 9-to-1 odds (making him a better option than Angel of Empire, a horse that was more expensive, but did have Venus three degrees away from the Descendant). Arcangelo was the perfect storm of proper chart symbolism combined with economical odds, and it paid off!

It was very exciting, I cheered wildly like one of the Manchester fans behind us as Arcangelo began to lope past National Treasure in the stretch, making it look easy as he came up on the inside and soared through the finish line one-and-a-half lengths in front. Arcangelo's trainer, Jena Antonucci, also made history that day as the first female trainer to win the Belmont Stakes. Meanwhile, I received $189 back on my $20 wager.

When I got back to my seat after collecting my winnings, I realized that technically speaking, I had picked the winners of all three Triple Crown races using astrology. That felt like quite a feat! My neighbour had started packing up his books to leave. He said ‘congratulations’ and quickly walked away. Watching him go, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was beginner’s luck, some good transits of mine, or if I would be able to do this again next year!

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TRUE BEAUTY of RELATIONSHIP in the

SPORT OF KINGS

THERE ARE sometimes startlingly beautiful happenings when intense bonds are formed between humans and animals, as we saw in 2023’s racing season story of Cody Dorman. Cody was born with the rare genetic disorder, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which causes delayed development, intellectual disability, low muscle tone, and seizures. During a 2018 Make-a-Wish Foundation visit to Godolphin’s Gainsborough Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, a 5-month-old weanling colt approached Cody, slowly at first, while his parents and Godolphin representatives looked on nervously (the colt had never seen a wheelchair before, and they didn’t know how he would react). The colt appeared to be watching Cody through sidelong glances as he made his way toward the boy.

Finally, he laid his head in the boy’s lap, to the surprise of everyone watching. The two bonded so strongly that day that Godolphin decided to name the colt after Dorman.

They called him ‘Cody’s Wish’.

Since then, Cody Dorman has spent his birthdays with Cody’s Wish and visited as often as possible. The horse always acknowledges the boy’s presence and Cody’s father describes him as “Cody’s best friend”. He said that since the horse entered their life, Cody no longer battled depression: he had something positive to think about, so looked forward to watching him race and even sent the horse candy canes at Christmas – he had consequently become more dedicated to both his therapy and his schoolwork. When asked by an interviewer how the thoroughbred had impacted his life as he copes with his disorder, Cody, who is nonverbal but understands what is going on around him, used his medical tablet (which allows him to communicate with slight movements of his head) to respond, “He saved my life”.6 Cody’s Wish has never lost any of the races that Cody Dorman attended to watch, and he has had a stellar racing career, winning 10 out of 15 starts up until his expected last race before retirement into breeding, which was slated to be the Breeder’s Cup Dirt Mile on November 4th, 2023. This race has a purse of $1 million.

According to Kelly Dorman, Cody’s father, Cody had “let the cat out of the bag the night before” by making a prediction: Cody’s Wish was going to win the next day.7

Cody’s Wish and rider, Junior Alvarado looking jubilant after a 6th consecutive win in his retirement race, the Breeder’s Cup Dirt Mile

The actual race began poorly for Cody’s Wish. He had a bad start out of the gate and, finding himself in last place, his face and deep chestnut coat were quickly concealed by the beige dust kicked up by all the horses in front of him.

He spent most of the race in the back. However, on the home stretch, he came to life, rallying from behind, weaving expertly through the field to finally outrun National Treasure in a hotly contested final head-to-head battle. It was an ecstatic win for everyone watching, especially the Dorman family who viewed it from inside the Winner’s Circle, where they later received the trophy Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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alongside Cody’s Wish. My husband and I, watching live from home, breathed a sigh of relief. For everything to culminate on such a high note for Cody’s Wish, with a safe, victorious ending to such a brilliant racing career, having now won 11 out of 16 starts in total, and to be greeted by his namesake afterwards—it was emotional to witness.

In one of those devastatingly graceful feats of fate, synchronicity, or possibly a soul’s innate sense of a task accomplished, Cody Dorman, age 17, experienced a medical event and passed away the very next day, November 5th, having stayed in this world just long enough to watch his friend win the final race of his career. “With Cody’s diagnosis, we always knew this day would come, but we were determined to help Cody live his best life for however long we had him,” the boy’s parents, Kelly and Leslie Dorman, wrote in a statement on Godolphin’s social media account.

In the Tri-wheel below, you see Cody Dorman’s chart in the middle, surrounded by Cody’s Wish on the outside, and the Breeder’s Cup race commencement on the inside. The recent lunar eclipse of October 28th (5°Ä) fell within 3° of the boy’s Mars, at the same time activating his natal h-c opposition by yet another h-c opposition, transposed.

Cody Dorman with Cody’s Wish See ‘Remarkable story of Cody’s Wish’ – Breeder’s Cup (1/11/23); the illustration of Cody’s Wish is sourced from this webpage.

7 Quote from the race replay and interview published on YouTube (3/11/ 23).

8 From the online news article ‘Cody Dorman, who watched namesake win Breeders’ Cup race, dies on trip home’ – AP.com (6/11/23).

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Tri-wheel data – Cody Dorman: 6 am EST, 18 Dec 2005, Lexington, KY; Cody’s Wish: 3 May 2018, Lexington, KY; Breeder’s Cup: 11:30 am PDT, 4 Nov 2023. Arcadia, CA.

The ‘hot’ combination of the eclipse and the transiting h-c opposition (perfected at 10°Ä) also fell on Cody’s Wish’s natal Sun (12°Ä), potentially signifying a break with his namesake who, remarkable racing career aside, truly defined Cody’s Wish in the eyes of the racing community and caused him to stand out even among champions; it simply meant more when Cody’s Wish came in first.

At the time of the race, Cody’s Wish’s Sun was lit up by the opposing transiting Sun and conjoined by transiting Jupiter in its fullness – at its highest and brightest of the year – highlighting themes of reputation and achievement.

All the h-c contacts to the charts of these two remarkable beings seem incredibly apt for victories in competitive sports, while the M-h ‘full phase’ symbolism across the three charts echoes the enduring sense of specialness and individuality of this unique friendship. “I think that horse probably saved Cody’s life in a lot of ways,” Kelly Dorman said on Saturday, November 4th. “I know him and the horse have made a lot of lives better”.8 Whatever we make of this, it’s hard not to see it as profoundly meaningful. This may provide one of the starkest examples where an astrological ‘boost’ such as a planet on an angle wasn’t necessary for a horse to win a given race. However, there is one present: the horse’s Saturn aligns with the race ascendant, which would not typically be seen as a game changer, at least not a positive one. If anything, the ascension of the horse’s Saturn in the event chart seems to reflect the finality of it all, signifying for one party, the triumphant last act of a unique, courageous life; for the other, the conclusion of a wildly successful career. Viewed in this vein, Saturn presents a very appropriate shared cosmic symbol for the boy and the horse whose fates and souls had become so intertwined. vvv KJ Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES of having practiced astrology for a number of decades – in my case, five – is the insight gained from studying a large number of case histories and the planetary patterns accompanying them. While nothing can really replace one’s own long years of experience, I’ve found that simple tips gathered from fellow astrologers can sometimes shave years off that slow and arduous process of trial-and-error experienced constructing and reading charts. So – in no particular order – here are some of my thoughts about this discipline that I’d like to share.

This article is adapted from Ray Grasse’s upcoming new book:

So, What am I Doing Here Anyway?

– a thought-provoking and highly entertaining miscellany of Ray’s astrological thoughts and musings arising from long experience practising astrology and reflecting on its philosophical values.

To be published by Wessex Astrologer, around March 2024

Be positive An early teacher of mine made an especially important point that stuck with me to the present day, which is this: the first thing you say to a client about their horoscope should be positive because your initial comments tend to make a profound and lasting impression. As one example of that, I remember an early consult where the vast majority of comments to my client were positive in nature. However, the very first thing I said to them was in a slightly negative vein about a challenging pattern I saw in their horoscope. After moving on and talking for almost an hour about other things in their chart, almost all of them upbeat, the client said to me in a dejected tone, “Well…don’t you see anything positive in my chart?” I was stunned, but I’d learned my lesson not to make that mistake again.

Check what’s going on This brings me to another step I always take when working with clients, which is to check their transits or progressions on the day I’ll be speaking with them. Is Saturn squaring their Mercury? If so, then I know I’d better measure my statements more carefully, since they could easily take what I say more negatively than intended. On the plus side, precisely because what I say could have a longer-lasting impact than normal, I’ll try to work with that energy toward leaving a more positive lasting impression by focusing on constructive suggestions as to how they might redirect, discipline or reframe the difficult energies in their char

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Know what your client is looking for Back when I first started doing readings, I’d generally launch right into describing what I saw in their horoscope, only to sometimes discover at the end I hadn’t addressed what they came to me for in the first place. Whereas I may have focused primarily on career, say, what they really wanted to know was about romance, health, or family life. For that reason, when I speak to a client these days one of the first things I ask is, “What are you hoping to learn from our talk today?” That simple question has improved the quality of my readings dramatically and certainly leaves the client far more satisfied at the reading’s conclusion than otherwise.

is always the potential for those energies to be redirected or transmuted in some way. For example, some of the greatest writers I’ve come into contact with have particularly “afflicted” Mercurys. Likewise, the greatest martial artists sometimes have extremely challenged Mars, while the greatest spiritual teachers sometimes have very challenged Neptunes or Jupiters, and on it goes.

What does that tell you? Simply, that a planet that is stressfully aspected essentially forces a person’s awareness onto a given area to such an extent that it can (ideally) lead to greatness. The astrologer’s job is to help the client better understand that, and redirect their difficult potentials in ways that can be more fulfilling and constructive for them.

Speak their (astro) language I find it helpful to ask clients beforehand what their knowledge of astrology is, if any. That way I know if I can include the astrological rationale for what I’m saying. Besides giving them some hopefully useful education into the workings of astrology, not to mention my own thinking processes, I’ve found that including the technical reasons can help them better understand the points I’m making, by backing those interpretations with the astrological reasons familiar to them. To be clear, I never present it just at the level of jargon or technical terminology, and always make sure to present an in-depth interpretation of what those patterns mean. But for clients with even a beginner’s understanding of astrology, coupling my interpretations with some explanation for the reasons behind them seems to add a useful dimension of information for them.

Zoom-in on closest aspects One of the first things I do when preparing a reading (besides looking at someone’s Sun, Moon, and rising signs or checking their elemental makeup) is to look for the closest planetary aspects in their chart, especially stressful ones. To some extent, the closest aspect(s) can indicate the most urgent and powerful karmas and lessons in life and may even be a central driving force for the entire chart.

One of my first astrology teachers, Goswami Kriyananda, once remarked, “If you ever have difficulty interpreting a chart, just look for the closest approaching square or opposition and talk about that. At the end, the client will probably walk away thinking, ‘What an incredibly accurate reading!’”

While I personally don’t limit it solely to stressful approaching aspects, as he did, I certainly understand his thinking there.

While squares or oppositions can definitely indicate serious challenges, it’s important to remember there

Differentiate solar & lunar responses A particularly useful concept gathered from my early teachers was the notion that the Sun is an “objective amplifier” whereas the Moon is a “subjective amplifier.” What does that mean? Planetary aspects to the Sun indicate events or energies that tend to be more out in the open for everyone to see, whereas those to the Moon tend to be experienced more internally and subjectively, often in a largely private way or through relationships.

For example, Uranus squaring the Moon in a chart can indicate intense emotional restlessness and a need for freedom in relationships, sometimes with a rebellious streak thrown in. That may not be quite so obvious to casual acquaintances, but it certainly will be clear to the individual with that aspect. By contrast, Uranus squaring the Sun in someone’s chart indicates a concern with freedom and independence in ways that are more obvious to others, especially in professional contexts. In many cases, it can cause someone to be more entrepreneurial or at least want a longer leash in work situations.

Note the late bloomers In my own work, I’ve found it especially helpful when speaking to clients to look for what I call the ‘late bloomer’ dynamic, whenever that may be applicable.

A culinary analogy would be how some foods are perfect right from the start, such as an apple, a Caesar salad, or a glass of milk, but certain foods – like gourmet cheese or a fine wine – age more slowly and reveal their greatest virtues over longer spans of time. Horoscopes can be like that sometimes, and it’s suggested by various factors.

The most obvious of those are Saturn aspects, such as trines to personal planets, Saturn on the angles, or sign placements including planets in Capricorn.

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The late singer Tina Turner had a particularly conflicted horoscope when it came to relationships, shown by a T-square involving an opposed Sun and Moon to Mars in the 7th – that suggested a combative energy around partnerships (though it also accounted for much of her dynamic and assertive energy as a performer). But she also had a tight Saturn-Venus trine, which suggested that things would become much better for her in later years both romantically and financially, which is exactly what happened.

While this late bloomer process unfolds more smoothly in the case of trines or sextiles, even hard aspects from Saturn can evolve this way. As noted, hard aspects like squares or oppositions bring greater urgency towards working on whatever areas are affected, although the ‘ripening’ tends to be accompanied by delays and frustration. Consider the example of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, born with a close Saturn-Venus opposition across the asc-desc.

Both his career and love life experienced enormous ups and downs, but he had his most productive creative period between the ages of 69 and 90!

Needless to say, when evaluating this late bloomer dynamic one needs to consider the entire chart as well as the attitude and resilience of the individual.

That said, I’ve found discussion of this to be one of the most helpful and reassuring elements for certain clients, to the extent that some told me it was the most valuable insight they carried away from our consultation. Learning that there is a light at the end of the tunnel – especially when it comes to younger clients struggling with a hard life – can provide a major boost to their morale and hopefully provide some much-needed direction.

Exalt the most elevated planet I pay enormous attention to the most elevated body in any chart, especially if it is close to the midheaven.

Why? In my experience, the highest horoscopic body is intimately related not only to reputation but to one’s primary aspirations. By contrast, whereas the 1st house tends to indicate who one is, in terms of everyday personality, planets near the top of the chart indicate what one is aspiring to become. (Much the same applies to the zodiac sign on the MC.) Case in point: someone with Mercury as their highest planet will tend to have a powerful desire to teach, write, or communicate; someone with Venus high in the chart may be driven to be an artist, fashion designer, or project beauty to the world in some way; in the case of Saturn, the native may be driven to business, politics, architecture, or science, etc. In line with the late bloomer dynamic, I’ve also found planets near the top of the chart often unfold more fully later in life, usually from the 40s onward.

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Don’t disrespect dignities or debilities Though I’ve found the doctrine of dignities and debilities useful in some contexts, such as horary, in certain contexts the doctrine is capable of doing more harm than good. Here’s an example: I recently saw someone on social media bemoan the fact he was born with his Mercury in Pisces. Why? Because he had learned it was in its ‘fall’ there. He obviously regarded this placement as a true negative in his life, a horoscopic liability he simply had to live with. Sad to say, I’ve come across this attitude more times than I can remember; it’s obviously a destructive one for those who subscribe to it, since it dramatically limits their sense of those planets’ potentials.

My own opinion has always been this: there is no aspect or placement that doesn't have constructive application somewhere, somehow. For example, Mercury in Pisces may be difficult for certain things, admittedly, but it’s actually a perfect placement for a poet, fiction writer, mystic, astrologer, musician, singer, mythologist, or priest/priestess. Consider some of the famous natives born with Mercury in that so-called ‘fall’: Abraham Lincoln, Lady Gaga, Kurt Cobain, Edgar Cayce, Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Victor Hugo, Bach, Tony Robbins, Copernicus, Eckhart Tolle, Billie Holiday, Baudelaire, Aretha Franklin, Rudolf Steiner, and others. I approach all placements and aspects with that attitude, in terms of not just discussing their negative potentials but their positive ones as well.

Empower clients to make their own decisions As many of us know too well, some clients come to us hoping we’ll make important life decisions for them. Should I marry this person? Should I have babies? Should I get plastic surgery? In the spirit of Star Trek’s ‘prime directive’ of non-interference, I don’t believe we should interfere in the destinies of others, beyond advice that may be appropriate and wise to offer. We’re there to help them understand the perils and pitfalls of their horoscopes and to plot out possibilities as best we can, but I am always careful never to say, “You should do this!”

Here’s an example: When I was 21 and had just started doing horoscopes, I became friends with a young woman whose chart showed an incredibly challenged 5th house, with Saturn in Scorpio there at the focal point of a T-square involving the Moon and Venus. She didn't ask me about children and had no interest in astrology at all, to begin with, so she wouldn’t have cared one way or another what I had to say on the matter. But I remember thinking how problematic it could be if she ever decided to have them, as far as raising kids or even dealing with the physical challenges of childbirth.

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As it turned out, I lost contact with her over the years but got back in touch with her decades later. When I asked her if she ever wound up having a family, she said she endured no less than five miscarriages before finally giving birth to a healthy son, with whom she enjoyed a fantastic relationship. Having that one son “made all the earlier sufferings worthwhile,” she said.

Thinking back to the old days, I suspect that had she asked me whether or not to have kids, I may have steered her away, citing the potential problems. Yet that is not the job of an astrologer! Having that difficult Saturn didn't mean she shouldn't have children; it simply indicated the struggles she might encounter if she did. Knowing what I know now, if someone like her were to ask me that question these days I would offer my best insights and information, including both positive and negative possibilities, but I would leave the decision to them for both ethical and karmic reasons.

Foster the growth of a ‘difficult Moon’ I’ve found that one of the trickiest – but also most important – areas to deal with when talking to clients is the so-called ‘afflicted Moon’ problem. This is when a client’s horoscope displays a particularly challenged Moon, due to a barrage of squares, oppositions, or conjunctions, with few or no supporting aspects to help balance things out.

In simple terms, this can indicate a difficult challenge for that person in emotional concerns, especially (but not strictly) during childhood. It’s not only a complicated situation for the astrologer in terms of how to provide a fully nuanced interpretation, but because of how easily the client can misread any comments to amplify an already existing challenge.

Suppose a client has their Moon tightly conjoined to Saturn – arguably one of the most difficult and frustrating combinations (as I well know, having my Moon-Saturn conjunction in the 1st house). I’ve sometimes had clients with a pattern like that refer casually to their “bad Moon” – as though that’s all there is to it, seemingly with no idea as to the positive potentials of that combo. But consider some of the notable luminaires born with that celestial duo, like David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Sophia Loren, Miles Davis, William Burroughs, and many others.

I feel it’s our job to make clients aware of the serious challenges their charts may indicate, but not without underscoring the positive prospect of those energies too. As the abovementioned celebrities illustrate, difficult energies can become the key to great accomplishments. Focusing solely on the negative runs the risk of providing a misleading impression of their horoscopes and, in turn, their entire lives.

Establish a context When someone comes to me wanting to know about the period ahead, one of the most important things I can ask is what’s been happening during the previous few months, for better or worse. That not only gives me a far better sense of context in terms of how their current transits and progressions may already be manifesting but also how those energies will likely continue unfolding for them in the months ahead.

Suppose I look at a chart and see a progressed Saturn squaring Venus coming to a head nine months away.

If, while talking to the client beforehand, they inform me they’ve been having marital problems over money, I’ll have a much better idea of what to think regarding that upcoming aspect – i.e., it could very well involve money. True, there are times when someone’s transits and progressions are so clear-cut in their meanings and potentials that I won’t feel a need to gather any backstory from them, but aside from those exceptions, posing carefully articulated questions beforehand can provide a very useful springboard for discussing their upcoming energies.

Place the big stones first When preparing a more predictively-oriented reading, my very first priority is to understand the ‘big picture’ of what’s going on in that person’s life in terms of grasping the larger patterns and cycles in their chart. By comparison, when I first started doing chart readings, I simply worked from a planetary ‘hit list’ that displayed all transits and progressions over the coming year in strict sequence. Armed with that, I might have said, “On January 1st, you have Mars squaring your Moon; on January 7th, you have Uranus squaring your natal Uranus; while on January 20th, you have progressed Jupiter sextiling your Venus”, etc., etc.

Yet that is an extremely simplistic (and inefficient) way to discuss transits and progressions. Why? Because it doesn’t give either the client or myself as an astrologer a true sense of the bigger picture at work in terms of understanding those aspects in their proper context and their relative priority and magnitude. For instance, take one of those transits I mentioned – Uranus squaring a client’s natal Uranus.

An energy like that actually applies to a much broader phase or chapter in someone’s life, not just a passing moment in time lasting for a few days, and will set the stage for other shorter-term transits happening during that period. For that reason, I generally begin my forecast readings by carefully describing those larger ‘chapters’ happening in a person’s life and working my way down to the shorter-term transits and trigger points unfolding against the backdrop of those larger cycles.

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Similarly, while studying historic developments on a more mundane level, I always focus on the ‘big picture’ first. For many astrologers, an initial instinct, whenever a major event happens, is to draw up a chart for the specific time, but the problem with this microscopic ‘in the moment’ approach is it can cause us to miss the forest for the trees if the historic event is not seen as a reflection of a much larger cycle.

Consider the Jan. 6th 2020 attack on the U.S. capitol.

The vast majority of astrologers drew up the chart for the day and time when the mob breached the police barriers (shown below). Yet such a microscopic approach misses that this event was symptomatic of the U.S. Pluto return taking place at the time, a cycle indicating a spirit of upheaval in the national body politic. That’s decidedly not something shown by any microscopic look at a single moment in time without a sense of the larger historical context involved.

Or consider the abortion debate. Even if one could find a specific moment to erect a chart for that controversy (highly unlikely, considering it has been around for centuries), I doubt any single horoscope could explain the broader significance of this development. That may be better explained as a symptom of the broader cycle of the Great Ages – specifically the shift between the Piscean and Aquarian Ages. On the one hand, we have the largely Christian pro-life forces defending the values of the fading Piscean Age, with its heavily religious concern for the helpless unborn; on the other hand, we have the pro-choice forces defending the more Aquarian, independent and secular values of individuals. To be clear, I’m not suggesting either side is right or wrong, simply that there are archetypal dynamics involved.

In some situations, a broader approach can provide a depth of understanding that no one horoscope for a single moment in time can really match.

Keep an eye on mundane themes As for my own choice of predictive methods, I typically focus on four things particularly: a) transiting aspects to natal planets or angles: b) secondary progressions to natal planets or angles; c) secondary progressions to secondary progressed planets or angles; and finally, d) solar arc progressions to natal planets and angles.

Other astrologers, of course, will choose to work with other factors, but these are the ones I’ve found most useful in my work.

I also consider, when applicable, the ‘world transits’ taking place at the time – that is, what’s happening astrologically for the world at large.

Suppose someone asks about starting a new business: their personal transits or progressions might be relatively uneventful at the time, but on the day they’re scheduled to open up that business, I see that Neptune is squaring Mercury – that needn’t ruin their new business prospects, but I would make them aware of that energy and what it could portend for their business, in both positive and negative ways.

Or suppose a woman has her Sun in the late degrees of Pisces. When Saturn first moves into that sign, she will likely feel that energy as a certain seriousness of purpose, or a desire to work hard towards something – even though it’s nowhere close yet to actually conjuncting her Sun. As one astrologer I knew once put it, “You don’t have to touch the stove to start feeling the heat from it”. That goes for major planets moving into the vicinity of your personal planets as well. Like I said, always focus on the big picture.

Underline the station points When looking at someone’s chart, I pay particular attention to station points, which is when a planet slows down and stands relatively still while changing directions. As Goswami Kriyananda once expressed it, station points have a “branding iron” effect which amplifies that planet’s energy considerably.

In natal charts, you’ll sometimes find a stationing planet assuming an oversized influence in someone’s life in ways that aren’t easily explained by other methods. My early teacher, Shelly Trimmer, was an exceptionally ‘Uranian’ character in many respects – independent, unconventional, inventive – yet the only thing which really indicated those qualities in his birth chart was having been born precisely on a Uranus station point. In my predictive work, I likewise place enormous emphasis on whether a stationing planet happens to be forming any close aspects to that person’s natal planets or angles at the time, since the aspect then becomes magnified.

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Tie progressive events to radical themes There’s a familiar astrological saying: Only that can happen which is written in the birth chart. For the most part, I’ve found this to be true. Whenever I look at key transits or progressions coming up, I always consider the condition of those planets in the birth chart since those natal patterns will colour the outcome of those transiting aspects enormously.

Suppose someone has Sun-trine-Saturn in their birth chart. When transiting Saturn squares their natal Sun, things will probably be difficult, but the eventual outcome will almost certainly be constructive. Due to those natal patterns, the effects of transiting or progressed aspects will be heavily modified.

On the other hand, consider someone with a tight Mercury-Neptune square in their birth chart, who has transiting Neptune coming up to form a trine to natal Mercury; the resultant developments may initially seem positive, yet can easily degrade into something more problematic, presuming they aren’t careful (i.e., that they read the fine print on any documents being signed, watch speech more carefully, and think twice before sending texts or emails).

Find ways to make your input help Finally, to sum up my philosophy of astrological consulting as simply as possible, I ask this question: How can I help my clients best take advantage of their horoscope patterns, whether those be natal or predictive, while helping them avoid or redirect their more difficult potentials?”

Imagine someone has a hard Moon-Neptune aspect nataly. I’ll make them aware of the negative potentials there, but as noted, I go out of my way to point out positive potentials, too. It’s true that this sort of energy can produce a certain amount of confusion, addictive behaviours, or co-dependency, but it can also indicate sensitivity, artistic talents, psychic abilities, and compassion for others.

Or suppose someone has transiting Pluto coming up to square or oppose their natal Sun. This will probably trigger an assortment of issues in their life, such as power struggles with authorities or colleagues or contending with unresolved anger from the past, but it can also indicate a period of personal empowerment, career reassessment, deep investigation into some subject, or even an activist involvement with social causes.

Covering both the positive and negative of horoscope patterns is an immensely important part of ourwork, and represents one of the most helpful gifts we, as astrologers, can present to the world.

RAY GRASSE is a writer, photographer, and astrologer living in the American Midwest.

Author of numerous books including Under a Sacred Sky, An Infinity of Gods, StarGates, Urban Mystic, Signs of the Times, and When the Stars Align, he worked on the editorial staffs of Quest Books and The Quest Magazine for 10 years, and has been associate editor of The Mountain Astrologer magazine for over 20 years.

Ray received a degree in painting and filmmaking from the Art Institute of Chicago, the latter under independent filmmaker Stan Brakhage. He has studied extensively under teachers in the Kriya Yoga and Zen traditions.

Ray’s has two websites online at: www.raygrasse.com www.raygrassephotography.com

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With Lilly Williams

Horary astrology is the art of finding out whatever you want to know about absolutely anything you can think of simply by following the rules handed down to us by the Wise Old Astrologers of Ancient Times. And it really works! My particular ‘guru’ is the 17th-century sage Gilbert Prognosticus, whose 25-volume masterpiece Practicall Predictive Prognosticks is very much the ‘bible’ of horary practitioners. All you have to do is set up a horoscopical figure (that’s chart for those of you not ‘in the know’) for the time and place of the question, and – voila – all will be revealed! Sounds unlikely? Well, let me show you how it’s done.

WHERE IS MY MISSING BUDGIE? The querent came home to find that her budgerigar’s cage had fallen off its stand. Its door was wide open and there was no sign of little Joey anywhere. Ominously, the kitchen window had also been left open... After an hysterical 45-minute phone call to me, I cast a horoscopical figure and hurried over to her house to give my verdict.

Prognosticus (vol.XXI p.75648) says: Look to the Moone in all Questions where the thing to be founde hath fledd its Rightfull Master, for Luna hath Dominion over fugitive Servants and Slaves, escaped Wives, Cattel, &c.

You see how marvellously relevant these old rules are even today? (I know he doesn’t specifically mention budgies, but I don't think they had them back in the 17th century). Anyway, with the Moon in an Air sign (birds, flight), I was sure I was on the right track. The Moon was 10° from the Midheaven and Prognosticus says: When Luna applyeth unto the highest Angle of Heaven out of Ayr signes, 'tis certayne the Rascal be fledd towards some high place, viz, a Steeple, Tower, tall Tree &c.

One of the anonymous submissions David Plant made to the astro ‘Rag Mag’ The Impractical Astrologer, in 1995 – written by astrologers to poke fun at each other and sold to raise money for the British charity Childline [view online].

Now, Libra is a western sign and there is a tall tree standing in a field just 300 yards due west of the querent’s house! I predicted that Joey would alight on that very tree 10 minutes from the time of the question. Why? Because the Moon is 10° from the MC of course!

While the querent hurried off to retrieve him, I stayed behind and helped myself to a well-earned glass of her cooking sherry. It was then that her rather large ginger tom came in through the catflap, licked his lips and looked contentedly towards Joey’s empty cage. Oh dear! What I had overlooked is that the Moon is conjunct the malefic fixed star Algobbel (‘the Devourer’) which Prognosticus associates with “death by Savage Beastes” amongst other horrors.

I hurried after the querent but found that, in her haste, she had fallen into a drainage ditch and dislocated her shoulder. This is indicated by her significator opposing Saturn (falls) and moving out of Gemini (shoulders). Isn’t horary marvellous? Join me next time as I pursue a personal judgement: ‘How much will I have to pay my client damages?’

Headhitter’s note: our snicere apologies to Lilly for plubishing completely the complety the wrong chart, in our last isshew Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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PLANETARY THEMES FOR

[DECEMBER & JANUARY]

by Wade Caves of InMundo December NEW MOON (12th December 2023) The New Moon at 20°á perfects as Mercury stations retrograde at 8°à, Mercury having just separated from Venus by sextile and Jupiter by trine, favourable connections with both benefics that were likely to have helped move delays forward. But note that after its station, Mercury retrogresses to a trine with retrograde Jupiter, one of those classic indications of stalling agreements. Keep tabs on Mercury’s activity within this lunation – it stations direct again in early January at 22°á, within a few degrees of this New Moon, suggesting that whatever Mercury moves forward (or backward while retrograde) during this lunation is likely to be revisited at the direct station.

Mercury’s placement in Capricorn brings attention to commercial activity at ports.1 Some countries (e.g., Portugal, South Africa) are experiencing significant delays and though the US appears to be rebounding to exceed pre-pandemic volumes for the holiday period, ongoing labour disputes leave a prospect of strikes to impact port flow. High volumes raise alerts for congestion issues at top ports impacting North America and Asia, watch for strike potential ramping up in Australia and Portugal, too.

The separating opposition of Venus and Jupiter suggests that forces typically aligned in perspective were recently at odds. While the two remain in orb of aspect, the effect of conflict remains very apparent, though this will dissipate in the weeks following this New Moon.

with its neighbours (Venus rules China’s 3rd house) and its international relations (China has Venus in the 9th). In March this year, China negotiated a peace deal with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and a few weeks ago, President Xi Jinping said China “never bets against the United States” so seemingly seeks improved diplomatic ties. We may see China continue to build on this new angle with respect to tensions in the Middle East. …continues p.27

December FULL MOON (27th December 2023) Rays of optimism peak through this Full Moon. Both luminaries apply to harmonious aspects of Jupiter in Taurus: the Sun by trine and the Moon by sextile (with mutual reception by exaltation). Since both Capricorn and Cancer can signify ports and ocean commerce, this dual benefic boost may indicate higher volume moving through international waters, with some confusion in its management since Jupiter is retrograde, slowing to its station on New Year’s Eve. Venus at 26°Ü brings hope for much-needed relief in conflicts activated by that degree. This falls on the 2nd cusp of Israel’s national chart, which may point to peacekeeping negotiations made on the part of Israel’s allies. China’s national midheaven is 27°Ü, and Venus, on this degree, could help ease tensions 1

Cancer is associated with commercial ocean activity (Manilius, Astronomica, 4.162ff.); Capricorn is given rulership over storage for sails and ship materials (Lilly, CA, p.98) and its image (half-sea, half-land) represents facilitated transit between land and sea.

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HIGHLIGHTS (UT) 5→} 6K; 5 GEE 6→P 6L0 = St. Dir. 5L8 6a8 New Moon 5 St. Ret 3K= 5L8 6a3-} Solst.

3F5 5→M 6L= Full Moon 5K= 3L8 5F7 7K= 6→M 8 St. Dir.

1st: 14:32 3rd: 13:30 4th: 14:29 4th: 18:51 5th: 22:52 6th: 13:22 8th: 04:09 10th: 03:35 12th: 23:32 13th: 07:09 17th: 03:43 18th: 14:28 21st: 07:05 22nd: 03:28 22nd: 18:54 23rd: 06:18 25th: 17:15 27th: 00:33 27th: 07:43 27th: 15:29 28th: 00:31 28th: 22:16 29th: 20:24 31st: 02:41

DECEMBER 2023 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine

Friday

4J6 4→I 4a0K7 4L5L8 5 GEE 6→P

5

4 K3 4L6L0

6

4a= = St. Dir. 4L; 4→O

7

4K5 4J7 4J3

Sunday

1

4L= 4K6 4a; 5→} 4→U

2

8

5L8

9 4K;

10 6 a 8

– Ludwig van Beethoven (MR_ in á | chart)

4

Saturday 4L7 4K8 4L3 5J0

4→P 4L0 4F6 4a8 4J5

3

4K6K;

4a-

11 4 L =

12 4 F 7

13 4 K =

14 4 L 8

15 4 L -

16 4 K 8

17 4 K -

18 4 J 8

19 4 L 6

20 4 K 5

21 6 a -

22 4 K ;

23 5 → M

24 4 L ;

25 6 L =

26 4 a 7

27 4 a 3

28 5 F 7

29 4 → U

30 4 K -

31 8 St. Dir.

4J; 4→M 4K0 5J6

4J5 5L8

4F3

4K7 4J-J; 4F= 4 K3 4→E 4K= 4a5 4→Y 4L0

5 St. Ret. 4→} 4J0

4J8 5K= 3L8

4F5 4J6

4L7 5J0

4J4L= 4L6 7K= 4a;

4J= 4F; 4→Q

4L3 L 5 4→R 3→} 4J0F8 3F5 6J; 4K8 6→M

Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

4K6 4J7

4F4a6 4J=

4L5

3K= 4J3 4→W 4F0

4→T 4K0 3J0

4L7 4→I 4K6 4a0 4L8

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COMING UP

January 2024 UT 6 K0 5 SD 7 4} 5 K= w NM 5 GGW 5 4} 6 K= ; 4Q 6 4} q FM - SD 5 F7

03á17 22á10 00à00 25á12 19à39 28á35 00à00 25á26 00â00 00à00 05É14 19Ä05 17à17

1st 13:26 2nd 03:08 4th 14:58 9th 01:25 11th 11:58 12th 14:38 14th 02:50 19th 15:49 21st 00:51 23rd 08:51 25th 17:54 27th 07:35 27th 14:59

February 2024 5 4Q 5 F; w NM 5 K8 7 4Q 7 F; 6 4Q 5 K6 F; 6 F7 5 4W q FM 6 K8 7 K8 5 F0

00â00 00â30 20â40 08â23 00â00 00â46 00â00 19â17 00â52 06â57 00ä00 05Ñ23 10â30 10â52 09à44

5th 05:10 5th 12:58 9th 22:59 10th 13:25 13th 06:05 14th 06:06 16th 16:05 17th 03:53 17th 08:49 22nd 07:15 23rd 07:29 24th 12:31 25th 04:01 27th 08:30 28th 15:08

Don’t care what people say, don’t give a damn about their laws – Edith Piaf (M _ in á | chart)

EPHEMERIS

DECEMBER 2023

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Continues from page 24 (December Full Moon) The most stressful configuration of the Full Moon lunation is the conjunction of Mercury and Mars, which perfects at 24°á=the following day. The end degrees of Sagittarius invoke the more bestial, unruly qualities of that sign (the nearer the start, the more analogous of the human head; the nearer the end, the more analogous of the horse’s back hooves). Mercury is slowing to its station at the end of its retrograde pass, close to Earth, so strongly affecting mundane affairs – its conjunction with Mars means delays are likely to arouse frustration and anger, possibly kneejerk reaction, and a tendency to let the ends justify the means. Remember that Mercury’s station at 22°á= conjoins the December New Moon at 20°á, so themes carried by Mercury in that chart are likely to resurface at this time.

Year ends as 8 stations in R (31st December 2023) Jupiter has been retrograde in Taurus since early September. On a mundane level, this transit brings a focus to revisiting strategies in agriculture and environmental management. It’s of significance that the week Jupiter turned retrograde (at 15°Ä), the USDA’s Farm Sector Income Forecast indicated a substantial drop in farm net income for 2023, fully reversing the record increase seen in 2022.1 The decline is attributed to various factors, including lower prices in major livestock categories and reduced receipts for high-revenue crops such as corn and soybeans.2 Within the Jupiter retrograde period, it was announced that US farm sector debt is expected to rise to a record $540 billion – something similar happened in 2012 when Jupiter was in Taurus, and again in 2015 when Jupiter was in the earth sign Virgo.3 As a consequence of these kinds of trends, many countries are experiencing high domestic food price inflation. More than half of the low-income countries, plus a significant majority of lower-middle-income countries, and many upper-middle-income countries are facing inflation higher than 5%, with some experiencing double-digit inflation.4 In addition, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many countries have implemented food trade restrictions to boost domestic supply and reduce prices. As of November 2023, 19 countries have implemented food export bans, and 9 have imposed export-limiting measures.

However, as the year comes to a close, so does Jupiter’s slow crawl backwards through the sign of the bull.

Jupiter stations direct on December 31, and with that change in direction, we can hope for a resurgence in agricultural production and environmental conservation efforts, together wth a stabilization of prices, and a relaxing of restrictions on food trade market activity.

Taurus has a long-standing association with Russia (CA, p.94). During Jupiter’s retrograde period, there has been a great deal of pushback on foreign aid to Ukraine in response to Russian aggression. As Jupiter stations direct, in trine to Ukraine’s national ascendant (8°à, o-) we might also see some change in tone as the winter months hit Europe, and energy and food concerns bring practicalities to the fore.

The total U.S. farm net income for 2023 is estimated to be around $141 billion, which, while lower than 2022’s record $183 billion, still matches 2021 for the second highest on record.

2 Astrological concern for farming and corn production was raised in our September 2023 edition (#12, page 30), where Jason Burns considered the combined effect of Jupiter retrograding in Taurus, a sign of cattle, and an upcoming lunar eclipse that conjoined the fixed star Spica in Virgo.

3 As a further illustration of typical manifestation, Fraser Valley in British Columbia is experiencing high stress levels among poultry farmers due to an avian flu outbreak, affecting approximately five million birds. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported 39 infected commercial and backyard flocks since October 20, 2023.

4 This trend is most pronounced in regions such as Africa, North America, Latin America, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia – see the World Bank’s ‘Food Security Update’, accessed 30 Nov 2023.

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January NEW MOON (11th January 2024) The January New Moon at 20°à44' features notable activity between the superior planets, with a much slower pulse among the inferior planets.

Jupiter has remained stationed at 5°Ä since the December Full Moon. Saturn’s speed has picked up, and with a daily motion of around 6' it is moving relatively quickly, but even with this boost in speed, Saturn cannot catch up to Jupiter to perfect a received sextile from Pisces. This would have been a welcome aspect, symbolically bringing themes of expansion and consolidation into manageable balance, and thankfully a strong Mars in Capricorn translates between the two. The configuration sets a picture of big parties being willing to put tensions aside by taking on board the advice of a third party who stirs up courage and decisive action.

Far less activity is seen with the Sun, Moon, and Venus.

As the luminaries separate from the New Moon conjunction, which hit the livening trine of Uranus, their orbs remain unaffected by the influence of any other visible planet. They do make connections with the outer planets, Neptune and Pluto, but won’t

complete another aspect with a traditional planet until they create respective squares to Jupiter in Taurus across sign boundaries – an alignment that dominates the subsequent Full Moon at the end of the month. By comparison, this lunation appears to be a bit of an interregnum or a period of inactivity.

In addition, Venus is void (apart from its later square to Neptune, it won’t contact another visible planet until the end of January when, after changing signs and reaching 6°à, it simultaneously makes a sextile to Saturn at 6°ä and trine to Jupiter at 6°Ä). Mercury is also unable to complete any Ptolemaic aspect until after it changes signs. At the time of the lunation, Saturn sits just on the edge of Mercury’s 7° orb, so the earliest signs of developments may be seen, but far from any finalising stages.

With the superiors making big moves and the inferiors struggling to form connections, this would be a better time for sitting with existing priorities, allowing the more minor details that tend to fill our days to take a backseat until the swifter-moving planets are better connected.

January FULL MOON (27th December 2023) The dead of the northern hemisphere winter is often quiet on the world stage, but something is brewing in this late January Full Moon. At 5°É, the opposing luminaries apply jointly to a square with Jupiter at 6°Ä. This tight T-square falls into alignment with the Moon/Pluto opposition in the 2024 Aries ingress (the Moon there at 3° É, Pluto at 1°â), almost certainly indicating that events of this period will seed or foreshadow the themes coming in the 2024 astrological year.

Venus applies to a mutually received sextile with Saturn (Saturn receives Venus by sign, Venus receives Saturn by exaltation). It’s an overdue thing to find Saturn so well bolstered by contacts with soft, benefic planets. This mutual reception shows cooperation between the austerity Saturn typically represents, and the liberality and grace signified by Venus.

In the previous December Full Moon at 4° Ç, Mercury and Mars were embroiled in a tense conjunction. Here, the story reverses: Mercury joins Mars in conjunction with aspectual reception. This conjunction facilitates bold and spirited discussion and improvements in the decision-to-action pipeline.

Venus also applies to the trine of Jupiter – a helpful thing, I think, for the war in Ukraine, since the aspect perfects as Venus comes to the conjunction of Ukraine’s Urasnus-strained national ascendant (8°à – see chart, p.26).

Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

Find Wade online at skyscript.co.uk/inmundo

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HIGHLIGHTS (UT) 6 K0 5 St. Dir 7 →} 5 K= 3 LNew Moon 7 L8 5 GGW 5 →} 5 L8 6 K= 3 F; 3 →Q ; →Q 6 →} Full Moon 3 K8 - St. Dir 5 F7 5 L6 L8 7 L-

1st: 13:26 2nd: 03:08 4th: 14:58 9th: 01:25 10th: 00:08 11th: 11:58 12th: 10:42 12th: 14:38 14th: 02:50 19th: 09:31 19th: 15:49 20th: 13:46 20th: 14:08 21st: 00:51 23rd: 08:51 25th: 17:54 27th: 07:19 27th: 07:35 27th: 14:59 28th: 21:07 29th: 01:02 29th: 23:41

JANUARY 2024 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday 4

Saturday

4K; 4→P 4J7 4L0 4a8

6

Sunday

1

4L3 6K0

2

5 St. Dir. 4L4K5 4a= 4K7 4L;

3

8

4K0 4F6

9

5K= 4K= 4F5

10 3 L -

11 4 L -

12 4 F ;

13 4 J 6

14 5 → }

16 3 J =

17 4 L 6

18 4 K 3 K ;

19 4 L 7

20 4 J =

21 ; → Q

22 4 K =

23 4 L 0

24 4 a 7

25 4 → U

26 4 K -

27 3 K 8

28 6 J 0

29 6 L 8

30 4 → O

31 4 K 6

15 4 J -

4K6 4J3 4F=

4a6 4→Y

4L7 4L4L5 4a= 7L-

4→O 4J6

4→} 7J0 4J0 4F7 4L8

4J; 4→E 4K5 4K7

6→} 4J8 4a5

4L;

4J4L=

4L3

4 K3 7→} 4J5

4F3 4J=

4→R 5J0 4J0 4L5 4F8

4a; 4 a3 4K8

5

Friday

4→Q 7L8 4K8 5 GEW

5L8 6K= 4F-

4J3

4K-

3F; 4L;K0 4L3 4→T 3→Q

- St. Dir. 5F7 4→I

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it – William James (US philosopher, MR_`hi in à | chart)

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4a4L= 4J; 4→M

4→W 4J5 4F0 4J8 4J7

4a0 4L6 4L8 5L-

30

COMING UP

February 2024 5 4Q 5 F; w NM 5 K8 7 4Q 7 F; 6 4Q 5 K6 F; 6 F7 5 4W q FM 6 K8 7 K8 5 F0

00â00 00â30 20â40 08â23 00â00 00â46 00â00 19â17 00â52 06â57 00ä00 05Ñ23 10â30 10â52 09à44

UT

5th 05:10 5th 12:58 9th 22:59 10th 13:25 13th 06:05 14th 06:06 16th 16:05 17th 03:53 17th 08:49 22nd 07:15 23rd 07:29 24th 12:31 25th 04:01 27th 08:30 28th 15:08

March 2024 6 K- 19â38 5 F= 27ä01 7 K- 19â51 5 4 E 00~00 w NM 20ä16 6 4W 00ä00 3 EQX 00~00 6 F0 12ä26 7 4W 00ä00 5 GGE 23~19 q Lun ec 05Ö07

3rd 13:18 8th 15:06 9th 22:56 10th 04:03 10th 09:01 11th 21:51 20th 03:07 21st 23:10 22nd 23:48 24th 22:34 25th 07:01

This is the real secret of life: to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play – Alan Watts (philosopher, M_c in à | chart)

EPHEMERIS

JANUARY 2024

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O Ishtar, you are Anu; you rule the Heavens … You alter the Fates, and an ill event becomes good… At your right is Justice, at your left Goodness; fixed on your head are Audience, Favour, Peace…

– Incantation to Ishtar (Saggs, p.327)

Babylonian Planetary Myths I: THE MYTHOLOGICAL SCENE Cylinder seal c.2200 BCE: Ishtar holds a scimitar and restrains a lion with her foot and a leash Source: Wikimedia | ISAC Museum

Deborah Houlding

Ishtar is clothed with pleasure and love. She is laden with vitality, charm and voluptuousness.

In lips she is sweet; life is in her mouth. At her appearance rejoicing becomes full – Akkadian Hymn to Ishtar, c. 1600 BC1 Myths, like dreams, arise from imaginative awareness. Using the tools of comparative language, we might trace their history back to where scriptural evidence emerges, but these facts inadequately explain when and why a particular detail took hold. The search for the source of a myth inevitably ends in darkness, only halffulfilled – there is no way around this since this transient and elusive characteristic is itself a key signature of a ‘myth’. We can only explore and hope to understand some element of mythology; no one can claim to really ‘know’ it. 11 As far as the dateable age of planetary myths is concerned, the only thing documents tell us is that they are at least as old as our ability to document.

Their roots are prehistoric and primordial, their essential meaning relating to the most basic and elemental life experiences, and their symbolic features relating to celestial appearances and movements that can be visibly observed.

It is easy to understand why the planet Venus draws associations of beauty, splendour, jewels and female charms. Venus can outshine all the other planets, hanging like a dazzling jewel that, by itself, can illuminate the sky. But it never moves more than 48° from the Sun, so it is visible only in the periods before the Sun rises or after it has set.

Venus ‘attends’ the Sun, just as a consort attends to the needs of the king, allowing the planet to collect 1 2

the mythological attributes of a female lover. The Old Testament Song of Solomon reads like a love song between the king and his lover but holds obvious references to the cosmic dance of Venus around the Sun: Draw me, I will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: I will be glad and rejoice in thee… I am black, but comely …

Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me … The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills … My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come … My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold …

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages … Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.2

Translated by F. J. Stephens: Man, Myth and Magic, V.13, ed. by Richard Cavendish (Marshall Cavendish, Rev Ed, 1983), p.1390.

Song of Soloman 2, King James Version.

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Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is also (and more reliably) capable of a very brilliant display of light, as befits its ancient title, ‘King of Heaven’. But unlike Venus, Jupiter’s orbit outside of Earth allows it to dominate the sky throughout the night and reach the pinnacle of the heavens, suggesting a more supreme and independent source of power. Mars is greatly characterised by its red appearance, so its myths and its gods have always been associated with danger, bloodshed, intemperance and destructive heat. By contrast, Saturn, the slowest moving of the visible planets, is steady and reliable, likened to the mighty reserves of the slow-moving earth, but also characterised as cold and lacking in vibrant vitality.

Mercury is a very elusive planet for observers: its close proximity to the Sun makes its appearance so unreliable that even Copernicus regretted never being able to visibly record it.3 Its early Akkadian name, Shikhtu, translates as ‘leaper’ or ‘jumpy’, referring to its erratic appearances whereby it seems to leap from one side of the horizon to the other (and subsequently offering an early basis to its reputation for trickery and ‘slight of hand’).

Unable to move more than 28° from the Sun, it was seen as a herald of the Sun, and from this, an association with divine communications and messages began to emerge for the planet that has the closest access to the Supreme power – the Sun’s radiance being so undisputed it makes the rest of the planets and stars take flight from the sky.

Shifting deification Although planetary myths are characterised by human emotions and drives, they also offer a fascinating portal to the philosophical reasoning, scientific logic, and political meanderings of the ancient world – provided we don’t get lost in the myriad of confusions that mythology presents. One problem is that many of the localised renderings of myth fragment core principles by dwelling on details too ephemeral or specific to a native environment to be genuinely archetypal. Another is that the evolution of mythology shows constant reciprocation and interpenetration between the tales of gods ascribed to neighbouring regions, with gods able to rise to prominence and absorb the qualities of other gods or lose their status and fade into obscurity for purely political reasons.

Also, although the ancient civilisations were clearly pantheistic in expression, we must not underestimate the ever-present underlying drive towards monotheism that set the pantheon of gods 3

Wikimedia

Drawing of an ancient bas relief from the temple of Ninurta showing a water god, presumed to be Ea (or Oannes), whose symbolism was invested in the constellations Capricorn and Aquarius.

at war with each other! In the ancient world, each city or nation was attached to one principal god, revered above all others and viewed as an emblematic symbol of that region’s success. That god was naturally championed as more worthy of attention and wider in significance than those of other regions.

A god might be favoured because it ruled some element crucial to the area’s economic strength – for example, the fish-tailed water god, Ea, assumed the role of principal god for the sea-faring traders of Eridu, a city near the mouth of the river Euphrates on the edge of the Persian Gulf. As a city rose in influence, often on the back of profitable trade, so did the god it worshipped. The authority of a god likewise diminished through the defeat or decline of its worshippers, while the gods of prosperous nations rose, alongside their political growth, to positions of great power and influence.

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelesticum (On the revolutions of the celestial orbs); V.30.

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The planetary myths would also pass from one indigenous god to another. Conquerors were often keen to impose their own gods initially (a sign of dominance), but over time, native gods would tend to resurface, having assimilated the qualities of the deities the conquerors brought with them. In this way, Ishtar of the Babylonians spawned most of the essential qualities that the Greeks attributed to Aphrodite and the Romans later attributed to Venus. Yet before their flourishing interest in astrology at the beginning of the Christian era, the Romans had regarded Venus as a relatively unimportant goddess of spring. The same is true of Apollo, who in Homer’s tales had no association with the grand solar qualities later attributed to him after Greek culture enthusiastically embraced the astrological framework of the oriental nations.

The earlier mythology of Mesopotamia was similarly subject to internal shifts and alterations.

Like most large regions, Mesopotamia comprised various local dialects and tribes, and not all of their early planetary characteristics have survived. The two main linguistic groups were Sumerian and Semite, with the earliest texts written in Sumerian and the Semitic influence increasing through the period. Because of this, the names of the gods have come down to us in various forms: the Sumerians, for example, knew the Moon as Nanna or Nannar, the Semites knew it as Sin. The Sumerians were the first settlers in the region. They occupied the area south of Babylon around the Persian Gulf, having migrated from central Asia to form a collection of farming villages around 5000 BCE. To the North, the Akkadians were Semites, originating from northern Syria. The conquest of the Sumerians by the Semites occurred around 2300 BCE with the successful invasions of Sargon of Akkad. The effect was to bring Semitic influence to the fore at a critical period of historical development, which witnessed the advent of writing, mathematics, calendar improvement and establishment of a powerful state built around the principles of unified society, authoritative priesthood, singular kingship and investiture into temple symbolism.

Whilst on the one hand, the older Sumerian myths were incorporated into (and effective upon) the Semitic power that dominated from that point on, both cultures were equally subject to the prevailing social re-evaluation that shifted the earlier focus on agricultural and fertility principles – with themes such as the descent of the goddess – towards an emerging veneration for law-making,

effective communication, logic, structure and mathematical wisdom.

So as the Sumerian nation collapsed at the end of the third millennium BCE, their myths became subsumed into those of the Semites. The older Sumerian myths set the original foundation, but they remain mysterious and fragmentary, born from a period that predates written communication.

It is only as the Semitic influence increases at this pivotal point of history that we see the emergence of a more distinct allocation of specific qualities, such as communicative gifts, whereby writing and the ‘gifts of the scribe’ become attributed to particular gods, rather than a scattering of ‘allpowerful’ gods tending to represent any or all of the many aspects of power.

The Semitic language group also incorporates Hebrew, the basis of biblical texts. Archaeological and theological research suggests a significant influx of Semitic settlement in Egypt around 1500 BCE, further cross-fertilising the older Sumerian myths and supporting a convergence of early spiritual beliefs that underlies many Old Testament passages. The book of Genesis, for example, includes references and parallels that are recognisably rooted in ancient Sumerian mythology, whilst other books include valuable

Bronze head from Ninevah, c.23OO BCE, believed to represent Sargon of Akkad – one of the world’s first great empire builders, who established Mesopotamia’s first Semitic dynasty.

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insights into Mesopotamian culture and politics, as well as their spiritual and symbolic associations.

Biblical references to ‘the Lord’ or ‘Heavenly Father’ show exactly the kind of worship that would have been accorded to the Babylonian god Marduk (in the later period associated with Jupiter), which was later partly invested in the Greek god Zeus. Marduk rose to assimilate the qualities of many of the earlier powerful deities through his role as the city god of Babylon, by which he ascended with the power of Babylon until, at the height of that city’s influence, he held the status of Supreme Lord over all other gods. It was only in the later Babylonian period (possibly a consequence of the astrological need for increased definition) that the most prominent deities became organised into a select pantheon of gods with clearly differentiated attributes and segregated characteristics.

Main Semitic names for gods that became associated with planets: Sun: Shamash or Samas (Sumerian: Utu) Moon: Sin or Suen (Sumerian: Nannar) Mercury: Nabu (Sumerian: Nebo) Venus: Ishtar or Astarte (Sumerian: Inanna) Mars: Nergal or Nirgal (Sumerian: Kis.unu) Jupiter: Marduk (Sumerian: Amarutu) Saturn: Ninurta (Sumerian: Ninib or Nirig)

Ever present Sun Bearing in mind all this assimilation and prospect of elevation or reduction of deification, and given that some of the more fundamental celestial principles created the core meaning for many primeval myths, we should not be surprised that in the ancient period, some myths became attached to more than one god, or even that one god could find representation through more than one planet.

It often surprises historians that the role of Shamash, the god of the Sun, is relatively underplayed in astrological texts, considering the obvious importance of the Sun in spiritual and mundane life. But many other gods embodied elements of the solar principle, and their associated planets were often seen as emissaries of its influence.

4 5

Like the Egyptians, the Babylonians believed that an important deity could be expressed through various forms, so although Marduk became increasingly associated with the planet Jupiter, Marduk is also a solar deity whose myths reveal the principles of the spring or morning Sun. Ninurta, in particular, the god that became mainly associated with the planet Saturn, is used as a night-time manifestation of the Sun, acting as a representation of the spirit or “ghost of the dead Sun” as it travels through the night.4 Nergal, a feared god of the underworld, was mainly associated with Mars, “a planet of evil, plague and death”.5 But Nergal was also a demon slayer and god of fire, so could characterise the destructive influence of the Sun when it turned malevolent during periods of summer drought. Despite their apparent overriding emphasis on the Moon, worship of the Sun was never absent from the Babylonian mind. It was profound and widespread, so much so that the Babylonians sought to keep some representation of the life-giving Sun above the horizon at all times.

Gender neutrality It is also useful when exploring early planetary mythology to have some understanding of the ancient symbolic approach to gender. It may seem strange that the Babylonian Moon god, Sin, was usually rendered as a masculine deity, in contrast to later cultures who recognised the Moon as the archetype of femininity. Also inconsistent with the mainstream of later astrological tradition is that the early Sumerian Sun-god, Utu, was presented as a female deity, whilst Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus, was initially portrayed as both masculine and feminine.

Detail from a cylinder seal belonging to a high priest of Sin at the Great Ziggurat of Ur which was dedicated to the Moon god’s honour, c. 2100 BCE. Sin’s presence is indicated by the crescent Moon.

Mackenzie, Donald The Myths of Babylonia And Assyria (Gresham, London, 1915, republished by Kessinger 2004); p.314.

Ibid., p.303

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We know that some of the earlier languages lacked the ability to clearly distinguish gender,6 but also, many of the principles being epitomised by the gods were simply asexual concepts, not necessarily masculine or feminine but capable of being masculinised or feminised in their expression. Ishtar, for example, though always predominantly feminine, was represented as a masculine god in her eastern risings without losing the focus on sexual creativity. Here, she is penetrating, initiating, even war-like in her sexual demands, but with the Western influence, she becomes more passive, receptive, and generative of harmonious and peaceful influences.

In other situations, the masculine element is personified by the main deity and the feminine expression of the principle is portrayed by the consort, making it necessary for us to consider the consort, not as some vaguely associated relation concocted to add an interesting story to the myth, but as an essential aspect of the main deity in an altered state. This explains the otherwise perplexing situation where the Sun god Utu is represented initially as a female but later acquires masculinity as the cult of Utu is subsumed into that of Shamash. From one of the surviving god lists, we see that the mysterious Utu also went by the name of Aa, who is more immediately recognisable as the female consort of Shamash.7 As a goddess, Utu represented the feminised aspect of the Sun when it set in the evening and prepared to pass through the Western portal to the underworld. In a more modern context, the setting of Utu and its entry into the ‘interior of heaven’ has been said to symbolise “the masculine elements of the psyche disappearing into subconsciousness”,8 which is perhaps to say that this is where the Sun discovers its feminine side. We need not assume the essential principle of the Sun was ever determined as feminine, only that the increasing emphasis upon Shamash as the god of the Sun in all its stages allowed the older representations of some of its phases to become disregarded and devalued.

Again, with the Moon, the obvious deference to Sin as a masculine deity might leave a false impression that the Babylonian view of the Moon was devoid of the creative, generative and nurturing characteristics that are so predominant in the myths of later cultures. But Sin had his consorts, and there were other lunar deities that represented more powerfully the purely feminine aspect of fertility. In fact, both Sin and his Sumerian predecessor, Nannar, were bi-sexual deities, perfectly capable of demonstrating the principles of fertility, nourishment and the begetting of offspring as effectively through fatherhood as motherhood. Though depicted in masculine form, a more appropriate understanding of the Moon was that of the father and mother deity combined.

One famous hymn to Sin demonstrates the generative power of his influence: Father Nanna, Lord Sin, hero of the gods …

Womb that gives birth to everything …

Begetter, merciful in his disposing, who holds in his hand the life of the whole land … O progenitor of the land, who has founded temples … O father begetter of gods and men, thou dost determine destiny … Father begetter, who looks favourably upon all living creatures ... When thy word settles down on the earth green vegetation is produced. Thou!

Thy word makes fat the sheepfold and the stall; it makes living creatures widespread.9 Elsewhere, the line “womb that gives birth to everything” has been translated as “Mother body which produceth all things”, even more clearly supporting the concept of Sin as parental rather than purely paternal.10 But with either translation, we see that it would be misleading to view the Babylonian representation of the Moon as a god rather than a goddess as suggesting much more than an elevation in status and importance; or at least we can conclude that it adds more to the Moon’s association with structure, definition and measurement than it takes from its association with earthly fertility and generative creativity.

Sayce, A.H. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (Hibbert Lectures, 1897; republished by Kessinger, 2004); p.145.

7 Pinches, T. G. The Religion Of Babylonia And Assyria, (Constable,, 1906, republished by Kessinger, 2004); chap. IV: ‘The Principal Gods of the Babylonians and Assyrians’; pp.67-68.

The name Aa, as the consort of the Sun, was also sometimes applied to the Moon, showing that even though the Moon was proclaimed the father of the Sun the Mesopotamians did not lack recognition of the Moon as the Sun’s maternal equivalent.

8 Black, Jeremy, & Green, Anthony, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, (University of Texas Press, 1992) s.v. Utu. 9 Pritchard, J.B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament (Princeton Un. Press, 1969), p.385; also L. Oppenheim & J. Pritchard, Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts (Princeton Un. Press, 3rd ed. 1969), p.385.

The tablet containing this hymn was found in the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh; it is assumed to have been compiled between 668-633 BCE but the text states that it was copied from an older composition, the antiquity of which is unknown.

10 Mackenzie, p.299.

6

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HEAVENLY TRINITIES In the ancient myths of the Sumerians, the hierarchy of gods was led by the primary triad of Anu (Heaven), Enlil (Winds of the Earth) and Ea (Waters of the Deep). Beneath these lay a second divine triad of planetary gods that stood higher in status than all others: Sin (Moon), Shamash (Sun) and Ishtar (Venus), although sometimes Ishtar is replaced by Adad, a god of storm and thunder.

The sacred basis of the leading hierarchy is revealed in chapter one of Genesis, the first line of which states that in the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. But the Earth – represented, in Babylonian myth by the goodess, Ki – was “without form, and void; darkness was upon the face of the deep”. Even before creating light, the spirit of God first “moved upon the face of the waters”. The waters were represented by Ea, Lord of the Deep; the spirit of movement across the face of the Earth was personified by Enlil, the Divine Breath. Earth is the recipient of these influences, which gave her creativity. She is empowered by the forces of heaven and the movement of Divine Breath over the embryonic waters – other historians have noted “the test of the manifestation of life was movement”.11 These three gods are, therefore, the precedents and progenitors of all other gods.

The Moon-god is usually portrayed as leading the second divine triad, again following Sumerian myth, where the Moon as the masculine deity, Nannar, is the son of Enlil, god of the winds, and itself the father of the Sun. The notion of the Moon as the “Womb that gives birth to everything” also reflects the Mesopotamian view that following the stirring of creativity by movement, light then arises out of darkness. So the night gives birth to the day, and each new ‘day’ of the Babylonian calendar begins in the evening with the appearance of the stars, just as each new month begins with the evening appearance of the emerging Moon. This, too, is depicted in Genesis: And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light …

And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day (v.2-5).

The declaration that the evening and the morning introduced the day is repeated for each day of creation in Genesis, underling the political importance of the Mesopotamian lunar calendar.

The parental influence of Anu, Enlil, and Ea over the planetary gods also draws association with their rulership over the three paths of the mul Apin, which was used to monitor and measure the movement of stars and planets. Although these gods were never directly linked with any of the planets, their influence infiltrates planetary myths so often as to deserve special consideration.

ANU - Heaven Anu (or An) is one of the most ancient deities, his supremacy shown by his name being placed at the top of the lists of gods in terms that translate to Creator, Father or simply: God. His name means Expanse of Heaven and he is the Ruler of the Sky, Lord of the Constellations, Father of all subsequent Gods and the Decider of Destiny. Early myths speak only of Anu as the Supreme Being and overseer of all, revealing obvious connections to the ‘Heavenly Father’ of biblical scriptures.

In the mul Apin, the central path of the division of the sky (the ecliptic and equatorial regions) was attributed to Anu, but his residence was the highest region of heaven – he never came down to Earth or walked amongst men. Such was his elevation that only the other gods could turn to him for counsel, so he is rarely invoked or mentioned in personal divination appeals.

Behind the myth, this de-personalisation and elevation is worth noting as an underlying concept to Aristotelian philosophy, where the ultimate creative force is appropriated to the purest, unmoving regions of heaven, with only the ‘divine intelligences’ able to transmit its influence between Heaven and Earth. Aristotle himself was quick to support his cosmological theory by reference to the views of the ancients12 though his notion of the ‘Prime Mover’ as pure, immutable energy meant it was “unaffected by any mortal discomfort” (II.1). In contrast, Anu is portrayed as morally judicious, seeking to right wrongs, holding the power to cast judgements and symbolising the principles of justice and sovereignty.

11 Sayce, p.328, Mackenzie, p.291.

12 On the Heavens, tr. by J. L. Stocks, in Jonathan Barnes (ed.), Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol 1: (Princeton Un. Press. 1984):

For all men have some conception of the nature of the gods, and all … agree in allotting the highest place to the deity (I.3) We recognize habitually a special right to the name ‘heaven’ in the extremity or upper region, which we take to be the seat of all that is divine. (1.9) The ancients gave to the Gods the heaven or upper place, as being alone immortal; and our present argument testifies that it is indestructible and ungenerated. (II.1)

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There are no depictions of Anu in human form, but there are representations by symbols such as the sceptre or crown (usually embellished with bull horns), a horned headdress upon a shrine (shown below) or the staff of command. It has also been argued that the ancient use of an eightpointed star to denote a god or goddess was to show they could traverse Anu’s heavenly domain and act as representatives of his influence.13 As Babylon rose to the height of its political influence, its own city god, Marduk (Jupiter), supplanted the worship of Anu, and Ishtar (Venus) came to displace the original consort, Anatu. But Anu’s standing remained – a usurper would not drive him out of existence but merely assumed his title and the right to be addressed by his name.

Above left: boundary stone from the era of Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 BCE) showing the symbols of Ishtar, Sin and Shamash at the top, above three horned headresses on shrines – emblems of Anu. British Museum Above right: representation of the water god Ea from the Adda cylinder seal (2300 BCE). British Museum Right: Statue of Enlil sitting on his throne from Nippur (18001600 BCE), the clenched fist would have held an emblem of his power, now lost.

Wikimedia

ENLIL – Wind Enlil (or Mul-lil) was the national god of ancient Sumer. His name means Lord of the Air, and he governs the winds of the Earth or the sky between Heaven and Earth. Other interpretations of his name include Lord of Command because he is able to initiate activity through his movement. Enlil is the son of Anu (Heaven) and Ki (Earth) and was said to originate as the exhausted breath of Anu after their sexual union was complete. The myth relates that he carried off the earth as his ‘portion’, by which he is also frequently referred to as the god of the Earth. Being second only to Anu, he was extremely powerful – a direct intermediary who could convey the influences of Heaven to his realm.

With the rise of the Semitic influence, many of the characteristics of Enlil were assimilated by Marduk (Jupiter), forming the basis of qualities recognised in the Greek equivalent of Zeus. Like Zeus, Enlil was a god of hurricanes and storms; he ruled the forces of nature and cast judgment upon the fates of men. He owned the ‘Tablets of Destiny,’ which decreed the destiny of all men and the other gods subject to his power. Like Anu, he held the insignia of royalty, which he alone could dispense to humankind. To raise men to kingship, he only had to say their name, so Enlil was invoked upon the appointment of new kings, after which they became divine representatives of his power and were expected to show priestly reverence as part of their kingly duties.

But Enlil’s influence could also be highly destructive, and the prospect of his anger would generate great fear. The Accado-Sumerian origin of the word Lil was ‘dust storm’ or ‘cloud of dust’, but it also applied to mists and such nebulous movements as that possessed by ghosts, so in many respects it was a word of terror, extending Enlil’s influence to that of ‘Lord of the Ghost World’ and ‘King of all the spirits of the Earth’, some of which were beneficial, many of which were demonic and evil.14 Of interest to astrologers is that a feminised version of his name, Lilatu, represented a terrible night demon. The Hebrews corrupted her name to Lilith, presenting her as the beautiful but vengeful rejected first wife of Adam who lived on the blood of victims she slew at night.

But to the Accadians, Enlil’s consort was Ninlil, the ‘Lady of the Ghost World’ for whose rape Enlil was banished to the underworld, though she eventually decided to join him there, where she

13 Pinches, chap.II, p.12.

14 Sayce, pp.145-6.

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gave birth to the offspring of that event, the Moongod, Sin. The hymn that relates the ‘deflowering’ of Ninlil is explicit in sexual references since Ninlil was a grain goddess invoked in fertility rites.15 She was later replaced by Ishtar, but at other times Enlil is partnered with the underworld goddess, Ereshkigal, Ishtar’s dark and destructive sister.

Enlil is also the father of the war gods Nergal (Mars) and Ninurta (Saturn). Of these, Nergal came to assume most of his destructive underworld associations.

The dreaded aspects of Enlil’s influence show the darker consequences of his power. Although generally helpful, his power of devastation is shown in the myth where, in a violent outburst, it was he who released the Great Deluge.16 In the mul Apin, Enlil rules the northern region of the sky path above the eastern horizon.

EA – Waters Ea is the son of Anu and the father of Marduk. He rules over waters and streams and his domain is the Abyss or Primeval Deep: the ocean of embryonic potential. In ancient myth, he is powerfully creative, the lord of long-accumulated wisdom, reasoned intelligence, and fertilising magic. Unlike Anu and Enlil, who had unreliable attitudes, Ea is a constant friend to all humanity and his fellow gods. He never cheats or tricks with his powers but always uses them thoughtfully to help others in need.

Although his name means ‘House of Water’, Ea was also a god of the Earth, known as Enki amongst the Sumerians, meaning ‘Lord of the Earth’. There are elements we recognise as Saturnian in some of his significations, which include rulership over wood, stones, metals, and the workers of those resources. Some ancient texts refer to him as the creator of humans, whom he fashioned from clay.

One of Ea’s titles was ‘Antelope of the Ocean’ and his symbol was the goatfish, representing his ability to emerge from the heights of the mountains and traverse the depths of the ocean.

The Babylonian astrologer and historian Berossus introduced his myth to the Greeks in the tale of Oannes, depicted as half-human and half-fish, who was said to emerge from the ocean four times to bring culture and civilisation to humanity.

Ea’s myth is obviously relevant to the origin of Capricorn symbolism and connects with Aquarian symbolism too: he was the God of Streams “from whose fingertips water flowed”, who held the responsibility for ensuring that springs and rivers continued to flow. The Babylonians called Aquarius Gula ‘Great Man’, which is thought to be an epithet for him. Many elements of his myth were later incorporated into those of the Greek god Poseidon and the Roman god Neptune.

In the mul Apin, Ea rules the southern region of the sky path above the eastern horizon.

Babylonian goatfish “common on boundary stones” from the British Astronomical Assoc. Jour. Vol. 108.I, 1998

Since the heavenly triad of Anu, Enlil and Ea were Sumerian in origin, the rise of the Semitic influence and the prospering status of Babylon saw all three of these deities later offering their power to Babylon’s city-god, Marduk, in the Epic of Creation, after Marduk conquered the destructive and chaotic forces of the primeval monster Tiamat.

The myth of Marduk’s victory reflects the social advances that accompanied the dominion of Babylon, where the older gods were content to lay their powers before him. The Epic of Creation states that Enlil conveyed his title ‘Lord’ upon Marduk, whilst Ea, ecstatic at his own son’s victory, proclaimed: “Let him, like me, be called ‘Ea’. Let him control the sum of all my rites; Let him administer all of my decrees”.17 Even so, traces of the original gods were never completely removed. Though largely swept up into a more comprehensive personality, they reappear in variant forms and remain ingrained in many elements of astrological and mythological lore.

The next part of this series will consider the myths and significations of the Babylonian planetary gods.

15 Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Harps That Once...Sumerian Poetry in Translation. (Yale Univ. Press, 1997). The ‘Enlil and Ninlil’ hymn.

16 Scholars believe that a specific catastrophic flood occurred in Southern Mesopotamia sometime around 2900 BC. It became a

popular subject in the literature of the time and probably formed the basis of the biblical flood. The Sumerian view of the gods as unpredictable and sometimes violent reflects the unstable and disturbing nature of the world in which they lived. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers often flooded or radically changed their paths from season to season, wreaking havoc in the area.

17 Enuma Elish, translated by W.G. Lambert in Babylonian Creation Myths (Eisenbrauns, 2013); tablet VII, lines 137-140.

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by

Profiling

DRU ISH druish.com

BRITNEY

It’s important to learn to say no.

With tours and all of that stuff, there are so many aspects that go into it, it’s easy to have so many people around you saying, ‘Oh yes, yes, you can afford this, you can afford this,’ and then all of the sudden you’ve spent $20 million on your stage, and you’re like, ‘Where’s my money?'

I go through life like a Karate Kid

BRITNEY SPEARS has been in the public eye since she was a pre-teen. By age 11, she was a regular on the Mickey Mouse Club, and by 17, she was the best-selling teenage artist of all time.

Throughout her career, Britney has continued to break to smash records, twice releasing albums ranked the n greatest of all time. greatest of all time. From a young age, her powerful voice and big vision have steered her free-spirited, unbridled energy (Sagittarius stellium 3rd house). As time progressed, her more eccentric side revealed itself from behind the costumes of a catholic school girl onto the front pages of tabloid papers.

This exposed her mental health issues and resistance against the tight reigns of control placed around her. The fixed Moon in the 5th house ruling her MC has offered her a steady outlet for her creative expression, but her public persona continues to fluctuate (Moon rules 10th).

With a stellium of Sagittarian planets in the 3rd house and Jupiter snug on the 2nd house cusp ruling her 6th house, it’s fitting that Spears is continually described by the media as a ‘workhorse’ with talent.

The tenacity of Jupiter in Scorpio made her oodles of money. However, with dispositor Mars hidden in the 12th house of loss, not helped by an applying partile square to Neptune in the 3rd house, she has had very little control over her earnings. Libra ascending, with Venus laying low in the 4th conjunct Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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Below: with father, Jamie Spears

the South Node, her strong work ethic proved lucrative for her family, amid claims they have taken more from her than given.

Adding extra tumult to this difficult Mars placement is its rulership of her 7th house of committed partnerships. With Mars in aversion to the 7th house, long-lasting and healthy relationships have eluded Spears. Being the house of open enemies, those close to her have repeatedly turned against her. Following her ex-husband and youngest son’s remarks on TV in 2022, supporting her father’s ill-treatment of her, she renounced her conservative Southern Baptist upbringing and conversion to Catholicism for atheism, stating, “I don't believe in God anymore because of the way my children and my family have treated me. There is nothing to believe in anymore. I'm an atheist y’all”. Mars had entered her 9th house, preparing for its retrograde passage through Gemini, while transiting Neptune eroded natal Mars by opposition.

Saturn exalted in the 1st (ruling the 4th and chart ruler Venus), her father, Jamie Spears, has controlled much of her life, work and finances under the orders of a legal, yet involuntary, conservatorship. Between February 1, 2008 and November 12, 2021, Spears was unable to live freely. In mutual reception, Venus receives a superior square from Saturn, and a harsh partile square from Pluto. This tense exchange also engages the Nodal axis across the 10th-4th axis, indicating that her career and family hardships have sustained and marked her life considerably. When first placed under the conservatorship she was in a Progressed New Moon phase (2006-2010), at 4°à, conjunct her IC. It wasn’t until the ripening and highly visible Progressed Full Moon phase that she was released, with her Progressed Moon illuminating her public 10th house (at 19°Ç, in a partile square with Saturn).

Sharing a significator with her paternal grandmother, Emma Jean Spears (Venus ruling 1st and derived 10th from 4th), both women were forcibly detained and drugged against their will; Britney within a conservatorship from 2008-21, her grandmother after grieving the loss of her 3-day-old baby, taking her own life over the baby’s grave, aged 31, leaving behind four other children, including Britney’s father, Jamie (Venus 4th conjunct South node).

Being released from the conservatorship on 12 November 2021, as Pluto (24°à) joined her asc-ruler Venus/South Node conjunction, and Saturn (8°â) approached her natal Moon, suggests that while she may be released, the next passage of time will be a serious, potentially severe transition from how life has been. Her release chart does not reflect the joy expected with having such tight constraints removed.

In the two years since her release, Britney has written a memoir, had a forced IUD removed, got married and divorced (to Sam Asghari, a former backup dancer), became pregnant, suffered a miscarriage, and continued to create a controversial stir with her cryptic and unconventional social media presence. Yet, in the face of constant adversity, Spears forges on, continually claiming creative success and maintaining a massive influence in the pop music world.

Grandmother: Emma Jean Spears Skyscript newsletter # 14: December 2023

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The Sphere

.

EXTRACT: Continuing the presentation of Sherburne’s ‘Sphere of Marcus Manilius’

of

MARCUS MANILIUS

made an English Poem (1675)

by Edward Sherburne, Esq., transcribed in modernised English by Mireille

The full set of formatted text so far is available as a PDF file in the Skyscript Member’s Area

Crossley, formatted and annotated by Deborah Houlding

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac 255

Nunc tibi signorum lucentis undique flammas ordinibus certis referam. Primumque canentur quae media obliquo praecingunt ordine mundum solemque alternis vicibus per tempora portant atque alia adverso luctantia sidera mundo;

260

omnia, quae possis caelo numerare sereno; e quibus et ratio fatorum ducitur omnis, ut sit idem mundi primum quod continet arcem. aurato princeps Aries in vellere fulgens respicit admirans aversum surgere Taurum

265

summisso vultu Geminos et fronte vocantem. quos sequitur Cancer, Cancrum Leo, Virgo Leonem. aequato tum Libra die cum tempore noctis attrahit ardenti fulgentem Scorpion astro. in cuius caudam contento dirigit arcu

270

mixtus equo volucrem missurus iamque sagittam. tum venit angusto Capricornus sidere flexus; post hunc inflexa defundit Aquarius urna Piscibus assuetas avide subeuntibus undas, quos Aries tangit claudentis ultima signa.

1

Now we the radiant Signs in Order sing; First those which girdle Heaven with an Oblique Ring, And Phoebus by alternate Courses bear Through the successive Seasons of the Year.

Then those whose Course to Heaven is Opposite, All which may numbered be in a clear night; The Laws of Fate depending on their Power.

First then of Heaven’s chief Part, its Starry Tower.1 The Princely Ram glittering in Golden Wool, Wonders to see the backward-rising Bull, With submiss Looks beckon the Twins; next whom Cancer, who after him sees Leo come; Him Virgo follows; then the Scales, that weigh In even Balance equal Night and Day, Draw on the Scorpio with the fiery Sting, At which the Centaur his shaft levelling Seems ready to let fly: To these comes on The Goat’s contracted Constellation.

Aquarius next pours from his Urn a flood, Whilst the glad Fish to the loved Waters scud,

By Aries touched, and make the closing Sign.

I.e., the zodiac. Sherburne adds a note here (p.18) that the Arabians called the signs buruj which translates to ‘towers’. Other commentators have also explained how this word is used in Arabian texts to refer to the signs of the zodiac or the twelve houses; it is the plural of burj, which carries the sense of ‘high place’ and originates the English burg, burgh, berg (iceberg), see for example, Arabian Nights XI, by A. Jackson (2008), p.248.

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Above: modern reproduction of a woodcut illustration of the zodiac constellations that adorns the Bentley Latin edition of the Astronomica. Details are taken from the ceiling fresco in the Villa Farnese, at Caprarola, Italy, built 1559-73 for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The larger image below (sourced from Wikimedia) shows all the constellation imagery, which was inspired by the work of Manilius.

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The Axis of the World 275

At qua fulgentis caelum consurgit ad Arctos, omnia quae summo despectant sidera mundo, nec norunt obitus unoque in vertice tendunt in diversa situ caelumque et sidera torquens aera per gelidum tenuis deducitur axis

280

libratumque regit diverso cardine mundum, sidereus circa medium quem volvitur orbis aetheriosque rotat cursus; immotus at ille in binas Arctos magni per inania mundi perque ipsum terrae directus constitit orbem.

285

Nec vero e solido stat robore corporis eius, nec grave pondus habet, quod onus ferat aetheris alti; sed cum aer omnis semper volvatur in orbem, quoque semel coepit, totus volet undique in ipsum, quodcumque in medio est, circa quod cuncta moventur,

290

usque adeo tenue, ut verti non possit in ipsum nec iam inclinari nec se convertere in orbem, hoc dixere axem, quia motum non habet ullum, ipse videt circa volitantia cuncta moveri.

Summa tenent eius miseris notissima nautis

295

signa per immensum cupidos ducentia pontum: maioremque Helice major decircinat arcum, septem illam stellae certantes lumine signant, qua duce per fiuctus Graiae dant vela carinae. angusto Cynosura brevis torquetur in orbe

300

quam spatio, tam luce minor; sed iudice vincit maiorem Tyrio. Poenis haec certior auctor, non apparentem pelago quaerentbus orbem. nec paribus positae sunt frontibus; utraque caudam vergit in alterius rostro sequiturque sequentem.

305

Has inter fusus circumque amplexus utramque dividit et cingit stellis ardentibus Anguis, ne coeant abeantve suis a sedibus umquam.

Hunc inter mediumque orbem, quo sidera septem per bis sena volant contra nitentia signa

310

mixta ex diversis consurgunt viribus astra hine vicina polo Phoebique hinc proxima flammis; quae quia dissimilis, qua pugnat, temperat aer, frugiferum sub se reddunt mortalibus orbem.

Now in the Skies near where the bright Bears shine (Which from Heaven’s Top on all the Stars look down, Nor know to set; but placed on the World’s Crown, Though differently, whirl round the Stars and Skies).

Stretched through thin Air the subtle Axis lies, Whose distant Poles the Balanced Fabric hold; Round this the Star-embellished Orbs are rolled: Whilst yet itself unmoved through empty Air, And the Earth’s Globe extend to either Bear.

Nor is it a solid Substance, or oppressed with Weight, though the World’s weight upon it rest But as the Air moved in a Circle goes, And on itself, whence first it flowed, reflows, What e’re that is which still the midst doth hold, About which, (itself unmoved) All else is rolled, So subtle it can no way be inclined, That by the Name of Axis is defined.

Upon whose Top (to Mariners distressed Well known, their Guides through Seas) two bright signs rest Great Helice1 moves in a greater Bend Marked with seven fair Stars, the Greek Pilot’s Friend, Small Cynosure,2 less both in Light and size, A less Orb holds; whom yet the Tyrians3 prize More than the Great; by This the Poeni4 steer Through vast Seas to the Western Hemisphere.

These join not Fronts, but either’s Head turns to The other’s Tail; pursued, as they pursue.

Between both which, his large unfolded Spires A Serpent stretches;5 and with winding fires Embracing them, one from the other parts, And from their Stations sees that neither starts. ’Twixt this and Heaven’s Mid-Circle, where the Sun And six Lights more against the bright Zodiac run, Rise Stars of different Magnitude and Power, Some near the Pole, some near Heaven’s radiant Tower.6 Which tempered by the disagreeing Air The fruitful Earth for humane use prepare.

1

Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

2

Ursa Minor; the Greeks called it Kynosoura (‘hound’s tail’) referencing the placement of the pole star, Polaris, at the end of the small bear’s tail.

The inhabitants of Tyre (modern-day Lebanon), one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world; anciently famed for producing a ‘Tyrian purple’ dye from the shell of a local spiny sea snail that was worth its weight in silver to the Greeks and Romans.

4 The Phoenicians, the ancient civilization that occupied the coast of the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean, later Syria), including Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and Arwad. It is assumed the Greeks called them Phoenicians because in Greek phoinix means purple and the Greeks so prized their vivid dyes.

3

Draco the Dragon, depicting in classical myth the dragon Ladon, guardian of Hera’s golden apples in the garden of Hesperides, whom Hercules had to defeat to complete his 11th labour of retrieving three golden apples. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Ladon’s corpse is still heaving and trembling years later as heartbroken nymphs sob nearby; in other versions of the tale, Ladon survives the assault by Hercules and continues to guard the tree of life, or is fought again by Jason as he retrieves the Golden Fleece that hangs upon its branches.

6 Heaven’s mid-circle is the ecliptic; six lights more refers to the Moon and the rest of the planets; Heaven’s radiant Tower is the circle of the signs of the zodiac.

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The Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere Proxima frigentis Arctos boreamque rigentem 315

nixa venit species genibus sibi conscia causae a tergo nitet Arctophylax, idemque Bootes, quod stimulis iunctis instat de more iuvencis; Arcturumque rapit medio sub pectore secum at parte ex alia claro volat orbe Corona,

320

luce micans varia; nam stella vincitur una circulus, in media radiat quae maxima fronte candidaque ardenti distinguit lumina flamma: Gnosia desertae fulgent monimenta puellae. et Lyra diductis per caelum cornibus inter

325

sidera conspicitur, qua quondam ceperat Orpheus omne quod attigerat cantu manesque per ipsos fecit iter domuitque infernas carmine leges. hinc caelestis honos similisque potentia causae: tunc silvas et saxa trahens, nunc sidera ducit

330

et rapit immensum mundi revolubilis orbem.

Serpentem magnis Ophiuchus nomine signis dividit, ut tote cingentem corpore corpus explicet et nodes sinuataque terga per orbes: respicit ille tamen molli cervice reflexus

335

et redit effusis per laxa volumina palmis: semper erit paribus bellum, quia viribus aequant. proxima sors Cycni, quem caelo Iuppiter ipse imposuit, formae pretium, qua cepit amantem, cum deus in niveum descendit versus olorem

340

tergaque fidenti subiecit plumea Ledae. nunc quoque diductas volitat stellatus in alas. hinc imitata nitent cursumque habitumque Sagittae sidera. tum magni Iovis ales fertur in altum, assueto volitans gestet ceu fulmina mundo,

345

digna Iove et caelo, quod sacris instruit armis.

Next the cold Bears, (the Cause to himself best known) Shines forth a kneeling Constellation.1 Behind whose back Arctophylax appears, The same Boötes called, because yoaked Steers He seemingly drives; who through the rapid Skies (Bearing Arcturus in his Bossom) hies.2 On the other side see the rich Crown display3 Its Luminous Gems, bright with a different Ray: For the fair Round is by One Start outvied, Near to the middle of its Front decried, Whose clear Fires make the other pale Lights fade, Bright Marks of the deserted Gnosian Maid.

Then see the crooked-neck Lyre to Heaven advanced,4 Whose Music whatsoever was struck with, danced:

By Orpheus touched; forced down to Hell his Way, And made the infernal laws his Verse obey; Celestial Honours added; the same Cause Remains, once Woods and Stones, now Stars it draws And leads about the revoluble Spheres.

With large Lights parted Ophiuchus bears5 A Snake; and from its Winding Body strives To free his own, and loose its sinuous Gives Which, writhing its soft Neck, turns Head again; Their equal Strengths, still equal Fight maintain.

Next see the Swan placed in the Skies by Jove As Guardian of that form which gained his Love: For once the God on Earth transformed to such Submitted to fair Leda’s softer touch6 his downy Back; This now through ample Skies Roving, a winged Constellation flies.

Here Stars an Arrow’s shape and flight present; 7 There with unusual Wing the Firmament Jove’s Eagle Scales; now justly stellified, Who Heaven and him with sacred Arms supplied.

The constellation of Hercules, the Hero, usually known in ancient times as Engonasi, from a Greek term which literally means ‘the kneeler’.

Arctophylax is the Greek name for the constellation Bootes, which literally means Guardian of the North or Bear Watcher (Arcto ‘north’ or ‘bear’ + phylax ‘watcher, sentinel, guard, protector’). The name Bootes derives from the Greek Βοώτης ‘herdsman’ or ‘ploughman’. Arcturus is the brightest star of the constellation, its name also capturing the same essence as Arctophylax (Arcto + ourus ‘watcher, guardian’).

3 Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, the fabled coronet presented by Bacchus to Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, whose palace at Gnossos (now Knossos, Crete) gave her the title of Gnosian Maid (quoting Ovid Heroides 15. 23 “Bacchus loved the Gnosian maid”). Legend relates that Ariadne was in love with the Athenian King Theseus, who was chosen as the yearly tribute that Athenians had to give to Minos, as a sacrifice to the monstrous minotaur that dwelt in the labyrinth beneath the city. Ariadne helped her lover escape the labyrinth, giving him a thread of glittering jewels by which he could trace his steps, but was later abandoned by Theseus after he carried her away to the Aegean island of Naxos.

4 Lyre the Lyre (or harp) celebrates the myth of Orpheus, son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, whose music was so beautiful that no one or no thing could resist it, including trees or stones. After his wife Euridice died Orpheus descended to Hades and played music so sweet that he was allowed to have his wife follow him out – on one condition: that he did not look back at her until he had left the underworld; a condition he broke at the end of the journey, upon which he played a mourning song with his lyre, begging for his own death.

5 Ophiucus the Serpent Bearer holding Serpens the Serpent. Ophiuchus is usually associated with Asclepius a legendary physician worshipped as a god of medicine. In some versions of his myth he killed a snake with his staff, then another snake brought it back to life after dropping some herbs on it, giving Asclepius knowledge of how to use those herbs to resurrect the son of King Minos of Crete.

6 Cygnus the Swan. Myth relates that after Leda was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, she gave birth to Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins.

7 Sagitta the Arrow and Aquila the Eagle. In myth, the arrow was used by Hercules to strike down the Eagle that Zeus had sent to gnaw at the liver of Prometheus (as punishment after Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind).

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tum quoque de ponto surgit Delphinus ad astra, oceani caelique decus, per utrumque sacratus. quem rapido conatus Equus comprendere cursu festinat pectus fulgenti sidere clarus.

350

et finitur in Andromeda; [quam Perseus armis eripit et sociat sibi, cui] succedit iniquo divisum spatio, quod tertia lampada dispar conspicitur paribus, Deltoton nomine sidus, ex simili dictum; Cepheusque et Cassiepia

355

in poenas signata suas iuxtaque relictam Andromedam vastos metuentem pristis hiatus, expositam ponto deflet scopulisque revinctam, ni veterem Perseus caelo quoque servet amorem auxilioque iuvet fugiendaque Gorgonis ora

360

sustineat spoliumque sibi pestemque videnti. tum vicina ferens nixo vestigia Tauro Heniochus studio mundumque et nomen adeptus, quem primum curru volitantem Iuppiter alto quadriiugis conspexit equis caeloque sacravit.

365

hunc subeunt Haedi claudentes sidere pontum, nobilis et mundi nutrito rege Capella, cuius ab uberibus magnum ile ascendit Olympum.

Then see from Seas to Stars the Dolphin rise,1 The Grace both of the Ocean and the Skies, Whom the swift Courser2 strives to overtake, his Breast With a refulgent3 Signature impressed, Which closes in the fair Andromeda:4 Kind Perseus’ Shoulder lends her Feet a Stay,5 And joins to himself; but a large Space divides Deltoton6 brighter in its Base than sides, So called from its Resemblance; Cepheus And Cassiopea made conspicuous Even to her Punishment, seems to deplore Andromeda chained to the rocky shore, Fearing the gaping Monster of the Deep;7 But Perseus still does his kindness keep, Come to her Aid, and of the Gorgon slain Shows the feared Head, his Spoil8 the Seers’ Bane.

Close running by the kneeling Bull, behold Heniochus,9 who gained by skill of old Heaven and his Name; as first four Steeds he drove On flying Wheels, seen, and installed by Jove.

lacte fero crescens ad fulmina vimque tonandi; hanc ergo aeternis merito sacravit in astris 370

Iupiter et caeli caelum mercede rependit.

Pleiadesque Hyadesque feri pars utraque Tauri in boream scandunt. haec sunt aquilonia signa.

The Kids next, the Seas barring till the Spring,10 Then the Goat11, Nurse to the World’s Infant King, Who from her Teats scaled heaven, her Milk, did grow To brandish Lightning, and feared Thunder throw, By her own Jove a Constellation made, And for the Heaven she gave, with Heaven repaid.

Last view the Pleaides and the Hyades Both Parts of the Bull; The Northern Signs are These.

Delphinius the Dolphin and Sagitta the Arrow are among the smallest constellations. According to Ovid’s Fasti (II, F.3) Dephinius celebrates the dolphin that carried the sea goddess Amphitite to Poseidon to become his wife (“He was a happy go-between in love’s intrigues”), as well as that which saved the Greek poet Arion from drowning after his ship was attacked by robbers: “The gods see good deeds: Jupiter took the dolphin and ordered its constellation to contain nine stars”.

2 Pegasus the Winged Horse, offspring of the Gorgon Medusa and Poseidon, who emerged from Medusa after Perseus decapitated her. The name comes from Greek pegai, ‘springs’ because Pegasus could strike the earth with his hoof to create a spring of water. He was ridden by Posidon’s hero son Bellerophon, who died when he fell from Pegasus in an act of hubris, riding too high in attempt to join the gods on Mount Olympus.

3 Refulgent: archaic word for brilliant.

4 Andromeda the Chained Princess, daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia (surrounding constellations) who was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster (Cetus) on the orders of Posidon after the Nereids (sea nymphs) complained of Cassiopeia’s boast that her daughter was more beautiful than they. Andromea married Perseus after he rescued her by exposing Cetus to the petrifying head of the Gorgon Medusa.

5 Perseus the Hero, grandson of Acrisius, King of Argos, who was rescued as a baby (along with his mother) from the wooden chest that Acrisius set to sea after an oracle claimed that one day his grandson would kill him. He was placed amongst the stars after succesfully completing the challenge of King Polydectes to defeat the Gorgon Medusa, or else his mother would belong to Polydectes, whose advances she had spurned.

6 Triangulum the Triangle, also called Deltoton because its shape resembles an upper-case Greek letter delta (Δ).

7 Cetus the Sea Monster, depicted beneath Pisces; the name derives from the Greek kêtos, which describes a sea-monster, whale or huge fish.

8 His ‘spoil’ being Caput Algol the star that represents the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which is the “seer’s bane” because anyone who sees it is turned to stone (Perseus was able to decapitate Medusa by using a mirror to avoid a direct gaze).

9 Auriga (L: ‘Charioteer’); the name Heniochus transliterates a Greek term Hνίοχος, meaning ‘rein-holder’. The constellation possibly commemorates the chariot victories of Polyzalus in the Pythian Games of 474 BC, held at Delphi where an ancient life-sized bronze statue known as Heniokhos has been discovered.

10 The Kids (Haedi) and the Goat are asterisms within the constellation Auriga, depicted as carried by the Chariotter. Goold’s translation of this point reads “Him follow the Kids that with their constellation close the seas” and is accompanied with a footnote: “Referring to the matinudal setting of the kids in mid-November, from when until early March navigation was for the most part suspended” (p.33); Sherburn reports that this event was celebrated by festivities and games.

11 Capella (L: ‘She-Goat’), is the 6th brightest star in the sky – in Greek myth this commemorates the she-goat Almathea ‘Tender Goddess’ who suckled and raised the infant Zeus after he was hidden from Cronos who was intent on swallowing all his children.

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The Southern Constellations aspice nunc infra solis surgentia cursus, quae super exustas labuntur sidera terras 375

quaeque inter gelidum Capricorni sidus et axe imo subnixum vertuntur lumina mundum, altera pars orbis sub quis iacet invia nobis ignotaeque hominum gentes nec transita regna, commune ex uno lumen ducentia sole

380

diversasque umbras laevaque cadentia signa et dextros ortus caelo spectantia verso. nec minor est illis mundus nec lumine peior, nec numerosa minus nascuntur sidera in orbem. cetera non cedunt; uno vincuntur in astro,

385

Augusto, sidus nostro quod contigit orbi, Caesar nunc terris, post caelo maximus auctor. cernere vicinum Geminis licet Oriona, in magnam caeli tendentem bracchia partem nec minus extento surgentem ad sidera passu,

390

singula fulgentis umeros cui lumina signant et tribus obliquis demissus ducitur ensis. at caput Orion excelso immersus Olympo per tria subducto signatur lumina vultu, non quod clara minus, sed quod magis alta recedunt.

395

hoc duce per totum decurrunt sidera mundum. subsequitur rapido contenta Canicula cursu, qua nullum terris violentius advenit astrum nec gravius cedit; nunc horrida frigore surgit, nunc vacuum soli fulgentem deserit orbem:

400

sic in utrumque movet mundum et contraria reddit. hanc qui surgentem, primo cum redditur ortu, montis ab excelso speculantur vertice Tauri, eventus frugum varios et tempora dicunt, quaeque valetudo veniat, concordia quanta;

405

bella facit pacemque refert varieque revertens sic movet, ut vidit mundum, vultuque gubernat. magna fides hoc posse color cursusque micantis in radios: vix sole minor, nisi quod procul haerens frigida caeruleo contorquet lumina vultu.

Now see the Stars which above the scorched Earth run Rising beneath the Pathway of the Sun, And those which ‘twixt the Tropic are confined Of Capricorn, and Pole that is declined.

Near to the Twins behold Orion rise1 With stretched Arms almost fathoming the Skies: Nor marching with a less extended Pace.

Bright shining Stars his either shoulder grace.2 Three Lights his Pendant Sword obliquely sign,3 In his advanced Head three others shine4 Deep in the Skies immersed; nor yet less bright, Though such they seem because more removed from Sight.

Him, as through Heaven he marches, follow All The starry Legions as their General.5 Next after whom with rapid Motion bent, (No Star than that against Earth more violent) The fierce Dog runs;6 not one for Heat does rise, Not one for Cold more grievous quits the Skies, The World afflicting with a different Fate: Nor ever fails upon the Sun to wait.

Who this from Taurus Crown first rising see7 Guess thence of Fruits what the Event may be: What Health, what Quiet may the Year befall: Here War it makes, there Peace does reinstall; And as it variously returns, does awe The inferior World; Its aspect is their Law. ’Tis strongly credited this owns a Light And runs a Course not than the Sun’s less bright, But that removed from Sight so great a Way It seems to cast a dim and weaker Ray:8 All other Stars it foils, none in the Main Is drenched, or brighter thence ascends again.

Orion the Hunter, fabled as mighty and magnificent (reflecting the prominence of the constellation). Part of Orion’s rich mythological story makes him the lover of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Offended by his boast that there was no creature he could not hunt and defeat, Artemis proved Orion wrong and caused his death by the sting of a scorpion. Afterwards, beset by grief, Artemis begged Jupiter to place her belated lover in the sky opposite the constellation Scorpio so that he could escape in the west whenever his murderer arose in the east.

2 Betelgeuze (roughly translates an Arabic term for ‘armpit’), the red star on the right shoulder which is the brightest of Orion, and Bellatrix ‘Female Warrior’ on the left shoulder, the third brightest star of the group.

3 The three in the belt are Mintaka ‘the Belt’ (to the west, so the first to rise), Alnilam in the centre and Alnitak to the east.

4 The brightest of the small group of three stars marking the head is Meissa (Arabic: ‘Shining One’). The poetic lines that follow show a curious resonance with modern astronomical knowledge. Wikipedia reports: “Despite Meissa being more luminous and only slightly further away than Rigel, it appears 3 magnitudes dimmer at visual wavelengths, with much of its radiation emitted in the ultraviolet due to its high temperature”.

5 Orion is the most noticeable constellation in the sky, and is followed by the (Hunter’s) Hound that holds Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The heliacal rising of Sirius accompanied the annual inundation of the Nile, an event that heralded the commencement of the the ancient Egyptian New Year. Ptolemy reports in his Tetrabiblos (II.10) how both equinoxes and both solstices have been used as starting points of the zodiac, according to “those who have written on these matters”. Translator F.E. Robbins footnotes the realisation of Bouché-Leclercq that this is why Cancer, the sign of the summer solstice “was the horoscope in the so-called Egyptian ‘theme of the world’ … [but] after Posidonius, Aries was definitely recognised as the starting point of the zodiac” (p.197).

6 Sirius, the ‘Dog Star’ of the constellation Canis Major the Great Hound.

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Goold’s translation reads: “Those who from Mount Taurus’ lofty peak observe it ascending when it returns at its first rising learn of the various outcomes of harvests and seasons…” A footnoted comment here reads “Scaliger observes that the mention of Mount Taurus is a compliment to Aratus, who was a Cilician” (Cicilia is an ancient name for what is now Southern Turkey where the Taurus Moiuntains are located).

8 Sirius is the nearest Sun of another solar system – the text appears to recognise that other suns exist or that a star might be as bright as the Sun if closer to Earth. Geminios had explained that some stars are more distant than others, affecting brightness, in his Phaenomena (1st century BCE) 7

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410

cetera vincuntur specie, nec clarius astrum tingitur oceabo caelumque revisit ab undis tum Procyon veloxque Lepus, tum nobilis Argo in caelum subducta mari, quod prima cucurrit, emeritum magnis mundum tenet acta periclis,

415

servando dea facta deos. cui proximus Anguis squamea dispositis imitatur lumina flammis. et Phoebo sacer Ales et una gratus Iaccho Crater et duplici Centaurus imagine fulget, pars hominis, tergo pectus commissus equino.

420

ipsius hinc mundo templum est, victrixque solutis Ara nitet sacris, vastos cum terra gigantes in caelum furibunda tulit. tum di quoque magnos quaesivere deos; dubitavit Iuppiter ipse, quod poterat non posse timens, cum surgere terram

425

cerneret, ut verti naturam crederet omnem, montibus atque atiis aggestos crescere montes, et iam vicinos fugientia sidera colles, arma importantis et rupta matre creatos, discordes vultum permixtaque corpora partus.

430

nec di pestiferum sibi quemquam (aut) numina norat si qua forent maiora suis. tunc Iupiter Arae sidera constituit, quae nunc quoque maxima fulgent. quam propter Cetus convolvens squamea terga orbibus insurgit tortis et fluctuat alvo,

435

intentans morsum, similis iam iamque tenenti, qualis ad expositae fatum Cepheidos undis expulit adveniens ultra sua litora pontum.

Next, with the nimble Hare see Procyon rise,1 And then the noble Argo; to the Skies2 From Seas translated which she first did plow; Once tossed with mighty storms, in Heaven fixed now, And deified for saving Deities.

Close boarding her a glittering Serpent lies,3 And by so ordered Lights, seems to present His speckled Body’s scaly Ornament.

Sols’ Bird,4 the Cup dear to the God of Wine,5 And Centaur6 next in a mixed shape does shine, Half Man, half Horse; then Heaven’s bright Temple see,7 And Altar consecrate to Victory , What time the enraged Earth a Giant Race Against Heaven produced, then Gods besought the Grace Of the great Gods; and Jove himself feared too He wanted Power to do, what he could do.

When he amazed the rising Earth beheld, How even against Nature’s self, Nature rebelled, Saw Mountains heaped on Mountains to aspire, And Stars from the approaching Hills retire, Charged with dire Arms by a deformed Birth Issuing from Ruptures of the teeming Earth.

No Victim-Bearers yet the Gods had known Or that there were Powers Greater than their own; Then did Heaven’s King this Starry Altar raise, Whose fires even yet with brightest Lustre blaze.

Near which the Whale raising his scaly Limbs8 In large Wreaths, wallowing on his Belly swims, And gapes as ready just to seize his Prey: As when the same the exposed Andromeda To her sad Fate approaching once beheld, who the forced Waves beyond their Shore impelled.

The Hare is the constellation Lepus; the fixed star Procyon is of the constellation Canis Minor (‘Little Hound’); these two constellations surrounding Canis Major and rising around the same time. The name Procyon derives from a Greek term meaning ‘the one [rising] before the dog [star]’ because although Procyon precedes Sirius by celestial longitude, its more northerly declination means it ascends over the eastern horizon shortly before Sirius comes into view.

2 Argo Navis the Ship Argo, (or Navis, L: ‘Ship’) was the largest of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy. Its mythology honours the vessel used by Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Because of the constellation’s great size, it was rearranged in the 18th century into three modern constellations: Carina, the Keel; Puppis, the Ship’s Deck; and Vela, the Sail.

3 Hydra the Water-snake, now the sky’s largest constellation, lying with its head below Cancer and its tail towards Scorpio. Its alpha star, Alphard, takes its name from the Arabic Al-Fard, ‘the Solitary One’ because it is an easily identifiable orange star in an otherwise dark area of sky (known in Latin texts as Cor Hydrae ‘the Hydra’s Heart’, it is positively associated with wisdom and negatively associated with poisons, asphyxiation or drownings). In classical myth, Hydra is associated with the nine-headed Lernean Hydra that Hercules slew as his second labour (brother to Ladon the Dragon, c.f., footnote 23) and it also features in the myths of the neighbouring constellations of the Crow and the Cup (see below).

4 Corvus the Crow, the sacred messenger of Apollo, god of prophecy, who cast favour upon it after triumphantly assuming its shape during a contest of the gods. According to Ovid, “The bird was once of a silvery hue, with such snowy feathers it could rival any dove” but the Sun god turned its plummage to black after it brought news to him that it had spied on his wife and caught her with a lover.

5 Crater, the Cup ((Gk: kratēr, ‘vessel’, large-two handled bowl used for mixing wine with water). One of the myths concerning Apollo and Corvus tells how his raven was sent to fetch a cup of water. During the errand he lazily loitered at a fig tree, eventually returning to Apollo with a water snake in his claws, whom he falsely blamed for his delay. Seeing through his lies, Apollo placed the bird in heaven alongside the cup and the snake, and so he would know the pains of feeling thirsty, he was to be forever prevented from drinking out of the cup by the folds of the snake.

6 Centaurus the Centaur The mythology of the Southern Centaur is believed to be of Greek origin, developing later than that of the more warlike Sagittarius, whose orogin is Mesopotamian. Centaurus barely featured in the 4th century BCE text of Aratus, but according to Eratosthenes, who wrote in the 2nd century BCE, the star group depicts the mythological figure of Cheiron: a half-man, half-horse creature who was remarkable amongst his wild and lawless race because of his wisdom, gentility and love of humanity.

7 Ara the Altar; Manilius is an important source for relating its myth, which commemorates the altar of sacrifice and ritual at which Zeus and the Olympian gods prayed for strength and vowed to overthrow Chronus and the primaeval Titans.

8 Cetus the Whale is not near Ara, so this is assumed to be a mistake by Goold. However, the original text might have intended to suggest that Cetus confronts Ara since Cetus sets in the West as Ara rises in the East (being very southerly, Ara is seldom visible in most northern latitudes).

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440

flexa per ingentis stellarum flumina gyros. alterius capiti coniungit Aquarius undas amnis, et in medium coeunt et sidera miscent. his, inter solisque vias Arctosque latentes axem quae mundi stridentem pondere torquent,

445

orbe peregrino caelum depingitur astris,

In Heaven’s South Part, the Fish then from the Wind Called Southern rises;9 close to which conjoined In Mighty flexures10 starry Rivers run.

One of their Heads flows from Aquarius Tun,11 Whose Waters by communicated Streams Meet in the midst, and mix Sidereal Beams.12

quae notia antiqui dixerunt sidera vates.

Top left: Albert Dürer’s 1515 depiction of the southern constellations, showing limited understanding of the southern skies in the early 16th century.

‘Twixt the Ecliptic and the latent Bears, Which about the creaking Axis turn the Spheres, Heaven’s stranger Orb with these Stars painted shines, Which Ancient Poets called the Southern Signs.

Top right and bottom illustrations, showing much improved accuracy, are from Johannes Hevelius’s Firmamentum (1690).

Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish (or Pisces Notius, the Notable Fish) because this is a single creature close to the feet of Aquarius (in contrast with the two fish of Pisces). This is a feint constellation with the exception of the alpha star, Fomalhaut (Arabic: ‘Fish’s Mouth’) which is the 18th brightest star in the sky, and can be found by northern latitude observers by the fact that the western side of the Square of Pegasus points towards it.

10 Flexures: archaic word for ‘flexes’ (bends and curves).

11 Tun: an urn, barrel or container for wine or liquid.

12 Historical star maps depict a starry stream that flows between the urn of Aquarius and Fomalhaut in the Mouth of the Southern Fish. It is possible that Manilius envisioned this as connecting up to the Ptolemaic constellation of Eridanus, the River, which is usually depicted as flowing from Orion and meandering past Cetus into the southern hemisphere.

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