Skyscript newsletter # 9 - June 2023 - Gemini issue

1 #9 (June 2023) Gemini: Å

Newsletter Edited by Deborah Houlding

The Sun is in Gemini www.skyscript.co.uk/gemini.html

– Contents – • Skyscript News, Developments & Announcements • Firmicus on the Qualities of the Signs – part I • Mercury in Gemini: Hitting a Nerve (or Two) • The Gemini Prince • The Rise and Falls of Tucker Carlson • Planetary themes for June • Two of my Favourite … Books • Where is the Remote Control?

• Chaldean Glimmers – part I

Contributors: Jason Burns • Dru Ish • Abigail Joy • Tanja Ristovski • Joni Suller

2 WELCOME TO ISSUE 9 Life: it’s a two-way thing A few years ago I lost one of my canine soul-mates, Ginny. She was my heartbeat.

Her loving light far outshone the darkness of the eclipse I suffered when she passed away. Losing a pet is always devastating, but once the grief passes their happy memories live on, so the thought of her still guarantees to put a smile on my face. She was the first dog I had that was happy to bring a ball back and actually give it to me; the rest of them, I have had to wrestle with my fingers in their mouth, using all my physical strength to prise the ball back so I can throw it again. Ginny also had incredible ‘power of will’. She realised that she didn’t have to bark or do anything other than intently stare at a door with all her mental energy to make it open – her will to open the door was so quietly forceful that no one could relax until someone got up and opened that door for her. She knew how to ‘manifest’.

But Ginny also had some ‘issues’ concerning compulsive behaviour. She loved to return that ball. She was totally obsessed with bringing balls to me, then staring fanatically at the ball, then into my eyes … incessantly … there was no relief except to throw that ball, and throw that ball, and … oh, when will this end ??? She loved and lived to fetch balls; it was her vocation. So we tried to find ways to keep her happy quietly – tried to fix her up with one of those automatic ball-throwing machines so she could play by herself with the ball while we got on with other things. No; she wasn’t having that. I had to throw the ball (or any other human being, she wasn’t picky; but it had to be a human being).

And that was when I understood the power created by engagement – even though I brought up four children, it took a little dog for me to realise that there is no true enjoyment in anyone’s heart unless they are sharing it with another being. The fun for Ginny was not in fetching the ball, it was in returning it to me – the joy that she assumed it gave me, the ‘being together with me in something’ was the thrill of the whole experience for her. Of course, I set myself up for that when I told her what a wonderful creature she was the first 100 or so times she did it.

Those of us who have contributed to creating this newsletter have done so because we love to share our articles – but why do we love it? Not because the process of article-writing is wondrous (it’s actually agonising); it’s the sharing that matters. We thrill that someone reading this newsletter might be interested, or gain something useful from what we have to say. Without an appreciated reception, there is no joyful delivery. I have been musing on this a lot lately as I put this Gemini-themed issue together, thinking about the principle of duality, the constant connection between the Twins, and how this sign reminds us that nothing is whole unless it brings disparate parts together.

All of this is my way of saying that you being a subscriber is so incredibly motivating and appreciated; you are the reason this newsletter exists. To everyone who engages in our thoughts with interest – thank you, thank you! We feel the reciprocation, and it is because of this that we want to do it again!

CHECK IT OUT: The Symbolism of Gemini www.skyscript.co.uk/gemini.html The Gemini feature has had a whole new makeover. If I say it myself, it is good – worth a read, balancing somewhere between a light read and a research piece. I have some kindly souls who have volunteered to read out articles for Skyscript, but I am specifically looking for someone with Sun or Moon in Gemini to read out the text of this for the benefit of the visually impaired (or otherwise engaged). Could this be you? If you are willing, please drop me an email and let me know: deb@skyscript.co.uk

IN THIS ISSUE

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This newsletter (mainly put together whilst Mercury was retrograde and hovering around Uranus), got out of hand and stretched far beyond my imaginary imposed limit of 28 pages. I to-d and fro-d countless times, concerned that the initial scope of a monthly digital newsletter (it was supposed to be an email thing) is now morphing into something beyond what I can produce regularly each month. And yet, there is no fluff in this issue to cut – it is all fantastic, informative content. Betty and Bertha split my brain in two arguing over this, until peace was restored when we identified a common enemy.

My love-hate relationship with A.I. is much the bigger issue. Yes… it is convenient, but I now loathe the trappings of mindlessness, so much that I extend my revulsion to anything that smacks of being done a certain way because that is how things are done. I now abhor anything regimented or database-driven (especially customer support telephone lines), anything expressing uniformity to standards, anything supposedly artistically perfect and predictably consistent – all the things I have spent my entire Virgo-Moon life trying to be, I now reject. Real creativity is in imperfection, those little touches of whim-filled stupidity that Catgut doesn’t know how to conceive. (I learned this from reading Dru’s article about Prince). So, forgive me, this issue is too long – another will be shorter. And I might drop an issue here and there when I get exhausted or my husband threatens to divorce me for not acknowledging his continued existence. Anything can happen; we will let the creativity flow when it has a mind to, and take breaks when we ought to (before not after the collapse). I already know the next newsletter, themed on Cancer, is going to be a cracker though. J I owe huge thanks to Dru in this issue, whose energy and enthusiasm kept me on my toes all month. She got totally into the Gemini vibe and double-dosed with two amazing articles. Her account of Carlson is fascinating, disconcerting, startling in its astro-connections and deserving the attention of any astrologer who mentions ‘mundane’ and ‘America’ in the same breath. Her article on Prince is beautifully crafted, mesmerising and poignant – a chilling example of spoton astro-signatures. (I maintain that the signature of someone’s name can be found in the MC symbolism, as well as the professional image – check out his meridian axis; I say no more).

Abigail (back by popular demand) provides a masterfully researched, engrossing exploration of nerves in astrology – this has left me contemplating to what extent nerves are extensions of the brain, and how Mercury is, in a way, an extension of the Sun, or at least the distributor of its influence. Abigail looks at when/how Mercury claimed the nervous system. She also made me realise why all that ‘healthy’ food I eat when I am ill (out of a sense of duty) makes my cold Taurean temperament feel bloaty and stodgy. Curry for me from now on, whenever poorly.

Jason has once again illuminated our aspectarian pages. What a crazy interesting Full Moon coming up! Why? Read on – he has elegantly laid it all out for you, all you need to do now is follow along. Tanja Ristovski also joins us in this issue and stays in our theme with her lost object horary, taking us back to when Mars was in Gemini screwing up communications and devices (and hiding them in secret places in charts whenever it fell on the 12th house cusp).

What would a Gemini issue be without books? Joni Suller shares details of two books she would not be without as an astrologer, and why. (Want to contribute thoughts on your favourites? – go ahead and send them in for future issues). Also, keep your eye on the website – I’m about to publish a fantastic book review by Kirk Little which reminds us that astrology is about human consciousness; it's not a data science (no matter how much Catgut pretends it is). Even the ancient Mesopotamians had that figured out. If you lean more towards the Hermes Trismegistus magical side of this month's theme, the first part of my new ongoing series (in which I start to serialise the book I wrote over 30 years ago and never found time to publish) will lay out the foundations of Babylonian astrology by delving into their cultural mindset and use of contagious and sympathetic magic. And curses, of course.

In this issue I also introduce part I of the first English translation of Firmicus ‘on signs’ – I will conclude in issue 11 (the one after next) because I need more space to tabulate and analyse all the novel presentation of sign characteristics, and explain what is happening with those winds!

Deb

JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS

MATHESIS II.XII QUALITIES OF THE SIGNS Translated from Latin, May 2023 by

Deborah Houlding

The eight-part Mathesis (or De nativitatibus) of Julius Firmicus Maternus, written around the mid4th century, is antiquity’s most comprehensive astrological textbook. Firmicus wrote for his patron, Lollianus Mavortius, governor of Campania.

Because his book is aimed at a beginner, it is also the most useful and instructive textbook of ancient astrological practice, and certainly one of the most influential astrology texts ever written. Modern scholarship has tended to overlook it, despite its great historical importance. There has not been a critical edition of the work since that produced in two volumes by Franz Boll, Skutsch and Ziegler between 1897-1913. This gives a tidy and reliable presentation of the Latin text in a modern, easy-toread format, so was naturally used as the source for the English translations currently available: the first

by Jean Rhys Bram in 1975, a later, more literal translation by James Holden in 2011, and a very recently released edition by Benjamin Dykes, 2023.

All English translations lack important sections that were not included in Boll’s critical edition.

Book II fails to provide the planetary rulerships, the arrangement of the triplicities, and most of the information on the zodiac signs. Holden noted that these sections ought to be available but declared them lost. However, they are present in Latin editions dating from the late 15th century.

The task of authenticating any specific section in this work is difficult because all our surviving manuscripts are late reproductions (the oldest, dating to the 11th century, contain books I-3 and parts of book 4 only, and all derive from one source text). Fragments of the text turn up here and there, but the oldest extant copies of the entire text are the late 15th-century Latin print editions. The first was made in Venice in 1497, but the most notable and complete edition was made two years later by the humanist Aldus Pius Manutius, who is known to have actively sought out missing sections in Byzantium before committing his 1499 ‘Aldine Press’ edition to print. The Aldine text was reproduced consistently in many subsequent Latin print editions, including the 1553 edition shown below which was used for this translation.

The 1553 manuscript used in this translation; online at https://archive.org/details/iuliifirmicimate00firm

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II.XII THE NATURES, FORMS & QUALITIES OF THE SIGNS (Part 1: ~-Ñ)

ow we must explain the nature of the twelve signs, their forms, qualities, principles and risings. We must explain this knowledge of the art to the fullest, to relate their definitions clearly.

~= =

=

Ä=

~ is a masculine sign of heaven, equinoctial, regal, fiery, forceful in the east, four-footed, semi-bodied,1 weak-sighted, wild, which is called Κριός [‘Aries’] by the Greeks,2 untamed, even,3 impure, lustful. The house of c; decline of `;4 exaltation of the M around the 19th degree; the fall of i around the 20th degree; the triplicity of the M by day, by night of h.

It is called equinoctial because within it the hours of the day and night are composed with equal measure, which the Greeks call tropicon isomerion (‘equinoctial tropic’). For when the M is in ~ it makes day and night equal, so the day has 12 hours and the night also. It is called Crios5 by the Greeks because when the M is in this sign it judges, so to speak, between night and day, which in Greek is crinein (to judge); and because when the M is in this sign, the balance between summer and winter is in turn judged.

The sign is called tropical because when the M is in this sign it makes the spring season, for spring begins when the M has entered the 1st degree of this sign.6 It is fiery because whoever has this in their nativity will incline to a choleric disposition. It is under the influence of the north wind. Ä is a feminine sign of heaven, northern,7 earthy, melancholic, fixed, one-bodied, fourfooted, domesticated, impaired,8 of few-children, lustful, small-voiced, forceful in the south, oblique,9 heavy,10 …

1 All the cardinal/moveable signs are classified as semi-bodied, and throughout this chapter the Latin terms semicorporeum,

unicorporeum and bicorporeum are used consistently to distinguish the moveable, fixed or mutable/common signs: = = = = =

Moveable== ~ÇÖà Fixed== ÄÉÜâ Common== ÅÑáä

semicorporeum ‘semi-bodied’ or ‘half-bodied’ unicorporeum ‘one-bodied’ bicorporeum ‘double-bodied’

Modern astrologers trained in traditional techniques are familiar with the concept of bi-corporeal/double-bodied, but the definition of semi-bodied is unusual. The terminology seems to embed the notion of moveability and adaptability (freedom from bodily constraint) contrasted with fixity and singularity of purpose, or being bound to bodily needs. Manilius, for example, tells us: “Certain signs must with careful mind be noted as single, and these keep an unshared estate. Now turn to the double signs; being doubled they will exert influences the power of which is tempered by a partner” (Astronomica, 2.245 ff.). Although Manilius does not specify which signs are single, the double signs are identified by him as those that “precede all the tropic ones: the Ram, the Crab, the Claws and the Sea-goat, for the reason that, linking season with season, they possess double powers” (2.176).

2

It is unclear to me whether Firmicus is explaining that the ancient Greeks used the same word for wild and Aries, or if he is simply pointing out the usual Greek spelling of this sign; if the latter, it seems odd that he would introduce that detail in the middle of a list of defining characteristics.

3

L: consonans (‘in harmony/fit/balanced’); for why this is translated as ‘even’ see footnote 12.

4

L: occasus ` (occassus: ‘setting’, ‘declining’, ‘falling’, ‘being ruined’). This detail may have been added as a later interpolation to complete the text to medieval standards; otherwise, if authentic, the Mathesis is the oldest text I know of that systematically details all the planetary signs of detriment.

5

Jean Rhys Bram, in his 1975 English translation for Noyes Classical Studies, adds endnote 30 here which reads: Crios is the Greek for Aries, the Ram. It is Firmicus’s idea to derive it from crinein, which means ‘to judge’ in Greek.

6

Bram’s translation ends at this point with a reference to his endnote 31 which begins: This lacuna in the descriptions of the signs could be reconstructed, for instance from Paulus Alexandrinus (see Index of Ancient Writers on Astrology) as follows: See the panel at the end of this article which shows Bram’s translation from Paulus for what he would expect of the missing content between Aries and Pisces. It is actually quite different to what we find here.

7

That is, belonging to the northern hemisphere; northern signs: ~=Ä=Å=Ç=É=Ñ / southern signs: Ö=Ü=á=à=â=ä.

8

L: vitiosum ‘vitiated (spoiled/impaired/defective)’, so-called because its celestial image is not a complete creature; c.f. Manilius, 2.256: “the Bull sinks lame with leg doubled under it; the Crab lacks eyes”. For Firmicus Ä Ç and à are impaired; the latter perhaps because, as Manilius says, “Capricorn’s nature is compromised by its tail”.

9

That is, one of the signs of oblique ascension (à=â=ä=~=Ä=Å=– a.k.a. ‘crooked’, ‘short ascension’). This is made clearer in the second part of this chapter.

10 Most signs are classed as leue (‘light), ponderosum (‘ponderous’) or something averaging between them. As in English, these

words tie together principles of weight and motion, so ponderosum might mean heavy, weighty, or slow; or both heavy and slow.

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=

single-minded,11 uneven [impar],12 irrational,13 easy-going,14 with missing limbs. The house of `; decline of c; exaltation of the R around the 3rd degree; triplicity of ` by day, the R by night. Furthermore, this sign is under the influence of the south wind and its significations are also bitter savours; green and white colours; four-footed animals with cloven hoofs; lands of the fifth clime; cultivated earth; mediocre men;15 and all ailments of the neck.

=

Å is a masculine sign of heaven, common, double-bodied, two-footed, rational, finevoiced, winged,16 sterile, forceful in the west, medium between light and heavy, twominded, even [par], northern, aquiring and emptying.17 It is the house of _; the decline of h; the triplicity of i by day, _ by night. Furthermore, this sign is under the influence of the east wind, and its significations are also sweet savours; a mixture of colours and humours; intelligent animals such as apes and all vocal or songbirds; lands of the sixth clime; all places that are elevated and light, and particularly those where fowling is practised. It also signifies preeminent officials and astronomers, and all problems and afflictions of the upper arms.18

Å=

=

Ç=

Ç is a feminine sign of heaven, moveable, semi-bodied, irrational, many-footed, wild, without voice, impaired, of many children, nocturnal, forceful in the north, watery, phlegmatic, single-minded, medium between light and heavy, uneven [impar], northern, solstitial, descending, fallible and weak. The house of the R; decline of i; exaltation of h around the 15th degree; fall of c around the 28th degree; the triplicity of ` by day, c by night. This sign is under the influence of the winds that come from the west;19 its significations are also sharp and salty savours; white and pale colours;20 aquatic animals and sea serpents; lands of the seventh clime; places that are inundated or flowing; mediocre men; and all sicknesses of the breast and diaphragm.

11 Most signs are classed as unius negocii except the double-bodied signs, which are all categorised as duorum negociorum. This

obviously relates to the principle described in footnote 1, but here negotium pins the meaning to work, employment or adopting a singular or joint approach to business or mental activities. For want of better understanding, I have translated the terms into ‘single-minded’ or ‘two-minded’, but with concern that this is missing the mark of the underlying philosophical principle.

12 This little detail is a translator’s nightmare. All the feminine signs are categorised as impar, ‘unequal, odd’, in contrast to the

masculine signs that are categorised as par, ‘equal, even’. But using those straight-forward translations plays havoc with the Pythagorean numerological principle that ties the odd-numbered signs (Aries, 1, Gemini 3, &c.) with the principle of masculinity, and even-numbered signs (Taurus, 2; Cancer 4, &c) with the principles of femininity. This is not about even or odd in any kind of numerical sense; the intention is to denote a sense of completeness and strength for the masculine signs, contrasted with an element of weakness or subdued vital force for the feminine signs. The Latin impar originates the English word impaired and the Latin par also conveys a sense of something that is suitable, appropriate or fitting to what it should be (in the case of Aries the word used is consonans, ‘agreeable/fit/suitable’). In all cases, the terms ‘even’ and ‘uneven’ are used here, but I have left the Latin word bracketed in the text since the meaning of those words are so easily misconstrued.

13 L: irrationale –being strongly responsive to instincts and emotions (rather than the modern expectation of irrational meaning

illogical/absurd). The categorisations of ‘rational’ or ‘irrational’ line up with what are generally termed ‘humane’ and ‘bestial’.

14 L: facile ‘easy’, ‘simple’ or ‘agreeable/compliant/affable’. Also used for Virgo so more likely means easy-going than simple-minded.

15 L: homines mediocres – intends the meaning of ordinary social status rather than average physical height.

16

L: alatum ‘winged’. The categorisation of Gemini as an air sign is missing (all other signs are classified as ‘fiery’, ‘earthy’ or ‘watery’) so this may be flagging the sign’s association with the element of air; however, the earth-sign Virgo, the ‘winged maiden’, is also tagged by the same term whereas the other air signs (Ö and=â) are not. (As an aside, Jason Burns recently explored Al Qabisi’s categorisation of Gemini, Virgo and Pisces as winged signs (I.10.6), and suggested that Pisces is included because the fins of a fish work in a similar way to the wings of a bird, or because some ‘flying-fish’ are capable of taking flight.)

17 L: acquirens evacuánsque ‘aquiring and evacuating’ (buying and selling?); presumably a reference to this sign’s mutable and

commercial nature.

18 L: humerororum: the upper arms, the shoulders, or the bones that run from the shoulders to the elbows.

19 L: Positum est autem hoc signum in vento Aphrico: association with the west comes from the Latin word for Africa, which anciently

referenced only the upper region of the continent, around modern Tunisia (to the west of Rome).

20 L: leucotheum, from the Greek leuko, which is usually translated as white or pale, but it might mean bright, milky coloured, ashen,

grey or perhaps transparent or silvery. In Greek mythology, Leucothea (literally ‘White goddess’) was an ancient sea goddess who protected sailors and used dreams as a form of oracle. She was known for her white or pale, moon-like appearance which clues us into how this word might denote a whole range of moon-like or even silvery, blue colours, as distinct from those with the vivid or golden tones of the Sun. This is why some historical texts appear to show an unnatural reliance on grey for sign colours, deriving from a word that means moon-like but then gets translated as ‘ashen’. With that in mind, we can note good agreement between the colours mentioned in this text and the sign colours listed by Ibn Ezra (as shown in the table following, which is reproduced from the table of sign-colours created by David McCann and published at skyscript.co.uk/colour.html). It is worth noting the different mindset towards describing colour in ancient times. There was no simple notion of yellow for example, instead there was a separate distinction between things that were citrinus, the colour of a lemon (stark, pure yellow, or yellow tinged with green) and things that were croceum, the colour of a saffron crocus (more orange or brown in tone).

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=

É=

=

Ñ=

É is a masculine sign of heaven, fixed, one-bodied, four-footed, irrational, medium between domesticated and wild, lustful, forceful in the east, fiery, choleric, medium voiced, light, single-minded, even [par], diurnal, northern, direct, enduring, strong. The house of the M; decline of i; the triplicity of the M by day, h by night. This sign is under the influence of the north wind. Its significations are also bitter and sharp savours; the colour saffron inclining to ruddiness; wild and ferocious animals; the fifth clime; all places of particularly dignified and elevated work, castles, headquarters, palaces; also leaders, commanders, powerful and wealthy men; and all afflictions of the chest and stomach. Ñ is a feminine sign of heaven, common, double-bodied, rational, two-footed, fine-voiced, winged, sterile, forceful in the south, heavy, two-minded, earthy, melancholic, uneven [impar], northern, honourable, fair, liberal, easy-going, direct, nocturnal, fallible and weak. The house of _; decline of h; exaltation of _ around the 15th degree; fall of ` around the 27th degree; the triplicity of ` by day, the R by night. This sign is under the influence of the south wind. It also signifies astringent savours; the colours white and pale purple; apes and intelligent animals; the fifth clime; all cultivated and flourishing places; men that are wise, industrious and witty; and all afflictions and ailments of the abdomen.

To be concluded with Ö – ä and overall assesment in issue 11

Sign colours Firmicus ~= / Ä= green and white Å= mixed Ç= white and leucotheum É= saffron (brownish/golden yellow) to red Ñ= white, purple and leucotheum Ö= green and leucotheum Ü= red and leucotheum á= red or orange à= black/dark or leucotheum â= green, lemon and leucotheum ä= /

Al Biruni

Ezra

white white, brown yellowish green grey pink yellow grey red red / blue, green, yellow white

/ green mixed white grey yellow, brown purple, white green grey red grey green red yellow, grey black, white green, yellow, grey green, white

More on astro colour symbolism: ‘The Astrology of Colour’ by David McCann - skyscript.co.uk/colour.html

Bram’s translation of Paulus=Ä - â (referred to in footnote 6): The 2nd sign is Taurus, feminine, solid, a Spring sign; house of Aphrodite, exaltation of the Moon in the 3rd degree, fall of none, in the triplicity of Aphrodite by day and the Moon by night. It lies in the climate* of Babylon and is influenced by the South Wind.

The 3rd sign is Gemini, masculine, double-bodied, a Spring sign, human-shaped, the house of Hermes, exaltation of none, fall of none [in the triplicity of Kronos by day and Hermes by night]. It lies in the climate of Cappadocia and is influenced by the South-West Wind.

The 4th sign is Cancer, feminine, tropical, belonging to Summer, house of the Moon, exaltation of Zeus in the 15th degree, the fall of Ares in the 28th degree, in the triplicity of Aphrodite by day and Ares by night. It lies in the climate of Armenia and is influenced by the North Wind.

The 5th sign is Leo, masculine, solid, belonging to Summer, the house of the Sun, the exaltation and fall of none, in the triplicity of the Sun by day and Zeus by night. It lies in the climate of Asia and is influenced by the East Wind.

The 6th sign is Virgo, feminine, double-bodied, belonging to Summer, the house and exaltation of Hermes around the 15th degree, the fall of Aphrodite around the 27th degree, in the triplicity of Aphrodite by day and the Moon by night. It lies in the climate of Greece and Ionia and is influenced by the South Wind.

The 7th sign is Libra, masculine, tropical, belonging to Autumn, the house of Aphrodite, the exaltation of Kronos in the 20th degree, the fall of the Sun around the 19th degree, in the triplicity of Kronos by day and Hermes by night. It lies in the climate of Libya and Cyrene and is influenced by the South-East Wind.

The 8th sign is Scorpio, feminine, solid, belonging to Autumn, the house of Ares, exaltation of none, fall of the Moon in the 3rd degree, in the triplicity of Aphrodite by day and Ares by night. It lies in the climate of Italy and is influenced by the North Wind.

The 9th sign is Sagittarius, masculine, double-bodied, belonging to Autumn, the house of Zeus, the exaltation and fall of none, in the triplicity of the Sun by day and Zeus by night. It lies in the climate of Cilicia and Crete and is influenced by the East Wind.

The 10th sign is Capricorn, feminine, tropical, belonging to Winter, the house of Kronos, the exaltation of Ares in the 28th degree, the fall of Zeus in the 15th degree, in the triplicity of Aphrodite by day and the Moon by night. It lies in the climate of Syria and is influenced by the South Wind.

The 11th sign is Aquarius, masculine, solid, belonging to Winter; the house of Kronos, the exaltation and fall of none, in the triplicity of Kronos by day and Hermes by night. It lies in the climate of Egypt and is influenced by the South-East Wind *

DH – this really refers to the climes as belts of latitude; we will explore the relevance of those in the concluding part of this chapter.

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MERCURY in GEMINI hitting a nerve… ….or two

by Abigail Joy

G

emini is symbolised as Twins: one looking north, the other south. The symbology implies diversity of expression with unity of spirit – cut from the same cloth and born of the same blood, each holds different interests and moves in different directions. This ‘same, yet different’ quality marks the charts with Gemini placements.

Those of us with Gemini families can attest to their extraordinary powers of multiplicity!

Gemini highlights Mercury’s dualistic qualities:

www.seebystarlight.com

Is Mercury benefic or malefic? Masculine or feminine? Diurnal or nocturnal?

Yes. The answer is yes But also no – try to pin Mercury down at your peril!

The nature of Gemini is to bifurcate: to branch, to network. Its favourite English word is probably cleave, which means ‘to split’, though it also means the exact opposite, ‘to join’!

While we scratch our heads, Gemini cackles – how can a word have two meanings that directly oppose each other? Think about it long enough and Mercury’s wry wisdom will guide your mind … something that is cleaved has two pieces, but the pieces stick together.

Seen a certain way, you understand the connectivity behind the contronym: opposites also have a unity of spirit (archetypal ‘twin’ mythology emerges in language like this).

Language can clarify or cloud, and Gemini’s silver tongue excels at both. Those of us attached to linear lines of logic become confused in the cacophony of divergent discourses Gemini holds with itself. But if we keep listening and do not give up, our quest for comprehension is eventually rewarded. One of Mercury’s roles is the psychopomp who guides souls through the twisting, ephemeral underworld. Mercury helps us when our understanding sinks below the surface of sanity, or whenever we face puzzles, paradoxes, and complexities, Mercury can light a lamp, especially when placed in Gemini. Count on Mercury to obfuscate, but call on Mercury to guide!

Studying medical astrology is an area where one feels keenly the need for Mercury’s guidance. A major challenge in practising medical astrology is determining which part of the body is being referred to in context, since each sign or placement has multiple significations. I imagine tricky Mercury, ruler of both medicine and astrology, bemusedly watching as we puzzle out their symbols. At the first pass it seems like a hopeless tangle of conflicting data. “Hear us out,” says Gemini, “and we will help you grasp how these disparate ideas have a unity of spirit”.

Å=

Gemini & Mercury medical rulerships Grasp – another Gemini word. It can mean to understand or to clutch, pointing us to the subtle connection between the mind and the hands. Mercury’s communicative powers emanate not only through the voice but also through the hands, with separately moving fingers all working in harmony, matching Gemini’s predilection for multiplicity within the unity of spirit. This is such strong symbolism and one of Gemini’s oldest and most consistent bodily rulerships, as seen in the rather disturbing observation from Ptolemy in the 2nd century:

“

Where the Sun is found to be with Caput Algol if then he is neither aspected by a benevolent planet, nor that a benign planet doth govern the eighth house… If this copulation be in Gemini or Pisces, his hands and feet shall be cut off.1

This ancient connection of Gemini with the hands, and Mercury’s associations with mind and speech, is confirmed in the studies of medical neurologists, who report that fine-motor movement of the hands (e.g., knitting during meetings) aids the ability to focus.2 This is why some people need to perform hand motions such as tapping their fingers or doodling to pay attention.3 Hand gestures play a vital role in communication, being the most important part of non-verbal communication, and studies show that speakers who use hand motions hold more audience attention than those who do not.4 Gemini also holds ancient associations with the shoulders and the chest area, with Dorotheus and Firmicus mentioning the chest, arms, and shoulders, and Sahl, citing Masha’Allah, agreeing:

“

In every cure you want to look at its position in the body and if it is in the region of the head, throat and chest, treat it when the moon is in Aries, Taurus or Gemini - this is the higher region.5

As we see, many astrological authors attach zodiac signs to regions of the body rather than specific organs. Of course, the chest region contains multiple organs, including the heart, breasts, lungs, and possibly even the stomach, so we are left wondering if any or all of those organs could be inferred in a medical chart where Gemini appears.

Gemini’s ruler, Mercury, presents similar ambiguity. While unwaveringly associated with the tongue and speech, its rulership over other body parts might vary depending on the author. Associations include: • • • • •

Hands, shoulders, fingers, joints, belly, arteries, and intestines – e.g., Valens Bile and the buttocks – e.g., Ptolemy The sense of hearing and the throat – e.g., Dorotheus Black bile, arteries, and the gallbladder – e.g., Al-Biruni Memory, cogitation, hands, and thighs– e.g., Albertus Magnus

In modern practice, we associate Mercury with the nervous system, although the ancient text of Valens attributes the brain and nerves to the Sun, not Mercury. Early texts are surprisingly quiet about nerves, so I was curious to know when this Mercury rulership first appeared as a principle historically.

Where are the nerves?

The association of the nerves with Mercury is not clearly established until the Modern period (after 1500 CE). This seems strange since nerves, with their branching structure, elegantly adhere to the Doctrine of Signatures in their physical resemblance to the shape of a hand. Should we assume the ancients didn’t know what nerves do or considered them medically irrelevant? No. We have evidence to show that ancient physicians had a decent understanding of how the nervous system works.

The oldest surviving medical text, the ‘Edwin Smith Papyrus’ from ancient Egypt, holds two case studies documenting how injuries to the brain caused loss of speech (this surely made the Mercury association evident!).6 Greek physicians in the 3rd century BCE clearly identified the presence of nerves and more or less correctly described their function.

They distinguished between blood vessels and nerves and even defined the differences between motor and sensory nerves.7

Hand-like structure of a nerve (image source: Wikimedia)

9

The 2nd-century physician Galen spoke at length about the nerves, discussing their nature, distribution, and role in perceiving pain.8 His experiments with animal vivisection discovered which nerves controlled the animal’s ability to make sounds, and he hypothesised that similar principles applied to humans.9 Avicenna’s 11th century Canon of Medicine, used for training doctors for over 500 years, discussed the brain and nerves in detail. He knew that nerves entwine with veins for the purpose of sensation and movement.10 Hildegard von Bingen, in the 12th century, also understood the brain’s connection to the nerves and offered treatments for strengthening its system.11 None of these texts were astrological, however. Why was astrological literature so silent? It seems only during the Renaissance that astrologers (at least in the West) wrote about the nerves explicitly, allowing the brain’s astrological association to morph from the Sun to Mercury.

10

Above and below: 16th century woodcut images of the brain & nervous system: De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Andreas Vesalius, 1543.

When Claude Dariot wrote of the neurological system in the 1590s, his reference was brief and oblique. He lists the parts of the body ruled by each planet, giving to Mercury the memory, tongue, brain, imagination, hands, fingers, and gall. He does not mention nerves specifically, although “memory, imagination, and brain” point in that direction.12 Sixty years later, Culpeper makes the Mercury association clear in his Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick, writing in his characteristically impudent style:

“

The Sun governs (if you will believe Authors) the brain and nerves, the heart and arteries, the sight, the eyes, the right eye of a man, the left eye of a woman. Against these I except [disagree] against the brain and nerves, the bulk of which is under the Moon. Their operation is under Mercury; now then if Mercury afflict the brain, the failing is in the operation.(p.111) Historically, there had been disputes about whether the seat of the mind or soul was the brain, heart, or some other vital organ such as the liver. By Culpeper’s time most agreed that the brain held this role, so he is acknowledging this shift of consensus and revising astrology to match. The inclusion of both the Moon and Mercury in this passage refers to the division of the mind into the ‘Sensible’ and ‘Intellective’ respectively. Note that he gives “the operation” of the brain to Mercury. This implies what some today might call the ‘masculine’ aspects of the mind – the outwardly directed, rational, and motor functions – whereas the Moon rules the ‘feminine’, or inwardly-directed, perceptive, and sensory functions.

Around this time, most astrologers were transitioning towards the views held by Culpeper, although Gadbury still gave “vital spirits and sinews” to the Sun in 1658.13 (Today the word ‘sinews’ refers to tendons and other connective tissue, but in older forms of English it referred to the nerves).14 Blagrave, in 1671, gave nominal rulership of the nerves to both Mercury and the Sun, but attributed all five senses to Mercury, as well as the brain, memory, tongue, and uvula.15 After this, the transition of rulership seems to be complete; with a few exceptions, the brain and nerves were fairly consistently given to Mercury.16 Currently, most astrologers attribute the nerves and nervous system to Mercury, with some giving co-rulership to Uranus, while others give that to Pluto.17 Reference to the Moon as co-ruling the intuitive, sensory, and receptive functions of the brain remains common, but Mercury is usually mentioned first, and in the context of nerves specifically.

As we can see, there has been much complexity and confusion around the astrological significations of the nervous system over time. The path has multiple splits and many contradictory pieces of evidence, all perfectly befitting the nature of Mercury, our deity of divisions.

Nature’s nerve tonic: OATS Herbs that target and support the nervous system are often ruled by Mercury and one that bears the hallmark of Gemini energy is Avena sativa, ‘L: common oats’. The ancient Greek physician, Dioscorides, hilariously compared the shape of oat pods to “two-footed little locusts”.18 Gadbury lists its rulership under Mercury,13 but I would also argue an emphasis on Gemini.

The use of Avena sativa in herbalism has some complexity around it because are three distinct parts of the plant that are used in different ways.

Typically, most medicinal plants either have one part of value or else the entire plant works more or less the same way. Avena sativa is divided: the most common part used is the mature seed, which is dried and eaten as a food grain (e.g., groats or the popular breakfast food, oatmeal); however, the immature seed pod is also medicinal, as are the leaves.

Oats as food Hildegard von Bingen wrote a substantial entry for Oats in her materia medica. It begins: “Oats are a happy and healthy food for people who are well, furnishing them with a clear mind and a pure, clear intellect”.11 We see the Mercurial influence here, with the effect of oats being related to the intellect.

Hildegard warns that oats are unsuitable for people who are sick or have cold constitutions, since they require heat to digest, and cold constitutions tend towards slow digestion (the natural ‘digestive fire’ is low). Modern science confirms that oatmeal slows down digestion, due to its beta-glucans fiber content.19 Slowing digestion can be good – this helps the body absorb more nutrients and reduces appetite by leaving us feeling fuller for longer. However, when the body is sick it needs to focus energy on getting well, so heavy foods are inappropriate. Even when the body is well, digestion that is too slow (cold) becomes uncomfortable, as the phlegmatics or melancholics among us can attest. Adding cinnamon, ginger, or other warming spices will help people with cold constitutions digest their oatmeal.

Hildegard continues:

“

One who is vergichtiget, and from it has been made a bit mad, with a divided mind and crazy thoughts, should take a sauna bath. He should pour the water in which oats have been cooked over the hot rocks. If he does this often, he will become himself and regain his health.

The word vergichtiget was intentionally left untranslated in this edition; it means to be troubled with a ‘commotion of humours’, referring to patients presenting with complex and ever-changing symptoms, so the healer cannot determine clearly which humour is out of balance. This aligns with Mercurial themes of multiplicity and seems to point to an excess of dividedness behind the illness.

The cure is a Mercurial food to restore order and find the unity of spirit behind the diverging expressions. We see the principle of sympathy at work here, in which ‘like cures like’.

Most of us don’t have a sauna bath, but we can eat oatmeal as a food; it is good for our health! Rich in nutrients, oatmeal helps reduce inflammation, puts a check on blood sugar, and provides antioxidants. And if Hildegard is to be believed, beginning the day with oatmeal will give you a clear mind and help you stay focused at work.

Above: Avena Sativa by John Miller, 1777 – note the bifurcated shape of the seed pods and the two “little locust legs” Below: Beatifully illustrated 12th century manuscript page from Hildgard von Bingen (1098-1179)

11

Oats as medicine Medicinally, there are two parts of the plant we call on. Herbalists call them ‘Milky Oats’ and ‘Oatstraw’.

Milky Oats. The immature seed pods produce a white latex sap when pierced, leading to the moniker, ‘Milky Oats’. These seed pods can be made into tea. However, they are difficult to dry and preserve without spoiling, so the most common preparation is to harvest the pods fresh, crush them slightly to release the latex, then infuse them into alcohol to make a tincture. This allows their constituents to be preserved and consumed any time of the year, instead of just the limited window when the seed pods are developing. Milky Oats are ‘neuro-trophorestorative’, meaning they feed, repair, and strengthen nerves. Taken daily over several months, Milky Oats tincture can restore damaged nerves or those affected by injury. They can also support people with nervous disorders that present as cognitive symptoms, such as anxiety, burnout, or addiction.

Oatstraw. The aerial parts (leaves and stems) of Avena sativa can be harvested and dried at any point in the plant’s development. The most common way to consume Oatstraw is in tea, but it can be tinctured as well. However, tincture does not extract the minerals well, and one of Oatstraw’s benefits is its high mineral content. Oatstraw is rich in magnesium, calcium, and silica. Infuse it overnight to get the maximum extraction of minerals (minerals, in general, are ruled by Saturn, and they tend to move slowly). Oatstraw, like its twin Milky Oats, is also beneficial for the nerves. It has a relaxing effect, reduces spasms, and lowers inflammation. Oatstraw tea is wonderful for children with growing pains; the combination of nutrients and relaxing actions give it a particular affinity for that ailment. It is also helpful for anyone simply wanting to relax and refresh the mind after a long and gruelling day.

Just as twins have many similarities, either part of Avena can be used in similar ways; they just have different emphases. Milky Oats work to restore and repair nerves, and Oatstraw will soothe them.

Oats grow easily in most parts of the world and are also found as weeds. If you are lucky enough to have some near you, now is the time to pop their seed pods to see the milk come out. I encourage everyone (if not ill or allergic) to pay homage to mighty Mercury, and some add nutritious oats to their diet!

Notes & refs:

1 Ptolemy’s Centiloquium, cons. 73; Skyscript.

2 A. Rubin, Knitters Say Stitching Helps Them ..., New York Times, (Mar 31, 2023).

3 J. Andrade, What Does Doodling Do?, Applied Cognitive Psychology 24.1 (2010): 100–106.

4 C. Gregoire, Science Behind ‘Talking’ With Your Hands, Huffpost.Com, (Feb 4, 2016).

5 C. M. Crofts. De Electionibus, (translated 1985); p.113.

6 J. Duchan, The Edwin Smith Papyrus, A History of Speech; (Sep 2021).

7 K.P. Panegyres, Ancient Greek Discovery of the Nervous System, JOCN, 29 (2016): 21–24.

8 Galen, On the Natural Faculties, tr. A. J. Brock, Project Gutenberg, (2013).

9 C. G. Gross, Galen and the Squealing Pig, The Neuroscientist 4, no. 3 (May 1998): 216–21.

10 Findlen & Bence, History of the Nervous System, History of the Body, Stanford.edu, (1998).

11 P. Throop, Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica, Healing Arts Press, (1998).

12 Claude Dariot, Brief & Easy Introduction to the Astrological Judgement of the Stars (1598).

13 Gadbury, The Doctrine of Nativities & Horary Questions (1658) sinews: p.122; oats: p.71.

14 See Nerve, Online Etymology Dictionary. I note the older English translations of Galen use ‘sinews’ for the Greek word neuros, while more recent translations use the word ‘nerves’.

Abigail Joy is trained in Horary & Medical Astrology (STA) and Family Hebalism. She offers a practice aimed at client empowerment and finding joy. Find more of her work and details of her client services at:

seebystarlight.com

15 Blagrave, Astrological Practice of Physick (1671) Archive.org.

16 An interesting opinion can be found in Sibly’s Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology, (1794). While he also gives rulership of the brain and nerves to Mercury and the Moon, as well as the Sun, he brings in the concept of the triplicities ruling bodily systems. No longer do we focus on just a single planet or sign for rulership; for Sibly an entire triplicity also has rulership. To the Air triplicity he gives the entire nervous system. In his medical examples, he often references “nervous disorders” if any of the significators is in an air sign.

As far as I can tell, Sibley seems to be unique in this opinion. Most astrologers through the 18th and 19th centuries stuck with the established, more focused, rulerships.

17 E.g., Judith Hill says Uranus in her Medical Astrology: A Guide to Planetary Pathology (2005); Diane Cramer says Pluto in her Dictionary of Medical Astrology (2003).

18 Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, www.archive.org.

19 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Oats, The Nutrition Source (blog), 2023.

12

by

DRU ISH druish.com

The

Gemini

PRINCE

There are two kinds of artists; those who pave the way, and those who benefit from their wake. Prince was one of the great artists of his generation. A dynamic, unparalleled creative force, he made a clear divergence from the mainstream, traversing boundaries and abhorring the narrowness of labels and definition.

I was born on a blood-stained table Cord wrapped around my neck Epileptic ’til the age of seven I was sure Heaven marked the deck ~ ‘The Sacrifice of Victor’

I'm just ike my father, too bold

“

With my father, it was like the army when it came to music - Prince (c in ~, 5th cusp)

Prince was a Gemini, born in the ‘Twin

Cities’, Minneapolis, MN. Raised in the SeventhDay Adventist faith, his father was a harsh authoritarian religious man by day, a jazz pianist by night. Prince inherited his father’s musical talent and determination, channelling youth trauma into healing music as he transformed ffrom child prodigy to internationally recognised musical genius.

Fluid and shape-shifting, Prince embodied mutability throughout his polymorphous career. His talent as a multi-instrumentalist was noted as a teen when he was compared to James Brown and Stevie Wonder.

On stage he wore bold, vibrant-coloured outfits, successfully sidestepping any categorisation of his music, which encompassed genres of funk, soul, jazz, punk, rock, pop and R&B. He was androgynous and undefinable. In 1993 he changed his name to a symbol, leaving the media scrambling as to how to address his declaration of divine, unspeakable multiplicity. His vocal range was marked by versatility, extending from deep tones into falsetto octaves. With his Gemini Sun partile the 8th house cusp, Prince never shied away from exploring and exploiting taboo topics. He blurred the lines between morality and pleasure, sex and spirituality, and channelled it all through his music with a depth of raw emotional vulnerability.

Epileptic from birth, his religious upbringing meant he quickly grasped the nature of duality and the dehumanising effect of labels – his condition was said to be either gifted by God or possessed by the Devil, depending on how it presented. At age 7, he told his mother that he would no longer be sick because an angel had visited and told him so. He sings about it in his song, ‘The Sacrifice of Victor’, released in 1992.

This connection with the Divine stayed with him throughout his life and greatly influenced his music.

13

Prince had his 8th-house Gemini Sun closely aligned to the fixed star Rigel (16°Å14), the ‘Knee of Orion’, of which Ebertin-Hoffmann report:

“

… quick rise in life is promised on account of a strong inherent will power, love of action, and a lucky hand in enterprise. A continuous battle to retain an acquired position has to be waged – The Fixed Stars & Their Interpretation (1971), p.24.

This Sun-Rigel combination is mutually applying by opposition to retrograde Saturn. This is both promising and difficult. Saturn is strong in power as it passes through the acronychal phase and transforms from morning to evening rise, creating delicate terrain that heightens fear and responsibility and renders self-consciousness. Consider Saturn’s rulership of his 3rd and 4th houses: Prince grew up in an abusive home, an African American in substantially white, conservative Minneapolis. He utilised the tension within this Sun-Saturn dynamic and the promise infused by Rigel to catapult himself from unsuspecting roots into the stratosphere of superstardom – not without the blessing of his name-sake Regulus (29°É15) on his Sun-ruled Leo MC! According to his audio engineer, turning 30 was a psychologically challenging time for Prince. By 1987, his group, The Revolution, had disbanded, and a major personal relationship ended.

Culturally, hip-hop was emerging from an underground scene into the mainstream, changing the pop-music landscape of the 80s that Prince had shaped, along with Madonna and Michael Jackson. Moving through his first Saturn Return, accompanied by Uranus, his Sun-Saturn opposition was activated, and he again funnelled the pressure of the time into creating his album ‘Sign of the Times’. Released March 30th, 1987, as Saturn stationed retrograde within a degree of his natal Saturn, critics realised that his previous success with albums ‘1999’ and ‘Purple Rain’ was no fluke, but in fact, his introduction to the mainstream as a musical genius. He marked his Saturn Return with yet another masterpiece.

Maybe I'm just like my mother, she’s never satisfied With Mars in domicile ruling his Scorpio ascendant, and Pluto crowning the chart on the Regulus-MC, Prince was a pocket rocket, packing an immensely powerful presence into a compact 5' 3" frame. True to Geminian duality, he was both magnetic and persuasive, as well as forceful, with a need to control.

Sinead O’Connor, who memorialised his song ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ in 1990, reports that when she disagreed with him, he became physically violent, forcing her to escape by running onto a highway. After changing his name to a symbol, he made his battle with Warner Brothers public by writing the word ‘slave’ on his face. It was a powerful statement as an African American man seeking rights to his creativity; it carries the signature of his natal Venus, which rules the 7th house of contracts and is strong in impulse in its domicile but suffering weak expression from its subordinate placement in the 6th.

Prince’s powerfully angular Moon sways low in his chart. It bestows flow, ease and adaptability, making him a versatile artist, but also a moody friend. Its rulership of the 9th house of religion and spirituality underpinned everything he did and saturated his lyrics, ethics and personal philosophy. By his 40s, he became a Jehovah’s Witness, door-knocking with their ‘Watchtower’ magazine in his hometown, and removing backup dancers from his shows. This sensitive Moon on the IC opposing Pluto on the MC made him dynamic and colourful on stage, yet extremely quiet and private, requiring his Paisley Park home to feel womb-like, so he could ‘create alone’.

14

I was dreaming when I wrote this,

forgive me if it goes astray

He was always a spiritual seeker ... fascinated in all possibilities to integrate the zodiac and third eye and reincarnation into the Christian beliefs his Baptist mother and Seventh-day Adventist father had exposed him to ~ First wife, Garcia (Wikipedia)

Known for dreaming songs into existence, Neptune’s opposition to Venus from the 12th house gifted Prince his artistic genius. With his wide-ranging, all-encompassing vision, he capitalised on the power of the new artistic medium in the 1980s: music videos. As Pluto ravaged its way through Scorpio and changed collective and cultural perceptions of sex, passion and intimacy, Prince created music and imagery that unabashedly celebrated the naturalness of love and all it made one do and feel. The religiosity of his music invited his listeners into a space of personal liberation and salvation beyond the heteronormative limits imposed on gender, sexuality, and power dynamics.

Uncompromisingly unique, this Neptune-Venus opposition ropes in Uranus in Leo from the 9th house, as the apex of a fixed T-square. Adding further layers to his creative output, this dynamic combination fuelled his bands (The Revolution and The New Power Generation) to be bold, rebellious, and eclectic. His edgy and energetic guitar riffs revolutionised the charts and created a new musical trajectory. Further breaking the rules, he also utilised silence in his music, building suspense and intensity with space, where mainstream music seeks to fill every moment.

Understanding that creativity was a natural expression and not something to be manufactured, Prince often kept the first take of a recording regardless of its flaws. This went completely against the record industry’s cookie-cutter approach of recording take after take and splicing it all together to make a homogenised sound. Prince’s music holds the rawness of creative genius and serves as a reminder of the magic inherent in what can be perceived morally and professionally as imperfection.

This is what it sounds like when doves cry With Mercury, Venus and Mars all dignified in domicile, Prince experienced a constant stream of creative energy, writing innumerable songs for other artists and being linked romantically with numerous women.

He fathered only one child, with his first wife, Mayte Garcia, in October 1996. Saturn crossed his natal Mars on the 5th house cusp at the time, and his dreams turned to tragedy as his son, Amiir, died a week after birth. The couple’s second attempt at a family resulted in miscarriage and the subsequent dissolution of their relationship. Prince married a second time to Manuela Testolini in 2001, divorcing in 2006.

In the weeks leading up to Prince’s death, Mars, ruler of his 6th house, was stationing retrograde Solar return: year of death. Asc/MC ruler _=opposes i / 8thin Sagittarius, opposing Mercury, the ruler of his ruler c joins M on MC. On 21 April 2016 i was at 16°á(uM) 8th. He had cancelled shows and checked out of hospital after becoming unresponsive on April 15th. Approaching his second Saturn return, his natal configuration of Sun-Rigel opposing Saturn was activated again. This time, the devitalising force was enough to end his life after 57 full years. He was found dead in an elevator on the morning of April 21st, 2016, encapsulating his life in death as always being transitory, on the move to somewhere else. His cause of death was determined to be an accidental fentanyl overdose found in counterfeit prescription painkillers.

One of the best-selling artists of all time, Prince leaves us with 39 albums created over 37 years.

His seven Grammy’s, innumerable awards and inductions into multiple halls of fame allow him to continue to inspire artists and influence music today. The fullness of his art still takes the listener on a journey through the timelessness of love, divinity and the excitement of creative vvv energy in action.

15

16

by

DRU ISH

druish.com

The rise & falls of Tucker Carlson Given Mercury’s mutable nature, when it stations and turns retrograde in the company of Uranus, swift and disturbing turnarounds occur. In Tucker Carlson’s case, Mercury, adopting the qualities of Uranus as the pair transited the cusp of his 11th house of ‘release’, turned the tables on his modus operandi and delivered to him the shocking news of contractual release. One of the world’s most prominent news reporters, he became the headline instead of delivering it.

It was as Mercury stationed retrograde on the evening of Friday, April 21st, 2023, that Fox News executives made the decision to drop Carlson from his post as anchor on the highest-rating cable broadcast, Tucker Carlson Tonight.1 In true station-to-retrograde fashion, they held off making a public announcement until Monday, April 24th, the reasons for his sudden departure not completely clear and revealed in trickle effect.

This startling departure poses the question: what next for Carlson? Some suggest he will run for office in the 2024 US election.2 Many dismiss this with the same ludicrous eyebrow raise afforded to Trump in 2015 and early 2016 – before he picked up steam and won. Uranus promises the unexpected. In coming years, as Uranus transits Carlson’s Taurus Sun (25°Ä) and Moon (29°Ä), what we can expect from him may be far more extreme than anything we’ve seen so far.

_ stations with -, & 4 transits his 3F4 as execs decide to give newscaster Tucker the boot

17 Carlson’s nativity incites the angular - theme in the Sibly Independence chart: his angular - culminates; his 5-7 opposition cuts the horizon; his ascendant joins with the US 5

Inner wheel:

USA (Sibly) NATIONAL CHART Declaration of Independence 5:10pm, 4 Jul 1776, Philadelphia

Outer wheel:

TUCKER CARLSON

Capitalising on Crossfire Carlson, born in San Francisco, 1969, started out as a fact-checker when there wasn’t the same demand for that position as today. Working his way into journalism, it’s no surprise that he rose to the role of truth-saviour poster boy for a troubled nation, with a gift for distorting truth to serve the narrative. His horoscope brings inflammatory themes to the angles as it snuggles into the palm of the US Sibly chart, provoking thought or argument, comfort or terror, depending on where you stand.

As a news anchor, he gained his _uc-footing in the aptly-named political show, Crossfire, becoming a familiar face in American living rooms as he appeared from behind various desks, crafting the image of reliable shock-value mouthpiece for conservatives. His ascendant (24°Ç) conjoins the U.S. 8th-house Mercury, giving voice to the underbelly of American nationalism. Framed as a love for one’s country, his rhetoric has unspoken rules about who is and isn’t welcome at the Thanksgiving table, whilst rarely addressing the nation’s indigenous history.

Carlson’s natal Venus (essentially weak/accidentally strong) also gains influence by dispositorship as it opposes the U.S. 10th-house Saturn. With Saturn ruling the national 3rd-house, he has made fear-based, intentionally-inflammatory journalism appealing to disenfranchised Americans by serving up extreme conservatism wrapped in a clean shirt and boarding school tie. His opinions – underpinned by Epichostal faith – are woven with patriarchal views that women should stay in the kitchen where they belong. Fastforward to 2023: Carlson is emboldened with support from millions of nightly viewers, his power straddling the line we’re all encountering in the digital age, where personal opinion has become the news, and the news is all up for debate.

Who is mightier when the pen & the sword are one and the same?

Born with Mercury in its diurnal domicile opposing a fiery retrograde Mars (both planets out-of-bounds), Carlson pushes the envelope right off the table; he is fuelled by outrage, arguments and antagonism. This volatile and opinionated alignment falls across the U.S. asc-desc axis, picking up Uranus on the 7th house cusp. Carlson is unapologetically inflammatory, and that’s why people like him. He is fearless and self-righteous. His ability to stir people up I just have a lot of problems with and not know the limit ultimately led to him authority and being told what to do. I being fired twice from two major networks. don't react well to it. I become really Losing his head, and his job, is something this aggressive, like, very aggressive.3 Sun-Algol native is susceptible to when dancing on this fine line, but it is also likely no less painful and humiliating.

”

I kept getting fired or failing in my jobs. And then I would get another job. And then I had a kind of meltdown – not a personal meltdown, I've always been happily married and pretty happy, actually. But I had a meltdown in the sense that I had no money and had to sell our house. And so that was a moment. The beauty of failure is it forces you to stop doing what you’re doing and assess it. The problem with success is it affirms everything you've been doing, even the bad.3

Carlson admits to suffering a meltdown when he lost his MSNBC show Tucker in 2008.4 His recurring pattern of gaining then losing major support from large journalistic corporations can be seen in his Mars cycles: the malice of Mars passing through its sign of fall, or transiting the 12th, is enough to stir uncomfortable undercurrents; when it rules the MC, as it does for Carlson, these periods can bring great loss in profession or reputation.

”

Inner wheel:

TUCKER CARLSON

A fallen, 12th-house Mars opposed Pluto (with the Sun opposing Carlson’s Pluto) on the day MSNBC dropped Tucker in 2008. Trouble had brewed in previous months as Mars retrograded from 12°Ç to 24°Å, where it stationed, only 2° from his 12th-house cusp. After the sacking and sale of his home, this Taurean, bereft of assets, came back firing with nothing to lose. It doesn’t appear that Carlson’s views or politics have changed over time, but that his platform and reach have simply increased. Venus culminating, coupled with his natal 3a=, may have deceived him into thinking he was protected by an ideological bulletproof vest. Not so.

Outer wheel:

Booted from MSNBC Noon chart (NY) 10 March 2008

The higher you rise, the further you fall. This month’s firing by Fox News delivered another major blow, enmeshed in the fallout of the ‘Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network’ defamation case. The trial had established that Fox presenters (including Carlson) deceived the public about election fraud in 2020, forcing Fox to pay $8 million in out-of-court settlements. Mars had again recently stationed next to his 12th house cusp, before retrograding between 25°-8°Å. On 16th February 2023 – Mars then at 14°Å, igniting his natal 5a7exactly – redactions in court documents revealed a series of Carlson’s private, incendiary text messages.5 These speak disparagingly of Fox News executives; they show that even he didn’t believe the election fraud stories he was pedalling on air; they also show that he “hated Trump passionately”.6 Carlson is still in the thick of it, dealing with a looming lawsuit by a former Fox producer regarding his misogyny and work environment – not the first time his debilitated Venus on the MC, disposited by that troublesome Mars, has attracted this kind of negative spotlight.7

The Pluto theme: knowledge is power - lying is powerful Carlson’s ratings climbed exponentially after 2017. As Pluto and Jupiter transited his descendant in 2020 (conjoined at 24°à) their trine alignment to his natal, 3rd-house, Jupiter-Pluto conjunction powered his expansion through intensified political dialogue, and Tucker Carlson Tonight became the highest-rating cable news show in America.4 As they retrograded and met again in October that year (23°à), Saturn’s stabilising force joined their mix, and his show ranked the highest rating cable news show in history.

Throughout this period, Pluto was edging closer and closer to the return of its placement in the U.S. national chart (27°à), giving Carlson expression for the collective’s shadow. As Pluto currently retrogrades back and forth between the final degrees of Capricorn and early Aquarius, Carlson has both picked up steam (â) and gained ground (à), this movement both trining his ascendant-ruler (R: 29°Ä) and emboldening his angular Uranus on the I.C. (0°Ö).

This radically powerful passage will be vital for him, since his Uranus aligns with the U.S. midheaven (1°g). Right now he is riding the wave of conservatism that is parsing the Republican party into different factions – and stirring those who disagree with all that he stands for and the changes he represents.

18

2024: a year of surprises The prospect of Carlson running for office in 2024 is just as likely as him streaming his own show from the Woodstock studio he bought and developed in 2019.8 He is a media figure with a microphone and more opinions than a YouTube comment section, and his 5-7combo knows no end. Mars in Sagittarius rules Carlson’s MC, so he’s not likely to sit still for long. Driven by ideology, faith and a pursuit of truth, the next few years will be interesting to watch. Keep your eye on late August/early September when Mars’ dispositor, Jupiter, stations retrograde at the same degree that Mercury just did (15°Ä).

Carlson’s Sun and New Moon in the late degrees of Taurus show that he needs to be able to embrace fundamental changes, potentially even in popularity since they fall in his 11th house and the Moon rules the 1st. As transiting Uranus makes its presence felt (its second retrograde pass to Carlson’s Sun perfects within hours of the 2024 election), the hunger of Rahu may tempt him into unretrievable career waters.

The solar eclipse of October 2024 (10°Ö03) falls on his MC-IC axis, followed promptly by his Progressed Moon handing the microphone to Mercury. One thing is clear: he is not retiring early.

In early 2015 people joked about Trump running for President and mocked the idea of him winning.

What we’ve learned since is that if you are a media personality in America with a lot of opinions and a large enough platform, and you can tap into the current zeitgeist, you may just win if you have a crack at it. With his 5a7sitting flush across the U.S. ascendant-descendant, Carlson is a prime candidate to not necessarily win, but to stir up trouble, provoke knee-jerk reactions, and make inflammatory statements that ignite fire in both the left and the right, and whoever has found themselves party-less in recent years.

When Trump ran for office, like Carlson, he was entering the Balsamic phase in his Progressed Lunation Cycle, a phase notorious for mastery and completion. In February 2024 Carlson will enter his Balsamic phase and start to wrap up what he began back in 1998 when this current lunation cycle was seeded under the backdrop of his first Saturn return. Like Trump, whatever unfolds in the next few years will be significant for how the next 30 years of his life play out.

Driving off the map into new terrain?

With Saturn (his natal hour ruler) unaspected in the 10th house, respecting his limits and understanding the full scope of consequences and repercussions is not Carlson’s strong suit. He is driven professionally by that out-of-bounds Mars-Mercury opposition, so expectations of him reigning it in are low. Announcing his decision to broadcast his own show from Twitter on May 9th, as Uranus passed through the Sun in its annual cazimi, Carlson has found a platform from which he can share his opinions free of worry about network regulations. Without the restraints that Saturn in Pisces is currently highlighting as it sextiles its natal position, he could be spearheading all of us into new misinformation terrain, further blurring the lines between news, truth and half-truth, and stoking division rather than fostering unification.

Did the Jupiter-Pluto trine embolden him to think he is more powerful than he is? Will transiting Pluto in his 7th bring ongoing legal troubles? If Mercury retrograde de-seated Carlson in preparation for the conjunction of Uranus to his Sun, it is quite possible that we’re going to see more extreme versions of him as election time approaches. All bets are off as the digital age moves faster than we do, and the technological possibilities we’re yet to see are currently unimaginable. vvv

Online web references – all weblinks were referred to during April, 2023 1 New York Times: www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/24/business/tucker-carlson-fox-news

Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/04/24/tucker-carlson-leaves-fox-news 2 Newsweek: www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-threat-donald-trump-2024-election-1796627

Dru is a consulting astrologer hailing from Melbourne, Bunurong, country of the Kulin nation, currently practising on the unceded Indigenous lands of The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

Dru offers consultations and hosts a blog, a newsletter and an Instagram page – all highly recommended and to be discovered at druish.com

3 Max Raskin Interview: www.maxraskin.com/interviews/interview-with-tucker-carlson 4 Wikipedia - ‘Tucker Carlson’: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson 5 AP News: www.apnews.com/article/technology-news-media-donald-trump-denver-business-

03e8f8f052c69aebbe3f6e07b2ee7f9a 6 New York Intelligencer: www.nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/all-the-texts-fox-news-didnt-

want-you-to-read.html 7 The Guardian: ‘Tucker Carlson is gone but ex-booker’s lawsuit could be a sting in the tail’

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/26/tucker-carlson-abby-grossberg-fox-news-lawsuits Media Matters: ‘In unearthed audio, Tucker Carlson makes numerous misogynistic and perverted comment’ www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/unearthed-audio-tucker-carlsonmakes-numerous-misogynistic-and-perverted-comments 8 WGME News: www.wgme.com/news/local/fox-news-host-tucker-carlsons-maine-studioalmost-ready Tucker Carlson header image from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of Gage Skidmore

19

PLANETARY THEMES FOR

[JUNE]

by Jason Burns of astraiosmirror.com

The Full Moon (4th June) With mixed messages of growth and disturbance, quick pace and hesitation, June’s Full Moon brings erratic themes of change clashing against stagnation. At first glance, the lunation seems mild in terms of luminary aspects: both are separated (≈5°) from soft aspects to Mars, then nothing much happens as they pass through 14° to meet the square of Neptune. The symbolism speaks of circumstances infused with confidence moving forward to delays or becoming mired in confusion and deception. Historically, (before the outers) both luminaries would be classed void of course from the Full Moon until they move out of sign. It’s questionable whether the square to Neptune breaks the status of being VOC technically, but it cannot eliminate the theme of impulse being dissipated and high energy getting lost in nebulous doubts or a scattered sense of direction.

We look for clues as to what goes on in the background by inspecting the dispositors of the luminaries. Both of these are involved in potent applications: The Sun’s dispositor, Mercury, perfects its conjunction with Uranus a few hours after the Full Moon, and the Moon’s dispositor, Jupiter, is within 3° of its applying sextile to Saturn. How to place this within a global lens, with an eye to what is likely to emerge as mundane news?

5F- Mercury’s conjunction with Uranus promises abrupt announcements, lively reporting or startling

decisions that attract attention. This sets us up politically for unexpected agreements and controversial press events (see Dru’s article on Carlson for an example of how the energy manifested when the two planets met in April). The conjunction of these two dry and highly mobile planets in a fixed sign points to hard-won breakthroughs – after periods of resistance – in things that seemed stable and secure. It highlights all matters related to technology, science, communications, and media. This is disruptive, stress-filled energy so expect disorder in all of these themes, but exciting innovations are also likely to come to attention, along with increased focus on A.I.’s unsettling effects in journalism, and data. Note the tight antiscia connection between these two planets and Mars by square; this piles on the heat and volatility, so there is a heightened risk of major accidents or explosions during this period.1

8J0 Abu Ma’shar tells us that Jupiter in Taurus brings “the lust of men for treasure and the hoarding of

assets”.2 The sextile of Jupiter and Saturn is usually good for trade and finance – Jupiter brings value while Saturn favours old institutions. Shaky financial markets could get some stabilization under this, but sanctions might also become a hot topic. The influence here offers profit for assets connected to land and minerals (resources of the earth). Also, look for themes of island nations (i in ä) receiving secure support and investment (h in Ä).

All eyes on 6 Another lunation highlight is Venus reaching greatest elongation east the same day, where its daily motion matches that of the Sun, then drops below it as Venus returns towards the Sun. The maximum elongation makes Venus magnificent in the early evening; her brilliance peaks here so be sure to admire as she steals the light show. The next day Venus moves into Leo where she remains for four months instead of her average four weeks per sign (she retrogrades, late July, at 28°É; then backtracks over the sign again before exiting in October). This change in solar relationship and prolonged sojourn in Leo brings focus to flaming Venusian issues for the rest of the summer – women’s issues, relationships between nations, arts & leisure industries, &c. – all such concerns become exposed and entrenched under the diurnal, fixed and fiery theme of Leo.

The New Moon (18th June) On the New Moon, as the luminaries make that tight square with Neptune, Saturn stations retrograde in Pisces, seeding an awkward watery theme for the next lunar cycle. Consider setbacks for religious or philanthropic organisations, and political concerns of pollution or corruption of water (as well as ocean/ water disasters/deaths by floods or drowning). The lunation dispositor (_) is essentially strong but under the beams – quick, direct, important information is available, but veiled in multiple concerns or purposely held back. Mercury’s sextile to Venus and Mars in Leo brings sparkle to relationships, but it also warns of decisions about handling certain situations diplomatically losing ground to more assertive approaches.

1 At the time of the Full Moon the antiscia are: _ 10É26 /

-9É37 (conjunct c); c 21Ä38 (conjunct _-).

2 Flowers of Abu Ma’shar; trans.,. B. Dykes, Cazimi Press (2014); Astrology of the World II: Revolutions & History, p.345.

20

HIGHLIGHTS (UT) 6L=

Full Moon 6 GEE 5F6→U 6a; ;→} 5L; 5→T 6K8 5K0 0 St. Ret.

New Moon 3K= 3→Y 5K= 7K5→Y 3L0 5L0 = St. Ret.

2nd: 22:43 4th: 03:42 4th: 11:01 4th: 19:50 5th: 13:47 5th: 16:05 11th: 09:46 11th: 10:26 11th: 10:27 11th: 15:40 15th: 16:10 17th: 17:28 18th: 04:37 19th: 03:54 21st: 14:58 25th: 22:36 26th: 09:23 27th: 00:24 29th: 01:43 30th: 06:24 30th: 21:07

JUNE 2023 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

4K= 4→} 6→U 4L8 6a; 4J0

6

4L4L5

7

4J= 4→Q 4F; 4a6 4K8

Saturday

1

4K; 4a8 4K7 4L0

2

4a5 4a6L=

3

8

4a7 4L3 4K-

9

4K5 4→W 4J8 5J= 4F0

10 4 K 3

June suns, you cannot store them— Maud Hart Lovelace

5

Friday

4L= 4L6 4→M 4J; 4K0 4L7 4J-

Sunday 4

4a3 6 GEE 5F-

11 4 F =

;→} 5L;→T 4J; 4→EJ5 6K8 4L6

12 4 L 7

13 4 J 3

14 4 F 8

15 4 F -

16 4 L ;

17 4 J 7

18 4 F 3

19 4 J 8

20 4 J -

21 4 K 8

22 4 F 6

23 4 → I

24 4 a 0

25 4 L -

29 4 a 8

30 4 a -

4L0 3K= 8J0

26 4 K 3

7K-

4K; 4→R

4L= 4a; 4→U

27 5 → Y 4J6 4J7

4J0 4K6 4K7

Solstice

3→Y 5J7

28 4 K ;

4→P 4L5 4L3 4L0

5K0 4J=

4F7 4J5 4K-

3L0 4K6

4→T 4K0 4F5 4J6

4J3

4K7 5L0 4L= 4J; 4→M = St. Ret.

5J6 0 St. Ret.

4L8

4K= 4→Y

4K5 4a= 4L; 5K= 4→O

21

COMING UP

July 2023 UT q FM 7 " 5 " w NM 6 SR 5 "

11à18 00Ñ00 00É00 24Ç56 13á18 00Ñ00

3rd 10th 11th 17th 23rd 28th

11.38 11:20 04:11 18:32 01:33 21:31

August 2023 q FM 09â15 1st 18.32 5 GEE 14Ñ33 10th 01:47 w NM 23É17 16th 09:38 5 SR 21Ñ51 23rd 20:00 7 " 00Ö00 27th 13:20 - SR 23Ä04 29th 02:39 q FM 07â25 31st 01:36

September 2023 6 SD 8 SR w NM 5 SD 5 GEW 3 EQX q FM

12É12 15Ä34 21Ñ58 24Ç56 11Ñ26 00Ö00 06~00

4th 4th 15th 15th 22nd 23rd 29th

01:20 14:11 01:40 20:21 13:16 06:50 09:58

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and its better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring – Marilyn Monroe (3 in T chart)

EPHEMERIS

JUNE 2023

22

23

Two of my favourite books – and why:

A History of Horoscopic Astrology

by James Hershel Holden

by JB Suller This is by far one of my favourite books on the History of Astrology. The entire book unfolds as Holden travels through time with a historical background of astrology and the influence astrologers had on its theory and practice from the Babylonian to the Modern era. Well organized and flowing, it is a valuable yet entertaining source of material, captivating the mind of anyone who seeks to know the origins of astrology and how it has been influenced over time.

The author, James Herschel Holden, was an American, born in 1926; he died in 2013, just after publishing his final work A Biographical Dictionary of Western Astrologers. His name may not be high-reaching within today’s astrological community, but his contributions were far-reaching. He was a scholar and longtime President and Research contributor to the AFA (American Federation of Astrologers) who spoke several languages, and he was a lifelong astrologer committed to translating some of the most invaluable source text we refer to in Traditional Astrology today. According to Astrodienst’s website, he translated Albumasar’s Book of Flowers; Abu ’Ali’s Judgments of Nativities; Masha’allah’s Book of Nativities; Sahl ibn Bishr’s Five Books on Horary and Electional Astrology; Porphyry’s Introduction to the Tetrabiblos, Paul of Alexandria’s Introduction; Rhetorius the Egyptian’s Compendium of Astrology, and Brahy's Autobiography, not to mention nine of the books of Morinus (Jean Baptiste Morin).

The framework of this book provides a picture of how astrology was shaped by the most important and influential astrologers over time. As you proceed through the pages, you are given a glimpse into their lives as Holden describes some of their personal stories of life and death, their methods, philosophy and practice, and in many cases their social environment. He further explains where the primary astrological ideas originated and how they flowed into the modern era and were modified or even fell out of practice. One of the many great features is within the bibliography where he provides details on surviving texts and a collection of sources to take you into deeper realms of astrological study.

Although the primary focus of this literary gem is the historical contributions of individual astrologers, as a whole, it tells the story of astrology. I found the content both educational and fascinating, especially the short personal biographies provided within the context of their involvement with astrology. I remember being touched by the paragraphs Holden writes on the famous astrologer/astronomer Johannes Kepler, relating his personal story and a tragic death that brings the reader into a deeper personal connection with Kepler.

This is just one example of the many treasures I found within the pages of this book.

Encyclopedia of Astrology

by Nicholas de Vore

Widely available as a modern reprint or access the full book online from the link at: www.skyscript.co.uk/texts.html

This book is an excellent reference for students of astrology at all levels.

Written in traditional encyclopedia form, it provides complete explanations of the terms used in most branches of astrology, including horary. Within its pages you will find detailed information on the basics of astrology: signs, planets, houses and aspects. In addition, it covers broader topics such as planetary cycles, dignities, eclipses, the solar system and much more.

Unfortunately, there is limited information about who Nicholas de Vore was, outside of the years of his life (1882 to 1960) and his affiliation with a New York astrological research group known as the ‘Astrologic Society’. To my knowledge, this is the only book he ever published.

I consider this an invaluable quick-reference aid and a useful starting point for basic principles right through to some of the complex intricacies of astrology. Overall, the book is a classic and a timeless, essential resource.

WHERE IS THE REMOTE CONTROL?

24

A horary chart [8:07pm CET, 19 November 2022; Vienna, Austria | Regio]

by TANJA RISTOVSKI I was watching a movie on a TV stick attached to the beamer when the doorbell rang. I paused the movie, and after receiving a parcel from the postman, could not then find the remote control. After a fruitless search I eventually gave up, turned the beamer off, and hoped the item would ‘reveal itself’ to me in time.

That didn’t happen, so several days later I committed to a thorough search, recalling my actions from the moment I paused the movie, and examining every place that seemed logical. I checked my two sofas in the living room, paying special attention to the one I was sitting on whilst watching the movie. I searched the cupboards near the door, the bookshelf near the beamer, and even less logical places, including the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom! As the search remained futile and I was getting annoyed, I realised this was a horary moment.

FIRST THOUGHTS: chart makes sense – I’ll find it! – somewhere soft & dark In my own natal chart, the Moon and Uranus conjoin in the 5th house of leisure and pleasure, in the degree that falls exactly on the 4th house cusp of this horary, which is highlighted by the horary Moon.

This struck me as relevant and confirms the horary to be radical.

The Sun, ruling the 2nd house, signifies the lost possession. A natural significator for theatres1 and an archetypal symbol of light, the Sun’s conjunction with Mercury and Venus in the 5th house appropriately depicts an item that ‘beams the light’ for home entertainment. Benefic Jupiter on the MC, mutually applying to trine the Sun and the ascendant, reassured me that I would find the controller shortly.

Since the Moon (co-significator of the lost item and main significator of myself as querent) is angular on the cusp of the dark 4th house, I realised the controller was somewhere obscure and would not be easy to spot at first glance. The sign of the Moon, the 4th house, and its ruler, Venus, all help to signify where the missing object is placed at the time of the question.2 Libra on the cusp of the 4th house and the Moon’s partile sextile to its dispositor, Venus, underline the relevance of Venusian symbolism, so drew my attention to such things as drapes, soft furnishing, and beds, etc.3

1 Lilly, W., Christian Astrology (hereafter CA); Astrology Center of America (2004); p.72.

2 This detail is analogous to what Lilly writes about places where missing fugitives and stolen goods are hidden – for more information

see CA, p.324, p.332 and p.352. For signification of the 4th house and its ruler offering a clue to where the lost item is, see CA, p.353.

3 CA, pp.74-75.

The discovery The Venusian theme returned my attention to the two sofas in the living room, both of which are loosely covered with pillows and bedspreads. One sofa has its back to a glass wall, the other leans against a drywall. Because Venus (the sofa) is with Mercury, the natural significator of books,4 and placed in a Fire sign (bricks and walls),5 I focused on the sofa near the drywall, which is also very close to the bookshelf. I removed all the cushions to see if they covered the remote, but I didn’t find it. Then I pulled down the throw – and there it was!

I then realised that when I went to open the door to the postman, I must have put the remote on top of the back of the sofa, after which it slipped under the wrinkled throw. This is shown by the 4th cusp and Moon in early degrees, depicting the item behind something or near a threshold.6 Because I had not seen the controller when I originally searched for it, I put the bedspread back neatly and effectively ‘buried’ it. The Moon in the dark 4th house, in an air sign, shows the ‘buried’ item is not on the floor but elevated off the ground – as the seat of the sofa is.7 – 4–

Reflections Reviewing the chart, the main indication of a fast, successful recovery is the 2nd-ruler, Sun, making a trine to the ascendant (querent) while applying to an elevated and dignified benefic: Jupiter. Jupiter rules the hour and is especially significant in this chart, acting as the dispositor of 4th-ruler, Venus, and by its retrograde motion applying to a grand trine involving both the Sun and the ascendant. The retrogradation of Jupiter also shows my search requires a return and a reinvestgation of places already checked.

Since the Moon signifies me and the missing object, its most recent separating aspect should show how I lost my possession.8 Its separation from Mercury – natural significator of messengers and delivery men9 – perfectly depicts the controller becoming lost due to my distraction by the postman. Finally, Pluto on the angle seemed descriptive very too, in depicting the annoyance and determination I felt at the time of the hunt, which led me to decide that I had to find the lost item as I drew up the horary at that time!

4 Lilly references Mercury as a significator of books in his chapter on hidden treasure (CA, p.217) and assigns places where books

are kept to Mercury (CA, p.353).

5 For fire signs signifying bricks and walls see CA, p.203-4.

6 CA, p.77-8:

“

If your Significator be going out of one sign and entering another, the thing is behind something or other, or is carelessly fallen down between two rooms, or near the threshold, or joining together of two rooms, and is higher or lower in the place, according to the nature of the Sign, &c

7 Air signs signify higher places, as opposed to earth signs which indicate positions near or on the floor. CA, pp.93-99.

8 CA, p.320.

9 CA, p.78.

Tanja Ristovski has been a consultant astrologer since 2009. She holds Noel Tyl’s Master’s Degree Certification, the STA’s certification in Horary at the Practitioner and Advanced Diploma Level, and the STA’s certification in Medical Astrology.

Tanja lives in Vienna, Austria, and can be contacted and booked for consultation requests through her trilingual website at www.periastra.com

25

Men stumble upon truth by accident, then they test it by experiment. The divine powers, in their concern for the welfare of mankind, have ways of making us discover the secrets of nature – Pliny

Chaldean Glimmers: I Deborah Houlding

Cuneiform tablet with constellation markings, 1st century BCE, courtesy British Museum

Iraq now covers most of the region once known as Mesopotamia. The name literally means ‘between the rivers’ because Mesopotamia spanned the area between the two rivers that dominate the region – the Tigris and Euphrates. Early inhabitants consisted of various tribes and races, the chief among them being the Babylonians, Assyrians and Sumerians. During the 19th century, a great deal of archaeological research was carried out in this area, unearthing whole cities that had remained buried and forgotten beneath the sands. Amongst the ruins, ancient palaces were discovered, their libraries still intact. They revealed thousands of brick-shaped tablets inscribed in a triangular shaped writing known as cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus: ‘wedge’). Their contents included many prayers, myths, omens, lists of gods, proverbs, astronomical diaries and references to commercial activities.

The cuneiform tablets are the oldest recorded literature in the world and cover most of the Mesopotamian period, which flourished around 3000 BCE and began a gradual decline towards the beginning of the Christian Era. Along with biblical references and the writings of later Greek authors, they contain much of relevance to the origin of astrology. They also paint a detailed picture of the culture, moral values, religious views and divinatory practices of the ancient Mesopotamians.

The Ancient Mesopotamian Worldview The Mesopotamian approach to life was intrinsically holistic. They regarded the universe as one living being, with all its parts and inhabitants interconnected at a supreme level and penetrated by its Spiritual Will. The Earth was the mother goddess, Ki, Heaven was the father god, Anu; their union forever divided by the wind created between them – their offspring, the air god, Enlil.1 The Essential Will of the universe was recognised through a complicated hierarchy of gods, and through omens that presented themselves in the events of the Earth. The Earth was presumed to reflect the Will of Heaven, hence any event which took place in the celestial world was expected to be mirrored by an equivalent experience in the terrestrial world. Likewise, natural events that deviate from the norm were viewed as symbols of spiritual disturbance, some dissatisfaction of the gods which would bring disruption to society. The reflection of meaning between Heaven and Earth was a two-way interchange: celestial activity and the

movement of planets and stars offer insight into the cycles of nature and the patterns of activity on Earth, and the movements of natural phenomena (such as the flight patterns of birds in the sky or strange appearance of fish in the sea) offer the means to understand the Will of Heaven. In short, everything is connected, and everything presents a meaning.

This recognition of interdependency formed the basis of a powerful communal spirit, within which the role of the individual was important only when it fulfilled the larger objectives of society. This is a marked theme in Mesopotamian mythology, where the hero often seeks to acquire immortality but faces a choice between personal gratification or protection of the community. Should the hero be self-indulgent in his choice, both he and the community ultimately suffer devastating hardship. Like those of other ancient cultures, Mesopotamian myths divulge their communal values and reveal their moral and ethical standards.

1 In Mesopotamian myth, Heaven (An or Anu) is male; the Earth (Ki) is female; from their union came the airgod Enlil, who brough separation

between them. This relates to the biblical concept of life requiring the stirring of breath. Enlil is usually paired with Anu in the astrological texts because both the sky and the winds were used to gain guidance upon the influences affecting the Earth.

26

With individual security anchored into the unity of society, ancient Mesopotamians were unaffected by notions of self-consciousness and there was little awareness of ideologies such as ‘freedom of spirit’ or ‘independence of mind’. Everyone was born into and accepted a station in life. Even the king, exalted as he was, was also bound by duties, strict rules of conduct, and obligations to serve the people. Just as the Mesopotamians saw the interdependency of all parts of their natural environment, so it was assumed that every ‘one’ was joined to everyone else. No one was entirely separate, either from other individuals, their community, their kingdom, or the world they lived in.

The king as their leader stood as a figurehead through whom all members of society participated in shared glories and triumphs.2 The reverse was also true: dishonour of any individual brought extended shame, and it was common practice to hold family members or even whole communities accountable for one person’s criminal acts.

Other great civilisations of the age, such as the Egyptians, demonstrated the same sense of communal spirit. Their willing investment in the construction of great monuments was supported by the belief that no one is autonomous and that life is a continuing thread of existence passing from one generation to the next. In honouring the king, every member of society was being honoured as part of that society. Many historians now argue that the builders of great monuments such as the Pyramids were not enslaved as was once believed, but were generally well-treated free men, motivated by pride and the reflected glory of their collective achievements.3 The same ethos drove the structuring of ancient civilisations around worship of the gods. With limited capacity to safeguard against the ravaging affects of nature when it turned hostile, society was bound and defined through awareness of its subservience to greater forces, with scorn poured on those who tried to defy, rather than honour, the limits of personal freedom and individual will. The subjects responded to the decrees of the king because it was their role to do so; the king in turn responded to the decrees of the gods (as interpreted by the priests) because he too recognised a higher authority. In order to live in harmony with the natural world it was first presumed that the natural world was worthy of reverence; that great advantages lay in honouring its power, understanding its shifts and changes, and seeking to identify the full effects of its influence. In particular, natural phenomena that suggested danger 2 3

4 5

or benefit to society acquired sacred attributes to mark it as an essential power. Fire, water, wind, the Sun and stars, the Earth itself and everything it yielded were all gods – more sacred than the life of any transient individual. But in this ancient mind-set there was simply no sense of ‘individuality’; the health of all was dependent upon living in accordance with the hierarchical rule of the state, and that of the gods and semi-gods of the natural world.

Mythology & Magic A result of this pantheistic worship was a complex mythology in which the deified powers were personalised as supremely powerful, human-like beings. Inconsistencies in natural rhythms were attributed to the whims of the gods, who shared the experience of human emotions and were capable of anger, jealousy and revenge, as well as love and benevolence. The stars and planets were only their physical manifestations since it was assumed their pure form was invisible to the material senses of mere mortals. Visible celestial bodies were not the gods themselves, but representatives of their power.

Employing long periods of detailed observation, followed by close analysis (by which the ancient Mesopotamians are remembered as the ‘Fathers of Science’), they searched for indications of Divine Will by considering causal links between events that succeeded each other, and checking comparable circumstances for similar results. An enormous collection of omen literature developed from this kind of observation and notation, revealing the level to which the supernatural, the magical and the apparently superstitious penetrated their thoughts and actions.

Historians estimate that as much as 30% of the existing cuneiform tablets fall into the category of omen literature, with most omens derived from accidental events such as dreams, the flight of birds, actions of animals or unusual births.4 Some typical examples, contained in an ancient compilation named after its opening line If a town be set on a hill, illustrate the trivial and incidental occurrences that could be taken as omens: If a man unwittingly treads on a lizard and kills it, he will prevail over his adversary.

If a white dog urinates on a man, hard times will seize that man.

If a snake passes from the left to the right of a man, he will have a bad name.5

The origin of the technique employed in mundane astrology, where the horoscope of the nation’s leader represents the nation as a whole.

A. Fakhry, The Pyramids (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1961), p.103: “… ancient Egyptian history provides no evidence at all to support these stories [of the slavery of pyramid workers].”

T. Burke, Construction of the Giza Pyramids, (Civil Engineering Journal, 2004): p.8; Online at virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofnaturalhistory: “… the workers of the pyramid were a group of citizens coming together in time, under their own free will, one of their purposes being to construct a monument worthy of their pharaoh.”

H.W.F. Saggs, The Greatness that was Babylon: Sketch of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1962), p.321.

F. Notscher, Orientalia, pp.31, 39-41, & 51-5; quoted in Saggs, p.387. Although seemingly superstitious, this early omen literature forms a valid part of the origin of science, since many demonstrate an attempt to grasp the workings of nature and deal with the noted effects that follow.

27

If the natural order was disturbed it would bring disruption, leading to the incurrence of a ‘bad fate’.

There was an abundance of rules to be observed and if broken, even by accident, a curse of misfortune would fall upon the violator. Through collective association, curses were considered infectious, picked up by association with someone who had broken a taboo. The biblical concept of sins of the fathers passing to future generations was widely perpetuated, while sickness or plague was attributed to the attacks of malign spirits or angry gods.

But it was also possible to diminish a curse by appeasement to the gods, or to divert it by channelling it (through religious service, witchcraft or ritualistic magic) towards someone else or a token replacement. Where an omen or eclipse threatened danger to the king for example, a substitute king would be appointed for the period and then killed, allowing the curse to be satisfied whilst avoiding major disruption to the politics of the state.

All forms of witchcraft and magic, both malevolent and beneficent, were rampant, although Hammurabi (c.1800 BCE) legislated against destructive black magic and ruled that it should be punishable by death. From the number of subsequent texts that relate to the exorcism of malicious curses, we know its practice continued unabated and widely feared.

Religion as Magic Magical rites were inextricably entangled in religious practices, so there was no distinction between the concepts of magic and religion. The word ‘religion’ derives from the Latin ligure: to be ‘connected/ linked’, because early religion was so strongly tied to the principles of sympathetic or contagious magic that later classical texts use the word derogatively, implying devotion to ancient beliefs and superstition, rather than the development of the personal spirit through the exercise of moral discretion.

In his comprehensive study of primitive elements in religion,6 Eli Burris explains how ancient magic mainly evolved around the principles of contagion or similarity, both essential to the outlook of all ancient civilizations, which became perpetuated through practices such as astrology as it filtered through to the pagan belief-structures of the classical world.

Through contagion a negative or positive essence (or manna) can be passed from contact, association with, or focused attention on an object or person that powerfully emanates a certain power or form of energy. A host of Mesopotamian religious rituals arose from this belief, including the need to avoid contact with dead, diseased, afflicted or shamed persons; the need to cleanse through contact with water or a purifying agent before 6

E.E. Burriss, Taboo, Magic, Spirits, (Macmillan, New York, 1931).

approaching the gods; assumed increase of fertility through participation in fertility rites; and belief in the power of protective talismans, power-inducing amulets and magical instruments such as wands, staffs and rods.The principle of spiritual contagion also supports the belief that prayer, meditation or incantation centred upon the gods (planetary or otherwise) draws their power, allowing the recipient to experience heightened association with that power and to act as a controlling agent for it.

Under the principle of similarity, things that resemble each other in shape and form are assumed to partake of a shared core-essence, so imitation is consciously employed to seek a desired effect. This is the basis of ‘sympathetic magic’ which assumes that ‘like produces like’ and ‘effect resembles cause’. The principle might be observed in the fact that Mars, a planet which shines with a red glow, and the fixed stars that are noted for their red appearance are considered conducive of heated passions (which cause our faces to flush red) and bloodlust (which causes the spilling of red blood); such that the colour red is universally symbolic of strong and active life force or the danger that accompanies intemperance.

Both of these magical principles have been significant to the evolution and development of astrology, the principle of similarity becoming especially relevant to the notion of planetary ‘signatures’ whereby core-planetary energies are expected to express through mundane objects that are similar in shape and form. In the use of medicinal herbs, for example, a plant that offers physical resemblance to a part of the body ascribed to a certain planet is said to fall under the rulership of that planet and is considered capable of magnifying its influence on the affected part. The wearing of gems or colours associated with planets is another example of sympathetic magic that remains in common use.

Being in no way associated with malevolent witchcraft which sought to cause harm, predictive magic, or divination, was never frowned upon by the Mesopotamian regime. It was very much welcomed as a means to gain knowledge of the great Divine Will, and to procure spiritual guidance on how society could ensure that Divine Will became fulfilled.

Divination was practised through all levels of society as a form of constant communication and interaction with the gods. Beyond the general employment of omens as outlined above – the meaning of which was widely known and used by all – more formal types of divination which required specialist knowledge, such as astrology and liver divination (hepatoscopy), appear to have been mainly reserved for the benefit of the king or for matters of state importance prior to the 5th century BCE.

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Ceremonial Divination Evidence supporting the ritualistic use of this kind of astrology in the Old Babylonian period (1900-1600 BCE) is scattered and fragmented. We have much better-documented evidence of the use of liver divination for this period and from this we can build something of a cohesive picture regarding the Mesopotamian approach to the formal systems of divination. The belief was that the gods, when properly consulted upon a problem before the sacrificial rite, would impress their oracle upon the liver or other organs of the sacrificial animal. The organ was divided into zones and the pattern of its veins, the variation of its colour, and the shape, direction and general formation of marks and blemishes were examined to reveal the portent; the symbolic approach taken to interpret the meaning being very similar to that employed in ancient astrological analysis.

Since the available evidence appears to suggest a wider use of liver divination than astrology in the early Babylonian period, it has generally been assumed that astrology evolved as a consequence of later adopting hepatoscopy’s methodology and applying it to the interpretation of celestial events. I argue against this idea: it has to be an unlikely supposition since the symbolic principles involved in the interpretation of liver divination rest upon the recognition of qualities attached to spatial division, directions and shape and form that can only derive from the noted effects of celestial movements. The obvious association between light and energy, and darkness and decline; or between the direction east (where the celestial sphere rises) with vitality and strength, and the direction west (where it sinks) with hostility and death; or the fact that single clear marks express the authority and vitality associated the Sun (always a singular principle since no other planet or star can be seen in the sky when the Sun’s light has filled the heavens); these and many other features of hepatoscopy demonstrate that it was dependent upon symbolism developed out of astrological reasoning, as most fundamentals of all symbolic systems are.

Put to a comparable use to that of astrology, liver divination may have promoted certain rituals and ceremonial approaches, but rather than regarding it as a forerunner it would be more reasonable to assume that hepatoscopy was an early attempt to extend astrological principles into sympathetic magic. The more widespread evidence of its use in the ancient period is easily explained by the fact that hepatoscopy offered a more dramatic ritualistic show at the religious ceremonies, and was better placed to fulfil the social elements of those events. Such ceremonies culminated with the divinatory act, and concluded with the sacred animal being roasted and shared amongst the participants.

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Clay model of hepatoscopic divisions on a sheep’s liver Old Babylonian Period (Courtesy British Museum)

The Baru Priest Astrologers Because of the specialist knowledge and skilful interpretation required to perform these divinatory rites – all requiring careful attention to ceremony and symbolic detail before, during and after the event – such practices were only carried out by the baru priests, whose name means ‘observer’. The baru had considerable influence upon affairs of state and so a candidate for the priesthood had to be as physically and mentally pure as possible. It was necessary for him to be free from malign influences or bad fates that might arise from the breaking of a taboo, either by him or anyone in his association. He also had to be the descendant of a free man, and one of an honourable reputation with no elements of shame in his ancestry. His body had to be free from disease, and in order to ensure this continual state of healthy body and mind, his interaction with anyone who could impart a malign influence by contagion was kept to a minimum.

It was the job of the astrologers to observe, record (and in the later period predict) eclipses and all astronomical movements. The baru priests would also accompany the army on its missions and organise religious festivals. The king brought governmental problems to them and made his decisions upon their interpretations of the signs. Not all astrologers were of equal status, but the chief astrologer for any district held a position of great power. No official appointment, military campaign, building work, or matter related to the king’s health would be undertaken without his consultation. The following astrological report reveals the level of persuasion over the king that such a person could expect to hold: When Jupiter has culminated and passed Regulus and brightened it, the back part of Regulus (which Jupiter had passed and brightened) reaches and passes Jupiter and it then goes into disappearance.

There will be war, and the enemy will come and seize the throne, the land will be ravaged twice. All

of the omens that have come to me concern Akkad and its princes … The princes of Akkad whom the king, thy father, had appointed have ravaged Babylon and carried off the goods of Babylon: in consequence of these omens of evil which have come to me, let the army of the king go and in the palace … capture them and appoint others in their stead. Unless the king acts speedily, the foe … he shall come and change them. I am clear ….7 From such a position of power, great honour was gained by successful prediction, but failure to judge correctly brought disgrace and removal from office, plus the subsequent prospect of imprisonment or execution. The Old Testament Book of Daniel illustrates the ominous consequences that came with such loaded responsibilities. King Nebuchadnezzar summoned all his priests to reveal the meaning of his dream with the threat that they would be torn in pieces and their houses laid to ruins should they prove inadequate to the task. Daniel, however, who impressed the king with his interpretation of the omen, was richly rewarded. He was given rulership over the province of Babylon and established as Chief Prefect over the Wise Men.

Entering the Mindset The literal translation of the word omen is ‘warning’ and this is what the interpretation of an omen was expected to offer in the insecurity of the ancient world – not to pursue prediction of the inevitable, but to act upon the signs, allowing action to be taken to avert possible dangers. Daniel’s account may have been dramatised in the telling, but it is clear that the judgement of any important matter involved a respectful consideration of omens and divinational signs. Unfortunately, many historians who seek to explore the scientific achievements of the ancient Mesopotamians have had a hard time reconciling their intuitive approach to decision-making with their technical accomplishments, assuming that they made their scientific advances despite their spiritual inclination, rather than seeing their quest for mystic alignment as integral to their motivation. Bias against astrology has blighted many reports of their worldview, some commentators seemingly unable to resist taking a swipe at astrology whilst narrating on the benefits it accrued; or even dismissing its relevance completely in the acquisition of ancient knowledge.8 7

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Many historical experts followed the lead of the 20th century Professor Franz Cumont, who in his Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans,9 littered his valuable account of astrological history with emotive expressions of disdain: If we go back to the earliest stages of every kind of learning, as far as the Alexandrine and even the Babylonian period, we shall find almost everywhere the disturbing influence of these astral ‘mathematicians’. This sapling, which shot up among the rank weeds by the side of the tree of knowledge, sprang from the same stock and mingled its branches with it. (xii) … How could this absurd doctrine arise, develop, spread, and force itself on superior intellects for century after century?” (xiii) … How is it that the Hellenistic civilisation, which advanced human understanding by so much, fell prey to the ridiculous belief in astrology? (41) By refraining to enter into the mindset of the astral mathematicians who disturbed him so much, Cumont failed to explore the possible causal connection that they would have noted: that all the civilisations which carried the flame of intellectual advance from east to west, from ancient times to the renaissance, did not view astrology as a contradiction to genius, but key to the acquisition of it. It should not be passed off as mere coincidence that those societies which wholeheartedly embraced and fully exploited astrology were those that had the greatest intellectual stimulation and technological progression. The ancient Mesopotamians are often berated for their ‘superstitious beliefs’ and yet, by being prepared to explore, stretch, develop and satisfy their emotional impulses as well as their intellectual capacities, they were able to make their important decisions using, not only an analysis of reason and logic, but also a full exploration of their instincts and feelings.

A consequence was that their decisions were held to be judicial, informed by a mature and rounded judgement that considered the immediate and long term, the self-centred and wide scale, the direct and lateral, the objective and subjective. It allowed them to enter a magical mindset where consciousness was not expected to be limited by what was already known, and where all bounds of the material broke free and no aspiration was unattainable. Twentieth century statistics deemed it irrational to go beyond the objective (that which is observed, understood and

The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, (Luzac & Co, London, 1900); Vol II, No. 272, lxxxviii-lxxxix. The first part of the omen is describing a retrograde loop of Jupiter around the star Regulus. R.C. Thompson explains: “In cases where a phenomenon repeats action, the result of such an omen will also have a double effect – the land will be ravaged twice.”

A typical example is reproduced from the otherwise excellent online resource on Mesopotamian culture at www.livius.org. Referring to the predictions made in Babylonian astronomical diaries, antiquity expert Jona Lendering writes: “These predictions were not, like the horoscopes in our newspapers, invented by charlatans. Although the general idea behind Enûma Anu Enlil, that the gods used the planets to show us the future, is wrong, the Mesopotamian astronomers used a purely scientific method.”

Astronomical Diaries, 2004, livius.org/articles/concept/astronomical-diaries; last accessed May 2023. If only because a major role of ancient astrology was to predict agricultural and meteorological influences in advance, the ‘general idea’ that Mesopotamian astrology allowed prediction of the future cannot be legitimately described as “wrong”.

Dover Publications, New York, 1912.

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agreed upon by everyone), but dismissal of the value of Mesopotamian spiritual belief is no longer considered a credible stance to take in any modern science; the revised view of today’s leading mathematicians and decision-making theorists is that subjective instinct plays a vital role in the demonstrated effectiveness of reliable analysis, for whatever reason intuitive impulses emerge.10 One advantage is the confidence that generates relaxed (and therefore more reliable) reasoning, or the capacity to consider something new and unique that has never been relied on before. Through the power of belief, the Mesopotamians could allay communal doubts and fears, drawing motivation from the knowledge that, providing faith remains firm and rooted in honourable principles, their gods would guide them towards the right and proper fulfilment of destiny. Their rampant use of magic should not suggest that they were deficient in rational reflection, (their scientific accomplishments prove they were not); it merely demonstrates their readiness to admit that whilst nature constrained them by limits, it also

offered up a boundless resource of creative intelligence from which the wisdom of both sense and reason could be drawn and put to practical employment in the physical world.

Mirroring the swing of mathematical theorists, the current historians of Mesopotamian science also adopt a much more balanced and respectful approach to their integral culture and divinatory practices, perhaps as a result of the greater insight we now have into the sophisticated way that they encoded their knowledge in symbolic form.11 Professor Francesca Rochberg has been particularly instrumental in this regard, her recent publications pursuing a fully rounded appreciation of the term ‘science’ and establishing her position with the re-assuring comment: Science … is not viewed as emerging from a magical-religious culture, but as fully integrated with it. In the face of the cuneiform evidence, the dichotomy between such hypothetical cultures is artificial and ahistorical.12

This is the first in a series of related articles about the development of astrology in ancient Mesopotamia. The next issue will explore the ancient cosmological worldview, astronomical advances and astrological use of celestial omens.

DID YOU KNOW … ? … that movie star Angelina Jolie and motormouth Russell Brand were born within hours of each other and have the same (inverted) asc-desc axis? Stand by for another great double-chart review from Dru as she explores the themes – going straight to live on the site on midnight 3rd June - skyscript.co.uk/gemini.html

10 Explored in the paper On Sequential Decision Making with Adaptive Utilities by B. Houlding and F.P.A. Coolen; Department of Mathematical

Sciences, Durham University, 2006.

11 See for example ‘The Mesopotamian Soul of Western Culture’ by Simo Parpola (Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 35:

2000 29-35), where he explores the symbolism of temple reliefs and demonstrates the encoding of the principles of the Kabbalah, previously assumed to be a later development of Jewish mysticism.

12 Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, chap.1.

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SKYSCRIPT MEMBER TALKS

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Wednesday 24th May 2023

NATIVITY MORTALITY Some astrologers say it is impossible to know when someone will die using astrology, in the same way that we cannot know someone’s gender or sexual orientation. Is it? Does natal astrology only show the seed, or is it the flower, culmination and termination too? What is the most practical and reliable way to identify crisis periods and what should we, as astrologers, do with that information? Are modern astrologers sufficiently trained to deal with such heavy topics, or is it best, in practice, to shy away from traumatriggering concerns? We will consider various chart examples that touch on this theme whilst exploring the issues.

Start: 5 pm UTC – San Francisco: 10 am | New York: 1 pm | London: 6 pm [check other local times on this link] | duration ≈ 2 hrs

Thursday 22nd June 2023

THE SPHERE OF MANILIUS The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers says of Manilius: … a citizen of Rome, authored Astronomicon libri V, the oldest and most widely cited work on ancient astrology. … the Astronomica served as a literary introduction to the heavens and an advanced primer to astrology. Manilius’ masterpiece, a Latin didactic poem in five books, unveils the cosmos in hexameter verse...

Deb and Mireille Crossley have been working on a Manilius project which will be discussed and unveiled in this gathering. We will look at what is/isn’t known about the poet and the background of his work – and explain with enthusiasm why we think his amazing text is woefully underappreciated by modern readers. This talk will act as the commencement of a readers’ group to explore this remarkable text in greater detail.

Start: 5:30 pm UTC – New York: 1:30 pm | London: 6:30 pm [other local times on this link] | duration ≈ 90 mins

Saturday 22nd July 2023: NEPTUNALIA

ALL MEMBER-TIERS INVITED TO NEPUNALIA

Imagine the inverse of Saturnalia. The Roman festival of Neptunalia, honouring the God of Waters, was always held in the height of summer (around 23rd July). Equated with Poseidon, Lord of all things moist or misty, and also known as Neptunus Equester ‘nebulous horse-lord’, Jupiter’s older brother is the god of horses, horsemanship (and horse racing), as well as the sea, whose rage produces storms, floods, tempests and earthquakes. This festival is still held in parts of the world under different guises (e.g., the Tunisian Carnival of Awussu), but why in the hottest, drought-filled time of year? Think manifestation!

Let’s gather together and merge as a collective to reflect on the god’s origins and mythology, the planet’s discovery and astronomical details, and Neptune’s astrological characteristics and value in chart work.

If you have views, anecdotes, or interesting chart experiences to share in this meeting, please give me a heads up by email – I have various historical and modern chart scenarios to explore but am keen to incorporate group thoughts and encourage debate.

Neptunalia

Detail of Poseidon riding a sea-horse from an Etruscan drinking cup 6th c. BC

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Start: 3:30 pm UTC – New York: 11:30 am | London: 4:30 pm [check other local times on this link] | duration ≈ 2 hrs