At the Lodge - 20 January 2003

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

The Lodge opened its Spring term with a full house. Everyone was in high spirits and as Gill aptly pointed out in Charts discussion Venus was trining Jupiter so we were going to have a good time.

Mercury, being true to its retrograde motion, caused the speaker to be late and myself in the Chair to forget to announce the start of the Members Classes! The speaker was worth waiting for. Maurice McCann, who has been an Astrologer for over 30 years, gave a brilliant and interesting talk on The Sun and the Aspects. In fact the one hour allotted time was too short for this subject and Maurice will be giving a series of Members Classes on the subject (date to be announced later).

He talked about how humanity could never have survived without astrology and took us through how we learned first of all to recognise the Sun rising and setting culminating in the equinoxes. He referred to this as Natural Astrology - humanity recognising the seasons, then the lunar cycles, the tides and eventually being able to make a calendar. He explained how the speeds of the planets are governed by the Sun and how ancient man used his hand and fist to measure the distances between the planets to create aspects. He also explained how Ptolemy arrived at his rulerships in the Tetrabiblos and much much more.

Maurice McCann has a BA (Hons) degree in the history of astrology during the English Civil War. He was at various times chairman of the Astrological Lodge of London and its treasurer. He is currently editor of Realta, the journal of the Irish Astrological Association . He is also the creator of Tara - horary astrology computer programme. He was co-author of Eclipses published by Aquarian Press (1989) with Derek Appleby and is the author of The Void of Course Moon (1977) and The Sun and the Aspects (2002) both published by Tara Astrological Publications. He is a regular contributor to a wide variety of international astrological journals and in addition has lectured in many countries. You can reach Maurice through his website Maurice McCann. We would like to thank Maurice for his contribution tonight and look forward to the Classes in the future.

Carole West

Members' Classes

Helene Schnitzer gave the first of her three Members Classes on Geo Astrology. Tonight she covered Local Space. This method can be used in a similar way to Feng Shui, but using our Astrological Horoscope.

The chart is positioned facing north, so in effect our chart is turned upside down. All the planetary lines come out from the centre of wherever we choose to look from. So, for instance we can centre the lines in the centre of our home, or in fact in the centre of a room. We can also centre the lines from the centre of a village or in fact a town or country. What also has to be considered is that whilst we may have a good line i.e. Venus we also have to consider its aspects in our chart. She showed many examples and we all felt we learned a great deal.

We are looking forward to the next class which will cover Geodetics

Charts Discussion

The first meeting of 2003 went really well and in chart discussion Mavis Klein teased us with the 'Guess who this is' scenario with the charts of Michael Cain and John Osborne (author of Look Back In Anger).

This was followed by Gill, with the chart of Maurice Gibb and the transits to his chart for the time of his death. Santiago Mantas aptly pointed out that the solar arc progressed Mars came to his ascendant of 6 Scorpio. Mars representing surgery and Scorpio being the sign of death. Wanda Sellar also pointed out that Mars rules the intestines in the body.

We also looked at the chart of his twin brother Robin and he too, according to the information has Scorpio rising but at 0' of the sign and there was lively debate that he may be a late Libra rising (twin charts can be so difficult). However Paul pointed out that in Maurice's chart Gemini ruled the 8th House (house of death) and this planet was retrograde showing the confusion over his death, however Taurus ruled the 8th house in Robin's chart. So he was under the auspices of this benefic.

We also took a look at Barry's chart, Libra rising, Mars bang on the ascendant showing the drive and energy of this brother. Jupiter conjoined Venus again in the first house showed his hunkiness. Moon in Scorpio, Mars rising and the Moon making a strong aspect to Pluto shows hidden strength and a love of control. All the brothers had Venus/Jupiter conjunction showing their love of music and the arts, great wealth etc. etc. etc. and also indicated their great harmonies.!!

The last chart we discussed was the police stabbing in Birmingham, a lively debate ensued and the general conclusion being that the aspect of these acts of terrorism is the retrograde Saturn still in opposition with Pluto. Therefore more was still to come and February looked a powerful month in this area. 16th February especially.

Gill Dorren

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion