Spring Seminar 2003 - The Sap is Rising

Signifying the stirrings of spring and the need to look again at the familiar.

This was our first Spring Seminar for a couple of years and it was our first venture out to pastures new. The London Volunteer Resource Centre is a modern, well equipped building and what is more, they even laid on refreshment services. So we only had to do the pub at lunch time and at the end of the day.

Claire Simms was 'convinced that our three speakers would get our little grey cells vibrating nicely'. Well, Claire, you were right. It was an electric day and everyone finished up well stimulated. Three different speakers with three entirely different slants on our Art leaving us with plenty of food for thought. Thank you for arranging the day and and warm thanks to our speakers. Without your contributions we would not have had our day!!

The chart of the day showed 1 deg Cancer rising, which is the degree of the Lodge Mercury, with Saturn and the Moon in Gemini. Thus after some delay a great deal of talking was done. The 11th house cusp was the same as the Lodge Jupiter and the day had the flavour of the Mercury Uranus sextile.

Steve Judd: Chiron - how we integrate and disintegrate ourselves

Steve Judd took the bull by the horns and braved the first session, which started the day with power and enthusiasm. He took us on a wonderful ride, with so much detail on Chiron, the Centaur, which was discovered on 1st November 1977 at the time of the emergence into the public domain of the holistic paradigm, now commonplace, so its influence is only in its infancy. It has a strange pear shaped orbit which takes it from its nearest point, Saturn to its farthest point Uranus - thus linking the personal to the outside. Its approximate return cycle is 51/52 years.

As a holistic tool for self empowerment and self healing, Chiron is in a class of its own. According to mythology Chiron had no father and was abandoned by his mother who could not accept that he was half man half horse. When he finally learns to integrate instinct and intellect he gets mortally wounded in the heel - but as Chiron can't die he withdraws and travels to find healing. Once he knows he can never be totally healed he realises that he has to pass his knowledge on to others who were wounded. He eventually trades places with Prometheus and ascends to Heaven.

It is not possible to interpret Chiron by sign as the irregular orbit puts it in one sign for a very short while and in other signs for much longer periods so we went on a journey round the houses instead.

'The position of Chiron in the horoscope shows how we can deny ourselves and through a process of fragmentation become merely a shadow of unexpressed potential. It also shows where one can accept and integrate oneself through the process of self-acceptance and move on. Aspects to Chiron can show specific issues relating to the wounding and healing process. It really does show how we "dis" and "re" integrate ourselves and through the process of self acceptance we become more self-empowered and thus more efficient human beings, making our lives work better as a result. It show where we can work on ourselves and serve the world.

My own Chiron is in the 8th house conjunct the North Node at the very same degree.

Steve Judd is a professional Astrologer with over 15,000 consultations to his name. He has been putting Chiron in horoscopes since 1985 and interpreting it since 1987. Steve has his own website.

Carole West

Christeen Skinner: Towards a Quantum Astrology

Christeen began by pointing out the limitations of the two dimensional horoscope: that chart wheel which we all know and love. Apart from loosing latitude and declination, planetary speed is not apparent and other things which affect human behaviour such as the condition of the Sun. Referring to Theodore Landscheidt's work Christeen pointed out that the Sun is not the centre of the solar system. The Sun's rotation, combined with the movement of the planets create unique conditions: the sun is not the same of any two days. Sunspots and solar winds were known about in ancient times but no one knows what causes them. As the Sun is spinning, the spots and flares come from different points on the suns surface and will hit the Earth at different latitudes, when the Sun and the centre of the solar system are one, you get a resonant effect rather like the Sun becoming retrograde. This happened last in 1989 and the effect could be seen in weather patterns and also in human migrations. It takes about 15 years for things to calm down after one of these convergences.

The Sunspot cycle is around 11.6 years. They are counted by two organisations, NASA and ESA, and their numbers may not be exactly the same. Christeen likened it to counting someone's freckles, there is a definite subjective element present. Currently Sunspots are peaking, which is unexpected as they were forecast to decline. Interestingly George W Bush was born during a Sunspot maximum, whereas Tony Blair was born during very low activity. The stock market also closely follows fluctuations in solar radiation.

Pointing out that the horoscope only shows this solar system, Christeen presented a diagram which allowed us to appreciate our place in the universe. The Sun and the planets are part of the Milky Way which is moving towards the Galactic Centre (27 Sag), which is part of Andromeda galaxy and this is moving towards the "Great Attractor". We are not just spinning around the Sun; all of this is spinning through space.

Other unseen points in the chart are Mid Points and declinations. Christeen showed us the declination graphs for Iraq (1958 republic) and USA. Iraq has Pluto and Sun tightly parallel within 10 minutes with Saturn in contraparallel. USA has a parallel of Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the Sun which are contraparallel Pluto. No wonder they're the biggest, largest etc. Looking at the slower moving midpoints for the next few months we postulated that Saturn/Uranus moving into Taurus might represent a political leader making a statement of a Taurus nature, perhaps something to do with Foot and Mouth? Christeen then called on the technical amongst us to build us a model which was capable of reflecting these complexities. We need to know more about the interacting fields and what effects disturbances in them have. Something three dimensional which would allow you to be inside the chart would be a start...

Links:

Sun Spot Cycle

European Space Agency

NASA

NASA Solar Physics

Links to images Christeen used

Activity Handout

Predictions

Claire Simms

Mike Edwards QHP: On The Joys of the Wandering Stars

'Our earliest authors teach that each of the seven planets rejoices in one particular mundane house, that each enjoys exaltation in one particular zodiacal sign, and that each rules either one or two signs of the Zodiac. At the heart of these teachings beats a secret marvellous mystery now to be revealed.' Mike's studies herein began in 1990 when a much missed colleague, the late Olivia Barclay asked him, in her irresistibly imperious manner: "What do you think of the Joys of the Planets?"

His 'use of the word "joy" refers to the allotment of the seven wandering stars to one each of the twelve houses that constitute the sub-temple of here below on earth, as mentioned by Manilius, Firmicus, Paul of Alexandria et al.' Mike then went on to present the historical background to the house divisions through antiquity. So we learned that contemplation of the heavens ennobles the soul.

The sun joys in the ninth, Sagittarius, the house of God. The moon joys in the third (Goddess), duality of the soul, Gemini. Mercury joys in the first (Son of God), Venus in the fifth, pleasures, Mars in the sixth, hard labour, Jupiter in the eleventh and Saturn in the twelfth.

Not only were there the joys of the planets in certain houses, but there was the Chaldean order of the Planets allotted to the Mundane Houses, the Lordships of the Planets in the signs of the Zodiac and the Exaltations of the Planets in the Signs of the Zodiac.

The sun shows the heart of the matter, the moon shows action. The key to the horoscope is the most angular planet and in the horoscope of the joys, mercury is the most angular. It also shows the signature of astrology as the fifth house from the sun. Mercury is also knowledge. The moon opposite the sun is full of light. Venus rules all matters of the earth. Mercury is in the second house from Saturn. Saturn gives structure and time is the burden we carry. Saturn is the teacher, mercury the student. The structure of time are the aspects. All aspects are in this chart and it matches exactly the exaltations of the planets.

Mike finished up by turning the chart to reveal fascinating insights with different ascendants. Quite mind blowing.

Much of this presentation was given in 1997 at a conference held in Venice by the Centre Italiano di Astrologia and duly saw print in the proceedings of that conference. He also presented his work of the Joys of the Planets to last year's 19th A.L.L. History of Astrology Seminar

Carole West