At the Lodge - June 9th 2003

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

Wendy Stacey, the current chair of the Astrological Association of Great Britain, was our speaker this week. Hailing from New Zealand, she has been studying Astrology since 1987 and teaching since 1990. Her early teachers always impressed upon her the need to prove the birth time and her interest in and knowledge about the various rectification techniques grew from there. Wendy spoke at the Lodge last year, presenting her finding on Caesarean Births; this research grew directly out of her experience gained using the various models of rectification.

When we think of rectification, we may think the process is very intensive and involved. You can't shortcut the process but it is so much easier than it was before we had computers. It's also difficult to prove your conclusions. Given all this, there is an accepted set of techniques, which Wendy presented to us, which sometimes don't match up with what you would expect. The length of the window of time you're trying to narrow down will decide which techniques to use first. A big surprise to me was not to use transits to angles when you have a large window but only when you've got a time period of about two hours.

Pulling a mixture of personal information and astrological information will eventually distil a potential birth time from the mixture but the astrologer must keep one thing clear in his or her mind: the need to be objective about the experience of another human being. One person's experience of divorce may centre on the emotional but another may be for more concerned with the financial. You cannot assume. Stories of the birth can also bring vital clues but make sure you ask the supplemental questions: what time is breakfast?

How many events to use is another point of debate, most authorities come in with between 8 and 12. Care should also be taken with younger clients, as they may not have had enough go on to get a good match. Use the events that are accurately date and better still accurately timed first and then more to the others.

Proving the birth chart needs only one or two events. Matching up an event with a birth time is enough to give you extra confidence in your astrology and that can only be good for the client. You can learn more about Wendy by checking out her website.

Claire Simms

Members' Classes

So we came to the final of Nick Kollerstrom's superb classes on Astronomy. He started by asking the question 'What is a Planet?' After establishing that Pluto is actually smaller than the Earth's Moon and that Pluto's own Moon, Charon, is half the size of Pluto. He then talked about the latest discovery, Quaoar and then the Kuiper belt, which reaches beyond Neptune. The Kuiper belt is full of asteroids and comets. Comets come and go until finally they burn themselves out. Halley's Comet made its last appearance recently. It lasted about 1,000 years.

Then there are the Centaurs, the most famous of these being Chiron, first seen in 1976 on November 1st, 10 am, Pasadena, California. It is 170 km across, but appears bigger than it is by the large Aura around it. Chiron returns every 51 years within 7 degrees of the ecliptic. It is closer to us than Saturn and goes out as far as Uranus.

Finally we looked at Asteroids the most famous being Ceres, Vesta and Juno. Then to finish off we had a quiz!!

It was such an interesting series and again you can have a look at Nick's website for all sorts of interest. He writes a book every year on 'Gardening by the Moon'. Check it out. It gives a calendar and all the details of Bio-Dynamic Gardening.

Carole West

Charts Discussion

It was short but very sweet this week with a strong Cancerian feel to all the charts we saw. A lot of personal charts were discussed therefore due to confidentiality I cannot go into them in depth. Sorry.

Firstly Mavis Klein presented a chart of an ordinary person who managed to write a diary from the age of fourteen until she was in her nineties and due to arthritis she could not write any more. This period spanned most of the 20th century and it was a beautiful insight into her world. What gave her life longevity? What gave her the drive and focus to maintain such a quest? These were questions we tried to answer.

Next Helene Schnitzer presented the chart of Lois Rodden and we celebrated this lady's great influence on the astrological world. We looked at the moment of her death and I read a short biography.

Annabella Kitson presented the chart of her grandson and son to look at the similarities of their charts and finally I showed an event chart.

Next week we will be discussing the European Union chart and doing a synastry chart with the UK to look at our relationship with Europe and whether we will ever join the EURO (2nd and 8th house issues). I will also look at the chart of Zimbabwe.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Gill Dorren

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion