At the Lodge - 19th May 2003

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

We had a change to our original programme as Helen Jacobus felt she did not have the time to produce a talk of sufficient quality, so she arranged for Peter Nockolds to present on a similar subject. Peter has spoken at many previous History Seminars and learned his astrology at the Lodge over the years. He studies the astronomy hidden in literature from Shalmanezer the Third through Shakespeare, to Sherlock Holmes.

He tries to bridge the gap between the academic and popular worlds, to demonstrate that many of the authors of the greatest works of literature were deeply versed in the lore of the heavens. And because he tries to bridge the gap, he sometimes falls down the middle!

Peter's talk was titled "Out of Egypt… The Tribes of Israel, The Calendar and the Zodiac". He started by noting a few consciences: not only did he find a book with this title shortly after naming this lecture but a similar lecture was taking place at the British Museum. Archaeologists have pointed to the lack of historical evidence of many biblical events. The books of Genesis and Exodus have a great deal to say about Egypt and certain themes recur that can be read with a symbolic interpretation. Whether this leads you to interpret the bible in purely symbolic terms, as a history of a people or somewhere in between is a matter for debate. I think we may find our selves balancing over that gap I mentioned earlier.

Clothing was an ancient metaphor for the Moon. There are parallels between the story of Joseph and the accounts of Isis and Osiris in terms of number and symbolism. Joseph was stripped of his robes twice: once at 17 and once at 28. Osiris died on the 17th day and in the 28th year of his reign. This reflects the 17th day of the lunar cycle "on which day it is quite evident to the eye that the period of the full Moon is over" and the 28th day, which is the last day the moon is visible before its two days of darkness at the new moon. There are also recurring themes of twins: a red twin and a white twin, of confusion over who is the eldest. This can be likened to the white and red crowns of Egypt and possibly the north/south split in Palestine. The lunar calendar will sometimes give 13 months in the year.

Different societies have chosen different time of the year to insert this. In Egypt, this was just before the heliacal rising of Sirius, which coincided with the flooding of the Nile. The Jewish calendar will have the extra month around Passover at the time of the spring equinox. Arranging the brothers with the zodiac and giving Joseph to Pisces and Judah to Leo may give us a clue to these differences. Each had two children, symbolising the extra month. Judah, the Lion, fits well with the symbolism of Leo and fits with the flooding of the Nile. Pete's theory would match with Joseph as Pisces giving an extra month just before the Spring Equinox as once you moved away from the Nile, its flooding would not be of great import and you couldn't use it as a timing mechanism.

This is just an over view of the fascinating talk Peter gave us. His conclusion was that much Egyptian influence in the Bible was covered up or dismissed when Christianity became the state religion of Rome. It's up to our modern researchers to help uncover it.

Claire Simms

Members' Classes

The second members class of the series on 'Astronomy for Astrologers' was titled 'Personalities of the Planets'. Nick Kollerstrom demonstrated how modern scientific findings concerning the planets of our solar system support and confirm the characterisation astrology attaches to those planets. Even though this article is long, it only contains a fracture of the information given out that evening - you should have been there!

The Galaxy itself connects to our zodiac at the equinox points, in an angle of 60 deg - a sextile! The galactic centre (currently at 26 deg Sag) seems to be the starting point of the galaxy's apparently outward spiralling arms, but the black hole forming the centre suggests that the galaxy is slowly being swallowed up - astronomers haven't got a clear answer on this rather fundamental point. Nick hinted that 'something very important to us' might be emanating from the galactic centre. (a personal tip: meditate on it during the coming solar eclipse!)

Mercury, swift and capricious, was often missed out by renaissance astrologers, their tables differed by up to ten degrees! Did you know that the same area of Mercury faces the Sun at every alternate perihelion? Talk about two-faced!

Astrology is about timing and in this area, Venus is a darling! Retrograde only 7% of the time, she keeps weaving two pentagrams in eight years and returns to the same zodiac degree on the same calendar day every four. In June 2004, Venus will eclipse the Sun. This happens only once in 60.75 years! Read: "The Little Book of Coincidence" by John Martineau for more.

Mars, the egotistic warmonger, has a highly eccentric orbit: The difference between perihelion and aphelion is 20% (Earth 3%, Venus 1%). The storm swept surface is covered in red iron dust and Mars' two Moons are called Phobos (fear) and Demos (terror). Phobos has been calculated to crash into Mars at some point, which leaves hope for a future without fear.

Jupiter, like Zeus or Thor, emits thunderbolts that interfere with our radio communication. Its magnetosphere is so enormous that Saturn moves right through it at the time of their conjunction. Jupiter's expansionist character is further illustrated by the fact that it does not only have many moons of its own, but also a whole group that has obviously been attracted from elsewhere.

Saturn's exacting nature is shown by its rings, which are absolutely level and circular and surround the planet at an exact right angle with its axis.

Uranus was first mistaken for a comet, so there is no discovery chart for this first of the outer planets. Funnily enough, Herschel discovered the planet at age 42 and lived to the age of 84, thus marking the planet's year in his own life. Uranus' axis points to the Sun, but its magnetic axis is tilted by 40 deg and doesn't even hit the centre of the planet. Its moons have a 'patched-up' appearance, reminiscent of the scatteredness and nonconformity Uranus can symbolise in the chart.

Having made it across the Saturnian threshold, we unfortunately ran out of time. Nonetheless, I for one left the lecture room with a feeling of awe and wonder. Thanks, Nick!

Helene Schnitzer

Charts Discussion

This will be short and sweet this week. The first chart I showed was a mystery chart, a mystery event chart. From the Uranus trine to Neptune, everyone knew it had something to do with the sea and the that it was a sudden explosive event. With Saturn conjunct Pluto in aspect with the Moon, it involved a lot of people. Yes it was the destruction of the island of Krakatoa, whose 120 years anniversary was on 14th May.

We could not understand the Venus/Mars conjunction on the Midheaven but as Sue Carberry mentioned, for years afterwards there were brilliant and beautiful sunsets around the world due to the dust particles deposited in the atmosphere by the explosion and think of all the romantic evenings it caused, and the conjunction was in Aries, ruled by Mars. It took a destructive event to produce the sunsets.!!!

We next did the chart of a member of the audience who had recently started to come to our Monday night meetings. This chart was done in depth by everyone and totally enjoyed by our new friend and by the audience.

Finally I showed the chart of Bob Hope who is 100 years on 29th May. With Moon conjunct Venus in the Ninth house it was so apt that this icon of the 20th Century made his fortune abroad and became famous for his Road movies. Jupiter in the 5th house just showed his zest for life and his acting and singing. What gave him such a long life was considered the Sun trining Saturn 8th to the 4th house. What do you think?

At the end I told everyone to remember that Mercury was due to go forward the next morning and everyone smiled as they now knew they could start doing their horary charts again!!!

Gill Dorren

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion