At the Lodge - 6th December 2004

Lodge Lecture

Lodge Lecture

We were very fortunate to have Adrian Duncan with us this week. Adrian now lives in Denmark and was able to combine a visit to London with a visit to the Lodge. He began by showing us the chart for the beginning of the lecture as this is where is started when deciding what his talk should be about. Saturn in Cancer is very tightly conjunct the ascendant and this is what gave him the idea for the title. The content, he joked, took slightly longer. The focus was on communicating with the water signs and various techniques which could be used to engage on a non verbal level. Matching the level of communication is essential to effective communication.

He began by asking for a volunteer who had a personal planet in water in trine or sextile to another planet who would be willing to participate in a live example. Our gallant volunteer stepped forward and was then asked to leave the room! This was, of course, so she wouldn't be influenced by Adrian's comments before the work with her chart began.
The key points he highlighted were about the emotional content present with watery personal planets, that when you're experiencing this you tend to glance downwards and that water is also associated with sorrow, although this may be accompanied by a sense of spiritual fulfilment.

Our volunteer's chart showed Sun, Mercury and Venus in Pisces in the tenth with Sun tightly trine to Saturn in Scorpio and Venus and Mercury trine to Uranus in Cancer. Adrian began by asking about her father - Sun trine Saturn. Her father was away, travelling, for several months at a time and would return for short periods before going away again. While he was away, her mother and sisters would tell each other stories and have a fabulous time; when he returned, her mother's attention would, quite naturally, be focussed on her father, leaving her feeling isolated despite his return home. There were other fascinating correlations between her story and her chart: that her father was an aerial photographer, that he was working in Africa during a very turbulent time and that he would return with stories of his adventures and they could be very gruesome.
It was so interesting to see a live demonstration and exceptionally brave of Adrian to attempt this and of our volunteer to stand up and share with us all.

When they had finished their dialogue, Adrian pointed out how her body language had changed and she had gazed downwards when talking about the more emotional matters. If fact, the direction of your gaze is strongly associated with the elements: fire gazes upwards towards the future, air looks out at the same level as the ears and focuses on the word, earth feels things in the body and water gazes downwards and to the right. Gazing downwards and to the left is very analytical and associated with Sun, Mercury and Mercury in Virgo - I can only say guilty as charged.

Adrian then returned to the theme of matching communication styles and showed us the charts of two people who had volunteered to be live examples at a synastry workshop he had run. He had Mercury conjunct Saturn on the descendant in Scorpio and she had Sun conjunct Venus in Gemini in the seventh house. These are two quite different configurations and Adrian explained how he had adopted the body language of the person he was talking to, to aid the communication process. Once they felt listened to, they could accept and understand what was being said.
The theory and many examples are covered in his book - see the link on this page - and I for one have added this to my Christmas list.
This was a wonderful and insightful lecture and we hope very much that Adrian can pop in the next time he comes to London.

The second part of the evening was taken up with the Lodge Ritual: the Rite of the Planets.

Lodge Lecture