At the Lodge - 9th February 2004

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

When I first approached our Beginners Class Tutor to give a talk this term she said she would do one on Synastry. I immediately said yes and asked her to do it on the date nearest Valentine's day. However she told me in no uncertain terms that St Valentine is a Catholic saint and it had nothing to do with Astrology. So this evening Helen Schnitzer treated us to a wonderful demonstration of the true nature of synastry as defined in Astrology.

She started by looking at the chart of the day and explained that we are all working with synastry all the time - between the individual and the moment in time. Valentine's day is just an annually return occurrence. The only Astrological occasion would be the Sun's relationship with the fixed stars around the same degree. They are Sadalmelek at 22 deg 42' and Sadalsuud at 23 degrees. Both these stars are considered lucky by their Arabian names; Sadalmelek meaning 'Lucky One of the King' and Sadalsuud meaning 'Luckiest of the Lucky.' So anyone born on February 14th would have their Sun between 23 and 25 deg of Aquarius and should therefore be born lucky.

She then went on to show us charts of clients who write to her on the website she contributes to in respect of relationships. In order to consider a question on relationships with a certain person you first have to consider the chart of the querent to see how they respond in relationships. Then you can look at the chart of the partner, or lover, and see whether they would relate to them in their quest for a successful partnership. The results were quite surprising. In all instances there was not really any lasting indications. In fact one of them did break up within the time specified by Helene. The truth is that we bring our own expectations into a relationship but we may not be fully aware of what we are bringing in.

Finally she put up two charts to look at. The synastry was perfect for the situation. They were of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr (See our data page for information under the Criminals section).

This was a truly informative evening. Thank you Helene.

Members' Classes

This was the final class in the series on the Zodiac given by Claire Chandler and it was a recap on everything we did previously. So the Planets are the 'what'. The sign is the 'how'. The house is the 'where'. It is split into two with positive - outgoing and negative - receptive. There are the four elements and the three modes. We looked at the chart of Tony Blair to get a flavour of the planets and signs whilst checking Ptolemy's table of Dignities. If a planet has no points it is Peregrine and will be swayed by its ruler.

Claire then explained Antissia, which means a reflective point. So by drawing a line from Cancer to Capricorn and using 0 degrees Cancer as a midpoint you could measure planetary positions round the Zodiac. Partile means a planet with the same degree. Finally we looked at Long and Short Ascension and referred back to Astrid Fallon lecture last week for the link. So lots of information to digest and three very good lessons. Thanks Claire.

Carole West

Charts Discussion

Firstly one of our new members, Brian, gave a short talk on Astrology and the Media - showing the importance of Saturn returns. There are various projects taking place at The Lodge on that issue so will keep you informed.

We then discussed the chart of Democrat - hoping to be new President of USA hopeful - John Kelly. The audience were very sceptical about him although unlike Bush and Blair he did not have a plethora of planets in the 12th house, he did have other indicators of someone not quite telling the truth...

Finally we did the chart of Al Pacino - although done before - he had been a central character on the HBO TV event 'Angels in America' so it was worth another look. He had a wonderful Mars/Venus connection which shows his flirty nature. His Sun/Saturn conjunction shows his tenacity, endurance and his sense of reality to keep him in the public eye for ever. In the house of Venus - his attraction. His Moon in Sagittarius does indicate a jovial optimistic character - what happened?

Gill Dorren

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion