At the Lodge - 24th May 2004

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

The Lodge was blessed with a record attendance this week. The reason - a wonderful talk by Melanie Reinhart that came from the heart and reached out to us all. The subject was Venus - Queen of Heaven and Earth - who will disappear from the evening sky and return as the Morning Star. She was presented in all her forms from the Greek Aphrodite to the Inca Quetzlcoatle (the morning star) and Xoloti (the evening star) to the story of Inanna.

"The myth of Inanna is a poignant story of the soul maturing from personal to transpersonal love, through confrontation and loss. It is an allegory of the visible movements of the planet and also describes the meaning of Venus in astrology. To marvel at the splendour of Venus poised graciously in the night sky radiating increasing brilliance before disappearing from view, is indeed to contemplate the poignancy of transience and inevitability of loss.

The planet Venus in astrology is about value; of self and others. It concerns what we find worthwhile, what we value, appreciate and seek to attract into our lives. Thus Venus also signifies relationship and represents the energy of Eros or connection, attraction and pleasure, harmony, beauty and joy. Venus addresses how we handle losing these precious experiences and qualities and how we might defend against allowing them at all.

Every 18 months or so, Venus begins a retrograde cycle, where she appears to reverse direction, disappears from view (this year June 2nd), makes a conjunction with the Sun (June 8th, this year a total eclipse), reappears (June 14th) and then turns direct. During these times we are given the opportunity to plumb the depths of our relationships, finish unfinished business, release the past and renew our capacity for love. Love matures in synch with this cycle."

Melanie went on to explain the cycles and in particular the transits of Venus, which occur "in regular rhythm of 243 years. Two occur in December, 8 years apart, followed by a gap of 121.5 years. Then two are in June, also 8 years apart and followed by a gap of 105.5 years. (8+121.5+8+105.5= 243). The transit date migrates slowly through the year and the entire cycles takes more than 80,000 years to complete."

The dates she quoted were - 7.12.1631, 4.12.1639, 6.6.1761, 3.6.1769, 9.12.1874, 6.12.1882, 8.6.2004, 5.6.1012, 10.12.2117, 8.12.2125. She also showed us the most beautiful patterns formed on a computer programme of the Venus cycles. Finally she related the story of Inanna.

Truly a magical evening. Thank you Melanie. We look forward to welcoming you again next year at the Lodge. All text in quotes are from her article on Venus. Melanie Reinhart offers personal readings in London, Bedfordshire and Zurich, as well as phone work at distance. She has 28 years experience in professional astrology. She may be contacted by telephone on +44 (0)8700 11 80 70, or by email.

Members' Classes

Santiago Mantas braved the second of our classes on Fixed Stars and he will also be looking at them again on June 7th. He used charts to explain where the Fixed stars appear and what effect they have on the event. The charts he used were the launch, (31.5.1911: 12:42 - Belfast), departure (10.4.1912: 12:05, Southampton) and sinking of the Titanic (15.3.12: 05.22). The fixed stars he looked at were Mencarb, Pollux, Sheat, Prosion and Mira (Part of Cetus - the whale).

Wallace Hartley, the band leader 2:6:1878, 09:30 Liverpool, UK, played in the band that went on entertaining the passengers while the women and children got on board the lifeboats and his chart also shows connections to the less revered fixed stars.

Other charts were Fritz Haarman, 25:10:1879, Hanover, Germany, the mass murderer and Alexandra the Great, son of Necktanobus, the famous astrologer.

Charts Discussion

Charts discussion started with Helene Schnitzer presenting a fascinating pair of charts. The previous week, the BBC's Panorama programme had investigated a fictionalised terrorist threat to London and the expected response from the emergency services. Her attention was won when they picked a day of a known malefic conjunction - 25th May 2004 conjunction of Mars and Saturn - but proceeded to give exact times for incidents in their scenario. The programme was broadcast on 16 May 2004 at 22.15. The first explosion was on 25th May 2004 at 8.10.

The fist thing which Helene pointed out about the chart for the broadcast, was that the ascendant matched the Sibley chart for the USA and the MC matched the ascendant for 9/11. It was also broadcast at the time when Mercury was just exiting its shadow period - it had regained the position at which it had previously turned retrograde - and was closely conjunct the Moon.

There was a question as to the uniqueness of the chart, wouldn't it have angles like this most weeks? But the diurnal charts moves on about seven degrees a week. The previous weeks would have given an MC of 7 Libra and the following an MC of 22 Libra.

The first explosion was picked for a moment just after the conjunction of Mars and Saturn had risen. The Moon was applying to oppose Neptune and Mercury and the Nodes where closely sextile to the Mars Saturn conjunction. Mercury was also conjunct the United Kingdom 1801 chart Mars. All of this was appropriate for an attack which crippled the transport system and included a gas/chemical attack.

There followed a full and frank discussion about the use of such an examination and how one could use such information. It was decided that personal vigilance was ultimately a private thing but it was endlessly fascinating to see fictional events pick up current patterns in the sky. See Jenni Harte's lecture last week for more on this theme. The link to the BBC page about the programme is

It transpired that one of the main headlines on the 25th very clearly embodied the conjunction of Mars and Saturn in Cancer: "Baby born from frozen sperm".

The second chart we looked at was Condolezza Rice - 14 November 1954, 11.30 CST +6.00, Birmingham AL, USA, 33N32, 86W48. Rating B, from Biography. Her drive and ambition to achieve are shown by the Sun/Venus conjunction right on her MC. Also prominent are a Jupiter/ Uranus conjunction close to her descendant. Mars in Aquarius in the first gives her the physical presence and intellectual weight to drive her forward, while the charismatic MC conjunction clears the path for her.

The Mercury/Neptune and Saturn in her ninth house reflect her academic achievements - she was a professor of political science with a fascination for the USSR - the square to Jupiter and Uranus could sometimes give her more passion than precision. We wondered if she realised where the truth she so shamelessly promulgated lay and we were not at all sure.

Claire Chandler

Lodge Lecture | Members' Classes | Charts Discussion

Books by Melanie Reinhart

Incarnation: The Four Angles and the...

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