Spring Seminar
Astrological Techniques for a Changing World - 20th March 2005

Morning Session

The day was chaired by Andrew Morton who did a superb job of bringing together a plethora of speakers to 'give us a flavour', in his words, of the title with the theme running through all the lectures.

So the morning started with a wonderful demonstration of Eclipses by our president, Claire Chandler, who is always brave enough to step onto the podium first. We were treated to a series of still and moving pictures of the way eclipses work in the sky, both Solar and Lunar, and the effect they have both before and after the eclipses on the world. It is all about duration, cycles and regions. She explained the traditional way they were viewed and then moved on to the present day. There were also some charts pointing out the effect on the horoscope. It was a great way to start the day.

After the break we were treated to a talk by the first of our visitors from Portugal, Helena Avelar. Helena talked us through the power of Sun and focused particularly on combustion, under the sun's beams, cazimi and eclipses in the horoscope, with many samples to demonstrate this particular phenomena. The Sun is able to empower or destroy the qualities of the planets with its aspects and these very close aspects were the focus of the lecture. It is always a pleasure to welcome Helena who came so far to contribute to the day.

The morning session was completed by the wonderful Mariella Cassar, who has given many classes and lectures at the Lodge. She is an expert in her field and never ceases to zoom in and completely focus on her subject, which was, today, Planetary Sects. She posed the question of why we learn astrology. 2000 years ago there was only one house system, the whole house system. Traditional Astrologers almost always commence by checking whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal. The Sun being the King of the day and the Moon the Queen of the night. She also went on to explain about how the Sun and Moon take on the greater and lesser benefics and malefics, with Mercury acting as the messenger. Of course, then everything is defined by the position of the Sun and Moon in the chart and this affects the other planets. She completed the talk with psychological explanations of this.

Lunch was served in house and cooked in the kitchens of some of the Committee.

This proved to be a success and allowed us all to chat, relax and get to know one another better.

Afternoon Session

After lunch the standard rose even further when our second visitor from Portugal took to the podium. Luis Ribero spoke of the Revolutions of the Art. This entails combining Solar Returns, Profections and other predictive techniques. So he discussed Primary Motions - fate, Planetary periods, or Fidaria - natural timing, the Ages of Man, Zodiacal Profections - one sign per year, Revolution - Solar Returns. This was a fascinating talk, which all of us wanted to continue and put into practice. Unfortunately time was not on our side.

After a break Sue Ward continued the theme with her brilliant explanation of aspects. Sue is a Horary teacher and listening to her explain the way planets aspect each other was enlightening. Her motto for the day was no light, no sight. What I learned was that the planets can actually aspect each other earlier than I thought as they are applying to the orb, aspecting, then separating from the orb. So in effect as one planet separates from another it carries the essence of that planet to the next one - a translation of light. The planets are the 'what' and the houses are the 'where'.

So we came to the final speaker of the day. A past President, Bernard Eccles, looked at Electional Astrology. He explained it as 'This is my purpose, when shall I do it?' So it is about picking the moment and will signify very little unless it corresponds with the Nativity and the time wherein you elect. He went on to explain different traditional meanings, such as 'If you would have anything kept secret let the Moon be under the Sun beams. ' and other such gems. He then showed the chart of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, of the day of the laying of the foundation stone.

So a very big Thank You to the speakers who travelled from far and wide to be with us on the day, a thank you to Andrew for arranging such an interesting day and of course thanks to those on the Committee who worked so hard.

Our next big day is April 24th. The Title is Astrology in Practice. We look forward to seeing you there.

Carole West