Astrology Quarterly - Astronomy - Heavens Above

A S Morton

Heavens Above - November 2007

Have you noticed how the pace of scientific and astronomical exploration and discovery seems to be accelerating? Concerns about planet Earth’s continuing habitability may well be on the increase as awareness of how destructive our species has been, and continues to be, to our planet is becoming more widespread with public and media analysis and debate on the effects of ‘global warming’ and the like, but so in the same timeframe our understanding of what else might be out there in the ‘big blue yonder’ and the intrinsic nature of universal design and composition is also growing at something like the same rapid pace. Major discoveries of the recent past seemed to be announced about every year or so, at best, but these days there are almost monthly and occasionally even weekly scientific proclamations of sometimes astonishing proportions. Our cosmological perspective is being updated at an incredible rate. Yesterday’s science fiction is fast becoming today’s science fact, and in some cases even more so than had been imagined. It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep abreast of the incessant bombardment of information coming our way but yet at the same time, strangely enough, perhaps becoming less difficult for us to believe and accept the vast majority of these amazing revelations. We no longer seem to question, like in the not-so-distant past, the ostensibly outrageous claims of modern scientists. It’s as if we somehow always knew, and know, intuitively what the truth is when it is revealed to us.

This is a somewhat bizarre phenomenon.

The faster we separate ourselves from the natural physical world and progressively engage with a technologically determined lifestyle and environment then the more the natural world surrounding us and upon which we ultimately depend is being damaged, eroded and progressively destroyed, either with or without our conscious and willing consent. We have set a process in motion, a process that we may now be unable to stop let alone reverse, and planet Earth does not have a retrograde part to its cycle.

So what is this process that we have initiated and how did it come about? Well, if you listen to the politicians and the media you’ll get the standard reasons that apportion blame to everyone and everything except the real culprit in all of this; a part of human nature itself, that part of us that is greedy, power hungry and selfish, that part of us that takes what we want, when we want, by whatever means necessary, and ignores the consequences of our actions. That part of us that denies responsibility, that points the finger elsewhere, and simply carries on with the same destructive attitudes and activities. This is not simply the instinctive animal trait within us of the so-called ‘survival of the fittest’, it’s not even survival of the species, in fact it’s quite the opposite, it’s a process that will inevitably lead to the destruction of the species. This is a bringing of everything down to its most basic form while cocooning ourselves in some alcoholic or designer drug induced haze, prescription or street it matters not, living life through TV’s, computers or playstations and walking around with mobile phones or ipod’s or both glued to our ears so that in all of this we don’t at any point have to interface with whatever or whomever else is out there. So what is the ‘real’ world really like these days? Do we remember? Do we want to be reminded?

But if we decide just for a moment to take a couple of steps backwards from this picture and adopt, albeit temporarily, a more Aquarian-styled objective viewpoint on this scenario, an astrological perspective perchance, then what might we come up with as some form of understandable reasoning for this happenstance? Perhaps it might just be, as far-fetched as on first sight it might appear, that we astrologers have in some small way contributed to the unedifying global situation that we all now find ourselves in. Gasp! Shock horror! How outrageous, ridiculous, naive etc., etc! Have we not willingly, nay enthusiastically, assisted in the unleashing of the demons that now confront, confound and increasingly control us?

Because what we are witnessing could well be described as the evolving and all-pervasive manifestation of those ‘unseen to the naked eye’ outer planets that we have embraced so readily and accredited with powers way beyond the abilities of that safe, protective, visible Saturnian boundary wall to manage and contain them on our behalf. Once you let the genie out of the jar it’s pretty difficult, if not impossible, to decide you were better off before you took the lid off. It might have seemed an irresistible offer to be granted those three outer planet wishes but unless you phrase your requests precisely right then what you get is not what you thought you’d asked for. An ‘offer you can’t refuse’ of the worst type, perhaps?

Deciding to no longer call Pluto a planet did not and does not in any way negate the destructive power that’s been released, the ‘transformation’ that has been evoked where death is an implicit part of that euphemistically termed process. The devil’s been let out to play and he’s not going to stop unless and until everything has been razed to the ground no matter what one might do or say to try and placate him. We dived head first into that Neptunian bubble, the ultimate ‘great escape’, only to discover that however well we thought we could swim it’s not the kind of swimming that is required for his eternal oceans. No lifebelt to hand on this particular voyage; just float away to some ethereal dream world. Bliss indeed.

But some small assistance might be to hand from a somewhat unexpected source. Even while the security and wholeness of that which we already have is being undermined and destroyed around us, the scientific and astronomical communities, generally misunderstood to be the sworn enemies of astrology and astrologers, are finding us another safe haven. Somewhere out there in the ‘heavens above’ lies future-world, our future home. Our old friend Uranus may have tossed us an increasing array of electronic and electrical gadgetry to amuse ourselves with 24/7 but elsewhere he’s been providing the necessary technological expertise to explore our hidden universe and supplying the insight and awareness, as well as the scientific understanding, to home in what we need for the survival of our species, our next planet Earth, our home-from-home so to speak.

And only very recently, in April of 2007, came the announcement in the world’s media that they might have actually found one, a candidate extra solar (exo) planet, Gliese 581 C as named after the star it is orbiting, within the ‘habitable zone’ of a cool red dwarf amongst the stars of the constellation Libra, no less, some 20 light years away. It is one and a half times as big as Earth and five times more massive and is the smallest terrestrial-like exoplanet thus far detected. Being in the habitable ‘goldilocks’ zone suggests that the planet has the necessary conditions for water and therefore the possibility of sustaining life as we understand it assuming a compatible atmosphere. Puzzlingly though the planet orbits its parent star in a mere 13 days (how do you do a 13 day year?) and since the star is that much cooler than our own Sun the surface temperature of the planet is still only in the range of 0 to 40?C, comfortable enough by our own standards here on Earth.

However, most of this is somewhat hypothetical and has been postulated by not particularly precise scientific techniques which will require considerable advancement in technologies to be able to confirm these findings more substantially. But already it’s happening, possibilities are being uncovered, things are moving at such an alarming rate that the very first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b (“Bellerphon”), was only discovered as recently as 1990 and now there are well over 230 recorded discoveries. Is this something that we are able to embrace? And if so, then how? And if not, then why?

As astrologers, perchance we’ve explored our psyche, both individually and collectively, redrawn the map of our inner landscapes, metaphorically peered in wonder up our own backsides as it were, channeled words of wisdom from Tibetan monks on the top of mountains, agonized over our soul’s purpose, dreamed up hypothetical planets, revisited apparent past lives and discovered we’ve all been an Egyptian princess or Pharaoh or Joan of Arc or some such other famous historical character, but we’ve never wholeheartedly engaged with science, whatever we might define that to be, not since the very beginnings of this state-of-the-art ancient Greek mathematical and scientific system that we’ve inherited, the science of Saturn perchance. What we haven’t yet managed is to develop a thoroughly Uranian type of astrology, which is a very odd thing indeed particularly as many would have Uranus as the planetary ruler of astrology whilst simultaneously being the planetary ruler of modern science to boot. (Now there’s a latter-day astrological paradox that requires some resolution!) Somehow or another it seems to have passed us by, a scientific Uranian astrology that is, it may have come briefly but then it left again almost as quickly.

Where are the current crop of Copernicus’s, Tycho Brahe’s, Galileo Galilei’s, Kepler's, Newton's etc., that long list of significant peoples that reads like a who’s who of scientific, astronomical and astrological revolution and evolution? Where are those minds in today’s world that might draw together and take forward those purportedly disparate but inter-dependant disciplines? Because unless some brave souls step up to the plate soonish we might well be in danger of being hung out with the dirty washing of public disdain and in some quarters that process appears to be already underway. Sun sign columns are ironically the only facet of our craft that is sustaining us in the public domain, and yet simultaneously those very practitioners are internally pilloried by many within their own community. Weird or what? Talk about ‘shooting the messengers’!

Yes, of course, there are some astrological concepts and techniques which are termed ‘Uranian’, mostly from the Hamburg and one or two other German astrological schools of thought, but they have merely scratched the surface of what Uranian astrology has the potential to be. Note how few so-called leading astrologers of today have trodden in the footsteps of the Witte’s, Ebertins, Addeys and Hardings. These are the real pioneers of developmental astrology, taking us forwards to the future not backwards to the past or seducing us sideways into some other currently fashionable whatever-ology and thereby diluting and diminishing the self-sufficiency and integrity of our art. Are we really so insecure in what we believe and practise that we need to hitch a ride on something else’s bandwagon?

What we’re talking about here is an astrology that is evolved from and informed by a swelling pool of scientific knowledge, one that deals in information not hearsay, the hand-me-downs of astrological musings that masquerade as, and are paraded by some as being, ‘knowledge’. This is an evolving knowledge that extends our understanding and awareness beyond the limitations of the physical constraints of our known world, beyond the Saturnian barrier reef. And yet does not undermine or dissolve that cherished Saturnian wisdom but values, enhances and supplements it, dealing in the mysteries of the ‘not visible’ whilst Saturn retains mastery of that which can be seen, heard, touched etc. and therefore ‘believed’. A dialogue perhaps between the old and the new, the physical and the invisible, tradition and technology, an accommodation of sorts between son and father, the ostracized and the castrated, the constrained and gloomy introspection of the past and the bright white light of unfolding universal truths. That is the coming opportunity, one that should be firmly and confidently grasped lest we descend into being permanently considered simply as a part of the ‘tealeaf brigade’ or some other put-down ‘alternative’ label.

So, is all of the aforesaid simply exaggeration for effect? Letting off steam? Conjecture? Mere whimsy? Space cadet fodder even? Perchance, as in its embryonic intention, it might be viewed as being opinion expressed from a basis of belief in what the future potentials might hold. Opinion expressed gives rise to the possibility of dialogue, what more can one ask? Be that as it may, however, as our situation currently stands which of us is entirely equipped to foretell the future? Who can predict with unerring certainty, can perform our art in its most perfect form? If any one of us, at this time, is even remotely tempted to raise their hand in the affirmative to those questions, then please take heed – the men in white coats will be arriving very soon. I’m off – just in case there’s some mix-up with mistaken identities!

Time enough will tell of course but it is now timely to turn our attentions to the here and now and what is unfolding out and up there in our heavens above as visible with our own unaided eyes from this truly magic roundabout of ours. It’s often very exciting to discover what else is out there but, curiously, sometimes the more you learn what else there is the more you value and appreciate what you already have beneath your feet and above your head. Long may that continue.

Planetwatch

Those darkening and increasingly black skies of winter are descending rapidly and against that backdrop all the stars and planets appear to have been given an extra special polish and sparkle at this time of the year.

From the very early hours onwards the pre-dawn skies of the rising horizon in the east is the most satisfying direction to turn one’s eyes this month. The swift and surprisingly bright MERCURY can be located sitting perkily just above the eye line o’er yonder and the first half of November is pretty well as good as it gets to grab a Horus-sized eyeful of the elusive charmer as a shining morning star. We can all catch VENUS, and boy does she like to be caught, with admiring eyes anyway, but spotting MERCURY is either a happy happenstance or requires foresight and some carefully detailed planning. He’s in the constellation of Virgo just now so perhaps the latter methodology might give rise to a less frustrating outcome. And generally it’s well worth the effort because spying MERCURY in all his morning glory can be quite unexpectedly delightful and tends to linger in the memory for some while afterwards.

MERCURY turns stationary direct on the very first day of the month, rising some 40 minutes before the Sun, around 05.25am London GMT, and with the bright star Spica just below and to the right of him. Here is sort of home-from-home for MERCURY and since he is in the process of changing direction and has little or no impetus at this time he does appear to loiter in the vicinity for a few days. Then in the twinkling of an eye he’s up and away, stretching himself out from the Sun to his position of greatest elongation 19° West (of the Sun i.e. rising ahead of the Sun as a morning object) by as soon as the 8th of the month, the wafer thin crescent of a decaying Moon sliding silently close by in those brief moments before twilight. This crone of a Moon is really quite slight as she heads towards apogee, furthest distance away from the Earth in her monthly cycle and coincidentally the furthest distance of the year at 406,672 kms on the following day, the 9th, when she is also then re-seeded out of the dark into newness.

This Moon was previously at perigee, closest to the Earth in her cycle, last month on the 26th October when she also happened to be at her shortest distance of the year of 356,753 kms and she was indeed full. You might have noticed a particularly large Moon at that time which is hardly surprising and, yes, she really was that up close and personal. The difference in these two distances of 49,919 kms gives an indication of how substantially elliptic her orbit around us can get. That perfect circle just simply never happens.

Between the 6th–12th are probably the best days to schedule MERCURY - spotting alarm calls as he achieves peak altitude of about 10° above the horizon during this period and is rising as much as 2 hours before sunrise, although he should remain reasonably accessible to the naked eye until well into the second half of the month, the 20th or so, but increasingly low down in the east and with a diminishing viewing window. Catch him if you can. Mind you, one’s best intentions in this can so easily go awry as higher up in the pre-dawn skies lies a vision of supreme celestial loveliness that draws one into pupil-enlarging raptures at very first glimpse. MERCURY - spotting is much akin to hard graft compared to this delicious eye-candy and his window of opportunity can easily be filled by delightful and diverting distractions before said mission is accomplished.

VENUS, of course, is the heavenly jewel that effortlessly catches the attentions higher up in the skies. Rising some four hours before the Sun in the SE at around 3.00am GMT London-time she moves quite quickly and effortlessly from the constellation of Leo into the constellation of Virgo as the month commences. MERCURY is also in the constellation of Virgo but as it is one of the very biggest of all the constellations in the heavens above by area and length along that yellow-brick road of the ecliptic, there is still quite some distance between them in celestial longitude, over 30°. MERCURY is hanging about and VENUS is gliding along as serenely as the proverbial swan, therefore catching him up. He’s at home and she’s popped in for visit, hardly a cup-of-tea one though unless served ‘high’ with the regulation cucumber sandwiches, and of course he’s always had a soft spot for her. Mind you her standard reply to his adolescent mutterings is to tell him to come back when he’s grown up which we all know, including the both of them, will never quite happen so it’s nothing more than a bit of harmless fun of the light entertainment variety. Within a few days only, MERCURY, having had a little play and received the inevitable mild rebuke, is off and away, no harm done.

We are beginning to separate in our orbital paths, Earth and VENUS that is, so VENUS’s brightness is just dropping off a little from its earlier peak and as we come close to month’s end, on the 29th, VENUS arrives at that position in the sky where MERCURY started the month, up and slightly to the left of Spica, but a whole month has passed in the intervening period and the sky has shifted roughly two hours westward in the meantime, not accounting for the additional one hour shift which happened when the clocks went back before the end of October.

Even higher up in the skies is SATURN, rising earlier than VENUS at some five hours before the Sun and just after midnight. He’s going through the transformation from morning star to night time beacon which undoubtedly will suit him much better and any recent uncertainties and misgivings over earlier misguided events and thwarted escapades are slowly giving way to more stability and surety of purpose. And about time too, if SATURN loses the plot then what hope for the rest of the system. He may seem a bit dour at times but it is a necessary attribute in order to keep everything in balance and allow others to have something and someone to rely on whilst they indulge their individual preferences.

Speaking of which, that mobster MARS, meantime, is even further round the sky and almost running amok. He’s got himself into an awkward jam in the middle of those Gemini boys due to some inexplicable rush of blood to the head and he’s looking for the nearest exit. He’s big, he’s bold (or foolish – take your pick!) and getting redder in the face by the minute, either through embarrassment or anger or frustration at the spot of bother he’s got himself into. Come the 15th of the month it’s perfectly clear there’s only one viable option available and that’s to get out the way he came in, so he stops and then starts the process of reversing himself backwards, not his favoured gear of course and it doesn’t work quite as smoothly as the forward ones such that MARS going retrograde is not an entirely comfortable experience for either him or anything he comes across, roughly once every two years being quite often enough for all concerned. The expression “an accident waiting to happen” is something of the flavour of this one perhaps.

Superior planets, and MARS is the first planet outwards from Earth therefore termed ‘superior’, turning retrograde is an indication that opposition is close to hand, opposition to the Sun that is, and retro gradation starts around the point of the cycle where the planet is in a closing trine to the Sun.

It was in determining the geometric rationale of retrogradation that caused Copernicus to arrive at the unavoidable conclusion that the planets, and particularly Earth, all orbited the Sun rather than everything orbiting around us.

Copernicus, nonetheless, still maintained those orbits as being circular and it wasn’t until Kepler got hold of Tycho Brahe’s impeccable observational data of the orbit of MARS, having one of the most eccentric and frustratingly difficult to explain orbital patterns, that the concept of elliptical orbits came to be the only possible explanation for what is going on out there in our solar system.

Up in our heavens above MARS is currently positioned amongst that familiar grouping of winter night time constellations: Gemini, Taurus, Auriga and Orion, and is a striking sight to behold in a cold, clear sky. These are visually some of the strongest constellations and big, bold MARS is quite obviously the stand-out reddish shining object. Rising in the early evening over in the east MARS is visible all night long and dominates the night skies, coming to the meridian and his best viewing in the early hours.

JUPITER, however, is in decline and is but a pale shadow of his former summer self, lingering briefly as a fading evening star in the southwest at dusk in the first part of the month. By mid-month he’s gone, swallowed up in the afterglow of the setting Sun and on a similar journey to that great creator god, rebirth, renewal, see you next year.

Unseen but certainly not forgotten, URANUS in the constellation of Aquarius turns stationary direct on the 24th of the month, setting around the midnight hour by month’s end, NEPTUNE in Capricornus having followed JUPITER over the horizon some few hours earlier.

© A.S.Morton – November 2007