Planet Waves FM :: Felix Jumps! & the Candidates’ Charts

Felix Baumgartner jumps from 24 miles up in the atmosphere.

In this edition of Planet Waves FM, I cover Felix Baumgartner jumping from 24 miles high — and compare this to the chart of the Wright Brothers first historic flight at Kitty Hawk. Here are charts for both Felix jumping as well as the first flight. I also cover the charts of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Here is your program in the old player, where you’ll find the full archives and a downloadable zip file.

Eric Francis

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27 thoughts on “Planet Waves FM :: Felix Jumps! & the Candidates’ Charts”

  1. Fascinating find re: the GC and these big leaps into the unknown via aviation. Eric your podcast inspired me to try my hand at more research along your lines. I decided to look up another big leap into the Unknown; the Moon landing….following your lead I used Houston Texas since Mission Control was the Terrestrial anchor-point of this event and the time there was 3:10 pm when the Apollo lander touched down (from the articles I found on the subject). And sure enough….there are interesting features on this chart as well that correlate to both the charts you have here in this article.
    But here we have an exact conjunction of Uranus-Jupiter at 0 LIB – (Aries point activation) with the Moon (fittingly) conjoined at 7 LIB, all opposite Chiron Rx (06 Aries) which is trine Mars ( 02 SAG – again that Mars in SAG tho it is early this time) with the Stellium sextiling the Sun ( 28 Can) ..all this making a lovely Kite formation… High flying indeed! But there is also Pallas right ON the GC as well. The GC is not so neatly activated as in the two charts you mention, but there are many other synchronicities to observe to tie all 3 charts together.
    I’m sure that other PW Astrologers will find more linkages than I have mentioned here, but your podcast was a good jumping off spot (pun intended) for me to have fun doing my own explorations….thanks!
    Cool beans!

  2. I am so struck by the Icarus mythology here. How interesting it would be to see and listen a reading about Icarus’ chart.

  3. Alex I’m not sure, but the astrologer knowing that the client is taurus will fashion his words so that the taurus can understand what the astrology says. At least this has been my experience as a client. The astrologer sometimes even stops and says no no as a pisces this; and so: that

    For me that is the beauty of astrology it really is like an haute couture map. A real tool. Highly useful. And each astrologer has a different take.

    If ever I am really stuck I seek out an astrologer. Not only do I often gain clear insight, but also sometimes ongoing things like I don’t think that so I think… that! or even the astrologer is a synchronicity themself as once happened to me: a native of Zimbabwe where I was born and the most important thing (perhaps) that day was aside when she said that many people who come to her born between UDI and Independence experience a sort of exile and for her this was not surprising given that after UDI the whole world turned its back on Rhodesia – quite a weight on the national psyche, and that after Independence in effect the natal country no longer existed. ie feelings of Exile.

  4. Compersion

    Perhaps it is the added dimension of myth. I’ve sometimes heard Marxists saying Marxism is alot like Christianity but better, but there isn’t that element of ‘meaning’ or symbol. I was interested too by the son of a famous bishop/theologian (he had one of his Dad’s books in his waiting room and it is one of my Father’s favourite books). We got talking. He said he had lived in France and loved it, but finally came back to the UK:

    Because the disestablishment of the State and Church in 1906 (France) meant that the schools are secular and most kids don’t have frames of reference that include, love, grace, redemption, faith etc tho is there is plenty of aesthetic sense.

    A couple of years ago I was talking to a very educated guy and he said he couldn’t see the point of sci fi. And I struggled but I think it is to do with left right brain integration, and that different things speak to the different sides of the brain.

    As a child I had a big bedroom surrounded by a verander. in the middle of the bush there was no light pollution and on the days where there was no moon it was dark. The light switch was 14 feet from my bed and when I woke up in the night I was too scared to go and turn it on. If I looked at the window I couldn’t see anything. But there was a window on two walls at right angles and I could see the outline of that window staring at the other window and squinting. And if I looked at the corner of the wall in between the two windows I could see both.

    Left and right brain too I think. And integration.

    ?

  5. Ah… the ‘c’ word again…

    There are several things I could say about love/compersion and cause/effect parallels in motivation/behaviour but I’m not going to mention them in any depth. However, there is something curious about psychological astrology that I have been mulling over for a while..

    In essence, if we use a particular approach to astrology where the outcome delineation is largely consistent (as a psycho-spiritual approach) with what a psychological evaluation might conclude, given the presenting evidence but minus a chart.. what are we to make of the astrological personalities?

    Let me focus that question with a different one (bringing compersion in as an example)..

    Essentially, is compersion for a Solar Pisces the exact same experience as for, say, a solar Capricorn or solar Leo?

    And the follow-up question of.. If not, and therefore we cannot expect compersion to manifest behaviourally as a monolith across the signs, what model have we got that is astrological rather than psychological for how compersion manifests according to the uniqueness of the *individual* within the parameters of their Sun sign?

    I see this working out on other levels too. How can aspects like oppositions and squares be expected to work out? Imagine *exactly* the same chart for twelve people except with the Sun moved around 30 degrees for all twelve signs..

    Similarly as with a notion of compersion, how would say a moon/Uranus opposition be delineated with reference to the characteristics of the solar placement (which may not even be classically aspected to the configuration)? Would a Taurean be expected to encounter the opposition in exactly the same way as a Sagittarian?

    Most aspectual delineations make no reference outside the laboratory conditions of the aspect structure.. This to me is one of the anomalies of psychological astrology.. that the astrology is placed squarely in service of the psychology.. I wonder whether the current trend toward traditional and Vedic approaches (predicated upon a dissatisfaction in many quarters with the Psychological Astrology birthed in the 70s) is a reaction not to the astrological part of the piece but the psychological one?

    The whole western project is, as we know, intrinsically dualistic (whether it be the languages of love and trust and the need for neologisms to counterveil the distortions, or our very thought/conceptuality structures), where astrology is intrinsically pluralistic..

    Maybe psychology has had its day but we just haven’t realised it fully yet.

  6. “i had not thought to take the word “compersion” out of the context of sexual relationships, but it totally fits here.”

    “it’s about wanting others to exceed you, in whatever way they can.”

    Well then. I have been practicing compersion for 20 years as of this Sunday…..with my kids. The twins will be 20 this Sunday and I have been wanting them (and their younger sister and brother) to exceed me (and Dave feels the same compersion with them) in every way they can.

    Dave and I also feel it with each other too. Any time either of us succeeds (or even tries) in something, the other is happy for and supportive of that.

    So it IS possible to practice compersion in a lot of different ways. Thanks for pointing that out! It makes a lot of sense!

  7. You nailed the astrology on Romney and Obama! Nice work.

    One thing I might add to Romney’s Venus is Aquarius placement is that the man clearly is only able to relate to people though the values of money and business. To Romney, the worth of people he encounters is determined by their net worth. He’s plenty easy to get along with, just so long as you have lots of money and speak the language of the plutocratic business elite. Otherwise you’re a nobody to him, and have nothing in common.

  8. I know what you mean — though for most people, love is often loaded with an ammo belt of ifs, ands and buts. I strongly suggest we set aside the concept for a while, along with ‘god’ and a few other things.

    It’s not that I don’t trust love. It’s that I don’t trust what [most] people mean when they say the word.

  9. It is love, but love is a loaded word and concept. So I prefer to leave it out of the explanation, because words that convey no meaning, or conflicting meaning, only confuse matters, when the idea is to clarify things. Compersion is just as much about trust, which is what I think most people wish love would be.

  10. it’s about wanting others to exceed you, in whatever way they can. We expect the guy with the old record to be jealous of the younger guy who is trying to break the record, rather than to help him.

    and yes — love gets you there…

  11. Yep, that man, Eric. If you have the time, checking out the complete coverage of the event was enlightening to say the least.

    http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-team/joe-kittinger/

    Many skydivers come down to Florida for the very reason you mentioned Amanda: the weather. Our local drop zones have people from all over the planet that come to jump; individuals and teams from Europe, the Middle East, northern America, you name it. Safety is first, so having patience with the elements is really important. Some people push it, especially when they are young. Not uncommon though, just to hang out and let the weather pass.

    I sent all that info about Kittinger because it is just so cool that he is who he is and they continue to do what they do. Felix made a comment that he hopes to be standing next to someone carrying on, [as he was hugging Kittinger] daring to do more, just like Kittinger does for him. I don’t have the quote, but it was very touching.

    I think it was about 1:20+pm/eastern when Felix surpassed that record altitude.

    Everyone thinks this will be a big boost for skydiving in general.

  12. << Amazingly, Kittinger is the man you saw/ heard talking and encouraging Felix throughout this weekend’s attempt at Red Bull’s Mission Control. >>

    WHAT! That’s who that was!!!!! The guy talking about guardian angels, who looked like Santa??

  13. gwind — yes, i *loved* that the person walking felix through things from ground control was kittinger! 🙂 it made me really happy to see him excited about this record being broken.

    and congrats to your husband. 2,000 jumps? holy cow. i have a close friend (who was inspired this summer by my facing the challenges of going to burning man on my own this summer) who is revisiting his dormant dream of skydiving. unfortunately, his first three scheduled jumps have all been canceled (weather twice, engine trouble once).

    he has scheduled one more time, the last chance before he has to wait until the spring to try again. he is certainly determined! and i keep wondering what message the cosmos is sending by diverting him from this goal repeatedly. it might simply have to do with expectations and non-attachment, i suppose!

  14. Joe Kittinger, the original record holder that Baumgartner surpassed, jumped from a high altitude balloon at 102,800 feet, breaking four world records on August, 16, 1960. On that jump he suffered a tear in his pressurized suit that he didn’t tell anyone about it fearing that the mission would be halted. His right hand swelled twice its normal size, but he still made the jump. If you think of how technology has changed, imagine setting that record in 1960. In one of his other attempts Kittinger blacked out from a malfunction. Kittinger was a Vietnam Vet, a fighter pilot, shot down and held prisoner for eleven years in the “Hanoi Hilton.”

    Amazingly, Kittinger is the man you saw/ heard talking and encouraging Felix throughout this weekend’s attempt at Red Bull’s Mission Control. He was an active member of their team.

    Kittinger was born July 27, 1928

    On Red Bull Stratos sight you can see some of his pictures. http://www.redbullstratos.com/gallery/?mediaId=media1867

    It was an amazing day. On a personal note, my husband, jumped his 2,000th skydive while Felix was rising to jump his record. My husband, and 21 others, one who was having his 3,000th! jump, formed a 22-way formation in the sky, landed, and they all ran in to see the drop zone’s TV for the last 20,000 ft. ascent and Felix’s jump. Whew. What an exciting day!

  15. i woke up to this piece being played on the radio in honor of yesterday’s earthquake here, but i think it’s fitting for felix, too. it’s the opening to strauss’s “thus spake zarathustra,” known as “sunrise,” but popularized as the opening of kubrick’s “2001: a space odyssey.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-2ed2hY6Ck

    🙂

  16. “Either your signature or your brains on the contract”… wow. Thanks, Eric, for another rich and fascinating PW FM, and for more of the wonderful Sloan Wainright.

  17. between the presidential debate tonight and the earthquake here in maine, FB was the most amusing it’s been in *months*. 🙂

    favorite comment: that the quake was really just felix landing.

    i have to say, if you have not watched any of the video or newscasts about this, do so. it’s pretty amazing. and… breathtaking. free-falling for **4** minutes? even without the speed he was going, that’s a loooooooong time to fall. wow.

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