Now that the Friday edition of Planet Waves is on its way to subscribers, I can get back to audio coverage of the NCGR conference. (This will update about four times a day, so check back regularly.) NCGR stands for National Council for Geocosmic Research; that’s a fancy way of saying a bunch of astrologers get together every couple of years and share notes, teach classes and workshops, and several hundred punters come from around the country and listen to what we have to say.
This is one of the main ways people learn astrology — at these hotel conferences put on by different organizations. It’s one of the pre-internet methods, another being reading books, classes in the dining room, and mail correspondence courses. So this kind of event is a bit of a throwback to the days before the iPhone.
NCGR has been around for 39 years and has about 20 chapters in the United States and abroad — from New Jersey to Turkey to Mexico to New York City. I’m not sure what karmic connection I have to this bunch, but it’s friendly and useful; it started with one of my best early (and current) astrology mentors, David H. Arner. He has been involved with NCGR for decades.
The conference has been kind enough to invite me onto the faculty; I am the only person presenting on the newly discovered planets. Tomorrow I will teach my class, using Chiron, Nessus and Eris as examples. My only regret is that I don’t get to teach all day, every day (nobody does).
Last night at the faculty cocktail party, I slipped into the table where Rob Hand was sitting. I am an unabashed groupie; as a benefit, I ended up with about an hour of tutoring on questions I’d been saving up for a couple of years. Mostly it was a Sagittarius-styled conversation of philosophy. Rob basically proved that science as we know it would not have been possible without monotheistic religion. In effect, he said, science is monotheism, without God. After years of covering dioxin scandals, I would agree.
I will be back in a little while with more audio coverage on PlanetWaves.FM.
This was originally a comment to the 20 years ago/ancient astrology post.
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Michael Lutin once said that I fell through the roof of astrology. Among the places I landed was the kitchen table of David Arner, who I adopted as one of my mentors – and he was a fan of Rob Hand, and was also onto Project Hindsight from the early days. This was in 1995 and Hindsight was just two years into its work. I then went to the third PHASE conference in 1996, in Ithaca. It was heady stuff, but I remember quite a few things that I learned there. (There was one moment of walking into a motel room in Ithcaca where a bunch of half-drunk astrologers were using ancient techniques they had just learned, and a set of Tinker Toys, applying them to Rob Hand’s natal chart and building this contraption that somehow represented the astrology. I am sure nobody could do this a second time.)
Anyway it’s fun to be here in the astrology world with some journalism skills. Astrology itself doesn’t get enough coverage from the inside, and you have to know a little about something to write about it. (Ken Kesey once advised young writers to ‘write what you don’t know’, and I agree with that too.)
The risk of journalism is that it’s contemporaneous writing — you do it fast, in the moment. There is going to be a loss of accuracy (at times) and the gain of an immediate impression. So I am really happy to correct or clarify errors, if I agree there is an issue. Fortunately, I like to get to the bottom of things (Pluto on my nadir, perhaps) and I tend to have good access to people with information. What I learned as a young journalist is that if I am willing to listen and ask real questions, article subjects will generally talk till I actually understand what they are saying. I am not afraid to say, “Sorry, I don’t understand” three or four times. The reward for the one giving the interview is that their ideas get put into writing accurately; and most people who talk to journalists have not had all positive experiences.
I’ve come out of this weekend with two new goals as an astrology writer — no, make that three.
One is to learn the history of how we think of the modern planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. There is a history here. We are in a phase of discovery and I think that astrology, as it teeters on the brink of trying to understand the new planets, needs to recognize that it’s been delineating new planets since the 18th century. The process churns and grinds along, but few are expressing methods of working with the new planets and the ideas they represent. And let the record reflect that in the early 21st century, conference presentations are indeed rare events.
If we can see how we came to understand Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, we will learn a lot. Now, the ancient stuff is changing this — astrologers are starting to challenge (or allow to be challenged) the notion that the three modern planets (as they are called) rule Aquarius, Pisces and Scorpio (respectively).
Second project is to document the history of the Sun sign horoscope column. I learned that this has its roots in an earlier tradition, the almanac. Sun signs are a vital part of astrology because they are where astrology meets the actual public. And they require an astrologer to give interpretations that a person can actually understand. There is no room for theory. You have to say what you mean, and therefore you have to have some meaning to say.
I have long proposed that astrology put its best writers into the Sun sign columns, rather than, well, rather than anyone else it might put there. Some have no astrology training at all. Written properly, Sun sign columns depend on many ancient techniques.
Third is to write a monograph about how to work with the new discoveries. Not so much a book that ‘tells you what they mean’ but rather a juicy essay giving ideas about how to make your own discoveries and apply them in your work; about how to blend the astronomy, the mythology, your own research and the research of others.
I had a lot of fun doing that timeline of the discoveries, which I had not set down on paper till this weekend — I would recite it from memory. However, I’ve had a cold since late last week and my mind was foggy and I thought I better work from some kind of an outline.
Note, in my long phone call with Rob Hand this afternoon — I really love listening to him, so it’s great that he loves to talk — he said that Fritz Brunhubner book on Pluto from the 1930s was indeed translated to English and has been published by the American Federation of Astrologers (AFA) press. I will look for a copy — and correct my timeline, below.
If anyone out there has any old monographs on Uranus, Neptune or Pluto, or journal articles, or knows someone who has a clue, please send them my way.
PS, point four. Ongoing goal, since the beginning — astrology (as a field) does not deal with sexual subject matter with any real understanding or passion or openness, that I have seen. Like most places, there is a special avoidance in the current era. Therefore, I will continue to put Betty Dodson’s natal chart up on the screen at every conference I teach at, and keep a real, live, hot, friendly sexual conversation going wherever I happen to be editing or writing.
Louise Luna:
‘I LIKE YOUR CHRIST, BUT NOT YOUR CHRISTIANS” –This is usually attributed to Gandhi. And so true, sadly.
What Rob is saying is that philosophically, monotheism paved the way for science to come along as the next religion. I cover scientific fraud, and you would be amazed at how religious those guys are: dioxin is the holy communion. Put it on your Cheerios.
re: Chile Earthquake astrological info below, forgot to say that the 1541 chart for Santiago has Mars at 25 pisces 48, where transiting Uranus is today at 25 Pisces 33. No surprise in the astrology, huh?
For that matter, Ceres in the 1541 chart is at 22 Capricorn 56, conjunct Venus at 22+ Cap (and near today’s north node at 20 Cap), sextile that Mars in Pisces and they in turn are forming a birthchart yod to that chart’s Jupiter at 24 Leo 17 retrograde.
That 1541 chart Jupiter in Leo is opposite the present day Mercury/Neptune conjunction at 26+ Aquarius.
With Ceres involved, and conjunct Venus, it would seem food would be arriving to the Chilean victims as aid from the rest of the world.
For the astrologically inclined, I looked at a chart for Santiago, Chile (not Chili as I said earlier. . .sleepy and hungry) for 2/12/1541, per Wikipedia info, and it has Uranus at 17 Leo 48 retrograde.
A chart for Santiago dated today at 3;34 AM local time has 19+ Capricorn rising and Venus at 19+ Pisces, 3rd house, forming a sextile.
The Moon in the 8th house at 18 Leo 25 is conjunct the Santiago birthchart Uranus and creates the focal point to the yod created with the asc./Venus sextile. Saturn is on the MH.
Dear Eric: Good for you on your non-disclosure efforts. We don’t belong to anyone, but ourselves, however, as someone who has studied astrology for 40 years, one can’t help but “read” people, and to communicate directions/areas or explanations, if you will, about the soul force of our chart. Our natal chart is our map in life, and then of course, applying progression charts. In truth, I can’t help but in conversation with anyone, apply astrological application. Sometimes the eyes will glaze over, but people are always interested in themselves, and there is no blame, for by being truly intimate with ourselves and our place in the Cosmic puzzle, can we find our true place.
I cannot imagine an earthquake of an 8.8 magnitude. Having lived in L.A. for 25 years and going through numerous earthquakes, including the Northridge one on Jan. 17, 1994, which I believe was in the area of 6.5, and in a city that is uber earthquake prepared, still left the city in shambles, and of course killed people.
As to monotheism, I don’t think I’ve ever met a scientist that believes in a God system. If you can’t see it, touch it, examine it, nor explain it, then there is no absolute proof. I personally believe in the Universe and a Cosmic plan, and soul force, and quantum physics. It’s not believing in God that worries me, but in rabid, mis-directed “religious organizations”.
‘I LIKE YOUR CHRIST, BUT NOT YOUR CHRISTIANS” Sorry, I can’t at this moment remember the quote source.
Thanks Eric – you’re a pistol.
FYI….
An 8.8 earthquake has hit off the coast of Chili at 3:34 AM local time. The epicenter is 115 km from Concepcion, and south of Santiago Chili. A tsunami has been generated and a warning for all of Central America and French Polynesia has been issued
The full moon tomorrow is a SuperMoon, whichy means the Moon is perigree (closest to Earth) and syzygy (in line with earth and sun) and this creates extreme tidal shifts. Gravity is intensified.
L.L.,
Context is rich.
Eric, if I may, after the fact, if you’re not databasing the whole thing, consider please, archiving anything you’ve written over the last seven years regarding “jealousy”, and “compersion”. These have been the reason I have attended, (you’ve accepted my b.s. on this site, thank you.) The shit you’ve said has seriously allowed an outlet for me to envisage. You’re opening doors.
(I know the Hoodoo’s strong… fuck it, transparency over fear?)
Luv ya
J
Louise, thanks for noticing the audio work I’ve been doing at NCGR.
I don’t publish my chart data; I’ve given it out a few times confidentially, and once rescued it from going into Astrodatabank the day the CD was going to press.
D ear Eric:
You are a man of many talents. I would imagine electricity coming from you.
Do you disclose your own natal chart info?
“the fault lies not with us dear Brutus, but in the stars above us, that we are
underlings.”
Shakespeare