Newsletter June 2009

First things First:

Summer Course:

Astrology: Time, Location, and the Canopy of the Sky

Summer program in Arlington, MA this July and August.

Six Wednesday evenings, 7:45-9:45 PM

Arlington Center, 369 Mass. Ave in Arlington

Beginning July 8

Presenter: Joseph Crane

Cost: $150 (2 payments)

Some people suggested that we take a trip into what we call “astronomy” of astrology for the summer course.   I thought it was a great idea, because it helps people understand astrology better.

“Astronomy” will be a major part but not all of what we will do this summer:

Naturally we will also study the birth charts and prediction for people of current interest.  During the last two classes we will consider mundane astrology – trying to make astrological sense of our current economic and political environment.

Yet we will begin each class in traditional fashion with the “chart of the moment” and occasionally supplement that with corresponding diagrams of the same sky.

Here are some topics we’ll take up that are “astronomical”:

• The Zodiac: up, down, and across; the zodiac’s diurnal motion
• The Celestial Equator and the Zodiac; the sky’s primary and secondary grids.  Astrocartography’s technique.
• We will look at the dynamics of planetary motion and speed. Moon and Nodes, Retrograde and Direct
• The Ascendant, horizon, and Local Space Astrology
• House systems by space and by time: everything you need to know.
• Fixed star in the summer sky: where they are, how we measure them and how we can use them for astrology

For any classes you miss – it is summer – I can record and make available to you.  (If you’re from away you’re always welcome to take the course in that way.)

Contact Joseph Crane at josephcrane@verizon.net if you have questions or are interested.

The Summer Sky

          Along with the phases of the Moon, the changing seasonal sky gives us an opportunity to watch the sky change days into weeks and into months.

            Beginning this autumn I will do quarterly workshops to help people learn about the sky at it changes over the course of the coming season.

Yet a general sense of the stars in the skies is easy to determine.  The rest is just information.

            The circumpolar stars will be in the north throughout the year.  Simply look due north and at the degree of altitude that corresponds with the degree of your latitude on earth you’re looking at the North Pole.  You will see Polaris right there along with the other stars of the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Cassiopeia, and so on.

            After that it gets a little more complicated.

            Since the Sun is in the late Gemini/early Cancer region tropically, which means it will be around the constellations Taurus and Gemini.  We know, then, that we would not be able to see stars on the same side of the sky as the Sun: Gemini, Taurus, Cancer (not much to see) and extra-zodiacal constellations such as Orion.  We have for winter for that.

            Here’s the night sky due south at the next New Moon on June 22, 2009 for midnight. This is from the Starry Night Backyard astronomy program.

There some stars prominent in astrology that could see easily if you knew where to look.

            Move your eyes to the bottom right corner of the sky to what’s left of the constellation Virgo that is about to set.  The star closest to the horizon about to set is Spica, the sheaf of wheat held by the virgin, and one of the most prominent and astrologically auspicious stars in the sky.  (Spica’s closest degree in the zodiac is 23° Libra.)

            Within the triangle in the constellation Libra – which are actually scales – is the South Scale and the North Scale; these are the most prominent stars in the constellation. Traditionally the North Scale is considered more positive. 

If you look right at the “p” in “Scorpius” you will be close to Antares or the “Heart of the Scorpion.”  This star, presently located at 9° Sagittarius, is directly opposite Aldeberan in the constellation Taurus.  As its name may indicate, Antares is considered a strong-willed competitive star.

If you looked up at the same part of the sky every night at the same time you might notice that over time the constellations move just slightly.  This would correspond to the Sun’s ongoing seasonal movement through the zodiac (tropically) and the zodiacal constellations in the sky on the other side of the night sky.

You will see this movement when you compare the chart above with the one I provide below for the following New Moon on July 21, 2009, again at midnight.

Gone is the constellation Virgo and Libra and most of Scorpio and so are Spica and the Scales – Antares is about to set. . If you had gone out and seen the sky earlier these stars may be seen further to the west and setting.  Major stars have departed from here at this time but we see Jupiter going toward culminating.  Although tropically Jupiter will be in Aquarius you can see the planet alongside the constellation Capricorn.

            Over this summer, because it will be opposing the Sun and so getting most of the Sun’s reflection, we will see Jupiter shining brightly in the night sky.

Summer Solstice….

            By the time you get this it may already have become the summer solstice.  The ingress of the Sun into the sign Cancer, it marked the most northern the Sun is seen in the sky at 23° north declination.  This means that at 23° north latitude the Sun is overhead.  This also means that in the far north the earth is inclined toward the Sun and therefore the days are very long.  In the more temperate regions, like here in New England, it is daylight long enough for this writer to get out of bed an hour too early, thinking it was far later in the day than it was.

            Here is the chart for the solstice.  The sky above at that time will uncannily resemble the first constellation chart above.  Some of us will be asleep at the time.

…and Iran

My work tends not to focus on mundane astrology – the astrology of political entities and natural events on the planet.  Since a solstice takes place at a particular time I was curious what a planetary map of the world would look like for this time.  I was struck by something I saw and focused on the Middle East.

It’s easy to tell what is of most interest: that at the time of the Summer Solstice the current conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron (for good measure) are all rising in Iran, slightly to the east of the capital city Tehran. 

            I write this only a few hours after the nation’s leading cleric (and ultimate authority) Ayatolla Ali Khomenei gave a “my way or the highway” speech to the nation in which he repudiated the cause of the large street demonstrations and warned of dire consequences.

            Judging from this map alone it does show that Iran could become – quite paradoxically – a focus for worldwide idealism and the latest example of a mass of people trying to prevail over conventional authority though the medium of sustained large-scale street demonstrations.  I am ready to say this is a transformative possibility not a certain transformative moment, however.  The presence of both Neptune and Chiron gives Jupiterian optimism pause and renders it possible that the real change is not now but later. The immediate consequences, however, may be quite painful.

            When I look at transits to the Islamic Iran chart.  This is from Nick Campion’s Book of World Horoscopes, provided by several members of the NCGR mailing list.)

            Here is the chart with the important transits on the outside.

We see that Mars is in the tenth sign from the Ascendant and has been there since before the current election.  It is about to make direct contact with the Midheaven position. 

            In the national chart, I’m fascinated about the Mercury conjunct Mars in Pisces with a trine from governing Jupiter in the twelfth.  This fits well with a country known for overwrought political oratory.  It’s interesting that with their election and aftermath Uranus has been transiting Mercury and Mars, with Saturn to come later this summer. 

            Transiting Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron have so little prominence in the national chart.  However, Jupiter has just turned retrograde and will station direct exactly opposite the Ascendant in October 2009.

            We seem to be in for a long hot summer in Iran; I will be curious what the Jupiter station will bring this autumn.

Springtime for Susan Boyle

Although this month I would have liked to profile William Shatner and look at his friendship with Leonard Nimoy a few days his junior.  I was thinking of presenting the Frost/Nixon encounter of 32 years ago.  I decided to settle on Susan Boyle.  Her sudden rise from utter obscurity to celebrity and her difficulties has been fascinating to watch.  I think it’s likely that she will stay in the public eye, perhaps as a counter to Paris Hilton: she will become famous for once having been famous. I do not wish to minimize her talents as a singer; but fame is rather fickle and arbitrary.

Here is her astrological chart.

Although she had previously lived quietly and uneventfully her chart has some definite strength.  She has planets in high dignity (Sun, Saturn) and planets in debility (Mars, Venus, Mercury).  In general this can show a confident but complex personality.  Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury are oriental to a diurnal Sun and are strongly in sect. Jupiter is the ruler of both the Seventh – yes she isn’t married, yet – and is also dispositor for her Lots of Fortune and Spirit.

            Above all her Mercury placement, also governed by Jupiter, is most fascinating: in an awkward sign for Mercury but also prominent in the 10th from the Ascendant and connected to the Moon by being symmetrical to the Cancer/Capricorn axis – antiscia.  She strikes me as a very watery communicator whether she’s singing or not: this, less her technical skill, has been the key to her brief fame as a singer.  I would think that after things settle down for her she may truly find her voice and it may be fascinating.

            So what’s been going on lately to account for her sudden rise to fame?  She has both a secondary progression and a solar arc involving Jupiter: Mars opposed Jupiter exactly by progression this Mary, accounting for a very strong public presence during this time.  By solar arc Mercury made a square with Jupiter the previous January.  

            Her decennials featured her Sun.  She has been in the middle of a long Saturn period and began a Sun specific period last September about when she first auditioned and was accepted to go on “Britian’s Got Talent.”  Using Valens’ third-order decennials, her particular period for her TV appearance was Venus.

            But let’s look at her transits.  What follows may look chaotic but it’s a fourty-five degree graphic ephemeris that will include derivatives of squares along with conjunctions, oppositions, and squares.

Understanding that a connection between a moving line and a straight line makes for a transit, when sufficiently broken down this graph isn’t too hard to read.  Let’s go from top to bottom.

            For the middle of April you may note a contact between Jupiter (red line) and the Mercury (green line) onto natal Uranus that is in Leo.  It turns out that from Jupiter it’s an opposition and from Mercury it’s a square: it’s the contact that counts. 

            Looking further at the Mercury line, notice that it has had a direct and retrograde period during the time of her celebrity: Mercury makes contact with Sun, Moon, and Mars.

            Note the sloping lines that join transiting Jupiter with transiting Neptune and Chiron – this is the same conjunction we discussed in the context of Iran above.  Note, though, that all three planets contact her dignified natal Sun in Aries in the 11th.  The transiting aspect between these three planets and the Sun is a 45° or a half-square or semi-square.

            Saturn, as usual, provides a more melancholy note.  If you look down the page you will find a yellow line representing Saturn; going retrograde, it has been transiting Jupiter (135° or sesqui-quadrate) but also her Mercury by an opposition.  Her interview performances have a decidedly tongue-tied Saturn/Mercury flavor.

            Okay – enough for this month!  We await further world developments but at least we have a good idea where the stars and planets will be over the next month.

            Although there is a backlog of people I would like to profile for this newsletter, who will emerge as next month’s name of the month?  We will have to see.