Sunday, June 29, 2008

Random Sunday Rambles.....

Spiritualism: C.E.O. Carter, British astrologer of the mid-20th century, in his Little Green Book, "The Encyclopaedia of Psychological Astrology" defines an attraction to spiritualism thus:

"This is one of the interests usually connected with the watery element and the corresponding planets and houses. The scientific investigator into phenomena will usually have Uranus strong and very likely the Mercurial signs, and Scorpio. Cancer and Pisces are probably the commonest ascendants, both among mediums and the rank and file of their followers, and it is probable that Mercury will often be found in these signs."

In my younger years, in the UK, after losing confidence in the Chruch of England due to the attitudes of our local vicar, I experimented with spiritualism, attended several different spiritualist churches and meetings. I was moderately interested in it all, but not sufficiently so to continue the experiment for more than a year or two.

I suppose natal Cancer ascendant, and Jupiter in Pisces semisextile Aquarius Sun might have had something to do with the initial attraction to the concepts of spiritualism. Mercury in pragmatic Capricorn, close to the descendant might have influenced the fairly quick move away from the spiritualist path. I do understand its attraction, but it just wasn't right for me. One side of me was drawn to it while the other side remained too sceptical to accept it.

I remember one occasion, when working in a previously unvisited part of the UK, I sought out a spiritualist church and attended an evening meeting. Several of the congregation eyed me with suspicion, making me feel decidedly uncomfortable. After the meeting one member approached me and asked if I was representing some monitoring or Watchdog Group. I immediately set them straight. The incident did bring it home to me how insecure the people felt and I thought that was a great pity. I doubt that established traditional churches have watchdogs monitoring their proceedings. It's an example of how those outside the mainstream often feel very vulnerable.

Another sighting

On a trip to a trio of Oklahoma towns which used to stand beside Route 66: Clinton, Weatherford and Elk City this weekend we happened to spot another component of a wind turbine. I mentioned here having encountered a section of the stem of a wind turbine as it was being transported. On Friday we saw one of the blades of a turbine, displayed in Weatherford, Oklahoma with information about a local company's wind farms close to the town - right beside the road, actually. This was the first time I've seen wind turbines in action, close-up.



More power to the element of Air! That blade seemed enormous - in the photo above I'm standing near it to give an idea of just how big these things are. When assembled and in action they don't look anything like as huge and heavy as this, in fact they appear almost delicate!


2 comments:

anthonynorth said...

A massive programme for windfarms has just been announced in the UK. If only they could make them look a bit better.
Spiritualism gets some terrible press, and much of it is deserved at the 'show biz' end, but regardless of what is actually happening, there are some genuine people there.

Twilight said...

AN - I've just been reading about the UK windfarms on your blog. Well done UK! I'm sorry about the bill for it all landing on the doorsteps of taxpayers though.

I quite like the look of the wind turbines, as long as they are painted white, they appear rather ethereal - in a 21st century way. :-)

Agreed on spiritualists - as in most things, some of them go too far, mainly for financial reasons, I guess, but yes, at the bottom end of it all, there are some who are very sincere.