Stories of that Star of Wonder

During the run-up to Christmas, some years ago, I posted about the Star of Bethlehem story, which has always been something of a mystery to astronomers and astrologers alike. A then regular commenter and blog friend, "mike" related an alternative version of the Star's story. Commenter "mike" became ill, later on and had to cease commenting. I fear for the conclusion of his story. In memory of a good friend to this blog here is the story he related, as told at Wikipedia.


"The Star" was an episode of the Twilight Zone during its run in the 1980s, based on a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke.

I wasn't surprised to find that it originated with Arthur C. Clarke - I always enjoy his novels and imaginings.

"On an interstellar journey, far in the future, a medical doctor and a priest debate about the existence of God in the wonders of the universe. Dr. Chandler, believes in the random patterns, but the priest, Father Matthew Costigan—also an astrophysicist—believes it is God's grand design. While having their friendly debate and wishing each other a merry Christmas, their ship picks up a subspace signal from a long-dead world. Father Matthew claims it is impossible that a civilization could have survived its star going supernova. The planet was so far from the star when it exploded that it escaped the worst.

Upon landing on the now-dead planet, the explorers discover that the planet holds the last remains of a race which was destroyed when the supernova hit. Their civilization was quite advanced, with remnants of art and other pieces of their culture. Along with a computer record of their entire history comes evidence that they had had a thousand years of peace before their extinction. The captain requests Father Matthew to determine when the star went supernova. He calculates that the star exploded in the year 3120 B.C.

To his dismay, however, Father Matthew realizes that it would have taken 3120 years for the light from this explosion to reach Earth, in the Eastern Hemisphere. This star was the same star that shone down on Earth the day Jesus was born, "The Star of Bethlehem". In front of Dr. Chandler, Father Matthew cries out to God, to question why it had to be these people who had to lose their lives, why it could not have been a star with no life around it. Dr. Chandler attempts to comfort him by reading a poem he found among the archives of the advanced culture. It says that no one should mourn for them, for they lived in peace and love and saw the beauty of the universe. It says to grieve for those who live in pain and those who never see the light of peace. Dr. Chandler says that "whatever destiny was theirs, they fulfilled it. Their time had come, and in their passing, they passed their light on to another world. A balance was struck, and perhaps one day, whenever we've fulfilled whatever destiny we have, maybe we too will light the way for another world." The doctor's words and this quiet artifact consoles and encourages the priest."

What follows is copy-typed, by me, from a piece by Ann Barkhust in "The Best of the Illustrated National Astrological Journal 1933 and 1934."

The Star of Nativity, What was the Star? Who were the mysterious strangers?


The Star of Bethlehem has always been a fascinating enigma for modern astrologers. Present day believers (1933) in the star-legend are inclined to think the "Star of the East" might have been one of the transient stars which occasionally flare up in the heavens and then die away, often marking the death throes of a sun. Or, they say, it may have been a variable star; one which flares up for a few days or hours into great brightness, then sinks back into its usual dullness as though nothing had happened.

An increasing number of students, however, do not look to any star not in the usual course of the heavens. Quoting the "Zohar" we find the following: "When the Messiah is to be revealed a star will rise in the east shining in great brightness and will remain in the east fifteen days". So many of these ancient Jewish teachings have a foundation in the Egyptian that it lends corroboration to the claims of a modern school of astrological thought which identifies the Star of Bethlehem with the sacred Star of Egypt, Sirius, which is in the mid-heaven on Christmas Eve, at the time when the constellation Virgo, the Celestial Madonna, stands over the eastern horizon.

According to "Religion of the Stars", Sirius is the star that led the Wise Men from the East to the site of the blessed nativity. For ages prior to the time now allotted to that event, Sirius had been the star that indicated the coming of a Savior. At the present time (1933) Sirius rises on Christmas evening about seven o'clock, taking five hours and three minutes to reach the meridian. Thus now it stands directly overhead at midnight of Christmas Eve. This has not always been the case but for many thousands of years Sirius has been the most conspicuous object in the heavens Christmas night.

Jesus' birth, like that of all the other Messiahs, was the fulfillment of the promise foretold in celestial configuration. It is also stated in the Hebrew legends that a brilliant star shone at the birth of Moses, and was seen by the Magi of Egypt who immediately informed the King. Again it is said that when Abraham was born this star shone in the heavens eclipsing all other stars in glory. In his teachings to the Persians, the great teacher, Zoroaster, foretold the birth of the Christ-child at which time a shining star would be seen in the heavens. The Wise Men always knew precisely the time when the Sun would be in a direct line with that great fixed star, Sirius, the Dog Star.

In the "Celestial Ship of the North" the Magi - commonly call the Wise Men - are shown as astrologers who had pure, unassailable knowledge found in the Zodiacal heavens and the fixed stars. They were said to come from Arabia, but the word Arabia at the time of Jesus' birth meant not only Arabia Felix, but northern India, i.e. the Himalayas. These Magi were Mahatmas or Masters from India who had calculated astrologically the advent of Jesus and journeyed for two years or more to visit him. In the fifth chapter of the "Aquarian Gospel", by Levi Dowling, is found the following confirmation of this statement: "Beyond the River Euphrates the Magians lived; and they were wise, could read the language of the stars and they divined that one, a master soul, was born." Their number, three, is derived from the fact that they offered three gifts, but tradition had it that there were twelve or twenty Magi, and that the entire journey from India and a return took nearly five years. They fully realized that great planetary conjunctions are always coincident with critical periods on earth, at which time Mundane changes take place that are universal.

Kepler claimed positively that all the planets were in conjunction in Pisces when Jesus was born. Every eight hundred years Jupiter and Saturn are in conjunction the same as was thought to be in effect at his birth. The sign, Pisces, was generally connected with the Messiahs - called by the Kabalist "The Constellation of the Messiahs". Sephariel, an English astrologer of the present (20th) century, gives as convincing proof a chart for this birth, placing the Moon and Uranus in conjunction in the sign Pisces, with the Sun in the opposite sign, Virgo, that of the immaculate Mother. Arbanal, in his commentary on the prophet Daniel, claims with others that the Jews, who called their Messiah "Dag" or fish, connected him with the sign of the Fishes "which indicated the land of Judea." He states that his authority is from ancient and reliable sources.

In a recent article in the "Psychical Research Journal" is a statement "that the birth of the Babe at Bethlehem took place in the late summer, probably a few years BC. The form of the constellation was that of a cross, the shaft of which was formed by three planets in a vertical line - the Moon at the head, Mars at the center, and Venus at the foot. These were seen in the sign of the Crab (Cancer) whose principal stars formed the two arms of the cross. The sign of the Crab was visible before dawn in the eastern skies over Jerusalem, and the configuration reached exactness about one hour before dawn. The group of stars to the right or southern side of the cross were most important. It was called by the Romans the "Praesepe" or "Manger". From this description it is assumed that the moment of the birth would be the moment at which the Moon would come to a right line with the other two planets, Mars lying centrally between two clusters in the Crab. One of America's leading astronomers has checked all these details and made the following report:

"This configuration actually took place on September 27th BC6-7. It is a recurrent combination and liable to occur on the average once in thirty-one and four-tenths years; though not always with equal perfection. This "constellation" may probably have been seen in recognizable form some sixty times since the date first given. It is interesting to note that it occurs again this year, and will be seen in very perfect form on the morning of the 28th of August 1932."

Arty Farty Friday ~ Nathaniel Everett Green, Artist & Astronomer.

Born this day in 1823, Nathaniel Everett Green, artist, teacher and astronomer. To save my typing fingers a little biographical detail borrowed:

Born: 21 August 1823 in Bristol, England.
Died: 10 November 1899 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England.

Source: See HERE


ASTROLOGY

I don't immediately see a clear art/astronomy signature....



His generational Nepune (creativity) conjunct Uranus (pertaining to the future and the unexpected) has to be a part of it, and because the conjunction widely trined natal Sun and Mercury, this draws the conjunction more closely into his personality.

Without a time of birth it's not possible to place Moon exactly and ascendant not at all. If his natal Moon were in late Aquarius (ruled by Uranus), that too would tend to indicate an interest in the science of astronomy.

The Grand Square/Grand Cross stands out quite clearly in this chart. It can signify a challenging side to the chart owner's nature, about which, in Mr Green's case, we know little. Venus, planet of the arts is a part of the Grand Cross - I find that surprising.

Any ideas, anyone?


ARTWORK

Many of the images of his paintings available at Google Image are very small, so choice was limited to those of useful size.

 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

 A Street in France

 Beverley from Westwood

I chose the painting of Beverley from Westwood because I worked and lived in Beverley, East Yorkshire, as general assistant to the County Archivist for 6 years in total. Lovely old town; the Westwood area contains a now well-known course for horse-racing.

Click on this one for a clearer view:

1877 "marked a turning point in the cartography of Mars. On 5 September of that year, Earth and Mars stood in “perihelic opposition,” as Earth came into line between Mars and the sun when the two planets were also nearest to the sun and to each other along their respective elliptical orbits. With the disk of Mars fully illuminated by the sun during this close approach, terrestrial astronomers enjoyed incomparable views, not only on the day of the opposition itself but also in the days and weeks leading up to and following the event. Taking advantage of this rare occurrence, the English amateur astronomer Nathaniel Green departed from his usual observing station—in the back garden of his home in St. John’s Wood, a suburb of London—and traveled with his 13‐inch reflecting telescope all the way to the Portuguese island of Madeira in search of good atmospheric conditions for extended observations. Over two months, Green’s effort was rewarded with forty‐seven nights suitable for Mars observation, sixteen of which he termed “good,” “excellent,” or “superb”; this was fewer than expected but “considerably in excess of the average of an English climate.” During his expedition he produced a series of exquisite sketches that he later compiled into the most detailed map of Mars to date (see Figure 1). The expedition to Madeira was a major event in Green’s avocational career, cementing his status as a serious amateur." *K Maria D Lane,Isis,Vol. 96, No. 4, December 2005
Mercator and planar projection maps by Nathaniel Green, 1877. Originally published (using reddish‐orange color tones) in Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1877–1879, p. 44.
Hat-tip: Pat's Blog

Planet Plotting

Happening upon this video advert for a $330,000 watch that has all the planets rotating in real-time, I thought about older artifacts with similar purpose. I know their names, but have difficulty remembering which is which. I mix up an orrery with an armillary with an astrolabe, and so on. To remind myself, and maybe others who suffer from the same problem, I've collected images of them, all together, to act as a memory aid.

Additional information on each is available at the links provided at each heading.

The Armillary Sphere

Variations are spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil. A model of objects in the sky (in the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features such as the ecliptic. As such, it differs from a celestial globe, which is a smooth sphere whose principal purpose is to map the constellations.

The Orrery

An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodies; but since accurate scaling is often not practical due to the actual large ratio differences, a subdued approximation may be used instead. Though the Greeks had working planetaria, the first orrery that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced in 1704, and one was presented to the Earl of Orrery — whence came the name. They are typically driven by a clockwork mechanism with a globe representing the Sun at the centre, and with a planet at the end of each of the arms.

The Astrolabe

An astrolabe (Greek:astrolabos, "star-taker") is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa, surveying, triangulation, and to cast horoscopes. It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and Renaissance for all these purposes.

The Quadrant and Sextant
An astronomical quadrant is essentially a graduated quarter of a circle, set up to measure the altitude of celestial objects above the horizon. The graduations from 0 - 90° are on the circumference, or limb of the instrument, over which usually a sight or index arm moves. While the quadrant was a quarter of a circle, the sextant was a sixth of a circle (60°) and its smaller arc meant that it was often more portable than a quadrant.

 Hat-tip to Daily Mail

More on celestial navigation HERE.

I really ought to include in this list the ephemeris (plural ephemerides) - hardly an artifact, often in book form, or nowadays available online, it serves much the same purpose as some of the above: tables giving computed positions of Sun, Moon, planets and other celestial bodies for every day of a given period, past, present or future - weeks, years, centuries.

600-year Arcs - Capitalism, Astronomy/Astrology

In reading a very interesting piece by Morris Berman at Counterpunch:

The Waning of the Modern Ages, I noticed mention of the "arc" of capitalism, a period thought to be around 600 years long: 1500 to 2100.  Whenever I read about "arcs" I think of astrology.....anyway more on that later. A brief clip from the article:

La longue durée —the long run—was an expression made popular by the Annales School of French historians led by Fernand Braudel, who coined the phrase in 1958. The basic argument of this school is that the proper concern of historians should be the analysis of structures that lie at the base of contemporary events. Underneath short-term events such as individual cycles of economic boom and bust, said Braudel, we can discern the persistence of “old attitudes of thought and action, resistant frameworks dying hard, at times against all logic.” An important derivative of the Annales research is the work of the World Systems Analysis school, including Immanuel Wallerstein and Christopher Chase-Dunn, which similarly focuses on long-term structures: capitalism, in particular.

The “arc” of capitalism, according to this school, is about 600 years long, from 1500 to 2100. It is our particular (mis)fortune to be living through the beginning of the end, the disintegration of capitalism as a world system. It was mostly commercial capital in the sixteenth century, evolving into industrial capital in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and then moving on to financial capital—money created by money itself, and by speculation in currency—in the twentieth and twenty-first. In dialectical fashion, it will be the very success of the system that eventually does it in.

The last time a change of this magnitude occurred was during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, during which time the medieval world began to come apart and be replaced by the modern one. In his classic study of the period, The Waning of the Middle Ages, the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga depicted the time as one of depression and cultural exhaustion—like our own age, not much fun to live through. One reason for this is that the world is literally perched over an abyss. What lies ahead is largely unknown, and to have to hover over an abyss for a long time is, to put it colloquially, a bit of a drag. The same thing was true at the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire as well, on the ruins of which the feudal system slowly arose.

 I couldn't immediately relate a 600 year span to anything in astrology, but a little research soon brought up the following at sacred texts.com: 

An astronomical period of 600 years, spoken of as the "Naros," the Cycle of the Sun, the Luni-Solar period or Sibylline year, consisting of 31 periods of 19 years, and one of 11 years, is often referred to in old works on the Mysteries. It seems to have been known by the Chaldeans and ancient Indians; it is a period of peculiar properties. Cassini, a great astronomer, declares it the most perfect of all astronomic periods.

If on a certain day at noon, a new moon took place at any certain point in the heavens, it would take place again at the expiration of 600 years, at the same place and time, and with the planets all in similar positions. 

Hmmmm - not sure how that relates to any supposed arc of capitalism, but the fact that there is a definable 600-year arc in astronomy/astrology is interesting and food for further thought.  Perhaps that brush-stroke I mentioned in a previous post about the current set of Uranus/Pluto conjunctions is actually a brush-stroke in an oil painting covering a span of 600 years - or la longue durée.

 PS - Both linked articles are worthy of full investigation!

LONGEVITY

Beatrice Wood attributed hers to chocolate and young men; Julia Child reckoned that red meat and gin did the trick for her. Both ladies lived long and prospered - long as we know it when applied to human life, anyway. They both survived well past their Uranus returns (around 84 years). It has taken many centuries for humans to experience an extension in expected lifetimes. The "three score years and ten" mentioned in the Bible was, for centuries, optimistic for most people, nigh on impossible for some. It became the norm eventually, via some medical advances and technological developments. 70 years has now been overtaken, though tobacco use and certain pollutions bringing with them the scourge of cancer, may be acting as brakes on what might otherwise have been a more spectacular advance. How many more centuries, or perhaps just decades, must pass before the next measurable advance in the length of our expected lifetimes?

An article by George M. Young at Huffington Post last week:
Do You Want to Be Immortal? Really?
begins:

According to Dr. Igor Vishev (b. 1933), a distinguished Russian scientist and philosopher, it is likely that there are people alive today who will never die. Just stop for a moment and think about that. Alive today. Never die.
Vishev is convinced that medical technology is advancing so rapidly that sometime later in this century, Homo sapiens will become Homo immortalis. He believes that our current lifespan of up to 90 or, in extreme instances, slightly over 100 years, is not cast in stone or fixed in nature but an evolutionary stage out of which we are now emerging. Genetic engineering, replacement of natural organs with artificial instruments, nanotechnology, and other developing technologies could now extend our lives well beyond today's assumed limits. He proposes that a 200-year-old person is a present possibility, and a person who could live at least as long as a 2,000-year-old redwood tree is certainly imaginable.

This week George M. Young expanded on his topic with What Will the Immortals Eat?


After reading both pieces, with jaw continuing to drop, I recalled something in my archives about unusually long age-spans, though in rather different context:

The Bible's Old Testament contains some ancient history and much mystery. One ever-intriguing mystery is the alleged longevity of early patriarchs. In an article by Philip Coppens titled "Biblical Rationality",the author investigates.
( Photo: The Prophets, Strasbourg Cathedral.)

Article begins:

"One of the more intriguing aspects of the Bible is the list of prediluvian patriarchs and their age. Methuselah was said to have lived to the impressive age of 969 years, though “the First Man”, Adam, lived for a solid 930 years – respectable for any prototype."

And goes on to list:

"Adam 930 years; begetting a son at the age of 130
Seth 912 years; begetting a son at the age of 105
Enos 905 years; begetting a son at the age of 90
Cainan 910 years; begetting a son at the age of 75
Mahalaleel 895 years; begetting a son at the age of 65
Jared 962 years; begetting a son at the age of 162
Enoch 365 years before walking with god; begetting a son at the age of 65
Methuselah 969 years; begetting a son at the age of 187
Lamech 777 years; begetting a son at the age of 182
Noach 950 years; begetting a son at the age of 500 "

Coppens then presents theories which have been put forward in an attempt to rationalise or explain what seem to us to be impossibly long human lifespans. Zecharia Sitchin's ideas that the patriarchs were alien, genetically engineered beings is mentioned, but a tad outlandish for me, and the average reader, possibly for the author of the piece too. He continues with other possible explanations based upon astronomy.

It's fascinating stuff, as we discover the answer here could very well lie in the stars! The conclusion is one that straddles opposing beliefs: i.e. that this part of the Old Testament is true, but that the patriarchs were not mortal men, but gods –in fact stars. Their so-called "ages" were correct, and were even life-spans, but of stars and their visibility in the night’s sky. The mystery in this section of the Old Testament can be explained in a way acceptable to both believers and skeptics.

Philip Coppens' birth date is 25 January 1971. I don't know his place of birth so can't set up a natal chart. Sun was in Aquarius though, and according to my ephemeris Mercury was in Capricorn, with Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all in Sagittarius; Jupiter and Neptune conjoined and sextile Sun. Absent his Mercury in Capricorn I'd tend to think Mr Coppens might be a tad over-enthusiastic and prone to illusion. However, drawing on my own Aquarius Sun and (I hope) commonsense Capricorn Mercury, I suspect that his quite plausible ideas are reasonable enough and worth considering as an answer to the age-old Biblical conundrum.

And yet...and yet...in sci-fi mode I could quite reasonably wonder whether those Biblical patriarchs were in fact a remnant of a previous highly evolved human civilisation which had crumbled. They were said to have enjoyed (?) exactly the kind of long age spans envisioned in the article quoted at the top of this post.

VENUS TRANSIT of the SUN

I hesitate to bring up this topic, it has been done and dusted by all and sundry already, but as today/tomorrow will see the second half of a once-in-a-lifetime pair of astronomical events, when Venus's transit crosses the face of our Sun, I ought not to let it go without note. The other date in our lifetimes when this event occurred, the first of the pair, was on 8 June 2004.
(Illustration from Live Science.)


For a good explanation of the astronomical side of the event I'd recommend a article from 2004 written by Dave Muller. The page has excellent illustrations and diagrams.

From an astrologers point of view, an important consideration has to be how previous Venus transits of the Sun have seemed to manifest here on Earth. It appears that these transits have seemed to mark shifts, or even jolts, of progress in geographical and scientific exploration, as well as the rise of industry and early technology.

I enjoyed Alison Chester-Lambert's article from Midlands School of Astrology website. There are numerous others online. I also liked Lynn Koiner's piece HERE .

What can an amateur like yours truly possibly add to the plethora of information already on the net? Not a lot.

I'm conscious that, although this pair of events happens only once in a lifetime, there are other cycles just as rare, or even more rare. Transit of Pluto over a personal planet is one easy example. I experienced a transit of Pluto to my natal Venus in Sagittarius at the end of 2003/beginning of 2004. That transit coincided (almost) with the first of the current Venus transit of the Sun pair in 2004. My life changed then.....and how!! My partner of 33 years died. I met my now husband, we married, I sold my home in England and most of my possessions, emigrated to the USA with new husband at the end of October 2004. There could hardly be a more all-encompassing life change than that. But was it linked to Pluto's transit of my natal Venus, or to the Venus transit of the Sun? Or neither? Or both?

Questions like those can be presented regarding every event or series of events which can be surmised to have flowed from Venus transits of the Sun through the centuries, as described in the astrological articles linked above.

This rare event definitely warrants note, but possible manifestations of it may only become clear to people in the future - perhaps people observing the next such event in 2117, and wondering.

Carl Sagan & Astrology

About three weeks ago I received a comment on a five-year-old post, from December 2006 featuring Carl Sagan. The anonymous commenter wrote:

"Thank you for this insight. I too watch closely the connection between modern astronomy and ancient astrology - and believe that one day, astrology will be acknowleged as a science in itself, as it was in it's inception."

As today would have been Carl Sagan's birthday (77th) I've decided to re-air a slightly modified version of that old post:

CARL SAGAN & ASTROLOGY

It's something of an anomaly that Carl Sagan was, and still is, one of my heroes. He was never a friend to astrology, he was a critic of so-called pseudo-science. Perhaps because I have doubts of my own about certain areas of astrological doctrine, I'm able to go along with his views to some extent. I sense though that, deep down, he stood not too far away from my own beliefs. One day it might emerge that both he, and astrolgers, were both partially correct.






Carl Sagan had Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all in Scorpio - is there any wonder he was so passionate and dedicated to his subject? It was that kind of passion driving his inspiring writing and style of presentation, a style which endeared him to many. His natal chart is here at Astrodatabank.

Using Carl Sagan's words ~
From the last chapter of his book Cosmos~

And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at least to wonder about our origins -- star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth, and perhaps throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!

And from The Cosmic Connection~

The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space a way from us. Our Sun is a second or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star stuff. Our atomic and molecular connection with the rest of the universe is a real and unfanciful cosmic hookup. As we explore our surroundings by telescope and space vehicle, other hookups may emerge. There may be a network of intercommunicating extraterrestrial civilizations to which we may link up tomorrow, for all we know. The undelivered promise of astrology-that the stars impel our individual characters - will not be satisfied by modern astronomy. But the deep human need to seek and understand our connection with the universe is a goal well within our grasp. "

Wish granted ~ Richard Grossinger ~ Words of Wisdom

A wish I once made, in passing, was granted the other day. In a June post from 2009 I wrote:

I'd love to know Dr Grossinger's birth date, but the internet, so far, has given up only that he was born in 1944 and in New York City. I feel sure he must have some Scorpio magic threading through his natal chart - or Pisces, perhaps.

The writer in question: Dr. Richard Grossinger who has been mentioned in three archived posts - my wish appeared in the second of these:

The Night Sky
Star Cult of the '50s and '60s
Scorpio to 2012 via William Lonsdale.

Seeking inspiration t'other day I picked up Dr Grossinger's The Night Sky once again, with a view to finding something for a new "Astrologers' Words of Wisdom" post....even though Dr Grossinger isn't a practicing astrologer. He certainly has studied the subject though, and its history, and in depth. I was struck once again by the writer's beautiful style, which I'd admired before. Wondering whether he has written anything recently I Googled for information.

Lo and behold ! - Dr Richard Grossinger now has a website. What's more, his birth date appears in the biography section:

"Welcome to my website. It was officially launched on March 18, 2010."

Born in New York City on 3 November 1944.

I was right about Scorpio then! I'd sensed a similarity in writing style to that of the late Carl Sagan who had Sun/Mercury/Venus/Jupiter in Scorpio at 16, 3, 14 & 6 degrees respectively. Dr. Grossinger has Sun Mars and Mercury at 11, 14 and 19 degrees of Scorpio.

Dr Grossinger's natal Moon would have been in Gemini (sign of the communictor) whatever time of day or night he was born .

So, licking my index finger, I mark up a point for myself in the air. Like the A-Team: "I love it when a plan comes together!"



A few more of Dr. Grossinger's words of wisdom, from The Night Sky:

Astrology represents a synchronicity between the ancient calendars of the farming communities of the Near East and a theory of cosmic or celestial influence. From our point of view, it may look like two systems, and it may well have been two systems at various times, even originally, but in practice astrology treats the two systems as one. As long as the heavens are divine and the planets are destiny-bearing gods, the units and "houses" they measure are identical to the archetypes they sow.

The measurement of time does not require a theory of celestial influence. Calendars became astronomical tools during the Stone Age quite separate from any system of astral cycles and rhythms.

But astrology maintains the measurement of time as sacred, or, in present-day parlance, psychic and archetypal, and it assumes that measurement as a basic harmonic linking microcosm and macrocosm. As civilization moved out of liturgical and ceremonial space into days, months and years that were purely political and scientific, the sacred sense of time was occultated.

The theory of celestial influence DOES require calendars and ephemerides, for they are the mathematical representation of the wholeness and interrelatedness of our cosmos. Without them the "idea" of celestial influence can be honored, but there is no rigorous method for recording its degrees and variations. So astrology evolves as the statement of the synchronous relationship of all events in creation and the means of predicting and understanding fragments and cycles by their relationship to the whole. The stars as the projective background of the creation, stand for the functional unity..................................

In calling astrology a "science", we do not mean that it is a science in the same sense that chemistry and physics are. It is a science in the old etymological sense of "a system of knowledge".......Modern physics might take issue with the cause-and-effect postulates behind the measurements, but it could not challenge the basic algebra of chart-making and planetary relationships.

(And the author's beautiful last words in the section on Astrology)

Astrology is our rune on the hollow surface of infinity, or we are the shadow play of astrology upon the dream of cosmic night.

A list of all Dr Grossinger's books can be found HERE, including his latest:
2013 - Raising the Earth to the Next Vibration
Gotta get me one of those!

Sunday Supplement ~ Contacting New Mexico

Back in Oklahoma again - somewhat reluctantly I might add! We love to wander in New Mexico, well-named Land of Enchantment. There's no end to the delights of that state, whether in the northern section among the arty communities of Santa Fe & Taos, and among ancient Anasazi dwellings; or in the south (as we were this trip) with its Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Roswell, Alamogordo, Ruidoso, Cloudcroft and beautiful scenery around every bend. It's easy to understand why artist Georgia O'Keeffe was so taken with the state - her words on arriving there:...
"Well! Well! Well!... This is wonderful. No one told me it was like this!"

An unexpected treat this trip was a visit to The Very Large Array (VLA) - a radio astronomy observatory located on the Plains of San Agustin, which lie very much in the middle of nowhere. This is the site featured in the movie Contact. I accidentally discovered that it's around 100 miles from Alamogordo, where we spent 2 nights. We decided this was a side trip too good to miss, so a night in Socorro, 50 miles from the VLA followed.

Our minds were boggled by details offered in a video presentation available at the visitors' center. We were told that weak radio waves from celestial objects are collected by the 27 antennas of the array. The antennas can track an object across the sky with an accuracy of 10 seconds of arc, which is 1/180 of the diameter of the full Moon. Total weight of each antenna is 230 tons, 100 tons of which is in the movable reflector.

Each unit can be set on tracks - like railway tracks - so can be differently configured to suit any specific purpose.

(Click on image to enlarge)




From a leaflet for visitors:

If our eyes could see radio waves instead of light, the sky would look strangely different. A bright Sun would be visible, but the daytime sky would seem dark like the night. The familiar bright stars would be gone. Instead the heavens would be full of glowing nebulous patterns of emission that arise from clouds of hot interstellar gas or from super high energy cosmic rays that swarm along the magnetic pathways of our galaxy.

Wikipedia has details of the observatory and related tid-bits, including:

The VLA featured prominently in Carl Sagan's 1980 documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and is the setting for the beginning of the 1984 film 2010—with the same scene in the novel 2010: Odyssey Two, from which the film was adapted, being set at the radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico......The 1985 novel Contact features a fictionalized version of the VLA, expanding the number of dishes to 131 and renaming it to the "Argus Array." For the 1997 film Contact, much of the outdoor footage was shot at the VLA site with the number of dishes visible on screen artificially increased by CGI, and the canyon depicted as being in the vicinity of the VLA is actually Canyon de Chelly in neighboring Arizona. It is also seen in the final scene of the alien-invasion film The Arrival, and the beginning of Independence Day, when the alien invaders were initially detected by SETI at the VLA. In the 2009 science-fiction film Terminator Salvation, the VLA is the location of a Skynet facility.

We dodged severe weather until our last overnighter in Clovis, on the border of New Mexico and Texas. There, on Friday, a series of thunder storms and torrential, almost tropical-type rain quickly set the highways inches deep in water. Driving around town became similar to one of those funfair water-splash rides - but not as much fun!

Stargazing In Perspective

From my recently acquired "Stargazing With Jack Horkheimer - Cosmic Comics for the Sky Watcher" comes this information which put things astronomical into perspective, using familiar items as yardsticks. I don't know how others feel, but once astronomy buffs (or economy buffs) start using B-I-G numbers, my mind closes down. Mr. Horkheimer's explanations hit the spot for me, they are primarily aimed at young people, but do the job they're intended to do irrespective of a reader's age.



Mr. Horkheimer tells us that:

We could line up 11 Earths side by side across Jupiter's middle, and could fit 1,300 Earths inside Jupiter, were it a hollow sphere.

If our Sun was an orange, Earth on the same scale would be one grain of salt circling the orange 30ft away. Jupiter would be a cherry pit circling 200ft or a city block away. Saturn another cherry pit another city block away and Pluto one speck of pepper 10 city blocks away

Our galaxy would consist of 200 billion oranges, grapefruits, melons and football-field- size pumpkins occupying a space 20 million miles in diameter.



But there are at least 100 billion MORE galaxies in the universe.

If we could fit our entire solar system inside a coffee cup, our galaxy would be the size of North America.

I feel a chronic mind boggle coming on!

Now that relative sizes are clearer, I looked for something depicting just one galaxy out of the 100 billion...ours. See the Sun? The, to us, enormously important Sun upon which we rely for every single thing in our lives - it's a tiny little speck on just one section, the Orion Arm, of the galaxy, a galaxy which is just one out of at least 100billion.

100 Hours

A project called 100 Hours of Astronomy begins today - read about it in full here.

"Have you heard the word? In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, there's a worldwide event happening that will begin on April 2 and last through April 5, 2009. Public outreach activities, live science centers, research observatory webcasts and sidewalk astronomy events are only a small part of what you'll discover when the "100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project" gets underway. Want to find out more about what's happening? Then step inside…
What's it all about? One of the goals of "100 Hours of Astronomy" is to get as many people as possible to look through a telescope - just as Galileo did 400 years ago"

How about astrologers organising a project of their own -
"A 100 Hours of Astrology" ?

Why not?

As my own nod in the direction of astronomy I've just ordered a book, and actually it's a book for children. (Maybe I'm entering my second childhood!) An illustrated comic page on Google Image was the attraction (see below).

I slipped into astrology fairly painlessly, but when it comes to astronomy I tend to flounder. After the Moon and Venus I get lost trying to find stuff. Starting with elementary material which is a little bit different could be a good idea for me.
So I shall go stargazing with Jack Horkheimer.


Jack's website, with downloadable videos, is here .

This is what attracted me. It's from 1998, so the astronomical detail isn't current, but the content, and the way it's presented is interesting.

"The Night Sky"

On our last little drive-about trip, in Texas I picked up a second-hand book: "The Night Sky" (The Science and Anthropology of the Stars and Planets) by Richard Grossinger, Doctor of Anthropology. The book was originally published in 1981. I don't pretend to have read it from cover to cover - yet. I have rifled through the index though and read Chapter 22, on Astrology. It was a relief to realise that, although Dr. Grossinger doesn't exactly "endorse" astrology, he doesn't try to discredit it either. He puts it into context. He has a pretty turn of phrase too!

A couple of quotes which particularly appealed to me:

"Astrology is patient and long-standing. It tries to coordinate large dynamic blocks of time, space, and personality. It is an attempt to say the impossible, a system for measuring the immeasurable. If it fails, it fails in the biggest task of all: to define the simultaneity of life, thought, creation, and space time. It is better to attempt such a measurement than to pretend it could have no relevance at all."

And after explaining about the two zodiacs, sidereal and tropical (or, in his terms Constellation Astrology and Zodiac Astrology) he writes:


"The zodiac stays within Earth history and tries to hold onto its meanings, but the sky rushes ahead into new time. Eventually, though, the Earth "adjusts" to its actual place in the heavens, and the two astrologies pull together. The continuous pattern of pulling away and pulling together produces a moire pattern of effects, so that the truth of any situation lies somewhere between the two, depending on how true a given culture or era of history is to its absolute meaning in an objective perspective in the stars."

"The Night Sky" is the kind of book you can open at random, start reading and become immediately engrossed. Good readers (of which I'm not one) would start at page 1 and read steadily through to page 412, then read all the 35 pages of notes. I feel certain they'd be well rewarded.

Dr. Grossinger's final word on astrology:

"Astrology is our rune on the hollow surface of infinity, or we are the shadow play of astrology upon the dream of cosmic night".

Beautiful!

The Old Testament conundrum - human age span.

Here's an article to provide food for thought this Sunday:

"Biblical Rationality" by Philip Coppens

The article begins

"One of the more intriguing aspects of the Bible is the list of prediluvian patriarchs and their age. Methuselah was said to have lived to the impressive age of 969 years, though “the First Man”, Adam, lived for a solid 930 years – respectable for any prototype."

and goes on to list

"Adam 930 years; begetting a son at the age of 130
Seth 912 years; begetting a son at the age of 105
Enos 905 years; begetting a son at the age of 90
Cainan 910 years; begetting a son at the age of 75
Mahalaleel 895 years; begetting a son at the age of 65
Jared 962 years; begetting a son at the age of 162
Enoch 365 years before walking with god; begetting a son at the age of 65
Methuselah 969 years; begetting a son at the age of 187
Lamech 777 years; begetting a son at the age of 182
Noach 950 years; begetting a son at the age of 500 "

Philip Coppens then presents some theories. It's fascinating stuff, and, as we so often discover, the answer may lie in the stars!