Asteroid-World Fall 1986
Zip Dobyns
I still have nothing formal to offer from the readers of this small venture, though I have been in communication with three who are exploring interesting areas. Helen Clerf in the state of Washington is experimenting with a new type of arc derived from a Mars-Jupiter cycle. I may have more details to share by our next issue. Helen became our second subscriber to have our whole set of asteroids running on a hard disk. Lee Lehman of San Francisco was the first to get them.
[Web note: this chart is using LAT, not LMT.]
Diana Rosenburg in NYC is looking for a way to predict earthquakes—especially the big one we are expecting in southern California. Her daughter lives in Hollywood and she thinks a prediction of Nostradamus points to May 1988, hence her urgency to find answers. Diana’s data for Nostradamus is December. 13, 1503, noon, LMT, in St Remy, France; 46 N 47, 4 E 50. I assumed that the date was in the Julian calendar. I ran the chart and progressed it to May 10, 1988, but didn’t know how to interpret it when I got it. Would harmonious aspects suggest that his prediction is accurate and his psychic skills vindicated? Or would they suggest a time of peace, harmony, and low stress in the world? Using P to indicate progressed positions, if the chart is accurate, his P East Point will have ended a conjunction with P Saturn. P Moon is conjunct P Jupiter. P Mars has ended a square to natal Mercury but P Mercury is conjunct the P. Mars and still square natal Mercury. P Antivertex is on the IC. P Sun-MC are trine natal Sun-MC. The P nodes of the Moon stay octile-trioctile natal Mars for many years. P Venus is entering the third house. P Ascendant is octile-trioctile the natal nodes. The aspects suggest attention to his ideas, but I would want to check aspects for other successful and unsuccessful predictions before I tried to figure out the possible meaning of the aspects. And since much of his language is obscure, it is not easy to even get consensus on the exact meanings of many of his quatrains. Diana plans to get our set of asteroids when she can manage a hard disk for her computer. In the meantime, we have invited her to pick her own group of asteroids which she thinks are potentially related to earthquakes, and we can put them on a floppy disk. Gaea, Oceana, Richter, Pele, and Hephaistos are all possibilities for starters.
Dr. Rita Bremer in the St. Louis area has the whole set of asteroids but has been incapacitated with a broken hand and does not have them running yet. Soon—we hope. In spite of the accident, she has continued to work on a mammoth project; typing into the computer all the discoverers and discovery dates of the asteroids, I think including the reason for their choice of names for their discoveries. She says the list currently runs some 50 pages. It will be a very valuable resource when we are searching for possible meanings for these little friends; for hypotheses we can test. We start with the hypothesis that somehow the universe arranged for the right astronomer to discover them in order to give them an appropriate name. So far, it seems to work, but each asteroid has to be tested individually and extensively, a job that is barely started at this point.
If readers of this “interim newsletter” are interested in additional communication and sharing, I could include names and addresses with a short note on special areas of interest and action. Anyone who wants to be included can send permission to print name and address along with a sentence on personal interest areas. Any names received by February 1, 1987, will be included in the winter 1987 Asteroid-World.
My latest activity has been to run another 20+ asteroids on our computer. Mark types the formulas in, and then I can tell the computer to do its thing. One of the new ones is Abell, named for the astronomer George Abell who died of a heart attack on October 7, 1984. I knew Abell personally, and felt sorry for him. He had his 4th house Sun conjunct Jupiter in Pisces in a grand trine to Ascendant-Vesta in Scorpio and Pluto in Cancer in its own 8th house. He was really drawn toward the occult and psychic areas but blocked by his scientific training and position as a professor at UCLA. I was torn between wanting to offer him the evidence of “real” astrology (I think all he ever saw was traditional trash) and not wanting to proselytize, to push my beliefs on anyone. I love to share knowledge with anyone who is open and interested, but do not want to be a missionary. The foundation of a person’s life is his or her belief-system, and a challenge to it is rather like the experience of a earthquake to most people. It is personally threatening, and can even result in a kind of disintegration in the personality until the person reintegrates around a new belief-system. Of course a genuine conversion experience is a shift from one belief-system to another and if their values are not too dissimilar, the person may remain intact and functional. If the new system meets psychological needs not met by the former system, there may be a feeling of enhanced well-being.
My first contact with Abell was when he came to our house to meet Geoffrey Dean, the Australian researcher. Mark was home, and delighted to meet a famous astronomer to ask some technical questions about the planetary calculations he was working with for our computers. To Abell’s embarrassment, he did not know the answers to Mark’s questions, and I think he was a bit shook to meet such intelligence in the home of an astrologer.
Abell’s birth data is March 1, 1927, 10:50 P.M., PST in L.A. As most of our readers will know, he was a member of CSICOP, the supposedly scientific committee formed by Paul Kurtz to attack religion and the paranormal. Several ethical people joined, thinking the committee would be objective, and dropped when they found it totally biased. The best known of these is Dennis Rawlings who wrote the famous “Starbaby” expose of the dishonesty. If you have not read Starbaby, try to get a reprint from Fate magazine which published it some years ago. They had reprints for $1. Abell was caught between his inherent honor and the committee’s lies when they tried to discredit the Gauquelin research. The Amazing Randi is still broadcasting lies; read the latest issue of Francoise Gauquelin’s journal for Eysenck’s answer to Randi’s bologna. Mark tape recorded Randi from a broadcast interview in L.A. last summer.
Abell was trapped, reluctant to denounce CSICOP but unable to support the deceit. He finally made a public statement acknowledging mathematical “mistakes” in CSICOP’s work, and hedging on the validity of the Gauquelin research. I believe that his heart attack was a direct consequence of his personal shame and embarrassment over the whole episode; his ego was dishonored. A good source of material on the running battle between CSICOP and the Gauquelins can be found in the journals of Dr. Marcello Truzzi, professor in one of the Michigan universities. Truzzi was one of the objective researchers who left CSICOP when he saw its bias. He started his own journal which comes out intermittently.
To return to Abell’s chart and the asteroids, his namesake is in 1 Sagittarius in his first house, at the midpoint of Pallas-East Point and Saturn. It turned retrograde in his lifetime and had progressed to 29 Scorpio at his death. All three rulers of his 8th house (rulers include any natal planet in the house and rulers of all signs in the house) had progressed aspects to Abell. P Mercury, ruler of the 8th cusp, was trioctile natal Abell. P Pluto in the 8th house was trioctile P Abell. P Moon was trine natal Abell, at the midpoint of natal and P Uranus, the latter also trine Abell. Uranus ruled his IC. Transiting Abell on the day he died was in Leo in the 9th house, quincunx natal Sun-Jupiter, square P Vesta in the 12th house and opposite P Antivertex in the 3rd house. Of course the Sun is associated with the heart. Vesta as a Virgo asteroid is a key to health. The Antivertex is an auxiliary Ascendant so also a key to health. Even the quotidian (abbreviated as Q) angles which move about one degree a day were pin-pointing the asteroid. The Q MC was opposite P Abell while Q Ascendant squared natal Abell if the death occurred near midnight. The report said only early morning but it was sometime during the night. Uranus, one ruler of the IC, has been mentioned. Saturn, the co-ruler, was in a double quincunx (yod) to P Sun in the 6th house and P Mars in the eighth house. Jupiter is a ruler of both the 1st and 4th houses and Neptune is the other ruler of the 4th house Pisces, so both should have aspects at death. P Jupiter had just reached the quincunx to P Neptune a few months earlier. P Venus had just reached the 8th cusp (Placidus) and was quincunx natal Ascendant. There are many more aspects, including many asteroids, but the picture of ego deflation and moral anguish is clear.
I am not saying that we could have specified the life details from the chart, but a struggle involving beliefs and/or ethics, power, self-esteem, and relationships is strongly indicated. Natally, both rulers of the Ascendant, Mars and Pluto, are in the houses of close-others, 7 and 8. We can react to that kind of vulnerability by giving away power, trying to keep it all, or retreating from closeness. Or we can learn to share the power, have healthy competition, and help people. Abell’s 10th house Neptune, 1st house Saturn in Sagittarius, 3rd house Aquarian Moon, 6th house Chiron, rising Vesta, Gemini Mars, added to Sun-Jupiter-Mercury-Uranus in Pisces all fit the mental career he chose, but often indicate discomfort in a fight. He was a helping person who wanted to do the right thing, wanted people to like him and to be comfortable. As the battle over “truth” escalated and he had to face the incompetence and bias of his team mates and the errors discrediting his own reputation and his own sense of honesty, he struggled with his own conscience as Mars and Sun moved into the yod to his rising Saturn. As I wrote earlier, I understood his inner battle and felt very sorry for him but I didn’t tell him so.
Since his inner conflict stemmed from his handling of the Gauquelin research which was carried out in Paris, I was curious to see Abell’s local houses cusps in Paris and also to check the asteroids Lutetia (the original name of Paris) and Paris (named for a Trojan warrior, but the current name of the city may be from the warrior). You can imagine my excitement when Lutetia turned up in Abell’s first house with P Pallas (so often associated with causes and social justice) conjunct its natal position while P Lutetia was conjunct natal Vesta to the minute of longitude, just 3 minutes short of a conjunction with the natal Ascendant. P Saturn remained octile natal Paris (in Capricorn in the 3rd house) for all of Abell’s life, while P Paris was square natal Phaethon (over-reach and a crash) and P Chiron (the search for Truth). P Chiron remained on natal Phaethon for much of Abell’s life and it was also opposite natal Atlantis, so often a key to power struggles. Even the transits worked. Using T for transits, T Lutetia was conjunct P Saturn, in the yod to P Sun and P Mars. T Paris opposed P Sun for several days just before the death and at the time of death was octile Abell’s local (in the city of Paris) MC, trioctile his P Jupiter, and trine natal Part of Death, Apollo, and Jupiter—all closely conjunct in his 4th house. The message comes through over and over again, but it is still mind-blowing to me when the asteroids say it again with such precision. The asteroid Paris in the third house reminds us that the battle was carried out in journals and letters.
Calculating Abell’s chart for the city of Paris put his local Ascendant at the midpoint of natal Sun-Jupiter and P Jupiter. P Jupiter was exactly conjunct his local East Point, and just outside a one-degree-orb square to his local MC. P Neptune remained quincunx Abell’s local Antivertex all his life. Abell’s P local Antivertex opposed P Vesta, squared P birthplace Antivertex, and was octile natal Mercury (8th house ruler). P local East Point opposed natal East Point and Pallas. P local Ascendant squared P Jupiter and opposed the natal local MC, while the P local MC opposed Abell’s natal MC in Los Angeles. Most astrologers consider the 4th house as important as the 8th as a key to the end of things. The angle itself, the IC, is especially important. To find the P local (in Paris) MC on the L.A. IC and the P local (in Paris) Ascendant on the local (in Paris) IC, is as mind-blowing as the asteroids. Working with our multiplicity of factors, it is obvious that the whole system is symbolic. Abell may have never visited France, but a supreme personal test came to him from that area, and showed dramatically in his horoscope. Much more might be said, but I have many more charts to discuss, so I will just mention that there were progressed aspects to all the asteroids named for the Sun; Helio, Aten, and Apollo. We would expect that to occur, since Abell was a well-known person whose death was noted by many, and since he died of a heart attack.
For readers who would like to order the references mentioned in the preceding material, Fate Magazine can be reached at 500 Hyacinth Place, Highland Park, IL 60035. Francoise Gauquelin’s journal, Astro-Psychological Problems, costs $13 a year. The address is B.P. 317, 75229 Paris, Cedex 05, France. For Marcello Truzzi’s journal, The Zetetic Scholar, write to The Editor, Zetetic Scholar, Dept. of Sociology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. It sold for $12 a year. The issues which included parts of the Gauquelin-CSICOP battle were numbers 9, 10, and 11. The journal has not been published since 1983. Truzzi spoke at the Eysenck Research Seminar in Long Beach, July 1986, and said that he had enough material for two more issues but had not had time to get them out.
Having spent so much time on Abell’s chart, we are going to be squeezed on the others that I hoped to mention. I have a date but no time for Lyndon La Rouche; September 8, 1922 in Rochester N.H. Even without the time, we can see that P Neptune stays conjunct his natal Atlantis for all the rest of his life, while P Atlantis opposes Uranus in Pisces for years. Currently, La Rouche has P Sun square Neptune and Atlantis to fit the power struggle involving his psychotic beliefs. I’m sure my readers know that he believes that Queen Elizabeth and Kissinger are drug pushers; that we must develop more nuclear weapons; that the Jews really weren’t killed by the Nazis; that everyone with AIDS should be quarantined; etc. He is accused by many people of taking money from them by getting their credit card numbers and running up debts on them. We can see his ability to let others support him with his grand water trine (Pluto-Ceres-Uranus), and the fire confidence to play a guru role shows with Mars in Sagittarius, Neptune in Leo, and Chiron-Moon in Aries. He has a lesson in work (south node is the only factor in Virgo other than the Sun, key to one’s growth potential), and a lesson in learning to deal rationally and fairly with the physical world and relationships (Saturn conjunct Mercury in Libra). If someone gets his birth time, I would love to have it.
I recently had a run-in with another would-be guru who reminds me of both La Rouche and Jim Jones. I’m not sure whether he is a paranoid schizophrenic or a psychopath, but since such a statement is libelous, I will not mention any names. Like La Rouche, he has a lesson in dealing with the objective world right around us (Mercury in the 10th house and Saturn conjunct south node in the 3rd house). The asteroid Fanatica is closely conjunct his true south node of the Moon. He also has the guru ego and identity with Sun in Sagittarius square Mars in Pisces, and his Neptune opposes his Jupiter; a mutable dilemma involving beliefs and/or ethics. He believes devoutly in the lost continent of Atlantis (the asteroid stays conjunct his Neptune for years), and he is happily waiting for a cataclysm on May 5, 2000 which is supposed to kill 90% of the people on earth. He became very angry when I ran a chart for that day and said I didn’t see any indication of a crisis at that time.
With all the personal stuff, the world is being a little neglected so far in this epistle, but I did find some interesting asteroids in the chart for the Reykjavik meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev. Our newspaper said they met at 10:44 A.M. UT on October 11. That puts Washingtonia and Nancy on the MC. She wasn’t there in person, but was certainly discussed. Moskva was on Pallas; Alemannia (Germany) on the Sun; Italia on the south node; Armisticia on Chiron; Lilith on the IC; Amor on Vesta; Aten on Ceres; Makeover, Adonis, and Ra Shalom on Venus; Diana and Klotho (a Fate) on the Ascendant; Hebe on Mercury; Hybris and Tantalus on Saturn; Cupido on East Point; Bilkis and Harmonia on Juno; etc. Russia opposed Urania, and Potomac (our Pentagon is beside it) squared Pluto. The collection includes a focus on peace, love, the limelight, out-of-reach over-expectations, feeling cheated, and power challenges. Remember that factors in a chart show issues. The focus (peace, love, etc.) just says these issues are important, but they may be present or absent. Of course we could just note that the Moon is in the last degree of Capricorn less than two degrees before a conjunction with Mars in early Aquarius, and we could suspect that nothing but arguments would come of the confrontation.
[Web note: this chart is using LAT, not LMT.]
A recent issue of the National Geographic magazine described the new information on the original view of land by Columbus, giving the latitude and longitude and time of the sighting of Samana Cay: October 12, 1492 (Julian calendar) at 2 A.M. (LMT), 23 N 9, 73 W 29.2. Of course I did a chart, and progressed it to a few events in our history to see if it looked useful. I haven’t done enough to be sure, but it is promising. Nixon resigned when the chart had a progressed New Moon at 26 Aquarius and P Mercury retrograding back over the Descendant after being conjunct P Saturn in the Watergate years, with Saturn remaining opposite the local Ascendant in Washington, DC. Reagan was elected in 1980 (and shot in March 1981) with P Sun on the Descendant, both natal and local. Kennedy was elected with P Sun on natal Saturn. P Sun is opposite P Jupiter for the elections this week. Within the next few months, P Ascendant (which entered Capricorn about 10 months ago) will be quincunx natal MC and square P Mars but trine natal Ascendant. P Mars in the 8th house stays quincunx the Ascendant for another couple of years. If any of you readers have a computer that handles that period, you can run the chart and watch it with me.
One of the charts being watched by Diana Rosenburg as a possible key to earthquakes is the Uranus cycle (entering N declination), calculated for Los Angeles. I noted with interest that when progressed to May 1988, both P Vesta and P Atlantis are on the MC while P Sun is on natal Venus and Saturn, P Mercury is quincunx natal Uranus, and P MC opposes P Mars. Interesting! But I haven’t managed to get excited yet.
One of the charts we worked with in our Saturday morning mundane discussion is the Pinochet coup in Chile set for 6 A.M. AST on September 11, 1973 in Santiago. The chart had very appropriate aspects for the recent attack on him which killed several of his body guards, so it may be a reliable key to his reign. If so, it looks as if he will be unseated in the fall of 1988. He was born on November 25, 1915, but I do not have a time for him.
[Web note: this chart is using LAT, not LMT.]
I’ve also played a little with the possibly speculative crowning of Rurik as a chart for the beginning of the Russian nation. It came from Ellen McCaffrey and Ralph Kraum. Progressing it to Chernobyl gave spectacular aspects, but I haven’t found the date they used in any historical source so far; just the year, 862, and the place Novgorod; 58 N 22, 31 E 18, are mentioned in my references.
Of course we have also looked at possible charts for Syria and the standard one for United Kingdom which is January 1, 1801 at 0 hours, LMT, in London. I had noted some months ago that this fall the English chart would have the P Moon opposite P Neptune and square natal Venus in fixed houses, and I thought it related at least partly to the deregulation of the London financial markets on October 27. The breaking of diplomatic relations with Syria on October 24 also fits the pattern with its potential of power struggles and hidden information coming out (two water planets square Aquarius in the 5th house). I will be watching late December and the first few months of 1987 when P Moon squares P Mars and natal and P Saturn. Atlantis is also in that configuration. It could be any kind of power struggle; political, over North Ireland, Near East, economic problems, Thatcher challenged, etc. P Ascendant coming to the 8th house cusp is another clue. Local houses again proved useful. The P MC calculated for Damascus was on Venus, square P Neptune and P Moon. The Damascus P Ascendant was square P Pluto. Do check those local houses. You miss a lot if you ignore them.
Another interesting mundane chart is the Neptune-Pluto conjunction of April 30, 1892, at 22:03 UT. The conjunction was at 7 Gemini 42, on our U.S. Declaration Uranus-MC. Transiting Neptune and Pluto have had and continue to form a yod to that degree. Big issues are being debated and the day of reckoning is approaching. If my birth time for Reagan is accurate, he has 8 Sagittarius rising in Washington, DC. Since the critical period last June only brought the abandonment of Salt II and the Contra Aid, I was wondering what would happen with Reagan’s P Moon on his natal Sun. It coincided with the limelight in Reykjavik, his signing of the new tax bill at 11 A.M. on October 22, and his speeches around the U.S. for Republicans up for election this week. By December and into early 1987, his P Moon will be square P Mercury and P Ceres, quincunx P and natal Neptune, and octile natal Mars. Other important aspects through much of 1986-7 include P Sun conjunct Saturn, P MC conjunct Ascendant, and P Ascendant square Vesta. Solar arc directions include Pluto on the MC, Jupiter and the nodes square Saturn, Uranus quincunx Jupiter and trioctile Ascendant, and Vesta opposite Mercury. Some of these stress aspects certainly relate to the Democratic victories in the Senate yesterday. I wrote this some days ago, but waited for the election in case it seemed worth an additional note. Our U.S. Declaration chart has P Moon conjunct P Saturn in Scorpio in the 3rd house in late 1986. We will see, as with England, whether the aspect signals financial changes or more trouble with neighbors. Mexico? Central America? Even Canada could be involved. We are currently arguing over tariffs on lumber, and both charts of the Canadian Constitutions have Moon-Saturn aspects at this time. Many expect the new tax bill to exacerbate the coming depression. Remember that Scorpio refers to all joint resources; debts, taxes, tariffs, investments, etc.
One other exploration of a period even farther back was started as a result of the UAC talk by Ken Bowser on aspects between the outer planets. Ken was very convinced that mutual aspects between the three outer planets marked really major changes in human lives. He said that the last conjunction between all three occurred in Taurus around 575 B.C., so I had to check it out. I found that Pluto and Neptune were closely conjunct at 8 Taurus at the beginning of 577 B.C. (equivalent to -576 in astronomical language), with Uranus approaching them at 3 Taurus. By March 577, Uranus was at 4 Taurus while Neptune had gone beyond Pluto to 9 Taurus. By June, Uranus was up to 9 Taurus with Pluto at 10 and Neptune at 12. I checked through another couple of years, and the closest the three came was within a space of about 2 1/2 degrees in the fall of 576 B.C. By the beginning of 575 B.C., both Uranus and Neptune were beyond Pluto which was still at 10 Taurus. Uranus was at 12 and Neptune at 13 Taurus. By June 575 B.C., Pluto had reached 12 Taurus while Neptune was 16 and Uranus almost 18 Taurus. They never formed an exact one-degree-orb conjunction. But Ken said that for a conjunction, he would go as high as a 5 degree orb, and he considered this period to be a major turning point in human history. Since the three planets remained close in the range of 8 to 15 degrees of Taurus, the coming opposition of transiting Pluto could be pointing to another time of cultural changes. Pluto was at 6 Scorpio 31 for Reykjavik, and from November 1986 into 1990 it will range back and forth through oppositions to that triple conjunction. Ken would pay special attention to the periods when all three planets are in some kind of aspect to each other; preferably a major aspect. He limits minor aspects to a one degree orb, but he considers any combinations with midpoints to be important, perhaps as much so as traditional aspects. Pluto will be octile Uranus in January 1987, but Neptune is three degrees from a sextile to Pluto which makes it a bit wide. But we will see. Oh for more hours in the day!
The sheet of tables for hand calculations of harmonic arcs was omitted from the summer 1986 issue of Asteroid-World, and is being included with this issue. [Web note: the table is now with the proper issue.] Refer to the last issue for instructions. If you just joined our growing group, let me know and I can send a copy of the summer issue.