News Notes
Zip Dobyns
There is not much news on the new center since our property has not yet been sold. Our best prospect still seems to be a big church across the street which would like to have the two houses on our property as homes for their two ministers. They have expressed their hope that they will be able to work out the finances, so we are currently waiting for them as the owner of the property for the new retreat center is waiting for us. We have received several donations toward the new center, for which we are very grateful! Thank you all and we hope that in spite of the deepening misery in the world, you all have a good new year in 1991.
After publishing the birth date for John Major in the last Asteroid-World, I got a phone call from Lois Rodden and we have to put Major’s information in the “dirty data” file. The reference books like the International Who’s Who all give the March 29 date which I gave, but an astrologer in England asked Major for his birth date and was told March 23, 1943. Major does not know his birth time and is not even sure where he was born—just “somewhere near Wimbledon” where he grew up which is near London. Both his parents are dead and so far no one has found an alternate source of information. England does not record birth time on birth certificates, but eventually we should at least get a confirmed date and place of birth for him.
Major’s March 29 date gave such impressive asteroids, I assumed that it was OK. The March 23 date which he claims is right does seem to fit the descriptions of Major’s ability to listen and to be empathic. Mercury is shifted back from Aries to Pisces and the Moon moved from Capricorn to Libra. But the fact that he had elderly parents and financial hardships in his early life would fit the Capricorn Moon and the Aries Mercury as keys to having to hustle early in life. I am going to wait until we have more solid information before I spend additional time on the chart.
I am always intrigued by personality typologies, models of human nature, which are produced in huge numbers by various branches of psychology, sociology, etc. I enjoy comparing them with the psychological model we get with astrology. A recent book which I acquired called The 1990s and Beyond, edited by Edward Cornish and published by the World Future Society, offers a variety of projections for different aspects of the future. One of the articles describes nine American lifestyles which are based on “values” defined as “attitudes, beliefs, opinions, hopes, fears, prejudices, needs, desires, and aspirations.” Theoretically, these values govern how one behaves. This particular “values and lifestyle” (VALS) typology was developed by SRI International and people are classified into the nine lifestyles which are assigned into four larger groups. The article lists the nine lifestyles. “Survivors” are barely staying alive, mostly uneducated, ill, and/or old. “Sustainers” are similar but they still hope to do better and are more angry about their condition. “Belongers,” the largest number, conform to some kind of socially accepted group. “Emulators” are ambitious, competitive and hard working, striving to get higher on the ladder. “Achievers” are the ones who have “made it” in the outer-directed groups. They are successful and happy. The “I-am-me” group is defined as the young people who are very self-absorbed and mostly in transition to another group. “Experientials” are more inner-directed in what they value though often educated and relatively well off. Unlike all the preceding groups, they tend to be more liberal. The “societally conscious” group is the inner-directed counterpart of the “achievers” but they value the environment and respect the rights of others. The authors think that there are very few in their “integrated” group who have a truly balanced approach to life. The article estimates what proportion of the population falls in each of the groups in the U.S. and five countries in Europe. And it describes four possible scenarios for the future including “Renaissance,” “Bouncy Prosperity,” “Hard Times,” and “Transformation.” The authors clearly value the inner-directed but also somewhat liberal types and the integrated. Their transformation scenario sounds as if they had read some of the new age literature about the “great” Aquarian Age. At the moment, their “hard times” scenario looks closer to what is happening, but if we could expand the numbers of “societally conscious” and if the really exciting technology which is being developed could be shared more widely, we could really have an age of transformation.