Fun at ARC
Zip Dobyns
As usual, the Aquarian Revelation Conference in Lansing, MI, was enjoyed by all. I especially appreciated the talk about astrology’s spiritual history which was given by Demetra George and the mundane view of Europe in the future by Claude Weiss of Switzerland. The coming millennium was a topic for several speakers, including a solo talk by me and a panel in which I participated. Though some are still uneasy about the future, most of us are discounting the psychic predictions of geological catastrophes. I was reminded of how they have failed to materialize after I returned home and was given a back issue of Gordon-Michael Scallion’s newsletter The Earth Changes Report. In his February 1993 issue, Scallion issued a “final warning” that an 8 to 12 magnitude earthquake would hit California no later than May 9, 1993. His underlines. I understand he has continued to say that the big ones are still coming; they are just delayed, but the friend who used to keep me informed of what Scallion was predicting has given up on him. It is now four years past the 1993 prediction and we are still waiting.
I hope to follow up on one of the talks on the millennium which was given by William Bento. I have written repeatedly on the possible timing of the “astrological ages” when we use the constellations as they were defined by Ptolemy to determine the dates during which zero Aries is moving in front of them. Bento suggested that we should check the dates for the constellations as they were defined by earlier civilizations in Mesopotamia. I have started to look for data on them and plan to write to Bento to see if he has definite locations for the constellations used by other cultures. It seems logical that the positions used for the last 2,000 years would be more relevant for today, but I am still interested in checking out the beliefs of other cultures. The Chinese also had different constellations, so eventually we can check them, especially against the history of China.
In my visit to speak for the Paris conference, several French astrologers talked about the increasing use of what they called “Lilith” or the “Dark Moon.” Since they are not using the asteroid named Lilith, I told them they needed to pick a different name for whatever they were using. Eventually, I found their “Dark Moon” was actually the Moon’s apogee—the place in its orbit when it is farthest from the earth. However, I was not able to get any information on how they were interpreting the point. I was pleased to be able to attend a lecture on the point which was given at ARC by Claude Weiss, but was disappointed that he mostly emphasized it as a negative point with some similarities to the qualities we associate with the Moon. Almost all of his examples were of people who had problems associated with the house (less often with the sign) in which the Dark Moon was placed. I did a quick check on my family and did not find the negative consequences listed by Weiss for myself or any of my children. Since the Moon’s perigee where it is closest to the earth is opposite the apogee, forming an axis across the chart similar to the Moon’s nodes, I asked Weiss why they did not discuss both, but he said he did not know. Since everything in the sky seems to be meaningful, I suspect that this axis is probably similar to the nodal axis, symbolizing a sign and house polarity to be integrated. Weiss did have some interesting examples, and, since our CCRS program calculates the mean positions, I will probably start looking at the apogee/perigee axis more often. Weiss himself uses the mean position, but many of the French astrologers use the “true” position which is less regular than just calculating an average. As usual, for anything to be important in a chart, it has be part of a repeating message.
Here is a table of longitudes of the mean apogee of the Moon from the CCRS program for January 1 at 0 UT. The values differ by a few minutes of arc from a table Weiss supplied at the conference, and differ by even more from the true apogee values preferred by the French, but they give a starting point for testing.
1900 4Vi20 |
1922 29Aq38 |
1944 24Le35 |
1966 19Aq50 |
1988 15Le 8 |
1901 15Li10 |
1923 10Ar 7 |
1945 5Li22 |
1967 0Ar40 |
1989 25Vi43 |
1902 25Sc39 |
1924 20Ta47 |
1946 16Sc12 |
1968 11Ta 9 |
1990 6Sc24 |
1903 6Cp19 |
1925 1Cn44 |
1947 26Sg41 |
1969 21Gm56 |
1991 17Sg14 |
1904 17Aq 9 |
1926 12Le13 |
1948 7Aq21 |
1970 2Le46 |
1992 27Cp43 |
1905 27Pi45 |
1927 22Vi53 |
1949 18Pi18 |
1971 13Vi15 |
1993 8Pi30 |
1906 8Ta25 |
1928 3Sc43 |
1950 28Ar47 |
1972 23Li55 |
1994 19Ar20 |
1907 19Gm15 |
1929 14Sg19 |
1951 9Gm27 |
1973 4Sg52 |
1995 29Ta48 |
1908 29Cn44 |
1930 24Cp59 |
1952 20Cn17 |
1974 15Cp21 |
1996 10Cn29 |
1909 10Vi31 |
1931 5Pi49 |
1953 0Vi53 |
1975 26Aq 1 |
1997 21Le26 |
1910 21Li21 |
1932 16Ar18 |
1954 11Li33 |
1976 6Ar51 |
1998 1Li54 |
1911 1Sg50 |
1933 27Ta 5 |
1955 22Sc23 |
1977 17Ta26 |
1999 12Sc35 |
1912 12Cp30 |
1934 7Cn55 |
1956 2Cp52 |
1978 28Gm 7 |
2000 23Sg25 |
1913 23Aq27 |
1935 18Le24 |
1957 13Aq39 |
1979 8Le57 |
2001 4Aq 0 |
1914 3Ar56 |
1936 29Vi 4 |
1958 24Pi29 |
1980 19Vi26 |
2002 14Pi41 |
1915 14Ta36 |
1937 10Sc 1 |
1959 4Ta58 |
1981 0Sc13 |
2003 25Ar31 |
1916 25Gm26 |
1938 20Sg30 |
1960 15Gm38 |
1982 11Sg 3 |
2004 5Gm59 |
1917 6Le 2 |
1939 1Aq10 |
1961 26Cn35 |
1983 21Cp32 |
2005 16Cn47 |
1918 16Vi42 |
1940 12Pi 0 |
1962 7Vi 4 |
1984 2Pi12 |
2006 27Le37 |
1919 27Li32 |
1941 22Ar36 |
1963 17Li44 |
1985 13Ar 9 |
2007 8Li 5 |
1920 8Sg 1 |
1942 3Gm16 |
1964 28Sc34 |
1986 23Ta37 |
2008 18Sc46 |
1921 18Cp48 |
1943 14Cn 6 |
1965 9Cp10 |
1987 4Cn18 |
2009 29Sg42 |
Another very interesting talk was given by Marguerite Peterson (formerly Dar Boggia). Marguerite has collected several pairs of charts which are possible cases of reincarnation. The charts are from a variety of sources, including hypnotic regression, spontaneous memory, and psychics such as Edgar Cayce. The best documented set is of Shanti Devi, a famous and much investigated case in India, and I was delighted to get the data for Shanti and her theoretical former life. I will be discussing the two charts in a future issue of The Mutable Dilemma, but do not have space to include them in this issue.
The strangest talk at ARC was by a psychic named Cynthia Hart who spent her hour plus making predictions that make Scallion seem conservative. I did several charts for the day Hart says we are due to end the world as we know it: June 11, 2001. This is the day all of our coastal areas are to go underwater, including California, Florida, and New York, so I ran the chart for San Diego, Miami, NY, and Houston, TX for good measure. The San Diego chart at noon has Mars conjunct Chiron in Sagittarius sextile Moon and Uranus in Aquarius and trine the MC in Aries. The Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury are conjunct in Gemini opposite Mars-Chiron, trine Moon-Uranus, and sextile the MC. In earlier degrees, Neptune in Aquarius trines a Saturn-Juno conjunction in Gemini and sextiles Pallas in Sagittarius. Everything listed so far is in air or fire signs, but Venus in Taurus is sextile/trine the lunar nodes. I would like to see Cynthia’s chart on June 12, 2001. I was told that Cynthia had pressured the ARC board to let her speak and that it would not happen again.
In addition to the lectures, a major part of the fun of conferences is the chance to see friends who are only together on such occasions. The next big show will be UAC in Atlanta, GA in the last week of May 1998. I hope to see some of our readers there.