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Thirteenth Sign?

I received an email with some questions about the so-called “thirteenth sign” of the zodiac that often confounds moderns. There is a constellation that touches the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun around the earth – from the north side. It is called Ophiuchus, or Serpentarius, the Serpent-Handler.  The 12 zodiacal constellations straddle the ecliptic. Here are parts of the email (most of it) and my responses to it. I have been trying to ascertain from Astrologers all over the US their opinions as to why so many who follow the classical model do not recognize Ophiuchus … Read more…

By chris, ago

An Aquarius by any other name…

One of my problems with modern astrology texts, and by extension, most modern astrologers, is the lack of critical thinking involved in the practice. Most people today read the modern texts off the shelf of Barnes and Noble, or order them from Amazon, and assume that what’s in them is correct. In my first six months of studying astrology, years ago, this was the process that was available to me too. And the few classes that I took were taught by astrologers who were working from these same texts. We often assume today that if it’s in print, then it Read more…

By chris, ago

“I’m an Aries.” “I’m a Capricorn.” – Well I’m a human.

I was recently at a meeting of about thirty-five people, where a few of the folks on the team didn’t know each other very well. One of the leaders of the group suggested that while going around and introducing ourselves and which piece of the project we were working on this year, we all say what our Sun-sign was. So as we went around, everyone started with something like “I’m Charlie, and I’m an Aquarius…” I was the last person to introduce myself, and I said (trying to sound the least snobby I could) “I’m Chris, and I am not Read more…

By chris, ago

The Predictive Power of Profections and Planetary Periods (Firdaria) Part III – Betty White’s Career

Continuing from the previous post: CareerBetty White’s career has spanned more than 70 years, making a thorough treatment of it an impossibility in blog format. However, her recent resurgence in popularity (she may, in fact, be more popular than ever before) made me curious about what’s going on for her astrologically. Again, I’ll limit myself to the two techniques I’ve been using in this series: Profections and Firdaria, and I’ll necessarily limit myself to a few highlights from her long career. Note: all data which follows is from the Wikipedia page on Betty White. White began her show biz career right Read more…

By chris, ago

The Predictive Power of Profections and Planetary Periods (Firdaria) Part II — “ Betty White’s Marriages

In the past few years, the career of Betty White, veteran actor, has seen a huge boost once again. Her work has spanned over 7 decades, since she began modeling at age 17. Although investigating overall fame is beyond the scope of this post, I thought that it might be fun to look at her career (or a few moments of it) and her marriages in light of these two classical techniques. Chart data Marriages According to the Wikipedia entry for Betty White and her page on IMDB.com, she has been married three times. The first, to Dick Barker, lasted Read more…

By chris, ago

The Predictive Power of Profections and Planetary Periods (Firdaria) Part I

Ancient astrology was good at predicting. Back in the days before psychology, astrology was perfected as a predictive art. I won’t go into the reasons for its demise here, but thankfully, many of the older philosophies and techniques have been being recovered by skilled astrologer-linguists in recent decades. Two of the “lost techniques of the ancientsâ€� that work particularly well, and which I use in my daily practice are Profections and Firdaria (planetary periods). ProfectionsThis is a simple and ancient technique, and not to be confused with Secondary Progressions, which is a fairly modern one. It is based on symbolically Read more…

By chris, ago

Not Again With This Retrograde Thing! (Not Really, Read On…)

A Facebook friend posted earlier today about how people are being jerks all around and you would think that Mercury is still retrograde. Excuse me for harping on this issue, but there is a lot going on astrologically, all the time, that has nothing to do with Mercury. Or retrogrades. Now, I don’t blame this person at all for attributing it to Mercury retro, since that is the only thing that modern astrologers seem to teach these days about what might be going “wrong” in a chart or in transits. Until better quality info gets out there, or at least Read more…

By chris, ago

Retrograde Schmetrograde

I was recently catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Christopher Warnock’s Renaissance Astrology Blog (we pre-Enlightenment types have to stick together, you know). Reading the post on retrogrades, I had to agree with him wholeheartedly. If you haven’t read my own posts on retrogrades, go here to find them. Christopher points out a few things, and though I encourage you to read his post, here are the ones that jumped out at me, restated in my own words, and with some of my own thoughts thrown in. Modern astrologers eschew any talk of “malefics”. They often refuse to Read more…

By chris, ago

Retrogrades 2010

Retrogrades 2010 All events are given for Midnight at Greenwich Mean Time If you’re not sure what the “Stationary” refers to, please see the prior post. StationaryRetrograde        Retro StationaryDirect Direct       Mercury        24 Dec (’09) 27 Dec (’09) 27º Cap 14 Jan  16 Jan 5º Cap 15 Apr 19 Apr  12º Tau 10 May 12 May 2º Tau 20 Aug  21 Aug19º Vir       11 Sep 13 Sep5º Vir 08 Dec 11 Dec5º Cap 29 Dec  31 Dec19º Sag Venus 05 Oct 09 Oct13º Sco 15 Nov 19 Nov27º Lib Mars 09 Dec (’09) 21 Read more…

By chris, ago

Retrogrades and the supposed “Shadow”

Modern astrology posits that when a planet that goes retrograde and then direct, it also passes through a “shadow” connected to that cycle. The idea is that, for example, if Mercury goes retrograde at, say, 12º Taurus, and then travels back to 2º Taurus, then the “pre-shadow” period is from the time that Mercury originally reaches 2º to the time it gets to 12º, then the “post-shadow” period is when it goes direct at 2º to the time it reaches 12º again.This is a purely modern invention, and has no basis in Classical or Medieval astrology.If this were true, then Mercury, Read more…

By chris, ago