Review of the Day
Suddenly the door flew open and the last of us to make it to Rossall School fell into a front seat exclaiming, 'Don't ask!!!' It was a couple of minutes after 11am, and Uranus was exactly setting. At last we were complete - 18 or 19 of us, and only Saturnian in a collective need to huddle for warmth around the coffee pot swapping travellers' tales of frustrated journeys in the most miserable, unseasonal July weather we could remember. Yes, our friend Uranus was right on the MC at the latest lunation, and rising at the 2008 summer solstice. Climate change?... expect the unexpected!
From then on, we were treated to a deliciously Uranian day. The choice of Fleetwood's Lawrence House Astronomy & Space Science Centre - was inspired; surrounded by vivid images of loved planets and shining nebulae we were eager to journey with Robin into the Solar System.
18 or 19 ... the first halfof the day was a mesmerising trip through the extraordinary maths of soli-lunar and planetary cycles. There is so much beauty in these, and all are so elegantly interconnected - you need to read Robin's books to appreciate fully what he was showing us, including his original solution to the Three Body Problem, tying the Golden Section Phi (0.61803....) to the Lunar number 18, Solar number l9, and 20.
Totally engrossed, none of us wanted to spend too long over lunch (excellent sandwiches had been thoughtfully provided) so we had a long afternoon in which to explore an area of our craft which is far too seldom held up to scrutiny - prediction . Robin had prepared this discussion with care, raising a dozen key questions regarding the philosophy, ethics and effectiveness of prediction in both the personal and public domain, which generated a lengthy and very interesting debate. There was a general agreement in the room that any astrological practice which failed to acknowledge the over-arching divinity of the Cosmos, and promoted itself for material or other personal gain, was unwise, improper, and could be dangerously manipulative. God, fate and freewill got us all going, and again Robin offered us an unusual and effective image - "This is how I think astrology works" he said, unrolling with some panache what appeared to be a scroll/come early IBM punch-card. It was in fact a piano roll, whose music is only heard though a Player Piano. Every hole in the paper will produce a note, just as each planetary position in a chart will 'play' in our lives. If we live our lives on autopilot, allowing our stars not just to incline but to compel, we are like player pianos being cranked automatically along, none of the music's original or potential expression reaching the listener; but if we attend to our piano, tweak and take charge of its mechanism, the scroll can be coaxed to convey all the magic of a great performance.
From that point, we moved on to practical astrology and a technical treat - a fresh view of Midpoints as the products of Vector forces. Robin showed us how this applied in composites - particularly to his favourite permutation, the CTC, the Composite Transit Chart, where a natal or other radix chart is combined not with a second radix, but with a chosen transiting pattern. This was a brand new concept to most of his fascinated listeners, which he proceeded to illustrate vividly using composites of the Sibly USA chart with 911, and the 1801 UK chart with all the social and political drama splashed over the morning newspapers of 8th July (Amongst other things this was when Max Mosley's sexual shenanigans came to court, Brown revealed the 'black hole' in the nation's finances, the G8 was debating the global food crisis, and the Anglican Church dividing painfully over the proposed consecration of women bishops.). As well as stressing the usefulness of the composite on its own, he used tri-wheels to pick out the hard aspects - mostly in straight lines - between planets in the three (radlx1, radix2 and composite) charts. The inexorable impacts of CTC Pluto in each case were particularly startling - and before too long may concern us even more. It strikes me as I write this on the morning after our mind-stretching day, that transit Pluto will soon hit the CTC Pluto of USA/911 and conjoin the modern Christmas Day Sun about the same time. I have no idea as yet whether a transit to a CTC point is valid - but Christmas 2009 looks a bit difficult ... Do look at these very easy and clear charts for yourselves; Robin promised to send us away with something of lasting value that we could use, and this is it.
At the end of a most satisfying day we had not only our stimulating and entertaining speaker to thank, but Northern Lights Astrological Society who organised it so well, and Nick, in charge of the Centre, who is that rare being - an astronomer (albeit descended from a Pendle witch!) who is willing to let the astrologers into his world and make us his very grateful friends.
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