The Astrological Journal 2016
September 2016
Editorial
by Victor Olliver
First, my congratulations to the graduates with an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology who on 8 July met HRH The Prince of Wales at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Astrology was indeed publicly honoured (see our report by course director and Sophia Centre chair Dr Nicholas Campion on page 9). The Prince visited the university's Lampeter campus to take part in a special ceremony celebrating his commitment to "sustainability and harmony" - core objectives of his philosophical mission so routinely mocked, misrepresented or ignored by mainstream media. So, this is a good moment to offer a very brief amplification of the Prince's worldview or Weltanschauung, and astrology's part in it.
Read the rest of September's editorial here.
List of contents (PDF)
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July 2016
Victor Olliver's Editorial
Forecasting is one of the great headaches of astrology. Some stargazers desist from the prediction game altogether in the wake of what might be termed politely 'outcome malfunctions'. Thereafter they seek refuge in sophisticated chart deconstruction and fence-sitting - which may very well be the wisest option to avoid embarrassment. After all, we know that the horoscope does not speak our language. No chart on Earth says plainly, "Hillary Clinton will be the 45th US President", or some such. We must divine this possibility from an interpretation of disinterested patterns and placements in a symbolic map (of perhaps Narnian strangeness) and somehow apply this knowledge..."
Read the rest of July's editorial here. or read the list of contents (PDF)
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May 2016
Victor Olliver's Editorial
Scholars of 20th century American history face many challenges, and we are reminded of one of them with the passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. The historians' challenge goes something like this: "How do we, the highly educated, rational, probably atheistic scribes of the passing scene, cover up the fact that for eight years the US was run by astrologers, and one in particular called Joan Quigley?" And: "How do we account for the fact that the advice given by Nancy's stargazers was often spot on or productive, adding the Teflon coating to a presidency that seemed inexplicably untouchable whatever the scandal?"....
Read the rest of May's editorial here.
List of contents (PDF)
Members can read the whole of this and every edition of the Astrological Journal online. Log in at the Members' Portal and click on the 'Articles' tab. You can join the Astrological Association for as little as £35.00.
March 2016
Editorial
by Victor Olliver
"Planet Nine, Bowie and Shakespeare As I write, news of 'Planet Nine' has just broken. No one's seen it yet but its likely existence in our Solar System has been inferred from a gravitational influence on six other objects in the Kuiper Belt. Planet Nine, thought to be gaseous, could be ten times the mass of Earth and take up to 20,000 years to orbit the Sun. "Will this change astrology?" I am asked on Twitter. Now, there's a question. Astrology has deftly accommodated relatively recent discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and many Kuiper planetoids, each tagged with a 'myth', corresponding attributes and an ancient deity or two. Nine was discovered in the wake of the death of showbiz god David Bowie - might this event (an admixture of music, celebrity, star-worship, imagemaking, glamour, global bereavement, courage/creativity in the face of mortality and vast capitalist life-richness) be co-opted in the construction of Nine's astrological symbolism? Appropriately, Bowie's last album is called Blackstar. Might Planet Nine even be renamed 'Bowie'?"
Read the rest of March's editorial here.
List of contents (PDF)
Members can read the whole of this and every edition of the Astrological Journal online. Log in at the Members' Portal and click on the 'Articles' tab. You can join the Astrological Association for as little as £35.00.
January 2016
Editorial
by Victor Olliver
"The revival of traditional techniques is one of the more surprising developments in the world of astrology in recent years - as true in the UK as, say, in the US. A lightning Google recce tells us of flourishing courses in the astrology of Classical Greece, and of the Middle Ages or Renaissance. Horary, electional and natal predictive techniques are proving popular with young and student astrologers. And we have yet to mention Vedic or Chinese systems...."
Read the rest of January's editorial here.
List of contents (PDF)
Members can read the whole of this and every edition of the Astrological Journal online. Log in at the Members' Portal and click on the 'Articles' tab. You can join the Astrological Association for as little as £35.00.