Welcome to our ‘Diamonds in the Sky’ 50th annual conference and 60th anniversary celebration!

On the many occasions he opened Conference, Charles Harvey nearly always reminded us, especially those who complained about the choice of transits for the event, that astrologers should welcome the challenge of making positive use of them, however difficult they were.

For this reason, he always booked the first weekend in September, whatever the astrological signatures were. Since then, the Association has generally kept to September. While we have cherry-picked the actual weekend a little, the aim has always been to face and not avoid challenges, providing they could lead to positive growth. In this very special year for the Association, the Board chose to honour this tradition of taking on challenge by bringing forward the date of Conference to celebrate our 60th birthday and to honour the summer solstice.

2018-20 have been, and promise to continue, to be increasingly difficult. So, when better to face, and hopefully enjoy, the music together! Conference opens in the last hours of a trigger point of

tension, indicated by a wide fixed grand cross between Jupiter and Uranus, crossed by a recently separated Venus/Mars opposition close to the nodal axis. With the Moon void in Libra, due to oppose Uranus after its ingress to Scorpio, the crucial test is to avoid becoming upset by immediate concerns. All will seem much easier when we awake.

Astrology always offers us the opportunity to become masters of our personal universe and the clarity and strength this gives us to serve the greater good. With the Moon applying to a grand trine to Neptune and Chiron in Pisces and Sun and Mercury in Cancer, we will wish to focus on ways to understand and care. The last two planets opposing Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn in the weeks following the conference suggests serious issues of understanding that will demand considerable skill and patience. Ahead of this, being together with colleagues and remembering our heritage, being strengthened by so much scholarship, and our forebearers resilience and refusal to be denied, can but give us the very best tools of insight, compassion and wisdom through these difficult times.

Then there is the Spanish accompanied smorgasbord on Friday and the Rock n’ Roll 50s/60s tribute, the beautiful astrological garden and you will not believe the experience of the Planetarium.

Having a great time is as much ‘getting tooled up’ for the challenging future ahead as everything we learn together. Knowledge and joy transcends and opens us up to the diamonds in the sky!

Roy Gillett

President Astrological Association – June 2018