Small world - June 1998 (Sinatra dies; 12; tornadoes & asteroids)

Welcome, friends, to the oasis!...

There are ways of escaping the World Cup, and some of us will feel that our cup runneth over somewhat, even after a few days. All is peace in my eyrie overlooking the garden, and I thought you might be entertained to know we moved in here on Bonfire Night 1981, around sunset finally, bestowing on our home a Scorpio birthday. The point is that I can't grow anything that isn't prickly, poisonous, parasitic, blood red, weird green, medicinal, invasive, sharp, stinging, or some pathetic little remnant of vegetation rescued from certain death among the plastic pots in Woolworths or a bankrupt garden centre. I have a very spiny golden Robinia Frisia dominating the neighbourhood landscape, that was reduced to a six inch forked stick by gales while we were on holiday and later lost half its girth in The Hurricane. My huge goat willow (of course! a Capricorn came to live here! ) nearly got mistaken for a weed and routed out to make room for a shed. Next door's ancient, lightning blasted ash eventually got honey fungus and fell across our garden, then the builders chucked cement, brick rubble and lunch crusts all over it, so we pretty well had to start all over again for the umpteenth time! When desperate, I cook and eat the nettles. This is definitely (quite apart from the Eucharist we celebrate once a month here) a Death and Resurrection house. And we have frogs.

Well I never...

Things got even more Plutonic when the recent monsoon washed away the soil and masonry at the edge of the hitherto firmly capped well down in the Wild Bit. Along came building inspectors and pronounced it Dangerous. Tropical Chiron and Sidereal Pluto were homing in on our tropical Scorpio Sun/Desc, with Mars right opposite (tropically on my Saturn.) And to add a little interesting detail, at the crucial moment the asteroids Gardner and Wells joined that line up from the Draconic, with Sherlock opposite between Mars and Sun. Tropical Gardner/Wells was on our Taurus ASC, and the location was written all over the angles: Mayrhofer (for The Mayor's Arms ex pub) con. Geranium (cranes bill geranos Crane), Simonida (Simmonds, my maiden name) and Rockefellia (rockfall) all on the ASC, Ben Mayer and Patterson (my next door neighbour) on the DESC, Meyer square Sun from Pisces S. Node, and Meyermann, Mayo, Fitzsimmons (me again) and Brewington (Faversham is a famous brewing town) all squeezed up together on the MC! The people we bought it from were called Webb, and Webb is close to the 6th house Pisces South Node. Roger Webb was/is a professional artist, but his DIY left much to be desired.... the Moon that afternoon was in pole position in the N.Node, Virgo, 12th. Yes, I think I'll tuck myself away up here doing asteroids and leave crumbling wells ... well alone!

Do your gardens behave in the same way, following the Sun on the day you moved in?

(While I was writing this there was the most almighty bang that killed the lights and started Gerard's printer and the answerphone! Thank God for battery portables and removable modems. I'm not so sure about 'oasis', it's more like 'any port in a storm'!) Now, while we're on the subject of Homes ...

Cottage Appeal

I have a message for readers in the USA who would like to support the Lilly's Cottage appeal by buying raffle tickets : groups can contact Leigh Westin at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and individuals wanting a few books of 5 tickets should contact Martha Ramsey at 4551 E. Alta Mesa, Phoenix, AZ 85044. Only cheques or money orders please, made out to the Urania Trust, for $10.00 per set of 5 tickets. This also covers postage, I believe. There will be raffle tickets available at the AFA Convention also.

Ole Blue eyes is Back

...where he came from, where we all came from. I haven't looked at all his musical asteroids yet, just a few, quick to access, and put them in the chart of his passing at 22h50 PDT in Los Angeles on 14th May. The media frenzy as soon as the news broke that night is graphic: Fracastoro exactly setting opposite the rising Requiem and Angelina (don't forget we're in the City of Angels here), and a conjunction of 11th house Fanatica/America opposite the Sun con. Mars in the 5th (where else?) Tantalisingly, just coming up below the rising Moon, ruler of the 7th, is a precise (1') conjunction of Angelica /Crosby ... do we see here the welcoming committee?!? Sidereal Latona, goddess of death, is only 5' from the trop.Sun. This is a famous passing.

Fly Me To The Moon...

I was, unusually for me in the morning, already deep in Solar Fire with the radio on when the news came in at 8h30. In L.A. Chiron had just passed the MC, so it had been time to tell the world (journalists have strong Chirons, gathering and disseminating information.) A rapid look at Sinatra's direct and converse annual progressions at Hoboken NJ where he was born on December 12th 1915 at 03h03 EST (Rodden gives 03h00 from his father), shows a life that had come beautifully full circle. A direct New Moon is forming in Pisces, closing a major cycle, with both direct and converse Moons in 1 degree of the sign less than 4 degrees from his natal Moon. This is being transited by the Moon's S. Node letting go of his family. T. Uranus is back at 12 Aquarius where it began. T. Neptune is in 2 Aquarius right opposite the culminating natal Neptune in 2 Leo. As he died, Saturn just past the T. IC was coming onto his western horizon at the end of Aries; the rising Capricorn Moon had met his direct annual p. Ascendant.

On the day of his death, Sinatra's daily Asc hit natal and direct Saturn, and the converse daily Asc had conjoined his Moon.

And why so much Moon in these charts of an over the top Sun sq Jupiter Sagittarian? Because as the old astrologers knew and we occasionally forget, the Moon represents the public and this was a very public guy. Moon in Pisces is already globally welcoming! but Frank Sinatra had draconic Moon in Aries on his Desc, and Sidereal Moon in Aquarius with the Draconic Sun/Mercury and Tropical Uranus in his angular N.Node in the 4th. He was far better wedded to the great American public than he was to any individual woman! For the public he lived, and virtually in public he died.

Astrology's natural fractal

Earlier this issue I mentioned the Eucharist, which is appropriate as this Sunday has been the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. Our new sub deacon Trish was detailed to give the sermon, and with her extensive background in healing and esotericism did a grand job of undoing any naive ideas we might have had about the true meaning of the holy communion. Coincidentally a letter came from a client up north, also full of ideas on a similar theme.

All this prompts me to pass along the following ideas that even when the events and miracles of Jesus' ministry took place, he would have taken every opportunity to use these as a vehicle for teaching the deeper wisdom to which astrology is a fundamental key.

So whenever we come across specific numbers in the New or Old Testaments, we should be looking behind the apparent images to underlying astrological and/or kabbalistic symbolism. It is clear that Jesus expected his closest followers to understand and remember this deeper teaching; repeatedly he exclaims, "Do you still not understand? Are your minds closed?...have you forgotten?" Like so many of us, they continued to take literally images and actions of his that were profoundly symbolic; continually the true significance escaped them, just as it was intended to escape those in the crowd who were not spiritually ready for the Wisdom.

The most recurrent of all the numbers is, unsurprisingly, Twelve sons of Jacob, jewels on the High Priest's breastplate, tribes of Israel, apostles of Jesus the Christ, gates and foundations to the Holy City and their guardian angels; 12,000 furlongs measuring the length and breadth of the City; 12x12 144 cubits measuring its height; twelve pearls (moons) for the gates (3 on each side of the square) ; twelve kinds of fruit yielded by the Tree of Life in the centre of the City, each month.

In the Revelation of John, this glorious vision of a truly spiritual astrology as "a new heaven and a new earth", a truth banishing all lies, comes directly and purely from God, to be taught at Jesus' own command in the churches.

The idea of Twelve around a Centre is the foundation of astrological wisdom, and the basis of all great truth. 144 takes us further; can I remind you of the power of the Dwad, astrology's natural fractal, 12 x 12, each Sign becoming a whole wheel? Applied to a nativity, it unveils the Idea behind the Form, the inner, unseen reality animating the outer, more obvious life. When we live according to that literally higher vibration, we raise our consciousness, our own City is Squared. If we can rise further, into the Cube of 12, the 'superdwad', we come even closer to the spiritual in ourselves. Still connected to our dense selves ( for we are all, with the worlds, the condensation of great Ideas) mentally we have risen above these in meditation or other spiritual practice, and become apparently new people. Look at your dwads and higher, and begin to know objectively something of your Higher Self.

The day when Jesus and the disciples failed to escape the crowds and ended up with an impromptu picnic of 5000 people in groups of 50 and 100 (according to Mark) only 5 loaves and 2 small fishes were available to feed all the people there. Esoterically however, two fish Pisces, the spiritual idea animating the age of which Jesus is the intitiator is inexhaustible food for the human soul growing in awareness, love and compassion. 5 loaves are Virgo, which feeds everyone materially with Twelve baskets full remaining. In the Dwad, every Sign contains Virgo, and Pisces, among the others, complete and undiminished. In fact we know through homoeopathy that the higher the vibration, the subtler the energy, the more powerful its effect. If we eat heavenly bread live in truth we fill every basket, fulfil the potential of every Sign. On a second occasion, a crowd of 4000 was fed with 7 loaves that then filled 7 baskets symbolic this time of the planetary archetypes and their fulfilment in human life... the 'seven mighty spirits before the Throne'.

Jesus is imaged as the Heavenly Fish; and he refers to himself as the Bread of Life. When at the last supper before his crucifixion he asked his followers to remember him whenever they ate bread, his Body, and drank wine, his Blood, I believe he also meant us to remember this: that dry bread, or a communion wafer, is Earth and Air, the objective, dispassionate life, and wine is Water and fire, fluid transformed by the Sun, the passionate life of the soul and spirit. He came when he did ( and remains with us still ) to show how fully any man or woman can fulfil and exemplify every aspect of incarnate divinity. It takes time, patience and love; he set the pattern for us, and every Eucharist can become our willing entry into that mystery, using the symbols he gave us at his farewell meal, taking everything that Christ is into ourselves. To receive only bread at Communion is to be starved of the highest part of that symbolic act union with the divine whole in love and spirit.

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Three Tornadoes

Andover, KS

A TV documentary prompted me to pick up on some long held data and take a fresh look at it. The Andover, Kansas tornado is one of the worst America has ever seen. It wiped out an entire trailer park community and killed about a dozen people in the space of about 10 minutes. What was going on? An absolutely filthy Grand Cross (bodes no good for August next year) of Mars MC, Moon Asc, Mercury (wind) Desc, Uranus/Neptune IC. This was April 26th 1991, early in the tornado season in "Tornado Alley", and typically well into the afternoon at 18h30 CDT. I have the exact times from the video footage. Coordinates are 37n43, 97w08. It left the town finally at 18h40, and probably brewed up closer to 18h07 when Mars was right on the MC, before dropping its lethal, huge funnel in the area of Wichita.

When you set up this chart in 4 rings, you find out why it was that particular day: Draconic Sun was right on that Mars in 13 Cancer unlucky for more than some. And when it started its maceration of the midWest town, the Draconic opposition of Saturn and Jupiter lay right across that Moon/Mercury/horizon axis. The sidereal Moon/Asc/Mercury was lined up with draconic Mars/Uranus, and the draconic Moon/Asc/Mercury with sidereal Mars/Uranus/Neptune. The scale of destruction, shock and misery was to be historic, and was probably karmic.

It would be interesting to see if asteroids associated with vortices would show up on the angles as they should. I chose Charybdis (whirlpools), Spinrad, and one called Hayashi that comes very close to Hayaji, the japanese god of the whirlwind. Hayashi culiminated with Chiron and the S.Node at the climax of the horror; draconic Charybdis (4 deg. from the Sun) was already on the trop.MC at 18h30, coinciding with Sidereal Charybdis, and Sun, con. tropical Desc. Another, describing the fate of many objects and bodies caught in a twister, is Impala. This was bang on the IC. Brecher (breaker) was quite close to Mars at 11 Cancer, House was in 16 Capricorn with Kaali/Uranus/Neptune and IC, the dwad of Spinrad rose with the Moon as Martir set. Rip (or R.I.P.?) was opposite the setting Mercury.

Jarrell, TX

A tornado that hit Jarrell, Texas (30n50, 97w37) at 15h15 CST on May 27th 1997 threw up a different pattern, no grand cross here; but it happened on the same angles! Midcardinals again, with Libra rising! Yet again, six years after Andover, Uranus is in 13 Capricorn at the IC but Sidereal this time; and there is another Mercury/Saturn alignment with the Desc, this time sidereal Mercury, Tropical Saturn in midAries. Spinrad is bodily at the IC, Impala sets (conjunct the draconic Asc also); a tight conjunction of Kaali/Charybdis has its dwad at the MC, and the dwad of Hayashi is on the Asc. The sidereal Ascendant is conjunct Mars again, but this time the tropical Mars, with sidereal Saturn opposite...but draconic Mars is only 3 deg from this Saturn, and in the tropical S.Node. The draconic MC is closing on the sidereal Moon. Sidereal Charybdis, with Kaali, is 2' only from exact alignment with the tropical Gemini Sun. Brecher is opposite the Moon this time, sidereal Martir conjoins tropical Saturn/Desc. Neither House nor Rip is strongly placed on this occasion. Incidentally, helio Venus 'conjoined' the MC.

Selsey, Sussex

A twister in England? Yes, it can even happen here, usually on a considerably smaller scale than in the USA. We had one this year, in winter, on January 8th, in the middle of the night (23h54 GMT), under conditions totally different to those that strike the Cities of the Plains. Here it hit the South coast of England at Selsey, famous home of our famous stargazer (whom I have met and failed to get a word in edgeways!) Patrick Moore. And it demolished his private observatory. Coordinates for Selsey are 50n44, 00w48.

Guess what? Same angles!!! Midcardinals again, and Libra rising. Saturn setting. Again. Helio Mercury this time just 3 degrees past opposition to that Saturn, and square Sun/Earth. Helio Venus up there in the Cancer Midheaven again. Uranus (sidereal) at the IC, again, opposite draconic Mercury. IC just approaching the midnight Sun. Another Mars/S.Node contact, tropical to sidereal. Sun square Saturn, like Andover, and other direct echoes with draconic Moon in 20 Sagittarius at the sidereal IC but here including the sidereal Sun/draconic Pluto and draconic Sun opposite tropical Uranus. They both have MarsNeptune alignments, too.

Reaping the whirlwind?...

The asteroids are quite different, though. The drama of a major tornado is absent; but what we do have are direct references to our astronomical sparringpartner in the eye of this cyclone! The draconic MC had touched Hayashi and Neptune within the previous 20 minutes, but at the climax of the storm Fama culminated with Porta Coeli and MooreSitterly at the IC, the draconic Asc moving onto Spacewatch, and tropical PatrickGene right on the sidereal MC with draconic Pluto, opposite Astronomia and Mercury, draconic Moon, and sidereal Sun! His very own asteroid, Moore, in 6cp40, was lined up with sidereal Venus, so all in all he had some decent publicity from the disaster!....."It's! for! Youhoo!" (overseas readers ask any clotheared britisher what this means and they're likely to tell you at great length with heartrending angst and several lagers why it wasn't for Theem! Best not to bother.)

I'll try to keep an eye on the twisters these repeat patterns are really worth checking out. Do any of you have good tornado data to share?

A Tale of two cities

I have permission from a recent client to tell you about her asteroids, because they are another shining example of their descriptive power, and incidentally of the importance of relocated charts!

Margaret was born Hill, but became Zelinsky by marriage. As a professional woman, her sidereal chart is of added significance. Hill, both sidereal and helio, is at her tropical IC, her roots near Sydney Australia, but the tropical Hill conjoins her MC in coelo in London where she has held down a responsible job for many years, and is known at work by her maiden name.

Draconic Zelinsky is found at her place of birth appropriately conjunct the tropical Descendant ... which is her sidereal Ascendant, her own private identity as a wife, in London; and sidereal Zelinsky joins tropical Hill on her London MC, where she met and married him.

Helio Margret/draconic Hill is close to the sidereal Desc in NSW and right on the draconic MC in London, where helio Margret rises and draconic Margarita sets on the tropical horizon.

If you would like copies of the above (or any SMALL WORLD charts), mail me your full name and postal address, enclosing a small contribution of UK stamps or paper (changeable!) currency.

Custom asteroids

If you would like your own asteroid reports, I can supply details of the service and charges privately on request. The complete asteroid collection of about 6000 names is accessible from my Solar Fire database and can be fully customised; you may have your own personal asteroid collection kept on my HDD for updating and printing whenever needed, as life's events unfold.

This has been a longer issue than usual, but there were a lot of ideas backing up that I wanted to offer you. Again, if you find SMALL WORLD too long, let me know and I'll trim it back to a smaller bitesize. Parvulesco! that's no.2331.

Cheerio for now! and Happy Solstice!

God bless,

Pam