Eleanor Bach Book

Zip Dobyns

We are indebted to Eleanor Bach for the first asteroid ephemeris, offering positions of Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta for this century. I obtained her book as soon as it was available, put the four asteroids in all the charts I did, and watched people and asked questions. I found the asteroids immensely valuable and really feel cheated if I do not have them (their positions are not reliable for charts earlier than the 18th century).

Elly’s new book may prove equally important and valuable! In it, Elly offers a theory about “sensitive degrees” which are formed when planets make a station when they turn retrograde and again when they turn direct. The new book includes a graphic ephemeris of all such stations for the planets and for the first four asteroids (listed above) for this century. Also listed at the bottom of each year’s table are the date and zodiacal degree of retrograde and direct stations for Chiron and the four asteroids discovered next in order after Vesta: Astraea (who became Virgo in the sky), Iris (the rainbow), Hebe (cup-bearer to the gods), and Flora (goddess of flowers). Mythologically, according to Elly, all of the last four have some connections to Juno. The graphic tables also include the dates and degrees of all eclipses.

Astrologers have long considered that the degree of an eclipse marks a sensitive point which remains important for some time after the eclipse. Tradition suggests a time of 3 years for solar eclipses and 3 months for lunar eclipses. Elly may be the first to suggest that all planetary stations carry the same potential. For example, she advises astrologers to watch 22 Capricorn from the time that Mars turned retrograde on that degree on June 8, 1986 until Mars has made its station to turn direct in August and has returned to go past 22 Capricorn on September 25. Elly thinks that the Mars station when it turns direct at 11 Capricorn on August 12, 1986 will remain a sensitive degree up to the next time Mars turns retrograde, normally a period of about two years.

Elly has called aspects to such sensitive degrees “hidden” or “occult” aspects. A current (between June 8 and September 25, 1986) transit of a planet in 22 degrees in any sign would be considered a “mutual aspect” between the transiting planet and Mars. In Elly’s experience, the meaning of the combination is similar to an actual aspect to Mars, as if Mars were still in that 22nd degree of Capricorn. The aspect becomes important to individuals (or countries, businesses, etc.) when their natal or progressed planets or angles (Ascendant, MC, etc.) are aspected by the transit. The initial part of Elly’s book is full of fascinating examples to support her theory. The idea occurred to her in May 1978 when there were many Mars-type events and she felt that transiting Mars lacked adequate aspects to account for them. Mercury at the time was in 22 Aries, square the preceding station of Mars at 22 Cancer, and Elly has been watching stations and writing about the theory ever since.

I’m glad that she followed up the idea since my limited experience so far offers some support for it, and I would not have thought of it. At the time Elly was looking for Mars aspects, transiting Mars was within 3 degrees applying to a square to Uranus. Since I have found repeatedly that I needed to allow a three degree orb to get adequate aspects with transits for many events, I would not have thought to look farther. As our readers know, I emphasize that astrology is repetitive, redundant. It gives us the message over and over, in many ways. Each new technique such as this one provides another way to ensure that we will get the message.

I am inclined to go even a little farther than Elly and consider the possibility that a sensitive degree marked by a retrograde remains meaningful until the next time the same planet goes retrograde; not just until it returns to the degree of the retrograde station. The best example, in my limited experience, is the shuttle explosion on January 28, 1986. The previous retrograde for Mars had been on April 5 to 6, 1984 with Mars at 28 Scorpio 21. It then went direct at 11 Scorpio 42 on June 20, 1984 and continued direct until June 8, 1986. But it was in 27 Scorpio when the Challenger exploded! Surely it is highly meaningful that it was just coming to its previous retrograde station! One of the foundation principles in astrology is that a cycle remains in effect until a repeat of whatever marked the beginning of the cycle, so logically, a retrograde station might remain sensitive until the next retrograde of that planet, and a direct station might remain sensitive until the next time the planet turned direct.

As mentioned above, astrology is repetitive. In weighing the importance of any pattern, the number of charts which offer the same message can be considered as a key to its degree of emphasis. For example, the 22 Capricorn station of Mars is given added emphasis because Mars was almost on that degree at the Cancer Ingress and it will be again at the Libra Ingress this year. Ingress charts when the Sun enters the cardinal signs are considered keys to the ensuing three months, so we should watch that 22 to 23 degree area of Capricorn (and all the cardinal signs for major aspects) for at least the interval up to the Capricorn Ingress on December 22, 1986. I have noted in earlier articles that Reagan has his natal Atlantis at 23 Capricorn at the midpoint of Mercury and Uranus. As Elly pointed out in her book, he also has Juno at 22 Libra. The more I work with Juno, the more it appears Scorpio to me.

As another example of the repetitive patterns, in March 1977, the year before the May events which first alerted Elly to the lasting meanings of stations, Venus turned retrograde at 24 Aries. Its next retrograde did not occur until October 1978, so in my extension of Elly’s theory, that area of the zodiac remained sensitive. At the vernal equinox in March 1978, when the Sun entered 0 Aries, Mars was at 24 Cancer, again pointing to the importance of that area of the zodiac. The Aries Ingress chart is normally considered meaningful for a year, until the next Aries Ingress. For those who work with the planetary nodes, the heliocentric nodes of Saturn are also at 22 to 23 Cancer-Capricorn and the geocentric positions of the nodes are frequently in the same areas.

Among the examples which Elly gives in the book is her prediction of the appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court by July 1981. Elly wrote the material in December 1980 for an astrology magazine which was published in the summer of 1981. Right on schedule, a justice retired in June and Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman on the Court. Elly associates Juno with women (and victims or powerless people including terrorists) and picked the court because the Juno station was in Libra. At another Juno station in Libra, women got the vote in the U.S. At still another, women got the vote in Japan and 34 women were elected to the Diet. At still another Juno station in Libra, an amendment to give women the vote in Switzerland was defeated. You thought Switzerland was modern?

You will have to buy Elly’s book to get the rest of the material. There is far more than I could mention including her interpretations of the planets and asteroids. No astrologer ever entirely agrees with any other astrologer, so I still think that Reagan has Scorpio rising, not Cancer. I find his progressed Moon aspect for his cancer surgery more impressive than Elly’s hidden aspect. But I do recommend that all serious students get this book and watch those sensitive degrees. No matter where we look, the order in the sky keeps on trying to give us the message.

Order A Graphic Ephemeris of Sensitive Degrees from Planet Watch Publications, P.O. Box 515, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10113. It costs $14.95 postpaid.

Copyright © 1986 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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