Asteroid-World Spring 1988
Zip Dobyns
The Council Grove Conference just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and, as usual, it was a high point of my year. I missed the first three conferences, but have participated in all the rest. It is one of my “gifts from the cosmos” since one has to be invited and there are only spaces for about 100 people. Participants are mostly M.D.s and Ph.D.s, but they are a very special group; educated but open to non-traditional ideas. Talks and discussions explore biofeedback and other new technologies, psychic phenomena, spiritual healing, “native” and “new age” world views, social issues and causes, and almost anything being done by anyone that bears on the human condition but is exploring beyond established dogma. Many of the participants are “regulars” who come most years and I look forward to hearing of their experiences, insights, and discoveries in the intervening year.
Most of the participants are professionals who have to deal with the scientific establishment even though they are privately working outside its boundaries. In order to maintain an atmosphere in which participants can freely share their unorthodoxy, there is no tape recording and the media are strictly excluded. During presentations, most of us sit on big pillows on the floor though there is an outer ring of chairs for those who prefer them. Pre-planned lectures are scheduled during the mornings and evenings but the two afternoon slots on Tuesday through Thursday are left open so that participants can sign up to present their own explorations in any of the half dozen cabins. The choices are often difficult. I always do a presentation on astrology in one of the slots. We also do a lot of singing and at least one ritual which may involve dancing, drumming, etc. The whole week from Monday at supper to lunch on Friday is a kind of “high.” Since Asteroid-World really has a small number of subscribers with no media representatives as far as I know, I decided to describe the conference a little more fully this year. I have mentioned information from the conference occasionally in the past.
One fascinating talk on current developments in parapsychology was given by Stanley Krippner. As readers may know, many of the serious researchers in parapsychology are somewhat paranoid about astrology. (This is not true for Stan who is willing to look at any phenomena.) The more cautious parapsychologists are trying to make their work acceptable to orthodox science. Astrology is still totally “outside the pale,” so they studiously avoid it. Outside of the clash between psi data and the materialistic premises of science, the next biggest single problem in parapsychology or psi research has been the difficulty in replicating the experiments. Some researchers get results some of the time with some subjects or methods, but so far, no technique is reliable enough to provide consistent results. The most fascinating item in Stan’s talk involved the discovery by a Canadian researcher that psychic experiences, both anecdotal and laboratory research, occurred statistically more often when the sun was quiet, with a minimum of solar flares, sun spots, and geomagnetic disturbances in earth’s atmosphere. Especially good results were obtained during experiments which tested the psychics while they were in “Faraday Cages” which screen out all kinds of energy waves from the cosmos. Though most of astrology is symbolic, the whole concept of energy waves or force-fields is the part of astrology which materialistic scientists have actually been willing to investigate. The most extensive work and results have been obtained in Russia and the Netherlands, but Becker in New York, Brown in Illinois, Piccardi in Italy, Takata in Japan and others have done significant work. It strikes me as a great cosmic joke that parapsychology may have to look at part of the domain of astrology to find their desperately sought replicable results.
One of the most exciting presentations this year was made by Norman Don in one of the volunteer slots. Norman is a psychologist who has been working for years with an exceptionally good psychic named Olaf Johnson. Olaf is one of the few psychics who can do card guessing experiments without getting totally bored and having accuracy dwindle to chance levels. The Zener card deck which was designed for such experiments has 25 cards made up of 5 each of 5 symbols: a circle, cross, square, triangle, and wavy lines (which look much like Aquarius). Chance expectancy would be five correct guesses in a run through one deck of the cards. Olaf can range from about half correct to nearly 100% on occasion. Needless to say, the odds against such results are astronomical. Norman has been doing these card-guessing experiments with Olaf wired up to very advanced physiological measuring devices. In fact, his equipment is so sophisticated that his biggest current problem is finding a laboratory with equivalent equipment which is willing to replicate his work. In science, nothing is acceptable until the procedures have been repeated by other researchers and have produced the same results. Norman has only found one other University Lab with equivalent equipment and they are not interested in repeating his experiments.
But with or without replication, Norman’s results are enormously exciting. He has been able to identify the type of brain waves produced by Olaf when he guesses the correct card. Prior to his work, most researchers using biofeedback equipment in psi experiments thought that low frequency alpha or theta waves just above the delta waves of sleep were probably the “window” into the psychic world. People tend to experience intuition when in a relaxed state of reverie, often just as they are falling asleep or waking up. Such repeated observations are probably true for “average” people. Most of us are most open to the unconscious (which is the part of the mind that connects us all together) when the conscious part of the mind has relaxed its control. But Olaf gets his accurate “hits” when his brain is functioning in very high frequency and high amplitude Beta waves! He describes his experiences as being in state 1 or state 2 or state 3. The top state (3) when he is consistently accurate he calls The Void, and he experiences it as a pure white light. He stays in it only a few seconds at a time, and is convinced that if he remained longer, he would cease to exist as a material being. In this state, he has been able to make objects appear and disappear, and Norman has video tapes of these events. Olaf reaches state 3 by visualizing energy moving from his head down the front of his body and then up the back of his body in a continuous circle. As it moves faster and faster, he moves up into the higher states. Devotees of the Kundalini theories may see a connection. Olaf says that it is possible to get to state 3 by slowing down and going down rather than up; there is a circular path. But going up to the pure white light of the Void is experienced as a totally harmonious process. Going down through the black end is experienced as discordant and unpleasant. Olaf experiences the middle state (2) as yellow and thinks most people live between states 1 and 2 most of the time. Guesses in state 1 are really guesses with chance expectancy. Psychic material starts to appear in state 2, but it is less reliable and more symbolic so it may have to be interpreted with consequent errors.
In acceptable scientific research, computers are like the last word since they eliminate the subjectivity of human judgment. Norman has been able to use the pattern recognition capacity of computers to identify the types of brain waves present when Olaf is accurate in his card guessing. In one experiment which he reported at Council Grove, Olaf guessed 49 cards accurately out of 100 guesses. The computer picked out 68% of his correct guesses, so the computer was more accurate in evaluating Olaf’s brain waves than Olaf’s conscious mind which was providing the guesses. On occasion, the computer has been able to pick out as many as 92% of Olaf’s “hits,” applying pattern recognition to his brain waves. Norman is writing a book about the experiments, and it should be a mind-blower! I plan to visit his laboratory in late May when I am doing a workshop for the Oasis growth center in Evanston, Illinois. If any Midwest readers are interested, Maritha and I are doing a one week seminar in Detroit from May 9 to 15 and I will be at Oasis from the evening of May 27 through May 30. For more information, call Norma Lloyd in MI: (313) 779-0523 or Oasis: (312) 274-6777. Much more might be written about Council Grove, but perhaps it is time to return to astrology.
Between phone calls from people worried about an earthquake in southern California, and watching the world get crazier, and seeing clients, and working on my writing projects, the days evaporate. I still spend what time I can spare on the asteroids, which means neglecting or delaying many things I should do. It is especially nice when something positive happens in the midst of the violence in the world. Unfortunately, the violent charts are often the most astrologically dramatic. All you have to do to see that astrology works is to look at a chart like the explosion of the ammunition dump in Pakistan which killed 76 people and injured over 800. The Ascendant for the main explosion was 2 Cancer 9 with Saturn at 2 Capricorn 33, Uranus at 1 Capricorn 2 retrograde, and Mars in the eighth house at 2 Aquarius 13. The Moon in Capricorn in the eighth house opposed Vesta within one degree. Remember that Vesta does the job no matter what the consequences, so it is frequently aspected for actions which ignore the cost in human suffering. It can indicate an emphasis on efficiency (its presence or its absence) in the job or in the body (health). Listing just a few asteroids with one degree orb aspects, Icarus, a frequent key to overreach, was square the East Point and octile Mars. Hephaistos, the blacksmith who made the weapons of the gods, was conjunct Mercury and square Neptune. Makhaon, son of Aesculapius and a healer like his father, was on the Ascendant opposite Uranus and quincunx Mars. Hestia (the Greek Vesta) was also quincunx Mars, forming a yod with Ascendant-Mars. Aesculapius was on the West Point (like another Descendant). Remember that astrology shows issues, not details, so planets and asteroids can symbolize the principle of health with the manifested details including actions which either enhance or destroy it. Astrology shows the principles. Human beings make the choices which produce the details.
I did not find a precise time or location for the Kuwaiti airline hijacking, but was able to do the charts for the takeoff from Mashhad, Iran and from Larnaca, Cyprus. The first chart had asteroid Arabia on the MC, Nemesis on the Ascendant, Urania (similar to Uranus) on the IC, Tisiphone (rage) and Hygiea (another Virgo asteroid) on the East Point, Daedalus (father of Icarus and quite a wheeler-dealer) on the Antivertex, and Winchester (often found when guns are involved) quincunx the Ascendant in Cyprus where the plane landed and the terrorists shot two of the passengers. The local angles in Kuwait were also marked in the Mashhad takeoff with Psyche (often found when people feel helpless and inadequate) on the IC and Atlantis (almost always involved when there is an abuse of power) square the Ascendant. Of course, traditional astrology still works. The Moon was closely conjunct Uranus and Saturn in the fourth house in Capricorn.
In the chart for the takeoff from Larnaca to go to Algiers, Ne ptune was stationary on the Ascendant within one degree. Amun, an Egyptian sun god, was on the MC for fame and power. Phaethon, an overreach character who crashed much like Icarus, was on the IC. Mercury had moved into a one-degree square to Winchester. Venus had reached Crescentia which might symbolize Islam with its star and crescent emblem. When our small mundane discussion group studied the chart, we guessed that the situation might be ended, whether with mass death or release, when the Sun in that chart reached the IC and Phaethon by transit, and it happened to the day. There are always many more aspects than I mention, but I’m sure it gets boring to just read lists of aspects.
One more violent episode involved a car bomb outside a USO in Naples, Italy which killed a young U.S. navy woman (along with four Italians) and injured at least 17 individuals. Gaea (earth), Attila (the Hun), and Dolores (Spanish for sorrow) were on the Descendant. It is interesting that the navy woman was from a Spanish-American background. Hidalgo, named for the priest who started the Mexican revolution in the town of Dolores, was on Mars. Osiris (a god of the dead) and Europa were both on Chiron and the Vertex in the eighth house and octile Juno-Jupiter as well as the north node of Mars. The south node of Mars and the midpoints of Mars/Pluto and Mars/Ascendant were on the Antivertex which is like another Ascendant. Hybris (the pride that goes before a fall) was on the Moon with Libya just past them. A telephone call claimed that the bombing was in retaliation for the U.S. bombing two years ago of the country, Libya. The Ascendant of the chart was conjunct Pluto within one minute of longitude and was just coming into a square to asteroid Nippon (Japan) which was conjunct Pallas (often associated with fighting for causes). Within a day, the local police had identified the bomber as a Japanese professional terrorist. America and Helio (a sun god) were on Ceres (a mother figure). Calculating the chart for Washington, DC put Atlantis on the IC. It was also quincunx the Sun and just over the permitted one degree orb to the Naples East Point. Mercury was just coming to Italia with Arabia octile both of them. When a third planet or asteroid is within orb of two others which are not quite in orb, I consider the three (or more) to be connected in a “network” effect.
The Naples incident was an example of synchronicity for me. Mark was writing a computer program for a man in Naples who was telephoning me daily with questions. Mark and I will be lecturing for the conference on research in astrology which will be held in Naples on June 3-5, and I was looking for an inexpensive flight to Italy for both of us. We actually got our tickets soon after the incident and Mark sent off for his passport. The conference is sponsored by Francoise Gauquelin and a local group in Naples. If anyone is interested in attending, write to Francoise for more information. If you write immediately, she will still be at P.O. Box 4322, San Diego, CA 92104. By mid-May, she can be reached at B.P. 317, 75229 Paris, Cedex 05, France. By late May, she will be in Italy.
Turning to a more positive event, a Greek champion bicycle rider peddled a super-light plane named Daedalus from Crete to Thera (also called Santorini), two islands in the Mediterranean Sea which are 74 miles apart. He left Crete at 7:06 A.M. (4:06 UT) on April 23, 1988, and arrived at Thera at 11 A.M. (8 A.M. UT). The plane made it safely but before he could land, wind snapped off the tail, the wings broke, and the pilot landed in the water. The takeoff chart has Jupiter on the Ascendant, Pluto on the Descendant, and Moon on the IC, all within one degree. The plane was built in the U.S., and asteroids America and Helio were on Ceres. The plane was named for the mythical character Daedalus, who built wings of wax to escape the labyrinth in Crete. Unlike his son, Icarus, Daedalus made it safely to another island. For this modern namesake flight, the asteroid Daedalus was in zero Leo on Fantasia, quincunx Uranus (the plane took technology farther than previous efforts) and just past Vesta (the super-achiever). Icarus was sextile the MC, octile-trioctile the Ascendant-Pluto, and by the time the plane reached Thera, the Moon had moved into a one-degree trine to Icarus and the MC in Thera was exactly conjunct Icarus! Siva (Hindu destroyer) was on the takeoff Moon and IC, but fortunately though the plane was destroyed, the pilot was unhurt.
We have probably had more negativity in this Asteroid-World issue than anyone cares for, but I have to mention the dramatic asteroids in the chart for the Tripoli, Lebanon bombing. A truck full of TNT exploded in an open air market crowded with shoppers, killed over 50 people, wounded hundreds more, as well as destroying shops, cars, and a small hotel and starting many fires. It was clearly aimed at ordinary civilians, not political or military targets. It is hard to conceive of anyone carrying out such acts, but we have two relevant asteroids. Dresden is the city in Germany which is remembered for its destruction by fire bombing in the Second World War though it was not a military target and had been spared up to the last year of the war. Guernica in Spain is the other town remembered for the same reason as one of the first mostly civilian targets in modern warfare. It was heavily bombed and burned out by the Nazis in the Spanish Civil War when they were developing and testing their skills in preparation for World War II.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the Lebanon bombing. It may be connected to the rivalry between Christians and Moslems, another chapter in the Crusades. In the horoscope for the Lebanon bomb, Mars in Aquarius in the eighth house had reached the square to Pluto in Scorpio, thus connecting the traditional keys to death. Jupiter in Taurus formed a tight T-square with Mars and Pluto. The kicker is that asteroid Dresden was conjunct Mars and square Pluto. Chiron, like Jupiter a key to faith, morals, and ethics, was in the twelfth house which symbolizes the more unconscious side of faith and morality based on faith. Chiron was octile Jupiter and trioctile Pluto and Mars-Dresden. The asteroid Guernica was exactly on the IC. Along with the eighth house, the fourth house is associated with endings and death. These little asteroids continue to amaze me! How does the universe manage appropriate names and positions for them? That kind of specificity is awesome! Other aspects included Venus square the MC with the Sun at their midpoint, octile both. The Ascendant was opposite the midpoint of Uranus/Neptune, with Saturn at the midpoint of Uranus/Descendant. The Antivertex was exactly on Atlantis.
I have heard two lectures sponsored by the Christic Institute in the past month, but in view of the dismal subject matter considered so far, I think I will save most of the material for a later The Mutable Dilemma or Asteroid-World. If any of our readers want tapes, I can send audio cassettes of talks by Martha Honey, Sara Nelson, Dan Sheehan, and John Judge. The latter is not connected to the Christic Institute, but has even more “information” on the conspiracy theories. If even half of his material is true, the “secret government” goes back to the end of the Second World War rather than to 1960 as the Christics think. In its usual synchronistic way, the cosmos has been sending me various bits of the puzzle from a variety of sources. I bought four video tapes from the Christics, taped another myself from the TV, and will be getting a sixth later this week when I am going to an open house at the local Christic office to see a tape of new information. I can loan out the video tapes, but they are a bit too expensive to give away like the audio ones. The John Judge audio tapes were made by a friend from a radio broadcast. Another piece of the puzzle came from a client who lived next door to drug lords for a year, but I’ll save her story for the Gemini The Mutable Dilemma when I plan to discuss her chart along with the story. Suffice it to say here that the drug money was being sent to banks in Panama.
Readers will remember that both the U.S. Constitution and my version of the Declaration of Independence have P Moon quincunx natal Mars between the third and ninth houses. I have been waiting for years to see whether this aspect signaled a change of direction in the country in the handling of aggression and power. At the moment, we seem to be moving toward more peace with Russia (with the nuclear reduction treaty and Reagan going to Moscow) while we move toward more tensions in the Arabian Gulf, Panama, and Honduras, with mixed actions in Nicaragua. The chart for the Contra-Sandinista cease fire did not look very encouraging, but I am still hoping that they can work out a settlement. I hope to find time later to do more work with the Central American countries.
At least one incident associated with our Moon-Mars quincunx was amusing. Larry Speakes wrote that while Press Secretary for Reagan, he had made up statements and presented them to the press as quotes from Reagan. Reagan was not amused, but the incident is typical of how astrology works as a symbol system with many possible details. I had written that this spring would feature the media and the executive branch of our government but I never would have thought of the specific details of Larry’s creative reporting. His indiscretion in telling about it resulted in the loss of a lucrative job on Wall Street.
I am still periodically struggling with Reagan’s chart, looking for an afternoon birth time that works since Marc Penfield told me that the latest biographical information about Reagan strongly supports an early afternoon time. Despite my satisfaction with the 9:36 A.M. EST time for the U.S. Declaration of Independence, I am also looking again at a possible late afternoon or early evening time. I take historical sources seriously, and when they contradict each other, as is the case with our Declaration, it is very frustrating. The morning chart for the Declaration and the Constitution chart both suggest that the spring and early summer this year are highly important. Both fit the ongoing struggle between the executive and legislative branches of the government. In more general terms, we are seeing the confrontation of the Saturn principle of hierarchy and tradition versus the Uranus principle of democracy and innovation. It is not a coincidence that Saturn conjuncts Uranus three times this year, and that the major planets are transiting first Capricorn and then Aquarius during the balance of this century and into the next. In the tapes mentioned above, John Judge suggests that we are in a real battle between Fascism and Democracy with Bush the current titular head of the Fascist group which includes the military-CIA-mafia men that the Christics have called the Secret Team. If the Christic and Judge material is accurate, there is all the more danger since Bush is so smooth and rational with his grand trine in air, Virgo rising, and Mercury on the MC. It seems crazy to even think of him as a prototype Fascist when his main characterization has been as a wimp. But there is mounting evidence that for many years he has been totally involved as part of what is also called the “Shadow Government.”
Part of the reason I have wanted so much to have an accurate horoscope for Reagan is that a rumor persists in Washington, DC that Reagan may resign before the end of the term to help make sure that Bush wins the election in the fall. It seems possible in Bush’s chart, perhaps as soon as his birthday on June 12 or in early July this summer. Reagan could have his visit to Moscow for a final flourish, a dramatic finale for his term, and then say that he wanted to let his loyal partner carry on the work he had started. I understand that Nancy is ready to leave, saying that it is no fun anymore. For months, Nancy’s chart has had P Moon opposing her Cancer planets. I can’t say that I think this resignation scenario is more than a bare possibility, but I do think Bush is going to win this fall. I also think that though the Christic suit may reach the courts sooner, it is going to be making waves in the fall of 1989. The charts of Bush, Secord, North, and the chart when the suit was filed on May 30, 1986, all show tension in the fall of 1989. As I write this, the legality of the Special Prosecutor is being questioned, the Congressional hearings last year went nowhere, and the Kerry committee on drugs is not getting any support from other Congressional members. Cranston, Moynahan, and the rest of you “liberals,” where are you? At least there is a good chance that Meese will be gone within a month. He has P Moon quincunx P Vesta from mid-April to mid-June, a good aspect for a change of job. I understand that Bush is now putting pressure on Reagan to dump him as an albatross. Time will tell. Even with astrology, we are making educated guesses.
I had intended to write more on the earthquake furor which has been sweeping Los Angeles, but space is dwindling. I have not been able to get excited about the vague Nostradamus prophecy or any of the mundane cycle charts calculated for southern California. The May 1, 1988 full moon chart looks much more threatening to the Bay area where Saturn is exactly on the IC and square the Ascendant. The full moon also looks dramatic in Washington, DC where Mars is exactly on the IC while Moon-Pluto opposite Sun-Jupiter fall within three degrees of the Ascendant axis. The Nostradamus prediction of a “shaking” along with hail when Saturn is in Capricorn, Mercury is Taurus, Venus in Cancer, and Mars in Nonnay has no obvious relevance to California. Mercury leaves Taurus before Venus reaches Cancer, and no one is sure what Nonnay means. If it means “nun,” it might indicate Mars in Virgo. According to the book on Nostradamus by Erika Cheetham, that combination of planetary positions will occur in May of 3755 A.D. A different quatrain mentions an earthquake in the “New City” but gives no further details. The only new city in southern California is Irvine, half way between San Diego and Los Angeles. Then there is New York which is built on a fault line. The Los Angeles Times carried an article on April 22 about the possibility of a monster quake near the coast of Oregon or the state of Washington. It would be ironic if the people moving out of California, going north to escape the anticipated catastrophe, moved into a bigger one.
I looked again at the chart for the last big southern California quake which occurred on January 9, 1857. Known as the Fort Tejon quake, it started at 8:24 A.M., which I assume was local mean time. Its effects extended from below Palmdale to San Bernardino, but it did very little damage in the existing town of Los Angeles. If this chart is a key to the next big one in south California (that is a big if), I would look at the third week in November in 1991. The chart has a 27 Scorpio MC, Uranus at 21 Taurus, Mars at 26 Aquarius, East Point at 22 Aquarius for a fixed T-square which will be aspected by transiting Pluto in the years ahead. There is also an exact T-square between Saturn-Moon at 10 Cancer and the nodes of the Moon at 10 Aries-Libra which is being activated by Neptune now (probably unrealistic fantasies) but will be completed by Uranus in the early 1990s. At that same later time, transiting Saturn will square the chart’s Pluto at 3 Taurus. In the meantime, I’m not the worrying type. Diana Rosenberg is still working on her earthquake project but I haven’t heard from her lately. Scott Vail is busy building a new house. An astrologer working on earthquake prediction techniques in Costa Mesa says that if there is a big one in May, he thinks it will be in Japan. Helen Clerf has sent me some fascinating material about quakes, including a report of a dowser who successfully predicted a moderate one in New York City. Maybe we should take up a collection to help him to move to California? But the forecasts in Ann Parker’s book offering astrological formulas for predicting quakes have bombed so far. Nothing happened during the seven periods when she said L.A. might have one in 1987 or the four periods in early 1988, and she missed the one quake we did have on October 1, 1987. So we are still investigating.
As usual, we will end this issue of the Asteroid-World with a fine contribution on asteroid names from Seraphita. [Not in the web archives.]