Dodona Update
Zip Dobyns
1997 is turning into a year of travel, at least into June. I spent over half of January in Hawaii; a week in Kaui and over a week in Maui with a delightful family who share my values. Then in February I spent another weekend in Laguna Beach with Shirley Leitch, a fellow astrologer, who arranged a class and private appointments for me. Another weekend is planned for early March, and on the fifteenth, Mark and I fly to Paris to speak for a conference. I’ll be home just long enough to attend a talk by a Tibetan woman astrologer who will be visiting San Diego, and then off to the annual Council Grove Conference in Kansas the day after Easter. April 20 will be a special day when my oldest son, Rique Pottenger, is getting married, and a week later I’ll be heading to a week on the beach. The third week in May brings the big ARC conference in Lansing, Michigan, and then on to do lectures in Sydney, Nova Scotia at the spiritual center of Angelika Weller. East coast readers can contact her for more information at (902) 736-1521; FAX (902) 736-1845; E-mail at arkandor@atcon.com
Sara Klein and I, with Mark’s help, have done a bit more on the Swedish accident data, but need to do a lot more. So far, using ten control groups which were averaged in sets of five and then the average of all ten compared with the subjects, we have significant Chi Squares for six aspects which most astrologers would expect to be associated with accidents. Prior readers will remember that Sara did an astrology research project for her dissertation to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. Samples from two California clinics for a total of over 1,000 individuals who had work-related accidents which kept them off the job for three months or more produced dramatically significant Chi Squares when the transiting (T) Sun was conjunct, square, or opposite natal (N) Sun. The odds against chance were highest with the smallest orbs, with up to eight and nine zeros. Such figures are unheard of in research involving humans, who are so complex.
Both Sara and I continued to look for additional data to replicate the study, and were finally provided the birth dates and accident dates of nearly 3,000 individuals by a Swedish psychiatrist. 2,452 of the accidents were timed, so we could use the T Moon. We had no place for the accidents or births, so have no chart angles, and no time for the subjects so no Moon for them. Given this limited data, and the limited time we have had to work on it, so far our results are: No significance for the T Sun square or opposite the N Sun! The people in Sweden do not relate to the Sun in the same way people do in California! Culture is a decisive variable in astrology, which shows psychological states but not the details of how individuals will manifest them. In Sweden, significant aspects include: T Mars quincunx N Sun, T Mercury quincunx N Saturn, T Mars square N Saturn, T Sun conjunct N Mars, T Mars hard aspects to N Saturn, and T Sun conjunct N Sun. Hard aspects includes conjunctions, squares, oppositions, octiles, and trioctiles. The T Sun conjunct N Sun was the only significant one in Sweden of the aspects which were significant in our original California sample. We have not yet looked at the other aspects in the California data. They require setting up control groups, which takes more time.
There are never enough hours. I get farther behind on mail, reading, gardening, etc. every time I travel, but life remains exciting and joyful. I hope all of our readers can feel the same.