Dodona Update
Zip Dobyns
The El Niño phenomenon has begun with the rains coming early. So far, San Diego has not had any problems, though Laguna Beach just 60 miles to the north was flooded with 7 ½ inches of rain in 24 hours. When you consider that we sometimes only get 8 inches in a whole year, that was an amazing event. Our Fall 1997 Asteroid-World is devoted to this subject, so I will just say at this point that so far, the rains have been very welcome. The hills are turning green and gorgeous, and the rains have saved me hours of watering in the orchard, giving me time to read more, snugly inside while the rain patters on the roof.
I have enjoyed a fall spent mostly at home after frequent travels during the first half of the year. 1998 looks very similar, with more travel in the first half including Hawaii in January, a Caribbean cruise to see the eclipse in late February, work in Houston in early March, the Council Grove Conference in Kansas in April, UAC in Atlanta in late May, and Nova Scotia again in late June or early July. In between, I’ll be in Laguna Beach and Los Angeles periodically. I decided the conference in Russia in late June was too much, but might be involved in another one in California during June.
This past fall was mostly spent reading some of my collection of books on archaeoastronomy in order to expand my Summer 1996 issue of Asteroid-World into a third of a book. My daughter Maritha and Maria Simms have written the other two thirds of the book which we expect to be in print in time for UAC. It discusses the Astrological Ages and the Millennium prophecies. I had a ball reading and writing my part, and hope readers will enjoy it as much. If it debunks some of their favorite fantasies about the miraculous new world supposedly just around the corner, perhaps it will at least help them cope with the rude awakening when the world neither falls into the ocean, flips its axis, or turns into a golden age. I continue to be astonished at how many supposedly intelligent people are swallowing one of the Armageddon scenarios.
Dr. James Pottenger, the founder of our church, is continuing to work on his magnum opus describing the history and teachings of the world’s major religions, and interpreting them in light of our conceptual model of consciousness and life. Maritha continues to stay busy at ACS in addition to writing her part of our forthcoming new book, teaching classes, seeing some personal clients, and keeping her hand in with duplicate bridge. Mark is equally busy, writing programs for a daytime job, for astrologers with special needs, and a Windows version of CCRS which will see the light sometime in the future. Rique remains fully occupied as the programmer for ACS, but he delighted the whole family last April by getting married to a professor at National University. Bill is building lots of bookshelves in his spare time, preparing the San Diego house for a huge influx of books when the house in Los Angeles is eventually sold.
I have been asked by a couple of our subscribers to do the chart of Mother Teresa, but unfortunately, we are not even sure of her birth date, much less her time. Actually, the date is known to be August 26, 1910 in Skopje in the former Yugoslavia, but we are not sure which calendar to use since prior to the first world war, her area was still using the older calendar. If we can clarify the calendar question, I might do a chart with a speculative time.
This issue of The Mutable Dilemma will not reach you until January, even though it is still early December, so I will wish all of our readers a great New Year and hope that you had a pleasant time during the holiday season.