Traditional astrology

Mars-Ketu again

2009-10-01T01:21:00.005Z

Having been very busy at work, I can listen to the world news only occasionally, and I note extreme events these days (Sumatra earthquake, Samoa tsunami, storms in China and Vietnam) - no surprise as Mars is approaching Ketu again. I wrote several posts about this unpleasant constellation, which happens every 1.5-2 years, but this time its severe effects are amplified by the summer Sun eclipse which promised uneasy time to Asia and Oceania. Look at the map of the eclipse again - it covers exactly this area, including Far East of Russia, which recently suffered a great damage of the large hydroelectrostation.

I do not like to predict doom & gloom, but in the next two weeks, while Mars is moving over Ketu, there will be more of such stuff to observe, unfortunately.

The Pond

2009-09-29T19:36:00.010Z

Last week I attended an evening lecture at the Astrological Lodge of London (founded by Alan Leo in 1915). The lecturer was talking about 4th house and ancestors in a natal chart, and was mainly focused on family matters (type of family, internal relationship, etc).

But there is yet another meaning of 4th house, and I was more interested in learning about that – the real estate and immovable property of an individual.

When the lecturer asked people in the audience to give her examples of their natal 4th houses, and at the end, one lady mentioned her cusp of 4th house in Cancer with Jupiter placed there, the lecturer started explaining what kind of attached relationship with family she had, etc.

I was thinking… Jupiter in Cancer on the cusp of 4th house… There should be really huge property there, with some large (Jupiter) sentimental (Cancer) reservoir (watery sign)… And I asked the lady directly in the lecture hall, with apologies to the lecturer for interrupting for a moment, “Do you have some pond in your home estate?”

“My God”, said the lady, “yes, we do have a large pond in our garden…”

And the public turned around to look at me sitting in the last row…

This was an example of very simple and straightforward astrology, but such cases often look as if you take a rabbit from your hat, a kind of weird and suspicious magic (and this is why the Church disliked astrology so much during the history, which inevitably influenced the public opinion) – although astrology is as rigorous as any other branch of human knowledge. The problem is that those who criticise it usually have no idea about its basics and how it works. They just deny and ridicule it. As Newton said to sceptical Edmond Halley, “I have studied it”, – whereas most of the sceptics did not.

Medical astrology

2009-08-13T03:22:00.014Z

I am not a doctor, I just have a long record of sicknesses, which were not too disruptive to make me disabled, but painful enough to make me think how my organism works. And when I recently got flu, I was not surprised to later get heavy pain in my backbone and right leg – I immediately understood that the virus entered the nervous system and caused inflammation.

When I told this to my friend, well, the scepticism was understandable. However, the very next morning, I bumped into an article in the most authoritative PNAS journal saying that influenza virus, indeed, can cause neuroinflammation (I was fortunate enough to get that in the leg).

This happened a week ago, but today I got yet another medical case study, because I read a BBC article stating that increasing drinking causes oral cancer.

How comes, I thought… People used to drink much heavier in the past, and the major problem caused by drinking is cirrhosis, which sometimes kills faster than any cancer. Very strange…

The article stated that "Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and the trend we are now seeing is likely to be linked to Britain's continually rising drinking levels."

But I can tell you that this is not the only trend that started in the 1950s. Yet another one was the sexual revolution, and this, unfortunately, may be related to mouth problems, too.

It is well known that some forms of cancer are caused by viruses, in particular, papillomaviruses, which are known to cause cervical cancer. Therefore, my hypothesis was that the increase of the oral cancer in the last decades could be related to particular sexual practices that became more acceptable and widely used.

I asked myself a horary question, whether my hypothesis was correct. The chart was quite positive about this, with Venus on ascendent, exalted Moon lady of ascendent and Jupiter in 9th.

I wanted to add a comment on the cancer causes in the BBC page of the article about drinking, but the discussion was already closed. I then wanted to find the researcher whose words were quoted in the article, Hazel Nunn, and maybe to email her for a discussion, because I strongly felt the claim of the article was not quite correct (and no, I am not a drunkard to feel urge to protect the rights of alcohol).

I found the press-release of the Cancer Research UK, where most of the ideas were the same as BBC published, but there was also a very brief note, which is actually most elucidating:

"It's possible that HPV and diet are also playing a role, and the evidence -
particularly for the role of HPV - is growing."

And if you still do not know, HPV is the abbreviation for papillomaviruses, which do cause cervical cancer and in the last decades seem to migrate to other parts, too.

I am not a doctor, and I cannot publish a PNAS paper on this. No proper medical affiliation, no convincing statistics, no robustness of the result…

This is typical for cholerics: to get the answer faster than to be able to prove it.

Update of August 18th. I just found a new article in the Lancet journal on alcohol consumption and deaths in Russia (this is where it is really extreme). Although throat cancer is mentioned in the list of death causes, it is very minor compared with accidents and violence, alcohol poisoning, ischaemic heart disease, liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, cirrhosis, pancreatic disease, and "ill-specified conditions".

Looking at the plots in the paper, one can notice that everywhere in Europe alcohol consumption is decreasing. I am afraid, it has nothing to do with the major cause of the oral cancer (which grows in Europe but still quite low in traditional Russia).

Update of August 26th. I just found that in May 2007, in the New England Journal of Medicine, there was an article by D'Souza et al with main conclusion that "oral HPV infection is strongly associated with oropharyngeal cancer among subjects with or without the established risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use". The press-release of this result is here.

Update of September 9th. Yet another PNAS article states that the prostate cancer is caused by XMRV virus. I have a suspicion that most cancers are caused by viruses (except abnormal cases like heavy radiation dozes, etc). This is what drives cells mad when they loose their normal functionality. There should be some intrusion, and viral mechanism is a direct way for that.

If one mentions genetic predisposition, how can one know that viruses are not transmitted within a family? People sleep together, eat together, they are an entity; everything is shared and exchanged. Baby gets all mother's viruses, wife gets all husband's viruses. It is inevitable. Later smoking or drinking just triggers and accelerates the processes.

Update of August 17. A very good presentation about retroviridae causing sarcoma, tumors and leukemia.

Birthday

2009-07-27T18:20:00.008Z

Approaching the “round” birthday this week, I ordered a present for myself, the cult Brompton bicycle – and although it will arrive only after three months due to the long waiting list for these creatures, I already feel joyful expecting the new family member.

Maybe I should be worried about the coming mid-life crisis (and load of work requiring more efforts than before), but at the moment Jupiter transits over my natal Moon - and even Venus trines her right now, - so I cannot help feeling rather happy.

The new solar chart receives this unusual combination of benefics into the angles

and Venus into its natal position, in the solar ascendent, with Sun in Leo on IC. Also the ruler of the 10th house is in the domicile of the ruler of ascendent. This all looks good.

Well, except that detrimented Moon falling into the 6th house in the worrisome and restless Scorpio. And looking at the houses it rules, 2nd and 3rd, there is nothing surprising: the year promises concerns about money matters. Quite expectedly, given several new payment orders I added recently; together with the coming payments for Brommy. Moon also exalts on the cusp of 12th house, and this is bad for those who belong there – which is good.

Looking back at the past half of the life (as the mid-life approximate), I probably should be satisfied. Not by “achievements” (which are not my merit) but by the given learning opportunities that are manifestations of the right choices. I am all the same as 5 years ago when I wrote depressive poems of a lost looser. The only difference is that the long sad waiting led me to the right route, as it seems so obvious now. Even if later that may change for worse again. Life is wavy…

To fly or not to fly

2009-07-25T16:22:00.024Z

When two weeks ago a friend of mine suggested to visit me this weekend coming over on Friday 24.07.09, I firmly said no – travelling just after the eclipse (22.07.09), and under such a bad transit of Moon closing hard aspects of malefics could be really dangerous. The friend was sceptical, and I suggested to wait until the weekend, and if nothing noticeable happened in the world, I would shut up with my astrological advice regarding travel. As the Moon was repeating the configuration I noticed recently and picked for further research, I also added a prediction about possible accidents on water, in particular related to Somalia pirates.

On the day of the cancelled flight (24.07.09) the world news were as follows:

Emergency landing, evacuation and delay of many flights in the Gatwick airport

Iran aircraft fire killed 17

Emergency landing in Scheremetyevo (link in Russian)

Emergency landing in Siberia (link in Russian)

Two died in a light aircraft crash near Saratov (link in Russian)

Bus crash in Russia near Rostov killed 20 people

Seven injured in a car accident in Moscow (link in Russian)

Three died in a car accident in Kirghizia (link in Russian)

Six died in Croatia train crash

Three killed in a car accident in Southern Russia (link in Russian)

Helicopter crash in the USA (link in Russian)

14 injured in a bus crash on Moscow ring road

12 injured in an overturned van in Ukraine

And this is something related to natural accidents:

300 evacuated in Minsk because of the flash flood (link in Russian)

Seven killed in a storm in Poland

Wild fires in Southern Europe

Further accidents on 25.07.09

Lifeguards in the UK saved 40 people from the sea

Emergency landing in Boston (link in Russian)

Emergency landing in Krasnodar (link in Russian)

Clash with Somalia pirates in their attempt to capture a ship (link in Russian)

Fire kills 6 in Stokholm

5 died in a boat accident in Siberia (link in Russian)

Flash rain and landslide killed 14 in Japan (link in Russian)

Five deaths in a car accident in Siberia (link in Russian)

A falling piece of mountain destroys a bridge and kills three in China (link in Russian)

Landslide killed 7 in Columbia (link in Russian)

Flash flood killed 12 in China (link in Russian)

The eclipse on 22.07.09 was visible mainly over Asia, yet it was powerful enough to influence other regions as well

Since the eclipse was one of the longest, its influence will be considerable – yet Lilly in his Annus Tenebrosus mentions that cannot last more than 4 years

It was in the angle

with the chart which is probably saying about further uneasy events (a major earthquake, landslides and flash floods in Asia are plausible)
The good thing is that hopefully my friend would not be that sceptical about astrology any more.

Update of August 10th. On August 5th, there was an earthquake in Siberia - fortunately, in uninhabited area - of magnitude 7.7 (link in Russian). Similarly powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 happened in the Indian ocean on August 10th (link in Russian). In Japan, on August 10th, after an earthquake of 6.6 the nuclear station was stopped (link in Russian). On August 9th, typhoon in China caused flood, landslide and evacuation of thousands (BBC link, AP link). Tropical storm caused landslides in Japan (BBC link).

Update of August 14th. Latest BBC links about Japan and Taiwan.

Update of August 20th. Not only Somalia pirates were doing their nasty work in August. The ship with Russian crew Arctic Sea was hijacked. Also, as regards the accident on water, Tonga ferry went missing. Yet another very dramatic news of August was the blast on Sayano-Shuchenskaya power station.

Lyudmila Zykina

2009-07-04T23:22:00.003Z

While the world is mourning over the death of Michael Jackson, whose natal full Moon on the axis Virgo-Pisces was afflicted by the transit Saturn, not many people outside Russia know that the great Russian singer Zykina died on the 1st of July.

She was 80 years old, and the peak of her career happened in the 60s and 70s, but those songs cannot fade with time. These are the YouTube links to famous “Volga” and “Orenburg shawl”.

She was born on June 10, so the deadly affliction by the Saturn transit is quite clear in her chart.

Saturn will be forming an exact opposition with Uranus this autumn, and since the Sun is a natural significator of health and longevity, it will be uneasy time for those who were born on 10-25 dates of September, March, December and June. I wish them all to get through this time safely.

Imelda May

2009-02-20T20:36:00.008Z

Yesterday I attended a concert of fascinating Imelda May. This woman rocks!

When I came home and looked on the net, nothing like birth date was there, only she was mentioned as “Dublin-born”. But then I found the birth date of her husband, guitarist Darrel Higham – and that was interesting! Partners’ chart are interrelated and describe each other (don’t ask me why – I have the answer, but not everybody is ready to accept it). Thus, in a man’s chart, the wife is signified, in particular, by Moon, and the Moon in the Higham’s chart is interesting:

Moon is placed in fiery quadrupled sign Sagittarius and aspected by Mars in own triplicity in conjunction with Rahu. Moreover, Moon is probably in antiscia with Sun and Venus in square with Uranus (depending on his birth time). This describes quite a woman…

Imelda May does not work with big studios, and to support her talent people should go to her concerts and buy her CDs:

No Turning Back – Imelda’s first solo release
Talk to Me – with Blue Harlem
Love Tattoo - Imelda's new solo release

There are some YouTube clips available (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but live she is even better than in records. This is a bona fide music star!

Solar & lunar eclipses

2009-02-10T01:59:00.006Z

Lunar eclipse of 9th February followed the partial solar eclipse of 26th January, which was visible above Australia, part of Africa and Oceania, and China

Similarly to what happened in the New England Dark Day, both Beijing and Melbourne received the solar eclipse into angle

Reading the news about fires in Australia and China, one can see how sad yet predictable are the effects of the eclipses.

Update of February 12. After recently discussing eclipses with a friend of mine, I would like to clarify the following. The influence of eclipses on mundane affairs does not mean only fires (and not only physical phenomena). It means extremes, like the recent unusual heavy snow falls in England and even a hurricane in Paris - in the areas where the eclipses were not visible (gravity is still a powerful perturbation, not only for tides, but also for far more dynamic atmospheric masses). Yet, in the context of the Southern Hemisphere, in summer January, fires in Australia are clear manifestation of the eclipse influence, both physically and symbolically.

Patriarch Kirill

2009-02-02T20:17:00.003Z

Russian Patriarch Kirill was enthroned in Moscow on Sunday, 1st of February 2009, at 10am.

This is a good chart for the Russian Church and people: the exalted ruler of ascendent Mars is in 11th house of achievements, the Moon (the people) is in the ascendent (congregation loving Patriarch); two benefics (note exalted Venus) in 12th house promise protection. Ruler of 9th house (religion) is in 12th, but since the 12th is quite big in this chart, Jupiter is actually close to MC, which means that in directions MC will come to Jupiter (with Mercury and Mars on the way).

Retro Mercury rules 2nd and 3rd – I expect the Patriarch will soon deal with some financial and organization matters inside the church, but since his significator Mars is so strong accidentally and dignified, when Mercury turns direct and joins Mars, these will be resolved (not with ease, though). Note that Moon is coming to square Mars, which might signify tensions, too.

The loaded 12th house means dealing with hidden opponents, as well as performing sacred rituals and leading isolated monastic life.

It is a good chart for the Church and congregation.

Obama’s 2nd oath

2009-01-23T01:33:00.005Z

When I was writing about the inauguration, it was difficult to imagine such a strange consequence of the Moon void of course (void of course means “nothing happens”, or business without fructification) – yet, in the context of the presidency, it produced the 2nd oath for Obama, 31 hours after the inauguration.

This happened to two US presidents before, Chester Arthur and Calvin Coolidge, so it is not an exceptional event. However, in the astrological terms, it changes the inauguration chart of January 20th for the new one:

One can immediately notice that the ascendent here is Leo, its ruler being in the sign of Saturn, Aquarius (Leo is the sun-sign for Obama, for he was born in August). This makes the new chart more coherent with his nativity, unlike the previous one, which had Taurus rising (with all his charm, Obama is rather a Saturnine than Venusian person).

This time, the 10th house of supreme power is empty; its ruler Venus, although exalted in Pisces, is badly placed in 8th house of fears and comes to conjunct Uranus and oppose retro Saturn. The ruler of ascendent Leo is in detriment in 6th house – weak and working hard, yet coming to join Jupiter (which will be combust then). Jupiter rules 5th house of fun, so this is not good for the country in the sense of having fun, I am sorry to say.

Moon, the significator of people, has left Scorpio where she was detrimented, but now is coming to square Saturn and Uranus – still not good. The retro Saturn is placed just on the cusp of 2nd house of finances – this is already known to each and every one: people are experiencing financial problems.

This chart is much less shiny than that of 20th January – yet more realistic. Problems, less fun, hard work...

I cannot see much of that in the chart, but I wish good luck to the American people in the next few years.

Algol

2009-01-22T18:39:00.008Z

Yesterday I was participating in a discussion on death fear during air flights, and I mentioned one of the major significations of the violent death in a natal chart: the influence of the evil star Algol. According to Vivian Robson, who is a contemporary authority on fixed stars, Algol “causes misfortune, violence, decapitation, hanging, electrocution and mob violence, and gives a dogged and violent nature that causes death to the native or others. It is the most evil star in the heavens.”

So, I mentioned that if a natal planet (particularly Sun or Moon) is conjunct with Algol, there is higher risk to suffer violent death and various amputations.

When I had opened today’s news, I saw an article that immediately attracted my attention: Brazil model Mariana Bridi da Costa lost all limbs.

Here came an astrological hypothesis: her natal chart should have “something on Algol”. I asked my Portuguese friend to check Brazil sites and got the birth date, 18.06.1988. Not only does the girl have Jupiter on Algol (which well can be her ruler of the ascendent if she has Pisces ascending), but also her natal Sun and Mercury in Gemini are afflicted by the current slow and painful opposition of Saturn and Uranus.

Poor girl.

Update of January 23. Today, a Moscow lawyer was buried, he was shot in the head by a killer. Imagine how I was surprised to see the grave plate with his date of birth, 20th of May - with Sun on Algol!

In the medieval times, this constellation could mean decapitation by an executioner - now it is just a shot...

Update. Mariana Bridi da Costa died on January 24th.

Cinemundane-II

2009-01-06T01:07:00.008Z

Yesterday, Jupiter moved from the sign of his detriment Capricorn into Aquarius. Jupiter’s transit in Capricorn took more than a year, and as I wrote earlier, I expected his influence on cinema to be rather disappointing: this was time to make money rather than create masterpieces.

One can hardly recall a masterpiece among all those hancocks of 2008, and even Mamma Mia, with great ABBA songs and ugly voices of the actors, was an artificial production whose main aim was to earn (certainly very favourable for ABBA sales).

All the major blockbusters came out to be too dark, secondary and unimpressive. In the BBC annual film review, I noticed phrase “failed to make much of impression”, which is quite indicative.

I might have called a masterpiece the film released last week, “The Reader”, but even this one is an illustration of the Jupiter in Capricorn: Cardano says on this constellation in aphorism 2.45 of Lilly’s edition about “power under pretence of justice” with “unfortunate issue” – come and see the film to understand how true this is.

Now, as Jupiter is in Aquarius (and weak, being peregrine yet), look at the oncoming movies to find which of them are weird enough to indicate the planetary change…

Update of February 23. I was glad to see Kate Winslet finally - and so well deserved - collecting this year's Bafta, Golden Globes and, today, the Oscar. Well done to her Venus on Regulus, at last!

Landau

2008-11-18T20:55:00.006Z

This post is about the great physicist – and about verifiable astrological hypotheses.

I do not know Landau’s time of birth, but all I need here is the date, because the main issue is the transit of Saturn over his natal Sun.

Landau was born on 22.01.1908, and the chart is as follows:

One of the major dramatic events of his life was the road accident that happened on 7th January 1962 and deprived him from work till the end of his life.

It is easy to check what was happening in the sky that time: transit Saturn was conjunct with Landau’s natal Sun. I can assure you that this transit is one of the heaviest in one’s life (I experienced it quite recently, in 2006).

Then, I thought, there should be a similar very hard period in Landau’s life about 30 years before the accident (given Saturn’s period of 29.5 years on average). What happened then, around 1932? Certainly, there should be something similarly “catastrophic”?

I checked historic documents related to Landau’s life. To make it short, after living for years in Leningrad, in 1932 Landau moved to provincial Kharkov and started working in the local physical institute (which later became one of the world centres in theoretical physics, due to his efforts).

Why did he move over there? Because of the heavy and dramatic conflict with his supervisor Ioffe, whom he sarcastically criticised until the Saturn transit finalised that, in summer of 1932.

How did astrological hypotheses lead me to finding the historical facts that I had not known?

Warsaw

2008-11-17T19:47:00.004Z

Yesterday I met a special person. I was very lucky to meet him. His name is Zbigniew Tucholsky, he is a widower of Anna German. I also met their son, Zbigniew junior.

As I wrote earlier, Anna German has been one of the main artistic figures in my life, since I was three years old. When I started studying astrology, she also became yet another astrological puzzle for me, because her chart and her public image had some controversies in my understanding. Therefore, I prepared several dozens of questions to ask pan Tucholsky – only he could tell me what was real among my guesses.

I cannot disclose our private conversation which continued for six hours; I can only say that it was incredible happiness for me to share my life-long love for her with the man who loves her all his life. And I feel quite proud of my astrological understanding of her chart, because he confirmed almost all of my guesses, often just saying “yes” to my questions.

It was an intense weekend: I also did my best to see the country and to test my new Nikon D60. The camera seems to be a good member of the noble family, and Poland is a really beautiful country.

I recently had a chat with a colleague of mine, a Pole, who thinks (quite typically) that Russia is a monster who caused disaster to his country. These people misunderstand the whole epoch: it was first and foremost Russia that suffered the communism, and if they wish to blame somebody, they rather have to direct their energy to Marx.

I like Poland (well, I managed to visit only Katowice, Krakow and Warsaw in two days). I am actually glad to see it recovering from socialistic times as much as I am glad to see Russia doing the same. And I love the language, it is so close to Russian, and almost as dear.

I hope people soon forget the hatred of the past.

President Obama

2008-11-10T03:18:00.009Z

In June, when I wrote the post about Obama, the exact time of birth was not known yet. Therefore, I would not claim that I did predict his presidency, whatever was my reasoning. Such things happen when celebrities are being considered: their birth info is unreliable and often leads an astrologer astray.

In the case of the inauguration event, however, the chart info is much more reliable: it has already been declared that it will happen on January 20th, 2009, at noon. Therefore, just as in the case of the Medvedev’s inauguration, we can look at the event chart.

10th house of power contains a remarkable combination of Sun (noon chart), retro Mercury casimi, combust Jupiter and Rahu – these promise a term of presidency most advanced in wit and brightness. The ruler of ascendent Venus is in 11th house of the fruits of the power - and of advisors (2nd from 10th), she is exalted and in conjunction with Uranus: Obama promises to be a dignified and unusual ruler with multitude of assistants of any kind (we already know his team of financists). However, the ruler of 11th is retro Saturn in the sign of Venus fall, Virgo, Saturn being the ruler of 9th and 10th as well – it looks as a long and painful conflict with people who are supposed to be his supporters, which sounds bizarre at the moment. Since this is accompanied by the opposition of Uranus and Saturn (the one causing so many mundane problems during October and November 2008, as one can see in the daily news), the conflict promises to be rather explosive.

Furthermore, Mars is exalted and is in 9th house of science and foreign affairs. It is dignified but remains a violent planet, and thus promises scientific achievements in the arms development, which will be fully supported by the president (note sextile between Mars and Venus and the Venus placement in the sign of Mars triplicity).

Considering the state finances, these are ruled by Mercury (2nd cusp in Gemini), which is combust and in conjunction with Jupiter (hardly beneficial in this chart, because it rules malefic houses 8th and 12th and is afflicted by Rahu). Culminating cazimi Mercury indicates a still mighty power – interesting, though, that Sun rules 5th house and is in detriment, which is a bit inappropriate at the time of the financial crisis.

The most problematic body in the chart is the Moon. It is void of course and in the sign of fall in 7th house. Moon in the mundane charts indicates the population, and it is placed in the sign of Venus’ detriment: people hating the president. Not good, not at all. In fact, it would be much better to postpone the beginning of the ceremony for a half an hour or so, until the Moon has moved into Sagittarius.

It will be interesting to watch whether the actual time of the oath procedure would rescue Obama from such a bad state of the Moon. The opposition with retro Saturn is bad enough to spare him from the Moon in Scorpio.

Update of December 3, 2008. Sri K.N.Rao, in his recent article, was very kind to mention my name about those who predicted presidency for Obama.

Update of January 20, 2009. The actual inauguration took place today at 12.07. Moon was in the 30th degree of Scorpio.

Kafka

2008-09-27T04:47:00.007Z

I never liked Kafka, and to understand why I had to a wait until one of experts and admirers of Kafka’s works, James Hawes, had written his book “Excavating Kafka”.

He dug very well, finding roots and analogies that are crucial for understanding Kafka and his work. Hawes also managed to understand those things which were clear and available although clouded by the myths about ‘lonely’, ‘unknown’, ‘idealistic’, ‘poor’, ‘mysterious’ Kafka. Kafka was not like that at all, and no, he was not the first to imagine a man transforming into a beetle. The first was Kafka’s favourite Goethe…

James Hawes is brilliant in seeing clearly not only the historical perspective, but also the underlying motivation of Kafka’s behaviour, from his collecting porno to cheating the fiancé, and from the literary environment promoting and prizing him at a rather early stage to his investments in Austro-Hungarian war bonds. James Hawes even understands the Saturn revolution happening to Kafka (without naming it in astrological terms, of course).

But the most striking sentence in the whole book is the following. Hawes says in the very end that “… his stories have all the feel of literature, but they simply refuse to deliver what we expect of literature.”

Indeed, Hawes highly values Kafka’s talent, although what he is saying is just a confirmation of my old feeling about Kafka’s writings: his work is rather an imitation of good literature. Very skilful one.

To understand this controversy, let’s look at Kafka’s chart.

Mercury in own house in conjunction with Venus speaks for itself: this is the perfect planetary implementation for a proficient writer and artist; the gift of heaven. Moon in Gemini near this conjunction makes him bright, and Sun-Jupiter in Cancer adds emotionality – double gift for a writer.

Yet, for the root of the heartlessness of this talent (as well as for his masculine peculiarity), look at the Mars in detriment on the most evil star Algol. In fact, reading quotes from letters to his women, I kept thinking about him as an emotional and physical pervert.

I cannot understand how Hawes managed to preserve his respect to Kafka after this research. I am saying this not because I am sympathetic with those women, but because my aversion to his weird stories without “proper literary” ideas (and rather unhealthy in spirit) is confirmed by his personal faults. The Hawes’s book provided me with more facts to support the impression.

Can I appreciate the brilliance of style and imagination if they are not backed by humanism? No. This is why I do not like Kafka.

Birthday

2008-08-09T05:33:00.004Z

I do not know whether the past year was the result of the chosen location of the solar return or it would be fruitful in any case. The current secondary progression uses the birth place, and the ruler of the natal ascendent Moon is in its full dignity in Cancer on the natal Medium Coeli in conjunction with Procyon – probably the solar chart was rather a secondary matter.

Nevertheless, the coming solar will be neither easy nor peaceful, and there is no way to avoid that. When people are talking about free will, they are dealing with negligible illusion that can change this or that route, but not the life events.

But it is better not to know that.

Just to make the birthday special, I came to a countryside medieval church for a concert of Hummel and Mozart. In fact, I rode my bicycle for 25km down there not quite because of Mozart: the festival was patronised by His Highness Prince Charles who attended the concert.

This was special. Hummel is called “proto-romantic”, and Chopin clearly learnt a lot from him; I was very impressed by the music. Sitting in the church listening to Hummel in excellent performance of English Chamber Orchestra, with all those stained-glass windows around, I was thinking about the fate that took me from poor provincial Russia and brought to England for learning. I truly believe that England is the best place on Earth for learning. I was thanking God for all the losses and opportunities that finally led me there.

After the concert, I left the church and saw the Sun setting. It was two days before new Moon, and most planets were near Sun, so I couldn’t expect particular light on the back way home. Well, I thought, I should keep about the same direction to south-east for an hour or so, then probably some star could help me? I looked in that direction and, surprisingly, found Jupiter – it was the only planet rising that time, and it was pointing exactly at my home. What a nice present of the sky.

Should I say that I came home safely and happily, despite the complete darkness during my ride?

Update of August 29. Less than a month after writing this post, I received a letter from Marquis Who's Who stating that my bio would be included among 60,000 to be published in the 2009 edition "Who's Who in the World". Good confirmation of the elevated progressed Moon.

Grander conjunction

2008-07-10T18:37:00.008Z

Studying grand conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, I certainly tested my own natal chart. This is what researchers of the past did when licked charged wires, touched rod during lightning or exposed themselves to radioactive substances. Serving science is not easy!

The closest available for me Ju-Sa conjunction was in 1961, and to tell you the truth, I do not like it: Jupiter was in fall, and the conjunction happened on my natal Imum Coeli. It probably promises the end of matters of some significance, but that is not too soon. Ruler of the conjunction's midheaven placed on the cusp of natal 7th house is also rather irrelevant to me.

Wait, why should I consider that far stuff if there is a more interesting conjunction, Jupiter with weird creature Uranus? In the natal chart, they are so close that the conjunction should happen just before the birth!

Indeed, two dates are separated only by 10 days. Moreover, the conjunction has the same ascendent, and ruler of 10th in both charts Moon is on the ascendent and on the conjunction. Venus, ruler of both ascendents, is on the cusp of natal 9th house. Sun and Mercury of the conjunction are placed on the natal MC. Arcturus and Vega are rising with the ascendent, Mercury with Rigel, Venus with Aldebaran. Ruler of natal ascendent Venus is on conjunction's MC by antiscia
I would like to call it “grander conjunction”. After all, the orbital period of Uranus is 84 years rather than those 29 years of Saturn…

Innokenty Annensky

2008-07-08T23:12:00.004Z

Innokenty Annensky was a highly-placed beaurocrat in the state educational system of the tzar Russia. He was married to a much older widow with two children. His hidden passion was poetry that he was writing all his life without publishing (the first small collection of his verses appeared when he was already 50).

At the end of his life, he retired and joined some magazine editorial to start publishing his work - but imagine such a figure among young nihilists in the beginning of XX century. He certainly felt like a dinosaur and died soon, I think being quite unhappy.

His poems are beautiful and delicate, but there is one which is a real star, one of the most beautiful Russian verses of all times, in my opinion. I attempted to translate it, although not precisely, but keeping the original sound. I often read it to myself in Russian, such a wonderful music.

Among the worlds, in light of many stars,
I keep repeating name of only vesper,
I wouldn't say that I'm that much in love,
But it's so dark when I don't hear her whisper.

And when the doubts get heavier for me,
I seek the answer from her dear brightness -
That's not because it's lighter near her:
I need no light in presence of her rightness.

Guess what kind of chart Annensky had to write a starry poem about a star? He was Leo with Sun on Regulus:

California fires

2008-07-08T23:06:00.006Z

Dorothy Kovach, who lives in California, asked horary question: "When will the forest fires come under control?"

Mars, being ruler of 8th house of death danger placed in 12th house, is a significator of Californian fires. It changes the sign from fiery Leo for earthy Virgo, and earth is an enemy of fire, one of possible methods of fighting it. The Mars position gives us about three time units; this is fixed sign of Leo (slow timing) but cadent house (fast timing). Therefore, I would take it as weeks. Since horary was asked on 26th June, I would say that possible date of ceasing fire is 15-20 of July.

UPDATE OF JULY 15

Here is the Fire Overview by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, stating that by July 15, 1983 out of 2010 peak fires (i.e., more than 95%) have been contained.

Conjuration

2008-07-06T05:16:00.004Z

Today, July 5, Moon is separating from Ketu and approaching Mars and Saturn, thus activating the violent transit for which I predicted a powerful earthquake. During the day, ten earthquakes happened in Japan, and the strongest was of magnitude 7.7. As I wrote earlier, in the update on Mars-Ketu conjunction, earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 have mean return interval more than three months, but this major earthquake happened only three weeks after the previous one, on June 14. I hope this is convincing enough for those who are skeptical about astrology. I am sure none of the academic seismological methods was able to predict this with similar temporal accuracy.

Yet, even if we can expect such events by monitoring the planetary configurations, locating them is very difficult: they can happen in any hour, whereas the astrological houses (allowing us to estimate symbolic location and direction) are moving through the day, making a complete circle over zodiac. On the other hand, applying formal methods of mundane astrology (considering charts of various states, their seasonal ingresses, conjunctions, etc) on routine basis is a physically unrealisable task. Here, successful prediction with accurate location becomes a matter of pure luck.

Moreover, the depth of the hypocentre (the point of the actual shock, which is projected onto the surface of the planet as epicentre) is very important as well: the most devastating earthquake is harmless for humanity if it happens deep enough.

One can see how difficult the mundane astrology - but this cannot deter people from seeking the truth further.

Ironically, in the XVI century John Dee could practice magical arts freely, but had to hide his interest in mathematics, which was synonymous of conjuration. Nowadays, this is quite opposite: the celestial influence is marginal now.

I am looking forward to the time when the learning complete the turn of the spiral, accepting the past knowledge to advance new one.

Pompeii

2008-07-06T00:57:00.011Z

As now Pompeii is on the news because of its dreadful state and collapsing historical sites, it reminded me about the well-known eruption on August 24, AD 79.

To my surprise, the chart for the August of that year had the same dangerous conjunction of Mars and Ketu, therefore it was probably a violent period not only for Pompeii. However, this particular place was afflicted the most due to additional circumstances; obviously, combination of Mars and Ketu, which repeats every 1.8 year of the Mars orbital period, was not enough to produce such an event (for instance, minor eruptions of Vesuvius occurred 20 times in the last 300 years).

We are lucky to have a document providing timing of the eruption: the letter of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus, where he describes death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, during the event. The family was in Misenum (town across the Bay of Naples) when the first cloud appeared above the mountain, and it happened at “about one in the afternoon”.

The chart is ruled by violent retro Mars and has retro Uranus exactly on the Imum Coeli (the bottom of the earth): some unexpected turbulent event starting in the ground. Ruler of 8th (house of death) is culminating Mercury in own sign. Retro Saturn, if we consider longitudes of fixed stars, is in conjunction with Fomalhaut, which is one of four supreme fixed stars and is said to give immortality. Since Saturn is malefic, this conjunction signifies “accidents, ailments affecting the lungs, throat and feet, loss through enemies… affairs involved at end of life, sudden death”. Indeed, Pliny the Elder, like many others in Pompeii, died of suffocation. Yet another unusual and malevolent indication is related to Uranus again. If we consider its rising, it coincides with the most evil star Algol. This constellation indicates “misfortune, violence, decapitation, hanging, electrocution and mob violence, and gives a dogged and violent nature that causes death to the native or others” (Robson).

It is interesting that the eruption was actually not abrupt, but took several days: many people kept waiting for better conditions in their homes (I suspect due to so many retro planets they couldn't make up their minds). For instance, Pliny the Elder came to Pompeii from Misenum to help his friends to evacuate on his galleon, but the sea was too turbulent to depart, and they didn't escape into the fields either, just waiting and moving from house to garden and back.

Pliny the Elder died on the next day after the first smoke of the Vesuvius. “As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and without any marks of violence upon it” (Pliny the Younger). This means that during those sorrowful days the Moon (significator of people) was moving through the sign of her detriment Capricorn, and I suspect the most deadly period was on the second day when it was squaring Mars-Ketu conjunction.

Our present planetary configurations are, fortunately, less dramatic: Mars-Ketu conjunction is separating, Uranus is less involved, and no violent fixed stars activated. Still, be careful until Mars separates from Saturn at the end of July. I expect accidents on water over July 5-8, 11-13, 19-21. I just hope to be wrong.

New England Dark Day

2008-06-17T22:38:00.012Z

In the last five days, I have been monitoring news to understand the influence of the Mars-Ketu conjunction, and the list of unusual events is already quite long: road and flight accidents, strikes over oil prices, fires and floods from California to China, clashes with police (in Euro08, rubber bullets were used, in peaceful Bern!), and, just two days after my post on this constellation, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in Japan.

Forest fires in US and Canada were particularly harmful and unusually early for the season, causing multiple evacuations. Reading about them, I found, by chance, a brief note related to historical forest fires with a reference to the recent research by McMurry et al (2007) who proved the connection of forest fires with infamous New England Dark Day on May 19, 1780. It was one of recorded historic dark days which were considered symbolic in the past, because mysterious darkness covered the land, such that at noon people needed candles, and animals behaved like after sunset.

As you can imagine, I cast a chart for the date, because I expected a peculiar constellation of malefics (Mars or Saturn) with Lunar Nodes (Rahu or Ketu). For that dimmed morning in Rupert, Vermont, the chart showed broad conjunction of Ketu, Moon and Saturn

But if you look at the Sun with Rahu, it is obvious that the event was preceded by an eclipse on May 18!

Yet, the chart for eclipse in Rupert was not quite convincing, because the eclipse fell into 6-12 houses, whereas I expected a much stronger, angular position. I decided to look at the chart shifted geographically along the longitude, towards more western areas. Shifting the location of the event for 10-15 degrees westward would provide a chart with eclipse at sunrise, with Sun-Rahu in 1st house and Moon-Ketu-Saturn in 7th. That would be the right and dramatic chart for the Dark Day!

But that would mean that the source of the disaster should be located somewhere 1000 kilometers to the West, deeper in the continent.

This was intriguing, and I started searching the web for more details about McMurry’s research. Guess what citation I dug up in one of press-releases? “They found that a major fire had burned in 1780 affecting atmospheric conditions hundred of miles away. Large smoke columns were created and carried into the upper atmosphere.”

Deriving relevant constellations from the past events is as exciting as predicting future based on the upcoming ones.

Update of June 18.

Following my enquiry, Erin McMurry provided a preprint of her paper, where I found a detailed description of her research. Her main conclusion is that the Dark Day occurred due to the very low pressure system near Michigan, causing eastward winds, and the main fire source was in Algonquin Highlands (marked red in the map, click to enlarge). One can see from the map scale that 1000 km longitude shift of the eclipse location was a pretty good estimate.

Mars-Ketu conjunction

2008-06-12T05:02:00.004Z

If you wonder about the recent strange events, like the fire in the Universal Studios or crazy pyroman burning 20 cars in Moscow or US army killing own allies in Pakistan, note that Mars in Leo is approaching conjunction with Ketu.

This transit is less heavy & long than Saturn-Ketu conjunction, but it is quite dramatic and violent, especially so because of the fiery nature of Leo.

It would be silly to list all the recent fires and tornados, and any opponent would point that there are always accidents around the world. However, Mars-Ketu should produce rather weird and noticeable events; therefore do not be surprised in the next week or two.

Since this is the time of Euro08, there might be fans’ clashes with unusual violence as well.

Later in June, Mars will be separating from Ketu and coming to Saturn. That time, a powerful earthquake is plausible. But locating it is another, more difficult task.

As Cardano said in his aphorism on weather, “whenever Saturn is joined to the Sun, the heat is remitted and the cold increased, which alone may be a sufficient testimony of the truth of Astrology”. I can only add that transits like the current one of Mars with Ketu too confirm the truth of the art. Watch the news.

UPDATE of June 30.

Just 2 days after the post on June 12, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 occurred in Japan. The mean return interval for earthquakes above 7.5 is about 100 days, globally. It means that such a powerful earthquake happens once in three months or more, on average. Moreover, since the transit involving Saturn has not finished yet, I expect there will be another one, also powerful.

Let's look at other world events that happened in two weeks since I wrote the post about Mars-Ketu conjunction. Yes, accidents happen everywhere around the globe - let's look at the "unusual". There was a fire in the Universal Studios – that was unusual, because fire alarm systems in industrial estates (especially so famous and significant) are usually advanced. Yet, it burnt out. Then there was a series of car burns in Moscow, some crazy pyroman did it just for fun, dozens of cars in the capital. Then something worse started: ignited by dry lightning forest fires in California (later the same happened in Sakhalin). This is why I warned about the conjunction of Mars and Ketu (Ketu symbolically "amplifies" the power of the malefic). As now Mars is approaching Saturn (symbolic significator of ground and falls), I expect there might be landslides in relevant areas.

Furthermore, there was an unusual number of fires and explosions in factories (for instance, GoodYear factory incident, several factories and mines in Russia). Then there were massive floods (India, Mexico, China, Iova), and, in particular, in the central Russia – very unusual for this time of year. Also strikes, prison clashes (UK and Russia). When Moon joined North Node in opposition with Mars-Ketu, a ferry drown in Philippines (700 died) – Moon in mundane affairs signifies people (crowd) and Mars is violence – so this happened exactly on their opposition, with nodes, June 22.

Regarding my prediction of problems related to Euro08, first there were clashes with police and later, when Russia won the game with Holland, drunk happy fans run their cars at crazy speed and crashed – 11 died in one night. Later, due to the storm (Mars means violence, remember?) people in German stadium were evacuated and some got injuries. The Euro08 final took place yesterday, June 29, - under square of Moon (crowd) on Algol (the most evil star in the zodiac) with Mars (violence). The main violent events took place not in Vienna but in Madrid: 90 injured, 80 local fires, police had to use rubber bullets again (this information is from the Russian article)

I do not mention multiple local fires all around the world, nor do I list earthquakes like 6.5 which are more frequent now. Greek ferry evacuated on June 28 was, fortunately, only slightly damaged.

As fires are mentioned, for those who are in California during this harmful transit, I wish that smoke, dry lightning and massive forest fires affect neither them nor their family. I hope they just illustrate how powerful and straightforward the celestial influence.

Timing in horary

2008-06-12T04:35:00.004Z

I was taught that in horary (usually used for short-term predictions) the dynamics of planets should be considered not further than in the next zodiacal sign. And this is what I did when a friend of mine asked me (at the end of February when Clinton was underdog before winning the March primaries): “Who among three candidates, Clinton, Obama, and McCain, would become president?”

USA is a foreign country, so it is signified by 9th house. Its royal power is 10th from 9th, i.e., 6th house of the horary, with cusp in Gemini. Its ruler Mercury is in reception with retro Saturn (with Ketu) and in tight conjunction with Venus sharing minor receptions. I assigned Venus to Clinton, Mercury to Obama and Saturn to McCain as significators.

Saturn was peregrine, afflicted by Ketu, in 12th house from 9th, and moving retro – this candidate looked hopeless, most probably due to the weak program and problems with health. I should find who among Venus and Mercury would be the winner.

I looked at the dynamics and saw Venus heading Pisces, its sign of exaltation, where Mercury is fallen. Also, Moon, the significator of people, was in the sign of Mercury’s detriment.

My conclusion, using dynamics in the next sign, was that Clinton would become president. As we know in June, she has lost – and now look at the Venus dynamics after Pisces! First, it moves into Aries, sign of its detriment. Further, elevation again, in Taurus, and finally it heads the domicile of Mercury, Gemini: Venus heads into the power of her rival. If we propagate the chart through time, we can see something interesting:

In the domicile of Mercury, Venus and fully-powered Mercury meet each other – and not alone but with the significator of royal power Sun. Clinton and power are coming to Mercury! When? On Saturday, June 7, in the afternoon. What happened then? It was the exact time of Clinton’s speech, when she abandoned her campaign asking her supporters to join Obama.

This horary confirmed my feeling that each chart has infinite dynamics with significators traceable long ahead. Although in many temporary questions one-sign dynamics is more than enough, it does not stop evolving after that.

P.S. In fact, for judging questions like elections, one should have the natal chart of the candidates. Unfortunately, they are usually unavailable, and confident predictions are hardly achievable in such circumstances.