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Today, I found this article in the Oct. 29, 2019 email newsletter from Smithsonian.com:

It points out "an article in the December 30, 1928 issue of the Ogden Standard-Examiner from Ogden, Utah" which made some quite erroneous predictions about 1929, like:

"The year draws to a close with an abundance of capital for all needs and public developments, and unlimited credit for the worker."

End of quote.

However, that's from just one astrology prediction article from 1928! What might someone find if they looked at all the available astrology prediction articles from 1928, without cherrypicking only the correct or incorrect predictions?

I don't know, but it seems like an interesting question to me, even though I'm currently not in the mood to drop everything and try to research it.

Lately, I've been reading the very amusing book Loserthink by Scott Adams, the creator of the hilarious comic Dilbert.

Here's a quote from that book, which I'm guessing is probably applicable to both astrology and actual science:

"If all you know is how many times someone hit a target, it is loserthink to judge how accurate they are. You also need to know how many times they missed."

End of quote.

Hopefully, this book will be available on your local library's OverDrive website, which has legally free ebooks you can borrow and read on your computer or phone:

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Link: "Failure to Launch" is actually Failure to Lem

Wednesday, July 4th, 2018 14:48:08 GMT

Last modified July 5, 2018 at 6:52 AM EDT.

Astrologers are usually admirably, refreshingly non-conformist in many ways, so, perhaps many of you might enjoy this fiery diatribe I posted today:

That blog post actually has nothing to do with astrology, but, I just wanted to point it out.

A while back I read a surprising news article which said that astrology is popular amongst millenials:

Eons ago, when I had quite mainstream-skeptical views on pretty much everything, I would have found that article quite alarming.

But nowadays, I'm pleased that many young people are so open-minded and non-conformist.

Quote:

"My personal belief is that people tend to turn to mysticism, spirituality and the occult in uncertain times," Tsjeng suggests. "And I feel that young people, especially, are living in one of the most uncertain times ever, at least in my living memory. There's an increasing willingness to question the arranged order, break out of pre-defined social norms and look for answers elsewhere."

End of quote.

That actually makes me feel more optimistic about the future.

Happy Independence Day (July 4th) to all!

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A little about Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) and his memory systems

Sunday, June 19th, 2016 09:37:34 GMT

I recently read the wonderful book You Can Learn To Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Dominic O'Brien, who won the World Memory Championships numerous times.

Something that intrigued me near the beginning of the book was some details about Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).

A quote from the book:

"Bruno devised many memory systems, finally completing a series of memory wheels. These wheels were seen as microcosms of the heavens, and showed the orbits of stars and planets. On them he placed symbols of the arts, languages and sciences, and used his sensory associations to lodge images and facts related to these symbols in his mind."

Definitely sounds astrological.

Someday, I'd like to read more about Giordano Bruno and his ideas.

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Concept Maps of Dispositors in an Astrological Chart

Sunday, February 28th, 2016 10:56:43 GMT

Recently, something piqued my interest in the astrological concept of dispositors.

So, I used the excellent free (as in freedom), libre, open source concept mapping software VUE: Visual Understanding Environment to make some concept maps of dispositors in my astrological chart.

I guess my below concept maps are pretty boring overall, but, at least they make it possible to easily create your own similar concept maps by modifying mine using VUE.

These concept maps are under the GNU Affero General Public License 3.0.

By the way, my primitive JavaScript astrology software I released about a decade ago, AstroTally, can calculate chains of dispositors, though it can only display them in a primitive non-graphical way.

Not even my Eryss astrology software can do that yet - not even the unreleased versions of Eryss.

Someday I'll probably use pieces of AstroTally in the Eryss astrology software.

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Eris, Xena, Discord

Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 13:25:18 GMT

Here are a few nifty astrological things related to dwarf planet Eris.

First of all, some things I definitely wasn't the first to notice.

The dwarf planet Eris, before it was officially named, was originally nicknamed Xena.

And many years ago, someone on an astrology forum I read pointed out that Lucy Lawless, the actress who played Xena on the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess, has the astrological "Xena" in an interesting position in her astrological chart.

Namely - conjunct her sun, moon, Saturn, ascendant, and lunar node all in Aries, and all in the 1st house.

Plus, since Aries is ruled by Mars (the planet associated with war), this strong emphasis on Aries seems fitting for an actress whose possibly best-known role is a warrior princess. (Best known role to me, anyway - though I also remember her from the remake of Battlestar Galactica.)

In addition, she has Mars in the 1st house. (Though her Mars is in Taurus rather than Aries.)

Here's an interesting page about Eris, with Lucy Lawless's chart near the top, from PhilipSedgwick.com:

And the AstroDatabank article on Lucy Lawless:

And now, here's some stuff I noticed on my own. Though it's pretty easy to spot if you have the idea to look, so, it's very possible I'm not the first person to ever notice this. (But, I briefly searched the web, and couldn't find anyone else who already pointed out the following astrological details.)

The TV show Xena: Warrior Princess featured lots of gods and goddesses from mythology, including Greek mythology.

So, some years ago, sometime after Eris was named in 2006 - it occurred to me to wonder if maybe Eris (Roman name: Discordia) was ever portrayed on the show.

And indeed, she was. The actress who played Discord was Meighan Desmond, born October 7, 1977, according to her official bio page.

And, it turns out Meighan has her sun around 13 Libra, opposition Eris/Xena at 13 Aries.

A neat contrast to Lucy Lawless's sun conjunct Eris/Xena. :-) (Though Lucy's aspect between sun and Eris/Xena is less exact - sun at 8 Aries and Eris at 11 Aries.)

The sun is often associated with the archetype of the hero.

So, it's rather neat that the actress who played the hero of the show has sun conjunct Xena (later renamed Eris), while the actress who played Discord, one of Xena's villainous opponents, has sun opposition Xena (later renamed Eris).

It also seems worthwhile to point out the fact that the astrological aspects "conjunction" and "opposition" are opposites of each other.

Because a conjunction means two planets are somewhere around 0 degrees away from each other, which is as close as two planets can possibly get to each other in an astrological chart - while an opposition means two planets are somewhere around 180 degrees away from each other, which is as distant as two planets can possibly get from each other in an astrological chart.

So, interestingly - Lucy Lawless and Meighan Desmond's sun/Eris (Xena) aspect angles are close to complementary of each other.

Or actually, I believe the correct term in geometry is "supplementary" - as in "supplementary angles", which is defined as two angles which add up to 180 degrees.

In astrology, the opposition is one of the aspects most associated with discord and conflict. There are other aspects associated with discord, friction, disharmony - for a few examples: the square, quincunx, sesquisquare, and semisquare.

But, "opposition" probably is the aspect name that actually sounds the most discordant, at least in English, since the term "opposition" is frequently used in ordinary non-astrological English when discussing conflict.

(Though there is also the non-astrological plain English expression/idiom "square off". I wonder if that expression was inspired by astrology?)

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First Release of Eryss Astrology Software

Monday, April 29th, 2013 13:59:29 GMT

Software Release

The first release of the Eryss astrology software is now at Astroblahhh.Com:

It's free, libre, open source software.

I hope to someday make Eryss.Com into something more interesting than it is now. My plans are still vague, though.

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