Today - Thursday, March 8 - is the start of the NCGR show in Balitmore. Runs through Sunday.

Any members of Skyscript attending the show? Wanna live-blog & tell us what's going on?

Well, it looks as if I will blog it myself.

In the Baltimore Examiner this morning was this feature story about the NCGR show, now underway:

http://www.examiner.com/a-608818~Astrol ... aight.html

Numerous people are quoted. There is a photo of Robert Schmidt, of Hindsight. It is a positive piece. My congrats to the NCGR for this major accomplishment!

Dave

Thanks for giving us the blog Dave. The NCGR probably did well to get that feature story, but it doesn?t do much for me. I wonder how positive it really is to have astrology represented by enthusiasts who prefer not to use the word ?astrology? because of its connotations?

And if they want to get away from associations with tarot card readers then why even refer to them? I don?t think they took the right track in suggesting that other occult studies were quackery whilst ?this is a reality?.

Astrology is not a belief or a religion, but an academic study

An academic study of what though?

Hi Deb,

I wonder how positive it really is to have astrology represented by enthusiasts who prefer not to use the word ?astrology? because of its connotations?

Well, their name is National Council for Geocosmic Research, after all. A lot of astrological outfits over here either do not have the word "astrology" in their name, or use initials. Among them:

ISAR
AFAN
NCGR
ASI, Henry Weingarten's outfit
CRCS, which is Arroyo's
Matrix Software
AstroLabe
Cosmic Patterns aka Kepler
Kepler College
Hindsight
Arhat
Sacred Science
AFA, etc. (I keep thinking this list is done & then I think of more.)

A casual check of the latest TMA will find many more.

In a lot of localities, the practice of astrology was prohibited until the AFAN legal team took them to court back in the late 1980's. This was similar to the situation in your fair country a century ago. In addition, major Christian fundamentalists, such as Pat Robertson & Hal Lindsey, have repeatedly said that if you find an astrologer in your town, that you should forcibly run them out of it. I haven't heard of this happening, but I have heard of organized prayer attacks upon undesirable elements generally. For the most part these are limited to the midwest (my birthplace) & if you have any idea of the energies being thrown around, they can be quite frightening.

For my part, when I opened this place I weighed the choices & came down in favor of calling myself what I was, and for the most part, I've not been sorry. Back in 1995 someone at PacTel decided to delete my number from their operator-assisted phone listings. When I called to point this out, I didn't get an apology nor an explanation, but I did get six months free local phone service. And Matt, of Matt's Script Archive, refused to host my site, when I was looking for a competent home. Said his Christian values would not let him. Whatever those may be. Both of these are minor.

If the local yahoos ever do show up, my plan is to let them exhaust themselves, and then see to it that pizzas & sodas magically appear. Nothing like a full belly from the wrong source to throw you right off your game.

And if they want to get away from associations with tarot card readers then why even refer to them? I don?t think they took the right track in suggesting that other occult studies were quackery whilst ?this is a reality?.

Oh, but that's a point of honour over here! You just can't be a True-Blue, Red-Blooded All-American unless you're Better Than something or someone! That thread has run right through American history, right from the start. Damn rabid disease, if you ask me.

Astrology is not a belief or a religion, but an academic study.

An academic study of what though?

Search me. They did have a nice picture of Mr. Schmidt, so they could claim they study something.

It's just a strange country. Your next life, take a dare. Be born over here. Everyone should have that experience, once.

Dave