Currently about half way through an MA at the MLA program of the University of Chicago downtown. Set up for adults who work. Basically 8 10 week courses plus a thesis. Paper due (10 pages or so) for every course -- I've worked an astrological p/o/v through some of them. My thesis will be something like "History -- From Cyrus the Great to George W. Bush" an examination of astronomical cycles -- basically PL/NE, read herodotus and do the charts -- 586 bc ca the birth of Cyrus -- at the opposition some 250 years later, it was Alexander who marched victorious through Persepolis ... 1392 AD the conjunction middle of Tamurlaine's triumphs ... & then a rigorous examination of the JU/SA conjunction -- a/k/a Tecumseh's Curse.

Hope to use this as a text book for the beta run of a course in The Quintessence of American History (not for credit) at the adult ed part of the University.

Hello,
Not long ago I came across an article by Robert Zoller called Medieval Astrology published in The Mountain Astrologer which contained the excerpts in my last post. Shortly after this I found another article also posted in The Mountain Astrologer called; "The Stars on Trial: The Story of Evangeline Adams," by Herb Kugel. I haven?t had a chance to read the full articles but it seems that Kugel is saying Adam?s was arrested on charges of fortune-telling in New York and she defended herself by putting astrology itself on trial and won. So I suppose that considering Hazelrigg?s relationship and close proximity, maybe in the spirit of the cause, he can be granted a little credit in Adam?s victory in causing astrology to be legally respected.

My mind is on the science so let me see if I can clarify my point. In Long Range Astro-Weather Forecasting, McCormack tells us that he addressed the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1963 and had his work presented to the American Meteorological Society in 1964 and unable to attend himself, his paper was read by David Williams.

In Our Threatened Planet, Goodavage tells the story of how McCormack was accompanied by RCA radio engineer to the special seminar in 1963, and in Astrology: The Space Age Science, Goodavage devotes a chapter to David Williams where he states; ?Both David Williams and John H. Nelson, the man who predicts radio weather for RCA, belonged to the Foundation for the Study of Cycles.?

He points out that Williams, noticing Nelson?s predictions decided that power blackouts and ionospheric- geomagnetic disturbances occurred at the same time. Since he was working for Consolidated Edison power company and in charge or purchasing cables, he told the company of the correlation between planetary line up and geomagnetic influences on the cable and suggested they dig up the cable and replace it with a new special cable he knew of that was shielded in new polyethylene instead of lead. To his surprise, Consolidated Edison took his advice and replaced 8,600 miles of cable and at a ten percent cost increase over the old cable! The result was that Con. Ed. Suffered less power outages which more then compensated for the replacement cost and effort.

While it?s been said the Nelson was not an astrologer, he was open minded and his book, cosmic patterns was published by the A.F.A. Williams was a long time astrologer and wrote a book on Astro-Economics. Recently I noticed an astro-meteorologist named Theo White and if I remember correctly, I think he said he started by reading Nelson?s Cosmic Patterns back in the mid 1970?s and he may have read McCormack back then as well. I?ve
just noticed he?s on Skyscript, so with any luck he?ll see this conversation and maybe help clarify or correct any mistakes I may be making.

My point is that, the simple fact that Nelson attended the U.S. Weather Bureau with McCormack speaks volumes about respect and the fact that McCormack?s work was presented to the American Meteorological Association is another great example of bring respectability to astrology and I think Hazelrigg brings respect vicariously through McCormack in both cases.

Let me see if I can extend this into the present. In Our Threatened Planet, Goodavage shares a little known fact which is that Charles Greely Abbott, astrophysicist and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute from 1928-1944 was also an astro-meterologist. He also says Abbott was met with great resistance and had to have his work on astrometeorology published in Europe. I?ve also read that Abbott also wrote about Para-psychology and this work also had to be published in Europe. Recently I read that Abbott?s theories had been revived by the Kairos Foundation at the University of Chicago perhaps sometime back in the 1980?s.

In 1964, Goodavage wrote an article for Fate Magazine titled; Man, The Bio-Magnetic Animal where he mentions the pineal gland and Dr. Robert O. Becker. 21 years latter, Becker had mapped out the bodies electrical system and wrote a book called; The Body Electric. In 1978, Goodavage wrote an article for Analog which one post claims mentions Michael Persinger and his tectonic stress or strain theory. In 1995, 17 years latter, Persinger proves that extra low frequencies stimulate Temporal Lobe Epileptic type cosmic experiences. You can see how far ahead of the scientific curve Goodavage was and I think still is. Also in Our Threatened Planet, he references astrometeorlogical observations made by Hazelrigg.

Recently I noticed an author named Frank McGillion who?s also written a book on the pineal gland and another titled Blinded by Starlight which was reviewed by Skyscript and if I remember correctly, it draws from some of Persinger?s work.

About a year ago, a man named Williams pulled file 1031b out of the Dibner Special Collections Library in the Smithsonian. The paper has been dubbed; Newton?s General Relativity of Everything. Mr. Williams works at the University of Indiana where they conducted Newton?s experiment in a modern laboratory. I can add that this experiment was turned into a Nova Special for the Public Broadcasting System called, Dark Secrets. Also, it seems Williams did this possibly in concert with the History of Science Society or HSS which is published by the Uni. Chicago Press. And I?m noticing that Mihaly, who?s written extensively on the athletic zone of concentration is also at the University of Chicago and I wouldn?t be surprised if he wasn?t familiar with the Kairos Foundation and Abbott?s experiments.

Since Newton was an astrometerologist, I?m wondering if the HSS might consider astrometeorology as one of their next experiments. Say, HSS, Williams, Kairos Foundation, Persinger, as the starting line up. What do you think, am in in the ball park? Also, SGFOX, would you by any chance already be familiar with HSS and Karios seeing as you at the U. of Chicago? Ed.

Hello Ed!

Thanks for your very interesting further posts, and I'm sorry to have been remiss in my responses lately owing to the demands of work above all else.

Evangeline Adams's trial is rather a famous piece of history. It hasn't always been the case that astrologers have won however.

As I was alluding to in discussion with Tom on the 'Primum Mobile' strand yesterday, Thomas White, author of 'The Beauties of Occult Science Investigated, or the Celestial Intelligencer', published 1811, was at his home on the Isle of Wight (the largest island off the south coast of England, in case you didn't know of it) minding his own business when some undercover police officers came and used techniques that nowadays would be known as entrapment to have him arrested for the practice of astrology under the Vagrancy Act, by which anyone practising any kind of activity deemed fortune-telling was defined as a vagrant and liable to prosecution. In the event, he was given an outrageously lengthy prison sentence, and weakened by his time in jail, died after only about eight months, if I recall correctly. The entire story is documented in Zadkiel's monthly journal 'The Horoscope' from 1841 (not to be confused with his weekly one of the same name from 1834), my copy of which is unfortunately buried away behind other books currently in some shelf or other but I'm not sure which, so I can't access it for the purposes of citation just now.

In 'The Astrologer's Magazine and Philosophical Miscellany' (1793-4), it is also mentioned that when Ebeneezer Sibly first published his four-volume work 'A Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology' around 1785-8, there were attempts for it to be banned from sale by an Act of Parliament, which in this case failed. Sibly was very daring in the political climate of the time to publish this book at all, and the fact that it came so near to being banned is probably a good indicator of why so few astrological books were published in the 18th century and also why so many astrological correspondents in such magazines as the Astrologer's Magazine and Philosophical Miscellany from the late 18th century right up through the 19th century used assumed names or abbreviations of their names. Ebeneezer Sibly was one of the few who dared use his own name, and got away with it; Thomas White, who followed his example by using his own name just over 20 years later, paid for it with his life.

And even as late as the early 1900s in England, Alan Leo got in trouble with the authorities for producing horoscopes and I seem to recall reading he had to go to court twice to defend himself. I'm sure Tom and Kim both know the story better than I do, and it was documented by Patrick Curry in 'A Confusion of Prophets' but again I don't have my copy easily to hand. I think however that although he won at least one of the cases, he was so worn down by them that the second is widely believed to have precipitated his sudden death.

So the climate of persecution had not altogether eased even by the early 20th century in England. America was not alone in this respect, but without the Evangeline Adams case I suspect the situation could have been far worse for astrologers in America over the rest of the 20th century.

The vagrancy act in England was finally repealed in the 1980s or 1990s, from what I recall. It has sometimes been argued that this was the defining moment that led the more predictively-focused traditional astrology movement out of its shackles and into the daylight after the best part of a century of psychological astrology since the Alan Leo cases. However, I think on analysis that there have been plenty of predictive astrological manuals written even while the anti-fortune telling laws were active, so this theory does not altogether stand up!

Regarding Robert O. Becker, I have to say that I bought a copy of 'The Body Electric' in 1994 when I was 20, read it from end to end in a few days, and found it one of the most absorbing books I had ever read. It certainly enduringly informed my view of the world on a number of levels, among which has been my absolute abstinence from microwave-based mobile telephone technology to this day and my grave concerns over electropollution in general. But it also informed my theoretical scientific views of possible physical mechanisms for astrology. The discoveries discussed in the book about how brain-waves are centred in the same band of frequencies as the Earth's Extremely-Low-Frequency electromagnetic radiation opened my eyes to the probable extent to which the biological constitution of living organisms including mammals such as human beings has evolved in adaptive response not only to the chemical environment but also to the electromagnetic environment. It does not take a great leap of faith from here to postulate that changes in the Earth's electromagnetic field that brain waves themselves closely imitate would have a profound effect on the behaviour of human beings by altering their thought patterns, and that even such small variations as could be brought about by changes in the alignments of extra-terrestrial (celestial) bodies could contribute such changes. An excellent book in all, and one that even though it was not written with astrologers in mind is very useful background reading for astrologers with a scientific interest in how astrology might work.

Philip

Hello Philip,
Thank you. I appreciate you excellent reply and thank you for telling me about your excelent 'Primum Mobile' strand. I enjoy the intrigue and the details are of great assistance to me.

Sorry it?s taken me so long to share this but, in in response to your original post pertaining to academic respectability, Goodavage says the following in his book; Write Your Own Horoscope:

Two founders of the American Federation of Astrologers, John Hazelrigg and G.J. McCormack, were successful in getting a fair description of astrology into the New International Encyclopedia in the 1940s?

Perhaps this is an exact example of Hazelrigg?s effort to gain academy respectability.

I?d like to mention something I?m working on at the moment. At the end of the encyclopedia definition, Hazelrigg and McCormack mention that Louis De Wohl visited the Pentagon and gave them an astrological forecast on the invasions of North Africa and Sicily. I?ve read some posts that claim that Louis De Wohl visited with the American Federation of Scientific Astrologers during WWII but I?m not sure how accurate they are. I was wondering if you might have any information on his visits to the A.F.S.A. or any information and the A.F.S.A. at all.

A part of the reason I mention this is that in an online article titled; Freak Weather and Floods, McCormack states he was a former president of the A.F.S.A. and Dr. George W. Plummer is listed as a former member of the A.F.S.A. and the academy on the S.R.I.A. site. Recently I visited the special collections library at the University of California, Santa Barbara branch where they have copies of the 1917-1918 yearbooks which I?ve already made notes of. Also, they have some sort of journals on file from the A.F.S.A. and so I?m getting ready to take another trip to visit these. I?ll share whatever I find and after I?ll be heading to Washington, D.C. where I?ll continue the search.

I?m not surprised you found the Body Electric and at such an early age. A part of the reason I mentioned Becker and Persinger is because Goodavage was writing about them long before they proved their theories. He was a very accurate visionary. I think he very much states what McCormack knew in 1963 when he addressed the U.S. Weather Bureau but was unable to prove because he lacked the neurological technology. Unfortunately the USWB was unable to take that leap of faith you mentioned.

Also, I?ve head brief mention of the Adams case but it was a very long time ago. I?ve never looked into the details personally so, I don?t can say what, if any involvement Hazelrigg might have had. I only know that recently I came across the two references to Adams which I shared. Hopefully I?ll get to read about the trial soon and see if Hazelrigg get?s any specific mention.

Thank you again for your excellent insights. Ed.

Just a somewhat anal remark, but wouldnt' it be mroe accurate to say, to return astrology to accademic stature or re-grant or something of that nature? it was the foundation of education fo so many centuries that somehow the title made me wince a bit... okay just a thought...

Granny

What price academic respectability when so much of the contemporary product is intellectually constrained by those who pay the pipers?

Whether one looks at specifically at science, which sorely lacks the diversity of explanatory narratives advocated by Feyerabend, or at the humanities, whose product is either "soft science" or "understanding" (ie not science), but whose status as second best to (hard) science condemns it graze for the foreseeable future on the "unverifiable" side of the logical positivist fence, with everything that that entails in terms of (quasi-)explanations and (pseudo-)justifications - is that really the ne plus ultra to aspire to? Would it not be like catching the fish but having it slip through ones fingers at the last moment?

Is not the hunger for academic respectability not a real need, but a glamour as described by A. Bailey, and one to be dispelled? What do you propose to say to your students when you have ascended to Parnassus - say as I say? or seek the truth even if it means consigning the present to dust?

And why should that in any way change anything. Society in the whole will continue to gain from endeavours in no way connected with academia, so why should astrology suddenly be different. Or perhaps you really seek to influence the exercise of political power and thereby acquire your fraction of it?