We have just had the sad news of the passing away of Maurice McCann an Irish astrologer who spent much of his life in London.

http://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6042

Maurice McCann contributed many useful and sometimes controversial ideas to horary and other areas of traditional astrology. However, in regards mundane astrology Maurice McCann may be best known for this book on Eclipses with Derek Appleby.

In regards his original research I thought it would be fitting to reproduce an article from Maurice McCann on the 1927 Horoscope for the United Kingom. This challenges the conventional view that the modern United Kingdom national chart dates from 1801 or 1922.

Maurice wrote an article on this very subject in 2000 when editor of R?alta, the magazine of the Irish Astrological Association. I am reproducing it here again on Skyscript as Maurice did himself several years ago on Skyscript.
_____________________________________________________________

R?alta , Vol 6 No 4. Samhain. November 2000.

Editor: Maurice McCann

I received the following from Peter Berresford Ellis today 3rd October '00, as I was putting the finishing touches to this issue. This is indeed a turn up for the books as no one seems to have suspected that the 1921 horoscope normally used for the UK was never recognised by the Westminster Parliament as the moment of the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Birth of the Modern United Kingdom

When did the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland legally come into being? It has generally been accepted that the time and date of the legal establishment of the Irish Free State on December 6, 1922
automatically created the new United Kingdom State as well. However, what came into being on December 6 was an all-Ireland state and it was not for another 24 hours that the Unionist representatives in Belfast petitioned King George V to allow the Six Counties to 'withdraw from the Free State', in accordance with a provision of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. So is c. 3.30 pm, December 7, 1922, when it is thought George V agreed to that petition, the birth of the new United Kingdom chart?
The answer is more surprising. Because Ireland, both Free State and the Six Counties were both regarded as Crown dominions, no legal changes as to style and title of the United Kingdom State were made until 1927.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was not born until an Act 17 and 18 Geo 5 c 4, known as the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927, which changed the name of the state from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The new style and title came into effect at midnight on April 12, 1927. (See Vol 10, Constitutional Law (Pr2), p.70.)

Yet George VI was still crowned as King of Great Britain and Ireland on May 12, 1937. Ireland was still considered a dominion of the Crown. De Valera's new Constitution, omitting the King as Head of State and replacing the Crown with a President of Ireland (Article 12) did not come into being until July 1, 1937, after the Coronation. Taking notice of the creation of the Irish Republic in 1949, Elizabeth II was crowned as Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on June 2, 1953. However, the Royal Arms still, as an insult (hopefully unintentional) to Ireland, still quarters the state arms of Ireland, showing a heraldic territorial claim over the entire island of Ireland. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern promised in April 1998, to make representations to the Crown for the removal of Irish State Arms from its subservient position in the Royal Arms, used on all United Kingdom State occasions, on UK passports and all Civil Services and Court documents. It was thought the removal of the quartered arms might come about as a quid pro quo when the Irish State removed Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, withdrawing the state's territorial claim over the Six Counties. However, the quartered arms remain. Queen Elizabeth has personally stated that the arms remain due to the advice of Parliament. Therefore, it is a political territorial claim over Ireland and not merely a personal heraldic swansong of the monarchy.

I don't know where one would find it, but there was an Article by Maurice McCann(was it on skyscript?) that discussed the power of Mundane Astrology and incidentally predicted a big rail disaster in the UK, by incidentally I mean, that someone was asking how you go about working on Mundane astrology and he took up a discussion on it with interviewer. He was showing them some technique and the interviewer exclaims, but this looks like there will be some big rail disaster on or about ____. and there was. wish I could recall that article but really my going on about it is more about just saying wow, what an inspirational astrologer. He will be missed.

Granny.

Hello Granny,

I think you are confusing Maurice McCann with Dennis Elwell. Although Maurice did very good work on mundane astrology his real specialism was horary astrology and 17th century period in England.

Here is an article by Maurice McCann about William Lilly's prediction of the Great Fire of London.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/fire.html

I think the article you were refering to is by Dennis Elwell. Here it is:

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/kingscross.html

Mark

Thank you for the link to McCann's exegesis of Lilly's rebus predicting the London fire -- more fun than the decoding of DiVinci's Last Supper