UAC: Day 2

today's post is the result of a discussion I had at lunch today with some other conference attendees. it gives a bit of the flavor of the wide-ranging interactions that are going on this week in Denver.

saturn turned direct about 2 weeks ago, and is moving toward an opposition with uranus later this year. these two planets will oppose one another through the end of the US presidential campaigns, the election and inauguration of our 45th president. but closer in time, we have just had two catastrophic natural events that i believe presage this opposition: the cyclone that hit Myanmar and the 7.9 earthquake that occurred in Chengdu, China. what might these two disasters tell us about the upcoming Saturn/Uranus opposition?

casting Myanmar as saturn is not too big a stretch. we are watching as the repressive, xenophobic military junta is controlling the distribution and direction of the very stuff of life: food, water, shelter and safely. relief efforts have been unnecessarily slow and constrained, and are resulting in the deaths of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, and the risk to the security of a million or more. the coldness and stern refusal of the authorities in accepting international help is breath-taking. the misery and suffering is heart-breaking.

casting China as Uranus may be a bigger stretch for you. historically conservative, inaccessible to foreigners, and forbidding, China appears to be the perfect saturnian state. so why do I see it at the uranian side of the coming opposition? because of the response by the Chinese leader Hu, the military and the government media, they have mobilized the entire country, accepted aid from the international community and has show great compassion for their citizens. they have provided unlimited media coverage, 24/7 (this in contrast again, to Myanmar where journalists are being smuggled into the country at great risk of discovery by the authorities). China has awakened, and is shifting consciousness before our eyes. very uranian.

Chinese soldiers providing earthquake relief

while most of us are watching the US presidential election, which, btw, will take place on the day the saturn/uranus opposition is exact, other events help us to understand the significance of this aspect.

UAC: Day 1

as I wrote yesterday, I am “working” the Mythology and Archetypal Astrology track at UAC. actually, there was a bit more work involved today as all of the presentations were hugely popular and a lot of chairs had to be added, moved around, etc. to accommodate everyone. by the end of the day, I was a limp rag from trying to process all this amazing information/insight. what follows is my choice for, not the high point of the day, (all of them qualify as “the best”!) but rather what was most resonant for me.

today it was a panel discussion on mythology and astrology that stretched across individual areas of study/research/interest of the presenters to general discussions of the subjectivity of archetypes, the boundaries between fate and free will, and the intersection of myth and individual lives. Ken Johnson reminded us that astrologers are artists and magicians as well as technicians, and encourages us to not over-interpret our archetypes, but to feel them. Melanie Reinhart currently is working with myths as descriptions of human biological processes, literally, and thus suggests that sources of healing can be found within them. Darby Costello is fascinated with how being “captured” by your own personal myth, or by having an archetype thrust on you (which happens to political leaders or other prominent public figures) can greatly limit the life choices available; thus free will becomes limited by “fate”. Brian Clark advises us as counselors that many myths have multiple outcomes or endings, giving astrologers some options when it comes to giving advice. If there is a choice between giving your client a bleak, hopeless ending and one that, while troublesome, can be accepted, tell them about the latter.

myths are alive. they change over time, they morph genders and hierarchy; what was old becomes new, what was once dominant is subsumed. (Ceres was once considered a planet, then demoted for 100 years; Pluto was also once considered a planet. They are both now dwarves !)

at then end, the panelists honored Joseph Campbell who brought consciousness of myths and archetypes to the public in the 20^th Century. If you are not familiar with this man and his writing, he’s a very good place to start you own study of myth and archetype.

UAC: pre-conference

UAC does not formally open until tonight but already there are about 2200 attendees and the buzz is constant. literally every big, new or rising star from all branches of astrology are in attendance. the 15 tracks cover medieval, evolutionary, vedic, financial, esoteric and uranian/cosmobiology astrology, to name a few. there is a track on community issues, and one on astrology basics. the best news is that I got my dream track – mythology and archetypal astrology. it’s heaven!

today we had the preconference workshops; 5 half-day sessions given by the cream-of-the-crop astrologers on topics both timely and timeless. More on this below.

I spent my first day as a “room monitor” trying not to be too terribly officious while asking for proof of payment for the workshop, counting heads and distributing handouts. my ”monitor buddy” (there are two room monitors for every workshop and talk) was responsible for doing the digital taping. the good news is that I didn’t have to deal with the high-tech digital recording aspect of the job – not my forte, to say the least. the better news is that everything I wished I could attend but conflicts with my monitor duties can be purchased (at very reasonable prices) in CD or MP3 format practically within minutes after its presentation!

I "worked" Nick Campion’s presentation on national charts. it was fantastic and fascinating. he spoke about “the theory and use of the national horoscope, looking at some practical examples including the USA and Iraq. …what moment a chart should be cast for, and does a country have one chart or many? what information does a national chart reveal?” he correlates different charts from historic moments in a country’s history to find repeating patterns that expose fundamental issues that a country may have to address. (e.g., for the US, the chart of the declaration of the 13 colonies’ independence and the chart from the 9/11 terrorist attack). he also shared with us his Rules of Astrology:

Rule # 2: Thought is more important than technique.
Rule # 3: Astrology doesn’t work, astrologers do!

He couldn’t remember Rule #1 (or if there was one ;-) he’s a great speaker.

More tomorrow…

Blogging at UAC

I know, I know, it's been a month since a new post has arrived. with apologies, I am a new grandma, remember! but, starting next week, I'll be at UAC in Denver and will be posting daily about the conference, talks, astrologers and ambiance so please bear with me!

UAC