The Fagan Project

[DDonovanKinsolving]

There has been under way an effort to to recover all of Cyril Fagan's "Solunars" articles, published in American American Astrology Magazine from 1953 to 1971. Siderealist Ken Bowser has obtained the copyright, and I am assisting by scanning them into an editable format. Some of these articles have appeared on www.westernsiderealastrology.com and it is my understanding that additional projects are under way.

To put this in some perspective, it has always been my goal to obtain all the "Solunars" articles, and for over a decade I haunted used book sites searching for back issues, building a large collection of AAM from its starting year in 1933 to the present (even under its new name), often at great expense. We are so close, yet not quite there, to completing the Fagan collection. Between Ken and Colleen Mauro, and some recent assistance from Mr. E. (a BIG thank you, Mr. E.!) we are short, by my count, about twelve issues, with yet more only partially available through reprints.

If anyone out there has these back issues, please PM me and I will put you in contact with Colleen, who is taking care of the acquisition and publishing side of things. (Just to be clear: I am doing only the scanning, unless you are offering to sell or donate magazines to me personally.)

Good news, sidereal community!

People have been stepping up to the plate to help us find the missing Solunars articles. After digging through Ken and Derek's archives, we discovered that we were missing only 18 issues. Jim Eshelman is allowing us to scan from his collection, which takes us down to 9—and of those nine, I found most of the text for two of the missing articles in the reprints. Derek is going to put out the word to Jim's Solunars group, to see if there are other siderealists who will help us with this project—everyone is excited by the thought of introducing this material to a new generation of astrologers.
...

We are trying to decide if we should arrange the material by date, or by subject matter. Any suggestions?

Colleen

Here is the list of what we are now looking for. The issues with an asterisk show those we can partially reconstruct from later reprints. I think my count differs from Colleen's because I am not satisfied if an article was mostly reprinted.

* 1954 February
1954 March
1954 September
1954 December

* 1955 September

* 1956 August

1959 August

1967 May

1968 May

1969 January
*1969 June
1969 August

1970 August
1970 September

-Derek

[Jim Eshelman]

1970 August
1970 September

I'll look at '70 when I get a chance. Ken's original list didn't include anything past '69, so I didn't look. As you probably know, I'll be lending you the following:

1953: December
1954: January
1955: July, October
1956: April, May, July
1969: April

Colleen said no rush, so I may not get this done until I return from out of state in late October. Please let me know ASAP if there's a need to rush to get them done in the next couple of days instead.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Please let me know ASAP if there's a need to rush to get them done in the next couple of days instead.

None that I know of. I'm working on 1960 right now, and am going in chronological order.

-Derek

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Enjoy your vacation, Mr. E.!

-Derek

[SteveS]

Derek wrote:

Some of these articles have appeared on www.westernsiderealastrology.com and it is my understanding that additional projects are under way.

Derek, have you discussed with Ken—when all these articles are obtained, is Ken going to publish all articles in book format?? I appreciate you helping Ken scan these articles.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

... when all these articles are obtained, is Ken going to publish all articles in book format??

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the plan is to start before that. We really need those 1950s issues to make it good.

-Derek

[SteveS]

Derek, you know I would help if I could in some possible manner. When I discovered the truths of Sidereal Astrology and the father of Sidereal Astrology, Cyril Fagan, one of the first quests I embarked on was trying to purchase all of American Astrology Mag between 1953 and 1970--so that I could study every word Fagan wrote in his AA articles. I still believe us Siderealists could learn even more by examining/discussing Fagan's AA articles.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Derek, you know I would help if I could in some possible manner. When I discovered the truths of Sidereal Astrology and the father of Sidereal Astrology, Cyril Fagan, one of the first quests I embarked on was trying to purchase all of American Astrology Mag between 1953 and 1970--so that I could study every word Fagan wrote in his AA articles. I still believe us Siderealists could learn even more by examining/discussing Fagan's AA articles.

Do you have any of the issues we are lacking? We are willing to borrow, as we are with Mr. E.'s contributions.

Looking at the early issues of the 1950s, I think Fagan made a better case for the ancient Egyptian origins of astrology, than he did in the later issues which seemed to be mostly summaries. If the current scientific consensus is against Fagan, is it because they avoid Egyptology and the difficulties of reading hieroglyphics? A written language that uses puns, rebuses and celebrates homophones? It's like a script that functions like dreams.

-Derek

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

I remember after Fagan died, AA began republishing Fagan's Solunars series. Were those edited versions?

How many volumes do you anticipate for this project?

[SteveS]

Derek asked:

Do you have any of the issues we are lacking? We are willing to borrow, as we are with Mr. E.'s contributions.

No, I was a late comer to the Sidereal movement, I only have issues from early 90’s to AA demise. If you happen to find these issues needed for a cost—I will be glad to pay and donate to Ken’s cause.
Derek wrote:

Looking at the early issues of the 1950s, I think Fagan made a better case for the ancient Egyptian origins of astrology, than he did in the later issues which seemed to be mostly summaries.

I would be highly interested for my mind to absorb these early issues.
Derek asked:

If the current scientific consensus is against Fagan, is it because they avoid Egyptology and the difficulties of reading hieroglyphics?

Exactly, IMO, the ‘current’ orthodox anything will be against Fagan and the alternative new thinking about Ancient Egypt. IMO, its only us few that Fagan touched our hearts pertaining to astrological truths and ancient Egypt. As for now--too many different translations of the hieroglyphics--but we do know they are full of various types of astronomical language.
Derek wrote:

A written language that uses puns, rebuses and celebrates homophones? It's like a script that functions like dreams.

Yes. We are astrologers using the code of astronomy to decipher astrology. When It comes to Ancient Egypt, IMO, we need to endeavor to understand the coded aligned astronomy placed with the ancient Egypt’s monuments—if there are going to be any new astrological learning—but this may not be the time for our generation---may take later generations getting closer to the actual beginning of Precessional Age Aquarius, imo.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

I remember after Fagan died, AA began republishing Fagan's Solunars series. Were those edited versions?

By and large, yes. It looks like major sections were taken out from various past issues and stuck together. Only two were kept together in their entirety. There may have been a rhyme and reason for why Ken Irving rearranged them the way he did but I haven't looked at them that way. This is why many listed years are partial: they were partially reprinted.

How many volumes do you anticipate for this project?

We're nowhere near that point yet, but my WAG is three or four small volumes, each about the size of "The Sidereal Handbook." That's in Ken Bowser's editorial hands.

Colleen has asked me to inform everyone that she and Ken B. have made arrangements for the copyright to transfer in case of their decease, assuring the on-going publication of the Fagan material. (No, I do not know what it is.)

-Derek

[colleen mauro]

Hey, I'm finally able to log in! Been trying to for years......much appreciate any efforts to help us find the missing issues. Jim, I looked through all of the reprints from the 70s and checked them against our xerox copies. I found one full article reprinted from the 50s, a few partial articles, and a few sections reprinted from early issues.

[colleen mauro]

Correction: we made arrangements to transfer the copyright upon our deaths to make sure that the material stays in print for future generations. Creating the books will be a lot of work, but well worth the effort, I think....

[colleen mauro]

Derek, I have August and September 1970. I didn't realize that those were partials.....

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Hey, Colleen! It's so good you can access Solunar.com! Thanks for the information and corrections.

-Derek

[DDonovanKinsolving]

How many volumes do you anticipate for this project?

We're nowhere near that point yet, but my WAG is three or four small volumes, each about the size of "The Sidereal Handbook." That's in Ken Bowser's editorial hands.
-Derek

That was certainly an underestimate! Assuming: that all article are published, that they are kept in the same format, that they are published in books the same size as The Sidereal Handbook, once I plug the numbers in I get closer to 11-12 volumes. Then there would have to be a much-needed index.

[Jim Eshelman]

Why limit them to the size of The Sidereal Handbook? That's barely thick enough for a printed spine. SH is 130 pages plus front matter. It's roughly the same page format as, say, my Pearls of Wisdom, which is 460 pages plus front matter and retails for $30 (a price-point I was happy to be able to hit). That reduces your estimate of 12 volumes to 3 volumes. Besides consumer value, a nontrivial part of publishing costs are committed to press setup expenses, so four times as many books will cost noticeably more than 4x (pus warehousing, inventory, separate shipping, and more).

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Why limit them to the size of The Sidereal Handbook?

I was thinking the same thing, but since none of this is my call, and is still far in the future, I simply kept to my original premises purely for purposes of illustration.

[Jim Eshelman]

Not mine either, of course. But, from vague and ancient memory of reading the entire run in the 1970s, I think there just might be three natural divisions where Fagan's subject matter changed. (I mean, in the broadest sense. He always dipped in and out of one topic and then another. For a Hub, you'd think he had a Spoke Moon or something <g>.) But something like 1953-58, 1959-64, and 1965-70 might seem a natural breakdown. (I think '65 was when the Primer first came out, so his focus took a new turn about then IIRC.)

[DDonovanKinsolving]

(I mean, in the broadest sense. He always dipped in and out of one topic and then another.

I have a better appreciation of Fagan's style than I used to, now that I have a longer expanse to survey. What might seem at first a long, meandering path was actually a well-constructed, informative and entertaining series of segues to what his ultimate point was. There's at least one installment that seemed like a work of great literature all in itself (not that I'm any judge of great literature, but I was impressed!).

But, from vague and ancient memory of reading the entire run in the 1970s, I think there just might be three natural divisions where Fagan's subject matter changed. ... But something like 1953-58, 1959-64, and 1965-70 might seem a natural breakdown. (I think '65 was when the Primer first came out, so his focus took a new turn about then IIRC.)

Maybe. I haven't looked at it in this way, being in eye-on-the-details mode. I'll broaden my perspective.

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

Besides the Solunars columns, he also did some stand alone articles I hope will be included and/or otherwise preserved.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Besides the Solunars columns, he also did some stand alone articles I hope will be included and/or otherwise preserved.

Truth be told, this is part of a larger project I'm working on (within my humble means). I call it "The Fagan Reclamation Project" which is part of "The Western Sidereal Astrology History Project."

Yes, Fagan wrote that he had other articles published in "The Astrological Magazine." I inquired at their on-line site but have gotten no response. Maybe a few more requests would make them take notice?

Yes, I'm noting important or interesting articles and letters. Trying to get a full set of "Spica," "The Constellations," and "The Siderealist." Am lacking "Tertiary Directions" in the Moray Series (and I kick myself for hesitating because of the price). Etc.,etc. Not sure what I'd do with them all, but then amassing American Astrology Magazines has proved Providential, so who knows what else can happen?

[Jim Eshelman]

I never knew there was a Tert book in the Moray series.

I have the transcribed text of a couple of old Fagan articles on the forum. (See below.) I wish I had a copy of his original AFA publications, "Incidents & Accidents in Astrology" and his work on the mundoscope in the early '40s, though I've always been philosophical that we now have all the real data that was needed from those days. I have at least his '49 and '50 Sidereal Ephemeris (thought I had more, but that's all I saw on a quick look), which had some original articles in the back.

Here's one from the 1950 issue of The Astrological Bulletina (I have the original issues for several years).
http://solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=141

And this from the 1949 issue:
http://solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=178

[colleen mauro]

Re: the size of the books: I'm sure that they will be bigger than the handbook. AFA published Ken Bowser's book in a 7.5 x 9.2 format to better display the charts. I think this format makes more sense...

[colleen mauro]

I had an interesting experience while I was looking through the AA magazine reprints to see if I could find the text for any of the missing Solunars articles. I had a stack of AA magazines on one side, and our over-sized bound books with the faded xeroxes of all Fagan’s articles on my other side. As I was pouring over the text, I had the strongest feeling of Fagan being there…..this has happened a few times….He must be happy to know that his work will soon be back in print!

Fagan’s daughter is thrilled. She thought that her father’s work had been forgotten. I set up a Fagan Facebook page to share some of the articles. We were immediately flooded with posts from people who were ecstatic that this material was online. When a family member showed her the Facebook page, she was in tears…..she said “my dad would have loved the internet!” I’m sure that’s true!

[SteveS]

Colleen, since Ken now owns the copyrights to AA Magazine, would he possibly grant permission for me (possibly other members) to post full articles on this forum by other Siderealist’s besides Fagan’s AA articles? Of course, with only pre-approved permission from Ken for the specific article. I think there was some great work produced by other Siderealist which could help all of our learning curves in the field of Sidereal Astrology.

[DDonovanKinsolving]

Colleen, since Ken now owns the copyrights to AA Magazine...

I think I can say correctly that Ken Bowser and Colleen have the rights to the Solunars articles only.

For other articles, you may have to contact Ken Irving who still edits the legacy magazine of American Astrology.

-Derek

[SteveS]

Ah, OK, thanks Derek, it seems I have tried to contact Ken Irving sometime in the last 5 years. Does anyone have a valid contact for Mr. Irving?

[SteveS]

Just received an e-mail from Ken Bowser announcing release of Volume 1:

Winter 2018, Solunars, Volume I, by Cyril Fagan
"Solunars" was the monthly column on Sidereal astrology that Cyril Fagan wrote for American Astrology Magazine. These articles, which ran from 1953 until his death in 1970, have been called “the greatest astrology book ever written.” We recently secured the rights to this material and will publish these articles in a series of four books.