[ORIGIN3a] and [ORIGIN3b]: Astrological Origins Part III: Abridged
excerpts from Rupert Gleadow's THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC, 1968,
specifically with reference to the origin of DECANS-which-were-PENTADS,
and EXALTATIONS [see file HELIACAL], both Fagan's discoveries, and the
naming of the constellations. Whereas Fagan concentrates on what he
saw as the prototypical seeds of the original zodiac in Egypt,
Gleadow's approach is to survey the historical diffusion, interaction,
and evolution of astrological concepts in ancient cultures. Although
he differs with Fagan in his approach and in the interpretation of some
of Fagan's findings, Gleadow credits Fagan in a chapter on the
rediscovery of the ancient zodiac: "This is, however is a relatively
recent discovery, and the credit for it belongs to an Irishman named
Cyril Fagan, who first published his findings in 1947. His reasoning
collided head-on with the habits and beliefs of astrologers, who for
some fifteen hundred years had been quite happily using a zodiac
measured from the equinox."
File [ORIGIN3a]: In Chapter 12, The Horoscope of Eternity, Gleadow
gives a fascinating overview of the Egyptian Calendar, and then covers
Fagan's discovery of the DECANS, which were PENTADS or 5 degree
divisions, more extensively than did Fagan in his ZODIACS OLD AND NEW.
Gleadow also recognizes the the Egyptian "straight line from Arcturus
to SPICA as the original measuring point of the zodiac." He disagrees
with the Egyptian zodiac as an anciently established concept, but
acknowledges the origin of the DECANS/PENTADS as Egyptian, which he
says such were not divisions of the zodiac, but were measuring points
similar to lunar asterisms as markers of the moon's path. This is may
be a scholarly moot point since many scholars generally agree that moon
watching must have been the first germ of any astronomical observation
anywhere. Gleadow makes many important points, one of them--the
celestial equator's inconstancy causes changes of the DECAN/PENTADS
rising over centuries (and which inconsistency is also is a factor in
precession). This is the reason Fagan abandoned the Pentads as
indicating the essential meaning of the constellations although Fagan
sites the Pentads in Astrological Origins in his chapter on "Naming the
Constellations." On other points of interpretation (such as the lesser
one of identification of the Meta-decans), Gleadow disagrees with
Fagan, and presents his own views.
Further, regarding the DECAN/PENTADS, Gleadow discusses the Egyptian
worldview as it applied to their astrology. For example, the Egyptians
were not oriented to divination; their view was to the absolute
immanence of the ideal eternal in the temporal. "The magical influence
of the hour...would not lie on one horizon to the exclusion of the
other, but would be characteristic of that moment, at which when a
certain star rises, another certain star necessarily sets. From the
magical point of view, therefore, the hour...[of whatever asterism
named] could well control both horizons at once." Gleadow uses a most
wonderful phrase to refer to this: "The Moment of the Horizon!" In the
Egyptian concept of the magical influence of the hour, (i.e., what
celestial influence was on the Horizon as indicated by both the
Ascendant position and its corresponding opposite Descendant position),
Gleadow says the Egyptians were the source of Plato's doctrine that
'each sign had its ruling god and the later astrological doctrine that
each sign had its ruling planet.' Gleadow sees the Egyptian worldview
as more akin to what might be suggested in Jung's Synchronicity, rather
than to Babylonian divination.
Chapter 12, The Horoscope of Eternity, also cites the importance of
the Heliacal Rising of Sirius in the Egyptian Calendar as their
'eternity connection.' "Since the rising of Sothis seems to have been
to the Egyptians the only important astronomical moment, this will
doubtless have been the origin of the astrological notion that certain
celestial moments are more important than others, and also that the
decan/pentads represent the condition of the sky at the particular
moment of the 'horoscope of eternity,' that is to say, of taking up
residence in eternity." One of Gleadow's final comments is that "all
Egyptian horoscope-charts are diagrams of the heliacal rising of
Sirius..." and that "Nothing was predicted from them either in this
world or the next, but each one was the moment of a Sacred Marriage of
Isis and Osiris; and this, in the simultaneous rising every eight years
of Sirius and Venus, was the moment when the ideal touched the real."
Again, the Moment of the Horizon!
File [ORIGIN3b] PART III: In Chapter 13, The Naming of the
Constellations, Gleadow begins with the philosophic and Jungian concept
of Synchronicity. In a charming story of a possible conversation
between an Egyptian priest and an Assyrian priest, he points out that,
unlike the Babylonians, the Egyptians had a philosophic lack of
orientation to divination. To a certain extent, Gleadow associates the
divinatory usage of the zodiac as part of the zodiac as we know it,
which is a main point in his notation of a later rather than earlier
origin. Gleadow says, "This suggests that the first notion of
astrology as we know it was begotten on Babylon by Egypt between the
seventh and fifth centuries, and the zodiac itself, as a calendrical
device, was of similar origin but may be a little older."
Most importantly, he discusses Fagan's discovery of the EXALTATIONS
and as well adds points of his own. The Exaltations are the heliacal
appearances and disappearances of the planets in the year 786 B.C.,
which commemorate extraordinary and unique astronomical phenonmena.
The EXALTATION'S (Hypsomata's) historical significance and implications
for astrology is set forth below by Fagan (5/1956 "Solunars").
Although the major conclusions and focus of Gleadow's history are
significantly dependent on Fagan's discoveries as to the origins,
Gleadow is an outstanding historical scholar in his own right.
Examination and debate can bring about clarification. Among Gleadow's
concluding comments, "This first zodiac, of course, cannot have been
tropical. It was not supposed to be either tropical or sidereal, but
was simply assumed to be both at once....That the first zodiac can only
have been measured from the stars was not only inevitable but also a
fact--although, of course, it was no sooner invented than it was
thought to be tropical and used as such."
* * *
*
*
*
*
MAY 1956 AMERICAN ASTROLOGY
Cyril Fagan's "Solunars"
[Exaltations - Hypsomata]
...It is, of course, common knowledge that the Chaldeans--an
ancient Semetic tribe, which originally inhabited the lands about the
estuaries of the Tigris and Euphrates--gradually became the dominant
people in Babylonia winning renown in the old world for their mastery
of Babylonain astrology, so much so that Chaldean became a synonym for
an astrologer.
The astrology of Ptolemy's TETRABIBLOS, Manetho's APOTELESMATICA,
Manilius' ASTRONOMICON and Firmicus' MATHESEOS, with its copious
aphorisms as to dignities, exaltations, rulerships, signatures,
influences and rules, which form the bedrock of medieval and modern
testbooks, was almost wholly derived from Babylonian and Egyptian
sources. If these aphorisms are to have any validity, they must
obviously be related to the zodiac wherein they were originally framed.
Hence it is of prime importance to ascertain what, in fact, was the
zodiac of the ancient astrologers of Babylon and Uruk. Hitherto it has
been taken for granted that the Babylonian zodiac was identical with
that in common use today, namely the tropical or moving zodiac, which
takes its beginning from the vernal equinoctial point (V.P.) designated
Areis 0 degrees....
The discovery of the date and origin of the exaltation degrees of
the planets, known to the Greeks as the Hypsomata, decisively
establishes that the Babylonian zodiac was sidereal as the following
remarkable tabulation confirms:
Event: Installation of Nabu, the great Babylonian god of astrology
in his new temple at Neneveh, during the reign of Adad-Nirari III (809-
782 B.C.) in the Babylonian year commencing 1st Nisan at sunset, April
3, 786 B.C. (Julian). 1st Nisan was the Babylonian New Year's Day.
It will be noticed that in the sidereal zodiac all the planets are
in their exact exaltation degrees, the Moon alone showing the small
deviation of -3.3 degrees. The tabulation establishes the following
fundamental facts:
(a) The 12 zodiacal constellations were known in the 8th century B.C.
(b) The Babylonians used a sidereal zodiac.
(c) Longitudes were measured from the Pleiades in Taurus 5 degrees,
Aldebaran in Taurus 15 degrees, Regulus in Leo 5 degrees, Spica in
Virgo 29 degrees, or Antares in Scorpio 15 degrees, but not from
the vernal equinoctial point.
(d) The zodiacal constellations were of strictly equal lengths, there
being 30 degrees to each constellation. The Babylonian
constellations thus differed from the Graeco-Roman constellations
of the late period, which were all of unequal length. It is the
Graeco-Roman zodiacal constellations that illustrate our modern
"Star Atlases," and which have created so much confusion.
(e) The exaltation degrees relate to the sidereal and not to
the tropical zodiac.
(f) In A.D. 213 the sidereal longitude of the vernal-point
(V.P) was zero, when both the sidereal and tropical zodiacs
coincided. The Almagest and Tetrabiblos were written less than 100
years before this date, hence to all intents and purposes Claudius
Ptolemy's zodiac was sidereal, at the time these works were
written.
(g) On January l, 1954, the sidereal longitude of the vernal
point had retrograded to Pisces 5 degrees 48 minutes (335 degrees
48'), hence the true "ayanamsha" (i.e. 360 degrees - 335 degrees
48') is now 24 degrees 12', which must be deducted from all
tropical longitudes to reduce them to their sidereal equivalents.
(h) Because the planetary exaltation degrees (Hypsomata) are integral
to the Babylonian zodiac, the latter has been designated the
Hypsomatic zodiac.
The sidereal longitude of the vernal point, Aries 13.80 degrees for
the year 786 B.C. was obtained by deducting the tropical longitudes
from the traditional exaltation degrees and adjusting the mean value
with that obtained from the position of the vernal point in the luni-
solar tablets of Naburiannu and Kidinnu and the Babylonian almanacs of
the Seleucid period (312-64 B.C.). Calculation discloses that the
autumnal point, Libra 13.80 degrees, was 14.80 degrees to the eat of
Spica, hence Spica's sidereal longitude was Virgo 29.00 degrees.
[NOTE: this was written before Garth Allen's SVP correction to Virgo.]
this fact enabled me to compute the following sidereal longitudes of
the vernal point for the years stated:
Vernal Point
B.C. 1001 Aries 16.76 degrees
" 901 " 15.38
" 801 " 14.01
" 701 " 12.63
" 601 " 11.24
" 501 " 9.86
" 401 " 8.48
" 301 " 7.09
" 201 " 5.71
" 101 " 4.33
" 1 " 2.95
A.D. 100 " 1.57
" 200 " 0.19
" 300 Pisces 28.80
The V.P. for any intervening year between the above century
longitudes can be obtained by simple interpolation. Multiplying the
decimal of a degree by 60 reduces it to minutes of arc: thus 0.80
degrees x 60 = 0d48'. A tropical longitude can be converted into is
sidereal equivalent by merely adding the V.P. for the year.
* * * * *
[ORIGIN3b] Rupert Gleadow's THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC
Chapter 13: The Naming of the Constellations
The origin of an idea is naturally hard to trace; it appears to
spring full-grown like Athena from the head of Zeus. But when Athena
was called on to create she produced an olive-tree out of the earth;
and the study of human intuition shows that there is normally some soil
in which the idea has grown. Its genesis, like that of anything else,
is by conflation: the meeting and mating of two old and known ideas
produces one which is new.
The zodiac grew up, and must have grown up, as a device for
measuring time. Only later did it come to be used for divination, and
later still for the analysis of character. But divination is not and
never has been based on cause and effect. The principle, which has
been best explained by Jung and Pauli,1 is synchronicity, or the
interpretation of signs occurring simultaneously. Divination is a
matter of signs, not causes, and the ancients did not supposed there to
be any mysterious causative influence of the stars. It is therefore a
waste of time for either astrologers or their enemies to try to
establish or disprove the existence of such an influence.
The Babylonians were deeply addicted to taking omens, and in
particular to observing them in the sky. This is one half of
astrological practice. But their method was basically empirical; they
expected a similar sign in heaven to be followed by a similar event on
earth in virtue of correspondence between heaven and earth, not in
consequence of any cause. And, most important, they did not time their
omens very closely. The occurrence of a halo round the moon and
enclosing Venus would have two different significations according as it
appeared in the west or east, and possibly according to the width of
the conjunction; but it was only expected to foretell one event in the
near but not precise future, and it was not taken as a significant
moment from which the future should be counted. This, which is the
other half of astrological practice, was unknown to the Babylonians in
the second millennium.
The Egyptians, on the other hand, were not given to celestial
divination. Next to telling the time at night and the seasons of the
year, their chief interest in the stars was in learning how the soul
could ascend to heaven and join the Sun in His boat. They did,
however, believe in lucky and unlucky days, and each hour of the day or
night had its tutelary spirit, whose name was known. It was inevitable
some hours, and later some ruling spirits or some groups of stars,
should be regarded as more favorable than others. The same idea could
have arisen equally well in Babylon.
In addition, the Egyptians possessed two calendars which were far
superior to anything known to the Babylonians; and because one of them
rotated through the seasons there there occurred once in fifteen
centuries an epochal beginning-point when the first day of the
Wandering Calendar returned to its ideal position in the Sothic
Calendar. Thus the recurrence of epochal dates was part of Egyptian
culture in a way that it could not be in Babylon. Furthermore, the
Egyptians had a traditional celestial diagram which they copied from
century to century, and although it was more traditional than
contemporary it did represent a particular moment from which time was
counted. Thus it is not unfair to say that the first horoscope ever
drawn was, so far as we know, that of the Phoenix Era of 2767 B.C.
The Egyptians will not have made any predictions from this
horoscope, nor was it drawn in terms of the zodiac; but when the
Assyrians conquered Egypt in 671 B.C., or even through cultural contact
in the previous century, there was likely to occur a conflation of
influences from which both the zodiac and the notion of astrological
prediction could arise. The evidence for this is in the timing.
... After all, when Babylonian priests were brought to Egypt in the
train of Esarhaddon, and after some years discovered the unchanging
Sothic calendar had the Horoscope of Eternity, their first question
might naturally have been: 'And what did you predict from that
celestial event?' The Egyptian priest would have blinked before
answering: 'We did not predict anything.' At which the Assyrian
priest's jaw would have dropped. Fancy missing such a wonderful
opportunity! I do not suggest that this little romance at Heliopolis
actually occurred; but it could have done: place, time and climate of
thought converged.
That was in the seventh century B.C. No direct evidence has
survived for the use of the zodiac in predication before the fifth
century, and in Egypt before the third.4 But Proclus, writing of the
philosopher Theophrastus, Aristotle's immediate successor who died
about 288 B.C., says that 'the most extraordinary thing of his age was
the lore of the Chaldeans, who foretold not only events of public
interest but even the lives and deaths of individuals.5' So astrology
as an effective technique invaded Greece in the latter half of the
fourth century. To have reached such a stage of development there must
already have been behind it a hundred years of practice. This suggests
that the first notion of astrology as we know it was begotten on
Babylon by Egypt between the seventh and fifth centuries...
Thus the zodiac certainly existed before 500 B.C. But the
conflation of Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy need not have waited
until the Persian occupation of Egypt, which lasted from 525, under
Cambyses, to 405. Nor is it likely to be the result of the brief
occupation by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 567. The Assyrian
conquest and occupation lasted from 671 till 610, and the astronomical
library of Nabu was transferred from Calah to Nineveh by Asshurbanipal,
who reigned from 668 to 626. Astronomy was a great interest at the
Assyrian court, and at the same time the fashion ran strongly towards
Egyptian art, which was imitated and sold in great quantity to the
Assyrians by Phoenician artists.10
This takes us back as far as the seventh century B.C. To carry the
argument further we shall have to look to the exaltations of the
planets. Traditionally each planet is 'exalted' in a certain degree of
the zodiac, and has its fall in the opposite degree. Astrologers have
naturally assumed that each was especially strong or weak in those
degrees or signs containing them. Their origin, however, remained a
mystery, since they cannot be explained by juggling with the planets'
nodes, aphelions, or epicycles, or their proximity to the zenith.
The word translated 'exaltations' means in fact 'hiding-places', and
the hiding-places of a planet are obviously those parts of the zodiac
in which it is invisible, and especially the degree in which it
disappears from view into the sun's rays at heliacal setting and the
degree of its reappearance at heliacal rising. The same is true of the
moon, and is proved by the distance of the moon's 'hiding-place' from
the sun's, 14 degrees, which is a typical elongation for a new
crescent. Since these phenomena change their positions every time they
occur, we are evidently faced by an historical date, and there can be
no doubt whatever that this date is 786-785 B.C. As for the sun having
a hiding-place, it emerges from darkness at dawn on New Year's Day.
Until the zodiac drew attention to the position of planets in
constellations, the chief focus of interest in them was their heliacal
disappearance and reappearances, and in 786 all the planets had
heliacal phenomena in or very near the degrees of their exaltations--an
event so improbable that it cannot plausibly be ascribed to chance.
TABLE 23 - EXALTATIONS OF THE PLANETS
Exaltation I
Nisan = April 4th, 786 = New Year's Day
May 10th Venus heliacally set east in 9 CAN
Jun 22nd Jupiter " set 15 CAN 15 CAN
Jul 24th Venus " rose west in 18 VIR
Jul 30th Jupiter " rose west 21 CAN Aug 25th Mars
" set in 11 PIS Sep 14th Mercury " set east in
16 VIR 15 VIR
Sep 23rd Saturn " set west in 21 LIB 19 LIB
Oct 27th Saturn " rose east in 26 LIB
Feb 4th 785, Mars " rose east in 1 AQU 27 CAP
The positions of Sun, Moon, and Venus are for New Year's day:
Sun 19 ARI 19 ARI
Moon 29 ARI 3 TAU
Venus 26 PIS 27 PIS
(Mercury's 13 other phenomena omitted)
The year 786 B.C. saw the opening in Calah of the new temple of Nabu
(Nebo), the god of writing associated with the planet Mercury. This is
the origin of Mercury's connection with writing, wisdom, commerce, and
all similar subjects. The Egyptian god of writing and wisdom, Thoth-
Tahuti or Hermes Trismegistos, was not associated with the planet
Mercury until astrology was in full sail across the Hellenistic world;
for Thoth as god of time-measurement was a moon-god. He readily became
director-general of celestial happenings, as he was of the weighing of
the soul before Osiris, but there was no Egyptian reason to associate
him with Mercury.
There are two slight weaknesses in this argument. The heliacal
risings and settings are not as close together as they might have been;
and also some are risings and others settings. This apparently
haphazard selection may leave us unconvinced that the coincidence is
not an accident.
But the exaltations are not and cannot be the horoscope for the
foundation or opening of the temple of Nabu, for Mercury cannot be in
Virgo while the Sun is in Aries. They are simply heliacal phenomena
recorded in that year; and since they are not those closest to a given
date, and since they include an arbitrary mixture of settings and
risings, it becomes probably that they were not observed and catalogued
at the time, but were looked up in the temple records when the priest-
hood conceived the notion that they might be especially important. But
what could have given them that idea?
It is a curious thing about Egyptian astronomy that we often find
the year treated as of 360 days, the 5 epagomenae being ignored. If we
could believe that by 'days' the Egyptians meant 'degrees' they would
be using our system. And there is an extant text which says: 'A temple
day is 1/360 of a temple year.11 This is not an astronomical text at
all; on the contrary, by 'a day' it means a day's rations. But it
exemplifies once more the Egyptian habit of dividing the circle of the
year into 360 parts.
When Assyrian priests came to Egypt and compared notes with their
Egyptian colleagues, as they would naturally do, not begin monotheists,
they might easily think, if the esoteric lore were not full explained
to them, that the Egyptians divided the circle into 360 equal parts.
Thus the ideal circle of days invented by the Egyptians for use in the
afterlife would have become a real circle of new and convenient
degrees. This is possible even if a year of 360 days was used in the
mulAPIN tablets.
And similarly when the Assyrians met the Horoscope of Eternity and
realized that it was drawn for the beginning of an era, they would be
likely to return home and look up the records to see what they could do
in the same line. They could not choose a more significant epoch than
the foundation of the temple of their own god of astronomy. And
because the Egyptians mentioned planets in the west and south as well
as the east, they would think it natural to make a mixture of heliacal
settings and risings. If this hypothesis be correct, then the
exaltations were an Assyrian imitation of the Horoscope of Eternity,
not observed at the time but looked up in the records, and thus perhaps
a century or more later than 786 B.C. For almost a century scholars
have said that the zodiac was of Babylonian origin and left it at that;
it now seems more probable that it was the product of interaction
between Babylon, Egypt, and Assyria...
* * * * * * *
Kay Cavender archives
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Bibliography of Sidereal Astrology
[SOURCES] SZ Bibliography; also includes the Introduction to
[FIRST] A Chronology of SZ Publishing Firsts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESTERN SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY
A bibliography is a list of pertinant sources on a particular
subject, usually as documentation added to a research paper or
book; as such it is limited and not a complete list. In this case
however, this bibliography is an attempt to list those who made a
written contribution to Western Sidereal Astrology, whether large
or small. Vedic or Hindu astrology is another branch even though
the zodiac used is sidereal. With the compilation of these names,
it is recognized that significant work by many persons is not
listed because they didn't leave a paper trail, especially those
who were and are teachers, lecturers, organizers, researchers, and
professional astrologers. However, written essays and books are
the means by which information is mainly transmitted, and a
bibliography is important to preserving concepts in Sidereal
Astrology. The list is not complete as we do not have access to
all the material published nor the time to exhaustively find and
collect it. The website listings by Jack Contreras is a service
and resource given of his own time and expense for the benefit of
students of Sidereal Astrology. Additions and corrections to this
list will be appreciated--Email Kay Cavender at
[wdgw87d@prodigy.com]
Although in its beginnings, there is now an attempt to collect
and preserve the original work of the pioneer siderealists with
the establishment of ARCHIVES in Ireland and the USA. This is
necessary in order to insure that efforts of those who developed
Sidereal Astrology will not be lost, but passed on for present and
future students. Since Cyril Fagan first realized the truth of
the Sidereal Zodiac in 1944, over 50 years ago, Sidereal Astrology
for the most part has appealed only to a small group of those who
have the perception and/or the intelligence to understand it--the
'intelligentsia' in astrology is a word which applies. Sidereal
Astrology requires the help of any interested parties for its
preservation. For those who may wish to contribute books, see the
ARCHIVE addresses at the end.
* * * * * *
Garth Allen (Donald A. Bradley), TAKING THE KID GLOVES OFF
ASTROLOGY, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, 1975.
Garth Allen's essays and columns were published in AMERICAN
ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE, Clancy Publications, New York and Tucson, AZ.,
from June 1955 through November 1975, A TWENTY YEAR RECORD, and
his essays were re-published after his death as late as June 1982.
Allen's columns:
* "Your Powwow Corner"
* "Perspectives In the Sidereal"
* "Many Things Research Department"
Garth Allen's essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY DIGEST: "What's
Ahead For the World?" - Years 1957 through 1974 (?)
THE ASTRO-GRAPHICS SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1981-1985, Astro-
Graphics Services Inc., Orleans, MA, 1981.
Arthur H. Blackwell, RETORT ( To Colin James III 'The
Relative Strength of Signs and Planets'), 1978.
Jeri Blake:
* WHEN PRESIDENTS DIE, DOUBLEO Publications, New York, NY, 1980.
* PORTFOLIO OF NOTABLE EARTHQUAKES, " " " ?
Helen M. Boyd, THE TRUE HOROSCOPE OF THE UNITED STATES, ASI
Publishers, New York, NY, 1975.
Donald A. Bradley (Garth Allen):
* THE PARALLAX PROBLEM, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1947.
* SOLAR AND LUNAR RETURNS, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1948.
* PROFESSION AND BIRTHDATE A Statistical Analysis of Planetary
Positions At The Birthdates of 2492 Eminent Clergymen, Llewellyn
Foundation for Astrological Research, Los Angeles, CA, 1975.
* "Faith Is Not A Sometimes Thing," American Astrology, Clancy
Publications, Tucson, AZ, December 1975.
Robert Copriviza, COPRIVIZA'S CAMPANUS TABLES, 197?
I. Cowley (Cyril Fagan), "THE PRESIDENT'S OUTLOOK," American
Astrology Magazine, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, February 1966
- March 1970. [A FOUR YEAR SERIES specifically on the Lunar
Return and President Johnson.]
James Dreis, THE JAMES DREIS SOLUNARS INDEX, Solunar Research
Publications, Bay City, MI, 1978.
James A. Eshelman:
* THE SIDEREAL HANDBOOK, Stymie Publications, Anaheim, CA, 1975.
* INTERPRETING SOLAR RETURNS, Astro-Analytics Publications, Van
Nuys, CA, 1979.
* HOROSCOPE CALCULATION, AFA Inc., Tempe, AZ, 1980.
James A. Eshelman and Tom Stanton:
THE NEW INSTANT ASTROLOGER, The Astro Press, Los Angeles, CA,
1976.
Cyril Fagan:
* ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, Llewellyn Foundation for Astrological
Research, Los Angeles, CA, 1950. (Also published in Britain)
* ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1971.
* THE SOLUNARS HANDBOOK, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, 1976.
* THE SYMBOLISM OF THE STAR CONSTELLATIONS, Moray Press, London,
1962.
* 1948 FIXED ZODIAC EPHEMERIS, Ernest Grant, Publisher,
National Astrological Library, Washington D.C. [This was of
course the first sidereal ephemeris published.]
* "SOLUNARS," American Astrology Magazine, Clancy Publications,
New York, NY and Tucson, AZ, July 1953 to March 1970.
[A SEVENTEEN YEAR SERIES OF 200 ESSAYS. Fagan's "SOLUNARS" were
republished continuously after his death through June 1978, and
intermittently up to as late as November 1979, and February
1980. During these 17 years, Fagan also wrote letters to "Many
Things" column in American Astrology.]
* "The Emperor Nero," The American Journal of Astrology
(Quarterly), Clancy Publications, New York, NY, Autumn 1936.
* "Horoscope Of Jesus Christ," The American Journal of Astrology
(Quarterly), Clancy Publications, New York, NY, Winter 1937.
(Republished in American Astrology Magazine in April 1953, and
in the December 1976 and January 1977.
* "Letters From Cyril," (donated by Ferde Malenke), The
Siderealist, Sidereal Registry and Exchange, Endwell, NY,
Spring 1979.
Fagan's essays in the AFA BULLETIN:
* THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HOUSE DIVISION Research Bulletin #1, 1947.
[This was the first research paper ever done for the AFA.]
* "The Incidents And Accidents Of Astrology," Parts 1 - 10, July
1947 - July 1948 [This series included his first published
essays on Sidereal Astrology in the USA]
* "The Aquarian Age," September 1, 1951.
* "Fiducial Stars," Part I - IV, May - Aug 1952.
* "Sudden Death By Accident," February 1951.
Fagan's essays in SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY:
Oct 1961 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jan 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Apr 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jul 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations" (GEM & CAN)
Jan 1964 "Mundane House Division"
Apr 1966 "Topocentric System Of Houses"
Jul 1966 "Neo-Bija & 'Measure Of Time' Table"
Apr 1967 "Quasi-Fixed Tropical Zodiac"
Oct 1967 "A Mathematical 'Bull's Eye'"
Oct 1967 "Neo-PSSR"
Jul 1968 "Additional Notes On Calculation Of Neo-PSSR"
Jul 1968 "First Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jan 1969 "The Novien"
Jul 1970 "The Sidereal Zodiac"
Apr 1971 "Queen's Mundoscope" (written 1965)
Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Cyril Fagan, and Mary Austin
* THE MORAY SERIES, London:
* BOOK 1: PRIMER OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, Fagan & Firebrace
(also re-published by Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO.)
* BOOK 2: WARS IN THE SIDEREAL, Firebrace
* BOOK 3: NEW DIRECTIONS IN ASTROLOGY, Firebrace
* BOOK 4: TERTIARY DIRECTIONS ?
* BOOK 5: SIDEREAL CALCULATION TABLES, Austin
* BOOK 6: ?
* BOOK 7: JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, Firebrace
Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Editor, SPICA: A REVIEW OF
SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY (Quarterly), Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1961
through October 1974.
[A THIRTEEN YEAR PUBLICATION! During that time, Firebrace wrote
the Editorials as well as columns called "For New Students,"
"Thoughts On Astrology," and other essays. Firebrace also
contributed to American Astrology ("Birth of A Nation," July 1963)
and other magazines.]
After Firebrace's death, two more issues of SPICA were
published by ROSA through Nerak Enterprises, Orange, CA, in
October 1974 and January 1976.
Rupert Gleadow:
* THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC Jonathan Cape LTD, London, UK, 1965
* THE ZODIAC REVEALED, Wilshire Book Co., North Hollywood, CA,
1972. (Also published as YOUR CHARACTER IN THE ZODIAC)
Gleadow's essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE:
July 1950, "How To Predict--The Sidereal Method Of The Ancients"
August 1950, "The Zodiac In The Ancient World"
September 1950, (Translation of) "Michigan Astrological Papyrus"
October 1950, (Translation of) "Michigan Astrological Papyrus"
November 1950, "The Sidereal Zodiac"
January 1951, "The Reign Of King Baldwin Of Belgium"
June 1951, "The Future of China"
July 1951, "What's Next In Europe?"
March 1952, "Exalted Planets"
July 1952, "Conventions--Will Nomination Of Eisenhower Mean War?"
October 1952, "Our Next Presidest"
February 1953, "The Next Four Years (Inauguration Of Eisenhower)"
July 1955, "Can There Be Peace Over China?"
July 1957, "Comparisons Are Not Odorous"
April 1958, "Will Nixon Be Next?"
September 1958, "Future Of General De Gaulle"
January 1959, "Comparison Leads To Progress"
February 1959, "Princess Margaret"
March 1959, "What's Ahead For The Soviet Union?"
March 1960, "French Fifth Republic"
April 1960, "Future Of Japan In The 60's"
July 1960, "Thrasyllus, Ancient Astrologer"
August 1960, "Tony Marries The Princess"
February 1961, "The Way The World Goes"
March 1961, "Age Of Violent Conflict"
April 1961, "Age Of Common Sense"
August 1961, "Man Into Space"
December 1961, "Who Would Want To Be King?"
Gleadow's Essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY DIGEST:
"Accurate Predictions" 1968
"Thrasyllus" 1982
"The Age of Common Sense" 1983
Troy Allen Grossman, SEXASCOPES OF THE PRESIDENTS, DOUB LEO
Publications, New York, NY, 1980.
James Hynes, SYNETIC VERNAL POINT TABLES, Registry Of
Sidereal Astrologers, Placentia, CA, 1976.
Flemming Lee, YOUR HIDDEN HOROSCOPE (?)
Frances Littlejohn:
* SIMPLIFIED ASTROLOGY, Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO,
1961.
* THE DUODENARY SYSTEM, Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO,
(?)
* "The President's Stars," American Astrology Magazine,
Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ., May 1972 - April 1973.
Gene Lockhart:
* LOCKHART'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1921-1959, Gene Lockhart Copyright
1974, USA.
* LOCKHART'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Pluto, 1900-1999, (probably published by ROSA ?)
* SYNETIC VERNAL POINT EPHEMERIS 1800-1880, (?)
* 1977 SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS, (?)
Janice Mackey, Katherine Clark, Allen Gilchrist (Hugh
Jeffcoat) & Charles Dorminy, CONTEMPORARY SIDEREAL HOROSCOPES,
BOOK 1, Sidereal Research Publications, San Francisco, CA, 1976
John Mazurek:
* AN INTRODUCTION TO LUNAR MANSIONS, S.F. School of Sidereal
Astrology, San Francisco, CA, 1974.
* THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, S.F. School of Sidereal
Astrology, San Francisco, CA, 1974.
Neil F. Michelson,
* THE AMERICAN SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1976-2000, Astro-Computing
Service, San Diego, CA, 1981.
* THE AMERICAN SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 2001-2025, Astro-Computing
Service, San Diego, CA, 1981.
Mike Magee, TANTRIC ASTROLOGY: A MANUAL OF SIDEREAL
ASTROLOGY, Sothis Publishing, United Kingdom, 1995.
OMEGA SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS, 1970 through 1980 (individual
years), Omega Associates, Chicago, IL.
Richard J. Ostrander: S.C.A.S.A. NEWSLETTERS #1-43, W.S.A.
RESEARCH, Yucaipa, CA., 1987-1991.
Carl Stahl, Solunar Research Publications, Bay City, MI:
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS FOR 1914
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS FOR 1919
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIDE FOR 1960 - 1969 (individual years)
* STAHL'S OCTOSCOPE TABLE OF HOUSES
* STAHL'S TABLES OF ASCENSIONAL DIFFERENCES
* STAHL-ALLEN EPHEMERIS OF THE SYNETIC VERNAL POINT (1881 - 2000)
* THOUGHTS ON SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, 1973.
* SOLUNAR RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS NEWSLETTER, Bay City, MI,
(?) 1973- (?) 1975.
* BEGINNER'S MANUAL OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY:
* BOOK I: INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP CHARTS, 1963, and revised
1969 with corrected S.V.P.
* BOOK II: NATAL INTERPRETATION, 1973.
* BOOK III: PROGRESSIONS, 1976.
Peter Stapleton:
* SIDEREAL TABLE OF HOUSES, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA,
1976.
* SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA, 197?
* TRANSITS FOR EVERYDAY LIVING, La Casa Publications,
Monrovia, CA, 197?
* INSTANT ASTROLOGER, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA, 197?
Karen Wilkerson, Joan G. Piszek, James A. Eshelman, Editors:
* THE REGISTRY OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGERS, ROSA, Placentia, CA, 1975
[ROSA Founders & Directors: Joan G. Piszek & Karen Wilkerson;
Financial Manager, Stanley R. Piszek;
Ambassadors: Arthur H. Blackwell, Carol Lynne Conrad, Phyllis J.
Kneip, John Mazurek, Carl Stahl;
Consultants: Richard Adler, David Bennett, Kay M. Cavender,
Robert C. Donat, James Eshelman, Larry Herring, James Hynes, Hugh
Jeffcoat, K. M. Kharagat, Thomas Kushner, Frances Littlejohn,
Alexander Marr, Richard Murakami, Bob Paige, Willard Robinson,
Peter Stapleton, Tom Stanton, Frances Stearns.]
John Van Zandt, WORLD SIDEREAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
NEWSLETTER, Highland Park, MI., Sept 1982 - June 1988 (20 issues)
* * * *
OTHER HELPFUL SOURCES:
Richard Hinckley Allen, STAR NAMES THEIR LORE AND MEANING,
Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY, 1963. (First published in
1899)
Vivian E. Robson BSc, THE FIXED STARS & CONSTELLATIONS IN
ASTROLOGY, Aquarian Press, London, 1969. (First published 1923)
* * * *
BOOKS PUBLISHED IN FRENCH:
Maurice Nouvel, LE VRAI ZODIAQUE EST SIDERAL. PARDES. 1991.
(Statistics comparing the two zodiacs).
Maurice Nouvel, LA STATISTIQUE AU SECOURS DE L'ASTROLOGIE.
(Statistics)
Denis Laboure, INITIATION A L'ASTROLOGIE SIDERALE. PARDES.
1986 (Textbook in the Fagan lineage).
Denis Laboure et Chantal Etienne, PREDIRE PAR LES REVOLUTIONS
SOLAIRES ET LUNAIRES. PARDES. 1988. (Sidereal solar and lunar
returns).
Atalane, LES NOEUDS DE LA LUNE, CLEF DE L'INTERPRETATION
ASTROLOGIQUE. LE ROCHER. 1987. (Reading the Moon's nodes in the
sidereal zodiac).
Wachsmuth, CIEL DE NAISSANCE ET CIEL DE MORT. TRIADES.
1976. Translated from German. (Comparison of the position of
planets in the birthchart and at the time of the death in the
sidereal framework. Anthroposophic style).
Jean Paul Besle, LA ROULETTE COSMIQUE. 1993. (Comparison of
the winning numbers at the national "loto" for 16 years and the
astrological positions at the time of the "tirage").
Dorsan, RETOUR AU ZODIAQUE DES ETOILES. DERVY. 1980.
(Popular presentation of the sidereal zodiac to the astrological
world)
* * * *
For the following Sidereal magazines, THE CONSTELLATIONS and THE SIDEREALIST, the authors listed were those who contributed more than once as specifically Sidereal Astrology writers in order
to keep the list manageable. Should anyone want to contribute a complete list of specifically SZ writers in alphabetic order, which means reading all the essays, I should be very glad to add them.
THE CONSTELLATIONS (Quarterly), Joan Piszek and Karen Wilkerson, Editors, Registry of Sidereal Astrology (ROSA), Monrovia, CA, 6 issues: Vol. 1, No. 1 (August 1975) through Nos. 9 & 10 combined (Fall 1977).
Writers: Anna-Kria, David Bennett, Arthur Blackwell, Jeri Blake, Jonnie Drapier, Gary Duncan, James A. Eshelman, John Hammelton, Andrew B. Howard (aka James A. Eshelman), James Hynes, K. M. Kharagat, Gene Lockhart, Rick Manning, John Mazurek, Don McIntosh, J. Paul Morris, Buz Overbeck, Joan Piszek, Willard Robinson, Carl Stahl, Peter Stapleton, James Valliere, John Van Zandt, Karen Wilkerson, Charles Zemont.
THE SIDEREALIST (Quarterly)., Norman Wm. Bones, Editor, Sidereal Registry and Exchange, Endwell, NY, Jan 1979 Vol. 1, No. 1 through Vol. 2, No. 2 in 1982 (6 issues).
Writers: Anna-Kria, Jeri Blake, Norman Wm. Bones, Kenneth Bowser, Lee Chapman, Sue Clay, James A. Eshelman, Robert Hurst Granite (aka Bert Bliss), Wilford H. Graves Jr., David Henry, Roscoe Hope (aka Paul Schure), James Hynes, William James, Royale Jills, Alexander Marr, Margaret Millard M.D., Buz Overbeck, Farrel L. Pyle, Carl Stahl, Teresa Weed, Thomas E. Wilson.
SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY (Quarterly), Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Editor and Publisher; Mary Austin, Assistant Editor; London, October 1961-October 1974.
1960s Writers: Mary Austin, Helen Boyd, Esther Cleps, Cyril Fagan, Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, Martin Harvey, Sri Rajagopala Iyer, Roger Jacobson, Chester Kemp, K. M. Kharagat, Frances Littlejohn, M.D. Monroe Mackenzie, Dorothy Mang-Lopez, Alexander Marr, Ella McMurray, Clifford L. Miller, Richard Murakami, Alfred Musselwhite, B. Neuman, Tom Oshta, Rick Ostrander, Robert W. Schefke, Carl Stahl, George Whitworth.
1970s Writers: Mary Austin, Arthur Blackwell, Helen Boyd, Kay Cavender, Esther Cleps, G.D. Crawford, Robert Donath, James A. Eshelman, Cyril Fagan, Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, James Hynes, Chester Kemp, Barbara Herbert-Holmes, K. M. Kharagat, Thomas Kushner, Frances Littlejohn, Alexander Marr, Margaret Millard M.D., Richard Murakami, Tom Oshta, James Valliere, Marsha Valliere, David E. Whorten MAFA, Paul Cranfield Wing, Daman Xavier MAFA.
SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, Editors Karen Wilkerson and Joan G. Piszek, Nerak Enterprises, Orange, CA, Two Issues: October 1975 and January 1976.
Writers: Mary Austin, Robert C. Donat, Gary Duncan, James A. Eshelman, Barbara A. Jordison, Alexander Marr, Stella Mooney, Joan Piszek, J. E. Sunley, Karen Wilkerson.
* * * *
Sidereal Astrology Writers who contributed essays and/or
columns in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE for the following decades.
Names in capital letters indicate continuous columns. Those who
sent letters to "Many Things" are regrettably not listed even
though some letters could have been featured as essays.
1950s: GARTH ALLEN, CYRIL FAGAN, Rupert Gleadow, Sri
Rajagopala Iyer, RICHARD MURAKAMI (Research Mathematican for "Many
Things"), G.C. Nixon, Rona de Thyge.
1960s: GARTH ALLEN, I. COWLEY, CYRIL FAGAN, Brigadier Roy C.
Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, Sri Rajagopala Iyer, RICHARD MURAKAMI
(Research Mathematician for "Many Things"), A. Musselwhite, Rona
de Thyge.
1970s: Paul Albertson, GARTH ALLEN, Arthur Blackwell, David
Bennett, Jeri Blake, LEE CHAPMAN, I. COWLEY, James A. Eshelman,
CYRIL FAGAN, Rupert Gleadow, James Jason Frances, David Henry,
Roscoe Hope, KENNETH IRVING, John Kahila, P.P. Ketan, FRANCIS
LITTLEJOHN, GENE LOCKHARD, Margaret Millard M.D., Dr. William R.
Nethercut, Rick Ostrander, Farrel L. Pyle, L. NORMAN SMITH, N.
Smythe, Gloria Woodcock.
1980s: Arthur Blackwell, KEN BOWSER, LEE CHAPMAN, GARY
DUNCAN, James A. Eshelman, Bert Fannin, James Jason Francis,
I. Galleher, David Henry, Roscoe Hope, KENNETH IRVING, Caroline
Mattingly, Rick Ostrander, Farrel Pyle.
1990s: Robert Baumgartner, Ken Bowser, LEE CHAPMAN, Joan B.
Layne, Gary Noel, Rick Ostrander, VIVIAN QUICK.
[Kenneth Bowser & Bert Fannin have also written for The
Mountain Astrologer.]
**************
SZ ARCHIVES: An attempt to accumulate, document, and
preserve beginning writings in Sidereal Astrology both in Ireland
and the United States is being organized as the Cyril Fagan
Archive in Ireland and the Sidereal Astrology Archive in the USA;
both groups will share information on and writing by Cyril Fagan.
Any information and books to help put together the early concepts
and history will be greatly appreciated.
The CYRIL FAGAN ARCHIVE is being organized in Ireland by Bill
Sheeran, Editor of REALTA, Irish Astrological Association.
Documentation and contributions of Cyril Fagan's writings or
correspondence would be greatly appreciated, as well as specific
biographical information on Cyril Fagan.
THE CYRIL FAGAN ARCHIVE
c/o Bill Sheeran
The Liffey Arts Research Center
Victoria Bridge
Naas
Co. Kildare
Ireland
Email: [larc@iol.ie]
Similarly in the United States, THE SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY
ARCHIVE, USA is being organized by Ken Bowser. Documentation and
contributions of any Sidereal Astrology writing as well as
information on any authors will be gratefully accepted.
THE SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY ARCHIVE, USA
c/o Ken Bowser,
Email: [KBOWSER@delphi.com]
***************
Compiled by Kay Cavender
Copyright 1998 Jack S. Contreras.
Used by Permission of Jack S. Contreras.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
This introduction to file [FIRST] in the archive Sidereal.zip includes a chronology of publishing "firsts" in Sidereal Astrology, especially by Cyril Fagan, the founder of modern Western Sidereal Astrology. This reflects an attempt to document and collect beginning writings in Sidereal Astrology.
SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY PUBLISHING "FIRSTS"
On FEBRUARY 17, 1944, Cyril Fagan first accepted the truth of Sidereal Astrology and within a week 'invented' the Sidereal Lunar Return, as reported by Brigadier R. C. Firebrace in his "Farewell
to Cyril Fagan," April 1970 SPICA. On APRIL 30, 1944, Fagan reported he first accepted the Sidereal Solar Return (viz. Fagan, April 1968 Spica). In 1947, possibly July*, Cyril Fagan first published on the Sidereal Zodiac in the USA in his 10 part series "THE INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS OF ASTROLOGY" in the AFA BULLETIN under editorship of Ernest Grant, the founder and first president of the AFA. In this series, Fagan announced the star constellation origin of the zodiac, as well as championing the
solar and lunar returns in the Sidereal Zodiac. By the time of this series, he considered the Sidereal origins of the zodiac a fact accomplished, and his focus was on sorting out delineation techniques.
[*The AFA has recently verified that August 1947 AFA Bulletin has Part 2 of Fagan's 10 part series "The Incidents and Accidents of Astrology" wherein Fagan first published on the SZ in the USA.
This implies that "Part 1" (if published consecutively, without division) would have been in the JULY 18, 1947 issue. Because the AFA Bulletins were published on the lunation (new moon), by pushing the envelope one might further infer a time of 04:15 AM GMT when the Sun and Moon were conjunct in Sidereal 00CAN42' which could be cast for Fagan's birth and location Dublin 6w15 53n21, as
well as for Washington D.C. where the American Federation of Astrologers was then located. [U.S. Capitol is 77w00'35.7" and 38n53'20.4"]
In 1947, Fagan also produced the first research paper for the AFA, Research Bulletin #1, "THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HOUSE DIVISION." Cyril Fagan also published the first Sidereal Ephemerides, 1947
and 1948.
There were 3 years between 1944 and 1947, and Fagan was a prolific thinker and writer at his peak. Because Fagan often published simultaneously in several places, he likely published abroad in Europe and India on the Sidereal Zodiac before 1947. In Part 9, June 7, 1948 of his 10 part AFA BULLETIN series, Fagan refers to a letter from Rupert Gleadow dated February 19, 1947, congratulating him on Part 8 "on the magnificent mystery revolution No. V (one of CF's mystery Solars or Lunars) which is terrific." Thus Fagan was already circulating the transcript well before it saw its first American publication in the (possibly *July 18) 1947 AFA Bulletin.
In JULY 1950 American Astrology, in the first essay therein on Sidereal Astrology, Rupert Gleadow refers to his own publication in (the then defunct) October 1948 "ASTROLOGICAL BULLETIN" of Bournemouth, England about a month before the American Presidential election, wherein Gleadow said he made a "completely categoric prediction" on the basis of the Solar Returns for President Truman's election. Fagan may have published in the same above source as Gleadow, or Dr. B. V. Raman's THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE in India, or others. For instance, WORLD ASTROLOGY, June
1940, Vol.4, No. 6, on its title page lists "Cyril Fagan, President, Irish Astrological Society, Dublin, Ireland" as one of the Board of Advisory Editors. These sources are not readily available in the United States but might be located abroad.
However, most probably Fagan would have published something in the prestigious Theosophical Society in Dublin, out of which he founded the Irish Astrological Society in 1922, and which (T.S.)
was the premises for the IAS meetings. The IAS was supported by his friend William Butler Yeats, Nobel Poet Laureate. Fagan said that he "taught Yeats astrology in his living room."
Fagan said to me with Pauline in the room smiling and agreeing with him, that on MAY 14, 1949, he made his greatest discovery--that of the origins of the HYPSOMATA or Exaltation degrees while dancing with his wife Pauline. One might suppose the time was evening. In 1950 Fagan published ZODIACS OLD AND NEW with his discoveries in archaeoastronomy, especially of the Exaltation origins as recorded in 786 B.C. in Babylon under Assyria. There was both an English and an American publication of ZODIACS, with additional text in the American publication. During this time he lived in Dublin. Notably Fagan also received recognition for this work presented to, I believe he said, the
Royal Society and British Academy in London.
In AUGUST 1950 American Astrology, Rupert Gleadow published a most lucid essay "THE ZODIAC IN THE ANCIENT WORLD" (below) on the origins of the 'first' astrology as anchored to the stars, not to
the equinoxes. Gleadow was a history and language scholar who translated from original sources in classical Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Gleadow's was the first actual 'first' essay in American Astrology (JULY 1950) on Sidereal Astrology and was entitled "How To Predict--The Sidereal Method of the Ancients" on the superior use of the Sidereal Solar Return with presidential elections and President Truman.
The same July 1950 issue of American Astrology "Many Things" column included Fagan's letter on Solar Returns [see file SOLAR100] dated May 21, 1950, titled "Solar Revolution." Fagan used the same quote in this letter also in the earlier 1947-8 AFA series. However, after this time Fagan had a correspondence for several months with the Editor of American Astrology "too voluminous to include" as to the validity of the Sidereal Zodiac, some of which as reported in the column "Many Things" beginning in January 1951. Fagan convinced Editor Clancy.
Another major siderealist, Donald Bradley, or Garth Allen as he was known astrologically, who was Research Director of The Llewellyn Foundation for Astrological Research in Los Angeles, was also convinced before 1950 of the efficacy of the Sidereal Zodiac. Gary Duncan was an associate of Bradley's and collaborated with him on the research for Bradley/Allen's PROFESSION AND BIRTHDATE,
A Statistical Analysis of Planetary Positions At The Birthdates of 2492 Eminent Clergyman. According to Gary Duncan's "Some Historical Notes" in the first CONSTELLATIONS of August 1975, they worked on the data for some three years prior to that time, and they had approached that data scientifically as statisticians. Duncan says that it was due to their work with the clergy's birthdata that they were forced to realize the Tropical Zodiac was not significant statistically. "It came as a shock, however, when the initial data reduction of the solar longitudes showed no preference for the Tropical signs of Sagittarius or Pisces. And, when the Chi-square test showed that the Tropical coordinate system lacked the strength of several other choices...we knew our thinking needed to be re-examined. Certainly the works of Fagan were well known to us both at that time, but it was not until the statistical results of the clergyman study were known that Bradley and I were faced with making a revolutionary change in our fundamental methods." Duncan says that they had also corresponded
with Fagan. Duncan's essay is included in Sidereal.zip, file [AYANAMSA].
Donald Bradley's SOLAR AND LUNAR RETURNS was also published in 1950, which included a complete ephemeris of the Vernal Point 1849 to 1960 and incorporated Fagan's concepts with respect to the Solar and Lunar Returns in the Sidereal Zodiac. This astrological treatise was significant for many reasons, but one of them was Bradley's very clear focus on LOCALITY ANGLES AND CHARTS. By page 14, Bradley says, "All transits are referred to the nativity equated to the locality rather than to the birthplace, unless no change of residence or position has taken place." This book prominently featured examples of events indicated as significant because of the locality angles, which became a staple of Western Sidereal Astrology. (Bradley as Garth Allen wrote for nearly 20 years for American Astrology as well.)
Brigadier R. C. Firebrace in London followed suit with the locality angles in his research reported in SPICA. In Volume 1, No. 2, JANUARY 1962 SPICA, Editor Firebrace presented an essay on "The Capricorn Ingress" which featured a world map showing where the planets were angular over the whole world, with the planetary Meridians in drawn blue (MC-IC), and the planetary Horizons drawn
in red (Ascendant-Descendant). This locality map was drawn by and had a copyright by Mary Austin, the Associate Editor of SPICA, and was the first sidereal publication of a world map showing locality angles.
Gary Duncan, an important statistical research astrologer of this century and an associate of Garth Allen, became convinced of the validity of the Sidereal Zodiac because of his statistical research. According to a memorial essay by Michael Erlewine On Matrix Space website, Duncan helped develop "advanced lunar equations used by NASA for space work while working at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena" and he was proud "that he was the first astrologer to produce astro-geography maps on a computer in the 1950's." Duncan's astro-geography maps were later published in Llewellyn's MOON SIGN BOOK in 1966. According to Duncan's essay "Some Historical Notes" published in the first issue of R.O.S.A.'s CONSTELLATIONS, August 1975, he supplied the Synodic Ephemeris used by Donald Bradley/Garth Allen and his co-workers on rainfall research.
Tropicalist Jim Lewis, who in 1975 created the computer service Astro*Carto*Graphy to show where natal planets were angular over the whole world, studied with Donald A. Bradley and dedicated his book in 1976 on angular planets called ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY to Bradley. Lewis' work on Astro*Carto*Graphy earned him the Marc Edmund Jones Award for the outstanding contribution to astrology, but the concept came from siderealists and was first used by siderealists.
In JULY 1953 American Astrology, Cyril Fagan's first essay in his 17 year "SOLUNARS" series (below) dealt with Tropical vs. Sidereal Solunars again in terms of "the incidents and accidents of astrology," the same theme as his first SZ series. This first "Solunars" essay was a reprint from 1953 issue Annual Number of The Astrological Magazine of Bangalore, India, as were the next three issues of "Solunars," September through November 1953. August 1953 was the only skipped issue of 200 consecutive "Solunars" from July 1953 through March 1970, nearly 17 years.
(Fagan's very first essay in American Astrology on "The Horoscope of Jesus Christ" was published in April 1953, as republished from its precursor, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ASTROLOGY, Winter Issue, 1937. In his essay, Christ's chart was in the Tropical Zodiac framework, which was then off only a few degrees from the Sidereal Zodiac. Subtracting SPICA's positions as calculated by Fagan for then--25VIRGO55', from now--29VIRGO06' with Garth Allen's 06'05" SVP correction, gives 3°11' difference
in the zodiacs for Christ's time, which difference did not exist for the ancients since their astrology was sidereal. Another extraordinary research paper by Fagan titled "THE EMPEROR NERO" was published before the above in 1936 Autumn Edition of The American Journal of Astrology, and was of course then also in the Tropical measurement of the zodiac.
One might say that the first SOLUNARS essays written 'specifically' for American Astrology were in December 1953 and January 1954; these were rewritten from Fagan's ZODIACS OLD AND NEW. The topic was Fagan's identification of 'first' ancient calendar dates which are dependent on reading the ancient Egyptian decans as PENTADS (as 5 day divisions, another of CF's significant discoveries). These FIRST calendar dates were:
the HARAKHTE EPOCH, for the moment of Spica's heliacal rising
at Heliopolis (later determined to occur not in September, but)
on July 15, 3130 B.C., which was New Year's Day of The Ancients;
and the SOTHIC EPOCH, July 16 (O.S.) 2767 B.C., the horoscope
for the moment of Sirius' heliacal rising at Heliopolis, New Year's Day.
Fagan also published the January 1954 SOLUNARS issue on the Sothic Cycle simultaneously in Professor B.V. Raman's ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, Bangalore, India under the title "The Most Ancient
Horoscope in the World." (viz. Fagan, "Solunars," 7/1969 A.A.).
Of the latter SOTHIC EPOCH, Fagan says (in 7/1969 American Astrology under the heading "Tomb of Imhotep") that this beginning of the Sothic Cycle is enshrined as the World's Most Ancient
Horoscope (another 'first'): "Inscribed in hieroglyphic characters on the walls of Egyptian death chambers a mysterious chart of the heavens was frequently found....Many such were found in royal tombs and in those of high officials of different dynasties. Although differing in decorative details all copies were essentially the same....In short, they were copies of the horoscope for the beginning of a Sothic Cycle (Sothis, Greek for Sirius)....Styling copies of the diagrams as "Charts of Eternity"
and deeming them to have magical properties, the Egyptians inscribed them on tomb walls as talismans to insure for the deceased an eternity of happiness in the afterworld." These topics are also presented in Fagan's posthumous 1971 ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS.
It should be noted also that Fagan also wrote another unique series under the name I. COWLEY in American Astrology (February 1966 - March 1970) using the Lunar Return on "THE PRESIDENT'S
OUTLOOK." Brigadier R. C. Firebrace credited Fagan with 'inventing' the Lunar Return. In April 1978 SPICA, Fagan specifically addressed the modus operandi of "Interpreting The Lunar Return." As examples of key points he emphasized on the Lunar, Fagan says, "Moreover as the chart is purely mundane in character, zodiacal (ecliptical) aspects do not apply in it at all. But as the mundane conjunction and opposition more or less tally with their zodiacal counterparts, these latter may be taken into consideration as well as the zodiacal square when it approximates in value to its mundane equivalent." "As the Moon is the prime significator in the Solar Return so is the Sun the prime
significator in the Lunar Return. Close mundane aspects of the current (transiting) planets to the Sun should be considered as being angular."
Concerning astrological references to Fagan's life, the October 1956 "MANY THINGS" column in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY consisted of Fagan's responses to questions. These include several of the
few specific references about Fagan by Fagan in American Astrology. Regarding the founding of the Irish Astrological Society in 1922 and later of his acceptance of the Sidereal Zodiac in 1944, he says, "...for in regard to transits to the Midheaven and Ascendant, transits 'in mundo' are alone valid. When in 1922 Uranus transited in opposition to my natal Ascendant, the IRISH ASTROLOGICAL SOCIETY was founded, and I had the honor to be elected its first president; and the transit of Uranus over my Midheaven in 1944 synchronized with the discovery of the ancient Egypto-Babylonian zodiac...." (Regarding the inauguration of the Irish Astrological Society, in his 8/1966 "Solunars," Fagan mentions the inauguration date as February 7, 1922, apparent noon at Dublin.)
Also in October 1956 "MANY THINGS," in regard to his beginning experience with astrology in 1916, and referring to his prophecy (14 years ahead of time) made at the IAS in 1923 regarding who would be crowned king, Fagan says: "...The effects of the fixed stars that compose the constellations may be considered statically, because they are relatively static; but to comprehend the influences of the planets, they must be thought of in terms that rightly apply to them, namely dynamically. They signify processes, movement, action, challenge and response, the mutations of consciousness that "...arise and pass away..." Thus Venus signifies the movement of affection, Mars of passion, Neptune of entrancement and so forth. My experience, which dates from the beginning of 1916, when E.S.C. [author of the letter to whom Fagan was responding] was still an infant in arms, demonstrated to me that directions to the conjunction, square or opposition of Jupiter synchronized with increased status, honors, emoluments, distinctions, the winning of prizes, the conferring of academic degrees and the like, precisely as taught by the ancient masters; but I cannot recall a single case where they tallied with distant travel, unless directions to the Moon were also involved. The prophecy made at a public lecture, held in September 1923, under the auspices of the Irish Astrological Society, with the late Dr. W. B. Yeats (Nobel Prize) in the chair, that the, then, Duke of
York would be crowned King of England in the summer of 1937, was based on the direction of the Sun to the opposition of Jupiter retrograde."
* * * * *
Included in this file [FIRST], Rupert Gleadow's 1950 and Cyril Fagan's 1953 "first" essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY, respectively on star constellation origins and on Solunars, are still interesting
and instructive. Many of the delineation ideas which were clarified and should have been discarded are still with us--"good and bad" aspects, signs and their element associations, horary house rulerships, etc.
One primary question about Fagan's thinking: besides the
Solunars (Solar and Lunar Returns) as predictive tools, what
particular issue "FIRST" convinced Fagan of the validity of the
Sidereal Zodiac? A subject dealt with in Fagan's first series in
the 1947-8 AFA BULLETIN suggests itself. PART 8 of "The INCIDENTS
AND ACCIDENTS OF ASTROLOGY" deals with and is titled "THE
AYANAMSHA." Fagan's beginning definition: "Ayanamsha, i.e., the
number of degrees of the ecliptic that separate the regressing
vernal equinox from the first point of ASVINI--the first asterism
of the Hindu Zodiac--at any given time." According to his
references, Fagan had been intensively researching this topic
about the same time as he accepted the Sidereal zodiac. For
example, in Part 8 of his first SZ series, Fagan has a specific
reference to Robert DeLuce's article in the "APRIL 1944" AFA
Bulletin also titled "Ayanamsha" for the calculation of the
Ayanamsha due to Spica's (Alpha Virginis) vs. Revati's (Zeta
Piscium) ecliptic position.
Fagan's Part 8: "THE AYANAMSHA" is below. Also below, Fagan's
later 1952 AFA essay "THE AQUARIAN AGE" adds significant
conclusions to the argument over the marking place of the Hindu
lunar asterisms. One may suppose in a general way that in
addition to precession, every other answer in Sidereal Astrology
involves SPICA.
See also related files [WHAT_AGE] and [AYANAMSA]. The issue
is--precession--a matter of astronomical fact.
* * * * * *
[FIRST] A Chronology of SZ Publishing Firsts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESTERN SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY
A bibliography is a list of pertinant sources on a particular
subject, usually as documentation added to a research paper or
book; as such it is limited and not a complete list. In this case
however, this bibliography is an attempt to list those who made a
written contribution to Western Sidereal Astrology, whether large
or small. Vedic or Hindu astrology is another branch even though
the zodiac used is sidereal. With the compilation of these names,
it is recognized that significant work by many persons is not
listed because they didn't leave a paper trail, especially those
who were and are teachers, lecturers, organizers, researchers, and
professional astrologers. However, written essays and books are
the means by which information is mainly transmitted, and a
bibliography is important to preserving concepts in Sidereal
Astrology. The list is not complete as we do not have access to
all the material published nor the time to exhaustively find and
collect it. The website listings by Jack Contreras is a service
and resource given of his own time and expense for the benefit of
students of Sidereal Astrology. Additions and corrections to this
list will be appreciated--Email Kay Cavender at
[wdgw87d@prodigy.com]
Although in its beginnings, there is now an attempt to collect
and preserve the original work of the pioneer siderealists with
the establishment of ARCHIVES in Ireland and the USA. This is
necessary in order to insure that efforts of those who developed
Sidereal Astrology will not be lost, but passed on for present and
future students. Since Cyril Fagan first realized the truth of
the Sidereal Zodiac in 1944, over 50 years ago, Sidereal Astrology
for the most part has appealed only to a small group of those who
have the perception and/or the intelligence to understand it--the
'intelligentsia' in astrology is a word which applies. Sidereal
Astrology requires the help of any interested parties for its
preservation. For those who may wish to contribute books, see the
ARCHIVE addresses at the end.
* * * * * *
Garth Allen (Donald A. Bradley), TAKING THE KID GLOVES OFF
ASTROLOGY, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, 1975.
Garth Allen's essays and columns were published in AMERICAN
ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE, Clancy Publications, New York and Tucson, AZ.,
from June 1955 through November 1975, A TWENTY YEAR RECORD, and
his essays were re-published after his death as late as June 1982.
Allen's columns:
* "Your Powwow Corner"
* "Perspectives In the Sidereal"
* "Many Things Research Department"
Garth Allen's essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY DIGEST: "What's
Ahead For the World?" - Years 1957 through 1974 (?)
THE ASTRO-GRAPHICS SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1981-1985, Astro-
Graphics Services Inc., Orleans, MA, 1981.
Arthur H. Blackwell, RETORT ( To Colin James III 'The
Relative Strength of Signs and Planets'), 1978.
Jeri Blake:
* WHEN PRESIDENTS DIE, DOUBLEO Publications, New York, NY, 1980.
* PORTFOLIO OF NOTABLE EARTHQUAKES, " " " ?
Helen M. Boyd, THE TRUE HOROSCOPE OF THE UNITED STATES, ASI
Publishers, New York, NY, 1975.
Donald A. Bradley (Garth Allen):
* THE PARALLAX PROBLEM, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1947.
* SOLAR AND LUNAR RETURNS, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1948.
* PROFESSION AND BIRTHDATE A Statistical Analysis of Planetary
Positions At The Birthdates of 2492 Eminent Clergymen, Llewellyn
Foundation for Astrological Research, Los Angeles, CA, 1975.
* "Faith Is Not A Sometimes Thing," American Astrology, Clancy
Publications, Tucson, AZ, December 1975.
Robert Copriviza, COPRIVIZA'S CAMPANUS TABLES, 197?
I. Cowley (Cyril Fagan), "THE PRESIDENT'S OUTLOOK," American
Astrology Magazine, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, February 1966
- March 1970. [A FOUR YEAR SERIES specifically on the Lunar
Return and President Johnson.]
James Dreis, THE JAMES DREIS SOLUNARS INDEX, Solunar Research
Publications, Bay City, MI, 1978.
James A. Eshelman:
* THE SIDEREAL HANDBOOK, Stymie Publications, Anaheim, CA, 1975.
* INTERPRETING SOLAR RETURNS, Astro-Analytics Publications, Van
Nuys, CA, 1979.
* HOROSCOPE CALCULATION, AFA Inc., Tempe, AZ, 1980.
James A. Eshelman and Tom Stanton:
THE NEW INSTANT ASTROLOGER, The Astro Press, Los Angeles, CA,
1976.
Cyril Fagan:
* ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, Llewellyn Foundation for Astrological
Research, Los Angeles, CA, 1950. (Also published in Britain)
* ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN,
1971.
* THE SOLUNARS HANDBOOK, Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ, 1976.
* THE SYMBOLISM OF THE STAR CONSTELLATIONS, Moray Press, London,
1962.
* 1948 FIXED ZODIAC EPHEMERIS, Ernest Grant, Publisher,
National Astrological Library, Washington D.C. [This was of
course the first sidereal ephemeris published.]
* "SOLUNARS," American Astrology Magazine, Clancy Publications,
New York, NY and Tucson, AZ, July 1953 to March 1970.
[A SEVENTEEN YEAR SERIES OF 200 ESSAYS. Fagan's "SOLUNARS" were
republished continuously after his death through June 1978, and
intermittently up to as late as November 1979, and February
1980. During these 17 years, Fagan also wrote letters to "Many
Things" column in American Astrology.]
* "The Emperor Nero," The American Journal of Astrology
(Quarterly), Clancy Publications, New York, NY, Autumn 1936.
* "Horoscope Of Jesus Christ," The American Journal of Astrology
(Quarterly), Clancy Publications, New York, NY, Winter 1937.
(Republished in American Astrology Magazine in April 1953, and
in the December 1976 and January 1977.
* "Letters From Cyril," (donated by Ferde Malenke), The
Siderealist, Sidereal Registry and Exchange, Endwell, NY,
Spring 1979.
Fagan's essays in the AFA BULLETIN:
* THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HOUSE DIVISION Research Bulletin #1, 1947.
[This was the first research paper ever done for the AFA.]
* "The Incidents And Accidents Of Astrology," Parts 1 - 10, July
1947 - July 1948 [This series included his first published
essays on Sidereal Astrology in the USA]
* "The Aquarian Age," September 1, 1951.
* "Fiducial Stars," Part I - IV, May - Aug 1952.
* "Sudden Death By Accident," February 1951.
Fagan's essays in SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY:
Oct 1961 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jan 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Apr 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jul 1962 "Interpretation Of Zodiacal Constellations" (GEM & CAN)
Jan 1964 "Mundane House Division"
Apr 1966 "Topocentric System Of Houses"
Jul 1966 "Neo-Bija & 'Measure Of Time' Table"
Apr 1967 "Quasi-Fixed Tropical Zodiac"
Oct 1967 "A Mathematical 'Bull's Eye'"
Oct 1967 "Neo-PSSR"
Jul 1968 "Additional Notes On Calculation Of Neo-PSSR"
Jul 1968 "First Of Zodiacal Constellations"
Jan 1969 "The Novien"
Jul 1970 "The Sidereal Zodiac"
Apr 1971 "Queen's Mundoscope" (written 1965)
Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Cyril Fagan, and Mary Austin
* THE MORAY SERIES, London:
* BOOK 1: PRIMER OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, Fagan & Firebrace
(also re-published by Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO.)
* BOOK 2: WARS IN THE SIDEREAL, Firebrace
* BOOK 3: NEW DIRECTIONS IN ASTROLOGY, Firebrace
* BOOK 4: TERTIARY DIRECTIONS ?
* BOOK 5: SIDEREAL CALCULATION TABLES, Austin
* BOOK 6: ?
* BOOK 7: JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, Firebrace
Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Editor, SPICA: A REVIEW OF
SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY (Quarterly), Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1961
through October 1974.
[A THIRTEEN YEAR PUBLICATION! During that time, Firebrace wrote
the Editorials as well as columns called "For New Students,"
"Thoughts On Astrology," and other essays. Firebrace also
contributed to American Astrology ("Birth of A Nation," July 1963)
and other magazines.]
After Firebrace's death, two more issues of SPICA were
published by ROSA through Nerak Enterprises, Orange, CA, in
October 1974 and January 1976.
Rupert Gleadow:
* THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC Jonathan Cape LTD, London, UK, 1965
* THE ZODIAC REVEALED, Wilshire Book Co., North Hollywood, CA,
1972. (Also published as YOUR CHARACTER IN THE ZODIAC)
Gleadow's essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE:
July 1950, "How To Predict--The Sidereal Method Of The Ancients"
August 1950, "The Zodiac In The Ancient World"
September 1950, (Translation of) "Michigan Astrological Papyrus"
October 1950, (Translation of) "Michigan Astrological Papyrus"
November 1950, "The Sidereal Zodiac"
January 1951, "The Reign Of King Baldwin Of Belgium"
June 1951, "The Future of China"
July 1951, "What's Next In Europe?"
March 1952, "Exalted Planets"
July 1952, "Conventions--Will Nomination Of Eisenhower Mean War?"
October 1952, "Our Next Presidest"
February 1953, "The Next Four Years (Inauguration Of Eisenhower)"
July 1955, "Can There Be Peace Over China?"
July 1957, "Comparisons Are Not Odorous"
April 1958, "Will Nixon Be Next?"
September 1958, "Future Of General De Gaulle"
January 1959, "Comparison Leads To Progress"
February 1959, "Princess Margaret"
March 1959, "What's Ahead For The Soviet Union?"
March 1960, "French Fifth Republic"
April 1960, "Future Of Japan In The 60's"
July 1960, "Thrasyllus, Ancient Astrologer"
August 1960, "Tony Marries The Princess"
February 1961, "The Way The World Goes"
March 1961, "Age Of Violent Conflict"
April 1961, "Age Of Common Sense"
August 1961, "Man Into Space"
December 1961, "Who Would Want To Be King?"
Gleadow's Essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY DIGEST:
"Accurate Predictions" 1968
"Thrasyllus" 1982
"The Age of Common Sense" 1983
Troy Allen Grossman, SEXASCOPES OF THE PRESIDENTS, DOUB LEO
Publications, New York, NY, 1980.
James Hynes, SYNETIC VERNAL POINT TABLES, Registry Of
Sidereal Astrologers, Placentia, CA, 1976.
Flemming Lee, YOUR HIDDEN HOROSCOPE (?)
Frances Littlejohn:
* SIMPLIFIED ASTROLOGY, Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO,
1961.
* THE DUODENARY SYSTEM, Littlejohn Publications, Isabelle, MO,
(?)
* "The President's Stars," American Astrology Magazine,
Clancy Publications, Tucson, AZ., May 1972 - April 1973.
Gene Lockhart:
* LOCKHART'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1921-1959, Gene Lockhart Copyright
1974, USA.
* LOCKHART'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Pluto, 1900-1999, (probably published by ROSA ?)
* SYNETIC VERNAL POINT EPHEMERIS 1800-1880, (?)
* 1977 SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS, (?)
Janice Mackey, Katherine Clark, Allen Gilchrist (Hugh
Jeffcoat) & Charles Dorminy, CONTEMPORARY SIDEREAL HOROSCOPES,
BOOK 1, Sidereal Research Publications, San Francisco, CA, 1976
John Mazurek:
* AN INTRODUCTION TO LUNAR MANSIONS, S.F. School of Sidereal
Astrology, San Francisco, CA, 1974.
* THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, S.F. School of Sidereal
Astrology, San Francisco, CA, 1974.
Neil F. Michelson,
* THE AMERICAN SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 1976-2000, Astro-Computing
Service, San Diego, CA, 1981.
* THE AMERICAN SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS 2001-2025, Astro-Computing
Service, San Diego, CA, 1981.
Mike Magee, TANTRIC ASTROLOGY: A MANUAL OF SIDEREAL
ASTROLOGY, Sothis Publishing, United Kingdom, 1995.
OMEGA SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS, 1970 through 1980 (individual
years), Omega Associates, Chicago, IL.
Richard J. Ostrander: S.C.A.S.A. NEWSLETTERS #1-43, W.S.A.
RESEARCH, Yucaipa, CA., 1987-1991.
Carl Stahl, Solunar Research Publications, Bay City, MI:
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS FOR 1914
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIS FOR 1919
* STAHL'S SIDEREAL EPHEMERIDE FOR 1960 - 1969 (individual years)
* STAHL'S OCTOSCOPE TABLE OF HOUSES
* STAHL'S TABLES OF ASCENSIONAL DIFFERENCES
* STAHL-ALLEN EPHEMERIS OF THE SYNETIC VERNAL POINT (1881 - 2000)
* THOUGHTS ON SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, 1973.
* SOLUNAR RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS NEWSLETTER, Bay City, MI,
(?) 1973- (?) 1975.
* BEGINNER'S MANUAL OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY:
* BOOK I: INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP CHARTS, 1963, and revised
1969 with corrected S.V.P.
* BOOK II: NATAL INTERPRETATION, 1973.
* BOOK III: PROGRESSIONS, 1976.
Peter Stapleton:
* SIDEREAL TABLE OF HOUSES, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA,
1976.
* SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA, 197?
* TRANSITS FOR EVERYDAY LIVING, La Casa Publications,
Monrovia, CA, 197?
* INSTANT ASTROLOGER, La Casa Publications, Monrovia, CA, 197?
Karen Wilkerson, Joan G. Piszek, James A. Eshelman, Editors:
* THE REGISTRY OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGERS, ROSA, Placentia, CA, 1975
[ROSA Founders & Directors: Joan G. Piszek & Karen Wilkerson;
Financial Manager, Stanley R. Piszek;
Ambassadors: Arthur H. Blackwell, Carol Lynne Conrad, Phyllis J.
Kneip, John Mazurek, Carl Stahl;
Consultants: Richard Adler, David Bennett, Kay M. Cavender,
Robert C. Donat, James Eshelman, Larry Herring, James Hynes, Hugh
Jeffcoat, K. M. Kharagat, Thomas Kushner, Frances Littlejohn,
Alexander Marr, Richard Murakami, Bob Paige, Willard Robinson,
Peter Stapleton, Tom Stanton, Frances Stearns.]
John Van Zandt, WORLD SIDEREAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
NEWSLETTER, Highland Park, MI., Sept 1982 - June 1988 (20 issues)
* * * *
OTHER HELPFUL SOURCES:
Richard Hinckley Allen, STAR NAMES THEIR LORE AND MEANING,
Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY, 1963. (First published in
1899)
Vivian E. Robson BSc, THE FIXED STARS & CONSTELLATIONS IN
ASTROLOGY, Aquarian Press, London, 1969. (First published 1923)
* * * *
BOOKS PUBLISHED IN FRENCH:
Maurice Nouvel, LE VRAI ZODIAQUE EST SIDERAL. PARDES. 1991.
(Statistics comparing the two zodiacs).
Maurice Nouvel, LA STATISTIQUE AU SECOURS DE L'ASTROLOGIE.
(Statistics)
Denis Laboure, INITIATION A L'ASTROLOGIE SIDERALE. PARDES.
1986 (Textbook in the Fagan lineage).
Denis Laboure et Chantal Etienne, PREDIRE PAR LES REVOLUTIONS
SOLAIRES ET LUNAIRES. PARDES. 1988. (Sidereal solar and lunar
returns).
Atalane, LES NOEUDS DE LA LUNE, CLEF DE L'INTERPRETATION
ASTROLOGIQUE. LE ROCHER. 1987. (Reading the Moon's nodes in the
sidereal zodiac).
Wachsmuth, CIEL DE NAISSANCE ET CIEL DE MORT. TRIADES.
1976. Translated from German. (Comparison of the position of
planets in the birthchart and at the time of the death in the
sidereal framework. Anthroposophic style).
Jean Paul Besle, LA ROULETTE COSMIQUE. 1993. (Comparison of
the winning numbers at the national "loto" for 16 years and the
astrological positions at the time of the "tirage").
Dorsan, RETOUR AU ZODIAQUE DES ETOILES. DERVY. 1980.
(Popular presentation of the sidereal zodiac to the astrological
world)
* * * *
For the following Sidereal magazines, THE CONSTELLATIONS and THE SIDEREALIST, the authors listed were those who contributed more than once as specifically Sidereal Astrology writers in order
to keep the list manageable. Should anyone want to contribute a complete list of specifically SZ writers in alphabetic order, which means reading all the essays, I should be very glad to add them.
THE CONSTELLATIONS (Quarterly), Joan Piszek and Karen Wilkerson, Editors, Registry of Sidereal Astrology (ROSA), Monrovia, CA, 6 issues: Vol. 1, No. 1 (August 1975) through Nos. 9 & 10 combined (Fall 1977).
Writers: Anna-Kria, David Bennett, Arthur Blackwell, Jeri Blake, Jonnie Drapier, Gary Duncan, James A. Eshelman, John Hammelton, Andrew B. Howard (aka James A. Eshelman), James Hynes, K. M. Kharagat, Gene Lockhart, Rick Manning, John Mazurek, Don McIntosh, J. Paul Morris, Buz Overbeck, Joan Piszek, Willard Robinson, Carl Stahl, Peter Stapleton, James Valliere, John Van Zandt, Karen Wilkerson, Charles Zemont.
THE SIDEREALIST (Quarterly)., Norman Wm. Bones, Editor, Sidereal Registry and Exchange, Endwell, NY, Jan 1979 Vol. 1, No. 1 through Vol. 2, No. 2 in 1982 (6 issues).
Writers: Anna-Kria, Jeri Blake, Norman Wm. Bones, Kenneth Bowser, Lee Chapman, Sue Clay, James A. Eshelman, Robert Hurst Granite (aka Bert Bliss), Wilford H. Graves Jr., David Henry, Roscoe Hope (aka Paul Schure), James Hynes, William James, Royale Jills, Alexander Marr, Margaret Millard M.D., Buz Overbeck, Farrel L. Pyle, Carl Stahl, Teresa Weed, Thomas E. Wilson.
SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY (Quarterly), Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Editor and Publisher; Mary Austin, Assistant Editor; London, October 1961-October 1974.
1960s Writers: Mary Austin, Helen Boyd, Esther Cleps, Cyril Fagan, Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, Martin Harvey, Sri Rajagopala Iyer, Roger Jacobson, Chester Kemp, K. M. Kharagat, Frances Littlejohn, M.D. Monroe Mackenzie, Dorothy Mang-Lopez, Alexander Marr, Ella McMurray, Clifford L. Miller, Richard Murakami, Alfred Musselwhite, B. Neuman, Tom Oshta, Rick Ostrander, Robert W. Schefke, Carl Stahl, George Whitworth.
1970s Writers: Mary Austin, Arthur Blackwell, Helen Boyd, Kay Cavender, Esther Cleps, G.D. Crawford, Robert Donath, James A. Eshelman, Cyril Fagan, Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, James Hynes, Chester Kemp, Barbara Herbert-Holmes, K. M. Kharagat, Thomas Kushner, Frances Littlejohn, Alexander Marr, Margaret Millard M.D., Richard Murakami, Tom Oshta, James Valliere, Marsha Valliere, David E. Whorten MAFA, Paul Cranfield Wing, Daman Xavier MAFA.
SPICA, A REVIEW OF SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY, Editors Karen Wilkerson and Joan G. Piszek, Nerak Enterprises, Orange, CA, Two Issues: October 1975 and January 1976.
Writers: Mary Austin, Robert C. Donat, Gary Duncan, James A. Eshelman, Barbara A. Jordison, Alexander Marr, Stella Mooney, Joan Piszek, J. E. Sunley, Karen Wilkerson.
* * * *
Sidereal Astrology Writers who contributed essays and/or
columns in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY MAGAZINE for the following decades.
Names in capital letters indicate continuous columns. Those who
sent letters to "Many Things" are regrettably not listed even
though some letters could have been featured as essays.
1950s: GARTH ALLEN, CYRIL FAGAN, Rupert Gleadow, Sri
Rajagopala Iyer, RICHARD MURAKAMI (Research Mathematican for "Many
Things"), G.C. Nixon, Rona de Thyge.
1960s: GARTH ALLEN, I. COWLEY, CYRIL FAGAN, Brigadier Roy C.
Firebrace, Rupert Gleadow, Sri Rajagopala Iyer, RICHARD MURAKAMI
(Research Mathematician for "Many Things"), A. Musselwhite, Rona
de Thyge.
1970s: Paul Albertson, GARTH ALLEN, Arthur Blackwell, David
Bennett, Jeri Blake, LEE CHAPMAN, I. COWLEY, James A. Eshelman,
CYRIL FAGAN, Rupert Gleadow, James Jason Frances, David Henry,
Roscoe Hope, KENNETH IRVING, John Kahila, P.P. Ketan, FRANCIS
LITTLEJOHN, GENE LOCKHARD, Margaret Millard M.D., Dr. William R.
Nethercut, Rick Ostrander, Farrel L. Pyle, L. NORMAN SMITH, N.
Smythe, Gloria Woodcock.
1980s: Arthur Blackwell, KEN BOWSER, LEE CHAPMAN, GARY
DUNCAN, James A. Eshelman, Bert Fannin, James Jason Francis,
I. Galleher, David Henry, Roscoe Hope, KENNETH IRVING, Caroline
Mattingly, Rick Ostrander, Farrel Pyle.
1990s: Robert Baumgartner, Ken Bowser, LEE CHAPMAN, Joan B.
Layne, Gary Noel, Rick Ostrander, VIVIAN QUICK.
[Kenneth Bowser & Bert Fannin have also written for The
Mountain Astrologer.]
**************
SZ ARCHIVES: An attempt to accumulate, document, and
preserve beginning writings in Sidereal Astrology both in Ireland
and the United States is being organized as the Cyril Fagan
Archive in Ireland and the Sidereal Astrology Archive in the USA;
both groups will share information on and writing by Cyril Fagan.
Any information and books to help put together the early concepts
and history will be greatly appreciated.
The CYRIL FAGAN ARCHIVE is being organized in Ireland by Bill
Sheeran, Editor of REALTA, Irish Astrological Association.
Documentation and contributions of Cyril Fagan's writings or
correspondence would be greatly appreciated, as well as specific
biographical information on Cyril Fagan.
THE CYRIL FAGAN ARCHIVE
c/o Bill Sheeran
The Liffey Arts Research Center
Victoria Bridge
Naas
Co. Kildare
Ireland
Email: [larc@iol.ie]
Similarly in the United States, THE SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY
ARCHIVE, USA is being organized by Ken Bowser. Documentation and
contributions of any Sidereal Astrology writing as well as
information on any authors will be gratefully accepted.
THE SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY ARCHIVE, USA
c/o Ken Bowser,
Email: [KBOWSER@delphi.com]
***************
Compiled by Kay Cavender
Copyright 1998 Jack S. Contreras.
Used by Permission of Jack S. Contreras.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
This introduction to file [FIRST] in the archive Sidereal.zip includes a chronology of publishing "firsts" in Sidereal Astrology, especially by Cyril Fagan, the founder of modern Western Sidereal Astrology. This reflects an attempt to document and collect beginning writings in Sidereal Astrology.
SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY PUBLISHING "FIRSTS"
On FEBRUARY 17, 1944, Cyril Fagan first accepted the truth of Sidereal Astrology and within a week 'invented' the Sidereal Lunar Return, as reported by Brigadier R. C. Firebrace in his "Farewell
to Cyril Fagan," April 1970 SPICA. On APRIL 30, 1944, Fagan reported he first accepted the Sidereal Solar Return (viz. Fagan, April 1968 Spica). In 1947, possibly July*, Cyril Fagan first published on the Sidereal Zodiac in the USA in his 10 part series "THE INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS OF ASTROLOGY" in the AFA BULLETIN under editorship of Ernest Grant, the founder and first president of the AFA. In this series, Fagan announced the star constellation origin of the zodiac, as well as championing the
solar and lunar returns in the Sidereal Zodiac. By the time of this series, he considered the Sidereal origins of the zodiac a fact accomplished, and his focus was on sorting out delineation techniques.
[*The AFA has recently verified that August 1947 AFA Bulletin has Part 2 of Fagan's 10 part series "The Incidents and Accidents of Astrology" wherein Fagan first published on the SZ in the USA.
This implies that "Part 1" (if published consecutively, without division) would have been in the JULY 18, 1947 issue. Because the AFA Bulletins were published on the lunation (new moon), by pushing the envelope one might further infer a time of 04:15 AM GMT when the Sun and Moon were conjunct in Sidereal 00CAN42' which could be cast for Fagan's birth and location Dublin 6w15 53n21, as
well as for Washington D.C. where the American Federation of Astrologers was then located. [U.S. Capitol is 77w00'35.7" and 38n53'20.4"]
In 1947, Fagan also produced the first research paper for the AFA, Research Bulletin #1, "THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HOUSE DIVISION." Cyril Fagan also published the first Sidereal Ephemerides, 1947
and 1948.
There were 3 years between 1944 and 1947, and Fagan was a prolific thinker and writer at his peak. Because Fagan often published simultaneously in several places, he likely published abroad in Europe and India on the Sidereal Zodiac before 1947. In Part 9, June 7, 1948 of his 10 part AFA BULLETIN series, Fagan refers to a letter from Rupert Gleadow dated February 19, 1947, congratulating him on Part 8 "on the magnificent mystery revolution No. V (one of CF's mystery Solars or Lunars) which is terrific." Thus Fagan was already circulating the transcript well before it saw its first American publication in the (possibly *July 18) 1947 AFA Bulletin.
In JULY 1950 American Astrology, in the first essay therein on Sidereal Astrology, Rupert Gleadow refers to his own publication in (the then defunct) October 1948 "ASTROLOGICAL BULLETIN" of Bournemouth, England about a month before the American Presidential election, wherein Gleadow said he made a "completely categoric prediction" on the basis of the Solar Returns for President Truman's election. Fagan may have published in the same above source as Gleadow, or Dr. B. V. Raman's THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE in India, or others. For instance, WORLD ASTROLOGY, June
1940, Vol.4, No. 6, on its title page lists "Cyril Fagan, President, Irish Astrological Society, Dublin, Ireland" as one of the Board of Advisory Editors. These sources are not readily available in the United States but might be located abroad.
However, most probably Fagan would have published something in the prestigious Theosophical Society in Dublin, out of which he founded the Irish Astrological Society in 1922, and which (T.S.)
was the premises for the IAS meetings. The IAS was supported by his friend William Butler Yeats, Nobel Poet Laureate. Fagan said that he "taught Yeats astrology in his living room."
Fagan said to me with Pauline in the room smiling and agreeing with him, that on MAY 14, 1949, he made his greatest discovery--that of the origins of the HYPSOMATA or Exaltation degrees while dancing with his wife Pauline. One might suppose the time was evening. In 1950 Fagan published ZODIACS OLD AND NEW with his discoveries in archaeoastronomy, especially of the Exaltation origins as recorded in 786 B.C. in Babylon under Assyria. There was both an English and an American publication of ZODIACS, with additional text in the American publication. During this time he lived in Dublin. Notably Fagan also received recognition for this work presented to, I believe he said, the
Royal Society and British Academy in London.
In AUGUST 1950 American Astrology, Rupert Gleadow published a most lucid essay "THE ZODIAC IN THE ANCIENT WORLD" (below) on the origins of the 'first' astrology as anchored to the stars, not to
the equinoxes. Gleadow was a history and language scholar who translated from original sources in classical Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Gleadow's was the first actual 'first' essay in American Astrology (JULY 1950) on Sidereal Astrology and was entitled "How To Predict--The Sidereal Method of the Ancients" on the superior use of the Sidereal Solar Return with presidential elections and President Truman.
The same July 1950 issue of American Astrology "Many Things" column included Fagan's letter on Solar Returns [see file SOLAR100] dated May 21, 1950, titled "Solar Revolution." Fagan used the same quote in this letter also in the earlier 1947-8 AFA series. However, after this time Fagan had a correspondence for several months with the Editor of American Astrology "too voluminous to include" as to the validity of the Sidereal Zodiac, some of which as reported in the column "Many Things" beginning in January 1951. Fagan convinced Editor Clancy.
Another major siderealist, Donald Bradley, or Garth Allen as he was known astrologically, who was Research Director of The Llewellyn Foundation for Astrological Research in Los Angeles, was also convinced before 1950 of the efficacy of the Sidereal Zodiac. Gary Duncan was an associate of Bradley's and collaborated with him on the research for Bradley/Allen's PROFESSION AND BIRTHDATE,
A Statistical Analysis of Planetary Positions At The Birthdates of 2492 Eminent Clergyman. According to Gary Duncan's "Some Historical Notes" in the first CONSTELLATIONS of August 1975, they worked on the data for some three years prior to that time, and they had approached that data scientifically as statisticians. Duncan says that it was due to their work with the clergy's birthdata that they were forced to realize the Tropical Zodiac was not significant statistically. "It came as a shock, however, when the initial data reduction of the solar longitudes showed no preference for the Tropical signs of Sagittarius or Pisces. And, when the Chi-square test showed that the Tropical coordinate system lacked the strength of several other choices...we knew our thinking needed to be re-examined. Certainly the works of Fagan were well known to us both at that time, but it was not until the statistical results of the clergyman study were known that Bradley and I were faced with making a revolutionary change in our fundamental methods." Duncan says that they had also corresponded
with Fagan. Duncan's essay is included in Sidereal.zip, file [AYANAMSA].
Donald Bradley's SOLAR AND LUNAR RETURNS was also published in 1950, which included a complete ephemeris of the Vernal Point 1849 to 1960 and incorporated Fagan's concepts with respect to the Solar and Lunar Returns in the Sidereal Zodiac. This astrological treatise was significant for many reasons, but one of them was Bradley's very clear focus on LOCALITY ANGLES AND CHARTS. By page 14, Bradley says, "All transits are referred to the nativity equated to the locality rather than to the birthplace, unless no change of residence or position has taken place." This book prominently featured examples of events indicated as significant because of the locality angles, which became a staple of Western Sidereal Astrology. (Bradley as Garth Allen wrote for nearly 20 years for American Astrology as well.)
Brigadier R. C. Firebrace in London followed suit with the locality angles in his research reported in SPICA. In Volume 1, No. 2, JANUARY 1962 SPICA, Editor Firebrace presented an essay on "The Capricorn Ingress" which featured a world map showing where the planets were angular over the whole world, with the planetary Meridians in drawn blue (MC-IC), and the planetary Horizons drawn
in red (Ascendant-Descendant). This locality map was drawn by and had a copyright by Mary Austin, the Associate Editor of SPICA, and was the first sidereal publication of a world map showing locality angles.
Gary Duncan, an important statistical research astrologer of this century and an associate of Garth Allen, became convinced of the validity of the Sidereal Zodiac because of his statistical research. According to a memorial essay by Michael Erlewine On Matrix Space website, Duncan helped develop "advanced lunar equations used by NASA for space work while working at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena" and he was proud "that he was the first astrologer to produce astro-geography maps on a computer in the 1950's." Duncan's astro-geography maps were later published in Llewellyn's MOON SIGN BOOK in 1966. According to Duncan's essay "Some Historical Notes" published in the first issue of R.O.S.A.'s CONSTELLATIONS, August 1975, he supplied the Synodic Ephemeris used by Donald Bradley/Garth Allen and his co-workers on rainfall research.
Tropicalist Jim Lewis, who in 1975 created the computer service Astro*Carto*Graphy to show where natal planets were angular over the whole world, studied with Donald A. Bradley and dedicated his book in 1976 on angular planets called ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY to Bradley. Lewis' work on Astro*Carto*Graphy earned him the Marc Edmund Jones Award for the outstanding contribution to astrology, but the concept came from siderealists and was first used by siderealists.
In JULY 1953 American Astrology, Cyril Fagan's first essay in his 17 year "SOLUNARS" series (below) dealt with Tropical vs. Sidereal Solunars again in terms of "the incidents and accidents of astrology," the same theme as his first SZ series. This first "Solunars" essay was a reprint from 1953 issue Annual Number of The Astrological Magazine of Bangalore, India, as were the next three issues of "Solunars," September through November 1953. August 1953 was the only skipped issue of 200 consecutive "Solunars" from July 1953 through March 1970, nearly 17 years.
(Fagan's very first essay in American Astrology on "The Horoscope of Jesus Christ" was published in April 1953, as republished from its precursor, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ASTROLOGY, Winter Issue, 1937. In his essay, Christ's chart was in the Tropical Zodiac framework, which was then off only a few degrees from the Sidereal Zodiac. Subtracting SPICA's positions as calculated by Fagan for then--25VIRGO55', from now--29VIRGO06' with Garth Allen's 06'05" SVP correction, gives 3°11' difference
in the zodiacs for Christ's time, which difference did not exist for the ancients since their astrology was sidereal. Another extraordinary research paper by Fagan titled "THE EMPEROR NERO" was published before the above in 1936 Autumn Edition of The American Journal of Astrology, and was of course then also in the Tropical measurement of the zodiac.
One might say that the first SOLUNARS essays written 'specifically' for American Astrology were in December 1953 and January 1954; these were rewritten from Fagan's ZODIACS OLD AND NEW. The topic was Fagan's identification of 'first' ancient calendar dates which are dependent on reading the ancient Egyptian decans as PENTADS (as 5 day divisions, another of CF's significant discoveries). These FIRST calendar dates were:
the HARAKHTE EPOCH, for the moment of Spica's heliacal rising
at Heliopolis (later determined to occur not in September, but)
on July 15, 3130 B.C., which was New Year's Day of The Ancients;
and the SOTHIC EPOCH, July 16 (O.S.) 2767 B.C., the horoscope
for the moment of Sirius' heliacal rising at Heliopolis, New Year's Day.
Fagan also published the January 1954 SOLUNARS issue on the Sothic Cycle simultaneously in Professor B.V. Raman's ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, Bangalore, India under the title "The Most Ancient
Horoscope in the World." (viz. Fagan, "Solunars," 7/1969 A.A.).
Of the latter SOTHIC EPOCH, Fagan says (in 7/1969 American Astrology under the heading "Tomb of Imhotep") that this beginning of the Sothic Cycle is enshrined as the World's Most Ancient
Horoscope (another 'first'): "Inscribed in hieroglyphic characters on the walls of Egyptian death chambers a mysterious chart of the heavens was frequently found....Many such were found in royal tombs and in those of high officials of different dynasties. Although differing in decorative details all copies were essentially the same....In short, they were copies of the horoscope for the beginning of a Sothic Cycle (Sothis, Greek for Sirius)....Styling copies of the diagrams as "Charts of Eternity"
and deeming them to have magical properties, the Egyptians inscribed them on tomb walls as talismans to insure for the deceased an eternity of happiness in the afterworld." These topics are also presented in Fagan's posthumous 1971 ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS.
It should be noted also that Fagan also wrote another unique series under the name I. COWLEY in American Astrology (February 1966 - March 1970) using the Lunar Return on "THE PRESIDENT'S
OUTLOOK." Brigadier R. C. Firebrace credited Fagan with 'inventing' the Lunar Return. In April 1978 SPICA, Fagan specifically addressed the modus operandi of "Interpreting The Lunar Return." As examples of key points he emphasized on the Lunar, Fagan says, "Moreover as the chart is purely mundane in character, zodiacal (ecliptical) aspects do not apply in it at all. But as the mundane conjunction and opposition more or less tally with their zodiacal counterparts, these latter may be taken into consideration as well as the zodiacal square when it approximates in value to its mundane equivalent." "As the Moon is the prime significator in the Solar Return so is the Sun the prime
significator in the Lunar Return. Close mundane aspects of the current (transiting) planets to the Sun should be considered as being angular."
Concerning astrological references to Fagan's life, the October 1956 "MANY THINGS" column in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY consisted of Fagan's responses to questions. These include several of the
few specific references about Fagan by Fagan in American Astrology. Regarding the founding of the Irish Astrological Society in 1922 and later of his acceptance of the Sidereal Zodiac in 1944, he says, "...for in regard to transits to the Midheaven and Ascendant, transits 'in mundo' are alone valid. When in 1922 Uranus transited in opposition to my natal Ascendant, the IRISH ASTROLOGICAL SOCIETY was founded, and I had the honor to be elected its first president; and the transit of Uranus over my Midheaven in 1944 synchronized with the discovery of the ancient Egypto-Babylonian zodiac...." (Regarding the inauguration of the Irish Astrological Society, in his 8/1966 "Solunars," Fagan mentions the inauguration date as February 7, 1922, apparent noon at Dublin.)
Also in October 1956 "MANY THINGS," in regard to his beginning experience with astrology in 1916, and referring to his prophecy (14 years ahead of time) made at the IAS in 1923 regarding who would be crowned king, Fagan says: "...The effects of the fixed stars that compose the constellations may be considered statically, because they are relatively static; but to comprehend the influences of the planets, they must be thought of in terms that rightly apply to them, namely dynamically. They signify processes, movement, action, challenge and response, the mutations of consciousness that "...arise and pass away..." Thus Venus signifies the movement of affection, Mars of passion, Neptune of entrancement and so forth. My experience, which dates from the beginning of 1916, when E.S.C. [author of the letter to whom Fagan was responding] was still an infant in arms, demonstrated to me that directions to the conjunction, square or opposition of Jupiter synchronized with increased status, honors, emoluments, distinctions, the winning of prizes, the conferring of academic degrees and the like, precisely as taught by the ancient masters; but I cannot recall a single case where they tallied with distant travel, unless directions to the Moon were also involved. The prophecy made at a public lecture, held in September 1923, under the auspices of the Irish Astrological Society, with the late Dr. W. B. Yeats (Nobel Prize) in the chair, that the, then, Duke of
York would be crowned King of England in the summer of 1937, was based on the direction of the Sun to the opposition of Jupiter retrograde."
* * * * *
Included in this file [FIRST], Rupert Gleadow's 1950 and Cyril Fagan's 1953 "first" essays in AMERICAN ASTROLOGY, respectively on star constellation origins and on Solunars, are still interesting
and instructive. Many of the delineation ideas which were clarified and should have been discarded are still with us--"good and bad" aspects, signs and their element associations, horary house rulerships, etc.
One primary question about Fagan's thinking: besides the
Solunars (Solar and Lunar Returns) as predictive tools, what
particular issue "FIRST" convinced Fagan of the validity of the
Sidereal Zodiac? A subject dealt with in Fagan's first series in
the 1947-8 AFA BULLETIN suggests itself. PART 8 of "The INCIDENTS
AND ACCIDENTS OF ASTROLOGY" deals with and is titled "THE
AYANAMSHA." Fagan's beginning definition: "Ayanamsha, i.e., the
number of degrees of the ecliptic that separate the regressing
vernal equinox from the first point of ASVINI--the first asterism
of the Hindu Zodiac--at any given time." According to his
references, Fagan had been intensively researching this topic
about the same time as he accepted the Sidereal zodiac. For
example, in Part 8 of his first SZ series, Fagan has a specific
reference to Robert DeLuce's article in the "APRIL 1944" AFA
Bulletin also titled "Ayanamsha" for the calculation of the
Ayanamsha due to Spica's (Alpha Virginis) vs. Revati's (Zeta
Piscium) ecliptic position.
Fagan's Part 8: "THE AYANAMSHA" is below. Also below, Fagan's
later 1952 AFA essay "THE AQUARIAN AGE" adds significant
conclusions to the argument over the marking place of the Hindu
lunar asterisms. One may suppose in a general way that in
addition to precession, every other answer in Sidereal Astrology
involves SPICA.
See also related files [WHAT_AGE] and [AYANAMSA]. The issue
is--precession--a matter of astronomical fact.
* * * * * *
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Taurus
[TAURUS] Below, see sections from Cyril Fagan's ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS
and ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for historical information on the original
Egyptian zodiac to distinquish between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
EXCERPTS on STAR CONSTELLATION TAURUS
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Stella Dominatrix"
...The remarkable thing to note about these lunar mansions is that in
remote antiquity the Arabic and Indian versions commenced with the
asterism of Pleiades at the beginning of the constellation TAURUS,
while the Chinese began with Spica. Thus the Arabic manzils began with
Al Thurayya, "The Many Little Ones," the Hindu nakshatras with
Krittika, "General of Celestial Armies," while the Chinese sieux
commenced with Kio, "The Spike" or Spica. It would appear that at a
later date the Chinese sieux commenced with Mao, "The Constellation,"
which was their asterism for the Pleiades (vide R.H. Allen: Star Names
and Vivian Robson: The Fixed Stars and Constellations.)
These asterisms were immediately followed by the manzil AL Dabaran
an Arabic word that mean "The Follower." But Professor S. Langdon
demurs. He writes, "...al-dabaranu surely means 'the writer' or 'the
forecaster; and not 'the one who follows after,' the meaning commonly
given in English lexicons 'because it follows the Pleiades' i.e., rises
after Pleiades" and refers to the fact that in the Cuneiform Tablets in
the British Museum, Aldebaran is styled isu li-e, Star of the Tablet.
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, 1935)
As already stated, Garth Allen's decisive and historical
determination of the mean sidereal longitude of the vernal point for
the epoch 1950.0 puts Adebaran, for the epoch 786 B.C., the year of the
Hyposomata, in the precise mathematical center of the constellation
TAURUS, and Antares almost in the precise mathematical center of the
opposite constellation Scorpio (actually 15deg02'). Both stars are of
the first magnitude and ecliptically they are in partile opposition to
one another. The Arabs called Aldebaran 'Ain al Thaur, the Greeks
'Omma Boos and the Romans Oculus Tauri, all meaning "the Bull's Eye."
In the Greco-Roman star atlases (c.600 B.C.) only the bull's head and
forelegs are depicted, thus putting the Bull's Eye in the dead center
of that constellation. To this day the expression "Bull's Eye" means
the mathematical center. In the Egyptian Celestial Diagrams, as they
are called, of the New Empire (c.1500-1200 B.C.), it was usual for the
scribes to represent the star by five-pointed devices classified as
determinatives, but in one of the Ramesside diagrams Aldebaran is shown
as an eight-pointed star of unusual proportions. In the classical
period it was known to the Romans as Stella Dominatrix, "The Master
Star," not because of its brilliance--Sirius and Canopus far outshone
it--but because, in Taurus 15 00' 00", it became the master key star of
the zodiac; otherwise known as the zodiac's master fiducial,
determinative, or marking star. In antiquity all ecliptical longitudes
were measured from it or from its opposite, Antares in Scorpio, and its
position shows that the oldest and hence authentic zodiac began with
Taurus 0deg00', at the beginning of the asterism which contained the
Pleiades....
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Bull's Eye Astrology"
Assuming that Aldebaran in the mathematical center of the
constellation Taurus was the original and hence authentic determinant
of the sidereal zodiac, then calculation discloses that the mean vernal
point retrograded into the 30th degree of this constellation in April
4152 B.C. when, theoretically, the Taurean Age began. By an
astonishing coincidence it almost simultaneously came to the precise
conjunction with Gamma Tauri, a star of the third magnitude, at the tip
of the Bull's South Horn. This star was known to the Chinese by the
suggestive title Tien Kwan, the "Heavenly Gate," and to the Arabs as Al
Hecka the "Driver." The actual date of the conjunction was 4151 B.C.,
and hence there was just a year between the two phenomena, which is
remarkably close. Slowly retreating through that constellation, the
vernal equinoctial point, forming its ecliptic conjunction with
Aldebaran itself in 3058 B.C., did not leave it until 1955 B.C. when it
entered the 30th degree of Aries....But the great point to note and
remember is that during the first two thousand years or so of recorded
history, when the vernal equinox was receding through it, Taurus was
the first of the zodiacal constellations and Aries the last!.... among
the Romans of the Aries age (1955 B.C. to 221 A.D.) when the vernal
point was gliding backwards through that constellation, Taurus was
still hailed as Princeps armenti or leader of the zodiacal herd!
* * *
[NOTE: Above, in ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Fagan talks of the key
constellation marking stars as the empirical standard; and particularly
he talks of earliest records of the the star "Bull's Eye" in the exact
middle of Taurus, which was the "zodiacal leader" of the constellations
when the equinoxes occurred in Taurus. Earliest "recorded" history
from which we have evidence comes from this equinoctial epoch, the
Taurean Age. Of course, there were many key stars throughout the whole
heavenly sphere, which had different associations. Please see
following sections from Cyril Fagan's earlier ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for
historical information on the original Egyptian zodiac to distinquish
between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, 1951
"The Premier constellation"
[P. 29] Because the new-moon of Nisan, which commenced the New
Year, was seen among the stars of Aries from B.C. 2000 to early
Christian times, this constellation was assumed to be the first of the
twelve. But this was not always the case. For some 2000 years prior
to this, the Neomenia appeared among the stars of Taurus when it was
considered as the premier constellation. It was during this Taurean
era that the Kali-Yuga commenced. Then the nakshatra (Hindu lunar
mansion) Kritika, having the Pleiades (Taurus 5 degrees) as its
yogatara (chief star) was the first of the 28 lunar asterisms. But
when the Neomenia fell in the beginning of Aries the nakshatra Asvini
with Sharatan (Aries 9 degrees) as its yogatara, became the leader.
Since the beginning of the Christian era the Neomenia, or new-moon
of Easter (crescent), has been falling in the constellation Pisces, and
will continue to do so for another 500 years. HENCE PISCES IS NOW THE
LEADING CONSTELLATION. About A.D. 2369 the spring-point will recede
into the end of Aquarius when the Aquarian age will commence.
A similar situation existed in regard to Egyptian astronomy. The
native year, being one of 365 days, without any provision for the
intercalation of a leap-day, could not keep in step with either the
sidereal or tropical year, but receded one day (or one degree) in every
four years. In consequence the sidereal longitude of the sun on New
Year's Day (1st Thoth) changed constellations once every 118 or 120
years. In the year A.D. 17 when the Denderah zodiacs were designed,
the sun was in Leo on the 1st Thoth, so that the Lion was then
considered by the Egyptians as being the first of the constellations,
and it is so shown in the circular zodiac. But in 137 when the Esneh
calendar was framed, the sun was in Libra 5 on the 1st Thoth, hence
Libra was then considered the first of the constellations. (See O.
Neugebauer, Egyptian Planetary Texts, in transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, 32, 1942, p 246.) But Virgo was the leading
sign of the Esneh zodiacs, for in both it was the first to rise. This
fact is symbolised by the figure of a female sphinx having the head and
breasts of a woman (Virgo) and the hinderparts and tail of a lion (Leo)
denoting that the zodiac commenced with Virgo and ended with Leo. From
about 116 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era the Sun was in the
constellation Virgo on the 1st Thoth.
.... The vernal-equinox did not leave the constellation Taurus
until 1963 B.C. when it regressed into the 30th degree of the
constellation Aries (not coming to its beginning until 213 A.D.) BUT
THE MONUMENTS PRIOR TO THAT TIME SHOW THE ZODIAC TERMINATING WITH THE
MIDNIGHT CULMINATION OF SPICA AND BENETNASCH--"THE STRETCHED CORD"--
when the Sun was in the last degree of sidereal Pisces. The inclusion
of the ideogram for linking the final pentade (No 18) of the
constellation Pisces in the dekan-list from the IX and X Heracleopolite
dynasty coffin-lids (circa 2300 B.C.) ...[occurs] at least as early as
the Middle Empire.... Incidentally this confirms the sidereal origin
of the zodiac and shows that its initial point was determined quite
independently of "Aries 0 degrees" of the tropical zodiac....
[p. 15] In the famous Theban star-calendars of the Ramesside kings
(20th Dynasty) Arcturus and Spica form the constellation MENYET, the
"Mooring Peg," with the point or Spike in Spica. In all the celestial
diagrams from the XVIII dynasty down to Roman times that adorn the
inside of the Coffin lids or the ceilings of sarcophagi, Isis, the
mother of the gods, is shown as an erect female hippopatamus, styled
Hesamut, "Mother of the Cord." In her hands she holds Menyet, the
"Mooring Peg," to which is attached a cord stretching from Aka, the
"hoof" of Meskhetyew, the "Bull's Foreleg." This constellation is
identical with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is
Benetnasch (Eta Ursae Majoris). In B.C. 2791 Benetnasch and Spica
formed their conjunction in right ascension 9h. 18m. 32s., culminating
at apparent midnight on March 1st when the Sun entered the
constellation Sr.t (Seret) the "Sheep" (Aries). Benetnasch's
declination was then N 74D 54' and Spica's N 14D 19', a difference of
over 60 degrees, hence an arc of a great circle of the sphere passing
through them and produced in both directions divided the heavens into
two equal parts, cutting through Thuban (Alpha Draconis) THE THEN POLE
STAR, and at right angles to Sirius. According to the generally
accepted chronology this was the time of the IV dynasty, the age of
Sneferu, Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, the great pyramid-builders.
One of the most important ceremonies in the foundation of Egyptian
temples was known as Pedjeshes (Pedj--"to stretch," Shes--"a cord")
and it forms the subject of one of the chief monumental ornaments in
the temples of Abydos, Heliopolis, Denderah, and Edfu. The reigning
pharaoh and a priestess personifying Seshat, the goddess of writing,
proceeded to the site, each armed with a golden mallet and a PEG
connected by a cord to another PEG. Seshat having driven her peg home
at the previously prepared spot, the king directed his gaze to the
constellation of the Bull's Foreleg (this constellation is identical
with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is Benetnasch, Eta
Ursae majoris). Having aligned the cord to the "hoof" and Spica as
seen through the visor formed by Seshat's curious headdress, he raised
his mallet and drove the peg home, thus marking the position of the
axis of the future temple.
As a result of his review of Dr. Gunter-Martiny's work on the survey
of Assyrian sancturies, Professor P. V. Neugebauer, (Observatory at the
Rechen-Institut in Berlin-Dahlem), discovered that all Assyrian
Temples, from B.C. 2930 to B.C. 603, whose foundation dates were
recorded, were ORIENTED AT DAWN ON 1ST NISAN TO THE POINT OF
INTERSECTION WITH THE HORIZON OF A GREAT CIRCLE OF THE SPHERE, PASSING
THROUGH BENETNASCH AND SPICA, exactly the same circle that figures in
the Egyptian ceremony of the Pedjeshes. There can therefore be no
doubt that for the ancient peoples of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria,
Spica was their chief marking-star....
(p. 18) Spica in Libra 0d0' or in Virgo 29d0'
When I first discovered that Spica was the original fiducial or
marking star of the ancient zodiac, I naturally assumed that it was
placed diametrically opposite to the initial point of the zodiac, Aries
0.0 degrees, that is, in Libra 0D 0' (180 degrees) especially so as in
the Soma, Surya, Vriddha-Vasishta and Brahma siddhantas--the ancient
Sanscrit works on astronomy--the longitude of Chitra (Spica) is given
as 180 degrees--albeit these were expressed in polar longitudes.
The graph [not reprinted on wordprocessor] however, makes it clear
that the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians considered Spica as being in
Virgo 29.0 degrees and not in Libra 0.0 degrees. This accords better
with tradition which always associated the "Spike of Corn" as being in
the agricultural Virgo. Nowhere in the literature of antiquity is
Spica associated with Libra.
Oddly enough the Egyptians did not consider mnit (Menyet) the
"Mooring-Peg" as beginning the zodiac, BUT AS ENDING IT. Having
crossed the celestial Nile, the boats of the planetary gods were
brought to rest and moored to the "peg." The root mn (men) means "to
be at rest" "to be secure" "to be immovable" "to be motionless (as in
death)." The west was called Amentet, the "place of rest or death,"
"the hidden place," and the portal to the Duat or Underworld.
It is only necessary to deduct precisely one degree from all
longitudes computed from Spica in Libra 0.0 degrees to reduce them to
the hypsomatic zodiac (Spica in Virgo 29.0 degrees).
* * *
NOTE: Regarding the division of the star constellation zodiac into 4
quarters at 0 degrees LIBRA-ARIES and 0 degrees CANCER-CAPRICORN:
Fagan's ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, a study in archaeoastronomy written prior
to 1951, generally accords with Garth Allen's statistical work done
with CAPLUNARS (or the LUNAR CAPRICORN INGRESS) for earthquakes and
other disasters. Allen found a correction of 06'05" to be added to the
fiducial stars, thus correcting the sidereal framework by that
amount, as to the Spica fiducial at 29 Virgo, which gives 29VIR06'05"
See file called [APEX] for Cyril Fagan's 8/56 Essay called "Cosmic
Division" in his Solunars series in American Astrology. In that essay,
he makes reference to other of Garth Allen's statistic studies
validating the natural cosmic division of the star constellation zodiac
known to the Babylonians and Egyptians.
* * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
______________________________________________________________________
CYRIL FAGAN [May 22, 1896, Dublin, IRE., 12:25 pm = data given by
Pauline Fagan to Kay Cavender as the data Cyril used]
Fagan's biography from a bookcover: Born into a well-known medical
family in Dublin, Ireland, Cyril Fagan was educated at Belvedere and
Castleknock Colleges. Prevented from following in the family tradition
through almost totally impaired hearing since childhood, he turned his
acutely enquiring mind to other things, many and varied, finally
deciding to make the betterment of the subject he loved the most
astrology, his life's work.
Dissatisfied with all available material on the subject, he decided
to set out and find the answers for himself. He combed the libraries
of many of the capitals of Europe and soon concluded that a working
knowledge of astronomy and Egyptology was essential if the embryo of
astrology was to be unearthed. These he mastered alone as he had done
everything else. He has lived in many places over the years including
Wales, London, Spain, Morocco, and the USA, and has traveled throughout
most of Europe and some of Canada.
Works include Astrological Origins; Zodiacs, Old and New; A Primer
of Sidereal Astrology; Symbolism of the Constellations; and a monthly
contribution to American Astrology, "Solunars." See also articles in
American Astrology under his pseudonym, Ian Cowley.
Cyril Fagan was President/Founder of the Irish Astrological Society,
and a Fellow of the American Federation of Astrologers; a Fellow of the
Federation of British Astrologers; and a Komandoro of the Universal
Order of Antares (Trieste).
The most momentous and revolutionary astrological discovery of all
time was made in 1948 by Cyril Fagan, the well-known astrologer and
Egyptian scholar. He discovered that the historical exaltation degrees
of the zodiac originated in 786 B.C. and that all these degrees were
expressed in terms of the zodiac of the constellations and not of the
signs. This led him into a whole series of further discoveries which
are equally important to the archeologist, the chronologist, the
historian, and the astrologer.
First and foremost, he found that the so-called Egyptian decans were
in fact pentades or 5-day star groups, a discovery that immediately led
to the identification of most of them. He also solved the precise date
of the Inauguration of the famous Sothic Cycle as well as dating the
zodiacs of Esna and Denderah.
OTHER SIDEREALISTS:
RUPERT GLEADOW (data from inside of his book he autographed; and I
suspect MER culminates rather than SUN): 22 NOV 1909, 11:55 am,
Leicester, England.
BRIGADIER ROY C. FIREBRACE (publisher of SPICA, A SIDEREAL JOURNAL)
(sent to me by Brigadier Firebrace): 16 AUG 1889; 5:00 pm InterColonial
or Atlantic time (-4h 14' 20"); Halifax, Nova Scotia 63w35, 44n38'
GARTH ALLEN (Donald Bradley): (from American Astrology): 16 MAY
1925; 2:04 am CST; 40n21' 97w35' Nebraska
and ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for historical information on the original
Egyptian zodiac to distinquish between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
EXCERPTS on STAR CONSTELLATION TAURUS
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Stella Dominatrix"
...The remarkable thing to note about these lunar mansions is that in
remote antiquity the Arabic and Indian versions commenced with the
asterism of Pleiades at the beginning of the constellation TAURUS,
while the Chinese began with Spica. Thus the Arabic manzils began with
Al Thurayya, "The Many Little Ones," the Hindu nakshatras with
Krittika, "General of Celestial Armies," while the Chinese sieux
commenced with Kio, "The Spike" or Spica. It would appear that at a
later date the Chinese sieux commenced with Mao, "The Constellation,"
which was their asterism for the Pleiades (vide R.H. Allen: Star Names
and Vivian Robson: The Fixed Stars and Constellations.)
These asterisms were immediately followed by the manzil AL Dabaran
an Arabic word that mean "The Follower." But Professor S. Langdon
demurs. He writes, "...al-dabaranu surely means 'the writer' or 'the
forecaster; and not 'the one who follows after,' the meaning commonly
given in English lexicons 'because it follows the Pleiades' i.e., rises
after Pleiades" and refers to the fact that in the Cuneiform Tablets in
the British Museum, Aldebaran is styled isu li-e, Star of the Tablet.
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, 1935)
As already stated, Garth Allen's decisive and historical
determination of the mean sidereal longitude of the vernal point for
the epoch 1950.0 puts Adebaran, for the epoch 786 B.C., the year of the
Hyposomata, in the precise mathematical center of the constellation
TAURUS, and Antares almost in the precise mathematical center of the
opposite constellation Scorpio (actually 15deg02'). Both stars are of
the first magnitude and ecliptically they are in partile opposition to
one another. The Arabs called Aldebaran 'Ain al Thaur, the Greeks
'Omma Boos and the Romans Oculus Tauri, all meaning "the Bull's Eye."
In the Greco-Roman star atlases (c.600 B.C.) only the bull's head and
forelegs are depicted, thus putting the Bull's Eye in the dead center
of that constellation. To this day the expression "Bull's Eye" means
the mathematical center. In the Egyptian Celestial Diagrams, as they
are called, of the New Empire (c.1500-1200 B.C.), it was usual for the
scribes to represent the star by five-pointed devices classified as
determinatives, but in one of the Ramesside diagrams Aldebaran is shown
as an eight-pointed star of unusual proportions. In the classical
period it was known to the Romans as Stella Dominatrix, "The Master
Star," not because of its brilliance--Sirius and Canopus far outshone
it--but because, in Taurus 15 00' 00", it became the master key star of
the zodiac; otherwise known as the zodiac's master fiducial,
determinative, or marking star. In antiquity all ecliptical longitudes
were measured from it or from its opposite, Antares in Scorpio, and its
position shows that the oldest and hence authentic zodiac began with
Taurus 0deg00', at the beginning of the asterism which contained the
Pleiades....
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Bull's Eye Astrology"
Assuming that Aldebaran in the mathematical center of the
constellation Taurus was the original and hence authentic determinant
of the sidereal zodiac, then calculation discloses that the mean vernal
point retrograded into the 30th degree of this constellation in April
4152 B.C. when, theoretically, the Taurean Age began. By an
astonishing coincidence it almost simultaneously came to the precise
conjunction with Gamma Tauri, a star of the third magnitude, at the tip
of the Bull's South Horn. This star was known to the Chinese by the
suggestive title Tien Kwan, the "Heavenly Gate," and to the Arabs as Al
Hecka the "Driver." The actual date of the conjunction was 4151 B.C.,
and hence there was just a year between the two phenomena, which is
remarkably close. Slowly retreating through that constellation, the
vernal equinoctial point, forming its ecliptic conjunction with
Aldebaran itself in 3058 B.C., did not leave it until 1955 B.C. when it
entered the 30th degree of Aries....But the great point to note and
remember is that during the first two thousand years or so of recorded
history, when the vernal equinox was receding through it, Taurus was
the first of the zodiacal constellations and Aries the last!.... among
the Romans of the Aries age (1955 B.C. to 221 A.D.) when the vernal
point was gliding backwards through that constellation, Taurus was
still hailed as Princeps armenti or leader of the zodiacal herd!
* * *
[NOTE: Above, in ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Fagan talks of the key
constellation marking stars as the empirical standard; and particularly
he talks of earliest records of the the star "Bull's Eye" in the exact
middle of Taurus, which was the "zodiacal leader" of the constellations
when the equinoxes occurred in Taurus. Earliest "recorded" history
from which we have evidence comes from this equinoctial epoch, the
Taurean Age. Of course, there were many key stars throughout the whole
heavenly sphere, which had different associations. Please see
following sections from Cyril Fagan's earlier ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for
historical information on the original Egyptian zodiac to distinquish
between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, 1951
"The Premier constellation"
[P. 29] Because the new-moon of Nisan, which commenced the New
Year, was seen among the stars of Aries from B.C. 2000 to early
Christian times, this constellation was assumed to be the first of the
twelve. But this was not always the case. For some 2000 years prior
to this, the Neomenia appeared among the stars of Taurus when it was
considered as the premier constellation. It was during this Taurean
era that the Kali-Yuga commenced. Then the nakshatra (Hindu lunar
mansion) Kritika, having the Pleiades (Taurus 5 degrees) as its
yogatara (chief star) was the first of the 28 lunar asterisms. But
when the Neomenia fell in the beginning of Aries the nakshatra Asvini
with Sharatan (Aries 9 degrees) as its yogatara, became the leader.
Since the beginning of the Christian era the Neomenia, or new-moon
of Easter (crescent), has been falling in the constellation Pisces, and
will continue to do so for another 500 years. HENCE PISCES IS NOW THE
LEADING CONSTELLATION. About A.D. 2369 the spring-point will recede
into the end of Aquarius when the Aquarian age will commence.
A similar situation existed in regard to Egyptian astronomy. The
native year, being one of 365 days, without any provision for the
intercalation of a leap-day, could not keep in step with either the
sidereal or tropical year, but receded one day (or one degree) in every
four years. In consequence the sidereal longitude of the sun on New
Year's Day (1st Thoth) changed constellations once every 118 or 120
years. In the year A.D. 17 when the Denderah zodiacs were designed,
the sun was in Leo on the 1st Thoth, so that the Lion was then
considered by the Egyptians as being the first of the constellations,
and it is so shown in the circular zodiac. But in 137 when the Esneh
calendar was framed, the sun was in Libra 5 on the 1st Thoth, hence
Libra was then considered the first of the constellations. (See O.
Neugebauer, Egyptian Planetary Texts, in transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, 32, 1942, p 246.) But Virgo was the leading
sign of the Esneh zodiacs, for in both it was the first to rise. This
fact is symbolised by the figure of a female sphinx having the head and
breasts of a woman (Virgo) and the hinderparts and tail of a lion (Leo)
denoting that the zodiac commenced with Virgo and ended with Leo. From
about 116 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era the Sun was in the
constellation Virgo on the 1st Thoth.
.... The vernal-equinox did not leave the constellation Taurus
until 1963 B.C. when it regressed into the 30th degree of the
constellation Aries (not coming to its beginning until 213 A.D.) BUT
THE MONUMENTS PRIOR TO THAT TIME SHOW THE ZODIAC TERMINATING WITH THE
MIDNIGHT CULMINATION OF SPICA AND BENETNASCH--"THE STRETCHED CORD"--
when the Sun was in the last degree of sidereal Pisces. The inclusion
of the ideogram for linking the final pentade (No 18) of the
constellation Pisces in the dekan-list from the IX and X Heracleopolite
dynasty coffin-lids (circa 2300 B.C.) ...[occurs] at least as early as
the Middle Empire.... Incidentally this confirms the sidereal origin
of the zodiac and shows that its initial point was determined quite
independently of "Aries 0 degrees" of the tropical zodiac....
[p. 15] In the famous Theban star-calendars of the Ramesside kings
(20th Dynasty) Arcturus and Spica form the constellation MENYET, the
"Mooring Peg," with the point or Spike in Spica. In all the celestial
diagrams from the XVIII dynasty down to Roman times that adorn the
inside of the Coffin lids or the ceilings of sarcophagi, Isis, the
mother of the gods, is shown as an erect female hippopatamus, styled
Hesamut, "Mother of the Cord." In her hands she holds Menyet, the
"Mooring Peg," to which is attached a cord stretching from Aka, the
"hoof" of Meskhetyew, the "Bull's Foreleg." This constellation is
identical with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is
Benetnasch (Eta Ursae Majoris). In B.C. 2791 Benetnasch and Spica
formed their conjunction in right ascension 9h. 18m. 32s., culminating
at apparent midnight on March 1st when the Sun entered the
constellation Sr.t (Seret) the "Sheep" (Aries). Benetnasch's
declination was then N 74D 54' and Spica's N 14D 19', a difference of
over 60 degrees, hence an arc of a great circle of the sphere passing
through them and produced in both directions divided the heavens into
two equal parts, cutting through Thuban (Alpha Draconis) THE THEN POLE
STAR, and at right angles to Sirius. According to the generally
accepted chronology this was the time of the IV dynasty, the age of
Sneferu, Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, the great pyramid-builders.
One of the most important ceremonies in the foundation of Egyptian
temples was known as Pedjeshes (Pedj--"to stretch," Shes--"a cord")
and it forms the subject of one of the chief monumental ornaments in
the temples of Abydos, Heliopolis, Denderah, and Edfu. The reigning
pharaoh and a priestess personifying Seshat, the goddess of writing,
proceeded to the site, each armed with a golden mallet and a PEG
connected by a cord to another PEG. Seshat having driven her peg home
at the previously prepared spot, the king directed his gaze to the
constellation of the Bull's Foreleg (this constellation is identical
with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is Benetnasch, Eta
Ursae majoris). Having aligned the cord to the "hoof" and Spica as
seen through the visor formed by Seshat's curious headdress, he raised
his mallet and drove the peg home, thus marking the position of the
axis of the future temple.
As a result of his review of Dr. Gunter-Martiny's work on the survey
of Assyrian sancturies, Professor P. V. Neugebauer, (Observatory at the
Rechen-Institut in Berlin-Dahlem), discovered that all Assyrian
Temples, from B.C. 2930 to B.C. 603, whose foundation dates were
recorded, were ORIENTED AT DAWN ON 1ST NISAN TO THE POINT OF
INTERSECTION WITH THE HORIZON OF A GREAT CIRCLE OF THE SPHERE, PASSING
THROUGH BENETNASCH AND SPICA, exactly the same circle that figures in
the Egyptian ceremony of the Pedjeshes. There can therefore be no
doubt that for the ancient peoples of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria,
Spica was their chief marking-star....
(p. 18) Spica in Libra 0d0' or in Virgo 29d0'
When I first discovered that Spica was the original fiducial or
marking star of the ancient zodiac, I naturally assumed that it was
placed diametrically opposite to the initial point of the zodiac, Aries
0.0 degrees, that is, in Libra 0D 0' (180 degrees) especially so as in
the Soma, Surya, Vriddha-Vasishta and Brahma siddhantas--the ancient
Sanscrit works on astronomy--the longitude of Chitra (Spica) is given
as 180 degrees--albeit these were expressed in polar longitudes.
The graph [not reprinted on wordprocessor] however, makes it clear
that the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians considered Spica as being in
Virgo 29.0 degrees and not in Libra 0.0 degrees. This accords better
with tradition which always associated the "Spike of Corn" as being in
the agricultural Virgo. Nowhere in the literature of antiquity is
Spica associated with Libra.
Oddly enough the Egyptians did not consider mnit (Menyet) the
"Mooring-Peg" as beginning the zodiac, BUT AS ENDING IT. Having
crossed the celestial Nile, the boats of the planetary gods were
brought to rest and moored to the "peg." The root mn (men) means "to
be at rest" "to be secure" "to be immovable" "to be motionless (as in
death)." The west was called Amentet, the "place of rest or death,"
"the hidden place," and the portal to the Duat or Underworld.
It is only necessary to deduct precisely one degree from all
longitudes computed from Spica in Libra 0.0 degrees to reduce them to
the hypsomatic zodiac (Spica in Virgo 29.0 degrees).
* * *
NOTE: Regarding the division of the star constellation zodiac into 4
quarters at 0 degrees LIBRA-ARIES and 0 degrees CANCER-CAPRICORN:
Fagan's ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, a study in archaeoastronomy written prior
to 1951, generally accords with Garth Allen's statistical work done
with CAPLUNARS (or the LUNAR CAPRICORN INGRESS) for earthquakes and
other disasters. Allen found a correction of 06'05" to be added to the
fiducial stars, thus correcting the sidereal framework by that
amount, as to the Spica fiducial at 29 Virgo, which gives 29VIR06'05"
See file called [APEX] for Cyril Fagan's 8/56 Essay called "Cosmic
Division" in his Solunars series in American Astrology. In that essay,
he makes reference to other of Garth Allen's statistic studies
validating the natural cosmic division of the star constellation zodiac
known to the Babylonians and Egyptians.
* * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
______________________________________________________________________
CYRIL FAGAN [May 22, 1896, Dublin, IRE., 12:25 pm = data given by
Pauline Fagan to Kay Cavender as the data Cyril used]
Fagan's biography from a bookcover: Born into a well-known medical
family in Dublin, Ireland, Cyril Fagan was educated at Belvedere and
Castleknock Colleges. Prevented from following in the family tradition
through almost totally impaired hearing since childhood, he turned his
acutely enquiring mind to other things, many and varied, finally
deciding to make the betterment of the subject he loved the most
astrology, his life's work.
Dissatisfied with all available material on the subject, he decided
to set out and find the answers for himself. He combed the libraries
of many of the capitals of Europe and soon concluded that a working
knowledge of astronomy and Egyptology was essential if the embryo of
astrology was to be unearthed. These he mastered alone as he had done
everything else. He has lived in many places over the years including
Wales, London, Spain, Morocco, and the USA, and has traveled throughout
most of Europe and some of Canada.
Works include Astrological Origins; Zodiacs, Old and New; A Primer
of Sidereal Astrology; Symbolism of the Constellations; and a monthly
contribution to American Astrology, "Solunars." See also articles in
American Astrology under his pseudonym, Ian Cowley.
Cyril Fagan was President/Founder of the Irish Astrological Society,
and a Fellow of the American Federation of Astrologers; a Fellow of the
Federation of British Astrologers; and a Komandoro of the Universal
Order of Antares (Trieste).
The most momentous and revolutionary astrological discovery of all
time was made in 1948 by Cyril Fagan, the well-known astrologer and
Egyptian scholar. He discovered that the historical exaltation degrees
of the zodiac originated in 786 B.C. and that all these degrees were
expressed in terms of the zodiac of the constellations and not of the
signs. This led him into a whole series of further discoveries which
are equally important to the archeologist, the chronologist, the
historian, and the astrologer.
First and foremost, he found that the so-called Egyptian decans were
in fact pentades or 5-day star groups, a discovery that immediately led
to the identification of most of them. He also solved the precise date
of the Inauguration of the famous Sothic Cycle as well as dating the
zodiacs of Esna and Denderah.
OTHER SIDEREALISTS:
RUPERT GLEADOW (data from inside of his book he autographed; and I
suspect MER culminates rather than SUN): 22 NOV 1909, 11:55 am,
Leicester, England.
BRIGADIER ROY C. FIREBRACE (publisher of SPICA, A SIDEREAL JOURNAL)
(sent to me by Brigadier Firebrace): 16 AUG 1889; 5:00 pm InterColonial
or Atlantic time (-4h 14' 20"); Halifax, Nova Scotia 63w35, 44n38'
GARTH ALLEN (Donald Bradley): (from American Astrology): 16 MAY
1925; 2:04 am CST; 40n21' 97w35' Nebraska
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Leo
CYRIL FAGAN:
Among historians, it is common knowledge that the Sun-King's obsession for palace building - a characteristic of affluent Leonians - was so voracious that he depleted the national coffers, thus paving the way for the French Revolution, verily "eating his funeral and spending his grave" (Manilius - about the beginning of Christian era at court of Emperors Augustus and Tiberius). If Louis XIV was merely "...a glorified civil servant, very exact and keen on detail..." how come it that in his masterly design of the Palace of Versailles he overlooked making any provision for heating? Could a civil servant exclaim: "L'etat c'est moi..." and mean it? Surely this is a monarchy and no king can afford to shirk it however irksome. To this day British monarchy dread the arrival of the "Red Despatch Boxes." The fact that they must be attended to by the Sovereign does not make him a native of Gemini or Virgo. The king does many other important things besides paper work such as ceremonial parades and inspections, reviewing troops etc., which do not come under the tutelage of the Mercurial signs.
LOUIS XIV, The Sun King: September 5, 1638 (N.S.); 11:11 A.M. LMT. 2E05, 48N54.
[Positions updated with modern calculations. But note that the time usually given is 11:22. I've recalculated for the time Fagan gave, 11:11, which also matches the angles he gave within close tolerances. - JAE]
MC 10°30 Leo; XI 3°59' Virgo; XII 26°56' Virgo
Asc 25°22' Libra; II 2°48' Sagittarius; III 10°03' Capricorn
Pluto 10°44’ Taurus; Venus 14°17' Can; Moon 15°54’ Cancer; Sun 23°04’ Leo; Mercury 4°16’ Virgo; Uranus 1°38’ Libra; Jupiter 12°59’ Libra; Neptune 28°53’ Libra; Mars 5°46’ Sagittarius; Saturn 11°17’ Capricorn. [Neptune 2°03' below Asc, Pluto 5°06' above Dsc - JAE]
"...The royal gift-giving, easygoing Leo of tradition..." is as Rupert Gleadow would say, the constellation Cancer called by another name! Cancer, the exaltation of the bountiful Jupiter, is ruled by the sympathetic and maternal Moon. It is noted as being the most generous of all the constellations, especially to its own relations. For this reason it has often been accused of nepotism. The tropical Leo is only the constellation Cancer misnamed. Between this partial delineation of the tropical Leo and that of sidereal Leo by Manilius, there is an irreconcilable difference.
[Notice the extreme DIGNITY in this chart. Sun is in royal Leo, it's own sign. Moon is at home in Cancer, in the degree of Jupiter's exaltation, conjunct Venus and square Jupiter. Mercury is home and exalted in Virgo. Saturn is at home in Capricorn. In terms of something epochal, Pluto, which Fagan thought was 8° later, is exactly square MC and also (as the mundoscope shows) close to the horizon - so that an epoch-defining Neptune-Pluto mundane opposition crosses the horizon. This aspect embodies Louis' other famous line, "After me, the deluge!" - JAE]
Among historians, it is common knowledge that the Sun-King's obsession for palace building - a characteristic of affluent Leonians - was so voracious that he depleted the national coffers, thus paving the way for the French Revolution, verily "eating his funeral and spending his grave" (Manilius - about the beginning of Christian era at court of Emperors Augustus and Tiberius). If Louis XIV was merely "...a glorified civil servant, very exact and keen on detail..." how come it that in his masterly design of the Palace of Versailles he overlooked making any provision for heating? Could a civil servant exclaim: "L'etat c'est moi..." and mean it? Surely this is a monarchy and no king can afford to shirk it however irksome. To this day British monarchy dread the arrival of the "Red Despatch Boxes." The fact that they must be attended to by the Sovereign does not make him a native of Gemini or Virgo. The king does many other important things besides paper work such as ceremonial parades and inspections, reviewing troops etc., which do not come under the tutelage of the Mercurial signs.
LOUIS XIV, The Sun King: September 5, 1638 (N.S.); 11:11 A.M. LMT. 2E05, 48N54.
[Positions updated with modern calculations. But note that the time usually given is 11:22. I've recalculated for the time Fagan gave, 11:11, which also matches the angles he gave within close tolerances. - JAE]
MC 10°30 Leo; XI 3°59' Virgo; XII 26°56' Virgo
Asc 25°22' Libra; II 2°48' Sagittarius; III 10°03' Capricorn
Pluto 10°44’ Taurus; Venus 14°17' Can; Moon 15°54’ Cancer; Sun 23°04’ Leo; Mercury 4°16’ Virgo; Uranus 1°38’ Libra; Jupiter 12°59’ Libra; Neptune 28°53’ Libra; Mars 5°46’ Sagittarius; Saturn 11°17’ Capricorn. [Neptune 2°03' below Asc, Pluto 5°06' above Dsc - JAE]
"...The royal gift-giving, easygoing Leo of tradition..." is as Rupert Gleadow would say, the constellation Cancer called by another name! Cancer, the exaltation of the bountiful Jupiter, is ruled by the sympathetic and maternal Moon. It is noted as being the most generous of all the constellations, especially to its own relations. For this reason it has often been accused of nepotism. The tropical Leo is only the constellation Cancer misnamed. Between this partial delineation of the tropical Leo and that of sidereal Leo by Manilius, there is an irreconcilable difference.
[Notice the extreme DIGNITY in this chart. Sun is in royal Leo, it's own sign. Moon is at home in Cancer, in the degree of Jupiter's exaltation, conjunct Venus and square Jupiter. Mercury is home and exalted in Virgo. Saturn is at home in Capricorn. In terms of something epochal, Pluto, which Fagan thought was 8° later, is exactly square MC and also (as the mundoscope shows) close to the horizon - so that an epoch-defining Neptune-Pluto mundane opposition crosses the horizon. This aspect embodies Louis' other famous line, "After me, the deluge!" - JAE]
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Virgo
Please see following sections from Cyril Fagan's Astrological Origins and Zodiacs Old and New for historical information on the original Egyptian zodiac to distinguish between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic background he did.
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Stella Dominatrix"
...The remarkable thing to note about these lunar mansions is that in
remote antiquity the Arabic and Indian versions commenced with the
asterism of Pleiades at the beginning of the constellation TAURUS,
while the Chinese began with Spica. Thus the Arabic manzils began with
Al Thurayya, "The Many Little Ones," the Hindu nakshatras with
Krittika, "General of Celestial Armies," while the Chinese sieux
commenced with Kio, "The Spike" or Spica. It would appear that at a
later date the Chinese sieux commenced with Mao, "The Constellation,"
which was their asterism for the Pleiades (vide R.H. Allen: Star Names
and Vivian Robson: The Fixed Stars and Constellations.)
These asterisms were immediately followed by the manzil AL Dabaran
an Arabic word that mean "The Follower." But Professor S. Langdon
demurs. He writes, "...al-dabaranu surely means 'the writer' or 'the
forecaster; and not 'the one who follows after,' the meaning commonly
given in English lexicons 'because it follows the Pleiades' i.e., rises
after Pleiades" and refers to the fact that in the Cuneiform Tablets in
the British Museum, Aldebaran is styled isu li-e, Star of the Tablet.
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, 1935)
As already stated, Garth Allen's decisive and historical
determination of the mean sidereal longitude of the vernal point for
the epoch 1950.0 puts Adebaran, for the epoch 786 B.C., the year of the
Hyposomata, in the precise mathematical center of the constellation
TAURUS, and Antares almost in the precise mathematical center of the
opposite constellation Scorpio (actually 15deg02'). Both stars are of
the first magnitude and ecliptically they are in partile opposition to
one another. The Arabs called Aldebaran 'Ain al Thaur, the Greeks
'Omma Boos and the Romans Oculus Tauri, all meaning "the Bull's Eye."
In the Greco-Roman star atlases (c.600 B.C.) only the bull's head and
forelegs are depicted, thus putting the Bull's Eye in the dead center
of that constellation. To this day the expression "Bull's Eye" means
the mathematical center. In the Egyptian Celestial Diagrams, as they
are called, of the New Empire (c.1500-1200 B.C.), it was usual for the
scribes to represent the star by five-pointed devices classified as
determinatives, but in one of the Ramesside diagrams Aldebaran is shown
as an eight-pointed star of unusual proportions. In the classical
period it was known to the Romans as Stella Dominatrix, "The Master
Star," not because of its brilliance--Sirius and Canopus far outshone
it--but because, in Taurus 15 00' 00", it became the master key star of
the zodiac; otherwise known as the zodiac's master fiducial,
determinative, or marking star. In antiquity all ecliptical longitudes
were measured from it or from its opposite, Antares in Scorpio, and its
position shows that the oldest and hence authentic zodiac began with
Taurus 0deg00', at the beginning of the asterism which contained the
Pleiades....
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Bull's Eye Astrology"
Assuming that Aldebaran in the mathematical center of the
constellation Taurus was the original and hence authentic determinant
of the sidereal zodiac, then calculation discloses that the mean vernal
point retrograded into the 30th degree of this constellation in April
4152 B.C. when, theoretically, the Taurean Age began. By an
astonishing coincidence it almost simultaneously came to the precise
conjunction with Gamma Tauri, a star of the third magnitude, at the tip
of the Bull's South Horn. This star was known to the Chinese by the
suggestive title Tien Kwan, the "Heavenly Gate," and to the Arabs as Al
Hecka the "Driver." The actual date of the conjunction was 4151 B.C.,
and hence there was just a year between the two phenomena, which is
remarkably close. Slowly retreating through that constellation, the
vernal equinoctial point, forming its ecliptic conjunction with
Aldebaran itself in 3058 B.C., did not leave it until 1955 B.C. when it
entered the 30th degree of Aries....But the great point to note and
remember is that during the first two thousand years or so of recorded
history, when the vernal equinox was receding through it, Taurus was
the first of the zodiacal constellations and Aries the last!.... among
the Romans of the Aries age (1955 B.C. to 221 A.D.) when the vernal
point was gliding backwards through that constellation, Taurus was
still hailed as Princeps armenti or leader of the zodiacal herd!
* * *
[NOTE: Above, in ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Fagan talks of the key
constellation marking stars as the empirical standard; and particularly
he talks of earliest records of the the star "Bull's Eye" in the exact
middle of Taurus, which was the "zodiacal leader" of the constellations
when the equinoxes occurred in Taurus. Earliest "recorded" history
from which we have evidence comes from this equinoctial epoch, the
Taurean Age. Of course, there were many key stars throughout the whole
heavenly sphere, which had different associations. Please see
following sections from Cyril Fagan's earlier ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for
historical information on the original Egyptian zodiac to distinquish
between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, 1951
"The Premier constellation"
[P. 29] Because the new-moon of Nisan, which commenced the New
Year, was seen among the stars of Aries from B.C. 2000 to early
Christian times, this constellation was assumed to be the first of the
twelve. But this was not always the case. For some 2000 years prior
to this, the Neomenia appeared among the stars of Taurus when it was
considered as the premier constellation. It was during this Taurean
era that the Kali-Yuga commenced. Then the nakshatra (Hindu lunar
mansion) Kritika, having the Pleiades (Taurus 5 degrees) as its
yogatara (chief star) was the first of the 28 lunar asterisms. But
when the Neomenia fell in the beginning of Aries the nakshatra Asvini
with Sharatan (Aries 9 degrees) as its yogatara, became the leader.
Since the beginning of the Christian era the Neomenia, or new-moon
of Easter (crescent), has been falling in the constellation Pisces, and
will continue to do so for another 500 years. HENCE PISCES IS NOW THE
LEADING CONSTELLATION. About A.D. 2369 the spring-point will recede
into the end of Aquarius when the Aquarian age will commence.
A similar situation existed in regard to Egyptian astronomy. The
native year, being one of 365 days, without any provision for the
intercalation of a leap-day, could not keep in step with either the
sidereal or tropical year, but receded one day (or one degree) in every
four years. In consequence the sidereal longitude of the sun on New
Year's Day (1st Thoth) changed constellations once every 118 or 120
years. In the year A.D. 17 when the Denderah zodiacs were designed,
the sun was in Leo on the 1st Thoth, so that the Lion was then
considered by the Egyptians as being the first of the constellations,
and it is so shown in the circular zodiac. But in 137 when the Esneh
calendar was framed, the sun was in Libra 5 on the 1st Thoth, hence
Libra was then considered the first of the constellations. (See O.
Neugebauer, Egyptian Planetary Texts, in transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, 32, 1942, p 246.) But Virgo was the leading
sign of the Esneh zodiacs, for in both it was the first to rise. This
fact is symbolised by the figure of a female sphinx having the head and
breasts of a woman (Virgo) and the hinderparts and tail of a lion (Leo)
denoting that the zodiac commenced with Virgo and ended with Leo. From
about 116 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era the Sun was in the
constellation Virgo on the 1st Thoth.
.... The vernal-equinox did not leave the constellation Taurus
until 1963 B.C. when it regressed into the 30th degree of the
constellation Aries (not coming to its beginning until 213 A.D.) BUT
THE MONUMENTS PRIOR TO THAT TIME SHOW THE ZODIAC TERMINATING WITH THE
MIDNIGHT CULMINATION OF SPICA AND BENETNASCH--"THE STRETCHED CORD"--
when the Sun was in the last degree of sidereal Pisces. The inclusion
of the ideogram for linking the final pentade (No 18) of the
constellation Pisces in the dekan-list from the IX and X Heracleopolite
dynasty coffin-lids (circa 2300 B.C.) ...[occurs] at least as early as
the Middle Empire.... Incidentally this confirms the sidereal origin
of the zodiac and shows that its initial point was determined quite
independently of "Aries 0 degrees" of the tropical zodiac....
[p. 15] In the famous Theban star-calendars of the Ramesside kings
(20th Dynasty) Arcturus and Spica form the constellation MENYET, the
"Mooring Peg," with the point or Spike in Spica. In all the celestial
diagrams from the XVIII dynasty down to Roman times that adorn the
inside of the Coffin lids or the ceilings of sarcophagi, Isis, the
mother of the gods, is shown as an erect female hippopatamus, styled
Hesamut, "Mother of the Cord." In her hands she holds Menyet, the
"Mooring Peg," to which is attached a cord stretching from Aka, the
"hoof" of Meskhetyew, the "Bull's Foreleg." This constellation is
identical with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is
Benetnasch (Eta Ursae Majoris). In B.C. 2791 Benetnasch and Spica
formed their conjunction in right ascension 9h. 18m. 32s., culminating
at apparent midnight on March 1st when the Sun entered the
constellation Sr.t (Seret) the "Sheep" (Aries). Benetnasch's
declination was then N 74D 54' and Spica's N 14D 19', a difference of
over 60 degrees, hence an arc of a great circle of the sphere passing
through them and produced in both directions divided the heavens into
two equal parts, cutting through Thuban (Alpha Draconis) THE THEN POLE
STAR, and at right angles to Sirius. According to the generally
accepted chronology this was the time of the IV dynasty, the age of
Sneferu, Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, the great pyramid-builders.
One of the most important ceremonies in the foundation of Egyptian
temples was known as Pedjeshes (Pedj--"to stretch," Shes--"a cord")
and it forms the subject of one of the chief monumental ornaments in
the temples of Abydos, Heliopolis, Denderah, and Edfu. The reigning
pharaoh and a priestess personifying Seshat, the goddess of writing,
proceeded to the site, each armed with a golden mallet and a PEG
connected by a cord to another PEG. Seshat having driven her peg home
at the previously prepared spot, the king directed his gaze to the
constellation of the Bull's Foreleg (this constellation is identical
with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is Benetnasch, Eta
Ursae majoris). Having aligned the cord to the "hoof" and Spica as
seen through the visor formed by Seshat's curious headdress, he raised
his mallet and drove the peg home, thus marking the position of the
axis of the future temple.
As a result of his review of Dr. Gunter-Martiny's work on the survey
of Assyrian sancturies, Professor P. V. Neugebauer, (Observatory at the
Rechen-Institut in Berlin-Dahlem), discovered that all Assyrian
Temples, from B.C. 2930 to B.C. 603, whose foundation dates were
recorded, were ORIENTED AT DAWN ON 1ST NISAN TO THE POINT OF
INTERSECTION WITH THE HORIZON OF A GREAT CIRCLE OF THE SPHERE, PASSING
THROUGH BENETNASCH AND SPICA, exactly the same circle that figures in
the Egyptian ceremony of the Pedjeshes. There can therefore be no
doubt that for the ancient peoples of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria,
Spica was their chief marking-star....
(p. 18) Spica in Libra 0d0' or in Virgo 29d0'
When I first discovered that Spica was the original fiducial or
marking star of the ancient zodiac, I naturally assumed that it was
placed diametrically opposite to the initial point of the zodiac, Aries
0.0 degrees, that is, in Libra 0D 0' (180 degrees) especially so as in
the Soma, Surya, Vriddha-Vasishta and Brahma siddhantas--the ancient
Sanscrit works on astronomy--the longitude of Chitra (Spica) is given
as 180 degrees--albeit these were expressed in polar longitudes.
The graph [not reprinted on wordprocessor] however, makes it clear
that the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians considered Spica as being in
Virgo 29.0 degrees and not in Libra 0.0 degrees. This accords better
with tradition which always associated the "Spike of Corn" as being in
the agricultural Virgo. Nowhere in the literature of antiquity is
Spica associated with Libra.
Oddly enough the Egyptians did not consider mnit (Menyet) the
"Mooring-Peg" as beginning the zodiac, BUT AS ENDING IT. Having
crossed the celestial Nile, the boats of the planetary gods were
brought to rest and moored to the "peg." The root mn (men) means "to
be at rest" "to be secure" "to be immovable" "to be motionless (as in
death)." The west was called Amentet, the "place of rest or death,"
"the hidden place," and the portal to the Duat or Underworld.
It is only necessary to deduct precisely one degree from all
longitudes computed from Spica in Libra 0.0 degrees to reduce them to
the hypsomatic zodiac (Spica in Virgo 29.0 degrees).
* * *
NOTE: Regarding the division of the star constellation zodiac: Fagan's
ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, a study in archaeoastronomy written prior to 1951,
accords with Garth Allen's discovery and statistical validation (done
with CAPLUNARS of earthquakes and other disasters) that the longitude
of the APEX of the Sun's Way occurs at 0 Capricorn as a FIDUCIAL of the
constellation boundaries. (viz. the Fagan-Allen Ayanamsha, the S.V.P.
or Synetic Vernal Point correction of Spica to 29VIR06'05"). Hence,
the quartering of the star constellation zodiac would occur at 0 Libra
and 0 Aries. (Garth Allen also reported the then current astronomical
finding of a radio source at 0 Libra, see file [VIRGO].)
Regarding the APEX, consider this analogy: a line dropped
longitudinally from the APEX to the ecliptic plane, divides the
ecliptic plane of our solar system in relation to sidereal space - just
as when a line dropped from the North Pole star down to the horizon
defines the (North-South) Meridian as the primary direction for Earth
in relation to the solar system (i.e., North-South, East-West).
See file called [APEX] for Cyril Fagan's 8/56 Essay called "Cosmic
Division" in his Solunars series in American Astrology. In that essay,
he makes reference to other of Garth Allen's statistic studies
validating the natural cosmic division of the star constellation zodiac
known to the Babylonians and Egyptians.
* * * *
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic background he did.
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Stella Dominatrix"
...The remarkable thing to note about these lunar mansions is that in
remote antiquity the Arabic and Indian versions commenced with the
asterism of Pleiades at the beginning of the constellation TAURUS,
while the Chinese began with Spica. Thus the Arabic manzils began with
Al Thurayya, "The Many Little Ones," the Hindu nakshatras with
Krittika, "General of Celestial Armies," while the Chinese sieux
commenced with Kio, "The Spike" or Spica. It would appear that at a
later date the Chinese sieux commenced with Mao, "The Constellation,"
which was their asterism for the Pleiades (vide R.H. Allen: Star Names
and Vivian Robson: The Fixed Stars and Constellations.)
These asterisms were immediately followed by the manzil AL Dabaran
an Arabic word that mean "The Follower." But Professor S. Langdon
demurs. He writes, "...al-dabaranu surely means 'the writer' or 'the
forecaster; and not 'the one who follows after,' the meaning commonly
given in English lexicons 'because it follows the Pleiades' i.e., rises
after Pleiades" and refers to the fact that in the Cuneiform Tablets in
the British Museum, Aldebaran is styled isu li-e, Star of the Tablet.
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, 1935)
As already stated, Garth Allen's decisive and historical
determination of the mean sidereal longitude of the vernal point for
the epoch 1950.0 puts Adebaran, for the epoch 786 B.C., the year of the
Hyposomata, in the precise mathematical center of the constellation
TAURUS, and Antares almost in the precise mathematical center of the
opposite constellation Scorpio (actually 15deg02'). Both stars are of
the first magnitude and ecliptically they are in partile opposition to
one another. The Arabs called Aldebaran 'Ain al Thaur, the Greeks
'Omma Boos and the Romans Oculus Tauri, all meaning "the Bull's Eye."
In the Greco-Roman star atlases (c.600 B.C.) only the bull's head and
forelegs are depicted, thus putting the Bull's Eye in the dead center
of that constellation. To this day the expression "Bull's Eye" means
the mathematical center. In the Egyptian Celestial Diagrams, as they
are called, of the New Empire (c.1500-1200 B.C.), it was usual for the
scribes to represent the star by five-pointed devices classified as
determinatives, but in one of the Ramesside diagrams Aldebaran is shown
as an eight-pointed star of unusual proportions. In the classical
period it was known to the Romans as Stella Dominatrix, "The Master
Star," not because of its brilliance--Sirius and Canopus far outshone
it--but because, in Taurus 15 00' 00", it became the master key star of
the zodiac; otherwise known as the zodiac's master fiducial,
determinative, or marking star. In antiquity all ecliptical longitudes
were measured from it or from its opposite, Antares in Scorpio, and its
position shows that the oldest and hence authentic zodiac began with
Taurus 0deg00', at the beginning of the asterism which contained the
Pleiades....
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, 1971
"Bull's Eye Astrology"
Assuming that Aldebaran in the mathematical center of the
constellation Taurus was the original and hence authentic determinant
of the sidereal zodiac, then calculation discloses that the mean vernal
point retrograded into the 30th degree of this constellation in April
4152 B.C. when, theoretically, the Taurean Age began. By an
astonishing coincidence it almost simultaneously came to the precise
conjunction with Gamma Tauri, a star of the third magnitude, at the tip
of the Bull's South Horn. This star was known to the Chinese by the
suggestive title Tien Kwan, the "Heavenly Gate," and to the Arabs as Al
Hecka the "Driver." The actual date of the conjunction was 4151 B.C.,
and hence there was just a year between the two phenomena, which is
remarkably close. Slowly retreating through that constellation, the
vernal equinoctial point, forming its ecliptic conjunction with
Aldebaran itself in 3058 B.C., did not leave it until 1955 B.C. when it
entered the 30th degree of Aries....But the great point to note and
remember is that during the first two thousand years or so of recorded
history, when the vernal equinox was receding through it, Taurus was
the first of the zodiacal constellations and Aries the last!.... among
the Romans of the Aries age (1955 B.C. to 221 A.D.) when the vernal
point was gliding backwards through that constellation, Taurus was
still hailed as Princeps armenti or leader of the zodiacal herd!
* * *
[NOTE: Above, in ASTROLOGICAL ORIGINS, Fagan talks of the key
constellation marking stars as the empirical standard; and particularly
he talks of earliest records of the the star "Bull's Eye" in the exact
middle of Taurus, which was the "zodiacal leader" of the constellations
when the equinoxes occurred in Taurus. Earliest "recorded" history
from which we have evidence comes from this equinoctial epoch, the
Taurean Age. Of course, there were many key stars throughout the whole
heavenly sphere, which had different associations. Please see
following sections from Cyril Fagan's earlier ZODIACS OLD AND NEW for
historical information on the original Egyptian zodiac to distinquish
between
<A> the occurrence of the (precessing/changing) equinoxes as when in
Taurus (Taurean Era), and
<B> the original divisions of the zodiac, 0 LIB-ARI, 0 CAP-CAN.
When writing, Fagan does not make this distinction clear, although it
would be clear to a few scholars who had the same encyclopedic
background he did.
* * * *
Cyril Fagan, ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, 1951
"The Premier constellation"
[P. 29] Because the new-moon of Nisan, which commenced the New
Year, was seen among the stars of Aries from B.C. 2000 to early
Christian times, this constellation was assumed to be the first of the
twelve. But this was not always the case. For some 2000 years prior
to this, the Neomenia appeared among the stars of Taurus when it was
considered as the premier constellation. It was during this Taurean
era that the Kali-Yuga commenced. Then the nakshatra (Hindu lunar
mansion) Kritika, having the Pleiades (Taurus 5 degrees) as its
yogatara (chief star) was the first of the 28 lunar asterisms. But
when the Neomenia fell in the beginning of Aries the nakshatra Asvini
with Sharatan (Aries 9 degrees) as its yogatara, became the leader.
Since the beginning of the Christian era the Neomenia, or new-moon
of Easter (crescent), has been falling in the constellation Pisces, and
will continue to do so for another 500 years. HENCE PISCES IS NOW THE
LEADING CONSTELLATION. About A.D. 2369 the spring-point will recede
into the end of Aquarius when the Aquarian age will commence.
A similar situation existed in regard to Egyptian astronomy. The
native year, being one of 365 days, without any provision for the
intercalation of a leap-day, could not keep in step with either the
sidereal or tropical year, but receded one day (or one degree) in every
four years. In consequence the sidereal longitude of the sun on New
Year's Day (1st Thoth) changed constellations once every 118 or 120
years. In the year A.D. 17 when the Denderah zodiacs were designed,
the sun was in Leo on the 1st Thoth, so that the Lion was then
considered by the Egyptians as being the first of the constellations,
and it is so shown in the circular zodiac. But in 137 when the Esneh
calendar was framed, the sun was in Libra 5 on the 1st Thoth, hence
Libra was then considered the first of the constellations. (See O.
Neugebauer, Egyptian Planetary Texts, in transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, 32, 1942, p 246.) But Virgo was the leading
sign of the Esneh zodiacs, for in both it was the first to rise. This
fact is symbolised by the figure of a female sphinx having the head and
breasts of a woman (Virgo) and the hinderparts and tail of a lion (Leo)
denoting that the zodiac commenced with Virgo and ended with Leo. From
about 116 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era the Sun was in the
constellation Virgo on the 1st Thoth.
.... The vernal-equinox did not leave the constellation Taurus
until 1963 B.C. when it regressed into the 30th degree of the
constellation Aries (not coming to its beginning until 213 A.D.) BUT
THE MONUMENTS PRIOR TO THAT TIME SHOW THE ZODIAC TERMINATING WITH THE
MIDNIGHT CULMINATION OF SPICA AND BENETNASCH--"THE STRETCHED CORD"--
when the Sun was in the last degree of sidereal Pisces. The inclusion
of the ideogram for linking the final pentade (No 18) of the
constellation Pisces in the dekan-list from the IX and X Heracleopolite
dynasty coffin-lids (circa 2300 B.C.) ...[occurs] at least as early as
the Middle Empire.... Incidentally this confirms the sidereal origin
of the zodiac and shows that its initial point was determined quite
independently of "Aries 0 degrees" of the tropical zodiac....
[p. 15] In the famous Theban star-calendars of the Ramesside kings
(20th Dynasty) Arcturus and Spica form the constellation MENYET, the
"Mooring Peg," with the point or Spike in Spica. In all the celestial
diagrams from the XVIII dynasty down to Roman times that adorn the
inside of the Coffin lids or the ceilings of sarcophagi, Isis, the
mother of the gods, is shown as an erect female hippopatamus, styled
Hesamut, "Mother of the Cord." In her hands she holds Menyet, the
"Mooring Peg," to which is attached a cord stretching from Aka, the
"hoof" of Meskhetyew, the "Bull's Foreleg." This constellation is
identical with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is
Benetnasch (Eta Ursae Majoris). In B.C. 2791 Benetnasch and Spica
formed their conjunction in right ascension 9h. 18m. 32s., culminating
at apparent midnight on March 1st when the Sun entered the
constellation Sr.t (Seret) the "Sheep" (Aries). Benetnasch's
declination was then N 74D 54' and Spica's N 14D 19', a difference of
over 60 degrees, hence an arc of a great circle of the sphere passing
through them and produced in both directions divided the heavens into
two equal parts, cutting through Thuban (Alpha Draconis) THE THEN POLE
STAR, and at right angles to Sirius. According to the generally
accepted chronology this was the time of the IV dynasty, the age of
Sneferu, Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, the great pyramid-builders.
One of the most important ceremonies in the foundation of Egyptian
temples was known as Pedjeshes (Pedj--"to stretch," Shes--"a cord")
and it forms the subject of one of the chief monumental ornaments in
the temples of Abydos, Heliopolis, Denderah, and Edfu. The reigning
pharaoh and a priestess personifying Seshat, the goddess of writing,
proceeded to the site, each armed with a golden mallet and a PEG
connected by a cord to another PEG. Seshat having driven her peg home
at the previously prepared spot, the king directed his gaze to the
constellation of the Bull's Foreleg (this constellation is identical
with Ursa Major, "Great Bear," and the "hoof" star is Benetnasch, Eta
Ursae majoris). Having aligned the cord to the "hoof" and Spica as
seen through the visor formed by Seshat's curious headdress, he raised
his mallet and drove the peg home, thus marking the position of the
axis of the future temple.
As a result of his review of Dr. Gunter-Martiny's work on the survey
of Assyrian sancturies, Professor P. V. Neugebauer, (Observatory at the
Rechen-Institut in Berlin-Dahlem), discovered that all Assyrian
Temples, from B.C. 2930 to B.C. 603, whose foundation dates were
recorded, were ORIENTED AT DAWN ON 1ST NISAN TO THE POINT OF
INTERSECTION WITH THE HORIZON OF A GREAT CIRCLE OF THE SPHERE, PASSING
THROUGH BENETNASCH AND SPICA, exactly the same circle that figures in
the Egyptian ceremony of the Pedjeshes. There can therefore be no
doubt that for the ancient peoples of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria,
Spica was their chief marking-star....
(p. 18) Spica in Libra 0d0' or in Virgo 29d0'
When I first discovered that Spica was the original fiducial or
marking star of the ancient zodiac, I naturally assumed that it was
placed diametrically opposite to the initial point of the zodiac, Aries
0.0 degrees, that is, in Libra 0D 0' (180 degrees) especially so as in
the Soma, Surya, Vriddha-Vasishta and Brahma siddhantas--the ancient
Sanscrit works on astronomy--the longitude of Chitra (Spica) is given
as 180 degrees--albeit these were expressed in polar longitudes.
The graph [not reprinted on wordprocessor] however, makes it clear
that the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians considered Spica as being in
Virgo 29.0 degrees and not in Libra 0.0 degrees. This accords better
with tradition which always associated the "Spike of Corn" as being in
the agricultural Virgo. Nowhere in the literature of antiquity is
Spica associated with Libra.
Oddly enough the Egyptians did not consider mnit (Menyet) the
"Mooring-Peg" as beginning the zodiac, BUT AS ENDING IT. Having
crossed the celestial Nile, the boats of the planetary gods were
brought to rest and moored to the "peg." The root mn (men) means "to
be at rest" "to be secure" "to be immovable" "to be motionless (as in
death)." The west was called Amentet, the "place of rest or death,"
"the hidden place," and the portal to the Duat or Underworld.
It is only necessary to deduct precisely one degree from all
longitudes computed from Spica in Libra 0.0 degrees to reduce them to
the hypsomatic zodiac (Spica in Virgo 29.0 degrees).
* * *
NOTE: Regarding the division of the star constellation zodiac: Fagan's
ZODIACS OLD AND NEW, a study in archaeoastronomy written prior to 1951,
accords with Garth Allen's discovery and statistical validation (done
with CAPLUNARS of earthquakes and other disasters) that the longitude
of the APEX of the Sun's Way occurs at 0 Capricorn as a FIDUCIAL of the
constellation boundaries. (viz. the Fagan-Allen Ayanamsha, the S.V.P.
or Synetic Vernal Point correction of Spica to 29VIR06'05"). Hence,
the quartering of the star constellation zodiac would occur at 0 Libra
and 0 Aries. (Garth Allen also reported the then current astronomical
finding of a radio source at 0 Libra, see file [VIRGO].)
Regarding the APEX, consider this analogy: a line dropped
longitudinally from the APEX to the ecliptic plane, divides the
ecliptic plane of our solar system in relation to sidereal space - just
as when a line dropped from the North Pole star down to the horizon
defines the (North-South) Meridian as the primary direction for Earth
in relation to the solar system (i.e., North-South, East-West).
See file called [APEX] for Cyril Fagan's 8/56 Essay called "Cosmic
Division" in his Solunars series in American Astrology. In that essay,
he makes reference to other of Garth Allen's statistic studies
validating the natural cosmic division of the star constellation zodiac
known to the Babylonians and Egyptians.
* * * *
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Aries
Cyril Fagan, THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CONSTELLATIONS, 1962
SUN IN ARIES: Apr 14 - May 14
Aries, the last of the twelve zodiacal constellations, is aptly depicted on ancient Egyptian star maps as a reposing ram....We find that on the zodiac in the Ptolemaic Temple of Khnum at Essneh (September 26, 137 B.C.) and on the two zodiacs in the Temples of Hathor and Osiris at Denderah (April 17, A.D. 17), Aries is represented by a "ram couchant," that is, in a state of repose or sleep with Aten, the disc of the Sun, above him. It is the only zodiacal constellation so represented, and in Egyptian symbolism, signified sunset, thus identifying Aries with the descendant or cusp of the 7th house....As to the dominion of the 7th House, the Arabian astrologers, Aedila, Alcabitius, and Morbecca, as well as all the noteworthy medieval writers, concur that it is the house of war, battle, strife, enmity, duels, encounters with thieves, lawsuits, pleas, fines, and all contentions; oppositions, contrariness, and things opposed, agreeing with the influence of warlike Aries. But since the Greeks, astrologically speaking 'turned the zodiac upside-down,'putting Libra on the cusp of the 7th house, the latter has become the house of marriage, unions, partner in marriage, because the rule of Libra is Venus. This is just one instance of the many glaring contradictions abounding in astrology which must be resolved by astrologers before any real headway can be made in the science - if science it is!...
The Neomenia, or the first new moon of the lunar year (which at sunset of the 1st Nisan of the Babylonian calendar, marked the beginning of the day and of the year), occurred when the fine, thin crescent Moon, or "Adams' Rib," was first sighted above the western horizon, when the Sun had just set in the constellation Aries, and the crescent was in Taurus, their exaltation signs respectively. Aries is the diurnal house of Mars, whose astrological symbol is the hieratic ideogram for Khopet, signifying "death," and, according to Claudius Ptolemy the anaereta, or place of death, was the degree of the zodiac on the western horizon. The demotic name for Aries was Pa Yesu, "the Fleece," the determinative 'dhr' representing "a hide."
SUN IN ARIES: Apr 14 - May 14
Aries, the last of the twelve zodiacal constellations, is aptly depicted on ancient Egyptian star maps as a reposing ram....We find that on the zodiac in the Ptolemaic Temple of Khnum at Essneh (September 26, 137 B.C.) and on the two zodiacs in the Temples of Hathor and Osiris at Denderah (April 17, A.D. 17), Aries is represented by a "ram couchant," that is, in a state of repose or sleep with Aten, the disc of the Sun, above him. It is the only zodiacal constellation so represented, and in Egyptian symbolism, signified sunset, thus identifying Aries with the descendant or cusp of the 7th house....As to the dominion of the 7th House, the Arabian astrologers, Aedila, Alcabitius, and Morbecca, as well as all the noteworthy medieval writers, concur that it is the house of war, battle, strife, enmity, duels, encounters with thieves, lawsuits, pleas, fines, and all contentions; oppositions, contrariness, and things opposed, agreeing with the influence of warlike Aries. But since the Greeks, astrologically speaking 'turned the zodiac upside-down,'putting Libra on the cusp of the 7th house, the latter has become the house of marriage, unions, partner in marriage, because the rule of Libra is Venus. This is just one instance of the many glaring contradictions abounding in astrology which must be resolved by astrologers before any real headway can be made in the science - if science it is!...
The Neomenia, or the first new moon of the lunar year (which at sunset of the 1st Nisan of the Babylonian calendar, marked the beginning of the day and of the year), occurred when the fine, thin crescent Moon, or "Adams' Rib," was first sighted above the western horizon, when the Sun had just set in the constellation Aries, and the crescent was in Taurus, their exaltation signs respectively. Aries is the diurnal house of Mars, whose astrological symbol is the hieratic ideogram for Khopet, signifying "death," and, according to Claudius Ptolemy the anaereta, or place of death, was the degree of the zodiac on the western horizon. The demotic name for Aries was Pa Yesu, "the Fleece," the determinative 'dhr' representing "a hide."
-
Jim Eshelman
- Are You Sirius?
- Posts: 19078
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 12:40 pm
Re: Kay Cavender archives
Phew... (and that's just the first stage).
The site was gifted with a collection of articles and organized notes from Siderealist Kay Cavender. I have copied them above, but this is just the beginning of making them available.
It will take me weeks... more likely months... to get these into a truly accessible, readable form. For one, every article is in 80-character lines with paragraphing appropriate to a 1980's era text file. I have to manually delete all the carriage returns (thousands of them) to turn them into flowing text, break apart the paragraphs, and do some other minimal formatting to make them more readable.
With this, I am embarrassed to say that, along with the gratitude I feel for Kay's long work and sharing, I also feel a burden in all of this and a dread that it will take me away from months of original, productive work. Nonetheless, I strongly feel we owe it to those who have come before to respect their work through its preservation.
Additionally, I have to make decision about what to do with the many whole articles reproduced from elsewhere - material the rights to which are owned by others. (When I started copying these files into this thread, I thought they were all Kay's original work.) I probably will go back and delete those portions that are simply whole reproductions of full articles in this category out of respect for the rights holders. However, in the meantime, I've copied all of it here, thus preserving what was passed to me.
Anyway, the thread is open for your discussion.
The site was gifted with a collection of articles and organized notes from Siderealist Kay Cavender. I have copied them above, but this is just the beginning of making them available.
It will take me weeks... more likely months... to get these into a truly accessible, readable form. For one, every article is in 80-character lines with paragraphing appropriate to a 1980's era text file. I have to manually delete all the carriage returns (thousands of them) to turn them into flowing text, break apart the paragraphs, and do some other minimal formatting to make them more readable.
With this, I am embarrassed to say that, along with the gratitude I feel for Kay's long work and sharing, I also feel a burden in all of this and a dread that it will take me away from months of original, productive work. Nonetheless, I strongly feel we owe it to those who have come before to respect their work through its preservation.
Additionally, I have to make decision about what to do with the many whole articles reproduced from elsewhere - material the rights to which are owned by others. (When I started copying these files into this thread, I thought they were all Kay's original work.) I probably will go back and delete those portions that are simply whole reproductions of full articles in this category out of respect for the rights holders. However, in the meantime, I've copied all of it here, thus preserving what was passed to me.
Anyway, the thread is open for your discussion.
Jim Eshelman
www.jeshelman.com
www.jeshelman.com
Re: Kay Cavender archives
Enjoying these posts very much Jim. I have always been starved for all the Fagan/Allen material I have missed in my life by being a late student to Sidereal Astrology---thanks 
Re: Kay Cavender archives
Jim...
There are no words that can express the deep and heartfelt thankfulness I have for your efforts in preserving 'works' provided to us by Kay...
I understand your concern for the 'rights' of writers.... Deleting whole reproductions of full articles provided by Kay may not be of benefit to anyone.
I pray she is well!
There are no words that can express the deep and heartfelt thankfulness I have for your efforts in preserving 'works' provided to us by Kay...
I understand your concern for the 'rights' of writers.... Deleting whole reproductions of full articles provided by Kay may not be of benefit to anyone.
I pray she is well!