Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

I just uncovered my April 1985 issue of American Astrology. Wow. I don't remember ever seeing this, but I must have read it once upon a time. It was a theme issue - most of the issue was devoted to articles on successful gambling winners. Specifically:

1. The "Many Things" department reprinted past pieces related to successful gambling, dating back to the Grells - I recall those discussions from the '50s.

2. A Mary Hughes article is on a lottery winner.

3. My old San Diego bud Joyce Wehrman (who loved the tracks) writing on timing bets at the racetrack.

4. An Isaac Armstrong article on a cop who won half a million dollars in 1982. (OK, I know I read this at some point, because I penned in my distinctive way of marking angularity on the chart in the article.)

5. My old bud and covert Siderealist extraordinare Jim Lewis wrote about a woman who used his Astro*Carto*Graphy product to win $11,00 0 on dollar slots after playing for ten minutes in Vegas.

6. A reprint of Hollywood Siderealist Farrel Pyle's classic article (already summarized somewhere on this site) about her big win in Las Vegas with Sidereal returns.

I'll present the data and work these up as I get the chance.

December 13, 1956, 4:00 PM, San Francisco, Vicky Grell bought a benefit sweepstakes ticket on the street and put her husband's name on it.
December 14, 1956, noon, 7 tickets were drawn from the 90,000 sold, and each assigned to a horse in the race that day. "The couple's ticket was the last ticket drawn, and their horse was the favorite." Just by being drawn at all, they automatically won $10,000.
December 14, 1956, about 2 PM, the city newspaper called to inform eminent astrologer Paul Grell that he had drawn the favorite horse. (He knew nothing of the ticket his wife had bought.)

December 15, 1956, 4:16 PM was the race. Their horse won. Their prize was $10,000.
December 17, 1956, 4:35 PM, Paul Grell received the check.

Paul Grell was born April 20, 1906, 2:15 AM LMT, 38N38, 90W12. This appears to be close to Manning, SC, but not exactly there, and the exactly location isn't stated.

Victory Grell was born September 8, 1911, 8:00 AM LMT, 45N39, 13E46. This is Trieste, Italy, and the time should have been CET, but was stated as an even hour of LMT. I guess we have to take astrologer Grell's statement at face value.

There is so much data given here, and the possibility of significance of each event is intriguing. I'm not going to take my time to inch through all of them, though.

Vicky Grell had what might be considered a lucky chart. A Leo-Aquarius, she had a 0°01' Venus-Uranus trine as her closest aspect and a partile Moon-Jupiter trine. These were linked by a 0°02' Venus-Jupiter semi-square. When she bought the ticket, t Jupiter -90- r Pluto 32' was the only transit. (It was still in orb when they got the check, and transiting Moon was exactly on them.) When they got the check, Sun squared her Venus (16') - nice day! But also Mars semi-squared her Saturn (7').

Her SSR is mixed. Jupiter is at Midheaven )opposite natal Moon closely) and Saturn (squared by Pluto) is rising (tied into her natal Mars setting). I would not begin to guess from this chart whether she would win or lose (or get saved somehow from a terrible loss). When she bought the ticket, there were no significant transits to the SSR. However - a start! - SQ Ascendant opposed SSR Jupiter widely when she bought the ticket. It was essentially exact when their ticket was drawn in the final 7.

Her December 9 SLR is also mixed. It's enthusiastic, but doesn't necessarily mean that she'd end up with more money than she started, with a close Mars-Jupiter opposition foreground. Oh, but it does show her beating the odds! Transiting Pluto (we see in the mundoscope) is 1° from Descendant. I still probably would have called this as a shocking loss of money or expenditure; and perhaps she went on a huge, unprecedented spending spree after they won. (I don't have any of that information.) - In fact, she probably did, because the Jupiter, which also squared her natal Pluto exactly, was closely conjunct her natal Venus in the foreground. - Oh, transiting Sun squared Ascendant, probably singling them out for the considerable publicity they got around San Francisco for a few days.

Paul Grell, when his wife bought the ticket, had only two significant transits, one of which is contrary to the nature of the event: Saturn opposed his Jupiter 47'. The other one, though, is at least odds-breaking: t Sun opposed his Pluto 12'. There is also a sign of surprise with Mercury conjunct his Uranus and opposite his Neptune. When he got the check, there was really nothing of note in the transit.

But, behind the scenes, his secondary progressions had a progressed Sun-Jupiter conjunction that suggested this would be an unusually lucky year for him; and a progressed Mercury-Jupiter conjunction, just about to expire.

Exactly like his wife, he had Jupiter at MC of his SSR; unlike her, there was no rising Saturn. Mercury was setting, forming a partile Mercury-Jupiter mundane square on the angles. His Venus was setting, conjoined by the Mercury. For a little odds-breaking help, there is a Moon-Pluto conjunction.

His SNQ does not earn any respect. When the ticket was bought, progressed Saturn was exactly on IC. When he got the check, transiting Saturn opposite his natal Jupiter was near the horizon. His best day per the SQ was the 15th when the race was won, and his progressed Sun-Jupiter was on WP.

Similarly, the SQ has various Sun, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune combinations on angles, not exactly a showpiece. One always wonders about these quotidians... On top of that, another poor showing: Transiting Saturn is partile square SQ Moon.

But his SLR resembles his wife's in key respects - so I'm betting they both went on big spending sprees! Mars is within a degree of Ascendant opposite Jupiter just over a degree from Descendant. They both square Mercury near MC. Oh, and Pluto is just a few degrees (mundanely) off that Mars-Jupiter. One truly suspects this was "easy come, easy go," but I don't know that for sure.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:01 pm Paul Grell was born April 20, 1906, 2:15 AM LMT, 38N38, 90W12. This appears to be close to Manning, SC, but not exactly there, and the exactly location isn't stated.

Nooo.
33N42, 80W13 is Manning, SC.
38N38, 90W12 is St. Louis, MO.

Ah.OK. I just used the coordinates anyway

Jim Lewis wrote about a woman who used his Astro*Carto*Graphy product to win $11,00 0 on dollar slots after playing for ten minutes in Vegas

To relocate her natal or SSR or both?

Arena wrote: Sun Jul 30, 2017 2:54 am

Jim Lewis wrote about a woman who used his Astro*Carto*Graphy product to win $11,00 0 on dollar slots after playing for ten minutes in Vegas

To relocate her natal or SSR or both?

I haven't read the whole article yet.

"Are Lottery Millions in Your Future?" by Mary Hughes

She tells the story of a Massachusetts Lottery winner, bon September 1, 1937, 9:31 AM EDT, 42N17, 72W25. This appears to be Belcherton, MA. So far as you can tell such things from a birth chart, this would tend to be considered a lucky nativity, with Jupiter in Sagittarius just over a degree from IC. Moon is also foreground, a few degrees off MC in her own sign, Cancer. Jupiter is partile trine Neptune, which wouldn't normally be expected to bring out its best side, but certainly didn't hurt it here.

In fact, this chart has an unusally large number of dignified planets: Moon is in Cancer, Sun is in Leo, Mercury is stationary in Virgo, Mars is in Scorpio, Jupiter is in Sagittarius. That's half the planets.

This woman won $2,700,000 on March 17, 1984. In 2017 dollars, that's equal to almost $6.4 million.

Her location for the win isn't specified. One might guess that she couldn't be that far from birth place (it was, after all, the Massachusetts lottery), but this may not be true at all. It is better to exclude techniques that are dependent on location.

I don't respect much of anything the author uses to analyze the natal or the timing of the event, so lets take a look for ourselves.

TRANSITS:
t Pluto sq. r Venus -50'
t Uranus conj. r Mars +52'
t Saturn ssq. r Mercury +30'
[t Jupiter tr. r Sun +53']
[t Mars tr. r Moon +16']
t. Venus ssq. r Jupiter +34'

Except for the Saturn transit to Mercury, all of these are consistent with what we might expect.

PROGRESSIONS:
We begin with an incredibly bizarre aspect! None of the rest are exactly textbook. Except the very long-term Jupiter progression.
p Moon conj. p Saturn 01'
p Moon tr. p Pluto 06'
-- p Saturn tr. p Pluto 05' (r Pluto 36')
-- p Saturn op. r Mercury 20'
-- p Moon op. r Mercury 19'
p Mars tr. p Uranus 13'
p Jupiter op. r MC 14'
p Mercury conj. p Asc 23'
p Sun ssq. r Sun 37'
p Venus sqq. r Uranus 35' (p Uranus 40')
p Jupiter tr. p Neptune 41'

Ah, but there it is - I almost missed it in the list of things - progressed Jupiter had been opposite natal MC for many years, but when progressed Mercury conjoined natal Ascendant, it turned it into a Mercury-Jupiter co-angularity.

SOLUNARS:
Absent a location for the time of the win, we can't check these. If we try for birth place, as if she were living nearby, they are quite useless.

"Officer Drago's $500,000 Instant Winner Lunch" by Isaac Armstrong, Jr.

Natal: August 11, 1929, 5:30 AM CST, 88W04, 30N41
Event: April 30, 1982, 3:30 PM CDT, 30N41, 88W07

This is the story of a copy who got an "Instant Winner" ticket at McDonald's, winning half a million dollars. He beat odds of 400,000,000-to-1 to win.

TRANSITS: Only one partile at the time of the win: transiting Sun opposite natal Moon 0°05'.

PROGESSIONS:
For starters, something Steve saw in other winners: progressed Sun opposite Uranus 0°06'. There's a Mercury-Pluto also. The Sun-Uranus squared his SNQ Ascendant at the time of the win (though there was also transiting Venus at MC squared by Saturn and Neptune - less than pleasant. Maybe his lunch disagreed with him? <vbg>)

SOLUNARS:
I'm not too impressed with these, though the SLR has natal Jupiter exactly setting and natal Mars exactly on MC - which sounds like a big spending spree to me. The Demi-SLR is more exciting, though, with Uranus conjunct MC and natal Sun setting.

when progressed Mercury conjoined natal Ascendant, it turned it into a Mercury-Jupiter co-angularity.

So are you telling me that with my new relocated paran of Mer-Jup plus my recently started SSR with Sun and Uranus angular and tr. Jup conj my n. Uranus and square my n. MC and tr. Uranus trine my n.Jup that I should maybe start gambling? I think you are giving me hints to try my chances

You have an Aries luminary. Arietians pick up all kind of filthy habits

Jim Eshelman wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:11 am You have an Aries luminary. Arietians pick up all kind of filthy habits

OMG and I who don't have any filthy habits except maybe my hot temper if that counts, I have to find some to live up to being Aries

Yes. Be more flailingly self-destructive. Surely you can find a few ways to meaningfully ruin your life beyond redemption or recovery.

OMG that sounds so horrible

Alcohol dementia, gambling addiction, suicide, homicide convictions, and just generally getting into trouble a lot and giving local police a lot of job security... Aries luminaries are perfectly useful if you choose to try any of these exciting ways to crash and burn.

(To casual readers: Arena and I are both joking.) (Well, she's not joking about it sounding terrible )

Arena play the UK National Lottery and Euromillions. You can buy tickets online for several weeks at once and when you remember to check the numbers, you can do that online too. Don't watch the drawings, just check the numbers online. Far less chance of addiction because it cuts down the variable reward cycle.

"$11,000 on a $1 Slot Machine" by Jim Lewis

Jim tells the story of a woman who came up to him at an Astro*Carto*Graphy lecture to ask about her Jupiter line near Las Vegas. He asked if she'd been there before, and she said, yes, and she'd won a few hundred dollars. he told her,

"If I were you, I'd go right back as soon as I could. And I'd try gambling at a time when your transiting Sun or Moon (or better yet both of them) conjoins natal Jupiter, and in the local Midheaven."

She took his advice and won $11,000 on a $1 slot, after playing for 10 minutes.

The woman, Shirley, was born December 5, 1944, 9:22 PM CWT, 39N06, 94W35. Her win occurred October 24, 1981, 11:55 AM PDT, 36N10, 115W09.

Shirley's chart for Las Vegas has Jupiter 1°27' west of IC. It also has Saturn 2°12' above Ascendant: we'll come back to that later.

Her win occurred with Moon nearly a degree past conjunction with her Jupiter. Transiting Jupiter was minutes from local Midheaven. Look at the chart for the win, though, because there are other things near angles: Pluto looks like it's right there, but it's really about 8° off. (But it's fair to say that the culminating Jupiter is closely conjunct Pluto ecliptically.) Her Mercury is 3°38' below Ascendant, her Saturn 4°54' above Dsc (they are 5° apart in opposition ecliptically, but just over a degree mundanely).

Jim also points out that she has a Jupiter-Uranus paran for the latitude of Las Vegas. (Their actual intersection is in Afghanistan.)

SQ Asc squared her natal Venus for Las Vegas (and transiting Venus was just outside a 1° orb of her SSR IC - maybe some of the partying came after!).

PS - Her Demi-SSR also had Jupiter and Saturn sharing Midheaven, while her Sun set. Moon exactly squared Pluto.

Now about that natal Saturn rising in Las Vegas. Jim called this, "Saturn Demands His Commission." There was a nice, easy win, and then there was paying the piper: It seems that Shirley, while travelling there with two friends, made a pact that they would split their winnings, thereby improving everyone's odds. So she only got to keep a third of the winnings.

Jim then also gave some more short, flitting examples in the last paragraphs, mentioning other people who had striking ACG results at spots for planet crossings.

I notice that Shirley had a Lunar Return just a couple of days before the win. For Las Vegas, it doesn't have significant transiting angularity, but it does place her Jupiter (and, a little more widely, her Mercury-Jupiter) near the angles. But the SLR seems to have set up when she was still in her home town, so that puts Saturn a few degrees from Ascendant, but a Mercury-Jupiter-Pluto tight conjunct with Mercury and Jupiter conjunct Eastpoint, all three square natal Venus. (Nice time for a vacation.)

I think that's all of them.

If you want more examples to look at, this google search will get you examples from astro data-bank of mostly lottery winners. Places, dates and sometimes times of birth and of winning.