Archaeological discovery of earliest Christian writings?

I've just been reading in the news today (BBC Online) about the archaeological discovery of ‘metal books’, almost 2000 years old, in Jordan. The books are made of lead and it appears that they were discovered hidden in a cave sometime around 2005 to 2007.  

 

2005-7 was when Saturn was opposite Neptune: concrete (Saturn) or rather lead (Saturn) evidence of the very earliest writings of Christianity (Neptune). They were also exposed by a flash flood (Neptune).

The Saturn-Jupiter opposition was exact yesterday, The exact opposition also contacts Neptune, though only by minor aspect. Neptune is in sesquiquadrate aspect with Saturn (reflecting back to the opposition of 2005-7) and semi-square Jupiter. 

I'm wondering how well the negotiations for them will go, given the importance of the discovery, and the number of planets in Aries at the moment. Tempers may get frayed.

See close-up photos here.

Gary Oldman - Empire Icon award.

He's one of my favourite actors, so I was really chuffed to hear that Gary Oldman has just won the Empire 'Icon' award. (If anyone has the time he received the award, I'd appreciate that as I wasn't watching). The Empire movie awards were held at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. 


Gary Oldman starred in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' played Sid in 'Sid and Nancy', and had noted roles in Dark Knight, the Harry Potter films (as Sirius Black) and The Fifth Element, among many others. He's just finished filming a version of John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Colin Firth.

Please note, I don't have a time of birth for Gary, so I'm using a noon chart, but appropriately, transiting Uranus is exactly conjunct his natal Sun in Aries right now. Transiting Jupiter is also conjunct his natal Moon-Mercury conjunction in Aries (with transiting Saturn opposite).

I've also been taking note of possible 'recurrence transits' in charts recently. This is when aspects between two planets in a natal chart repeat at significant times in a person's life. It seems Gary's natal Sun-Uranus trine is currently reflected in the Sun-Uranus conjunction which is in orb but now separating. Interesting. His natal Uranus is also in Leo, (acting) so the Uranus-Sun transit emphasising the effect of this double-whammy already in his chart. Transiting Sun is also trine his natal Uranus, further emphasising the effect.  It was his birthday last Monday. Belated Happy Birthday Gary, what a great present! :)

Picture source - Jasmin Hunter via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia banning astrology-friendly editors?

I've just read Robert Currey's note about Wikipedia banning astrology-friendly editors. Visiting the Wikipedia page, I was quite shocked to see the changes that have been made to 'Astrology' - now horribly far from a balanced view. It's both saddened me and made my blood boil (with all the Aries energy about at the moment). I'm still working my way through the Discussion (tab on the same page), the early part made me feel like tearing my hair out.

I first came across this on Twitter today - the link from there is to a note posted on the Equinox Astrology Facebook page. It's all very drawn out and complicated (for me at least!) by all Wikipedia's red tape and elaborate rules of editing, but it's worth familiarising yourself (if you're an astrologer or astrology student) with what's happening, and the attitudes involved. Read all the comments underneath. If you have plenty of time, read the Discussion on the Wikipedia page. Hopefully then, anyone conversant with Wikipedia and its editing protocols (not me!) might be able to help out. I feel frustrated and wish there was more I could do to help, apart from talk/rant about it here.

Astrology seems beset on all sides, however: the issues with Prof. Brian Cox, Dara O’Briains and the Minnesota malarky, which I'm sure you've seen in the news, (see Deborah Houlding's article in answer to the Cox and Minnesota criticisms on her Skyscript website) preceded this new 'editing war' on Wikipedia. Please go to the Astrological Association website (click the image below) for more info and help if you can. I'd been planning on adding this link and kept forgetting: now it seems much more topical.

On a lighter note, the Wikipedia issue then led me on to discovering the Astrology News Service web page, and their article on the Carlson Double-Blind Experiment, along with Robert Currey's in-depth article on the same subject. I'm hoping the latter information got more of an airing further down the 'edit war', but I've been there hours reading it now, and it's time for bed! I'll update tomorrow if so. 

Update (June 2011) - I recently read more about this on Deb Houlding's Facebook page, and eventually arrived at an article she has written on the AA website giving the background to the AA's petition, which is very informative. Deb is currently trying to decide whether to become a Wikipedia editor herself.

Full Moon in Virgo today is a 'Supermoon'

Today's Full Moon in Virgo, exact at 6.10pm GMT, is a 'supermoon' - the moon is full at the point when it's at (or very near) it's closest point to the earth in its orbit. It will appear bigger in the sky. I think it's by about 15% but don't quote me on that!
This is a term coined by Richard Nolle in 1979, and it's received some publicity lately in the news, so here are some links to explain the term some more.

1.    Richard Nolle's explanation of supermoons on his website

2.    Richard's article, which the Mountain Astrologer recently posted on their website.

It'll be opposing my natal Chiron in Pisces from the 3rd house (3rd-9th).
Check your own chart to see if it's touching on anything (within a degree of orb). The Moon will be at 28 degrees 48 minutes of Virgo.

You can click on the image to make it bigger. I'm now flushed with success at actually managing to post a picture to my blog, woohoo, go me! I will get the hang of all this :)

Science of Intuition

The Institute of Noetic Sciences just posted Rupert Sheldrake talking to Dean Radin (via Facebook) here on the IONS website. I don't know about anyone else, but I have often had the experience of thinking of someone, and then having them call me.

My cat Charlie, years ago, used to always come out of the back of the house to sit on the wall a minute before I arrived back from work, even though I didn't arrive at the same time each day. My house-mates informed me of this, otherwise I would never have known!


I do have a strong Neptune in my chart, not sure if Charlie did ;)

Some great astrology on Facebook

I've just discovered that The Mountain Astrologer has a Facebook page!

As does:

Faculty of Astrological Studies 
Astrological Association of Great Britain
Horoscopic Astrology Blog, (Chris Brennan) 
American Federation of Astrologers
Association for Astrological Networking
National Council for Geocosmic Research
Association for Young Astrologers

And just a plug for our local group: Exeter Astrology Group
Please note - I post all the links to videos I find about serious astrology, along with other article links, on this page, so please go there to explore if you use Facebook. 

If I come across more on my Facebook meanderings, I'll come back and add them. Hopefully all the above links will work. If they don't, just try googling 'Facebook' and the name of the group or page :)

Uranus enters Aries and I enter the world of blogging - tentatively!

I'm still reeling from the effects of all these images of the massive earthquake in Japan today, and also aware of just how much faster paced and frantic everything has started to feel, even in the last few days. All my astrological reading has been focused around Uranus - obsessively so, in fact. And yet, I can't stay on any one track, I'm jumping around like a live wire, which seems highly appropriate. 

This is just a brief few lines to start the blog officially. I'm not really sure what I'm doing in this medium, or indeed how to connect with anyone else out there - like-minded astrological types particularly. But it's a start. I'll begin to feed in some of my recent scribblings when I start to get the hang of things. In the meantime, hello to anyone who may start reading. Even if I just end up talking to myself, the need to get some of this outpouring expressed in some intelligible way is helpful.

This is my chart, for anyone who is interested :)