New Essays are up! September 30, 2010

[Noel Tyl]

New Essays are Up!

Analytical Techniques:

An Easy Way with Duads
By guest astrologer Alice McDermott

Counseling Insights:

Reframing Client Questions


Notebook:

Hearing the Melody


Please dig into these ideas and discuss them!

Noel Tyl

[Jessica]

The Notebook essay brought up questions. How do you handle hemisphere analyses when nearly everything is evenly occupied? The distribution in my chart is indecisive. Also, I know the peregrine island, but what if you have an aspect forming and only one half (planet) has a major aspect? This is the case with my Moon, there's just an opposition to Saturn, but Saturn is widely opposite Venus and square Jupiter. Does it play out similarly to a peregrine island?

[Helen Erskine-Behr]

Wonderful essays! And timely!

Hello Alice,

Thank you so much for your fascinating essay. I've just had a ball looking at my Duad chart for the very first time using Solar Fire Deluxe. I look forward to hours of delving into this new domain! Your contributions to this forum and astrology as a whole is nothing short of inspiring!

Dear Noel,
 
This afternoon I had a lady call me to book a consultation and she said on the telephone, "I want to know about my relationships and when I'm likely to meet someone". I said to her, "I look at what patterns in relationship, including the one you have to yourself, may be changed and evolved to help bring the kind of love you're looking for, into your life. But I can't tell you exactly when you will meet someone. Your input and the energy around you in the next 12-18 months will tell us a lot". She sounded satisfied with that. For now. 

A dear friend of mine, recently shared with me a message she received from spirit. I think it's lovely and I strongly related to it. I have printed it out for a couple of clients that I thought would appreciate and respond to the sentiment. I feel compelled to share it now with you (and the world!). So many people can benefit from this kind of outlook on love and relationships:-

'Love is an essence that we are all seeking in our lives and a very prevalent question for you as you so often feel the absence of a partner in your life.

And yet you know you are truly loved. You feel it with your friends, your colleagues and your family. Sometimes that love feels too small because you have decided that a partner’s is a big love and a more constant presence. 

And yet when you look deep inside there is a knowing that there is great love already within your life. 

In actuality a partner, although a deep and intimate love, will actually be a smaller part of your 'love life' than you imagine and friendship love with its rainbow of colours is a more vast part of the love that feeds you.

So know that while you are single there is a small part that has yet to be filled but there is a richness of love already in your life. 

Sometimes you feel there is too much space and it feels like emptiness. But this is really the space designed for you to nurture yourself with self love - another part essential for a whole love-life.'

Noel, just last night I was talking to another Australian astrologer (one doing your course too!) about how I read a particular chart. I kept saying, "I just feel that.. I just feel that..". Ah. Perhaps someone who is well versed in music, such as yourself, "hears the melody", while others who are tone deaf like myself "feel it".  Honestly though, I get it. I hear it when I'm synthesising a horoscope. And it is often thrilling. And it is thanks to your teaching. Thank you so much!

Helen Erskine-Behr

[Barbara Ybarra]

Thank you to both of you.  Alice, I am saving your article till later when I have more time.  Off to a Celtic music festival this morning.

Noel, it is so good to know that a master Astrologer such as yourself can have a whole consultation in which the synthesis has been brought out, and yet someone still pops that question.  "Reframing the Client's Question" essay is very helpful.  I have lately anticipated that question after having been stumped by it at the end a few times.  Did they even HEAR what they themselves just said about their own subconscious approach in relationships?  It's not the WHEN but the HOW that will matter, but as you say, it's a valid question and maybe they have been listening after all.

"Hearing the Melody" is a wonderful essay using that analogy.  I wouldn't mind seeing a whole book on it, coming from the maestro.  My husband keeps insisting that all the good melodies have already been written.  Sounds like a creative cop-out, or those women who say all the good men have already been taken, but I think I know what he means.  He knows more about music than I'll ever learn, so maybe he's right.  Carrying that thought into astrology, perhaps all the good melodies in horoscopes have already been written, and we are just variations on the theme.

Barbara Ybarra

[pdw]

Alice, like most, I appreciate and look forward to your participation on the Forum.  Thanks in advance for this essay.  I'm squirreling it away for when my mind needs something fresh and new in the mix.   

Noel, maybe Barbara is on to something about a book idea... Your essay made me think of the Music of the Spheres - still a grand concept, in my opinion, and particularly for some modern astrologer-instrumentalists - you, Rudhyar, Basil.  Others?  I came across the term Musica Humana today.  I don't know much about its history but immediately saw a fit with your paean to listen for the individual melody.  As always, thanks for the learning spark, Noel.               

[Halina]

     Thanks for the masterpiece on Duads and Dwads, Alice.   You made it so easy to interpret.  I use a biwheel for 2 people comparisons, natal of one person inside and the dwad or duad chart of the outside, or I'd do a "swap" for IC-MC.  I will be doing family biwheels this week, me and dad, me and mom, me and friends etc.
What a wonderful idea for synastry studies.  Does this idea work for one's relocation compatability with a city or country chart???  also for Mundane synastry???  For example  USA and Israel, USA and North Korea???  Thanx again, Halina

[Alice Portman]

Thank you all for your comments.  I would be interested in feedback when you do the duad connections.

Halina I think it does work in Mundane Astrology and astrology between people and nations. 

I have an article here: http://aliceportman.com/?p=1153 about the connection between Australia's duad chart and the charts of its Prime Ministers.

Alice McDermott

[Jill Amery]

Dear Alice and Noel

Great essays, thank you!  The learning never stops on this fabulous forum.

Alice, your duads and dwads are another invaluable key in synastry.  While the natal-duad connections suggest a strong link between two people, I wonder if any inference can be drawn about how durable a contact or relationship is over time, though?  I have a synastry session shortly with a client and of course every client wants to know whether the relationship is likely to last.  I reply that while astrological contacts might be strong and the couple seem compatible and empathetic with each other, that every relationship will experience ups and downs and much is dependent on how committed to the relationship each person is, to make it work and last.  Outer planet transits for example to significant planetary links between the two, will usually challenge the relationship.  Your thoughts would be appreciated!  And yes I will give you feedback.

Noel, your client question “when will I meet someone?” is so appropriate.  I often think this question is really about “when will I find myself?” – a space in him or herself is perceived to be missing and might be completed by another.  But, as you say, “the reality is within”, indeed.  The sense of entitlement in partnership terms is something almost everyone feels … but being open to change so often needs to be part of that concept.

“Hearing the Melody” – yes, we certainly heard that in Sydney when you delighted us with an unexpected, beautiful rendition of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini!  That was an unforgettable way to illustrate the contrast between synthesis of the horoscope which can become art, and should seem and be (almost!) effortless as true art always is, as opposed to the piecemeal analysis so often performed which demeans the horoscope, the life and the person.

Jill

[Helen Erskine-Behr]

The Notebook essay brought up questions. How do you handle hemisphere analyses when nearly everything is evenly occupied? The distribution in my chart is indecisive. Also, I know the peregrine island, but what if you have an aspect forming and only one half (planet) has a major aspect? This is the case with my Moon, there's just an opposition to Saturn, but Saturn is widely opposite Venus and square Jupiter. Does it play out similarly to a peregrine island?

Hi Jessica,

Hope you don't mind me answering your question..

There is not necessarily a hemisphere emphasis in every horoscope. If however, one hemisphere has retrograde planets, the opposite hemisphere is important. In my horoscope, most planets reside in the East and North of my chart- and I can relate to a North/Eastern hemisphere emphasis- defensiveness (east) which relates to the early home life (North).

If two planets are in conjunction and one has a Ptolemaic aspect with another planet, I personally would NOT consider this is a peregrine island. Only if both planets are unaspected. 

Cheers,
Helen

[Jessica]

Hmmm...my planets are in the East, that's decisive, but North and South are even. By what you suggest I should look to the West since Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are in the East and Rx, but I actually relate to the self-protection associated with the East. Even though it's West in orientation, my Sun and Moon in 4th house adds to self-protective behavior.
With my Moon there's no conjunction, just that opposition. I find its influence strong however it's looked at.

[Helen Erskine-Behr]

Hi again Jessica,

If you like, you can email me your birth details to hel73eb@yahoo.com.au and we can sort out if you have a hemisphere emphasis in about 10 seconds.  I'd be happy to help and explain.

Kind Regards,
Helen

[Barbara Ybarra]

Hi Alice:

Thank you for the essay and the nice Duad chart.  I like duads better than dwads, I think.  It certainly could explain attractions between people that don't have any other astrological basis.  I am wondering why people would respond to something so subtle in themselves in those cases where the attraction is only their duads, even if it is very close.  Interesting. 

I've never thought about duads much except where the planets or angles are within 2 degrees of the beginning or end of the sign, either reinforcing the sign, or drawing it back into the previous sign.  Not to be confused of course with the rather annoying term "cusp" that astrological beginners refer to.

My own rising sign is in the duad of my natal Sun sign, although I haven't done the math to see how exact.  Does that mean I'm stuck on myself?

Barbara Ybarra   

[robert.crawford43]

Dear Jessica

Hello to you and all forum readers.
I have not posted a reply before, so may I start by saying "I do hope I have followed the correct proceedure" to link up with your questions on hemisphere grouping and retrogrades, Jessica.
May I first suggest reading "all planets are squares" Noel's S&C page 103.
Here's how I approach your queries. Planets determine the psychological function, the hemisphere the environment in which it plays out. If you have a retrograde planet it counterpoints to the opposing house, therefore opposite hemisphere and the theme that relates to.
Using myself as an example. I have Venus retrograde in 3,so it counterpoints to developmental tensions played out in the 9th House - considering Venutian concerns. i.e. what I stand for and utilising my resources (3) in consideration to others values and resourceful behaviours (9). Of course we then consider all the other analytical techniques Noel offers - dispositors, corroborating factors etc.
I do hope this has helped
regards Rob

[In Stitches]

Hi Noel,

I think the whole country is singing Dick Cheney's melody right now....  Love that article.  The other article starts right off with the big ugly relationship question.  Right on.  I think this is my favorite of all your articles so far and has reframed my attitude about how to answer that and questions like that in the future.  A long time ago I told a Libra that she ought to consider a Capricorn guy and within 6 months she was married to one.  That would have been ok if she hadn't already been married and divorced twice and obviously had deeper issues to look at.  Maybe when people ask the relationship question we should automatically add a divorce date.  Funny how they never ask about that.

Alice, thanks so much for the article on the dwads and duads.  I'm going to try to use this in my research on children of divorce.  In particular I think it might help the stepmothers, who are the only ones who seem to want to talk about how stressful the whole situation is.  Genetics is a big problem for kids growing up in divorce.  I'm excited that there are so many articles on your website!

[Noel Tyl]

  Please... a reminder:

The New Essays are in place:


Analytical Techniques:

An Easy Way with Duads
By guest astrologer Alice McDermott

Counseling Insights:

Reframing Client Questions

Notebook:

Hearing the Melody

---And please browse the quarter-million words of essays in the archives of each department!

Noel Tyl