Should Have Posted Over Here

[Ken Haining]

Ah, I posted under Noel's essays.  Since this is the general astrology section, my test should have been done over here.  Should I raise the astrological question of why I am dyslexic?  I really am, that is not me just trying to be funny.  Anyway, so far so good. 

Ken

[Ken Haining]

I am replying to my own post just to test it out.  In the second grade I was tested for mental retardation because I had so much trouble reading and with numbers.  They gave me, for what it's worth, an IQ test, and I scored really high.  They determined that I was dyslexic, not retarded.  Dyslexia, by the way, is not really a disability.  While it makes reading letters and numbers that are two dimensional difficult, it has advantages in spacial perception.  Every now and then I have wondered if it there is an astrological correlate for dyslexia?  There probably is.  Right now the test is whether or not I am navigating this new message board correctly. 

Ken

[MelissaK]

A reply to you!  Funny that everyone is a Newbie, even Noel.

[Alice Portman]

Ah, I posted under Noel's essays.  Since this is the general astrology section, my test should have been done over here.  Should I raise the astrological question of why I am dyslexic?  I really am, that is not me just trying to be funny.  Anyway, so far so good. 

Ken

Hi Ken

Can you post your birthdata?

My youngest son is very dyslexic.  He has Mercury retrograde in Pisces in 9th house, ruler of the third house and in a three degree square to Saturn.

I have checked out charts with various forms of difficulties with perception and have found the asteroid Pallas Athene seems to play quite a big part.  In my son's chart it is sesiquadrate the Ascendant.

My son experienced Neptune square transits most of his early school years and this made his dyslexia worse.  He completely lost confidence in himself and felt he was stupid until a teacher took him under her wing, greatly helped him and explained about dyslexia to the whole class.

I spent quite a lot of money on various therapies to help him and I think, overall, they did.

As an adult it is not a great handicap, except for spelling and he uses spell checkers all the time.  He write poetry, stories, was a producer of a television show and has his own business connected to the media.  He has a wonderful imagination and a quirky sense of humour.

Alice McDermott

[Ken Haining]

Hi Alice.

My birth data is 10/10/52, 12:02 PM, Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. 

I still have my second grade report card with the comments by the teacher.  She left me back, but the principal overrode her and pushed me up to the third grade based on my score on the IQ test.  Back then very little was known about dyslexia, other than it caused reading, spelling, and number problems.  You tend to reverse letters and numbers.  I remember my 8th grade math teacher making fun of me because I read an equation backwards, from right to left.  It was OK, as he really liked me, and I was top of the class in spite of my problems.  All the school counselors told me was I had to work harder. 

I still have to consciously think about my left and right hands, and which is which. I also have a lot of trouble figuring out which direction I am going in.   My Dad always used to say, "Ken can get lost in a telephone booth."  Ah, telephone booths.  Another blast from the past.  Like typewriters. 

I really didn't learn how to spell a lot of words correctly until college, and I could actually misspell a word when I was copying it from the dictionary.  No spell checkers back then, but the counsel that, "You just have to work harder," actually served me well.  It was always funny that I would have to look up the word, "dyslexia" when I wanted to use it. 

I'm glad your son did so well.  Tell me what you see on my chart that you think relates.

Thanks
Ken

[Dana Nourie]

I'm dyslexic in a big way, but yes I am a professional writer, and I do programming, and overcame my learning disorders, mostly by leaving teachers out of the picture and teaching myself. I can't learn in your typical step 1 to step 10 manner, but instead have to start with Step 8, go to Step 3, then to 6, then to 1, then to 10, and around I go. In that manner, I learn quite well, but there are few teachers willing to jump around material like that.

I have Mercury in Gemini, trine Saturn, square Jupiter, which I think helps my writing abilities. That Scorpio Ascendant represents how I dig down into topics, rather than surface jumping like you might see in other Geminis. But I do a lot of surface jumping as well.

[sunflower]

Responding to Ken and Alice, I have found Mercury in Pisces to be indicative of a bountiful mind - a mind that has no boundaries, can deal with huge information loads that would be daunting to say the least to others. Well with Jupiter as Ruler of Merucury in Pisces then it's not to be wondered at is it? I know one swallow doesnt not make a summer and I'd need over 200 charts to test this theory and to have knowledge of the people involved.

One is my son and the other one of my Astrology teachers from early days.

I also can out numbers back to front - I like to start with the rows of numbers goping down, on the right hand side, then go to the left and down again! Always did this at work! Maybe I was a scribe in Ancient Egypt? I believe I  can play golf left handed. Just the way we use the gifts the Universe has given us. 

sunflower

[Ken Haining]

Hi Dana.

I too found that it was best to work my problems out my own way.  Dyslexia, even in many publications, is erroneously defined as a reading disorder.  While it causes some problems with reading, that is not the essence of it.  Dyslexics see the world in a much more three dimensional fashion.  It is an advantage is fields such as rocket science and sculpting.  In those fields the non dyslexics are the "disabled" ones. 

The reason why teachers fail with dyslexics, many times, is because they approach it strictly as a reading disorder, and not as a different condition of the mind that has both advantages and disadvantages.  Keeping this in mind, an astrological correlate for dyslexia might not be what someone would think.  My personal opinion is that any astrological correlate for dyslexia would indicated both difficulties and advantages, not just difficulties. 

As for writing, I for one am glad for computers and the backspace button.  I am old enough to remember struggling with reversed letters on my typing, and "white out," or "liquid paper."  What a mess!  I remember when they came out with the correction tape on the more modern typewriters, it was such a relief!  And then came word processors and really nice printers.  Cheers for the Age of Aquarius!

Thanks for responding
Ken

[sunflower]

Ken,

Do you recall the days of The Wang Machines' ? They were the front runners to computers with word processing made so much easier and led the charge that was to come with the CRT and Dasiy wheel printer!  Dr An Wang was born in Shanghai on February 07, 1920 - I dont have a time. His name An Wang means 'Peaceful King' . He never set out to aquire riches , just to invent something gthat would help people to be able to calculate easily.  My copy of his book is autographed by Dr Wang.

sunflower

[Ken Haining]

Hi Sunflower.

Dead brain cells are coming to life as I struggle to remember the Wang machines.  Vaguely.  But yes, I do remember them. 

It is amazing how fast we went from stuff like that, to daisy wheel typewriters with correction tapes, to dot matrix printers working with DOS programs, to Mac and Windows programs with laser printers, and finally the more affordable bubble jet printers.  Welcome to the Age of Aquarius where today's technology is a distant memory in about ten years.  Remember Omega computers?  They were the top of the line for computer graphics for a few years. 

Do you remember rotary phones?  I need to go find one and hook it up just for the experience.

Remember Noel's old message forum?

Ken

[sunflower]

Ken,

Glad the brain cells were just napping! I loved the Wang days myself although I was an accounting machine operator! I really thrived on that type of work. NCR, Olivetti, Burroughs all gone now, and I recall the Munro calculators and the punch cards!

sunflower 

[Ken Haining]

Hi Sunflower.

My astrologer, Lionel Day, was so excited when Texas instruments came out with pocket calculators.  I think they cost something like $50 back then, which in circa 1973 was a bit of money.  He said it made doing charts so much easier.  He would be almost 100 years old if he were still alive now.  I wonder what he would have said about today's astrology programs for the PC?

Ken

[sunflower]

Ken,

There is something about knowing how to manually draw up a Natal Chart. I'm glad it is still part of most classes many Astrologer offer today still. I didnt mind it once I got used to it. But as to what Lionel Day would say about todays Palm calcs, Blackberries, etc would be interesting to say the least. Now I think of Ptolomey and William Lilly! The mind does boggle!

By rotaray phnes do you mean the ones with the round dail we put our fingers in and pulled around the dial to call our number?
All Big Fish Jump Like Mad Under Water Except Yabbies?And now we have 1300-flowers?

sunflower 

[Ken Haining]

Yes, Sunflower.  The phone with the round dial. 

I went to the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, New York, when I was but a lad.  One of the great new inventions was the push button phone by AT&T.  It was metal.  The face was metal, and the buttons were metal, steel.  Hey, that World War 2 generation knew how to make tough stuff.

They really didn't catch on until the 70s, and then mostly in businesses.  When I left New York in 1975, my parents still only had rotary phones in their house.  And the first wireless phones were terrible.

What does this have to do with astrology?  Just the fast paced change in technology since the early 80s hit.  The song, Aquarius, that the 5th Dimension Did in 1969 was a nice tune, but this is the real age of Aquarius.  (I can even watch them doing that song on youtube!) 

By the way, even though we punch in phone numbers on today's phones, we still say we are dialing.

Now please tell me you remember phonographs. 

Ken

[Alice Portman]

Hi Alice.

My birth data is 10/10/52, 12:02 PM, Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. 

I still have my second grade report card with the comments by the teacher.  She left me back, but the principal overrode her and pushed me up to the third grade based on my score on the IQ test.  Back then very little was known about dyslexia, other than it caused reading, spelling, and number problems.  You tend to reverse letters and numbers.  I remember my 8th grade math teacher making fun of me because I read an equation backwards, from right to left.  It was OK, as he really liked me, and I was top of the class in spite of my problems.  All the school counselors told me was I had to work harder. 

I still have to consciously think about my left and right hands, and which is which. I also have a lot of trouble figuring out which direction I am going in.   My Dad always used to say, "Ken can get lost in a telephone booth."  Ah, telephone booths.  Another blast from the past.  Like typewriters. 

I really didn't learn how to spell a lot of words correctly until college, and I could actually misspell a word when I was copying it from the dictionary.  No spell checkers back then, but the counsel that, "You just have to work harder," actually served me well.  It was always funny that I would have to look up the word, "dyslexia" when I wanted to use it. 

I'm glad your son did so well.  Tell me what you see on my chart that you think relates.

Thanks
Ken

Hi Ken

I found it interesting that the ruler of your 3rd house, Neptune, is sesiquadrate your 3rd Koch cusp.  It is in the same degree as my son's Uranus-IC. You both have a Moon-Uranus conjunction with Uranus also parallel an angle.  He has his Moon in Libra, you have yours in the 7th house.

So the factors you have in common are 21-22 Libra,  Neptune-Pisces-9th house,  Moon-Uranus, Uranus parallel an angle.  This fits the dyslexic ability to see the world in quite a different way.

You also have Pallas Athene in a 3 degree 49 minute square to the Ascendant from the 3rd house.  Did anything important happen in your life at the relevant age?  e.g. at age 9 months my son was being tossed around in a cyclone and though there was no physical damage I wondered if that had anything to do with his dyslexia as that was also the time that Pallas Athene had moved by Solar Arc to an exact sesiquadrate to his Ascendant.

Interesting that you had problems with left-right and directions, because whenever Mercury turns retrograde I have the same problems and can easily get lost, even in an area I usually know well.

Alice McDermott