Angry Grandmas In Argentina

(* thanks to everyone interested in the course on basic celestial mechanics. I love the subject. I’ll open it soon enough, probably next week).

One of the most mind-boggling parts of the Pink Book (John Frawley’s “Sport Astrology”) is the “A Day at the Races” chapter.

John Addey’s method is… weird.

It uses every aspect known, every celestial body — even asteroids; more about that below — and Campanus houses.

(Campanus is weird for me because it looks like “Bad Regiomontanus”. The houses are divided according to the Prime Vertical, not the Celestial Equator. And if you have no idea of what I’m talking about, maybe the course I mentioned above could help you).

But it works. Addey was denied entry in some betting houses, which means he got money from it.

From my limited experience, there is something to the method.

However, it’s not regular enough — at least, not enough for me to become the next Elon Musk, although I was able on some occasions to profit from horse betting.

I want to talk about one occasion in which I did not. A very recent one — it happened yesterday.

You must understand that I’m lazy.

I hate having to check all possible weird stuff, especially weird stuff that my software doesn’t calculate. So, what I do is to have a quick look at the charts — if one shows an immediate aspect between the fifth house and a planet (the winner in these charts is given by the first thing that the cusp of that house hits, when one imagines everything else frozen and the cusp advancing), I try to judge it; if not, I just ignore the race and move on.

I usually look at all the races from a certain course, for the same reason. Yesterday I did Palermo, in Argentina, and the only one which promised anything was the 18:10.

This is the chart.

Mars will receive an immediate aspect. OK, now all we have to do is search, among the names of the horses, which ones are Mars-like. Hopefully, one that incorporates either something from Libra, the eighth house (Mars is on the cusp), or from the houses Mars rules.

And, of course, as it usually happens, most of them do.

I first thought of “Rompe Cadenas” (“Breaks Chains”). On second thoughts, it would be more fitting if Mars was in Aries, the fall of Saturn (“chains”), not its exaltation, as it’s the case here.

There were also “Love Winning” and “Abuela Furiosa” (Angry Grandmother), which was my other choice — Mars in a Venus + Saturn sign.

“Rompe Cadenas” didn’t even place. But, sure enough, Love Winning and Abuela Furiosa were there.

What I didn’t expect was to see “Subversiva Johan”. There might have been any weird “new aspect”, or any minor object, that I missed, but it didn’t fit Mars at all.

Then, I thought about the asteroids. Yep, this is me, looking at asteroids. I used astro.com, with every asteroid whose name began with Joa or Joha (I had to do it twice, there were too many of them).

And there it was. Asteroid number 26333, “Joachim”, at 24 11’ Gemini. Its antiscion was at 5 49’ Cancer, on the cusp.

Does it mean it always happens like that? Probably not. Is it weird? You bet. But this is the only connection I found between “Johan the female subversive” and this chart.

John Frawley always say we should pay attention to planets that are about to change, or that have just changed, their dignity/debility in the natal chart.

This is something I have seen over and over, and it works beautifully. It’s as if the planet wants to show itself more. You have a planet less than a degree from its house, exaltation, detriment, or fall, or less than a degree into/out of it, it shouts louder in the person’s life.

One striking example is JK Rowling. There is no time of birth for her, so her Mercury is just inside Virgo, or about to enter it.

Both cases would give his a clear image of Harry Potter.

Another one was mentioned in my last e-mail, Herman Melville. His Saturn is less than half a degree from retrogradating into Pisces, out of its fall, Aries.

What does Ishmael do at the beginning of Moby Dick? Well, in his own words:

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.”

I wanted to talk about George R. R. Martin’s chart, too, as he has Saturn — just out its detriment, Leo — conjunct the Moon — about to enter its exaltation, Taurus — in conjunction by Antiscion.

Unfortunately, I have read none of his books, and watched about half of the first episode of “Game of Thrones”. All I can say is that the name of the series is congruent with this Saturn in Virgo and conjunct the fifth house of games, and that the Moon conjunct such Saturn and going from a fire into an earth sign reminds me of “A Song of Ice and Fire”.

Someone once asked why the stars mean so many bad things.

Well, according to Milton, that’s what they meant to do, their influence is a punishment for the Fall.

“While the Creator, calling forth by name His mighty Angels, gave them several charge, As sorted best with present things. […] and taught the fixed Their influence malignant when to shower, Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous”

Astrology is for the fallen Man. However, according to Dante, it also guides us in our way back up. I dare say both poets are right.

Milton, by the way, is another example of planets about to change dignity. His Moon is about to leave Eden — it’s at the end of Taurus.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and see you later.

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