APAI Newsletter Autumn 2017

The opinions and astrological methods of the authors of this newsletter are not necessarily those of the editor of this website.

Council News:

We have set the date for next years AGM and Open Day. It will be the 19^th May 2018. Speaker and venue are yet to be confirmed.

It is a pity more members are not able to attend the AGM. We have tried to address the problem by holding the AGM in different locations, but that still has not helped increase membership attendance. The upside is, we do get a very good response from those who do not necessarily have a formal qualification, but are interested in astrology. They help cover the cost of the event.

For the past few years we have tried to find affordable venues in the London area to see if that would encourage more members to attend. However, when analysing member numbers for London events in the past, they were actually less than when the events have been held outside of London. Cost of hiring venues and insurance is a big factor in seeking locations outside of London and, given the lack of apparent interest in attending events by members, we find it more economical to go out of London.

Council try hard to give you the membership something for your fees other than the website, but unless we have input from yourselves, there is very little we can do.

We are very pleased to welcome Arlan Wise and Maurice Fernandez as Associate members through OPA. We look forward to a great relationship and sharing of resources, events and knowledge with this sister organisation.

Looking ahead to 2018, it will be the 50^th Anniversary of the AA Conference and it’s 60^th birthday. Next year’s AA Conference promises to be spectacular and I am sure it will be booked out very early on. For information and dates on the AA Celebrations, please see below.

We are proposing to insert flyers advertising the APAI in the lead up AA Journal and in the Conference packs. Paul Summerfield and Victor Olliver are working on this project and I would like to thank them for their time and input.

As always, if you have any suggestions for events, speakers and articles for the newsletter, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with any of us on Council.

Would all members please check your profile on our website and ensure all information and links are up to date. If you find any discrepancies, please email Robert Anderson and CC myself and Jennie Scott. Roberts email address is robert.apai@blueyonder.co.uk. Jennie Scott is astrojen47@aol.co.uk and mine is astrologersharon@aol.com.

AA Conference: Diamonds in the Sky – 22^nd-24^th June 2018. Venue – Wokefield Park Estate, Mortimer, Reading, UK

The AA’s Astrological Journal is asking readers and members which essay or essays since 1959 stand out in the memory as pioneering and influential. Few people will have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the content of the magazine over six decades, but never mind. Which one or more essay sticks out in YOUR mind for all the right reasons? The magazine will republish favourite, seminal pieces in its May-June 2018 issue showcase of the best contributions. The magazine’s email is: journal@astrologicalassociation.com.

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Whole Sign:Too Simple to be true?

Maxine Wan. 

House division was never a topic which piqued my interest. Instead, probably like most astrologers, I invested my time in unravelling the symbolisms within a birth chart, teasing out the hidden messages embedded in the countless combinations of planets, signs and houses. Astrologers all have their own preferred way of working with astrology. I intend to share my own thoughts with my own findings. I never, in a million years, thought I would advocate one particular house system over another. As an individual with earth as my dominant element, accuracy won my heart at the end of the day. I finally took the leap of faith and plunged into Whole Sign house when I noticed the accuracy of this system over the other ones I have previously used. I noticed this in my client natal work and also horary, but for the purpose of this discussion, I will focus on horary as the outcome is more succinct and less open to ‘creative interpretation’ than natal work.

House division is a matter of dividing the heavens. As a beginner of astrology, I started off with Equal House, as that is the system used by FAS (where I began my formal astrological journey). I slowly moved onto Placidus when I began practicing astrology. I had a brief encounter with Regiomontanus as a horary student with STA. Shortly after completing my certificate with them, I became interested in traditional astrology and seriously began to look at house division with a different mind set, especially when I noticed some of my natal planets were relocated to a different house under the Whole Sign house system.

My fellow astrologers had nothing positive nor supportive to say with my switch of heart so I decided to put it to the test – every time when I study a horary chart, I would look at each using Regiomontanus first and then Whole Sign and see if any differences were found.

Most charts give the same outcome regardless of the house system used, but I noticed where there is a difference in outcome, the Whole Sign chart gives the actual outcome in the end. I have picked three cases in particular:

Case Study 1: Will I need to go into work today?

I asked this question as I wanted to know if I had to work that evening. In Hong Kong there is a graded system to measure the strength of each typhoon. If T8 (Typhoon number 8) is hoisted, then there’s no need to go into work, anything lower then it is business as usual. That morning when I woke up, T8 was already announced, as I had work scheduled for that evening, I wanted to know if I would be staying at home that day or if I had to go to work. So I propounded the question ‘Will I need to go to work tonight?’

This is a rather interesting comparison, as R has the querent in 12^th but W has the co-significator in 12^th. Work as 10^th in R is hidden in 12^th but if we use work as 6^th then the significator is in 4^th (home). I recalled this was the ultimate chart which made me switch to Whole Sign, as the actual outcome was I had to go into work. The querent – Mercury in 1^st shows I needed to be out in the open, as opposed to being in 12^th in the R chart. As for the co-significator, it also shows what the querent is thinking – I was thinking of hiding away at home (12^th) and not socialising out there (11^th). Also the Sun shows the heart of the matter – I was certainly thinking of staying at home more than being out there. As for work, in traditional astrology, 10^th house represents work, one’s profession. 6^th, unlike in modern astrology, is related to servitude so strictly speaking we shouldn’t even use the 6^th for this question.