Transits as Spiritual Process: OCT ’19

Asheville Friends of Astrology will meet Friday, October 18 at 7pm in the community room at Earth Fare Westgate to hear Mela Carreira speak on transits as spiritual process. One of the beneficial functions of astrology is as a tool for understanding our personal life cycles and spiritual development. At any given time the current planetary wheel is interacting with our own natal chart, inspiring phases of growth, stability or great change in our lived experience. In this presentation, astrologer Mela Carreira will be exploring the internal processes that accompany the transits of outer planets through our natal chart.
The movement of the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto) is slow, with planets staying in relationship with a particular natal sign, house, or planet for 1-3 years, giving us much to digest during their visitations. Mela will discuss each of the outer planets, their expressions in transit, and how we can learn to engage with the energies more deeply and directly as they encounter us and we encounter them.
Mela is an intuitive astrologer and internal martial arts practitioner and has been practicing astrology professionally since 2013. Her training in Taoist Alchemy at the Tao Institute with Sifu Frank Paolillo as well as work with the Akashic Records under Deborah Hellman & Nancy Ring has informed her process, perspective, and research. Mela’s emphasis as an Astrologer is on soul work, soul evolution and self knowledge. Mela offers readings, cosmic weather reports and classes online & off – for more information, please check out her website: http://www.melaluna.net

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Spiritual Journey Through Zodiac: SEPT ’19

Asheville Friends of Astrology will next meet on September 20, 2019 at 7 pm in the community room at Earth Fare Westgate. Shellie Enteen will be our speaker. She will guide us on “A Spiritual Journey through the Zodiac.” The natural cycle of the Spiritual Path is an ancient but lesser known meaning of the astrological signs and their order in the band of the zodiac. We’ll discover this deeper meaning of each sign; examine its hieroglyphic symbol, and discuss how the sun sign indicates where an individual is focused on growing spiritually in this life.

Rev. Shellie has been practicing astrology for over 40 years. She posts daily forecasts on her Astralessence Facebook page. Weekly podcasts about upcoming planetary energies, articles on Full and New Moon forecasts and other astrological events can be found on the Blog page of her website, shellieenteen.com, where you can contact her for information about getting a reading or enroll in a mentorship program for further study.

Astrology of the Conditioned Self: August 2019

Asheville Friends of Astrology will meet on Friday, August 16 at 7pm in the community room at Earth Fare Westgate to hear Ted Figura discuss the Astrology of the Conditioned Self. Ted will look at how we are all conditioned mentally, socially and emotionally by exploring the role that each psychological function symbolized by the astrological planets and points plays in the conditioning process. Pathways to break through and rise above our conditioning will also be explored–again through the astrological symbol set. The goal is a deeper understanding of ourselves and how astrology can further that understanding.

Ted’s interest in astrology began more than 45 years ago with his discovery of the works of Dane Rudhyar and Alan Leo. In the 1980s, his knowledge of astrology was further informed by the writings of Donna Cunningham, Stephen Arroyo and Liz Greene. Ted has always appreciated astrology as a tool for self-knowledge and personal growth. He believes, while transits may be valuable for understanding the “astrol weather” one is experiencing, it is the natal chart that holds the key to interpreting the drives and motivations, qualities, internal conflicts and challenges, and potential of the personality resident in this lifetime.

While Ted is not a professional astrologer, his interest has led him to write about astrology, gathering an international audience. Ted writes under the pseudonym, Gargatholil. He has published the four-volume Depth Astrology: an Astrological Handbook: Introduction, Planets in Signs, Planets in Houses, Planets in Aspect and updates his website monthly with a series exploring sign-to-sign dynamics and other articles. He has also published a book of poetry, The Trembling Tear: Songs of the Inner Voice. Ted Figura serves as the Facilitator for Asheville Friends of Astrology.

Mercury’s Elemental Year: JULY ’19

Asheville Friends of Astrology will meet Friday, July 19 at 7 pm in the community room at Earthfare Westgate to hear Gary P. Caton speak on Mercury’s Elemental Year. Learn the tremendous transformative potential and the underlying patterns behind Mercury’s three retrogrades each year. Mercury spends more time in one element each year than all the other three combined! These 3 signs and houses in our chart are deeply susceptible to the power of symbol making – places where our ideas, images, and words matter most. Then discover how to harness the transformative power of the Elements via the magical tool known as the “square of opposites.”

Gary P. Caton is a transdisciplinary astrologer who maintains an active sacred relationship with the living Sky as his temple. Initiated as an astrologer by a magnificent dream in 1993, Gary has since become an accomplished and sought after astro-photographer, writer and lecturer. Gary is the host of the popular Hermetic Astrology Podcast, and author of Hermetica Triptycha: The Mercury Elemental Year. Gary’s book can be found at the Rubedo Press, http://rubedo.press/hermetica-triptycha and at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Hermetica-Triptycha-Elemental-Ephemerides-1925-2050/dp/0473416883. Gary hosts a website, Dream Astrologer at http://www.DreamAstrologer.com and can be reached at gary@dreamastrologer.com.

Midpoints and Harmonic Analysis: June ’19

Asheville Friends of Astrology will meet next on Friday, June 21 at 7pm in the community room at Earth Fare Westgate to hear Tom Hendrix speak on midpoint patterns (Cosmobiology) and harmonic analysis. Tom will show how midpoints help to organize or prioritize the complexity of aspects generated through harmonic analyses. A brief background on the two methods will be followed by numerous chart examples from participants and current celebrities.

The premise of Cosmobiology is that a point midway between two planets can channel their combined effects. Any transiting or natal planet at that point will trigger the pair and, taking it further, it is believed that points spaced around the chart at 45 degree intervals from the midpoint of the two planets also may channel the combined effect.

Harmonics is a term used with aspects for a detailed type of analysis based on doubling the fractional value of primary aspects and grouping these into families. For example, the first family of aspects would be the conjunction (1/1), opposition (1/2), square (1/4) and semi-square (1/8) and so on. Similarly, trines, sextiles, and semi-sextiles and their multiples would form a family, followed by quintiles, septiles, etc.

While the concept is not new, its application to the analysis of higher or “minor” aspects has been feasible only with the modern computer programs Using these programs to reveal these systems of families of aspects provides a unified, multi-layered interpretation of the chart.
Tom Hendrix is an astrologer certified since 1978 in basic mechanics and classical concepts, astronomical foundations, cosmobiology, harmonics, synastry, predictive techniques and contemporary scientific studies. In Gainesville Florida at the start of the 70’s, Tom was an early student of David Cochrane, developer of the Kepler software. Now based in Southern California, Tom’s current focus is on the analysis of complex patterns of aspects in birth charts in a manner that clarifies and integrates the separate factors in the chart.

Lifecycle Patterns & Centaur Planets: MAY ’19

For Asheville Friends of Astrology’s May meeting (May 17), David Leskowitz will speak on Lifecycle Patterns and Centaur Planets. We’ll see how the eccentric movements of Chiron and Chariklo interact with the regular cycles of planets like Saturn over a lifetime. Depending on the sign your Centaur planets tenanted at birth, you experience the patterns Steven Forrest calls the “bio-psychic script” differently. We can learn a whole lot about how our life unfolds based on these interlocking cycles alone. Bring your birth chart and be prepared to learn how to plug in these helpful new elements to your astrological picture!
David will share some of his magical methods to work with Chiron more closely, too.

Secondary Progressions and Solar Arc Directions: APRIL ’19

On April 19, Ron Tiggle will speak on Secondary Progressions and Solar Arc Directions. Secondary Progressions and Solar Arc Directions are two of the most important predictive techniques astrologers use. Yet, few astrologers know how to calculate Secondary progressions correctly, and since Solar Arc Directions are derived from the Secondary progressed Sun, these are also in error.

Edward Johndro identified this error 90 years ago, yet more recent textbooks on Astrology are still teaching the traditional incorrect method for computing Secondary Progressions and Solar Arc directions. Although some astrological software includes the correct method for computing Secondary Progressions, the default method in the software is the incorrect one. And some programs only include the incorrect method of calculating Secondary Progressions and Solar Arcs. In addition, this error also affects tertiary progression calculations.

During his presentation, Ron will show you how to calculate Secondary Progressions and Solar Arc Directions correctly and point out why the traditional method is incorrect and describe the magnitude of the error. The correct calculation options will be identified in popular astrological software such as Sirius, Solar Fire, and Kepler 7. A method will also be given to correct the error when your software only uses the traditional method.

Dr. Tiggle has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from UCLA an MA in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach and a BS in Chemistry from Howard University. He has worked as a Research Psychologist for several Federal agencies conducting social science research in organizational and health psychology.

Ron is a former Research Director for the International Society for Astrological Research, and a contributing author to Astrological Research Methods Volume 1. Ron has also published research in a traditional refereed psychology journal providing validating evidence for astrology. He is Certified as a Professional Astrologer by Professional Astrologers Inc and is also a Lifetime member of the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR) and the American Federation of Astrologers.
He also teaches classes on a meditation technique known as the Rainbow Bridge Meditation.