ASTROLOGRAPHY  [copyrite OTO & individual authors]
- Towards a magical system of Astrology

{A brief outline of the work towards developing our magical system of
Southern Hemisphere  based Astrology}

Sr. Ibis/Fr. Raven

 Firstly, why do we need a new system of Astrology, what is wrong
with the old system? Although the differing systems work in their own way
according to time, place and situation and have various effects and
results, experience has shown that we often need a more accurate map of
the heavens. For example; in last years Oasis Liber Yod workings Sr. Ibis
calculated the actual (sidereal) position of the planets in the sky so as
to lay their glyphs out in the circle in the appropriate place (along with
the elemental, astrological and sepherothic cards or tiles for the
appropriate banishings), as the text states to banish the planets in their
actual positions in the sky.
 As time has gone on, we have developed various ideas about how to
find  the Œ planets in their actual position in the sky‚. Tropical
astrology will give you the planets position in a House and you can
calculate for the precession of the equinox, you can use an astrological
sidereal system, such as Fagan -Allen or, as we have lately been
interested in, astronomical information.
 To state it bluntly: we are now seeing Tropical Astrology as a
corruption of the original system, as it does not accept the precession of
the Equinoxes, thus putting the tropical House system nearly 25º out of
alignment with the constellations. The value of this house system in
Tropical Astrology is seen on certain limited planes but as far as actual
stellar position, stellar radiation and types of celestial magick are
concerned it is insufficient.
 To briefly outline the situation:
Tropical Astrology assumes a zodiac belt around the Earth, a band of 360º
divided into twelve 30º segments - the Astrological Houses.  This band
starts at 0º Aries where the celestial equator crosses the path of the
ecliptic - the Equinoctal Point, (regardless of the equinoctal points‚
precession through the constellations). This point is slowly moving and
because tropical astrology uses this moving point as the start of its
zodiac it has no relation (anymore!) to the constellations it supposedly
represents. In Tropical Astrology; from Earth the position of the other
members of our Solar system are seen against‚ the segments of this belt,
e.g. When we see the Moon, with the segment attributed to Pisces, Tropical
Astrologers say the Moon is in Pisces. However the Moon may not be in
front of the Constellation of Pisces at all. The same goes for all of a
natal horoscope. Sidereal Astrology sees the zodiac as the wheel of the
heavens themselves and deals with celestial currents, that is, the band of
the zodiac , divided into 12 segments of 30º each that the constellations
approximately reside in. We view, from Earth, The Sun, Moon and planets
with the backdrop of the actual constellations, so if we look at the moon
and see the constellation of Aries behind it (or that part of the sky
associated with that constellation) we say the „Moon is in Aries.  The
Tropical ephemeris (eg. The commonly used American Ephemeris‚) lined up
with the constellations in AD221. Both systems lined up, it was and is
very clear that the houses were meant to represent the constellations, at
that time the Equinoctal point was in the constellation of Aries. Many
modern Tropical Astrologers are  claiming that their system does not
represent the constellations but the houses and relate the 0º Aries
Equinoctal point attribution to static terrestrial archetypes to do with
seasonal changes (mostly in the symbolism of northern hemisphere
mythological archetypes - e.g. I have heard some say that the Spring
Equinox should occur in Aries as the energy of that house is similar to
spring, however, we feel that the energy can be interpreted on any level -
the fertility and vigor of the goat  could stand as well as a spring
symbol instead of a winter symbol. With us {southern Hemisphere sidereal
system} the spring equinox fits well into the sign of Virgo - the spring
maiden) .Also the fact that this Tropical system‚ uses the same
constellation names for the houses, in exactly the same progression and
order,  and states clearly in the ephemeris that things ARE moving at a
rate of 1º every 71.5 years has lead us to the opinion that Tropical
Astrology is a corruption of a more accurate system that came about due to
the ignorance of the Western Euro culture of the time and still continues
today! (Up until 2001 the commonly used Tropical Ephemeris had a segment
in the front stating all this and reminding users to do the appropriate
calculations, the last few years the ephemeris has omitted this
information!) More of this soon, but at this stage it may be best to explain
exactly what IS the precession of the Equinoxes:
 Imagine the Earth as a toy top, spinning on its axis, the bulge in
the middle of the toy top is the Earth, see the axis of the spinning top
as perpendicular (i.e. 90º to) the floor. See the floor as the plane of
the solar system with the constellations marked out on an outer circle
around the top on the floor. As the top starts to wind down and slow its
rotation (as the Earth is) it begins to wobble, the lower end of the axis
of rotation describing a circle deosil on the floor , the upper, a
widdershins circle in the the air. As the process continues the top
wobbles more and lays over to scrape the rotating edge of the top in a
circular movement on the floor. This point of contact of top and floor,
moving in a circle and relating in position to the constellations marked
out in the circle is similar to the precession of the equinoxes.
The Earth s axis is now tilted at 23º to the plane of the solar system  -
that is how we get our seasonal progression. If you extend the Earths
equator out into space it marks a circle in the heavens termed the
celestial equator. The plane of the apparent movement of the Solar system
is extended out to make another circle; the path of the ecliptic‚. The
two points the circles cross,  to us, are the two days of the year of
equal length day and night; the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes. At present
this point (the Spring point) is rotating backwards towards Aquarius,
(from the northern hemispheres perspective) hence it is said (even by
Tropical Astrologers!) that we are moving into the age of Aquarius.[From
the southern hemispheres perspective the spring equinoctal point is moving
backwards through Virgo towards Leo].
  We concluded that the mistaken interpretation of Tropical
Astrology was due to various reasons:
1. It was originally a Western esoteric system but diverted to become an
exoteric system for more common use and ease of use (real observations are
much more complex and fluctuating).
2. The minds of the time often took snapshot‚ pictures of reality and
believed they understood their workings due to their limited observations.
3. The culture had not been around long enough to observe the precession
of the Equinoxes (Egyptian, Vedantic, Tibetan and Buddhist Astrology are
all based on the Sidereal system).
4. It was a symptom of the scientific outlook  at one stage (we have
discovered all there is to discover and know!).
5. It was a victim of the religious outlook of the time (Fear of
persecution of the dominant paradigm.... the earth wobbles! - This at a
time when people were tortured for suggesting that some observable
astronomical facts did not go along with the view of a created and stable
cosmos with an Earth as its centre, there was no concept of creational
evolution and development.)
6. A survey of other systems of ancient and esoteric cultures showed they
all used a Sidereal method.
 The good side of it was it was perceived as a system to deal with
that type of western Euro culture, its conditioning and expectations. We
began assessing social situations and conditioning, dealing with
bureaucracies, and relating to certain acquaintances via the tropical
method and accessing magical situations, natural order, relating to fellow
initiates and others and individual energies (as opposed to socially
conditioned personalities) to Sidereal Astrology. In other words, Tropical
Astrology was good to access the judgments,  conditioning and expectations
of Western, Euro, exoteric culture while Sidereal Astrology was used to
access what was really going on, the true individual, the real natural
forces. (More later on how this effects and polarises the natal
horoscope.) But as previously said, we began to suspect that overall, it
was a corruption of an earlier more relevant system.
 But the knowledge of the real Zodiac did come into certain secret
societies in western culture, after all , all they had to do was to
contact another culture with the information and different systems of
Astrology /Astronomy. There were different systems of astrology used in
certain Gnostic schools, some working on a decanate house system with 36
houses. A fairly  recent book , Arachne Rising‚, made a lot out of an
old  Western  tradition of a 13th house between Taurus and Gemini. Magical
systems today often use their own astrological system, e.g. The Hermetic
Order of The Golden Dawn. Anthroposophy uses Tropical Astrology to access
people and Sidereal astrology as a guideline for Bio-dynamic agriculture.
 We decided, for magical operations, Sidereal  Astrology was a
must. For example; if consecrating a talisman we would prefer to calculate
the best Sidereal astrological alignment as we would not want our talisman
to be worked using an, at least, exoteric system. Further, consider metal
casting, and the system of making Electrum magicum‚, the Tibetans are
excellent at this magical art and produce a supurb tone, unsurpassed, with
their magical bowls and bells, their system is Sidereal, their technology
almost primitive, compare to a bell made with modern technology.
 So, how do we work this system? originally we just turned the
zodiac back   24º to coincide with the constellations, this is basically
the Fagan-Allen Zodiac. But using this method, everything  is pretty much
the same as in Tropical Astrology and that is not a very accurate map of
the heavens (e.g. the constellation of Scorpio only takes up 10º of the
attributed space in the zodiac belt,  not the  30º ,  1/12 segment of
tropical or Fagan-Allen Zodiac).
 So we had to go further, what is actually happening out there?
Nowadays you don't need to constantly observe and spend years looking over
others research and papers (or just take the equalled out and possibly
corrupt system of Tropical Astrology) and do calculations into the future -
 the computer can do it for us! Nowadays with programmes put out by The
U.S. Naval Observatory and NASA, supplemented by views from above the
Earths atmospheric murk via satellite telescopes we can have planetary and
stellar exploration, observation, mapping and time travel (backwards and
forwards) with the controls literally at our fingertips! One such
programme is Dance of the Planets‚
  For Example: The position of my natal Sun on these star
charts is  very interesting (according to certain astrologers I am „a
Cancer, Sidereally I am a Gemini - and perhaps after reading all this you
will agree with the Gemini analysis!). The Charts show the position of the
Sun at my moment of birth surrounded by four constellations; Taurus on the
left, Gemini on the right, Orion above (and the boundaries of all three
meet at my natal Suns position) and below lies the constellation of
Auriga. My sun is virtually in Orion - on a triple cusp. I  (my natal Sun)
am surrounded by a circle of Stars including; Mebsuta, Betelgeuse,
Alderbaran and Elnath.
 Going back to March 23 AD 1 we can see the Sun, on the Equinoctal
point, just on the Pisces side of Aries; the beginning of the age of
Pisces. Run it forward to March  21   AD 4000 and the Sun on the
equinoctal point is 2/3 through  Aquarius towards Capricorn , but about
1/3 through Capricorn (due to the Constellation boundary) the path of the
ecliptic (and hence the Equinoctal point) will nearly pass into Aquarius
again .
 We decided the best approach was to take the constellation
boundaries as they are (for example; An astrologer may ask why should the
boundary be where it is and not evened out as it approaches the zodiac
belt, why go around that star on that side to include it in the
constellation house and not the other side to exclude it, one system is to
look at the main stars of a constellation and create a straight line from
its furthest stars, through the ecliptic to make the constellation
boundaries  etc.) The benefit of using the astronomical boundaries was
that ; it was a new system for us, these charts also show asteroids,
satellites, comets etc. so new elements were revealed for interpretation,
this system requires one to build up information on stars and
constellations and archetypes and mythologies not normally associated with
Astrology. Also incorporating other cultures ideas and myths on Astrology
helped (e.g. The Aboriginal story of the formation of Scorpio ).
 Our latest developments include utilising this system for a type
of celestial yoga, i.e. union with the stars, and eventually union with
your particular Star. With rituals such as Adorations of the Starry
Heavens and Liber 963 - The Treasure House of Images‚  and others.
 See; ŒA note upon Liber DCCCCCXIII .‚ (this note is an A... A...
publication in Class A), particularly Point 2; „ Let him  (the student)
seek out diligently in the sky his Star, let him travel there unto in his
shell, let him adore it increasingly from its rising even unto its setting
by the right adorations with chants that shall be harmonious therewith.
 In ŒThe Pathworkings of Aleister Crowley‚ (DuQuette, Hyatt &
Wasserman) it states; „...we are of course free to interpret this star as
we will.......first we shall freely  interpret it as the celestial body or
planet that rules our rising  sign.... this extends the greatest influence
on him.....  Unfortunately this does not explain the difference between a
Sidereal or Tropical calculation and totally misses the point in
Astrological theory that any actual planet rising at the time of birth
would far over rule the planet attributed to the rising sign. However,
they go on;  „....We are also free to interpret this star in a more
esoteric sense, referring to our own personal star or unit of space...
(and this may not necessarily be a star on the belt of the zodiac or
ecliptic) „....In ŒThe Book of the Law‚ Ch. 1 Verse 3, Nuit - Our Lady of
the Stars indeed proclaims; Every man and Every Woman is a Star‚. In The
Law is for All‚, Aleister Crowley stated that there may be some real
connection between a given person and a given star......in the Philosophy
of Thelema we view our star as our own Holy Guardian Angel, our own
innermost self..... and travel there unto in your Astral Body of Light.
 One theory we are developing is that your original Sidereal star
energy  is 'channelled' via our star, the Sun, at the moment of birth. So
one, with these computer maps, can search out the nearest or Œmost
attractive' star to ones natal sidereal sun position . So, now we find
not only can we use Astrolography to seek out and find our star more
accurately and build up knowledge about it (maybe it is a 4th magnitude
Blue Gas Giant or a Pulsar) we can reverse the system and by practising
the associated rituals of the Adorations of the Starry Heavens we can
build up magical knowledge of stars, constellations and sidereal houses‚
that are outside the 12 known major ones, thus developing our own
Astrolograhical system.

"...... let him then add a comet to the picture; (the visualisation of
the Solar System) he may find, perhaps, that the path of this comet may
assist him to expand the sphere of his mental vision until it include a
star.
 And thus, gathering one star after another, let his contemplation become
as vast as the heaven, in space and time ever aspiring to the perception
of the Body of Nuit; yea, of the Body of Nuit."

Liber DXXXVI
-Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia-
-Crowley