Management of Measurement Constructs
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Special Information and Sources
The Power of Suggestion The verb “suggest” is extremely powerful in our work. When we say “the horoscope suggests”, we keep our client free; we are not backing our client into a corner with rigidly conceived descriptions; we are keeping our client out of the “Yes-No” mindset, and all this allows relaxed, extended conversation and clearer thinking. It is also the kernel of effectiveness in prediction.
The concept of “suggestion” allows us to reach the mind. The suggestion seeds awareness. Suggestion is the first step toward meaningful association between thoughts, between related behaviors, in the past and in the future.
When we talk about “the power of suggestion,” we include the grand study area of therapeutic hypnosis. But “suggestion” is not monopolized by hypnosis practitioners; there is so very very much for the astrologer to appreciate there in those techniques, namely how to talk to the client helpfully.
I suggest two reservoirs of material for further learning in this field: first, a general overview of the concepts linked with hypnosis and suggestion. This is very well presented at this website: http://www.real-hypnosis.com/powerofsuggestion.html There are many branch-offs there for your learning and enrichment.
Second: for an actual “hands-on” learning approach to appreciating the powerful orientations of thought and communication within hypnosis, you can begin with research into the works of Milton H. Erickson, the revolutionary psychoanalyst-hypnotist of the last century. The first volume of his “Collected Works”, The Nature of Hypnosis and Suggestion, edited by Ernest L. Rossi, is a monument. -As well, please see Tyl-The Creative Astrologer, pages 159-175.
The Bounty of Biography I’ve read over 60 biographies, and with each one of them, I’ve done the reading with astrology at hand, trying with each page and life-happening to construct a horoscope, from John Adams and Augustus to Ramses II and Richard Strauss.
For some, I’ve done the study in greatest detail and produced Astrology of the Famed with detailed rectifications of six famous lives; and I’ve done this ‘loosely,’ working with large islands of information and the approximate astrology flowing around them. Both ways, I am constantly enriched by the practice afforded me, by the exercise of symbolism manipulation to capture a portrait of a person whose imprint on our history is formidable. -I have learned much in the process!
For example, I just finished the biography Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman, perhaps the most exciting book I’ve ever read. I kept adjusting adjusting adjusting the astrology for Caesar with no known birth time, of course, to parallel the biography with a horoscope portrait.
I became comfortable with July 13, 100 B.C.E. in Rome at approximately 3:12 PM. -The point is not if this is definitive -who knows?– but that I worked it through in terms of my knowledge, and, in the process, what I know was enriched. -It is hard to deny that Caesar had a Scorpio Ascendant (perhaps 21Sco31) and a Scorpio Moon opposed by Pluto, with that axis squared by Saturn-Uranus! .And so much more. -Think about that.
When completing Desmond Seward’s biographical study of the Middle Ages’ Eleanor of Aquitaine –one of the formidable power-ladies of history, first a Queen of France, then a Queen of England, her progeny producing future kings, touching royal lines of lineage for centuries, all manipulated by her need for power-I discovered and then knew that she had close to a 23Sco29 Ascendant squared by Uranus, a peregrine Venus ruling her 7th, with a Gemini Moon there; her Ascension to the French throne and her first marriage occurring with Uranus=Midheaven at age 15 [born December 14. 1122; in Bordeaux France at approximately 4:48 AM] . and so much more.
Consider exercising your knowledge through the bounty of biography. -Have fun with the search for astrological corroboration; have your computer make you a general ephemeris for the period (once-a-month or every-six-months positions), watch carefully as you read, make adjustments continuously to trial charts, and know how much you are learning.
[It’s hard to stop thinking about these conjecture horoscopes: after I finished the reading, I checked with Blain Bovee’s fascinating work with the Sabian Symbols (Sabian Symbols in Astrological Analysis); it brought forward such corroborating enrichment of these two Ascendants, I was thrilled!]
Mundane Research Some years ago, I researched deeply the time from 1500 to 1200 B.C.E. [the general boundaries of Exodus reference] in relation to the potential for the Israelites’ flight out of Egypt, the occurrence itself not supported by any extant evidence whatsoever in written or material record, except for the Bible. I made startling discoveries astrologically, arriving at a date of April 3, 1462 B.C.E. that not only captures the event circumspection of a cataclysm attendant to the Exodus but also a series of congruencies with the modern horoscope for Israel, 3,410 years and one month later!!! .[The SA Exodus Sun came to 26 Cancer 01, within 59′ of the Midheaven of modern Israel!]
[Modern archaeologists now point to the period of time I discovered as the key time for study and highly probable confirmation of one of the grandest events of history. -My work was centered on an exceedingly rare triple conjunction of Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto over the Middle East.]
These techniques can be used for today and tomorrow as well. Determine a celestial phenomenon for study -the conjunction of Mars-Saturn-Pluto, for example; find out when it occurred in the heavens last, and then go to this three-inch thick book, The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates. In the book, you can find what was happening at any date throughout the world in terms of disasters, exploration, politics and war, economy and trade, religion and philosophy, science and education and technology, arts and leisure, and sports, games and society . over a time period of almost 2,000 years!!!
Mars, Saturn, and Pluto were last in triple conjunction in June-July 1947 in 8-10 Leo. This degree area happens to define the Nodal Axis in the horoscope of the United States (July 4, 1776; Houses 3-9 in the Gemini rising chart), a vigorously supportive relational axis. We would expect a show of strength and administrative thrust out to the world, out to other nations. And so it was: the Encyclopedia tells us that on June 5, 1947, George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, in a speech at Harvard University, presented to the world the U.S.A. determination to restore the economies of the nations of Europe. This post-war godsend for Europe became known as the Marshall Plan.
The next Mars-Saturn-Pluto conjunction takes place in March 2020 at 24 Capricorn. We look for a Mundane chart reference in that area. We see the United States Mercury (key, of course, with the Gemini rising chart) at 24 Cancer. The opposition to this point by the triple conjunction suggests extreme unrest among the people. Rulerships fill out the picture: Saturn rules the 9th of foreign countries; Pluto rules the 6th, the military . etc.
–I suggest we get to work! Look how exciting it can be to learn . to be the best astrologer you can be!