A Nakshatra Story

When I was doing the FAS diploma, I forbade myself from taking any other astrology course until I finished the diploma. It nearly drove me crazy but since completing the course in June, I've done a course on Hellenistic astrology and took Deb Houlding's horary and electional courses. Still thirsty, I've been eyeing up Vedic astrology.

I was slightly put off Vedic astrology mainly because it just seemed so complicated (all those complicated words, the sidereal system, what the hell is a Nakshatra)--yeah, you see where I'm going with all of this.

So on Saturday a copy of Dennis Harness' book, "The Nakshatras" was sitting on the counter so I picked it up. My astro buddy Ian Waisler was sitting next to me. Suddenly, I just really wanted to get a grip on Vedic astrology and said so out loud. Ian and I began looking at each Nakshatra, writing the keywords, the ruling planet and the tropical zodiac position. Ian piped up and told me that the Nakshatras measure out the distance the Moon travels in one day. And BOOM, I'm hooked.

The next thing I did was a little mnemonic device (this was followed by some shopping in Cape Town with Ian) to help me remember the order of the Nakshatras. There's 27 of them and no, I haven't mastered the Hindi word for them but I'm working on it.

By the way--and I'm sorry if this takes away from the Nakshatra story--but please don't nick my stuff without asking. It's rude. If you'd like to use the story, just leave a little comment and then I won't mind. My natal Moon is in the Magha Nakshatra after all.

So without further ado. . .here's the Nakshatra story:

A man brought a horse's head in the hope he could score some Yoni. But as he journeyed, he was distracted by a flame and took a chariot to a castle that displayed an antelope's head and a human head. With his quiver of arrows, he was able to protect the udder of a cow from a coiled serpent.

In the meantime, a woman passing by in a palanquin returned home and took her infant from a swinging hammock and placed the child on a bed but as she stood up, she stubbed her toe on the legs of the cot. Instead of swearing, she opened her hand and in the palm of her hand were a pearl and a piece of coral. She stood in the archway of her home and sat in the lotus position. While fiddling with her earring, she saw the roots of a plant. It was hot day so she used a fan to cool herself. There was an elephant's tusk near her and she put it to her ear and heard a musical drum. The cadence made her imagine an empty circle. When she opened her eyes, she caught a glimpse of a sword, resting on the back two legs off a cot, piercing the drum.

Here are the Hindi Nakshatras to match the English symbols:

Horse's head: Ashwini

Yoni: Bharani

Flame: Krittika

Chariot: Rohini

Antelope's Head: Mrigshira

Human Head: Ardra

Quiver of Arrows: Punarvasu

Udder of a cow: Pushya

Coiled serpent: Ashlesha

Palanquin: Magha

Swinging Hammock: Purva Phalguni

Legs of a cot: Uttara Phalguni 

Palm of the Hand: Hasta

Pearl: Chitra

Coral: Swati

Archway: Vishakha

Lotus:Anuradha

Earring: Jyeshtha

Roots of a plant: Mula

Fan: Purva Ashadha

Elephant's Tusk: Uttara Ahaha

Ear: Shravana

Musical Drum: Dhanishtha

Empty Circle: Shatabhisha

Sword: Purva Bhadrapada

Back two legs of a cot:Uttara Bhadrapada

Drum: Revati

By happy coincident (like I believe in coincidences), I've just found out that it's Dennis Harness' Shasti Purti Puja! A great celebration of the year when Jupiter and Saturn make their return in the natal chart at the same time. If you are familiar with my work, then you will know that I regard this conjunction as the entering of Wisdom. I'm so delighted to discover this is celebrated in such a magnificent way in Jyotish--as it should be!! What a great and dare I say Divine validation of the commencement of my Vedic studies. Komilla Sutton, I will get to your book next xx

Update!! 

I got to meet (and even have dinner with) the wonderfully charming Dennis Harness at the International Society for Astrological Research conference in Costa Mesa, California. Here we are with my astro brother Ehsan Khazeni:

When it's time to say good-bye

I used to think that good byes kinda sucked. And of course good byes do, in fact, suck quite a bit. But I wanted to say good bye to my pupils as best as I could so we could all have closure and move on to bigger and better things. So I made this short good bye video (took me ages to post it because uploads take a bit of time I didn't have here in Cape Town).

When the filming was done, I played it back for a friend to make sure it was OK. And we both ended up crying. I hadn't intended on creating something sad but rather something that would teach the boys that behind every goodbye there is a hello and welcome. It might not be exactly how we wanted things to end or be when we wanted to end them but sometimes we need a kick up the ass. I now know that is what I needed. About half an hour after I dried my eyes, Rob Hand asked me to sign my book for him. 

Now THAT is some crazy stuff right there.

How many of Rob's books do I have on my bookshelf? Lots. If I were at home I would count. Rob Hand is the astrologer we have all learned from: his books are classics, he's a genius and to have him sit through my lecture on Astrology and Adolescence and say it was "brilliant" had to be the high point of my career as an astrologer, writer and teacher.

Rob's endorsement was not what persuaded me to wave good bye to my return flight to London later that day but it did give me confirmation that it was time for me to step up to the plate.  So yes boys, say good bye. I really did love teaching you and if circumstances hadn't forced me, I would have committed to staying with you until I was old enough to retire. But now I have this great opportunity to bring astrology to the classroom (bet you didn't even realise I was using astrology!), to prisons, to struggling parents and to unhappy adolescents. It's my way of trying to make the world a better place. Say good bye but wish me luck too.

If you'd like to get your hands (a-hem) on the book endorsed by Rob, here's the link.

And watch this space for further developments.

I went to the beach to live deliberately. . .

With apologies to Henry David Thoreau. . .

I went to the beach because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.

I am having the most extraordinary time here in Cape Town. Every astrology conference is special but to live in a beach house and to be able to swim in the Atlantic Ocean pretty much whenever I like makes this conference totally remarkable.
And of course, this boy (Nick Dagan Best) who makes me laugh. . .and blush 50 shades of red:

And this man (Rob Hand) who attended my lecture on astrology and education and said it was brilliant:

And this man (Ehsan Kh) who blows this horn when he's happy and wants me to help him translate some Persian scholarship into English:

And this woman (Naomi Bennett) who is the only person I have seen on four different continents:

My peeps (Ehsan Kh, Michelle Gould, Samuel Reynolds, Richard Fidlar, Ana Carrapichanno) who I am so blessed to know and work and play with:

And these beautiful peeps. . .

I'm having such an extraordinary time that when my school told me (via email to the supply agency) they had found a cheaper replacement, my only regret was that I had bought a return ticket to London.

But now I'm not going back to London. At least not just yet.

Those last two sentences took a lot of vacillation until I came to the realisation everything was going to be okay here in South Africa. And I don't have to leave this beautiful place just yet.

But it has taken some time to make a decision.

What do I do when I feel I can't make up my mind? I head to water!

So today I went to the beach, took my shoes off and let the Atlantic Ocean talk to me. I saw a pretty shell that I picked up to admire, went to wash the sand off--and a wave knocked it out of my hand. I was disappointed but resigned myself to the fact it was not going to come back to me.

So I walked on.

And a few steps later, I found an even bigger, prettier shell. I picked that one up and rinsed it. But I managed to hold onto it. In fact, I brought it back with me to remind me that there are bigger things out there if we can let go of the smaller things. There are bigger things for me here. I have bigger work to do and I know that teaching was exhausting me mentally and I needed space to make things work. I know I could return to London and walk into another supply teaching post at any time. But I am not going to do that. I am going to do readings and workshops here in South Africa until I feel I am on the path I am meant to be on. I will not be afraid and I will not let doubt defeat me.

So today I went to the beach because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

And I will take this pretty shell with me to remind not worry about small losses.

Saturn in Sagittarius: Taking the Centaur by the Bollocks

I'm going to start this blog post with a little confession: I have Neptune in Scorpio in the 6th house (don't worry, the interpretation will soon become clear). Now, to anyone who has ever seen any of my three desks (home, school and portable) after a busy day, this will come as no shock. I live a rather hectic life and if I don't keep on top of things, well chaos ensues. I can also be a little, ah, obsessional with whatever I'm working on until I get what I want to do completely done. I'll do things like get up in the middle of the night (ahem) and work until 4 or 5pm before I realise I haven't eaten anything. Yeah I do stupid shit like that because structuring my day into something sustainable just doesn't occur to me. 

So yesterday, after a very hectic week of conferences and travel, was one of those days that I got little intense. The focus of my intensity was trying to complete a newsletter that my new and technogeek friend Tony Howard convinced me was absolutely essential to "drive traffic to my website". Now there must have been some glimmer or something in Tony's eyes that persuaded me to do a newsletter as soon as "You should totally do a newsletter" was out of his mouth. I was like a woman possessed. The problem was--and here is where Neptune in the 6th becomes even more clear--I had no idea what I was doing. Don't get me wrong: I know what a newsletter is (and Tony and I agree that I will have no problem coming up with content for the next 50 years), the problem is I haven't got a clue about format.

Did I let this stop me?

Hell no.

I carefully demonstrated a perfect mastery of my Saturn in Pisces via Publisher by adding links, beautiful photos and lalalala to my newsletter but it wasn't until I was proudly showing Tony the results of my work that  I realised I had created something pretty useless for the purpose that I wanted to use it for: mainly to send it out to the good folks on my mailing list.

This is pretty funny. Yeah, I get that. Haha, she works all day and creates something completely useless.

I'll just wait until you stop laughing.

Anyhoooo. . .I converted everything to a jpeg and posted it here. Nah it ain't what I wanted but I hate to waste my pretty work. I'll have to manually add in the links (again) another day and as I'm flying out to see my buddy Tim later today, the links aren't likely to appear any time this weekend. But there's always Monday when I'll be between long haul flights (LA to London and London to Cape Town if you're curious) at some airport or another (it's all rather blurring together now).

The gist of what I'm trying to say in my newsletter is:

1) I'm having a great time living a jet set lifestyle which I have always wanted to do

2) I'm so lucky to have such cool people to hang out with

3 I am up to a lot of shit (woohoo!)

4) I write a lot of shit (here's some teasers for bigger articles on my website)

5) And oh, here are some star signs

6) By the way, I'm available to do astrology, tarot and palmistry readings--here's a million ways to contact me if you're interested

Perhaps that's all I needed to say.

You're welcome

Saturn in Sagittarius link

Links:

Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology

Astrology Restored

Growing Pains (Astrodienst)

The Kepler Conference

Growing Pains (Amazon page)

Alfred Hitchcock link

Astrodienst at last!

Every now and again, I wake up far too early and get the urge to do some writing and reflecting. I've resigned myself to the fact that teaching knocks the writing energy right out of me most of the time so I am actually loving it that I'm wide awake at 4am on a Saturday morning with the need to hit the keyboard. And of course, I need to update my blog. . .

It's hard to believe summer is over with--but what a productive time it has been. On top of being a monitor for the FAS Summer School, doing a webinar with the spectacular Samuel F Reynolds (a bit of a learning curve but so much fun--and very successful) and taking Deb Houlding's School of Traditional Astrology course, I also spoke at the fabulous AA Conference.

But the very best news is that I FINALLY made it into Astrodienst!! This has been a goal of mine since I became a serious astrologer and to have achieved it is certainly one of my proudest moments--especially since it features my research into astrology and education. A huge thanks to the editor of the Astrological Journal for all his support and encouragement--and for putting my name on the front cover of the Journal not once but twice! Here's a lovely photo of us at the AA conference--the very first time we had met in person. I reckon we look like an old married couple. . .

In the eco-hut!!

Is my banana radioactive?

What happens when you stay in one department too long!

In teaching, after weeks of struggling to keep one step ahead of the boys in Science, I finally came into my own in the astronomy section of Physics. I could actually see the boys' hair blowing back as I talked about nuclear fusion and stars. Someone should have told me Science was so much fun: I've been a chemist, a biologist and a physicist--and often all of them in the course of one day. It's been a bit of a struggle and challenge but I'm loving it! I just have to keep reminding myself my strongest subjects at school were Physics and Music.

I'm super proud to announce I'll be presenting my astrological research at the Kepler Conference in Florida, January 2017. It's a scientific kind of conference so I feel enormously privileged that I have something sensible to contribute. I still hope the value of astrology in education will be appreciated one day.

Turning iodine to an iodide with a few drops of OJ

In other news, I'm preparing lectures for SOTA, Chicago (to visit the incredible Madame Zolanga), Portland (a webinar with Tony Howard and Astrology University) and Halloween in LA. As always, I've scheduled some down time to see friends and family in the USA in between public appearances. After the US, I'm flying back to London then I'm off to Cape Town!! After that, a few more weeks of teaching and I'll be spending a couple of months in India, then Australia and Asia topped off with a week in Hawaii with my old buddy Tim. Yes, I'll be circumnavigating the globe this year ;)

A final bit of news is that I am finally returning to my tarot and palmistry roots and resuming psychic readings. I charge £50 per hour plus travel costs and offer discounts for group work. Contact me via this blog or at : alex_trenoweth@hotmail.com for more info or to book.

Samuel Reynolds and Alex Trenoweth's Back to School Webinar

To register for the FREE webinar, register here

Me and my mad schedule

One of the things on my extensive to do list this summer was to try to maintain this blog a bit better. But what can I say--except that I am happily productive on quite a few projects.  And so this blog entry is rather like a crossed off "to-do" list. Whilst my "teacher's brain" was being given a brief rest (haven't ended an academic year so refreshed since I started teaching), I was tying up a lot of loose ends and unfinished business along with preparing FIVE conference lectures as well as producing a few lecture trailers. It's rather phenomenal how many cool things gravitate towards one's way when there's so much more fun stuff going on. So I will try to summarise with appropriate shout outs to all the right folks.

I FINALLY passed the final paper for the Faculty of Astrological Studies. You can read my account of my FAS adventure here. Immediately upon learning I had passed the FAS diploma, I became a member of the APAI , thus gaining two sets of initials behind my name: DFAstrolS and MAPAI.   That's right. . .I am now Alex Trenoweth MA (CAA), MAPAI, DFAstrolS. I have no intention of letting you forget it. From 21-28 August, I will be a room monitor for the FAS Summer School. Exciting times.

With the FAS done and dusted, I also promptly signed up to Deb Houlding's Horary course starting from 28 August. This is an eagerly awaited learning opportunity I had denied myself until I finished with the FAS.

The Club of 27 Reunion went without a hitch. Starting with an interview session at The Hawley Arms on the anniversary of Amy Winehouse's death and ending with dinner at Sarastro's, we finally got around to inducting Amy into the Club of 27 astrology site. Just to remind you, the ASTROLOGERS were the first to coin the term "Club of 27". The Wikipedia entry came about six months later.

I've been a a guest on Radar Radio a few times this summer. How awesome is that? It's always nice to be welcomed by non-astrologers and to be given the opportunity to share what I've been up to. I've also been a guest on the Jupiter Rising Show with fellow astrologer Eileen Grimes. The archived recording can be found here.

I'll be speaking at the Astrological Association's Conference on 13 September. The lecture trailer is here. 

The big news is that I'm returning to SOTA in Buffalo where I'll be delivering a workshop on midpoints. From SOTA, I'll be travelling to see family then to see my buddy Madam Zolanga in Chicago. From there, I'm taking a slow "author's train" across the northern part of the USA to Seattle where I'll be stopping in to see a few astrologers. No trip to the US would be complete without seeing my buddy Tim.  And the REALLY big news is that I'll be visiting South Africa for the Astrology Restored Conference 6-11 November in Cape Town. My heavy duty academic-y article on astrology and the renaissance can be found here. At some point, I need to finish off my research paper for the American Federation of Astrologers. . .but it's coming on.

This all on top of aforementioned journeys to Australia at the end of this year and a return to India in early 2016! Of course around all this excitement is another term at an all boys' school--and the school has been both wise and generous in working around my travelling schedule. This time I'll be teaching GSCE astrophysics--can't wait to blow up stuff and blame the kids!

As always, I'm still pushing "Growing Pains" (contact me directly for a better deal than Amazon), always have room for astrology pupils and have a little room for clients until the end of the summer. Leave a direct message below. . . or contact me via www.alextrenoweth.com