Conference hydra::dejavu

	    Topic #32 has touched on this a bit . . .
	    It seems that women in civilizations that don't have lights
	on at night can reliably menstruate during the new moon, since
	ovulation is inspired by the light of the full moon.  It can
	be said that women in civilized society - where electric lights
	are on all over the place at night - are in a different "living"
	environment.
	    But that's light, not tides and gravitation . . .
			<_Jym_>

    Astrologically speaking, it could be a real nightmare--although
    if one was investigatively minded, it could be extremely interesting
    to colonize another world.
    
    Astrological symbolism evolved within our solar system from a
    geocentric standpoint.  What kind of different factors would be
    introduced if one were born on, say, one of the moons of Jupiter?
    
    And if one was born in a different star system altogether none of
    the old rules would apply.  It would take many, many generations
    of observation to correlate people's characteristics with the local
    planets, moons, and whatall.
    
    The thing I am curious about is:  the planets, considered on a mythic
    and psychological level, represent basic drives in the human nature.
    If it is indeed true that the planetary positions at our birth
    influence our nature, would our basic nature change as a result
    of no longer being on the earth?  Interesting to contemplate.
    
    BTW, even though astrologers speak of the planets as "causing" the
    traits that appear in people, the fact is that we don't truly know
    _why_ the correspondence exists.  Astrology was developed through
    empiric observation, and provides a model for the human nature.
    _No one really knows why this model works._  My favorite phrase
    about this is "correlation does not automatically imply causation",
    a fact that many forget in the ordinary affairs of life.  Just because
    I can use a correlative method to predict does not mean I know what's
    causing it.
    
    Anyway, back to living on other worlds:  it is also reasonable to
    assume (it seems to me) that living on another planet would slowly
    physically alter the population in some way.  Different exposures
    to different radiations, light wavelengths, magnetic fields--who
    knows what could happen to the gene pool?  One wonders if there
    would be those who would "fail to thrive" because their systems
    could not adjust to local conditions.  Would _anyone_ thrive, for
    that matter?  If not, would we have to carry around our own little
    environmental bubbles to simulate earth-y conditions?
    
    Marcia

    RE: .3
    
    I've seen similar speculations about the astrological effects of
    being born above the Arctic circle: a very different apparent
    astrological environment than the sub-sub-tropical region where
    astrology was developed.
    
    			Topher

    re:  The view from the Poles
    
    All of the astrological house systems in use today, with the exception
    of the Equal House System, go to considerable lengths to figure
    out just how long it takes each zodiacal sign to cross overhead
    at "your" latitude.  Anyone born north of about the 35th parallel
    and not born close to the equinoxes is likely to have at least one 
    sign pair "intercepted" in his/her natal chart.  The intercepted 
    sign pair has no house cusps crossing it.  I am still working on
    interpreting interceptions (they are difficult to "read" easily)
    but I have noticed that finding the right "outlet" (read House Cusp)
    for the energies of the sign pair seems to be something of a
    preoccupation with anyone who has an interception.  This can be
    an occasional annoyance or a massive compulsion, depending upon
    the rest of the chart.
    
    I read an interesting account in one of my texts of a person born 
    in Alaska who had _3_ sign pairs intercepted in her chart!  The 
    astrologer writing the book said that she recalculated her client's 
    chart 5 times, not believing what she was coming up with.  When she 
    was finally satisfied she was correct, she found that her client's 
    life and psyche had indeed lived up to her unusual chart.
    
    Calculating and interpreting interceptions is one of the more modern
    astrological techniques.  As Topher says, the basic system evolved
    in tropical climes and this type of thing was unaccounted for in,
    say, ancient Babylonia.
    
    Marcia

    re .3.4.5
    
    It seems that as man has evolved and has become ready to deal with
    certain energies, new planets have been discovered and astrology
    has had to make room (and purpose) for them.  Part of me feels that
    we as spirit have participated in the setup of the blueprint or
    map which we call our birthchart.  If at some future date we begin
    to colonize other planets, and spirit incarnates there, those beings
    will have already constructed the blueprints to fit the energies
    at work.  Wouldn't it be great to see Earth in a birthchart??
    
    

  Hmm.  Neat topic.  But, I don't understand.  Why wouldn't the colonists
  eventually adjust to their new world with all of its new rhythms and
  eventually develop their own astrology?  In fact, it might be fun to
  "create" things we already know and understand in a completely new context.
  Wouldn't it be fun to rediscover astrology and really understand (by
  first-hand experience) how it all came about?
  
  Really, I would think that each world had its own spirits and possibly
  unexplored mythology in the same way that it would have its own flora
  and fauna.
  
  Maybe the original colonists would have difficulty adjusting to 16 or
  28 hour days, for example, and would artificially set up cycles that
  they were used to.  But, eventually, the colonists would become natives
  and cycles that are odd to us Earthlings would be completely natural
  to them.
  
  To take this even further: suppose that lightning always preceded rain
  on this planet.  The natives might engage in lightning dances, not rain
  dances.  And so on.  I think it would be fascinating to see just how
  much the "earth", the planet affects the history and development of
  its peoples...
  
  
  							Terza