7 Steps to Astrological Prediction: Part 4

Delineation and Prediction are two distinctly different steps, and as Zoller points out, prediction is impossible without proper delineation. Prediction is tricky enough as it is without muddling it up with shoddy delineation.

Step 1 Ask the question
Step 2 Cast the chart
Step 3 Determine if chart is radical or fit to be judged
Step 4 Delineate the condition of each planet and luminary
Step 5 Determine primary significators
Step 6 Observe relations of significators
Step 7 If an outcome is determined, then predict the time it is determined for

Delineating the condition of the planets and luminaries is an essential step and makes delineating the rest of the chart much easier if it's done before looking for the Primary Significators. Lilly has a chart in his Christian Astrology and I highly recommend using it for every chart until it is fully committed to memory. It's an elementary pointing/grading system which will tell you how much dignity versus debility a planet has.

You have to delineate the state of at least three planets in order to determine if the chart is radical or fit to be judged, two of which are your primary significators (Lord of the 1st and the Moon). Why is it necessary to delineate all of them? All planets have to be considered in every question. There is no point at which a planet does not have something to do with the event. They may not have as much bearing on the case as your primary significators, but they still affect the outcome. Not only that, but once you really get into determining an answer, the planets you thought were the primary influence in the matter can quickly change to other planets by virtue of dignity, debility or aspect.

One tip I will tell you to watch out for (and again more experienced Astrologers will tell you it's not always necessary but I like to err on the side of caution) is the Fixed Stars, one in particular is Caput Algol (the head of Medusa). Fixed stars are obviously not fixed in place but they move slowly enough that they seem not to move at all. Caput Algol is somewhere around 25 Taurus. If a planet is conjunct this star, it is considered debilitated.

Lilly's chart for delineating planets can be found on page 115 if you have a copy of the traditional text.

Recommended Reading

Come back tomorrow for a free gift and an interview with the leading Traditional Astrologer Christopher Warnock, Esq.

Acetic Acid Preparation

Some of the prepatory work for alchemy and working with metals is getting your chemicals together. In several sources, I've read that Acetic Acid is used quite frequently in alchemy but I couldn't figure out why... until I started this prepatory work. Acetic acid is used to draw out the salt of a metal - particularly when working with lead. The resultant "Salt of Saturn" is pretty cool.

This is really the first step in alchemy. Ancient alchemists needed some way of being able to break down the metal without just melting it. You can burn flesh and you can burn an herb - but when it comes to working with metals, you can't just put it in fire. All this does is melt it. So we need to break it down somehow - and with an organic material. This is important. It must be organic, pertaining to life (-ic meaning pertaining to, and organ meaning life.) Modern acetic acid is concocted in a commercial laboratory void of real life.

So the easiest way to start out with preparing your acetic acid is to go to the grocery store and buy some red wine vinegar like I did. If you really want to get into it, you can first brew your own wine and let it turn into vinegar, but for all intents and purposes many sources say that grocery brand vinegar is just fine.

I apologize for the sideways pics. As soon as I figure out how to correct that for you I will. If you click on it though, you'll see more pics of the process described below.

In my pictures, you'll see that I started out with just two liters and a third empty bottle. This isn't nearly enough to keep myself well supplied. You'll see why as you get to the end of the slides. Empty half of each bottle into the third bottle so that the two original bottles may be laid on their side without obstructing the the mouth of the bottle. We're going to freeze them this way. Once they have been sufficiently frozen, we're going to place them upside down in glasses. Acetic acid has a much lower freezing temperature than does water, so what happens is the organic material and acetic acid melts first and drains into the glass. What's left over is approximately 50% of the original vinegar. I continued to do this until all of the vinegar had undergone this freezing and draining at least once. Then I did it two more times. By the time I was done, I had less than 25% of the original product left.

But wait... there's more!

This doesn't have to be overly expensive, but to do it properly and without actually killing yourself through improper ventilation, you need to spend at least a little bit of money.

I'm still not done yet. There's more water in that last container, even though it looks really dark. Once it's properly distilled, it's supposed to have a yellowish color and honey like consistency. I haven't distilled it yet mainly because I don't have all of my equipment together. My retort and erlenmeyer flask are at my lab partner's house. Plus I had to go out and buy a candy thermometer because the common food thermometer doesn't measure high enough. I needed something that would measure up to 150 degrees celsius.

My next step is to boil the majority of the rest of the water off, then I will distill the remainder at least two times with my retort. All of this HAS to be done in glass containers as acetic acid will draw off material from metal. That's its purpose, but we don't want it to do that yet.

Considering that I have about a third of a liter, I'm not expecting a lot of acetic acid by the time I'm done but I'll keep you posted.

Trivium

I did a quick Google search for images and came across this one.  Actually, the one I found was a little more simple without as many lables.  In fact, it really only had the three main circles, the planetary symbols and the words Espirit, Ame and Corps (Spirit, Soul and Body). 

The concept is replete throughout history and several religions, but I thought this was quite impressive.  It's relatively simple but still complex.  The Spirit and Soul combine to create the Body, a concept I have posted elsewhere.  Within the circles we see the circumpunct labled "Or", French for Gold.  The crescent is labled "argent" (Silver) and then Saturn is labled "Plumb" for lead.  The Plumb, or plumbum, is Latin for Lead which we derive from the Romans who invented a "plumbing" system.  A Plumb Rule is a tool used in ancient times by dangling a piece of lead from a string and comparing it to a wall or any perpendicular structure to ensure that it is properly upright.  Freemason's use this design as the badge of the Junior Warden in a Lodge.

Around the outside we see the French words for Air, Fire, Water and Earth - the four elements.  Notice that air, the spiritual soul, is at the top.  As we move down towards the earth, fire and water combine to create the body.  Fire is archetypically male and water is archetypically female, and the corporal manifestation of their combination creates earth (ame corporal, espirit corporal labeled along either side of the picture).

Stock of the Week: December 25th

Ok - before I get onto this week's stock, I want to address my success last week.

Let's consider all of the details. First, I had $500 to start with, less $10 for the purchase commission - so I ultimately had $490 to spend on a stock. DVAX was originally quoted at $3.07 last Sunday, but since it opened at $3.00 on Monday, my trade executed lower, and I actually got in at that lower price. So my total account looked like this:

$477 stock value (159 shares at $3ea.)
$13 cash
Total Portfolio Value of $490 (original $500 less $10 commission)

On Monday, the stock closed up at $3.02, but then on Tuesday it went up to a total share price of $3.23. Multiplied by 159 shares = $36.57 total profit! Wednesday, when the market opened, my order to sell was executed but this time at $3.37. Nice! That's a $58.83 profit!

Since I'm working with such small numbers, I sold on Wednesday because I really don't have the luxury of waiting another day to really follow the trailing stop strategy found here. Not only that, but I've told myself that I want to make a 5% monthly return on my trades. With these profits, I've already hit that mark and with only one trade. Let's see how that works out.

If I had a total portfolio value of $490 and take my $58.83 profit, my portfolio value just increased to a total of $548.83. Now, since I'm selling I will have to pay another commission fee of $10. This drops my total value to $538.83 - I've made $38.83 in two days. That's a 7.766% return. Since I've already surpassed my mark, I could sit back and not invest for the rest of the month. I want to remove emotions from the trade and since I have a goal in mind, I figure its easier to take my profits and live to trade another day - but I also want to continue increasing my revenue.

This week, I'll bank the $38.83, and only trade on the original $500. Less the $10 commission, I have $490 to spend on this week's stock seen below. Same rules as last week. If my portfolio drops by $15, I sell and get out of there to minimize my losses. Worse case scenario, I lose a total of $35 and I still have a portfolio value of $503.83.

So this week I'll be looking at Charming Shoppes, Inc.

I'm not actually going to buy into this stock yet. It doesn't have the right feel. I'm hoping that it will turn around in about two or three days. Notice the engulfing pattern of the last two days. Thursday closed down really low but then there's a nice hammer candlestick on Friday. This looks to be an indicator that the stock will drop a little further. Not only that but the volume of movement looks like it's kind of stagnant. And if we consider the Williams %R indicator, it's still overbought.

Finally, if we consider the two different wave systems, we notice first in the Elliott Wave system that we are most likely heading into wave 4. October 10th marked the beginning of wave 1, and November 25th the end of wave 2.  We should now be at the peak or end of wave 3 and heading into a corrective wave 4.

This seems to jive with Craig's 4 wave swing system. The stock trades sideways in November making up wave 1, then we see a breakaway at the beginning of December into the 2nd wave. We should now be at wave 3 heading into wave 4.

If the cards fall right, we'll swoop down through Craig's wave 4 and then back up into an Elliott Wave 5 - hopefully by the end of this week. We want to watch for the candlesticks to drop into the TAZ, as Craig calls it, Williams %R to drop to a -80 and hopefully also see a spike in volume with a doji or thin range hammer candlestick pattern.

One final reminder about my conservative approach - I've already met my 5% mark this month so if I don't trade any more stocks this month I'm ok with it. Even Craig says on his website that staying in cash IS a trading strategy. So if CHRS doesn't turn out the way I expected.... meh.

Evening Primrose - The Blackfoot Miracle Herb

Ok - so maybe it's not a miracle herb but it's pretty cool.  According to the Smithsonian Handbook of Herbs by Lesley Bremness, it was a food of the Blackfoot tribe.  She goes on to note that when it's boiled in honey it makes a great, soothing cough syrup.  The oil contains gammalinoleic acid which helps relieve symptoms of PMS, lowers blood pressure, and "restores red blood cell mobility in multiple sclerosis".  Dang!

Now, as I referenced my faithful companion herb book, Herbs for Health and Healing by Kathi Keville, I was sorely disappointed to find out that there were no recipes for any tinctures or concoctions using this wonderful health source.  The good news is that since there's no recipes this stuff can potentially be used straight.

Ms. Keville also says that this same gamma linoleic acid helps relieve prostate inflamation, and "can reduce skin inflammation even better than cortisone".

But my all time favorite reason for this herb's oil is the claim that it can potentially help prevent hangovers. Man, I love nature!

Suggested Reading:

I Can't Be Hypnotized...Malarkey!

Ummm... yes you can.

I've noticed that even seasoned professional Hypnotherapists will frequently tell their clients "Just go with it. You're over analyzing the process." That's like nails on a chalk board for me.

Everyone enters the state that is typically associated with hypnosis at least twice a day: once when they're falling asleep, and then again when they're waking up in the morning. It's called the hypnagogic state. Involuntary muscle jerking usually happens during this state. Ever feel like you're just on the edge of sleep, you're mind is wandering, you know you're awake and then all of a sudden you're leg twitches and you realize that you were in fact sleeping? If you had a hypnotist there, they would have been able to help you maintain that state and provide you with suggestions for change.

The key for the hypnotherapist is to help the client into that state artificially, but as we all learn differently, getting the client to that state is different for all of us. If a hypnotherapist is telling you that you're overanalyzing something... find another hypnotherapist. I don't care if they've been in business for 50 years. Find another hypnotist.

In a previous post, I addressed the types of relationship expressions known as Physical and Emotional. The other half of that expression is our suggestibility, or the way we learn. In that post, I addressed the Emotional type's need to analyze information before their subconscious is able to accept and assimilate it. The Physical type is able to accept direct information at face value. This isn't necessarily a better trait to have, it's just not the same as an Emotional type.

There is a 3rd type of suggestibility. This is the Somnambulist. That's a fancy word for "sleep walker", prime candidates for stage hypnosis.

If your hypnotherapist is telling you that you're overanalyzing, it's because he or she has made their living off of Physical types and Somnambulists - over 50% of the population of the world. That's quite a bit of clientele. But instead of accepting that you learn differently than their usual clientele, they put the impetus on you to conform to what they know. And because you analyze all information, it might be natural for your subconscious to then infer that the this hypnotist is telling you that there is something wrong with you. When someone tells you that there's something wrong with you, does that make you trust them more? Are you even comfortable around them? Chances are, probably not.

Let's go a little deeper into this rabbit hole. There is a chemical that is found in abundance in the brain of a nursing mother and child - it's called oxytocin. It's been called the "trust" chemical. It's production helps regulate the circadian rhythm, that rhythm which helps you sleep at night and stay awake during the day. It's also produced by monks and nuns who meditate for long hours, and since meditation is self hypnosis it can also be found in hypnosis clients at the time of the hypnagogic state. If you are on high alert, i.e. mistrustful, then you can't sleep. So if you don't trust your hypnotist, or feel comfortable around him, how are you supposed to slip into the hypnogogic state, that moment just before sleep, if you're around him?

If you're hypnotherapist is telling you that you're over analyzing - don't trust him/her. Find another hypnotist - case closed!

Recommended Reading

Book of Aquarius - Review

This review will be brief.  I'm not quite sure what the author was intending to do with providing this information for free.  Visit his site here http://www.thebookofaquarius.com/  and download the book if you want to read it. 

The author submitted the book to several Esoteric websites and claimed anonymity for fear of violent censorship, claiming he had (or has) the secret of creating the Stone.  SPOILER: He claims the stone is merely urine.  That's right.  Urine.

Thank goodness the book is free, 'cause I'm not buyin'.

If you're into Alchemy at all, then over the past few months I'm sure you've found a copy of this so I don't think I'm exposing any great secret by providing this information.  Unfortunately, there is someone in several forums who claims to be the author even after the author told everyone not to try looking for him.  I suppose that's not so unfortunate, but what really is unfortunate is the fact that this character is flaming all of the forum's he's going into.  If his "research" held any validity, it was quickly proven as false by his violent verbal outbursts on public websites.

His "research" consists of copying and pasting many quotes from texts found primarily on the Alchemy Website and making reaching connections to conclude that the production of the stone is through urine.  It should be noted that at the beginning of his book he even states that he hasn't yet made the Stone.

I suggest that everyone read the book, but beware - do your own research and don't trust this author.  If the fool in all of the forums starting trouble really is the author, then he is nothing more than a modern day puffer. 
Edit: The person going through the forums stirring up trouble is allegedly someone who "has it out" for the real author because of an apparent mistaken identity. The review still stands. He hasn't completed the work and his research consists of copying and pasting loads of quotes