11/22/2018 Bill Sheeran - astrology talk Venice 1997

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talks Introduction
The venue for this talk was on the Lido, one of the islands off shore from Venice. The
conference was housed in the the cinema complex used for the Venice Film Festival. My
talk was in the main auditorium, a very lavish space with capacity for several hundred
people. I was scheduled to start at 9:30am on the Sunday following on from the
article talks
conference 'party'. Needless to say, the place was virtually empty - maybe 20 or 30 in
correspondence the audience. It was a strange experience. Standing behind a lectern on a huge stage a
main page long way from the front row, detachment from the meagre audience was completed by
the fact I had to read my paper. This was true for all speakers, and I think it had to do
talks with the multi-lingual translation process. Whatever, that is the reason why I can include
Venice 1997
a copy of the text here.

Vilanova 1998
Astrology and Unpredictability
articles
A talk given at the 2nd CIDA International Congress, Venice, Italy October 1997
mundane
astrology | page 1 | | page 2 | | page 3 | | page 4 | | page 5 |
philosophy &
astrology
Astrology tends to be identified with the zodiac sign Aquarius. Before the discovery of
chaos & Uranus in 1781, Aquarius was ruled solely by Saturn, but today, for western astrologers,
complexity
it is also co-ruled by Uranus. These two planets symbolise opposing but complementary
others themes, such as permanence and change, conformity and non-conformity, constraint and
non
freedom, predictability and unpredictability, etc. It is somewhat paradoxical to have this
astrological pair living together under the roof of Aquarius.

Astrology has been with us for many thousands of years, but it is only in the last 200 or
correspondence
so that the Uranian archetype has germinated in the collective psyche and moved in to
exegesis set up house with Saturn. This is a very short length of time in the life span of
ACT astrological awareness. The question I'd like to explore in this talk is whether or not the
Uranian principle has been integrated within the practice of astrology during this brief
political
period. In other words, has astrology fully embraced the archetype of freedom and
astrology
unpredictability?
urania
The astrological meaning of Uranus to some extent derives from the quality of events
other which coloured the period around the planet's discovery in 1781. It was a time of
main pages revolution and upheaval, of transition from being subjects under a monarchy to a new
home
status as citizens in a republic. Europe was in turmoil. It was also a time of
unprecedented advances in science and technology, when the promise of the classical
consultations
scientific revolution of the previous century was being realized. Nothing seemed
courses impossible.

ideas The 18th century is also called the Age of Enlightenment, a period in European culture
irish during which an optimistic belief that reason is the best tool for illuminating the human
astrology condition dominated educated circles. This theme permeated not only science, but also
the philosophy, music, arts, and literature of that time. The Enlightenment added a
links dynamic energy to the new era of Modernity which was born during the previous century.
It broke the dominant influence of faith, religious dogma and received truths among the
educated and privileged classes. The non-rational was banished to the dustbins of magic,
superstition and mysticism. As Immanuel Kant once suggested, the motto defining the
Enlightenment should be ''Dare to Know''.

Accordingly, Uranian symbolism constellates around the themes of change,

destabilisation, revolution, innovation, humanism, radicalism, and the questioning of
authority. Coupled with these are qualities of unpredictability and the unexpected,
electrical flashes from out of the blue. These were the conceptual vortices which

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11/22/2018 Bill Sheeran - astrology talk Venice 1997
emerged in European cultural consciousness at that time, and which had great influence
in many different areas. Of course there was resistance to these changes from
established and traditional structures in society. After all, the Saturnian principle also has
a life in our cultural dramas, and was not about to embrace this uninvited guest with
open arms.

Nonetheless, despite the resistance, the slow process of integrating this new reality
principle got under way, and by the 20th century it became well entrenched in the
western cultural landscape, acting as a driving force which pushed the evolution of
Saturnian structures into more appropriate forms. But did this process of integration of
the new perspectives have any effect on the traditions and established structures of
astrology at that time, and has there been any real evolution of astrology since then?

The fact that serious astrology had faded from view when the Enlightenment began to
flourish is highly significant in this regard. It had already been rejected as belonging to
the disappearing pre-Modern world. Astrology offered no stimulation for the intellectually
inclined person in comparison to the exciting alternatives. When Uranus was discovered,
astrology was at possibly its lowest ebb in a very long history, utterly at odds with the
prevailing cultural climate. The Enlightenment's love affair with reason ensured that an
already very weakened astrology remained well and truly on the cultural periphery.
There was no place for belief in planetary powers, occult influences or astral divination in
the new vision. My feeling is that under these conditions, the chances of astrology itself
undergoing any degree of radical reform (apart from its virtual disappearance) were
minimal. Although Uranus had made its way into the symbolic vocabulary of those
astrologers who were active in the early 19th century, the structures and approach
remained the same as ever. In fact some of these practitioners were at the forefront of a
radical anti-modernism, resolutely sticking to the pre-modern view.

However, several decades later, this anti-modern attitude blended in well with the
spreading Romantic movement, a reaction against the Enlightenment which happened in
the first half of the 19th century. A new wave of enthusiasm for imagination, inspiration
and spiritual exploration took hold in the culture, especially within the visual arts,
literature and music. Interest in the occult became fashionable, and astrology was given
a new lease of life. The Astrology eventually regained a foot hold on the back of
Theosophy, allowing it to re-emerge among the urban educated classes of late 19th and
early 20th centuries. However the re-vitalised astrology was as pre-modern as ever, this
time suffused with esoteric notions imported from eastern philosophies. Instead of
undergoing a Uranian reform, astrology experienced a 'Neptunian illumination', following
the discovery of that planet in 1846. It is true that there were a small number of
prominent astrologers who recoiled in distaste at this new esotericism, and who
attempted to present astrology as an exact science, but they had little impact. These
attempts were more an expression of a Saturnian rather than Uranian urge.

Copyright © 1997 Bill Sheeran | next |

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