Project HIndsight: Hellenistic Astrology

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I think it was on this list that someone asked for an update for the Project Hindsight Pulbications. I received this e-mail today and since the idea of the e-mail is to drum up business, I'm sure they won't mind the posting. I hope Deb doesn't.

Dear Hindsight Supporters:
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Holiday Greetings from Project Hindsight! We wish you all a happy and merry Holiday Season as the All-Seeing Sun seems to pause for a moment before setting off again on another journey into a New Year. For us this is a season of special rejoicing because we expect that the first mature products of Project Hindsight research results will see the light early in 2006, and we expect that is good news for you too. This e-letter is intended only for subscribers, customers and others who have requested to be put on our mailing list -- if you'd like your name taken off, just let us know.

HOME AGAIN
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Twenty years ago, Robert H. Schmidt ? a.k.a my husband Bob -- and I started a little publishing company to specialize in translations of old scientific and mathematical works. We named it The Golden Hind Press after Sir Francis Drake's little ship, because Drake's adventures fighting the Spanish were so inspiring and his modest vessel was the first English ship to sail around the world. After almost everyone in England had given it up for lost, The Golden Hind finally returned home so loaded down with treasure that it was riding below its proper waterline near to foundering. Now after all these years we find ourselves in a very similar position. Get ready astrologers! After years of silence, Project Hindsight and The Golden Hind Press will soon be unloading a massive amount of wonderful and amazing research results. Soon you will not wonder why it took so long; you will wonder that we made it back at all. There is SO MUCH STUFF that it will take many books, lectures, workshops, courses and a number of years to present it all. It would take ten letters or more just to give you the details about our most current projects. So here are some brief notices. You can expect separate detailed emails about each of the following topics -- and perhaps others -- beginning this week and continuing through January:


THE ASTROLOGER'S OWN EDITION
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This is Project Hindsight's new translation series which focuses entirely on Hellenistic Astrology and seeks to uncover the original complex system attributed to legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Many of you have been waiting -- more or less patiently -- for Definitions and Foundations, the first book in our new translation series on Hellenistic Astrology. We were in the middle of typesetting this book last April and thought it would be out by June. Then Bob ran into a short section of Greek text that revealed "problems with conceptual inconsistencies" in the Hellenistic aspect doctrine -- or so it appeared. Now after six months of 24/7 thinking Bob resolved all the problems. What he did was something equivalent to solving ten simultaneous equations with ten unknowns, so you should all applaud this masterpiece of textual exegesis. And this wasn't just some scholarly trifle. What he figured out was well worth all that work -- You'll see! So now the interrupted typesetting and finishing of Definitions and Foundations is back on track and we're chugging along. I wish you could see how beautiful this book looks both inside and out. The cover is finished and the typesetting is more than 98% done, but we need a bit more time for some last minute tweaks, and we need some leisure to sit back and look at each page one last time to make sure that everything is as good as it can be. One day in the near future it will be DONE. And soon I will be writing you about the next volume(s), which are already in the works.


NEWS ON SOFTWARE FOR HELLENISTIC ASTROLOGY
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There are good tidings on the Hellenistic astrological software front. You will learn about this in an upcoming e-mail.


OUR AUDIO COURSE IN HELLENISTIC ASTROLOGY
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We're planning on releasing the first half of our audio course on Hellenistic astrology, The System of Hermes: The Basic Course, very soon too. The same conceptual problem that held up Definitions and Foundations also held up the course. But no longer! We're really sorry about the delay, but those of you who have been waiting will get a far better product. One change is that the Basic Course is being created for and will be published only on MP3 CD's. This will be the case with all our audio products in the future. The MP3 CD format has many advantages, for us and for you too. We can put more than 12 hours of talk on one disk, and we don't have plan talks in rigid sections of 30 or 45 minutes. The recording is much easier to edit and we can add more material at the last minute. The new format also takes much less storage room and is more durable. You can play the disks in your computer or in any of the many inexpensive new players that abound, or you will be able to download the material easily into an ipod, if you have one of those. This technology is a godsend, because we have a zillion hours of research reports to deliver, and Bob's wonderful audio lectures are the easiest and fastest way to get the word out. We have so many MP3 CDs planned for release over the next few years, including a number of series, that I get dizzy thinking about them all.


CRUISE THROUGH THE HELLENISTIC ASTROLOGERS
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Here's an audio series we certainly would not be doing without the ease and flexibility of this MP3 format. It would just be too much trouble and expense all around, but with MP3 Cruise Through the Hellenistic Astrologers will be a breeze. Here's the concept: As soon as each book of the translation series is finished and off to the printer, Bob will do a long informal talk about the book and its contents. This will last at least three to six hours, quite possibly longer -- after all, we have more than 12 hours of room on that disk! The talk will function as an introduction, guide, and companion to the translation and written commentary. It will familiarize you with the contents and help you through the difficult passages. Unlike the book, which is necessarily "linear" in form, the talk can move freely about. It will also have material that isn't in the book at all, speculations Bob didn't quite want to put into print, for example. For all Project Hindsight subscribers, each CRUISE disk will cost only $24.99 when shipped as a companion to the translation. If you'd like to get aboard the CRUISE, sign up now, because the first excursion will be recorded soon. (We may have to add a bit extra to the shipping, but it shouldn't be much.)


ZODIACAL RELEASING FROM SPIRIT
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THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY TIMING PROCEDURE FROM THE SYSTEM OF HERMES THAT EVERY ASTROLOGER SHOULD KNOW. You will be hearing LOTS about it soon, and when you see how it works and learn how to use it in your own charts, you'll wonder how you ever practiced astrology without it. ZODIACAL RELEASING FROM SPIRIT is our first cut-to-the-chase MP3 workshop for Professional Astrologers -- the first of a new series called PROJECT HINDSIGHT TECHNIQUES, METHODS, AND PROCEDURES. You will learn how to use this amazing procedure to reveal peak periods in the native's career. You will also learn how it can be very useful, even decisive, in chart rectification. There are many example careers analyzed in this workshop: Einstein, Hitler, Bush, Kerry, Mohammed Ali, George Foreman, Bill Gates, Bob Dylan, John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Elvis Presley and other lesser lights. Bob has already done this workshop once informally and we plan to record it for you at our earliest opportunity, so order it now. PRICE: Only $99 for New and Former Subscribers to the Project Hindsight translations, otherwise $159.99.


THE PHASE CONCLAVE RETURNS
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For those who don't know, PHASE stands for Philosophy History Astrology Science -- AND -- Everything Else! Project Hindsight's three PHASE Conclaves, held in 1994, 1995, and 1996, were the most exciting and innovative astrological conferences ever. Each lasted a jam-packed week. Now we are pleased to announce that the next weeklong PHASE Conclave will be held in Cumberland, Maryland from Monday, August 14 thru Sunday August 20, 2006. The principal speakers will be Robert H. Schmidt, Demetra George and Ben Dykes, Ph.D. whose new translation of the complete Liber Astronomiae of Bonatti should be nearly ready for publication. As usual with PHASE Conclaves, there will also be Other Interesting People speaking (and we'll be telling you more about them in subsequent mailings). A new tradition is that this -- and future conclaves -- will be presented by the PHASER FOUNDATION (more about this below) as benefits for the PHASER LIBRARY (again, more below). Tuition is only $599 for the entire week. More conclave details (lodging, meals, etc.) will be forthcoming soon. ONLY 200 SEATS AVAILABLE!! You can reserve a place in the hall for only $99 down and $100 per month. -- or -- HELP US WITH UPFRONT EXPENSES! "Pay Upfront, Sit Upfront!" The first 50 people who pay the entire $599 in full will get RESERVED SEATS UPFRONT WITH THEIR NAMES ON THEM as close as possible to the podium. The best seats will go to the earliest birds!


THE PHASER FOUNDATION
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Here at Hindquarters, we not only try to run a business, we also have a non-profit organization called The Phaser Foundation, dedicated to research and education, which we started when a very generous man wanted to give Bob a substantial donation to support our research. Since that time, we have tried to pass on the favor to others and we intend to do more of this in the future. Bob and I do not have any children and our intention is to leave all our books and worldly goods to support a special research residence and small conference center because we know from experience what sort of circumstances long term research requires, and how necessarily it is that some people in a society engage their minds in solving problems that most people do not consider important. We'd like to do as much as possible to create this center -- THE INSTITUTE OF THE LIBERATING ARTS -- while we are still alive. My aim is to house this center -- totally or in part -- in the wonderful house I inherited from my parents. Mom always thought this house would come in handy for some practical purpose and she was right! We hope it will be a model to some extent or at least an inspiration for other similar centers. There's another house up the street that belongs to Robert V. Gross, an astrologer whom I first met when he was the head of the microform reading room at the Library of Congress. He has a similar dream for his house, to make it a useful place for young students of astrology. His inspiration was the library he remembers at Lowell House at Harvard. To this end, he has been collecting books for many years. Two of the young astrologers have already been staying here and working on their projects, and using the library. We intend to do a lot of creative fundraising in the future to support and expand the PHASER LIBRARY. (For now we are focusing our attention mainly on the Library -- later we will focus on other aspects of the center.)


WEB SITE WORK
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We're planning a new website for the PHASER Foundation which will have more about our plans, some great pictures of the houses and library, and other interesting stuff.


THE PHASE LECTURE COLLECTION
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That MP3 format has also been a godsend for our archives. We've put almost all of our old PHASE Conclaves, workshops and other events on MP3. We've also converted Bob's seventeen PHASE Lectures to MP3 and THE PHASER LECTURE COLLECTION fits into a box about 6x6x2 inches. We pretty much supported Project Hindsight for several years by doing and selling the PHASE Lectures. Now we hope they will help support the PHASER LIBRARY. We are donating all the profits from THE PHASE LECTURE COLLECTION and our other archive material to PHASER. These are oldies, but goodies! The PHASE Lectures in particular had a profound effect on many of the people who heard them. They woke up the listeners and got them thinking. Typically, people would say, "I could never repeat what he said, but it really got me thinking..." and then they would talk about what they started thinking about! It was as if they forgot about him entirely. They would only mention Bob again to say, "And then, when he said such and such, I thought....." For most listeners, Bob was like a wonderful dance partner who disappeared into thin air the minute he was no longer needed. he put so many people in touch with their own personal basic questions. Now you can get THE PHASE LECTURE COLLECTION -- a total of 204 HOURS of great listening pleasure for only $399 -- and at the same time, you'll be supporting the PHASER LIBRARY. You can also subscribe to THE PHASE LECTURE COLLECTION and get one lecture a month for only $24.99 plus $5 shipping. (Soon we'll have our other archive material ready to sell too -- the "practical" astrology part is way out of date, but there's lots of timeless good stuff there, as many of our faithful customers can attest.)


SPECIAL DONATIONS TO PHASER
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Besides the one generous man who prompted us to start THE PHASER FOUNDATION, there have been others who have given us quite generous contributions and in fact we probably would not be writing you about all these wonderful research results if these people had not come through with timely help on several occasions. Now that we have proof positive that Project Hindsight was totally worth the investment of time and money, and every ounce of our energy for the last 12 years, we hope more of you will start supporting the cause of further research of this kind and help us build a center where the next generation can focus on research without constanting worrying about practical problems. Besides donating the proceeds from sales of all our old audio to PHASER, we are also trying to think of other ways to raise money for the library. One is the PHASE Conclave. We'll also be doing some new MP3 workshops specially for PHASER. And I have some other ideas as well which I will write about next time. The main point is, we would like to raise enough money to give Mr. Gross, the old librarian from the Library of Congress -- "R.V." as he likes to be called -- a very generous bookbuying budget for the library, and also pay him something to help with work being done on his house which he is leaving to PHASER. He is eighty-one years old; fortunately people in his family typically lived into their nineties in good health. He has thought a great deal about what books are needed, and he loves looking through book catalogs like those from Oxford and Harvard university presses, and Scholar's Bookshelf. We hope all of you will consider giving a donation to PHASER before the end of 2005. We're a 501 c(3) and it's tax deductible. It would be really great to tell R.V. there's some big money for new books. That would be a great Christmas present for him. So if you can help, please do. It's not just those big donations that make a difference either. Lots of little ones can do just as much good.


BACK TO THE GALLEY BENCH
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Well, this has been fun stopping to write a letter to you, our loyal subscribers and supporters. I used to do this often back in the old days, and I expect I will be doing it more in the future. Meanwhile, we have all kinds of work to do to bring this cargo into port, so I've got to get back to it. Once again, Happy Holidays and a Merry Solstice to all of you.

Ellen Black
General Factotum
Project Hindsight
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