Forensic Astronomy and Real-Sky Constellations

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Hello All

I am new to this venue having posted already in the Skyscript Astrological Forum under the topic: Sidereal Zodiac Models. I have been redirected to this forum. I won't repeat my posts as you can freely view them, if desired. They will serve as an intro to my topic. I respond here to the request to provide some perspective on the novel model I have developed since 1976.

I began work as consulting tropical astrologer in 1970. After five or so years, I became increasingly curious about the exclusion of stars -- except the sun -- from the tropical format. In LA I met Will Sucher, creator of Astrosophy, who used a quasi-sidereal system, but I was not satisfied with his format. I scoured libraries for astronomical atlases which are full aplenty with views of the constellations. But I ran into a snag. I felt like Isis trying to assemble the dismembered parts of Osiris. I could not find one skpmap that showed the thirteen constellations on the orbital rim of the earth (AKA ecliptic). I had to construct my own, which I did. I called it the Rimsite with a doubleentendre: the constellations sited or situatred on the orbital path, and sighted or observed from there.

My intention was to overlay the Rimsite on a horoscope such as I was using, Placidian, as I recall. Of course, as you would expect, it did not work due to house distortions, intercepted signs, etc. I was not content merely to use an equal-house system, so I invented my own, the terrascope. It presented no distortions of local space around the birth place. Thus I was able to cut out a circular display of the Rimsite, align it to the VP, and see exactly where the planets in the signs and house would appear when projected into the remote panorama of the real-sky constellations.

Years later in Santa Fe where I taught astrology, I made a blow-up model five feet in diameter meticulously inscribing the stars on and near the ecliptic by their longitudes. For this task, I benefited hugely from Michael Erlewine's Astrophysical Directions which came out in 1977. Then I added the graphics for each constellation, using the traditional visualizations from Hellenistic and Greco-Roman astrology, and the Dendera Zodiac: Ram, Bull, Twins, etc

Then I had an interface: the tropical zodiac inside and the constellations around it. I could read the horoscope, for instance, mercury retrograde in 19 Sag/5th house opposite uranus in 19 Gemini/11th house. But at first I could not make out what the data projected into the Rimsite could tell me. Mercury in the legs of Ophiuchus (Snaketamer) opposite uranus at the head of the Bull (not the sign Taurus). All I could guess was that the constellational positions carried some kind of encoded data that could not be extrated from the tropical system. So, I disregarded all the tools and techniques of astrological interpretation and concentrated on the investigation of those positions in the real-sky astronomical star-patterns.

That's my intro. To cut to the chase, I worked out how the constellational images are coparable to urbilt, "primordial images" and as such, there were encoded with mythological themes and motifs. I then came to regard the planets in those locales as the "assets" or tools for activating that content. By the mid-1980s I worked with the interface of both formats, giving a reading for the tropical model, and a second reading for the constellational perspective. The second interpretation has nothing to do with personality stereotyping and analysis of psychological complexes (of which I had learned mainly from Dane Rudhyar). Finally, I advanced to the constellational rendering of the horoscope which I call the Manifold. Here is a section of how it looks:
[img] https://nemeta.org/solzhenitzyn/

Trusting that works, this is what you see. From right to left: Libra - Scorpio - Ophiuchus - Sagittarius - Capricorn - Aquarius. Of course, that is now what you actually see. Those names appy to the starless ecliptic signs, and astronomers use the for other purposes to identify the constellations. To avoid this quandary I had to rename the actual star=patterns: Scales or Balance, Scorpion, Snaketamer (composite stars partially merged) - Archer - Great Void - Goatfish - Manitu. Great Void is the relatively starless region of 13 degrees between the Archer and the Goatfish.

You can compare the tropical data to the Manifold in this way.

North node - 13 Sag >> lower body of the Scorpion
Sun - 19 Sag >> Tail of Scorpion, merged with legs of Snaketamer
Venus - 23 Sag >> right leg of Snaketamer near the stinger of the Scorpion
Mercury - 4 Capricorn >> forward arm of the Archer
Mars - 23 Capricorn >> in the Great Void
Midheaven - disregard as exact bt is not known.
Uranus - 24 Aquarius >> tail of the Goatfish

This is a view of one-fifth of the entire Manifold of Alexandr Solzhenitzyn. I regard the positions of the planets, including the sun and north node, to be something like decoding prompts for a method of interpetation entirely distinct from any known system either tropical or sidereal: forensic astronomy. In reading the Manifold, these graphic positions display in primordial images the intel encoded in the constellations -- you could say, encoded in the skywriting, the skyscript.

That, as briefly as I can explain it, is how the system works. [/img]