Death of Helena Avelar (1964-2021)

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Its is with a sense of genuine shock and sadness I want to notify Skyscript members of the untimely death of the Portugese traditional astrologer Helena Avelar de Carvalho. I understand she passed away on March 9th. At this time I do not know the cause of her death. The information was related by Luis Ribeiro in a Facebook message on Wednesday March 10th.

My deepest condolence goes out to Luis Ribeiro and Helena's family at this tragic time. A bright star in the astrological firmament has gone out far too soon. May she know peace.

Helena's astrological studies began at a very young age and finally in 1992 she began formal training in Astrology. Following a successful career as a journalist, she began her practice as a professional astrologer in 1996 and since 1999 had been a fulltime astrologer and teacher. Helena trained with both both Robert Zoller and Sue Ward completing his medieval astrology Diploma and Sue's Qualifying Horary Practitioner course (QHP).

Helena collaborated with her partner Luis Ribeiro in founding a school of Astrology in 1999, which went on to focus exclusively on traditional astrology called Academia de Estudos Astrológicos (Academy of Astrological Studies).

The couple co-wrote probably the best general introduction to traditional astrology in their book On The Heavenly Spheres. It was published in English in 2010 although a Portugese language version of the book had been published a few years earlier.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heavenly-Spher ... 0866906096

A companion book appeared in 2019 entitled: Traditional Astrology Course: Essential Concepts & Interpretation Basics

Along with other traditional astrologers like Luis Ribeiro, Peter Stockinger and Sue Ward, Helena contributed to the high quality Traditional astrological online publication called The Tradition which ran for 4 issues.

Eventually, Helena stepped backed somewhat from practising astrology and went into academia to study the history of astrology at the University of London (Warburg Institute) . In her PHD thesis she was supervised by the noted medieval scholar Charles Burnett. Helena completed her PHD last year.

Helena Avelar and Luius Ribeiro had recently launched a series of video podcasts collectively entitled ‘Ad Astra: Academic Conversations on the History of Astrology’.

This interview below was with Philip Graves the noted astrological historian and book collector.

https://www.astrolearn.com/history-of-m ... s-ribeiro/

Some of Helena's more recent papers are listed below as well as a link to an Astrology Podcast interview with both Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro from 2019 with Chris Brennan.

https://ulondon.academia.edu/HelenaAvelardeCarvalho

Helena Avelar de Carvalho; Luís Campos Ribeiro, Traditional Astrology Course: Essential Concepts & Interpretation Basics. Independently published (August 2, 2019)

Helena Avelar de Carvalho; Luís Campos Ribeiro, “Manuscripts and evidences of Jewish astrology and medicine in fifteenth-century Portugal: an overview???, in Afonso, L. U.; Moita T. (eds.), Sephardic Book Art of the 15th century, Harvey Miller, 2017.

Helena Avelar de Carvalho, Luís Campos Ribeiro. “A ciência judaica em Portugal no século XV???. Afonso, Luís U., Miranda, Maria A. (Coord.), Livro e a iluminura judaica em Portugal no final da Idade Média. Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 2015 (pp. 87-91)

Helena Avelar de Carvalho; Luis Campos Ribeiro. On the Heavenly Spheres. A Treatise on Traditional Astrology. Tempe (Arizona): AFA, 2010

https://theastrologypodcast.com/2019/10 ... astrology/
Last edited by Mark on Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

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thanks mark and martin...

people die.. it is nice that some honour the passing of others, even people they don't know personally because of a shared bond with astrology... i enjoyed listening to the music that charles burnett played on the video and didn't know he was still alive and plays piano - classical vibe, but perhaps an improvised piece was very nice to hear.. i read helenas book on the heavenly spheres with her partner and i enjoyed it..

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I just found out now about Helena's death here on skyscript. I was her's and Luis' student since 2005/2006, and collaborated with them for quite some time. My own astrology software (http://elements.flatangle.com/ - which I still use daily) was built around their ideas and teachings.

I'm still in shock and I'm positively sure that she will be remembered through all the students she taught, books she wrote and talks she gave.

May she rest in peace.