A Chart for Spam

1
The computer media are happily reminding everyone that Spam is now 10 years old:

http://www.silicon.com/research/special ... =d20040414

The page I've found which comes closest to pinning down a time (& place), is this one:

http://www.kkc.net/cs/new-sci1.txt

which gives "the early hours". The date seems to be universally agreed as 12th April 1994, and the location was Arizona - again, pinned down by the 2nd link above to Scottsdale.

I'm looking at a chart for 3am, which puts the chart's Jupiter-Moon & Venus opposition into 9th and 3rd respectively, where it seems (to me) they belong. Venus rules 3rd too, & the opp from Jupiter seems reasonable symbolism for the well-nigh infinite expansion of messages which is Spam.

2
Hi Garry,

I'll try to get back to this and post the chart in later when I have a bit more time.
This might have been a significant date but it looks like the history of spam goes back to 1990 at least. The term is said to have originated when people started flooding chat facilities and discussion boards with the words to the Monty Python Spam Song. Here's the sketch, which sums spam up pretty well and might at least give you a laugh -

http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Cormac.OBrien/spam.html

Another humourous link on the secret origin of spam (I need them at the moment) -

http://www.teemings.com/extras/humor/fenris17.html

3
Image
Here's the chart for 3:00 am. Since most people regard spam as an unpleasant, unsolicited nuisance, isn't that dignified Venus ruling and situated in the 3rd failing to describe the lack of honour and respect attached to spam? An earlier time would give rulership of the 3rd house to Mars and at around 2:00 am the Venus-Jupiter opposition hits the angles, whilst Saturn, which still rules the ascendant, falls upon the 2nd house cusp showing the motivation of the act. I think the Moon coming from Saturn to the Venus-Jupiter opposition (with Jupiter in Scorpio very prolific ) shows the ease by which this scourge on society breeds.

4
Hi Deb,

Thanks for posting the chart & for some interesting comments (as always). Re. the history of spam - you're right of course, it was around in fledgling form before the incident I mentioned. This page:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html

traces it as far back as 1978. However - and I'm sure you'd agree with this - any 'starting point' for something like this is going to be pretty arbitrary. As Sir Nick Campion put it:
"? astrological significance often coincides with those events which people in general select as having the greatest public, symbolic importance."
(I rambled on about this in regard to a time for flight a while back - the article is still online here:

http://www.astrologer.com/aanet/pub/tra ... /garry.htm )

So anyway, with this particular chart. I don't have my heart absolutely set on a 3.00am time, I was just posting in a few fugitive minutes when I should have been working at my day-job so there wasn't a lot of research behind it. But there is something interesting here - perhaps more interesting than the original post - which emerges when you ask:
"...isn't that dignified Venus ruling and situated in the 3rd failing to describe the lack of honour and respect attached to spam?"
The way I saw this, was that one quality of Venus in Taurus is surely fertility. So the 3rd house/communication department is characterised by messages sprouting up everywhere. Of course the Jupiter opposition emphasises this and introduces the idea of unhelpful expansion.

So I'm not convinced that a strongly dignified planet will necessarily work in the best interests of humanity. In this case it makes sense to me to think that the very fertility of the 3rd house ruler characterises something which will be a problem to many people.

(Incidentally - I'm aware that traditionally the 3 water signs are the 'fruitful' signs. Still think that Venus in Taurus has to qualify as a fertile kind of placement though.)

Another thing which we could get into here is, whose viewpoint does the chart represent? If it's the majority of web-users then obviously spam should appear as a curse. But if the chart is showing spam as it's seen by the spammers then it should (presumably) characterise it as a good thing, a boon, an easy buck. My first thought on this is that the chart should contain both positions. What say ye, o forumers?

5
I agree about the fertility issue -Venus in Taurus opp Jupiter in Pisces is excessively fertile. This reminds me of the comment Robert Corre made in his Washington sniper article ?Of itself, no planet destroys; what destroys is exaggeration?. Spam has become a destructive nuisance because of its easy reproduction.

Well, you could be right :) I also thought about that even before I made my post. That although we hate it, the man who did the deed probably thought it was very effective and one of his better business ideas. So I wondered that if the chart was fixed upon his significant action, should we expect a strong and effective 3rd house? I just liked the idea of Mars ruling the 3rd house, spam being so intrusive.

Ultimately I don?t think it?s worth getting too picky with the chart or placing too much emphasis on house placements if the time isn?t known, but it might be worth pondering on the nature of spam through the dominant aspects (and also worth pondering on the nature of the aspects through the fact that they gave rise to a significant moment in the history of spam).