ISBA Newsletter October
2002
Dear ISBA member:
This newsletter has the following headlines:1) Members Corner
2) Barbara May. Our membership director
3) ISBA Congress. November 2002.
4) Expansion of the ISBA Board and ISBA Board Election
5) Workshops
6) ISBA Publishing
7) Maarit Laurento - Report from the AA Congress. September 2002.
8) Nominations for the ISBA Lilly1) Members Corner
We welcomed three new members to ISBA in September.
The three are
Carla Migliari, Brazil,
Roy Gillett, UK,
Annika Johannson, Sweden.
A warm welcome to all three of you!2) Barbara May. Our membership director
Barbara May, our indispensable membership director, who has lived for a year with her husband
Hoyt in England, now must return to the USA for a medical examination because of her illness.
If you write to Barbara, itr may be a while before she has time to answer.
Please send all urgent inquiries to info@businessastrologers.com
If you wish to send your regards to Barbara, please also use the above address for this purpose.
We will make sure she receives it.
We all wish a quick recovery for Barbara. Barbara has contributed an enormous amount of work for
ISBA right from the beginning and we all look forward to having her among us again.
3) ISBA Congress. November 2002
We would also like to remind you of the 4th ISBA Congress in London.
You still have time to register, if you wish to participate. To participate at the lower price,
register before October 15th.
We look forward to meeting you - and to being a part of a professionally and socially inspiring
congress .
4) Expansion of the ISBA Board and ISBA Board Election
ISBA has existed for almost 5 years. The real work started at the end of 1997, and the first board
was constituted in January/February 1998.
It consisted of members from Europe and the USA.
Happily, through the years we have welcomed members from more than 30 different countries.
We have therefore decided that the board election held in Januar/February 2003 should also represent
South America, India and Australia. As well as, of course, 2 members every second year from our
American colleagues.
We encourage American, Indian, South Americans and Australian members, who would like to put some
work into ISBA, to run for the board.
Any professional member with paid dues is eligible.
We look forward to hearing from you no later than December 15th on info@businessastrologers.com
Please include brief description of your ideas for future ISBA board work.
The names of the candidates will be published in the January newsletter.5) Workshops
Our member in Seattle, Madeline Gerwick-Brodeur, is also a member of the Polaris Business Guides
group. This groups holds business astrology-oriented workshops all through the winter. You can
participate even though you live in a different part of the world, as all workshops are held using
telecommunication.
For further information on this brilliant initiative, visit the Polaris Business Guides web site:
www.polarisbusinessguides.com6) ISBA Publishing
In ISBA, we are contemplating publishing our own books. As you know, business astrology and financial
astrology are only niches in the wide array of opportunities given by astrology.
Already one ISBA member publishes e-books - Kay Shinker.
In the coming months we will investigate our possibilities for establishing an ISBA publishing
company - and work out the realism of this thought.
If any membre has experience in this field, we would love to hear from you. Please mail to info@businessastrologers.com7)
Maarit Laurento - Report from the AA Congress. September 2002.
Return to Astrological Excellence
In the beginning of September, the Astrological Association of Great Britain held its 34th annual
conference this year in Wales, at the University of Swansea.
The city welcomed over 200 participants from both UK and from abroad - at first with unruly weather
which eventually turned to the most perfect sunshine and warmth, very suitable for outside discussions
and informal meetings.
The conference was titled "Return to Astrological Excellence" which was very suitable
as we for the moment were witnessing the beginning of academic studies in Bath Spa University
College, England (term starts 7th October) titled "Cultural Astronomy and Astrology"
with Michael York, Patrick Curry and Nicholas Campion as its staff. Joanne Wickenburg from USA
also told us that they have 50-60 students from all age groups (17-65) beginning their third term
in Kepler College. She told about the process which made Kepler College possible (http://www.kepler.edu).
Both Wickenburg and York had the same message: astrology in the academy is not only possible,
but also even desirable among the academics, who are not always so visible, since the skeptics
- a small but loud group - continually try to poison the atmosphere. However, the encouraging
message was that they have not succeeded and that the universities are welcoming astrology.
Unfortunately, I also recently got a message from professor Jesus Navarro-Artigas of the University
of Zaragoza, Spain, saying that they do not have the possibility of offering astrological courses
this term. Also professor Chris Bagley reminded the audience in Swansea that there still are academics
with not so flattering thoughts about astrology and it undoubtedly still needs work to make real
astrology known in the universities.
But I welcomed York's optimism and Wickenburg's wish to be open about astrology and not to "stay
in an astrological box thinking nobody understands us". Astrology is quite widely studied
in England. There are also courses/interest in the university of Kent, in the Warburg Institute
and in the university of Southampton where RGCSA (Research Group for the Critical Study of Astrology,
http://www.astrology-research.net) operates with three Ph.D. students.
But the conference offered many other issues in addition to the subject of the academics. For
myself, there were many interesting topics. One of my favourites was Clare Martin's lecture on
the ascendant with fresh and new ideas about the familiar subject of relationships. She combined
some thoughts from personality theories with astrological thinking and came up with an interesting
combination containing safety, need, will, self-esteem, control and commitment. Robert Hand took
us to a historical trip with Guido Bonatti and reminded the audience of the house systems, techniques
and the process of analysis used at that time. Reverend Pamela Crane had interesting ideas about
draconic charts combined with natal, sidereal and helio charts. She has also written a book on
the subject so if you are interested, I recommend reading The Draconic Chart (2000), especially
if you have any interest on astrology and religion (you'll find Crane's analysis on Virgin Mary's
and Jesus' possible charts in the book).
And of course the seminar contained many other subjects. We had the opportunity of buying a tape
if one was unable to attend one or more lectures, and I made use of this opportunity. For myself
also the informal discussions offered a lot. For instance, I met a person who had done his dissertation
on astrology and religion, a subject that interests me a lot. We also had a Zodiac Dinner where
people were dressed up according to an astrological part given beforehand in the invitation of
the seminar, which reminded us of experimental astrology.
The people who organized the seminar did a perfect job. I especially have to mention the excellent
performance of the very famous poet Dylan Thomas. The extraordinary Heather Fish presented Welsh
Voices with such commitment that I wish you all could have had the possibility to be present.
It was a multimedia and multi-voice presentation with full of power and charisma from both the
presenter and the poet himself. That was a spectacle where the efforts of the conference were
crowned with complete success.
Next year the conference is held in York. You'll find more information on AA web site8) Nominations
for the ISBA Lilly
As usual (in our 2-year long tradition) we are preparing to award this year's ISBA "Lilly".
This honor is awarded to an ISBA member who - internally in ISBA or externally toward the public
- has performed remarkable work for the organization, and thus for astrology
If you have suggestions for this year's recipient, please let us have your nominations no later
than November 15th - preferably with a brief recommendation of you choice. Please mail to: info@businessastrologers.com
Best wishes,
Karen & Hannah
from members
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