IRVING, KENNETH
Kenneth Irving’s primary interest has been the recognition and understanding of the
part of astrology that can be treated as a natural science. He has been instrumental in
explaining the work of the late Michel Gauquelin to the astrological public. At the
same time, he has been an active participant in defending Gauquelin’s work (primari-
ly the Mars effect for sports champions) in the scientific world, and to that end has
written or co-written papers in scientific journals as well as making a substantial con-
tribution to the groundbreaking book The Tenacious Mars Effect(co-written with Suit-
bert Ertel), which shows a convergence of opinion (if not agreement) about the Mars
Effect from three separate worlds: science, astrology, and skepticism.
Aside from this work, in his lectures and writing he has explored how
Gauquelin’s findings might be applied in astrological practice. Perhaps the most wide-
ly known example of his efforts in this direction is the “angry Venus,” a name applied
to a pattern of traits that appear to define Venus when it appears in one of the
Gauquelin “power zones” in a birth chart. Irving contends that the sweet, flirtatious,
harmonious interpretation of Venus seen in astrology is at best one-dimensional, and
that though the dominant themes of the Venus personality can include a pleasant and
harmonious exterior, the core of the Venus type centers on personal value systems,
loyalty, antiauthoritarianism, and freethinking. The “anger” referred to in the name is
directed at those who violate the Venusian’s closely held values or principles, often
without knowing it.
As an editor and column writer (1974 to the present) for American Astrology,a
general-interest magazine, Irving has been the author of several columns, including
“Eye on the Nation” (mundane astrology) and “The New Astrology.” He served as the
board president of the United Astrology Conference from 1999 to 2001, and as a
member of the AFAN Steering Committee from 1992 to 1994. He has been on the
AFAN advisory board since that organization’s inception, and currently serves on the
Correlation Editorial Board. Irving has lectured for numerous local and regional
astrology groups, and has been on the faculty of conferences sponsored by the Nation-
al Astrological Society, the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR),
the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR), the Astrological Association
of Great Britain (AAGB), and the United Astrology Conference. He is also coauthor
of The Psychology of AstroCartoGraphywith Jim Lewis.
ISIS
Isis, asteroid 42 (the 42nd asteroid to be discovered, on May 23, 1856), is approxi-
mately 94 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 3.8 years. It was named
after a major Egyptian goddess. Initially a divinity of fertility, in later mystery religions
Isis became a goddess of wisdom. Her chief myth concerns the dismemberment of her
husband Osiris, whom she reconstructed. According to Martha Lang-Wescott, Isis
may represent sibling relationships, efforts to get or put things or people “together,”
fragmentation or scattered locations. This asteroid’s key word is “collate.” According
to J. Lee Lehman, Isis, as well as the asteroid Osiris, indicates “something about the
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Isis