Sun (thus forming an opposition aspect of 180°) or formed a 90° angle (a square
aspect) with the Sun, there would be a disturbance. He also found, again consistent
with the principles of traditional astrology, that if yet another planet formed an exact
trine (120° angle) to either of these configurations, the disturbance rapidly abated.
Because Nelson could further predict the areas of the world where disturbances would
be most severely felt, RCA could reroute transmissions without loss of service.
The astronomical and academic communities greeted his discoveries with a
thundering silence. But Richard Head of NASA’s Electronics Research Center inves-
tigated Nelson’s studies and found them to be accurate. NASA was interested in the
implications of his research for predicting sunspot activity, so that it would be able to
avoid the risk of exposing astronauts to excessive solar radiation. NASA thus came to
adopt Nelson’s methods, under the name gravitational vectoring.
Sources:
Brau, Jean-Louis, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology.New
York: New American Library, 1980.
Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. Astrological Birth Control.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pren-
tice-Hall, 1972.
NEMESIS
Nemesis, asteroid 128 (the 128th asteroid to be discovered, on November 25, 1872),
is approximately 116 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 4.6 years.
Nemesis was the ancient goddess of vengeance. According to Martha Lang-Wescott,
the position of Nemesis indicates one’s own Achilles’ heel. She also views this aster-
oid as indicating one’s tendency to attribute fault or blame. Nemesis’s key phrase is
“source of blame.”
Sources:
Lang-Wescott, Martha. Asteroids-Mechanics: Ephemerides II.Conway, MA: Treehouse Moun-
tain, 1990.
———. Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids.Rev. ed. Conway, MA: Treehouse Mountain, 1991.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia.St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
NEOPAGANSPIRITUALITY ANDASTROLOGY
Astrology can be found in the roots of most religions, if not all, and indeed, astrology
may be the oldest of them all, just as astrology’s evolution to astrology is among the
most ancient of sciences. Stone-age artifacts, including the carving of notches on
bones coinciding with lunar phases point to very ancient uses of skywatching to keep
track of time, presumably to make it possible to anticipate cyclical change. These,
along with other carvings and cave paintings, suggest that ancient humans saw both
spiritual and practical use of such observations. They saw spirits—gods—within all of
nature, within the lights in the sky, and within animal and plant life of Earth. This
idea, that deity is immanent within nature, is central to Paganism.
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Neopagan Spirituality and Astrology