The theme of this year’s AA conference was "Many Tongues, One Language", and the idea was a simple but powerful one: those of us in the UK get to hear lots of English-speaking astrologers, but may miss out on the huge body of astrological knowledge developed by astrologers elsewhere in Europe. When we think of astrological research, most astrologers think of Michel Gauquelin’s "Mars Effect", or André Barbault’s cyclic index; German astrology, despite its suppression during the Hitler years, has generated entire new branches of astrology - cosmobiology, midpoint trees and Uranian astrology, spearheaded by astrologers such as Reinhold Ebertin. These are the astrological giants of the non-English speaking world whose careers started many decades ago; but let us not forget the astrologers of the future, too.
"Where are all the young astrologers?" is a commonly heard theme at conferences. One of the delegates to this year’s conference, Branka Stamenkovic from Serbia, answered "they’re in Serbia". They’re also in Romania, France, Germany and everywhere else in the world, and the growth of the Internet has made it easier than ever for people to network across the globe - and it’s important that language isn’t seen as a barrier.
This conference attempted to bridge the language barrier by having speakers from all over the world, and a team of hard-working translators to provide simultaneous translation via headsets to delegates who didn’t speak English.
The idea was brilliant, although virtually all of the speakers gave their talks in English, so it was only the non-English speakers who needed headsets. I think it would have been more lively if speakers gave talks in their native language, with translation facilities available into English and other languages - a few of the speakers came over as either rather stilted or difficult to understand as English wasn’t their native language. Having said that, the concept was a very noble one, and I hope that permanent links have been forged between astrologers across the globe.
For me, the conference is a real annual treat. The word "conference" can put people off, I suppose, as I’ve known people who love astrology but assume that the AA conference is just for “professional” astrologers, or will be rather dry and academic. This is a great pity, because they don’t realise what an astrological feast they’re missing, and this misunderstanding can make the AA seem rather remote. Most of the people I’d spoken to with this attitude enjoyed going along to their own local astrology group, but assumed that a conference would be over their heads. Nothing can be further from the truth - the conference sessions have something for everyone, from beginners to professionals, and whether you go to the conference for the entire long weekend or just for a single day you’ll be guaranteed a huge choice and you won’t go away disappointed! This year, I was delighted to see numerous people from local groups enjoying the conference, and a commitment by the AA to promote local groups - thanks largely to the efforts of Glenda Cole, the AA’s Local Groups co-ordinator. With next year’s conference within an easy train ride from London, I hope that many other astrologers will be able to sample the delights of a conference for themselves.
There aren’t enough pages in Transit to give the full flavour of the conference this year, so I’ll just give a quick run down of what I did while I was there.
Friday - arrived at York in time for a Masterclass by Dennis Elwell. Dennis wrote a book that ought to be on every astrologer’s list: The Cosmic Loom, and is a witty and eloquent speaker. The Masterclass looked at how we make predictions in astrology, and asked how we could become better astrologers.
In the evening was the Grand Opening, and we should have been treated to a talk by André Barbault, a true giant in the world of astrology who, now in his eighties, has been seriously studying astrology since his teens, so has more than seventy years of astrology under his belt! Unfortunately, he was not well enough to attend the conference - a few speakers had to cancel for health reasons, so that Chiron on the MC of the conference chart was certainly apt. At any rate, after a long journey from Bristol, I was ready for an early night!
Saturday - an incredibly packed day, like all the others! After breakfast, there was a choice of five different talks in each session; I went to a fascinating one on eclipses by Georgia Stathis, followed by one on ancient astrological images by the Italian astrologer Grazia Mirti. After lunch, there were "plenary sessions" (these are major talks in the main hall) by Turkish astrologer Hakan Kirkoglu on the chart of Turkey and its possible entry into the EU, a talk on astrological symbolism by Dennis Elwell, and Liz Greene talking on Victims and Saviours. This was followed by another choice of five sessions - this time I went to a talk on Sidereal astrology, followed by an intriguing talk by Austrian astrologer Peter Fraiss entitled "Places of Destruction", where he gave details of his research into certain degrees of the zodiac that seem to be associated with disasters. I then went to the Local Groups meeting, and was delighted at the large turnout there, before going to the grand Conference Dinner. This was followed by a disco, where we were treated to the sight of world-famous astrologers really letting their hair down! Those of us with a strong Saturn who don’t dance chatted to friends, old and new, instead. So in a single day, I covered traditional, mundane, symbolic, psychological, sidereal and research astrology. Not bad going!
Sunday - another full day. After breakfast, I went to a talk on astro- mapping by Christine Skinner, followed by a lively and exciting talk by Bernadette Brady on visual astrology. Lunch was followed by the AGM of the AA (it only lasted half an hour, and wasn’t as dry as it sounds!), and then three more plenary sessions including a controversial one by Rob Hand, one of the most entertaining speakers you’ll ever hear. In the afternoon we were again presented with a huge choice of talks - I went to one on horary astrology by Branka Stamenkovic who showed how horary can be used to predict mundane affairs. I spent the rest of the day browsing the exhibition hall, with a huge selection of books, software and representatives from other astrology organisations. This is a great way of meeting other astrologers incidentally - a conference is not all about talks!
Monday - the final full day of the conference. Breakfast was followed by another selection of talks, and I made a good choice in going to Chris McRae’s splendid lively talk on eclipses, before chairing Branka Stamenkovic’s talk on love triangles in horary. There were lots of other offerings, but I needed a break so ended up bumping into Rob Hand and Madalyn Hillis-Dineen and going into York with them, before returning to hear a fantastic finale by Bernadette Brady talking about astrology and complexity theory, proposing that astrology has a nature rather like fractals, those beautiful ephemeral patterns of infinite complexity, putting the Hermetic axiom of "as above, so below" into the modern scientific framework of chaos theory. Some people’s blood runs cold when the word "mathematics" is mentioned, but Bernadette has the gift of putting complex ideas into exciting and accessible language - this talk is one that mustn’t be missed!
So I left the conference completely sated, having feasted on astrology for four days. I hope my potted description of my time there gives a brief flavour of that feast - but you can only get the real feeling by actually going to a conference. It’s not an event, it’s an experience, and one you won’t regret, even if you just go for a single day. It’s inspirational to be able to talk to astrologers whose names you know from books you’ve read, and to experience the huge range of ideas in astrology today and realise how accessible everything is. Astrologers specialise in many disciplines, and talk to each other in many tongues - but we truly do speak one language: astrology.
