DOB 316: Astronomer Caroline Herschel

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German-British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contribution to astronomy was the discovery of several comets and in particular the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name. At the age of ten, Caroline was struck with typhus, which stunted her growth and she never grew past four foot three. Due to this deformation, her family assumed that she would never marry and that it was best for her to remain a house servant. Instead she became a significant astronomer in collaboration with William.^[1]

Uranus discovered March 13

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός), the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). Though it is visible to the naked eye like the five classical planets, it was never recognized as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit.^[16] Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on March 13, 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in modern history. Uranus was also the first planet discovered with a telescope.

In 1783 he gave Caroline a telescope, and she began to make astronomical discoveries in her own right, particularly comets. She discovered eight comets, eleven nebulae and, at her brother’s suggestion, updated and corrected Flamsteed’s work detailing the position of stars. This was published as the British Catalogue of Stars. She was honoured by the Royal Astronomical Society for this work. Caroline also continued to serve as his assistant, often taking notes while he observed at the telescope.

In June 1785, owing to damp conditions, he and Caroline moved to Clay Hall in Old Windsor. In 1786, the Herschels moved to a new residence on Windsor Road in Slough. He lived the rest of his life in this residence, which came to be known as Observatory House. It is no longer standing.

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German-British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contribution to astronomy was the discovery of several comets and in particular the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name. At the age of ten, Caroline was struck with typhus, which stunted her growth and she never grew past four foot three. Due to this deformation, her family assumed that she would never marry and that it was best for her to remain a house servant. Instead she became a significant astronomer in collaboration with William.^[1]

DOB 315: Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814), and the British at the Battle of New Orleans (1815). A polarizing figure who dominated the Second Party System in the 1820s and 1830s, as president he destroyed the national bank and relocated most Indian tribes from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. His enthusiastic followers created the modern Democratic Party. The 1830-1850 period later became known as the era of Jacksonian democracy.^[1

Neptune in Pisces and the Revolutions of 1848

With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of September 23, 1846, and into the early morning of the 24th,^[1] at the Berlin Observatory, by astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (assisted by Heinrich Louis d’Arrest), working from Le Verrier’s calculations. It was a sensational moment of 19th century science and dramatic confirmation of Newtonian gravitational theory. In François Arago‘s apt phrase, Le Verrier had discovered a planet “with the point of his pen.”

At the same time, numerous changes had been taking place in European society throughout the first half of the 19th century by the strokes  of “pens” and also by the strokes of “swords”. There were surges in technology that made ideas more accessible to the disenfranchised as well as middle classes. These included improvements in printing presses, invention of the telegraph as well as typewriter, Braille, longer hours for reading due to many new types of lighting, and countless other precursors of modern efficiency.

However there was also widespread hardships among the many due to famines, pestilence, and war.  Large groups of the nobility were discontented with royal absolutism or near-absolutism. In 1846 there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia, which was only countered when peasants, in turn, rose up against the nobles.^[6] Additionally, an uprising by democratic forces against Prussia occurred in Greater Poland. Advances in the  publishing industry similar to  development of the Internet in our times,  began to inform the masses of injustices and economic disparities existing

On February 21, 1948, Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto .  once they began agitating in Germany following the March insurrection in Berlin, their demands were considerably reduced.  Life was very hard. In Europe, the aristocrats had serfs and in their many colonies elsewhere in the world, they had slaves.They issued their “Demands of the Communist Party in Germany”^[7]from Paris in March; the pamphlet only urged unification of Germany, universal suffrage, abolition of feudal duties, and similar middle class goals.

The middle and working classes thus shared a desire for reform, and agreed on many of the specific aims. Their participations in the revolutions, however, differed. While much of the impetus came from the middle classes, much of the cannon fodder came from the lower.  Therevolts first erupted in the cities.

There were four buzz words in 1848: democracy, liberalism, nationalism, and socialism. Wikipedia has done our homework for us by defining what those words meant in the mid 1800s. Democracy, alas, pertained mainly to male suffrage. Liberalism, however, has real punch: consent of the governed and restrictions on the influence of church and state. Nationalism probably requires some sort of modern interpretation. In a world that was emerging from feudalism, there were countless states of varying degrees of stature. For instance, in what we now know as Italy, there were once — such as during the Renaissance — the hugely influential city-states, with names like Florence and Venice, as well as many kingdoms, Papal States, duchies, etc., some of which were ruled by Austrians.

There were multiple memories of the Revolution. Democrats looked to 1848, as a democratic revolution, which in the long run insured liberty, equality, and fraternity. Marxists denounced 1848 as a betrayal of working-class ideals by a bourgeoisie that was indifferent to the legitimate demands of the proletariat. For nationalists, 1848, was the springtime of hope when newly emerging nationalities rejected the old multinational empires. They were all bitterly disappointed in the short run. 1848, at best, was a glimmer of future hope, and at worst, it was a deadweight that strengthened the reactionaries and delayed further progress.^[22]

In the post-revolutionary decade after 1848, little had visibly changed, and most historians considered the revolutions a failure, given the seeming lack of permanent structural changes.

Nevertheless, there were a few immediate successes for some revolutionary movements, notably in the Habsburg lands. Austria and Prussia eliminated feudalism by 1850, improving the lot of the peasants. European middle classes made political and economic gains over the next twenty years; France retained universal male suffrage. Russia would later free the serfs on February 19, 1861. The Habsburgs finally had to give the Hungarians more self-determination in the Ausgleich of 1867. The revolutions inspired lasting reform in Denmark as well as the Netherlands.

Neptune in Pisces and Marxism

With Neptune moving into Pisces later this month, there is the potential for tremendous spiritual transformation, but also mass delusion such as has never been seen before.  The last time Neptune entered Pisces was in February 1848, shortly after its discovery in 1845.   1848 is the year that the gold rush began in California, leading one reporter to complain that everyone in the state was under the spell of gold fever.  It is also marked the birth of socialism and Marxism. This kind of  utopian if not delusional thinking is very typical  of Neptune in Pisces.

 Some astrologers are linking the publication of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and The Revolutions of 1848 to Neptune entering Pisces, but we must not forget that Uranus and Pluto were conjunct in Aries during this same period.  The kind of socialism that evolved into Communism is representative of the Uranian longing for equality and justice, although some of us would argue that in Communism that longing was carried to an untenable extreme.  For this we can probably blame Neptune in Pisces in which the forces idealism can become clouded by illusion.

Over the past year and especially over the past few months we have been discussing the power of Uranus in Aries to foster revolutionary (Uranus) fervor (Aries) in the Arab Spring of last year, and with both Uranus and Pluto in Aries the radicalism that we are seeing today would have been exponentially more powerful, even though neither Uranus nor Pluto had yet been discovered at that time.  For this we  can probably blame Neptune in Pisces in which the forces idealism can become  clouded by illusion.

DOD 314: Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement. He published various books during his lifetime, with the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1867–1894); some of his works were co-written with his friend, the fellow German revolutionary socialist Friedrich Engels.^[3]

Born into a wealthy middle class family in Trier, formerly in Prussian Rhineland now called Rhineland-Palatinate, Marx studied at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. In 1836, he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, marrying her in 1843. After his studies, he wrote for a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. Moving to Paris in 1843, he began writing for other radical newspapers. He met Engels in Paris, and the two men worked together on a series of books. Exiled to Brussels, he became a leading figure of the Communist League, before moving back to Cologne, where he founded his own newspaper. In 1849 he was exiled again and moved to London together with his wife and children. In London, where the family was reduced to poverty, Marx continued writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he believed it could be improved, as well as campaigning for socialism and becoming a significant figure in the International Workingmen’s Association.

Marx’s theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as Marxism, hold that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle; a conflict between an ownership class which controls production and a lower class which produces the labour for such goods. Heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, he called it the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie“, believing it to be run by the wealthy classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism.^[4] He argued that under socialism society would be governed by the working class in what he called the “dictatorship of the proletariat“, the “workers state” or “workers’ democracy”.^[5][6] He believed that socialism would, in its turn, eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called communism. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for the former’s implementation, arguing that both social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.

Revolutionary socialist governments espousing Marxist concepts took power in a variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of such socialist states as the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People’s Republic of China in 1949, while various theoretical variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism, were developed. Marx is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the top “thinker of the millennium” by people from around the world.

Marx is typically cited, along with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.^[9] In contrast to philosophers, Marx offered theories that could often be tested with the scientific method.^[7] Both Marx and Auguste Comte set out to develop scientifically justified ideologies in the wake of European secularisation and new developments in the philosophies of history and science. Whilst Marx, working in the Hegelian tradition, rejected Comtean sociological positivism, in attempting to develop a science of society he nevertheless came to be recognised as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning.^[38] In modern sociological theory, Marxist sociology is recognised as one of the main classical perspectives. For Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the “true father” of modern sociology, “in so far as anyone can claim the title.  Albert Einstein  was born 14 March 1879.

DOB 314: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein ( 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history.[2][3] He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”.[4] The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory within physics.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.

Albert Einstein’s political views emerged publicly in the middle of the 20th century due to his fame and reputation for genius. Einstein offered to and was called on to give judgments and opinions on matters often unrelated to theoretical physics or mathematics (see main article).

Einstein’s views about religious belief have been collected from interviews and original writings. These views covered Judaism, theological determinism, agnosticism, and humanism. He also wrote much about ethical culture, opting for Spinoza’s god over belief in a personal god.  Karl Heinrich Marx  died on 14 March 1883.  He was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist.

DOD: 313 Greatest American Litigator: Clarence Darrow

Clarence Seward Darrow (April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938)  considered to be one of the greatest American litigators , best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert “Bobby” Franks (1924) and defending John T. Scopes in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial (1925), in which he opposed William Jennings Bryan (statesman, noted orator, and 3-time presidential candidate). Called a “sophisticated country lawyer“,^[2] he remains notable for his wit and agnosticism, which marked him as one of the most famous American lawyers and civil libertarians.

     Clarence Darrow was born in rural northeastern Ohio on April 18, 1857.^[4] He was the son of Amirus Darrow and Emily (Eddy) Darrow. Both the Darrow and the Eddy farms had deep roots in colonial New England, and several of Darrow’s ancestors served in the American Revolution. Clarence’s father was an ardent abolitionist and a proud iconoclast and religious freethinker, known in town as the “village infidel.” Emily Darrow was an early supporter of female suffrage and a women’s rights advocate. Clarence attended Allegheny College and the University of Michigan Law School but did not graduate from either institution. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1878. The Clarence Darrow Octagon House, which was his childhood home in the small town of Kinsman, Ohio, contains a memorial to him.

In 1925, Darrow defended John T. Scopes in the State of Tennessee v. Scopes trial. It has often been called the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” a title popularized by author and journalist H.L. Mencken. This pitted Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in an American court case that tested the Butler Act, which had been passed on March 21, 1925. The act forbade the teaching in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee of “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” The law made it illegal for public school teachers in Tennessee to teach that man evolved from lower organisms, but the law was sometimes interpreted as meaning that the law forbade the teaching of any aspect of the theory of evolution. The law did not prohibit the teaching of evolution of any other species of plant or animal.

During the trial, Darrow requested that Bryan be called to the stand as an expert witness on the Bible. Over the other prosecutor’s objection, Bryan agreed. Popular media at the time portrayed the following exchange as the deciding factor that turned public opinion against Bryan in the trial:

Darrow: “You have given considerable study to the Bible, haven’t you, Mr. Bryan?”

Bryan: “Yes, sir; I have tried to…. But, of course, I have studied it more as I have become older than when I was a boy.”

Darrow: “Do you claim then that everything in the Bible should be literally interpreted?”

Bryan: “I believe that everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there; some of the Bible is given illustratively. For instance: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ I would not insist that man was actually salt, or that he had flesh of salt, but it is used in the sense of salt as saving God’s people.”

After about two hours, Judge John T. Raulston cut the questioning short and on the following morning ordered that the whole session (which in any case the jury had not witnessed) be expunged from the record, ruling that the testimony had no bearing on whether Scopes was guilty of teaching evolution. Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay the minimum fine of $100.

A year later, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Dayton court on a technicality—not on constitutional grounds, as Darrow had hoped. According to the court, the fine should have been set by the jury, not Raulston. Rather than send the case back for further action, however, the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed the case. The court commented, “Nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case.”

This event led to a change in public sentiment, and an increased discourse on the subject of faith versus science that still exists in America. It also became popularized in a play based loosely on the trial, Inherit the Wind, which later became a film.

In January 1931 Darrow had a debate with English writer G. K. Chesterton during the latter’s second trip to America. This was held at New York City’s Mecca Temple. The topic was “Will the World Return to Religion?”. At the end of the debate those in the hall were asked to vote for the man they thought had won the debate. Darrow received 1,022 votes while Chesterton received 2,359 votes. There is no known transcript of what was said except for third party accounts published later on. The earliest of these was that of February 4, 1931, issue of The Nation with an article written by Henry Hazlitt.

Jupiter in Taurus blows wind in Santorum’s Sails.. but how long will it last

Santorum picked up delegates from Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota due in part to increased donations by wealthy Conservative contributors, but also due in part because this is his year the year of the bull. Right now, Jupiter and the Sun are in two of Santorum’s signs: Taurus and Aquarius, respectively. Rick Santorum’s sun is in Taurus sun and his moon is in Aquarius, both fixed signs. Santorum has that fixed sign ability to grind it out and and stay on message. Fixed signs are determined yet fatally stubborn at times.

However, in six days the campaign shifts into the month of Pisces: the sphere of Romney.  Super-Tuesday is on March 6 and Romney’s birthday is March 12. Romney needs to win and win big .

With Jupiter staying in Santorum’s sign of Taurus until June 10th.  Santorum needs to minimize the damage during the Super-Tuesday primaries and run the table in April and May.  If the primaries don’t dertermine a nominee by the convention,  it is doubtful  the convention will  bode well for Mr Santorum.

Prediction: If Gingrich decides to run as a third-party canidate in the general election, and there is some kind of  macro-geo-political event that destabilizes and confuses the American mindset.  Look for Gingrich to respond quickest and with most compelling message.  Because after June 10th Jupiter will be in his sign: Gemini.

 

Age of Aquarius

Much has been written and supposed about the current or upcoming transition of changes between the Ages of Pisces and Aquarius.  Some speculate we have already made the transition some speculate we have already made the transition, some speculate we are in the process of making the transition, of course other speculate that the the transition has yet to come.  To be honest, my personal opinion –its weight and its authority is admittedly questionable and uncertain at best — is that we are approaching the cusp of the transition. 

Each  astrological ages is  defined as the time period it takes for  the sun to spend in one constellation while it travel the entire of perimeter of equinoxes back to to the vernal equinox.  In other words: the  location of the Sun as  well as the the earth rotates from one constellation to the next.  The end result is that  the sun spends approximately every 2,100 to 2,600 years (i.e. 1/12th of 26,000 years) facing each constellation.

  The precession of Ages begins the moment the Sun passes the vernal equinox.  Roughly every 2,100 to 2,600 years the sun  travesl into a new zodiacal constellation.   However zodiacal constellations are not uniform in size, leading some astrologers to believe that the corresponding ages should also vary in duration. This however is a contentious issue amongst astrologers. That is, the Sun appears to cross the equator at the vernal equinox, or the start of spring, each year, a short distance before it reaches the point where it crossed the preceding year. This sun unlike the earth travels in a  backwards motion, however, is so slow that it takes nearly 70 years  to move through one degree, or 2,100  years or so to go through one sign, or approximately 26,000 years to go backward through the twelve signs. This latter period is called a Great Sidereal Year. This can be computed by dividing the Earth’s 26,00 years or so  by twelve, the number of Zodiac constellations used by astrologers. 

Some astrologers believed we entered into the transitional phase from The Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius aroun the time  American Revolution,  French Revolution,  The Emancipation Proclamation, or the  Industrial Revolution.  Discoveries such as the printing press, the interchangeable cotton gin, and electricity are all symbolic of the emergence to the Aquarian Age.^[8]  These inventions made techology and tools much more accessible to many more people thus beginning the evening of the playing field for many. The Age of Aquarius is marked my levelling of humanity and a evening of rights and privileges for all.  

 Aquarian theroists believeas as  people become more equal though acts of altruism and political reforms,  they will also  become more impersonal and detached. Because society will become more accomodating to the many, many people will grow less sympathetic and intolerant  to those who can not take advantage of these new accomodations.

Developments involving flight and space travel have and will continue to cause a decentralization in society. Inner cities will shrink and burgeoning outer suburbs and industrial areas will reduce congestion.

Many Aquarian theorists that there will be a  keyword for Aquarius is ‘enlightenment‘. The destiny of humankind in the Age of Aquarius is the revelation of truth and the expansion of consciousness.^[10]

Many astrologers believe that theconflicts the world are experiencing are attributable to the waning days of the Age of Pisces meeting the incoming tide of Aquarius, with the transition between ages lasting approximately 280 years.  Many astrologers and soothsayers alike believe that some people will experience mental enlightenment in advance of others and therefore be recognized as the new leaders in the world.^[11]

Many Aquarian prognosticators believe that the Aquarian Age will see the blending of religion and science to such a degree that a religious science and a scientific religion will be formed–each respecting and learning from the findings of the other–which will promote health, happiness, and enjoyment of life.

 

The Aquarian Age will bring with it an era of universal brotherhood, in preparation for which we see the barriers of race prejudice being broken all around us. To be sure, this is presently being accomplished under conditions of bloodshed and revolt. We can be certain, however, that although the sword, which had its reign during the Piscean Age, still is powerful, SCIENCE and ALTRUISM will rule during the Aquarian Age.

   Since Aquarius is an airy, scientific, and intellectual sign, it is a forgone conclusion that the religion of that Age must be rooted in reason and able to solve the riddle of life and death in a manner that will satisfy both the mind and the religious instinct. In this respect, the Western Wisdom Teachings promulgated by the Rosicrucian Fellowship also are preparing the way for the Aquarian Age by breaking down the fear of death engendered by the uncertainty surrounding the post-mortem existence. These Teachings show that life and consciousness continue under Laws as immutable as God, which tend to raise man to increasingly higher, nobler, and loftier states of spirituality.

   As an airy sign, Aquarius has special rule over the ether. When the Sun enters Aquarius by precession, moisture on Earth gradually will be eliminated and visual vibrations, which are most easily transmitted by a dry etheric atmosphere, will become more intense. Under these conditions, etheric sight will be developed in the greatest majority of mankind, and we will be able to see residents of the etheric region, including our own friends and loved ones who have died. We then will be able to continue our companionship with them for a while after “death,” and have time to accustom ourselves to the fact that they are going on to higher realms.

   When this point in evolution is reached, mankind also will be so much more enlightened that it will avoid many of the pitfalls which cause trouble today, and we will enjoy a much happier existence than has been the rule up to the present stage. We will be able to solve social problems in a manner equitable to all, and the use of improving machinery will free mankind from physical toil to a great extent and give him greater opportunity for intellectual and spiritual improvement. Although the blessings of the Aquarian Age assuredly will be ours in time, it is possible for those who truly aspire to a “better,” or more spiritual life to bring themselves ever more in tune with the spirit of the coming Age and thus render themselves amenable far more quickly and completely than their contemporaries to Aquarian influences. He or she who does his or her best to live a life of service to humanity, and to exercise his of her powers of compassion, altruism, and beneficence, will find himself or herself ever more responsive to Aquarian influences, and his progress on the evolutionary path will be advanced accordingly.