It's been nine months since our last issue and during that long interval we've had staff changes and the release of two new programs! This issue of AUGuries brings you all the details as well as two wonderful articles.

Judith Goldberg, Astrolabe customer and past AUGuries contributor, reveals the astrological symbolism behind 2004's Great Tsunami and 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Her article, Water World, is even more appropriate since, as this issue of AUGuries is being prepared, the U.S. Gulf Coast is awaiting Hurricane Rita.

Our Astrolabe dealer in Serbia, Branka Stamenkovic, fills us in on her Fall forecast for the U.S. that she presented at the ISAR 2005 conference in Chicago. Branka's article is a wonderful illustration of the mundane techniques used by classical Renaissance astrologers.

The ISAR conference was, by the way, a great success for us. With four people working the booth, we still had a backlog of people waiting to place their orders for Solar Fire 6 and Nova Chartwheels. And, it is always so wonderful to reconnect with many old and new friends and customers from all over the globe.

We welcome your feedback. Let us know what you'd like to see in our monthly issues of AUGuries. And, if you have an article or item to contribute, please do send it along to madalyn@alabe.com.

in this issue
	Save on New Software from Astrolabe! Water World - Deluge of the Dragon God by Judith Goldberg Traditional Mundane Forecast Methods by Branka Stamenkovic News from Astrolabe September 05 Solar Fire Tech Tip - Page Designer Redux

Water World - Deluge of the Dragon God by Judith Goldberg

"Water World", the 1995 multi-million dollar futuristic saga about a planet Earth with no dry land, may have bombed at the box office, but a decade later it can seem strangely prescient. At the very least, events over the past year have left many of us floating in a sea of uncertainty, searching for any safe harbor. Water, water is everywhere, from the putrid non-potable toxic gumbo that engulfed New Orleans, to tidal waves along Asian coastlines, massive floods in Central Europe, East Coast ice storms and even snow in the Arabian Desert! While the impact on our physical geography is perceptible, less obvious is the concurrent transformation of our inner landscape, the subtle expansion of the boundaries of our collective consciousness. Tsunami! The December 26, 2004 earthquake/tsunami was one of the greatest natural disasters in recorded history. While not the deadliest quake (the earthquake in Tangshan China in 1976 is rumored to have killed 750,000) it was distinctive in its global reach. Tidal waves washed ashore in thirteen countries, and mass tourism during the holiday season affected citizens of dozens more. An aerial photograph of the wave that attacked the shore of Sri Lanka appeared in a Japanese newspaper the following day. (See full article.) A figure resembling a dragon can clearly be seen in the waves. An article entitledx Rampage of the Dragon Godx accompanied the photo. In Japan, dragons have long been worshipped as the god for water. Similarly, in Chinese mythology, dragons are charged with controlling the rains. Since time immemorial, across all cultures, natural disasters have been ascribed to the anger of one or another of a whole host of gods. In fact, following the recent tragic hurricane that hit the Gulf States, callers to Christian talk radio stations in the area (remember its part of the bible Belt) were calling for residents of New Orleans and Biloxi, both havens for gambling, to repent. Clearly, the wrath of God was an operative cause of the disaster in their belief system. Full story »

Traditional Mundane Forecast Methods by Branka Stamenkovic

Five years ago, the main celestial event that was on the lips of every astrologer was the May conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Taurus. Today, rarely anyone mentions it anymore, although it is that very conjunction of two Great Chronocrators that signals the main theme for the subsequent 20 years. The traditional approach to mundane astrology always used the chart for the latest Jupiter/Saturn conjunction as a starting point for prediction the course of events for a nation. Of course, planetary placements by sign and their aspects at the moment of the conjunction are the same for all the countries of the world. But, the house placement will differ from country to country. Traditional rules state that the upcoming 20-year cycle which the conjunction signals will be particularly felt and focused in those places on Earth where the conjunction is angular. Full article »

News from Astrolabe

Goodbye Cindy, Hello Terri and Bethe! Cindy Sullivan, our chart services/tech support person for the last eight years decided to explore new horizons and has resigned from Astrolabe. We're happy to announce that Terri McCartney is now the Director of Technical Services. In addition to tech support, Terri will be working on our user guides, developing FAQs for the web and monitoring our online forums. Terri, a practicing astrologer, hails (most recently) from Vero Beach FL and is the Research Director for both NCGR and Astrodatabank. Bethe Brown returns part time to Astrolabe in the position of customer/chart services. Bethe is also a talented jewelry designer. ASTROLABE ON THE ROAD: 9/30-10/4: AA Conference, York England. Gary Christen will be in the trade show at Roy Gillett's booth showing off all our latest software and Madalyn Hillis-Dineen will be at the NCGR table and also going to lectures!!! 10/8: Istanbul Turkey NCGR. Madalyn Hillis-Dineen will give a workshop on symmetrical astrology. Details can be found at www.ncgr-turkey.com. 10/15: Orlando FL. Gary Christen will give a workshop on symmetrical astrology. For more information, contact Bonnie Fillow, 407/297-9545, bfillow@cfl.rr.com. 10/22-10/23: Clearwater FL. Gary Christen will give a workshop on symmetrical astrology. For more information, contact David Beazley, 727/844-3111, karmicconnections@yahoo.com. 10/26-10/30: SOTA Conference, St. Catherines Canada. Madalyn Hillis-Dineen will lecture on astro*carto*graphy and will be doing software demos at the Astrolabe booth in the trade show. 12/3-12/4: NYC NCGR, Hunter College. Madalyn Hillis-Dineen will lecture on "Financial Giants" - Explore the charts of entrepreneurs, tycoons, and financial giants, self-made and otherwise, using the techniques of symmetrical astrology. Gary Christen's Annual Winter Solstice readings. Gary will again be doing his annual Winter Solstice workshop and personal readings on Cape Cod at Astrolabe and in the Boston and SE Massachussetts area. Dates T/B/A. Call Astrolabe for more details.

September 05 Solar Fire Tech Tip - Page Designer Redux

Nakshatras are one of the new Vedic features in Solar Fire 6. But, they can only be accessed as an object in the Page Designer. Below you'll find a link to get a copy of a Vedic page design, which includes a South Indian style chart, dasas and nakshatras. When you click on the link, you'll get a message indicating that your computer does not know how to open the file. Choose the option to Save to your hard drive and put the file in the userdata subdirectory of your Solar Fire 6. To view this file in Solar Fire 6, go to View/Page Topic Index. Expand the General topic and choose the newvedic.pag. You may drag this file to the Vedic topic if you like or leave it under general. To view the page, select it and click on View. This file can only be used with Solar Fire 6. Do not attempt to use it with an earlier version of Solar Fire. If you haven't got Solar Fire 6, take advantage of our sale and get it now! One of Solar Fire 6's new additions is the ability to resize your chart viewing window, a feature many of you have requested for some time. However, this creates some interesting new issues with the page designer. If you have multiple page sizes and you only edit one of them and then you resize your window, your page may not appear as desired. This information from the Solar Fire Help File may be important to keep in mind. Read More... »