Dean’s Update, December 2022

Yuletide blessings, everyone! Happy Solstice to all. December is a month when I so often reflect upon the friendships in my life and the joy of family and loved ones. For this holiday newsletter, I want to comment upon the sign Capricorn in light of the FCEA family and our development as a school. I will share with you some of our community’s insights on a remarkable bi-wheel chart, natal chart of author Charles Dickens, and the date of his publication of A Christmas Carol.

As many readers know, we use “mystery charts” during our Study Group calls with our students, tutors, and tutorial assistants.  It is often a lively Zoom affair and the highlight of my week when I am able to attend. We all join in the analysis of the chosen charts of the day, getting to know how each of us think as evolutionary astrologers. The magic of our collective intuition works to build a fun conversation, a chance to get to know each other as colleagues and friends. 

A few weeks ago, in the spirit of the holiday season, I shared with our Study Group the bi-wheel chart you see below. It shows the transits (in the outer wheel), set for noon, on the day of publication of Charles Dickens’ most famous holiday story. Immediately students started seeing the obvious meetups of Mercury, ruler of his north node, and Saturn in an interesting exchange between the birthchart and the transits of December 19th, 1843. Touching both the 4th and the 5th houses, the solitary creative time of writing for Dickens was coming to a head as the “great work” of Capricorn, as Steven would tell us, of his lifetime. Dickens wrote many classics, of course, but A Christmas Carol has had an enduring impact upon our collective understanding of the true meaning of the season. Goodwill, love, and a shared compassion for all. One of our students noted how Dickens’ natal Aquarius 5th house Sun had progressed into Pisces and was “rising” into the 7th house in this fateful year, while transiting Neptune, in turn, formed a conjunction with Dickens’ natal Sun. 

The highlight of working together on our Zoom Study Group call was to hear everyone discuss Charles Dickens’ 10th house Jupiter in Gemini. We all saw the potential his voice held for reaching and changing the hearts of many. I have to admit why I loved this part of our class analysis. You see the students so clearly applied an evolutionary perspective.