As an astrologer, one of my favourite quotations is from Nobel Prize-winning German physicist, Max Planck (April 23 1858 – October 4 1947) :
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die…”
Do come in…
This strikes me as an observation pertinent in its essence to most of us, arising from amongst other things fear of the unknown – and desire to keep IT ( the Shadow) out, keep the light on. However, psychologist and mystic Carl Jung took the view that the major task of our lives was the reconciliation of those great opposites. Light and Dark run through the whole of life: we need them both, collectively and as individuals. Without the bleak apparently barren darkness of Winter, we cannot have the life-affirming beauty, light and energy of Spring.
Identifying too closely with either pole inevitably calls forth its opposite…at its worst, there are too many examples scattered throughout history: a perennial (and contemporary) example being religious and/or political persecution – and war – arising from one side knowing the Light of Truth and having Right on their side, being prepared to destroy those unfortunate enough to take a different view: in order to save their souls from the darkness of Hell – metaphorical or otherwise.
Those splits are especially acute in our era. Saturn in Aquarius is slogging it out with Uranus in Taurus, as Pluto concludes his long dredge through Capricorn mercilessly exposing the rotten underpinnings of a ubiquitous culture rooted in a materialistic set of values and practices which are severely damaging our mother planet, and intolerance runs rampant everywhere.
Another contemporary variation on this theme is the bitter split between materialist reductionism which posits scientific perspectives as the only Reality, and the recorded accounts of very many people over centuries and longer, who willingly or otherwise, have experienced decidedly ‘other’ versions of reality which simply do not fit the current prevailing reductionist paradigm.
I am one of those people. For a long, long time, despite being a decidedly rational individual – sceptical in the open-minded sense of the word – I experienced intermittent and unpredictable intrusions into my everyday Reality whilst going about being a stable and productive member of society. A period of unwelcome, intermittent and uninvited episodes of ‘otherness’ began when I was nearly 24 years old, with Neptune transiting my IC conjunct South Node in Scorpio. It took me a very long time, but eventually I was able to come to terms with and make peace with that ‘other’ side of myself.
Thirty years later, during a long Neptune transit in Aquarius opposite my six 12th house planets, I began writing the book in which I recorded those 37 ‘other’ experiences. Having completed the book and published it in PDF form, the episodes came (mostly) to an end. Here I am, talking about ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness” and related topics with my colleague Ana Isabel – another open-minded rationalist who is no stranger to experiences of ‘otherness’ herself. I’m planning to incorporate ‘Wisps…’ into a longer memoir provisionally titled ‘Swimmer in a Secret Sea’ to be published in print and as an ebook sometime in 2023. Watch this space!
In the meantime, kick off your shoes, grab a coffee – or something stronger, and have a listen to this recording we did recently for Ana’s In the Light podcast.. I’d be most interested if you felt like sharing your experience(s) of episodes which reductionist science says do not exist…
Opening the door to ‘Otherness’…
©Anne Whitaker/Ana Isabel 2023
Thank-you for this.
You are welcome, Tommy…
Via Facebook:
21.1.23:
Leah Whitehorse:
I’m looking forward to listening to this Anne. As I have natal Neptune in Scorpio in my 4th house, in a perfect yod with Mercury (apex) and Uranus – AND in a perfect square to Jupiter, I’m no stranger to the others. The door is always open…unless it’s gone midnight and I’m in bed, in which case they are banned unless they contact me through my dreams. This medium still gets spooked 😂
Thanks, Leah, I’ll be most interested in your opinion when you’ve had time to listen to the recording.There are many of us who have – often unwillingly, since life in our ‘ordinary’ reality is quite complex enough in my opinion without having to look elsewhere! – had experiences which according to the canon of reductionist science cannot possibly exist, and therefore simply do not exist. The majority of people who have those experiences of ‘otherness’ just keep them to themselves. In my professional capacities over many years as a teacher, social worker, psychiatric worker, therapist and astrologer I have been told many stories of people’s all too real experiences, as they try to come to terms with what they have been told by mainstream society cannot possibly have happened. However, we have centuries of experiential proof that such out of the ordinary experiences definitely do occur ..
A few really strange “people” came in contact with me when Neptune was transiting my IC… I have always felt kind of crazy when I mentioned the strange occurrences to my sisters but I know for a fact that it happened. Is that what this blog and thread of comments are about or am I completely misunderstanding 😬
Yes indeed – my motivation in writing this post, and in its accompanying interview with Ana Isabel, is to support people, like yourself, who for whatever reason have experiences of ‘otherness’. Here, also, is the book I wrote about mine which Ana and I discuss in the interview:
https://anne-whitaker.com/portfolio/wisps-from-the-dazzling-darkness/
Thanks for dropping by with your comment!
Via Facebook:
21.1.23:
Jules Edwards:
I’m saving this for when I get a wee quiet moment. Xx
I’d be most interested to get some feedback from you, Jules, in due course! Hope you’re well…X
Via Facebook:
21.1.23:
Mara Owens:
Otherness is all I know … Born with 1H Jupiter opp Neptune both square my UR Sun conjunction … with Neptune applying to my N end of Pisces AC for so long that sense of being and Outlier is trending as I embrace it more so
Thanks for your feedback, Mara. My goodness! Yes, acceptance is the key…
Liz Watson
I also need to put time aside for this, Neptune has been effecting my Dc, South node and Mars in Pisces with its forward and retrograde last year or two. I have enough on with Uranus currently.
Thanks for this feedback, Liz…Yes – Neptune does indeed make the Veil thin…Do let me know what you think when you’ve had time to listen…
This is a wonderful interview and look forward to reading your book! I’ve had many weird experiences…one I remember very vividly I was staying at an old country house hotel in Wales years ago(I’m in chicago)…and in the early morning hours was drowsily awakened by the sound of giggling (sort of) over me…I didn’t open my eyes but had the image of a man and a boy-teenager maybe, by my bedside and heard quite clearly, ‘what should we do with her?’ they weren’t threatening at all it was more playful…I ignored them …in the morning I asked the property manager if people had odd experiences in the hotel… ‘oh yes,’ he said…a man and his son seem to show up here and there…. I have a psychologist friend who calls my experiences my ‘zelda moments’….as a long time and continuing student of Steven Forrest’s, nothing surprises me….
Hello Gaye, am I right in remembering that you and I have had some chat via comments some time ago?
So glad you enjoyed the interview, and thanks for that fascinating feedback. There are so many stories like that, concerning experiences which according to reductionist scientism cannot – therefore do not – exist.
At least part of my motivation for putting my experiences out into the public realm is long-term frustration at those kinds of blinkered attitudes…
Yes, I really like Steven Forrest’s approach to Astrology: we have been corresponding pretty regularly ever since we both wrote reviews of one another’s collected essays collections which came out around the same time in 2021.
Best wishes to you!
Hi Anne! Yes we just might have…it might have been when my latest book came out at the end of 2021 from Polair Publishing (London), ‘Edward Bach and your Evolutionary Purpose’.(which Steven and Diana McMahon Collis both endorsed very kindly)..actually I meant to say to you earlier that I love the fact that you use the term reductionist scientism…I used this term a lot when I was doing conventional graduate work back in the mid 1990’s on integrative therapies– the resistance to thinking out of the box by the academic elite just drove me crazy! In the meantime, Steven did mention to me that you’ve become great email pals!… up until Covid I’ve been a fairly regular commuter to the UK for nearly 45 years (Scotland being so dear to me, really)…covid of course put the brakes on this but perhaps one day we can meet each other face to face when/if I can start commuting again! In the meantime, be well, I love reading your column in TMA.
Yes indeed, Gaye – do contact me if you’re ever in Scotland. It would be great to meet in person!
And yes: we have to continue to present well-researched qualitative work in our fields and whenever possible find parallels between what we do, and the amazing insights flowing from contemporary science. Wouldn’t it be great if all lenses focused on, essentially, the same underlying Ground could pool their knowledge?
Thanks for your kind comments on my column, however I don’t have one in TMA although they have published many of my articles over the years. I had a column called “The Astro-View from Scotland” in Dell Horoscope USA for the last 3 years of that much-missed magazine. My current one since 2015 is in the UK’s Astrological Journal: it’s called ‘Not the Astrology Column”. Very Best Wishes, Anne