Hello Loves,
Greetings from my personal Underworld!
As Venus made her descent to the lowest part of my chart, lighting up the cross of my existence, I found myself convalescing in a basement Airbnb.
Alone, in a foreign, in many ways inhospitable place, with nothing to do but think about my life & many loves and passions: those still with me, those struggling to exist, those long dead & the anguish of those destroyed by my impulsivity.
Sometimes the astrology is literal.
Which is a long way of explaining why I’ve been so quiet this past week.
By the skin of my teeth, and from the edge of my sickbed, I bring you this week's podcast: a conversation with Dr. James Dotson, an astrologer who, in the course of a single conversation, helped me completely reimagine my understanding of Theosophy & recontextualize modern astrological history.
A lot, I know.
What was meant to be a quick get-to-know-you before our upcoming Astro Salon became, to my surprise, an anecdotal history lesson on Occult LA that takes us from the Rosicrucians to Madame Blavatsky, the lost land of Lemuria, the Beach Boys, Marsilio Ficino & Manly P. Hall.
Plus there’s a lovely shoutout to Jenn Zahrt and the CAELi Institute.
If you’re in Los Angeles, join Dr. Dotson and me in conversation this Tuesday, October 27th, at the Philosophical Research Society for this month’s Astro Salon. We’ll be discussing astrolatry & the worship of the seven planetary angels, and Lucifer as the esoteric Venus of Theosophical astrology.
In the meantime….
Join Us at the Los Angeles Astro Salon
This Venus Rx, we’re taking an adventure into the depths of Los Angeles occult history!
At this month’s Astro Salon, our host Vivi Henriette welcomes guest speaker Dr. James Dotson, who will lead us through the doctrines of cosmic cycles, astrological magic, the lore of the Morning Star and the Fallen Angels, and the mythos of Lemuria and UFOs.
Along the way, he’ll give a brief overview of Theosophy in the city’s early astrological community, featuring major teachers such as C.C. Zain, Augusta Foss Heindel, Llewellyn George, and Dane Rudhyar.
More TalkTalkTalk!
A Messy, Gorgeous, Tangled Heap of Multiplicity
"Each of our planets has its own predisposition, but it performs its gender dynamically based on the sign it lives in and its relationship to the sun and the moon. All of these factors add up to that one planet's particular gender queerness, which then combines with the hybrid genders of the 6 other planets, all of which combine to form us, and our unique gender slurry."