A Little Earthquake for Siderealists (Gary Duncan)

[Guest guest]

(LONG POST WARNING)

 

List Members,

 

I had forgotten that Gary Duncan worked with Donald Bradley on astrological

research. Matthew reminded me check on Gary, so I pulled out all my old

sidereal magazines from the 70s looking for his articles. I found two, the

second one being extremely interesting. The August 1975 issue of THE

CONSTELLATIONS (the premier edition) had a most fascinating article by Gary

entitled " Historical Notes. " In this article Gary Duncan traces the history

of the western sidereal movement, most especially his association with

Donald Bradley and how they worked together on their research.

 

I have nothing but respect for Gary's education, insight and intelligence.

He's an excellent writer and very clear on his principles. This particular

article is about 10 pages long and is of tremendous historical value for

sidereal astrologers. If anyone would like a copy, I'll photocopy and mail

it for $3.00. Please contact me at eastwest. I am quoting

here the relevant information on Bradley's rainfall research.

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" The opportunity to work on a meteorology project under a grant from the

National Science Foundation brought [bradley] to the campus of New York

University...The untimely death of the professor charged with the

administration of funds for the NSF grant caused the rainfall project to

lose its major investigator, Donald Bradley. Lacking the " union ticket " of

a formal degree of any kind, Don was unable to assume the role of

administrator of funding for a continuance of the project. " (page 80)

-------------------------------

 

(At this point I'm deleting several paragraphs unrelated to the rainfall

study. The upshot of the preceding paragraph is that the rainfall research

was unfinished.)

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" Bradley and I did not agree on all matters. One topic which served to

bedevil us still, and which looms as a nasty specter over the most recent

determination of the SVP, is concerned with the use of geocentric latitude

versus geographic [the latitude listed in atlases] latitude. Bradley chose

to use the former for reasons which were, to this author [Duncan] totally

unjustified.

 

" Unfortunately, the evidence and logic support the use of geographic

latitude, in my opinion. The ramification of this statement may not be

immediately apparent to the reader. Final determination of the value

assigned to the SVP (for the epoch 1950.0) rests in the use of certain

mundane charts, the progressions of same, and upon their erection for

specific locations upon the surface of the earth.

 

" In several critical areas, planetary positions near the horizon are used

and the chart " rectified " by adjusting the value of the SVP in order to

bring about exact conjunction with the desired angle. The reader will

appreciate that several factors will affect this calculation. The specific

value for the terrestrial latitude used, whether or not parallax factors

were used, whether height above or below sea level was considered both for

parallax effects and for " dip " of the horizon, whether refraction of light

due to the Earth's atmosphere was considered, and whether light-time

aberration was included.

 

" Most of these effects were ignored. If any or all are included, the value

assigned to the SVP will be immediately affected. **It remains for future

generations to re-examine the calculations leading to the determination of

the SVP in light of these considerations and to formulate any additional

experiments which may be necessary to make further refinements in this

area. But, sufficient evidence now exists as to cause genuine concern that

the SV) value will someday have to be adjusted.** (page 81)

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So there we have it, ladies and gentlemen. According to Gary Duncan, the

SVP is not so sacred as not to need questioning and further research by

'future generations.'

 

Sorry to rock the boat a little. After all, this is Gary Duncan speaking,

who worked many long months (years?) beside Donald Bradley, and not the

words of the troublesome lady on the Sidereal board. We now have wonderful

research tools because we live in the age of computers. It's up to *us* to

test and refine the ayanamsa value.

 

Sincerely,

Therese