Neil F. Michelsen's "Planetary Phenonmena"

The other day I sold about $100 worth of books to a used bookstore and received $12.00 in return. I immediately turned around and spent $16 on books. Someday I will know how to sell things on ebay and my book buying addiction will stop being a financial exercise in the fine art of subtraction.

On the other hand I bought the coolest astrology book. It's Neil F. Michelsen's Tables of Planetary Phenomena which I've never seen before. This is like an Ephemeris of all things that an Ephemeris doesn't list. As a matter of fact, all the stuff that I really really need right now. Lists of Eclipses from 1700-2050, lists of Ingresses, some weird chapter on the Sun's Retrograde, Moon phases, planetary clusters, etc. etc. etc. And Cycles, Cycles, Cycles!!! The back of the book has the best part. There are graphs of planetary cycles with regards to the planet's retrograde motions and relationships to each other. Michelsen calls them Mandalas and yesiree, they are hypnotic.

If you've ever looked at Erin Sullivan's book on Retrogrades you've seen the amazing cycles of Venus, Mercury and Mars. It's been a while so I can't really remember what all is in there. Venus has a very precise 8 year retrograde cycle which has 5 spokes. Michelsen shows the 16 year cycle which shows an almost perfect overlay of the 2d 8 years over the 1st 8 years. I've talked about this before and there are some amazing websites on the internet that explain these cycles clearly. The rest of the orbital patterns aren't as precisely made. Mercury pretty much completes a 19 spoke flower pattern over a period of 6 years. Mars completes a 15 spoke flower over a period of 33 years. Hope I counted correctly. It's difficult not to believe that these proportions don't mean something but who knows what.

The planet to planet graphs are extraordinary as well. The ones that I'm attracted seem to be completely different from what Michelsen is attracted to. The Venus/Mercury cycle looks like a kindergartern version of the Jupiter/Saturn cycle to me. I'll quote him because his descriptions are really fun:

(from p. 227)

"I often asked people who viewed the mandalas to report the subejctive impression made on them by the mandala pattern. For example, I see Mercury/Venus, Figure 31, as an insect with two bulbous eyes and a maw of a mouth. I see Venus/Mars, Figure 35, as a spider, in its web, waiting for its next meal! I see Uranus/Pluto, Figure 47, a creature with two claws extended, ready to clamp on to an unsuspecting victim.

"Isn't it striking that Venus/Earth, Figure 34, is a heart pattern?! Venus, the Goddess of love, when joined with Earth, is a heart. Most of the other patterns are more geometric -- Jupiter/Uranus, Figure 41, I see as a Mogen-David, the Jewish six-pointed star symbol.

It would be fun to put up a website where people can share their impressions of these mandalas.