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INTRODUCTION: Described below are my personal
experiences in the early development of astrology
software. This article is also a tribute to Neil
Michelsen. In my early involvement in astrological
software, a series of amazing coincidences occurred,
which I refer to a bit hyperboically as "miracles" below. The year was 1973 or 1974. Two
of my friends decided to attend an astrology
conference in Miami. I declined to go because
I did not want to take the time to travel and
I could not afford the trip. Instead, I decided
to stay home and continue seeing clients, teaching,
and developing astrology software. I do not remember who was sponsoring
the conference, but I would guess it was a NASO
Conference. In those days the AFA (American Federation
of Astrologers) and NASO (New York Astrological
Society), headed up by Henry
Weingarten and Barbara Somerfield, had the most
exciting astrology conferences. The NASO Conferences
were very high quality and featured outstanding
speakers. Some of the AFA Conferences were huge
by today's standards, having thousands of attendees. Something extraordinary happened
at the conference and my two friends returned
with a surprise: they met a fellow in Chicago
who had a computer program to calculate planetary
positions, and he would send the punch cards
to my address. Within a few weeks they arrived
at my doorstep. This was extraordinary! MIRACLE 2:
Access to A Computer at No Charge. Shortly after the
above surprise, a fellow approached
me after a New Age Sunday service and told
me that the chairman of the Computer Technology
department at the local community college wanted
to start an astrological dating service, and
he knew that I was involved with computers
and astrology so he let me know about this.
Previous to this I rented time at the University
of Florida computer to where I developed programs
to calculate midpoints, harmonics, etc. for
my own use. I would calculate the chart by
hand and then punch in the planetary positions
and house cusp positions, run the program,
and have the data I needed to consult clients. I met the chairman of the department
and we arranged for me to use the computer all
weekend at no cost! This was a miracle, as I
had extremely little income, and a computer to
use gratis all weekend was a blessing. I worked
all day Saturdays and Sundays programming and
seeing clients and teaching during the week.
it was a good life. However, I could not get
this program sent to me on punch cards to work
so I continued to calculate charts by hand. MEETING NEIL
MICHELSEN I called Neil Michelsen. I told
Neil what I was doing, and, among other things,
I explained that I had written a program that
produced solar arc to natal midpoint aspects
and interpreted them. I had the interpretations
on punch cards. Neil said he would like to fly
down, help get the program running, and I was
very happy to give him the midpoint interpretations
on punch cards and the programs and other interpretations
I had. This
way, Neil would benefit from the trip
as well. Neil flew down and in one weekend he
got the program running and returned to Pelham,
New York, where he lived at the time, with a
copy of my punch cards in hand. Neil Michelsen was one of the finest
people I have ever met. At the time I was living
very simply in a cabin in the woods, my clothes
were whatever I could find at a thrift shop,
and I was completely focused on astrology, to
the neglect of material acquisitions. Neil, on
the other hand, was very professional, clean
cut, older and more mature than I was. I was
very impressed with his intelligence, clarity,
and generosity. Having been so impressed with
Neil, I was eager to meet other astrologers and
I asked who he thought was exceptionally good
in the field. He recommended Rob Hand, Zip Dobyns,
and Michael Munkasey. Neil returned to New York, thrilled
to have the interpretations that I gave him.
However, I felt he was equally thrilled to have
helped me. He respected what I was doing, and
I felt encouraged by his interest in what I was
doing. Neil was older than me, not only in years,
but in maturity. I also corresponded with Henry
Weingarten, Charles Jayne, and Pamela Crane in
those days and by the mid 1970's I was speaking
regularly at conferences. Neil Michelsen however was
the first of the well-known and respected people
in the field of astrology that I spent some time
with. Neil was always enthusiastic, excited
about progressive ideas in natural healing and
spiritual energy, and always seeking ways to
explore new dimensions. I remember years later
attending a seminar that he gave at a conference
on color healing. Someone asked if everyone should
be healed; perhaps some people needed to work
through their karma and not be healed. Neil looked
directly at her, and said that if you have the
opportunity to heal, then you heal. He said something
to the effect that when you have the opportunity
presented to you to help, that is your good karma
to do what you can to help. Neil was articulate,
technically oriented, sophisticated in his knowledge
of mathematics and software development, inspired,
creative, talented, and he had a very big heart.
Needless to say, Nel's life, like everyone's
life, was not trouble-free. He had been married
many times, for example, an indication of his
problems in personal relationships. MARK POTTENGER: Another
Pioneer I found out later that the punch
cards of the program that calculated the planetary
positions originated from Mark Pottenger. I later
met with Zip Dobyns (Mark's mother, and, of course,
one of the foremost astrologers of the time)
and Zip said it was OK that I had the program,
given the fact that I did not share it with anyone
and was using it only for my own purposes. THE 1980'S AND HOME
COMPUTERS When the TRS-80, Commodore Pet,
and Apple computers appeared around 1980, I became
excited about the possibility of developing software
on these new, small computers. My access to the
computer at the community college also was terminated,
so the home computers arrived just in time. I
converted my programs from the Fortran and Cobol
languages to the BASIC language, and moved from
mainframes to home computers. I wrote an all-pupose
program that produced midpoint structures, aspect
grids, and other calculations and I sold a few
copies of it. I decided that I needed to make
a change and I called Neil. I asked if he would
like to hire someone and I was thinking that
he might want to enter into this new home computer
software market. Neil told me that the night
before he was at a friend's house and they were
playing with a ouija board and they asked Neil
if he had a question. His question was whether
it would be good for him to hire me. This is
amazing because we had not discussed the idea
before but both of us were thinking of it at
the same time. The answer to his question was
yes, but he had not asked if it would be good
for me too, and he did not call me to ask. He
had hired someone else that morning so I called
just a little bit too late. I combined forces
with Michael Erlewine in 1981 and we worked hard
at building the basic calculations that astrologers
need on home computers. This work continues to
this day and there is still much more to do,
partly because astrologers uncover or develop
new methods and techniques. I have devoted my life since then
to the development of astrology software on home
computers for astrologers, astrology businesses,
and researchers who can use these software tools
to either validate astrology or demonstrate that
particular astrological theories do not work. THE CHANGE TO A NEW ERA I do not remember the year but
Neil developed cancer, the disease progressed
quickly and within a few years, this dynamic
and vital person had passed away. It was a shock.
I believe the year of his death was 1990. I had
made a business agreement with Neil in the mid
1980's and in the mid 1980's I corresponded with Tom
Shanks, Neil's associate, about daylight saving
time changes. Neil and Tom had done interesting
work on the Gauquelin sectors and Neil continued
publishing the ephermides and atlas books through
the 1980's. Even during his illness I remember
seeing Neil at a conference. Neil's death followed
upon the deaths of other notable astrologers
of that generation. Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones
had passed away in the 1970's. I had corresponded
with Jones and Rudhyar about a theory of degree
meanings that I developed but obviously this
conversation was now ended. Charles Jayne passed
away in the early to mid 1980's. John Addey died
in 1982. Ideas I wanted to share with Addey of
course were now not possible either. By the early 1990's it seemed to
me that we had crossed a bridge to a different
generation. The NASO Conferences had ended. Conferences
sponsored by other organizations were taking
their place. Geoffrey Dean's book "Recent
Advances in Natal Astrology" had dampened
enthusiasm about the possibilities of a scientific
astrology so that by the 1990's interest had
shifted to the history of astrology, ancient
astrology, and psychological astrology. By the 1990's I had noticed that
many of the astrologers featured at conferences
and even those giving the opening address were
part of a new wave of astrologers. Some of the
astrologers from the "old days" are
still around and people like Rob Hand, Ray Merriman,
Michael Munkasey, Lee Lehman, Bruce Scofield,
Gary Christen, and some others still attend conferences
and are still active seeing clients and/or writing.
Some others from the "old days" have
gone onto other interests and no longer work
in the area of astrology, or do not participate
in the large astrological organizations and conferences.
At the time I am writing this article, I am only
58 years
old and already have seen many changes in astrology. THE 21ST CENTURY The 21st century is bringing in
a new level of academic rigor and professional
standards. There is also a new group of young
astrologers that study astrology more critically
than the previous generations. Some of these
astrologers have joined together in a new astrology
group, the Association of Young Astrologers (AYA)
I feel very much at home with these young astrologers,
and I am very excited about the astrological
work they are doing. Many of them approach astrology
with the same critical thinking skills and academic
rigor with which I approach astrology, and too
often is lacking in the astrological work of
astrologers of my own age. Also, researchers
and translators are digging into the ancient
history of astrology and we are becoming better
educated about our subject. These are exciting
developments! I try to work with the
same vision and idealism that I learned from
Neil Michelsen: to work hard, to be
generous, to be enthusiastic, to demand excellence,
to pioneer where others fear to tread, and
to have a big heart. In this century, we will
make more progress in finding out exactly what
astrology is and we will find out if astrology
functions in an objective (i.e. "scientific")
manner. This is an exciting adventure, regardless
of what we discover. Utilizing the latest technologies
in graphics, sounds, multimedia, the Internet,
and other developments as they occur is always
a priority. We also are seeing the development
of software tools that make it possible for
us to approach astrology at a completely new
level of sophistication; this is what I am
most excited about. As we head towards the
second decade of the 21st century we will see
more features in astrology software that are
extremely sophisticated and beyond the range
of capabilities that astrologers were previously
accustomed to. NOTES: All dates given in this article
are according to my memory and should be verified. This article is not comprehensive.
It contains some anecdotal stories, personal
experiences, and observations that can be helpful
and interesting to anyone interested in astrological
developments in the late 20th century and early
21st century. |
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Cosmic Patterns. All Rights Reserved