Age Point Astrology (part I)

Hello, my name is Andrew Bevan, and I am an astrologer. On two occasions in recent years I have had the pleasure of visiting Romania and speaking at the conferences of the Romanian Association of Astrologers. In 2016 you extended me an Honorary Membership in your Association, for which I am in debt and most grateful. This sort of recognition is a great inspiration for anyone working within a field with deep dedication for many years, in my case for over 3 decades. And it all adds to forming a close bond between myself and the RAA. I hope our friendship, our sharing and love of astrology will continue to thrive for many years to come.

Within our common interest for Astrology, there lies a great opportunity for sharing and learning from one another. Well, we know more about each another than those who didn’t come, and we may call one another friends. If you weren’t present, it is only fair you should be told what a wonderful time the rest of us had. Whether you have heard the story before, or are fresh to our acquaintance, I would still like to tell you something about my background, my approach to and experience of Astrology. First, the bits about myself and next, some of the discoveries and stuff I’ve learnt during my practice as an Astrologer. Things we all can get excited about!

Now, Astrology is virtually an inexhaustible topic, and we can soon get lost in details and technicalities if we started in the wrong end. Hopefully, you will see how it can be made easier, and the stuff I want to show you can be built upon as we go along. The bottom line is and, I cannot say it enough times: “Keep it simple”! Don’t try to accomplish too much at once. Do not go beyond your capacities, and the best measure of what works for you will most certainly be found in your personal chart!

By Sun sign I am Leo. I was born in England on August 6, 1963 with Scorpio Ascendant. My parents immigrated in 1969 with my brother and myself to Norway. At the age of 11, I got into astronomy and then at the age of 16, I remembered I was an astrologer. By 1981 I had gained my first certificate of astrological proficiency from the Mayo School of Astrology in the UK. Afterwards, I moved on gaining a QHP from the legendary Olivia Barclay’s Qualifying Course in Horary Astrology in 1986. Olivia Barclay has just been credited by many for the revival of medieval and traditional astrology, and that is a story of her own. Then, I got back to the Mayo School to complete their Diploma Course in 1989. Really, you don’t need these papers or diplomas to be an astrologer, but it is a good thing to have if you want to practice professionally or teach others. You could say that you owe it to your trade. Even if you are a car mechanic or a hair dresser, all branches have their certificates of merit. So it is an orderly procedure. Nothing more than this. The next thing I want to say is: “Have an open mind, be curious and investigate, but above all, be structured”. Do not mesh everything together: astrology, tarot, dream interpretation, intuition and the like, but keep things apart. Or else nobody will know what you are up to, and you probably won’t even know it yourself. So, as the grand teacher, William Lilly (1602-1681) had said: “Be singular in Art!” If you succeed in being tidy, you won’t regret it!

Al H. Morrison and the World Trade Center – 11.09.2001

Now, a few things I want to tell about the early years. One of the highlights was a journey to New York in October 1984 and the meeting with another reputed figure, Al H. Morrison (1916-1995), editor of CAO TIMES. He took me around town to see various places: to Wall Street, to the United Nation to see samples of Rock from the Moon and to the top of Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Stood on the top of the twin towers, looking out on the world, and it was the day of a Lunar Eclipse. He told me everything he knew about the buildings: from the assigning of the job, securing the land, to the founding charts, and the Indians who built it, who were not afraid of heights; to the fact that it was fire proof, resistant to earthquakes and how the amount of iron in the structures distorted the magnetic field in the area. Then he turned to me and said: “But some day someone will try to fly a Boeing through it. It won’t happen today, and not in my lifetime”, he said, “but you will remember it, when it occurs”. Now we all remember what happened on 11.09.2001. In brief, this is Astrology: what Morrison noticed was the appearance of Jupiter along with numerous eclipses in the founding charts. He said: “If you are thinking in terms of Nostradamus, this would mean that the building would be hit by a Big Bird. Translated into modern language, it means a Boeing, or equivalent”.

Personally, I have a number of accurate or startling predictions to my name. One that I am very proud of and, that I never really felt it received the right amount of attention, was a prediction made in 1985 at the age of 22 – that the next planet outside Pluto would be discovered on November 3, 1995. At the time, I think we were all expecting a new member of our solar system, and when the discovery was made, it wasn’t in the position I had estimated and the discovery wasn’t actually made on November 3, 1995 – but on this very day the news hit the Norwegian press and the discovery of the first exoplanet beyond our Solar system was a fact. Now, how on Earth did I hit that date 10 years in advance? It taught me two things: 1). that any form of reality, to a certain extent, is true in the manner it appears to the observer, and 2). even if scientists do say that they have discovered a new star, or maybe a new galaxy – millions of light years away… nothing has really changed. The only change that has occurred is within our heads.

The Age Point Technique

What I want to introduce to you here, and which I have been lecturing on upon my visits to Romania, is a technique whose fragments I found in 1985, while studying under the course of Olivia Barclay. The books were William Lilly’s, “Christian Astrology” and Manilius’, “Four Books on Astrology”. From hints and passages, I conceived and then started practicing a technique I called the “Age Point System”, or the Classical Age Point System, to differentiate it from other methods with similar names. Ever since, this approach has been my most important tool of horoscope interpretation and dealing with client requirements.

The Age Point Technique is a method for reading the natal chart: past, present and future – without having to get into all the additional calculations of Solar Returns, Secondary Directions, Transits or the like. The reasons are obvious: clients or any other audience, for that matter, can be very impatient people. They want you to say something specific about their chart and lives that they can relate to and probably within the first 30 seconds of conversation. The Age Point allows you to do this without getting lost in the hazard of additional calculations. It is all in front of you!

While the Age Point provides you valuable insight in 1, 2, 3… Do not forget to be a good listener. While the Astrologer has the upper hand on psychology in terms of giving specific input that the client can work with, always remember to give the client the space they need. They might need to talk, or be at the point telling you something important. I once had a client call me on the phone who asked me to shut up. She said: “I am paying a lot of money to talk to you!”. She was a Gemini Sun sign… of course…

To use the Age Point Technique just imagine a conventional clock as it is divided into 60 minutes. Furthermore, it is divided into 12 portions of 5 minutes each, just like the Zodiac has 12 signs. In another fashion the dial of the clock may be divided into 4 Quarter Hours of 15 minutes each. And, if you live near a Catholic church it will probably chime every 15 minutes.

In the Age Point Technique, the entire circle of the clock isn’t divided into 60 minutes, but into 60 YEARS of a lifetime. So what you do, is direct the Ascendant clockwise through the signs, like the hand or pointer of a clock, along the ecliptic and according to an Equal House fashion. You can still use the house system of your personal choice, but move the Age Point along the Zodiac. As you move the Age Point, this means you are moving it backwards through the signs. The Age Point will enter in the end and final degree of any sign, and work itself to the beginning before leaving to the sign ahead of it. Example: If the Ascendant is in Gemini, the Age Point will move from Gemini to Taurus, Aries, Pisces, and Aquarius and so on. This is clockwise. The entire journey through the Zodiac takes 60 years in time, this means that the Age Point (or AP) will use 5 years to move through an entire sign of 30°. Every degree lasts 2 months. This means that the AP is directed 6° clockwise in the rate of a year. If you do not have an accurate birth time, you will NOT have an Ascendant, then you direct the Sun instead. This is called the Solar Age Point (SAP). Always use that point which is most exact, but it is a bit of a spectacle. If you do not have an Ascendant, you close one eye and look through the one glass only.

Here comes the beauty of the technique, because now you can apply everything you know about astrology. If the Age Point enters a new sign, this marks the beginning of a new 5 year period, and something is indicated along the nature of that sign, i.e. Aries – a new energetic or pioneering experience, people working with sharp tools, dentists, hairdressers; Taurus – an accumulation of resources or long term investments; Gemini – a period of commerce, learning, communication, variation, contact with the young and youthful, media, etc. And you might actually be connecting to people born under these signs: a partner, a spouse or one or several children. Gemini frequently delivers in double portions, but if it is a question of off-spring and other factors support it, then maybe several children of similarity within the 5 year period; or if twins, then one-egged twins. However, if the AP is in Pisces, then several children of great differences and variation, or twins from separate eggs. Pisces will always show people coming together from different worlds, or facing in opposite directions, like the exterior walls of a house. The walls carry the same roof, but the one wall is facing the sea, while the other world is facing the mountain.

The condition and placement of the AP in the chart of a native at the time a child is born describes the circumstances of this birth. With Saturn and Capricorn, frequently there is labor or responsibility, or circumstances that prohibit fertility. But the situation of the Age Point at this time, can also describe the traits the child inherits through the chart, and which belongs to the parent. And quite often the child inherits and demonstrates these traits stronger and more openly than the parent himself or herself.

The Age Point through the Chart

The travel of the Age Point from one sign to another is a bit like journeying through a building, moving from one room to the next. You are in the hall, in the basement, moving up the stairs, into the kitchen, bedroom or lounge. Your experience of moving into the lounge, or any new room, may immediately be enhanced by whoever you find located in that room: Jupiter, Venus, Saturn or Mars. Or there may be a change of scenery and/or of paths at that time, yet you don’t actually encounter or exchange with the people until you have moved further into the room. Or a venture that starts off at the time the AP enters a new sign, produces results, consequences and is crowned at the time the AP reaches the body of the planet. The last 3° or 6 months before entering a new sign are actually quite restless, because you are in a process of reorientation and preparing for the next room.

If malefic planets are placed, i.e. two years into the 5 year period, that is at about 18° of this sign, and this direction occurred at the same time as a death, loss or crises in this person’s life (although the malefic planets do not necessarily indicate such evil), then the loss would tend to be mourned and have a hold on the native until the AP left the sign three years later.

As the Age Point rotates through the chart, like the hand of a clock, take note of the state of the sign, the sign ruler, and planets within the sign as the Age Point journeys. First, the nature of the planets involved: the infortunes, Mars and Saturn, are always more violent or laborious. If they are well situated, they will always provide and promote the interests of the native, but with more controversy, industry, struggle and strife. The malefics are like tools: hammer, nails, axe and spade – useful for a good days work but liable to do damage in the wrong hands. The fortunes, Venus and Jupiter, are always associated with the comforts and social benefits of life: friends, flowers, chocolates and wine. But if the fortunes are in a poor state, you are likely to get into trouble with these matters. People might be acting too sugary, or on false pretentions, or substance and resources are managed in a poor manner. If the Age Point is crossing the lord of the 8th, you will notice that there is a great difference between hit in the head with a spade or with a box of chocolates. The lord of the 8th house may indicate danger or a life-crisis, something that brings you close to your edge. But basically it is a state of initiation or reformatting: you have been on Super-Mario level 4 long enough. Now you have to say goodbye to your present comforts and upgrade to level 5. The lord of the 7th will most commonly introduce you to, or refer to something that has to deal with a partner, but may also make you subject to the circumstances of the battlefield, and you might be confronted or victimized by the impulsive and careless actions of people in your environment.

To be continued…

AUTHOR: ANDREW BEVAN, QHP, DMS Astrol. – ( c ) 1986 – 2018
Honorary Member of Romanian Astrologers Association

(See also: „The Age Point Technique” by Andrew Bevan)

Articolul este disponibil în revista Astrele și în limba română.