It's the Melbourne Cup tomorrow, and though I am not a gambling man, and despite realising that I am running the risk of associating my work as an astrologer with something arguably quite dodgy, I can't help but be intrigued by astrology's predictive tradition and how this is shown in such events. I love to see astrology's symbolic strength in all sorts of situations, from the hallowed to the profane. And this sort of thing helps to remind us of astrology's ultimately divinatory nature.
Back in 2011 I wrote another blog entry on this, which you can find here on this site, if you'd like to read up more on this technique.
The technique (from John Addy, one of the UK's most celebrated astrologers, and discussed in John Frawley's Sports Astrology) involves a star map drawn for the time, date and place of the race: tomorrow at 3pm in Melbourne. The first planet the 5th house cusp would aspect as you imagine it moving forward in direct zodiacal direction shows the race winner, through symbolic association of its essence, sign, house placement and rulership with the name of the horse. There are examples of this in the blog entry mentioned above.
For those of you who are interested, below is the chart for tomorrow's race, with the closest aspects made by the 5th house cusp listed, and the field of horses running.
Addy recommends paying attention to all aspects, no matter how minor, but I'm drawn more to the close opposition to Pluto, so will be looking for a horse with associations with Pluto (underworld/death/intense energy) in Capricorn (authority/world success) in the 11th house (groups/friendship) ruling the 9th (God/the foreign). I've heard others having success using this technique and extending the associations to the jockey's name, colours, or even number.
For example 'Boom Time' could almost fit, with Pluto linked with something destructive and Capricorn with time. As could 'Wall of Fire' (Walls are ruled by Capricorn).
It might sound frivolous, or at best quaint, but it invites us to work playfully with symbol - something that can only help us in the more serious applications of astrology.
Now, I'd better leave this and head down to the TAB...