Apollo and the Chariot: A short story

By Isabel Sofia

Apollo was the god of the sun. He and his twin, Artemis, took charge of the main sources of our light and heat, the sun and moon.

One day as they began learning the duties of the sun and the moon, Apollo began wondering about what's so special being the sun god.

One day while he was still learning about what sun gods do, he skipped class. He visited Helios, the sun god before Apollo.

He ran as fast as he could to catch Helios before he left for his daily trip from East to West. He managed to see Helios preparing for his daily trip.

“Helios!” he shouted.

“Oh, hi Apollo! Want to join me on my daily trip around the Earth? You can come if you want,” he replied.

“Really?” Apollo said.

“Sure, you can come. It’ll be happening soon anyway.” “Thanks Helios!”

“Hurry then, the mortals will be wondering soon where the sun is.”

“How do you travel from East to West, Helios?” Apollo asked curiously.

“By using the Sun Chariot! You’ve never heard of it?”

“Well, I have. But I’ve never seen it. Can we go now?”

“Oh, of course! It’s almost time for sunrise!”

They walked quickly to where the chariot is being held and started making the trip. Apollo stared in delight at everything they passed by, like the clouds, the birds greeting them and the beautiful color of the sky.

He never had so much fun as this before. It was always memorizing lessons from the book, writing down what he learned, but not as fun as this. 

“Helios, is it always like this?” Apollo asked. 

“Yeah. One of the advantages of being the Sun god,” He smiled. 

“Can I go here every day?” Apollo asked hopefully. 

“Maybe every two days? You can’t just skip your lessons.” “Ok.” 

Every two days Apollo went with Helios to make the daily trip from East to West. It was always a fun thing to do. Until one day Helios said, 

“Apollo, nothing lasts forever. My time of being the Sun god has ended. It is now your duty to make the daily trips from East to West.” 

“But, I-I’m not yet ready to do this alone,” he exclaimed. “I can’t even ride the chariot without burning anything. It’s too soon!” Apollo complained. 

“I have been the Sun god too long. Now, it is your turn,” and Helios started to disappear with these last words. 

Apollo sighed as Helios disappeared. 

“Better start doing things on my own then,” he thought. 

He knew that he’ll be able to meet Helios again, so he did the daily trip properly knowing Helios would be proud. As his hard work progressed, he became a part of the 12 Olympians who watched over and protected the Earth. Even when he became an Olympian he never stopped believing Helios will come back. 

One day, near the summer solstice, Helios appeared to Apollo. 

“I see you’ve been working hard.” 

“Helios! You’re back! Want to do the trip with me?” 

“Sure, I want to see how you’re doing on your own.” 

This time Apollo led him and had excellent skills. Helios was so proud of Apollo’s achievement that he gave the Sun Chariot to Apollo and joined him in the daily trip. Since then, Apollo was always happy, enjoying his time until a new god comes.

First published in Medieval Astro-clock 2013, this is the first short story of Isabel Sofia, a 12-year old budding journalist/writer. 

She wrote this piece when she was just 10 years old after being inspired by Rick Riordan to read more on Greek Mythology.  

Isabel Sofia is the youngest member of Astrology Friends Philippines and is now a contributor to Manila Bulletin's Fun Page.

Astro-meteorology featured in radio interview

Raffy Reyes, JP Rodrigo and Resti Santiago

On September 12, Astrology Friends Philippines was invited by RX93 Monster Radio to talk about the astrology of the floodings, bombings and protests that have been recently plaguing the Philippines.

Resti H. Santiago is a regular guest of Raffy Reyes at the beginning of the year on the show "Heard On Thursdays" (HOT), wherein he shares his forecasts for the upcoming year. Several storms and the "EDSA standtill" that occurred on September 10 prompted Raffy Reyes to request for a review of the astrological influences that are currently affecting  us.

Page from Santiago's book

Resti H. Santiago was accompanied by JP Rodrigo, who is becoming Astro Friend's official spokesperson. JP talked about the recent activities of Astrology Friends Philippines and invited everyone to visit our blog.

JP has been studying astrology for two years and he advises newbies to read up on Greek mythology as it helped him understand the meaning of the planets faster.

RX listeners are always the first to hear about Resti Santiuago's astro-meteorological forecast and Raffy Reyes was impressed that the predictions for the year has been quite accurate. Take for instance the two weather disturbances "Dante" and "Gorio."

According to Wikipedia's list of typhoons inthe Pacific region, tropical storm Dante was active from June 6 - June 12 while the severe tropical storm Gorio was active from June 27-July 2.

Now, lets look at Santiago's astro- meteorological forecast. He wrote in his book Medieval Astro-clock 2013 that on June 8 (plus or minus 7 days) and July  2 (plus or minus  7 days) there would be a major typhoon factor. Even without the 7 day allowance, which he termed as "orb of influence" the forecasts were spot on.

Astro-meteorological Forecast for 4Q 2013,
add an average of 4-7 days for each
projected date for typhoons.
From Medieval Astro-clock 2013.

What does this imply? Santiago was objective enough to admit that his astro-meteorological work does not have to be in conflict with meteorology. In fact, he insisted that it would be wise to combine astro-meteorology and the weather forecast from meteorologist because astro-meteorology works better when looking at a particular date from a distance, months or a year in advance.

Meteorological forecasts gets more accurate and specific as the meteorological event unfolds. For example, he stated that when scheduling an important event such as an outdoor wedding or a plane flight his astro-meteorology is very useful in determining the good or the bad periods.

Because you plan about these things months or event a year ahead when the specific weather forecasts are still inconclusive. On the other hand, while the  week wherein rains or typhoons can be forecasted from astrology, as he has been showing for the past three years, where exactly in the Philippines and how much rain it will bring is currently beyond the scope of astro-meteorology.

The people can be more alert when they know beforehand that weather disturbances are coming and as it forms they can tune in to weather reports to know the details.

Astrology and Fixed Stars Lecture

The Planets for Change (Part 1)

By Resti H. Santiago (astro-medieval.blogspot.com)

The message is clear. Luneta Anti-pork rally. 

Astrology rests on the basic premise that what is above, is also below. It's very simple - yet very profound. If you are a spiritual person, you can view this as a statement that there is order and that everything is interconnected with everything else in the uni-verse. 

It's an all-encompassing law of nature. Some call it divine order, others prefer to use the word grand design, or intelligent design. Still others prefer to call it the law of karma, or cause and effect. If you are a natural scientist you might wish to invoke "natural law."

The great scientist Johannes Kepler once said, "Many great secrets of nature were hidden in astrology." Astrology, at the least the kind that Kepler knew and worked with, can explain what is happening in the world at any given moment in time.

Let's give it a try, but you must keep in mind that the astrology that we are promoting is different from pop and modern systems of astrology such as sun sign horoscopes that most Filipinos are familiar with. Sun sign or daily horoscopes is not astrology. You get fun and entertainment from horoscopes but get sound advise from astrologers.  

With the recent developments in the Philippines brought about by Napoles and the the pork barrel fiasco, one is tempted to ask, "What it is above, that is creating all these movements below?" There is trouble in Syria, Egypt and the "occupy" movements have been transforming major cities worldwide.

Cardinal Climax

Filipinos standing up against corruption.

A modern astrologer  would pinpoint this urge for change and the destabilizing influences that is being felt worldwide to what is called the "Cardinal Climax" that lasts from 2008-2015.

The "Cardinal Climax" is the inharmonious alignment of the outer planets Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter with one another. These planets are located in the sky, in what are considered to be the sections of the cardinal signs. The cardinal signs are Aries, where Uranus is, Cancer, where Jupiter is, and Capricorn, where Pluto is. These three are slow moving planets and their effects are supposed to be lasting or long-term.

In modern astrology, Uranus is the planet of revolutions and change. Pluto is the planet of cathartic and deep-seated change.

The cardinal signs are actually associated with the changing of the seasons. When the Sun enters Aries, the hot season begins in the Philippines and spring sets in in the northern hemisphere. As the Sun moves through the rest of the cardinal signs, the seasons change. The other cardinal sign, Libra is actually occupied by Venus for a few weeks around the time of the anti-pork rally was held in Luneta. When you draw these alignments in two-dimension, what you will see is a cross in the sky, this is called the cardinal grand cross, a derivative of the cardinal climax when slower moving planets like Venus, Mars and Sun gets aligned with the cadinal climax. These configurations are considered as a signal for transformation.

The Cardinal Climax, computed for the Philippines.

What kind  of transformation it signals can be gleaned from the lens through which an astrologer would look at the planets, the signs, the alignments. A financial astrologer sees the transformation of the world economy, but one that is filled with danger. A political astrologer would focus on the movement of power from the West to the East. While a spiritual astrologer would see transformation of consciousness.

Vox populi. Photo by Resti H. Santiago

The cardinal climax has been going on since Uranus and Pluto has entered the Cardinal signs a few years back. The cardinal climax has also been associated with the so-called Arab spring and the Euro-crisis. This is however, not just affecting the Middle-east or Europe, after all we all look at the same sky no matter where you are on earth.

In Medieval Astrology, there are plethora of techniques that can be used to localize the planetary influences. Whereas the moderns primarily rely on  the independence dates, outer planet alignments, the medieval astrologers, use the ingress and mutation charts heavily. Ingress charts are like new year charts, but the astrological year actually begins at the spring equinox, when the Sun enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac.

To be continued.

100 Years: The Life and Work of Serafin Lanot (Part 2)

By Ime Morales

Read Part 1

Overhauling the Zodiac

As the best known astrologer in the country at the time, mainly because of his book Astrology Through Filipino Eyes, which was read not only in America but also across Europe, Serafin Lanot was the only Filipino who got invited to attend the international conference of the American Federation of Astrologers or the AFA. In fact, he was made a member of the AFA convention faculty.

During the conference, he presented his paper titled, One World, One Astrology. He wrote in that paper: "Now is the time for astrologers to assume the leadership in this fight for change, no longer as mere consultants and counselors to money changers and reactionary leaders, but as leaders themselves during this Age of Aquarius, assuming the mantle of seer and sage that both history and legend have thrust upon us."

He went on to propose a "one world, one astrology" based on "reason, intuition and inspiration, to harmonize the opposing astrologist views held by East and West. East and West are merely dimensions of a circle, astrology must not forget that they constitute the whole sphere. They motivate each other and their values must be considered as complementary, not as oppositions. My view is that moon and sun should be given the same importance together and that interpretations of the horoscope should be holistic."

Artist Danny Dalena. His painting was
used for the cover of Lanot's
"Astrology Through Filipino Eyes."

Lanot also proposed to overhaul the zodiac itself, to make it conform to modern astronomy, as well as to cleanse it of all traces of male chauvinism and to make it manifest a more logical position on moon and sun, which should occupy together the center of the zodiac. He also said that enough heavenly bodies have been discovered to make possible a zodiac where each house or sign is ruled by an exclusive planet of its own. As it is now, a planet that rules two houses is said to be good in one house and bad in the other. Lanot proposed to bring into the zodiac the four major asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta) so that there will be no planetary duplication in the houses of the zodiac.

These changes will serve to dilute the currently excessive male composition of the zodiac, by bringing in not only more planets to represent the female principle but also two planets to represent the third sex. Astrology will then discard all sexual chauvinism.

The Rulers of Lanot's Proposed Zodiac
Aries - Mars
Taurus - Ceres instead of Venus
Gemini - Mercury
Cancer - Juno
Leo - Jupiter
Virgo - Vesta
Libra - Venus
Scorpio - Pluto
Sagittarius - Pallas
Capricorn - Saturn
Aquarius - Uranus
Pisces - Neptune

Lanot said that Jupiter in Sagittarius is anomalous because the traditional Jupiterian keywords are antithetical to the constellation Sagittarius. Jupiter has little in common with the Centaur, whereas, the Father of the Gods rhymes in character with the King of the Jungle.

He said that when the zodiac was first devised, there were not enough known planets to fill all 12 houses, which is why Venus and Mercury had to be given two houses each. With the discovery of the four major asteroids there are now enough planets for the 12 divisions of the zodiac. There is sexual balance in this reformed zodiac, an equal number of masculine and feminine planets. Mercury and Uranus, being hermaphroditic, give due recognition to the homos in our midst.

From Chicago, Lanot came back home with a personal resolution. He decided to start giving free astrological counseling. That was his commitment to the AFA, which enjoined all members to promote astrology.

Sometime after Chicago, Lanot also petitioned the local embassies of Asian nations to help him establish an ASEAN Astrological Society, or ASEAN ASTROS, whose objectives would be the promotion of peace and goodwill and international friendship through a better understanding of the nature of man as embodied in astrology, and the integration into one community of the diverse astrological groups in Asia. This is yet to be realized.

In Chicago, he startled an international astrology conference by proposing to overhaul the zodiac.

He established Philippine Astrological Studies, Inc. (PASI)

Lanot's awards and certificates of recognition,
on displayed at Lopez Museum
during Poetry of Stars Exhibit.

Lanot immersed himself in astrology in 1978, after suffering from a cerebral stroke. His clientele was made up of prominent individuals including writers, like Nick Joaquin, generals, celebrities, artists, and even the former President Ferdinand Marcos. One of his predictions was the win of Bill Clinton in the US presidential elections. But perhaps some of his most important outputs were the guides and series of warnings that he wrote from 1985 to early 1986 for Cory Aquino during the country's transition from dictatorship to democracy. These warnings and analyses were published in Manila Bulletin's Panorama Sunday Magazine.

He finished Metaphysics at the Metropolitan Collegiate Institute in London, England. He also received an Astrology Now Award for Advanced Skills, and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity in July 1980 from California's Aquarian Church of the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Christ.

Astro Friend Irene Chia holding a
reproduction of PASI's foundation chart.
Photo by Resti Santiago

On March 28, 1979, he founded the Philippine Astrological Studies, Inc. to conduct free lessons on astrology. He screened applicants carefully: They needed to be really serious and intelligent. He started with a class of 32 individuals, all of them professionals. After 3 months, only 14 had survived. One of Lanot's students was a scientist, Dr. Florencio Isagani S. Medina III who worked for the Philippine Atomic Commission in the 80s. He was also head of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.

The organization became one of the most influential groups of astrologers in the country. Among its members were Dr. Leon O. Ty, a leading newspaperman and civic leader, and Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., a highly spiritual individual and one of the moving forces behind the Theosophical Society of the Philippines. Many of its founding members were writers, journalists and poets, including Alfred Yuson, Sylvia Mayuga, Elena Beatriz Romualdez, Marra Lacaba, and many others.

The Through all of Lanot's efforts in teaching astrology, he was working on the following goals, which he wrote on May 25, 1979:

1. To convince or persuade colleges and universities to include the study of astrology in their respective curricula at their own expense, especially as a requirement in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, among others.

2. To campaign for membership among students and professionals, preferably successful intellectuals only, since the study of astrology requires intelligence and intuition for understanding and appreciation.

3. To have graded membership and nationwide chapters to fulfill its avowed aim.

Lanot also designed a Horoscope Calculation Sheet on which all the necessary data were arranged with the precision of a multiplication table. But this was not easy to read. It often took him weeks to read one horoscope. According to Lanot, you need rational intelligence to interpret horoscopes.

From one of his trips abroad, Serafin Lanot brought home a relic: a 40-column printer from DIGICOMP Research Corporation. With this machine, it takes only 15 minutes to calculate an astrological chart. Normally, it would take weeks. The interpretation, however, is another story because it used to take Lanot 2 hours to interpret a chart.

Mysterious philosophy: The Philippine Model

The author holding a diagram of
Lanot's the "Filipino Model."
Photo by Resti Santiago

He created The Philippine Model and presented his paper on it before the 30th anniversary convention of the American Federation of Astrologers in Nevada. That paper was published as a chapter in a book featuring internationally known astrologers from the US, Germany, France, England, India and the Philippines.

It is a philosophy in which the complex is made simple in astrological interpretation. It proposes a certain kind of simplicity, including the simplicity of creation of the cosmos and earthly life through the three simple steps of genetic heredity. It is a simplified visualization of the hemispheric areas which are traditionally considered the most significant parts of the horoscope and the biosphere. It also emphasizes a growing in and out through alternative options, with the center (Reality) as the point of reconciliation and/or polarization between the four opposite points of the horoscope.

In his paper, he said that "The tendency of the convoluted brain is to complicate the simple. It is this natural logic of simplicity that is absent in examining simple but profound astrological problems. The Filipino must adopt the virtue of simplicity if he is to survive being caught in the midstream of the East and the West, even in the practice and appreciation of astrology."

To live is a series of dying
To die is to live again
Like the phases of the moon
Verily, nothing is new under the sun
Only the expression and/or mode of communication changes
And may be called original

Serafin Lanot died on September 22, 1993. He was definitely one of the leading figures in the development of astrology in the Philippines, and a beloved teacher to many astrology enthusiasts.

(The author would like to thank Marra Lanot, Kris Lacaba, Resti Santiago, Kat Palasi, Irene Chia and Ofel Santos for helping gather information on the life of Serafin Lanot.)

Auspicious Days for Everyone

Click and discover the auspicious days to schedule your important activities for the coming months!

100 Years: The Life and Work of Serafin Lanot (Part 1)

By Ime Morales
Photos by Kat Palasi (wwwkatpalasi.tumblr.com)

Serafin Lanot

Lanot's former office

As part of our research work on the life of Filipino astrologer and writer Serafin Lanot I, together with my friends from my astrology group (Astro Friends), trooped to the home of the Lanot-Lacabas to dig through the family library and go through the old journals and books of Serafin Lanot. There we discovered old certificates, rare books on astrology and even antique astrological equipment.

The facts we unearthed, together with information gathered from books, Internet sources and interviews, helped build the report that I wrote for AFP in 2012. One year later, these materials also served to form my presentation on Serafin Lanot on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Finally, I am using the wealth of information culled from our collective research effort to write this entry for the website of AFP.

For serious students of astrology in the Philippines, it is important to know who came before us and understand how they made sense of astrology in the light of our own social context. Serafin Lanot, in particular, made a mark because he placed the Philippines on the global astrological map. Every Filipino astrology student should read him, study his philosophies and think about his ideas.

As a schoolboy, he read up on astrology

Lanot's desk name plate when he
was director of the Bureau of Printing

Born on August 21, 1913, Serafin Lanot was already writing verse and reading up on astrology as a schoolboy in Boac, Marinduque. His mother was a psychic, his father was a politician and the former mayor of Boac. During his childhood and adolescence, he worked as a bootblack, pan de sal peddler, boatman, copra carrier, sacristan, and road foreman.

Serafin Lanot's natal chart shows that both his Sun and Mercury are in the 9th House of philosophy, or the search for meaning. People with this planetary position usually end up as journalists, philosophers, astrologers, among other similar occupations.

He became a freelance writer, book author, and a regular columnist on astrology for the Manila Bulletin. He also became the editor of This Week, the Sunday Magazine of Manila Chronicle. He was the poetry editor for the Sunday Tribune Magazine when he was only 19. Later on, he put up a printing press, Tamaraw Press, which printed the works of poets and writers without charge. During the time of President Diosdado Macapagal, Serafin Lanot became the director of the Bureau of Printing.

He authored 2 poetry books: Songs of the Brown Man and Primer of Life, and a collection of essays and other writings called The Family that Gets Pushed Around. On March 29, 1980 Lanot received recognition from Malacanang as an outstanding member of that generation known as the Writers of the Thirties.

Poetry and astrology go hand in hand

He said that astrologers help people in their daily lives by revealing to them their weaknesses and strengths. He said, "If you want to be good at astrology, you have to be a poet. In drawing a composite picture of the subject under study, you have to use a controlled imagination, to be able to read what the placements of the planets reveal about the character of the subject. Your mind, your emotions, your sensitivity come into play as you peer into the life that's shaping up in the horoscope. You have to be a sort of artist, a compassionate one, a father confessor, since you must unobtrusively advise the subject on how to realize his self-fulfillment."

According to Lanot, the position of the modern astrologer is that the idea of a free will is itself something that cannot be scientifically proven, and that a lot of forces we are not always conscious of can inhibit or impel or shape or otherwise determine the choices or decisions that we make. We do not think as freely as we think we do, he said. "What your horoscope reveals are your tendencies-tendencies which can be either controlled or accentuated, whose effects can be either minimized or maximized. If you know what you are, you can make-or not make-the revelation come true. This will require spiritual guidance, emotional control, intellectual discipline. Not everybody is gifted enough to exercise and take full advantage of the heavenly tendencies he is born to."

Read Part 2