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[Stæld]

Seems O wants us to calculate a date from the postcards indeed. To me it looks like he's also saying that Venus- and Jupiter-signed postcards are sent and received but not posted on the wiki, although they are not necessarily needed for the date to be found.

I received the same PM from O that Am got. I think O really wants us to find that date. Sadly I'm again off to my grandparents' to paint their house some more. Presumably with no web access at all this time.

I guess what's needed is to gather all the times and astrological signs in the postcards, systematise them and somehow extract a time and date from the information. I've not looked into it well enough to know how exactly it should be done though.

[Sirannon]

I got the same PM as well. I also had this exchange from O:

FadedSidhe: Happy (belated) Lughnasada! time to reap what we've sown.


O: @FadedSidhe Interesting choice of words-the sounds are increasing though.The sun is still missing - has the date been worked out by any?

At work, so I can't check up on things as much as I'd like... could the sun mean Leo is still missing?

[Dagada]

I think we can work out the date he's looking for by applying all the cardinal points / planets to a horoscope and by that extract the birth date / time of who they'd apply to.

There should be some online software that lets us do this, but I couldn't find anything yesterday. Due to the nature of star positioning, I suspect that even if we don't have every point we should still be able to narrow the date down. And then we might be able to either locate the place and or person so needed

[Cortez]

Greetings all.

I've been lurking for a while, and re-reading the posts showing the postcards has given me an idea.

Each postcard has an astrological symbol followed by some numbers and occasionally the letter 'r'.

In astrology, time is measured in what is known as 'Sidereal Time' and IIRC employs the format used on the postcards. The 'r' is used to indicate retrogade motion, i.e. when the planet in question appears from earth to be moving backwards relative to its perceived normal path.

I think, as previously hinted at, that putting all the info together will give us a list of planets at their precise position at a single point in time.

We need to work out which planet is relevant to each position given one each of the postcards (we know the 'House' and the location in the house and whether the planet is retrograde or not).

May be wrong, but these are my thoughts so far. Will check all of the postcard images again to see what I can make of it.

This is really exciting - astrology and literature in the same ARG. Loving it.

Cortez

ETA: I'm increasingly certain this is important. Looks like we have to compile an astrological chart. Where's my ephemeris???

[Dagada]

Vlad's just posted about horoscopes on Facebook, commenting he got his from Astro.com. A quick look indicates they have tools there for drawing charts. Anyone with a bit of knowledge fancy a go? I'd try but I'm off to work in a second.

[Cortez]

I've done several people's birth charts in the past, so I'd love to have a go. I'm trying to compile all the planets/houses from the postcards. Does anyone have a postcard with the sun on it? It is a circle with a dot in the centre.

The circle with the cross on the Euphemus postcard is definitely Earth.

Am I right in thinking that this is all the astrological stuff we have to date:

Leo 19:55:18r Neptune (Erginus)
Cancer 11:17:11r Venus (Atalanta)
Aquarius 11:22:32 (Medea=Sun)
Saggitarius 14:57:07 (Idmon)
Scorpio 01:07:23 Saturn (Palamonius)
Scorpio 21:10:27 Mars (Calais)
Pisces 14:21:19 (Castor)

Euphemus = Earth

Cortez

[theclaw]

I think O said there were 13 cards? So who are we missing?
EDIT a chat with Vlad:
Vladimir

[Cortez]

I think I've got a date:

4th Jan 1924 - Midday (GMT)

I noticed a couple of anomalies as follows:

From the postcards, we had:

Leo 19:55:18r Neptune (Erginus)
Cancer 11:17:11r Venus (Atalanta)
Aquarius 11:22:32 (Medea)
Saggitarius 14:57:07 (Idmon)
Scorpio 01:07:23 Saturn (Palamonius)
Scorpio 21:10:27 Mars (Calais)
Pisces 14:21:19 (Castor)

The planets were suggested by Claw a while back.


At Midday on 4th Jan 1924 (GMT) we have:

Sun 12.52 Cap
Moon 14.57 Sag
Merc 28.56r Cap
Venus 11.22 Aqu
Mars 20.10 Scorpio(Not 21:10 as prev shown)
Jupiter 8.49 Sag
Saturn 1.07 Virgo (Not Scorpio as prev shown)
Uranus 14.21 Pisces
Neptune 19.55r Leo
Pluto 11.17r Cancer

These tally too closely to be a coincidence, so my guess is that 4th Jan 1924 at midday(GMT) is what it's telling us.

Anyone care to verify?

Cortez

[amandel]

@Cortez: Am too astology challenged to verify. No ... So just saying welcome aboard and thanks for the sweet work.

[Cortez]

Thanks for the welcome Amandel...glad to be here and I just hope I get a few things right.

I have yet to work out how to find the place from the star chart. I've done it the 'right' way round when doing people's birth charts, but never in reverse. Needs some thought.

One other observation from the tweets of O:

He said in code "87 is so special". If 1924 is indeed the date, then 87 would bring us to 4th Jan 2011. Maybe just coincidence but worth putting it out there perhaps.

Cortez

[amandel]

Kewl Cortaz. Was just editing my above post to tell you and anyone who hasn't yet that you can FB friend Vladimir Sirin. Vlad has just posted his horoscope there. OT-wish I'd read mine before my root canal yesterday-OT OUT

[Dagada]

I don't know if this confirms or confounds - my card, which is u on my facebook page, has Capricorn 8:07

[Cortez]

Someone earlier mentioned WB YEats. He wrote 'The Second Coming' - some lines of which are:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

This refers to the end of the world (as we know it).


The lines of poetry on the Admatus card are from Shakespeare. It's sonnet 87.

Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate;
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing:
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting,
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thy self thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgement making.
   Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter,
   In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

This sequence of sonnets are expressing Shakespeare's love for an unknown young man (!).

Finally, the 'poetry' on the Medea card is actually from David Bowie's '87 and Cry'.

O sure does like the number 87.

Apologies for long post. I'll shut up now.

C

[Dagada]

Further to my above post, I forgot to mention the other stuff on my postcard - the capital letters used in strange places. The word "diamond" has a capitalised M and O - except it's not an O, but a disguised C.

"Like a diaMOnd in the sky..." - twinkle twinkle little star. Is this a reference to the Sun?

MC in Latin - 1100

Alternatively, with the initial L added in, LMC - 1150, although I think this might be a red herring

Do these additional numbers help those with the astrological skills?

[Cortez]

Last night I went all the way back to 40BC to find all occurences of Neptune being in the established position in retrograde motion. My head really hurt afterwards.

None of the other occurences even remotely match our other numbers from the cards. I'm still convinced that Jan 4th 1924 is the date, but I admit I'm stumped by your card Dagada. The sun is indeed in Capricorn on this date, but at 12 degrees. It would have been at 8 degrees four days earlier, on 31st December 1923, but the other planets would not be such an accurate match.

I've asked O on Twitter if this date is significant to him.