Adam Gainsburg

The Heart of Mars: Introducing the Mars Phases

This talk is my contribution to elevating the astrological conversation about Mars. This correction is long overdue and I find I have a particular passion for adding my voice to the effort. His thirteen distinct phases, akin to the Moon's phases, completely characterize him at a broader, collective contribution level. This instantly amends the bad boy, lower image we hold of him and shows directly how to identify and delineate his higher, more conscious and more dharmic meanings. Why this system of Mars Phases works so well and so consistently is easy to intuitively grasp. It’s entirely based on Mars' relationship to the Earth in 3D space: his speed, brightness, appearance in our skies. I call them the Mars Sky Factors which are distinct from his Chart Factors of sign, house, aspects, etc. Delineating Mars through his Sky Factors in relationship to the Sun then produces this extraordinarily lucid system of Mars Phases with the Sun that can be worked with natally, by progression, and by any system of transits. 

The Root of We: Full & Whole Relationships

This talk is designed to improve and deepen how astrologers work with relationships and relationship charts. It's a more comprehensive system than the Composite or Davison techniques for combining charts. It does not compete with those methods, but broadens our understanding of the individuals from whom those combined charts are created. I'm a sucker for awesome relationships. When I see one, even in books or movies, a relationship that's really working, that's based on the shared choice by both or all partners to grow with the other(s), to share life together in all ways, it speaks to me in a very personal way. I'm quite fortunate to be in a marriage very much like this; I know personally the value in growing as a mature "We." This talk will present my method for delineating any native's map for just such relationships. 

The Inspiration Behind with Bob Mulligan

When asked to give two talks at UAC, I immediately thought of presenting material from my upcoming book, An Astrology Guide for Spiritual Aspirants. After 14 years of indexing my own use of astrology for spiritual advancement, in a Uranian flash, I saw the The Five Gifts of Astrology (my first talk) in my mind's eye as the first chapter of my book. This insight provided a profound and consistent structure to organize my many years of work. As a system, astrology guides us to a deeper understanding of ourselves, and of life. These five gifts are symmetrical attributes, leading us step by step from developing tolerance through the mysteries of time and timing, supplying an all-encompassing one universal structure, guiding us to self-understanding, and resulting finally in a spiritual path. These gifts are the foundation of what astrology provides for our lives.

My second talk The Hierarchy of Planets is based on another chapter in my book and its purpose to show how planets indicate the different layers of karma from the universal, social, and personal levels of awareness. Quoting CEO Carter, "Could the nativities of the victims at Hiroshima all have indicated the death and ruin that overtook them on the fateful day of August, 1945?" Our personal thoughts, feelings, and actions have some symbiotic relationship to universal events. Astrology provides a mechanism for understanding this profound intertwining of individual and collective karma. Correctly approached, we can use the demarcations of the moment to raise our consciousness and manifest our true selves.

The Inspiration Behind with Christopher Renstrom

Trash Astrology

Does Uranus Make Me Gay?

I’ve always been fascinated by the history of astrology. Not so much history as recorded by who practiced what when and the techniques that they used, but history in how astrology influenced - and was in turn influenced by – the culture and milieu it operated in. My two lectures deal with very different premises that address astrology in popular culture. In the first lecture, I will show how it was the mass market that kept astrology alive here in the United States. Rather than cheapening astrology, it was the dime store books of fortune, dream interpretation guides, and sun sign horoscopes published in newspapers that disseminated and popularized astrology. Without these publications, astrology would have become extinct after it fell out of favor with the royal courts, churches, and academic curriculums of Europe. The second lecture shows how the planet Uranus became connected to reading homosexuality in a birth chart. In this instance, it is a trend in popular culture (the coining of the name “Uranian” by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to describe both male and female homosexuals in 1867) that influences astrology. I will describe the evolution of Uranus from Plato to Boehm, Carpenter, Heimsoth and finally Jung. Here I will suggest that we revisit the archetype of the Divine Androgyne. The history of Uranus in astrology should show that it is not an archetype based on a heteronormative view of complimentary opposites but rather a transgender archetype which is unapologetically queer.

 The Inspiration Behind with Demetra George

The Good and Evil Daimon: A Traditional View of the Eleventh and Twelfth Houses

Hellenistic Aspects and Trauma

The inspiration behind both UAC lectures arise from my 20-year love affair with Hellenistic astrology. The romance of discovering lost long astrological texts that were the origins of the Western tradition and that no one had read or hardly even known about was fascinating, intoxicating, and nourished some deep part of my soul memory.

In the beginning when I tried to convince Project Hindsight translators of the importance of the asteroids, Robert Schmidt challenged me to find a place for the asteroids in the cosmology of the ancients. The multitude of semi-divine helpful and harmful ephemeral spirits called daimons who inhabited the heavens were a natural fit for the asteroids. I presented these ideas at UAC 2002.

Greek philosophy abounds with various descriptions and discussions about the daimons and the Hellenistic astrologers liberally appended these images to the names of the 11^th and 12^th houses, the Lot of the Sun, and the Ruler of the Nativity. In the ensuing years, the daimons continue to captivate my interest which I share in this UAC 2018 lecture in relation to the meanings of the houses.

As counseling astrologers, we receive many clients who are dealing with difficulties. Some problems are not so bad and will resolve on their own or with a helpful suggestion. However, others are indeed severe and an astrological reading is not going to fix them. How does an astrologer distinguish between the benign and malignant chart influences so as to guide the client to medical or more intensive psychological help when so indicated? A special subset of the Hellenistic aspect doctrine called the conditions of maltreatment can assist the astrologer in recognizing the planetary significators of trauma in the birth chart that manifest as severe injuries to the body or psyche. This skill is an invaluable asset in the practice of astrology as a helping profession.