Strategy: The Varaha Mihira Chair in Jyotisa @ U Chicago Div

1
I?ve been around the block many times as my cosmic consciousness has developed. My Great Work, as with many of us, is to get astrology its place in the Lyceum (note: it?s Aristotle?s Lyceum ? dedicated to Apollo of the Wolves ? rather than Plato?s Academy, which was dedicated to Athena, deity of the Urbis and Wisdom, for your next contrast and compare essay). I believe I have a workable strategy on the drawing board. [okay, put stairway to heaven on]

The teleos, pragmatically speaking, is: The Varaha Mihira Chair in Jyotisa at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. The gatekeeper is Wendy Doniger. I?m workin? on it.

I took her class in Hinduism, An Alternative Path last quarter; quite a professional triumph insofar as I acquainted the esteemed professor with her nakshatra & wrote a killer paper on ?The Nakshatras, Quintessence of Hindu Identity? which she liked a lot; it is my intention to write her profile of her for publication in the Alumni magazine and (dream big) The New Yorker based on jyotic principles While the Wikipedia article on her was written in an unfriendly camp, the birth date therein is correct ? I?m pretty sure her M/C is Sagittarius ? a woman of dazzling accomplishment, her class sure adds a lot of bling to my degree. I?ve written her of my ambition, and she?s not discouraging ? the logistics of it being that Doniger has the requisite prestige to raise a whole bunch of bucks among the American Hindu community in support of this Chair,. The U C loves to get whole piles of money at a time I?ve asked Ronnie Gale Dreyer to mentor me in Jyotisa for the profile RGD is, of course, key among the America ?Vedics? (if you are dealing with grahas &c, you are not ?Vedic? but rather Jyotisaka to be technical about it, which is one of the many reasons why Varaha Mihira is SO important an astrologer: Pingree notes that the Persian/Magiian contributions to astrology were negligible, basically the Ju/Sa cycle, which is why, I surmise, the 3 Magi were in Bethlehem ?6 Succouth: apparently there is ?no connection? between the biblical Pharisees and Farsi, but there should be)

This was the last of the coursework required in UC?s MLA program, I?m working on my thesis proposal the working title of which is ?History: from Cyrus the Great to George W. Bush: a study supporting Spengler?s Cyclic View? I?m doing the Pl/Ne (Phoenix ? the phoenix is the totem of the UC, est. 1892) and Ju/Sa ? Tecumseh?s Curse ? this is scheduled for Spring Quarter 2010 with the Ju/Sa opposition. My personal agenda is, post graduation, to land a gig conducting a course or three (non credit) at UC downtown in astroHistory. I?m also polishing my act for my Kepler University on line course that?s been accepted ?Julius Caesar and the Julio-Claudians? which is an astrological exegesis on Suetonious who is definitely my patron saint.5/2/2009 3:48 AM

[note: i'm publishing this private press release at a couple/few fori -- plural of forum]

Sonja