David - Thank you for mentioning his chart. His life made beautiful use of his Plutonic gift. His wife is a long time star to me. She made it possible to choose birth that was much safer in America, though maternal mortality is on the rise again due to the established OB/GYNs fighting to take back their turf. While medicalized C-section rates in the US are around 30%, Ina May Gaskin’s c-rates are 1%. Really women were safer giving birth in her rural fields at The Farm than in hospital?!
It seems maybe Steve and Ina May’s relationship was just what they both needed (his NN in 4th). I wondered “why did they choose Tennessee?” but maybe the relevant part was “not San Francisco, not anymore.”
For example:
“Peace and love no longer held dominion in San Francisco, Gaskin decided. “The information we got in San Francisco was that folks were buying into violence in a wholesale lot,” he said in explaining his flock’s mass departure. His apocalyptic vision extended to American cities in general. They were falling into brutishness and depravity. And the only solution, according to Gaskin, was to withdraw from their destructive vortex and lead a simple, communal life in the country.
David Talbot, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love
What were the White Witchcraft seminars like?
Stephen would lecture in a very entertaining way, with a flow of thought which wandered from one topic to another. Then, he had people hold hands, and in one event give shoulder rubs to each other. Nothing about magical rituals as I recall, out of keeping with the "witchcraft" label. There was a nice one at Mt. Tamilpais which wasn't touchy-feely. He admired cats more than dogs, and talked about the way cats align with energy fields,
The last one I went to was in a large building on the Great Highway in San Francisco. Over a thousand people there, most of us high on psychedelics of various kinds. He talked about changing the mindset of San Francisco using our psychedelically-enhanced mindwaves (very
), how money was a form of energy, his four-way marriage (basically two male/female couples, didn't see the others, but the other guy was said to be another Aqua Sun), and a lot of other stuff I don't recall. Amazing mental atmosphere in the building. There were dogs and cats, and lots of babies.
There was a baby crying loudly, and he led a meditation which calmed the child. A lot of "togetherness". No music I can remember at any of his gatherings. "Seminar" is probably the wrong description, due to the lack of a pre-planned format. "Gatherings" is more what they were from what I saw of them. I suggested to him that he should include music, but he wasn't open to it, at least at the time.
This was Summer of 1969, prior to the celebration of the "Dark-side" which occurred at Altamont in Dec. that gave me a really good look at the spirits of wickedness which are arrayed against us. A sort of loss of naivete, hosted by Mick Jagger and the Hells Angels.
