April Elliott Kent: UAC 2012 (Part Two): The Conference

I'm a little late getting these up. I put them up on our Facebook Group but completely forgot to post them on the blog. Fortunately, Lisa sent me a reminder, so here's a partial look. Don't forget to click on the link to read the entire post.

This is Part Two of April Elliott Kent's (of Big Sky Astrology) blog post on her time at UAC in New Orleans this year:

 

THE CONFERENCE

UAC presented a classic conference-goer’s dilemma: one ass, many potential seats. I tried live-tweeting the sessions I attended, but the hotel wi-fi was spotty at best (and I have thus far managed to resist the siren call of the smart phone). I went to a few sessions, but not as many as I have at past conferences. I find I don’t have a lot of patience anymore for sitting still and listening to much of anything for an hour and ten minutes; or perhaps it was all those transiting planets in Gemini. In any event, here were a few of the sessions I sat in on (most of them before my own talk blew me out of the water, energy-wise), along with some of my fairly shallow notes, tweets, and observations. (The lectures should be available for purchase at the conference website by the end of June.)

• Richard Tarnas (What is the Relationship of Myths to Planetary Archetypes?), who spoke about the nexxus where the names assigned to the planets do and don’t intersect with mythology. At the time I didn’t think I was keeping up. Weeks later, though, this is the talk that keeps popping into my mind and supplying little nuggets to chew on.

My tweets from the session, which reveal my vacuousness:

• Richard Tarnas – myths, planetary archetypes, and at one point *jazz hands*.
• Tarnas: Astrology of modern planets don’t nec reflect myth so much as the era in which discovered. You, Uranus, are no rebel.
• Greco-Roman gods = patriarchal thugs. Heh. Good one, Richard Tarnas.

To continue reading the post go  HERE

April Elliott Kent: UAC 2012 (Part One): Hola From Nola

What makes New Orleans awesome.

I'm a little late getting these up. I put them up on our Facebook Group but completely forgot to post them on the blog. Fortunately, Lisa sent me a reminder, so here's a partial look. Don't forget to click on the link to read the entire post.

This is Part One of April Elliott Kent's (of Big Sky Astrology) blog post on her time at UAC in New Orleans this year:

I began this post three weeks ago in New Orleans. Hence the title, which I like too much to change it even though I’ve been home for two weeks and am actually bidding you “Hola” from San Diego at this point. Part two, with deets about the conference itself, is here.

The City

We arrived in New Orleans after two hours sleep and a long, tedious day of flying, and I’ll admit, I was underwhelmed. The muggy heat and the din of street noise were a bit … something. And not a pleasant something. My impression of the city began to improve over dinner with Kelly Surtees, her charming fiancé Peter, and their delightful friend Kira Sutherland. We found a barbecue place on a small sidestreet, where we gorged on fish and red beans and rice and numerous cocktails while flames occasionally erupted from the kitchen a few feet away. Good times.
The next morning Jonny and I rolled out of bed early and wandered the six blocks to breakfast at Cafe Du Monde – because apparently when you’re in New Orleans, it’s the law. We daintily sidestepped rivers of goo from freshly hosed sidewalks and wrinkled our noses at the city’s distinctive bouquet, the tang of a place that never really dries out. “The Virgos in Hell!” we dubbed ourselves. But the funk was worth it, because the place is not to be missed. Outdoor tables crowded together under ceiling fans, covered in a dusting of powdered sugar and dripping with sweaty touristas like us. Beignets were everything I’d hoped they would be, and my frozen cafe au lait was a delight. I was charmed.

Read the rest  HERE