Tag Archives: Evangeline Adams

Astro Twins

Astro-twins are two people who share the same birthday – day and year – not necessarily the same time of birth.  All the planets in the two horoscopes will be conjunct.  If we look back to our youthful days we’re more likely to find people we know with the same birth date.

I went out with my sister’s astro-twin for a while.  I guess he felt very comfortable to me – although not the other way around as he soon broke it off.  One of my best friends had a crush on my astro-twin.  He seemed like a nice guy, but neither of us ever got to know him very well.  I can only imagine that what she liked in me she saw in him, too.

I had the same singing teacher as another of my astro-twins.  She was a dancer and earned money horseback riding and I had also done both.  I later learned that she left town owing the teacher a bit of money, but I always paid on time.  Go figure.

A young Al H. Morrison married his astro-twin – they were born about 12 hours apart.  (This was before he became interested in astrology, and if anything, he was then a skeptic.)  He later complained that after a year it was “like masturbating.”  From which I take it that he needed stimulation from someone less like himself.  This may have been especially true since he had a Libra Moon.  It’s hard to balance one scale with another one.  The relationship didn’t last. 

Evangeline Adams’ astro-twin (2/8/1868) was Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, a British zoologist.  Evangeline, too, always loved animals, but was never able to attain the noble title to which her Leo Moon naturally aspired.

I’ve generally liked other Capricorn people, while I’ve noticed that when Aries are together they tend to fight.  It seems to me that Scorpios and Leos marry each other the most often of the signs.  The Leos have a mutual admiration society and the Scorpios must enjoy the emotional resonance.

Evangeline Adams’ Birth Date

After researching Evangeline Adams’ life for many years, I was convinced of her birth data: February 8, 1868 at 8:30 AM in Jersey City, New Jersey  No alternate information had ever been presented during her lifetime or in the decades following.  In addition, an Adams family genealogy book published in 1898 confirmed her birth date.  In 1900 Census records, Evangeline tells us she was born in February of 1868.  These were some of the earliest records I found in the late 1990s and they were consistent.  At the time I was never able to find Evangeline’s original birth record.

Later records, unfortunately, present different information.  Adams and her husband fudged their ages on their marriage records, as their 20+ age difference was unusual.  The 1910 and 1920 Census records gave differing ages, but may have been completed by assistants and not Adams herself.  Lois Rodden published all of this information in her Astrodatabank newsletter.  However she tended to simply present the facts and drew no conclusions.

 Data collector Ed Steinbrecher discovered a 1933 issue of Alan Leo’s Modern Astrology magazine in which Catherine Thompson, one of Adams’ teachers, suggested she was ten years older than she claimed, but gave no details.  However Thompson and Adams seemed to have something of a combative relationship, and this always struck me as a snarky “dig.”  Hymenaeus Beta, who published some of Adams’ works as The General Principles of Astrology under Aleister Crowley’s name, was also an advocate for an alternate birth year.  Although he did fantastic research for that book, I still could not agree with him. 

Evangeline Adams, 1870Researching U.S. Census records in the 1990s was a time-consuming process.  I found the 20th century records for Adams at the National Archives on Varick Street in Manhattan, but did not locate earlier ones at that time.  Now that so much genealogy information is available on the Internet, it becomes easier.  The 1870 Census shows Evangeline at age 2 in Andover, Massachusetts, just where she said she was (line 39).

In 1880 Census records, Evangeline is 12 (line 9).  In both decades, her three brothers also appear along with their correct ages.  So I felt that these lent greater authenticity to Evangeline’s birth year of 1868. Evangeline Adams in 1880

After working in genealogy for a number of years, I later realized that birth records in the U.S. and other countries may be located in different places.  I had only requested birth records from the Jersey City, New Jersey archives.  When I turned to the State of New Jersey, I finally found Evangeline’s birth record!

The baby wasn’t named yet when the birth was recorded.  But her father’s name, George Adams, is clear.  George Adams was a common name though.  The birth record also provides a street address where the family lived.  Evangeline tells us in her autobiography that her father died before she was two years old.  And sure enough, that address is repeated for George Adams in his obituary from that date.  E Adams birth record

As is often the case with research, if we continue looking, we can find more.

Uranus square Pluto and New York City

The dynamic duo of Uranus square Pluto leaps forward, zapping the New York City horoscope and initiating a new episode in the City’s history throughout 2013 to early 2014.  It suggests a time of great transition that opens a new phase of experience, associated with sudden and unusual events and large scale changes in circumstances.  It favors reclaiming what works, as well as experimenting with new ideas.

Evangeline Adams described Uranus as bringing about epoch-making conditions, temporary uncertainty, and feelings of an unsettled or hectic time.  She added that, “Fate may seem to shuffle your cards,” and that we should “guard against fantastic schemes and unscrupulous promoters.”

Pluto unflinchingly breaks down the old and worn-out while recycling the best.  While this transit can empower the City and transform its identity, there could also be power struggles and conflicts with authority.  The bureaucracy may struggle for control before it’s restructured and overthrown by something more efficient. 

Hurricane Sandy seems to have been one of the events that kicked off the transit just a few months before the exact “hits,” demanding Pluto’s restoration and Uranus’ innovation.  Some 2013 events that reflect Uranus square Pluto include:

 Expansion of recycling to include most plastics;

Completion of the Freedom Tower;

Micro apartments certified and moving forward;

Thousands of new wheelchair-accessible cabs and green cabs in outer boroughs.

Citibikes program started with approximately 5,000 bikes;

#7 subway extension and Second Avenue line under construction toward 2014 and 2016 openings;

Repair and rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge from 2011 to 2014;

Movement of business away from banks and toward technology.

The Sun relates to leadership and after 12 years with Michael Bloomberg, the City will have a new mayor in January of 2014.  (The City has not had a Democrat as mayor in 20 years.)  I believe that these shifts will be part of some major developments.

New York City is facing a $2 billion+ budget gap.  It has tremendously growing pension and healthcare obligations for its workers.  And contracts with 300,000 in municipal unions have expired in the last 3-4 years and remain to be negotiated.  Pluto will be pushing the new administration to make tough choices. We hope that Uranus will also offer some unique and innovative solutions. 

 For astrologers, Greater New York was created on 1/1/1898 at 12:01 AM.  New York’s Jupiter, Ascendant, Sun and Midheaven form a T-square in the cardinal signs Libra, Capricorn and Cancer, balancing the arts, business and home life.  Transiting Pluto hits this pattern throughout 2013.  Transiting Uranus galvanizes it from early 2013 through early 2014. 

Traditional vs. Modern

Many astrologers today blend psychological with traditional astrology, making little distinction between the two philosophies. Many of the differences are historical.

When I first studied with Zoltan Mason (who was born in 1906) in the 1980s, he’d say things like, “Wherever you put Saturn you get some kind of difficulty.” Then I’d read something like Liz Greene’s 1976 book on Saturn and she says, “Saturn fosters the exhilaration of psychological freedom.” A bit confusing! But the difference shows the change in astrology over the 20th century. Mason studied works written in Latin by astrologers like Jean Baptiste Morin (17th century), and Greene had a contemporary point of view.

Over the centuries, astrology often adapted itself to prevailing trends. Alan Leo practiced a more predictive type of astrology until his conviction for fortune-telling in 1917, when he decided for legal reasons to delete all predictive references from his work (he died trying). Evangeline Adams’ work from the same time shows a very predictive bent. But her books from the late 20s and early 30s have a more psychological tone as she tried to reach a wider audience. As time went on, more astrology books described personal development and character, paralleling the rise of psychology.

Bob Zoller has always said that the concept of “evolution” is a very modern idea. Scientists today typically use linear thinking: we at the contemporary end of the line of time are always “better” than those before us, “more advanced” and knowledgeable. And astrology is a remnant of the past.

If we think of how tough it is to understand a Shakespeare play written about 400 years ago, how much more difficult is it to understand Plato, writing almost 2,500 years ago? It’s a stretch, and that’s in translation, too, putting it another step away from us. The first Greek horoscope is from around the time of Plato, but the idea of astrology is at least 2,000 years older and maybe even more.

Modern astrology is an adaptation to a contemporary perspective. Traditional astrology comes from a completely different paradigm, which is not understood very easily today. Whatever appeals to you, use it!