Ken McRitchie - Accomplishments

Philosophy

From the beginning of my interest in astrology, I have asked myself the questions, "How do astrologers know what they think they know? Where does the vast literature of astrology with all of its taxonomic details come from?" To me, these are irresistible questions that any curious person would want to know. Pursuing these questions has led me to unpack what I have described as the black box of astrological technology and to examine the tools, templates, and analytical methods of the trade. To understand a complex discipline like astrology, one needs to simplify and unify, and I have been involved in the reduction of astrological concepts to testable theories and hypotheses that can potentially be linked to existing concepts in science and applied psychology.

My central thesis is what I call environmental cosmology. In this view of astrology, each individual exists within specific environments that are defined by reference frames that are based on natural symmetries. These frames of reference are the familiar signs, houses, and aspects. It is the organization of these symmetries, rather than the more limited concept of organizing reality by causal mechanisms, which is responsible for astrological effects. A special type of symmetry, based on the Hermetic maxim, is used in all astrology but is unrecognized in other fields. Yet this symmetry, which I call cosmological symmetry, suggests a natural connectedness between microcosmic and macrocosmic features in such phenomena as holography, superpositioned and entangled quantum states, and real world applications of fractal geometries.

The foundations of astrology, I suggest, rest on the organizing principles of: nativity, correlativity, coevolution, correlation, and correlevance, which define astrological concepts of origin, space, time, number, and pattern respectively. If astrology is a discipline, then it is necessary for astrologers to agree in principle on organizational rules that separate astrological concepts from non-astrological concepts. Concepts that are outside of agreed upon principles, which might for example be the various attempts to measure the Great Year by the positions of the constellations, would then be identified as being outside the normal organization of astrology.

Astrological concepts have changed over the centuries and I am an advocate of realigning some of the archaic language of astrology with the actual usage by modern astrologers. For example, celestial influences, rulerships, correspondences, and delineation can be replaced by the more fitting and modern concepts of symmetries, properties, correlations, and interpretations. This terminology update would avoid the obscure and negative connotations of the archaic terms, which have caused much misunderstanding of astrology in the modern world. There are only a few problematic terms and most of the terms used in astrology to describe the workings of personality are in my opinion much better than such ambiguous and ill-defined notions used in early psychology as ego, persona, anima, animus, libido, and unconsciousness.

Applied concepts: environmental astrology

Besides my efforts at simplifying and unifying the more philosophical concepts of astrology, I have attempted to reduce the key concepts of applied astrology to simplified models and hypotheses. These include:

• A new model of the astrological frames of reference interpreted as a universal and innate grammar of identity.
• A refinement of the hypothetical model of signs as values, houses as skills, and aspects as beliefs.
• The hypothetical identification of signs, houses, and aspects with accepted psychological models and testable metrics, such as those developed by Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman.
• A new model of instrumental planetary properties, by which the individual uses the planets as a toolkit to adapt to the changing circumstance of life.
• A new model of projective adaptation. This is a psychological mechanism of planetary projections by which the individual identifies values in the signs, tests beliefs in the aspects, and develops skills in the houses. This sequence is timed by the prograde and retrograde planetary motions.
• A hypothetical model of love styles adapted from psychological research on erotic, manic, ludic, pragmatic, storgic and agapic types of love expression.
• An extended model of personality complexes based on notable harmonic planetary configurations.
• An examination of the model of universal age development with predictable stages and identity crises.
• A new model of bonding and relationships based on hypothetical planetary transferences and identity exchanges.
• A model of dilemma resolution as a method of astrological counseling.

Community initiatives

Through my writings and activities, I have advocated heightened community awareness that more stringent scientific methods have consistently produced better results for astrology and worse results for astrology skeptics. I have advocated the awareness of the following issues:

• The need for the rating and ranking of data in all statistical evaluations of astrology or reasons given for why they are not used. Such methods are used in most statistical evaluations, yet were not used on the Gauquelin data until Ertel applied it with great success. This one method will separate a large amount of the good research from the bad.
• The need for anonymous peer review of published articles that contain astrological claims. A simple banner declaring peer review qualifies astrological articles as serious scholarship, for example by Google Scholar. I have distributed a procedure for anonymous peer review, which was itself developed through peer reviews.
• The need for accurate accounts of astrology in discussions and online media. I have engaged in discussions with critics of astrology in letters, skeptic blogs, and extensively in Wikipedia.

Aphorisms

• The planets are instruments of personality that the individual learns to use with the satisfaction of skill.
• The center of the universe is the individual's point of consciousness.
• The individual is native to intelligence as much as that intelligence is native to the individual.
• Within an environment, behaviors at individual boundaries implement cosmic symmetry, the reflection of macrocosms in microcosms and vice versa.
• Influence is where the boundaries of individuals intersect. It is at the fringes of suggestion and intention.
• Use your life!