Mountbatten, Lady Edwina

Name Mountbatten, Lady Edwina Gender: F born on 28 November 1901 at 07:00 (= 07:00 AM )

Place Romsey, England, 50n59, 1w30 Timezone GMT h0w (is standard time)

Data source Rectified from approx. time Rodden Rating C

Astrology data 05°22' 06°46 Asc. 26°33'

Biography

British noblewoman known as a great lady. She married Lord Louis Mountbatten on 6/18/1922. When he served in India, she held court as the last Vicereine of India in 1947.

Lady Mountbatten died in 1960. Events

• Relationship : Marriage 18 June 1922 (Lord Mountbattan) Vassi, Marco

Name Vassi, Marco Gender: M

Birthname Vassi, Marco Ferdinand William Vasquez-d'Acugno born on 6 November 1937 at 04:15 (= 04:15 AM )

Place New York NY, USA, 40n42, 74w00 Timezone EST h5w (is standard time)

Data source From memory Rodden Rating A

Astrology data 13°33' 18°26 Asc. 15°47'

Biography

American writer and revolutionary sex explorer of the 1960s to ‘80s, famed for his high-quality pornographic novels. A highly promiscuous bisexual (he estimated that in his lifetime he had sex with 1,000 women and 2,000 men), Vassi contracted AIDS and he died on 1/14/1989.

David Steinberg writes on his site:

"He was the author of 13 novels, hundreds of articles and short stories, poems, plays, and assorted riff raff. His books were published for the most part by trash porn houses -- presses like Banner Books, Manor Books, Carlyle Communications, Pleasure Books. Olympia Press, who first published Henry Miller in this country, got Marco into writing and published some of his work, but he never really made it in mainstream publishing, at least with his sex writing. His publishers would pay him a few thousand dollars to produce formulaic porn tracts, and from Marco's point of view, that's what he did. But there is something unique about his writing, about the way he spoke of sex and all the complications and contusions that come from entering the realm of the sexual as fully as possible. As fantastic and exaggerated as his stories and novels often are, there is something undeniably genuine, intriguing -- even profound -- that distinguishes Marco's writing from the other pulp novels of that time (the 70s and early 80s).

"What is most important to me about Marco is that he was one of those rare people who choose to make sex the organizing principle for their lives, no matter what the consequences might be. By his own accounting, Marco delved into the sexual world as deeply and broadly as anyone ever has. Sex with women. Sex with men. Sex with various numbers of partners, and in various combinations. Fierce sex. Tender sex. Intimate sex. Casual sex. Anonymous sex. Fetish play. Power play. Gender play. S&M. Loving sex. Cruel sex.

"Sex for Marco wasn't just about getting laid (except sometimes), not just a question of neurons and orgasms. For Marco sex was a lens on life itself, a magnifying glass through which the dynamics and foibles of being human become intensified, and so his pursuit of sexual knowledge and experience took on the color of a philosophical quest. He saw himself at once as the Avatar of Eros and an eager student of Zen enlightenment. "Sex is a key to doorways of knowing," Marco wrote. "For me it has been a yoga through which new qualities of self evolved. Like the alchemist who works with a potion for decades and in the process brings about a transmutation of his essence, I spent all my conscious life since the age of eight mixing elements in the crucible of sex, sifting enormous amounts of material to produce a few grams of pure substance. I had fucked or been fucked by over five hundred different women, and twice that many men, in circumstances ranging from brief graspings in alleys and whorehouses to lengthy relationships. I had gone through all the possible scenarios. And with the suddenness of total change, I became a different kind of person. At the far end of bisexuality I realized that all that had gone before was but the task of perfecting the instrument, the mindbody that is myself. My adventures had served a single purpose: to exhaust all the subjective aspects of the sexual act. The many modes, which had been challenges, areas of exploration, were now my tools -- homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, abstruse psychosexual states and practices, the so-called perversions, the many masks of libidinal displacement... these were now at my command, to be used the way a director uses a cast of characters to realize a vision."

"Not surprisingly, Marco's vision, the sense of life that emerged from his far-reaching sexual explorations, was anything but simple. Marco was a lover of irony and contradiction. In his life as in his writing, he created situations that gained power from their inherent contradictions, and he would emphasize the topsy-turvy nature of reality every chance he got. He knew, for example, that every lover, every circumstance, every moment, is uniquely magical. And he knew equally well at the same time that, in another sense, all partners are interchangeable and ultimately meaningless. "In the end," Marco liked to say, "we are all just fucking ourselves anyway."

"Why have any partners at all?" Marco asks in one short story about a woman who locks herself in a darkened room for weeks, to explore the inner recesses of her sexual nature. "Orgasm is the quintessentially private experience," she decides. "The notion that we must share it with others is the final corruption of what's left of civilization." "Almost every bit of Marco's writing has a twist, a jab, a way of saying that things are not what they seem, not what we like to pretend they are. He is, in this sense, a true Sadeian. He writes the perfect New York subway fantasy (carried, it seems, by every man who rode the subways as a teenager, pressed belly to belly up against untold numbers of perfumed strangers in the sardine can of rush hour) in which a man and a woman gradually become aware of each other, approach, touch, become increasingly sexual -- only to have the woman turn out to be an undercover cop who busts the man for molestation."

"In another story, a man who is attracted to other men, yet not wanting to be homosexual, undergoes a sex change operation only to discover that after his transformation he is now only attracted to women. In yet another, a woman goes through the ultimate psychosexual therapeutic catharsis, transcends her debilitating paranoia's, only to be run down by a bus as she crosses the street, totally free from fear. In The Other Hand Clapping, perhaps his finest (though least sexual) novel, there are so many twists and turns on the nature of reality, jealousy, theatre, and life, that by the end the reader is in a state of pure ecstatic vertigo."

"As a person, Marco was no less contradictory than his writing. He was at times able to give another person complete and absolutely focused love and attention, and at other times so self- absorbed and inaccessible as to be totally infuriating. He could at one moment be open to all the complexities of multi-partner relationships, free of possessiveness, ego, and the like, and then descend in a matter of hours into simpleminded jealous tantrums hardly worthy of a TV soap opera. He was able to look the most complex, difficult truths -- about sex, about relationship, about life -- directly in the eye, yet he was often unable to sustain even the most elementary forms of honesty and compassion with partners and friends. "

"He was thus, to me, the finest sort of hero: the wise man who is also a goat, the monkey who is also a monk. During the final months of his life, after he was diagnosed HIV-positive, Marco went into a deep depression that put him beyond the reach of even his closest friends. He wandered from east coast to west, tried to commit suicide twice, was continuously morose (despite his relatively good physical health), and totally self-absorbed. He did not, in other words, take to dying gracefully. He did not die like a hero with a capital H. He was, you could say, a bad sport about it. A (suddenly) very ordinary human being. Just another guy afraid, confused, and, largely by his own construction, surprisingly alone."

"I saw Marco for the last time in August of 1988, at Annie Sprinkle's apartment, where he was spending much of his time. I went to show him my new book, Erotic by Nature, which included a story of his, and to give him his contributor's copy. He looked through the book carefully - - the photographs and the stories -- taking time with each page. He saw it for what it was. He liked it. He appreciated its quietness, its depth, its complexity. Then he went off to his PWA support group. That winter, he spent a day walking around New York in the snow with practically no clothes on, caught pneumonia, and secluded himself in his room. When friends finally located him weeks later (letting the phone ring for a half hour until he finally answered), he was all but gone. A flurry of phone calls got him to a hospital and the indignity of being connected to a bevy of minimally life-sustaining machines. On January 14, 1989, he died.

"And so, four years down the road, I (for one) offer my thanks to Marco for all of who he was -- the wisdom and the folly, the light and the immense darkness, the times of transcendence and the times of sheer imbecility -- and for what he was able to write down, to give to the rest of us to do with what we will."

[Twelve of Marco's erotic novels, long out of print, will be re-issued during 1993 by The Permanent Press. More about this in a future column.] Events

• Mental Health : Depressive episode August 1988 (Last months of his life, depressed and alone)

• Death by Disease 14 January 1989 (AIDS, age 51) Austen, Jane

Name Austen, Jane Gender: F born on 16 December 1775 at 23:45 (= 11:45 PM )

Place Steveston, England, 51n05, 1w20 Timezone LMT m1w20 (is local mean time)

Data source From memory Rodden Rating A

Astrology data 24°57' 14°56 Asc. 24°06'

Biography

British writer, the first renowned female novelist of England. The seventh of eight kids born to a scholarly village rector, she wrote from age 12 with her first novel at 15. For family entertainment, the entire family would tell stories, stimulating her young imagination. Her father was a kindly, reserved cleric and her mother, witty. She had six brothers and a beloved sister, Cassandra.

There were few opportunities available to a young woman in that time and place; women were not even allowed into the universities. Jane had two years of formal education. As a young girl she was as high-spirited and silly as any and had several suitors. Her flirtation with the attractive but impecunious Tom Lefroy, whose family insisted that he marry money, set neighborhood tongues wagging. Later, she suffered a deeper embarrassment in first accepting, then rejecting the very next morning, the proposal of Harris Wither, who was suitable from a social viewpoint, but not to her romantic heart. She remained a lifelong spinster, later becoming somewhat tight- lipped with chastity.

She had six novels published from 1811, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman in that era, including "Pride and Prejudice," "Emma," "Sense and Sensibility" and "Persuasion." Her health failed in 1815, probably from Addison's disease, and she died peacefully at home on 6/18/1817, 4:30 AM, Winchester, England.

With movies made of her works, she had an unexpected resurgence of popularity in the late 1990s. Events • Death by Disease 18 June 1817 (Age 41) • Health : Chronic illness 1815 (Health started failing, possibly Addison's disease)

• Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 1811 (First of six novels published) Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree

Name Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Gender: M born on 11 December 1931 at 17:13 (= 5:13 PM )

Place Kutchwada, India, 23n15, 77e23 Timezone IST h5e30 (is standard time)

Data source From memory Rodden Rating A

Astrology data 18°29' 15°14 Asc. 13°58'

Biography

Indian guru and author of more than a hundred book which are sold through his organization. Rajneesh was not only was intimately familiar with the world's great religions and philosophies, but the modern psychologies of Jung, Freud, Maslow, and the rest of the West's best thinkers in modern psychology and psychiatry. His followers felt that the depth of his intellectual sophistication was only matched by the profundity of his wisdom and the spiritual impact of his spellbinding lectures. His philosophy was eclectic, though much of it is was similar to that of Krishnamurti, who was acknowledged by Rajneesh as the only other enlightened man alive (beyond himself).

In 1981, the guru founded a commune near Antelope, Oregon of 1,700 disciples, a sprawling religious community of a hundred square miles. He had continual problems with the local government over land development along with bad press and controversy over his string of pricey Rolls Royce automobiles and fat bankroll.

Called the "sex-guru" because of his popular talks about tantric sex, Rajneesh’s ashram became known as one big love fest during celebrations. With AIDS on the horizon, he was careful to warn his followers about the lethal spread of the disease and their practice of the Tantra rituals was accompanied by a genuine fear over unclean sex. The tumultuous commune became a real-life soap opera of hedonism and murder plots, with reports that Rajneesh advocated free love for himself and his disciples, a voyeur and participant.

His most prominent feature was his large, watery eyes, due to thyroid problems. He was actually very ill when he arrived in Oregon, a location that was recommended as beneficial to his health. The ashram was an attempt to build a self-sufficient commune based on ecological and organic farming principles, turning the desert into a garden, which they achieved in part. The devotees who joined the ashram came from all walks of life, devoting their money and labor to create a utopia.

The task of running the commune fell to Ma Anand Sheela who was also the financial backer for the Rajneeshpuram venture. Ma Anand Sheela and her appointed staff took full charge of the daily running of the commune. Internal strife between Rajneesh and Ma Anand Sheela added to the mix, as he claimed that she was trying to establish the Rajneeshees as a religion, and that her quest for personal power led to her paranoia, which eventually spread throughout the commune. He spoke often of how organized religion is an obstacle to enlightenment and he blamed Ma for her ambition of wanting to be the first Popess. The assets of the organization were all in her name.

Difficulties accumulated with not only the local citizens but with the National Immigration Service and Revenue Service and Rajneesh was arrested as he fled his strife-torn utopia on 10/28/1985 to the tune on 35 counts of conspiracy and fraud, indicted by a Grand Jury in Oregon.

On his return to India, he changed his name to Osho to signal a change in his consciousness. Less than five years later he died of heart failure at his Ashram in Poona, India, 1/19/1990. Events

• Death by Heart Attack 19 January 1990 (Heart failure, age 58) • Social : Institutionalized - prison, hospital 28 October 1985 (Arrested as he fled his commune)

• Social : Joined group 1981 (Ashram in Oregon) Dalai Lama XIV

Name Dalai Lama XIV Gender: M

Birthname Gyatso, Tenzin born on 6 July 1935 at 04:38 (= 04:38 AM )

Place Tengster Village, Tibet, 36n32, 101e12 Timezone LMT m101e12 (is local mean time)

Data source From memory Rodden Rating A

Astrology data 12°56' 09°45 Asc. 09°59'

Biography

Tibetan supreme spiritual ruler of his country, in exile. Some six million Tibetans believe him to be the reborn soul of Buddha of Compassion, the Protector of the Land of Snows, the Holder of the White Lotus, the Mighty of Speech, Tibet's Wish-Fulfilling Gem, and Kundun-the Presence.

Born in a small village in Tibet to farmer parents, he was the fifth of seven children. When the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, Tibetan elders searched through the nation's children to find him in this, his 14th incarnation. When the search party reached his parent's mud and stone house in Taktser in 1937, the toddler passed a series of tests: He named the monk leading the search, and he picked out several objects that had belonged to his predecessor.

The young boy was proclaimed the Dalai Lama and installed on the Lion Throne in the thousand- room palace in Lhasa, Tibet's holy city. His parents were not only greatly honored but given property and gifts. A regent ruled Tibet until the boy was old enough to assume his destined role. Though he was given a thorough spiritual education, he was nonetheless a kid, and played a kid's tricks and games, sometimes getting into trouble and scolded. He insists that he has no regrets about a lost childhood. "The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life," he says. "It should be something useful, something good."

The country was invaded by Chinese communists in 1950 and three years ahead of schedule, the 15-year-old boy was given political and religious authority under difficult circumstances. The Chinese claimed they came to "liberate" Tibet from the "poison of imperialism and religion." In 1959, when Chinese forces drew close to Lhasa, threatening his life, His Holiness, accompanied by a few close advisors and family members, fled to India on 3/31/1959. As a result of Chinese occupation, more than a million have died, some 80,000 have fled the country and some 6,000 Buddhist monasteries have been destroyed. To the Chinese, he is such a formidable figure that people in Tibet are forbidden to carry or even display his likeness.

The Dalai Lama's home is about 150 miles from the country he leads, in a remote corner of northern India that is reached only after a difficult journey between mountain crags and steep drops. He lives an ascetic and celibate existence, rising at 3:30 AM for his first hours of prayer. His diet is simple with a small amount of meat. Though Buddhists avoid killing animals for food, they do eat meat when killed by others. He exercises, and pays great attention to the news, enjoying nature and science stories. His hobby is fixing watches, but he "totally blanks out" with computers.

Calling himself the "simple monk" he is famously cheerful with an infectious, uninhibited chortle. Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize on 10/05/1989, he has become increasingly familiar to Westerners. He welcomes the attention of Hollywood stars which helps illuminate his lifelong pacifist goal of returning his people to Tibet.

On 1/27/2002, the Dalai Lama was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, India with a bowel infection. Events

• Work : Prize October 1989 (Nobel Peace Prize)

• Social : Great Publicity 1937 (Discovered, named Dalai Lama)

• Social : Change of Lifestyle 31 March 1959 (Went into exile)

• Health : Decumbiture 27 January 2002 (Hospital with bowel infection) Chaitanya, Sri

Name Chaitanya, Sri Gender: M born on 27 February 1486 (greg.) at 22:00 (= 10:00 PM )

Place Nadia, India, 23n24, 88e56 Timezone LMT m88e56 (is local mean time)

Data source Conflicting/unverified Rodden Rating DD

Astrology data 09°03' 08°43 Asc. 03°54'

Biography

Hindu reformer and leader who heard his call at age 24 and became a Sannyasi on 1/28/1510, searching for wisdom as he traveled and taught. Events

• Misc. : Mystical Experience 28 January 1510 (greg.) (Heard his call of the spirit, age 24) Teresa, Mother

Name Teresa, Mother Gender: F

Birthname Bojaxhiu, Agnes Gonxha born on 26 August 1910 at 14:25 (= 2:25 PM )

Place Skopje, Yugoslavia, 41n59, 21e26 Timezone MET h1e (is standard time)

Data source Conflicting/unverified Rodden Rating DD

Astrology data 02°25' 18°37 Asc. 24°16'

Biography

Albanian-Yugoslavakia nun and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Through her service of universal love as a nun and missionary, she devoted her life to the poor and sick. She decided to be a nun on 9/25/1928 and took the name of Teresa on 5/24/1931.

(She said her divine call to work among the poor had come in 1946 and she opened her first Calcutta slum school in 1949.)

Petite and of short body structure, she was plagued with heart problems and received a pacemaker 12/01/1989. (She was treated in California for bacterial pneumonia and heart disease and was hospitalized again in November 1996. She suffered several heart failures and received surgery to unblock two coronary arteries.)

In early 1997 she was replaced by sister Nirmala, 63, as head of the Missionaries of Charity, stepping down due to poor health.

Mother Teresa died 9/05/1997 9:30 PM Calcutta. Upon her death many of her followers wanted her to be beatified and canonized before the required waiting period. Events

• Health : Medical procedure 1 December 1989 (Pacemaker surgery)

• Work : Great Achievement 1979 (Nobel Peace Prize)

• Death, Cause unspecified 5 September 1997 at 9:30 PM in Calcutta, India Lindh, John

Name Lindh, John Gender: M

Birthname Lindh, John Philip Walker born on 9 February 1981

Place Washington DC, USA, 38n53, 77w02 Timezone EST h5w (is standard time)

Data source Date w/o time Rodden Rating X

Astrology data 20°52' or

Biography

American citizen who moved to Afghanistan to become a jihad warrior with the Taliban, using the various named of Suleyman al-Faris, Abdul Hamid and John Walker. He grew up in Marin County, CA. As a kid, he rejected Catholicism and discovered Islam on his computer. He identified with alternate cultures, anything but his own, even calling himself black for a while (via computer). At age 16 he read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" and was drawn to the militant branch of Islam. He began to wear the long white robe and pillbox hat as a teenager.

His parents were permissive enough to allow him to explore his own realities, even paying for a trip to Yemen at the time they were separating, late 1998. After living in Yemen, John came back in 1999 to see his mom but went back, this time to Afghanistan. He gravitated to a Qaeda training camp where he learned to handle an AK-47, fighting with Pakistanis in Kashmir in Summer 2001. In November he ended up with several hundred other Taliban who surrendered and were herded into container trucks and shipped to a fortress prison near Mazar-e-Sharif. There was a revolt at Qala Jangi prison in which Walker was wounded, shot in the leg, and after six days, they surrendered in early December.

High ranking Americans called Walker a traitor and wanted to make an example of him but he is not a candidate for military tribunal. Others hoped that he could negotiate a plea bargain by giving information about the Al Qaeda's recruiting and training.

Walker was flown to the U.S. Navy ship Peleliu on 12/14/2001. On 10/04/2002, he was sentenced by a federal court in Alexandria, VA to 20 years for aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while in Afghanistan. "John Phillip Walker Lindh was born on Feb. 9, 1981 at the

Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, D.C. to parents Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh" He was the 2nd of 3 children. He was named after Beatle John LENNON who was shot only 2 months earlier. [Birthdate from NEWSWEEK magazine at http://www.msnbc.com/news/669825.asp]

John Phillip Walker Lindh (birth name) aka Suleyman al-Faris (during his teenage years) aka Abdul Hamid (his Taliban nom de guerre) aka John Walker

John was baptized Catholic and grew up in Washington suburbs of Maryland. His family lived in Silver Spring, Maryland until he was 10 years old. From 1986 - 1991/06, John attended Montgomery County public schools in Silver Spring, MD.

1991/07 - @10yrs his family moved to San Anselmo in Northern California.

1991 to mid-1995 - John attended elementary and middle school in Marin-County, north of San Francisco, CA.

1995 - John attended high school in Marin. He discovered his passion for Islam online @14yrs, just as Uranus (the ruler of his Sun sign) had entered Aquarius. His natal Mercury is retrograde in Pisces, making him impressionale ... perhaps causing him to live in a fantasy world or have a mind that shifts in empathy to his environment.

(NEWSWEEK reports that WALKER's mind may have been further affected because he was a heavy hashish user.)

1996 - Due to an intestinal illness, John began at-home tutoring with his mother. Later he was sent to an elite alternative high school where students were allowed to shape their own studies and had to check in with their teacher only once a week. 1997 - Though raised as a Catholic, @16yrs John converted to Islam. (His father was raised in the `strict Catholic manner'. His mother was a child of the '60s who dabbled in Buddhism.) When Uranus reached John's fashionable Venus in early Aquarius, he adopted Islamic clothing, wearing a long white robe & pillbox hat and calling himself "Suleyman al-Faris".

1997 - John dropped out of school and took the state high-school-diploma equivalency exam which he passed.

1998/04 - Frank LINDH & his son John went on a week-long trip together to Ireland.

1998 - Late in the year was the time John's parents split.

1998 - Later John traveled to Yemen for the first time. He enrolled in a language school to study Arabic. His goal was to learn Arabic so that he would be able to read the Quran in its original language. He stayed in Yemen approximately 10 months.

1999 - John returned to the United States & lived at home with his family for about 8 months. While in California, he fell in with a large Islamic missionary group, the Tablighi Jamaat, which, according to intelligence sources, is sometimes used as a recruiting ground by extremist groups. John was taken under the wing of a Pakistani missionary named Khizar HIYAT, who had invited John to join him on a drive to Nevada as he was spreading the word.

2000/02 - After a brief return to Sinna in Yemen, John traveled with HIYAT in Pakistan for a month before choosing an austere religious school (or Madrassah) outside the village of Bannu. In addition to memorizing the Quran, he taught himself some of the Urdu & Pashto languages. In the course of his studies in Pakistan he had met Taliban members & some of the former teachers of the Taliban leadership. He was isolated and these encounters may have helped to convince him that, as he said, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was the only true Islamic state in the Muslim world.

2000/10 - John had been oblivious to politics in the United States but he had begun to absorb some of the politics of radical Islam. When suicide bombers blew a hole in the side of the USS Cole as the American destroyer was refueling in the Yemeni harbor of Aden, his father e-mailed John to lament that some of the 17 young sailors killed in the blast were the same age as his son. John wrote back that bringing the U.S. destroyer into a

Yemeni harbor was `an act of war' against Islam. LINDH told NEWSWEEK that his son's message "raised my concerns, but my days of molding him were over".

2001 - In the early part of the year, he had been studying the Quran at a Madrassah in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, but his parents had not heard from him since he left there about May. It is not clear how he got to Afghanistan.

2001 - John later told CNN that he had gone to the Afghan capital of Kabul & volunteered to serve the Taliban. Because he did not know the local languages, the Taliban told him to make contact with forces supporting Osama BinLADEN. He received combat training at an al-Qaeda camp in northern Afghanistan - learning to fire an AK-47 & crossing paths with BinLADEN.

2001 - In the summer, John fought with Pakistanis in the disputed region of Kashmir & then was sent to fight against the Northern Alliance in Konduz. He also told the CNN reporter that he `supported' the September 11 terrorist attacks.

2001/11 - Sold out by their leader, John & several hundred other Taliban marched 100 miles, surrendered and then were herded into container trucks and shipped to a fortress prison near Mazar-e Sharif. The Taliban began revolting as soon as they arrived at the prison. Two of the mujahedin threw grenades, hidden in their robes, killing 2 Northern Alliance generals. "After that they put us in the basement and left us overnight", recalled

John.

2001/11/25 - "Early in the morning they began taking us out, slowly, one by one, into the compound ... Our hands were tied, and they were kicking and beating some of us. Some of the mujahedin were scared, crying. They thought we were all going to be killed." CIA agent Johnny "Mike" SPANN (32yrs) questioned al-Qaida & Taliban prisoners held by the Northern Alliance in the northern Afghanistan fortress of Kala Jangi in Mazar-i-Sharif. An Afghan cameraman caught the meeting between SPANN & John who would not respond. Shortly after the interrogation footage was shot, other prisoners emerged from other parts of the fortress and launched an uprising. "As soon as I heard the shooting and screaming, I jumped up and ran about 1 or 2 meters and was shot in the leg." SPANN was beaten, shot and killed by the mob - America's first combat death in Afghanistan. It took 3 days and U.S. air strikes to finally put down the revolt. The rebellious prisoners holed up in the basement & American bombs began to fall. The Northern Alliance tried to burn them out by pouring in diesel fuel and lighting it, and then tried to drown them with thousands of gallons of water. Finally, after 6 days, John and 85 bedraggled others surrendered.

2001/12/01 Sat - In the afternoon at the fortress of Kala Jangi in Northern Afghanistan, a NEWSWEEK journalist spoke with someone known as Abdul HAMID.

2001/12/01 Sat - Later the wounded Abdul HAMID described himself to a CNN correspondent as a "jihadi" - a holy warrior & he also identified himself as John WALKER. His identity was later confirmed by his separated parents,

Marilyn WALKER & Frank LINDH (a San Francisco lawyer). He had previously been known as John WALKER, a 20yr-old from Northern California (he uses his mother's last name).

2001/12/01 Sat - Late that night, he was taken into custody by U.S. Special Forces, at a hospital near Mazar-e-Sharif, in Northern Afghanistan. He has been held at Camp Rhino outside Kandahar. Events

• Health : Violent trauma November 2001 (Fought with Taliban against Americans) Abdul-Rauf, Mahmoud

Name Abdul-Rauf, Mahmoud Gender: M

Birthname Jackson, Chris born on 9 March 1969

Place Gulfport MS, USA, 30n22, 89w05 Timezone CST h6w (is standard time)

Data source Date w/o time Rodden Rating X

Astrology data 19°00' or

Biography

American basketball player, a one-time basketball guard for the Sacramento Kings organization. Abdul-Rauf retired from basketball in 1998 after a dismal season in which he played only 31 games after missing 31 contests because of injury, 4 because of flu, and 16 due to coach's decisions. Prior to joining the NBA, he attended Louisiana State University, where he set many records and exhibited magnificent play.

Abdul-Rauf officially embraced the Islamic faith on 8/09/1991. Two years later, he changed his name from Chris Jackson to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, his current nomer; the Islamic name means "elegant and praiseworthy, most merciful, most kind." In March 1996, Abdul-Rauf was suspended from basketball after he refused to stand during the playing of the National Anthem. He claimed that his religious and political beliefs prevented from standing and was quoted as saying "nothing should come between me and Allah." Events

• Work : Retired 1998 (From pro basketball)

• Social : Joined group 9 August 1991 (Joined Islamic faith)

• Misc. : Changed Name 1993 (To Islamic name)

• Work : Lose social status March 1996 (Suspended for religious beliefs) Mohammed

Name Mohammed Gender: M born on 22 April 0571 (greg.) at 01:25:35 (= 01:25:35 AM )

Place Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 21n27, 39e49 Timezone LMT m39e49 (is local mean time)

Data source Date in question Rodden Rating XX

Astrology data 01°00' 18°40 Asc. 11°15'

Biography

Arabian founder of Islam. He married at age 23 to Khadiji, a wealthy widow, fifteen years older than he. Only after her death did he become polygamous, with a dozen wives. He heard his call at age 40; writing, teaching and performing miracles.

Larry Ely writes, 12/2002, "We spoke about my using the AstroDatabank to create a discussion community around the birth chart of Muhammad. It would certainly save me time, as otherwise I would have to get on a bunch of list serves and put out the idea there to gather people together.

"But Mark informed me that there is a record on Mohammed in ADB, which I had not seen posted on your website, as it is of too inferior a quality of trustworthiness. He emailed it to me, and I am writing to tell you of a mistake in it.

"The Ruth Dewey citation is quite garbled, whether by her or by someone who entered it into your database. I have the book she quotes from, same exact citation, publication year, and page, and she has quoted the page, but has taken the liberty of transliterating the dates, and in so doing has gotten the years wrong by plus three years. Here is the correct citation:

_THE ASTROLOGICAL HISTORY OF MASHA'ALLAH, E. S. Kennedy and David Pingree, Harvard University Press,

Cambridge, 1991, p. 127. Quoting page 127:

' Appendix 1, Masha'allah's Date of the Prophet's Birth This date is recorded in his _Chronology_(footnote) by Biruni as being Monday, the day Khur (11) of the month Dai in the year 41 of Anushirwan at the beginning of the seventh hour with the Sun in "the liver of heaven" and the ascendant in Cancer. 1 Favardin of the 41st year of

Anushirwan according to Masha'allah's calendar was 3 May 571; and therefore 11 Dai, the day of the Prophet's birth, was 7 February 572, which was indeed a Monday. The Sun was then in Aquarius, and would have been setting if Cancer had been in the ascendant. This passage in Biruni confirms our previous assertions regarding the zij used by Masha'allah and its calendar.

[Footnote: Documenta Islamica inedita, ed. J. Fuck (umlaut) (Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1952, jpp. 95-96.] '

"Furthermore, the ADB entry for Ruth Dewey gives not only the wrong year, but the wrong day, and the wrong time of day. The entry currently reads: "February 9, 575 AD N.S., 3:00 PM". The correct NS date is: February 10, 572. As seen from the citation I quoted above, the year is 572, not 575. Furthermore, if one takes the cited day of February, February 7, which is OS, one needs to add 2 days to get NS for this century. But February 9 NS was not a Monday. February 10 was a Monday.

The Ascendant is Cancer, so the Sun in Aquarius is in the quadrant from MC to Descendant. The Arabs changed their day at sunset, so we do not have to do with the problem of a day change mistake due to thinking the day changed at Noon.

"Now as the time of day, the record says the birth was in the 7th hour. This must mean from sunrise. For 21N27 and 39E49, the coordinates of Mecca, where Mohammed was born, the ST at sunrise was 15:55:26, and the ST at sunset was 3:09:01. Subtracting gives the length of daylight, which is 11:13:35. If we divide this by 12 to the length of each daylight hour, we have 0:56:08. Seven of these daylight hours is 6:32:55. If we add this to the ST of sunrise, we get the ST of birth. This is 22:28:21, but this only gives an Ascendant 18 Gemini. If we take 7:00 hours after sunrise, we get ST 22:55:26, which gives an Ascendant of 22 Gemini. So they must have counted the first hour from 0-1, the second hour from 1-2, and the seventh hour from 7-8. So taking 7:30 and adding this to the ST for sunrise, we have ST 23:25:26, which gives about 1Cn00 Ascendant. I used 2Cn00 as the Ascendant, which corresponds to GMT of 11:30:31, LAT of 1:53:14 PM, and LMT of 2:09:47 PM.

"It is important to get this citation right, as it is one of only two citations we have. The other is the first one you give via Manly Palmer Hall via Rao. You should note in this citation that the Rao, Suryanarian citation comes from Abu Ma'Shar's "THE THOUSANDS OF ABU MA'SHAR," The Warburg Institute, University of London, London, 1968, p. 116, in which the Ascendant is given as 20 degrees Capricorn.

"A more recent citation, a rectification from the Abu Ma'Shar reference is Ken Gillman, Considerations, XVII (2002), No. 3, p. 64. He gives Ascendant 25Cp06. Time given is 0:25:45 AM LMT of April 20 OS (21:46:29

GMT on April 19 OS in Greenwich).

"I just saw another probable typo in the current record you have for him. For Councel in AA 12/1946 you state "596 and 571 are sometimes proposed". That should read "569", not "596". The years 570 and 571 are the most commonly cited, hence 596 must be a typo for 569. Some authors give a spread from 569 to 572." Source Notes

Manly Hall in the NAJ 1933 states "recorded" at April 20, 571 AD O.S., 1:25:35 AM LMT. Rao gives the same data as "reproduced from the writings of Professor B. Suryanarian."

Ruth Dewey gives February 9, 575 AD N.S., 3:00 PM from "The Astrological History of Masha'Allah," translated by Kennedy and Pingree, Harvard University Press, 1971, p.127, "Date recorded by Biruni as being Monday, the Khur (eleventh) of the month Dai in the year 41 of Anushirwaf. At the beginning of the 7th hour, with the Sun in the liver of heaven and the ASC in Cancer. Pavardin of the 41st year of Anushirwaf according to the calendar was May 3, 574 AD, and therefore the day was February 7, 575, which was indeed a Monday. this date is from Arabic astrology in the 8th century."

Davison in AQ 7/1960 mentions June 22, dawn.

Modern Astrology 5/1932 states that he was born "about 571 AD, died June 8, 632 AD and noted that Jupiter was conjunct Saturn early September 571.

Councel in AA 12/1946 states "596 and 571 are sometimes proposed; spec april 3, 570 AD O.S."

Granite quotes Fagan in an AFA excerpt for August 20, 570 AD.

Americana encyclopedia states, "Date not certain, somewhere between 570 and 571." D.S. Willis in MH 10/1980 gives the origin of the Islamic religion as July 15, 622 AD. Ken Eardley writes in May 2004 that he has data from De Boulainvilliers giving April 20 OS at 1:52 AM LMT and other sources give January 30, 570 and February 9, 575 NS. Burton, Richard (1821)

Name Burton, Richard (1821) Gender: M

Birthname Burton, Richard Francis born on 19 March 1821 at 21:30 (= 9:30 PM )

Place Hertford, England, 51n48, 0w05 Timezone LMT m0w05 (is local mean time)

Data source Bio/autobiography Rodden Rating B

Astrology data 28°59' 10°55 Asc. 04°41'

Biography

British adventurer, explorer, writer and scholar of Islamic writings and languages. He traveled Europe, Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa, exploring the source of the Nile and writing books of his adventures. His famous translation of "Arabian Nights" is a classic. He was an officer in the Bombay army of the British East India Company and many of his travels were underwritten by the Royal Geographic Society, plus, he spent the better part of his career as a British consul under the auspices of the British Foreign Office. In each of the segments of his life, he was viewed as a difficult character, which he most assuredly was, and he never missed an opportunity to show his contempt for those in superior positions to him.

Burton spoke 29 languages. He converted to Hinduism, then Islam, and, disguised, entered forbidden and inaccessible places. He consumed opium and hashish, and sampled every available woman and brothel east of Suez. His translations of Eastern erotica and his blunt approach to sexual descriptions shocked Victorian England to the core, yet remained masterpieces of literature. Eventually, Burton's translations filled 70 volumes.

He was the first non-Muslim to make a successful pilgrimage to Mecca posing as one of the faithful, and the first to penetrate the ancient kingdom of Harar in Somalia. He was the first Westerner to discover Lake Tanganyika, in his attempt to find the source of the Nile. He served as a spy in peacetime India and as an officer in the Crimean War. He prospected for gold in Egypt, West Africa and Brazil. He wrote what is thought to be the best book on sword fighting of the nineteenth century. He introduced the word "safari" into the English language and is said to have introduced Turkish delight to Europe. He was one of the earliest translators of the "Kama Sutra" and "Arabian Nights," and he wrote poems in the manner of the classics of Arabic literature. So exception a man that a plethora of books have been written about him, yet Burton remains beyond the range of ordinary definition.

Burton grew up mainly in France and Italy. In 1822, his dad had been required to stand down from military service at half-pay, allegedly because he refused to testify against Queen Caroline, the cast-off wife of King George IV, who was accused of scandalous behavior in Italy. Joseph Burton took his family abroad where they lived on the income from his father-in-law's estate. Though young Richard missed an British education, he was an intellectual prodigy, able to play - and beat - four chess opponents simultaneously. When he finally went to Trinity college in England, he lasted only five terms, dismissed for attending a steeplechase race against regulations. He always seemed an outsider, as he himself wrote, "A blaze of light without a focus."

His aptitude for acquiring new languages was astonishing and in some cases, self-taught. He was also said to be the best horseman and the finest swordsman in the British military.

Hardly a desirable catch, at 40 Burton earned little money and had poor prospects. He had a reputation for being an unstable and rather off-color fellow. His normally fierce look was made more so by a scar from a Berber spear that had cut through one cheek into his mouth. This did not stop 29-year-old Isabel Arundell, the daughter of an aristocratic Catholic family, from falling hopelessly in love with him from the time they first met in 1851. Five years passed before they were secretly engaged and another five before she went against her parents wishes and eloped to London with Burton.

His marriage to Lady Isabel was undoubtedly one of lifelong passion and devotion, though he continued his intellectual and sexual adventures through the periods when they were apart.

Burton died on 10/20/1890, Trieste, Austria-Hungary. Events

• Death, Cause unspecified 20 October 1890 (Age 69) • Relationship : Marriage 22 January 1861 (Isabel Arundale) Ali, Muhammad

Name Ali, Muhammad Gender: M

Birthname Clay, Cassius Marcellus Jr. born on 17 January 1942 at 18:35 (= 6:35 PM )

Place Louisville KY, USA, 38n15, 85w46 Timezone CST h6w (is standard time)

Data source BC/BR in hand Rodden Rating AA

Astrology data 27°18' 12°26 Asc. 19°31'

Biography

American light-heavyweight gold medalist, the only man to win the heavyweight championship of the world three times. He began boxing professionally on 10/29/1960 and became world champ in 1964 by knocking out Sonny Liston. His title was declared vacant after he refused military obligation as a Muslim and a conscientious objector. He later changed his name and reentered the ring in 1970, fighting with singular grace and beauty for 25 years. Muhammad Ali earned a reputation as a man dedicated to his goals and beliefs. A consummate showman, he used to call himself "the Greatest," and many of his fans believe that the nickname fits.

Clay’s great grandfather was an Irishman who had married a black girl. Ali was raised in a middle- class neighborhood, the eldest of two sons born to Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. and Odessa (Grady) Clay. Ali's father supported his family as a sign and mural painter, while his mother worked as a domestic. Ali worshiped with his family on Sundays at Mount Zion Baptists Church and attended school with brother Rudolph. He was a rather poor student, which he blames on his preoccupation with boxing as a boy. Ali has confessed that he wished he had put forth more effort academically, because he has struggled as a slow reader his entire life.

It was due to a stolen bicycle that Ali began to box, at age 12. When he reported the theft, Policeman Joe Martin invited the boy to train with Fred Stoner, who taught him to move with the speed and grace of a dancer. While still in high school, he won 100 out of 108 matches and earned six Kentucky and two national Golden Glove championships, as well as two Amateur Athletic Union Championships. Ali mastered his renowned skill at ring chatter; talking a poetic jive while in the fight, geared to distract and frustrate his opponent, and at age 18, he won the boxing Olympic gold medal in the light heavyweight category at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Upon returning to Louisville, he signed a lucrative fifty-fifty split contract turning him into a professional boxer. With arrogance and wit he spouted off catchy jive talk such as his famous chant, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Still known as Cassius Clay, Ali fought Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship title, beating him to become the world’s heavyweight champion at age 22 on 2/25/1964, beating him again on 5/25/1965.

While in Miami, he met Malcolm X who gave voice to Ali’s disgust with racism. At one time he was refused service at a soda fountain counter because he was black and in outrage, he threw his Olympic gold medal into a river. Joining the Nation of Islam, he was given the name Muhammad Ali by Elijah Muhammad, his new title meaning "beloved of Allah." It was the beginning of his social and political activism.

In June 1965, Ali defended his title by once more defeating Liston by a knockout punch that was so powerful that it lifted Liston’s left foot clear off the mat. Despite his popularity in the sports world, he was loathed by many Americans when it became known that he had become a Muslim. When he took a stance as a conscientious objector to America's involvement in the war in Vietnam, he was called everything from traitor to coward. When he refused to accept the draft, in May 1967 Ali was stripped of his title and boxing license by the World Boxing Association and charged for violating the Selective Service Act by the government. Even boxing fans and sports journalists joined the outcry, to which Ali commented, "I'm giving up my title, my wealth, maybe my future. Many great men have been tested for their religious beliefs. If I pass this test, I'll come out stronger than ever."

Sentenced to five years in prison and released on appeal, Ali's conviction was overturned three years later and he returned to the ring. After defeating Jerry Quarry in November 1970, he met Joe Frazier in New York 3/08/1971 – who gave him his first professional defeat. By the end of his career, Ali had fought Joe Frazier twice more. These three bouts have been one of the most widely discussed series in the sport because of their intensity and duration. In 1974 Ali avenged his loss to Frazier with a unanimous decision victory. This retaliation did not earn Ali the title, however, since newcomer George Foreman had dethroned Frazier as the champion. Ali arranged to fight for the title against Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire on 10/30/1974, a bout billed as the Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was favored as he was young, strong and known as the hardest hitter in boxing. Ali rested on the ropes and danced around Foreman for eight rounds, biding his time and conserving his force. When he finally made his move, he sent Foreman to the canvas – and regained the title. He met Joe Frazier for the third time and defeated him after 14 rounds in Manila, October 1, 1975. Although Ali lost a title defense early in 1978 to Leon Spinks, he later defeated Spinks in a rematch to win his title for the third time. On 6/26/1979, at the age of 37, Ali retired as champion with a professional record of 59 victories and three defeats.

In July 1964, Ali met a beautiful half-black woman. She was Sonji Roi, a model and a cocktail waitress. On 8/14/1964, they were married in Gray, Indiana. For their honeymoon, they went on a tour of Africa. The fairy tale marriage didn’t last more than a year as a result of their conflicts with each other on Ali being extremely loyal to the Nation of Islam. His second wife Khaliah [Belinda] filed for divorce in 1976. A year later, he married Veronica, one of the four poster girls who promoted the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali lived a lavish lifestyle, needing to support high maintenance. He had four wives, two mistresses and nine kids (one adopted) that ranged from college age to infancy. Kids are one of his great pleasures, his own or any. Ali stops and goes out of his way to pick up a child or ask about people's children. Khaliah, one of his daughters, has successfully built up her boxing career following in the footsteps of her champion father. Now, Laila too has followed suit, taking up boxing as a career.

He lives with his fourth wife, Yolanda, who also acts as his manager, in Berrien Springs, Michigan. At home, he spends many hours signing Muslim handouts and photos of himself, replying to fan mail, reading the Koran and praying. Islam means to him submitting to the will of God and being at peace. He feels that there is truth in all religions imbued with love.

In 1981, Ali appeared to be sluggish and weak in motor skills, moving slowly and trembling. Originally misdiagnosed as having a thyroid condition, it was another year before he was found to have Parkinson’s disease at UCLA, and started treatment. The disease was caused, said his doctor in 1987, by injuries sustained in his 61-event boxing career. He became more involved in political activism and philanthropy and his illness matured him and made him a serious man, to whom people listened as he slowly formulated the words.

In the '90s, he lived comfortably on a farm in Michigan with his fourth wife, Lonnie. He travels frequently, usually in the company of his longtime friend and personal photographer, Howard Bingham, for book signing of Bingham's book of photographs, "Muhammad Ali: A Thirty Year Journey." People flock to him, one of the most popular and beloved figures of the sports world of the 20th century. Financially, he's comfortable for his later years. In addition to his 200-acre farm in Berrien Springs, MI, Ali owns his Deer Lake training camp and much of the mountain on which it was built - the camp is now being used as a home for abused children - as well as sizable tracts of land in Virginia. He has several vehicles, including a Rolls-Royce and a Winnebago motor home.

At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in August 1996, he lit the torch, an emotional moment for a nation of fans who saw him not only as a champion but as a very real and vulnerable man, his arm shaking visibly as he raised the torch.

In December 2001, a movie commemorating the life of Muhammad Ali was released, starring Will Smith in the title role. Smith was born 9/25/1968, Philadelphia, PA.

With the help of his daughter, Ali has written a new book, an autobiography reflecting on his life with a spiritual and philosophical perspective. “Soul of a Butterfly” was published in November 2004. Events

• Work : New Career October 1960 (Began pro boxing)

• Work : Prize 25 February 1964 (Became national champ)

• Work : Gain social status August 1996 (Lit Olympic torch)

• Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released November 2004 ("Soul of a Butterfly")