It was 25 years ago on October 17, 1972 at 1:44 in the afternoon, when the Astrological Society of Connecticut (ASC) had its first board meeting at the home of Susan Dow Roy in Hartford. As Capel McCutcheon laughingly described the event to me, "there were twelve founding members crowded around Susan's water bed with the serious intent of forming the ASC, surrounded by numerous cats jumping around demanding everyone's attention." Our organization was just one among several other fledgling astrological groups organizing at that time. But the difference for us was that our founding members, Capel McCutcheon (our 2nd President) and Ruth Gerry (our 1stPresident), with advice from astrologer Doris Chase Doane, used astrology to elect the best time to start our organization. They did a good job because as the ASC celebrates its 25th year, we are recognized as one of the oldest, most innovative and successful local astrological organizations in the nation.

Since its founding, the ASC has had high aspirations for presenting astrology. The cornerstone for the ASC's existence began with the lecture series. Our first open meeting was held at the Meeting House on Bloomfield Avenue in Hartford on January 10, 1973 with about 50 people present, 35 of them members. One of the earliest efforts by our board was to invite Dane Rudhyar, a noted international astrologer, metaphysician and musician, to lecture for the Society. He was our statement to the community to take us seriously, that we were prepared to bring the best and brightest in astrology to Connecticut. Today we hold our lectures the third Thursday of the month at the Keeney Memorial Center in Wethersfield.

Another important item on the agenda was to lobby for the legalization of astrology in the state of Connecticut. We were successful. (It’s interesting to note that psychology was legalized at the same time.) Another important step was to become a non-profit organization.

By the early 1980s, we started publishing a newsletter which Janet Booth, Kathy Jo Berger and Agneta Borstein were instrumental in creating. By 1985, it developed into the journal called The ASCendant through the efforts of Richard Roess, Carol Glorioso, Kathiann Tevlin, James Santa-Mo, Catharine Ziebka and Laura Magnussen. It became defunct at the end of 1993, but Janet resurrected the newsletter, renaming it the Lunar Quarterly in 1994. This year we plan to publish a 25th Anniversary issue of The ASCendant highlighting our history.

In the early 1980s, our former President Alberta Benson started a tradition of having our speakers sign a linen table cloth. We then embroidered the names. This has become a precious part of our history, since some astrologers like Howard Sasportas and Richard Ideman have passed on.

One of our purposes as an organization is to teach and develop astrological educational programs. In 1985 Richard Roess suggested and then instituted a tape library for our membership. Since then Woodson Caine, former President Denis Picard, Fred Lougee, Anne Bogdan and Paul Labbe have volunteered their time to make it a success. All our lectures, workshops, and symposiums are on tape. They provide an excellent learning tool for our membership. The tapes cover every discipline of astrology, from the most basic presentation to advance techniques. In addition, our library also includes many metaphysical lectures on mediumship, palmistry, spiritual guides, the I Ching, the Kabbalah, numerology and the Tarot.

Always open to new ways of presenting astrology to the community, we again took the bull by the horns and decided to have a weekend symposium in the Spring of 1987.

It was a risky venture, but former President Linda Epstein exerted her leadership and managerial skills resulting in the Symposium’s success and Dottie Santangelo gave us excellent guidance on organizing the conference.

Our first hurdle was how to raise enough money to cover the initial costs for advertising, flyers and pamphlets. So, in late 1985, we organized New Age Fairs to raise these moneys. Linda Caine was instrumental in coordinating these fairs, then the job was handed down to Janet Booth. Secondly, Woodson Caine assumed responsibility to learn about bulk mailing. Former President Kathy Jo Berger, wrote a database/mailing program so we could computerize and expand our mailing list and passed the job to former President Debbie Corkindale. Kate Warfel recently converted the database to Excel. Currently, Peter Standaart takes care of bulk mailing while Debby Vincelett and Laura Magnussen keep the mailing list up-to-date and certified. With 3000 names it is no small task.

Burned out by four symposiums in four years we took a rest. The former President Agneta Borstein, presented the idea of having a weekend healing retreat, focusing on a single presenter. This led to The Astrological Healing Retreat in May of 1992 with Dr. Ingrid Naiman. She is recognized for her herbal work with cancer and AIDS patients. The weekend consisted of lectures covering the metaphysics of healing, herbology and medical astrology. It was a success.

We took a risk for our next symposium. As program chair at that time, I promoted a conference focusing on astrology and psychology. Agneta supported the idea. The Emergence conference was dedicated to astrologer Howard Sasportas, originally from West Hartford, who had recently passed away. The speaker committee consisted of Laura Magnussen, Agneta, James Santa-Mo and Denis Picard. We put together a presentation that was phenomenal. We originally slated James Hillman as keynote speaker, but Agneta was able to get Thomas Moore, best selling author of Care of the Soul and Soulmates. Another big draw for the symposium was Karen Hamaker-Zondag from Holland It was well attended with over 400 people at the Friday evening keynote lecture.

In recent years, we have shifted our focus to outreach into the general community. How do we promote astrology to the general public? We began by having the ASC phone line that is listed in the yellow pages. Now we are also listed on the internet yellow pages. The phone line generated public interest, and board member Kathy Simpson presented the idea of biannually publishing a professional astrological directory of services. 

"Astrology Rising" was the cover story in Life magazine’s July 1997 issue. It stated that in a recent poll 48% of Americans believed in astrology was probably or definitely valid. For the ASC this article made us realize the rapidly growing public interest in astrology. In the past we had expanded our general public outreach through our New Age Fairs and the various metaphysical workshops and lectures through our symposiums and special weekends.

What could we do to reach the general public that we haven't done? And as a volunteer board how much more time do we have to devote to new activities? So this year we gave the symposium a sabbatical to concentrate our energies in new and innovative ways to reach our membership and the general public.

This year, through board member "Z", the ASC was invited to participate in the Egyptian exhibit opening night of Night on the Nile, sponsored by the Peabody Museum in New Haven. As the organization that provided the astrologers for the readings, the ASC s name was included on the 10,000 invitations sent out by the museum. This was reaching out to a new audience. The opening night was the event of the season in New Haven. The readers - Catherine Cumming, Julianne Johnson, Janet Booth, Barbara Gay, Elissa Shlien and Laura Magnussen - dressed in costume as Egyptian goddesses. It was a hard day's night (if I may borrow from the Beatles), but we enjoyed ourselves.

Another exciting event Countdown 2000 is for the general public. It will take place on Saturday, March 21st at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meriden on East Main Street. We have four astrologers Alphee Lavoie, Jacqueline Janes, Gloria Star and Don Cerow, speaking on future trends and predictions for the new millennium.

All of these services and activities are accomplished through volunteers who give of time and energy through tasks too numerous to mention. The ASC is an active vital organization. It is composed of very strong-minded, capable individuals, who are able to meld into an effective cohesive group. The purpose of the Society is serving and educating the community about astrology. Having served on the board for the last ten years, I have learned about group dynamics as well as dedication to selfless service. There are so many members, non-members, board persons and Presidents that have volunteered selflessly. I apologize to the many who have given valued service that I have not mentioned. As the ASC envisions its astrological future, I have faith in its ability to creatively expand as well as conserve its energy as it serves a growing community.

Call Catherine Cumming at (860) 644-1165 for information on membership. Please also visit our Web Site at http://members.aol.com/tonylouis/asc/asc.html. For lecture information or a professional directory call (860) 568-8617. Laura Glaser Magnussen is the current President of the Astrological Society of Connecticut and is a professional astrologer with a consulting practice in Windsor, CT.