Albert Kniepf and Alfred Witte
by Michael Feist, Hamburg
from Hamburger Hefte Journal 179/2018, p. 5-6
Albert Kniepf (1853-1924) was a philosopher, literary critic and astrologer. At the end of the 19th century, Kniepf contributed significantly to the serious revival of astrology in Germany with his publications and his personal commitment. What was special about Albert Kniepf was that he did not only refer to former traditions, but also particularly committed himself to the modernization of astrology in the sense of a modern science. Kniepf thus became the first spokesman for a development that a few years later led to an innovative astrological scene with a scientific claim.
In his writing, in this issue: "The Psychic Effects of the Celestial Bodies - Physical Foundations of Horoscopy and Astrology in Outline" (1898), Kniepf makes clear his philosophically scientific point of view. Kniepf used scientific and boundary-scientific findings and the principles of nature in analogy to astrological hypotheses.
Anyone who has studied the works of Alfred Witte (1878-1941) will find clear parallels to Albert Kniepf. Alfred Witte writes in a similar line of argumentation and also refers to the scientific findings of numerous scientists, which I dealt with in detail in my article "Alfred Witte's Cosmology", HH 2011/172.
Witte adopted Kniepf's concept of magnetic fields, and slightly modified the division into colours. Everyone who knows Witte's older 360° disc will remember the colours of the zodiac and the fields. This segmentation was for Witte an important basis for the astrological evaluation of known and unknown planets. There is no doubt that Kniepf had an important influence on Witte's theoretical approaches. This was no coincidence, because the 25 years older Kniepf belonged to Alfred Witte's personal circle of acquaintances.
A research on addresses that I carried out revealed a detail that had remained unknown until now, but which nevertheless contributed to a closer understanding: Kniepf and Witte lived in the immediate vicinity in the Hamburg-Borgfelde district. Only two parallel streets separated the apartments. The personal closeness may have given the relationship of trust a special touch in a common cause. The following report by Wilhelm Hartmann (astronomer and later director of the Nuremberg Observatory) undoubtedly illustrates a special relationship:
»In 1914 [...], when I first met the Hamburg astrologer Alfred Witte, I urged him to process and publish the extensive astrological material stacked at Witte. But the war initially hindered the execution of this plan. Witte was drafted soon after the outbreak of war and made all his material available to Mr. Albert Kniepf, Hamburg, in the event of his death«, 1925, cf. "Der Mensch...", p. 297.
Witte published articles that can be seen as a direct extension of Albert Kniepf's lines of argument, such as "The magnetic colours of the signs of the zodiac" (1920), cf. "Der Mensch...", p. 22.
One even has the impression that Witte's first public article was inspired by Albert Kniepf's way of thinking, see "Considerations about color, number, tone" (1913), "Der Mensch", p. 17.
In the past, these parallel theoretical approaches led to the assumption that Alfred Witte's working method was based on Albert Kniepf's ideas. Ludwig Rudolph approached a student of Kniepf for clarification. She explained unequivocally that Witte's method differed from Kniepf's method and was something in its own right. —
TNP versus TNO
by Michael Feist, Hamburg
The 8 hypothetical Transneptunians of Uranian Astrology (TNP) are called "planets" for historical reasons. It started as an astrological research project of Alfred Witte, where he tried to discover the orbits of unknown planets.
However, it is more unlikely that new observed planetary bodies will obtain the status of a planet, today. So the usage of the title “Planet” for our hypothetical bodies will be not the state of the art, today. One reason is the new category of Dwarf Planets and the new definition of the "International Astronomical Union" about planets. The other reason is, that hypothetical astrological bodies were not yet confirmed by science, today.
For a few years, the term "Transneptunian Objects" (TNO) is used for a group of bodies in the Kupier Belt region. These objects are located beyond the Neptune with a distance between 30-50 astronomical units to the sun. At the moment, the "International Astronomical Union" published a list of more than 2400 TNOs.
For Uranian Astrology it is important to distinguish between hypothetical Transneptunians (TNP) and de facto Transneptunians (TNO), because only the Transneptunian "Cupido" is located in the Kupier Belt area. The hypothetical Transneptunians have solar distances with a larger range between 41-84 astronomical units to the sun, and both ranges are overlapping, see next image.
Nevertheless, comparing of the properties of TNPs and TNOs is interesting. Some TNOs possess similar properties to Cupido. At present no TNO is known, which is identical to the hypothetical "Cupido." However, the following similarities with Cupido can be currently stated:
4 TNOs have eccentricities from 0.004 to 0.005 e
39 TNOs have inclinations of 1.0 to 1.1°
17 TNOs have semi-axes from 40.9 to 41.1 AU
The low eccentricities of hypothetical Transneptunians have been questioned in the past and put forward as a counter-argument for its possible existence. However, the following TNOs are in the same range of eccentricity as Alfred Witte's Transneptunians:
JA132, YL179, UN284, OQ108, VB170, QU180
The eccentricities of Sieggruens Transneptunians are lacking, which in fact seems to be unrealistic. However, so far the value of eccentricity is also been missing in total of 126 TNOs. This simply means that astronomers need to work with unknown or very low eccentricities, too.
For more information on the de facto Transneptunians (TNO), please visit the following website of the "International Astronomical Union": List Of Transneptunian Objects
Познакомьтесь также с другим материалом по теме: ТНП против ТНО
In Deutsch lesen Sie bitte den Text: TNP vs. TNO
This research has made use of data and/or services provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.
Call for support on Astrological Research
Hanna Opitz and Roberto Leonardi from Brazil wanted to find out what midpoints and planetary pictures are related to each profession/ vocation. So they created a software to calculate this. They are researching with 68 planets/ asteroids to confirm the vocacional midpoints and planetary pictures that already exist in Uranian Astrology and discover others. The idea is also to understand the meaning of new planets/ asteroids, based on the profession in which they will appear.
The sofware is ready, and now they need help with data. If you are going to be at UAC 2018 in Chicago, you can meet Hanna there, she will try to make contacts and find out who can help them with data.
10th anniversary of IUF
Dear Uranian Friend,
today, 20th of May, we have an anniversary so let's celebrate the 10th anniversary of the “International Uranian Fellowship”
At 20th of May 2007, in The Hague, Netherlands, friends from Italy, USA, Netherlands and Germany, discuss the founding of a new international network. As result the IUF was founded by seven friends: Dr. Lietta Catoni, Tiziana Ghirardini, Meira B. Epstein, Maria Kay Simms, Francine Rasenberg, Udo Rudolph† and Michael Feist. By the way, the meeting took place in the Pizzeria Vesuvio where we had a great dinner. The bill still exist, where at the back page all founders signed our "founding document".
Today the board is presented by the IUF-Core which includes all founders and additional core-members from USA, Thailand and Turkey: Liane Thomas Wade, Nona Gwynn Press, Dr. Winai Ouypornprasert, and Neslihan Ayanoglu.
The anniversary date mark the founding, but actually the story started already in 2005 with the 25th anniversary of the Uranian Society (New York) and the first Conference in Bologna, Italy, in 2006. Between 2008-2014 we had great conferences in Riga, Hamburg, New York, Bangkok and Istanbul. Indeed, the last years we had no conferences, but we are all still in contact in many different ways. A new conference will coming up in future, this will be sure.