What a few weeks it's been. I've been looking for Elsie Wheeler - the spiritualist medium who gave birth to the 360 Sabian Symbols in one day. It's been an interesting search, taking in Southern Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, and carrying me in my rental car on a quest for clues to Elsie's life.
Elsie was born in Norris City in White County, in south western Illinois on September 3 1887 at 9.39pm. Not much was previously known about Elsie, but I've been able to find out some things about her life that have been useful in filling in the gaps. Amongst these was the fact that her mother's name is L. Hill. That's how I first saw her name - just the initial. That being my name, it was a little surprising. Her mother's name was Louisa Hill, and, it seems Elsie's grandmother's name was Helen Hill. My daughter's middle and last names are Helen Hill.
Further, Elsie shared a house with a man in 1925 (when the Sabian Symbols came through) who's name was Frank Baxter. I grew up in a family where I was the only one who wasn't a Baxter. My mother's second husband's name was Baxter and her husband now has the name Frank.
The story goes on and on. It seems to all be part of the hologramic universe we live in. The search for Elsie has been extremely interesting and I've recently trodden many of her steps.
Elsie was for 20+ years in the Bethesda Home for the Incurables from before 1900 until at least 1920, quite possibly leaving in 1923 to move to San Diego. Elsie was confined to a wheelchair her entire life, apparently from the age of 3, stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. A friend and I went to the site of the old hospital, Saint Louis University Hospital now stands there, and, rather surprisingly, my friend used to work there and knew it quite well.
Although Bethesda has long since been torn down, walking around these very Catholic halls with huge reminders of Christ on the Cross, I could sense a tiny piece of what it must have been like in those days. Elsie must have been made of sturdy stuff to have lived to 51 through twenty years in a Home For the Incurables. We went to the library of the hospital - - and met a wonderful woman who took us directly to books on the Bethesda Home in those days. As we looked through books from the 1910-1920's era, I noticed a page was loose and sitting by itself on a shelf directly to my left. It was an index to an old medical book with names of doctors, yellowed with age. The letters went from VI (for the name Vincent) to WI (for the name Wiseman). Right there on the page, along with hundreds of names, was the name Wheeler, with three listings. An A. Wheeler - Elsie's sister was Ada Wheeler - an L. Wheeler, Elsie's mother's name and W. Wheeler, Elsie's father's name was Willis A. Wheeler.
How wonderful spirit can be when it's showing you it's fine colours of events!
My tour has taken me from Tucson, Arizona - with an astrodrama in a bookstore with me wearing a donated bra and slip on the outside of my clothing. I was a spectacle as I gave a little rendition of Pluto's transit of Sagittarius 22 - The Chinese Laundry.
Speaking of which? Has life been feeling a little like A Chinese Laundry? Not sure what one's doing; the need to be taken seriously and to have one's views heard; insufferable stereotyping and the difficulties avoiding it; trade unions and people wanting to go on strike - all the way up to the 'laudering' of big money. There is so much corruption happening right around the world - but do we get a voice?
Pluto's journey backwards has been interesting. We have been asked to take a good look at what happiness means to us - with Pluto recently transiting Sagittarius 24: The Bluebird of Happiness at the Gate of the Cottage. Then Pluto marched backwards over Sagittarius 23: Immigrants Entering a New Country Fulfilling the Requirements. It seems like there's been so much 'paperwork' to attend to. Pluto's transit of that degree was bolstered by Neptune at Aquarius 16: The Big Businessman at His Desk. Then Pluto moved onto and retrograded over Aquarius 17: A Watchdog Standing Guard Protecting His Master and His Possessions. Paperwork gets so tedious and yet many, many of us have so much more of it. Pluto is set to go direct this week on The Chinese Laundry and it will no doubt be reminding us to be mindful of our blessings. We all choose our own 'chinese laundry' - how interesting it is to be human!
Please feel free to pass the URL for this website around to those who might enjoy hearing a little of Elsie Wheeler's life. The new Moon on Saturday is smack on Elsie's Sun at Virgo 12: A Bride With Her Veil Snatched Away. Hints of Elsie's life are being revealed - please do share this with others :)
I'll soon write up something about this coming new Moon - I do find it wonderful that this new Moon is conjunct Elsie's Sun - something I hadn't noticed until this week.
Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona
Lynda
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