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 Her research interests are in the cultural significant of astrology both historically as well as in contemporary life as well as in cultural astronomy, the role of the sky in human culture. 
Welsh Monastic Skyscapes 
University of Wales Trinity Saint David, The Sophia Centre.
The Welsh monasteries, their location, orientation, and stonework, represent human activity that sought to build a place for God on earth, or as Megan Cassidy-Welch stated, to build 'the earthly manifestation of heavenly space, a site that was suffused with celestial longing' (2001:164). It is this celestial longing that implies that the monasteries are not just structures for the housing of a community of monks but were, instead, cosmological buildings. These buildings, according to Janet Burton (1994:159), support the theological agenda of saving the individual monk's souls so, by extension, would then help the salvation of the world. Cassidy-Welch (2001:164) expanded this argument by claiming that the Cistercian view of the human body was as a 'complicated and tumultuous space, in relation to not only the Cistercian institutions, but in relation to the cosmos, spirituality and the quest for union with God.' She then suggested that the entire monastic structure, with its variety of parts, was designed to have a special relationship to the heavens which allowed the buildings to actually draw the heavens to earth, and in this way the very the landscape itself was the source of what she called an eternal medicine (2001: 97, 249).
Galileo's Astrology
Publications: “Four Galilean Horoscopes: An Analysis of Galileo's Astrological Techniques" in Galileo's Astrology, Cinnabar Books and her book, Cosmos, Chaosmos and Astrology : Rethinking the nature of astrology. (London: Sophia Centre Press, 2014).
"Galileo's Astrological Philosophy." In From Masha' Allah to Kepler: Theory and Practice in Medieval and Renaissance Astrology, edited by Charles Burnett and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, 77-100. University of Wales, Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, 2015.
The Role of the Stars in Cultural Astronomy
The Egyptian Ascension mythology of the Pyramid Texts with the phases of the stars (CRE XII proceedings, Oxbow 2012).
The use of ancient astrological concepts in her work on the Star of Bethlehem, (SEAC 2012 proceedings, Slovene Anthropological Society 2013).  
The role of the sun in historic Welsh Churches. 
The role of the sky in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. 

Fixed Stars in Astrology - by the turning of the earth


My work in fixed stars is focused on using parans. This is the ancient way of working with the stars based on observation. As the earth rotates on its axis it divides the 24 hours of the day into four quarters. These four quarters are in fact the 'turning points' in the sky where the sun will first be seen to rise above the earth in the east and then culminate at noon, after which it will move to the western part of the sky and begin to set. 


Eventually the sun will disappear below the horizon but it keeps moving until it reaches its lowest point, the nadir,

the turning point at the bottom of the sky, at midnight. After moving over this point the sun will begin to rise again. But these four turning points are not just limited to the sun. The planets also rise, culminate, set,

and move onto the nadir. So, too, the stars go through a similar cycle, of rising, culminating, setting, and moving to the nadir but following their own unique paths, not that of the sun.


The turning points are in fact caused by the rotation of the earth, and are thus created by the earth itself as it sits in the heavens. This is the way the earth engages with the sky by way of the line of the horizon east and west, as well as the points of culmination above and lower culmination below. When a luminary or a planet is on one of these 'turning points' at the same time that a star is on any of the 'turning points', then both the planet and the star are joined, for they are both linked by the turning of the earth at the same time. This special relationship is called a paran and is the original way that stars were used to understand life on earth. By working with parans therefore the ancient sky myths of a star become blended with the meaning of that planet in your life.


Using this method has lead to the development of the software Starlight as well as a redefining of the cultural meanings of the stars based on their mythology. This work is reflected in my books on fixed stars and the report 'Stories from the Stars' from Astrodeinst. You can watch a short YouTube by Bernadette on this topic if you click here


In addition to the stars I also continue my exploration of visual astrology as revealed in the translations from the seventh century BC of the Letters of the Assyrian Priests to the Kings per Hunger, Hermann. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1992 and Parpola, Simo. Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal Part 1. Germany: Butzon and Kevelaer 1970.


Learn more

To see more on this topic as well as information on fixed stars and horoscopes then please visit the archive of newsletters here.   You can also look at all the lecture material by Bernadette on Astro Logos Ltd web site here. Or for Youtube lectures on fixed stars, Starlight and visual astrology click here .