Jayne Charles

October 9, 1911, 10:39:30 PM rectified time (10:53 PM given) Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. (d. December 31, 1985, 8:32 PM, Goshen, New York). Jayne is the father of modern technical astrology, at least from the tropical standpoint. This is a matter of record, for it is impossible to examine the great many articles and books he wrote. He wrote his first technical article (on eclipses) in 1939. He worked on eclipses, sensitive points, cosmic structure, locatlity astrology, recitification, long- term cycles, and pre- and post-natal charts. Jayne was the model of what has become the standard among modern astrologers: the mixture of both astrological insight and technical proficiency. L. Edward Johndro, to whom Jayne was always quick to acknowledge his debt, was a forerunner in mixing intense concern for precise astrological techniques with spiritual insight. Jayne was particularly interested in the astronomical structure of astrology. Jeyne understood astronomy to be the physical signature of the spiritual and the intuitive. Astronomy fueled his theoretical leanings. He would remark, "The physical universe is but the shadow of God." At the same time, Jayne was no friend of mediocrity and fought it wherever it appeared. In particular, he couldn't bear astrologers arrogating themselves or making money based on what he considered faulty or erroneous astrological logic or concepts. Jayne has a continual vision of getting the best astrologers together with each other for a face-to-face exchange of ideas. He and Michael Erlewine formed ACT (Astrological Conference on Techniques). Jayne also created the Johndro award, given to astrologers who have made a major technical contribution to astrology and who exhibit generosity of spirit. Jayne participated in a wide variety of astrological groups and associations. He was vice-president of Nicholas de Vore's Astrologic Research Society. He also authored many articles in de Vore's Encyclopedia of Astrology (including a number that did not carry his name or initials; almost all of the sections on cosmic structure were his work). He founded his own Astrological Bureau in 1953 and the Astrological Research Associates in 1958, which published the first international astrological periodical, In Search. Jayne, along with Charles Emerson, Harry Darling and Dr. Edgar Wagner, founded NCGR. He was president of the Astrologers Guild of America from 1958 to 1960. In 1970, he created ARC, the Association for Research in Cosmecology. He and clinical psychologist David Goodman created the Astro-Psychological Consultation Center in New York City in 1973. Jayne formed a great many symposia in conjunction with major astrological associations. He served as chairman of the resolutions committee at the 1972 AFA convention. He also gave countless classes, seminars, and weekend workshops, on top of his counseling practice, which was constant. Jayne appeared in Life magazine and was on radio and TV a number of times, including appearances on the David Susskind show. For over nine years, he ans hiw wife Vivia (a first- rate astrologer in her own right) wrote what has been called the best daily newspaper astrology column ever, in the New York Daily News. Jayne studied philosophy at Princeton University, electrical engineering at Virginia Plytechnic Institute, and psychology at Columbia University. From 1961 to 1969 he was a technical analyst on Wall Street. He was also schooled in occult theory in general and Theosophy in particular. He held one of his teachers, Miss Eleanor Hesseltine, in particularly high esteem. Jayne is recognized for bringing order and conscience to an astrology suffocating from too much psychology and humanism. It is interesting to compare the careers of Jayne and Dane Rudhyar, who perhaps not coincidentally left this world around the same time; both were seed men and great astrologers; both assisted in developing an approach to astrology each of which now has an enormous following. This is not to say that Rudhyar did not value technique or that Jayne disdained psychology -- that would be the wrong reading. Rudhyar gave an entire generation a feeling for astrology, developing the psychological and humanistic side of the field. Jayne, almost his alter ego, did all he could to restrain and prune this outgrowth; he was an advocate of science and facts (though a science that fed on inspiration and inner direction rather than on itself).