Athberta

Athena poured over the data she had received from NASA. For the last 5 years, she had been receiving daily emails from a special NASA astrophysicist, Albert, who gave her detailed readings from a magnetometer. The objects of these magnetometers were the magnetic fields of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, along with the constellations of the 12 major star signs.

Athena was a Vedic astrologer and knew very little about physics. What she did know was that astrology worked because it was based on magnetic fields. Astrology influenced people through the energies of the planets and their position in the star signs. Each degree, each point in a degree that a planet rotated in, in a star sign, affected the magnetic field of the planet in a minute way. In turn, that would affect the energy field of a living being on planet Earth.

This was a theory that Athena had. She was dead intense on proving it. Finding Albert had been like finding a needle in a haystack. He was a rare gem. Athena had found him through a dating site. They had met and found out that each of them had a deep love of the stars. Talking, they discovered that they had a similar theory on why astrology worked the way it did. Instead of dating each other for sex, they formed a platonic relationship to work out their theory.

They had discussed not only planets, and stars, but the final key in why astrology affected people the way it did. When a person is born it is the first time the physical part of their spiritual element, the bio-electro-magnetic field, comes into contact with the 4 natural elements of the physical realm. Both had been thinking the same thing about the subject for years and never found anyone to agree with them.

Athena, being a loner and having no intellectual friends, had had no one to bounce her ideas from. The mundane people she interacted with every day refused to believe in the unseen, although everyone admits it is the unseen that rules the world. Can we see the air? We can not, however, it is vital for us to live.

Albert was treated like a freak by his colleagues, though he was an expert at his job. The other scientists were not interested in his wild theories on astrology. They were there to find new planets, stars, and galaxies.

After the date, Athena had shifted towns, but they had remained in contact, often losing themselves in conversation about their unproven theory. This had been the norm for the first 3 years of their friendship.

Then, Albert had been given the opportunity to apply for a very expensive 5-year grant. Going out on a limb, Albert had put forth his tender, explaining that he wanted to buy a giant magnetometer that was sensitive enough to measure the magnetic fields of the closest large cosmic bodies to us, as well as the constellations that surround our system and how the fields would change and interact with each other. He did not go so far as to put anything about astrology in his tender.

A phone call had ensued and one member of the group that put out the grant made contact with Albert. They had a meeting. The member of the group had dropped that he was interested in astrology. That was the key to loosening Albert's mouth. Albert won the grant. The magnetometer was purchased and Albert was the boss of it, able to pick and choose who he had on his team, which included Athena.

Every day Albert would send Athena the magnetic readings of the planets and star signs. Both the magnetic fields of the planets and star signs would demonstrate changes in their magnetic fields. The planets, they had expected. The star signs, they hadn't.

Athena would then line up the astrology chart to the readings and plot it all out. As part of understanding the effects, there was a survey that she used to question a wide group of people, some involved on the project, others not, about what happened every day in their lives. The members of the group that had given the grant were also on the list. The rules were, however, no one was to read about their stars from any source. It was important that on this survey exact times were kept, so as to plot all of these things on the graph as the readings from the magnetometer were precise in time.

There were daily world events to take into consideration. Athena would attach the major events to the graphic timeline in the database that was created. These, she was not able to get precise times for. The time the news article was released, or anything else, was irrelevant. It was about the energies being influenced at large by the planets.

One thing that they had noticed from observing all this, was that once a planet had moved out of a star sign, so long as it was not inhabited by another planet, the magnetic field returned to what it had been. The magnetic field of a planet, however, changed in a continuous way, never resting at normal, as the movement never stopped. Even when a planet was stationed, before or after a retrograde, it was still influenced by the field of the stars.

Athena and Albert both lamented the fact that the magnetometer was not sensitive enough to pick up the magnetic fields of both the fixed stars in constellations and asteroids. Somehow, the group that was funding the grant had found out about this. They had commissioned other scientists to build a magnetometer, a second one, designed for the individual magnetic fields of small celestial bodies.

By the time 5 years had passed, they had collected enough data and evidence to put forward a proven theory. The group had applauded them. The grant became a permanent fixture in their lives. The members of the team kept their research going.

To celebrate their success, Athena had flown in to visit Albert. They had imbibed a bit too much booze, and their platonic relationship, for a mere moment, had developed into something a touch more carnal.

When Athena returned home, she documented this. It turned out that had she been more observant, she would have seen that their escapade was written in the stars before it had happened. Perusing her information, she noted that though it had happened once, it would not happen again.

There was a twinge in Athena's midsection during her perusal of the data. She raced to the toilet and vomited her entire breakfast, which consisted of an apple and some coffee. Her appetite had not been what it was. This had happened every day for a week.

Athena thought about it. This was the only place she had been feeling unwell. It didn't make sense. Unless...

She went to her star chart to investigate. Sure enough, the proof was there. Their celebration of success was to turn into more than just that celebration.

Moving the stars forward about 8 months, she saw that she would have a little girl. Playing with the houses and potential times of birth, she noticed that if the girl was born during the early hours of the morning, she would birth an astrophysicist who would unite astrology, combining the 2 fields and turn it into a science.

Athena phoned Albert. They discussed things. They agreed not to get married, but that when the girl came of age, after having learned about astrology from her mother, she would go to live with her father and learn about astrophysics.

Months passed. Athena gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who was named Athberta.

Athberta was intelligent and a fast learner. For the first 10 years of her life, she learned about astrology. By the time Athberta was 8, she was contributing to the project her parents were working on. Athberta never went to school, instead of learning at home, what it was that she was drawn to: the heavens.

Athberta loved neither one parent nor the other. They were her parents, there to teach and take care of her.

When Athberta turned 10, Athena passed from cancer. Albert welcomed Athberta to his home. Every day, she went to work with her father, learning more about the stars from the physicist's point of view.

The new machine was finally built and launched into space when Athberta was 15. It was named the Athena magnetometer.

At 16 Albert passed from a heart attack. The team of scientists under him had grown. The turnover had been small.

The members of the people group placed Athberta in charge. She had all the training necessary to continue what her parents had started. There she developed and expanded it, uniting the 2 sciences into one, bringing it into the light on the world stage.

Ever since then people understood the science behind why astrology works and what information was necessary to be able to get the predictions one needed from it. Astrology was brought out of the dark ages by a couple of forward-thinking dreamers and their daughter.

NEVER THE END