Author: Dennis Elwell
Abstract: The original Cosmic Loom emerged from Unwin Hyman in 1987, with an imposing hardback cover. It became an immediate classic or seminal text on astrology, although it was never a best selling astrology book. Why? Perhaps, as one reviewer in Considerations put it, ‘the non-thinking (astrologer) had better leave it alone’. And the original review in the Astrological Journal was equally emphatic, ‘cuts across almost all current developments in astrology and leaves few of today’s fashionable positions and approaches unscathed… brilliant studies.. a mind of inestimable value at the present stage of astrology’s development’.
Dennis Elwell dealt out his perspective on what astrology is, what it does and how it permeates our daily lives in a way which puts astrology first, and human schools of thought about astrology last. He made enemies, yet several non-astrologers who have read the original book think it the best non-jargon and ‘plain languaged’ book on the subject yet. 1 think these original reviewers were right. Our subject is top heavy with jargon, filled with theories, complications and medieval hangovers following astrology’s time underground, partying away from the scientific rationalists. Elwell doles out astrological truths in a refreshingly straight way. Elwell’s main theme is that of ‘multicongruence’, the author’s term for ‘many things in agreement’. The tendency for certain things and conditions to co-occur because they belong together at a higher, unmanifest level. The original Loom contained many examples of this phenomenon, but the revised edition bulges with exceptional examples of multicongruence, and Elwell defines several forms of the effect, using non-nonsense terms like event level, content level and intent level. Then the author identifies another facet when several features in a person’s chart all point to the same circumstance. I’ve often heard this called the ‘rule of three’ by astrologers, but here Elwefl delineates the effect with a stunning (and Royal) example. Finally, the author identifies a form of multicongruence which he claims could more than squash -the sceptics of astrology – the effect when several people all become involved in the same event and it turns out that they all share similar chart features. Again, the author walks his talk with extremely well thought out Royal examples. So Elwell is back in town, and whoever in the UT initiated the reprint of Cosmic Loom had insight and, 1 think, commercial acumen, for this book deserves to become one of the all time best books on what astrology actually is.
Whilst reading through the UT edition, 1 recognised that we have so few books that deal with the philosophy of astrology. Elwell quotes Charles Harvey in Mundane Astrologv, ‘we are going to need to develop ways of ‘considering the future interweaving of ‘whole hierarchies of cycles and charts rather than treating them in isolation as we do at present. How this is done effectively is one of the great challenges of the next few years.’ The new material which the author provides for us takes multicongruence and sits it on the top of the astrological agenda for anyone who wishes to break free from charts in isolation or the computerised cause and effect that astrology has become in so many quarters. As the back cover reminds us, ‘All genuine knowledge confers an advantage, and this stuff is positively dangerous’. If this sounds over-dramatic, Elwell backs it up.. and here’s a brief example.
The material on the appalling Dunblane shootings, through Dennis’ detective-like abilities to spot multicongruence, are shown to be inextricably woven on the Cosmic Loom with the earlier Ryan shooting in Hungerford. The Royal Arnoury in Leeds, was opened by the Queen two days after the shooting, and it has the exact midpoint latitude of the two locations, which sent goose-bumps up this reviewers back. If that’s spooky, Elwell’s uptuming of the name Harnilton and Dunblane at the other locations is positively weird. Yet, it isn’t, for this is how astrological event horizons are shown to work, and Elwell goes through the chart of that time with precision expertise, leaving any competent astrologer in no doubt what the Cosmic Loom is weaving. Similarly, the material on the Titanic (ship-wreck and film linked) and the mysterious death of Diana, Princess of Wales (an outstanding piece of astrological research) rounds off a new final chapter, The Far Edge, of a book which must be read by any astrologer who wonders what the astrological effect actually is and how it operates.
The Urania Trust has also broken with the hard-back productions of recent years, and this edition of the Cosmic Loom is decidedly more elegant and attractive as a paperback. I feel drawn to again quote Charles Harvey, who, in a 1etter to this reviewer concerning another book, said, ‘I do hope the enterprising publisher will get it the distribution it deserves..’ This is so relevant to the UT with Elwell’s masterpiece.
Dennis Elwell has been with astrology for over half a century. He is undoubtedly one of the subject’s most original thinkers and has clearly studied esoteric and scientific material. In places, his strong opinions take an undue emphasis which takes away from some of his important lines of argument. But, perhaps paradoxically, his work shows how much humility we need when approaching the evolutionary process as seen through astrology and the Cosmic Loom. The author is not over-kind to several other schools of astrology, notably sun-sign astrologers and psychological astrology, and remains somewhat of a lone-wolf, a maverick, which is an understandable though probably necessary shame. But with the reprinting of the Cosmic Loom, astrologers have the opportunity to meet Dennis Elwell head-on, to be knocked out of a rut, and to give themselves an astrological work-out. This book really is a second coming for astrologers. If you missed it first time round, buy a copy and lend it to all your sceptical friends. If you already have a copy of the original, pat yourself on the back for your discernment – but you really do deserve this new enlarged edition. It’s a popsy.
Reviewed by Robin Heath
Keywords: esoteric, scientific, psychological, sun sign,cosmic, principle,multicongruence
Notes:
Publication: Correlation Journal of Research in Astrology
Issue: Volume 19 Number 1
Dated: 2000
Pages: pp 52 – 53