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An Interview With Allen E

Allen E graciously agreed to break the ice on this site and give RFFriends its first interview.It was only fitting, because this website would not have been established without his expert assistance.

Widely scattered “Friends” who have never met each other except possibly on the internet sometimes wonder if there really is a warm body behind any given e-mail address.We would like to flesh out what is only a name and shake hands – get to know one another and get acquainted.

Allen worked and served as an officer and member of the Executive Council at Mount Ecclesia in the late 90’s until March, 2004.In fact, he lives near Oceanside and makes himself available now as a jack-of-all-trades trouble-shooter to the people who work at the RF headquarters.

Here’s Allen.

ERI don’t really know what you do for an occupation or I have forgotten.  You are connected with a company.  Who?  And what is it that you do?

Allen I am a programmer/consultant doing various software design/implementation work for various companies/organizations and individuals, most of whom do not want me to mention who they are, in locations such as Australia, Europe, the UK, NY, and PA. Mostly I write astrological applications, including financial astrology applications, and manage websites along with their special content. And whatever else comes my way.

ER What I have seen is that you do a huge amount of work that you give away for free, and it’s available on your website.  How did you first get interested in astrology?  How long ago was this?

AllenOne night in early 1973 I was home alone (my wife at the time went back to Memphis to visit her parents) and I happened to come across the TV program called Kung Fu. I was strangely attracted to it and after it was over I wanted to know more about “metaphysical” things. There was a book store in Houston, very near the RiceUniversity campus, called the Aquarian Age Bookshelf and it was run by two elderly women out of the downstairs part of their house. I went there to look around and found a book by Jess Stearn called “A Time for Astrology”. It was this book that led me to want to know more about astrology, which I knew nothing about at the time. Being a natural sceptic, but being a lover of math, I bought all the books and started calculating my own charts. On another one of my visits to this bookstore I bumped into someone and after some conversation, he asked me if I was familiar with the Rosicrucian Fellowship books, which were in one large bookcase along one of the inner walls. I said, “No,” and thanked him for the tip. I started looking at some of their books and got “hooked”. I soon signed up and started all of the Fellowship courses and away I went.

 

ER What got you started with programming astrology software?  Do you incorporate this into your occupation?

AllenI bought my first computer in 1979 (a Radio Shack TRS-80) and found out I had a love of programming. By this time I was 6 years into astrology and I knew it would be silly to keep doing all my charts by hand when I could write a program that did all the “heavy lifting” for me so I could then concentrate on interpretation. So it was then that my two big loves were combined, astrology and programming. I have been doing it ever since.

ER When and how did you find the Teachings and begin to work with the Fellowship?

AllenI became familiar with the Rosicrucian Fellowship books because of my visits to the Aquarian Age Bookshelf, which stocked Fellowship books. Once found I simply kept following that path and following it until I had accumulated most all the books, having read every one I added to my collection. The vibrations I got from the Western Wisdom Teachings seemed to resonate closely with my own. They always have, once I found them.

ERWhat was it like — coming into the Fellowship and dealing with their state of technology?  How did you expand that or bring it up to date?

AllenIt was a good fit. I knew just enough from my prior experiences to be able to do everything the Fellowship needed at the time. I’m no genius, but I do know how to make things work and that’s what I proceeded to do at the Fellowship — improve the operation of everything I could, in every department. I learned a lot of new things as well because in a small organization, which I have always worked in, you must be able to wear a lot of hats. So I learned databases, networking with routers, and various other things basically one step at a time as the need arose. Marie-Jose Clerc was instrumental in all this because she had lots of ideas and we made a great team because of her ideas, then my implementation. And of course, she was the one, along with Bob Jacobs, who had paved the way for technology to get its foot in the door at the Fellowship.

ER I know that you still help out the employees of the RF headquarters when they need you.  What is the state of their network now at Headquarters?  What do they need to make their work more efficient?

AllenQuite frankly, things are a mess at the Fellowship. All the good that I and others did has basically been eliminated by the various people who came after I left. I had things running efficiently and productively, but new management thought they could do things no matter who left – that there would always be a replacement to take over the work when they got rid of people they did not want at Oceanside. That was certainly short-sighted because things haven’t been the same since. The computers now are not on the network that used to work and the people who are still there are not as computer-literate as they need to be in order to work more efficiently. I am not blaming the workers still there, it is just that there is no longer any foundation or structure to do what is really needed. When you get rid of all the manpower, then who is left to do the work? The Fellowship more than anything needs capable bodies to catch up on all the work they need to do.

ER What is your vision of the future for the RF with regard to membership data, administration, publishing, education, websites, and etc.?

AllenThe Fellowship really needs to tell the non-English membership to take over their own business and leave Oceanside to handle the English-speaking part of the membership. For years while I worked at headquarters we heard it over and over that headquarters shouldn’t be so powerful, that headquarters should let go of some of the work they had and let others help. Well, now’s the time to do it. There are about 5 workers at headquarters these days, not nearly enough to handle every member in every language. When I was President we had 25 to 30 people doing the work that was required of us. With about 5 now, how much work do you really think can be done?

It is comforting to me to know that no matter what happens to the earthly organization called The Rosicrucian Fellowship that the Rosicrucian Teachings will go on and be available to all who seek its knowledge. The Fellowship web domains and websites are now being handled properly, by those who are or were close enough to Fellowship matters that they know what they are doing. One of the great tragedies of the Fellowship is that people came into the administration not knowing anything about the day-to-day business or the needs of the Fellowship. So many bad decisions were made. Well, now, no matter how bad things get, Max Heindel’s materials are preserved so that inexperienced people can’t mess things up (hopefully). The Rosicrucian Teachings have always been built around self-reliance, so if anyone wants to study these Teachings our websites, courses (in pdf format), e-books, etc. enable everyone to get what they may be looking for.

ER How many people contact you after being attracted to your website?  What kinds of issues or needs do they have?

AllenPeople contact me for various reasons. Some need programming help, some would like custom programs, some need their computers serviced, some want to learn more about astrology or cosmodynes, some like the idea of my Match-Making database where they can be matched with astrologically harmonious people using the technique I invented called dual cosmodynes, and some want to add my astrological calculation scripts to their websites so people can get astrological calculations done through those sites. It’s that and more. I like to think that by making myself available and able to be found, that the people who need to find me do. That is how God works in my life.

ER Are you still heavily into research and study of the Kerry Theory of astrology?  What conclusions have you drawn about it?

AllenI wish I were doing more with it, but I am waiting on the inventor of the Theory (Kerry) to get to the point in her research where we can take the next big steps forward, one being making a software program that will help us regular people understand and be able to apply the Theory. To me the Kerry Theory is a great discovery because I have not seen any other methodology in my 35 years of astrology that actually works in a consistent manner in describing when events occur. Everything else in the predictive astrology field is filled with so much inconsistency in the workings of its techniques that it is not only laughable, but mainly useless. Oh, sure, some will throw a few progressions and solar arcs and solar returns and asteroids – blah, blah – at the wall and something is surely bound to stick (always IN HINDSIGHT, of course). But does that mean that whatever sticks has any real predictive value in the future and will be consistent when applied to another case? Not hardly. My study of the Kerry Theory leads me to believe that all this will change when we better understand how predictive astrology really works – using this Theory. We will see in the course of time.

ER re: Chiron and its influence.  What signs do you believe to be most associated with that (planetoid?)  Do you believe that only planets have planetary spirits?  What about the asteroids, etc.?

AllenFor me the jury is still out on Chiron. Yes, the Magi Society says Chiron is great and wonderful and you have the asteroid devotees who swear by it and a 100 other bodies of ice. But I don’t see the definitive proof of its working or the working of any of the other asteroids. My study of my own chart does not need these extra bodies to explain my life and what’s in it. Therefore, why add superfluous material to the mix that can only muddy the waters? Plus, I believe Max Heindel when he says that the planets are the physical bodies of great Hierarchs and that this is truly the reason astrology works. I can’t see how a comet or a meteor or any like such object (old and useless debris) has the spiritual influence behind it as the planets do. Elbert Benjamine, who founded the Brotherhood of Light, felt the same way. Both he and Max Heindel had spiritual sight, so I trust them more than I do people without it. Course it’s true that new things are constantly being made known to us. But being a natural-born troubleshooter and engineer, I am skeptical of something until it can prove itself. I try to keep my mind open, and there a lot of interesting thoughts regarding other things in astrology, but I’m not yet ready to hang my hat on them just yet. I might be wrong, but who knows?

Getting back to Chiron – everyone talks about “wounded healer”. I really have no conception of what that really means in plain English. In my own chart I have Chiron in the 1st house exactly quincunx Uranus in the 8th and exactly square my MC. Have I ever seen any evidence of “wounded healing”? No. So I have to ask, “What’s the big deal?” Just because it works at times in other people’s charts (seemingly) does not mean that it can consistently be used like the usual planets. To me, this is more hit-and-miss astrology. So I have no idea what Chiron truly represents, if anything (I don’t see his influence in my chart), what he might rule, etc. The jury is still out on him and all the others, including Sedna, etc.

ER What kind of astrological counseling do you do?

Allen For better or worse I have never really come to grips with the argument about whether astrologers should charge money or not for their services. On the one hand, I can see why they should be compensated just as doctors and psychologists are because a true astrologer tries to diagnose and help people through their difficulties, just like others do who work in the healing professions. Yet, I have never been able to forget that Max Heindel says that no true spiritual astrologer ever charges money for their services. So because of this personal “cross-to-bear”, I have never practiced astrology for a living. For a time back in the mid-90’s I was selling my astrology CALCULATION programs. It was a learning experience and a trial run. It’s funny, but when I got to the Fellowship back in January, 1998, about the first thing the people there wanted to do was throw me out for offering natal reports on my website for $10 or $15 (to cover mailing, paper, toner, etc.). Van Demick said this was being a professional astrologer and as we all know you cannot be a member of the Fellowship while being a professional astrologer. I was basically given a choice – sell your reports and leave the Fellowship or stop charging money to cover your costs. As it turned out I was experiencing a transit Uranus to natal Mars opposition from the 3rd to 9th houses at that time and on the very day this aspect was exact, I decided then to do everything for free – free programs, free reports, free everything. I thought that was a much better channel for those Uranus-Mars energies than getting whacked in a car accident or something similar. So the Fellowship let me stay and that “witch hunt” at MountEcclesia turned into nothing. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the last of the “witch hunts”. But those are different stories.

ER What have you done with astrology programming that you feel is your biggest contribution?

AllenProbably the free programs and the free natal report interpretations that have enabled anyone with an interest in astrology to start learning it no matter their financial situation. The Teachings came to me basically free and I have tried to make as much of my efforts as possible also freely available to whomever was interested. Secondly, in time, I also believe my dual cosmodyne technique might prove itself worthy in informing people about whom they are really harmonious with. You remember that Max Heindel spoke of a “marriage bureau” in the future that would help the right people get together. Well, maybe one day, dual cosmodynes will help. But that will probably be long after I’m gone. But my source code is out there for someone to further develop as they see fit.

ER Which of these (or any other) activities do you enjoy the most?

Allen Programming and working – far and above away from anything else. The greatest blessing in life is work – at least work you love – and I have always been blessed that I can spend most every day doing what I love. I wish more people would educate themselves and become educated in Noel Tyl’s Midheaven Extension Process, which is used in vocational astrology to zero in on what people SHOULD be doing. It’s a crime to see so many people unhappy in what they do. One of these days . . .

Thank you for allowing me to share.

ERYou have assembled the RF websites, your own website, and my website.  Are you interested in attracting business — or setting up websites for others?

AllenYes, I will listen to people’s needs and if I can help, then okay.

ERAre you interested in IT work of the type you have provided for me?  Like, Your Friendly Help Desk for Little Old Ladies Who Can Follow Directions??

AllenYes, I will listen to all ideas.