Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch, astrological researcher, is no more
– March 5th, 2008
I’m shocked and saddened to belatedly happen upon the news that one of the leading stars in the world of statistical research into astrology, Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch, died in January – see article ‘L’astrologie en deuil’ written by fellow French astrologer Didier Geslain below:
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:U0NsHjTEs1kJ:www.didiergeslain.fr/01Actualite/Actualite.html+%22Suzel+Fuzeau-Braesch%22+mort&hl=sv&ct=clnk&cd=5
As Geslain points out, she was a Docteur D’Etat (the highest academic honour in France) in sciences, this award apparently having been granted at the Sorbonne. Additionally she was on the committee of honour of one of the leading French astrological organisations, the Fédération des Astrologues Francophones, of which until recently Geslain himself was the vice-president.
http://www.fdaf.org/
As the headline news on the home-page there shows, living legend André Barbault was also until recently on the committee of honour but there appears to have been a major rift based on a directive within the organisation to exclude predictive astrology as an accepted practice among its members, resulting in Barbault, Geslain and several others leaving.
This role apart, Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch was also vice-president of the RAMS, a dedicated group of serious scientific and statistical astrological researchers based in France, and it was in this role that I made contact with her, tragically briefly, last November (2007).
She expressed personal interest in my ideas for research projects and provided a detailed preliminary response to them. Aside from being scientifically astute, she was clearly a warmly engaging conversationalist who also evoked a strong humanity and sensitivity to the potentially problematic social and political consequences of particular proposed lines of research. Little did I suspect from the vital and engaging manner of her correspondence that this would be the last I would ever hear from her.
I had sincerely hoped and expected that this contact would be the beginning of a long-lasting correspondence with her on statistical astrological research. Knowing that I would not have sufficient time to commit myself fully to the implementation of my own proposed lines of research in the near future, I was happy to put this correspondence on hold in the short to medium term. This I now regret, yet I am glad to retain her words of advice ready to view on the hard drive of this very computer. It is hard to believe that they are the words of someone who ceased to be among the living barely two months after they were typed.
I also regret not having the presence of mind to immediately read and discuss with her the contents of two of her most serious books on scientific astrology which I enthusiastically purchased in the wake of my initial correspondence with her. These are ‘L’astrologie: la preuve par deux’ (Éditions Laffont, Paris 1992) and ‘Comment démontrer l’astrologie: expérimentation et approches théoriques’ (co-written with Hervé Delboy, Éditions Albin Michel, 1999).
A brief bibliography (in English) of her works is found at Francis Santoni’s ‘Aureas’ site here:
http://www.aureas.org/rams/bibliographiefuzeaubraeschus.htm
Philip
PS: I just found another tribute to her on the FdAF website here, whose revelation that she chose to have her own life terminated by assisted euthanasia because she was progressively losing her eyesight has at the same time shocked me even further yet reconciled the unexpected news of her death with my sense of her great vitality at the time of my recent correspondence with her.
http://www.fdaf.org/P4_med_03_sbm_2.htm
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