Friday, September 09, 2011

Grab Bag ~ " Madly off in all directions"...Astro and Other.

Madly off in all directions is from a line by famous Canadian writer and humourist Stephen Leacock in his story Gertrude the Governess. ("Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.")

Giddy-up then!

A friend and relative kindly passed on to me a link to a Mental Floss piece about Freddie Mercury, published on what would have been his 65th birthday - 5 September. The writer, Stacy Conradt lists 10 things we might not know about the iconic vocalist of the band Queen. This is #1:
He designed the Queen emblem (AKA the Queen Crest) himself, thanks to a degree in art and graphic design from Ealing Art College. The crest is made of the zodiac signs of the whole band – two Leo lions for John Deacon and Roger Taylor, a Cancer crab for Brian May and two fairies to represent Freddie’s Virgo sign. The “Q” and the crown represent the band name, of course, and a phoenix protects the whole thing.



Dharmaruci's 1st September post at Astrotabletalk titled Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces: the New Reformation? Is well worth a good long read, with plenty of food for thought.




From Thomas Paine's essay on The Origins of Free-Masonry published in New York, 1818:
Masonry (as I shall show from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of Masonry) is derived and is the remains of the religion of the ancient Druids; who, like the Magi of Persia and the Priests of Heliopolis in Egypt, were Priests of the Sun. They paid worship to this great luminary, as the great visible agent of a great invisible first cause whom they styled " Time without limits."
.........In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Druids are preserved in their original state, at least without any parody. With them the Sun is still the Sun; and his image, in the form of the sun is the great emblematical ornament of Masonic Lodges and Masonic dresses..............Free Masons Hall, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards of 12,000 pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this building, says (page 152,) "The roof of this magnificent Hall is in all probability the highest piece of finished architecture in Europe. In the center of this roof, a most resplendent Sun is represented in burnished gold, surrounded with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with their respective characters........................ The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the persecution of the Christian church, have always spoken in a mystical manner of the figure of the Sun in their Lodges, or, like the astronomer Lalande, who is a Mason, been silent upon the subject.




A fascinating piece and super photographs by Michael Simpson, describes how Freemasonry and astrology were involved in the building of Washington DC. Their input can be traced, easily. : Esoteric & Masonic Symbolism In Washington D.C.




Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. is through to the Finale of America's Got Talent, to be held next Tuesday. See also my previous post about him.


He was one of the four finalists chosen by audience votes from this week's 8 semi-finalists. His version of the Rat-Pack favourite "Ain't that a Kick In the Head" was very well received by audience, judges, and us, parked on the sofa. We even agreed (for once) with Piers Morgan's comment - Landau is the only act, from the show, that we'd pay to watch for an hour and a half. He seems like such a lovely guy too. Still can't find his birth date. Anybody?








We watched a DVD of the movie Off the Map recently. Nice story, with the gorgeous Sam Elliot in a starring part.
The storyline features a family living off the grid - attempting to remain self-sufficient, as many people think we should all be aiming to do in coming years, if we and the planet are to survive. How and why this family decided to live as they do isn't touched on in the movie, which is adapted from a play by Joan Ackermann. Keys to the storyline are Sam Elliott's character's deep chronic depression and the arrival of an IRS (tax) auditor.

A storyline relating to a rural family and the arrival of a taxman reminded me, initially, of a beloved British TV series from the early 1990s,
The Darling Buds of May, with David Jason as Pop Larkin - but any similarity ended there. Pop Larkin was definitely not depressed!







Always on my own "learning curve", I try never to miss a chance to investigate stuff I'm hazy about. Like this: a reference to "sui generis" in a piece of writing relating to, would you believe, Sarah Palin?

From rusty memories of grammar school Latin I kind of got the writer's meaning, but to check myself consulted Merriam Webster
Definition of SUI GENERIS: constituting a class alone : unique, peculiar .
Example:
"Among history's greats Leonardo da Vinci is often considered sui generis—a man of such stupendous genius that the world may never see his like again."
Origin: Latin translated: of its own kind
First Known Use: 1754
Synonyms: alone, lone, one, one-off, singular, sole, solitary, special, only, unique
Sarah Palin, sui generis? I guess that works, but not in the way it works for Leonardo! She does have several planets in Aquarius, after all, Aquarius is, I'd propose, the "sui generis" sign.



(Rant warning)Rick Perry, Texas Governor, has been in the GOP nomination race for much shorter time than any of the other candidates, yet he gets publicity and poll numbers way out of proportion to his standing. My gut feeling: he has excessive support from behind-the-scenes people with purse strings and power strings. I understand that Perry is backed by the money men of the energy industry, while Mitt Romney who appears to be his nearest rival at present, is backed by the deep pockets of Wall Street. More reasonable candidates such as Jon Huntsman, though personally wealthy, don't have the necessary outside backing it takes to be properly noticed. It's becoming easier to see the game plan of The Powers That Be as the weeks pass.

Yuk-est moment of the week ocurred in the GOP debate on Wednesday evening when the audience gave a rousing ovation to Perry's stance on the death penalty, his record number of 234 executions, and his response that he "does not struggle" with the possibility of executing an innocent person. Ye gods!!!! Blood pressure rising......What is this, the New Old West or what? Don't these people evolve at all? They don't believe in evolution do they? That answers a lot.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

GP: Your blog, dear T. is one of the most stimulating one's I know. Always coming up with knew angles of the human drama we all are living.

The Free-Masons, the true ones, unfortunately lost control of what genuine knowledge they once had. Sic transit Gloria Mundi...

Nothing can withstand the erosion of time - except maybe ASTROLOGY!(?)!- if correctly used.

Why? It accompanies the movements of celestial cycles - and those, for humans at least - are eternal.

On Perry (and politicians in general): Have to think of a book, The Master Game by Robert the Ropp, I once red. He evidences various "games". Amongst the LOWER ones the "Cock on a Dunghill". Stands for all politicians: Will do or say anything that get's him/her into the front pages. Regardless of right or left.

The problem today, using an analogy (also from de Ropp, not the writer, but the bio-scientist): "It takes two to make a desease: the parasite and the host". Today's society (the host) is too easily INFECTED by lying, devious, undeserving politicians, the PARASITES. But again, "sic transit Gloria Mundi"...

PS. Robert de Ropp was an Aquarian, born Feb. 1. 1913 in England. Know somebody who likes such coordinates.

Twilight said...

Anonymous/Gian Paul ~~
It's sweet of you to say so sir, and much appreciated. :-)

Yes, Freemasons have an intriguing history, but these days seem to be ignoring it, in favour of greasing each other's palms and filling their coffers. I bet hardly any of them would have a good word to say about astrology, for instance.

Re Perry ~~We learn early on that we shouldn't take anything politicans say as truth - but we do tend to forget this, often, when frustration or enthusiasm overtake us. In Perry's case, I wish he WAS trying to fool us, but in many of hos remarks I fear he's deadly earnest (and I use the word "deadly" advisedly!) He's dangerous - but it IS easy to see in his case, which should help (but will it?)

I shall investigate Robert de Ropp.
:-)

Anonymous said...

GP: Re. Freemasons - in the old days (and I knew a freemason old-day-type in Geneva who also was an astrologer, and some of his friends were (but he would not say if they were also free-masons, they had to keep secret about that).

Some certainly were inter-related with astrology and other "secret knowledge". We know little about that. It so happens that one of my grandfathers was a free-mason. I know about it from my mother. She told me that during the economic crisis of the 30's her father had made a pact with other freemasons to help each other out. Once. If one of them failed after being helped out, he had to commit himself to suicide. That's how my grandmother found out, and then my mother...

But he died of a medical error in his hospital bed. Don't know if the doc was a freemason. They certainly would have kept silent about that!

James Higham said...

Masonry (as I shall show from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of Masonry) is derived and is the remains of the religion of the ancient Druids

There's a certain amount of Ea and Nimrod's legacy in there too.

Twilight said...

Anonymous/Gian Paul

Whoa! That was extreme - the suicide commitment! The masons are definitely a very, very closed clique/cult, for sure. I hate that old tradition of keeping secret knowledge - and supposed power -over the Great Unwashed (and un-masoned).

To my knowledge I've never met oa Freemason - but how would I know - they being such a secretive crowd?
Must be ruled by Pluto eh?

Twilight said...

James Higham ~~ I wouldn't doubt it, James. I bet there's a veritable smorgasbord of ancient tradition folded in to their ritual.

Wisewebwoman said...

I saw Off the Map a few years ago and loved it.
Of course Sam Elliot could recite the phonebook and I'd be glued to my chair.
As to Perry, he's the next president, US is ripe for him, He makes my head burst with his pronouncements, I honestly now try and avoid him.
XO
WWW

Diane said...

My gut is telling me it's gonna be Perry & Bachmann and that makes me physically ill but I think you're right US is more than ripe for it.

David Macadam said...

Hi! Love the site. I am not an astrologer but have a blog about politicians standing for power in America. (My take is more genealogical than astrological) But I have noted the interest America has always had in astrology. Your blog has peeked an interest in doing a piece on the charts of the candidates. Could I ask if I can use your charts etc with all due credits and links to your excellent site of course!. You can check me at http://theoligarchkings.wordpress.com Thanks David

Twilight said...

Wisewebwoman ~~ My fellow Sam Elliott fan! He did a great job in Off the Map, I thought. Quite different from most of his other roles.

I'm hoping Perry will over-stretch himself over coming months, put his foot in mouth too many times even for for the average rightwing US voter. Long way to go yet, many broken bridges to cross! But if not.... YIKES!!!
I do have the gut-feeling that he might be the new Chosen One. If so he'll be getting slapped wrists for foot-in-mouth moments, sufficient to rein him in a bit.

I shall watch and learn.

Twilight said...

Diane ~~~ That prospect is a hundred times worse than just Perry and, say, Huntsman. I doubt he'd pick such a reasonable VP as JH though.

Ripeness ends in either the fruit rotting or the abscess bursting....if we do get him/her, it actually could do some good, in the long run, but I won't wish that on us. An abscess bursting is a painful and messy experience we could well do without. :-)

Twilight said...

David Macadam ~~~ Hi there! Thank you for your kind comments.
Of course - please do feel free to use any charts, or pics or anything else from anywhere on the blog. I'd be flattered!

I'm going to be reading your blog today -looking forward to it. I'll pop a link to it in the list in my sidebar later too, for other passing readers.