Two Eccentric (?) Sun Aquarians

I came across this pair separately while searching for something else, I couldn't resist featuring them this week, especially as they both have Sun in Aquarius birthdays.

Billy Meier born February 3 1937 in Bulach/ZH, Switzerland

Bob Lazar born January 26, 1959 in Coral Gables, Florida, USA

I have been known to scoff at the idea that Sun in Aquarius, especially when aided and abetted by other planets and/or sensitive points in that sign, necessarily has attributes connected to Uranus: eccentricity, the unexpected, interest in all that is futuristic. Unless there are clear aspects and connections to Uranus in a natal chart, I (with Sun in Aquarius myself) tend to lean towards the traditional ruler of Aquarius, Saturn. I like to think that Aquarius is the Airy version of Saturn with an inventive turn of mind, socially conscious and with great respect for logic; while Capricorn is the Earthy version, business oriented, regimented, disciplined. These two guys might just persuade me otherwise though!

In addition to the Wikipedia links above, here are nutshell and rather more friendly explanations of who they are and why they are well-known, at least among certain segments of society.

Billy Meier- Supposed life-long contactee with the 'Pleidians', humanoid life forms who fly in 'Beamships'. Has provided hundreds of beautiful photos of their craft, which all have stood up to professional analytical scrutiny, as well as rheims of technical info provided by the extraterrestrials, which has also stood up to scientific scrutiny. For someone with one arm and no access to a photolab or computer facilities (most of the photos were taken in the 70's) with education at a fifth grade level, it is difficult to believe that this is a hoax. However, because of the potential implications and outrageousness of the story, it is also difficult to believe that this is real!


Bob Lazar- A 'Mad Scientist' who invented such crazy contraptions as a rocket powered car. He was drafted by the US government to work for them at Area 51, or more specifically the 'S4' facility a few miles from it. At S4, he claimed, there are 9 UFO's being studied in an 'amateurish' fashion by the US military under the highest secrecy level (Bob had a clearance about 30 levels higher than the President). He was chucked out after taking some friends to see a test of one such craft, and went public to ensure the authorities didn't kill him.

Above clips are from:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread31491/pg1


So...I'm investigating their natal charts for similarities - just for the hell of it. Without exact times of birth what can be gleaned from the noon charts, below, is limited. The rising signs of this pair would be most enlightening!

After pondering on the two charts for a while, I have not been struck with the thought that either one was "the chart of a real nut job". "Crazy like a fox" could be nearer the mark though.

Both men have mentally oriented Aquarius Suns, neither of their natal Suns is in tight harmonious aspect to Uranus, planet of eccentricity, but Lozar's is in rather wide opposition to it.

Neptune, planet of imagination and dreams, is more of a significant feature in Meier's chart. Neptune in Virgo trines his Mercury/Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn, and sextiles natal Mars, and possibly Moon in Scorpio. Meier has Saturn in Pisces, the sign ruled by Neptune, and it lies in sextile to Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn. I certainly see Meier as more of an imagination-led character than Lozar, but still with a certain innate business sense, courtesy of his Capricorn planets.

Bob Lozar, with additional emphasis on Aquarius from Venus and Chiron, along with natal Sun, also has some strong Capricorn emphasis from Mercury and Saturn. So, again, a grounding and business-related quality is present. Mars from Taurus adds more "feet on the ground" flavour, further emphasised by a trine to his Capricorn Mercury. In Lozar's case Neptune, king of imagination, is in close square to Aquarius Sun - so not as harmonious to his nature as in the case of Billy Meier.

Conclusion from limited detail available: It isn't possible for anyone to know for sure whether there have ever been concrete, real-life happenings and reasons behind the stories the two men have told, or whether all has grown from pure imagination. Both men do know, full well, when they are onto a good thing, though! They have not been shy to continually embroider and continue their stories, whether in the cause of fame, fortune, or fear of loss of face.

 Billy Meier

 Bob Lazar

Arty Farty Friday ~ H. R. Giger

H.R. Giger, surrealist, artist, sculptor, architect and designer was known for his dark, somewhat satanic artworks, said to have been inspired by his own nightmares. His work included, famously, his work on the 1979 movie Alien, including design of the title character. Giger died in 2014 of injuries suffered from a fall.

Excerpts from a New York Times obituary by Douglas Martin.

Hans Ruedi Giger was born on
Feb. 5, 1940, in the southeastern Swiss town of Chur. Fascinated with things dark and strange, he regularly visited an Egyptian mummy and sarcophagus in a local museum.

“The places I liked most were the dark ones,” Mr. Giger told the Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation. “As soon as I could dress myself I wore black.”
His father urged Hans, who called himself a “horrible student,” to follow him into the pharmacy business. Instead he studied industrial design at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich.

After working as an interior designer, he switched to art full time, starting with small ink drawings. He moved on to large airbrushed work on surrealistic themes inspired by Salvador Dalí, who became a friend.

Mr. Giger’s early exhibitions were controversial for their depictions of death and sex. Galleries had to wipe the spit of disgusted neighbors from their windows.

A thread running through Mr. Giger’s work was the uneasy meshing of machines and biology, in a highly idiosyncratic blend of science fiction and surrealism. From books to movies to record albums to magazine illustrations to a back-scratcher inspired by “Alien,” his designs challenged norms. He kept a notepad next to his bed so he could sketch the terrors that rocked his uneasy sleep — nightmarish forms that could as easily have lumbered from prehistory as arrived from Mars.

“Giger’s work disturbs us, spooks us, because of its enormous evolutionary time span,” Timothy Leary, the psychedelic drug guru and a friend of Mr. Giger’s, once said. “It shows us, all too clearly, where we come from and where we are going.”

Mr. Giger’s relationship with the Swiss actress Li Tobler ended with her suicide in 1975. His subsequent marriage, to Mia Bonzanigo, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Carmen Scheifele-Giger.

Giger website is HERE. There are numerous examples of Giger's work at Google Image.

Two videos showing some of Giger's work. The first (5+ minutes long) is narrated and includes remarks from Mr Giger himself. The second is longer: 20+ minutes.







ASTROLOGY

Born on 5 February 1940 in Chur, Switzerland at 4.45 PM
(data from astro.com. 'A' rated)

Regarding his style and choice of subject matter only:

Textbook astrology would advise, when considering an artist (and reputed satanist) such as H.R. Giger, looking for Scorpio and/or Pluto prominence in the natal chart, to reflect this artist's choice of style and subject matter. There's no Scorpio planet in his natal chart, but Pluto is quite close to his ascendant angle (within 7 degrees or so) if his time of birth is near accurate. One box ticked? Pluto trines Jupiter, which could be seen as expanding Pluto's already powerful position and presence in the chart.

Perhaps, also, Giger's art and sculpture style is reflected in the Grand Trine linking Uranus, Neptune and Moon. These are in the practical Earth signs, and much of his artwork involves practical skills as well as artistic and imaginative ones. His futuristically inclined Aquarius Sun and Mercury square Uranus, while planet of the arts, Venus, opposes Neptune, but sextiles Uranus. It's a tangled web, but key players, Neptune (creativity), Uranus (odd, surreal), Venus (art), Aquarius (futuristic) and Moon (inner self) are all part of it, and all clearly represent Giger's choices, with strong input also from his prominently placed Pluto.

Southwestern Oddities

We watched an indie movie on DVD the other night, The Wicksboro Incident. It's one of the genre often labelled "found footage", documentary style but purely fictional. The film's theme: Wicksboro, in far south-western Texas (fictional small town) disappeared with its inhabitants sometime in the early 1950s. One survivor emerges from hiding decades later to tell his story to two amateur film-makers. His story involves ...aliens. 'Nuf said. Someone who happens across this blog at some point might wish to see the movie, I don't want to spoil it. It's a short film, only about 70 mins, it starts slowly but builds. There's lots of shaky camera work, dark, almost blank screens with voices only to reassure us the DVD hasn't stuck in its groove (or whatever).

The film set me thinking how an area of south-western United States, New Mexico, part of southern Colorado, and south-western Texas have developed mysterious connections to strange happenings, modern legends, the weird and the would-be wonderful. On our trips, over the years around these areas, we've visited a few locations of mysterious reputation. Roswell, New Mexico always comes to mind first.

We first visited Roswell, New Mexico in 2006, the UFO Museum and Research Center was then situated in the main street, in what appeared to be an old movie theater. A new center for the museum was under construction further down the road.

We read many of the numerous exhibits: newspaper articles, sworn affidavits and other printed material displayed around the walls. The main part of the museum deals, unsurprisingly, with the reported UFO crash near Roswell in 1947. There are, among many other things, reports and signed statements from witnesses who saw evidence of the crash and collected wreckage. Evidence of a request for "child size coffins". In several of the statements, witnesses reported seeing purple colored symbols, hieroglyphic-like, on a strip among the wreckage. There's a statement by a woman medical officer, detailed to take notes at an autopsy of bodies following the crash. She was later sent to England, and subsequently is said to have disappeared - or has not been heard from again.

Who can say how genuine any of the material is, after 60 years have passed? And yet, why would ordinary, everyday people have fabricated such a story, back in 1947 on a summer evening just before midnight, without reason? In those days there were few, if any TV programmes about extra-terrestrial phenomena to ignite the imagination. There were few sci-fi movies. What else but "a happening" could have sparked reports of such a bizarre occurrence as this? We discussed our feelings about the whole Roswell story later, after our museum visit, came to the conclusion that "something" did happen on that night in 1947. The "something" was covered up by lies from those in authority at the time. Lies from government downward are not unknown, even in current history, which fact inclined us to believe at least some of the stories told by witnesses.

On a 2005 trip to see Anasazi cave dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colorado we happened across a UFO Watchtower in the San Luis Valley, near Hooper. The site was run by a friendly lady who told us tales of strange sightings she and others had experienced. She also told us that some Native American tribes believe that their ancestors came from "the stars".

On a later trip, 2011, celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary, in the far north of New Mexico, we intended to see what we could find relating to some strange legends surrounding a tiny town called Dulce, on the border of Colorado and New Mexico, close to the Continental Divide, where altitude reaches 7 to 8 thousand ft at various points. Google search "Dulce, New Mexico" for numerous tales of varying incredibility about Dulce and what lies beneath Archuleta Mesa! We, unfortunately, decided to turn around and head home just before we reached Dulce, due to unexpected wintry weather, altitude (7,871ft), and a few uncomfortable health issues.

One particular little village on Highway 64, Dulce, was going to fascinate yours truly because of stories of UFOs, aliens and a massive 7-layered underground government facility said to be nearby - under a huge mesa. There are also stories/legends of a UFO crash near Aztec village in this area. Again, there's a ton of information, comment from locals and researchers online. Some, if even half-true would be hair-raising. It involves bio-tech experiments (which I can believe), mutilated cattle found regularly around the area (documented), alien cooperation following a firefight between government troops and aliens or "grays" (which I can't believe).

I'd guess that there really is, or was, some kind of underground facility in this area dating from 1950s through 1970s. The fear of nuclear war was fierce then.
The US government, paranoia-filled as usual, could easily have decided to experiment, attempting to plan for all eventualities: mutations, radiation effects, etc. etc. Where better than this wilderness area with plentiful natural underground caverns, easily extended and modified, for use without much chance of discovery? That part of the stories isn't hard to believe, given the atmosphere of those times.

We didn't reach Dulce though. We stayed overnight in Chama, a village 25 miles to the east. The temperature was frigid up there in the mountains, some of what we'd assumed was remnants of the winter's snow remained in the fields and forests over the highest parts of the route.

Neither of us slept a wink that night though. The altitude was probably getting to us both. My husband, restless, decided to get up and play on the laptop. I experienced a severe attack of allergic sneezing which brought on a sharp sinus headache and it simply wouldn't let up. In addition I had developed a troublesome sore on my ankle. We both wondered aloud whether to carry on west or head back to Oklahoma next morning. When we looked outside at about 7 AM we decided at once! Snow had coated the car, and it was still snowing. Probably not at all a surprising find to the locals but a bit disconcerting to southerners like us, spoiled by an unusually warm spring. I hadn't packed any warm clothes. We had to layer up with what we had. It was Sunday, no shops were open to buy warmer clothing - there were no shops around anyway! I'd also managed, somehow, to get myself multi-bitten by an insect (goodness knows what insect would be around in those temps!) I still have 3 itchy bites on my left earlobe, several down the left side of my neck and a cluster of bites on my chest. And they ain't love bites!! We headed home on Sunday morning.

A trip to the Big Bend area of southern Texas in 2012 threw up yet another oddity. In the village of Marfa stories of "the Marfa lights" or "ghost lights" are common. Stange lights, with no logical explanation, have frequently been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of the village. These have gained fame due to some observers having theorised a connection to paranormal phenomena....UFOs, ghostly apparitions etc.

A half-hour drive west of Alpine found us in Marfa, a tiny town made famous by some mysterious lights which appear, intermittently, in the vicinity - Wikipedia explains.

Interestingly the fictional Wicksboro Incident, mentioned at the top of this post, took place in the same general area as Marfa - possibly chosen by its creators because of "the lights"?

I shall remain among the "don't knows" on the topics of UFOs, ghosts, and strange goings-on in general - until I actually experience something to fully convince me otherwise. The experience mentioned below was getting there, it did bring goose bumps. It was an incident unrelated to UFOs and aliens, but still strange. In Santa Fe, New Mexico some years ago, celebrating either my birthday or my husband's.

We had wandered into a hotel lobby thinking it to be the entrance to an arcade of stores. We noticed a bar, still early evening quiet, decided to have a birthday drink there. I considered taking the seat near the wall at the end of the old copper lined bar, but decided it looked rather dark.

I pulled out the next stool along, then felt guilty for leaving a single stool empty, in case a couple might want seats later on - but still, it somehow didn't feel right to move to the end stool. Later in the evening, when some live entertainment was about to begin, it was announced that a beloved regular in this bar, a lady well known in Santa Fe (local singer or musician) had died of cancer a couple of days ago. The seat at the end of the bar had been her usual place to sit. The barman brought her usual drink and placed it there, in her memory. The hairs on the back of my neck began to prickle !