Arty Farty Friday ~ Mark Ryden and his accidentally appropriate painting for today

Mark Ryden, an artist/illustrator whose birthday it is today - born 20 January 1963, created a piece of artwork eerily appropriate to THIS 20 January, inauguration day of Donald Trump as President of the USA. Here it is, titled The Pumpkin President - I doubt Mr Ryden had The Donald in mind when painting this in 1998 though.

A little about the artist from e-zine in a piece by S. Rupert: The Artwork of Mark Ryden

Mark Ryden's artwork has been described as captivating and disconcerting, mysterious and enthralling, unsettling, mystical, cuddly and frightening all at once.

Ryden has been referred to as the king of the Pop Surrealism movement. Mixing joyful child-like imagery with disconcerting pieces of body parts or bizarre sights in nature, forming a strange mixture of children's book images and meat or blood. Moved by alchemy, metaphysics, science, and philosophy and attracted to ancient cryptic symbols and mystical imagery, Mark Ryden produces incredible storybook artworks which are stunning yet disturbing.

Ryden's artwork mixes saccharine-sweet, cartoon-like characters with a detailed fullness and a eerie combination of numerology, little girls, meat, Catholic and Buddhist symbolism, and carnivalesque Americana. fascinated by things that take you back to memories from childhood, Mark Ryden frequently incorporates toys, as well as scenes of bunnies, children, clowns, and ice cream trucks, which just happen to be united with skulls and porterhouse steaks............

Astrologically, Mark Ryden has Sun at 00 Aquarius, conjunct Mercury at 29 Capricorn; Saturn is at 12 Aquarius. A mix of the eccentric and unexpected with traditional underpinnings then - and that fits.

Natal Venus, planet of the arts in Sagittarius sextiles Saturn and squares Jupiter in Pisces, also semi-sextiles Neptune in Scorpio. I'd say this is the source of the unsettling side of Ryden's artwork - the link to Neptune in Scorpio draws in a touch of the macabre! Saturn's square to Jupiter in Pisces inhibits any unadulterated softness/sweetness which might otherwise have been more apparent. Natal Moon could be in either Sagittarius or late Scorpio, depending on exact time of birth - I'd bet on Scorpio!


Video showing some of Mark Ryden's artwork:

Inauguration & Days to Come

One of the best, nicely balanced astrological overviews of what we might expect from coming weeks and months regarding our President-to-be, is :


President Trump’s First 100 Days
by Pat Paquette at The Mountain Astrologer.

What I noticed, when looking at the chart for 20 January, Inauguration Day: Sun is at 00 Aquarius and will be conjunct Fixed Star Tarazed part of Constellation Aquila - The Eagle.

Bearing in mind that the Inauguration chart is not Trump's birth chart, but simply a chart indicating the "atmosphere" surrounding the day's events:

From Skyscript

In classical myth the eagle was the bird of Zeus who returned his master's thunderbolts and carried to him the souls of heroes. In The Royal Art of Astrology, Robert Eisler explains how, at the funerals of' Roman emperors, an eagle was lightly fastened to the top of the pyre so that as soon as the fire had singed its fetters, it would break free of its bonds and fly away - apparently bearing aloft the soul of the departed. The location of Aquila by the side of Aquarius, and its flight across the Milky Way was thus said by some classical authors to represent the ascension of Ganymede (identified with Aquarius) to Zeus. Modern scholars prefer the theory that this constellation's name was assigned when it was near the summer solstice - the bird of greatest elevation being chosen to assume the symbolism of the summit of the Sun.

The imagery of the eagle has always been identified with the qualities of strength, courage, nobility and dignity, which accords with Ptolemy's belief that its stars are of the nature of Mars and Jupiter. Manilius illustrates the Martian trait in his description of those born under its influence:

He that is born in the hour of its rising will grow up bent on spoil and plunder, won even with bloodshed … Yet, should perchance his aggressiveness be enlisted in a noble cause, depravity will turn to virtue, and he will succeed in bringing wars to a conclusion and enriching his country with glorious triumphs.

Seems a reasonably good omen for the day!

Inaugu-rational

News keeps coming of those who will perform, and those who are feeling so "saintly" that they refuse to perform at this week's events associated with the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump. That news is quickly followed by further outpourings of who will attend the inauguration ceremony and who - because "principles" - will not; then come declarations by those among billions of internet commenters, who will NOT watch the inauguration on TV.

Ye gods, I swear - this country sounds more adolescent by the hour!

 Refusing to look doesn't make Trump go away!

I'm a comparative newcomer to the USA, maybe I still don't fully "get it" but, rationally, the inauguration, as against the election and primaries, is simply the "Done Deal". Somebody won; that person must take a time-honoured oath in public view, an oath to uphold the important office they are about to undertake.

Before he enters on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I'd have thought it important, for every citizen, to watch at least the oath-taking part of the ceremony, whatever their politics, whatever their views of the person taking the oath. The rest of the ceremony, and associated events consist, really, of fluff. Type and quality of the fluff depends on the person being inaugurated. Who sings or performs - or doesn't - is 100% unimportant...it's not about them. Knowing exactly who is part of the crowd watching live or via TV or streaming video is totally irrelevant in the great scheme of things, it's not about them either! Their supposed pure and "saintly" actions will change nothing at all.