Zodiac Sign Leo, President Obama & a Neptunian Fog.

No two people born with Sun in Leo are remotely alike - so why, even in books by some of the best astrologers, do the authors insist on referring to Leos, Aquarians, Taureans, Geminis....and the rest? They know well enough that there's no such thing as, say, "A Leo" but carry on promulgating the myth. No wonder astrology has become such an easy target for eager skeptics. I complain about this each month as I begin to write about the sign into which the Sun has just moved. Boring, I know, but someone has to do it. (wink)


The Sun has moved from Cancer into the sign of Leo now. Leo, Fixed Fire sign. Sign sandwiched between Cardinal Water Cancer and Mutable Earth Virgo, with very different attributes, atmosphere, characteristics from its neighbours. Being ruled by the lifegiving Sun itself gives Leo a kind of "king of the signs" subtitle, I guess. Some keywords for the sign of Leo's characteristics: vitality (from ruler the Sun), authority, generosity, loyalty (Fixed sign), leadership (Fire sign).
From Leo's darker side: arrogance, vanity, ostentatiousness. These characteristics, though, are subject to modification, blurring, and even being over-ruled completely by other strong factors in any natal chart.

A person born between (approximately) 22 July and 22 August when the Sun is in Leo will often display some of the traits associated with the sign. Some would say that this makes that person "A Leo". An astrologer (Jonathan Cainer, I think) once wrote that calling someone "A......." (fill in zodiac sign of choice) is akin to calling someone "An Italian" or "A German", "A Greek" etc. Pretty darned meaningless and sure to promote stereotyping of which we already have more than enough. Yes, I know JC's a Sun sign astrologer, but he does mention the truth of this point quite often. It's a kind of shorthand for writers and speakers, and as long as it's kept in mind that's what it is, all is well.

I've written about Leo in 7 different archived posts (and perhaps fallen into the shorthand trap myself occasionally). Those posts can be reached by clicking on "Leo" in the sidebar Label Cloud.

For today - another look at "A Leo" often in the news: President Barack Obama.

In several posts before the 2008 General election I mentioned a "Neptunian fog" surrounding Barack Obama which, in spite of his obviously Leo connected charisma and air of authority, was sensed by many people. This came via natal Neptune in Scorpio squaring his Leo Sun. (Chart available at Astrodatabank.) I'd forgotten just how "foggy" the now president and his aims had seemed to me. Extract from a 2008 post:

Barack Obama has fed on, and profits from, the despair of the ordinary people of the USA, that is clear, his motivation is not. There are several theories. Variations on:

a) that he is actually a rabid left-wing socialist/communist, biding his time before showing his true colours, or

b) he has been financed and pushed ahead by Republican manipulation, and will be their tool, changing nothing once in power, but bringing the nation ever nearer to being a fascist state.

Two extremes with variations of them taking in everything inbetween. How many times in the history of US presidential elections has it been possible to talk in such terms about the leading candidate? I don't know, being a newcomer, but I'd bet that this year's experience is pretty unique.

Two years on, it has become clearer that (b) was nearer to the truth, but with the word "Corporate" susbstituted for "Republican". Manipulation of public opinion by the use of corporate money, ensuring the corporate elite never loose the stranglehold they have achieved here in the US. It's scary to think that the public can be so easily deluded (Neptune), more easily now than in days gone by in fact, due to the internet's tentacles and expanded opportunities for subversive input.

Some would say that what has happened is part of a wider event involving some kind of "New World Order" conspiracy by a small bunch of Powerful Ones who aim to take over government of the whole planet. I do not subscribe to that belief, I see it as delusion of a different sort.

In February 2012 transiting Neptune will move from Aquarius (Obama's rising sign) into Pisces, its home sign, and in trine to Obama's natal Neptune in Scorpio. Whether this has any significance or not remains to be seen. So.....what can we expect next? Will Obama be voted in for a second term?

A scoot around the net threw up Astrology and Beyond - website of astrologer Cheryl Lee Terry and her Political Prognostications. I like her view that Obama has a "lucky aspect" (probably his natal Jupiter close to ascendant - powerful position for the planet of luck?) She sees his "lucky aspect" as indicating that...."it’s not that he wins his races — it’s that his opponents lose the race". Good point! My only quibble with Ms Terry's piece is that she refers to the current presidency as "revolutionary":

even as Revolutionary as President Obama’s presidency has been and continues to be....

The only revolutionary factor, as I see it, is that President Obama is the first non-white president of the USA. In all else - it's very much business as usual.

Wednesday Woo-Woo ~ Astral Projection

I've always thought the name given to this experience/phenomenon is a wee bit misleading. It leads one to think it means projecting one's self or one's consciousness into the stars. What astral projection seems to me to be is a kind of manipulation, involuntary or forced, of brain function (putting explanation at its most simple, or crude). A person feels, in this state, that they have left their physical body and can move around outside of it- sometimes at long distance from it. Never having experienced this, however, I'm not best fitted to describe it. There's lots of related information on-line - some highly suspect. Wikipedia has a good page covering most aspects.



Two names come up frequently in articles on astral projection - also called "out of body experiences" (OBE for short): Sylvan Muldoon and Robert Monroe. Both claimed to be experts on the subject, both have written or collaborated with another to write books on the topic. Monroe founded an institute devoted to research into out of body experiences.

As nobody else seems to have looked into the natal charts of these two - I will , just out of curiosity to see whether anything significant emerges.








There's a problem though, I can't find exact birth places for either. Muldoon was born in "the midwest" - I've used Chicago Illinois; Monroe's birthplace is given variously as Virginia, Kentucky or Indiana. I've used Lexington, Kentucky, where he is said to have grown up. Using these locations will at least throw up planetary positions, and as there's no information on times of birth, the ascendant and Moon position can't be accurate anyway.






Sylvan Muldoon was born on 18 February 1903


Sun and 3 personal planets in Aquarius, a strongly mentally oriented individual. Moon more than likely in Scorpio - intuitive/psychic indication.




Robert Monroe born on 30 October 1915



Monroe had Sun in Scorpio as well as a Grand Trine in Water signs linking Venus, Jupiter and Saturn - all indications of intuitive and/or psychic potential.

What I see as linking the two men though are planets conjunct the same Fixed Star. The star in question is Tejat Prior which sits in the early degrees of Cancer, though is actually in the constellation of Gemini. Muldoon had Neptune conjunct Tejat Prior, Monroe had Pluto conjunct the same Fixed Star. In both cases the respective natal planets are also linked to natal Sun via harmonious trine.

C.E.O. Carter wrote that the presence of this Fixed Star in an early degree of astrological Cancer would impart a definite Mercurial value to that degree. In traditional astrology Tejat is interpreted as meaning pride and over confidence, though I tend to take these ancient interpretations with a pinch of salt. As both these 'astral travellers' had a planet close to Tejat Prior, with its Mercurial indications, makes me wonder whether this is in any way linked to the ability to project one's consciousness - an exercise which must surely be linked strongly to Mercurial traits. Both men had natal Mercury in an Air (mental focus) sign: Aquarius and Libra; this places even more emphasis on mental orientation.

When Jane told Paul (McCartney)

Here's a fairly inconsequential trifle I stumbled across at The Beatles Bible website - "not quite as popular as Jesus". It is noted that on this day 20 July, 42 years ago in 1968, Jane Asher announced to Britain, on BBC TV that her engagement to Paul McCartney was over.




Maybe astrology will show itself here.

From The Beatles Bible website:

8.00pm, Saturday 20 July 1968

In an appearance on the BBC Television show Dee Time, Jane Asher told host Simon Dee that her engagement to Paul McCartney had been called off.
I haven't broken it off, but it is broken off, finished.
I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn't worked out. Perhaps we'll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we're about 70.
Jane Asher
Dee Time

I pulled up a chart for 8pm on 20 July 1968, London (centre chart) compared it with Jane Asher's natal chart (outer circle) with detail from Astrodatabank. Ah yes! Jane was inwardly feeling "mad as hell" as transiting Mars (anger) crossed close to her natal Mars and Saturn, and transiting Saturn (limitation) was heading towards her natal Venus (love).





More from Beatles Bible: Paul's reaction -

I always feel very wary including Jane in The Beatles; history. She's never gone into print about our relationship, whilst everyone on earth has sold their story. So I'd feel weird being the one to kiss and tell.

We had a good relationship. Even with touring there were enough occasions to keep a reasonable relationship going. To tell the truth, the women at that time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us. Then it was like: 'We are four miners who go down the pit. You don't need women down the pit, do you? We won't have women down the pit.' A lot of what we, The Beatles, did was very much in an enclosed scene. Other people found it difficult - even John's wife, Cynthia, found it very difficult - to penetrate the screen that we had around us. As a kind of safety barrier we had a lot of 'in' jokes, little signs, references to music; we had a common bond in that and it was very difficult for any 'outsider' to penetrate. That possibly wasn't good for relationships back then.
Paul McCartney
Anthology

McCartney and Asher had been together for five years, since meeting at the Royal Albert Hall in 1963. However, McCartney had a string of other girls, mainly while The Beatles were touring - and in 1968 began an affair with an American woman, Francie Schwartz. Asher arrived unexpectedly at McCartney's home in Cavendish Avenue, London, where she found him in bed with Schwartz. She walked out and sent her mother to collect her belongings, signalling an end to the relationship.

I think inevitably when I moved to Cavendish Avenue, I realised that she and I weren't really going to be the thing we'd always thought we might be. Once or twice we talked about getting married, and plans were afoot but I don't know, something really made me nervous about the whole thing.............

Now well known as an author, Jane Asher has written three best-selling novels: The Longing, The Question and Losing It. She has also had more than a dozen lifestyle, costuming, and cake decorating books published. Asher runs a company making party cakes and sugar crafts for special occasions, and still acts on television and in the theatre. More at Wikipedia.

Music Monday ~ O Fortuna!~ Carl Orff

Everybody must have heard O Fortuna! at least once during their lifetime. It pops up regularly in movies and TV commercials. I first heard it many Moons ago as background music to a TV ad for Old Spice aftershave - in the days when aftershave as a male accessory was in its infancy.

Years later I disvcovered that Carmina Burana, a cantata by German composer Carl Orff, from which O Fortuna! is taken, was derived from a set of mediaeval poems. These poems were discovered in a monastery in Bavaria in 1803. They are not all on sacred subjects, as one might expect from writings found in a monastery, but include poems and songs in Latin, French and German about love, lust, gambling and the trials and tribulations of life on Earth. Carl Orff chose 24 from the much larger collection of poems, and set them to music. O Fortuna! sits at the beginning and end of the cantata he composed in the mid 1930s.

I've only now realised the connection between O Fortuna! and the tarot card from the major arcana: Wheel of Fortune. It's a convoluted journey from an aftershave ad. to the tarot deck! Card illustrated is from the 15th century Vinconti-Sforza deck.

The Wheel of Fortune turns
I go down, demeaned;
another is raised up;
far too proud
sits the king at the summit --
let him fear ruin!
for under the axis we read
about Queen Hecuba

Carl Orff was born on 10 July 1895 in Munich, Germany at 3:15AM. Sun conjunct Jupiter, and Mercury all in Cancer, and Cancer rising. His natal chart can be viewed here, at Astrodatbank. Zodiac sign Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana begins with a direct reference to his ruling luminary. Translation:

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Orff has, over the years, had some justifiably bad press, related to his acquiescence during the Nazi regime, and betrayal of his close friend Kurt Huber. Huber was a founder of the resistance movement, White Rose. Perhaps Orff was a weak and selfish man who, while not being a member of the Nazi party, had achieved acceptance of his music by the ruling regime. He was not courageous enough to forego this in order to offer aid when his friend was arrested, tortured and executed. Is this a reflection of a typically Cancerian trait: withdrawal from danger and unpleasantness. I wonder. It's best not to judge the guy too harshly. None of us knows what we'd do in his position, in those circumstances. We might think we know -but we really do not.

This dramatic video presentation of O Fortuna! would, I suspect, have pleased Carl Orff. It features a singer discovered by the TV show The X Factor in 2007, Rhydian Roberts and chorus:

and...IN OTHER NEWS...................

Very Jupiter conjunct Uranus: flying saucer over China ? (No pun intended)


Ditto : Chupacabra - weird things in Texas. No change there then!


Piers Morgan taking over from Larry King? Say it isn't so!


Streetwise in Italy - lots different from streewise in Oklahoma!





100 mind-blowing sculptures. At around 2/3 of the way through there's one with your friendly neighbourhood blogger posing with a big red creation (shown here in miniature). Photo borrowed (I think with permission) from the husband's website. It was taken a few years ago on a visit to Oklahoma City. 15 seconds of fame, shared with a red sculpture.








Socialism in the USA (wink) They can't spell it, it sends their apostrophes awry and they don't even know what it is! From a collection of funny misspelled signs

Arty Farty Friday ~ Astrological Graffiti

Is graffiti art? My husband will hold at length, and with some passion, that it is definitely not. Graffiti, my husband holds, is pure vandalism. I'm not quite as adamant on this, depending on circumstance.

Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Wikipedia

Grafitti has been part of the human experience for centuries - aeons in fact when petroglyphs are taken into consideration. Graffiti created by prisoners through the centuries is one type that holds special fascination. The Tower of London has several exceptional examples - they must have imprisoned some very skilled craftsmen and artists!




There's an interesting and lovely example of ancient graffiti in that part of the Tower of London known as The Salt Tower. Carved by a prisoner held in the Tower in the 16th century. It is described thus in the Tower of London Tour ( Electronic Library )

.....the Salt Tower, on the E. side,containing the curious sphere, with the signs of the zodiac, &c.,engraved on the walls. May 30th, 1561, by Hugh Draper, of Bristol, committed to the Tower in 1560, on suspicion of
sorcery and practice against Sir William St. Lowe and his lady.

This inscription in the Salt Tower reads 'Hew Draper of Brystow made this spheere the 30 day of Maye anno 1561'. Imprisoned for sorcery, Hew Draper surrounded his 'sphere' with the signs of the zodiac. Copyright Historic Royal Palaces

"Salt Tower: This was formerly called Julius Caesar's Tower and is of special interest as containing more prisoners' inscriptions than any other, except the Beauchamp Tower; they are moreover in their original places, which many of those in the Beauchamp Tower are not." Here

Goodness only knows what mischief old Hugh/Hew was up to, though I doubt it had much connection with his astrological know-how! Astrologers in those days dabbled in alchemy and occasionally "the dark arts" - whatever they may be. Astrology itself wasn't defined as sorcery in those days, as far as I know. Queen Elizabeth the First herself consulted astrologer John Dee:

When Elizabeth I has to set the date of her coronation, she asks 'her noble intelligencier', the astrologer John Dee. After casting a horoscope, Dee comes up with 15 January 1559. He is a mathematical whiz kid, who also studies astronomy, cartography and medicine. But his belief in the spirit world leads him to have conversations with angels, search for the fabled philosopher's stone.(Time Travellers' Guide to Tudor England)

History never fails to draw me in, so I delved a little deeper to find out more about "William St. Lowe and his lady". It turns out that "his lady" was Bess of Hardwick - described in the synopsis of a biography written by Mary S. Lovell: see extracts below. The relevant sentence perhaps: "She survived sorcery, a poisoning attempt by her brother-in-law and charges of embezzlement."

Bess of Hardwick - First Lady of Chatsworth (1527 - 1608)

Bess Hardwick, born into the most brutal and turbulent period of England's history, the fifth of six daughters of an impoverished Derbyshire nobleman who died before her first birthday, did not have a particularly auspicious start in life. Widowed for the first time at sixteen, yet she outlived four monarchs, married three more times, founded dynasties that still wield influence today, and died one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in England's history.............. Bess Hardwick bore eight children and built an empire of her own including the great houses of Chatsworth and Hardwick.
She survived sorcery, a poisoning attempt by her brother-in-law and charges of embezzlement. She negotiated the tortuous Elizabethan laws of succession and inheritance, endured the probable murder of her third beloved husband, married a fourth time to a senior peer (the Earl Marshall of England) and became co-guardian of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell

Astrologers' Words of Wisdom #8 ~ John Anthony West

These words of wisdom are taken from The Case For Astrology by John Anthony West, published 1991 (500 pages). The author presents "compelling new evidence that proves the astrological premise: that correlations exist between events in the sky and on earth, and that correspondences exist between the human personality and the positions of the planets at birth."

John Anthony West is described on the dustjacket not as astrologer, but as "writer, scholar and Pythagorean, born in New York City in 1932." This book entitles him to be included in the "Astrologers' Words of Wisdom" set - none moreso in fact. In his blog John Anthony West's Phoenixfire Blog (not updated since 2008) his profile reads: "Rogue egyptologist and mystic in skeptic's clothing." Perhaps the blog was superseded by his website (here).

This book, addressing astrology and its opponents, was something of a departure for Mr. West whose books have concentrated mainly on Egyptology. Good on him for taking the time, hard work and enthusiasm to produce such an excellent volume on this different, yet related, topic!

In the Summing Up section under the paragraphs headed Conclusion he writes:

For the universe is in every one of its manifestations and interchanges nothing but order and coherence - though that order and coherence is invariably the outcome or result of a fundamental drama in which the forces of order prevail over the forces of disorder. It is this drama that is the basis of so many of the Creation myths all over the world, in Egypt for example, expressed in the battles betweem Seth and Horus, and the Osirian cycle of death and rebirth.

But if disorder or randomness were the essential characteristic of our world, the norm as it were, and order merely an accident, there could be no science in any meaningful sense, since nothing would be measurable, repeatable or predictable - and measurability, repeatability and predictability are cornerstones of the scientific method.

Yet, it is a fact that not a single one of astrology's many and vociferous foes addresses this aspect of astrology (astrology as a paradigm of cosmic order), while virtually every serious book that attempts to defend astrology within the framework of our modern understanding insists upon the existence, reality and validity of these metaphysical and Pythagorean principles.*

This impasse is probably beyond resolve. For it does not rest upon proof or disproof, the desire for objectivity, or even upon deliberate bad faith and stupidity on the part of astrology's opponents, though there is no shortage of either. It rests ultimately upon psychological factors, upon levels of understanding, and upon different - and diametrically opposed - ways of viewing the world.

*Footnote: The extreme science-oriented wing of astrology is an exception. Its proponents accept the scientific evidence as it stands but are as uncomprehending of the metaphysical implications as the skeptics

.

Wednesday Woo-Woo ~ OUIJA

What lies behind the purpose of a Ouija Board is definitive "woo". Contacting spirits of the dead links to lots of other woo-ish bits and pieces: ghosts, past lives, divination, prodigies....and on.

Having never used the device myself, I can't vouch for its efficacy or otherwise. My delving into woo stops short at astrology and tarot these days, I only do what I'm drawn to do. When younger I did experiment with spiritualism by attending a few spiritualist meetings and churches, but didn't continue along that route. I'm not a complete skeptic when it comes to Ouija, just a curious bystander who has never been drawn to experiment.

In its current style the Ouija Board originated in the late 19th century, in the USA. It was, however, an extension of a much older tradition of contacting spirits of the dead. Such tradition has reportedly been traced back to China, centuries before the birth of Confucius (circa 550 B.C.E.). Fu Chi or Fuji, an accepted form of Chinese spirit writing, is what's known in the west as automatic writing. Spirits were thought to guide a pen or stick, in sand or on paper, to form letters or glyphs. Some have tried to make a link from Ouija Boards to ancient Greece, and Pythagorus, but that idea seems to have been discredited.




We can safely say that it was an upsurge in spiritualism and theosophy in late 19th century USA that led to the spread of "talking boards". There's some evidence, though disputed, that a Maryland cabinet/ coffin maker, E.C. Reiche (or Reichie?) , designed and constructed the first board that came to be known by the name Ouija. He is said to have sold the rights of manufacture to Charles Kennard; the first patent was filed in 1890. These days rights to The Ouija Board are held by Parker Brothers who acquired them in 1960 - just in time for a New Age/hippie era?

The Ouija Board has acquired some particularly bad press, notably after the 1973 movie The Exorcist which many wrongly thought was based on a true story. Ouija has long been labelled a "tool of the devil" by certain factions. It's certainly a tool, but a tool for what purpose is up to its user. You can use a hammer in constructing a useful piece of furniture - or you could use it to kill or maim another living creature. Intent is key. Having said that, I don't consider it wise for young people to dabble in Ouija Board use. While I do not believe in demons or anything akin to demons, we don't know whether impressionable minds, fed these days more than ever with tales of horror, violence, war, vampires, and such could conjure up something harmful via their own consciousness. If Ouija Boards and similar methods of divination work on any level at all, we have still to discover how. Until this is known, it's best to tread lightly.

How to link astrology to a post on Ouija isn't clear. The businessmen who initiated bulk manufacture and sale of the boards were interested mainly, or only, in profit. I doubt they had any serious interest in the spread of occult learning or experience. Perhaps E.C. Reiche, if his part in Ouija's history is true, was the most likely of them all to have had a true interest in the occult.

Searching for birth data on E.C. Reiche I found it on this site. Born 27 December 1831, died 6 January 1899.

Curiosity led me to look at a natal chart, using as location the town in which he lived (probably born there): Chestertown, Maryland, chart set for 12 noon. How appropriate it'd be if he actually had been born around noon! Pluto, planet of the occult and hidden things, secrets, darkness, etc. sits on the ascendant angle - the strongest point in a natal chart. But chances are he wasn't born around noon.




Anyway, I still see this chart as a good fit for a craftsman who had an interest in occult matters. His Sun was in Capricorn, which I think of as a craftsman/businessman sign. Neptune conjunct Mercury also in Capricorn: creativity, illusion and/or psychic ability married with his planet of communication. Uranus is unadulterated in its home sign, Aquarius along with Jupiter, adding a good helping of inventive talent to the mix.

From New World Encyclopedia:

Whether one believes that the Ouija contacts spirits or is merely a vehicle to probe one's own subconscious, there are psychological risks to using the board. During Ouija sessions, it is common to receive vulgar or vile messages, as well as messages that tap into the users' fear of death. These messages can be highly disturbing to some, no matter what their source, and have the potential to exacerbate any existing mental disturbances. It is well advised that those with emotional or psychological disturbances refrain from the use of the Ouija.

Boston Legal, James Spader, David Kelley.

A long-time friend of my husband died a few weeks ago. During their last conversation friend - "Zee" - urged us to watch some episodes of Boston Legal. We'd heard of the series, which ran from 2004 to 2008, but hadn't seen any of it. We caught a couple of repeats then these, too, disappeared.

My husband decided to buy a DVD set of the full series, I suspect in memory of his friend. We've now watched Season One and are into Season Two and are finding that, as Zee promised, it's fun and over-the-top, but also intelligent, adult, enlightening and encouraging on several levels.

Having spent a good part of my working life among members of the legal profession in the UK, I easily recognise the "types" portrayed, some scarily similar to lawyers and judges I knew, back in the day. Lawyers in Boston, Britain or Bombay are, I reckon, cut from the same cloth.

The series was created and mainly written by David E. Kelley as a spin-off of an earlier series The Practice. Kelley also created and wrote LA Law - which I watched regularly back in the UK and enjoyed a lot. It's no surprise to find that David Kelley started out as a lawyer himself, he writes with wry humour, occasional farce and a certain understanding of the background atmosphere which would be difficult to do without inside knowledge.

James Spader portrays offbeat and unpredictable lawyer, Alan Shore with aplomb - well, he would, wouldn't he? Born 7 February 1960 in Boston Massachusetts at 8:02 PM (Astrodatabank). He was made for the part of Alan Shore !



Sun and Mercury in mentally oriented Aquarius, with Aquarius's modern ruler Uranus the eccentric and unpredictable planet in direct opposition from Leo to Sun. Capricorn and Aquarius are both traditionally ruled by Saturn, planet of laws, and here Saturn is found in one of its home signs, its traits likely to come through very clearly. Taking into consideration the stellium of planets in Capricorn the opposition seems to be indicating an ongoing fight or tension between what is staid, traditional, and law-abiding and that which is "out there where the buses don't run". (Accidentally there I've described the essence of Boston Legal itself in a few words.)

I have no means of knowing whether James Spader is in any way similar to the character he protrays, but he has said, in interview:

I guess I've always been drawn to anything eccentric. I'm drawn to that in friends and in life.

A reflection of his Aquarius bits!

When discussing the character of Alan Shore in the series from which Boston Legal was a spin-off, James Spader put forward his thoughts:

"I really like this guy," Mr. Spader said, sitting in a hotel room during a recent visit to New York, his words following the slightly off-meter rhythm he has employed to great effect in his characterizations.

Indeed, much of what Mr. Spader has shown on the screen is apparent in person: unexpected movements and gestures; a languidness that changes without warning to passion, marked by sudden rises in the volume of his voice. Though his hair has thinned and he has lost some of the dangerous handsomeness of his youth, he remains an actor who always seems to be trying to tweak convention.

That's certainly true of Alan Shore, a man who ignores virtually every stricture of the legal profession, but almost always in a noble cause - at least one he sees as noble. His misrepresentation in the airline case, for example, saved a colleague from being disbarred.
"I think he's endearing and appalling at the same time, at the same moment, really," Mr. Spader said. "I like him best when he's inappropriate with his appropriateness. He's the best friend you could have in the world, but he'll make your life hell at times."

I'm deliberately ignoring the rest of the cast in this post to keep it blogworthily brief. All add to the brilliance of the series: William Shatner at his farcical best; Candice Bergen and Mark Valley playing straightmen in a lunatic asylum;, Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell and assorted other attractions, not forgetting the ever wonderful Betty White. For me though, and I suspect for many others, James Spader is the show's anchor, holding it secure, safe from drifting too far into
La-la Land - or to be consistent La-la Seas. But Spader and the rest of the crew couldn't have given us the performances they did without David Kelley's brilliant writing and sharp insights.






David Kelley, creator of Boston Legal, was born on 4 April 1956 in Waterville Massachusetts (no time known).




Moon and Mercury in Aries in sextile to Spader's Sun - so there's potential for a good working relationship here. Kelley has Mars and possibly Moon in Capricorn - though if born after 2pm Moon would have moved into Aquarius. Either would blend well with his link to the law and to James Spader's chart. Interesting to note that wherever Kelley's natal Moon lay, Uranus from late Cancer would be in opposition - a kind of echo of Spader's Sun-Uranus opposition.

Kelley has said in interview:

I think this show probably, I guess, is a reflection of me a little bit, has a scream in its belly and sometimes it just feels it needs to scream.

We enjoy the subtle and not so subtle humour in Boston Legal, but I especially admire the messages and social commentary which come through with some regularity, among all the whacky irreverence and innuendo, to hit the viewer right between the eyes. Serious issues are tackled frequently: the death penalty, torture by police, mental health, gun control, destruction of the environment. Both sides of these issues are always covered, though the author's left-leaning preference is crystal clear.

The season we've just watched comes from the days of G.W. Bush's presidency, and though some of the barbed comments do relate directly to that time, the episodes do not feel dated at all, for little has really changed since then. Has it?

Most videos of clips from the show at YouTube have been removed due to "copyright claims by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation". This one has survived thus far, probably due to the way it's compiled, using material from real life to compliment a small-size screen view. This closing speech by Alan Shore is a gem, well worth watching - and saving :

I'm eagerly looking forward to watching the rest of the series now.
Thanks Zee - your name is mentioned regularly by Himself as we watch: "Ah - it's easy to see why he loved this series so much, the humor is an exact match for his!!"

Music Monday ~ 2525, Zager & Evans

Surfing through YouTube videos the other day, I found an old favourite song - In the Year 2525 by Zager & Evans. The song had been constantly running through my head, probably as a result of my previous post. 2525 is the most sci-fi song I know of.

Whatever happened to Zager & Evans ?
Denny Zager and Rick Evans, two lads from Nebraska who, after singing and playing with a 1960s pop group The Eccentrics, formed a duo in 1968: Zager & Evans. Rick Evans wrote, in half an hour the story goes, their memorable and only number one hit, In the Year 2525, carrying the rather pretentious sub-title Exordium and Terminus. Translation = something along the lines of beginning & ending. The song was written in 1964 but not widely released until 1969. Their subsequent work didn't take off in the same way though, and the duo eventually split up. Both guys remain in the music business - Evans continuing to perform and write, Zager now teaches guitar and sells modified guitars and lessons, on-line.

In the Year 2525 could be described as a sci-fi short story set to music, telling how humans may face a future fraught with danger arising from their own insistent hunger for progress and invention, hoist by their own petard as it were: technology and greed, using the Earth without putting anything back. Sound familiar in 2010?

Lyrics are shown below. The song was not universally popular however. It features in several "Worst Song" lists. I suspect the compilers of such lists do not appreciate the imaginative, if gloomy, science fiction aspect, but I bet sci fi addicts loved it from the start.

I wasn't a bit surprised to see what natal charts for Zager and Evans contained. Aquarius, of course, and Grand Trines in Air linking Mercury, Neptune and Uranus.

Denny Zager born 18 February 1943 in Wymore, Nebraska (UPDATE: See Comment section - a reader has pointed out that birth date given at Wikipedia is incorrect and Denny was born 15 February. The main point, that Aquarius links the two guys remains, but new chart has been added at end of post.)

Rick Evans born 20 January 1943 in Lincoln, Nebraska






I can find no times of birth. In a 12 noon chart Rick Evan's natal Sun is at 29.46 Capricorn, but by 6:00PM-ish Sun had moved to 00 Aquarius. I'd wager he was born later rather than earlier in the day. In any case, though, Evans has Mercury and Venus in Aquarius. Zager has Sun in the last degree of Aquarius, whatever his time of birth, as well as Mercury in Aquarius.





Both guys have a lovely Airy Grand trine linking Aquarius's ruler Uranus in Gemini to Neptune in Libra and Mercury in Aquarius. Mercury=communication and writing; Uranus = all that's futuristic; Neptune = creativity and imagination. The Air signs tend to live in their minds, all need constant mental stimulation, often finding it by engaging in research, writing or other forms of communication.




Astrology is showing itself here. Borrowing from The A Team (again): "I love it when a plan comes together!!"



Corrected chart for Denny Zager





Song lyrics, and a couple of videos follow. The first video has had images added from a variety of sources. The second video features the duo singing their only hit song.

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today ....(fading...)

Views of 2100 & The Future ~ with Cayce, Heinlein, Tennessee Williams and William Stafford

Raiding my Book of Predictions for ideas I randomly opened it at the last page of a section on Edgar Cayce. The last paragraph goes like this:

A believer in reincarnation, Cayce had a dream in 1936 in which he saw himself reborn in 2100AD in Nebraska, which by then will be on the west coast of the US. In this vision he was trying to convince a group of scientists that he had lived some 200 years before. In order to collect evidence of his former life, he flew east in a cigar-shaped metal airship to an island where workmen were clearing rubble and rebuilding a city. When he asked where he was, a worker replied that he was in the former city of New York on Manhattan Island.

Edgar Cayce made numerous predictions which didn't materialise at the time expected -though I guess which may still be in the wings awaiting a more accurate cue. However, the above was simply a dream, but an interesting one to think about.

Coincidentally, speaking of 2100, I'm at present reading, rather slowly, Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein. It's part of a trilogy Future History. In the novella If This Goes On... ,which forms the main part of this book of three stories, the scene is set in 2100 in what was the USA. The author describes the country as being ruled by an absolute theocracy, one with all the advantages of hi-tech, married to the worst of mediaeval regimentation and cruelty. If anyone suspects that kind of thing "can't happen here", I'd say, "don't be too sure!"
As the book's title indicates, a revolt is in the works. Heinlein's science fiction view of life in 2100 is scarcely better than that in Edgar Cayce's dream.

I notice, in searching for information about the rest of the Future History trilogy, that the author has been way off in his timing. Sci-fi authors have found this problem tricky for decades, even the best of 'em! Originally written in the 1950s, Heinlein outlined a world, in around 2000 AD, where space travel had been fully mastered, with the US being a leading power in a systemwide imperialism embracing all habitable planets. Highly optimisitic and several centuries too soon!

Apropos nothing in particular I'll throw in that by January 2100 Uranus the rebellious planet will be in mid-Aries, at around the same point it'll be in early in 2016. There are 90 years between now and then, few, if any who are on Earth now will still be around. Even my husband's two great-grandchildren born in January and June this year will, at best, be in their final years.

The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
~Tennessee Williams, Orpheus Descending, 1957

I've just discovered William Stafford, an American poet born in Kansas, and love his honest-to-goodness plain style of poetry. No pretentious fluffy flights of fancy, but the ability to use words as triggers so that the reader creates their own flight. He was born on 17 January 1914, with 4 personal planets in Capricorn, between 20 and 29 degrees, and Uranus in Aquarius at 6 degrees, tagging along with the Capricorn stellium. Uranus never just tags along though! The rebel planet manifested in Mr. Stafford via his pacifist stance during World War 2.

With The Future and 2100 in mind, here's one of Mr. Stafford's poems:

Security by William Stafford


Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven’t let that happen, but after
I’m gone others may become faithless and careless.
Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,
and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.

So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:
to be a discoverer you hold close whatever
you find, and after a while you decide
what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,
you turn to the open sea and let go.