Arty Farty Friday ~ The Elusive Maximilian Pirner

Maximilian Pirner, born February 13, 1853, Schüttenhofen, Bohemia (Czech: Sušice). Died April 2, 1924, Prague. A Czech painter, member of the Vienna Secession and associated with the Czech Secession art movements. Pirner's usual themes were classical mythology, for example: Medusa (1891), Hekate (1901); also the macabre: Sleepwalker (1878), Daemon Love (1893), and Allegory of Death (1895). He also sketched or painted a number of of female figures, many of them nudes.

Described by one critic as having achieved "mastery of the sinuous line". Pirner also had his detractors. One contemporary critic, while acknowledging Pirner's talent, considered him an "over-sophisticated mystic."
(Information from Wikipedia).

That's all they wrote (in English)! There's a dearth of accessible information on this artist. The only other tid-bit I found is the fact that Pirner taught art - somewhere. A student mentioned in an article "was accepted to the class of drawing and painting of Max Pirner (1854-1924), an acknowledged artist of neo-romantic, philosophical inclinations".

A few of his paintings, then his natal chart.

Please click on images for larger or clearer views.

 Hekate

Hekate, a goddess in Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding two torches or a key, and in later periods depicted in triple form. She was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, dogs, light, the Moon, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, necromancy, and sorcery. In the post-Christian writings of the Chaldean Oracles (2nd-3rd century CE) she was regarded with (some) rulership over earth, sea and sky, as well as a more universal role as Saviour (Soteira), Mother of Angels and the Cosmic World Soul. She was one of the main deities worshiped in Athenian households as a protective goddess and one who bestowed prosperity and daily blessings on the family. (Wikipedia)

 Medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as having the face of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to stone. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion. (Wikipedia)

 Empedocles

Empedocles (c.490 – c.430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. (Wikipedia)

 Jupiter a Jehova

 Allegory of Death

 The Sleepwalker

 Homo Homini Lupus

Homo homini lupus est is a Latin phrase meaning "man is a wolf to [his fellow] man." First attested in Plautus' Asinaria (195 BC, "lupus est homo homini"), the phrase is sometimes translated as "man is man's wolf", which can be interpreted to mean that man preys upon man. It is widely referenced when discussing the horrors of which humans are capable. (And ain't that the truth!!)


Born February 13, 1853, Schüttenhofen, Bohemia (Czech: Sušice). The chart is set for 12 noon, as no birth time is known.

Pirner had much Aquarius about him, a cluster of four personal planets in that sign, allied, by sextile, to Jupiter in its own sign of Sagittarius. So, his philosophical and intellectual sides are clearly marked, and connected to Venus (the arts). Pluto, Uranus and Saturn (could be nickamed the Terrible Trio) are antagonistically aligned to the cluster of Aquarius planets. How this might have manifested in the artist's life and personality remains unknown, other than, perhaps, critics' adverse commentary on his work.

Natal Moon would have been either in late Aries or early Taurus. I think early Taurus (ruled by Venus) would be a better bet, from the very little we know of him. Neptune (imagination) in its own sign, Pisces sextiles Saturn in Taurus, which, being translated could mean that his mystical creative imagination (Neptune) was helpful to his work and career (Saturn).

The Real Abominables #2 ~ The Armenian Genocide (Pt. 2)

Continuing the topic of yesterday's post, The Armenian Genocide, today concentrating on those of the leaders who had a major part in organising the genocide, for whom basic birth data is available.

Who was responsible for the Armenian Genocide?

The decision to carry out a genocide against the Armenian people was made by the political party in power in the Ottoman Empire. This was the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), popularly known as The Young Turks. Three figures from the CUP controlled the government:

Mehmet Talaat, Minister of the Interior in 1915 and Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) in 1917 - he was in 1874, no detail available.

Ismail Enver, Minister of War -
born 22 November 1881, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey.

Ahmed Jemal, Minister of the Marine and Military Governor of Syria
- born 6 May 1872, Midilli, (then) Ottoman Empire.

(Also, in charge of the Special Organization (see below) was Behaeddin Shakir, a medical doctor born 1874, Istanbul. No detail available.)

 Two of the three leaders of the Young Turk triumvirate, Enver Pasha, middle, Djemal Pasha, right (visit to Jerusalem, 1915, then a part of Ottoman Syria).

This Young Turk triumvirate relied on other members of the CUP appointed to high government posts and assigned to military commands to carry out the Armenian Genocide. In addition to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, the Young Turks also relied on a newly-created secret outfit which they manned with convicts and irregular troops, called the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa). Its primary function was the carrying out of the mass slaughter of the deported Armenians. In charge of the Special Organization was Behaeddin Shakir, a medical doctor. Moreover, ideologists such as Zia Gokalp propagandized through the media on behalf of the CUP by promoting Pan-Turanism, the creation of a new empire stretching from Anatolia into Central Asia whose population would be exclusively Turkic. These concepts justified and popularized the secret CUP plans to liquidate the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire.

The Young Turk conspirators, other leading figures of the wartime Ottoman government, members of the CUP Central Committee, and many provincial administrators responsible for atrocities against the Armenians were indicted for their crimes at the end of the war. The main culprits evaded justice by fleeing the country. Even so, they were tried in absentia and found guilty of capital crimes. The massacres, expulsions, and further mistreatment of the Armenians between 1920 and 1923 were carried by the Turkish Nationalists, who represented a new political movement opposed to the Young Turks, but who shared a common ideology of ethnic exclusivity.

Natal charts for the two individuals for whom basic birth data is available are set for 12 noon, as birth times remain unknown.

Ismail Enver, Minister of War
- born 22 November 1881, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey.

Ahmed Jemal, Minister of the Marine and Military Governor of Syria
- born 6 May 1872, Midilli,(then) Ottoman Empire

Pluto (darkness, intensity, death) is my best bet, as the key - once again.

In both cases Pluto in Taurus was integrated with these mens' personal planets. It was (just) conjunct Jupiter and part of a Taurus stellium in Enver's case. Jemal had Pluto conjunct Mars (war, aggression) and Sun (self). Both men had planets, part of clusters, in mid degrees of Earthy, potentially acquisitive and always determined, Taurus.

Enver's Virgo Uranus (revolution, the unexpected) trines Jupiter (excess) part of the Taurus cluster. Mars in Cancer sextiles the Taurus cluster, and trines Venus/Mercury in Scorpio. His 0 degree Sagittarius Sun opposes Pluto in last degrees of Taurus. There's another Scorpio-Taurus opposition between Venus/Mercury and Saturn/Neptune.

The dual-cluster shape of Enver's natal planetary configuration portrays a basic intense and determined focus, married with excess, aided by outlying and potentially destructive Uranus and Mars harmoniously integrated to the basic pattern.

Jemal's chart configuration shows even more intense focus, with all planets in one half of the chart and most within two signs. Pluto is well-integrated once again, conjoining Sun and Mars - that stellium of Sun/Mars/Pluto has definite potential to produce, if not a genocidal maniac, then something very close to it. The stellium in neighbouring Aries, a Mars-ruled sign underlines what I've just written!

Bear in mind that Enver had Uranus trine Jupiter... completing Jemal's chart are Uranus conjunct Jupiter (revolution and excess) opposing Saturn (authority, ambition) in Capricorn, the opposition linked by square aspects to that Mars-ruled Aries stellium forms a T-square, again integrating, and not in a good way, factors with potential to lead to...well, we know now what they led to.

As the Armenian Genocide commenced in April of 1915 transiting Pluto had just entered Cancer, and stood at 0 degree. By 1923, at completion of the genocide, Pluto had travelled to around 10 degrees of Cancer. Uranus transited from mid degrees of Aquarius to mid degrees of Pisces. I don't see any close connection to the natal charts of the two men, but if there were a chart for Armenia itself, a connection might exist both to transiting planets and to the natal planets of these men. Charts for Armenia have been drawn up by astrologers in the past, and included in text books, but none is available online.

The Real Abominables #2 The Armenian Genocide (Pt 1)

#2 of The Real Abominables series relates to The Armenian Genocide, and needs to be spread over two days' posts. Today, a bit of outline information; tomorrow, a look at natal charts of two of the leaders of the genocide.
(#1 in this series is HERE)


First, where is Armenia? The country is located in the Caucasian Mountains on the Black Sea between Russia and Turkey. Interesting sidelight: Armenia contains some of the most significant cultural examples of sacred geometry, as well as other remarkable prehistoric structures, such as the "stonehenge" at Karahundj near Sissian. This stone circle, now shown to be a prehistoric observatory, long predates Stonehenge in England. Ancient inscriptions found here may mark the birthplace of the Zodiac – and of Western Civilisation itself. (See HERE).

It is estimated that one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of World War I. Well over a million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright.

 Photo from the Armenian Weekly

Nazi genocide, of Jews, had this predecessor in such atrocities. Though The Armenian Genocide is not as universally well known, we do receive reminders of it from time to time, just last month, for instance:

(CNSNews.com) – An Armenian Apostolic church constructed in memory of the victims of the 20th century Armenian genocide was “rigged and dynamited” on Sunday by forces loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS), according to reports from Syria’s government news agency.

To appreciate the detailed circumstances and history leading to the Armenian Genocide, it'd take many pages of text. I'll try to put major points into as neat a nutshell as possible here, then link to some of many websites carrying more detail.

Armenia adopted Christianity in 301 A.D., before the formation of the Holy Roman Empire. For centuries it was a prosperous country, but in the 15th century the Ottoman Empire absorbed Armenia and its population. Non-Muslim Armenians were classified as “infidels”, were made to pay higher taxes, and enjoyed fewer rights than Muslims.

The Ottoman Empire was dominant in the region through the 19th, into the 20th century. In the 1890s Armenians began to demand more rights. In 1894, they met with a violent response from the Sultan. In ensuing battles, until 1896, as many as 200,000 Armenians were killed by Sultan Abdul Hamid’s troops: the Hamidian Massacre. The killing of the 200,000 Armenian Christians, though, pales as compared to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

Turkish nationalism grew, Armenians were seen as enemies of the state. In 1908, a group of so-called "Young Turks" forced the Sultan out and took control of the government. Armenians were, more and more, considered a threat to the shrinking Ottoman Empire. As Christian countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia left the Empire, Turkish loss of power fomented ever stronger feelings of nationalism.

Some extreme members of the "Young Turks" formed the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). The CUP focused on an increase of Turkish nationalism, their chant: “Turkey for the Turks!”

Germany and Russia went to war in 1914. Turkey sided with Germany. The Turks hoped a defeat of the Russians would help in the prospect of rebuilding their empire. In December of 1914, the Ottoman Turks tried to invade Russia, but suffered a bad defeat. More than 100,000 Russian troops invaded Turkey. Some 5,000 Armenians had helped the Russians, many enlisting in the Russian Army. Turkish leaders now saw the Armenians as a definite liability. Armenian members of the military were immediately disarmed, moved into labour camps and subsequently executed. On April 24th 1915, a group of 250 Armenian intellectual leaders of the community were rounded up and shipped to a camp where they were killed. Armenian soldiers and the cultural elites were now gone. The remaining Armenian population was forced to comply with a relocation order - essentially a death sentence.

Armenians were forced marched for sixty days, many did not survive. The Turks forced those of their victims who were transported by rail to purchase tickets for the ride to their own extermination. Children and old people were marched over mountains and in circles, without food and water, until they died. Young Christian girls were raped by the Turkish soldiers. There are reports that many killed themselves afterwards. The barbaric treatment of Armenian women went even further. One woman who claimed to have witnessed the brutal crucifixion of 16 young girls.

In her memoir, Ravished Armenia, Aurora Mardiganian described being raped and thrown into a harem. Unlike thousands of other Armenian girls who were discarded after being raped, she managed to escape. In the city of Malatia, she saw 16 Christian girls crucified: “Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, spikes through her feet and hands, only their hair blown by the wind, covered their bodies.” Related scenes were portrayed in the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls, some of which is based on Mardiganian’s memoirs.

Accounts of Turkish atrocities against Armenians reveal brutalities equal to those happening during Hitler’s attempts to exterminate the Jews from Germany, and the world, more than twenty years later.

 PBS Documentary Film, 2006

The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of World War I, the atrocities began again and continued, between 1920 and 1923. Remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions.

The scope and brutality of the events which killed 75 percent of Armenians — a predominantly Christian group - makes it very difficult to understand why, though historians and Armenians call this a genocide, the Turkish government and the United States and its presidents, will not officially accept the word "genocide" in relation to these events.

No American president has officially called the mass killings, dating from 1915, “genocide.” President Bush went as far as publicly urging Congress to reject a resolution on the subject. In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama promised that, as president, he would acknowledge it, saying; “Armenian genocide is a widely documented fact.” Despite that very clear language, President Obama was not followed up on his campaign promise. After he was elected, on Armenian Remembrance Day, the president issued a statement. The word that was conspicuously absent from the release: genocide. That term was also absent from every single April 24th Armenian Remembrance Day since 2009.

Here's an 11 minute video extract from TV's 60 Minutes on this topic. The segment includes a video shot on the banks of the Euphrates River where it is believed 450,000 of the victims perished. Remains of murdered Armenians are so prevalent in the area that just scratching the sand, along the river banks, is sufficient to uncover pieces of human bones that have lain there for almost 100 years.

Links to other sources:

Wikipedia's page
Genocide Museum
United Human Rights Council
The Blaze (Why still denied...)

Part 2 will follow, tomorrow.

All in the Mind

Steven Pinker, research psychologist and professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and author of "Words and Rules", HERE asks :

"What is the missing ingredient — not genes, not upbringing — that shapes the mind?"
Anyone with some knowledge of astrology has an answer, though not one as to how the process works. Why not test a theory that broad astrological principles could be involved in the answer to that question? Astrologers, in cahoots with psychologists such as Professor Pinker, might discover something of value to both science and astrology.

Snip:

"If genes have any effect at all, it must be total. But the data show that genes account for about only about half of the variance in personality and intelligence (25% to 75%, depending on how things are measured). That leaves around half the variance to be explained by something that is not genetic........growing up in the same home — with the same parents, books, TVs, guns, and so on — does not make children similar.

So the variation in personality and intelligence breaks down roughly as follows: genes 50%, families 0%, something else 50%. As with Bob Dylan's Mister Jones, something is happening here but we don't know what it is.

Perhaps it is chance. While in the womb, the growth cone of an axon zigged rather than zagged, and the brain gels into a slightly different configuration. If so, it would have many implications that have not figured into our scientific or everyday way of thinking.... "

Extending those thoughts to the area of political mindset ~ a number of studies have found that biology may be linked with political orientation. Wikipedia has a page on the topic. David Sloan Wilson's article, posted in 2011, is an interesting read.

"Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? The Answer is Yes". The article left me feeling sad that astrology cannot command the $$$$$ required for an experiment such as the one he describes. If only more scientists would open their minds, experiments like this one could be modified to take in birth data so that it could be analysed by astrologers. Dream on!

A few extracts:

If men are from Mars and women from Venus, where do liberals and conservatives come from? They are so befuddled by each other that it is tempting to say different galaxies--or, to employ a biological metaphor, that they are different species. It turns out that the biological metaphor might be surprisingly close to the truth.

For years I wanted to study people in the same way that I am accustomed to studying beetles and fish--not just in the laboratory, but also "in the field" as they go about their everyday lives. I finally found my chance when I met Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the famous psychologist who is best known for his work on peak psychological experience (Flow) and who pioneered something called the experience sampling method (ESM).

The ESM is simplicity itself. People are outfitted with devices that beep at random times during the day, prompting them to fill out a short questionnaire recording where they are, what they are doing, who they are with, and a checklist of psychological states on a numerical scale....... We began with a multi-million dollar project that Mihaly had conducted with sociologist Barbara Schneider to examine how young people prepare to enter the work force. Thousands of American high school students had participated nationwide by providing extensive background information and being beeped for a week, for roughly 50 snapshots of their individual experience................

...Everyone in our sample was an American, a teenager, and belonged to the same major religious tradition of Protestantism. In these respects they were culturally uniform. But some belonged to conservative denominations such as Pentecostal and others to liberal denominations such as Episcopalian. As Ingrid combed through the data, which involved tedious hours in front of the computer, the differences that began to emerge were astounding. It was as if these conservative and liberal religious youth were--different species.

Imagine the priceless information astrologers could glean from being included in an experimental survey like that one !

Recent articles have taken the same kind of research further: two are by Chris Mooney for Mother Jones website -

From 2013 -
The Surprising Brain Differences Between Democrats and Republicans
Two new studies further support the theory that our political decision making could have a neurological basis

Snip -

Republicans were using the right amygdala, the center of the brain's threat response system. Democrats, in contrast, were using the insula, involved in internal monitoring of one's feelings. Amazingly, Schreiber and his colleagues write that this test predicted 82.9 percent of the study subjects' political party choices—considerably better, they note, than a simple model that predicts your political party affiliation based on the affiliation of your parents.

From 2014
Scientists Are Beginning to Figure Out Why Conservatives Are…Conservative
Ten years ago, it was wildly controversial to talk about psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. Today, it's becoming hard not to.

Snip

That's pretty extraordinary, when you think about it. After all, one of the teams of commenters includes New York University social psychologist John Jost, who drew considerable political ire in 2003 when he and his colleagues published a synthesis of existing psychological studies on ideology, suggesting that conservatives are characterized by traits such as a need for certainty and an intolerance of ambiguity. Now, writing in Behavioral and Brain Sciences in response to Hibbing roughly a decade later, Jost and fellow scholars note that:

There is by now evidence from a variety of laboratories around the world using a variety of methodological techniques leading to the virtually inescapable conclusion that the cognitive-motivational styles of leftists and rightists are quite different. This research consistently finds that conservatism is positively associated with heightened epistemic concerns for order, structure, closure, certainty, consistency, simplicity, and familiarity, as well as existential concerns such as perceptions of danger, sensitivity to threat, and death anxiety.

Astrologers might consider that a heavily emphasised Saturn, and/or its signs Capricorn and/or Aquarius = higher potential for a person to exhibit a more conservative mindset. Absent that emphasis there'd be plenty of leeway for a variety of other, more liberal preferences. There's obviously much more to it than that - still, it'd be a good place to start. Flowing from that, there'd be a possibility that time's cycles, mini-cycles, maxi-cycles and all between, as defined by planetary movement, in coordination with a given set of inherited genes, might incline the political mind of the newborn, when grown, to orient leftward or rightward.

(NEXT POST will be Wednesday's.)

Arty Farty Friday ~ Shock Art : Beardsley & Balthus

A look at two artists who liked to shock. Aubrey Beardsley, about whom I posted back in 2007, a copy of that post is repeated below; and the artist known as Balthus. Of this pair I find Beardsley's art to be far more appealing, and talented. I've considered posting about Balthus a couple of times in the past but balked, due to his paintings' content. Oh, what the heck, may as well make him part of this "shocking" pair!

(This is an extra-long post, so nothing further until Monday.)


#1 Aubrey Beardsley

First From an article HERE by by Erin Smith :

Beardsley expressed a sexuality in his drawings which mocked. the prudishness of the Victorian age, and advocated full freedom to explore sexuality. He shocked Victorians with his grotesque and highly unnatural style, and drawings of nude bodies which were not idealized. Nonetheless, his drawings do not explicitly depict fornication or denigrate women. For these reasons, Beardsley's art can arguably be placed in the sphere of erotica rather than pornography.

Though he was an important leader during the "Decadence" and an innovator in Art Nouveau, his art stands out as one of the most shocking and fantastic critiques of Victorian society. Through the medium of his highly symbolic and esoteric drawings, Beardsley revealed the hypocrisy of the Victorian patriarchal social structure. Victorian society tagged his art as controversial because Beardsley became involved with social issues, and supported sexual freedom. However, this was not the strongest reason for his controversy. For repressed Victorians though, Beardsley's most dangerous weapon was his perceptiveness: in his drawings, they could see visual representations of their most latent desires and anxieties.

And from my 2007 post:

Aubrey Beardley may not be a name well-known in the USA. He was an English artist/illustrator of the late 19th century. Homosexual, individualistic, original and an expert draftsman, he lived a short but probably very interesting life. He died of tuberculosis at the young age of 25. He managed to produce a large volume of illustrations for magazines and books in those few years. His work is instantly recognisable.
Born 21 August, 1872 in Brighton, England, according to Astrotheme his time of birth was 5.18pm. I'm skeptical about this, wondering where such precise information came from in a country where time of birth is not routinely recorded. Still - it might be correct, so I've used it. It gives Capricorn rising, Saturn on the ascendant, which may account for the large volume of work he managed to produce in such a short lifespan.



His Sun at 28 Leo is within a degree of the Vertex probably making that area extra sensitive to transits. On the day he died, March 16 1898, Mars was opposing his natal Sun/Vertex from 26* Aquarius.

Natal Mars and Uranus at 1 and 3 Leo tell me where his determined-to-shock originality came from. Mercury in Virgo would have endowed the attention to detail his expert draftsmanship required, being 8th house could account for the sexual content of his work. A Grand Trine in Earth involving Saturn, Mercury and Pluto, which in some people might manifest as a good dose of common sense, because the planets at the birth time given by Astrotheme occupy 8th, 12th and 3rd houses more likely manifest here as an almost obsessive concentration on sex - which I suppose IS earthy !
His bunch of Leo planets ensured he made himself felt in that late 19th century world.

Beardsley was one of those mortals most definitely "born before his time", even so, along with Oscar Wilde and a close group of like-minded friends he brought homosexuality out into the light of day - to the horror of many strait-laced individuals.

"His formally elegant style, inspired in part by Greek vase painting, in which ornamental rhythm of line combines with a perverse and wickedly satiric imagination to create unforgettable images, often hilarious, frequently erotic, and sometimes deeply moving

A highly original creator, he transformed the art of illustration and profoundly influenced artists of his own and subsequent generations.


His expert draftsmanship made his drawings particularly suitable to the technical advances in printing at the end of the nineteenth century. Perhaps most important, however, he came to maturity at a time peculiarly suited to his genius, when theories of decadence and aestheticism gave license to the expression of perverse sexuality and to fetishism of all kinds. His work is sexually frank and, occasionally, pornographic. "
( from here.).

There's an excellent set of 4 videos (each 10 to 15 mins. long) on Beardsley and his work, at YouTube. Here's Part 1, with links to the other 3.



Part 2

part 3

part 4


Google Image has more extreme examples of Beardsley's work.

#2 Balthus

From Britannica.com

Balthus, pseudonym of Balthazar Klossowski, also spelled Balthasar Klossowsky (born February 29, 1908, Paris, France—died February 18, 2001, La Rossinière, Switzerland), reclusive French painter who, in the midst of 20th-century avant-gardism, explored the traditional categories of European painting: the landscape, the still life, the subject painting, and the portrait. He is best known for his controversial depictions of adolescent girls.

His parents, both artistic and intellectual, from Poland and East Prussia settled in Berlin at the start of World War I. His parents separated before the end of the war and their son divided his time between Germany and Switzerland. His mother's friend, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, encouraged the young would-be artist to publish an early book of his drawings about Mitsou, a lost cat, for which Rilke also contributed a preface.

In 1924 Balthus settled in returned to Paris and studied painting. He was able to support himself from commissions for portraits and stage sets. His paintings at this point were, at first glance, fairly run-of-the-mill interiors and landscapes, but seeming conservative they became controversial
"...the scenes often have an erotic, disturbing atmosphere and are often peopled with pensive adolescent girls. The presence of these languid, dreamy girls has often given rise to charges of pedophilic overtones; however, the artist’s depiction of these girls has also been interpreted as a truthful, evocative portrayal of the awkwardness of adolescence."
He spent the last two decades of the century as a virtual recluse in Switzerland, where he lived in a grand, 18th-century chalet with his second wife. He continued to paint into his 90s.


For more on Balthus and an exhibition of his work see
Bizarre Balthus show reveals artist's fixation with cats and young girls
More character study than retrospective, the Met's provocative new Balthus exhibition has an unsettling undertone, by Jason Farago at The Guardian (2013).

Or
Cat Fancy
‘Balthus: Cats and Girls’ and ‘The Big New Yorker Book of Cats’
By Jennifer B. McDonald at the NYT Sunday Book Review (2013)

I'm still hesitating about posting images of any of his more controversial paintings. Typing "Balthus" into the Google Image search box will bring up dozens of 'em. Or... here's a video from YouTube showing some of his works; and three reasonably safe ones below, just to prove he really could paint!

 The Cat of La Méditerranée 1949

Born 29 February 1908 at 1:00 PM in Paris, France. Data from Astrodienst.

Two T-squares:
#1 links the opposition of Moon-Jupiter by two square aspects to Mars
#2 links the opposition of Neptune/North node-Uranus by two square aspects to Venus.

Venus (the arts) though in uncomfortable position in that second T-square also has a helpful sextile to Pluto (eroticism).

His Pisces Sun/Mercury is in harmonious trine to Pisces' ruler, Neptune (creativity, dreams, imagination). If birth time is accurate, Neptune is close to the ascendant angle, giving it extra emphasis.

Sun/Mercury and Moon are semi-sextile. The mix of Pisces/Aquarius isn't one of the worst "next-door neighbour mixes", and in Balthus' case does kind of describe his gravitation to imagined scenes with an element of shock involved.

Hmmm. Could be an uncomfortable chart, but with forgiving features, and fairly well balanced element-wise.

The Real Abominables #1 Mao Zedong

First in a series of several, as mentioned in Tuesday's (7 October) post ~~~

From The Independent in 2010

Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.

Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing "one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known".

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

Mr Dikötter is the only author to have delved into the Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago. He argued that this devastating period of history – which has until now remained hidden – has international resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century.... It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said.

From Astrodienst

Chinese political leader, author and poet who served as the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, which he helped to establish in 1921. In the more than 80 monographs on his life, Mao has been both deified and demystified.

He married four times and was noted for having an unsatisfiable desire for sex as well as for absolute power, and the two were linked. As his holdings and position dropped politically, he suffered from impotence, and when he took the offensive, his sexual prowess increased. Despite his Populist pretensions, Mao lived like a traditional emperor with all the material comforts.

He died on 9/9/1976, Peking, China.

Wikipedia's page on him is HERE.


Fantasy Tweeting: some of the Abominables ~~

Mao Zedong's natal chart with data from Astrodienst. It has only a "C" rating = caution. I think the caution warning applies mainly to the ascending degree/sign.

Born 26 December 1893 in Siangtan, China at 7:30 AM.

With a view to discovering whether there's any common denominator among "Abominables" I'm going to look only for likely astro-potential for what I'll call "abominality".

There are three oppositions: Mercury opposite Pluto/Neptune; Mars opposite Jupiter; Venus opposite Moon. That means four of the most personal planets are involved in opposition aspects. Some also form part of a Grand Square configuration, in concert with square aspects linking Uranus/Moon/Jupiter/Venus. While these aspects and the configuration are not uncommon and almost always do NOT produce an abominable character, they do perhaps provide the basis for morphing in that direction. I haven't mentioned the signs involved to keep things clearer.

This Yod (Finger of Fate) with Pluto at its apex could be significant. It is formed by a sextile linking a traditionally inclined Capricorn Sun to a rebellious Uranus in passionate Scorpio, those two then meet via two quincunx aspects to Pluto (darkness, death) (+Neptune?) in Gemini.

There's a chain of sextiles too (some a wee bit loose) from Pluto to Moon, to Saturn, to Mercury, to Venus. With so much death and destruction involved in "abominality" I'd expect to see Pluto well-integrated, and here it is!

During the period of "The Great Leap Forward" (See here) between 1958 and 1962 Neptune and Pluto were transiting in fairly close sextile to one another in Scorpio and Virgo respectively. Mao had these two planets conjoined in Gemini in his natal chart, and forming part of the integrated pattern described above. I'm not sure whether the fact that the two planets conjoined at his birth and linked by sextile in transit during the time of some of his most monstrous decisions is in any way significant, but worth making a note of anyway.

Fixed Stars - I'm never sure how much credence to give to the interpretations of these, but let's have a look. All interpretations From HERE

Mao Zedong had Jupiter at 22.09 Taurus. At the time of his birth that dread Fixed Star, Algol , was at around 24 degrees and some minutes. Algol: Primitive female sexuality; strangulation, beheading, danger to throat and neck, murder, violence, mass catastrophe, the "Evil One", the Demon Star; passionate; intense; hysterical. Very Unfortunate; (character of) Saturn/ Jupiter.

I haven't researched exact positions of the rest of the Fixed Stars mentioned as at the time of his birth, but they'd have been in very slightly earlier positions than stated.

Current position of Capulus 24.12 Taurus; his Jupiter, again, was at 22.09.
Capulus: Primitive male sexual energy; penetrating; ruthless; adventurous; dishonesty; mass effects, esp. meteorological. Unfortunate; Mars/ Mercury.

Aldebaran now at 9.47 Gemini - his Pluto at 9.21 Gemini, his Neptune at 11.33.
A Royal Star. The archangel Michael, the Watcher of the East. Eloquence, high honours, integrity, popularity, courage, war mongering, agitation. Unfortunate; Mars

Spica now at 23.50 Libra his Saturn at 23.52 Libra
Wealth, fame, honour, glamour, the "Fortunate One". Very Fortunate; Venus/ Mars

Polis now at 3.13 Capricorn. His Sun at 4.30 Capricorn - Martial desires, high ambitions, domination, keen perception, success.. Very Fortunate; Jupiter/ Mars

His Venus at 20.11 Aquarius. Castra: 20°12 Aquarius: Destructiveness, uncontrollable temper, malevolence. Unfortunate; Saturn/ Jupiter.

Some very unfortunate, some fortunate. Interesting though.


It could prove easier to decide what to look for (if anything) after seeing a couple more charts of Abominables during coming weeks. In the meantime, working somewhat in the dark, any additional points by commenters will be appreciated.

Kaarl Sarp

While searching for information for a future post I came across mention of Kaal Sarpa Yoga. It comes from vedic astrology. Basically, it occurs in a natal chart when all the traditional planets (which excludes Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) lie between the north and south Nodes of the Moon, then Kaal Sarp or Kala Sarpa (the name varies from source to source) comes into play.
Wikipedia has a fairly clear explanation.

I'm not sure whether to take its interpretations/ predictions with a pinch or two of salt, as I do with most ancient interpretations relating to the Fixed Stars, or whether to consider Kaal Sarp more seriously.

In my own natal chart all traditional planets lie between Moon's north and south nodes, aka Rahu and Ketu. Only Pluto and Neptune lie outside that span. I have noted, and there's a post about it somewhere, that some of the important events of my life have coincided with times when the Moon's nodes are in natal position or directly opposite that, or, sometimes in line with the vertex or opposite.

As Wiki also tells us, there are "different types of Kala sarpa yogas. Since Rahu and Ketu are placed at 180° to one another, they can form twelve different types of Kala sarpa yogas." The different types depend upon house position. I'm not sure how nearly house positions translate from vedic to western astrology. If they are more or less the same, Moon's node positions in my chart are: north node in 5th in Scorpio, south node in 11th in Taurus. That combination = something called Padma Kalasarpa Yoga.

Oh my! Most of the interpretation doesn't fit, the only direct hits are "no progeny" and "death in a foreign land" (but not yet!!) Suffering will be up to 48 years... okay, I'm in the clear now then, and though I've had a few ups and downs I haven't suffered unduly. I did have to undergo a major operation (hysterectomy) at age 46, which sort of ties in with north node in 5th house (Scorpio). South node is conjunct Uranus, maybe that has significance too.

However, perhaps it's unwise to mix eastern with western astrology. Taking one stray concept and attaching it to an entirely different "system" is likely not to be recommended. Any thoughts on that, or on Kaal Sarp generally ?

THE ABOMINABLES (no relation to the book!)

I didn't exactly fall down an internet rabbit hole this time, rather I wandered gingerly into one to take a look while casting around for a subject to blog about. An article by Manly Hall in my volume of "Best of the Illustrated National Astrological Journal 1933-35" about Genghis Khan and his astrology set me hopping down the burrow.

From detailed sources the author determined, or rather estimated, the birth date of Genghis Khan "a storm that shook the world", as 16 September in A.D. 1186. Cross-checking with Astrodienst, I noted that his birth date there is stated as :

14 September 1186 Jul.Cal. (21 Sep 1186 greg.) at 23:50 (= 11:50 PM )
Place Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 51n42, 115e50

Do take a look - it's a very unusual chart!

Astrodienst's source notes say Manly Hall gave 14 September in the NAJ 1933 - but in my copy he gave 16 September. That's rather odd! Anyway, concentration was on the Libra/Virgo cusp, either way.

Reading around, though, I found some different estimated birth dates for GK - different months and even even different years proposed. So, it was looking as though studying a birth chart for him would be a lost cause.

 Russian sculptor Dashi Namdakov's statue of Genghis Khan, Marble Arch, London, UK.

Wandering further down the burrow I found a brief set of exchanges on a message board from 2011. , headed: Leaders of Genocides in the 21st century.
One person responding to the original poster (original post is at the bottom of that page) mentioned Genghis Khan and his supposed date of birth as 23 September - different again. It was the original poster's list that sparked my interest though.

This list entails some of the worst genocides of the 21st century, some of which deaths amounted in the 78 millions (Mao Ze-Dong), 23 millions (Stalin), 12 millions (Hitler), to 800,000 (Jean Kambanda) of the Rwanda genocide. All are a cause of conflicts such as: religious, political, or cultural beliefs. These genocides are an estimated of number of people killed by the orders of the leader, but however, do not reflect the indirect number of gross deaths from such: hunger, civilians.

Let's see what signs these leaders were... (I only listed genocides # of >100,000 body count)

Mao Ze-Dong: Dec. 26 (CAPRICORN)
Josef Stalin: Dec. 21 (SAGITTARIUS)
Adolf Hitler: Apr. 20 (ARIES)
Leopold II of Belgium: Apr. 9 (ARIES)
Hideki Tojo: Dec. 30 (CAPRICORN)
Ismail Enver: Nov. 22 (SAGITTARIUS)
Pol Pot: May 19 (TAURUS)
Kim Il Sung: April 15 (ARIES)
Menghistu: May 21 (GEMINI)
Yakubu Gowon: Oct. 19 (LIBRA)
Leonid Brezhnev: Dec. 19 (SAGITTARIUS)
Jean Kambanda: Oct. 19 (LIBRA)
Suharto: Jun. 8 (GEMINI)
Saddam Hussein: Apr. 28 (TAURUS)
Tito: May 7 (TAURUS)
Fumimaro Konoe: Oct. 12 (LIBRA)
Jonas Savimbi: Aug. 3 (LEO)
Idi Amin: Jan. 1 (CAPRICORN)
Yahya Khan: Feb. 4 (AQUARIUS)
Benito Mussolini: Jul. 29 (LEO)
Mobutu Sese Seko: Oct. 14 (LIBRA)
Charles Taylor: Jan. 28 (AQUARIUS)
Foday Sankoh: Oct. 17 (LIBRA)
Slobodan Milosevic: Aug. 20 (LEO)
Jean-Bedel Bokassa: Feb. 22 (PISCES)

It could be interesting to take a closer look at some of these characters' natal charts, adding a very brief run down on their history, linking to details at Wiki or elsewhere - maybe at the rate of one a week - to discover whether any common denominators emerge. I'm sure something similar must have been done before, by someone, somewhere, but no matter. I might kick-of with the guy at the top of the list later this week.

To balance that masculine majority, if I'm not too sickened I'll make a start on these women, who didn't pracice genocide, but were horrendously cruel.

Mail Order Meanderings on Monday

I shop via the internet a lot: e-bay, shoes, clothes, and general items just not available in our neck of the woods - well, not without a lengthy car journey, and much time and effort spent finding whatever. Online shopping is really just an extension, or evolution, of Ye Olde Mail Order.

Mail order catalogues proper have been mostly elbowed out in the 21st century by a blossoming internet offering shopping online. In their heyday, though those hefty mail order catalogues were big business, and a boon to anyone living far from urban stores, or with limited time to go shopping. Nowadays there are still mini-catalogues issued by individual retailers, sent often as junk mail once a prospective customer's mailing address is discovered. These catalogues are different from the old style ones, where it was possible to buy items of clothing, household linens and appliances, or toys, and spread the cost over several weeks.

While Americans assume Aaron Montgomery Ward to have been the original pioneer of mail order, in the late 19th/early 20th century, people in Britain consider their Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones thought of it first. Actually, neither was first. A book publisher in Venice beat them to it by around three centuries, and an English gardener, selling seeds, by two centuries. Pryce-Jones began his business in 1861, and Montgomery Ward in 1872, on their respective continents. They were, indeed though, the first to make a thriving industry of mail order.

I grew up with easy access to an old style mail order catalogue. My maternal grandmother ran what she called a "club" in her tiny village. She took orders from a mail order catalogue; anyone in the village who needed "stuff" borrowed the catalogue for a few hours then let Grandma know what they wished to order. She sent a combined order to the company, by mail, once a week, and the following week she would receive a huge brown paper parcel containing the ordered goods. Villagers would then call to collect their goods, and make their weekly payments. Payments were recorded on cards held by the buyers, and in a ledger held by grandma. She continued this popular service for many decades, through my mother's young days and into my own adult-hood. It used to be fun for me, as a child, to watch the opening of the huge parcel. The catalogues themselves were a never ending source of interest and fun to me; those from previous years served as sources for cut-out fashion illustrations for scrap books. In later life I was seldom without my own, personal, copy of some firm's mail order catalogue.

I wonder if the two pioneers, Montgomery Ward and Pryce-Jones will bear any resemblance to one another astrologically? First glance, just at the chart shapes, says not likely. Both charts are set for noon, times of birth are unknown. Exact Moon degree, and ascending sign/degrees not as shown, though Moon would likely have been in the sign as shown in each case.

Pryce Pryce-Jones was born in Llanllwchaiarn, just outside Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales on 16 October 1834.

Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on February 17,1844, in Chatham, New Jersey, USA.

In Pryce-Jones' case the indication he'd gravitate towards innovation is reflected by his Libra Sun in close harmonious trine to Uranus (invention, innovation) in its own sign, Aquarius. There's a Yod (Finger of Fate) linking Pluto (and possibly Moon) to Jupiter by sextile and linking both to Mercury by quincunx - at the business end - the apex. It might be a stretch, but Mercury could be seen as representing the mail, also I think Mercury represents trade; Jupiter represents expansion.


Montgomery Ward's very tightly bundled chart tells of a much more single-minded, single focused character. This man was always going to pioneer something! A veritable surfeit of Aquarius and Aries, the innovator and the pioneer!

Rolling Away the Stone

5 October, in ancient Rome, marked one of three dates (along with 24 August and 8 November) of a festival known as Mundus Patet, when a stone covering the entrance to a round or bottle-shaped pit was ritually removed. Originally the pit was where earliest Roman inhabitants had stored seed grain, to keep it safe. Somehow, over time and with the mix of Etruscan lore, the entrance to the pit came to be understood as entrance to the underworld. I suppose our nearest approach to something similar would be All Souls Day/Hallowe'en.

On the three dates when the entry to the pit was left open, it was thought that spirits of the dead could roam at will, making those times generally inauspicious. It was decreed that, on any of the three days of Mundus Patet, no public business should be performed, no battles fought, no ships allowed to set sail, and no marriages could take place. Not good days for much of anything. In other words, days of ill omen...although the fact that no battles could be fought would be thought to be A Good Thing these days. The other no-nos seem to me like quite good ideas too!

What brought that tid-bit to mind, as well as today's date, was this vintage photograph from husband's collection. A double exposure has created a vision of ghostly figures. I wonder if it was taken on
5 October, 24 August or 8 November?



In honour of the ancient day, a song written by Okie, Leon Russell, and Greg Dempsey. Performed by Leon Russell. (This is not the same song as another with same title by Ian Hunter/ Mott the Hoople).

THRIFT SHIFT

Bet you didn't know that today is International Frugal Fun Day : first Saturday in October.
From a website titled Holiday Insights

If you dig deeply, you will find resources that describe this day as "International" Frugal Fun Day, and "National" Frugal Fun Day. However, we found no documentation supporting the International or National tags. We did find plenty of reference to the intent of this day.... to have fun "on the cheap".
Frugal Fun Day is a day to enjoy fun activities that are free (or very inexpensive). If you use your imagination, the ideas are endless. Go on a bike or walking hike. The Fall leaves are on display. Have a picnic in the park, or your back yard. Invite some friends or neighbors over for a garage party and dance. Go fly a kite. Pull out the those old board games or puzzles that you have stored in the basement. Play cards with some friends.

Origin of Frugal Fun Day:
This special day was created by Shel Horowitz, author of "The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant's Pocketbook". We strongly suspect Frugal Fun Day was created, in part, to promote the book. Regardless of the reason for creating this day, we see nothing wrong with having a little inexpensive fun.

Shel Horowitz seems like an interesting character. Born on 24 December 1956 in New York City, he is reflecting his Sun and Mercury sign, Capricorn, well in his career. With Venus conjunct Capricorn's ruler Saturn in Sagittarius, and in semi-sextile to natal Sun, there's a definite feel of reining in excesses going on.

See About Green and Profitable Expert Shel Horowitz
The piece starts like this:

Beginning with a one-toddler action against smokers at his parents’ party at about age three, Shel Horowitz has been involved in environmental and social change movements his whole life.

Some of his ideas at Frugal Fun.com include hints on economy in different areas of life.
Frugal Fun tips by category are HERE.
Home page HERE.

I haven't decided how to celebrate frugality today. Maybe I'll just sit and think great thoughts - or if I'm being really frugal - small thoughts.

Arty Farty Friday ~ James Rizzi

James Rizzi. He was born on 5 October 1950, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Irish-Italian background. He died aged 61 in December 2011. I hadn't, knowingly, come across his work before. Its focus is on urban life - New York in particular, a city which he obviously loved a lot. His paintings are usually categorised as "pop art", but are quite different from the work of Warhol, Lichenstein, Hockney; more comparable with Keith Haring 's or Wayne Thiebaud's. (Links are to archived posts of mine.)

Rizzi's paintings are full to the brim, it's hard to ever find a smidgin of blank space. They have a naive, childlike feel: happy, uninhibited, enthusiastic, and....well, not a little zany! His work has been described by critic Glenn O'Brien as a cross between Picasso and Hanna-Barbera, combined with an evocation of Native American friezes.

Rizzi's friend, Matthew Posnick told the New York Daily News that:

“Jimmy always retained the ability to see the world through the eyes of a child, with innocence and fun and a humorous, childlike wonder for everything that happened in this world.”
From obituaries (linked below) he was said to have been
"an ebullient figure, highly sociable and a lover of basketball and golf, who frequently worked for children's and Aids charities."

New York was obviously his first, and abiding love, but German cities seemed to "get" him too, so much so that it was from that country he obtained many commissions. Teddy bears, a boxer's robe, German postage stamps, the dome of a shopping mall in Oberhausen, and the Happy Rizzi House, a psychedelic office block, in Braunschweig. In 1999 he adorned the bodywork of three cars promoting the Volkswagen Beetle.

From his start in the early 1970s, when police would shut him down as he tried to sell his work on the sidewalks of Brooklyn Heights or in Washington Square Park, Rizzi rose to huge international appreciation spanning continents.


More detail at: Wikipedia, The Guardian, New York Daily News.

Examples of his work. Please click on the images for clearer or enlarged views.

ASTROLOGY

The chart is set for 12 noon, as I have found no information on his time of birth.

We can't be sure of Moon's exact position. In late Cancer at 12 noon it could have been in Cancer or early Leo as Rizzi was born. It'd be fitting if he had been born somewhere around noon or early afternoon, because then a Yod would have formed linking Venus (the arts)/Saturn (work)/Mercury(communication) to Moon (inner self) by sextile, and those planets to Jupiter in Aquarius by quincunx. I like to think of a Yod as calming otherwise scratchy aspects and making them work. In this case Jupiter in Aquarius at the apex of the Yod describes Rizzi's art exactly: a lot (Jupiter) of life's oddities (Aquarius). Jupiter in Aquarius, in any case, is acting as a kind of funnel for the loose bundle of planets occupying the other half of the chart.
That's his art signature : Jupiter in Aquarius!