Arty Farty Friday ~ Otto Dix

Two days ago, 11/11, there was hushed remembrance of the sacrifices of two twentieth century world wars. It's appropriate this Arty Farty Friday to feature an artist who fought in both wars, and showed through his paintings that he was scarred, both physically and mentally, as were so many, on both sides of the conflicts. This artist was German: Otto Dix. We can, through his paintings, take a view of war from one who was, in those dark days, classed as "our enemy".

All art is exorcism. I paint dreams and visions too; the dreams and visions of my time. Painting is the effort to produce order; order in yourself. There is much chaos in me, much chaos in our time.
Otto Dix

Dix aspired to a career in art early on, and in 1910 entered the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. World War One erupted four years later. Dix volunteered, served at the Battle of the Somme, was badly wounded, several times, and almost to the point of death on one occasion.

As a young man you don't notice at all that you were, after all, badly affected. For years afterwards, at least ten years, I kept getting these dreams, in which I had to crawl through ruined houses, along passages I could hardly get through.
Otto Dix

Post- war many of his paintings depicted the darker side of German society, violence, prostitution, depravity, and the forgotten disfigured veterans of the First World War. Many of his paintings were later burned by the Nazis, who also had him dismissed from a post as art teacher at the Dresden Academy.

Along with all other practicing artists, Dix was forced to join the Nazi government's Reich Chamber of Fine Arts , a subdivision of Goebbels' Cultural Ministry. He had to promise to paint only inoffensive landscapes. He still painted an occasional allegorical painting that criticized Nazi ideals.In 1939 he was arrested on a trumped-up charge of being involved in a plot against Hitler but was later released. He was conscripted late in World War 2, captured by Frech troops at the war's end and released early in 1946.
He returned to teaching, in Dresden.
(See Wikipedia)

People were already beginning to forget, what horrible suffering the war had brought them. I did not want to cause fear and panic, but to let people know how dreadful war is and so to stimulate people's powers of resistance.
Otto Dix

ASTROLOGY:
Otto Dix born 2 December 1891 in what is now part of the city of Gera, Germany, at 1.30 am (Astrodatabank).



The first thing that sprang into my mind when I looked at the chart - this guy should never have had to live through what he had to live through! Nor, of course, should anybody else. Dix's four important personal planets all lay in benign, sunny-faced Sagittarius - aka the wise old owl of the zodiac. Sun and Moon close together, blending inner and outer consciousness as one, and Venus/Mercury conjoined bringing together his art (Venus) and communication skills(Mercury). Libra, his rising sign is ruled by Venus, and, again, the feeling comes that this guy was not built for war!
Brave and impetuous as he was - it really was not his "game" in any way at all.
these are his own words on the matter:

I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?

I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths for life for myself; it's for that reason that I went to war, and for that reason I volunteered.

Saturn planet of limitation lies very close to his ascending degree and in 12th house, the house of restriction and withdrawal - a portent of future restrictions of one sort or another.

His natal Sun is opposed by Pluto and Neptune, two outer planets exactly conjoined in Gemini. Pluto, planet of transformation and, sometimes, death is blended with Neptune's imagination and creativity. This combination pretty much sums up the content of a lot of Dix's paintings. These two planets lie in opposition to his essence, his Sun and Moon, and certainly his paintings are just about as opposite as one could imagine from what one might expect of a quadruple Sagittarian.

The Nodes of the Moon have relevance here too I think. North Node is at 25 Taurus, conjunct Fixed Star Algol - thought of by ancient astrologers as the most malignant of all stars. There are no planets or points close enough to be termed conjoined the North Node, which was probably a very fortunate thing for Otto Dix. He did live through the horrors, with time to tell the tale in pictures, as a warning to generations who followed. That would be -us!


Triumph of Death


Disabled by war


The Salon


War Tryptych

Storm troops advancing under gas


Trenches


Dance of Death



Night-time encounter with a madman


Tryptych contrasting a disabled veteran's plight with the lifestyles of wealthy war leaders.


The match seller (a Veteran of the war?)

Creative what?........

Last Saturday evening we went along to the first of this season's programmes at our local theater, it featured an improvisation group from Chicago called "The Second City". We were surprised to find the huge car park full. The theater audience alone couldn't be responsible, we surmised. There must be something else going on at the Recreation Center. As we walked to the entrance a few shadowy figures loitered near parked vehicles in a rather unsettling way. Ghostly and out of place, they were, clad in long robes - quite unlike the garb of yer average Oklahoman.

"I bet they're here to rehearse a nativity play", I whispered.
A couple of characters standing near the lighted entrance certainly looked biblical sporting long white beards and flowing robes. Inside, the foyer was filled with all manner of costumed indviduals. We hurried past, then saw my husband's son-in-law emerging from the theater area.

"What's all this then?"

"Creative Anachronism. They're here for the weekend. "

"Creative what?" asked yours truly.

"It's a kind of re-enactment outfit", whispered the husband - probably embarrassed at my ignorance of these matters, "they re-enact The Renaissance and stuff"

"Huh? How? Exactly what do they do?"

"I don't know".

We proceeded into the theater and I forgot all about The Renaissance while "Second City" a lively quartet of talented artists entertained us with a variety of very modern sketches and improv.

On our way out after the show we passed a couple of kings - we knew this because they were wearing crowns; a regal looking queen, several buxom wenches, and another be-robed white-bearded hermit guy.

"They could easily re-enact The Tarot", I thought to myself."

Pondering on the phenomenon of Creative Anachronism later, I got to wondering what kind of people are drawn to such a hobby. Anachronism = something out of its own time. In astrology time is connected to Saturn, so Saturn ought to feature prominently in the natal charts of members of groups such as this; maybe Saturn in a sign not particularly friendly to Saturn? Or maybe with some square or opposition aspects to the planet, challenging time, as it were. Also Neptune, with its creativity and imagination should be prominent too.

Saturn on the ascendant conjunct Neptune would be a good general description of Creative Anachronism, but unlikely, I guess, to feature in many charts of the hobbyists. Neptune and/or Pisces emphasised in some way would be a good bet though. Imagination and creativity are an absolute necessity if someone aspires to re-enact anything other than their own lifestory.


A little light research threw up the information that, in the Society for Creative Anachronism Inc. our state of Oklahoma, along with most of Texas, belongs to the Stellar Kingdom of Ansteorra.
Who knew?

Remembrance 11/11. (No astrology)

Back in England in the 1950s I attended an all-girls grammar school(very roughly equivalent to US High Schools). All our teachers were female, many of them older ladies, probably born in the early 1900s, all unmarried. It didn't strike me until many years later exactly why they were all unmarried. A whole generation of young men who might have been their husbands were slaughtered in World War One. Thinking back, our English Literature mistress, Miss Milvain, led our study of the work of World War One poets. Miss Milvain was a tall, slender lady, with long, pure white hair loosely pulled back into a big "bun" at the back. She must have been a stunner as a young woman. I wonder if the poems she put before us held extra poignancy for her, and for her colleagues. She didn't tell us. We didn't ask. I think we should have asked, but we were young and gauche and unthinking.

Here's one of those poems:


AFTERMATH
by Seigfried Sassoon (March 1919)

Have you forgotten yet? ...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same - and War's a bloody game ...
Have you forgotten yet? ...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz -
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench -
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"
Do you remember the hour of din before the attack -
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads - those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you forgotten yet? ...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.

Generational Warfare

A post at Global Astrology Blog last Saturday, "Banks, Baby Boomers & Generational War" brought to mind a couple of my own on a similar topic, but from a very different standpoint. (See here and here.) The Global Astrology piece, and pieces linked within it, are interesting but disturbing.

Generations are but another way of dividing the population of the USA - as if it's not divided enough already! We have the sharp division of left/right political opinion; racial and ethnic divisions; pro-life/pro-choice; divisions of religious beliefs......do we really need another dividing line? Actually, getting right down to it, generations provide several different dividing lines, none of them pretty and none of them useful except perhaps for the purposes of astrological research.

If the young American mindset is bent on the kind of generational gang warfare reflected in some blogs and articles around the internet, what hope can there ever be for a peaceful future? There are serious problems to be faced now, problems which affect not only the USA, but the whole planet. Infighting is not going to help solve any of them.

What's done is done. Arguing about whether it was right, wrong or a mixture of both, and by whom it was done, isn't going to change anything. Things are as they are. If future generations are to have a planet to inhabit, cooperation ought to be the keyword now, not recrimination.

"The Boomers" are the target of anger from age groups labelled Generations X and Y. I belong to none of these three generations. I'm a War Baby. I have first house Pluto at 0 degree Leo. At present transiting Pluto forms a scratchy qunincunx aspect to its natal position in my chart. This is no doubt reflected in my own "scratchiness" on this topic. War Babies have a life memory of World War, and many of us born in Britain(like myself), or in mainland Europe and Asia have uncomfortable childhood memories which vividly colour our judgement.

Generations X and Y are said to pride themselves on their wish for peace in the world. How come, then, that they are more than willing to wage war, even if it's simply a war of words, on some of the people closest to them?

Generation Gap: A chasm, amorphously situated in time and space, that separates those who have grown up absurd from those who will, with luck, grow up absurd. ~Bernard Rosenberg, Dictionary for the Disenchanted, 1972

MUSIC MONDAY ~ Jon Bon Jovi

I didn't set out to write Music Monday's post about Jon Bon Jovi, I was a couple of paragraphs into a post about the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine, founded on this day in 1967, and was listening on-line to a BBC music show. A song being played caught my attention. I'd heard it before, several times recently and rather liked it. It's one of those songs that just march right into your head, a crowd pleaser - gets the blood coursing through the veins! I listened intently to the words: "We Weren't Born to Follow" - hmmm - that's Aquarius, I thought. (Video HERE, lyrics at end of post.)

Jon Bon Jovi (JBJ from here on in) is one of many, many artists who were never on my radar back when they were at their height of popularity. I was caught up in some other wild enthusiasm at the time. In a way I'm glad, because it gives me the chance now to discover somebody new, to me, whose work I can investigate and enjoy, as though it were simply - new.

Born on 2 March 1962 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey at 8.45pm (Astrodatabank).

Wow! that's an interesting chart, I said out loud, as my software threw it up onto the screen.



All his personal planets are grouped together in the winter signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. I like that! It's a good mix: Level-headed common sense from business oriented Capricorn, socially aware and quirky Aquarius is there, and compassionate, mystical Pisces. Why didn't I latch onto this star before? He's my kind of guy!


Sun in Pisces and Pisces' ruler, imaginative Neptune are in harmonious trine - Pisces to Scorpio, underlining JBJ's creative talents in songwriting and performing; he has some acting, in movies and TV, in his repertoire too.

Natal Pisces Sun is also in opposition to the outermost planet, Pluto in Virgo, helping to balance the dreaminess of Pisces with the earthy attention to detail and work ethic of Virgo. There's another opposition, between Uranus the innovator and rebel in Leo, and Jupiter and Mars in Aquarius, rulership of Uranus. I interpret that balancing act as blending the show-bizzy feel of Leo with the social awareness of Aquarius - a balance clear to see in JBJ's career history.

Moon in Capricorn grounds JBJ, I'd credit it with the stability of his home background, as well as his good business sense which has helped to fuel a successful career spanning 25 years.

JBJ has much that's admirable in his lifestory. He has a stable marriage of 18 years, with 4 children - a rarity in the world of rock and roll and show-biz in general. He has said in interview that he gave up on drugs very early on - another rarity. He, and his band, "Bon Jovi" have much charitable work to their name, details are at Wikipedia.

He has long been an active supporter of left-wing politics and politicians, which doesn't especially enamour him to right-leaning music fans who will sling mud at the slightest opportunity. Opportunities are slight - few and far between.



Left-Right: Musicians David Bryan, Tico Torres, Richie Sambora, and Jon Bon Jovi of the band "Bon Jovi" attend the premiere of "Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful" during the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center on April 29, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival.

WE WEREN'T BORN TO FOLLOW

This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles
This one goes out the ones in need
This one goes out the sinner and the cynical
This ain't about no apology
This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry
This road was paved by the winds of change
Walking beside the guilty and the innocent
How will you raise your hand when they call your name?

Yea, Yea, Yea,
We Weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe
Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe
Let me hear you say
Yea, Yea, Yea, ooooohhh,, Yea

This ones about anyone who does it differently
This ones about the one who cusses and spits
This ain't about our living in a fantasy
This ain't about giving up or giving in

Yea, Yea, Yea,
We Weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe
Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe
Let me hear you say
Yea, Yea, Yea, ooooohhh,, Yea

Let me hear you say
Yea, Yea, Yea, oooohhhhh, Yea
"Guitar"

Yea, Yea, Yea,
We Weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe
Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe
Let me hear you say
Yea, Yea, Yea, ooooohhh, Yea.

And a big YEAH! from me too!

Sunday Supplement ~ Horses, Wild & Others. (No astrology)

Following yesterday's post about Susan Boyle I got to thinking about the song "Wild Horses", her new single release. The song Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote back in the 1970s has a new sound for 2009. I've never been a fan of The Rolling Stones, so this song was new to me.

Rolling Stones version here.


Susan Boyle's version here.

Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or off stage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away

I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken tears must be cried
Let's do some living, after we'll die
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday

Good lyrics linked to a distinctive melody - a song adaptable to a variety of treatments. There are other interpretations of "Wild Horses" - Wikipedia lists more than 20 of 'em. The Stones' version and Susan's are at extreme ends of a scale - rock and ragged at one end.....poignant and smooth at the other, from the same basic material. Proof of a good song, in the hands of good arrangers.

I think Susan Boyle was very well advised to sing this. Maybe it was her own choice, but somehow I doubt that she was ever into The Stones in her youth. The song has a bit of gravitas, famous pedigree, yet still sounds fresh in her interpretation. She gives the song, and herself, new life.



Thoughts of horses remind me that we have a couple Chez Twilight. This one a junk store bargain, acquired for very few dollars. It's not great art, but well-framed and the whimsical feel of it appealed to me. It's interestingly textured, nice background colour, and fills a big blank space in our bedroom rather well.



This one was painted by himself. It was lying around, part-finshed, in the garage for years, then suddenly he got the urge to paint again. The other day I decided we ought to give it a home in the hallway. It was drawn from a miniature model of an antique Chinese horse sculpture, and was going to be part of a trio of horsey paintings along with a carousel horse, and a rocking horse. The trio idea got lost somewhere along the way.

Susan Boyle - Realising Her Dreams

Susan Boyle's natal chart has been interpreted already by several astrologers. Here's a link to one interpretation I enjoyed, by Robert Blaschke, who makes a very interesting point about her pre-natal eclipse, and in a footnote, points out that Barack Obama had the same pre-natal eclipse.

Susan's Sun/Moon opposition in Aries/Libra forms what astrologers call a T-Square via two 90* angles to Mars in Cancer - the pattern clearly highlighted in the chart at the linked article. Aries, Libra and Cancer are cardinal signs, and signs about to be highlighted in real time by transits of:
a) Uranus moving into Aries in mid-2010;
b) Pluto already transiting early Capricorn - this the cardinal sign opposite and therefore affecting Cancer;
c) Saturn now in Libra, though it will slide back into Virgo again, for a period before taking up long-term residence in Libra.

I see those factors as metaphorically "pushing Susan's buttons" through her natal T-square. Even though transits are unlikely to conjoin her planets exactly at the same time, long-term emphasis is going to be on the relevant signs. The next few years will surely bring the realisation of her dreams, the culmination of a lifetime's wait. T-square formations are no piece of cake though. There'll be challenges, a lot of hard work and loss of privacy. I feel sure that Susan has wise advisors around her to help steer her through any difficulties.

Jupiter transited early Aquarius in the first months of this year, just at the point where Susan's natal Jupiter lies - that would have been the early days of, or preparation for, the TV show, Britain's Got Talent. She was runner-up after votes were counted, but seems to have already outshone the winners. She had, at a very opportune time, lucky planet Jupiter back in the position it was when she first entered this world.

Susan's first album, "I Dreamed a Dream", will be released on 23 November. According to a piece in the UK's Daily Mail in September:

"... the success of Susan Boyle's first album is now beyond all doubt, after it topped Amazon's bestsellers list - nearly three months before release."

Go get 'em, Susan! Wild Horses can't stop you now. In fact, if your new single is anything to go by, they'll carry you aong in their wake.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Francis Bacon, painting hideousness.

The first sentence of an on-line biography gives a clue to this artist's likely Sun sign:

" ..... Francis Bacon was one of the most powerful and original figure painters in the twentieth century. He was particularly noted for the obsessive intensity of his work." And again the headline of a Guardian UK article describing the way Bacon is remembered by his friends: "The power and the passion" - two words often used in connection with......

Scorpio! Francis Bacon was born 28 October 1909, in Dublin, Ireland to English parents. He was a distant descendant of "the" Sir Francis Bacon, he of 16th century fame, he who said: "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." Sir Francis's recent relative relied very heavily on that darkness in his paintings.

A few examples of Bacon's paintings are shown at the end of this post. Offering insight, an extract from Anne Marie D. Lee's review of a Francis Bacon exhibition in New York: "A Painter for Our Times, Francis Bacon Arrives at the Met."

Perhaps in more peaceful times, the impact of Bacon's blurred, pummeled faces and wide-mouth screams of man and beast could be received on a purely philosophical level, as acutely vivid allegories of existential angst. But in the context of today’s times, the juxtaposition of man and meat is all-too revolting, and the sight of nude biomorphic figures weirdly perched on pedestal or table all-too disturbing and real. It is art that speaks to, or more so howls at, the conditions of our own fear-ridden world, where violence and brutality have so savagely dehumanized the experience of life.

In one of a series of paintings called the Man in Blue, a businessman stares watchfully from the canvas--his face, a grotesque pallor of sickly phosphorescence, caged in vertical shadows and equipped with biting teeth. How easy it is to see in this sordid portrait study, and others like it, reflections of the unremorseful greed of bankers and CEOs, those for whom the heart is just another piece of meat.
In a previous room, Francis Bacon is quoted in a wall text as having once said, “I remember looking at dog shit on the pavement and I suddenly realized, there it is—this is what life is like.” Indeed the artist's work seethes with the anger of a damaged man, imprisoned within a world filled with physical pain and mental anguish. A world of shit, in other words. And remarkably like our own

Bacon spent much of his life in England, with interludes in European cities including Berlin and Paris. A self-taught painter, inspired by Picasso, his works are, at best, disturbing. Sometimes in his work there's a similar feel to that found in the paintings of Frida Kahlo, though the style is quite different.

Described by those who knew him well as "conflicted yet charming". Wikipedia's page on Bacon

"He could light up the day with his wit and generosity; he could equally well plunge it into gloom; and part of the excitement of being with him lay in not knowing for long which way it would go. It was fascinating to watch such sudden changes and contradictions within one person...Bacon could not be pinned down. The closer you got to him, the more likely he was to turn nasty or simply disappear -- to go through a wall into a life where you could not follow."

Bacon ultimately believed "that life was ridiculous," saying "Even as a child, I knew [life] was impossible, a kind of charade." He was an outspoken atheist; homosexual, he moved in a social circle of louche bon vivants and heavy drinkers in London's Soho. Later in life, after the death of his longtime partner he withdrew from former friends to a quieter lifestyle.
He died in 1992.

A brief look at Francis Bacon's natal chart. Born 28 October 1909 in Dublin. His time of birth isn't known, so a 12 noon chart must suffice. Rising sign and degree of Moon, as shown, will not be accurate.





Oh my! There are two Grand Crosses here! One (as shown) is tighter than the other, and links Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus via square (90*) aspects, and throwing up two oppositions. The second, looser Grand Cross links Venus, Mars, Pluto and Jupiter. Such formations, made up of square and opposition aspects , reflect a life of constant challenge and/or inner conflict. Bacon had a double dose of this - no wonder his paintings are so dark and filled with angst! He seems to have been a seriously disturbed individual.

There are some more helpful trine(120*)aspects in this well-spread out natal chart. Venus, planet of the arts trines Saturn, planet of work and discipline, both in go-getting Fire signs. Mars, the drive planet trines Neptune, planet of imagination and creativity, both in emotional Water signs. So, in spite of his inner angst, he had sufficient positivity within him to use his conflict as inspiration to produce works of art which have, eventually, become world famous and command high prices.

Natal Moon, if Bacon's birth time was after 3pm would have been in Taurus, an earlier birth would put Moon in Aries. I won't hazard a guess which is more likely; I can see arguments for both.











Bacon deliberately subverted artistic conventions by using the triptych format of Renaissance altarpieces to show the evils of man, rather than the virtues of Christ. In Pope Innocent X he reworked a famous portrait by Velazquez into a screaming mask of angst."

















There are interesting pieces about Francis Bacon at the New Humanist , and The Guardian UK

Peddling Fear

Originally this post was a bad-tempered rant, but it sat in draft form for 24 hours, giving me time to reconsider a few hard words I'd written about a well-known astrologer and his predictions for next year. I've toned it down.

In my view, astrologers ought be above scaring the s..t out of their readers. How on earth can it be useful, or ethical, to present doomy predictions based on what is, after all, an imperfect tool: astrology. Astrology is imperfect, especially for the purposes of prediction. If a passing reader can name any exact predictions of world or national events from the past which proved accurate, I'll be happy to eat my words.

The best that astrologers can honestly aim for is a vague forecast of what the general atmosphere of any given period of time might be, based on cycles; based on the passage of time, marked by the movement of the Sun, Moon and planets. Their movements track time in the way the hands on a clock track time. I'm beginning to suspect that the planets themselves, like the hands on a clock, are not "it". Time and its unknown properties, waves and cycles are "it", with the movement of the planets being our only available reference points.

Perhaps the next few years will bring us to an important point in time cycles, to the crest or trough of a "wave" of sorts, when events will prove, with hindsight, to have been highly significant. Details beyond that, presented by astrologers or anyone else, are guesses at best, and to my mind ought to be labelled as such. Assumptions as to whether events will prove negative or positive in effect cannot possibly known with any certainty. Comparing what happened "the last time" such and such a planetary formation occurred seems to me to be unhelpful. We are now part of a different cycle on the spiral of time. Things are different in every conceivable way from how they were "then" - whichever "then" is chosen.

I believe that astrology needs to be kept alive, pending a time when science, physics, and human knowledge catch up, and help to clarify the shadowy traditions bequeathed to us by astrologers of centuries past. I have a feeling this will happen. One day an unsuspecting physicist will utter those words..."That's funny!"

Astrology needs to be kept alive, but not by fear and pessimism - by love. Fear is a virus, it spreads and mutates, and unhealthily infects the collective mindset. Astrologers ought to keep this in mind.

One Year Ago ~ One Year Ahead

Just a year ago today we were on tenterhooks in the USA to discover who would be our new President.

President Obama won't actually have served a full year until January 2010, but this was the day when, late in the evening, we knew he'd been successful in his challenge for the presidency.




Many are critical of the progress the President has been able to make thus far.
Some overly optimistic supporters expected him to perform miracles. He hasn't done so, nor should we have expected it of him. What he has done, in a comparatively short time, is to raise the status of the United States in the eyes of much of the rest of the world. No longer is America the world's brutal despot. At least we're a few notches above that - seen now as a nation whose leader is compassionate, highly intelligent and level headed. He's moderate though. We ain't gonna see no revolutionary changes on his watch. But then, we wouldn't have seen any if a miracle had happened and my own first choice last year, Dennis Kucinich were made president.

People conveniently forget two things when belly-aching about the President's lack of dramatic progress in some important areas. 1) That around 46% of voters cast their vote for John McCain and (Gawd help us) Sarah Palin. There was no landslide of support, even though some commentators talked-up Obama's win into one. 2) That the US government is made up of three levels, legislative, executive and judicial. Congress, the legislative branch contains sharp thorny obstacles, which are no more easy to deal with by a revolutionary far-left president than by a moderate one. In fact, a moderate president has a better chance of achieving some level of progress through compromise.

Next year is thought by many astrologers to have all the signs of an especially difficult year. As long ago as 1996, in his book "Horoscope for the New Millennium", E. Alan Meese wrote of a "titanic T-square" in 2010, involving Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto as they enter cardinal signs (a similar formation to that during the Great Depression of the 1930s). Actually, much of what the author predicted for 2010 has already happened in the financial world. While I don't dispute that there could be more shocks ahead, on any front, I don't think the year will be as dire as is being foretold by some doom-ridden astrologers.

I decided to ask the tarot cards "what do I need to know about Obama's 2nd year in office?".

Now, I was a bit naughty because the first three cards I drew didn't seem to be very interesting. I waited 24 hours then asked again - and a weird thing happened - it has happened before - two of the 3 cards drawn the previous day appeared again, in the same order, plus one different card.
And one card fell out of the deck as I shuffled.
First day's draw
4 of Cups/Page of Swords/8 of Coins

2nd day's draw
4 of Cups/Page of Swords/3 of Rods (& 5 of Rods fell out of deck as I shuffled; when this happens it's thought that the card ought to be taken into account.)

4 of Cups is fairly clear: it represents a kind of apathy, withdrawal, introspection, a feeling of being disengaged.

Page of Swords - Swords belong to the element of Air, so is mentally centered - if the card represents a situation = analysis of a problem, renewed enthusiasm, clearing up confusion. Court cards can represent a person too, either the one who is subject of the question or another important to the response. The Page usually represents a young-ish person of either sex. I needed a little confirmation to interpret the card in this context, so sought assistance from a tarot website. This was the first I looked at, by Juniper Russo Tarascio:

When the Page of Swords is drawn, it refers to a situation that is rocky and tumultuous, but the person in the situation remains calm and in-control Despite obstacles, the subject of the tarot reading will prevail and be successful. That describes Obama, I reckon!
Like all Court Cards, the Page of Swords can indicate a person, rather than just a state of being...... When the Page of Swords symbolizes an individual, the person is almost always a woman or a feminine man. She is steadfast and confident, sometimes to a fault, and acts quickly and knowledgeably without second-guessing decisions.
But is it Obama himself? Or a woman important in his administration stepping in to provide assistance at some troublesome and significant time?

8 of Coins Dedicated approach, the approach of a craftsman getting steady material results.
3 of Rods Having foresight, providing direction, being visionary.

From those cards, in a nutshell, it seems that the President might enter his second year in office feeling a little depressed, or let down, leading to some introspection, which will, in turn, lead to a more energised period, with a will to tackle obstacles and there's a distinctly positive trend showing towards the end of the year.

The card which fell out of the deck - 5 Rods indicates struggles and dissension - no change there then!

I'm glad that no Major Arcana cards with negative connections appeared. This gives me confidence that 2010 is unlikely to be the bugaboo some astrologers predict - at least as far as the President of the USA is concerned. Some of the doom-laden predictions out there could relate to another part of the world, I guess. At any given time, there are going to be bad things happening somewhere. I don't remember a period in my lifetime when everything, everywhere, was sweetness and light. 2010 will be no different - that's my prediction.

DELL ~ An American Dream

Tomorrow will be the 25th anniversary of the founding of the company now known as Dell Inc. "born" 1984, at that time under the name name "PC's Limited". Dell is now an international corporation employing more than 76,000 worldwide. It was the brainchild of Michael Dell, whose estimated net worth in 2009 is 12.3 billion dollars - in past years it was anything up to 20 billion dollars. The American Dream personified! He is ranked #9 of the 400 richest Americans.

Michael Dell wasn't academically gifted, but had an early talent for business, and an understanding of computers. Wikipedia tells us that "at the age of 15 he broke down a brand new Apple II computer and rebuilt it, just to see if he could". He amassed some capital by selling subscriptions for a local newspaper, bought a car and three computers, then later dropped out of university, and with some extra capital acquired from his family founded PC's Limited. The company grew. It was exactly the right time for it, and in the hands of a guy who understood what customers wanted and how to deliver, it became one of the USA's most successful in the field. Michael Dell began selling computers custom-made to the requirements of his customers at a time when the concept was unknown. The system has been a success, for it's still the basis of Dell's trading.

I'd have expected a guy with such innate business sense to have a strong Capricorn presence in his natal chart, but, unless he has Capricorn rising, it's not there. I haven't been able to establish his time of birth, so a 12 noon chart is below.



Dell's personal planets are in Pisces, Aquarius, Sagittarius, Virgo and Taurus.
There's emphasis on the Pisces-Virgo axis, as Pluto/Uranus/Mars lie opposite Pisces Sun/Mercury/Saturn. Any dreamy imaginative traits of Pisces are balanced by this opposition from Virgo's perfectionism and work ethic. Venus in Aquarius, the sign of technology and invention, is a link to his draw towards computers, as is the Uranus/Pluto (techology and power) conjunction in Virgo which lie opposite his personal planets in Pisces. Jupiter in Taurus lies opposite Neptune in Scorpio, which echoes once again the balance already seen between Pisces and Virgo, this time between earthy common sense of Taurus with the creativity and imagination of Neptune.

Dell's natal Moon would be in Sagittarius whatever time he was born. Sagittarius puts expansion into the picture, as well as an inner optimism which has surely been a big factor in his huge success.

When the original Dell company (PC's Ltd) was born on 4 November 1984 it's interesting that transiting Uranus at 11 Sagittarius would have been quite close to his natal Moon, and transiting Saturn just 2 degrees from natal Neptune. These links bring together technology, expansion, work, structure and creativity.

MUSIC MONDAY ~ Astrology & Music

Are we not formed, as notes of music are,
For one another, though dissimilar?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Music and astrology have quite a lot in common. Both rely on a limited but still potentially vast collection of possible content, based on a non-negotiable structure. In music it's notes on a stave; in astrology, it's planets in the zodiac. Both have a kind of mathematics at their core. In music it's the beat, the time, the rhythm - 3/4 time/ 4/4 time etc. In astrology it's 360 degrees split into 12 segments and aspects formed between them: 90 degree squares, 120 degree trines, 180degree oppositions etc. These mix with the rhythmic integrated waves of Fire to Earth, to Air to Water, to Fire....... Cardinal to Fixed to Mutable to Cardinal....

The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

There's a branch of astrology known as Harmonics, which I, being mathematically challenged, haven't as yet managed to master.
Astrologer Bob Marks says : (HERE)

"This has to be one of the greatest advances in astrological analysis of the last hundred years. What are "harmonics?" Just a mathematical rearrangement of the horoscope so that we can see particular features more clearly. It's something like taking a cross-section of a sample in biology and putting it under a microscope."

Pythagoras, an early Greek mathematician and astronomer was the first to discover a mathematical relationship in the frequencies of the various tones of the musical scale. In postulating the planets' orbits as bearing a similar relationship based upon the distance from the center, he characterized their interrelated orbits as "the harmony of the spheres." (Nicholas deVore - Encyclopedia of Astrology)

So really, with a bit of imagination, each human being could be seen, astrologically, as a piece of music, a song. The exact positions of the planets, and arrangement in respect to one another, as we came into the world dictates our "tune", and therefore has much bearing on which other "tunes", real and human, we can most easily harmonize with.

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
~William Cowper

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT ~ Hallowe'en-ish. (No astrology).

It was an interesting Hallowee'n. We ate around 6pm, so as to be ready for the Trick or Treaters. They started to trickle around 7pm, just as we'd settled down to watch Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde on Turner Classic Movie channel - the Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman version.

It was dusk. The early Trick or Treat contingent usually consists of teeny tiny fairies or goblins who sweetly gaze up at you as you answer the doorbell, big bowl of candy in hand. They stand there nervously as Mom and/or Daddy hover in the shadows. Eyes wide, they delicately pull a single candy from the bowl and daintily drop it into their little bag - "Take some more", we'll say. The fairy or goblin turns doubtfully to look at Mommy who eagerly nods.

A little later the older tribes arrive, mob-handed. With a few years of Trick or Treating under their belts, they know the score! When offered a bowl of candies their hands come down, claw fashion, like a human earthmoving machine half emptying the bowl. We don't mind. There'll be less left to tempt me.

Spencer was, by now, at his most evil with poor Ingrid begging for mercy. It was around 7.50 when.....the lights went out, the power went off, and we found ourselves in total darkness.

There was no storm, the skies were completely clear....."Vandals playing a trick because a treat wasn't forthcoming at the electricity company's office?" We wonder.

"It's all very Hallowe'en-ish".

"Well, the Martians haven't landed, a tsunami isn't heading this way either or the emergency squeal would have interrupted the radio programme", said the husband reassuringly, as we listened to the soothing jazz being played on our battery operated radio, kept for just such emergencies.

" Oh, Good!"

After a while the husband called the daughter who confirmed that their power had gone off also, but only for 10 minutes and was now back on. They are supplied by a different company, though presumably off the same grid. We remained in darkness for almost an hour.

"We should buy a musical instrument for occasions such as this", I declared. "Maybe a banjo - it'd be fun!"

I wandered into the kitchen and opened the venetian blind to find the backyard bathed in silvery light. At first I thought the yard light must have somehow found its own power source, but no, light was coming from a big, almost full Moon. It struck me as I gazed out, how important and magical the Moon must have seemed to ancient peoples.

Then the lights went up, the TV spluttered back to life. A new movie had started. I'll never know whether Spencer Tracy got his come uppance, or if poor Ingrid survived. Ah well...maybe next Hallowe-en they'll show the movie again.