Arty Farty Friday ~ Sigmar Polke and his "ungraspable logic"

Before the Sun slides out of Aquarius into Pisces there's one more artist with natal Sun in Aquarius who ought to be investigated: Sigmar Polke (pronounced, I think, Polka). I'd never heard of him, but recent exhibitions of his work at Tate Modern and MOMA have spawned numerous reviews and articles, as did the artist's death in 2010 at age 69.

Sigmar Polke was born on 13 February 1941 in Oels, Lower Silesia, once eastern Germany, present-day in Poland. After World War II, Polke and his family fled to East Germany and, in 1953, escaped to Düsseldorf. He trained as a glass painter, later studied at The Arts Academy of Düsseldorf. From 1977–1991, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg. He later settled in Cologne where he continued to live and work until his death in June 2010.

None of the above dry facts tells us anything about the man or his style of artwork. Several reviews and articles offer a better view, for example, in:
The New Yorker, by By Peter Schjelda

Polke was a big man with the twinkle of a gamin. I met him a few times and found him dazzlingly intelligent, funny, and exhausting. As Buchloh says, “You could not have a conversation with Polke without his continuously destabilizing your sense of self, without his suggesting that it rested on some type of oblivion or disavowal.” .........he discoursed on ancient philosophical and technical sources for a suite of stained-glass windows, in the Protestant cathedral of Zürich, which became his last major project. I felt awash in a sea of exotic erudition and ungraspable logic, listening to Polke .........There was a fearless, spooky otherness to his cast of mind, in key with an attraction to mysticism. “Higher Beings Commanded: Paint the Upper-Right Corner Black!” is the title of a canvas in the show from 1969; the corner is black. In the early seventies, he shared a farmhouse with many friends and indulged heavily in hallucinogenic drugs, which caused a dip in his career, but, in contrast to the more commonly dicey toll of such a regimen, plainly nourished the brainstorms of his later work.....

We Love Culture - Sigmar Polke: The Alchemist amongst the Chaos.

Polke ridicules artistic pomposity. For example, he mocks the spiritual claims of abstract artists in “Higher Beings Command: Paint the Upper Right Hand Corner Black” (image on right). In this sense, Sigmar Polke was the "Private Eye" or "Charlie Hebdo" of German post-modernism. He was sometimes abstract, sometimes representational. But there is always a political or philosophical agenda, and always there are layers........But if you really want to get close to Polke you need to work harder, because he doesn’t smash you in the face with his messages. You have to dig. You have to think. Polke’s work is complex, elusive and perpetually in flux, because that’s how the world is. And complexity makes us uncomfortable. What we really want in life are simple solutions to our problems. We look for assurance in a 500 word web-article, or better still, a 140 character tweet.

The Guardian - by Adrian Searle

This unfathomable artist was much more than just another painter. His difficulty is also what is so tantalising. Like many of the unstable, fugitive and light-sensitive pigments he sometimes used, and those layers of brown, resinous murk, as soon as you think you see him clearly, his art takes a turn and eludes you once again. His elusiveness was deliberate, a way to stay free.
Polke’s paintings could be cantankerous and awkward and weirdly ugly, and could also leave you standing on the brink of beauty, wallowing in gorgeous colour. There were surfaces as delicate and ephemeral as scent (using, in one work, a purple dye derived from slugs, painted on silk), and others gloopy with thick polyester resin, which revealed and obscured layers of buried and overpainted imagery, depending on where you stand and how the light falls. Experiment and play were at the heart of his art, but were backed up by an encyclopedic and inquiring mind and a curiosity about how paintings have been and might be made.

Three of Polke's paintings I like, below - couldn't find the titles, sorry!

Rather than adding more images, I'm including a couple of 4 minute videos featuring some of Polke's work, with narration, one from MOMA the other from Tate:






ASTROLOGY

Sigmar Polke born 13 February 1941 in Oels, Silesia, Poland. No time of birth is known, chart is set for 12 noon.

Polke's natal Sun at 24 Aquarius is very close to 3 Fixed stars, all categorised as "fortunate", one of them, Deneb Algedi is a Behenian Star, the others are Sadalsuud, and Sador. His obvious sharp intellect is represented there. His natal Sun is squaring Aquarius' modern ruler, Uranus in Taurus. Saturn, Aquarius' traditional ruler is also in Taurus, conjunct Jupiter, squared by Polke's natal Venus (planet of the arts). Taurus is ruled by Venus, so a tangled, somewhat contrary linkage to art is present. Natal Venus is opposed by Pluto from Leo, and forms, along with the squares to Saturn/Jupiter, what astrologers call a "T-square", a challenging, rather uncomfortable circuit of aspects. Polke's cynical, contrary attitudes to some modern art styles could be reflected in this tangled network.

The elusive element in his paintings could relate to Neptune. If Polke were born late in the day it's possible natal Moon would have been very close to Neptune, which would provide a good fit. We find Neptune in Virgo, in harmonious trine to Uranus in Taurus - and Uranus, as noted already, sits in a scratchy linkage to natal Sun. From one of the snips quoted above: His elusiveness was deliberate, a way to stay free. Staying free, a classic requirement for any true Aquarius-type!

The political and/or philosophical elements embedded in Polke's paintings reflect the Aquarius (politics) and Jupiter (philosophy) tangles within his natal chart.

Other than the above notes, and in the absence of a time of birth, nothing else leaps out to me as translating to the kind of personality indicated in the three snips from articles posted above.

PATTERNS

Speculative fiction writer William Gibson, in his novel Pattern Recognition, wrote :

“We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not in the sense that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did. Fully imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in which 'now' was of some greater duration. For us, of course, things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures like our grandparents' have insufficient 'now' to stand on. We have no future because our present is too volatile. ... We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition”.

Astrologers use pattern recognition when attempting to predict the future. Future configurations of the planets, similar to configurations which have formed years, decades or centuries before, small patterns and huge ones, are basic ingredients of astrological prediction. Pattern recognition can aid astrological searchers in other ways too. There's an interesting except from Michael Ledo's book The Secret Astrology of the Bible
Snip (click on image for a bigger version). Read more at the link above:

As we watched a TV series, The Bletchley Circle via Netflix last week, the subject of pattern recognition came up.

The series' theme features four women who, during World War II worked together at a secret facility at Bletchley, England, to decipher German military codes for the British military. The series begins in 1952, nine years after the war. The first episode opens as Susan, one of the four, learns about a series of murders in the London area. She soon recognises patterns connecting the murders. This discovery encourages her to use her old code-breaking skills. She contacts her war-time colleagues for support, after unsuccessfully trying to convince the police to investigate her theories about the crimes. Thereby hangs the tale, completed in the first series. We have yet to watch season two's story.

Currently doing the rounds of movie theatres there's a big-screen, factual, story of code-breaking and pattern recognition. The Imitation Game. It hasn't reached our local cinema yet - probably never will. We shall patiently await its arrival to Netflix.

What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can't decipher.
~ Chuck Palahniuk

Mumbles & Grumbles - Seventh Son

On our local movie theatre's schedule this week is Seventh Son, said to be based (almost imperceptibly as far as I can tell) on English author Joseph Delaney's 2004 Young Adult novel The Spook’s Apprentice ( U.K. style), titled in the USA The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch. The novel was first in The Wardstone Chronicles series; whether the film adaptation will also be first of a series remains to be seen. The movie Seventh Son itself will, as far as I'm concerned, remain to be seen!

"In a time long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between supernatural forces and humankind. Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges), the last of the Falcon Knights, had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), many years ago, but now she has escaped and is seeking vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarnation, Mother Malkin is preparing to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world. Only one thing stands in her way: Master Gregory. In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face with the evil he always feared would someday return. He has only until the next full moon to do what usually takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other. Man's only hope lies in the seventh son of a seventh son".
(See here)

Having read a little about the source material, the author and his English Lancashire background, I don't relish sitting through a film with mangled indiscriminate accents and nothing at all to anchor the tale to its origins.

The original story is grounded in historical fact. The area of mid-Lancasire in which the tale was set by Mr Delaney is famous for its medieval witches. Fully documented witch trials in Lancaster in 1612 lend authenticity. Joseph Delaney used real, though slightly adapted, local place names in his books, and culled the bare bones of his themes from local legends and ghost stories.

Half a century before Joseph Delaney's book was written, Robert Neill wrote his locally famous novel, Mist Over Pendle, first published in 1951, reprinted several times since. Now, there's a novel which ought to be made into a movie! It'd have to be done by the BBC for TV though, not by Hollywood! This a serious novel, dark and brooding in atmosphere - yet entertaining too. I read it long ago, when I lived, for almost a year, in the very area of Lancashire where witches once did what witches do. My parents, at the time, had a small cafe/snack bar in a town where Pendle Hill was nearby, clearly visible. Around 1959/60, between my stints working in hotel offices, I went to live there with my parents for a while, found a job as secretary/telephonist in a Rolls Royce Gas Turbine engineering factory in town, and was made familiar with the area's colourful local history. That part of Lancashire, around a town called Clitheroe, has the warmest, nicest set of inhabitants I've ever found, some gorgeous, rich Lancashire accents too. If locals do retain bits of witchy DNA, it has worked out well!

Back to Seventh Son. Knowing the land in which the film's source material was originally set, and the accent that goes with it, I could not stomach hearing Americans Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore using mangled hybrid accents, nor any of the younger, London born actors doing the same.

Films hardly ever portray their source novels closely, some even change the entire setting of a tale - but there are certain lines that ought not to be crossed, for me anyway. Among Rotten Tomatoes' reviews Variety's film critic Peter Debruge describes Seventh Son as: "An over-designed, under-conceived fantasy epic in which even topnotch contributors can't get the chemistry right, leaving Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore looking silly". I suspect even that critcism is way too mild.

Astrology's Quirks and Stretch Marks

Gary Phillipson's book Astrology in the Year Zero (published 2000) has been mentioned a couple of times before in archived posts. It's a book of interviews with astrologers and researchers into astrology. I often pull it from the shelf, open it randomly, there's always something there to tickle the ol' grey matter .

In a section considering "how far astrology can go" - for example, how far in being able to identify a murderer? Mike Harding responded with something I see as very important as a general astrological rule of thumb, and something easily overlooked on occasion:

"...the chart is not the chart of a person, it's the chart for a moment in time....the chart is about 'the nature of time', whatever that turns out to mean." (page 113)

That remark is kind of, sort of, related to something I commented a few posts back, that Aquarius (or any zodiac sign) is a zodiac sign, not a person. Keywords for each sign relate to the reputed "atmosphere" of that particular segment of the ecliptic.

Obliquely related to those thoughts, a few pages further on in the book, there's a conversation about astrologers coming up with what seemed to be a good, reasonably accurate reading for a client, then finding out they had interpreted the wrong chart.

Geoffrey Cornelius said

"[Astrologers] get correct readings from wrong maps on sufficient occasions for it to be, clearly, an astrological phenomenon. One has to be very sparing with that, because it is so ruthlessly undermining of the status of astrology...... "

As embarrassing as it must be for a professional astrologer to find herself/himself in that situation I, as a pain-in-the-ass amateur dabbler in the art, could argue that producing a "correct" reading for a person, while using a wrong chart, needn't be seen as such a calamity.

While astrology could never be considered a "one-size-fits- all" kind of thing in relation to the natal chart, there is certainly a fair amount of stretch, mix-and-match, and variability going on. A metaphor - maybe a poor one, but the one that sprang to mind first: ten people arrive all dressed slightly differently. They are issued robes to wear after removing all clothing. Shortly thereafter they are called back, blindfolded and asked to choose from the various piles of categorised clothing (underwear, skirts, trousers, tops, coats, socks, shoes). Wouldn't it be likely that the folks would pick some, maybe even all, pieces that were not their own, but which still afforded a reasonable fit? I think so - but not in every case. A heavily built person or a petite one would be more likely to find themselves in difficulty - as would the average sized person who inadvertently picked up pieces belonging to the non-average sized. The non-average sized among the group would be aware beforehand of the very obvious pitfall for them, for they had always "stood out from the crowd", and only certain pieces provided a good fit.

Each person's natal chart is unique, but in spite of that, there are going to be similarities, often many of 'em between charts of any random group of people. I suspect there are are, indeed, possibilities of being able to cull a seemingly right reading from a wrong chart in certain cases, especially in cases where there is no obvious distinctive chart feature.

Looping back to the first quote in this post: "how far can astrology go?" It can go quite a long way, seems capable of a certain amount of flex and stretch. Rather than being an embarrassment if a decent reading has come from the wrong chart, wouldn't it be better to consider it just another crazy thing that astrology's flexibility is capable of throwing up? Nobody, even the most erudite of astrologers, knows for sure what astrology is all about. Astrological lore isn't carved in stone. Texts ancient and modern tend to indicate differently, but in truth, nobody knows - nor as far as we can tell has ever known the answers to the what, the why or the how of astrology. In matters astrological we feel around in the dark - just like those blindfolded individuals in a previous paragraph.

Music Monday ~ Holst, Jupiter, Hymn, and surprise, surprise...Rugby!

The only radio I listen to these days is music from BBC Radio 2 via internet, sometimes live sometimes "on demand". While listening to one such show the other day I heard a song with a very familiar melody but unfamiliar lyrics. Its title: World in Union. The song's melody originates in Gustav Holst's The Planets suite, is part of its 4th movement, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. The melody, known as "Thaxted", was originally adapted by Holst for its use in the patriotic hymn, I Vow to Thee My Country, based on a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice.

So...that was the reason the melody was so familiar to me. We sang "We Vow...." in school assemblies, long ago, back in England, and it pops up regularly at almost every state funeral, royal wedding and other such events in the UK.

If in the right sort of mood, I'll enjoy a stately, full blast version of I Vow to Thee My Country, but I do like this gentler version by Beck Goldsmith - a recent use of the old hymn is as theme to a British TV series, The Village, which I intend to search for on Netflix. (Update: not yet available).




World in Union, with lyrics by Charlie Skarbek, uses the same melody, its words present a more all-encompassing loyalty, envisioning a time when people of the Earth might embrace our whole world rather than one individual nation. This is far more appropriate to Jupiter's astrological association with philosophy and expansive good feeling; music dedicated to that planet surrounds these lyrics.

World in Union is theme song of the Rugby World Cup. These lyrics attempt to capture a spirit of international friendship which, it is said, pervades rugby union culture the world over. (Rugby Union is something like American football - but not really, or so I'm told. I'm a complete ignoramus on sport). The song was commissioned by the sport's governing body in 1991, it has become synonymous with the "gathering of the nations" that the four-yearly tournament represents. 2015 is a Rugby World Cup year, as it happens.

New Zealand's Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's superb rendition of World in Union
~ Holst would be proud!



World in Union

There's a dream
I feel so rare, so real
All the World In Union
The world as one

Gathering together
One mind, one heart
Every creed, every colour
Once joined, never apart

Searching for the best in me
I will find what I can be
If I win, lose or draw
It's a victory for all

It's the World In Union
The world as one
As we climb to reach our destiny
A new age has begun

We face high mountains
Must cross rough seas
We must take our place in history
And live with dignity

It's the World In Union
The world as one
As we climb to reach our destiny
A new age has begun

Build a world
A World In Union
A new age has begun

Saturday & Sundry Thoughts

It's odd that once one becomes aware of something of which previously unaware, it pops up unexpectedly sometimes to silently wave:
"Hello - remember me?"

I mentioned Fuseli's The Nightmare's appearance in the TV series The Fall in my post yesterday - that was the phenomenon in reverse: first the painting then, as I was preparing yesterday's post. its creator popping in to say "Remember this?" This week I was reminded of my January post on Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs and their creation, the "cut-up" method in art, literature etc. (See HERE). In the midst of watching the first season of British TV police detective series Luther, in episode 3 (or maybe 4) the detective is seen surrounded by pieces of text, photographs and bits of newspaper cuttings. When asked by a colleague what the heck he was doing he replied, "Trying out "Bowie's cut-up method". David Bowie did use the Gysin/Burroughs cut-up invention in writing some of his lyics during the 1970s.

A conversation with mike, in comments following last Monday's post, got me further thinking about Britain's wide range of accents and dialects, and in particular how often a single term can pinpoint where its user hails from. I'm not sure of the correct term for the particular "place-marker" I have in mind. A term of endearment? No - that's far too intimate. Pet name? Still too intimate. What I'll refer to is the casual mode of address sometimes used by warm-hearted people to strangers or near-strangers (often to females and children but not always). For instance, a waitress to a customer, a bus driver to a passenger, a store-keeper to a customer, casual acquaintance to a casual acquaintance....that kind of address.

If blindfolded on a tour of Britain you could almost guess where you were by the type of casual, warm address being used. In the north-east of England you'd hear "pet" ("Would you like tea or coffee pet?"); in Yorkshire it'd be "luv" ("Hey, you've dropped yer ticket luv!"). In parts of West and South Yorkshire it's "flower" ("Don't forget yer bag flower!")

In the Scottish borders and parts of Scotland it'd be "hen" or "hinney"; down in the beautiful south-west of England you'd hear "my lovely" "lover" or "my 'andsome".
In the middle area of England it'd be "duck" or "mi (my) duck" ("How are you feeling now mi duck?")

I always enjoyed these warm terms of... whatever they were. I've heard women complaining about these modes of address, considering them sexist, demeaning (or something). It's an attitude that strikes me as feminism at its most churlish.

If you enjoy a horror-tinged movie now and again, give The Machinist a whirl via DVD, Netflix or similar. (Beware spoilers at the Wiki page).

Christian Bale (Sun + Mercury/Jupiter in Aquarius) plays the lead brilliantly well, and for this role he lost what would seem like a very unhealthy amount of body weight - probably even more than Matthew McConaughey lost for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. Looking at Bale's usual photographs it's hard to believe he was The Machinist.

We saw ZumaZuma a travelling group of performers from the continent of Africa, on stage at our local theatre on Monday evening. Those taking part came from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Guinea and Senegal. All performed together in an elaborate acrobatic dance, circus and song event.

Huge energy was expended, non-stop, with super African rhythms, and colourful regional costumes, singing, dancing traditional to each region, and some very skilful juggling and acrobatics. Lots of audience engagement - especially enjoyed by the many children in the audience, who had met the travelling group earlier in the day. Zuma Zuma is well worth making the effort to go see, should they happen to be performing in your area.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Henry Fuseli and His Nightmare

 Henry Fuseli - portrait by James Northcote (1778)

Certain composers, singers and musicians have been termed "one hit wonders" - the same label could be applied to painters. Looking through a list of arty births in early February, I spotted Henry Fuseli (1741). First thought, "he's too 18th cenury for an Aquarius-type Arty Farty Friday". A quick look at some of his works via Google Image reminded (or rather informed) me that it was he who painted The Nightmare - a painting featured twice in a TV drama series we've watched recently , via Netflix: The Fall (see my post HERE). In that series a serial killer managed to place an image of The Nightmare painting onto the laptop of leading detective Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), and had left a print of the painting at one of the murder scenes. The painting has, according to Wikipedia and others, been used in various novels, films, series, and cartoons over the years. A hit it was, and is! Its value today is said to be in the region of $4 million.

Fuseli may well have influenced a whole new generation of artists, living through a period of traumatic social, cultural, and political revolution, but it is a single painting by which he is remembered best.

 Self portrait

Henry Fuseli, originally Johann Heinrich Füssli, was born in Zurich, Switzerland on Feb. 7, 1741. Some sources give his date of birth as 6 February 1741. He died April 16, 1825 in London, England. He came from an artistic and intellectual family background, initially studied theology. He was ordained as a pastor in the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church. However, political entanglements (he denounced a dishonest magistrate) forced him to flee Zürich for Berlin, and later, in 1764, he settled in London, England. Sir Joshua Reynolds encouraged and inspired him to take up painting. He left England for several years to study in Italy. During time spent in Rome the works of Michelangelo and classical art, became major inspirations and influences.

On returning to England, he renamed himself Henry Fuseli. Soon critical successes brought international acclaim. He painted tragic or violent situations from literature, particularly Shakespeare and Milton, populated by stylised figures with overblown, exaggerated attitudes and a feeling of theatrical intensity over all.

In 1799 Fuseli was named a Royal Academy professor of painting. He was reported to be a popular teacher and much-respected figure.

 In front of him is a small round box, inscribed with 'I.C. box'. On the margin of the book, a later hand has added in pencil John Cartwright. This drawing was originally identified, on the evidence of the inscriptions, as a portrait by Fuseli of John Cartwright (1763-1808), a minor painter and friend of the artist. Comparison with other self portraits by Fuseli, and the directness and intensity of the image, make it plain that the subject is Fuseli himself. The initials on the box suggest that the drawing was made in Cartwright's house and given to him. (National Portrait Gallery, UK)

Fuseli wrote extensively on art and is said to have influenced a generation of painters. His work was neglected for about a century after his death, until the Expressionists and Surrealists found in him a kindred spirit. His friend William Blake described him as
"The only man that e'er I knew who did not make me almost spew."

A former student of Fuseli's described him thus: "...used to dab his beastly brush into the oil, and sweeping round the palette in the dark, take up a great lump of white, red, or blue, as it might be and plaster it over a shoulder or face... I found him the most grotesque mixture of literature, art, scepticism, indelicacy, profanity, and kindness."

Fuseli's Greatest Hit - click on the image for a bigger, clearer version:

The Nightmare. An icon of horror since it was first exhibited at the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London in 1782. Fuseli wanted the painting to shock and intrigue, as well as to make a name for himself - he succeeded! Images of the work have been used and lampooned many times. (TATE)


From visualarts.com

The Nightmare (1781; Detroit Institute of Arts) was an immediate success. It has become Fuseli's most famous painting, and was a landmark in the development of Romanticism. The Nightmare owes its enduring popularity to 2 main factors: it was one of the first paintings to successfully portray an intangible idea, rather than an event, a person, or a story. Second, the exact intentions of the artist remain obscure. The creature squatting on the woman is an incubus or mara. It is this demon who is causing the nightmare rather than the horse (or "night-mare") that peers through the curtains. Alternatively the painting may have been conceived as an act of romantic revenge. On the back of the canvas, there is an unfinished portrait of a girl who may have been the object of the artist's unrequited attention.

Painting Style...The characteristics of Fuseli's mature style were well defined before his departure from Italy. They included dramatic foreshortening of figures, strong chiaroscuro, extravagant gestures and distortions of scale, and a preference for new, often obscure, literary subjects which stressed the demonic side of human nature. In his works, the aesthetic of the Sublime was given its most extreme visual articulation. He also had a special line in pictures of female cruelty and bondaged males. In addition, he was obsessed with women's hair.

Sources:
Getty
Britannica
BBC

For a quick look at many of Fuseli's other paintings, see Google Image, and click on any of interest for enlarged views.


ASTROLOGY

 Fuseli's study for a self portrait

The doubt about Fuseli's date of birth will not be too important for this very general view of him. 24 hours would change Moon's position, and ascending sign - as would the exact hour he was born on either date. Dictionary of Art Historians gives 6 February as his date of birth and states: Date born: February 6, 1741 [Fuseli often gave other dates]. 7th February is more generally stated as his date of birth. Could it be that he was born close to midnight on the 6th (London time), but in Switzerland (+1 hour) it'd be 7 February? Just a wild guess!



A look at charts for both 6 and 7 Feb., Zurich, Switzerland, at 12 noon (as no time of birth is available):

6 FEBRUARY

7 FEBRUARY

Moon in Scorpio (on 7th Feb, at noon) seems the better bet, bearing in mind his fascination with "the demonic side of human nature", nightmares, and suchlike - as well as those distinctive eyes in his self-portraits. But Moon being in Scorpio would depend on his exact time of birth on 7th. He'd have to have been born after 8:00 AM on 7th for Moon to have reached 0* Scorpio. That would knock on the head my theory about the London/Switzerland time difference.

Venus, planet of the arts, conjunct Uranus in Capricorn, sextile Pluto in Scorpio, semi-sextile his Aquarius Sun and opposing Mars in Cancer is a contrary, irritable and itchy kind of mix! Looking back to the quote from a former student of his: I found him the most grotesque mixture of literature, art, scepticism, indelicacy, profanity, and kindness...it does fit the astrology rather well!

Jupiter conjunct Moon's north node, and probably in trine with Moon itself reflects Fuseli's seeming need to continually express exaggerated attitudes and excess of intensity in his art.

Stepping back from detail, simply viewing Fuseli's natal chart (for either day), its shape depicts someone of an overtly 2-sided nature, somewhat held together by natal Moon, his inner emotional core, which could have been either darkly Scorpio-tinged, or more lightly and artistically coloured by Libra.

Fuseli's friendship with William Blake who, remember, described him as "The only man that e'er I knew who did not make me almost spew" isn't hard to understand. See Blake's chart at my archived post on him from 2009. Blake's natal Venus in Capricorn conjoins Fuseli's Venus/Uranus; Blake's Saturn in its traditional sign of rulership, Aquarius, conjoins Fuseli's natal Sun there.

A final spotlight on the personality of Henry Fuseli, and from this we can discern his Uranian eccentricity, his Plutonian darkness and Jupiterian excesses: a self portrait of himself as a Faun (he seemed to enjoy drawing himself) is accompanied by this tidbit at the Tate Gallery:

Fuseli made this portrait of himself as a sculpted faun when he was in Italy during the 1770s. By this time Fuseli already had a reputation for studied eccentricity. As a friend in Rome noted:
"He is everything in extremes - always
an original; His look is lightning, his
word a thunderstorm; his jest is death,
his revenge, hell. He cannot draw a
single mean breath. He never draws portraits, his features are all true
yet at the same time caricature..."

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Born 5 Feb: Adlai Stevenson & William S Burroughs ~ Similarly Different

Two men born on this day, 5 February, early in the 20th century:
Adlai Stevenson (1900) and William S. Burroughs (1914). So different were this pair of Sun Aquarius-types, yet with a few similarities which must be acknowledged.

I'm not going to dive into full bios or extensive chart interpretation, just a few lines on each and my view on the astrology which painted these two men in such different shades of the same colour.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson, born 5 February, 1900 in Los Angeles, California. He was a member of a famous Illinois political family, became a political leader and diplomat who helped found the United Nations, where he served as chief U.S. delegate (1961–65); mainly remembered as the eloquent, witty, stylish but unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1952 and 1956. Noted for his intellectual demeanor, and promotion of liberal causes in the Democratic Party. Republicans and some working-class Democrats ridiculed what they perceived as his indecisive, aristocratic air. He died July 14, 1965.

Quotes of Adlai Stevenson

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

William Seward Burroughs born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis, Missouri into a prominent and wealthy family. Burroughs was a novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and counterculture. He is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century". After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he picked up the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life.

Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. Drugs, homosexuality and death are common ingredients in his novels and stories. Due to the repressive context where he grew up, and from which he fled, he kept his sexual orientation concealed well into adulthood. His novel Naked Lunch, published in 1959, brought him international notoriety. The novel was prosecuted as obscene in some American states.

Burroughs died on August 2, 1997.

A quote of W.S. Burroughs

I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.

Adlai Stevenson born on 5 February 1900 in Los Angeles, California at 11.55 AM (Astro.com)

William S. Burroughs born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis, Missouri at 7.40 AM (Astro.com)

Even standing far back, a passing glance at the shapes made by planetary positions in the two natal charts indicates that Burroughs will be a wee bit more...strange, a more out of the ordinary character than Stevenson. Inching a little closer, using astrological Elements (my favourite reliable "go -to") we see that while Stevenson has a nice mix: planets and ascendant spreading through Air, Earth, Water and Fire, Burroughs has planets and ascendant in Air and Water only - not "grounded" and tending towards a certain coldness of attitude.

Taking a few more steps forward, and there's no getting away from the fact that these two men were both seriously intellectually gifted - Aquarius Sun and planets working well! Both also had Gemini input. The owners of these charts would be highly likely to turn out as communicators, of one sort or another!

Look to their natal Sun's rulers, modern and traditional: Uranus and Saturn - Stevenson's Uranus sextiles his Aquarius stellium (cluster) from warm, philosophical Sagittarius; Saturn lay in its other sign of rulership, Capricorn, in trine to Stevenson's natal Taurus Moon - his Earthy grounding. In Burroughs' chart Uranus is hooked up within that Aquarius multi-cluster of personal planets, while Saturn conjoins his natal Moon in Gemini - Air and even more Air ...and yet more Air comes via his Aquarius ascendant!

Their similarities come from a common ability to communicate, albeit in wildly different flavours to a largely different audience. Both men, from their words quoted above, had similar feelings about being different and not universally popular - not one of the crowd.

Putting the charts under closer scrutiny, several other significant differences and similarities would become apparent.

There's a rather odd commonality too that's worth a mention, but it's of no astrological significance that I can see. I noticed this from their Wikipedia biographies: both men accidentally killed another person:

Stevenson, on December 30, 1912, at the age of twelve, accidentally killed Ruth Merwin, a 16-year-old friend, while demonstrating drill technique with a rifle, inadvertently left loaded, during a party at the Stevenson home. Stevenson was devastated by the accident and rarely referred to it as an adult.

Burroughs accidentally killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City, and was consequently convicted of manslaughter. In the introduction to Queer, a novel written in 1952 but not published until 1985, Burroughs states, "I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan's death ... [S]o the death of Joan brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out".

A Good Read

Flight MH370's disappearance, now not far short of a year ago, is still a worrying phenomenon. The careful search of the seabed of large areas of the Indian Ocean has so far revealed nothing. No debris with clear connection to MH370 has yet been found. The mystery persists. Longtime blog buddy, RJ Adams has written an engaging piece of fiction on this very topic - it's a good, if scary, read. Do go and give it a whirl, please. The post is dated 29 January. Take a look at the comment section too. Link:
MH370 – Flight To Armageddon

Fixed Stars in Aquarius, Behenian Stars in General

Descent into rabbit-hole time came around again when I decided to do a post on the Fixed Stars of Aquarius - with the thought in mind that a monthly post on the other 11 signs' stars might be a worthwhile endeavour. I got as far as listing the stars - as accurately as internet sources would allow. There are differences in both actual stars, their names and their exact degree positions in different source material. So this list is approximate, giving degrees and minutes as shown at astrologer Terry Nazon's website HERE, along with notes on keywords/effect/character of the stars.

Fixed Stars within the span of Tropical Zodiac Sign Aquarius

Tarazed the Plundering Falcon 0*56
Sham 1.04
Albireo 1.15
*Altair the Eagle 1.47
*Algede Giedi Prima 3.46
Bos 5.34
Albali 11.43
Dorsum 13.51
Alnair 15.54
Castra 20.12
*Nashira 22.12
Kitalpha 23.07
*Sadalsuud 23.46
Glenah 27.45

There's no key to indicate significance of the stars placed before 4 of the Fixed Star names - perhaps they relate to a level of super-brightness?

Additional Aquarius stars, or alternative names of stars, as listed elsewhere:
GIEDI - [2 degrees into Aquarius]
ARMUS - [11 degrees into Aquarius]
DENEB ALGEDI - [23 degrees into Aquarius]
SADOR 24*50 Aquarius

Any passing reader with planets or sensitive points in their natal charts corresponding, within a degree or so, to any of the above, will be able to search easily enough online for more detail on the star's significance, while I shall continue, in a moment, my descent down a tempting branch of a rabbit hole I've spied. First, a refresher: although I've posted on the subject of Fixed Stars several times before (see relevant link in the Label Cloud in my sidebar), here are a few words from Astrotheme on the topic in general:

"In astrology, fixed stars are quite a special subject, a controversial one like for instance the so-called karmic astrology, the meaning of the black Moon, the Lunar Nodes, and the planets' retrogradations. Nevertheless, one must bear in mind that whenever a star is in very tight conjunction with a personal element of the natal chart (any fast-moving planet, or any angle, ASC, MC, DS, or IC), results are often amazing, and it may be interesting to take them into account, in addition to more traditional factors of the natal chart. They may also yield good results when used on the progressed chart (secondary progressions). Ancient astrologers certainly had good reasons to do so, and anybody with a passion for astrology can realise that when fixed stars are used, very strange coincidences are bound to be experienced.

The topic of fixed stars is similar to that of symbolic degrees. They are not very much utilised. However, they sometimes offer quite stunning and spectacular information.

Rabbit hole time then:

Among the many thousands of stars in our skies just 15 were categorised by ancient astronomers/astrologers as
Behenian Stars. The word Behenian comes from an Arabic word meaning "root"...so they are "root stars". The Behenian Stars are: Algol, the Pleiades, Aldebaran, Capella, Sirius, Procyon, Regulus, Alkaid, Gienah, Spica, Arcturus, Alphecca, Antares, Vega, and Deneb Algedi.

Why, one wonders, were these 15 stars chosen ?

From ancient writings it appears these stars were used by astronomers, astrologers but especially by magicians and occultists, from very early times, in the Arab world and in Europe. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa attributed them to Hermes Trismegistus, though their true origins remain unknown. One member of a Tarot-based forum had contributed that Agrippa possibly named the 15 stars from material in the Liber Hermetis [Book of Hermes] and Thabit Ibn Qurra; and that both sources could have been taken from the anwa tradition
(" pre-Islamic Arab astrology, which when blended with the Greeks gives us the strange magical astronomy of the renaissance by way of Agrippa".)

Nothing I've read so far relates the Behenian Stars directly to astrology. Each of the 15 was given a special glyph, and connections to a gemstone and a plant, to be used in rituals intended to draw the star's influence (into a talisman for instance).

Still though, whoever first chose that particular group of 15 - why? Was it, perhaps, because they were ideally placed to serve as an aid to navigation? In that long ago era astrology was not what it is today. Planets, signs and stars, their positions in the sky, appearance and temporary disappearances were noted for reasons far removed from horoscope interpretation! Farmers, travellers, and sea going people needed points of reference. Were these 15 stars an ancient GPS-system-cum-weather-forecast, also made use of by occultists?

A post at the blog of "Mister Black Magic: The Blog of Clifford Hartleigh Low", titled Astrological Magic: The 8th Sphere and the Behenian Stars threw up some interesting ideas and tid-bits. Do go read it all - it's fascinating and not an arduous read by any means.

SNIPS ~

In the astral cosmology of Aristotle onward until the modern era, the Earth was believed to lay at the center of about ten invisible spheres, nesting inside one another like Russian dolls. Each revolved around our world at a somewhat regular pace, and in most cases carried along a wandering star called a planet, embedded in the sphere. Planets served as markers or beacons, indirectly revealing the movement of these invisible realms; like a conspicuous chip or flaw in an otherwise perfectly translucent bubble of glass......

Above the Seven Spheres [tracks of 7 planetary transits depicted as circles], however, was the Eighth Sphere; the realm of the fixed stars....

Even among the fixed stars, there were a selection of very bright and prominent stars which were of even greater power. These were the Behenian Stars; behen being the distortion of an Arabic word for “root.”..........Supposedly, at the precise beginning of the universe, these fifteen stars infused their own power and influences into the Seven Planets, in varying combinations. Much like human beings’ spirit body is initially composed of seven rays of astral light from the planets (or really, planetary spheres,) the planets in turn were infused at the dawn of time by the power of two or more Root Stars. The Behenii are to the planets, what the planets are to us.........

That being understood, the Root Stars are best not thought of as routine or typical astrological influences in human lives. They were a part of the scaffolding of the cosmos’ creation, and today form part of the plumbing of reality which makes everything else we normally interact with work. They are hidden behind a wall in the galactic basement where even astrologers and magicians today seldom descend, and then only for quick errands..........

I particularly liked what the author wrote, in that first snipped section, about planets acting as markers or beacons. I've written several times among posts and comments here that I suspect astrology has more to do with some kind of time/space waves each carrying a different "atmosphere", with planets acting as markers/beacons. I also liked this: The Behenii are to the planets, what the planets are to us. Reading this article definitely made me go, "Hmmm!!"

Music Monday ~ Eva, Sting, Jimmy, Fragile Fields and Shipyards

Today would have been the birthday of Eva Cassidy, who left us way too soon in 1996. Here she sings Fields of Gold written by Sting (aka Gordon Sumner).



Another of Sting's best, sung by himself: Fragile

I was sorry, but not surprised, when Sting's new stage show, The Last Ship , didn't do well on Broadway. It's a musical based on a story of North-East England's famous shipbuilding area on the River Tyne, and its decline. People in the USA will be mostly unaware of such calamities, though there are probably US equivalents. The flavour of England's Tyneside is unique though, and understood best by those who call that area home. Most of Britain is aware of its story and holds the region in affection, even though the local Geordie accent often confuses us.

When The Last Ship opened, Jimmy Nail played the leading role; I understand that Sting took over the lead later, in order to boost ticket sales, and provide name recognition.

Jimmy Nail has long been a favourite of mine. He wrote a song in 1995 on a similar theme to The Last Ship's story. I have always loved his song, Big River, and his own rendition of it. I'm not a Tynesider, I was born some 150 miles straight south of the River Tyne, in a city on the Humber estuary. Even so, this song never fails to bring a lump to my throat.

Saturday and Sundry Things That Made Me Go "Hmmm..." This Week

Things that made me go "hmmm ..." in a good way:






Frequencies, a movie seen on Netflix. It's a very unusual type of sci-fi film. No CGI, just lots of ideas which benefit from mulling over afterwards. As well as an unusual kind of love story examined, Frequencies debates free will versus determinism, as well as investigating the science that might lie behind old superstitions and mysteries. A rather deadpan tone with acting to match has to be accepted - the film was made on a tiny budget, no big names, no special effects. The film's novelty, intelligence and interesting ideas make it easy to overlook any shortcomings.
See HERE and HERE.

The film received a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes!

I had more than a sneaking suspicion that what we call astrology could well have something to do with "frequencies".

This week I received E-mails from two different cousins on my Dad's side of the family. I last met both long ago and far away, when they were still children. They had both, separately, read and appreciated my family history posts regarding our common Scott background. One of the cousins emigrated to the US as long ago as 1989, lives in NJ now. Both had been alerted to my family history material by yet another cousin who had sent me her own e-mail address at Christmas, which I used to send her links to my genealogy posts - and word spread! Ain't the internet grand!

Lovely instrumental rendition of A Change is Gonna Come by saxophonist
Anat Cohen - hadn't heard this version, or this musician, before. Good stuff!

Things that made me go "hmmm..." in a bad way:






Articles about the film American Sniper currently doing the rounds. It was directed by Clint Eastwood. Much as I've enjoyed several Eastwood-directed movies, I will not ever watch this one, reading about it was more than enough to make me cringe.
The Rude Pundit's review of the film is well worth a read.
SNIP

"Through it all, all the people he shoots (and, truly, Bradley Cooper seems like he's acting in a different, much deeper film), all the scenes of him watching fellows soldiers get killed and wounded, all the psychological damage he does to his poor wife when he calls her during firefights, Kyle maintains a pathetic belief in the good of his mission and in the protection of his "brothers." It has an effect on him - he suffers from PTSD - but the film wants us to believe that it was necessary. So, in the end, American Sniper is the story of a dumb man who wrecked himself for a worthless cause and about all the young men (and it is all, mostly white, men in it) who were sacrificed for nothing.

It's not the film that tells us it's nothing. We know it was for nothing. We know that one of the great crimes of the new century is the invasion of Iraq for absolutely no rational, demonstrable reason. We know that all those "savages," as Kyle calls the Iraqis, that we killed were for nothing. We know that all those Americans who died lost their lives for nothing. Our military was protecting us from nothing. Our freedoms weren't at risk from Iraq.

And the lie many soldiers from Iraq cling to and the lie we tell ourselves, and the lie that so many have worked so hard to maintain, is that as long as we don't discuss that it was for nothing, as long as we pretend that the fact that soldiers fought when they were told to fight and, mostly, did so nobly, we don't have to face the truly gut-wrenching reality of our national complicity in the crime.

Another relevant piece is at Common Dreams

English actor Benedict Cumberbatch was hauled over the coals and made to feel it necessary to apologise profusely for using the term "coloured" in a US TV interview. This guy is English, remember. He doesn't have the background experience and in-depth knowledge Americans have of the horrendous segregation practices in the USA, carried on as recently as during the lifetimes of many who are still around. He's likely not aware of those disgusting signs which used to be displayed over drinking fountains or in cafés and entrance-ways: "No Coloreds". A little quiet thought and understanding by those who allegedly took offence at his use of the term would have been as good a thing as Cumberbatch doing a little preparation for an interview, when in the ultra-sensitive (when it suits 'em) USA. I was pleased to see he has gained support from a fellow actor. HERE.

We watched 3 episodes of Terra Nova the TV series via Netflix. Enough was enough of this terrible comic bookish version of sci-fi. No wonder it wasn't renewed after its first season! It's the direct opposite of Frequencies (mentioned at the top of this post), in terms of quality ideas and writing.