Joke

Maria Adams at Quora posted the following in response to the question:
What's the best Donald Trump joke you have heard?

She added, with regard to its source:
Source: unknown. Whoever knows the source of jokes?

Donald Trump meets with the Queen. He asks her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," says the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

Trump frowns. "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Queen takes a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle."

The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. "Please send Theresa May in here, would you?"

Theresa May walks into the room. "Yes, my Queen?"

The Queen smiles. "Answer me this, please, Theresa. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, Theresa answers, "That would be me."

"Yes! Very good," says the Queen.

Back at the White House, Trump asks to speak with Vice President Mike Pence.

"Mike, answer this for me. Your mother and father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

"I'm not sure," says the Vice President. "Let me get back to you on that one."

Mike Pence goes to his advisers and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up in the men's room and recognizes General McMasters' shoes in the next stall.

Mike shouts, "General! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and your father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?

General McMaster yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"

Mike Pence smiles. "Thanks!" and goes back to the Oval Office to speak with Trump.

"Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's General McMaster."

Trump gets up, stomps over to Mike Pence, and angrily yells into his face,
"No, you idiot! It's Theresa May!"

Arty Farty Friday ~ Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani was both sculptor and painter. I much prefer his sculptures -they have an almost African or Egyptian look.
For me, his portraits (which form the bulk of his best known work) all appear much alike. His subjects have the same elongated oval faces and long necks, they stare back at you with vacant expressions, they could easily all be related, so alike do they appear. Occasionally one can see a person in real life who resembles a Modigliani portrait, it's an odd sensation - a feeling that you've met them somewhere before. Google Image displays many examples, HERE.


This Italian-born artist was the stereotypical, romantic and poverty-stricken bohemian who pursued his art amid a haze of drugs, alcohol and dissolution in the Paris of the early 20th century. It has been said that he worked as wildly as he lived, in spite of his excesses in the alcohol and drugs department - not to mention his women.One biography states " It seems his whole life was a series of protests: against the bourgeois smugness of his family of businessmen, and against a society that failed to recognize and reward his talent."

He died in squalor in January 1920 at the age of 35, discovered by a neighbour. He was in the final throes of tubercular meningitis, bed strewn with bottles of alcohol and cans of sardines, his mistress Jeanne Hébuterne nursing him. She hadn't thought to call a doctor, but her devotion to her lover was so great that, two days after his death, she threw herself backwards from a fifth-floor window. She was nine months pregnant with their second child.



Modigliani was born on 12 July 1884 in Livorno, Italy at 8.10 am (Time according to Astrotheme)


His Cancer stellium of Sun, Mercury and Venus, together with Moon in Pisces indicate an ultra-sensitive, emotional character. Pluto and Saturn in Gemini are in 10th house of career. Neptune, planet of creativity and imagination is right at midheaven, if time of birth is accurate - the midheaven angle is one of the strongest positions in the chart. Neptune can also relate to addiction. It has been said that his excesses of drugs and alcohol did not diminish "his great desire to work" - the two planets in 10th house relate to this trait. He had Neptune trine Uranus as had many of his contemporaries, but additionally Modigliani had natal Uranus and Mars within 4 degrees of each other on cusp of first/second houses. Firmicus gives the following interpretation of Mars in the first house :"makes men bold, clever, emotional; wanderers, unstable in every way;... whatever they undertake flows from their hands and their inheritance is wasted..."

 Self portrait

American Politics

This question at Quora recently brought forth several lengthy responses:
Why is there so much turmoil in American politics today?

The illustration, right, plus a succinct 2-sentence answer by Mason Kelsey, former Computer Programmer, now Retired say all that needs to be said, in my opinion. I quote Mr Kelsey:

Democratic Party forgot to stay based in grassroots liberal and progressive values. The Republican Party allowed the influx of Tea Party racist, neo-Nazi members who took over the party.

ATTITUDE

Ray Bradbury was something of a philosopher, similar to ancient story-teller, Aesop and his fables. Some of Bradbury's tales will set readers trembling, some will leave them curious and wondering. A select few of his stories could cause serious re-thinks of a reader's previous attitudes.

Two of Ray Bradbury's stories, adapted to short TV dramas, have reminded me of something that self-help guides have often dictated, but without the same impact, i.e. that attitude is everything. These two stories paint pictures, a far more effective strategy than mere paragraphs of advice and instructions.

First story The Toynbee Convector:
The inventor and time traveller at centre of the tale comes from a time of imminent environmental collapse - and an economically and creatively stagnant late 20th century society. In his time machine, The Toynbee Convector, he travels forward one hundred years. On returning to the 20th century he shows evidence in films and other records of his trip. One hundred years hence man had managed to develop a beautiful world - better life style, and a restored natural environment.

Initially, the people, unable to disprove validity of the records brought from the future, are inspired by the prospect and begin projects likely to fulfill the vision and create the world the time traveller has seen.

A hundred years later, that more perfect world has come to pass. On a day the public has been told to expect to see the young time traveller arrive to meet his aged self, the time traveller recounts his story to a reporter, during the first interview he has ever granted. He reveals what really happened many years ago: "I lied."

Suspecting that the world's people had it in them to create a better world, he brought them the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and a hope. The imagined future became reality. After his admission, the time traveller dies, but leaves with the reporter proof of what he has told him, expecting the reporter would tell people the truth. They would understand that they had actually saved themselves. But the reporter decides to maintain the illusion, destroys the evidence the time traveller left for him to reveal.

Second story, The Day it Rained Forever, tells of three men who have been living in an old hotel in an Arizona desert ghost town for more than 20 years. Oppressive heat, dust and constant drought is the norm, rain comes at most once a year, and is eagerly awaited as the story opens. This particular year has been exceptionally hot. The men bemoan their fate constantly; one of them retires to his bed and intends to remain there, without sustenance until he dies. Towards evening, with no prospect of rain appearing on this day when it was historically expected, a car approaches. The woman driver, a lady no longer young stops her vehicle, and in the process damages the already aged and battered car, which is carrying a covered oddly-shaped object on the roof rack.

The woman introduces herself and chats to the two men. They invite her into the hotel for a meal. They seem to immediately start feeling better, spruce themselves up a bit, and over dinner she tells them she is a musician. She waxes lyrical about her love of music. The object atop her car is a harp. They bring it into the hotel and she plays - a beautiful melody. As she plays she seems to become younger, more beautiful. The attitude of the two men changes from depressed to uplifted. The woman goes to the third man, who hopes to die, and offers him soup. He refuses. Later it starts to rain heavily. It's as though the changed attitudes of the two men had caused the helpful and much wished-for change in the weather.



These two tales, were placed one after the other, on a DVD, part of a set we have in our collection: The Ray Bradbury Theater. It took a moment, but I realised that their message is one and the same: a change of attitude can change many things.

PS: For more about Ray Bradbury, and his natal chart, click on link to read my post from 2009.

Music Monday - Stars Being Born - and Re-born

A Star Is Born has been re-made yet again. The 2018 version stars Lady Ga-Ga and Bradley Cooper. I usually feel distinctly cynical about re-makes, they can often be vehicles for the sole purpose of depositing more dosh into the pockets of film industry magnates. This story though, more than most, does lend itself to being re-done - adjusted to fit the current generation's musical tastes and the way the entertainment industry is perceived and experienced.

A Star is Born has a long history. It didn't, as I had suspected, originate as a novel, but began as a 1937 American Technicolor romantic drama film (not a musical) produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and her husband Alan Campbell. Nice to see Dorothy Parker's name there! The original film had themes picked up, polished and expanded upon, from a 1932 film What Price Hollywood?

A Star is Born has been re-born three times since 1937, when it starred Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Each re-make does carry the flavour of its time: the 1954 version starred Judy Garland and James Mason; in the 1976 version Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson led the cast, and in 2018 Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper take the starring roles.



I've seen the 1954 and 1976 versions, though not the original. One reviewer of all three films considered the original to be the best of the lot, mainly due to its superior dialogue and writing.





As it's Music Monday, let's re-listen to a song from the 1976 film, enjoy the sound of Streisand and the sight of Kristofferson - young again !






The new version of this story will be on release in October, we shall see how it measures up, in due course.

Saturday and Sundry Horse Sense

On Beating Dead Horses

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you
discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
However, in organizations like large companies, government, hospitals,
school districts, etc. we frequently try other strategies.
These can include the following:

Buying a stronger whip.
Changing riders.
Declaring, "this is the way we've always ridden this horse."
Appointing a committee to study the horse. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
Increasing the standards to ride dead horses. Creating a training session to increase riding ability.
Appointing a 'tiger team' to revive the dead horse.
Passing a senior management resolution that the horse is not dead.
Blaming the horse's parents and/or environmental conditions when it was a colt.
Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
Declaring that, "no horse is too dead to beat."
Providing additional funding to improve the horse's performance.
Doing a study to see if outside contractors can ride it cheaper.
Declaring that the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" dead.
Forming a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
Revisiting the performance requirements for horses.
Saying this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
Promoting the horse to a supervisory position.

Horses and Men in Rain by Carl Sandburg

LET us sit by a hissing steam radiator a winter’s day, gray wind pattering frozen raindrops on the window,
And let us talk about milk wagon drivers and grocery delivery boys.

Let us keep our feet in wool slippers and mix hot punches—and talk about mail carriers and messenger boys slipping along the icy sidewalks.

Let us write of olden, golden days and hunters of the Holy Grail and men called “knights” riding horses in the rain, in the cold frozen rain for ladies they loved.

A roustabout hunched on a coal wagon goes by, icicles drip on his hat rim, sheets of ice wrapping the hunks of coal, the caravanserai a gray blur in slant of rain.

Let us nudge the steam radiator with our wool slippers and write poems of Launcelot, the hero, and Roland, the hero, and all the olden golden men who rode horses in the rain.

“There is a lot of folklore about equestrian statues, especially the ones with riders on them. There is said to be a code in the number and placement of the horse's hooves: If one of the horse's hooves is in the air, the rider was wounded in battle; two legs in the air means that the rider was killed in battle; three legs in the air indicates that the rider got lost on the way to the battle; and four legs in the air means that the sculptor was very, very clever. Five legs in the air means that there's probably at least one other horse standing behind the horse you're looking at; and the rider lying on the ground with his horse lying on top of him with all four legs in the air means that the rider was either a very incompetent horseman or owned a very bad-tempered horse.”

― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

 Neptune's Horses by Walter Crane

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.
~W.C. Fields

It was none the less a perfectly ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in many of the places that life is to be found. They have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them.

On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever.

― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Why did this animal that had prospered so in the Colorado desert leave his amiable homeland for Siberia? There is no answer. We know that when the horse negotiated the land bridge... he found on the other end an opportunity for varied development that is one of the bright aspects of animal history. He wandered into France and became the mighty Percheron, and into Arabia, where he developed into a lovely poem of a horse, and into Africa where he became the brilliant zebra, and into Scotland, where he bred selectively to form the massive Clydesdale. He would also journey into Spain, where his very name would become the designation for gentleman, a caballero, a man of the horse. There he would flourish mightily and serve the armies that would conquer much of the known world.
~James Michener

Arty Farty Friday ~ The Night

This question at Quora:

"What is the best depiction of the night in painting?"

brought forth, from contributor John James Morton, a fascinating and wide variety of images of famous paintings depicting 'the night'. Click on the link to browse through them.

Investigating Mercury, Ruler of Virgo and Gemini.

To write his book, titled simply Astrology, Irish poet and playwright Louis MacNeice must have spent many hours of painstaking research, as befits his own natal Virgo Sun/Mercury/Venus. He cites much material from ancient sources which can serve, in many cases, to clarify how we got to where we are in interpreting the planets and signs. For me, this is part of the fascination of astrology. The Kalendar of Shepherds, from which he quotes below was published in 1507, translated from (I think) a French version of some years earlier.

Here's part of what Louis MacNeice discovered about Mercury.

"The fair planet Mercury", says the Kalendar of Shepherds is "very full and dry of nature and is lord of speech, as the Sun is lord of light......Who is born under Mercury shall be subtle of wit....(that is and always has been Mercury's first characteristic) and shall be very crafty in many sciences....He shall ever follow and resort to them that be of good manners, and shall be fortunate on the sea to use the course of good merchandise."

Mercury is the traditional patron not only of intellectuals but of merchants. He is also the patron planet of transport. The illustration below, borrowed from Astrology shows a French Bank advertisement for travellers' cheques. In both astrology and mythology Mercury is considered to be the patron of commerce and transport.




But the Mercury man, according to the Kalendar, will not have it all his own way.

"He shall be very gracious, and he shall have harm by women, and when he is married, men shall not set so much by him as they did before." All the same, "he will have great love to ladies and gentlewomen, but yet they shall not be masters over him. He will be a very good man of the church or a religious man, and he shall not love to go to a warfare...He shall love well to preach and to speak fair rhetoric language, and to talk of philosophy and geometry."

The Kalendar details other intellectual, artistic and commercial activities and ends:

"He shall be servant to some great lord or else a receiver of his money." (The original god Mercury himself had been something of a lackey on Olympus, always running errands for the greater gods.) "He shall have a high forehead, a long visage, black eyes, and a thin beard. He shall be a great pleader in the law and will meddle with other men's deeds if they do not well and say against it."

There has been general agreement that Mercury stands for the intellect and for most types of communication, whether mental or physical. Not surprisingly, however, he is undependable; astrologers have named him "the chameleon among planets" (compare the adjective "mercurial") and have explained that he is neutral because, in the aspects, he takes color from other planets but does not give color in return. This idea goes back to Ptolemy, who says that Mercury is "generally speaking in nature like whatever of the planets may be associated with him." By Ptolemy's time he was also firmly established as the ruler of two signs, Gemini and Virgo. Astrologer Rupert Gleadow, who called him a "sexless planet", points out that both these signs are "somewhat lacking in emotion".

Mercury can make you a genius; he can also make you a crook. The original god had been both, as is shown by the early Homeric "Hymn to Hermes" in which he is described (in Shelley's translation) as

A schemer subtle beyond all belief;
A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow-stealing,
A night-watching and door-waylaying thief
who yet, while still an infant, went on to invent the lyre, killing a tortoise to use its shell for the purpose.

The planet Mercury, like Venus, owing to its actual nearness to the Sun, is always seen from earth as lying in a sign near the Sun. Consequently Mercury and Venus are comparatively often found in conjunction."

As for aspects, it is generally considered that Saturn, having such a different and therefore complementary nature, is the best influence on Mercury.

Some of my own thoughts on planet Mercury. As ruler of mental processes, Mercury really does have influence over everything in human life. It travels so fast, no time to make its individual transits felt, but it very frequently touches everything in the charts of all of us. Mercury's journey around the Sun takes 88 days, whereas Saturn's takes over 29 years.

Everything we humans do is initiated in the brain, even what seem like emotional responses, though colored by Moon and the Watery element, actually do begin in the mental realm. As I see it we ought to pay more attention to Mercury in the natal chart - equally as much as to Sun, Moon and ascendant.

Mercury's rulership of Gemini seems obvious - Gemini, the consummate communicator, teacher, the all-round information collector. As ruler of Earthy Virgo, Mercury must be reflected as less abstract, more tangible. Virgo seeks and usually achieves near perfection in just about anything undertaken. Gemini roves around in the world of words and ideas, gathering them together, regurgitating them, sometimes in light-weight haphazard fashion, offering them back to an enthusiasic audience. Virgo is quite capable of doing this too, but with a far greater emphasis on accuracy and presentation, and a serious approach.

Happy Birthday L.A. !

Los Angeles, California, was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, so - Happy Birthday to L.A.! The city will be 237 years old today. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood.

L.A. is the second-most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the most populous city in the Western United States. With an estimated population of four million. (Wikipedia.)

Once upon a time though, it looked like this:




More recently:










While Sun in Virgo doesn't immediately say "Los Angeles", Neptune conjunct Venus in the Venus-ruled sign of Libra does...it fits it to a "T"! Neptune = dreams, creativity, film-making. Venus = the arts. Could there be any more appropriate signature for L.A./Hollywood? The USA can be criticised on many fronts, but the country has led the way in film-making, and has given us a treasure trove of iconic movies. Also, astrologically, with Pluto in Aquarius in harmonious trine to Neptune/Venus in Libra new ideas and novel approaches were always destined to emerge in this city's future.

Music Monday ~ "A sympathy with sounds"

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, each human being could be seen, through astrological windows, as a piece of music, a song. Exact positions of the planets, and their arrangement in respect to one another as we came into the world, dictates our "tune". Our own unique "tune" has a bearing on which other "tunes", real and human, with which, or with whom, we will most easily harmonise.

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

Saturday & Sundry Pensive Thoughts on the Presidency

After reading A Stopped Clock Asks Two Good Questions — Will Trump Resign? Will Democrats Impeach Him? by Gaius Publius, posted at naked capitalism earlier this week, I looked again at President Trump's and Vice President Pence's natal charts (see below). Both appeared in one of my posts from last year ("Will President Trump Weather the Storms?").

A commenter beneath the linked article, "XXYY", wrote

Like it or not, Trump is doing the Dem[ocrat]s and the left in general a lot of good right where he is. His clownishness and obvious incompetence and corruption ensure he won’t do as much damage as a more serious president might, yet his horrific optics has managed to galvanize a large chunk of the US population into the realization that they need to organize and take back political power from a vicious and entrenched establishment. (As a side benefit, he has also exposed the existing Democratic Party leadership and institutions as pointless, ineffectual and overdue for wholesale replacement.)

You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need!

Another, among many good comments, came from "Roquentin:

It would be much better long term if Trump was removed via losing an election. To impeach him or remove him while still in office will deal a very deep blow to the legitimacy of elected leadership in the US as an institution, only the lib[eral]s are too blind with rage to see it. They’re still too stung by seeing Queen Hillary beaten by a vulgar reality TV star. I just can’t listen to people with a straight face who argue that we’re sliding into some kind of autocratic system, but then constantly scheme about how to remove Trump, who was elected according law of the land. I guess they’re blind to how hypocritical that looks too. From where I’m sitting, all this still reads as establishment liberals not being able to admit they lost at this late hour in 2018.

I also suspect it’s because that same crowd no longer believes it can win elections and doesn’t trust the US population. The liberal technocrats talk a mean game about freedom and democracy, but in practice they believe in them even less than most conservatives and think people too stupid and backwards to vote correctly. That if the experts just came in and told them all what to do, we’d all be a lot better off. That’s how these people think, in the Acela Corridor and Silicon Valley. They hate the very people they want to vote for them, and that’s why those very same people won’t do it. They know, we all know.

So...another look at the natal charts of the Prez and Vice-Prez, to see whether any upcoming transits might indicate something out of the ordinary for either of 'em in the near future.

Mike Pence was born on 7 June 1959 in Columbus, Indiana. Time of birth unknown. Chart set for 12 noon.

The first thing I noticed, looking at the chart of VP Pence was his natal Saturn at 5 Capricorn. Transiting Saturn will join Pence's natal Saturn, producing, in astrologer-speak, a Saturn Return - the second Saturn Return in fact. Saturn Returns occur (for all of us every 29 and a half years or so) at ages between 27–31, 56–60, and 84–90 - should we make it that far. These "Returns" happen when Saturn reaches, once again, the point where it was at your time of birth.

The first Saturn Return often brings with it some major change in lifestyle, either in one's home-life or working-life. For me it was both! The second Saturn Return, around age 56 to 60 can sometimes bring retirement or change of employment -some very noticeable change of home life or way of life.

The third Saturn Return heralds the last steps of our life's journey, we are not all lucky enough to reach this Return, however.

Back to the point in hand! Mike Pence has been in the midst of a second Saturn Return this year. Saturn arrived at 5 Capricorn, conjunct his natal Saturn initially in February this year, then retrograded, but was back at 5 Capricorn in June/July; then retrograde again and will be at 5 degrees of Capricorn once more in November, after which it'll go merrily on its way (well - maybe not so merrily, this is Saturn in Capricorn!)

So far nothing major has happened for the VP, at least nothing of which we the onlookers are aware. There has been no hint of any major job change for the VP - such as being elevated to the Presidency. Will November tell a different story?


Donald Trump was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York on 14 June 1946 at 10.54 AM. Below is his natal chart.

In Donald Trump's chart there'll be a potential snag coming up in a couple of years, when transiting Saturn reaches the exact point opposite to where it lay at his birth - 23 Cancer, that'll be in January 2020 (election year!) Transiting Pluto will also be in a similar position then, as well as a little earlier, in May 2019. A best guess as to what that means? Donald Trump, if he is still President, will either choose not to run again, or will be defeated.

Arty Farty Friday ~ September Morn & Paul Chabas

Paul Émile Chabas (March 7, 1869 – May 10, 1937) was a French painter and illustrator and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Chabas loved to paint female nude figures. His style was delicate, respectful and never courted titillation or eroticism as did some other artists of his era. His most famous painting, "September Morn" (below) brought him little but pain and notoriety. This piece from the Oregon Daily Journal of 29 September 1913, headlined "September Morn is curse to the artist" explains:

So deeply pained and humiliated by the notoriety which his famous painting "September Morn," has brought him that he can no longer bear to frequent his former haunts, Paul Chabas, the artist, la hiding from his friends somewhere in the south of France, and his model, a dainty and demure little bachelor girl, has also dropped from sight according to Jules Pages, noted artist, her today from Paris where he knew both artist and model personally. Pages says the girl who posed for "September Morn" Is not pretty, but very Graceful and daily made her living by calling at the Paris studios for posing. "September Morn" has not made her rich or famous, and she is now hiding from its notoriety. She bears an excellent reputation for character, Pages said. Chabas la of a retiring and deeply sensitive nature, and the comment aroused over his painting has grieved him deeply.

A look at a 12 noon version of his natal chart (click on it for a clearer version) reveals the source of his "deeply sensitive nature". His natal Sun and Venus were in sensitive, emotional Pisces, and lay in harmonious trine to Uranus in ultra sensitive Cancer.

In reporting the artist's death the New York Times noted as follows:

Paul Chabas, who painted the famous picture, "September Morn," in 1912, died today at the age of 68. He had been an invalid for two years, and the only painting in the room where he spent most of the time was his own copy of the picture that made him world famous.

That painting:

"The what ifs are as boundless as the stars"

(The post's title is a quote from Sally Gardner in "Maggot Moon".)

What if...say, a nuclear conflagration were to take place on Earth, resulting in the complete annihilation of the human race? The planet would be left devastated for many thousands of years. What if, eventually, after a minor hit from a small asteroid which carried spores from outer space, a form of life began to take root, mingling with whatever remained among the formerly radioactive rubble? Several more millennia would pass with lifeforms becoming more sophisticated and intelligent, though in no way similar in form to the human race. Would the sensibilities of these beings still be governed by the same planets, Sun and Moon, seasons and cycles as we are, we the human race ? Would the same astrological imprints still endow similar benefits and drawbacks. Would there still be that tiny seed of hatred embedded, that same seed which we all carry within us? Are we, as a race, warts and all, simply as we are because of our particular physical place in the universe? And would any other developed race spawned on this planet have the same problems because of the planetary setup?

The price we pay for the beauty of the Earth and its many benefits is that human inhabitants carry a mix of characteristics capable, at worst, of destroying themselves. If, as astrologers believe, these characteristics are governed (in part) by the physical situation of our planet Earth, and how it relates to celestial bodies surrounding it, then nothing would ever change fundamentally - only superficially. Wars and hatred would always be a part of life on Earth, the features of its inhabitants, uniforms and figureheads would change, but the core drive of hatred (and greed) would remain, always.

The only way to experience a better world would be to find another planet capable of supporting human life, but with a different planetary setup surrounding it. There's a snag. What if the human race did, on some far off future date, de-camp from Earth. A different setup would not necessarily be a better one, and and it could take thousands of years to discover detail of new astrological workings. Humans born in th new environment might have less, or even none, of our good traits and more of our bad ones - or some even worse ones, if that be possible. In any case, that scenario is unlikely to happen, but it's still an interesting thought upon which to ponder.

We humans must carry on "playing with the hand fate has dealt us". It's a gamble, but gamblers do very occasionally win, even with the odds against them.

Touching on this topic a decade or so ago, an old blog-friend of mine, "anthonynorth" commented:

My interest in Ufology brought me to a definite answer on our wars and tech. In asking what any aliens would be like who visited us, I came to the conclusion they would be benevolent. This is because they would have had to pass the planetary test - that in developing tech so powerful that they could wipe themselves out, they would either fail and do so, or come to terms with themselves and thrive in the universe.

I suspect we're approaching the test.

We're now a decade nearer that 'test' - are we any wiser or any dumber? I suspect the latter!

“But what if I fail?" You will. The answer to the what if question is, you will. A better question might be, "after I fail, what then?" Well, if you've chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly will be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try.”
― Seth Godin