Two Eccentric (?) Sun Aquarians

I came across this pair separately while searching for something else, I couldn't resist featuring them this week, especially as they both have Sun in Aquarius birthdays.

Billy Meier born February 3 1937 in Bulach/ZH, Switzerland

Bob Lazar born January 26, 1959 in Coral Gables, Florida, USA

I have been known to scoff at the idea that Sun in Aquarius, especially when aided and abetted by other planets and/or sensitive points in that sign, necessarily has attributes connected to Uranus: eccentricity, the unexpected, interest in all that is futuristic. Unless there are clear aspects and connections to Uranus in a natal chart, I (with Sun in Aquarius myself) tend to lean towards the traditional ruler of Aquarius, Saturn. I like to think that Aquarius is the Airy version of Saturn with an inventive turn of mind, socially conscious and with great respect for logic; while Capricorn is the Earthy version, business oriented, regimented, disciplined. These two guys might just persuade me otherwise though!

In addition to the Wikipedia links above, here are nutshell and rather more friendly explanations of who they are and why they are well-known, at least among certain segments of society.

Billy Meier- Supposed life-long contactee with the 'Pleidians', humanoid life forms who fly in 'Beamships'. Has provided hundreds of beautiful photos of their craft, which all have stood up to professional analytical scrutiny, as well as rheims of technical info provided by the extraterrestrials, which has also stood up to scientific scrutiny. For someone with one arm and no access to a photolab or computer facilities (most of the photos were taken in the 70's) with education at a fifth grade level, it is difficult to believe that this is a hoax. However, because of the potential implications and outrageousness of the story, it is also difficult to believe that this is real!


Bob Lazar- A 'Mad Scientist' who invented such crazy contraptions as a rocket powered car. He was drafted by the US government to work for them at Area 51, or more specifically the 'S4' facility a few miles from it. At S4, he claimed, there are 9 UFO's being studied in an 'amateurish' fashion by the US military under the highest secrecy level (Bob had a clearance about 30 levels higher than the President). He was chucked out after taking some friends to see a test of one such craft, and went public to ensure the authorities didn't kill him.

Above clips are from:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread31491/pg1


So...I'm investigating their natal charts for similarities - just for the hell of it. Without exact times of birth what can be gleaned from the noon charts, below, is limited. The rising signs of this pair would be most enlightening!

After pondering on the two charts for a while, I have not been struck with the thought that either one was "the chart of a real nut job". "Crazy like a fox" could be nearer the mark though.

Both men have mentally oriented Aquarius Suns, neither of their natal Suns is in tight harmonious aspect to Uranus, planet of eccentricity, but Lozar's is in rather wide opposition to it.

Neptune, planet of imagination and dreams, is more of a significant feature in Meier's chart. Neptune in Virgo trines his Mercury/Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn, and sextiles natal Mars, and possibly Moon in Scorpio. Meier has Saturn in Pisces, the sign ruled by Neptune, and it lies in sextile to Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn. I certainly see Meier as more of an imagination-led character than Lozar, but still with a certain innate business sense, courtesy of his Capricorn planets.

Bob Lozar, with additional emphasis on Aquarius from Venus and Chiron, along with natal Sun, also has some strong Capricorn emphasis from Mercury and Saturn. So, again, a grounding and business-related quality is present. Mars from Taurus adds more "feet on the ground" flavour, further emphasised by a trine to his Capricorn Mercury. In Lozar's case Neptune, king of imagination, is in close square to Aquarius Sun - so not as harmonious to his nature as in the case of Billy Meier.

Conclusion from limited detail available: It isn't possible for anyone to know for sure whether there have ever been concrete, real-life happenings and reasons behind the stories the two men have told, or whether all has grown from pure imagination. Both men do know, full well, when they are onto a good thing, though! They have not been shy to continually embroider and continue their stories, whether in the cause of fame, fortune, or fear of loss of face.

 Billy Meier

 Bob Lazar

Aquarius Unplugged

Around this time each year I inwardly grumble, about Aquarius, and how this zodiac sign has come to be commonly perceived.

What has gone awry? Is it me? I'm probably as guilty as anyone else of being drawn into the crowd's expectations - calling Aquarius quirky, avant garde, rebellious, unpredictable, cold and aloof....you know the rest. Humanitarian, another commonly stated characteristic of Aquarius is often apt, but it fits more nearly with Pisces in reality. Most people with Sun in Aquarius have a planet or two in Pisces. Intelligent? I'll go along with that one, it's the only description common to all Sun Aquarians I've ever met. Intelligent, mind you, not genius or even highly intelligent. They simply possess an innate cleverness irrespective of schooling or higher education, which, in some instances when applied can bring out inventive talent. Aquarius is Fixed Air. Air relates to mental processes, so it's reasonable to expect that all Air signs (Aquarius, Gemini and Libra) will share natural intelligence, honed to sophistication by education, or not, as the case may be.

I don't agree with the "love of groups" thing for Aquarius. Where did that come from? In any case it contradicts the "aloof, detached and cold" motif. I haven't ever met a Sun Aquarian who loves to join groups. I run away from them as fast as my little legs will carry me, so did my Dad, and friends who share Aquarius Sun. So perhaps Aquarius-types can appear to be a tad aloof and detached, but I prefer to think of that as independence.

The rest of commonly used keywords for Aquarius, apart from humanitarian belong, in my opinion, more properly with planet Uranus, delegated to replace Saturn as ruler of Aquarius in modern astrology. I often suspect that Saturn was more appropriate as ruler of Aquarius; a Saturn in Airy mode, lighter and less tied down, whereas Capricorn hosts a heavier, Earthy Saturn.

Where does Uranus truly belong among the signs? Its accepted characteristics can infect and invade any of them with its presence, and with equal intensity. The rush to allocate the outer planets to rulerships was curious, I think. Why was it necessary ? Weren't things working satisfactorily in personal astrology beforehand? The outer planets seem to relate far more to mundane or generational issues.

In my old copy of Llewellyn George's "Student Chart Reader" (1934), he has this to say of Sun in Aquarius:

"In Aquarius the Sun gives a quiet, patient, determined, unobtrisive and faithful nature, as a rule. The Aquarian is refined, pleasant, friendly, generous, charitable, dignified and humanitarian; fond of art, music, scenery and literature; cautious, steady, intelligent, intuitive, discriminitive, concentrative, studious, thoughtful and philopsophical. Good reasoner, practical as well as theoretical; strong likes and dislikes and often with very radical and advanced ideas; is cheerful, sincere and honest, easily influenced by kindness, slow to anger, but will not be driven; loves liberty and is fond of occult research."

Aquarius by Johfra (HERE)

I find that description quite fitting, even though parts of it are too general to be identifiable as purely Aquarian - for example pleasant, fond of art, music, scenery. I especially like the the last few phrases (easily influenced by kindness, slow to anger, but will not be driven; loves liberty). Interest in astrology, something I've had, at various levels, for almost as long as I can remember, doesn't seem to automatically connect to Sun in Aquarius, none of my Sun in Aquarius relatives and friends have had the same interest. Perhaps this is another facet belonging more properly to Uranus, or perhaps Pisces, where lies my natal Jupiter. However, there are two Fixed Stars in Aquarius with traditional connection to astrology.




So, my own stripped down, unplugged group of keywords for zodiac sign Aquarius is:

freedom lover, independent, naturally intelligent, quietly determined, loyal, faithful, studious, practical but also theoretical, stubborn, slow to anger, will not be driven.

Radicalism, the avant garde, rebellion and quirkiness will, in my view, be a part of Sun in Aquarius, or other zodiac signs' makeup only when Uranus is in close aspect, or on a sensitive point in the chart. Other characteristics, occasionally found associated with Aquarius, could come via emphasis on neighbouring signs Pisces and Capricorn.

All of the above is, of course, in my not so humble opinion only!

Aquarius Considered

 Aquarius by Erté

In his book, Astrology published 1964, Louis MacNeice, not an astrologer, but a poet and scholar, gathered together much of interest from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. On zodiac sign Aquarius, through which the Sun now travels, he wrote the paragraphs below, quoting from some professional astrologers whose works may now be less known by the average astrology fan. Some related links identifying those astrologers are added at the end of this post. The excerpt has been copy-typed by my own fair fingers, rather than copy-pasted from elsewhere on the internet. Illustrations here were added by me.

Aquarius the Water-Carrier
January 21 to February 19

A fixed, airy sign. Aquarius's ruler is traditionally Saturn, though some astrologers (such as Varley) prefer to promote Uranus or at least make him co-ruler. This sign provides some of the most graceful illustrations to medieval textbooks and has long been thought of as a particularly human sign; Gleadow calls it "the only completely human sign in the Zodiac." But there seems to be a divergence of opinions to whether he represents the ordinary man or an especially gifted man. On the former premise he is linked with democracy, on the latter with science and the capacity for abstract thought. This was the Sun-sign of Galileo, Francis Bacon, and Darwin.

Some years ago the French amateur astrologer Paul Choisnard investigated the horoscopes of 119 outstanding intellectuals and claimed to have found that under only three signs was the incidence more than average - Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. these, of course, are the three airy signs and the symbolism of air here is obvious. Traditionally Aquarius rules the circulation of the blood, and this has been correlated with the circulation of ideas. If Uranus is brought in, one would expect to find Aquarians showing the characteristics of that planet (like mechanical inventiveness) and also what Ingrid Lind calls the "Uranian urge to disrupt." Miss Lind, on the assumption of co-rulership, would like to distinguish Saturnian Aquarians from Uranian Aquarians. Rupert Gleadow, writing of the so-called "Aquarian Age" (see below), foresees the spread in the immediate future not only of such Uranian effects as machinery and inventions, but of "world-wide organizations...international collaboration, and the Brotherhood of Man."

 Aquarius by David Palladini

The Aquarian, unlike his predecessor the Capricornian, is no respecter of tradition (otherwise he would not be so well equipped for scientific research). But he is, in the best sense of the phrase, a respecter of personas because, once again, he is human. He pours out the water freely: "Your need is greater than mine." He can be tactless, though, and other faults ascribed to him are obstinacy (after all this is a fixed sign), fanaticism, and (more surprisingly) inefficiency. Countess Wydenbruck describes him as "popular yet solitary, often abnormal."
It has been observed that Aquarius men often have beautiful profiles but tend to look unduly feminine. But this is not mentioned by that old traditionalist Pearce, who merely says that the Aquarian is "of prepossessing appearance and good disposition," and has a "long and fleshy face." Here we have a minor inconsistency, in another passage describing the influence of Aquarius as a Sun-sign, Pearce speaks of a "round full face," and again goes on to mention "good disposition, though tinctured with pride and ambition; artistic or scientific."

Apart from the scientific thinkers already mentioned, other people who had Aquarius for their Sun-sign were Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and James Dean. Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) was born with Aquarius as his ascendant sign.

To return to the "Aquarian Age": Many astrologers block out history in periods of roughly 2000 years, each such period falling under the tutelage of a particular sign. This is dictated by the movement of the vernal equinoctial point (i.e. 0 degrees Aries), which goes very slowly backward through the signs (because of the "precession of the equinoxes", mentioned earlier). So in the last 2000 years B.C., 0 degrees Aries was in Aries the constellation. Then it moved into Pisces - very suitably, since the Piscean Age coincided with the Christian era, and the fish was an early symbol of Christ. As to whether the Aquarius Age has yet begun, astrologers disagree. Ingrid Lind thinks that it has, and ascribes to it much the same characteristics as Gleadow: "All the modern trend of thought and invention." For Morrish also, but in a different way (since what he is concerned with is subjective development)

Aquarius is "the awakener." For him it is the sign not of the scientist but of the yogi - "the development of spiritual consciousness through contemplation." This development will be completed in the next sign, which he takes as representing the "cosmic ocean".

ASTROLOGERS MENTIONED
A.J. Pearce
John Varley
Morrish (L. Furze-Morrish?)
Ingrid Lind
Rupert Gleadow
Paul Choisnard


For more posts on this sign - there are lots of 'em - please click on Aquarius in the Label Cloud in the sidebar.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Vivian Maier - Another Eccentric

We watched the documentary film
Finding Vivian Maier on Netflix recently. Amazing story of a woman who worked as a nanny, took photographs on the street, good ones - thousands and thousands of them, but kept them hidden, sometimes not even printed. She was, or became, a compulsive hoarder. After her death her photographs and negatives were acquired by a young man who has undertaken the vast job of sorting them, and trying to discover who Vivian Maier really was. The film tells his story, and hers.

A New Yorker article on the topic is HERE, and a piece about legal problems arising from Maier's estate HERE.

Vivian Maier official website, lots of her photographs can be viewed there.

So, here was another type of eccentric personality - Arty Farty Friday has seen at least a couple of these in past weeks. In Ms Maier's case her eccentricity might have been the result of some unknown childhood problems, or perhaps even abuse - this is hinted in the film during interviews with people who knew her, but is now impossible to verify.

Vivian Maier was born in New York City on 1 February 1926. Her family came to the USA from France. Chart below is set for 12 noon, her time of birth isn't available.

A few points:

When dealing with eccentricity, first look to Uranus and Aquarius. A very clearly highlighted Aquarius is found in Ms Maier's chart! Sun plus three personal planets all in Aquarius. A good start - but not everyone with multiple personal planets in Aquarius is an eccentric (those born in February 1962 will attest to this - think Garth Brooks for instance). There has to be more.

Ms Maier's particular kind of eccentricity involved an addiction to hoarding, her urge to extreme privacy and secrecy about her undeniable talent as a street photographer - and her excessive, though secret, output.

The T-square linking an opposition from Venus (art) to Neptune(creativity, addiction) and squares from each to Saturn (restriction, rigidity) reflects discomfort of some kind involving those features.

Jupiter (excess) within her Aquarius cluster, conjunct Sun and Mercury, might relate to both her excessive output of photographs (millions of prints and negatives, all stored, unknown to the public during her lifetime) or to her possibly related habit of hoarding stuff - particularly vast piles of newspapers, the huge weight of which damaged the floor of her apartment.

I notice there's an emphasis on degrees between 21 and 25 around the chart; not sure that is of interest, except that a variety of aspects flow from it - semi-sextile, sextile, square, trine. Usually, this kind of thing indicates a well-integrated character, which Ms Maier, in her own peculiar way was, I guess.

Primarily...on we go, while I wander back & forward in time

Democratic primary caucuses are taking place today in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii. Caucus states tend to be Bernie-friendly, so I'm hoping for happy-making results tonight!

Digging around in my archives, this from August of 2008 reminded me of how I felt back then. Nothing much has changed:

Last week I sent off my voter registration application to the State authority, and await the return of a Voter Identification Card for use when I cast my first ever vote in the USA at the General Election in November (2008).

I registered myself as "No Party", unable to conscientiously relate to what I've seen from either party during past months. "No Party" satisfies my Aquarian hankering for freedom and innate obtuseness in any case. Until the primary elections kicked off I always assumed that when I became eligible to vote there was absolutely no question but that I'd join the Democrats. It came as a surprise to me that when the opportunity at last arose, I felt quite unable to do so.

Although I've been here nigh on 4 years, I'm still obviously not translating British political labels into American accurately, or perhaps there is no precise translation. Back in England when US elections were reported on TV and radio I could often be heard asking for a reminder as to which equated to Labour - Republican (symbol the elephant) or Democrat (symbol the donkey). I just couldn't get my head around it. To me Republican sounded more revolutionary and therefore more like Britain's Labour party, the party of "ordinary people", as against the aristocracy and wealthy land owning classes (and those who aspire to, or have delusions of belonging to those groups). The Democrats are the nearest thing to UK's Labour Party I guess, but they aren't extreme enough, I can't really tell "who they are". I'm not sure they know themselves exactly who they are at present, come to that.

I used to describe myself as a European style socialist, but the word socialist here in the USA is almost a dirty word. I think many people equate it with communism. I've learned to keep my mouth shut and my keyboard clamped on that score!

Astrologer C.E.O. Carter said in his "Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology" (first published 1924 in Britain) that "Socialism is one of the manifestations of the Uranian Age, it being an attempt - whether or not a happy one is, of course, beside the point - to realise fraternity and justice. In this it is distinct from the Pisces methods which had been in vogue before, i.e. private philanthropy in the form of foundations, institutions, and alms."

Dear Mr Carter lived in a different era, of course. I wonder what he'd make of the corporatism which we see taking over now? Private philanthropy may still exist in isolated local areas, but on the whole, philanthropy has gone out of fashion in favour of greed. Never has there been more need for "fraternity and justice" - but when will The Uranian Age begin again? I think Mr Carter was referring to the time when Uranus transited its own sign of Aquarius in the early 20th century, from around 1912 to 1920. Uranus has visited Aquarius again since then, a fact which I have engraved on my heart because of what went on then in my life (1995 to 2003). There was no great uprising of socialism as far as I recall - in the USA it was the opposite in fact.

The People will have to wait for the real Age of Aquarius to dawn, before things really start to change. According to the experts it may not dawn in the lifetime of anyone alive now, or even in the lifetimes of their grandchildren...nor even their grandchildren's grandchildren.

In the absence of fraternity and justice until the New Dawning, it would be nice if we could simply have a bit of philanthropy back.

Absent the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, we could at least acknowledge the fact that a herald of "fraternity and justice" is among us right now in Bernie Sanders. He has been ignored, dismissed, ridiculed by Republicans, establishment Democrats and mass media, but gradually has gained respect from some of those who hadn't been aware of his views previously. For me, personally, he's the candidate I've been waiting for.

I'll go out on a limb to say that, however unlikely it might seem, at this point, for Bernie to achieve the presidency, if he were to do so, he would become the most beloved president in anyone's lifetime. That is my deepest feeling about him. If that were to be proved merely a dream, well then, he still should go down in history as a true herald of things to come - at some point in the future when the stars align for The People more strongly and clearly than they do right now. Some of The People, on both sides of the political divide (supporters of Bernie, and those of Donald Trump) may be ultra-sensitive and feeling an advance pull of Saturn's entry into revolutionary Aquarius in late 2020, and an even more advanced pull of Pluto's entry into Aquarius in the Spring of 2023.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Sun Aquarian Barbara Kruger

Below is a re-airing of a 2011 post...just because. Before starting the re-run, though, I looked around to discover whether Ms Kruger has had anything to say about the current election season. I found this, by Bob Duggan, relating to the 2012 election season at Big Think: How Barbara Kruger Asks the Questions This Election Must Answer. The exhibit is still on view, I understand. I haven't yet found anything specifically related to 2016 though. I like this one of Ms Kruger's for our current situation:

Barbara Kruger (Sun Aquarian) is an artist whose work, once identified, is immediately recognisable from then on. She incorporates text and old photographs from magazines, or her own photographs, to present provocative messages. These concern consumer culture, stereotyping, feminism, politics etc. In recent years she has moved into video art and installation art.



One of Ms Kruger's best known slogans “I shop therefore I am” mocks consumerism.



She also uses her artwork as a platform to make known her political and social views on some controversial issues such as abortion i.e. “Pro-life for the unborn…Pro-death for the born.”


In an interview with Barbara Kruger conducted by Thyrza Nichols Goodeve in the November 1997 issue of Art in America, titled “The Art of Public Address,” Ms Kruger explained:

The brevity of the text is about cutting through the grease. I just want to address people in a very forthright manner. It is why I always use pronouns, because they cut through in the same way. Direct address has been a consistent tactic in my work, regardless of the medium that I'm working in. I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty. I want people to be drawn into the space of the work. And a lot of people are like me in that they have relatively short attention spans. So I shoot for the window of opportunity.

Barbara Kruger was born into a working class background in Newark, New Jersey on 26 January 1945. After graduating from Syracuse University, she enrolled in Parsons School of Design in 1965. Shortly after, she was given a job at Mademoiselle.

From an interview at Dazed Digital

I felt like a Martian at Syracuse University. Most of the people there were very wealthy and had a lot of facial surgery. After the first year at college I saw little reason to stay. And my father had died, so I wanted to be closer to my mom in New Jersey.

I transferred to Parsons School of Design and studied with Diane Arbus. She was the first female role model I had that didn’t wash the kitchen floor six times a day.
I left school at 19. I didn’t have the money to continue. Initially, I got a job as a telephone operator. Then I was hired at Condé Nast as an assistant designer at Mademoiselle Magazine.

In the beginning, it was thrilling to work for magazines because it was all new, and I thought I wanted to be Art Director of the World! But I soon realised that I just didn’t have it in me to be a designer. Designers have to construct millions of different images of perfection to suit their clients. The have extraordinarily broad skill sets. I admire that tremendously, but I could never do that.

I didn’t have a pot to piss in so I started to take all these teaching jobs. Without a degree you couldn’t get a real job, so I just got visiting jobs. I first went to CalArts in 79 and I think at that point I realised I liked LA. I’ve been in Los Angeles for almost 22 years now.

(12 noon chart - time of birth not known.)


No wonder I've been cheering on every example of her slogans I've uploaded for display here! Ms Kruger's natal Sun is in the same degree of Aquarius as my own, and she, too, has Mercury in Capricorn. Socially aware, interested in communicating in a straightforward, no nonsense fashion! There the similarities end though.

Without a time of birth I cannot ascertain rising sign or exact Moon position, but whatever her time of birth Moon would be somewhere in the sign it rules - and possibly the most "female" of all the signs - Cancer, which I think clearly links to her connection with feminism.

There's a lovely Grand Trine in Air in her chart. Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Libra link to each other in harmonious trine, and both link to her Aquarius Sun, and underline her Aquarian traits of slight eccentricity (Uranus ruler of Aquarius), and creativity (Neptune).























Many more examples can be seen at Google Image.

I think that every so-called history book and film biography should be prefaced by the statement that what follows is the author's rendition of events and circumstances.

Listen: our culture is saturated with irony whether we know it or not.

Look, we're all saddled with things that make us better or worse. This world is a crazy place, and I've chosen to make my work about that insanity. (Barbara Kruger)

Aquarius Sun + Others ?

SUN IN AQUARIUS according to Cyril Fagan - I found the list copied below on a website encountered while searching for something in relation to Fixed Stars. Decided to borrow it, being a Sun in Aquarius native myself.

I've graded each item on a scale of A/B/C :
A means that I find it fits me well or it's what I try to aim for; B = fits only sometimes; C = don't agree at all, in my own case.
? = not sure what this means.

Many of the characteristics listed could apply to any or all 12 Sun signs. The first 3 items, plus # 6, and the one about freedom of movement and action are those I relate to most strongly, regarding my Sun sign. Other 'A' markings are either too general or maybe I'd be inclined to assign them to other planetary placings in my natal chart.

Do any of these characteristics apply to passing reader(s) - either Sun Aquarian or Sun in any other zodiac sign?


A Most “scientific” type: inventive, analytic, delights in investigation and discovery.
A Avoidance of complex systematization (contrary to Cancer). Agnostic, Natural Mysticism.
A Interest in occult and recondite subjects. (Many reincarnationists.) Interest in profound or serious thought.
B Avid reader, absorbs concepts and ideas quickly.
C Highly talented, creative. Very musical (mostly vocal).
A Can judge others and themselves dispassionately, objectively. Takes people for what they are without trying to alter or misrepresent them, without being impressed by pomp, etc.
A race/C class! Ignores barriers of race or class.
A Rarely pretends to be anything he isn’t (yet many excellent actors). Uses vernacular in writing.
A Sense of humor off the beaten track. Cynical at times.
A Strong opinions freely expressed.
A Needs freedom of movement and action. Behavior often seems unconventional but within certain personal bounds.
B Desired responses must be enticed from them, never coerced or forced.
C Often seems to undermine relationships subconsciously (feeling autonomy threatened?)
C Refusal to surrender personal autonomy even in marriage. Healthy selfishness. Need for privacy. Strong resistance to dealing openly with own feelings.
B Hate to be criticized attempt to denigrate the criticism or rationalize the situation with principles.
C Don’t feel they have anything for which to apologize.
A Drawn to group situations, but not joiners except to fulfill a purpose. Socializes selectively (or with a purpose).
B Bad at personal relations. Misunderstood from being insufficiently expressive or demonstrative (esp. in romance).
A Truthful, high-minded, honest, altruistic, generous.
? He will take up and patronize many, and provide them with the means of life. (Firmicus)
B Sounding boards. Ready to lend an ear (less frequently a shoulder). (Hard for them to terminate an interchange, especially when the other person is talking.) Sentimental.
A Wisdom of life, astute judgment of human character. Knows how to appreciate others.
A Convenience Motif. Keeps things frequently used within close reach. Pragmatic.
? PAUL BUNYON motif. Works hard to make life easy.
B Unaffected manner, blasé, apparently easy-going. Such iconoclasts that nothing they do seems unusual to them.
B Seems low key if not tired. (Fluctuating energy cycles?)
B Weak self-image. Plays down own self (self-effacing?).
A Sensitive, easily hurt, can be terribly touchy (but often won’t express the hurt). BWorriers: fear the worst in a strenuous situation. Potentially high anxiety level.
A Money isn’t too important to them: If they have it, they spend it; if not, they go without.
AGravitation toward future. Frustrated if future doesn’t occur the way they anticipate.
AFear of dying before accomplishing what they feel they should. Imposes deadlines on self (then procrastinates).
A Employed in public service [if government service counts].
B Industrious (but difficulty concentrating on anything outside of major interest, specially relationships).
A Family-conscious. Strong devotion to both parents and children. Often family is an impenetrable, inviolable circle.

Fixed Stars in Zodiac Sign Aquarius

This monthly wander among the Fixed Stars is drawing to a close. I did post on some of the Fixed Stars in zodiac sign Aquarius last year, in a different format from that used from Aries onward . Then I completely forgot to post on Fixed Stars in Pisces! So... I shall re-do Aquarius here, then finish up next month with Fixed Stars in zodiac sign Pisces, that'll complete a matching series. It's good to be neat and complete!

The previous Aquarius Fixed Stars post is HERE.

Fixed Stars within topical zodiac sign Aquarius. The data below comes from Astroweb (HERE), showing star positions in 1900 in the left-hand column and in 2000 on the right.

Astrological interpretations for some of those stars, if found to be tightly conjunct a natal personal planet, or important point, are available online. A good, all-encompassing website to investigate for this is
Constellation of Words.

Once again constellation and zodiac sign have to be blended. Some Fixed Stars in Aquarius form part of the constellation of Capricorn, and many forming part of constellation Aquarius now fall in zodiac sign Pisces.


My own nearest Fixed Star to natal Sun in Aquarius (27 January) is Bos. It lies on the head/face of the sea-goat, constellation of Capricorn, not marked on the illustration. Said to signify: Keen intellect, good for business, military, analysis. Fortunate; Saturn/ Venus. Business and military ? Not flippin' likely! The rest: I can but hope!

Interesting tid-bits:

Altair, now at 1+ degree of Aquarius, is in neither constellation Capricorn nor constellation Aquarius, but in constellation Aquila (The Eagle) on the eagle's neck.
Altair, by the way, was the name of one of four gorgeous Arabian horses in the famous chariot race in Ben Hur (the novel, and my all-time favourite film). The horses were named for Fixed Stars: Altair, Antares, Aldebaran and Rigel. All were known as fortunate. Altair (The Eagle), Antares (Heart of the Scorpion), Aldebaran (Bull's South Eye), Rigel (Orion's Foot). In the Ben Hur story Judah Ben-Hur meets an Arab sheikh who owns a magnificent stable of Arabian white horses. They go on to compete in a chariot race at the Circus of Antioch in Syria. The two main drivers being Judah Ben Hur and Messala, a Roman; they were boyhood friends who became enemies.

Deneb Algedi brightest star in constellation Capricorn, now at around 23 Aquarius marks the approximate position of the discovery of planet Neptune on September 23, 1846 by German astronomer Johann Galle. Neptune was back in roughly the same area between 2007 and 2009, after completing a circuit of the ecliptic.

Sadalsuud Brightest star in constellation Aquarius is found on the water bearer's left shoulder, now at around 23 Aquarius. Said to signify great fortune; astrology, the occult, government, business, psychic, visionary, originality; personal charm; temperance; aviation.
(See here)

Sadalsuud, whose name means 'Luckiest of the Lucky', is reputed to have been so named because of the weather conditions which accompanied its rising. Latin astrologers knew it by the title 'Fortuna Fortunarum', a clear indication of its benevolent nature. (See here)

I haven't yet been able to find any hint as to why Sadalsuud has connection to astrology.

Airy Ideas: Gemini etc.

By David Palladini

We're into Airy Gemini times once again. There are a few posts on Gemini stashed in the archive, accessible by clicking on "Gemini" in the label cloud in the sidebar. Apart from what's written in those posts, what more to say?

Louis MacNeice, in his book titled simply, Astrology, writes:

"All astrologers agree that the Gemini type enjoys argument; after all this comes naturally to a double man, born under a double sign.
[André] Barbault stresses this "bipolarity" and points out that Gemini rules the lungs with their double process of breathing in and breathing out. He adds that if Aries symbolizes the original fire at the source of life, and Taurus the condensation of this life in a material form (as it were, an egg) it is when the process arrives at the stage of Gemini that this egg is polarized and we meet the differentiation into the masculine and feminine principles."

Carrying the idea of a process of development through the signs, one could assess development of the zodiac's three mentally-oriented Air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius in that way. Gemini could be seen as youthful Air - an impulsive, exuberant and flexible mentality. Libra, having learned a few lessons during the onward journey, matures to emerge in a more careful, deeply thoughtful state of mind. Aquarius has matured still further, to become more determined and stringently analytical and logical - in some ways mirroring its traditional ruler, Saturn.

So... the light gusty, playful winds of springtime Air, become the sweet, warm languid breezes of late summer, then finally, the more demanding chill winds of winter.

Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson, in Here and There in Astrology, wrote this:

In Air Signs, the Sun develops the individuality through logic, reason and keen insight into basic or underlying principles. It is therefore the most impersonal approach to the most personal development. In Libra, judiciously and calmly, sure of the laws and regulations he leans upon; in Gemini, with an open and inquiring mind, probing for what is factual; and in Aquarius, by depending on universal principles that he knows can ultimately be proven scientifically: an individuality at once remarkably human and godlike.

Back to Gemini!
Liz Greene, in her Mythic Astrology:

"Gemini is a fascinating sign, it presents a profound insight into life's diversity. In Gemini's world no truth is the whole truth, and nothing exists without its opposite...........For those with a strongly Geminian nature, there is often a sense of being several different people. Walt Whitman, the 19th century American poet, was born with Sun in Gemini, and wrote that he contained "multitudes".

Arty Farty Friday ~ George Widener, Gifted "Outsider"

Stumbling upon a couple of articles discussing what's known as "Outsider Art" (see Wikipedia), I discovered George Widener, self-taught artist and calendar savant, whose Asperger/Autism Spectrum Disorder syndrome developed into a passion for mathematical computation, statistics, data, and especially calendars. An obsessive habit to translate every number that he encountered into a calendar date led to his transforming his findings into artwork.

George Widener was born in Covington, Kentucky, USA. His childhood was scarred by his father's death when George was 9 years old, followed by his mother's alcoholism and confinement in an institution. By age of twelve he was living with grandparents, later with with an aunt. He attended a specialised school where he showed definite aptitudes for mental arithmetic and drawing, and exceptional memory capacity.

In 1979 he joined the US Air Force as a technician. He spent his free time drawing, and collecting ideas for future artwork. Subsequently, unstable psychological episodes led to stays in psychiatric institutions.

"While George Widener suffers from a certain form of autism, he also possesses outstanding computational skills and extraordinary memory for names, facts and dates. His artistic work deals with complex inventories, diagrams, charts, codes and ciphers, which he inscribes in ink upon paper napkins, pasted together in multiple layers. Widener’s accumulations of calendar dates appear as an attempt at finding some sort of regulating principle, an occult formula of universal causality, his own answer to the enigma of Infinity and Eternity."
From Art Brut

In 1994 Widener began studying liberal arts at the University of Tennessee. He now lives in Asheville, North Carolina. As an introverted young adult he could hardly have predicted a career for himself in the elitist world of contemporary art, but his casual doodles on napkins and scraps of paper in libraries and restaurants – scribbles which, at times, seemed to explain and/or predict a plane crash or other event - eventually drew attention.

Widener has stated (see HERE):

"[In my art] I am using the dates as the medium. I wondered if I could create a pattern of [dates of] disasters or of weather, and start predicting. Hypothetically, if everything adds up but there is one [date] missing and a future date fits in, does that mean there will be storms? That fascinated me.

I began to get a bit obsessed with things like numbers as a child. They calmed me down in my times of stress. I sort of regressed. I started to retreat. I was filling my notebooks up with the dates. I had dozens of notebooks in a backpack.

Eventually, I was put in hospital and diagnosed with Asperger/Autism Syndrome, after which I became more able to accept myself and control my obsession with dates. I consider certain 'runs' of numbers in dates to be telling a undiscovered story. These runs will eventually say something to future machine life forms, and I am always looking"

ASTROLOGY

Most sources give George Widener's year of birth only: 1962. Wikipedia states his date of birth as 8 February 1962, with a reference to source as follows:

Darold A. Treffert, Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2010) p179.

How reliable that information is I can't tell, but if correct it's certainly significant, falling slap-bang in the midst of 1962's famous Aquarius mega-conjunction. Below is his natal chart using that date, at 12 noon, in Covington, Kentucky. Some sources state place of birth as Ohio - perhaps the discrepancy arises due to his enforced moves during childhood. His natal Moon's degree will not be as shown, and rising sign remains unknown without a birth time.

"A date", George Widener says, "has four variables: day, month, year, day of the week. Feeling the symmetry of these numbers, he says, is a beautiful experience, almost like a drug. Those who want that experience must pay the price". (HERE)

Words seem superfluous! All personal planets except Moon lie from mid- to late Aquarius, the Air sign astrology links to analytical skills, logic and general mental acuity. Moon would be in Aries, whatever time of day George Widener was born - that, along with Uranus, Aquarius' modern ruler in Leo adds a dynamic thrust to all that mental energy.

A thought occurs - if George Widener were to study astrology, then cast his amazing mind towards astrology research ...what might be revealed?

ARTWORK

George Widener's artwork must really require close-up viewing, but to give some idea, a few images chosen at random from Google Image

Widener notes that certain types of incidents have occurred on the same day of the week, and so that very day may engender similar incidents in the future. When Widener was a teenager, he came across a passenger list of the Titanic and discovered that one of the victims coincidentally shared his name. This large drawing translates his fascination for this history. Even though the ship sank on a Monday, here he emphasizes that it was “mourned on Tuesday.” Every Tuesday for seven hundred years, starting on April 16, 1912, is included by date; the number of Tuesdays approximately corresponds to the number of people rescued from the sinking ship. (See HERE)