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| Cartoon by James Thurber |
The type pf music that appeals to a person can be found by noting the aspects of Venus in his horoscope.
Venus and Sun - stately pompous pieces
Venus and Moon - simple, novel things
Venus and Mercury - quick, light music
Venus and Mars - marches, military and descriptive war songs
Venus and Jupiter - church hymns or slow, stately marches
Venus and Saturn - old songs and solemn tunes
Venus and Uranus - uncommon, futuristic music, such as Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin
Venus and Neptune - dreamy, quiet, romantic and mystical music.
The good aspects to Venus give preference to the slower form of each type of music; the afflictions tend toward the faster and wilder form of each, as signified by the different planets.
Gun control is a deadly serious issue these days, in Annie Oakley's day things were a tad different.
Women trailblazers come in many guises, they are/were not necessarily in politics breaking glass ceilings, or doers of heroic deeds, some did what they did simply in order to provide for their families. Occasionally this came about in ways not "nice" for a female, ways considered scandalous. Women sometimes discovered they possessed skills normally reserved for males of their times, and put them to good use. Stepping out of the norm for one's era is, in my book, the basic factor in a trailblazer's blueprint. Here are two such women.
These two ladies didn't comply with the norm for women of their times, but each in their own way overcame male domination, without the backing of feminist groups or public opinion. Their determination arose from an inner driving force. One had a cluster of planets in Aquarius, the other a cluster in Leo. One had a clever mind, quick enough to out-think her male opponents, the other a steady hand, a good eye, and a talent for show-biz.
Annie Oakley (real name Phoebe Ann Mosey )
Annie possessed a talent unusual in women of her era - sharpshooting. Using a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet (27 m), she was said to be able split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground.
Her skill propelled her to super-stardom in the USA. She took part in touring Wild West shows, exhibitions and set many records, continuing into her 60s. She also engaged in extensive, albeit quiet, philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of specific young women that she knew. After her death, at age 66, it was discovered that her entire fortune had been spent on her family and her charities.
Born 13 August 1860 (time given by Astrotheme 12.01pm) in Willowdale, Ohio.
she had four personal planets in show-bizzy Leo, with Venus in Cancer opposing Mars in Capricorn. Venus opposing Mars symbolises feminine versus masculine - her femininity and diminutive size (just 5 ft tall) taking on what was then a very masculine occupation, via show business.
In a stage musical and movie based on Annie's story there's a song, directed at her male companion, appropriate for all superwomen, through the ages. The opening lines:
"Anything you can do, I can do better
I can do anything better than you.........."
Poker Alice, a female gambling legend of old frontier days in America.
There's confusion about Alice's year of birth (1851 or 1853) and place of birth -England or Virginia USA, to Irish parents. From whichever side of the Atlantic she originated, it appears that Alice Ivers accompanied her family at some point in early life to Colorado where she later married a mining engineer, Frank Duffield, from whom she learned to play poker. She was an intelligent lass and soon got the hang of things, probably good looking enough to turn the heads of male poker players too! Frank was killed in a mining accident, and Alice took up a career on the poker and faro tables of the west. In New Mexico, she broke the bank at one of the saloons, and the dealer was forced to close the game. She became a local legend. Alice's winnings at the table are fabled to have reached as much as $6,000 in one night. Alice once claimed that she had won more than $250,000 gambling over the years and that she never once cheated. Both of these claims are probably true. Poker Alice didn't have to cheat. She knew how to count cards.
Alice re-married, had 7 children but was left a widow again in 1910, and she marrried yet again. Her third husband died after just three years of marriage. She went on to open a brothel, and during a skirmish there accidentally killed a man with a stray rifle shot. She was arrested but later released. Many arrests for drunkenness and keeping a disorderly house followed in subsequent years. Her days ofglamour and success waned in later life. She died following a gall bladder operation on 27 February 1930.
Story in more detail
For a brief look at Alice's natal chart, to acertain position of planets in signs, the year of birth is more important than the exact place of birth. 1851 or 1853? Whichever date is correct the constant factors are Sun, Mercury, Mars and possibly Venus, all in Aquarius. Quirky, independent Aquarius is the key. How different Alice was from most of her contemporaries, what a rebel from the norm! What a novel way she found to use her quick, incisive Aquarian mind! There's no doubt at all that Alice "followed a different drummer".
After looking at various aspects in the different charts (more detail in my earlier post about her here) I'd bet that Poker Alice was born in Virginia 17 February 1853, and that she decided to spread tales of her English origins in an attempt to intrigue others at the poker tables. A bit of early PR work!
Photograph courtesy of South Dakota State Historical Society.
Women everywhere, other than those of the super variety, have really only ever wanted the opportunity to compete on equal terms with their male counterparts. Some women might prove to be better in their chosen field, others might not - opportunity is all !
Quiet, prudent, suspicious, mistrustful, self-controlled, great anger when roused; control of wild animals.I like this one though, from an article at Lunarplanner about a couple of dwarf planets:
Haumea's North Node primarily conjoins Talitha, Iota of Ursa Major, and Kappa,which mark the forefoot of the Great Bear. I dub Talitha to be the protectress, guardian, and nurturer of humanity. This duo is also the Chinese "High Dignitary." Although minor stars, they should not be taken lightly, as they hold a principal office within the Bear. Of the Great Bear they are associated with the global scene and world powers. They inspire us to become a caring and nurturing force for each other, an enabling force that responsibly supports our emergence from darkness, dogma, and delusion, emergence from the limits and bounds created by selfish, fearful or controlling beliefs, a force that supports us to move into freedom and in greater personal fulfillment.
One significance of Acubens is the enforced use of applied intelligence when finding oneself in combat at someone else's behest, as we may say the Crab's front leg finds itself driven on by the Mars Al Tarf on the back leg. But a generally more positive quality to read from Acubens is that of a sharp intellect and ease of coming to grips with problems, for which one might earn public renown. But, again there is the note of doing this under pressure of others demanding 'from behind'. [The Living Stars, Dr. Eric Morse, p.50.]
Penetrating and analytical mind, travel and many friends, craft, ingenuity, and valour, but danger of robbery and accidental poisoning
The most Royal Star. Raphael, the Healing Archangel, the Watcher of the North. Nobility, ambition, alertness, great power, status, leadership, sudden downfall, accidents, violence.
The USA's version of "middle class" is different from the UK's version. Here the middle class seems to refer to anyone not living in actual poverty, yet not of the 1% of elite bankers, financiers, corporate CEOs, "celebs", multimillionaires and billionaires. In the UK middle class is understood to relate to the professions: doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists - that sort of thing. Ordinary folk, tradespeople, craftsmen, office workers, factory workers, store assistants etc. are the working class.
Playing this drinking game tonight would require listening carefully to what's being said, but this way could make it more fun! Maybe I'll watch after all - glass in hand.I'm a foreigner here in the USA, a legal resident, but until such time as I can apply for US citizenship still a foreigner, a British citizen.
I'm interested and concerned about American politics, so I watched all of last night's State of the Union address, and the discussions which followed. I had to watch alone, because my husband refuses to watch or listen to "his" president, so great is his disgust and dismay at current policies. By the time the proceedings had wound down, I was left with a bad headache! Next year I shall follow my husband's example.
As I watched and listened I was amazed at the obsequiousness of both parties towards the president. Many of these men and women profess to detest the president's policies, yet they leapt to their feet at every opportunity, applauded each proposition he put forward. Few, if any, remained seated throughout, few didn't wish to shake his hand and smarm over him as he entered the hall like some great prize fighter, and left, signing autographs for fawning fans along the way. I realise that all of this is "just for show" - but why? Isn't this hypocrisy? I suppose it's tradition. Traditional hypocrisy.
There are more than enough bloggers giving their opinions about the content of the president's speech, so I'll limit myself to one point only - the one which disappointed me the most, and the one about which even I, as a foreigner here, have some right to voice my opinion. Mr Bush mentioned global warming only once, and almost as an afterthought. After outlining plans to conserve energy, reduce the use of gasoline etc. for the stated purpose of reducing America's dependence on oil ..... then...oh yes, one short sentence acknowledging that these measures would help the environment and global warming. He actually said the words "global warming". No acknowledgement though that global warming IS a serious threat. I wonder what Senator Inhofe, our Oklahoma senator, thought about the mention of global warming - he's been declaring, for the past several years, that it's all a great hoax. I bet he was on his feet applauding with the rest of 'em .
Sigh. Al Gore - come back to politics - PLEASE!!!
I must get back to astrology before I blow a fuse!!
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| Hat-tip HERE |
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| Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty |
The storms are raging on the rolling seaThe President has been talking a good talk on at least four topics since the midterm elections early this month: climate change agreement (in principle) with China; immigration reform (announced on Thursday evening that he will use his executive powers to prevent deportation of certain classes of undocumented immigrants); Keystone XL Pipeline (the Senate voted against it on Tuesday, relieving President of any further action - for now); and net neutrality - pending.
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain't seen nothing like me yet...
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| From 9GAG.COM |
"Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved."
By the year 802,701 CE, humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are the child-like, frail group, living a banal life of ease on the surface of the earth, while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing and infrastructure for the Eloi. Each class evolved and degenerated from humans. The novel suggests that the separation of species may have been the result of a widening split between different social classes, a theme that reflects Wells' sociopolitical opinions.
The main difference from their earlier ruler-worker state is that, while the Morlocks continue to support the world's infrastructure and serve the Eloi, the Eloi have undergone significant physical and mental deterioration. Having solved all problems that required strength, intelligence, or virtue, they have slowly become dissolute and naive. They are described as being smaller than modern humans, having shoulder-length curly hair, chins that ran to a point, large eyes, small ears, and small mouths with bright red thin lips. They are of sub-human intelligence, though apparently intelligent enough to speak, and they have a primitive language.
While one initially has the impression that the Eloi people live a life of play and toil-less abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are attending to the Eloi's needs for the same reason a farmer tends cattle; the Morlocks use the Eloi for food.
In that column the author first discusses "gaydar", said to be an intuitive sense of whether a person is gay. He then moves on to "Jewdar", which I'd never heard of, but would be an intuitive sense to indicate a person exuding Jewishness. I'm not clear what benefit being in possession of either sensibility would be, though as Carroll wrote, in Germany and parts of Europe in the 1930s/40s being in possession of acute "Jewdar" would have been valuable in deciding who one's friends were.
Dude went to Columbia and Harvard. He seems smart. What’s wrong with him? Is he — as his former colleagues at the University of Chicago, who noticed that he never published — lazy? He’s certainly a far cry from the LBJ who, according to his biographer Robert Caro, routinely burned the midnight oil committing every sentence of every bill, ever, to memory.
Obviously, a president who finds time to watch sports, play golf and kick off for vacations for weeks at a time — while the global economy is melting down — hell, while his signature legislative accomplishment, Obamacare has all but completely imploded — is lazy as all get up. Still, there’s nothing new about presidential sloth. Reagan, Clinton and Bush all worked less than the average minimum-wage worker whose misery they were steadfastly ignoring.
Obama is unique, though. It goes beyond laziness. He doesn’t follow tried and true practices of presidential governance that have served his predecessors for more than two centuries. Intentional? Who knows? It seems more than likely that (and this is so outlandish that I’ve literally waited years to write these words) he is so ignorant of history that he doesn’t know why and how previous presidents have failed and succeeded. Because, let’s face it, if this is three-dimensional chess, he’s down three queens.
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
~ Bruce Lee
To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor, for sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough.
That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.
To be sure, as Obama argues his case for bombing Syria it is interesting to reflect upon the fact that at least since the death of Louis XIV, in 1715, there has been a major shake up in European western power every hundred years. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, the alliance largely established at the Congress of Vienna maintained a balance of power that persisted until an industrializing, unified Germany upset it, leading to World War I in 1914, after which a new Order arose. And now, in 2013, over 20 years since the end of the Cold War, one cannot help but wonder whether an overextended, historically unpopular US will precipitate its own demise, joining Napoleon’s Empire, and the Austro Hungarian Empire, and so many others in the clutter of the dustbin of history.
According to first astrological observations, Pholus gives unusual ability in a particular area, or unexpected results, due to a gift for experiment. Pholus' transits over the main axes of a chart, often mark radical and unexpected change, hinted at by his sudden and unexpected death in the myth.Coincidence? Maybe. Just a thought.
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche.
And our new President? I reckon he's doing just fine in the abysmal circumstances facing this country and the world. He inspires confidence. I very happily take back any suspicions I had early in the primaries that his lack of experience would be a detriment, and that a constant Neptunian vibe I got from him was A Bad Thing. I was reminded of that Neptunian vibe again the other day when I noticed the title of an article by John V. Santore at Huffington Post: "Obama Isn't Who I Didn't Think He Was. But He Might Be."
Doesn't that title reflect Neptune so very well?
Perhaps nobody can yet see President Obama without a wisp or two of fog around him. That's not an entirely bad thing though. It keeps us alert. Alert enough to note any mis-steps. The President is a human being, he'll make a few of those. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in a Neptunian fog far denser than those wispy clouds around President Obama.
In an archived post of mine from September 7 2011, "Each Man is 3 Men" ~ President Obama's 3 Men"Each man is three men:I'll take another stab at it - this time sans astrology.
What he thinks he is,
What others think he is,
and
What he really is."
Republicans of the far right like to think he's a socialist, Marxist ready to sell out the USA lock stock and ....whatever.
Moderate conservative and corporate Republicans tend to see him as weak and worth bullying to get their way.
Centre-left Democrats keep holding on to experience the kind of "Hope and Change" their hero promised he'd bring to them in 2008. They see him as a good guy hamstrung by wicked right-wing politics.
Progressive Democrats on the left of the party have begun to see through the Obama fog and are daring to criticise their leader (not before time in my opinion - and too little, too late!)
Those further to the left, whether Democrat or of other parties or of no registered party, have been critcising the President for years, seeing him as, at best a middle-of-the-road conservative, not far removed from the likes of Ronald Reagan, and even to the right of Richard Nixon.
