Hand-held Earth

This week I'm continually being reminded of things. The image below was pulled from my over-filled memory banks after reading my weekly forecast, commencing 21 September 2017, by one of my favourite astrologers,
Rob Brezsny of Free Will Astrology.
Snips from THIS:

Aquarius
"The brain is wider than the sky," wrote Emily Dickinson. "The brain is deeper than the sea." I hope you cultivate a vivid awareness of those truths in the coming days, Aquarius...............

Try this visualization exercise: Picture yourself bigger than the planet Earth, holding it tenderly in your hands".

The image that brought to mind is one I originally found on a notice board in a gallery or museum, years ago, while on our travels - we took a photograph of it then; later I found it online, and discovered that it was written by Joe Miller for a children's book, illustrated by Wilson McLean.

Astrologers with Natal Sun in Cancer

Sun is now travelling through zodiac sign Cancer. I think I've exhausted what there is to say about the attributes of Cancer, the sign; relevant posts from past years can be accessed easily by clicking on "Cancer" in the Label Cloud in the sidebar at right.

This year I'm highlighting well-known astrologers born with Sun in the sign-of-the-month. Wikipedia's list (my source) threw up only three astrologers recognisable to me:

John Dee 13 July (23 July New Style) 1527

Michael Erlewine 18 July 1941

Rob Brezsny June 23 (year of birth not revealed by the astrologer).

Then, while searching for something elsewhere I accidentally came across one more:
Shelley Von Strunckel 15 July 1946.



In John Dee's day astrology was held in much higher esteem than it is in today's world. There could be much to say about Dee. I've mentioned him before in a post about "Magick".

For now, Astrodatabank's nutshell description will suffice, along with a couple of links to websites with more detail.

"British astrologer and a double-agent for Queen Elizabeth I to thwart Spain; signing his messages "007"! Gifted as a child, he was educated in math, philosophy and the occult, the author of two books before he was 21. Dee studied astrology with Cardan from 1552, gaining fame as a lecturer. Married three times, he produced eight kids. Dee died in 1608, Mortlake, England."

More athttp://www.johndee.org/DEE.html
and Britannica.com


Dr. John Dee had 5 planets in Water signs: Sun, Mercury, Jupiter (Cancer), Mars (Scorpio), and Neptune (Pisces).
2 in Air signs: Moon (Aquarius) and Uranus (Gemini). My theory that astrologers fare best when they have Air (mental acuity) and Water (sensitivity) predominant in their natal charts holds good for Dr. Dee.
Mars and Neptune are in the signs of their rulership too, giving them more relevance.




Michael Erlewine:
Extract from Astrology.com

Entrepreneur Michael Erlewine, an internationally-known astrologer, has studied and practiced astrology for over 40 years, as an author, teacher, lecturer, personal consultant, programmer, and conference producer. Erlewine pioneered computerized astrology, the first astrologer to program astrology on microcomputers and make those programs available to his fellow astrologers. This was in 1977. He founded the first astrology software company, Matrix Software, in 1978, and that company, along with Microsoft, are the two oldest software companies still on the Internet.

Michael, joined by his astrologer-brother Stephen Erlewine, went on to revolutionize astrology by producing microcomputer software for the first written astrological reports, first research system, first high-resolution chart wheels, geographic and star maps, and on and on. Erlewine has a least two other careers. In the 1960s, he was a musician. He hitchhiked with Bob Dylan, was the lead singer for the Prime Movers Blues Band (Iggy Pop was his drummer), and opened for bands like Cream at the Fillmore in San Francisco, during the Summer of Love. An expert in blues music, Erlewine interviewed and documented dozens of blues musicians.
Astrodatabank

His natal chart is at Astrodatabank

Watery input from Sun and Mercury in Cancer. Air from Jupiter in Gemini. So, Michael Erlewine does have planets in Water and Air in his chart, but in his case this may not be not the over-riding factor. What stands out in his chart is a stellium (tight cluster) of three planets: Moon, Saturn, Uranus in Earthy Taurus, all harmoniously linking by trine aspect to Neptune in Virgo. It's as though Neptune (creativity) is being harnessed to Moon (inner self), Saturn (business, career) and Uranus(technology, the avant garde) to produce exactly what Mr Erlewine turned out to be, as described above, a visionary entrepreneur with talent for both astrology and business.




Rob Brezsny is one of the growing band of astrologers sensitive about publishing full birth data - and who could blame him? Without more information all we can be sure of is that he has natal Sun in early Cancer. Mercury and/or Venus in nextdoor Gemini would fit him well, and provide some Air to support my theory. Mercury can be found only in the same sign as the Sun or in one of the adjacent signs (in this case Gemini or Leo).

Mr Brezsny is another multi-talented astrologer - also writer, poet, and musician. His weekly horoscope column and website Free Will Astrology has been published for almost 30 years in numerous magazines and periodicals, as well as latterly on-line. His style is quite different from most other Sun sign writers, which is what first attracted me to his work . I remember writing a review about Mr Brezsny's Free Will Astrology (one of the only two Sun sign sites I read) for a website called Sign Show - I checked - it's still around!




Shelley Von Strunckel
from Astrodatabank

"American-British astrologer who writes for the British papers, a column and Sunday supplements. After the death of Patric Walker, she took over some of his columns, most notably in the London Evening Standard. She also appears in TV interviews.

Von Strunckel first went to England in 1985. Very attractive, she married an English barrister in 1990. They are London residents but she keeps an apartment in New York City and travels between the two cities often."

Ms Von Strunckel has Sun and Saturn in Water (Cancer), Moon (Aquarius)Jupiter and Neptune (Libra) and Uranus (Gemini) in Air signs - she's a good example of Water and Air predominant in an astrologer's chart!

Sunday Supplement ~ Dark & Light

I particularly liked this week's Aquarius piece from astrologer Rob Brezsny at Free Will Astrology

"There is light enough for those who wish to see," wrote French philosopher Blaise Pascal, "and darkness enough for those of the opposite disposition." I'm hoping you will align yourself with the first group in the coming week, Aquarius. More than ever before, what you choose to focus on will come rushing in to meet you, touch you, teach you, and prompt you to respond. Even if all the smart people you know seem to be drunk on the darkness, I encourage you to be a brave rebel who insists on equal time for the light. "

I'll try, Mr. Brezsny, I'll try!

That advice could well be apt for Sun Aquarians this week, but it's equally useful for everybody.....everybody breathing.

Folks do seem to have a penchant for striding off into the darkness of negativity these days. It seems to be the "cool" thing to do.

There's a section of mankind who look for the end of the world to kick in sometime soon. There's another section, in the USA, who can see no good at all in anything the President of the USA is doing - you name it and choruses, from both sides of the political divide, will say he's doing it wrongly and we are heading for hell in a handcart. Similar things apply in the UK and to their leaders, and the same no doubt in other countries around the world.

People appear to have lost the will to trust.

Negativity begets negativity. It sometimes seems as though people are actually trying to will us on towards disaster!

I'm going to promise myself that henceforth I will try very hard not be negative. I will trust the judgment of people I voted into power, and make allowances for the actions of those I didn't vote for. But I will confront negativity wherever and in whatever form I find it.

Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Don't waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

.....And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

(from "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann)

Horoscopes for Elders ?

On an internet wander the other day, I happened upon a blog called "Time Goes By". Among the comments following 28 October's post, "The Essence of Elders", was one which brought up a point I'd never even considered before.

The blog post itself had addressed the issue of advertising aimed at elders (those generally labelled "seniors") in a way which is quite often not appealing to them. Ronni Bennet, the blogger, points our that

"....... advertising aimed at elders almost always feels irrelevant to me – they are trying to appeal to old people with the memes of youth. This also applies to just about every aspect of the culture in relation to elders: television, movies, clothing, technology, vacations, etc., soaked with sexual innuendo and status seeking."

Commenter "Pete" had this to say:

"I always get such a laugh out of horoscopes. All they talk about is love life. Someone who wrote horoscopes for elders could do very well!"

Hmmm. You know, after I'd thought on this for a while I decided that the best Sun sign column writers do actually write in a non-age-specific style. Jonathan Cainer at Cainer.com and Rob Brezsny at Free Will Astrology are my own two favourites. I don't ever recall feeling alienated by their writings, as one of their readers who passed her first flush of youth when they, probably, were still in diapers.

The really bad Sun sign columns, such as appear in our local newspaper, syndicated stuff which the paper probably buys for a few dollars a week, are dreadful and ought to be outlawed. It could be such columns to which "Pete" referred, or perhaps he had been borrowing some women's magazines, or reading 'em in the dentist's waiting room. These do tend to carry content slanted for younger women, who make up their readership.

I've given the subject some more thought, and even chatted to my husband about it, wondering whether I could possibly stretch myself and write an Elder Horoscope as part of this blog. Unfortunately our conversation descended into some rather dark humour and giggling when considering the type of content I might include. I shall say no more! You know, I reckon we don't take our elder status seriously enough for me to to be of any real use in this context. Most of the time we're not even aware that we are indeed elders; if others find that a problem - then it's their problem.

We did go on to wonder at the amazing talent of daily and weekly Sun sign writers though - how they can come up with so much material day in, day out, week in, week out. It's a special and rare talent. I could probably write one day's worth of content, then I'd be done!

However, should a stray astrologer pass by here, read this post, and fancy the idea of writing an Elder Horoscope column, please leave your URL and I'll pass it on to "Pete" and others.

I'm going to think longer on this topic myself, perhaps I'm missing something!

Aquarian On A Wire

Rob Brezsny at Free Will Astrology, one of my two all-time favourite Sun sign astrologers, gives this forecast for Aquarius for the current week:

"In his song "Bird on a Wire," Leonard Cohen says, "Like a bird on a wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried in my way to be free." Your assignment, Aquarius, is to wail, moan, or croon your own personal version of that song. Here's how I suggest you proceed. First, identify specific actions you've taken to advance your quest for liberation. Include even the modest accomplishments and goofball attempts. Second, imagine the strategies you'll pursue in the future to get more leeway and latitude for yourself. You might want to start by purging your mind of beliefs that place unwarranted limitations on you. Now start singing!"

Okay - carrying out my assignment, as a good Aquarian should:

Once upon a time I hated the regimentation of school, couldn't face more years of the same, so chose to start working instead of attending university - I have tried, in my way, to be free.

I stayed in my first job for more than two years then left home to live the life of a gypsy hotel office worker, moving around from season to season - I have tried, in my way, to be free.

I married the wrong man and we quickly parted - I have tried, in my way, to be free.

I met a better man but declined to marry him, ever, even though we were together for 33 years - I tried in my way to be free.

I met a foreigner from a strange land across the sea and travelled there with him. I have tried, in my way, to be free.

As an alien beholden to the whims of my new country's immigration laws, I decided I must become a citizen - I have tried, in my way, to be free.

After watching the 2008 primary elections in the new country, I decline to belong to any political party, will register Independent - Still trying, in my way, to be free.



kd lang sings Leonard Cohen's songs so well. She can do the singing for me :

"Bird On A Wire"

Knock On Wood

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