Stringing Along - Intuitively

What to write...what to write? When straining for inspiration some recommend following William Blake's "golden String":

"I give you the end of a golden string
Only wind it into a ball.
It will let you in at Heaven's gate
Built in Jerusalem's wall."
(Beginning Chapter 4 of Jerusalem (Erdman 231)

Over the years, all manner of interpretation has been proposed for these lines of Blake - religious, spiritual and non-religious. This may or may not have been the poet's intention, though on the face of it it wasn't - or was it?

Some say the poet and mystic was seeking to provide a golden string to help guide the reader through the labyrinth of experience - or perhaps through Blake's own poetry? Artists of all stripes, writers, poets, musicians have used these lines as advice on how best to navigate towards their individual "Heaven's gates" - creation of a piece of music, literature or artwork from inspiration arrived at by following the golden string of - what...intuition perhaps?

My own method of finding something to write about often favours stumbling down an internet "rabbit-hole". Blake's golden string is a more appealing metaphor, I guess - a lot prettier too, and less frequented by Mad Hatters!

Intuition - it does lend itself easily to the metaphor of a golden string. Wikipedia's definition of intuition -
Intuition (Mind), a phenomenon of the mind described as the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.

From WEB MD

Intuition, or a sixth sense, is something many of us rely on for snap judgments and often life-altering decisions. But what exactly is it? A 2008 study in the British Journal of Psychology defined intuition as what happens when the brain draws on past experiences and external cues to make a decision -- but it happens so fast that the reaction is at an unconscious level. But that's only part of it, says Judith Orloff, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and author of Guide to Intuitive Healing: Five Steps to Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Wellness. "Just like the brain, there are neurotransmitters in the gut that can respond to environmental stimuli and emotions in the now -- it's not just about past experiences," she says. When those neurotransmitters fire, you may feel the sensation of "butterflies" or uneasiness in your stomach. Researchers theorize that "gut instinct," which sends signals to your brain, plays a large role in intuition.

My own thoughts (extracted from an archived post)

I suspect that there are various levels of intuition, ranging from a quite rational but rapid analysis of a situation or person, based on minute details subconsciously perceived by extremely sharp observation, processed in a nanosecond. That'd be at one end of the scale. At the other end of the scale, truly psychic insights arising from exceptional, almost clairvoyant skills. [Astrologically] Both levels, and all those inbetween, will involve Mercury, that's for sure. A strongly placed Mercury, challenged by few or no difficult aspects must surely be a basic requirement. After that, I'd say a lot depends on the sign/element placements of Sun and Moon, maybe ascendant too. Water or Air are going to be the easiest elements in which intuition can blossom well. Earth and Fire seem too direct and outwardly active. Yet the analytical skills of Virgo might be instrumental in that first level of intuition, the kind arising from minute, almost unrealised observations.

Chatting about this subject with husband brought the comment that females are generally more intuitive than males. He thinks this stems from a male dislike of being thought "limp-wristed" or overly-feminine. Intuitive ability can be masculine too, I pointed out. Think of jazz musicians improvising, they intuit what others in the group will play and how to complement it. And any sportsman in a sport involving others can, and probably does, gain considerable advantage by using intuition. Perhaps these men just don't call their intuition...intuition.

It's more than likely that we all have the potential within us to be intuitive, but some don't accept this, so fail to use it.

An old friend to this blog, Gian Paul, who lives in Brazil commented, back in 2010, as follows:

Intuition, be it in business or astrological consultation or sports (an excellent, earthbound comment you make) or religion and meditation is, I believe, always linked to destiny. Given that all is related to destiny, closely or not so closely, depending mostly on ones perception.

I state here my personal beliefs, tested so to say out of necessity. In no way can I today imagine that astrology could "function" without the reality of destiny or the small building blocks like intuition or faith or hope which make this all up.

Taking hope as an example: if it's illusionary, or totally unrealistic, it deserves not to lead to success (the "Tower" in the language of the Tarot). If on the contrary hope is linked to some intuition (your Halliburton post, Twilight), it can be a mighty energy leading to the fulfillment of somebody's destiny. This, easily with hindsight, may then be explained by astrological interpretation....................

Instinct - Intuition: If the frontiers there appear sometimes blurred, it's that our level of perception, or of consciousness is often quite low.

Instinct is "animal", serves survival. Physical and not much more than that.
Intuition and insight, both are related, have an inward orientation, non-material. A difficulty arises here for whom believes that Heaven is "up-there". Not so for whom conceives that Heaven might be within ourselves.

The astrological element of a given sign, under this perspective, has in my view little importance, other then to influence the way intuition may be recognized and expressed.

If Water appears more intuitive, it's that being more sensitive, it recognizes intuition probably in it's finer stages.

Earth (have to think of Moon in Virgo or Mercury in Taurus) may have very penetrating intuition/insights, much firmer than a water oriented person.

Fire no doubt has as many intuitions as the others, only it might "burn the signposts" instead of following them, particularly Aries (me).

Air oriented: Needs to listen to his/her intuitions and believe in them. Too much thinking or analysis is obstructive.

A favourite American poet, William Stafford (1914-1993) wrote this - I wonder, was he inspired by Blake's golden string?

The Way It Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Henry Fuseli and His Nightmare

 Henry Fuseli - portrait by James Northcote (1778)

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

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

 Self portrait

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


From visualarts.com

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

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

Sources:
Getty
Britannica
BBC

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


ASTROLOGY

 Fuseli's study for a self portrait

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



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

6 FEBRUARY

7 FEBRUARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Arty Farty Friday ~ William Blake

Perhaps best known for his poetry, William Blake was also a prolific painter and printmaker. This is another artist born before his time - so many of them seem to have been ahead of the calendar. He wasn't appreciated to any great extent during his lifetime, lived mostly in near poverty.

"The esteemed poet William Wordsworth said on the death of Blake: "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott."Blake died on August 12 1827, he was buried in an unmarked grave in a public cemetery and Bunhill Fields."

I can't do any kind of justice to this man's work in a brief blog post. I recommend Wikipedia's entry for more detail, and a lot more of his artwork can be viewed via Google Image.

Here, I'm concentrating on how his natal chart reflects the outstanding elements of his work. I'll quote some pieces from Wikipedia, and elsewhere, and relate them to his natal chart, looking for artistry, creativity, philosophy, social conscience, religion (and antipathy towards it).

William Blake was born in London, England on 28 November 1757 at 7.45pm (Astrodatabank)



Blake's poetry and paintings rely strongly on religious and philosphical subjects. He wasn't keen on organised religion.

Although Blake's attacks on conventional religion were shocking in his own day, his rejection of religiosity was not a rejection of religion per se.
"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."

His natal Sun and Jupiter, conjunct in Sagittarius (sign of Jupiter's rulership), with Pluto there also, put emphasis on an interest in religion and philosophy deep in his nature. These are two facets of Sagittarius/Jupiter. His natal Moon in Cancer lay in scratchy quincunx aspect to his Sagittarius planets though - which may be from whence his antipathy to some aspects of religion emanated.

Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality.Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity:
"As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)".

In one poem, narrated by a black child, white and black bodies alike are described as shaded groves or clouds, which exist only until one learns "to bear the beams of love":

When I from black, and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.

AND

Blake was perplexed by the things that should perplex people - moral absolutes, the limits of perception, the tragic duplicities by which we live. All this is expressed in his Songs of Innocence and Experience; who cannot recognise the corruption of inequality in his lines, "Pity would be no more, / If we did not make somebody Poor"? (See here)

His social conscience is represented by natal Saturn in Aquarius, backed up by his philosophical Sagittarius planets. Aquarius relates to social awareness, Saturn was Aquarius' traiditional ruler (before Uranus arrived on the scene), so is at home there.

I was wondering where Mercury in Scorpio came into the picture, then accidentally stumbled upon the synopsis of a book: William Blake's Sexual Path to Spiritual Vision (Paperback)
by Marsha Keith Schuchard (At Amazon, here)

The author’s investigation into the radical psychosexual spiritual practices surrounding William Blake, which includes new archival discoveries of Blake family documents, reveals that Moravian and Swedenborgian erotic and visionary experimentation fueled much of Blake’s creative and spiritual life. Drawing also upon modern art restoration techniques, Marsha Keith Schuchard shows that Blake and his wife, Catherine, were influenced by secret kabbalistic and tantric rituals designed to transcend the bonds of social convention. Her exhaustive research provides a new context for understanding the mystical practices at the heart of Blake’s most radical beliefs about sexualized spirituality and its relation to visionary art.

Scorpio !

His visions:

From a young age, William Blake claimed to have seen visions. The first of these visions may have occurred as early as the age of four when, according to one anecdote, the young artist "saw God" when God "put his head to the window", causing Blake to break into screaming. At the age of eight or ten in Peckham Rye, London, Blake claimed to have seen "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars."

A Yod formation (Finger of Fate) links a harmonious sextile between Uranus and Venus to Neptune and/or Mars, and Black Moon Lilith (the Moon's apogee). Here, Venus, planet of the arts, is in sextile to Uranus, the avant garde planet and the two linked planets both link again, via quincunx (150*) to Neptune (creativity, dreams) and Mars (energy, aggression) to form the the apex. This type of formation is said to create something of a conduit for the energies of the sextiled planets through the planet(s) at apex. In this case that seems to work. Blakes' foresight (Uranus), artistic talent (Venus) chanelled via creativity, dreams, visions and some aggression, towards the wrongs he perceives in the world around him.

If Astrodatabank's information on his time of birth is correct Blake's rising degree is the last degree of Cancer, reflecting his sensitivity and possibly hints at some psychic ability (his visions).

Mercury forms a trine with Uranus and with the ascendant - no surprise that he is a poet as well as a painter (Mercury is the writer's planet).

It's all there, in his chart - the social awareness, the poet/painter, the philosopher and visionary, the interest in eroticism.

GATES OF HELL



THE ANCIENT OF DAYS



SCONFITTA



EUROPE SUPPORTED BY AFRICA AND AMERICA



NEWTON



SATA AMOR ADAO EVA



WHIRLWIND OF LOVERS - DANTE'S INFERNO



A sample poem. - Link to more here

LOVE'S SECRET

by: William Blake (1757-1827)

Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind doth move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
Ah! She did depart!

Soon after she was gone from me,
A traveller came by,
Silently, invisibly
He took her with a sigh.