Music Monday ~ 1685: A Very Good Year for Baroque

I know next to nothing about classical music in general, and even less about that known as Baroque. I was intrigued to note, though, that three of the genre's most illustrious composers were born in the same year, 1685: Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.

Some clips from an article by Heuwell Tircuit, Celebrating the Giants of 1685 will put a little meat on the bones of my ignorance about these composers.

Scarlatti, Handel, and Bach make for a fine contrast of styles: Scarlatti, the super-inventive court harpsichordist; Handel, the worldly organ virtuoso and vocal giant; and Bach, the genius stuck in provincial church posts. All wrote religious compositions, but for Scarlatti and Handel the approach was decidedly secular. Handel's oratorios, for instance, are basically operas without the costumes and sets. Scarlatti's religious works — few by comparison — are largely beholden to the Neapolitan operatic style of his father, Alessandro Scarlatti. Bach's are more genuinely religious, although they often rely on secular dance formations for their rhythmic patterns.

Daring Scarlatti, sly Handel:
Scarlatti was easily the most daring and original of the three, especially in his 555 or so harpsichord sonatas. He was the Liszt of the Baroque, inventing major additions to keyboard technique that called for virtuosity even beyond that of Bach's requirements. Some of his sonatas required extremely fast, repeated notes close to that of a bowed tremolo. He is most famous for his hand crossings — one arm reaches back and forth over the other for a note or two, then goes quickly back to the normal position — a feat that is repeated any number of times in a few bars of music. He created unusual modulations that were 75 years ahead of his time, as well as amazing dissonances, and he was the first to use irregular phrase lengths that ignored the expected eight or 16 bars.

Handel's harpsichord music is not as technically demanding and aims for the public rather than the virtuoso specialists. Handel's contemporary, the historian Charles Burney, noted Handel's "sly pseudo-simplicity." That is Handel's genius: With no overt show of complexity, he can command attention with playable, delightful music that holds a wide range of feeling.

Toward the end of his life, Scarlatti had become so fat that he could no longer play his arm crossings. Handel would flaunt his wealth by walking around London with a gold walking stick.

A few notes on THE ASTROLOGY

Astrodatabank offers times of birth, but all are poorly ranked at DD or C ratings, so are unreliable. I've used 12 noon charts for ease of comparison. Moon's degree and ascendants will not be accurate. (Click on chart images to enlarge.)

First the year: 1685, the common denominator, astrologically marked by the outer, slow-moving planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. These planets would have remained in the same signs, and similar degrees, at the birth of all three composers. Uranus was in early Taurus, sign ruled by Venus, planet of the arts. Neptune, planet of creativity was undiluted in the sign of its own rulership. These two outer planets were in harmonious sextile in all three charts. Pluto was in Cancer, and not particularly relevant to the matter in hand, though Cancer, being an ultra-sensitive sign, would not have been muddying the astrological waters with any flavour of hard-core aggression in 1685.

For Bach and Handel, I'd say Pisces is key component, Scarlatti has Sun in Scorpio, another Water sign, and it is closely conjunct Jupiter, traditional ruler of Pisces....which is interesting! Sun conjunct Jupiter (the expander) could also account for what that tidbit in the extract above tells us about Scarlatti growing so fat that he could no longer do arm crossing at the piano!

There's an opposition to Sun in each chart: Jupiter opposite Sun for Bach; Saturn opposite Sun for Handel, and Uranus opposite Sun for Scarlatti. I'm not sure how that translates as a common denominator here, except to say that an opposition to natal Sun, whatever planets and signs are involved, sets up a dynamic between very different "energies". This can sometimes be problematic, but it does hold the possibility of drawing the best from both, and in these three instances, I'd say the composers had obviously managed to do so, at least in their professional lives.
Scarlatti's Sun-Uranus opposition clearly reflects his more daring and inventive style, as mentioned in the extract above, for Uranus represents all that is new and unexpected.


Johann Sebastian Bach born 31 March 1685 in Eisenach.














George Frideric Handel born 5 March 1685 (Old Style =23 February) in Halle, Prussia (Germany).













Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti born 26 October 1685 in Naples, Italy.
















A modern example of Baroque: Bach's Air on a G String adapted - for the harmonica, would you believe?

Clip from How Music Works with Howard Goodall.
Oroh Angiama performs J S Bach's Air on a G String accompanied by Philip Achille on harmonica and Howard Goodall on Hammond organ.

The Miners. (No astrology today).

Last week's news of a mining disaster in West Virginia brought memories of other such disasters, back in the UK, in Wales, northern England and Scotland. It's horrendous that such events can still happen in 2010, in spite of improved conditions and new technology. So much depends on the integrity of mine owners, whether they fully uphold safety regulations. It appears, from some reports, that there are still mine owners who fail to do so.

MONTCOAL, West Virginia (Reuters) - Drills boring into a West Virginia coal mine on Wednesday carried hope for a "miracle" rescue of four miners missing after a blast killed 25 people in the worst U.S. mine disaster in a quarter century.

The explosion happened on Monday at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, 30 miles south of the state capital Charleston. Eleven dead have been identified, three of whom were related, and 14 bodies were still in the mine.

Since that was published 4 more bodies have been found, the death toll is now 29.

RIP

As a tribute to the families of those lost in the West Virginia disaster, a poem from a website dedicated to the miners of Wales (here)

Without Choice

Child miners who worked and sometimes died in total darkness,
many never reaching their teenage years;

Small undernourished boys, some born with defects of the eyes,
limbs or spine, plucked from school at an early age, seeing
daylight on Sundays only;

Victims of major disasters by explosions and other causes, when
hundreds died at a stroke; often there were several deaths in the
same household;

The lone deaths that went almost unremarked, each no less a
disaster for the family, sometimes one left without a breadwinner;

Gaunt, hollow-eyed, spent men, inhabiting fragile, blue-scarred
shells of bodies, destined to die at an early age;

Survivors who lost limbs or faculties, or suffered disfigurement;

Those whose ordeals were prolonged in later years as bed or
chair-bound invalids gasping for breath, their life threads
maintained by boxes of tablets and oxygen cylinders;

Surface workers who lost life and limb as they worked in dusty
screens or unsheltered areas, often in excesses of rain, cold and
snow;

Those who lived to attain much anticipated retirement, yet only
briefly experienced it;

Wonderful ' Mams' who selflessly went without, giving priority to
the needs of children and husbands. In harsh environments many
aged before their time and prematurely slipped away;

Often their mantles would be assumed by teenaged daughters
who became women overnight, caring for fathers and becoming
mothers to siblings, sometimes at the cost of personal
happiness;

Unsuspecting, innocent babes and guardians, the most cruelly
punished of all, dying in the ' safety ' of schoolrooms.

THEIR SUFFERANCE WAS THE TRUE PRICE OF COAL, PAID
FOR IN THE CURRENCY OF LIVES.

Even today, the effects of some of these once common
occurrences are ongoing. In a world of comparative plenty and
justice, they apply proper perspectives and priorities to complaints
about current everyday life.

LEST WE FORGET.

by Bill Richards.
Cambrian Colliery, Rhondda.

(Thank you, Mr. Richards.)

Wikileaks, Pluto & Galactic Center

Wikileaks was in the news again this week .

On 5 April 2010, Wikileaks released classified U.S. military footage from a series of attacks on 12 July 2007 in Baghdad that killed 12, including two Reuters news staff, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. The footage consisted of a 39-minute unedited version, and an 18-minute version which had been edited and annotated.

Among the murdered were pregnant women, mothers of large families. It's the soundtrack of uncaring, bloodthirsty comments of US soldiers that chill the blood even more than the visuals.

For anyone who hasn't already seen the video footage: LINK
More on Wikileaks HERE, and in an article from the UK's The Independent newspaper

Wikileaks has been whistleblowing for around 4 years. Extract from The Independent's article:

Full disclosure: What we wouldn't know without Wikileaks

Trafigura's super-injunction

When commodities giant Trafigura used a super-injunction to suppress the release of an internal report on toxic dumping in the Ivory Coast in newspapers, it quickly appeared on Wikileaks instead. Accepting that the release made suppression futile, Trafigura lifted the injunction.

The CRU's 'Climategate' leak

Emails leaked on the site showed that scientists at the UK's Climate Research Unit, including director Phil Jones, withheld information from sceptics

The BNP membership list

After the site published the BNP's secret membership list in November 2008, newspapers found teachers, priests and police officers among them. Another list was leaked last year. The police has since barred officers from membership.

Sarah Palin's emails

Mrs Palin's Yahoo email account, which was used to bypass US public information laws, was hacked and leaked during the presidential campaign. The hacker left traces of his actions, and could face five years in prison.

So here is our 21st Century Muckraker ! (see Wednesday's post Muckrakers & Their Astrology)

Wikileaks was founded in December of 2006, and first published content in January 2007. There's no chance of looking at the natal chart of its founder, Julian Assange. He won't reveal his age. He says: "Why make it easy for the bastards?" There's a long article about him at Mother Jones.com. We can approach it from a different direction though. My ephemeris shows that in December 2006 Pluto, planet of secrets, things hidden from view, the underworld, death, cleansing and transformation was exactly aligned with the Galactic Center at 26 degrees of Sagittarius, and remained so for some weeks. The Galactic Center, center of our home galaxy, The Milky Way has to be considered something of a power point, astrologically, so the "birth" of Wikileaks when Pluto was aligned with such a power point does seem to be astrologically significant!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Jia Lu

Last Sunday I posted an image of a painting by Jia Lu, an artist with whose work I was unfamiliar. A little light research sent me scurrying deeper into Google to find this lady's birth date. Her life story is that of a versatile, talented and adventurous character, one I was curious to see in astrological terms.


She was born in Beijing, China in 1954. At first that was all I could find, then I hit on a website stating her birthdate was in March 1954...a little better! So far that's the best I can come up with.

Her story is well told in some detail at a website bearing her name: jialu.com The following comes from a potted version at Art Brokerage from whence her art can be purchased

Painting since she was three, Jia Lu painted her way through her tender years, through the navy, through her emigration abroad, right through to fame. Her paintings eventually created a world that escapes classification. No matter who comes across them, her paintings make all catch their breath and turns every face into an expression of wonder. Jia Lu was born in March 1954 in Beijing. Graduated from the Central Academy of Art and Design Special Arts Department in Beijing and York University Faculty of Visual Arts in Canada. Before leaving China she worked as a nurse, film projectionist, athelete, film actress, art editor, etc. In 1983 she pursued further education in Canada and later taught at Lambton College. Jia Lu has participated in over 50 exhibitions in the U.S., Japan and Canada. In 1990 she worked as Researcher and Chief Designer for the Tang Culture Research Institute and created the world’s largest, most valuable and influential mural design at 700 sq. m. over the course of several months. Between 1985 and 1994 Jia Lu's ink paintings and Buddhist designs were exhibited at three provincial level art museums in Canada bringing widespread attention to her work. Jia Lu's work became a highlight of the 1997 and 1998 ArtExpo.

So....what can be extracted from the skimpy birth data I have so far? Because Jia Lu was born in China, if she is interested in astrology at all, she would probably think first in terms of Chinese astrology. She was born in 1954 = The Year of the Horse.

From HERE:

Chinese astrology is chiefly basis on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology does not analyze the positions of the sun, moon and planets at the time of birth. For those who are born in the 1918- 1930- 1942- 1954- 1966- 1978- 1990- 2002- 2014 share the zodiac sign horse. The Horse is high-spirited, positive and active. Horse has a daring streak and love to travel. Horse regards individual liberty with such great importance that at times it causes them to be candidly selfish in chase of it. Horses generally have an optimistic outlook on life.

Using Western astrology and the fact that she was born in March 1954 tells us that her natal Sun was in either Pisces, until around 21st, or Aries later in the month. Mercury was for sure in Pisces and may have been retrograde (before 14th). Venus was in either Pisces or Aries. Mars was in Sagittarius and Jupiter in mid-Gemini all month. Saturn was in Scorpio, in retrograde motion. Outer planets: Uranus 19 Cancer, retrograde for most of the month, Neptune 25 Libra, retrograde most of month, Pluto 23/22 Leo retrograde for most of month of March.

That seems like quite a lot to go on, but really, without an exact date, it isn't. We can't know how the planets related to one another. We do know that Jia Lu certainly had some gentle, dreamy and imaginative Pisces input from (at minimum) Mercury, the mental process and communication planet. If I had to bet on her Sun sign, having read her biography I'd go for Aries, but only tentatively, because the drive and leadership described in the video below might come from her natal Moon, about whose position we cannot even hazard a guess without knowing her day of birth.

I'm not sure whether there's any significance in the fact that all three outer planets were likely in retrograde motion, as well as Saturn, and possibly Mercury . I tend to think not.

This video relates to a stage presentation, "Transendence" produced by Jia Lu in recent years, but first it takes a look at her biography.

A few examples of Jia Lu's paintings:



ARMILLARY SPHERE



MANDALA



MEASURED PASSION



SELF-REALIZATION



DEPARTURE

Apes Fore and Aft ?

We experienced an odd example of synchronicity this week. One night we watched a DVD my husband bought for my delight: The Quest For Fire - a strange but fascinating (fictional) account of primitive man's adventure during his search for the means to make fire. The movie includes references to the several strands of primates-turning-to-man thought to have existed either concurrently or in succession, from which our human race eventually sprang forth.

The next night, after American Idol (no synchronistic connection there whatever critics might suspect!) HBO presented the re-make by Tim Burton of Planet of the Apes. We'd not seen this re-hashing of the old 1960s tale, so stuck with it more from curiosity than anything else. Its peculiar ending still bugs me, and has had me researching detail of worm holes, time travel, etc. Tim Burton and his movies can be weird at times, but he certainly makes one think.

Anyway, back to Quest For Fire. It struck me after watching this that hardly anything had been made of the Sun, Moon and Stars. Sure, the final scene has a couple gazing up at a full Moon, but apart from that there's no acknowledgement that there's anything up there at all. Even so, if astrology works today (at least in part), it will have worked in exactly the same way thousands of centuries ago, with reflections of Mars or Venus or Saturn and the rest showing up in the developing character traits of primitive beings. Uranian disruption doubtless occurred once in a while too. It can hardly be in doubt that primitive men and women were beings of varying natures: gentle or aggressive; timid, or natural leaders.

Was astrology at work then though?

Did human brain capacity need to develop to a certain level before any planetary influence (or whatever "mechanism" there is within waves of time) began to manifest ?

I know - it's another unanswerable question, similar to the one bugging me about the ending of Planet of the Apes. Can't resist asking though!

Muckrakers & Their Astrology

Once upon a time, around the first decade of the 20th century, the USA had a group of writers upon whom the then president, Theodore Roosevelt, bestowed the name "Muckrakers", a term borrowed from literature (John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress). The president could, it seems, see both advantage and disadvantage to the work of these dedicated writers who sought to expose growing social injustice in their country, as it began to flourish and become ever more industrialised.

"Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck rake, speedily becomes, not a help but one of the most potent forces for evil.... The effort to make financial or political profit out of the destruction of character can only result in calamity."– Theodore Roosevelt, "The Man with the Muck Rake" speech, 14 April 1906

Wikipedia:

.....these journalists, through their research and constant exposure of the wrongdoing by officials in American public life, gave fuel to protests that led to investigations and later on reform of not only Corporate America but the American Government. The Muckrakers’ journalistic efforts helped reform and regulate Wall Street and aspects of big businesses. The muckrakers also shed light on an array of social issues, such as the issues with urban housing and horrible living conditions in highly populated cities, medical patents, child labor laws, child prostitution, and even women’s rights.

A few examples:

Upton Sinclair lived among Chicago stockyard workers for several weeks researching his novel The Jungle. He aimed to expose dangerous working conditions in the meatpacking houses. Americans, though, seemed more concerned with the disgusting revelations about how meat was processed than by the conditions under which their fellow-countrymen were forced to work. "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach," Sinclair wrote. The Pure Food and Drugs Act was a direct result of his efforts.

Samuel Hopkins Adams revealed fraudulent claims and endorsements of patent medicines in America. His articles revealed many false claims that pharmaceutical companies and other manufactures made as to the potency of their medicines, drugs and tonics. His work forced a crackdown on a number of other patents and fraudulent schemes of medicinal companies during that time.

Ray Stannard Baker investigated coal mine conditions, a coal strike, and the situation of non-striking workers (or scabs). Many of the non-striking workers had no special training or knowledge in mining, since they were simply farmers looking for work. His investigative work portrayed the dangerous conditions in which these people worked in the mines, and the dangers they faced by union members who did not want them to work.


Ida M. Tarbell is best known for a series of articles which later became a two volume work on John D. Rockefeller and his oil interests: The History of the Standard Oil Company, published 1904. The exposé resulted in federal action and eventually in the breakup of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey under the 1911 Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Lincoln Steffens' aim was to expose the pattern of corruption in local and national government, and the real villains, the supposedly respectable, honest businessmen whose bribes and greed fueled the whole system.

John Spargo a transplanted Briton exposed childhood poverty in his book The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906).

Nellie Bly went undercover in a mental institution to report on the reprehensible conditions inmates lived in. Her work sparked some long-needed reforms. In another instance she got herself arrested for theft to reveal the deplorable treatment of female prisoners.

Jacob Riis, a transpalanted Dane used his own photography to illustrate his writing and to indict the slums and tenements of New York. He visited stench-ridden tenements on hot summer nights to experience them at their worst. this work was documented in his book How the Other Half Lives.

Henry Demerest Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth & Story of a Great Monopoly, were exposés of corruption related to the railroads and Standard Oil.

Each of those writers deserves their own post (and may well get it in due course!) There were others, too many for a brief blog-post. For now, I'd like to discover whether there were any common factors in the natal charts of this particular group of Muckrakers.

The charts shown below are set for 12 noon. They will not show accurate rising signs or Moon degrees but will be sufficient to show general layout of natal planets. I've copied them in groups which show a particular pattern. (Click on images to enlarge.)

First group of 5: I'll call these the Aries/Taurus Group. These writers had clusters of personal planets close to Pluto (which represents things hidden from view, secrets, the underworld and deep transformation).









Second group of 2: The Aquarius Group. These have Sun and one or two other personal planets in Aquarius, sign which represents social conscience, forward thinking, and the humanitarian - least surprising of the lot, I'd say. Both have some Aries (the initiator and fighter) input too.




Two others: Ida Tarbell with Sun and Mercury in Scorpio (ruled by Pluto and symbolising secrets, deep incisive mental faculties). Scorpio planets lay in opposition to their ruler and Jupiter, which must have surely added to that Pluto/Scorpio dynamic.

Upton Sinclair is a bit of an odd-man-out in this line-up (there's always one!). He had 5 planets in Virgo, one of the writer's signs, ruled by Mercury. He also had Sun/Mars harmoniously trining Pluto in Taurus though - which I reckon qualifies him to join this club.

"We muckraked, not because we hated our world, but because we loved it. We were not hopeless, we were not cynical, we were not bitter."– Ray Stannard Baker.

In the 21st century's second decade, would that we could identify a comparable group of writers, unattached to corporate patrons and without ulterior motives.

Idols ~ Lennon-McCartney ~ Zodiac

Tonight the last 9 American Idol contestants standing are to choose songs from the Lennon-McCartney songbook and present their interpretations. With such variety there just has to be something for everybody within that songbook.




I thought it'd be fun to consider the contestants' Sun signs and pick a Lennon/McCartney title to match. These are highly unlikely to be the contestants' actual choices, I hasten to add. There are no remaining contestants with Sun in Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio or Aquarius by the way.





Aries: Lee DeWyse and Aaron Kelly ~ Helter Skelter (Aries always in a rush)...and Why Don't We do It In the Road? (Aries always impulsive!)

Taurus: Tim Urban ~ Norwegian Wood (Taurus>Earth sign>wood)

Gemini: Michael Lynche: ~ Paperback Writer (Easy!)

Leo: Crystal Bowersox: ~ Her Majesty (Leo = Royal) but it's very short, so... Good Day Sunshine (Leo ruled by the Sun.)

Libra: Andrew Garcia ~ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (Balance- see?)

Sagittarius: Katie Stevens ~ Ticket to Ride (Sagittarius loves travel!)

Capricorn: Casey James ~ Long & Winding Road (Capricorn's an Earth sign>road = earthy.) But really, I just want to hear him sing it!

Pisces: Siobhan Magnus ~ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (A bit trippy, as is Pisces).

Music Monday ~ Merle Haggard

It'll be Merle Haggard's birthday tomorrow. Here's an artist I hardly need to research - a favourite of mine for two decades. I was first introduced to his songs in 1989 by a British singer who sang them with an unashamedly London accent - I didn't care - they are wonderful songs in any accent. I bought his autobiography and every LP of his I could find, then lost them all in a fire in 1996; but by then I knew every song by heart, every note of every backing arrangement.

Merle Haggard has written about working men, men in prison, men on the run, drinking, some social comment - from both sides of the politcal divide, people in love, people longing for love, (he knows a lot about this - been married 5 times), unrequited love, about people struggling to get by, getting older, longing for freedom.....in fact, if its a life experience, Merle has written it into a song. Unlike some other wonderful song writers (Kristofferson, Dylan, Cohen) Merle Haggard, in his early years, had a voice deeply beautiful enough to do credit to his own words.

I've known for years that his natal Sun is in Aries, but only found out recently that his Moon is in Aquarius - so he has a mirror image of my Sun Aquarius/Moon Aries - is there any wonder that I was drawn first to his songs rather than to those any of the other great country stars of that era?

Merle's background is well known in the USA - he's a national treasure. Even Americans who have a general disdain for country music seem to retain a lot of respect for Merle Haggard....and rightly so! He has always been on the side of the worker, understands their sorrows and their joys so well, he writes from his own life, loves, joys and woes.

Extract from a biography at Rolling Stone

Haggard was born to a family of transplanted Oklahomans who were living in a converted boxcar in California. When he was nine, his father died of a brain tumor. He quit school in the eighth grade and hopped a freight train at age 14. Through the end of his teens, he mostly roamed the Southwest. Haggard had been in and out of reformatories — from which he frequently escaped — by the age of 14 for such petty crimes as car theft. A 20-year-old married father, he was arrested for breaking into a cafe (drunk, he thought the booming business was closed) and spent nearly three years in San Quentin. He was paroled in 1960. (In 1972 then–California governor Ronald Reagan expunged Haggard's criminal record, granting him a full pardon.)

After prison, Haggard went back to Bakersfield and worked for his brother digging ditches. He started playing lead guitar in a local country band, and by 1962, when he went to Las Vegas to back singer Wynn Stewart, Haggard had decided to make music his career.

From a 2003 interview at Concert Livewire:

Merle:I think its time we be honest and start lookin' for answers to a fuel that can be used without contaminating the air. Something that can grown in the soil and then be turned back over and be useful, as opposed to cuttin' down the rain forest and drillin' holes in the earth. You know, this earth spins just like a tire and if you take weights off the tire, the wobble's gonna change. And what the wobble changing might do to this planet is really a pretty good question. It could all possibly be solved with hemp. Before people laugh when they read this article, they need to investigate what they're laughing about.

Livewire: Become critical thinkers.

Merle: Oh yeah. We need to be creative with our thoughts. We need to save ourselves. We're a society that's about to go into, I think, a phase one of intelligence, or we'll wipe ourselves out - one of the two. I think it's happened in the past, I think we all know that. And here we are again, right on the verge of becoming either residents of the universe or another dead planet.

AMEN, Merle! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow!

Born 6 April 1937 in Bakersfield, California at 1:30 am (Astrodatabank).




I'm not going to dissect his natal chart, just focus on just a couple of factors: 1) a pattern which I see as particularly significant: a Yod (finger of fate) which links the sextile between his Aries Sun and Aquarius Moon - essences of his "inner" and "outer" self both link by a rather uncomfortable quincunx aspect to Neptune, planet of creativity in Virgo. Translated that means the energetic, occasionally aggresive Aries drive from his Sun and the socially aware, humanistic drive from his Aquarius Moon, which might at times be conflicting, are directed and blended through the apex of the Yod, at Neptune, as imaginative creativity through his songs: the part of his life which most defines him.

2) His Capricorn ascendant reflects a rather serious outlook and image, and many very traditional attitudes, which conflict at times with that Aquarius Moon of his. This is why Merle can be seen as something of a contradiction, due to contrasting views expressed as social comment in his lyrics. At certain times these appear to support the conservative viewpoint, while at others a far more liberal attitude. From Rolling Stone biography linked above:

Despite seeming contradictions, Merle Haggard remains one of the most respected and influential American singer/songwriters, his work always looking to the feelings and experiences of the working-class.

The hardest part is choosing which YouTube video to post! After listening to most on offer I've chosen this - possibly not one of his best known songs: Are The Good Times Really Over? The sentiments expressed remain even more apt today than when Merle wrote the song, many years ago. It was Song of the Year in 1982, but could have been written yesterday!

I wish a buck was still silver.
It was back when the country was strong.
Back before Elvis; before the Vietnam war came along.
Before The Beatles and "Yesterday",
When a man could still work, and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now?
Are the good times really over for good?
Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the Flag or the Liberty bell.
Wish a Ford and a Chevy,
Could still last ten years, like they should.
Is the best of the free life behind us now?
Are the good times really over for good?

I wish coke was still cola,
And a joint was a bad place to be.
And it was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV.
Before microwave ovens,
When a girl could still cook and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now?
Are the good times really over for good?

Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the Flag or the Liberty bell.
Wish a Ford and a Chevy,
Could still last ten years, like they should.
Is the best of the free life behind us now?
Are the good times really over for good?

Stop rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell.
Stand up for the Flag and let's all ring the Liberty bell.
Let's make a Ford and a Chevy,
Still last ten years, like they should.
The best of the free life is still yet to come,
The good times ain't over for good.

Emerson on Equilibrium

Something to ponder upon from Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet, essayist, and founder of the Trancendentalist movement in the USA.

He was born on 25 May 1803 at 3:15PM in Boston, Ma. (Astrodatabank).

His is a nicely balanced natal chart element, mode and polarity-wise, so it's appropriate that he sensed the equilibrium of nature, as expressed in the following extract. (Click on the chart to enlarge)

His Mercury ruled Sun & Mercury (in Gemini) and Jupiter & Saturn (in Virgo) reflect a deep-thinking writer's credentials. Gemini Sun in trine to Libra Uranus connects to an avant garde (for his times) mode of thinking.

From CONDUCT OF LIFE by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a collection of lectures first delivered between 1851 and 1852 reiterating Emerson's beliefs about fate, power, wealth, and worship, among other topics.

Beautiful as is the symmetry of any form, if the form can move we seek a more excellent symmetry. The interruption of equilibrium stimulates the eye to desire the restoration of symmetry, and to watch the steps through which it is attained. This is the charm of running water, sea waves, the flight of birds and the locomotion of animals. This is the theory of dancing, to recover continually in changes the lost equilibrium, not by abrupt and angular but by gradual and curving movements....This fact suggests the reason of all mistakes and offence in our own modes. It is necessary in music, when you strike a discord, to let down the ear by an intermediate note or two to the accord again: and many a good experiment, born of good sense and destined to succeed, fails only because it is offensively sudden....To this streaming or flowing belongs the beauty that all circular movement has; as the circulation of waters, the circulation of the blood, the periodical motion of planets, the annual wave of vegetation, the action and reaction of nature; and if we follow it out, this demand in our thought for an ever onward action is the argument for the immortality.

AND, by way of decor:

Equilibrium by Jia Lu at Visions Fine Art

Predicting the Internet

As far as I can tell, no astrologers were harmed, or indeed involved, in the making of this 1969 video. The predictions, as far as they go, have proved to be near enough spot-on though. Apart from one quote from the clip which made me chuckle:

"What the wife selects on her console, will be paid for by the husband at his counterpart console."

It seems that back in 1969, in the USA, little wifeys were still, erm.... beholden to their lords & masters.

What wasn't foreseen, at least in this video: spam, porn sites, viruses, social networking.....etc. etc. etc.

From http://kottke.org/10/03/the-internet-in-1969

Arty Farty Friday ~ More on Michael Parkes

He's an interesting artist whose birth date had, at the time of my first post about him 2 years ago, escaped my beady eye: Michael Parkes. A commenter, a few days ago, kindly left me information that Michael Parke's birth data is as follows: 12 October 1944 in southern Missouri.

I'd never heard of this fine artist until we visited the home of my husband's younger daughter in Austin. She had a number of large Parkes prints in her apartment. Coincidentally, her birthday is the day before my own in late January, different year of course. I discovered that she has a liking for the magical, surreal yet realistic/representative style, which I share. I think Michael Parke's genre is known formally as Magic Realism.

In his style I see echoes of Magritte, Dali, Maxfield Parrish, oddly Alberto Vargas and the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - strange bedfellows! All are great favourites of mine - yet Michael Parkes brings something else, something quite unique into the mix.


I had previously suspected that Mr. Parkes had deliberately kept his birth data secret. He is of the hippie generation, no doubt aware of astrology and maybe unwilling to share his details. However, since someone has information, perhaps from a biography, I guess it would not be too intrusive to take a brief look at his chart. He and his wife have travelled widely in the East, and Europe. They lived in India for a time, and now in Spain.

From Wikipedia:

"He studied the esoteric doctrines of the East and the West, and his imagery is drawn from a range of traditions including the cabalistic and the tantric, but embodied in forms from his own imagination which are immediately accessible. Here strange beasts encounter mysterious winged women, good and evil fight out their immemorial conflict, and in this weightless environment worlds are unmade and remade nearer to the heart's desire."

His chart is shown below, using the information provided, set for 12 noon and for Springfield, which is in southern Missouri but perhaps isn't his exact birthplace. Rising sign and Moon degree will not be accurate - unless, by rare coincidence, Mr Parkes was born at 12 noon in Springfield!



Sun, Mercury, Neptune and Mars all in Libra, a sign ruled by Venus, planet of the arts - a good foundation for a painter, especially with imaginative Neptune included. Uranus at 12 Gemini is in harmonious trine to the Sun/Mercury/Neptune trio, adding the dash of quirk, often leaning towards eccentricity, an element quite obvious in many of Mr. Parkes' paintings. There is esoteric symbolism there though, so what is superficially eccentric could turn out to be deeply meaningful.

What I noticed almost at once is a chain of semi-sextiles:
start at Uranus 12 Gemini > Saturn 10 Cancer > Pluto 10 Leo > Jupiter 16 Virgo > Mercury 13/Sun 19 Libra > Venus 17 Scorpio. Semi-sextile is a link of around 30 degrees between planets in adjacent signs. Adjacent signs almost always represent conflicting traits (think of shy sensitive Cancer versus outgoing show-bizzy Leo). When I see a chain like this one, which also holds within it helpful sextiles and trines (60* and 120*) I see it as a kind of soothing and bonding of conflict to form a comfortable whole. In other words an indication of an exceptionally well-integrated personality.

Without knowing his time of birth it's not possible to calculate rising sign or exact Moon degree. Moon could be in either Leo (if born before 2pm) or Virgo (if born 2pm or later). Mr. Parkes' style has more than a hint of theatrics, circus and fun about it, so Leo would be a good fit. Virgo Moon - hmm not so much - yet could easily relate to the discerning elegance and beutiful detail evident in his work.

This YouTube presentation features an interview with Michael Parkes who discusses a new painting of Venus, and talks about cosmic symbolism - I found this fascinating.
Don't forget that planet Venus rules his Sun and Libra cluster!



There's another video, "Homage to Michael Parkes" at YouTube, featuring many more of his paintings.

Elsewhere there's information at Mr Parkes' own website, and further illustration of his work HERE and HERE , or via Google Image.

VENUS




THE SUMMIT


TUESDAY'S CHILD


THE JUGGLER



THE CENTAUR



ROCK DOVE



ETERNITY

Jimmy Hoffa - An Enigma

Synchronicity of a sort is following me around. After researching and drafting yesterday's post on Mother Jones what should appear on the HBO schedule for that evening but the 1992 movie Hoffa starring Jack Nicholson as Teamsters' Union leader Jimmy Hoffa, center of a long-running mystery. Hoffa was, allegedly, murdered by the mafia in 1975. His remains have never been found.

Hoffa was a far cry from Mother Jones though. Times had changed.

I knew hardly anything about Jimmy Hoffa, but in spite of my husband's assurances that he was "a criminal" I secretly suspected that any man who organised on behalf of his fellow-workers to oppose unjust employers, of whom there have always been a plentiful supply, couldn't be all bad. Conditions under which truck drivers worked in Hoffa's early days were unfair and unjust, forced to drive for long hours without breaks. They needed a strong voice to represent their complaints and a strong character to force improvements. They found both in Jimmy Hoffa.

Having now read many pages of information on line I'm still unsure what to make of Mr. Hoffa. One source has him as a Republican supporter - strange! But that could have been assumption following his run-ins with Robert Kennedy and the Kennedy family, also the fact that Richard Nixon granted him a pardon and release from a long prison sentence (Nixon probably having been promised $$$$$$$).

Will Hoffa's natal chart provide an answer to what drove him ? He's said by all sources to have been a good family man, traditional-style, but belligerent, power seeking and hard-headed in his professional role. His proven connection to "the mob" was likely the only route available to achieve his aim of organising a union powerful enough dictate terms. In those days, in that part of the USA (around Detroit, Michigan) it appears that "the mob" was in charge. Hoffa, probably willingly, was sucked into that murderous, corrupt scenario and became a part of it. I doubt that this was ever a part of his original vision, however.

Jimmy Hoffa was born on 14 February 1913 in Brazil, Indiana, at 6:52 AM (Astrodatabank).




Oh yes! Here we go.....Sun, Mercury and rebel planet Uranus strong and undiluted in its own modern rulership: Aquarius. Aquarius connects with aims for social reform, Uranus the revolutionary always in conflict with the status quo. This is classic, especially so if time of birth stated at Astrodatabank is correct (it has a reliable AA rating). Aquarius was rising, with Sun/Mercury on the ascendant angle, most potent point in the chart. Pluto, the planet commonly connected with all kinds of power was at 28 Gemini when Hoffa was born, and in harmonious trine to his Sun/Mercury (self and mode of communication).

I really don't need to go much further - other than noting that his natal Moon (representing inner self) was in stubborn Taurus, the sign representing material possessions and, often, conservatism. In Hoffa's case Moon is exactly conjunct Saturn, traditionally thought of as planet of conservatism, stucture and rigidity. Here may be a link to possible Republican leanings, which I find rather odd for a union organiser.

With Sun, Moon and ascendant in Fixed signs (Aquarius and Taurus) this man was just about as inflexible as they come!

Jimmy Hoffa, for me, remains an enigma, an interesting character about whose true feelings and motivations we know very little.