Boston Legal, James Spader, David Kelley.

A long-time friend of my husband died a few weeks ago. During their last conversation friend - "Zee" - urged us to watch some episodes of Boston Legal. We'd heard of the series, which ran from 2004 to 2008, but hadn't seen any of it. We caught a couple of repeats then these, too, disappeared.

My husband decided to buy a DVD set of the full series, I suspect in memory of his friend. We've now watched Season One and are into Season Two and are finding that, as Zee promised, it's fun and over-the-top, but also intelligent, adult, enlightening and encouraging on several levels.

Having spent a good part of my working life among members of the legal profession in the UK, I easily recognise the "types" portrayed, some scarily similar to lawyers and judges I knew, back in the day. Lawyers in Boston, Britain or Bombay are, I reckon, cut from the same cloth.

The series was created and mainly written by David E. Kelley as a spin-off of an earlier series The Practice. Kelley also created and wrote LA Law - which I watched regularly back in the UK and enjoyed a lot. It's no surprise to find that David Kelley started out as a lawyer himself, he writes with wry humour, occasional farce and a certain understanding of the background atmosphere which would be difficult to do without inside knowledge.

James Spader portrays offbeat and unpredictable lawyer, Alan Shore with aplomb - well, he would, wouldn't he? Born 7 February 1960 in Boston Massachusetts at 8:02 PM (Astrodatabank). He was made for the part of Alan Shore !



Sun and Mercury in mentally oriented Aquarius, with Aquarius's modern ruler Uranus the eccentric and unpredictable planet in direct opposition from Leo to Sun. Capricorn and Aquarius are both traditionally ruled by Saturn, planet of laws, and here Saturn is found in one of its home signs, its traits likely to come through very clearly. Taking into consideration the stellium of planets in Capricorn the opposition seems to be indicating an ongoing fight or tension between what is staid, traditional, and law-abiding and that which is "out there where the buses don't run". (Accidentally there I've described the essence of Boston Legal itself in a few words.)

I have no means of knowing whether James Spader is in any way similar to the character he protrays, but he has said, in interview:

I guess I've always been drawn to anything eccentric. I'm drawn to that in friends and in life.

A reflection of his Aquarius bits!

When discussing the character of Alan Shore in the series from which Boston Legal was a spin-off, James Spader put forward his thoughts:

"I really like this guy," Mr. Spader said, sitting in a hotel room during a recent visit to New York, his words following the slightly off-meter rhythm he has employed to great effect in his characterizations.

Indeed, much of what Mr. Spader has shown on the screen is apparent in person: unexpected movements and gestures; a languidness that changes without warning to passion, marked by sudden rises in the volume of his voice. Though his hair has thinned and he has lost some of the dangerous handsomeness of his youth, he remains an actor who always seems to be trying to tweak convention.

That's certainly true of Alan Shore, a man who ignores virtually every stricture of the legal profession, but almost always in a noble cause - at least one he sees as noble. His misrepresentation in the airline case, for example, saved a colleague from being disbarred.
"I think he's endearing and appalling at the same time, at the same moment, really," Mr. Spader said. "I like him best when he's inappropriate with his appropriateness. He's the best friend you could have in the world, but he'll make your life hell at times."

I'm deliberately ignoring the rest of the cast in this post to keep it blogworthily brief. All add to the brilliance of the series: William Shatner at his farcical best; Candice Bergen and Mark Valley playing straightmen in a lunatic asylum;, Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell and assorted other attractions, not forgetting the ever wonderful Betty White. For me though, and I suspect for many others, James Spader is the show's anchor, holding it secure, safe from drifting too far into
La-la Land - or to be consistent La-la Seas. But Spader and the rest of the crew couldn't have given us the performances they did without David Kelley's brilliant writing and sharp insights.






David Kelley, creator of Boston Legal, was born on 4 April 1956 in Waterville Massachusetts (no time known).




Moon and Mercury in Aries in sextile to Spader's Sun - so there's potential for a good working relationship here. Kelley has Mars and possibly Moon in Capricorn - though if born after 2pm Moon would have moved into Aquarius. Either would blend well with his link to the law and to James Spader's chart. Interesting to note that wherever Kelley's natal Moon lay, Uranus from late Cancer would be in opposition - a kind of echo of Spader's Sun-Uranus opposition.

Kelley has said in interview:

I think this show probably, I guess, is a reflection of me a little bit, has a scream in its belly and sometimes it just feels it needs to scream.

We enjoy the subtle and not so subtle humour in Boston Legal, but I especially admire the messages and social commentary which come through with some regularity, among all the whacky irreverence and innuendo, to hit the viewer right between the eyes. Serious issues are tackled frequently: the death penalty, torture by police, mental health, gun control, destruction of the environment. Both sides of these issues are always covered, though the author's left-leaning preference is crystal clear.

The season we've just watched comes from the days of G.W. Bush's presidency, and though some of the barbed comments do relate directly to that time, the episodes do not feel dated at all, for little has really changed since then. Has it?

Most videos of clips from the show at YouTube have been removed due to "copyright claims by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation". This one has survived thus far, probably due to the way it's compiled, using material from real life to compliment a small-size screen view. This closing speech by Alan Shore is a gem, well worth watching - and saving :

I'm eagerly looking forward to watching the rest of the series now.
Thanks Zee - your name is mentioned regularly by Himself as we watch: "Ah - it's easy to see why he loved this series so much, the humor is an exact match for his!!"

Music Monday ~ 2525, Zager & Evans

Surfing through YouTube videos the other day, I found an old favourite song - In the Year 2525 by Zager & Evans. The song had been constantly running through my head, probably as a result of my previous post. 2525 is the most sci-fi song I know of.

Whatever happened to Zager & Evans ?
Denny Zager and Rick Evans, two lads from Nebraska who, after singing and playing with a 1960s pop group The Eccentrics, formed a duo in 1968: Zager & Evans. Rick Evans wrote, in half an hour the story goes, their memorable and only number one hit, In the Year 2525, carrying the rather pretentious sub-title Exordium and Terminus. Translation = something along the lines of beginning & ending. The song was written in 1964 but not widely released until 1969. Their subsequent work didn't take off in the same way though, and the duo eventually split up. Both guys remain in the music business - Evans continuing to perform and write, Zager now teaches guitar and sells modified guitars and lessons, on-line.

In the Year 2525 could be described as a sci-fi short story set to music, telling how humans may face a future fraught with danger arising from their own insistent hunger for progress and invention, hoist by their own petard as it were: technology and greed, using the Earth without putting anything back. Sound familiar in 2010?

Lyrics are shown below. The song was not universally popular however. It features in several "Worst Song" lists. I suspect the compilers of such lists do not appreciate the imaginative, if gloomy, science fiction aspect, but I bet sci fi addicts loved it from the start.

I wasn't a bit surprised to see what natal charts for Zager and Evans contained. Aquarius, of course, and Grand Trines in Air linking Mercury, Neptune and Uranus.

Denny Zager born 18 February 1943 in Wymore, Nebraska (UPDATE: See Comment section - a reader has pointed out that birth date given at Wikipedia is incorrect and Denny was born 15 February. The main point, that Aquarius links the two guys remains, but new chart has been added at end of post.)

Rick Evans born 20 January 1943 in Lincoln, Nebraska






I can find no times of birth. In a 12 noon chart Rick Evan's natal Sun is at 29.46 Capricorn, but by 6:00PM-ish Sun had moved to 00 Aquarius. I'd wager he was born later rather than earlier in the day. In any case, though, Evans has Mercury and Venus in Aquarius. Zager has Sun in the last degree of Aquarius, whatever his time of birth, as well as Mercury in Aquarius.





Both guys have a lovely Airy Grand trine linking Aquarius's ruler Uranus in Gemini to Neptune in Libra and Mercury in Aquarius. Mercury=communication and writing; Uranus = all that's futuristic; Neptune = creativity and imagination. The Air signs tend to live in their minds, all need constant mental stimulation, often finding it by engaging in research, writing or other forms of communication.




Astrology is showing itself here. Borrowing from The A Team (again): "I love it when a plan comes together!!"



Corrected chart for Denny Zager





Song lyrics, and a couple of videos follow. The first video has had images added from a variety of sources. The second video features the duo singing their only hit song.

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today ....(fading...)

Views of 2100 & The Future ~ with Cayce, Heinlein, Tennessee Williams and William Stafford

Raiding my Book of Predictions for ideas I randomly opened it at the last page of a section on Edgar Cayce. The last paragraph goes like this:

A believer in reincarnation, Cayce had a dream in 1936 in which he saw himself reborn in 2100AD in Nebraska, which by then will be on the west coast of the US. In this vision he was trying to convince a group of scientists that he had lived some 200 years before. In order to collect evidence of his former life, he flew east in a cigar-shaped metal airship to an island where workmen were clearing rubble and rebuilding a city. When he asked where he was, a worker replied that he was in the former city of New York on Manhattan Island.

Edgar Cayce made numerous predictions which didn't materialise at the time expected -though I guess which may still be in the wings awaiting a more accurate cue. However, the above was simply a dream, but an interesting one to think about.

Coincidentally, speaking of 2100, I'm at present reading, rather slowly, Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein. It's part of a trilogy Future History. In the novella If This Goes On... ,which forms the main part of this book of three stories, the scene is set in 2100 in what was the USA. The author describes the country as being ruled by an absolute theocracy, one with all the advantages of hi-tech, married to the worst of mediaeval regimentation and cruelty. If anyone suspects that kind of thing "can't happen here", I'd say, "don't be too sure!"
As the book's title indicates, a revolt is in the works. Heinlein's science fiction view of life in 2100 is scarcely better than that in Edgar Cayce's dream.

I notice, in searching for information about the rest of the Future History trilogy, that the author has been way off in his timing. Sci-fi authors have found this problem tricky for decades, even the best of 'em! Originally written in the 1950s, Heinlein outlined a world, in around 2000 AD, where space travel had been fully mastered, with the US being a leading power in a systemwide imperialism embracing all habitable planets. Highly optimisitic and several centuries too soon!

Apropos nothing in particular I'll throw in that by January 2100 Uranus the rebellious planet will be in mid-Aries, at around the same point it'll be in early in 2016. There are 90 years between now and then, few, if any who are on Earth now will still be around. Even my husband's two great-grandchildren born in January and June this year will, at best, be in their final years.

The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
~Tennessee Williams, Orpheus Descending, 1957

I've just discovered William Stafford, an American poet born in Kansas, and love his honest-to-goodness plain style of poetry. No pretentious fluffy flights of fancy, but the ability to use words as triggers so that the reader creates their own flight. He was born on 17 January 1914, with 4 personal planets in Capricorn, between 20 and 29 degrees, and Uranus in Aquarius at 6 degrees, tagging along with the Capricorn stellium. Uranus never just tags along though! The rebel planet manifested in Mr. Stafford via his pacifist stance during World War 2.

With The Future and 2100 in mind, here's one of Mr. Stafford's poems:

Security by William Stafford


Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven’t let that happen, but after
I’m gone others may become faithless and careless.
Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,
and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.

So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:
to be a discoverer you hold close whatever
you find, and after a while you decide
what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,
you turn to the open sea and let go.

Arty Farty Friday ~ BMW Car Art & Jeff Koons

Some photographs of BMW Art Cars sparked my interest. It appears that since 1975 when the “BMW Art Car Project" was launched by racing driver Hervé Poulain, famous artists from all parts of the world have been invited to use the BMW car as their personal canvas. To date 17 such cars have been created, the latest, for 2010, by Jeff Koons - he of the blow-up dogs sculptures and wildly expensive "Hanging Heart" (see below).

I've chosen 4 previous Art Cars from the current 17, the chosen ones painted by artists about whom I've blogged in past posts. A link to relevant pages is included, and a note of the artist's Sun and other signs. I notice a trine Sun to Uranus in each. They're all considered "modernists" and Uranus is nothing if not modern.

Photos of all 17 BMW Art Cars can be viewed HERE.

Starting with the most recently painted car:

The latest BMW car artist, for 2010 and #17 is Jeff Koons
Sun 00 Aquarius opposite Uranus in late Cancer. Well....he would be a quirky Sun Aquarius person wouldn't he? I mean....look what he's famous for!
















JEFF KOONS' BMW Art Car # 17



Jeff Koons' art creations may look like a lot of kitchiness, but....

NEW YORK, 15 NOVEMBER 2007—A new record for a living artist at auction was set when Jeff Koons’ stainless steel Hanging Heart brought $23.6 million yesterday at Sotheby's evening sale of Contemporary Art in New York. Sold to Gagosian Gallery to applause, Hanging Heart, 1994-2006 is considered one of the most important works by Koons ever offered at auction.

The bright magenta heart and gold undulating bow, which took ten years from conception to completion, is one of five uniquely colored versions of this work from Koons’ Celebration series. The perfect surface is coated in more than ten layers of paint. Executed in high chromium stainless steel, Hanging Heart weighs over 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg), is almost nine feet (2.7 meter) tall and took over 6,000 man hours to produce. (Here.)

More detail on this artist and photos of his work at The Skinny:

Jeff Koons is, depending on who you ask, the visual maestro of the contemporary period, or a self-aggrandizing provocateur whose work is ultimately populist and meaningless. He himself has admitted that Pop-Art sensibilities and a strong attachment to the world of marketing and advertising have influenced him tremendously: “I believe in advertisement and media completely. My art and my personal life are based in it. I think that the art world would probably be a tremendous reservoir for everybody involved in advertising. Whatever your beliefs about how future generations will perceive Koons’s work, the sense that he has captured and articulated something vital and significant is undeniable.

Ahem!....."ultimately populist and meaningless"?? Now that remark raises my hackles!
What is meaningless about something that is "populist"? Populism, as opposed to elitism is what the world needs more of. So there!

And back to #1.....

ALEXANDER CALDER painted the very first Art Car. Sun Cancer close trine Uranus Scorpio. Moon Virgo.




ROY LICHENSTEIN
Sun Scorpio trine Uranus Pisces. Moon Taurus or Gemini


ANDY WARHOL Sun Leo trine Uranus/Moon in Aries.


DAVID HOCKNEY
Sun Cancer sextile Uranus Taurus. Moon Cancer or Leo

HYPE and JUPITER

Jupiter, biggest planet in our solar system, rules all that is exaggerated, promulgated, published or expanded. Hyperbole, the figure of speech, matches all of those, so I'd say that Jupiter clearly rules hyperbole, and its modern journalistic contraction: hype.

I've found that people in the USA tend to speak and write in a far more hyperbolic fashion than most of my fellow-English folk. The English, those from northern England in particular, tend to shy away from exaggeration. The diverse mix of nationalities that have melded together in the USA, over a couple of centuries, no doubt accounts for what I've noticed in their mode of expression. But could there be an astrological link too?

In astrological charts popularly used as the "birth" charts for the USA - based on 4 July 1776 (or 2 July 1776 which is the one I prefer) both show Sun and Jupiter close together in Cancer: 5 & 13 or 5 & 11 degrees respectively. The 4 July chart linked above also has Sagittarius rising. Sagittarius is the home sign of Jupiter !

In the chart for "birth" of England: 25 December 1066 (I emphasise England as opposed to the UK or Britain, for simplicity), Jupiter lay in discerning Virgo, conjunct Saturn(the limitor and restrictor), but in harmonious trine to Sun in Capricorn, (Capricorn being Saturn's sign of rulership). I'd translate that as indicating a clear limitation on exaggeration, which, though seldom indulged in is well understood.

The English are generally considered to be a phlegmatic race, often possessing a dry wit and a steady demeanor, unlikely to be self-aggrandizing. As national characteristics these are generalisations, of course - as is my feeling that in the USA hyperbole is almost a way of life. My own hyperbole! Simon Cowell on the American Idol judging panel gave the lie to my generalisation about the English. He regularly would pronounce the performance of some hapless vocalist as "the worst I have ever heard". Pure hyperbole. He has obviously been in the States too darn long!

May as well throw in an example of hyperbole I hear or read frequently, and complain about to Himself: the use of "hilarious" to describe something that is, at best, mildly amusing.

Words of wisdom - from an Englishman:

The speaking in perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love
Francis Bacon, Sr. quotes (English Lawyer and Philosopher. 1561-1626)

Wednesday Woo-Woo ~ Past Lives

This topic takes us waist deep into tangled woo country. In common with most other woo-ish subjects, it offers opportunities for fascinating journeys into mysterious and mist-ridden mental landscapes. Nobody can possibly know for sure whether human beings have the capacity to recall a past life, whether their conciousness existed before this current sojourn here on Earth. Even those people who have experienced vivid flashes of deja vu, or under hypnosis have been able to reveal minute details of another lifetime, cannot be absolutely certain that what they experience is proof of past life - or something else.

Belief in past life is a feature of some Eastern religions. Astrologers have found a way to relate the theory of past life to configuration of the natal chart. Some tarot readers relate certain cards to past life. Regression hypnotists and therapists seem to have no lack of clients. None of this, however, makes the idea of past life any more valid. I'm not trying to denigrate the theory - simply trying to arrive at balance. There's equal chance of us having lived before as there is of the idea being nothing but imagination and/or wishful thinking. This phenomenon, in common with all of woo, resides in that vast grey area incapable of proof.

A point that comes to mind: if, as we now suspect, time is circular, or spiral, rather than linear, and there's a possibility of our consciousness being "re-used" multiple times, we should be able to experience future lives too. News along these woo-ish lines doesn't seem to have surfaced yet.

Among several well-publicised examples of past life recall, the one that springs to mind first, for those of "a certain age", is the case of Bridey Murphy. The following is a concise rundown of the case from about.com, where several other instances of past life recall are listed, as well as a possible scientific explanation of the phenomenon.

Perhaps the most famous case of past life recall is that of Virginia Tighe who recalled her past life as Bridey Murphy. Virginia was the wife of a Virginia businessman in Pueblo, Colorado. While under hypnosis in 1952, she told Morey Bernstein, her therapist, that over 100 years ago she was an Irish woman named Bridget Murphy who went by the nickname of Bridey.

During their sessions together, Bernstein marveled at detailed conversations with Bridey, who spoke with a pronounced Irish brogue and spoke extensively of her life in 19th century Ireland. When Bernstein published his book about the case, The Search for Bridey Murphy in 1956, it became famous around the world and sparked an excited interest in the possibility of reincarnation.

Over six sessions, Virginia revealed many details about Bridey's life, including her birth date in 1798, her childhood amid a Protestant family in the city of Cork, her marriage to Sean Brian Joseph McCarthy and even her own death at the age of 60 in 1858. As Bridey, she provided numerous specifics, such as names, dates, places, events, shops and songs - things Virginia was always surprised about when she awoke from the hypnosis. But could these details be verified?

The results of many investigations were mixed. Much of what Bridey said was consistent with the time and place, and it seemed inconceivable that someone who had never been to Ireland could provide so many details with such confidence. However, journalists could find no historical record of Bridey Murphy - not her birth, her family, her marriage, nor her death. Believers supposed that this was merely due to the poor recordkeeping of the time. But critics discovered inconsistencies in Bridey's speech and also learned that Virginia had grown up near - and had known well - an Irish woman named Bridle Corkell, and that she was quite likely the inspiration for "Bridey Murphy." There are flaws with this theory, too, however, keeping the case of Bridey Murphy an intriguing mystery.

Suspicious minds would wonder about the money Mr. Bernstein stood to make from his book and spin-offs, including a 1956 movie. Still though, even if the guy made his name from it all, and a nice pile of dosh, it doesn't mean that Virginia Tighe's experience was an attempt to defraud the public. Skeptics have picked holes in the story over past decades. Doubts remain as to its true significance.





Still from the movie based on Bernstein's book



There's an odd lack of photographs of Virginia Tighe on-line, the only one I can find of her, with her grandchildren, is at this website:
http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/U1315681INP.html

Virginia Tighe's birth date is available, so a look at her natal chart might reveal whether she'd be the type of person likely to lapse into daydreams or become seriously delusional: some heavy Neptune aspects perhaps?

Born on 27 April 1923 - no location, or time given, so I've used Pueblo, the town where she lived, and 12 noon to construct a chart. This will suffice to show most planetary positions, though the ascendant and angles will not be accurate.





It's a well-balanced chart - all elements and modes are represented just about as equally as possible. Sun in Taurus, Moon in Virgo (unless born in the last minutes of the day). Sun and Moon in Earth signs indicate a grounded nature, not usually given to flights of fancy.

I notice that Mercury at 25 Taurus is conjunct Fixed Star Algol - the star astrologers look on as the most unfortunate of all the stars. I don't know whether this carries any significance here. Because the personal planet involved is Mercury, planet of communication, it's worth noting. For this to be especially significant though it would be necessary to check the charts of others who have experienced past life recall, to see whether Algol/Mercury played a part in their charts.

Neptune, planet of dreams, illusions and delusions needs careful investigation.
Neptune in Leo is in square (challenging aspect) to Sun and Mercury in Taurus and square Jupiter in Scorpio, setting up a "T-square" involving Sun/Mercury Neptune and Jupiter in antagonistic configuration to one another. (See below).

There's also a Grand Trine harmoniously linking Uranus/Pluto/Jupiter in Water signs. Water signs are the emotional, occasionally psychic signs, and here we have a linked circuit of them.

A Yod (Finger of Fate) formed by a helpful sextile between Saturn and Neptune, each linked via quincunx (150*) to Uranus represents a kind of chanelling of the "flavours" of Saturn and Neptune (Saturn = work/business/time/tradition and Neptune = imagination/illusion/delusion) through Uranus in Pisces, planet of eccentricity and the future, in the sign ruled by Neptune.












Putting all of that together what've we got? A grounded, well-balanced personality with also the potential for emotional and intuitive bahaviour (via the Water Grand Trine), with her solid Earthy Sun and Moon holding back any exaggerated flights of fancy. The Yod is the mysterious configuration here. I could read it as dreams of history and time funnelled through the future, with Saturn representing time and history. But Saturn also represents business, and Uranus is in Neptune's domain - which makes this even more confusing and open to a variety of interpretations.


So what's the verdict? I'm still stumbling around in that vast and murky grey area!

Astrological Ages ~ Are We there Yet?

The complex subject of astrological Ages came up in an unrelated comments conversation here last week. This topic is a constant source of fascination, first and foremost is the question: has the much anticipated Age of Aquarius already begun - or will humanity wait a century or more for its arrival?

I'm copying, below, my comment conversation with Gian Paul, an astrologer who lives in Brazil, sometimes writes posts at Astrology Mundo. Since making my own "off-top-of-head" comments I've refreshed my rusty information on the topic. I've reminded myself that the Ages are calculated, not with direct reference to our tropical zodiac, but by the points at which the Sun enters each astronomical constellation at the vernal equinox, as equinoxes precess. Because the constellations are of varying size, Ages are of varying lengths.

There's good information at astrologer Robert FitzGerald's website "Signs of the Times" - but good as it is, the author still states that "this can use more research by others to verify these conclusions".


The spanner in the astrological works to my mind, though, is that delineation of constellations was a manmade construct. Humans designated the shape, extent and patterns of constellations, who's to say the delineations we use are the correct way to carve up the sky?




All becomes murky. The best we can do, with any certainty, is relate events to astrological symbolism and use that as guide. What we come up with may not be astronomically accurate - but who's to say that astronomy has the last word on this particular topic?

A copy of our recent comment conversation, very lightly edited:

Twilight:

I'd like the age of Aquarius to be coming in quickly. I'm not quite sure what to think on this though, and have tended to accept Robert Hand's view on it - that there's a long way to go yet.

But....and it's a big but...who's to say when the "start date" happened? If that's wrong, then everything is wrong. We don't have a secure "start date" (start date for life on Earth - or conscious life on Earth) as far as I can tell.

Logically I think we still seem to be in a belligerent Age - Taurus, Aries? Astrologers think not. They see Pisces as representing the Age of Christianity and organised religion, ruled by Jupiter. But religion is not all that has gone on these 2000 years. It's not even the important part of what has gone on - although it has been the cause of much mayhem.

So I really don't know - and wonder at times if the whole "Age of...." thing isn't just so much Taurean Excrement aka BS.
;-)


Gian paul:

With around 2000 years, give or take, per sign, one could imagine that some "Ages" may be shorter and others a bit longer. There also might be some overlaps.

In that sense, I wonder if the sacred cows in India and what goes with them, are not remnants of the Age of Taurus. And the (often religious) bellicose events during the Christian Era, possibly an overlap from the Age of Aries - eye for eye and tooth for tooth...

The Christian Era, Pisces, has probably the most precise starting date we know, although there is historical doubt about the actual date of birth of Jesus. Ancient Roman sources (Plinius), diverge by about 5 to 30 years.

And, in case the Era of Aquarius already started, we now assist to the probably normal retro-fighting typical at the end of any civilization (except for the Mayas).

Here now some elements I believe are "Aquarian Age stuff":

* Aviation, very rapid transports
* Communications
* Science, bent towards the atomic,
nano, cyber etc.
* Beliefs, your's Twilight, your friends, me and who participates in this and similar blogs.
* Politics: democracy is being forced open to forces beyond human "manipulation". One man one vote does not function anymore. That started with Hitler/Goebbels, a government democratically elected. "The people" today, all over the world, increasingly know that politicians & Co. manipulate, lie and worse. And The People respond, via the media, arts, even violence and protests, riots (G - 20)...

For whom watches the stars and believes (knows) that they also preside over political events, it's obvious "who governs". How much time it will take for this perception to spread, if it has to do so (?), is open to speculation. One literally would have to look into the "speculum", i.e. the cristal ball.

Living in Brazil (at the frontier of rural Brazil and Metropolis São Paulo, in what remains of the Rain Forest), I can attest that this country is quite Aquarian. One can see that a new wind (air) is blowing, here at least.

The frontiers may be still blurred, but personally I would not be surprised to discover things accelerating, even precipitously. So lets keep watching!
July 03, 2010.

Twilight:

Yes, some overlap of Ages sounds right to me.

Although we know roughly when Christ was born and count that as the dawn of the Age of Pisces, it's the question of how they knew when the whole thing started, and the point from which they started counting that keeps niggling away at my mind. The start of these cycles must have had to be an arbitarily chosen point of when life began on Earth. Which life, which stage though? And whereas the Ages are calculated by the precession of the equinoxes, nobody can be absolutely sure where it would have been correct to have begun counting.

I hope I've written that clearly enough - it's hard to explain.

Also - another point, our solar system is part of a wider universe, which may also be part of a still wider set of universes, for all we know. Using astrology's principles, there'd be alignments and aspects made to our Ages from others which could modify meaning - the macrocosm of the microcosm?

I do agree that what has gone on on Earth since the Industrial Revolution seems to be classic Aquarius/Uranus stuff....invention, discovery etc.
Then again, Saturn was Aquarius's traditional ruler, and sure enough there's been a lot of Saturnian stuff going on too.

The more I ponder on this, the more doubtful I become about the value of any astronomically calculated Age. Observation of history and of events has to be our best means of calculation. We have to keep in mind, too, that Ages do not exclusively reflect what goes on in the USA or Europe - but, in varying ways, across the entire planet.


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Music Monday ~ Joe Cocker

Deciding on Joe Cocker as this week's subject, I glanced down Wikipedia's list of people born on his birthday 20 May, and noticed a clutch of singer/musicians there, especially during the late 1930s to mid 40s. One, a popular Dutch singer Boudewijn de Groot was born on the same day as Joe Cocker - though in a Japanese prison camp in Indonesia.

20 May = one of the last degrees of Taurus, Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts, so it's not surprising to find a goodly sprinkling of singers and musicians with Sun and other planets in the sign. The last degrees of a sign are said, by some astrologers, to carry a particularly "strong" version of the sign's flavour.

Some 20 May, late Taurus singers/musicians:

1938 – Marinella, Greek singer and actress. 1940 – Shorty Long, American musician (d. 1969). 1942 – Jill Jackson, American singer (Paul & Paula). 1943 – Al Bano, Italian singer. 1944 – Joe Cocker, British singer. 1944 – Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer. 1946 – Cher, American singer & actress.

Joe Cocker was born in Yorkshire, England - a fellow-Yorkie! He now has a home in Crawford, Colorado, a neighbouring state of ours.






How to describe Joe Cocker's style? Hard to do. Intense? Kind of. He throws himself, physically and emotionally, right into the songs he sings. You don't get the feeling that he's on automatic pilot - not ever. That's the sign of a true artist. His voice is rough, jagged, harsh - though when attempting sweet, there's a certain poignancy that naturally sweet voices can never emulate.

May 20 was the birthday of my late partner, Bill. He was quite a bit older than Joe. Those last degrees of Taurus certainly manifest with intesity. Bill, though not a singer, both loved and hated with all his heart and mind, never did anything by halves.


Joe's career had a shaky start in the UK. It was after his now legendary performance at Woodstock in 1969 that he really began to succeed. His career is documented well at Wikipedia, linked above.











If Astrodatabank's time of birth for Joe Cocker is correct, he has late Aries rising, Moon in the first degree of Taurus very close to the ascendant, with Mercury, Venus and Sun spread through the sign. Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts - with so many personal planets, including Venus itself, clustered there it'd be surprising if the native wasn't drawn to some branch of the arts.

I think we can safely say that Joe is very Taurean - he even looks Taurean now, in his maturity : broad and chunky.

I'm not sure where to look for a reflection of that idiosyncratic style of Joe's - the awkward stance, flailing arms......Jupiter (exaggeration) is in square (challenging and awkward) aspect to Venus - perhaps that's it!

There's a good selection of videos featuring Joe at YouTube. Rather than posting one of his most famous recordings (With a Little Help From My Friends, You Are So Beautiful....etc.) I've chosen a couple that particularly appeal to me, the old blues classic St James' Infirmary, and Cry Me a River. Talk about "making a song your own" - Joe Cocker must have written the book on that!

Not celebrating

Celebrating Independence Day this weekend seems somehow wrong, bearing in mind the ongoing devastation in the Gulf of Mexico, two endless, useless, cruel wars, the little being done to address climate change, as well as the.....oh we all know the contents of that dismal list. No doubt the challenging planetary configuration we're experiencing this summer has something to do with the insidious gloom that steals in whenever I start thinking on these matters.

The late Howard Zinn always had the right words, words to alert, enlighten and inspire us. He was an outspoken civil rights and anti-war activist, "people's historian" and political scientist. He died this year, aged 87 (and on my birthday, as it happens). I've chosen a few of his wise words to post, below.



Born on 24 August 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, his natal Sun, Mercury and possibly Moon are all in Virgo, ruled by Mercury, the communicator's planet. Saturn, Venus and Jupiter all in Libra, sign of the diplomat. Not every critic looks on Zinn as diplomatic, however. His radical opinions have ruffled a few feathers in the past. Uranus in Pisces lies opposite Mercury in Virgo providing a dynamic pull towards rebellion and against the status quo.





A few of his words:

The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth.

Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back.

I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

— Howard Zinn

Arty Farty Friday ~ Mary Quant

For a change - an arty-farty fashion designer: Mary Quant. She was a 1960s icon in Britain, her name synonymous with all that was hip, cool and new....inventor of the "mod look". Whether she actually invented the mini-skirt isn't clear, others have claimed that honour, but it was cetainly Mary Q who popularised the mini in the UK , along with white boots, skinny-rib sweaters, vinyl coats and dresses, heavy smoky eye makeup and pale, pale lips. Her signature haircut - a sharply defined bob became the in thing for the gal about town - in London and environs anyway. In the backwoods of northern England we had to make do with whatever the local hairdresser could come up with - often not nothing like Mary's precisely chopped mane.



It's no surprise to find that Mary Quant has Sun in Aquarius. Born on 11 February 1934 in Blackheath, South London. She has Sun, Saturn and Venus all in Aquarius - with Uranus, modern ruler of Aquarius in helpful sextile to Sun from Aries. Moon is somewhere in Capricorn (depending on time of birth). Capricorn adds a good helping of business sense to MQ's innate flair for fashion. Also reflecting business skills is Sun conjunct Saturn - Saturn being Capricorn's ruler, and co-ruler of Aquarius.

Mary Quant's business sense quickly became clear. She and her husband opened one of London's first "boutiques", on the Kings Road, Chelsea in 1955 and called it Bazaar. Business boomed almost at once. "It had begun to dawn on us that by luck... by chance... perhaps even by mistake... we were on to a huge thing," she said "We were in at the beginning of a tremendous renaissance in fashion."By 1961 she had a second Bazaar in Knightsbridge, then decided to go wholesale, to keep prices down. By 1963 Quant was into mass productuion and exporting to the USA, later she launched her Ginger Group internationally. She extended her interests into household furnishings, carpets, toys and cosmetics. Her cosmetics line was an immediate success, worldwide.

In 1966 Mary Quant was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to the fashion industry.

Mary Quant is almost a textbook example of what Uranus/Aquarius's avant garde inventive nature combined with Capricorn/Saturn business savvy can achieve.

Astrologers' Words of Wisdom #7

From the opening pages of astrologer Liz Greene's Mythic Astrology (1994), words which ought to be printed and regularly circulated among the loud-mouthed brigade of skeptics! ~~~

We would not presume to claim we have grasped the principles of music by listening to a pop song or the theme tune from a television soap. Likewise, astrology will not yield its insights to those who simply read Sun sign columns in newspapers and then pronounce judgment on the validity of the subject as a whole. We must begin at the beginning, with a willingness to learn and experiment, and a capacity to recognize that the great minds of history for whom astrology was of primary importance - Hippocrates, Plato, Augustus, Hadrian, Ptolemy, Galen, Newton, Goethe and Jung, to name but a few - may have understood something that has eluded our present definitions of reality.

And from later in the same book ~~~

No horoscope can indicate whether an individual will turn healthy self-assertiveness into violence, or imaginative self mythologizing into dangerous delusions of global dominion. Mozart's horoscope may look surprisingly like that of the school music teacher. Factors beyond the scope of astrology - heredity, environment, historical epoch - interact with individual character to produce unpredictable results.