Fate and things........

THE 3 FATES

"You know how often the turning down this street or that, the accepting or rejecting of an invitation, may deflect the whole current of our lives into some other channel. Are we mere leaves, fluttered hither and thither by the wind, or are we rather, with every conviction that we are free agents, carried steadily along to a definite and pre-determined end?"
(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the Stark Munro Letters)

SUPERIORITY to fate
Is difficult to learn.
’T is not conferred by any,
But possible to earn

A pittance at a time,
Until, to her surprise,
The soul with strict economy
Subsists till Paradise. (Emily Dickinson)

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”(Marcus Aurelius)

Credit: Non Sequitur cartoons.




The Fickle Finger of.....


Another Fickle Finger, this one shot by my husband. We see it occasionally on our travels in Oklahoma. Some creative local has fashioned it from pieces of scrap metal.

"Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like." (Lemony Snicket)

PRODIGY ~ Tallan Noble Latz

I'm not sure I believe in reincarnation, but when I see someone like 9-year old Tallan Noble Latz, hear his guitar playing - I do have to wonder!

This young lad appeared in American's Got Talent this week. YouTube video clip of his performance.There are also other videos at YouTube showing Tallan playing in a variety of venues.

Apparently he is already quite well known in some circles - a prodigy, nicknamed "The T-Man". There's already a Wikipedia page for him. His date of birth is included there, it was a pleasant surprise to find that!

Here's Tallan's natal chart, set for 12 noon (in the absence of a birthtime) on 22 September 1999, and for Elkhorn, Wisconsin. I'm not absolutely sure that this was his place of birth, but the chart will at least give planet placements. Moon would be in Aquarius unless he was born after 11pm, when it moved into Pisces.



My eye was drawn first to Uranus, conjunct South Node of the Moon in Aquarius. The Moon itself was more than likely in Aquarius too. Uranus is modern ruler of Aquarius, and lying so close to the Moon's South Node gives it extra significance. The Moon's nodes are particularly sensitive points in a natal chart, so when when a planet lies close to one of them it's worth noting. In Tallan's case, he has Uranus highlighted first because it is in its own sign, then because it's on an ultra-sensitive point, then because the Moon itself is almost certainly in the same sign of Aquarius. Uranus and Aquarius relate to innovation, high levels of intelligence, maybe on occasion, even to genius.

Sun in Virgo gives Tallan an urge for perfection; it's in the last degree, said to be one of the strongest. Tallan must have worked very hard and consistently to achieve the level of skill he displays. Virgo Sun can be a hard taskmaster, I guess.

As for reincarnation - I don't know, it's a fanciful idea. I think, on balance, I prefer to rely on Tallan's stellar Uranus placement to account for his prodigious talent, and potential.

Child prodigies are nothing new, and not exceptionally rare. At Wikipedia there are long lists of examples of known child prodigies, covering many skills and talents. Whenever a new one appears on the scene though, it never fails to amaze.

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.

40 Years Ago Today: A Mission

40 years ago, in 1969 on this day, at 9.32am local time the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, Apollo 11, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.


Here's the astrological chart for that place and time.





Not marked on the chart, but the ascendant has Fixed Star Regulus, the Royal Star right on it, or within minutes of it. The Sun is 3 degrees from the Moon's apogee (aka Black Moon Lilith) - that probably had some significance, not sure what though! Jupiter and Uranus were conjoined in Airy Libra - Uranus planet of technology, invention and all things new; Jupiter planet of travel and excess (excessive distance in this case!) Mars (dynamic energy) at 2 Sagittarius (Jupiter's sign of rulership) was in helpful sextile to Uranus/Jupiter.

The chart seems appropriate for the matter in hand, well balanced elementally too - though I doubt that any astrologer had a hand in deciding the date and time.

MAGICAL BONDS: Billie Holiday~Lester Young

My husband patiently feeds me tidbits of jazz history from time to time, hoping that I'll abandon my Philistine attitude toward this musical genre. We watched a DVD of an old TV special, "The Sound of Jazz", the other night, and there began my investigation of a couple of characters whose contribution to jazz has turned out to be no less than iconic: Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

There was a legendary bond between these two artists. She a vocalist, he a tenor saxophone player. Whether the bond originated as a failed romance isn't clear, but it endured as a lifelong close platonic friendship, and a magical musical rapport. Young nicknamed Holiday "Lady Day"; her nickname for him was "Prez".

"Young's sax playing is the horn equivalent to Holiday's voice; melancholy, melodic, and understated. Prez could dance solos around Holiday as well as he could support her when she delivered her own musical soliloquy. They seemed to anticipate the others movements just before they happened. Their musical lines flitted and flapped around one another, and occasionally they flew side by side." (HERE, and more from this link at end of post.)

Both were addicts, she a slave to heroin, he to alcohol. Both died far too soon, she at age 44, he at 49.

"If hot jazz was defined by Louis Armstrong in the 1920s, then the lyrical side of jazz found its perfect exponents in Billie Holiday and Lester Young during the 1930s and 1940s. Their collaborations revealed a different side of the jazz art form. Here we can savor emotion without cheap sentimentality, simplicity without simple-mindedness, a force of expression that is achieved through restraint and understatement. In the long lineage of cool jazz, we constantly find the creative bursts coming at us through the work of couples -- Bix & Tram, Miles & Gil, Getz & Gilberto -- almost as if music this sensitive required some sort of magnetic, mutual attraction, an exemplary pairing to make it possible. Call it a musical romance, if you will. But at the top of the hierarchy, our First Lady (Day) and Pres of the democracy of cool jazz are Billie and Lester. "
Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Any dedicated astrology buff will immediately wonder whether the magical bond between these two icons can be identified in their natal charts. Let's see!

Billie Holiday was born on 7 April 1915 in Harlem, New York, at 2.30am


(Astrodatabank)

Lester Young was born on 27 August 1909 in Woodville Mississippi. No time of birth known (12 noon chart used below).


Her Aries Sun and his Virgo Sun wouldn't immediately lead one to see a basic compatibility - Aries a fiery leader, impulsive and impetuous, Virgo a nitpicking perfectionist. Young's Virgo Sun has Mars in Aries in a scratchy quincunx aspect - he aimed at perfection in all things but was often de-railed by an urge to take risks (mainly with his health). His natal Mercury and Jupiter in Virgo are also in awkward quincunx with Saturn in Aries. While these Aries planets brought about his risk-taking and ability to play with spontaneity as well as perfection, they also provided an unhelpful edge to his inner personality.


The main link between these two artists is their Capricorn Moons. Exact degree in Young's case can't be established without his birth time, but Moon would lie between 9 and 23 degrees of Capricorn in his chart. It's more than likely to have been close enough to Holiday's Moon to be termed conjoined (within around 6 degrees). This provides a clear emotional bond and understanding of one another.

Holiday's 4 planets in Pisces (Mercury/Mars/Jupiter/Venus) soften her Aries-ness quite a lot, and draw in the emotional, almost psychic, appeal she had. Young's Virgo planets oppose her Pisces placements - and though the two signs are very different, this powerful multi-stranded opposition must have brought about a fine balance of perfection and emotional intensity, rather than discord, at least in their professional lives.

In general terms then, their bond came from shared Capricorn Moon, and dynamic tension between Virgo, Pisces, and Aries (perfection, emotion and spontaneity).

There's a clip from "The Sound of Jazz" at YouTube which shows the number described below - Billie Holiday sang "Fine and Mellow" acompanied by several sax players in turn. Lester Young's contribution comes at around 2.35 mins. into the clip.

"Prez, who had wrecked his body with alcohol, was in such ill health he couldn't stand for the duration of the six-minute song. Holiday launched into the song and each sax man took a turn. Gerry Mulligan was first and played a solo in double-time. Webster was next, blowing a beautiful, breathy chorus. And then it was time for Prez.

When it was Young's turn he wearily stood up, and locked eyes with Holiday as she sang a song with lines like "Love is like a faucet / It turns off and on". As Lady Day sang, Prez hit every note exactly in time with her and they took off like two eagles riding an air current as they rose higher and higher, way out of that studio and those television sets, circling around each other, Prez blowing the notes that sustained her as if he was the body to her soul, and then they came together in mid-air, as mating eagles will, and plummeted hundreds of feet earthward together, before breaking off and flying their separate ways.

People in the control booth had tears in their eyes. It was the swan song of a bittersweet affection. After the show, the two had some brief backstage conversation and then they bid goodbye. They each had less than two years to live. Prez would die alone in a New York hotel, his body finally calling it quits. Not long after that, Holiday would be arrested on her deathbed for heroin possession.

Young's sax playing is the horn equivalent to Holiday's voice; melancholy, melodic, and understated. Prez could dance solos around Holiday as well as he could support her when she delivered her own musical soliloquy. They seemed to anticipate the others movements just before they happened. Their musical lines flitted and flapped around one another, and occasionally they flew side by side. "

That is some purple prose!! I prefer my husband's simpler take on "Fine & Mellow". This comes from a 4-page article he wrote about "The Sound of Jazz" around 12 years ago (for any passing reader who is also a jazz fan, the full version is in the archives of Thinks Happen, here)

"The studio lighting is reduced dramatically to illuminate just Billie and a small group of musicians. She sings "Fine and Mellow" accompanied by a few members of the band and, for this number only, the addition of Lester Young, tenor sax. Holiday and Young, both alumni of Basie's earliest bands, were said to have been quite close in those days.

She is completely at ease in this setting. In the opening shot of her singing, her face is like a cameo etched from the darkness of the studio. Billie sings her phrases and then listens to the accompanying horn solos as if the musicians were speaking love to her, and indeed they might have been. She smiles during Young's solo, her half-lidded eyes convey her approval and maybe betray some secrets.....
Billie ends her number with a wry phrase, "Sometimes when you think it's on baby, it has turned off and gone", and a wry smile to match. She makes you sure she is speaking to someone in particular."

Movie Dialogue With Astrology

Watching "Streetcar Named Desire" on TV the other night, I noticed a mention of zodiac signs in the dialogue. Such rare occasions always grab my attention. Astrology is a popular interest, in spite of continued attempts by skeptics to discredit it. With this in mind, it's surprising that the subject doesn't come up more often in movie dialogue. Perhaps most screenwriters are skeptics.

Anyway, I've decided to keep track of any mentions I encounter from now on, in a list maintained here, on this post.

For starters there's a scene in "Carmen Jones", about which I wrote back in October 2007 - the relevant paragraph:

"I was pleased, for once, to see an astrological chart as a wall display in a scene in the movie. Talk of "bad luck in the cards" was included in the same scene. A character later threw a half-eaten peach across the room, it hit the first house on the chart - a bad omen indeed, as events unfolded - although a hit on eighth house might have been more astrologically correct. "

Next one:

In "Streetcar Named Desire" there's some dialogue between Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, (playing Blanche and Stanley):

"Stanley! What sign were you born under? - What sign? Astrological sign. I bet you were born under Aries. Aries people are forceful and dynamic. They dote on noise! They love to bang things around!"

Stanley tells her that he was born just five minutes after Christmas.

"Oh, Capricorn the goat," she says with a look on her face that tells how aptly the astrological sign describes Stanley Kowalski.

I'll add to the, as yet very small, list and re-post it whenever I come across more myself.

Any more from anyone else?~~~~~Do tell!

Jennifer (see her comment) has added this from "Harvey"

Mrs. Simmons,
what is your brother's name?

I'm sorry. Life is
not easy for any of us.

It's Dowd.
Elwood P. Dowd.


Elwood P. Dowd.
His age?

Forty-two
the th of last April.

He's Taurus,
Taurus the bull.

I'm Leo, and Myrtle's on the
cusp. You have him with you now?

Oh, yes. He's outside
waiting in a taxi cab.

Another update ~~ I've just remembered an old post of mine about "Gone With the Wind" and a zodiac connection. Not exactly what I'm looking for now, but close-ish.

Penelope added this: thank you, Penelope!

I don't have a copy to quote from but L.P Hartley's The Go-Between ('The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.') refers somewhere in the first chapters to the zodiac, potently enough for me to recall.

It seems that the "hero" of the tale was called Leo - a clue as to how any conversation about zodiac signs began?

Summer 1900: Queen Victoria's last and the summer Leo turns 13. He's the guest of Marcus, a wealthy classmate, at a grand home in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marian, Marcus's twenty-something sister, a beauty about to be engaged to Hugh, a viscount and good fellow....

Pen came back later to add more on this (thanks, Pen - sterling work!)
Curiosity piqued, I had to go and have the book fetched from the library stack. On

p. 3 Leo is describing his new diary for 1900:
"... round the year thus confidently heralded, the first year of the century, winged with hope, clustered th signs of the zodiac, each somehow contriving to suggest a plenitude of life and power, each glorious, though differing from the others in glory. ... I remembered ... their shapes and attitudes ... the magic with which they were then invested, and the tingling sense of coming fruition they conveyed ..."

Anonymous has contributed this - thanks Anon!

In the wonderful film, Bell, Book and Candle, Manhattan witches Kim Novak, Elsa Lancaster and Jack Lemmon spend a Christmas evening at the Zodiac Club. When Jimmy Stewart seeks to gain entrance to the club, he has to tell the doorman his birthdate.

ANY MORE - anyone? So far these are all old movies. Any more modern examples?

A MONDAY MARINADE ~ Escoffier

I'm trying out a new series featuring famous chefs, past and present, and their astrology. It'll be interesting to investigate the astrological components in the chefs' make up - and to discover, eventually, whether there are any common factors.

Before I started I asked myself what I'd expect to find prominent in the charts of those whose life's work is to prepare and present food. My first thought was of the element Earth, and the zodiac sign Taurus in particular. My second thought was that preparing food is a nurturing activity - nurturing others - the zodiac sign of Cancer relates to this. Beyond those factors, any successful individual, in whatever sphere they choose to operate, will need drive and energy. Any occupation involving the mass preparation and serving of food is demanding, make no mistake about that! Presentation of food is very important, so an artistic eye would be helpful. When you get right down to it, preparation of food is artistry in itself. Individual chart factors will be determined by any sidelines a chef might engage in: writing, for instance, would entail some strong Mercurial input.

So - to kick off this series I'm choosing a chef who is world-famous, king of all the chefs: Georges-Auguste Escoffier.

Born 28 October 1846 at 10am in Villeneuve-Loubet, France (Astrodatabank). My software doesn't have that city as an option, but Nice is at almost exactly the same latitude/longitude, so I've used it.




Well - was I wrong, or was I wrong? No Taurus, no Cancer planets. We do have an artistic streak via Venus/Mars in Libra (ruled by Venus, planet of the arts), and this at 10th house, the area of career. What we have here is a very Airy chart, in spite of the fact that natal Sun and Mercury lie in Watery, intense and passionate Scorpio.

There's a nice Grand Trine in Air linking the Libra planets to Jupiter in Gemini and the three planets in Aquarius. This reflects a high degree of natural intelligence, an intellectual nature.

Sagittarius was rising as Escoffier came into the world, and right opposite, on the descendant is Jupiter (Sagittarius' ruler) in Gemini. Sagittarius and Jupiter relate to excess, exaggeration, publication, and travel and are generally a benign influence. There's a link to the enjoyment of good food here, and a definite link to writing about food, which Escoffier did in several well-known volumes.




What about Aquarius though - how does that relate to the work of a chef? This particular chef was known for inventing new dishes (Peach Melba, we all know) and re-organising the way restaurant kitchens were run. There is the Aquarius influence! His philanthropic endeavours as mentioned in the quote below reflect another side of Aquarius, and of course, his benign Sagittarius ascendant.

Three of Escoffier's most noted career achievements are revolutionizing and modernizing the menu, the art of cooking and the organization of the professional kitchen. Escoffier simplified the menu as it had been, writing the dishes down in the order in which they would be served (Service à la Russe). He also developed the first à la Carte menu.

He simplified the art of cooking by getting rid of ostentatious food displays and elaborate garnishes and by reducing the number of courses served. He also emphasized the use of seasonal foods and lighter sauces. Escoffier also simplified professional kitchen organization, as he integrated it into a single unit from its previously individualized sections that operated autonomously and often created great wasted and duplication of labor.

Throughout his career, Escoffier wrote a number of books, many of which continue to be considered important today. Some of his best-known works include Le Guide Culinaire (1903), Le Livre des Menus (1912) and Ma Cuisine (1934).

As well as making changes in the culinary world, Escoffier undertook several philanthropic endeavors including the organization of programs to feed the hungry and programs to financially assist retired chefs. (See here)

The dynamic tension, the engine room of Escoffier's nature, comes mainly from the oppositions Aries to Libra, Uranus opposes Mars, Pluto opposes Venus. Both Uranus and Pluto represent the urge for change and transformation - which is exactly what Escoffier achieved in his kitchens.



Something I've learned from this experiment already: Earth isn't a necessary ingredient in the natal chart of a chef - there are no planets in Earth signs in Escoffier's.



Second helping of Monday Marinade coming up next week.

WEEKEND PONDERING

A meadow of mixed ponderings seeded from events and articles encountered during the past week. A river runs through it though, an astrological river linking Mercury-related matters: communication, words, and presentation of the self.





Ponder # 1: What the heck is "postmodern" or "postmodernism"? I researched, read and continued to ponder. I've come to the conclusion that, in the main, it's used fairly indiscriminately by those who want to sound knowledgeable. It literally means something which occurs later than that which was thought to be modern : post=after. So really, postmodern is very modern, more modern than modern. But no - that's not it! Postmodern is a reaction to the modern - a going back to what was there before the modern happened. It's all very confusing! If post-modern means anything then, astrology is postmodern. We're in an era where the commonly held motto is "astrology is crap". Postmodern thinking dictates that we revert to eras of long ago when astrology was revered. Astrology is postmodern!

Ponder # 2
Narcissism. Phil Bronstein's article at Huffington Post started me on this theme.
"We're all about the new N-word: It's not about you it's about me". The string of comments which follows the article it is worth perusing too. One of these led me to ponder closer to home:

"Narcissism seems to be on the rise. Just look at Facebook and Twitter and the way people use those tools. It's all about them and needing an audience(DennyCrane)"

and

"The Iranian "Twitter Revolution" notwithstanding, Twitter is the new drug of choice for the chronically self-absorbed. Blogging filled that need for a while, but blogging was only the gateway drug. (Semper Veritas)"

Is blogging a symptom of chronic narcissism, and is using Twitter and/or Facebook a sign that the disease has become acute?

Blogging, for me, is simply a way to experiment with a girlhood dream of being a writer or journalist. Maybe there is a bit of retro-narcissism going on. Hey - maybe I'm a postmodern narcissist!

I find Facebook a wee bit creepy, though not sure why. I opened an account and almost immediately deactivated it. Maybe I'm a reverse narcissist. As for Twitter, I'm new to the medium. I can see that for some people it could feed incipient or rampant narcissism (and that is a very awkward word to type, I'm finding). Twitter occasionally leads to information I'd have otherwise missed, but beyond that, I'm not wildly enthusiastic. If it's a narcissistic pastime, I fear I'm not doing it right!

Another ponder-worthy topic occurs to me: is perusing one's astrological natal chart the ultimate in narcissism?

Ponder #3 was triggered by a commenter on the thread referenced at #2 mentioning American Idol and reality shows in connection with narcissism. Reality shows and American Idol are two entirely different animals. Reality shows proper do, I'm sure, attract true narcissists. American Idol is a talent show. There has to be a strong streak of the N-word in any public performer, but in most cases this is tempered by an urge to entertain the masses - which brings about a nice balance. In the case of American Idol, especially in the later rounds when the wild-eyed dotty element has been eliminated, a sincere wish to entertain is clearly the aim of the top-rated contestants, whose dream is to make this their profession.

The "Top 10" Idols are currently on tour, performing in most of the states and in two Canadian venues, entertaining packed arenas, living their dreams.



The net result of my ponderings - more ponderings.

"I've been thinking Hobbes --"
- "On a weekend?"
- "Well, it wasn't on purpose..."

( Calvin & Hobbes)

Arty Farty Friday ~ Auguste Rodin

Most people, whether interested in art and sculpture or not, are aware of one or two of Rodin's works - "The Thinker" and "The Kiss" are widely recognised - they've become almost iconic.











What I didn't know, before researching, is that the original inspiration for both of those famous works came originally from another of Rodin's sculptures "The Gates of Hell", a work commissioned for the entrance to a Decorative Arts Museum which was never built. Rodin later produced a second version of the work in a less defined, more abstract style. Several of the figures seen in the earlier composition were re-presented as individual, large sculptures, "The Thinker" and "The Kiss" being two examples.




Auguste Rodin was born on 12 November 1840 in Paris, France. Astrodatabank gives his time of birth as 12 noon, with an 'A' rating - I guess someone has to be born at 12 noon - so this isn't one of my usual 12noon "near miss" kind of charts - this guy was really a 12 noon baby.




On first sight of a chart, something I like to notice is whether planets trip off each other around the chart in a kind of chain reaction - semi-sextile, sextile, trine, and square aspect. This is an example of such a chart.

Starting at Pluto at 18 Aries at the bottom of the circle, then moving leftward:
Uranus semi-sextile Pluto at 16 Pisces;
Neptune at 12 Aquarius, semisextile Uranus and sextile Pluto;
Venus/Saturn & Mercury at 18/20 & 12 Sagittarius sextile Neptune, trine Pluto;
Sun at 20 Scorpio trine Uranus;
Mars at 19 Virgo sextile Sun;
Chiron @ 20 Cancer trine Sun, sextile Mars
Moon at 28 Gemini linking backwards through the chain to most of the planets mentioned.

Aspects listed are helpful ones. There are challenging ones within that chain too, of course. Oppositions and squares - notably Uranus opposite Mars, and Moon opposite Saturn, which can also be loosely linked into a Grand Cross by square aspects between Urnus/saturn/Mars/Moon.

What does it all mean in real life? To me it describes a personality very well integrated, with enough harmony to manifest as beauty (in some way) to the outside world, yet with enough challenge to provide dynamic energy, sufficient that the native will not rest upon his laurels at the first success.

I'm going to leave the astrology at that, apart from saying that it's interesting that Rodin was attracted to Dante's "Divine Comedy" for inspiration for that elaborate design for his door, and called it "Gates of Hell". It's a depiction of those said to be condemned to eternal damnation. Scorpio and Pluto are the only sign and planet which immediately spring to mind with regard to images contained in the door's design. That sounds ominous for anyone with sign and planet prominent in their natal chart, but this is the extreme interpretation - the limit of extremity! Rodin's Sun and Jupiter in Scorpio link to Venus/Saturn (art and business/career) by semi-sextile, which then proceed to link to Pluto via trine. A nice chain of symbolic resonance !

Straying from Rodin's actual sculpture for a moment, into his route of inspiration, Dante's "Divine Comedy", I couldn't resist copying this tidbit from Wikipedia

Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:

"they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
…and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path.

Astrologers beware!!


ETERNAL IDOL



THE DANAID



More information and examples of Rodin's work HERE