Arty Farty Friday ~ Clarice Cliff ~ Aquarian Bizarre-ness

Clarice Cliff - sounds like the name of one of today's pop stars! She was, however, an English designer of ceramics, one of the most prominent of her heyday: late 1920s to late 1930s, the Art Deco period. She was born on 20 January 1899 in Tunstall, in the area of England known as the midlands, Staffordshire to be exact. Staffordshire was, and still is, famous for its potteries.






(From Economist.com and inlifeplus - here)

Clarice Cliff was always her own person. A Victorian (she was born in 1899), she carried on with her married boss, drove her own car from an early age and never stopped working until she died at 73.

She was raised in Staffordshire, the centre of Britain’s pottery industry, and joined a local business, the Newport Pottery factory, as a lithographer when she was still in her teens. Cliff’s artistic talent quickly came to the attention of her senior colleagues who sent her, at company expense, to the Royal College of Art in London and on trips to Paris where the Art Deco style was developing.

The phrase “Art Deco” was not commonly used in Britain until the 1960s. It derived from the Paris Exposition of 1925 and became a catch-all for a new visual language that drew on a wide range of sources--Cubism, the Ballets Russes, the Bauhaus, folk art, classicism and the rectilinear design of Art Nouveau. Reinterpreting these influences, artists and designers throughout Europe strove for an aggressively modern style that turned its back on the 19th century and the great war that had effectively brought it to an end.

Cliff and her team of paintresses eagerly set about appropriating this style for a domestic setting. Not for nothing has she been called the Mary Quant of her age. For in applying vivid, coloured designs to pottery that was made to be used--cups and saucers, teapots and plates--Cliff brought modernity face-to-face with the kitchen sink. Japanese pagodas, tennis nets, fruit and sunrays--they all served a purpose. Cliff’s shapes were distinctive, her colours appealingly bright. Hand-painting bands of colour without making a mistake took skill. The pottery may have been produced in multiple sets, but it never looked or felt as if it came off a conveyor belt. Cliff’s work sold and sold.

Three-quarters of a century later, it has also become widely collected, both in America and in Britain.

12 noon chart (no time of birth known)


"The Art of Bizarre" declares the book cover at the top of this post. Yeah, well.... when you see the word "bizarre" and astrology is involved, the next thing you expect to see is Aquarius and/or Uranus prominent in the natal chart. Yes! Sun at 00 Aquarius, with Uranus, Aquarius' modern ruler, in helpful sextile to Sun from 6 Sagittarius.

Some Sun Aquarius-types are more bizarre than others. I believe this to be dependent on the placement of Uranus. I'm an Aquarius-type myself, with Uranus in Earthy Taurus - I tend to be more of a "feet-on-the-ground" person, a wee bit less bizarre than some others born with Sun in Aquarius. In the case of Ms Cliff, with Uranus in Sagittarius, signifying exaggeration and all that's a wee bit over-the-top, we could expect a decent - or even indecent - showing of bizarre-ness!

Clarice Cliff did not disappoint, in art or in her lifestyle. Carrying on with the married boss, driving one's own car from an early age, working until age 73: these things aren't at all uncommon nowadays; some have become "the norm". But for a woman born into the Victorian era, in the midlands, far from the "wicked" city, her lifestyle must have seemed more than a little bizarre to onlookers. Her artwork too, her designs and use of colour were certainly bizarre, for those times.

Ms Cliff's natal Moon would have been in Taurus whatever time of day or night she was born. Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts - her gravitation to artistic design comes mainly from here. Taurus' ruler, Venus is in Sagittarius - so we find another echo of the same trend towards exaggeration seen in her Sun ruler's placement. However, Venus is conjunct practical business-minded Saturn which may explain her pull towards designing items for everyday practical use rather than merely for show.

Matt Smith, Doctor Who.

Commenter "Juno" recently suggested I feature Matt Smith, the current Doctor Who, in a post here....so:

I'm no Doctor Who expert - only really began taking notice when David Tennant, Matt Smith's predecessor took over the role. Just when I started to get into the series, Doctor Who changed skins - again. Smith is a worthy successor, not quite as charismatic as Tennant thus far - but he could get there, in time.

Acting wasn't Smith's first choice of career, if a back injury hadn't prevented him from becoming a professional football (soccer) player we'd now be seeing a different face emerging from Tardis.

Matt Smith was born on 28 October 1982 in Northampton, England. His time of birth isn't known, so a 12 noon chart will have to suffice. We can't know his rising sign, and the exact degree of Moon in Pisces will remain a mystery.



Hmmmm. The majority of personal planets are clustered in just two signs: Scorpio and Libra. Only Mars in Sagittarius, and Moon somewhere in Pisces are outside the cluster....both Sagittarius and Pisces are traditionally ruled by Jupiter - I might come back to that in a mo.

Any astrology textbook will list traits associated with Scorpio and Libra - most astrology fans know 'em off by heart anyway: Scorpio = passionate, sexy, secretive, tendency towards paranoia on bad days, determined, unforgiving of past wrongs etc. etc. Libra = tactful, ever the diplomat, indecisive, often attractive, eager to see justice and fair play etc.

Although those traits hardly complement one another, they wouldn't be as difficult to live with as some potential combinations. However, I see that Scorpio's modern ruler, Pluto is in Libra, and Libra's ruler, Venus is in Scorpio. Ha! That's what astrologers call "mutual reception". Also these planets in these signs are either in their "detriment" or "fall" according to astrology's rules and regulations. In such positions planets are thought to manifest traits in weaker versions, and carry less influence. Planets in mutual reception usually "help" each other to live together, even when normally conflicting. In this case, mutual reception will be in play, assisting the blending of Scorpio and Libra traits even further.

There are three interesting close conjunctions in his chart: Sun/Venus (a link to his talent in the art of acting: Venus rules the arts). Then there's Pluto/Saturn/Mercury & Mars/Neptune - these link an outer planet to personal planet(s). I tend to think this is beneficial - adding strength and a link between the chart owner's sensibility and the "communal consciousnes". That has to be good for an actor, or any artist, offering their work for appreciation by the public.

Back to that gentle, whimsical Moon in Pisces and a rather philosophical yet creative Mars/Neptune in Sagittarius, both signs ruled by Jupiter - Jupiter here is found in Scorpio, providing yet another link-back to the network already described!

In a nutshell, this natal chart describes a person with two clear sides to their personality, but two sides which live together in reasonable peace, utilising the benefits of both with any potential drawbacks minimised.

What I don't see is any indication that the sci-fi element of Doctor Who is strongly indicated. That's not so surprising. I suspect Matt Smith got the part of Doctor Who due mainly to his appearance, age and acting talent rather than for any personal interest in time and space travel - for its own sake. From what I've read on line, it seems he'll only remain Doctor Who for one more season, then hopes to try his luck in Hollywood.

Saturn is transiting Matt's Libra planets right now, and will return to its natal position next month, December - then again after a retrograde period in April 2012 and September 2012. A "Saturn Return" such as this quite often indicates a change of some kind, in lifestyle and/or career. It's an indication that a move to Hollywood could well be in his future.

I don't see any other major transits to his chart coming up soon. The nearest, I guess, would be Uranus opposing his Libra planets, from Aries - but that won't be until 2016 at the earliest. It could perhaps be an indication of another period of change....this time unexpected change (Uranus's stock-in-trade).

While writing notes for this post I remembered a piece from some years ago on Doctor Who written by fellow-astrology blogger Barbara at Silverwheel Astrology: Doctor Who Hates Astrology. It might be of interest to any Doctor Who fans who missed it in 2007.

Conspiracy Theories ~ Neptune in Scorpio

There are, in each lifetime's span, a few indelible time-markers. JFK's assassination, man landing on the Moon, death of Princess Diana, 9/11 - such events slice through our communal consciousness like a knife through butter. Conspiracy theories have since emerged around each of the mentioned events.

If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act. ~ Don DeLillo

Conspiracy theories have mushroomed in the past few decades. I guess that they were around before that, but shared only between the high and the mighty. We, the Great Unwashed, only started to take part in these theories when, thanks to new technology, easy communication became widespread and whispers rose to a crescendo.

The events and related theories already mentioned are still being argued about, decades later. New theories spring up regularly, too. The ascent of a US president of African American background was another of those indelible time-markers, and true to form, conspiracy theories on the topic abound. These relate to his birth certificate, place of birth, identity of his father, whether he was "helped" into USA's hottest hot seat by hidden forces.

What astrological configuration might connect to conspiracy theories? C.E.O. Carter's Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology is of no help in this. There's no entry under "conspiracy" or "conspiracy theory". I doubt that it was a term in common use in 1924, when Mr Carter's book was first published. Something in the communal consciousness must have shifted between then and now. A generational quirk? Perhaps.

A good bet for starters would be a connection to the Neptune in Scorpio generation. That group, born between 1957 and 1969 (now in their 40s and 50s) may be more in tune with conspiracy theories than earlier generations. Neptune represents illusion, delusion, imagination and mystery. Scorpio represents secrets, darkness and death. The Neptune in Scorpio generation could well be key to growth of the conspiracy theory phenomenon.

I belong to the Neptune in Virgo generation, not given to believing easily in wild theories, without some clear (to me) proof. I have to admit though, that in the cases mentioned, there is always room for doubt about official explanations. It's always good to keep an open mind.

The popularity of conspiracy theories is explained by people’s desire to believe that there is some group of folks who know what they’re doing.
~ Damon Knight

Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and the rest...."the race is not to the swift...."

In a couple of GOP debates Rick Perry has revealed his unpreparedness for high office outside (and maybe even inside) Texas. My fears that he might be "The Chosen One" for 2012 by The Powers That Be were unfounded. That's a relief!

He is a rather charismatic guy though, in spite of his whacky political stances. But, as my husband commented: "Perry's is not finger you'd want to have on that dreaded red button". I could like him, in certain environments: a TV presenter with no connection to politics or religion perhaps. That's the way I felt about Mike Huckabee in 2008. He now has a regular TV show, but sadly it soon became politically slanted and increasingly "Fox-ified"; I stopped watching it early on. Rick Perry does have the "X-Factor", personality-wise, that's a rather uncommon phenomenon these days, and likely what has kept him Texas Governor for 10 years. I'll be interested to note what becomes of him after 2012.

So, will Perry's slide into ignominy leave more space for the guy who, by rights, ought to be getting far more publicity: Jon Huntsman?

Huntsman is this year's conservative equivalent of Dennis Kucinich in the last go-around. Kucinich was routinely ignored, ridiculed and placed at the far end of the row of candidates during TV presentations of Dem debates. He was allocated less air time, less column space, less everything. Yet what he proposed was what the 99% NOW say they want! Where were they back in 2007 and 2008? The corporate owned media is at fault. They fear any candidate who is not completely bought and paid for, and they will make sure that any candidate, unlikely to dance to their prescribed tune, will be sidelined.

Although Huntsman is Republican, I get the feeling that he's not one to dance to any tune discordant with his own ideas, which seem to embrace fairness, social justice, empathy and, best of all: the common sense so lacking among his fellow-candidates. Apart from all of that, he is the most experienced, by far, of all his fellows in the field of foreign policy.

I've posted on Jon Huntsman's natal chart already in post here
An excerpt from it:

Sun and Moon in Aries = a pioneer, an initiator, a leader, in both heart and head. He'll have energy to spare, and would not be afraid of "taking the gloves off" faced with aggressive opposition.

Venus and Mercury in gentle intuitive Pisces bring a fine balance to his "harder" Aries side - I like that!

Mars in Aquarius should represent a fighter for social reform. Whereas Republicans generally are not known for true social reform, in his case I suspect he's drawn, at least somewhat, in this direction.

Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn clearly mark his conservatism and air of authority. Saturn in its sign of rulership is particularly clear on this.

What I especially like in this chart is a Yod (Finger of Fate) with Uranus in Leo (planet of change and the avant garde) at its apex. The Yod links sextiled planets Mercury/Venus and Saturn to Uranus via two quincunx (150 degree) aspects. Characteristics of the planet at apex are said to "flavour" blended attributes of the sextiled planets. In this case planet of change and new ideas is the channel through which are blended Huntsman's conservative/authoritative/communicative/emotional/intuitive characteristics. For those of us who long for change, here's someone to watch!

Transiting Uranus is passing through Aries at present, and already passed his natal Moon once in March, (possibly around the time he decided to make a change in his lifestyle and run as candidate?) Uranus will retrograde back over his Moon later this year and will transit his natal Sun next year and on into 2013. Evidence of change, of some kind. His campaign will be a change of lifestyle in itself, of course. Though the presence of Uranus doesn't indicate success, it does seem significant that its transit will be so close to his natal Sun (self).

So... now that Rick Perry has proved less competent than originally expected; Herman Cain has been accused by four women of sexual harassment, thus impeding his progress in the race for nomination; Mitt Romney, though competent, has a boring "old news" smell about him, and remains a tad lack-lustre.

Newt Gingrich is reported to be "surging" in some recent polls - surging still a wee bit early though. There are some tricky hurdles coming up for him, once in the spotlight.

Jon Huntsman might be next to catch public imagination and come up for the "surge" at last. Could he, originally on the outside of the outsiders, be the one who'll go striding ahead rapidly, in spite of corporate meddlings, as others trip or fall from exhaustion or lack of staying power? He has been consistently proving himself the most sane and reasonable of all the GOP candidates. In fact, if Huntsman were to be the nominee, I'd feel tempted to give him my vote. I'd trust him much further than I trust President Obama - that's how screwy this peculiar political climate has turned me. I'm so glad I registered as Independent; my gut-feeling about the Democrats has proved correct!

Until the Occupy movement gets itself some legs - and a political wing - we'll need a purveyor of common sense in the White House - one we can trust not to stab us in the back. I'm under no illusion that Huntsman is anything like Kucinich though, nor would he right all the wrongs of Wall Street and Washington. But, as an intermediate place-holder until Mr or Ms Right comes along, he'd be my choice.

Screwy? Maybe. Maybe not.

I'm going to use a Bible quote this time ~~ one that fits the situation:

Ecclesiastes 9:11
King James Version

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Music Monday ~ 14 November : Fertile astrological soil for composers?

Glancing through lists of births for this day through the years, 14 November, I noticed the word composer coming up again and again. "Odd", I thought. Scorpio, ruled by Pluto, or traditionally by Mars, doesn't strike me as being a particularly musical sign.

But, but but....nextdoor lies Libra, where Mercury and/or Venus might well be found in charts for 14 November. Libra is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts including music. Then too, Moon or ascendant could be in a musically oriented sign - Libra or Taurus - or even Aquarius (invention, innovation = composing).

14 November is in the 3rd decan (tenth) of Scorpio, which is known as the Cancer decan giving Moon as secondary ruler of the date. Those born during the last week of Scorpio are likely to be a softer, more sensitvie breed than their fellows from the two earlier decans - and more apt to use the legendary Scorpio passion with far more senstivity.

Another thought: Scorpio is a Fixed sign - composing music is producing something kind of "fixed", as against performing music, which produces more of a fleeting pleasure.

Ah well, that's my explanation! Here's the list I came up with:

1663 - Friederich Wilhelm Zachow, composer

1719 – Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father (d. 1787)

1740 – Johann van Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven's father and 1st teacher (d. 1792)

(Interesting that the fathers of two iconic composers were both born 14 November)

1778 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1837)

1800 - Heinrich Ludwig Egmont Dorn

1805 – Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (d. 1847)

1816 - John Curwen, composer

1825 - August Reissmann, composer

1829 - Giulio Roberti, composer

1845 - Johann Ernst Perabo, composer

1879 - Geoffrey Turton Shaw, composer

1887 - Bernhard Paumgartner, Austria, musicologist/conductor/composer

1900 – Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)

1932 - Ramon Zupko, composer

1939 – Wendy Carlos, American composer

1949 – Raul Di Blasio Argentine pianist, composer, producer

1954 – Yanni, Greek musician & composer

1957 - Frank Affolter, pianist/writer/composer

1960 – Tom Judson, American actor and composer

USA/UK - Quirky Differences (no astrology)

Surfing the net, I came across Ask MetaFilter. There a question was posed by an author seeking information to assist in his novel featuring an ex-patriot. The question concerned "quirky" differences between life in the USA and life in UK/Europe: What Are America's Quirks?

I'm just starting my eighth year here in the US. Practically every item in the long list contributed by readers at Ask MetaFilter have been "itches I needed to scratch" at one time or another - and certain of them still get to me. A nap selection, with additions of my own, follows:

ELECTRICS

Power sockets/electrical plugs are very flimsy compared to UK ones - the prongs bend and get hot.

Wall electrical sockets have no switches; just plug in and go.

Small appliances tend to break or wear out much faster here than in the UK, and cannot be repaired.

Switches go UP for ON rather than down as in the UK....this still confuses me!



FOOD

American cheese is different from that readily available in the UK - it's plastic-like, tasteless, synthetic.

Most bread in the USA tastes far too sweet. Baked goods in general are much sweeter than I'd been used to.

Candies/chocolate bars are full of corn syrup. A Cadbury or Kit Kat bar tastes significantly different from the yummy original version available in the UK.

In the USA simple is out - they need sprinkles, additions, double the flavour, then add even more - especially in varieties of ice cream.

Everyone here (except me) eats with one hand, and a fork only. Sometimes there's a switch-fork-to-left-hand-pick-up-knife-in-right-cut-up-food-then-switch-fork-back-to-right-hand thing going on to deal with tough items.

Complimentary iced tap-water served at most restaurants as routine.

Americans have a love affair with ice - room temperature for a cold drink is a definite no-no.

Complimentary coffee refills in restaurants.

In some states/counties you can't buy booze in supermarkets.

Butchers seem to joint meat differently here. Beef is sometimes cut with the grain instead of against it, making it stringy (in pot roasts).

Bacon, as in back rashers, doesn't exist here, there is only that similar to British-type streaky and it's cooked until hard, or if lucky, crisp.

I still haven't sampled southern delicacies such as collard greens, grits, fried pies (or as pronounced in these parts "frahd pahs"), a strange kind of "sausage gravy" that looks (and probably tastes) like wallpaper paste, or mountain oysters (bull or lamb testicles). I have regularly eaten several kinds of squash, corn pone/corn bread, fried okra, also "biscuits" which are not the same as UK biscuits (those are cookies here), but are like savoury very light scones - good when warm. I could go on, but better not!


TRAVEL

Fewer small cars, more SUVs and trucks.

No roundabouts.

Mandatory STOP signs at nearly every intersection in rural areas

Sidewalks/footpaths are practically non-existent.

Walking is thought "rather odd", one might even be stopped by the cops if spotted strolling along a residential area.

Huge cities have no real "citycentre" as they do in the UK.

The sheer size of the country, and the open spaces, especially in mid-USA: Oklahoma, Kansas etc.

Drive-through everythings. Drive-through ATMs, drive-through bank tellers, drive-through pharmacies, drive-through liquor stores in some states....although in our state you can't keep bought liquor in the car - it has to go in the trunk/boot.


POLITICS & MEDICAL

Lots of of TV advertising for prescription medications - with yards of disclaimers re possible side effects.

Many Americans think that nationalized healthcare is the literal equivalent of becoming Bolshevik.

Middle-class here means something different from the way it's understood in the UK. It sometimes seems that, if you're not living under a bridge in a cardboard box, you're middle-class.

"Socialist" or "socialism" are dirty, dirty words - profane almost.

There's a fear of medical bills for anyone without VERY inclusive, VERY expensive insurance.

The democrat/republican thing is vicious (in spite of the fact that there's not much to choose between 'em - most people in the US haven't yet caught on to that yet!)

Anything involving the government (immigration procedures in particular) is like making a trip to Nazi Germany.

American flags are everywhere.

The generic veneration of "freedom" as a distinctly American virtue - as though every other country in the world is under some kind of totalitarian yoke.

American exceptionalism taken as a given.

Tune of UK national anthem God Save the Queen has alternate lyrics, and Land of Hope and Glory has different lyrics, used at graduation ceremonies.


RELIGION

The pervasiveness of religion in USA life, and in politics continues to shock me. Europeans and Brits know that Americans are religious, but unless you live here you don't get a sense for how pervasive it is. God, or "I'm blessed" or "bless you" or "have a blessed day" or "what church do you attend?" enter conversation frequently.


MISCELLANEOUS

While newcomers may be familiar with American celebrities, journalists, politicians, and geography from it's broader worldwide audience, most people in the US have no clue about equivalent sundries from other countries.

Money: bills/notes are all the same color and size irrespective of value.

Dates are written differently from everywhere else in the world. Instead of day/month/year, or year/month/day, in the USA dates are written as month/day/year).

Massive thrift stores, "antique" malls, frequent yard sales and estate sales.....so much STUFF!

There is no direct equivalent to a newsagent's shop....a staple of British life (or used to be)!

What is termed "historic" here is vastly different from the way "historic" is understood in UK and Europe.

Armistice Day ~ Alan Seeger ~ Rendezvous

Although today's date, 11:11:11, has mystical connection for some people, I'm sticking with tradition. It is Armistice Day (also known as Remembrance Day and, in the USA Veterans Day). Traditionally today commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. It took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 35 million. There were over 15 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. The total number of deaths includes about 10 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. Almost a whole generation of the young men of Britain and Europe were wiped out.

11th November 1919
The First Two Minute Silence in London:
The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.
~~From the Manchester Guardian, 12th November 1919.

Alan Seeger, poet, was born in New York on 22 June 1888. He was killed, aged 28, on the fourth day of the Battle of the Somme, 4 July 1916, while serving in the French Foreign Legion. His brother Charles Seeger, a noted musicologist, was the father of the American folk singer, Pete Seeger.

Alan Seeger's natal Sun was at 1.37 Cancer, he died with Pluto (planet of darkness transformation and death)conjoining it at 3.04 Cancer.

I Have a Rendezvous with Death is one of Alan Seeger's poems, published posthumously. It is said to have been one of John F. Kennedy's favorites, and that he often asked his wife to recite it.

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air--
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath--
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear . . .
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Gordon Lightfoot & Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald

10 November, on this date in 1975 an ore carrier, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior during a November storm, taking the lives of all 29 crew members. Later that month, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, inspired by an article in Newsweek Magazine, wrote Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald .



That's not his most famous song though, at least it wasn't in the UK. I'd never heard of it until my husband mentioned it, in passing, one day. Early Morning Rain and If You Could Read My Mind are my own Lightfoot favourites.

Gordon Lightfoot, born 17 November 1938 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada with Sun in Scorpio, along with Venus, and Scorpio rising must have felt immediately drawn to the tragic story of death in water. Scorpio is the Fixed Water sign of the zodiac, and with its ruler, Pluto, links to death and darkness.

Even in If You Could Read My Mind he writes of ghosts and chains and darkness - more Scorpionic symbolism! I love this one though.



And ....Ribbon of Darkness - still more dark Scorpio-ness



He's still not exactly joyful in Early Morning Rain, but less dark - here from a 1969 performance -

Carl Sagan & Astrology

About three weeks ago I received a comment on a five-year-old post, from December 2006 featuring Carl Sagan. The anonymous commenter wrote:

"Thank you for this insight. I too watch closely the connection between modern astronomy and ancient astrology - and believe that one day, astrology will be acknowleged as a science in itself, as it was in it's inception."

As today would have been Carl Sagan's birthday (77th) I've decided to re-air a slightly modified version of that old post:

CARL SAGAN & ASTROLOGY

It's something of an anomaly that Carl Sagan was, and still is, one of my heroes. He was never a friend to astrology, he was a critic of so-called pseudo-science. Perhaps because I have doubts of my own about certain areas of astrological doctrine, I'm able to go along with his views to some extent. I sense though that, deep down, he stood not too far away from my own beliefs. One day it might emerge that both he, and astrolgers, were both partially correct.






Carl Sagan had Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all in Scorpio - is there any wonder he was so passionate and dedicated to his subject? It was that kind of passion driving his inspiring writing and style of presentation, a style which endeared him to many. His natal chart is here at Astrodatabank.

Using Carl Sagan's words ~
From the last chapter of his book Cosmos~

And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at least to wonder about our origins -- star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth, and perhaps throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!

And from The Cosmic Connection~

The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space a way from us. Our Sun is a second or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star stuff. Our atomic and molecular connection with the rest of the universe is a real and unfanciful cosmic hookup. As we explore our surroundings by telescope and space vehicle, other hookups may emerge. There may be a network of intercommunicating extraterrestrial civilizations to which we may link up tomorrow, for all we know. The undelivered promise of astrology-that the stars impel our individual characters - will not be satisfied by modern astronomy. But the deep human need to seek and understand our connection with the universe is a goal well within our grasp. "

Astrology In The Blender

The following is adapted from a 5-year old post from the early days of Learning Curve. I was still wet behind the astrological ears then, but my views remain much the same. ~~~

Although I love astrology dearly, I often struggle to agree with some of the stuff professional astrologers write, or imply, in textbooks:

We all have the same planets and luminaries in our natal charts. What makes us different from each other is the way in which they were configured at the time of our birth, the varying proportions of emphasis on signs, elements and modalities. We understand that a planet is the symbolic "energy", a zodiac sign defines the "flavour" of that "energy", and the house shows us where that "energy" will be most used or felt.

This is where I start to wonder.....mainly about the astrological "houses". The first problem is, that to correctly calculate house positions, an accurate exact time of birth is needed. The second problem is that there are several different methods of calculating astrological houses. Does it matter much though?

It seems reasonable to me that when a person has a particular personality trait (as indicated by planet in sign) it is going to influence the whole of that person's personality generally, not only in the area dictated by rules of astrology and astrological houses. A Venus in Sagittarius in 10th house for example is likely to influence many areas other than career and public standing. Some level of Sagittarian "flavour" will be apt to permeate the personality in general.

The cosmic trio of Sun, Moon and Ascendant are said to be a quick and easy way of summing up a personality. That's true, I think, but only if they are allowed to blend into each other's astrological territories. It's not logical to say that the Moon influences ONLY prescribed areas of the personality, or the ascendant is ONLY the way we present ourselves to the world. I've found that these three factors (and others) blend and influence each other strongly. It's not sensible to separate them and differentiate their influence. How the "flavours" blend is described, in part, by aspects the planets in a chart make to each other, but the conflicts or harmonies thus indicated are not, as I see it, likely to be confined to any specific areas.

Divisions of all kinds irk me. They are not natural.

Take Mercury's energy, for example. Our mode of thinking and expressing ourselves, the way our minds work and how we communicate intertwines with, and influences, every other part of our existence. Mercury ought to be added to the cosmic trio - it should be a cosmic quartet. Venus too....quintet!

An analogy to illustrate the point I'm trying to make: Pixels? Jigsaw? No. Cooking? Nearer. Ingredients blend into one another. When we add sugar, salt, butter in varying proportion, the effect spreads throughout the finished product. A measure of sugar sweetens all, butter adds pervading richness, etc. It's possible to identify the flavours, but not to separate them into compartments within the whole - those ingredients have now amalgamated to become something else. Environment has to form a part of the recipe too - hot oven or cool oven, for instance will make a world of difference to the finished product.

For an astrologer to be 100% accurate in describing or predicting a blended product, they'd need exceptional (almost inhuman) skills, because there is no precedent. A very near miss is what can be produced by an expert, using astrology. Each personality as described by a natal chart is unique in itself, not to mention the myriad factors outside of the chart which affect the way potentialities of personality develop, factors which often remain unknown to the astrologer.

Music Monday ~ Great Jazz Guitarists

Now and again Music Monday will feature a trio of jazz icons, instrument by instrument, with brief astro detail along with an occasional link to archived posts or other sources. For the earlier post on tenor saxophone players see Greatest Sax Voices in Jazz.

I'm still on a steep learning curve when it comes to jazz - as with most other things in this life....but then, aren't we all? When pondering on jazz guitarists the only name I could come up with was Django Reinhardt (an early favourite of mine when he played with Stephane Grapelli on violin). This was the sum total of my experience of jazz before meeting Himself, my husband.

To fill out an iconic trio I took advice from Himself. He suggested Charlie Christian and Freddie Green as worthy of inclusion along with Django.

Freddie Green. That name sounds distinctly non-jazzy to my ear - brings to mind more the boy nextdoor, or the guy who ran a local cafe. But Freddie Green, known as "the dean of rhythm guitarists" filled the rhythm guitar slot for such jazz luminaries as Count Basie, Lester Young, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday, during his 50-year long career.

«When he played with Count Basie, everyone knew that Freddie Green was half the orchestra on his own, the man who helped the band breathe. He was the "working lung", and as an accompanist he played "four-to-the-bar" like nobody else. The secret of his swinging lightness lay in the fact that he didn't play all the strings, merely three or four of them.» [Philippe Baudoin]

Basie's "left hand", as this humble rhythm player was dubbed time and again, the "fourth wheel on the Basie band wagon", a phenomenon only noticed when rarely missing. Freddie Green's rhythm work was immaculate, pure, elastic and bouncingly light, unlike any other. His commitment to rhythm guitar misled lesser guitarists to take Green's strict confinement to rhythm work for the mark of a second-rate player.
On the contrary, Green's rhythm work was high art.
See HERE
Freddie Green: born on March 31, 1911 in Charleston, South Carolina; died on March 1, 1987.

As in my earlier post on jazz sax players, I'd expect to find Neptune (creativity) and/or Uranus (innovation, inventive) hooked into personal planets somehow, somewhere, in the charts of jazz musicians. In Freddie Green's case, less so than others, because his job was not to be inventive or creative but to provide, and hold, the chord structure and rhythmic pulse of the piece. We can see that effect in his chart: Venus in Taurus (planet of music/the arts in its sign of rulership) is conjunct Saturn. If any planet can be classed as a structure-holding planet, Saturn can! I'd say that Venus conjunct Saturn, especially when in Taurus, is classic signature for Freddie Green's style, as well as his longevity as a performer (50 years was a long, long time in the music business back then, when so many great artists fell by the wayside!)

Tribute to Freddie Green







Charlie Christian's career was tragically brief. He was born in Texas but grew up in an Oklahoma City slum. His father was a blind guitarist and singer, two of his brothers were musicians. Charlie himself built and played cigar-box "guitars" during his school days. He became a respected local musician in Oklahoma, playing an amplified acoustic guitar as early as 1937. John Hammond, the famous talent scout and producer, heard about Christian, was impressed, and arranged for the guitarist to travel to Los Angeles to try out with Benny Goodman.

Although Goodman was initially put off by Christian's primitive wardrobe, as soon as they started jamming on "Rose Room," Christian's talents were obvious. For the next two years, he would be well-featured with Benny Goodman's Sextet

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Tragically, Charlie Christian contracted tuberculosis in 1941, and died, aged 25 on March 2, 1942.

It can be said without exaggeration that virtually every jazz guitarist that emerged during 1940-65 sounded like a relative of Charlie Christian. It would be 25 years before jazz guitarists finally moved beyond his style.

See http://www.playjazzguitar.com/charlie_christian.html".

Born on 29 July 1916 in Bonham, Texas. Here, creative Neptune conjoins his Sun and Mercury in Leo. Moon would have been somewhere from late Cancer to 8 Leo, so could also have been close to Neptune. Musical planet Venus is tightly conjunct Pluto - I wonder if that was a dark omen of his tragically early demise?








A violinist first, guitarist later, Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp near Paris where he absorbed the gypsy strain into his music. A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem that probably accounts for some of the originality of his style.

A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn't the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim. Yet Reinhardt came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread. He would spin joyous, arcing, marvelously inflected solos above the thrumming base of two rhythm guitars and a bass, with Stephane Grappelli's elegantly gliding violin serving as the perfect foil. Although he could not read music, with Grappelli and on his own, Reinhardt composed several highly original tunes. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/django-reinhardt-p7407/biography.

See also my own 2007 post ~ Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt - A Magical but Unlikely Pair of Aquarians>

Django Reinhardt was born on 23 January 19 in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, at 10:00 PM according to Astrodatabank, with a "B" rating - not 100% reliable but it'll suffice for this purpose.

With Moon conjunct creative Neptune in Moon's rulership sign Cancer, and inventive Uranus just barely out of range to be considered conjunct Sun in Aquarius - Uranus's sign of rulership, Django had near enough a classic planetary lineup for a jazz artist. Venus, the musical planet is tightly sextile (helpful aspect) Mars in Taurus - reflecting his dynamic musical style. There's a Grand Cross in his natal chart linking Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter, this configuration usually signifies some kind of ongoing inner conflict, possibly manifesting in Django's case as his unreliability and tendency to be unpredictable.

Below, one of Django's own compositions Nuages (Clouds). The person who uploaded this video at YouTube wrote:

This was done just weeks before he died.
I recall the original liner notes, written by Charles Delauney ( a friend of D.R) stating that there was a "certain ennui about the session" ..a sadness and premonition that Django had that he didn't have long. Delauney stated that it was the most emotional version of "Nuages" ever done.

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"...Hippies Were Right" (non-astro)

Just this video today: (Exceptionally well made and presented)


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Great Ill-timed Expectations. (Non-astro)

I often wonder how authors feel about their books, short stories and screenplays when time gives the lie, or more accurately, misjudgement to the timing of their storylines.

It's an odd experience to read science fiction, speculative fiction or stories set in a dystopian future, written many years ago, to find that the author's time-frame for his tale is now in the past. Nothing remotely close has happened, life has gone on, albeit with changes, discoveries, new technology and new traumas.

We tend to expect that, because during the lifetime of each generation, so many discoveries and technological changes occur, and we seemingly progress with breath-taking swiftness, that "the big picture" will change equally swiftly. After all, it's within my own lifetime that air travel became a possibility for ordinary people, that man first flew into space, walked upon the Moon. It'd seem reasonable enough to suppose that "the big picture" would speed along at the same perceived rate. That doesn't happen though, or at least it hasn't happened yet. The world at large isn't broadly different from the way it was in 1960, apart from the music, the fashions, gimmicks, cost of a beer, computers, blogs, the 3Gs, 4Gs, iPods, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Yes, I know things have changed, but then again much hasn't - not in the ways depicted by some novels.

Authors are storytellers of course, not prophets, astrologers or psychics. They do not attempt to predict events. However, the fact that they chose to set their stories in a specific time frame must indicate that, at the time of writing, they considered the chosen time frame to be realistic and reasonably believable.

George Orwell's 1984, and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 A Space Odyssey are two of the best known examples. In the 1980s Alan Moore's V for Vendetta depicted a near-future UK after a nuclear war, which left much of the world destroyed.

A lesser known novel, Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham is yet another example. I read it and was fascinated by the story many years ago when it was originally published (late 1970s/early 80s). I lent it to a friend at work, who lent it to another, it was then lost for ever. I was surprised, when I again flicked through a recently obtained copy of that novel, to note the date the author had specified for the story's action to take place: 1985. The world had exploded into nuclear war, eventually leading to a pole shift. How odd that seems now, more than 30 years later. Sure enough there have been wars and terrorism, but nothing matching the author's vision of a USA rapidly crumbling, hunger and violence everywhere, citizens trying desperately to escape from America. (Ahem).......erm.....Never mind!

Douglas Adams said:

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

He got that right!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Scorpio Photographer Joey L & "Twilight"

Tomorrow will be the 22nd birthday of an amazingly talented young photographer known as Joey L, full name Joey Lawrence. He was born in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada on 5 November 1989.

Joey L's name might be unfamiliar to any other than avid photography fans, but some of his work will be recognisable to many: the "Twilight" posters and promotional photographs for the movie series.

(Note: This "Twilight" is no relation to me, by the way - I had chosen my screen name long before the Twilight movies were even a twinkle in the producer's eye.)

It's astrologically appropriate that a photographer with four planets in Scorpio should be the one to portray a vampire-themed movie series. Scorpio links traditionally to "the dark side", eroticism and passion. Joey L has Sun, Mercury, Mars and Pluto in Scorpio - the last named planets are Scorpio's traditional(Mars) and modern (Pluto) rulers.... now THAT's some kick-ass Scorpio right there!

However, there's some very helpful balance to all that steamy Plutonic darkness: another cluster of 4 planets in down-to-earth, business-oriented Capricorn : Venus (art), Uranus (the new and avant garde), Saturn in its own sign of rulership (work and business sense), and Neptune (creativity and photography).

Without knowing his time of birth it's not clear whether Moon was in Capricorn, along with the cluster of four, and putting even more emphasis on his commonsense and business-sense side; or in Aquarius, which would match very well his inventive use of technology.

Any link to his gravitation towards photography in far-off lands would be found in either Jupiter's position, or with Sagittarius prominent in his natal chart. There's no Sagittarius link, however, unless that sign were rising as he was born (we can't know that without a time of birth). Jupiter, though, is at 10 Cancer and exactly opposite Neptune at 10 Capricorn - a balance of travel (Jupiter) with photography/creativity (Neptune).




Joey L is self taught, and a pioneer of techniqes using digital hyper-realistic photography, lighting and manipulation. He has been a commercial photographer since age 17 and now has agents in London, New York and Toronto. He has worked in more than 20 countries, has a client list long enough to cause most would-be commercial photographers to salivate: Warner Brothers Records, NBC, United Way, the Salvation Army, Verizon, Nickelodeon, History channel, FX Channel, Smirnoff, Pennzoil, History Channel, Forbes, Services for the Underserved, The Government of Abu Dhabi, among others.

Joey L's true tour de force are his beautiful portraits of African tribespeople.
SEE also Joey L's website

From Wikipedia:

In the making of a gallery exhibition, Lawrence traveled to Ethiopia three times over the course of three years to photograph the Karo, Mursi, Hamer, Daasanach and Arbore tribes of the Omo Valley. On his second trip, Lawrence took the photographs back to Ethiopia and showed them to the tribes people in order to gain trust amongst the clan chiefs and continue the photographic series. One of his 2009 trips was filmed to make the documentary Faces of a Vanishing World. In discussion with The National Post, Lawrence said he used studio lighting and a modern style to shoot the photos, saying "they become overlooked when they are depicted in... black-and-white..., as noble savages, as unchanged people". The stylistic treatment is to render them too as part of the modern world. The images were published under the title The Cradle of Mankind, and were featured on the Time website.

And from the opening paragraphs of a good piece at "brass magazine" website:

Joey Lawrence is sound asleep on the floor of an Atabai Clan house, surrounded by members of the Mentawai tribe. Inches from his head, a pig is sacrificed to honor his arrival, but Joey doesn't stir. He's exhausted from carrying 50 pounds of photography gear on rain-slickened mud trails, and trudging through rock-strewn creeks that slice their way across the jungle-like forest floor.

It's August 2009, and Joey, a 19-year-old Canadian based out of Brooklyn, NY, is visiting the Mentawai tribe on the island of Siberut off the coast of Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Mentawai believe in animism and are connected to the spiritual world by the leadership of shamans. Their way of life is disappearing, as the predominantly Muslim country is focused on assimilating the Mentawai into the broader culture. "To have these people away in a rain forest practicing their own beliefs that they've practiced for a really long time is special," Joey says. "It may be something that's not going to be around for a long time."

A handful of examples of Joey L's photographs are below - many more can be seen at the photographer's website or via Google Image. He also hosts tutorials:
Sessions with Joey L.