Netting the Net

Next big concern coming up for Mr or Ms Average internet user in the USA (most of us these days) will be the earnest hope that net neutrality doesn't disappear in accordance with the ruling this week of a federal appeals court. The court threw out the FCC's Net Neutrality Rules. There's already lots of information and explanation available on the importance of this to the average consumer, a good article by Maggie Reardon at CNET on the topic is HERE.

The appeals court ruling isn't about internet access as such, but about the ability of internet service providers to take control of access to content, and it's all about the money, as usual, of course. Until now government (FCC - Federal Communications Commission) regulation ensured that anyone who paid a service provider for internet connection could access every website on the net, and every service run via the internet, such as Skype. This week's court ruling has cancelled this regulation.

Internet service providers are now free to limit, or charge extra for, access to certain websites and services. This will work in much the same way that Cable TV access works. Internet service providers will, eventually no doubt, begin to offer "bundles" of various levels of access, demanding more and more payment for wider access to sites outside a consumer's "bundle". Access to Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Skype for instance could become akin to accessing HBO, Showtime etc. on TV.

Internet service providers are now in control. Business owners and content providers as well as viewers of net content could also find themselves having to pay internet service providers. Comcast, Verizon etc. can now demand payment by businesses or other content providers to obtain access to their customers. Until now there has been 100% access by all to all - but no more. It's beginning to sound like some kind of mob protection racket! Anyway, it's certain we shall all be paying more for less before long.

Is there any hope of getting the recent court decision overturned? The issue could end up in the Supreme Court, unless the FCC is able to construct a new case based on different existing laws or arguments.

From what I've read, if the FCC were able to declare internet service providers to be common carriers, that might provide a solution. Common carriage applies to the means of supply of utilities such as electricity, water, gas, telephone lines. In those cases the pipes, cables, lines or whatever are a common means of supply, and while owned by private companies or corporations, those companies or corporations cannot limit or slow down supply once the consumer has paid the required fee for access. However, it appears that the Supreme Court has, in 2005, put up a likely barrier to that possibility in its Brand X decision that broadband services should not be classified as telecommunications services, which means that broadband providers' infrastructure is not considered a public right of way like phone lines or water pipes, and should not be regulated as such. Perhaps shrewd lawyers will be able to find a loophole. Let us hope so!

Apart from the commercial aspect of these eventualities, there's a political aspect too. It could become harder, more expensive, or even impossible to access certain political blogs and websites. I'll leave the rest of that pre-dystopic vision to a reader's imagination.

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Goddess of Prophecy and More

 Carmenta

Another day, another Roman festival - how they loved their festivals! 15 January, in Ancient Rome, marked the second of two festivals honoring the goddess of prophecy, Carmenta, first day of Carmentalia was 11th January. Carmenta, as well as being a prophetess was goddess of childbirth and midwifery. There was originally one Carmenta worshipped by the "flamines," her priests. Later there were said to be many Carmentes, female deities who appeared to assist women in labor and to tell the fortune of the newborn child. Romans made offerings of rice to the goddess and feasted on cream-filled pastries shaped like male and female genitalia or in triangle-shape filled with raspberry jam.(Link)

Carmenta (known as Nicostrata to the Greeks) was famous for chanting her prophecies in verse.She is also credited with naming Rome's Palatine Hill and in a vision predicted it would be the future site of the Roman Empire. She laid the city's first stone, instituted a system of laws for the surrounding region, and invented the Latin alphabet and language. Quite a gal!

Still on the topic of prophecy and returning to the book from which I quoted yesterday C.E.O. Carter's Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology:

PROPHECY
It is probable that such prophecy as may truly be the result of inspiration or revelation from higher entities would be shown horoscopically by a strong 9th house, and by Jupiter and Neptune, as well as sometimes Uranus. Such cases, however, are rare, and their possibility is admitted by comparatively few at the present day. Natives of watery signs and also Sagittarius are prone to have presentiments, but it is probable that in most cases these are purely fanciful.

Astrological prophecy, properly so called, has nothing to do with such methods, but depends upon the interpretation of present and future influences mathematically obtained and intellectually apprehended. At the same time it is undeniable that many astrologers, and particularly those with strong Jupiter 9th house influences, develop an intuitive accuracy of judgment that may in time act so promptly and surely that it may appear to partake of the nature of inspiration.

On the other hand, those in whose horoscopes Mercury and Jupiter are afflicted should be cautious in making forecasts, especially when under bad directions to these planets.

Flicking quickly through Astrotheme's lists of well-known people with Jupiter (and other planets) in 9th house, a few well-known astrologers emerged:

Patrick Walker (Jupiter Neptune, Mercury in 9th)
Alan Oken (Jupiter and Pluto in 9th)
Julia Parker (Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune in 9th)
Jonathan Cainer (Jupiter in 9th + Sun in Sagittarius)

I have a lonely Jupiter in 9th, as it happens, but all I can confidently prophecy is that there'll be another anniversary of an Ancient Roman festival along soon.

Temper and Anger

"We boil at different degrees", a quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Respected British astrologer C.E.O. Carter, wrote an "Encyclopaedia of Psychological Astrology" (reprinted between 1924 and 1976) in which he lists, in alphabetical order, psychological traits, spanning "Ability" to "Youthfulness", and describes astrological configurations which he had found often present in people who exhibited certain traits. Under the heading Temper Mr Carter, investigating boiling points, wrote:


"Temper must be judged from the rising sign, Mercury, and the general appearance of the horoscope. The usual characteristics of the signs when rising are:

Aries (rising) ....... Easily angered and then often go to great lengths.

Taurus (rising).......Not readily moved, but may when aroused become furious.

Gemini (rising)...Not bad tempered, but can be "waspish" and malicious.

Cancer (rising)...Not easily angered, though soon hurt. Timid.

Leo (rising)......Often hot tempered, though affectionate.

Virgo (rising)....Temper is usually controlled and seldom violent. Often uses "the retort courteous". Tends to shun conditions that are liable to upset it.

Libra (rising)....Seldom the first to quarrel. Easily appeased.

Scorpio (rising)....Hot-tempered, especially when its affections are touched. Implacable and rarely forgets.

Sagittarius (rising)...Good tempered.

Capricorn (rising)....The temper is generally cold, and the tongue controlled.

Aquarius (rising)...Courteous.

Pisces(rising)...Good tempered.

(Note from me: to calculate rising sign it's necessary to know one's exact time of birth)

In cardinal signs the temper is usually sharp; in mutable nagging, and in fixed, sudden and violent. The above remarks apply, of course, to ordinary everyday persons. Mercury and to a somewhat less extent the Lights or ascendant afflicted by malefics usually corrupts the temper. Fiery signs are usually the most explosive. Mars afflicted by Uranus in Fire generally causes bad temper, and Mars and Saturn are also often evil. On the other hand, Venus conjunct Mercury, the Lights or ascendant will usually cause the moods to be harmonious and equable. Jupiter in similar circumstances, inclines to good spirits and bodily health.

It must not be forgotten how often a bad temper is really the direct result of some functional disorder, such as liver trouble or nervous derangement.

Often the signs of good and bad temper are contradictory and in such cases a person's disposition will vary."

Was C.E.O. Carter correct? I have Cancer rising, natally. That description is accurate for me, or was. I'm no longer as timid. Obtuse with a tendency to come over all cold, determined and menacing when angered would be a better description these days. Husband has Leo rising. He can flare up, usually temper comes and goes quickly. He also has Mercury conjunct Saturn, and a tendency to use sarcasm as a defence, rather than frequent hot temper.

The term "losing temper" has a rather frivolous, selfish, superficial feel to it, and usually indicates a short-term condition, whereas seriously displaying anger on a deeper level could, in some cases, be worthy of more respect.

Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.
(Lyman Abbott)

Music Monday ~ Back to Be-in, Love-in and the '60s

Music Monday this week peeks into tomorrow, 14 January, then back to 1967. On 14 January in 1967 the "Human Be-in" took place in San Francisco, prelude to the Summer of Love to follow a few months later.

JANUARY 14, 1967 Human Be-In (1:30)

Tens of thousands meet in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for a "Gathering of the Tribes" that puts the city's hippies in the national spotlight. Organizers Michael Bowen and Allen Cohen (also the co-founders of the Oracle newspaper) call the event a Be-In -- a clever reference to the successful sit in protests of the civil rights movement.

"A union of love and activism previously separated by categorical dogma and label mongering will finally occur ecstatically when Berkeley political activists and hip community and San Francisco's spiritual generation and contingents from the emerging revolutionary generation all over California meet for a Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In. ...

Music will be played by all the Bay Area rock bands, including the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Co., Quicksilver Messenger Service, and many others. Everyone is invited to bring costumes, blankets, bells, flags, symbols, cymbals, drums, beads, feathers, flowers...

The Human Be-In is the joyful, face-to-face beginning of the new epoch.
-- The San Francisco Oracle, Vol. 1, Issue 5, p. 2

(see HERE)


It's all part of history now. See here for more detail.

In January 1967, in England, still in my twenties, I was ignorant of what was going on five and a half thousand miles away. The new music eventually seeped through on the radio, first in a trickle then in a tsunami, and hung around for years.

Two songs that immediately spring to my own mind from that long-gone era:

From USA artist -

From UK artists - I've always loved this one -

I've been finding myself in an unplanned '60s time-slip - kind of - these last few days. First, in preparing this post, then reading a book which covers 1958 to 1963 and the present (Stephen King's "11/22/63"), then watching a DVD yesterday evening I picked up in the rental store due to the starry cast list, without having an idea of its theme - The Company You Keep (Redford, Sarandon, Nolte, Sam Elliot, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper)- it turned out to be based on events a year or so after the Summer of Love, and surmising, fictionally, on present-day fates of a set of well-matured members of The Weather Underground.

In the book "11/22/63" mentioned above the author says on numerous occasions, "the past harmonizes". I'm finding, also on numerous occasions, that so does the present!

Lawrence Lessig is Walking the Walk

Another shout-out for Lawrence Lessig (see also video HERE) who has has just begun his two-week walk across the state of New Hampshire. His aim is to get everyone to focus in what he sees as the greatest block to democracy in America: the corruption that comes with Big Money in politics. Hat-tip to David Macadam once again for the reminder at his blog Oligarch Kings.

Anyone who writes their own blog, or contributes content anywhere on the net, would do democracy a great service by spreading word of Prof. Lessig's endeavours.....let's not forget that word of mouth works too!

Turning Down the Empty Glass #3

Click on the numbers for two earlier parts of this 4-part series, those relate to paternal ancestors. #1......#2

My mother's father, my maternal grandfather, was Sidney Bulpitt. Like my paternal Grandad Scott, so with "Siddo" or "Daddy Sid"(pet names for him), he also had made his way up to Yorkshire from the south of England in his youth, looking for better work opportunities. I sometimes tell myself that genes from these two wandering grandfathers of mine shaped my own wanderlust. My parents were great wanderers also, in their day.

Bulpitt is a fairly unusual surname. It's thought to derive from the place from whence families of Bulpitts, Bulpits, Bulpens, Bulpins, Bulepin etc.originated: the bull pit would have been a pit or depression in the ground where a bull or bulls were kept, either for stud purposes for the area, or a pit where bulls were kept for the ancient and very nasty "sport" of bull-baiting. The Bulpitts, and other versions of the name, must have lived near to a bull pit, I guess. The word bull came from Old Norse 'boli', which morphed into Old English 'bula'. The surname was first noted in the county of Somerset, adjacent to, and to the west of Wiltshire where Sidney Bulpitt was born. Many of his antecedents came from the county adjacent to Wiltshire to the east : Hampshire.

I've come up with little, other than names and dates and places, on this branch of my family, but as will become obvious, I do have more old photographs of some of these relatives than I do of the relatives in my father's lines.

Sidney Bulpitt was born on 10 June 1890 in a rural village, Upper Chute, in Wiltshire. His parents were Charles Bulpitt and Caroline (nee Newman/Smith). He was, I think, seventh of 10 or more children. Some of his siblings: William, Alice, Emily, Frederick, Albert, Mary, Susan, Lillian, Eliza, Dolly and Ruth, born between 1877 and 1900.

Sid's mother Caroline's parents were Henry Smith born in Fyfield, Hampshire and Sarah Newman. Henry Smith was son of John and Mary Smith of Fareham Hampshire, born around 1810; Sarah's parents: Edward and Louisa Newman of Andover, Hampshire, born around 1812.

 Sid's parents seated, and 5 of his elder siblings. 

 Caroline Bulpitt centre, daughter Dolly left, an in-law ? at right

Sid's youngest sister emigrated to Ontario, Canada. I met three of his other sisters, who all, eventually, made their homes around London; also knew one of his brothers, Albert, "Uncle Bert". I met Bert when I lived for a year or so in the south of England, in Brighton, where he had worked for most of his life as chauffeur to a wealthy family. He was a bright, happy guy, full of fun. My grandad was a fun guy too, in his own way. If stories are to be believed (they probably are)Sid was something of a philanderer in youth, in middle-age too, but his marriage to my grandmother lasted long enough for them to celebrate a Diamond Wedding anniversary (60 years).

 Sid and Micky

 Sid with his sisters

 Sid's sister who emigrated to Canada

 Sid's brother Albert ("Bert") and wife Rose

In the 1911 census, at age 21, Sid was still listed in Wiltshire, as a carter, working on a farm, boarding with the senior carter in Wherwell, a village in Hampshire. By 1915 though he had moved some 240 miles northward to East Yorkshire and had married my grandmother, May. They had two daughters, my mother, Mary, and her younger sister, Lillian -Aunt Lil - (see blog post HERE).

Once in Yorkshire Sid didn't stay with agriculture or horses and carts for very long. He somehow learned how to drive one of those new-fangled horseless carriages, and worked as driver for a local taxi firm in the market town close to where he lived.

My mother is in the car somewhere, Sid at the wheel

Sid with a  rather more stately vehicle

When a local 'bus service needed drivers Sid became one of the first 'bus drivers in the area. Just before World War 2 he had somehow saved enough to buy his own taxi, and for many years was the local taxi man.

 Sid and his taxi

When business became scarce, years later, he drove an ice cream van around local villages in summertime, along with various other jobs at the local post-war air field close to home. He had a streak of ingenuity in him - he electrically wired the little cottage where he and grandma lived most of their lives together. His knowledge of electricity was negligible, but that didn't stop him! It's a wonder the cottage didn't burn down, but it didn't. I lived with "Siddo and Nanny" for a couple of years or so, as a very young child, during the worst of World War 2.

Sid lost most of his his sight in his last years - but never lost his determination to overcome all difficulties.  He died in 1978.

One of the last photos of Sid and May with my parents and me

So - what of Sid's parents, Charles and Caroline, and their history?

Charles caused confusion. I have to thank someone who must be a distant relative of mine for shedding light on the muddle. On a genealogical message board some years ago he'd asked for assistance. He too had encountered confusion. He had obtained marriage and death certificates for Charles Bulpitt, his great-great grandfather. Charles was married to Caroline Newman in 1876 in Chute, Wiltshire, on the certificate Charles' father is noted as George Bulpitt. Census returns for 1871, 1881, 1891,1901 and 1911 all show Charles being born in Hurstbourne Tarrant, a village about five miles north-east of Andover, Hampshire, between 1843 and 1847. However, there is no Charles Bulpit(t) registered as born around that time or in that area. The death certificate shed some light. Charles is described there as Charles Warwick Bulpitt (died 1922 in Chute). A Charles Warwick is shown born around 1846 in Hurstbourne Tarrant - the birth certificate named his mother as Louisa Warwick, no father is listed. In the 1851 census there is a Louisa Warwick (Aged 25) unmarried, and living with her father in Hurstbourne Tarrant, but no sign of a Charles Warwick (or Bulpitt).

In the 1861 census a 15 year old Charles BULPIT, born in Hurstbourne Tarrant, was living with grandparents, John and Eliza Bulpit in Andover, Hampshire.

John BULPIT aged 56, carter, born in Hungerford, Berkshire.
Eliza aged 52 born in Pambourne (Pangbourne?) Berkshire.
Charles, aged 15, grandson/carter, born in Hurstbourne Tarrant.

In census of 1851 the same John and Eliza Bulpitt had a son, George aged 24, listed as living with them, he born in Hampstead Marshall. John and son George were both agricultural labourers. No sign of Charles in 1851. In 1861 George BULPITT appears as married and living in Andover. If this is the same George Bulpitt, he was then an innkeeper, his spouse Ann, formerly Ann Potter, who had been living next door to the Bulpitts in 1851 with her innkeeper brother.

It would appear, then, that Sid's father Charles was born out of wedlock, but was acknowledged by the father, George Bulpitt, as his son.

John Bulpitt's father was another John Bulpitt (born 1761), his wife was Martha, formerly Martha Shepherd, and that's as far as I've been able to trace the Bulpitt name, no extra detail has emerged, so far.

So...Louisa Warwick was my great-great grandmother. She didn't marry George Bulpitt, though their son took his name. Louisa possibly married another George later on - a George White/Wight in 1853 in Andover. I cannot be certain this is the same Louisa Warwick, but it seems likely.

Louisa Warwick's father and his antecedents can be traced back to the mid 1600s, but nothing is known of them other than their names. Louisa's father was Richard Warwick, beyond him were another Richard, two Williams, a Stephen and an Edward Warwick, he born 1624. These Warwick men married women from families of Cummins, Potticary, Cowdery, Welloway, and Moore.

Turning down an empty glass to my grandfather Sidney Bulpitt then, along with his, and therefore my, ancestors.

And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scatter'd on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

Arty Farty Friday ~ John Singer Sargent

 Self-portrait

John Singer Sargent, an American painter I haven't investigated before, Sun in Capricorn type too, born 12 January 1856 in Florence, Italy, to American parents. His father was an expatriate Philadelphia surgeon, his mother from a wealthy Philadelphia family. The Sargents were based at various times in France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. John learned to speak four languages, studied art in Florence, Dresden, Berlin and finally Paris, where he launched a career in portrait-painting for the wealthy classes and rulers of Europe. The artist didn't visit the USA until age 21, after which he was commissioned to paint portraits of members of the American elite also. He settled in London in 1886, is best known for his studio portraits, but on his many travels also experimented with sketching and produced some lovely water colours.

John Singer Sargent had no romantic back story of struggle and poverty, no scandals to speak of, apart from a bit of a stir made by certain elements of Parisian society over his Portrait of Madame X.
The painting was criticised as being too erotic, due to a strap of the subject's gown, in the original version of the paining, having slipped down over her bare shoulder. The horror of it! It was after this "scandal" that the artist relocated to London, England.

 Portrait of Madame X

Sargent was said to have been a private man, industrious, turning out consistently excellent work. Some snips from a biography of the painter from a piece HERE highlighting traits which might find reflection in his natal chart, later in this post:

It has been claimed by (the artist's biographers) Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond: "The impression that emerges from descriptions by his sitters is of a vigorous, decisive, and driven artist. There are stories of Sargent's rushing to and from the easel, totally absorbed, placing his brushstrokes in gestures of absolute precision, of the cries of frustration as he rubbed out, scraped down, reworked, and grappled with the problems of representation, cries punctuated by his mild expletives... Occasionally, he would dash to the piano and play as a brief respite from painting. He was single-minded about what he wanted to achieve and would brook no interference - an approach born of professional self-belief rather than personal arrogance, from which he was remarkably free. He insisted on the right to select his sitters' costumes and accessories, and took brisk exception to comments from his sitters and their families about the truth of the likenesses and characterizations he created."

Cynthia Asquith claims that he was a "curiously inarticulate man, he used to splutter and gasp, almost growl with the strain of trying to express himself; and sometimes, like Macbeth at the dagger, he would literally clutch at the air in frustrated efforts to find, with many intermediary ‘ers’ and ‘ums’, the most ordinary words." Vernon Lee, a very close friend, added: "He was very shy, having I suppose a vague sense that there were poets about… I think John is singularly unprejudiced, almost too amiably candid in his judgements… He talked art and literature, just as formerly, and then, quite unbidden, sat down to the piano and played all sorts of bits of things."

Evan Charteris, author of John Sargent (1927), has written: "He read no newspapers; he had the sketchiest knowledge of current movements outside art; his receptive credulity made him accept fabulous items of information without question. He would have been puzzled to answer if he were asked how nine-tenths of the population lived, he would have been dumbfounded if asked how they were governed."

And from HERE

Traveling was Sargent’s natural state. .......he didn’t like being tied to his studio, so in the first decade of the 20th century, he played hooky by usually spending August to October traveling in Switzerland, Italy and Spain with a small circle of family and friends (including fellow painters).

He is said to have possessed a huge appetite and became corpulent in middle age. In 1925, at age 69, Sargent died in London, without having married or left behind any known descendants.

This doesn't strike me as one of the most obvious fits of a natal chart to an artist. From descriptions of Sargent's personality in quotes above he sounded rather Virgoan to me. Virgo might be his rising sign, I suppose. His Venus in Sagittarius matches his need for travel: "travelling was Sargent's natural state", that's a good fit.

I think Pisces Moon (it would be in this sign unless he were born in the last breaths of 22 December)with Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces too - the sign's traditional and modern rulers - accounts for a lot, including his creative talent and rather absent minded approach to current events, maybe even his apparent inarticulateness. Not sure on that though - Mercury in Saturn-ruled Capricorn, along with Saturn in Gemini, might impede mind-to-tongue co-ordination. I can attest to something akin to this, having Mercury in Capricorn myself, but not Saturn in Gemini. I feel far more articulate in writing than in speech (others might suggest I'm articulate in neither, and I would not dare to argue).

Sargent is described also as being "very shy". This affliction, too, could be related to Saturn in Gemini.

There's a "Yod" (Finger of Fate) linking a sextile between Uranus and Neptune at 16 degrees of Taurus and Pisces to Mars at 12 Libra, and his Vertex point. Taurus and Libra are both Venus-ruled signs - Venus is planet of the arts. There is emphasis on Venus and Venus-ruled signs, Pisces and the sign's rulers throughout the chart...creative, arty, soft-feeling. Capricorn Sun and Mercury contrast this with an overlay of a harder more taciturn facet in his nature, his traditional realist art style, and his professional portrait painting with close connection to the upper-classes.

Examples of his work:

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

 Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

Theodore Roosevelt

 Gassed (See HERE)

 Sketches of detail for Gassed, above

El Jaleo

 In a Levantine Port

Girls

 A Bedouin Arab

 Escutcheon of Charles V

 Ethel Smyth (chalk drawing)

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Craven Images

Any time our home state, Oklahoma, gets itself into the news it's always for something either horrific, or vaguely embarrassing! This time, thankfully, it's the latter. It's a variation on the old controversy about depictions of The Ten Commandments being displayed in State buildings or on State property. If I recall correctly The Ten are displayed in the foyer of a public building in our town - the courthouse, I think. I remember doing a "tsk tsk" as I walked past last time we were in there. It wouldn't rankle half as much if those displaying The Ten would live up to 'em. "Thou shalt not kill!" that one didn't take, did it? And what about the warning against graven images - could it not be argued that a sculpture or any display of The Ten is nothing more than a graven image?

This latest news has a lighter side to it - it's another "if you didn't laugh you'd cry" moment. From The Daily Mail:

Satan worshipers want 7-foot-tall statue of devil put at Oklahoma state Capitol

The New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds. The application includes an artist's rendering of Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard. They want it to sit where a Ten Commandments monument sat in 2012. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.......................

The push by the Satanic Temple has rankled elected leaders in this conservative state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, who say such a proposal would never be approved by the commission.

'I think you've got to remember where you are. This is Oklahoma, the middle of the heartland,' said Don Armes, Republican representative for Faxon.

'I think we need to be tolerant of people who think different than us, but this is Oklahoma, and that's not going to fly here.'

While Greaves acknowledges the Satanic Temple's effort is in part to highlight what it says is hypocrisy of state leaders in Oklahoma, he says the group is serious about having a monument placed there.

Wonder how it'd go down if I put in an application to have a sculpture in the Capitol grounds depicting the ecliptic with signs of the zodiac ?

Capricorn Casserole

Some re-hashed astrology-talk regarding zodiac sign Capricorn, the sign through which the Sun is currently traversing ~~~

On the whole zodiac sign Capricorn gets a bad rap, probably only second to Scorpio for negative reporting. Standard keywords for Capricorn, the sign ruled by planet Saturn, include: serious, disciplined, careful, cautious, thrifty, cold, organised, solid, old-fashioned, conservative, business-like. There's an adjective coined from their ruler's name -"saturnine". Sounds dry and boring doesn't it?

A handful of well-known Sun Capricorn people refute that Sun sign stereotype though, at least from what we're allowed to know of them: think David Bowie, Jim Carrey, Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin, Betty White, LL CoolJ..........

From personal, real-life, experience I draw a blank regarding Sun Capricorn people, but I have formed the idea at the back of my mind that many of 'em have a wickedly dry sense of humour - I'm not sure from whence that idea would spring, possibly from planets lying in signs adjacent to Capricorn. Sun in Capricorn individuals are liable to have two or more personal planets in neighbouring signs Sagittarius and Aquarius; both signs' characteristics would be likely to dilute Capricorn traits considerably, bring in a hint of happy-go-lucky Sagittarius flavour, or a touch of whacky Aquarianisms. Conversely, it's quite easy to pick up Capricorn flavour in natives of those two neighbouring signs, where close personal planets are often found doing a turn in Capricorn.

Typical textbook Capricorn traits would be more likely apparent in a person with Saturn rising in Capricorn - ruler rising in its own sign. That's when Capricorn traits could be more easily discerned, even if that person's natal Sun and Moon were nowhere near the sign of the seagoat. It's unwise to place too much confidence in Sun signs, they're an easy label, a convenient rule of thumb, a fun grouping, but also liable to be very misleading if taken in isolation.



(Sir) Anthony Hopkins has Sun and ascendant in Capricorn - perhaps slightly more stereotypical than those people mentioned above. He comes over as fairly serious and disciplined, a little old fashioned. But even here, his Moon in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Aquarius tend to "mix it up and make it nice", added to which, Capricorn's ruler Saturn lay in Pisces as he was born, lightening its heavy influence quite a lot.





Graham Chapman (of Monty Python- shirtless in the photo), with Sun and ascendant in Capricorn, Moon in Taurus, Saturn in Taurus sounds like someone Earthy and sensible - heading closer to the stereotype - but Venus and Mars lay in Sagittarius, which kind of knocks it all smartly on the head.



(Sir)Sean Connery, the original James Bond,is the nearest I can find to matching a typical Capricorn stereotype, yet his Sun and Moon are in Virgo, an Earth sign which doesn't tend to smother Capricorn completely. He has Capricorn rising with Saturn in first house very close to the ascending degree. Saturn is his dominant planet and Capricorn shares sign dominance with Virgo. The ususal culprits for messing up Capricorn's serious reputation, Sagittarius and Aquarius, don't get a look in in Connery's chart, by the way.

As it happens, Hopkins and Connery both have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II - that in itself is rather Capricornian! However, Hopkins is unimpressed and says he only accepted the knighthood to make his (then) wife happy. Connery describes it as one of the proudest days of his life. He had been denied the honour for several years due to his passionate Scottish nationalism, and support for Scottish Independence.

 I'm with Anthony Hopkins on this!

ARCTIC

Intense cold, currently experienced by many parts of the USA, has brought forth a new (to me) term: "Polar Vortex". In reading about it I came across the excellent videos linked below.

David Wasdell explains the situation in a clear concise way in the two approx. 20 minute videos. If you, like me were aware but somewhat confused, please do take the time to watch this important explanation.

ARCTIC FEEDBACK DYNAMICS ~ David Wasdell

Mystical Music Monday ~ Bernadette and the 1844 Gang

Tomorrow, 7 January 2014, will be the 170th anniversary of the birth of Bernadette Soubirous, a miller's daughter born in Lourdes, France, later venerated as a Christian mystic and Saint in the Catholic Church: Saint Bernadette. She was born in 1844, died 1879, aged 35. Her story is well-known, related in the movie Song of Bernadette, and honoured in this Song of Bernadette written by Leonard Cohen, sung here by Jennifer Warnes ~

The early months of 1844 brought forth some rather special natives with fairly unusual natal charts. Personal planets and some outers clustered around "the winter signs" Capricorn/Aquarius/Pisces. Occasionally Moon would be found out on a limb, as in St Bernadette's case. Her chart is below, using data from astro.com.

Some others born during the first half of 1844 have a touch of mysticism in their makeup too - there must've been something in the air during those months! That doesn't apply to the first of the group listed below though.

On another level altogether, and a bit closer to home : Cole Younger - Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (born January 15, 1844, 2 weeks after St Bernadette). American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw with the James-Younger gang. He was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger. tacitly acknowledged as "the brains" of the gang. He sometimes showed kindness, giving stolen foodstuff to the poor, and among Confederate sympathizers Younger and his cohorts were perceived almost as folk heroes. Their occasional hide-out in the hills of Oklahoma is now known as Robbers' Cave State Park.
(See HERE)


Olney H. Richmond (22 February). American mystic. From a mundane background, he became a feed and grain dealer. However, he had so many "unusual" experiences during the Civil War that he turned to metaphysical study. Richmond later founded the Temple of the Stars and wrote the "Mystic Text Book" for Masons only.


Abdul Baha'i, (23 May). Persian religious leader of Baha'i who aimed to establish a New World Order. The eldest son of Baha'u'llah, he followed the mystic path from age nine and became his father's successor. Abdul-Baha weathered internal strife and religious persecution to establish communities around the world. In 1920, the year before his death, he was knighted by the British government.

Camille Lemmonier (23 March). Belgian novelist, short-story writer, and art critic, one of the outstanding personalities of the 19th-century French literary renaissance in Belgium.

..........under the influence of the naturalism of Émile Zola. Like his other novels, it is a work of great violence, describing characters of unbridled instincts and passions. Happe-Chair (1886)....deals with the life of drudgery led by mill workers. Later, in the work of his middle period, Lemonnier turned to psychological analysis, condemning the conservative tendencies of the bourgeoisie. He then developed a mystical naturalism, as in Le Petit homme de Dieu (1903; “The Little Man of God”).

There's something else worth a mention, it's what blog friend and commenter "mike" calls a "quinky-dink". William Miller (1782-1849), a Baptist preacher, from the United States, credited with beginning the mid-nineteenth century North American religious movement now known as Adventism, predicted that sometime between 1843 and 1844....Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
He didn't. I do wonder, though, whether William Miller had astrological knowledge and had noted the peculiar line up of planets during part of that period.

Hmmm - funny ol' year, 1844!

Postscript
RIP Phil Everly.
There's an old post on Phil and his brother HERE.

Military

I read this very good article yesterday at Counterpunch:
Patriotism: Signs of Saturation
by JAMES ROTHENBERG
Snip:

On one of the flights (South West Airlines) there were some young, uniformed military personnel. I had noticed in the pre-flight waiting area a young man and woman, both in camouflage fatigues, she with a large backpack. As we inched to the gate at the end of one leg, an attendant solemnly requested that all passengers remain seated while these – in rough paraphrase – brave men and women who have just been deployed overseas and will be fighting on our behalf so that we may remain free have the honor of exiting first. This request was greeted by some polite applause, and then a woman began singing God Bless America. Several seemed to join her but it quickly died out. And then the troops exited to more applause.............A scene like this (familiar to many readers) renders with clarity the excellent selling job the state has done to its “appendages” in pursuance of its power arrangements. It is at once maddening, sad, and tragic.

Similar occasions do become familiar after a time in the USA. Just last weekend, watching the Kennedy Center Honors show on TV, as Garth Brooks paid tribute to Billy Joel one of the honorees, by singing Joel's song Goodnight Saigon - singing it very well too - of course an opportunity like that could not be left alone could it? Onto the stage marched a variety of military and veteran personnel. The audience rose to their feet, all was hallowed, it was as though the Messiah had entered the building. I tried to reduce my angry yell to a subdued complaint as husband shrugged his shoulders.

Yesterday glancing around Twitter I noticed a hashtag title "#AmericanvBritish", wondered what it was all about. It was mostly silly stuff about comedy or sport or celebrities, but among the "tweets" I found this:

Said by an American soldier after a tour in Iraq.

Notwithstanding my dislike of anything militaristic and overtly patriotic, I had to swallow a lump in my throat as I read it. As I recall, in the UK, people do not revere their military lads and lasses in anything comparable to the way people of the USA idolise theirs.
"Just saying"... as they say.