Two musical endings last week left me feeling sad. #1:Merle Haggard left us, forever - but he did leave behind so much good country music that his voice will still be around - forever.
#2: American Idol left TV after its 15th season, with a splendid Farewell Show last Thursday evening,
I've loved Merle Haggard's songs, and his singing since I first heard his recordings in the late 1980s. My old post on Merle is HERE. Below is a trio of some of my favourites - heck, all his songs are my favourites really - but I've picked three which don't seem to come up often these days: Lonesome Fugitive - the first song of his I ever heard; Footlights - which tells how Merle dealt with his own ageing, and don't we all wish we could kick out metaphorical footlights at times? Lastly, Big City - the song I'd always put on my record player, full blast, back in the UK when we were about to leave on vacation.
'Bye Merle - and a thousand thanks for all the musical pleasures, past, present and future.
Here's a 7 minute clip from the American Idol farewell show last week - it features brief snips from well-known songs, sung by some of the best of Idol's singing finds over the years. I don't recall all the names, but one standout performance is in the last clip, of Jessica Sanchez singing The Prayer.
I was going to post a video of this season's winner, Trent Harmon, singing Sia's Chandelier, but videos at YouTube don't do his performance full justice; better quality is at second video in this article.
And so, it's 'bye 'bye to Idol - maybe not forever. The show has to have been quite a moneymaker for Fox, and we all know that they won't lose any chance to make more money!
I've followed American Idol every season since living in the USA, and before that I watched its original, parent show Pop Idol in the UK. I've always been a sucker for musical talent shows, watched any and all of them. Many people see this as kinda infra dig...so be it. I'm always up for a bit of infra dig!
I love to see ordinary people getting a chance to shine. I admit, though, that as the years passed the show became something it was never intended to be. The original was raw, honest, sweet, real. In these later years it became manipulated by producers, contestants were often not exactly amateur, and too much focus was trained on "celebrity" judges and their antics. It was past time to give the show a rest.
'Bye Idol - but I do suspect you'll return, one day, in some form or other.
Wyoming's Democratic Party caucus takes place today.
I don't know much about the state. We visited just the eastern edge of it during a trip in September 2009:
Snip:
We next ventured into Wyoming, the state line isn't too far from Deadwood. We sought and found Devil's Tower, famous for its appearance in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
Before I had any idea that I could ever be living in a place where Wyoming was a possibility to visit, at least travelling by land, I had formed an idea about the state which may or may not be a fair one. It was based on a song from my favourite Elton John CD, Songs From the West Coast, a song titled American Triangle. The song tells of a very nasty incident in Wyoming in the late 1990s:
Matthew Wayne "Matt" Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming on the night of October 6, 1998, and died six days later at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, from severe head injuries.
[Matthew was gay]
The song mentions the state's name, and that mention remained in my memory very clearly:
On a more pleasant note, we've recently enjoyed two seasons of a TV series (via Netflix) set in Wyoming: Longmire. The series has given me a much better view of Wyoming.
I hope Wyoming voters will be kind to Bernie today!
I could not possibly pass an opportunity to feature an artist with a name like Odd Nerdrum. He's known as a Norwegian artist, though born in Helsingborg, Sweden on this day, 8 April, in 1944.
I should not poke fun at his name, but it's tempting to do so, especially as it seems to fit him so well.
A piece about Nerdrum at Art Cyclopedia by Paul A.Cantor, The Importance of Being Odd: Nerdrum's Challenge to Modernism, tells that the artist is, temperamentally a rebel, whose childhood vicissitudes left a mark upon him. The full article is a good and enlightening read, by the way.
Nerdrum has openly acknowledged his debt to the Old Masters. He uses heavy layers of paint to create chiaroscuro effects reminiscent of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, and he also continually recalls the achievement of the great Italian and Dutch painters in his ability to capture the texture of things on canvas - from shiny metals to rich fabrics. Above all, he knows how to convey every shade of human flesh. And yet the subject matter of Nerdrum's works is usually enough to place him in the modern world. His dark palette seems to underwrite a disturbing vision of the end of civilization as we know it. For those who have not seen Nerdrum's paintings, I try to describe them this way: imagine the result if Rembrandt had painted the sets of The Road Warrior.
This video offers samples of his work:
Snip from a book "Essays on the End" (See here) - click on image for clearer view:
Nerdrum's paintings do not appeal to me, in much the same way that Mad Max the movie didn't appeal to me. Some of his subjects are seriously unpleasant; there's one titled Twilight which made me consider changing my long-time screen name! Perhaps the subjects of his paintings are a way of dispelling his own inner discomforts.
I noticed during Google searches that Mr Nerdrum is presently, or has recently been, in prison for tax evasion - see here. Ever the rebel!
ASTROLOGY
A look at his natal chart, set for 12 noon as no time of birth is available.
Born on 8 April 1944 in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Rebel? I look for Uranus first. Semi-sextile Mercury on one side and Mars on t'other, also sextile Pluto and trine Neptune - so while Uranus isn't in an obviously prominent place (though it could be on Nerdrum's ascendant degree for all we know) it is linked in to several personal planets in both helpful and challenging ways.
Venus, planet of the arts, forms part of the T-square formed by Venus opposite Neptune, Venus square Saturn and Saturn square Neptune. His art style, harking back to the age of the Great Masters, could be seen as represented by Saturn, while the imaginative topics of his paintings are represented by Neptune's creativity. The darkness and/or eroticism in many of his paintings have to be reflected by Pluto links: Sun sextile Pluto could be the main culprit there.
Moon's natal position can't be known withouta precise time of birth, but would have been somewhere in Libra, possibly even in trine to rebellious Uranus in Gemini - that'd be a good fit!
In the interests of fairness and balance I guess I should post something exclusively about Hillary Clinton, rather than forever mentioning her in comparison to Bernie, during this primary season.
Poking around in my blog archives I found this, it was an ever so slightly off-topic snip found in a post about Evita, the woman, Eva Peron and the musical show based on her life. Extract from the post follows:
I came across something loosely linked to the Eva Peron story at British astrologer Marjorie Orr's website in a forum there. [Note: I'm sorry, but the link I posted in 2008 is now defunct].
Under the heading "USA anti-women", Marjorie Orr discusses women in power. I took the liberty of copying an extract. [Sadly the full context, as part of a discussion, is lost due to link being no longer live.]
The extract is interesting on another level - Clinton-wise! But that's another story, still to be told. I wonder if anyone will write a musical about that story, in years to come?
Marjorie Orr:
"What also seems relevant is Saturn Neptune. I was surprised when I did the research for my book the Astrological History of the World to find that Saturn Neptune is significant in women's rise to greater influence - for astrological reasons I still can't quite fathom - but it certainly was around in periods of women coming to power and workers demanding their rights. Perhaps Saturn Neptune's drive in its best aspect for a fairer society - with emotional Neptune eroding the masculine (Saturn) power base. There was a Saturn Neptune conjunction when Elizabeth I was crowned (Taurus) and again when Elizabeth II was crowned (Libra); a Saturn Neptune square when Queen Victoria was crowned and a wide square when Maggie Thatcher was elected PM. Indira Gandhi became the first Indian woman PM on a Saturn Neptune trine and Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to be Pakistan's PM on a Saturn Neptune conjunction (Capricorn).
Looking at the charts of these countries which have produced women rulers they all have strongish Saturn Neptune aspects natally. The UK 1066 has a Saturn Neptune trine; the UK 1801 has a very central Saturn Neptune square. Both the India 1877 and 1947 charts have Saturn Neptune sextiles as does Pakistan. And Argentina which produced Eva Peron has a Saturn Neptune conjunction natally. Israel also has a Saturn Neptune sextile natally and a 10th house Moon. They elected Golda Meir as PM in 1969 though not on a Sat Nep transit.
The USA does not have Saturn Neptune in aspect - and Saturn, the masculine planet, squares the Sun, trines Uranus, picks up Mars and maybe the Moon - so it is afflicted or at least very much in operation. And it's in aspect to both Sun and Moon emphasising the Emperor quality rather than the Empress. Italy has Saturn conjunct the Moon and opposing the Sun which is the same but worse.
The 2012 next Presidential Election has a Saturn Neptune trine; 2016 a square; 2020 a sextile and the next Saturn Neptune conjunction is in 2025 just after the 2024 election. But it may just not be in the nature of the USA to have a woman at the helm".
Interesting, but I feel sure there are arguments to the contrary! As mentioned, at present we have a Neptune-Saturn square going on, Saturn is in Sagittarius, Neptune in Pisces, both signs ruled traditionally by Jupiter, both mutable signs - not sure whether that'd be at all relevant here, but mutable does mean open to change!
Anyway, as far as these observations relate to 2016 - we shall soon see!
Senator Bernie Sanders won the Wisconsin primary by around 13 points! Thank you Wisconsin! Congratulations to Senator Sanders! A supercilious sniff to the Clinton campaign:
(By Victor Morton - The Washington Times - Tuesday, April 5, 2016)
The Hillary Clinton campaign has “lost patience” and will start going after Sen. Bernard Sanders much harder and hoping to destroy his campaign, CNN reported Tuesday night.
In a report after Mrs. Clinton’s latest defeat at the hands of the Vermont socialist, reporter Jeff Zeleny said the Clinton campaign has decided that party unity can come later.
TSK!!!
I was a fan of Bernie Sanders long before his current presidential campaign began.
There's a post dated December 210 which also quotes from an earlier, 2008, post about the good Senator:
Our April primary calendar, borrowing from Kiss Me Kate, musical version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. I've adjusted a song from that show about a travelling band of players/entertainers. What else is our own travelling band of politicians? A video version of the original song follows.
We open in Venice Wisconsin
We next play Verona Wyoming
Then on to Cremona New York
Lotsa laughs in Cremona in New York City,
Our next jump is Parma Delaware
That dopey, mopey menace,
Then Mantua,thenPadua Connecticut, then Maryland
Then we open again, where? In Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
So...primaries and travelling players trundle on, all the while pundits, columnists, bloggers and commenters becoming ever more decidedly partisan. That was to be expected, in any election year, but especially in 2016, with two candidates opposing the establishments of their chosen parties. Not only do we have the usual Democrat versus Republican election game being played (prematurely, because we're still in primary mode), we have Hillary versus Bernie, and Trump versus Cruz (and/or Kasich or A. N. Other).
I have only memories of the 2008, 2012 and this election seasons (+ mid-terms), so have not wide experience from which to compare 2016 with long-gone election seasons. The internet has been a great cyber playground available in all US elections of my own experience, with increasing importance as years have passed. This is a good thing, a very good thing, because it unites groups of supporters, aids candidates, highlights untruths - but there's always a dark side.
My own internet reading this time has been confined to websites known for being, at least left-leaning if not exactly progresssive (some might call themselves progressive, but they're truly not and have proved it this time). Feuding between Hillary's and Bernie's supporters, including genuine and planted commenters, has become more unpleasant by the day. This is a side effect of Bernie Sanders' campaign's unexpectedly strong showing. Not much more than a year ago it was expected that Hillary Clinton would be a shoo-in for the Democrats: it was "her turn", "she is a female, the glass ceiling of the US presidency should be broken - it's past time"... etc. When that kind of propadanda began to show cracks, bad feeling began to erupt first from one side, then from the other.
Something I've discovered more clearly this time is which websites and blogs are truly progressive, i.e. they support Bernie Sanders. They are few. The rest are either overtly or covertly supporting Clinton and openly or snidely damping down potential Bernie support from readers. Columnists, and some bloggers, I've respected and enjoyed reading in the past now have been mentally given black marks, never again to be trusted. Yep - I'm as partisan as the next person - in the privacy of my own mind and my own blog.
As commenter "Newton Finn", under a piece at Alternet at the weekend wrote:
[we]have come to the realization that many of these comfortable liberal - primarily concerned with personal or social issues instead of hardcore economic ones - are not comrades in the struggle but rather share the mindset of what Marx called the petite bourgeoisie. Moving forward with a true democratic revolution that fundamentally alters status quo concepts and structures necessarily entails leaving these third-way liberals behind, shaking the dust off our feet, and instead reaching out to the exploited and increasingly desperate working class, so many of whom have lined up behind Trump because the left has often ignored them and looked down on them. There is no better voice to listen to in this regard than that of the late great Joe Bageant.
The 2010 piece at the link is a very, very good read by the way.
I'm conscious of the fact that my support for Bernie has lost me at least two former commenters, two I could ill-afford to lose in this Facebook infested world - yet that's the way it has to be. I couldn't feel right sitting on the fence on such an important issue.
Today, April 4th was the birthday of Muddy Waters:
He had his mojo workin' in 1966, I hope Bernie has his in top gear tomorrow in Wisconsin.
Tomorrow, April 5th, day of the Wisconsin primary was the birthday of British pop singer from the 1960s, Crispian St Peters. This was his best-known hit: "Follow me..." - and that's Bernie's call...
And...oh my, best of all! April 5th is also the birthday of Alan Clarke original lead singer of The Hollies - their huge 1969 hit song exactly fits Bernie's message today, and always:
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home"
In the hospital where my mother died they had a small prayer/meditation room with one wall decorated (and lit up) to resemble a stained glass window. That extract from Wordsworth was 'engraved' on the wall, it was a reminder that all things must pass away: to be reborn?
You will have heard that tired old cliche that we must "...live each day as if it were your last"
That is a philosophy of despair.
You must live each day as if it were your first! Look at everything and everyone with wonder as if for the first time!
Thank you, JD!
A couple of quatrains from my favourite go-to Persian philosopher (Omar Khayyam). He was in a rather more cynical mood, adding some edge, though not exactly arguing with what JD has written.
But leave the wise to wrangle, and with me
The Quarrel of the Universe let be:
And in some corner of the Hubub coucht,
Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee.
'Tis all a Chequer board of Nights and Days
where Destiny with Men for pieces plays:
Hither and tither moves and mates and slays,
and one by one back in the Closet lays.
JD counters with this though:
If you want to add some verses from the Great Omar that's fine but remember my original idea was to affirm the idea that we are truly immortal which was Wordsworth's view.
The Bhagavad Gita says "the soul is never destroyed when the body is destroyed"-
In a similar fashion that is the message of all the Sufi poets including Omar Khayyam. I have a small book called 'Magic Casements' by Sir George Trevelyan. Wonderful book and I didn't realise the whole book was on-line, so it is worth reading what he has to say about the Rubaiyat, as indicated beneath the quatrains below:
Sir George Trevelyan: At this point I include five verses from that great poem FITZGERALD's: 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' [Sir GT's comments are beneath each quatrain]. This is usually treated as a wine-bibber's philosophy - 'Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.' It does, apparently, say that death is extinction – but as we have seen, every symbol is Janus-faced. You are free to read it in the way that gives meaning to your life, negatively or the reverse. Thus the poem really is about Life Eternal, the Wine of Life and consciousness. The Cup is the body, and the wine is the life given us by Him who said, 'I am the true Vine.'
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp
Abode his hour or two, and went his way.
The Caravanserai is our Earth life, with the moon-gate of birth and the sun-gate of death – the new dawn.
Listen to this:
Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and future Fears –
Tomorrow? – Why, Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.
We must learn to live in the present, not because there is no future but that we have the creation of the future in our own hands, if we can learn to work with our Higher Self.
Ah, fill the Cup, what boots it to repeat
How Time is slipping underneath our feet:
Unborn Tomorrow and dead Yesterday,
Why fret about them if Today be sweet?
One moment in Annihilation's Waste,
One moment, of the Well of Life to taste –
The stars are setting and the Caravan
Starts for the Dawn of Nothing – Oh, make haste!
So easily can the poem look like negation – after death there is nothing. But the Life Eternal belongs to the ethereal realm beyond time, space and form. Thus it is the realm of No Thing, a condition of unborn-ness; a freedom from the limitations of form and embodiment. Life on Earth is 'Annihilation's Waste' – this is the 'Well of Life', the heaviest, densest vibration, which we enter for a brief span of existence. As Dawn comes and the stars set, the caravan starts for that Higher Realm – O make haste! Had the negative interpretation been valid, surely Omar would have urged us to miss this Caravan and have another evening of drinking and merry-making. This gives us the clue to the central verse which superficially appears complete negation and, interpreted, is the great affirmation.
And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press,
End in the Nothing all things end in – Yes!
Then fancy while thou art, thou art but what
Thou shalt be – Nothing – Thou shalt not be less.
For 'Nothing' read 'No Thing' – a condition of 'pre thing-ness'.
Note that affirmation of 'YES' in the middle of this strange verse, the assurance that as a soul you will not be less than a free spirit united with your Higher Self. So, while here, imagine you are what you will be – a No Thing. Thus you will prepare for the great transition, with Donne – What you will be then, think here before, for Thought is the great reality.
JD: So that will be clear as mud now, will it? :)
I love having my synapses tickled into action and my consciousness expanded!
Portrait of Edward Hicks by his cousin Thomas Hicks
Information, edited and extracted from: ART REVIEW: Finding Endless Conflict Hidden in a Peaceable Kingdom By HOLLAND COTTER.
Published: June 16, 2000.
Edward Hicks was born on 4 April 1780 in Attleboro, Pennsylvania. His childhood was unsettled, his mother died in his infancy; he and siblings were boarded out by his father, then unable to support them. From age 3 Edward lived with a Quaker family. At 13 was apprenticed to a local coach-making firm. He showed a flair for ornamental painting: heraldic devices and decorative lettering. He fell into a pattern of drinking and carousing that spun out of control. Then he rediscovered religion. Around 1800 he began to attend meetings of the Religious Society of Friends - Quakers.
Hicks was devout, yet impractical. In 1811 he became an unsalaried Quaker minister and opened a carriage-and-sign painting shop. Because the ministry required frequent travel from home (he was married with children by this time), the business had to fend for itself.
The painting Hicks specialized in was censured by the Quakers. His expertly decorated signs and objects were viewed as vain, luxurious, un-Friendly things. He tried to restrict himself to a no-frills style, then sold the business to become a farmer, with calamitous economic results. His problems were compounded by his high-strung, fractious personality, given to bursts of fury and fits of sobbing. He was extremely candid in his opinions, particularly on matters related to the religious community, which didn't always endear him to others. A bitter doctrinal and psychic war within the community shaped Hicks's art. After his farming misadventure, he resumed his career as an artisan but also began to do easel paintings on the Peaceable Kingdom theme. Initially this could have been a way to give what he called his "excessive fondness for painting" an acceptable moral dimension. His crude earliest known version of the subject was adapted from a Bible print illustrating a passage from Isaiah about a millennial vision in which natural enemies are reconciled: "The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."
One version, of many, of The Peaceable Kingdom
Hicks continued doing other work, but the "Kingdoms" were special to him, he painted them repeatedly and obsessively, for himself, or as gifts. They become more complex in style, combining the vivacity of popular art with surprising academic finesse, they also grew more pointed in content. The first series, starting in the early 1820's, incorporated a secondary background vignette of the 17th-century Quaker William Penn arranging a treaty of peace with American Indians. After a great internal divide within the Quaker community in 1827, the images became more volatile, even propagandistic. Penn's treaty was replaced by a ghostly troop of historic Quaker elders. In the next decade, when the paintings became both deeply expressive and wildly uneven in quality, the foreground changed. Additional children and animals were included. The carnivorous beasts, lions, leopards, wolves, grow in size. Where once they had cast their eyes docilely to the ground, they stared out, alert, aggressive, challenging, appearing rabidly agitated.
Hicks meant the animals to typify human traits in line with his view of contemporary Quaker politics: the lion symbolized power gained through wealth, the leopard a suave, threatening worldliness. Occasionally animals are in conflict. But even when they aren't, the assemblies have a jumbled, restive feeling. The ground beneath them is eroding; a fissure in the earth separates them from Penn's treaty behind.
Around 1840, the mood shifted again. Hicks saw that the ideological battle he had anguished over would remain unresolved. The animals start to look aged and weary. In one painting, the lion's face bears a startling resemblance to that of Hicks in a portrait by his nephew, Thomas, where he poses with an unfinished kingdom on his easel.
He produced "Peaceable" images to the end of his life, was preparing one for his daughter when he died. But he had also turned to other subjects.
Versions via video - the first one needs to have audio at highest level.
Born 4 April 1780, Near Langhorne PA. chart set for 12 noon, time of birth unknown.
We're told (above) that his personality was high-strung, fractious, impractical, candid and outspoken. He obviously had an innate artistic talent, unpolished but undeniable.
Where does any of that shine through his natal chart?
Moon's exact position remains unknown without a time of birth, but would have been somewhere in Aries, as well as natal Sun. With personal planets Mercury, Venus and Mars in adjacent sign Taurus it seems likely that there'd be some internal wrangling between - the astrological Ram and Bull. Stubborn attributes of Taurus and impetuous, impatient occasionally aggressive traits of Aries tend to be tricky blends in any personality, not exactly an inner Peaceable Kingdom! Add Pluto in independent determined Aquarius in square to his natal communications planet, Mercury in Taurus, and you could have a reflection of his candid outspoken, opinions.
Saturn harmoniously trines his Sun, possibly Moon too, from Sagittarius, bringing in an extra element of rigidity to his nature.
Jupiter (expansion, excess, religion, philosophy) lay in scratchy 150 degree (quincunx) aspect to his natal Venus, planet of the arts. That could be seen as a link to his obvious need to keep painting the same subject again and again, possibly as a means to to easing an underlying psychological discomfort within himself.
Seems like light years ago, during one of the earliest TV-aired Democratic Debates, when Bernie Sanders said, in response to a presenter's question, something along the lines of: "The people are sick of hearing about Secretary Clinton's e-mails, let's talk about important issues". I haven't heard of Senator Sanders mentioning the subject since. Many others are talking and writing about it. Perhaps it's time, now, for Bernie to visit the topic.
In a world where we expected the law to be equally applied to all, Democrats should be panicking right now over the status of the investigations against Clinton and the Clinton campaign’s troubling responses. The Washington Post has documented numerous misstatements and evasions made by Clinton around the emails, concluding that “it appears Clinton often used highly technical language to obscure the salient fact that her private email setup was highly unusual and flouted existing regulations.” All of this should be making Democrats panic, and sending them scrambling to find a non-indictable nominee.
But that’s not happening, for a very obvious reason. Nobody seriously believes the law would be applied to Clinton with the same pitiless irrationality as it was to Bryan Nishimura. Yet that leaves us with a stark choice: either treat the Clinton scandal as troubling and a major campaign issue, or acknowledge that we are entrusting an oligarchical justice system to make the issue go away for Clinton in a way it wouldn’t for anyone else. Neither choice should leave Democrats comfortable.
I'm in need of a non-political, non-astrological interlude today. I remember, long, long ago and far away, at the cinema, when watching a double bill - common in those days - there'd be an interlude between films when a vendor would move along the aisles with trays of little tubs of ice cream and at the same time, magically, a lighted organ would suddenly erupt from below the screen, with organist playing a jaunty selection of tunes, to accompany the quiet slurps of folk scoffing their ice creams. This'll have to do in place of such delights today, y'all will have to imagine the ice cream vendor though.
If things go well for Sanders, and he even comes close in pledged delegates by winning handily in most of the remaining primaries, Clinton will be seen to be winning only based on having done exceedingly well only in the “front-loaded” southern states which neither she nor Sanders stand a chance of winning in the general election, making those delegates’ votes really marginal if not meaningless. At that point it would be fair, as the Sanders campaign plans to do, to press the unpledged so-called superdelegates -- party hacks, elected officials and big Democratic donors -- to reconsider earlier pre-primary pledges to back Clinton. If enough of those superdelegates were to follow calls to vote the way their states’ primary voters voted, it could tip the delegate balance to Sanders.
Meanwhile, if they do not do that, Philadelphia, the site of the July Democratic Convention beginning on July 25, could be a scene of chaos and mayhem reminiscent of the 1968 convention in Chicago, which featured riots both on the convention floor and in the streets of Chicago, as masses of peace activists and backers of anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy protested the railroading of pro-war candidate Hubert Humphrey. A similar thing could easily develop in Philadelphia if Sanders backers feel that their candidate and they themselves are being robbed by party leaders of a victory they feel they’ve won.
After reading the full piece, pulling out my 20th and 21st century ephemerides I checked to see whether any astrological similarities stood out for dates of 1968 and 2016 Democratic Conventions. The only similarity, degree-wise, I noted were degrees close to 24 Aries.
In late August 1968, time of the Democratic convention, Saturn was at 25 Aries, in July 2016 Uranus will be at 24 Aries.
In August 1968 Saturn at 25 Aries and and Neptune in Scorpio were in scratchy quincunx aspect, and Uranus and Pluto at 28 and 22 Virgo formed quincunxes to Saturn also.
In 2016 Uranus from 24 Aries will make an uncomfortable quincunx to Mars in Scorpio, while Jupiter from 21 Virgo will also be in quincunx aspect to Uranus.
Dang! Eyes and brain have crossed in trying to compare these placements via ephemerides - may as well post a chart for middle date of both conventions, set for 12 noon.
28 August 1968 Chicago
26 July 2016 Philadelphia
Well, just from the chart formations, visually, I'd say 2016's convention ain't gonna be a lot like that of 1968!
This is interesting though! In 2016 Uranus (the rebel, the unexpected) at the apex of a Yod involving 2 quincux aspects from Jupiter (excess, expansion) and Mars (energy, aggression) in sextile. In 1968 Saturn (law, status quo, the establishment) was at the apex of a Yod involving sextile of Neptune and a group of Virgo planets including Uranus.
I'd like to think that whereas 1968's concentrated and drastic events didn't, in the end, move much away from the status quo and establishment rule represented by Saturn; in 2016, with Uranus at the apex of a Yod, perhaps non-establishment, and mild revolutionary events might filter out more of the status quo, and filter in something new, even something mildly revolutionary.
I've pondered before on the question of why some people's political preferences are as they are. Three of my archived posts, with interesting commentary beneath, from 2011, 2012 and 2014:
Astrology apart, I can understand why the wealthy, and better-off land-owners, farmers, ranchers, lesser aristocracy (in the UK), or well-heeled professionals etc would vote conservative/Republican. I have never understood why everyday people of modest means at best, ranging to those in virtual poverty, would even consider voting conservative/Republican. They do. They vote conservative/Republican in droves.
I lived in various locations in the UK for more than 60 years, and in south-west Oklahoma for the past 11 years. Same thing happens in both countries, though I do believe it's more obvious here in the USA where, in certain areas, there exists more severe poverty.
Googling around the net, realising that many others must have puzzled over this same question, I found a few suggestions, which boil down, in a few words to:
Pursuit of aspirations, a bit of mild social climbing - mistakenly assuming conservatives will help lift them "up" to join, if not the golden ones, at least the rhinestone crowd.
The "I'm alright, Jack!" syndrome (well-known in the UK) prevalent in those who have secured a decent job and could not care less about other unfortunates, so vote conservative to ensure their taxes remain at lowest possible level.
Propaganda from radio, newspapers and TV (I'd add churches too, for the USA). Misguiding gullible, trusting folk whose knowledge of politics is skimpy, if any at all, and they lack or energy time to pursue more information, being hard pressed to work enough hours to feed their families.
A feeling that "liberals", who are often seen as "the elite" in the USA, look down on the less well-off and the poor, who then group together and vote "the other way", not realising that voting conservative/Republican is not going to change a darn thing - only make it worse!
Personally, I could never ever, ever, ever vote conservative/Republican - nor for any Democrat who is not truly of the left-wing (most of 'em here in the USA are really not of the left). Whether this is due to something in my astrology, or in my ancestral DNA of generations of serfs in feudal England, I know not.
Democratic primary caucuses are taking place today in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii. Caucus states tend to be Bernie-friendly, so I'm hoping for happy-making results tonight!
Digging around in my archives, this from August of 2008 reminded me of how I felt back then. Nothing much has changed:
Last week I sent off my voter registration application to the State authority, and await the return of a Voter Identification Card for use when I cast my first ever vote in the USA at the General Election in November (2008).
I registered myself as "No Party", unable to conscientiously relate to what I've seen from either party during past months. "No Party" satisfies my Aquarian hankering for freedom and innate obtuseness in any case. Until the primary elections kicked off I always assumed that when I became eligible to vote there was absolutely no question but that I'd join the Democrats. It came as a surprise to me that when the opportunity at last arose, I felt quite unable to do so.
Although I've been here nigh on 4 years, I'm still obviously not translating British political labels into American accurately, or perhaps there is no precise translation. Back in England when US elections were reported on TV and radio I could often be heard asking for a reminder as to which equated to Labour - Republican (symbol the elephant) or Democrat (symbol the donkey). I just couldn't get my head around it. To me Republican sounded more revolutionary and therefore more like Britain's Labour party, the party of "ordinary people", as against the aristocracy and wealthy land owning classes (and those who aspire to, or have delusions of belonging to those groups). The Democrats are the nearest thing to UK's Labour Party I guess, but they aren't extreme enough, I can't really tell "who they are". I'm not sure they know themselves exactly who they are at present, come to that.
I used to describe myself as a European style socialist, but the word socialist here in the USA is almost a dirty word. I think many people equate it with communism. I've learned to keep my mouth shut and my keyboard clamped on that score!
Astrologer C.E.O. Carter said in his "Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology" (first published 1924 in Britain) that "Socialism is one of the manifestations of the Uranian Age, it being an attempt - whether or not a happy one is, of course, beside the point - to realise fraternity and justice. In this it is distinct from the Pisces methods which had been in vogue before, i.e. private philanthropy in the form of foundations, institutions, and alms."
Dear Mr Carter lived in a different era, of course. I wonder what he'd make of the corporatism which we see taking over now? Private philanthropy may still exist in isolated local areas, but on the whole, philanthropy has gone out of fashion in favour of greed. Never has there been more need for "fraternity and justice" - but when will The Uranian Age begin again? I think Mr Carter was referring to the time when Uranus transited its own sign of Aquarius in the early 20th century, from around 1912 to 1920. Uranus has visited Aquarius again since then, a fact which I have engraved on my heart because of what went on then in my life (1995 to 2003). There was no great uprising of socialism as far as I recall - in the USA it was the opposite in fact.
The People will have to wait for the real Age of Aquarius to dawn, before things really start to change. According to the experts it may not dawn in the lifetime of anyone alive now, or even in the lifetimes of their grandchildren...nor even their grandchildren's grandchildren.
In the absence of fraternity and justice until the New Dawning, it would be nice if we could simply have a bit of philanthropy back.
Absent the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, we could at least acknowledge the fact that a herald of "fraternity and justice" is among us right now in Bernie Sanders. He has been ignored, dismissed, ridiculed by Republicans, establishment Democrats and mass media, but gradually has gained respect from some of those who hadn't been aware of his views previously. For me, personally, he's the candidate I've been waiting for.
I'll go out on a limb to say that, however unlikely it might seem, at this point, for Bernie to achieve the presidency, if he were to do so, he would become the most beloved president in anyone's lifetime. That is my deepest feeling about him. If that were to be proved merely a dream, well then, he still should go down in history as a true herald of things to come - at some point in the future when the stars align for The People more strongly and clearly than they do right now. Some of The People, on both sides of the political divide (supporters of Bernie, and those of Donald Trump) may be ultra-sensitive and feeling an advance pull of Saturn's entry into revolutionary Aquarius in late 2020, and an even more advanced pull of Pluto's entry into Aquarius in the Spring of 2023.
Currier and Ives, for me, used to be merely part of some old Christmas song lyrics, back in the UK. I surmised their likely relevance from context, much the same thing used to apply to a few other words, names or expressions purely American in origin.
....As they pass around the coffee
And the pumpkin pie
It'll nearly be like a picture print
By Currier and Ives
These wonderful things are the things
We remember all through our lives
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling
Ring-ting-tingling too
Come on it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you...........
This Arty Farty Friday required a post so, as I noticed in lists of births for late March one Nathaniel Currier, I decided to take a closer look. Yes, this is indeed the "Currier" from those old song lyrics. He wasn't a painter or illustrator himself, but did become a famous print maker.
Nathaniel Currier (March 27, 1813 – November 20, 1888), born in Roxbury, Massachusetts was an American lithographer, who headed the company Currier & Ives with James Ives.
Currier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). Based in New York City from 1834 to 1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored. Lithographic prints could be reproduced quickly and purchased inexpensively, and the firm called itself "the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints" and advertised its lithographs as "colored engravings for the people".
In 1850, James Ives came to work for Currier's firm as bookkeeper. Ives' skills as a businessman and marketer contributed significantly to the growth of the company; in 1857 he was made a full partner, and the company became known as Currier & Ives.
The Firm
The firm Currier and Ives described itself as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Prints". At least 7,500 lithographs were published in the firm's 72 years of operation. Artists produced two to three new images every week for 64 years (1834–1895), producing more than a million prints by hand-colored lithography. For the original drawings, Currier & Ives employed or used the work of many celebrated artists of the day including James E. Buttersworth, Charles R. Parsons, George Inness, Thomas Nast, C.H. Moore, and Eastman Johnson.[9] The stars of the firm were Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, who specialized in sporting scenes; Louis Maurer, who executed genre scenes; George H. Durrie, who supplied winter scenes; and Frances Flora Bond Palmer, who liked to do picturesque panoramas of the American landscape, and who was the first woman in the United States to make her living as a full-time artist. All lithographs were produced on lithographic limestone printing plates on which the drawing was done by hand. A stone often took over a week to prepare for printing. Each print was pulled by hand. Prints were hand-colored by a dozen or more women, often immigrants from Germany with an art background, who worked in assembly-line fashion, one color to a worker, and who were paid $6 for every 100 colored prints. The favored colors were clear and simple, and the drawing was bold and direct another page
ASTROLOGY
Nathaniel Currier born 27 March 1813, Rochester, Mass. Chart set for 12 noon, birth time unknown.
Briefly: Grand Trines thrown up by my software are variations using the similar groups of planets. I see these as key to his professional successes, especially that one linking Venus (art), Jupiter (publication) and Uranus (innovation) into a harmonious circuit - i.e. bringing artworks to a wider swath of the public using modern processes.
Without a time of birth Moon's exact position can't be calculated, but I suspect it would have been somewhere in early Aquarius, as shown in the noon chart above. The flavour of that sign shows through clearly in Currier's aims to provide art accessible to ALL "The People" - very Aquarian!
We arrived home late yesterday afternoon, having decided to take the long, peaceful route back.
'Twas a pleasant change of scene, in honour of husband's birthday, but peculiar range of weather. It was raining quite hard as we set out on Friday morning, dry but chilly on arrival in Joplin, MO that afternoon. It got progressively colder until hitting well below freezing on a couple of nights, and very very cold during Saturday/Sunday (winter jacket and muffler weather) plus the previously mischievous breeze turned into a biting bitchy wind. Monday was milder but still very windy. As we drove part-way home on Tuesday temperatures climbed, and today from a warmish windy start in McAlester OK, temperature had reached mid 80s by the time we reached home - definite short sleeve weather. A whole year's climate in just a few days!
The very sad bad news from Brussels, received from the hotel breakfast room's TV came as a shock, as I'm sure it did to everyone.
I dreaded finding out the results of Tuesday's three primaries, especially after Arizona's loss for Bernie. But, surprise, surprise, this morning brought brighter information - how does that song of Meatloaf's go? Two out of three ain't bad! Good wins too, landslide proportion even. Those results must have encouraged Bernie no end! Sneaky Democratic senators had been hinting, again, that it's time for him to drop out and let Hillary concentrate on the job of fighting Trump. Hmm! How about allowing all those people, who have not yet had a chance, to state their preferences? Important states are still to vote. Even if Bernie has hardly any chance of beating Hillary delegate-wise, surely the rest of the population's preferences ought to be made clear. Or...is that exactly what establishment Democrats are afraid of?
Anyjazz looks on, as I snap a sign from my seat in the car, and wonders:
"Will it though?"
We're off a- wandering for a couple of days or so, in honour of the approaching birthday of anyjazz. Next post will be Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime, a video passed to me by "JD" in the UK relating to Donald Trump as experienced by a well-known and well-respected English news reader, Selina Scott.
This artist is another whose name isn't well-known these days, but in his own time he was considered to be one of the leaders among modern American painters. Many of his paintings, most of small to medium size, have deteriorated over time, due to his somewhat eccentric techniques. He didn't sign his work, which led to forgeries appearing on the market. His work now exhibited in galleries is often displayed under glass to preserve and protect what's left. In his later years Ryder became a recluse and, it is said, ever more eccentric.
"attended a public grammar school for boys and began to paint, but impaired vision, the result of a faulty vaccination, prevented him from continuing his education. After the Ryder family moved to New York in 1870, his application to the National Academy of Design was rejected, and he was admitted only after a period of study with the portraitist and engraver William E. Marshall (1837-1906), a former pupil of Thomas Couture.
[Later in his career he began to] paint dramatic and emotionally charged subjects based on classical mythology, biblical incidents, poetry, plays, and Wagnerian opera. He occasionally wrote poetry to accompany his paintings. This transformation was also brought about by his visits to the major art museums of Europe and an excursion to North Africa......By the middle 1880s Ryder had the support of influential critics, and attracted a number of important patrons....
Around 1900 the increasingly reclusive and eccentric Ryder ceased producing new compositions and began to rework and repair existing paintings. .....His work appealed to the new generation of American modernists.... After his health began to fail in 1915, Ryder moved to Elmhurst, Long Island, where he died in 1917.
One of the most enigmatic figures in the history of American art, Ryder was an imaginative and innovative painter who worked in the late nineteenth century visionary tradition. Long considered an isolated and uniquely American phenomenon, his personal idiosyncracies overemphasized, it has only recently been recognized that Ryder was keenly aware of European art and techniques. His chronological development is impossible to trace because he never dated his works, rarely signed them, and obsessively reworked his compositions after they had been exhibited or sold. His unorthodox technical procedures, by which he strove to achieve rich, dark colors and enamel-like surfaces through multiple layers of glazes and pigments, left his works unusually susceptible to changes and deterioration, so it is difficult to determine their original appearance. Although he produced only 160 pictures, his works were widely forged, and some authentic ones were altered by others after his death. Ryder never had any pupils, but he exerted a powerful influence on his contemporary Ralph Blakelock, and a generation of younger artists [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue] See HERE.
ASTROLOGY
Chart set for 12 noon (no time of birth available) on 19 March 1847, New Bedford, Mass.
Unorthodoxy in his painting methods and modernist styling, as well as what seems to have been a growing general eccentricity, has to link to Uranus conjunct Mercury and Venus. Uranus also sextiles Jupiter.
There's a three-fold semi-sextile thing going on between his Pisces Sun, to Pisces' ruler Neptune in Aquarius, then to Mars in Capricorn. That mini chain also includes a sextile from Sun to Mars. This seems to me to be reflection of what was described as his enigmatic nature : kind of mystic, kind of eccentric, but kind of practical too.
Almost shoulder to shoulder with ancient Rome's Ides of March on 15th came Bacchanalia and Liberalia on 17th.
The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and started the year on 1 March. It was dedicated to Roman God of War, Mars who was honored daily with parades of the priests of Mars dancing through the streets. The culmination of the year end celebration was March 16 and 17th which were the feast days of Bacchus which was how Dionysus was known throughout the Roman empire. Fear of a powerful non-roman religious hierarchy resulted in restrictions by Senate decree in 186 AD which were not repealed until Julius Caesar was in power. Into this vacuum flowed numerous other cults whose mythic stories often replayed the great cosmic drama of life-death-rebirth. (See here)
Roman historian Livy took against all that Bacchanalian cavorting, but quite likely slid into hyperbole - a slide not unknown among writers in the USA, in our own time:
LIVY:
When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature. Nor were they confined to one species of vice -- the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women; but from this store-house of villainy proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended discoveries. From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases, not even the bodies could be found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them by force; it served to conceal the violence, that, on account of the loud shouting, and the noise of drums and cymbals, none of the cries uttered by the persons suffering violence or murder could be heard abroad.
While it does seem that the religious activities of the Bacchanalia did expand to include violence against its initiates and apostates, some of Livy’s criticism may have been directed at the co-mingling of different types and classes of citizens and residents.
Between whatever the reality was and the opposition Livy was able to motivate, Rome eventually decided it had had enough. Not only were the Bacchanalia severely regulated, many of its practitioners were persecuted in a violent campaign not matched until Rome went after the Christians.
According to Livy, 7,000 people were arrested. More than half of them were killed.(See here)
Interesting considerations:
It is possible that Dionysian mythology would later find its way into Christianity. There are many parallels between the legends of Dionysus and Jesus; both were said to have been born from a mortal woman but fathered by a god, to have returned from the dead, and to have transformed water into wine. The modern scholar Barry Powell also argues that Christian notions of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus in order for individual followers to feel Jesus within them was influenced by the cult of Dionysus.
Certainly the Dionysus myth contains a great deal of cannibalism, in its links to Ino. Dionysus was also distinct among Greek gods, as a deity commonly felt within individual followers. In a less benign example of influence on Christianity, Dionysus' followers, as well as another god, Pan, are said to have had the most influence on the modern view of Satan as animal-like and horned. It is also possible these similarities between Christianity and Dionysiac religion are all only representations of the same common religious archetypes.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that the story of Jesus turning water into wine is only found in the Gospel of John, which differs on many points from the other Synoptic Gospels. That very passage, it has been suggested, was incorporated into the Gospel from an earlier source focusing on Jesus' miracles. (See here)
The Bacchanalia proper was, later on, generally replaced by the Liberalia on 17 March, in honor of another aspect of Bacchus, Liber or Liber Pater.
Liberalia, a rustic festival when Roman youths generally first assumed the male toga, began dressing like adults - akin to moving from wearing short trousers to long trousers for youths of our day, perhaps.
...young men discarded the Etruscan-derived toga praetexta, which was decorated with a broad purple border and worn by boys and girls. The boys then donned the clothing of adulthood, the pure white toga virilis (man’s gown). The garment identified him as a citizen of Rome, making him an eligible voter. This ancient ceremony was a country or rustic ceremony. The processional featured a large phallus which the devotees carried throughout the countryside to bring the blessing of fertility to the land and the people. The procession and the phallus were meant also to protect the crops from evil.
At the end of the procession, a virtuous and respected matron placed a wreath upon the phallus.
While Liberalia is a relatively unknown event in the modern time, references to Liberalia and the Roman goddess Libera are still found today online and in astrology. See here)
What I didn't want to believe would happen, has happened. It has been proved that Bernie is too good for this place, this nation! They don't know a good thing when it's put right under their noses.
I'll continue to support him to the end of his run, whenever that turns out to be. If he continues to hold Hillary Clinton to tight races in more states, he will, perhaps, gain some foothold in being able to have a say in future policies. So....
Edited and expanded re-run of an archived post.
Emma Goldman was born on 27 June 1869 in Kovno, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. She emigrated to the USA, with her sister, in 1885 and found employment in a New York clothing factory. Soon after her arrival in the states an uprising of workers in Chicago resulted in the execution of four anarchists, who came to be known as "The Haymarket Martyrs".
They had been prominent trade union activists leading the struggle for an eight-hour day. Framed for a bombing, the authorities hoped that this would scare off the emerging trade union movement, especially its anarchist component. The international outcry which followed these executions on trumped up charges helped to shape Emma's radical and anarchist ideals, which lasted throughout her long life..............
Emma Goldman was a formidable public speaker and a prolific writer. Her whole life was devoted to struggle and she was controversial even within the radical and anarchist movement itself. She was one of the first radicals to address the issue of homosexuality, she was a fighter for women's rights, and she advocated the virtues of free love. These ideas were viewed with suspicion by those who placed their faith in the cure-all solution of economic class warfare and they were denounced by many of her contemporaries as "bourgeois inspired" at best.
To mainstream Americans, Emma was known as a demonic "dynamite eating anarchist". She toured the States, agitating and lecturing everywhere she went. She was hounded for much of her life by FBI agents and was imprisoned in 1893, 1901, 1916, 1918, 1919, and 1921 on charges ranging from incitement to riot to advocating the use of birth control to opposition to World War 1.
A self proclaimed anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, assassinated President William McKinley in 1901 and this event unleashed a massive wave of anti-anarchist hysteria throughout the States. Emma was blamed for his action and was forced into hiding for a time. She was deported from the United States, Holland, France, and was denied entry to many other countries. None of this daunted her, she began publishing 'Mother Earth' magazine in 1906 and was very active in the No-Conscription League. (Link)
Emma Goldman died in 1940, and though exiled for many years, her body was allowed back into the USA for burial in Chicago, not far from the graves of the "Haymarket Martyrs".
Entire books have been written about the life of Ms Goldman, it's impossible to cover it sensibly in a brief blog post, but there's enough information in the extract above to get an idea of one side of this lady's character. Another side of her personality emerges through a cache of her letters to a lover. These were mentioned in a 1992 article in the Los Angeles Times:
But despite her reputation as a firebrand, the real Goldman also was a woman tormented by jealousy and doubt, the collection shows. Through her prolific letters, readers come to see the feisty revolutionary who espoused the eight-hour workday, contraceptives and "free love" but who was haunted by depression and anguish over her blatantly promiscuous longtime lover, Dr. Ben Reitman.
.....the letters were very jealous. She said his letters to her were like a narcotic: They made her heart beat faster, but they put her brain to sleep. And she had these terrible moments of feeling her life was not meaningful.
Falk adds: "A lot of people think they know her, or else they've never heard of her. It's fascinating for people to see she was just like anyone else."
Here's her natal chart set for 12 noon. Astrodatabank has a 3pm time of birth, but it is categorised as "DD" - dirty data, and unreliable. That time puts her natal Moon in mid-Aquarius with Scorpio rising. I'll rely on a 12 noon chart to note some interesting factors.
Most significant of all is rebel planet Uranus conjunct Venus, part of a cluster of personal planets in Cancer. Cancer isn't the first sign that springs to mind when considering a radical and anarchist whose life's work consisted of fighting the system, the status quo. When Uranus is closely involved though, Cancer's homely cuddly sentimentality goes out the window. Her natal Moon would have been in Aquarius whatever time she was born, and more likely than not in scratchy aspect to either her Sun/Mercury or Venus/Uranus in Cancer. Aquarius and Cancer are not best pals of the zodiac, any aspect between them is going to be scratchy at best, accounting for her less than typically Cancerian nature, at least as portrayed to the public.
However, her private letters, mentioned in the article linked above, expose another side of her nature, more aligned with what's typically thought of as Cancerian: clingy, needy, sentimental, in stark contrast to the Aquarian independence of her natal Moon.
Mars in Virgo on one side and Jupiter in Taurus on the other form harmonious sextiles to Uranus/Venus. Saturn in Sagittarius could well form a sextile to Moon which then links Moon and Saturn via two quincunx aspects to Uranus, forming a Yod. Astrologers consider that the "energies" of the sextiled planets emerge via the qualities of the planet at the apex of the Yod, in this case, what could seem more appropriate : Moon (inner self) and Saturn (career) emerging through Uranus (rebellion)?
