The Topsy Turvy World

Detail from Netherlandish Proverbs (also called The Blue Cloak or The Topsy Turvy World) is a 1559 oil-on-oak painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder which depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish proverbs of the day.

Bruegel's paintings have themes of the absurdity, wickedness and foolishness of mankind, and this painting is no exception. The picture was originally entitled The Blue Cloak or The Folly of the World which indicates he was not intending to produce a mere collection of proverbs but rather a study of human stupidity. Many of the people depicted show the characteristic blank features which Bruegel used to portray fools.

Many Hands Make Light Work

To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

~ Marge Piercy

The Size of the Fight for the Pluto in Virgo generation

Living in revolutionary times is only wonderful and romantic when you are in your teens and twenties. When you are over fifty, it messes with your retirement! Because, like it or not, when you are older than forty-something, you are established, even if you’re not part of the Establishment. ~ Lee Lehman

Sputnik was launched October 4, 1957, with Pluto at 1 Virgo. The first moon landing on July 20, 1969 had Pluto at 23 Virgo. But before you wonder about the 23 degrees, consider that the last landing on the moon was by Apollo 17 in 1972 – the year that Pluto’s retrograde cycle took it back into Virgo for the last time.

It’s very easy to see the “can-do” engineering attitude as Virgo. For this brief moment in our history, nerds were cool. But let’s be honest: this was the space race – the USSR and the USA were in a contest over national pride. In other words, what we saw being played out through Virgo was the overbearing mutually assured destruction contest of superpowers, which also resulted in an insane arms race that continues to have severe environmental danger 40 years later.

Thinking about these past passes, I propose the following adjustment to our understanding of Pluto’s transit through a sign: Pride goeth before a fall. We can accordingly note that, while the Pluto in Virgo engineers succeeded spectacularly in getting us to the Moon – we didn’t stay there! We didn’t develop a colony, we didn’t follow up with an observatory. The moon launch became a dead end instead of becoming the gateway to the exploration of our solar system. President Kennedy perfectly embodied the Pluto in Leo call to put a man on the moon – but he said it while Pluto was in Virgo. The vision that got us there couldn’t encompass the concept of knowledge and engineering for its own sake – once the deed was accomplished, the funding was cut. We went for the wrong reason, and having gotten there, couldn’t sustain it. Pluto in Leo was gone, Pluto in Virgo spent, and the needs of Pluto in Libra would direct our attention elsewhere.

In the words of President Lyndon Johnson: “It's unfortunate, but the way Americans are, now that they have developed all of this capability, instead of taking advantage of it, they'll probably just piss it all away.”

Extracts pirated from Hope in the Time of Pluto in Capricorn

The Emperor Wears Pajamas

You are handed a life, and if you're lucky enough and smart enough, you become the person you want to be. My life is in direct response to the way that I was raised, which is true for everybody. Much of it is still connected to the boy who dreamed the impossible dreams. If you don't remember who you were, you don't know who you are. And I love the boy who dreamed the dreams. ~ Hugh Hefner (1926 - )

Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now--do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.

Rock on--ancient queen
Follow those who pale
In your shadow

Rulers make bad lovers
You better put your kingdom up for sale

Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now--do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.

~ words by Stevie Nicks

 For the coming Venus Transit of June 2012, we can use archetypes and imagery to imagine the Sun (representing persons in power) as a great lord or king, such as Midas, with the golden touch, who sits on his throne controlling everything with his gold; in fact, all he touches turns to gold. Everything he sees is for his use and everything has a dollar value. Our king is nearly exhausted with this tiresome ‘golden touch,’ when, from out of the shadows, glides a graceful and beautiful goddess in flowing robes.........Annalee Smith, TMA, April 2012

Playboy leaves Town

Kiss My Ring

There is much kerfuffle and speculation within astrological circles about the annular eclipse and I found myself ponderosing about Saturn.  Found myself thinking:

If I emptied myself of everything I have read about the qualities astrologists have applied to Saturn, then what would I know about Saturn?

Turning to astronomy, I know that Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun - the sixth or the sickest planet?

I know that Saturn is twice as far from Earth as Jupiter and that its most distinctive feature is the complex system of rings that surrounds it.  Saturn has a large family of moons.

I also just found out that my username in a well-known astrological forum, happens to be the name of one of Saturn's moons : Phoebe, which travels backwards.

The planet Saturn is visible to the nake eye for about 10 months of each year, and it looks like a bright yellowish star.  Except planets don't twinkle.

If we stripped Saturn of all its negative associations and looked at it the way we look at any other planet, we would approach its natal meaning and its lessons by transit with the assumption that the laws Saturn governs would be taught to us by the most cosmically efficient and graceful means possible. We will have noticed that the universe functions this way with the other planets, and we would expect Saturn to be no exception.

Imagine what our lives would be like if encountering an obstacle were just like any other event… except that we paid more attention.
~ Extracted from 'Saturn Without Suffering' by Jessica Murray, 2005

A little suffering is good for the soul ~ Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

  

Of Sky Gods, Mitans & Ordinary Tortals: Carrying the Fire

"...when the psyche is dominated by Prometheus with no integration of Saturn....Promethean energy then tends to be embodied in compulsive and unintelligent forms: rebellious in ineffective ways, stubbornly eccentric or nonconformist, unreliable and undisciplined, constantly proclaiming new ideas with neither substantial basis nor lasting value....Prometheus needs a structure for his revolution, and Saturn is that structure." (Tarnas Prometheus the Awakener 95, p112)

British-born, Canadian Gerry Goddard was an astrologer, metaphysician, transpersonalist, consultant, writer, teacher and scholar whose special interest was the bridge between foundational astrology and the field of post-Jungian transpersonal studies. He held an honours BA in philosophy from the University of British Columbia and a degree in library science from the University of Toronto. Gerry died unexpectedly in November of 2007 at the age of 64.

Not Drowning, Waving

Freud believed that in states of mental disorder, the suffering person can be lost to the world of form and definition, and dropped into a formless chaos of undifferentiated life, where the boundary lines between the ego and the external world become uncertain.  This is why psychotic patients often report that they are 'at sea' and cannot distinguish the outlines of objects, such as chairs or tables, because their perception is blurred, and everything appears to be in a swirling chaos.

Psychosis plunges us into an oceanic void which precedes form, where everything is intermixed with everything else, and nothing can be perceived as separate from the chaotic stream. Jung would call this the descent (or nekyia) into the undifferentiated life of the consciousness, although it shares with spiritual experience the overriding sense that 'all things are one', that everything is connected and nothing is separate. However in psychosis this is far from a pleasant or elevating experience. It is deeply destructive and the ego seems to drown in the ocean of being, rather than be swept along blissfully by its current as in states of transcendental meditation or spiritual rebirth.

This is a vital point of difference that we need to make clear. What the mystic or guru experiences as a state of bliss can be experienced by the psychotic as a terrifying nightmare of disintegration. The waves of preconscious existence can be destructive, like a tsunami or tidal wave, but they can also bring healing if we relate to them in the right way. The ocean of being is the same ocean in madness and transcendence, but the difference between spiritual awakening and psychosis depends on the nature of the consciousness that encounters the ocean. Here we might learn from observations made by anthropologist Joseph Campbell in Myths to Live By:

The difference [between the mystic and the schizophrenic] is equivalent to that between a diver who can swim and one who cannot. The mystic, endowed with native talents for this sort of thing and following, stage by stage, the instructions of a master, enters the waters and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, unprepared, unguided, and ungifted, has fallen or has intentionally plunged, and is drowning.  Can he be saved?  If a line is thrown to him, will he grab it? . . . What I am saying is that our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep within that the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy; except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning.

Jung warns that if the ego 'lacks any critical approach to the unconscious ... it is easily overpowered and becomes identical with the contents that have been assimilated'.  He says it is a 'psychic' catastrophe when the ego is assimilated by the self'.  Jung insists that the ego must find a 'right relation' to the unconscious, and this involves, first of all, the ego preserving its integrity in the face of the ocean of being that makes up the collective unconscious.

Image sourced from: california photo scout

If the ego is not properly formed, if it has been damaged by trauma or eclipsed by devastating inner or outer experiences, it is not in a fit state to make contact with the ocean of being. When the ocean comes towards it the ego will drown, because it needs to hold its integrity before the onslaught of the unconscious. If it can't hold its integrity it is lost in the water and becomes a subhuman fish swimming in the sea, or, more fatally, it dissolves into the ocean like an aspirin dropped in a tumber of water.  In states of psychotic depression or anxiety, dreams will indicate that the ego has been submerged under a wave, or lost to some distant galaxy or star.  The metaphors will constantly change, but the message will be the same: an eternal force has obliterated the temporal personality. This becomes problematical, as I will explain, if the sufferer is a follower of a cult or creed which views such self-obliteration as a spiritual achievement.

Classic symptoms of such 'psychic dissolution' are inflation, depression, paranoia, mania, catatonia and bipolar disorder. In each of these states, the ego has been eclipsed and replaced by archetypal contents that substitute for the personality - the ego has been assimilated by the unconscious. In severe cases of psychosis, this may involve identifying oneself with an archetypal power or figure, in which the person claims to be Jesus, Caesar or Napoleon.  Whoever the chosen figure is, it is apparent that the ego has been annulled by the unconscious, which has wiped out the human element and replaced it with an archetype that exerts a destructive impact.

Extract from Gods and Diseases: Making sense of our physical and mental wellbeing by David Tacey, Associate Professor in Humanities, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Published 2011

Hope is Brightest when it Dawns from Fears.

image credit: ajith gopinath

Somewhere in the distance, your future is holding out its arms to meet you, ready to bring you whatever you've had the courage to ask for. It is already holding in trust whatever you have the courage to keep stead-fastly moving toward. It wants to join hands with you to create the next chapter of your life, but it won't - it can't - if you stay riveted to the same spot, whining and complaining, passive, fearful, and resentful. That's because the future always comes toward us in exactly the spirit in which we approach it - hands and heart open, or souls withered in defeat.

Astraea was the fifth asteroid discovered, on December 8, 1845, by K.L. Hencke and named for Astraea,  a goddess of justice named after the stars. It was his first of two asteroid discoveries.  An amateur astronomer and post office employee, Hencke was looking for Vesta when he stumbled on Astraea.

....where you stumble, there lies your treasure - Joseph Campbell

Asteroid Astraea is currently retrograde in Virgo and quincunx Centaur asteroid Nessus in Aquarius. The cleansing power of tears, grieving for ones losses and crosses, drawing a line between what was and what shall be. Choosing to bloom when the budding-time is over. 

Sabian Symbol degree pair interpretion:

Virgo 26:  "A boy with a censer"

Pisces 26: "A new moon divides its influence".

Apply this degree-pair with a mind to the focus on motivational factors from seemingly insignificant influences; divergent interpretations of the most innocuous of events; discriminating awareness of exacting detail or overall influence. Think of a parting of the waves: the scientist from the romantic; the ordained priesthood from the passionate pagani; using formulated fertilizers rather than using the moon to fertilize the garden. Watch for powerful responses to smells, fragrances, odors; swaying motions like sowing seeds or swinging a censer. Consider pervasive influences that freshen stale air; that imbue an archaic feel for the novice; slivers of hope; preserved embers for future fires; being moved in a definite direction.  - Blain Bovee

The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new,

And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears;

The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew,

And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.

~ Scott

Chiron Unplugged: steal from the best

Supporting Illusion

We all do it. We have spent our entire lives creating a detailed mythic story of who we are. Nothing in this story is by chance. We never say, I got married because I was lonely and desperate and just happened to run into someone more lonely and desperate. Never. A good love is "fate". A bad relationship is a conspiracy of villainy or insanity.

We never stumble into a career because we desperately needed a job and this one of the thirty applications came through and it was good enough and besides I'm lazy and change is hard. Oh, no. If you love your career, your whole life has been leading up to it and you cherry-pick from your memory all the experiences that make that seem true. If it is a job you don't like it is either a stepping stone or, more likely, a cast of characters whose soul purpose on this earth is to enchain and challenge your inherent nobility and goodness.

People love drama and they create drama in their lives. They tell this story of who they are. Never underestimate the power of that story. People who won't lift a finger to save their own lives from imminent violence will fight and die so that people don't think bad things about them. People who are careful not to step on bugs have killed over rumors spread about them. It certain cultures, someone can be a coward, but don't you dare call him one. In jail I have heard inmates on the phone screaming at their mother: "Bitch you put some money on my books or swear to god I'll slash your face!", Men who would try to shank another inmate who insulted the same woman.

The biggest threat to this story are those inconvenient little things called facts. When someone's story is threatened by facts, watch the scramble. Facts can be denied, and often are. They can be labeled with 'opinion' or the "equivalent sources" fallacy (My favorite example: "It's unfair to claim that your experience is in some way more valid than my training." A martial artist at a seminar years ago.)

Watch the scramble. People will marshall resources and allies, redefine words, reject their own personal experience all to protect this story, this dream.

Rory Miller, December 8 2007

Chiron Training

The Dream is damned and Dreamer too if Dreaming's all that Dreamers do