The Wheat From the Chaff
A Conversation
Chessplayer: Do you want instructions in building up your personality?Harry: Yes, please.
CP: May I see your pieces?
H: Pieces?
CP: Of your personality. I can't play without the pieces.
[The pieces appear all transparent except for one]
CP: Which one is you?
[Harry picks the one with his image on it]
Wrong [In a lilting voice]. You are the whole game.
H: But all these personalities in one man?
That's schizophrenia.
Astrology
Virgo governs the harvest, particularly the separation of the usable wheat from the extraneous chaff. Essential nourishment. Virgo notes that it's not productive and can even be stressful to force the body to digest and assimilate what it doesn't need. The same applies to all experience; ideas, sensations, people, places, and things. People are bombarded every moment and some picking and choosing asks to be done. Can we really put the pieces of our own puzzles together? As Saturn transits Virgo for the next two years I intend to find out.
Saturn in Leo was entertaining. However, soon the south node transits Leo diminishing the importance of the ego as it was. I'm thinking it could be time for distillation, editing, rearranging, and analyzing for the final synthesis. The audience assumes less dominance as the search for essential self follows a new curve in the path
Pisces realizes there's no working order. The amorphous realm of illusion is its domain and fragmentation of reality, as close to absence as possible, is its goal. But with the north node leaving, Virgo can get to work with freedom, creating and organizing functioning systems without the natural Piscean undoing of everything it tries to keep together. Of course, Uranus will still be in Pisces adding the mystical element to some degree, and encouraging the incorporation of altered realities into this new phase. Will the parts fit? Will the machine run smoothly after all? Will the Piscean schizophrenia become the integrated personality?
The plan
Piece myselves together to suit myself.
Conversation from the film of Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf
posted by jm at 11:38 PM
22 Comments:
OMG what at great post jm.
Beautifully said.
Chess is a great metaphor. A lot of pattern recognition, rather than brute force calculation, makes the grandmaster. And the "whole game" isn't only the mere collection of all the pieces.
"H: But all these personalities in one man? That's schizophrenia."
Aha, insight dawns.
"People are bombarded every moment and some picking and choosing asks to be done. Can we really put the pieces of our own puzzles together? As Saturn transits Virgo for the next two years I intend to find out."
I've taken to experimenting with reminder lists (task lists) and event calendars on computer. This should be most helpful, as my sense of time can be flexible. Priority reminders are color coded red. The click-to-postpone feature is amusing.
"Saturn in Leo was entertaining. However, soon the south node transits Leo diminishing the importance of the ego as it was. I'm thinking it could be time for distillation, editing, rearranging, and analyzing for the final synthesis."
At the New York Public Library last week, we had an interesting conference on propaganda in the U.S. political landscape, on the state of public discourse and journalism's response. I take it as a positive signal of analysis coming back into public view, after a period of abdiction.
Tseka, I figured this would be relevant to your situation. How well you know it.
Kadimiros, what an interesting experiment. Right along these lines.
Also fascinating that you participated in the conference. Very timely. Pluto is manipulation and Sagittarius is journalism, so the lessons of these years have not gone unnoticed.
I take it as a positive signal of analysis coming back into public view, after a period of abdiction.
Just the rational, classy approach of this conference is an indication. It can't be fought with overemotionalism and the same kind of fearful output. It's really difficult to overcome the human tendency to fall for the propaganda, which makes the piecing together of our own puzzles that much more helpful.
I love the chess metaphor and I do think there are many metaphysical aspects to the game. In this one the pieces were completely clear which I found particularly interesting as parts of the psyche, where we project what we want to onto the transparencies like photographic images. The more I proceed with astrology, the more I see this capability, and the less likely I am to make assumptions.
The main thing coming onto my screen these days is the view of the world around me as neutral in terms of myself and largely unchanging, so I am becoming less invested in what the others are doing and expecting less in terms of collective progress. It will come when it's ready over a long period of time. It's makes no sense to put my own imprint on the whole. Just express it and let the pieces fall where they will. Perhaps this is one of the biggest lessons for me out of these last participatory years. How to take it as it is and remember who I am. My high hopes are rerouting. Maybe becoming personal again within and including the larger context.
Interesting that Pluto on my Moon-Jupiter brought me into this and now Jupiter is there, Pluto on his way out. I was trying to get out of it too when I saw that my hopes for society were on the high side, but I'm discovering that I can stay after all. It's me who needs the adjustment. And the world has taught me well in it's off-beat way. I'm sure there is much more to come with Pluto going to my midheaven.
Like the clear chess pieces I can map my reality no matter what they all do. This is the ultimate freedom in terms of society. Something I've been seeking for a long time. No expectations, no demands upon the group. We shall see.
"Kadimiros, what an interesting experiment. Right along these lines."
It's very interesting.
Getting thoughts down on paper (in some form, whether drawn or written), despite its apparently fixed format, frees up more brain cells to shift things around, look at them from more angles, and take things further. Hints become visible where before the brain was preoccupied just holding a complex situation in focus.
And there's the old advice to make lists on paper. One learns to differentiate the important from the urgent-but-unimportant. And some items just go on a least important list (to be discarded as needed).
But I find keeping lists on paper suboptimal. I tend to start scrawling items over multiple sheets, overlaid with arrows, doodles, diagrams and mysterious phone numbers at odd angles. Dovetailing with other people on projects, and at the speed at which I work, neatness and visual structure falls by the wayside.
The computerized lists simplify access, and the adjustable automated reminders (set ahead of time, it's like having an assistant) relieve much of the tension from planning and staying on schedule. Then I have more concentration for building.
"Also fascinating that you participated in the conference. Very timely. Pluto is manipulation and Sagittarius is journalism, so the lessons of these years have not gone unnoticed."
Your blog posting gives me another angle on it all. It's definitely coming into public consciousness. A lot of good info coming out. We'll need it.
The good information is always available it seems, but the crowd often chooses the chaff. It's up to those of us who value education to keep sustaining it, especially we who are not formally involved with the educational world.
There is something vast about the written word on paper. My house is strewn with my literary droppings! It's absolutely fascinating to think about how these symbols emerged and influenced mankind so deeply. How diverse the characters are and how they spell out the anthropological differentiation. It's as if we all separated to find commonality again. And also to connect the written black & white with the world of color imagination and feeling. Why I love poetic prose, of course. There is an added beauty in feeling images this way, without the literal one. Man has these powers of description for some reason. Would we rather look at a lake or experience it in the imagination through these odd characters we call letters? Development of consciousness?
Getting thoughts down on paper (in some form, whether drawn or written), despite its apparently fixed format, frees up more brain cells to shift things around, look at them from more angles, and take things further.
The same thing happens with the piano keys which are like written language. I've always loved the B&W orderly arrangement creating color and other-worldly sensations at the touch of a finger. I hate reading music, though. I read by feeling the keys. The unknown is easy to access here and the noncolored order is entirely deceptive yet alluring at the same time. Akin to the schizophrenia.
"And the world has taught me well in it's off-beat way. I'm sure there is much more to come with Pluto going to my midheaven.
"Like the clear chess pieces I can map my reality no matter what they all do. This is the ultimate freedom in terms of society. Something I've been seeking for a long time. No expectations, no demands upon the group. We shall see."
Nicely said. One can be here, or another here, or another here. The path is endless. A lot of people's anxiety about where they are is unwarranted.
"It's absolutely fascinating to think about how these symbols emerged and influenced mankind so deeply. How diverse the characters are and how they spell out the anthropological differentiation. It's as if we all separated to find commonality again."
That's what I think about the legend of the Babel tower. :-)
"There is an added beauty in feeling images this way, without the literal one. Man has these powers of description for some reason. Would we rather look at a lake or experience it in the imagination through these odd characters we call letters? Development of consciousness?"
A speaker at the conference pointed out that metaphor is essential to the way we think and communicate. Our human ability to reason is based on emotional realities. We can distort issues through metaphor (as in propagandist methods), or we can illumine them.
Hmm, a timeline of metaphors that are understood as such could be an interesting project for an enterprising cultural artist, scholar or investigator.
A lot of people's anxiety about where they are is unwarranted.
I love this and I do so agree. The anxiety won't change the latitude and longitude. We have to be situated someplace in reality and there are problems in every chosen spot.
The Tower of Babel is one of my all time favs. I like your viewpoint. Our confusions probably serve to improve our communicative skills. I learned this traveling in the East when I knew I would never learn the languages but intended to communicate fully. One of the most interesting experiences I had was with an Italian who spoke no English, just fractured French. I called upon my HS French and we had a long involved friendship. I adored him, he was my confidant, and we were able to discuss life and ourselves in depth with our very limited French. It flowed anyway. Desire transcends, fears and inhibitions included.
A speaker at the conference pointed out that metaphor is essential to the way we think and communicate.
This is loaded. Simply expands consciousness I would say. There is something specific, though, to this love of comparing and rephrasing things. It seems that all of living is an exercise in something else.
It's makes no sense to put my own imprint on the whole. Just express it and let the pieces fall where they will.
~~A statement like this doesn't happen by accident... imo, it takes much experience, and reflection, to find a way to here. What imprint we may or may not leave on the whole won't be decided by us, in any case, but by those around us, or those who follow behind us.
There is an added beauty in feeling images this way, without the literal one. Man has these powers of description for some reason. Would we rather look at a lake or experience it in the imagination through these odd characters we call letters? Development of consciousness?
~~1) sometimes; 2) I think so.
A speaker at the conference pointed out that metaphor is essential to the way we think and communicate.
Essential, basic, core. I think we are the archetype of all of our stories, from the birth experience, onward. Every step we take, from the very first one, can be charted through myth and metaphor, archetypes that are basically unchanged over history, although the symbols change and/or hold different meanings depending on time or culture.
~~kj
Climate Change by Jupiter
just what we have been talking about, those big boys in the sky weigh in on a lot of levels for we earthlings.
Amazing tseka. Wonderful. There is something to this Jupiter-Saturn thing.
Thanks for this delectable morsel.
Very interesting.
During such orbits, solar activity is high and Earth heats up. Some of the eight orbits are chaotic, taking a loop-the-loop path. These orbits correspond to quiet times for the sun, and cool periods on Earth. Every 179 years or so, the sun embarks on a new cycle of orbits. One of the cooler periods in recent centuries was the Little Ice Age of the 17th century, when the Thames River in London froze over each winter. The next cool period, if the pattern holds, began in 1996, with the effects to be felt starting in 2010. Some predict three decades of severe cold.
hrrumph.
Dr. Fairbridge's best-known periodicity, which he developed in the 1950s, hypothesized that sea levels had been rising for the last 16,000 years, during which there were periodic oscillations of rise and fall. The Fairbridge curve describing this period -- so named in derision because it offended the conventional wisdom - is now widely accepted. It demonstrates that, even within the past 1,000 years, sea levels have several times changed by up to two metres, and suddenly -- each of these large changes occurred in fewer than 40 years.
Well. Could get even more interesting. Uranus and Jupiter in 2010 promise surprises. The truth is definitely a trickster.
I love it. It's altogether ludicrous. Humans think they're so big and it's all child's play. All the racket. Toddlers in the pots and pans. I heard one having an excruciating tantrum tonight and I thought of everyone.
jm , this virgo /pisces balancing thing has been on my mind a lot as well. when it is distorted and off - there is a parasitic symbiosis between what's in "here" and what is " out there". and it seems to be the projections - what i falsely hate and love about things out there - that maintains that unhealthy symbiosis. for me, the right inner authority is linked to a detachment similiar to that which you talk about here.....
also - the puzzle pieces of Self somehow do not have to be picked up and pieced together - they are effortlessly selected, aligned, and put together as we wean ourselves from what's false....
i'm wondering if this is what is coming up for all as we approach the Saturn (Virgo) - Uranus (Pisces) opposition while the moon nodes shift into Acquarius/Leo - a realignment of authority within to an intuitive inner resource and away from the distorted ego emotional/projection based external sources.
when it is distorted and off - there is a parasitic symbiosis between what's in "here" and what is " out there". and it seems to be the projections - what i falsely hate and love about things out there
This is so well articulated, don, and I had a dream about it last night. Someone out there I was projecting my hate upon and in the dream I liked the person very much. I was surprised. I woke up relieved and now I'll see how it manifests in my waking life. The Virgo-Pisces axis is all about this psychological mechanism in the individual. It's not for the meek to honestly study the psyche, but I think the wisdom of Pisces rather than the degradation is the end result.
I think you're right about the puzzle pieces aligning naturally and the weaning from what's false. I asked a psychologist last night how one lives honestly in a dishonest world, and I thought, "You just do". Dishonesty is a survival mechanism and those who use it, need to. The detachment you mention is the key. For me. I try not to identify with it when I encounter it, and that takes some doing. I believe if I do that I won't have to fight it. Let it be and maneuver around it. That could be part of its purpose. To keep the honest connected.
a realignment of authority within to an intuitive inner resource and away from the distorted ego emotional/projection based external sources.
I think so especially with the south in Leo, making these ego distortions ineffective.
You have that that Sun-Saturn conjunction in the 11th so this is right up your street. I'm anticipating the nodal shift with great interest. Thank you heartily for this comment.
It just dawned on me that maybe dishonesty isn't inferior to honesty. Each to his own. It's up to the individual to respond to lies the way she chooses. They are not a threat in and of themselves. This is very very interesting, since Pisces is the ultimate in illusion, and you might call that false, but there is truth around anyway. This is applicable to my life right now and throws a fascinating curve into things. Lies are just lies and are useless without reaction. In fact, maybe they reroute back to the liar if allowed. If they aren't even labeled as wrong.
jm - yes, if we resent and judge dishonesty in others - thats the avenue for the parasitic symbiosis i am talking about - they ( the lies) just crawl right up and into us where ever we might find them "out there" in others. the illusion - the falseness - is in our knowledge, resentment and response.
the wisdom of pisces you refer to is in the indifference - a dispassionate - but compassionate - indifference to what's out there - and then the lies don't seem to find quite such a welcome home in us.
I like this line of reasoning, don, and I've been giving these comments a lot of thought. I'm applying it to some decisions I'm making and I've also revisited some of my own pretense on my blog. It has nothing to do with the continuing deceptions around me, but everything to do with my own identity. Some defense has been removed, no longer serving a purpose, and this conversation has been illuminating.
the lies) just crawl right up and into us where ever we might find them "out there" in others. the illusion - the falseness - is in our knowledge, resentment and response.
This is a signpost on the road to self-mastery. Most of all recognizing our own lies.
and then the lies don't seem to find quite such a welcome home in us.
How beautiful.
I've been applying these ideas to my ongoing lessons around my 1st house north node.
I've always felt reticent about expressing my true thoughts and feelings entirely around the crowd assuming they will run and cluster around the comforting dishonesty. And they do. That's why I've always admired people like you who work with their hands in a solo act. There's purity and honesty in this to an extent. The master craftsman is one of my ideal figures. I feel it in my sewing room. Just walking in and absorbing the sensations evokes detachment and calm. No one hurting anyone just scissors cutting and needles piercing fabric. Steam hissing, unending warmth and quiet, and the radio playing softly. So delightfully harmless. But social interaction is part of my job and it's time to do it right from my point of view.
So I'm back to square one. My Taurus NN and the value of staying rooted within myself no matter what unfolds around me. I'm a complete cell. I belong enough, no need to prove it. Just even writing it down evokes pleasure and knowingness. The truth of how we grasp the deceptions and nourish them is a good one, then deny they are our own. Our thoughts are our possessions. Sometimes this can be a good thing, though. I remember specifically your comment about how Venus naturally influences my Mars expression and it's been with me every day since then. It rings true.
I just came up with a great creative idea in solving a current puzzle as a result of this conversation. Can't wait to see if it works. I should know next week.
Excellent.
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