The Naked Truth -- Regeneration
For the last several days Pluto has been virtually at a standstill, starting to go direct at 28.7 degrees. An inordinately intense week. I have a theory about the mutable signs -- Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. I've come to think that they all involve a split, the twins with Gemini, wheat from the chaff with Virgo, part animal, part man with Sagittarius, and the two fishes with Pisces. So lessons in duality are the theme. The archer with the split body of Chiron, the centaur, is the symbol of Sagittarius, as humans overcome the domination of their lower nature and shoot for celestial aspirations.
Chiron is the wounded healer. He was accidentally pierced by one of his best friends, as the myth goes, and he never blamed him, nor did he dwell on the pain. He used it for knowledge and his extraordinary skill as a teacher and healer. Sagittarius is the professor who takes the knowledge of the lower mind and applies it to the broader universe, developing views on religion, philosophy, and metaphysics. "I understand" are the keywords. Truth is the search. Not only is Pluto going direct, but transiting Chiron is conjunct the North Node of the Moon. Acknowledging the wound does seem to be an option. Receiving the knowledge does too. I am motivated mostly by Sagittarius. I love the feeling of promise, and the ability to move together with the events that life offers, not resenting some omnipotent power, but figuring it knows what it's doing. And true to Sagittarius, the opportunist, I see gain in it all. I think in this transition with the centaur poised to shoot next to the moon's node, it's time to understand the lower nature of our human selves, accept it as best we can, and realize that the higher aspirations need a moment too. That's what I believe this election is about. Spiritual aims. One shot to the stars. Hope? Prayer even? The cynics clench, the frightened hearts fibrillate, and the monster screams in its dying drama. Thank heaven for wise and gentle Chiron.
posted by jm at 1:31 AM
34 Comments:
Beautiful, not just as a political reflection, but for me a personal one as well. This Gemini thanks you. I'm whipped!
"I've come to think that they all involve a split, the twins with Gemini, wheat from the chaff with Virgo, part animal, part man with Sagittarius, and the two fishes with Pisces. So lessons in duality are the theme."
I like that. Also, Virgo in some ancient star maps was depicted as a winged woman.
"Spiritual aims. One shot to the stars."
Beautiful. One shot or two or three or....
Improving aim in sports is not a left-brained activity. The mind must trust the body, and allow it to exercise itself in practice.
A Gemini!! Thank you for the response anon. My heart went into this one.
Virgo in some ancient star maps was depicted as a winged woman.
Really? We must investigte.
Also more on aim. I spent one summer working on archery skills. Very memorable. I have a rebellious right arm but I did well, and you're right. There was trust.
Kadimiros is right. The Zodiac has changed over time. There was no Libra at one time, in fact, if I remember right. I just finished "The Gospel and The Zodiac" by Bill Darlison, a Unitarian Universalist pastor in Britain, who correlates the Gospel of Mark to the journey of the Sun through the Zodiac, making some pretty remarkable connections, resulting in some head-smacking and "of course!" moments for me at times. I have long believed that the whole Jesus story is nothing but an astrological code that people have taken too literally.
That makes sense in these times. Marrying Christianity with astrology. The changes over time would reveal things about evolution. No Libra?
My aunt brought up the topic of religious belief yesterday. She had read an article about Bart Ehrman's crisis of faith.
I told her about my sister's childhood investigation of religion. When she was a little girl, my sister heard in elementary school that students could leave school early for religious instruction.
Leaving school early sounded like an excellent idea. So, she got up and left! And then she walked until she found a place with a neon crucifix. That looked promising. She went in, and found a group of children. She enjoyed the songs, stories and activities, but the sermons frightened her. When her aunt died, she was distraught over the idea that her aunt would go to hell.
Then, on her own, she started reading the Bible. When she got to the New Testament, she stopped and said to herself, Wait a minute! This is not the same God! It was immediately obvious to her that the Old Testament God was not the same figure as the New Testament God. Some people need a authority to make that point to them, sometimes theologically and perhaps relying on history and higher literary analysis, but she saw it clearly as a child. Confronted with the seams in the fear-infused belief system, she reverted to trusting her own perceptions and intuitions of a greater reality.
"Bill Darlison, a Unitarian Universalist pastor in Britain"
Hmm, there are some interesting podcasts on his church's Web site.
"The changes over time would reveal things about evolution. No Libra?"
I think of it as an evolving mystical construct.
Libra was once the claws of Scorpio, apparently, before the zodiac got more schematic. Apparently, the ancient Mesopotamians fancied that their form of weighing scale resembled a scorpion hung by its tail.
"Sometimes Christian apologists say there are only three options to who Jesus was: a liar, a lunatic or the Lord," he tells a packed auditorium here at the University of North Carolina, where he chairs the department of religious studies. "But there could be a fourth option -- legend."
That's what I've thought. It doesn't really matter if it's true or not, the lessons are taught in all human stories.
I still wonder about the image of Jesus, though, which some hallucinogenic substances evoke. I've always wondered if it was cultural teaching or if it's mapped in the brain waiting for the figure to join the receptor. Is the idea of a saint and savior completely fabricated?
I also wonder if the figure we emulate as good might not sometime in the future be less perfect, their ways not so unattainable.
The claws of Scorpio. Hmmmm.
The evolving mystical construct would mirror need as the human evolves.
The constellation, which as Chelae Scorpionis had originally formed part of the claws of the scorpion (Scorpius), is the youngest of the Zodiac and the only one not to represent a living creature.
Seems to me this does tell us something about evolution. Maybe the need to cooperate came later. Especially after getting out of the Scorpio claws!
I've always loved that aspect of Libra. Not representing a living creature. The midway balanced point, then, would be completely objective uninfluenced by human or animal instincts. That brief point of opposition where pure reason rules.
Oh, excellent point!
The point of dynamic balance at which one can change direction.
"I've always wondered if it was cultural teaching or if it's mapped in the brain waiting for the figure to join the receptor."
Could be a thoughtform, which in turn probably represents something. Maybe everything is in the mind in some fashion.
LOL!
To get an idea of how complicated this can be, consider: Greek, the lingua franca of the day, was written without capitalization or punctuation.
Here, you play biblical translator. Look at this, an example in English, from Ehrman's book:
godisnowhere
Does it say: God is now here.
Or: God is nowhere.
Nice.
YES!! The point of dynamic balance where one has free choice? Not pushed or pulled by animal desire. Just for a moment.
Very very interesting considering upcoming opps.
Could be a thoughtform, which in turn probably represents something. Maybe everything is in the mind in some fashion.
Yes, but how do the thoughts form?
I'm developing a theory about receptors related to hormones, and how this relates to brain patterning.
For a man who believed the Bible was the inspired Word of God, Ehrman sought the true originals to shore up his faith. The problem: There are no original manuscripts of the Gospels, of any of the New Testament.
That does it.
Where does faith reside? Does it leave a residue when it is gone?
Bart Ehrman begins writing, the day unfolding, shafts of light falling through the window, the mysteries of the Gospels open before him.
Nice article. I think faith comes and goes related to mood and circumstance.
"The point of dynamic balance where one has free choice? Not pushed or pulled by animal desire. Just for a moment."
Yes, exactly! :-) You get it. That works on many levels.
The sign is well positioned, at the halfway point, for that symbolism.
I suppose the question on how thoughts form could be answered from different perspectives.
I sometimes visualize them growing like green plants. Or rising as nonverbal sensations, like colored shapes floating up from an infinite depth as I watch for them. The feeling of them interfaces with the verbal and visual centers, and then they are translated into linear verbal patterns. Quite probably they have multiple sources.
I do like the way this opposition conversation is developing.
So say you are halfway in a Virgo-Pisces opp, deciding between order or chaos, or at least seeing their equality. I wonder what would influence the choice. Maybe just sensing that one has the choice is enough.
Quite probably they have multiple sources.
I'm sure they do. Now, a question. Does a thought have to be recognized consciously to exist?
"The Origin and Evolution of a Thought."
If I only had time I'd write it.:)
"I wonder what would influence the choice. Maybe just sensing that one has the choice is enough."
Degree of apparent order versus apparent chaos? I think it's good to have a little of both. For me, a sensing of potential outcomes would factor into the equation. Some things can't be practically analyzed. They have to be weighed up as a gestalt perception.
If it were creative project work requiring both research and innovation, basically, I find it's good to get the linear work out of the way first. Then, let the nonlinear mode take over and synthesize the pieces into a solution.
They have to be weighed up as a gestalt perception.
I agree. Which suggests that the moment of opposition is actually a synthesis. And conversely, the conjunction could really be the separation.
So in a full cycle it could be that the conjunction starts the separation. The square actually highlights the duality forming a T-square with the coming opposition. The opposition is the synthesis. Second square, conflict again, and then the completion right before the conjunction.
OK.
Virgo to start the order. Sagittarius to initiate the chaos. Pisces to balance the two. Then Gemini maybe to emphasize the chaos before the integration.
So at the Virgo-Pisces opposition, in real terms, there would be elements of both in the situation, undetermined of course, although influenced by the other aspects at the time.
"Does a thought have to be recognized consciously to exist?"
Ha ha! Is it like a tree falling in a soundproofed forest?
Perhaps it's more like an iceberg, with just the tip above water.
Well, it is unlikely that I would be wholly unaware of a thought that I originated. But it may be at the end of a long series of processes by the time I focus on it.
The so-called conscious and unconscious are not so functionally separate for everyone. Some people can be aware of my thoughts, and sometimes I pick up other people's thoughts. So the thought might travel on beyond the focus of my conscious attention, probably changing in some way as it goes along and mixes with other thoughts.
Of course, some people are relatively unaware of their own feelings. Perhaps they were raised, like one of my friends, in repressive circumstances like a fundamentalist religious family. They might deny experiencing some feelings, with disconnects between behavior and desired results. Perhaps their feelings might be experienced as intrusive, almost alien thoughts. They might raise defensive habits against feeling. Would make for a dysfunctional, awkward type of centaur with poor aim, I imagine.
The images of Jesus and the gods, the icons and images of the zodiac, etc., are not rigidly codified forms from a historical and nonfundamentalist perspective.
"If I only had time I'd write it.:)"
Ha ha! Yes, all the exotic species of thought, heheh, competing for conscious survival in the neural jungle, pungent with the scent of hormones.
So the thought might travel on beyond the focus of my conscious attention
My thought.:) So in telepathy what happnes to the thought in transit? It still exists.
Maybe conversations are going on in our minds without our knowing about it! Perceptions are coming in all the time and being processed without conscious attention. Thoughts are conscious according to definition but there is a non-thought path to that point. Interesting to ponder how a thought takes shape.
The images of Jesus and the gods, the icons and images of the zodiac, etc., are not rigidly codified forms from a historical and nonfundamentalist perspective.
No. But I wonder about a sort of universal germ plasm from which these images are born.
the scent of hormones
:-)
For example...I read one of your highly thought-provoking comments. All kinds of ideas come barreling in, some in response to your words, others as tangents, and probably some non-related.
I think I purposely direct my mind to the tangents when I get the chance, while responding to specific concepts. We have so much control really. We can pour over the words and respond or gloss over, or ignore. Good thought! Something to have some say over.
"So in telepathy what happnes to the thought in transit? It still exists."
Right, ripples in the field of awareness.
"Maybe conversations are going on in our minds without our knowing about it! Perceptions are coming in all the time and being processed without conscious attention."
Yes, I think so. Like spirit conversation.
You could also regard the brain as a tuner that selects specific ranges of thought/awareness. You get the conversation to which you tune your system, your antennae permitting. You get something of the cast of mind and personality, too. Usually, for practical purposes, there's a good match between perception and expression.
In relation to the mutable cross, consider this excerpt from a case study about developing a new on-line financial service.
"A team consisting of specialists in human factors, business factors, design strategy, and interaction and environments design conducted observations of bank users in people's homes as they paid bills, at banks and ATMs, and elsewhere. Participants in the user observations, varying widely in age, wealth, ethnicity, and geographical location, were asked to draw their money in an abstract exercise to understand attitudes that were difficult to convey in words. The team was able to discern four groups based on their feelings about their finances."
One woman drew a dream home with trees on top of a giant coin, and the coin itself had the whole world depicted on its face. Another woman drew herself smiling, holding an empty wallet, but with a thought balloon over her head holding dollar signs, suggesting that her wealth was already where she couldn't lose it and things were actually stable and optimistic.
Analyzing the drawings, the psychographics of the potential audience fell into four major groups, along perpendicular axes according to low or high engagement in managing money, and whether they had short or long term outlooks. The groups were "Pathfinders", "Dreamers", "Onlookers", and "Organizers".
In the upper right quadrant are Pathfinders, who are holistic. They are highly engaged, and have long-term outlooks.
In the upper left quadrant are Dreamers, who also have long-term outlooks, but have low engagement. They focus not on money but on what they could do with money -- their dreams.
In the lower right are Organizers, highly engaged, but focusing on the short term. They tend to be competent, and probably do not really need much help.
In the lower left are Onlookers, the big muddle where most people are, with a confused relationship to money. They have their careers, their family, and other interests. For them, money is strictly in the background.
It was decided to focus on Onlookers as the core audience, as they have low engagement and lack long term goals, making them "potentially ideal, loyal bank customers."
This was more extensively described in a design book on new media and on-line services.
Interesting. It fits beautifully. Very interesting.
Another woman drew herself smiling, holding an empty wallet, but with a thought balloon over her head holding dollar signs, suggesting that her wealth was already where she couldn't lose it and things were actually stable and optimistic.
Perfect Sagittarius type.
This is really uncanny. Down to the quadrants. Are we that simply defined? Wonderful stuff. I'd like to see this study correlated with others.
It's just amazing how many times we're classified into like groups. One leads to another and more than studies for specific purposes, I wonder if it's an innate desire or need -- to try and make order out of it all. Doesn't seem to work.:-)
But then when the classifications fall into ancient categories, one wonders.
"This is really uncanny. Down to the quadrants. Are we that simply defined? Wonderful stuff. I'd like to see this study correlated with others."
Perhaps some "Organizer" astrologers could do the studies. :-) Why not?
But it would be good to let people's expressions align themselves rather than looking for knowable natal factors. There are more factors than we can know. Let things shake out as they will. It might point the way to seeing more clearly the influences that are culturally expressed and codified in the astrological schema as it has evolved, and that are likely also expressed through many other forms or in other areas.
The design of the experiment determines what you can find out. An experiment in color associations has groups of people arrange small pieces of colored paper on tables. Groups charged with arranging only yellow pieces on their table tend to arrange them in circular forms, suggesting that their minds are associating the color with the image of the Sun. Groups arranging a color such as blue might tend to arrange it in ways suggesting the horizon.
"I wonder if it's an innate desire or need -- to try and make order out of it all. Doesn't seem to work.:-)
But then when the classifications fall into ancient categories, one wonders."
The cognitive maps could be coincidental, or the power of mind over matter, so to speak, but we can still make use of them. :-) The expression of essence in form is always incomplete and partial, as are theoretical structures. The glimpses add up.
The quadrant that needed least formal assistance was the holistic (synthesizing) quadrant, of course. They had the "oomph" to get things done, and the vision and connections to guide them clearly.
So the symbolism of the Pisces-Virgo axis falls across two quadrants in the study of financial attitudes, and is illumined by examining its relationship to two other axes we could label "low engagement to high engagement" and "short-term outlook to long-term outlook" based on empirical data. There is a natural correspondence to how astrologers divide the circle into hemispheres and quadrants suggesting introversion/extroversion and other dimensions, and it is interesting to see which signs most exemplify the extremes.
Possibly the financial attitude quadrants relate best to elemental qualities. Perhaps "Dreamers" relate best to "Water", for example, and "Organizers" best to "Earth". So perhaps the financial attitude quadrants exist in a multidimensional space that intersects the astrological circle from a number of different directions, though we see it most clearly in the mutable cross.
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