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"Yellow Lily" by M.Farkas Fowler |
| digital mock-up of "Yellow Lily" |  |
Journal entry dated 11 Jan 2006
]]>Astrologer Rob Tillet has an interesting article about eclipses, especially the ones occurring this month.
When I look at this chart, I see the same patterns as last month, but not quite a dense. Pluto in Sagittarius squares the Sun-Moon from the left and Mars in Gemini squares them from the right; but Pluto and Mars themselves are not in opposition.
Journal entry dated 13 March 2006]]>
Here's a reprint of a previous post that has been on my mind lately.
Quoting John Freeman from the introduction of C.G. Jung's Man and His Symbols (Dell Publishing, 1977):
... The second point I wish to make is about a particular characteristic of argumentative method that is common to all the writers of this book — perhaps of all Jungians. Those who have limited themselves to living entirely in the world of the conscious and who reject communication with the unconscious bind themselves by the laws of conscious, formal life. With the infallible (but often meaningless) logic of the algebraic equation, they argue from assumed premises to incontestably deduced conclusions. Jung and his colleagues seem to me (whether they know it or not) to reject the limitations of this method of argument. It is not that they ignore logic, but they appear all the time to be arguing to the unconscious as well as to the conscious. Their dialectical method is itself symbolic and often devious. They convince not by means of the narrowly focused spotlight of the syllogism, but by skirting, by repetition, by presenting a recurring view of the same subject seen each time from a slightly different angle--until suddenly the reader who has never been aware of a single, conclusive moment of proof finds that he has unknowingly embraced and taken into himself some wider truth.
Jung's arguments (and those of his colleagues) spiral upward over his subject like a bird circling a tree. At first, near the ground, it sees only a confusion of leaves and branches. Gradually, as it circles higher and higher, the recurring aspects of the tree form a wholeness and relate to their surroundings. Some readers may find this "spiraling" method of argument obscure or even confusing for a few pages — but not, I think, for long. It is characteristic of Jung's method, and very soon the reader will find it carrying him with it on a persuasive and profoundly absorbing journey.
Original journal entry dated 25 Sept 2004 ]]>
There are many squares, suggesting that there's construction going on, with its attendant noise and dust. The subject of this full Moon appears to be combustive demonstration.
Journal entry dated 13 Feb 2006]]>
To further simplify the difficult process of transforming the lead of the natural self into the golden consciousness of the Divine Self, I offer the following fundamentals that may guide you in the work:
- Consciousness is the basis for all life. When we work with consciousness alchemically, we are transforming it into matter. Be sure to get it right: matter is the result, not the cause of consciousness.
- We all have lead at the center of our being, but in it are found the seeds for making gold. Generate the gold. Greet everyone silently (or openly) with the salutation, "Namaste," the god within me honors the god within you.
- We all evolve and individuate and this is our destined purpose for having been born into this reality. Forgive those who are unconscious and surrender to those who have gone farther than you.
- We are all one and many emanations of the One Thing. Spirit and manner are only two aspects of this supreme reality. See with your middle eye.
- The act of transforming reality gives meaning to our lives, to the world and the universe—simultaneously!
- The time to act is now. The present is the portal to infinity. It is where everything comes together, and therefore can be transmuted. Be fierce, be ready to live in this presence. Life is a paradox that can only be understood through the imaginal mind. It is a trick and a treat. Imagine That!
From Alchemical Psychology: Old Recipes for Living in a New World, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002, p.188
Journal entry dated 30 Jan 2006]]>
He kindly gave me permission to use one of his photos—a hollyhock—as the basis for a new painting. Click here to see it.
Journal entry dated 02 Feb 2006]]>
Here is his artist's statement, posted at absoluteArts.com
Miran Kres(1973) fascination with the Analytical Psychology and Hermetic Philosophy is manifested in his most recent paintings and drawings. His concept of art may be linked, via illogical iconography to existential individual subconscious. Notions of chance and automatism are given full expression in Miran’s abstract paintings and automatic gestured darwings, in which line no longer serves to describe shape or enclose form, but exists as an autonomous event, charting the movements of the colour (paintings) or pencil (drawings). As the line thins and thickens it speeds and slows, its appearance modified by chance behavior of the medium such as bleeding, pooling, or blistering. The layering and interpenetration of the labyrinthine skeins give the whole a dense and generalized appearance....
Journal entry dated 27 Jan 2006
For example, on Tuesday or Wednesday last week, on my way home from work, three times drivers came in from behind on the right and cut in front of me, one driver making a left turn from the middle lane, while I was making a left turn. "What the hell?" I said to myself, then it dawned on me to check the phase of the Moon.]]> Seeing that the New Moon would occur on Sunday, I decided to do a chart on it and try to formulate an image to sum up what I found (lengthy, wordy interpretations can be dreary for the writer as well as the reader). So, if you click on the link above, you will see the chart. It uses Greenwich, England, as the locus (GMT).
My image for this new Moon:
The king and queen (Sun and Moon, "Sol et Luna") are sequestered with their court, flanked on the right by the Minotaur (a bull-monster in the labyrinth) and on the left by jovial knight caught in an undertow. The king and queen appear to be under the sway of a dour merchant, a real scrooge, who denies and obstructs their every attempt to be free. But in reality, he is their means to success, if they will only see it.
Of course, there are other views of the significance of this New Moon in Aquarius. Here are two:
For background I'm including this page on Moon Phases and Keywords
Journal entry dated 26 Jan 2006]]>
The list was interesting, so I decided to post it with a flippant remark about the unwashed masses being newly clean. That's where I ran into trouble--who said "unwashed masses" and in what context? I remembered seeing the phrase in one of the letters between the framers of the U.S. Constitution. At the time I assumed they were men of property disdaining those without property. But now it seemed inconsistent with their purpose. The hunt was on.
After hours, maybe days, of research (hand mopping a sweaty brow, heavy sigh), I found this: ]]>
To [Edmund] Burke, the working people who set up political societies modeled on the Jacobins were “the swinish multitude” or the “unwashed masses.” They responded in kind. When 5,000 workers marched through Sheffield to celebrate the victory of the French army at Valmy in November 1792, they carried an effigy of Burke riding on a pig. One fifth of the electorate, he told Parliament, and the majority of the unenfranchised were “pure Jacobins; utterly incapable of amendment; objects of eternal vigilance.” Burke’s lobbying set in motion a sequence of repression—newspapers were banned, meetings outlawed, organisations proscribed, political activists arrested, deported and executed—that culminated in the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819.
—Ann Talbot, "Citizen of the world: a brief survey of the life and times of Thomas Paine (1737-1809)"
Burke was a friend of Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and The American Crisis. Thomas Paine was the one who wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls...” And Paine was a friend of Washington and Jefferson, as well.
About the time of the framing of the Constitution there was an extended discussion of how the vote should be handled. One writer writes about Jefferson:
Because arms and sovereignty were so bound together, Jefferson argued that property ownership should not be the sole basis for voting rights. Anyone who served in the militia deserved the vote: "Let every man who fights or pays, exercise his just and equal right in their election." (Letter to Samuel Kercheval. July 12, 1816.)
—Dave Kopel, "Thomas Jefferson Forever"
John Adams advocated excluding women, children, and the poor from the vote. His view was the common one at the time of the American Revolution and at the framing of the Constitution, a document that did not even address the right to vote.
Benjamin Franklin said about suffrage:
Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to vote; but before the next election the jackass dies. The man in the meantime has become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, and his acquaintance with mankind, are more extensive, and he is therefore better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers — but the jackass is dead and the man cannot vote. Now gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?
I close with this:
Government is our second most important problem. It is superseded only by survival itself.To survive, people must control nature. Then they must turn almost immediately to the problem of living with each other. Some say this happens because human beings are innately good and prefer to live in society. Some say it is because human being are innately bad and must associate with each other because the consequences of going it alone are so much worse. But human nature is hardly the essential problem if in either case we end up living our lives regularly in association with others. People who are innately bad may govern themselves differently from people who are innately good. But government—not human nature—seems to be the thing people have in common, and it seem to be what people do least well for themselves.
—Theodore Lowi, American Government: Incomplete Conquest (Dryden Press,1976)
So we went from defining the world in terms to the word clean to the founding fathers' views on voting rights to the question of government. Hope the trip wasn't too long and you found something interestng along the way.
Journal entry dated 09 Jan 2006
Purpose
As we embark on our journey into this brave new Aquarian Age, it seems to me that an idea of what may be ahead would be helpful. An acquaintance with all things Aquarian seems to me a must.
Looking at how astrologers describe Aquarius and what attributes they give it may give us a handle. The keywords, some of which are given in this blog's banner, suggest avenues to be investigated.
The study and use of Astrology is a particularly Aquarian endeavor.
There is a synergy between Astrology and Psychology. For the last 50 years, astrologers have tended to incorporate psychological concepts [1], especially those of Analytical Psychology, in their interpretations. Carl G. Jung, the founder of Analytical Psychology [2], turned his attention to Alchemy and Astrology as well, seeing these disciplines as important to the process for self-realization.
Additional information is included in this blog's category Fundamentals to expand on these topics and bring forward some of ideas presented by other authors. Also I can talk about self, soul, consciousness, and other key concepts all I want, but if you, the reader, have no idea what I'm talking about, little is accomplished.
If I find articles and pieces of information that seem to demonstrate the Aquarian trend today, I will post them in the category Thought for Today. More personal items may be included there, as well.
Method
I prefer to quote from the source or a knowledgeable reviewer/commenter, rather than give my interpretation of a topic. I will try to give an idea of why this or that excerpt is included. Sometimes a quote may seem too long, but quoting out of context is an injustice to the originator.
[1]A succinct article relating astrology to Jung's basic idea. (www.astro.com/)
[2]An article defining Analytical Psychology, found in the Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org).
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"Yellow Lily" by M.Farkas Fowler |
| digital mock-up of "Yellow Lily" | |
Journal entry dated 11 Jan 2006
]]>A timeline for the Aquarian Age (one of many):
AQUARIUS Aquarius is called fixed, airy, moist, sanguine, masculine, human, scientific, electric, serving, eloquent, intuitive, of short ascension.
The Sun appears to transit through this sign between January 20th and February 18th. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus and is the detriment of the Sun. It is symbolized by the man emptying a waterpot. (It is noticeable that in some of the zodiacs he holds a rod, branch or wand in one uplifted hand.) In some of the older zodiacs Aquarius is pictured as a woman. This is interesting in connection with the prevailing thought that this is the "woman's age" or era, associating the idea of the ascendancy of woman with the dawn of a new era. The solar system is now at about the tenth degree of Pisces, by precession of the equinoxes, is receding toward the first degree of Pisces and, consequently to the thirtieth degree of Aquarius, which, at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years, it should actually contact in 10 X 72 or 720 years. The interim is the "dawn" or the period of gestation, the birth taking place at about 720 + 1928 or the year 2648. If we allow the usual orb of influence (12 degrees for the Sun), then the influence began to operate about two degrees ago, i.e., 2 X 72 or 144 years ago, --at about the time of our Declaration of Independence (freedom of a nation), an epoch-making event. It is recalled that in America Edison developed the incandescent light and the practical use of electricity; Ford developed the automobile and tractor; the Wright brothers developed the airplane; Forrest perfected the features which made possible a radio in every home. Each of these innovations ruled by Uranus are heralds of the airy, Aquarian age which will have a duration of about 2,160 years.
Always associated with Aquarius is the urn, or the cupbearer. The Hebrew name for Aquarius was Delphi, or "water urn," signifying a pouring out or baptism, related to atonement[1], the risen Sun or Son, the living water, spirit. Ganymedes of the Greeks was carried off to Olympus by an eagle to be a cupbearer. Olympus is the heavens of sky where dwelt twelve of the higher gods. This means that he was to be the distributor of waters between heaven and earth; hence the connection with the myth of Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, Greece. In biochemistry Aquarius is the distributor of water and gases throughout the microcosmic man. Aquarius is an air-water sign, the waters on the earth being lifted in vapor to the air. This work is the office of Aquarius, providing the liquid in air which we breathe, and in which the lungs are bathed (baptised), thereby proving our salvation for otherwise they would quickly dry and burn up[2].
This one of four fixed signs constituting the Cherubim mentioned in the scriptures, i.e., [the bull (Taurus), the lion (Leo), the eagle (Scorpio), the angel (Aquarius)][3]. It is believed that it corresponds with Jacob's son, Reuben, whom he calls his first born, as Aquarius is the first sign encountered after the resurrection, signified by Capricorn. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's [glyph for Capricorn, sea-goat] bed; then defiledst thou it; he went up to my couch."--Genesis 49:4. This refers to the January thaw; Capricorn is the father just as Saturn is referred to as "Father Time;" the couch is the bed of snow. When the Sun goes into Aquarius the thaw turns (defiles) the snowy bed into rivulets [glyph for Aquarius, 2 wavy lines]. Aquarius is also associated with the Greek Jean Baptiste (water gate), or John, the Baptist. In a Hindu zodiac Aquarius is pictured with a head set on a sort of couch.
The waters poured by the heavenly man are the "waters of life;" the beneficence of fresh, sparkling water to parched mankind on earth is beyond compare; dying life recovers, strength returns, perishing Nature revives and new delights are awakened. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."--John 7:37. In the star map we see a large stream flowing from the urn; it flows eastward and westward and enlarges as it proceeds, while a large fish (fish representing multitudes), Piscis Australis or Austrinus, eagerly drinks. The symbolism of Aquarius is, therefore, very beautiful in both its esoteric and exoteric sense, indicating air-water as necessary to the needs of physical man, and assurance of spiritual supply to regenerate man.
In the first decan[4] was the [constellation] Southern Fish, Piscis Australis or Austrinus. In the second decan, Pegasus, a great horse rushing forward with huge wings at his shoulders. In the Noetic[5], Pega means chief; sus means swift as a horse coming or returning. It was sometimes referred to as "the horse of the gushing fountain." The associated idea was a chief coming forth in victory with good tidings, with blessings; hence we find Aquarians very humane. The stars in this constellation are Markab, "the returning;" Scheat, "he who goeth and returneth;" Enif, "the branch;" Al Genib, "who carries;" Homan, "the waters;" Matar, "who causeth plenteous overflow." The third decan is that of a beautiful swan, which, though injured, circles and mounts the Milky Way; it lies in the midst of the great Galactic Stream of nebulous stars. The principle stars in it form a beautiful cross. The swan was a sacred creature of matchless beauty, purity, dignity and grace, bearing aloft a cross and circling over the "waters of life" ([glyph for Aquarius]); hence, our modern though sad "The Song of the Dying Swan." Its brightest stars are Deneb, "the Lord Judge to come;" Azel, "who goes and returns;" Fafoge, "glorious, shining forth;" Sadr, "who returns in a circle;" Adige, "flying swiftly;" Arided, "he shall come down." ...
from A to Z Horoscope Maker and Delineator, Llewellyn Publications (29th Edition)
Blog author's comments:
[1] can always be read at-one-ment
[2] hence current concerns with air and water quality
[3] glyphs for the signs given in the text
[4] ten degrees of the sign
[5] Noetic language?? According to the Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com), the ancient Pythagoreans and Platonists used the term to mean "the cosmic soul". According to Neo-Platonic cosmology, the nous emanates from the One. ]]>
Quoting C.G. Jung--
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To the reader who knows little or nothing of my work, a word of explanation may be helpful. Some thirty-five years ago I noticed to my amazement that European and American men and women coming to me for psychological advice were producing in their dreams and fantasies symbols similar to, and often identical with, the symbols found in the mystery religions of antiquity, in mythology, folklore, fairytales, and the apparently meaningless formulations of such esoteric cults as alchemy. Experience showed, moreover, that these symbols brought with them new energy and new life to the people to whom they came.
From long and careful comparison and analysis of these products of the unconscious I was led to postulate a 'collective unconscious,' a source of energy and insight into the depth of the human psyche which has operated in and through man from the earliest periods of which we have records.
In this present study of alchemy I have taken a particular example of symbol-formation, extending in all over some seventeen centuries, and have subjected it to intensive examination, linking it at the same time with an actual series of dreams recorded by a modern European not under my direct supervision and having no knowledge of what the symbols appearing in the dreams might mean. It is by such intensive comparisons as this (and not one but many) that the hypothesis of the collective unconscious--of an activity in the human psyche making for the spiritual development of the individual human being--may be scientifically established.
from Psychology and Alchemy, "Prefatory Note to the English Edition," by C.G. Jung
(Bollingen Series XX, vol.12, 2nd edition, Princeton Univ. Press, 1968)
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