A Crystal Vision

A Scorpio Lesson

I had to delay the writing of this blog entry for having had no significant experience that struck me as an inspiration for an entry such as the following.

The scorpion was created and summoned by the goddess Artemis to protect her, and then to avenge her against Orion for killing her favored stag. There is a powerful link between the totemic creature of the scorpion associated with this sign and the psyche of a scorpion. A Scorpio’s brains go into neutral mode when not aroused and in that mode they educate themselves, eat, sleep, etc. However, if ever the Scorpio becomes aroused in the manner of sex, violence, or religious ecstasy, there is a whole other level on which the person can operate. When a Scorpion gets turned on, watch out. You may end up getting fucked. Or killed. It could depend on you. Tread wisely.

The scorpion naturally has dominion over the realms of the goddess which created it: sex, magic, death, birth, night time, and love. Scorpions are rarely given credit for the depth of love which they also embody. Because the goddess, Artemis loved her favored stag so much that when endangered by Orion the hunter, she called the scorpion up to be the ultimate protector; venomous, silent, deadly and quick. Have mercy that you do not cross a Scorpion. It may be the last thing you do. But you must look also to the totem for the clues, for the mother scorpion is most devoted and carries her young protectively upon her back. The Scorpio will protect what it cares about whether it is people, animals, furniture, art, music, or ideals.

The scorpion of the zodiac is often shown in triplicate with the other two levels which Scorpio can obtain. The lowest level, the avenger, is shown as the serpent. The middle level, the scorpion, when in experiences of joy, can soar like an eagle, and the eagle takes over the second level. The third and highest level of is the phoenix. The goddess essence of the scorpion can be transformative especially when the emotional Scorpio can find a seat in joy. Scorpios can and should always focus on love and joy. Spiritual and emotional freedom is absolutely essential to the healthy Scorpionic psyche. The same goes for those who have dominant planets in Scorpio among their luminaries, also known as your sun sign, moon sign, or rising sign/ascendant. Meditation, rest, and positive thinking do wonders for the naturally regenerating Scorpio when they feel worn down.

Scorpios are forced to deal with very high highs and very low lows. They usually land like a cat on their feet, but sometimes they make mistakes like everyone does and may have to squeak by with a tuck-and-roll every once in a while. But what does not kill a scorpion definitely makes them stronger. You have been warned.

Hippocrates’ Rules: The Moon and Surgery

As we sit under a full moon in Cancer, I am sending out good feelings and positive thoughts for the speedy and full recovery of my friend who is in the ICU following surgery for breast cancer. I am putting out especially loving vibes today because this surgery was scheduled at the worst possible time, astrologically. Hippocrates wrote: “He who practices medicine without the benefit of the movement of the stars and the planets is a fool.” Also, “Touch not with iron that part of the body ruled by the sign the Moon is transiting.” Unfortunately, today the moon is in Cancer, dealing with, you got it, the breasts. I was concerned but felt I would be a Cassandra for interfering once I found out the conjunction of the surgery and the timing. Maybe we can weave an inverted hexagram to reverse the dangerous aspects into one of blessing for the breasts since it is a full moon. I like that idea.

Here’s a link to a WiseGeek article detailing some scary events coinciding with the wrong moon sign and surgeries: http://www.wisegeek.com/contest/what-explains-the-unexplainable-deaths-with-regards-to-medical-practice.htm

Check your ephemeris before getting that tummy tuck, folks.

Update 2/6/2011: 

Unfortunately, my friend suffered complications after her surgery. She was unable to breathe on her own when taken off life support after the surgery and has yet to be able to breathe on her own. She was intubated that day and remains under sedation because of the tube. This marks day 18 that she’s been unconscious. I can’t stress enough the wisdom of following Hippocrates’ rule. This is a sad reminder of what can go wrong in a situation like this.

A Cancer Lesson;

For Steven.

Cancers, I have to admit, are some of my favorite people. There is something beautiful about them, even if they are over six feet tall and mostly hairy. Cancers are secret poets. For most of their lives, they are liable to be secretive over something or other. Sometimes they will keep the same secret for most of their lives. Sometimes they aren’t even keeping a secret. They just seem that way, because this is the silent type. You may know some Cancers, as I do, that are just a hoot when in a good mood. But approximately every other third moon quarter, they will be under a blue moon, literally and figuratively. You’ll notice that even their favorite foods won’t tempt them out of a whopper of a bad mood. You’ll just have to wait until it goes away again. It almost always does.

That having been said, let me reiterate any information you have heard about Cancer disliking confrontations. Cancers really do not like confrontations. Even when a confrontation of something is necessary, and would have a positive effect, they may even face up and enter the confrontation, but they won’t LIKE it. Some people enjoy arguing. Those people are not Cancers. When a Cancer gets backed into a corner in any way, they will come out swinging. Those same beautifully sensitive Crabs will pinch with the cruelest ferocity when they feel threatened. Some are so pathologically insecure that you will never be able to get close to them. These Cancers may very well be left alone.

Cancer can be the most selfish and the most giving. If you can get inside that shell they are so beautifully soft inside. But be sure not to go stomping around in there and hurt them. They won’t forget it. Another issue that is huge is their abnormal attachment to their mothers. This is not an Oedipus complex in them per se, but it is more like the abnormal power structure in the relationship between Morgan le Fey and her bastard son, Mordred. She is a powerful witch who holds the reins of her subservient son, whom she uses as a tool for her own ends. For some reason, some Cancers are unable to separate themselves emotionally from their mothers because she is the only person he trusts. Of course, this is only true to a degree in a more enlightened Cancer. In women Cancers, this impulse turns to idol worship, emulation of traits both good and bad of the mother, and sometimes an adversarial nature. However; the maternal bond is almost never broken for Cancers of either sex, and all of the above mentioned traits may apply to both sexes.

Listen to a Cancer’s music they have written themselves, read their book they have written, enjoy their poetry, IF they ever trust you enough to show it to you. You may only get one chance to glimpse their creative expressions, which are of a quality you will most likely find captivating.

The Bean King- a song

So I was looking into some various archetypes that exist which don’t always register in our consciousness, but are deeply rooted in our psyche as we developed from hunter gatherers to agriculturalists. Sometimes we regurgitate these symbols into something more or less recognizable as its original form or meaning.

I find this to be true with the figure of Christ. If you look deeper, past the mythos provided by the Bible you can see similarities between the Christ and his sacrifice to other figures who either gave of themselves or were given in sacrifice. This goes far past the time of the birth of Judeo-Christianity to our very beginnings as a species.

In our attempts to make sense of our world, we make connections with what we perceive with what we believe. The young human looked up, saw the stars cycling overhead, saw the changing of the seasons, and saw the work necessary to survive in the wilderness. He saw a connection with the cycles of the seasons and the harvest, and had the desire to ensure that he would survive the cold without starving. Eventually, various rituals arose that served the purpose of symbolically re-enacting the events of the seasons.

There are two closely associated archetypes, or symbols of this nature. One is the Bean King, or the Summer King. A young man would be chosen from a group by lottery where a cake was split between them, and the one receiving the piece of cake with the bean was named the Summer King or Bean King. This is the predecessor of the baby baked into Mardi Gras “King Cakes.” Unlike modern times, the Bean King would be treated like royalty all summer; no request would be denied, no one’s daughter or wife would be off limits. However, whereas a modern recipient of the baby from a King Cake is merely expected to provide next week’s cake, the Summer King was sacrificied at the end of the harvest.

The early human believed this would ensure the sun would return next year after the long dark of winter, that the fields would be fertilized by the blood of his sacrifice. Does that sound familiar? I made this connection with the Christ mythos after reading of many other male figures who killed themselves or allowed themselves to be killed for the good of others. Even in the Tarot, a true collection of archetypes well worth investigating, we have the Hanged Man, who has hung himself upside down, so that a blessing will come. Odin of the Norse was said to have hung himself upside down upon Yggdrasil, the world tree, so that he could gain knowledge, and he received a vision that led to the first Norse alphabet.

And now we have the Christ, who is crucified or hung upon a stake, in order to provide salvation for those who believe in him by erasing their sin. Again, doesn’t that sound familiar? Not to belittle the Christian mythos, but Christ is in very good company with other men who were offered up in sacrifice for the good of mankind.

Christ, symbolically, is the Summer King. He willingly allowed his own death for the sake of sinners, as he believed was God’s will. How different is this from the pagan lad, who upon biting into the bean, allowed himself to be slain so that his family would survive the snows of winter? And like Christ, is the earth not eternally reborn with the spring?

There is another symbol which also goes along with the seasonal cycles and that of death and rebirth. The Oak and Holly Kings of Celtic myth rule the two halves of the year, the Oak in summer and Holly in winter. Each year, the two kings battle for control of the land, and in his season, the other is defeated. Each year, the Oak King rules the summer until the Holly King slays him after the harvest, and he is reborn again in the spring when he defeats the Holly King again, and on and on the cycle continues.

In the spirit of these musings I have written some lyrics to a song that appeared in my head; music and melody are yet to be worked out but will follow:

The Bean King

They bring you gold and jewels
They bring you silver
A crown of thorns
You’ll bleed under the splinter

But don’t worry now
In the spring you will be
Reborn
You will be reborn
You will be reborn

You are the Bean King
You are the King of Summer
The maiden fair they’ll bring you
So you will lay with her

So when the snow is cold
And fields are empty
The deep red of your blood
Refills the horn of plenty

But don’t worry now
In the spring you will be
Reborn
You will be reborn
You will be reborn

The Oak King is slain
By the Holly King
But again and again
And again in the spring

He will be reborn
You will be reborn
You will be reborn
You will be reborn

Money Rant

“Money is not the root of all evil, it is the love of it.”-
From the Bible: “It is easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than to get a rich man into heaven.”

Sometimes I wish I was dead.

The reason is that I hate money. I hate it so much that I can’t even wish debt on my worst enemy. The reason I haven’t killed myself before is that if you die while you owe student loans, your family will still have to pay for them. And, the cats would probably have to feed on my dead body. But anyway…

The other thing about money that maddens me is that it’s completely imaginary. I get that it’s hard to carry around 3 bushels of corn to barter for that bedspread you’ve been wanting, I mean I get the expedience of having a symbolic currency, but we as normal idiot monkeys have taken it just way too far. Nowadays there’s no real value to money at all, just bits of paper and metal. Or just numbers recorded on the back of a piece of plastic. So naturally, what we’re obsessed with is not even something concrete, like gold or silver, or land, it’s the numbers, the money itself. Which, numbers are just squiggles, some shapes we drew in the sand once arbitrarily to describe some quantity whose volume and value is completely subjective. We want more, a higher number. It’s like a score, like we’re winning something. Are we? Are we winning? Or are we losing something?

I think this won’t change unless everyone ends up losing something they value more than money. We definitely need a change in perspective.

But most of all, I hate money because it ruins everything. You can’t do anything without it. If you have it, you live in constant paranoia about not having enough of it. It’s ironic, then, isn’t it, that I’m studying to become an accountant? At least you know I won’t be trying to steal your money. I don’t want it.

I was not cut out for this world, or else the programming of society just didn’t take. People care more about money than people. They are so misguided. Money, you can get. You can replace it. You can earn more or borrow more of it. There will always be more money in the world. But you can’t replace people. Once a person is spent, they are gone forever. You can never get a person back. Until we value each other as much as we value money, this world is doomed.

What if some kind of disaster knocked out the power to the entire planet? If every single server, every machine, every computer in the world went out, the money and all its imaginary value, would be gone forever, poof, just like that. Then you would have to start again at zero. If you didn’t have any money to begin with, like me, that wouldn’t be such a problem. But how would the millionaires handle it? How would they convince people once the lights come back on that they had what they had to begin with? If all the electronic records of accounts disappeared, there would be complete chaos.

But at the same time, don’t you think you’d be relieved? Cleansed? Freed? Does this make me an anarchist? Perhaps, but I think it makes me normal, for me, to feel the chafe of the burden of this system we are born into like slavery. I would rather grow you a tomato in the clean, free breathing air of my backyard instead of having this postindustrial nightmare where our economy is driven by factories grinding out toxic chemical solvents for use by other factories, or whatever.

What to do, what to do?

*Reaching for global electricity plug.* “What’s that over there? Look, it’s a bear!”

A Virgo Lesson: The Legend of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson’s life has been one of conflict and triumph. His extreme highs and lows reflect the extremes of the astrological influences on his chart. Michael was a Virgo, a mutable earth sign, and his moon was in Pisces (mutable water), forming a direct opposition. People with this alignment will feel the tension of being pulled in opposite directions frequently. To be sure, few people will have the situational challenges which Michael faced, but all people with a sun/moon opposition will feel this effect. They have the potential to rise to great heights and fall to deep depths.

A few words about Virgo: they are the nicest, most intelligent, sweetest nitpickers you will ever meet. They are a strange combination of hyper-awareness, sensitivity and earthiness. I find Virgos to have many wonderful qualities, but getting them to believe it is another thing entirely. I have many Virgo friends who work tirelessly at their job or chosen career, but they constantly rebuke themselves and tell themselves they haven’t done well enough and pick apart their successes to see what they should have done better. Many who have had a Virgo boss may have said to themselves, “What a hard-ass!” when it comes time for performance reviews, but believe me, they are always much harder on themselves. Many Virgos have chronic indigestion or IBS because of the constant stress they place on themselves.

I think this tendency directly relates to Michael’s life. I can see how his father drove the family to succeed in show business, which sets incredibly exacting standards. I think Michael was constantly faced with criticism and pressure, which irritated the Virgo tendency toward self-hatred and feelings of worthlessness. Michael’s moon in Pisces influences an already sensitive Virgo to go even further into depths of depression. Being an earth sign, I believe he attempted to compensate through material possesions, which is common. But the moon in Pisces will cause problems again, because Pisces is spiritual rather than material and all the riches in the world cannot fill the emptiness inside.

We watched Michael change himself through surgery after surgery, which reflects what I believe to be his deep dissatisfaction with himself. He attempted to remake himself into something totally different, and in this I say he succeeded. Mutable signs need change and with both sun and moon in mutable signs, the desire and need for change combined with self-criticism to create the Michael we saw in his later years. It is evident with each step that Michael was attempting to recreate himself into a different person. I suspect that what Michael was actually experiencing was an undeclared transgender transformation. With every surgery, Michael appeared more feminine, more delicate, and more white. I believe his fascination with Elizabeth Taylor (a Pisces-no surprise he’d be drawn to her), held not just idol worship, but idolization with emulation being his goal. I suspect that Michael wanted to BE Liz Taylor.

I will not say that I believe the charges he faced regarding child molestation are true or false; only he and the children involved really know what happened. But I will say that Virgo’s inherent purity as the Virgin of the zodiac can have a strange boomerang effect, which may drive the Virgo to be fascinated with the dark side of the taboo. Sex in all its forms may be huge issues for Virgos, especially the men. The Virgo earthiness expresses itself in a huge appetite for sex in some men, even to the point of being indiscriminate in choosing partners. Am I saying Virgo men are promiscuous? Yes I am, because they are. I am not judging them however, as they must live their lives and learn their karmic lessons from astrology just as you or I must.

I am hesistant to try to analyze Michael further as I did not know him, and also hope that my speculations on his mindset do not offend those who loved him, as I believe it is wrong to speak ill of the dead. He was immensely complex, immensely talented and has made his stamp on the world of pop music and culture that will last far beyond his lifetime. RIP, Michael.

A Gemini Lesson: Free Floating in Air

Gemini is an air sign, its quality is mutable, and its ruler is Mercury. The winged messenger of the gods on Olympus lends its light and airy character to Gemini. Speed is also associated with Mercury and Gemini.

Gemini is a truly complex sign. For people who are more everyday steady types, a Gemini influence of the sun during the month of Gemini or even Gemini planets in the horoscope of people can be a frustrating and confusing experience. There may be many layers of reality being affected by a Gemini influence. Or, people and situations may change quickly with different facets such that ordinary life may seem like a hopelessly chaotic puzzle. The main quality of any mutable sign is change, and the need for it. Or, the inevitability of change is guaranteed just when energy becomes static and begins to dip. Air is the element of Gemini. Air can not “not” move. The moving air can bring rain or sun, or both, in phases.

Gemini is a challenge, but not an impossible one. The secret is to allow the air to flow around you. Being centered and free floating in the energy of life allows the Gemini energy to float close…attracted to the stable centered energy. But if the energy becomes damp or clinging, the Gemini will quickly shift away. You cannot grasp air. But you can contain it. And, containing the air for too long causes it to become stale. Gemini must breathe freely.

A Leo Lesson: The Obama Nation

I have to say I am quite fond of our new president, and that I have come to like him more and more as I observe him. I didn’t know who the heck he was when he ran in the primaries, and I was supporting Hillary Clinton. But I tried to put my disappointment aside at Mrs. Clinton’s ousting and supported him in the election anyway.

What I find so impressive about Mr. Obama is that he channels the essence of his sign, Leo, showing many of Leo’s best qualities. Barack is a proud person, and he has lofty ideals and is stubbornly dedicated to making improvements in this country. I read this article about increasing student aid:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090424/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_college_costs
What it quoted him as saying was that he wants America to have the highest number of college graduates in the world within the next ten years. That is an aspiration I can get behind.

I also heartily approve of cutting out the lender middlemen, as they have been known to make a huge profit while employing some unscrupulous methods to get colleges to go along with them, providing kickbacks to schools, etc. I find it distasteful that there is a whole industry booming with profit while new graduates are saddled with such enormous debt that they may never be able to repay.

Some have even committed suicide in despair from the pressure of student loan debt. I, like many other grads, feel punished for doing what I was “expected” to do, by my teachers, by society, and even by my parents; none of whom ever made any financial plans or preparation on my behalf in order to help me fulfill that expectation. I don’t want to be rich, I just want a skill and a career that will provide for me and my family if I have one.

I even heard a radio host on a financial advice show basically tell this young caller, a graduate with hefty loans, that he was stupid for taking out so many loans and that he’d have been better off going to a community college or trade school, and that he’d never be able to repay those loans. I thought that was just wrong. I think Mr. Obama, and some others like Rev. Jesse Jackson, get that. We will have no kind of a country if the next three generations of graduate professionals can’t find jobs, and can’t pay back all those loans, which in the long run will cost the country billions.

I also have this to say to those negatory bore-ies who are hoping Mr. Obama will fail: guess what. If he fails, you fail. “We must hang together or we will all hang separately.” I also hope you don’t think this tenacious, proud, and I hope honorable Leo is just going to sit down and shut up because you said so. You obviously know nothing about Leo. They will fight for what they believe is right until the end. As for Mr. Obama’s success, I hope and pray he will make many good changes for this country. I don’t expect him to be perfect or to fix everything, because after all he is just a man, a human being who is fallible. But I also can’t wait to see what he can accomplish. I hope Mr. Obama will follow his resolve and ignore the naysayers, because he, as a Leo, can bring many positive things to our crabby Cancerian country.

On moving

Moving is one of those things which I especially hate; I’ve added it up and I’ve moved a total of 37 times, which leads me to believe my ancestors must have been nomadic. Moving is something which I have dreamt about, wished for, and hopelessly dreaded. Sometimes, I felt that I wasn’t moving so much as I was being moved.

When it comes time to move, the effort is somehow summoned and the feat accomplished often with conflict, as it is hard to move nowadays on one’s own. I have often surmised how much nicer it would be to live in a wigwam and only have to worry about what you have to pack on your horse to get the heck out of wherever. Paying someone else to move your stuff is selfishly gratifying, I recommend it if you’ve never done it.

Moving because I want to is always gratifying, moving because you have to is terrifying. I have nightmares where I’m having to pack up and leave to go somewhere, for some reason. Then there was a dream where I’d found home. It was a relief.

And then there are times when an invisible hand seems to be planted firmly in my back, or perhaps grasping my head, and I am moved suddenly with almost no warning. Such as the case when I moved suddenly right before Hurricane Katrina. I made it out of Louisiana one month before the storm hit and I was here and suffered no loss personally, whereas every single person I know back in Louisiana and Mississippi did.

I left Louisiana after leaving a management position that wasn’t a good situation, and being unable to locate another job within a period of time which I determined would have to lead me somewhere else. I couldn’t stay, so I had to go.

I was so lucky I went, because I was spared all the destruction all the others faced by the two storms. Not to mention I met someone very special very soon after making it here, so I guess I’m pretty lucky after all.
I try not to question the grasping/pushing hand at my back/head. So far it seems I’m being led somewhere, and since I wasn’t particularly going anywhere anyway, I decide to follow and see what happens.

Lament for Trees

Driving through the night alone
From the sultry Crescent City
To the family home in Mississippi
(as I had done just the week before)

Some things are never noticed until it’s too late.

The top of the hill
I slammed on the brakes,
cried out in dismay,
For the forest was gone.

Where before a stand of trees
Thick and tall and full of voices
That sang in my head unheard
For as long as I can remember

Was now a graveyard of stumps
Where the trees used to be,
Framed in the headlights were corpses
Of ash, pine, oak and hickory.

The trees had voices,
never noticed or acknowledged,
never spoken to in greeting or goodbye.

The voices of the forest were the loudest
They had ever been once gone,
Their absence like a shout in the darkness.

I sat at the wheel and cried at the silence.