Aries 4°

(For last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree:  click here)

 As I mentioned, Spring Equinox is like New Year’s Day and Easter rolled into one for us. All Christian holidays have been pinned to already existing pagan ones. Thus the tradition meal of lamb, a baby sheep or ram, on Easter, a word that derives from the festival of the goddess Ishtar, a fertility deity, whose fecund symbols included bunnies and eggs. She is the cognate of the Sumerian goddess as Innana, later Astarte, who is somewhat synonymous with Aphrodite or Venus—Ishtar is the personification of that lovely planet. In our vernacular, Venus/Aphrodite/Mari (synonymous with Mary in biblical mythology) is the archetype of Pisces, associated with the sea, a goddess of love, while the sign of Aries, ruled by planet Mars, named for the war god (Greek: Ares) boasts the war goddess, Athena, as its female archetype. Ishtar/Innana, though, was goddess of both love and war which were perhaps more delineated into the characters of Aphrodite and Athena in the Greek pantheon. I always wondered why it is Athena, Aphrodite, along with Hera (Juno), form this triple threat to Paris, prince of Troy, who must choose the most beautiful among them. We are used to viewing goddesses in triplicate nature, all emanations of the One goddess. So perhaps the Judgement of Paris was really about what was most valued in human experience: Wisdom (Athena), Power (Hera), or Love (Aphrodite)—he picked love which led to the most famous war of all time.

Love and war are inextricably linked. The War god Mars is lovers with Aphrodite, giving birth to Eros/Cupid who embodied the combination of both elements. Eros is forever a babe, and yet he is also the oldest god. Love is War and they combine to the most essential and evernew. Eros is love. Jesus is love. Aphrodite/Mari/Mary being their eternal mother. Jesus is the babe and the everlasting god—part of the triplicate of father, son and holy what?: originally that trinity included mother. But we fear the feminine, the vagina dentata that threatens to castrate the patriarchy. It was from Uranus’ castrated (by his son Cronos) penis that Aphrodite sprang, the foam, of the sea. In French the word écume means both foam and scum, the perfect Pisces paradox once more expressed. But yes I realize we are in the sign of Aries. And thus I turn my attention to the goddess Athena, the aspect of female-hood as seen through the ultra masculine lens of the Zodiac’s first sign, ruled by Mars, the god of war. And so she too wears armor. And we have no evidence of her ever having a lover. Her war-like brother-archetype Mars is the lover of Aphrodite who is married to the lame Hephaestus who does attempt to rape Athena, but his seed spills on the ground impregnating the Earth goddess (and his great grandmother) Gaia. A son is born of this union which Athena raises as her own.

I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Except to hit home the self sufficiency of the Athenian archetype. And to perhaps illustrate the fact that she couldn’t have it both ways. She couldn’t be some god’s wife—she did take a passing fancy for a mortal friend of her demigod brother Heracles/Hercules. But, unlike her warlike sibling Mars who rushes into battle and ere long rushes out again, bawling if he sustains the slightest scratch: Athena has never lost a battle. She is strategic, defensive and she uses her godhead of wisdom and wit to, well, outwit all other opponents. One might assume that her surpassing success, not just in war, but in art—she is goddess of craftsman and, by extension, civilization—is a direct result of never being anybody’s wifey or main squeeze. She is the premier goddess archetype in the Zodiac, and a feminist; which means that feminism is encoded right up top into the Zodiac. The dual archetype of Aries is expressed, un-ironically, in the uber male and macho and rather bullying and cowardly figure of the main man Mars/Ares; and to counterbalance this energy, we don’t do so with an uber-feminine figure—the sign of Aries, under Mars rule, expresses the energetically “male principle”—but we do counter balance with an ultra feminist figure. It begs the question: what is the true opposite of this uber male energy embodied by Mars? Well, there are two opposites at least: there is the ultra feminine Aphrodite, Venus, her namesake planet representing the feminine principle, expressed, in various forms, in the signs of Taurus and Libra, while the archetype of the goddess herself rules over the uber feminine sign of Pisces. That would be one archetypal opposite to the god Mars; but so to is Athena, despite the fact that she is similarly clad in wargarb and helmet likewise brandishing a spear because she takes the pure aggression of the male principle and harnasses it into a strong defense and energy of protection and patronage. Athens is named for her because she took the most care for its civilization. Athena is arguably the most eternally modernist deity in the pantheon, male or female; although Apollo might give her a run for her money. Apollo is an archetype of Aries opposite sign of Libra, a male figure, in a masculine sign, ruled by feminine Venus. Whereas she takes on the estate of war and traditionally male domains, Apollo is god of art and music and prophesy and all things that had, in pre-Hellenic civilizations, been the estate of female goddesses and muses.

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3° Aries
(For last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree:  click here)

Our work with clients basically falls under the heading of humanistic astrology, the astrology of the individual in this lifetime. There is also esoteric astrology which uses the zodiac as a lens to view the soul journey of a person over many lifetimes.. There’s horary astrology and mundane astrology and, I think at last count, 80 different brands of astrology; yes, because the Zodiac is like the Golden mean—it expresses everything and everything can be expressed by it. The individual life, the soul journey, the course of a year, or a day or the breadth of all existence, from creation to destruction of the entire universe. Everything we can know or need to know or will know about everything is encoded in the Zodiacal system, truths that are just now being discovered by science. Though the Zodiac was “divined” at least 3000 years ago by the Sumerians, Babylonians, during the Chaldean period, it has held the encoded knowledge, big things like matter is an illusion, that it is just dense energy, truths that impact magic as much as science. Which brings me/us to our next point:

Underscoring general sun-sign astrology speicific work with individuals, and all schools 80 schools of astrology is our most essential belief about the Zodiac. That beyond being a symbolically rich and ever unfolding mandala for all existence, it is actually a practicable system, like an ancient self-help manual to living a functional life of richest fulfillment. Something we like to call Natural Astrology or Cosmic Astrology or Natural Cosmic Astrology whereby we view each of the twelve signs and houses of the zodiac is a building block, one upon the other, an infinite upward spiral, guiding us to self actualization. Stella likes to say it’s “the original twelve-step program” ™. Which is no joke really because if you look at what the twelve steps are in an AA or Al-anon or any program they correspond almost exactly to the themes of the astrological houses, in turn. The main thrust of this Natural Cosmic Astrology is to attune ourselves to the cycle of nature and the cosmos meaningfully, metaphysically, indeed alchemically. No better way to do it then with the the Start of the new Year at Aries 0°, which we did with the performance of our monthly show, The Zodiac Club, in New York (which we will do monthly) and the exploration of the first sign and first astrological house, all month long here in the sign of Aries. (At the time of writing I’m about two weeks behind in this but I will be playing catch up over the next couple of days.

I will explore this aspect of astrology, daily, all year long, while weaving in personal story where applicable. But the point this year is to unlock the Cosmic Energy and wisdom of each sign , starting with the Spring Equinox, which provides something of a clean slate. We exited the womb-tomb of Pisces with its opposite facing fish, the twelfth and final sign and house of the Zodiac, that of non-material existence, mutable-water, vapor and mists and and foam and primordial soup, primeval slime, gestation, incubation and purest imagination, to be born, once again, into the bloody real, bleating and brutally honest first sign of Aries, the Ram to begin a new journey around the Sun. We are this month celebrating the energy and indeed the people of the sign, as we will for each, turning on the power, flipping the switch of each of the twelve cosmic energies, that resides within each of you.

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2° Aries

(Last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree:  click here)

One of the bits we didn’t get to the other night in doing our Zodiac Club at Sid Gold’s was, to illustrate the point of the War God, Mars (namesake of the Aries’ ruling planet) whose Greek name, incidentally, is Ares, being the main archetype of the Aries Man. They can be hot heads (the body part ruled by the sign), brawling and downright belligerent. A list of head-butting Aries dudes includes Alec Baldwin, Russell Crowe, Sean Bean, Ryan O’Neal, Vincent Gallo, Gary Oldman, William Shatner, Dennis Quaid. Don’t even get me started on John Galliano.

Often, in the past, we stayed at our friend’s penthouse off University Place, next door to Alec Baldwin who we saw thousands of times. Typically, he’d be walking his ironically tiny dog—well not walking it just rather letting it do its thing—while ranting or howling into his iphone. We love Alec Baldwin. And Stella is really determined to ask him to allow her to give him a hug. She really thinks he’s one of our greatest actors (I agree) and a teddy bear (I’m not sure about that. I caution her against asking for said hug but if anyone could make him acquiesce to such a request, though he is notoriously on guard against having his privacy invaded, it would be her.

So on this trip we are staying in our favorite downtown hotel. The room is tiny but there is a great lounge and restaurant and we hang out in it all day and work and meet clients and take meetings and eat too many carbs and don’t always stick to sparkling water. Anyway, we were with a client yesterday and suddenly I heard this bellowing. I think you know where I’m going here. A red-faced Alec Baldwin has stormed up to the hostess stand where a placid slip of a young woman is seemingly meditating at her podium and he starts laying in. Something to the effect: Is anybody going to come to my table and wait on me or do I have to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s like he can’t help but come across, well, brusque would be kind. I honestly think she didn’t know who he was which is great and she was sweet and accommodating and of-coursing him to death which made him look (and I think feel) silly all of a sudden, like an anger-management audiotape was suddenly looping in his blood filled head.

The female archetype of Aries is the war-goddess Athena. She is prudent war, defensive war, more flight than fight, staying above the fray. Me thinks Mr. Baldwin needs to do some invoking of that steely-eyed deity who is the poster diva for picking your battles and channeling that feisty Mars energy into something sustainable rather than explosive. Aries men are pure energy, they really are. Unbridled fire and masculinity, Mars symbol being that masculine glyph that recalls the male genitalia—it’s on mens-room doors all around the world and was cast in gold(plate) and set on men’s chain necklaces set in chest hair framed by a velour v-neck for much of the 1970s. Male aggression. It comes from a very real place—below the belt.

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

1° Aries
(Last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree:  https://cosmic-blague.com/im-a-homo-sabian-too/)

So Last Evening, for the start of the Astrological New Year on the Vernal Equinox, Stella and I hosted the first Zodiac Club at Sid Gold’s Request Room with the talented Brian King on piano and guest Adam Feldman, an Aries, whom many know as the cabaret and theater critic at Time Out New York. The whole point of convening the Zodiac Club is just to share some thoughts in a seminar format in an informal salon setting with some elements of show and song and we just suggest a little money can get thrown in the donation bowl to benefit the Afterglow Festival in Provincetown. T’wasn’t well attended by any stretch; that said, we had a quality crowd of wonderful people and fellow downtown performers and old friends; and Amber Martin was on the bar and it was super fun before, meeting with the owner Joe McGinty (Losers Lounge) and his wife, and putting on our act, and then hanging out and doing some karaoke live with Drew Blood on Piano. So hopefully it will turn into something fun—if we build it…

As we’ve enter Aries and the natural 1st house of Self, I’m all about resetting intentions and starting anew. The 1st house is also that of the physical self and I need a serious check in on that score. It’s been a murky Pisces month in many regards and that’s good for the dreaming and getting the imagination cooking. Now that we are in Aries I’m definitely focusing back on diet and exercise and keeping my Aries ruled head clear and the body-brain healthy. It’s a great time to start a new meditation practice too if any of you several people reading this are thinking about something along those lines. It’s a good time to keep to yourself and be on a solo tear of well-being. It’s all about embodiment this month, embodying the intentions you set. Your corporal self needs to be strong and rested and it makes me think that, next time around the wheel, in the sign of Pisces, I won’t let that often oblivious sign take me so far off my path as it has. Nothing to regret, just time to move forward in our quests with the steely reserve of Athena and the fighting spirit of Ares/Mars. Singularity!

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Okay folks. This is it. A full year of daily Blagues complete. At Pisces 30° the Sabian Symbol is: A Majestic Rock Formation Resembling A Face Is Idealized By A Boy Who Takes It As His Ideal Of Greatness, And As He Grows Up, Begins To Look Like It. What? This sounds like a joke. Like you get to the end of the entire wheel and then you get a pie in the face. But fine. Let us decipher. The boy becomes the image; that says a lot for the power of creative visualization I guess. He finds the face is ideal. So he becomes it. Sounds like a Talking Heads song. This is the final Pisces-Pisces ruled image. Wowee ka-zoinks. I’ll do some reading. I’m back. Dane Rudhyar says this image draws on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Great Stone Face” which I have never read and I’m not gerner. Apparently it’s an allegory for the self-transformation latent in man. Pisces is all about the power of imagination which, when directed, is a pointed visualization that speaks to the malleable nature of reality—the mutable water sign of Pisces, translating to vapor, mist, symbolizing the unseen elements of reality, has long understood existence to be all force, eons before we came to learn that all matter was particle energy at its core. Given that, the will can thus rearrange said particles to create a desired reality. This is the power used by God-like beings, at the close of a cosmic cycle, creating their own new universe.

The boy is the seedling, and here at the end of a grand cycle, we see the seeds begin a new. The new seeds contain all that the old had to offer, plus a little (evolutionary) extra. The boy looks like the rock formation. There is a new theory about rocks (minerals) and life. It speaks to the symbiotic relationship between life and rocks. Here, I’ve swiped this from the PBS website—I recently saw a program about minerals on that channel. Give it a read. It’s an extraordinary thing:

Nearly Two-Thirds of Earth’s Minerals Were Created by Life

 Planet Earth’s stunning diversity of 4,500 minerals may be thanks to its stunning diversity of life, according to a recent theory proposed by minerologists.

 Rocks helped give life its start—serving as storehouses of chemicals and workbenches atop which the key processes sparked the complex reactions that now power living things—so it only seems fair that life may have returned the favor. “Rocks create, life creates rocks. They’re intertwined in ways that are just now coming into focus,” Robert Hazen, a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory, told NOVA.

 According to Hazen and his colleagues, who have published a slew of papers on the theory over the past several years, up to two-thirds of minerals on Earth may be the result of oxidation, a chemical reaction that occurs when one element loses electrons to another. The reaction was first discovered with oxygen as the oxidizing agent, hence the name, though other elements such as chlorine (Cl2) can also act as oxidizers.

 But it was oxygen that played an outsize role in Earth’s history. About 2.5 billion years ago, O2 was released as a waste product by newly photosynthesizing algae. Within the span of about 300 million years, those microbes had boosted oxygen from nothing to 1% of the atmosphere, Hazen said. It was a rapid shift that would have wide reaching consequences.

As O2 came into contact with iron dissolved in the ocean, it precipitated a rusty rain that sank to the bottom. Today, those vast swaths of Precambrian rust are still found in the trillions of tons of iron ore that are locked in banded formations around the world.

Other elements were similarly affected. Two-thirds of Earth’s minerals are the result of oxidation, Hazen said, and most oxygen on Earth was created by life.

“As a mineralogist when I look at earth history. I see big new transitions, I see the moon forming impact, I see the formation of oceans and so forth,” Hazen said. “But nothing, nothing matches what life and oxygen did to create new minerals.”

Isn’t that fascinating?

But back to our symbol du jour, the keyword for which is: Archetypalization. We are herein looking at the power of archetypes to condition life processes. The rock formation, the abstraction, has a totemic power, at least, for the viewer cum visualizer, the young boy. There was obviously a power, here, a force to be reckoned with, in which the boy saw himself in and in himself. The opposite-facing fish of Pisces paradoxically messing with the viewer and the viewed, the subject and object, one becoming the other, perfect symbiosis, like those PBS rocks and life, creating one another. It points to another paradoxical question: Were we created by god(s) or did we create them. My feeling is that the relationship is the third and connecting power at play here. The holy Trinity of Pisces experiences expressed by its ruler Neptune’s trident. There are the fish of the sign and then there is the cord which connects them. In the original Sumerian Zodiac, Pisces wasn’t the Fish but the Fish-cord, that umbilical tie, by which, when they took fish form, Aphrodite and her son Eros, would stay connected. We are all connected through time by that same cord; again it speaks to the womb/tomb (which way are you headed?) aspect of those opposite-facing fishies. Perhaps the boy sees all the way back in time to when the rock gave him/all human life and he is returning the favor.

So that concludes year one in which the daily Cosmic Blague focused on the Sabian Symbols. I will try to turn my attention toward other aspects of the blague (French: joke) in year two but perhaps I’ll add a link to the previous year’s symbol for extra added power and meaning or if I don’t feel like writing the blague every single day, at least I can edit the masses of typos I made last year and just provide you a link; perhaps I will have edited those blagues a bit too. Who knows there might be another book in here somewhere. But, on that score, I am going to be spending a greater deal of time working on some new grand master-pieces or -flashes in the pan. Time will tell. Rock on with your smock on!

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s our second to last entry of the year. And I am finding eleventh hour proof that my overlay of a twelve-fold sequence stood up to the entire test of this full one-year time. At Pisces 29° we find Light Breaking Into Many Colors Through A Prism, that rainbow signifying diversity and differentiation which is endemic to the sign of Aquarius, ruler of this Pisces oracle. Being an air sign Aquarius is analytical and it is this power of the mind that is necessary for “the formulation of life processes in their many aspects.” Dane Rudhyar, scholar of the Sabian Symbols, asserts that cycles of existence begin in unity and end in what he calls “multi-unity.” The point being that the only true absolute in existence is the relationship between the one and the many. Even as we return to the one—Rudhyar uses humus as an example of organic material breaking down to create one substance or rich abundant soil, from that we know that a mass variety of organisms will grow, a nod to yesterday’s symbol of the vegetable garden at full ripeness. Just as that signaled the end of one cycle (harvest) the seeds of the new harvest exist in the old one, ad infinitum, back through time. So too does diversity and differentiation exist within any single life form or experience. We are in some heady esoteric territory here. But that was to be expected as we near the end of this journey around the Sun.

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It is a bit spooky that we have all these Moon images in a row. At 28° Pisces we find A Fertile Garden Under The Full Moon Reveals A Variety Of Full-Grown Vegetables. This is ruled by Capricorn, the original goat-horn of plenty, containment being a natural energy of this Saturn ruled sign. Whereas the previous sign of Sagitarrius, ruled by expansive Jupiter is all about growth and more, more, more; Saturn-ruled Capricorn contains (not limits) the bounty so to prevere it and keep it pure. And so we have the full satisfaction of our basic needs, which is all any of us should ever hope for. The rest is, as they say, gravy, which can be a savory name for greed. There isn’t a hell of a lot to say about this except that abundance is really that which satsifies our requirements. It’s hard for many in our modern world to know when enough is indeed enough. We can all become addicted to the amassing of wealth or content, but that can take away from the experience of just living life given the fact our basics are covereed. A fertile garden and a variety of full grown vegetables, and one can almost see the skin of the veggies glimmering in the moonlight. This oracle speaks to Capricorn’s motto “I use” which is to say, “I don’t waste.” Metaphorically I see the garden, like the full cornucopia, as a symbol of faith which is at root, and is the purest manifestation, of abundance.

Copyright 2016 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Here comes another Moon symbol. Today, The Harvest Moon Illumines A Clear Autumnal Sky is the symbol at 27° Pisces, ruled by Sagittarius in a twelve-fold sequence. Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion, is all about bounty and it is one of the three autumnal signs. The Harvest Moon is typically a supermoon so it fits that sign’s love of largesse. Where this astrological degree appears in our charts it asks us to take stock of not only what we are reaping, and what we’ve sown, but where we have failed to do the former as to enjoy the latter. It comes after yesterday’s New Moon image which is kind of crazy. The keyword of this image is consummation.

No matter how we prepare, the inevitable is just that. It’s not true that it’s never too late to positively impact an outcome. You can be ill-prepared. We like to say around these parts that you must prepare for your good. You don’t want opportunity or some full fruition to come a knocking when you’ve not properly prepped yourself. So take today’s oracle to heart and stop all the wicked ways in which you are not showing up for yourself. You want to be in tip top condition on all metaphysical levels. And, more than that, you want to know that you’re in tip top condition. That is doing your part in the equation for fulfilling your destiny.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Watching The Very Thin Moon Crescent Appearing At Sunset, Diffrent People Realize That The Time Has Come To go Ahead With Their Different Projects seems quite a modern symbo to have been divined in the 1920s, but there it is at Pisces 26°, ruled by Scorpio in a twelve-fold seequence. I suppose the Moon unearthed something that was lying dormant, which matches the Scorpio energy of excavation. I also like the fact that the same thing happened to a group of people which activated different things—this perfectly expresses the paradox of the Pisces energy. The crescent Moon, whether on the wax or the wane, signifies the start of something. Post Full Moon or New Moon the message is the same, we are busting out with new energy and this is a monthly occurance—you do know that the word month is named for the Moon, right, that we celebrate each Mo(o)nth?

Inspired with the opportunity to expand a long new lines, as individuals we react according to our own personal needs and characters. The impetus will be the same but the reactions will be as varied as our human natures. This speaks to our living in a society in which we are not forced to conform—though we recognize that this is not true for all humans living on this planet. If only all cultures glorified individualism and accepted the fact that others shouldn’t be compelled to conform to a single reaction. This is hitting on a major election day in this country. Even as a liberal democrat living in a so-called free culture we witness bullying and infighting even on our so-called progressive side of the aisle. I find this disturbing to say the least. Scorpio is all about mind control, psychic possession and it’s “We Have” motto can speak to a shared psychology in terms of what ideals and ideologies people together possess. Scorpio people, more than others, do expect those around them to have/share the same values, ethics and other such assets.

Totalitarianism isn’t something had on a large scale, on the model of early 20th century governments that have, for the most part, dismanted and democratized. Let alone the fact that it still exists in our world—many country’s living under dictatorships—I dare say the trend might be making a comeback. But what we are meant to focus on here, for the most part, is totalitarianism on the personal level. The tyrrany of needing others to think as we do, which is something far more prevalent—this is a trend we encounter within our own families and social circles. And we all do it, expecting others to fall in line to our own thinking; and we must strive against this in our own personal natures, letting others act and react according to their own personal inspiration and intuition, symbolized by that Moon.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A Religious Organization Succeeds In Overcoming The Corrupting Influence of Perverted Practices And Materialized Ideals isn’t quite what I expected from the last Libra-ruled (in a twelve-fold sequence) Pisces Sabian Symbol, at 25° of the sign. Perhaps I’m underestimating the spiritual power of Libra’s cosmic energy—maybe I’ve relegated it all too readily to the function of the mind; or I have expressed bias over the fact that Libra is all about abstract ideals, the Scales being the only inanimate in the Zodiac (meaning “cirle of animals”, humans included, sharing the same etymolgical root as the word: zoo). Anyway, here we see the power of the soul intervening and overriding the workings of the mind, where any perversion of ideals “lives”. This is the other shoe dropping on yesterday’s self-contained image of wo/men being islands. Today we are entertaining the notion that we are all churches and our individual souls are our god.

Most of us have lost touch with the unadulterated soul of our being and live according to certain dogma that has nothing to do with true spirituality. Look at the hypocrisy of gun toting anti-abortionists. Religious fanaticism is an oxymoron to my mind. Spirituality would never see one dictating dogma or creed to others. If we all have our own soul (god) than worship is a private affair and needn’t be dogmatized, stigmatized, politicized or legislated. Our habits are often devoid of meaning, more empty routine than energized ritual. We don’t chop wood and carry water; we are dragged through our days, put upon by our chores or needing to delegate to housekeepers, nannies, personal assistants and the like. Why? To have more time to shop or put on make-up or make the money necessary to have all such help (trappings of a Plutocrat). I’m still an old-school hippy in my heart. I actually enjoy making my own food and nobody is going to clean the baseboards in my bedroom to rid it of allergens quite like I can, and do, which takes me all of fifteen minutes a week. It’s exercise and it’s meditation and it’s joy. It’s not routine, it’s ritual self-appreciation; and if you know me, you know that I roll around every nook and cranny of every dictionary definition of that word.

When I day dream, I don’t think about mansions and yachts. I am not Elmer J. Fudd. I generally think about some small clean quiet house set somewhere in the woods or by the sea in New England or France or Ireland, unornamented, if not a bit ascetic, and spotlessly clean and appointed with full bowls of fruit and flowers and a pantry stocked with spices and fresh herbs with which I make meals and potions and elixirs and such and live without care, unwastefully if not frugally, and I have my health and happiness bolstered by regular yoga and meditation and, here’s the kicker, I have the luxury of just sleeping and waking and reading books and playing piano or other instruments, and strolling down to a beach for a swim and lying in the sun with a cool breeze and that to me is my idea of success and bliss and fulfillment. I suppose in this image whatever I set up as my business is lucrative enough to afford the natural simplicity of all of the above. And in this revelry which really shouldn’t be so terribly difficult to achieve I have a deeper sense of my own personal god, that is, my very own slice of divinity: my soul.

I thank this oracle, today, because it has helped me visualize what I have only vaguely felt. And so the positive, unperverted, that is to say purged and purified vision is what is called for here at this degree of the Zodiac; and for me it does portray that peaceful—harmonious, balanced, minimal—Libran idealism but only in so far as that illustrates the illumination of my soul yearning. This symbol is meant to bring cartharsis and strangely enough it has. I suddenly have a much clearer sense of why I’m doing what I’m doing. And I’m really happy not only to have put it in words but to have this inner vision. I have never needed very much and I like that about myself. If anything, I think my ego has been more on the deflated than inflated side most of my life; and I suddenly feel thankful for that. We are always in some kind of crisis even if it isn’t dramatic. Sometimes it’s a quiet seemingly insignificant crisis (crossroads) we come to; and when the decision looks easy and doable and there need be nothing in the extreme needing to happen, one can more indiscreetly slip a little further in the direction of one’s destiny and let any perverted practices, which might have become a mainstay, fall away.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.