Heavy Car Traffic On A Narrow Isthmus Linking Two Seashore Resorts is the Sabian Symbol at 4° Pisces. It is another symbol of commerce and interconnectedness. Ruled by Capricorn in a twelve-fold sequence we see the limits and the restrictions involved here. Traffic is a good thing when it comes to things like your website—thereby it is a symbol of prosperity via commerce, getting yourself or your brand out there. But as it relates to road conditions I don’t think anybody likes that form of traffic. Even excess traffic on the web will crash your site. So there is a balance needing to strike. Many of us have been to actually places described in this image and they can be a real nightmare, such that you’d probably need to stay at one or other of the resorts. There is commerce between the two and connectedness but a natural separation due to the thin channel between them. I’m sure some people like one over the other and vice versa.

I can’t help thinking about the Pisces symbol, the graphic depiction of two curved opposite facing glyphs connected by a central line. The “fish” of the Pisces were originally dolphins, the animal totem of Aphrodite-Mari and Eros who were connected in that form by an umbilical cord, thus the glyph. I don’t know the significance of this Sabian Symbol reminding me of Pisces glyph, and I doubt my three readers much care. I’m weary I must say. I’m weary of this process; as much as it feels like an achievement and has made my writing more juicy overall, it has also drained me. Like going on vacation to one of those resorts. You know you’ll return more fatigued than when you went because you’ll eat all the salty food and drink the booze or what have you; you’ll try to sight see but be caught in said traffic and get aggravated. The best thing you can do is stay put maybe. I have no idea what I’m talking about right now and frankly I don’t want to know. I will try to keep my mood from coloring this post and just shut up for now.

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Today marks Sabian Sybmol 333, which is a sacred number to me. The image is: Petrified Tree Trunks Lie Broken On Desert Sand. It points to recording of achievements inherent in rich cultures. However we never have the full record. Only fragments remain. We have to fill in the rest by way of rational analysis and our imagination. Still, the notion society, with which we’ve been dealing with these past few days, does achieve some sort of immortality. What is achieved can never be fully erased.

I can’t help think of the Akashic records which record not only all that has ever happened but every desire—apparently it takes quite a clairvoyant to distinguish between these two categories. I’m not sure what else I can say about this image. Bummer. I was in the mood to write something sort of long. Oh I know I’ll tell you a quick story.

So when I was writing Sextrology I woke up pretty much every morning at the same time 3:33. It was a bit maddening. I channeled a great many archetypes during the writing of that book and I found that they were “visiting” me and “leading” me in new metaphysical directions. Anyway this went on for months. I then looked up the significance of the number—the three in triplicate—and it is the number of the Muses, who total nine. Well that made sense. A few years later this “story line” made its way into the film called Adaptation, which, if you haven’t seen that, you must. Then six years later I wanted to start my festival that I produce in Provincetown. I wanted the non-profit company to be called 333 but there already was a company that existed; a “building company” with a phone nobody answered. Anyway I tracked them down and asked for their necessary permission to also call my company 333. They consented. It was quite a task in all. Then the first year of the festival, though I comped a great may people, when I totalled up the twelve shows’ attendance in paid ticket sales, an exact number of 333 people attended. True Story.

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At 2° Pisces the Sabian Symbol is: A Squirrel Hiding From Hunters which expresses the individual’s need both to ensure his future subsistence and to protect himself from aggressive social elements. This image is ruled by Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence, the sign that deals with the unseen, hidden and invisible, not to mention being associated with the advent of autumn and the burying of a cache of nuts in the dying time of year, when all is reverted underground the the Scorpio realm ruled by Pluto, god of that underworld. The poort squirrel; it not only has to hide and store food for winter but it must be on the constant alert for the dangers involved in amassing said food supply. We are the squirrels; and we can likewise never feel completely safe among our fellow men. Yesterday, in the Libran ruled first image of Pisces, we were gathered all together in the light of day, enjoying the commerce and intercourse amongst the people in our society; and as Libra passes to Scorpio, we now deal with the covert and subversive and ulterior motives of said individuals, who might be out to get us, for some surely are; not everyone lives up to Libra’s ideals of fairness, and the Scorpio energy sees through, with extra vision, below the Libran surface of consciousness, to the subconsious motivations of others. We hoped to make fair bargains at yesterday’s market; but surely that setting gave rise to greed, competition and other shadow elements of subverted aggression and subterfuge. Scorpio is all about what lies beneath. And the squirrel will focus on its own self-sufficiency and preparedness while being ultra attuned being undone by predators.

Violence is an ever present danger and there are those who will prey on the openness of a society exploiting its vulnerabilities. Unfortunately we live in a world in the throes of this dynamic. Our Libran-ruled liberties will be eroded as a result of subversive plots of terrorism, to protect the people against them. But that only opens a door for the individual to be all the more robbed of their freedoms by those who (might just be protending to) seek to protect them. The squirrel is like a libertarian, self-sufficient and off the grid, and there might be something to be said for that way of living.

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So let’s see: what is our Sabian Symbol at this premier Pisces degree, hmm. In A Crowded Marketplace Farmers and Middlemen Display A Great Variety Of Products carries the keynote of the process of commingling and interchange which at all levels demonstrates the health of a community. Okay. This symbol would be ruled by Libra in a twelve-fold sequence and, if you’ve been paying attention, you might recall that Libra-ruled symbols almost invariably deal with community or, moreover, society. Just as Pisces, the final twelfth sign, is the culmination of the Zodiac, so too can we interpret the marketplace to be the end result of the farmers work, the reaping of what was sown, and, as a nod to Libra, there would be a great many Scales present in this scene, weighing and measuring as farmers and their middlemen bargain with buyers. What also will be measured are not just the actual goods themselves but the quality of this year’s crop; we will be judging the outcome of a yearly event, weighing all the variables and conditions, comparing it with previous times of harvest and coming together. We might also be judging the social aspect, the quality of the gathering in so far as it reflects the behaviors and attitudes of all gathered there in society. Irregardless we “come together” as Libran John Lennon would demand.

Should this particular degree be highlighted in a person’s chart or transits I would venture to say that it would be a good time for that individual to do some bargaining or trading, to take advantage of some marketplace or social milieu. The Libran mottos, both, “I balance” and “We are” come into play here because striking a bargain is akin to striking a balance; it’s what constitutes a fair deal. Fairness, in all senses of that word, is one word that Libra owns. Ruled by Venus on the astral plane, whose female symbol recalls a hand mirror and, indeed is named “the looking glass of Aphrodite” seems to almost beg the question: Who is the fairest of them all, not in the physical sense (as it does in the other Venus-ruled sign of Taurus), but in the abstract-real sign of Libra with it’s emphasis on beautiful ideas of balance and fairness such as equality or, as the French might have it, liberté, égalité, fraternité and so forth.

We think of commerce and the marketplace to be the realm of Gemini and its god Mercury, from whom we get the world market and merchants. But, in the less literal sign of Libra, we are looking at the broader sense of the word: commerce; that is to say social dealings between people. Libra and the seventh house rule one-one-one relationships and our ability to negotiate them. Let’s face it, all relationships are ongoing bargains. And we are making deals and contracts and pacts all of the time. We are constantly weighing ourselves, our worth, our necessity, or influence against that of others trying to find a harmonious dynamic of give and take. That would only be fair. No lopsided bonds for me, no sir. This better be even Steven or I’m packing up all my dolls and dishes and doing a disappearing act, make no mistake. Peace be with you. And also with you.

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First of all, the last Aquarian oracle at 30° of the sign, is the longest winded Sabian Symbol of them all (thus far anyway): Deeply Rooted In The Past Of A Very Ancient Culture, A Spiritual Brotherhood In Which Many Individual Minds Are Meged Into The Glowing Light Of A Unanimous Consciousness Is Revealed To One Who Has Emerged Successfully From His Metamorphosis. Next I need to remind my three readers that these symbols were divined randomly—the clairvoyant who assigned them didn’t know to what day she was pinning them or in what order. So the fact that yesterday was about a butterfly emerging from metamorphosis and today’s is about one who has succesfully undergone his metamorphosis is more than mere coincidence. And it is the upshot symbol one might expect in the sign of Aquarius. We have merged into “unanimous consciousness”. Now we’re talking. And, though I can scarcely believe it, we have explored 330 symbols, daily, for the past eleven months and tomorrow we embark on the final journey through the final sign of Pisces. (I won’t be ending the Blague, in case you’re wondering—in fact I will likely edit these daily installments and offer them as a link or sidebar to what will be a new Blague focused more on my personal and professional experience as a showbiz sidearealist.)

Yesterday we discussed how changing your habits, routines and social sphere would be symptomatic of leading a new metamorphosized life. Today we go beyond the symptoms of that life to the penultimate payoff—coming in contact with higher forms of existence. The first thing I’m made aware of is what is holding me back from this. And I can tell you in all honesty: not being able to let go of hurts, by situations and by people, of the past. Would that I could take a pill to eradicate feelings of regret, resentment and rejection. For all my own self-professed enlightenment, which I don’t discount, and my ability to help others as I do on a daily basis, my own Achilles heal is feeling that I’m not valued or appreciated enough by others, even though I know, from an intellectual standpoint, that a) what others think of me is none of my business; b) that nothing is personal; and c) to be great is to be misunderstood, I have in many ways felt like an outsider all my life, one who is not readily invited in which I have always found ironic because, really, I’m really quite swell in my way and I am very conscious of the Golden Rule and all that. What I come up against, mainly, as an obstacle, is my incredulity at the fact that mercenary, sychophantic, social-climbing, narcisisstic, star-fucking, money-grubbing, cut-throat individuals in my midst tend to fool the world and enjoy celebrity (celebration by others) when I see nothing but mendacity and malevolence in their eyes and black hearts. Of course, If a client were to say this to me, well, first of all I would say I get you brother/sister; and that seems to be the way of the world and one of the great paradoxes: That being a good person who only seeks to help others in their ascent, rather than a not so good one that, often quite artfully and imperceptibly, walks all over others, will render that good soul rather invisible. And there may be so-called injustice in that; but the larger fact is that the pain, regret, resentment, rejection are all part and parcel of matriculation to the higher plane. To be great is to be misunderstood. Otherwise our messiahs and martyrs wouldn’t be routinely murdered. Now, I certinaly don’t need to ascend in such a way as to be laid out on some literal cross, but I can accept and carry the burden of my figurative one. Agony and ecstasy are two sides of one coin and, as the old refrain goes, “you can’t have one without the other.”

Anima means soul, so unanimity means a union thereof. There is no avoiding the more occult readings of this symbol which speaks of a Brotherhood of Light. Just as light can be seen as being made up of particles or photons, it can also be viewed, depending on perspective, as one solid whole that comes in waves. The photon is like the individual; and it is weirdly reassuring to think that we might always, likewise, retain our separateness at the same time that we ultimately merge with all other entities to create a whole, which is how light appears from a distance. Both things are true. As Virgo rules this symbol in a twelve-fold sequence I immediately think of that sign’s motto “I serve” because it immediately makes the link between the individual and something greater. In Sextrology the male and female Virgo chapters are called The Vehicle and The Vessel, respectively, both terms pointing to the individual being in service as catalyst or conduit. Stella and I speak with our clients about the importance of inter-independence as a marker of our own personal evolution in regard to our relationships; here we have the similar notion of multi-unity, a whole being made up of individual, self-sufficient, parts. We are not reliant upon others for our own light (enlightenment), it must be achieved by rooting out the darkness in ourselves—the last vestiges of which might be such pains as are given rise to by regret, resentment and rejection (why hath thou forsaken me?)—and yet that light, turned on by nobody but our individual selves, can then be merged with the light of others, the totality of which might indeed be greater than its individual parts. I truly can go on forever with this…..but….I have to go to yoga so I will stop here…but for a tiny tidbit of quasi-related in formation: If you Google Sabian (people) you will see a lot of theories on who they were and are. In modern-day southern Iraq the Sabians there are followers not of Jesus but of John the Baptist (did you know there are a number of Middle Eastern sects who opted for John not Jesus as the messiah?); I thought that would be a fitting news flash today as we leave the Aquarian sign of the Waterbearer, for which JtB is the biblical archetype and sashay into the Pisces sign of the Fish for which JC is the main man.

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It was just a few days ago we had a butterfly image and here we have once again at Aquarius 29° with A Butterfly Emerging From A Chrysalis which points to the ability to utterly transform the character of one’s consciousness by radically altering the structural patterns of everyday living and the types of relationships one enters upon. Radical change, of course, is endemic to the sign of Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, the reformer. And as we near the end of the sign, nigh on entering Pisces, we are feeling the full evolutionary, as well as revolutionary, power of the sign of the Waterbearer. I find certain symbols so inspiring. I love to imagine my own metamorphosis being the product of my actions, restructuring my daily life and rethinking the types of relationships in which I engage.

If yesterday’s Cancer-ruled image was about preparation and promise leading to deliverance, this Leo-ruled Aquarian image is about being newly delivered. Emerging from the chrsysalis is a literal delivery of new birth. In the biblical sense, the flood (myth) is followed by the age of miracles and the book of Kings, a nod to the sign of Leo and its archetypes of Solmon and David. Landing, post flood, we make a new pact with the god/s—Leo’s astrological fifth house is that of co-creation with god. The sub-righteous, one might even say sub-human brutes were washed away by said flood as a new breed of human begins anew. This can happen every day, right now. I always point out that Noah, the Cancerian archetype, was a drunk; and that the flood myth is a metaphor for recovery and rehabilitation. The butterfly has been re-made in that chrysalis which is one and the same as that ark via which life makes a transition and undergoes a transformation and breeds new beings. The butterfly is a more perfect being. It has gained the power of flight, a symbol of spiritual ascension. We will become more evolved via our choices of which people, places and things define our experience. We can spiritualize ourselves and our lives and emerge from the limiting experiences and environments of the past. We can embark on a journey toward enlightenment once we break out of our experience and period of transition. We mustn’t ignore the transition. We must die to ourselves as the caterpillar did and we can completely transform our lives and live on a higher plane, characterized by different and new activities and the company of like higher-minds.

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At Aquarius 28° the Sabian Symbol is A Tree Felled And Sawed To Ensure A Supply Of Wood For The Winter. This is about using resources that are readily available. I think it’s also about trusting in your own skill set; yes we should stretch in new directions, but we should use what is already in our arsenal. It is also an image of preparedness. We know from experience that we will need to storehouse certain elements—money, for instance—to help through leaner times. And we are talking about basic needs here, not focused on extras of luxury. My guess is that having this degree point highlighted in your astrological chart would make you something of a boy or girl scout, being rather thrifty and certainly prepared. The felling of a tree requires a combination of brain and brawn. There is some engineering involved as to where to chop to maximize effeciency and have the tree land exactly where we want it. As well, we need some muscle.

This image also portrays living in cooperation, closely, with the natural world. We are living off the land, using what nature offers us. As this oracle is ruled by Cancer in a twelve-fold sequence, a sign that is associated with flood myths, promise and deliverance, we see the inherent connection here. Noah had to build that Ark after all and he would have had to chop more than a few trees to prepare for the coming deluge. An ark is associated with promise; so that when we are chopping some real or metaphoric tree we are endowing our actions with a self-promise of would-be deliverance. In fact, all actions might be endowed with this spirit or energy. Intelligent foresight isn’t a sole human capability. Every squirrel knows that; and the fact that this rhythmic, seasonal action is something we share with other living beings only contextualizes us all the more as being part of the natural world, not just living in it.

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At 27° Aquarius, a symbol ruled by Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence, we encounter An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Fresh Violets which couldn’t stand on starker contrast to the previous symbol of the greasy garage man testing his car battery. And on the surface this symbol seems more apt to be ruled by bucolic Taurus but we must look deeper. This is an oracle of traditional skills and artistic values rooted in man’s instinctive feelings as frames of reference for man’s most authentic emotions, or so I’m told. Gemini is all about immediacy, both in time and space. Here we stop to place these violets, symbols of humility, in something ancient and useful. We are creating an atmosphere of beauty, quite simply, right under our nose which is filled with fragrance. Like the insect, a nod to Gemini’s rule of all things airborne and planet Mercury, named for the winged god whose symbol recalls a bug with antennae, we are buzzing around our place, alighting upon flowers, delighting in the moment, perhaps finding eternity in that instant. Birds, too are known for their displays, not just of feathers but in their decoration of their nests. Few other so-called lower creatures with reptilian brains have an aesthetic flair which they use to invite, court both companionship and love as might give rise to new love. When we put flowers in a vase we are appreciating our own surroundings, the field of our own experience, making a statement that we are happy to be where we are in the here and now. It’s a finishing touch, perhaps, on the realm in which we’ve set up life or shop or both. We are ready to receive and share the moment with others; what are those buggy antennae after all but receptors? All too often we look upon Gemini as the transmitter of information, but the sign also speaks to the receipt of it. The sign might rule the lower (reptilian) brain—something that does rule courtship and hoarding—but it also rules positive thinking which itself works two ways, like mental cross pollenation: thinking positive thoughts not only puts a high vibration out into our field of experience, but it also attracts like vibrations to us. The subtle sweet scent of the violents in its earthy vessel is a lovely fragrant emission, while the placement of said flowers in their vase also brings good thoughts and feelings and wishes and interest to us.

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I know the sign of Aquarius rules technology but, man, this sign has had many a symbol that I have found dry and disconnected. I suspect when I get into the sign of Pisces, I’ll be overwhlmed with things to say but, honestly, it’s symbols like these that post a challenge: A Garage Man Testing A Car’s Battery With A Hydrometer is the Sabian Symbol for 24° Aquarius, which is ruled by Taurus in a twelve-fold sequence. It’s all about applying natural laws in dealing with problems that arise in our technological society. Yes, Taurus is the most natural of all the signs, the least complex and most straightforward of the earth signs. Management and maintenance are keynotes here, both practical attributes of the sign of Taurus with it’s focus on comfort and security, elements that are being sought here through the testing of the car battery. We need to know that there is sufficient sustanance and energy and power to make the journey, real or metaphoric though it may be. So you might want to ask yourself in what ways your life has become unmanagable. Or it what ways you need to sure up you vehicle or instrument or make sure you battery is charged or that you’re just plain ol’ hydrated?

The whole of our modern lives can be seen as a machine, increasingly capable of speeding out of control. And staying on top of all aspects of that machinery is important. As we race in our lives there is all the more reason to make sure that we have the appropriate power to do so. This maintenance is had via the keenness of our mind which must be put in service, not just to our emotions, but to our body as well. We can self-destruct in telling ourselves that our mechanism needs to maintenance; none of us have escaped seeing others run themselves into the ground or done so themselves. We must recharge. We must make sure the literal integrity of our being is intact. Our individual designs for living require staying on top of things, whether it be flossing your teeth, paying your bills, feeding your mind, or excercising your body, we have to take care of this vehicle we have for driving toward our desired destinies.

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A Butterfly With The Right Wing More Perfectly Formed is the Sabian Symbol at Aquarius 25°; it highlights the development of ones conscious individuation over that of the emotional—the right side over the left. Actually what we are seeing is the transmutation of emotional into conscious power. Just as the maggot might be hatched in the trash and become a fly, so too is the caterpillar reborn as the butterfly. Birth is the provenance of the first house and sign of Aries, which rules this symbol in a twelve-fold sequence. And so this is a symbol of overcoming. We are taking ourselves off the Pisces trash heap of reincarnation, being re-born as a more evolved being, with the new mutation to prove it. This symbol portrays the capacity to develop the rational and fully conscious aspect of the mind ahead of normal evolution. Symmetry is in large part an illusion on all levels. Though humans and other animals are seemingly symmetrical, there are always inconsistencies. And metaphorically speaking we all have leanings for which we must compensate. How else do we know to move toward balance and less we feel the inherent imbalance.

With the previous Pisces-ruled image we spoke of the disenfranchised, the forgotten, the discarded or otherwise disabled. We were asked to have compassion. And now, perhaps we are able to see our own imbalances, our own handicaps, our own imperfections. Just as we are taking flight we realize that we have our idiosychrasies or impediments. Can we thus have the same compassion for ourselves as we have for others. Or is our giving to others a distraction from the necessary focus we should place on ourselves. Still, we must note the the Right Wing is only more perfectly formed; that is to say that the left isn’t imperfect, begging the question what is imperfection? A more perfect right said just goes to show that our evolution is happening through the conscious right-brained side of ourselves; perhaps because the soul level is already a form of perfect, immutable, and therefore can’t evolve but just always, already is complete unto itself.

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