An Ancient Bas-Relief Carved In Granite Remains A Witness To A Long-Forgotten Culture points to “the will to unearth” that which has value and to “let go of non-essentials. How much more Scorpio, which rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence, be. That sign is all about uncovering what lies beneath, whether in our own psychology or in the exposure of that which is culturally hidden or repressed. Yesterday we stared into the fire with our Libran higher consciousness, now we dig deep into the subconcious and subversive. Sometimes we go back into practices of the past, particularly mystery religions and rites to “uncover” that which is lost, to separate out what is useful tradition from that which has become bad cultural habit.

That greed factor we encountered a couple of symbols back—that is the cause of most perversion in our culture. Greed forces new habits and addictions, inflicting them upon the masses. And then there comes a time when the Scorpion element of purge must come into play. We must root out that which is sick in our society and yank it from that dug-in source. We must get down to the spiritual nitty gritty of our experience. This can itself take dangerous form for this is where fundamentalist extremism also comes into play. So we must be careful. In our quest for spiritual perfection, we mustn’t in turn impose ourselves upon others. We don’t want to replace root evil with root evil. We want to weed our own gardens so that we might continue to unfold in the friendly fire of our own spiritual nature. We must have eyes wide open and employ historical perspective so that we don’t repeat negative patterns of the past. This historical perspective can be literally that, on a cultural scale, and also apply to us, personally, as in our own personal history. We know when our habits are perverted and making us sick at our root level. We have to dig down and make it right.

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A Fire Worshiper Meditates On The Ultimate Realities of Existence is the Capricorn 13° symbol that deals with the subjective quest for ultimates beyond the interplay of life and death processes. This is the mark of the mystic or true yogi. Fire not only captures our gaze but our imagination as it symbolizes the mystery of transformation. It is in the metaphorical fire in which our souls are purified. If we survive a trial by fire we have faced death square in the face and have lived to tell about it. This symbol is ruled by Libra in a twelve-fold sequence; the sign of high consciousness. And really what we have here is an “adbenture in consciousness” whereby the occultist moves beyond cultural enjoyment or any passion for accumulation of a data-based knowledge and seeks greater understanding through meditation, which takes us beyond the immediate and temporal, beyond life itself. This is some serious Gandalf the Grey cum White shite.

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Whereas the previous image of the private estate may’ve showcased plants and animals, elements of the natural world, altered by human minds and hands for aesthetic, functional, cultural purposes (ruled by Leo) today we move into the laboratory, at Capricorn 12°, as An Illustrated Lecture On Natural Science Reveals Little-Known Aspects Of Life where we see new processes toward this aim in, well, process. Ruled by the mutable-earth sign of Virgo in a twelve-fold sequence, we see that sign’s rule over alchemy being born out. (It never ceases to amaze me how these symbols seamlessly pick up where the last left off, especially given the fact they were “divined randomly”.) [I am picking up the thread of these Blagues now after days having fallen off my daily writing wagon—wistful, as the last time I wrote these I was rocking on a lovely boat making its way through the Grenadines surrounded by dearest friends…anyway it’s been a difficult reentry] So now we are getting to the nitty gritty of what might constitute our co-creation with god, if not our altering genomes in the process. Indeed the shadow side of the aquisition of knowledge is its exploitation. The fact that research is funded, primarily, by the rich and that it can go hand-in-hand with greed is all too obvious and prevalent.

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At Capricorn 11° we encounter A Large Group Of Pheasant On A Private Estate, the keynote of which is the refinement and propagation of aristocratic values by means of which man participates in the evolution of life toward ever more per feet forms of existence—not exactly the clearest keynote ever. Apparently what we are looking at here is man’s ability to alter, through biological techniques, species found in the wild and, in effect create new ones. We know how this is true with dog breeding. Just last night I discovered that pugs and bulldogs need be delivered of their litters by Cesarean section, something I didn’t know but feel a bit uneasy about. Need to have black labrador retrievers, as a sign of status, also comes to mind. I have had friends who had peacocks on their rather sprawling grounds surrounding their ancient home in France and I’m sure you can think of your own examples. All domesticated livestock, for instance. I must say I assumed (rightly?) that pheasant wasn’t a species we the people have altered. Still this impetus to change other species, not to mention ourselves, is a core human quality.

Let’s leave off fauna and turn to flora for a moment. The garden has been taken from the wild and domesticated and made to reflect the cultural status of the human person. Et voila, the pheasant finds itself trundling around these manicured grounds. Man can cooperate with nature in creating beauty and elegance in his/her surroundings. In a twelve-fold sequence, this oracle is ruled by the sign of Leo, the major tenet of which is: co-creation with god. The building of ones home and castle, the notion of nobility, if not aristocracy, and the divine right of kings, all fall under Leo’s astrological umbrella. We set ourselves up in contrast to nature, flora and fauna. It is made to serve us, functionally and aesthetically. We create our little bits of heaven here on Earth and the more skill and means we amass, the better we do so. We intend to improve upon what god has made, apparently, not willing to accept the state in which plant and animal exist. We will create our environment and its inhabitants in our own image of beauty and necessity. We will breed out that which we do not fancy or which doesn’t serve us. We are not just god’s co-creators, we are god’s finishing producers, taking the creator’s raw materials and making them into the fastest race horses, the sweetest corn, the cutest poodle and the most effective antibiotics.

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Sea imagery seems always to crop up in the oracles that are ruled by the sign of Cancer in a twelve-fold sequence. At 10° Capricorn we find An Albatross Feeding From The Hand Of A Sailor. Fittingly, I find myself on a boat right now moored off an island where I will be spending New Year’s Eve with friends. And I’m curious and eager to explore this image because tonight does mark yet another important turn of the wheel—anyway, the albatross has always been an interesting being to me, ever since reading the Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a kid. With the previous oracles all seemingly hinged on becoming open channels to divine nature and power, we here find a man who embodies such “perfect harmlessness” that he can have the wildest of creatures eat out of his hand without any element of fear, one way or the other.

Today’s oracle is pinioned upon establishing a partnership based on mutual respect and total understanding. If we accept the notion that every living entity plays a role in the world’s “ritual of existence”, which typically plays out in a manner that separates one being from another, the power of love can bring normally disparate entities together. To have an albatross around one’s neck is a burden, a word not unfamiliar to the Capricorn (scape)goat. However, we see that sea bird, here, not as a burden but as an entity that one can joyfully help through expression of compassion, skewing the concept of responsibility in a positive direction. Responsibility, a keynote of Capricorn’s ruler Saturn, can be a chore or it can be something that honors the word’s true etymological meaning—an ability to respond. In this case, the need is to feed, nurture being the watch-word of the sign of Cancer.

Who hasn’t had that Dr. Doolittle fantasy of being able to “talk” to the animals. I know I have many a time, alone, walking through a wood, tried to telepathically signal to animals I encountered that I am “one of the good ones” who wouldn’t harm them, psychically beckoning them toward me with waves of good intent. Is it possible to be that open a channel of perfect divine love such than animals would gather round you as they would an Orpheus or St. Francis of Assisi. I’d like to think they would. Food is a great motivator, feeding being a gesture of co-creation, providing to other entities what the natural world is meant to in its perfect abundant state. Walking through the Beech Forest in Provincetown, for instance, one can hold out a palm filled with sunflower seeds and affect the landing of a little chickadee for a quick nibble. One feels like a benevolent guardian in such instances where wild beings afford us the kind of trust we might afford a higher power. Food for thought.

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An Angel Carrying A Harp is the symbol for Capricorn 9°, pointing to the revelation of the spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation.There is a sense of this degree of the Zodiac in knowing there is no separation between mundane and transcendent experience, that the former and the latter are one and the same. Heaven, and hell for that matter, are within us or right by our side. But on the bright side (heaven) all we need do is be open and listen, a theme we see already emerging in these (randomly divined) Capricorn oracles. This symbol is ruled by Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence; and that sign is ruled by winged Mercury and is lousy with flight imagery. The presumably winged angel with its harp is an agent of harmony, the perfect music of the spheres, to which we are all able to harken if we indeed do listen. The symbol of Mercury, a nod to the winged capped, as well as footed god, recalls an insect with its antennae finely tuned, poised to pick up all subtle vibrations, the great talent of Gemini people if (pointing to their specific paradox) they quiet their noisy natures and actually listen.

The duality of the Gemini is, as brothers Castor and Pollux portray, the human and the divine nature within all of us. In order to heed our own divine nature, which is the god within us, we must surrender that chatter box of an ego of ours. Before we live in natural rhythm with the divine god/universe we must first attune to it. When we encounter Capricorn 9° we fince the potential ability to do just that. Angels are personifications of cosmic order and therefore express that perfect balance and harmony.

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At Capricorn 8° we arrive at a scene: In A Sun-Lit Home Domesticated Birds Sing Joyously, the keynote of which is: The wholesome happiness which subservience to the ideals and patterns of a well-established culture brings to those who accept them unreservedly. So many of us want more than what is given us in life; the paradox here being that if we want what we already have, and really use that which is afforded us, we can possibly ascend through that experience to more achievements. But the trappings really must never be an end in inself. We mustn’t reject our so-called lot in life but accept it and embrace it and move through it toward other desired experience. So long as we understand that we don’t necessarily need that which we want; and that that which we deisre might be desiring us. This oracle is ruled by Taurus in a twelve-fold sequence; that sign, whose motto is “I have” is here paired with Capricorn’s “I use” or, in other words, “I don’t waste.”

Saturn rules Capricorn, named for the god who was ruler of the Golden Age before he, and his namesake planet by extention, became more synonymous with restriction and limitation. And still, in accepting limitations and restrictions, we might feel more serene and happy, embodying the notion of when enough is enough. There is something most unsettling about the need for more, more, more. Even those who materially “have it all” might need to limit their own parameters in a bid for increased happiness. Saturn is old-father time and the past here refers to that well-established culture which might keep us from the glut associated with a nouvelle-riche mindset, metaphorically speaking, of course. Not to say that we must all be complacent with the conditions into which we were born; au contraire, we must accept the role we were born to play. This entails recognizing our own true nature and our place in the fabric beyond our conditions or conditioners. And it works all ways. A materially rich girl from an aristocratic European family might find that the role she is meant to play puts the nun in renunciation, living a live of poverty and charity. On the contrary, someone born into poverty might feel they must fulfill their destiny of becoming a physicist which would entail supposedly working against all odds to do that very thing. But our destiny is linked with our truest desire which tells us who we truly are. All the rest is stuff…and nonsense. So if we accept our conditions, our lot, meaning what might be our true talent(s) and calling then we will likely care very little about any trappings beyond the resources we need to become who we are.

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A Veiled Prophet Speaks, Seized By The Power Of A God is the Capricorn 7° symbol, one that would be ruled by Aries in a twelve-fold sequence. First I love that it says “a god” and not G-d. This oracle deals with our/ones ability to be a mouthpiece for the revelation of a transcendent truth. We touched, rather presciently I suppose, on Moses, in the previous image; and now here we have someone being the receivor, like M was, for a god’s will. Yesterday we saw ten logs at the ready, and today we have a full on burning bush. Yesterday we stood at the threshold of tomorrow; today we get glimpses of what is to come. I like to think that most of us have the potential to be visionaries, in the literal sense of being open channels for information that comes from a transpersonal source. I for one have experienced that first hand and have sought to develop this faculty which requires widening ones channel, emptying oneself of self, not to mention, ego. The great paradox of being a conduit of any kind of prophetic or psychic power is that you really cannot take any credit for it. It isn’t a talent, after all. It is a gift and it can be squandered or it can be imposed upon and altered and made impure.

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Ten Logs Lie Under An Archway Leading To Darker Woods is the Sabian Symbol du jour at 6° Capricorn, ruled by Pisces in a twelve-fold sequence. And just as that sign is the final one in the zodiac, so too does this image point to a sort of completion. Here we find ourselves at a threshold, the Archway, where we have the fuel, I imagine, of faith: Logs will keep the fire burning during the dark winter ahead, just as faith will keep our spirit alive during our metaphorical dark nights of the soul. And yet there is a deeper darkness still that we may explore, or resist doing so. In those woods, though, are the making of more fuel for further exploration of our soul.

The combination of Capricorn faith with Pisces belief points to a directive introspection. It isn’t accidental. Capricorn does nothing accidentally. The sign’s motto “I use” here points to the utilization of even ones dark moments, whether they be melancholy or loneliness or deprivation. This always provides a threshold onto deeper understanding. It is during or after a dark night of the soul that we are purified in the fire of our being, which is kindled by trial and tribulation. Capricorn uses negative experience and conditions to deepen awareness, on one hand, and to spiritually ascend on the other. Pisces places emphasis on the later, dissolving fear which is the opposite of said faith.

The number ten is also one of completion, our system being based on that round digit. Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac, and is associated with many things including those famed Commandments—Moses’ tabernacle was built out of Goat hair. Goats always brought wisdom and in Greek mythology goat gods were culture gods, though also associated with melancholy and the wailing, for instance of Pan, meaning All. The notion of the scapegoat sees the sins of all being heaped upon him/her to be ushered out of our experience. In this sense, the threshold might open onto the wilderness where said goat and sins will go to lighten our collective load, just as it is an entrance onto inner journeying, which might be one and the same.

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It is important to be reminded, every hundred oracles or so, that these symbols were divined randomly—that is to say that Elsie Wheeler, the clairvoyant, had no idea which degree of the zodiac she was assigning her imagery to. She was shown a blank card, on the back was pencilled the degree number. So when we have an image, like the previous one, that speaks to the group preparing a canoe; only to then happen on today’s image, at 5° Capricorn, Indians On The Warpath, While Some Men Row A Well-Filled Canoe, Others In It Perform a War Dance, we sense there is more afoot than coincidence. Today we are mobilizing our physical and emotional energies in a spirt of conquest, which is an undertaking I can get my brain around. Capricorn energy is that of resolution, just as the New Year’s brand falls into its time-frame. We asre seeking new resolve here. Resolution if not revolution. Fittingly Aquarius rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence, the combination of Capricorn and Aquarius energy being at once a seamless marriage and a melding of opposites. Capricorn wishes to resolve conflicts, whilst Aquarius seeks to overthrow the previous order that is one-half said conflict and set up a new order.

In this symbol we have the rowers and we have the ritualizing warriors, both of whom are working in tandem in expression of their intent toward war. Life is war. Survival is war. The fight is the first impetus to life, which is why the first sign of Aries is ruled by Mars, named for the god of War. We must fight to stay alive, individually, survival being reserved for the fittest. And as we combine together into societies, a single society takes on the characteristics of an individual, the group becomes the body seeking survival if not thrivation. And like the individual body, which stays in motion via unconscious mechanism, whilst the conscious mind reinforces its goals, we see here the body of the crew in the canoe divided into one group which must rhythmically keep the body (of the canoe) in motion, like the heart would our actual physical being, whilst the other half of the contents of said canoe are conjuring divine intervention via the dance to aid them in their conscious battle-aims.

We have been dealing a lot with Indian imagery already in these first handful of Capricorn images and there is an archetypal reason why. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the god of the golden age. During his rule, before being overthrown by the Olympian Zeus, the golden age was a sort of Eden where in there was no crime or murder or lies or any element of duality or dualism. People lived in bliss, and the gods and demigods and men co-mingled peacefully, and in tune with nature, one with heaven, without dichotomy. In real human terms we can equate that kind of earthly bliss with certain cultures, namely that of the native American who, for the most part, lived in harmony with nature and other living creatures. Only a Capricorn like Kevin Costner would have undertaken a project like Dances With Wolves so successfully. And we see other Capricorn men eschewing civilization to live, if somewhat reclusively, far from the madding crowd, in nature. John Denver, J.D. Salinger (I would look up others online but I’m on a flight with no internet but I’m confident I could further support this claim) come to mind.

For sure this image is about a group of people on the offensive. They seem as much intent on conquer as they do on self-preservation via momentum, changing it up, having a “momentous” event glavanaze, inspire and motivate them. Aggression is something that may need to be ritualized into experience even at times when the collective isn’t threatened; for without regular shows of ritualized aggression the collective might get week and fall into weakness. The planet Mars is exalted in the sign of Capricorn—Mars and Saturn making a mythical connection as the disgruntled son and deposed father of the chief god Zeus. There is something brash and obvious and entitled about the Zeus/Jupiter/Sagittarius experience—remember that fat boy on his hobby horse, for whom all is going his way. Jupiter is synonymous with fortune and the chief god does have luck on his side, though he exhibits a certain nouvelle-riche sense of style and accomplishment. Saturn, via the sign of Capricorn, might not be at the height of power, his having passed into the past, but he does have the fullfillment of knowing that his time of governship was/is considered golden, just as Zeus’ disgruntled sond might imagine more golden times ahead.

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