The metaphorical meaning of the symbol for Leo 5° is Rock Formations Tower Over A Deep Canyon is that of evolutionary power of time. We are challenged to widen our perspective, to think beyond the immediate in our own, dare I say, petty lives; and perhaps to focus on what is eternal. Again I give props to the upper case version of the lower-case kardashians (definition: people who literally suck) for providing me a word to sum up, in human form, all that is wrong with the world. Fine, so you don’t meditate on eternity or even your own death; but we saw what happened yesterday when a person’s need for worldly trophies (for killing something wild) ran amok, just as we saw that lion-killing fuckwad this week do it for real. Take it as a wake up call to examine everything you do. You kill one lion than you have caused the extinction of the entire species. You buy some diamond, chances are there is blood on your hands and an entire race might be at risk. You buy one piece of overblown real estate, you’re guilty of displacing thousands. Shit has consequences, yo. And you’ll be long dead before they manifest. But what do you care, right? Well, if there were any argument for reincarnation here it is. You might just be reborn to witness, and be victim to, the devestation that you caused. I’m with Nina Simone these days: “I’m not about to be non-violent, honey”—metaphorically speaking of course. Any activist worth his or her salt understands what that means. We can stand up and fight without hurting anybody. Stop worshipping the rich and famous—by deluding yourself into thinking if you act like them you’ll be them—because you’ll never be like that (at least that is my hope). You can have money and you can have influence, but if you use it selfishly you’re a destroyer. And you’ll be left, impoverished, at least spiritually, with nothing but a file of selfies to upload. You can do better than that. Think on eternity. And if you don’t give a rat’s ass about the inheritors of the planet, imagine yourself reincarnated as someone easily abused by our society. Do it for yourself(s).

Stop wasting your precious time on this planet trying to look young in this life time. Do what you can for your immortally youthful soul, and that of the collective spirit of this world within worlds. See the big picture. See over the expanse of Time. See all eternity now in an instant. And just be a good person. Nobody cares how many invites you have or followers on Facebook or pairs of shoes you possess. Possessions are so last millenium. Make a change. Contribute your money. And if you aint got none, then contribute your time. Make sacrifices. Gravitate toward the good and the lasting and ditch lousy people, places and things. Especially the faux self-helpers; oh lord, Mary, they’re the worst.

Over the past few days we’ve seen symbols about trying to stay young and self-aggrandize. I kind of love that these are happening in the sign of Leo and, in a double-whammy, today’s symbol is ruled by Leo in a twelve-fold system. We are dealing with the negativity of that sign’s energy: Pride and tyrrany. And, life being the greatest symbol of them all, we have collectively, as a world (thanks to the good that social media can do) we have seen the sacrifice of an actual lion whose death will have been for naught UNLESS you take to heart the lessons of this sainted creature: Worldly achievement is not only ephemeral it is often the cause of great evil. Let’s eternally wipe out all that stands for. Let’s have our efforts be as clearly defined in the future as those towering cliffs are over that deep canyon. We are the carvers of reality and Time is of the essence.

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A Formally Dressed Elderly Man Stands Near Trophies He Brought Back From A Hunting Expedition at 4° Leo is hinged on “the masculine will to conquer his animal nature and to impress his peers with his skill in performing the ancient traditional power rituals.” In some ways it’s quite similar to yesterday’s image of the middle-aged woman styling herself as a younger person. But instead of seeking to overcome the biology of age through one’s individual expression with their look, the older man herein wishes to overcome his own animal nature, symbolized by the hunter’s trophies. He is taking pride in showing them to those who would be impressed, that is to say other members of his presumably high-class culture, and male members at that.

Being formally dressed also hits home the notion of needing to impress, so the social importance of this image is foremost….

[I wrote the above days ago and then fell down a rabbit hole with work on the Afterglow Festival, which is a not-for-profit performance festival I founded in Provincetown. For some reason this year is really challenging. As the rich get richer they seem to want to hold onto their money all the more; and even those who actually live or own homes in Provincetown. I don’t know folks. It’s getting harder and harder to be a giver in this world. And yet it’s all the more reason to embody that spirit of generosity. Greed isn’t just some random vice of seven; it’s real; and it’s the root of all that’s wrong in this world from hunger and poverty to the prison (read: slavery) system to the disappearance of the arts from our schools and communities. I can’t change the world but I am trying to change my little corner of it which (if you Google dat shite) is “the birthplace of modern American theater. I’m beginning to feel a bit like Elizabeth I (an alchemist: a little known fact) slapping on that white make-up and “becoming” something other than who she was born as—morphing into the thoughtform of the virgin queen. Well it’s too late for me (on both fronts) but I’m not letting obstacles get in my way or make me give up. Quitting is for losahs.]

Now to catch up on where I was…..since the weekend when I started this, we saw that evil fucking douchebag dentist—I’m not even going to utter his name—kill that beloved Lion while we are in the sign of Leo. And now this symbol takes on a whole new meaning: This isn’t so much as overcoming ones animal nature but self-aggrandizing through the murder of fellow sentient beings. Perhaps the death of Cecile the lion isn’t less important than the murder, yes murder, of Sandra Bland—from social media you’d think Cecile’s death more the tragedy—but it surely isn’t less so. When we put people in jail for decades or life on meager charges does this not also constitute trophies for the people who own the privatized prison system.

Screw the fact I can’t raise enough money for a festival in P-town. Let’s focus on what’s really wrong with individuals in this country especially. So many of you are sick. Sick, sick, sick. Whether you’re buying a mansion in Provincetown in which you’ll spend one week a year, or you’re a “starving artist” whose self-obsession passes for performance art, you’re not giving, you’re taking. And frankly I’m nauseated even hearing about you. What is your trophy, then? Hmm? What natural spirit are you killing? Do you wake up and think what can I do to make things better? Or are you just looking for the next accolade to place on your Instagrammatical mantle piece.

Where’s my white pancake makeup?

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A Middle-Aged Woman In Her Long Hair Flowing Over Her Shoulders In A Bra-less Youthful Garment is the symbol at 3° Leo and it is focused upon “the will to meet the challenge of age in terms of our modern society’s glorification of youth.” Apparently, in the 1920s, the original symbol image was that of a woman who dared to bob her hair; this is the first time I’ve encountered the fact that these images may have been updated—sounds like in the 1960s or 1970s from the description. I’ll have to research that. The details may have changed but the fact remains: that there are those of us who try to hang on to trappings that we may very well have outgrown.

Personally I think there is nothing more charming, dignified and, indeed, ageless than allowing your style to mature with your age. I personally don’t subscribe to even the slightest touches one will make, surgically or so on, to remain youthful appearing. I think it actually has the opposite effect: People tend to wear the knowledge they’re trying to hide the truth. And these days it’s no longer celebrities or ladies who lunch who make such alterations. I have plenty of friends you’d least expect would have had procedures done. Again I think about the downtown arts scenesters who, twenty years ago, would never dream of getting injections, let alone going under the knife. That was for plastic people. Now, even people I know who can scarcely afford their rent in the East Village will make regular trips to Dr. So and So.

And yet the true meaning and power of this image would seem to take their side. For today is about refusing to be bound by biological or social standards as an expression of Independence. I can understand that in theory, but I think the more and more people attempt to fight the natural effects of aging the more damage they do to the collective perception of the elderly in our society. America, especially, being such a youth-motivated culture has everything to do with our inability to care for the elderly or to keep a place of relevance carved out for them. I do think there are opponents of this (many of whom have tons of face work) like Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda and their NetFlix series, which portrays the vitality and importance of individuals in their late 70s. This is probably the first time in our culture when women, in particular, d’un certain age, have been able to play characters that aren’t pigeon holed as grandparents or cranky characters.

I suppose plastic surgery has contributed to their ability to present this youthful image. My hope is that, eventually, these crutches won’t be necessary. Diet and exercise and a youthful, optimistic attitude can probably take us just as far. In the meantime, maybe it’s me, but I fantasize about what I’ll look like older. In fact I often wish my hair would turn whiter faster. I’m looking forward to being an older gentleman, in so far as it’s distinguished. I’m surely not looking forward to the aches and pains. But that’s what yoga is for; and no amount of collagen injections is going to change the internal clock that is forever ticking.

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The oracle for 2° Leo, An Epidemic Of The Mumps, is about the spread of individual actions, thoughts and attitudes into the collective. On the negative side, which this symbol is mostly about, we are all guilty of causing such infections from time to time, and some of us are more susceptible than others to what certain individuals give off. I have long been aware of my own hypersensitivity, which is the down side perhaps of my empathetic power if not my sometime psychic one. I am engineered to focus on others, surely, to a fault; and if people are giving off a strong vibe, especially a negative one, I pick up on it way too easily; to the point of infiltrating my own moods and attitudes.

I’m not good in crowds. I naturally stay on the periphery at parties, quickly dipping in and out, making a “French exit”; and I’m terrible with tight groups or cliques, their collective energy being overwhelming, and, mostly, negatively so. At times, my need to avoid certain people or groups of them has overriden my affection for individuals and I’ve had to sacrifice relationships to save myself from the effects of such negativism.

Recently, as often happens, I was gathering together a group of people, some of them close friends, for an occasion where the focus was on showcasing the one person’s talent. Others, one character in particular, who is used to being showered with attention bordering on worship, entered into the scene with an attitude and behavior they have exhibited before: attempting to set themself apart from the rest, taking an exalted position, instead of just participating in the same way all the rest of us were. Apparently just being one of the crowd wasn’t good enough for them. I’m taking license here using the third person plural.

Immediately I felt infected by this person’s vibe and it infiltrated my being. It’s near impossible for me to shake, which I’m loath to admit—I wish I had a better filter. For the same reason, I seem to get lost sometimes, even here in this blog, in what seems to be complaining about society at large. I just don’t understand why it is we live in such a selfish world, everyone driven by greed. Greed for money and greed for attention; I’m not even sure which is which. Self-reliance is a wonderful thing. Self-serving-ness feels, yes, like a disease. And I think most people give in to it, probably, initially, as a means of combatting it. It’s sad to me. And I hate when I fall into it, myself, which I sometimes do in my own attempt to get some sugar, an exclusive diet of which so many around me seem to live on. The irony is that those most in need of worship tend to give off what seems to be charismatic air, drawing others in, when in fact it’s not charisma, it’s narcissistic need.

When narcissists aren’t given the bulk of the air, they will suck the oxygen more and more out of the room. And they will often do so by telegraphing to the rest of us that they are doing you some kind of favor just by being there. You know what, don’t do me any favors. Why not just sit and listen for a change. Take in what others are saying. Just this past year I sat and wrote out a list of people I call friends; and then I aimed to put a check next to the names of those whom I thought were good listeners and truly interested in what was going on in my life. There weren’t many checks. I realized—holy merde—that most people I had listed had the same metaphoric mumps: it was always all about them: If I met them for dinner or at an event, I was mainly in for a running monologue consisting of self-aggrandizing events and anecdotes and posturing and it terrified me at first. People are supposed to have friends, right? Everyone else seems to like these people. In fact many people worship them. That was the problem. I’m the problem. I don’t worship anyone. I’m incapable of being the person that carries your purse. I will only do that for one person in my life and you can probably guess who. And she isn’t someone who seeks worship and she’s the best listener on the planet.

So I’ve made a conscious effort to ghost, quietly removing myself from relationships and, guess what, most people, the check-less from my list, scarcely noticed. People with metaphorical mumps will easily and quickly replace you with a willing devotee. This symbol is ruled by Taurus in a twelve-fold sequence and it does speak to the shadow side of that sign. The sign is fixed-earth and it is akin to a garden or a flower, and the main archetypes are the nymphs and flower gods like Adonis, Hyacinth and Narcissus for whom the -ism is named. The energy of Taurus is subjective and there can be an obsession with self and the image in the mirror—how we are seen by others and what worship we can amass. This also speaks to the choice of mumps, being a child disease. Taurus rules the ages 7-14, the age of innocence leading to certain temptation. The mumps affect the glands in the throat and neck, the body part ruled by Taurus. And, secondarily, it affects the sex glands. The female nymphs and the male flower gods are innocents who, like flowers, attract attention and then certain seduction.

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Not only does today mark the first degree of Leo, but the first sign of Aries rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence; which is most fitting, since, for starters the sign rules the head. For, Blood Rushes To A Man’s Head As His Vital Energies Are Mobilized Under The Spur Of Ambition is the Sabian symbol for the day, and it speaks to the fire signs of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. Or so says the preminent scholar on these symbols, Dane Rudhyar, whom I here quote: ‘”The occult tradition speaks of three kinds of “Fire”: Electric Fire, Solar Fire and Fire by friction. The three signs of the zodiac correspond to these. Aries refers to the “descent” of spiritual energy of the Creative Word. In its material aspect we know this energy as electricity, and without electrical energy no life processes could exist. Le represents Solar Fire, the energy which is released from an integrated person, either through spontaneous radiations of apparently nuclear fors of energy, or, at the truly human and conscious level (and also superhuman in more transcendent realms, through conscious emanations (e-mana-tions, from manas meaning “mind” in Sanskrit. Sagittarius is related to the fire by friction, because all social processes are based in interpersonal relations, which imply polarization and often conflict.”‘ Thanks Dane.

I mostly concur; but I wouldn’t call Aries’ fire “electric” per se; I would say that belongs to Sagittarius—ruled by Jupiter, named for the lightening god—but I’m down with the Leo interpretation, which is being, as Shakespeare’s Henry II  said, like the Sun. Astrologically, fire symbolizes spirit. Aries is the cardinal-fire sign, so it is akin to a spark of life, the animating force. Aries people are sparkplugs, the whole of ones being, metaphysically integrated, expressing that pure energy. With the fixed-fire sign of Leo, which rules the heart, fire, life animation is kindled in the heart center, the heart being the hearth of the body; and it is channeled through the individual from the heart chakra and the solar plexus. As such Leo rules the fifth house of the Zodiac, that of “co-creation” with god, our hearts are like power stations to keep that pure spark or ignition of life burning, and from whence we share (co-creating with god) with others, and from where we power up our own passions and creations. Today’s oracle deals with the connection between the heart (Leo) and the head (Aries). Thus on this day of firsts, we let the passion fuel of our heart’s desire fuel our ambitions, projects and current quests.

Stella Starsky in Birth of the American Baroness tonight at Joe’s Pub at the Public

It can be a double-edged sword, as we want our passion to fuel our ambitions in so far as they are a perfect expression of unfolding creation—we want not for the ego to get in the way to color it with pride or pomposity, shadow sides of Leo energy. Leo is the king and Aries is the knight, and the knight rules here in such a way to remain vigilant—holding vigil—sacrificing the self to the will of the spirit or edicts of the heart-king as ere the twain shall meet. We can almost trust this energy of the spirit more to a vigilant mind meditating on egolessness than we can to the passionate heart from whence this fire derives. It may be too personally passionate and result in a crime of the heart without the filter of a focused mind. Sun energy can be life giving, but it can also be scorching, just as a king might nurture the realm and his subjects or make it a wasteland as a result of his tyranny. So the lesson here is to draw on our passion but to keep our mind focused on purest expression without a need for personal payoff. Our acts of creation can thus be a holy sacrifice. We all take to the world stage to make our offerings but we must do so for the sake of giving birth to our creations, not for praise or renown. We cannot be married to any desired result; indeed we must be vigilant against even the temptation of imagining such perks. Aries’ rule here keeps our conscious creations aligned with a pure biological impulse to create, astrology never distinguishing between literal offspring and that of our brainchildren. Procreation or creation are all the same in Divine Mind.

On that note come and see the great Stella Starsky in her funny and moving original show: Birth of the American Baroness, tonight! at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York City.

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A Daughter Of The American Revolution is the image for today. It shows us how given the passage of Time (Saturn ruled Capricorn) the revolutionary spirit (Uranus ruled Capricorn) dissipates, becomes something vague or refined (Neptune rules Pisces) something fabulous, as in something of fantasy, or a bit fatuous. The ancestor of said daughter might have been a thief or a religious fanatic, let alone a rabble-rouser or revolutionary. Funny that the sons and daughters of any revolution always want the buck to stop there; they don’t want any more upheaval coming up behind them; they want to be the last stop, the new and final crème de la crème. But we needn’t speak of descendants of Mayflower voyagers vis a vis immigrant waves to understand the resonance of this.

I was just encountering something similar this morning while casting my cynical gaze upon the social landscape near at hand. Here I am, downtown New York; and when I first moved here the scene below 14th street had a sort of benign contempt for the paparazzi-driven society centered around Park Avenue. And now, our own sons and daughters of these downtown revolutionaries seem to emulate the likes of Nan Kempner and C.Z. Guest, never mind Pat and Bill Buckley. Of course the selfie-ish amongst us are now their own paparazzi for the most part. Look I’m all for self invention, but just as that daughter of the revolution might remember that her ancestor rallied against an oppressive monarchy, the artist barely surviving in their rent unstablized walk-up might recall that s/he descends from a long line of dissidents who actually created the world in which they’ve managed to thrive. We aren’t supposed to turn into some artistic aristocracy; we aren’t meant to art direct our personas to appear to belong to some sort of elite, and especially not for public consumption.

But look, this is the pattern of things. And people do tend toward the creamy and want to forget their own humble orgins, breathing more rarified air standing on the shoulders of those who came before. I suppose I’m still rather unsinkable Molly Brown about it all, preferring to preserve my own personality and allow it to change society via any power or influence gained over the course of my journey from my scrappy origins, instead of adopting the attitude and characteristics of some fabulous existing society which might now, at this point in my illustrious (as if) career, accept me. The ancestor of that daughter rebelled against the fox hunters and polo players while she and her brood would have become them. I don’t believe we need to lose our revolutionary spirit no matter how high we might rise, worldly wise. In this battle between retreating into the past and forging ahead into the future, it would seem that the past wins out.

Pisces, which rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence, is ruled by Neptune, the power of dissolution. So we see the dissolve of all our forward moving efforts and we thus reveal the importance of the past. However, in the dissolve, some residue remains, and this film cannot be removed. Pisces, mutable-water, is likened to mist, foam, vapor, film and any such slime, the primordial kind especially, that from which we emerged and to which we will ultimately return, each subsequent generation, whether of people or of thought or ideology (indeed everything), adding its layer of influence to that which came before. So try as you might to completely blend in, you can’t help but change the mix even ever so slightly. Some strive to leave as think and creamy a layer, distinguished from the past fossilized layers, as they possibly can

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I’ve noticed that the more esoteric these Sabian Symbols are, the more I enjoy them. Yesteday we saw a Capricorn-ruled image that was all about getting back to Nature and living in a way that preserved the past. Today’s image, ruled by Aquarius in the twelve-fold sequence of the Zodiac, points to moving forward, evolving and melding with collective consciousness. The oracle at Cancer 29° is A Greek Muse Weight New-Born Twins in Golden Scales and it’s keynote is “the intuitive weighing of alternatives.” The Muse represents the highly intuitive part of ourself, our psychic resonance, which sees an alternative to yesterday’s instinct to return to primal nature or sociologically going fetal. Like Dane Rudhyar points out, the opposite can happen: The Indian girl could enter the world of the White Man like Pocahontas—the nature based self could move toward civilization. Muses are all about driving the development of man, forward, via the Arts & Sciences. And that really is one of the major dichotomies between Capricorn and Aquarius, that of Spirituality vs. Science, Nature (inherited) vs. Nurture (evolution), Faith vs. Knowledge and so forth.

The weighing points to there being any two possibilities. We can retreat or we can move forward. Or, most importantly, there may be a third way. Indeed, there only ever is. We can at once perhaps, “retreat” into the simplest and most primordial part of ourselves, our Soul, “getting back” to our own true Nature, that of our spiritual self as we consider moving forward, evolving both literally as an organism—each generation of the species tending in that direction—and via our acceptance of the inevitability of new orders. It seems to me that for all it’s moving forward Science only seems to discover factually and logically under the bright lights of collective conscious minds that which the ancients knew to be true through retreating into solo meditation or through the receiving of spiritual transmission. Either way we encounter revelation. Physics and Philosophy can make cozy bedfellows. The new, highly conscious Aquarian way might hurl us into outer space whilst the ages-old Capricornian retreat into the primal may provide a vision quest through inner space. Ultimately we might arrive at the same place. We have choices.

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It’s pretty cringey to come across one of these century old oracles when they’re called something like An Indian Girl Introduces Her White Lover To Her Assembled Tribe as it is at Cancer 28°. By Indian, of course, we mean Native American; and, what makes it slightly more uncomfortable is that the girl and her tribe symbolize primordial values manifest in the human experience and even in the human body, its natural functions. Truly it’s about trying to find a real and genuine experience, one of cultural innocence, leaving behind the artificiality and emptiness of the modern world.

This oracle is ruled by Capricorn in a twelve-fold sequence, a contempt for phoniness being very much in keeping with the psyche of that sign. In our book Sextrology the Capricorn Man chapter, for instance, is titled The Stickler which carries the meaning of someone who is tied to old ways, finding the newfangled fatuous. It also points to someone who is something of a dissident. Needless to say Kevin Costner, Mr. Dances With Wolves himself is a Capricorn. But I go back to my old standby, J.D. Salinger whose characters, like himself, retreated from the world of “phonies” in search of genuine experience, largely found outside modern society. Retreating, backsliding, being a dissident in the sense of dissenting with the present time, harkening back to those good-old days, are all part of the experience of Capricorn, ruled by Saturn the god of the mythic golden age. Saturn, for whom the randy Satyrs are named, doesn’t want the present to move forward—he swallows his children to keep the new generation from happening. Old Father Time tries to keep time from marching on. And those Satyrs? Well we know they had a penchant for wild, free, innocent young nymphs, just the way Salinger’s characters Seymour Glass and Holden Caulfield did in their respective ways.

What it all comes down to is a return to Nature, a sort of re-entering of the primordial womb and we see that here in the “white man’s” wanting to be part of a more primal collective. All we non-kardashians have likely felt that at some point in our lives. But especially the Capricorns and the Leos of the world for whom this is an especial draw. For all our intellect, says Capricorn energy, would good is it unless it can operate in tune with natural, cosmic simplicity. Capricorn is all about renunciation. I like to joke that Capricorn women put the nun in renunciation because ultimately, for all their worldly achievement, they, in particular tend to “leave it on the mountain” of their vast experience. We are speaking here of the soul and our suspicion that it is the enduring part of our own nature—Saturn is about Eternity more than actual Time. And in service to our souls we have to release that which doesn’t nurture it—which is most of what we experience in modern life and it’s emphasis on externals. From the external to the eternal, that is the transformative power of this particular image as it expresses this degree point of our own miraculous Zodiac, as it is ever being revealed to be a perfect mandala for existence.

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In a twelve-fold sequence, Sagittarius would rule today’s oracle. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, named for the unpredictable power god of thunder and lightening. A Violent Storm In A Canyon Filled With Expensive Homes is the symbol, here at Cancer 27°. Yesterday we glimpsed a Plutocratic enclave, a private library, filled with guests who have the luxury of knowing just enough, set apart, protected, by their supposed wealth and influence. Today we see how even the socio-cultural elite are subject to larger forces. Even those who lead a charmed, sheltered, rich life are subject to natural and cosmic occurance—nothing in our education or careful cultivation can keep certain powers at bay. All must rise to the occasion and, perhaps those who feel most impervious, go through the greaest metamorphosis, because they must change the most when faced with any great equalizer.

The forces may or may not be karmic. That’s something we possibly can’t side-swipe. It’s how we weather that storm that makes all the difference. Do we resist or do we let the experience trigger some kind of catharsis. You have heard of people who have become ill or hit the skids living to say it was the best time of their lives, because it galvanized them and they dropped all the unnecessary externals (pretty much everything) and focused on themselves and their relationships to their own life. We don’t invite crisis to bring this about, but it is important to keep such things in mind. Just as there is benefit, in life, to meditating on death. It is inevitable and, sure, we shouldn’t make it a preoccupation. But it could inspire prolific creativity, just as it might, on the shadow side, inspire rampant self-servingness. These extremes can, indeed, be traits of that outsized sign of Sagittarius. Hello, Woody Allen.

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Today we discover Guests Are Reading In The Library Of A Luxurious Home which is the kind of image that automatically makes me happy. At Cancer 26° we are seeing the “transerence of social privilege to the level of intellectual enjoyment”; which is a wonderful thing to do with the grace of such privilege. We recently watched an old Greer Garson film, Mrs. Parkington, which is amazing on many levels. The writing is fantastic. And the theme hits you right in that yankee spot in the center of your being–even if you’re not an American you probably know what I’m talking about. In it the self-made individual is to be celebrated, while the lazy inheritor is a lout. In my experience, of the big silver screen, I find this largely to be true.

What better way to celebrate your wealth than in the exercise and development of your mind. I suppose, if ever I was jealous of peers who grew up with a trust fund, it was because of the grace of time and space it could afford to focus, with fewer obstacles, on what was most important in life. Surely, I would have stayed in school as long as possible instead of slinging hash to make ends meet; and I would have used all that free time, as a younger person certainly, to devote to my first and greatest love: the Theatre. I am very fortunate that I’ve managed, coming from very humble beginnings, to carve out a life where I work for myself, living by my wits, and, well, as you can see I, or in case you didn’t know, I do spend a lot of time exploring ideas and notions that expand my conscious mind—not to mention underaking certain endeavors that give other parts of my brain a bit of a psychic workout; and I’m never very far from at least producing for some stage or other.

I am perfectly aware of the paradox: because I’ve had to make my own way—Major and Mrs. Parkington would have liked that—I can say that I would have used my time to devote to my callings would I have been bankrolled; but really, if funded as such, I might have been the biggest slacker on the planet, going, as Joni put it, from cafe to cabaret. Ah but that was a song about freedom. And David Geffen. I’d like to meet David Geffen. I’m friends with him on Facebook and I think he’d dig what I am trying to do in the arts, but I’ve gotten off the subject. If you see David just tell him to call me. He seems to be someone who might have sunk a bunch of dough into creating a fabulous personal library where his guests could hang out and just read. I read two chapters of two different books last week. That’s the last time I had a moment to read. Well, I suppose I could make time, but this time of year is so much about doing the next most pressing thing. In precisely eight weeks, my labor of love, the Afterglow Festival, will take to the stage in Provincetown. It’s a lot of work, which I don’t mind doing. So long as people like and support it, which can be an uphill battle. I often wonder why it is that, I of the no trust fund and minimal material trapping, spend so much time not making money. I think the answer is that it seemed like an if-then equation. If I have money, then I’ll do what I want. If I have money, I’ll live by the sea. If I have money, I’ll travel. If I have money, I’ll buy art. Well, I think I’m the sort who goes directly for the then. I would build the library first. I do have a butt load of books. I just need to read more of them.

This oracle would be ruled by Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence, the sign ruled by Pluto whom we know as the god of the underworld but whose name has worked its way into the English language based on his dual role as the god of riches. Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy and so, once again, these randomly derived oracles seem to fall right into light with the endless loop of the Zodiac signs correlating rather seamlessly. Dane Rudhyar, the real expert of these Sabian Symbols, feels it important to stress that this image is not about the leaders of the intellectual world. We are dealing with the rich, if not the idle variety, who are only reading out of obligation to keep up with social and cultural trends as just one of the many ways they strive to keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses and the Parkingtons never did mix.

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