William Faulkner, giving advice on writing, first coined the phrase “kill your darlings”, referring to bits of his or her own work with which a writer may be in love, but that no longer serve the story. I feel that is the message of 25° Gemini, A Gardener Trimming Large Palm Trees. It is natural to expand, especially via our own minds, but there is power in pruning, as it allows vitality to go where its needed, without wasting it on that which is no longer necessary. It requires strict objectivity, the power of the Mars-ruled sign of Aries which governs this symbol in a twelve-fold sequence.

We must remove the distractions to that which is vital, reverting increased energy to the root level. This can extend to leading a more Spartan existence, pruning away decadent behavior, just as one might clip away decaying leaves. The warrior energy of Aries, of course, appreciates a more ascetic outlook, lifestyle, if not an asthetic. Finely pruned trees—I think of Paris—portray care and order and a planned design. We are removing excess so to be more honed and efficient. The suggestion is we are in it for the long haul. Pruning away habits that siphon off energy does literally extend our own lives. Taken metaphorically, it can extend the life of the artist from and in whom an audience needn’t see anything superfluous.

Writing a book or designing a line of clothing or producing a record or doing anything creative is all in the editing. First you put it all out there, expanding into the process, but ninety percent of the actual work goes in to trimming “the work” into a streamlined design. In preparation of our show STARRING at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater this coming Sunday (Summer Solstice), I am in the process of doing just that. Come and see us or you just might find yourselves pruned, darlings.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today’s image is ruled by Pisces and the transcendent astrological twelfth house: Children Skating Over A Frozen Village Pond portrays our ability to overcome natural limits that might paralyze us—symbolized by the ice—and get our skates on. Inhibiting circumstance is the catalyst for the development of character and the transcendence of environmental restraints. It’s the ultimate “if life hands you lemons…” energy. So today let’s not only overcome but let us glide and do pirouettes.

The wintery image portrays darkness and potential hibernation, giving up and going in. Opportunities may have turned cold. Relationships might have become frosty. Are we going to be victimized by such obstacles or are we going to let them make our objectives, especially for fun and pleasure and freedom, that much stronger! Obstacles might force us to grow and to hone abilities that easeful situations don’t necessarily nurture. We will not be stopped. We will sharpen the blades of our abilities and exercise them. They say all is entropy, but not when it comes to the human spirit, which evolves through duress and hardship. We shall overcome.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The sign of Aquarius would lord over 23° Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence, the Sabian symbol for today being Three Fledglings In A Nest High In A Tree. Birds are associated with the sign of Gemini whose ruler Mercury is named for the winged god, as is Eris the goddess of discord who also plays a part of Gemini’s metaphorical and metpahysical saga. She lobbed an apple into divine party to which she wasn’t invited with the words “for the fairest among you” upon it. Athena, Aphrodite and Hera all lay claim to the apple and the dispute was settled by the Judgment of Paris, a Trojan shepherd. Hera promised power, Athena wisdom if he were to choose them. Aphrodite promised the most beautiful woman in the world who was already married to the Greek Menelaus. This was the start of the Trojan War. Helen and her twin Pollux were hatched from one egg, their quadruplets Castor and Clytemnestra from another. More bird imagery. Zeus disguised as a swan, seduced their mother Leda. One bad apple: In the bible biting into the apple brought dulaity, a Gemininan notion, into the world. Consciousness was a gift or a curse or both. Birds are symbolic of the divine or spritual essence inherent in humans. Our ability to soar, with our minds, Gemini being the premier air sign of the zodiac, the so-called (not really) twins Castor and Pollux expressing our dual nature as mortal and divine. The fledglings, here will have to experience a fall from the nest in order to fly. They must risk death to achieve the most soaring experience of life.

Gemini, the third sign of the zodiac, rules the third astrolgoical house of, among other attributes, siblings and boon companions, those with whom we share a nest. The sign is associated with the ages of fourteen through twenty-one, when we reach maturity and as young people leave the next of our parents. We create one for ourselves. We keep creating nests, in fact, and we keep fledging out of them, or we should do. We should always be challenging ourselves and risking a fall in order to rise up and soar to new heights of achievement or creativity. Yes we might fall flat on our beaks but that’s no reason not to take leaps that might feel as if we are hurtling from some high tree top. As humans our divine nature is expressed by the reaching beyond of limits. This is where the sign of Aquarius steps into the conversation. Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, whose symbol, if you’ll remember, is the exact shape of the starship Enterprise, is all about boldly going further than we’ve gone before. Gemini and Aquarius are both air signs and their rulers of Mercury and Uranus are both hinged on communication. The Mercury symbol, like a little insect, as that weeked cap akin to antennae, while Aquarius is symbolized by air waves, that which might be reaching said feelers. We must all take to the air waves in a sense, putting ourselves out there into the ether, making some kind of mark for ourselves, securing som semblance of immortality, as was gifted mortal Castor by his brother Pollux who struck a deal to share his immortality, thus, in the form of the constellation of the Gemini. To become a star.

In the Tarot, The Star card is associated with Aquarius, a waterbearer being depicted. Aquarius is the opposite sign of Leo, ruled by the Sun, a star. We cannot achieve stardom without flying the coop of our comfort zone. We continue to spread our wings; our flights are not those of fancy, but a furthering of our evolution, honoring the divinity within ourselves. We will not shy away from fulfilling our soaring, stellar birthright.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dancing Couples In A Harvest Festival: Now you’re speaking my language. It’s June 11 and this is 22 ° Gemini and the cherries are barely ripening on the trees outside and yet the usually elusive Cedar Wax Wing is out in abundance, unabashedly eating the fruit, before it’s truly ripe, leaving just pits on the vine. Pits hanging from tree twigs—it’s pretty comical. Have you ever seen a Cedar Wax Wing? I hadn’t for years. It was the one bird I wanted most to see but it eluded me. Now they are everywhere. At least until the fruit is gone. The males squeal as if the fan in your window is squeaking. He has a brighter yellow belly and a sort of a tuft that he thrusts from his head and bolts of red hidden beneath his wings; but even he, the male of the species, is sleek and tawny and under the radar.

Blackpool Ballroom

I awoke to Rick Steves this morning on PBS. Don’t get me started. You know his company is called Back Door Productions, right? Enough said. I love the way his “guides” are always some guileless young guy with a peach-fuzz moustache. Whatever. Point being: Rick and Steve are already the gayest names in the Universe. But to put them together? Where am I going with this. Oh yes: The episode to which I awoke was an oldie. He was in Northern England and he brought his (then?) wife and kids. They went to Blackpool where there was a ballroom with elderly people busting choreographed moves that would make your head spin. I love places like Blackpool. Asbury Park and Belmar, New Jersey, of my youth, were like that once, and they weren’t copies. They were built, architectually, around the same time. And their look is similar to Blackpool. There were “pavillions” on the boardwalk where old couples used to dance. Okay fine I’ll deal with today’s oracle:

We are seeing common wo/man enjoying the bounty of civilization. Remember the middle class? I’m old enough to have grown up in it. I look at the young people around me and they closely resemble the Europeans my age, at the time, I’d encounter traveling around, back during the Reagan era; when, for instance, it was nine francs to the dollar. I don’t like the euro. I miss francs and lire. I miss pre-globalization. I’m so, so glad I lived it. My youth strikes me as so post-war now. I’m glad, too, that I lived in New York in the late 80s and 90s.  I’m happy to have sat front row at fashion shows before fashion was “a thing” and could take in the beauty of Linda, Naomi, Helena, Tatjana, Cindy, Kristy, Claudia (and, okay, Stephanie) and later Kate, all at once—all at once. Breath-taking. I would plop myself down front row and wait for someone to move me. They never did. I actually belonged there, probably more than most. But I did get the fish eye from Anna on more than one occasion. I suppose I took a Vogue seat. Oh well, too bad.

The middle class. Remember us? Now we have to be/pretend to be upper or lower. I’m bored. I’m bored with seeing my East Village New York friends style themselves like Upper Eastsiders from the late 70s. Really? You’re working a Nan Kempner look? How did we get here? Just as I’m tired of people grasping at some rent-stabilized life raft that no longer exists. You know what: it’s over. Get a livelihood. I sound horrible. I am horrible. I am sometimes horrible. You better know that about me. I despise artists, especially, who are in love with poverty and lament, lament, lament a changing landscape. Hello? That’s life. Change is the only constant—remember? Put that in your performance art piece. Psychosis is not performance art, by the way. Just like eighty year olds in Blackpool still trying to do some version of the Lindy Hop every weekend is a form of OCD. For real. We need to move on. I’m sorry the East Village is too expensive. Move. And maybe not to Brooklyn which is just as expensive. Move to Camden, New Jersey; or Blackpool or Asbury Park or, well not Tivoli. But move places. That’s what the American middle class did. They left the city and moved to new places, outside. They created new environments. They didn’t sit around bemoaning the fact that some dive bar or noodle joint or some barely great (to begin with) pirogi emporium suddenly lost its lease. They weren’t sinisterly-sentimentally attached to their past. I saw supermodels all at once and I’m over it.

Of course today’s image is ruled by Capricorn, associated with tradition, the tried and true and old age. Harvest. We reap what we sow, so get reaping people, get reaping. Stop living in the bygone. “Stand in the place where you live,” or move the ef on. We are all going to die. Good news: it happens to all of us. So think on your good deeds and think on your sins and laud yourself for the former and forgive yourself for the latter. The abundance of harvest is the byproduct of your generosity of spirit. If you’re a stingey lady/man than you can expect dearth as you approach death. But if you are a kind and giving piece of work then there will be bounty for you at the end of the line and beyond. And you can change your past history by busting a major move in the present. Like those bumper stickers say, and I’m sure I’m paraphrasing: Do Kind Things…? no that’s not a bumper sticker slogan…what is it?…oh, something about performing random acts of kindness….is that it?…anyway you get the drift. Sow what you reap.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today’s image is A Tumultuous Labour Demonstration. It is ruled by Sagittarius in a twelve-fold sequence. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter the planet of abundance. This image is hinged on the fact that the collective wants what the 1% has: all the bounty. Do you know how much banks made last year on overdraft penalty fees alone? It’s enough to make you stage your own revolution, trust me. We are dealing today with emotional outburst. I’m dealing today with a party which I feel will be poorly attended and pages of a script that have yet to be written. Oh and the worst allergies I’ve ever had. I am close to my own emotional outburst but I’ll keep it to myself. This is all I’m giving you today folks. If you’re in NYC come see Starsky + Cox live on stage STARRING at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. Otherwise, we’re done here.

A Modern Cafeteria Displays An Abundance Of Food, Products Of Various Regions is the symbol at 20° Gemini, ruled by Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence. We can look at this literally: The modern world allows us to sample and assemble all the goodies of the planet right onto our orange plastic tray. Global trade began as a result of ones pursuit for spices and now we have everything on offer and it might just be too much. There is glut which leads to potential waste.

Metaphorically, this image is about being nurtured from different influences. Being in the sign of Gemini whose motto is “I think” we are likely dealing on the mental plane here. We can assimilate all such influences and information into our own happy meal of a belief system, making it not just a collection of parts but a real fusion cuisine of individual ideology. But here too there may be glut—TMI—and waste—TMZ, petty gossip being the shadow side of Gemini’s pure power of information leading to knowledge.

That was short and sweet I know but I think that about covers it. If you are in New York City on June 21 for the Summer Solstice, Starsky + Cox are performing live onstage at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in STARRING with special guest Phoebe Legere. You can hear more of my metaphysical musings then and there!

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In the Libra man chapter of our book Sextrology we speak of the sign as being the only one to bear an abstract symbol, the Scales, rather than that of an organic being; and you’ve heard me go on, probably, about Apollo, the god of abstracts—law, order, reason, music, poetry, light, aesthetics, and, most importantly, prophesy—being Libra’s classic male archetype from which we draw a line to such literary figures as Pip from Great Expectations; a pip being synonymous with a seed. Aries and Libra, both, being along the same axis, represent a certain seed-energy. Fiery Aries does so in quite real, spirited way, its antler-sprouting Ram symbol and its ruler Mars’ male-erectile sigil each suggesting a certain lusty proliferation; whilst Libra, being an air sign, propagates on the abstract, if not the astral plane. The sign disseminates ideas, thought forms. So, in a twelve-fold sequence, where Libra rules this Sabian symbol at 19° Gemini A Large Archaic Volume Reveals Traditional Wisdom, I’m tickled to see that Dane Rudhyar says today’s oracle is all about “seed knowledge.” He tags its keynote: Contacting the all-human planetary Mind underlying any cultural and personal mentality. And as a Libra I can dig it:

There is a connective consciousness that underscores the noise and confusion of the living of our lives on such surface levels. It’s like a membrane of light in my own mind’s eye. It’s really above the noise and confusion, but in consideration of this astral plane, there is no up or down. Metaphorically, we look upon this oracular plane as, like Apollo’s sacred Delphi, something of a chasm fixed on a sacred well or spring. Rudyar puts it thus: “Occult tradition tells us that all cyclic manifestations of the human mind have had a primordial revelatory Source,” which he upper-cases. He goes on to site “ancient books made of especially treated papyrus leaves and conveying through symbols the archetypal processes at the root of all earthly existence.” Hello? In other words, we’re seeing a deconstruction, almost, of the process of prophesy, the technique at work in it, if not the mechanics of some matrix; “through symbols.” As if to say that all that we perceive as real is really an abstract, math perhaps, an equation, a word akin to equality and equipoise, all of which evoke a balanced image of our Scales.

Seed-knowledge here refers to something already written in the book. Such that “coming up” with new seed-ideas and thought-forms, as we all, but especially we Libra, do is really just a matter of reading from that ancient text. That there are no new ideas, just those which have never been surfaced and flung out there, disseminated. Perhaps all prophesy is self-fulfilling or already self-fulfilled. New Thought leader (Libra) Florence Scovell Shinn said: your “word is your wand;” (Leo) Kate Bush said: “just saying it could even make it happen.” And consider the collective of human consciousness. Don’t we find that the realities we are currently living had their seed-ideas in the past when they were first introduced into the zeitgeist, flown to the wind, a floating notion with few proponents before slowly taking root over Time? Just as Aries people might undertake many tasks with zeal, exhibiting little follow through for most, Libra folk have way more ideas than they could ever pursue let alone realize. In truth, coming up with new ideas is realizing them, though they may remain largely in the abstract realm of thought, floating yet another notion: that thoughts are real if not, in a sense, alive. The inorganic nature of the Scales doesn’t necessarily suggest that which is inanimate, but rather the ability to animate that which is (perceived as) abstraction.

Rudhyar would have us read Madame Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, “such volumes, said to remain in the possession of certain Adepts, constitute the “exteriorization” of archetypal knowledge and wisdom. They contain the ‘seed-ideas’ from which the human mind grows…what might be called ‘seed-knowledge’, the knowledge of the structure of cyclic and cosmic manifestations of life on this planet.” I say we go with that.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I know I haven’t been writing very long posts recently . I suppose I’ve been channeling energy  elsewhere recently as Stella and I have penned a great new show called STARRING that will premier at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater on the Solstice, June 21. I know Starsky + Cox fans are going to love it. Okay on to the image for today at 18° Gemini, oy: Two Chinese Men Converse In Their Native Tongue In An American City.

When this symbol was divined those two old Chinese men would have been immigrants, I imagine, in some corner of New York or San Francisco, struggling to survive. My, how things have changed. The original intention of this symbol was to portray the independence of ones mind in a foreign environment, which, now, let’s face it, is everywhere. All you need to do is wake up and walk out the door these days to be barraged by one-sided conversations, people talking into their phones or headsets, alienating us with their voices and insulated actions. We are all foreigners now, even, in our native lands. We mightn’t even interact with the barista but instead telegraph the fact that s/he is interrupting our call or disabling our ability to listen to the mystery person on the other end of the line. So many mystery persons. The voices in our head. I think I preferred a simpler time when only those experiencing a break with reality heard said voices. Now everyone is forcibly experiencing breaks with reality. We are affecting the behavior and attitude of psychotics.

Surely this is not what the mystics meant when they prescribed “being in the world but not of it”: All of us isolated from one another, tuning into whatever noise is coming through our gadgetry. Ah, that trickster god Mercury, the messenger and communicator, strikes again. He has waved his Caduceus wand over us and we are now all in a trance of noise and distraction. This is the new tower of Babel. We are not finding true solace in conversing one on one, face to face, with someone who speaks our language, the “old” Chinese language here signifying ancient knowledge and wisdom in contrast to the onslaught of random information that we experience nowadays. These men are finding a true connection, an oasis of familiarity and solace in desert of foreign superficiality. Of course, in 2015, if we were to see two Chinese men conversing in their old language they would probably be twenty-somethings, from a rich province, sanctioned to travel here, on a mission to purchase real estate—an image of conquest rather than survival. In some ways, we have become the ancient culture, steeped in our ways, and they are the surface dwellers of a new culture that has emerged from their socially capitalist, though still humanistically communist, regime. The worst of both worlds.

Cynical am I? Probably. And I will confess to a certain xenophobia as well, of which I’m not particularly proud. But it’s not based on any race or nationality, it’s not cultural—it’s political. And while we are all plugged in to our own distractions, things might be happening around us that are more determinant than meets the eye. History is replete with examples of quiet takeovers of lands and nations through the compounded purchase of real estate. Yes, folks, realtors are the real enemy, always. I jest. But Mercury is a jester. He provides what is meant to be amusing distraction while he is, with his slight of hand, sticking it to you. I’m not saying that we are going to be a conquered nation and Century 21 will be to blame. I’m just saying that in another twenty years, perhaps, this particular Sabian symbol is going to read a lot differently than it does even today. And we might be so caught up in our own sinister need to be engaged electronically around the clock to even notice.

In a twelve-fold sequence, this image would be associated with Virgo, which, like Gemini is traditionally ruled by planet Mercury. I say traditionally becuase there are those of us who feel that Virgo is really ruled by the as yet undiscovered planet Vulcan or the once-planet, Chiron, that was pummeled by asteroids. Doubt and disability, two key elements of the sign of Virgo. Doubt is akin to cynicism, which the skeptical Virgo energy uses to discern right from wrong, wheat from chaff, that Virgo virgin holding a sheaf of seeded grain. Decision making, reticence, being at a crossroads—the provenance of Mercury. Well I’m here to say that we are collectively at a crossroads and that this symbol, today might remind us of that. We see the clash of two cultures and it can breed integration or segregation. We are all now segregationists on an individual level. We only seek to connect with those who support our own culture of insanity. So long as you click Like or Join you’re part of my tribe. Don’t and who needs you. Wheat from chaff, wheat from chaff. Right and wrong is no longer a universal moral crux, its a personal assessment of worship. You like me so we’re good. You don’t like me so I will turn off your notifications or outright erase you.

Like the Chinese men in the image we find ourselves isolated and alone and alight on someone just like us with whom we can find connection. That’s not diversity. These are the seeds of a new homogeny. Their speaking with one another isn’t much different from anybody speaking into their headset. It’s further isolating, frankly. They might reach out and stumble over their words to speak to someone who isn’t just like them. That might be literally refreshing. But we are stagnating here. And that mutable-earth sign of Virgo has it’s own message for us: things are indeed changing on a monumental level but it might appear as slow as the moving of a mountain so you might scarcely know it. Every major political or cultural overthrow historically happened to a people who didn’t heed the signs. The signs right now are all those people you pass on the street or sit next to in cafés completely up their own electronic asses. At least in the past being oblivious to what’s happening around us wasn’t fueled by devices. Devices. You gotta love the multiple meanings of that word in this context. Oh, Mercury, you do have your devices.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

At 17° Gemini, The Head Of A Robust Youth Changes Into That Of A Mature Thinker, is the Sabian Symbol du jour. It’s really interesting to note that Dane Rudhyar, who doesn’t purport to subscribe to a twelve-fold sequence, likens yesterday’s image “the woman way” of expressing, and today’s to “the man way,” as yesterday’s symbol was ruled, in my twelve-fold view, by Cancer, governed by the Moon (the mother principle) and today’s oracle is thus ruled by Leo, under the power of the Sun (the father principle). The legends of the Leo male archetype are all hinged on boy becoming man, whether it be the robust youth of King David, King Arthur or even Tom Sawyer, the lion’s mane being a symbol of full-fledged masculinity. I get it: Women are emotional and men are more mental. And my name is Walt Cleaver.

We are meant to see this image as “the transformation of physical vitality into the power to build concepts and intellectual formulations through which knowledge can be transferred.” You know: mens’ work. Rudhyar sees this as the transformation of emotion into mind, of instincts into thought. But my medation on this, given the Cancer-Leo pass of the baton is rather free flowing emotion into a honed burning passion—akin to the cardinal-water sign of Cancer to the fixed-fire sign of Leo. Ironically I don’t find this image particularly thought-provoking; or perhaps it’s a matter of having a plethora of things on my own mature (read: ancient) mind.

It’s funny today I was in a quandry about whether to stay at my computer chipping away,writing and producing my myriad self-imposed assignments, all of which I love to undertake—although I would prefer they didn’t happen all in clumps—or get my fast becoming a wee bit too robust self out for some exercise. I am a big believer in staying physically active and I do find that it does indeed transmute into great thought. Some of my best ideas come while sweating my tush off; although it’s always a challenge to remember the thoughts as they arise as one can’t always stop to jot thoughts down while in the middle of certain exercise that requires something of a meditative countenance. And I truly believe that one has to be of a certain physical vitality to fuel ones passions; otherwise they will constitutue a drain, one end of that doubly burning candle. Personally I can only burn one end at a time though I prefer not torching either.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Only the sign of Cancer could rule this symbol for Gemini 16°: A Woman Activist In An Emotional Speech Dramatizing Her Cause, what with the words emotional and dramatizing. Such a passionate need for expression is what’s called for to put something over to those who are still unaware of the cause at hand. The public is a necessary component in today’s equation. I feel like this every time I promote a show or a benefit for the Afterglow Festival, both of which I’m doing simultaneously today. It’s not enough sometimes to put things across intellectually, or to exchange ideas just amongst your peers; often it is necessary to get on a soap box and start speaking from the heart or gut in this case. Expression. It’s a very Cancerian word, something we will talk about in our show at Joe’s Pub on the Solstice on the day we enter that sign. Like this “Blague” our shows are about shared experience, talking about the energy of the time of year—month, week, in this case day—and extracting the universal nuggets of truth and guidance, as well as laughing along with the cosmic jokes at our expense.

We have to be impassioned to sway the people just as we have to be funny enough to slay them. Rudhyar points to this day and Zodiac degree as that of the proselytizing mind, something I feel I employ a great deal of the time, more than most. I suppose things might be easier if I focused solely on for-profit endeavors that were just about me and isolating rather that always having to convince others of something of value that might help them and the community at large. I’m not wired for that, (un)fortunately. And there are more important things, surely, than what I’m often on a soapbox about. But we all have to do our part in our small ways and we must do that which moves us. Raising consciousness and lifting spirits are the things that move me personally. And these aren’t things I can do in isolation. They require my proselytizing. So just when I think all I’m doing is falling on deaf ears a symbol like this comes along to inspire me. So watch out folks because I’m going to be pulling out all stops starting today trying to get word out on all the things I feel emotionally driven to express.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.