Wednesday, November 29, 2017

The Archer, The Fishes, and Their Boss: Jupiter.


The Sun is currently romping through zodiac sign Sagittarius once again. What follows is an edited version of something I came up with for Sagittarius (and sister-sign Pisces) years ago. I still enjoy reading and refreshing the information; perhaps other passing readers, who haven't seen it before might like to do so....


Sagittarius and Pisces are traditionally both ruled by planet Jupiter. 20th century American astrologer Carl Payne Tobey in his book An Astrology Primer for the Millions (1965) defines similarities and differences between the two.

This author focuses on something to which I hadn't previously given much thought: links between pairs of zodiac signs with a common planetary ruler in traditional astrology.

The Sun is now in one of Jupiter's governorships: Sagittarius. All Sagittarius-types qualify as Jupiter's people, as do Pisces-types - i.e. people with heavy emphasis on these signs via Sun, cluster of planets, Moon or rising sign. Sagittarius and Pisces, it has to be remembered, are zodiac signs, not people - that's the reason for my addition of "-types". Too often we see people referred to as "a Sagittarius" or "a Pisces" (or "a....." - any other of the 12 zodiac signs). It's a bad habit, it breeds misunderstandings of what astrology is all about.

Whereas Gemini-types and Virgo-types (Mercury's People) are said to be linked strongly to their nervous systems, Sagittarius and Pisces, the signs, Carl Payne Tobey tells us, are connected to
.....something beyond the nervous system, which is in some way connected to it. These signs relate to some of the phenomena, that orthodox science and academicians are afraid to investigate.The psychic powers are related to Pisces while intuition is related to Sagittarius.

Mr Tobey points out that, in modern astrological doctrine, Pisces is ruled by Neptune and Sagittarius by Jupiter. Traditionally, though, both came under rulership of Jupiter, hence some similarities.

Both of these signs have a strong curiosity about the unknown and something akin to a religious interest, although it may not be a church type of interest. The consciousness of both signs goes beyond the usual, everyday affairs of life. Survival and money making isn't enough.

Some similarities between the two signs:
They are less inclined to live by rules and regulations, not inclined to be atheists, less likely to doubt life after death, or existence in form prior to this life, both recognise the vastness of the unknown and less likely to accept what authorities say about it. Both signs like to travel and explore. Yet in other respects, these two signs are the opposite of each other.

Sagittarius is direct and to the point, outspoken with no heed for consequences-
.....plain simple honesty, the sort of thing society requests, but can't take. The Sagittarian is in a constant state of evolution. Seldom do we find one of these people who remains within the church in which he was brought up. Not easily brainwashed, truth is more important to them than loyalty to any church, family or heredity. Interested in all branches of knowledge, anything to do with hidden truth. The average Sagittarian is more jovial than other signs. If you need help he won't walk by. If you are down he will want to cheer you up, and he may then try to indocrinate you with his philosophy, not to indoctrinate you but to cheer you up and give you a better, more optimistic outlook...

Pisces is the opposite of Sagittarius in many respects. In place of intuition it is likely to have psychic powers. It may dream things before they happen. It lives partly in some other, unknown world. It can have mental and emotional problems that Sagittarius is not likely to know about, unless it has some very negative Neptunian afflictions. In place of outspokenness, Pisces is secretive. Instead of wanting to tell the truth, it will tell you what it thinks will have the best effect on you, or the effect that it desires. Nobody ever knows just what the Pisces person thinks because it never tells its true thoughts to anyone .....because it knows that society is too brainwashed to to be able to face the truth. Pisces people are sympathetic and compassionate, like Sagittarian folk they have a good sense of humour, Piscean humour is subtle though."
Whereas Pisces recognises that most moral codes are strictly phoney and born of hypocrisy, it doesn't try to change them, it goes around them and does what it wishes, secretly. Sagittarius on the other hand crusades to change the laws and is too apt to mistake hypocisy for ignorance. It can't really believe that human nature is dishonest because its own nature is not dishonest.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Here We Go Again - Net Neutrality

News from the New York Times last week:
The Federal Communications Commission released a plan on Tuesday to dismantle landmark regulations that ensure equal access to the internet, clearing the way for internet service companies to charge users more to see certain content and to curb access to some websites.

The proposal, made by the F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, is a sweeping repeal of rules put in place by the Obama administration. The rules prohibit high-speed internet service providers, or I.S.P.s, from stopping or slowing down the delivery of websites. They also prevent the companies from charging customers extra fees for high-quality streaming and other services.
Almost four years ago net neutrality was in danger - my post on the topic, from January 2014, is here, at Netting the Net.

Unsurprisingly, in this Age of Trump, the issue has bubbled up from the depths once again. We are contemplating a "netted" internet which will work to the benefit of nobody, apart from the corporations in charge.

A vote on the repeal of current rules is scheduled for December 14th, when the result is expected to be in favour of repeal, resulting in loss of net neutrality.

For any passing reader still not quite clear about what kind of things loss of net neutrality would mean to most of us, here's a handy graphic reminder from thenib.com

A World Without Net Neutrality


Monday, November 27, 2017

Music Monday - for Lancashire

Wikipedia tells us that today, 27 November is Lancashire Day, in the UK. Lancashire is a county in the north-west of England.
Lancashire Day is the county day of historic Lancashire in England. It is held on 27 November to commemorate the day in 1295 when Lancashire first sent representatives to Parliament, to attend the Model Parliament of King Edward I.
I'm a Yorkshire gal, a northerner, but not a Lancastrian. I did live and work in parts of Lancashire at various times in my 60+ years in Britain. I always enjoyed Lancashire and mingling with Lancastrians - warm-hearted, friendly folk, and many display a fine sense of humour.





In honour of Lancashire Day then, on this Music Monday, a trio of songs ~




From very early 20th century written by C.W. Murphy, Dan Lipton & John Neat in 1906:






"Dirty Old Town" was written by Ewan MacColl in 1949. The song was written about Salford, Lancashire, England, the city where MacColl was born and brought up. This song has long been a favourite of mine:





And...Lancashire got a mention by the Beatles in this song (of course it did - they were Liverpudlians and Liverpool is in Lancashire. I think, nowadays, that the region around Liverpool is termed Merseyside - but it's still Lancashire to me!)

Listen for the line "...four thousand holes in Blackburn Lancashire...." at around 3.29 minutes:


Saturday, November 25, 2017

WORDS ~ Weaponized, Intersectionality, Microagression.

I've been noticing some newly "fashionable" words cropping up frequently during my online political reading rambles:

Intersectionality
Weaponized
Microaggression

It's easy enough to look up definitions in online dictionaries or at Wikipedia, harder to be sure the meaning has been grasped ten minutes later, or next time one meets these words!



Weaponized is probably the easiest of the three to understand. Traditionally the word means "adapt for use as a weapon". In current journalese they're not talking about weaponizing a pitchfork or carving knife for use in injuring somebody, but about using specific information to affect the reader's or recipient's perception about something or someone, with the intention to cause harm or warp understanding. Here's a headline as example;
How Fox News Is Weaponizing the Harvey Weinstein Scandal


Microaggression - "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)".
Wikipedia offers a lot of detail.
For helpful illustrated examples of various forms of microaggression see HERE.


Intersectionality - I try to remember what this means by thinking of it (in a slang nutshell) as referring to someone who experiences a "double-whammy" or even a "triple-whammy" due, basically, to "who they are".
Borrowing from care2.com
What Is Intersectionality?

Intersectionality is a sociological theory describing multiple threats of discrimination when an individual’s identities overlap with a number of minority classes — such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, health and other characteristics.

For example, a woman of color may face sexism in the workplace, which is compounded by pervasive racism. Similarly, trans women of color face exceptionally high levels of discrimination and threats of violence. Looking through the lens of intersectionality, it’s not hard to see why: these women potentially face anti-trans prejudice, sexism, misogyny, racism and — due to the ignorance surrounding trans identity — homophobia.

While intersectionality is traditionally applied to women, a person of any gender may be affected by this phenomena of overlapping minority status. A man from a Hispanic background could face xenophobia in today’s America despite being a naturalized citizen. If that Hispanic man is in his 50s, ageism might add to the discrimination he could face in trying to secure employment.


Friday, November 24, 2017

Arty Farty Friday ~ So Much More Than Sun Signs

For the past few weeks I've been reading and occasionally contributing answers to questions at Quora, particularly to any questions on astrology there. I've been disappointed to note how ingrained what I call Sun sign astrology short-hand has become in people's minds. I'd hoped that, due to so much free astrology information on the internet, more readers would have become enlightened enough to realise that we are not our Sun signs! There's no such creature as "a Taurus" or "an Aquarius", "a Scorpio", "a Capricorn" and so on. I'm suspecting that social media, rather than the internet in general, has contributed greatly to this ingraining effect. Astrology message boards and forums of the past were doing a good job in educating readers as to the deeper, finer points of astrology. Much of that appears to have been forgotten now, or perhaps has never even been encountered by some of the youngest generation of astrology fans who have grown up using only Facebook.

Anyway...with the point that "we are all so much more than our Sun signs" in mind, and as it's Arty Farty Friday, and one of the artists featured was born this day,
24 November, in the 19th century, a re-run of a loosely relevant 2008 arty-farty post follows.



Before we run away with the idea that Sagittarius is all happy-clappy sunbeamy optimism, a look at two artists' lives and stars could give us pause. The two artists: Edvard Munch and Toulouse Lautrec.

Almost everyone, art lover or not, recognises Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" (left). Perhaps because it strikes a chord in the hearts of us all - a feeling we recognise. His other works are less known. Many of them uncover the story of an artist filled with despair. Munch was born on 12 December 1863. What happened to the Sagittarian joie de vivre?
'My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? Why was there a curse on my cradle? Why did I come into the world without any choice? My art gives meaning to my life'.
His mother died from TB when he was five years old, and by his 14th year he had to watch his sister, his elder by a year, die from the same disease. Early paintings reflect his tortured recollections of these events. His anxiety related to women in general seems to have continued until, in his mid-forties he suffered a despressive illness which kept him in a Danish sanatorium for eight months. On recovery, he began painting more ordinary subject matter, and said that he had foresworn alcohol and women, for both had contributed to his depressive state.

Toulouse Lautrec another Sun Sagittarian artist, born 24 November 1864, also led a less than joy filled life. He was born into an aristocratic French family, but suffered physical defects which sprang from interbreeding. His bones were weak, and his growth stunted.
"The family soon realized something was wrong with the clever, audacious Henri: he was undersized, weak, and frequently ill. Then when he was twelve he broke his left thighbone by simply standing up from the sofa. The injury took months to heal, and just as he was starting to get better, he broke his other leg.

Toulouse-Lautrec would never be the same. His legs essentially quit growing. The rest of his body continued to develop--he had a full-size torso, large head, oversized hands, and bony wrists, all perched precariously on skinny, stumpy legs. For the rest of his life, wherever he went he was sure to hear the laughter of children and see the pointed fingers of men and women mocking his odd dwarf-like appearance."

Lautrec dealt with his problems differently from Munch. He leaned on Sagittarian love of excess.

What astrological factors appear to be significant in each artist's chart? Women are a common denominator in both their art and their lives, but perceived and treated quite differently. For Munch, due to his early trauma, women appear to have been a source of anguish, whereas Lautrec regarded them with understanding, friendship and as a source of joy. Position of Moon (the feminine) in each chart might be significant to this difference in attitude - Munch's Moon in serious Capricorn ruled by Saturn, Lautrec's in easy going Libra, ruled by Venus.

Edvard Munch - natal chart, unknown time of birth, so set for 12 noon. Ascendant and exact degree of Moon not accurate, but Moon would have been somewhere in Capricorn whatever the birth time.



Personal planets are bunched into four signs, Libra to Capricorn. The outer planets are opposite, in Aries to Gemini. Symbolically this comes across as "Munch against the rest of the world". His Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius sit uncomfortably next to three Scorpio planets. These two signs are not good companions, wherein might lie much of the source of his anxious discomfort. Sagittarius prefers to be jovial, happy-go-lucky, while Scorpio leans toward paranoia and secret obsession. Sunny Sagittarian vibes are symbolically drowned.

Munch's steady Capricorn Moon must have afforded some grounding, and possibly came into its own in his later years, as he recovered from a serious bout of depression.

South Node of the Moon, a sensitive point in the chart, is in Taurus and conjunct malefic Fixed Star Algol. North Node is conjunct Mars, in its own sign, Scorpio, there's extra emphasis on this angry planet. Anger and depression are closely linked. The nodal axis, with Algol at one end and Mars at the other indicates, to me, a pair of negative triggers for planets passing over the nodes in transit.

Some extracts from a biography at artchive.com, with added illustration of relevant paintings, provide some insight into Munch's dis-ease:



"Munch perceived sex as an ineluctable destiny, and few of his works represent Woman (capitalized as usual) in a favorable light."
"In Puberty a skinny young girl meditates, sitting naked on her bed beneath the threatening form of her own shadow, while in The Voice a young woman, alone in the woods, attends to some inner whisper; these are the most sensitive representations of woman in Munch's work.In another iconic image, the Madonna (right), of which he painted various versions between 1893 and 1902, overtly offers her ecstatic sexuality and yet remains inaccessible. Why inaccessible? A lithographic version suggests the answer: around the frame which encloses the seductress the straggling spermatozoa wriggle in vain while, in the lower left-hand corner, a pathetic homunculus, a wizened and ageless wide-eyed fetus, lifts its supplicant gaze toward the goddess."

"Munch's lithograph verges on irony, to which he was not averse. Even so, modifying the well-known phrase, we may wish to suggest that 'irony is the courtesy of despair'. Munch's art represents women in the light of trauma.


Seduction itself is a source of anxiety; satisfaction brings remorse (Ashes, left), and jealousy and separation are experienced as terrifying and depressing events."






Toulouse Lautrec



Astrotheme has his time of birth at 6am, putting his three Sagittarius planets (Sun, Jupiter in its own sign, and Mercury) into first house of self, reflecting that life of excess he is reported to have led in the fleshpots of turn of century France. There's a Grand Cross in his chart formed by square aspects and oppositions (see small diagram) - here is much of the challenge in his life story. There's an additional opposition between Mercury and Mars - more tension and energy, here linked to communication/painting style, which is certainly bold in colour and content. His Scorpio ascendant clearly connects to the eroticisim surrounding his lifestyle. Lautrec lived fast and died young, at 36.




He is described by David Sweetmen in his book "Explosive Acts":


"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is known as the disfigured and dangerously self-destructive artist who recorded prolifically the louche world of sexy night-club dancers, lounging whores, and drunken bohemian merriment. Both in his life and art, he is thought to embody the climate of inebriated hilarity and excess of the fin de siecle. But as David Sweetman,
the noted biographer of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, shows in this definitive work, there was another Toulouse-Lautrec, a committed and concerned man who moved in a secret community of anarchist revolutionaries, whose work betrayed a deep concern for human suffering, an artist who etched his sympathy for fallen women and lesbians into his portraits, and who remained loyal to the disgraced Oscar Wilde when the poet was abandoned and reviled by most."


He certainly lived up to Sagittarius's reputation for excess!


"Over time, all the hard living started to take its toll. Friends watched as walking became more and more difficult; in time, he could only go a few steps without stopping to rest and catch his breath-although he always came up with some excuse, such as a pretty girl to ogle. He probably had syphilis, which reached pandemic levels in the brothels, but it was the alcohol that was really killing him. For more than a decade, Toulouse-Lautrec happily drank his friends under the table and then arrived at the print shop cold sober. But in the late 1890s, his productivity dropped sharply with the artist often too drunk to work. When raging paranoia set in and he started shooting at the walls to kill giant imaginary spiders, his family finally stepped in and had him confined to a mental institution.

He dried out quickly, and in less than three months he was released."
(link)


A lesson to be learned from all of the above, if any passing reader has managed to stay with me thus far, is to remember that there is a heck of a lot more to a person than their Sun sign. We're wise not to forget, also, that there's a lot more to a person than their astrology!

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Wishing all in the USA...




“True thankfulness is being thankful not only for what you have, but for what you don’t have to have!"
~ Debbie Croley


And, as I've said myself, in more than one past Thanksgiving blog post - albeit with questionable grammar, preposition-wise :
In a world in which there often seems little (or nothing) to be confident about, there's still a lot to be thankful for.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Texas Tidbits

Last week we travelled into deepest Texas to visit husband's younger daughter who now lives in Killeen, it's a city just a little northwest of Austin. Here are a few choice Texas sightings from husband's camera. (Clicking on the photographs should bring up larger or clearer versions.)

You know you're in Texas when the hotel chain has had thousands of yards of carpet woven, just to make sure you know it!



On turning a corner one day, I wasn't too sure we were indeed in Texas! Maybe a fellow British ex-pat lives in that house.




I'm always happy to see junk transformed to art!



I suspect this little collage was unintentionally arty - or maybe not:



Boar-ing:


A car junk Christmas tree - nice!



It was a surprise to see this guy in the hotel bar one evening. He was in semi-civvies, but instantly recognisable: the Killeen Mall Santa of some 18 years' experience.



The old Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells has deteriorated further since we first passed by some years ago. It was once, long ago, a popular vacation destination for "the beautiful people" - its story is available in several places on the internet, including at Wikipedia, HERE.

The city of Mineral Wells, as a whole, now seems depressed and down-trodden, reflecting the dismal state of its once-prized hotel .




In a very, very junky junk/antique store in town we saw a few remnants of the Baker Hotel's brighter days.




LOL! Almost home, but still in Texas:




The Remains of the Day (apologies to Kazuo Ishiguro for use of his book title).




Monday, November 20, 2017

Rhapsodic Music Monday

I'm not an avid fan of 20th (or 21st) century pop/rock, but a handful of songs of that genre did appeal to me. I was always was drawn to, and still have on my favourites list: Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)- see below; MacArthur Park (Richard Harris), Whiter Shade of Pale(Procul Harum), More Like the Movies (Dr. Hook), and Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty).

The first three songs have a whisper, or echo, of classical about them that I enjoy, the fourth, I like just because; and the fifth - I lurve that saxophone!

With regard to Bohemian Rhapsody, I read a couple of interesting responses to questions about the song, at Quora a while ago:

From Neil Anderson
I’ve heard a number of people suggest it’s about AIDS. It absolutely isn’t. The song was released in 1975. AIDS wasn’t even spoken about until the early 80s and Freddie wasn’t diagnosed until 87.

There’s an idea that it’s about coming out.

This sort of works in the first verse, as a man telling his mother he’s gay and had killed his old self. The rest of the song doesn’t work so well with this for me, but I accept it’s plausible.

There’s a version released with album notes saying it’s a cosmic argument between God and the devil over the soul of a murderer. Hmmm.

For me it’s a tale of murder. It does what it says.

A man kills someone for reasons we don’t know. He confesses to his mother and tries to run, but the police arrive and he’s taken away.

The operatic section is complex.
Scaramouch is a clown character. He’s comparing himself to a tragic clown. The hemp fandango is slang for the twitching of a hanged man. He’s asking if he’ll be hanged.

He’s tried for murder and there’s a court case which is hotly debated and/or a public outcry about his position and whether he should be tried and executed when he’s a victim of circumstance. The legal profession feel he should, but many don’t agree.

Meanwhile he feels abandoned by his family and/or lover who refuse to engage with him.

We leave before we know what will happen, but the protagonist realises that life and death for people like him are so meaningless that he doesn’t care whether he lives or dies.

It’s a cross between a tragic opera and a murder ballad.

Freddie was candid about it and often said it’s about what you want it to be about. He’s also said that much of it was nonsense.

Freddie wasn’t always truthful.

It’s what ever you want it to be.

Someone had also asked:
What is the meaning of Bismillah in "Bismillah, no! We will not let him go!" Noam Kaiser replied:
Originally the question asked was "Who is Bismillah".
It isn't a "who", it's a "what".
Bismillah" is a term in Arabic meaning "in the name of Allah" and the beginning of the most common Islamic prayer.
So:
"No, in the name of god, we will not let you go".
It was a nod at Freddie Mercury's upbringing in majority-Muslim Zanzibar.
The meaning of the usage of the term is vague and has been interpreted as trying to spare either the young man's (depicted in the song) life or his soul.




Monday, November 13, 2017

If only, if only.....

It was good yesterday to find this piece, by Keith Burris, at The Blade:
Kucinich: I know why Trump was elected.
We don't hear nearly enough from Dennis Kucinich these days. He was my first choice of US politician during my early years here in the USA. There are numerous posts about him, accessible via the Label Cloud in my sidebar.

If only...if only!



Mr Burris wrote:
"Kucinich was Bernie Sanders long before Bernie..."
I know what he meant but they have both been around in politics, fighting the good fight, for a long time. Americans in general remained too blinkered (or too something) to give them the credit, and the support, they deserved - until 2016 in Bernie's case.










Saturday, November 11, 2017

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour...



“If one were to stand on a street corner at 9 A.M. and watch the spirits of the British dead march by four abreast, the column would be 97 miles long and would take twenty hours, or until five the next morning, to pass. The French dead would take an additional fifty-one hours and the Germans another fifty-nine hours. Considering all the dead on the western front, this parade would last from 9 A.M. Monday to 4 P.M. Saturday and stretch 386 miles, roughly the distance from Paris halfway through Switzerland or from New York to Cleveland.”
~Joseph E. Persico, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918.
“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.”
~ Czesław Miłosz, The Issa Valley.
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~ Joseph Campbell.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Arty Farty Friday ~ Big Lies and Big Eyes

Netflix has the Tim Burton movie movie Big Eyes on offer; we watched it last weekend, without any prior knowledge of its theme. It's another of those "based on a true story" movies - a good one too, well acted by leads Amy Adams, as Margaret Keane, and Christoph Waltz as her husband, Walter Keane.
Nutshell:
Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.... The film is about the life of American artist Margaret Keane—famous for drawing portraits and paintings with big eyes. It follows the story of Margaret and her husband, Walter Keane, who took credit for Margaret's phenomenally successful and popular paintings in the 1950s and 1960s. It follows the lawsuit (and trial) between Margaret and Walter, after Margaret reveals she is the real artist behind the big eyes paintings.
Not even the kindest art critic would call Margaret Keane's big eyed subjects "great art", some would even refuse to call them art at all; at the time, though, the general public loved these rather sweet whimsical depictions of sad longing, a general public encouraged greatly by Walter Keane's genius-level salesmanship.

From a piece at The Painter's Keys:
Margaret (and Walter) Keane’s “Big Eyes” were called, “the most popular art now being produced in the free world,” by Life Magazine in 1965. New York Times critic John Canaday described them at the time as, “the very definition of tasteless hack work,” and “sentimental kitsch.” Andy Warhol said, “It has to be good. If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.” Margaret Keane is now 88 [in 2017 she's 90] and lives in Napa, California. She paints daily. Walter Keane died in 2000 at the age of 85. He was never witnessed actually painting.
For a quick look at some of the Keane Big Eye paintings, visit Google Image HERE.

What Walter Keane lacked in artistic talent and truthfulness he made up for in cunning and the ability to turn on the old charismatic sales spiel at the drop of a proverbial hat. In the beginning, according to the movie, Walter was a kindly, charming spouse to Margaret. My husband had him tagged, early on, as "a dork", then "a complete asshole". At first, I offered that Margaret's paintings would never have paid (eventually) for their home, her daughter's education etc. without Walter's sales experience. It had to be looked on as a joint business venture, tentatively agreed to by Margaret, partly from necessity and lack of funds; partly because she was infatuated by Walter, his charm and the facade of his being an artist himself. I changed my mind on Walter, agreeing with my husband the minute Walter began strong-arming Margaret, his marital charm turned to abuse and brutish demands on her work. According to this article, from the LA Times, the movie doesn't paint nearly as dark a picture of their marriage as was the case in real life.

 Photograph from Time Magazine 1965: Margaret and Walter Keane.

I see from Wikipedia's page on Margaret Keane, that she was born on 15 September, 1927, she's now 90 years old. As I haven't found her natal chart online already, I hesitate to post one from my own software, it would seem intrusive while this lady is still among us. I'll say just that her Sun and Venus in meticulous, perfection-seeking Virgo would have felt comfortable, at long last, after the truth was revealed about her "big eye" paintings.

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

POLARITIES - balance of power

As well as the elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) and the modes (Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable) there's a third aspect to be considered in a natal chart: polarity. Astrological polarities are variously described as masculine/feminine, active/passive, or Yin/Yang, take your pick!

Starting with Aries (positive/masculine/Yang) the signs change alternately positive/ negative. So:

Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius are all positive/masculine/Yang.

Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces all negative/feminine/Yin.

Extract from Astrodienst (full explanation at website)
"The positive signs describe object-oriented, sociable people who are not afraid to jump into unknown situations. The negative or yin principle is subject-oriented, receptive, yielding, enclosing, withdrawing and inward-moving. The yin individual ‘is characterised by a reflective nature which causes him always to think and consider before acting. His shyness and distrust of things induces hesitation, and so he always has difficulty in adapting to the external world."

From Astrotheme's lists, some years ago, I noted names of some of the best known individuals who have Yin or Yang @ between 99% and 90% in their natal charts, reflecting in a high proportion of their personalities. I felt disappointed that easily perceivable difference between the people on these two lists isn't apparent. We know only their public faces though.

Men and women are listed separately, in case it helped to throw up any glaring differences between Yins and Yangs, but it didn't seem to do so.

Yangs include Anita Roddick, but Nina Ricci is amongst the Yins - both are, or were, very successful business women in similar fields. I'd have expected Anita Roddick to be among the Yins though. Kim Farnell is among the Yins - which seems correct for an astrologer. Paris Hilton is strongly Yang.

Do the Yang guys seem like a more macho, active group than the Yins? Not really. Er -wait a minute - perhaps the Yin males are a wee bit smoother? Bono has the highest Yin of all, almost pure Yin!

I wonder if these considerations might have more importance in relationship compatibility, rather than in straightforward personality assessment. Perhaps a strongly Yang person needs a strongly Yin partner, and vice versa.

Here are the lists. I've included percentages for first and last names in each list, percentages between are...well...between!

Yang - active - masculine

Paris Hilton 94.44%
Brit Ekland
Loretta Lynn
Barbara Walters
Anita Roddick 90.08


Ralph Bellamy 96.92%
Dan Quayle
Danny Elfman
Alfred Molina
Gary Puckett
Sasha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G)
Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee)
Jimmy Durante
Hoagy Carmichael
Stan Laurel
Barry Manilow 90.95%


Yin - passive - feminine

Kim Wilde 98.08%
Cindy Crawford
Maureen O'Sullivan
Kim Farnell
Nina Ricci 90.83%

Bono 99.09%
Keanu Reeves
Kurt Cobain
William Friedkin
Upton Sinclair
Keith Urban
Gary Player
BB King
Adam Sandler
Bob Kennedy 91.23%



Remember the balance; the give-and-take of energy. The symbol of yin and yang is more than the integration of male and female. It’s also the balance of light and dark, soft and hard, active and passive, in and out, giver and receiver. You can’t have one without the other.
― Brownell Landrum, A Chorus of Voices: DUET stories Volume III - Adult Version.

The circle that represents the whole is divided into Yin (black) and Yang (white) halves--two polar complements in harmonious balance. The two smaller circles in the centers (the eyes), shaded in the opposite color, illustrate that within Yin there is Yang, and vice versa. Yin and Yang contain within themselves, at their very centers, the seeds of change. The curve dividing them indicates that this change is dynamic and continuous. Each half invades the other half and establishes itself in the center of its opposite.
SIMMONE KUO, Yin-Yang in Tai-Chi Chuan and Daily Life.


The Pentacle - The ancients envisioned their world in two halves - masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and Yang. When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced there was chaos.
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code.

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