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“Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.” ~C.S. Lewis

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Metaphorcast 6/14-20

Gemini season skips along, happy with tricks and surprises. The twins know a thing or two about how to keep things fresh.  It has to do with duality: merging two worlds: the world of light and the world of matter.

In the world of matter, you get dressed, go to work, feel hungry, have lunch and so on.  In the world of light you have ideas, you laugh from a real place, you recognize the beauty of something, you remember some important reasons for why you do what you do, you connect to a higher world.  

Like frogs, we must come up for air if we are in the water too long.  But our air is actually light, and our water is the world of matter and time. 

As Arthur M Young explains in his book the Reflexive Universe, light is outside of time.  Clocks stop at the speed of light.  

He says, light is pure action, like the smile without the cat.  

Leo the lion walks with his heel not touching the ground.  Cats have an instinct for higher worlds, even though they fall off of furniture in the funniest ways.

Mars, the planet of will, is newly in Leo. How can you use your will to be more like a cat, and find those higher worlds, even if it be just a patch of sunlight in an empty room.  

Mercury moves backwards in Gemini this week- retracing some steps in search of time mixed with timelessness.

Venus advancing in Cancer, like a gentle dancer, favoring moonlight, where two worlds seem to combine, and create such longings for things divine.

Jupiter with a couple months of Pisces right now before it goes back into Aquarius for the rest of the year.  Jupiter is a spirited growth, in Pisces, the classroom is an ocean of imagination.  A world of light within.  No time no space, just a place of unity and infinite possibility.  

Saturn in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus.  A paradigm shift in the making.  New truths begin quaking.  Truths of existence and values of time.  Things that leak in on the peripheries and lead to epiphanies.  Better it be some blowing trees than a deadened sales pitch.

Neptune in Pisces a growing intuition into the nature of light.  

Pluto in Capricorn the changes that make you better equipped.

The moon begins the week in Leo, the cat that favors sunshine- channel your inner feline to decipher that which is divine. The Cheshire grin is above you as this moon waxes crescent.

By 11 o’clock Eastern Time on Tuesday she will grow in Virgo, the sign of work.  That cat knew that the sun supplies it, the Virgin knows best just how to apply it.  She tends to routine but doesn’t let it obscure the richness that comes from two worlds in a stir.  The Virgo Moon will wax through Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday and Saturday host a Libra Moon as she reaches the second quarter.  On these final Gemini days a Libra mood breezes through trees that sway, filtering the sun into dazzling fairies, whatever you do at this time keep it airy.

A Scorpio moon heralds the first day of Summer, which occurs very late on Fathers Day Sunday, 11:30 pm Eastern Time.  After we celebrate the Dads, and look back on the springtime we had, maybe before to sleep we drift, we can feel a certain Seasonal shift.  With Scorpio sensors tuning in, Springtime ends and Summer begins.  The Sun is now at its utmost height!  Cheers to the timeless world of light!

As always, happy astro pondering!

Astro art by Johnnie Day Durand

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

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Waking the Word. Mars enters Gemini 3/3

After a 2 month journey dedicated to finding better stability, the red planet now embarks into the quizzical domain of Gemini. Nothing is straight forward when it comes to the Twins. They represent objective thought, yet they are tricksters. They are two, yet they lie. They are perception, as well as perceptions’ tricks.

Giggling all the way, the Twins welcome Mars on Wednesday, 3/3. Wednesday and 3 both belong to the trickster, with Gemini being the 3rd sign and Wednesday attributed to Mercury (Gemini’s ruling planet). The willful hero is about to go through the looking glass in search of the Twin’s treasures.

Gemini looks at the world objectively. In philosophy, objectivity is the concept of truth independent from individual subjectivity. For example, the tree that you climbed on in childhood is just a tree and not the loving supporting wooden arms that supported you in your triumph of independence.

And here is where the Twins start to giggle. They know that it isn’t truly possible to separate the tree in such a way from the onlooker whose experience has helped constitute for them that special tree.

Just like identical twins, Gemini was once one, not two.

The two used to be one!

Writer, philosopher Owen Barfield discovered that by studying words (Gemini delight!) one can see how consciousness is evolving. He says that all words have deeper meanings that fade over time, and that their deeper meanings reflect a time when life was very differently experienced.

As Barfield sees it, early humans existed in what he calls “original participation”, living “inside the world’s unity.” At some point, however we became free from the world’s unity. Free to think, and perceive things for ourselves, from our own centers of subjectivity.

We became free, but now we don’t see the full reality.

In original participation, thinking and perceiving were one. The games of the Twins had not yet begun.

Barfield sees subjectivity as not just something that comes out of nothing, but rather a form of consciousness that has contracted from reality’s peripheries into individual centers. The inner meanings of things is the inward truth of nature, and of ourselves.

By ignoring inner meanings, and being content with only the outer meanings, Barfield warns that we have produced a “world of outsides with no insides to them”.

Mars commits to moving forward into Gemini’s gifts. What is Gemini’s purpose? If we have split from the world’s unity in the name of freedom, what are we becoming free for?

Barfield sees this question answered by means of a new phase of consciousness. He refers to this phase as final participation, and sees it to be based around our creative use of the imagination, to actively restore for ourselves the world’s unity. With imagination’s ability to enlarge a meaning, by the power of its full expression, we can begin to taste that original sense of wholeness, while also maintaining our full subjective freedoms.

“Mere perception — perception without imagination — is the sword thrust between spirit and matter.”

Owen Barfield, The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays

No better time to embrace such a concept as now, is the midst of Pisces Season.

Rev up those engines of curiosity! Mars will be in Gemini until April 23rd, giving you plenty of time to tackle the twin’s illusions and transcend their tricks, enlivening what you see to a fuller reality deemed true by the inwardness of nature, and yourself!

Happy Astro Pondering!

Astro Art by Johnnie Day Durand

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Metaphorcast 11/30-12/6, 2020

A Full Moon eclipse crowns the last day of November, dazzling in Gemini before the start of December.  

Gemini sparkles with reflection of thought. The flint of the fire, and all we’ve been taught.  Sparkling and glittering for centuries back- sensing a freedom and enlarging the crack, so more creativity can leak in, and keep us on track.

The archer pulls back the string of his bow.  The arrow in flight shows the way life likes to grow.

From his book, The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard de Chardin says this of Man’s true place in evolution: “Man is not the center of the universe as we once thought in our simplicity, but something much more wonderful- the arrow pointing the way to the final unification of the world in terms of life.  Man alone constitutes the last-born, the freshest, the most complicated, the most subtle of all the successive layers of life.”

Sagittarius, the Season we are in right now, is that very arrow.  The life of life itself, and it’s direction of growth.

With love, the future sets us free!  The distant future, and the one of immediacy.  In a world where nothing is static- the question does become, in which direction are you moving, and from where have you come?  This is a question that can be asked at any given moment. 

Sagittarius Season is bubbling with an effervescense, spreading with delightful incandescense, to remind us of our truest essence.  Outward on streets, lights spring up as expected, inward a fire glows warm with direction.  

Mercury will be in the deepest degrees of Scorpio on Monday, for the Gemini Full Moon eclipse.  Gemini rules the hands.  Teilhard de Chardin says that our arms became free, so we could hold our hands to our face, with narrower eyes, we could percieve what we hold in front of us- and thus, reflective thought was born.  He says “Man came silently into this world”. 

The next day, as December begins, the trickster goes into Sagittarius, with a growing confidence.  The trickster realizes he holds the keys, his hands are free, like the sky and the sea.  

Venus, the love goddess stirs in Scorpio.  She overhears the trickster’s epiphany, and creates a stormy, passionate symphony.  Seeing her gifts of art and love, as the fire that holds everything together from above.  She breathes in the sweetness of a vibrant red rose, from her delicate hands, the whole world she does hold.

Mars moving onward in Aries in an epic voyage that’s lasted half a year!  His lovers tune seducing his soul, freeing his vibrations to a place that is bold.  As Robert Frost said, “Freedom lies in being bold.”

Jupiter moving away from Pluto and into a tighter conjunction with Saturn, in Capricorn, in tension with Aries’ fire.  The strategy of caution serving hope in a most noble of ways.  We’ve learned so much in these past few hundred days.

Uranus in Taurus- the evolution of nature, becoming more natural, to reflect on

Neptune in Pisces- the dream in the Seasonal archer’s heart- As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “we aim above the mark to hit the mark.”

The Moon 

The Moon as mentioned will be Full in Gemini at the beginning of the week, the sign of the hands, Aristotle’s “tool of tools”.  Evidence of Sagittarian spirit shimmer in the stone carvings of the ancient world, at the skill of ancient hands.  

Full Moons are nights of illumination.  

As Langston Hughes said 

“I look at my own body With eyes no longer blind-

And see that my own hands

can make

The world that’s in my mind.”

In the later hours of Tuesday night she wanes gibbous in Cancer, her true habitat of Moon.  Bears are beginnng to head to their caves, light is dwindling in the days.  In the flourescence of the Horse’s Season, a Cancer Moon is a perfect reason, to find some Hooga with dimmed down lights.  Store some power in the soul’s delight!

Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday host a Leo Moon, and the atmosphere is full of fire.  The fire of expression!  The radiant life of love.  In our upward flight that moves to the right, who can push aside this Eternal delight.  As Venus comes into trine with all encompassing Neptune, echoes of the Four Tops ring out into the ether- Reach out.. 

By Sunday afternoon, a Virgo Moon wanes on- in the spirit of learning, and the ever-in-motion weaving of the imagination with experience.  

In which direction are you going, and where are you coming from?

Contemplate, on this Virgo Moon.

Remind yourself of just how great

is this ability to contemplate

to draw something close and then 

set your eyes on the distance

to feel evolution at work

in your very existence!

As always, happy astro pondering!

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

The Convivial in the Trivial: Treasures of Gemini.

Happy Gemini Season to all.  I hope it is a nice bouncy time of curiosity and conversation.  In this post I plan to share some of the glimmering shimmering secrets of the Trickster, in hopes that this Spring Season can be extra intriguing.

Yes, where to begin…

This is the sign most associated with the intellect, words, straightforward logic etc.  Often the archetype of Gemini summons up a smartness, incredible word-craft abilities, cleverness…

Opposite Gemini is the Archer, Sagittarius, the sign that breathes the fire of meaning into things.

Behold the flame of meaning!

But it is Gemini that not only puts this meaning into words, thoughts and expressions, it is also Gemini whose air fans the flames of meaning!

Who.. little old me?

Yes Bugs!  Through thought, speculation, musings, and curiosity- lots of meaning gets stirred up and fortified.  These two signs are on opposite sides of a very interesting spectrum.

The MYTHIC MEANING of Sagittarius and the MENTAL TRIVIALITY of Gemini.

But wait- it sounds as though I am insulting the sign of the Twins!

Who are you calling Trivial??

But it’s true!  The intellect alone will only get a person so far.  Without meaning, thoughts can turn in on themselves and stifle.

The wisdom lies in knowing this to be true:  hence the Trickster is born!

Little old ME!!

Geminis are at heart, Tricksters.  Beings who delight in thought and words, yet with a knowing of the paradoxical limits of thought and words.

The most brilliant of the Geminis have a zen tongue-in-cheek vibe to what they say and do.

And these are the souls that breath air into MEANING itself!  The  two things- triviality and meaning co-creating.  No hierarchy, just discovery.

Perhaps this is some of the meaning behind the Fool Card.

If every where you looked MEANING was staring you in the face you would likely get burned out- fast.

There would be no AIR of LIGHTNESS.  No reprieve.  No jokes, no riddles, no lighthearted smiling or giggling.

Why is it that the characters most devoid of meaning are the ones that make us laugh the hardest?

It’s an interesting paradox, that intelligence and delightful stupidity are tied up in the same archetype.  But that’s Gemini- if it weren’t interesting and paradoxical, it would cease to be- the Trickster.

So, this Season, share in the delight of the enigma of levity, thought, intelligence and triviality.

The convivial trivial!  Long live it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zodiacal shades of Marilyn

Where to start with such an enigmatic woman!  How about the Sun?

At her heart-center, she is a Gemini!  Her solar purpose infused with mental stimulation.  She thrives when in a state of curiosity and wonder.

With Leo rising and Neptune near her Ascendant, she identifies with feline power, symbolically seen in her confident look and the solar-gold color of the dress.  Neptune exudes mystical and intangible vibes through the power of yin energy.

 

Her Aquarian Moon in the 7th links her subconscious to a larger network of people (Aquarius) through socializing (7th).  Without even trying (Moon) she becomes a social icon, threaded through many different networks (the mob, the presidency,  baseball, hollywood, Warhol art..).  If the Aquarian subconscious stays unaware of it’s associations, she is likely to feel isolated at times.  Feeling isolated in the house of relationships can be particularly difficult.

Aquarian moons also like to push boundaries.  Her moon is near Jupiter, tying a larger social role (Jupiter) into one of a rule-breaker, a freedom-seeker.  She inspires others to become more free.

Venus in Aries is a go-getter in matters of the heart.  There is much motivation to put on the charm and get involved with other people, often A-lister (Aries) types.

Mars in Pisces sizzles with the yin energy.  Absolute passivity ramps up her drive.  Located in the 8th and near the unpredictable Uranus, it is even more electric and sexual in it’s nature.  This can be problematic when healthy boundaries need to be set.

With her mother, Gladys

With the planet of obstacles, Saturn in deep psychological Scorpio and in the 4th house of home, much of Marilyn’s mountains (Saturn) will pertain to transcending early home emotions.  Her mother was mentally unstable and her father absent.  She spent her childhood moving from many foster homes and orphanages.

Finding a renewed sense of home would be of enormous healing to her.

Social life is so big that alone time would likely serve to balance a lot of chaos.  Pluto in Cancer in the 12th shows renewed power (Pluto) that is restorative (Cancer) in places of seclusion (12th).  Aligned with her solar purpose (Gemini sun), a book stimulates her beautiful thoughts.

Of course, there are so many more lovely shades to this gal.  XO Marilyn.

Here comes the Sun: Knowing your life energy. Part 4- Air

Your Sun sign keys you into understanding the fundamental energy that you run on.  There are four basic different categories of this energy: Earth, Water, Air and Fire.  Start with understanding your element and then move on to understand it’s specific qualities within your sign.

Today we take a look at the energy of Air.

Air energy is detached, mental and social.  Detached in the way that it doesn’t take things so personally.  Mental in the quickness of it’s associations.  Social in the need to reach out and relate what you know with others.  Air connects us.  The air we breath now was once breathed by Shakespeare (or anyone you can think of!)

A radio tower’s airwaves demonstrate this element’s ability to connect people

Cardinal Air: Libra.  Cardinal energy does what?  It INITIATES.  Mental and social initiative energy brings up the image of a conversation starter.  It’s one person seeking a balance with another.  We may achieve this balance not only with another person but also with our own reactions to what we find beautiful, such as art and culture.

Sting is a double Libra with his Moon conjunct Neptune in the 4th. He credits his mother (Moon and 4th house) for teaching him that the mark of maturity in a man is to accept that a part of yourself is woman (Libra balance). Yoga also compliments his very open spiritual (Neptune) approach to achieving balance.

Fixed Air: Aquarius.  If we apply the concept of MAINTAINING to this connective and social energy an image that comes up is one of protecting social rights and uniting together in groups that identify with the same ideas.  It can also conjure up the character of the non-conformist, who stays put with his own ideas amidst the pressures of society and it’s status quo.

Rosa Parks is a powerful example of Aquarius energy with her Moon in the social service 6th house, and her Sun right on the Descendant which represents equal partnerships. Her defiant words inspired millions to unite, giving rise to an enormous civil rights movement.

Mutable Air: Gemini.  What happens when this light and communicative energy seeks to CHANGE, REFINE and ADAPT itself?  There is a ton of curiosity, and versatility as information is constantly turning into something else.  The hunger is for diversity and mental stimulus.

Who could represent this element better than double-Gemini Mel Blanc, the “man of a thousand voices” (literally!!). Interestingly enough, when in a coma after a horrendous car accident, after two weeks of no response one of his neurosurgeons tried a different approach and asked, “how are you feeling today Bugs Bunny?”. Bugs answered, and Mel came out of the coma.