An Inquisitive Friend
Jm. Maxwell here.
Happy Birthday, love.
So how's things?
posted by jm at 1:04 AM
Monday, July 18, 2016
Jm. Maxwell here.
Happy Birthday, love.
So how's things?
About Me
- Name: jm
I am a brilliant creation of the universe formed from the cosmic protoplasm sailing into eternity. I have two hands, two feet, a couple of great ears, and I'm clipping through life at a moderate pace; minding my p*s and q*s, crossing my t*s, dotting every i.
Previous Posts
- Fly by Night
- Alternative Transportation
- Anyone's Guess
- Galactic Voyages
- Beleaf
- A Frightful Night in the Suburbs
- Good god, Jm. You're getting old.
- 1000 light years from here briefly I am
- Begone-ia
46 Comments:
Good Birthday morning dearone!
We get to light another candle on the cake, I'm all for bonfire cakes, keep 'em comin'
XOXO, Tseka
Tseka, speaking of dear ones.
I have one too many garden solar lights, so I think I'll stick that on my cake.
Love and kisses to you as the years come in and wander away.
Solar is nice. I''m rather partial to flames, and at our age we could roast marshmallows. Well at least we can for your summer birthday.
Hoping all is well with you and this year will be one of the finest.
Lov ya gobs
Summer birthday.
I recently thought of my poor mother carrying me in the summer heat. Of course, I wasn't a huge load at 5 lbs. but the darned amniotic fluid is weighty. Plus, I'm rather old now and way back then I don't think they had much air conditioning.
A fine year is a great plan.
"Our age". This aging phenomenon is interesting, among other characteristics.
I'm no longer a "Miss". I'm officially a Ma'am.
Aha.
Joyeux anniversaire (avec un peu de retard), madame. :-)
And the French feminists prefer the term, so you're in good company as it turns out.
I hope you had really good cake. And if you didn't, it's never too late to remedy that!
Oh no! Mademoiselle is a beautiful word.
C'est un dilemme, vraiment.
I adored being referred to as "Miss" all these years, but being a lady has its perks.
I got a cute little bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes and it was fantastic.
It does sound lovely. ;-)
I once heard a gray-haired actor recite the same poem in French and in German. The original version was in German, and the topic was weighty . . . and perhaps best forgotten! The audience, full of equally gray-haired American madames, was thrilled by the French version, although I must admit that the sound of the German words fit the philosophical topic better.
Now, if he had been reading a love poem in French, other languages would likely have died from shame had they ears to hear him.
Perhaps we can follow that rule of happy inversions. You know, where only the very young may be called madames, and only the mature should be called mademoiselles.
Bundt cake, the torus perfected, like the shape of the cosmos. As above, so below, or vice versa and versa vice. Whoever came up with the platonic form should be awarded a bundt cake for that contribution to humanity, with a card stating, "Bet you didn't have this in mind when you invented the torus."
There you go again, teaching me a new word. Torus.
So I ate the universe for my birthday. It truly was delicious. Sweet.
Sweet profundity indeed. And very ouroboric of you, since you are an aspect of the universe from which you receive nourishment.
And, topologically speaking, animals more complex than the immortal, unaging hydra, with their single all-purpose body opening, are toroidal as well. We are a bit too complicated to be as unchanging as those simpler lifeforms, but we can have much more fun between our ingress and our egress and possibly our regress as well. So, we are like elongated doughnuts with funny appendages . . . which some can use to make not only more doughnuts but bundt cakes, too. When you consume a bundt cake, you consume the perfected product of billions of years of cosmic evolution.
When you consume a bundt cake, you consume the perfected product of billions of years of cosmic evolution.
Boy, am I glad I did it.
B y t h e w a y . . . I am doing research for a little history project. I have noticed some of your past and present comments about Uranus in Aries. Did you know that a prominent person born under Uranus in Aries figures, is figured, at a significant period in tarot history?
I'm so glad you brought this up. No, I did not know of the person you mentioned.
Uranus in Aries is on my ascendant after a long station. I'm beginning to understand my Uranus-Mars square and the nature of my ascendant in unmistakable experiential terms. It's been an amazing, shocking, and thoroughly surprising couple of years.
It figures in for the country, too, which I probably should post a piece about.
Uranus in Aries is definitely on my mind.
The ascendant is one of the most influential factors in the chart and to come to the knowledge I've discovered has been highly stimulating. Next year an interesting configuration is at play for me and the world. I'll get into that.
Any more info on this tarot person?
Well, I'll look forward to your write-up. Interesting times marking transitional periods, I suppose! Much confusion out there.
Yes, I have been writing up a few notes this summer. It's been rather colorful. They should make a movie about these people.
As part of my interactive Web technology study project, you can see my notes (with pictures of cards), about possibly the oldest surviving deck of trionfi cards. The deck was commissioned by the father of Bianca Maria Visconti (born 31 March 1425). Some articles on the Web state that she has been called “Lady Tarot” (although I don't know whether that is actually a term in widespread usage or simply widespread copycat reporting).
I'll copy the part about her here. (I am debating separating some of it from the main text somehow; it could go into a sidebar if the layout only had that much room.)
* * *
“Uniquely among historical Western decks, it has six ranks of court cards. Besides the usual king, queen, knight and jack cards, there is a maid (sometimes referred to as a “female page”) and a lady on horseback (sometimes referred to as a “female knight”). The gender balance and the horsewomen — features missing from the court cards of later standard decks — is well in keeping with the formidable character of Bianca Maria Visconti and of the Sforza family.
“While still a young woman, Bianca Maria Visconti was already well-known for her skills in state administration and diplomacy. She was named regent of the Marche in 1442 when she was seventeen, the year after she married Francesco I Sforza, the fourth duke of Miland. Six years later, she won popular acclaim as “Warrior Woman” after she donned a suit of parade armor and hurried, along with some troops and the populace, to fight off a Venetian force which was attacking her dowry city of Cremona while Sforza was away. The battle lasted all day before Sforza returned to aid the beleagured city.
“Also of note here are the Sforza tradition of humanist education for women and that the Sforzas, unlike most European nobility, promoted martial skills among their daughters. In a time when European women’s participation in the hunt itself, rather than mainly in the activities following the hunt, was only beginning to happen, Bianca Maria Visconti had grown up keen, like her father Filippo Maria Visconti, on horses and hunting — and Bianca's granddaughter, Caterina Sforza, learned alongside her brothers to wield a sword, to ride horses and to hunt. The Sforzas — whose adopted name means “force” — descended from a line of powerful military leaders, and they held that such skills fostered emotional self-mastery and courage in young children.”
* * *
I'll put some of the documents I came across in my research in a folder in case you want to see them.
Astrotheme.com has Bianca's natal chart. She has both Sun and Uranus in Aries. Note also her Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio opposite Venus in Taurus. Hour of birth is unknown.
You can view some historical trionfi/tarot images I've obtained from museum Web sites at http://tarotmysterium.com. Two of the decks are Visconti-Sforza decks from the 1400s. My study project is in a test phase, with some minor issues.
Before I forget, those into numerology may find of interest a few number patterns (that my project brought to my attention as I tested it) relating to the card suits: A numerological pattern in five cards of each suit. I've not seen it mentioned anywhere (albeit my scholarship is superficial), and I've no idea what it means, if anything, but it is striking. It does not work with the re-ordering of some cards that the Golden Dawn introduced, and that was first published with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck in 1909, but it works with the older order; for that and other reasons, the project uses the older order of cards.
Perhaps I should mention that, although it is not at my level of focus with these subjects, there has been growing interest in a "Continental tarot" tradition that predates the alterations and correspondences introduced by later occultists.
Just want to respond to the Bianca Maria Visconti story before I go on.
Very very very good.
"The Sforzas — whose adopted name means “force” — descended from a line of powerful military leaders, and they held that such skills fostered emotional self-mastery and courage in young children."
The warrior can function on so many levels. She epitomizes the best of Aries. Even if the warrior draws no blood the skills are wonderfully valuable.
I really really love this information. Ha! An Aries from 1425. Life is amazing. Thrilling.
I'll look at the rest and be back.
Not sure if the Bianca material is too lengthy for my notes about the deck. Perhaps I'll abbreviate it or make it a link of some kind. I'll leave it for now while I work on other things, and we'll see. I've left much out as it is: Bianca's commanding a naval fleet against the Venetians, her conquest of several territories to consolidate into a powerful northern duchy, her public works in later life, her humanist education.
Bianca's co-regency may have helped ensure a half-century of enough stability that the Italian Renaissance took firm hold. Leonardo da Vinci was a teen youth towards the end of Bianca's life.
Paintings of Bianca
I just read a blog bio of Caterina Sforza, granddaughter of Bianca, tonight. While Bianca may have been poisoned after a life of governance and devotion to charitable works, her granddaughter Caterina had an extremely rough time battling her emboldened enemies. Bianca's marriage was a successful and accomplished one, to a true equal, but Caterina was married off to Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, whom she painfully realized would never be up to the task of defending her children's future. So, she hardened herself to meet that responsibility.
Caterina, more than once, boldly threw back at her enemies that she was the daughter of a man without fear and would never surrender. Once was after her husband had been assassinated: her children were being held hostage and their lives threatened. She refused to negotiate, and as things went, the children survived that episode. Her end was bitter, though. It is epic the struggles of these educated women — fluent in Greek and Latin, educated in the humanities, in history and moral philosophy, and in leadership on matters of state — during a time when cultural norms and political forces were massively arrayed against them.
Unfortunately, Caterina's birth date is unknown. It is interesting to read about Bianca and Caterina's educated interests which included astrology, alchemy and medicine. Caterina spent several years working on a book of her alchemical and medical experiments.
This is all, of course, quite a departure from basic tarot history, and does not fully address the mystical power that tarotists have invested in the tarot over centuries. But it is there if you open the right doors -- doors once closed except to the few with knowledge of and access to archives.
Bianca's North Node in Gemini speaks of her skills in education. The South Node in Sagittarius brings higher mind studies, such as astrology and alchemy, down to understandable translations.
I like the idea that a pioneering Aries lady could have been partly responsible for kick starting the Renaissance. That's a fine legacy.
Mystical power can be invested in almost anything.
“Bianca's North Node in Gemini speaks of her skills in education. The South Node in Sagittarius brings higher mind studies, such as astrology and alchemy, down to understandable translations.”
Hmm, yes. And the nodal placements that you bring up do sound suited to her becoming a role model for, and a teacher of, her grandchildren including Caterina. At a glance, Bianca, who had both Sun and Uranus in Aries, was strongly compatible with her father and with her husband because of certain planets in fire signs.
Caterina, while we do not know her birth date, was born in a year of Uranus in Virgo; I expect that astrologers would say that her persistent alchemical and medical researches are a fine expression of that placement.
Several highly notable Italians were born in the same year as Caterina: one of them was Mirandola, a groundbreaking philosopher who wrote 900 theses on philosophy, natural philosophy, religion and magic; according to Wikipedia, he wrote Oration on the Dignity of Man (called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance"). Another was Achillini, a highly regarded philosopher-physician-theologian who was the first anatomist to describe the malleus and the incubus bones in the ear, among other parts of the brain and body.
“That's a fine legacy.”
The 1400s were quite the kickoff for the Italian Renaissance.
“Mystical power can be invested in almost anything.”
Yes, indeed. Maybe some can use lampshade finials, as in an episode in the television series, Bewitched, where the husband is tricked into believing that he held a powerful talisman against witchcraft. Another episode revolved around a magic potion that turned out to be ordinary orange juice. Both tricks were intended to lend confidence. Creative, dreamlike, associative imagery lends itself well as mental tools or a kind of extensible vocabulary, handles for the mind to grasp intangibles and gain perspective. The images grow into psychic frameworks for those who choose to use or extend them. Eventually, some outgrow their earlier frameworks, of course, and some may choose to invent variations or perhaps completely anew for their purpose.
"Oration on the Dignity of Man"
A confident fellow, indeed. And dramatic.
Ah, yes, the drama — such is humanity. The species that invented the daily soap opera!
Cleaning products and emotional intrigue, mayhem.
A winning combination. The Secret Storm. Everyone's got one.
Cue the organ music and the swirling waves.
Search For Tomorrow is another good one.
Humans are amusingly poetic.
Some can even find poetry in maths, ha.
Searching for tomorrow while losing today and finding only yesterday, seems a fairly popular theme. Cue the close up, the pregnant pause.
We've had some stormy weather of late. Seems a bit less secret than it used to be.
The storm and the drama, by the way, speak of the human range of emotion, and the situational responsiveness. In turn, these things reflect the species adaptability to circumstance. Human versatility is born of fire and ice, so to speak, having evolved through alternating extremes not only of summers and winters but of glacial and interglacial ages, the long seasons of our species childhood spent in mixed environments. There have been many winding paths.
"Searching for tomorrow while losing today and finding only yesterday"
That's it. Here's a paraphrase I came upon yesterday, from Come to Life Colorado.
Our future is yet to be written, the seconds are ours for the taking, we can turn them into moments that last forever.
A little more sugary but the idea is in the air.
The human mechanism is really miraculous if you look at it with its adaptability and resilience.
The extremes are fascinating -- the hot churning mass at the birth of the planet and the phenomenal freezes that always come. Things have seemed to calm down some in order to accommodate the limited human being. I've always wondered why the earth wants us so much.
Well, I like to think that we broaden the possibilities, explore and actualize potentials. The planet becomes us and, through us and other life forms, it sees and feels. In return, earthly experience particularizes us, aiding the spirit to individuate, or the potential to actualize.
Voltaire stated that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. (“Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.”) To which we add that, no less, if humanity had not existed, the gods would have had to invent us.
Perhaps gods (if they or godlike beings exist) study humanity for meaning and for narrative as some people study their tarot card spreads or as others interpret their dreams or watch daytime televised dramas. In some way, the storm and the starry night, the cards and the arts, the stories of our lives call to us and tell us something more of ourselves of which we were not fully aware.
I've often thought that the gods created us and therefore have a vested interest in our success, proud as they can be. Or I've seen them as teachers who want their students to excel.
Maybe they want us to be as great as they are. Almost.
That's my optimism in play.
Yes, I think such beings can cheer us on, calling encouragements. I have always felt they have another option, too, to look out through our eyes, and even forget themselves for a time as most of us can when immersed in a book, play or cinema. Perhaps that is how creation and recreation happens, mutually, continually, moving along a dimension of shared enjoyment. The gods, then, run with you.
Hey, JM. I have been reading your blog, Raging Universe, and I just want to say it's fabulous! 10 years of deep astrological insight. What a treat! My favorite is the section on the nodes. I noticed that you didn't post anything on the North Node in Virgo or the 6th house/South Node in Pisces or the 12th house and North Node in Leo or the 5th house/South Node in Aquarius or the 11th house. I would love to read your insight on these nodal placements; I know someone with one of them. Would you be so kind as to write about them? :)
Absolutely!!
I'm so glad you reminded me. I'm the slowest poke on the planet, but they will be done!
The next one is coming shortly.
I had noticed that, too, but I wasn't going to say anything, ha. Sometimes the Uranian dough will rise (again) when you yeast expect it.
wasn't going to say anything?
A Cap? You should be giving me orders. With a please, of course.
But I have Pisces rising....Capricorn is just the crusty inside.
Yay!! Thank you for responding. I look forward to reading them and informing other astrologers about them when they're posted.
And thanks to you A. I truly appreciate the nudge.
I just read through your article on the Moon's South Node in Aquarius. Very intriguing work as always.
It's interesting the general association of the SN with past lives, and the NN with the future.
I feel that I have always been connected with the creative authenticity of the individual. I could associate both of the Moon's Nodes with some past lives; but then I suspect that distinctions between past and future lives aren't as absolute as people think they are. The deck gets reshuffled more frequently than they realize.
I could say that the SN in Aquarius characterizes the traditional cultural bounds within which my parents would have liked to contain their children. But I persistently had my own direction which had nothing to do with either allegiance or opposition to other people. Hence some of the traps you described seemed obvious to my childhood self. Did I ever mention that my parents' Saturns precisely bracket my Aquarian planets, and that my mother's North Node conjuncts my South Node?
From another perspective, it could be said that I readily creatively synthesized/resynthesized things, a characteristic which my mother found a bit disturbing when it involved breaking something down to create something new.
Looking forward to the remaining articles whenever they are ready to emerge.
Distinctions between past and future lives are absolutely not absolute. They're evidently mixed up.
"my own direction which had nothing to do with either allegiance or opposition to other people."
Yeah. I understand. Doesn't sound like a sensible yardstick for such a choice. Unless you're Just Married.
"Where these paths cross occurs an integration of the disparate selves."
Or, I wonder, perhaps exchanges (agreeable or disagreeable), so that there can be renewal. It might be interesting to note what is facilitated at certain times in mass psychology.
Perhaps the SN could be compared to memories of the past -- necessary, carried forward into the future, a foundation for identity but not its destination for that could easily become a prison. The NN then is that which calls, the opening to divergence and novelty.
Perhaps some few (whether by their own nature or by happenstance) so freely extend the breadth of their attention, loose their grip on time, that they begin to have memories of possible futures, and their histories may be subject to change as well. To us, such easy exchanges of energy could appear, when noticed, as remarkable transformative effects, healings or alterations of destiny, events that seem undetermined by the normal flow of time, when the past can no longer hold.
Perhaps that is the norm in some world, some where and some when, a forgotten branch of our world. What a world that is then, to have such people in it, the undivided ones. In part, in some way, perhaps such a world exists because our world does, and our world likewise exists because of theirs.
You are right about the exchanges.
I like your recent articles giving your perspective on astrological factors. In your latest, your presenting of analogies, with artistic visuals, to individualized reactions to consumable goods, is an excellent idea, very redolent and memorable.
I'm pleased you like my recent articles. You raise an applicable point.
I seldom read charts. A cursory glance will do if necessary. I get the same, or a better result by studying the main motions of the planets from a broad perspective. It frees me to do other things.
Getting mired in facts, figures, graphs, angles, circles, squares, triangles, axes, and semi-verifiable conclusions can be time consuming. The tiny chart as it relates to the universe at large is interesting, though.
It can be exhausting to be exhaustive! I do enjoy scenic perspective, and the intuitive leap of connections made.
It is helpful to be able to switch modes. The details of a matter may emerge naturally if one facilitates them; too strong a mindset blocks divergent insights. I prefer that they emerge with spontaneity without compulsion. It is helpful to be inviting of ideas and images, and you do this well. This is the intuitive art that could use more emphasis, I feel, seeking to divine the optimal blend of discipline and spontaneity, form and essence, body and spirit.
I just read your article on the North Node in Leo. I was reminded that there are a few heads of state who are sometimes called "benevolent dictators". Of those whose birth dates I have taken a cursory look at, the natal horoscope of Abdullah II of Jordan has a North Node in Leo with Sun in Aquarius. Being a hereditary king in a perilous and unstable part of the world, he has the accompanying stress and is burdened with responsibilities, of course, but perhaps you may find some correspondence with the symbolism.
Being far younger than his uncle the former crown prince, Abdullah hadn't been originally expected to succeed his father, and he maintained that he did not want to. But he accepted the challenge once the change of succession was announced. He once said to an acquaintance, "You know, everybody's underestimating me. I can do this job. I was born to do this job."
Wikipedia has a summary of significant economic and political reforms, which by themselves do not convey the colorful aspects of this king. During a New York Times interview, his majesty compared himself humorously to Elvis because, after it came out that he had been covertly inspecting government institutions, people started seeing him where he had not actually been. "The thing is, is that I've become a bit like Elvis. There are sightings all over the place. The bureaucrats are terrified. It's great."
(Amusing to recall in this context is that Elvis was nicknamed "the King" . . . his North Node was in Aquarius and his South Node in Leo.)
The reporter followed King Abdullah on one of his undercover operations. It's quite the costumed production, as if right out of theater. There are wigs, a selection of fake moustaches, beard, and padding to create the illusion of belly fat, casual clothing such as New Balance sneakers.
Before he was king, he did perform briefly on the big screen. He was surprised to be offered the role of an uncredited extra, playing a science officer in a 1996 Star Trek Voyager episode. His interest in film is evidenced in his creation, in 2006, of a film institute in partnership with the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
He's also been spotted in Youtube videos, helping people to push a sedan stuck in snow, or helping to put out a forest fire near his residence.
Canadian comedian Russell Peters said of him, "If I were a king, he's the kind of king I'd like to be. He's the coolest guy."
In contrast to his early optimism, later and darker reporting describe his ongoing struggles, not only with the "external forces" which he said that he well understood, but the corrupt "internal forces" that oppose reform and that have long been deeply embedded in the institutions and were not as evident to him until more recent years. He describes progress as "two steps forward, one step back."
Well it could be all things Leo this year with the North Node in town. Just rode in.
Indeed. It may be quite a sight to see . . . especially with the "Great American Eclipse" coming up. This suggests to me a more conscious playing out of the themes and issues than otherwise.
The Middle East seems ready for reform and King Abdullah ll is an interesting figure. His presentation is highly impressive. The Leo node figures in. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Our current American president has formed an alliance with this king and El Sisi of Egypt, along with others in the region. Some novel developments are in motion.
Often north nodes are drawn to people who embody the traits they are growing into, and in Trump, being an advanced Leo, Abdullah recognizes the model. They could be the kingpins in the upcoming story.
The added Uranian factors they share nourish the alliance. Kings of a feather!
I will add that Abdullah's Aquarian south node comprehends the ancient complications involved when achieving revolutionary change, thus his view of progress.
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