In The Zoo, Children Are Brought Face To Face With An Orang-Utang is a Capricorn ruled at 16° Virgo and it portrays “a direct confrontation with the wild power of primordial nature within oneself.” I think this is someting Capricorn’s understand best. Look, their symbol is a goat, Baal, the beast, ultimately in the Judeo-Christian line of belief. The scapegoat concept comes from isolating the sin (within) and casting it out, on the back of that beast of spiritual burden. Mel Gibson, Richard Nixon, Jim Bakker, Phil Spector (the list goes on and on) are all Capricorns who rose quite high in their (mountain ascent) and went a tumbling down, Jack, breaking their crowns. It’s a cautionary tale about being well anchored if you’re going to wear some golden corona.

In this symbol innocence (children) confront their primordial savage beast. This is the Capricorn dialectic. J.D. Salinger built a thematic career on jaded male characters who couldn’t justify the beastly realities of the world with the inherent innocence of a child. It drove Seymour Glass to suicide and Holden Caulfield to a brand of madness, because he couldn’t catch all those innocents before they fell. Just as we can’t stop the school children in this oracle from recognizing themselves in the orang-utang. We are witnessing education, which, as Miss Jean Brodie was won’t to express is a “leading out” into the world of transcendent activity, not a “putting in.” All inner primal energies need to be objectively faced. Funny that in certain occult traditions, apes are seen as evolutionary “throwbacks”, beings who were once divinely human but slipped back into a savage state. In our book Sextrology we speak of Capricorn man as a “throwback” to a former time, being ruled by Saturn, the planetary namesake of the golden-age god who was deposed, uncrowned.

And so we return to original sin—modern school children, being future orientated, being confronted with an incarnation of that cautionary tale—the degeneration of vitalistic power that was once available to wee (who aren’t really) mere mortals. As we rise our chances of falling harder become greater. We know that adage since childhood. Capricorn is the energy of ascent—whether it be Moses or Martin Luther King we are drawn to the mountain, a symbol of pinacle spiritual height available to flesh-and-blood humans. Saturn/Cronus’s mate is Ops/Rhea. While Saturn has fallen, she retains her power, stationed at the top of Mt. Idea, wearing her turretted crown. As we ascend we must face those beasts of the pit—it’s how Gandalf goes from Grey to White, just like Moses’ hair. We must, in a sense, release the beast and confront it. Jesus has that little meeting with the devil before he goes on to fulfill his divine destiny. We all do. Everyday, folks, everyday. It’s just something of which the Capricorn of our species know a little bit more about. They are in constant confrontation and ascent thereby.

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We must once again stop to consider that the Sabian Symbols were divined in no particular order. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones held up blank cards, that had been numbered 1-360 on the back, and then shuffled. He then held these cards up, blank side, to the quite blind (in any case) seer (goota love that) Elsie Wheeler who then verbally divined each oracle. Thus, the fact that these symbols follow an astrological logic in what I perceive to be a twelve-fold sequence of the Zodiac signs, in rulership, is extraordinary. Really. Case in point: The oracle at 15° Virgo, ruled by Sagittarius, is A Fine Lace Handkerchief, Heirloom From Valorous Ancestors, while the previous symbol was An Aristocratic Family Tree, which was all about root strength. Well today, that root strength has produced beautiful flowers, that which the handkerchief, with it’s own lacy folds, portrays. We’re told that ‘”the neophyte who acts with determination, courage and discrimination while following “in the footsteps” of his predecessors receives a symbolic prize from the Brotherhood ready to welcome him when he has fully proven himself on the battlefield where he meets his past [hello Baghavad Gita] which tries to block his way. The mystic Beloved hands him what she has woven for him out of spiritual threads [hello The Odyssey].

There is a lot going on here.

First of all, as you may glean from the Sagittarius male chapter of Sextrology by Starsky + Cox, this ninth sign of the Zodiac is all about brotherhood and patrilineal acceptance and validation (just as its axis sign of Gemini is about boon companionship and brotherhood of a more immediate form). In Sagittarius we aren’t just dealing with a rat pack, we are talking serious initiation into brotherhoods that date back, being rooted, via the Scorpion energy that precedes this flowering of mystic manhood. The body part ruled by Sagittarius is the thigh. Dionysus is born from father Zeus/Jupiter’s thigh. Planet Jupiter rules the sign of Sagittarius as much by accident as the order of these symbols is accidental (or as coincidentally as ones life unfolds very much in keeping with ones astrological birth chart—but that thought is for another day). True patrilineage or that born out by brotherhood rituals are an expression of today’s oracle. And just last night, Stella and I were strolling through Boston’s Back Bay, happening up a fraternity pledge party about to begin and on the way back, passing the venerable building in which that fraternity is housed, seeing into the window, a vast oval room with shelves filled with leather bound books, all exactly the same, brown with black spines, each spine of which had a white piece of paper bound to it, held in place by, I think, rubber bands. It held the annals, no doubt, of this brotherhood, and it dated back centuries, to be sure. Validation from Valorous Ancestors indeed.

Now, honestly, these aren’t my brand of Brotherhood. But I do believe that I descend from a long line of another sort—that of the metaphysician of not mystic. And part of my vision of late, without getting too into it (although I did allude to it some months ago) is not to find but rather to be found, given validation, by some actual or loosely construed tradition of said ilk. It’s something I see happening, but something I know will elude me if I seek it. One cannot pledge to the type of Brotherhood I perceive myself a part of. It will or will not be revealed. I’ve had glimpses. But one must continue to mine, at the root level, ones own experience and continue the crystalization of ones own character and delve the depths of ones own psychology in order for there to be some flowering token of validation, as in the form of said lace handkerchief. And one cannot make such tribute the goal. The only goal of the root is to extract nutrient—the nature of the flowering depends upon it. The Penelope will reward The Odysseus when his journey is complete, meanwhile all the inherent battles are most assuredly within. On the esoteric level, where this oracle also, if not mainly “lives” Rudhyar has this to say:

‘”…the true “disciple” is the blossom that crowns a long series of incarnations.”

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An Aristocratic Family Tree is the Sabian Symbol at 14° Virgo, which, in my estimation (validated time and again) is ruled by the sign of Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence (of my own imposition). The thrust of this oracle is “the reliance upon the ancestral roots of individual character”. If you’ve checked out Stella Starsky’s American Baroness website then you will know that Nobility is a theme in our household. Never mind the fact that a recent genealogical test has linked Stella to Marie Antoinette, which, really, isn’t suprising anybody. And just today, on our drive into Boston, I said to Stella: “You know what would be fun, that used to be really tacky in the ’80s—to buy a title.” As it is, with Stella being a Baroness and all, that does make me a Baron. Now, a Scorpio-ruled Virgo oracle feels powerful, in so far as power, control and riches go together. Pluto, the god of the Underworld, planetary ruler and archetype of Scorpio, raped Kore, the maiden earth goddess, the virgin of the sign of Virgo, dragging her down into the depths (of what one can onlyimagine), whereupon she became Persephone whose Roman name is Proserpina from whence the word prosperity derives. That was a long sentence.

The word “roots” is also a Scorpion one, that life-bearing tangle reaching down into the earth. As a metaphor for ones subconscious, we know that’s where psychological phenomenon takes root. Trauma, for instance, impacts this part of ourselves. So that there is literal ancestry, our genealogical heritage, and there is the lineage of our experience, both of which have roots in the past and reside unseen (Pluto wore a cloak of invisibility which a friend of ours cleverly borrowed in the writing of her books) inside of us. This is always the Scorpion-ruled part of any experience, and of ourselves, which is why Scorpio governs the very chemistry of things, the table of elements, akin to minerals, which are also found deep in the earth, to it’s very core, a word that derives from dear Kore herself.

The power of which this oracle speaks is available to us, in times of crisis or decision, especially, has its roots in our past, whether it be our actual ancestry or in our experience which has developed our character, crystalized it. Like minerals—think of the literal Pluto, god not only of death but of riches—plutocracy means rule by the rich—whose riches are the gems—emeralds, diamonds, rubies, et al—which are literal crystalizations, created by pressurized elements, carbon to be exact, the basic element of all our particular planetary life forms; Scorpio is the fixed-water sign—and what is fixed water if not ice?—itself a crystalization. So you see, the roots of our experience, just as our inherited DNA, provides the building blocks of our personal power. Our purpose may be crystalized by breeding, like a dog is bred for the purpose of retrieving or rooting, like a terrier; or our purpose may be crystalized by the psychological experiences we’ve encountered along the way in life. Our resolve, fixed-water symbolizing a concentration of emotion, or our obsessions and compulsions, are all formed by our past experience, whether we sought it out or it happened to us, as in the case of trauma. Obsession. Compulsion, Power. Control. These are all Scorpio words. Our genes, our chemistry, these are all ruled by the sign, elements locked, frozen, into us like a scarab forever paralyzed in amber.

I have a Scorpio friend called Amber and I have not, until this very moment, realized how apt that is. The Scorpio female draws on that archetype of Persopehone who was Kore, the female archetype of Virgo. If you know your astrological symbology, then you know the sigils for Virgo and Scorpio are exact, an scripted M (for Mother Earth), the Virgo M curling back upon itself, creating a cross, a hymen if you will; whilst the Scorpio M scoops out at the end, with a sharp arrow, a stinger or tail, as that of a true scorpion or dragon. Persephone, like that scarab (a beetle is the closing thing we have to a scorpoion) is paralyzed, entranced when in the realm of the underworld—she is the maker you meet, the destroyer, the Kali. On the shadow side, Scorpio women bear that out. Anna Wintour? Hello. Dragon Lady. How she must hate that assignation, and how proud she must be of having earned it. Her experience has honed her—she is the most powerful personage in the world of fashion. So woop, woop (I guess).

I love what Dane Rudhyar has to say: “true spontaneity and creativity are alwasy bassed on a structured sequence of antecedents if they are at all geninely spiritual, i.e. if they are able to meet a collective need. Never thought of Anna Wintour as fulfilling a collective need but that is exactly what she does. Cue: Meryl Streep’s monologue on the color cerulean in The Devil Wears Prada. Scorpio people, living archetypes of the energy of that sign, most vividly portray that energy. And as Virgo is the sign of service, we see yet another connection between that sign and Scorpio in that Scorpio embodies the power of being in service. Marie Antoinette, also a Scorpio, may or may not have abused hers, but that is neither here nor there. Her power was inherited, as was Anna’s—one must come from a long line of experience at the very least in order to have earned ones sting. The actions required for meeting such a collective need might thus be considered “spiritual.”

“One returns to the roots in order to produce the flowering of personality, if this flower is to bring forth a living seed. ROOT POWER is essential to seed-achievement.”—Rudhyar

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A Powerful Statesman Over-Comes A State Of Political Hysteria is the Sabian Symbol at 13° Virgo, an image that is ruled by Libra in a twelve-fold sequence. Here the focus is on a collective need for order and structural interdepence embodying in the form of a personage that answers this need. How very Libra the call for order is; so, too, is the statesman, someone who rises, elected, from the democratic body, in contrast to the sun-king of two days before and the fecundating husband of yesterday, impregnating mother nature. Here today, the purpose of a cyclical nature clashes with the remains of the deconstructed past. Order isn’t automatic, although its need is pressing.

I think of Jimmy Carter, a Libra, and one of the best presidents our nation has ever known. Like Gandhi and Walesa (also Libras) he called for solidarity, but people couldn’t cope with the ruins they were living in—they hadn’t made peace with a deconstructed past and thus couldn’t embrace a new order of solidarity that didn’t allow them to remain spoiled brats. Even though he inherited said ruins from Nixon and Ford. Ford who pardoned Nixon apparently also pardoned my godfather uncle who may well have been a godfather in another sense. Who knows. I digress. Obama has inherited the ruins of Bush (and Cheney), you know those war criminals who are the true traitors in a system who condemns a hero such as Edward Snowden as one. Another digression. The point is, America didn’t want to conserve energy and pull together and adhere to some social order that could have weathered the chaos created by an evil, greedy past. In time, of course, the “weakling” Jimmy Carter is now revered as one of the strongest, kindest men in American history, and he is now facing his own mortality with the same grace and dignity as he did the troubles he encountered in his presidency, during which time, one might add, he brokered a great peace in the Middle East. I love Jimmy Carter. He has what Stella and I call “good babysitter syndrome”.

What we’re really seeing via this image, and the passage of time, is that eventually that character who inherits chaos and is typically scapegoated for it, like Carter and Obama—they ultimately emerge as the “divine father” of the society he helped structure. The character of the true statesman, something we all might emulate in our own life and dealings, is one of great charisma—a word akin to charity and the opposite of miasma. Charisma is defined, in basic terms as a charm (another Libran word) that inspires devotion from others. It is also “a divinely conferred power or talent”. Let us be, like the statesman in this oracle, like our dear Jimmy Carter, like all the Jimmy Carters and Gandhis in the world, divinely suffused with powers and talents for good. And lets let the real evildoers fall into the miasma of their own making.

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At Virgo 12°, also ruled by Virgo in a twelve-fold sequence we see: After The Wedding The Groom Snatches The Veil Away From His Bride. This unveiling is both literal and figuratively points to the exposure of mysteries. The Eleusian Mysteries were occult initiation rituals sacred to the goddesss Demeter and her daughter Kore cum Persephone, who is the Virgin of the sign of Virgo. The underworld god Hades (Pluto) snatches Kore and whisks her away to his dark realm—the famed Rape of Persephone. Demeter, distraught, causes the earth to go cold and barren until Zeus orders Kore/Persephone released. She has however eaten six (the number of Virgo) pomegranate seeds, the food of the underworld, and must spend half the year, as compromise, as Pluto’s queen. Her release each year brings the advent of Spring. Death and sex (mort and petit mort) fall under the same astrological rule as regeneration. The mother can give birth to the god-king; but she must be unveiled, her mysteries revealed. The Eleusian Mysteries, preserved in secrecy, are purposted to reveal a glimpse of the afterlife, to ensure some understand of the potential of eternity. Demeter is the divine mother, Kore her maiden form. By revealing, unveiling, raping her we get a glimpse of the eternal and the cyclic promise of regeneration instead of final death; just as the male reembodies via the act of sex and impregnation, planting the seed of his progeny, a literal reincarnation.

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In Her Baby A Mother Sees Her Deep Longing For A Son Answered is the Virgo 11° oracel. The birth of the son, or sun-king, suits Leo’s rule over this symbol in a twelve-fold sequence. The duality has not only been transcended it has produced a new entity, a young god of a new order, as each new child might be considered. The mother has dreamed the child into being, it is her offering, as potential savior, to the world. He embodies the dream, like a young King Arthur or David, all hope and promise has now been personified. We are that child, born anew each day, with the potential to be a new order, a new covenant, incarnate. We have emerged from our conflict and shadow, not just peeping our dualistic brains beyond the shadows of our past successes and failures; but now we must stand, fresh and new, and shine like the Sun. We are the promise to humanity and in us is formed the dreams of all mankind. We are the creative vision who must continue to fullfill the agency of creative visualization. This goes beyond dreaming, as Dane Rudyar, scholar of these symbols, tells us—this is about Imagineering, which is a combination of Imagining and Engineering and it is suddenly my new favorite word. It was the power of Imagineering that build Camelot. And it is the power of Imagineering that fuels any great creative act.

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At 10° Virgo, Two Heads Looking Out And Beyond The Shadows expresses our ability to see beyond the illusions of duality. Makes sense since the previous image was ruled by Gemini, signifying duality. This oracle would be ruled by Cancer in a twelve-fold sequence which helps us to re-pair our inner conflicts and oppositions. Opposites are really complementary aspects of the same experience, we know this from the so-called opposite signs in the Zodiac which are really upward spiraling aspects of one another. Cancer and its flood myths are about leaving that shadow land behind and landing on a new shore. A new source of manifestation is thus open to us. It is our own mind which casts the shadows on situations, a result of if-then, this-that, us-them thinking. Transcendence can be a self-propelled affair!

The symbol at 9° Virgo is An Expressionist Painter At Work. Unlike the previous oracle, which is about traditional modes, the child being initiated into culture via dance class, this next image image sees an adult making a break with tradition, expressing himself in a radical new and individualist form.We are seeking a sort of catharsis, an unearthing of originality in ourselves. We might think of abstraction as a destruction of form when it fact it might be more primal and essential representation of reality. We are seeking to tap into divine origin as well as our own originality. This oracle is ruled by Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence, a sign of duality that is hinged on our connection between the divine and mortal, emblemized by Castor and Pollux, the celestial twins.

A Five-Year-Old Child Takes A First Dancing Lesson is the symbol at 8° Virgo. It’s about learning to use one’s capacity for self-expression. It’s ruled by Taurus in a twelve-fold sequence, a sign that is all about latent potential and talent. The child is being initated into a cultural tradition. We might examine our early forays into socialized beheavior whereby we were expected to play assigned roles. There may or may not be skill or ability here, but that isn’t the issue. The point is to begin cementing the self into the social dance. This may come in handy in logistical terms. We might have an ease and less social anxiety as a result of having been socialized early.

I really am loving these Virgo oracles. What other sign would you expect to find A Harem? At 7° of The Virgin, this sybol is ruled by the masculine sign of Aries. Dane Rudhyar describes the keynote thusly: A fateful (even sought after) subservience to the vagaries or desires of emotional nature. Subservience? Vagaries? Desires? Emotional Nature? Virgo, Virgo, Virgo, Virgo, Virgo. Not to mention the fact that the Zodiac’s Virgin is, like Mary Magdalene and the Vestal Virgins, sacred whores, divine vessels; and, really, so are we all. The sexual and the divine are meant to be linked; it’s we who have allowed them to be separated, mostly, by a shame based patriarchal society.

There was an acting teacher called Bill Esper—I wonder if he’s still around. I remember he was famous for getting actors, both men and women, to access their vaginas. Remember, the Virgin of the Zodiac is called Kore, from whom the word core derives. And we all have a real or metaphoric hoo-ha—you might say this is a yoniversal fact. In the spirit of ye olde yin and yang, the power of passivity can be quite strong indeed, and enduring, while aggression, which happens in a burst, isn’t always sustainable. How did Betty White put it? Oh yeah: ‘”Why do people say ‘grow some balls”? Balls are week and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” Such a great quote, that.

Yesterday a bunch of people were on a merry-go-round all objectively seeking to grab that brass ring. Today it’s the opposite. We have a bunch of concubines all seeking to attract the attention of the one swinging sultan. In either case we find a group of individuals all going for the same goal. Yesterday we used our skill and mastery, today we werque our charms. The former image can show that on this careening carousel called life we may become obsessed with goals and winning; and this one tells us that we can also become addicted, a slave, to the attention we receive from others, if not sex itself. There is a compulsive shadow-side to both images. Here it manifests, potentially, as a vacancy if not a vacuum effect of waiting for some other to show us that attention. Yeah, let’s not do that.

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