At 10° Aquarius we encounter A Man Who Had For A Time Become The Embodiment Of A Popular Ideal Is Made To Realize That As A Person He Is Not This Ideal. Bummer. This symbol is ruled by Capricorn in a 12-fold sequence which can portray a backsliding, dissident energy, just as it expresses a stickler, throwback one. Saturn rules Capricorn and that planet’s namesake god is a deposed figure who used to rule a golden age, no longer doing so. Capricorn men in particular can be a bit been-there-done-that, jaded, even dour and dejected. Meanwhile the sign of Aquarius, which boasts many a guru gone bad, can take that fixed-air status of the sign (an inalienable ideal) and personify it only to realize that human imperfection will see one fall short of sustaining said ideal.

This holds true in all our perceptions. Who among us has projected our notions about others onto them, expecting them to live up to the ideal (that flag we saw flying in the previous symbol), not taking into account their all-too-human natures. If someone ever puts me on a pedestal, I for one will be sure to knock down that expectation, for better or for worse. And typically I have a hard time with individuals who would have you identify them with some image or high principle. Right away I pull out a pin and start to bust their balloons.

People do this sort of thing, especially, in love where they expect an individual to fill a void in their lives. In Tarot, the Star card depicts the water bearer—a star is the perfect expression of the sign’s fixed-air signature. And so we have seen the female archetype of the stellar (but descending) goddess in such characters as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and Estelle in Great Expectations. Great Expectations indeed; whether of others or of ourselves—this is where the disconnect between who we are and whom we are meant to be becomes more gappy. The star on the big screen isn’t what is projected.

This degree in astrology might point to a potential to experience a high point of popularity that will have a shelf life with which to be reckoned. This is very much a theme of our male Capricorn chapter in Sextrology called The Stickler. Capricorn, like his archetypal god, Saturn, is typically wistful for a time in the past; yes, it might be some golden age in which he didn’t even live; but it will also apply to a period of his own young life. Golden years, Go-oh-old, wah wah wah. Capricorn David Bowie knew what we were talking about. As did J.D. Salinger’s young characters all of whom had problems with modern life and the phoniness it presented.

On the subject of one’s own fleeting popularity, it has the same pattern as trauma. It isn’t about the golden era of one’s ubiquitous celebrity, nor is about the downpoint or fall that one might be experiencing in the present; rather it is how one negotiates the gap between those two experiences. Fame, popularity, like all tangible terrestrial things, are ephemeral and the understanding of that should direct us toward putting our faith in that which might be eternal. In simpler, earthier terms, what can we learn about ourselves and our character, what is the takeaway, from a period of popularity after that spate has ended. We must reevaluate ourselves. We must justify the difference between who we are and the archetype we projected which, really, might just be an element of self, a most popular one, captured in the wax like those figures in the Sabian symbol from two days hence.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A Flag Is Seen Turning Into An Eagle at Aquarius 9°. The first thing that comes to mind is the myth of Ganymede, an Aquarian archetype, the male cup bearer to the gods. He was raped by Zeus who took his totem form of Eagle, swooping down to pick up this beauiful boy then installing him on Olympus, replacing his own daughter, Hebe, in the job of cup bearer. This sign is ruled by Sagittarius in a twelve-fold sequence and it is quite similar to the symbol at 12° Sagittarius, where a chanticleer also turned into an eagle. Unlike the crowing cock, the flag is an inanimate symbol, and its transformation into an eagle expresses the vitalization of a symbol into a power to be reckoned with. After the previous symbol of wax figures, we have moved beyond the representation of new archetypes to merely inspire us; now the symbol takes life and flight. I don’t know about you but I’m just about ready for this sort of thing to happen.

 

Aquarius is the sign of the freak flag and letting it fly. We all have a symbol standard to wave, some auspice under which we are an expression of new order. Freedom and expansion are keynotes of Sagittarius, too. Indeed no two signs in the zodiac are so outré, and the main archetype of Sadge is Jupiter/Zeus himself. Perhaps the myth of Ganymede is about embracing a bit of Aquarian diversity in oneself—the sign rules same sex along with all other so-called deviations from and mutations on the norm. It feels like more than a coincidence that the rainbow flag is an emblem here when Iris, goddess of the rainbow, is one of the sign’s key female archetypes as well. As a rule, the Aquarian male includes many a fit and lucious lad, many gymnasts and swimmers being born under the sign. The replacement of Hebe by Ganymede also expresses a changing of the guard, a new era, and perhaps one with a little shock value. What we stand for (the flag) spreads its wings and soars to new heights, elevating our own consciousness and that of those around us. We not only have a new standard of value, we are acting on it. “The seer becomes the doer,” says Dane Rudhyar, Sabian specialist, who tages this symbol “Acting Out.” If only he knew the multiple entendres that now carries.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I fell of the Blague wagon again, oh no! Well it has been a busy couple of days. Fun, rewarding days. But I’ve been burning the two ended candle and now I’m in bed catching up. So at Aquarius 8° we have Beautifully Gowned Wax Figures On Display and it’s meant to inspire us. No really. These figures are “exemplars”, representatives of the archetypes of a new culture. Of course what sign other than Scorpio would rule a spooky symbol with wax-works. We are being shown new forms and ways of social interaction. The figures are impersonal, very fitting for the detached sign of Aquarius. The figures are heralds of a new order, just as the archetypes of Aquarius, like Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, also brings that same good news. That’s all I’m going to say about this. It’s not a deep symbol.

Copyright 2015 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.