Both the signs of Cancer and Capricorn draw on the archetypal power of Moses, Cancer on the baby Moses flowing down that cardinal-water river, and Capricorn on the adult Moses scaling that cardinal-earth mountain. Today’s Sabian symbol at Pices 22°, ruled by the sign of Cancer in a twelve-fold sequence is A Prophet Carrying Tablets Of The New Law Is Walking Down The Slopes Of Mount Sinai. Like yesterday where we saw a little girl playing with a lamb perhaps resaging the sacrifice of Mary and her little lamb of god, Jesus, here we have the inverse image of the end-game of the Moses story in a Cancer-ruled image, that sign being ruled by the Moon (the mother principle) just as Moses is sent down the river from one mother to another, not to mention the sign of Cancer’s association with Egypt, the Nile, Isis, Horus and the entire estate which forms the setting of Moses early life. In a sense we are seeing a prophesy of a prophet who never saw the future but whom was visited upon by God. But there is another connection: The water imagery of the river in the Moses story, of “deliverance” is the seed-thought of his delivering the Jews out of Egypt where water again plays a great role in the parting of the Red Sea, being delivered into the Promised Land. And the story of Noah, too, is set in water-world and is likewise a story of deliverance, and promise—taking up the baton of yesterday’s oracle’s energy of hope. Whether we are looking at Noah’s Ark or Moses’ Ark of the Covenant, they both carry the dictionary definition of that word in that it means: promise.

Cancer’s ruler Moon and the mother principle have deliverance inherent in their cosmic power—the moon waxes and wanes, the tides ebb and flow, we may be at sea but ultimately wash ashore. It’s why we have the end-story of Moses comin’ down the mountain with his list of commandments (Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler, governs rules and restrictions). The seed, embryo, fetus child, the proverbial bun in the Pisces womb/tomb oven is already encoded with its destiny. This is the mystery of astrology really. Clients come to us and we can tell them about life events that occured over their thus-far existence and they look at us, often slack jaw, with a cartoon bubble of “How did you know” over their heads. Well we do know how (by reading the person’s chart) though we don’t know why it is that we can see not only the nature but the nurture in an individuals natal astrology chart. But we do know to trust our interpretation and, really we are never any less suprised, thrilled, awe-struck than the client is by the accuracy of interpretation. Prophesy is inherent in all of us. We all will fulfill a destiny (sometimes with a little prodding or proper guidance) that was already spelled out in the spirtual dna as determined by the alignment of the stars. The metaphysical notion being that we chose our moment of birth to fulfill whatever that destiny points to. It’s one theory anyway.

What is Moses doing here? He’s bringing down to the human level the revelations of his peak (mountain) experience. Just as Jesus later does, Moses here is bringing a new version of the religion to the people. What does re-ligion mean? To re-link. A new covenant. It all lines up you see. We have New Rules (Bill Maher is a Capricorn by the way) but more than that, new rituals to work into a collective new design for living. The revelation will be ritualized. It’s personal and it’s practicable. This new ark is a vehicle, just like Noah’s, for deliverance (from evil, Amen). Stella and I have always thought that the Ten Commandments (she’s a Capricorn, too, the tenth sign incidentally) were a bit heavy handed. That maybe Moses might have done better in calling them the Ten Suggestions or Ten Tips but hey, he was a pretty heavy handed character as Capricorns tend to be.

Dane Rudhyar believes this symbol to be hinged on the question: What to do with your revelations and how to fulfill the mandate therein. I don’t agree. I think it’s deeper than that and goes back to the experience pre-birth. So I would re-phrase the question: How can we fulfill our preordained destiny(s)? First we need to isolate what it is or they are. I think the revelation might not be an event that happens at a later stage in life, on some moutain top, turning your hair white. I think the revelation is encoded inside all of us along with the mandate and the events of our lives, like Mother floating Moses down stream in hopes someone would find him, play a magical-mundane part because all actions are predetermined, in the larger sense. We all have a mandate and I find that it is typically our so-called weaknesses that determine what our strongest mandates are. Moses grew up walking like an Egyptian but he was found out to be a lowly Jew, which was, in this context, the ultimate weakness. So he didn’t just suck it up, he wore that assignation and made it his destiny to deliver not only himself but all his people from the bonds of human inequality. So, what are you doing?

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Under The Watchful And Kind Eye Of A Chinese Servant, A Girl Fondles A Little White Lamb is the arguably the weirdest symbol yet perhaps at 21° Pisces, ruled by the sign of Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence. It’s also super synchronic, because, as Sabian scholar points out “the white lamb suggests the sign of all beginnings, Aries.” And not only does today begin the countdown to the astrological new year, starting again with 0° Aries, but I am deep into writing the show-seminar-salon for our new Zodiac Club which will be a year-long monthly event in NYC, and I was just connecting the lamb of Easter with the lamb of God with the lamb, baby Ram, of Aries.

The “Chinese servant”, I was just reading, speaks to a belief in occult tradition: that the original Chinese race was an extension of the “root race” which preceded our own—which sounds super racist to this modern metaphysician. In this vein, the Chinese servant represents the past incarnation of humanity serving a newly evolved one. The little girl and her lamb are one and the same. They are the new incarnation. If Pisces represents the womb tomb via which new life is (re-)incarnated then we might imagine that, with each individual new birth, the species as a whole is evolving, one individual at a time. That is unless you’re born into the Duck Dynasty family, no intentional nod to either ducks no dynasties in light of the Chinese-y element of this sign.

The whiteness is significant, not only in its symbolic representation of purity, but in its racist form, too, I believe. These symbols were divined at a time of pervasive racial in equality and I’m sad to think that their divination didn’t escape a certain racism. The girl is fondling her lamb. It is a very tactile image. Gemini rules the nerves and the arms and hands, befitting its rule by Mercury, named for the dexterous, nimble god with his infamous slights of hand. The duality of old and new, and the racial divide herein, the servant and master divide, all speak to the Twins own dichotomy. Children also fall under the rule of Gemini’s third house, the god Mercury never aging past adolescence, the model for Puck, Peter Pan and other figures that never grow up. Donald Trump is a Gemini of course. Oh, and a racist, so…

This symbol is all about what is to come. The turn of the cosmic wheel into the sign of sign of Aries is imminent; the new messiah, symbolized by the lamb, is always threatening return—and we are nigh on Easter when we sacrifice and serve that little lamb for din-din—and motherhood might eventually come for the little girl whose affection for the lamb presages that probability. Mainly, this is an oracle of hope which, as the old adage goes, springs eternal. And we are just now ten days away from that natural occurance of rebirth and renewal. So let us hug or slaughter a lamb, depending on whether or not your on the Paleo diet.

Like the symbol we found in Pisces so-called opposite sign of Virgo somewhere—the two signs are really quite alike and natural septaves of each other hinged on the like notionsof Virgo (service) and Pisces (sacrifice)—this is all very Mary had a little lamb which, in view of Jesus as the lamb of god, she most certainly did. We know what’s coming in that story: Mary must sacrifice Jesus which, in a certain light, might be seen as finishing the job that Abraham never did with Isaac, whereby a lamb was slaughtered instead. That little girl in the image might be lovingly caressing her little lamb now but, come Easter, she might be dipping it in mint jelly.

Mary and Jesus are the biblical archetypes of Pisces—the Jesus Fish plus Mary’s blue gown fringed in white is the sea fringed in foam, that frothy stuff being the primordial “mutable-water” soup from whence (we all but as myth has it) Aphrodite emerged, the foam being ejaculated, rained down from above, by Uranus from whom we derive the word urine. Aphrodite, the great sea goddess, is also called Mari. The original fish of Pisces were dolphins, the animal totems whose form Aphrodite and her son Eros would take, tied one to the other by an umbilical cord, the womb aspect of Pisces here portrayed. Eros is the oldest of the gods and yet he is also Aphrodite’s eternal babe. He is the god of Love. Eros is love, Jesus is love. Mari is Mari. God takes triplicate form, father (the oldest of the gods) and son (eternally youthful) and, originally mother that was changed to spirit. The trident of Neptune, namesake of Pisces ruler, depicts the triple god(dess). Pass that jelly.

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The sign of Pisces and its native twelfth house are beyond the so-called realities of the material world, which is why they are associated with transcendence. Neptune’s dissolution energy, akin to the mutable-water assignation of Pisces, dissolves our notion of matter into its true reality of pure energy. The ultimate paradox of Pisces being that the real world isn’t and the unseen (call it spiritual if you will, or energetic) world is the truer reality. That most of us are asleep to this fact and enlightenment entails waking unto the dream—this is Nirvana. Anyway. We get a glimpse of that element of Pisces today by way of its collusion with Taurus, which rules this Pisces symbol in a twelve-fold sequence. A Table Set For An Evening Meal greets us at 20° Pisces. And after yesterday’s disciplined, if not arduous, instruction by the “master” we now find some asylum (Pisces) to enjoy some sustenance and relaxation (Taurus). We have put in our effort such that at the end of our day this respite will be provided us. One might extend this as a metaphor for the fullness of our lifespan—that after a years upon years of work and active social participation, we might be afforded the comfort of some caretaking. Though, if you’re American, you will have bloody well have had to afford yourself such.

On the spiritual level, I believe what this oracle says is that, if you lead a dedicated life, like the disciple to the master (which can translate to any dedication to a purposeful existence where your actions don’t hurt or obstruct others but hopefully benefit them) then we will be provided for, without fear of going without. And the “evening” element of this oracle hits home the fact that this might be beyond the twilight of our years. On an even more esoteric level, we can extend this metaphor further to include the notion that after a series of lifetimes of dedication we might be offered the ultimate savasana, that of release from the cycle of life and death and, at long last, find we’ve been give a seat at the table with other such enlightened beings of the Buddha set who have become pure spirit and no longer (even chose to, as some might do) reincarnate. In another spiritual model, the “evening” might signal the end of all days where material, earthly existence as we now know it ceases to be and, had we lived a good life (or lives) we will now find spiritual infite sanctuary “which renews and amply sustains” beyond the limits of time and space. The Pisces and Taurus energies here combine in this scene which portrays the soul-consciousness finding nourishment. It is the fulfillment of whatever we endeavored. We are enjoying the harvest of that which is our archetypal purpose and our soul destiny.

(We’re in the last breaths of Pisces so what did you expect? some frivolous notions?)

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Those who know me know that Autobiography of a Yogi is one of my top one favorite books. Those who’ve read this Blague since the beginning know I am slightly obsessed with the notion of stumbling upon a “master” in my travels, something that happened a couple of times in my youth, when I wasn’t perhaps ready to receive whatever was on offer. And for the past several nights, dealing with a terrible cold and congestion, I’ve been falling asleep to the film Awake which chronicles the life of Yogananda and it really soothed me between coughing jags. So happy am I to find that A Master Instructing His Disciple is the Sabian Symbol at 19° Pisces, which deals with the transfer of power and knowledge, which keeps the original spiritual and creative Impulse of the cycle active and undeviated. We think of this as a Hindu thing maybe but, as Dane Rudhyar reminds us, even the Roman Catholic Church has a tradition of “Apostolic succesion.” This is how the power and archetypal knowledge is released from the dawn of time until the end.

It’s funny because, as much as I want to receive more knowledge and specifically via this means of transmission which, in Sanskrit is called guruampara, I’m also in the process of being the purveyor, in a sense—not to any one being but via a rather showbizzy presentation we are planning to begin the very day this cycle of writing on the subject of the Sabian Symbols is complete. Strange that. I have long wanted to stage a year-long event whereby, at least, monthly I would explore the landscape of each of the particular signs/houses of the Zodiac to illumine for people, the comsic power encoded in each of the twelve slices of the astrological pie. Speaking of pie, Chris Christie just popped on the television (I have the sound off) and it is obvious, by his appearance (though one would never have known it) that he must have been doing his version of dieting during the campaign because since pulling out (I hate to use that phrase anywhere near talking about Christie) he has blow up. He’s blown the ef up. He is lifting a bottle of water to his lips and he has to reach around his torso. Sorry that was quite a tangent.

Anyway. I need to get onto my own Spring diet. Which sort of brings me back to this image. I think about Yoda as the ultimate personal trainer for Luke Skywalker. I think about the Karate Kid. I think about Grasshopper and his master in Kung Fu. This one-to-one inheritance, imparting of knowledge and skill. Being singled out by some master who might say he’s waiting for you and putting yourself completely in service to the instruction. It all fits the landscape of the sign of Aries which rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence: The goal orientation. The transcendence of the ego and yet the acceptance of being the chosen one. The paradox of achieving enlightenment, becoming an exalted being means the trampling that e-word into the dust. The selflessness required in self-actualization. Buddha was an Aries. Hopefully one needn’t follow his particular diet in the awakening of the mind.

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In A Gigantic Tent, Villagers Witness A Spectacular Performance. This is the Sabian Symbol at 18° Pisces, the keynote or which is the collective appeal of a well-staged and exciting display of skill and/or oratory. Visions of circuses dancing in your not-withstanding, I think the more accurate interpretation of this “spectacular” is that of some kind of a revival meeting of the Elmer Gantry kind. That said, there is a carnival element intrinsic in that in any case. My mind goes to that meandering ill-fated HBO series in the earlier days of new television, Carnivale, which actually had both themes going simultaneously, focusing on a traveling occult band of circus folk and also some demonically possessed preacher and his sister-wife staging said revivalist meetings. All set in the same era, it would seem, as Frank L. Baum’s Oz (not to be confused with that same-named other HBO show of the time).

Now it is no surprise to this wizard that this Pisces oracle is ruled by Pisces in a twelve-fold sequence. Pisces and the twelfth house is not only concerned with the spiritual but the non-material, that is to say both the energetic, mystical or indeed magical elements of life but also that which (now you see it now you don’t) is kept hidden from view—the discarded and dispossesed elements of life including people, those who live on the fringes, the freaks and pariahs and the lost souls who, aha!, can be found, you see. This is the link between the outcast freaks who must go from town to town eeking out a living as oddities and amusement, aborted by mainstream society like so many side-show attractions—the siamese twins, the bearded lady, the giant, the midget, the pinhead, the wolf boy (but enough about my family)—who, whilst following their own caravan of nightmares might happen upon a different kind of bigtop, a revivalist tent gigantic enough to welcome, yes, even them.

Jesus, a main archetype of Pisces, didn’t eat his school lunch at the popular table, despite the fact he was super hot; he hung out on the fringes with the lepers and the lame and the prostitutes and the destitute, all the discarded entites of society expressing, embodying the notion that his fathers heavenly house had many mansions, one for each and every freak, geek and groovy ghoulie. America is supposed to be likewise Christlike, no? Give us your poor and your downtrodden and your huddled masses yearning to be free? Or as Trump calls them: Housekeeping and Room Service. If only. Yeah don’t get me started on that Geminian bafoon. I’d laugh at him if he weren’t so ridiculously dangerous. But I digress and you get the idea: The notion that some have interpreted this image as a circus while I see it as a spirits-raising points to one of many perfect Pisces paradoxes on the theme of the meek being the true inheritors of the earth whilst the rich and powerful tend to be shit out of luck when it comes to spirituality and getting through that eye of a needle, being a camel, and not finding themselves on the losing end of the karmic stick once this particular life is over in a blink of an eye.

Meanwhile the religious fundementalist is the most vivid of clowns who, from antiquity, were sacred funerary priests themselves put into place to scare away the more evil spirits when the tribe was collectively courting the entrance of the divine. Really what would be more shocking or extreme to witness: a bunch of little people pouring out of a funnycar? or a gather of people shaking and frothing at the mouth and speaking in tongues because the holy spirit has entered their bodies? Tough call. In either case the preacher or some other ring leader is seeking to whip the audience or congregation into a heightened state of enthusiasm of not an ecstatic one. And whether we are trying to forget our daily troubles or wash away a lifetime full of sin, what goes on under the bigtop lifts, if not separates us. We can transcend the mundane via the magic or the mystical experience.

Just as yesterday’s Easter image pointed to our own sense of resurrection, now we might turn around and see if we can rebirth those around us. Or at least join together with others for some public self-dramatization, bringing together the capital I individual with some collective or congregation whereby strengthening communal spirit.

We have entertained the notion of attuning ourselves to the natural cycle of things, aligning our being with the nature-cosmos, now we want to do that same thing whilst connecting ourselves, spiritually, to others, bonding over wonders that are typically kept hidden from our eyes, paying no mind to the man behind the curtain who might be pulling the levers and the strings. We aren’t concerned with the mechanics, just the magic they create, for the end in this might very well justify the means. And then some. I’ll let you ponder that but be advised, I’m not sure I meant what it is you think I might have said. As I wrote that last sentence, I suddenly felt like Willy Wonka which is yet another ringleader with a top hat and a big-top and many attractions on offer all for the express purpose of offering the most humble soul the keys to the kingdom. We all have a golden ticket.

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That seer Elsie Wheeler who divined the Sabian Symbols without knowing which dates to which they would be assigned, simply reacting to a blank card being held up to her (she was legally blind) with the date secretly written on the back. So not only to we amaze at the naturally order with which these symbols unfold, one after the other, but sometimes we get an literal hit. Like today, at Pisces 17°, we find An Easter Parade which is an event that falls around this time of year, typically, hinged between the sign of Pisces and Aries, which we enter in just a few weeks. The keynote here is the capacity inherent in all great sociocultral Images to unite the members of a community in a display of excellence. And for reals, Easter is the most potent holiday in the Christian calendar a celebration of resurrection and rebirth which, of course, could only happen in the ensuing Spring. How Sundayish.

Easter’s energy of resurrection metaphorically inspires all of us to be new and our best selves. Even I, posh pagan that I am, have thought in the past that I might start going to church the Sunday after Easter, starting a full year of service, just for the fun of it. And then I thought, screw that, I’ll just start writing this Blague with 0° Aries, on the Equinox which is like the (astrological) new year and Easter mashed together—it’s no accident that Jesus’ ressurrection, for which there is no actual date, but a revolving one, hovers around the equinox in any case. So the spirit is the same: to reemerge from death (the winter) and reveal oneself to be a more transcendent being than one has previously been. In that context we understand all the recent, previous images and their lead up, with pilgrimages, to some shangri-la Nirvana experience of being welcomed into some host or brotherhood of light-beings.

This symbol is ruled by Aquarius in a twelve-fold sequence which totally makes sense, since that sign is all about reveals and revelations. We have drawn back Salome’s veil to reveal a world beyond the limits of life and death. Yesterday’s creative in his study created a sacred space for visitation whereby to achieve certain immortality via his creation—any links to “Lazurus” Capricorn David Bowie seeking to be risen from the dead not withstanding, but the/his connection is not lost on us here. We are urged, today, to dynamize ourselves in some kind self-renewal in response to the mythos, whether it be a christian, pagan (nature-based) or pop one. For me, it is about embodying the sprouting seed, which might yet need to push away a few pebbles, boulders to the little sprout, like those rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb, while being as yet not quite at the surface of Spring; but think about the infinite number of sprouts (all of which have their own spirits—yes I do believe that) currently pushing those giant pebbles out of their path toward revealing themselves anew, having lived a different life as a different plant of shoots, leaves and flowers last year.

This Symbol is an essential reminder of the value of attuning one’s life activities and moods to the ritualistic patterns of nature-cosmos, both as an individual and as a member of a healthy society or group. This is exactly the theme of, well all we do under the aegis of Starsy + Cox but especially what I’ve been doing here, on my own, day by day with the Cosmic Blague and what Stella and I will be doing live each month, starting at 0° Aries on the Spring Equinox in our live appearances at The Zodiac Club at Sid Gold’s in New York, presenting what will monthly events, hinged to the start of each sign—part show, part seminar, part salon—whereby we will unlock the wisdom of the Zodiac, focusing in turn on each cosmic energy represented by the astrological signs and houses, and empower and guide you with that energy at the time of year when it is best to do so, so that by the time we get to Spring Equinox a year later you will have emerged a cosmically energized being, ressurected and transcendent, firing on all cosmic cylinders, which is tantamount to leading a literally 360° experience of life. Who says we can’t share in a peak experience? And who says that experience can’t last a lifetime? Not I.

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Sometimes life is so meta or, given the name of the next Sabian Symbol, I’m willing to delude myself in this. At Pisces 16° the image is: In The Quiet of His Study A Creative Individual Experiences A Flow Of Inspiration, the keynote of which is reliance upon one’s inner source of inspiration or guidance. It seems, having entered the second half of Pisces—only fifteen blague entries remain for this first year—we are finally getting to a themetic place I would have inspected given this Pisces sign of introspection. Pisces is all about the triple goddess (in triplicate) the nine Muses whose mother Mnemosyne stands as a major female archeytpe of the sign, as do her many daughters. Though Pisces rules the feet, in opposite-facing Fish paradox, we also find it concerns the workings and issues of the brain. Many a Pisces woman, for instance, has had brain issues, from Liza to Sharon Stone to Elizabeth Taylor to Sandy Duncan. Mneumosyne is the goddess of memory, the fog of which seems to envelop the Pisces female, especially.

(You know I just thought of something. Where as yesterday was such a male experience with the officers and soldiers, ruled by Sagittarius in a twelve-fold sequence, and today we encounter the “flow of inspiration” which is Muse-given and female in nature—I will have to look back to check this—but it might be that the odd-numbered Sabian Symbols are male orientated while the even-ones a female-related. I will recherche—French, for research which would imply, one has already searched….to research would mean to go back, as into memory. Meta, meta, meta—meanwhile I like the notion, all things being equal.)

Mneumosyne, from whose name we get the word mneumonic, presided over an eponymous pool (how Pisces) in the underworld whose powers were antithetical to that of the Lethe spring also in the realm of Hades. One drank from the Lethe to forget one’s past lives before reincarnation; whilst drinking from the Mneumosyne would allow you to remember past lives. Let’s just say that all the bases were covered in ancient theology and none of the concepts we grapple with today are new. If only all of us had the power of Mneumosyne, we might realize that hers is a collective, just as it is a personal, realm. Incidently, she slept with Zeus for nine consecutive nights which is why she gave birth to nine daughters, never a son. Do we need more illustration of the inner world inspiration being considered that of the feminine? I think we do not. It is the proverbial she who inspires. I’m going to miss writing about these symbols.

Describing an inspired time of creative output we do use the word flow which is endemic to the water realm, Pisces, the Fish, being a creature who goes with the stream. Yet we cannot discount the fact that the flow will not happen to everyone. The figure in this image is “a creative individual”; I believe everyone can be thus, but not everyone is. Being creative or putting ourselves in a place, set apart, to be creative is meeting the muse half way. The source of inspiration might be coming from above or beyond (very Pisces) but it is also in and around the creator, “every genius merely record[ing] an answer to the needs of his time.” I don’t know if it was a well-worn path of understanding when these symbols first emerged: what we know commonly know, as the act of creation, happening through us rathery than by us. Still, we credit the individual for the song they wrote or the part they played in a movie, focusing as much if not more on how much they physically weigh and what they’re wearing on the red carpet of an awards ceremony where they might be honored for that creation. It’s so difficult to live in so self-conscious a world. And I dare say it would be difficult not to think about the accolades that might be heaped upon you, in this day and age, while in the process of creation which requires courting a muse. But having made the acquaintance of at least one daughter of Mneumosyne, and I think she would speak for all of them, these goddesses not only don’t care about red-carpet accolades, they eschew them as vilely fatuous.

This symbol is ruled by Capricorn in a twelve-fold sequence and my mind immediately goes to J.D. Salinger who courted his muses privately and created work that he either destroyed or, as we know, will now be released this year in 2016. He has disallowed any of his work to be made into films or theater pieces (for as long as his will will hold out). David Bowie, Capricorn, was similarly post-humous in his thinking, and pretty much always, never creating works designed to win. To keep the relationship pure with this muse or that one must sacrifice the notion of fame or fortune, even if one has already experienced it. For, accolades are empty and awards, hollow. The only reward comes from the doing; and the best process of doing is that flow referred to in the image; and what the flow is is: the match of one’s skill with a slightly challenging project that might be championed by the muse-personification of inspiration in the doing.

Dane Rudhyar shimes in here to say that the watchword of this image is Faith in one’s Subjective Strength. Capricorn’s cardinal-earth power is synonomous with Faith. The creative has Faith that in his creation of a state of quiet solitude and concentration (planet Saturn’s power of retreat and restriction and self-preservation) which will provide the correct atmosphere for inspiration. We cannot be inspired if we are constatly putting out fires or exposed to the noisy goings on of our daily lives or society at large. We most enter our study, real or metaphoric. Nowadays, it might entail putting on some noise-cancelling headphones to sit at the local cafe or at a shared table at our WeWork space, but it is still possible to create that retreat and reservoir of energy and resource from whence our inspiration might rear her lovely head.

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An Officer Instructing HIs Men Before A Simulated Assault Under A Barrage of Live Shells brings us half way to the end mark of the final sign of this Zodiac year at 15° Pisces. Our dear Sabian Symbol scholar Dane Rudhyar suggests that this oracle portrays the need for rehearsing before any complex and inherently dangerous social ritual in which power is used or evoked. I’m a big believer in rehearsal myself, but it doesn’t always utterly prepare you, although it never hurts. Here we are mainly preparing for a confrontation with a superpersonal group of/or occult power, as pointed to in previous symbols. Conflict is always to be expected, whether in a social context or along hte occult journey. And so one must prepare for it, staging drills or simulations.

Dane Rudhyar says that the struggle we encounter might be against “the ghosts of the unfulfilled past” or “unlived life”—most of you know what I’m talking about. Weirdly, I hapeen to know a lot of people who are completely fulfilled in that they are living the lives they’ve pretty much wanted but that has its own struggles because that doesn’t necessarily head pain or depression off at the pass either. The struggle against an unfulfilled past could mean not having the career you wanted or the family life you wanted or the love life you wanted or the life of health you wanted. Or the struggle could be in confronting some pent up or ignored karma, which might be the umbrella term for all of the above. Dane Rudhyar makes this interesting point with which I’m not sure where he’s going except to link it to the title of this oracle. He says: “Pisces refers to a period in the year during which many generals and admirals have been born. The rules of the game, at least in tradition forms of warfare can be known. ONe may have to rhears the dangerous play, just as our astronauts endlessly reheared every stepi in the moon landings.” Seriously I don’t know what he’s talking about but I do think it interesting that generals and admirals are born in Pisces….I would have said they were born in March (named for Mars the god of war) but in the sign of Aries, late March, not Pisces.

Anyway, that was a tangent. I am looking at the fact that Sagittarius rules this image in a twelve-fold sequence and the only link I can really make here is that signs rule over big-brotherhoods (in contrast to it’s opposite sign of Gemini’s rule over small brotherhoods and boon companions). Sagittarius rules the Patriarchy, big old boys, and larger networks of male dominated mileux like the weird secret elite male-only hunting socieites like St. Hubertus wherein Scalia kicked the bucket. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, named for the chief god (Greek: Zeus) who gave birth to his “twice born” son Dionysus who was rescued from his mother’s womb, after Juno/Hera showed her full radiance and set Semele, his mother, on fire—Sagittarius is the mutable fire sign and it points to Jupiter’s unpredictable lightning just as it does to the power goddess Juno’s blinding and burning radiance—Jupiter, sewing the fetus into his thigh (the body part ruled by Sagittarius) in which to completely gestate the young god. So the father gives birth to the son, taking on the goddess’s natural estate; and Dionysus emerges, literally, as a male nature god, further coopting the realm of the mother/nature. The world of admirals and generals and their soldier sons thus falls under the heading of this male-only environment and experience.

In the simulation suggested by this image, soldiers will practice being sacrificed like pawns. The mental state in which one must put themselves in order to give their lives for the totality of the male whole or big-brotherhood is one of total dedication and devotion to the whole, wherein one’s individual part or ego must be laid down. Metaphorically, we see the individual sacrificing his ego to the larger organic body of the Brotherhood. This signals ultimate integration. There may be personal valor in the sacrifice but the value is certainly on the group.

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A Lady Wrapped In A Large Stole of Fux Fur is the Pisces 14° image. The fox is the key element here, symbolically clever, subtle and cunning. It signals any ability to adapt to most conditions and situations. Whereas the sword, yesterday, portrayed the individual will as a conduit for the divine, the fox stole is more of a protective, sheilding image. We are meeting the inclemencies of actual weather but also that of a psychic nature, something to which we open ourselves. This brings us to the Scorpio rulership, in a twelve-fold sequence, of this symbol. Whereas the idealogical sword of the previous Libran oracle speaks to the imposition of the will, here must defend against certain psychic possession, of a vampiric nature, which is the part of the Scorpion estate. That sign is concerned with possession on the energetic level—just as its so-called opposite sign of Taurus is hinged on material possessions. Scorpio wishes to get under your skin. It is subversive and subliminal and it can take a near exorcism to rid oneself of the hold it can have. Scorpion people, as a rule, infiltrate the minds of those around them—it is all about control. And so the initiate seeks to protect herself, at that very vulnerable point of entry around the neck and throat, with some form of animal (instinctual) shield, like that of Athena’s aegis. The true meaning of putting on ones glamour was to activate a psychic shield of sorts, to switch on an impenetrable power. I don’t know about you but I do it all the time.

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An Ancient Sword, Used In Many Battles, Is Displayed In A Museum is the Sabian Symbol at Pisces 13°. It points to a consecrated man, through effectual use of his will, becoming a symbol of courage for those who follow. Fittingly this oracle is ruled by Libra in a twelve-fold sequence as becoming a symbol is what the sign is all about—as the only abstract sign in the Zodiac, the Scales point to equality, balance, harmony and justice—Justice, the Lady of the Scales, weilds the sword of righteousness. It points to willpower being the ultimate weapon and it’s undeviating expression is that by which individual worth is judged.

Yesterday, in the Virgo-ruled Pisces image, we saw new initates to a occult brotherhood being judged for acceptance. Today we get a sense of that which we are judged upon. Those with this degree well aspected in their charts may be willfull in the extreme, meeting inner challenges and conflicts as well as outside adversity. But what is will? In occult terms it doesn’t originate with the individual but it is god, or th divine operating through ones mind. It is the energy of the collective, or the whole, manifested in one fell swoop of your convictions. Your will is the signaling to “the Brotherhood” that you are available as a conduit for the greater good.

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