Gemini 4° (May 24)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate.Clams and Burger (Fish n Chips) from Mac’s

It is important for Virgo to accentuate the positives of his tendency to keep to himself, to hold himself apart, to lead an extremely private life, and even to be healthfully isolationist, not becoming unduly wrapped up in others’ needs or to lose himself in social shuffles.  The trick is not to alienate and self-obsess, in extreme cases to the point of tinkering with himself. [Maybe say Tinker somewhere earlier on] Virgo man is the most potentially phobic and hypochondriacal of characters and he can mess with his physical body through extreme diets and cures, behavioral habits being endemic to Virgo’s sixth astrological house, as well as cosmetic procedures. This is the sign of Michael Jackson, Gene Simmons, Karl Lagerfeld, Mickey Rourke, Eddie Fisher, Keanu Reeves, though apparently not, Matt Rife, are Virgo men who’ve all gone under the knife. It seems in some cases a very extreme backlash to being a mensch, the proverbial regular guy and inheritor of that Everyman archetype that defines the super-powerful appeal of the likes of Bill Murray, Bob Newhart, Adam Sandler, Rupert Grint, Ben Savage, Jack Black, Martin Freeman, Chris Tucker, even more regular-joe Batmen Adam West and Michael Keaton, and arguably, at least prototypically, Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame. 

            The first thing I tell a private client who comes to see me for an individual consultation is that the Sun placement of in their charts really signifies the hero’s journey, that it is the you whom you’re becoming. The Sun symbol is one of completion, a full circle surrounding a central dot, which signifies the individual being centered within a perfect sphere of experience of their own making, suggesting a sense fulfillment and wholeness. And whether or not you believe in the notion that people (re)incarnate as a particular sign to experience and work through energies and influences and life lessons endemic to your sig—for the metaphysical purpose of more soul-level evolution—you might concede that, if you’re born with Sun in Virgo, then your ideas surrounding what constitutes said wholeness, fulfillment, completion, even success, would be described in Virgo terms. That is to say that your hero’s journey, Virgo, should be something of a niche existence, being your own boss, left to your own devices, remotely contributing to humanity without having to necessarily shake hands or rub elbows. A life of your own invention. Don’t necessarily want to feel any responsibility toward others unless it is of your own design and on your own clock. ….treading lightly, observing and letting experience and perceptions flow in and out, not becoming too attached to anything???

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Gemini 3° (May 23)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate. Cheese-Turkey Sandwich for lunch. Half a burger at work for dinner. Going to say this:

The lesser known thing about Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, is that he also is empowered to impose them; that is to say, just as he eradicates impediments to those of good conscience, he impedes those with insidious intent. Virgo is the inheritor of this superpower. And this elephant also never forgets. Should you even slightly slight a Virgo man, you rarely get a second chance to do so, or perhaps ever see him again. 

[Note: Spleen also removes old and damaged cells, Ganesh was made of clay by Parvati. Also go back and note, when mentioning the planet rule that “doubt” is endemic to the sign]

Like Prometheus literally passing the torch, elevating mankind by gifting them with sacred fire stolen from Olympus, we see a similar shift from the fixed-fire sign of the Leo god-kings (and some fierce queens) to Virgo with its everyman assignation, and again, in the biblical line, in the book of Kings giving way to that of the poor, put-upon Job (arguably an aptly named archetype for a sign whose motto is I work). The story of Job, meaning “persecuted,” is a morality tale on the theme of trust (in god’s plan, divine purpose) even in the face of adversity. We speak of being at a moral crossroad, another aspect of Mercury as god thereof. Really, the best Job can do is be a mensch and acknowledge, accept and lick his own wounds, as, in so doing, he is ultimately rewarded. If you recall the first sentence of this chapter, doubt is a central issue for the Virgo man. In new-testament terms, doubting Thomas represents perception and analysis, as he requires hard proof of Jesus’ resurrection, the pudding of which is the acknowledgment and acceptance of the wounds of his crucifixion. Virgo’s own feelings of persecution place him forever at a moral crossroads, as is the title role in anonymous’ Everyman, a morality play with an equal number of characters who personify the vices and virtues. As punishment for Hephaestus siding with his mother Hera against his father, Zeus not only hurled him from Olympus and rendered him lame, but also forced him to make, from clay, mutable-earth, the first woman, Pandora, who, with that tricky box of hers, brought all virtue and vice into the world. The conscience is the crossroad, where we feel divided, in crisis, and thus in need of reconciliation. The name Thomas means “twin” or more accurate cojoined, which points to a joining together our own moral judgements and actions with what we perceive to be universally right, vs. wrong, any persecution for doing so be damned. Dr. Faustus learns too late the price, selling his eternal soul to the devil, for ephemeral power and gain. All things being paradoxical, Virgo man can be one of the most self-serving and least charitable of the signs, which, without careful consideration, can rob him of a truly bountiful life.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Gemini 2° (May 22)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate: Linguine Bolognese

In eastern form, the divine archetype for Virgo man is Ganesh, another blessed abomination. He is referred to by scholars as “the god of the Everyman,” who plays a special interceding role to humanity. His festival day falling in Virgo season, late August to early September, he is “remover of obstacles,” which, again, points to alchemical transmutation, “getting the lead out, so to rid the current state of affairs of baser elements and thus achieve a more purified state. (It’s not so much that the sign of the Virgin signifies purity, but that she is holding what is called the spica (spike), which, whether a seeded phallic symbol or an alimentary one, is going to be transmuted, whether through gestation or digestion.) The divine monstrous, Ganesh has an elephant head and typically four arms, in one of which he holds one of his broken tusks—disability, on theme. Beyond literal digestion, the symbolism here points to the human conscience the development of which is synonymous with spiritual elevation. Just as the digestive system, metes out nutrient from detritus, the human conscience likewise functions. Uncoincidentally the abdomen and digestive system is ruled by Virgo, along with the spleen which fights germs in the blood. The debilitated, humbled image of that all these deities share is the source of their godhead, which is contingent upon “giving back,” to humanity. (The demigod Prometheus is thus in this mix.) Indeed, the divine mutable-earth (read: making substantial change) energy of the sign is hinged on the dynamic of give-and-take synonymous with the conscience. Mercury is god of the crossroads which, in its rule of Gemini, is literally about the exchange of ideas, social intersection, and the marketplace. Here we are speaking about the moral crossroads of said conscience. As a god of intercession, Ganesh heeds humanity through chants. The Om and the Hum are derivative of what scholars identify as the Hu, arguably the most ancient name for god; the vibration of Hu is meant to elevate spirituality, removing baser human elements and courting the more divine. I don’t know if Dr. Seuss had this consciously in mind, but I don’t think Horton Hears an Om quite rolls off the tongue. Virgo man is cosmically designed to heed what ails the world and its people and, at his best, he will divine ways and means of diagnosing and curing ills in his purview. He is also prone to a certain savior complex, especially when targeted at specific individuals, especially would-be love objects, playing Svengali. He is the elephant in the room in that his sharp analysis of people, places and things leads him to make accurate assumptions that escape the notice of others. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Gemini 0° (May 21)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate.Linguine w/ Clams,

If the previous sign of Leo is all about the lion’s pride then the all-too-human sign of Virgo is powered by humility, which, as we circle round the upward spiral of the zodiac, each sign building on the last, is arguably, potentially stronger than pride.  Let’s revisit the cosmic rulership of Virgo: in astrology the “disabled” planet Chiron is “the wounded healer” fittingly named for a miscreant centaur-like god with human front legs (actually unrelated to those famed savage sages), who was shot by a poison arrow. His condition was incurable but, being divine, he could not die; and yet, or so, we see him emerge as the greatest healer in all mythology. Let’s look to at planet Vulcan, the Roman namesake of the literally lame Greek god of the forge, Hephaestus, a smith and a potter, a nod to Virgo’s mutable-earth status, who despite his own disability, you might say, found healing in making functional tools and weaponry for the gods and men alike. The sign of Virgo begins on August 23, which is the festival Vulcanalia dedicated to him. Now take the namesake god Mercury, whose staff wound by two serpents, called the Caduceus, is the modern symbol of the medical profession. Mercury points to two kinds of magic: Where his assignation as the trickster god suits his namesake planet’s rule over the tricky sleight of hand brand that suits the  mutable-air sign of Gemini’s mercurial, prankish nature, the more substantial form of alchemy fits the Virgo’s mutable-earth sign. All three gods are alchemists. Mercury’s Greek name is Hermes from which we get both the words hermit and the hermetic, which itself as the dual meaning of a) “complete and airtight,” warding off contamination and disease; and b) an ancient occult tradition of combined alchemy, astrology and theosophy. Alchemists are wizards of sorts working solo, often in secret, whether it be Doctor Faustus ( a name arguably derived from Hephaestus), Batman or Gandalf the Grey (the color associated with the sign of Virgo). Another fun fact: Just as we see Gandalf go through his own alchemical change into the victorious Gandalf the White, DeWitt also means “of the white” which points to the fact that he is the ultimate good guy in the end, the only one to bring down the main eponymous protagonist in All About Eve. And, while we are at it, the name Addison translates to “son of the ground”, hello Virgo the earth sign, or “son of man” which befits Virgo man’s status as the Everyman of the zodiac and his focus on improving the real and metaphoric human condition. Let’s not forget that that the damaged Bruce Wayne transmuted into Batman has no superpower other than his own very human ingenuity and still he ends up kicking Superman’s supposedly omnipotent butt.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 29° (May 20)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate: Yoghurt Berries then Calamari, Linguine Bolognese.

And I can take it one better: If women of the sign draw most on flightless birds, the Virgo man inversely draws on that of flying mammals, namely, bats. Talk about finding a niche, the bat is the only non-bird animal to truly fly. As I’ve divined, and stated in previous books, Batman is a modern day Virgo archetype that fits him to a tee and provides him practicable examples in the development of his character. I will elaborate on this theme as the narrative unfolds:             For starters, I have long mused that Virgo performs infamous disappearance acts, dropping out of touch with friends and family, sometimes for years, or permanently. As personally as one is prone to take this, it is always about him and not about you. (As loath as you are to hear this, Virgo, you know it’s true.) Virgo man doesn’t really, fully want to be known because he doesn’t feel it is truly possible to be. He believes the human condition is hinged on solitude, being born alone and dying alone, and, on some level, that the in between time shouldn’t be any different. One doesn’t think of the proverbial critic, like DeWitt, having many friends. In the Tarot, the Hermit card is associated with Virgo,. The critic, like the hermit, literally works behind the scenes. And in astrology, the sign of Virgo rules the sixth astrological house of habits, work, duty, behavior and the daily experience. If we deepen the routine of quotidian existence it becomes ritual; and life therefore becomes in itself a devotion. Virgo’s mottos are I work and I serve. To the Virgo mind: You are what you do. And a worthwhile life should be a dedicated life; and others, by and large, can be a distraction from whatever form of consecration Virgo’s life takes on. He is designed to be fully functioning human whose prime goal is to contribute to the common good, the paradox being that he often does this best by solitary means. In Sextrology I titled Virgo man’s chapter The Vehicle as he is designed to be a catalyst, that unseen puppet master pulling the strings, and to take it up a notch, even something of a vigilante. Cue that bat signal, Bruce Wayne’s secret identity as the caped crusader is hinged on “alchemically” transmuting his personal trauma and loss, having witnessed his parents being murdered by a random criminal (upon exiting a theater I might add) into fighting crime universally. His fear too is transmuted as the young Bruce Wayne was pathologically afraid of bats, which in adulthood become emblematic of his superheroism. Likewise Virgo man’s signature doubting, his skepticism, and his corresponding feelings of disappointment or deficit, are sources of fuel for creating a better life for himself. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 28° (May 19)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate: Pork Chop + Polenta from Terra Luna.

He is astrology’s Addison DeWitt (the theater critic character from All About Eve), who can wield double-edged power with his at turns careful and caustic assessments of others and their works. I prescribe ways for him channel his astute opinions into making rather than breaking people and situations in his sights. Like DeWitt, Virgo can be a powerful puppet master. While some say the sign is ruled by disabled Chiron, once a planet that was pummeled by asteroids, or the as-yet undiscovered Vulcan suspected to be orbiting between Mercury and the Sun, the traditional ruler of Virgo is Mercury, named for the winged god, which rules Gemini also. But it is this element of uncertainty about his planetary parentage that is most telling. Virgo lives by the power of the question mark—nothing for him is ever written in stone. He is infamously noncommittal, keeping his options open and others guessing. If we consider Mercury’s rule: In the mutable-air sign of Gemini, all manner of breeze-born birds and insect have emblematic impact; while in the mutable-earth sign of Virgo, we are symbolically grounded in the more terrestrial species, the gangly strutting storks and cranes, and the flightless emus, ostriches and other such big birds. Flightlessness in birds isn’t actually a disability, but a mark of evolution. It signifies filling/finding a niche in an environment where there is no competition or danger from earthbound predators. It is symptomatic of certain safety. These types of birds have lost flight. In my philosophy, however, it is the Virgo woman who primarily draws on these gawky, grounded birds, metaphysically and even in appearance. Metaphorically, it is somewhat telling about the Virgo male, too, as he is all about finding his own solitary niche, for sure, and being, of all the males in the Zodiac, the least fond of competition, which can make him anxious in the extreme. He opts instead to carve out an existence for himself where he isn’t open to comparison or censure. (As a Virgo friend of mine, the folk performance artist Taylor Mac has been quoted as saying:  “comparison is violence”). Virgo isn’t comfortable under others’ authority. He is an isolationist and thrives, most, in that mode, both professionally and privately. And I can take it one better:

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 27° (May 18, 2022)

I am still in a blackout, that is to say that the original entries, here, got lost or I never wrote anything to begin with. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate. Carbonara. And back to the work at hand.

The Virgo man enters doubting. All people, places and things must be proven to him before he can decide whether or not to sanction or engage in them. More than just a defense, this is the default expectation, by cosmic design, of a kind of literal dis-appoint-ment. Meaning that it speaks to the shift from the sign of Leo, astrology’s divine King, to that of Virgo, the universal Everyman. The Virgo is beyond some naive notion of innate nobility, which, to him, smacks of delusions of grandeur. Virgo is coming from a avery different place, metaphysically—that is to say: emotionally, mentally, spiritually, all of which effect his physical nature and body language. He is of the mind that life is what you make of it; that none of us are singled out for any predestined purpose; rather that you create your own existence, and any import thereof, every day, brick by brick, over time. Likewise, said people, places and the things of circumstance will keep having to prove themselves to him over multiple interactions, if not a lifetime. Nothing is ever quite a done deal for Virgo; life is one great work in process, and he must learn to seek progress over perfection. Virgo is especially dubious of others’ enthusiasm, and those who take too optimistic a view of life, or worse yet, believe in miracles. A healthy skepticism is Virgo’s superpower, allowing him to critique and diagnose situations, circumstances, environments, and even other individuals, prescribing necessary measures for improvement. He is the alchemist of the zodiac, seeking to root out the baser elements he encounters and to transmute that which he perceives as flawed or lacking into a more purified state. He cannot abide dysfunction, as he perceives it, the irony of course being that he has his own fair share of character defects, chief among them, an inability to be called out for them. Ultimately, he will need to own that fact. Nothing and nobody are perfect, he will concede; but there must be a concerted effort toward betterment, amelioration and high human functionality. After the roaring pride of Leo, the sign of Virgo operates on humility, at least, as a jumping off point. The Virgo man isn’t born thinking he’s god’s gift to the universe. He is not shot through with bold-faced confidence or bravado; rather, he supplements any lack he perceives in himself by way of a lifelong practice of honing his expertise, in this area or that, which can lend him an erudite air, in the end, and, yes, a certain sophisticated superiority. Fancying himself a connoisseur of this or that, Virgo can be quite the culture vulture, though a selective one. Holding his nose in situations, keeping others at arm’s length, is a symptom of his vulnerability and a fear of being burned for emotional investment.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 26° (May 17, 2022)

I am in a blackout. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate. Sirloin Steak (makes sense since I’m sstill working at that place). From the future: I’m sorting through where it is I left off in the process of drafting chapters. It is a bit of a puzzle, which makes perfect sense, as all is hinged on the sign of Virgo and where the processes was halted by the crisis of June 2021. It is actually now December 2023 as I type this, playing catch up on around a year and a half of backlogged entries on here. All said I will need to be super relaxed in putting together the next half of the the drafts, which need to be looser and more creative maybe in the process, unlike the first eleven chapters which I wrote in more stringent and perfect a manner. Also it looks like the structure is taken from Leo woman chapter. Inroads have the Starter Kits. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 25° (May 16,2022)

I am in a blackout. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate: a turkey and cheese sandwich. May: 15, June 30, July 31, August 31, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 31, January 31, February 28, March 31, April 30, May 31, June 30, July 31, August 31, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 31. By the end of the December 2023 I will have 594 posts to catch up on. It will thus take me about 118 days, writing 5 pages a day, to catch up (however many of the posts between “now” and “then” will already be ample enough to post as is). This means that I should be able to completely catch up to where I am in the present, by the end of March 2024. I have thirteen chapters still left to draft, at about twenty pages a pop. That’s 260 pages in total, which isn’t even quite half of what I would need as filler in the process of playing this catch up game. That’s 333 after I post this today. Which, if you know anything about me, is quite a magical number. So hopefully, there are 333 of posts already drafted that are beefy enough to post at this juncture. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there are near exactly that many. But let me rework that math to reflect twenty five page chapters: 325 pages in total which means 269 posts which hopefully will be beefy enough. None of this means anything to you and I don’t mind that. I know what’s happening. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Taurus 24° (May 15, 2022)

I am in a blackout. And will be if not many moons than a couple before I start writing in real time what actually happened on this day besides what I ate. Linguine Bolognese

Pisces Woman

Pisces is a delicate creature who proves tougher than even she imagined. A soft-spoken old soul, oft silent in youth, her eyes seem to gaze inward, introspection being a superpower for the “opposite-facing” Fish. An open channel, she may get psychic flashes that spook her. She is most empathetic, triggering self-protective isolation or, on the flipside, losing herself in social swirls or substances. Pisces is the mutable-water sign, a primordial soupy source of all life or a single embryotic trip. The two-way fish signify the womb-tomb, alpha-omega, and Pisces is rather all or nothing and must learn to calm her anxious seas. Mutable-water is mists, fog, vapors, seafoam, from whence Pisces’ great sea-goddess archetype Aphrodite (Mari) sprang. The Pisces fish depict the love-gods mother and son, Aphrodite and Eros, in totem form, prototypically the same as Mary and the Jesus fish, also love, Mary’s della robbia blue gown fringed in white is the sea and foam. Ruling Neptune is the planet of dissolution. The sea god’s trident portrayed the three-pronged phallus needed to mate with the triple goddess. (Trinity from The Matrix, hello?) Mother of the nine muses, triple goddess in triplicate, Mnemosyne is goddess of memory, like dreams, an immaterial narrative. Pisces is the Everywoman of the zodiac, her empathetic nature also expressed by mirroring others in her life, giving the impression of multiple personalities.

Mutable-water speaks to life on the non-material, purely energetic, and thus perhaps malleable plane. Pisces is rather spiritually inclined and, as we know, all is energy, matter included; the sign’s motto is I believe, and if anybody could alter reality via the power of belief, prayer, or the like it would be the Fish. That said, with the loosest grip on so-called reality, Pisces can suffer from mental issues, visions, delusions. It’s a thin line between communing with the All and getting lost in some form of oblivion. Tennessee William’s delicate, dissolute, Blanche Dubois in della robbia blue, is another Pisces icon, having lost her home Belle Reve (beautiful dream), plagued by tragic memory and hallucinations, bathing and drinking like a fish, hitting on young boys, lost in illusions of rhinestones and faux fur, “making enchantment.” Asked what became of Blanche after going to the looney bin, Williams claimed she was cured and opened a fancy dress shop in New Orleans. Pisces is such a survivor. For all her frailty, she is also the zodiac’s Siren (meaning: to bind) who entrances and drowns errant sailors; those who’ve been in a bond with Pisces will buy into this allusion, happy, even, to have drown in her, often tempestuous, sea of love. She may have multiple relationships, as her own personality goes through many changes over time. She is an autodidact and, from youth, taking pains to better herself. Often an artistic ability exposes her to worldly people and prospects. She may prematurely run with a fast crowd, swept up in promises of glamour, pleasure, luxury. In time she will provide herself such fringe benefits to a meaningful life making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. Many a Pisces have championed causes aimed at helping those who are amarginalized or forgotten by society, the gravely ill and other so-called untouchables. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.