Libra 18° (October 10)

Perhaps last night was a bit too fantastic come to think of it. I felt really rough today so I’m going to take it easy. I think I was happy to get over the hump of doctor, although some things came back a little high, not too too bad though. I’m sure it is all fixable with more vigilance. Anyway I’m surely on the right track. It is absolutely beautiful weather so I’m going to grease up and sit outside. Then I will do a bit of writing and set myself up for success this week. There are rumors flying on twitter regarding a Trump resignation which might be too good to be true. I have never had a flu shot and I’m feeling a bit weird I will admit. Having a lovely salmon tonight with sautéed tomatoes and avocado and salad. And we will try to get to bed at a decent hour.

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 966-970. I am reading through all of my Blagues, five per day, and posting some samples here. Now, in my sixth year of writing this Blague, by the time I get to my seventh, I will have journeyed through all the daily Blagues of my first five years. If that’s confusing I apologize. Year seven, I’ll only have to read through year six, once a day.

Aquarian “water bearer” of everlasting life. In Greek myth, the cup bearer, Hebe, pours the nectar that ensures the gods’ youthful immortality. John the Baptist too bears the baptismal waters of everlasting life. He, the lone voice in the wilderness, alienated, outcast, a madman, the weirdo on the shortbus who’s really just ahead of his time. Well we know how alienating being a progressive can be!

But Aquarius fixed-air is a point of light. A star. The Star in the Tarot depicts the Waterbearer. It surely does. It’s our true north. Truth. Revelation. Aquarius’ motto is I know. We can’t tell you how to have a revelation, but it will come in the eleventh hour if you’ve done all you can do. The eleventh house that of the future. Revelation gives you a glimpse. It’s also the house of humanity into whose arms you might fall. A trust exercise. Opposing Leo, the Sun, Aquarius is our own distant star to which we may return.

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Pisces, ruled by Neptune, the planet of dissolution, named for the god of the sea, the planet of non-material existence.

But not only has he not died but now apparently nobody else who believeth in him will either, which is neat. Pisces’ motto is I believe. Belief precedes proof. Science has now proven that all existence is really non-material, that matter is just dense energy. And that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Something the ancient Zodiac seemed to know along. So none of us are really going anywhere. The point is moot. Immaterial.

We simply pass beyond the veil of illusion, through Salome’s seven colored scarves, over the RoyGBiv to Oz or Nirvana, the immaterial universe being right here all the time. opposite facing fish portray the two-way street of birth and death, in limbo or utero—Pisces being the mutable-water sign, the primordial soup from whence we came and to which we return.

JesusFish. The Pisces fish are the totems of Aphrodite, called Mari, and her son Eros. Mari is Mary whose della robbia blue gown fringed in white is the sea fringed with foam. Eros was at once the oldest of all the gods and yet an eternal babe., Eros is Love. Jesus is Love. Energetic Love. Spiritual Love. That which connects us all. Close your eyes. Imagine, believe, that you are pure energy, letting your notions of matter dissolve. And feel yourself, as molecules, as atoms, as protons, as neutrons, hadrons, quarks, as pure energy, sharing the same primordial soup as the rest of us.

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The Mars-ruled sign of Aries is all about not ignoring the obvious. It is primal, impulsive energy. Objective, yang, “masculine”, the sign’s celestial symbol “spear and shield of Ares” (the Greek name of Mars) is a unsubtle representation of the male genitalia that is ubiquitously plastered on men’s room doors around the globe. There is little irony being a man born under this sign. Aries views his raw animal appeal as both a blessing and a curse. He should ultimately learn to embrace and embody his outsized drives, harnessing and honing their power. He may even attempt to transcend his true nature—part rutting animal, part Superman—by way of channeling his native aggression into some Zen, Spartan or his planet’s namesake martial-arts devotion. The beautiful irony being that spiritual warriorship helps him to more fully accept his irrepressible Self, the premier principle of the astrological 1st house that is Aries man’s birthright to personify. Here is a list of objectifying Aries hunks of burning love, some of whom, drawing on their war-god archetype, can be downright belligerent: Ryan O’Neal, Russell Crow, Alec Baldwin, Piers Morgan, Hugh Heffner, Gary Oldman, Vincent Gallo, Angus Young, Serge Gainsbourg, Herb Alpert, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Quentin Tarantino, Vince Vaugn, Adrien Brody, Sean Bean, Jackie Chan, Steven Segal, Russ Meyer, Roger Corman, Steve McQueen, David Lean, Omar Shariff, James Garner, William Shatner, Ram Dass, Elton John, Eddie Murphy, Eric Roberts, Scott Eastwood, Luke Evans, Sung Kang, Marlon Brando, James Woods, Marvin Gaye, James Caan, William Holden, Crispin Glover, Tommy Hilfiger and, on the cusp with Taurus, Adolf Hitler.

Being associated, and indeed personifying, this first-house attribute of Self, , people born under the sign, males especially, tend to be very comfortable in their skin. Ruled by the red planet Mars, Aries in turn governs the muscles and blood—pure red is the sign’s color—and the sign also rules the element of iron, which is a life-giving element in our blood, as it provides the protein hemoglobin, binding to oxygen, carrying it through our tissues and muscles. (Is it more than mere coincidence that the red of planet Mars was only relatively recently found to be red due to a surplus of the iron element? It’s surely fascinating how these sign-assignations to body parts and elements pre-date modern biology or chemistry, all such information being already encoded into the ancient Zodiac, as if it were a metaphysical time capsule designed to transcend chronological Time). Anyway, Aries men are especially corporeal, if not rough and tumble, tending to boast rather un-ironic butch physiques. They often use their bodies in extraordinary ways, too, not just as athletes or in their proclivity for martial arts, or even as the proverbial action man— as actors, for instance, they generally possess what is known as “a great physical life” on stage or in films. Of all the male signs in the zodiac, Aries have a way of using their physiques in ways that seem to defy physics, their bantam bodies being the tangible stuff via which they achieve certain transcendence. Just look at this list: Martin Short, Andy Serkis, Harry Houdini, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr., Marcel Marceau, Jim Parsons, Bill Irwin, M. Emmet Walsh, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, Frank Gorshin, David Blaine, Eric Idle, Martin Lawrence, Eric McCormack, Peyton Manning, Merce Cunningham, Matthew Broderick, Christophe Lambert, David Hyde Pierce, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Aries takes a warrior approach to life, entering into forms of training, if even of his own devising, that will keep him on the straight and narrow toward goals. He has difficulty when goals shift; being so rigid can make one easily broken. Anyway…I was thinking Aries latin for Ram, Arietare means to ramm or to butt. Aries is the initiator, birth new order. Mars whose namesake planet rules the sign is a war god who carries a spear, once a staff, both phallic symbols (I don’t think we did the herder thing in Sextrology? Check!). The Shepherd, the Hunter, and the Warrior both emanations of the male fertility god. Both leaders, whether it be a flock, a hunt or an attack Making the question should I follow that much mor existential. Aries men will not follow.

Aries man is on his own trip and it’s near impossible for him to on on others’ He is aggressive in his attempt to get you to engage in what he’s doing, his activities and interests, chief among them: himself, and his goals. The most solitary if not the most lonely guy, their is a natural silence in his existence with which he’s most comfortable, yet with others he can be a bit extra. Not to say all Aries come on strong, many are intensely solitary whilst in company. Either way Aries makes a great impact.

Aries males are the butchest. And it’s always the Aries man show. He is great at putting it out there but it’s difficult for him to take things in. This buster can filibuster, like the fire sign he is, sucking all the air out of a room. He is the most honest of the gender signs, for shiz, and fairly brutally so. He is boss, and he’s good at it, so long as his delegates buy wholesale into his vision. Voted most likely to achieve singular goals, Aries man is shot through with adrenalin, just one of many A-words associated with Aries, along with ardour, assertion, aggression, ambition, actualization, achievement—even his biblical and mythological archetypes, Adam and Ares (Roman: Mars) do likewise.

Other notions: Stlaker tendencies (if denied what they want), hard workers (bad bosses), strong body odor, bossy bottoms, bluster and bravado, Up for anything not for too long, thumbsucking and having to change their diapers. They adore without being clingy. In charge. Always moving onto the next thing. They have short tempers and are prone to tantrums. “Charismatic mansplainers. Active adventurous, but not in it for the long haul. In it for the “moment” and ultimately good with being in the moment (via meditation, etc).

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Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac is ruled by planet Mars, named for the god of war and representing the masculine principle in the cosmos; Aries woman archetypally draws on the decidedly un-femmy, though fiercely feminist, armor-clad Athena, goddess of prudent war, strategy and, of course, wisdom. Also called Pallus (read: phallus), you might say this steely goddess was the original chick with a metaphoric dick. She is the “first born” of Zeus, and is thus the primordial daughter, likened to Lilith, the biblical Adam’s “first wife” who was much too much a top for his taste. Indeed, Aries women do wear the pants, particularly in partnerships. And they surely don’t subscribe to the notion of being the second sex. They are not subject to men, but can be rather objectifying of them, if anything. Like Hemingway heroines, they are living-breathing animus with a primal, nearly primitive brand of beauty—typically athletic, with strong jaws, and often cute cave-woman underbites, owlish eyes and heavy brows, a nod to Athena’s godhead of wisdom, for which the eyebrow is a symbol. While the Aries male is objective in the sense of being directive, assertive even aggressive, Aries female is objective in the sense of being impersonal, detached, keenly strategic if not defensive in nature. In a nod to her sheepish Ram symbol, there is no pulling the wool over Aries’ signature bushy brows.

If you know your mythology, you’re aware that the male gods were no match for iron-clad Athena. And in Aries women, her signature upstanding stature as a righteous female, with a principled if not political agenda, is personified. Athena (Roman: Minerva) is the original feminist, going toe to toe with male gods in competitions while punishing mortal women for a surplus of feminine frivolity, vanity and passivity. In her famous feud with her uncle, the sea god Poseidon, over the patronage of what became her namesake Athens, she offered the native people the olive, which became both food and fuel, two elements to ensure their survival and literal enlightenment. Human empowerment! And, of course, the olive branch is a symbol of peace, that which Athena and Aries women seek to preserve, particularly that of their own minds. Artistically depicted and described as strong featured and steely eyed, Athena at once portrays the physical prototype of the Aries woman as well as her directive nature and steadfast resolve.

Think of the handsome, angular beauty, not to mention the heavy jaw and bushy brows—tweezers not included—of Paulina Porizkova, Patricia Arquette, Keira Knightly, Elle McPherson, Jennifer Garner, Robin Wright, Kristen Stewart, Leslie Mann, Reese Witherspoon, Lady Gaga, Maisie Williams, Victoria Beckham, Fergie, Mariah Carey, Catherine Keener, Michelle Monaghan, Lucy Lawless, Rooney Mara, Sara Jessica Parker, Diana Ross, Amy Sedaris, Tatjana Patitz, Jane Adams, Joss Stone, Norah Jones, Claire Danes, Emma Watson, Jessica Chastain, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Natascha McElhone, Claire Danes, Robin Wright, Emma Thompson, Celine Dion, Elle Fanning, Jessica Lange, Maria Sharapova, Saoirse Ronan, Julie Christie, Dusty Springfield, Emmy Lou Harris, Claudia Cardinale, Julia Stiles, Keri Russell, not to mention such beauties with blatantly uplifting, individualist agendas, like Jane Goodall, Isak Dinesen, Vivienne Westwood, Linda Goodman, Gloria Steinham, Erica Jong, Maya Angelou, Brooke Astor, Marguerite Duras, Doris Day, Betty Ford and Sandra Day O’Connor.

Aries is, in a word, spirited.

I’ve always found much treasure in the typecasting of actors as they often get pigeon holed by virtue of the archetypes and attributes associated with their star signs. Aries women play unapologetic and unabashed. They can be at war with the world and the men what made it. They hold themselves apart, at once aloof and armored, thus, one feels, also readied for attack. They are objectifying of that which they want, which they want when they want it. What she fancies is hers by rights, it seems. She is selective after all and thus singular in her ambitions and would be conquests. She can be most selfish for love, if not in it. To connect the aliterative dots she is alert, attentive, aware, audacious, avid and avaricious. She assimilates and seeks to do so, most simply. She is strategic and employs an economy of moves, suffering no fools. She isn’t by nature sentimental, and she will people, places and things from her life, without regret. When she goes, she’s gone, to coin a phrase.

The sheperdess prudently approaches The Ram is a sacrificial figure. She is the original fire starter, steely on the outside, molten on the inside. They are not contrained by a surplus of compassion, but embody the notion of getting theirs. Probably the least warm and fuzzy character on the astrological block, they are attuned to others weaknesses and vulnerabilities and don’t hesitate to point them out. They have a tendency to hold things over other people’s heads.She waits for others to trip up. She can equate others weaknesses with her own strength, in comparison.

They can be reactionary, and in the extreme, forever getting ahead of themselves. And they don’t like to be told no. They are impatient and can seek short cuts to success, the opposite of a slow and steady burn. They can overpromise and speak too soon.

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In counterpoint to its preceding sign of objective, directive, “masculine” Mars-ruled Aries (and the forthright people born under that sign), “feminine” Venus-ruled Taurus is subjective, intriguing, inviting and alluring. Taurus people can be, if only naively, vague, suggestive, or downright elusive. They are all pull, and no push. Taurus can in fact be navel gazers, endlessly self-reflective, and they thus invite the interest, worship and also the scrutiny from others. As artists and intellects, they obscure and refine, turning obvious forms of expression on their ear while they up the creative ante, achieving unique, even absurdist, and elegant results. They don’t effort by nature. As the premier earth sign, these pastoral archetypal flower-children—think reflective Narcissus, Adonis and Hyacinth—embody natural ease. They toil nor do they spin. Full expression is their birthright. Taurus rules the throat and voice, symbolizing a natural proclivity for these bovine characters to utter. Venus works her grace and charm physically in this sign and on its men who are suppleness personified. Consider the gravity-defying moves of Fred Astaire and David Beckham; the oblique musical stylings of Duke Ellington, Burt Bacharach, Bing Crosby, Bono Vox (good voice), Pete Townsend, David Byrne or Brian Eno; the skewed comedic genius of George Carlin and Stephen Colbert; the elegant up-ending of Salvatore Dali and Jasper Johns, the out-of-left-field acting styles of Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel, the ironic soft-spoken-ness of Malcolm X, the obscured invention of Mark Zuckerberg, the self-reverential élan of filmmaker Wes Anderson. All such expression being one big, slow side-long glance of the Taurus Bull. Can they be in love with themselves? That’s a question for the likes of Al Pacino, Chris Brown, George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Enrique Iglesias, Daniel Day Lewis, Jay Leno, Will Arnett, Robert Pattinson, James McAvoy, Jerry Seinfeld, Orson Wells or Rudolph Valentino.

Representing the Feminine Principle, planet Venus’ influence on the Taurus male manifests physically, as befits this corporeal earth sign. At her core a fertility goddess, Venus developed into a deity of grace, love and beauty. Taurus is a feminine sign, which is ironically symbolized by a virile Bull. Besides itself being an emblem of male fertility, the Bull represents latent power—the animal is incited to attack. Taurus men are more poised and graceful, if not reticent, rather than being forthright or obviously rough-and-tumble. They have an oblique, if not myopic, view of the world. Just as Taurus girls draw on the archetype of nature nymphs, Taurus man embodies the tempting spirit of such self-reflective flower gods as Hyacinth, Narcissus and Adonis, who even turned the tables on the passive, attractive Venus-Aphrodite, making her chase him down. Taurus man is the zodiac’s premier pretty boy. He is a soft-spoken slice of beefcake, often a just a sliver, exuding elegance and debonair flair. He has been known to fetishize and refashion female

trappings and attire; from pink sox to sultry peignoirs: Jamie Dornan, Henry Cavill, Hunter Parrish, Jack Gleeson, Thomas Welling, Pierce Brosnan, Djimon Hounsou, George Clooney, Tony Goldwyn, Dennis Rodman, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Donavan, Peter Frampton, Astaire, Crosby, Ellington, Rudolph Valentino, Liberace, James Mason, Richard Avedon.

Taurus man is endlessly self-reflective, their seeming insouciance and ease belying a carefully cultivated and crafted persona. The French have the term decontracté which is a sort of negligent chic both in style and demeanor. Taurus is down with that, never wanting to appear contrived in any way,when, truth be told, he can be the most self-art-directed of men, down his paper-thin worn jeans and perfect stubble. He does all he can to look, and make it all seem, natural. He learns early to take stock of skills and talents and to target the precious few that provide him admiration and assistance, even if in the vaguest form of praise. More tham most he seeks to be considered an artist at whatever he does. His main goal is ease, so he might settle for a comfortable success or slice of renown, forgoing a surplus of hard work or sacrifice that might score higher achievement, for a more easeful, subtle, supple existence. He is however all for being swept up toward goals by endless assists and favors provided by his ever exanding immediate fan base. Taurus has a way of ingratiating himself into many lives, and often in a way that invites you to take care of them, on some level. They play a little dense and guileless, evoking a certain patronage and sometimes stirring some sexua element into the mix. They are born danglers, and they can be takers, if grateful ones. Taurus draws on the archetype of such male flower gods as Adonis, the cartoon version being Ferdinand the Bull and his roses.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree point of the Sabian Symbol may at times be one degree higher than the one listed here. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365/6 days per year—so they nearly, but not exactly, correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2020 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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