Fictional Characters as Abstract Self Portraiture

( note: Left click on all the pictures on this page to see enlargements. )

So, let us begin by putting the above quotation into its dialog context :

Mansfield Park, p 98-99
[..]
"I am really not tired, which I almost wonder at ;for we must have
walked at least a mile in this wood. Do not you think we have ? "
" Not half a mile," was his sturdy answer ; for he
was not yet so much in love as to measure distance, or reckon
time, with feminine lawlessness.
"Oh ! you do not consider how much we have wound about. We
have taken such a very serpentine course, and the wood itself must be
half a mile long in a straight line, for we have never seen the end of it yet
since we left the first great path."
But if you remember, before we left that first great path, we saw directly
to the end of it. We looked down the whole vista, and saw it closed by iron
gates, and it could not have been more more than a furlong in length."
"Oh ! I know nothing of your furlongs, but I am
sure it is a very long wood, and that we have been winding in and out ever
since we came into it ; and, therefore, when I say that we have walked a
mile in it, I must speak within compass."
"We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here," said Edmund, taking
out his watch. "Do you think we are walking four miles an hour ? "
"Oh ! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too
slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch." [..] --Jane Austen,
English novelist (1775 - 1817)
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If astrological Mercury is about communication and reasoning, and Uranus is about oscillation, serpentine undulation, and unpredictable variances, we can understand the role of the author's opposition aspect here. Also, if Mars is too fast, and Saturn is too slow, we see the irritation of the speaker as the sesquiquadrate aspect relationship of the latter two planets to the Uranus 'unpredictability' (above). Now if this is all fairly straightforward astrological interpretation, how is it that we can, in any meaningful way, separate the 'soul' of the fictional character from the soul of 'its' author? I think the metaphoric web which holds literary works together, in a life-like way, is directly linked to the web of metaphoric potential that is the author's natal chart...fictional characters do have a natal chart, but it is no different from the author's chart...:)

The Earth Sign Nature of the Semiotic Triadic Relationship

"Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man." ~ Heidegger


I think I have discovered an astrological 'reason' for our intuited connection between the concept of authority and the lordly 'printed word'. If Genesis were written by semeiologist Charles Peirce, it would perhaps start like this: "In the beginning was the Representamen......and it was God! "

Tangible 'things', stuff we can 'get a handle on', are apparently like astrology's Earth signs in nature. This system of representing the psyche of man, in the Zodiac's philosophical circle, shows us that an object is most like a material resource, and, so, a lot like what the sign Taurus means in general--'stuff' that is available for intake and use. But, to use something, we have to put something of ourselves into the process...that which is well cared for, serves us best, and so forth. Well, as Heidegger pointed out, we do have a vital relationship with objects, the role of their interpreter, the assigner of their uses, and so forth. This is the practical application of our intellect in general. This Virgo-like function of our psyche's working innards is the decision making capability of Capricorn's godlike executive function. So, a word is assigned to represent an object only if we make some kind of an interpretation of the object as a stimulus. No wonder that when we 'name' something our ego feels the sense of ownership growing, and an overlording mastery starting to set in. Pick a good label and we *own* that what-cha-ma-call-it, whatever it is, this no matter what reality has to say about such things in the long run...:)

Bell Curve Distribution--the 2% Solution

Why would I not expect that the Bell Curve does most certainly apply to any instance of expressed individuality...in any circumstance. Is it not the case that whatever we do and say is pretty much silently decided by a virtual steering committee of social forces at nearly every occasion. Do we not constantly seek to shape ourselves and our communications to fit the needs of just about everyone but our Self? Sadly, I think it is, as the graphic shows, a case where we 'put out' authentic Self representation in only about 2% of our attempts to "be there" in a true self-similar fashion. If we go through the process of observing a hundred paintings by a particular artist, and only two of those works seems to have something like an observable natal chart resonance, why would that be so unnatural a finding? Should we not expect that one standard deviation plus or minus would mean 68% of all works would be found to have only sublimated individualistic content...and do we not encourage things to be just so, ever more 'universally' significant, whatever. Even paintings intended to be individualistic works of abstract expressionism are just as likely fall into a pit of norms we can only fairly judge to be some form of unintended cliche. And, concerning life in general, as being our mode of constant creative output, our measure of individual being-ness, what if the person who should be 'horoscopic-ally' predictable is simply not present about 98% of the time...:)?

Rembrandt and the Mar's Effect

"Ok, Abe...... Drop the Chalupa !"

"Hey, not *on* the poor kid." < smack, on the back of the head>.



The Mars Effect, in terms of graphic arts, is a little simpler than the Gauquelin mars effect: in short, sharp objects will be found in the same pictorial space position as the Mars symbol in the natal chart. Abraham's knife is then a token of Mars, and the knife's function and contextual meaning are seen here to be conditioned by either the whole of the natal chart, or the whole of the painting, in near equal measure. The artist has hit upon both a theme and the specific imagery needed to satisfy the algebraic formula nature of the natal chart. The variables have been equated with each other an amazing synchronicity.

However, the overlay makes an even better fit if we assume that the reported birth time is somewhat in error. By advancing the the natal chart to reflect a birth at about 4:17 PM, rather than 3:00 PM, three or four key planet symbols seem more appropriately placed:
http://pedantus.free.fr/rembrandt_2a.gif

But, perhaps the Placidus system of the house divisions introduces a skewed projection. I have tried different house systems, and perhaps just using a Equal house system is the proper remedy in most, if not all, situations:
http://pedantus.free.fr/rembrandt_2b.gif

Finally, we have another painting wherein Mars is even less sublimated and thus becomes both focal and more explicit, still in context of the natal chart, just tweaked into being more dominant:
The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis :
http://pedantus.free.fr/rembrandt_3a.gif

Natal Saturn opposite Sun expressed as, "...black spot in our sunshine..."

English Prose (1137-1890) edited by John Matthews Manly: "SARTOR RESARTUS" --Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

"[..]The authentic Church-Catechism of our present century has not yet fallen into my hands: meanwhile, for my own private behoof, I attempt to elucidate the matter so. Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite. Will the whole Finance Ministers and Upholsterers and Confectioners of modern Europe undertake in joint stock company to make one Shoeblack happy? They cannot accomplish it, above an hour two: for the Shoeblack also has a Soul quite other than his Stomach; and would require, if you consider it, for his permanent satisfaction, and saturation, simply this allotment, no more, and no less: God's infinite Universe altogether to himself, therein to enjoy infinitely and fill every wish as fast as it rose. Oceans of Hochheimer, a Throat like that of Ophiucus: speak not of them; to the infinite Shoeblack they are as nothing. No sooner is your ocean filled, than he grumbles that it might been of better vintage. Try him with half a Universe, of an Omnipotence, he sets to quarreling with the proprietor of the other half, and declares himself the most maltreated men. --Always there is a black spot in our sunshine: it is even as I said, the Shadow of Ourselves.[..]"

Richard Dawkins' "Mother-of-all-Burkas" Analogy...

1. 

or, when a scientist engages in artistically creative Self expression.

Dawkins sums up his personal reaction to what he calls, "The God Delusion", in this section of video from CSPAN's Book TV, October 23, 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QI3Vg0kpYE

Fig. 1, An experimental approach to astrology wherein the artistic, poetic, products of one's self expression are analyzed for any symbolism which would seem to yield a astro-'logical' argument for approximating an unknown birth time.

Richard Dawkins' birth time may actually be unknown, so I guess there is little hope of finding out if this analysis can be verified, but I find it to be an irresistible exercise all the same. It seems to me that Dawkins has a lot of pent up expressiveness which is only released when he is ardently making critical observations. The burka analogy comes in the last part of his last chapter here, and is offered as a kind of final proof that the God delusion of the masses can only be a tragically unnecessary 'self-undoing' of persons whose hearts, minds, and souls are imprisoned by the sheer evil that is any and all ignorance required by religious belief.

I'm thinking, how can anyone make such feelings so obviously very personal *if* one doesn't have a natal chart which is somehow the poetic equivalent of that described *external* situation. In other words, art probably happens as a matter of projecting unconscious contents in the form of one's descriptions of one's 'external' reality...the trapped-in-ignorance 'feeling' which is the seed of Dawkins' burka analogy is likely promoted by what astrology calls the algebraic potentials of his own natal chart inheretance. Such hypothetical individual inheritance is the unconscious seed material manifesting and bearing adaptive fruits in the diverse soils of specific life expererience...the art of individuation.

What da heck is Horoscopic Expressionism ?

"In the vital power of the human being that is ignited at birth there glows that remembered image..." --Johannes Kepler, World Harmony(1619)

The First Outragious Case in Point :
In trying to instigate a drawing task which would allow a psyche to sneak out and wave at me from somewhere behind the bulk of a socially defined personality and the always misdirecting front stage ego, I thought of this, Self-as-Island, scenario. This, if only to be iconoclastic and demonstrate that every person is, in a way, very much an island. I always thought that there was more socio-political propaganda than understanding in our characteristic denial of human Individuality, its very real existence. Burying Individuality in a ton of group defining statistics seems a heck of away to look for our personal singularity...our unique soul...our very own island universe
Fig. 1 Lori's Personal Island Kingdom Map

Nifty map, huh? It appears that young Lori kind "knows" something about astrology, without ever being taught anything about it ! Carl Jung would be even more proud than usual, and Kepler would be doing his first backflip.

Now, It doesn't matter what anyone thinks is supposed to happen, and, or, why it happens; that preconceived notion is a scientific sin called observer bias-- a big no-no in elitist academic circles, or so I'm told. We are here just looking to see if there was any empirical evidence that people are influenced in any way by what astrology calls a natal chart.--an Earth-centered "map" of the solar system as viewed from one's birth place. Because astrology is an Art, not a Science, few practitioners agree on the exact details of how these things are supposed to be drawn, exactly. But, this example is a common sort of birth chart , and we can see that Lori's "Moon" object is placed so that, *if* we didn't know what time a day she was born, we could easily figure it out...get awfully close...see what I mean? We are merely observing ontic empirical evidence of non-random event patterning. And, as well, Dr. Geoffrey Dean , Rudolph Smit, et al, it is falsifiable.
Of course its not really evidence if we don't have a lot of repetitions to back it up. We always need repeatable experiments that keep finding the same thing; like, say, we actually do keep seeing what time of day people were born just by comparing an astrological chart to their Self projective drawings...if and when we can subjects to put out. The lack of free flowing self-expression is a bit of an obstacle; most people stop being creative and naively expressive at about age eleven or twelve, I hear. I truly think that inhibition is the only real stumbling block, not our lack of talent for expressing an individual self, or Self. My best guess is this imaginary map drawing task is the best task to centerpiece any formal experimentation.

Forensic Hogwart-ery: JK Rowling's birth time no longer a secret.....Jo's actual map sketch on display here:

The birth time of Harry Potter's creator is officially unknown. Shall we solve that mystery for her....? Pssst..., it's about 7 AM, Jo .

Fig. 1a JK Rowling's Map Sketch of Hogwarts Compared to Birth Chart

Not "just any" map or natal chart can be thrown together, and declared "just as good" as any other. The half-hearted melange thereby produced, such as in the case of a disingenuous seeming, hyper-skeptical, James Randi, styled disclaimer, doesn't really fit. The devoted fan and author of this unofficial website draws his carefully deduced map of Hogwarts and environs. When we do try to match this deduced map to the natal chart , of JK Rowling, it is awkward at best--just doesn't have any kind of elegant fit. Close, but no cigar. (So now I guess we''ll have to get a hold of one, Steve Vander Ark, and see if we can learn any thing about how his attempted map of Hogwarts was altered by the injection of his own birth pattern expression...:)

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The Jungian Rhizome
Fig. 2 "Roots" -- Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo has here also made an unitentional reference, via an admixture Mimesis and symbolic Diegesis , to the pattern her birth chart. Having found only her birth date and place, I was able to make an experiment of this abstract self portrait : by cycling through the pattern possbilities for the correct date and place, I merely adjusted the time being charted until the two images looked most alike, more or less. We see she has a "Moon"-looking object placed high in the portrait, depicting the bottom of here dress, but it is not as correctly postioned as Lori's token "Moon" , in Fig. 1. For the record, Lois Rodden eventually found a photo of Frida's birth certificate, as filed in Mexico, it cited 8:30 AM, exactly. But we are of course required to accept that science defines this as just a lucky guess.
An image in the process of being composed seems to have all kinds of artistic forces working on it simultaneously. So the postion of a crescent shape, which is the essential character of the glyph astrology uses to indicate the moon, might be urged into a given location on the painting by the psyche in the process of projecting it's Self. Here Carl Jung meets Johannes Kepler. The pattern of Kepler's astrological idea, his "remembered image", (see quote above) , well , I say, "there glows" the Moon as the psyche remembers it in her natal chart, (which of course could not possibly exist in what we call reality) .

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The Case of Amazing, Wholly Unreasonable, Totally Unexpected, Empirical Nature of Horoscopic Expressionism, and the .03% Error.

Fig. 3 "Self Regeneration" -- Emanuela Ligal

Here is an "experiment" I conducted using our priceless internet access to images an birth data: an abstract self-portrait, entitled "Self Regeneration", by one Emanuela Ligal:
Fig. 3a http://pedantus.free.fr/Ligal_E_SelfRegeneration.gif

I saw the crescent moon's token/glyph, and Mars appearing as the projecting ignition switch depicted on the neck of this figure. Here's is how I "measured" it:
Fig. 3b http://pedantus.free.fr/Ligal_E_Fig.3.gif
I emailed the artist. I disguised the expected birth time by adding two hours to my estimated of birth time, 3:14 PM. I did this to prevent a false positive response, some people either don't remember the correct time, or may even just try to please the "astrologer" by politely letting him seem to be correct. This was a good chance to find out if I had the right stuff going on in my head, so I was very careful to let the artist come up with her birth the time all on her own. Well, she wrote back and confirmed my "guess":

Dear Roger L. Satterlee I was born on 17th May 1958 at 3:10 PM. Does this makes any sense to you? I hope so. Thanks for yours appreciations and many greetings for yours studies. Ciao Emanuela Ligal

Yes, Emanuela, this does make wonderful sense. It was supposed to be a self-portrait, and I think we just proved that it is a *Self * -portrait.

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And then there are some things that are just too good to be true!
Fig. 4 "CityEscape" -- Kenji Toyooka
http://kenjitoyooka.com/
Fig. 4a Comparision of Drawing-vs-(suspected) Chart

Come on, Kenji! Lets find that birth time, huh?

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Update May 23, 2006
Thank you so much, Kenji..:)
Fig. 4b Comparision of Drawing-vs-Actual Chart

There is a rare if not completely unique experience/phenomenon which occurs in this overlay. It is as if a mimetic parallelism involving Uranus exists between these two graphics. Each graphic is the product of two differnt, separate, seeming unrelated, human arts. Note that the glyph for the astrological planet , Uranus (itself being but a symbol) has here somehow been projected and expressed in the visual form of an automobile stick shiter and gearbox shifting pattern. It just blows me away. It may not be "real" but we *can* use it, empirically, to accurately identify the artist's birth time. We can either see it as confirmation of his given birth data, or the means to make an accurate, observable, "prediction" guess of his birth, accurate to within with a few minutes. I just didn't beleive it was probable enough to honestly suspect it to be as it apparentlty is, just there...capable of being, astrologically speaking, "real"....:)

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Roger L. Satterlee
Elmira, New York
May 21, 2006

email: me