Revisiting Structuralism: its mediated existence

Struc·tur·al·ism

1.) A method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system that reflect patterns underlying a superficial diversity

2.) The doctrine that structure is more important than function

Web definitions

__ linguistics defined as the analysis of formal structures in a text or discourse

__an anthropological theory that there are unobservable social structures that generate observable social phenomena

__ a sociological theory based on the premise that society comes before individuals

wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

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The Zodiac of Astrology simply reflects the idea of unobserved structure as it occurs in language, art, and philosophy; it did not invent hidden or "occult" structures.

___Though while young I may have been somewhat unaware of my own preferences for a more structured life, it is true that a more predictable or understandable one has come to be much more desirable than a more rebellion-inclined, happy-go-lucky, chaotic one. And, I kind of like my ideas to be more like me in that respect. I would rather brood a little on a regular basis and feel a little boxed in than to feel always left adrift and or all at sea. The reality we should then hope for, the one I actually want to live in, should be one of strong but adaptable forms, persistent but amenable, like the structure of language itself. So eventually it did come to my mind, as if in the case of a truth by way unwilling belief, that the above mentioned idea--that there indeed are "unobservable" structures tending to dictate how one thing, concept, or idea ,relates to another, actually does play an important part in my personal philosophy, my world view. Due to having no particular interest in extreme positions or absolutist's dogma, I see the pragmatic incorporation of structuralism and its mediation--the de-structuralising oppositional forces of intervening individualistic chaos--the presence of mold-breaking inventiveness in the world, as being both beneficial and essential to my imagining the state of reality the best I can. Faith, in this respect, is an unyielding belief that I too am entitled to a somewhat agreeably formed and dependable vision of a workable 'reality'.

What does the most general form of this structuring-of-everything look like? Say, if it were condensed to a circular graph composed of all the potentials for a harmonized plurality of life's expressions ?

__This is were all the fun begins. Having searched life experiences for a suitable circular graphing idea candidate, it is hard to miss that astrologers may have already attempted this organizational chart in the forming of the Zodiac concept. Though it is probably part revelation or inspiration, what if it is also 98% perspiration as well. What if the ancients were at least as intelligent as moderns? Could they have been at least as seriously working at philosophy and psychology, not merely dogmatic theology, with the same highest of intentions that most of us would so willing ascribe to the academic scholars of our own day? In contemplating the apparent relationships between major concepts of Western culture; how we are logocentric, meaning a word stands for a thing's existence, and how we tend to value reason with an appeal to a logic with its categorical forms, how we state what is included or excluded from a given word or statement. I here began with the plotting position of "Up" as being most authoritative and purpose-driven place of any such attempt at graphing our collective thinking habits or nature upon a circle:

__It wasn't too long after constructing this graphic, I began reading about the topic of Linguistics, and so encountered the works of one Steven Pinker. Lo and behold, he had already created a similar graph:

__Steven Pinker's graphic places his idea of purpose on top, "up," because the mind's unltimate goal, ala Pinker, is to converse--to emit speech form the mouth and detect it withe the use of the ears. But notice that "Semantics," our personal meaning, is likewise subject to the exact same motives that I cited in my graph, "Belief and Desires." I don't mind saying that seeing this did tickle me pink. I had used the traditional associations of the Zodiac Signs of Sagittarius (belief) and Scorpio (desire) to cite the same implicit structuring or coordination of motives. So, how does Steven Pinker's graph reconcile with my suggestion? Being that we came at this graphing task from two different purposes; mine more philosophical, his more biological and psychological, it turns our we are nearly upside-down mirror images in terms of the background of the unflinching pattern of the Zodiac. Note that because we ended up with a mirror image, Pinker's labels need to be reveresed to an awkward sounding "Desires and Belief" and "Ears and Mouth," in order to be technically correct Zodiac-ally. This reversing of terms phenomena we see here just stands to show that the Zodiac was traditonally conceived the way in which I show it, and that Pinker, himself totally unfamiliar with the Zodiacal frame's "unobserved" structuralism, nevertheless silently adheres in principal to basic notions of what-goes-with-what quite naturally!

Long-handled Spoons

The Long-handled Spoons; an allegorical tale selected from the public domain for its Self-similar properties.

[ see the text of this fable at the bottom of this page ]

Sometimes we encounter a piece of creativity containing at least some metaphorical elements or components which almost immediately enchant us. We are struck with the impression that we are experiencing a rare specific kind of personal resonance. We identify with whatever it is, either on the whole, or in some very significant portion thereof. Somehow a serendipitously discovered phrase, image, quotation, or story strikes us as being very much like what we feel we in ourselves--something that we also feel we have to say. Going beyond the surface considerations of what the author or artist intends for us to understand about his representation, we may subconsciously attend to the very important manner of how things are said or depicted, perhaps therein lies our first recognition of some uncanny familiarity. The experience is one of a remarkable sameness existing between this symbolic expression, whatever the medium, and something unmistakably like me, rather than just being reminiscent someone we know, or merely akin to our general take on human nature.

This experience of something being suddenly self-similar is probably not a purely passive one, it seems to me that we actively project our personal meaning outward when we perceive a thing, perhaps as if just to see if something of ourselves sticks to it, so to speak. A kind of mirroring seems to take place at such moments and we catch a glimpse of our own subtle self as being strangely similar to something patterned in the words or images. Here before our heightening awareness a curious something seems as if crafted to be a tailor-made fit! Unlike merely clever or witty things, things we might envy for someone having beat us to the performance of it, we feel not left out but recognized in it and gratified by its being there. The appeal is not to our vanity, but to our center, our unique spirit. We feel not prideful, or in any way overly exuberant for having felt personally recognized in this way. The ego is not honored or celebrated, but distinctly feels a little bit more like a whole person, one with all its ineffable parts working harmoniously and in particularly good order.

When first I read this status update of a Facebook friend, this story of the Long-handled Spoons, I saw it as not particularly interesting or especially well done, however it was about the role of a symbolic object, a special large spoon endowed with only limited utility. This then piqued my interest--my admittedly somewhat eccentric personal perceptions of art and its use of symbols. Astrology, as redacted by me for my own purposes, has it that the astrological Moon is often represented by a spoon in literary metaphors. And, not because the words rhyme or that they appears in folksy songs including the word, June. It is because of our way of experiencing and classifying things in general; a thing as a particular shape, with its usual color, and its typical function in a social setting--its meaning. A spoon is very strongly connected to certain social expectations, this even though many cultures may never use them. What, I wondered, was the comparable role of a 'long-handled spoon' in the natal chart of the woman who chose to, at least in part, represent or project her own self metaphorically...was this a case of horoscopic expressionism on her part ? And, if the astrological Moon is ostensibly a literary "spoon," then what is the "long-handle," astrologically speaking? A handle long enough, we see in the reading to the fable, to have the ability to reach across a large round table. I sense the presence of an opposition aspect--the 180 degree angle of separation which reaches across the circle of the chart as a whole. So here the the Moon is probably opposite some planet which symbolizes the property of largeness. That would be Jupiter, traditionally also known as the "greater benific" planet. Now we have an empirical hypothesis--was this woman born with a prominent Moon opposite Jupiter? If you look at the chart illustration above, you will see that this assumption (or hypothesis) was indeed correct. After learning the correct birth date, I wondered if I could test astrology's House and Sign theories of associations by attempting another 'prediction'...is it possible that she was born with the natal Sun in the Twelfth House, the house most associated with limitations imposed upon the self ? Opposite the Twelfth House we find the Sixth House, which is traditionally considered to be associated strongly with the idea of service, employment, and particularly any tending to the sick or needy. Here then is the purpose of this symbol-crunching exercise: I wanted to test the possibility that this woman chose this self-similar seeming story because it was a special case of natal chart resonance. If she indeed did choose this story as a surrogate form of self presentation--a kind of unconsciously performed abstract self-portraiture, does it follow that is it then possible to 'predict' her unknown time of birth? Given only the correct birth date and the symbolic parallels we find by way of comparing these two different arts, both of which have human intuitions as their foundational source code, we apparently can find support for the folk psychology suspicion that we all curiously are "what we choose" in some respects.

Because we can see that the Moon is indeed opposite Jupiter, my first hypothesis is confirmed by learning the woman's correct birth date and erecting at natal chart for noon. Our second hypothesis--that the Sun is probably in the Twelfth House--we can quantify by stating the time frame of this 'predicted' Sun position. As a matter of astronomical calculation, the Sun could be could be in astrology's Twelfth House at any time between, say, 6:30 and 8:15 AM. I pragmatically chose 7:30 AM on the basis of the overall look of the chart, always paying attention to what house the other planets would be found at a given time. Upon seeking confirmation, I was informed that it could have been 6:30 or 7: 30 AM , that two memories of events featuring similar times of day were competing with one another. Feeling somewhat more resolute she stated that the strongest impression was that of 6:30 AM , but admitted a lack of certainty, and that it could have been one or the other specific time.

There are many synchronisitic details in this chart-v-story comparison, instances in which the planets in specific aspects, signs, and houses, exquisitely parallel the story's use of metaphoric analogy with parallel frames of relational structurings, corollaries which I find infinitely more interesting that the actual tale itself. These extraordinary examinations of this otherwise somewhat dreary tale, does give me a sense of the term spiritual insight, whatever that term may really mean. Though an astrologist's particular thematic apperceptions are probably a prerequisite for the nuanced details here, one can experience in these comparisons a wonderfully unique way to find the sacred residing securely in things most mundane. Apparently we have a way of finding god(s) in the details by way of this astrological semiosis. I think the natal chart of astrology is our artistically inspired creative search for a way to address the issue of human individual identity by way of a disciplined divination. Art, not Science, is where the founding principles lie; the comparisons between astrology and Art in general seem best to hold the keys to understanding the spirit of astrology's unparalleled gifts.

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The Long-handled Spoons

A Holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, 'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in..

In the middle of the room was a large round table...

In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew,

Which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly.

They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell. They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water.

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand.

It is simple,' said the Lord. 'It requires but one skill.

You see, they have learned to feed each other.

The greedy think only of themselves.'

When Jesus died on the cross, he was thinking of you.

Its estimated most won't forward this.

If you are one who will, forward this with the title.

I will always share my spoon with you.

Nicolas Camille Flammarion

(26 February 1842—3 June 1925)

An example of one whose natal chart is strongly 'influenced' by a very prominent Moon position:

( chart illustration from astro.com; text quoted from Wikipedia )

"What intelligent being, what being capable of responding emotionally to a beautiful sight, can look at the jagged, silvery lunar crescent trembling in the azure sky, even through the weakest of telescopes, and not be struck by it in an intensely pleasurable way, not feel cut off from everyday life here on earth and transported toward that first stop on the celestial journeys? What thoughtful soul could look at brilliant Jupiter with its four attendant satellites, or splendid Saturn encircled by its mysterious ring, or a double star glowing scarlet and sapphire in the infinity of night, and not be filled with a sense of wonder? Yes, indeed, if humankind — from humble farmers in the fields and toiling workers in the cities to teachers, people of independent means, those who have reached the pinnacle of fame or fortune, even the most frivolous of society women — if they knew what profound inner pleasure await those who gaze at the heavens, then France, nay, the whole of Europe, would be covered with telescopes instead of bayonets, thereby promoting universal happiness and peace." — Camille Flammarion, 1880

Flammarion was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works aboutastronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritism and related topics. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie, starting in 1882. He maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France.

In 1907 he wrote that he believed that dwellers on Mars had tried to communicate with the Earth in the past.^[2] He also believed in 1907 that a seven tailed comet was heading toward Earth.^[3] In 1910 for the appearance ofHalley's Comet, he believed the gas from the comet's tail "would impregnate [the Earth's] atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet."^[4]

The Expressive Art of David Lynch

Some people are just more expressive than others, and David Lynch is one of those people for whom the phrase, "really out there," seems true in both senses of the word. He's both really weird and personally very present, perhaps more psycho-semantically on display in his artwork than most. We are probably justified in wondering, just how demonic is this man's muse?

As the astrology of art goes, the extremes of expression seemed tied to the extremes of astrological circumstances. The demon muse we suspect in Lynch's art is probably directly attributable to the fact that Mars is nearly exactly conjunct Saturn in his natal chart; their difference in celestial longitude is only 4 seconds of arc. That's a mere .001 degree difference! This Mar/Saturn conjunction is opposite both Sun and Venus(within the margin of a 180 degree aspect).

This piece; Wild At Heart Movie Poster, designed by Rich Kelly for a David Lynch art exhibition, is really odd in that it is not David Lynch's personal artwork, but evidently passed the test of his approval. This selection (or adoption) of images or other things for the purpose of representing the Self in an important way is equally important in the process of signaling the presence of one's individuality as identity. It is probably the most common way art is used by people to 'find themselves,' so to speak. Anyway Rich Kelly has done a masterful job of catching the natal chart pattern of 'david-lynch-ness'. Those of us who do not expressively produce art, and that may be most of us, tend to identify with some recognizable portions of the expressions of others, as if this process actually helps each of us to gather the notions of our selfhood when and where these become available in our social experiences.

More views of this art-v-chart comparison:

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_08a1.gif

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_08a.gif

Mars is the astrological planet I see more prominently expressed by males, (where as, if I had to pick one, I say the Moon more often for females). Why this is true is not for me to say, its just true that I can seem to find the expression of Mars more easily than other planets, and males express it more often. Part of the reason is due to the fact that symbolic Mars is more closely associated with action. Its presence in depictions is usually found in the guise of red colors and pointed, if not also sharp, objects. These can be soft such flames tips or hard like knives, spears, ect.. My rule of thumb states that a significant pointy thing points to natal Mars' natal chart position as we find it in a chart erected for the correct birth time, date, and location.

The natal chart pattern can be readily found in many of Lynch's works:

This one has a degree of simplicity and it works well for a visual aid here even though it is a photo of a sculpture. Note here that the conjunction of Mars and Saturn are reduce to their brute existence--confined to the mere admixture of a black object (Saturn) attached to a red pointed object (Mars), and Jupiter is expressed in the form of a rectangular structure (Jupiter is often found in the form of a box or rectangular container of sorts).

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_03a1.gif

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_03a.gif

"Light Fire Boy": (Note Jupiter is here another form of rectangular container)

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_01a1.gif

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_01a.gif

"Eat My Fear" ( projecting red organ points to Mars)

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_07a1.gif

http://pedantus.free.fr/Lynch_D_07a.gif

Visual Frame of Reference for Astrological Houses:

House 12 versus House 1

Advertising images are created to be psychologically effective. This studied art of touching just the right human nerves also shows us that there is little or no separation in the unconscious mind concerning the art of horoscope graphic projection and the more common experience of visual metaphors upon which these graphics of ad-men apparently rely. From the Wikipedia article describing astrological House 'meanings' we find the parallel ideas, the shared poetry, of these two often unappreciated-ly similar graphic projections of symbolized human expectations of 'reality'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_%28astrology%29

House 1:
"House of Self -- Physical appearance, traits and characteristics. First impressions. General outlook into the world. Ego. Beginnings and initiatives.

HOUSE 12:
House of Self-Undoing-- Mysticism. Places of seclusion such as hospitals, prisons and institutions, including self-imposed imprisonments. Things which are not apparent to self, yet clearly seen by others. Elusive, clandestine, secretive or unbeknownst matters. Retreat, reflection and self-sacrifice. Unconscious/subconscious. Unknown enemies."

Why humor 'works' is because it relies on something acceptedly true but as yet not clearly revealed. The "self-undoing" of our poor file clerk is foreshadowed first by simply positioning his paperwork project in the visual space which astrology calls House 12.

The graphics used in advertising are not confined to merely Freudian-styled seductions appealing to the sexual libido, as was popularly discussed at length perhaps in the 1960's. When we want to tap the intellect of the ad consumer , the observer of the graphic metaphor, we need to stimulate the naturally occurring relationships between visual information and language proper--need to bridge the pre-consciously construed and manipulated language productions which emerge as conscious awareness, impressions and thoughts, with our intended spin on "truth" relations...what-goes-with-what-and-why. Our most common notions of how everything is related to everything else probably remains a silent sort of half-unconscious 'knowing'.

The image of the ream of paper being drafted down the wind tunnel is the perfect visual parallel for the meaning of astrology's House 12--of "self-undoing".

Likewise the House 1 theme of self projection and the ardent pioneering of egoistic goals is visually projected by the Ducati rider and his orientation to this scene. Man, bike, and slip stream all working together to hammer away on the the 'meaning' of astrology's House 1.

The more general psychological/linguistic connection of Motion versus Speech , or more correctly the inseparable intellectual experience(s) of Transportation and Communication, is also here very well illustrated. The limitations of foreign language confinements are of course going to be overcome by Xerox, and, as well, any time or distance constraints. Thus the subliminal message here is 'astrological' in spirit--the human unconscious experience of what astrology calls Houses. Unlike an attempt to make the viewer feel thirsty, hungry, or sexually aroused, the creator of this ad wants you to feel the self-confining and almost suicidal nature of your present copying and publishing practices versus the speed and freedom of a Ducati rider. And he does it very well, where I'm concerned...I cannot watch those papers flying without suffering needlessly... ;)

Astro-twins? Patty Hearst and "Armature" --a graphic novel character

http://www.olyoptics.com/test/arm-comics.html



For those unfamiliar with Patty Hearst:

"[..] On February 4, 1974, Hearst, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Randolph A. Hearst and Catherine C. Hearst, of the Hearst newspaper chain, was kidnapped by a tiny group of political extremists who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). They locked Hearst in a closet for many weeks, where she was taunted, sexually assaulted, and raped repeatedly. The SLA held her for an unusual form of ransom: they demanded that the Hearst family distribute millions of dollars of food to poor and needy people of the San Francisco Bay area. Although the Hearsts complied with this and other SLA demands, the young woman did not return to her parents. Instead, she sent them a tape recording in which she announced that she had decided to become a revolutionary, join the SLA, and go underground. [..]


Patty Hearst's Stockholm syndrome episode is uncannily like the life experience of "Armature," the latter being a totally fictional character and the creation the graphic novelist, Steve Oliff. Patty Hearst also became a, "A chaotic neutral amnesiac, a cross between a doomed kid and an alien."
I only found these existing similarities by making a little experiment, by searching for any artist who may have been born on the same date as Patty Hearst. I was testing out my premise that there are what I call parallel expressions of the "influences" of a given day, and these are manifested in the way persons express themselves 'artistically'. These related expressions can be found in different people, or more often from the same person at different times, are like variations on a theme in music, or in the arts in general.


question:
If there is any truth to the premise of astrology, how come people born on the same day are obviously not the same ?

answer:
Well, the answer is really another question--what does the same really mean ?

The better question might be, how much are they alike, and why any likeness at all? Why is it that Patty Hearst 'real life' fictional character, "Tanya," was created in such a way as to be mentally or emotionally similar to Steve Oliff's , Armature--the first character he ever created and wrote for on his own.

I was stunned when I read the description of Armature. I mean, what are the odds that I could intentionally seek out a person born on Patty Hearst's birth date, and get such an eloquently relevant introduction?


The second part of this experiment was to see if I could use Steve's art work to make an educated guess as to what time of day he was born. The following illustration shows how we can use one of his promotional drawings from Amazon.com to identify his birth time.

illustration comparing drawing to birth chart:
http://pedantus.free.fr/Oliff_S_01b.gif

Mars, the astrological planet symbol, has its expressed parallel in drawings as a "pointy thing," in male drawings. Birth charts are of course drawings too, of a sort, and I find that artistic (expressive) drawings show the same inspiration, the same something-or-other in the human psyche which finds its way in to language and graphic arts. This character, Stiletto, has such a big sword that it covers quite a bit of angle. At four minutes of time for each degree of the Zodiac, I could only come close to the exact birth time. I did not realize that if we split the sword in this picture (above) we do get nearly the exact Zodiacal degree said to be ascending at the actual time of birth. So, it was a successful anecdotal "experiment", which of course pleases me to no end... : )

Rog

Objectivising Ayn Rand

Having taken up a renewed interest in Ayn Rand, I thought I would do a search for a quotation in which Rand uses a figure of speech, and see if I could relate that to her natal chart in terms of the visual positioning of birth planet placement. I got lucky on the first quote I found, and here it is:

from: http://www.mondopolitico.com/ideologies/atlantis/whatisobjectivism.htm

"[..] Ayn Rand was as much an advocate of philosophy in general as she was of Objectivism in particular. She made the point that, whether you have chosen to study philosophy or not, everyone holds beliefs consciously or unconsciously that give rise to, at least, an implicit or subconscious set of principles. As Ayn Rand put it:

"You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational convictions - or a grab bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, context and consequences you do not know, notions which, more often than not, you would drop like a hot potato if you knew. [..]"

I wondered if the assertive Ayn Rand would give us a projection of natal Mars, but being that Mars was on the very bottom of the chart, I couldn't imagine how this might be accomplished, especially since females generally do not get involved with sharp objects like spears , swords, knives, etc. . However they do refer to Mars as something hot, and here the trite sounding trope is simply about something to hot to hold on to, "drop like a hot potato".

This quote, like most figurative language, is a combination of ideas and images, or better, ideas in the form of images. The processing of human language seems very involved with the brain's processing of visual information, if you see what I'm saying, here... : )

[ a little update/addition : ]

Thanks to a bit of feedback, I see another quote worth citing after having looked for Rand's first novel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
[..]
Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical, We the Living, was published in 1936. Set in Soviet Russia, it focused on the struggle between the individual and the state. In the foreword to the novel, Rand stated that We the Living "is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not..." [..]

http://quotes.livejournal.com/6730364.html
[..]
"It's because...you see, if we had souls, which we haven't, and if our souls met--yours and mine--they'd fight to the death. But after they had torn each other to pieces, to the very bottom, they'd see that they had the same root." [..] --Ayn Rand, from, We the Living

Its handy for us when author's admit that they are being autobiographical. This being Rand's first novel allows me to think that it probably is a better (less diluted) sort of Self-expression than in later works. There's something about a freshness in art which usually occurs earlier than later; maybe not on the very first try, but certainly before a certain sophistication of self editing renders works less personal, or less raw, whatever the right word here. In reading the above quotation our mind's eye is directed again to the lowest point--to the "bottom. " What could be more at "root," concerning this aggressiveness, as described, than natal Mars--the potential for violent aggression which the author definitely intends to explicitly address?

(Illustration: Any Rand's natal chart showing Mars at the lowest point possible, visually.)

http://pedantus.free.fr/Rand_Ayn_01a.gif

From the standpoint of, well, perhaps ego psychology, it appears that the projection of the Self is complete, in that the other here seems assumed to be just the same as, a mirroring of, the speaking character (--who is the author herself, for my purposes).



Why do I bother to do such a silly seeming exercise ?


Astrology when limited to a search for a Helgelian sort of understanding of Individualism lets us practice thinking of persons as integral parts of a whole, which is of course humanity in all its varied possibilities. But, some people aren't aware that Hegel did talk about the phenomenology of the Self as truly being an individual existence in its own right. So, I'd better clear that up for any anti-Hegel readers.

[..] In Hegel's thought we can find the beginnings of the distinctly "modern" self -- a self emphasizing the unique personality and the idea of individual freedom -- in particular the freedom to express and actualize the unique individual will. In the Phenomenology of Mind Hegel developed his logic of individual growth to increasing levels of self-awareness. While the ultimate goal in his philosophy was to link the individual with a collective community of like spirits, his self begins that search toward self-actualization through an individual subjective encounter with the material world. [..] (--Neala Schleuning) http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SA/en/display/292

The phenomenon of a given individuated person (Hegel's' term, a "Self-consciousness" ) can be seen as the successful manifestation and transmission of certain Particular Universals which apparently dominate a human being as if these options for being are the result of some kind metaphysical 'genetic' inheritance. My metaphysics are injected here of course, Hegel doesn't admit any relationship to astrology as holistic philosophical structure. And I don't admit any relationship to Hegel's statist political vision, whatever. For an astrologist, individuals and a required individualism absolutely do exist, as they say, in-and-for themselves. The variously distributed elements of astrological 'influences' are here considered particular universals simply assumed available via the time-ordered lottery of possible celestial inheritances, these obstensibly seeking manifestation in each, more or less, unique individual human being.

The beauty of this natal chart art view, horoscopic expressionism, is how little it matters what one says or thinks, but rather, how one says it--how one depicts one's Self in the form of an appreciable linguistic figure. It helps always to remember that persons are all, at some moment, engaged in abstract self-portraiture as a means to 'being there' for us--a way for someone to be objectively observable to us. However, creativity, a creative act of some kind, seems the only way out of the isolation of one's individual mind and into the the mind of another as perceiver of our presence in the world of human beings. Our individual presence in the world, our being as a separate person, cannot simply be a random quotation of another person's existence. If not successful at this art of being an individuated presence, by way of one's own creativity, then we run the risk of simply becoming objectivised, and probably cataloged in someone else's expedient collective human typology and its socially devised nomenclature. We remain a kind of 'thing' that is more brute physical presence than a spiritually present human entity.

One of the reasons I like the spirit/mind of Hegel, or his Phenomenology, is that he too saw that we can turn everything around to find truth in just about any proposition, and thus while I detest the stated aims of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism," I too am a kind of objectivist. I can quite without the slightest quiver of conscience treat Ayn Rand as an object for my dissection . And, in so doing, I can find her both as an interesting object, and as a subject capable of eliciting my spontaneous compassion. What choices did she have, how did she choose, and how do I fairly judge her choices for Self-expression.

Here then is an illustration of Ayn Rand's birth chart relationship to the Hegelian/Marxist philosophical structure which so animated her that she seems inextricably entangled within in it.
http://pedantus.free.fr/Ayn_Rand-v-HegelsDialectics_01a.gif

Though we like to imagine that we have a great deal of choice in how we align ourselves with social expectations and such, I think there are many uncatalogued mental 'illnesses'--like the hundreds of trivial viruses which go unidentified and unnamed due to the small impact these have on our basic vitality, their impairments not being anywhere near fatal even if to become chronic. As well, she may have actually been a true sociopath, but there is no way I could actually know such a thing. But these socially unpleasant forms of one's being-one's-self, seem not so much the products of an enabling 'creativity' but as a social burden and a form of personal suffering which apparently can become a chronic dis-ease. This then is how I see Ayn Rand; her creative offerings as the product of her personal suffering which she projects out upon the world, the objectified world of an Ayn Rand. She is of course attempting to be herself, but perhaps narcissistic-ally trying to be more a Universal rather than merely a very ordinary sort of an inherited collection of particular universals which are ubiquitously available to the spirit/mind/consciousness, and are routinely worked into any soul's personal art of individuation--the creative act of Self potential (Identity) being (with learning and effort) made manifest as socially significant Being.

That existence which we see and come to know as another individual seems totally dependent on the learned creative use of language as the outlet facility for natal chart-like sets of particularized inheritance of universals. Simply put, Ayn Rand, at one moment in time, solved the need to project her personally particular inheritance of what astrology calls Mars by employing the common trope, drop like a hot potato. This creative choice gives a measure of Ayn Rand-ness to an otherwise hopelessly cliched figure, by pointing to where we will find Mars visually located in her chart. In making this observation we have totally objectivised Ayn Rand... : )

Kojève's reading of Hegel

The following quote (below) is from, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, (p. 229), by Alexandre Kojève . In this paragraph Kojève does a nice job of pulling together several ideas found in Hegel's description of what he (Hegel) sees as that which defines being human in terms of Man's dialectical reality (Totality). Below that paragraph one will find a graphic illustration as to how Hegel's terms seem drawn from the underlying philosophical structure of astrology. We can observe that Hegel's opposed notions, like "the action of Work" versus "the innate Given" which are responsible for the "realized Idea" are here; opposed to one another, and also related to one another by both specific astrological signs and specific angular relationships between related/interacting terms of his "Dialectic". In short, Hegel's reality just seems to go together this way, and we can use the structure of astrology's cyclical Zodiac to better illustrate, to better map, (or chart) his reportedly "obscure" points of reference. I have used a green dotted line to show how Kojève starts his discussion talking about how an idea is born from Desire. Using this astrological framework we can more readily grasp how Kojève explains the dialectical process of an idea's becoming, and how it is not Hegel's intention to confuse this birth of an idea as something Platonic, not something simply arriving a priori from some place beyond reality, the Idea is not given to Man as if from a god.

Persistence of Identity versus "Death of the Author"

Even though I think I am in near total agreement with Roland Barthes , "The Death of the Author." (Image, Music, Text. Ed. and trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill, 1977) ,
I am very reluctant to concede the non-existence of an identifiable individual person who performs the role of the author in his/her individuated manner. In short, literary assemblies of words are not, or may not necessarily be, reliant upon an individual author for their individually transcendent meaning, or their perpetual symbolic societal existence as preserved acts of language. However, the Identity of the person performing the "author function" remains a matter for astrology to define, discover, and (if necessary) recover. The maw of society's materialistic, humanistic, blank slate-preaching, individuality swallowers is ever gaping! And here, by identity, I mean that pattern of recognizable individual human potentials which comes to us in symbol form only by way of the art of astrology, and its very basic idea, the individual birth chart--that which plots the planets of the solar system and the angles of each relative to the others. These birth planets in aspects can be shown to be as if , for the purposes of critical analysis, algebraic formulations of human; references, perceptions, desires, and intentions peculiar to a given artistic expression and its 'author'. Art's perceivers can use astrology to identify an author in terms of his/her birth chart pattern, if they will but also learn the basic vocabulary of modern Western astrology.

By way of specific example of how to introduce empirical evidence into a realm previously considered to be completely dominated by revelatory subjective perceptions, I have the following example which was prompted by a recent email exchange with a skeptical person wholly uniformed about the nature of what I call Horoscopic Expressionism (--the unconscious natal chart patterning of one's creative/artistic self-expression). As much as practically no intelligent person wants it to be true, something very like astrology exists in the human psyche. To show its presence, we can actually form testable hypotheses which are completely fallible, falsifiable--'predictions' which can be dead wrong...or, we shall see, can be dead right. But at no time are you going to witness a magic act, you, the reader, are going to have to be interested in, at least mildly interested in, art, literature, humanity, and the unconscious nature of individuality; and, you will have to be willing to work at appreciating/understanding the relevance and the importance of the following example. Nobody gets it for free... : )

Here is the some email text which stimulated this blog post:

"[..] I think I responded way too hastily to your last message. Sorry. I will get back to you on this. You have given me a lot to consider.

My belated, quasi-Hippie experience may have scared me into letting the Establishment build it's walls around me. And, in fact, I may have gotten out my favorite spackling tool and helped it. I'm thinking _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_. Remember that book? [..]"

And my (edited/rewritten) reply to the stimulating email :

No, I have never read the book, but we can read a short summary from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich



from the Plot Summary:
"[..] The rest of the day mainly speaks of Shukhov's squad (the 104th, which has 24 members), their allegiance to the squad leader, and the work that the prisoners (zeks) do—for example, at a brutal construction site where the cold freezes the mortar used for bricklaying if not applied quickly enough. Solzhenitsyn also details the methods used by the prisoners for survival; the whole camp lives by the rule of survival of the fittest. Tiurin, the foreman of gang 104 is strict but kind, and the squad grows to like him more as the book goes on. Though a "morose" man, Tiurin is liked because he understands the prisoners and he tells them a lot and does a lot to help them. Shukhov is one of the hardest workers in the squad and is generally well respected. Rations at the camp are scant, but for Shukhov, they are one of the few things to live for. He conserves the food that he receives and is always watchful for any item that he can hide and trade for food at a later date. [..]


So, by now, even professional astrologers are likely as not to scratching their heads trying their level best to see what I might be thinking about here as we read the summary (above). To explain--this is the point at which we enter into the analysis phase of the astrological-literary criticism task at hand. The goal here is for us to somehow see evidence of an identifiable 'author' of the text , here simply referencing a text which is merely describing a text for us on the basis of its redacted imagery--its excised idea content alone is our sample! The specific record a particular act of human ideation, itself, is the piece of the individual author we now are holding here in our hand for close reading and translation.
To detect the presence of an individual author we have to translate his idea/word picture into astrological symbolism. We must turn meaningful words into a similarly meaningful, (but algebraic), symbol figure which is comprised of at least two astrological planets appearing to us as probably being in a specific angular relationship to one another. In short, we must convert English prose snippets of metaphor and metonymy, into an analogous statement in the language of astrology.. into astrolog-ese. The writer's literary tokens, which are meant to symbolize expandable ideas, must themselves be conjured up in our mind as similarly expandable/extendable symbols found in planet/aspect 'algebra'. This is an algebra of qualities, not quantities, but because the planets positions relate to specific date and times of day, the dimension quantification is not lost. Once we make an analysis, decide on what planets are situated thus and thus to one another, we automatically introduce the dimension of chronological time, and thus the capability of objective measurement concerning the validity or falsity of our perception and deductions. We can make a testable hypothesis measured in terms of ordinary units of time, as in any other science.

<>

No, I have not read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but I just did the Wiki search for a summary, and found the reference of brick and mortar construction--the mortar freezing before bricks being laid, if not quickly accomplished, and the parallel symbolism of prisoner solidarity, the difficulty of necessary bonds being likewise quickly over come if there was to be a general hope of survival through constructive behavior.
My mind often leaps to analytical, literary tropes, before I finish reading the brief descriptions of such expressions. I grasp the analogy in its many variations whether I want to or not, like an asperger's case I guess. I see symbolic formula equivalents in 'astrolog-ese'. I make a hypothesis to test.
In this instance I was promptly excited about the sense of an inverted simulacrum (the word used correctly I hope) in the art and person of Robert Frost--perhaps best symbolized in a holistic manner by his poem, "Mending Wall"

How these two authors are similarly unconsciously organized such that they are successfully expressed by this trope , this wall/construction analogy/metaphor, goes to my sense of the individuated existence of an author/the authors. If the perspective of the observing critic here is guided by a desire to see these authors using this creative act as a means to a substantial symbolic existence (ek-sistence), then said observer must also conclude from the privileged viewpoint of one immersed in literary 'astrolog-ese' (as living linguistic real), that the first deduction leading to a testable hypothesis is that these two authors may be expressing the same astrological referents, (Saturn as form, bond, construction and wall: Uranus as both Promethean creative invention, and the dis-uniting capability of any agitating chaos) . So the mind can hypothesize that we are looking at Saturn and Uranus in a cooperative dialectic..yet somehow in an inverted form from author to author.

Frost's wall and the poem's intentions are a part of my experiential vocabulary, and rapidly I remember, see, in my mind Saturn opposite Uranus ...I hear it "speak" from the unconscious of the author--from his Identity, not his Id or whatever...(don't really know the specifics of the difference(s) I'm intuiting here). But anyway, Individuality is the product of a combination of genotypic and phenotypic identification potentialities being manifested, here, as artistic Self-expression . ( I am thinking of the Self as like the astrological natal chart very abstract and not comparable to self, which , to me, seems more like personality than as pure potentiality.

I here illustrate what I 'see' as key to understanding the new author by way of the one already experienced.

Partial natal chart of Robert Frost illustrating my sensing the presence of an astrological tropism:
http://pedantus.free.fr/Frost_R_001a.gif

This graphic shows Saturn opposite Uranus. This potential of Frost' is voiced in his introductory lines of "Mending Wall"
"[..]SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.[..]"

Uranus as chaos threatens the permanence or stability of the stone wall structure , = Saturn. But as we read the poem we discover the intentions of the author to say that this is probably nature's way of showing us we are probably wrong to build walls between neighbors anyway--the chaos is a just intervention of the world's unspeakable wisdom. Well, at least the poet, Frost, suggests something like this view of nature's 'frost' performing with intentions to take down the wall. Saturn as authority imposed arbitrarily, and all sorts of nuanced themes with that flavor are suggested as existing in the Real of life.

So the hypothesis is that Solzhenitsyn also may have his kernel of inspiration in the form of Saturn opposite Uranus. We can objectively test this up until know wholly subjective revelatory awareness. And, before I forget to mention it, this experience was fully conceived in my mind before finishing a small impatiently scanned potion of the novel's Wiki summary.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
graphic illustration:
http://pedantus.free.fr/Solzhenitsyn_A_001a.gif

The timing of these two births separated by four decades is such that they show the inversion of the Saturn opposite Uranus astrological trope. Now the building of a wall is not about merely separate and reluctantly cooperative neighbors we find in Frosts poem. Saturn now in Aquarius (the opposite of Frost's Uranus in Aquarius) is the inversion of the societal relationships--a negative image appearing in the reversal--no longer about a contentedly independent farmers communing at a negligibly necessary task of wall building due to their contiguous physical and social circumstances. In the inversion from Frost to Solzhenitsyn we see forced labor, in a gulag, working quickly to keep mortar from freezing, and persons only cooperating under complete duress--persons suffering a 'society' restricted to limitations of survival of the fittest and canniest. [..] "

With just a little experience and an open mind, I think it is easy to detect the 'feeling' and subsequent mental image of Saturn opposite Uranus, which comes to me quickly when reading the summary of Solzhenitsyn's plot. I think it is easy to remember Frost's poem...what he meant to say and why he says it...easy to remember that he was born with Saturn opposite Uranus (thus Solzhenitsyn logically should have been born with just such a figure in his natal chart) and how those birth planets are expressed as a slight chaos of frost heaves and unsettled boulders atop walls , and the rocky relations with reluctantly social neighbors. In all of this I could be so completely unimaginably mistaken, but to me, I just see academic intellects avoiding this rich understanding of humanity simply because of some kind of totally unfounded metaphysical bias. Individual identity as a function of the dreaded art, astrology, is not hogwash or superstition if we can measure phenomena in terms of rational units of time..this horoscopic expressionism, for want of another term, is the objective, empirical , scientific, observation of a human psychical phenomena.


Rog

Dissected Astrolog-ese versus Linguistic Dissection:

the 'thought' processes behind the intuitive design of the Zodical circle of human experiences.






My prior exploration of astrology's traditional (Greek) intuitions concerning holistic structure seems to be born out here by Steven Pinker's new look at how the mind structures language in general (right-hand diagram is from: "Words and Rules" , page 23, S. Pinker).

Pinker apparently chose to start at a different place on this idealized circle of concepts, so his projection is an upside-down, mirror image, of my own attempt at sketching out the similar processes. As well, his emphasis is on the process of sentence production, so my schematic differs due to my emphasis on process of "ideation," or what Pinker calls calls, "mentalese" (-- thought processes which exist prior to the formation of formal, communicable, linguistic formations).

Anyway, to be brief, my dissection of this thing called astrology (my search for the structure behind "astrological thought") yields a similar systematic pattern to that of Steven Pinker's more educated dissection of language in general. We are both very interested in such reductive ways of thinking, but I seriously doubt that Pinker would be interested in how or why we *kind of* think alike.

[ Click on any picture to see a complete image ]

Abstract Visual Metaphor

[ If your browser does not display two complete images, then left click on the image to see both images. ]


Which of the above images is most is much more closely associated with the following quotation ?

" We do not think good metaphors are anything very important, but I think that a good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on... "


[ now scroll down]




Now read a second quote from the same man a see if you still choose the same image:


"It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard."



Now consider how the two quotes compliment each other and support each other's thesis. This seems very much the way I sense the presence of individuality. Being that I practice sensing and recognizing astrological patterning, I could tell that the author ('speaker,')
was born with the Sun conjunct Neptune (and had some important major aspect of the planet Pluto.) in his natal chart.
Upon checking him out, I find that the angle between the Sun and Neptune was only two minutes of one degree of arc. If one does the math, one finds that my "guess," in terms of percentage of correctness = 99.9999% And, the next planet in terms of closeness of aspect (here a trine, an angle of 120 degrees) was indeed Pluto. These perceptions (not really guesses) are the joy of discovery found only by way of the art of astrology.

Misc.
If anyone reading happen to think of George Orwell, while reading the first quote, you get a gold star, for he too was born Sun conjunct Neptune and Pluto also being the next prominent feature of his natal chart. But here is the author:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georg_Christoph_Lichtenberg

Speculation: If there was an actual author writing about Moses and a "burning bush", was he too born with the Sun conjunct Neptune.... :)
Exodus 3, 1-4:
¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."

⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."

[As you can see, I think astrology has never had the slightest problem engulfing its less imaginative competitors...: ) ]

Cherry Picking to Create Horoscopic Expressionism

"Hi, I'm Roger."

[ the enthusiastically supportive members of cherry pickers anonymous sing out in chorus ]

"Hello, Roger."

"And, I'm a Cherry Picker!" [ head held high, curiously flaunting an obvious heresy without shame. ]

--------------------


From Wikipedia (...eh, its faster):

[..]Cherry picking is the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.[..]

[..]Cherry picking can be found in many logical fallacies. For example, the "fallacy of anecdotal evidence" tends to overlook large amounts of data in favor of that known personally, while a false dichotomy picks only two options when more are available.[..]


But more to the point, the acceptable form of cherry picking can be fundamental to any idea's *defense*:

[..]When a person is assigned to advocate a particular position, then cherry picking might be seen as entirely appropriate. For example, defense lawyers are free to present any evidence supporting the innocence of their client.[..]



"Pick not the rotten or unripe cherries, and claim that they are as fit as any cherry more *likely* to be picked. This indefensible act is but shameless sophistry." - Pedantus Pontificus

<....sorry. just couldn't leave the ol' frother sitting on some park bench.>


Horoscopic Expressionism, as with other forms of astrological communications, has a (currently fuzzy) type of grammar and vocabulary. It's task is to show, rather than merely 'tell,' how to find a more one to one relationship between natal charts and individual persons. It's strategy is to discover parallels of symbolism and a web of inter-symbol functions, which serve the purpose of exhibiting some representational symmetry, some mirroring of charts and persons.
People develop both strategies and various levels of tactical prowess operating within those strategies when confronted with the unavoidable challenge of being their own 'person' representative. In this case, representing oneself in terms being actively 'present'--a 'being there' quality as an entity in a given social realm--a recognized or at least, recognizable, individual (not a just role playing stereotype). Nothing short of one's very existence seems at stake . To fail at presenting/rendering oneself in symbolic ways, effectively, and then one's Individuality is understandably in question--it means nothing short of failing to be social being with acknowledged 'potential' (whomever may be the incidental beneficiary of that social currency).
What's worse, far too many very intelligent social circles still suffer from group-think and thus politically distorted beliefs about Individuality, or that it doesn't even exist! So, to examine how well some persons can present Individuality, from and astrological perspective ( specifically, not as Sun signs, etc.) I continue to suggest that, first, a person must be clearly be able to communicate some form of *specific* relatively singular behavior, and secondly, that astrology must show a more objective than subjective means of being equatable to that target instance of Self-expression....preferably in the form of a recognizable astrological expression--a certain pattern found almost exclusively in one's particular natal chart. As in algebra, both events ( one a specific behavior pattern, the other a more singular planet/aspect/sign/house identifier) should exist as terms that are equally comfortable residing on either side of the equal sign in an equation--it should work *both* ways. If natal chart patterns of planets in aspects (angles), signs, and houses cannot be at least partially deduced from the ('artistic'--creatively coded) expressions of Individuality, then no equation actually can be claimed to exist. (What a bummer, huh? )
I further suggest, that to reject this reciprocating theoretical relationship--to claim things don't work both ways, is to reject any physical reality as to whatever astrology may be altogether. There is no way to execute the hanging of natal astrology, separately, and not also suspect that all of its implications, like co-conspirators, will surely be hung together--their once pedestal-ed feet pathetically dangling in the wind for all time. No physical correlation between the two--Individuality and astrological chart signifier, means no existing astrology.
And, if one is firmly convinced that society creates the presence of Individualism by 'writing' on a persons presumed "blank slate" mind, in the first place, then one probably has no business even commenting on astrology's basic birth chart premise--that it indirectly signifies a hypothetical, particular, innate patterning of individuals occurring (somehow) at birth. This because one has to first at least concede that Individuality may actually exist! Horoscopic Expressionism, then, takes two controversial premises and puts them both to work at a mutually gratifying exercise. They can simply proceed to create each others 'presence' in a limited but more objective seeming manner. We here attempt to employ the powers inherent to art (arts in general) to partially (but significantly, I think ) promote a cooperative exhibitionism which allows two faint ideas to simply superimpose --one fuzzy mental image upon another makes symbiotic details pop out of the admitted incompleteness of both original mental 'images'.
The result is that, wherein these 'images' are found to be coincidentally occupying and sharing some theoretically identified points in mental space, we see that the effects of overlapping materials from each idea make the products of their sandwiched translucent layers a little more opaque--more observable. However, to be fair, some notions we expect to find because they are or were previously presumed to be observable--long standing traditions of associations (and cultural biases), may conversely become more transparent, so as to be 'clearly' not there at all. The latter case probaby threatens some widely popular traditions of astrological beliefs which may be found lacking any persistent art-based structure to support them. To explain, I suggest that not all revelations are testable, therefore not demonstrable hypotheses. These will of course suffer no demise in what is popularly known as astrology, but they will not be relevant to the more objective observational experiences of the more limited realm of Horoscopic Expressionism. So, one by-product of such research may be a status change for many a heart felt notion (if one actually enters the new paradigm, I mean). The more likely to be invalid astrological ideas (of which we all are certain only exist in 'other' people) may be seen to dissipate, and that is understandably a great fear of personal loss for many astrologers who cling to their individually operant perceptions by sheer force of religious-like convictions. (This, I'm certain is not something to put on a recruiting poster intended to promote Horoscopic Expressionism).

How to frame the actual experience of observing Horoscopic Expressionism, how comparison's can actually be accomplished, of course seems rather windy for single post to a newsgroup; so, to the annoyance of many, I promise that examples and explanatory notes ( these often only implied or only very roughly alluded to in past posts) will keep inundating you with words wrenched from the unfathomable machinery of a intermittently functional dyslectic.

Rog

http://pedantus.blogspot.com/
http://horoscopicexpressionism.blogspot.com/

An Anonymous Internet Atheist's Favorite Authors

I.) Partially Random--versus--Much More Random

. The illustration above shows how I plotted the Zodiacal positions of both Sun and Mars from two different groups birth charts. The first is a sample of authors reportedly preferred by a very angry sounding atheist who ardently states that he hates topics like astrology because, "It's obviously just a religion." And, of course, all notions not "scientific" enough for our atheist here are of course, "pure ignorance!" The second chart also a plot of Sun and Mars 'birth' positions for some only hypothetical persons. These plots (yellow circle = Sun, red circle = Mars) were generated using a random number generator program available on the web. What I attempt to show here is the noticeable degree of non-randomness in the birth chart patterns of the authors which were selected as favorites by the angry anonymous internet atheist. The authors which he reportedly most identifies with--his chosen target, "atheist authors, " seem to (unfortunately for him) show the emergence of statistically weak but detectable pattern (trend?) as a result of his choosing them. We cannot know what 'causes' what here, but we can fairly question the apparent lack of expected randomness in this comparison.

. Two things come to mind. Either "atheists", as defined by the subject, have some astrology in common, or the subject's selections were (as I more often come to suspect) an unconsciously performed act of identifying with metaphorical similarities, and thus pointing to persons who are, somehow, (astrologically speaking) very similar to himself. There would seem a certain lack of actual total anonymity implied here. I mean, is the guy himself a Sagittarius native, like two of the three first to be chosen authors in the most center circle (above)? ( In truth I thought he might be Sag, or a late Scorpio like his chosen role models, but that really got him going on about what a complete waste of molecules I truly must be...:)

. Religion is broad topic. Unemotionally viewed as a some kind of neutral object, like a rabbit or personal computer, it has parts, both real and hypothetical, with metaphorical modules or sub-assemblies and individual components. Personally, I see Science itself as having most of the same or alt least very similar types of subroutines and psychological functions, not the least of which is some form definition of the "belief' and 'faith' modules found in both mental activities. This, at least in part, allows me to see Science as *probably* more like the 'religion' (--the belief and faith system) which just happens to have the most *objective* evidence in its corner. But there are atheists in the world with a strong distaste for this kind of sloppy seeming sentiment and implied delusional thinking at its center. Some will vehemently argue that all things not "scientific" in their ways of understanding the world--whether the topic is human life, or merely just "the universe and everything," are unforgivable, abominable acts of perverse ideation--deliberate ignorance--willed malfeasance perpetrated by crackpots and religions (and of course experimenting astrologists) in general. I cannot seem to muster that much anger (or at least attempt to sustain it for longer than I can hold my breath), but some persons can, and it may be more psychological pathology than a 'soldier for science' type unflinching duty to Reason at that point.

========================================================

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)
-----------------------------------------------------

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...:)?