Yin Yang II
Please be patient, student drivers is the name of our valley. Some call it pbp, others esdees, but it’s pbp, esdees
pbp, esdees by Luz Letts
We’re the driving school of all the valleys. It all started with the wheel, I guess
No way, much before that
Taming a horse
Yeah, taming a horse to take us where we wanted to go
There were no signs back then, no lights or signals, no time restrictions or traffic circles
Are you having a bad day?
I’m dreading my next student. He’s failed twice already and I’m sure he’ll fail again. I can’t seem to regulate him
They all stopped swinging
Is his name Mint?
You know him?
None of us have been able to regulate him
He’s like an untameable horse
I think he does it on purpose
Maybe he’s a test
Let’s go see management
They went to see management and Mint was sitting among them
Silence
Tension in the silence
The tension between the two camps grew so thick it was palpable, the kind of palpability the earth feels, the kind of palpability the sky feels
Is it time for my lesson? said Mint, turning to look at them
Mint greeted them all by name, and last of all Romeo. You’re my last chance, until a new instructor comes on board, he said
Your last chance for what?
To unlock my brain. I think I’m under some kind of curse
Mint is the son of the king of pbp, esdees, said management. We were trying to keep it quiet, but-
We thought you were fooling with us
Not at all, said management, and the tension broke
broken tension by Luz Letts
Op Maul felt it before it broke and listened in. “A boy under a curse,” he told his brothers, and they listened in too.
“Before we get inside the car, why don’t you tell me what the curse is about,” said Romeo.
“Everything that matters disappears when I get inside the car,” said Mint.
“What’s everything that matters?”
“The signs, the lights. I wouldn’t know when to stop if you didn’t tell me to stop, and I never know if I’m stopping for a stop sign or a red light.”
“Can you see them now?”
“I can see them now. They only disappear when I get inside a car.”
“When did this start?”
“During my first lesson, with my first instructor.”
“Who was it?”
“Alto.”
“It was me,” said Alto.
“Did anything unusual happen that day?”
“All I remember is Mint telling me that he had to be the best driver there ever was.”
“I said I needed to be incomparable,” said Mint.
“Now I know why,” said Alto. “Knowing who your dad is. I mean, have you seen him parallel park? He gets into impossible places. It’s as if he makes his car shrink.”
“I’ve seen it,” said Mint, “and I’ve asked him, Dad, did you just shrink your car? Don’t be ridiculous! he’ll say, but I feel it getting tighter inside, and when I get out, I can see that it’s smaller.”
“Have you told him about the curse?”
“I had to. It took him a long time to believe it, but if he didn’t believe it, how would management believe it? How would you?”
“It’s true. If you weren’t backed by management and the king, we probably wouldn’t.”
“So how did you convince your dad?”
“I kept asking him, Why would I lie? Why would I? And he kept asking me- Well, first he took me for every medical exam you can imagine, and then he kept asking me what you just asked me, if anything unusual happened the day the problem started. I kept saying nothing, nothing unusual, until I remembered having said that I wanted to be an incomparable driver, like he was. That’s the day he believed me.”
“Okay, let’s get in the car.”
“All of us?”
“Yes, all of us. How much time before the break ends?”
“A good twenty minutes.”
“Good enough. Get in! Get in!”
“There’s room in the trunk!”
“Ouch! My knees!”
“Here, put my jacket under your knees.”
“Are we all in?”
“Hey!”
“Fritz isn’t.”
“There’s no way we can squeeze him in.”
“He can go in the front, between the two of you.”
“Is he in?”
“I’m in.”
“Okay everyone, buckle up.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Start driving, Mint.”
Mint drove and Romeo gave him directions. There’s a light in the next intersection. It’s green at the moment, just turned yellow, slow down and stop. Now try to see it. He pointed at it. Can you see it? Mint couldn’t. Try harder. Squint your eyes, now relax them and squint again. Keep doing it.
“I know what he can do.”
“What?”
“Get out of the car.”
“First put your head out the window. Do you see it?”
“No.”
“Okay, get out of the car.”
Mint got out and said he could see it.
“Why don’t you have him sit in the instructor’s seat?”
They had him sit in the instructor’s seat and in the back and in the trunk, but anywhere inside the car, he couldn’t see anything that mattered.
“What next?”
“Turn right. We’re going back.”
“There’s one thing I know,” said Lizotte.
“What?”
“You’re an incomparable driver, Mint.”
“You mean it’s not a curse?’
“It could be a wish come true in a cursed way.”
Up in the sky, Op Maul was sneaking away.
“Where do you think you’re going? said Op Pollo.
“It’s so much more fun on earth than it is in heaven, Op Pollo!”
“No.”
Back at the school, Mint was having trouble parking the car.
“I’ll park,” said Romeo. “Everyone out.”
He parked the car and joined them. “Mint, I don’t think any of us can unlock your brain, but maybe your dad can.”
“Maybe,” said Mint. “He believed me after all.”
The light suddenly changed and the clouds cast shadows around them, and the movement of the clouds appeared to dissolve the walls of the building and the ground they stood on.
“Dinner at the castle?” he invited.
“You sure?”
“He doesn’t talk much, but we can give it a try.”
a carpet by Luz Letts
The food was served but the king wasn’t there.
“You should start without him, Mint,” said the king’s attendant, PBP One. “Your dad’s in a séance.”
“A séance!” said Lizotte. “Your dad’s into séances?”
“It’s how he communicates with my mom.”
“My dad’s into them too,” said Fritz. “It’s simple. He has the letters of the alphabet on tiles and he arranges them in a circle. He also has a tile that says yes and a tile that says no for yes and no questions. He puts those across from each other somewhere in the circle. Then he turns a glass over and puts his finger on the glass and waits for the spirit to guide it.”
“That’s exactly how my dad does it,” said Mint. “It’s funny because my mom only communicates with consonants. She leaves the vowels out. Let’s say she wants to say L-O-V-E, she guides his hand to L and V, and my dad has to figure it out. It’s actually PBP Two who ends up figuring it out.”
“Why does she leave them out?”
“She says it’s because my dad was always impatient when she was alive.”
“The Akkadians wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh using only consonants,” said Lizotte. “It’s taken some exceptional people to decipher it.”
“It was actually John Smith at the British Museum who first deciphered it,” said Alto. “Something just clicked in his brain.”.
The king walked in and they all rose to greet him.
“Dad, these are my driving instructors.”
“Good, good,” said the king, digging into his food.
“They’ve been trying to unlock my brain, but they think it may be you who holds the key.”
“How so?” said the king.
“Your majesty,” ventured Alto. “When did you acquire the ability to shrink your car?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” said the king.
Romeo lifted his finger to say he’d give it a try. “Did you ever wish to be an incomparable driver?”
“I think everyone who’s sat on this throne has wished it, whether they were driving a horse, a chariot or a car.”
“To leave your mark,” said Wabi, who hadn’t said much since the beginning.
“Obviously,” said the king. He looked at Wabi as if expecting him to say more, and Wabi said more.
“Were you jinxed when you first worded your wish? Because that’s what happened to Mint. He said he wanted to be incomparable and-“
The king threw his fist on the table. “PBP Two!” he yelled, and PBP Two came running into the dining hall. “Have you figured it out!”
“Yes, sire,” said PBP Two, clearing his throat. “N-M-Y could be enemy, considering what’s happened.”
“Reveal this enemy to me,” said the king in a menacing voice, a few notes above a whisper.
“S-P-R-N-T-R-L. I’d say the enemy is supernatural, sire.”
Op Maul looked at Op Pollo who was filling his singing bowl with ambrosia.
The king covered his face with his hands, a gesture of defeat that broke Mint’s heart. “Dad, I’ll fix it,” he said. “I’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll help him. your majesty,” said Romeo.
“Before we do anything, we should walk the pilgrim road,” said Gabe, who also hadn’t said much since the beginning. “My dad says that any new venture should begin with purification and by paying respects to the great Op-Pollo.”
The great Op Pollo played his singing bowl and Op Shiva chanted a mantra. Op Maul rolled his eyes before surrendering to pranamasana.
“Aye,” said the king, lowering his hands. “Before you depart, I will make a sacrifice to the gods.” He turned to PBP One and Two. “Prepare the sacrificial altar,” he said.
“Which ones, sire?” said PBP One, paper and pen in hand.
“An alfa romeo, an alfa alto, an alfa fritz, an alfa lizotte, an alfa wabi, an alfa gabe, and one from my most precious collection of all, an alfa mint.”
alfa by Carmen Letts
They didn’t leave right away.
“With all of them leaving at once, we need time to reschedule, your majesty,” said management. .
It gave Mint time to walk the instructional route and memorise the signs. He stopped at a stop sign in a dead end, where a car could only turn left or right. “You know what it does?”
:”What?” said Gabe.
“It takes away common decency.”
“It tells you to do what you have to do anyways before you turn.”
“So why is it there?”
“I don’t know. Maybe not having it would take teaching to drive longer.”
“Something else would matter,” said Mint. “Changing the subject, can we turn the traffic lights on the route to fixed time?”
“You’d have to ask traffic control.”
“Look,” whispered Mint. “A fox.”
“He’s staring directly at us,” whispered Gabe. “I hope he’s not rabid.”
“Is he frothing?”
“No. He actually looks pretty healthy.”
“Yes, a handsome fox.”
“He’s gone.”
“Let’s go to traffic control.”
Traffic control turned the traffic lights on the route to fixed time and had to make adjustments to the rest of the valley.
“You’ve brought chaos,” said Gabe.
“You want to see chaos, you should come to the castle. There’s a pile of cars sitting inside a circle of boulders, ready to be crushed.”
“Ah, the sacrifice,” said Gabe. “Could I preside over it?”
“Be the preast?”
“I don’t need to be ordained for it, do I?”
“I don’t think so,” said Mint.
“I could just say a prayer.”
“I’ll ask my dad.”
“We made it back in time for your lesson. Romeo is waiting outside.”
Romeo put his finger to his lips and Mint made the gesture of why. He and Gabe looked to where Romeo was pointing. He was pointing at the fox. The door behind him opened and the rest of the instructors came out to look at it.
“We saw him earlier,” whispered Gabe.
“What does it mean?” whispered Alto.
“He could be our spirit guide,” whispered Fritz.
“A fox? For the pilgrim road?” said Lizotte.
“Shh! Don’t forget the enemy is supernatural. We may need a fox,” whispered Wabi.
chickens and a fox by Carmen Letts
The day Mint drove the instructional route relying solely on memory, timing and something else that mattered was the same day management gave the instructors permission to leave.
“Good,” said the king, setting the date for the sacrifice and for departure.
On the day of the sacrifice, Gabe presided. “To the gods of the Op Trinity. To the great Op Pollo, god of the singing bowl, god of wisdom and prophecy, may the sound of the car crusher and baling press reach your ears, a sacrifice from the king of PBP, ESDEES, to keep him in your favour, to help remove the curse that has befallen his son.”
Down came the crusher and they followed the king inside the castle.
They watched from a window every car crushed and pressed, the mood solemn.
When it was over, the attendants brought refreshments and the mood lightened.
“At what time should we leave tomorrow?”
“Dawn,” said the king.
They left at dawn.
“Most auspicious,” said PBP One, seeing them off.
“For the ancient Egyptians it was a sign that the sun had survived his journey through the underworld,” said Lizotte. “Every night he descends to battle the underworld serpent, and dawn announces his victory.”
“It’s the moment he steps back into his chariot,” said Alto.
“I think my sun is in the underworld,” said Mint. He picked up a fallen branch and battled the air, and they all did the same. They battled the air, a stop sign, a yield sign, a do sign and don’t sign, making their way through the valley and to the pilgrim road.
“Victory,” announced Romeo, letting his branch drop, and they all did the same. “Victory,” they echoed.
They stood in silence at the entrance of the pebbled road, shaded by protected forests.
“The fox!”
“Follow the fox!”
They sprinted after the fox, following his movement through the undergrowth, the colour of his red coat, until they collapsed from exhaustion, like dominoes.
“Hey! Give it back!”
“What!”
“What happened!”
“The fox took our food pack!”
“No way! Give it back!”
“He must have opened it because I can smell bread.”
“That’s freshly baked.”
“Freshly baked bread!” someone called.
“Here, please!”
“Us!”
“We need bread!”
“Our spirit guide took our food pack!”
The baker appeared pushing his cart. “Who’s your spirit guide?”
“The fox.”
“He timed it well, didn’t he? He must have wanted us to meet.”
He handed out loaves of bread and they tore into it.
“Yum.”
“Best bread ever.”
“Delicious. Thank you.”
“What brings you to the pilgrim road?” said the baker. “Are you going to see the Oracle?”
“The Oracle? No. We are purifying ourselves.”
“We’re going to pay our respects to the god Op Pollo.”
“We need his help, you see. Mint here is under some kind of curse.”
“I can’t see any of the traffic lights or traffic signs when I get inside a car.”
“That’s odd,” said the baker. “What’s come of it?”
“I’ll tell you what’s come of it. He’s been contemplating whether a stop sign should or should not be there-“
“How it can rob us of common decency.”
Mint laughed. “I’m turning into a traffic philosopher.”
“It’s the beginning, isn’t it?” said the baker.
“Of what?”
“Testing new ideas.”
“I hear someone screaming.”
“Me too.”
“Screech! Screech!”
“Over there! The bird!”
“A woodpecker!”
“I think it’s chasing the fox!”
“Let’s go see!”
“How much do we owe you?”
“Where’s the baker!”
“We’ll catch him later! Let’s go!”
the chase by Carmen Letts
“We’ve built a fire on the other side. Come join us.”
They joined others on the pilgrim road around the fire.
“Did you see the woodpecker chasing the fox?”
“We did. We followed them until the sun set and it got too dark.”
“So did we. Couldn’t tell if they were enemies or friends.”
“I thought they were having a blast.”
“I thought the fox was distracting the woodpecker, and a good thing that is because the woodpecker is the bird of the unnameable one.”
They were too tired to join in the conversation. They got into their sleeping bags and slept, until the smell of coffee woke them up at dawn.
“Would you like some?”
“That would be nice. Thank you.”
“I couldn’t sleep thinking about my question for the Oracle. Do you have yours ready?”
“We weren’t going to see the Oracle. Just a visit to the Temple.”
“Oh, but you should. You’ve come all this way.”
They shared the bread they had left and then packed up and continued on the pebbled road.
“Should we?”
“Look who’s peeking at us. The fox.”
“Good morning, fox.”
“I think we should.”
“Okay. Mint, get your question ready.”
“Did you hear some of the conversation last night? About-“
“Shh! Danger,” whispered Wabi.
“Stay close to the fox.”
They walked the last part of the road in silence, the day breaking, Embrun making herself visible.
“We’re here.”
“There’s the baker!”
“You disappeared!”
“How much do we owe you for the bread?”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Do you know where the hostel is?”
“It’s in that direction, but you should go to the Temple first. If you hurry, you’ll be first in line.”
They were first in line.
The Attendant came out to greet them. He told them about the pythian language. “I will translate it for you,” he said. “Ready?”
They were ready.
He took them inside.
The Oracle was sitting on the tripod chair, the legs made invisible by a cloud of smoke.
“This is what a séance must feel like,” whispered Fritz.
“You may begin,” said the Attendant, and Mint took a step toward her.
“Greetings to the Oracle who speaks the words of the god Op Pollo. We’ve come to pay our respects and to ask him for help. Not long ago, a curse came upon me, a blindness when I get inside a car. Everything that makes driving possible disappears, the signs and the lights. My father thinks it’s his fault and he suffers. Maybe it’s my fault, but I don’t know how to make it right. Could you help me lift the curse?”
The Oracle was quiet, and then she spoke. “Flashkellawaveonsite,” she said. “Mindrevertamindawake.”
She closed her eyes.
The Attendant made a gesture and Mint thanked her.
They followed him to a side room.
“Mint, tell me everything that happened, step by step, the day the blindness began.”
“I woke up, had breakfast and walked to the driving school. I went inside to the reception desk. They asked me my name and checked a list, and told me to go to the parking lot behind the building. Alto was my instructor. In the parking lot I met Alto. Are you ready to begin? he asked me. I’m excited and nervous, I said. I need to be an incomparable driver. Well, he said, let’s begin.”
“The Oracle wants you to go back and take the same steps, but this time, you must say, I don’t want to be an incomparable driver.”
battle of the sun and the underworld serpent by Carmen Letts
They took a walk in the ruins of the Old Temple.
“Screech!”
The woodpecker was perched on a column still standing, looking out at the fields surrounding the Old Temple. The fox was in the fields.
“I must sketch this,’ said Romeo. He took out charcoal and a sketchbook, and he sketched the ruins, the bird on the column, the fox in the fields, and-
“Who’s that?”
“It’s Mint!”
“Tell him to come back!”
They waved at him to come back and he waved back.
“He’s coming back.”
“I just figured something out,” said Mint out of breath. “You know the cars we’re named after? My dad’s collections?”
“Yes?”
“He can’t start them.”
“What do you mean?”
“They won’t start for him. He can only start his beetle.”
“You mean-“
“He must have given up driving luxury cars to be an incomparable driver.”
“That’s why he believed you-“
“It happened to him-“
“A curse.”
“Do you think he could have reversed it?”
“Maybe he couldn’t-“
“He may have chosen not to-“
“What choice will you make?”
“I don’t know,” said Mint. “i need to talk to him. Wish I could talk to him now.”
“What’s wrong with the fox?”
The fox was running around, barking.
“I think he’s trying to get the woodpecker to chase him again.”
But the woodpecker wasn’t responding. It turned away to look at them.
“Don’t look back. Don’t make eye contact.”
“Haha!”
“What’s that in the sky?”
“Looks like another woodpecker.”
“If that’s a woodpecker, it’s mighty big.”
The fox began running towards them.
“Run!”
“Which way!”
“That way!”
They ran and a shadow fell upon them.
“There’s something above us!”
“It’s following us!”
“It could be a cloud!”
The cloud extended an arm.
“What’s it holding?”
“Looks like a fishing net!”
The net plunged down and caught them.
“Haha! Haha!” said Op Maul, flying back up into the sky.
“AHHH!”
“HELP!”
“SOMEBODY HELP US!”
“STAY CALM! HOLD ON!”
They held on to the net.
“I thought we’d solved the problem! There I was sketching, thinking the problem was solved!”
“Me too! I didn’t think you’d hesitate to reverse the curse!”
“Don’t you want to see again! To hell with being incomparable!”
“Leave him alone! Remember what the king said about the throne? This could be the only way for him to leave his mark!”
“It could be his only chance!”
“How do you know that!”
They let go of the net and got into a fight.
Op Maul watched them throw punches at each other and he swung the net up, and they flew out of the net, and then he caught them one by one. The shock took the fight out of them, and when they recovered from the shock-
“Look, all I’m saying is, is it worth the sacrifice?”
“Take the king for example. Yes, he can parallel park in impossible places, but was it worth the sacrifice?”
“We wouldn’t even know about it if Mint hadn’t confided in us. I consider it a personal matter and not for us to judge.”
“Maybe it’s the sacrifice that makes the throne his.”‘
“But Mint’s decision would involve us. He can’t reverse the curse without Alto, and if he doesn’t reverse the curse, he’ll need us.”
“It’s brought us together for a reason.”
“Whatever you decide, Mint, I’m with you.”
“Me too. I’ll respect whatever you decide.”
“We all will. You can count on us.”
“Consider us your confidants.”
“Thank you,” said Mint.
“We’re going to be your advisers too. So don’t go around pulling out signs without consulting us first.”
“Okay,” said Mint. He was lying on his stomach, holding the net, and the view became familiar.
“Caw! Caw! Caw!”
Op Pollo’s birds came to perch on the rim of Op Maul’s net as they slowly descended.
When Op Maul rested the net on the ground, the crows pecked them out of the net, and they found themselves inside the circle of boulders.
They echoed the circle, made it tighter, arms around their shoulders.
“Go talk to him.”
“We’ll see you later.”
“Bark!”
A familiar bark broke the circle and they stepped outside.
“Where is he?”
“There he is!”
“The fox.”
memories by Luz Letts
“When I was out in the fields, I remembered you getting inside a luxury car and turning the key, and nothing happened.”
“I check once in a while to see if things have changed. They haven’t.”
“Was it worth the sacrifice, dad? Just to be able to parallel park in impossible places?”
“Mint, I couldn’t parallel park when I found out that the only car I could start was my beetle. I could only start my beetle, that was my curse.”
“Could you have reversed it?”
“So I was told. What about you?”
“The Oracle told me how.”
“You have until your next driving lesson to decide.”
Mint skipped it. He went back to school, back to his normal life and skipped one driving lesson after another.
“He skipped it again, sire,” said PBP One. “He’s in his room.”
in my room by Luz Letts
“Bad news, your grace,” said PBP Two. “There are reports of pylons appearing out of nowhere, in the middle of a road, the middle of an intersection, even blocking a whole lane on the highway.”
“Those witches’ hats!” said the king. “Get my tiles ready.”
PBP Two got them ready and the king shut himself in his séance room. He asked his wife what should he do, and the glass took his finger to the letters C-R-S-T and stopped. He wrote them down and put his finger back on the glass, and the glass took it to the letters N-G-R. He didn’t need PBP Two to figure this one out. His old friend the black rider, knight of knights, El Cristo Negro.
Zorro by Carmen Letts
The valleys had kept the back roads thinking of him. Ever since the great sinkhole in the valley of op, they kept them consciously, never mind progress, for how else would he reach them in an emergency on a horse?
He travelled swiftly when suddenly a pylon appeared out of nowhere in front of him. He pulled the reins of his horse and came to a stop. “So this is what’s happening in the valley of pbp, esdees,” he said to his horse. He dismounted and approached the pylon respectfully, because a pylon that appeared out of nowhere was a pylon from the gods. He observed it. The weighted base, he put his feet together and grounded himself. The three reflective bands that pointed to the sky, he put his palms together in the posture of pranamasana. He prayed for guidance.
prayer by Carmen Letts
Mint heard the trumpets announce a dignitary and came down the grand staircase. He smiled. He recognised the scent.
“The scent of the Magi,” he said. “Frankincense and myrrh, and something else-“
“A touch of sandalwood,” said El Cristo.
He joined El Cristo and the king in conversation that erased the time since they last saw each other. Since then, the king had made upgrades to the beetle. It now had a start button and gps.
“Show me,” said El Cristo.
They got into the car and El Cristo remarked on the quality of the leather. “An alpha beetle, your majesty.”
“Shh. The gods might hear you.”
They went for a drive. The streets were quiet.
“So what is it that you can’t see exactly?” El Cristo asked Mint. “Can you see the sign with the speed limit?”
“No.”
“Can you-“
The king braked suddenly.
“Can you see the pylon that just appeared out of nowhere in front of us?”
“No!” Mint got out of the car and El Cristo and the king followed him. They stood around the pylon. “PBP Two told me about the pylons. They mock my efforts! I will never be able to drive!”
“Not without someone by your side.”
“What kind of incomparable driver would that make me!”
“A student driver for life.”
Mint shook his head. He turned away from El Cristo to look at his dad. “Why didn’t you reverse the curse, dad? Did you think it would make you a better person? Worthy of the throne?”
“Bottom line, son, it was fear.”
fear by Carmen Letts
That’s what he’d been feeling, fear to be or not to be, fear to make a mistake, fear of the gods.
“I’d like to drive,” he said.
“Sure,” said the king, getting in the back seat.
“Don’t forget this car isn’t equipped with passenger brakes, Mint, and you and your dad are the only royals.”
“I won’t. How do we go back?”
They studied the road, the speed limit, the stop signs, the lights where he’d turn left. “We’ll assess the next road once you turn. Now help me get this pylon out of the way.”
They made for the pylon and the pylon disappeared. It reappeared on the sidewalk.
“He wants to play,” said El Cristo.
“Let’s play,” said Mint.
Mint drove and- “Pylon!” said El Cristo and Mint braked, and the pylon disappeared. He continued- “Pylon!” said El Cristo and Mint braked, and the pylon disappeared. And so it went until he reached the traffic lights. “You have the signal to turn,” said El Cristo, and Mint made the turn slowly, the left signal long gone.
“That hardly gave you any time at all,” said the king.
“I’ll talk to traffic control to make it longer,” said Mint.
Before talking to traffic control, he called the driving school, apologised for all the missed appointments, and made one with Alto for the following morning.
The following morning he woke up, had breakfast and walked to the driving school. He went to the reception desk and gave his name. He was told to go to the parking lot behind the building. His instructor would be waiting for him there. He went to the parking lot and Alto said hello, “Are you ready to begin?”
“I’m excited and nervous,” said Mint. “I need to be an incomparable driver.”
“Well, let’s begin,” said Alto.
They got inside the car and as Mint pulled the seat belt to buckle up, he saw that the car was packed. Romeo, Fritz, Lizotte, Wabi and Gabe were there, and so was El Cristo-
“I thought I’d check on the pylon situation,” said El Cristo.
and so was his dad.
“I asked your mom if I should join and she said- Where’s the piece of paper?”
“I have it, sire,” said PBP One.
“You don’t have it. I have it,” said PBP Two. “She said, G stop, F-R stop, T stop, which given the circumstances means-“
“Go for it!”
by Carmen Letts
What’s a core mark?
It’s what you need to cast a shadow
Birds in our valley don’t cast shadows
They learn not to
It’s the first thing they learn the moment they crack out of an egg
The mother pecks on the shadow and says, put your core mark away
put your core mark away by Toshi Yoshida
Is it because of the fox?
What fox?
Foxes in general. You know how they like to catch fledglings.
I don’t think so. They still catch some.
Maybe it’s good manners.
What a silly thing to say. There’s got to be some kind of use for the behaviour.
If it were useful to all the birds, the behaviour would have spread to all the valleys, but it only happens here.
So what’s a core mark again?
Not again!
No offense but guests can be so annoying.
Listen, I come from pbp, esdees and I can tell you what that means. You live here and you don’t know what core mark means, and if birds put it away, then why aren’t you the no core mark valley?
You know what this calls for?
What?
A visit to Aunt Cream.
Who is she?
Oldest person in the valley-
She’s everybody’s aunt.
she’s everybody’s aunty by Toshi Yoshida
Aunt Cream was sitting at her picnic table reading a book with her magnifying glasses. She took them off when she heard them coming. “Something’s bothering you,” she said.
They introduced her to Nelly from pbp who wanted to know what a core mark was. Actually, they wanted to know too.
“Your core is what keeps you standing, it’s your vitality,” she said. “Back in the old days, when someone needed help, we looked at the core mark, the person’s shadow. There’s a special way of looking at it to see what’s wrong.”
“What about birds?”
“Birds brought us messages with their shadows. You know the song message in the bottle? We have a song message in the core mark-“
“But they don’t anymore. Why?”
“Everyone has a theory.”
“What’s your theory?”
“Why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you.” They joined her around the picnic table and she said, “I think it’s due to mimicry.”
“What do you mean?”
“They were mimicking something?”
“What were they mimicking?”
“The wood block prints and stone block prints that became so popular in our valley.”
“That’s crazy.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you,” said Buena. “My mom owns an art gallery and birds always come to look at the displays.”
“What’s a wood block print?”
“You know, you carve a block of wood and put ink on it.”
“It’s two dimensional which means it’s flat, so it doesn’t have a shadow.”
“I bet if you do some research you’ll see that birds began putting them away around the time our printmakers became popular,” said Aunt Cream.
“Funny,” said Nelly. “Everyone who knew I was coming here told me to get a print as a souvenir, and when I asked you what’s a core mark, I thought it had something to do with your printmaking technique.”
“If you want to get one, I’ll take you to my mom’s gallery.”
“Good place to begin our research.”
a souvenir by Lucy Qinnuayuak
“They don’t have shadows,” said Nelly, looking at the prints. “Just like the birds in your valley.”
Buena’s mom, Mamabuena, was surprised. “How long have you been here? Tourists usually don’t notice.”
“A couple of days,” said Nelly. “Do you think they’re related or is it a coincidence?”
Mamabuena looked at the windows of her gallery, at the birds sitting on the sills outside.
“Mom, do you think they’re mimicking the prints?”
“There’s no scientific proof for such a thing, such an extraordinary thing,” said Mamabuena. “But there are people in the valley studying the behaviour, especially now in the spring, they’re observing how mama birds teach their chicks to tuck away their core marks.”
“Maybe you could reverse it,” said Patty. “What if you displayed birds with core marks in the windows?”
“I’ve suggested it to Tony, she heads the artists’ guild, but nothing’s come of it. In the meantime, something’s being lost, our relationship with birds. Look at them,” she pointed at the windows. “They’re there but they’ve distanced themselves by not casting a shadow. They feel almost ethereal, unto themselves.”
“Will they disappear?” said Betty.
“No way!” said Buena. “We must take action!”
unto myself by Kenojuak Ashevak
“Could something else have happened that made hiding it useful?” said Divia. “It couldn’t just be mimicry.”
“Maybe it was a challenge,” said Betty. “Could we do what those birds in the window displays are doing? They tried but they couldn’t. We’re too old, they said. We need to start early, and one day a mama bird succeeded, she found the way to teach her young to-“
“swallow the sun,” said Mamabuena.
Chart for James Archibald Houston, born June 12 1921, St. Catharines, Ontario
He recognised the carvings of the Inuit, he brought their distinct character to the attention of the artists’ guild in Montreal
He couldn’t see it until he did that he was participating in forging a national identity, distinguishing Canada
Uranus in Pisces, he recognised the carvings of the Inuit among the carvings in the history of art
in a quincunx to Neptune in Leo, the wish of the universe to make central
To do this, he had to free
free the land of marginality
Jupiter applying the Saturn Moon conjunction in Virgo
To free the land of marginality, he submitted to becoming marginal himself
He lived among the people of the north and learned to communicate, to speak their language
he undifferentiated
The stellium in Virgo in a square to the Sun Mars in Gemini
He was appointed by the federal government to administer the region, because of his acquired ease in the north and because of his artisitc background, to administer the region and to help bring the Inuit into the mainstream through their art. He had already opened a door when he recoginised the carvings of the Inuit
He tells the story of how Osuitok Ipeelee was looking at cigarettes packs, the same image on every pack, and commented on how laborious it must be to paint the same image over and over again. To show him how it was done, he took one of Ipeelee’s carved tusks, put ink on it, and rubbed a piece of toilet paper over it, the only kind of paper they had available, and he opened another door. It’s how printmaking began in the north. He introduced them to stone block printing on cloth and then paper
He had an artistic background, but not in printmaking, and the technique was rudimentary, some would call it autochthonous, sprung from the land
He could undifferentiate, but he wasn’t possessed by techniques sprung from the land, not if he was going to free from marginality
Mercury in Cancer, ruler of Gemini and Virgo. Pluto applying Mercury, in a trine to Uranus, transforming technique by jumping into a shared ocean of raw material
He booked a passage to Japan
He paid for his own ticket and spent three months of accumulated leave there
He arrived with Inuit carvings and documentaries about the sculptors and life in the north, and he gave talks at the Canadian Embassy and at a cultural centre for the development of international relations. They say that the attendees found an affinity with the Inuit people
The impression was that he’d come to study the sculpture of Japan, but he hadn’t come for that. He’d come to study traditional wood block printmaking and the cultural centre introduced him to the master Un’ ichi Hiratsuka. Hiratsuka took him as a student and other masters from other schools opened their studio doors to him
He returned to the north with all that he learned and he brought back tools and samples of paper and a collection of prints. The people of the north studied them. They modified the tools with materials available to them and suitable for stone block printmaking, and printmaking took off, with subject matter that was theirs and with their own expression
A passage that fertilised a new cultural practice
Venus in Taurus, in a sextile to Uranus and in a trine to Jupiter, Uranus and Jupiter fertilising in the Pisces Virgo polarity
He never wrote about the passage, and Un’ ichi Hiratsuka’s essay about him, the exceptional student he was, has not been translated
Hush, hush, at least during his time. It must have been thought that the mention of Japan’s influence in technique could take away autochthony
But Venus is in a square to Neptune in Leo, to distinguish, make central
Going to Japan was of his own initiative
the lunar work in Aries
the ruler in Gemini, conjunct the Sun
He was involved in a rescue mission, giving an example of rescue
and he didn’t need credit, the stellium in Virgo applying
Going to Japan was of his own initiative
and he brought back principles of an ancient art form
a collection of prints to compare with, a measure
Rahu in Libra
the ruler in Taurus
Venus holds the lowest degree in the chart, and she is in a sign she rules, she is strong
“Look,” he said to the artists’ guild. “Look at these carvings, they are from the north, they have soul.”
When he wanted to demonstrate how copies of an image were made, he reached for Ipeelee’s carved tusk
Printmaking began on cloth and he took samples to Ottawa to show what could be done. They needed paper to print gift cards and wrapping paper, sellable items to generate income
He was a resourceful man and he brought out resourcefulness in others
But they called him left handed one in Inuktitut, Saumik
They did not let him swallow his Sun
The fifth house of friendship in Libra where there are equals in their own right
The sixth house of workplace and colleagues in Scorpio where there is clan
The seventh house of contracts in Sagittarius
They say that when he gave away one of the carvings he took to Japan, his superiors in Ottawa asked him to whom and why, and he explained that he’d given it to Hiratsuka. The master had taken an interest in the printmaking efforts of the Inuit and given him much information about stone block printing
Jupiter applying the Saturn Moon conjunction in Virgo, to free the land of marginality
Saturn and the Moon, rulers of the Capricorn Cancer polarity
the bones holding a lake
patterns of the past of a lake
In Virgo they can be arrested in time, holding on to purity
Free the land of marginality, free arrested time
It is true that there is heritage in Taurus, layered sign
In fact, one evening, after a day of experimentation, they’d found a pile of discarded linoleum floor tiles and wondered if they could cut designs on them, and they’d tried it and it had been a success, he lay down on his bed and reached for one of the magazines he’d asked to be included in the last cargo shipment. He opened it and saw an article about contemporary Japanese printmakers
“There’s a whole bunch of national geographics at my place,” said Patty. “We could cut out pictures of birds with shadows and mount them on cardboard, and we could display them in the windows.”
“I’m open to that,” said Mamabuena.
“What about the fox?”
“You asked that before, Divia.”
“I know, but is there someone collecting data on fledgling survival since this started? Is there a scientist we could talk to?”
“There’s Mrs. Prunella Prunella at the bird sanctuary,” said Mamabuena.
“Prunella Prunella? Her parents weren’t very original.”
“On the contrary. Who does that?”
“Just call her Nella.”
survival by Kiawak Ashoona
“So your mom is Mamabuena. She used to call me Prune when we were in school,” said Nella.
“Was she mean?”
“Well, you know how it is, kids can be mean, and my mom’s pretty eccentric. You know Aunt Cream?”
“She’s your mom?”
“Yes, she’s my mom. I think I became a scientist not to be like her or anyone of her generation, you know, not to read shadows, and now look what’s happened, and there’s no scientific explanation for it. It basically tells us there’s a side to birds we know nothing about.”
“A magical side,” said Betty.
“Aunt Cream and my mom think they’re mimicking birds on prints” said Buena.
Nella shook her head. “I’ve been writing an article about it and it sounds like a fairytale. One thing is to belong to a valley with an esoteric tradition, but this is something else, it’s physically impossible.”
“You and Mamabuena and the rest of our moms seem to belong to a generation that’s rejected the valley’s esoteric tradition,” said Betty. “Because no one’s ever taught us to shadow read. Maybe that’s why the birds put them away.”
“For whatever reason it happened, have you noticed if there’s been a change in the survival rate of fledglings?” said Divia. “I’m just wondering if it ended up serving a purpose, like not getting caught by foxes.”
“Funny you mention foxes. You’ve just reminded me of something,” said Nella. “I was walking in the sanctuary this morning, when I heard the alarm calls of a bird. I must be close to a nest, I thought, and looked up to find it-“
“Did you find it?”
“Yes, I saw the nest and the frantic bird, but it wasn’t because of me. A fox was standing beneath the tree, a handsome fox. It turned to look at me, and for a moment, a shadow played with its fur, the shadow of leaves or the shadow of wings.”
“You think it scared the sun out of the bird?” said Divia.
“It may have, briefly.”
scared by Pitaloosie Saila
At the gallery, Mamabuena was helping Patty and Nelly replace the prints in the window displays with national geographic pictures. When the door chimes rang, she left them to greet the customer.
“Hi Tony,” they heard her say.
Tony didn’t return the greeting with the same warmth and Patty wasn’t surprised. She’d seen the woman approach the gallery and her shadow had called her attention. It was an arrow shadow, the description just came to her.
“What’s going on?”
“Excuse me?”
“Someone said you were replacing the window displays.”
Mamabuena tried blunting the arrow. “Tony, this is Betty, and this is Nelly visiting from pbp.”
“Hi Tony,” said the girls.
“They’re attempting to reverse the bird problem with these pictures. I asked you to talk to the printmakers about adding core marks to their birds, remember? Did you get a chance?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mamabuena! You want us to look like fools? If I were you, I’d put the prints back. Your gallery represents the artists’ guild and it’s your obligation to display their work.”
“Tony, Tony, wait a second. When I told you my theory, you seemed so receptive, I don’t understand.”
“Honestly Mamabuena, you sounded like Aunt Cream.”
Mamabuena smiled and it disarmed Tony. She returned the smile. “But I’m serious about putting the prints back,” she said. “Or that nosy woman Michèle will have protestors outside your gallery.”
“Remember the picnic in the fields?”
“What picnic?”
“We were 9 or 10. You lost your new bracelet and we went looking for it.”
“I was so upset.”
“We saw the shadow of the bird in the fields, it was gliding above us, and we followed it, gliding in its shadow.”
Tony’s eyes swelled with tears.
“When it was gone, we lay down exhausted, our arms still extended-“
“I rubbed my hands on the grass, and found my bracelet.”
They looked at the window displays, at all the birds sitting on the sills outside looking in, watching the girls.
All of a sudden, a fox raised itself up, resting its front paws on a sill and sending the birds flying. They went flying, and for a brief moment, shadows danced on the walls of the gallery.
“Did you see that?” said Patty in wonder.
“I saw it,” said Nelly, breathtaken.
“Me too,” said Tony, tears running down her cheeks.
“The fox scared the sun out of them,” said Mamabuena.
shadows dancing on walls by Kenojuak Ashevak
The following morning Mamabuena couldn’t open her gallery. There were protestors blocking the entrance, holding signs that read, It’s almost tourist season! How will we eat? Down with the gallery! Bring back our prints!
“She must have stayed up all night making those signs,” said Tony.
“She did you a favour,” said Aunt Cream. “All the artists are here.”
Patty and Nelly would have been there too, but they got sidetracked by the fox.
“He wants us to follow him,” said Patty. “Come on!”
Every now and then the fox would stop and look at them, as if to make sure they were following him.
“You don’t think it’s a trap, do you?” said Nelly.
“No,” said Patty, and they kept going.
The fox brought them to the fields and looked up. They looked up too and saw a bird gliding. “Let’s glide!” said Patty, and she and Nelly glided in the fields, looking up to follow the bird. The fox barked its raspy bark and the bird dropped a shadow, and the girls glided in the direction it had dropped, and the fox barked again and the bird dropped a shadow again, and the girls glided to it.
“They’re setting up a microphone,” said Mamabuena. “Now’s your chance Tony.”
Tony took the microphone and began to sing message in the core mark. The song is like a prayer, and people lowered their signs and joined in. When she finished, she told them that young people had asked the owner of the gallery to display pictures of birds with core marks, hoping to bring them back.
“What about our prints?”
“Our prints don’t have core marks.”
“Well, we can spray some on.”
“We can’t just spray some on!”
“Why not? Birds can’t tell the difference.”
“They can tell! Haven’t you listened to the words of the song?”
“There’s medicine in the core mark. Someone like you could spray the wrong kind of medicine.”
“Wait a second! We could all spray the wrong kind of medicine. That’s why we don’t mess with core marks.”
“I say we leave the young people’s pictures in the displays.”
“What about our prints!”
“It’s almost tourist season!”
“I’ve been working on a drawing that would complement those pictures, and you all know my drawings have pull.”
“True.”
“True.”
“We just haven’t found the right stone to carve it in.”
The bird left and the girls lay down exhausted.
“What’s this?” said Patty, feeling something hard. She lifted herself to see it. “It’s a stone buried in the grass.”
Nelly came over. “An erratic weathered down.”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“We should show it to the others!”
“Let’s mark it!”
They looked around for something to mark it with and found a walking stick. “Can you believe it?”
They stood it next to the stone. “Wait, I’m going to hang my jacket on it.” Patty took her jacket off and hung it on the stick and tied the sleeves together. “I hope it stays.”.
“Let’s go. Mamabuena must be wondering where we are.”
“Where’s the fox?”
“Over there!”
“Follow the fox!”
They turned around before leaving the fields and saw the jacket flapping in the wind.
mark it by Pitseolak Ashoona
“How big and what shape do you need the stone to be?”
“About this big and a perfect circle would be nice, 360 degrees.”
They all laughed.
“We saw one in the fields,” said Patty. “Not a perfect circle, but close.”
“You went to the fields?”
“We glided with the bird in the fields. The fox came with us. Every time he barked, the bird dropped a shadow.”
“I saw that happen in the sanctuary,” said Prunella.
Others had seen it happen too and they shared their experiences.
“Should we go see the Oracle at the Temple of Op Pollo?” said Nelly. “People in my valley go on the pilgrim road when they’re looking for answers.”
“”We go see Aunt Cream,” said Buena. “She’s the hermit of core mark valley.”
“What do you think, Aunt Cream?” said Nelly.
“It’s up to you,” said Aunt Cream. “But first let me tell you something. It may answer Divia’s question-“
“If it serves a purpose?”
“Yes, if it serves a purpose. Whenever it’s time for the hermit to choose an apprentice, someone to pass on what she knows, there’s been a crisis in the valley-“
“Has this happened before?”
“No, it’s never the same-“
A group of artists came by, carrying all the signs. “Sorry to interrupt, but do you know where Michèle is? We want to give her back the signs.”
“She’ll be back soon,” said Patty.
“Oh? Where did she go?”
“To see the stone we found in the fields. Her shadow was pushing her to go.”
“Restless soul.”
They heard a car door slam and Michèle came running. “Guess what? There’s a scarecrow in the fields!”
“We left a marker,” said Nelly. “We found a walking stick and Patty hung her jacket on it.”
“It looked like a scarecrow to me,” said Michèle. “And it was scaring the bird gliding above it. It was gliding in circles and each time it went over the scarecrow, it dropped a shadow. Curious thing is, when I got there, the shadow was like a heartbeat, but it grew longer, I’d say 45 degrees.”
“It’s finding anchor,” said Mamabuena.
finding anchor by Pitseolak Ashoona
They sat on the borders of the fields, watching the shadow grow longer.
“What can make us swallow the sun?” said Prunella.
“Why, censorship, Prune,” teased Mamabuena.
“Too much science,” teased Aunt Cream.
“What can make us swallow the sun?” said Nelly.
“Agreeing when you disagree,” said Betty. “There was a mama bird that didn’t agree with the new practice of teaching baby chicks to tuck away their core marks, but she taught her baby chicks anyway, and she regretted it, and she told her eldest, We’ve broken a sacred bond with the new practice. Her eldest remembered her words when the fox barked and when the scarecrow appeared, and there’s the eldest of that mama bird now, mending a sacred bond.”
A stonecutter, sitting beside them, told a story of his own. “Today I asked my crew to get everything ready to haul up a stone buried in the fields. I said to them, When the shadow of the bird completes the circle, we’ll haul it up. My crew disagreed. Today’s Sunday, they said, our day of rest. We’ll haul it up tomorrow. No, I said. It must be done as soon as the circle is complete. They argued and argued with me, until a tap tap tap, tap tap tap ended the argument and they agreed.”
“What will you call it?” Michèle asked the artist whose drawings have pull.
“I don’t know yet, Michèle. Why don’t you help me out?”
“Okay. How about, Here comes the sun?”
“Too British.”
“Okay. How about, The arrival of the sun?”
“Still British, but better.”
the artist whose drawings have pull, Kenojuak Ashevak
The circle got stuck at 300 degrees.
“Can I borrow your jacket?” said Patty.
“Sure.”
Patty took it and ran to the marker. When the bird dropped its shadow, she took the jacket by the sleeves and held it high above her head, and she ran in the bird’s shadow, the jacket billowing behind her like a cape. The fox met her at 300 degrees, barking its raspy bark, and the bird managed to hold the shadow on the ground a few degrees longer. Others joined in, helping the bird close the gap, and it managed to reach 355 degrees.
Those who could not run began to sing message in the core mark, and the sky filled with the call of birds, pigeons, magpies, crows and geese, and there was drumming, the drumming of woodpeckers all around, and when the sun began to set, and the moon showed herself, the bird completed the circle.
Lukta Qiatsuq cutting the stone block for Kenojuak Ashevak’s drawing The arrival of the sun
The arrival of the sun by Kenojuak Ashevak, stone cut and printed by Lukta Qiatsuq, 1962
Chart for April 18 1778, the day Mary Nisbet was born
She was born during the American Revolution
in Scotland
Venus Mercury in Taurus can negotiate a passage and Mars in Taurus can defend it
When Lord Nelson refused to take any of the cases with the Parthenon marbles on any of the ships in His Majesty’s navy, she contacted Captain Hoste. Hoste had been a guest in her home in Athens. He’d arrived to Athens ill and homesick, and she’d given him a listening ear and kept in touch with notes of encouragement. He agreed to carry three of the cases and ended up carrying more
The Parthenon marbles, also called the Elgin marbles after her first husband Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
The Parthenon dedicated to Athena, weathered by the passage of time, a change in beliefs and war
She attributed her success to female eloquence, not having to pay for their passage. She was paying for everything else, Lord Elgin’s ambassadorship to the Ottoman Empire, their travels in Greece which was under Ottoman control, the artist hired to make casts of the marble sculptures, what was left of them. Taking them had not been the original plan, but others thought he should, and her parents approved the decision, and the sultan gave his permission
Giovanni Battista Lusieri working at the Parthenon, 1802
Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini, pooling resources to rescue antiquities, but she was mainly using her own resources, her family’s wealth, her inheritance
And rescuing antiquities wasn’t her passion, it wasn’t her cause, it was her husband’s
Jupiter in Leo restrained by the Mars Saturn opposition in the Taurus Scorpio polarity, her parents and she herself could restrain how much she spent on his cause, she could block and she could unblock
Love was a deciding factor, and something not really within her reach, the outer planets, to be of service, to make accessible, to prolong life, the last the wish of the universe
When they left for Constantinople, she was in love, pregnant with their first child, 22 years old
Letter writing became a great preoccupation. Letters could be published, they could be opened for information, what was private could become public, that struggle in Aquarius, and Gemini adding risk with its pedestrian air
But there is also something she came to understand about letter writing, she could use it to protect her and her husband’s reputation
Jupiter, bringer of gifts that don’t come easy
In Leo, they swung from stage to stage, attracting admiration but also jealousy and rivalry. Her husband was the official ambassador, but there were those who’d been there before him, established, doing business with the east, pretending to have more power than him, to speak for the king, and leaving Lord Elgin with embarrassments and matters to rectify. She rectified them in her letters
There is strategy in the chart, mastery in Scorpio and arete in Taurus
She had been exposed to society from an early age, a woman once invited her to a gathering and told her to come in casual clothes, they would dress for the festivities later on, and when she got there in casual clothes, everyone was dressed to the nines
The cunning of others to see her fail and dim her light sharpened her mind and her ability to ensure survival
The Venus Mercury conjunction, the female eloquence that could open lanes, could come at her in enmity
She befriended Artemis, ready with her bow and arrow
She befriended Apollo who would not allow his sister to be sullied
She befriended the wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus until they found safe harbour
By the time her husband’s tenure in Constantinople was over, they had three children and a fourth on the way. They went to France before heading home, and in France, Lord Elgin and other British nationals were imprisoned by Napoleon in retaliation for a French dignitary’s imprisonment in Britain. Before this happened, they had met Lord Elgin’s friend Robert Ferguson, and Elgin would ask Ferguson to assist his wife in any way she needed
She sent the children with their nanny to her parents in Scotland, and she stayed to help get her husband out
She separated herself from her children, risked giving birth alone in France, her parents couldn’t understand it. And when the child was born, she told them that she wasn’t going to hire a wet nurse. She was going to breastfeed the child herself because people in France weren’t getting the smallpox vaccine
Fingers of god pointing at Uranus, activated
She was going against the grain
Also during this time, she and Ferguson developed feelings for each other, and when they were all back in Scotland, a letter from Ferguson to his wife would fall into Elgin’s hands and reveal it to him
Privacy, she and her parents tried to settle a divorce with him privately, and he agreed to a sum, was paid, and still took it to court, and the divorce was as public and salacious as Charles and Diana’s divorce, with newspapers reporting on what the servant said and the butler said, a scandal that entertained
By law, he had custody of the children, and he took the children away from her. Britain would not have a law that gave the mother custody until 1839, and this was 1808
Her Saturn return
Saturn in Scorpio in the eighth house
He wanted control of her assets and tried to prove that she was unfit to manage them
If she had swallowed her Sun and let her parents and the lawyers take care of things,
she now spat it out to war with him. Morality in survival
Her correspondence with her parents was brought to court, and in them the worry about his spending and his accumulated debt. One of the ships carrying cases with the antiquities had sunk, and he hired divers to retrieve them regardless of the expense
She barred his passage, dropped his cause and picked up her own, and the court ruled in her favour
His dependency was over. He had not held her. In fact, he was looking for a woman who could hold herself during his ambassadorship. In fact, she had willingly held him, with the approval of her family
The outer planets, not always within our reach, can have us participate in ways we may not grasp
The moment he tried to hold her, Ferguson became an important person in her life
When he spent without consultation, and when he didn’t answer her letters regarding children. She didn’t want any more children. They had lost their fourth and she was now carrying their fifth, and she was ill, she wanted him to practice birth control or she would sleep separately, he did not answer her
Instead a letter fell into his hands
He would go on to have eight children with his second wife, and in order to cover some of his debts, he would sell the Parthenon sculptures to the British government. The British government would place them in the safety of a museum
It is a long way to fall from the tenth house, but she fell right back home to care for her estate. She would bring innovation here. In a time when the laws didn’t favour landowners, she would change her relationship with those who worked for her, open the grounds to their festivities, take part in them, think long term
She and Ferguson married the same year her divorce was finalised. The second marriage, seventh from the seventh, in Aries. He was into politics and mineralogy, wealthy in his own right and busy with his own life. They would have a new circle of friends, the friends she made during her time abroad, and they would not have children. Her own children would make contact with her when they were married adults, and she would welcome them, the inheritors of her estate
Chart for July 20 1766, the day Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin was born
Seen this way, he would have died for his country
to guard against a rip in the fabric of society
to guard his place in society, as would his mom
Mars R in Aquarius in opposition to Jupiter in Leo conjunct Mercury
he would guard by any means possible, exerting himself, exhausting himself, exonerating himself
Saturn Venus in Gemini applying Jupiter, asking him to possess a skill that would give him direction, to guard against a rip, to guard his place
Chiron in Pisces in a quincunx to Mercury. Of all the planets, Mercury may be the least able to mind the gap here. Planet of doorways, he can act like a valve
Chiron in Pisces where the walls are thin, place of the unremembered dead, place of all generations, place of Typhon, father of all monsters, he can ask that we mind the gap in things getting out of hand, mind the gap in being possessed by the past, present and future
Today the Moon is growing in Sagittarius, the full Moon exact tomorrow morning in the Gemini Sagittarius polarity, and we remember him
We can play, draw a chart with his date of birth and the time of the moon’s peak tomorrow
His story is tied to the history of Scotland, in his ancestry a king
His father died when his mother was expecting her eighth child, and his older brother became 6th Earl of Elgin, but he fell ill and died too, and the title came to him, 7th Earl of Elgin
His mother watched over him like a hawk, his health, his education, his situation
He found that he enjoyed politics, could appeal to both sides of the spectrum, became a member of parliament and then took a post as a diplomat. The king himself suggested him as ambassador to Turkey, but Britain did not cover the expenses of an ambassador and the king suggested he find a suitable wife
The financial state of his family was known to his aristocratic circle. His wealth relied on a limestone quarry without easy access to a harbour. His father had drained his resources trying to build a new one, and his mother warned him not to go down that road
She had a situation at court, governess of the granddaughter of King George III, the king she had asked for help to raise her son
The full moon is exact tomorrow at 9:55 am in Scotland. Chart for July 20 1766, 9:55 am
The fourth house in Sagittarius, to be free, to be tied, something left undone in the past, something to resolve
Not the harbour, said his mother
Unbeknownst to him, he would pick up something to resolve, something for generations to come, during his ambassadorship
The ruler in Leo in the twelfth house, Leo flavouring the house of the unremembered dead, house of faraway places, prisons too.
The twelfth house joined to the sixth house of work by the opposition to Mars in Aquarius, an opposition that pulls in the rest of the chart
Leo joined to Sagittarius and Pisces by Jupiter, to Cancer by the Sun, to Gemini and Virgo by Mercury, and the planets in Gemini to Taurus and Libra, Capricorn and Aquairus, and Mars R brings in Aries and Scorpio
He must have proven his skill in diplomacy for the post he was now being offered, the post his marriage allowed him to accept
They were received in Constantinople with pomp and honour, gifts received, gifts given at their expenses, dinner invitations, dinners given at their expense
Her parents came to visit and they traveled to Greece with the Reverend Philip Hunt, priest and antiquarian, and here was born the idea of saving the Parthenon sculptures
Elgin would seek permission to remove them and the sultan gave him a document that allowed him to take them, at his expense, but they were given for free
While she was arranging passage for the cases, he went exploring Greece some more, collecting some more, in discussion with those accompanying him, learning, planning an exhibit in London of original marbles that included sculptures and columns, and the models made, the drawings and the plans. All together 250 cases
Possessed
Napoleon had looted and taken to France, spoils of war
Elgin was a diplomat, a representative of his government, but he was unsalaried, the Diplomatic Salaries Act was enacted in 1869
Leo Aquarius, the polarity of the lunar nodes, the lunar work he came to do
The Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn in the fifth house
A mother’s concern with a child leaving his mark
Elgin’s concern with his children, their legacy
The Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries in the eighth house
He would have liked for his children to inherit the marbles, have them in a permanent exhibit hall
But Mars puts them into the fabric of society
When he needed to sell them, the government made an inquiry whether they were his to sell
Ownership in the first and seventh house, the rulers in Leo where there are moral crossroads
He showed the translation of the document that allowed him to take possession of them, Saturn Venus in Gemini applying Jupiter in Leo in a sextile, Mercury at 12 degrees escapes
Neptune, modern ruler of Pisces
A wish in the chart
The wish of the universe in Virgo in the first house
To prove ownership
Mercury, ruler of Virgo
He doesn’t prove
He asks questions
Mercury What kind of culture would use the Parthenon to store gunpowder?
Mars The Turks stored the gunpowder and the Venetians bombed her.
Jupiter They desecrated my daughter’s temple. (turning to Neptune) Did you have anything to do with the ship sinking?
Neptune Who, me?
Jupiter Yes, you. People chose her olive tree, get over it!
The government was satisfied with the document and made the purchase on July 1 1816
statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/nineteenth-century/1816-56-george-3-c-99-the-elgin-marbles-act/
“And Whereas the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Elgin hath with great Knowledge, Judgment and Care, and at a great Expence, made a most valuable Collection of ancient Marbles and Sculpture, and is willing that the same should be possessed by the Public: And Whereas the said Earl hath agreed to sell the same for the Sum of Thirty five thousand Pounds, on Condition that the whole of the said Collection should be kept together in the British Museum, and open to inspection, and called by the Name of The Elgin Marbles and that the said Earl and every Person who should attain the Rank of Earl of Elgin should be added to the Trustees of the British Museum:”
He fertilised an inheritance that had no monetary remuneration
The sculptures had been a gift, Jupiter Mercury and the highest virtue of hospitality
And he picked up something left to resolve for the house of Elgin, other than the harbour
Chart for July 1 1816
In Aquarius what is private and what is public, what is for profit and not for profit, Saturn can ask for clarity, clear divisions
If Mars in Aquarius can guard the fabric of society, in Leo he can guard the individual who takes the blame
Pluto had been transiting Pisces all this time, losing control, having control
He was taken prisoner, and when he was released, he retrieved every case that sunk to the bottom of the sea, to bring back to the group that he belonged to
His Sun in Cancer in the eleventh house, he belonged to a group with access to the first national public museum of the world, the British Museum
There is a Canadian by the name of Jordan B. Peterson who gives examples of hierarchical structures found in nature, a natural form of organisation. Hierarchies in Capricorn, Pluto can break them down to create something new with Aries in mind, the ruler in Aquarius where we are separate but equal, a museum
It is how the printer George Smith, taking a lunch break, wandered into the museum and came across some Babylonian tablets, but that was in the 1870s
In the late 1700s, early 1800s, there was some reluctance, it was an ongoing process, but it was happening, no going back, and his public had something to say about his collection
Lawful
Unlawful
Whether lawful or unlawful, it became a source of national pride, with Mercury tagging behind in retrograde motion
Bittersweet
The wish of the universe in Sagittarius, the spirit of the times in Sagittarius, this place that asks to know, about an ancient culture, the principles that guided it, the meaning of the sculptures, the stories of the gods, their arrangement on the pediments of the Parthenon, the birth of Athena in the east pediment and the contest between Athena and Neptune in the west pediment, the origins of the marble, the science to clean it, preserve it, broken pieces, floating islands, imagining them whole, the study required to imagine them whole, going back to the sources
There were proposals, reconstructions
He participated
Reinventing himself after the divorce
The Temporary Elgin Room in 1819 with portraits of staff, a trustee and visitors by Archibald Archer
The divorce
When he spat his Sun, he was in Cancer, sign of Hera, goddess of the breast, milk that seals the soul. Her bird the peacock with the eyes of Argos. Her symbol the crab, Karkinos who gave his life for her
He had married a Piscean woman who’d taken up his cause
Now she asked for forgiveness, but she still wanted him to practice birth control, she wanted a separate bed, her independence, Mars retrograding in Aquarius, no more sex, no more children, no way, a quiet divorce, a settlement behind the scenes
He agreed, but then he changed his mind, the Moon Pluto can change a mind
It was actually a gadfly that did it, the stinging gadfly of Hera that drove him to court
Io and the gadfly by Olivia Musgrave
Smallest thing, but very powerful
The outer planets not always within our reach
The feeling of dissatisfaction
There is a need for plenitude in Cancer, this place of the breast, milk that seals the soul to find Eros here on earth
The Sun in Cancer in a quincunx to Mars R in Aquarius in the eighth house, the empty place
To feel plenitude, to fill the empty place, in this moment when a gadfly was driving him mad
He needed a fight
Mars R in opposition to Mercury and Jupiter
A valve opened, never mind the gap
He needed a big fight
To keep the children and all her money, he’d prove that she was an adulteress and incapable of managing her estate, the children’s inheritance
The outer planets not always within our reach
To change the laws of a society
Laws that separated mothers from their children
Property laws, the woman’s property her husband’s
Her money had made his ambassadorship possible, the travels to Greece, obtaining the marbles, but she could not lay claim to them
Laws of exclusion
When she rose to fight, she added her natal Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini, ripping the fabric open with her letters
Changing people’s minds about the laws
Something invisible,
what goes on in the mind
Until the laws make it visible
The Moon, ruler of Cancer
the Moon that bore the Nemean lion
the lion with the impenetrable pelt
Morality of inclusion in Cancer
Hera learnt it the hard way after she dropped Hephaestus out of Olympus
He sent her a golden chair of exquisite craftsmanship that held her captive
until Dionysus got Hephaestus drunk and brought him back on a donkey
She has her way of doing things
Nobody wins, and things change in due course
To hold himself whole, the wish of the universe in Virgo, the ruler in Leo in the second house of resources
To hold himself whole, he could not keep his treasures
the valve to let go
They were tied to the twelfth house of gifts, and they were tied to a marriage broken up in the seventh
He would sell them to the government, also in the seventh, and the government would give him a volunteer position, also in the twelfth, a trusteeship
To hold himself whole in Virgo in the third house of the village that raised him
Medicine in Pisces, a chance to study
his greatest treasure
historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/National-Monument-of-Scotland/
Chart for September 27 1990
cbc.ca/archives/when-brian-mulroney-upsized-the-senate-to-pass-the-gst-1.4839649
In 1990, Jupiter began his transit in Leo when the lunar nodes were ending their transit in the Leo Aquarius polarity. The lunar nodes travel clockwise, and they would begin their transit at 29 degrees of the Cancer Capricorn polarity in November
This year, Jupiter begins his transit in Leo in July, and so do the nodes, at 29 degrees of the Leo Aquarius polarity. A charged polarity, with Pluto already in Aquarius
On this day in 1990, Pluto was in Scorpio
The reasoning behind the GST was that the Manufacturer’s Sales Tax, hidden in the price of a product, made it less competitive vis a vis an American product, for example. Remove it and the price would be more competitive for export and on the shelf. The MST was 13.5% and the GST would be 7% and would apply to services as well
A bigger picture
cbc.ca/news/business/no-regrets-as-gst-turns-20-mulroney-1.905501
foresight
hindsight
Prometheus and Epimetheus in Aquarius
The rulers in Capricorn, joining the signs
Pluto in Scorpio, sign of Leto. When they wouldn’t let her children drink from a fountain, she turned them into frogs. So many fairytales begin this way, with an enchantment, and there are conditions to break it, some kind of transformation needed, and there’s usually a time limit, before midnight, before the last petal falls, before the snow thaws, an enchantment that consumes, and just before midnight, when lhe last petal detaches, when the sun’s rays touch the snow and all hope is lost, there’s a breakthrough
Sign of initiations, planet of death and transformation, higher octave of Mars
Mars that can put up resistance
Pluto in Scorpio, asking for death and transformation, with Uranus in Capricorn, creating something new with Capricorn in mind, making room for new bones
Pluto and Uranus in a quincunx to Mars in Gemini, fingers of god
Give us your soul
No, he said. He would guard his soul, keep the order of things, rely on the existing order to keep the psychopomp at bay
They found a provision in the existing order
Mars guarding his soul, guarding the order, guarding the provision
In a quincunx to Saturn, he can bring out Athena, she of the ballot box, let the people decide
The place of a government voted by the people, Mars guarding the mandate, whether he liked it or not
Jupiter in Leo in a quincunx to Saturn, applying, freeing Saturn to carry it out
The Sun in Libra, morality in using an intermediary, none other than the queen, telling the queen that it wasn’t just about keeping the psychopomp at bay, it was about the principle of democracy
The GST wars, a war between clans
Montagues and Capulets
the elected house of commons and the appointed senate
Pluto in Scorpio
and Uranus in Capricorn in a square to the Sun
Finding a provision to even the numbers, get a few others to join the ruling house and settle the matter, make room
The public prepared, but still in shock, Uranus and the Moon in Capricorn and Jupiter in Leo, the point of Ketu, fertilising
A public made aware that they contribute to the pool
Rahu in Aquarius, sign of the lighthouse
A hidden tax made visible
A tax expanded, every move you make
youtube.com/watch?v=peznVOzKZn8
Fertilising accountability, a person’s right to hold the government accountable
Chart for Brian Mulroney, born March 20 1939, Quebec, Canada, data from birth record
Hermetic sign, Scorpio, but he found that when he tried solving an in house problem, he wasn’t successful, Meech Lake and Charlottetown
It wasn’t the medicine he came to offer. He came to offer medicine that would take the country out of its comfort zone
He came to offer an initiatory journey
with a contract that was cancellable on six months’ notice, if it threatened heritage or the distinct fabric of its society
youtube.com/watch?v=gyYjRmM7RDY
He couldn’t see it until he did that he we would be nation building with Taurus in mind, playing with patterns to pool resources
He couldn’t see it until he did that Mars guarded impermanence, he guarded the nomadic life
Pluto Just go out there and get to know her
Uranus And don’t write anything in stone
He’d been on such journeys before, out of his comfort zone, scary places, and he’d found that weaving a way out assuaged his fears
To resurface again at home, Baie Comeau
He developed a taste for such journeys, and he’d take the country with him, to the precipice, people calling out for a golden ram to save them
and all they’d get would be the pencil he used, the pencil with an eraser, and he’d say, go ahead, erase the barrier I built, a barrier between life and death
In hindsight
At the time, people called out for a golden ram to save them because he threatened to erase the barrier they had built against the United States’ influence
There is a side of Scorpio that isn’t afraid to do the dirty work
There is a side of Pisces that isn’t afraid of exile
to be the pariah
to fulfill a wish of the universe, longevity
The nadir in Pisces
Aquarius in the fourth house made available to his house of contracts
Prometheus and Epimetheus in Aquarius
The one who stole the fire of the gods and the one who married Pandora, Pandora of the box
the contents evening out the gift
the pros and cons of every action
Venus in Aquarius brings in Libra, sign of Themis, prophetess
the ripples of every action
Weighing, measuring, It can make a person indecisive
until lightning strikes and a choice is made
cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.4028301
Solidarity, Venus in Aquarius can learn to live without it
if she believes, by all weights and measures, to be right
or if she is proven wrong
or if someone bars her way
The empty place in Gemini, the ruler conjunct Saturn
tying loose ends or untying what remained
of a barrier between life and death
He tried to tie loose ends after signing the free trade agreement with the GST
but people turned their backs on him, people barred his way
He didn’t care, he’d built resilience, he’d find a way
because it was his turn to rule
Hidden in Pisces in the house of romance, house of the nadir, a stellium, Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon of the precipice, Mercury ruling zero degrees
In Aries he can bring out Odysseus, Mercury Saturn, Odysseus and Polyphemus
Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867, was an in house solution, hermetic, a place nobody had been to before, and it didn’t meddle with heritage or the distinct fabric of the society
He put things in order, the elected house of commons before the appointed senate, and preceding both, the Queen
From chaos, order
He was a different man with his wife, scared of losing her
Limitless, he would have moved mountains for her
She didn’t want him moving mountains, she wanted him to have limits
He’d begin pushing past Saturn, and she’d come to prevent him, worried about his health. Go move mountains at work
He listened because of Neptune in Virgo. Neptune could carry a wish of the universe, and Neptune could dissolve
in the house of contracts
In opposition to Jupiter, he began politics at the top, in a leadership race
His romance with nation building, keeping Taurus in mind, the village that raised him, held him, careful to be backed by the solidarity of his group
Now the GST threatened to break them apart, but something out of his reach was driving him, something out of his reach holding his chart
A war in the heavens
His turn to rule
Saturn blocking the way
Lost sinews, go find them
He woke up in a sweat
Brian? What’s wrong?
I’m looking for sinews
Did you find them?
Not yet, but they’re somewhere in here, he said, pulling the Constitution out of his briefcase
When things were back in order, Mercury transited Pisces. He resigned one degree after the exact Mercury Neptune opposition, he resigned and got his chart back, Mercury at 22 degrees Pisces,
his marriage intact
Then came the accusation that he was a thief and he made a phone call
HIs empty place in Libra, sign of Themis and the principles that guide a society, the higher courts, this place of committed friendships
The ruler in Aquarius where there are parallel universes. In one he would learn to live without solidarity, in another he’d networked, woven a safety net
youtube.com/watch?v=F3kx1u481Vk
Chart for February 10 1947, the day Louise Arbour was born
I told them to please change the person at the other end of my computer
Why?
He seems to want authorship of what I write. If he doesn’t like my edits, he won’t let me save them. If I delete and he doesn’t agree, he wants it back
He wants this back, or she does
It is a chart for February 10 1947, timed at 3:59 pm, that moment yesterday when I thought we’d play but changed my mind
Let’s play
She was not allowed authorship, not unless it was of service, public service, and revelatory in some way
Mars in Aquarius can make public what is private, dealing with issues of public concern
The seventh house can describe the partner we attract
osgoodesociety.ca/oral-history/larry-taman-1997/
Mars ruler of Aries in the ninth house of higher learning and what is foreign to us
and the traditional ruler of Scorpio in the fourth house
In Scorpio there is a natural inclination for the mysteries. Religion can play an important part in one’s upbringing, and we know that she went to convent school
Jupiter in Scorpio, a gift
Religion and morality
The moral crossroads in Leo. Saturn in Leo and Jupiter in Scorpio, Saturn applying in a trine with a wide orb of more than 10 degrees, leaving room for contemplation, where to draw the line between right and wrong
She chose a profession that gives room for contemplation
Saturn in Leo in opposition to Mars in Aquarius, dealing with public issues
Mars, ruler of Aries where there is an oar to pass along, unstatic
ruler of Scorpio where there are mysteries, mysteries of the mind, and an underworld of all that is taboo
Something else here, something particular in her life, something she’s had to confront
There is power in Scorpio, the power that resources may give, the power of holding the means of production, forms of power
pressreader.com/canada/ottawa-citizen/20260506/281835765316865
This form of power too
Today Mars is transiting Taurus, in the Taurus Scorpio polarity, a good time to study control
how we may control, matter over mind
how we may exert pressure
not to appoint her as governor general
The article was published when Mars was transiting Aries, in the Aries Libra polarity
Mastery in Leo, with Pluto beside him
We are individuals standing at the moral crossroads, some more powerful than others, in positions of power
Pluto can concentrate power
Mars and the Sun in Aquarius in opposition
to remain unbiased
Morality in remaining unbiased, supported by fingers of god
Mars in Capricorn can hold a place. Venus can look at the evidence before deciding if he can hold it
She has lectured on evidence, what is and isn’t admissible in court. Hearsay, for example. Always with a philosophical bent, her house of romance in Sagittarius, the philosophy of morality
youtube.com/watch?v=ftwhamDSuD0
Mercury in Pisces, in this place of raw material, antecedents, research
Pluto digging in Leo to create something new with Gemini in mind, the ruler in Pisces
Positions of power, positions in society that allow one to wield power, in a jail or in the military, or as the head of state
She has been called to study and investigate when the cry of Pan has been heard
Mercury in Pisces can navigate through chaos
To rescue, give a list of recommendations
In Pisces where the walls are thin, compassionate sign, Mercury can be flexible, give leeway, the benefit of the doubt
They say that as editor of her high school magazine, she earned the reputation for being irreverent
There’s a side to Pisces that can be irreverent, know no boundaries
The traditional ruler in Scorpio that can puncture an ego grown too big, beginning with one’s own
The spirit of the times in Gemini that can unblind, that won’t be tied
Fingers of god pointing at Mercury
Saturn in Leo and Neptune in Libra, the wish of the universe in Libra in a grand trine in air, to remain unbiased and unbound, ego aside, for fair judgement
Ideally
Today Uranus is in Gemini, her Uranus return beginning
There is a new Moon in Gemini in a couple of days, June 14, exact at 10:55 pm, and we can play some more
Chart for February 10 1947 timed at 10:55 pm
Her family owned a hotel chain that may have left her well situated, less likely to fall into matter over mind, but it interests her, both ways, power relations were brought to her attention and they have filled her empty space
Tradition as well, heritage, especially these days, people in uniform
Sagittarius in the third house of the village that raised her, she was raised in Montreal and went to convent school. Jupiter joins Sagittarius to the house of resourcefulness
Leo in the group she belongs to, the power to decide where to draw the line
Gemini in the ninth house, always a student, wanting to know why
The Moon changes place. In both charts, in a square to Saturn. Saturn can cut in half, and Saturn can protect, shield
Leo rising, the Moon in Libra, ruler of the house behind the scenes, conjunct the nadir, hidden from public view. Silver in Libra in the third house, judgement, if it is fair
She was kept hidden from public view, shielded, when she was chief prosecutor at the international court, with the power to put behind bars
Libra rising, the Moon in Scorpio in the second house of resourcefulness. The public a resource and she a resource for the public. The Moon ruler of the tenth house of reputation, most public house. Silver in the kind of lecture she gave at Dalhousie
cpac.ca/public-record/episode/in-conversation-with-louise-arbour?id=678a80a8-9933-4381-9394-113352c07a89
cpac.ca/tete-a-tete/episode/louise-arbour?id=bdb23698-e505-48d9-b089-6e92fee97d6c
When she spits her Sun out
She was at school. She raised her hand
Yes, Louise
Is there proof that god exists?
There have been miracles
When she spits her Sun out, she doesn’t count on miracles. Mars can ask her to wear a bullet proof vest and she wears it. In the first house, he can attract aggression, he can attract protection, people with physical courage
She says that she admires physical courage but doesn’t have it. Her job requires her to have a different form of courage
To have fear and develop courage in Aquarius where reason can challenge the gods
The wish of the universe in Libra, to distinguish what is of people and what is of the gods
The spirit of the times in Gemini that will not be tied to the past, that can cut ties with antecedents to open a door
to the future
But it’s not so simple
Mercury is in Pisces that brings all generations together
Racism, for example, the concept of race and a hierarchy of people based on place of origin and physical characteristics
It exists in the past, in literature and movies, in India’s caste system, in science
reason that today we agree challenges the gods
We consider it wrong
Unblinded, awakening guilt
Unblinded by education, Mercury in Pisces where there is raw material
Jupiter, the traditional ruler of Pisces in Scorpio where there is clan, the gift of a religious education, a moral code
Jupiter ruler of Sagittarius, most multicultural sign. Although she began in a hermetic environment, contracts that fell on her lap expanded her horizons, from French Canada to English Canada, to the United Nations in New York, to the international court in The Hague, to the Supreme Court
To unblind with the justice system
she participated in deciding what would be allowed a place in the bones holding us up
Careful with her choice of words, back to Mercury in Pisces at the bending of the nodes. Choosing her words carefully, with knowledge of the power of words to create
A god that created the world with the power of words
Words that can create chaos and panic, book burnings and killings
Words that can create a place of refuge for all generations
Digging in the riches of Leo where we are careful who we blame
The courage to choose words
the right words to blame
Fingers of god pointing at Saturn in Leo, the traditional ruler of Aquarius
Mastery in Leo where there is a spotlight
To turn reason that challenges the gods into guilt that is official
In Leo, Hercules stands at the moral crossroads. He would not carry his father’s guilt until Hera brought a madness upon him, and he had guilt of his own to carry and atone for
She turned a head of state’s actions into guilt, every head of state’s guilt to carry and atone for
Chiron at 8 degrees Scorpio, echoing the degree of the lunar nodes
Opening doors, minding the gap in betrayal
If the Moon were in Scorpio, we could say, not to betray the women who raised her, the women who instilled the eye of god in her, as irreverent as she was, the women who taught her to carry the laws
If the Moon were in Libra, we could say the same more broadly, not to betray her clan
Here we can add, not to betray the power invested in her
Cancer in the sixth house of work environment and colleagues, the Moon in Libra in the ninth house, above the horizon. People who share the same vocation
Venus in Capricorn in the twelfth house
Inanna carrying the laws to Uruk by galam-huru7 on deviantart
Chart for October 20 1963, the day Julie Payette was born, timed the time it is now, 8:30 am
Let’s play
Scorpio rising puts her house of contracts in Taurus where there is the body and the earth, contracts that challenge cohesion
To challenge cohesion, to strengthen it, withstand a hostile environment
The house of colleagues and work in Aries, Jupiter in Aries, daredevils, in opposition to Mercury in Libra, breaking through the gates of Troy
Her chart may have attracted an armed member of Canada’s military to break through the gates of Rideau Hall
Accumulated energy in the sixth and twelfth house, or energy not spent correctly
She needed to take a walk, find a more suitable place
The house in Capricorn looked pretty solid, but sirens were calling and she kept going, and it began to rain, and it began to thunder and to hail, and she ran and found shelter in
Pisces, the perfect place to let her hair grow out to its natural colour, never mind the speech from the throne
the ruler in Aries, even better. Irreverent and unselfconscious
To unselfconsciously put great emotion into words, she was only one of a handful of people in the entire world to have experienced breaking through the atmosphere
To find the words to transmit knowledge out of the range of common experience, to make it comprehensible to the rest of the world,
poetic
to give incohesion cohesion, comprehension, the wish of the universe, and a good reason why it was important and necessary for humanity
Jupiter in Aries is expansive fire and in Libra there are arrangements
Aries is not known for being polite, it is a sign of survival and it holds an axe, it acts on instinct
It doesn’t excuse bringing incohesion and making people cry when they don’t get an arrangement right
not in the halls of Rideau
not the strength needed
She looked back at the little brick house in Capricorn, too late. Her employers called for a review and what she needed was her solar house
youtube.com/watch?v=uT6KuMVkmso
She could not see that the website and the pilot project, the governor general connecting with schools online, was part of her vision, connectivity, technology that could track her
Mercury in Libra that can break through the gates of Troy without the use of force
All they saw was mischief, a woman ready to erase a contract
fighting against a force that would make her erase it, Jupiter in Aries applying the opposition
because she was a daredevil
challenging tradition
fertilising something new in the workplace
Jupiter joins Pisces in the sixth house to Aries, and Sagittarius in third house of the taxi driver and the media, she attracted a media dissatisfied with her answers. She’d been busy the first year meeting Canadians across the country, setting up the website and the pilot project. Okay, what about the awards ceremony you didn’t attend? What about the charities?
youtube.com/watch?v=GjwNIR07Pac
She was bypassing the media
Creating something new digging in the riches of Virgo, without changing the order, Uranus applying Pluto in Virgo
(like eliminating the federal tax between provinces)
She challenged and updated, added her own touch, and she could also simply play with patterns
Are you going to live in Rideau Hall?
Sure I will, but the ballroom has to be renovated
Saturn joins Capricorn in the fourth house to Aquarius where there are updates and renovations
When she spit her Sun out, there was a side of her that would comply without complying
Yes, said Mercury, I will be more careful with the words I use, but that doesn’t mean that you will change the way I think, because the body of evidence says that the earth is warming
youtube.com/watch?v=rzCOOBSghgI
Her Sun in Libra, this sign of balance and of claws, that can keep the balance or disturb it, with a video, self reporting
Mercury in Libra in a trine to Saturn in Aquarius
Tools in Gemini can make connections
Tools in Libra can send ripples that disturb the balance
in Aquarius, where there are pooled resources, the hegemony of a state funded media
with Aquarius, where there are universal laws, the universal laws of science and technology
Saturn in Aquarius in a square to Neptune in Scorpio, making room for a new cohesion
She was the harbinger of change that was coming, cultural change, tools made available to everyone, a video of influence
Venus, ruler of Libra, in Scorpio, applying Neptune and Mars, attracting jobs that challenged her cohesion, and the job of governor general, with all the media headlines, challenged her cohesion
and she particpated, filling her empty space playing with patterns
Venus touching Jupiter here can augment challenge and stress, more headlines, more challenge and stress
that may have broken cohesion
Her lunar work in Capricorn where Enki holds a cup with waters from the abzu, the ruler in Aquarius in this place of universality
Rahu in Cancer, in her house of reputation
the Moon in Sagittarius, an entertaining Moon
She relived her experience in space and entertained her public, the village that raised her
With Uranus in a square to the Moon, she shocked her public, mocking those who believed differently from her
and the media also mocked her
youtube.com/watch?v=Uy3Z3eXdLlw
She became governor general on October 2 2017
This video was released on October 4 2018 and has 94,000 views
Her new year’s message was released on December 28 2018 and has 10,000
without disturbing the order of things, planets out of her reach
she resigned
A place for everyone.
Chart for January 6 1944, the day Gabor Maté was born
All the planets that can retrograde are retrograding, except Venus in Sagittarius, the labour of love
Expansion on site
To break down the stigma of addiction without becoming addicted
If the word addiction originates in describing a form of slavery, an unequal relationship, Chiron minds the gap in Virgo
The willpower to experiment once
He tried ayahuasca once, and when he organised an ayahuasca retreat, he had to cancel because Health Canada said no
youtube.com/watch?v=DLki68uLfjw
26:44 – 30:55
photograph by Mark Whitelock
A moment of enlightenment, not to be controlled by the mind, to break free from the conditioned mind and find unity with the trees and god in the geese, heaven on earth
Addiction the result of a conditioned mind
youtube.com/watch?v=oY928d4uzew
He went on to define addiction as
pleasure, craving, relief in the short term
harm in the long term, inability to give it up
He drew the quincunx between Mercury R in Capricorn and Saturn R in Gemini
based on field experience, he pinned it down, gave it a foundation
and they pointed at Jupiter in Leo, natural ruler of the fifth house
There’s a teddy bear in Leo, the child in all of us
Whether there was was abuse or not, a definition that could apply to any of us, no matter the reflection
an experience that turns into a wound, a hole in the soul
needing to be held
searching for endorphins, expansion on site, felt in the body
To break away from it, recover the soul
Venus in Sagittarius and Mars Uranus R in Gemini pointing at Pluto R in Leo
and change our reflection
Venus in Sagittarius and Mars Uranus R in Gemini pointing at Neptune R in Libra
Libra where we see ourselves in others
to be seen as equals, the compassion of recognition
6:51 – 9:52
Chart for January 6 1944, timed at 1 pm, the Moon in between
Child of the Holocaust
He says that he found a sense of belonging in Jewish victimhood growing up
Jupiter in Leo in the fourth house, gift giver
Pluto conjunct the point of Rahu in the nadir
a family living in fear of deportation
displacement
Pluto in a sextile to the Moon
He says that his mother gave him to another family for safekeeping, held and not held, the trauma of abandonment, the wound
Mercury retrograding into the Sun in Capricorn
Pan’s rebellion against the laws of civilization, laws of the archetypal father
to rebel and to be loved, accepted by the bones
The ruler in Gemini, sign of the antagonist
to build a barrier between dichotomies, irreconcilable differences
to build a foundation that conciliates dichotomies
a reason why
His contract in Scorpio
medicine in a definition
that is universal
Saturn in Gemini, sign of rescue
amoral
experimental
where there are unintended consequences
Barriers of prevention
opening the door to try it once
When Health Canada said no, he went on a shopping spree
filled his house with classical music
When he spits out his Sun, in a panic or in a competitive spirit, or in a fatherly spirit
youtube.com/watch?v=WMPv6KMp1Y4
the interview begins at 20:30
Chart for Hasan Piker, born July 25 1991, United States, data from birth record
He ended up exactly where he was afraid to end up, in the eighth house couch being poked around
the analyst’s couch in the house of emergencies, crisis and healing
with the word disillusionment
Gabor knew he had to change place, spit out his Sun
With Taurus rising, his eighth house is in Sagittarius, occupied with the conditioned mind
The time it takes to awaken, break free, find enlightenment
His books a talisman
to guard against forces that can spoil, to ensure survival
Loneliness and isolation
29:54
How do you think we fix it without rolling back the clock to primitive communism, asks Hasan
Being aware of what we’ve lost, recreating structures that promote communality
studying patterns of the past
To every topic Hasan brings up, he offers a pattern of the past, similarities and differences
and Hasan has something to add, he too has knowledge of the past, of history
and it dissolves any barrier that could be drawn between them
This is something that I experienced personally during covid, he says
and there’s a switch
that lights up Leo and the analyst’s couch
He followed Bernie Sanders around and was devastated after super tuesday, the worst moment of his life
Not wounded, doesn’t need attention, but they stay here, natural ruler of the fifth house of play and friendship
Between Capricorn and Leo, where their planets meet
Hasan defers to an elder and allows him to poke around
Devastation, disillusionment, loneliness and online communities
In the Leo Aquarius polarity, where the lunar nodes are about to begin their transit
Once upon a time, because of his insecurities, he could have found himself in the throes of the Manosphere
How do we prevent this from happening, he asks, and Gabor says, by realising that feminism and female power is actually their ally, if it is properly understood
He has to consciously correct his pronunciation, Mercury retrograding into the Sun, to make himself clear
Does the capitalist mode of production that we exist under contribute to wounding, Hasan asks
and Gabor places the individual inside the bones of their society, inextricably entwined
Bones that become an invisible web in Aquarius, reality
Transiting Pluto conjoining Hasan’s Saturn in Aquarius
He expresses himself with a marxist vocabulary and says that he is a socialist and anti imperialist striving toward a more egalitarian society. He has explained how the democratic party of the United States is not really an alternative to the republican party, how it caters to corporate America just like the republican party does. He has spoken about the strategies the party uses to erode or cancel policies that would benefit the hoi polloi instead of corporations
He has also spoken against zionism and the government of Israel and called the bombing of Gaza a genocide
Pluto can test his commitment
and his bravery
youtube.com/watch?v=lSZocmOQoME
22:00 – 26:00
In Gabor’s chart, transiting Pluto is opposing his natal Pluto in Leo
conjunct the point of Ketu
He can ask if there is work left to do
and Gabor talks to Hasan about trauma, the individual in relation to society and trauma
He too has joined the Palestinian cause. There can be solidarity for a cause in the Leo Aquarius polarity
He calls it a moral issue
Uranus returning in his chart, conjoining his Moon, freeing him to speak up, freeing his soul with compassion of recognition
There has been gratitude with Jupiter transiting Cancer, and there have been cancelled events
In Hasan’s chart, transiting Jupiter is conjoining the point of Ketu
We know he loves his country, super tuesday was the worst day of his life
but Jupiter can doubt his loyalty
youtube.com/watch?v=lSZocmOQoME
13:25 – 20:10
especially when Saturn is transiting Aries
A moment in time when he is thankful to have Venus as an ally
not encouraging him to break the order, but punishing him whenever he broke it
Mars Venus in Virgo in a quincunx to Saturn in Aquarius, shutting him down if he didn’t follow the rules of cyberspace
his discipline his strength
Arete in keeping the order when he is streaming live
Mercury in Leo
33:50 – 36:14
There is influence in his chart, Jupiter in Leo in a square to Pluto in Scorpio
When he turned away from the manosphere to fill his empty place with a community of his own, a community made up of people of all generations and different backgrounds from the village that raised him and beyond
to change the democratic party from within, by supporting candidates willing to build an alternative
In Leo there can be personalities that become archetypal
there can be role models
He may feel the pressure when he spits out his Sun
To be the guardian of a culture that allows freedom of expression
youtube.com/watch?v=1nP2Yo_WS6I
The arab mantle
Turkey a gift because it’s shown him what it is to have individual rights taken away
The insights he’s gained from his clan
His lunar work in Cancer, this place of home and homeland, Chiron in between, minding the gap in inclusion, minding the gap in who we blame, to do the lunar work in such a homeland, Chiron conjunct the Sun in the sign where we first encounter the moral crossroads
The Moon in Capricorn, finding him a place of prominence, the Moon conjunct the point of Rahu, skipping a few steps
in a crumbling empire
dying, is what he said
where fascism can show its face
The need to guard the principles on which it was built, the right of safe haven, innocent until proven guilty
Digging in the riches of Scorpio, changing minds
he may have moved once or twice out of fear
but he’s found courage
to create something new in the bones that hold his homeland up, without changing the order
The ruler in Aquarius, this place of universal rights, place of parallel universes, place of hopes and dreams, his north star
place of the critic guided by the moral crossroads, having to choose between right and wrong
Leo can be un nuanced, ruled by the Sun, one star lighting the sky, decisive
Not everyone may agree
but he has the right to speak, a protected right
There is an astrologer who says that when a client comes for a consultation, we put them in the sky, the chart in the sky, and see the ideal form
There’s something else in Leo
a campfire
a woman following her heart
Hasan enjoying the fruits of his labour
Chart for August 30 1965, the day Liz Evans war born
youtube.com/watch?v=hZEkLJgGkaU
To unlearn everything she had been taught
unblind
To give anonymity and marginality a name, to become Tilly and tell us her story, the story of a whole person with a past
to break free from the past
evoke compassion
and more, Venus in the second decan of Libra
At one point, she would consolidate all that she knew, and working with others, take it to court
Mars in Scorpio in the decan of hunger, guarding against hunger, the wish of the universe in the second decan, to control it
She has advocated for means to control hunger and bring back coherence
youtube.com/watch?v=_ZUBG4gfE08
They say that drugs create pathways difficult or impossible to break, pathways that need to be fed. She’s aware of it, she talks about relapses
She doesn’t talk about protecting people from encountering drugs. She talks about giving people who do drugs value, housing them
She’s not about the illegality of drugs and law enforcement
She couldn’t see it until she did that she would create a space free of law enforcement, modeled after other countries, where people could carry drugs and inject them under supervision
youtube.com/watch?v=HvXPZ5xnLJ4
Mother Teresa, a solar Virgo
She can come to mind when listening to Liz Evans talk about her mission
There can be a missionary in Jupiter ruled signs
We do not have Mother Teresa’s time of birith, but Marcello Borges has made Sagittarius her rising sign
youtube.com/watch?v=Th2QzJwy8tI
She created her own society, the missionaries of charity, recruited people willing to live by her principles
A follower of Christ with followers of her own
Liz Evans left nursing in a hospital to work for a tenants’ rights housing activist organisation that had just taken on the management of a single room occupancy hotel, a hotel with 70 rooms. They had raised enough money to pay someone part time to work with their first tenants, 10 adults living with mental illness
A time of de institutionalisation
A contract that asked her to accomodate imperfection
to mold the invisible into words and accomodate imperfection
And then she did whatever she wanted to do, in Pisces fashion. She began rooming drug addicts who’d been living on the streets, outside the hotel
She extended the structure to other marginalised people, gave them anchor. Saturn in Pisces in opposition to Uranus Pluto in Virgo, applying
There is a side of Saturn that can become biofouled in the deep blue sea, ruler of Capricorn where there are hierarchies, he can lose authority, side with Pan
Pan comforting Psyche by Reinhold Begas, 1858
Saturn retrograding can chide. He reminded her that she wasn’t the sole person in charge. Better get permission, add them to the group you service, make it official
Saturn the traditional ruler of Aquarius in the twelfth house
She says that her mastery in a place of invisibility began when she was in nursing school, she volunteeried in a couple of homeless shelters, and she got to know some of the women there, and for complicated reasons they reminded her of her mom
She came to understand that she’d grown up with a mom who was mentally ill
To see her mom separate from herself, a life separate from her own, her mom’s context
is when understanding and forgiveness can begin, in the Leo Aquarius polarity
Nurture in the fourth house, Jupiter in Gemini, a mother who may not have let her identify with her, feelings that kept them apart, but a mother who in her own way protected her from hunger, a reflection different from mom’s
It would become her point of reference, the place she came back to for answers, when she couldn’t fix things, when she couldn’t rescue, what people needed to differentiate themselves from their hunger
Cancer in the fifth house of children and romance
this place that seals the soul
place of bubbles that can cast away what is felt to be dangerous and harmful
The Moon conjunct Mars with Neptune in the ninth house of calling
She did not stay long working in a hospital, long enough to know it wasn’t her calling
What she needed to do was to guard against the hunger of a soul unsealed, the hunger of a soul cast away, give people roots
In Scorpio there is a floating island
In Leo, Mercury can hold a branch that can grow roots
He can tell stories that desensitize
Libra in the eighth house of the empty place, Venus in her sign, ruler of Libra where there are signatures, and ruler of Taurus where we ensure survival with the basic necessities
a structure made up of a signature and the basic necessities of life
More
Jupiter in a trine to the Moon Mars can ask for more
and she spearheaded what others had been attempting to do, reduce overdose and HIV infection, with the introduction of a foreign idea, an injection site
Her lunar work in Sagittarius, in the house of reputation, the ruler in Gemini in the fourth house of home and homeland
Libra in the eighth house of the empty place, place of crisis and healing, place of other people’s resources, joined by Venus to Taurus in the third house. There is locality in Taurus
She joined hands with her third house, Vancouver’s health services, to be able to operate an injection site on the premises of the hotel
The injection site was granted a three year conditional exemption from the law to operate as a pilot project
lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/LegislativeSummaries/411C65E
In charge of a pilot project, her reputation on the line
A project based on examples abroad, an experiment in Canada where those collecting data could advocate for it to take root or not
Cancer in the eighth house, this place of funders, this place of inclusion and exclusion, the Moon in Scorpio holding the lowest degree, all her feelers on alert, critical
A project exempted from the law in Pisces
Saturn ruler of Capricorn where Enki holds a cup with waters from the abzu, ruler of Aquarius where Ganymede shares the nectar of the gods with humanity
the laws of a place of exile, the laws of an exemption
in the deep blue sea where Saturn can become biofouled
Venus keeping an eye in Libra, sign of Themis, prophetess, she can send ripples to measure the outcome of every action every word
Saturn retrograding, hoping for longevity, to crown Jupiter, stabalize him, alas, the orb too wide, he lowered his expectations, hoping for extensions one at a time
Her reputation on the line, the Sun at the bending of the nodes
between those who could pull the plug and the Supreme Court
morality in following the protocol
without making improvements. If she thought up an idea, Pluto would have her re think it
the ruler in Leo where a hero made mistakes, Labours disqualified
Venus in Libra where the ugly can become beautiful with habituation
morality in every task
no Mona Lisas
still
changing culture, planets out of her reach
putting the margins in the spotlight
decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/7960/index.do
There is Kore in Virgo, virgin daughter of Demeter, about to pluck the narcissus, Pluto standing by, rising from the depths to take her down
This place of interruption
There are negotiations to bring her back up and pomegranate seeds that tie her down, a compromise
An order that grows from compromise
An order that brings new teachings
They say that in Canada de institutionalization began in the 1960s
ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-preventing-discrimination-based-mental-health-disabilities-and-addictions/appendix
A time when hospitals may have been feeling the strain of the change in culture
How many could they accomodate? Born in a moment when the need for community supports was felt, to avoid incoherence
Pluto and Uranus, Uranus and Pluto dancing in Virgo, stirring culture, keeping the order, changing the order in the 60’s and 70’s
A contract that asked her to consolidate new teachings
A contract that aksed her to hire people who would do the same
bring new teachings
When she fights, she interrupts a mission, she offers interruption with new teachings
that lessen the strain on hospitals
A mission that differentiates undifferentiates, Jupiter can encompass the whole spectrum
A mission to help people differentiate, lessening the strain on institutions in Pisces, natural ruler of the twelfth house
with community supports
In a crisis situation, she created a kingdom of her own, in Aries where there is a golden fleece
fundraising for a full time doctor, nurses, a dental clinic, a bank, a soccer team that went to Paris and Rio, a growing number of housing projects, their upkeep and maintenance, a plethora of services
with a husband whose planets may have stimulated growth in the eighth house
Her partnerships a resource
Kingdoms need to be populated
they can become a source of income
and unbeknownst to her, Mercury behind her, in a quincunx to Saturn R, she was befriending the enemy
undifferentiating
cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/doug-ford-says-he-s-dead-against-supervised-injection-sites-1.4628547
The CBC quoting Francisco Sapp who said that until drugs are decriminalized
More
In her compassion
desensitizing
habituating
the bag of flaws under the sun
prolonging, Virgo can prolong
life
recovery, the risk in Virgo to prolong recovery
with a safety blanket
can backfire
To fight against government, an open enemy
to fight for a secret enemy
There is a golden fleece in Aries
and an oar
Chart for November 20 1964, the day Doug Ford was born
To reverse an exodus
Mercury in Sagittarius can open the door to let the Moon out, open the door to let the Moon in, provide the right environment for her to stay
in Gemini with Rahu
Equal, a solution that is equal
youtube.com/watch?v=FkO1IDa21vM
1:14:26
She will not raise taxes on middle income and low income families
un equal
He wants to stir up the economy, more people to participate in the economy, there are 550,000 more people paying taxes, he says
One language that minds the gap in Pisces where class dissolves
He gives a crash course in economics, not as an academic, but with people talk
how the country relies on private and public investment
how the country pools resources to pay for universal health care and education
it all boils down to a good economy
youtube.com/watch?v=abwZpzG5Q0c
44:12
Solutions in an openly mixed economy, brash about it
without changing the order of pooled institutions
disciplined when he does
Tamed when his visions are considered too grand
Tamed when he pushes the limits
youtube.com/watch?v=abwZpzG5Q0c
36:22
At 7:56 this morning
The allocation of funds, a balancing act
Venus in Libra trines Saturn in Aquarius, and his opponents don’t register the numbers he quotes. There is future planning here as well and they criticize his plans
There is a grand cross in his chart that Chiron in Pisces completes
No way out, except in the quincunx between Mercury and Jupiter
They drop talking about Ontario Place to talk about the tunnel. It will take 40 years to complete and cause havoc, a fantasy, they say, and maybe a distraction, until Ontario Place is completed
He stirs the economy and he stirs people, to participate, stay engaged, alert, in case he eats the greenbelt, bad boy
youtube.com/watch?v=20YRyA_Unjc
a revenu generating parking lot, straight up, it’s how the economy works
In Scorpio there is the ability to feel what lies beneath the surface, what is left unsaid, and Scorpio can be reprimanded at an early age for bringing up to the surface, it can learn to hush
not when it’s in contact with the outer planets, out of reach
not with Mercury in Sagittarius, sign of the centaur unbridled
not with an uncesored Moon in the same sign as the head of the dragon
emergencies caused by blunders
youtube.com/watch?v=bStiHf6F72s
Cancer in the eighth house where hushing is primordial, censored sign, he can’t help expressing what others may be thinking
Chastened, he repairs, Mars in Virgo bearing down on him with the current order of such matters, ruler of Aries in the fifth house of parenting, he leads by example making repairs
but he made his point
when Jupiter was ending his transit in Gemini, about to begin his transit in Cancer, a time that made room for acculturation
a time of pruning, Virgo can prune excess
Jupiter’s transit in Cancer with the lunar nodes in the Virgo Pisces polarity
When his spits out his Sun, Cancer is in the ninth house of knowledge, and he learns listening to people’s stories
When he spits out his Sun, he is preoccupied with reversing an exodus
youtube.com/watch?v=iMeLnikFnYc
Planning for the future, Venus in Libra in a trine to Saturn in Aquarius, a trine that can bring detractors
The Sun in Scorpio in a square to Saturn in Aquarius, the courage to persevere despite detractors, when a plan does not betray, when it is careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater
and when the plan will prevent from spoiling
Scorpio can preserve the order, bring back to life an old order, in the memories of people
and Aquarius can update
Neptune conjunct the Sun, the wish of the universe to preserve, bring back to life, even if the plan will spoil, shut down
The courage to use the whole spectrum that Jupiter allows in Taurus
There is a people’s court in Gemini, he’s experienced it himself, court martialed, polished to keep the order of the fabric of his society
He’s learned on the job to do the same
to bring back order
tame the excess of a centaur
Pallas Athena Fighting Centaurs by Milan Thomka Mitrovský
He too can be a detractor
He does not betray, he looks back, he looks at what has been recycled
Scorpio a hermetic sign, Scorpio rising, the ninth house in Cancer where there are stories of a mother who came from a mother, all the way to the beginning of time
The fifth house in Pisces where there is all that came before, raw material, children, impressionable
The rulers in the Scorpio Taurus polarity, a tunnel between them
In Scorpio where there can be clan warfare, he fights
finds coherence in the past
brings to life an old order
with courage and
youtube.com/watch?v=zanj0zDKfR8
Release date June 8 2025, Annecy, France
The lunar nodes in the Virgo Pisces polarity, order and disorder, they can break up the order
The Sun in Gemini with Mercury conjunct Jupiter at the bending of the nodes, with an orb of five degrees. Some astrologers would consider the orb too wide to have influence on the lunar work, they’d say no more than three, some would say let’s give it a try
To break up the order with Mercury Jupiter at the bending of the nodes
In Sagittarius they’d wash a whole town away for lack of hospitality
Here it’s about soul, having a soul, guarding one’s soul
a story that turned the tables
It all begins with an apple, there are apples in Gemini
apples that roll around the zodiac
Taurus grows them, this place of settlement, where Inanna romances Gilgamesh who says no, he’s seen what she does to her lovers he tells her, he of the upper hand refuses her advances, even throws a bone at her, it is Enkidu who holds his soul, Gilgamesh and Enkidu inseparable, until death separates them
grief
It all begins with apples, an apple box, a pearl inside
The Moon in Scorpio, this place of mysteries, place of initiations, natural ruler of the empty place
grief
loneliness
He’d been a homeless boy, a scavenger, waiting for a box to drop at the docks
a box of apples
a box of pearls
living in a rundown place beside a girl with an evil stepmother
who one day burnt her hand on the stove
It wrenched his soul
he felt it lift from his body
in Gemini
In Aries survival, the body the soul
In Taurus ensuring survival, to hold
In Gemini the split
he could talk to himself
A window, a hole in the wall, moonlight found its way through both, and the boy followed the beam of light, its source, and he saw the girl’s tears drop, and when he looked down, he saw the pearls he’d collected at the docks
and he told himself a story
With fact and fact, he created fiction
No, said Leto. With fact and fact, you’ve made magic, tears that turn into pearls
Pearls of sorrow, the wiseman called them, opening a hidden book, an apocryphal book
Priceless
Saturn in between the immaterial and the material could not crown them, but the wiseman offered the pawnbroker a jewel that would give him enough to share with the girl
Step forward
but the pawnbroker refused to take a step, if he was being offered one, then it must be worth two
Temptation
temptation in an expansive square
in the sign of the nascent soul
the pawnbroker’s mind busy, should he have traded them, no, they were worth more, but who else would believe him, who else would know about Eve, the wiseman knew, he’d made the connection, he had proof, well, proof that couldn’t be proven, he’d opened the door to a place, a reality that made room for proof that couldn’t be proven, a reality that could be scoffed at, he himself had scoffed at it, but now he felt drawn, what if it were true, the boy telling the truth, context that transformed the pearls, made them unique, perfect, not from any mollusk, yet they tasted like the sea, smelled like the sea, priceless, he’d trade them when he got two more
The story grew in the boy’s mind, the beam of light enticing him to labour, the story grew in him, his soul yearned for the girl, he loved her, wanted her to be happy
torn
shaken when the pawnbroker slapped him, shouted words at him, he felt the undercurrent, the man possessed by the story
under its spell
He’d had a chance to break it before it began
if he’d accepted the wiseman’s trade
and shared it with the girl, held her, an act of charity that would have changed him, changed his reflection
He’d get another chance to break it
not as easily with the spell well underway
by accepting the boy’s trade, a box filled with a hundred dollar bills for a box of pearls
All he had
Unpossessed
When Gilgamesh refused Inanna’s advances, Inanna left in fury and asked the sky god Anu to unleash the bull of heaven. Anu hesitated, unleashing the bull would devastate the land, bring seven years of famine, but Inanna didn’t care, she insisted, and Anu gave in, he unleashed the bull and Gilgamesh killed him
For killing the bull, the gods punished Gilgamesh by sending an illness upon Enkidu, and Enkidu died, and grief carried Gilgamesh to the underworld in search of his friend
For killing the bull, her husband, Ereshkigal summoned her sister Inanna to her abode in the underworld
Inanna would return to Taurus Inanna Ereshkigal, ensuring survival
Venus, ruler of Taurus
Here she is in a square to Pluto in Aquarius where reason can meddle with the gods, and unreason
The outer planets can be out of reach, a driving force
to ensure survival with reason unreason
Venus in a trine to Mars in Leo where there can be heroes for a day, heroes who break the mold, Mars in a square to Uranus
The pawnbroker, unaware that he was a hero with his unreason, sharing, providing the boy with a barrier between life and death
with the help of the gods
It is in the trine between Venus and Mars that the boy lived, fending for himself, making himself invisible in plain daylight, arete in the third house, his neighbourhood, the skills he needed to survive, mastering survival by correcting the degrees needed to crown the planets in Gemini, sign of the Dioscuri, sign of rescue
on the lookout, on the move
quick to fill his empty can with pearls when the crate crashed to the ground
he scuttled off to the rundown place without losing one
Then the split
the birth of the storyteller
Mercury Jupiter in a quincunx to Pluto in Aquarius, digging for riches in Aquarius where there is universality, where there are archetypes
Mercury Jupiter in a semi sextile to Uranus in Taurus, to create something new with Taurus in mind where there is locality
There is multiplicity in Gemini, multiple points of view, he was the girl, the boy, the pawnbroker, the wiseman
The wiseman with a collection of books that would be the envy of any museum
always adding to his collection rare finds
his interest in esoteric knowledge
the empty place in Capricorn where we can abide by the laws, abide by the established canons, escape the laws, escape the established canons
wisdom derived from all that is left out
like the day he closed shop and the crate came crashing to the ground
He picked up a pearl among thousands, not a rarity after all, the trine between Venus and Mars could sometimes bring him copies
But he’d learnt to be cautious
Tested in his youth
he’d learnt to guard his soul
One jewel, not two
Gilgamesh made an offering to the gods, a golden statue of Enkidu. He pleaded with the gods to accept his offer and save his friend, but it was not to be so
He found his friend in the underworld, and his friend tried to send him back to the world of the living, This is no place for a king, he said. If it isn’t, said Gilgamesh, then he would seek immortality, and he continued his search to the ends of the world to find the people the gods had granted immortality, Utnapishtim and his wife Saba
He suffered to find them, a journey filled with hazards, and even then, immortality evaded him. Not his fate, said Utnapishtim, but there was a plant at the bottom of the sea that could make him young again, said Saba, and Gilgamesh fought the currents to get it, a thorny plant that cut through his fingers, pain that awoke him. He’d offer it to the old of his kingdom, he thought, and suddenly looked forward to going back, to the comfort of his kingdom. As he approached his place of birth, he left the plant on a rock so he could bathe, and in a flash, a snake slithered on the rock and ate it. No, he cried, watching the snake shed its old skin
He entered his kingdom empty handed, but people noticed a change in him. Those who feared he’d gather the young again to carry out more exploits, fight more wars, bring more death, saw a change in him, a settlement. He would settle down, and the day his child was born, the day he held it, brought fulfillment. He understood that here was immortality, in the carvings on the walls of Uruk that told of his adventures, and in his child, the little prince Enkidu
Chart for April 30 1959, the day Stephen Harper was born
youtube.com/watch?v=D4r9S0lcw3o
He has learned to please the public
Iran, Russia, China, the general consensus
He says that once upon a time we had one way systems of communication, and institutions could mask political complexity
He has learned to mask political complexity
Because there was a time when he did not please, when he did not mask
thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/23/StephenHarpersEyes/
Venus in Gemini in a trine to the Moon in Aquarius
can play the antagonist
to forge a distinct identity
the Moon in opposition to Uranus in Leo
He distinguished himself from others with his analysis
his critique
uncensored, Mars in Cancer can be uncensored
humorous too
but it has a sting
it could sting Canadians to see themselves in his eyes
Was he family or not?
I am family, he said
I just come from a place you may not be too familiar with, a place that may feel foreign to you, the west
To bring it into consciousness
from the margins to the centre
There is responsibility of clan in the Taurus Scorpio polarity, and his sense of responsibility would grow to include the rest of the land, the homeland
Mars, ruler of Scorpio, in Cancer, at the bending of the nodes
in opposition to Saturn R in Capricorn, bringing in discipline before the lunar work could be done
Mercury in Aries, Mercury of the battlefield, conjunct the point of Ketu
He didn’t skip a few steps, he says he became PM in a roundabout way, without strategy
Opinionated, outspoken, studious, Saturn R in the ninth house
in a grand trine in earth, asking him what was the one thing that needed to be weeded out to ensure survival, Pluto in Virgo and the Sun in Taurus
Debt, he said, debt due to irresponsibility
The answer he needed to build a platfrom, from complexity to a workable platform
He could get caught in the grand trine
He could get caught in the t square
The way out in Libra
cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/canadian-alliance-progressive-conservative-merger?id=b8e703b0-6c55-472b-bcb7-81eacda36917
During question period, he had to draw attention to the side that initiated the merger
from the east to the west
Mercury in a sextile to Venus in Gemini, she can take sides, Rahu in the sign she rules, to bring balance
The Moon in Aquarius, separate but equal, the Moon in opposition to Uranus in Leo,he could have been a separatist, started as a separatist
to do the lunar work, with the influence of Mars in Cancer in opposition to Saturn R in Capricorn
To every clan of the land
Pater
Frist PM of a merger
An original, there can be an original in Taurus
A model, there can be a model in Gemini to be emulated
A paddle, there can be a paddle in Aries to pass along
the discipline to detach and pass along
There’s a cow in Taurus that came from the sea
Hold me, said the cow, the wish of the cow to be held
Venus goddess of love in a trine to the Moon
Love me, she said. I will reinvent myself to be loved
Minority, said the Moon
and Mercury improvised
youtube.com/watch?v=BkmTMTqchnk
Minority, said the Moon
and Mercury improvised
youtube.com/watch?v=2KMcEwsT-10
Majority
Slow and steady wins the race
Chart for December 13 1871, the day Emily Carr was born
There are historical records in Capricorn
Tut, tut, said the Moon, too colourful. There’s work to be done for this to be considered historical
a change in consciousness
I may just hold the key, said Mercury
In Scorpio there is Artemis, chaste and wild, huntress and goddess of the animals, guarding her space, guarding her place
In Taurus there can be a bull unleashed and seven years of famine, and in Scorpio Inanna shedding clothes to pass through the seven gates of the underworld
A transformation out of her reach, a dying world
changing consciousness
allowing her in
to save a place
Mercury holding the key
in a trine to Pluto in Taurus, in a sextile to Venus in Scorpio
she learned to live with the disapproval of her clan, sought it, tested it, how far could she go without losing her place
Mars in Capricorn in opposition to Jupiter in Cancer that can include and can exclude
Becoming an artist
did not exclude her
Painting totem poles did not exclude her
but they did nothing to save a place for them
Digging in the riches of locality
to create something new with Uranus conjunct Jupiter, fertilizing something new in Cancer Leo
What?
There are historical records in Capricorn
the Moon tut tutting about her paintings being too colourful
something missing
she was missing information
feedback
guidance
It came from the group of seven, painters in her homeland, painting the land, the spirit of the land, Lawren Harris in particular
Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, her solar house, ruler of Pisces in the fourth house
in Cancer where there are bubbles, conjunct Uranus in between, bursting bubbles
They did not ask her to join and she would not have joined, fiercely independent
but they influenced her, gave her what was missing
and she may have given them what was missing in them too
There are influences in Sagittarius
There is raw material in Pisces
In Sagittarius we build upon influences, encounters with what is foreign to us
In Pisces we draw from raw material, from all that came before we make new shapes
Out of all her siblings, she was the only one named after a family member, named after her mother
Emily
interrupted when a first nations people called her Klee Wyck, laughing one
entwined
roots becoming entwined
shoes walking on the same land
A quest beginning
to find her own style
purposeful, the centaur, the archer, aiming his bow and arrow
Emily Carr
Lawren Harris
Emily Carr
Influence
Individuation
An influence that helped her transmit the majesty of a totem pole in a forest of British Columbia
an artistic style and subject matter that distinguished her from the other Canadian painters
Her place, her legacy
Her paintings guided people to visit her territory
to listen to her concerns about a disappearing tradition and the erosion of a people’s heritage
They brought a new awareness, a new consciousness
the need to preserve
save a place
rescue
She opened doors for totem poles to be considered historical records
2:00
youtube.com/watch?v=KGu1tTd9u08
Cancer, this place that seals the soul
this place that unseals it
They say that we come to the fourth house to convalesce, the fourth house to die, Cancer the natural ruler
holder of secrets, the biggest secret revealed to us after we die
to live in the blind
Cancer that seals the soul
to look for Eros on this earth
in the ones who nurture
To experience loss here, separation here, the stages of mourning
the ebb and flow of pain, feelings, non corporeal, personal
to live with memories, to re member
the flux of re membering
a sign in flux
Tell me about it, said Canada
the seat of the soul interrupted
a kingdom in the making, always in a flux
I’ll unflux you, said Pierre, bravely. Leave it to me
Chart for July 12, 1920, the day Pierre Berton was born
tvo.org/video/the-importance-of-remembering
He took a bunch of anonymous kids, unseated souls, signing up to fight for the old country
and anchored them, Tom from British Columbia, Dick from Saskatchewan and Harry from Manitoba
They couldn’t see it themselves, but others could see that they were the Canadians
from a country with no military experience, no military, period
fighting, not for glory, but for souvenirs
Boy blowing soap bubbles, allegory on the transitoriness of life by Karel Dujardin, 1663
The old ways of training soldiers didn’t work on them
they refused to be turned into automatons
Follow you blindly? No way, they said. Show us your map. We all want copies of your map, who’s doing what
They attracted unconventionality, unconventional leadership, old country blood seasoned in Canada, and they were given copies of the map, to take initiative if needed, and there were times when it was needed
He tells of the Canadians coming up with trench raids, perfecting the tactic, a model adopted by the British and the French
Vimy the place where Canada came into her own, a mythic place, place of pilgrimage
It has justified the cost in lives, he says, and then he asks, was it worth it?
The way out of the t square in Sagittarius, in the sixth house of work, this place that can weave and unweave
the ruler in Leo where there are heroes for a day
with Neptune and Mercury, Mercury in Leo can root a branch, uproot a branch
His book weaves, his book roots
and his answer to his own question could have done the same, fed the myth
but he answers no, he stays in the t square, his Moon unpossessed, surprising his public, receiving letters of disapproval
Unfluxing
giving unseated souls a seat in Canada
Digging in Taurus to creae something new with Cancer in mind, digging in heritage, in locality, to create a homeland
Digging in Cancer to create something new with Cancer in mind, digging in the homeland to create a homeland, the responsibility of seating, unfluxing
Yes to all that is said about Vimy. Yes to all the accomplishments that defined Canada
No, it was not worth it
Let them hear it in the afterlife
we’d much rather they lived
here
youtube.com/watch?v=HVBwmAP30hM
Clubs
He had a cllub that he clouded in mystery, all that could be seen was the lavish menu
indulgence
In the solar chart, Taurus in the eleventh house, Taurus of the senses, sweet blossoms
the ruler in Cancer
Censored, as a journalist he could not say that soldiers had been killed in their sleep, he’d been corrected to say that soldiers bravely died defending the land, he made it timeless
the timelessness of Pisces
To see what he wrote from others’ point of view, the families of soldiers, people of the land giving up their lives in a war
In the solar chart, Aquarius in the eighth house, the empty place in the sign most socially conscious, where a spider lives, turning a web invisible
The black moon in Capricorn in the seventh house of contracts
They say it is the moon’s apogee, the point where the moon is farthest from the earth in its elliptical orbit, and it is farthest from the earth in one sign for approximately nine months
Born with the black moon in Capricorn that builds and where time exists
Died in their sleep they did
He called his club the Sordsmen’s Club
not misspelled but written phonetically, the way children do
a club for children who grew up to be men of letters, the title encapsulating origin, sordsmen, before they were corrected, before they were censored
the origin of a professional life, the title a mirror that reflected them all
cpac.ca/cpac-rewind/episode/builders-of-canada-pierre-berton?id=67792ba4-b89a-4347-a73c-012bdeaaf82c
We can find common ground in Aquarius, this sign of universality
the rulers in the Virgo Pisces polarity, the polarity of culture, raw material that forms culture
He found common ground in events that moved a great number of people, the gold rush, building the railways, contagion
that unified the land
He relied on history books to write popular history, make history accessible to the hoi polloi
The black moon in Capricorn that records events, creates history, and the Moon in Gemini of the pedestrian air
The stellium in Cancer
transforming events to include Canadians through time and space
these were the events that unified the land, made Canada
Canadians by association
In Cancer
by association
In Leo we can break free, Leo where Jupiter is transiting today
Fall back into Cancer were we can live by association
The Pluto in Leo and Uranus in Cancer generation, like him
Chart for December 30 1949, the day Jim Flaherty was born
cpac.ca/beyond-politics/episode/jim-flaherty?id=be258976-4b0b-4a26-92fa-dcc652afa75b
11:10
He says that he had a choice to make when he finished his BA in the United States, whether to stay there for law school or return to Canada. He chose to return, his Sun in Capricorn and his progressed sun making its entry into Aquarius
A choice to make, the fabric he would belong to
No other degree more than a law degree teaches the principles that guide a society, and he was a good student, but Jupiter in Aquarius is stronger than Saturn in Virgo, and it was hard for him to narrow down, settle for one set of principles, anchor himself in the culture
And Uranus touched his natal Sun
youtube.com/watch?v=79Ke1sepiWE
10:10 – 11:30
He made his comments about homelessness when he was in the race for the Ontario PC leadership, his progressed sun in Pisces, trining Uranus
Not to be associated with the mainstream
and yet Pluto and Uranus, outer planets not always within reach, asked him to distinguish himself by association. The labour of love depended on it
He entered federal politics when the trine broke and his progressed sun began to oppose Saturn in Virgo, reinforcing Saturn, adding to his chart stability, compromise, courage
Not to be his own authority, hold his own chart, hold himself whole, but for his home and homeland to be its own authority, hold its own chart, hold itself whole
Before entering politics, he practised injury and insurance defence, his progressed Sun in Aquarius, between his natal Jupiter and Venus, minding the gap in knowledge, closing gaps, how pooled resources are collected, managed and distributed, the need for pooled resources in emergencies
Individual cases in Canada, one in particular, when the progressed sun conjoined Venus, may have finished the transformation that can begin practising a craft, the way he thought, and it may have prompted him, or others may have prompted him, to join public life, apply his expertise to the wider whole
Venus and Pluto in a trine and sextile to Neptune in Libra, this place of contracts, place of disputes, in a quincunx to the Moon in Taurus
The black moon in Aries where the body and soul are one, where there is no barrier between life and death, those injured in Vietnam, and the injured walking into his law practice, all those who informed him
the Moon in Taurus that ensures survival, in the decan that asks that we tend to the land, the riches of the land, its produce
There can be mischief wherever Mercury is in the chart
Mercury and the Sun in Capricorn, the ruler retrograding in Virgo, aspected by the progressed Sun for years at a time in a square, a quincunx and an opposition
Mercury In a trine to Mars in Libra, strong, holding the lowest degree in the chart, in the sign that differentiates what is of god and what is of people, caught in a t sqaure with the Sun in Capricorn and Uranus in Cancer, the way out bringing him back to deal with people
youtube.com/watch?v=79Ke1sepiWE
23:00
A disciplined revolutionary
In the solar chart, Scorpio in the eleventh house, this place of clan, this place that looks for cohesion, an anchor, in family, his Irish roots, in thought, an ideology, the common sense revolution, Scorpio ruled by Pluto. But in a crisis he could break away from his principles, find the authority in himself to break away and persuade others to do the same, by association, Scorpio ruled by Mars
Patterns of the past, the great depression
youtube.com/watch?v=79Ke1sepiWE
45:00 – 47:00
If we bring the heavens down to earth, here are Mercury and Enki having a conversation
He didn’t mind the gap in authority
he used it, abused it
he searched for gaps in authority
He minded the gap, filled it, donated vaccines to third world countries
In the interview with Bannon he says that a mother who is poor, a mother whose child is sick, doesn’t care where the vaccine came from
Mathematics, he says, does not answer all our questions. It alone does not help us understand complex systems like the economy, or predict where things are going. He didn’t only use a calculator to make his wealth. He is proof that there are other forces at work, other forces informing his decisions
In Pisces where tables can turn, Mars supported by Venus
ruler of Libra
Neptune conjunct Saturn in Libra, callibrating, checking imbalances, measuring ripples
ruler of Taurus
Jupiter in Taurus, localised, where ecoli can infect the water, keeping the water clean, plentiful
His natal Sun under the lintel, and Mercury in Capricorn, in a square to the planets in Libra, his progressed sun conjoining the point of Rahu at the age of 12, in Aquarius, this place of universal systems, a universal language like mathematics, finding a strength, skipping a grade, the progressed sun breaking out of the square with Saturn to square Jupiter in Taurus at the bending of the nodes
Not to spoil, he laboured, the dark moon hiding all that he laboured
Not to spoil, he was careful who he chose behind the scenes, the girls who came to work for him, the girls he paid
He learned to trade from the ground up at Bear Stearns, his house of work in Gemini, and he distinguished himself with the investments he made, the advice he gave to mitigate tax, legal gaps, and with the progressed sun conjoining Mars Venus, he would form ties with powerful groups, think tanks, a time when he began leaving records, self conscious records, photographs with, emails with, crafting his image
Deeper for Henry VIII, he crafted a whole new identity for his homeland with the Church of England
the Moon in Aries
The public would do that for Epstein after he died, he died when the progressed sun conjoined his Moon
Chart for June 9 1881, the day Captain Angus Walters was born
There are written rules in Capricorn, and unwritten rules in Cancer, passed on from mother to mother, father to father, fisherman to fisherman
unwritten rules about the ocean waters, not the vastness of the ocean, for who could know the vastness of it, but the ocean waters that accompanied him wherever he went, in sound and in smell and in his dreams, ocean waters that greeted him every day
With his Sun in Gemini and his progressed sun in Cancer, he began his apprenticeship, the first time his father took him out to fish
and in the years that followed, he came to know the witches of his waters, how tame and how wild they could be, witches of extremes
Around the time that his progressed sun conjoined Mercury, it happened, something his father recognised, something that told him his son had it in him, to be the master of a schooner, he saw his son split, give his soul to the vessel he was sailing