Yin Yang XVII
Three times
In Leo Jupiter asked Helios not to rise for three whole days. He took the form of Amphitryon, Alcmene’s husband, and loved Alcmene for a night that was three times long. The night Hercules was conceived.
When Amphitryon returned from Thebes where he’d been, he saw his wife with child, and in her face a smile. You came to me, she said.
He shook his head.
The sun began to rise and the first rays fell on the growing child, and between them there was comprehension.
The child grew up with a substitute father.
He laboured to atone for his sins, and his Labours were dictated by King Eurystheus. Behind the king was Hera.
He found himself through his Labours, the father within.
The story carries on to make him a god, but people worshipped him as a demigod.
Chart for August 24, 1955
The time Moses Wright could not protect his great nephew Emmett Till. He was barred from exercising his authority as substitute father when the child was taken from his home. Barred by his marginality.
Emmett’s mom wanted her child brought back to Chicago, and the funeral took place there. She opened the casket for everyone to see what they had done to him.
Uranus was making his entry into Leo. Pluto and Uranus in Leo. Jupiter too. During the trial Moses pointed his finger at the men who took the child away. He did it knowing that his family was safe, knowing that he had to get himself to safety.
pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-biography-moses-and-elizabeth-wright/
Mike Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955.
He was a Baptist minister before he became Governor of Arkansas. He says his office door was nailed shut because he belonged to the wrong misl. But he broke through with moral clarity.
washingtonpost.com/video/politics/prosperity-for-all-fund-nailed-shut–campaign-2016/2015/05/01/39d43fbe-f018-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_video.html
Chart for July 13, 2021
Laws to protect the most vulnerable.
A time when we were asked to get vaccinated for the good of the community. To set apprehension aside, the father in us aside, talk to a trusted health practitioner if necessary, and get vaccinated.
They say this is the month that the ArriveCAN app was repurposed to enforce the COVID-19 mandate coming in October. For now, those who had proof of vaccine had to submit it via the app, and those who didn’t would be asked to self isolate.
The tone was changing.
Chart for March 5, 2021
youtube.com/watch?v=xyd81Fq2RWs
Just a few months before, there had been such enthusiasm. People had been waiting, waiting for vaccines, and millions were on their way. Jupiter had flown over Saturn and burst open the coffers of pooled resources. He was now conjunct Mercury and there was great generosity. Medicine for all.
By July 10, 2021, 68 percent of the population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 43 percent was fully vaccinated.
health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccination-coverage/archive/2021-07-16/index.html
Chances were that at least 68 percent would be fully vaccinated, and that is high in a democracy, but not enough for herd immunity. Measles requires 95 percent to be vaccinated for herd immunity, and polio 80 percent. We still don’t know what the percentage is for COVID-19, but at least 80 percent.
When Venus conjoined Mars in Leo on July 13, the ruler was in Cancer in opposition to Pluto in Capricorn.
Sun opposition Pluto Why don’t you take your pelts off and join the pool?
Mercury For herd immunity.
Many did, for fear of losing their livelihoods and not being able to participate in the community. By October 8, 2021, 76 percent had received at least one dose, and 71 percent was fully vaccinated.
They seed when they come together. In Leo that labours and atones for the sins of others. In a wide opposition to Saturn in Aquarius, and in a square to Uranus in Taurus. The right to say no.
To know
Chart for January 15, 1929, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia
He spoke of freedom.
He shepherded.
There’s a mountain in Sagittarius, that isn’t hierarchical, that doesn’t have a ladder. The mountain of the seeker. He climbed the mountain with Saturn, ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius. He couldn’t just preach about his vision and have a following. He was tasked with sewing what he preached and increasing the number of his following.
The Sun in Capricorn can bring out the wisdom of Enki, who saved mankind, who found a purpose for everyone. Not based on the colour of their skin. He worked on uprooting the image of the negro as inferior, ingrained in the subconscious of a people. He worked on giving the negro full citizenship rights. He led the way to complete something old and left unfinished. The undifferentiation between black and white.
There’s a chart for him based on data from memory.
Born at noon. Taurus in the first house. The MC conjunct the Sun in the ninth and the IC in Cancer in the third.
He dug in the riches of Cancer, brought up memories to the surface, promises made to the group he belonged to, sons and daughters of slaves.
He was stabbed during his first Saturn return, the tip of the blade on the edge of the aorta. It activated Chiron, Jupiter conjunct Chiron in Taurus. The outpouring of love. Good thing you didn’t sneeze, someone wrote, to carry on the work that began with a dream.
A dream he couldn’t quite recall, in Leo in the fourth. So the Sun took him to the mountaintop with Saturn, and brought Mercury in Aquarius along.
His dream, a vision of the future. The near future he hoped.
Chart for November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated
youtube.com/watch?v=syKBUPkCKmU
There is the mountain of the seeker in Sagittarius. There is Pabilsag leading souls to the galactic centre, ultimate knowledge.
Jupiter tells us what brings us back.
Jupiter in Taurus in the first house, with the ruler in Pisces.
He became the guardian of black people in America.
He came to stand for a cause, equal rights.
He took every opportunity there was to lead a march, every opportunity to give a speech. It was his life. In a time when Uranus and Pluto danced together in Virgo, changing the order of things, changing culture, questioning the justice system.
On this day of crisis he sat with Mercury in Sagittarius, and with Mars conjunct Venus in Sagittarius, touching his natal Saturn. He sat with them and made a conscious decision to carry on with his life, even if it meant death. He was willing to die, he said, if the price to be paid was to free the soul of the nation, and to free our children from a permanent spiritual death.
He said it publicly, with Saturn transiting his most public house, and Jupiter conjunct his natal Uranus in Aries. The willingness to be a martyr.
Chart for December 18, 1888, the day Robert Moses was born
He seeded one public works project after another during the Depression. The plans went to DC and came back with funds, and a hundred thousand unemployed people had work.
researchnychistory.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/astoria-pool/
He proved to be incorruptible and resourceful.
When the funds weren’t enough to complete a project, he raised money by issuing bonds.
He was responsible for setting up the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.
asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/triborough-bridge-project#:~:text=The%20bridge%20was%20the%20first,of%20several%20subsequent%20TBTA%20crossings.
He found the pelt that Saturn retrograding in Leo asked him to find, and held the purse that the trine to Sagittarius asked him to hold, and with Uranus in Libra, he masterminded transactions that financed future projects.
He rooted himself in city planning.
Pools, parks, beaches, parkways, bridges, the Lincoln Center- He didn’t build the Lincoln Center. John D. Rockefeller III did, but it was under Moses’ urban renewal program of the 1950s and early 60s. Cleaning up the slums.
He ran into opposition when people considered the slum he was trying to clean to be heritage and part of the fabric of the city.
But he was a visionary.
Spent long hours on the mountaintop digging with Pluto in Gemini.
And if one vision did not seed, he’d find another.
youtube.com/watch?v=5HbTqq-LnmM
He walked home thinking of the interview. He was a stubborn man, true, but they also didn’t have people with the ability to take his place. Resilient enough to face the criticism.
“Resilient enough to be the scapegoat,” said his wife. “Why isn’t Rockefeller blamed for displacing people? Or the mayor? It’s always you.”
Chart for December 18, 1888, 6:30 am, New Haven, Connecticut
He lived in an era when more and more people owned automobiles and wanted better roads and highways. To answer questions about road and highway maintenance and construction in the United States, he was the one chosen.
He spoke about the federal funding that would be needed for the whole country. He gave specifics about how much New York would need. And when he was asked how many people would be displaced to build the New York Thruway, he answered the truth.
youtube.com/watch?v=FqiwKDblFUE
“It’s not like we’re throwing people out on the street. They’re moving into new homes.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t go on TV and the radio so much.”
“But it’s my job, and no one else will do it.”
“They’re hiding behind you.”
Pisces can bring all generations together. It can capture the zeitgeist of a period in time.
Jupiter in the chart joins Pisces in the fourth house of homeland to the first house.
He would become the face of an era.
He would become the scapegoat for an era.
Centaur by Gregory Radionov
In 1959, Uranus was transiting Leo, conjoining his natal Saturn.
“He’s freeing you, Robert. Times are changing. The age of big public works has ended.”
“After the world’s Fair. We’re organizing one for the city’s 300th birthday.”
Venus and Mars were also transiting Leo.
Chart for June 15, 1959
“When will it be?”
“We’ll run it April to October in ’64 and ’65. I’m flying to Paris to meet with the Bureau of Expositions.”
The International Bureau of Expositions only allowed a country to hold one fair in a decade, and because Seattle was holding one in ’62, it did not support the fair in New York. It requested members not to support it.
He still went ahead.
“Members won’t be participating, so we’ve invited our American corporations to join in. General Motors, IBM, DuPont, they’re all coming. Disney too. And guess what? The Vatican’s coming. I’ve asked Cardinal Spellman to get me an audience with the Pope.”
“The Pope!”
“Wouldn’t it be something if he sent us Michelangelo’s Pietà?”
“The Pietà has never left the Vatican.”
youtube.com/watch?v=gu_xjn3esmc
On the day of the conjunction, the Sun was in Gemini opposing him natal Sun, offering him medicine. The public accused him of antagonizing the Bureau, badmouthing the Bureau and not playing by the rules.
No matter what he said, he was sensitive to criticism, and in normal circumstances, he would have negotiated a compromise. But the Bureau was unegotiable. It wouldn’t budge.
That’s when he broke free and found himself again.
If he played by the rules, there would be no fair.
So he thought up a new kind of fair and wove it to the fabric of society.
Cancer in the eighth house of crisis asked him to be inclusive, not to leave anyone behind, and the Moon transiting Libra in the eleventh house asked him not to leave anyone behind in the group that he belonged to.
Cancer in the eighth house of crisis asked him never to let go.
Chart for December 1, 1962
They say that Pisces in the fourth house enjoys being close to the ocean.
Jupiter’s transit through his fourth house brought him a gift.
“I’m going to need a home office.”
newspapers.com/article/press-and-sun-bulletin-robert-moses-quit/25895157/
“No regrets?”
“No. I want to be a student again. IBM gave us a presentation on their exhibits, data processing systems and computer applications. I want to learn more about it.”
Saturn was transiting Aquarius and Mars was transiting Leo.
Disciplined.
youtube.com/watch?v=AUeuQT6t7kg
Venus was transiting Scorpio.
Descent into that place of soulmaking.
Pluto and Uranus were dancing in Virgo, bringing a new order. He realized he had to make room for a new generation, the work of his generation complete.
youtube.com/watch?v=9oyi2XqZ_tk
Chart for November 22, 1963
The work of his generation was being re evaluated by the new generation.
His work. His reputation.
Complicit in leaving the black man out.
“You’re kidding me. We weren’t dealing with a black population. We were dealing with wealthy Long Islanders protesting against a parkway close to their estates. They didn’t want cars stopping on the side to picnic, and they wanted bridges for their exclusive use. The bridges were a good idea. To prevent commercial trucks and buses from driving on a scenic road.
……….
Of course there were buses going to Jones Beach. Not everyone owned an automobile!
……….
Where? They drove on roads that led to the beach.
……….
Listen, the parkway wasn’t designed to go anywhere. The parkway was a destination in itself.”
“My strengths? Knowing what land to acquire for the enjoyment of future generations. Creating escapes into nature for ordinary people. And securing the funds to do it, other people’s money. (pause) We agreed not to run the parkway straight across the estates and took a detour around Wheatley Hill. That meant cutting through some farmland, but the estate owners agreed to contribute large amounts of money for it. A compromise.”
……….
Housing? I wasn’t the mayor! But we did clean up the ghettos. They were an eyesore.
nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/25/nyregion/new-york-city-public-housing-history.html
……….
I guess you could say that my generation dealt with issues of class, and your generation is dealing with issues of marginality. The journey continues.”
There is some form of blame, some form of scapegoating in all the fire signs.
In Aries there’s a stepmother blaming Phrixos and Helle for a famine.
In Leo there’s Hera blaming Hercules for her husband’s indiscretion.
In Sagittarius there’s a centaur with an instinct for the jugular, ready to fight the limits of civilization.
Jupiter was transiting Aries, forming a grand trine in fire in his chart.
They walked to the mountaintop.
“Behind the interview, there was blame. I seem to be carrying the miasma of a whole generation.”
She took his hand, “How do you think the fair will do?”
“I’m staying optimistic, but I don’t think it’ll make the profit we prognosticated. Maybe half.”
“The Vatican announced they won’t be loaning any artworks anymore. They received so many requests for loans from all over the world that they decided New York will be the only time. The Pietà will crown the fair.”
Silence
“Kennedy’s death is going to bring change.”
“Sometimes a man has to die to bring change.”
“Sometimes he has to be tamed.”
“I’ve been barred from making any more changes.”
“The world’s gone retro.”
“From hero to monster. What’s there to live for?”
“To stand up for yourself. Stand up for public service and sacrifice.”
eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/glassman08b/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/moses-response-to-power-broker.pdf
Water
Chart for Aron Ralston, born October 27, 1975, Ohio, data from birth record
youtube.com/watch?v=tCpTvpEyEpw
Cancer contains the nourishing waters of the womb. The place where we find nourishment, the place where we give nourishment. Soul nourishment.
He found nourishment in himself. With the Moon in Leo, he found nourishment in hard labour, climbing mountains by himself. There can be a loneliness attached to Saturn, a mastery achieved alone and long lasting.
Cancer can nourish and Cancer can crush. A time of separation. Without it, without leaving the old shell behind, there is no growth.
He was crushed by a boulder, his arm trapped, and what followed was a story of survival. Mars in Cancer feeds from Scorpio and Aries. Initiation and survival.
He has learned to tell his story on a stage. There is telling in Mercury, Pluto Mercury in Libra. He makes it relevant to others, nourishing others.
Saturn can cut the public in half. He’s a hero, he’s not a hero. He’s a seeker.
His IC is in Virgo in the third house. Recognized and loved by the village that raised him. Persephone taken under, finding beauty in adversity. He fosters the cult.
The power of water
Chart for October 16, 1854, the day Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland
There is a chart available for him, the original source of the data unknown
His home in Sagittarius.
irishtimes.com/culture/like-mother-like-son-1.26539
Wilde There’s a typo in the seventh paragraph. He didn’t write. She wrote: All poets love their mothers…
In college he excelled in Greek and Roman studies, literature, Dante-
Wilde I thought he was my ancestor! There I was, with Taurus in the ninth house of higher learning, digging into my supposed heritage, when someone caressed my cheek. (sighs) My professor. Our eyes met and I felt myself grow-
Saturn (to Mercury) Not so explicit, Merc. You’ve got to disguise it. Remember it’s the Victorian age.
Mercury Our eyes met and a curious sensation of pleasure came over me.
Wilde Pleasure mixed with terror.
youtube.com/watch?v=68ck5MRjd0U
It turned his world upside down. The cultural idea of what a man was no longer matched who he was, and he suffered. He learned to have two lives, one on the surface, heterosexual and lawful, and one in the underworld, homosexual and unlawful.
There is craving in his chart, and the underworld life was the life more alive, until he ran into Aesthetes.
Venus in Libra delighted when she heard them say, Art for the sake of art with no moral obligation.
Don’t forget me, said the Sun at a lower degree, ruler of Leo.
Hercules choosing between Virtue and Vice by Emmanuel Michel Benner, 1899
Don’t forget me, said the Moon in Leo, ruler of Cancer in the eleventh house of the group that he belonged to.
Attributed to Pelagio Palagi
Athena If he doesn’t follow the road to Olympus, he’ll get crushed.
Neptune He’s not nourishing your old fashioned age, Athena. He’s nourishing the age to come.
Sun Oh. (to Jupiter) Are we legalizing the homosexual relationship?
Jupiter Not when I’m in the fifth house chasing nymphs, no. Anyhow, we need to first break down cultural constructs of gender. Stereotypes of gender.
Mercury With comedy.
Venus Art for the sake of art.
He inverted gender roles for a good laugh.
youtube.com/watch?v=r3TEbOR9SyQ
Entertained, in good taste.
And wove a new image of the artist. Flamboyant. Testing limits. Subversive, in a way that was-
Venus Sideways.
Saturn He fashioned a new mold of the artist.
More like this.
In 1890, he stirred the pot with The picture of Dorian Gray.
Perverted. Poisonous. Criminal, critics decried.
The beginning of his exclusion.
Cancer is an inclusive sign, but it can bar entrance to protect and safeguard against contamination.
Sacred space, the womb.
He stirred the pot some more when he met 22 year old Bosie Douglas, during his Uranus opposition Uranus.
Bosie’s father accused Wilde of sodomy, and Wilde sued him for libel. He defended the purity of his love for the younger man.
susannewyatt.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/the-love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name/
But he couldn’t defend himself against witnesses brought to court. He was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labour on May 25, 1895.
Venus and Mars were transiting Cancer, six degrees apart. They formed an exact conjunction on June 5.
Chart for June 5, 1895, timed to make Virgo the rising sign
There is a trial in Gemini.
His friends pushed him to leave England, go to France, but he stayed. Neptune paving the way for a trial in his tenth house of reputation, and Pluto joining him.
He wasn’t charged for the words in Dorian Gray or in his letters to Bosie.
Words of an Aesthete. Words of Eros.
He was charged for making transactions with young male persons.
Christ driving the money changers from the temple by El Greco, 1568
There is great generosity when Jupiter and Mercury come together, and a whole village crushed by water.
A stormy landscape with Philemon and Baucis by Peter Paul Rubens, ca 1625
To seed again, with Saturn R in Scorpio. A love still taboo, but following unspoken rules set by the trial.
On this day in June, the public read news of Wilde.
dhil.lib.sfu.ca/wilde/view.html?f=ctg_1727
A crisis brought him to Aries, and Mars pulled him to the fourth house, Mars in Sag held by Saturn retrograding in Gemini.
Anchored in his work. Anchored in his ancestry and name.
When Neptune conjoined his natal Saturn, he lost his anchor. In De Profundis he says that he became suicidal.
For others he became a martyr. In Gemini a brother gave up his immortality for another.
In Virgo was the temple swept by the claw.
The transit would pass and he found anchor in humility.
Friends intervened and arranged for him to have books to read, paper and pen. He heard from people he’d never met. They sent him condolences when his mother died. He treasured the memory of a man tipping his hat at him outside the courtroom.
The Moon did not return him to Cancer, but sent him abroad to Paris.
They say he lived in a rundown hotel. But all he’d looked forward to was to lie on the grass and look at the sky and the sun. Lie on the grass and write a poem in the light of the moon.
Poster for Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé, and portrait of Wilde, by Toulouse-Lautrec. The play premiered at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in Paris in 1896
At first chaos came to be
The power of water to dissipate chaos
Chart for January 28, 1985
There are the seminal waters of the abzu in Capricorn, and there’s raw material in Pisces, all that came before.
Fresh water and salt water, and where they meet, Neptune.
Neptune, antiheroic. His rival, Athena, daughter of Jupiter, patron of heroes. A rivalry that began over turf.
The contest between Athena and Neptune for the possession of Athens by Cesare Nebbia, 1570
There’s turf in Scorpio.
Saturn in Pisces can consolidate all that came before, and Saturn in Scorpio can consolidate turf.
youtube.com/watch?v=9tRKLSDmRfg
Turf to seed seeds that will dissipate chaos. Bring relief from chaos. Build barriers against chaos.
In Pisces are the things we can’t control, ruled by Jupiter, thunder maker, ruled by Neptune, earth shaker.
In Capricorn we study patterns of the past to prepare for the future. There’s a promise here of surplus and generosity
if the seeds sown are antiheroic.
facweb.cs.depaul.edu/yele/Course/IS540/Global-Project/20045/Ethiopia/drought.htm
Libra is the first self conscious sign.
In Scorpio we merge with another.
Digging in Scorpio and creating something new in Sagittarius.
Finding words that will make people care about the plight of a foreign land. Evoking a sense of gravity and responsibility.
“We need distinct voices, recognized by everyone.”
“You mean famous.”
“Famous people willing to merge their turf with the turf of other famous people, to sing half a line.”
“Wait till the Sun is in Aquarius. Aquarius rules the group. Distinct voices, separate but together.”
“How about right after the Music Awards? Easier to round everyone up.”
“Outstanding idea. Do you have the list? I’ll send the demos.”
After the Music Awards, the famous people invited and willing to merge headed to the recording studio.
“Where’s the classroom?” they asked.
“Listen up everyone!”
“Have you seen Prince? I want to congratulate him.”
“I don’t think he’ll come and sing Michael Jackson lyrics after winning all those awards.”
“Why not? They’re both Lunar Pisces.”
“There’s a war in the heavens in Pisces, you know.”
“Can we have the soloists up on stage!”
“Where’s Madonna?”
“I don’t think she’s invited.”
“Are Cyndi Lauper and Madonna Lunar Pisces too?”
“No. But I think Madonna has the Black Moon in Pisces.”
“She’ll be hurt when she finds out.”
“Whoever didn’t invite her may have sown a rivalry between them. There’s a rivalry in the heavens in Pisces.”
“Leave that to the media.”
“Okay, let’s give it a try!”
By 8 am the recording was done.
Chart for January 29, 1985, 8 am, LA
“I think we nailed it.”
“Universality and human rights. Altruism and compassion.”
“Lovers coming up on the horizon.”
youtube.com/watch?v=s3wNuru4U0I
Chart for Vincent van Gogh, born March 30, 1853, Netherlands, data from birth record
Cancer is an insular sign.
There are codes in Cancer, of a person, a people,
an auction house,
a church.
Codes to live by, codes to decipher.
In a square to Mercury in Aries, his solar house, a square that asked him to write his own code.
He got fired from the auction house. He got fired from the church. Accused of unseeding established codes.
He brought chaos.
Venus Mars formed an exact conjunction four days before he was born. She was now moving on, leaving him in charge, ruler of Aries, warrior of the Sun. Live or die.
Live, said his mother.
He turned around and saw her working on a watercolour. Her pastime.
He took up art lessons. Became fervent about art. Never to have to work for anyone again.
Jupiter joins Sagittarius in his sixth house to Pisces.
It would solve the problem with codes.
He would create his own.
They say that during this time he fell in love with a model who had a child and was expecting another, and who’d been a prostitute.
Scorpio is in his fifth house of romance, and the ruler with Venus in Pisces.
When they broke up, he wrote that he had hoped to be her barrier against chaos, and that she would find her feet in his care, but then realized that her character was far too gone to find them.
In the meantime, he made progress with his art, and relied on his brother’s financial support to do so.
Charity belongs in the twelfth house. Gemini in the twelfth. The charity of a brother who loved him.
But he wished to move his brother’s support to the seventh house, and began sending him paintings in return for the money.
Capricorn in the seventh accepted the move, even when the paintings weren’t selling. The ruler in Taurus in the eleventh house pushed his brother to invite him to Paris.
“Come to Paris, Vincent. There’s a new movement called Aestheticism. A new code that is freeing colour from line. An art that is breaking away from the Royal Academy.”
“Do you sell it?” Vincent asked his brother.
“Most of what we carry is academic. But it sells in exhibitions of independent artists.”
He came to belong to the group of independent artists.
Artists that painted light.
They studied the old French masters, and recent ones too, and brought light to the fore.
He joined them in their study, decoding, and building his own code.
They say that Gauguin joined him in his dream to form an artists’ commune in the south of France. But they had a argument. They argued over differences in method. Gauguin could paint from memory. Vincent could not. The Moon in Sagittarius in the sixth house required his presence.
If they argued over style, Vincent could be critical, he could unseed.
A heated argument that made Gauguin pack up and leave.
Grief.
He had not internalized grief. Mars Venus in Pisces a barrier from the chasm of grief.
Mars rules metal and sharp objects.
In a trine to his first house and in a square to the Moon, he cut off his ear.
And gave it to someone to hold. Hold my grief.
Grief made visible. Recovery from grief.
The public is drawn by the Moon Jupiter into Sagittarius, a large public. A public that goes to the source.
His letters to his brother Theo.
He was in need of money and Theo sent him money. How he wished society would have funding for artists.
Pooled resources to ease an antiheroic journey, the idea behind the commune. Take the burden off his brother.
There’s a weaver in Sagittarius,
and in Pisces there is water that can dissipate chaos.
The sower at sunset by Vincent van Gogh, 1888
The power within
It’s external and all over the place, until it finds a locus.
An opportunity to harness the power within.
cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-sinkhole-swallows-car-but-not-driver-1.1143775
This happened when only Mars was in Scorpio, and Rahu.
Chart for September 4, 2012
Jupiter bringing the driver and the city a gift. His gifts don’t come easy.
Pluto was digging in Capricorn and in Capricorn are the bones that hold us up.
“Which one needs repairs?” he asked.
In Libra there’s the Trojan Horse that entered the gates of Troy.
“This one,” Saturn answered.
This happened when Venus Mars were together in Scorpio.
They say hunters came across it.
“Golly, look at that!”
“We shouldn’t hunt here anymore, guys. I mean, there’s no safety net.”
“You’re right. No way of knowing what’s going on beneath the surface.”
“She could take us under with no warning. Limestone’s like that, always rearranging. It gives in to the power of erosion.”
“We need to find more solid ground, man.”
“Wherever we go, we should have an exit plan. Nature’s unpredictable.”
“We should report this. I mean, this one’s bigger than the others. It could merge with all the others.”
“You mean like the seed of a great lake?”
“Why not?”
“Let’s give it a name, man. It deserves a name.”
blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2014/12/02/on-this-day-no-1-the-december-giant-sinkhole-in-alabama/
Alan Henderson was born on this day.
youtube.com/watch?v=0GimXsPN6Yg
He says that he asked medical school to hold his spot for two years, before he released it and committed himself to basketball.
Saturn Retrograde and the Sun ask for commitment to one path.
And the trine to Uranus in Libra can provide an exit.
He’s measured carefully the ventures he’s invested in, that he can wrap up without a big loss.
That he doesn’t fall into the underworld of Scorpio.
The basketball court with the eye of the public has been his locus, the place where he harnessed the power within to withstand the forces of temptation.
In a sextile to Jupiter in Capricorn, there are laws he has to pay attention to. Rules of the game.
He pays attention.
When someone tried to steal his Tom Bullock’s label, he blocked them.
Birdie Brown and Tom Bullock. People of his own misl that he’s brought back to life. There is medicine in Scorpio, and if he offers medicine with his spirits, it is culturally specific.
He offers medicine as a person. A role model.
Venus Mars have danced together in Scorpio, alone, and with the Sun, with Saturn and Jupiter, in the charts of medicine people, world medicine.
But they have formed an exact conjunction very few times, seeding. In 1869, 1940 and 1972, they seeded with Mercury in Scorpio, of the underworld in 1972 and direct in 1869 and 1940. Mercury can bring cultural specificity.
Not all is visible in this sign, but golly hole tells us that what they seed can have a profound impact.
Chart for Bruce Lee, born November 27, 1940, San Francisco, data from birth record
He got into too many street fights, and so his parents enrolled him in martial arts.
He got into too many street fights with martial arts students from different schools. They competed to see which school was more effective in combat.
Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, attributed to the Kleophrades Painter, ca. 500 BC
“They haven’t reined him in, wife.”
“They haven’t, husband. It’s all body and technique. No philosophy behind it.”
They say that they wouldn’t teach him the philosophy behind the art because he wasn’t pure Chinese.
“Who’s pure Chinese!”
“I am,” said the Grand Master, and he proceeded to recite his pure Chinese family tree.
“Would you disregard these restrictions for the sake of our son, Grand Master?”
“Maybe so, maybe so,” said the Grand Master. “But see here. Jupiter and Saturn are retrograding in Taurus, and in retrogradation, the highest degree may be most powerful. Saturn may limit how much I teach him.”
“But it’s his chart! Saturn rules the house of his strengths and the house of the village that raised him. Saturn will make him honour what you teach him. He will limit how much he reveals.”
“Maybe so, maybe so,” said the Grand Master. “But see here. Uranus is even more powerful than Saturn. Uranus in opposition to- to Mercury in Scorpio! In the twelfth house of secrets! That’s like letting the genie out of the bottle!”
“A man has to earn his living,” said the Moon. “Don’t you?”
The Grand Master turned red in the face.
“Grand Master, Saturn Jupiter oppose Mercury at a tighter degree than Uranus. If you teach him the philosophy behind the art and why he must guard it, he will surely keep it bottled.”
“Maybe so, maybe so,” said the Grand Master. “But see here. Jupiter rules his first house, and Jupiter squares the ninth house of foreigners and opposes the twelfth house of faraway places. He’s being pushed to go abroad with my philosophy!”
The Grand Master got up to leave.
“Wait Grand Master! What if he develops his own philosophy? His work is in Aries and-
The Grand Master walked out the door and got on his bike,
and the magpies came.
“Wrong teacher, wife. The birds don’t like him.”
“Too narrow minded.”
“Too much technique is no good. (imitates the teacher) In retrogradation, the highest degree may be most powerful. Bah!”
“There should be balance between intuition and technique, instinct and technique.”
Bruce listened and an image rose in him.
“With a moral code to back it up. A solid philosophy to guide one’s actions.”
Bruce listened and another image rose in him.
Sacred conversation by Luca Signorelli, 1491
He’d had a narrow escape. He’d found himself surrounded by a rival gang, and the family driver had miraculously appeared, and the gang dispersed, and the driver brought him home, in time to overhear his parents’ conversation.
He was standing behind a bamboo screen and was going to make his presence known, but his legs would not obey him, weighted down by some unknown force. He was going to push the screen away, but his arms would not obey him, weighted down by some unknown force. He was going to ask for help, but his voice would not obey him, weighted down by some unknown force.
Weighted down, he found his inner voice and asked the spirits that held him to release him, but they would not. He asked the spirits of his ancestors to come to his aid, but they would not. I’ll do anything you ask me, he begged. I’ll be good. I won’t fight in the streets anymore, I promise. I’ll find a teacher, I won’t rest until I find one. Help me find the right one to guide me. I’ll be good and I’ll help people and-
“Bruce!”
His mother broke the spell.
He could talk again but needed silence. He was bound to promises made behind the bamboo screen, and he needed silence to stay connected and carry them out. Promises that barred his exit from Scorpio in the twelfth house.
He was 13 when this happened, when he found a teacher. His progressed Sun at 18 degrees Sagittarius.
He was 19 when he went to live in the United States and opened a school of martial arts. His progressed Sun at 24 degrees Sagittarius, squaring Neptune and his MC in Virgo. Touching Uranus and Mercury.
He began to teach, and as he taught, he began to incorporate aspects of other schools of martial arts into his own,
formulating his own school of thought, seeding his own medicine.
In 1967 he called it Jeet Kune Do. His progressed Sun at 2 degrees Capricorn, in a sextile to Venus Mars in Scorpio.
They say the Lunar Nodes speak of destiny. Self realization in Aries and self worth vis à vis another in Libra.
youtube.com/watch?v=2qvYa5t-JUc
Air
that can shame.
youtube.com/watch?v=sa1o4fyWNug
Something that marked him and shaped his life. To be seen as good.
Judged as good.
Chart for Axel Kahn, born September 5, 1944, France, data from birth record
Libra is the first social sign in the zodiac, where we become aware of the eyes of others.
Wherever the sign is in the chart, and Venus, can tell us how our social contract began.
He didn’t see it until later, perhaps when he got his first job. By then every cell in his body didn’t feel superior to others, every cell saw the worth in others, every cell ready to relate,
a barrier against shame.
They say that if planets conjunct the MC fall, they fall a long way. His fell early on, in the schoolyard, he felt it plummet.
There was no escaping the waters of Cancer, the village that raised him asked for mastery. Mastery in the sign where we come from a mother that came from a mother, all the way to the beginning of time.
He studied the body.
His Ascendant between two signs, Aries and Taurus. Mars and Venus the rulers,
and Mercury, god of twilight, god of the lintel, of places in between.
Virgo and Libra his place of work.
He studied the body and genetics, and with the study of genetics came ethics.
In 1992 he became a member of
ccne-ethique.fr/en
Chart for September 5, 1992
The year of his Jupiter return, and Venus in the sky completing the conjunction with his natal Mars. She had completed it many times before, but this time he was ready to have conversations with the people of France, about genetics and ethics,
and about himself. Overcoming the shame.
He spoke frankly.
Poetic.
Contemplative.
He said that a good person isn’t good because they consider themselves to be good. A good person is good because others consider them to be good.
Our actions toward others is the only thing that matters.
He spoke of beauty. He said that what distinguishes us from other species is our capacity to appreciate beauty.
Of the Pluto in Leo and Uranus in Gemini generation.
There is Labour in Leo and a branch that can grow roots, specialize.
Gemini can cut through the density, break it down for the hoi polloi.
Chart for October 21, 1942, the day Judith Sheindlin was born
youtube.com/watch?v=zgU9_MiaZMw
She says that when parents neglect to shame their children, they can end up in the family court. If they end up in her court, she has been given the power to seed shame and social consciousness in them, with 18 months in jail.
Expectations. There were high expectations of her, precocious child. And one day, when she could not fulfill them, Jupiter plunged into the waters of Cancer, and there was shame.
She swam in the waters and raised her children,
and then a friend offered her a place in the family court. She prepared for it until she was 110 percent ready, shame proof, and her social contract began.
In the interview, they ask her about the lace collar that has become her trademark. She says that she and her husband were travelling in Greece, and they were having dinner at the foot of the Acropolis, and there were some stalls. There was a lady making lace collars in one of the stalls and she thought she’d try one. It would be disarming. People would walk into the courtroom and see this nice little lady with a lace collar and think, She wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Pisces rising.
With the Moon in Aries, Axel Kahn’s public came to learn about genetics, and they asked him about his views on life and death.
With the Moon in Pisces, her public is disarmed at first, and then they see her navigate chaos, bring order to chaos and make a judgement.
She’d had difficulty navigating the chaos of corporate law, but family law suited her.
There is Themis in Libra.
She convenes the assembly of the gods, presides over the assembly, and dissolves the assembly.
youtube.com/watch?v=4lPnG1HMkBg
Lady of good council.
Assembly of the gods to hear the dispute between Neptune and Athena by Merry-Joseph Blondel, early 19th century
Of the Pluto in Leo and Uranus in Gemini generation.
She says that the courtroom should be open to the public, because it would make better lawyers, better judges. Eyes on them.
There is a trial in Gemini. A trial by a jury of twelve that came to a standstill, until Athena intervened.
She brings speed into her place of work, no delays.
There is mastery in Gemini, mastery in the laws of her homeland.
Saturn Uranus are retrograding in the sign, in a trine to Mercury in Libra.
Discipline and undiscipline.
Elegant and pedestrian.
Don’t piss on my foot and tell me it’s raining.
Briefly.
Pluto and Uranus have not danced together in Scorpio, Sagittarius or Capricorn in the current era. They will, one after the other, in the future, opening new dimensions.
They danced together in Libra in the 70s.
Venus and Mars joined their dance in 1972, but they did not conjoin in Libra.
They danced together and asked, Why is this shameful?
They came to rearrange, and with Neptune in Sagittarius, to stretch the limits of tolerance in their society.
Chart for Jenny McCarthy, born November 1, 1972, IL, data from birth record
transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2008-04-02/segment/01
She says that in the United States, in 2008, there are 36 vaccines given to children. Some of them no longer given in countries like Canada. Some of them optional choices in countries like Canada. She shows the schedule.
She believes that vaccines can trigger autism, and she cites a specific case. But this does not mean that she is anti vaccine.
She says, “The reaction, Larry, should not be to stop vaccinating. The reaction should be, Let’s reform the vaccine program so that parents feel better about bringing their kids in and that we can protect them for immunity without the collateral damage that I do believe has happened in at least some autism cases.”
She said multiple times, space it out, slow it down.
But it didn’t matter how many times she said it.
She was accused of being anti vaccines and accused of being a bad influence. Because of her, parents did not want to vaccinate their children.
She was shamed in every way that the media could shame her.
Unlike this parent.
youtube.com/watch?v=eMrFV2rnHlo
But this parent got attention because of McCarthy. It was McCarthy who started something that shattered trust in pharmaceutical companies and in the American Academy of Pediatrics, trust that would have to be repaired.
She didn’t want it repaired. She wanted to dig and create something new, a new arrangement. Faithful and ready to stir the pot, no matter the shame that came with it, and no matter the consequences.
Eris, goddess of the twist.
She brought difficult medicine, and the intelligentsia discredited her. Her Black Moon puncturing the Sun in Scorpio.
But she had been puncturing herself for a long time.
youtube.com/watch?v=GiMeQxdoWk0
In Capricorn we make good use of what we have. In Capricorn there’s a place for everyone. And she may have transgressed. A playboy girl meddling in science.
A mother first, doing research and on a mission.
They say Jupiter in the twelfth house is a guardian angel. He built her immunity to shame.
oprah.com/own-oprahshow/how-jenny-mccarthy-became-a-playboy-centerfold-video
New arrangements have trickled down to other lands.
Air that rescues
Chart for June 1, 1919, the day Judith Graham Pool was born
She studied the electrophysiology of muscle, the flow of current in biological tissue.
Later on, at Stanford, she studied the physiology of blood.
She noticed that when plasma thaws slowly, it separates into layers. The bottom layer has the highest concentration of antihemophilic factor, AHF, the component in plasma that aids in blood clotting.
She removed the bottom layer and froze it again to get a higher concentration.
It is called Cryoprecipitate, a deposit obtained from extreme cold.
Until then, hemophilia had been treated with plasma transfusions. Great quantities were needed to get enough AHF, and this could cause circulatory overload and heart failure.
Cryoprecipitate changed that, and the medicine could be taken home.
She said later on that she had been in the right place at the right time to see it. She had no greater insight than anyone else.
“But there were others in the lab and you saw it. You recognized something in the layers and took action.”
She felt that the attention she received was exaggerated.
encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/judith-graham-pool
She wasn’t searching for anything specific. Curiosity drove her.
Yes, it was her, but it was also by chance.
In Gemini we learn how to ride a bicycle, and when we get it, we know it wasn’t just us. A sense of wonder accompanies the accomplishment, when the Dioscuri met briefly in the sky.
She was uncomfortable taking credit for it.
Pluto in Cancer and Uranus in Pisces brought out that side of Gemini. Digging in the field of medicine to create something new in Pisces, that did not belong to her.
Chart for Alexandra Feodorovna, born June 6, 1872, Darmstadt, data from birth record
She wasn’t driven by curiosity and she didn’t leave it to chance.
She acted purposefully.
She studied Russian purposefully.
She set up barriers to prevent accidents purposefully.
Alexei Nikolaievich of Russia and boatswain Derevenko
Moving to a faraway place triggered the need to barricade herself. It helped her hide her son’s condition from those who would have him replaced as heir.
Only a few were allowed in the space between Venus and Mars, intimate friends loyal to her, doctors of confidence, and other people employed by the family who were trustworthy and helpful.
She allowed Rasputin to come in an emergency.
In an emergency, she needed someone who could work with the bones, the knees, the joints. She needed someone who could play the panpipes and restore calm, put a child to sleep.
Cancer is in her house of strengths, house of the mother and the mothers that came before, and the Black Moon tells of a hurt in this house. And in this house she found the strength to work with unconventional ways of putting a suffering child to sleep, the healing power of sleep, a sleep cure.
She attracted gossip with her barricades, but she was oblivious to it, oblivious to her public. Born on a solar eclipse, the Moon cazimi the Sun.
In the end the family was murdered. The one consolation, the child did not die before her. They died together, mother, father, four daughters and the son.
Chart for April 21, 2002, the day of the first round of the presidential elections, France
On September 11, 2001, the outer planets and the social planets, Jupiter and Saturn, were transiting the same signs.
Terrorism that wove ideas of purity into the minds of people, to create a world free of the impurities of the west. Gods operating in decentralized cells.
The world went to war against terror, and as difficult as it was, it brought more understanding and the world closer together.
In the middle of the war, France prepared for its presidential elections.
Jean-Marie Le Pen said that he wasn’t of the left or the right. He was French.
When he said that, Saturn in Gemini asked him to define what it is to be French.
“Well,” said Jean-Marie, “you carry the French flag, you sing La Marseillaise, and you go to church.”
“Did everyone hear that?” Saturn asked. He was trying to get people to hear what the candidates intended to weave into the fabric of their society.
They say the polls before the first round showed that Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin would be on the second ballot.
The first round had 16 candidates.
“Tu sais, since the second round will be between Chirac and Jospin, I’m voting for the green party. To give them a boost.”
“Alors, moi, I’m voting for the radicals.”
Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to the second ballot.
Mercury in Taurus can conceal, and Venus in a square to Uranus can reveal, with a shock.
“But the polls said-“
“Cher ami, the polls aren’t out there. We’re the polls! (pause) Who did you vote for?”
“It’s a secret ballot.”
“C’mon, c’mon, out with it!”
ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/i17103686/annonce-des-premieres-estimations-du-premier-tour-des-elections
Jean-Marie offered a renaissance of France, an ideal, and people began to protest against an ideal that could prevent the peaceful coexistence of differences and different religions. The youth of the land protested.
As Mars conjoined Saturn, and Venus and Mercury made their entry into Gemini, and the second round approached, there came upon France a sense of urgency.
“There’s no way I’m voting for Chirac. He’s a crook.”
“He’s running for presidential immunity.”
They say he was the archenemy of Jospin and the socialist party, and, still, Jospin and all the other candidates that did not make it to the second round urged their voters to vote for Chirac, put a clothespin on your nose and vote for him, better a crook than a Fascist.
Chart for May 5, 2002, the day of the second round of the presidential elections, France
15 out of 16 layers became undifferentiated, as Venus sought out Mars.
The unity of the Dioscuri with one goal in mind.
Rescue.
Rescue by barring a nationalism that no longer served their society.
There is heritage in Taurus, and in Cancer the story of Jean of Arc.
There is a sea passage in Taurus, and in Cancer the stories that France shares with other lands.
Rescue the richness that the stories brought.
Mercury at 5 degrees Gemini pushed everyone out the door to exercise their right to vote, and Chirac won with 82.21 percent of the vote.
an aside
Jupiter is finishing his transit through Taurus. He begins his entry into Gemini on May 26, 2024, and will reach 1 degree of Gemini on May 30, 2024. There for a year.
Roman marble relief with the Dioscuri, ca. 2nd century AD
Transitioning into ideal air
Chart for April 21, 1972
They were busy in 1972, Venus and Mars, conjoining in Gemini, dancing in Libra, and conjoining again in Scorpio.
On this day, Apollo 16 was on the moon, seeding. It was the penultimate Apollo mission, the penultimate hands on mission to the moon. The astronauts had needed to make a minimal amount of corrections to stay on course. They were now collecting rocks. They had to be careful how they collected rocks, because if they fell into a crater, there was no rescue.
Mars Venus in Gemini were in a trine to Uranus in Libra, and trines can reprimand.
A barrier in Gemini that reprimanded the astronauts if they tried to enter the gates of Troy.
A barrier made up of training, and a barrier made up of equipment, the suits they wore and the life support system they carried on their backs.
Mars Venus and Uranus formed sextiles to the Moon in Leo, where every individual matters. If an astronaut’s heartbeat reached 140, they were asked to stop and rest. When the temperature on the moon began to rise, they returned to the lunar module to prevent the plastic on their helmets from softening.
Seeding ways to avoid putting the individual at risk.
youtube.com/watch?v=16D0hmLt-S0
The Sun was in Taurus in a quincunx to Pluto in Virgo and Neptune in Sagittarius. The moral crossroads in the sign where we preserve life.
When Venus is too busy to rule Taurus, the Earth may take over.
Mission control on Earth couldn’t see it until they did, that they were making corrections to go where they hadn’t been before.
Saturn asked for mastery in Gemini, where we make connections and give directions.
The ruler in Aries, coming up with new formulas, studying the physical laws of the universe to break through the gates of Troy.
While preserving life.
science.nasa.gov/moon/tides/
Chart for February 22, 2024, the day Odysseus landed on the moon
Mars Venus in Aquarius can bar from society.
ppsc-sppc.gc.ca/eng/nws-nvs/2024/22_02_24.html
With this sentence, a jury and a judge from a province in Canada barred a threat to society and seeded what it is to be Canadian.
Compelled to do the work of Taurus, where we nurture.
Consolidating all that came before, legally.
It is the day Odysseus landed on the moon, and tilted.
youtube.com/watch?v=M3qqeGkfs04
He landed at 6:23 pm ET
They speak of problems they had to resolve to get there, Gemini in the house of reputation.
They speak of details they have to fix before the next mission, Virgo on the Ascendant.
The sixth house of work was in Aquarius, where we can be perfectly socialized, until the day we tilt.
There is a social fabric in Aquarius, and there is universality, and in Leo is the individual that belongs to both.
Barred from having a say.
spacefoundation.org/space_brief/international-space-law/
nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Artemis-Accords-signed-13Oct2020.pdf?emrc=653a00.
The Leo Aquarius polarity,
in a t square to Taurus,
where we nurture,
where there is the body and the earth,
where Hephaestus forged Talos to protect Europa in Crete.
A tilt that may stall,
a tilt that may seed in the Libra Aries polarity.
Chart for Woodrow Wilson, born December 29, 1856, VA, data from bio/autobiography
Not perfect. He carried the shadows of his time, and he carried light. They say he was a man of high ideals, the highest was to end all wars, or at least find a way to prevent them.
They say that the daimon in a chart, the guiding planet in a chart, is the first planet going counter clockwise from the Ascendant, or the ruler of the first house.
His may have been Venus, Venus conjunct Mars in Aquarius.
He began his presidency as an eighth house president, digging and creating something new in Taurus. He lowered tariffs and established the income tax. He set up the Federal Reserve System that is still in place today. He tried to abolish child labour, and when the senate barred him twice, he increased the tax on industries that employed children.
Then came the Great War and he tried to keep the United States out of it, until he couldn’t. He wasn’t a man of war, so he appointed others to take charge. He sat down to write his Fourteen Points.
theworldwar.org/learn/peace/fourteen-points
His sixth house of work is in Pisces, where there is raw material, and Jupiter is in Aries.
When he read his points, transiting Mars was about to step into Libra, highlighting his lunar nodes in the Libra Aries polarity.
In a trine and in a sextile to Mars Venus in Aquarius.
Theodore Roosevelt accused them of being so abstract that they could mean anything. He said they belonged 20,000 leagues under the sea. The 14th point especially, the one that spoke of a league of nations, the one that would involve the United States in European affairs.
Jupiter in the sky was beginning his transit in Gemini, in his ninth house of places that were foreign to him, and it took him to a foreign place. He travelled to Europe for the first time.
He allowed them to transform 13 points into the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that they say gave rise to Hitler.
As long as they implemented his 14th point the way he wanted.
Chart for January 8, 1918, Washington DC, timed to match his rising sign
The fifth house tells of our creations.
The League of Nations was his creation, in Aquarius with Mars Venus.
A mini universe.
All members had to exchange ‘full and frank’ information about the scale of their arms supply, and the scale of their military, naval and air programmes. Any treaty signed by any member state had to be registered with the Secretariat of the League.
Transparency.
Any dispute that could not be settled by diplomacy had to be submitted for arbitration or judicial settlement. The parties involved could refer it to the Permanent Court of international Justice, established for members of the League, or they could choose another tribunal.
If a dispute was likely to lead to rupture, it had to be submitted to the Council. The Council would try to arrive at a settlement, and if it failed, it would lay it out for the Assembly,
and so on and so forth.
A barrier against
Turbulence by Marina Hanson
He wasn’t naive. He knew that love and war could not exist without each other, but he wanted to make war the last recourse.
He took a deep breath, relaxed his shoulders, and found himself in a grand trine in air. He picked up his pen again.
If a member state declared war on another member state, it would be considered a declaration of war against all member states.
If a member state declared war on a non member state, the League would persuade the non member state to become a member and abide by the rules of the covenant.
Now, to persuade his country to sign it.
“Not with the Oath of Tyndareus attached.”
“It’s a preventative measure. No country would want to fight against the entire League of Nations.”
“The fact that it’s there is a denial of self determination.”
Pluto was transiting Cancer, digging up the vulnerabilities of nations. The Great War had crushed so many. Uranus was transiting Aquarius, and he designed a forum where all nations could participate, a structure where they could rise above turbulent emotions and settle disputes, without sacrificing life.
It was the first international peacekeeping organization.
The League of Nations, 1920-1946
The next time Venus Mars conjoined in Aquarius was in 2024. With Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. The heavens and the earth.
But they have danced together in the sign many times.
Chart for January 11, 1934, the day Jean Chrétien was born
‘Distinct’ isn’t his favourite word.
In the beginning he was excluded from inner circles, the inner circle of Pearson and the inner circle of Trudeau.
His work was in Leo, with the Sun in Capricorn. The Sun Mercury.
He laboured in every capacity of government, knitting himself a pelt.
They all do that, sure, but Pluto in Cancer burnt his pelt from time to time, and he had to knit it again, thicker,
to feel comfortable with exclusion, master it. It’s how he avoided falling into group think. It’s how he learned to think for himself and could be the dissenting voice.
Jupiter and Uranus oppose each other in his chart.
They conjoined before he was born, in January 1928, in that place between two signs, at 0 degrees 20 minutes, of Pisces and Aries.
When he was little he dreamt of a golden ram.
The ram appeared in the sky and rescued two children, but one fell into the water below.
“Turn back!” he cried. “Turn back!”
“Jean! What’s wrong?”
He told his mother his dream.
She gave him paper and crayons, and he drew the ram turning back and rescuing the child, and she folded it and tucked it under his pillow.
In Aries there is that primal force.
In Libra we learn to work with others, persuade others to see our point of view.
They say that when Trudeau hesitated to invoke the War Measures Act during the October Crisis, he told him to “act now, explain later.”
He must have Aries in the sixth house of work. There is a chart for him with Aries in the sixth, the data from memory.
Taurus in the seventh house of contracts, with Venus in Aquarius, and he was the prime minister who set up the Team Canada Missions, to promote Canadian business and increase trade with Latin America, China, Russia. To diversify.
Aspects work both ways, and he, in the ninth house, could also bring transformation. He tells of Chirac flirting with Quebec separatists, and how when they met at a Francophonie summit in Africa, he explained to him what if means to be French in Canada, and how Canada is one of the few places where the French language is growing, with Anglophones in French immersion schools, and so on. And then he got up and said, How would you like it if I came to Paris and said, Vive la Corse libre! They became friends with this understanding.
Mars and Venus, rulers of his Ascendant and Descendant, put him in charge of heritage, the heritage of Canadians, resources, the resources of Canadians. They put him charge of the fabric of his society,
and there was Quebec, trying to rip it apart.
If Quebec separated, the loss of Quebec would be his legacy.
He couldn’t build a barrier to prevent this from happening, and even if he could, there was no time.
Distinct isn’t his favourite word, but he understood why it was important for Quebec to be recognised as distinct.
He felt his pelt burn,
and he began to knit it again,
on a golden ram.
On a golden ram he persuaded the country to see things from his point of view. To rise and tell Quebec to stay,
separate but together.
Chart for March 16, 2003, timed to match his rising sign
Neptune, higher octave of Venus.
He can soften Saturn’s edges so the lovers can embrace.
He brings poetry to the stellium that in Aquarius sounds like this,
No.
No to the Iraq war.
A gift of self determination that he prepared for all his life.
Neptune, higher octave of Venus,
come to dissolve his sense of exclusion
so he could take command.
No to coercion. No to arm twisting. No to the Iraq war.
Peacekeepers, gliding over turbulent waters,
safeguarding an international organization.
No to an illegal war.
But he heard of Canadian fighters who wanted to fight
and he heard of American fighters who didn’t want to go to Iraq.
Trade them one for one. Trade them under NORAD, he said behind closed doors.
Truth is his strength, truth that can be explained.
“What about this part, grandpa?”
That’s Uranus changing signs,
Uranus, higher octave of Mercury.
When Typhon cut the sinews from Jupiter’s hands, Pan and Mercury retrieved them so the high god of Olympus could throw his thunderbolts again.
“Maybe they’ll give them to you when you retire, so you can write your stories. Grandma says you’ll need a pastime besides golf to keep you from grief.”
“What happened to your face?”
Nobody knows. It’s a mystery.
“The cartoons make fun of it.”
Show me a good one.
“Is this grandma?” they point at the Moon in Scorpio.
That’s not her. She’s down here, fighting with all my open enemies and secret enemies. She came to know who they were before I did.
“She doesn’t fight fight. Not like you.”
“Enki’s the lover of mankind, so there must be a fighter in your rising sign.”
“Yeah, someone who grabs people by the neck and flips them over, then makes Enki pick up the tab.”
Chaste and wild.
Le petit gars de Shawinigan.
youtube.com/watch?v=sWmtwviXxXI
Earth
that can take justice into its own hands
Grenada, 1983. The Prime Minister, leader of the Communist New Jewel Movement, was executed by a firing squad.
They say that the Governor General of the country made a covert appeal for help to the United States through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
There were U.S. medical students in the country.
The United States and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the country on October 25, 1983. They rescued the students and put the Governor General as the interim head of government, until a new government was elected. Democracy restored.
Chart for October 25, 1983, a day before the exact Venus Mars conjunction
Chart for July 4, 1776, the day the United States declared its independence
Two days before the invasion, the U.S. lost 241 military personnel in the Beirut barracks bombing. They were part of a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.
The Moon was in Taurus.
The resolve to stay.
The resolve to carry through with Grenada. Get the job done. Break away from the Vietnam Syndrome.
The country was having its Uranus opposition Uranus, with natal Mars and transiting Jupiter involved. Breaking away, changing the face of the country.
Seeding in Virgo where we specialise, where god is in the details, where we long for Dikē’s approval, her return,
goddess of human justice, whispering in Jupiter’s ear who deserves to be rewarded and who doesn’t.
Daughter of Themis, goddess of divine justice. Prophetess. Ruler of Libra, sign of alliances.
Creating something new in Sagittarius. A coalition with a purpose. A coalition of clans of like mind, with the same ideal. Morality in an ideology that has as its foundation the freedom to cast a vote.
Without stirring the pot so much. Minding the gap in unintended consequences.
There had been insufficient intelligence on Grenada, its topography, the location of the universities. There had been insufficient communication and coordination between the forces.
Seeding in Virgo efficiency, specialised units to carry out justice.
Operation Urgent Fury
Good guys or bad guys?
The invasion lasted 8 days, and on the 8th day, the United Nations deeply deplored the armed intervention of Grenada by a vote of 108 to 9,
Grenada that celebrates Thanksgiving Day on October 25 since the invasion.
Grenada part of the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Britain abstained from the vote. It couldn’t condemn the invasion and it couldn’t praise it.
Earth
that can put us into slots
youtube.com/watch?v=o-RVbtaKgec
that can put a barrier against getting slotted
Chart for July 1, 1867, the day the British North America Act created Canada
The day begins with Aries rising and the Moon at 28 degrees Gemini, and the day ends with Aries rising and the new Moon at 14 degrees Cancer.
A country always in the making.
Promethean-
Diefenbaker No, no, scrap that.
Prometheus I agree. Too many imperfections. The dream is much better.
Diefenbaker Not because of that. It’s outdated and it brings the journey to an end.
A country always in the making.
Rowing, singing-
Jupiter You’re going to cause an exodus, Diefenbaker. Intelligence out the door.
Mars There’s arete in Virgo, so why don’t we concentrate on making parts instead of the whole?
Venus We could make an arm, a prosthetic arm that can be upgraded.
Diefenbaker We’re making a bunker.
A country always-
Jupiter They’ll go to the U.K. and the U.S.A.
Diefenbaker So what? They’re our partners.
Jupiter They’ll go work for NASA.
Diefenbaker Well, we’ll bring new people in.
Mars Send them to me and I will acculturate them.
Mercury It won’t be easy.
Mars No?
Mercury We’re getting a demanding lot, fighting for adaptations and accommodations-
Diefenbaker We’ll make them swim in our lake!
Mercury That would work if Jupiter Venus were sweetening our lake. But we have Prometheus.
Prometheus I like my uniqueness, my independence-
Hephaestus Don’t forget about me.
Neptune A country always in the making
With Pluto digging in Taurus,
his time with Jupiter and Uranus in the sky ending.
They brought hybridity and healing
Saturn Changing people’s psychology
Cancer The stories of the land.
Chart for October 21, 1983, the day Brent Hayden was born
It all began at the Olympics in Athens in 2004, the year Jupiter transited Virgo. They say he’s a fertilising agent and that stories begin with him, and something began in me that year.
They were my first Olympics and the experience was daunting. My best finish was 13th in the 200 metre freestyle. An eye opener in terms of what I was up against.
Then a day before the Closing Ceremony, a group of us went out at night and there was something going on. A protest and riot police on the street. We turned around and ran into a bar, and I was literally pulled out and beaten by police. I kept telling them that I was an athlete, you know, Olympics! Canadian! But they didn’t stop until I put my hands behind my back and they cuffed me.
They kept me for an hour, and for an hour I wished that I had the strength to break the cuffs and take justice into my own hands.
My father always tells the story of how one summer when I was young, I picked up all the dead flies I’d find on window sills. I would do this with great solemnity and keep them in a drawer. I was keeping them safe.
He vacuumed them one day, and when I went to check on them and they weren’t there, he told me that god had taken them to heaven.
Really?
Really, son.
He tells this story to point out what a gentle person I am, a gentle giant.
They singled me out in Athens. Tall and wearing a black shirt, they slotted me.
I had never experienced depression before and my bouts of depression began after my first Olympics, the Olympics that robbed me of my belief in miracles. I wanted to tear away, tear away from my body, and on the day of the full moon, I raged and threw furniture around.
I was careful not to hurt anyone, not to cause any damage. A measured rage that I couldn’t break out of. My Moon held by the Sun in Libra, flanked by discipline.
I quit, I told my coach, and he had me see the team psychologist.
The psychologist gave me an oar to hold while we spoke. I couldn’t just hold it. I positioned myself so that I could switch it from hand to hand and row equally on both sides.
Your story is sending ripples. Let the ripples do their work.
Did you hear about the newspaper article? They said I went out the night before the race. They got the dates wrong, and people picked up the phonebook and called my parents. They said mean things, that I was a bad ambassador of Canada.
Take the newspaper to court, and tell your parents to unlist their number.
I’m not good enough.
You’re good. You need to go back into your body and focus on breaking your own record. The measure within.
I was born on a full moon-
More the reason to learn to shut out the noise.
Point Roberts by Brent Hayden, Washington 2018
1981-1988, the seven years that Uranus transited Sagittarius, squaring the Pisces Virgo polarity, across from Gemini.
Uranus and Jupiter in Sagittarius, freeing something in the sign, an education system in Canada that would integrate a multicultural society.
Uranus and Saturn in Sagittarius, making the Canadian Multiculturalism Act a law of Canada.
Seeding a barrier against getting slotted.
There is marginality in Virgo,
and with the spirit of the times in Sagittarius, and Venus Mars dropping seeds in Virgo,
Ontario announced that it would close institutions for people with developmental disabilities by 2012, to integrate them into society.
news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/5213/closing-institutions-for-people-with-a-developmental-disability
Sagittarius in a quincunx to the natal Moon Uranus Sun in Cancer in the country’s birth chart.
Uranus is not a cohesive planet.
It can allow for such a society to exist.
The country couldn’t see it until it did,
how experimental it was.
A model.
Whytecliff, Study No. 1 by Brent Hayden, British Columbia 2018
Venus in Gemini asks for models.
Whytecliff, Study No. 2 by Brent Hayden, British Columbia 2018
There are the children born during this time that would keep the experiment going, with cross cultural marriages,
there is the athlete who spoke of his depression openly, his longing for Dikē’s return, longing to touch the galactic centre, to fall back into the waters below,
youtube.com/watch?v=VO7y41uBdUA
barring anyone who would judge him, barring anyone who would slot him,
with a bronze medal that felt like gold and brought a sense of personal justice.
He retired in 2012
and announced his comeback in September 2019,
Saida Port, Study No. 2 by Brent Hayden, Lebanon 2017
the year Venus and Mars made their comeback in Virgo.
They conjoined on August 24, 2019.
He says that out in the wild, in a swimming pool overlooking the Mediterranean, he found his love of swimming again,
born again.
Washed ashore by Brent Hayden, Newfoundland 2018
Born again during his Jupiter return,
Jupiter in the sky passing through his natal Uranus,
and Uranus giving him the gift of fire for the third time, the gift of re invention,
to bring him another notch up.
Traps by Brent Hayden, Newfoundland 2018
He called his coach and told him that he wanted to come back, he was physically and mentally stronger, and he felt that he could-
It didn’t matter what he said because the coach had something else in mind for this high maintenance child of the land,
to take him to the next step in the quest,
to instill in him a sense of social responsibility.
Portrait at Dungeon by Brent Hayden, Newfoundland 2018
He had been privileged to work in a team that supported him, a team that never slotted him.
There were standards to abide by, and if he met the standards, he could come back,
to play a part,
be a mentor,
give the 4x100m freestyle relay a push.
The pandemic struck and he really went out into the wild, put a bodysuit on and swam in an open lake, to prove to his coach that he was serious and willing to take the next step.
There is a change of ages in Pisces,
and an oar in Aries,
a torch,
a passing of a torch.
18:23
youtube.com/watch?v=tB2XXZswfPA
Earth
that can take us across water, a water passage, to set anchor, establish roots
Earth
that can bar roots from growing too deep,
that can bar us from leaving the passage
Chart for June 5, 1939, the day Joe Clark was born
He was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party on February 22, 1976, when transiting Uranus was at 7 degrees Scorpio, conjunct his point of Rahu.
They say that the sudden rise of an unknown MP from Alberta took Canadians by surprise, “Joe Who?” they asked.
Joe come to destabilize roots that were growing too deep in the Cancer Capricorn polarity,
opening the lid on multiple topics during question period,
getting to the bottom of things
in Taurus.
In Scorpio, Leto searched for land to birth her children, and a floating island welcomed her.
His work was in Taurus, to turn the entrenched ruling party into a floater again.
There are seasons in Virgo, the order of things,
and when it’s time for the next season,
It’s time
by Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny
He paved the way.
He became prime minister of a minority government on May 22, 1979,
during his Uranus opposition Uranus,
and announced that he would rule as if he’d won a majority, as if Neptune had secured his rule with a magnificent bull.
Venus Mars were seeding in Taurus, seeding ways to refill the coffers. Whether the people of Canada liked it or not, the coffers were depleted and had to be refilled.
“Here’s my budget,” he said.
“No, I’m not going to wheel and deal,” he said. “This is the reality. Take it or leave it.”
A non-confidence vote on the budget brought his government down in December 1979,
but he’d done his work, exposed what needed to be exposed. It was only a matter of time.
He lost the 1980 elections,
and even though he still had the support of 70 percent of his party, he didn’t feel it was enough to lead. He doesn’t tell us, but he couldn’t forgive himself for wasting a chance.
His main opponent became leader of the party, and he says that they managed to do what few opponents have done. Work together in the party’s interest and the country’s interest.
Under Mulroney, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. It kept him out of the country and allowed Mulroney to establish roots.
youtube.com/watch?v=5quUszjXkTA
Later he became Minister responsible for Constitutional Affairs.
38:50
youtube.com/watch?v=Txw74G403Po
Hearthfire.
A life of labour and a life of service. Loyal to his party and not in favour of mergers. Voted most effective opposition leader.
There is a chart for him drawn with data from memory that makes him a Virgo rising. Maybe Leo rising is better.
Jupiter in the sky would have been transiting his first house when he became prime minister, across from his natal Mars,
at the bending of the nodes.
He refers to himself as an outsider from Prairies Canada, youngest prime minister in the land.
Always a student,
clumsy at first.
youtube.com/watch?v=tSWwmXcoZfo
Jupiter in Aries touches Pluto touches Mars, bringing him opportunities to be of influence, to broaden the country’s horizons with its participation in the Canadian Caper, in the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.
Saturn asks for mastery in the art of the quest.
Life in a passage
by Jacopo Amigoni
Chart for May 20, 1979, the day Andrew Sheer was born
Resourceful.
There is problem solving in Taurus, planning and craftsmanship
by Jean Lemaire
He waded through all that came before and planned a platform, crafted a set of policies for his party. Policies that party members could stand around.
There is a Minotaur in Taurus.
Venus Mars can seed a Minotaur.
cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/town-hall-andrew-scheer-nisku-convoy-truckers-pipeline-oil-and-gas-1.4952283
Uranus in the sky had retrograded into Aries when the article was posted. He re entered Taurus and settled in March 2019.
The beginning of his Uranus opposition Uranus,
Uranus in the sky conjoining his natal Venus Mars, in a trine to Saturn in Virgo and in a square to Jupiter in Leo.
Yes, he supported the LGBTQ community.
Free the Minotaur
by Michael Bergt
No, he would not march in the Pride Parade.
Not even as a demonstration of good faith?
No. There are other ways of supporting the community.
Kill the Minotaur
by Edward Burne-Jones
In Canada everyone has the right to hold their views. I have the right to hold my views.
Prime ministers made that possible. What if you came before the prime ministers that made that possible?
In Canada we respect the views of others.
What are your views on same sex marriage and abortion?
We won’t be opening those subjects up for discussion.
But would you share your views?
Not for discussion.
My impression is that you have a contract stronger than your contract with the people of the land.
The contract with my party.
Stronger.
A party that allows me the contract I have with my faith. A party that doesn’t have a thought police, like the ruling party.
Silence
And whether you like it or not, we still need gas.
youtube.com/watch?v=F4XP5_qzBuk
He came
and announced that he was stepping down as leader of his party
with Uranus dancing in direct and retrograde motion with his natal Venus Mars.
Uranus involved.
But he was living in a passage before Uranus got involved.
convivium.ca/articles/scheer-faith/
In Kingsmere while he was Speaker of the House. A heritage home, haunted too.
Mercury joins Taurus to Gemini in the fourth house, and Gemini is a busy fourth house that can give access to many homes.
With Mercury in Taurus across from Uranus in Scorpio, he spoke of freedom of thought and ethical Canadian oil
to the village that raised him, his homeland.
Pluto in Libra can ask why does Canada buy oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, what’s behind it? Uranus in Scorpio can open a manhole to find out.
Because Canada has oil.
He couldn’t see it until he did that he seeded and fed a Minotaur.
There is freedom in Gemini, not just for Muslims and Jews, but for Catholics in English Canada too. The freedom to say I support the LGBTQ community, but I don’t feel comfortable going to a Pride Parade. The freedom to keep my US passport until I ran for prime minister.
cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-walks-back-us-pledge-1.5576006
He did what a previous governor general did.
Always an apprentice.
There are archives in Taurus. Morality in the archives.
Pisces.
The Moon in Pisces joins his first house to the fifth house in Cancer. He started an informal study group open to all MPs and parliamentary staff.
Faith.
Jupiter pulls him into the sixth house in Leo, his house of work a stage.
Shapeshifter.
youtube.com/watch?v=jCSfe5OKb1U
He gave the country a dose of Justin Trudeau.
Neptune in Sagittarius is at the bending of the nodes in the Pisces Virgo polarity, paving the way-
Chart for January 22, 2022, the day the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa, timed for a Pisces rising
for a Minotaur that got out of hand.
Chaos.
Barred and barring
Life in a passage
by Titian
He was born one day before Venus formed an exact conjunction with Mars.
Pierre Poilievre was born after the conjunction, on June 3, 1979, when the planets were 6 degrees apart in Taurus, with Mars at a lower degree and stronger,
the Sun and Mercury in Gemini,
and the Moon in Virgo. Saturn, the point of Rahu and the Moon in Virgo.
Today Uranus in the sky is at 24 degrees Taurus. He is past the exact Uranus opposition Uranus, and Jupiter in the sky is transiting his solar house.
Before 1979, Venus Mars conjoined in Taurus in 1889.
She travels faster than Mars, and if she enters a sign first, there is no conjunction.
She entered Taurus first, and retrograded to conjoin Mars.
The Venus R and Mars conjunction was exact on April 21, 1889, the day Rolf Armstrong was born.
My father owned fire boats and passenger ships that operated on the Great Lakes. He taught me how to sail. I own eight sailboats.
Do you think sailing takes care of this whole idea of living in a passage? Have you been able to establish roots?
Not in a conventional way, no. Not if you mean having children that carry my last name.
Your progressed Sun was conjunct VenusR Mars when your father died.
The year they sent me to live with my brother who was twenty years older, married, and had a kid, Robert. We became best friends. We took boxing lessons together.
Are you still close?
When my wife and I divorced, she married him. So, no, we’re not close anymore. (pause) Something good came from moving in with my brother. I owe him a great deal. I wanted to be a boxer and a sailor, and he said that I had a good hand at drawing. If I could earn a living as a commercial artist, I’d be able to box and sail all I wanted. He put me through the best art schools, sent me to Paris, and helped me set up my studio in New York.
Your progressed Sun was conjunct Neptune when you started doing calendar art for Brown & Bigelow. Neptune beginning his transit in Gemini-
You said I rescued people, that I’ve paved the way for a new way of rescuing people, one that involves aesthetics and arrangements.
Pluto digs in the riches of a sign. He can break down what is no longer useful, and Neptune paves the way.
A sort of rehabilitation. (pause) You know my pin-up girls made a lot of G.I.’s happy. Those boys were far away from home, living in a passage, as you say, and the girls became a symbol of home. They’re neighbourhood girls, sweethearts.
Like Jewel Flowers.
Like Jewel.
You made her famous.
The G.I.’s used to send her letters, asking her to marry them. They addressed the letters to Jewel Flowers, New York, and the letters reached her. She’s kept them all. (pause) I’m in the process of adopting her.
You are!
Leaving her a small fortune, so she can leave the idiot she married and settle down. (pause) I used to think I was god’s gift, up until the day she came in for a trial. 17 years old. Back in 1940.
The year Venus and Mars in the sky danced together in Taurus. Uranus was there too.
War time for us.
You said you thought you were god’s gift?
Pan, actually, surrounded by nymphs.
Jewel’s innocence and insecurity brought out the father figure in me. Enki, you know, the old Babylonian god who gave us the laws. I became conscious of being the intermediary between her and the soldiers. I had to change my style, come up with a style that made her a figure in the sky, if you know what I mean.
You used pastels.
I painted an impression. Someone they could all dream about,
someone they could elaborate about in their dreams.
Chart for April 21, 1889, timed
Earth
that makes good use of what it has
that studies the patterns and recognises potential
to plan for the future
not to fall
Earth that builds a barrier against falling
because falling from the sign of the father is a long way to fall
But even those who fall are not wasted
Earth
that makes good use of those who fall
Chart for December 30, 1961, the day Ben Johnson was born
youtube.com/watch?v=X2aeV3fIUDo
Warriors of the Sun, Venus and Mars.
Morality in Capricorn, the kind that lets us hold the laws, the sacred mes.
Saturn in Capricorn asks for mastery, mastery that comes with time.
He chose a career that didn’t allow him much time, back then.
Mercury, god of the roads, asked him which road he’d take to fulfill his social contract.
He said he’d take the road others were taking, or he’d be left behind. Besides, it was part of his training.
I’m tempting, said Jupiter. All you see is sweet nectar, until you understand my expectations.
I have a rival to beat, he said, taking the nectar.
And a can of worms to open, said Neptune, paving the way.
Chart for September 24, 1988, the day Ben Johnson won gold
Paving the way for Pluto in the sky.
Out with it, said Pluto in a square to the Aquarius Leo polarity,
and out came confessions of performance enhancing drugs.
cnn.com/2012/07/23/sport/olympics-2012-ben-johnson-seoul-1988-dirtiest-race/index.html
With his natal Jupiter in Aquarius and transiting Venus conjunct his point of Rahu, he was a star one moment, and a cheat the next.
He defended his performance saying that it was his training regime, a regime tailored for him, that made him run faster, not the drugs. He could only be a cheat if nobody else was cheating, and that wasn’t the case.
Neptune in the sky dissolved the barrier that had protected him, and he fell from grace.
He was made an example,
and given the opportunity to begin again, embark on the journey again, with new arrangements, a new coach, to take the road he hadn’t taken before and defend the record he’d broken.
But they say he tested positive when he came back in 1993.
In his chart, Pluto is in Virgo and Uranus in that place between Leo and Virgo.
Pluto Uranus in Virgo can bring cultural change.
The story of his fall may have brought cultural change to the Olympians of his land. From his natal Sun, Leo is in the eighth house.
They say Olympians in Canada are given out-of-competition tests, surprise tests, to ensure that the barrier that prevents them from falling is intact.
He may have seeded that.
Chart for December 30, 1961, timed
Ketu Rahu in the Aquarius Leo polarity, house of personal resources and other people’s resources. In both houses his own resources, his body.
There is universality in Aquarius, catered to individual needs.
There is service in Aquarius, focused on one field.
Venus was in Leo when they gave him a medal and took it away. She brought attention to the culture of the Olympics, the underworld of the Olympics.
In Leo the underworld lies on the surface where the sun always shines, on a scoreboard, in comparisons with previous scores. The underworld where we’re careful who we blame.
He was made an example in the sixth house of work, in Gemini ruled by Mercury, god of the roads. And with it came the opportunity to begin again in his homeland, to make alternative arrangements and hold the laws again.
When the ruler of the seventh house is in the tenth, there may be something more important than marriage for the holder of the chart. Something that takes precedence over marriage in the sign of the mother.
To restore her name.
The social contract of restoring her name.
It goes hand in hand with restoring his own name, his name before the fall.
cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/ben-johnson-sprinter-olympic-gold-steroids-1.7191078#:~:text=Ormsby%2C%20who%20covered%20the%20100m,later%20about%20Johnson%20testing%20positive.
He says that his mother said, The only way they can beat you is in the lab.
He clarifies, In the laboratory.
Whether this means with drugs that other athletes may take or with surprise testing is left up to the listener.
When he is asked if he would have done things differently in his career, he says many things except the one thing listeners hope to hear, giving up drugs.
To restore his name with the knowledge that he-
youtube.com/watch?v=zq_2lmCXeDk
Earth
that makes good use of what it has
Earth
that rules the bones
Chart for January 6, 1994, the day Catriona Gray was born
The Pluto in Scorpio and Uranus in Capricorn generation come to expose the bones that hold us up.
Like NAFTA did, the North American free trade agreement that came into effect on January 1, 1994
The coming together of 3 clans to eliminate trade barriers.
Mars (to Venus) Wait a minute. I thought you and I built barriers.
Venus So did I.
Mercury It’s hypothetical. It could be proven wrong.
Goat Maa
Mars What did he say?
Jupiter Against falling. The hypothesis is that the two of you build barriers against falling in Capricorn, not against trade.
The agreement exposed problems in the clans. Quebec’s bones were different from the rest of Canada’s, Mexico was missing bones-
Neptune That’s why I’m here. To pave the way for missing bones.
Sun My warriors are laying the seeds.
The exposure of unequal bones led to side agreements and side resolutions so that trade could carry on.
Free mobility of labour was excluded because labour protection was not equal in all three clans.
Pluto The idea is to get people to change the way they think.
Saturn Think globally.
Moon Not so fast. There are grievances in Mexico, local grievances against the government, promised land sold to foreign companies-
Pluto A feeling of betrayal.
Saturn Global comparisons can aggravate grievances.
Jupiter Just so you know, the whole thing’s about to explode.
Government of Mexico What! We can’t have a rebellion! We can’t fall on the day NAFTA comes into effect! Suppress! Don’t let the media report on it! Suppress!
Uranus You can’t suppress me, even when I’m at a higher degree. I’m an outer planet, remember? The spirit of the times.
Pluto So what do we do?
Neptune We bypass the official media. It’s about time we tested Timmy’s world wide web. (pause) You know, he imagined it with me at 9 degrees Capricorn, back in 1989.
Saturn I was in Capricorn too, at 7 degrees.
Neptune I had to dissolve you to make room for such a structure.
Saturn Nonsense. He dreamt of such a structure when you and I blended.
Uranus I was at 1 degree Capricorn. I gave it the spark of life.
The work was in the Gemini Sagittarius polarity,
with Mercury in the grand stellium in Capricorn,
and Jupiter in Scorpio.
Reporters on the ground found access to the internet, and news of what was happening in Mexico travelled internationally.
There were demonstrations of solidarity in foreign lands,
and the government was forced to negotiate, forced to fix some broken bones not to fall.
The children born during this time may face the delicate task of exposing bones without falling,
tied to an Aquarian field,
tied to an ideal,
tied to service.
Like her, born on the day of the exact conjunction.
youtube.com/watch?v=yoSivt70ufI
Born in Australia, she moved to the Philippines when she was a teenager. She still spoke with a tinge of an Australian accent during Miss World 2016, beauty with a purpose.
youtube.com/watch?v=0hplSx_pBSo
Chiron Narrow things down, honey. Find a cause. Work with a specific marginalized group.
Jupiter And clean up your accent. Solidarity with one clan.
Catriona I feel solidarity with all the clans. I have this gift, you see. I can change my accent and morph into someone else.
Jupiter You need to morph into a Filipina if you want to win this pageant. There’s work to do. Bones that need improvement.
Catriona It would be nice if we had more choices for swimwear. If we could wear a wrap, for example. Not everyone feels comfortable walking in a-
Jupiter You can say those things when you’re Miss Universe.
Saturn You can talk to your fans too. Teach them rules of etiquette.
google.com/search?q=catriona+gray+internet+fans&oq=catriona+gray+internet+fans&aqs=chrome..69i57.5487j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:83d1261d,vid:QZfJddoJECA,st:265
Catriona What about my scoliosis?
Stellium Have you been doing your exercises?
Cationa Every day.
1:58
youtube.com/watch?v=4s3SPPmjqdI
If she were a Sagittarius rising, then Capricorn would be in her second house, and she would be constantly seeding in this house, working on her strengths, her personal resources, rising up a ladder through contracts, or simply becoming better known and having a cultural impact. Saturn ties the second house to Aquarius in the third, the village that raises us, house of skills. Bones and skin, bones and the nervous system. Laws that are local and universal, like the laws of natural science, the laws of music.
Pisces would be in her fourth house and Pisces can have a house near the sea, a house with thin walls, open spaces, a house where people come and go, a house that fosters children, a spiritual house.
Jupiter in Scorpio brings the holder of the chart and the fourth house into the twelfth, the twelfth house of the unremembered dead. In Scorpio they may belong to the same clan, have the same trade, the same beliefs.
The twelfth house of faraway places, places of retreat, charity and goodwill. There are virgin forests in Scorpio, medicine and the mysteries. To dig in such places and create something new in Capricorn, new bones that can be of service to the community.
youtube.com/watch?v=083p8Sw97bk
If she were an Aries rising, Mars would join Aries with Capricorn in her tenth house of reputation, tied to the eleventh house of the groups that she belongs to. Sharing with her group how to build barriers against falling.
youtube.com/watch?v=4FizxoBrLj4
There is a search for knowledge in the chart, with Ketu Rahu in the 3rd and 9th house. Jupiter joins the ninth with Scorpio in the eighth house of crisis.
push.abs-cbn.com/2024/3/19/catriona-gray-on-her-scoliosis-i-m-starting-to-feel-its-effects-in-my-everyday-life-1319
Pluto digs in the eighth to create something new in Capricorn, perhaps new ways of not falling.
In the Miss Universe pageant there was a question about the legalisation of marihuana, and she said that she was for it being legalised for medicinal use. It demonstrated her being au courant and thoughtful about such matters.
Chart for January 6, 1994, timed
She says that she has been reporting from behind the scenes at the Miss Universe pageants, and that she enjoys supporting the contestants.
The Moon takes her to the tenth house in Cancer. She became visible as a symbol of her land, and she said that if she were to write a song about her experience as a Miss Universe contestant, she would call it Raise the flag.
In her second house is her ability to morph. Pluto digs in this house, and with Uranus in Capricorn in the fourth house, she re invented herself, became a native Filipino.
Sagittarius in the third house speaks of a village that is foreign to her in some way. When she moved to the Philippines as a teenager, she had to learn the language, and she is still working on it.
youtube.com/watch?v=jQxqCkVYutQ
She says that at one point in her life, she was the only breadwinner at home. Circumstances can push Capricorns to grow up fast. She held the mes and built a barrier to protect her family.
Venus joins Libra in the first house and Taurus in the eighth to Capricorn. With Uranus transiting Taurus, she has been open about her scoliosis, a condition that she may have inherited from her father. She tells us of the workout she does to prevent herself from falling.
She speaks of her body, the asymmetry of her body, and how in the recent past her body proportions would not have been considered suitable for modelling.
But she made good use of what she has and brought other qualities to the competition. She knew what was going on in foreign lands, in Canada and Uruguay, and had a thoughtful opinion about it.
They say she has raised the standards for future contestants,
and paved the way for new patterns.
Her parents must have argued when her mother decided their daughter should move to the Philippines. The pageants she had participated in had been organized by the Filipino community in Australia, and if she was going to participate in Miss World and Miss Universe, she would represent the Philippines.
I’ve held her chart, her mother said.
I’ve held it too, her father said. I’m holding it now!
Well? It’s me up there!
With Aries in the seventh house, he relented.
She says that it all began with a dream. Her mother dreamt that she was crowned Miss Universe in a red gown.
It became her father’s dream too, and hers, and then came the transformation, the deep dive into the history and the culture of the Philippines. She says that maybe she wouldn’t have had such an interest if she had grown up there.
There was criticism about her being half Australian half Filipino, and having lived most of her life in Australia. There were questions raised about whether she had the right to represent the land, and she defended the right given to her by her mother. She wasn’t just a Filipina beauty, she said, but a diverse Filipina beauty. Out of the box.
There were so many Filipinos living around the world, in the peripheries, and she came from the peripheries. A celebrity in the land and hearthfire for the peripheries.
youtube.com/watch?v=kSEunPROEE8
An only child.
Pluto in the sky is beginning his transit in Aquarius, sign that rules the nervous system, and Mars in the sky is in Taurus, in her house of crisis. He can bring inflammation, talk of surgery, talk of the risks of having children.
Talk of resources. Pluto in the sky is in the house that rules children and our creations.
Saturn joins her fifth house to the fourth in Capricorn, sign that rules the bones that hold us up.
The fourth house is a physical place, and invisible, place of our psychology, a defense mechanism,
not to panic,
not to fall.
Goat Maa
youtube.com/watch?v=u9RTCky_2DY
Briefly.
Venus began the year 2022 retrograding in Capricorn, waiting for Mars. He stepped into Capricorn on January 25, and she turned direct at 11 degrees Capricorn on January 29.
When planets turn direct, they station for a while. They station retrograde before moving backward, and they station direct before moving forward, and they begin to move forward slowly.
She gave him time to catch up.
They conjoined at 17 degrees Capricorn on February 16,
the day police officers began distributing written warnings to truckers in downtown Ottawa,
cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-protest-day-20-february-16-1.6353049
Enki-Ea with a fish-cloaked Apkallu, divine priest, holding the laws, spreading the laws, 7th century BCE
Venus Mars can build a barrier against falling in Capricorn, and seed new laws,
with the ruler in Aquarius.
Laws about pooled resources and the containers of our resources, international containers.
Environmental laws to clean the earth, the oceans of the earth.
Laws about flying, laws about space.
Mars moved away from the conjunction first, but they travelled together in Capricorn, only minutes apart as she picked up speed.
Downtown Ottawa was cleared.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, after much preparation, after NATO showed a united front,
cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-16-22-intl/index.html
a day after Caleb found out that he’d been exposed to HIV. He had to wait three months before finding out if he’d been infected.
Am I going to die? he asked his doctor.
Do you plan on killing yourself?
No.
Then no, you’re not going to die. Why don’t you come to my support group? A circle where everyone is a centre, where we pool resources to hold each other up. It will keep you from falling.
Chart for February 16, 2022
The light of Aquarius.
youtube.com/watch?v=G5kxYTT-t28
Chart for May 10, 1788, the day Augustin-Jean Fresnel was born
He consolidated knowledge of light. He studied all the material he could get his hands on, and filled the gaps on his own.
He worked with the three echelons of astrological air. If we stretched orbs to 10 degrees, there would be a grand trine in air in his chart.
They say he broke through open doors,
but he went a step further,
he plugged it in, rooted it. He gave the wave theory of light a mechanical foundation, and worked on his theory of diffraction.
He was put to work in the lighthouse commission. He looked at the dull beam of light, and had a dream. He dreamt of an arrangement of prisms that would prevent light from escaping, that would magnify the beam. He made the lens rotate and the light appeared to flash, light that awakens.
Flashes of light, and in between, a fainter steady light.
They say the number of flashes would let sailors know the location of the lighthouse.
He looked at a map and figured out how many lighthouses would be needed along the coastline to keep sailors safe.
His lens was first tested in August 1822, and in July 1823 the first lighthouse Fresnel lens was lit.
In between, Venus Mars conjoined in Aquarius.
Chart for February 5, 1823
With the knowledge he consolidated, and with raw material from the earth, he seeded a new invention.
A new invention was seeded.
Venus Mars in Aquarius can bar from attachment.
An invention that stood on the shoulders of those who came before, on his shoulders and the shoulders of his contemporaries,
an invention for humankind.
The new invention had its own laws,
experienced, studied and managed by lighthouse keepers.
Like the sun, a Fresnel lens could light fires. It could magnify the light of the sun and spark fires in the surrounding landscape.
The heat of the sun could melt its components.
Curtains had to be drawn in the lighthouse during the day.
youtube.com/watch?v=L5_JEq4BNzM
The day after their conjunction in Capricorn on February 16, 2022, Venus Mars travelled together, only minutes apart as she picked up speed,
and on March 6, they conjoined at 0 degrees 00 minutes of Aquarius,
in that place between two signs that Mercury rules.
Chart for March 6, 2022, timed
Two days before the conjunction, the Batman went to see the Riddler in jail. He realized that he had been pabilsagging a group of orphans in a way that he had never intended.
Taking vengeance. That’s all they saw him do.
He had unknowingly mentored a minotaur.
You and I, said the Riddler.
No, said the Batman, distancing himself from his creation,
but in the back of his mind, there was a growing sense of responsibility.
Jupiter in the sky was bringing him a gift, a change in his psychology.
His third house allowed him outsider status, and that’s how he was of service to Gotham City. He fought crime as an outsider,
in the name of his father.
His personal resource, an ideal father.
Himself, a sort of father to Gotham City.
He would have to change his ways, seed a new way of working with the people of Gotham,
transform the archetype of the Batman.
He felt that he was standing under a lintel, ready to write a new story.
Come with me, said the Catwoman.
She’d been a part of this critical moment in his life, and there was attraction, but he could not leave.
Jupiter and the Sun tied him to this place that had the potential to change with him.
The Riddler had planted bombs in the sea wall and the city was flooded.
He went to lend a hand.
Holding a torch, he treaded water and extended his hand to a child. The child hesitated, and then took it.
youtube.com/watch?v=sow5pUR4RVc&t=148s
Chart for December 21, 2020, timed
In Taurus there is a child who may have been too young to be given wings.
In Taurus there is a cautionary tale.
Icarus by Henri Matisse
Uranus exposes all the layers of the sign,
to ensure survival,
to be cautious.
It was the time of the pandemic, a time that brought all generations together.
A time when government and science stood together, when science worked overtime to prepare a vaccine, get it approved.
On this day, Jupiter conjoined Saturn at 0 degrees 28 minutes of Aquarius and set Saturn free, the mastery of Saturn in this place in between.
One vaccine after another got approval. They were ready to go.
Taurus Are you sure? It seems a bit rushed to me.
Mars It’s a fight for survival, bro.
Taurus I’m not here to fight for survival. I’m here to ensure it.
Mars (to Venus) You better do something.
Venus had all the heads of government and heads of science get vaccinated on TV and online, and she added some star power too. She gave the public visual examples.
Jupiter Saturn.
They call it a crowning, a royal conjunction.
In a personal chart they can indicate an institution, creating one, working for one.
An institution that helps marginalized people, rescues them, advocates for them. An institution that has community outreach programs-
Taurus A housing program. I rule the basics, after all.
Chart for March 6, 2022, untimed
ctvnews.ca/video/c2386249-ctv-national-news-for-sunday–march-6–2022
Burning a passport,
and separating ourselves from what was once a great invention, single use plastic.
Today Pluto is transiting Aquarius. He is retrograding back into Capricorn one last time before settling down in Aquarius.
He will be at 0 degrees mid July to September 1,
and then at 29 degrees Capricorn in retrograde and direct motion.
Back at 0 degrees in December, and at 1 degree Aquarius on December 30.
Thirty six, it’s the name of my valley, valley thirty six.
When I asked my dad why, he said that’s how many gemstones were lost before people stopped wearing rings to the baths. Gemstones mounted on rings. They would unrobe and immerse themselves in water wearing their rings. The adhesive could withstand the heat and moisture only so many times before the gems detached and made their way down the drain. It’s where he found them.
“You mean at the excavation site I saw when I entered the valley?”
“The ancient drainage system, yes. They were caught between the stones that line it.”
“I’d like to see them.”
“They’re in the display cabinet over there.”
He walked to the display cabinet and studied the gems.
“There’s one missing.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“He says it doesn’t belong among the others. My guess is that the image engraved on the gem is inappropriate. This is a family museum after all.”
“You mean it’s-“
“Pornographic? It could be.”
silence
“I can tell by your silence that you’d like to see it, but my dad’s never shown it to anyone.”
“I’d like to meet your dad. Is he an archaeologist?”
“He’s the king,” she said, pointing at the window.
He looked outside the window, at a castle on a hill, and a figure blocked his view. The figure moved away and stepped inside the museum.
“Good timing, dad. This visitor wanted to meet you.”
“Your majesty,” said the visitor with a bow. “I’m Romey, prince of valley sixty nine.”
“Your people took longer than ours to stop wearing rings to the baths,” said the king. “How many do you have on display?”
“Sixty eight,” said the prince. He looked at the king’s daughter, princess Silva, and continued, “Not because the intaglio on gem sixty nine is pornographic, but because the provenance of the gem is unknown. It’s not a precious or semi precious stone we recognise, and it has properties that are hard to explain.”
“It can read your mind,” said Silva.
“Not exactly.”
“Your mood,” said the king.
My mood ring by Monica Perez
Given to me by a stranger on the pilgrim road. It wasn’t a ring like other rings. The gem wasn’t carved but smooth, and it was set on a face that had a hole in the centre, so the gem touched my finger when I wore it, cool against my skin.
A silver ring with a grey stone, like a stone under water, not dull at all.
Would you think me foolish if I told you that it got to know me? It got to know me, this magical ring, to tell me how I was feeling. It read my skin and wore the colours of my inner life. I had to turn it so that only I could see it, my fingers curled to cover it so it wouldn’t give me away.
I lost it in the bathhouse. I heard the gem drop into the water. I couldn’t catch it. I felt it with my foot, tried to grip it with my toes, felt it slip into the drain.
I robed myself and rushed to the attendant.
“Help me.”
She told me that the emperor himself had lost an opal, impossible to find.
I crouched down and cried.
“Can I help you?” someone gently asked.
“What’s the colour of loss?”
“It depends. Loss of a loved one?”
“A gemstone that brought magic into my life.”
“Hmm. Probably a dull grey, like a stone that hasn’t seen water in a long time.”
Mood change by Monica Perez
“I was on my way to the pilgrim road when I saw your valley,” said Romey.
“The pilgrim road,” the king remembered. “To seek the advice of the Oracle. I never thought of doing that.”
Silva locked the museum door and they walked together to the castle. “I’ve always wanted to dissect it, you know, take a look inside.”
“I once caught her with a hammer,” sighed the king. “It’s been a feat keeping it away from her.”
“My theory is that it contains miniscule pellets of colour swimming in thick liquid, each pellet activated by a certain temperature or tension of the skin to release its pigment.”
“You haven’t worn it long enough,” said Romey.
“Long enough for what?”
“To understand that it gets to know you, like I’m getting to know you.”
“What do you know-“
“That you lie. I bet your lies are never the same colour, that those miniscule pellets are intelligent enough not to colour them the same.”
“You speak of it as if it were organic.”
“You said it read your mind, remember?”
“Excuse me,” said a voice from behind. “Your majesty?” the voice asked the king.
“Yes.”
“Your majesty, my name is Santiago, prince of valley eighty four.”
“Eighty four gems on display?”
“Eighty three. I’m wearing gem eighty four,” he said, showing his ring.
“What colour is it?”
“It’s speckled. That happens when I’m in a chatty mood. I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation, the part about the hammer. I thought I’d let you know that I once hammered my ring, to take a look inside, as you said, and nothing happened to it, not even a scratch. But the gem changed colour, into a frightening red, and it heated up. It got so hot that it burnt my fingers.”
“What brought you here today?”
“I wasn’t coming here. I was going to the pilgrim road, but I saw the excavation site and the sign for the museum. You closed it an hour early.”
“Sorry.”
“Your ring setting looks original,” said the king.
“It is. This gem did not detach and go down the drain. Someone threw the whole ring down. We found it intact.”
“How do you know someone threw it?”
“My grandfather told me. A story came to him when he touched the ring. It happens to him sometimes.”
Santiago’s grandfather by Osiris Delgado
There are three, said my grandfather when he first touched the ring. This one was given to the bread seller in exchange for bread.
“Hey! Come back! What’s this!”
The customer disappeared into the crowd and I put the ring with the rest of my coins and forgot about it. It came back to me when I counted the coins before heading home. I put the ring on and took it off quickly. It was cold. I turned it around and saw the stone through a hole in the back. The stone was cold, that’s why.
I put it on again and looked at it, and the stone began to change colour. I grew suspicious of it and it changed to another colour and I took it off. But curiosity made me put it back on. I thought, what will my wife say, and the stone showed me the colour of my fear. Witchcraft, she would say. I was sure of it.
I picked up my things, and Celine came to say hello, sweet Celine.
“What a beautiful ring you have,” she said, and I looked at the ring and it showed me happiness.
“Are you going home?”
“No,” I said, “I’m leaving town.”
“When will you come back?”
“I’m not coming back,” I said and felt a thrill.
“Look at your ring! It’s radiating light. Is it a magical ring?”
Her tone of voice told me to remain silent.
She pointed at me and shouted, “Sorcerer!” and I ran as fast as I could, threw the ring into a water drain and left town, a-“
“A free man,” they heard someone say.
They were sitting on the steps of the castle, and they all turned to see El Cristo Negro sitting beside them.
“You know the last words of the story,” said Santiago.
“I know your grandfather,” said El Cristo.
“You knew there was another gem like ours,” said Silva.
“So did your dad.”
“We were waiting for the third one,” said the king. “Don’t you think it’s amazing how Romey and Santiago came here today without intending to?”
Silva did not respond.
“What keeps you from being amazed?” Romey asked her.
“I don’t want to get carried away. It feels like leaving my body and losing my senses, what is here and what is logical.”
“It asks you to give in to supernatural forces,” said Romey.
“To feel small,” said El Cristo.
“It scares me to think there are only three of these mood rings,” said Santiago. “I’ve grown so attached to mine, what if I lose it?”
“It scared me more to think there was only one,” said Silva. “But now that there are three, we could give one to the experts and have it analysed. Maybe we could reproduce it, or find out where it comes from.”
“Those are my questions for the Oracle,” said Romey. He rummaged through his backpack, took out his ring and wore it.
“Your setting looks original too,” said the king.
“It isn’t. I designed it.”
“It’s identical to mine,” said Santiago.
“My design is based on a dream I had.”
“What was your dream?”
“All I have is an image. Coming out of a pool of water and looking at my hand. A silver ring. The face with a hole in the centre.”
“We should go see the Oracle together,” said Santiago.
“It would make sense for the three of us to go together,” said Romey.
“I don’t know,” said Silva.
“While you figure it out, I’ll set your gem in a ring like theirs,” said the king.
“I’m off,” said El Cristo. “See you at 5 a.m.”
“Where!”
“The training fields, of course. Nobody goes on the pilgrim road without training.”
“But the road is Level 1.”
“You never know, there may be obstacles along the way. 5 a.m. sharp!”
“C’mon,” said the king. “We’ll have supper and get your rooms ready.”
Silva by Jorge Camaño
“Dad, are you awake?”
“I’m awake.”
“Don’t set the gem in a ring. I want you to take it to a lab.”
“But I really want you to go see the Oracle, Silva. Ask whatever it is you need to ask.”
“I’ll go if you promise to take the gem to a lab.”
“Okay.”
“To Tom, Dick and Harry’s?”
“Yes, they are the most trustworthy, they’ve never let anything out of the lab.” He looked at the time, “It’s almost 5. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready. Thanks dad.”
She rushed to the entrance of the castle where Romey and Santiago were waiting.
“What did he say?”
“He said yes. Let’s go!”
They ran to the training fields and three people ran to catch up with them.
“Princess!”
She looked behind and saw Tom, Dick and Harry.
“The king sent word for us to join your training session!”
She introduced them when they got to the fields and then stared at El Cristo’s set up, “What a massive trampoline.”
“We only have it till noon, so listen up! We’ll begin with laps around the field, followed by the obstacle course, and we will end the session on the trampoline.
“That should be fun.”
“Wait till all six of you are on it. What are you waiting for! Go, go, go!”
El Cristo ran beside the scientists and asked them what they were doing there.
“Top secret, Coach.”
He ran beside the princess and asked her what the scientists were doing there.
“My dad agreed to have them analyse the gem and I agreed to go see the Oracle.”
After the laps and the obstacle course, they got on the trampoline and collapsed.
“Don’t just lie there! Jump!”
“Excuse me,” said a woman. “Could the children jump on the trampoline?”
El Cristo turned around to see an audience made up of parents holding children.”
“Sure,” he said. “But tell them to mind the adults.”
“Tomorrow, start with the trampoline,” said the king.
He’d come in his carriage and they all got on and went to the castle for lunch.
“Your Majesty, are these walls sound proof?” asked Tom.
“They are. We can talk freely.”
“So, you said you have an unusual stone?”
“One of the gems we found at the excavation site. It defies classification.”
“Has anyone tested its chemical composition?”
“It disappeared during the tests.”
“You mean-“
“When all the gems were being tested for origin and age, it disappeared.”
“What if it disappears when we conduct the tests?”
“You wait until it reappears.”
“What if it always disappears when we try to conduct the tests?”
“If you can’t test the stone, maybe you could study how it works on the person holding it,” said El Cristo.
“Is it harmful?”
“No,” said the king. He took the gem out of a jewel box and showed it to them.
“It’s changing colour,” said Harry. “Could I hold it?”
The king gave it to him, “Keep it in your hand for a while. We believe it changes colour depending on the person’s mood.”
“I just remembered a story the trinket man used to tell us,” said Harry, holding the stone.
Once upon a time, the gods dropped a ring on earth, a very special ring. A young lad found it, and honest as he was, he asked if anyone had lost a ring. Everyone said they had, so he hid the ring from view and asked them to describe it. Nobody could describe it, so he kept it for himself and discovered that it changed colour depending on his mood. It made him name the mood he was in, and this gave him self-knowledge. Then came the day when he lost the ring for someone else to find. Has anyone found it?
No, said the children.
If anyone finds it, be sure to show it to me.
“How are you feeling, Harry?” the king asked him.
“I’d say nostalgic.”
“The colour of your nostalgia.”
“Could I hold it?” asked Dick.
Harry gave it to him.
Dick held the stone, and suddenly, tears began rolling down his cheeks.
“Dick, what’s wrong?”
“Do you know the steps that are carved into the wall of the ancient drainage system?”
“Yes.”
“When I saw them, I remembered a dream I had when I was a kid. They made me go down those steps and walk around in the water. They wanted me to look for something with my bare feet. Maybe a stone like this one. They kept me down there for hours.”
“How cruel.”
“Inhumane.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.” He looked at the colour of the stone, “This is exactly how I feel.”
“Would you like to hold it, Tom?”
“No. I’m trying to figure out what tests we’ll be conducting. What is it that you’d like to know?”
“If we could reproduce it, in case it gets lost,” said Silva. She told him her theory.
“What makes you think there’s liquid inside?”
“The way it feels.”
Tom put medical gloves on to hold the stone. He held it to the light. He tapped it on the table and the stone began turning red and heating up. He put it down, “Ouch.”
“It defends itself,” said Santiago.
“Okay,” said Tom. “Let’s take it to the lab. We’ll keep you updated, your majesty.”
In the lab by Alejandro Piñeiro Bello
“Did you unpack the new microscope?” asked Tom.
“Yes,” said Harry.
Tom sat in front of it, “Where’s the stone?”
“Under it.”
“It’s not here.”
“I put it under the microscope,” said Harry, coming over.
“Not here.”
“Look, I placed it under this lens and left the tweezers here beside it.”
“I’ll check the jewel box,” said Dick. He went over to the jewel box, “It’s here.” He brought it over.
Tom picked up the stone with the tweezers and put it under the lens, and the stone disappeared.
“It’s back in the jewel box.”
“You know how they say there’s a point where science meets the gods. I think we’re at that point,” said Harry.
“What do we do? Is there a rule?” asked Dick. “Tom?”
Tom sat still, reaching back to a distant memory, “We should ask permission.”
A tap on the window made them look outside, and there was a cardinal sitting on the ledge.
They looked at the stone in the jewel box and it was the colour of the cardinal.
They knelt down on the lab floor and-
“What do we say?” whispered Dick.
“Whatever you say, don’t let it be his name,” said Harry.
“Stone in the jewel box,” said Tom, “may we have your permission to examine you?”
The stone turned back to grey, and the three stood up, and Tom put it under the microscope.
It did not disappear.
They switched the microscope on, and waited for the lens to focus and send an image to the screen. They waited for a long time, from sunset to sunrise, and a gradual image began to appear.
“It’s so blurry.”
“It doesn’t recognise what it’s made of.”
“It’s typing out comparisons. I didn’t know this microscope could do that.”
“It’s listing the ferromagnetic metals.”
“Don’t birds have some kind of magnetic material in their bodies that we haven’t been able to recognise?”
“Pigeons do. It acts like a compass. It can detect the earth’s magnetic field and helps them navigate.”
“We should put a pigeon under this microscope.”
“What about cardinals?”
“They’re not navigators.”
Another tap on the window made them freeze.
The image started to clear up.
“The princess was right. A million pellets in what appears to be thick liquid.”
Tom lifted the stone so that Harry could put his finger under it.
“They’re pulsing.”
“They’ve picked up your heartbeat.”
“The stone is changing colour.”
“Do you see any pigment being released?”
“No. But look what’s happened. The stone has become a continuum of your skin. It’s as if you have two barriers, your own skin and the stone.”
“The pellets could be receptors.”
“They add mood receptors to the sensory receptors in the skin.”
“We should bring the king to the lab. We don’t know how long the stone will allow the examination, or whether it will allow it a second time.”
Allow me by Ivan Cherimisin
They all came in the king’s carriage and saw what Tom, Dick and Harry had seen on the screen.
“What if you were to make an incision in the stone?” asked Silva.
Tom sat still. His hand began to tremble.
“Tom?”
“I once had a dream of being commanded to cut into a gemstone. The stone was burning hot, melting the tool that held it, and I cut into it. I was blamed for destroying the stone, it didn’t work anymore, it was thrown at me. I pick it up. I’m standing next to a pool of water. I hold it underwater and rub the wound I made, and I see the stone restore itself, its surface luminous again. I have a choice, to give it back or to let it go. I release the hold of my fingers and let it go.”
“Dad-“
The king put his arm around his daughter.
“Do you think it was me who commanded it?”
“No,” said the king.
“No,” said Romey with a sureness that settled the matter.
“There’s something we may want to consider,” said Dick. “The stone may not work when it’s magnetized. Tapping it, or in the case of Tom’s dream, making an incision, may magnetize the stone, line the atomic orbitals to the earth’s magnetic field. The defense mechanism it has of heating up could be to prevent it from becoming magnetized.”
“Dad, I’ve changed my mind. Please set it in a ring. I’d like to wear it to go see the Oracle.”
Tom raised his eyes, “You’re going to see the Oracle?”
“The three of us are. You’re welcome to join us.”
“When do you leave?”
“As soon as the ring is ready.” said the king, putting the stone in the jewel box.
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The king went to the training fields in his carriage.
“You’re early,” said El Cristo.
“The ring is ready.”
“Can I see it?”
A cardinal came to sit on his shoulder.
They lowered their eyes and waited.
The cardinal flew away.
“Don’t show it to me now,” said El Cristo.
The king let the jewel box drop back into his pocket. “What are the children doing?”
“Feeding the pigeons. The fields were filled with pigeons this morning. We began on the trampoline, and pigeons flew around them.
Keep jumping and learn from the pigeons! They never collide with each other!
When it was time to move to the obstacle course, children began lining up to go on the trampoline. One of the parents must have come from the bakery, because she began handing out bread to the others. It moved the pigeons in that direction-“
“She helped you clear the fields. Was it the same woman who asked if the children could use the trampoline?”
“Same one.”
“She spread the word quickly,” said the king, looking at the long lineup.
“They’ll be disappointed when the trampoline isn’t here tomorrow.”
“I have a feeling she’ll raise a ruckus.”
“Break over! Do your laps!” shouted El Cristo in the direction of the six.
“But the royal carriage is here!”
“Laps!”
The three scientists ran side by side, and Silva, Romey and Santiago ran side by side.
“I haven’t seen your prince charming today,” Romey joked with Silva.
“I can’t believe you’re jealous of a bird,” said Santiago.
“I believe he was protecting us,” said Silva.
“From evil spirits,” goofed Santiago.
“They exist, you know. There is evil in the world. Even our ancestors knew it. They painted symbols to ward them off and carried amulets. Most of the gems we found have images of the gods.”
“Same in our valley.”
“Ours too.”
“Do you think it’s wrong that we’ve kept the magic gems away from the public?” asked Romey. “It’s something I’ve often thought about. What if my parents had put it on display with the others from the beginning. Gem number sixty nine is a magic gem. We don’t know what it’s made of, how old it is or where it comes from, and it changes colour when you wear it.”
“It would have changed the meaning of the number,” said Santiago.
“I never thought of its sexual meaning when you said it,” said Silva. “I thought of the symbol for the constellation Cancer.”
“That’s because you’re attracted to me. I remind you of home.”
“My grandfather says it doesn’t feel right to put it on display. It feels like a secret to be guarded,” said Santiago.
“And yet you wear it so openly!”
“I trust its intelligence.”
Intelligence by Santiago Flores-Charneco
Silva tried the ring on during lunch. “When should we leave?”
“Sunrise is always a good time,” said El Cristo.
They left at sunrise the following day.
“May Op-Pollo be with you!”
They turned around and didn’t see anyone. The king and El Cristo had gone back inside the castle. “They wouldn’t shout that out anyway,” said Silva.
“May Op-Pollo be with you!”
“There!” pointed Harry. “That boy running over there.”
“He says that to anyone who leaves the valley,” said a woman sitting in front of a plein air easel.
“He’s up pretty early.”
“His parents own the bakery.”
“You’re up pretty early.”
“The best light is when the rooster announces the day.”
“Op-Pollo’s bird,” said Harry looking at her drawing.
“The boy inspired the subject. Op-Pollo finding his strength. People of the land first built his temple aligned to the earth’s magnetic poles. They pleaded with him to bring order, but he was too weak and disorder ruled the world. When they rebuilt his temple with the entrance facing east, order came into being.
He found his strength by Julia Brewis
All that remains of the temple is that entrance, two columns and the lintel, the portara, still powerful.”
“We’re headed there,” said Tom, showing her a map and the path he’d marked to get to the pilgrim road.
With her ink brush she marked a different way. “Too many thieves your way,” she said. “I’ve heard they’ll cut a hand off to steal a ring.”
Her words cut everyone’s breath.
“No way,” said Tom.
“They’re after magic gemstones, something to do with magic gemstones and a prophecy. You can ask when you’re there.”
They continued on their way.
“How many of these gemstones are there?” asked Tom.
“Three,” said Silva. “We each have one.”
“Are you still going to wear yours?” Romey asked Santiago.
“I’ve already put it away. The gemstone trusts in my intelligence too. I want you to know, though, that the path Tom originally marked is the path my grandfather told me to take.”
“Can I see it?” asked Romey.
Tom handed him the map.
“I was going to take the original path as well.”
“What makes us trust the woman?” asked Santiago. “What if she’s leader of the thieves?”
Tom took the map back, “Let’s walk until we get here, where we would have the choice of following the original path or the woman’s path, and we can judge for ourselves.”
They all agreed and carried on.
“If all that remains of the temple is the portara, where’s the Oracle?” asked Dick.
“She sits on a rock in the centre of the ruins, the navel of the world,” said Romey.
“The navel of the world,” Dick repeated thoughtfully. “You could say it’s where the four directions meet, north and south lining atomic orbitals, and east and west scattering them. A place of perfect tension.”
They walked in silence until Tom broke it, “We’re here.”
Harry looked at the two paths, “I was hoping one would be more illuminated than the other, but they look the same to me, and there’s no one to ask. Wait. Do you hear a jingling sound?
“Trinkets! Trinkets! Come and get your trinkets!”
“The trinket man!” cried Harry, rushing to meet him. “Trinket man! You- you haven’t changed one bit!”
“By golly, if it isn’t little Harry all grown up! No one’s ever paid attention to my stories the way you did, Harry. Now, tell me, have you found the magic ring?”
“No,” said Harry.
“I haven’t either, and maybe it’s for the best, because it’s a burdensome thing that ring.”
“You never said that before. You said it brought self knowledge.”
“Evil forces are always trying to get their hands on it.”
“What evil forces?”
“Shadows of the gods. There’s always a battle going on between the gods and their shadows, and if the shadows get a hold of the ring, we may go back to a time when temples didn’t face the rising sun. Has anyone told you about those times?”
“A woman told us that when Op-Pollo’s temple was aligned to the earth’s magnetic poles, disorder ruled the world.”
“She’s right. There was total chaos until people learned to honour the rising sun and its descent into the underworld. You’re old enough for me to expand on the story, aren’t you Harry?”
Harry nodded.
“I’m off, then. Maybe we’ll run into each other again.”
“Are you going to the pilgrim road?”
“I’m done for the day, sonny,” he said, turning his cart around.
“Wait, could you tell us the best path to take?” Tom asked him. He grabbed his map, but the trinket man was gone.
“He disappeared like the stone under the microscope,” said Harry. “I’d forgotten he used to do that when we were kids. He’d be there one moment, and gone the next.”
“Op-Shiva,” whispered Tom.
“We’re taking the woman’s path. Let’s go.”
Memories of a child by Jade Rivera
It was a path through a forest. There were picnic tables and-
“People practising fencing.”
“How long is this path?”
“We should reach the pilgrim inn by sundown. We can spend the night there. It isn’t far from the pilgrim road.”
“Look, more people fencing.”
“Let’s pick up the pace. Laps!” said Santiago.
They ran through the forest and fencers sheathed their swords and ran with them. More and more of them joined.
“Where are you running to?” the one who appeared to be the leader asked Romey.
“Why are you running with us?”
“You must feel threatened-“
“or protected, depending on your motives.”
“Check their backpacks!” said the leader.
They were each held by two fencers and their backpacks taken away.
“We have the three rings!”
“Give them to me,” said the leader, putting them in a string bag. He raised an arm and rose from the ground, “I have them, shadow of the god of war!”
Pigeons appeared from nowhere and surrounded him, trying to push him back to the ground.
Then something red and black appeared in the sky.
“A giant woodpecker,” someone whispered.
“The god of war,” someone whispered back. “Lower your eyes!”
“But who’s beside him?”
“His shadow.”
Op-Maul and his shadow fought in the sky, and his shadow got away and swooshed down to rescue the leader, shadow of Op-Hermes.
Defeated, the pigeons rose to the sky, rose to reach Op-Maul.
The six of them ran and didn’t look back until they reached the inn.
Surreal by Jade Rivera
“I thought the gemstones would defend themselves and disappear.”
“We only saw gem thirty six do that. Maybe setting it in a silver ring prevented it from disappearing.”
“What about the painter and the trinket man? Do you think they were shadows of Op-Shiva?”
“They opened our eyes, told us about thieves and evil forces.”
“They deliberately sent us down that path.”
One by one they fell asleep, and noise woke them up.
“What’s all that noise?”
They looked outside and there was chaos everywhere.
They found the innkeeper in tears, “The prophecy is coming true.”
“What prophecy?”
“When the shadows of the gods rub the gemstones together, the Op-trinity will be joined like they were in the beginning. Their powers will weaken and disorder will rule the world.”
“What gemstones?”
“The gemstones of self-knowledge.”
“When you say the Op-trinity, you mean Op-Pollo, Op-Shiva and the god of war?”
“Yes. They were one in the beginning. It was Op-Yoda, god of philosophy, who convinced the god of gods to separate them.”
“We need to go see the Oracle.”
“Don’t take the main road.”
“Will you come with us?”
“I think I will. My husband is keeper of the temple ruins. I should go check on him.”
While they waited for her to pack a few things, Dick said, “They managed to magnetize the stones without destroying them, and joined them together.”
The innkeeper came back carrying a backpack and they left through the back door. “We’ll take a shortcut,” she said.
“If the god of gods separated them once, couldn’t he separate them again?” Silva asked her.
“It has to do with the power of the gemstones. They were a gift from the god of gods to the first people of the land, a gift to awaken the inner life, but the gift came with a prophecy. Only when the gemstones are recovered will he be able to separate the Op-trinity again.” She stopped, “Here we are. The pilgrim road.”
“It’s a causeway.”
“It leads to the island where the temple ruins are.”
“I can see the portara.”
A man was running on the causeway, running toward them. “Wife!” he called.
Keeper of the temple ruins
He told them that the words of Op-Pollo were faint, the Oracle could barely hear them. “In these circumstances, you will only be allowed one question.”
He and his wife walked ahead of them to give them privacy to decide on the question they would ask.
“I can live with the mystery of the gemstones,” said Romey. “Can you?” he asked Silva.
“Me too,” she said, taking his hand. “We should ask if we can be of help.”
Santiago and the scientists agreed, and together they worded the question.
When they reached the portara, the keeper knelt down with his wife beside him and the six of them behind. “Portara of the Temple of Op-Pollo,” he said, “we ask your permission to enter.”
A moment later, he stood up and led them through the doorway.
He led them to the Oracle who sat in a trance on the navel of the world. “You may proceed,” he told them.
Romey took a step forward and said, “She who speaks the words of the great Op-Pollo, we come with a question for the god. What can we do to help recover the gemstones?”
The keeper put his ear to the Oracle’s mouth, listening and deciphering what she said.
They listened too, and all they could hear were gibberish words that sounded like, “De tin marin de dos pingues cucara macara titiri fue tete booboo coochiecoo sususu woospiedoo eenie meenie miney moe.”
When the Oracle lay on the rock to rest, the keeper motioned them to a rock farther away. They sat down with the keeper and waited for him to gather the right words.
“An untamed forest awaits you, and in this forest is a cave where the gems were hidden, and in this cave lives a child of many heads, child of a snake monster, monster child. Sing the heads to sleep, sing them lullabies to allow Op-Hermes to search, find and retrieve the gems.”
“You mean, the monster child is a hydra?” asked Santiago.
“It sounds poetic but I think it’s a hydra,” said Silva.
“What if it breathes out fire?” asked Harry.
“We’re dead,” said Dick.
“I’m actually looking forward to it,” said Romey. “Wish I had my guitar.”
“Where’s the untamed forest?” Tom asked the keeper.
“You’ll see it as soon as you leave.”
They left through the portara, and instead of finding themselves on the causeway, they found themselves in an untamed forest.
“What level do you think this is?”
“The level El Cristo trained us for.”
They had to crawl through underbrush, climb over protruding roots and swing from branch to branch.
“Wait. Do you hear a hissing sound?”
They sat on the branch of a tall tree and looked around.
“See those rocky hills?”
“There’s an entrance to a cave.”
They made their way to the rocky hills, and when they were standing outside the cave entrance, Romey ran to get something leaning against the wall, “A guitar!” He strummed it and said, “We’ll enter singing a lullaby.”
“We should rub something on ourselves first,” said Tom, “to disguise our smell.”
“There’s a muddy pond over there.”
“That’s good,” he said, and they immersed themselves in the muddy waters and rubbed mud on their skin.
“Let’s begin by singing a lullaby outside to get it used to the sound of our voices.”
They sang a lullaby.
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Then they entered the cave, softly playing, softly singing, and saw the monster child swaying to the music.
They sang one lullaby after another, and one head after another fell asleep.
From the corner of their eyes, they could see the wings of a pigeon fluttering around the cave.
When all the heads of the monster child were asleep, the pigeon flew to them holding the string bag in its beak, and let it drop in Dick’s hands.
It flew outside, and still softly playing, softly singing, they went outside as well.
Romey carefully leaned the guitar against the wall, and they all followed the pigeon back to the temple ruins.
They looked for the keeper, but he and his wife and the Oracle weren’t there.
Dick opened the string bag and poured the contents on the surface of the naval of the world, the bare silver rings and the gemstones firmly joined together.
In this place of perfect tension, the gemstones began to get demagnetized. Dick could pull them apart, but they still attracted each other.
“It may take a long time,” said Harry.
“I can speed up the process by hitting them against the rock. It will scatter the atomic orbitals instantly.”
“Do it.”
Dick hit them against the rock and the gemstones came apart.
“The god of gods will be able to separate them now,” said Silva.
Dick put the rings and the gems back into the string bag, and the pigeon took it from him.
“Haha!” they heard.
“What was that?”
The pigeon rose to the sky carrying the string bag, and they looked up.
“Haha!”
“It’s Op-Maul! We freed him!”
“Don’t say his name!”
“He’s dancing!”
“What’s he holding?”
“Looks like a giant net.”
“Uh-oh, he’s growing bigger-“
“Coming closer! Run! Run everyone! Laps!”
But they weren’t fast enough for the god of war. Op-Maul swung his arm and caught them in his giant net.
“Ahhh!”
“Relax! This may be the way he shows his appreciation!”
Op-Maul flew high up in the sky and swung his arm again and sent them flying.
“Help!”
“Help me!”
He caught them one by one in his net, and they moved out of each other’s way.
“It served a purpose that trampoline.”
“Hold on. He’s swinging his arm again-“
“Ask him to stop!”
“Op-Maul! Mighty god of war! Please stop!”
He wouldn’t stop.
“Op-Pollo!”
“Caw!”
“God of music!”
“Caw!”
God of prophecy!”
“Caw!”
“God of order!”
“Caw! Caw! Caw!”
Op-Pollo’s birds came by the thousands and surrounded Op-Maul’s hand, and they gently rocked the giant net back and forth, back and forth.
“They’re rocking us to sleep.”
“I’m getting motion sickness.”
“Close your eyes.”
When they woke up, they were in the training fields facing the rising sun.
“We don’t have the gemstones anymore,” said Santiago.
“Will you change the names of the valleys?” asked Tom.
“No,” said Romey.
“They were never on display anyway,” said Silva, and then a thought made her spring up.
“Where are going?” Romey asked her.
“To get the key to the museum. Meet me there!”
They met her there.
She unlocked the door, turned the lights on and walked to the display cabinet. She looked at them still standing by the door and shook her head.
“Excuse me,” someone said, and they moved aside to let the king in.
“Silva?”
“Dad!”
“Are you looking for this?” He held up the string bag.
“Where did you find it?”
He told them that all the valleys had experienced two days of chaos. Luckily for valley thirty six, it had been contained in the training fields, people demanding the return of the trampoline. They were led by a woman, a troublemaker. The chaos ended as suddenly as it had begun, and when everyone went back to their homes, she came to the castle to hand him the string bag. She said that she found it in the fields. “When I saw you running to the museum from my window, I thought you might be looking for it,” he finished.
Dick made to take the bag, but before letting him take it, the king said, “I should warn you that they’re not working.”
“I feared that,” said Dick. “I had to hit them against a rock to separate them, and they didn’t react. They remained cold and grey.” He took them out of the bag, “They were forcefully magnetized. Feel the surface.” He passed them around.
They felt the surface of the gems, not smooth anymore. Then they looked at Tom.
“Someone once told me that when the gods give a gift, they cannot take it back,” said Tom. “So here is this gift, these three gems, given to the first people of the land, as old as the oldest cave paintings. Lost and found over time, unrecorded. We have a choice of leaving them unrecorded or putting them on the record.”
“Putting them on the record would be like announcing a discovery,” said Romey. “People would flock to see them. They would want to hold them. They would want to analyse them. A whole structure would have to be built around them to direct activities and protect them.”
“Or we could let them go,” said Silva.
“We should ask the gods,” said Dick.
“We should ask the gems,” said Tom.
He found a bucket and filled it with water, and they all took turns putting the gems underwater, healing the wounds.
They formed a circle around the gemstones.
“Who’s asking the first question?”
“Me,” said Silva. “Magic gemstones that are a gift from the gods, should we let you go?”
The gemstones disappeared.
They looked all over the museum, but couldn’t find them.
“Try closing and opening the jewel box,” said El Cristo.
They closed it and opened it, and the gemstones were there.
“Okay. Your turn, Santiago.”
“Magic gemstones that are a gift from the gods, should we keep you to ourselves like we did before?”
The gemstones disappeared.
They closed and opened the jewel box, and the gemstones were there.
“Magic gemstones that are a gift from the gods,” said Romey, “should we put you on the record and display you?”
The gemstones did not disappear.
“Well, well, well,” said the king in wonder.
“They must feel the public’s ready for them,” said Santiago’s grandfather.
“It’s something Romey’s thought about doing for a long time,” said Romey’s mother.
“Yesterday we were discussing how we’d go about presenting the gems and caring for them if this was the choice made,” said Romey’s father.
“Yes,” said the king. “Tom, Dick and Harry.”
“Your majesty?”
“Would you accept being appointed directors of all things gem related? In other words, in charge?”
The scientists were overcome with emotion. “We would be honoured, your majesty.”
They were embracing each other, when there was a sudden tap on the window.
The scientists froze.
The king went to see who it was. “It’s that troublesome woman,” he said, in a tone that didn’t seem troubled at all.
“Go see her, dad. We’ll meet you at the castle.”
The king left and Santiago’s grandfather took the lead. “Guardians of the magical mood gems,” he said. “It would mean a life dedicated to them, and the responsibility of finding those who will succeed you.”
The enormity of it all washed over the scientists. They each picked up a gemstone and the gemstones shone bright.
