Raven’s White Wings Totem Pole courtesy of Pinterest
OK. As far as dreams are concerned, last night’s was one of the busiest I can ever remember. But what was funny about it was that it wasn’t busy in the car dealership, so all of the sales staff and their support workers had to scratch around for scraps of work, while not doing anything useful. And because I was the new kid, all I could do was watch and learn.
It’s a humbling experience to start again. I know, because I’ve done it many times before. What makes this significant to me is the realization that my subconscious processes may have wanted to take my ego down a peg or two. But even as I recognized that, I was reminded that the low man on the totem pole is the solid base that holds the whole edifice securely in place.
Most of us think we have no useful purpose in the world (existentialism, again), so we miss the fact that a grass roots movement can bring about real change for the whole of humanity.
And business leaders, the world over, know that without their workers, they’d be nothing.
“Low Man on the Totem Pole” by refined-serafina (on DeviantArt)
The synchronicity is overwhelming ‘proof’ of how accurate astrology is.
After writing previously about my first Saturn Return (nice rhyme), I decided to investigate when the second one occurred. I hadn’t expected this timing…
This chart is slightly randomized, for just after midnight on the day in question. The Yod pointing at Pluto seems quite right. The arms of the Yod are linked to the Moon/Mars conjunction in Gemini and the Mercury/South Node conjunction in Leo. Ha! The extra inconjunct between Saturn and the Ascendant is significant, as is the one between the Sun and the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction. That’s a lot of issues to deal with.
My memory of the time period is my being on the job as Senior Bookkeeper for Barrie Bookkeepers for less than two weeks, and the impending demise of Ruskin. As I recall, we didn’t have enough money for me to attend his funeral/memorial, so I had to decline politely when my sister Rachel asked me to come out to BC.
The job at Barrie Bookkeepers lasted until March 21, 2014, ten months before my retirement.
When compared with my birth chart, the ‘event’ Sun is opposite my natal Mercury, so the timing is significant for me. My natal Moon is inconjunct both the event Venus and its Ascendant, effectively forming a Yod, while my natal Sun/Jupiter conjunction is pointing at my joint natal and event Saturns, while the other arm from the event Ascendant forms another Yod.
Startling…
When Ruskin died, the last member of our parents’ generation left the world stage. Now we were orphans.
When Suzann and I married in Vancouver, BC, on July 15, 1978, we kept our own names. We had not planned on having any children, so the naming issue wasn’t a problem. Her daughter, Amy, had the same last name as Suzann, so that made sense, that is, until Rosanna was conceived. So, like any self-respecting parents, we changed our names to match my birth father’s surname, and we altered our given names to become brand new. (We adopted Amy later.)
Christopher David Stewart Miller
Soul Vibration: 5
Personality Vibration: 7
Destiny Vibration: 3
Life Lesson: 8
My reason for reviewing the vibratory nature of my life, as it changed that day, is in keeping with the idea that my Saturn Return happened in September 1979, and I effectively was reborn then. Here’s the chart for that moment…
The stellium of planets in Virgo, starting with Saturn @ 18 degrees, being opposite the ‘event’ Ascendant in Pisces, is quite an impressive sight. The Moon/Mars conjunction is inconjunct the ‘event’ Midheaven, and Pluto @ 18 Libra is inconjunct the Ascendant. Altogether, it seems, this was a very stressful day, but I have no recollection of it.
When compared with my birth chart, there are many significant connections, including Neptune getting much closer to my birth Ascendant; Uranus passing my natal Moon; and Pluto transiting my natal Neptune. The slower planets had been on a mission, it would seem. However, that Moon/Mars conjunction is opposite my natal Mercury, so something had to give. As usual, that something is me. My life was changing, practically before my very eyes.
Change of Name
Please bear in mind that this event chart took place just three weeks before Rosanna was born. Talk about being too close for comfort, By raising this chart, I can compare that time period, without sharing Rosanna’s private birth chart.
There are three inconjuncts: Venus with Mars and Venus with Jupiter, and the Sun with Saturn. I knew Saturn would be involved, due to the fact that we were adopting my birth father’s name.
Here I am, having just turned 30, changing my life completely. The double Yod, formed by Mercury and the Ascendant of the ‘event’ chart, is pointing to my natal Mars/Midheaven conjunction. There are two other inconjuncts, connecting my natal Venus with the ‘event’ Jupiter, and my natal Saturn with the ‘event’ Moon. Oh, the things we do for love.
I’m not lamenting the fact that my life had to change, because that would be a nonsense. Let’s just say, in retrospect, that I had no idea where it was going to take me: on a Journey of a Lifetime.
OK. This is going to get weird. I was reading a section of “Ego and Archetype” yesterday that discussed ‘The Blood of Christ’. It’s an interesting concept: Jesus’ shedding of his blood on Calvary was a ‘new covenant’ with the people of Israel. (And the concept is not new, just my reading about it.) But first, what was the ‘old covenant’?
4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Exodus 24: 4-8 (NIV)
Now have I got your attention?
“The blood sacrifice of Christ has many parallels with the sacrifice of the pascal lamb whose blood protects the Israelites from the vengeance of Yahweh and these parallels help elucidate the psychological meaning of the redemptive power of the blood of Christ. In the Exodus story an involuntary sacrifice of the first-born son was required of every Egyptian family. The Jews were spared this happening only by substituting a voluntary sacrifice, the blood of which was then displayed. The state of things was signified by the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. A state of petrification prevailed. To remedy this condition, blood must flow. the soul-stuff must liquify, be extracted from the hard, sterile status quo so that life and libido might flow again. When put in such terms we can immediately see how these images apply to the inner life of the individual. The urge to individuation, symbolized by Yahweh, demands transformation, freedom from enslaved and repressed capacities. If our Egyptian heart will not yield, blood must be extracted by force. To the extent that libido is voluntarily transferred to the transpersonal purpose by a sacrificial attitude one avoids the destructive consequences to the personality that occur when the ego sets its will against the requirements of the totality, the Self.
“Christ was identified with the pascal lamb and called Agnus Dei. Also, according to an objective appraisal of the symbolism, Christ as the first born son of God will be equated with the Egyptians’ sacrifice of their own first-born sons. To my knowledge this conclusion is not reached in traditional exegesis; however, it is necessary for a full psychological understanding of the myth. The redeeming sacrifice always occurs with a mixture of moods — lamb-like meekness and pharaonic intransigence. At the very best, the ego is willing but reluctant as was Christ in the garden.” (Page 234)
The Three Vital Fluids
It’s a ‘chicken and egg’ argument, as in, “Which came first?” The author likens blood, semen and milk to the three personages of the Holy Trinity. I get that analogy, but what stops me in my tracks is the whole ‘circle of life’ image.
And, now, during this present coronavirus pandemic, I have to ask: Is this the Universe trying to break us out of our obstinate, fixed attitudes about life, death and the meaning of love? Right from the ‘get-go’ I called it the Love Bug. Does anyone disagree with that, now?
To now shout it from the rooftops would be, in effect, a way to ‘influence’ a change in peoples’ attitudes.
We are a stubborn lot, and sometimes it takes a pandemic to see our relative humanity. But, and here’s the hard question:
Have we learned to love our neighbour as ourselves?
It was a nonsense thing to do, but I had actually hoped to change the metabolism of my body in some way. (Also, I must have read it in a book, or why else would I have thought that this was a good idea?) What we now know is that absorption of UV light is a good way to produce vitamin D in the body, but that wasn’t what I was trying to do then.
Instead, as I’ve written before, I burned the retina of my eyes, which created a black hole in the centre of my vision.
In other words, a blind spot.
But, a new thought came into my head this morning: what if this event actually did open my awareness to other possibilities? In other words, in seeking the secrets of the Universe, I might have actually triggered something…
You might ask: how can you possibly remember exactly when something happened in the past? My answer: when it makes an indelible impression on you. I knew it was just before the fall equinox that I sat on the balcony at 242 Linwell Road in St. Catharines, Ontario. The timing was just as the sun was setting, so that works out to be 7:15 in the evening.
Now, if I’m out a day or two, either way, the chart will be slightly different, except for the Moon which will move about 14 degrees each day. So I think we can trust this chart to fairly accurately reflect what happened that day.
By itself, this chart is fairly unremarkable, but when you combine it with my birth chart, a whole new picture emerges.
Fascinating, isn’t it? (That’s my way of saying that there are so many facets to the aspects shown between these two charts, almost creating an image of a crystal…) So, to call myself a diamond in the rough, would not be a spiritual understatement. I had not yet started working on “My Satanic Struggle“, having just written “Bankrupture”. No one was buying into my becoming a playwright. I can’t say as I would blame then for that, since divine inspiration hadn’t descended upon me, at that time. But it was coming, and quickly: Neptune was almost conjunct my natal Ascendant.
The other links are obvious, too, but mostly involved unlocking the codes of my DNA. The seal was broken, never to be closed again. Life was now an ‘open book’.
New Amsterdam follows Dr. Max Goodwin as he becomes the medical director of one of the United States’ oldest public hospitals, aiming to reform the neglected facility by tearing up its bureaucracy to provide exceptional care to patients.
I remember watching the pilot episode and wondering how such a program would survive on American television. Dr. Goodwin’s repeated phrase was, “How can I help you?” It seemed an odd question to ask his staff, but then it becomes clear that if changes have to be made, the employees must be invested in the changes or they won’t happen. By asking for their input, he was getting feedback as to what they wanted. Change doesn’t come from the top…
We have started watching that first season on Netflix. We’re only at episode 6, after one evening’s binge watching, but already we are invested in the main characters’ lives. That’s impressive for a TV show. Usually it takes a whole season.
Now, call me an old fool, if you will, but I spotted an actor in the first scene involving all the hospital staff that looked very familiar. His ‘cameo’ was impressed upon me when his character’s head was butted by the Head of Psychiatry’s rear as he bent down to pick up some dropped sheets of paper while going to his seat in the auditorium. The actor was Peter Horton, who starred in thirtysomething in the late 80’s, early 90’s. Peter is now one of the executive producers of this show, and has written and directed a couple of episodes. That 30-something actor is now 60-something.
The other surprise in the credits was Shaun Cassidy. You will probably only remember him as being David Cassidy’s younger brother. He, too, is an executive producer on this one. And his track record for producing TV shows is impressive. It would seem that the Baby Boomers have finally taken over the world, of television, at least.
We all want to change the world, so when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.
Look deep into the April face A change is clearly taking place Looking for the summer
The eyes take on a certain gaze And leave behind the springtime days Go looking for the summer
This ain’t no game of kiss and tell The implications how you knew so well Go looking for the summer
The time has come and they must go To play the passion out that haunts you so Looking for the summer
Remember love how it was the same We scratched and hurt each other’s growing pains We were looking for the summer
And still I stand this very day With a burning wish to fly away I’m still looking, looking for the summer
Chris Rea
This song came out almost three years before I moved in with Dianne. But in retrospect this was completely her vibe. We visited France three times during the years I lived with her.
