Thursday, April 2, 2015

Mary Pat Enters the Astrodienst Forum



This past Monday I made my first post on the Astrodienst forum, a place where people can post questions or ask for help understanding their charts.  I actually made 3 posts.  One of the members that I responded to followed up with further questions and lots of thanks.  I am in astrology heaven.

Yesterday, after answering the second response from my new astrology buddy, I kept thinking how silly it was that I had waited so many years to ‘enter’ the forum.  I’ve been feeling for some time that the Our Sky group is not getting the kind of participation I had hoped for, and wishing I could just give up and spare my friends the badgering about real time.  Every time I am disappointed at the lack of interest I think of all the interests my friends have that are low on my list of things to pursue.  But the messenger in Aries will be heard whether the message is welcome or not.  (Mercury was in Aries when I was born, just beginning to set.  The position right before disappearing under the horizon is called the house of partnership, and is associated with friends, marriages and contracts.)

So I just floated on long delayed satisfaction all evening and worked on ways to help my forum partner with the language.  Later, after I had finished my response, and checked to make sure there were no errors, I went back to see if my two other posts had responses.  And one of them did.  The response was a criticism.  The other forum member actually said such and such (that I had written) is not your greatest asset, your greatest asset is this…

So I had my answer of why I had waited so long to enter the forum.  I wasn’t ready to be shot down, contradicted, or criticized.  It has bothered me for years that I rejected the astrology community and learned the language in almost complete isolation.  Though it is a language for meditation, it is not objective if it can’t be communicated with others.  I knew restricting my efforts to communicate with friends, as opposed to the wider community, was an insular approach.

Now, I am relieved that that period of protecting myself as an astrologer is over.  Thank you to all my friends who have been so patient with me and resisted the urge to shout, “Shut up Mary Pat you are boring as can be.  We are so tired of hearing about your pet project!”

The forum member’s remark did not bother me a bit.  I can furnish objective reasoning for the statement I made based on the grammar of the language.  I have developed a lot of skills writing the Our Sky blog and built up a lot of confidence thanks to the kindness and enthusiasm of my friends.  Thanks Y’all!

One last thing while I am on the subject of gratitude for wonderful friends.  (Venus is in Taurus right now and I am really digging it.)  I can tell at least two stories off the top of my head of incorrect statements I have made in the process of explaining charts to friends.  Both times I was showing a level of ignorance that really needed to be remedied.  This would be embarrassing if it happened to anyone else, but it is really hard to embarrass someone with Mercury in Aries, so here goes.

In one of the first charts I ever did I said Mercury, Venus and Mars were inside the orbit of Earth.  My friend caught the error immediately and gently questioned the statement.  I really thought I had the order of orbits correct!  One of these days I will mention the other piece of bad information that I would be trying to spread around if an informed friend had not set me back on track.  So, thanks not just for being patient but also for showing me when I’m crossing the lane and headed for a collision.  

See you all later, I'm off to the forum!


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Cocho



To mark the 4th anniversary of the essay Cocho: Dirty and Down Low I am sending out a request for comments or essays about this word ‘cocho.’  Of all the posts on my blog the essay about cocho gets the most hits.  I think that means there are a lot of people out there thinking about this word. 
I haven’t looked it up since I wrote the essay.  Maybe by now there is actually a good definition out there that makes sense.  I also have not recently asked my Mexican, especially Tierra Caliente friends about the word.  Please post anything you know about the word ‘cocho’ in the comments section below this essay.  If you have trouble leaving a comment you can send me an email at goscinnyanduderzo@gmail.com and we’ll get your essay posted.
We want to hear/read your favorite story about the word cocho!