Much Needed Laughter

 Gotta record this.  Reading 'Son of Hamas' on my day off.  Interspersed with devastating testimonies from Breaking the Silence - mostly IDF soldiers telling about how they witnessed abuse or themselves abused Palestinians.  It appears from their financial transparency pdf and this link that they receive a good bit of funding from Open Societies Foundation of George Soros.  That's some serious support of free speech aimed at uncovering sobering truth.

I'm taking a break, by the way, from 'Sequel' by Rachel Maddow.  

Compared to the Maddow book, 'Son of Hamas' by Mosab Hassan Yousef and Ron Brackin, is much more fast paced and emotional.  It is Yousef's autobiography of Palestinian childhood, imprisonment in Israel, and now I'm in the period where he is 'working' for Shin Bet which basically means he's getting paid to go to college and meet secretly with his Israeli handler.  

Mars just met Saturn yesterday.  You can see the pair setting on right side of chart.

Quick cut to astro stuff.  This my blog so we gotta gaze upward for a moment.

Jupiter is closing in on its meetup with Uranus.  That's happening in the last 3rd of Taurus and it's a pretty big deal since these two outer planets last met in 2010/11.  But the arresting pair that's got my attention right now is Mars and Saturn.  I'm seriously digging into war, statehood and all sorts of national conflict.

This biography of the oldest son of one of the founders of Hamas is taking me to the depths of the Israeli Palestinian war.  He mentions historic moments like the Camp David Summit, but from a perspective I've not yet encountered.  He throws very few dates around, but plenty of gut wrenching stories of torture and abuse on both sides.

His dad is a flawed sweetheart, a true hero trapped in a very bad place.  Yousef is a very confused young man wondering who he can trust, feeling very lost, but guided by his father's abiding kindness.  I repeat, the kindness of Yousef's father is flawed; no matter how strongly Venus shines, Mars is always still present in heaven.

I've just come to the part where Arafat has succeeded in igniting riots after Sharon's uneventful visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque.  By the way, I did not know Sharon's visit was a staged message to voters that he would not tolerate the Palestinains bulldozing archeological sites of Jewish Temples; there apparently had been video footage in the news, during the preceding weeks, of archeologists shaking their heads in disbelief at the bulldozers hauling away mounds filled with who knows how many ancient artifacts to a land fill.¹

Yousef had driven his father to the mosque.  Arafat had called him the night before requesting his help as a Hamas leader in bringing the Palestinians out to protest.  When they couldn't get a crowd up at the mosque his father dutifully went to Ramallah to help bring people out into the streets.  Yousef expressed outrage at his father for doing Arafat's bidding and then drove off to go camping near Galilee with his friends.  

He had no idea about the riots unfolding until he got a call from his Shin Bet handler.

"Where are you?"

"I'm in Galilee camping with some friends."

"Galilee!  What?"  Loai started to laugh.  "You are really unbelievable," he said.  "The whole West Bank is upside down and you're out having fun with your Christian friends."

*     ♡     *     ♡     *     ♡     *    

I've watched a few videos with this guy, Mosab Hassan Yousef.  He exudes intense, brooding anger and self confidence.  He speaks against people adopting false identities. 

I'm mostly thinking about the corrosive influence of war, of Mars, of the ugly reality of the constant battle for survival that we all face every day.  But some survive incredibly brutal fights and come out ready to tell the rest of us what they have learned.

The moment I got that relief of laughter, when Yousef's Shin Bet handler was laughing at the absurdity right beside this very explosive, deadly sobering situation -at that moment the deadly sobering pair of Mars and Saturn were setting in the Leo duad of Pisces.

^{1.  From Son of Hamas Yousef and Brackin Page 130 "Sharon's visit was designed to send a silent but clear message to Israeli voters: "I'll put a stop to this unnecessary destruction."  In planning the trip, Sharon's people had received assurance from Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub that his visit would not be a problem as long as he did not set foot in a mosque.}

^{"He came, he looked around, and he left.  He said nothing. He never entered the mosque.  It all seemed like a big nonevent to me. On the way back to Ramallah, I asked my father what the big deal had been.}

^{"What happened?" I said,  "You didn't start an intifada."}

^{"Not yet," he answered.  "But I have called some activists in the Islamic student movement and asked them to meet me here for a protest."}

^{"Nothing happened in Jerusalem, so now you want to demonstrate in Ramallah?  That's crazy," I told him.}

^{"We have to do what we have to do.  Al-Aqsa is our mosque and Sharon had no business being there."}

^{I wondered if he was trying to convince me or himself."}

Egyptian King Farouk Invades Israel 1948

I'm seeing a lot of stuff on the net about Israel/Palestine.  I'm not going into my personal feelings here, just adding some pertinent info that seems to be falling through the cracks.  The chart is for the morning several Arab countries invaded newly declared Israel.  Pluto and Saturn in their historic meeting were rising as the invasion unfolded, with the new Moon right between them.  All three planets were in the Leo section of the ecliptic.  A collection of 'Arab kings' were determined to expel a newly formed state of 'western colonizers' and rushing to beat each other in a grab for power.

A quote from Wikipedia article on King Farouk:  In May 1948, the prime minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha advised against going to war with Israel, saying the Egyptian Army was not ready for war.^[182] However, King Farouk overruled him, as he feared the growing popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was clamoring for war with Israel.^[182]

The Wikipedia article on Farouk is long but packed with enough salacious details to satisfy any fan of lush life exposés. 

This is from the Wikipedia article on Azzam Pasha:  Azzam believed that King Abdullah of Jordan had decided to move his forces into Palestine on 15 May, regardless of what the other Arabs did, and would occupy the Arab part of Palestine (blaming other Arab states for failure). King Farouk resolved to contain Abdullah and prevent him from gaining further influence and power in the Arab arena.^[30]

I'm deeply disturbed by current events.  But that's ok.  It motivates me to learn as much as I can about the situation. 

I've watched several videos of Israeli Oct 7 survivors.  I've also watched some videos about and by Edward Said.  I like Said, but feel compelled to raise my hand and say, "Yes, you have an important account to give the world about the suffering of your childhood community of Palestinians, but what about the Arab invasion?"

One last quote:  At the last moment, several Arab leaders, to avert catastrophe – secretly appealed to the British to hold on in Palestine for at least another year.^[147][148]

The Kindness of Venus in Scorpio

I am often asked why the time of birth from a birth certificate is important.  An astrological example from a memorable moment of life is a good way to illustrate the power of knowing the exact time and place of first breath.  Today's post is such an example in my chart.

Venus passed over the location of my natal Moon yesterday, Dec 19.  It was late, actually I should have said the transit was last night.  I was going to the car to do a couple of night errands; I needed to pick up a winter jacket I had left at my customer's house Monday, the day before, and then head to the Food Lion (the one on Avent Ferry that stays open till midnight) for onions and greens etc.  

Venus is in 3rd house (bottom left quadrant of circle) at 18°♏15'

As I was walking to the car I called for Brownie - she'd been missing since Monday when I left for work at lunch time.  She was not out front in the morn, when I got up, waiting patiently in the sun, facing the front door so she could see me when I looked out the little window.  There was still no sign of her when I left for work just before 1pm.  I wasn't worried, just figured that was lucky because I was running a bit late and feeling very sluggish.  If she had been out front I would have been pressed to return to the house to put crunchies in her dish and fresh water in her bowl.  She does occasionally skip a meal.  Saturday night I was up till 4am cleaning windows to beat the coming storm.  And she was in and out the whole time.  Then Sunday while it rained all day she spent a lot of time inside and on my lap.  It seemed natural that she would want to enjoy the clear skies after so much time in the house.  She likes to lick water from the various buckets I use to catch the rain.  There was a wide assortment of freshly filled buckets to taste from.  So even though I didn't see her around I figured she'd be waiting for dinner when I got home from work.

It was after dark, 7:15 and pretty chilly.  I missed her meeting me at the car, meowing loudly as she approached the driver's side door.  Lately, she is at the foot of the driveway and wanders from one side to the other a couple of times; I stop, back up a bit and talk to her from behind the windshield, asking her to get out of the way.  Ugh, wondering if I will have to put the car in park, turn off the engine and get out to move her, but no, she always crosses to the roots of the giant oak tree eventually.  I pull in the driveway, park the car, and our evening conversion begins as soon as I exit with my bag of cleaning gloves, and 'cleaning uniform', an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt covered with bleach marks.  We talk all the way to the mailbox and into the house.  Unless it's really cold she stops at the door and waits for me to come back out with food.

On the bottom left of the chart you can see Venus; most non astrologers will recognize it as the female symbol, but don't be fooled, Venus is about much more than traditional notions of sex and gender.  That pie slice is the 3rd house counting counter clockwise from the AC (ascendent).  When we say Venus is in the 3rd house we are saying it is in the 3rd section of the ecliptic lined up to rise above the eastern horizon.  See the Sun (little circle with dot) in the 4th house?  Right now Venus is a morning 'star', it rises before the Sun, so early birds can see it in the wee hours of darkness right before daylight.

At 9:54 Tuesday night, when I found Brownie's corpse on the other side of the street, Raleigh was turning back toward the Scorpio area of the ecliptic where Venus is currently traveling.  The Sun is almost finished going through Capricorn, while Venus is flyng through the second half of Scorpio.  

Plato had Timeaus talk extensively about how our casual notions of up and down are very misleading.  The chart makes it look like Venus will eventually (in about 6.5 hours) cross above the horizontal line, but actually, we in Raleigh are revolving toward Venus and it just looks to us like 'her' beautiful light rises up out of the sea of darkness before daybreak. 

When we go backwards in time, by 12 minutes, we can see Sun in 5th house and Pluto in 6th. 

I do feel the loss, but writing about the detailed order of our sister planets helps enormously to keep me focused on the long haul of life.  A taste of immortality does actually diminish the ache of loss and worry about failure.

So there she had probably lain, her corpse at least, since Monday morning when she did not show up for breakfast.  All those times I had called her, night and day, her body was within hearing distance.  But the breath of life was gone.  Psyche in Greek, ruach in Hebrew.  

I skooped her up in an old towel, placed her on a rug in the mudroom, it was down in the 20's last night so I was not worried about bugs yet, then I went to run my night errands with no more worries about where she was.

That's the kindness of Venus in Scorpio.  

My natal chart showing Moon at 18°♏ 14' in the 2nd house.

My natal Moon is 18° ♏ 14'.  During the 12 minutes that I was making my mind up to pick up the jacket and go to the store, instead of putting it off till morn, Venus was passing over the place where the Moon was the moment I was born.  The Moon travels at least 12° in the Zodiac every 24 hours.  That means it takes about 1 minute of clock time for the Moon to travel half a minute in the Zodiac, which is about 1/120 of a degree.  That's pretty specific.  We're not talking about Venus being in the same sign as my natal Moon - Venus has been in Scorpio since Dec 5.  That's 2 weeks.  We're not even talking about the same degree.  Venus right now takes about 24 hours to pass through a degree.  We're talking about the 12 minutes of clock time Venus took to pass through 1/2 a minute of the Zodiac - the same 1/2 minute of arc my natal Moon passed through in just one clock minute 65 years ago.

Only by having my exact time of birth from my birth certificate could I know that last night, while I was about to find Brownie's body, Venus was moving over the same position as the Moon when I drew my first breath.

Brownie was 21 years old when she died.  Though she ate and lingered around my husband as he used to sit on the front porch, noone could touch her.  Her greatest fear was to be touched by us or enter the house.  That was when she first appeared. She was young, but already full size.  She never sprung or jumped from one place to the other.  After a few years and auspicious but seemingly tragic events: she lost a litter of kittens to a predator and tried to steal another litter from the cat who left her babies in my closet to go out.  I had no screen in my bedroom window, and she snuck in to nurse the babies.  Only then could we touch her.  Gradually over many years she came to love sitting on our lap or having her thick winter coat brushed out in the summer. 

She never iniated play like a kitten.  She would occasionally swat at a crumpled paper at the end of a string.  Sometimes at night I would see her stalking something under the street light.  But there was always something very humble, practical and uncatlike about her.

Scorpio is associated with procreation and death.

The Hour is Nigh

 

A further quote from Philo.  I just love that this is stuff people were reading when Jesus was walking on Earth.

XXV. (77) And some one may inquire the cause why it was that man was the last work in the creation of the world. For the Creator and Father created him after every thing else as the sacred scriptures inform us. Accordingly, they who have gone most deeply into the laws, and who to the best of their power have investigated everything that is contained in them with all diligence, say that God, when he had given to man to partake of kindred with himself, grudged him neither reason, which is the most excellent of all gifts, nor anything else that is good; but before his creation, provided for him every thing in the world, as for the animal most resembling himself, and dearest to him, being desirous that when he was born, he should be in want of nothing requisite for living, and for living well; the first of which objects is provided for by the abundance of supplies which are furnished to him for his enjoyment, and the other by his power of contemplation of the heavenly bodies, by which the mind is smitten so as to conceive a love and desire for knowledge on those subjects; owing to which desire, philosophy has sprung up, by which, man, though mortal, is made immortal.

This Mars conjunction of Sun is getting to me.  A bit of astrology helps distract my mind from all the distressing thoughts generated by distressing events.  They're always out there.  But sometimes they really grab our attention and squeeeeeze!  They wring it like the final spin on a Maytag wash cycle.

Sooo - in case anyone is wondering how I got this time.  It really is not hard to get to.  Just follow these 7 easy FREE steps.  We're entering the deep, dark secrets of the Swiss ephemeris.  Oooh!  This will be an adventure for sure.

First go to the astro.com page.  Go from All about Astrology (at top of page) > Ephemeris > 9000 Years Ephemeris > Planetary Cycles > Mars Cycles 1600-2100. I made the images for these steps small, but you can click on them to get a better look.

Now for the wand waving -- That 5:43 time next to the Nov 18 date is UT which is kind of like GMT.  (London Calling)  If you scroll back up and look in box of info above the chart you'll see Time and then Univ Time right under that.  To get the time for Raleigh, I subtracted 5 hours from the Univ Time.

I got a chart for Nov 18, 2023  Raleigh, NC 00:43 and there you can see (in the bottom left quadrant) Sun right next to Mars at 25Scorpio37. 

Venus Ruling in Sign of Diplomacy

The chart below is for the moment the following phrase came into my mind:  

They anthropomorphized universal traits and called them gods.

For several months I've been pondering the ancient Greek stories of gods, especially as told in the Illiad.  I have struggled for years with the Bible, mythologies of various cultures and miracle stories.  I used to find them all very irritating and just wanted to make them go away like flies at a picnic.

Now, on the internet, we all have access to scholarly presentations from people who are steeped in the languages and cultures from which these tall tales originate.  It's so refreshing to get a respectful but sober perspective on these ancient writings.  Here is a link to one of my favorites Mueller on Menis.

I still have many moments of profound irritation:  do they really have to make it all so convoluted and complicated?  And after a break from study, a return to the everyday ups and downs of human existence, I am reminded of just how frought and complicated life is, all life.  Scientifically and psychologically life is a barrel of monkeys and very often a fight to the death.

Sure, when we get a better look we can see that the nucleic acids in our cells are all neatly wound on spools, and the amino acids in the proteins that hum away like invisible robots hidden deep in our cells are all folded according to a rule that precedes the oldest form of human knowledge.  But it took an incredible amount of human striving, searching, real suffering and dispassionate cooperation to unravel those secrets.  This morning I clicked on an article about how scientists have linked forms of lead and silver to various ancient mines to trace the early spread of silver coinage and the rise of Athens.  They neglected to mention the slave laborers who extracted ore from those mines.

I like to quietly give thanks for the social justice rabble rousers when I see mentions in articles, say in wikipedia, that make a note of slave labor.  A fact that once would have been considered unworthy of mention.

But back to my chart for this post.  See Venus at the top?  It looks just like the symbol we use for female.  It's in the sign Libra ♎ where it actively rules.  It's only been in this place of power since Wed.  Can you see diplomacy on the rise?

Meanwhile the Sun is less than 2.5 degrees from its lineup with Mars.  They have this meeting every couple of years, but it rarely happens in a sign where the planet of passion is ruling.  See the blue M to the left of Libra with the arrow on it?  That's Scorpio ♏.  So while the planet of the ego is lining up with War in the sign of self preservation, the planet of diplomacy is in a section of its cycle where it too has power.

÷    =    ÷    =    ÷    =    ÷    =

The Moon (crescent at top of chart) in ♎, was crossing the meridian the moment that phrase came to me.  That really means Raleigh, where I live, was facing toward the Moon in the sign of diplomacy, just at the moment that phrase was finally born in my little mind.  A location on Earth only faces a particular planet along the ecliptic for a few minutes, then passes on to the next degree in the 360degrees it passes each day.

I've been reading Philo of Alexandria.  He was about 25 years older than Jesus.  Like most Jews of those days living in Egypt, he didn't speak Hebrew.  He knew enough to make Hebrew references in his writings, but by that time most Jews in Egypt were reading their sacred books in Greek.  Also like a lot of Jews he read a good bit of Greek philosophy.  And though I never see it mentioned, I would guess he was familiar with a good bit of Egyptian and Achaemenid writings.  I'm reading his work 'On the Creation', a commentary on the Book of Genesis.  I'm delighted with many passages, but I made a note of the one copied below, which refers to a place in Genesis where 'God' is referred to in a plural rather than singular term.

XXIV. (72)   "And he would not err who should raise the question why Moses attributed the creation of man alone not to one creator, as he did that of other animals, but to several. For he introduces the Father of the universe using this language: "Let us make man after our image, and in our likeness." Had he then, shall I say, need of any one whatever to help him, He to whom all things are subject? Or, when he was making the heaven and the earth and the sea, was he in need of no one to co-operate with him; and yet was he unable himself by his own power to make man an animal so short-lived and so exposed to the assaults of fate without the assistance of others? It is plain that the real cause of his so acting is known to God alone, but one which to a reasonable conjecture appears probable and credible, I think I should not conceal; and it is this. (73) Of existing things, there are some which partake neither of virtue nor of vice; as for instance, plants and irrational animals; the one, because they are destitute of soul, and are regulated by a nature void of sense; and the other, because they are not endowed with mind or reason. But mind and reason may be looked upon as the abode of virtue and vice; as it is in them that they seem to dwell. Some things again partake of virtue alone, being without any participation in any kind of vice; as for instance, the stars, for they are said to be animals, and animals endowed with intelligence; or I might rather say, the mind of each of them is wholly and entirely virtuous, and unsusceptible of every kind of evil. Some things again are of a mixed nature, like man, who is capable of opposite qualities, of wisdom and folly, of temperance and dissoluteness, of courage and cowardice, of justice and injustice, in short of good and evil, of what is honourable and what is disgraceful, of virtue and vice."

=    ÷    =    ÷    =    ÷    =

Somehow, thinking on Philo's commentary on Genesis helped formulate the idea I've been striving for, just like the Titans whose name means to strive or reach, those early generation gods of the Greeks.  I keep thinking of Paris being pressured into choosing the fairest of 3 goddesses, and how that was not even the root cause in the tragic war recounted in the Illiad, but a step along the long descent into madness.  Beauty personified, righteous anger personified - not just personified but elevated to a godlike status.  Why?  Maybe because all humans have been striving since first memory  (Mnemesone, another early generation goddess) to free themselves, ourselves from the bondage of these universal traits.

Link to Philo of Alexandria 'On the Creation' 

Scorpio as Quiet Strength

Mercury lines up with Mars tomorrow morn US east coast time.  The meeting occurs in the sign Scorpio.  

Mercury on point of overtaking Mars.  They are in upper left quadrant under the sign Scorpio.

The blue M in outer circle with an arrow is the symbol for Scorpio.  Here is a video that introduces some of the zodiac signs including Scorpio.  This link goes to a page about how the amount of radiation we get from a body changes as it moves from one sign to another.  We have lost quite a bit of light during Sun's passage through Libra, and it is continuing to decrease in Scorpio.

Early Scorpio (almost 12 degrees Scorpio) is the area of the ecliptic where Mercury meets Mars tomorrow.

Then it will take almost a few more weeks to reach the Sun Mars line up.  They will still be in Scorpio.

Sun is next to Mars in lower left quadrant.  They are meeting near the end of Scorpio.

Scorpio is often associated with secrets, death etc.  I like to imagine food cooked, stored safely in sanitized jars and stashed away for future use.  Then of course there is the unattractive fruit left behind whose seed will find a place in the soil to germinate when the time is right.

Naturally (as in according to the patterns of nature) with Mars in the mix there will be quite a bit of adrenaline involved.  Mars comes with an acute sense of urgency, and it rules passively in Scorpio.

I've got to save this chart.  It's for the moment I got the thought that kindness is not something that can be enforced, it has to be learned by example.

Moon meeting Venus in early Virgo at top of chart opposing Saturn in Pisces at bottom.

It's possible to enforce politically correct behavior.  But what's correct is hard to agree on.  Kindness.  Venus is kindness.  It just entered Virgo, the sign of correct behavior.  How to hold kindness in our hearts as we debate on correct politics, correct government, correct behavior.

I learned kindness by watching carefully the people who have been kind to me and everyone they encounter, regardless of their beliefs.  We can't all do that.  The world needs fighters.  People who will heroically defend their right to exist.  But if you feel a need to be kind don't let political correctness get in the way.  It's like Jesus said about the poor, applying that same logic, political correctness will always be with us.