Michael Sternbach
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Posts posted by Michael Sternbach
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Daoism is concerned with liberating the individual from social conventions imposed upon it and lead it back to its true inherent nature. Moreover, Lao-tzu would like to see a self-governed society based on its principles. So to find instructions for Machiavellian demagogues in the TTC would be like finding recipes for meat dishes in a vegetarian cookbook. Therefore, I interpret this chapter as in fact providing antitheses to the cynical "philosophy" that seeks to control people by keeping them in a constant state of unrest and dumbness (never allowing them to stop to think).
(Translated by Robert Henricks- Note this translation is of an older version of the Tao Teh Ching and may differ from other translations)
1. By not elevating the worthy, you bring it about that people will not compete.
Antithesis to:
"Set other-directed high standards and idealize suitable persons to serve as examples for them, so the people will busy themselves trying to follow after them, making themselves submissive and self-sacrificing while constantly feeling inadequate and being in competition with each other."
2. By not valuing goods that are hard to obtain, you bring it about that people will not act like thieves.
Antithesis to:
"Make sure that people desire things they basically wouldn't need so they will materially benefit the leading elite while exploiting each other, nature etc - thus "act like thieves."
3. By not displaying the desirable you bring it about that people will not be confused.
Antithesis to:
"Convince people to fancy all kinds of things, so they will get confused as to what would really be of value to them (i.e. go into debt, requiring them to stay committed to the self-perpetuating system)."
4. Therefore, in the government of the Sage:
The way the non-egotistical wise would "rule" the world (rather: let it rule itself).
5. He empties their minds,
He frees them from other-directed goals by enlightening them to their innate nature.
6. And fills their bellies.
He makes sure that what they need gets provided in ways consistent with the Dao.
7. Weakens their ambition,
Counteracts artificial ambitions.
8. And strengthens their bones.
Helps them to attain health and longevity by avoiding those detrimental ambitions. (Just think of the countless stress-related diseases nowadays.)
9. He constantly causes the people to be without knowledge and without desires.
Of the aforesaid kind.
10. If he can bring it about that those with knowledge simply do not dare to act,
Those with harmful knowledge (regarding mass manipulation, etc) are not supposed to act on it.
11. Then there is nothing that will not be in order.
Everything will then find its natural order.
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To each his own !
I find a kind of playfulness in the Ke-Fe positions.
道可道非恆道
Way can, Way cannot, Ever changing Way...
That sounds interesting...
Could you elaborate (especially for the sake of non-Chinese/non-sinologist readers of this thread)?
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I will comment on the first sentences based on James Legge's translation:
"The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name."
In my opinion, this one is addressed to those people who are looking for easily comprehensible teachings. And surely, there will always be "gurus" all too ready to teach them. "Seeker, rejoice as we will show you The Way! Just follow us [our Master] diligently, and you shall see The Truth - and be saved, once and for all!" - I guess this wasn't any different in Lao-tzu's time and place.
Now, Lao-tzu is teaching that "no way is the way." I always found this concept very appealing. Personally, rather than following any preset path continuously for so many years, I typically come "spiralling" back to what I started to explore after acquainting myself with other aspects of this fathomless Universe - only to find my understanding to have mysteriously deepened in the meantime. Over time, I creatively develop my own version of what I'm studying.
I expect to get criticised by others on this forum for my impious attitude - but I think that Lao-tzu would agree with me. The Buddha teaching only to accept what can be verified in one's personal experience, or Alice Bailey's Djwal Khul advising to, above all, listen to one's inner knowledge... They are in their own ways hinting at "the way that cannot be named."
Academic science (it's a religion, too!) - unbiased as it claims to be - makes the same mistaken assumption that there is, after all, a tangible answer to the question of "Life, the Universe, and Everything" (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). And just like in that hilarious story, in which a supercomputer is constructed in order to calculate that ultimate answer, once they had it, they would have to start all over - to find out what the question really was to begin with!
All this is certainly not to say that answers cannot be found - but invariably, they will open up new questions. So where does this lead us?
Back to Ourselves - in the Eternal Here and Now.
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NO thanks . I used to be a drummer for a belly dancing troupe and the women were always wanting sex off me ... in those costumes and wanting to practice their movements while we were 'doing it' ..... Oh .... I am so over having sex with belly dancers
Oh you poor man! Must have been an awful qi drain!
Both here : http://www.tarotmoon.com/articles/AstroCourt/AstroCourt.html
There is the standard perverse Waite method ( not Waites method but a method many RW Tarot users adopt) elemental , sex, age; http://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/knowledge/which-court-card-are-you
(But Waite made a big mess of his courts attribution anyway ... especially the King Prince switch
I guess what you are referring to is Waite (unlike Crowley) not taking over the GD scheme but retaining the old tradition which always had: King, Queen, Knight, Page. It is not unambiguous how the two schemes relate to each other. While it's clear that Pages became Princesses in the Thoth deck, and Queens remained Queens, Crowley says that the Knight is the highest in the hierarchy, and marries the Queen (he found this romantic). Thus, with the Knights taking the positions traditionally attributed to the Kings, logically the Princes should then be equivalent to the traditional Knights.
Consequently, the usual elemental assignment in RW (King = Fire, Queen = Water, Knight = Air, Page = Earth) becomes:
Knight = Fire
Queen = Water
Prince = Air
Princess = Earth
If you arrange them on the Aristotelian cross of the elements accordingly, you get the Knights and the Queens on one axis, and perpendicular to it the Princes and the Princesses on the other, which makes sense to me.
http://hubpages.com/hub/which_tarot_card
This one even uses Thoth deck in this way http://tarotjourney.net/astrology-court-cards/
I can keep listing them but got bored.
Your linked websites and other sources suggest plenty of schemes divergent from the one given above. Here again, we seem to be dealing with "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
I feel that whatever system is underlying a deck of cards, it's the one valid for that particular one. I don't think that the literature relating to one deck can be applied to another at face value. To this extent, various decks are Universes in their own right. And they all work, practically. Even the cat cards you have posted above, I'm sure.
It's easy to think of the different arrangements as rather arbitrary, if compared to the relative rigour found i.e. in astrology. But then again, even in astrology we are dealing with a lot of ambiguity, not only as far as the actual zodiac to be used but also regarding the countless different house systems etc.
Doesn't sound very scientific? Well, for that matter, both the Theory Of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics have been proven time and again. But nobody can explain how they can be reconciled with each other when dealing with singularities.
No sorry ... one microsecond of arc over the line and you are a totally diff person
. I thought it was given ... a bit of blurring near the boundaries , but I cant see that as a valid reason to shift the attribution. It still tries to classify people via 12 divisions regardless of where the boundary is ... if a cardinal influence is so strong one has to move the border ......As I indicated before, the question of the shift of the Court Cards relative to the zodiacal signs reminds me of the Tropical vs Sidereal debate, somehow.
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Here's one of the best arts as far as self-defence and self-development.
Rare? In this form... yes!
Combat Tai Chi
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That part was not one of the familar ones ... it usually went; evade, block / cover, hit (sting, whip, distraction, etc) then lock, manipulate control, then deliver the end one... no need for flurry of hits.
Better yet, evade, block/deflect/cover and hit all at once, or almost at once (one of the things Funakoshi suggests in his book but which I couldn't understand adequately at the time - right, it's one of those essential things you can only do once you have trained the old rising block/reverse punch thing for a couple of decades
).Yes, applying a lock/hold can be a good idea after that - usually it shouldn't be attempted before you have softened them up.
Generally speaking, I would say, whenever you need more than three strikes to down an opponent, you have a problem.
Same here too , no going to ground like that ... fighting 'from' the ground in a very low stance / squat, or , one takedown, the arm or whatever would be broken in the process of the person taken down for a low kick to the eye or throat (with big toe).
Don't forget to take your shoes off for this one.
He was always ; ' relax, relax ... whipping movement ... natural ... alignment ...'
Whipping movements are key in my own martial arts synthesis, too.
Legs can be treated as arms in a way ... those type of throws are really bad for the kicker
If you can catch that leg. Same holds true for arms, of course. Capturing a limb is not always easy to do in a realistic scenario with a non-cooperative opponent, especially since most schools don't train this skill much.
( Soken style - not really kicking above the waist.)
Agreed, keep it low for realism - otherwise, you're in danger to have your leg grabbed, expose your groin to an attack, slip, or - in the case of a woman wearing a short skirt - show off more than you intend.
Kicks to the bladder area are pretty effective, btw.Recently I worked on my bunkai for 'Nabuti Nogata' ( sic ?) ... figured out how a move we were taught (that seemed BS) could be applied against a staff strike and a disarm ... also works against a straight punch ... I tried it against a kick and it works as a groin strike and throw ( throwing by leaving the leg while still holding the testicles ( no ... in training I throw by grabbing the baggy pants crutch) ... but because it using the leg instead of the arm or staff for leverage --- its deadly!
Never heard of "Nabuti Nogata".
Yeah, I should have been clearer ... I also mean everyone else that did it too eg. no kicking or grabbing the nuts and throwing people by them ... really ! (Comes in with an open crutch to deliver a roundhouse kick to the head. ... some even do 'full contact' with no head punches ... I wouldnt like to get into that habit.
I once tried a high roundhouse kick when sparring with a Judo guy. He moved in close really fast and put me on my buttocks in no time. That made me think.
Noooo ! Funakoshi was after the first corruption, a generation after ... he got a bit of dis in Japan when called out to show the Bunkai from his Kata and couldnt / wouldnt show them (apologies if I got that wrong and that was someone after or contemporary).
Well, what I once heard was that Funakoshi only felt confident to demonstrate Tekki/Naihanchi kata. This wouldn't be so surprising, because in Okinawa it wasn't seen as necessary to learn a multitude of katas, because you could find all you'd ever need in a single one - if you knew all its applications! It's not much of an exaggeration to say that a kata was a whole style in its own right, in those days.
They were never taught them nor really encouraged to think for themselves.
Independent thinking is not encouraged in totalitarian systems.
Here is a good starting point to show these realisations starting to appear in Shotokan ( the above triad; the King and the two bodyguards are on the cover)
http://www.amazon.com/Shotokans-Secret-Expanded-Edition-Fighting/dp/0897501888
I have this book. It's a good one, but I need to re-read it.
For a back ground on why it occurred there are some articles from serious scholars on aikiweb that analyse the effect Japanese cultural mores and taboos effected development and 'dissemination' .
Looks like you didn't succeed posting the link.
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Jwing Ming Yang refers to weight training as a kind of hard qigong somewhere. I try simply visualizing the qi flowing through my limbs while lifting.I also like to imagine that I'm actually performing a strike when I'm lifting the weight (with some exercises). And supplement my power training with Taiji and/or Yoga exercises in the same session.
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Rare enough...
The Korean martial art Hwa Rang Do. Traditional training in this art includes all kinds of skills: Strikes, kicks, throws, locks, a variety of weapons techniques but also knowledge of healing arts. Something like a Korean equivalent of Shaolin or Ninjutsu.
Of course, all the high kicks and jumps in this choreographed show have not much to do with realistic self-defence - but the performers' artistic skills are awesome. Enjoy!
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Regarding the good/bad thing...
Once upon a time in the Wild West, there lived a ranger whose horses all ran away one day. His family and employees were totally out of their mind, complaining about how unfortunate they all were. The rangers only comment was: "Maybe." (He was not a man of many words.) They went looking for the horses and soon found them together with a group of wild horses they had joined. It was not difficult to gather them all, and all of a sudden, the range had twice as many horses! Everybody was excited and praising the good luck they had. The ranger's only comment was: "Maybe." Alas, while breaking in the wild horses, the ranger's son (let's call him Joe) fell from a horseback and fractured a leg. Once again, everybody was lamenting... Not only did they pity the young man, what was worse, they had to take over his share of work on the range! The ranger heard how "unlucky" they all were. His reply was - guess what? "Maybe." (Obviously, he was a daoist.) Soon after, two cavalry officers came to the range: They said that war had started and all the young men up to a certain age were to be recruited, including Joe. But seeing his broken leg, all they could do was to throw up their hands and ride off. Soon, everybody was talking about how fortunate Joe actually was to have broken his leg. The ranger only said: "Maybe."
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Just thought to add:
But humility is still important. Ego stroking is really not necessary in order to live a good life.
Agreed. But a sound ego is often necessary in order not to be swayed by detrimental outer and inner influences.
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Oooo like this you mean like this:
(Looks more like my old initiators 'regalia'
perhaps this ?
How about this one...
http://yamaorce.deviantart.com/art/JP-Fortune-Teller-378983618
You are partially right about the 'dont do this no more reason' . I cant 'keep up with' the channellers ( I did some dolphin channelling but people got upset with the way it came out of me
I get a feeling that, once again, they just didn't understand what you were saying.
Just attributing the court to the sign with no overlap to another sign.
Got ya - but do you know somebody actually suggesting this kind of scheme?
This is Cowley's ( the decks 'creator') description from The Book of Thoth " The reason for this is that in the realm of the Elements all things are mixed and confused; or, as the apologist might say, counter checked and counter-balanced. The convenience of these arrangements is that these cards are suitable as being descriptive, in a rough and empirical fashion, of divers types of men and women.
They are indeed, in my observation.
As far as the explanation is concerned - frankly, I like my own better.
One may say briefly that any of these cards is a picture of the person whose Sun, or whose rising Sign at his nativity, falls within the Zodiacal attribution of the card. Thus, a person born on 12th October might possess many of the qualities of the Queen of Swords; while, if he were born shortly before midnight, he would add many of the characteristics of the Prince of Wands." - which, in a way, seems to make little sense ? Unless he is talking about the three modes ( another type of 'decan') in a sign and the next cardinal over rules the preceding mutable ?
Well, the same question could be raised for the signs, of course. Is somebody born right before the Sun entering a new sign already manifesting that new sign's traits? Or are they straddling both signs, to a certain extent? It's getting debated even more in regard of the houses... Does a planet standing a few degrees before a cusp already belong to that house? Many astrologers assume this to be true.
But is five minutes before midnight quite the same as five minutes after? Just asking questions, not saying anything for certain here...
Other readers ?
Oh yes, we do have an audience! Unless it's you who keeps calling up this thread and makes the views count skyrocket...
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There's only so much that anyone can do with a sword, whatever the style.
Shotgun beats sword as sword defeats knife and so on down the weapons list.
Not always! Watch from 2:30 on and see for yourself...
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I found him interesting ; he follows some principles and moves that look familiar to me ( aside from the obvious 'practicality' its more the 'application style') ; instantly taking or forcing the rear 45 deg, blind sides, the little 'double jump kick' for some low kicks, 'opportunism' and flow, the 'natural style' ( multiple movements within what others might see as a 'load up' - and the complex bunkai within form moves ( that are not normally understood in many types of 'karate' ), many of the takedowns, etc.
I also distilled such natural/intuitive principles out of a number of different martial arts styles that I studied (and in some cases, just carefully watched for reasons of analysis). Yes, Raul is quite adept at applying a number of them. Only, I have a problem with the "hit 'em ten times in less than a second" approach. As there is always a trade-off between speed and power.
Also, going to the ground applying an arm-lock is a "no, no" in a realistic scenario, imo. For two reasons:
- Where do you go from there?
- Even though it may be nice to have the adversary momentarily secured this way, what is not so nice is his buddies stomping your head into the pavement meanwhile.
, I found my previous Aikido very helpful to study the style I did and the style when introduced into aikido was devastating (although the instructor said that wasnt the way to do aikido - too ' viscous' or something ... but then some seniors turned up at his club, including his old instructor and a well known and highly respected senior - all from the same style - were doing it too - we must be 'old school'
.... but no kicks ... 'Aikido does not kick' <shrug> )When I was into Aikido (while practising Shotokan at the same time), I once asked a senior about kicks. He answered, they wouldn't need to know how to kick in Aikido as they only train defences against kicks (on the advanced levels). I asked him how they could tell that the defences worked, if the attacks didn't? I can't recall his answer (safe to say, it was not really worth remembering).
It could be my imagination or wishful thinking, but it seems reminiscent of Mr. Nishihira's form , in some ways, which was taught to him by Hohan Soken (mentioned above) . What makes Soken style different ( and especially in the past, there seems more of this out there now) is that he left Okinawa before WW II and what happened back at home that influenced and changed karate did not influence him, so he had an 'older and unique' version (some thought) than the beast that emerged via JKA (based on the 'deity' Funakoshi ); loss of teachers and traditions due to the devastation in Okinawa, the resultant victorious service men wanting to be taught martial arts by their defeated enemies and the dynamic that resulted in , the transportation to Japan ( Funakoshi again) as a primary school PE system ( and how that changed it) and then being turned into a sport ( more changes, restrictions, adaptations, etc) .
In fairness, it was not so much Gichin Funakoshi who turned Shotokan into a sport but his son Gigo, together with other seniors. The old man was actually quite shocked about some of the changes. Certainly, Funakoshi Gichin's Karate-do Kyohan is pretty much old style Okinawan Karate - which made most of it quite unintelligible to me as long as I only knew JKA style - most of their highly decorated masters obviously have no idea about the real kata bunkai.
Parallel developments can be seen in other styles/martial arts as well, such as in the transition from Okinawan Goju-ryu to its Japanese variant, from Old Yang style Taiji to modern Yang style etc.
However, people like George Dillman, Evan Pantazi, George Alexander, Erle Montaigue and others help to bring back what has been thrown out previously. I consider this an evolutionary step in martial arts, and it's very intriguing to see.
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Why is it funny ?
I thought it to be "funny" because it's hard to associate somebody with your obvious earnestness and knowledge with a fortune teller on a funfair (well, some kind of market, anyway) - if for no other reason than probably getting asked all kinds of questions that make you go "oh, my nothing!" (but you need to keep it inside). Perhaps one of the reasons why you are glad that you don't do this no more?
I didnt have to do anything - master of my own domain. I would never wear a turban or anything different to do a Tarot reading. Do you wear a long pointy hat with stars and moons on it when you do astrology ?
No, but thanks for the idea!
Nope ....
- dont get that one ... I mean I 'get it' as far as some type of '9 chambered Kabbalah' / a la modern numerology go ... I dont see why that would apply to a suit card sequence. In a way ... but in another way, no ... why cannot the 3 card sequences be 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ?A series from 1 to 9 is more intuitive to me, a new cycle starting with 10 (= 1). Or in other words, Malkuth connecting with Kether.
Even so, if one 'must reckon' from 1 ( 10) how does the postulated need for numerical sequence relate to a court card that throws it 10 degrees (virtually) out of sync with its usual position.
It's "usual position" in what system?
(Its okay I dont ask for an actual answer, I am just outlining why it doesnt make that much sense to me . But thanks for your ideas.
You're welcome. I wrote this off the top of my head. If you have any that make more sense, make sure you let me know.
I dont think it was meant to be ... it probably is now, but so few people seem to care or use Thoth tarot in the way it could be used ... actually, I gave up
<Puts on turban and goes and sits in corner pouting>
No, no, don't do it!!! - Surely I and other readers of this thread would like to hear your insights.
It might just be easier, make me more popular and be able to take $$$$$$ off people to use these ;
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Not everything presented as Dim Mak or Kyusho-jitsu is BS. The following is a compilation from one of Evan Pantazi's DVDs. Here he interprets the classical martial arts text Bubishi.
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Yes, for the last 30 years or so ... including about 7 years as a public reader (in a busy market each month
- phew! Glad I dont do that no more) That's funny - did you have to wear a turban?
and more in private consultation - I never claimed that I or my cards were psychic or could 'read the future' though.
When I was working with patients in a psychiatric practice during six years back in the 90s, besides using Bach Flower Remedies and astrology, I was occasionally doing card readings as well. (No, I was not wearing a turban.)
I was using the cards rather for psychological analysis than for prognostic purposes. Even though they would often hint at future potentials or probabilities in the course of this. But some of the things they seemed to prognosticate did not come to pass.
"Always moving the future is." Yoda
There is so much suggested in the supplementary material (Book of Thoth) that carried over from the G.D.'s Book T; some text, but mostly tables and the astro correspondences that doesn't actually appeared to have made it into any concepts people have about the deck ... and in some cases I include the decks creator in that! He didnt care or didnt seem to use it ... or maybe just didnt write about it.
I find Book T constantly mentioned in connection with the Thoth Tarot. Worth taking a really close look at...
" initiation into the Occidental esoteric traditions which it refers to in so many ways. " ... refers to; yes ... IMO it is virtually a handbook ... an 'Occidental esoteric tradition' s 'Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy'
Nicely said. A handbook which includes numerology, astrology, the kabbalah, alchemy, magic, various mythologies... Did I leave something out? Probably.[ ED; the reason I asked was I was going to go further into that astro court card attribution; what do you think is the reason for it ? ]
Do you mean, why the areas ruled by the Court Cards are shifted relative to the signs?
Graph from Raven's excellent website http://www.corax.com/tarot/
My thoughts on this:
As you certainly know, among the Suit Cards, the Aces are not assigned to the decans - however, the cards numbered 2 to 10 are. Although the Suit changes with the sign, the count simply continues. However, the 10s take the place of the Aces here because esoterically we consider 10 = 1 + 0 = 1. So to have a series of consecutive numbers you must reckon: 10 (aka 1) - 2 - 3, straddling two signs, but all three together ruled by the same Court Card; 4 - 5 - 6 by the next CC; 7 - 8 - 9 by the third CC; then the order repeats itself starting with the next 10 which coincides with the last decan of a sign again. So the reason is numerical.
Hope this is intelligible.
Interesting that in the decan system, the Chaldean order starts with Leo.
Do you agree that the zodiac underlying the Suit and Court Cards is Tropical? Raven presupposes this, anyway.
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I fell in love with the Thoth Tarot in 1988 and this was pretty much my initiation into the Occidental esoteric traditions which it refers to in so many ways. I didn't really look at it much for a long time any more, however, as there were so many other things coming my way. Until very recently - not least inspired by our conversation here regarding the GD.
Do you study these cards, too?
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I'm never sure what those guys did ... but they did write " ... the teaching assigns the commencing Point of the Zodiac to the bright star 'Regulus' which is in Leo. And it measures Right Ascension and Longitude from that point ... "
One assumes the zodiac 'comencing point' is at 0 deg. ? However, it has been my contention that the correct phrase should be 'set at ' Regulus ... then it really doesnt matter what degree you assign to Regulus ... when I played with it I (some time back, so running on memory here) I started with Regulus at x deg Leo , used a 30 degree template and went around until the asterisms got the best fit in the segments and then read the degree off that where Regulus sat and then set it there ... I thought it was around 10 degrees ??? One could even set it at 15 ... being 'The heart of the Lion'.
if I remember rightly... Taurus was a bit of a problem .... fitting that asterism into the template, its quiet long in shape
Interesting... On Skyscript, I wrote some time ago:
Personally, I would think of setting Regulus at 15° Leo (around 0 AD, from where it has since either moved or not, depending on whether you look at the tropical or the sidereal zodiac). The royal star Regulus in the centre of Leo is also reminiscent of the Sun ruling this sign!
I'm not sure if somebody suggested exactly this before?
This was in reference to the Sun being positioned at 15° Leo in the domicile scheme shown above, of course.
The replies I got from two other astrologers were:
You do know that if Aldebaran is at 15 degrees of Taurus, that places Regulus at 5 degrees of Leo? (Regulus was never in the center of sidereal Leo.)
And:
I don't think we should expect a star to be precisely on a significant degree, and certainly not Regulus at 15 Leo, which is way out from all the main ayanamsas. The stars are rough visual markers, not definers, the zodiac must be a coherent harmonic structure or we might as well pack up and go home. I'd place Regulus around 6° Leo.
To be precise, I'd say 6°29' today ("fixed" stars each have their own very slight proper movement over the millenia).
To which I answered:
Well, what I suggested is a scheme that directly reflects the domicile schematic and would be oriented on Regulus rather than on Aldebaran-Antares. But I don't blame you for finding this idea too radical. It was just a thought, really. (Or it may be the the general practice in a hundred years from now.
)However, it looks like even the GD was using the Tropical zodiac at least additionally. For example, in the Crowley-Thoth Tarot deck, the Court Cards (other than the Princesses) are linked to the area from 10° of one sign to 10° of the next. I first thought this might have something to do with a Sidereal zodiac and ayanamsa, in some way, but it seems like it simply refers to the Tropical system, really.
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ViscountValmont,
As we have privately agreed, I'm pleased to present your natal chart here.
Yes, there are obvious similarities with Cayce's chart - even though among the more personal planets, not only Venus but also Mars is in a different sign. On the other hand, there are parallels revealed only by a somewhat closer look such as a prevalence of trines, squares and conjunctions.
All the planets except the Moon are under the horizon which means that the internal life is strongly emphasized.
Mercury in Pisces in close conjunction with the Sun supports the subjective outlook. They're in the fifth house which stands (among other things) for creativity; this combination speaks for vivid imagination and dreams expressed in art. Cinematography would be a good match, but of course there are many possibilities for this configuration to be manifested. The squares to Uranus in Sagittarius will provide inspiration but could contribute to a lack of focus, occasionally. However, Saturn's trines balance this, providing structure and stability. Saturn is retrograde in Scorpio, so he is ever on guard to keep subconscious forces from overwhelming the conscious personality. Jupiter and Neptune, the two rulers of Pisces, being in Capricorn underlines the Saturnian stronghold. (We see parallels in Cayce's chart where Saturn is linked to the Sun by conjunction, and Jupiter is in Capricorn, too. Moreover, Jupiter is connected with Neptune in another Earth sign by trine.) Their placement in the 3rd house stands for the pursuit of vast esoteric/spiritual knowledge. The Ascending Node in Gemini and the 8th house (things occult) reflect this on yet another level.Pluto and Mars in their domicile Scorpio in the 1st house speak for an assertive personality. Saturn in conjunction with Mars gives endurance and self-discipline and helps to keep Mars from overacting. Some kind of martial arts training, likely of the internal variety, would seem to be a good idea. Most of the personal planets in the Western hemisphere along with Libra rising make for an orientation towards others - perhaps not to the extent we see in Cayce, but notably enough. Especially the Taurus Moon in the 7th house supports this, seeking stability and reliability in close relationships.
This may be at odds with the Moon's dispositor Venus in Aquarius - albeit the quintile (not shown) between the two should offset this to some degree. Nonetheless, there could well be some noted conflict between the desire for harmonious togetherness as opposed to the urge for freedom and individualism. The squares between Venus and Mars/Saturn are suggesting this, too. Pluto in close opposition to the Moon can lead to emotional upheavals in this context, likely biographically founded in the relationship to the mother. A certain need for balance here.In a nutshell, I see you as a strongly individualistic and but structured personality with pronounced esoteric and aesthetic inclinations.
As I know virtually nothing about you, I'm looking forward to your feedback.
Michael
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Nungali,
Even though the Golden Dawn was seeing Leo as the beginning of the zodiac, I don't think they set Regulus at 0° of it. According to a remark I read somewhere, they thought he is at 5° Leo. I have met a Sidereal astrologer in virtual space who sets him at about 6° Leo. I guess that 0° Leo would lead to an ayanamsa that doesn't look quite right, overall.
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And who needs upper And lower case letters anyway?
i have a canadian friend who only uses lower case letters. but i think he's just feeling too driven when he's writing to bother with hitting the shift key. (he's an aries sun sign.)
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I recommend Ubuntu to those of you who don't need and/or don't like Windows. Or have both systems installed.
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The earliest source for this system that I could find is Teucer of Babylon who presumably lived in the 1st Century AD.
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Much of what we consider magical or mystical could potentially be understood as science. But that's only the outlook of the rationalistic left hemisphere of the brain (Yang). If you make an absolute out of it, well, that's the left hemisphere claiming all the credit for itself.
This is basically the stand taken by many modern scientists; they dream of finding a TOE (Theory Of Everything) soon. Despite the fact that they can't explain what about 90% of the universe is made of. But surely, it's only a matter of building an even bigger particle accelerator, or an even stronger space telescope...
Contrary to this, I believe that the more we understand, the more new questions will be raised, and the more will the mystery deepen. Will there ever be an end to it? Maybe not. Maybe even the most evolved entities don't have all the answers. Except that consciousness which abides in Infinity...
The more we learn, the more we will stand in awe in front of the mysteries of creation.
And that's the perspective of the mystical right hemisphere of the brain (Yin).
In other words:
As mysticism becomes more scientific, science becomes more mystical.
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[TTC Study] Chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching
in Daodejing
Posted
So your translation would run something like:
"The Dao that is manifest is not the absolute Dao."
Or am I missing out some subtlety?
Could you provide a link to that blog?
Thanks.