Dear Friend and Reader:
With the Sun approaching a conjunction to Uranus today, the energy is high, erratic, unpredictable and — if we’re paying attention — brilliantly creative. Whenever you see Uranus prominent in the sky, expect the unexpected. The aspect is exact tomorrow but it’s applying all day today, so it’s in full force and effect.
There is more energy than most of us can handle, trained as we were on spelling tests and the period bell ringing every 45 minutes. True, school did not prepare us for the lives we have now; MBA school didn’t prepare us for the current business environment, journalism school didn’t teach us to tell the truth and art school didn’t teach us that something is art mainly when we convert pain to healing energy.
As we make these changes or try to, there is the potential for enormous fear to come up, because we have to leave behind the two things that humans depend on most to get through the day — external structure and expectations. Those things are Saturn functions, and Saturn (in Virgo) is opposite this amazing conjunction we are experiencing in Pisces. Saturn also represents fear. Saturn in Virgo is the fear to think for yourself, one of the most important boundaries that we have in life. This is a phobia; it’s a debilitating fear without an apparent cause; neither is there a conscious consequence: “If I think for myself, this will happen.”
With this Uranian, imaginative energy running so high, I suggest you ask yourself just what you’re afraid of and why. I think that fear needs to be a conscious act, so that we can consciously choose whether we want it, and decide if it’s helping us in any way. Do we really have room to waste our lives paralyzed by fear? And while it’s possible to get over fear on paper, in theory and in the therapy room, can anything really do the trick except for taking action and seeing something constructive or creative happen as a result? Getting over fear requires taking a risk.
In other news, the Moon ingresses Libra at 2:45 pm EDT. The first thing it does will be to square Pluto in Capricorn, so this takes the relational energy of the Libra Moon and turns it introspective. If you can go there for real, then the next thing that happens is a series of trines to all those planets in Aquarius over the next two days, opening many social doors and unexpected pathways to new ideas.
BK, I’ll go take a look at that Neptune in Pisces thing on astrotable… I need all the help I can get with the Neptune thing. If I can figure this out I’ll be in a better position to help others.
B’Sees: “[Art-making] Sounds a lot like love, or maybe what one thinks is love. A longing perhaps.”
Longing. EXACTLY, dame Koehler, that be IT. From the moment of beholding comes the wave of longing. That longing expands until the artist/writer/dancer has to make something to assuage the pressure of consciousness. Like Infinity wants to find itself through humanity, the beautiful thing wants to know itself via the artist.
To bring the beautiful thing closer until it is *yours,* or walk all the way around it so that it belongs only to itself are actually two sides of the same coins, systole and diastole of the same beat.
Trap and release.
Thanks mystes, I think (whoops) or rather I feel I understand the nature, or what drives the artist to create what he/she creates now. Or, at least, I have a handle on it now. Sounds a lot like love, or maybe what one thinks is love. A longing perhaps.
As this is so obviously (odd I should use this word) a Neptune/Pisces thing, you might enjoy a blog I read today on when Neptune enters Pisces in two years. He even has a chart for the ingress which I thought (there I go again) was a real treasure-trove. Not only will it be a Aries new moon (just 7 degrees past exact) but Uranus and Mars are on the Aries point, Jupiter and Sun are opposite Saturn, and Neptune himself will be conjunct Chiron and Venus. Oh, and did I mention the north node will be on the Galactic Core/Center? Not too shabby for God of Art and gives us something to look forward to in 2011. The article is called “Neptune & the Zeitgeist” and can be found at astrotabletalk dot com if you care to read the whole piece.
Thanks again for de”mystefying” art for me. (har de har)
BK wonders: “Is art ever created for the sake of beauty? Just asking; I’m not an artist, but I’m often drawn to it because of it’s beauty. But is an artist ever motivated by things beautiful?”
*Beholding* is for the sake of beauty, bK, – the making of art itself often begins as a pulse to come more completely to terms with that beauty.
Sometimes those terms are a kind of possession (if I can paint, sing, draw, write this, then it is truly mine); or alternately, a kind of release (if I can paint, sing, etc. this, then I am truly free of it).
One of my favorite authors calls art a “dompte regard” – a trap for the gaze. But to make art is really an invitation to trap and release.
Is art ever created for the sake of beauty? Just asking; I’m not an artist, but I’m often drawn to it because of it’s beauty. But is an artist ever motivated by things beautiful?
victoria, I would add athletes to the abstinance begets creativity list. They are told much the same thing, although it might not be for creativity so much as strength. But about your stories; whatever it is that makes you feel banana, or like a morph-mallow must be a good thing. If not they wouldn’t produce such invitingly saturated visions, and yes, maybe you should write them down, and share with us whenever moved to do so. And yes, to the possiblity of our brains being pushed to increase the use of brain cells, Jupiter IS in Aquarius after all. And what are friends for but to listen to our thoughts and ideas!
be, mystes, took mystes advice and sat with it last night. Is there alot going on in with anyone else or is it just I am sensing things more acutely? It’s my understanding things are supposed to be let go of? Or is all this going to filter down? Or maybe those days are over and our brains are being pushed to expand cell usage? Is that possible?
Eric suggested compartmentalizing, cuz that’s how Capricorn’s get so much done. Are we gonna have a choice here on that one? I am not sure my hesitation to move is coming from fear. It feels more like an overload of my senses. When I started factoring last night (I guess that’s what eric was suggesting for virgo this week), I felt like a morph mallow.
Following the robin was much more simplistic. I’m probably going to have to start writing down these stories that keep running through my brain. Maybe these odd stories are my sanity release right now. Is it possible to get funky like this if there is not a creative release. I think I now know why the dance teachers suggested abstinence, put it in the creative work. I know musicians who professed the same thing, put it in the work?
Thanks for sharing your day with us victoria, it was beautiful. You are an artist too. I could just taste those strawberries, and in fact, probably did last week. But mine came to me by way of Walmart and I was grateful.
Didn’t really sit with the conjunction, it kinduv smacked me up side the head.
At 4:30pm I saw the first robin of spring. He posed on a branch of the old rock elm outside my window before dropping to the ground. A breath of fresh air surged through my body.
Earlier in the day, the woman in the upstream house of windows called from creekside to tell me that the ice on the creek was buckling up against the trees. Temps will be moving to the 40s, 50s, and stabilizing at 40. The water is coming.
I should have known. The male pheasant has been dining alone under the apple tree. The two females only join him for the evening meal? Are they nesting? Are they scouting sites to nest?
Frozen water stands in the flats below my home. And more water is coming.
I board my vehicle and drive west and then north. The snow is all but melted from the fields. Rivers of water are frozen still in time, lit by the reflection of the sun. The water is coming.
Tomorrow I will meet the sun in the floodplain. As the sun kisses the ice, it will warm to the touch and moan, and rock, and snap, and crack into an orchestra of sound, releasing its water.
I feel banana, and my vehicle pulls into the market, already smelling the banana bread baking. On the way to bananas, I stop to joing those circling the strawberries with their coupons in hand. Florida has sent us a taste of spring, late spring. The after job shoppers stop to question if they are really seeing this deal on berries. I tell them of my robin. I tell them of strawberries and springtime. I share my joy. They share how I can get a coupon.
The strawberries are juicy enough to remind me of the sun warmed full bodied strawberries I will pick from the local fields. It’s all coming. The robin told me so.
I drive over the bridge of the great river and head upstream. The river is running but for the ice along its banks. I think of the PCBs lying in its sediment and pray that they don’t break loose with the flow that will be rushing through its banks.
I veer away from the river and am on open road, I think of home and the frozen floodplain and the woolly bear caterpillars hibernating in the sedges there. Wrapped in a tight ball, they are ready for travel with the water flow. The winged creatures they are to become live for a short time. What would I do if I only had a few days to live? I would be on the floodplain listening to the orchestra and keeping watch to greet my migrating feathered friends. And enjoying a bowl of parsnip soup with my banana bread by the fire.
I see the road leading to mother’s house and once again, I hit the brakes and travel up the hill. She is under the covers fully dressed studying the sun through the window. Why is the sun out at 6 pm? It’s DST mom. The deer are eating in the field. They shine like gold in the sunlight. Yes, she knows all about the deer. But where is he? I point up, but she knows better, he is right there with her. With her words, she dismisses to ponder him.
I sit with the health care worker. As the news plays in the background, she talks of the craziness: the stabbings, the shootings, the accidents. I tell her of the saturn uranus opposition lit up by the full moon energy. We talk energy. She tells me about her reiki and reflexology. I take a card. The perfect gift to bear to the Sunday birthday bash.
I could fall into any one of these experiences today. I could roll around and muse with the robin, the strawberry, the shining deer, even the caterpillar. It is all going on at once and I could not choose if I tried. It is what I have learned to call a polyamorous day. I love it all.
janetlo, brendan, I appreciate you sharing your inspiration, even if it is sanity. I have two producing artist friends. One could sit down with a box of objects and create art. She is presently using nature materials. But she was going bugs when she was in the transition for a new medium. Had to create. But once she found her new medium she was off and running. The other draws and sometimes just has to draw.
I’ve been in awe of artists since I was a tot. While the rest of us were drawing stick figures, there was one person in class who was creating masterpieces. Where ever does that come from?
So if you got it, I say do it, and get it out there. One of my favorite coffee houses displays local artists works. It’s always fun. Artist expression in the work is reflective of the times we live. I see artists as recorders of history.
Your conversation is refreshing. Thanks for sharing.
Brendan, I didn’t mean to wander off… but you’re right, this *is* a big topic, so big that ultimately one has to leave it to the *art itself* to explicate.
And I needed to focus on the Uranus/Sun conjunction last night. Did anyone else sit with that one? I’d be interested in hearing your impressions.
M – you would ask me the tough questions. Firstly, this week has been ‘way off’ for me: little to no sleep each night, and the feeling of a big fogbank all around me. Monday night was the pits: about three hours of sleep, max. So, yeah, Uranus/Sun, full moon: I feel like I’ve been in a slow-motion train wreck all week – and I’m the one standing in the middle of the tracks!
As for ‘unforgetting,’ I’m not sure that is what I truly meant, but it is a part of it. After all, most art is representational of something at least, even something as abstract as emotions. I merely seek to evoke the instant, the little iota of reality, the 1/200th of the universe around me right then.
I was walking through a park here the other day, just snapping whatever caught my eye: the sun off snowflakes, sun-dappled water, even trout swimming in their pool. I’m trying to learn to let go and just take things as they arrive in my life and not think too much about whatever turns up. I’ve spent too much of my life in thought and I’ve missed a lot as a result.
It isn’t so much of a case of having the art replace anything or serve to recollect, rather the chance to be able to share what I see. I spent a lot of the last 25 years or so not really creating anything, just existing, and in the last couple of years I’ve be rediscovering the joy of creation for its own sake. A long road, yes, and I’m glad to be back on it.
Any return thoughts?
Brendan… “to preserve what my eye sees at the moment, dreaming perhaps to save the thoughts that flew past at that point in my being. It doesn’t always work, so I must take a lot of pix in the hopes of having one вЂ?work.’”
so for you this is ‘anamnesis’? unforgetting? And does the art let you sneak up on what you know, but have to continually ‘unforget’? If so, how?
(good discussion for a Uranus/Sun conjunct, no?)
I take photos in an attempt to preserve what my eye sees at the moment, dreaming perhaps to save the thoughts that flew past at that point in my being. It doesn’t always work, so I must take a lot of pix in the hopes of having one ‘work.’
I know others who must paint or draw to keep some sanity in their lives, for without that creative act they could not cope. It certainly helps me stay sane.
janetlo writes… “The definition of art doesn’t reside in technical proficiency.”
I completely agree, but the ability to document and codify every single aspect of the technical side (and this means arthistorical data as well) has created the illusion that one can develop systems that *explain* art-making from a neurological framework.
This whole tendency –presently gripping the aesthetics, neurophz, philosophy departments around the world– is crazymaking for anyone who thinks art might actually be (gasp) transformative.
“Why do I make art? To explore the questions that the tree poses. And the questions that the making poses and the questions that art itself poses. All of this starts with intention.”
So this begs the question of criteria: how do you decide which questions are worth investigating? which can *only* be answered by art? and how/why?
The definition of art doesn’t reside in technical proficiency. Sometimes draughtsmanship is just that, draughtsmanship. While admirable, not always art. Why not? Well for me if you can draw a tree, perfectly representing the tree but you’re not asking any questions of that tree or questioning why your perfectly drawing that tree, then to me, that is representation or documentation. Artistic yes. Art…?
Why do I make art? To explore the questions that the tree poses. And the questions that the making poses and the questions that art itself poses. All of this starts with intention.
Fe sings: “Its not a lulling peace but an excitement similar to going up to perform in the opening night of a show you KNOW is going to be fabulous.”
Atta girl…
Fire alarms, eh? Any cute firemen?
***
Janetlo, you probably know that philosophy of art has become such a technical field that hardly anyone will venture a ‘why’ anymore. So, the question: Why do *you* make art?
Technical:: aesthetics is being swamped by neurophyz, so now we have an “art instinct.” Soon –according to the phil-x cohort– you’ll be able to implant draughtsmanship (if not artistry) genetically, like blue eyes or a polyglottitude.
I *can* wait for that movie to come out. P’tui.
V? “what was he? ”
Beats me, kiddo. I was just talking about how *I* deal with fear.
Complacency is not a creative space for most people. I do think that there has been interesting work being made in our culture of fear. Fear can be a place to push from, a resistance, a boundary. The kind of fear that gets me going is the fear of an unknown I’m ready to delve. A different fear will stop you in your tracks but all take a certain risk and getting over fear is part of that process, getting over it does not eliminate the experience.
I’m mulling over the idea that the definition of art is mainly when we convert pain into healing energy…I think that some art is about that very explicitly, but I don’t make art with that intention. The key word being intention. A side result may be one of healing but that is not why I’m making the work. I suppose that if we are able to make art at all there is a willingness to open up a part of our psyche, spirit, soul…hmm. I just saw the Munch show at the Art Institute in Chicago. It was a really interesting show. Munch is definitely known as a not so sane artist who revealed his madness through his work. The show though also brought to light how he perpetuated that image of himself as the crazy artist to sell more paintings. Master of business as well as art.(just an interesting side note)
so mystes, what was that 17 year old shooter afraid of? or was he angry? what was he? i think the survivors of the dead would really like some kind of explanation that makes sense. or was is the dead one’s faults cuz they didn’t have enough of something going on?
Condolences, up yonder. I hadn’t heard. Just utubed it.
bomb threat for the 13th at my niece and nephews school was found on the lav wall last week. it’s never easy when it’s in home court.
V puts it over the bow: “Oh the damage that has been done while we were all white hot.
Victorius, I am not talking about anger (which I have discoursed on at length), I am talking about the pre-anger: Fear.
Example: I have a nest of trolls who ha(n)g out on my blogs/websites. They made so bold as to (attempt) to destroy one of them yesterday. It took me about 8 seconds to figure out what had happened as I talked with the account rep in California. I have a lot riding on that creation, so I was initially gripped by fear. I then dove down into it, to see how I’d set this up. When I saw the core moment, I took my “adversaries” *inside*, made them mine-all-mine. Kissetykisskiss – smoooochety – kiss. Ooooh baby, c’mere… Etc.
Today, I hear through the grapevine that they have had a Very Big Day.
(No shit. )
***
Sadness is another discussion as well. Upyonder, I am so sorry to hear your family has taken the blow. Condolences.
I meant to say colleagues of my father’s. Such things do not happen there. Cry.
Did we have a “creative moment” after 9-11 when we were all afraid to stand up to our own dictator for fear we would be imprisoned for speaking our input?
Or did we have to experience 8 years of fear to be creative now? Oh the damage that has been done while we were all white hot.
Have fun in the kitchen be, paint it what you like. It is only paint.
Erratic, unpredictable. But highly creative?
Am in mourning. Former colleagues (teachers) of mine, as well as my father, work at that German school complex. Relatives live there. Strange, but I knew before I opened the news this morning.
I agree that Saturn represents fear, and something we would need to overcome. I’ve been reminded that Saturn also represents getting old and Uranus (especially with the Sun conjunct) would stimulate one to reject or at least make adjustments to the pre-conceived picture one has of maturity.
It (Saturn) could also represent “the elders” those who, in other cultures, and earlier times we looked up to and respected. Perhaps Uranus & the Sun in opposition to the elders would give us the courage to break with the traditions and even the wisdom of our elders, or best of all, find a way to balance the two.
For me I think it is playing out in how to remodel my kitchen. A windfall $2000 will cover some of the necessities (refrigerator, etc.) and I tend to take a basic, fundamental, conservative, and yes, even old-fashioned approach. and what would appeal to a buyer if such were to happen. But. . . .
Something in me wants to paint it red. This from planets in Pisces? Who else is in this game?
Mid-morning there was a fire alarm that went off in our office building. We all went outside and got to see who resides in the same building with us — all 10 floors.
Sleeping like a kid these days. Feeling like my life is becoming what I’ve pictured it from the most joyous of impulses. Its not a lulling peace but an excitement similar to going up to perform in the opening night of a show you KNOW is going to be fabulous.
When I think about it, it makes me dance.
“Getting over fear requires taking a risk.”
Getting over? Good lord, man, why –as our lady of Foggy Bottom has recently said– waste a good crisis?
There is a spot inside of fear that is whitehot and cooking merrily away at itself. If you can stand the heat, that is *the* creative movement.
We can tell when we’ve arrived — blame, shame and revenge dissolve into awareness of how we set into play what would otherwise scare the piss out of us.
That moment of self-capture is totally worth the boilingbrokenglass cocktail one drinks to get there.
It’s a hot, hot space, and its been my experience that there’s no stopping half-way. It’s like labor – at the very end, you’re still only halfway through. From that point on, there’s nothing but embrace, embrace, embrace.
(Yeehaw.)