Dear Lamb of God,
I’m back after an extremely rare one-day break from blogging. I would like to thank Pope Benedict XVI for standing in for me, and Jonathan Cainer for arranging this.
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As for other April Fool’s Day pranks, Anatoly created the Sponsored by Exxon-Mobil splash page. Danielle Voirin created the UFOs over Los Angeles in about three minutes before she collapsed from exhaustion one night. Rachel Asher helped me write and edit the Emotoscope, and Anatoly came up with the emoticons.
One that you did not have the benefit of seeing yesterday was my email to the secretary of Steve Poskanzer, the president of SUNY New Paltz. This is by the way for fans of the Dioxin Dorms.
These are four dormitories that are on the campus that are contaminated with dioxins and PCBs where the students live unwittingly. Basically, I wrote a fake letter to the college president telling him that one of his contaminated buildings (Bliss Hall) was going to be shut down by a nonexistent agency called the Environmental Interior Agency. The letter indicated that FEMA trailers were on the way so that the students would have a place to live, and that there would be a loan from the State University Construction Fund for hooking up the electricity.
I attached the letter to an email, and wrote to Sandy Hess, Poskanzer’s executive secretary, asking if it was authentic. Needless to say, I did not hear back. However, I hope that it gave them at least 15 seconds’ opportunity to think about what they are doing there.
Many a truth is said in jest. What I have been trying to do is program the minds of people in the New Paltz administration to embrace the concept of these FEMA trailers on their campus (they would have little else in the way of options; small towns like New Paltz cannot just absorb 300 students in a minute, or all 1,200 who occupy the four Dioxin Dorms). I am planting the image of the wrecking balls in their minds. Campus officials have long accused me of trying to get the buildings torn down, or the campus shut down. The more time goes on, the more I feel this is actually necessary.
Check back in a little while and I’ll have some ideas for you about Venus trine Psyche. I’m not done with this blog yet, but I wanted to get the pope out of your face.
I much prefer Venus.
(Back after I go down to Peter B’s Deli.)
OK, back. I live in a a tiny city in upstate New York called Kingston, by the way. When most people think of New York, they imagine a population of eight million, skyscrapers, the subway and so on. Kingston doesn’t have a subway yet; our population is 23,000. I’m surprised it’s even called a city, but in fact it is a little berg, rundown in that curiously rural New York State kind of way, but extremely colorful.
One of my favorite activities is sitting at the little table at the front of the deli and watching the goings-on, taking part in the morning banter and reading my Sally Brompton horoscope in the New York Post. I’ve got them used to the fact that I don’t buy the Post, I just skim it over and jump to the horoscope.
Anyway, Sally recently confirmed that she’s a major-planet kind of woman and does not do much with the minor planets — though I pelt her with bits of information, discoveries and assorted updates as the years unfold. Her take is not unusual: if it’s not in a traditional ephemeris, it’s probably not necessary. Using the major planets, she does an excellent job of chronicling our day-to-day lives.
The minor planets tell different stories; they are akin to a song in a minor key, a side street or a back road that may not be heavily traveled — but when you need it, you really benefit from knowing where it is. Psyche happens to be one of my favorite minor planets, and today it’s in the spotlight: first (therefore, earliest) aspect on the list.
For technical grounding, Psyche is properly called 16 Psyche (the 16th minor planet discovered). She was sighted on March 17, 1852 (she is a Neptune-era asteroid, as are all in the catalog number range of 5 through 20 or so, depending on how you think of an ‘era’). She orbits our Sun in 4.99 (just under five) years, and is located on the outer edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Psyche is part of a complicated myth that tells the story of loss of faith in love — one that we all struggle with in our cruel world. It’s about that delicate, daring balance that lovers must maintain in order to keep the magic of romantic love aloft. When it fails, there can be some deep psychic scarring, and this is an aspect of the feeling that Psyche addresses.
As I’ve said before, planets of any kind usually have delineations that go considerably beyond the mythology. What we get with Psyche is this: she represents the idea that we bear a psychic wound that will not heal. It’s the sense of a persistent “soul level” problem that will not resolve; an issue that is always there, no matter what. After a while, I figured out that this is more about an idea than an actual thing that cannot heal (anything is subject to the miracle of healing).
So we need to address the source of this idea, and use the aspecting planets for information about where we can work it out. Venus trine Psyche from Pisces to Scorpio is yet another aspect that says open up the discussion of sexual injury. Psyche may keep the sense of injury or loss concealed. It may say that there is no hope. But let Psyche work as a focal point where you do the work, where you embrace faith, where you strive to give yourself what you need. (Often, psychic injuries are about not getting what we need, or the fear that it will be taken away.)
It is true that people can use our vulnerabilities against us. If that happens, whoever does it is not your friend. At a certain point you need to open up about what you want, need and what is really troubling you, if you want to free yourself from your isolation and spend any of your time in a space where you are accepted.
Psyche in this sense may be a place we protect, the “real you” who is injured and who you keep covered up or protected. This real you is in a sense the seat of the soul, which is often defined in our strange human terms as a place where we are hurt. Venus trine this point today is a gentle reminder that the door is open to a real discussion.
Notably, it may involve what to do about the sense of being trapped in a marriage or longterm commitment (Mercury square Juno). It may involve the fear that if we access our real creative and sexual fire, we will open the door to the unknown (Vesta trine Pandora). And we may use boring, stuck relationships as a way to avoid the shadow material that invariably comes up with deep erotic exchanges. But as with Psyche, that shadow material of Juno or Pandora is deep stuff. Typically, it comprises what we see when we look out at the world and see darkness, ill intent or things we judge that are really our own unprocessed material. Welcome all of yourself into your life and who knows, maybe you will start to feel like you’re really alive.
Catch you tomorrow. Full aspect list and the daily Oracle follow.
Wednesday 02 April 2008
Venus (24+ Pisces) trine Psyche (24+ Scorpio Rx)
Amor (20+ Aries) quincunx Logos (20+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (28+ Pisces) semisquare Nessus (13+ Aquarius)
Mercury (28+ Pisces) square Juno (28+ Sagittarius)
Amor (20+ Aries) square Jupiter (20+ Capricorn)
Pluto stations retrograde (1+ Capricorn)Vesta (22+ Pisces) trine
Pandora (22+ Scorpio Rx)Sun (13+ Aries) sesquiquadrate
Orcus (28+ Leo Rx)Mercury enters Aries (direct)
Mercury (0 Aries) conjunct Aries Point (0 Aries)
Mars (11+ Cancer) septile Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Pallas (11+ Aries) septile Chiron (19+ Aquarius)
Venus (25+ Pisces) square Hades (25+ Gemini)
Atlantis (24+ Libra Rx) quincunx Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Oracle for today: Apr 01, 2004 – Leo – Monthly
It may be taking longer than planned to work out long-distance arrangements, but you’re in a fine position to tap into your inventiveness and experience with true determination. If you pay attention, you will notice that everything comes back to communication. But you could also say that on the most personal level, the past few weeks have been little other than an exercise in developing your creative prowess and cultivating your initiative. Or is it your faith? Given the rather unpredictable nature of the world, meeting your long-term plans and objectives is very much a matter of keeping your heart and soul open to the best possibilities. It may be encouraging to hear that your most promising achievements follow the day your worst fears seem the most real.