Yoshitoshi Ogiku {{PD}}

What reigns today? A kind of confusion, where we deny ourselves empowerment due to our embrace of our own wounds, where we harm others (unconsciously, inadvertently) in our attempts to gain dominion over our own lives, where relationships seem haunted by anger, darkness, denial, and the array of tiny unspoken injustices accumulated over time, where resources carry a taint or a need to ignore what’s wrong in order to accept them, where things ignored bubble up, endangering Love or Money.

Don’t panic–these are whispers, shadows, a haint, the sense of something hanging in the air. Nothing directly harms or challenges, unless the behavior is driven by reaction to these nebulous, often troubling, influences. They are the disquieting bits that leak into interaction and choice as the filmiest of feelings. So what can we count on, what can we do about it?

We can, through the senses and through interaction, through knowing what we value and what’s dear, center on the core instincts, the place within where we just know what is right, or what is wrong, in any situation. It’s there for the knowing; we only need trust our sixth sense, our ancestral knowledge coded in the DNA, our internal ‘place’ that connects us to every other Being in the Universe. A vast and vague prescription, to be filled through use of instincts, through touch with the primal Beingness (Chiron contra-parallel Juno, Venus contra-parallel Black Moon Lilith and parallel Sedna)

On a different note, I received a question from a lovely long-time client last night, asking, essentially, if she was a psychopath. In case you haven’t guessed, she’s not, and I joked to her that the question I usually get along those lines is, ‘Is (my husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, sibling, boss) a psychopath?’ She said that was going to be her next question! But then I started to think about it; the implication was that an interaction with someone with whom she’s close had perhaps made her wonder about her level of compassion, even her sanity–and it wouldn’t be the first time that a partner or spouse has called their significant other ‘crazy’ in one form or another. No, what it made me think was that this person had created such doubt in my client, even outright accused her of psychopathy, and that this is often the ‘go to’ accusation for those who no longer control the relationship. Generations of men and women have faced such charges when they stand up for themselves to someone who wishes to control them; and for women in particular, the accusation of insanity is often one that follows a woman’s decision not to feel or think as the other commands. As females we are raised to show kindness, compassion, caring, and to not show them has been labeled dysfunctional; we are broken if we do not put others’ feelings and comfort and goals ahead of our own. To that I say, absolutely not. We are fine the way we are. And there is nothing wrong with walking away when someone wants you to make their well-being more important than your own.

Giovanni Segantini c1897 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is a small pine tree, moved from a tiny pot to a more suitable one, that quickly bursts out in fresh, new growth. What matter needs a more conducive environment in order to renew itself, to grow–and why have you not placed it there yet?

For any book orders received at Dog & Sunflower Press, we’ll gladly include one jpg of a natal chart–just include birth name (can be just a first name if you like), date of birth (PLEASE write out the month as a word, don’t use a number!), place of birth (name, not co-ordinates), time of birth (local time is fine). Put this info in the instructions to merchant/comment section on the order form at PayPal, or send it directly to me through the form on the Services page, and the chart will be delivered with your book or books. Please note: If you send the date as numbers only, we will not create a chart.

Something new at ‘Been There, Done That’

Enjoy your Saturday!

Claude Monet, 1867, Regatta at Sainte-Adresse {{PD}}

Energies this weekend are fairly straightforward: Saturday we’ll make the wise decision (or we’ll know what’s smart, and choose otherwise!) and we’ll either express creatively or deceive on the home front, with the mate, or over important matters of commitment and ideals; and on Sunday we are doing our best to juggle relationships and/ or finances to maximize our own reach and empowerment. So, just relax! (Merc to asteroids, with dashes of Neptune, Sedna, Venus, and Vesta)

By mags – Flower Box Cake, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34997634

Your weekend word image is a small package, found in the garden on a sunny day, with a little tag addressed to you; unwrap it–what’s inside? This should give you a peak into what your own psyche has planned for you (and may surprise you with) over the next two days.

Date palms. Coachella Valley, California by Dorothea Lange 1937 LoC {{PD}}

It seems we define things today by what they are not; from there we can see what does matter, and what we can do. Our role as an authority, and our personal power, somehow clashes with our highest values; it becomes a matter of degrees, where we try to exert ourselves and somehow sidestep transgressing in those areas we honor. Our thoughts do not support our empowerment; in fact, thinking undermines everything we thought was a given within the power picture–and that leaves movement at a frustrating impasse. Too, the social role doesn’t support our ambitions and goals, and leaves our energies split. Reaching out works no better than trying to conserve. In the end this may be a day best spent taking a neutral stance, as attempts at progress lead us into a quagmire of contrary indicators and potential regrets (Vesta contra-parallel Ceres, Jupiter contra-parallel Zeus, Merc contra-parallel Juno)

‘Spielendes Mädchen’ (Girl Playing), 1918, Georg Schrimpf {{PD}}

Today’s word image is a hand puppet discarded at the side of the road. There’s something especially depressing about a toy left behind; I always wonder if anyone noticed when it fell–and if they did, why didn’t they pick it up? It has to involve a judgment, a decision that says this isn’t worth keeping, anymore. A discarded puppet could refer to something lost, though perhaps something that needed to be lost–that is, something we’ve outgrown. Or perhaps it represents manipulation of one kind or another; whether we were the puppet or the puppet-mover, it’s only positive that we’re out of that, now.

I’m back tomorrow, the 28th. Have a great Sunday!

‘Heroic Strokes of the Bow’ Paul Klee Collection of MoMA {{PD}}

There are rewards to being unique, to letting our originality, our quirks, and our viewpoint and abilities show, and we receive these rewards in ways and from venues we don’t necessarily expect–while those areas we look toward expectantly, anticipating a payoff, remain frustratingly quiet. We need to see current benefits are coming from new associations just being woven–and we’re behind the times, still looking to past areas of fulfillment, not realizing their era is gone. We are entering a new period when Self-confidence based on Self-reliance draws by far the most rewarding and fulfilling circumstances. It’s in displaying this essential life energy itself, the energy of being and doing, that we pull from the ether what we want, and what we need (Uranus contra-parallel Zeus, Venus nov Uranus, Merc parallel SN, the Sun enters Aries and is sesq Zeus and nov Pallas)

‘Portrait of a violin’ Jan van der Vaart {{PD}}

Today’s image is an old favorite song, the words of which you finally really hear for the first time. Are you surprised, shocked, or disappointed? Do you suddenly dislike a song you’ve always thought you loved, now that you know its true meaning? Or does it now seem like there are two songs, the one in your head, and the one that everyone else hears? Clarity of the information we receive is often something we assume, rather than actually know in practice; today we need to exercise care in listening not for something new, but for something we’ve heard a thousand times before, and to watch for the shift that hearing something clearly is bound to bring.

William Strang – ‘The Temptation’ 1899 {{PD}}

That’s really the heart of it: that our social sphere, the group, or some larger ‘authority’, ‘father’, or ‘god’ will ask us to be or do something that is the antithesis of our essence and our beliefs, and we may be tempted to comply, only to keep the peace. This entity may or may not intend to force us toward something we don’t want, but whether there is malintent or not, the effect is the same: we are being urged to negate, even betray, ourselves. It’s very clear from the aspects perfecting today, as well as the longer-term contacts still in effect, that we must respond to this by centering ourselves within our own values, ambitions, goals, strengths, and refuse to act anywhere but in those regions of life where we are empowered, powerful, and can rightfully exercise our prerogatives. Staying true to ourselves may cause a little (or a lot!) of friction, but it will certainly save our sanity and our Souls (Zeus qnx Ceres and trine Pallas, Jupiter contra-parallel Black Moon Lilith, sesq Vesta, qnx Pallas, and opp Ceres, Venus semi-sq Pluto, Merc trine Juno and contra-parallel Vesta)

Today’s word image is a chihuahua barking frantically at a large boxer from the safety behind a closed sliding glass door. Is there something you are vociferously attacking, all the while knowing it can’t harm you–or is someone barking like that at you? Ask yourself if the world needs that noise, and if you’re the target, if you do–and then proceed accordingly.

Photo by Paul Komarek Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Enjoy your Sunday!

Auguste Renoir – Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette 1875 {{PD}}

We may confront our own changing ideas and estimations of the worth of people, things, and activities in our lives, and find that indeed, we have complete power to change our relationship to them; let values already established, and the ideals we carry surrounding home and mate, be our guide. Awareness of a kind of complete authority we hold comes to us; so does the power to attract Love and Money, to imagine and create what we desire, and to deal with all those things we’ve been putting off handling, of late. These are heady times–make the most of the power you’re being handed, and learn to control what’s already manifest within–you’re what shapes the future (Vesta nov SN, Pluto sxt Ceres, Venus enters Pisces and parallels Ceres, Merc parallel Neptune, Sun qnx Black Moon Lilith)

Today’s word image is a snake just beginning to reveal itself as children play in the grass at a picnic. Often the image of a child is used to represent innocence, but since we are born whole individuals, with characteristics and personalities shaped by, rather than formed from, our experiences, I’m more inclined to see a child as someone whose attitudes, values, and outlook are still forming, immature only in the sense that they are inexperienced within the current environment. So, what’s sneaking up on you, that you’ve not yet given adequate attention? It isn’t necessarily negative; it could be facts or knowledge (commonly represented by a snake); it could also be something or someone moving stealthily, hoping not to draw attention until they’re ready to strike. Look around–you’ll spot it if you do.

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