Tag Archives: astrology

02/11/23

Looking at Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s Music Video (2022) “Unholy” (Part 1 of 1)

0001 The Grammy Awards Ceremony is broadcast February 5, 2023.  Sam Smith and Kim Petras win the grammy in the category of Best Pop Duo or Group Performance for their song, “Unholy”.  Their grammy performance quickly goes viral, with many Christian podcasters dubbing the performance… say nothing of the ceremony… “Satanic”.

To wit, I now examine the official video for this song (not the Grammy performance) for the unholy message that the song sends.  My conclusion is that the moniker, “Satanic”, may apply.  But, so does the word, “political”.  This music video spins an artistic message, at once cryptic and revealing.  I strive to delineate this message, using the methodology of the category-based nested form.

0002 This music video is an actuality.

According to A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form (available at smashwords and other e-work venues), in order to understand (or appreciate) an actuality2, one must figure out its normal context3 and potential1.  So, this is what I intend to do.  My determination of normal contexts3 and potentials1 is purely speculative.  Do not take them as judgment or doctrine.

I start with a guess.   The normal context3 is politics.  The potential1 is for ‘something Satanic to be exposed’.  Thus, the normal context of politics3 brings the pop-music video, “unholy”2, into relation with the possibilities inherent in ‘an exposure of something Satanic’1.  Maybe, Satan shows his plans for the future.  Who knows?

Here is a picture.

Figure 01

0003 Politics?

The song is released on September 22, 2022, six weeks before the November midterm elections in the USA.  The November 8, 2022, elections occur at the time of a lunar eclipse.

0004 So, I suspect that politics3 includes astrology3.

Several astrological squares and oppositions are in play on September 22, 2022.  Here is a picture of some of them.

Figure 02

0005 The Saturn-Uranus square is at the top of the list, since it dominates the last half of 2021 and almost all of 2022, including the span from September through November.  In the following figure, a zodiac sign is the normal context3, a planet is the actuality2, and the potential pertains to the astrological characteristics of such an arragement1. When two planets are at right angles to one another, it is almost as if they work at cross purposes.

Here is a picture.

Figure 03

0006 So, the release date offers clues to the potential of ‘stellar arrangements’1.  Whatever Satan is preparing, it is simultaneously a cold calculation and a steaming pile of manure.

0007 Speaking of cold calculations, the video begins.

A woman in white gets out of a car.  Is she the daemon of the American Democratic Party?  What is a white woman?  A woman who has abandoned Jesus and found… shall I say?… someone willing to put a warm coat of manufactured virtueupon her?  She is obviously highly educated.  She is well manicured.  As he goes to park the car, she enters the foyer.  She reaches into her pocket and lifts out a playbill (an official narrative) and a condom from the Body Shop (protection, of sorts).

0008 Here is a diagram of the first of five movements in the video itself.

Figure 04

0009 Well, isn’t that the way the music video starts?

Biden is a good looking man.  He drives the car and parks it at the Body Shop.  He has been there before.  He knows the price of things.  The lyrics mention daddy.  Daddy Biden.  Shall I call him Biden Joe?  Biden goes up the stairs and passes the whores of various nations.  Can I make out China, Iran and Ukraine?  Miss Ukraine devours the blossoming youth of her nation.

Biden Joe is tempted.  And, he knows how to play the game.

Figure 05

0010 Someone pulls on Biden Joe’s tie.  Then, a vision captures his gaze.  Biden is in a booth, overlooking a theater.  He engages two active parties (Ukraine and China?), in pay for play.  Biden sees Biden.  Joe observes Hunter.  Both are the same person.

Say what?

0011 Suddenly, Sam Smith, perched in a balcony seat in the theater of the Body Shop, captures the viewer’s gaze then hurtles it towards the blue center-stage, where Kim Petras descends upon a swing in the shape of a heart.  Her madonna-like visage lands on the top of an automobile.  American, no doubt.  Biden Hunter is in the back seat, in full erotic rutting.  He has what it takes to satisfy the material girl.  He is in deep doo-doo (English, for “fumier”).

Figure 06

0012 In the fourth movement, Biden is spent and on display, mimicking the Hangman of the Tarot Cards.  The Hangman card is often interpreted as the potential of an unusual revelation.  Here, the revelation is compromising.  Biden is exposed (on top of the car, for all to see) as who he is (a load of manure, for all to smell).

Figure 07

0013 The drama is not over.

The spent handsome man, simultaneously the daddy and the man-child, lays on stage as completely revealed to an American public as a liar and a cheat.  It is written on the car.  The entire dance troupe awaits the next moment.  The audience in the theater (perhaps, the mavens of corporate media) applaud.  What a performance!

Then, the white woman walks up the aisle towards the stage.  Who knows how she got there?  But, she is there to render a judgment.  She steps on stage and observes the prone corpse of her man, in a pure Saturn-square-Uranus pose of cold calculation looking upon someone who could not keep his business clean.

She turns and faces the audience.

She has a choice.

0014 Here, we see the crux.  Here, we see the materialization of ‘something’ that Satan wishes to be revealed.  It is all about choice.

Does the white woman, a key demographic that remains wedded to the Democratic Party, repudiate the man that she was led to believe in, and embrace the perverse machinations of the Body Shop, the apparatus for the temptation of the father and for the corruption of the son?

Or, does she repent?

0015 Here is the message.

Figure 08

0016 The curtain falls.  But, there is one small issue.  A foot of the corpse remains on display, indicating that what has been exposed is not for certain.  Not even Satan knows the future for certain.  Sam Smith and Kim Petras are big fans of the projected outcome.  But, the story has only begun.

0017 Now, I recapitulate.

First, I place the work of art under examination into the slot for actuality in a category-based nested form.

Figure 09

0018 I make an initial guess.  My guess is informed by Christian podcasters commenting on the Grammy ceremony.

Then , I proceed to imagine the normal context3 and potential1 of various aspects2 (here, movements2 within the drama).  Do these cohere with my initial guess?  Some will say, “Yes.”  Others will say, “No”.

0019 Here is the breakout for the realm of actuality2.

Figure 10

0020 Do these cohere with the realness of the music video?

Yes, these are the actualities2 that I endeavor to put into normal contexts3 and potentials1.

0021 What does this imply?

The astrology of the time of release frames the movements in term of a square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus.  The artist pours out a beautiful and captivating music video with two figures represented as one.  Yes, that one handsome man, like a bull, is simultaneously Daedalus, who fashions the wings of escape, and Icarus, who uses the wings, fashioned by his father, to fly too close to the Sun.  To me, this associates to the contemporary story of Joe and Hunter Biden.  Oh, did I mention that Jupiter in Aries is in opposition with the Sun in Libra?

And what of the woman in white?

Does the white woman represent one of the most faithful demographics wed to the Democratic party?

She opens and closes the music video.

0022 Here is the breakout for the realm of normal context3.

Figure 11

0023 What does that imply?

The normal context3 of astrology addresses a post-Christian world.  In this pagan world, certain bonds, certain promises, and certain rituals are presumed to be substantial.  But they are not.  The woman in white lives in a world of pretensions.  The playbill recounts an official narrative.  And, the condom?  That is official, too.

The Body Shop manifests the will to power in the furnishings of materialism.  The philosophy of the will to power asks one to pay for entrance into the Body Shop.  Daddy is hot.  Daddy cannot hide his business.  But, he retains restraint.  Not so, his son, who is the same as the father.  The symbolism of the double is striking.  Temptation for the father translates into lust with the son.  The father and the son are both out of control.  Both are to be exposed and ruined.

Where?

On the stage of the Body Shop.

0024 Where does that leave the white woman?

She faces a choice.

And, that choice reveals ‘something’ Satanic.

Satan dreams that her choice comes to pass.

0025 Here is the breakout for the realm of potential1.

Figure 12

0026 The story of the stars offers a narrative of fate.

In our world of pretensions, playbills offer narratives and condoms offer protection.

From fate?

0027 The Body Shop seals the fate of the one man, who is really two.  Daddy wants something to keep himself warm.  The son wants someone to cool himself off.   But, the selves are no different.  They both subscribe to the Body Shop.  For them, the choice is already made.  Their destiny is certain.

0028 But, is the same fate necessary for the woman?

I don’t think so.

If anything, this advertisement for the Body Shop aims to foreclose any option that prevents the destiny that Satan plans for her.

She has a choice.

Unholy or holy?

Will she signal her manufactured virtue by repudiating her own ruined man, while simultaneously bonding with the unholy Body Shop?

Or, will she mourn the loss of her pretensions, and appeal to the love of God?

0029 I reiterate.  These associations and implications are purely speculative.  They are to be taken as an act of appreciation, rather than a judgment or a doctrine.  My thanks to Sam Smith, Kim Petras, along with their collaborators, for producing this engaging music video.  Here is a work of art worth examining.

With that said, I recount my initial guess.

Figure 13

0030 For those interested in trying their own hand at this diagrammatic method of art appreciation, please consult A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).

Here are some other music videos worth trying the method on.

“I Wanna Get Better” by the Bleachers

“Doom days” by Bastille

“Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance

“This is Gospel” by Panic at the Disco, plus its sequel

“Hi Ren” by Ren

0031 If the reader wants to suggest other music videos worthy of examination using this method, please e-mail Razie Mah at the address that appears in the Primers.

01/7/21

Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction in Aquarius (Part 1)

0001 Does astrology begin with the first singularity?

The first singularity potentiates civilization, by opening the door to unconstrained labor and social specialization.

Astrologists exemplify a certain type of specialization.

0002 How does astrology work?

Astrology offers a primary causality, associated to the celestial realm, as a way to appreciate the secondary causality of our mundane realm.

0003 In sum, astrology provides context and potential to events that we experience in the here and now.

Figure 01

0004 Yes, this structure parallels the primary and secondary causalities appearing in scholastic philosophy.Primary and secondary causes are discussed in Comments on Fr. Thomas White’s Essay (2019) “Thomism for the New Evangelization”.

01/6/21

Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction in Aquarius (Part 2)

0005 The normal context3 and the potential1 for astrology2 depend on another actuality2, consisting of what we see in the celestial spheres, the motions of the sun, moon, planets, constellations and other stars.

This gives rise to the astrologer’s vision, where a reading of celestial events1b expresses the potential1b of celestial arrangements, transits and so on2a.

Figure 02

0007 Now, there are two actualities.  On the content level, there are celestial arrangements.  On the situation level, there are various civilizational events, including personal dramas.

There is no apparent material or instrumental causality connecting the two, even though the sun, the moon, and the planets have gravitational influence.  The sun also determines space weather.  Plus, the sun orbits the galactic center.

The tradition of astrology offers final and formal causes, cobbled together over time through correlations between planetary motions and mundane events.

0008 The discovery of planets beyond human sight contributes to modern astrology.  An entirely new branch of astrology looks at historic events and trends in relation to the motions of the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and now, Erin. This branch of astrology considers civilizations as beings.

0009 Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, the outermost visible planets, occur in a every 20 years.  One lifetime may see 4 conjunctions.

However, the pattern extends beyond one lifetime.  The conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur in one type of sign for around 200 years.  The typology of signs is earth, air, fire and water.  So, every 800 years, the cycle completes.

The last conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn occurred in an earth sign.  The 2020 conjunction takes place in an air sign, Aquarius.

0010 The Jupiter-Saturn cycle of 800 years, belongs to both ancient and modern astrology.The recent Saturn-Pluto conjunction, in January of 2020, belongs to modern astrology.

01/5/21

Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction in Aquarius (Part 3)

0011 In April 2020, I posted a series of blogs about the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, with Jupiter co-present (but not in conjunction).  This celestial event in January, 2020, marks the start of one of the most bizarre plagues of modern medical history.  Even though the novel coronavirus from 2019, has a fatality rate of less than 5% for people over 75 years old (and for people with co-morbidities, including asthma), the responses of governments throughout the world has been amazing.

Rather than protecting old folks, health-care bureaucrats locked down entire populations.

0012 How did the crisis start?

The novel coronavirus initially spread after the City of Wuhan held a huge banquet commemorating the upcoming lunar New Year, the Year of the Rat.  Already, the easily transmitted RNA-based virus had infected many. This was its opportunity. When Wuhan’s residents returned to their native homes for the Lunar New Year, the disease spread throughout China.  Also, the disease passed through international air terminals to the rest of the world.

0013 This mundane event coincides with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction.  Capricorn is the sign of government and organization.  Saturn is the planet of time (as in, ‘your time is up’ or ‘your time has come’).  Pluto is the sign of the underworld.

Is it any coincidence that health-care experts come out and declare this novel coronavirus to be a grave disease?

Here is a picture.

Figure 03

0014 As discussed in my blogs in April, 2020, the imagery of the sign of Capricorn touches base with the first singularity.Thus, the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn resonates with the dawn of astrology, as a specialization within our current living world.

01/4/21

Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction in Aquarius (Part 4)

0015 Does Aquarius touch base with the first singularity?

Capricorn is half-goat and half-fish, which corresponds to the dual earth-water origin of the Ubaid culture, 7821 years ago.

The Greeks do not capture this image with their story of Pan being caught in an alternate chimerism.

0016 Neither do the Greeks capture the nature of how Aquarius resonates with the origin of astrology within our current Lebenswelt.

Ganymede is a youth so handsome that he is taken up to be the cupbearer for the Greek gods.  So Aquarius is symbolized by a youth pouring water from a jug onto earth.

0017 Ah, it turns out that in Babylon, the god Ea carries an overflowing vase of water.  This is the same Ea that is associated with both land and sea in Capricorn.  And, this is the same Ea that is associated with the primordial waters.

0018 So, bearing jugs of water for the gods?

In one Mesopotamian origin myth, humans are created in order to do the work that the gods were tired of doing.

Is that what is in store for the next 200 years?

0019 Against this speculation, the sign of Aquarius is an air sign, rather than an earth or a water sign.  So, where does Ea fit in with the creation of the air.

What does pouring water have to do with giving birth?

In one ancient Mesopotamian myth, Enlil, the god of the air, is born from the union of Aku, the sky, and Ea, the water.

0020 Ah, that is more like it.

Aquarius touches base with the birth of unconstrained social complexity.  Unconstrained social complexity has the character of the weather, the air, the storm and the wind. There is no telling how the spirit moves.  But, drop a coin into an astrologer’s hand and you may hear how the sun, the moon, the planets and the constellations put your turbulence into a celestial perspective and divinized opportunities.

0021 So, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, in the sign of Aquarius, in December 2020, also resonates with the start of our current Lebenswelt.  Enlil is born again.

Figure 04

04/3/20

An Intimation (or a Proof) of the Actuality of God

In the previous blog, I left with this two-level nested form.

Figure 1

The two level-nested form characterizes sensible construction.

So, even though there are missing elements, I may draw sensible conclusions.

Here are some.

The content-level actuality of God2a must be assumed in order to obtain the situation-level nested formb.

The Divine Presence1b is the situational potential of the actuality of God2a.

The normal context of the Divine Will3b and the potential, the Divine Presence1b, virtually emerge from (and situate) the actuality of God2a.  So does the secondary causation in creatures2b.

We (humans) do not know the normal context3a and potential1a that accompany the actuality of God2a.  These slots are not truly empty.  Rather, they are opaque.

I can speculate as to how the actuality of God2a becomes apparent in history, by examining the astrologer’s vision, which has a similar relational structure.

Here is a picture of the astrologer’s vision, derived in the three prior blogs.

Figure 2

How did this relational structure come about?

I suppose that methods for reading the heavens1b are already formalized in the Sumerian Dynastic civilization of southern Mesopotamia, starting around 3000 BC.  While that is five thousand years ago, the condition of unconstrained complexitystarts 2800 years earlier, with the first singularity, as discussed in An Archaeology of the Fall. 

Yes, history has laws.

The first law is history is that our current Lebenswelt is not the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

The second law of history is that history has a beginning, around 7800 years ago.

This year may be labeled 7820 Ubaid Zero Prime.

The third law of history is that history is the story of unconstrained complexity.

The fourth law of history is that the potential for unconstrained social complexity begins at the start of Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia, then radiates from there to other cultures of the time.

At the site of initiation, Ubaid villages (0 to 1800 U0’) grow and transform into Uruk town-chiefdoms (1800 to 2800 U0’), which develop further into early Sumerian city-states (2800 U0’ on). 

The fifth law of history is that history is entangled with the semiotics of speech-alone talk.

What does this imply?

The astrologer’s vision develops in our current Lebenswelt, in an effort to sensibly comprehend mundane events in an increasingly complex, rapidly changing, social world.  The Lebenswelt that we evolved in disappears behind the horizon of the first singularity. Why?  Hand-speech talk and speech-alone talk have different semiotic qualities.  The traditions of one cannot survive in the other.  No written mythology of the ancient Near East (with one exception) pierces the veil.  What does this suggest?  The Ubaids cobble together their own formula for grasping what is going on in our current Lebenswelt.

So, the astrologer’s vision is conceived in mundane events during the formative Ubaid period.  The Ubaid not that much different from now.  Everything changes.  Yet, everything stays the same.  Everyone acts as if the current social world has been there forever.  Everyone faces different challenges within that social world.  In dealing with those challenges, the social world changes, sometimes quietly and sometimes boldly.

Here is a diagram of the seed of the astrologer’s vision.

Figure 3

The proto-astrologers had only to look to the heavens to see a parallel to events on the mundane plane.  The sky is always in motion.  The sun moves.  The moon moves.  The roving luminaries move.  At the same time, the stars do not move.  They do not change their relative positions.  So, astrologers connect the dots.  The stars coalesce into constellations.  The constellations along the transit of the sun, moon and planets gain value because they are the like the numbers on a gigantic mechanical clock.

The constellations are fixed and continually accrue mythic associations.  Perhaps, this is how Capricorn, half-goat and half-fish, constellates the image of the Mesopotamian god, Ea, who lives on land during the day and in sea at night.  As mentioned in the first blog in this series, the zodiac sign of Capricorn pictures the earthly-watery mix of the Ubaid, Uruk and Sumerian ecological and social worlds.

A connection between the always changing, yet always familiar, motions in the mundane world2b and the movements of the superlunary beings against the fixed constellations2a, grows into a formal system for specifying how events in the celestial sphere presage events in the mundane plane.  The result is the astrologer’s vision.

The astrologer’s vision is a template for remembering past worldly events and for contemplating future events.  The astrologer’s vision solves problems inherent in unconstrained social complexity2b by incorporating both change and stasis into a coherent theoretical system1b, where mundane events2b virtually situate (and emerge from) celestial conditions2a.

My example comes from the gospel of Matthew.  Astrologers from the east, the lands of the Medes and Persians, follow a “star” and bring gifts to the infant Jesus.  The fact that the child is of humble origins turns out to be significant.  The Trinity works within their cognitive game, implicitly unveiling a larger picture, an intimation of the actuality of God2a.

Here is a diagram of the journey of the magi.

Figure 4

Indeed, the astrologer’s impulse, like the magi’s fancy gifts, seem weirdly confused.  Surely, the magi anticipate a figure of future authority, but greet a somewhat befuddled young couple.  Then, like the astrologers before them, they transcend their own expectations.  They know that any celestial event2a must be read in the light of both the (unmoving) zodiac signification3b and the situation at hand2b.  The events2b,2a remain actual.  The reading1b accommodates.  The astrologer bends like a willow.

Now, allow me to compare the journey of the magi with a prior figure, an intimation (or proof) of the actuality of God.

The relational structure begins with the situational actuality2b.  The causation exhibited by creatures2b mirrors mundane events in our world of motion2b.  Creatures act the same over and over again.  Yet, they are wily and adaptive in unusual circumstances.  Similarly, our behaviors and traditions in unconstrained social complexity establish habits and routines.  Yet, the unexpected always arises, calling for us to be cleverer than we otherwise would be.

The journey of the magi adds a sublime twist to this comparison between two situation-level actualities.  The birth of a royal child in the sublunary realm2b mirrors the secondary causation of creatures2b.  It is as if all life is honored in the journey of the magi.

What about the situational normal context3b?

Astrology puts our earthly turmoil2b into the normal context of something that does not itself change, the twelve signs of the zodiac3b.  For a particular celestial event, one sign will dominate, as in the example of the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in January 2020.

The zodiac mirrors the Divine Will3b, which is unmoved and multifaceted.  The Divine Will3b contextualizes our worldly affairs2b.  Like the numbers of a mechanical clock, the Divine Will3b orients the moment at hand2b.  Like the zodiac, the particularity of God’s Orientation2b is revealed.  Everything has a proper season.  Contextualization of our worldly events2b by the Divine Will3b allows us to remember, contemplate and decide.

What about the situational potential1b?

The Divine Presence1b addresses a moment in time.  So, does the magi’s reading1b.

The magi’s reading of celestial events1b tells us of the nature of the Divine Presence1b.  The Divine Presence1b is the potential1b of the actuality of God2a in the same way that the magi’s interpretation1b engages the potential1b of the actuality of celestial transits through unmoving constellations2a.

For the magi, the celestial sphere2a contains motion (the sun, moon and the roving stars), as well as a lack of motion (the stars in the constellations).  These two features allow reading1b to occur.  The regularity of celestial motion contributes to habits of interpretation, styling astrological hints and suggestions.  The permanence of the constellations, along with the finite number of moving celestial bodies, contribute to astrology’s foundation.

For primary and secondary causation, the actuality of God2a transcends time and enters time.  Here, time parallels motion.  God’s transcendence of time is like the lack of motion of constellations.  God’s entrance into time parallels the motion of celestial bodies. Transcendence speaks to the exclusivity of the Divine Will3b.  Entrance addresses the inclusivity of the Divine Presence1b.

Yet, while the Divine Presence1b manifests in every moment in time, the entrance of the actuality of God2a into the flow of time divides all time.  The Incarnation fixes one moment in the continuum of time.

The journey of the magi is significant in this regard. The gospel passage in Matthew highlights this precise moment, when the secondary causation of creatures2a simultaneously fulfills the primary causation of the Divine Will3b and realizes the potential of the primary causation of the Divine Presence1b.

The relational structure of the journey of the magi mirrors the relational structure of primary and secondary causation involved in the theodrama of the birth of a king, whose kingdom is not of this (mundane) World.

In this mirror, I can see an intimation (or proof) of the actuality of God2a.

04/1/20

How much potential does tiny Pluto have?

In the last two blogs, I discuss a contemporary gift, from modern magi to Christian newborns, in the parallel relational construction of astrology and the Thomist’s insight into primary and secondary causation.

Here is a picture of the association of primary and secondary causation with the category-based nested form.

Figure 1

For astrologers, the superlunary sphere parallels primary causation.  The sublunary plane matches secondary causation.

Here is how that looks.

Figure 2

My example entails a celestial event on January 20, 2020, the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto at the edge of the constellation of Capricorn, teetering into Aquarius.

Saturn is a massive planet.  It is visible to the unaided eye.  Ancient astrologers tracked this “roving star”.

Pluto is a dwarf planet, invisible to the naked eye.  It is 0.2% the volume of Earth.  Tiny Pluto is discovered in 1931, during search of the Knieper Belt, inspired by a perceived incongruity in the orbit of Neptune.

The year of discovery stands between the two great Battels of the Enlightenment gods, the naïve battle among the Mercantilist gods (1914-1918) and the hot battle among the Fraternal Ideologies (1939-1945).  What better time to discover a distant invisible roving star and label it with the name of the pagan god of the underworld?

Pluto seems large at first.  Improved measurements reduce its size.  More dwarf planets have been found.  Eris, discovered in 2005, is slightly larger than Pluto.

So, why would a modern astrologer worry about Pluto?

Why not only follow the visible planets tracked by our ancestors?

The periodicity of Saturn is a little over 28 years.  Many modern humans live to see two full orbits.  This short periodicity may capture the psychology of the mundane world, but not the sociology.  Sociology requires longer periodicities.  Pluto’s circuit of 248 years fits the bill, as do the legitimate planets of Uranus (discovered in 1781, 84-year orbit) and Neptune (discovered in 1846, 165-year orbit).

What does this imply?

The addition of unseen, distant planets with multi-generational periodicities offer modern astrologers the long periods useful for sociological readings.

Now, I return to the nested form for the conjunction of Pluto and Saturn in the constellation, Capricorn.  The Wuhan plague starts right before the inauguration of this year of the rat.

Both the mundane event and the celestial conjunction are real.  An actual event2 occurs on Earth.  A potentiating event1occurs in the heavens, within the normal context of Capricorn3.

However, the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto is also actual2.

Is there a way to configure the category-based nested form in order to account for the realness of the celestial event?

Yes.  One way follows Peirce’s secondness.  Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements.  The nomenclature is one real element [contiguity] other real element.  For example, I could write, celestial event [contiguity] mundane event.  However, there is no material or instrumental causality between these two real elements.  So, this route is blocked.

Another way is to construct two category-based nested forms and hierarchically arrange them.  One nested form enters a situation level (corresponding to actuality).  The other nested form enters a content level (corresponding to potential).

The relation between situationb and contenta is the same as between actuality2 and potential1.  Yet, the relation occurs between nested forms, rather than elements with a single nested.  The qualifier “virtual” (meaning, “in virtue”) denotes the distinction.  Situationb virtually emerges from (and situates) contenta.

In sum, the actuality in the celestial sphere2a may be distinctly separated from the mundane plane2a through a two-level interscope, as described in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction.

Here is how that looks.

According to this sensible (two-level) construction, the mundane plane2b virtually emerges from (and situates) the celestial sphere2a.  

Ironically, this relational structure also applies to both genetics and natural selection, as demonstrated in Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the Genome, as well as Speculations on Thomism and Evolution.

Notable, for both genetics and natural selection, the content levela is relatively independent of the situation levelb and contains a potential1b exploited by the situation levelb.  For astrology, the situation levelb places the content levela within a mythic framework1b that is tested by the congruence between actuality2b and potential1b, in the normal context of astrology3b.

The fall of Wuhan2b passes the test and addresses the question, “How much potential does the miniscule Pluto have?”

But there is more.

The celestial drama of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter entering into Capricorn2a can be read in light of events on earth2b.

Pluto enters into the constellation of Capricorn on November, 2008, during a world-wide financial crisis.  Easy-finance mortgages, packaged in the USA, are sold throughout the world.  When the bubble bursts, powerful Wall Street companies swoon.

Central banks save the day by propping up financial firms.  In the following years, debt levels rise, extraordinarily, surpassing the debts of 2008.

Now, in early 2020, dozens of economic bubbles are ready to pop.

In 2008, the H1N1 virus jumps to humans in Mexico.  In 2009, the so-called “swine flu” produces a small panic.

Meanwhile, in 2007, Chinese and American scientists collaborate on research into the SARS virus, which swept through Asia four years earlier.  They publish detailed studies of bat-associated coronaviruses.  This work is continued by scientists at the Wuhan Virology Institute, with subsequent publications, even to the unfortunate outbreak.

All it takes is a small tear in a bio-protective suit to release a genetically modified virus into the populace.

Pluto is a tiny player.  Yet, events2b in the fields of finance and virology readily play into the image of a minute celestial being, fully capable of exerting its influence within each constellation2a.  Pluto is a sign of death and renewal.  Capricorn is associated with sovereign power and political order.

In contrast to dwarf planet Pluto, Saturn is massive.  Saturn enters the constellation of Capricorn in December 2017.

At the time, in the USA, President Donald Trump finishes the first year of his term.  National politics is rent by (false) corporate media narrative explaining why Hillary Clinton loses the 2016 election.  The (fraudulently initiated) Mueller investigation offers promise for revenge.  (Innocent) General Michael Flynn (under tainted legal counsel) pleads guilty to lying to the FBI.  Republican candidate, Roy Moore, loses a senate bid in Alabama under the weight of (numerous, manufactured and media-driven) accusations (for sexual misbehavior 30 years prior).  Q posts on the dark web for the first time (and is later vilified and ignored by corporate media).  A foot of snow falls in Georgia.  The city of Atlanta is paralyzed.  Facebook admits censorship.

Worldwide, Britain triggers article 50 of the EU constitution.  Mohammad Bin Salman becomes heir to the Saudi throne.  The nineteenth congress of the Chinese Communist Party names Xi Jinping to a second five-year term, then ends without naming a successor.

Saturn is all about time.  Time reveals all things.  Already, in the first quarter of 2020, the American news of 2017 is shown to be deceptive (see parentheses above).  World news of late 2017 is similarly qualified as Saturn passes through Capricorn.

Jupiter enters Capricorn in December 2019.  It will leave December 2020, after Saturn and Pluto are no longer in retrograde.  The mythic attributes of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter entangle.  The first complete conjunction occurs January 12, 2020.  Pluto leverages the weight of Saturn in a mythic story1b, telling of the fall of Wuhan and the spread of a novel coronavirus2b.  The mundane plane1b resonates with the celestial sphere2a.

What lesson can I draw?

The story, told above, addresses history and sociology.  Pluto’s advantage comes from its extraordinarily long periodicity.  It lingers within each constellation.  It moves slowly, just like sociological transformations.  Seven visible planets go into conjunction with Pluto as it passes through each constellation.  Saturn goes into conjunction with Pluto every 33 years.

The last time Pluto passes through Capricorn is from 1762 to 1779, during the corruption of Louis XV in France.  King George III rules Britain and milks her colonies.  Frederick II serves Prussia, winning battles and promoting Enlightenment ideas.  Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles III, rules the Hapsburg Empire.  Catherine the Great captures the throne in Russia.  The Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth suffers losses in 1772.  Mohammad Karim Khan Zand rules Persia, ending 40 years of war.  The Ottoman Empire suffers peace and militarily falls behind its European rivals.

1762 through 1779 marks a calm before the storms of the French revolution and the American insurrection.  Germany, Russia and Austria partition Poland. The Enlightenment reformer, Joseph II, follows Maria Theresa.  Persia enters civil war after the death of its regent.

In many ways, the current transit of Pluto recapitulates its previous passage through Capricorn.  The deaths and rebirths of many political-religious unions are already underway, include those political systems that claim to be “not religious”.

The long periodicities of Pluto, Neptune and Uranus offer modern astrologers a vantage not available to ancient astrologers.  Long periodicities allow the contemplation of a sociological spiral through history.  The ancient astrologers thought that the mundane world lives within celestial cycles.  Now, modern astrologers imagine a spiral, where celestial cycles are superimposed on an unfolding that transcends the rhythms of the heavens.

The wise men in the gospel of Matthews catch a glimpse of this theodrama, when they lay their gifts before an infant king.  They follow the stars.  Look what happens.  Surely, they did not anticipate…

Astrology expresses the same relational structure as genetics and natural selection.  Yet, it operates to bring the mundane plane into mythical union with the celestial sphere.

Astrology also expresses the same relational structure as primary and secondary causation, offering an intimation (or proof) on the actuality of God.

Just as, in astrology, the motions of the celestial bodies2a are independent of events on the earthly plane2b, yet are situated by the mundane1b, the actuality of God2a stands independent of primary3b,1b and secondary2b causalities, yet is situated by themb.

The primary causalities of the Divine Will3b and the Divine Presence1b do not physically move.  Secondary causalities2b, exhibited by creatures, facilitate bodily motion.  The actuality of God2a gives rise to the unmoved (Divine Presence1b) Mover (Divine Will3b), just as a celestial actuality2a underlies the zodiac’s constellation3b and the astrologer’s reading1b.

This implies that, just as the planets move before stationary luminaries in the celestial actuality2a, the actuality of Godmoves before the actuality of God within the Divine Realness2a.

These parallels are gifts, from the astrologer, to the modern scholastic.

03/28/20

Magi Bear Witness (Part 1)

According to the gospel of Matthew, after Jesus is born, wise men arrive the East, following a “star”.  Of course, the term, “star”, must be broadly construed, pertaining to the superlunary domes, as opposed to the sublunary planes.  The motions of superlunary beings represent ‘something’ to the magi, corresponding to ‘something’ in their sublunary situation.

They read the “star” as a sign of a birth of a king.

The magi are “magical” is so far as this: There is no direct cause whereby a divine superlunary being activates, moves, arranges or manipulates ‘something’ in our sublunary realm.  Yet, causation appears to be present.

In Comments on Fr. Thomas White’s Essay (2019), “Thomism and the New Evangelization”, available at smashwords.com, one finds a parallel with primary and secondary causation.  Primary causation entails God’s Will and Presence.  Secondary causation pertains to God’s creatures.  Creatures exhibit secondary causation, without compromising the primacy of God.

The “magic” at the heart of modern and premodern astrology re-articulates a foundational distinction in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas.

How do these indirect causalities operate?

Here is the picture.

12/1/19

Saturn-Pluto conjunction and Jupiter-Pluto Conjunction in Capricorn, 2020: Resonances with the First Singularity

The gospels tell of magi, astrologers from the East, following a star (or maybe a planetary alignment).  Today, a similar phenomenon occurs.  Starting at the end of 2019, Saturn and Pluto enter conjunction in the constellation Capricorn.  Then, Jupiter enters the same constellation, coming close to Pluto later in 2020.  Astrologers watch wide-eyed.

Imagine the possibilities.

Saturn is the planet of civilizational systems.  Time eats its own.  The deep state runs, no matter who is in charge.  Then, it runs out of Time.

Pluto is the planet of death and birth, destruction and renewal.

Jupiter is the god of sovereign and worldly order.  His decrees are like bolts of lightning.  He rules the pantheon.  He enforces the laws.

Then, there is the constellation of Capricorn, the house of government.

Pictured as a goat, I imagine the constellation opening its doors to planners, workers, scientists and sensible thinkers. These people climb mountains, one step at a time.

But, the ancient image of Capricorn is far more curious.  The constellation has the head and torso of a goat.  It has the abdomen and tail of a fish.  For this reason, it is called the “sea-goat”.

This is the representation that I would like to discuss.

The ancient Greeks have a playful explanation for Capricorn.  Pan, already half-human and half-goat, finds himself in a tough spot.  Other gods transform into animals in order to escape the predicament.  When Pan tries, oops, he turns into half-goat half-fish.

Even further back in time, the Sumerian civilization has a god, Ea, who brings the arts of civilization to humans.  During the day, he comes on land.  Then, at night, he retires to the water.  Does that sound chimeric?

Now, I make a dramatic play, by asking, “Could both Ea and Capricorn stand for some event that the ancients forget, yet remember in their divine images?”

An interesting answer comes from Razie Mah in An Archaeology of the Fall and The First Singularity and its Fairy Tale Trace.

The bi-modal god, Ea, and the sea-goat, Capricorn, stand for the formation of the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia, around 7800 years ago.  Over the next three thousand years, the Ubaid becomes the Uruk and the Uruk becomes the Sumerian civilization.

So, how is the Ubaid culture both on land and in sea?  How is it half-goat and half-fish?

The Sumerian language provides a clue. It is a linguistic isolate.  It does not belong to any family of languages.

Why is this so?

It is a creole.  A creole forms when two disparate cultures are thrown together.  Trying to get along, they produce pidgin, pieces of language, that are sown together into a new language by later generations.  A creole fits the image of a chimera.

How did this happen?

During the Developed Neolithic, say nine or ten thousand years ago, the Persian Gulf is dry land.  A wide river valley holds a narrow gorge, carrying the flows of the Tigris, Euphrates and other rivers.  Two separate Mesolithic cultures settle the two habitats.  One comes from northern Mesopotamia.  These folks are farmers and stockbreeders.  They settle the valley.  Here is the goat.  The other comes along the coast, probably from the East.  These folks have reed boats and live off the marsh.  They settle the gorge.  Here is the fish.

Around eight thousand years ago, the ice age ends and the current interglacial begins.  The sea levels slowly and powerfully rise.  Sea water fills the gorge, then submerges the surrounding broad valley. These two cultures are thrown together.  Each culture loses its hand-speech talk.  The resulting creole, Sumerian, is the world’s first speech-alone language.

Yes, the Ubaid emerges from both land and sea with a new way of talking, speech-alone.  All their Neolithic and Epipaleolithic neighbors still talk with a combination of manual-brachial gesture and speech (that is, hand-speech talk). The semiotic differences between speech-alone talk and hand-speech talk are huge.  Speech-alone talk potentiates civilization in southern Mesopotamia.  Speech-alone talk spreads on the wings of mimicry to adjacent hand-speech talking cultures, then flies to all corners of the Earth, seeding unconstrained social complexity along the way.

Our current Lebenswelt is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

Two gods stand at the threshold.  One dwells in Sumerian myth.  The other lingers in the heavens.

The end writes the beginning.  The beginning writes the end.

Todays’ astrologers watch as Saturn and Pluto come together, then Jupiter and Pluto, as well.  They join in the House of Capricorn.  What do the heavens portend?  Astrologers strain to imagine the possibilities.  Here, is another one to consider.  Capricorn resonates with the first singularity, the potentiation of all civilizations.  In this constellation, the planets align.