A Curious Launch

I found it amusing when Stan Grof said that using astrology appeared even more contentious (to the modern intellectual mind) than using psychedelics!

As it happens, they  won't use the traditional 'signs', during their course, that dominate trivial discourse of astrology.  Their main focus remains on the planets and the major transits.  

Let's face it, most people celebrate their 'birthday' (aka Solar Return - when the Sun returns to the same part of the sky as during our birth).  

Quite a lot of women (at least) remain aware of the Moon Cycle - when we call the 'opposition' of Sun and Moon a 'Full Moon' and you can clearly see it, even in a light-polluted city.  And the 'conjunction' of Sun and Moon has the label 'New Moon' (but this absence needs a bit more calculation).

So far, no real argument.  

Most of us have no knowledge of  'our' Venus Return (about once a year), or Mars Return (every two years or so), or Jupiter Return (every 11-12 years), etc, for instance.  And we don't care.  They actually signify as much (or as little) as your Solar 'birthday', but most us don't have time to calculate or discover such relationships.  We just use that handy 'calendar' thing (e.g. sometimes your Solar Return may actually happen a day before or after your 'calendar birthday', but hey, who cares, right?  People have their party on the nearest Saturday, or whatever.)

I find the slower-moving planets even more interesting (and that's most of what this course seem to cover).

Saturn Returns (29, 58, 84) relate to crucial moments.  As we approach 30, many people put away childish things and start to take life (and their possible future) more seriously.  At the same time, if they have committed themselves early on to things, that 'looming 30' can prove a moment when they kick off the limitations and start afresh.  You may get married, or divorced.

No, I am not saying "Saturn made me do it!"    These planetary cycles act more like clocks (think, the Sun and the Seasons, which appear indisputable).  The Jupiter Cycle of conjunctions happens every 12 years of so, and by coincidence (ahem!) my Jupiter conjunction happens on the 28th of this month, two days after the course starts.   I rolled back the clock to my previous conjunction, and found myself studying 'The Tale of The Tribe' with Robert Anton Wilson (October 2005).

Other Transits can come into account, too.  The outer planets move even more slowly, and we rarely complete cycles.  Uranus Return happens at about 81.   You may want to consider the 'opposition' transit point at age 42. And so on.

Once you get to Neptune and Pluto, their movements seem more accurately represented by cultural shifts, rather than human life cycles.  And this course intends to reveal the patterns that seem to correlate with such big correlations - like 'The Thirties', or 'The Sixties', or our current times.   Wouldn't you find it interesting if the current nonsense of Brexit and Trump revealed connections to earlier parts of similar cycles of cultural shifts?  

That it may then refer back to my own adventures (I was 21 in 1967) would prove a perk.

Heading for 62 times around the sun

I get a 'birthday' next week (and I'll probably be at the 'day job') but what keeps me going (and pretty healthy and happy) are Julie, Dandy the dog, my children: Keili Olsen (Pentaphobe), Yolande Philpott and Matilda (my daughter and grand-daughter 'Tilda'), my daughter Finlay Pearl, my fellow conspirator in creativity Bobby Campbell, my fellow juggling madman Mr Jules, all the NoFit State crew (past and present), all the other Illuminauts, any fellow jugglers and magicians, the Cardiff Library crew (you know who you are), my sisters Julia (and all her children, and new grandchild) and Judith (& her son Luke), and all the people who gave me fun, hope, cheerfulness and optimism over the last few years...

Much thanks to my parents (long gone) and to anyone who touched my life and encouraged me to keep going...you know who you are...



For amusement - in reverse order (what else?)

The Mighty Boosh, Shameless, Skins, Spaced, Black Books, George Carlin, Monty Python, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, W.C.Fields, Buster Keaton, and so on and so on, back through all the fools in history....

And all the contemporary manifestations of such, from Crissie Trigger and the Raree Show to Franki Anderson and her Fool projects, Robert Anton Wilson and all the Maybe Logicians, from DJ Fly Agaric to Borsky the 'pataphysician, to anyone who doubts the simple realities they got offered in childhood...

Let's keep going with the 'blessings' of Bucky Fuller, and Bob Wilson, R.D.Laing and Maslow, Korzybski and all the weird Quantum Physicists - the passivist anarchists, the revolutionary pacifists of non-violence and non-resistance... all the crazy optimists and dreamers and futurists...

Peace.

Time for a re-evaluation

I have to admit that I don’t really know why I write a blog. Just as with the website I wanted to learn about the new digital interactive world, and prefer to learn by trial-and-error rather than in theory only.

As far as I can tell, I mostly use it to reflect my state of mind. Occasionally world news, or work news, or home gossip slips into the mix, but I don’t feel the right to involve other real people too much, without their permission. I mean, shall I publish a photo of friends around the table at a party, or would they prefer not to have their picture on the web? During my life I have known draft dodgers, illegal drug smugglers, fathers not paying support, people on the run from abusive partners, illegal immigrants, freelancers who don’t pay taxes in the country they are passing through, etc. I have no idea whether I have the right to blow anyone’s cover.

Privacy, and all that...

At times it works brilliantly, like when I found a rare comedy album by Murray Roman on vinyl, and I mentioned here that I didn’t have any way to clean up scratchy old records.

Someone searching for the same obscure comedian found my blog through Google, and contacted me, offering to make clean digital versions if he could keep a copy, too! I gave him the vinyl – no use to me. Three Kinds of Highs - proof that other blogs occasionally remember him.

That’s the good stuff. Unfortunately, some of what I post also annoys people. I don’t do that on purpose. Whether a throwaway line about Buddhism, or a snide comment about dogs, I can get myself into trouble with readers (no excuses accepted for sloppy writing and thinking). Anyway. I can always come back and edit, although re-writing history slightly removes the fun of being able to scroll back through the diary years to see how things change. I never intended it as an 'accurate record' of anything more than my mood swings and passing fancies.

The main website needs re-designing and refurbishing, but that huge job may have to wait.

This blog, and the parallel one (focussed on my magic hobby), and the MLA one (started as a supplement to the Quarterly magazine), and the Circus Arts Forum (paid work) keep me pretty busy. Getting around to writing an article for the next magazine, or writing ‘the book’, still seem quite difficult to fit in around a day job.

The ever-diminishing time-slot doesn’t help. For all the dreams of life extension, etc – most guys don’t make it much past their mid-70s. (We just lost RAW at 74, same age as my dad got to). I don’t really expect much progress in life extension in the next decade (unlike many of my friends) – especially for old and misused bodies like mine – so I got 13 years or so, maybe.

That seriously concentrates the mind on what might seem important. Of course, if you think we hit The Singularity before then, or that the Mayan Age of Revealing, or global warming, or a nuclear war, or the plague, or whatever should absurdly interrupt my little life, then I have even less time. Hey ho.

Here's the little fellow, Dandy, that greets me in the morning. Sorry to have implied I don't like cleaning up after a crappy little chappie.

He'll probably keep us fit in the summer, and prove a great excuse to get down to the beach (with plastic bags in our pockets).

I just growled at him (like any old dog) because he seemed too new and bouncy for me. So it goes.

Calling all Sentient Beings...

Nice to spot a Comment from old friend Crissie...I don't get a lot of feedback, which explains why I work hard at this blog, and then lapse at times.

Actually, I don't ever stop posting/writing - I just move around. For instance, on Buddhism, you can find me reporting as Godfrey Zone over in OM.

[use the Index, if you don't wanna use the new option to Search Blogs with the control bar at the top]

That post links to Bobby's great bit about Nagarjuna’s Claim, philosophy which sounds incredibly modern to me (having grown up in a culture inhibited from actual thinking by the threat of getting burned at the stake...

You'll find me both discussing stuff, and purely pontificating (or musing to myself), all over the place - and I try to keep it all linked up, but finally my brain probably represents the only complete collection of thoughts. ?!?!?!?!?

Comments really do work, too! I get notified of them, and try to respond to all and any...

I never meant to do you any harm...

I woke up this morning to presents from the postman, so big thanks to everyone who timed it so well - to Julia and Elle, Yo and Matilda and Dieter, to Clare and Finlay and Nicky, to Emma, to Judith (perhaps my dearest friend) - and for electronic greetings hello and thanks to Ms Noh and Crissie and Hadass.

I feel honoured that people take the time and thought to do these things (I feel fairly notorious for either missing, or ignoring significant dates in people's lives).

I put on a saffron shirt today, both for the spring sunshine colour, and for the Buddhist monk robe colouring. I do not consider myself a Buddhist, but have a lot of empathy for their world-view. And now I get to go to Japan tomorrow, for a week, so I will experience a Buddhist culture firsthand, for the first time in my life. What a great present from the universe!

I think of the essence of Buddhism (and perhaps all true spiritual practice) as harmlessness. I may have hurt people at times through my clumsiness, ignorance or stupidity, but never through malice. I would like to take this opportunity to wish a peaceful day to all sentient beings. You can find a Tibetan take on harmlessness, here.

May all sentient beings become free of suffering. May peace, joy, wisdom, and compassion consume us all. May all beings find the path to enlightenment that lays within the core of each individual as well as in the whole of humanity.

The portrait of my father in the book I just found is a little unkind, but probably quite accurate. However, in spite of the fact that our society is STILL dominated by religions of superstitious belief, I am intrigued by his Theosophical connections. If you have no idea what that means look here.

I'll quote a little below, adding BOLD here and there...If I am protesting too much it is because Theosophy has been linked with Occultism, Master Races (Hitler was a vegetarian, etc) and other evil shit, but to ignore it because it has been misused or corrupted at times is like refusing The Theory of Evolution because some people use it to argue that Rich people are better and fated to rule, etc. A lot of this is arrant nonsense and much is simply propaganda from the equally scary 'official' religions.

Apart from anything else it is why I have been a vegetarian from birth not a vegan, I am sorry....and I HAVE experimented with meat and fish on occasion when travelling. I still think it was a great start in life. Of course, since about the 1960s it has become a bit more fashionable, and acceptable, but it was definitely a 'Cranks' thing back then.

Theosophy's Western Impact - from Hinduism Today, June, 1995.

"The influence of the Theosophical Society" concludes the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "has been rather significant, despite its small following. The movement has been a catalytic force in the 20th-century Asian revival of Buddhism and Hinduism and a pioneering agency in the promotion of greater Western acquaintance with eastern thought."

Some of the most influential people of its day were attracted to Theosophy - playwright Oscar Wilde, poet W.B.Yeats, author George Bernard Shaw, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, inventor Thomas Edison and even baseball's founder General Abner Doubleday.

Here is a partial sampling of organisations with direct links to earlier Theosophists: From the earlier part of this century came the I Am Movement (with 3 million followers in 1938), Rosicrucianism, the Liberal Catholic Church, Psychiana, Unity (6 million), Christian Science and sections of the New Thought movement - all influential in the higher strata of society. More recent kindred are the Waldorf alternative schools popular in the USA and UK, the London School of Economics and St. James School, and New Age channeller J Knight. The famous Findhorn Garden in Scotland came directly out of Theosophy.
The Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita translations of Swami Prabhavananda with Christopher Isherwood were singularly successful in clearly conveying Hindu thought to the West. Leadbeater's books on occult sciences, such as chakras and auras, reinforced Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. Aldous Huxley's book, Doors of Perception promoted mystical experience leading directly to the explosion of interest in the East in the 60s.

If you dig deep enough, you'll find Theosophical influence in the environmental, animal rights and vegetarian movements. No mystical endeavour in the West is exempt, be it yoga, meditation, channelling, near death experiences, natural healing, past life research, UFOs, Mt. Shasta or St. Germain. Even HINDUISM TODAY is not exempt - our ashram here in Hawaii was built in 1929 by a wonderful Hawaiian poetess who taught Theosophy here to seekers in the same room where we meditate each morning before dawn.

I mentioned Ursula Le Guin when responding to watching 'Walking With Cavemen' (and that unknown anarchist still hasn't posted the complete text of 'Carrier Bag Theory..' up anywhere, for me to link to) - however, I went and found her delightful website, and came across two quotes I'd like to pass on, the first is from the preface to the short story 'The Day before the Revolution' published in the anthology 'The Winds Twelve Quarters Vol2' It is written by Le Guin 'In Memorial to Paul Goodman 1911-1972'.

"Odonianism is anarchism. Not the bomb-in-the-pocket stuff, which is terrorism, whatever name it tries to dignify itself with, not the social-Darwinist economic 'libertarianism' of the far right; but anarchism, as prefigured in early Taoist thought, and expounded by Shelley and Kropotkin, Goldman and Goodman. Anarchism's principal target is the authoritarian State (capitalist or socialist); its principle moral-practical theme is cooperation (solidarity, mutual aid). It is the most idealistic, and to me the most interesting, of all political theories." I found that here

The second appeals to me even more (the only real difference between us being that it took me a little longer to discover Taoism)

"I read Lao-tzu and the Tao Te Ching at 14. My father had it around the house in the old edition with the Chinese text. I sneaked a peek and was and remain fascinated. Taoism is still an underlayer in my work. It begins talking about what we can't talk about -- an old mysticism that intertwines with Buddhism and is practical and not theistic. Before and beyond God. There's a humorous and easygoing aspect to it that I like temperamentally and that fits in with anarchism. Pacifist anarchism and Lao-tzu have a lot in connection with each other, especially in the 20th century."
Quoted in "Summer Reading," Mother Jones May / June 1995 v. 20 no. 3 (p. 34). That quote I found here

And the weather continues to match my lowering mood - we are slowly getting the network migrated onto the Council Servers.

The house is still in DIY chaos - and my body is still refusing to get well - as another of my peer group goes into hospital for (possibly) the last time - asbestos from work in the Seventies doing it this time. thoughts of mortality strike again - testing my amateur Buddhism to the limit.

Bob is still singing for me like an older brother - he's always just a couple of years ahead of me - in spite of living an entirely different life, he gets the mood spot on. [I know, all the fans feel like that - but that's why I consider him a superior artist - it's precisely the endless ambiguity which allows us to project ourselves into the work - just as it is the wonderful openness, and bare-bones theatre, of Shakespeare which gets rediscoverd over and over again as relevant to people.]