My son has begun to cartoon his life. He draws what he sees the way he sees it and I am freakishly happy because I know firsthand how telling stories invokes Jupiter which acts as anecdote to the Saturn blues.

My son really has had a terrifically difficult life starting from the time he was 4 days old and seeing him with this outlet… well I just know he will blossom and be okay.

A few weeks ago he was threatening to draw his Mom burping and I think he has caught on to the power of all this. Got a problem with your mother? Draw her burping and watch her Libra flip out! There. All better.

This started when he was 4 years old. My daughter had been picking on him not stop as she was prone to do and apparently he had just had enough. Never in his life had he retaliated but he was PISSED and he grabbed a piece of paper and drew a picture of a tic.

Continue reading Sun Conjunct Saturn @ 8 Years Old - The Power Of The Pen: Storytelling (Jupiter) As Savior To Capricorn And Saturn Types

Venus (vanity) is conjunct Mercury (writing) in Aquarius (shocking / proactive / progressive). This conjunction opposed my natal Venus in Leo… which really likes it’s own hair.

“Well the whole blog is provocative,” I said. “There are 3 or 4000 posts I have written on this blog alone and every single one of them is going to provoke or shock someone. Oh my God, how can she say that?!? The astrology alone is enough to make most flip their lid and what am I supposed to do?”

Continue reading Voice Of Venus In Leo… Creativity Rules!

With Saturn in Leo hopefully you defined (Saturn) your creative self (Leo) and Saturn’s transit through Virgo will force edits. I am already noticing this big time.

For example I have gotten several emails advising me on the new videos, do this, don’t do that. Today’s comment on the story, “The Soldier and the Lesbian,” forced me to define (and defend) my writing. How Saturn in Virgo is that?

I also had some gal write me with scathing criticism about the blog in general. And while the beating was completely unnecessary and unwarranted, the point she made was utterly valid and I am going to act because of it.

So this is the job and my early impressions are this: People are going to tell you (or try to tell you) what to do at work. Some of them you should no doubt listen to. In other cases conforming would be a big mistake which leaves you to learn (Saturn) to discern (Virgo) who is who and which is which.

But if you do this successfully (and I think eventually most of us will) you are going to wind up with more command of your creative product… of your VOCATION than you could muster or manage any other way.

Anyone else notice themselves being nudged towards editing their creative output?

Over the weekend, I was talking to the soldier:

“I’m still making astrology videos,” I said. “I think I’ve made ten of them and I just feel really good.”

“I sure wish I could see, P. I want to see those things! But I guess it’s just as well because I know I’ll be jealous as hell when I do. I’ll be fuming. I’ll be mad as hell need to go for a walk!”

“Yeah, I think you will go nuts. Sorry about that.”

“No problem, P. I know you need to do this. I know it. This is in you and it has to come out like sweat.”

“Did you say sweat?” I was flabbergasted.

“Sweat, P. This is your sweat, it has no choice but to come out.”

What is in you like sweat?

Alison writes on the Pluto Uranus conjunction blog

In the sixties we did see new ways of being; the pill gave sexual liberation, revolutionary art, poetry, music and fashion. However, having observed my fellow peers with Uranus conjunct Pluto in Virgo there is a deep conservatism in this bunch. Like the Virgo is private and this group can keep their radicalness private and not on display. Some friends (of this group) have very mainstream, suburban, straight lives on the surface - but dig a little deeper and there will be an (one ?) aspect of their lives that is very naughty, risque and/or potentially criminal, experimental, creative. Many choose safe lives on the surface whilst being underground mavericks. Would love to hear more from Elsa with her knowledge an experiences with this curious lot.

Alison, you got it. And I agree with your take on this and here’s an example. This is the same friend here. Satori, who is a Pisces with her sun opposite the Pluto Uranus conjunction.

“Listen to this,” I said, reading from Leonard Cohen’s book, Energy Of Slaves:

I left a woman waiting
I met her sometime later
She said, Your eyes are dead
What happened to you, lover

And since she spoke the truth to me
I tried to answer truly
Whatever happened to my eyes
Happened to your beauty

O go to sleep my faithful wife
I told her rather cruelly
Whatever happened to my eyes
Happened to your beauty

“See that! Don’t tell Leonard Cohen his eyes or dead or he’ll write a poem about you! Gah. How would you like to be that gal?” Continue reading Art, Astrology, and the Uranus Transit Through Pisces: Sleep With Her Husband At Your Own Risk

And how do you think it feels to be the gal who cheated on him, hmm?

How well that gal fares depends on how well she knows how to use energy! Hank Williams is up there on the stage singing about her cheating heart! And people are clapping! And he’s getting paid! And where is she? She’s up a creek! But what she does at this juncture is up to her.

At first there is anger, I’m sure. That bastard! That cocksucker! It’s not like we hear her side of the story! So she can spiral down in a sea of resentment and victimhood or she might do something completely different. She might think about her cheating heart! And she might decide to feel her feelings. To dig it out, so to speak. She might go the grueling path and if she does that…

Well, she just might write her own song! She may learn she’s an artist too! She may be totally empowered, and have her life changed by this intensely painful experience.

But this takes effort. It takes balls! Much easier to cry in your milk. Much easier pour yourself a drink! Much easier to go out and fuck 11 more men in an effort erase the memory of this last one!

So you see how it goes. If you’re going to be alive, you’re going to get cards dealt to you. Some of them are going to be sweet. Others will be devastating. But if you get yourself sophisticated about this kind of thing, and if you are willing to be creative, you’ll see it makes little difference what others do. It’s all gas in your tank and you can drive wherever you please!

So with this in mind, if you go back and read the advice to the gal who was so profoundly dumped that started all this, it will probably make a lot more sense.

Astrologer, isthmus nekoi of obivinorum.com asks:

Is what you’re suggesting keeping the energy and discarding the form?

No. What I am suggesting is energy is received…in this case, negative energy. Someone attacks you. Someone betrays you. Someone stabs you.

At that point you have their energy. And energy is neutral until directed. So I am not suggesting you keep anything. I mean, you can do whatever you want. But I am suggesting you can take this energy and use it (direct it) in a way that is productive for yourself and others.

Case in point, myself. I get stabbed all the time. To the point of ridiculous. I am routinely attacked and this energy fuels this blog, among other things.

And this blog is very powerful, for me and for others. So the people who attack me…well, I may as well thank them. In other words, as my friend and astrologer, cf says: “Hit me with your best shot”. Do I care? I don’t. It’s all energy and energy is useful!

This is really very simple. Back to Hank Williams. You cheat on him, he hurts, he writes a song. It’s called, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. Is he holding on to anything? No. He’s used the energy of the experience in a positive way. He’s used the pain to fuel his creativity.

And he plays that song and it moves people. Lovers dance to his song! Cheek to cheek! Isn’t that cool? He gets himself free.

And how do you think it feels to be the gal who cheated on him, hmm?

::snickers::

Dear Challenged,

Yes, I have ideas. I suggest you adjust your perspective. Making a baby is an enormous task. My sister (a Pisces) told me once that she thought pregnancy was an 18 month thing, not 9. It takes 9 months to make the baby and another 9 to recover! And if you can embrace this idea, I imagine you will see immediate relief from some of the pressure you are putting on yourself.

Now astrologically, Pluto has just crossed your ascendant and squared your Moon Mars conjunction in Pisces. Pluto going over the ascendant like that is a once every 240 years event, and it appears you know enough astrology to glean this is a major, MAJOR life-changing transit.

This marks the birth of your child, but also the death of the woman you were before you had a baby… and the rebirth of you as a mother. Now doesn’t that sound like a lot? Think you might be busy processing on a very deep level? I do.

And when you are breastfeeding, your baby is FEEDING off you. You are literally donating your energy to feed your child. And this is intensely demanding! So do you think you need to be up and around and making art? Why?

As far as I am concerned, making a child is the ultimate creative act. You just made the greatest thing you will ever make, outside of your next child (if you make one). So it may help to attune yourself to these kinds of concepts, and give yourself a break. And trust that your life and life of your daughter will unfold on time, in a way that is perfect as well as perfectly unstoppable.

Good luck.

~~
Have a question? Need advice? Ask here!

Scott writes:

A common dilemma facing all artists is how much effort do you put in regarding the details at the expense of the underlying communication of the work? Or, in other words, one can get so caught up in perfecting every detail that one loses sight of the original intention and energy of the
work.

In my field of classical piano playing, this is a very common malady. There are literally scores of competent musicians out there that can do a respectable job of performing what are frightfully long and complicated works. Performing these things requires extended study for most of us, difficult memorization and intense practice and concentration to perfect.

But how many of them can make an audience go crazy after the performance? Not many. Celebrated pianist, and now, conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy has remarked on this very phenomenon, wondering out loud why so very few artists inspire an audience and most others don’t. It, frankly, mystified him, but it could be that since he is one of those rare artists who does inspire audiences, he was just being modest.

The fact is that most pianists lose themselves in the details of what they’re doing, losing the original impetus and motivation of the work. In music, the ideas of momentum, balance and architecture to keep the “IT” of a work going often gets lost in the intricacies of the individual notes, phrases and harmonic progressions. Trying to keep one eye on the details while simultaneously never losing the overall emotional impetus of a large piece of music, is, admittedly, a Herculean task; which is why most never achieve it.

One has to ask, ‘For Whom Am I Displaying My Soul?’ For only the cognoscenti and those in the know? Or for the general public at large? For those rare few who actually know exactly what you’re doing or for the child who has never been to a classical concert before? For the critic from the New York Times or for those innumerable souls that desperately love what you’re playing but can’t read a note?

Well, the answer, for the ultimate success in art, is both. That’s what makes artists “great.” The fact that they can simultaneously satisfy the critics in all those fine details and nuances yet, at the same time, they can move a general audience to tears and a raucous standing ovation. We artists treasure those priceless moments when it all comes together as a perfect unity, with everything in place and, at the same time, it stirs the deepest reservoirs of human emotion. That’s a great performance, and it doesn’t happen very often.

The key, in my mind, to great art, is universal communication that everyone can feel. Not whether you dropped 17 notes in the 3rd measure of the 3rd movement. Most of the time, performances are adequate and run-of-the-mill. They’re competent, with few (sometimes no mistakes) but they don’t move us necessarily or make us

Usually, there’s some mistakes and the performance doesn’t move us to ecstasy or tears either. That’s the run-of-the-mill everyday concert occurrence and I’m sure it’s the same in all the arts, whether it be sculpture, painting, the theater or something as mundane as a television movie of the week. Usually things are just “OK” and we go on about our lives as usual after words, having enjoyed the experience, but not having been really transformed by it.

But those special occasions when a performance really blows us away whether it be a Rolling Stones concert or a fantastic movie that you’ve just got to tell everyone you know to see, we are forever transformed by the event, and thereafter, are never really the same. These kinds of transcendent performances are when there’s that precious communication between an artist and his audience and both know something special has occurred. More often than not it might not be a “note perfect” performance, but the artistry, heart and passion come through to uplift an audience to its proverbial feet afterwards and shout “bravo”.

If I have to choose, I’ll take heart and passion over perfection any day. If you’re an artist I’ll let you in on a little secret: so will most of your public. Sure, if you give a less than perfectionistic, but emotionally driven and alive performance, those 1 or 2 persons out there that really know what you’re doing might be inclined to dismiss you and your work as unacceptable but, the majority of that audience might walk away transfixed and you may have changed somebody’s life.

Scott Leather

~~
Scott is a Cancer with an Aquarius Moon. Venus, Mars, and Pluto conjunct in Virgo