Skip to main content

When storytellers get personal... very personal





Pegasus and the Muses



Storytelling events are hugely popular in much of the US, with more and more people paying to see performers share their most intimate experiences on stage. But how intimate is too intimate? A room full of strangers is waiting. Graham Campbell is backstage, pacing one way then another under the red light of an Exit sign, muttering under his breath. As the compere gives the cue for him to step on to the stage, he admits he is "terrified". May 3 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36059246







Eclipses and Moon phases can weave earthly events with the archetypyal figures of the constellations in ways that are quite unbelievable. Here we begin with the chart for the last solar eclipse at Washington,DC from where the author Jasmine Taylor-Coleman, the author of the piece, posted her story. The eclipse along with Neptune is placed in the 5th house which rules all public places of enjoyment and recreation including the theatre or similar places where creative artists express themselves before an audience. It is conjunct stars of the winged horse Pegasus and Pisces. According to legend, everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring spring burst forth. One of these springs was upon the Muses' Mount Helicon, the Hippocrene ("horse spring") opened.

 Pegasus, therefore, helps to uplift  the imaginary forces of the mind while delving with Pisces into the oceanic depths natives return to the surface with the gift of eloquence, the ability to move others with words, music and ideas, yet it only after experiencing  the torments of life, with its inevitable sorrows and anxieties, that they come to their true mission , understanding that there is a pattern and purpose to their travails, and that their gifts are to be put at the service of others [1].

Opposite the eclipse is Jupiter and the North Node among early stars of Virgo. About Virgo, the ancient Roman astrologer Manilius wrote:

On them she will confer a tongue which charms, the mastery of words, and that mental vision which can discern all things, however concealed they be by the mysterious workings of nature….But with the good there comes a flaw: bashfulness handicaps the early years of such persons, for the Maid, by holding back their great natural gifts, puts a bridle on their lips and restrains them by the curb of authority. [Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.237 and 239]

This description of  Virgo tells us why the speakers at the “personal” storytelling events are so “terrified” and yet the challenge of the eclipse is to face an audience and inspire them with their story.

And completing the picture is the star Spica, alpha Virgo, on the Ascendant. This was the single determinant star of the Indian lunar mansion Chitra, ruled by Tvastr, the heavenly carpenter, who possessed Maya, the power of making and shaping the way others see the world that is a form of magic. Words and music pour forth from these natives as from a deep well spring.




If now we progress the eclipse chart to May 3, the date of the news, notice that the progressed Ascendant touches off the eclipse T-square.






Readers who go one step further  and draw the chart for the Balsamic Moon phase of May 3 at Washington, will find the Ascendant [22cn] is conjunct the star Castor, alpha Gemini often referred to as the “storyteller” [2]. It is square Uranus [21ar] amidst the stars of King Cepheus about which Diana Rosenberg writes:

Cepheus is a solitary monarch. A natural predilection for solitude and study combines with a powerful emotional expression.  Brilliant, inventive, creative, they have an inborn ability to inspire others if they can overcome their deep sense of insecurity and alienation that can lead them into paranoid, hypersensitive and self-limiting introspection.




[1] Secrets of the Ancient Skies; Diana Rosenberg


Comments