TAURUS & PSYCHE

Uranus transited Taurus from 1935~1942. By ignoring the hard lessons learned, resolutions made, and actions taken, our psyche has been polluted and progress poisoned. It doesn’t take a seer to see that the human race has become a race against bad shit happening. We’re primed and ready for a loss of hope and faith. Pundits joke, but having no hope is no laughing matter. We’re feeling impotent, incompetent, and indifferent, and resigned to apathy and acceptance as Uranus transits Taurus again.

People focused on values and questioned materialism. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. There was strength in solidarity. The USA went off the gold standard. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act and defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. What happened?

Uranus in Taurus awakened aristocracy, autocracy, and plutocracy. Greed and anti-socialism flourished. Uranus in Taurus brought William Randolph Hurst and Orson Welles, both bulls, who bullied each other over the creation and release of Welles’ movie, ‘Citizen Kane’. Welles smugly, immodestly, and arrogantly modeled the notorious media mogul Charles Foster Kane after Hearst. Despite his abundant natural charm, brilliant portrayal, ground breaking cinematography, and exceptional directing, Welles art was no match for Hearst’s wealth and capacity to influence courts and public opinion. Welles persisted in his righteous defiance of Hearst, while Hearst relentlessly tortured Welles with legalities and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could no longer afford his principles, rise to his challenges, or control his self-indulgences. Ironically, like Kane, Welles longed for his lost innocence at the end of his life.

‘Less is more’ learned Midas as he yearned for a touch of gold, got it, and transformed his beloved daughter into a cold hunk of metal. His food turned to gold as it touched his lips. How many gilded towers, glitzy gambling casinos, graven images, beauty queens, shark tanks, and celebrity idols do we need? One important lesson of Midas is in having stability, security, good health, meaningful work, and satisfying relationships, and not needing more than that. Healthy humans value what they have, nourish their relationships, choose higher purpose, and feel satisfaction and fulfillment without needing affluence.

Having too much or too little of anything raises our awareness of what truly matters. Black and white, all or nothing, good and evil, love and hate, and rich and poor are opposites of equal value; identical in nature, but different by degree. An old billionaire dying of cancer will gladly trade $ for youth and good health. A famous celebrity with a brain injured child would gratefully scrub public toilets at Grand Central Station to heal her child.

Can a ‘Stable Genius’ destabilize a nervous and fickle public with lies and manipulation? Our political, financial, and religious ideologies, philosophies, and paradigms are partisan! On November 3, will we see our Emperor for who he is or who he wants us to see? In 2021, Pluto will conjunct Saturn and square Mercury, Saturn will square Sun and Uranus, and Neptune will square a Gemini North Node. Our time of reckoning is now because hindsight is 2020. The handwriting is on the wall.

The New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve are bulls. Philosophical, ideological, and spiritual paradigms must shift as we approach a ‘Black Tuesday’ worse than ‘29. As transiting Saturn opposes our Stock Exchange’s natal Chiron and squares its natal Moon, transiting Pluto will be squaring natal Jupiter, Uranus will conjunct Venus, and Neptune will oppose Mars! People born 1935 ~ 1942 know and understand unexpected gain and reversal means that we must lose what we have to value what we had. It’s time for a new generation to learn those very same lessons again.

Needing guns is a symptom of a decaying culture. There’s lots of nostalgia and talk of Civil War these days. Resurrection-ism was imposed on the south because the Confederacy lost the war. Donald Trump has given bigots permission to express their hatred. Black and white wages endless war on battlefields of infinite shades of gray. What will we do when Repuglican’t bullies with their laws, fascists and terrorists with semi-automatic weapons of mass-destruction, and evangelical fundamentalists wielding bibles and handguns show up at our doors? Sensible people are afraid of crazy people. I’m not a fan of guns, but protecting family, friends, and humanity is a good idea.

Alchemy is not transforming lead into gold. Alchemy is synchronizing Saturn with the Sun and blending the Sun’s talents, energy, optimism, and initiative with Saturn’s skills, skepticism, master planning, determination, and enduring patience. We need our family, friends, and everyone else to be equal and to live, work, and play in harmony. Clients ask, “How long will I live?” “When will I die?” Everyone dies. Life is about quality, not quantity. I encourage my clients to be responsible for their thoughts and feelings.

Courage, strength, wisdom, and grace embody the four pillars that support good mental, emotional, and physical health. Responsibility, discipline, determination, and devotion are ideas, ideals, and values that help us build sound structures on solid foundations. Spirituality is innate, but godliness is earned by practicing faith, virtue, integrity, loyalty, dignity, nobility, and honesty. Shine your brightest light on your innate talents, abilities, and desires. Be clear in your intentions, decisions, and actions. You too can be an alchemist, your own best friend, and master bull shit detector.

Limericks by Steve Benko ~ Artwork by Mark Seltman

Said Donald, “Our minions I’ll galvanize,
And with porn stars and thugs again fraternize.
Vlad, I’m walking on air,
But though Mueller was fair,
For my insults I’ll never apologize.”

SEVEN SECRETS OF GEMINI

GEMINI MEETS GEMINI

“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.”  Hermes seven secrets are only secret to the uneducated and uninitiated. In ancient Greece, Hermes, was the god of Wisdom. As a Roman god, Hermes was Mercury, ruler of Gemini and messenger of the the gods. Thoth, the Egyptian version, was scribe of the gods. Loki was the Norse god of mischief. The Magician in tarot is Hermes at a crossroads with important choices and critical decisions to be made, directions to be taken, and the metaphysical resources and tools necessary to go anywhere and do anything at any time.

Hermes was reputedly a real person. He refused to grow old, spending much of his youth as a petty thief and mischievous trickster. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Shakespeare’s Puck parodied Hermes youth. A 20th Century version is Peter Pan, an adolescent who never grows old and has Wendy to believe in him; darn his socks, and sew his shadow back on when he needs that. Hermes transformed his ambiguousness and ambivalence into courage, strength, dignity, grace, and wisdom and lived for 350 years in the flesh. Gemini (social) and Virgo (technical) are Hermes home bases and recharging stations as he passes through time, space, and Cosmos.

I’ll be 72 on 6/16, still an adolescent, but for the mirror

Hermes, mystic teacher of Abraham, was the real father of wireless communication. Hermes realized our brains are cell communication hardware while our minds transmit and receive messages. Hermes understood that relationships between cells cause energy and matter to vibrate on different planes at the same time. Hermes described three separate and forever blending planes as physical, mental, and spiritual. Long before Moses, while other alchemists were attempting to turn lead into Gold, Hermes taught us that everyone, everything, and every thought are made of individual cells; physically, mentally, and spiritually connected to all other cells on all other planes at the same time. We can connect with anyone or anything at any time once we take a leap of faith, recognize and see our truths, establish connections, listen, and tune our links.

Alchemy is not about turning lead into gold. Alchemy is metaphysical, not physical. Alchemy is a set of magical formulas, tools, and esoteric instruction for being healthy, happy, and fulfilled. In practice, alchemy nourishes healthy vision, encourages healthy relationships, and helps seekers make smart decisions. Right actions, positive attitudes, and rock solid faith builds sound structures on solid foundations. By choosing to embrace our courage, strength, wisdom, and grace, we blend and balance Saturn with the Sun. Through structure, discipline, focus, and healthy choices, alchemy helps us become more mentally, emotionally, and spiritually connected and balanced in life.

Hermetic alchemy is the mastery of mental forces by transmuting one mental vibration into another. Hermes describes the unknowable and indefinable spirit as “The ALL”. “While ALL is in “The ALL”, it is equally true that “The ALL” is in ALL. “To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge”. The inner nature of The ALL is unknowable. That’s why we have anthropomorphic gods and institutionalized religion. Spirit is the essence that forms and glues the whole. Spiritual development depends on the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Great Spirit within and without.

Hermes taught seven basic metaphysical and philosophical principles.

“The Secret”, Hermes ‘2.0’, was a popular and profitable PR campaign for Hermes “Law of Polarity”. “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” Polarity is spiritual magnetism. The law of attraction works best when you know what you want and your intentions are clear. Anyone can transform negative thinking into positive circumstances by taking a leap of faith, letting go of fear, and doing the work.

Correspondence, Mentalism, Vibration, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender are Hermes other six ‘Secrets’. Knowing these secrets enabled Hermes to explore, examine, and explain everything. Opposites are two extremes of the same thing with many varying degrees between. Where does heat end and cold begin? Where does darkness leave off and light begin?  What of positive and negative, hard and soft, sharp and dull, noisy and quiet, high and low? The same principle operates on the mental plane. Love and hate are simply degrees of the same thing. Somewhere in the middle are shades of like and dislike. The vibrations of hate can be transformed into the vibrations of love through the art of polarization, a phase of alchemy known and practiced by ancient and modern Hermetic masters.

Hermetic masters possess knowledge of transcendental astronomy called astrology, transcendental chemistry called alchemy, and transcendental psychology called mystic psychology. They cultivate inner and outer wisdom. Critical thinkers throughout history have unlocked mysteries using hermetic thought and principles. Confucius, Galileo, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Nostradamus, Leonardo Da Vinci, George Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell are among the many ever-evolving Grand Masters of Critical Thought.  

Hermes used astrology to unlock ancient mysteries. Astrologers espouse Hermes second principle of correspondence “As above, so below, as below, so above”. Astrology is a symbolic system that compares and contrasts our heavens with the affairs of man on earth. Every relationship changes every other relationship on a cellular level by raising or diminishing its vibration, polarity, and rhythm. A diversity of astrology symbols embodies the characters, plots, and stories of this very dysfunctional family we call humanity. Sadly, the human race has become a race against bad shit happening.

Hermes asks us to know ourselves; to think critically, to be motivated, to make healthy choices, to nourish our positive attributes, and to embrace our healthiest qualities. As we flourish, we choose more nourishing relationships and embrace more meaningful roles for ourselves. We can transform lead into gold by choosing wholeness, happiness, healthiness, centeredness, peacefulness, and gracefully dealing with the rest.