Getting
High in the New Millennium
Can
there be any doubt that the year 2000 was a milquetoast
compared to September 2001's experiences?
The
Millenium Fever was a farce, a device. Like an automobile
or toilet paper dispenser, year 2000 celebrations were quite
useful when used appropriately. It did propel the sales
of Champagne with consensus "fever," but to what meaning?
Now the same merchandise is not hitting the "high" of last
year's sales, "off by 6%" say the headlines.
And
if "getting high" is the theme of our escape, may it expand
beyond drugs and alcohol. I want to see whether it means
an attempt to "spiritualize," or project onto "highness"
something more special than it may deserve. Since the attacks
we are in Alice's Wonderland folks: the reversals are at
work. " Alice said, "I'm thirsty," and the Red Queen offered
her saltine crackers. The image most far apart, most tensly
opposed is the heights of the World Trade Center and the
dim caves inhabited by Religious Warriors. The Twin Towers,
the Saturn construction wonder of the western world, and
the Tora Bora, laced with burrows for rabbits and men, a
place in the Underworld Sagittarian far-away land where
Pluto holds court.
What
I take from all these recent historical moments is a greater
respect for my impulse to "go down," toward the realm of
the body and soul, and away from the heights of spirituality.
I too seek the cavernous ruins of soul, the dark place where
"angels fear to tread."
Upon
the moment of the attack I wondered about my own writings
on this subject, and forgot that I did write one essay back
in May that expresses in small fashion, my discomfort for
what the planets were portending for September.
The
calendar and its orderly way of dividing the year are devices
invented by clever people, a mental construct to enable
banks to agree to business hours. It is a convention made
by humans for humans (Or if you live in George W. Bush country,
it's "made by Texans for Texans."). Astrology is not a convention
made by human hands. Thus, is is called "Divine Art." I
propose that looking upwards is a recent invention: how
we reach for the stars in this era is by launching sattelites
into space and building spires on churches. But the ancients
knew that the more human way to find these significant lights
were in their reflected light, over the watery world, a
metaphor for looking down into the feeling context, instead
of upward in the mental (air) context so prevalent in our
"scientific age."
For
a brilliant metaphor of reaching our desires downward, find
it illustrated in a remarkable visual and interactive image,
in a game, "Pocketful
of Stars." I propose, in order to reach higher we must
jump lower.
In
order to find God, we must bend our knees. If we miss the
biblical prophets we must say they no longer exist because
no one genuflects in humility in front of their god, that
is until they are driven to it by the new feeling of uncertainty
now front and center since the beginning of the "New Normal"
back in September. We now look upon our loved ones with
greater intensity of feeling: life is truly short. The Terrorism
may not be 100% gone, and George W.'s men in white hats
may not have horses fast enough and stars pinned to shirts
shiny enough to battle an unknown enemy standing next to
us at the cocktail party. In order not to experience the
intense pangs of anxiety we cluster together in church,
we renew friendships, we take time for our children: we
learn to love each other with more Soul.
Astrology
is the inclusion of NATURE within our concept of reality.
Astrology proposes that we humans are a part of nature.
Mercury, to an astrologer might mean, "my thoughts, my exchanges."
In scientific mode, however, Mercury is removed by several
millions of miles. Newton and Bacon first moved the mystery
and associations of Nature into what is now called "Outer
Space." Mercury today is a cold planet closest to Sun: dangerous
for humans.
When
we astrologize our experience, we associate the planets
with Keyword memorized in classes or lessons. We learn to
"see" our lives lived symbolically, as if nature were within
us, and we within her. It is a an inclusive consciousness.
It is a lunar-style: not very popular in the "Old Normal,"
of soaring skyscrapers and getting high on three-martini
power lunches.
I
wish you in the New Year 2002 a deeper insight and greater
humor for the coming battles and difficulties which still
lie ahead.
--
CF Perez, December 30, 2001
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