Omens of the Inauguration‏

From: Pardis Barjesteh
Sent: Tue 1/20/09 8:12 AM

Greetings Earthlings,

It is interesting to observe where the divine has staked a place in our language, even where we may have lost a sense of what was once sacred, and which patiently awaits reclamation through divination, if we but learn to once again engage in dialogue and mystic communion.

From dictionary.com comes this offering on the etymological roots of the word inauguration (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inauguration):

inauguration 1569, from Fr. inauguration "installation, consecration," from L. inaugurationem (nom. inauguratio) "consecration, installment under good omens," from inaugurare "take omens from the flight of birds, consecrate or install when such omens are favorable," from in- "on, in" + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see augur). Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

And our beloved wikipedia elaborates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augur):The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds (whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of birds they are), known as "taking the auspices." The ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society--public or private--including matters of war, commerce, and religion.

You may think this is for the birds, but pagan Germans, Tibetans, and Aztecs, among others would beg to differ, as augury like astrology traces its roots to many traditional cultures. Not that I am an expert, and merely do my best to interpret the planets, which offer omens enough to keep me out of trouble. Before offering my thoughts on the subject, I just want to give thanks for the responses to the Jupiter in Aquarius email, many of which included: I'm not sure I really understood it all. It is my hope that in the weeks to come I can provide tools for understanding the symbolic archetypes of the planets, houses, signs, and angular relationships between them that we call aspects, but until then just think of this as an exercise in language immersion learning. As always, feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested or request to be added to the email list. Past newsletters are now being archived at: http://uraniarising.blogspot.com/. Of course you are also free to delete the email in your inbox or request to be unsubscribed. Postscripts include more links for information on augury as well as an astro-themed film showing in my fair home of Portland OR for any interested neighbors.

This weekend I went to the first birthday (aka solar return) party of someone who like Barack Obama and myself has a Moon in the early degrees of Gemini. Another guest, expecting his first child with a Gemini Sun, asked if there are undesirable days on which to born (under a bad star?), to which I replied, of course, that all charts are unique and exquisitely beautiful in their uniqueness. The truth is that all charts have beauty and shadow--as to what we choose to manifest, the consciousness is all. One of the classic examples of this is the case of Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin, born four days apart, and thus with very similar chart configurations, and distinct similarities in their characters, including the ability to engage the attention of large audiences to varying effect (with Chaplin also memorably parodying Hitler on screen). Uranus and Aquarius, the sign it rules, reflect the themes of the individual and the community, seemingly paradoxically, because the themes of the individual include independence, and also freedom, to claim one's unique genius (another Uranian theme). But a community is nothing more than a collection of individuals, and its strength is derived from their freedom to manifest their unique gifts for the benefit of all. The principle of democracy in the United States is Aquarian in nature, with its values of liberty, freedom, independence, and E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). What seems most unique about Obama is not that he is African American, but that he is the product of so many cultures: his father's Africa, his mother's Midwest, his birthplace Hawaii, his stepfather's Muslim Indonesia, his Ivy League education, his Chicago community (Aquarian) work, and from all of this literally E Pluribus Unum, the Aquarian democrat.

In a natal chart, the Ascendant or rising sign reflects the way a person navigates through the world, and as noted in the prior email, Obama has Aquarius rising. Discussing the democratic nomination, someone whose views I highly regard shared her opinion that she preferred Clinton for her toughness and experience as a politician, especially as needed for foreign policy issues, stating that Obama's standing reflected not his own accomplishments, but the efforts of the large numbers of people supporting him, but that what was being supported was not in itself necessarily fundamentally strong. Much has been speculated about whether Obama will turn out to be the savior that has been heralded--a cartoon depicted a sign in front on the White House lawn saying, Please do not walk on the water. My friend may no doubt be relieved with Clinton's appointment, and though her thoughts on Obama may be correct, I am not so sure that in itself is a such a bad thing. Heaven knows we hardly need astrologers to tell us things are in a sorry state, and one person, no matter what their virtues may be, is not going to save the world, for that will be nothing less than an Aquarian effort required of the entire collective, including, despite their anti-Aquarian opinions, Rick Warren's misguided flock.

Now it is said that the Ascendant depicts how we appear in the world, but the Sun reflects what our mission is. Obama has the thoughtfulness of the Gemini Moon, and the humanitarian vision and unflappable cool of the Aquarius Ascendant, both air signs, but his Sun is in Leo (the other end of the spectrum from Aquarius)--make no mistake, he is here to lead, and as the lion is the king of the jungle, he basks in the adoration of those of he rules, and so too have some speculated that he may turn out to be nothing more than a demagogue. It is often said that a planet is like a verb, its sign is the adverb that describes the manner of the action, but the house in which the planet is located is the noun that represents where the action is taking place. So the sign and house of the Sun show in what manner and where a person acts in order to shine. Obama's Sun is in the sixth house, traditionally known as the House of the Servant, and associated with the themes of the sixth sign, Virgo: service, work, and health. Contrast a Virgo (sixth sign) Sun in the fifth (Leo) house with a Leo (fifth sign) Sun in the sixth house: the former shines through humble leadership, while the latter shines by showing the way or leading in the act of service, think instead of a head waiter.

At any rate, as far as his primary triad goes, we have seen his Gemini Moon in the power of his speech, his sixth house Sun in his call for a Day of Service, and his Aquarius Ascendant in the theme of his inaugural address: A New Birth of Freedom. As he takes the stage in this time that calls him forth, with Saturn in Virgo (service), Pluto in Capricorn (ruled by that Saturn), and Jupiter in Aquarius, what gives me the greatest hope is the other big three: in mutual reception are Uranus in Pisces (the sign that rules Neptune) and Neptune in Aquarius (the sign that rules Uranus), conjunct Chiron the centaur, which is the healing that emerges from the wound itself. I think it is hard to imagine the extent to which our psyches have been truly traumatized by the last eight years under an administration of sociopathic thugs (for whom we have compassion in that they bear faint resemblance to sentient beings; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentient_being), and no doubt we have all resorted to some form of Neptunian escapist numbing of our senses simply as a coping mechanism to get through the day. While the theme of the healer is evident in the sixth house Sun, nowhere is it more apparent as a sign of the times and the manner in which this Leo Sun leader reflects it, than in his first house. The first house reflects a person's identity, and is defined by the sign on the cusp and the planets in it, and in the case of Obama, that is Uranus-ruled Aquarius rising on the cusp, and the only planet to be found therein, and the one that matters most now, is Chiron in Neptune-ruled Pisces (compassion, sacrifice, our highest ideals). The message in the heavens at the time of our new leader's birth is the same as that in the heavens today: let the healing begin, for there is much work to be done by all.

With blessings from the cosmos,
Pardis

Augury Links:Encyclopaedia Brittanica offers this on augury:

Prophetic divining of the future by observation of natural phenomena—particularly the behaviour of birds and animals and the examination of their entrails and other parts, but also by scrutiny of man-made objects and situations. The term derives from the official Roman augurs, whose constitutional function was not to foretell the future but to discover whether or not the gods approved of a proposed course of action, especially political or military. Two types of divinatory sign, or omen, were recognized: the most important was that deliberately watched for, such as lightning, thunder, flights and cries of birds, or the pecking behaviour of sacred chickens; of less moment was that which occurred casually, such as the unexpected appearance of animals sacred to the gods—the bear (Artemis), wolf (Apollo), eagle (Zeus), serpent (Asclepius), and owl (Minerva), for instance—or such other mundane signs as the accidental spilling of salt, sneezing, stumbling, or the creaking of furniture.

The prophetic art is age-old; the practice of augury is well substantiated in the Bible. Cicero’s De divinatione (Concerning Divination), dated probably 44 bc, provides the best source on ancient divinatory practices. Both he and Plato distinguish between augury that can be taught and augury that is divinely inspired in ecstatic trance. In China for millennia many have sought the counsel of the I Ching ("Book of Changes") before taking important action. This book interprets the hexagram created by the tossing of yarrow stalks. Among the vast number of sources of augury, each with its own specialist jargon and ritual, were atmospheric phenomena (aeromancy), cards (cartomancy), dice or lots (cleromancy), dots and other marks on paper (geomancy), fire and smoke (pyromancy), the shoulder blades of animals (scapulimancy), entrails of sacrificed animals (haruspicy), or their livers, which were considered to be the seat of life (hepatoscopy).

More fun to be had at:
http://www.geocities.com/walkndino/flyme2themoonindex.html?1081492272060
http://www.divinedivination.com/divination/20071007-152136-Divination-is-the-art-or-practise-of-foretelling-the-future-http://institute.emerson.edu/vma/faculty/john_craig_freeman/imaging_place/about/projects/choragraphy/MiamiRiver/03/index.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/bb/bb05.htm

The Northwest Film Center will be screening Ken Russell's film of Gustav Holst's The Planets on Wednesday January 21st at 7pm (not available on DVD).
http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/?volissue=371&series=2#2352

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets:
The suite has seven movements, each of them named after a planet and its corresponding Roman deity (see also Planets in astrology):
[Pluto had not yet been discovered]
Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
Uranus, the Magician
Neptune, the Mystic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst
Ken Russell: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001692/
The Planets: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086116/
"This is a collage of real film clips from documentaries, adverts and newsreels from around the world and spanning a fairly wide period of time. I seem to remember reading in the Radio Times at the time this was broadcast, that he had been given permission to make this film by Holst's daughter, and the main constraint was that he was not to use footage showing the atrocities of war. It could be argued that his choice of film to accompany Mars is all the more sinister and poignant because of what is omitted."