A detail from Hieronymous Bosch’sThe Garden of Earthly Delights”Beware the slinking whisperer who whispers into the hearts of people, whether he is from the world of spirits or the world of humans.” – Sura 114, The Qur’an”The mind is its own place…
Tag: Myth
How I Broke My Achilles Heel
The boy hero was educated by Chiron, the centaur. Here depicted by John Singer SargentSilver-footed Thetis, the sea goddess, leaned over the the River Styx, and dipped her demigod baby into its dark current. The magical water made the boy invulner…
Astrology and Carl Jung: Part 2 Jung’s Childhood
Note: As my Facebook friends know I have reentered college to finish up my degree in psychology. As part of one class I am writing a paper on the influence of astrology on Carl Jung. Jung is widely embraced in … Continue reading →
The King Is Dead, Long Live the Queen
Princesss Elizabeth and her dashing consort Philip at a polo match in Kenya, just days before she succeeded to the throne in 1952.The 33 daughters of the Roman emperor Diocletian, cast adrift in the grey sea (after murdering their 33 dreary husbands), …
The (Kind of Creepy) Birth of Venus
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| Alexandre Cabanel’s Birth of Venus (1875). You can see why Napoleon III wanted it for himself. |
In the second post of her three-part series on the myth of Saturn, guest blogger Isy, takes a look at what can happen to a flying penis when it hits the ocean waves.
In my first guest post, we saw Saturn, the youngest Titan, with extraordinary self-management and merciless timing, cut his criminal father away from his furious mother and win dominion over the gods. Let’s look a little more closely at what else happened, and how it relates to Saturn’s distinctive energy.
Saturn attacked his father Uranus for transgressing against nature on three counts.
- First, his father’s rape of his mother was an abuse of sexuality, a core part of being.
- Second, Uranus had trapped and imprisoned his youngest children, a negation of his own seed, his stake in the future.
- Third and most importantly, Uranus had taken Earth’s fecundity – in her children – and buried it away from any chance of growth, flourishing and further procreation.
The rape of Gaia was considered by the ancient Greeks to be a marital issue, hating one’s children to be a personal one, but contravening the fecundity of Earth was a transgression against the essential nature of things.
Uranus was doomed by his actions.
In my next and last in this series, I’ll look at the dark side of Saturn, and what happens when he, too, transgresses against himself and his family.
We left the story right after Saturn thought, planned, waited, then slashed open the gap between Earth and Sky, sending his father’s wedding tackle flying just at the critical moment. The blood that spattered onto the Earth became giants, furies, ash-tree nymphs, and other mythical beings.
When Uranus’s (let’s not beat about the bush) falling penis, anointed by Earth’s body and full of sperm, fell into the sea – realm of Saturn’s older siblings Oceanus and Tethys – it caused a great foaming, agitation, and froth. Aphrodite, later romanized to Venus Urania, was born from the froth and the waves, midwifed by fishes who swept her safely to shore. (This is one of the Pisces origin myths and Venus is exalted in Pisces.)
Thus, Venus Urania has roughly five parents, and was born as a result of punishment/sacrifice for multiple transgressions against love, duty and care. And she could have been born in no other way.
Venus’ very existence depended on Saturn doing everything exactly right, although that’s not why he did it.
The least deviation from his course would not only have meant disaster for himself, it would have meant that the Venus of heartfelt love, cherished children, and rational comfort could never have come into being… She was a natural outcome, as it were.So, on a personal level,
Saturn requires the correct course, regardless of whether you relish the task or fear failure. But, when you do exactly what he calls for, the doors that seem to bar your way simply disappear. Moreover, the fertile opportunities this creates can provide the most unexpected, but perfectly logical, additional benefits.In my next and last in this series, I’ll look at the dark side of Saturn, and what happens when he, too, transgresses against himself and his family.
For more of Isy’s writing on health, adaptation, science, and sailing…
* Health and Life with CRPS-1: http://livinganyway.blogspot.com
* Cauterizing the Bleeding Edge: http://biowizardry.blogspot.com
Castration, Rape and a Sharp Blade: Saturn’s Tricky Childhood
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| Saturn is the master of time and death |
I’m very excited to have my first guest here at the Oxford Astrologer. My friend and colleague Isy has very kindly agreed to share her insights into that old devil, Saturn. This is the first of a series on the subject.
I think her background in science and medicine giver her a special insight into the god of time measurement and comeuppance.
My Saturn placement is problematic. I was determined to come to terms with the old boy.
At a certain point, after reading the Greek stories in translation over and over again, the words disappeared and Kronos/Saturn’s coming-of-age suddenly appeared before me in all its shocking, bloody, disturbing glory, and Saturn as a force began to make a lot more sense. Here is what I saw.
Uranus (Sky Father) came every night to cover Gaia (the Earth), whether she liked it or not. Their union was widely varied and truly bizarre, and Uranus hated their children – found them just hideous. The first 12 were the Titans.
Uranus loathed his latter-born (the Cyclops and the Hundred-Handed) so much that he stuffed them into Tartarus — physically a part of his wife’s body, since Tartarus is inside the Earth. This hurt Gaia horribly, in every way.
Transgressing one’s true nature or that of another is a recurring crime in the Saturnian myths.
Gaia crafted a flint sickle from her own body. (This detail tells you how old the story is.) She exhorted her Titan sons, who were still free, to use this cutting-edge technology to castrate Uranus in order to stop the vicious cycle.
Only the youngest, Kronus (later romanized to Saturn), saw any point to it. He was the youngest Titan, the closest in age to his buried brethren, and had the least to lose. But as the youngest and least respected, he had no room for error.
Taking up the stone sickle, he lay in wait for Uranus’s nightly conjugal visit. Staying hidden until his father was totally unaware, Kronus grasped the sickle and with a mighty slash he clove a gap between Sky and Earth. He thus castrated his priapic father, without hurting his helpless mother, and created a potential space that had never existed before.
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| The Mutilation of Uranus by Giorgio Vasari |
Can you imagine what that was like? For us mortal children, it is bad enough just to know our parents had sex! To hold himself silently in place, while his mother was raped, and to wait for exactly the moment of success, was a horrifying feat of nerve, precision, and absolute resolve. When you complain about Saturn’s intransigence, think of this, and realize what a price he paid for his success.
Moreover, he didn’t just save his mother. He carved a new space for things to grow, with a curved blade from the Earth. Looks to me like the beginning of cultivation in Europe!
To see him as the force behind the natural laws that govern sowing and reaping, the payoff of hard work, and the unyielding requirement of doing the right thing in the right place at the right time for the right result, is no stretch.
Is that malefic? Or is it just hard?
Properly used, Saturn supplies the energy of rightful outcome for well-laid effort. Think how carefully he planned his attack against someone much larger and more powerful than himself. With relentless precision and with no drama, he waited for the right moment, then used his tools to strike with total concentration and full force.
There is absolute power in the energy of Saturn, as surely as there is absolute frustration; it’s all in how accurately and mindfully you follow the real energies as they flow uniquely in your life.
More from Isy on Saturn next Monday. Read more of her writing on health,
adaptation, science, and sailing…
adaptation, science, and sailing…
Cauterizing the Bleeding Edge: http://biowizardry.blogspot.com
The Magical Tide Jewels of Japan
One of Hiroshige’s Views of Mount FujiAs a wedding gift, the dragon-king of the sea gave his human son-in-law two jewels – kanju and manju. He wanted to ensure the future prosperity of his semi-divine descendants.Those jewels were not just decorative t…
Fat Boy, Fukushima and Japan Facing Frankenstein
Godzilla emerged from the depths of the ocean back in 1954, and trashed Tokyo. He may have been a plastic monster in a less than B-movie, but he also symbolised something important.Let me explain.A rather attractive Polish version of Godzilla.Godzilla …
Awakening Frankenstein
Boris Karloff in the 1931 film Frankenstein.In the summer I wrote a post about Dracula with some suggestions about which planets we could associate with the fanged one. I ended that piece by suggesting that Frankenstein might be associated with the pla…