I weep for the earth,
for what we’ve not seen, allowed:
acquiesced – wake up
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
Haiku: Nature 4
Author: Ciscography
Creator, Writer, Blogger.
Astrology Musings: The Conservative Minority Government, June 9, 2017 – Always Going Nowhere?
Astrological charts can be cast for events as well as people, otherwise called Mundane astrology.
Having failed to win an overall majority to the surprise of many, PM May went to Buckingham Palace to form a minority government at 12:30 PM on June 9 2017.
I cast this chart at the time and it was pretty obvious that the making of clear cut decisions was going to be difficult, if not impossible. Minority governments always have to tread carefully anyway.
Mutable Angles
For a start, the chart has the angles, that is the rising sign and midheaven, in mutable signs. Change, uncertainty, constant flux – these are all the qualities of this present administration. Not good if you want to finalise decisions, come to agreements in regard to Brexit.
Also, at almost the exact time the government was formed, there was a full moon in mutable signs once more, the Sun opposing from Gemini. Again, mutable means constant movement, fluidity.
This full moon seems to symbolise the ongoing, constantly changing, yet ultimately intransigent relations between the government and the opposition, and the establishment against the people, as it has come to be seen.
Impressionable Relations
What is more, we have Neptune in Pisces (mutable) very close to the descendant, which is all about how the government relates to the outside world. Neptune has been negatively associated with impressionability, confusion, perhaps even deceit with this placing; think of a thick sea mist preventing you being able to see where you are going in a boat.
I think this pretty much describes the events over the passed two years. The endless confusion, rumours of behind the scene deals, the complete lack of clear progress – in anything. It might be argued that we also see here the befuddled nature of the ‘deal or no deal’ Brexit negotiations, which, at times have descended into complete farce at Westminster, with the UK and EU literally talking a different language.
The Good News?
On a more positive note, Jupiter is in the second house of financial affairs, in a wide trine aspect to the Sun. To me this shows that despite the political chaos, UK PLC has continued to do financially well, relatively better than most other European countries, at any rate, despite warnings of Brexit.
There is also a nicely positive aspect between Venus in Taurus 9th house, and Mars in Cancer in the 11th. There may well have been financial opportunities, helping hands from abroad, like that free trade deal with the USA, which has never materialised – at least not yet.
On the whole though, I think we can see that this was not a good time to form a government, to put it mildly.
Poem: At Cromer
When I look down toward the beach,
the distant pier seems to stride
forward from the shining sea.
I like to look beyond,
to the bands of turquoise and blue,
an ocean painted in bold,
abandoned strokes.
Why are we drawn to the waves?
Those elemental rhythms,
sounds and colours
of a primary world,
where sparse pointillist spots
busy themselves on
yellow-ochre sands.
Some days the morning
unfolds through mists,
groynes spacing out
the distances along the strand,
until a final fade-out,
well before the sea
can meet the sky.
Overhead, pterodactyl shapes
patrol against fresh patches
of blue. As I approach,
the blurred semblances
of buildings appear, rectangles
feathered violet or grey,
as if stepping off the cliff.
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019, 2011
Haiku: Gatekeeper 4
We speak the language
You’ve taught us well – what happens
when the curtain falls?
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
Book Review: Musings on ‘A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man’ – James Joyce
Of course, much has been written about this novel since it was first published in 1916. To call ‘A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man’ (Penguin – this publication) a landmark, would be grossly understating its impact.
So I’m not attempting to go into great depth, all that has already been done. I merely want to convey my own recollections of first reading it, way back in school.
For me, it was this book and D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Sons and Lovers’ that first truly opened my eyes to what we sometimes call serious literature. Both of them are, in their own way, semi-autobiographies and broke the mould of novel writing.
Story Teller
Naturally though, Lawrence and Joyce wrote in very different ways. I think Joyce wrote more intuitively, in a way which conjured up for me a wholly different milieu of imagery. He is a natural narrator, a story teller like many of his countrymen.
For example, when he describes Stephen Dedalus’ childhood, I get drawn into that world through the use of evocative child-like language; I become that child. I can remember endless classroom discussions about this part of the book.
Living Imagery
And the world of Dublin in the late 19th century, was a very different world from that of the industrial Nottingham area, where Lawrence sets his book.
Although Joyce was to reject almost everything about his upbringing, his beliefs, his writing is nevertheless suffused with that imagery, bringing it alive, like new music as some describe.
So what are we to make of the criticism of those who first rejected his manuscript? The book is, when compared to more classic literature, without doubt somewhat formless and unconventional.
Like God
Yet, those of an artistic nature tend to be like this, especially over the last hundred years or so. I think Joyce, whose approach was understood and encouraged by none other than Ezra Pound, was simply bold enough to open up the taps of his creativity. The artist himself almost becomes like God, a creator in his own right, a bit like the Daedalus of legend, who built wings for himself and his son so that they could fly.
Joyce’s upbringing within the strict bounds of Catholicism, his training for the priesthood, was in retrospect the perfect grounding for such free artistry, once it was released from its captivity.
Ironically, Joyce’s world never seems to lose the colour of his Catholic upbringing, even though he ultimately rejected it. With Lawrence, the harsh, English Protestant world, seems altogether more grim, enlightened by the writer’s love of nature.
Native Genius
Joyce’s innate creativity, held back for so long, could only emerge later like a succession of Michelangelo masterpieces, hewn by the craft and intelligence of a native genius.
Unlike his other classics, Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses, I have successfully completed reading his first great novel.
Even so, one day I intend to finish the former two, although I suspect I will read ‘Portrait’ again before I do that.
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
