Footwear by Zodiac Sign (part one)

I feel it’s time for some levity on this blog. You want some levity? I want some levity. Here we go:

I was inspired by the post, Fashion by Zodiac Sign on ElsaElsa’s blog. Since no one has responded to my request for a shoe related post, I thought I’d take matters into my own hands. As a disclaimer, I am a Capricorn who dresses like one. That means a 100% personal ban on trainers (exceptions made for the gym or running only), Birkenstocks, Crocs and Uggs. The latter two, I refuse to acknowledge as shoes. Those are more accurately described as sartorial abominations. So, bearing my personal bias in mind, these are my style suggestions by zodiac sign. Part one will take us through to Cancer. And by all means, please share your suggestions if you have any!

Red, Mars' favourite colour

Combat boots, also a Mars happy choice

Aries: The bold and direct Aries personality is best expressed with shoes that have a strong, powerful design, large or sharp details and anything with a military flair. Anything light will appear too weak. Were I writing this post two years ago, I would have been all over the gladiator sandal or a pair of spike encrusted heels a la Sam Edelman.

 

Capricorn femininity

Capricorn is like a diamond. It does best under pressure. If a Capricorn native has a hard Saturn-sun or Saturn-moon contact, then the pressure can be intense. It’s not remotely fun. So you have to forgive us Caps sun for having a dour outlook sometimes. But if Capricorn can take all that pressure, the result is dazzling. Diamonds symbolize the incorruptible. They arise from carbon, the most common element, to become hardest substance in the world.

All that diamond hardness contradicts N. American ideas about femininity. There is something distinctly unfeminine about the cool, cutting, measured steeliness of a practical Capricorn woman. There’s nothing brash or boss-say or rough-and-tumble tough about it, qualities that we find in other more masculine signs. This is not to say that it’s unnatural for women to be steely. I am saying that in terms of gender norms, whenever we see the forceful, commanding Capricornian woman, she’s de-feminized, just as a gentle Cancerian male is emasculated.

 

Saturn Return redux (part two)

Brian Foo via society6.com

If you missed part one, you can catch it here. These posts form a two part series about what you can look forward to with a Saturn Return.

I recently gave a tarot reading to a friend of mine and she remarked that she was surprized that I was still practicing tarot. That seemed like something the “Old Isthmus” would do. And I thought what a strange comment that was because I hadn’t realized how much I had changed. You’re so practical now, she clarifies. You’re so into these practical things. Joining groups, chairing meetings, all of it. And she’s right; in the past I never concerned myself with ideas about civic engagement, leadership and what not.

The Saturn Return has consolidated a lot of my responsibilities to society. A prosperous, vibrant, tolerant and creative society doesn’t just happen by magic or by virtue of inertia. And contrary to a lot of articles I read, leading a meaningful, happy life is very much a social endeavour that is deeply tied into the participation in the creation of shared meaning. Whenever we talk about happiness or satisfaction in the west, we always focus on the individual. But without shared meaning, shared narratives, shared metaphors that are authentic, we are lost in our own idiosyncratic, solipsistic fantasies or, as is very common, we become easy prey for systems of meaning that are inauthentic, harmful and do not accurately reflect our reality.

 

Water series: Cancer

Andreas Preis

This is the final post in my contra-stereotyping water series. Please feel free to check out my Scorpio and Pisces posts.

In my experience, Cancer is the most poorly integrated sign in our society. I don’t find in other signs, such a polarized expression of a sign’s qualities when it comes to gender; women are allowed full expression of Cancer whereas men must basically repress all of it. I think it says a great deal about our attitudes toward femininity, female power and mothers. The patriarchy can co-opt and control the sensuality and femininity of Venus, but it can’t co-opt the menstrual cycle and motherhood of the moon so easily. The best it can do is pathologize and sentimentalize the hell out of it.

Very watery men have it rough. But while watery emotions are denied to men in general, Cancer has it the hardest. Mars ruled Scorpio gets to be the sex machine, the psychologist, the brooding bad boy. Jupiter ruled Pisces gets to be the spiritual visionary, the sensitive artist, the martyr on the cross. But what does Cancer get? Mama’s boy? Male “PMS?”

 

Water series: Pisces

Rachel Caldwell's Ocean Queen

Every sign has its stereotypes and misconceptions, but Pisces is a sign where the type doesn’t always fit well, especially with men. You know what type I’m talking about: the evasive, fickle, impressionable, hopeless new age space cadet who will lie straight to your face and is probably nursing an addiction of some kind. To be sure, there are some Pisces who fit the stereotype. But that kind of rigid thinking doesn’t work in Pisces-land.

Would it surprize you to learn that the late Steve Jobs, one of the most brilliant design innovators of our time, a man renowned as one of the world’s top business executives, famous for his intense and demanding leadership style, was a Pisces sun? Does this sound like someone unfocused, weak or out of touch with reality? Someone who doesn’t know anything about loyalty, commitment or power?

 

Water series: Scorpio

Water is the weakest element in my chart. Its sensitive, receptive and intuitive qualities are something that I am constantly working on; it never comes naturally. There are benefits to being weak in water to be sure and I’ve had many people tell me they’re admirable. But as with many things in life, the degree of your strength can indicate the degree of your weakness and vice versa. I used to think very emotional people were kind of lame. Especially with my Sag planets, a sign that is notorious for its insensitivity. Just get over it! Lighten up!

So I’m dedicating three posts to the water signs. Like many people, what I don’t have naturally in my chart, I instinctively seek from my environment. I hang with a lot of watery people and this series is about what I’ve learned from them. So it’s 100% applied astrology. It’s not about the water signs in and of themselves, but their expression in people. I’ll begin with Scorpio as the sun is currently transiting the sign.

Scorpio, by Abi Heyneke via Society6.com

 

Saturn Return redux

Let me preface this post by saying that my chart is quite Saturnian. Saturn aspects most of my other natal planets. I am very familiar with Saturn. The whole world falling apart experience is not how I would describe my Saturn transits. They are more like having the sense of a formidable pressure. Like, a serious PRESSURE.

A lot of digital ink has virtually spilled online about the horrors of the Saturn return. I want to share a different take on the transit because there is far too much writing out there that I could not relate to and that, as an astrologer, did not match the experiences of the people I was reading charts for. (On that note, for a great series of videos about the Saturn Return that isn’t all sturm und drang, check out ElsaElsa’s blog.)

My return began with dreams of crossing a long river. Debating pragmatically what to take with me and what to leave behind. Knowing I had to swim alone.

 

the flow of life

I finished reading David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish in which he writes a series of brief, blog sized entries about his creative projects and his decades-long practice in Transcendental Meditation. It’s definitely a fascinating read, especially with insights into a creative process. However, there was something off about the way he wrote about meditation that put me off, that struck me as inflationary.

I’ll reserve judgment, considering the lack of detail Lynch provided in his book. But my immediate impression was that Transcendental Meditation, as Mr. Lynch described it, is unbalanced. The practice was described in a purely positive manner in which life becomes like a “fantastic game” and as if everything should be completely peaceful. I’m not saying that one can’t have positive and powerful benefits from an unbalanced practice. But it’s a bit like having an unbalanced diet with only healthy foods – certain important nutrients are missing. Maybe I am misunderstanding him, but nevertheless, that made me think about inflation and flow.

In last week’s sangha, we talked about that deep feeling of connectedness that you experience where everything falls perfectly into place and you hit this sweet spot called flow. The beginner’s mistake is to inflate along with this experience. This is especially common when someone has been severely deprived of connecting experiences for a long time. All of a sudden, they’ll believe they have all the answers and they’re imbued with a certain flavour of specialness.

 

progressed moon & fashion

Tracking your progressed moon is one of the best ways of identifying your instinctual focus and your tastes and habits may subtlely shift. Nowhere is this more evident when it comes to fashion! My natal moon is in a mutable sign, so perhaps I am more malleable when it comes to inclinations of my progressed moon but perhaps you have experienced this as well. In fact, I’ve always known when my prog moon has changed signs when I notice that I am obsessed with a particular colour. A recap of my style by the stars:

LIBRA

• Mood: Girly with a heart dotted i
• Palette: Sugary baby pink with touches of gold
• Cuts and textiles: Low cut tops, 3/4 sleeves, embroidery, lace, breezy, filmy fabrics
• Shoe of choice: Strappy white kitten heels
• Comfort outfit: Warm pink tank with lace trim, pressed khaki shorts, fitted army green jacket with intricate detailing up arms and lavender crest on the back, pearl necklace, rings and bangles, gold peep toe heels

 

the fuzzy and the heartless

On this blog, I’ve classified zen meditation and yoga (which I use here to include its various branches) into one category. But as I study both zen and yoga further, I’m noticing a degree of polarization between practitioners regarding two approaches that I had always considered as complimentary orientations toward mind-body work. From my understanding, these are some of the stereotyped criticisms of a more fluid yogic approach and a more austere zen approach:

Yoga	Zen
Lacking rigour, weak	Cold, severe, overly disciplined
Indulgeant, narcisstic, magical thinking	Empty, absurdist
Trite, sentimental	Lacking passion, dry