Planet Venus in the constellation Aries is not in a comfortable place but one in which she has to travel like it or not at least once every year and that time is now.
Venus along with a cluster of other planets are in Aries this spring as is often the case this time of year only the stellium or cluster is with some of the heavy hitters. The big boys, Uranus, Mars and Jupiter are in Aries with Venus, the feminine principle of love and beauty and what a position to be in with war swirling around everywhere.
Aries is in a detrimental and not comfortable place for Venus but, there it is. She has to, we lovers and artists among us have to submit to perhaps even sustained attention to the wars that swirl in our times globally in the Middle East and in Africa and elsewhere. The time and indeed trends require that we do so.
I am an artist and find that I have been listening to programs that have to do with war, the cause and effects, the history of these wars and insurgencies, revolutions and the necessity to support rebels. All of this reminds me of that slim and magnificent book I read as a young woman, interested at that time in answers to fundamental questions about the who, what, where and why are we here for? I had read any number of books on Eastern and Western philosophy to try and find some answers to read what the ancients had said, to find answers too many of my questions. I did not find answers. I found discussion and information and historical meanings and by the way quite a bit of misogyny in the European philosopher who didn’t seem to care to give women very much credit but that's the topic for another discussion at a later time perhaps.
Venus is currently required to spend time investigating the old boys' game: War. War with a capital W and war with an s at the end as in the plurality of war: Libya, Iran, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa.
But that slim philosophical text I read so many years ago, The Gita, I still have the original copy I read from when I was twenty years ago. The cover had to be taped on but, I still have it in my possession and I treasure it. The Bhagavad-Gita. The book that puzzled me then but that I have a broader understanding of now so many, many years later because, in the Gita, war is underway and there is discussion that takes place between friends. Questions are asked one to the other about fear and the reservation one friend has to participate in war.
As a young woman I wondered why this ancient story (which is also a part of the Mahabharata, classic Indian text) had to be so situated during a time of war and rivalry. Why war again and again? Why war as in the Iliad and the Odyssey (Classics which I had not read on the other hand)? Why always war? It bothered me but of course since that time and in my lifetime I have lived through the reality of multiple wars that have taken place and as it is; I was born just after the end of World War. Another time, another war, war and the incessant endless wars of humankind.
The longer I live the more I understand why war and why it is a constant backdrop to our lives whether we have lived in the time of the ancients when the Iliad and Odyssey and Bhagavad-Gita were written or during the time of strife that is global at the start of a new millennium. A new cycle of a hundred years. A new cycle of a thousand years and more and more war globally.
I understand and as an adult must accept the permanence of war in our lives now more than ever without having studied war, I find myself immersed in hearing of it and reading it and wondering anew but understanding at the same time that it is a pervasive animosity that is natural to humankind that is just not going away any time soon. It has to be endured and hopefully survived although it causes the ruination to so many countless others worldwide, we have to hope and pray that we will not be directly affected by the long arm of war.
Yes, we carry the burden of war to be certain and no one comes out alive in a very real sense, we bear the burden of it no matter what time and place of birth. We are born into it or recently after it and it reoccurs throughout our lives if not here then there, elsewhere in the world where our males will go to fight or send drones or whatever else are the weapons of the day. We are all subject to it, male or female and our humanity is compromised because, peace is not yet with us but, we know this. Don't we?
The two friends, male characters in the Bhagavad-Gita, friends who discover that they must drop the fear, drop the reluctance, reveal themselves to each other and it was astonishing to me as a young woman to find that one of the friends was an immortal, the Lord Krishna who has returned to mortal form. It is a God and not really a regular man who is the friend to Arjuna in The Gita. A God who reveals himself to his friend and who requires that his friend participate in the war that is underway.
I have just Googled a synopsis of the Gita. The revelation in the book of Lord Krishna to his friend Arjuna is a very beautiful one and the instruction Lord Krishna gives is that his friend should not fear battle and that he must in fact fight. He will reach salvation in his worship and strict devotion to Lord Krishna and he will be victorious in battle. For my part, I still do not understand how it would be that battle and killing and war could be reconciled but, the Gita is an ancient book of wisdom and part of a larger text. In the final analysis, the underpinning is spiritual and point the way to the salvation of the individual through devotion to God, no matter the difficulty of life on earth.
I recommend the Bhagavad-Gita to everyone and I realize that again, as the years go by and I am fortunate to have matured to the extent that I have, wars persist. They spring up anew with new technology to fight the opposition with and with new lives to be lost. It is a ritual. It is a rite of passage. It will require an evolution of humanity or some future cataclysm or Rapture for that matter perhaps that will finally put war on the back burner. Until that time, even Venus will have to listen, learn, discuss and grapple with war as this Venusians daughter is doing these days while Venus is in the sign of war and as wars rage on across the globe.
Venus along with a cluster of other planets are in Aries this spring as is often the case this time of year only the stellium or cluster is with some of the heavy hitters. The big boys, Uranus, Mars and Jupiter are in Aries with Venus, the feminine principle of love and beauty and what a position to be in with war swirling around everywhere.
Aries is in a detrimental and not comfortable place for Venus but, there it is. She has to, we lovers and artists among us have to submit to perhaps even sustained attention to the wars that swirl in our times globally in the Middle East and in Africa and elsewhere. The time and indeed trends require that we do so.
I am an artist and find that I have been listening to programs that have to do with war, the cause and effects, the history of these wars and insurgencies, revolutions and the necessity to support rebels. All of this reminds me of that slim and magnificent book I read as a young woman, interested at that time in answers to fundamental questions about the who, what, where and why are we here for? I had read any number of books on Eastern and Western philosophy to try and find some answers to read what the ancients had said, to find answers too many of my questions. I did not find answers. I found discussion and information and historical meanings and by the way quite a bit of misogyny in the European philosopher who didn’t seem to care to give women very much credit but that's the topic for another discussion at a later time perhaps.
Venus is currently required to spend time investigating the old boys' game: War. War with a capital W and war with an s at the end as in the plurality of war: Libya, Iran, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa.
But that slim philosophical text I read so many years ago, The Gita, I still have the original copy I read from when I was twenty years ago. The cover had to be taped on but, I still have it in my possession and I treasure it. The Bhagavad-Gita. The book that puzzled me then but that I have a broader understanding of now so many, many years later because, in the Gita, war is underway and there is discussion that takes place between friends. Questions are asked one to the other about fear and the reservation one friend has to participate in war.
As a young woman I wondered why this ancient story (which is also a part of the Mahabharata, classic Indian text) had to be so situated during a time of war and rivalry. Why war again and again? Why war as in the Iliad and the Odyssey (Classics which I had not read on the other hand)? Why always war? It bothered me but of course since that time and in my lifetime I have lived through the reality of multiple wars that have taken place and as it is; I was born just after the end of World War. Another time, another war, war and the incessant endless wars of humankind.
The longer I live the more I understand why war and why it is a constant backdrop to our lives whether we have lived in the time of the ancients when the Iliad and Odyssey and Bhagavad-Gita were written or during the time of strife that is global at the start of a new millennium. A new cycle of a hundred years. A new cycle of a thousand years and more and more war globally.
I understand and as an adult must accept the permanence of war in our lives now more than ever without having studied war, I find myself immersed in hearing of it and reading it and wondering anew but understanding at the same time that it is a pervasive animosity that is natural to humankind that is just not going away any time soon. It has to be endured and hopefully survived although it causes the ruination to so many countless others worldwide, we have to hope and pray that we will not be directly affected by the long arm of war.
Yes, we carry the burden of war to be certain and no one comes out alive in a very real sense, we bear the burden of it no matter what time and place of birth. We are born into it or recently after it and it reoccurs throughout our lives if not here then there, elsewhere in the world where our males will go to fight or send drones or whatever else are the weapons of the day. We are all subject to it, male or female and our humanity is compromised because, peace is not yet with us but, we know this. Don't we?
The two friends, male characters in the Bhagavad-Gita, friends who discover that they must drop the fear, drop the reluctance, reveal themselves to each other and it was astonishing to me as a young woman to find that one of the friends was an immortal, the Lord Krishna who has returned to mortal form. It is a God and not really a regular man who is the friend to Arjuna in The Gita. A God who reveals himself to his friend and who requires that his friend participate in the war that is underway.
I have just Googled a synopsis of the Gita. The revelation in the book of Lord Krishna to his friend Arjuna is a very beautiful one and the instruction Lord Krishna gives is that his friend should not fear battle and that he must in fact fight. He will reach salvation in his worship and strict devotion to Lord Krishna and he will be victorious in battle. For my part, I still do not understand how it would be that battle and killing and war could be reconciled but, the Gita is an ancient book of wisdom and part of a larger text. In the final analysis, the underpinning is spiritual and point the way to the salvation of the individual through devotion to God, no matter the difficulty of life on earth.
I recommend the Bhagavad-Gita to everyone and I realize that again, as the years go by and I am fortunate to have matured to the extent that I have, wars persist. They spring up anew with new technology to fight the opposition with and with new lives to be lost. It is a ritual. It is a rite of passage. It will require an evolution of humanity or some future cataclysm or Rapture for that matter perhaps that will finally put war on the back burner. Until that time, even Venus will have to listen, learn, discuss and grapple with war as this Venusians daughter is doing these days while Venus is in the sign of war and as wars rage on across the globe.
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