Saturday, February 28, 2009

Elie Wiesel, Bernie Madoff and La Nuit




"We gave him everything, we thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands," [Elie] Wiesel said., according to CNBC's pportfolio.com .




Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for writing about his personal experience of the holocaust. I first heard of him 15 years ago when my young daughter worked very hard on an essay on ethics she was submitting for a contest sponsored by The Elie Weisel Foundation for Hummanity. Through the years we have spoken about him frequently. "What would Elie Wiesel think about this?"




The Foundation lost $15m to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme while Wiesel also lost his personal fortune. Yesterday Wiesel began to speak out about Madoff at a Conde Nast sponsored forum for New York's elite .


I wondered how cruel a fate, to be devastated and "destroyed" twice. First the holocaust and now this. First by Nazis. This time by another Jew and a self proclaimed humanitarian. Since it is said "character is fate", I decided to look for his chart.


Unfortunately , we don't have the birth time. I read, by the way, that Wiesel studied astrology when he was young in order to begin study of the mystical Jewish Kabala.




Forgiveness is a big topic with Wiesel as it is in the Jewish religion. When asked if he would forgive Madoff, Wiesel replied, "no" to a round of applause. A more complete version is summarized on portfolio.com: "As for forgiveness, the Jewish scholar can't find any for Madoff. Forgiveness must be sought, Wiesel says, and Madoff doesn't appear capable."




What I see in Wiesel's chart is afflicted Sagittarius., recently pummeled by Pluto's exit over progressed Sun conjunct Mercury at 27 and 28 Sag and opposing his 28 degree Gemini Mars which has just proogressed to 0 degrees Cancer, again opposed by tr Pluto. Natal Saturn is in Sagittarius along with the South Node.




Sagittarius is about ethics (no surprise it is repeatedly emphasized by Wiesel) but also about beliefs and the ultimate belief ... God or no God. Wiesel barely believes in God.




This from astrotheme.com:


After the war, "Wiesel first wrote the 900-page tome Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Remained Silent), in Yiddish, which was published in abridged form in Buenos Aires. Wiesel rewrote a shortened version of the manuscript in French, and it was published as the 127-page autobiography La Nuit, and later translated into English as Night.... Wiesel had trouble finding a publisher for his book, and initially it sold few copies."




"I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone – terribly alone in a world without God and without man." Elie Wiesel, Night (1958, translated by Stella Rodway) "

[end of quote from astrotheme]




This is the painful dalogue of many with Saturn in Sag. No matter what is done to them. the ultimate argument is with the existence of God. Often God is experiened as anti-matter. For example when Mother Theresa had her "words with God', her doubts and discouragement at her calling, it sounded like she was arguing with a husband of 30 years, very intimate, full of longing to feel close again. Not so with Wiesel. His dark night is without stars.




In this context, knowing that his life is a quest to believe in a higher power, Wiesel's statement with which I opened is horrifying, "We gave him everything. We thought he was God...." In almost hysterical personal agony, which one can only witness in awe and pity, Wiesel nevertheless says a very revealing thing. His shocking blasphemy also shows little self responsibility for having created after all, a false god or idol. Wiesel's character had a fatal flaw.


I feel like Hansel and Greel when I consider the magnitude of evil present but Wiesel's admission is also terrifying to contemplate.




Spiritually we know that forgiveness is for the sake of the victim/forgiver not the perpetrator. If Wiesel cannot forgive, the bitterness of Mercury and Venus in unforgiving Scorpio (opposite Sagittarius' ruler, Jupiter) combined with the rage that accompanies a Mars/Pluto transit might prove fatal.




I have thrice been relieved of my life savings. The first time it happened I experienced rage, guilt and depression to such a degree it poisoned my existence. For several months I was exceedingly bitter and self destructive. Iin grief and despair, I turned on myself. Then I happened to hear a lecture on forgiveness which I took to heart. I had to forgive myself for doing something so harmful to my own well being. I resolved never to lose hope again and never to lose sight of God working even in the darkness, on the edge, to show me something and then to guide me back. So far I have kept to that resolve.


[picture conisidered fair use from wikipedia and attributed user Вени Марковски]

Friday, February 27, 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Best Guest Article - How Loveable Are You?


HOW LOVEABLE ARE YOU?
Written July 2008 for THE TRADITIONAL ASTROLOGER
Jacqueline Brook - Professional astrologer of the Tradition

I was chatting with a friend the other day who is also an astrologer and we came to the conclusion, based on our experience in this field, that what all of us really want to know is when will we meet someone who will love us just the way we are, and when we do, will they stick around once they discover our faults? That same day I received an email written by someone who runs a dating agency, and they mentioned how so many people who attend these arranged singles evenings spend the entire night complaining about how poor the quality of people is they are meant to meet and fall in love with.

This got me thinking and CS Lewis sums it up perfectly when he says "if you want to be loved, be loveable". There are many books written on this topic, one of my favorites being "Living, Loving and Learning" by Leo Buscaglia. He says exactly what CS Lewis does - how can we expect others to be attracted to us, to want to spend time with us and to love us, if we are not loveable at the outset?

Too many people expect the world from their partners and those close to them yet give little in return; they love with conditions attached and then complain bitterly when the object of their affections moves onto greener pastures. We should not love to receive anything in return - we should just love - because we are loving individuals who seek to promote warmth and caring as opposed to criticism and hatred. How many of us actually do that? Manipulation, coercion, threats, guilt trips, bitterness, nagging, deceit - the list is endless - these are all displayed in the relationships I see around me - there are very few overtly loving relationships and I am not only referring to romantic love relationships.

One can delve deeper into this realm - CS Lewis describes the human race as rodents - our behaviour towards one another and other life forms and the way in which we live our lives is despicable, yet we assume that we are loved by God no matter how shockingly we behave - the fact that this is the case has nothing to do with our natures nor the fact that we assume that we are innately loveable - it has to do with the Creator who loves us immaterial of the fact that we are rodents.

We then expect this same unconditional love from human beings - yet we do very little to earn it. We criticise, we complain, we blame, we say the most awful things and then say "I am only joking" and we forget that there is a fine line between love and hate. After the umpteenth time of being abused by someone or in return abusing them, sorry is not enough - the magic has dissipated. We need to treat our partners and loved ones as we wish to be treated - no matter how long standing the relationship is or how thick the blood that runs between us - one must never under estimate the power of respect. To be disrespectful towards someone that you love is to proclaim the death sentence for that relationship.

We then have people who make absolutely no effort with their physical appearance yet expect their "soul mate" (how that term irritates me) to see past the bad hair cut, the sloppy clothes and the extra 10 kg's and to recognize their inner beauty as they are "oh so loveable". If you are not attracting warm and loving people into your life, you need to look at yourself. The quality of the people in our lives is indicative of where we are on our path of growth. You cannot expect a butterfly to land on a thorn bush, it is attracted to beautiful flowers that are sweet smelling, and yet we are adamant that we are a special kind of thorn bush and all it takes is for some god like creature to come along and recognise that. And oh yes, that poor creature had damn well better be a beautiful butterfly else we are not interested! Take a long hard look in the mirror and if you need to plant some beautiful flowers in your garden to attract the butterflies, then do it.

In a natal chart one would assess the entire chart but specifically the quality of Venus (our ability to love and to allow ourselves to be loved), the Moon (our emotional nature), the Sun (our ego or true identity) and Lords 1 (us) and 7 (others) to determine the quality of our loving natures and our relationships. Some of us are blessed with these planets being in dignity and posited in houses where their essence can manifest, others of us have these planets in detriment and accidentally debilitated by being locked away in an unfortunate house or otherwise compromised - whichever it is, we all have the right to be loved and we all wish to love in return. The purpose of astrology is to assist us in making better life choices and in manifesting the positive side of our personality as opposed to the dark side. Man is extremely adaptable - if we are pointed towards a path that can make our lives more meaningful and beautiful, very few would choose to ignore it unless there was something pathologically wrong with them or they were just plain stupid.

Venus is the goddess of love and she naturally rules the 5th house of sex and play in the chart - it is essential that if she is debilitated in a chart that she is helped by other essentially dignified planets - Venus in Leo for example, a feral sign, could attract unsavoury types and in return behave in a primal fashion as she is peregrine thus weak - the native would then spend their life wondering why they never attract anyone "decent" and why their relationships are disastrous. Thorough analysis of the birth chart can assist us in making better decisions regarding matters of the heart, but we can all start with simple steps right now - by treating others as we would like to be treated and in asking "how loveable am I?" If you can be honest with yourself and look internally instead of to others to dump the blame, a powerful and beautiful change can begin. You see, even though we may be rodents, we all still have the essence of our Creator within us - we can tap into this powerful and positive energy and allow our loving natures free rein.

If a person is fundamentally loving, others are attracted to them, they do not use words such as hate or despise, they focus on the softer aspects of life and endeavour to make those around them feel accepted and nurtured. We live in a society where we are so "I" focused - it is all about fulfilling our own needs and our own yearnings. If you long for a partner and don't have that blessing in your life right now, find an outlet for your love and affection - we live in a country where there is no shortage of those who could benefit from a little love and compassion. I truly believe that if we focus on others and interact at a loving level with them, we do attract those special people who will want to spend time with us - the choice is ours - to adopt a victim mind set and thus fuel the self absorption, or to simply be a loving individual because you can - no hidden agendas or ulterior motives.

A loving nature does not stop being loving when it leaves the bosom of the family and turn into a demon amongst strangers - it is loving towards all - it displays kindness, charity, justice, faith and hope - and in the words of the Dalai Lama - if you can't help others at least do not harm them.
[Jacqueline Brook does horary and electional astrology specialties in case you've been looking for someone. Please click here.]

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Musica Dolce



From Niko
"... This ... is a particularly beautiful track of the latest Ranieri CD, "Oggi e Dimane" in which he re-worked Neapolitan stuff with North African singers and musicians. I usually don't like this kind of fusion stuff, but this really works -- instead of the forced, contrived eclecticism, which this kind of combo usually sounds like, this actually seems to bring out the latent Greco-Arabo-Mediterraneanness of the Neapolitan/meridionale sensibility."

It reminds me (Nancy) of the background music to Troy, performed by Tanja Tzarovska amd a female chorus.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Oscar Fever - The Wrestler



Going to see this today so I'll havve seen all the nominees except The Reader which I won't bother with.

Rourke absolutely dominates the screen. A tour de force of acting. I can't see how he could help but win Best Actor (sorry, Langella) but I'm still giiving Frost / Nixon "Best Picture".



And here's the magic year 1995 again, the year Pluto entered Sagittarius and a new cycle began which just ended last year when Pluto entered Cappie. Rourke quit his boxing career in 1995 to return to acting and 13 years later voila, c'est ca.

The Oscars are Coming

Print your official Oscar Night Ballot.

http://oscar.com/media/2009/pdf/OscarPrintableBallot_81st.pdf\

I'm behind Frost/Nixon with Langella [Nixon] as best actor.

Support Group for Free

Here's friendly, compassionate etiquette help on how to say no to pricey invitations while you're temporarily out of work.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12124579
[might have to cut and paste]

Join our Mastermind Group for support for a tough time. Email me.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Overheard by a World Class Healer

" ... In my line of business, I find kleenex everywhere:-) I am immune to it, and don't expect anyone to pick up their own kleenex, especially if it's painful."

God bless the healers of the world.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Question for the World Traveler



Anybody know what city this is in?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Fluffy's New Valentine Friend


Fluffy's new Valentine friend.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Mastermind the Economy Prayer Room

This is our Prayer Room for those worried about keeping, losing or finding a job. Would you like to be part of our Mastermind Group?

Your name has been added to the Prayer List. Tell me if you don't see your name here.

Alexisco Please use the Comments option below.
Amanda
Biljana
Carol
Caroline
Craig
Crystal
Dahlia
Doris Dunne
Emilil
Hadley
Kara
Margaret
Mavis and her husband
Mo
Obie
Patti
Sharon
Sofiya
Susan
Susan
Susan

'EXPECT A MIRACLE"

Mastermind the Economy


From a member of our Mastermind the Economy Group.

Hi Nancy,

I thought I ' d share something with you.

As I told you the other day, I lost my job last week. (was working part-time alongside my PhD studies).

Something exceptionally positive is happening at core level with me through losing this job. I ' m starting to see how I ' ve been underrating myself, and going for jobs that really don ' t suit me or allow me to use my talents and natural abilities. Throughout the time I was in that job, people were always asking me what I was doing there, and saying that I seemed ' too good ' for the job. I think I ' ve been purposefully picking work that doesn ' t challenge me out of fear, and it is only through this experience that I am beginning to face this.

Since losing the job, I ' ve been looking for social work/outreach work that will allow me to help others and give something back. With this type of work, my greatest gifts of compassion and empathy will finally have a voice. I ' ve been applying to work with people with disabilities, and have also registered myself as a volunteer.

I just wanted to share this with you, because I feel that, instead of these experiences being negative, they are actually pushing us closer to self realization.

Warmest thoughts,

Amanda

Alec Baldwin



Guess who hosted SNL tonight and was his usually nasty self?

I just love Alec Baldwin!!! And he lives in the Hamptons.

Alec being very nasty http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/wii-guys/1018727/ and very funny.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day with Love from Me to All Y'all

Don' t Worry ... Mastermind!

Are you worrying about finding a job or losing the one you have? Don't worry. Join our POSITIVE Mastermind Group.

Stay away from GroupThink. Stay away from negative people.

You got where you are right now because of the way you think. To get somewhere else you need to think differently.

It's easy: Change your Mind.. Change your Life.

Join us today. Email me.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Be My Astrologer.Com


My site is worth $4526.
How much is yours worth?


Anxious???

A visitior writes, "I have been frozen with fear. Many I speak to have physical pain, I think the anxiety cramps the muscles and leads to a multitude of disorders. "

Have you been experiencing pain lately? I'd like to see some comments.

Is Dogville Really INFPVille?

I'm wondering if anyone else has seen "Dogville" and, if so, do you think the Nicole Kidman character had a typical INFP experience albeit with a surprising good/evil reaction?

Monday, February 9, 2009

Pluto entered Sag in 1995-96 and left in 2008-09 - Looking for Cycles


From wiki

"Linda Chatman Thomsen was the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2005 until early 2009. Since arriving at the SEC in 1995, she has worked under four SEC Chairmans[sic! ... {She was appointed] Director of the Division of Enforcement on May 12, 2005... Linda Thomsen is known for her role in the suits by the SEC against Enron and Martha Stewart (the SEC can only sue, not arrest, although the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI may work in concert with the SEC, if necessary)...."

Thomsen's career at theSEC is sure to end this year with the Madoff gaff.

It's a case of another career bottoming out as Pluto changes signs ending a 13 year cycle. Ppluto is moving from Sagittarius to Capricorn.

To learn more astrology "in the real world", look for the date 1995-96 and things which began then that are culminating or finally reaching closure now. I will add to this list as I notice things too. Astrology is not a tool for predicting day to day events; however it is true to the mark for the big cycles.

Please send me examples that you know of.

EXAMPLES





  • OJ Simpson's murder trial took place in 1995; he finally went to jail in 2009

The Onion is Concerned about Impossible New Standards for Skanks


In The Know: Are Reality Shows Setting Unrealistic Standards For Skanks?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Positive Support for Job Seekers

I'm starting a free online Mastermind Positive Prayer and Support Group for those looking for jobs - email me.

"Rreally? with Seth" Takes on Michael Phelps



I'm posiing this in support of Niko's Crusade.

The Birth Chart of Whistleblower Harry Markopolos


Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Studious Astrologer, Nancy R. Fenn - A World of Experience

lol

“People really hate you,” Representative Barney Frank said of his message to bankers. “And they’re starting to hate us because we hang out with you.”

Making Its Rounds on the Internet

Looks like the zoom range is 100x1.
> And you can do it.
> Follow the instructions. See if you can find sleeping Supreme Court
> Justice Clarence Thomas.

> .... Big brother is watching...
> this makes you think there must be a file on everyone on earth....
>
> This is an amazing photo of the inauguration and spend some time zooming around as the level of detail is phenomenal. You can actually zoom into anyone in the crowd. It's scary to think that this is on a civilian resolution camera - imagine the granularity the military cameras must have. Wait for it to focus'
>
> http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
> Remember to let it focus when you zoom

Tuesday, February 3, 2009