To Virgos, love means surrender of the self, a mystery they prefer not to solve.

The Virgo Love Mystery

The youthful Leo soon senses that summer is ending – and regretfully steps into his first awareness of the coming harvest, through the Indian Summer soul expression of Virgo.  The negative feminine Night Forces return again, reminding the Virgin (whose deeper self has remained untouched by the fleeting romances of youth) that maturity brings stern duty and responsibility.  “I ANALYZE”, says Virgo defensively, striving for perfection.

Now the evolving soul has, for the first time, become an Adult, frustrated by being forced to comply with society’s rules and restrictions, yet submitting gracefully, with innate courtesy.  These men and women have discovered that to receive their own needs they must serve others in some way.  The Virgo vibration teaches that one must work and earn money – be of service – in order to be free to play.  In this, the second experience in the Earth Element, also the second experience as a Mutable Communicator, clocks and schedules assume great importance.  The first job is disappointing.  Both ideas and ideals must be shelved under the demands of work or schooling.  No time now to dream.  The Virgo attention is centered on scholastic excellence, on keeping up with the fierce competition of the business world.  Learning and competing are both mandatory – surviving has become a near obsession.

Like the actual young adults they symbolize, Virgo souls see much to criticize around them, secretly resenting the loss the childhood innocence, having no certain ideas of what lies ahead.  Is it only more work, more study and more responsibility?  If so, then life is serious indeed and must be faced realistically as soon as possible.  It is getting later.  Human flaws and imperfections assume exaggerated importance on this Virgo level.  For, unless Virgo brings in a fruitful harvest, Life cannot continue for themselves and others.  It is the end of summer, the beginning of autumn, and cold winter is just around the corner.  Why are all those people still laughing and playing out there?  Virgo frets and worries, wondering how to warn the irresponsible that the season of pleasure is drawing to a close.  The heart is still pure and filled with silent hope, but the mind is now in control.

Earlier Leo enthusiasms have been replaced by resignation and quiet dreams.  Virgo is driven by the fear of dependence into dogged determination not to waste time or shirk duty, the consciousness ever watchful and waiting, yearning to be something better.  Although once again ruled by Mercury, the soul has by now learned not to scatter the vital forces as on the Gemini level.  Like the symbolic Virgin, Virgo hovers on the edge of awareness, soon to answer the thunderous call of Virgo’s true ruler, Vulcan, not yet “discovered” by astronomers, but sufficiently near discovery to have already commenced to faintly beam its pulsing influence to all Virgo-Virgin souls.

Virgo’s positive qualities are clarity of thought, discrimination, courtesy, service to others, practicality and self-honesty.  Expressed in their negative form they become criticism, crankiness, timidity, pessimism, inferiority and hair-splitting.

The Virgin soul has reached its narcissus aspect, half-remembering the heated fires of youth, but as yet unawakened, only vaguely sensing the passion that lies ahead, soon to be revealed by Vulcan.  To Virgos, love means surrender of the self, a mystery they prefer not to solve.  So they channel its energy into excellence in work……and although these men and women offer gentle devotion, love’s true meaning still sleeps within the Virgin heart.

Aries demands Love, for like the infant, without Love, Aries dies.

Source: http://vi.sualize.us/view/e432214da761129af784bfc982fc2528/

The Aries Love Mystery

The soul, symbolically newborn in Aries (although not necessarily in its first earthly sojourn), relates to dawn, sunrise, spring and Easter – or the resurrection from its “death” in the previous sign of Pisces.

In this first excursion into the Fire Element – this experience as the first of the three Cardinal signs – the symbolically “newborn” soul projects the positive, masculine vibration of the Day Forces through the explosive vitality of the Aries planetary ruler, Mars.  Like a human infant totally self-absorbed, the Aries soul discovers with delight his or her own toes and fingers – its own physical beingness.  To satisfy all needs, only a loud cry is necessary, heard and answered by elders.  The real infant doubts or fears nothing or no one, simply because it has never experienced denial.  Likewise, the Aries “Infant” soul has a natural trust and a touching faith in the unseen force of goodness which will miraculously grant all its wishes.

On the Earth plane this beneficent force is represented by the parents; in a mystical sense, by our co-Creators.  And so they look tenderly upon the “newborn” Aries soul, as parents look tenderly upon their infant, lovingly protecting it from its own naivete, wisely denying some of the demands made through the excited awareness that the soul is – he has been born, and is here.  The Aries soul senses “I AM” or “I exist”.  And like the symbolic Infant, Aries men and women are oblivious to the possibilities of accident, pain or cruelty on life’s path.  He or she learns of these negative experiences only from those advanced beyond, who have gathered harshness, suspicion and the self-survival instinct from the growing process.

There’s a religious adage that all infants, since they die in a state of purity, immediately become angels.  Of course!  They have not yet met the devil of Temptation.  But if the Aries “Infant” survives, he or she must, like the real infant, time and time again, undergo the sharp disappointment of misplaced trust.  As the victim of unkindness, a lack of sympathy or abandonment, the newborn babe feels shocked, frightened, alone – then yells even louder for attention.  In the same manner (and for the same reasons) does the soul of the hurt and disillusioned Aries man or woman need and “seek acceptance, yet court rejection” – with a violent emotional reaction to neglect.

The positive qualities of Aries are a heart-tugging innocence and wonder, blind faith and raw courage.  Expressed in their negative forms, they can become selfish egotism, thoughtlessness, aggressiveness and impulsive action with no regard for the consequences.

To the Aries, Love is a necessity of life, which is taken for granted; for in its infancy of awareness, Love is synonymous with existence itself.  Therefore, devotion is instinctively expected and joyously accepted, but with little comprehension of how to return it.  Aries demands Love, for like the infant, without Love, Aries dies.  When emotional abandonment (symbolically) can mean death, even, the hint of it can bring on unreasonable panic, and inexplicable terror, calmed only by repeated reassurances.  Aries continually needs to be reminded that “if winter comes”…… the miracle of spring cannot be far behind.

Victor Pelevin “The Sacred Book of Werewolf”

Have you seen the hit of the last Venice Biennale – the haystack in which the first Belarusian postmodernist, Mikolai Klimaksovich, hid from his local police inspector for four years?  Alexander called this work plagiaristic and told Brian about the similar haystack famously used before the revolution by Vladimir Lenin.  Brian observed that repetition is not necessarily plagiarism, it is the very essence of the postmodern, or – to put it in broader terms – the foundation of the modern cultural gestalt, which is manifested in everything, from the cloning of sheep to remakes of old movies, for what else can you do after the end of history?  Brian said it was precisely Klimaksovich’s use of quotation that made him a postmodernist, not a plagiarizer.  But Alexander objected that no quotations would ever have saved this Klimaksovich from the Russian police, and history might have come to an end in Belarus, but there was not sign of it breaking down yet in Russia.

Then Brian showed Alexander a work by Asuro Keshami, one which he regards with especial affection, not least owing to the serious investment required for its production and installation.  Keshami’s work, inspired by the oeuvre of Camille Paglia, of whom you must have heard, consists of an immense tube of red plastic with projections on the inside in the form of white fangs.  It is proposed to install in the open air in one of London’s sports stadiums.

And now I am getting to the point.  One of the most serious problems in the world of modern art is the invention of original and fresh verbal interpretations of a work.  Literally just a few phrases are required, which can be reprinted in the catalogues and reviews.  This apparently trivial detail can often decide the fate of a piece of art.  It is very important here to be able to perceive things from an unexpected, shocking angle, and your friend, with his barbarically fresh view of the world, does this remarkably well.  Therefore, Brian would like permission to use the ideas expressed by Alexander yesterday for the conceptual support of the installation.  The accompanying text which I include below is by way of being a fusion of Brian’s and Alexander’s ideas:

Asuro Keshami’s work ‘VD-42 CC’ combines the languages of different areas – engineering, technology and science.  At the base level the subject-matter is the overcoming  of space: physical space, the space of taboo and the space of our subconscious fears.  The languages of engineering and technology deal with the material from which the object is constructed, but the artist addresses the viewer in the language of emotions.  When the viewer learns that certain people have given this little queer fifteen million pounds to stretch out a huge imitation-leather cunt above an abandoned soccer pitch, he remembers what he does in his own life and how much he is paid for it, then he looks at the photo of this little queer in his horn-rimmed spectacles and funny jacket, and experiences confusion and bewilderment bordering on the feeling that the German philosopher Martin Heidegger called ‘abandonment’ (Geworfenheit).  The viewer is invited to concentrate on these feelings, which constitute the precise aesthetic effect that the installation attempts to achieve.