A LONG SPEAR FRACTURES EASILY.
On the Seventh of March, in the year 1226 A.D, under
the sign of Pisces, William de Longespée, whose name means “of the Long Spear”,
passed away, rather unexpectedly, at the age of 49 or 50 years. The Plantagenet
Nobleman, who had served as the third Earl of Salisbury in England, had just
recently returned home to England after spending several months seeking refuge
amidst monks on the French Island of Ré. An English chronicler named Roger of
Wendover suspected poison as the cause of death, blaming (with Medieval
precision) a Justiciar (Prime Minister) by the name of Hubert de Burgh of Kent.
Mysteriously, at least the cause of death (if not the motive) was corroborated
much later by the discovery of a mummified rat within Longespée’s skull cavity.
The rat contained traces of arsenic, or rat poison.
William was survived by his wife Ela, the third
countess of Salisbury. She lived to the age of 73 or 74, dying on the cusp of
Leo and Virgo on August 24, 1261. A wealthy heiress who had received the
honorific “suo jure” (in Latin meaning “in his or her own right”), she would be
remembered as "one of the two towering female
figures of the mid-13th century", next to Margaret de Quincy of Lincoln.
One
fortnight after the death of William, upon March 21 of the year 1226 A.D, borne
upon the Cusp of Rebirth (between Pisces and Aries in the Western Zodiac)
Charles of Naples came to be. A borne leader, Charles became King of Sicily on
January 5, 1266, reigning for nineteen years, up until his death merely two
days after the nineteenth anniversary of his coronation.
Meanwhile,
in the land of Flanders, and apparently within the same year as Charles was
borne, Margaret II of Flanders gave the breath of life unto her second son, Guy
of Dampierre. Guy, also known as Gwidje in Dutch, became the Count of Flanders
in the year 1251. Curiously enough, he died upon the same day of the year as
had William de Longespée: March Seventh. The year of his death was 1305 A.D.
Dionysius,
the Justified, also known as King Denis of Portugal, was borne upon October
Ninth of the year 1261 A.D. A son of Libra, he was also known by the names Rei
Lavrador (“The Farmer King”) and Rei Poeta (“The Poet King”), his regal persona
combining and balancing elements of humble background and divine inspiration. He
ruled for forty-six years, during which time he helped to establish Portugal as
a unified and sovereign power. His skills in reading human nature allowed him
to reconcile the clergy with its secular neighbours whilst at the same time
confiscating clerical property and redistributing the wealth in a manner that
had the ultimate outcome of appeasing everyone involved. His ruthlessness was
subtle and efficient, and he was remembered fondly by the general public upon
his death on the seventh of January, 1325. He gained the nickname “Farmer King”
because of his success in redistributing farmland in what could be called a
Medieval form of Communism. His influence on the agricultural class extended to
the founding of schools, an other predecessor of Marxism, which favours an
educated working class as its primary ideal and means towards its ultimate
egalitarian ends. He wrote extensively on such subjects as science and poetry,
as well as hunting. A prolific musician, he has had 137 Portuguese songs
attributed to his God-given talents as a composer. With the same skill that he
played music, he could manipulate money and people. The list of his Communistic
feats is practically endless, considering that we know what is surely only the
surface of it.
Dionysius
was all so notoriously short of stature. Myths of his towering persona were
laid to rest by the accidental opening of his tomb in 1938.
THE LAW
OF THREES.
Emperor
Go-Nijo, the ninety-fourth emperor of Japan, was borne a Pisces (according to
the Western Zodiac) on March 9th, 1285 A.D. He reigned from what our
calendar calls 03/03/1301 to his death on the tenth of September, 1308. He
succeeded Go-Fushimi and ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
His
death took place three (and a half) years after the death of Guy of Dampierre.
Go-Nijo died a Virgo.
It is
estimated that within the same year Stefanus Uros IV Dusan was borne. He became
the King of Serbia on the eighth of September of the year 1331. Nearly fifteen
years later, he was made Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. He ruled until his
death in 1355 A.D.
Three
years prior to his birth, Ashikaga Takauji was borne, upon the cusp of Leo and
Virgo (August 18), many miles away in Tochigi, Japan. He became the founding
member of the Ashikaga shogunate, and he would go down in Japanese history as a
generous ruler who was exquisitely considerate of those of lower rank to his. He
died upon June 7, 1358, all most three years after Stefanus of Serbia passed
on.
Meanwhile, back in Sicily, Eleanor of Sicily took the
throne of Aragon. She had been borne in the year 1325 A.D, and she ruled until
her death fifty years later, in 1375. She was the third wife of King Peter IV.
A
SCHOLAR AND A GENTLEMAN.
Manuel
Chrysoloras was borne around 1355 A.D. Three years later, on August 24th
(towards the end of the Leo-and-Virgo cusp), Johan I of Castile was borne.
Johan would go on to marry Eleanor of Aragon, the daughter of Eleanor of
Sicily. He died upon October the ninth, 1390. It was during that same year that
Manuel began his work as a scholar, going on to make his mark in Western
history as the man to introduce Greek literature to Western Europe.
One
wonders what disembodied muse had inspired him towards so Noble a Profession. Whoever she was, she served him well until
his death in 1415 A.D.
Marie, Duchess of Auvergne, was borne in 1375. She was
the suo jure of Auvergne and Countess of Montpesier up until her death in June
of 1434 A.D. Her father was none other than John “The Magnificent” of Berry, a
collector of antiquities, an art patron, and a bibliophile who was all so the
son of King John II of France. She married three times. One could say that she
knew her way around royalty through privilege alone, especially via her father.
But one must suppose that she all so had her way with men of her own accord.
Her last husband, John I of Bourbon, left her his estates.
A BLIND
MAN WITH A KEEN EAR.
Vasili
II of Russia, the Blind Prince of Moscow, was borne a Pisces on March 10th,
1415, and died an Aries on March 27, 1462. He reigned for thirty-seven years,
during which time Old Russia knew its longest Civil War.
John
Dunstable was borne in 1390. A prodigious composer, he died leaving humanity
with not only an enriched musical language but all so mysterious hints of his
involvement in astronomy, astrology, and medicine. On Christmas Eve of 1453, he
past away, leaving behind an epitaph that said that he had “secret knowledge of
the stars”. This epitaph was lost in the Great Fire of 1666 A.D, but having
been recorded it was reinstated by the Church in 1904 A.D.
In
accordance with our developing theory, supposing that he was, in fact, the
reincarnation of Johan I of Castile, John Dunstable would most probably have
been borne a Libra. It would follow that he exhibited the Venutian virtues
associated with this sign, amidst them a high degree of sophistication with a
touch of Nietzschean vanity.
Eleanor
of Portugal was borne a Virgin in both senses on September 18, 1434 A.D. She
became Empress of the Holy Roman Empire on March 19th of the year
1452. The cusp of her ascendancy to this throne is called the Cusp of Rebirth,
which is the opposite cusp of her birth, the cusp of Beauty, which Virgo the
Virgin shares with Venus (Libra). She was the daughter of Eleanor of Aragon,
who is not to be confused with Johan I’s wife, but who was in fact the daughter
of Eleanor Countess of Albuquerque. Incidentally, Eleanor of Portugal’s mother
would eventually go into exile in Castile after her health caught up with her.
As an
Empress, Eleanor was a wild child. She was known for hunting, dancing, and
gambling, what German scholar Friedrich Nietzsche would describe in ancient
Greek terms as the Dionysian virtues. Her consort, Emperor Frederik III, did
not hold with such habits. Clearly, their marriage was a pragmatic one, and
most probably it was in her best interests moreso than it was in his. He would
even go so far in his resentment as to accuse her of poisoning some of their
children, consciously or unconsciously, with Portuguese food. Thankfully, her
reputation was spared by her popularity with the people, as a mascot of culture
in what was otherwise a wasteland. When people were forced to eat cats and dogs
during the siege of Vienna, she was a source of deliberate cheer and support.
If ever a rock-star was an empress, such was Eleanor of
Portugal. She past a Virgo on September 3rd, 1467 A.D, fifteen days
before what would have been her thirty-third birthday.
THE
REBIRTH OF VENUS.
Simonetta
Vespucci was borne in 1453 A.D. in Renaissance Italy, either in the province of
Porto Venere or in Genoa. She was most probably borne an Aquarius on January
28, 1453, so her Guardian Angel would be Libra. She would in that case have
reached the age of twenty-three, the number of synchronicity (Divine Coincidence)
by her death on April 26, 1476 A.D. in Florence.
Considered
one of the most beautiful women of her generation, she served as the muse for
Piscean master Sandro Botticelli when he painted the Birth of Venus. She was
all so married to Marco Vespucci of Florence, whose cousin was Amerigo
Vespucci, the Piscean explorer after whom the Americas are named.Emperor Go-Kashiwaba was borne a Scorpio on November 19, 1462, upon the Cusp of Revolution, sharing it with Sagittarius, the Archer (or the Hunting Centaur) from the Western Zodiac that he might have never had the opportunity to study. He was the 104th Emperor of Japan, reigning from November 16, 1500 A.D. to his death on May 19, 1526. He is enshrined in Fukakusa no kita no misasagi, in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. He ascended to the Chrysanthenum Throne, an imperial honour that is still a matter of dispute to this day as the Japanese people debate about who the proper heir is.
To this
day, I recall a dream I had in childhood of a mystical Gazebo that is situated
atop a Western House. I find my way into its hexagonal prismic interior with
the aid of a vagrant who is a spy and a noble in disguise, a remnant of an old
and deviant order aimed (apparently) at enthroning again the Proper King. Its
structure leant itself to my aspirations to create a series of video games
based upon my dreams. At some point in my day-dream each of the six sides of
the Gazebo is occupied by one of six demi-daemons who block each of the
pathways betwixt the seven chakras.
I would like very much to visit the Chrysanthenum Throne,
whose structure is identical to this Gazebo. I wonder what I might come to
remember.
LUCKY MOTHER
MARY.
Mary of
York was borne a Leo on August 11th of the year 1467 A.D, the second
daughter of King Edward IV of England and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, a consort.
She would only live to the age of fourteen, as was not uncommon at that tragic
time. By that time she had all ready been dispossessed of romantic love, having
lost her reported fiancée King John of Denmark to Christina of Saxony when she
was aged ten and then becoming admitted to the Order of the Garter at the age
of twelve. She was buried in a lead coffin beside her brother George, who had
died at the age of two. Her date of death, upon the twenty-third of May, 1482,
occurring on the Cusp of Energy (betwixt Taurus and Gemini) was incidentally
only one year prior to her father’s death. To add to the mystery is the fact
that there were two pairs of coffins for her and for her brother, one found
accidentally by workmen excavating St George’s Chapel in the year 1789, and an
other found in the royal tomb of King George III. The mystery of the two other
children remains unresolved to this day.
On June
29, 1482, Maria of Aragon was borne. She married King Manuel I of Portugal on
October 30th of the year 1500 A.D, taking the throne of Queen
consort only seventeen days prior to the coronation of Emperor Go-Kashiwaba and
his ascendancy to the Chrysanthenum Throne.
Maria
was the second wife of Manuel I the Fortunate, taking over the throne and
marriage after her sister Isabella I of Castile died during childbirth on
August 23, 1498. Historians ascribe the death to Isabella’s stern religious
asceticism, a reaction most probably to the tragic death of her only brother, Prince
John of Asturias, whose cause of death remains unknown, with conjecture ranging
from tuberculosis to sexual excess. John’s daughter was stillborn two months
afterwards. Isabella’s son, Miguel de Paz, died in the year 1500 A.D, on June
19, ten days prior to Maria’s birthday on the year of her fortuitous coronation.
This day fell on the latter cusp of Gemini, the cusp of Magic, which Gemini
shares with Cancer.
Gemini
is the sign most associated with twins. Maria was herself a twin whose sister
Anna was stillborn; only Maria survived the womb, as though it had been a
competition. Maria lived to the age of thirty-four, lying to rest on the
seventh of March, 1517 A.D. She had produced ten children, explaining the
Mystery of why King Manuel I was called the Fortunate. What remains mysterious
was that one woman could have inherited all the good luck in the family.
In
truth, Prince John’s death was only the last nail on Isabella’s coffin. Her
first husband was the love of her life, but in July of 1491 Prince Afonso was
killed in an inexplicable riding accident. This did not bode too well for King
John II of Portugal, who had only this one son. However, by some twist of fate
that smiled upon her parents, King John’s death four years later prompted a
marriage. Her parents, the legendary Ferdinand and Isabella, insisted that one
of their daughters marry Manuel I. When he refused Maria, Isabella became the
only choice, as he preferred. The Fortunate King got lucky. Of course, Isabella
remained a wife in body but not in Spirit. The death of Afonso had planted the
religious conviction in Isabella’s mind that God was angry with her for having
provided refuge in Portugal for the Jews that her parents had expelled from
Spain. Her one condition for this second marriage was the expulsion of all Jews
from Portugal who refused to convert to Christianity. The tragically imbalanced
Libra died on the cusp of Leo and Virgo, upon the twenty-third of August 1498,
one of the twelve Days of Synchronicity of which an other was the day that
fourteen-year-old Mary of York had died in May of 1482, only sixteen years
earlier, at the turn of Taurus into Gemini.
Of all
of Ferdinand and Isabella’s children, it was only Maria who had not been
afflicted with insanity. Her composure was depicted in portraits as calm,
collected, and calculating. There can be little doubt that she had been in many
ways charged with the psychic care of her much less grounded siblings, as tends
to be the trend in such families, especially in such unfortunate times. Somehow,
where good fortune was concerned, Maria was the breadwinner for her entire
family, especially her husband Manuel, her proud parents Ferdinand and
Isabella, and of course her ten children, only two of whom died early.
But one wonders: had Mary had a choice, would she not
have shared her good luck with the less fortunate members of her family, who
were of weaker mental constitution? I suppose that no one thought it fit to
judge her for it.
THE
MIGHTY FALL.
It was
not long after Go-Kashiwaba passed on the nineteenth of May of 1526, half a
year before what would have been his sixty-fourth birthday, that Japan acquired
an other leader, Azai Hisamasa. The daimyo inherited his feudal lordship from
his father, clan founder Azai Sukemasa, and Hisamasa would pass it onto his
son, the legendary Azai Nagamasa, alongside whom he would commit suicide in the
year 1573 A.D.
Nagamasa,
a successful warrior byfar surpassing his own father, married Oichi, the sister
of Oda Nobunaga, with the hopes of peaceful relations with the Oda clan;
Nobunaga had approved because the lands owned by the Azai clan were the perfect
bridge betwixt Oda territory and the coveted capital city of Kyoto. When Oda
turned on the Azai family, a conflict ensued that took the lives of both Father
and Son, and not without first straining their relationship; Nagamasa believed
that peace was yet possible, refusing to dissolve his marriage with Oichi, a
wife prized for her beauty as well as for her resolve. Hisamasa was relatively
cynical in his age. Unfortunately, his
cynicism found corroboration in fate.
When
Oda seized Odani Castle, it was all over, and Nagamasa committed seppuku. He
was only twenty-eight years of age, dying on his twenty-eighth birthday on
August 28. Hisamasa was himself not yet fifty years of age, dying in September
the 23rd of that same year by the same means and for the same
reasons. His Death marked the cusp betwixt Virgo and Libra: the Cusp of Beauty.
This much is peculiar about the fall of the legendary
clan of Azai: that it befell under the reign of Emperor Ogimachi, the 106th
Emperor of Japan. Ogimachi was borne on June 18th of 1517, not long
after the death of Maria of Aragon. He was on the Cusp of Magic, betwixt Gemini
and Cancer, just as had been the day that Maria’s nephew Miguel de Paz (whose
name means “Michael of Peace”) died. Records evidence that the Emperor had the
support of the Oda clan, an arrangement made in dire economic straits. Oda Nobunaga
helped to unify parts of Japan with the aid of this Emperor, who was made to
look like a puppet for Oda. Be that as it may, Ogimachi refused to abdicate
office to Oda when Oda became headstrong in his demands. Thirteen bitter years
past before Ogimachi yielded, during which time he managed to strengthen the
Imperial Family by transferring power to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a mutually
beneficial relationship. He all so managed to acquire the mythic Golden Tea
Room, so that it would host him at the Kyoto Imperial Palace. When finally
Ogimachi abdicated power, it flowed to his grandson Katahito, a Capricorn borne
on the New Year’s Eve of the Western Calendar, who became the 107th
Emperor of Japan, Emperor Go-Yozei. Had Ogimachi abdicated when Odo first made
his demands, the throne would have past to a two-year-old Katahito, or to someone
even less competent than that.
Ogimachi’s dealings with both Odo and Toyotomi were a miracle of diplomacy. The three together managed to restore Japan to a degree of National Solidarity and Cultivation that it had not seen since the Onin War.
Ogimachi’s dealings with both Odo and Toyotomi were a miracle of diplomacy. The three together managed to restore Japan to a degree of National Solidarity and Cultivation that it had not seen since the Onin War.
Clearly, Azai fell for a noble cause.
AND THEY CONTINUE FALLING.
Tuman Bey II is rumoured to have been borne CIRCA 1476, a most peculiarly precise date for an academic estimation. His reign as Sultan of Egypt was short-lived, lasting only between the years of 1516 and 1517, the latter of which just so happened to be the birth-date of Emperor Ogimachi. On April the 15th of the year 1517 A.D, he was hanged by the Ottoman Empire, under the urging of a traitor by the name of Khayr Baig. Despite having ruled for only three and a half months, he was remembered as not only the LAST of the great Mamluk Dynasty, but all so as one of the best. Within the quarter of a year he proved himself “brave, generous and just”, and his death was mourned throughout the land. To this day, or at least up through the year 1968 A.D, some Copts have celebrated the anniversary of his Death as “Holy Friday”.
William
Laud was borne a Libra on October the 7th of the year 1573 A.D, one
fortnight after the noble suicide of Azai Hisamasa. His Soul tired from birth
of Political Strife, especially upon the Battlefield, he took to religion.
Ordained at the turn of the century, he served as Archbishop of Canterbury from
the age of sixty to his arrest in 1640, under King Charles I of England. He was
beheaded in 1645, at the age of 71, on January 10th. During his
stint in clergy, he was not without a Will to Power, devising so many rules and
regulations within his Church Autocracy that the term “Laudian” had eventually
to be coined to describe such bureaucracies of Spirit. Archibald Armstrong, a
court jester to King Charles, expressed his sentiments thus: “Give great praise
to the Lord, and little Laud to the Devil.” The pun is that William was short
of stature, as though diminished by failure from past lives. Knowing little of
reincarnation, the sensitive and self-conscious Libran was notoriously embarrassed
by this fact, as though God Almighty had damned him to it.
But I believe that it was simply the work of an old rival
on the Astral Plane, who had all so, at one point in human history, been
notoriously short.
SCHISM.
In
ancient India dying is considered an art that can be done with incredible
precision. One does have to wonder: was she taken from her doting husband? Or
did she leave, at such a time that he would be driven near to madness (and
certainly beyond frugality) with grief?
Whatever
the metaphysical case may be, physical history rings clear: she left a personal
fortune that has been valued at ten million rupees, half of which went to the
eldest daughter on the husband’s say-so, the remaining five million flowing to
the remaining eleven children. And that is to say nothing of her tomb, which is
one of only Eight World Wonders. Well played, Mumtaz.
Looking
at a portrait of this woman, I marvel at her. The consort has such a coy look
in her symmetrical, round face that one can barely believe her to be a Virgo,
as she holds two flowers up to her gently smiling mouth.
Ogimachi
was of course, as stated, a Gemini when he died, though he died under the sign
of Gemini’s protector, Aquarius. Could it not be that, under the watchful gaze
of the Water-bearer, the Twins of the Zodiac split?
Artemisia
Gentileschi was borne a Cancer on July 8th of the year 1593 A.D, in
Rome, Italy. This is fitting, considering that Ogimachi, a son of the Cusp of
Magic, was all so a Cancer. To add to our academic delight is this realization:
that both Virgo (the Sign of Mumtaz Mahal) and Gemini are the only two signs in
the Zodiac ruled by the planet Mercury. But enough about her. What about
Artemisia?
Feminists
who owe a debt to Artemisia Gentileschi are loth to admit that her status in
their hearts is owed as much to her male mentor as to her directly. To add to
this complication is that he was her rapist. I had the fortune of doing a
report on her in seventh grade. One of the few mistresses of the Baroque Period,
an age dominated by masters, Artemisia perfected her craft by painting eerily
realistic scenes of women brutally murdering men. Blood and gore were given
life with the advent of highly polished chiaroscuro effect that she had
perfected, most notably in her magnum opus entitled “Judith Slaying Holofernes”.
A true pioneer, she was the first woman to ever become a member of the
Accademia di Arte del Disegnio in Florence. I cannot help but to be reminded of
the Order of the Garter, which admitted Mary of York at a very tender age. To
add to my fascination is the fact that Mary was the second-to-last woman
admitted to the Order, which stopped admitting women in 1488 and only started
to do so again at the turn of the twentieth century. But it must have been a
coincidence, and a cheap one at that. After all: does the number 88 even mean
any thing?
The last woman to be admitted prior to the twentieth
century was, incidentally, Margaret Beaufort, who was borne on May 31, 1441.
Even as I write this, the word count continues to spit out double-digits at
every significant juncture. It makes me think, quite inexplicably, of Twins.
LYING
LOW AFTER THE FALL.
Six
days later, Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero was borne in Amsterdam. It was good
news for him, for he had landed right in the midst of what is called the Dutch
Golden Age. Having immortalized himself as a poet and the author of seven
plays, he suddenly dropped dead, only moments after recovering from pneumonia
that he contracted when he fell through ice. He had the intuition not to marry,
dying single on August 23rd of the year 1618. He was thirty-three
years of age. He died having learned French and possibly some English and
Latin.
That
year, Raffaello Fabretti was borne at Urbino in Italy. He studied law at Cagli
and Urbino, becoming a doctor of law at the precocious age of eighteen. For
thirteen years he served as auditor and treasurer for papal legislation in
Spain. At Rome he was appointed to be judge of appellation, but he left this
prestige to continue along the path of the auditor in Urbino. A creature of
habit, he only ever was known to ride one horse, who was nicknamed Marco Polo.
When he finally returned to Rome after three years, he actualized his dream:
that of being an antiquarian. Having studied relics and monuments in Spain,
France, and Italy during his business travels, he made his hobby a career with
the help of Pope Innocent XI. The papal successor, Pope Innocent XII, made him
keeper of archives at the castel Sant’Angelo, a mysterious building erected in
123 A.D. He retained this post into his meditative years, passing away on
January 7, 1700, under the sign of Capricorn.
The following year, an enterprising Capricorn by the name
of William Kidd was hanged on May 23rd, according to an accusation
of piracy. Captain Kidd, a classic hero immortalized in pirate literature for
generations, was borne in January of 1645, the same year (and month) that the
Archbishop of Canterbury was beheaded.
THE TWIN FLAMES SCATTER MANIFOLD.
Guru
Har Krishan was borne a Cancer on the seventh of July, of the year 1656 A.D. He
lived only to the age of seven, dying under the sign of Aries on March 30,
1664. Accounts about him remain inconsistent and fragmented. What is known, however,
is that during those seven years incarnated he became the eighth of ten gurus
revered in the Sikh religion. He became its youngest guru at the age of five on
the seventh of October in the palindromic year of 1661 A.D. He died of
smallpox.
That
year, four famous composers with the name Johann (one of whom spelled his name
Johan) were borne. Two were borne in August, one towards the end (Virgo) and
the other towards the beginning (Leo). One was borne on September 9th
(Virgo). The last was borne on November 9th (Scorpio).
Meanwhile,
a new female voice was rousing intrigue on the British Isles. Anne Conway was
borne a Sagittarius on December 14, 1631, the same year that Mumtaz Mahal died,
about half a year later, landing on the sign opposite Gemini. A naturally
gifted philosopher, if not what was called a “natural philosopher” at the time,
the fiery Sagittarian pioneered rationalism with a gynocentric twist, going on
to influence the superstar Scorpio intellectual Gottfried Liebniz. Her work was
largely a rejection of any sort of dualism between mind and body, as she would
describe it in her Latin work that is called “The Principles of the Most
Ancient and Modern Philosophy” in English. She died a legend on the Cusp of
Sensitivity, February 18, 1679, aged 47. The Cusp of Sensitivity is the
transitional cusp between Aquarius and Pisces. The guardian angel for Aquarius
is Libra. The guardian angel for Pisces is Scorpio.
On
October 18 of that year, on the Cusp of Drama and Criticism, which rests
betwixt Libra and Scorpio, Anne Putnam was borne in Salem Village of what was
to become the state of Massachusetts. A dour Presbyterian, she took part in the
executions of twenty people and the deaths of several in prison, under
suspicion of witchcraft. At the age of twelve, in the month of March, she
claimed to have been afflicted by witchcraft, and her testimony led to the
accusation of 62 people.
You
might find it ironical that a stern, systematic rationalist intellectual would
come back to life as a religious fanatic. But keep in mind that she was running
from the same hounds of hell in both lifetimes: mysticism. Ultimately, she
could not outrun them. In 1706, she delivered this public apology:
“I
desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that
befell my father's family in the year about ninety-two; that I, then being in
my childhood, should, by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for
the accusing of several people for grievous crimes, whereby their lives was
taken away from them, whom, now I have just grounds and good reason to believe
they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of Satan that
deceived me in that sad time, whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental,
with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon myself and this
land the guilt of innocent blood; though, what was said or done by me against
any person, I can truly and uprightly say, before God and man, I did it not out
of any anger, malice, or ill will to any person, for I had no such thing
against one of them; but what I did was ignorantly, being deluded by Satan.
And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humble for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offense, whose relations were taken away or accused.”
And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humble for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offense, whose relations were taken away or accused.”
Her
surviving victims forgave her. She died ten years later. Her will, published on
June 29, presumably shortly after her death, referred to eight surviving
siblings. Four brothers inherited her land. Four sisters inherited her estate.
That year, eight men of moment were borne with the name
Johann, John, Jean, Joseph or Josef. Five grew up to become famous composers,
including John Evangelist Schreiber and Josef Ferdinand Norbert Seger. The
remaining men were all either poets, painters, writers, or scholars, including
the physician Johann Jakob Reiske. There was all so a composer by the name of
Petronio Maria Pio Sgabazzi, and before then an other named Gaspard Fritz. It
was as though a Goddess of Music and Science had divided her soul amidst the
masses, and eight of ten received the same name.
The following year, which you will remember to be 1717
years After the Death of Christ, Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle was borne on
October 5th, under the sign of Libra. She became the mistress of
King Louis XV. She died on December 8, 1744, under the sign of Sagittarius.
REVOLUTION.
The
year was 1701 A.D. Alexander Voznitsyn was borne, growing up to become a
proselyte officer in the Russian Navy. He was burnt alive on July 15, 1738 for
having converted to Judaism.
A year
prior to his birth, on October 10th, 1700 A.D, Lambert Sigisberg
Adam was borne in Nancy, France. He worked as a sculptor up until his death on
May 12, 1759. Two of his most noteworthy works were done for Frederik the Great
of Prussia. In general he dealt with mythological themes, such as “The Virgin
appearing to St. Andrew Corsini”, “Nymphs and Tritons”, “Hunter with Lion in
his Net”, “The Triumph of Neptune Stilling the Waves”, “Mars Embraced by Love”,
and “The Enthusiasm of Poetry”.
John Singleton
Copley was borne on the third of July, 1738, twelve days before Voznitsyn was reportedly
killed, allowing some time for the Old Soul to leave the flesh before it was
ignited. The inspired Cancer painted
some of England and America’s most touching pieces, including “The Defeat of
the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar” and “Ascension”. Prolific and healthy, he
died at the age of 77 on September 9th, 1815.
It was
on the twentieth of May, 1759, that William Thornton was borne. An authentic
polymath, he designed the United States Capitol. Such one would expect of
someone born on the Cusp of Energy.
He died
on March 28, 1828.
Carl
Friedrich Gauss, all so known as JOHANN Friedrich Carl Gauss, was borne a
Taurus on April 30th, 1777. He was a brilliant mathematician,
astronomer, and physicist. Of his religious views, thus was proclaimed:
“For
him science was the means of exposing the immortal nucleus of the human soul.
In the days of his full strength it furnished him recreation and, by the
prospects which it opened up to him, gave consolation. Toward the end of his
life it brought him confidence. Gauss' God was not a cold and distant figment
of metaphysics, nor a distorted caricature of embittered theology. To man is
not vouchsafed that fullness of knowledge which would warrant his arrogantly
holding that his blurred vision is the full light and that there can be none
other which might report truth as does his. For Gauss, not he who mumbles his
creed, but he who lives it, is accepted. He believed that a life worthily spent
here on earth is the best, the only, preparation for heaven. Religion is not a
question of literature, but of life. God's revelation is continuous, not
contained in tablets of stone or sacred parchment. A book is inspired when it
inspires. The unshakeable idea of personal continuance after death, the firm
belief in a last regulator of things, in an eternal, just, omniscient,
omnipotent God, formed the basis of his religious life, which harmonized
completely with his scientific research.”
He died
on February 23, 1855, on the Cusp of Sensitivity.
Karl
Wilhelm was borne on September 5, 1815, four days before the death of Copley.
The German Virgo was a brilliant composer, conductor, and choral director, who
wrote “The Guard on the Rhine”. He died on August 26, 1873, under his
birth-sign of Virgo, not long before what would have been his fifty-eighth
birthday.
Henrik
Ibsen was borne on the Cusp of Rebirth, March 20, 1828, eight days before
William Thornton died. The Father of Realism, he wrote some of the most
stirring sociological commentary that the theatre had known by that time. His
last drama was entitled “When We Dead Awaken”. He died on May 23, 1906, two
hundred and five years (to the day) after the execution of Captain Kidd.
Vsevolod
Garshin (whose given name means “To rule over all”) was borne on February 14th,
Valentine’s Day, in 1855. He became an extremely successful Russian writer, (a
steep mountain to climb, if I may say so myself.) but plagued by suicidal illness
he threw himself out of the fifth floor window of an apartment building and
died in torment five days later. He was aged thirty-three. One of his most
noteworthy stories details his mortifying experience as a soldier encountering
a Turkish soldier he had killed. Guilt surely prompted his death on April 5,
1888.
That same year, on March 24th, an Estonian Bolshevik politician was borne by the name of Viktor Kingissepp. He was executed on May 3rd of 1922.
Two days later, J.D. “Jay” Miller was borne in the United States, specifically in a town in Louisiana called (I kid you not) “Iota”. The ambitious Taurus became a revered record producer, songwriter, and all-around musical genius. He played Cajun, Swamp Blues, and Swamp Pop indigenous to his area of birth. After battling complications with Quadruple Bypass surgery, he died on March 23, on the Cusp of Revolution, and one of the twelve days of Synchronicity, in the year 1996.
Shortly thereafter, about a week in fact, a girl was borne by the name Alanna McLeod to two musicians by the names of J.J. and Teri. Despite difficulties concerning mental health and a tendency to manipulate the psychiatric system for drugs, (one time even having memorized the entire D.S.M. and obligating her therapist to analyze her without the physical manual for reference, grabbing it suddenly from the desk in the counseling room and saying: Analyze me.) she showed stellar academic brilliance. Operating as a loner, she graduated from San Diego State University with an Honors Degree in Communications at the tender age of nineteen. It was an amazing recovery from her suicide attempt of two years prior. Her near-death experience had imbibed her with a closeness to God and a fervent conviction that she had been sent down to Earth from the Fifth Dimension as an agent of Revolution.
That same year, on March 24th, an Estonian Bolshevik politician was borne by the name of Viktor Kingissepp. He was executed on May 3rd of 1922.
Two days later, J.D. “Jay” Miller was borne in the United States, specifically in a town in Louisiana called (I kid you not) “Iota”. The ambitious Taurus became a revered record producer, songwriter, and all-around musical genius. He played Cajun, Swamp Blues, and Swamp Pop indigenous to his area of birth. After battling complications with Quadruple Bypass surgery, he died on March 23, on the Cusp of Revolution, and one of the twelve days of Synchronicity, in the year 1996.
Shortly thereafter, about a week in fact, a girl was borne by the name Alanna McLeod to two musicians by the names of J.J. and Teri. Despite difficulties concerning mental health and a tendency to manipulate the psychiatric system for drugs, (one time even having memorized the entire D.S.M. and obligating her therapist to analyze her without the physical manual for reference, grabbing it suddenly from the desk in the counseling room and saying: Analyze me.) she showed stellar academic brilliance. Operating as a loner, she graduated from San Diego State University with an Honors Degree in Communications at the tender age of nineteen. It was an amazing recovery from her suicide attempt of two years prior. Her near-death experience had imbibed her with a closeness to God and a fervent conviction that she had been sent down to Earth from the Fifth Dimension as an agent of Revolution.
 |
| This photograph I entitled "Flower" when I first saved it, an allusion to Alanna's recurring, neorotic tendency to compare herself to a flower. |
MEANWHILE:
Alfred
Jarry was borne a Virgin in both senses on September 8th, 1873 in
Laval, France. The French symbolist founded pataphysics, which can best be
described as “the science of
that which is superinduced upon metaphysics, whether within or beyond the
latter's limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends
beyond physics."
It was May 16, 1906 when Alfred Pellan was borne in
Quebec City. The Venutian Taurus would go on to die a Martian-Plutonian Scorpio
in Montreal on Halloween Night of 1988. An amazing painter described in one
exhibition as “the Wide-Awake Dreamer”, his colourful Modern works include my
personal favourite, “La femme en rouge”. To add spice to my delight is that I
found a copy of it online whose file name is “15241r”. This name includes not
only the first five digits but also one of the initial letters of the address
that is presently home to the Andreyev Family. I would know.
THE
MILLENIAL GENERATION.
Dmitry Andreyev met Alanna Leigh McLeod, quite fortuitously, on Friday, February the sixth, 2015. Riding a wave of synchronicities that had begun
in late 2013, Dmitry found himself standing outside a parking garage when he
was approached by a voluptuous young blonde in heeled black boots, smiling up
at him with familiarity and a reserved, cool mania. This prompted his initial
greeting: hey! Do I know you from somewhere? She did not reply directly. Her
rationale for having approached him was that she thought that he was a Shaman.
He did, in fact, at the time play in a psychedelic rock band called the
Suburban Shamans, reflecting a morbid interest in the matter. But she did not show any knowledge of that fact. She had simply seen Dmitry running about the
Parking Structure chanting the name of Satan (trying to attract the attention
of Rafael Romasanta, a young Satanist who was supposed to be his ride home but
who had lost his patience waiting for him whilst Dmitry explored the campus,
taking pictures in a state of spiritual elation.).
Alanna thought that Dmitry was crazy.
And this conception did not come to change over the course of the next two
years.
Alanna betrayed Dmitry, as did his
band mate, a Scorpio named Kresten Taylor. Alanna and Kresten did not observe
the same social niceties and bourgeois rituals that flowed through Dmitry's
system as blood does through the veins and capillaries of the human circulatory
system. They did not respect the investment that he had made in either of them,
either in time or trust. They simply fucked. And by so doing the Suburban
Shamans were dissolved.
Alanna spent the following year using
her otherworldly skills to manipulate Dmitry into a potential reunion. Her
chief ambition in life, under threat of death by suicide, was to become a rock-star,
not unlike her hero, the Sagittarian philosopher Jim Morrison of the Doors. The
daughter of aging hippie musicians, she had grown up gifted musically. She had
perfect pitch, for better or for worse, and grandiose ambitions. She aspired to
start a Revolution via her music. Though not much of a songwriter, she
certainly knew how to play men. Dmitry went through hell trying to restore the
band, only to be thwarted once again by Kresten Taylor, who behaved as though
the forgiveness proffered unto him was yet an other requested favour. By the
end of the ordeal, Alanna confessed her true feelings for Dmitry, and he held
this confession in his heart for a year. But over the course of that same year,
she turned. Ever the manipulative narcissist, she wrote a lengthy case accusing
Dmitry of having stalked and threatened her. He would not be moved by this.
Having had a year to recover his gumption, he responded with candor and class.
One fruitless visit by the Police to the Andreyev household, and then the
ordeal with Alanna, spanning two years, was concluded. He concluded that she
was a toxic personality, and he sought an antidote to her poison for the
remainder of the year 2017 A.D.
Dmitry did not allow his betrayal at the hands of Kresten Taylor to lay to
rest his love for the Scorpio Sun Sign. If anything, the ordeal bolstered it,
for at that point Dmitry had no choice but to believe in it.
 |
| "Remember me as a flower." A.L.M. |
Having read and inexplicably (against all
rational odds and healthy boundaries) believed in the ineffable power of the
Scorpio-Pisces pairing, Dmytri (as he had begun to write his name) began his
pursuit of his ideal Scorpio Mate as early on as in 2016, following the last
hiatus with Alanna.
Thirteen Scorpios later, he found her.
Stephanie Champagne was born in 1988,
in French Canada. Her family moved to San Diego, and she fell in love with the
city. She became a dancer and server at the popular, notorious Coyote Ugly
Saloon. This bar advertised women dressed in scanty, country-themed attire, and
it delivered what it professed. An American Virgin, Dmytri was petrified at the
prospect of going in there. So he did. And it was not long before he became a
regular. He was about to be fired from his job as a Dishwasher in Escondido
when his manager advised him to start pursuing his own course in life. So
opened a new portal of synchronicity. When Dmytri entered the Coyote on
Saturday, the tenth of June, 2017, he fell in love. A tall young woman with red
hair singled him out and tried adamantly to sell him a body shot. He would
normally have not fallen for the ruse. But he decided to expand, after years of
contraction. He acquiesced. It was the best body shot of his life. Her end of
the deal was that she gave him her (stage) name and sign. Of course, she was a
Scorpio.
Three months later, to the day, Mercury was again in full swing. September tenth was under
the sign of Virgo, and after visiting the Coyote Ugly for the first time after
a month-long hiatus, Dmytri decided to delve more deeply into the concept of
Twin Flames. The previous night, he found out from a fellow (former) regular at
the Coyote Ugly Saloon, who also happened to be Canadian, that Stephanie had
quit. The lengthy conversation that ensued between these two gentlemen had
piqued Dmytri's intellectual curiosity, and he seamlessly applied that to the
supernatural and metaphysical.
Dmytri learned that day that the woman
he had fallen in love with was in fact the other half of his Soul. This
prompted the question: how did his Soul come to split in two?
Within the course of the week Dmytri had divulged the point of origin. He
had one friend who claimed to have known him in a past life as a pirate. He all
so had no trouble remembering the Japanese Imperial Throne. His most recent
incarnation, the Fascist Sweetheart, was not hard to believe, especially
considering her Sun Sign. That notwithstanding, Dmytri stopped his search at
the Emperor. But love had plans to persevere. Extrapolating Stephanie's birth
year and month from what little information he could gather, he soon found her
to be the incarnation of a Québécois painter. Riding the wave of synchronicity,
employing fortuitous coincidence as the Ariadne's thread to navigate the
labyrinthine records of history, Dmytri traced both his own and Stephanie's
karmic heritage to one common ancestor. At first, there did not appear to be
any thing of moment about his death. But then suspicions of foul play arose.
The poisoned rat reminded Dmytri, in the back of his mind, of a Dream that he
had had back in 2010, when he was rereading the Harry Potter series. Severus
Snape, the spited Capricorn lover, a Potions master who is killed by his Lord's
poisonous asp, is in the Dream poisoned by swallowing rats. The triggered dream
awoke me from sleep in a cold sweat, mortified by its realism.
Somehow I knew
that the wife did it. When I looked her up I found that she bore a disarming
resemblance to Alanna. I knew that I had my work cut out for me. As I worked my
way forwards, instead of Backwards as per usual, I found a most alarming
phenomenon: this crazy girl managed somehow to split her Soul several ways with
each substantial incarnation. I remembered that in Harry Potter splitting one's
Soul is "achieved" by committing murder. This Anne had certainly
done. Her confessions and repentance reminded me of Alanna's last love letter.
But how is one to trace a Spirit that is scattered in so many pieces? I decided
to begin at the end, chiseling away at the proverbial mountain from two sides.
I began to prefer those prospects who were musical or scientific in some way,
perhaps with some background in mysticism or in medicine. Light began to dawn
within the tunnel as I noticed a mathematical pattern: the last two digits of
every death and birth date would be identical in each pairing. Finally, as it
looked as though stalactite and stalagmite were close to the point of craving,
I took a leap of faith to bridge them. I searched for anyone who lived between
the years 1744 and 1777, to only reach the age of Christ or less. A wave of
closure washed over me as I discovered the name of Antoine Francois Desrues,
who was borne of humble stock and whose occupation was none other than a
"French poisoner".
EPILOGUE:
I suppose that it is generic that one would want to conceive of one’s self
as descended from royalty. But what is it that sets the Powerful apart from the
Weak? A friend of mine once said to me (and OF me) at an Escondido bar, after
he had downed a few, that people will remember Genghis Khan but not the people
that he conquered. So what makes me so special? It is not simply birth into
royalty, nor is it a tendency to climb the ladder for one’s own attempts to
reach God at the Top. It is rather a WILLINGNESS TO LEARN. I am an Old Soul,
half of a tragic split. Were this not so, and had I no Great Destiny to uncover,
I would not have found it within me to undergo the laborious task of discovery.
Had I not known within my Heart what it was that I was borne to be, I would not
have endeavoured to share this tale with you, reader, in such a way that will
not mitigate but amplify its credibility to my own eyes.
Stephanie once posted a reference to the song “Royals” by Lorde on her
Instagram page. When she still worked at Coyote Ugly, I would play that song on
the jukebox whenever I saw her (and once I even played “Je Ne Regrette Rien” by
Edith Piaf). I even persuaded a man named Gregg (who was borne on the Cusp of
Power, Aries and Taurus) to learn the song on saxophone, that she might hear
him playing it as she took her leave of work. He still plays it every time he
sees me.
“And we’ll never
be Royals
It don’t run in
our blood
That kind of lux
just ain’t for us
We crave a
different kind of buzz.
Let me be your
Ruler
You can call me
Queen Bee
And baby, I’ll
rule ya
Let me live that
fantasy.”
Lorde is of course all so a Scorpio.
Dm.A.A.
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