Brigitte Bardot, A True Ballerina

Ballerina Bardot

http://youtu.be/boWTBmx-lvE

http://youtu.be/Znq5k9HX-CM

Most people don’t think of Brigitte Bardot as a ballerina. Her hour-glass figure and long blond hair paint the picture of a perfect Playboy Centerfold, even with her clothes on! I myself was pleasantly stunned to find she had trained in classical ballet for 12 years.  Ballet clearly was part of her artistic magic as a performer. It also was part of her heart, perhaps more than any of her lovetorn relationships or fantastic movie escapades. Watching her dance is a spectacular treat. Her timing is luciously crisp and her feet have more charm and character than Kate Winslett. Ms. Bardot put her whole being into every movement as if she was making love with the music. That saying “ballet is so sexy” should be accredited to her mastery of grace.

Terpsichore was in Libra when Brigitte was born. She had the dancing star tightly conjoined her Mercury and Jupiter in Libra, opposing Uranus in Taurus, squaring Pluto in Cancer. This spells a VERY strong Terpsichore signature. So, what this signature say exactly?  Dancing is tightly entangled with her sensual identity. This knot  seeks to release its self  through her obsession for deep security and emotional abandonment. Like a true ballerina, Brigitte had to dance. It was part of her soul’s journey to celebrate the joy and pleasure of physical movement. Dancing  gave her  freedom she could always hold onto, no matter what.  Dancing brought her back to her soul~

Margot and Nureyev’s Dance of Desire

 

 

 Pluto~ Squared by Venus

 

Margot Fonteyne

 

 

Margot Fonteyn’s Pluto in Cancer was exactly Square Nureyev’s Venus is Aires.

Venus Makes her entrance into Libra very soon and becomes entangled with Pluto in Capricorn. Passion must be released.

 no matter the cost~ 

 

Happy Birthday Misty Copeland!

A Volcano In Eruption

Virgo in the 17th Degree

Misty Copeland

Misty has a boiling mutable T Square with her Virgo 17 Sun at the apex! Her Gemini Moon opposes Neptune and makes a juicy square, hitting right on the mark of  her sensuous, pure, smoldering Sun. Her dancing, more than anything, can put life to this astrological signature. In my own words, the simplist way of saying it: Simply Hot.

 The ‘simply’ refers to the delicacy of Virgo. This is the spirit of the ballerina. The ‘hot’  is the creative fuel that drives the body into action. It’s no wonder Prince found his way to her. She’s the epitome of restrained wile. This is what Virgo is famous for. Marlene Dietrich had Virgo ‘rising’, and so does Madonna. In Misty’s chart, the fire of innocent sensuality begs for release through her Virgo Sun. 

 What fascinates me about her chart is the grit behind it. The Sun/Moon square is thrilling. The  intensity of her desire to achieve greatness  relentlessly gnaws at the light of her Sun.  Gemini rules her 10th house, so her Moon has a voracious appetite for success.

 Her dancing is brilliant not only in precise technique, but pure energy. I’ve noticed many renowned dancers have this special quality…that special Virgoan ‘being at one with the moment’ quality…Suzanne Farrel has it, the latest ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ phenomenon Melanie Moore has it, and although Natalie Portman’s character in Black Swan is not real per se,  her character, the ballerina ‘archetype’ ,wreaked of it. There is something about Virgo energy that lends its self  very naturally to the demands of ballet. Misty can consider herself lucky in this regard. It just shows that for performers, Leo isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially  when it comes to being a ballerina…

 Misty’s current focus seems %1,000 focused on becoming the first Principal Dancer for American Ballet Theatre. Arguably the best ballet company in the world, or at the very least, the most prestigious Ballet company in America with several of the best dancers in the world. However one chooses to look at it, Misty it out to make history. Her T Square, along with many other signatures in her chart, clearly confirm her mission to go where no other black ballerina has gone before.

 I think her Saturn Return becomes exact on October 17th…that should be powerful, to say the least! So, this astrological portrait has yet to be continued… I look forward to exploring the many rich layers of the fabric of her dancing,  her life’s journey, and ultimately the ‘self’ behind it all.

 Here’s an Astrological Recap~

 

Virgo 17 Degrees

 A Volcano in Eruption

A Need For Emotional Release

The repressed feelings at the very core of one’s being that every so often have to come to the surface-with force.

 May your dancing keep coming to the surface and your feelings rise to the occasion of splendor and full release.

You are destined for Greatness.

 

Happy Birthday Misty~

 

 

 

Suzanne Farrell, Exalted Mercury in Full Force

 

Mercury in Virgo O Degrees

A Body Eager to be Molded

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1165751n

Mercury enters Virgo at the Aries point of zero degrees later today. Legendary Neo Classical Ballerina Suzanne Farrel had this placement natally in her chart. Mercury’s exaltation in Virgo (in classical astrology), is clearly revealed not only through the flexibility of Suzanne’s body, but her humaness-her way of moving, thinking, understanding and communicating a message, in her case, Balanchine’s Message of  dance being the music.

Mercury’s power in so many ways is intimately connected to dance. The ability to travel smootly rom one place to another is essentially “Mercurian”.  Mercury, like the technique of dance, is all about transition. How can a dancer makes one step flow into the next, and the next, no matter where their legs are  coming from or where their arms may have to go? 

Mastering this is mastering the power of Mercury’s impulse: to move.  Whether it be a message, a newspaper, or taking one step in front of the other. Mercury must move. It thrives off of movement! That’s probably why Mercury retrograde is so infamous!

I think Suzanne’s ability to be completely moldable, pure, and of service to George Balanchine, is an excellent insight to how Mercury performs when at  its peak of 0 degrees, the greatest point of force of the sign’s energetic expression, ie. the Aires point.

Virgo is earth AND mutable.  This is a perfect marriage for what a dancer needs, to be a useful tool for a choreographer. I see the element of earth as the presence of the body in the very moment of its human existence, there is an immediacy to it…a ‘presence’ …a pure consciousness. 

For this reason Virgo has also been associated with the mundane ie. washing dishes, writing checks, brushing your teeth, etc. yet there is special way of being in the moment with the mundane… a meditative space that can be quite liberating and purifying.

Virgo’s understand the power of simplicity. Perhaps this is why so many of them are devout. Mother Teresa is an extreme example, but there are many variances. If we look for them, we can find them in our own lives. We can turn the mundane into the spiritual. Virgo’s placement in our chart can certainly give clues about our capability of being transformed through the mundane. 

Suzanne’s experience with Balanchine seemed very much this way…being in the studio is different from being on stage, yet the same. This is where the polarity point of Pisces comes in.  I think the entry point of Virgo at 0 degrees triggers that Pisces polarity point quite strongly. Pisces is the dream.

Pisces  is the essence of  Suzanne’s experience on stage, the world of magical possibilities.  Virgo, the in the ‘here and now’, ready to adapt completely with its environment, is on the other end. This selflessness, along with eagerness to be put to use and molded in any way necessary, became the very tool Balanchine used to redefine the art of ballet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mercury Battles Neptune~Surrealism Opening Our Minds

Mercury in Leo Opposes Neptune Retrograde in the last degree of Aquarius  

         * Creative Messages Push through             Revolving Doors of Dimensions*

‘I’ve never thought of myself as avant-garde. If you run around a race-track and are a full circuit behind everyone else, then you are alone and appear to be first.  Maybe that is what happened to me…’.

Tatsumi Hijikata, Founder of Butoh

Melanie Moore, Queen of Refinement

Virgo in the 15th Degree

Refined Ecstasy

 

Today is SYTYCD Melanie Moore’s Terpsichore Birthday~ The mutable sign of Virgo in the avatar, 15th degree is  VERY RIPE. The genius of Aquarius lurks right under the surface of Virgo’s innocent skin. 

Virgo celebrates our connection here on Earth and how we as humans have power in expressing our  humanity through the power of our words, gesture, and movement.

I was surprised to find that Ms. Moore is majoring in Art as opposed to Dance, in NYC, the dance capital of the world! For Melanie, brushes and paint are the same as dancers.

 ‘I sketch with pencil an go over it with oils. I like oils because of the way they move and work across the page. My favorite subject matter is people. I think everyone has a lot of beauty in them. When I paint people, it’s really easy to show that’

 

 The Sabian symbol for Virgo 15 is

 ‘An Ornamental Handkerchief’

*Fineness and Finesse*

 Today is the perfect day to celebrate what makes each of us Human and Beautiful~

Freddie Mercury, Messenger of the Gods

 

 

 

The Quadruple Genius

Freddie Mercury

 

* Four Quintiles

 Astrologer, (& former opera singer) Noel Tyl swears by the “quintile”, or 5^th harmonic aspect of 72 degrees. This ‘artistic genius aspect’ is usually right on the money when it comes to revealing unique creative gifts. Many famous artists have them. Their unique artistic genius is clearly revealed by them. It is fairly common to find about 1 or 2- more than that could get a little ‘freaky‘ sending an undeniable need for creative outlet. Freddie had 4 quintiles in his birth chart! His most revealing one being his exaltation in Mercury in Virgo quintile a Uranus/Vulkanus conjunction in Gemini. Both Virgo and Gemini being ruled by Mercury, Messenger of the Gods!

 In traditional astrology Mercury is exalted and receives it’s highest expression in the sign of Virgo. In modern astrology it’s exalted in Aquarius. Mercury is about many, many things. Although its most commonly associated with the mind, its power lies its adaptability. It is air. It is changeable. For this reason I think it can associated with bisexuality, which was a big part of Freddie’s persona as being the lead singer of “Queen”.  Mercury can go anywhere and do anything…this is ultimately the power of the ‘mind’. For Freddie, his power was in his message of  freedom, youth, and vitality, which undoubtedly came through music.

Mercury rules the hands. Virgo promises precision. This astrological placement is a classic sign for dexterity of the fingers. Agility, speed, and articulation are highly pronounced. Although Freddie was not impressed with his piano playing, he was  proficient, and also played acoustic guitar. He also had an uncanny ability to replay tunes on the piano at a very young age. This shows Mercury’s beautiful ability to process information in precise Virgo.  I think this talent led him to becoming a brilliant songwriter. He also had incredible singing technique.

  THE VOICE

The dexterity of Mercury in Virgo found its way more through his voice more so than his fingers.  Biographer David Bret described his voice as “escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches”.

Virgo’s  purity and youth ar expressed perfectly with his pitch. Spanish soprano Monesterrat Caballe, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that “the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice”.  This is Mercury’s job in all our charts, for Freddie, it was his bread and butter. It was also his gold.

She adds, “His technique was astonishing. No problem of tempo, he sung with an incisive sense of rhythm, his vocal placement was very good and he was able to glide effortlessly from a register to another. He also had a great musicality. His phrasing was subtle, delicate and sweet or energetic and slamming. He was able to find the right colouring or expressive nuance for each word.” Mercury in Virgo is a master with words!  

As Queen’s career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury was said to have “the rawest vocal fold nodules” and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.

So, it’s clear this Mercury in Virgo aspect is quite revealing regarding his brightest skills and talents as a musician. I believe it’s not only the sign placement by exaltation, but the fact that Mercury is the ruler of his Sun, as well as quintiling Uranus in Gemini, that really sends his chart ablaze with musical genius.

THE PERFORMER 

Uranus is a big boy. It sends electricity. It loves the unusual, avant garde, and has a strong exhibitionist streak. It is ahead of its time, ie. ‘genius’. So, it’s no surprise when this beast of a Mercury placement in Virgo quintiles, making the most creative aspect with the Planet of genius, that sparks would fly…I would imagine he felt like electricity in motion when on stage! As Freddie’s career progressed, he took more to the stage and less to the guitar and piano. As Queen’s lead singer, he felt that connecting with his audience was his primary duty. 

 *Uranus conjunct Vulkanus

 I don’t see Vulkanus talked that much among astrologers, although I find it pretty interesting. Vulkanus is a Uranian planet aka. ‘hypothetical planet’ that doesn’t actually exist yet represents a particular point in space…if I understand correctly;)! Whatever the exact case may be, the aspects make sense when I use them in various charts. Marilyn Monroe personified its heat and intensity with her Sun Sign cazimi, or in ’the heart of the sun’ to Vulkanus. This explains her steam.  Vulkanus  greatly amplifies, activates, and heats up anything it touches. There is a sense of self authority to it.

In Freddie’s chart, Vulkanus is conjunct Uranus in Gemini within one degree. I think this makes the quintile to Mercury even more explosive, in a pure, youthful, free kind of way, similar to that of Marilyn Monroe’s ‘light’ but hot sexuality. Both Marilyn and Freddie died before the time. They are remembered for their youth and vitality and still carry on the message of their creative personas. This shows the power of the “Purer” at play. The youthful, immortalized free spirit who never grows up, yet pays a great price by dying young.  

QUEEN

Euterpe at 0 degrees Pisces

Freddie Mercury had no planets in water. Yet, he had the muse of music, the asteroid ‘euterpe’ at the aries point/ strongest possible degree in Pisces, the ‘wateriest’ sign of the zodiac. When a particular element is weak or missing in a chart, there is great emphasis on that element in the search for completion and balance. That missing element becomes the focal point of development. The person strives for completion by attracting whatever or whoever can  make up for the element in question. In Freddie’s case, music was the missing link that made him complete. The massiveness of his musical expression is so clear through this placement. Music swallowed up everything in his life only to be massively poured back out to us, who carry on his message through continuing to listen to and honor his talent.

 *Eros Square Terpsichore

 Eros is about passion. This is another asteroid I love using with artists  because it usually reveals some fascinating connections. Freddy’s Eros is in the watery sign of Cancer, emphasizing emotion, exactly square and creating great tension with Terpsichore in Aires, the asteroid of choral song and dance. Eros was also quite out of bounds by declination, meaning it was ‘way out there’! There was fire in is soul and a strong urge for rhythm and melody. Even though he may have been reserved and very shy, he felt things with immense passion and had a strong urge to release his feelings through the celebration of song and dance…ie. terpsichore.

After seeing all this in his chart,  I think to myself, wow, Mr. Mercury must have been a real freak of nature! In the best, musical kind of way, of course.  Lets be inspired not only through his voice but the eternal message of  Queen’s spirit~

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE GENIUS OF DEGAS

 

The Degas Touch

 Terpsichore Quintile Saturn

 

Alastair Macaulay’s Workers Wearing Toeshoes  in today’s New York Times, gives adept insight on Edgar Degas’ s creative fascination with Ballet. Degas did have a very special way of seeing dance that’s clearly reflected in his horoscope. When I looked up his chart, I could see this through a quintile between Terpsichore and Saturn. The quintile aspect is the infamous creative aspect in astrology, representing a 72 degree relationship between two planets, which represents the most creative relationship, the 5th harmonic. Creative genius is displayed through a quintile with elegance, and many artists have quintiles that are directly connected with their  unique artistic talents. One could say the 5th harmonic is an aspect of creative freedom, and it always carries with it a very individual touch.

 In Degas’s chart, the dancing asteroid, Terpsichore, Apollo’s fifth of the nine Muses in Greek Mythology, is creatively synched with Saturn, the planet that rules the sign of hardworking, practical Capricorn.Terpsichore resides in spirited Sagittarius while Saturn sits exalted (its highest expression), in aesthetic, socially aware Libra. Astrologically, I see this as a talent for expressing the experience of religious faith through artistic commitment.

 Christ was supposedly a Sag, although he’s quite often associated with the fish symbol of Pisces. To me, what this suggests is there is a virtue of optimism, an inspiring belief, that comes from ritual. Working in the studio at the bar is incredibly ritualistic…not much different from a prayer. Sagittarius honors a higher belief while Pisces surrenders. One can see in Degas’s paintings and sculpture the sense of joy, aliveness, and inspiration…the “spirit of Christ”, if you will…

 Then there’s the other view of the real picture. Although ballet is loved for its ethereal quality on stage, the dancer’s world in the studio is Saturnian. Dancers age. Joints weaken. Injuries accumulate. The work is incredibly mentally and physically demanding. Rewards are often painfully delayed and limited. Complete commitment is required, with no guarantee of public recognition or accomplishment. Degas’s work captured the essence of this and gave life to it with sincere, gentle beauty.

 Dane Rudhyar, French composer and humanistic astrologer, calls the quintile “….the genius which transforms a routine action into an inspiring, significance-releasing performance.” Workers Wearing Toeshoes is a wonderful exploration of the genius of Degas. It celebrates his unique, inspiring vision of the Dancer’s real world, a world where the ideal and real do coexist.