Oliver Sacks and the Moon

As usual, interesting interview on the NPR Radio Show Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Terry interviews neurologist Oliver Sacks about his new book The Mind's Eye.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130732146

Sacks has so many neurological problems himself and yet is so likable he sort of makes me want to be psychotic. This latest book discusses visual perception and is influenced by Sacks' personal health problems in this area. During the last few years, ever since the Saturn-Neptune opposition it seems, Sacks has been fighting some serious problems with vision. As a neurologist he has amazing insights into what is going on with receiving a Cancer diagnosis, going through treatment, and with losing the eyesight in one of his eyes, and also living with the thought that he may lose sight in the other eye. As a writer he can express what he is going through with amazing clarity. This past year Sacks has suffered the loss of eyesight in his right eye. The Right eye is often said to be ruled by the Sun and relationship with the Father. The Left eye is often said to be ruled by the Moon and the relationship with the Mother. Sacks is a Sun in Cancer person so I suppose he could be one or the other.

Sacks also suffers from a condition called "Face Blindness." This means that he can't easily recognize faces, even his own. Sacks and Gross talked about the famous portrait painter Chuck Close who apparently suffers from a very pronounced version of Face Blindness as well. That's a very interesting idea since Close is one of the most prominent modern portrait painters. He paints huge portraits which he graphs off of photographs in the super realistic style. Close has survived a very devastating neurological disorder which left him in a wheel chair and unable to hold a paint brush. Yet he has managed to strap on paint brushes and to continue painting his huge pixilated portraits.

I've discussed the charts of both men on this blog somewhere, Sacks and Close, (can't find Gross' birth date). I think it is interesting that they are both Cancerians. Perhaps this is a sign which struggles to recognize faces. This is especially interesting since the Moon is more closely related to facial imagery in myth, through the Man in the Moon lore. Close is a double Cancer with both Sun and Moon in that sign. Both men also struggle with neurological problems. They both also live on the East Coast which probably means that they just think too hard or something (that's a joke, I'm just saying that it's obviously just a coincidence).

I wonder if the sign of Cancer is related to the face, or maybe our projection of the face. Most people agree it looks like the face of a man from our point on earth. But, on a different level, maybe, since it reflects the light of the Sun perhaps it provides clues to how we perceive others. I've always assumed that this was a Libra thing but maybe they are interrelated. No? Okay, far fetched. Here's something stupid to think about. Maybe Facial Recognition software works best on a Full Moon, haha. I believe that newborns are thought to be able to recognize their Mother's faces around 1 month old. This coincides with the first Lunar Return. The Moon represents the Mother in Astrology.

What does seem to work is the fact that in the legal field, witnesses to crimes are considered very unreliable as evidence. People can't "see" reliably during a highly emotional and stressful event such as a crime. People also can't "remember" well either. Memory is often heavily related to the sign of Cancer. Shakespeare's Juliet does tell Romeo not to swear by the inconstant orb.

I do tend to believe, after working for lawyers for many year, that Capricorns, the opposite sign, have unbelievably reliable memory for fact. They can perceive and retain correct information really well. (They just can't tolerate people who can't do as well as they can) Or, at least, the ones in my office did. The Capricorns were known as rainmakers because they could use this talent not only in the courtroom but socially they could easily shmooze with the clients. It helps if you have instant recall for names and faces, very few of us do.

This Face Blindness only indicates that a person can't recognize faces. A person can recognize facial expression and can appreciate beauty. Terry Gross asked about that, really interesting question. (Sure wish I knew her birth date so I could find out what Venus/Voice is doing in her chart)

In my post on Sacks (I think I published it, hope so) I seem to remember that I was concentrating on how secondary progressed Mercury has moved through his chart during his life. That's an interesting thing to look at in a neurologist because Mercury rules the thinking processes along with Uranus which rules the nervous system (and probably Sun which rules the spine). From what I remember Mercury had gone Rx at some point during his childhood right around the time that he was sent to boarding school because of the War. And it stationed Direct at some point just as he was entering into the work world and made his L-Dopamine discovery (What was that movie?). He says that he began to have Visual Migraines at around Age 4-5 which caused some temporary blindness problems. He said that in 1965 while taking amphetamines he went through a 2 week phase where he had heightened sensory perceptions related most to visual memory involving concrete details. He could suddenly draw. I'm too lazy to look it all up right now and I still don't have a birth time for him and I don't believe that Astrotheme has his chart readily available so I'm putting it off for now.

Wow, I've got to get that book. Maybe it will include the exact week in 1965 when Sacks was tripping. (Terry Gross kept pushing to get more info about that and Sacks was getting defensive, it was a gas).