The RSVP Cycles

The RSVP Cycles was a textbook I read for an experimental music class in college. Having grown up in Southern California in the 1960s in a town where 35 modernist architects lived, one of whom was my Father, I think I took this type of thinking for granted. The book was written by Lawrence Halprin, a landscape architect, (and innovator) and his wife, Anna Halprin, who is a dancer, choreographer (and healer and innovator). RSVP stands for "Resources" "Score" "Valuaction" and "Performance." There's a nice explanation on Wikipedia. These principles propose a new way of understanding how to create, sort in the way that John Cage's books do, but with more structure. For the music class it was a text on composition. It could just as easily be a text on design, or dance, or painting, or anything else. Beyond that, I have to say that I didn't really "get the whole idea." Lessons in those days were usually kept pretty vague as a way of avoiding any authoritarian set rules.

What attracts me now is the word "Cycles," especially connected with the word RSVP, since I'm so much into studying Return Cycles as points of development. Lawrence Halprin passed away last year in 2009 on October 25. There must have been a mention in a newspaper somewhere about this anniversary on Monday that caught the corner of my eye because I suddenly started thinking about that book.

So, I decided to take a look at Anna and Lawrence Halprin's charts. What I found is a really amazing pair of Sun-Venus conjunction people. Sun-Venus is related to both the Arts, Harmony, Balance and Beauty, and also Marriage Partners. I can't find astro data about their actual marriage and don't know if they remained married. It appears that they stayed together, but with Uranus leading both of their chart shapes they probably kept their relationship pretty loose.

Not only did they share the conjunction but they shared it in the same sign in Cancer. The sign of Cancer is really appropriate for people who are involved in environmental design. (Think Buckminster Fuller, Tesla, Viktor Schauberger). Water is an extremely important element in Lawrence Halprin's design. The idea of allowing things to evolve and to grow from a seed is also a Cancerian ideal.

What's even more interesting is that Lawrence Halprin, who was born first in 1916, had a natal Sun conjunct Venus Retrograde and Pluto in Cancer. Sun-Venus conjunction people sometimes follow a really interesting 8 year cycle of 5 which is related to the proportions of the Golden Mean. It appears that Sun-Venus Rx people follow a 4 year Return cycle as well. Lawrence was going through a Sun-Venus Return at Age 4 when his wife was born. Both even have the conjunction aspect connected with outer planets by conjunction, but not in major aspect to other planets. Lawrence had a huge stellium in Cancer with Pluto, Sun, Venus Rx, Lilith, Saturn and possibly Moon.

Anna's Sun-Venus conjunction is later on in the sign at 21-24 degrees. Her Pluto is 8 Cancer.

It's really fascinating to flip the animation wheel on the software program and watch how the Sun-Venus Rx conjunctions cycle back on through every year on Lawrence's Birthdays in childhood. I said before that Sun and Venus seem to have been in conjunction every four years (something I don't understand because I thought this occurred every 8 years). Lawrence also experienced really intense Sun-Pluto conjunctions every year on his Birthday for about the first 10 years of his life.

Because Pluto is placed farther apart from her Sun, Anna also would have had the same type of Solar Return aspect every year during her childhood starting from about Age 6 or 7 and lasting through High School. That explains their need to completely change and transform their environment and ways of healing. They shared a very deep emotional core, that's for sure. They must have been left alone a lot as kids.

Lawrence Halprin

b. July 1, 1916 Brooklyn, NY
d. Oct. 25, 2009

Sun 10 Cancer; Moon 24 Cancer; NN 1 Aquarius Rx

Anna Halprin

b. July 13, 1920 (Place?)

Sun 21 Cancer; Moon Gemini; NN 13 Scorpio Rx

Women Cellists with Multiple Sclerosis

This is sort of an unusual coincidence which makes astrology look awesome.

Most people are familiar with Jacqueline Du Pre, the famous cellist whose career was cut short by onset of Multiple Sclerosis. Well, about a week ago I heard a program on NPR which interviewed the cellist from the Kronos Quartet, Joan Jeanrenaud. Jeanrenaud had to give up her career with the Quartet about 11 years ago. I knew she was no longer in the group and had no idea why. Turns out that she also was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. From the interview it sounds as if this cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud is dealing with her illness very well and is finding ways through recording to continue with her musical career.

(in case my link is no good, I recommend listening to the program here: http://www.kqed.org/arts/music/article.jsp?essid=26944)

While listening to the interview I made a note to look at Joan's chart to see if it is at all like Jacqueline Du Pre's. It turns out the two charts have stunning similarities. For one, these two women are born a day apart under the sun sign Aquarius, January 25 & 26. Aquarius is a mental sign. Many successful women are born under it because it offers the ability to not only be highly intelligent but to distance one's self from life events, to take a long range view and to see the bigger picture. Aquarius women are very strong. Unfortunately it also can affect a person's all over nervous system. The Sun rules a person's vitality and overall health, and Uranus rules the nervous system.

There is also the chance that both women share the same Moon Sign Moon in Cancer. This sign works in pretty much the opposite way that an Aquarius Sun does. Cancer is the sign of feelings and great sensitivity, great receptivity. These signs relate to each other in a quincunx type of way and quincunxes are said to often develop into health issues because they try to bring together two energies which really don't relate to each other. It is a way of relating which always requires making "adjustments" because things don't seem to mesh. What both of these signs do have in common is a hyperactive psychic/intuitive ability. People with this combination may have to mentally try not to become overstimulated by their perceptions and senses. (I can't say much more about the Cancer Moon because Joan Jeanrenaud may actually have a Gemini Moon.)

I don't claim to understand much at all about medical astrology so my observations are probably very silly for those who do. But here goes.

Right off the bat, though, I see that Du Pre's chart offers a couple of insights into her disease. Her Cancer Moon is in conjunction with her Cancer North Node. On the opposite end of the Nodal Axis, she had a conjunction to the degree of Mercury and Mars in Capricorn which is in conjunction with her South Node. Interesting that these two planets together rule motor coordination. Mars would rule the gross motor coordination of the body. Mercury would rule the small motor coordination related to the hands and manual dexterity. At any rate, Du Pre's motor coordination would have been highlighted within her life in some way, in a way which affects her destiny (Nodal Axis).

(As an aside just because I find it interesting, In Du Pre's chart this big opposition is placed in angular houses crossing the 4th and 10th houses. Tiger Woods has a Mars-Moon opposition over this spot as well, perhaps this shows early drive and success in life as Moon and Mars both represent childhood and youth.)

Unfortunately, planets bound together by oppositions, especially when placed over the Nodal Access and IC/MC axis (strong angular emphasis), will not happily blend with each other. They constantly play a balancing act with each other, and will oppose each other. Doesn't help that Du Pre's Ascendant is Aries which is ruled by Mars. This rules her physical body so her physical body is ruled by the planet which rules her motor coordination and brain activity.

As I said earlier Du Pre's Sun (Vitality) is in the sign of Aquarius, which rules the nervous system. Interesting that she had a "Mental" Air Grand Trine between Sun, Uranus in Gemini (H2), and a conjunction of Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune in Libra. This latter conjunction is placed in the 6th House of Health.

This Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune conjunction mirrors the current conjunction of these last 3 planets in Aquarius which has currently been in the sky. Can only imagine what kinds of musical geniuses have been born over this past Summer/Fall.

I don't have a birth time for Joan Jeanrenand's chart. Her Aquarius Sun is conjunct Chiron and Mercury in her chart and they are opposing Uranus. This shows high intelligence, of course, with a strong interest in anything new and innovative, like the avante garde music which she became famous for. It can also show a high strung nervous system, especially since Chiron is involved and adds the idea of a wounding that can't be healed which could show up, of course, as a chronic illness.

Also coincidental, both women have Venus in Pisces. Know that this shows musical abilities. Don't have any idea if it is also related to Multiple Sclerosis. Pisces and its ruler, Neptune, naturally rule the 12th house in Astrology in general and can be related to chronic illness and anything that is debilitating and difficult to understand.

Since both women are Aquarians, their progressed Suns were passing through Pisces when they became ill. This gets pretty interesting actually when comparing their charts.

The Progressed Sun was very close to the same degree of Pisces when both women were diagnosed (6 degrees for Du Pres, and 8 degrees for Jeanrenaud). Jeanrenaud's progressed Sun was conjunct her natal Venus within a degree at that point. Du Pre's progressed Sun hit her natal Venus the year that she passed away. I don't understand people who say that this progression is a time of great happiness, usually for weddings, etc. I've almost always seen it manifest as a fairly dark period in a person's life.

It's also strange that Jacqueline Du Pres passed on Oct. 19, 1987 and Joan Jeanrenaud was diagnosed the next year in 1988. It's almost as if there was some demon flying from the body of one cellist to the next. Actually, now that I think about it this is probably true. Both women had progressed Sun conjunct their natal Venus' during this two year time span in the sign of psychic Pisces. There probably was a real transfer of energy!

Du Pre would have been around Age 28 when she was diagnosed in Oct. 1973. This is the time of the progressed Lunar Return/Saturn Return. Both of these planets are placed in the Sign of Cancer in her natal chart. And remember that the Moon is in conjunction with the North Node.

Jeanrenaud would have been around Age 43 when she was diagnosed in 1988. This is just after her Uranus Opposition/Neptune square. She has these two planets in a square aspect (to the degree) in her natal chart. They are actually in a t-square with the Sun-Chiron conjunction which hooks them into health/vitality.

Sorry, I can't provide any great insights in multiple sclerosis but I suspect that these charts can provide some great keys for those who know more. These charts mostly show musical talent to me.

Jacqueline Du Pre
b. Jan. 26, 1945 11:30 am Oxford, England

Sun 7 Aquarius; Moon 15 Cancer; NN 16 Cancer; MC 11 Capricorn; ASC 28 Aries

Joan Jeanrenand
b. Jan. 25, 1956 Memphis, Tenn.

Sun 5 Aquarius; Moon Gemini/Cancer; NN 15 Sagittarius

edited 1/14/11 misspelled Du Pre's last name as per commenter

Jerry Yang

Yahoo is currently struggling to avoid a hostile takeover from Microsoft. I wanted to look at the CEO's charts to see what's going on with them. Jerry Yang and David Filo are the founders of Yahoo and I could only find Jerry Yang's birth date. I'm not sure how involved David Filo is in running the company as Jerry Yang is mostly in the news. What grabbed me was the fact that The San Jose Mercury News published an email Yang sent to the Yahoo employees and dope that I am I was particularly impressed by the fact that he doesn't capitalize words in his business correspondence. He's worth Billions and runs the company like e.e.cummings! That's awesome. I mean, maybe it's not so awesome right now as he struggles to figure out what to do with Yahoo, but at least he sounds like a fun boss.

Jerry Yang
b. Nov. 6. 1968 Taipei, Taiwan

Sun 14 Scorpio; Moon Taurus or Gemini; NN 10 Aries

Yang is a Scorpio like Bill Gates and if his Moon is in Taurus he's got good fixed sign capabilities, holding power. Also, like Bill Gates, he was born during a Jupiter-Pluto conjunction. His Pluto-Jupiter is supercharged at the end of Virgo (25 & 29 degrees respectively) conjunct Mars (29 Virgo) and Uranus (3 Libra) . This brings in the extreme success of a Jupiter-Pluto conjuction but with Mars and Uranus also an impulsive, initiator quality to the way he does business that Gates doesn't seem to have.

This Jupiter-Pluto conjunction was directly squared by the recent conjunction of those planets at the end of Sagittarius. This poses some big challenges as squares generally do. Yang's progressed Sun and prog. Mercury are at the end of Sagittarius as well meaning that he really is stressing right now. It's interesting to note that there was another Jupiter-Pluto conjunction back in 1995 just as Yahoo was getting off the ground (the t.North Node also passed over natal Neptune as well). This would have been conjunct his natal Neptune in Scorpio which is trining the natal Virgo conjunction and was in his Solar Return Chart for the entire 1994-95 year. I haven't looked up Yahoo's data so I can't be specific about this.

As for what will happen? Jupiter will trine that natal Pluto-Mars-Jupiter-Uranus conjunction later this year which will add some relief and maybe a lucky way out. It will pass over the Uranus-Neptune conjunction in Yahoo's natal chart which could bring either an opportunity or just a lot of optimism. Probably Yahoo already is strongly international but there may be more emphasis on overseas operations. Yang's natal Mercury is in diplomatic Libra, hopefully he'll be able to think through a solution. Right now his Mercury has progressed to a square with natal Mars-Jupiter showing that's he's definitely pushing to come up with new ideas. It's also approaching a square to natal Uranus so the ideas may come by working in a group and through friends. They will have to be new and innovative ideas that project far into the future.

Yang's progressed Sun also tells some interesting stories. It is just pulling away from a conjunction to his natal Venus (about 4 years ago). It looks like he was too lax in running his company and was enjoying his riches (Venus square Pluto). He may also have been bored. Yang's progressed Sun is now at 24 Sagittarius. This means it is approaching an exact square to natal Pluto by a degree, showing Power struggles over the next year. He's also approaching his Neptune square which shows some confusion as to how to handle the situation, maybe feeling that his world is not in his control. Neptune can be a great time to reach outside of normal boundaries through imagination so hopefully he will use this. He should definitely avoid drinking right now, especially if his Neptune is opposing his natal Moon.

U.S. Detainee Number 002

David Hicks
b. August 7, 1975 Adelaide, Australia

Yesterday driving along listening to NPR, holding my chin very close to my chest trying to talk back to Michael Krasny in his same hushed New England voice, pronouncing all the consonants at the ends of my words, doing it perfectly. The BBC Lady comes on, I think she's talking in Gaelic, or with an Irish accent, however it goes, and with beautiful lilt she dispassionately reads her little news blip about an Australian guy who's been detained at Guantanamo Bay for the last five, or is it 6?, years. He had joined the Taliban and was caught shortly after 9/11. In Guantanamo: Tortured. Beaten. Held in isolation. Denied a trial. 5 years. Then she moves on to the News in the rest of the world. I'm American. I've never heard of this guy. But, I'm on the side that has been doing this to him, really bad things: putting stuff up his butt to make him talk (?), locking him up by himself for 8 months, denying him access to due process for more than 6 years (first year he was on a boat I think)! He's in Guantanamo after all. Ah, Fuck. Inside Edition can't handle a story that's more sensational than its graphics so it remains silent on these matters.

So, I'm going to look at David Hicks' chart with his birth date and his Wikipedia entry. And I feel otherwise helpless about his situation.

Sun 14 Leo. Moon probably Leo. Sun c. Mercury and possibly Moon in Leo. Okay, so he's probably a little Full of Himself. Opinionated, Temperamental, Dramatic, Egotistical.

North Node 28 Scorpio opposite Mars 26 Taurus and trining Saturn at 26 Cancer. Mars and Saturn are both in their Detriment. Saturn is a singleton in Water. Some dire lessons in responsibility, maybe to the point of being scapegoated. North Node in Scorpio lives a complicated existence; how do you turn your life path toward darkness? Hicks dropped out of high school, stole some cars, did some drugs. He became Muslim, left his wife and kids to go fight in Albania and then joined Al Quaida and was caught right after 9/11. He's not exactly a model citizen.

First I'll discuss his t-square and some of its transits. Apex Saturn in Cancer squaring Jupiter-Chiron in Aries which is opposite Uranus in Libra. Jupiter-Chiron opposite Uranus in Libra could have some strong religious convictions.

In 1999, Hicks had a Jupiter Return that, because of retrogrades, lasted a very long time, from May to January of 2000. He had a calling and it was religious and kind of Aries fundamentalist type religious so he wanted to fight for his God. His progressed Mars hit n. Uranus (opposite n.Chiron-Jupiter) and t. Chiron hit his natal North node opposite Mars. I've heard of Mars-Chiron oppositions as being Spiritual Warriors and here he had two of them going at the same time. It would make sense then that Hicks would join a Holy War. Also at this time t. Pluto hit his natal Neptune in Sagittarius. That'll lead to some Extreme Metaphysics for sure. And, last but not least, this was also during the time that Saturn and Pluto began to oppose each other in 2001 bringing in the Bullying/scapegoating streak. Remember what it did to Lyndie England's chart and life. Eventually Chiron would join Pluto on Hick's Neptune in Sagittarius. I certainly hope he had a little mantra to chant at that point.

Hicks was caught around November or December 2001 just as the transiting Sun was passing over these planets, first hitting the North Node then hitting Neptune (along with transiting planets mentioned above). His progressed Mars and Transiting Saturn were opposing n.Neptune-t.Pluto as well. His progressed Sun squared his natal Neptune in 2002. He was captive by then.

There's another configuration that stands out in Hicks' chart. It would be much easier to explain with a picture. It stands out mostly because Hicks' progressed Sun has been passing over his natal Venus in Virgo the whole time he's been in Prison. So, Venus isn't happy in Virgo, this is the sign of its Fall. Venus also doesn't have any positive aspects in this chart so she's really left to express her dark side. She's squaring Neptune, so also affected by all the transits that his Neptune received, i.e. the square from Pluto and Saturn.

Venus is also involved in a trapezoid shape with Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn that contains minor sesquiquadrate and semisquare aspects. (Venus square Neptune, Jupiter square Saturn, Venus sesquiquadrate (135) Jupiter, Venus semi-square Saturn, Jupiter sesquiquadrate Neptune.) The sesquiquadrate aspect is a sign of irritation and agitation and considered a bad omen when it falls between major planets. It could explain Hicks' minor criminal mentality. As Venus rules Justice (or lack of) and Neptune rules Prisons and Jupiter rules Law and Lawyers and Saturn rules Government and scapegoating and these planets were set off by transits and major progressions, I suppose I can see how being captured as a POW could happen when this figure is under a heavy transit. I couldn't find a description for this chart shape, closest is the Submarine shape described at http://jstroberg.50megs.com/starlogin_us/interp.html#config but that has a sextile in it. Unlike the Submarine, this shape offers no positive relief to balance the difficult ones. As Hicks has apparently been Suicidal for much if not all of the time that he's been imprisoned we have yet another example of a progressed Sun-natal Venus conjunction expressing suicidal feelings in a person's life. He's been forcibly medicated for something and not told what it is he's being given.

Hicks' Saturn Return while at Guantanamo is interesting to look at. In December 2004, a Documentary was made about his situation, his cell was even photographed. His progressed Mercury was conjunct his natal Pluto which is at apex of a small triangle, sextile on either side to Neptune (film) and Sun (Drama). His Father (Saturn) has been very supportive about trying to get him out. But, alas, to no avail. He was set up for a trial in 2005 and it was denied at the last minute due to changes in the laws. The transiting North Node was conjunct his n.Jupiter-Chiron and squaring his Natal Saturn-t.Saturn.

The U.S. Government apparently has finally announced this last week what David Hicks will be tried for. The charges are 5 years in the making and God can only imagine what they might be. I believe he's going to be represented by a lawyer from the U.S. Army and not an Australian.

The thing that separates Modern Society from the Ancient Barbaric Societies (which we tend to think of when we think of the Taliban) is the concept that True Justice can only be administered if accompanied by Mercy. I don't see where the U.S. is following this rule. We've ignored the rules of the Geneva Convention with regards to treatment of these prisoners. I can only quote Joseph Conrad's famous line: "The Horror! The Horror!"