The Smiley Smile Message Board

While reflecting on the lyrics of Funky Pretty I got to thinking about astrological references in Beach Boys songs - Strange Things Happen - and then I was reminded of an article detailing the astrological significance of the Beatles - Fire Sign John, Air Sign Paul, Water Sign George, Earth Sign Ringo - and I got to wondering about the grand cosmic calendar and the career of the Beach Boys. For example - it has been pointed out that the astrological configuration of present time is the mirror image of that which prevailed in the '60s, with a strong Neptunian influence. Now, the correlation of Neptune, God of the Sea, and the Beach Boys water references is self evident.

What I'm wondering is whether the ebb and flow of their career correlates with the ebb and flow of Celestial influences? Early 60s High Tide - Late 60s low Tide. 2012 High Tide.

Any Cosmically Conscious type folks out there to help me out on this one?

This will sound terribly sexist, but it's mainly guys on this board, and  doesn't it tend to be women who believe in this sort of thing?

I don't know a single man who believes in astrology, but many (though not all) of the women I know do.

Not helpful.

Next!

Pointless thread.

Next!

THE VOICE HAS SPOKEN.

NEXT!

 :lol



All I meant initially was, politely, this doesn't really strike me as an "astrology" sort of meassage board. I could very well be wrong though.

OK. Let me start over.

These guys are artists. Right?

As such they are attuned to the currents of thought of the times in which they live and create.

Now, like it or not astrology is central to counter-cultural thought. Age of Aquarius - right!

Google Rick Tarnas for a detailed explication of archetypal astrology. Plato is not so easily dismissed.

To the point - there are indeed astrological references peppered throughout the Beach Boys work as expressions of the spirit of the age.

So, all I'm wondering is how an astrologer might correlate the tides in the times of these men?

It does sound terribly sexist, yes -- and just for one, Mike Love believes in astrology.

That said, astrology is utter nonsense, and while there may be correlations, you could just as easily find correlations with anything.

Take US Presidents, for example -- clearly the Beach Boys are more successful under Presidents who were the Vice President in the previous administration, especially if that President took over mid-term.

Just look at the facts -- Johnson (who took over in the middle of the previous administration) is the President under whom they have their greatest success. Nixon, their career craters. Ford takes over mid-term, at exactly the same time Endless Summer gives them a career burst, and stays in until 1977, at which point they tank, and stay irrelevant right through to 1988, and right at the point at which it becomes certain that George Bush, the Vice President, will be the next President, Kokomo hits. Over the next few years they have Still Cruisin' (one of their biggest selling albums), regular guest spots on popular sitcoms, and renewed popularity. Right up until the point that Clinton (who, like Carter, Reagan and Nixon before him, wasn't the VP in the previous administration) takes over in the polls and becomes the certain election winner. When they put out Summer In Paradise and spend the next eight years suing each other and having a terrible time.

It's obvious! Wake up, sheeple!

Yes he is. He was a cretin. There, I dismissed him. Next.

We really are running out of things to talk about.

Man...you guys are coming across as totally spiritually barren.

I've been into the Beach boys since 1964 and I've always responded to the deep spiritual dimension of their music - Warmth of the Sun? Whew!

All those beautiful ballads produced in the 60's drenched in Romanticism. Side 2 of Today? One of the supreme achievements of the rock era!

And then the Zen-like epiphanies that constitute the Friends LP.

And the ecological themes - A Day in the Life of a Tree not a prayer? I beg to differ.

I didn't start this thread to promote astrology as such, but expected to engage with some ideas related to the artistry of this band on a higher level.

So, if there is a fellow Aquarian out there please chime in.

 

Romanticism != prayer != spirituality != zen != astrology. Having no time for the superficial cultural-appropriating nonsense of newage (rhymes with sewage) 'thinking' does not make one "spiritually barren", it just means one has a basic ability to think critically, rather than a mind so open one's brain falls out.

That said, let me go through your earlier post line-by-line, and show you why it's possibly not going down as well as you might have expected. I'm not meaning to be rude here, incidentally, but I have a terrible headache, so I probably am. Apologies in advance.


Arguable. Brian and Dennis certainly thought of themselves as artists at times. Possibly/probably the others did too, but I'd bet that at least some of them think of themselves as entertainers first and foremost. But we'll stipulate this to go forward.


Citation needed.
You're making several independent assertions here:
a) that there is such a thing as "the currents of thought of the times"
b) that it is possible to be "attuned" to these currents
and c) that by definition artists are so attuned.

You have provided no evidence for these claims. In fact I would think they were demonstrably false. I am an artist of sorts myself (I've written several books and a lot of songs -- nothing like on the same level as the Beach Boys, but enough to have some idea of the qualia of artistic creation) and have never felt "attuned to the currents of thought". I think the same goes for most artists. But in fact we *know* this wasn't the case for Brian, specifically, because one of his greatest works, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times is precisely and explicitly about how he *isn't* "attuned to the currents of thought of the times". Implicitly much of Smile, with its longing for a lost mythological past of America/childhood, is about the same theme, though how much of that is Van Dyke Parks is arguable.

So the two works commonly considered the band's most important argue against your thesis, such as it is. On to the next point.


This contains an implicit assumption that the Beach Boys were in some way "counter-cultural". If they were, it was for a vanishingly small period of their career, and for the most part they have been as utterly mainstream as it's possible to get.


Rick Tarnas is a Jungian, which is another word for "idiot".


Yes he is. The central split in the immediate post-Socratic philosophers was between Plato's belief that reality could only be understood by the contemplation of one's own mind, and Aristotle's argument in favour of empiricism combined with logic.

EVERY SINGLE CULTURAL, SCIENTIFIC OR SOCIETAL BREAKTHROUGH that has happened in the succeeding 2400 years has confirmed that on this central issue, Aristotle was right and Plato was wrong. Plato argued for dictatorship over democracy, for the banning of music, and in general for a closedness of vision that is archetypically totalitarian, anti-progress, and anti-humanity. He was, quite simply, wrong.


Not 'as expressions of the spirit of the age'. As expressions of the specific beliefs of Mike Love and Jack Rieley.


And suddenly you've jumped from "these people believed this" to "this is true and has an effect on the real world". If Mike Love (say) believed there were invisible elephants in the recording studio, then it would be reasonable to look at how that affected his songwriting and performances -- look for mentions of invisible elephants in the lyrics, screams of "please don't trample me, Jumbo!" in the backing vocals, that sort of thing. But to ask what effect *the actual elephants had* would be a different matter, as they simply don't exist.

(Of course this is the central fallacy of Platonic thought, too -- the idea that just because we can conceive of something, that means it's real...)

Holy Crap! At one point in time Astrology was thought of as a religion. Personally, I find people who believe in Astrology no different than those who believe in any other type of religion or whatever. Whether Brian or the other Boys' believed in it fully, no one can really say. The astrology chart was included on the back cover of Smile, so there was at least a fascination with it from time to time. Like you said, Mike apparently has a belief in it in some form or another. Calling out the OP on this is just a bit over the top. I think it was a reasonable question to pose.

Welcome to the Smiley Smile board!

I did try to warn you.......

No-one "called out the OP" until he started being rude and dismissive to other posters.

Stephen was just a little out of line there. That post would would not have set well with me neither. The OP was correct with his response. Seriously, if you have nothing to say or add about a subject, then don't post. Had no one been interested, the thread would have just faded away. I mean if Mike believes in Astrology, then the topic applies to this Beach Boys forum, and since Mike is a guy, then Astrology is not just a woman's thing. Just saying...

I don't think I was out of line. I was quite polite. And if I started a thread entitled "Does Bruce Johnson's belief in elves and faeries have some truth behind it?" then I'd expect a little light hearted dismissiveness.

Yes, I could have stayed out of it, but it's a public forum, and I wasn't being rude, I felt I was warning him he was likely to get some stick.

As for the sexist thing. I don't know a single man who believes in this, but plenty of women (including my dear sisters). I don't believe in shying away from a truth just because you can get accused of being sexist, or islamophobic or something. And what's the harm in astrology. As silly beleif systems go, its pretty innocous. No one is getting burnt at the stake or blown up over it. But it is a largely feminine preoccupation, as is crystal healing and tarot readings.

But give me these people over fundamental christian creationists or dogmatic Muslims (of which there are usually more men) any day!!!

According to this Gallup poll - http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/paranormal-beliefs-come-supernaturally-some.aspx -- about twice as many British women as men believe in astrology. But that's a cultural difference rather than something inherent in gender -- in the USA, 23% of men believe in astrology to 28% of women, which is within the margin of error of equality.

I hear you. Mike believes in Astrology, so that makes it relevant here, and he is a guy last time I checked. ;) Like you, I am not into the sexist pc stuff. Look, we know Brian was into it off and on; wasn't Heroes and Villains released based on a date given to him by an Astrologer? In another thread we have been talking about astrology songs like Funky Pretty and Strange Things Happen. Talking about it's influence or lack thereof is relevant and maybe even interesting if anyone knows more aout it.

There is a huge difference, though, between asking what influence the band members' beliefs in astrology had over their art, which is a reasonable and potentially interesting question, and asking what influence actual astrological phenomena had over their career, to which the only sensible answer is "absolutely none at all, obviously". The OP seems, rather incoherently, to be asking the latter question rather than the former.

At no point did I say, or even hint it was inherent in gender, though these views are coming back into vogue. When I was young, the current feminist thinking was that there was no mental difference between the sexes.

Being the father of a daughter, of whom we bring up to be very challenging of gender stereotypes, I can tell you there really does seem to be a difference. She gradeated quite naturally, and at a very young age towards more nurturing, traditionally feminine play, despite the fact there was construction, building etc toys available. Lots of parents of daughters say the same. Of course there are many exceptions

In the case of supernatural beliefs as a whole though, this is common in both sexes. Obviously the new age thing is cultural as you say.

You have a point Andrew, but if Brian was relying on an Astrologer for Heroes, then at that point at least, he was using Astrology to direct their career. From all that I have read, it doesn't seem to have had much, if any influence, but then again it may have been used without our knowledge of it and there may be others out there who know more about it than has been discussed here. With the Beach Boys, almost anything is possible. :)

Sorry to have disappeared for awhile but had to go out and live my so-called life for a few hours.

Well, this is the first I've received a hickey since high school. No matter.

Ah, yeah...New Age for sure...Counter Cultural...absolutely.

So still no answer to my original query. Guess we need someone who can do the charts.

This idea that the kaleidoscope in the skies now "mirrors" that of the 60s is interesting. But what does it mean to mirror something? Is it a matter of opposites or compliments? I mean, I don't think the 60s are coming back - been there, done that - but the cosmic weather report seems to indicate revolutionary storms. Hmmm...

And I know what the Beach Boys meant when they said last year that the new album felt like 1965. Definitely!

So, what do the planets mean? And have you ever seen...

I do, in  46 and a half years.

Which also got me to thinking about a tune entitled All This Is That.

Just beautiful.

But what does it mean other that As Above So Below.

If you're going to post anonymously and then take the piss out of my name, f*** you.

TMinthePM, you should meet Bill Tobelman.

Something tells me you guys would have a lot to talk about

This thread's not going well for you. Maybe it's time you medicated.

I am siding with Andrew on this matter, I don't think astrology and the BBs is really important. It was human behavior that guided the BBs, not the stars.

Difference is, Bill's a gracious guy.

Absolutely. I think Bill's Smile interpretation is wrong, but he doesn't come onto forums and start insulting people in his first few posts.

I don't think it has much importance either, but I did answer his question by relaying the Heroes And Villains story. It is the only story that I know of where Astrology played a hand in their career decisions.

That is an important story and I was glad you brought it up. 1967 was a wild ride for the BBs.

Well of course there are currents of thought that distinguish an era.

My favorite book dealing with the Beatles is entitled Revolution in the Head. Compulsively re-readable. I'm far from my library so I can't access the author (could google it but it's more fun to reach back and pull it off the shelf). Anyway, he works thru the catalogue song by song making connections to ideas musical and otherwise that influenced their composition.

I know that I've read of Brian Wilson just soaking up the influences in the mid-60s, and the influence of TM on the musical output of the BBs is well documented.

But I'm still wondering how the celestial aspects contributed to the wave-like ups and downs in the career of the Beach Boys.

It was the 60's. Brian was taking drugs and flirting with  a lot of stuff like this. Zen, that one were you change your name. All of the times. All nonsense. He apparently got an astrologer to give him the right day to release it, and then went down to the radio station. However, here is a thread which casts doubt on this happening. Ah, its at the top again.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,13985.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,13985.0.html)

So even that was nonsense

I just posted a simple question to begin with. Didn't expect to have the inquisition come down on me - curses and all.

But, no matter.

And I'm still wondering...

Well, maybe if you'd been a bit more civil in your initial response to me, this wouldn't be happening. Maybe it's Karma......

Well maybe if you showed basic common courtesy to other people, it wouldn't have.
And your question *has* been answered. The answer is that there was *no* 'celestial influence' on the Beach Boys' career, because the whole idea is fucking stupid.

No no!

Zen is a psychological discipline designed to bring consciousness to a point of sudden enlightenment, wherin one might see all the meaning of existence in the simplicity of a single moment.

This is the underlying meaning of Dennis' compositions Little Bird and Be Still, or Al's At My Window.

I know a Zen proverb

"Man who acts like d*ckhead gets treated like one"

Such hostility!

instant Karma!

Learn to read. Stephen said "Zen, that one where you change your name" clearly meaning it as a list, where "that one where you change your name" means subud. I'm sure he's perfectly aware what zen is.

Exactly, and where did that hostility begin. You reap what you sow, is that cosmic enough for you?

Actually that's a little thing called natural selection. Being polite works, and being impolite doesn't. Therefore nature, (in this case the hominids you've pissed off), get rid of what doesn't work.

Yes, because coming on here, acting dismissively towards another poster, calling everyone else in the thread "totally spiritually barren", repeatedly claiming that nobody has answered your question when they have, making fun of my name... those are the proper behaviour of an enlightened, placid soul who offers nothing but friendship to all, right?

I've an article copied from some guy's site (sorry again but can't offer a reference as I am away from my books) detailing Brian's use of LSD, with particular attention to a trip he took at a place called Arrowhead Lake, and how the mind-expanding experience lead to the flurry of creativity that produced Pet Sounds and then Smile. Was well written. And I can see how such an event could produce such profound insights having travelled the astral plane myself.

But not to worry. I'll research the original question and get back to you!

TMinthePM is such a hilarious username. I'm still laughing.

Funny thing is. Folk logging on later will see this thread, with 8 pages by this point, and wonder how we've got such mileage on an obscure topic like this. Boy are they in for a treat.

TMinthePM. I'll try again before this gets out of hand. I feel wronged. You feel wronged. Shall we acknowledge this and move on? It's not about Karma and spirituality, it's about sparring monkeys and their inane politics. I'm happy to let it drop if you acknowledge your initial posts got people's back up. On my part I'm sorry if my initial post seemed dismissive. I was genuinely trying to warn you of the response you were going to get.

By the way, I have had profound and deeply esoteric experiences on LSD, but would never put this down to anything other than a chemical change in my brain. That is a fact, the astral plain is not.

I'm not trying to be difficult and do not mean to offend.

I have followed the old white board and now this since 1996 and have always taken a lot of pleasure from your conversations. 

I am fully cognizant of the disreputable nature of my original post, or at least the disrepute in which the premise is held by conventional wisdom.

Still, there are people out there who could provide a detailed response that I believe would be rather engaging if one were to consider it with a poetic sensibility.

There are, as some poet or another once observed, more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.

So, again...I wonder...

OK,  I tried.

I think we can all agree that we should wear yellow outfits tomorrow for it's powerful energy.

How dare you?! My numerologist told me tomorrow is a lilac day!

OK - Check this out:

Jessica Murray's America in Transition   
The Sixties 2.0

by Jessica Murray on April 1, 2012

Are you familiar, dear reader, with the notorious transit that astrologers associate with the rock-and-rolling sixties? I refer to the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in Virgo opposed to Saturn in Pisces, that peaked in 1965-66. For mad zeitgeist shifts, you can’t beat the combination of those three planets.

Astrological Symbolism for Dummies

To get its point across unmistakably, the Cosmic Encoder made it especially easy for us: the planetary formula translated exactly into the phrase that arose to describe the times. Pluto + Uranus ≠ Saturn: forces of extreme (Pluto) defiance (Uranus) countered (opposition) the dominant culture (Saturn). Voilà: the counter-culture was born.

Now, four and a half decades later, the next big milestone in the Uranus-Pluto cycle is nearing exactitude (1). I know I am not the only 60-something musing about the similarities and differences between now and the sixties.

Simple Code

Like any other war, the culture war that was the 1960s had two sides. You were either with us or agin’ us.

It was a simple matter to signal whether you were on the Uranus-Pluto team (“freaks”, we called ourselves) or the Saturn (“straight”) team. If you thought of yourself as part of the counterculture, you probably went bra-less. If you were male, you grew your hair long. The code was straightforward.

When hitchhiking, you signaled your tribe with a uniform of patched jeans, and could pretty much count on being picked up by another “long-hair.” (2) Conversely, if the truck approaching you on the highway was driven by someone with a crewcut, there was probably an American flag on the bumper, too; and you got out of the way fast so as not to get run down.

I don’t recall balking at being labeled in such a simplistic way. Obsessed (Pluto) with the concept of liberation (Uranus), I think our focus was on the marvelous new discovery that an alternative could exist to the suffocating conventionality we had assumed, as children, would be our future lot.

The Uranus-Pluto conjunction had a long tail. By late 1972 the two outer planets had moved into Libra, with their midpoint conjunct the US Saturn. The cultural polarizing they represented had by that time been thoroughly politicized, with candidates Richard Nixon and George McGovern personifying the pro-war (Saturn) and the anti-war (Uranus-Pluto) contingents.

The polarities of 1972 were so clear-cut as to seem almost a caricature.

The Country and the Cross

In the years since then, there has been a consolidation of power in the USA, as the donor-lobbyist-representative axis in Washington became entrenched. It is now the singular engine behind the American political system. The goals of a tiny empowered class have made both ruling parties far more similar than different.

This is the reality being pushed to the surface as the Cardinal Cross hammers away at the chart of the USA. This series of stressful Cardinal transits can be seen in terms of six phases:
1.In 2008, the riff began with Pluto opposing the US Sun cluster in Cancer;
2.it reached another level in 2010 when Uranus moved into Aries while Saturn was in early Libra (the “Cardinal Climax”);
3.it ramped up again in 2011 at the US Saturn Return;
4.it will become even more acute this year as Uranus and Pluto’s exact square clicks into the natal Sun-Saturn square of the USA; and
5.it will finalize when Pluto conjoins the US natal Pluto.

With transits of Uranus (revolution) and Pluto (complete breakdown and renewal) we expect the essence of a situation to be exposed. With the conjunction of the 1960s, consciousness-raising forces like civil rights and the war in Viet Nam forced the American collective to look at itself with a new level of self-honesty.

This new era’s iteration of the Uranus-Pluto cycle will compel a collective self-examination of a similar depth. This time we can expect the exposure to be about the disproportionate power wielded by those who control the material resources (Pluto in the second house).

Post-Ideological Era

This long-range astrological schema will help us maintain perspective as we move through the upcoming election season. There is a lot of media quarreling about, for example, where the various candidates stand on “social conservative” issues such as abortion and homosexuality, but these are just noisemaker issues compared to what’s really going on. The gradual coalescence of plutocratic interests in the USA have erased all but superficial distinctions between the Dems and the GOP.

The mass media knows how much its consumers enjoy a good fight, so we can be sure it will continue to stage electoral matches featuring two fiercely opposed teams. Indeed, conventional wisdom has it that the two parties are more polarized than ever before. But in fact their trajectory is the same. Congressional Democrats have moved to the right, and their Republican counterparts have moved even further to the right.

In this strange phase of America’s history, the struggle has become fundamentally post-ideological. The GOP has never pretended to be anything other than the party of resistance to change; but now neither do the Democrats, who no longer attempt to introduce new ideas. Long gone are the genuine social visions that used to come out of this party, like FDR’s New Deal or Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

Tea Party

Neither is the Tea Party really an ideological construct. These folks are merely the latest version of the Pissed-Off White Guy, a contingent that shows up in every phase of American history. Mostly rural, mostly Southern and Western, and mostly male, this crowd is the holder of strong cultural opinions but not much power. That is, they don’t see themselves as having much power.

Rather than shoring up the actual power—in numbers—that they do have, they focus obsessively on the classes even more disempowered than themselves, by whom they feel victimized. The Tea Partiers’ preference would be for the system to become just democratic enough to allow them to cross over from being a have-not to being a have… but no more.

Occupy Wall Street

It is Occupy Wall Street (3) that comes closest to naming the key players in the new American game. At first, the protesters fit neatly into the two-battling-teams formula that the media is so fond of: a fight between scruffy dissenters vs. the forces of law-&-order was just right for the evening news. But now that there’s no more high-profile camping and marching, no more clubbing and pepper-spraying, the TV networks have sent their reporters home.

For the corporate media to confer any meaning upon OWS outside the bounds of that standard dualistic trope would be getting too close to the truth. Any discussion, for example, of the Adbusters Magazine anti-consumerism campaign that gave the movement birth, or of the economic statistics that underlie OWS’s basic premise, would be far too dangerous call attention to. So the media is now trying to banish the movement to conceptual Siberia by not mentioning it at all.

But the perspective of OWS comes closer than any other viewpoint to describing the true state of the culture wars in the USA and the rest of the world. The Occupiers have identified the battle as being between the 1% and the other 99%, echoing the current 90-degree relationship between Pluto (plutocracy) and Uranus (democracy).

Then, Now and Upcoming

When I think back to what life was like in the late 60s and 70s, I realize that, though most of us young hot-heads didn’t know what we were doing, we knew something important was taking place. We could sense that powerful forces were disrupting the status quo. The narrow, flag-waving, Communist-fearing reality structure that we had grown up was being torn asunder.

Those old political and cultural ideologies are all but gone. Certainly the diehard voices that would resurrect them are still among us, shrill, well-financed and well-showcased by the media, but their efforts are doomed to failure. Newer and more universal values are on the ascendency, emerging painstakingly like seedlings through of the crust of the soil—visions rising up to match the urgent realities of a post-millennial world.

Alongside them are new generations being born: a whole new crop of creative Americans wired to thrive under Pluto in Capricorn, Aquarius and beyond.

Please tell me you did see the date on this?

Just in case you're not joking, the cultural shift at the turn of the last century was far greater than anything that happened in the '60's. That is completely forgotten, why? Because two world wars followed. Really, the counter culture you speak of was just the recycling of ideas which came into being in the first decade of the 20th century. Free love, communes, etc.

There are many reasons the 60's "happened". Most importantly, to have a youth revolution you need a large number of youth with a lot of time on their hands. You'd be better off thanking Hitler than any astrology, 'cos without you baby boomers, there would have been no counter culture.

Yeah...so...?

In fairness to TM here, the bulk of my prior post was not there before he responded. He was just replying to the date bit.

Speaking as one of the distaff community here, this woman doesn't believe in astrology -- and never did. But I do like "Funky Pretty."

Thank you Mr. Newcombe for your thoughtful reply.

Yes, I agree, there is a connection between the culture shifts of the turn of the century and of the 60's.

Perhaps, they are of the same current, submerging, reappearing, submerging and now reappearing.

Two extremely sensible opinions, unlike much of the rest of this thread.

Ah Funky Pretty - She had long brown hair, brown eyes, would share with me her poetry as I shared my music, and is as lovely at 60 as at 16.

And I hope you know I meant no offense. As we established, here in UK it's cultural. I love Funky Pretty too especially Mike's line in the fade :-D

And so, back to the larger question -

If, taken poetically, there is this great flowing stream of, what shall I call it, influence, does it correlate to the career of the Beach Boys?

I suppose I need an astrologer to make the case.

 

the fact of the matter is that it's the weekend and there's less people using the board. which explains the repeated attack and ridicule of the OP by a small handful of members. TMinthePM said nothing disrespectful or insulting. If that's truly the way it was perceived, you have issues.

Calling astrology "utter nonsense" and proclaiming that "only women believe in such things" makes you look quite ignorant and intolerant. The funniest part is that The Beach Boys are a group who believe and rely on astrological readings more than probably any other band that I'm aware of. The Beach BOYS. No women in the band that I'm aware of. They've sung about it in multiple songs, they've used it on their album covers, and they've relied on it in their daily lives.

Astrology is one of the oldest schools of thought in existence. The fact that some people dismiss it, doesn't make it any less valid or ancient or meaningful. I'm no expert. I don't use it or understand it. But I don't call it hogwash and belittle those who study it. It would have been much easier and more respectful to just stay out of the topic if you had nothing to contribute, but you just had to poke fun at the OP and sh!t on an ancient belief system and science in the process. Do you feel better now?


There is an in-depth article in the Dec. 2000 issue of Mountain Astrologer magazine entitled Brian Wilson and the Dark Side of the California Dream which includes an astrological chart for Brian, Dennis, and Murry (no Carl for some reason) and a combined chart for Brian and Gene Landy. The article was written by a man (imagine that!) and is very well-researched. The guy knows his Beach Boys history. I'd be happy to scan and post it, if anyone is interested.

Again, if you think it's all "utter nonsense" then there are plenty of other threads to occupy your attention. No need to act like a bully on the playground. Personally, I find it fascinating and I welcome this discussion by those who are qualified to share. Oh, and I'm a guy... in case you were wondering.

The only issue I have with the original post, unless I misunderstood, is that you called John Lennon a Fire Sign when he is actually an Air Sign.

Astrology isn't a science, and an idea being old has no bearing on whether it's true or not.

And I only had 'nothing to contribute' if disagreement is never a valid contribution. My first post here was to say that the kind of correlation the OP was seeing can be found almost anywhere, and proves nothing, and my third one was to engage, line by line, with one of the OP's posts. It's only when it became clear that he wasn't interested in anything anyone else had to say that I stopped trying to be polite.

Stephen's original comment was, of course wrong -- and my first comment in this thread was to disagree with him. That said, your claim that "TMinthePM said nothing disrespectful or insulting. " is simply not true. The OP's first few posts after the initial one were pretty dismissive of Stephen. He then got into personal insults with "you guys are coming across as totally spiritually barren" and "Well, this is the first I've received a hickey since high school. "

The first response was a sexist remark, which deserves to be dismissed. If you really felt disrespected by the hickey remark, you need thicker skin. It was a humorous and lighthearted reply to having one's beliefs labeled as "utter nonsense". As for the "spiritually barren" remark, it's a valid observation and opinion.

Astrology obviously doesn't fit into your belief system. Nobody ever planted their country's flag on the astral "plain", so it must not exist according to some. There's no such thing as ghosts or an afterlife. If we can't see it, it ain't real! Whatever makes you feel safe and cozy.

But astrology can most certainly be described as a science. It is extremely exacting with rigid rules and definitions and centuries of practice and study to back it up. It's not just some religion as it's been described in this thread.

Bossaroo. It did go a bit far, and I don't really think the OP deserved quite the roasting he got.  He weathered it OK though, and  I think he and I have cleared the air!

I was clear what I meant about it being mainly women who believe in this, In the UK that is true, sorry, but it is. It is a cultural thing. I knew it would be taken wrongly. Please read back on my posts. You'll see it explained.

 As for me, I've had enough of this subject. As I said, astrology is harmless, and give me that over the mainly male Abrahamic religions and it's offshoots, and the trouble they have caused throughout this world.

TMinthePM, your ideas are not for me I'm afraid. Spiritually barren, maybe, though I prefer to think of myself as scientifically enlightened,

Goodnight all

Just read back on this thread. Sorry, but here in the UK what I said was true. It is mainly women who believe in it. That's a statistic, not a sexist statement. And seeing as though it is mainly geeky men on this board, and seeing as how spirituality doesn't really come up, well......I posted what I posted.

Yes, it was.


It's not up to you how I react to personal insults.


It's not a matter of making anyone "feel safe and cozy", it's a matter of simple fact. We know what all the physical forces are in the universe -- all physical phenomena are down to interactions between the strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational forces. The strong and weak forces don't affect anything on distances larger than the atomic. The gravitational and electromagnetic forces drop off as the inverse square of distance, which has the result that any gravitational or electromagnetic effect from stars and planets at the moment of birth would be absolutely swamped by the corresponding effect from, for example, someone walking past the room in which the birth was taking place.

It's not a matter of what anyone wants to believe, it's a matter of astrology being contradicted by every single established piece of scientific knowledge.



Being "extremely exacting with rigid rules and definitions and centuries of practice and study" has *nothing* to do with whether something is a science or not (and in fact many religions fit that exactly). Something is a science if, and only if, it follows the scientific method. To quote the paper "Astronomy And Astrology" from the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium No. 260, 2009:

It cannot. Science is about forming a testable hypothesis.

John and Paul are both Air signs and George and Ringo are both Water signs.  It's CSNY who have that complete elemental representation.  The original Eagles were all Water signs.

http://www.astrology.co.uk/news/astrostats.htm (http://www.astrology.co.uk/news/astrostats.htm)

There. Here in the UK more than twice the amount of women than men believe in astrology. Fact. Not sexist statement.

Anyone else who accuses me of not being liberal enough is gonna get a smack in the mouth

(I'm joking)

Again, I had to run errands, but am back now.

Don't want to go into the New Paradigm here as would be way off topic, so will just proceed on givens.

Have taken a look at Mountain Astrologer but cannot find Brian Wilson and the Dark Side of the California Dream. Will Keep looking.

What is curious to me in all this is the reemergence of the Beach Boys in 2012, talking about how it feels like 1965.

Yeah, at least as far as the new album goes. I don't know about the wider scene tho. 65-66 were like peak renaissance time. The crash didn't come till 68.

But the astro-view holds that the current configuration of the heavens mirrors the 60's. What does mirror imply I wonder? This certainly doesn't feel like peak renaissance time - more like pre-revolutionary time.

So, they reappear as a presence in the popular psyche to what? Bow out. Bid Adieu. Recall a connection to the past?

Hmmm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN3KLL64mkI

Oh, OK I don't have the old Beatles astro article handy. Maybe the author was referring to Cardinal Signs?

Beach Boys, being five sided (six sided?) present a more complicated stew.

Brian - Gemini - brainy but - split personality - up and down, on and off

Link takes me to I Hate the F... Eagles.

I don't get it.

Incidentally, I apologise if I *have* been unreasonable in this thread. I've had a terrible blood pressure headache most of the week and am far too irritable.

But astrology is no more a science than football is.

No sweat man...my enthusiasms sometimes get the better of me.

I will scan the article if you like. It's 10 pages so gimme a minute.


Andrew-
thanks for the lesson on what constitutes a science, but comparing astrology to religion or football is utter nonsense. Astrology is based on actual events, the movement and placement of the planets in the solar system at any given time, and is calculated down to the exact second. There's a reason that every newspaper issued in the last several decades has a horoscope column. And while it is mainly for entertainment in that medium, it is still based on a very real, tangible, and yes, scientific, discipline.

Stephen-
I realize you may not have meant to sound sexist with your initial remark, but you did nonetheless. You defined believers of astrology as female. Regardless of the statistics in the UK or whether any of your male friends believe in it, there is still a significant percentage of males that practice astrology. And it is common knowledge among fans that members of The Beach Boys practice astrology to this day. You conveniently forgot these facts and made a sweeping generalization.


having said that... does anyone know the exact time and location of Carl Wilson's birth?  ;)

IIRC, David Leaf printed Brian's astrological chart in his book. There are many versions of this around on the Net; a series of Google searches will conjure them up.

You can find astrological charts for five of the BB (Brian, Dennis, Carl, Mike and Al) at the following link:

http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Main_Page

As an astrological agnostic, I'll leave it to someone else to take the "big dip" into interpreting those charts....

No it isn't. Words have meanings, and science involves a particular process, of hypothesis, producing falsifiable predictions, testing those predictions and revising the hypothesis in the light of the results, that simply isn't involved in astrology. Just saying that something's a science doesn't make it so.

And not every newspaper has an astrology column. Those that actually contain any news, like the Guardian or Independent in the UK, don't.

Still, there remain many things in this world that cannot or have not been explained by the standard scientific process of hypothesis and prediction. For example, science can explain how the human body functions but it can't tell us why. It can attempt to explain existence, but it can't explain love, emotion, soul. It doesn't mean these things don't exist. Astrology is one of many esoteric sciences that attempts to explain the unexplainable. It is a true discipline, requiring much study to practice and master, with an enormous depth of components researched under very exact guidelines. I call that a science.

True enough.


But it's *not* a science, because it doesn't follow 'the standard scientific process of hypothesis and prediction'. That's not even to say it's wrong -- it *is* wrong, but not because it's not a science. It's just not a science for exactly the same reason that playing the violin, watching TV, writing a poem or proving a mathematical theorem aren't sciences -- because they don't involve the scientific method. You might as well call it a sport, or a language.

but it isn't a sport. or a language. it's an ancient science.

Regardless of the time period, it's not a science. It wasn't a science last week and it wasn't a science in ancient Greece.

I bet there's more than a few ancient astrologers who would beg to differ.

You know... if they were still alive and members of a Beach Boys message board.  :p

Therefore the logical thing to do would be to fill that gap with a superstitious belief?

You'd be better off asking why humans have a need to answer everything, even if they're grabbing an answer out of thin air. This is a fascinating science called anthropology.

The answers are more often than not, simple and elegant. Science does not rob us of mystery, it gives us the beauty of truth

There's a reason astrology has been around longer than Jesus.  There's something to it, whether you regard it as ancient science or superstition.

Science gives us mere explanations. It does not give us the truth.

It's no good just saying "there's something to it". You need to back that up. Prove there's something to it. You can't.

Conversely, I can't prove there isn't, although what we know about physical laws of the universe, would make astrology highly improbable. The gravitational pull of distant celestial objects may have an affect on the human psyche, though I would prefer to turn to studies of the human brain / psychology / anthropology / natural selection to find out why we act the way we do. Unlike astrology, these sciences do answer why you are the way you are.

You are the one asserting it is "true", therefore the onus of proof is on you.

And science does give us truth, the only truth that means anything. The natural laws that govern everything. It is these laws which religion and astrology have been trying (and failing) to explain for millennia.

OK, so this is just going in circles.

I suggest we split up and search in different areas.

One guy google Astrology of the 60s, another astrology of the 70s and so forth.

My initial search of the 60s yielded the fact that a Uranus-Pluto Square from 1960 to 1972 produced individualism and rebellion.

1960thru 1972 : Surfin Safari thru Surf's Up.

A lot of ground covered there, a lot of changes.

Let me see what else I can find to flesh this out and I'll be back.

I used to be really into astrology and know quite a lot about it. However, in my opinion, astrology isn't a science; it's an art.

It is clear that the Beach Boys, especially Brian and Mike, were very into astrology during the sixties and seventies; whether they still are, I don't know.

i also think that Brian (and the Beach Boys in general) is an interesting study from the standpoint of astrology--all those mutable signs working at odds to each other.

Mike still was in the 90s, if Strange Things Happen is anything to go by, and of course he wrote Pisces Brothers a few years ago.

Here’s an article entitled “The Astrology of the Reagan Era” that offers the Big Picture at least to the late 80s.

The Short of it:


1. a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto - Pluto compelling… consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions… Uranus’s awakening and liberating

2. the early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto… Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition.

3. in the late 1980’s,… conjunction formed between the planets of Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune…. Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent…. blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard.


A Little Less Short:


a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto framed the entire decade (of the 1960s) and symbolized the new horizons, progressive freedoms, and experimentalism of the era.

the intense and powerful energies of Pluto compelling the destabilizing, consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions associated with Uranus.

Uranus’s awakening and liberating influence stimulating the chaotic, transformative energies of Pluto. The mind-expanding, creative, and disruptive energies of the era - a reflection of the cyclical and archetypal dynamics involved.

Important alignments between Uranus and Pluto correlate with times of mass rebelliousness against tradition and the established order.

The destabilizing influence of the combination is typically as exciting and awakening as it is disruptive and chaotic—it truly is “rock’n’roll” energy, for heads roll if the sociopolitical establishment is not rocked to its very foundations.

The previous major alignment involving Uranus and Pluto, an opposition between the two planets occurring in the first decade of the twentieth century, also demonstrated the mass rebelliousness of this planetary combination.

As the radical 1960’s was characterized by a Uranus-Pluto conjunction, the early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto. With Pluto being the constant, Saturn and Uranus represent very different aspects of the collective psyche. If Uranus expresses the new, the radical, and the experimental, Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. If Uranus brings creative innovation and chaotic rebellion, Saturn represents repressive crystallization of Uranus’s revolutions. Thus, the early 1980’s represented a foundational and all-pervasive drive against the radical expressions of the 1960’s.

As the early 1980’s were defined by the archetypal dynamics of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, in the late 1980’s, a new astrological alignment formed with radically different dimensions and expressions. By…1989, a rare and highly significant conjunction formed between the planets of Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune.

If we deconstruct the archetypes involved, we have energies of “old”—Saturn—and “new”—Uranus—joined by Neptune. Whether applied individually or collectively, Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent. Neptune blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard.

Thus, not unlike a great wave of dissolution, the triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn at the end of the 1980’s stood in dramatic counterpoint (and disengaged) the Saturn-Pluto conjunction at the beginning of the decade.

THE FULL ARTICLE:
The recent passing of Ronald Reagan has afforded as much the opportunity to eulogize the former president as it has allowed the entire world to reflect upon the events that defined the Reagan era. Reagan’s messages and ideology were characterized by a remarkable simplicity; his was a universe of black and whites with little room for ambiguity. From Nancy Reagan’s straightforward campaign of “Just say no” to Reagan’s recurrent castigation of the communists as the epitome of all that is evil, the world was delivered to the American public in stark contrasts with easy choices.
This essay is not an astrological analysis of the complexities and contradictions of Reagan the individual but rather Reagan in context of greater historical movements that shaped and defined that latter half of the twentieth century. Astrology, perhaps as much as any other methodology, undermines the “great man” theory of history—the belief that single individuals wield so much influence as to contour the times in which they live. Rather, astrology suggests that leaders reflect and act in response to historical cycles and dynamics much greater than any one individual. Reagan did not define the 1980’s and the changing values of America, but he did come to symbolize and reflect the growing conservatism of the Western psyche during the era.

The Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960’s

Little known to most, in Reagan’s early years the actor was a diehard liberal Democrat. As the policies of Franklin Roosevelt assisted members of his immediate family in getting jobs, Reagan was grateful for the economic reforms brought about by FDR’s “New Deal.” However, with his marriage to Nancy Davis, his prominent role with the General Electric Corporation, and with the assumption that the communist infiltration in Hollywood threatened American values, Reagan’s political affinities began to shift radically to the right in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. By 1967, Reagan was elected governor of California under the Republican ticket.
Reagan represented the conservative reaction to the tumultuous and chaotic decade of the 1960’s. Given an orb of fifteen degrees, a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto framed the entire decade and symbolized the new horizons, progressive freedoms, and experimentalism of the era. Looking at the archetypal dynamics involved, we observe the intense and powerful energies of Pluto compelling the destabilizing, consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions associated with Uranus. Similarly, Uranus’s awakening and liberating influence was stimulating the chaotic, transformative energies of Pluto. The mind-expanding, creative, and disruptive energies of the era were not only a testament to the hard-won freedoms and idealism of the youth of the decade but a reflection of the cyclical and archetypal dynamics involved.
Important alignments between Uranus and Pluto correlate with times of mass rebelliousness against tradition and the established order. Rather than be complacent with the security of the status quo, a Uranus-Pluto alignment compels societies to search for alternatives, grope for new horizons, and demand new freedoms of expression. The destabilizing influence of the combination is typically as exciting and awakening as it is disruptive and chaotic—it truly is “rock’n’roll” energy, for heads roll if the sociopolitical establishment is not rocked to its very foundations.
The previous major alignment involving Uranus and Pluto, an opposition between the two planets occurring in the first decade of the twentieth century, also demonstrated the mass rebelliousness of this planetary combination. Around 1900, the United States experienced political possibilities that have never been equaled before or since. Matching the melting pot diversity of its population, social and political movements arose that threatened the status quo and idle rich. Anarchism, socialism, and labor movements ascended to challenge politics as usual. The United States at the turn of the century was rife with change, political cataclysm, and social unrest.
As governor of California in the 1960’s, Reagan saw the political unrest and radicalism around him as a threat to the American way of life in the same vein as communism. America was being split apart by issues such as Vietnam and race relations, and Reagan embodied the countervailing views and ideologies of the establishment. Nowhere was this split between the new radicalism and the old conservatism felt more acutely than in Reagan’s own family. Like the United States in microcosm, Reagan’s immediate family was torn by ideology, ethics, and lifestyle choice. Reagan’s youngest children, Patty and Ron jr., came of age during the 1960’s and embraced many of the new values that emerged during the era, moves that would estrange the children from their father for many years.

The Saturn-Pluto Conjunction of the early 1980’s

“Newsweek” magazine called Reagan’s victory over incumbent President Carter in 1980 a “counter-revolution,” a return to values that were more readily embraced in the simpler times before the tumultuous and freedom-loving 1960’s.1 Considered by many to be the most conservative president since Herbert Hoover, Reagan and his mystique held the promise of returning America to a time of more old-fashioned and conformist values.
Why such a turnabout and about face? Astrology suggests a correlation. As the radical 1960’s was characterized by a Uranus-Pluto conjunction, the early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto. With Pluto being the constant, Saturn and Uranus represent very different aspects of the collective psyche. If Uranus expresses the new, the radical, and the experimental, Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. If Uranus brings creative innovation and chaotic rebellion, Saturn represents repressive crystallization of Uranus’s revolutions. Thus, the early 1980’s represented a foundational and all-pervasive drive against the radical expressions of the 1960’s. In a little over a decade, the zeitgeist was changing dramatically and Reagan’s presidency reflected those dynamics.
With Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as leaders of the free world, a hardening of the collective psyche was occurring—a hardening that embraced traditionalism and shunned the openness and rebelliousness of the preceding years. This was the height of the Cold War that began during the previous Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 1946-1948. Pluto forming alignment with Saturn applies a tremendous force on the defensiveness, fearfulness, and rigidity of Saturn’s archetypal characteristics. The build-up in arms with the “Star Wars” program is indicative of this energy. In our own time, we see the Saturn-Pluto gestalt with the creation of the Homeland Security program under the opposition of Saturn and Pluto in 2001-2003.
We can also see the Saturn-Pluto dynamic at work in the sense of overwhelming threat or destructive force. The Saturn-Pluto combination is perhaps the combination for projecting the collective shadow unto other nations and groups. We can certainly see this as the Cold War began (and as Saturn and Pluto formed a conjunction), as the Soviet influence began to gain power and the Red Scare in the United States formerly began. In Reagan’s time, and at the height of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of the 1980’s, Reagan castigated the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire,” the tremendous threat to national security and the American way of life. As Saturn and Pluto would form an opposition to each other in the early parts of this decade, George W. Bush would once again recapitulate the need to cast the collective shadow, as the “Axis of Evil”—Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea—rose as the perceived threat to American refuge.

The Triple Conjunction of Uranus-Neptune-Saturn in 1989

Reagan’s first term as president was characterized by a large build-up of strategic defense against the Soviet Union. At this time, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were at their most tense and most polarized. Although it cannot be marked by one single event or point in time, a tremendous and epochal shift occurred between Reagan’s first and second terms as president. Dynamics between the Soviet Union and the United States began to reverse in sudden and dramatic ways.
The “how” and “why” of the decline of the Cold War is enigmatic even to political insiders. With any objectivity, one would say that the collapse of the Cold War was due to Reagan’s persistent pressure on arms negotiations, the rise of Gorbachev, and the economic instability of the Soviet Union. However, the vision of astrology helps to illuminate dynamics that otherwise would remain hidden. As the early 1980’s were defined by the archetypal dynamics of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, in the late 1980’s, a new astrological alignment formed with radically different dimensions and expressions. By the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a rare and highly significant conjunction formed between the planets of Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune.
If we deconstruct the archetypes involved, we have energies of “old”—Saturn—and “new”—Uranus—joined by Neptune. Whether applied individually or collectively, Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent. Neptune blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard. In a way which was unimaginable to analysts of the day but mirrored by an extraordinary triple conjunction of planets, the forty-five year Cold War was over almost overnight, signified most powerfully by the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The ways in which analysts have described the collapse of Cold War dynamics is strikingly resonant with the Neptunian dimension and its ability to liquefy that which seems permanent. Pundits and reporters covering the events ending the Cold War have used words like “thawing” or “dissolving.” Even the “Velvet Revolution,” describing the rather yielding way in which the Eastern Bloc nations fell, is characteristic of the Neptunian dimension. Thus, not unlike a great wave of dissolution, the triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn at the end of the 1980’s stood in dramatic counterpoint (and disengaged) the Saturn-Pluto conjunction at the beginning of the decade.

Conclusion

Was Reagan a leader that restored traditional values to America and was responsible for loosening Soviet-American relations, or was he more representative of a man caught between eras, dynamics, and historical maneuverings much greater than himself? Certainly, we cannot disengage the fine interplay between fate and free will, but one would be remiss not to see Reagan—or any prominent leader—as a person in context, responding to the shifting energies of the times. Astrology suggests that Reagan was a politician challenged and moved by large currents of changing zeitgeists. Reactive to the 1960’s, symbolic of the early 1980’s, and an instrument of change toward the end of his political career, Reagan can be seen as man as defined by his times as much as a leader who changed the course of history.
The Astrology of
the Reagan Era

by Bill Streett 6/08/04

http://astrologyforthesoul.com/billstreett/ronaldreagan.html

That is the worst nonsense ever written here.

this is also quite high on the top charting ignorance list.

How do these aspects correlate to the arc of the Beach Boys career?

1. 1960-72: a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto  - Pluto compelling… consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions… Uranus’s awakening and liberating. The band is formed, finds its voice, produces music that reflects the concerns of its generation from early adolescence to young adulthood. Progressively runs out of creative steam as the aspect fades.

2. the early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto… Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. The band nearly breaks up (late 70s), salvages career by emphasizing its past glories - delivering powerful live set in Washington D.C. July 4, 1980.

3. in the late 1980’s,… conjunction formed between the planets of Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune…. Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent…. blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard. Brian Wilson returns from the creative dead with what is arguably his best work since 1966, the band releases a well received retrospective box-set and tours behind it with sets that are more creative and diverse than any since the early 70s.

So, that is broadly how the career arc reflects the influence of the stars to about 1990. Now, I need to find the rest.

Solar system

Brings us wisdom

Here's another piece of Conventional Wisdom some out there might recall:

ICEBERGS?

THERE ARE NO ICEBERGS!

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

Yes , that makes sense. A sea captain  has made a fatal mistake, hey, lets disregard 400 years of scientific discoveries.

OK here is the major aspect for 2011 as the Beach Boys reunite:

The Short of It:

Summer 2011 the Grand Cross will primarily feature Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, much like the decade of the 1960’s (the last decade to feature a simultaneous Uranus/Saturn/Pluto hard aspect) and these outer planets pack a punch. Uranus opposed Saturn reflects the need for order, tradition, rules, boundaries, time and restrictions (Saturn) in contrast to revolution, immediacy, emancipation, and freedom from restrictions (Uranus). Both are squared to Pluto (deep, elemental power, transfiguration, death and rebirth).

The Long of It:

The Cardinal Grand Cross of 2011

In addition to a batch of strong eclipses in 2011, this summer will feature an incredibly powerful alignment called a "Cardinal Grand Cross." The aspect pattern is called a Cardinal Grand cross because it involves planets closely aspected in the zodiac signs of the cardinal modes (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn). Cardinal energies are starters and initiators, and we got a sneak peak of this major alignment this past summer of 2010 (really starting, in my mind, with the Oil spill disaster). This 2011 summer the Grand Cross will primarily feature Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, and these outer planets pack a punch.Uranus opposed Saturn reflects the need for order, tradition, rules, boundaries, time and restrictions (Saturn) in contrast to revolution, immediacy, emancipation, and freedom from restrictions (Uranus). Both are squared to Pluto (deep, elemental power, transfiguration, death and rebirth).

The Cardinal Grand Cross will be activated by a number of planets passing over the opposition point to Pluto (The sun in Cancer, the Moon in cardinal signs, Mercury, Venus, and Mars), which means that all the personal planets will be in play. This makes the Cardinal Grand Cross more than just an activator of large, cultural/global energy fields; this summer everything from how we communicate (Mercury) to how we relate (Venus) to how we see ourselves (Sun) to how we approach life and take action (Mars) to how safe we feel in the world (Moon) will be touched upon by this configuration. I believe it's going to be an awesome summer of growth.

Another way of saying all of this is that much like the decade of the 1960’s (the last decade to feature a simultaneous Uranus/Saturn/Pluto hard aspect) we will be facing personal transformations in light of, or in reflection of, or even at the very same time AS, larger cultural/historical happenings are unfolding before us. At the most intense this could look like one of the slow motion combat scenes from iconic war movies like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket (a soldier contemplating a butterfly while listening to the Jimi Hendrix in his head and wishing for his life ‘back home', whilst bullets fly all around him). When history speeds up it generally causes our personal reflection and integration process to slow down. During the Grand Cross we could see more people accessing meditative states of consciousness simply because the world around them is sped up. The sudden contrast between the global story and an individual's story creates a container of sudden reflection, like the soldier suddenly contemplating his place in the cosmos during the middle of war. When things are coming together or falling apart at fast speeds people simply sit back and watch; people naturally learn to meditate. By this meditation visions are born and a lot of people could potentially wake up.


The Astrology of 2011
Adam Elenbaas
http://www.realitysandwich.com/astrology_2011_0

So now the Celestial Arc of the Beach Boys career looks like this:

1. 1960-72: a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto  - Pluto compelling… consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions… Uranus’s awakening and liberating. The band is formed, finds its voice, produces music that reflects the concerns of its generation from early adolescence to young adulthood. Progressively runs out of creative steam as the aspect fades.

2. the early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto… Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. The band nearly breaks up (late 70s), salvages career by emphasizing its past glories - delivering powerful live set in Washington D.C. July 4, 1980.

3. in the late 1980’s,… conjunction formed between the planets of Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune…. Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent…. blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard. Brian Wilson returns from the creative dead with what is arguably his best work since 1966, the band releases a well received retrospective box-set and tours behind it with sets that are more creative and diverse than any since the early 70s.

4. Summer 2011 the Grand Cross will primarily feature Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, much like the decade of the 1960’s (the last decade to feature a simultaneous Uranus/Saturn/Pluto hard aspect) and these outer planets pack a punch. Uranus opposed Saturn reflects the need for order, tradition, rules, boundaries, time and restrictions (Saturn) in contrast to revolution, immediacy, emancipation, and freedom from restrictions (Uranus). Both are squared to Pluto (deep, elemental power, transfiguration, death and rebirth).  The band reunites, produces an album that harkens back to 1965 and tours to ever mounting acclaim.

A seed becomes a tree

A mountain, a star

And all is meant to be

It is important to understand that the outer planets move quite slowly and so their influence is in the nature of background. The faster moving inner planets would seem to manifest their influences in the quirks of personality. But influences are not determining. Free will remains.

Now to fill the gap between 1990-2011.

The most important point in this period will obviously be the death of Carl and the disintegration of the band, but also the continuing reemergence of Brian Wilson.

save that for your biography plz.

It is highly unlikely that the movement of celestial objects has had any influence on the lives and politics of a species of ape on a small planet in a solar system on the edge of the Milky Way. How is this possible?

And I would argue that this.....


.....applies more to people who continue to believe in bronze age belief systems despite there an collusal amount of evidence to the contrary. It's called willful ignorance.


These people on this spiritual journey for answers don't like it when they're given an actual proper answer.

Two remarks on the matter:

1. Where does Pluto come into all this? It's a key (non-)player, I am told.

2. In what ways does the asteroid 'Brian Wilson' influence the goings on in Beach Boys- and Wilson-land?

I am eagerly awaiting answers and suggestions.

Your Heartical Don, Friend To The Stars.

THE 1990s:

THE SHORT OF IT:

the 1990s… can be summed up… spiritually speaking, as the baby boomers finally got a clue!

In the late 1960s, we saw how the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus cause a worldwide eruption, a dramatic shift and upheaval of large collective forces arriving at the surface of consciousness, and creating dramatic changes in many areas of opinions, structure, endeavors, beliefs, organization, politics, spirituality and so on. Many of the changes have had lasting effects up to the present

1. On February 15, 1993, Uranus and Neptune completed their conjunction

Uranus symbolizes the forces that manifest as sudden shifts in consciousness,

Neptune… is most associated with the 'hidden'

The Uranus-Neptune conjunction… in the sign of Capricorn… is associated with hard work, grounded practicality, seriousness, traditionalism, stability, responsibility, self-discipline, cautious, perseverance

In contrast to a Uranus-Pluto conjunction, characterized by Uranian suddenness and rebellious with Plutonian need to act upon transformations… the Uranus-Neptune conjunction is more ethereal

2. in late 1995, Uranus moved into the Sign of Aquarius, and .. When Uranus is in Aquarius, people are interested in radical departures from traditions and patterns,

the movement to Aquarius by Uranus signifies a release from whatever confines… individuals…. On a personal level, the movement into Aquarius represents a breakdown of limiting concepts based upon old paradigms…

the last time Uranus was in Aquarius was in 1912-1920, in which the world stage was dominated by World War I. On the other hand, during this period, our understanding of the universe deepened with breakthroughs in the realm of physics with the likes of Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein. Though exclusively in the realm of science, the theories expounded by these individuals were so startlingly advanced that they began to spill over into the realm of metaphysics, and have certain correlations with non-dual Hindu, Buddhist and Sufi teachings.



THE FULL ARTICLE:

Spiritual Transformation in the 1990s:
Underlying Syncrhonicities
First let me state for the record, that I am not a professional astrologer, nor have I ever been one. But I've more than dabbled in Vedic Astrology for a number of years and can work my way around a chart to some degree. Thus, the contents of this essay may not represent the deepest of astrological knowledge or insight, and it does not exhaustively cover the astrological events described below. However, in my opinion, certain synchronicities have occurred in the past decade of the past century that warrant at least a few comments, from a spiritual perspective.
Around 1996, while surfing the Spirituality folders of AOL, I came upon a posting that said, " ...said he just became realized. There's a lot of that going around lately". The cynicism in the content of the post made it sound like some awful disease was going around, but it essential message was that there were significant numbers of individuals who were having breakthroughs in the mid 1990s (call them realizations, awakenings, openings, satoris, whatever). And that was only a part of the story.
In the 1990s we saw the emergence of a new class of spiritual teacher: westerners. Certainly this was not new, as there were many western teachers throughout the decades, but it didn't take more than ordinary perception to notice a huge new wave of teachers with first names like Mike, Dave, Toni, Andy, John, Susan, etc., and this occurred in both traditional and non-traditional settings. One positive outcome (in addition to being able to pronounce their name!) was the cultural similarity, which I believe aided their effectiveness.
Thus, in my opinion, the 1990s played as a backdrop to what appears to be a fairly radical breakthrough in consciousness on a personal and collective level, which can be summed up as the following: spiritually speaking, the baby boomers finally got a clue! So what could be some contributing causes for this?
Certainly one attribution is that the forces that led westerners to seek the truth in the late sixties and early seventies (of which I am one of many) resulted in many an individual taking up spiritual practice under the guidance of eastern teachers of Hindu, Buddhist, and Sufi persuasions, etc. And from the basis of that practice and association with realizers and spiritually advanced souls, several decades later, the 1990s saw the fruition of that work in the passing of the "Torch of Certainty" from one generation to the next, one culture to another. To add to the radical change, the 1990s saw the westernization of what was once the exclusive domain of eastern esotericism, a large part due to the graduation of many into the role of western spiritual teacher.
But for the remainder of this essay I would like to address the reasons why there seemed to be a significant number of radical and sudden breakthroughs, as well as the emergence of westernization of spiritual dharma from an astrological perspective.
Astrological Underpinnings
The last few decades saw two significant conjunctions of the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. In the late 1960s, we saw how the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus cause a worldwide eruption, a dramatic shift and upheaval of large collective forces arriving at the surface of consciousness, and creating dramatic changes in many areas of opinions, structure, endeavors, beliefs, organization, politics, spirituality and so on. Many of the changes have had lasting effects up to the present (despite the ill wishes of many conservatives for the 60s). Though the outer planet are traditionally viewed as planets representing group, generational or mass karma, they do have implications on an individual level, in the deep psyche.
Uranus-Neptune Conjunction
On February 15, 1993, Uranus and Neptune completed their conjunction, meaning that from the perspective of planet Earth, Uranus and Neptune in the sky were sitting right on top of each other (all the planets in our solar system except for Pluto revolve around the sun on a single plane, more or less). The Uranus-Neptune conjunction takes place once every 171 years and the last few conjunctions were in 1136, 1307, 1479, 1650, and 1821. What makes this conjunction different than the rest is that the majority of humankind has knowledge regarding the existence of both planets (Neptune was discovered in 1846).
But let's take a moment to meet our players:
Uranus
Uranus symbolizes the forces that manifest as sudden shifts in consciousness, revolutionary changes, flashes of insight, bursts of new ideas. Uranus also represents independent, deconstructive, rebellious "tear down the walls" impulses of the psyche. The quality of sudden changes towards instability or destruction of current structures is a classic Uranian feature. It takes what is subliminal and bursts it into conscious awareness, and at its best, it represents a liberating force. Being the next planet after Saturn in our Solar System, it couldn't be any more different than the qualities of Saturn. Uranus is also associated with computers, which will draw obvious conclusions regarding significant advances in computers during the 90s.
Neptune
Neptune, god of the deep sea, is most associated with the 'hidden', which translates into a connection to mysticism, mystery, oneness, spiritual development, inspiration. It also has associations with the urge to lose oneself in another state of consciousness, and at its worst, it can represent escapism, dreaminess, ungrounded and imbalanced idealism, unrealistic fantasies, being confused or 'spaced out'. Alternatively, Neptune represents deeper sensitivity to hidden energies and forces.
The Sign of Capricorn
The Uranus-Neptune conjunction occurred in the sign of Capricorn (Latin for 'horned goat') an earth sign, ruled by both Uranus and Saturn. Capricorn is associated with hard work, grounded practicality, seriousness, traditionalism, stability, responsibility, self-discipline, cautious, perseverance, etc. – many of these qualities also associated with its ruler, Saturn. On the dark side, it represents impatience, egotism, stubbornness, status-seeking, an appetite for power, unsympathetic and dictatorial tendencies, etc. It is also associated with the 'sea goat', a mythical figure of dual nature that represents the evolution of consciousness from the sea to embodiment on earth.
Analysis of the Conjunction
The Uranus-Neptune combination is associated, both in history and in personal biographies, with periods in which the archetypal--the mythic, the spiritual, the transcendent, the imaginal, the numinous--is suddenly awakened and liberated in new ways into human consciousness. We see this all around us now: the tremendous upswelling of interest today in an astonishing multiplicity of spiritual paths and traditions, in esoteric disciplines, in the transpersonal movement, in meditation and mystical religious traditions, in Jungian and archetypal psychology, in mythology and ancient religions, in shamanism and indigenous traditions, in the recovery of Goddess s pirituality and the feminine dimension of the divine, in ecofeminist spirituality, in psychedelic self-exploration and new forms of experiential psychotherapy that effect profound changes of consciousness, in the emergence of holistic and participatory paradigms in virtually every field, in the unprecedented convergence of science and spirituality.
-Richard Tarnas
A quick overview of the characters in question, above, indicates the potential for powerful changes in the area of spirituality. In contrast to a Uranus-Pluto conjunction, characterized by Uranian suddenness and rebellious with Plutonian need to act upon transformations (and thus creating worldwide political eruptions and chaos in the late 60s), the Uranus-Neptune conjunction is more ethereal than a 60s student rebellion. However many astrologers ascribe the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 80s, the end of the Cold War and the Promethian ideal of democracy (i.e. Tiananmen Square) as a having astrological roots in the early stages of the conjunction. And historically, the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune has been a time of the transformation of religions (1136, 1307, 1479, 1650, and 1821 A.D.).
One obvious synchronicity with the Uranus-Neptune conjunction is the explosion of the internet and World Wide Web. In my research for information on the Web, I found numerous articles that tried to predict the real-world results of the conjunction, and only a few were in the ballpark (Uranian connection with computers), but no one hit it dead on (though in all fairness, astrology is not about the capacity to foresee the exact content of new formations in the future). It is quite obvious how much the World Wide Web has impacted the lives of those in the industrialized nations, and as we go forward, it is making great inroads into third world countries.
By the nature of all of the three above characters (plus the ruler of Capricorn, Saturn), the Uranus-Neptune conjunction would indicate that spiritual breakthroughs would occur on both an individual and collective basis that would have real-world and not idealistic implications. The mysticism of Neptune is balanced by the stability and practicality of Capricorn and the grounded, balanced quality of its ruler, Saturn. What this means is that walls have been broken down, but it did not lead to crippling chaos, rather accelerated growth. Another important aspect is that there was the dissolving and deconstruction of rigid structures in the spiritual arena on individual, collective and organizational levels. For instance, the late 80s and the 90s saw the introduction of both male and female lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as a large group of teachers that have been part of the Ramana Maharsji-Poonjaji 'diaspora', Andrew Cohen and Gangaji being the most famous. With a surge of western born individuals assuming teaching roles in what was once primarily the domain of middle and far eastern religions, it can be safely said that many spiritual schools and religions of various levels of esotericism have not only spread but established themselves globally.
And underscoring the fruition of what was sent into motion decades ago, many individuals have reported significant breakthroughs in the mid 90s, which may be categorized as satoris, realizations, awakenings, etc. The deep forces set into motion by the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune has strong associations with this new paradigm, and certainly provide cause to speak of a certain 'synchronicity'.
However, there is also a dark side to the story – as highlighted by the Waco tragedy, the mid 90s saw an significant increase in fundamentalist religious cults, white supremacy and patriot movement groups in America. However, it has been reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which follows and investigates the activities of these groups, the late 90s have seen significant decreases in number of these organizations.
Primarily, taken alone, the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune signifies sweeping political, religious and sociological reform through individual applications (Uranus) to collective mores (Neptune). In Capricorn it reflects that the primary area of reform will be in governmental structures and science. Physics will become metaphysics and governmental structures will begin to dissolve because the belief in hierarchies and Saturnine perspectives is dissolving.
-Edmund Wollman
Uranus's New Home: Aquarius
When Uranus is in Aquarius, people are interested in radical departures from traditions and patterns, and their capacity for experimentation and innovation is fiercely insistent and adventurous. This is perhaps one of the most highly charged energy combinations available when it comes to innovation, inspiration, and ingenuity. Bizarre and extremely "unexpected" changes come into being with an abruptness and intensity that is literally startling.
Equally as important as the Uranus-Neptune conjunction, if not more so, in late 1995, Uranus moved into the Sign of Aquarius, and this, in my opinion, unleash a spiritual dynamic that called for rapid and radical shifts in consciousness, resulting in transformation and realization on a global level. Any hemming in that occurred with Uranus being in the sign of Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, was unleashed when it moved into Aquarius. Capricorn is an earth sign, whereas Aquarius is an air sign, and one can say that any structures that were earthbound were unleashed into the sky with the Uranian movement into Aquarius. Certainly from events in my own life, 1995-1996 period was a time of significant and surprising shifts in consciousness, and this has been reported by many others.
Additionally, the movement to Aquarius by Uranus signifies a release from whatever confines that spiritual traditions may have held on individuals. With the movements of Uranus and Neptune, collectively people were fed by the spiritual traditions, but the movement into Aquarius completes the transcendence of any limitations that the traditions may have held. On a personal level, the movement into Aquarius represents a breakdown of limiting concepts based upon old paradigms - people suddenly realized that they were free, as conceptual fetters were snapped. This would be especially true for individuals with a well-placed Uranus in their birth charts. Additionally in the 90s we see a large number of non-sectarian teachers delivering dharma that once the exclusive domain of eastern spiritual schools - just go to your local spiritual bookstore or center, and you will find someone coming through on a book or seminar tour!
However, the last time Uranus was in Aquarius was in 1912-1920, in which the world stage was dominated by World War I. On the other hand, during this period, our understanding of the universe deepened with breakthroughs in the realm of physics with the likes of Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein. Though exclusively in the realm of science, the theories expounded by these individuals were so startlingly advanced that they began to spill over into the realm of metaphysics, and have certain correlations with non-dual Hindu, Buddhist and Sufi teachings.
Conclusion
I'm a firm believer in the Hundredth Monkey Theory, and believe that that extraordinary transformative events of the 1990s (which includes the expanded capacity for electronically based communication which makes this page possible) offer a groundbreaking initiation into a new and expanded consciousness that can only serve to benefit mankind on its evolutionary journey. I wouldn't go so far as to say that a Golden Age has been ushered in by any stretch of the imagination, but that as larger numbers of individuals grow into spiritual maturity through quantum leaps in consciousness (and eventually stabilize in that awareness), it will serve as an empowered sphere in order to aid others in their process, to provide a quickening that feeds upon itself in greater numbers. And since our mind streams are so tightly interwoven, spiritual transformation of any number of individuals will help ease the burden of those not so fortunate or spiritually aware.
The enhanced capacity of individuals to make connections via the World Wide Web is a macrocosmic metaphor of greater connection made by neurons in the brain. This can only serve to expand our views in many ways, to promote healthy exchange and create new forms of physical and virtual community that is so desperately needed in this often brutal, isolating and difficult world.
Reference:
http://www.heartspace.org/writings/essays/2001/Transform90s.html

So now the Celestial Arc of the Beach Boys career looks like this:

1. 1960-72: a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto  - compelling…consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions…awakenings and liberation. The band is formed, finds its voice, produces music that reflects the concerns of its generation from early adolescence to young adulthood. Progressively runs out of creative steam as the aspect fades.

2. The early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto… Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. The band nearly breaks up (late 70s), salvages career by emphasizing its past glories - delivering powerful live set in Washington D.C. July 4, 1980.

3.The late 1980’s,… conjunction between Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune…. Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent…. blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard. Brian Wilson returns from the creative dead with what is arguably his best work since 1966, but not as a Beach Boy.

4. On February 15, 1993, Uranus and Neptune complete their conjunction in the sign of Capricorn… associated with hard work, grounded practicality, seriousness, traditionalism, stability, responsibility, self-discipline, cautious, perseverance. The Beach Boys soldier on, hitting the road year after year The band releases a well received retrospective box-set and tours behind it with sets that are more creative and diverse than any since the early 70s.

5. In late 1995, Uranus moved into the Sign of Aquarius…signifying a release from whatever confines… individuals…. On a personal level,…the movement into Aquarius represents a breakdown of limiting concepts based upon old paradigms…and .. When Uranus is in Aquarius, people are interested in radical departures from traditions and patterns.  The band breaks up following the death (departure) of Carl Wilson, putting an end to the structure that has served them for over 30 years. Brian Wilson breaks out of the Landy straight-jacket, remarries and sets upon a solo career.

6. Summer 2011 the Grand Cross will primarily feature Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, much like the decade of the 1960’s and these outer planets pack a punch. Uranus impulse to revolution, immediacy, emancipation, and freedom from restrictions opposes Saturns need for order, tradition, rules, boundaries, time and restrictions. Both are squared to Pluto (deep, elemental power, transfiguration, death and rebirth). The band reunites, produces an album that harkens back to 1965 and tours to ever mounting acclaim, but is bedeviled by divergent drives and tendencies. .

Now I'd like to look into aspects in late 66 thru 67.

That is obviously a key moment in the arc of career that has had people scratching their heads ever since.

And, upon reflection, it was not just the Beach Boys who were rocked (no pun intended) by what the stars were delivering. The Beatles stopped touring, Brien Epstein died and they released their weakest album - The Magical Mystery Tour, while the Stones nearly went to prison on trumped up drug charges while releasing their weakest album of the decade, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Alright, this stuff is kind of fun and interesting. I'm a believer in NO WAY but it is kind of fun to see the coincidences and connect things in such a way.

Maybe Brian decided it was time for the reunion because of the confluence of the 50th anniversary (sort of) and the astrological charts...?

Can't seem to find anything specific to 1967, so am trying to bring in a pro-astrologer for insight. A guy in the UK named Steve Judd, not that any here on this board give much thought to Merry Ol' Angleterre, padding around in your bikinis and woodies somewhere south of LA.

wait... there's a MALE astrologer in the UK?!?!?!!! surely you jest.




as I stated earlier, science can explain the hows of existence, but not the whys. It tells us how our bodies function, how the world turns... it attempts to explain existence. Do these explanations amount to the deeper truth? Do they explain why we exist? To me, that is the truth. Science stays away from all that.

Do you think astrology is a sport or a language? It is an ancient and highly in-depth form of study based on very real events in our solar system. The study of real events=a form of science, in my mind. Astrological charts are open to interpretation, but the charts themselves are solidly based in fact. They simply state where the moon and planets are located in relation to the Earth at a specific time. Predictions can be drawn based on knowledge of the path that planets take and where they will be in the future. That is all very scientific.



a lot of people don't consider the human race a species of ape, so right away we have a severe difference of opinion. I looked at your website Stephen and you state "Music Is A Science" ...another huge difference of opinion. So Astrology is centuries-old hogwash, but music is science? and we're all apes. ok, man.

Thank you, Bossaroo.

If you, or anyone reading this, is interested, I would direct your attention to Rick Tarnas. He has several clips up on Youtube.

I was blown away by his first book - The Passion of the Western Mind - his survey of western philosophy, which has been adopted by schools worldwide as the gold standard.

But my jaw dropped when I came upon his second book in 2006 - Cosmos and Psyche - in which describes his inquiries into astrology and concludes thumbs up.

I thought - well this guy has just wrecked his career.

But the man is brilliant, and I will tentatively say - persuasive.

I certainly don't argue in opposition to the scientific outlook, but consider the rational faculty of mind one facet in our psychic composition.

Well, not to drift too far afield. Greetings!

To those who hold that objects in space have no influence upon us, let me remind them that we actually are in space.

The study of planets and stars through astrology is legit and science, the "new age" aspect of controlling human behavior I have a problem with.

no, thank you... for summing up in one sentence what I still haven't quite been able to in several posts.

scanning the Mountain Astrologer article today. I think you (and perhaps others) will enjoy it. Some will hate it, and that's OK too!  ;)

- the premises for your inquisition is flawed since you assume the existance of something signifies that there must be a purpose with its existance.
- define 'deeper truth' without pseduscientific/philiosophical jargon.
- science doesn't "stay away from that". everything there is is science. everything can ultimately be explained. some things are too hard for us to explain as of now.

edit: I now saw your disagreement with the fact that we are descended from apes. you can live with your illusions, but please don't post them here. I thought you were trying to put light on the Beach Boys/astrology connection but the result is you are here only to preach your opinions. these opinions are of no use and of no interest on this board.

Science doesn't stay away from this. Its just you get answers you don't want, such as it is likely we are; all here by chance; there is no creator; no grand design; no afterlife;  no meaning of life.

And is my life empty because of my acceptance of these likelihoods. Far from it. I see the beauty of the wonderful ecosystem of laws and processes of which I am part. How wonderful that we have, in our skulls, one of the most complex things in the universe. This is where my sense of wonderment comes from. The real stuff all around me.


Well we are, so those people are morons. Denying evolution is as ignorant as maintaining the world is flat.

here's the article. download HERE (http://www.mediafire.com/download/k9vc1nj8ndl7hvk/BrianWilson_Astrology.zip) for higher resolution.

(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/d0b15ba76c546b2bce7635da9e91f391c8c31cd.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/bb025b3a0c6cc57d667293d2002ba6fc6b80996.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/f4e154a167566d267aabc60c23dd703ff92887a.jpg)(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/8e025caa2964a5426c12050b41823079a0c4f6e.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/51c15caa655c69256a7a91d6346bdf65a31e60e.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/daf25f0afd6435086132e3667d1ed49e4841395.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/e0f35233a7d6603f57d8696e293468dc043f40d.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/fef156a6605a6c24eecce9cc6f3ea4f030db20f.jpg)

(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/a112550aff61e5dc6e02823c8821b4961e7df16.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/6a43526ca8e268425ea96dd22dc0a1db9f2115d.jpg)
 

Reading this with the career of the beach boys in mind is a mind-bender. I'm now inclined to think that Mike and Bruce put an end to the reunion tour in response to the rising intensity of it all, retreating into the relative safety and predictability of their own scaled down shows, while Brian, predictably, and with Al and David in tow, was all about pushing on to where angels fear to tread:

An Alignment for Our Times:2010 - PART 1

by Bill Streett
1/13/04

http://www.astrologyforthesoul.com/billstreett/2010alignment_printer.html

The beginning of the next decade has received much attention by futurists, metaphysicians, and historians of ancient civilizations. This brief but important period of time is considered by many to signal either a leap of human evolution, an exponential increase in creativity, or a time of dramatic societal change. Arguably, this time period is receiving more attention than the beginning of the millennium a few years ago as we began the new century.

Astrology also suggests that this brief time period will be an important one, as a dramatic alignment between Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus constellates at this time. Specifically, Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus form what is called a “T-Square” in which the three planets form an isosceles right triangle. Although forming an exact T-Square in the year 2010, the alignment will certainly be potent in its manifestations for a year or two on either side of 2010.

Throughout history, when Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus form hard alignments(1) such as a T-Square, a time of socio-economic and political destabilization, tension, and contraction arise. Any hard alignment involving these planets suggests a period of stress where growth and evolution is demanded yet hard to achieve. On one hand, the alignment represents a stalemate between opposing forces, and, on the other, the alignment represents a time where pressure, hardship, and frustration ultimately give birth to something radically new. Out of this alignment arises a new order, where the old order disintegrates and gives rise to new social, economic, and political visions and movements.

A cursory look at the planetary archetypes involved can explain why these times tend to be so challenging and destabilizing. Saturn symbolizes tradition, order, and limits; for all intents and purposes, Saturn represents the establishment at any given point in time. In many ways, Uranus is in complete contrast to Saturn’s order and tradition. Uranus symbolizes humanitarian progress and freedoms relative to Saturn’s restrictions and traditions.

Archetypally, Uranus ushers in new changes, a heightened renewal of creativity, new reforms, and new ideals to aspire to. A person aligned with the archetype of Uranus tends to be more visionary, more idealistic, and unbound from the limits, traditions, social expectations and conservative sensibility that defines the person more attuned with the archetypal Saturn.

Arguably Pluto is the most difficult archetype to define, particularly in a limited space. Writing about Pluto is applying a rational process to a symbol that is almost wholly irrational. In a simplistic way, Pluto represents the primal, primitive survival instincts that drive and compel individual and social evolution onward. What can be expressed is that Pluto is an analogous to a will to power, which often implies a ‘power over’ or dominion over something or someone. Seen more as a process versus a steady state, Pluto symbolizes powerful times of transformation and change that occur at a fundamental level. Both terrifying and cathartic, Plutonic events are the eruption of processes that have long been gestating underground and hidden from collective consciousness.

When these planetary symbols come together in hard aspect, they are “forced to negotiate their differences” and the cross talk between these archetypes is not always polite nor productive. During these times, the socio-political dimensions of the collective approach conflict, if not crisis and breakdown. During these critical junctures in time, prevailing modes of economic and political discourse are pushed far-from-equilibrium and mounting tensions that have been ignored or repressed due to limitations of the current socio-political paradigm reach a breaking point. Simultaneously, new alternatives that range from enlightened progress to regressive barbarism rise to cope with the ensuing crises and difficulties of the time. During the period of the alignment, the problems and crises are often exaggerated or rendered more intense; real progress, forward momentum, or breakthroughs toward the challenges presented manifest after the alignment subsides.

Twice in the twentieth century have all three planets aligned in hard aspect: once in the early 1930s and again in the middle part of the 1960s. Certainly, these times were crucial in constructing the socio-political makeup of the decades that followed and were arguably the most dynamic and tumultuous years of the previous century. A look at the dynamics of these years will help to understand the themes and possibilities that lay ahead in 2010.

Late 1930-1932: Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-Square

This T-Square in the Cardinal Signs of Capricorn, Aries, and Cancer was the symbol of economic breakdown in the Western economies. Astrologically speaking, we have an instance of the quality of dearth or scarcity associated with Saturn being ignited, empowered, and intensified by the outer planets of Uranus and Pluto. In the United States and Europe, unemployment rates reached their highest levels of the century and many people in industrialized countries experienced the bare subsistence levels typically associated with the Third World. The Great Depression effected all countries; only communist Soviet Union was able to increase industrial production levels at this time.

However, this T-Square symbol of Uranus, Saturn, and Pluto is a complex one, and one would be negligent not to broaden the scope of perspective to include how Pluto and Uranus were each adding their own archetypal dimension to the time at hand. Although the Crash in 1929 and subsequent Depression were sudden, many factors were at work years before the Depression to bring it into manifestation. The industrial boom of the 1920s helped to mask large and looming difficulties in industrialized economies. Moreover, throughout the 1920s, national economies tried to return to pre-World War One strategies that were hopelessly insufficient. Thus, although unexpected, the Depression was the result of many hidden variables that erupted at once. It is the nature of the archetype of Pluto to lay dormant for many years only to manifest in great power, not unlike a volcano or an earthquake.

The beginning of the decade also saw the emergence of the darker aspects of the collective psyche in the appearance of fascist governments, and in particular, Nazism. The scapegoating, lust for political dominance, paranoid obsession with total dictatorial control, and manipulation of mass consciousness through propaganda seen in the Third Reich are all manifestations of the lower qualities of Pluto. With Saturn and Uranus aspecting Pluto at this time, the ‘return of repressed’ elements from the shadow of the unconscious reared its ugly head.

The workings of Uranus can be observed through the quality of accelerated change of the period, as Uranus is always associated with sudden change and reversals. Certainly, the unexpected decline in the world economic situation is the most apparent corollary with this quality of Uranus. However, the acceleration of changing conditions is also noted in socio-political conditions of the day, most notably in Germany. During the time period of the T-Square, the Nazi party rose from a tiny minority with little over ten seats in the German Reichstag to becoming the majority party of the German political system—an extraordinary, sudden twist of events in European history.

1964-mid 1967: Saturn opposition to Uranus and Pluto

If the 1930s alignment brought out the face of Saturn dealing with scarcity and lack, the 1960s opposition brought out the side of Saturn dealing with convention, established values, and tradition. The period of the early 1960s saw a rise in new and unconventional ways of being in all facets of society, however, it was the mid-1960s where the real struggle between old and new, authority and youth, convention and progress came to a head. To the establishment, the wave of rising countercultural tendencies of the late 1950s and early 1960s was not going to influence and permeate cultural values without a showdown and standoff. In nearly every cultural and political arena, the mid-1960s witnessed the old guard of tradition tensely poised against the new vanguard of countercultural and progressive sympathies.

As Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X pushed the frontier of civil rights, race riots erupted all over the United States. In South Africa, as the government tightened its segregationist apartheid policies, resistance led by Mandela and others grew stronger. With American forces in Viet Nam intensifying, protests and civil unrest arose against a war deemed unexplainable and unviable by the majority of the American public. As self-expression and intolerance of communism increased inside the Eastern Bloc, the Soviet regime enforced harsher and stricter controls against dissention.

The greatest demonstration of tension between social and political opposites was not in the West but in China. With his hope of eradicating a rising tide against communism, Mao Tse-Tung initiated his great Cultural Revolution—a veritable civil war in which China’s political and social history and future were at stake. Mao’s enemies were not so much a political party or group but rather values, including his list of four olds: old customs, old habits, old culture, and old thinking. Anything associated with capitalist sympathies and traditional Chinese culture was to be annihilated, and Mao’s Red Guard was happy to oblige his extremism.

During the mid-1960s, progressive idealism and entrenched traditions were in heightened dialectical tension—and the main astrological alignment of the times perfectly mirrored the standoffs across the globe. Saturn, representing order, tradition, authority, fear of change, and restrictions was symbolically and literally opposite Uranus and Pluto, representing change, disorder, youthful idealism, rebellion, liberation of the oppressed and suppressed, and self-expression.

The Aftermath

The above examples demonstrate that when Uranus, Pluto, and Saturn form hard alignments, an era of socio-political destabilization and heightened cultural tensions manifest. During the early 1930s, an age of economic scarcity pressured the rise of new governments and new economic policies across the globe. In the mid-1960s, ideological tensions reached their peak surrounding issues of war, race, politics, self-expression, and economics. These alignments represent global pressure cookers wherein crucial socio-political issues smelt.

Out of this crucible, new ideologies, governments, policies, reforms, and social movements are born—and often the offspring of these alignments are a mixed blessing. After the crises of the Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus alignment of the early 1930s, the Nazi regime established its legacy of hatred, terror, and tyrannical cruelty, and much of Europe embraced fascism and totalitarian control as an answer to the economic woes of the early part of the decade.

However, the destabilization and catastrophes of the early 1930s also spawned innovation, reform, and progressive humanitarianism. FDR’s “New Deal”—albeit controversial—reformed business, labor, and the American Presidency to a greater degree than any presidential policy since. Sweden—hit as hard as any nation during the worldwide depression of the time—established the very model of social democratic government and initiated public and political reforms that were way ahead of its time.

tHE aLIGNMENT OF oUR tIMES - part 2


The Saturn, Pluto, Uranus Alignment of 2010

Given historical precedence and the archetypal dynamics involved, The Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus T-Square of 2010 should coincide with a period of great socio-political upheaval and destabilization, if not crisis. This alignment is arguably one of the most important astrological signatures of the first half of this century, certainly of the first three decades. This T-Square symbolically represents a turning point in which economic, cultural, and political difficulties of the last decades come to a head and demand resolution.

Out of this alchemical vessel of 2010 should arise significantly original and unprecedented social and political movements and reform. Certainly, there is a hope that what will emerge out the tensions of this time will produce greater freedoms, tolerance, peace, and prosperity. However, to remain true to past patterns, we can only say that what will materialize we be both progressive and regressive, tolerant and fascist, peaceful and oppositional—polarities that grow stronger.

If astrology is to grant anything to collective knowledge, it is the visionary capacity to see through the contingencies of history and see into forces and energies that inform and are in dialogue with our collective evolution. Whatever the period surrounding 2010 may bring—environmental catastrophe, financial collapse, political reformation and counter-reformation (or any combination thereof)—it is best not to see the events as an isolated crisis. Rather, astrology suggests that the events around 2010 should be seen upon a continuum in which tension and problems of the era demand and create growth and evolution. Thus, the astrological paradigm is not the province of Cassandras who intuit gloom and doom but is a way of seeing that potential greatness and maturity doesn’t come without growing pains and birth pangs

In last month’s essay, we focused upon a challenging and stressful aspect that has grabbed the attention of many astrologers, a t-square involving Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto occurring in 2010. Given the symbolism involved and drawing from ancient and intuitive wisdom, this time represents both a turning point in history and a crucible of socio-culture forces. The alignment suggests that old structures and traditional modes of being will clash—and potentially clash violently—with new ideologies and social organizations that have reached their point of needing collective manifestation. If the 2010 t-square alignment is to be the fulcrum of change, then what are the emerging possibilities that will surface from the wake of this time?

The main astrological alignment that informs the next decade involves a square, or ninety degree, alignment between Uranus and Pluto. Essentially, as Saturn moves out of alignment with both Uranus and Pluto, the two outer planets remain in the configuration. Given an orb of ten degrees, this square between Uranus and Pluto will remain in effect through 2018. As a pairing, Uranus and Pluto correlate with times of societal change, upheaval, and revolution. When these two planets join forces, cultural structures are challenged and often transformed.

Instead of predicting what changes may come from the Uranus-Pluto square alignment ahead, it is advisable to look at historic precedent, to see how the Uranus-Pluto cycle has manifested through history. Through scrutiny of the cycle, it is apparent that these alignments have a foundation-rocking, evolutionary, and progressive vector; it may be argued that this cycle is the true engine and catalyst for the tremendous push on cultural evolution that occurs from time to time. The following represents only a small sampling of the potentials that occur under this cycle, however, through focusing in on this short list of possibilities, one can extrapolate the forthcoming potentials that wait in the decade ahead.

Technological Innovation and Changing Infrastructure

When Uranus receives a major aspect from the other outer planets of Neptune and Pluto, technological innovation tends to take a large leap forward. That is, the acceleration of technological progress when Uranus is in alignment to Neptune and Pluto is noticeably heightened and quickened. During these times, novelty and technological improvement take a discontinuous leap forward, and societies have to adapt very quickly to the radical technological and scientific advances that are occurring. Uranus alignments to Neptune and Pluto tend to revolutionize technology; the steady and staid progress of evolving technology during typical times is overturned and overthrown.

Reviewing the last two conjunctions between Uranus and the other two outer planets, we can observe the increasing velocity of technological progress. In the decade of the 1990’s, Uranus and Neptune formed a rare conjunction. During this time and seemingly from out of nowhere, a technology that had its origins in the 1960’s, the Internet, literally revolutionized global culture and economics. Although the integration and development of the Internet and its potential is still very much evolving, the liberation and creative birth time—the extraordinary novelty and originality of the Internet—has occurred.

Like the 1990’s, the Uranus conjunction to Pluto in the 1960’s also witnessed extraordinary technological revolutions and quantum leaps forward in innovation. The most stunning and obvious example of this period is witnessed in the golden age of space exploration. Unparalleled in terms of its scope and advancement, the 1960’s saw incredible breakthroughs in space exploration from the deployment of the first satellites to the crowning achievement of sending a man to the Moon. However, the 1960’s also realized science and technical accomplishments that had more bearing on day-to-day reality. Commercial computers became viable for the first time, the workforce in Europe, Asia and the United States moved increasingly into white-collar jobs demanding technological skills, and consumer lifestyles embraced to a higher degree than ever before a hi-tech world.

When reviewing cycles involving Uranus and the outer planets, the conclusion can be drawn that technological and industrial progress take giants leaps forward in their momentum. In particular, the Uranus-Pluto cycle makes sweeping changes in the technological and industrial landscape and the backdrop in which we live irrevocably changes.

The Return of Eroticism and New Levels of Sexual Expression

When Uranus makes hard aspect to Pluto, our collective relationship to sexuality changes. Pluto may be thought to rule the sexual centers inside of us. Physiologically, we may think of Pluto as having association with the reproductive and limbic systems, with their biological imperatives to procreate and reproduce. More esoterically, we may think of Pluto as having an association with the lower charkas, particularly the second chakra. When Uranus forms a hard alignment to Pluto, awareness, stimulation, and excitation occurs in our collectively owned sexual energy and the reverberations and manifestations are profound. Uranus aligning with Pluto acts doubly as a liberator of sexual energy—the release and excitation of sexual centers—but also makes us profoundly more aware of our sexual natures as well.

A look at the last two eras in which Uranus and Pluto were in hard aspect will illustrate the sexual dynamism of the alignments. Certainly, one of the first associations one has of the sixties was the sexual experimentation and liberation that was occurring at the time. The repressive and strict codes of conduct that ruled sexuality and gender throughout the decades prior to the sixties were rebelled against as a burgeoning libido and primal life force began to culturally intensify. This rising tide of sexual liberation could be mirrored everywhere in the cultural discourse of the time. The sixties commenced with the introduction of the birth control pill which allowed sexuality to be cut from the umbilical cord of reproduction. To compliment the sexual liberating technology, attitudes and mores toward sex shifted rapidly and deeply at this time. What once was taboo became tolerated; What once was prohibited now became permitted. Promiscuity and free love experimentation were no longer relegated to a small underground minority but were embraced by an entire generation of youth.

However, more than just a decade of sexual liberation and awakening, new levels of heightened eroticism could be witnessed in the entire cultural panorama of the time. Most noticeably, mainstream cinema began to integrate material that was much more sexually erotic and explicit in nature, ultimately leading to the creation of the rating system at the end of the decade. Eroticism in movies was not reserved for the exploitation films of the era but was incorporated into all genres: from action movies (the popular James Bond series) to science fiction (One Million Years B.C.); from horror (Psycho; Hammer film productions) to comedy (The Graduate). Yet movies were arguably only a reflection of what was going on a deeper level of the collective psyche as all outlets of popular culture were, as author Aurthur Marwick suggests, “rejoicing the natural attributes of the body.”(1)

Witnessing a square between Pluto and Uranus, the 1930’s, like the 1960’s, also was remarkable for its heightening of eroticism and challenges to sexual mores of its day. As the androgynous “flapper” style of the 1920’s went into the decline, a new, more sexually potent fashion—and the birth of the moniker “bombshell”—gripped the collective. Due mainly to nude scenes of famous starlets like Hedy Lamarr and Myrna Loy and the sexual explicit monologues of Mae West films, The Hays code was a moral backlash which strictly enforced what could and could not be shown in movies.(2) However, even as the movie industry controlled a new sexuality that was emerging on onscreen, they could not repress the emerging cultural eroticism. The 1930’s saw the birth of the two-piece bathing suit for women, the acceptance of sexual investigation in academia through the Kinsey Report, and an escalating but temporary leniency toward sexual behavior.

Brilliance in Artistic Expression and the Revitalization of Pop Culture

Of all the recollections that are to be evoked of the 1960’s by those that experienced the decade, quite possibly the easiest and most accessible memories are attached to the music and art of the time. It is truly through art and music that archetypes receive their greatest and most vibrant expression, and the decade reflects the combination of Uranus and Pluto remarkably. In music, one only need to conjure reminiscences of the beginning chords to Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” the thunderous opening riff to “Layla,” the tumultuous crescendo to the Beatles “A Day in the Life,” or the passionate, soulful voice of Janis Joplin. All these instances capture the power and creative brilliance of the Uranus-Pluto synthesis. In the visual arts and film, unforgettable images pervade from the period: The harnessing of technology in the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the wild editing and camera movement in Midnight Cowboy, the explosive color in Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art, or the shocking experimentations from Andy Warhol.

Through both visual arts and music, we see the combination of Uranus and Pluto expressed transparently: The creative, rebellious mental fire of Uranus meets with the passionate, soulful, and intense vibrations of Pluto. The composite effect is extraordinary, leading not only to revolutions in art and music, but to the most powerful and brilliant creativity possible. It is no wonder that, aside from its chaotic wildness and frenzy, that Uranus and Pluto are so associated with peak experiences and collective mania.

The preceding hard aspects between Uranus and Pluto before the 1960’s also show the powerful and creative stirrings of the combination. In the dancehalls of Harlem was birthed Swing, a genre, like Rock, that would profoundly influence pop culture. As the Uranus-Pluto square of the 1930’s reached its tightest orb, Swing possessed American culture. As critic Gary Giddins writes, “Swing music was an electrifying development in American popular culture…It…unleashed forces that, I think, people didn’t know existed.”(3) The start of the century witnessed an opposition between Uranus and Pluto and, like Rock and Swing after it, Ragtime was a musical phenomenon. With its infectious syncopations and incredibly catchy hooks, Ragtime started a short-lived but undeniable cultural obsession.

The combination of Uranus and Pluto—mesmerizing, powerful, and wickedly creative—creates a sort of phenomenal grip on the popular imagination. More than just correlating with fads or trends, Uranus-Pluto times are associated with manias (as in“Beatlemania”) crazes(“the latest craze”), and rages(“it’s all the rage”).Thus, the archetypal energy of the combination is very much responsible for injecting a pulse into dormant or dying cultural expressions. Given its Promethean intensity, the Uranus-Pluto phenomenon is undeniable in its extraordinary genius and force.

Holding the Larger Framework

The 1960’s may seem like a curious anomaly in these rather conservative and even-tempered times. However, astrology illuminates the cyclical nature of history and demonstrates the recurrence of archetypal patterns that lie beneath the stream of cultural evolution. Given this perspective, the 1960’s must seen as a seed or birth time, a time which rebelled against cultural norms of the day and which liberated, awakened, and excited new potentials to replace dying and outworn modes of expression. If the conjunction between Uranus and Pluto is to symbolize an origin of new values and modes of expression, then the subsequent square alignment between Uranus and Pluto—occurring between 2008 through 2018—is symbolic of the struggle to manifest and midwife the potentials of the conjunction in a more enduring and effectual manner.

As exciting, dynamic, and creative are the potentials of Uranus-Pluto times, they are also highly chaotic, destabilizing, and even destructive. This essay has highlighted some of the more positive potentials of the Uranus-Pluto combination, however, as extraordinarily powerful and profoundly liberating these eras can be, they are also “crazy-making,” undermining, and highly disorienting. The sciences of chaos and complexity teach us that in order for a system to evolve and survive, stasis and equilibrium are not the answer. On the contrary, when pushed far-from-equilibrium, systems are forced to experiment, challenge, and create, often coming up with brilliant and novel solutions and new ways of relating. Uranus-Pluto times push cultures to the edge of chaos, forcing growth, change, and novelty. May you live in interesting times!

In this third and final installment of essays investigating astrology around the year 2010, the focus is on the personal impact of the incredible astrological alignments occurring at this time. While the first two essays examined both historical precedent and the creative consequences of these alignments, this article will center on the individual and generational potentials that will occur at this time. To review, occurring in 2010 is a T-Square alignment involving Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto—a rare alignment and a profound symbol connoting societal and socio-economic transformation.

Although the full explication of this alignment has been addressed in the previous two essays, I will borrow an iconographic image from popular culture to help to better understand the meaning behind the planetary symbolism. One of the most popular scenes in the original Star Wars involves the rebel forces caught within a trash compactor. Trying to elude oncoming storm troopers, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and other members of the rebel alliance find themselves trapped within a garbage processing machine. With the walls of the trash compactor closing in on the heroes swiftly, time is of the essence and a creative solution is absolutely imperative. This famous scene captures so many of the potentials and meanings of the 2010 alignment involving Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus: constrictive forces creating crisis; garbage, waste, and unprocessed filth; rebels and revolutionaries; rebirth from the darkness into a new case scenario; and elemental intensity that demands awareness and creative solutions. This scene from Star Wars mirrors the significance behind the 2010 alignment. Like the rebel forces of Star Wars, we may very well find our selves within a difficult, constrictive case scenario that not only brings us face to face with our shared “garbage” but which also demands swift and creative action so that a new beginning can emerge. The Saturn-Pluto-Uranus alignment in 2010 is both a societal bottleneck and crucible where situations of the past and solutions of the future enter into a highly dynamic and highly chaotic relationship.

This astrological alignment is certainly collectively owned—we are all in the metaphorical trash compactor—however certain individuals and generations are likely to resonate with the archetypal energies more than others. That is, certain generations and persons are likely to feel the impact of the alignment to a greater degree in their consciousness and will have a greater tendency to react to the reverberations and character of the alignment. This is by no means a comprehensive guide, but this essay does highlight some of the generations and individuals that will be significantly transformed by the events and general atmosphere surrounding the 2010 alignment.

The Cardinal and Mutable Cross

When speaking of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the sign of Virgo of the 1960’s (the main alignment which correlated with countercultural ethos of the time), astrologer Erin Sullivan remarked that those with their Sun placement in Virgo just went through the greatest of transformations—they almost literally changed identities and became very different people as a result. Although that era was very transformative for the entire world—as cultures were shuttled through a rebirth sequence at the time—certain individuals were to carry or become a conduit to the massive, transformational, and creative energies of the era. Certainly, those with their Sun placement in Virgo were good candidates for change, as the Sun is closely identified with our identity and self-concept.
The T-square between Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto occurs in the very late degrees of what are called the “mutable signs” (specifically, the T-square occurs in Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, with the additional mutable sign being Gemini) and the very early degrees of “cardinal signs” (specifically, the T-square occurs in Libra, Capricorn, and Aries, with the additional cardinal sign being Cancer). Certainly, those with their Sun or Moon placement within these “power zones” of the late mutable or early cardinal signs are sure to feel the effects of this dramatic alignment quite prominently in their lives.

One way to interpret how these individuals will be impacted is to simply extrapolate the meanings and significance that this alignment has on a collective level. If socio-economically the alignment suggests a death-rebirth sequence, a tight and tense negotiation between history and the future, and a tremendous amount of energy placed on transformation, then the same can be said for those whose Sun or Moon are in the cross hairs of the alignment. Both internally and externally, the alignment suggests that those with prominent Sun and Moon degrees already discussed will go through rapid, creative, and dynamic personal changes. This will be seen both in attitudinal shifts and in changes in life circumstances—through family, work, relationships, and self-concept. The alignment is certainly a threshold and will symbolize a tremendous and concentrated period of personal evolution and transformation in these individuals’ lives.

THE ALIGNMENT OF OUR TIMES - CONCLUSION

The Legacy of the Sixties Generation

The 1960’s was a decade of upheaval, reaction, turbulence, creativity, activism, protest and social change. The youth coming of age at the time rallied against the structures they inherited with an intensity and sweep that was almost unprecedented—certainly there was no precedence for this earlier in the twentieth century. Ironically, however, the children of the sixties, for the most part, haven’t had the thirst for social activism, political change, or the tenacity for tearing down structures as their parents did. However, many of the 1960’s generation are just beginning to throttle through their mid-life transition, which can bring about significant attitudinal changes and value shifts.

In astrology, transiting Uranus opposing natal Uranus—a transit which occurs somewhere between the ages of 38 and 42—is often a time of re-evaluation and change. The creative, independence-loving, and visionary archetype of Uranus is not going to be satisfied with life structures that have been created if one’s essence, creativity, uniqueness, and independence are not involved. There’s truth to the belief that the more one sleep walks through life, the more challenging the Uranus opposition at mid-life can be. The notorious “crisis” may ensue if one really has chosen life style patterns for the sake of fitting in to consensus reality without any consideration of one’s authenticity and spirit. During the Uranus opposition, tolerance for simply “going on autopilot” may be completely exhausted, and events may transpire to suddenly and rapidly “wake one up” and get motivated to “out” one’s true identity to the world-at-large.

We can see the Uranus oppositions that are occurring to the 1960’s generation now as the slow, almost imperceptible, shifts in consciousness that will really break free in the next decade. In particular, those born in the mid-1960’s have a very interesting Uranus opposition ahead of them in the upcoming years. Those born in the mid-sixties were born under a Saturn opposition to Uranus. It was at this time when the countercultural tendencies became heightened and serious. Saturn opposing Uranus suggests a “facing off” or negotiation between young and old, tradition and progress, established values versus new ideas and ideals. Interestingly, as these mid-1960’s individuals throttle through their Uranus opposition, Uranus and Saturn form an opposition in the sky, aligning over the original Saturn-Uranus axis of the 1960’s.

This double axis of Saturn and Uranus suggests a need to renegotiate structures for this generation as they go through their mid-life transitions. Although the shape-shifting, creative, and “trickster”-like energy of the Uranus opposition always brings in some unpredictable change, with the addition of Saturn in the mixture, the changes will be of a harder quality, impact structures and security patterns directly, and force one to break free from outworn arrangements in one’s life. Saturn and Uranus as an archetypal combination is highly similar to the “Tower” card in tarot. The Tower suggests radical, unpredictable, and sudden reversals and shake ups. Like falling from a tower, the Uranus-Saturn interface suggests leaping into the unknown (or being forced to do so), abandoning a crumbling edifice in one’s life, or being hurled into a radically new life circumstance. As the alignment of 2010 draws near, the mid-sixties generation will be going through significant and important life alterations that “stacks the deck,” so to speak, for the collective transformations of 2010 and beyond.

But what about the later 1960’s—what about that part of the decade that was even more radically countercultural in expression and tone? As the mid-1960’s saw the height of the great tensions between old and new, the final moments of the 1960’s saw the experimentation, new freedoms, and creativity of the generation reach great heights (and in some cases, new lows). To traditionalists and conservatives, 1968 and 1969 were a tarnishing moment in global history, with many commentators claiming that 1968 was the annus horribilis—the “horrible year”—of American history. To those embracing the new freedoms, this brief period was a celebratory triumph of individuality, creativity, and spirit. 1968 and 1969 were marked by a highly significant triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. With Jupiter coming to conjoin Pluto and Uranus, it released, exalted, celebrated, and exaggerated the radical and creative potentials of the outer planet conjunction that characterized the 1960’s.

Interestingly, this triple conjunction of Uranus, Pluto, and Jupiter that occurred in the late 1960’s falls underneath the axis of the upcoming T-square between Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto. If the mid-sixties babies will need to need to come to terms with the structures and security patterns that they have created thus far in their lives, then these late 1960’s babies will be challenged to take on greater social roles. This period could either coincide with an intense feeling of restlessness with their current roles in their communities or a sudden stepping into a much larger sense of self within their community. Regardless of the case, this certainly will be a dramatic time for these people, and the energy they will be participating within will catalyze major changes in their belief structures and lives.

A Saturn Return Like No Other

The Saturn Return is one of the more notorious generational transits that occurs for everyone around the ages of 28 through 30. The Saturn Return is the great rite of passage that transforms adulthood-as-experimentation into adulthood-as-commitment. If the early twenties is increasingly becoming a time of postponed adolescence where different adult behaviors and roles are taken on, the period of the Saturn Return is the period where greater responsibility and accountability enter into one’s life. Usually through a period of tests and challenges, the Saturn Return makes one acutely aware of the limitations of adult life and the necessity of making informed choices for the sake of structure.
The Saturn Return is often a difficult transition period as it is, but what happens when you add the archetypal energies of Uranus and Pluto to the equation? For those individuals born in 1980 and 1981 (when Saturn was in late Virgo and early Libra) the T-Square of Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto will be transiting your Saturn at the time of your Saturn Return. This will be a time of having to negotiating some very powerful energies relative to the meaning of Saturn: personal definition, career ambitions and goals, commitments, one’s accountability for the larger collective, hard work, and acceptance of one’s limitations.

Although the symbolism present during these Saturn Returns is complex, one likely pitfall that could occur with this mini-generation is an over-identification with the Saturn archetype. With Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto all transiting and inflecting Saturn in these individuals, there is the likely tendency of being in the grip or possession of all things Saturnine. That is, there may be a tendency of “over doing” things which are affiliated with Saturn: becoming identified with one’s work, turning cynical or bitter, growing old before one’s time, living life in a routinized or habituated fashion, and closing one’s self off from the environment. It may be true that real circumstances demand a tremendous amount of responsible action from those going through the Saturn Return at this time, however, a wise policy is to not become overly attached or identified with the cold, dark, harsh, embittering facets of life that Saturn symbolizes.
The Awakening of the Indigo Children

A particularly creative, self-determining, and restless bunch of children were born in the last several years of the twentieth century. Known by various metaphysicians, healers, and educators as “Indigo Children” (for their high vibration like the color indigo they purportedly carry in their personality), this generation is supposedly gifted in their intuitive and creative capacities while having a difficult time submitting to traditions and authorities.

Many of these Indigo Children will be coming of age just as the Saturn, Uranus, Pluto T-Square aligns. What is most fascinating about this is that the T-Square alignment will be lining up with the Uranus-Neptune conjunction that these children were born under. The high amounts of creativity, imagination, intuition, and rebelliousness that these children display are certainly attributes of the Uranus-Neptune combination. With the Saturn, Uranus, Pluto T-Square aligning over the Uranus-Neptune conjunction these children were born under, the creativity, sensitivity, and rebelliousness should be activated in all its potential glory. In particular, children born between 1988 and 1992 will be most sensitive and susceptible to the potency of the alignments in and around 2010.

Certainly, this generation will begin to make their mark right at this time and the creativity and rebelliousness these indigo children showed in their early childhood should begin to fully develop. Extraordinary gifts of intuition, insight, and inspired imagination should begin to fully materialize from these children around the 2010 alignment. Specifically, we should witness highly imaginative and brilliant work in music, film, and literature; rebelliousness in traditional academic institutions; a more refined environmental ethic; and gifts in healing, intuition, and religious matters. If we look to the members of the generation born under the last previous Uranus-Neptune conjunction—far back in the 1810’s and 1820’s—we witness luminaries in spirituality, literature, and radical politics: Karl Marx, Mary Baker Eddy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Herman Melville, and Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Baha’i faith). Members of the generation of the last Uranus-Neptune conjunction should certainly produce contributions as powerful as their predecessors, and the T-Square alignment of 2010 should catalyze their creative and intuitive powers.

Straw man argument. That's all you have.

Thank you for the download Bossaroo. I never expected to travel down this road this weekend, but it is developing into a bit of an adventure.

Bossaroo - This article is excellent!

So - Brian benefits from Jupiter's influence upon his Venus point every 12 years:

1966 - Pet Sounds

1978 - Love You

1990 - BW 88

2000 - Imagination

2012 - TWGMTR

Love the way you've blatantly put BW 88 as being released in 1990 just so it can fit your theory. That's far better than any argument I could have made against it.

And what about all the other marvelous albums that didn't fit these dates?

Mr. Newcombe:

WaddamIgonnadowidyou (says he as he slaps palm to forehead)

Why don’t you lend a hand instead of just sitting there criticizing all the time?

Do I have to do everything around here?

Once, just once I’d like a little cooperation.

Why, when I was your age I had to walk a mile thru the snow – in sandals – just to cop a hit.

I'm sure you did slap your forehead

BW 88

1990

Love You is more like 77 isn't it?

and BW 88 is of course 88

and Imagination is 98 I know because I drove out to Portland to see Gary Rydout that year

But it is important to think of the waxing and waning of astrological influences like the onset of dawn or dusk. The lights don't simply switch on or off, but rather rise in intensity and fade.

 :-D

Of course, one might place the genesis of Pet Sounds in 65, or even a year earlier during the composition of Today. Which would then more comfortably situate Love You - demented tho it is.

Don't tell me what I can and cannot post here, thanks. I am not here to preach anything. Stephen is the one who called humans "a race of apes" and I disagreed as do many others. I am not a Christian or religious in any way. I believe in evolution. But I also believe in the soul. I believe that we are souls inhabiting human forms which have evolved over time. Can you see now how it is possible to have several beliefs that actually complement, rather than refute the other(s)?



I could say the same about your premises, but vice versa. You assume there is no purpose. A highly flawed outlook in my view.
I do not believe that we are just here by chance, that we simply crawled out of the muck millions of years ago, and that things like love, emotion, music, art, and beauty are just a by-product of biological evolution. Sorry.

Most people, even scientists, believe in some sort of higher power or intelligence. Especially people like The Beach Boys. These guys are spiritual people. What's the Carl Wilson quote: people resonate with music because it's an expression of spirit, and people ARE spirit.

What has Brian said over and over... that he was creating music that conveyed spiritual love.

Spirituality is central to the music of the Beach Boys and music in general. If you want to deny that spirit exists because we can't see it, or science hasn't proven it... go right ahead. But don't come on here preaching about it. Stay home and p!ss in your own corn flakes.



i think the OP said it best:


I agree that everything can be explained. But there are some things which science may never be able to explain... or admit. One might call these things "deeper truths".

Science doesn't give me answers I don't want. I don't look to science for answers. Science is knowledge that explains our physical reality. I'm all for science. Knowledge is good... knowledge is power.

If you truly believe that we are here by chance, that there is no grand design and no meaning of life, and if science helps you bolster those opinions... good for you. I am not trying to convince you otherwise.

All I'm saying is science can't explain everything. You seem to be saying that if science can't explain it, it doesn't exist.


As stated above, I don't deny evolution. I believe that we are souls residing in human form. The human form has evolved and is therefore most likely still evolving. I believe that the soul also evolves. Both individually and as a whole.

You know what else is evolving? Science. At one point in time, science stated that the world WAS flat. Now we know better.

If my beliefs are really too much to accept, then let's just agree to disagree. We won't be the first to do so.

Bossaroo - " I believe that we are souls inhabiting human forms which have evolved over time."

You just nailed it with that one, man!

Even the soul evolves.

Stephen, this really has me scratching my head. I'm not even sure where to begin.

(http://www.stephennewcombe.com/Images/Music.gif)

Newcombe - Love your website - now I'm an official fan!

My mom had a little Buddah statue, she rubbed his tummy and made a wish every day. She also read her Horoscope everyday and held just about every other superstition imaginable.

None of that rubbed off on me.

The author of this article used to post on the blue board.  Don't know if he still does or not, and apologies if it's been mentioned already or mentioned in the article as I didn't read it.  He used post some in depth astrology related messages.

Sooooooo, Brian became a fat, unwashed, mentally disturbed drug vacuum because a certain star or planet was in a certain place in the cosmos at that point in time? Interesting theory.

"Sooooooo, Brian became a fat, unwashed, mentally disturbed drug vacuum because a certain star or planet was in a certain place in the cosmos at that point in time? Interesting theory."

In essence - yes, but not necessarily.

Can anyone out there tell me the meaning of Feel Flows?

I think there may be three ways in which the music of the Beach Boys reflects an astrological impulse:

1. songs that specifically reference things astrological - Solar System, Funky Pretty, Strange Thins Happen, There's So Many.

2. songs that reflect the zeitgeist lyrically. I'm thinking here mostly of the eco-theme that emerges in their work in the early 70s - Don't Go Near the Water, Day in the Life of a Tree, Beaks of Eagles

3. lyrics can sometimes mask a deeper zeitgeist that is more effectively conveyed by the music alone. I am thinking here of Warmth of the Sun and its connection to the Kennedy assassination.

Science as we know it, i.e, forming a hypothesis then finding facts to fit that hypothesis (rather than coming up with an idea and shoehorning in the facts to fit it and disregarding those that don't) only came into existence during the rennaisance, but really came into it's own in the 18th century. It was people refuting ancient "wisdoms" such as flat earth theories and astrology, and looking for evidence of what was real, that lead to modern science.

I'm glad you know evolution is true. Much confusion is caused by the scientific meaning of "theory"

Your beliefs aren't too much to accept, as long as you say they're just beliefs. It's you saying "there is definitely  something to it" which I took exception to. As I said many posts ago, the onus of proof is on you. You have yet replied to that.

As for the soul thing. If our soul is "us", our "essence", explain why someone's personality can change drastically when something happens to the brain?  What makes us "us" is so obviously neurological, to believe otherwise is, again, willful ignorance. If there is a soul, what is it's purpose? It's like saying the kidney does not clean waste from your blood, that function is instead performed by a strange mystical force, which floats out of your body when you die. When you think of it like that, you see what a ridiculous concept the soul is. Be happy though The human brain is the most complex thing we know of in the universe. Now that is amazing!

I'm happy to talk about my music theories, but you must see that my website is obviously tongue in cheek. (Thanks for visiting by the way, not many people do!) I personally do find the process of composing music to be about method and number crunching. Music is obviously not a science though. I like to think of it as the sound of numbers.

Of course we can agree to differ, as long as you know that my opinions are based on known facts, and yours are based on nothing more than wishful thinking. So at least we can agree that any argument is therefore pointless.

Thanks! I've grown to really like you too. Your tenacity is admirable, and I mean that genuinely.

It is my duty as a  humanist to refute your claims though. :lol

Here is what I have distilled from the John Etherington article. Thanks again to Bossaroo:

Brian has a late Taurus ascendant and Uranus rising in early Gemini
Uranus conjunct Venus in the 12th House both trine Neptune in the 5th House
Venus and Neptune relate to musical talent
Uranus and Neptune relate to genius

Aquarius mid-heaven

The placement of Uranus in Brian’s chart explains both his original and experimental approach to his work, as well as his eccentric and unpredictable behavior.

The Saturn Uranus conjunction encourages reworking of existing forms

Sun conjunct Jupiter in 2d house Cancer square Neptune in 5th house indicate heightened sensitivity and feeling of not being of this world, visionary qualities and attunment to spiritual reality.

Mercury retrograde in Gemini

Chiron in 4th house conjunct Mars and Pluto (which are themselves conjunct in 3d house manifests the misfortune of having suffered violent assaults, injuries

Moon in Virgo in 5th house, square Mercury, Saturn and Uranus aspires to perfection

Mars-Pluto conjunction, sextile Uranus indicates competitive streak

All planets being below the horizon indicates subjective nature

July 1964 – first number one single, I Get Around, as Jupiter conjuncts Venus (12 year peak period cycle)

December 1964 – lunar eclipse conjunct native Sun(Gemini?) – nervous breakdown

Introduced to the works of Hermann Hesse and Kahil Gibran

First known musician of the era to employ the services of a professional astrologer

Experiments with cannibis and lsd

1966 – Sun sextile Venus, and Mercury conjunct Jupiter – career peak

November 1966 – Uranus-Pluto conjunction, square Brian’s Mercury increase obsessions and eccentricity. Jupiter conjunct Mars in Leo stirs fire.

End of 1960s as Neptune opposes Brian’s Ascendant he fades

June 1973 Murry dies as Saturn conjuncts Brian’s natal Sun. Brian withdraws to bedroom.
December 1975 – Mars-Pluto conjunction square Uranus, Neptune square Moon, Solar eclipse in Taurus conjunct Natal Venus signify loss of power and emotional disintegration.

1976 Jupiter conjunct Venus (12 year peak cycle) Enter Landy

1981-2 Saturn conjunct Brian’s Natal Moon, Neptune opposed to Natal Sun, Uranus opposed its Natal position, a most negative planetary aspect presents the choice to live or die.

Reenter Landy – composite chart Brian/Eugene reveals a stellium of Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter opposed Venus, 4 planets in Virgo, a Sun/Neptune conjunction, Venus-Mars opposition denoting magnetic attraction.

1983 Pluto trine Natal Sun – old wound brought to light, Chiron conjunct Natal Venus healing begins

1988 – Jupiter conjunct Venus (12 year cycle) first solo album produced

Beach Boys group composite chart focused on 5th house conjunction of Sun, Mercury and Mars, squaring Jupiter-Pluto conjunct in Leo, signifies creative and regenerative powers of the group.

So now the Celestial Arc of the Beach Boys career - combined with the aspects in Brian’s chart - looks like this:

1. 1960-72: a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto  - compelling…consciousness-raising, and rebellious expressions…awakenings and liberation. The band is formed, finds its voice, produces music that reflects the concerns of its generation from early adolescence to young adulthood. Progressively runs out of creative steam as the aspect fades.

1a. Brian has a late Taurus ascendant and Uranus rising in early Gemini
Uranus conjunct Venus in the 12th House both trine Neptune in the 5th House
Venus and Neptune relate to musical talent
Uranus and Neptune relate to genius

Aquarius mid-heaven

The placement of Uranus in Brian’s chart explains both his original and experimental approach to his work, as well as his eccentric and unpredictable behavior.

The Saturn Uranus conjunction encourages reworking of existing forms

Sun conjunct Jupiter in 2d house Cancer square Neptune in 5th house indicate heightened sensitivity and feeling of not being of this world, visionary qualities and attunment to spiritual reality.

Mercury retrograde in Gemini

Chiron in 4th house conjunct Mars and Pluto (which are themselves conjunct in 3d house manifests the misfortune of having suffered violent assaults, injuries

Moon in Virgo in 5th house, square Mercury, Saturn and Uranus aspires to perfection

Mars-Pluto conjunction, sextile Uranus indicates competitive streak

All planets being below the horizon indicates subjective nature

July 1964 – first number one single, I Get Around, as Jupiter conjuncts Venus (12 year peak period cycle)

December 1964 – lunar eclipse conjunct native Sun(Gemini?) – nervous breakdown

Introduced to the works of Hermann Hesse and Kahil Gibran

First known musician of the era to employ the services of a professional astrologer

Experiments with cannibis and lsd

1966 – Sun sextile Venus, and Mercury conjunct Jupiter – career peak

November 1966 – Uranus-Pluto conjunction, square Brian’s Mercury increase obsessions and eccentricity. Jupiter conjunct Mars in Leo stirs fire.

End of 1960s as Neptune opposes Brian’s Ascendant he fades

June 1973 Murry dies as Saturn conjuncts Brian’s natal Sun. Brian withdraws to bedroom.
December 1975 – Mars-Pluto conjunction square Uranus, Neptune square Moon, Solar eclipse in Taurus conjunct Natal Venus signify loss of power and emotional disintegration.

1976 Jupiter conjunct Venus (12 year peak cycle) Enter Landy



2. The early 1980’s was epitomized by a conjunction between Saturn and Pluto… Saturn correlates with the desire for stasis, stability, and tradition. The band nearly breaks up (late 70s), salvages career by emphasizing its past glories - delivering powerful live set in Washington D.C. July 4, 1980.

2a. 1981-2 Saturn conjunct Brian’s Natal Moon, Neptune opposed to Natal Sun, Uranus opposed its Natal position, a most negative planetary aspect presents the choice to live or die.

Reenter Landy – composite chart Brian/Eugene reveals a stellium of Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter opposed Venus, 4 planets in Virgo, a Sun/Neptune conjunction, Venus-Mars opposition denoting magnetic attraction.

1983 Pluto trine Natal Sun – old wound brought to light, Chiron conjunct Natal Venus healing begins


3.The late 1980’s,… conjunction between Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune…. Neptune dissolves structures not unlike a metaphysical solvent…. blurs distinctions, melts that which was once solid, and softens that which was distinct and hard. Brian Wilson returns from the creative dead with what is arguably his best work since 1966, but not as a Beach Boy.

3a. 1988 – Jupiter conjunct Venus (12 year cycle) first solo album produced


4. On February 15, 1993, Uranus and Neptune complete their conjunction in the sign of Capricorn… associated with hard work, grounded practicality, seriousness, traditionalism, stability, responsibility, self-discipline, cautious, perseverance. The Beach Boys soldier on, hitting the road year after year The band releases a well received retrospective box-set and tours behind it with sets that are more creative and diverse than any since the early 70s.

4a. Beach Boys group composite chart focused on 5th house conjunction of Sun, Mercury and Mars, squaring Jupiter-Pluto conjunct in Leo, signifies creative and regenerative powers of the group.

5. In late 1995, Uranus moved into the Sign of Aquarius…signifying a release from whatever confines… individuals…. On a personal level,…the movement into Aquarius represents a breakdown of limiting concepts based upon old paradigms…and .. When Uranus is in Aquarius, people are interested in radical departures from traditions and patterns.  The band breaks up following the death (departure) of Carl Wilson, putting an end to the structure that has served them for over 30 years. Brian Wilson breaks out of the Landy straight-jacket, remarries and sets upon a solo career.

6. Summer 2011 the Grand Cross will primarily feature Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, much like the decade of the 1960’s and these outer planets pack a punch. Uranus impulse to revolution, immediacy, emancipation, and freedom from restrictions opposes Saturns need for order, tradition, rules, boundaries, time and restrictions. Both are squared to Pluto (deep, elemental power, transfiguration, death and rebirth). The band reunites, produces an album that harkens back to 1965 and tours to ever mounting acclaim, but is bedeviled by divergent drives and tendencies. .

Newcombe says: "Of course we can agree to differ, as long as you know that my opinions are based on known facts, and yours are based on nothing more than wishful thinking. So at least we can agree that any argument is therefore pointless."

Quite right says I. Let us agree to disagree.

And while we're at it - care for another Brandy old chap?

Sure. Carl Wilson and Jack Rieley take lots of cocaine and decide to write a song about taking lots of cocaine.

 ;D

So now the ideas of Gibran and Hesse can be added to the catalogue of influences coloring Brian Wilson's work in the 60s, however indirectly. I have not myself read either, although as a young man in the mid to late sixties I was aware of them thru friends who had. In any case they certainly were mystical in content.

And I don't believe these influences need have been expressed directly, but might have impacted attitudes as much as anything, particularly the opening to new and unusual ideas so prevalent in that era. George Harrison advises "Think For Yourself" on Rubber Soul and Brian responds by composing Pet Sounds utilizing what he called "feels," meaning, if I understand it right, unconventional chord sequences discovered simply by sitting down at the keyboard and feeling his way into a progression, painting with the colours of sound.

I don't know if "mystical" is the word that describes Pet Sounds, although mystical experience can be triggered by any number of things, love being the most obvious. But Good Vibrations definitely seeks to evoke the mystical, as does Smile and, to a lesser extent, Smiley Smile.

This other-wordliness would become a theme in the work of the Beach Boys in the years to come, and may be attributed in the first place to the influence of Uranus. 

As I reflect on all of this I recall reading in the mid-70s David Leaf's book - what was it called, The Beach Boys and the California Dream?

Was in fact the first I ever read about the Beach Boys.

And I recall, generally, the chapter describing the Smile era, particularly the story of the portrait that David Anderle painted of Brian. And of how Brian found all sorts of numerological significances in it and afterwards cut himself off from Anderle as the Smile moment slipped away.

So, we might add numerology to the grab-bag of influences.

As I suggested at the top of this thread, artists do not work in a vacuum, but rather draw inspiration and influence from all that suits there need.

Daniel Welland Doud says this about this coming week:


An incredible planetary alignment happens this week as Jupiter aligns with both Venus & Mercury... When a group of three or more planets are all located in the same position in the sky, astrologically we call that a "Stellium" and is one of the most powerful configurations in astrology... Stelliums are the signs the universe uses to indicate very important events and changes are about to take place... A good way to envision the energy is that instead of having just one planet ruling a certain area of life... A Stellium indicates that matters are being handled by a "committee" with additional insight and awareness being available.

Jupiter is the sign of "good-fortune" and being aligned with both Venus (wealth) and Mercury (truth) there are sure to be major revelations of facts or info that has been passed over or ignored... This is the universe's way of correcting the past mistakes and putting us all back on a path that is based upon truth and facts. Jupiter is also a planet of judgment, so the info contained can be quite damaging in some circumstances. This is the universe saying "here is the truth, deal with it"... It's intended to snap people out of the illusions of Neptune and focus on the immediate needs of Saturn.

These are certainly not ordinary times... The core of this chart is to take you much higher than the "world events" and make sure your own judgments (Jupiter) are not being polluted or influenced by Modern Life... Yeah, there may be strange events that take place in the world, but it is our job not to lose our own perspective of our own lives... This Jupiter stellium is there to remind us that anything can happen at any moment if we leave enough room for the Big Spirit to work it's magic & miracles. Just as more millionaires were created during the great depression just by people choosing to put their own talents & abilities to work... And then one thing leads to another.

 Yeah, so we have this awesome Stellium taking place... And we also have asteroid 1198-QE2 flying by too... Yeah, the universe is definitely trying to tell us something... I'd pay very close attention to all the details and the little things that others say and do...


So, it looks as tho, as far as Brian Wilson is concerned, the aspects are right, and we, my friends, may be the beneficiaries if he choses to produce new music. 

when something has been around as long as astrology, and when you read an article like the one I posted and see just how in-depth of a study it really is... then yes, there is definitely something to it.

as for the onus of proof, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone. I gave up on that years ago. life is about finding things out for ourselves and choosing our own beliefs.

as for the soul thing, I believe the soul and the human personality are two different things, though somewhat intertwined. we are hardwired into our bodies, and therefore at the mercy of our faculties to a great extent. a very simple metaphor would be a passenger in a vehicle. If the car crashes, the person may be affected. Injuries may occur. It doesn't mean the passenger IS the vehicle.

The brain is highly complex, yes. We are lucky to have them. But the brain is like a computer. Without electricity (aka soul) a computer is useless, regardless of its complexity.

You say what makes us "us" is so obviously neurological. My father suffered and died from a neurological disorder, ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease which gradually attacks the entire body rendering the victim paralyzed. My dad never lost an ounce of intelligence or will to live or sense of humor, even as his body gave out... year after year. So no, our neurological system is not what makes us "us".

What is the soul's purpose? In my opinion it is to gain experience through life on earth, many lives actually, in order to grow and evolve and hopefully achieve happiness, understanding, perfection, or whatever lessons it hopes to learn through living.


no, i don't see. please don't do my thinking for me.
yes the kidney does clean waste from the blood. the human body has many functions in order to stay alive. but what gives our bodies the spark of life? what makes our heart beat and our kidneys function in the first place? can science truly explain the existence of life or can it simply describe what it observes in great detail? only the latter i'm afraid.

I do not admit that my beliefs are based on wishful thinking. It's unfortunate that some people rely only on what they can see and read in a textbook to give them all the answers. I've lived long enough and experienced enough to know otherwise.

I'm really not interested in a lengthy philosophical argument. we know where each other stands, we've agreed to disagree. you're not convincing me and i'm not convincing you. let's move on, shall we?

Bossaroo - "What is the soul's purpose? In my opinion it is to gain experience through life on earth, many lives actually, in order to grow and evolve and hopefully achieve happiness, understanding, perfection, or whatever lessons it hopes to learn through living."


I'd call that a Bull's Eye!

This debate reminds me of a scene from Woody Allen's "Play it again Sam:"

Woody approaches a young woman contemplating an abstract painting in an art gallery:

Woody: It’s quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn’t it?

Girl: Yes it is.

Woody: What does it say to you?

Girl: It restates the negativness of the universe – the hideous empty loneliness of existence – nothingness – the predicament of man forced to live in a barren godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation forming a useless bleak straightjacket in a black absurd cosmos.

Woody: What are you doing Saturday night?

Girl: Committing suicide.

Woody: What about Friday night?

 :lol

Bull's something :lol

(Sorry, couldn't resist)


Absolutely guys. It's been fun. :)

Skepticism, but not cynicism, is of course a welcome, healthy, even necessary response to what might at face value seem to fly in the face of common sense, not to mention learned opinion.

It is equally important to bear ever in mind, however, that we function within a mental paradigm that is itself a cultural construct, conjured in response to our experience and understanding of the seemingly infinite depth and mystery of existence. Paradigm being that famous box that we are so often encouraged to think outside of. 

The paradigm born of the enlightenment seems, to many thoughtful observers, to have reached a point of diminishing returns. As the environment in which we function, and our understanding of it evolves, a paradigm shift occurs. The gains made as a consequence of the mechanistic, materialistic paradigm are not discarded, but rather enfolded within an ongoing development in consciousness. Scientific methodology, the disciplined reasoning function of mind, becomes a valued tool in our kit. But not the only tool.

We reactivate and reconfirm an equally vital faculty of consciousness in the contemplation of the good and the beautiful.  Which is what we do when we respond to the beautiful creations of Brian Wilson and his Beach Boys. And that experience is enriched by an understanding of the influences cultural and cosmological that informed the creation of those beauties.

I know that this does not address the seeming impossibility of linkages between starlight and man, but that is the fault of man and his paradigm, and not of the stars. That linkage is explained in the newly emerging paradigm, is entirely reasonable and was perceived and understood by thoughtful men and women world-wide in the 1960s and all the more clearly in our own time.

 

My Ouija board didn't tell me what I wanted to hear.

So do you know how to tune them up? I think its broken.  :p

leggo of my ego- "My Ouija board didn't tell me what I wanted to hear.

So do you know how to tune them up? I think its broken."


                                             Miss Skinner sat at her desk one day
         Watching the boys who indulged in play.
         One was whistling a popular air,
         Another was courting a maiden fair.
         In the northwest corner was a busy hum,
         The boys in that corner were chewing gum.
         Some pelted each other with pencil and pen,
         Miss Skinner looked up and said, "ahem."
         "Now, Patrick, come here and take a front seat,
         To make noise and trouble you're hard to beat."
         Out to the office Eugene she sent
         And madly out of the room he went.
         Many of his comrades suffered like fate
         Some were to stay after school quite late.
         When she was through she was nearly dead,
         But she rallied, rose up, and to her pupils said:
         "If there are men who from apes are descended,
         They are the boys I've just apprehended."

                                       -  B.B. '08, Miss Skinner's Unruly Boys

         "If there are men who from apes are descended,
With all the Junk Food he eats, where is man Headed?   
         
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_aeGD64IM57o/S9_0IYMPqNI/AAAAAAAAAx0/MConEfpT_TY/s1600/Evolution,+monkey+to+man+to+pig,+1.jpg)   

                         

 :)

"TUNING IN THE LATEST STAR
FROM THE DASHBOARD OF MY CAR..."

A revealing choice of words there. One might have expected the tuning in of a station or of a song but no, in 2012 we find Brian tuning into the stars.

And the timing could not be more appropriate as the aspects do indeed progress to mirror the alignment of the mid-sixties. And not just any point in the mid-sixties, but specifically October 65 thru June 66, which, as I am sure you all know coincides with the production of Pet Sounds, not to mention Rubber Soul, Revolver and Aftermath. Can I add Blonde on Blonde to the list, I forget its release date.

I've been drawing a blank by googling Astrology of the 1960s, so taking my old Library Science instructor's advice (Adrian Taylor if you must know) I changed my search term to Planetary Alignments of the 60s and finally got some useful results.


Nick Anthony Fiorenza's "Revolution & Revelation: The Uranus-Pluto Square 2012-2015 - (http://www.lunarplanner.com/Uranus-Pluto-Square) -

is exceptionally insightful, drawing direct parallels between then and now. Indeed, the central contention of Fiorenza and others seems to be that we are not only in the midst of a recurring alignment, but that the current  situation is the flowering of seeds that were sown then.

Here's his take on the era during which Pet Sounds was created. (and, btw, he offers excellent graphics to illustrate his text):


"The geocentric conjunction surrounding the January 7, 1966 synod occurred from October 1965 through June 1966. In addition, Uranus and Pluto entered into a 1° orb to their first geocentric conjunction in September of 1964, a year earlier. Thus, the influence of the Uranus-Pluto synthesis began long before the actual January 7, 1966 synod. Keep in mind that each Uranus-Pluto aspect (as seen from Earth) extends several years surrounding the actual synodic aspect date due to planetary retrogrades and the slow movement of these planets...


Regarding the current square: Pluto and Uranus entered into a 3° orb to their first geocentric square in June of 2011 and a 1° orb in August. Thus, we began experiencing the effects of the Uranus-Pluto square long before the first trigger in June of 2012. The social-political unrest occurring in 2011 was, in part, due to this building tension. Our Uranus-Pluto square provides external stimulus to initiate action to create radical and fundamental change in our society and in the structure of human consciousness based on the theme defined by the star alignments of the Uranus-Pluto synod of January 7, 1966, as well as the star alignments of the square itself.


Although the 2012-2015 Uranus-Pluto Square is a phase transition in the current Uranus-Pluto cycle that began in the mid-1960's, this is not a repeat of the same type of cultural, social and political upheaval that occurred in the 1960s. Uranus and Pluto have moved into entirely new areas of the zodiak with very different stellar qualities than those of the original synod. Many other planetary cycles have occurred as well, all impelling an evolutionary progression in human society. The actions and changes in consciousness that this square catalyzes will be of an entirely different nature. Although this may be an intense time, it should be paradigm-shifting in a very progressive and expansive way as we will see toward the end of this authoring. The meanings of the words, "Revolution & Revelation," may take on an entirely new meaning.


The Uranus-Pluto Synodic Cycle - 1966

"Before exploring the star alignments of the Uranus-Pluto Square, let's take a look at the dynamics of the original Uranus-Pluto synodic cycle, the additional planetary catalists involved, and the underlying theme of this 138-year cycle.

"In general, the revolutionary uprising and spontaneous force of Uranus synthesized with Pluto's intensified dismantling and opening force in the very depths of consciousness can produce an intense cultural and social rebellion that motivates a profound and radical transformation in collective consciousness.

"On one hand, this synthesis brings attention to radical, non-conforming, rebellious, authoritarian destructive use of power and its ramifications rippling through generations to follow. On the other, it can motivate radical and mind-expanding change in the very foundation of matter, energy and consciousness that breaks us from very deep-seated and long-standing genetic, cultural and social behavioral patterns.

As stated: The Uranus-Pluto geocentric conjunction surrounding the January 1966 synod began in October 1965 and continued through June 1966. In addition, Uranus and Pluto maintained a very tight 1° orb from October 1965 through July 1966; and were within a fraction of a degree from April through June of 1966—creating a very intense period.

Uranus

Uranus placement in the chart reveals where and how we break from the conformity of the past. Uranus is radical, spontaneous, and electrical. It supports the expression of our uniqueness and originality.

Uranus, in its clear and evolved expression, brings the ability to spontaneously change and to create new frontiers in experience and consciousness. It is the true pioneer, uninhibited by convention and establishment (Saturn). Uranus inspires the expression of our unique individuality in radical confidence. Uranus instills a future-orientation and humanitarian focus; and embodies quickness and alertness of consciousness often producing a lightning-like creative mind when prominently aspected. Uranus provides an ability to work with higher orders and principles—providing a higher-mind prowess for telepathy and all super-consciousness functions and mechanisms. Uranus instills an appreciation of excellence and perfection. It is the applier of the higher sciences and inspires new discoveries in technology and consciousness.

Uranus in its chronic expression can manifest as fear to change, to be spontaneous, or to take radical steps. It can express as judgment of other’s uniqueness and gifts, or of one’s own eccentricities and uniqueness; which covers a fear of being accepted or rejected, of being persecuted, and thus expresses as seeking sameness as a means for gaining acceptance. It can manifest as expressing other people's truths and philosophies rather than one’s own. An acute or hyper Uranian energy can express as instability, erraticism and hyperactivity, with an inability to follow through—ungrounded electrically.

Associated bio-energy centers include: Nervous system and higher brain centers—mental ability, prefrontal and frontal lobes (capacity for forward thinking and to envision new alternatives); neurological and synoptic circuitry, bio-electrical and light impulses.

Pluto is a freeing and opening force; a pattern disrupter and deprogrammer. Pluto is independent, individual, and autonomous; an extremist, isolationist and loner; a revolutionist, and is non-accepting of limiting conditions. For a younger immature soul, Pluto can express as a controlling arbiter, however Pluto will ultimately make one face their own controlling issues. For an older mature soul, Pluto can be a valuable ally when worked with consciously, freeing us from antiquated behavioral patterns. Pluto's chart placement can indicate where we need to let go or surrender programmed patterns from early childhood and from previous incarnations. Pluto can bring up fears associated with survival, death and transformation; the fear to be alone, to let go, to release or to let die. Pluto brings attention to our attitude and issues we hold about authoritarian control and use of power, how we attempt to control and how we respond such control.

Pluto demands that we take responsibility for our entrapments in life and deal with the longer-term ramifications of our actions and life scenarios—and our karmic responsibility, extending beyond a mere lifetime. Pluto also demands that we address how we co-participate and cooperate with humankind in our daily lives from an all-embracing global perspective.


A Closer Look at the Uranus-Pluto Synodic Cycle's theme.

The January 7, 1966 synod occurred in late sidereal Leo (22° 19' Leo GA*). Conjoining stars defining the theme of this synodic cycle were Mizar of Ursa Major and Asterion of Canes Venatici. These stars nest between the ecliptical longitudes of Zosma and Chort of Leo, and Denebola of Leo. This area of the zodiak produces fiery creative energy that must express, generally with world-wide level dramatics; as well as with smoke-screens and diversionary tactics designed to obscure the truth.

The 2012 Mars retrograde also occurs in this area of Zodiak, curiously leading into the start of the 2012-2015 Uranus-Pluto Square.

The Star alignments of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction and synod of the mid-1960s articulate a societal upheaval occurring in a backdrop of fiery commotion, dramatic grand spectacle, and diversionary smoke screens upon the global stage with world powers at the helm...

Saturn and Chiron's additional influence

"The dramatics of the mid-1960s were not a product of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction alone. The Uranus-Pluto synod of January 1966 also occurred very close to the "Saturn-Uranus synodic opposition" and the "Saturn-Pluto synodic opposition." These synodic oppositions occurred in November 1965, contributing significantly to the intensity and dynamics of this transformational time. The geocentric oppositions of Saturn to Uranus and Pluto occurred from April 1965 through January 1967.


The Centaur Chiron also played a significant role. Chiron joined Saturn in opposition to Uranus and Pluto, and Chiron and Saturn also began a new synodic cycle on June 11, 1966 in opposition to Uranus and Pluto. Venus and the asteroid Pallas also joined Saturn and Chiron to augment this energetic further in June 1966. Chiron's role is extra-significant because Chiron creates a significant orbital resonance with Saturn and Uranus due to Chiron's perihelion lying at the same distance from the Sun as Saturn's orbit, and its aphelion lying at the same distance from the Sun as Uranus' orbit. These synods and conjunctions occurred at the sidereal Aquarius-Pisces cusp.


Ceres' synthesis with Saturn in this area of the heavens impels us to address our fundamental human responsibilities to all life, and motivates us to explore the physical and social structures supporting this fundamental nourishment. It makes us face issues around abundance in life and loss in life, of bounty verses bareness; to our responsibility to Earth, nature, and agriculture; and to the very fundamental issues regarding the sustenance, nourishment and protection of all life—a theme set in motion for the following 5.6 years.

Ceres' synthesis with Chiron impels a humanitarian focus toward the desire to care for the physical nourishment and well-being of humanity and all life. It inspires a mystical or metaphysical connection with nature and the natural world. It brought forth a recognition for the need to attune to nature's way (and a Uranian-based universal love), to create a love-based bridge from the existing societal structures in place at the time, with prospective provided from the radically destructive power-driven Uranus-Pluto energetic occurring in the fiery and diversionary opposite side of the zodiak being played out by world powers. The Ceres-Saturn and Ceres-Chiron syntheses were clearly significant influences motivating the Flower Power Political Movement's emergence in 1965 (See the timeline chart below).

The Chiron-Saturn Synod with Pallas and Venus

The principal Chiron-Saturn synod occurred on June 11, 1966, commencing a 62.25-year long synodic cycle (June 11, 1966 through August 28, 2028).

Pallas and Venus also joined Chiron and Saturn, creating a compounded set of synods and synodic cycles. This all occurred at the Aquarius-Pisces cusp, slightly past Markab's ecliptical longitude (shown in the star chart animation above).

Note: We are currently approaching the second trine in the 62-year Chiron-Saturn cycle, which occurs throughout mid-2013 and into 2014, during the Uranus-Pluto square. The geocentric trine starts in November of 2012 and continues through August of 2014, with the synodic trine occurring on July 26, 2013. (The first trine in this cycle occurred in 1978-79.)


The Flower Power Movement verses The Vietnam War

The Pluto-Uranus conjunction and synod in late Leo, and Saturn's opposition to it compounded by the Saturn, Chiron, Ceres, Pallas and Venus conjunctions and synods, contributed to the climax of the Vietnam war and the POP Flower Power uprising against it, heralding a major cultural transition for humanity.

Key world events occurring at the time of the mid-1960s Uranus-Pluto synod included the peak of the Vietnam War, the emergence of the Flower Power Movement and the emergence of Pop Music.

• 1965 - The Flower Power political movement emerges.

• January 1966 - There were 190,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, marking the peak of theVietnam war.

• 1967 - The Flower Children's "Summer of Love" occurred in San Francisco, kicked off by the "Human Be-In" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967.

Born to be Wild (the 1960s Generation)

Since the mid-1960s Uranus-Pluto synod, throughout the first quarter of the synodic cycle, a 47-year period, this cultural-revolutionary theme has fully engaged society's creative process. Now, at the turning of the first square of the cycle, we experience stimulus into dynamic physical action. The mid-1960s theme will now shift into its next prominent quarter; the creative action quarter. How this plays out is of course yet to be seen. Activists and revolutionists may storm the global stage during this transition point in the cycle; and it may produce another principal shift in our societal revolution. It may also be much more progressive due to the placements of Uranus and Pluto, as we will explore. It may also stimulate dynamic radical action for those born in the mid-1960s—matured forces that must now "explode into space."

This square is of extreme significance for those with prominent Uranus and Pluto natal placements, and for those with aspects to key points and planets in their natal and progressed charts by transiting Uranus and Pluto. It is fundamentally significant for all of humanity due to Uranus and Pluto's astrophysical bio-resonances, and simply for all of Earth due to the fact that all life on Earth nests within the greater planetary and cosmic cycles that create the ever-changing evolutionary symphony in which we evolve.


 The Uranus Pluto Synodic Square - 2012-2015

~ Revolution & Revelation ~

Uranus-Pluto 1966 Synod and Uranus-Pluto 2013 Square

Our current Uranus-Pluto square can produce radical, spontaneous, destructive, crazy, even war-like behavior for the spiritually unaware reactive type of younger soul. For souls more mature, this square can stimulate the motivation to adapt quickly to radical change and to create inovative solutions to emerge from or to rise above destructive scenarios and emotional turmoil. It may stimulate the creation of new technologies and modalities of thought motivated from structural systems and societal modalities that simply no longer work.

At the time of the synodic square (November 24, 2013), Uranus and Pluto reside at the centers of their respective signs. Pluto has moved from its synod with Uranus in late sidereal Leo (conjoining Mizar) to mid-sidereal Sagittarius, and Uranus has moved to mid-sidereal Pisces."



I know this is all rather wordy, and with all the astro-jargon sometimes incomprehensible. But I'll try to pull it all together and present the short-and-sweet of it ere ong.

To conclude: If Brian is in tune again as he was in 1966 we may be on the receiving end of a startling new musical revelation! 1965 (TWGMTR) was followed by Pet Sounds (???).

Let's Hope So.

An indication of things to come?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciuG5XhylBU