Scorpio and Capricorn, or tougher-than-tough love

Sorry to have been MIA for ages dear readers; when I haven't been doing the night proofreading shift at the local English language daily, I've been giving most of my attention to working on my screenplay, meditating and a whole lot of self-reflection.

Above all, during this period, I have been musing on what exactly it is in me which always seems to attract the 'tough love' teachers. And why they are so often Scorpios or Capricorns. Or have so many planets/personal points in both signs.

Sort of like the relentless drill-sergeant Louis Gossett Jr. plays in An Officer and a Gentleman.

Take my father for instance. He's a Capricorn Sun, with (according to his mother's hazy memory of his birth-time) Scorpio on the Ascendant. That would fit him very well. Because he is not only my self-appointed timekeeper (Capricorn) - "We're not young forever; if I were you, I would stop wasting time and..." but is also given to dragging me into the underworld (Scorpio) at steady intervals, or probing deep into my soul (whether I invite him to, or not - most often not).

Meanwhile, my mother has Pluto in Leo conjunct her Ascendant, so that makes her rather Scorpio-like in her intense probing, too.

My old English Literature and Drama teacher, who has been a very important mentor in many ways, is a Capricorn; my ex-girlfriend, despite being a Libra, has Pluto conjunct her Sun, as well as the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Uranus all in Scorpio.

Then there's my current astrology teacher who has a very strong Saturn and a Scorpio Moon.

The list goes on and on and on.

Boy have I learned a lot from all of them, and continue to do so. Can't say I've always enjoyed the experience, but on the soul level I believe I have attracted them to me for a purpose. And, frankly, none of this is surprising given my own Capricorn Moon and Venus-Pluto-Saturn T-square. Or my natal Uranus in Scorpio sextile my Ascendant

In the fires of these intimates' intensity and in the boundaries they've forced me to honour - either in them or in me - I've slowly been (and continue to be) tested and refined, no matter how unpleasant it can at times be, for my higher good.

Then again, my musings could just be prompted by Pluto in Capricorn inching towards a square to my natal Pluto in Libra - which, taking into account my natal T-Square of Pluto-Venus-Saturn, is going to add up to a doozy of a Grand Cross - while transiting Saturn is on a collision course with Natal Pluto in my Second House. To say nothing of the pesky ongoing Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter dance, too.

Tough love, baby. The universe is really giving it to me aplenty.

By the time I head into my Uranus opposition, I'm going to be harder than steel and wiser than serpents, that's fer sure.




The above image was taken from this site.

Jack Nicholson, Taurus Par Excellence

Jack Nicholson is much on my mind these days, given how this Taurean native is the epitome of the unhurried, earthy, macho type who won't surrender his pleasures, even when the price to be paid is higher than he can afford.

Allow me to explain.

Since my breakup with my ex (see my earlier post on this here), I've been focused on pouring myself into my filmmaking career. Indeed, the better part of the past six months I spent in New York (a city I intend to make my home some day) was spent re-connecting with my fellow film alums from Columbia University's graduate film programme.

My aim is to write a feature script - a film noir - set in Cyprus, to launch my career as a writer/director. I figure the island of my birth might just be the happy hunting ground I need for a first full-length film, and hopefully the relatively good impression which was left by the short I wrote and directed last year will help things happen for me.

Given my interest in the noir form, I keep coming back to two films for inspiration: Chinatown and The Crying Game, though of course, neither film is a true example of the genre. However, Chinatown has been particularly informative, not only for its dazzling direction and glamorous production design, but the charismatic performances by Faye Dunaway and, in particular, Taurean man's man, Jack Nicholson.

All things considered, thoughts of his performance are quite fitting given the sun is now in Taurus, and I wonder whether I'll end up modelling my story's anti-hero on Nicholson, or on Scorpio sun (and zodiacal opposite to Taurus) Stephen Rea, who is the protagonist of The Crying Game.

Fascinating actors both. Tough, tough choice. Stay tuned.






This still from Chinatown was taking from this site.

Complaining = Disempowerment

Back again, dear readers. And I seem to have taken my sweet time about it. Strange, because I've had mad, hyperkinetic energy to burn of late.

I think I've been caught in the Virgo trap of not wanting to face up to a less-than-perfect body of postings due to the fact that my time and focus for anything non-short-film-related has been shrinking dramatically.

I've been painfully aware of how much could be commented on in this blog re. new memes on the Climate Change scene, my own continuing learning on the Astrology front, my progress in receiving the Munay-Ki rites (and consequent growing interest in all things shamanic)... so much that it has seemed way too much to post on. In other words, I've felt rather less-than-self-confident in terms of taking on the task than my Third House Scorpio Uranus might have had me be.

Still, if there's one thing I'm learning big-time from all the sessions with the shrink re. taking responsibility and choosing positive over negative thoughts, it's that if you choose to see yourself as overwhelmed, that's what you'll experience.

And following on from there... if you choose to complain - which I have done constantly about all the Difficult Stuff in my life in the past, and which I am trying to do less of today - then you voluntarily abrogate your power to fate. You disempower yourself. You stop being, as the shrink says, "the hero" in your life.

I'm working on being the hero more in my life. Like the shrink says, ultimate responsibility for everything that happens to me is mine and mine alone. But such responsibility need not be a byword for blame.

As you can see, changing mental patterns that have long been based on free-floating guilt, dependency, self-doubt and victimhood, are a lot of work to break.

But that sounds suspiciously like a complaint. So I'm going to finish this post right here.





The image above was taken from here.