Sunday
Sep052010
Always Look Up
September 5, 2010 * * * * * Posted by: Ginnie 
By the end of this, some of you will be rolling your eyes, I guarantee it. So up front I'm telling you this is the god-honest truth.
Right now we're in the middle of Mercury Retrograde when electronic gadgets (like computers!) go haywire, transportation 'snarls' more than usual, and, to put it bluntly, we all do more stupid things than normal. It happens 3-4 times a year for 3 weeks at a time. This stint is from August 20 - September 12.
Please hold that thought.
The older I get, the more I want to find out about my heritage. Does knowing where I come from help me know where I'm going? I have no idea. But take my two grandpas, for instance, both of whom I never met....
Dad's dad, Thomas, was born in 1847 and served in the U.S. Civil War. He was 70 when Dad was born in 1917. Dad was 78 when he died in 1995. So if you do the math, my grandpa served in the Civil War as a teenager...while his own son, my dad, served in no wars because he was a preacher and was thereby exempt. What was Thomas like, I wonder, and how did that war affect him, Dad...or me?
Mom's dad, Sidney, was born in 1892 and so happened to be one of America's prominent astrologers in his day. He published under the pen name Wynn and "began Wynn's Astrology Magazine in 1931, and for the next two decades it was one of the most influential in the emerging field. He also contributed a column to the New York Daily News and wrote a number of popular books."
What I knew about my astrology grandpa while growing up in my conservative preacher's home was that I shouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole. I even felt guilty about reading the horoscope, so I didn't. But when Bill and I divorced in 1990, I suddenly needed to find out why I wasn't supposed to 'touch' astrology? Would it kill me or my faith?
Since I had already fallen from grace (my last post), I decided there was nothing left to kill, so with a passion I touch-tackled astrology in every way possible. A lady at work aided my intrigue and put me in touch with a guru of sorts who taught me much. I purchased top-of-the-line software to work up natal charts and personality reports, which I continue doing to this day with great pleasure. One of the things I learned along the way is you can get an astrology quack every bit as dreadful as a Bible interpreter quack. I began to see my life making connections to my past in ways I never thought possible. Kinda like criss-crossing grandpas.
Now go back to Mercury Retrograde. I once tried to jokingly explain to do-not-touch-astrology Dad what MR was and he immediately said, "Oh, you mean like when I drove the car from Virginia to Michigan with my glasses caught in the corner of the luggage rack on top of the car...and I couldn't figure out where I had put them till I got home?!" Yup!
Okay then. One more week of this madness and all you need to do is pay attention. Expect delays and try not to take glitches personally. Before you know it, life will move into the fast lane and become normal again.
"As in the heavens above, so on earth below." That's why you should always look up!
Are you rolling your eyes? But I bet you believe in the effects of the full moon, right! Now that reminds me of when I worked in assisted living....
Reader Comments (16)
your father has me beat on mileage, but just two days ago I went from Creswell to Eugene and another 5-10 miles in town with sunglasses stuck in the luggage rack of my car (the whole time reaching underneath the seats and patting my pockets at every stop light getting agitated). So I might take the ribbon for most recent lucky luggage rack glasses catch (and they definitely slid a good two feet before getting stuck).
I've also made it all the way to work with a coffee mug on the roof of the same car although it was not the trusty quick thinking luggage rack but the fast reflexes of the non-skid foam rubber bottom of the mug (that or the angels that were assigned to me that particular day)
and where has Silver been? haven't seen her for at least one month.
Like I said on your blog, I like the tilted angle that produces the diagonal line in this photo, great work Ginnie
Bummerrrrrr!!! Do these stupid things involve blowing up light bulbs? Cause then I certainly am affected with this mercury thingy, as I have blown up three the past week!!!
Fascinating little insight in your family's history Ginnie!!
So great to have logical..rational...reasonable explanations for all of the craziness - :-)!!! I'm not sure if I'm a 'believer'...but it sure would be nice to know that there are astrological forces out there - greater than we - that guide the universe.
Thanks for such an insightful...interesting post. And - I love how you weave your family's history into it!!!!
Ha! I never heard that story about Dad's glasses.
The thing is about all this, it doesn't really matter how we think about it. It just is. Our perceptions of cause and effect do shape who we are and what we do, but maybe not all that much really. This is why I have given up on religion. Does it really matter what I believe in my head, or what I think? It might matter to how I feel, how I accept things, or whether I find comfort when I feel loss. But I wouldn't start a new cult based on what I think. That said, I love reading horoscopes, especially in depth ones, and feeling the connections. I always remember what you saw in Peter's chart, and how extraordinary that was/is. Keep on forging ahead in this, sister, because I want to know when the dots are connected.
Love your vision and love your verb !
Hey Ginnie, not rolling my eyes at all...... maybe it explains why we have been feeling lately that we're living in the land of broken things! Nothing is working!
It's all fascinating to think about, loved reading about some of your family history and the photo is really beautiful.
Well, I can't say Mercury Retrograde is effecting me with anything right now ... excuse me while I knock wood ... and I don't read my daily horoscope, although every once in a while I'll see it and get a kick out of what it says. I do know that when I read how my "sign" was described in detail that I was floored, because it was me. To a T. You have such interesting family history, Ginnie, and it's fun to read about it. Love your photo, too.
No, I am not rolling my eyes, but than you know I feel the MR too, you were the first to explain all this though....
I love reading the charts, so much truth in it.
Great picture and yes I will remember to look up.
Love your way with words.
don't even get me started about how much i love to go to a psychic.
I'm like Margie, I believe, but I'm scared to go to a psychic ... I want to go with her marg one day.
and here all the time I just thought it was the "perversity of inanimate objects", they are you know all engaged in a conspiracy against mankind. At least that's what my undergraduate philosophy professor told us 45 years ago.
Yes, I DO believe in the effects of a full moon. One can't teach school very long before they have PROOF of the effects of a full moon. At the end of a particularly bad day, someone would always mutter "must be a full moon" and more often than not, it was!
Astrology is an area I've always been somewhat curious about but really have never "studied."
I did go to a psychic, she was a psychic masseuse and I have to say, it was quite an interesting time. I'm not rolling my eyes, but I am laughing. I think that my Mercury is in constant Retrograde. Did you hear about that traffic jam in China? THREE WEEKS! ugh!
I've got this great vision of you in a helmet "touch-tackling" an astrology magazine. A Tilly helmet :-)
Isn't it amazing how the more you forbid something, the more you create a magnet? I sure wish I knew about the MR period or I wouldn't have chosen to do this mini-remodel in my kitchen right now...