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Scorpio Goddesses — The spider

“Every strand in the web of life is connected.”

Goddesses for Every Day

Scorpio is a fixed water sign that represents the idea of dynamic power.  This potent energy of desire can be used in construction or destruction, death or resurrection, and is characterized by great intensity.  There is a myth that a scorpion will sting itself just for the intense sensation.  Scorpios deal with issues of power.  Tests include temptation relating to the use of power, exercising discipline, and a need to establish emotional control.  Scorpios are reserved, and more happens internally than is expressed on the surface.  This is a path of transforming the desire nature, of tempering a purely physical desire into spiritual aspiration.  

Scorpio is the eighth zodiac sign, traditionally represented by a scorpion, which has eight legs.  The Goddess Sign for Scorpio is the Spider, which also has eight legs, and her affirmation is “Every strand in the web of life is connected.”  She is the great weaver who spins all of creation into existence, and creates the literal web of life from her own life force.  In Scorpio, the substance of life is spun out of the spider’s belly, creating the potential for something to manifest.  The Scorpio goddesses include spiders and scorpions as well as goddesses who embody passion, sexuality, healing and themes of death and rebirth.  

Spider Woman is a great creation goddess who is still known to Indians as She Who Creates From A Central Source.  Hopi Spider Woman spun threads to form the sacred directions. Cherokee Grandmother Spider brought the Sun into being and thereby gave humanity the gift of fire.  Spider goddesses are wisdom keepers and are seen to guide those who weave magic with the written word.  

Kadru is a Hindu goddess who is the mother of the Nagas, who are a thousand beautiful serpent beings in Hindu myth.  Sesha is the most famous, and his giant coils are thought to turn the mill of life.  The Greek Medusa, whose stare had the power to turn men to stone, was a Gorgon who had snakes for hair.  She was once a beautiful woman who was turned into an ugly hag, representing the ascendancy of the patriarchy and the demonizing of feminine power and wisdom.  I believe “turning into stone” is a clue to the deeper notion of the nature of the wisdom the philosopher’s stone represents.  Yurlunger is the Great Rainbow Serpent, a mammoth copper python, who has a major role in the Aboriginal story of the Wawalag Sisters from Australia.  Egle is a goddess archetype who fell in love with a being who was a serpent god.  Themes of goddesses as serpent beings and dragons are pervasive in myth.  

Selket is an Egyptian goddess who is usually depicted as a beautiful woman with a golden scorpion on her head.  During the Sun’s nightly journey through the underworld it is Selket who subdues an evil serpent who tries to block his way. It was said that a scorpion will never bite those who revere her.  Iktoki is a creator goddess of the Miskito people of Nicaragua who is envisioned as a great Mother Scorpion who makes her home in the stars of the Milky Way.  

Panacea, whose name means “all healing,” and Hygeia, “health,” were sisters and Greek goddesses of healing.  In some stories they are daughters of the famed healer Asclepius.   To this day, physicians swear the Hippocratic Oath of medicine by the names of Panacea and Hygeia.  

The Norse Valkyries were beautiful goddesses who were called “choosers of the slain,”  as they decided who lived and who died in battle.  Their leader was named Brunhilde, which means “victory bringer.”  The Irish Morgen had domain over death and guided souls to the afterlife and aided them in their transition.   Maman Brigitte is a loa, or goddess of Voodoo, who is a guardian of graves in cemeteries and who stands watch over the portal between the worlds.  Nicheven is a Scottish goddess who was called Bone Mother.  Like other Triple Goddess archetypes, she is born, ages, dies and is reborn each year as the light increases and decreases. This archetype was later “borrowed” and is now portrayed as the old year dying and the baby  New Year being born on December 31st.

Lilith is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess who demonstrates how once-powerful feminine deities were demonized by the emerging patriarchy.  She was Adam’s first wife in some Hebrew texts who left the garden because she refused to submit to him.  She claimed they had been created equal and simultaneously, as related in the first creation story in Genesis.  Jehovah sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, he turned her into a blood-sucking demon.  It seems a rather harsh punishment for her independence.  In modern times Lilith has become an icon for powerful women.  In her ancient myth from four thousand years ago, she lived in a tree with a dragon at the roots and a nesting bird at the top.  These symbols link her with the sacred feminine as it has been represented in cultures around the world.  

Baubo is a Greek goddess who played a key role in Demeter’s healing after her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the underworld.  Baubo did a bawdy dance and lifted her skirt, making Demeter laugh.  Rati is a Hindu goddess of joyful sexuality and passion. Her name means “one who moves” and is thought to connote the motion of lovemaking.  Her consort is Kama, the god of love.  Sheila Na-Gig is a fascinating representation of feminine sexuality.  The “sheilas” as they are called, are representations of feminine genetalia that appear on churches in Europe. Not surprisingly, controversy surrounds their origin and significance. 

The Scorpio goddesses teach us the nature and lessons of desire and passion.  More than any other sign, Scorpio has the power to harness and direct the life force for either good or ill.  This energy can be used to heal or destroy, to give life or to take it away.  How we use our power makes all the difference, so it’s wise to consider the consequences before acting. 

Scorpio is a fixed water sign that represents the idea of dynamic power.  This potent energy of desire can be used in construction or destruction, death or resurrection, and is characterized by great intensity.  There is a myth that a scorpion will sting itself just for the intense sensation.  Scorpios deal with issues of power.  Tests include temptation relating to the use of power, exercising discipline, and a need to establish emotional control.  Scorpios are reserved, and more happens internally than is expressed on the surface.  This is a path of transforming the desire nature, of tempering a purely physical desire into spiritual aspiration.  

Scorpio is the eighth zodiac sign, traditionally represented by a scorpion, which has eight legs.  The Goddess Sign for Scorpio is the Spider, which also has eight legs, and her affirmation is “Every strand in the web of life is connected.”  She is the great weaver who spins all of creation into existence, and creates the literal web of life from her own life force.  In Scorpio, the substance of life is spun out of the spider’s belly, creating the potential for something to manifest.  The Scorpio goddesses include spiders and scorpions as well as goddesses who embody passion, sexuality, healing and themes of death and rebirth.  

Spider Woman is a great creation goddess who is still known to Indians as She Who Creates From A Central Source.  Hopi Spider Woman spun threads to form the sacred directions. Cherokee Grandmother Spider brought the Sun into being and thereby gave humanity the gift of fire.  Spider goddesses are wisdom keepers and are seen to guide those who weave magic with the written word.  

Kadru is a Hindu goddess who is the mother of the Nagas, who are a thousand beautiful serpent beings in Hindu myth.  Sesha is the most famous, and his giant coils are thought to turn the mill of life.  The Greek Medusa, whose stare had the power to turn men to stone, was a Gorgon who had snakes for hair.  She was once a beautiful woman who was turned into an ugly hag, representing the ascendancy of the patriarchy and the demonizing of feminine power and wisdom.  I believe “turning into stone” is a clue to the deeper notion of the nature of the wisdom the philosopher’s stone represents.  Yurlunger is the Great Rainbow Serpent, a mammoth copper python, who has a major role in the Aboriginal story of the Wawalag Sisters from Australia.  Egle is a goddess archetype who fell in love with a being who was a serpent god.  Themes of goddesses as serpent beings and dragons are pervasive in myth.  

Selket is an Egyptian goddess who is usually depicted as a beautiful woman with a golden scorpion on her head.  During the Sun’s nightly journey through the underworld it is Selket who subdues an evil serpent who tries to block his way. It was said that a scorpion will never bite those who revere her.  Iktoki is a creator goddess of the Miskito people of Nicaragua who is envisioned as a great Mother Scorpion who makes her home in the stars of the Milky Way.  

Panacea, whose name means “all healing,” and Hygeia, “health,” were sisters and Greek goddesses of healing.  In some stories they are daughters of the famed healer Asclepius.   To this day, physicians swear the Hippocratic Oath of medicine by the names of Panacea and Hygeia.  

The Norse Valkyries were beautiful goddesses who were called “choosers of the slain,”  as they decided who lived and who died in battle.  Their leader was named Brunhilde, which means “victory bringer.”  The Irish Morgen had domain over death and guided souls to the afterlife and aided them in their transition.   Maman Brigitte is a loa, or goddess of Voodoo, who is a guardian of graves in cemeteries and who stands watch over the portal between the worlds.  Nicheven is a Scottish goddess who was called Bone Mother.  Like other Triple Goddess archetypes, she is born, ages, dies and is reborn each year as the light increases and decreases. This archetype was later “borrowed” and is now portrayed as the old year dying and the baby  New Year being born on December 31st.

Lilith is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess who demonstrates how once-powerful feminine deities were demonized by the emerging patriarchy.  She was Adam’s first wife in some Hebrew texts who left the garden because she refused to submit to him.  She claimed they had been created equal and simultaneously, as related in the first creation story in Genesis.  Jehovah sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, he turned her into a blood-sucking demon.  It seems a rather harsh punishment for her independence.  In modern times Lilith has become an icon for powerful women.  In her ancient myth from four thousand years ago, she lived in a tree with a dragon at the roots and a nesting bird at the top.  These symbols link her with the sacred feminine as it has been represented in cultures around the world.  

Baubo is a Greek goddess who played a key role in Demeter’s healing after her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the underworld.  Baubo did a bawdy dance and lifted her skirt, making Demeter laugh.  Rati is a Hindu goddess of joyful sexuality and passion. Her name means “one who moves” and is thought to connote the motion of lovemaking.  Her consort is Kama, the god of love.  Sheila Na-Gig is a fascinating representation of feminine sexuality.  The “sheilas” as they are called, are representations of feminine genetalia that appear on churches in Europe. Not surprisingly, controversy surrounds their origin and significance. 

The Scorpio goddesses teach us the nature and lessons of desire and passion.  More than any other sign, Scorpio has the power to harness and direct the life force for either good or ill.  This energy can be used to heal or destroy, to give life or to take it away.  How we use our power makes all the difference, so it’s wise to consider the consequences before acting. 

Based on and excerpts from Goddesses for Every Day © 2010 by Julie Loar.   Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA www.newworldlibrary.com     

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Astrology, Divine Feminine, Goddesses, Harvest, Mythology, Uncategorized

Virgo Goddesses

Goddess Sign — the Sheaf of Wheat

  “All things bear fruit according to their nature.” Goddesses for Every Day

The Goddess Sign for Virgo is the Sheaf of Wheat, which appears in depictions of the constellation of Virgo as the bright star Spica that is held like a staff in the hand of the goddess.  The mutable earth sign Virgo relates to the stage of spiritual unfolding which focuses on specialization of forms.  Virgo represents the stage in the cycle when the soul’s experience is focused on assimilation of knowledge.  In this phase matter is organized, purified and refined into specific and recognizable objects.  Here we might say the Grand Plan of the Cosmos is carried out in detail. Metaphysically Virgo is the matrix and represents the womb of the inner spiritual self, containing the seed and eventual fruits of the Spirit.  Seeds germinate in darkness, breaking their way out of their shell casings, and sending roots into the Earth.  Like the abdomen and intestines, which Virgo has dominion over, this phase distills the qualitative pearls from life.   

In every case I have been able to find except Egypt, the Earth is always seen as feminine.  She is a great mother goddess who gives birth to and sustains her children from the substance of her body.  This expresses through the fertility cycles of the seasons.  Virgo goddesses include goddess of agriculture and grain, as well as the harvest, and the annual descent into the underworld while the Earth grows barren for a time.  Icons of these goddesses include generous platters of fruits, overflowing cornucopias and waving fields of grain.  

Virgo is the only female among the zodiacal constellations, and other than the twins, Castor and Pollux (Gemini), she is the only human figure.  Author Richard Hinkley-Allen says, “Those who claim very high antiquity for the zodiacal signs (15,000 years ago), assert that the idea of these titles originated when the Sun was in Virgo at the spring equinox, the time of the Egyptian harvest.”  Australian astrologer Bernadette Brady has remarked that, “Whatever image is chosen across time and cultures, what is contained in Virgo is the archetype of the harvest-bringing goddess, pure and good, independent of the masculine.  She gives the four seasons and is the source of the fertile Earth.”  The more ancient concept of “virgin” described a woman who was independent and free to love whom she chose. 

Demeter was the Great Mother earth goddess of the people who preceded the Greeks.  Her sacred rites, known the Eleusinian Mysteries, were celebrated for nearly two thousand years, as long as Christianity has existed, in what is now mainland Greece.  People came from all over the known world to participate in these secret ceremonies.  We don’t know many details of these activities, as the penalty for revealing their contents was death.   Some aspects are known or suspected however, as the high point of the ritual was said to be a “sheaf of wheat reaped in silence.”  The Eleusinian Mysteries are similar in significance to the annual celebration of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt.  I believe the deeper meaning is learning move in resonance with shifting seasons of light and dark in order to harvest blessings in their time.  

Based on and excerpted from Goddesses for Every Day © 2010 by Julie Loar.  Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com     

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frog blog: a jumpin’ good time in frog town usa

“Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”  Mark Twain

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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is an 1865 short story by American author and humorist Mark Twain. The story was actually his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. Something captured America’s attention and remains a compelling influence. Since 1928 an annual event inspired by Twain’s story has been held at the County Fair in Angels Camp in Northern California’s Calaveras County. Similar events are held in Indiana, Ohio, Washington, Maine, Missouri, Louisiana, New York, and also in Manitoba, Canada.

This May I witnessed the qualifying pre-trials from the bleachers as hopeful entrants coached their frogs into top performance. The contest is simple–which frog jumps the farthest in the one-minute time allowed per contestant. The record holder in Calaveras County is Rosie the Ribiter, who jumped 21 feet and 5 3/4 inches in 1986. Frog jockeys can win a $750 prize, or win the grand prize of $5,000 if a competing frog were to break Rosie’s record. It’s not clear what the frogs get out of the experience.

With 4,000 contestants in 2007, the Calaveras County contest imposed strict rules that regulate the frogs’s welfare, including limiting the daily number of a frog’s jumps, and mandating the playing of calming music in the frog’s enclosures. One assumes this is an attempt to reduce pre-game jitters. Because California’s red-legged frog is an endangered species, it’s barred from the competition. It is also forbidden for any competing frog to be weighted down by any means, as the frog in the Twain story was. Hopefully, the frogs don’t suffer too much as I worry about such things. After all, they’ve been captured and removed from their natural habitat and forced to enter into an all too human realm.

Frog_jumping_contest_1

Photo credit  Frank Schulenburg  CC BY-SA 4.0   2016

The frog jumping competition is a generous slice of American Pie. There is a whimsical quality of tradition, innocence, and plain good fun at a time when simple joys like County Fairs seem to be a thing of the past. Some frogs take the leap right away as if everything depends on the result. Others are frozen in place and never budge from the starting circle no matter the “encouragement” from their jockeys. This year’s winner jumped more than nineteen feet, certainly impressive, but not far enough to break Rosie’s record. Was it frog ambition or just sheer terror that fueled Rosie’s tremendous jump back in 1986? All the jumpers since have to go over that bar and perhaps Rosie was a unique frog at a singular moment. Maybe her frog jockey Joe Giudici had so much faith in her that his energy boosted her rockets.

I reflected on what it is that propels us to our greatest accomplishments and how can we learn to harness that propulsion at will?  Do we make quantum leaps in our own lives through grit and will, or is there something else that moves us to peak moments of achievement? We can’t always choose the arenas of tests and trials that present themselves, but we always have the choice of how we show up to meet the contests.  As we meet the challenges in our lives I believe it makes a difference if we call forth our best effort rather than refusing to try because we’re afraid we’ll miss the mark. Until we try we can’t know how we might be changed by taking the leap. And maybe we also have unseen cheerleaders whose faith in us lifts us to greater heights and longer distances once we jump. We can stay safe in the pond, or maybe become a champion–the attempt is up to us.

Meet Julie Loar
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Adventure

Posted on February 19, 2019 by julieloar

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Me with two cobra friends at Kom Ombo, Egypt in 2012

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing,”  Helen Keller

This October I will embark upon my thirteenth trip to Egypt with a dozen other intrepid travelers. It’s remarkable really as I never expected to go even once. But I have always been deeply called to do so. My parents told me I was fascinated with Egypt from the age of three. They would find me asleep on open pages of my uncle’s National Geographic magazines, dreaming of pyramids, temples, and fabulous jewelry no doubt.

My affinity with ancient Egypt has been an enduring feature of my life, and given my interests and proclivities, I feel certain that the waters of the great Nile have flowed through my veins for millennia. We are so accustomed to short life spans, and a disbelief in superluminal travel, that we can scarcely imagine how vast and limitless the Cosmos is. I have come to understand that my soul has worked for lifetimes to heal and integrate experiences from ancient Egypt, especially at Abydos during the time of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari 3,300 years ago. I have come to understand that I was born into this lifetime with unfinished business that is long overdue to complete. And so I return, and each time I dig deeper. 

Helen Keller and Amelia Earhart have always been major she-roes. Another is Beryl Markham, who was a pilot and horse trainer in South Africa during the “Out of Africa” times. Author Ernest Hemingway praised her work and said it made him ashamed to call himself a writer. I think of those women, and other profoundly courageous souls I have known, in moments of fear and doubt.

Moving out of our steady states of comfort and the illusion of safety causes us to grow, to widen our horizons, and to experience more of the world. Unless we are narrow and spiteful by nature, we are better for it. We all face choices in life about how we respond, and some of them are profoundly difficult. Some of us wait for the verdict of a test that could yield a terminal diagnosis, or learn to walk again after a debilitating injury. Others pick through the rubble of what was once a treasured home after the ravages of a storm or fire. How do we move on? How do we face loss and uncertainty?

Death is certain, only the timing is unknown.  It seems richer to embrace the unknown and cultivate a sense of adventure, grabbing onto life for all its worth, the joy and the sorrow, and the surprises that come when least expected.

Let me know if you feel called to Return to the Nile with me this fall.

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Astrology, Astronomy, Egypt, Mythology

Gates of Starlight

Milky Way Galaxy

“May we come and go in and out of heaven through gates of starlight. As the houses of earth fill with dancing and song, so filled are the houses of heaven. I come, in truth. I sail a long river and row back again. It is a joy to breathe under the stars. I am the sojourner destined to walk a million years until I arrive at myself.”        

                                                           Normandi Ellis, Awakening Osiris

Existence is vast, seemingly boundless and immeasurable. The latest figures from NASA estimate that there are one hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy pictured above. There are also estimated to be a jaw-dropping two trillion galaxies in our universe alone. It’s impossible to comprehend this immensity of scale, and yet it’s believed by scientists that we are also part of a multiverse. Perhaps an unknown number of universes co-exist in a Cosmos of parallel dimensions that spread light through infinite space and time. What is the significance of one brief human life in all this immensity? 

The ancient Egyptians were master sky watchers. Monumental temples aligned with the rising of bright stars and calendars and ceremonies were planned based on the sky. Egyptian funerary texts called the Book of Gates proclaimed that when Ra, the sun god arrived at the twelfth and last hour of the night, before dawn, the miracle of rebirth occurred through the gate “with the mysterious entrance.”

 In The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt, author John Anthony West describes Egyptian funerary texts as “manuals of spiritual instruction” and says the Duat is the “field” in which the transformation of the soul occurs. The theme of transformation and reclamation also runs through other ancient mystery traditions. Many ancient gods were seen as solar and stellar fire, and many rites represented the redemption and regeneration of this spiritual energy. The ineffable mysteries they sought to unveil, and the hidden knowledge the rites contained, held and transmitted this wisdom. Manly P. Hall, in Secret Teachings of the Ages says, “Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophical light was disseminated.”

The Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece took place from 1,600 BCE to about 400 CE, although most scholars believe their origin is much earlier in the Mycenean period. They were contemporary with, and bear strong resemblance to, the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris. In the Greek mysteries the goddess Demeter, carrying two torches named “intuition” and “reason,” searched the world for her daughter Persephone, who symbolically represented the lost soul. She had to be rescued from the underworld, where she had been abducted by the god Hades.

Sometimes the light seems to go out in our lives and we can be deeply challenged by a darkness of spirit. Although we know the Sun still shines behind the clouds, and the stars still burn even though hidden in cities by artificial light, at these times we need courage and the love of friends. Poet Khalil Gibran said, “One may not reach the dawn except by the path of the night.” This is true, but there have always been those who hold lanterns to guide our way through the darkness to the mysterious entrance of initiation. We can take heart that this universal path of spiritual teaching has permeated spiritual traditions throughout time. Often called the Underground Stream, the spiritual wisdom of ages is always present, even though hiding in the shadows at times. Our job is to remember that the light is always there and to prepare ourselves to receive the gift of ancient wisdom, which sheds light on the Path.

 Julie Loar’s blog won a gold medal last year.

http://www.JulieLoar.com


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Ancient Sky Watchers and Mythic Themes

(Huge thanks to Ted for this amazing review of Volume One in the Sky Lore Anthology series. It’s a thrill to hold two decades of work in my hands. If you’re tempted, there’s purchasing info for both volumes at the end of his review. Thanks in advance!)

If you were ever a reader of Atlantis Rising magazine over the course of its impressive twenty-year flight, you will likely have seen, and been drawn to read, some of Julie Loar’s regularly-featured and highly-polished astrology articles upon first publication.  The recent good news is that they have just become even more accessible together in this self-published retrospective anthology collection—without having to wait to catch the next one on the fly—in the wake of her extensive interest in and wide-ranging knowledge of this fascinating and always controversial subject, whether ancient mythic, modern discursive, or cutting-edge technical (!). 

The subject of astrology stimulates a lot of creative writing in our time as it has for many centuries, having been the commonality and primary core subject, as C.G. Jung noted, of many if not most traditional wisdom traditions leading up to and including his own most impressive additions to modern psychology, as the mix and clash among religious, scientific and pop variants still contend for mind and shelf space.  Of course there is a lot of student-level enthusiasm as well as some amount of backsliding in all this robust output of writing—not to mention the entertainment genre—so something has to be good to maintain its position on the front lines of conversation at the astrology brew pub.  Julie’s selection of forty articles in five major categories of her highly varied and successful previous outings, virtually as they first appeared, are still highly topical, in this first, Ancient Sky Watchers volume, and they do indeed rise to a high level of interest and accessible value, being well worth the read—one at a time before and after tea or in binge mode—especially if you are looking for a fresh,  comprehensive and well-researched take on this perennial subject, either as student, professional consultant, critic, or occasional curious onlooker.

It is a real treat to find an author in this fascinating subject area so simultaneously knowledgeable, sophisticated and articulate about the prehistoric mythic traditions of Egypt and Sumer vis-a-vis those of  ancient Greece and Rome, the approaches and strategies of an experienced modern astrological consultant, and the more recent discoveries in space science from ground-based telescopes and satellite instrumentation—all referencing the impact or influence on our lives of many kinds of very real celestial objects now known and understood in greater detail than ever before.  It’s not easy to provide an entry into the basics of celestial mechanics, whether for students of qualitative astrological interpretation or quantitative scientific rigor, but Julie goes to some length to make this subject approachable with her writing and teaching skills for either group.  Being able to visualize (and understand!) the varied daily motions of Earth, Moon, and Planets, not to mention the longer-term cycles of eclipses, comets and the grand Precession of the Equinoxes, is the point of entry into the cosmic sky-watcher game (beyond just looking, which is cool enough), and if you have not bothered to look up at the sky—urban dwellers in night-lighted areas are most disadvantaged—then this is a place to begin to get your bearings.

Like Julie, I have been a lifelong sky-watcher as both astrologer and amateur astronomer (and unlike her, a design engineer of space-satellite instruments), and I have to admit that I have learned an enormous amount from the original publication on her articles over the years before meeting her in person a decade or so ago.  As an astrologer, I was most lacking in knowledge of the mythic and historical origins of ancient astrology, and in that, she is probably as good as anyone now in print, to help us understand the viewpoint and philosophy of the ancient interpreters of this universal cosmic art-science or pre-scientific art that has been continuously available to all people of all cultures virtually for all time—in fact it is probably the most universally shared common human experience ever on our little ”blue dot” (to echo Carl Sagan) of a water planet in the outer reaches of the Orion Arm of the ever-so-glorious Milky Way Galaxy.  Julie ranges through many familiar subjects on the astrology agenda, often with a tip of the hat to Joseph Campbell and a few other luminaries, to making strikingly original observations about ‘sky paintings’ on the cave planetarium walls near Lascaux in France (‘animals of the hunt’ as a very early “Zodiac” with the Pleiades depicted) to the Dendara Zodiac in Egypt (symbol for Zodiac sign Cancer correctly interpreted and understood, possibly for the first time).  

If we ever wondered what was going on with the mytho-poetic stories of the legendary gods and goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean world, many of whom are now up in the constellational sky, go no further than any number of sophisticated recapitulations and explanations along the way of the Titans and Olympians who, then as now, populate our astrology archetypes.  Julie presents the pantheon with sympathy and insight—and scholarship.  One can spend a great deal of time spinning through various re-tellings of these yarns without much accumulated insight, as I did, before focusing on Julie’s understanding, among other things, of the category of the feeling for “the Sacred” in the ancient world.  In a sense these poetic stories were the religions as well as the ‘movies’ of those times and, though varied and ever-changing, they had a similar cultural place understood by the natives, just as their story-board correspondences are understood by us today.  The truth is that the people of these earlier times, though certainly less educated and knowledgeable scientifically, were mostly just as smart and passionate within their range as modern people, however much our somewhat condescending idea of “progress” may be in need of remedy.  Of course times were very different then—the very thing astrology helps up to understand in the most meaningful way!  If you have not yet been initiated into the grand scheme of the Platonic Year, this is the place to perk up to a more than merely fascinating historical hypothesis.

In the middle span of her territory Julie, as a very well experienced consulting astrologer, fills in all the blanks that many readers will be looking for in the always telling areas of personal interest with “cook-book lists” of astrology planets, signs and aspects, the working tools of the trade in astrology chart art, which will tell you, from time to time, about wherever you might begin to fit into various developmental sequences, as a Sun in Aries, Moon in Pisces, cuspal ascendant and the standard stops in between.  Her approach in such thematic articles adds immeasurably to the flat newspaper entertainment style (which, sadly, is all many people will ever know about astrology), and brings it all back home with insights only an experienced and conceptually sophisticated analyst can succeed with in a brief offering.  It’s not a substitute for an in-depth ‘reading’, but her itinerary is always thought-provoking and often spot-on. She’s been a guide on many Egyptian tours, too, and has specialist knowledge in this area of ancient sky watcher lore for mainline Graeco-Roman astrologers who came in at the intermission of the astrology movie.

Perhaps the most intriguing and possibly surprising aspect (there’s a timeless astrology term) of Julie’s presentation is her enthusiasm and detailed knowledge of state-of-the-art scientific discoveries in more modern astronomy and astrophysics (more interpretative scholarship).  The impact they will have on the meaning and development of astrology for astrologers (note: we are not astrologists but hope you get the gist of astrology ) in the future will doubtless be great—even revolutionary—as it attempts to assimilate the existence of various big moons, little asteroids, dwarf planets, the rocky Kuiper Belt, the icy Oort Cloud and the mysterious—and quite likely astounding—discovery of either a huge new planet termed, “Planet Nine” (was that where John Lennon was from?), orbiting in the far reaches of the outer solar system, or as Nemesis, a small companion proto-star in an extreme orbit nearby our solar system.  This is the modest tip of the iceberg of Julie’s more ambitious project of revisioning astrology, now going forward as we may look back at her musings over the course of the astersand disasters of our still new Century 21.  Julie Loar is a star in her own right who knows about the real stars way out there—the real subject of astrology that, sadly, has been lost behind much of the yet most valuable modern planetary astrology (a very complex subject in its own right  in any event) … and much, much more.

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This is how Volume One of Julie Loar’s “Sky Lore Anthology,” Ancient Sky Watchers, ends—in an exciting rush into anticipation of future science breakthroughs … and of course, the meaning of them to be discerned by and for those of us who know … it ain’t all random grains of sand on the beach, folks.  If you are one of us, you will not be disappointed, and if you are a sceptic, you will learn a lot that will make you very thoughtful.  This is a major publication event in the astro-theme world … with Volume Two (As Above, So Below) also available now … and also to be acknowledged in review ASAP.

Click the first link below to buy Volume One on Amazon in print or ebook. It’s also available from Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, or Kobo.

https://smile.amazon.com/Ancient-Sky-Watchers-Mythic-Themes/dp/1792335148/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ancient+sky+watchers&qid=1596734532&sr=8-1<><><><>

Volume Two, As Above, So Below: Sun, Moon and Stars is also available. This is the Amazon link.

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