PLUTO IN AQUARIUS and THAT ASTROLOGY THING

I read my first astrology book as a teenager. It was a paperback that I bought in a dime store. I wish I could remember the title and author. The astrologer featured some charts of rock bands and famous musicians. That was a draw.  I had that inexpensive paperback till the pages yellowed and dislodged from the glue binding.  The most important thing I learned was that other people were potentially very different than me.  The second most important thing was how magazine and newspaper "sun sign" astrology was bogus.  It's true that such columns are for "fun" or, as some Christians think, an inducement into "the New Age." 

In my entire life there was only one column I followed and did so for some years.  It was the Rockie Horoscope that featured in the LA Weekly free newspaper.  (It was written by a woman named Rockie Gardiner who died on Halloween in 2008.  I suspect she knew that was her death date. She was born in 1938.) The newspaper normally came out on a wednesday and figured in planning activities for the weekend and beyond.  I got hooked on this sun sign column, which did mention other planetary movements,  because it was right on for me three weeks in a row.  Well, at least it always gave me something to think about.

Every person is a composite of multiple planetary analysis. It makes more sense to get to know a person by giving a relationship some time.  However, once in a rare while I find myself using astrology to understand someone better.

There is something to astrology but to use it pragmatically and effectively one must afford a professional. These days there are a number of free-on-line astrology websites where a person can have their personal charts done and perhaps more fascinating are the compatibility charts. The time of birth is quite important. You can send away for a report too and I did this twice many years ago before the internet, though the reports were likely generated by early computer programs and software. There was a question of daylight savings time or not and though the reports were similar, the calculation of my rising sign was a question.  Two different reports - two different rising signs. When I think back on it, I guess I wish I had not sent away for these reports. I think some of what these reports said effected me a bit much.  I've lost them so I can't reread them and reassess. 

Vedic astrology, which, as it sounds, arose from Hinduism, is a better astrology system than Western in my opinion.  Some professional astrologers disagree. I've been told that in India people are unafraid of, and ask, when they will die. Vedic, like Hinduism, seems to be more oriented to fate - karma - reincarnation.  While Western seems to be used mostly for the purposes of timing, finding out when it would be best to take a certain action to increase the chances of success and is, therefore, used in a more willful way.

Fate versus Will.  The debate goes on.  

Pluto, last week entered into a new sign Aquarius, where it will be for the next 19 years. Since the 1950's the question has been when will the Age of Aquarius begin and I think it has just begun with this generational transit.  Slowly, it will effect everyone alive.  It's up to humans to make the world a better place.

Heres an article from, of all things, Vogue INDIA  https://www.vogue.in/content/pluto-is-back-in-aquarius-after-248-years-what-does-this-mean-for-your-zodiac-sign

After moving back into Capricorn in September, the planet will go forwards into near two decades of Aquarius.

And this podcast by two astrologers,  Chris Brennan and Nick Dagan Best is a look at history and what happened the last time Pluto was in Aquarius.

CUP HALF FULL

I've always been a person who sees the cup half full, rather than the cup half empty; case in point I'm not a "positive thinker" who sees the cup half full and declares it full.


This reminds me of an exercise in art - drawing - in which one draws not the object but the space around it.  It's called "negative space" and can be rendered in black, but that doesn't mean what you see is dark.

It also reminds me that communication includes not saying, not speaking, allowing for silence, not responding.  Leaving the "room" called the blog.

And, if you're following me, then you'll understand what I mean when I say that recently I was challenged to see a PERSON new in my life from this "what is not said," and "what is not done" perspective.

The PERSON is in a crisis.  The PERSON might even love drama and create drama.  Maybe everyone else is bored.  She's entertaining.  Over several weeks a few others have told me how I should look at her - see her - think of her.  I found myself confused and frustrated and tried to not say the wrong thing and to give it time.  Over time this unwillingness to declare myself a believer in anyone else's version of the PERSON began to work for me.  I see her as a multi-dimentional and complicated person.  She has her agenda but then so do they.

The experience reminded me, because I was told to stay out of it, told to research it, told who to talk to, told who not to, that I despise being dictated to about who I can befriend, what I can think, and what I can say.  Guess who was not dictating to me, however smart assed and flippant she might be?  You know who.


C 2018 Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved

A "REAL" WRITER ?

A screenwriter's pitch is not the same as the process a literary author goes through to sell their work.

This morning someone who was attempting to be beyond challenging hit me with his ignorance. If my work wasn't headed for the movies, it had no value to this man.

You see he knows a (one) screenwriter who is talking to important people, who is attending conventions, who is working towards a deal. I know several screenwriters who are also in this part of their process. I have met child actors turned screenwriters who are working their contacts, getting in there and making a pitch when their screenplay isn't written yet, and I have met a lot of people whose deal has fallen through at the last minute, or they were offered a small amount of money - a reduced amount - a couple years after their initial pitch and they backed down. All part of the process.

LA is so full of screenwriters that you can joke when you meet someone about hearing that they have a script in a drawer somewhere and they'll assume you are psychic. I've worked on a few projects that I think would be good screenplays, and maybe everyone "sees" their work on the big screen. Even me. It's not easy to know if what you find interesting or exciting in your life will translate to a great action adventure, mystery, or biopic, but I think that writing is still valuable to the writer as a process, as a way to exercize skills, even if the distribution of the work is limited to family members and rude copies from the local printer.

Still, the process of selling literary work - whatever that is - a novel, a memoir, fiction or nonfiction - which is destined for print media - a traditional book or an e-book - is about agents and publishing houses, sending manuscripts - partial or complete - still mostly via paper rather than electronic technology - and making it through the slush pile reader. You might be able to network into a deal, if you happen to be born into a family that's already into publishing - and some authors had just that in but most do not.

Like many authors I too have listened to others speak in classes, book signings, readings, and events such as the Los Angeles Times Book Fair at UCLA. I have asked or heard asked that important question "WHAT MAKES YOU A "REAL" WRITER?" Audience members want to believe that writing 3 pages or 500 words a day does. They want to know the habits of the successful. AND THE TRUTH IS THERE IS NO ONE WAY. There are those who write every morning while the children are sleeping, others who seem disorganized, the computer savvy and those writing with a pencil on recycled paper. Publishing may validate you to some extent, but you do not have to be published to be a writer.

I BELEIVE YOU ARE A WRITER BECAUSE YOU WRITE. THE MORE YOU WRITE THE BETTER YOU GET AT WRITING. YOUR CHALLENGE IS THE TIME TO WRITE, the more time the better !

IT's OK TO WRITE WHOLE NOVELS THAT YOU DON'T PUBLISH. NO SHAME IN HAVING THAT SCREENPLAY IN THE DRAWER. SOME WRITERS ARE BORN, OTHERS SELF MADE, most of us have recognized a talent and honed it.

I HAVE KEPT MOST OF MY WRITING and on occassion I reread what I have written. I am stuck with knowing I had talent long before I ever took a community college night class, and I see that a lot of what I wrote and thought was good at the time has been surpassed by experience.