One of my fruity magic* posts
*not Magic: The GatheringTM
I've been thinking a lot about the classical elements lately and my relation to them. Weird, I know. This lead me into thinking of zodiac signs and their elemental counterparts. Some of you probably know that each elemental sign was assigned to one of the classical greek elements (presumably by the classical greeks?).
Which reminded me that I had a star chart done once by a friend in high school that at my birth from the vantage point of Earth the Sun was located in the constellation of Scorpius, hence my birth sign is Scorpio, a water element.
She went on to tell me that the moon was located in the constellation of Pisces (another water elemental) and that my ascendant or rising sign (that constellation visible on the eastern horizon at the time of my birth) was Cancer (the other water elemental of the zodiac).
Most astrology people consider these three to be the big predictors of your personality, the sun sign is usually seen as representing the way you act, the moon sign represents how you feel, and the rising sign how these work together and/or how you approach thing.
Anyway, astrology lesson over. I just always thought this was interesting because all of my major astrological thingies are water signs, and I've always had a very strong relationship with water, though not always a positive one.
I always seem to think that oceans, rivers and pools are boring until I am in them, then I love them. This is also true of drinking water. The idea of it bores me immensely to the point that I go days, and sometimes weeks without a glass of water. But every time I have an (icy) glass of water I enjoy it.
Then there was this strange phase of my childhood and again during my teen years where I was convinced that the water was essentially inimical to me and that while other people might be okay in there I was going to die, for sure. As a kid I was convinced there were invisible sharks in my aunt's swimming pool, even. Very strange.
When I heard the line from Memoirs of a Geisha about the girl having "too much water" in her, I totally understood what the lady meant (in a way completely unrelated to urination). I sometimes feel overwhelmed, subsumed and carried away by my nature. Sounds kind of gross, but occasionally I feel like I'm floating in a sea of myself. This may or may not make any sense to anyone else.
In any case, for some reason lately I've been feeling a little untethered/torpid spiritually so I decided to spend some time communing with "my" element. I've been taking more baths and today I (and Geist) stood in a nice rainshower.
When I was very little I loved being submerged in the bathtub, so much so that when I was younger the tub would frequently overflow because I wanted it to be "just a little bit fuller." These weird periods of connection and disconnection seem to come in waves. Heh.
Most of the negative water experiences I had in my life, as usual, I lay at my parents feet. Even I'm tired of beating this drum, because it's just soo predicatable. Mom was from a freaking fishing village and couldn't swim and was always telling me I was going to drown, even in the bathtub, even in an inch of water (possibly because my moron sister almost did drown, yes, in one inch of water). Dad on the other had actively made me hate the water by holding me under at the beach on many occasions, until I swallowed sea water, and also while at the beach dumping buckets of the stuff on me/my sand castles, to get my goat.
So, lamenting aside, I think I'd like to spend more time in/with water this year. A silly goal I guess, but communion with the natural and divine can happen anywhere, why not in a glass of H20?
Maybe this will be the final reason I need to get some kind of crazy, future, waterproof iPod shower radio whatsit.
I've been thinking a lot about the classical elements lately and my relation to them. Weird, I know. This lead me into thinking of zodiac signs and their elemental counterparts. Some of you probably know that each elemental sign was assigned to one of the classical greek elements (presumably by the classical greeks?).
Which reminded me that I had a star chart done once by a friend in high school that at my birth from the vantage point of Earth the Sun was located in the constellation of Scorpius, hence my birth sign is Scorpio, a water element.
She went on to tell me that the moon was located in the constellation of Pisces (another water elemental) and that my ascendant or rising sign (that constellation visible on the eastern horizon at the time of my birth) was Cancer (the other water elemental of the zodiac).
Most astrology people consider these three to be the big predictors of your personality, the sun sign is usually seen as representing the way you act, the moon sign represents how you feel, and the rising sign how these work together and/or how you approach thing.
Anyway, astrology lesson over. I just always thought this was interesting because all of my major astrological thingies are water signs, and I've always had a very strong relationship with water, though not always a positive one.
I always seem to think that oceans, rivers and pools are boring until I am in them, then I love them. This is also true of drinking water. The idea of it bores me immensely to the point that I go days, and sometimes weeks without a glass of water. But every time I have an (icy) glass of water I enjoy it.
Then there was this strange phase of my childhood and again during my teen years where I was convinced that the water was essentially inimical to me and that while other people might be okay in there I was going to die, for sure. As a kid I was convinced there were invisible sharks in my aunt's swimming pool, even. Very strange.
When I heard the line from Memoirs of a Geisha about the girl having "too much water" in her, I totally understood what the lady meant (in a way completely unrelated to urination). I sometimes feel overwhelmed, subsumed and carried away by my nature. Sounds kind of gross, but occasionally I feel like I'm floating in a sea of myself. This may or may not make any sense to anyone else.
In any case, for some reason lately I've been feeling a little untethered/torpid spiritually so I decided to spend some time communing with "my" element. I've been taking more baths and today I (and Geist) stood in a nice rainshower.
When I was very little I loved being submerged in the bathtub, so much so that when I was younger the tub would frequently overflow because I wanted it to be "just a little bit fuller." These weird periods of connection and disconnection seem to come in waves. Heh.
Most of the negative water experiences I had in my life, as usual, I lay at my parents feet. Even I'm tired of beating this drum, because it's just soo predicatable. Mom was from a freaking fishing village and couldn't swim and was always telling me I was going to drown, even in the bathtub, even in an inch of water (possibly because my moron sister almost did drown, yes, in one inch of water). Dad on the other had actively made me hate the water by holding me under at the beach on many occasions, until I swallowed sea water, and also while at the beach dumping buckets of the stuff on me/my sand castles, to get my goat.
So, lamenting aside, I think I'd like to spend more time in/with water this year. A silly goal I guess, but communion with the natural and divine can happen anywhere, why not in a glass of H20?
Maybe this will be the final reason I need to get some kind of crazy, future, waterproof iPod shower radio whatsit.