Sagittarius 16°: Sea gulls fly around a ship in expectation of food.

11:42 AM, 12/9/2014, Sagittarius 16°

p. 219     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

SCENE EIGHTEEN: TRANSFERENCE
(Sagittarius 16° to Sagittarius 30°)

FIRST LEVEL: ACTIONAL

PHASE 256 (SAGITTARIUS 16°): SEA GULLS FLY AROUND A SHIP IN EXPECTATION OF FOOD.

KEYNOTE: The easily acquired dependence of psychic desires upon the stimulation of social circumstances.

Animals drawn into the circle of what human society produces find it easier to depend on man's handouts than to pursue their usually difficult search for sustenance. The sea gulls here symbolize the more wild and normally untamable energies of the human soul, but they too can develop a kind of domesticated dependence upon the by-products of man's adventures within the realm of the unconscious (the sea). Natural instincts feed on the reactions, and often perversions, of the socially conditioned mind-ego.

This is the first stage in the process represented by the fifty-second sequence of five symbols. It shows us how nature can readily become subservient to man's restless ambition to dominate the entire biosphere through an all-human planetary socioeconomic organization. This is a symbol of DEPENDENCE.

Girlcapsule's Response:

Angling in on Jung's The Red Book, p. 54

Yesterday ground hogs are popping up early, and today sea gulls make humans the middle man. Interesting...

Consider this image of the blue snake as it is reflected on the darkened surface of my mini-tablet whose battery was mysteriously dead.

I am fascinated to draw out the meaning Rudhyar suggests when he says: "The sea gulls here symbolize the more wild and normally untamable energies of the human soul, but they too can develop a kind of domesticated dependence upon the by-products of man's adventures within the realm of the unconscious (the sea)" (1973, p. 219).

I'm going to try something new today in terms of allowing my response to arise and be presented somewhat accordingly. My feeling is it will involve telling part of the story through image, in order to consolidate and limit too much use of words.

Let's begin with this famous image:

The large image above is of a mandala study from earlier this year. My intention was to ask myself what might a frog be experiencing? In pondering this my attention was drawn to the idea that if a frog were by my side here, just now, that we would be receiving of the energetic field of our environment (my ruby red room).


Perhaps because both human and frog eyes were developed to function best under water, we even receive a similar read in terms of depth perception and a capacity to locate those things around us in the context of the three perceptively accessible dimensions that constitute the experience of being embodied.

In other words, me and frog would be looking around and, though receiving the same input, we would probably be wondering very different things. For example, my next move was to point out to you a small, but important linking detail. This tiny tree and the corridor just to the right of it are representing something very similar to the first image What is Behind the Stars? This image shows a close-up on a peek through the mandala to a galaxy and star-filled sky beyond.

How can Rudhyar's words be understood? These, I mean, "by-products of man's adventures within the realm of the unconscious (the sea)". He sets this up as symbolic. First the birds are a symbol of the "more wild and normally untamable energies of the human soul"...then a domestication happens. We humans turn to make an impact on the environment. This swivel point, I would suggest, must happen at some given moment—the yeilding of Yin to Yang, or Yang to Yin—that compensating turning back, that is most simply suggest in the sign for infinity. But need we forget that the whole cosmos is in continual flux?