To
medieval peasants in southern Italy, the tarantella was more than a catchy
tune. It was something powerful and dangerous. The tarantella could save your
life—or drive you to the brink of madness. It was the dead heat of the summer
in Apulia. The year was 1431. After a midday nap in the fields, a woman leapt
up, crying out that she’d been bitten by a tarantula. The venom began to work
in her body, making her dance convulsively. She strutted her way toward the
center of town. Soon others joined her, leaping, shrieking, and twirling
uncontrollably. They decked themselves out in bright colors and strange
ornaments, dancing for days on end and downing vast quantities of wine. https://daily.jstor.org/when-dancing-plagues-struck-medieval-europe/#
On 28 Jan1431, a
lunar eclipse [17le] conjoined a retrograde Neptune at [14le52]. Three months
later Neptune stationed to go direct on 15 April 1431 at [13le31].
Ken Johnson and Ariel Gutman, in their book Mythic Astrology, make a strong case
that the astrological Neptune’s secondary archetype is Dionysus. Dionysus was
god of wine and ecstasy. Dionysus introduced the cultivation of the grape, so
farmers also revered him. (In fact, one story about Dionysus links his
parentage to Demeter, goddess of grain and the fruits of the earth.) He was
patron of the dramatic arts, and comedy and tragedy are directly associated
with Dionysian theater. His mystery religion was idealistic, full of rich
ceremonies, ecstatic and orgiastic rites, and it promised salvation and
liberation. Dionysian festivals were accompanied with drinking, abandonment, as
well as frenzied and emotive dancing.
The Sabian symbols of the two degrees [LEO 14 and 15] are
sufficient to explain the curious phenomena that appeared to “plague” the
masses.
PHASE 134 (LEO 14°): A HUMAN SOUL SEEKING
OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUTWARD MANIFESTATION.
KEYNOTE: The yearning for self-actualization.
Behind the many rhythms and drives of
individual existence, beyond the child, the adult and the old man, stands the
soul seeking always to manifest itself through the personality. This is the
transpersonal urge of the spirit, expressing itself in many ways during the
whole life span. But most avenues are blocked, and the soul waits until it can
wait no longer. Then comes the dramatic release, which may mean a joyous
carnival or madness.
The fourth stage of this twenty-seventh
sequence brings a transcendental clue to the technique of living: Let the soul
speak out! Allow the power of the true tone of your being to manifest itself
smoothly, easily, unobstructed — or expect a variety of consequences. LET the
soul manifest!
PHASE 135 (LEO 15°): A PAGEANT, WITH ITS
SPECTACULAR FLOATS, MOVES ALONG A STREET CROWDED WITH CHEERING PEOPLE.
KEYNOTE: The more or less sensational release
of energies in a form dramatizing the unconscious aspirations of man's
primitive and instinctual nature.
This last picture of the series dealing with
the ninth scene, "Combustion," recalls in a collective sense the
dramatic event represented by the first (Leo 1°). The street pageant, perhaps a
tumultuous carnival, brings men and women to a peak of emotional excitement,
and perhaps incandescence.
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