not native fruit

daoist wisdom of the ordinary

Here is something I really liked from "Daoist texts with commentary by Thomas Cleary" (with my own comments in [ ] brackets). 

“Ordinary expressions and common sayings accord with the path of sages; you should turn to them for careful research.  If you use everyday activities to search in reverse, everything in the world turns to jewels.” [This reminds me of how I felt about the Book of Proverbs when I was 21-22.]

“The Tao is not far from people;  what people consider the Tao is far from people.  [This was true in Catholicism too.  People thought the mystics were so extraordinary that there was no way on earth we could have any of their experiences.  We grew up with that bias and discouragement.]  The Tao is essence and life is the eternal Tao, the eternal Tao is the Tao of daily life; it’s just that while people use it daily they do not know it.

“If you carefully investigate the principles, you do not need to read a thousand classics and ten thousand texts; there are great revelations of the celestial mechanism right in ordinary expressions and common sayings.  For example, good people are called really genuine, truthful, conscientious, reasonable, respectable, aware of proper proportion, aware of when to go forward and when to withdraw, circumspect, perceptive, having their feet on the ground; bad people are said to be inhuman, lacking conscience, and unreasonable – they hurt others to benefit themselves, are self-deceived, violate nature and reason, take suffering for pleasure, take the false for the real, pick up one thing and forget another, without knowing death and life, without knowing good and bad, only knowing one and not two, only aware of the existence of themselves and not that of others.”  (p. 156, The Taoist Classics, Volume Two, from ‘Understanding Reality.’)

alvin ailey metal horse

i'm actually about a month behind in posting the june bio, but i'm including it here because i find alvin ailey interesting, both as an individual and as a part of my own family's saga.  by the way, the four element theory (sometimes a five element theory) is a very ancient and well-respected way of understanding natural phenomena.  The ancient Greeks, fathers of western civilization, used this method of understanding the world, and it is at the base of modern science as well.  Therefore, let us not eschew it!

i actually first came across the theory in the writings of c.s.lewis, medievalist among other things, and also in some of my early explorations of chinese philosophy when i was in high school.  i also wrote my theology thesis on the four elements back in 1985, so I have a long history with this stuff.  Naturally I'm going to share some of my thoughts on this subject here.

*      *      *
born on January 5, 1931, Alvin Ailey, master choreographer and founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is a Metal Horse with high aspirations and a strong desire to 'arrive' even without any great clarity as to the goal.  Metal Horse just 'has the stuff' to make himself successful, and success and responsibility came early to Ailey, who took over the artistic directorship at age 22 of his mentor Lester Horton's Dance Company after the unexpected death of Horton.  Ailey's Earth Mouse month would make him someone others view as a natural leader, and that seems to have been the case at this moment in Ailey's life.

Wikipedia writes, "Horton's sudden death in November 1953 left the company without an artistic director. The company had outstanding contracts that required new works. When no one else stepped forward, Ailey assumed the role of artistic director. Despite his youth and inexperience (Ailey was only twenty-two and had only choreographed one dance in a workshop) he began choreographing, directing scene and costume designs, and running rehearsals."

Ailey's Metal Monkey day gives him the sparkle, charisma and verve necessary for stardom, and the combination of Mouse and Monkey offer him Water Trinity karma.  In his pillars, Water represents self-expression and creativity, in addition to Water's usual qualities of influence, intimacy, grace and flow.  Witness the flowing lines typical of Alvin Ailey's dancers.

Ailey came into his own in 1953, during Metal Rabbit period, with his assumption of the helm of the Horton Dance Company, and during that period and the Water Dragon period following, created many original compositions, including his most famous work, Revelations, performed in 1960.  He continued to work and create during Water Snake period, and died in 1989 during Wood Horse period.  Wood Horse is notorious for extreme forward movement, and changes in direction.

Known for his eclectic style, Alvin Ailey was born during Earth Rabbit hour.  The presence of Earth Rabbit in the Four Pillars often signals an unusual sense of ethnicity.  It may indicate issues with belonging, or, more often, a movement toward reconciling disparate elements within oneself or one's community.  Paula Gunn Allen, a mixed-native American author, who wrote extensively on native american history and literature, with an eye always focused on the blendings of culture that are a part of that history and literature, was an Earth Rabbit, as was my grandfather who was a member of the Moorish Science Temple in Philadelphia, even though he was perceived by most people as white.  These people are not localized in a single ethnic, racial or cultural identification.  Sometimes they feel lonely and isolated as a result of this lack of any kind of clear 'belonging.' 

Wikipedia writes, "Horton's school taught a wide range of dance styles and techniques, including classical ballet, jazz, and Native American dance. Horton's school was also the first multi-racial dance school in the United States. Ailey's choreography was a dynamic and vibrant mix growing out of his previous training in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and African dance techniques. For his signature work, Revelations, Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel.  Ailey was proud that his company was multi-racial. While he wanted to give opportunities to black dancers, who were frequently excluded from performances by racist attitudes at the time, he also wanted to rise above issues of negritude. His company always employed artists based solely on artistic talent and integrity regardless of their race."  This is the stuff of the Earth Rabbit.

Ailey's forward-moving, creative Horse, in combination with his gentle but masterful Earth Mouse, and the eclectic, eccentric Earth Rabbit made him sexually attractive, yet Horse and Monkey made him Lonely, Horse and Mouse gave him 'Attract and Clash,' and Mouse and Rabbit 'Two Penalties,' a karma of mental unrest, so that while a great deal of creative energy was indeed there, everything was not a bed of roses for Ailey in his personal life.  In terms of his element balance, Power (Fire) is weak, and there is nothing in the literature to suggest that Ailey was one of those autocratic artistic diretors.  In fact, his strong points were Resources, Friends and Self-expression.  Wealth was not great, but certainly adequate, and Power is his least dominant element.  Wikipedia writes, "Though Ailey created 79 works for his dancers, he maintained that his company was not merely a showcase for his own work."

I chose to write about Alvin Ailey as my example of a Metal Horse birth at least in part because my former neighbors, who were good friends with my mother, had been modern dancers before she was struck down by myasthenia gravis, and every year, when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater came through town, they would attend and rave for weeks.  They often took my mother to these performances, which represented to her, not only the beauty of a rarified aesthetic sensibility, but also an ideal of racial harmony in America.

 

metal horse month begins

June 5 - July 6, 2009.   Metal Horse energy will be well supported by Earth Ox, making this a time of change and forward movement.  Some of us will switch direction entirely, some will make life-changing decisions, while others will simply meet with yet another fork in the road.  This is a good time to make the changes we've beeen wanting or needing to make, so take advantage of the supportive energy available now. 

Metal Horse is ambitious, often too forthright in speech, yet always compassionate.  He has a pesky tendency to create more work for himself than is necessary, so try to cull out those distractions during this month and focus on what really needs to be accomplished, especially given the major changes in your life at this time.

As with all Metal Animals, this month gives us the opportunity to seek more diligently the Will of Heaven in our lives, connect with Spirit, and make some time for prayer and contemplation.  We also have the opportunity to express well the energy of Earth Ox, thanks to the mother-child relationship between Earth and Metal, so all of those tendencies to re-trench, to cover your bases, ground yourself and sow the seeds that will increase your prosperity and abundance ought to begin to manifest results during Metal Horse month.

In addition, Metal Horse in combination with Earth Ox ought to bring forth for each of us our unique self-expression, creativity and artistry, make us feel more attractive, and create a subtone of romance in the atmosphere.  Horse and Ox make for a stable, rather than a fly-by-night, relationship, so those of you with compatible Animals may find that a connection at this time could be the start of something good.  

I usually post these on my Birthday Safari weblog, but am including it here today because it seems like very useful and important information to share with as many readers as possible.

earth snake month begins

This month's image comes from the Aromatherapy Conference 2009 brochure.  Isn't it great?  It's called "Die Medizin" by Rolf Deininger.  (The proceedings of the Aromatherapy Conference are available here.) One thing that makes this image so meaningful is that it makes visible the digestive process that is so much a part of the nature of the Earth Element.  (Snake's natural element is Fire.) It makes sense that this image is applied to 'medicine' here, because all 'learning' is a process of assimilation and absorption that is represented by the Earth Element. 

This month's Earth nature, added to our Earth Ox Year, gives us an excess of Earth element to deal with again this month. Lots of attention to detail, lots to think about and consider, lots of conversations, mediations, reconsiderations, judgments and discriminations, syntheses, interpretations, integrations and harmonizations ought to be happening again this month.  But this month will be quieter, more reflective and conservative.  Mercury will be retrograde during most of our Earth Snake month, so this will be a good time to finish up loose ends, organize what you have on hand, clean out files, and review work already done.  Earth Snake month begins on May 5, 2009 and ends on June 4, 2009.

Success is very possible during Earth Snake month, especially if we keep our humility out front and don't resort to boasting or bragging to get what we want.  Also success is most likely to come in small ways or in the context of a small setting or community.  Make it personal, be charming but self-effacing and self-contained, restrain all avaricious thoughts, and the way will be smooth for your sinuous advancement during this time period.

While Earth Ox and Earth Dragon were somewhat at odds with one another, creating a note of conflict and struggle in the ethers, Earth Ox and Earth Snake create the Metal Trinity together, helping all of us to straighten up and fly right.  Our Principles will come to the fore to guide us to make wise plans for the future and will help us to solve even our most intransigent problems, so put on the old Thinking Caps during this month.  The best days for planning and problem solving will be May 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and June 1. 

 

 

wood horse

  
Monday, April 20th, 2009, was a Wood Horse Day - and it was just about the busiest, cheeriest, talky-est, most optimistic and fun-loving day I've experienced in a long time!  It's neat to realize that Wood Horse people share these characteristics. These old Chinese wisdom systems are so 'character' based.  They are thoroughly focused on virtues and also on those areas where you need 'advice,' which they offer with a wry sense of humor.

One of the things I love about 'reading' the Chinese Element/Animal portaits of my various friends (and some few selected celebrities) is that I learn more about these 'Animals' (qualities of time, space and personality).  It's a fact that the people I know who have Wood Horse somewhere in their Four Pillars all do indeed share these qualities.  They are very sunny, busy, sociable folks.

This is so much fun, learning a whole new way to see people and time!  Even MORE FUN than all those on-line questionnaire puzzles, like 'What Kind of Fruitcake Are You? 

If you want to read more, you can visit my other website.

martin luther king jr, golden earth dragon

Our Celebrity of the Month is Martin Luther King, Jr, born January 15, 1929, a Golden Earth Dragon.  In some ways, this is the most powerful Animal in the Chinese Zodiac, yet despite his charisma, compassion, unusual level of receptivity - for a Dragon - and his supportive, helpful nature, the Earth Dragon often experiences set-backs in energy, luck and plans. His awareness of this vibrato in his tone makes him very careful and also very humble.  He is supremely attractive and needs to be careful of relationship entanglements, excesses of indulgence, and addictions.  So say the books, anyway.  For myself, in looking at MLK, Jr - at least as far as we, the public, are able to do so - I would have to say that I see the attractiveness and charisma, and also the peace-loving, peace-making side of the Earth Dragon, generously willing to suffer for the sake of others.  Dragon is an Earth Animal, and Earth Dragon is Earth doubled, with all its receptivity, willingness to receive whatever is offered to it, and ability to digest whatever comes and transform it into pure Gold.

While still in college, MLK began to reflect on the nature of self-sacrifice in bringing about societal change.  According to his biographer, Lerone Bennett, "Another lecture, this one by Mordecai Johnson, then president of Howard University, thrust further thought upon (King). Johnson, a graduate of Morehouse and a powerful Baptist preacher, had returned from a 1950 visit to India with a deep conviction that Gandhi's tactics were applicable to the race struggle in America.  After his return, he delivered several evangelical sermons on nonviolence and the redemptive power of love and unmerited suffering. Satyagraha, Gandhi wrote, 'is the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one's self.'"  (What Manner of Man, p.37) This approach would have great appeal to the Golden Earth Dragon.

"Suffering and self-sacrifice were at the heart of Gandhi's philosophy.  'The government of the day,' he said, 'has passed a law which is applicable to me.  I do not like it.  If by using violence I force the government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be called body-force.  If I do not obey the law and accept the penalty for the breach, I use soul-force.  It involves sacrifice of self...'   Reading these words and others of similar tone and texture in 1950, King, then twenty-one and at a crucial turning point in his own development, was impressed despite himself."  (p.38)

Other features of MLK's Four Animals include the warm, loving, and 'good' upbringing typical of the Wood Ox - an Animal he shares with Michelle Obama - which predisposes people to take on responsibility with a genuine willingness to help others.  His Metal Monkey Day Stem and Branch give him lofty aspirations and high-mindedness - a markedly spiritual cast to the mind - while his Water Horse makes him very emotional, somewhat rebellious and extremely hard-working.

Martin Luther King lived only a short time on this earth, dying at age 39 - on April 4, 1968 - at the gunpoint of an assasin, but he was able to bring about a sea-change in his nation, as only a transformative Golden Earth Dragon could do.

vanity

Vanity is supposed to be one of the characteristics of the Fire Rabbit.  From the Judeo-Christian point of view, this sounds terrible, because Vanity is one of the (evil) passions.  Perhaps this is one of the pitfalls of mixing yr metaphors, and trying to talk about Chinese Astrology and Christian Moral Theology in the same breath.  But wait a minute!  Doesn’t vanity serve a purpose?  Is all vanity harmful to others?  In one of the Christian traditions, the problem is not so much ‘the passions’ but the excess of passion that is the problem.  In that case, an excessive display of vanity might be harmful to others and even to the person all caught up in vanity.  But a certain healthy dose of vanity can be a protection, too.  Sidney Poitier seems to feel it served that purpose in his own life, and it brought him to a better place.  He needed a little ‘vanity’ in order to keep believing in himself when times were tough.  I think we all need to trust the process a little more.  One thing can transform into something else.  It doesn’t mean that the ancient ethical wisdom found, for example, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, can’t act as a guideline, but getting all excessive about it just doesn’t do.  It seems to me that moral rectitude can turn into one of those trouble-making ‘passions’ too.

more on sidney poitier

Synchronicity at work.  I just happened to come across the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of AARP magazine featuring – guess who? – Sidney Poitier.

The artcile’s author, Marilyn Milloy, opens with a perfect portrait of Fire Rabbit and Water Tiger: “At 81, Poitier carries his tall frame as straight as a lamppost.  His eyes search in that familiar level gaze, at once inviting and forbidding.  And while he oozes grace and humility – long the stuff of his manner – he walks with the knowing caution of a man who’s nobody’s fool.”  “Despite (his) acclaim, Poitier remains a modest and persistently private man, a self-described outsider who’d much rather hold forth with a book” than be the subject of Hollywood’s celebrity-mill.

The Water Tiger says, “I’m a loner, and that is it.  I’m just simply that way.”  The Fire Pig says, “My shyness is an integral part of myself.  There is nothing I can or wish to do about it.” 

The Water Tiger says, “I didn’t run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15.  I found Florida an antihuman place.”  The Fire Rabbit says, “But by the time I got there, I already had a sense of myself – I knew who I was.  And I was of value.  So when Florida said to me, ‘You are not who you think you are,’ I said, Oh, yes, I am.  I am who I think I am.  I am not who you think I am.’”

Poitier goes on to talk about how he wanted to make films that would reflect well (accurately) on his father, Reginald Poitier, a tomato farmer, and how that often meant he had to say ‘no’ to roles – or amend roles, as he did when he insisted that his character, Det. Virgil Tibbs, return Rod Steiger’s character’s slap in “In The Heat of the Night” in 1967.  (By the way, I remember we were electrified by that slap!  We thought, “Wow, this is great, things are changing!  There is going to be greater equality at last!”  My grandfather was considered to be 'colored' back in his day, so I guess that's why we cared about that so much.)

I loved this: the interviewer asked him if he felt he had gotten the last laugh, when it came to his former critics, and he answered, “Last laugh?  I don’t go there.”

Yes!

I also must say I appreciate the courage in this statement: “I have (no regrets).  I have behaved in despicable ways, and I recall them.  I don’t regret them.  That came out of an understanding that I arrived at much, much later in my life – that there is not one choice I made, not one, that I would change.  Because then my life would have led to somewhere else.”

Speaking about his books and memoirs, this was also something I related to, coming as I do from two sides of a family for whom literacy was not really a central fact of life – with the exception of one of my American great-grandparents and possibly also for the landowning great-grandparent on my Danish side, who was not a nice person, by the way: “Unfortunately, I came from a culture in which nothing was written down, and I had to depend on whatever the oral history was.  A comment here, a comment there.  I don’t think we tell our stories enough, and I think that it is absolutely essential that we do.  When we die, we are going to be taking with us to the grave an enormous amount of information, experience, points of view, positions, attitudes.  We should leave some of those parts of ourselves behind.”

Ultimately, they discussed the future of the planet, and Sidney said, “So what we do about all this depends on how we manage as a family – and I mean the 6.7 billion of us on this planet.”

Thank you, Sidney, I love you too, and feel that we are kinfolks too.

sidney poitier fire rabbit

I've decided to post some of my 12 Animals posts on this site, because I think they make for interesting reading and they're not being seen enough on the other site.  We are in Fire Rabbit month right now - it began on March 5th - so I'm looking at a Fire Rabbit to get a sense of that personality.  Of course, everyone has four Animals, not just one, but I think in Sidney Poitier's life, the Fire Rabbit nature is very strong.

 Born on February 20, 1927, estimated time of birth 9:00 pm, Sidney Poitier is a FIRE RABBIT, with a Water Tiger month, Wood Rooster Day and probable Fire Pig Hour.  Fire Rabbit and Fire Pig would make him able to assert himself, and along with Wood Rabbit, grants him loquaciousness, excellent physical presence and carriage, and according to his Zi Wei chart, his ace in the hole is his Manner and Bearing house with both Granary in its Pleasure position and Elegance in Temple in Rabbit sign. In his spiritual autobiography, The Measure of a Man, Poitier writes that he is highly motivated in everything he does by his sense of of his ancestors, and they would be represented by this house and by his Fire Rabbit pillar.

His strongest Elements are Wood (his day-stem and chief celestial influence), and Fire, his element of self-expression and creativity.  Optimism and benevolence - Wood virtues - are hallmarks of Sidney's character, along with good-humor and the inspirational kind of spirituality associated with Fire.  He has a very strong mother-child connection in terms of Element-balance, and his autobiography bears this out.

As a child on Cat Island in the Bahamas, Sidney lived a simple life unencumbered by electricity, telephones, television or motorized vehicles.  Early on, at age 7, his Tiger derring-do took the form of challenging himself to walk through a covered, diked salt-water inlet from the sea with the intention of opening the dike form the inside, a move that would have swept him to his death if he had been able to accomplish it.  In his spiritual autobiography, The Measure of a Man, Sidney refers to his Tiger-penchant for risk-taking as his 'dark side' and in typical Tiger-fashion, he has tested his limits and the limits of his circumstances over and over during his lifetime.  The books all say that Tigers are cautious, and that is true, but only because they are very much aware of risks, because they will have often plunged into life head-first in order to learn more about them.  Theirs is the School of Experience, with all its hard-knocks.

The main lessons learned on Cat Island, according to Sidney's own account, had to do with developing 'emotional intelligence' and a solid grounding in the instinctual life of nature.  Both of these are Rabbit strengths, and also specific to Water Tiger. Theodora Lau writes, "Water Tiger is humane, an excellent judge of truth, and emotionally perceptive about the feelings of others.  His intuition and ability to communicate make him an excellent canditate for public relations or other media work." (p.66, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes)  Sidney Poitier also enjoys the Good Partner combination of same element Animals, Tiger and Rabbit (both Wood Animals by nature), and these people usually have excellent emotional intelligence, which makes it possible for them to form and sustain good relationships with partners.

Sidney saw his mother as a very special person, and a look at her photo in the book reveals a woman of great spiritual 'mana' or as the Hindus call it 'Sree' - a spiritual energy that shows particularly in the face as a brightness or light.  Sidney credits his mother with granting him a portion of what she had, helping him in his career and personal life as well.  She is represented as the Tiger in his Four Pillars, and so we know that, simple woman though she was, she was very strong, idealistic and spiritually powerful.

At age 11, the family moved to Nassau, and Sidney had his first experience of city life, with its colonial-style racism and classism. He encountered it in an even harsher form at age fifteen when he joined his older brother in Miami. However, he did not see himself through a racist or classist lens, and this gave him great personal freedom and optimism about himself and his future.  He writes, "Vanity, which the dictionary says is an excess of pride, was the only way I could brace myself against the onslaught of the culture's merciless indictment of me.  With no other means at my disposal to fight off society's intent to restrict my range of motion, to smother and suffocate me, excess was engaged to speak on my behalf.  I was saying, 'Okay, listen, you think I'm so inconsequential?  Then try this on for size.  All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given therby to denying me value - to you I say, 'I'm not talking about being as good as you.  I hereby declare myself better than you.'  Later, I would carry that theme, detached from questions of color and race, all the way into the theater world, where it would become a personal standard, applicable to creative excellence and professional competitiveness.  I couldn't deal with waiting for society to someday have a change of heart or say, 'I'm gonna be as good, one day, as you are.'  My heart said, 'I am already as good.  In fact, I'm starting out with better material, and I am going to be better.'  How do you like them apples?" (42-43) 

Spoken like a true Fire Rabbit, an Animal who is talented, comfortable with notoriety, and expresses his own vanity freely.  In his book, Sidney talks about his vanity as a defense, but it seems clear from his prose that this trait has supported him well throughout his life. 

All four of his Birth Animals grant him an optimistic, positive outlook, and plenty of healthy self-esteem.  In the book, he mentions how, for the dominant culture in both Nassau and Miami, these qualities were completely unexpected in a black youth.  Even after his major Hollywood successes, a lot of people, both black and white, seemed to think Sidney Poitier was too good to be true, but he really does view himself as an exemplar of the moral values of his ancestors, sees no substantive difference between white and black people except for the artificial divisions imposed by colonial societies, and possesses an extremely positive, idealistic attitude towards life.

Sidney Poitier chose to play characters on stage and in film that reflected 'who he was,' unbelievable though he may have seemed, representing as he did a black man with a positive self-image not limited by racial stereotypes. His filmography includes: No Way Out (with Richard Widmark), The Defiant Ones (with Tony Curtis), Lillies of the Field (with Lilia Skala), A Patch of Blue, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (with Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn), To Sir With Love, and In The Heat of the Night (with Rod Steiger).