The Ramblings of my Disorganised Mind

Sea Goat

Listening to: Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack. I liked this movie. It's a perfect example of the type I'm always talking about where a production company has taken an historical event and moved the historical figures around in a fashion that still keeps the history vaguely intact. For example, the Sibylla character is a mix of 3 different historical women, and the background of Ibelin was made up out of whole cloth. And by the time the movie was set, the Templars and Hospitallers were actually on different sides than portrayed in the film. However, this (to me) is fine, because the complications involved in getting the facts correct would've made for a difficult movie to watch and a fairly bad story.

It's not like they took the name of a person out of history, declared the movie to be entirely true, and then didin't get any facts at all correct, like, say, oh, that bloody William Wallace movie.

Cough.

The music is quite good. I like it.

Saw Brokeback Mountain last night. More like "broke heart" but anyways. I have to say that whatever awards it's garnering, it probably deserves them. Having said that, I found for a while, there were a lot of events being shoved into a small amount of time, just enough to give me a wee distance from the main characters I didn't like... just enough to just feel a little disconnected from them. Not so much that I wasn't moved by the film, but still.

One thing I really did like about the film is that it treated the subject matter with respect and dignity. So many so-called "gay" films degenerate into making same-sex love into something... what's the word I'm looking for? Seedy. That's not it, but it will do. Brokeback didn't do that.

It is a highly nuanced film, too. It doesn't treat the movie goer like they're stupid. Not everything is spelled out in words of one syllable or less. It meant that, every so often, you'd think "WTF?" until you thought about it for a second. That was good.

Now, why was I here, she wonders uselessly, before running of on my tangent...

Ah. Yes.

For a while there, I was posting bits on the varying different signs. I stopped that, mostly because I got to Libra and didn't feel like I could be fair-handed with the masculine versions of them (my ex is a Libra, and a fairly typical one of the negatively-possessed kind, you know: hypocritical, for those who need to catch up). I don't have that problem any more, but I got bored, so...

Enough of the Air Signs. How about some Earth? Earth covers the Capricorn, the Virgo and the lover-ly Taurus.

I was reading my Mystic Med today:

It's magical thinking week! Yes, you lot are more esoteric than you oft get credit for. Maybe it's your untold past lives that have made you so brilliant at working whatever 'system' you wind up in? Remember that your astro-symbol is the Sea or Mer-Goat. The Full Moon Eclipse is potent - linking back into last March & October. Your objectivity and proper conduct skills will be required. Venus near Chiron brings both insight and cure for ancient angst in the form of self-esteem scars.

(Stop laughing now Nicky :-P)

The Sea Goat. Hmm.

Caps have this reputation of being "mountain goats", you know, self-centred, grasping climbers who will walk all over anyone to get what they want. Even Myst Med should, perhaps, remember her own advice to remember Caps are sea goats (NOT goats), because in her book, she pretty well extols the same stereotype.

I have to say (apart from, indignantly, "Hey!"), in all honesty is that I have never actually met a Cap who is like this. I am close to (or have been close to) four Caps that I can think of off the top of my head right now:

A beautiful and lovely guy by the name of Chris, who was, I thought at the time (aged 16/17), the certified LOML until circumstances beyond my control intervened (and who I would love to know what happened to), Karina, who I've known since high school and am now very happy to be back in contact with again, Edi, gorgeous fellow, who lives in Finland and shares my birthday, and my #5 son, who actually shares Karina's birthday and is cute as. None of them are/were selfish types. All of them would give their right arm for a friend. Walking all over people, not their style.

And I also think (she says ever so slightly defensively) that walking all over someone to get where you want? BAD. In fact, the only person I know who actually thinks this sort of behaviour is actually morally OK (apart from the aforementioned Libran, who actually doesn't believe it's OK but indulges in it anyhow... see? Hypocritical ;-) ) is an Aries. But I digress.

But I will digress after I add this caveat: I love Arians, OK?

So.

Jonathon Cainer says in his "Your Sign - The Truth" (or perhaps I should say "The FACTS". Pftht. Don't ask. :-P)

The Myth:
The textbooks imply that Capricorns are dreadfully dull. They paint these people as seriously sensible, practical planners who are diligent, dedicated and industrious. Allegedly their only aim in life is to get things together and then hold them there. Nowhere in the summary of this sign is there a mention of spontaneity or imagination.

The Truth:
Statistics prove that, if you were born under Capricorn, you are less likely to believe in astrology. Some think that this is because Capricorns are too "down to earth". Actually though, it's because they don't like the description of their sign. And who can blame them? These ambitious high achievers have better things to do with lives than correct moronic misconceptions. Capricorns may be capable characters but they have plenty of mystery and sensitivity in their souls. They also have plenty of fire in their bellies. These passionate, adventurous and mischievous people also just so happen to be highly intelligent.

[my note. The next least-likely-to-believe are Geminis. They're also astrological intellects - who are probably sick of being called "two faced". One beautiful Gemini man I know from Melbourne has even decided he's going to be a Taurus instead (he's on a cusp and I'm not going to go into how that works, but suffice it to say cusp doesn't actually mean you get to straddle signs, sun signs work like a light switch :on or off), he's so tired of it. Never mind that he's an epitomy of wonderful, gorgeous, Geminis! Although Taureans are pretty cool, too].

The Key To Success:
If you are a Capricorn, you belong not to the sign of the goat but to the sign of the sea-goat; a mythical creature that represents "the doorway to another world". Remember this and have more faith in the visions and ideas that constantly flood through your busy brain. Believe in yourself, not the nonsense that they speak about your sign.

There is also a link between the Cap sign and Pan, also known as Puck. This mythical half man-goat has many connotations, evil and good, but more about that in a moment.

Russell Grant has this (among other things) to say about Caps:

Need a good giggle? Get hold of a chuckling Capricorn, then, and let them jolly you along. You'll soon feel better. Gosh, these Goats are grand! They're suffused with such a stunning sense of humour that they'll have you in stitches with their razor-sharp wit and dead-pan brand of magnificent mirth. And what's especially endearing is that they're always the first folk to laugh at themselves.

That's Pan, master of mischief, in play there. Pan (or Puck) is often referred to as the jester of the fairy court; in fact, it is in just this context he appears in Shakespeare's A Midsumer Night's Dream (which I like FAR much more than that Romeo and Juliet drivel hehe).

Pan himself (in his Pan incarnation), was a powerful nature spirit, son of the Greek god Hermes by a Nymph. He wanders the mountains, playing his pipes in groves and woodlands. That's probably where the mountain goat = Cap mythology came from.

You can also see why I really like these English astrologers. ;-)

But Satyrs, Pan, fauns, Puck also have their dark side. In fact, during the medieval period, they were, like other mythological fae, described as "demons". It would be easy to pass this off as being a part of the normal course of all things medieval catholic, but there was probably some basis in this before that period.

"Pan" gave rise to the word "panic". He is also described as a shapeshifter, who most often appears as a horse (related to the Irish Phooka). The derivations of all the diffent names of Puck in most languages come from a word meaning malevolent spirit. Yet, later, he became realated to the good but mischievous Robin Goodfellow (often related to the mythical version of Robin Hood).

The one thing all of the legends agree on is about Puck's lusty nature.

Now, I know a lot about mythology, but I can't say that, before now, I've really looked into the sea goat.

So I googled it.

Interestingly enough, I found my first "real" answer in a rabid, anti-astrological "false gospel in the stars" site. I'm normally not anti-right wing (in fact, I think some people would even call me right wing), but people who misuse both gospellian and historical quotes make my teeth itch, especially when they quote that crap psuedohistory book Holy Blood and Holy Grail (which is about as accurate a history of the Knights Templar as The Da Vinci Code) to try and make a Biblical assertion about astrology, of all things, and who quote the fiction of HP Lovecraft to try and make an historical point... but I digress again. Sigh.

It turns out that the sea goat is another derivation of the Pan spirit, through Vedic astrology (in which the 10th sign is Neptune, and represented by a dolphin), who, along with its opposite, Cancer (hi Nicky!), represent the doorways to another world, or the gates of the gods. The "other world" is believed by this site to be the Greek representation of Hades (which is all the catholic-come-christian version of "Hell" is: the Bible doesn't mention a "hell" at all, in fact, although it does mention a "lake of fire", she adds for the sake of accuracy), as it then goes on to talk about Kronos (ie Saturn, which the site renames Satan) meeting up with Lucifer and destroying the world or some such completely extra-biblical garbage (Satan is meeting himself and destroying the world. Yeah. That makes sense. See my sracastic face now), but the tome this site quotes doesn't seem to be saying this. I can't find any online versions of the original in context, so I can't say.

And I didn't want to continue reading the site. It was blagging my brain. Pseudo intellectulary that use lots of unrelated (mostly true in context) quotes to make a fairly non-existent point tend to do that. I've learned to just walk away, or I'd be debating with them in my head all day. I've probably not mentioned before that I actually have a pentecostal Christian background, enough of one to see where these people are taking truth - or facts, sigh - and twisting them into something that is a complete fabrication of Biblical theorem. It always annoys me when people of any religion misuse their own holy books to suppress the ignorant. Maybe that's why I like studying the medieval period so much. It's a microcosm of Biblical misuse and forced illiteracy used to suppress the ignorant. But enough of that.

I much preferred This Christian site, which actually did away with the false demonology and looked at it with a little more sanity.

Another site said this:

Capricorn was identified with the Assyrian Kunaxa, the Goat-Fish; and we see other probable names in Shah or Shahu, the Ibex, and in Niru, the Yoke. It is identified with The Goat-Fish, known in pre Babylonian times with the god Ea/Oannes 'The Antelope of the Subterranean Ocean', 'He of the vast intellect', 'Lord of the Sacred Eye', 'God of Wisdom'. Berossus describes Oannes as follows: "At Babylon there was a great resort of people of various nations who inhabited Chaldaea and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field. In the first year there appeared from that part of the Erythraean sea which borders Babylonia, an animal destitute of reason, by the name of Oannes, whose whole body was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice too, and language was articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day. This Being was accustomed to pass the day among men; but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added in the way of improvement to his instructions. When the sun had set, this Being, Oannes, retired again into the sea and passed the night in the deep; for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes". He is also said to have emerged four times, at long intervals, from the subterranean ocean to teach men the arts of civilization. When he appears, it is in human form, wearing a fish-tailed cloak. After educating mankind, he returns to the waters as darkness falls. [STA p.LXXV-c].

Ea/Oannes is responsible for saving mankind from the Flood. The story in which he tells the Sumerian Noah, Uta-Napishtim, to build an ark, is much the same as the Bible's version of the great disaster.

Interesting.

I wonder what it means when you have the sun in Cap and your moon in Cancer?

posted by Heather @ 9:08 am