Robert Phoenix

From Archons To Arch Androids

That cutaway illustrated below is an actual model of Dick Cheney’s heart or lack thereof. You see, Dr. Strange Love has no heart. While this might not come as a surprise to many, having an actual look-see as to what keeps Dick ticking is kind of a dark revelation to say the least. This is a pump that actually circulates the blood through the body. With no heart, he has no heartbeat. It’s just the mechanized woosh of plasma that’s roiling through his system. If it weren’t for technology and a few million bucks, he would be a dead Dick.

But in a strangely ironic twist, this is the dream of the trans-human-fetishists, albeit saddled with a bulky version of an AI interface. Cheney, an Aquarius, would theoretically be receptive to the deepening of his silicon connection. While this is a functional version of a cyborg’s delight, Cheney is far from alone.

Lady Gaga has been flashing her hybrid style for the past three years, getting ever closer to the woman-machine synthesis. Gaga might be the most overt example of the programming that is taking place on a number of levels but as we will soon find out, she is not alone. Her haircut mimics the same style of Daryl Hannah/Pris in Blade Runner. It’s not a coincidence. I’ll steer clear of the obvious illuminist symbols and stick as close to the ummmm, facts as possible.

The Cloning Of Pris’ Bangs Is A Cipher Repeating Itself Through Time

Are ideas like this latched upon by canny dream weavers or does the Hannah/Gaga continuum evolve out of a pre-set archetype that modulates image and function accordingly? There are a number of sites that track illuminist symbolism and imagery in art. From Alan Watt, to Esoteric Kitten, to Pseudo Occult Media, you can find enough mind numbing examples of overt symbolic manipulation, much of it revolving around pop stars like Gaga. The Evidence Is overwhelming. We are programmed to the point where our drives and desires are rarely our own. Even our most sacred values, such as patriotism and God are the wallpaper of our sub-conscious. No doubt, there are men and women highly skilled in the art of psychic manipulation through esoteric symbols that evoke the mimetic tableau of our times. Many of them have been steeped in magic of darker hues. They might even meet in halls, lodges and wooded groves. They would certainly match the layman’s description of a conspiracy, but what if they themselves were being acted upon and like the unwitting public that they trance with their animatronic eye candy, are just as oblivious?

True Hallucinations

The late Terrence McKenna dove with abandon into the strange world of DMT, where self-replicating machine elves create psychedelic ovules of papier-mâché, giving birth to them in realms we cannot imagine. What if a similar process was behind all of creation and Gaga and her robot masters were nothing more than creations of some larger force living out it’s own archetypal imperative? In essence, does Lady Gaga or GW Bush have any choice in the matter of who or what they are to become and have the forces that we have fed for millennia simply taken on a life of their own, enormous entities that nearly rival God in the accumulated manifestation of our beliefs and practices? What if all of this is just phantasms of our own imaginations, fears and perverse desires, co-mingling with forces from other realms? As always, like an ancient script of numeric representation, there is the astrological codec, an overhead projection of this realm through time and space. Let’s have a look shall we?

Gaga is an Aries (of course) and not just any Aries. Born on March 28, 1986, she has Aries at 7 degrees. Most people know that we are shifting from Pisces to Aries via Uranus, full time, next year. Jupiter is already there, but it too will retreat briefly, only to move fully into Aries in 2011. I will go out on a limb and predict enormous success for Gaga in 2011 (much to the consternation of many). It’s not simply her as an artist that will be successful, but the idea of transhumanist deviation, will stamp her image on the fore brain of the collective mind. Uranus in Aries is an explosive dance of destruction and conflict, it is the electric fire of individual inspiration and personal genius, and it also foreshadows the scientific manipulation of form and a as a result, the very essence of will itself.

The Third Reich came of age during the last run of Uranus in Aries and out of the Third Reich we have “Eugenics” the search not just for the perfect form in flesh, but perhaps even more importantly, it represents man’s ability to create such a perfect form, one that places him on the same celestial stage as God. That is the real golden ring. Transhumanism isn’t just a less loaded term for Eugenics, it’s code for the creation of a new species entirely and as a result, the end of the human as we know it.

When Uranus conjuncts Gaga’s Sun, I would not be the least surprised to begin to see real and not costumed augmentation to her physiognomy. The Sabian Symbol for 7 Degrees Aries is A MAN SUCCEEDS IN EXPRESSING HIMSELF SIMULTANEOUSLY IN TWO REALMS. This is clearly a celebration of the dual life, and in her case, part woman, part machine. Not only is her Sun in Aries but so is her Venus, though placed significantly further away at 23 degrees. Jupiter in Aries will kiss her natal Venus in 2011 and might even portend a marriage. The bride of Frankenstein? Pluto is also deeply informing her collective might as well. It is conjuncting her natal Neptune in Cap at five degrees and sextiling her natal Pluto at 6 degrees Scorpio, augmenting her androidal sexuality. Pluto in Cap is being distributed through the spiritual function of her generation. Neptune is filmic and illusory, it offers up gloss and sheen, it’s seductive in an etheric sense and when it is conjoined with Pluto/Capricorn, the individuals of her generation act as channels for power in an earthly sense. In it’s initial stages, not tempered by experience and time, it is the naked adulation of power as a God.

It’s All About The Baphometrics

Again, there is little coincidence in images of skulls, esoteric talismans and occult symbolism on tees, hoodies and caps. When Jay-Z recruits Kanye and Rhianna to “Run This Town” he is speaking directly to this generation that worships power. This is amplified with Pluto in Scorpio. While the ideal of power is worshiped, the act of sex as a conduit to power is this generation’s calling card and in many ways, Gaga has become a symbol for all of the above. She is an augmented sex-kitten, robotically responding to your wishes and desires, willing to do anything, rubbing your face in esoteric nose candy. She is morphing towards a synthetic version of Babylon’s greatest whore. But she is far from alone.

Aries in Your Anus?

While Gaga manages to sell loads of inane music with beats that are likely laced with mind-numbing embeds, the aforementioned Rhianna is undergoing her own transmogrification, from innocent teen, to violated and initiated, to giving her body and soul over to the deus sex machina.

Chrisitina Aguilera was not content with motherhood. Nope, she had to get in on the game as well, sporting her own version of cybervixen, 2010. However, Janelle Monae might just be taking all of this to another level.

Discovered by Big Boi (Aquarius again), half of Outkast, Monae was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy label. She left no doubt as to where she was going with 2009’s Metropolis referencing of course the Fritz Lang classic. But have a look at the album cover. She is not only part human and part android, but even the android part of her is broken and torn apart. However, she’s remedied that with her latest release, ArchAndroid which is about her alter-ego Cindy, who discovers her super powers and realizes that she is the “Arch Android” here to save the other hapless androids from their life of androidal enslavement.

I find the city of gold head dress (see image at the top of the post) totally fascinating, especially the golden phallus rising from her crown chakra like a spear of destiny, pointing towards the heavens. Metropolis, robots, a golden cock growing out of her mind, it all smacks of some new Reichian zeitgeist and I’m not talking about Wilhelm Reich.

Now some may say that this is some sort of market trend or a Grace Jones/Nona Hendryx redux, or even a semi-psychotic and dissociative projection of the human condition that has lost the ability to feel, but with Uranus in Aries, this is more likely a presage to the Eugenic drive to convert humanity into a transgenic species. But what happens to the soul? Where does the humanity go? Or are we already so degraded that it’s a moot point? Is this just the unnatural progression of things? Are we that numbed out and unfeeling that we have to create alters to explore the realms of non-emotive states? I am not enthusiastic about the trend, no matter how funky the beats and cool grooves are.

Janelle Monae AKA Cindy Mayweather In Many Moons

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New Orleans’ finest, MUTE MATH. Can you break the spell?

Monarch keys.

I love Gemini. Since most of my 7th house is Gemini, I have always been attracted to Gem women or women with Gem Moon, for better or worse. Usually both. Usually both at the same time. But more than the Gemini Anima, it’s the overall vibe. I’m fascinated by twins, dopplegangers and clones. I find it interesting that the uber-strange and creepy, Olsen twins are Gemini. The six degrees of Olsen and Gemini an also apply here. The Olsen twins of course, made their mark and fortunes on “Full House” which starred Dave Coulier, who would later go on to date Alanis Morrisette, Gemini, who would make her mark and her fortune, screaming about how much she wanted to castrate Dave Coulier in her hit song, “Ironic.” Of course, Morrisette was a child star in her own native Canada, much like “The Olsen Twins.” Hmmmm? It’s that crazy, intertwined and knotted world of strange attraction that makes Gemini so fascinating. Let’s look at another, totally strange example.

Most people know Gemini, Chuck Barris (June 3) as the wild and whacked out host of “The Gong Show.” Prior to “The Gong Show,” he was the godfather of game shows, giving us rich cultural institutions like, “The Newlywed Show” and “The Dating Game.” But Chuck also had a very odd and disconcerting habit of telling people that he was also a hired killer, an assassin for The CIA. In fact, they even made a dark and pretty hilarious film about it, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind starring Sam Rockwell as Chuck Barris and George Clooney as his CIA contact. Sharing the same June 3 birthday as Barris is Anderson Cooper, the young and dashing first man of cable news. Anderson of course is the son of jean queen, Gloria Vanderbilt. His involvement with The CIA is far from secret, even pop culture sites like Radar have written about it. Chuck Barris/Anderson Cooper, Geminspy. That’s the strangeness that abounds in the sign.

On a slightly more personal note, I have a really good friend that has been through some rough patches in his life. He and his brother were adopted at the age of two after an event that brought child and family services into the picture. I’ll skip the details, but trust me, his adoption was for the better. In his mind, he always had two brothers; one that got adopted out with him (now deceased) the other that got left behind. He never had much contact with that brother, since said brother has been sadly unable to conduct his life without the aid of alcohol. The parents that adopted him had also passed. In his mind, he was alone–or so he thought. Just as transiting Venus in Cancer was about to move into his progressed third house (brothers and sisters) and trine progressed Chiron in Pisces at the end of his twelfth house, out of nowhere, a woman with the last name of “Fisher” connected with him through Facebook to tell him that she was his half sister and that he had four other half siblings that he did not know about. That’s a total of five new people that just showed up! In his progressed 12th house, shared by Aries and Pisces, there’s a veritable family in there. Yep, 1-2-3-4-5, five planets, five new half-sibs.

Miss Fisher (Pisces/Chiron) made the call, but it happened when transiting Uranus moved into Aries and conjuncted his progressed Mercury in Aries, 1 degree. Are you following me here? In the month of Gemini, sisters and bros, he just found out that he has a whole new tribe out there. Gemini is high strangeness indeed. I’m happy for him and hope that somewhere in the mix of five new souls entering into his world, that his aloneness will be somewhat abated and a small part of himself can be put back into place.

Of course, we’ve got this great big, freaking cross coming up at month’s end, but as we get closer, I’ll have more details for each sign

Horoscopes are —> Read the rest of this entry »

Real compared to what?

I’m listening to a “Compared To What,” the smoking, jazz-vocal jam from 1969 with big Eddie Harris on sax and Less McCann on piano/vocals. It’s the classic, live joint captured at Montreux. Eddie is wailing on the sax, Les is spittin’ out the verse while banging the ivories. I can’t think of a more appropriate song for this Mercury Retrograde. Let’s pay homage to one the track’s timeless verses:

“The President, he’s got his war/Folks don’t know just what it’s for/Nobody gives us rhyme or reason/Have one doubt, they call it treason/We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it! /Tryin’ to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me).”

Real . . . compared to what?

McCann was born on the Autumnal, Equinox, 9/23/35. He and Eddie Harris were perfect bookends for their sign as Harris held down the back end of Libra, 10/20/34. McCann, shares that epic birthday with both John Coltrane and Ray Charles. When the two of them busted out “Compared To What” in at Montreux, it became an anthem of sorts, different than say what “The Times They Are A Changin”” which ushered in The 60’s was all about. “Compared To What” was bouncing “The 60’s” out on their ass. Speaking of Bob Dylan, Mercury Retrograde and real compared to what, the usually uber-chill, Joni Mitchell (Scorpio) dropped a bombshell this week, basically saying that Bob Dylan is a plagiarist and a phony in a recent “LA Times” interview; “Bob is not authentic at all: He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.”

Could it be the oncoming pull of the Scorpio Full Moon, drawing the sap of bitterness out in Joni, or, is she finally blowing the lid on one of Rock’s best kept secrets?

Her natal Mercury (Scorpio) is opposing retrograde Mercury in Taurus. Transiting Mars has caught up with her natal Pluto in Leo and Saturn is doing a wide squat on her natal Venus in Virgo. It’s a prefect celestial storm for Joni to stir the pot. I posted this and the video that I am posting below on Facebook and got singed. That’s okay. I can live with it. I ‘m thinking of changing my name to “Hazmat Inayat Khan,” since these chemtrails are turning my tissue to flame retardant, silicon flesh. I guess Big Bro and those multidimensional creeps that are systematically wiping out the bees, bats and soon whales, want me to stick around and are converting my skin to some alien sheen that seals off the burning rays of the Sun, keeping it from charring it to cinders and ash. So go ahead, flame away here as well if you wish.

When I saw that Mitchell quote about Dylan being a fake and a deception, I couldn’t help but flash back on that really weird, Ed Bradley interview that he did with Bob back in 2006. The first words out of Dylan’s mouth were, “You feel like an impostor.” I thought that was pretty interesting. Then Dylan goes onto talk with Bradley about the “bargain” he made with “The Chief Commander.” Chief Commander eh? He said he made the deal, I mean bargain “to get where he is today.” Another video clearly states that he went down to the crossroads, where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to his own version of the “Chief Commander” as well. Now this can be canny self-promotion and self-mythologizing or it can be clearly hidden in plain sight. Real compared to what?

Dave McGowan did a blistering series on The Laurel Canyon scene of the 60’s and 70’s and made more than just a few casual connections between major players such as Crosby, Stills, Morrison, Phillips, Zappa and Gram Parsons amongst others with “The MIC.” McGowan once revered the music and the influence of many of these irreproachable icons and after he got his nails dirty, had to re-visit his level of appreciation for what they were up to and who they really were. Intertwined with the internecine connections of old money and the military establishment are the standard connections between rock, satanism and luciferianism. The thing that makes his research so compelling is that he isn’t born again or has some sort of puritanical and uptight agenda. Dave McGowan is sardonic, brilliant, funny and a hipster in his own right. Check out his series and look back during this retrograde phase at the buds of “The Summer Of Love” and you could discover that Bob Dylan might not be the only impostor from that hallowed era.

27 and gone to heaven?

What do Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and D. Boon all have in common? They all died before they were 28. Even the most casual followers of astrology are aware of The Saturn Return, when Saturn cycles back to where it was at the time of birth. This cycle takes roughly 28 years. When it does arrive, it stays for 2.5 years and dispenses life lessons that have not been learned during the early part of the cycle. Saturn makes the weak part of us strong, the strong part of us stronger, but it isn’t always easy.

Saturn serves as the final barrier between youth and maturity. Going through the return hopefully initiates the individual to be fully present and ready to embrace the next cycle of their lives, which theoretically translates into adulthood.

Jimi, Janis, Brian, Jim and Kurt never reached their Saturn Return. They’re known as a group called, “The 27’s.”

Tomorrow night I will have Josh Hunter, one of the co-authors of The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll
on FAR. Along with Eric Segalsgard, he has looked at this phenomenon in depth and the two of them have written a stellar book about the various lives of “The 27’s” and what they were doing leading up to their deaths.

In addition to Josh, I will have Segurgeir Bergsson, live, from Iceland to talk about the volcano, its plume and maybe a little Icesave. Don’t miss it.

She’s a bad girl

I recently had the chance to see Erykah Badu live, in concert. The show was phenomenal on so many levels. I’ve been to hundreds of concerts and I hadn’t seen such ecstatic devotion directed towards a performer before in quite some time, especially by the same sex. Women and I mean women were falling out of the rafters, testifying at the church of Erykah. Unlike the same sex salvation that was part and parcel of the women’s music scene of the mid 80’s, these women were mostly straight from what I could see, their boyfriends/husbands in semi-mute witness to their riotous testifying, full-bodied-expressions of faith. Badu, even from my perch in the aeries of The Fox Theater seemed larger than life. I can imagine and project her presence being equal to that of Holliday, Garland and Streisand–a galactic diva.

She sailed through scales, past and future catalog, focusing on tracks from New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) the deliciously eclectic and eccentric release from 2008 and her equally beguiling and enigmatic current release, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). In between tracks, she would pass her hand over a Theremin, invoking the sounds of waves emanating from ancient dynasties.

I left floating on a cloud of estrogen looking forward to my fusion with Cleopatra Jones later in the evening.

Badu recently did something hardly anyone else does. She took a risk. A big, fat, artistic risk. She walked through Dealy Plaza, stripping off pieces of her attire in the video for ‘Window Seat” from New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). This is the type of thing that people like Marlon Brando and John Lennon used to do. It’s ballsy. It’s star stuff. And now she might get arrested by The Dallas Police for disorderly conduct.

In the video, Badu is making statement about artistic and personal integrity, blurring the lines of personal and collective history. Some might think it’s sensationalizing and denigrating the assassination of JFK, exploiting a national tragedy, but I would differ. I think what she is doing is re-opening one of the most crucial collective wounds in our social memory.

After the death of JFK, America went through a psychic fracturing as everything splits, from generations, races and sexes to classes, etc. While The 60’s represented the greatest counter cultural movement of our time, it happened at the expense of traditions, mores and values that might not have been totally tainted by the bathwater. By stripping herself bare, she brings attention to that raw and naked moment, where our innocence was assassinated and the insertion of new programing takes place in the void of a shared post-traumatic-memory.

Badu is driven by two main forces in her chart–a strong stellium of Mercury, Sun and Moon in Pisces and another equally powerful stellium of Neptune, Jupiter and Mars, all in Sag. Here we see someone that is in service to mysticism, art, spirituality, beauty, hope and truth. Balancing these two aspects/energies of Pisces/Sag is not easy as the stelliums square off against one another. Her latest video is a vivid example of her attempting to bridge these worlds. Manifesting truth though art seems to be where she’s at now. Transiting Jupiter is winging it’s way towards her natal Moon, which means that the ancient mysteries of woman, the temple of feminine mystery will open it’s gates to Badu in a deeply expressive and expansive fashion. In essence, it will give her a window seat to her soul. Look for yet another stunning video on the horizon that will capture this energy in all of her semi-contradictory and stunning glory.

I’ll be working on scopes for April tonight and tomorrow. Easter Sunday scopes special ready to hatch.

Jay-Z sampling Crowley.

One of the most popular posts I managed to scratch out was a pre-horoscope post on Jay-Z. I had stumbled onto a small stash of Youtube videos that had grown almost exponentially over the past year. The videos were documenting Jay-Z’s involvement with Freemasonry. There were photos of Jay and Nas and Jay and Kanye slippin’ the grip, one of a number of secret handshakes that Masons use to identify themselves.
Spearheading the discovery was Alan Watt, a somewhat controversial figure in the realm of illuminati showdowns, occasionally accused as being a gatekeeper (but that’s a different story). Anyway, Watt had hooked up with a guy by the name of “Cul Cre” aka “Culture Creation” Speaking with Watt from Brazil, “Cul Cre” went on a fascinating dissertation on the Illuminist presence in Hip Hop. He cited “The Game,” “Dead Prez,” “Mystikal,” “Lil Wayne,” “Nas,” “Kanye,” “Jay” and even “KRS-1″ and “Mos Def” as being inside the game at a fairly high level. His arguments and evidence were fairly compelling. But out of all of them, it’s the content around Jay and his Masonic influence that’s really jumping up. I get search terms every day with people trying to figure out if Jay is a Mason or an agent of the illuminati or if he sold his soul to the devil. What’s fascinating about al of this is how Beyonce and Rhianna are also being viewed through the same lens.

There’s a filmmaker named Lennon Honor who has done an amazing 21 part video breaking down Rhianna’s “Umbrella” and “Disturbia” videos. Since Jay-Z rhymes at the beginning of “Umbrella” he too comes under Honor’s estimable scrutiny. It’s only a few lines, but they way he deconstructs them is critical to understanding not just what unfolds in the Umbrella video, but as it relates to Rhianna’s life, especially in Jay’s camp. The continued unfolding of the story takes place in the “Run This Town” video with Jay-Z, Kanye and Rhianna, which has also been broken down into it’s serial parts and exo-political meaning.

The buzz around Jay-Z’s illuminist connections are growing and even hitting the likes of XXL, where Byron Crawford just pecked a piece about Jay-Z and his illuminist connections getting Jay into position to eventually buy The Yankees. Even Jay-Z himself is in on it, using the Masonic hype to his advantage, crafting a new mythology as he dances with the dark side. Can we determine by Jay-Z’s chart if he does indeed have the secret society sauce in him?

In a lot of celebrity charts, all the info isn’t always available. That’s the case when it comes to Jay-Z ’s chart and then some. We know he’s a Sag and today is his 40th birthday, but we don’t know his birth time and to make matters even fuzzier, I have heard from my friends in the hip hop world that Jay-Z is actually older than his stated age. This presents a problem when looking at his chart and trying to determine if particular angles would lend one to be open to some sort of fraternization with guys in robes.

If we go on the face value of the birth date, Jay-Z would be a Sag with a Libra Moon, Mercury in Sag, Venus in Scorpio, Mars in Aquarius, Jupiter in Libra, Saturn in Taurus, Uranus in Libra, Neptune in Scorpio and Pluto in Virgo. If the date is correct, there’s some interesting threads running through these planets/signs that might reveal what we’re looking for. Read the rest of this entry »

Duality is thy name!

(Editors note) I broke out this interview with Barry Adamson back in 1998. I was in New York and did the Q & A at the headquarters of Mute Records. Barry was on the other end of the phone, in his home in London. It was a crazy time for me in NYC. It was like I had stepped into an alternate dimension and strange phenomenon was unfolding around me on a moment-to-moment basis. I won’t go into details here, but I do refer to it cryptically in the intro.

Barry Adamson is one of the most talented musicians and artists you’ve probably never heard of. He played with Magazine and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and then carved out a brilliant solo career, that in many respects, surpassed that of both Howard Devoto and Nick Cave. Barry Adamson also happens to be a Gemini and it is indeed, his birthday today. If one delves down into the canon of his recording career, they can see the tell tale signs of duality all over the place. In the interview, we really focused on topics like; “As above, so below,” “Light and dark,” and “Good and bad.” All, tasty topics for any Gemini. This interview originally appeared on Pete Darling’s Art-Damage site. Pete is an uber-talented friend and is one of those people who could have easily been a rock star if he’d wanted to do the wrong drugs and screw the right people. Here’s me and Barry.

New York; Summer of 98′ things are falling all around me–like something out of a Fortean tale of misplaced gravity. Everywhere I go the sky is descending. And then the numbers start coming; sixes and nines, variables and their fated triple-digit-deity. I escape the crash and tumult for a few moments ducking into the offices of Mute Records. I’m here to talk to Barry Adamson, the former Magazine and Bad Seed Bass Player, on the phone from his London home. On solo terms, he’s become known for noirish soundtrack work such as “Soul Murder”, “The Negro Inside”, “Moss Side Story” and the brilliant “Oedipus Schmedipus.” His record of the moment is, “As Above, So Below” (Mute) and with Adamson, the cradle of potential is vast in it’s meaning. Of mixed racial origin, he embraces contrasting cosmologies and diverse scales; polyrhythms and whitenoise, Nile gods and Atlantic sea wardens; demonic muses and angelic hosts. As heaven crashes around me, Barry’s trying to reconcile it all in his music. From New York to London, we attempt to ground the dipole in extremis for a Trans-Atlantic free-exchange of shadow and light.

RP: What has the response been in terms of the British Press and some of the other magazines towards your newest work and how that compares with some of your earlier stuff?

BA: I think its generally been quite favorable. There is always the odd fellow that doesn’t get it really. They’re off on their own sort of thing. I think generally what has happened- I guess with each album I kind of raise my profile a little bit more, getting to the hearts and minds (if you like) of the ever-listening public. In that way it has been a success. I think the feedback has been encouraging. I think this album and the Oedipus album particularly has kind of moved the goalposts into a place more accessible for people; they can get what’s going on and they seem to enjoy what’s going on, which is always encouraging for me. Definitely the step forward in a way that I hope to be. I am pleased with the way its gone.

RP: The title of the record As Above, So Below: It reminds me of Heraclitus.

BA: What’s that?

RP: Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher. His whole contention was above so below- like it is in Heaven as it is on Earth. So there is a metaphysical connotation there. But it also to me reminds me of “as above so below”: as above the waist so below the waist.

BA: That’s interesting. I never thought of that. I kind of did have a little subtle idea about that: above the waist, also below. I guess for me, it is that thing as in Heaven, so shall it be on Earth, and perhaps even lower. I think that you can’t have one without the other. Just that whole faith, love and fear… and all those things have ramifications in the world as well and that’s what makes man as a sensor of the whole cosmos-type thing as well. I think for me its about balance as well: as above so below and therefore stepping out into the world is like okay about everything. I think that was kind of the establishing factor of where to go from in terms of exploring Heaven and Hell in the confines of the record, if it’s possible.

RP: Are you familiar of the material of William Blake?

BA: Only in passing, do you know what I mean. I am not really in a studious way at all. Of course a picture comes to mind (I don’t know the name of course) of the guy pointing down from above?

RP: With the Sun. Yeah.

BA: Very powerful image.

RP: It seems like in your work that there is a definite sort of a psycho-analytical yoga or work-out.

BA: I think it is. I think I could realize that one could pretty much exorcise and exercise various- you know, whatever it may be, if you’re troubled you could put those troubles into a song. Or what you’ve experienced you may want to pass that information on.

RP: How does the cathartic process of your work effect you? For instance, do you feel more catharsis after you’ve finished a certain piece or after you’ve created a whole piece?

Read the rest of this entry »

Sense a trend here?

Been away from the blog for a while–busy doing readings, consulting and writing a quick piece for emusic on rock savant, Wesley Willis, a Gemini, (clinically schizophrenic). Some interesting things really popped when i started looking at famous Gemini musicians, mostly the connection between the artist and their alter egos (sort of a creative schizophrenia) and the fact that they usually need another to flesh out their musical vision.

Wesley Willis is an extreme example of Gemini bi-polarity Some people might be familiar with his cult classic, “Rock and Roll McDonalds” that starts out naive, innocent and even goofy, then turns into a nasty little hit piece on McDonald’s, singing about how bad the food is for you, how fattening it is, and that Burger King is better. Everyone whoever heard it for the first time fell in love with it, laughed their ass off and was totally charmed by Willis’ lack of guile. Willis went on to a recording career that basically saw him re-make “Rock and Roll McDonalds” over and over again, using the same music, same song structure and even occasionally the same lyrics. His subject matter leaned towards singing about rock bands and musicians like Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, Courtney Love and KMFDM. These were more like shout outs than actual songs. The repetition in subject matter and language is something that modern psychiatry has linked to schizophrenia and yet, the minutiae, the obsession with details, the tendency to hyperinflate the mundane, can all be considered partial trademarks of The Gemini need to communicate, especially about their most local surroundings and personal experience.

A sense of confessionalism runs through Gemini Prince’s work. When he sings about “Alphabet City” he’s reminiscing about the area he grew up in, in his native Minneapolis. But his narrative extends far beyond his locality. In typical Gemini fashion, Prince has been working out his erotic and sensual side, along with his devoutly religious side for years. Once Prince walked into the studio to record the groundbreaking, Dirty Mind the studio itself became part erotic cabaret, part confessional. In many ways, Prince mirrors the moral conflict that The US has had with sex and salvation through his art and it’s’ no wonder that the US Mars is in Gemini, forming a slightly wide trine (six degrees) with The US Moon in Aquarius. As a nation, we’re restless with Mars in Gemini, crave experience and The Moon in eccentric Aquarius gives us permission to explore the duality in unconventional ways. The US Venus in Cancer however lends a strong conservatism to how we relate across the board, which might explain why Kris Allen (Gemini/Cancer cusp) upset Adam Lambert (Aquarius) on American Idol (much more on this later).

Prince is archetypally Gemini as he works out his relationship with his father in Purple Rain, celebrity in Rainbow Bridge and self-indulgence in Under The Cherry Moon.

Prince, like many Gemini’s has also needed a foil. These came in the form of any number of femme fatales that allowed him to externalize his feminine in his art. From Sheila E, to Mavis Staples, to Vanity, he has used the female voice as a conduit, an externalized and interactive muse. Let’s not forget that has also been a symbol as well as a man. This mercurial nature to move from identity to identity is Prince in action, working out the personal and the mythopoetic through his art. Even his songbook reflects the peripatetic nature of his creativity–it’s all over the place–sometimes frustratingly so. Read the rest of this entry »