Please read the Magic Beans story ( in "the Esoteric Ruler") for the next discussion, and continue on through the progressions for Taurus Rising,pp. 35-43.
There is no astrology background required for this discussion. I'm hoping to hear from more participants. Here's some information about the story:
Magic Beans:
The underlying issue is fear of insuffiency, or financial survival. As one of my Taurus Rising clients put it, "I sure wouldn't want to be a bag lady in my old age. I'm afraid of outliving my money!"
This version of Magic Beans comes from Czarist Russia. It has a more religious overtone than other, more familiar versions of the tale.
One sub theme is: How much do we expect of God and how much is required of us?
At first appearance, a medieval story that took place in a village where everyone lived in a hut with a mud floor seems to have little relevance for Westerners in the 21st Century. We live in an entrepreneurial time, with a strong, sizeable middle class and room for upward mobility.
The couple in the story worked in their fields, few of us do that now.Our neighbors don't live in small huts. Many people feel they have to keep gilding the Mask, accumulating possessions to "keep up with the Joneses." The couple didn't have that issue.
So, our society is very different, yet there are parallels: this couple really needed the treasure. They were probably in debt to the local moneylender; today we have credit card debt, national debt and deficits. The future seems less secure, especially in old age. Clearly, we still need our survival instincts in the second half of life.
The Story is about the Taurus/ Second House Theme: Resources and Resourcefulnes, Aphrodite (the Treasure) and Vulcan (the process, or the second half of life quest.)
After reading the story you might ask yourself:
1) What was the couple's attitude toward the gift when they discovered the beans? Gratitude? Receptivity to the possibilities It might offer? Curiousity about who left the gift, in order to perhaps, find a generous neighbor and reciprocate?
2) Time went by before the beanstalk grew. When the beanstock had fully grow--ascended to Heaven-they thought they understood the gift. Were they right?
3) Do you think they saw their journey as a failed test in the end? Or might they have rested up and tried again, with a different attitude? (clue: Time goes on. See the Gemini and Cancer progressions.)
4) Is the treasure something we necessarily have to work hard and earn, or might it lie within us? What other kinds of resources do we have, besides effort and money, by the second half of life?
When you finish, please read the online discussion questions for the story. I hope more of your will join our discussion,it should be fun.
If anyone has a treasure dream you'd like to share, please do. It might help amplify our discussion. The structure of treasure dreams that people have spontaneously recounted during readings is surprisingly similar to that of the old tales.
Replies
You're most welcome.
Thank you for sharing those beautiful oils paintings on Facebook. I see why you love that area! Your feelings about it shine through your art.
July should be a good time for travel abroad, bringing out the Gemini sense of fun,after the Taurus sense of duty this last year. Finances should ease in the summer for the Earth Signs, and if they don't, it'll be good to have Jupitr in Air for a year, shedding financial fears after a time of austerity.
Glad you're getting out for a meal soon, though.
Wow Kathleen this is great! Its good to hear there are others in this position - not that I wish it on anyone, but I feel less alone with it. You are totally right about how it felt 12 years ago and now being bored with it! Spot on there.
Yes there is a financial restriction, though we have made plans to go abroad in July, and I have started to get invites for things later in the year, I feel short of energy and resources. Nice to hear things change in June.
Getting away with my husband is hard - part of the issue is we have little child looking after resources available, and no overnight ones. Something I am trying to address at the moment. But its hard to build up 'credit' with other parents when they have all the family they need close by for getaways, or they don't value the getaway. However the three of us are going for a meal which will be appreciated by us all.
I would so love to do a format art course... and have so nearly committed to it a few times but the reality is I just don't have any more time spare to be that committed over a year. I would need to drop some work, but then not have the funds to pay for it, or the household... back to funds again, so you are right!
In terms of places of beauty - well thats one thing that has been sustaining me - I live in Rural Wales, Snowdonia UK. It is absolutely stunning here, even in bad weather - so my runs in the mountains do a lot for my artistic side too and my inspiration.
See here https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualMountainWalking?sk=photos
and here https://www.facebook.com/EmmaSunertonBurlArt
My darker paintings are all still work in progress :D
So good to hear how things are likely to progress - thank you for taking the time to explain all this Kathleen I appreciate it :D
Thank you for your reply Kathleen - this sentance particularly hit home for me
"Work that you love won't leave you with burnout or your wheels spining for long. Your hike, for example, will re-energize you. But if the inner Aphrodite is unhappy, she can sulk!"
It so expresses how I have been feeling - like I am scared my good success at working at the moment will burn me out and I am somehow 'supposed' to give something up, and also statement about aphrodite being unhappy and sulking - so describes how things have been recently. My time is a lot of work, and family responsibility, I am running a lot as release which is excellent, however it feels like just being me time is missing, and this ties into the freeness I feel when in party mode - I do really miss her at the moment... And can't seem to reclaim her energy here even if I go out socialising.. I am feeling restricted.
So thank you I did shed a few tears and do feel better for that and now a framework to think in too :D Thank you :D
I have just read a bit aphrodite and venus (taurus ruler) and it dawns on me the two things I have experienced as a taste of what I want more of is a spontaneous coming across a humourous operetta being performed at a pizza place we went to last week - it was wonderfully releasing for me, and also the art group I am part of - though I have been producing very dark ominous paintings the last few weeks symbolic of the sulk I think :D
You are not alone.Several women who have Taurus Rising have told me they're missing their Party Girl days. Aphrodite's social side is feeling restricted.
12 years ago, when Jupiter was in Taurus, (the planet has a 12 year orbit) Venus was able to expand the persona, redefining it to include other people. She was happy with the changes.
12 years later, Jupiter is again in your First House, --there's an impulse to feel, "Jupiter's back, I should be able to play and expand my horizons; buy a new outfit and go out to dinner with friends, or get away for the weekend somewhere beautiful." Venus likes beautiful scenery.
But this time seems different, and it's more a challenge to find an outlet for Venus. Part of it is the economic crunch --my Aphrodite neighbor (double Libra) told me last week she hasn't bought perfume in 2 years, for instance. Her tax accountant told her to quit worrying and buy it, that she can't solve the nation's economic problems alone anyhow.
Part of it is, everyone is reacting to the constant, scary economic news,making it harder to in touch with Jupiter's expansiveness. Aphrodite feels cabin fever this time around.
12 years ago, the Jupiter cycle coincided with the beginning of your Cancer progression, establishing your new family identity ( solid Taurus foundation) but now you're used to Cancer Rising progression -it's no longer new.
Perhaps you and your husband can get away together for Valentine's Day?
Juptiter is also about foreign language, higher education--many options will occur in the summer when Jupiter enters Gemini. It'll spend a year in there, partly in your First, and I think, your Second.
It sounds as if you're already doing a lot, though; you wouldn't have time for a formal study of art...?.
Parks and museums are great for dispelling dark mood, unless one spends time with the "darker" artists!
As you read the Gemini questions, other options may occur. Aphrodite is the spiritual ruler of Gemini. Starting in June, we'll all have a year of Jupiter- in- Gemini, and more of us will move from austerity, (away from Taurus: "I shouldn't spend the money") to getting out more with friends.
Yes! You've given words to how I feel about travel. For the first time in years, I don't have a desire to travel to visit friends/family in other parts of the country. Instead I've been encouraging everyone I know who lives at a distance to please download and use Skype.
I hope Jupiter transiting through Gemini will be me a little more pizaz. But for now, I want to stay home.
Thank you for the clarity.
Staying home sounds like a plan, at least until Jupiter comes around for all those Tauran planets. Even then, though, you might be involved in social life close to home, or have distant relatives turning up to visit.
Skype is a wonderful invention!
Thanks Anne - it is good to hear, I do think I have stuff about this at the moment.. Partly why I was drawn to this group, exploring it through astrology appealed :D
It's interesting that you've been through a nurturing phase for the past several years from having your son to your business. I've also noticed that financial independence (paying your own way) is important.
In my view, one of the highest forms of nurturing is making sure you're okay so that you have something to give to others.
What was the couple's attitude toward the gift when they discovered the beans? Gratitude? Receptivity to the possibilities It might offer? Curiousity about who left the gift, in order to perhaps, find a generous neighbor and reciprocate?
It is like they were feeling great need and not seeing opportunity or possibility for growth – in a state where feel powerless and like there is no spiritual help available – nothing 'magic' can happen to us type thing. Impossible to see beyond what they had experienced up to that point in life. Cast off the gift of abundance through lack of realisation that change starts from small acts perhaps. Possibly too very caught in thinking of life and opportunity as purely from their own physical experience. Not questioning even when the whole story started - later they are the same too.
2) Time went by before the beanstalk grew. When the beanstock had fully grow--ascended to Heaven-they thought they understood the gift. Were they right?
No they weren't right, they were still thinking from Earthly perspectives. Limited by their thinking. I personally often feel its my taurus asc that doesn't like change so limits my vision of how things could be by what I have experienced so far, rather than thinking more creatively. I can get there in the end, but I know I have a tendancy to stay in the box so to speak, when I so need to be out of it :D
Do you think they saw their journey as a failed test in the end? Or might they have rested up and tried again, with a different attitude? (clue: Time goes on. See the Gemini and Cancer progressions.)
No not initially, I can see where you are going with this though – Cancer is more inspiriational, and allows in more possibilities and other realms – they are more likely to be happy in heaven then, gemini perhaps is still getting the hang of seeing things in different ways (mutable) Once having tried everything out, then heaven is the better place to stay perhaps :D Being in our spiritual self rather than just working with the mundane self.
Is the treasure something we necessarily have to work hard and earn, or might it lie within us? What other kinds of resources do we have, besides effort and money, by the second half of life?
Our experience that physical things don't bring the joy we seek, that something else has to happen to find that joy. A change in priorities perhaps, a change in perspective. Perhaps a more enquiring mind of what is actually possible rather than following along what we have been taught. (asking what the question is...)
In a sense they were both so sure what awaited them when they reached the top, that they didn't first step back to see what was there unjudgingly. It seems the curiosity of gemini was missing, and the then wisdom of the cancer progression – everything is one... whether they were on Earth or in heaven they were the same soul type thing.
The hard work we have to do is getting out of the conditioning we get to begin with often, and find out what our heart actually wants. Less need to fit in, more need to be true to oneself perhaps.
Some thoughts of mine off the top of my head :D mostly talking of my experience of course... Really interested in what other see..
Thank you, Emma, for that analysis. I was hoping to hear from you on this one, as it's your Ascendant and you'd be drawing on your experence.
This is our first tale about the second half of life, and as such can seem a bit of a let-down. We're used to stories about youthful heroism --Jason wins the Fleece (more on that in the teleseminar) or young Jack climbs the beanstalk, slays the ogre and gets the (literal) treasure. Youthful heroism and its feats of derring-do are usully about achieving something concrete after plowing through many obstacles. Hollywood action movies reinforce our expectations of a certain type of happy ending.
First half of life stories are similar to the example in this seminar, "Joe integrating his Mars," in that the hero becomes more confident as a result of the quest in the outer world. We need these Mars qualities in youth, but growing older requires a different type of courage.
By their mid-forties (considering life expectancy to be 90 or above) people begin to face a different kind of obstacles and need different qualities, patience, for instance, and a more "down-to-earth," common sense approach. Sometimes people discover their expectations of life were somehow out of kilter, and need to readjust. Or they have certain preconceptions they can't get past, in spite of the reality of the situation.
Treasure stories for midlife and after describe stuations where people might be worried about the wrong things, and as a result, not notice when the Mysterious Stranger comes along and offers the thing they really need, if only temporarily.They may worry that have no children to help them, or that their chlidren live too far away or are not doing financailly well enough to assist them.
To take a concrete example, out-of-work older people may look at their situation and think, "a part time job isn't enough; only a full-time job will keep me in my current lifestyle, so I''m turning down the part-time job offer from a-friend of- a firend (Mysterious Stranger) to keep my schedule open for a full-time job. I don't want to settle for just anything!" And time passes,they're now three years older and deeper in debt.
In this story, the couple came to terms quickly with the fact that they weren't going to get what they expected from their efforts in climbing the beanstalk. But they didn't stay up in the clouds (Heaven) but immediately "came down to earth."
From the perspectie of youthful heroism,it seems a retrograde solution,its appears that they failed at the task. But for older people, accepting life as it is, and choosing it Life, is often the courageous decision.
The question on how the progressions help is not so much about the couple in the tale as it is about the rest of us. We've learned to compartmentalize life, we keep moving "ever onward and upward" and may not pay much attention to our budget or savings account. We don't ask the right questions.or notice what's going on, like credit card debt accumulating. Many nations are as bad at this as individuals.
Anna Freud's point is well taken, "therr's nothing common about common sense." It's a rare person who consistently acts on it.
You note that you see where I'm going with that progression question.Yes, it's a partial segue to next week' and Gemini Rising, then on to Cancer. Every Earth Sign Ascednant is followed by Air and Water Progresion, during which certain qualities are brought out, if the potential is there in the Radix (root) horoscope. (Natal chart.)
Perhaps this arrangement is Divine mathematics?
Before we leave Taurus. I'm still hoping others will "tackle" this treasure story, partly to get the feel of the difference between the first and second half of life.
And then we'll discuss what it's been like since last June (Jupiter- in -Taurus.)
If we look back 12 years to the last time Jupiter was in Taurus, how does this cycle (June 2011-June 2012) differ? Theoretically we should have been improving, expanding our quality of life. However, due to economic constrictions, have we economized? What, if anything, have we given up in the House with Taurus on the cusp--for you, Emma, that's the persona of course, the First House,
How was this cycle different? And have we learned anything as a result?
I'll start: Jupiter- in-Taurus is occuring in my 12th House. On the last cycle, 12 years ago, there were several trips, not only to lead yoga retreats but to take others' retreats. 12th house transits for me tend to mean spending on my Soul! I was unble to do that this time, but grew in other ways, thrrown back on my oun resources. (Resources and resourcefulness is the Taurus Archetypal theme.)
In sum, how do we become more grounded while Jupiter prompts us to expand, yet the economy constricts us?
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