Valediction, Virtu, and the Imaginal Role
Poet Ezra Pound gives a Fascist-style salute on his arrival in Naples, Italy. He was accused of treason for broadcasts made in Italy during World War II and returned to the U.S. in 1945. He was later judged to be insane.
And in thy mind beauty, O Artemis,
as of mountain lakes in the dawn,
Foam and silk are thy fingers,
Kuanon,
and the long suavity of her moving
From the Cantos. Like many passages in that work, this one exemplifies Pound’s devotion of the epiphanies of the triple Goddess. It discloses his “valediction” from Shodashi/Sarasvati, mistress of sciences, arts, and religions (devotional practices) who oversaw the lunar shift into which he was born. Sarasvati teaches all the arts, like the mistress of a dance school who advises on all forms of performance, even though the dance teachers (other Devatas and Dakinis) each specialize in a particular style. Pound is famous for treating many genres. He was an all-round, Sarasvati-style educator. He acted as mentor to several contemporary geniuses such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Eustace Mullins whom he instructed on the JQ. He edited many books and journals and poems, including The Waste Land. More on Pound in an upcoming Cameo (I wish!).
virtuosity: the quality of being exceptionally skilled at something
virtu: the potency, the efficient property of a substance of person. Virtù, an Italian word meaning “virtue” or “power”, derived from the Latin virtus (lit. “manliness” but for a sense of ‘man’ closer to ‘gentleman’ than ‘masculine’ or ‘male’). It describes the qualities desirable for a man, as opposed to vizio (vice). In the Italian language, the term virtù is historically related to the Greek concept of aretḗ.
vir- PIE root, “prowess, heroism,” found in virility and virago, male and female terms.
VIRgin! The Mother of Virtues. Tripurasundari, the beautiful one of the three cities, is like the midwife of all three fields of culture, science, art, religion (devotional practices). Related unit: The Thrice-Beautiful Lady Alchymia (in development).
Prenatal Inception Commentary:
[Note: I say, don’t say “the” when you pronounce the Valediction pronounced upon your birth. I meant to add, say “a.” Everyone born during the 28 days of the same shift receives that Valediction. The Dakinis and Devatas are generous, like the Aeonic Mother, who produces thousands of acorns that emerge in only a few oak trees, or even one oak tree. Among thousand who receive the same Valediction, not everyone lives it out, embodies it in a genuine way. It’s a beautiful gesture of recognition.]
You can address someone else honorifically with either “the” or “a”, but speaking of yourself say “a.”
The primary algorithm in Celestics is asset > constellation: Mars > Crab, Uranus > Bull, Venus > Scorpion, etc. There are 16 primary algorithms in every manifold. I have no idea how it goes for you when you run an algorithm in a way comparable to running a mythophrenic fugue. You may free-associate wildly and veer into tropes and allusions that do not strictly fit the code line generated by the algorithm. Or you may experience direct and brilliant hits relevant to your passions, aspirations, and memories. A fair amount of work in Celestics is hit-or-miss, but you can develop consistent and memorable code-lines over time.
- Cinematic metaphor: Contrast Scorpionic personal attributes in astrology to Scorpion motifs and themes in Celestics. Analogy of the actor (horoscope, terrascope) and the character in a plot (manifold). The constellations/engrams show scripting templates that inform the motives and actions of the character, distinct from the personal characteristics of the actor.
- Pertinent case (Ceridwen, below): the constellation on the ascendant is the Scorpion, and the mark of virtu is Jupiter in Scorpio, 12th facet.
- Planetary rulerships. Each planet rules a sign, Mars for Scorpio, but each planet can be in any sign. Mars ruling Scorpio does not mean that martial skills are inherently Scorpionic. Mars :: defiance, self-assertion, social ambition. It can operate through any sign. It tends to assume a distinct focus in the sign it rules, but is equally effective elsewhere. So, reading Jupiter in Scorpio, the mark of virtu, you do not assume Sagittarian attributes and attitudes due to Jupiter ruling that sign. You consider how it works in that sign.
- In other words, Jupiter ruling Sagittarius does not imply that the range of Jupiterian skills is inherently Sagittarian. It merely has a distinct facility or advantage in the sign it rules, and it operates with other effects in all the other signs. Very few astrologers make this distinction clearly or consistently. I stress it here to assist you in order to avoid confusion between characterizations of behavior in astrology and Celestics.
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The Valediction
Studies in Celestics indicate that virtu (short for virtuosity) has three precedent and supporting components: supernatural flair or charm (seen in the “valediction”) – imaginal role – and signature talent. These three factors can be identified in this way:
A supernatural flair, innate, disarming charm: prenatal lunar shift of birth (prenatal inception)
B imaginal role : constellation on the ascendant at birth
C signature talent, the mark of virtu : planet ruling the rising sign (not constellation) at birth
It is easy to determine these three components for any native (traditional term for the subject of a horoscope reading). One example (JLL):
A. Valediction = lunar shift of birth : BodhiMa, who imparts the “valediction” honoring the departure into life
B. Imaginal role = constellation on the ascendant : Twins, the Tantrika, mystical lover, double agent
C. Virtu = astrological ruler of SIGN on the ascendant : Moon rules Cancer placed in 6th Facet in Sagittarius. These are specifics of the mark of virtuosity that indicate the style of expressing it (Sagittarius) and existential context or circumstances in life where it is tested and proven (facet 6)
A, B, and C work complementary, and play out in a three-point dynamic without you needing to understand exactly how it does so. It is something inherent to your total way of being and acting that works for you without you quite knowing how it does, or how to define it. I emphasize that appreciating this dynamic is not an analytic exercise. You can’t squeeze it out rationally, and you don’t need to psychoanalyze yourself to get it. Instead, you savour it, savour yourself, sink into the mysterious allure of your presence.
In an indefinable way, the supernatural flair (A) carries a force of persuasion. It entices you to assume an imaginal role or secret identity (B), similar to the way that children like to play-act in different roles. The imaginal role is not an escapist fantasy or narcissistic indulgence in a false pretence. It is not a fantasy about what you wish to be; rather, if it is genuine and well-chosen, it captures your deepest longing about what you can really be in a transcendent or transpersonal way. If the role is not a ploy of fakery, it becomes a source of inner enjoyment that supports the emergent self (ascendant). Over time, your skill in playing that role comes to its best expression in the signature talent, virtu (C).
Caveat
The assessment of this three-point feature of the psyche is delicate and precarious. The dynamic of the ensemble is something subtle and subliminal. You can sense it deeply without defining it mentally. The three factors are like free-floating chemicals that merge in a solution without your involvement. You cannot force yourself mentally to see how this chemistry works. It is a potion of hidden persuasion whose source you cannot quite locate. It comes to you rather like DI, caught on a passing breeze. Like foam and silk, and a long suave motion. Seeing it requires contemplation and patience. Do not expect yourself to get it merely from the explanation here. It comes as an epiphany of wonderment, the pleasure of the treasure that is your life captured in a magical lens. It comes in mythopoetic language.
“The Lord of Andromeda is a mosaic gel, and his Consort is a scarf.”
Constellation and Sign
Assessing the mark of virtu requires a little skip from the stellar format of Celestics to the sign-based format of the horoscope. Be sure at first to have a definite and proven sense of one’s life guardian and one’s muse. The Dakini or Devata who pronounces the valediction is neither, but in some cases it may match up with one or the other. A valediction is the act of saying farewell that welcomes you into life. Think about that!
A valedictory speech is given by the highest ranking student in a graduating class. The valediction signalled by the lunar shift of birth endows a subtle, exotic charm upon the individual. This is not an influence or feature of personal agency like the power of the life guardian or muse — although, as noted, in some cases they may coincide.
Supernatural flair is like a pervasive fragrance that infuses a rare, inexplicable property into the character of an individual. It is truly ineffable. It is like the flavor of a wine that cannot be reduced to a single element of its material ingredients such as type of grape, additives, vintage year, or mineral content. And like the flavor of wine, it matures over time. Supernatural flair transcends personality and yet instils it. It is a subtle distilled quality that eludes definition, as if it were intangible. But it is tangible to deep recognition.
Perhaps the key syntax for the valediction is: it elicits. What exactly does it elicit? It elicits the imaginal role, a secret identity, like a magician producing a rabbit from a hat. That is the most that can be said of how the valediction “influences” the individual at a subliminal level.
The valediction can do no harm, but the imaginal role it elicits can be managed poorly, in a muddled way, in a selfish fixation, or in a masterful way. Its intent is totally benevolent, “a blessing.” In every case, its nurtures and supports the inner life of the individual even if it does not come to be owned in clear and discernible expressions. It is a transcendent element in self-recognition. When you know the devata or dakini who oversees the shift in which you are born, and you accept the valediction, you acquire a designation in this syntax:
“Fortunate son or daughter of ____”
Second example (Ceridwen): “Fortunate daughter of Kurukulla.”
A. Valediction assessed from the lunar shift at birth: January 12th, new moon five days earlier on January 7th in 18 Capricorn @ E 288 in the Archer. Kurukulla confers the valediction. This is a subtle call because the sunset crescent appears in the Great Void and then glides into the Goatfish. There is no devata or dakini correlate to the Great Void, yet the constellation of the Skydancer hovers over it. (Hmmm, I wonder if the meme of the dancer could be a clue to the property of supernatural charm here? Biographic evidence?)
This screenshot shows the first occasion of sighting the sunset crescent of the lunation before birth. It is gliding through the Great Void after the boundary in 18 Capricorn @ 188. This is exactly on the border of Archer and Great Void. What’s the call? PT assigns no devata or dakini to the Great Void. In the first assessment of this nativity, I favored the crescent in the Goatfish with the Valediction of KaliMa; but upon closer investigation, I discerned otherwise.
The Great Void really is remarkably absent of stars after E 188, 18 Capricorn. But the graphics of the Archer show both the quiver or scarf above and the horse-body below, aligned to later degrees of ecliptic latitude. It’s valid to see that the dim star marking the hoof of the centaur figure at 24 Capricorn, and the stars marking the scarf or quiver, belong to the extent of the composite stars of the Archer. Stars up to E 295 or 25 Capricorn are in that composite. So, there is the option to read the crescent from that constellation even though it appears in the Void.
Also, note that the not-so-dim star marking the tail of the Eagle/Skydancer aligns to 18 Capricorn @ 288, right on the border. (Lines of celestial longitude above and below the ecliptic cross it at slanting angles which you can see if you check ecliptic grid on Stellarium.) The Skydancer hovers over the Great Void and aligns to some stars in the Archer. What to make of this in calling the Valediction?
I have assumed until now that no devata/dakini correlates to the Great Void, but the subtleties of this case tell otherwise. I conclude, when there is a new moon in the Archer and a sunset crescent in the Great Void, the Valediction comes with something like a back-up boost from the Skydancer, the constellation of VV. Remember, Kurukulla is a Diamond Sky Dakini, the lucky 13 in the Shakti Cluster. The celestial tableau shows that her arts of high magic, including killing, are all dedicated to VV, the Skydancer hovering over the Great Void. I conclude that in some cases the Valediction of Kurukulla carries the high octave of VV. Note carefully that this does not occur if the new moon falls at the forefront of the Archer, or more west in the Snaketamer, so that the sunset crescent appears in the Archer. In this case it does not, but the Valediction comes from KK anyway, with a boost from VV. This is a rare and subtle incidence of Valediction which I have only seen in this case, Ceridwen, the admin of Nemeta. I invite you to draw the inferences as you see them!!!
B. Imaginal role, constellation on the ascendant: @E 249 in the heart of the Scorpion. The imaginal role is the secret agent/avenger. While it cannot be said as a hard rule that the Valediction causes the choice of imaginal role, it does inspire and pervade it in some manner. In this case, the warrior-witch vibes of Kurukulla may be insinuations that play into the avenger role. The themes of the love-death and Kamala’s marriage also figure in the Scorpion-based role. The secret imaginal identity of the native carries these elements as subliminal directives, clues, cues, prompts.
C. Mark of Virtu, ruler of the SIGN on the ascendant: Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, placed in the 4 Scorpio in facet 12. Here is where we jump from Celestics to conventional astrology (albeit the Lashian recension, which is anything but conventional). In Celestics, no planet rules any constellation. In astrology, Jupiter rules the rising sign Sagittarius and so you look for the sitation of that planet in the birthchart. The horoscope shows Jupiter in 4 Scorpio (the style of virtu) in the 12th facet (house, circumstances of proof).
Jupiter is the most difficult planet to evaluate due to the diversity of its characteristics. It represents both generosity and hate. How can that be? Generosity, not love, is the opposite of hate. Where there is strong generosity, hate is likewise strong — or should be. In the early years of teaching astrology, I characterized this hateful aspect of the ruler Jupiter as “antipathy.” The motives of Jupiter are: to learn, to teach, pursue higher education through the study of literature and art, travel, go adventuring, meet friends in foreign lands. The style is open and amiable until strong antipathy comes into play, then it changes abruptly. In essence, virtu would be found in the Jupiterian skill of expansion of the mind. This is not a Sagittarian skill, it is common to Jupiter in all signs.
Now consider the style of Jupiterian virtu in this case, indicated by Scorpio, and the context of circumstances where it is proven, 12th facet. Again, this is astrology, not Celestics. The Scorpionic style excels in de-masking, ruthless exposure of fraud and pretense, and dark humor, gallows humor. It is Celinesque: Celine had Uranus (originality, invention) in 12 Scorpio. It has a whiplash flair, like the sting of the tail seen in the symbol. It excels in swift, cutting remarks and responses. It also likes to keep secrets.
You profile the style of virtu by looking to where and how it is tested and proven, so that it becomes masterful. The 12th house is notorious in astrology as the domain of “hidden enemies.” I pondered long and hard over what this might mean. Bear in mind that no one knows how circumstantial and existential attributes came to be attributed to the 12 house which are merely stereo-metric projections of space around the birthplace, defined by arcane rule of spherical trigonometry. I kid you not. Also, over time many spurious and misleading features have come to be attributed to the houses, like dust and cobwebs on an antique in the attic. You can hear my idiosyncratic reading of the 12th facet in the commentary.
Addendum, post recording the audio
It’s predictable that anyone wishing to delve into this method of detecting the mark of virtuosity would like to have on hand a list of the styles of the 12 signs and a parallel list of the facets. (A summary description of the planets can be found in the manifold, and it is the same for everyone but it is limited.) Considering all the work I have put into astrology over the years, you might assume that I have such a summary list on hand. How can you evaluate the style (sign) and circumstances (facet) of virtu (planet) without some shorthand notes on sign and facet?
Unfortunately, I don’t have such a convenient summary to offer. The syntax for signs and facets is scattered all over the place in many files, manuscripts, and case-studies. Compiling it into parallel lists is a considerable task which I never seem to get around to doing. Not yet. You might pick up characteristic features of the signs from astrology books, for better or worse. As for the facets, formerly called houses, the standard interpretations you find in astrology books are poor and imprecise. Info on the facets that comes up in a search engine is not wholly trustworthy. For instance, no astrologer to my knowledge calls the 6th facet the situation for the work of love, or work undertaken with those you love. I realize that lacking the operative syntax here will be frustrating to your efforts to assess the mark of virtuosity that fits your natal template.
Finally, on the problem of confounding characteristics of signs versus constellations, I can advise you that it is practically impossible not to cross-reference them. Take the Ram, for instance. An astrologer hearing a Celestician talk about the Ram will jump up and say, “Those are typical traits of an Aries.” A motif of the Scorpion, such as investigation of hidden and infernal powers, will fit some personality aspects of a Scorpio, such as the style of looking beyond appearances, de-masking. The theme of natural beauty in the Bull can be attributed to the Taurean personality. And so on and so forth. It gets all mixed up because the same language works for the two formats.
Bear in mind that no one can explain how certain personal attributes and attitudes came to be assigned to the 12 signs. One thing is certain, however, the constellations were known long before the signs were invented. It’s plausible that the descriptive syntax for sign traits originated in, and emerged from, language applied to the constellations. How and when this occurred, no one knows, but it certainly took centuries. The star-based transpersonal themes of the Twins pre-existed the personalistic characteristics attributed to Gemini, but today there is almost no way to avoid mixing them up.
I think the cinematic metaphor is a good tool for distinguishing the two formats so that you know what you are talking about. The actor (sign) does not have the same values, attitudes, and manners of self-expression as the character (constellation) he or she plays. The constellations represent scripting templates of a generic or universal nature. There are no personality-types in Celestics.
‘Nuff said.