A "Bewitched" Serena LOVEFEST! Serena on MeTV all week long!

Because she was born hundreds of years ago, there's no record of Serena's birthday.  Apparently, this was never taken into consideration when the writer's of the groovy 60s sitcom "Bewitched" were devising character backstories, to consider what the characters' sun signs might be.

I would bet you a bucket of gold dubloons that Serena was (aw, come on, she's ageless and eternal: IS!) an Aquarius.

So it seems cosmiscally right and proper that this week, stuck right in the middle of Aquarian Time, MeTV is presenting a Serena Fest!  Just think: one whole week of primetime "Bewitched" episodes featuring my favorite sitcom character of all time.

As you probably know, Elizabeth Montgomery played both roles, and played them exquisitely (although Serena was credited as being played by Pandora Spocks.  Say it fast; you'll get the pun).  As a child, I was enthralled with the idea of having a dual role in a play or TV show, of having a photo double you'd respond to.  Then, as I got older, what really got me intrigued was the not as much the idea of having a groovy cousin who you resembled so much that people got conufused (sparking much madcap zaniness), but rather the theme of the alter ego.

Which got me thinking of my own personal astrology.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm an Aquarius, full out and proud.  But I'm also a Leo rising.  That's the part that allows me to be onstage, both literally and figuratively, helps me transcend my Aquarian oddballness and tendency to be rather remote.  And it's on the opposite side of the astrological wheel, a bit of a polar opposite.  So, in some ways, I've been living the Samantha/Serena life.  The oddly aloof versus the gregarious.  The highly creative child versus the respectable adult.

We're all an amalgam of warring factions.  All of us have sides of our personality that seem to clash with other attributes and interests we develop in life.  So it makes perfect sense that the concept of the alter ego, the light and dark, continues to inspire and intrigue us over the centuries.  It's so very universal, while being so very personal and unique to each of us.

I invite you all to catch this week's MeTV "Bewitched" episdoes and take some time to ask yourself who your "other self" is, what she wants and what you can do to feed her.  Because, like Serena in her go-go boots and maribou, she won't be going away any time soon.

Happy birthday, Dean Jones (you "Love Bug", you!)

Oh, to be 5 years old again and thrill to this live-action Disney gem, "The Love Bug"!  Oh, to fall madly in love with Dean Jones (whose 82nd birthday is today.  Happy natal day, good sir!) and to wish you were as spunky and sparkly as Michelle Lee!  Oh, to own a VW Bug that splits in two!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjEjY0eV9u8

Oh, and there's Buddy Hackett and David Tomlinson, too!!  Man, what Disney film WASN'T Tomlinson in??

"All the Children Sing" - So coloreth the mystic Todd Rundgren.

Todd Rundgren.  It's amazing he's not an Aquarian (born June 22, so that would make him a Cancer, but just barely.  On the Gemini-Cancer cusp.  So he's got the split personality of the Twins combined with the sensitivity of the Crab.  I have many Cancerians in my life, including my sweet, wacky, caring, wonderful Daddy; they are unique, special, challenging, mercurial, emotional, friendly, and crazy like Aqaurians, but very sweet.  Sometimes we Aquarians like to freak people out for the heck of it; a Cancer wouldn't do that.  With a Cancerian, it would occur by happenstance.  Then they might apologize for shaking you up.  Most Aquarians won't apologize.  And it's not that we aren't nice; the oddballness is hardwired into our psyches and cosmology and it ain't goin' anywhere).

So.  The Sun is now firmly in Aquarius.  Ruled by Uranus, the planet of "Holy CRAP!  Did THAT just happen!?", it's replete with rainbows and geegaws and silliness and some eccentricity.  No, a LOT of eccentricity.  We Aquarians are eccentric as children (often ridiculed as thus - be we ALWAYS get the last laugh), grow into eccentric teens, travel throughout our adulthoods (wait - there is no such thing as a grown-up Aquarian; strike that), and, as seniors, are the old folks who do odd things and who people just adore - and often revere.

As my birthday is only a week or so away, I'm swept up in Aquarian Sun energy.  Things happen.  Jobs pop out of nowhere.  My hairstyle changes from day to day.  I find things in my closet that have no BUSINESS going together/being pulled out in the first place, and I wear them.  And I often hear music in colors.

This is called synesthesia.  Basically, it's the blurring of senses.  While I've tested myself and did not test positive for synesthesia, for some reason, during this time of year, I sometimes experience music as color.  Or color as music.  Smells hit me as colors, but rarely as music.  Textures are musical though.

And why bring up Todd Rundgren just now?  Because this morning I was looking at something multi-colored, rainbowy.  And it made Rundgren's song "All the Children Sing" come to mind.  And I heard it in  colors.  So, curious if there was a video of the song on Youtube, I looked and lo! there was one.  And it's VERY colorful.  And happy-crazy.  With little dolls (scary little versions of the pleasant, sweet dolls in "It's a Small World") singing like Clutch Cargo, Rundgren in googly eyeglasses, and a wind-up bunny playing the drums.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPsZa_N7jY

I feel the song is about the "a-ha!" moment, those times when something hits you and helps you see (or hear?  Smell?) things differently.  A paradigm shift.  It's about how we're all united in that moment when "a bell in your head will ring".  And then "All the Children Sing" - it's a human condition.  It's a unifying, universal condition.  And Rundgren paints it in a rainbow of quirk, not only in the lyrics, but in the video.  And the song itself is at once an anthem for harmony and for the universal quality of "Holy CRAP!  Did THAT just happen?!".

Perhaps those moments propel us into a higher plane ...

Monday is Tarot Day: Climbing Up On Solsbury Hill

"Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
(I) just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said "Grab your things,
I've come to take you home." - "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel

I took a look at the calendar today and realized that not only is it the day before Valentine's Day (which, most often, is when Ben and I go out for  Valentine's Day dinner, rather than V-Day proper, which always costs a butt load more and is so very crowded and nasty), but it's also the 62nd birthday of the amazing Peter Gabriel, one of the most creative, inspiring artists to share the planet with the rest of us.  I get all cocky when I realize we're both Aquarians, feeling that some of the same magical starshine that gave him such gifts has dusted off on me, due to our shared astrology.  Well, one can only wish I got even an ant's eyedropper's worth.

As Monday is Tarot Day on the blog, I took a look at Peter's work and said, "Come to me, oh song to inspire some tarot imagery" - and "Solsbury Hill" immediately popped into my brain screen.  After reading the lyrics, I knew I could break it down into a variety of cards, actually. The first verse is a perfect textbook snapshot of a full reading, where the question might be, "What step do I take next?"  The first few lines remind me of the "Hermit": someone seeking some seclusion in order to gain enlightenment.  But then we shift into 4 of Cups energy, where the querrent (imagine Peter Gabriel as a querrent!!) is faced with the need to be attentive, given valuable information he might otherwise be too self-involved or introspective to see.  Following the lyric, the Page of Swords would not trust the information.  But The Fool would trust imagination.

However, to sum up the energy and message of this particular song in a big-picture sense, what comes to mind most strongly is the 8 of Cups, where something that no longer is of benefit is being left behind.  If you take a look at the journeyman in the the image, he's got his walking stick and is clearly on his way somewhere. The moon seems to be waxing; it's a fruitful time, a time to plant seeds for new ventures and worlds.

Gabriel wrote the song about the time when he knew he needed to move on from Genesis and follow his own path.  Notice the red cloak the character in the card is wearing.  I consider that the color of power and forward movement.  Although Cups refer to emotion, heartfelt and deep, the red offsets any sort of sense of melancholy.  This man is on a mission, following the inner strength that comes with knowing yourself enough to trust you can take that next step (do note that he even appears to be aimed at a hill that he would ostensibly climb up...).

Happy Birthday, Peter.  May you continue to seek and learn and share your wisdom with the rest of us, so eager and hungry to gain the wisdom to follow our own True North.