JANUARY 28: THE CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE ROOSTER

YEAR OF THE ROOSTER: While traditionally, it reflects the qualities of Courage, Responsibility and Punctuality, another name for Rooster, often used in fairytales, is THE CHANTICLEER: Clear Voice or Clear Song. I became aware of this word through reading Dane Rudyar's book on Sabian Symbols, channeled images for each degree of the zodiac.* Rudyar's interpretation of this image for 23 Libra is, "The Chanticleer's Voice Heralds Sunrise: A creative and joyous response to life processes. The Cock that crow's as the first coloring of dawn appears at the eastern horizon is a beautiful symbol of the ability, demonstrated by all pioneers and cosmically attuned individuals, to give voice to what is as yet unmanifested, but is on the way to manifestation. At the ego level, chanticleer may feel that he makes the sun rise; but someday he will learn through painful experiences that to create is only to reveal what essentially is. It is the vivid recognition of the as-yet-unknown in the known. We might also use the expression 'The Wake-Up Call' for the Chanticleer."

The synchronicity of symbols is evident when we consider the events of this New Year of 2017. We are being called to task in response to the last gasp of the fading patriarchal paradigm in which we have been living. And we are responding with an resounding resurgence of passionate self and collective assertion: We Are Here and We Won't Take It Anymore! The Double-Speak, The Loss of Appreciation for Soul and Beauty, The Immunity to Compassion and Equality. We have been Woken Up and we are remembering our Voice. Symbols are powerful: A Cock is waking us up!

I was thinking that in the 60's our collective voice was constellated by the War in Viet Nam. Fifty years later we are seemingly moved to action by the absurdity of a cartoon character president (or as Jane Fonda called him Predator-In-Chief), identifying this singular person as the source of our problems. Yet, he is merely the mouthpiece of the force that elected him. [He may not have won the popular vote but we can't deny that our Collective Will also created the Electoral College, not yet caught up to the frailties of that system.] His voice is the voice of small values: they appear to stem from a severely subjective, defensive and outmoded perspective. These values are based on survival of the fittest, when the fittest allows a blatant disregard for fairness, honesty and integrity. It is the ideology of Empire. It is the repressed Fear of the Bully. It is the drive to build a wall of protection against the flooding tide of evolution which is unfolding towards The Feminine Archetype of inclusiveness, diversity, compassion and equality. This is The New FITTEST. Persephone Unbound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CxcnB16Tyk

SCENE FOR THE ROOSTER NEW YEAR: Black Orpheus, 1959, Brazil, France, Italy; Director: Marcel Camus. Just as the Rooster awakens us to the new day, these children believe that when Orpheus plays his guitar he makes the sun rise. When he's gone, these beautiful Brazilian babes dutifully take up the task. Someone's gotta do it! If you've never seen this classic cinematic re-telling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, you're in for a real treat! Here'as a link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWIwTOtvbSk&list=PLiDyexyP_xje_5qizltx14R9s1G7fA2sP