THE HOUSES OF SEX
A Freudian slip of the tongue could break the sexual ice or
expose an untidy mind at work in the devil’s playground.
Herr Doctor Sigmund Freud, 19th century
psychiatrist, exposed the Victorian age for all its deep
dark secrets, all the taboos of thinking or talking about,
and God forbid, having a sexual relationship or anything
vaguely associated. Freudian symbols were phallic and
primitive, lying in the baser motivations of the human
compendium. Complexes evolved in Freud’s casework about
“Daddy went to prostitutes” or dreams and concerns about
mommy’s undies and privates. The whole hollering birth,
death, sex enigma was unfolding, disrobing for new
generations that previously tried to hide it under the rug.
Of course, we know now from history that Victorian appetite
was far from Spartan. They just didn’t discuss it openly in
parlors, waiting rooms or alcoves. Not even to Doctors.
Houses of sex, in this context, is
not about prostitution although antiquity did not make such
a big deal over it. Sex symbols hung in every Roman house
and kept fertility and the embers of appetite alive and
ready to roar, not too dissimilar from Viagra today.
Astrologically the houses of sex are loosely associated with
Cancer, childhood and home life, Leo, creativity and
pleasure, 10th house male axis for fathers, but
especially Scorpio, which also covers secret stashes, legacy, money and
intense emotion.
Scorpio’s water connection is as unclear as Aquarius’ non
water carrying connection. A scorpion was believed to have
crawled out of the water sometime in its life whereas old
man winter or Urania were involved with watching the
heavens, up in the air. Scorpio was not always a scorpion,
its various avatars were eagle, salamander and lizard. Its
original planet was not Pluto (now demoted from planet
status) but Mars, referred to as Scorpio’s night ruler –
with a tie to the watery salamander once believed to have
been born in flames. (reddish color and flame shaped gill
fins) Symbols behave as they appear and not as catalogued by
modern science, although even that catalogue retains much of
its original astrological associations – the starry
attributes have been replaced by family-like physical
anatomies. Again, you cannot dismiss irrelevant symbols as
unscientific. They were the only science in a time when the
church forbade dissection and inquiry. Church symbolism was
considered more relevant than pagan because of the soul
saving aspect and the income / job security generating
aspect.
If a global conglomerate ran the western world in such
fashion today they would get very bad reviews. The business
of sex iconography is so intense, Scorpionic, and
sales-relevant that debate over naked lady ads is only a
matter of degree, its salaciousness or inappropriate
marketing (to a conservative demographic). We are much more
Roman and cosmopolitan in the west than at any time in the
puritanical periods of preceding history. Items that would
have caused one to be arrested thirty to fifty years ago are
openly sold coast to coast and across the free world. People
in more tightly controlled communities tend to view us as in
league with Satan and don’t always get along well with
western natives or converts. If our enemies insist on
boinking our financial blankets it is only a matter of time
before they are boinked in return. Boinking the economy is
something the west does very well with global results. The
market should be praised for its long term qualities and not
the uncertainty of the short term.
How all this relates to sex is focused on how a culture
reproduces, casually, or reverently. Oddly western openness
leads to lower birth rates and reverence to higher. A
culture’s bottom line is manpower and income per family. A
large family in one economy may have the same advantage as a
small family in another. The expense of survival is the
critical factor and as historian, James Burke points out,
the weather. Astrologers were mainly concerned with stuff
going on overhead. Stars were a good source of information
about weather, when to plant, when to harvest, when to
celebrate. So in one sense the stars told us when to
procreate - usually by throwing a party. Nine month periods
seem to line up with vacations, holidays, and you guessed
it, snowstorms. There's a new demographic now, people
conceived during outages.
No one ever suspects that he or she are part of a
demographic – literally a people picture. Nor has anyone
discovered that this type of research, (who you are, what
you do, how old you are, list is endless), is contributing
to the rise of a kind of symbolism only found in primitive
tribes. The mud people, the skin people, the head hunters,
the red states, blue states, the hippies, the yuppies. We
are making more of a big deal about our demographic handles
than our kinships. I’m upper, lower, middle class. What
would a symbol for that be, Bart Simpson? Symbolism is an
aggressive, opportunistic, force in the free world. It
drives the economy, the political scene – humor especially,
tests our sensitivities, even our market shyness. If you
think symbolism is only for comic book readers look at all
the movie makers getting into that shark fest. The rights
to what was so-called trash, pulp, stuff that was bad for
you back in the 40’s and 50’s, is now being fought over like
rotund 40 something gals at a millenary basement sale on 80%
off day.
Symbolism controls what we eat, wear, look at, read, want to
be when we grow up, who we make love to, have kids with,
type of person we depend on, institutions we work for - yell
at - blame for everything. It controls our sense of
morality, good drugs, bad drugs, types of heroes and
saviors, and wow, makes us feel like, hey man, we can really
exist! We blame advertising and TV for all the demographic
and paradigm shifts but never see the symbolism that we
attach to it, never see our own urban plight in a comic or
a sci-fi show. Who’s going to save us, super hockey mom? Why
does the world depend so much on saviors? We could
arbitrarily worship a stick figure or Keith Herring’s chalk
outline man, a scarecrow, drapery man, insignia man, or
great cosmic being from infinity and beyond. It’s life
saving and life threatening who we choose. The world could
come to blows over a keystroke or a button press.
Why is it that some people see these heroes and saviors as
real flesh and spirit on the one hand, and empty masks we
wear at a glam costume ball on the other? Could it be that
when we put them on for size they make us feel better, more
comfortable hiding behind a mask, more fulfilled because we
have simplified our dreary lives by becoming something
recognizable, something to help us fit in, belong, stand in
line for, join with, be accepted. Conformity is a failed
experiment, fascist horror film, death trap, yet, if there
is more variety of conformity to choose from we are more at
ease. What ever happened to being individual and unique?
Oddly enough that conformity went out with the 60’s and 70’s
and was replaced by healthy greed and self interest. Without
love, sex and money America would not be a super power. Our
symbols are nourishing and keeping us alive. Our glimmer is
hope.
Why not choose a savior that is primal, sexy, good looking,
herculean, omniscient, and more powerful than the wealthy.
Candidate should fly spaceships, rope and eat buffalo,
wrestle alligators, make clothing out of bark and rawhide,
make a home from trash, drive a 0 emission vehicle and of
course, shit ice cream. Why not a healer or a doctor, a
philanthropist who gives away billions to the poor. How
about a sexy nurse who takes in the homeless, a banker who
distributes free food in the park? Oh, here we go – a
policeman who serves as a moral symbol for kids. I know, a
kid who wants to be morally developed and mature when he
grows up. The cosmos is open to all suggestions.
Joseph Warren Beach, Obsessive Images,
characterized the modern hero as someone you would not
likely know or want to meet, a solitary soul with parts
missing. He belongs to a fraternity of dower beings who
cannot be socialized
beyond their injuries, or folded back into society. Needless
to say I mined and excavated this book like a trog in search
of soul treasure.
Writing about and speaking to my
uncle (artist and painter) back from WWII, my post war hero is
similarly different. He often relied on a ball capped,
t-shirted guy as a (gay - to die for) symbol of himself in many of his works:
Exalted to a symbol, he stars in
every one of your paintings, brush technique erasing
identity, scraping curiously as if to scratch the flesh, but
not the soul. An exclamation mark of sanity, he is a
caricature, as typical as you can make him, breathing only
as much life into him as your economy of form will allow
because the hero doesn’t crack or turn and run, exposing his
back.
He is
not a Promethean creation, nor is he Adonis, tragic and
startled,
but the almost familiar
mannequin on which gently hang the gestures of sexual
confidence. He seeks the ultimate relationship, like your
fellow creature, ghost twin, someone so like your genteel
self that were the two of you to meet the couple to die for
would be complete.
Artist conception, portrait
of the dead, a biblical sense of survival, made you a god
who breathes life into everyone. Xenephon, Adonis,
Narcissus, the average guy creates a movie star from the
self-image; but for the medium, the paintings, a fantasy
induced by the need for one.
Symbolism offers a seat of power for any penchant you enjoy
working with, relying on, can’t get enough of. Hollywood
actors who pose in front of typewriters balling up paper and
can’t make a basket on each try are wasting an opportunity
to give creativity a better image; we all use laptops now.
We also get lucky on our first novel. Writing doesn’t have
to be caffeinated or expensive, just virile. Hats off to the
vid shooters who have abandoned pens and pencils all
together, go for the homemade viral video. If your symbol
catches on and spreads like wildfire you have hit the
ultimate glory hole, problem is there are no permanent
symbols. They must be continually buffed and polished. The
Egyptians had the right stuff, get it on
every morning at sunrise and jump start your day.
7. Walking Liberty
