Prophet of the day (according to Ibn 'Arabi): Moses
Lunar phase: Crescent - Expansion (Phase names and keywords from Dane Rudhyar, The Lunation Cycle)
The Sun is still in 24 Sagittarius (in my 4th house): A chubby boy on a hobby-horse. (Symbol for 25 Sagittarius from Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala)
A few minutes before jacija ('isha), the Moon transited my natal Jupiter (in my 6th house). Later this evening, the Moon will transit my natal Chiron (also in my 6th house).
I finished up grades for another class. An interlibrary loan book came in, so I went to campus to leave the finished papers with the office assistant and picked up my book, which is about Althusser, Badiou, and Žižek.
I have been thinking about my "turn" toward contemporary philosophy. I can trace it back to my interest in Peter Wilberg's work, when I felt that the Amma organization wasn't able to offer me the appropriate ideological support for my interest in mystical Hinduism. I liked Wilberg blend of mysticism, philosophy, psychology, and politics. One of the key events from that period was when he posted The Coming Insurrection (L'insurrection qui vient) by The Invisible Committee (Comité invisible). This, and the story of the Tarnac 9, led me to publications such as Adbusters and The New Internationalist. In Adbusters in particular, the names of Badiou and Žižek kept coming up, so I slowly began to explore their work. I have progressed from an initial fascination with the shock value of neo-Situationist publications like Adbusters to a desire to try to grasp some of the foundations of current European philosophy. Recently, I read a booklet of interviews with Badiou and Élisabeth Roudinesco about Lacan and his legacy. This helped me to understand some of the differences between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy or psychiatry. I am beginning to see how, as I have distanced myself more and more New Age ideologies of potentially endless comfort and satisfaction, I am beginning to participate more and more on an intuitive level in ways of thought that have been well established in certain Continental intellectual circles. Wilberg's work and, following from that, the work of Laing and of David Smail, have helped me to shed certain preconceptions about--once again--potentially endless happiness that seem to be reinforced culturally, even as they are realized in truth by practically no one.
Peace,
KH
