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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| I don't expect much from Stylist. Still, this doesn't clear even the low bar I set for them. First off, to reiterate stuff I've said before: Yes, of course astrology is bunk. I consider it like folklore or fairy tales: obvious fiction, but still culturally significant, at least from an historical perspective. And it did give way to astronomy, similar to how alchemy evolved into chemistry. Any interpretation about what some particular stellar/planetary configuration "means," however, is purely made up. And second off, we've known about precession for decades. I remember great horror in the astrology community in the 1990s when it became publicized that zodiac signs are nearly one full sign off from their traditional calendar locations (which has been a thing for way longer than decades, but apparently, astrologers hadn't heard), and more freakouts in the noughties when astronomers announced that Ophiucus was part of the zodiac, too. January is over, February is upon us, and we all know what that means: it’s Aquarius season! Yeah, this article has been languishing in the pile for a few months. So what? The original article is nearly 10 years old, anyway. That’s right; astrologers have promised that all planets are going direct and we have zero retrogrades this month, which means we can lean hard into the do-gooder spirit of this astrological season without any annoying complications. This is usually where I close the tab and give up, but I still want to hear her take on the changes. Well, astrology, on the surface, may be based on the position of the sun relative to certain constellations – and it may be influenced by the movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars, too. "May be?" That's what astrology is. Not that it has any bearing on objective reality, but that's the lore that we've inherited. However, it is absolutely not considered to be a science. Finally, the truth. Indeed, it’s been wholeheartedly rejected by the scientific community – with many pointing out that astrological predictions are too general, too unspecific to be subjected to scientific testing. That's hardly the only objection. Even those of us who dismiss astrology as a load of absolute nonsense know which star sign we are. Yes, and as an Aquarius, I dismiss astrology as a load of absolute nonsense. (I am, however, sometimes fond of nonsense.) Because, as you’ve no doubt read already, it was recently revealed that everything we thought we knew about the zodiac was a lie. "Recently," my ass. Suddenly, astrologers started paying attention to astronomers. Selectively. If they'd actually paid attention to everything science said, there wouldn't be astrologers. Nasa – as in, yes, actual Nasa – have confirmed that the sky today is completely different to how it was almost 3,000 years ago, when the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of the zodiac. Sigh. I... I can't even begin. Pauline Gerosa, the consultant astrologer behind Astrology Oracle, tells me: “Ophiuchus has always been one of the constellations that fall along the ecliptic. It just wasn’t selected by the ancient astrologers to be one of the 12 zodiac signs.” To muddy the waters (that's an Aquarius pun) even further, the zodiac constellations (I suppose I should explain here that these are the made-up interpretations of stellar configurations that get crossed by the Sun, Moon, and planets) aren't all nicely uniform in size. The article delves into that bit later. “It’s important to remember that astrology is NOT astronomy,” she adds. “Astronomy is a scientific concept based on 3D material reality. Astrology is a symbolic language, a philosophy, a multidimensional concept. They used to be seen as two sides of the same coin and hopefully they will be again.” You know, I can't really fault this quotation too much. It gives too much credit to astrology, perhaps, but considering the source, that's understandable. There are some more details at the article, but I just have one more takeaway from this: this represents an intrusion of actual science—well, not so much actual science as astronomical categorizations—into astrology. Maybe there'll be more of this, and astrology will be sent back to folklore, where it belongs, instead of being taken seriously as life direction and fate. |
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