Playing with Sound

I've found some sites (see Chispa Websites in the left hand column) to spark creativity in art, writing, and play. But it's not so easy to find sites for ways to play with music.

Here's something fun that's turning up in every recreational music group I follow. You can create your own song with a swish of your mouse:

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

And you can play with nature too! I received a wonderful sound-gift this week. After a welcome summer rain, the water running off our roof played a compelling rhythm on the top of our compost bin on the back porch. Two drips collaborated:

DOUM ta ta ta DOUM ta ta ta

Yesterday, after another shower (a miracle in itself in July!), I had to skootch the bin a little to the left to capture two new drips. And there it was again, this time faster, more complex. Nature, drumming! And I helped.

Best resource for awakening your ears to environmental sound: the documentary Touch the Sound, which follows the great hearing impaired Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie and her creative process. Immerse yourself!

Creative Assignment: Listen mindfully today. Join in.

The Moon is strong in her own sign . . .

I've written two posts in two years, both in October. As the Sun transits my First House, I remember to blog. It does seem logical: the First House is our persona, the face we present to the world. Only in October was I emboldened to blog.

This past month, astrologers noted a very significant event. The New Moon occurred on June 22, at 1'30" Cancer, at the Summer Solstice, with a second New Moon in the last degree of Cancer (29'27") on July 22, together with a Solar Eclipse. What could possible scream louder This is important! The entire lunar cycle was completed within this single, lovely, nurturing sign, encompassing nearly its entire 30 degrees, and underscored by a solstice and solar eclipse. This indicates a powerful new beginning, a recognition of the coming of the Feminine into our corporate lives.

And in own life, with my South Node in Cancer, and natal Jupiter and Uranus conjunct this Eclipse. . . the time is now. The change is now.


In June I heard Rick Levine in Grapevine, relating astrology to quantum physics and celebrating the vibrations of the Universe. And he made one small comment which electrified me. He was talking about Venus and Pluto in square aspect. In my chart, Venus in her detriment in Scorpio squares Pluto in Leo, on the cusp of my Twelfth House. Of course, I knew this, but because Venus was in "detriment," and I'm quite comfortable with Aphrodite energy, I gave it little thought. Rick was saying: "Venus is the Goddess: here is Isis, Inanna, Astarte, Persephone . . ." And I realized, I had been very literal in my thought about Venus. I had memorized plenty of interpretative keywords, but I had seen her only as Aphrodite.

And I told him at break: "I have always related to the archetype of Persephone, and I never knew why. Now I know. Venus square Pluto: Persephone." He looked at me as presenters do when someone identifies the smallest thing as the most important point they heard. I've had that experience myself.

Toni Wolff, Jung's student and lover and a noted analyst in her own right, would say were she here: What are you going to do with this? If patients told her of a dream, she would ask them at the door when they appeared for their next session: What have you done with the dream? She wanted something concrete, a ritual, a response. If they had dreamed of a hamburger, did they go bury a hamburger--what did they do? If they had no answer, she would say Go away and don't come back till you've done something. I've never dared be so bold with my clients. Will I be so bold with myself?