The Irish fairy story, “The Legend of Knockgrafton” tells the story of a hunchback who is described as being so bent over that when he sits down he has to rest his chin on his knees.

Because of his unusual appearance, people are little wary of him although in fact he has a very kind nature and a loving heart. The hunchback is rumoured to be very knowledgeable about herbs and charms but is definitely skilled at weaving objects from straw such as hats and baskets. He is given the nickname Lusmore, which is the name of a herb which he always wears in his hat.

One day, Lusmore has been to market to sell the goods that he has woven from straw and he becomes anxious about travelling home after dark. But he has to rest, so he sits down beside the old moat at Knockgrafton. Sitting quietly, recovering his strength for the journey home, Lusmore hears the most beautiful music he has ever heard. He realises that the mingling of many voices is coming from inside the moat.

The voices are singing “Da Luan, da Mort” over and over again. “Da Luan, da Mort. Da Luan, da Mort. Da Luan, Da Mort.” Despite the beauty of the music, Lusmore begins to grow a bit tired of them repeating the same lyrics over and over again.

He waits patiently until there’s a gap in the singing and begins to sing, adding some extra words to their song, “Da Luan, da Mort augus da Cadine.”

It turns out that the unearthly melody was being sung by the fairies within Knockgrafton. They are stunned and delighted that a mortal should have improved on the song and moreover, waited so patiently before joining in. They get together and decide to reward the hunchback saying, “Lusmore, Lusmore doubt not nor deplore, for the hump which you bore on your back is no more...”

Sure enough, Lusmore feels as light as a feather and finds that he can stand up straight. He feels dizzy with joy and falls into a deep sleep. The following day, he continues his journey home feeling wonderful. Lusmore discovers that he is now quite a dapper little fellow with a new suit of clothes that he assumes the fairies have made for him.

But the story doesn’t end there.

News of Lusmore’s miraculous transformation reaches the ears of Mrs. Madden whose son Jack is a hunchback. But neither she nor her son are good-natured. Mrs. Madden visits Lusmore and asks him where Knockgrafton is. She takes her son Jack there to visit the old moat.

As soon as the fairies begin to sing the new version of their song, Jack Madden interrupts them with what he thinks will earn him an even better reward than Lusmore’s. He sings, “Da Luan, da Mort augus da Cadine augus da Hena.”

The fairies are furious. They sing, “Jack Madden your words came so bad in…” and far from removing his hunchback, they decide to punish him by adding Lusmore’s hump to his own. Jack and his mother make the painful journey home and he dies soon afterwards, cursing anyone who would listen to fairy tunes.

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So what does all this have to do with Astrology? I think that this Irish fairy story is full of astrological references.

Footnotes to my edition say that Lusmore is the name of the herb digitalis pupurea. This is better known as foxglove, poisonous to eat but used as a protection. According to Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, in Wales they used “the leaves of the foxglove to make a black dye, which they used to paint crossed lines on their cottage’s stone floors… to keep evil from entering the house.”

Foxglove is ruled by the planet Venus. The central character Lusmore is skilled at weaving objects from straw: baskets that are practical (Taurus) and hats that are elegant (Libra). He seems suitably Venusian to me.

The song that the good people sing is “Da Luan, da Mort” or “Dia Luain, dia Mairt” which means “Monday, Tuesday” or literally, “Moon day, Mars day.” Before Lusmore makes his addition to their song, the good people have only two planetary influences, the Moon and Mars.

Perhaps they are caught between two kinds of behaviour, the dreamy nocturnal fairy-world (the Moon) and the often vengeful trickery, that they come up with when they interact with our mortal world (Mars).

The music that this binary outlook creates is beautiful but limited. The song the good people sing just goes round and round. With only two planetary influences it’s as if they are living out a Moon-Mars opposition, constantly moving between one extreme and the other.

What change does the Venus-ruled Lusmore make? He adds “augus da Cadine” or “agus dia Ceadaoine” which is to say “and Wednesday”. Lusmore adds a third planetary influence, Mercury, ruler of the thinking mind.

Mercury acts as a reconciling influence between the Moon and Mars and the good people are delighted. Instead of being locked into a Moon/Mars opposition, they now have the influence of a trine between the Moon, Mars and Mercury.

It’s as if the creative mind, represented by Lusmore (Venus) introducing Mercury, can mediate between emotions (the Moon) and action (Mars).

This seemingly daft Irish fairy tale could actually be full of planetary symbolism.

And what about Jack Madden? His addition is a step too far. “Da Hena” is Thursday which is to say, Jupiter day. The combined influences of the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter are all too much for the fairies, who represent our unconscious, especially as Jack interrupted their song so rudely. Perhaps this is like a square featuring all four planets?

In a way, the legend of Knockgrafton illustrates something of the qualities of the numbers two, three and four. Bruno Bettleheim’s book “The Uses of Enchantment” is beyond all praise with regards to the symbolism of Fairy tales. The addition of a level of planetary symbolism makes the story of Lusmore all the more fascinating for me.

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“Irish Fairy Tales” Siena (published by Parragon) 1998
“Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs” Scott Cunningham
“The Uses of Enchantment” Bruno Bettleheim,

Gemini is the sign of the Twins. It’s the sign of Mutable Air. What sort of music might fit with this quick-minded sign?

The mutability suggests music that flows and changes. The air element means that there has to be a clear intelligence at work. And Gemini is ruled by Mercury so this reinforces the intelligent communication. Maybe some gentle humour and an overall lightness of touch as well.

Gemini rules the fingers so there should also be some real high-speed, virtuoso playing involved. Certainly none of the heavy-duty emotional depth of the sign of Scorpio.

So, we’re looking for music that has something of the dual nature of the Twins and that is quick-witted, enjoyable, light-hearted, playful and intelligent.

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Starting off with the nimble-fingered side of Gemini, it’s intriguing to find that two top Jazz clarinettists Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were both born with the Sun in Gemini. I find it hard to think of Benny Goodman, the so-called “King of Swing”, without picturing those fingers rippling as he plays an inventive solo, improvising on a jazz tune.

Equally pleasing is the fact that both Les Paul and Chet Atkins have the Sun in Gemini in their birth charts. These are two pioneers of the electric guitar. Picture their fingers flying around the fretboard at lightning speed.

Inventive genius Les Paul was also one of the first to use double-tracking techniques so that he could duet with himself. How’s that for Gemini?  He also used electronic wizardry to speed up the sound of his guitar.

Chet Atkins brought a wonderful lightness of touch to his guitar playing on high-speed tunes like “Mr. Sandman”. Speed of playing and light-heartedness seem to be the characteristics of many Gemini musicians. But there’s also this dual-nature to think about. Take, for example, trumpeter Miles Davis (born 25^th May) who was known for being difficult to deal with.

I heard bass player Marcus Miller (June 14^th) tell this story about Miles Davis. Although he’d heard terrible stories about Miles being impossible to work with, Marcus Miller went along for an audition.

Miles said something like, “Just play E and F sharp. That’s all.”

Marcus Miller, a brilliant bass player, did as he was told. After a short while, Miles stopped playing and said, “Are they the only two notes you know?”

Miller began playing runs and fills with every possible note in them. Miles stopped playing and said, “I thought I told you just to play E and F sharp?”

The story ends happily though. Driving from the audition in a foul-temper, Marcus Miller switched on the radio to hear his uncle Wynton Kelly with Miles Davis playing “Someday My Prince Will Come”. Taking this as a sign, Miller took the job with Davis and they went on to produce some wonderful music in the last phase of Miles’ life.

Miles Davis is one of many Gemini musicians who were able to change and adapt over the years. Always at the forefront of changes, Miles Davis’ musical output is amazing. As a youngster he was a pioneer of Be-Bop playing alongside Charlie Parker. Be-Bop tunes were deliberately constructed to be so fast and difficult that only best musicians could play the themes let alone improvise around them.

In his early years, Miles was going through the phase where he was trying to play “The Flight Of The Bumblebee” as fast as possible. Many musicians know about this phase but some never grow out of it.

Constantly searching, Miles recorded an album called “Birth of the Cool” – what a title – which featured tightly written arrangements with a heady, intellectual sound. After that period came the magnificent “Kind Of Blue” featuring a crystal-clear, sparse sound with Miles Davis’ trumpet now playing a very different, instantly recognisable sound.

And throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, recordings by groups led by Miles Davis were consistently challenging and ground-breaking. This continued right through to the Marcus Miller period towards the end of Miles’ life.

Longevity and changing with the times seems to be a feature of Gemini musicians like Miles Davis. Les Paul still plays guitar and he’s 90 years old. Bob Dylan went from acoustic musician to the leader of an electric band much to the dismay of the die-hard fans. Dylan’s career has been full of twists and turns but he’s still around.

And surely, Bob Dylan is an excellent example of the Gemini mind at work. Lyrics tumbling out of him, each verse full of ideas and imagery, constantly creative and inventive. Anyone listening to Bob Dylan now as a DJ on BBC Radio will know that the Gemini sense of lightness and fun is alive and well.

Paul McCartney is another Gemini musician who’s come through all sorts of changes. Still making music and trying new things, McCartney’s songs have a lightness about them that fits well with the sign of Gemini. He is also able to have many changes within the same song while preserving some kind of continuity. The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper” album has some magnificent examples of the Gemini mind at work. 

But I think that the piano totally exemplifies the sign of Gemini especially one particular style of Jazz playing known as “stride”.

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To play stride, the pianist has to keep a steady time with their left hand whilst playing a broken time and improvising with their right hand. For most of us, this is pretty much impossible to even think about let alone to attempt to play. And yet in the hands of two Gemini musicians, stride piano sounds magnificently wonderful and funny.

Thomas “Fats” Waller was born 21^st May 1904 as the Sun moved into Gemini. His music appears to be great fun with him singing in a playful style and shouting encouragement to his fellow musicians as on “Twelfth Street Rag”.

Fats Waller was always one of the first, if not the first, Jazz organist. His skill as a musician extended to being able to use pedals as well.

But listen to his piano playing and you hear the Gemini genius at work. His left hand plays 1-2-3-4 moving through the changes in a way that would normally be perfectly adequate as an accompaniment on its own. But his right hand flies effortlessly over the top playing across the beat in such a way that it makes you smile as your ear tries to assimilate it all.

There’s something about being split in two like this that makes you laugh. It’s at the heart of most jokes. Pure Gemini.

But even more than the great Fats Waller, the pianist who exemplifies the sign of Gemini for me is Erroll Garner.

- - -

Erroll Garner was born on 15^th June 1923 in Pittsburgh PA.

This gives Sun Gemini, Mercury Gemini and, provided that he was born after 9 a.m. Venus in Gemini as well.

The powerful Mars/Pluto conjunction in the sign of Cancer the Crab trine Jupiter in Scorpio gives Erroll Garner tremendous physical stamina and endurance. The Moon could well have been tightly involved as well. Apparently he was able to, “…sit at the piano without prior planning and record three albums in one day.”

Here’s a paragraph from his biography on AllMusic.com:

“A brilliant virtuoso who sounded unlike anyone else, Erroll Garner on medium-tempo pieces often stated the beat with his left hand like a rhythm guitar while his right played chords slightly behind the beat, creating a memorable effect.”

Erroll Garner took stride piano playing to a new level. He sounds like two people playing piano together.

But I think that there’s even more of the Gemini two-ness to his playing. Take for example the beautiful song, “Moonglow”. The lyrics to the start of the song are:

“It must have been moonglow
Way up in the blue…”

Often, when you hear Jazz players stating the theme of a song, you can imagine them hearing the lyrics to the tune as they play. There’s no doubt that Erroll Garner would have known the lyrics to “Moonglow” but in his magnificent version, he plays it as if he hears something like this:

“It must must have been moon glow
Way up up in the blue blue…”

So here we have a piano player accompanying himself with his left hand keeping as steady beat while his right hand states the theme in a way that’s slightly against the beat and also doubling up some of the notes in the melody. 

The effect is wonderful. I often burst out laughing just listening to Erroll Garner play.

Here’s another quote from Allmusic.com: 

“His playful free-form introductions (which forced his sidemen to really listen), his ability to play stunning runs without once glancing at the keyboard, his grunting and the pure joy that he displayed while performing were also part of the Erroll Garner magic.”

Erroll Garner was a self-taught genius. His most famous composition is the song “Misty” how ironic for the sign of Gemini that Johnny Burke’s lyrics include the line:

“…never knowing my right foot from my left…”

Mick
February 2009 

בַּ Bais

Bais makes the b-asic b-aby sound exactly like “b” in English.

What does Bais look like to you?

The solid line underneath the Bais makes a short clipped “a” sound like a-mazingly a-ccurate a-cupuncture.

So the Bais with the vowel underneath it makes the syllable “Ba”.

Hebrew reads from right to left so these two syllables say “Aba” 

אַבַּ

I was on Channel M Breakfast TV this morning as "The Dream Doctor".

Channel M covers the Greater Manchester area and I've been on their Breakfast Show a couple of times now.  They're very friendly and I enjoy being on the show despite the early start.

This morning's show also featured three cast members from the Northern Ballet's production of "Midsummer Night's Dream". They were in full costume as Puck and two fairies.

So... picture the scene as I sit on the settee with a woman dressed as a fairy who tells me about a dream she had and asks what it might mean. It was a very sweet moment. It's an image that will stay with me I'm sure.

Best wishes,

Mick

I'm excited to have finished writing my "Teach Yourself To Read Hebrew" course.

The course is meant for Tarot readers and anyone else who's interested in becoming more familiar with the Hebrew letters. A couple of people are working through the course to test it out.

It's not a language course although you might pick up a few words along the way. It's more about learning to recognise the 22 letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bais so that you can read Hebrew words.

I intend to make it freely available from my Website, hopefully around July time.

Please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments:

frankelmick@hotmail.com

- - -

Here's the Introduction:

This course is designed to teach you to read the 22 Hebrew letters.

The pronunciation that I’ve used is Classical Hebrew from the Ashkenazi tradition, that’s to say as used by Jewish people from Russia, Poland, Lithuania etc. 

This is not the same pronunciation as in Ivrit (Modern Hebrew).

For the names of the letters in English and for the phonetic spelling of other Hebrew words, I’ve used my own spelling as I hear it with my London accent.

Hebrew is written from right to left. The 22 consonants that make up the Hebrew alphabet (“aleph-bais”) are used to write the Hebrew words with the vowels  written below them.

So, for example, the name David written in Hebrew style would be:

dvD

   ^{i  a}

You’ll get used to it. J

Hebrew follows a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern and each consonant has its own sound that doesn’t change.

Once you’ve mastered the letters, this makes reading Hebrew easier than other languages such as English where the same letters sometimes make different sounds (“tough” “though”) or French which doesn’t always sound the way it looks (“Grand Prix”).  J

I was taught to read Hebrew by my grandmother  who came from Ukraine and I hope that this tutorial somehow carries on that tradition.

Good luck,

Mick

On Wednesday, March 5th I'm giving a talk on Tarot and Astrology at the Phoenix Rising Astrology Group, 121 Park Road, Timperley. 

The talk starts at 8 p.m. and lasts until 10 p.m.

It costs £3 for non-members but that includes a cup of tea :~)

I plan to talk about the Tarot Trumps and their possible correspondences to the planets and the signs of the Zodiac.

Phoenix Rising are a friendly, welcoming group and I'd recommend them to anyone in or around South Manchester who wants to learn more about Astrology.

Please e-mail me for more details:

frankelmick@hotmail.com

Bye for now,

Mick

I've started doing 10" x 7" hand-drawn birth-charts for people.

Here's a couple of  examples:

  




Each chart has a gentle, two-line character description above the water-colour horoscope. The border has Celtic designs with the planetary positions and major aspects beneath the chart.

These make an unusual, unique birthday present, especially for parents or grand-parents of a new-born baby.

As an introductory offer, you can have a chart drawn for £5 ($10US) plus postage and packing.

Please e-mail me: frankelmick@hotmail.com for more details.

Thanks and best wishes for the Winter Solstice,

Mick

 

Earlier this year I went over to Sweden to visit an old school friend, Paul Phillips. I hadn't seen him in years.

My son Wes came with and we all had a fantastic time playing music together.

As a result, Paul and I started working together, long-distance, writing some Blues songs.

Click here to listen to the work in progress at Paul's website: http://www.fizz-music.com

Hope you like what you hear.

Mick