Gardens All Misty Wet With Rain

Here is a prompt that I gave to Chat GPT and the result is shown above:

Create an image of a young Van Morrison walking in gardens all misty wet with rain as described in his song "Sweet Things" from his album "Astral Weeks". The image should have a surreal, psychedelic feel with some magic mushrooms underfoot. There should be a mystical, transcendental, other-worldly feel to the image conjuring up an alternative reality to the mundane world in which we live.

Gemini refused to create an image saying that there was something saying controversial in the prompt. For fuck's sake. Anyway the result was OK so I thought that I'd include it in a post. Looking at my astrological chart recently and it seems that any date from the 19th May onwards could be one of those sort of days:

If I am nearing the end of life, as "The Voice" warned me, then I should be making preparations to take Baba's name as I draw my last breath. It may be possible. I should at least be keeping the thought of Baba uppermost in my mind to the best of my ability. I remember the dream I had many years ago now in which the house I was in tumbled off a cliff and I was falling toward the ground below. The house was falling along with me but the house was above me. I knew that if the fall didn't kill me then the weight of the house crashing down upon me certainly would. I fumbled for my wallet because I knew that I had a photo of Baba in it but I was unsuccessful and just managed to call out His name before waking up.

Perhaps I'll be buried in the rubble of the house following an earthquake. It's not likely as the house is very solidly built. In the dream I was lucky enough to have a few seconds in which to gather my thoughts. Looking at my chart, there is an emphasis on Mercury and the third house. Transiting Neptune, Ceres and Saturn are all close to my natal Mercury. Transiting Jupiter is moving close to my natal Uranus on the cusp of the Third House. A traffic accident is a possibility but who can avoid something like that. A neurological accident is another possibility. All this speculation is largely useless and it's not worthwhile trying to second guess Uranus. All I can do is wait and be as prepared as possible to take advantage of whatever split seconds become available to me.

The First Breath

Unlike many of my stated goals, I actually managed to begin reading my physical copy of "Listen Humanity" and I am now into the second section of the book where Meher Baba explains about life and death. The following passage really struck home as I was reading it this morning on page 109 of the physical book:

The seeming balance that is approximated by the individual before each birth may be compared to a tug-of-war in which opposite forces are active, although neither may predominate. The matching of forces then has only to be slightly disturbed and the entire situation becomes subject to change. In the same manner, the pseudo-poise of sanskaras present at the time of birth has only to be slightly disturbed in order to imprint the sanskaric pattern for the individual life.

Here we see, explicitly stated by Baba, that the pattern of the individual's future life is imprinted at the time of birth, when the pseudo-poise of sanskaras is disturbed as the individual takes his or her first breath and begins a separative existence in the physical world.

The following article describes the magic surrounding that first breath:

Within seconds of birth, a baby takes in its own oxygen for the first time. For that to happen, their tiny lungs and circulatory system have to transform in a matter of seconds. So how does a tiny human manage to take what could be the most challenging breath of its life just seconds after birth? 

First, it helps to understand how the circulatory system — specifically, the lungs and heart  — work in utero. The lungs don't provide oxygen to the fetus during gestation. Instead, they are partially collapsed and filled with liquid during development while the baby gets oxygen through the umbilical cord from the placenta, according to the Texas Heart Institute. 

Because the lungs aren't involved with oxygen supply yet, the majority of the fetal blood supply bypasses the lung through two blood vessels unique to fetuses. The first, the foramen ovale, allows oxygenated blood from the umbilical cord to flow directly from the right atrium of the heart to the left atrium, instead of going to the right ventricle and lungs as it does in an adult, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The second vessel, called the ductus arteriosus, connects the main body artery and main lung artery, allowing the fetus's oxygenated blood to detour away from the lungs and head for the lower body, according to the American Heart Association. 

Unlike an adult heart, "when the baby comes out, the right side of the heart is the dominant side," said Dr. Jae Kim, a neonatologist and director of neonatology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. This is because it's been pumping oxygenated blood through these two temporary shunts to the entire body. But after birth, the circulatory system rearranges. The left ventricle becomes dominant, responsible for sending blood throughout the body, while the right ventricle takes on the new job of sending oxygen-poor blood to the lungs, according to a 2002 report published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. 

This transformation happens in a series of rapid changes right after birth. First, the cells responsible for secreting fluid in the fetus's lungs start absorbing fluid once the baby is born, removing the liquid to make room for incoming oxygen, Kim said. "The lungs immediately transition to be filled with air." This first breath can be so strong and dramatic that, in some cases, it bursts a hole in the baby's nascent lungs, he said. 

This first inflation of the lungs dramatically decreases the pressure and resistance to blood flow in the lungs. The low pressure invites blood pumping out of the right ventricle to reroute toward the neonatal lungs, according to a 2010 review in the journal Physiological Reviews.

Once the lung pressure is lower than the systemic blood pressure, or the pressure exerted on blood vessels during heart contractions, the foramen ovale closes, according to the 2010 review. With no passage between the right and left atria, deoxygenated blood begins to flow from the right atrium to the lower right ventricle, and is then sent to the lungs.

Meanwhile, the low pressure in the pulmonary system detracts blood from the ductus arteriosus, the blood vessel that allowed blood to bypass the lung and head to the body. No longer needed, the ductus begins to constrict and closes within the first two days of life.

At this point, 100% of the infant's blood supply heads for the lungs. Carbon dioxide-saturated blood is pumped into the alveolar capillaries — small blood vessels in the lungs — for the first time. The alveoli — tiny air sacs in the lungs — replace carbon dioxide in the blood with the oxygen taken in by the baby. 

It takes about 5 minutes for a healthy baby born at term to "pink up" and find a sort of normal, Kim said. But the transition happens in a single breath. "It's a very magical moment," he said. 

Thus the reason that Astrology uses the time of a person's first breath as the basis of their natal chart. "The sanskaric pattern for the individual life" is there for all to see.

Harry Kenmore

Figure 1: source

I'm currently reading "Harry: The Story of Dr. Harry L. Kenmore and His Life with His Beloved Pop, Meher Baba" by Larry Karrasch and Rita Karrasch, published in July of 2017. Figure 1 shows the cover of the book. I was familiar with Harry Kenmore and his chiropractic treatment of Baba through my reading (and rereading) of Bhau Kalcuri's "Lord Meher". 

However, there is not much detail provided in that source and so this book gives welcome insights into how Harry came to Baba (or how Baba "snared" Harry) and how the two of them interacted on a daily basis when they were together. It serves a similar purpose to David Fenster's "Mehera-Meher: A Divine Romance" in providing rich details of how Mehera and Meher Baba interacted on a daily basis and about the lives of the women mandali.

The book contains many wonderful photographs. Figures 2, 3 and 4 are examples. The following is the description of the book as it appears on the Google Play store:

Harry Kenmore's blindness at the age of sixteen changed his life. After meeting Meher Baba in 1956, the path of his life was again altered because now he found God, Meher Baba. His love and devotion led him to serve Baba as his chiropractor after Baba's second automobile accident on December 2nd 1956, in Satara India. We learn about Harry's journey to become Baba's doctor, entertainer, friend and intimate mandali throughout the next thirteen years. Through the intimate taped conversations, cables and letters between Harry, Baba and the mandali and also talks by Harry to various Baba groups, we gain insight into Harry's life as his relationship evolves with his Pop, Meher Baba. 

"You don't know how much I love you Harry. You have become one of the intimate mandali. So I want you, for the remaining period that is, in between now and My Manifestation, which has not much time now, to just be as the mandali. Like My mandali, remain during this period between now and My Manifestation as mandali. So that when I break My Silence, when I Manifest, the few handful of the mandali can realize Me as I am. You too will realize Me as I am, not the world." Meher Baba November 2nd 1968

Figure 2: Harry with Baba

Figure 3: Baba standing with Francis, Eruch and Harry

Figure 4: Harry with Eruch (behind him), Aloba
and Bhau (standing), Francis and Pendu.

We learn in the book that Harry was born on February 10th 1910 between 2:00pm and 2:30pm in Brooklyn, New York. Figure 5 shows his chart and it is a most interesting one. I'd add commentary to this chart in the near future, as it definitely deserves comment.

Figure 5: chart drawn up using Astrolog

Here is an interesting excerpt from the book:

Harry had his first meeting with Baba in July, 1956 at the Delmonico Hotel in Manhattan and attended the dinner held for Baba at the Longchamp’s restaurant, then again at The Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He immediately recognized Meher Baba as his true Beloved and as Almighty God in human form. When Harry had his interview with Baba, in the Lagoon Cabin in 1956, he asked Baba why was he blind in this life? He told Baba that he was able to look back into his past four lifetimes and could not find any karmic reason for this blindness. Baba said, “That if you had not become blind in this life you would have become a great, world renowned surgeon, and then you would have had no reason to search for me. I gave you these vidnyani sanskaras so you would have to meet me in this Advent.” After this meeting with Baba, Harry became resigned to his blindness. Baba also told Harry that he had been one of His Generals when He was Shivaji – a minor Avataric incarnation, in India. And Harry had been a very fierce warrior.

While on the topic of Baba books, I'd very much like to read "Slave of Love: The Life of William Donkin with Meher Baba" by Bob Mossman but it's only available in hard copy format, not as an e-book. While not rivalling a full-blown book, let's not forget that there is invaluable biographical material to found on the MeherBabaTravels.com website. For example, here are links to the Indian mandali mentioned in this post:

• Aloba (Ali Akbar Shapurzaman)
• Pendu (Aspandiar Rustom Irani) 
• Eruch (Eruch Bhyramshaw Jessawala)
• Bhau (Vir Singh Kalchuri)
  
  

I remember meeting Eruch and Bhau when I visited Meherazad in the late 90's. Aloba was still alive then and was probably present as well. Of course, I met Bhau again in hospital when leaving Poona and later again in Singapore. I wrote about this in my post Baba's Gardener.

Silence Day 2019

Here I am again, trying to observe Silence Day in commemoration of the day that Meher Baba began his lifetime of silence. I've made several posts over the years about this day:

• Another Silence Day (2018)
• Silence Day (2010)
• Silence Day (2009)
• Reflections on Silence Day (2009)

What's disappointing of course is the paucity of such posts since I started this blog in November of 2006. Ideally I should have made a post every year given that silence was the defining characteristic of Baba's life on Earth and why he is sometimes called "The Silent Master". 

My daily habit is to note the number of days I've been alive and to make some comment on this number in my mathematical blog. I've been doing this diligently for many years in marked contrast to the number of posts I've made about Baba. This is to be expected given that, like most humans, I am mesmerised by my own existence. However, today I thought it appropriate to look at how many days old Baba was when he began his silence. It turns out he was 11458 days old (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: WolframAlpha calculation

The number 11458 = 2 * 17 * 337 but I'll leave off there as I don't want to get too distracted by the mathematics. However, looking at Baba's diurnal age when certain key events occurred in his life would be an interesting exercise. Meanwhile, Figure 2 shows this number in a decorative font:

Figure 2: taken from this site

I came across a site that allows one to create an OBAMA HOPE inspired photo and I used that to produce a photo of Baba. See Figure 3:

Figure 3: produced at
http://obamapostermaker.com/

The challenge on Silence Day of course is to keep silent and right from the start I was tested. Getting up before the sun, I took my dog for a walk and came across a pet rabbit on the road that I immediately started making a succession of "tsk, tsk" sounds toward in order to lure it closer so that I could pet it. It hopped away but I immediately realised my error. It didn't constitute a vocalisation but it was a sound so it served to remind me to be on my guard. The other danger is reflex vocalisation such as occurs when somebody gives you something and you automatically say "thanks".

As the day wore on, I got to thinking about how Baba's silence might be reflected in his natal chart which I've shown in Figure 4 with some features highlighted. The key planet to consider of course will be Mercury, the planet of communication, and this planet is prominently aspected in his chart. It is a semi-sextile aspect to Venus, sextile to Jupiter, sesquiquadrate to the Moon and quincunx Saturn. The aspect to the retrograde Saturn is especially close and reflects the limitations and discipline involved in not speaking. Mercury is in the middle of the second house (representing the body and its capacities) and Saturn is in the ninth house (representing his "philosophy" and mode of instruction). Venus and Jupiter lend support so that the handicap of not speaking in nonetheless perceived as harmonious, expressive and even eloquent.

Figure 4: Baba's chart with annotations

Impressive as this is, the chart shown together with the transits on the day he began his silence is extraordinary and this is shown in Figure 5. I've not even added any annotations because the situation is shown so clearly. An amazing conjunction of transiting Mercury, Venus and Mars on the seventh house cusp is exactly square the natal Moon with transiting Saturn sitting atop it. The natal Sun and natal Mars are closely involved as well. The actual mid-point between natal Jupiter and natal Saturn in 9°24' of Leo. On July 11th 1925, transiting Mercury, Venus and Mars all met at this point (give or take a few minutes of arc). This was a transient but remarkable conjunction.

Figure 5: transits to the natal chart
on the day Baba's began his silence

The stars most certainly did align on that day as well they should when the Master of the Universe begins the Silence that was to define this most recent advent of the Avatar.

I played Van Morrison's "Hymns to the Silence" and once again was impressed by the lyrics:

Hymns to the Silence

Oh my dear, oh my dear sweet love
Oh my dear, oh my dear sweet love
When I'm away from you, when I'm away from you
Well I feel, yeah, well I feel so sad and blue
Well I feel, well I feel so sad and blue
Oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear sweet love
When I'm away from you, I just have to sing, my hymns
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence 

Oh my dear, oh my dear sweet love it's a long, long journey
Long, long journey, journey back home
Back home to you, feel you by my side
Long journey, journey, journey
Yeah in the midnight, in the midnight, I burn the candle
Burn the candle at both ends, burn the candle at both ends
Burn the candle at both ends, burn the candle at both ends
And I keep on, 'cause I can't sleep at night
Until the daylight comes through
And I just, and I just, have to sing
Sing my hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
My hymns to the silence 

I want to go out in the countryside
Oh sit by the clear, cool, crystal water
Get my spirit, way back to the feeling
Deep in my soul, I want to feel
Oh so close to the One, close to the One
Close to the One, close to the One
And that's why, I keep on singing
My hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Oh my hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Oh hymns to the silence, oh hymns to the silence
Oh hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Oh my dear, my dear sweet love
Can you feel the silence? can you feel the silence?
Can you feel the silence? can you feel the silence? 

Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence
Hymns to the silence, hymns to the silence.

Bless All Those Who Fumble and Stall

I posted recently to my Astrology blog about a fall I'd had, hence my use of "fumble and stall" as a part of the title of this post. It being a spoonerism of "stumble and fall". I'm still recovering but, apart from that, I feel particularly poorly today. This morning, in The Jakarta Post, I read that "poor oral health may increase the risk of liver cancer by 75 percent": 

A new large-scale UK study has found that poor oral health may be linked to an increased risk of liver cancer, building on previous research which has also linked oral health to a range of diseases. 

Carried out by researchers at Queen's University Belfast, the new study looked at data on 475,766 people taken from UK Biobank -- a large long-term study which includes genomic data on more than half a million UK residents as well as data on brain imaging, their general health and medical information. 

The researchers set out to investigate the association between oral health, using patients' self-reports on conditions such as painful or bleeding gums, mouth ulcers and loose teeth, and the risk of a number of gastrointestinal cancers, including liver, colon, rectum and pancreatic cancer.  

The findings, published in the United European Gastroenterology Journal, showed that although there appeared to be no significant association between oral health and the risk of most of the gastrointestinal cancers included in the study, there was a strong link was found for hepatobiliary (liver) cancer.

The team also found that participants with poor oral health were more likely to be younger, female, living in deprived socioeconomic areas and consumed less than two portions of fruit and vegetables per day. 

"Poor oral health has been associated with the risk of several chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes," explained Dr. Haydée WT Jordão, lead author of the study. "However, there is inconsistent evidence on the association between poor oral health and specific types of gastrointestinal cancers, which is what our research aimed to examine." 

Although it is still unclear how poor oral health may be associated with liver cancer, rather than other digestive cancers, one explanation is that the oral and gut microbiome may play a role in the development of the disease. "The liver contributes to the elimination of bacteria from the human body," explains Dr. Jordão.  

"When the liver is affected by diseases, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis or cancer, its function will decline and bacteria will survive for longer and therefore have the potential to cause more harm. One bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, originates in the oral cavity but its role in liver cancer is unclear. Further studies investigating the microbiome and liver cancer are therefore warranted." 

The findings are not the first time oral health has been linked to a higher risk of cancer; a US study published back in 2017 also found that women who have a history of gum disease may have a higher risk of several types of cancer, particularly tumours in the oesophagus and breasts.

This put in mind of my festering gum problem that I've had for years now, caused by an incomplete root canal that I had done here in Jakarta. I should have the root completed or the tooth removed but I shouldn't just leave it unattended. However, I wonder what long term damage has been done.

Driving to the local mall this morning which is a kilometre of so away I was struck by two number plates: one beginning with ALI and the other with SYL. What are the odds of the names of my first two wives popping up in the correct order in the number plates of random cars that were passing by? In fact the odds of this occurring are 1/308,915,776 or less than one in 300 million. This assumes total randomness and that may well not be the case but the probability would still be very low. An omen? If so, of what? I should have noted down the accompanying numbers as well but I fixated on the letters.

The sighting occurred around 1:30pm today (20th June 2019) and looking at the astrological aspects it seems that the transiting Moon in 2°17' or thereabouts of Aquarius, close to my midheaven, may have been the catalyst. This position would put it in an almost exact sextile to my natal Mercury in 2°15' of Aries, a fitting aspect for such a communication that was received while travelling. The aspects to the transiting Moon are transient and this would constitute an example of what I called minutiae in the astrological blog post that I mentioned earlier.

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the number plate that I saw on my birthday and which I discussed in a blog post. In that case, I considered that the letters represented numbers in a number base greater than 10. I often note the four numbers on car number plates as I walk my dog and mentally try to factorise the number which usually isn't too difficult with a four letter number.

If it's an even number, you divide by 2 course and then the number is half as big as it was. If the digits add to 3 then it's divisible by 3 and then the number is only a third of the size it was. A number ending in 5 will be divisible of course by 5 and a number ending in 0 will be divisible by 10. If none of those simplifications work then you start with 7 and move on to 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 etc. Division gets more difficult as the divisor grows larger but it's still usually possible.

97 * 97 = 9409 is the largest prime less than 9999 and it's easy to miss a factor like 89, 83, 79, 73, 71, 67, 61, 59, 53, 47, 43, 41, 37, 31 and 29. It's also useful to know when a number is prime. I've managed to memorise the first fifty prime numbers (from 2 up to 229) which isn't much of an accomplishment and I should try to memorise all the prime numbers below 1000 at least. I'm straying into the realm of Mathematics, just as I strayed into the realm of astrology earlier. Some topics simply can't be contained within rigid categories.