A book found me in a used bookstore recently. I was scanning the history section looking for anything by Jill Lepore, but then a thick paperback with the stars and stripes on the spine caught my eye. It had the title The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America so of course I bought it.
I had never heard of this book and have had my nose in it as often as possible since I bought it. Psychologist and philosopher William James, who would go on to have a big influence on C.G. Jung, was a member of this metaphysical club, which first met in 1872. At the time Jupiter the philosopher/sage was in Cancer copresent with Uranus, associated with brilliance and sudden insight. It was a conversation club that emphasized critical thinking and philosophy.
On page 179 there is a discusson about “the method of least squares” and shooting arrows at a bulls-eye. A bulls-eye is “implied” by the distribution of shots that miss it. In other words, “The right answer is, in a sense, a function of the mistakes.“
As Jung said, “But when one follows the path of individuation, when one lives one’s own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them.” — C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Before “bulls-eye” became associated with archery in the 1800s, sailors in the 1700s use the term to describe a small, dark cloud with a circular center in an otherwise bright sky. It was also used to describe the thick, circular glass in a ship that let light into the dark quarters below.
We have a New Moon in Taurus, the sign of the bull, to help us pause and get our bearings. Before the Gemini sky lights up, let this Taurean Moon be the thick glass lens that lets a single light into your dark. Step back, look at the pattern of your experiences, and find the invisible center of gravity holding it together.
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In depth,
Anita Ashland
AnitaAshland.com
