Hudson Valley Astrologer

Freddie Mercury sang about taking the road less traveled in his anthem to the bicycle. The allure of freedom, and independence, the seductiveness and attraction in doing and saying what one is truly passionate about.

If I were to travel cross-country naked on a bike, I wonder how far I would get? It was 1978 when Queen released the hit song Bicycle Race. The music video, which accompanied the song, ended up being censored in several countries because it featured naked women in a bicycle race. The decision by the band to “break the rules” in such an unexpected way, was echoed musically perhaps by the inclusion of a solo for the bicycle bell, both decisions artfully “well-played.” Queen went far in their pursuit of challenging the status quo.

Riding a bike cross-country is no small task. I’ve ridden centuries in the past but not on successive days, much less weeks in a row. I’ve friends that have planned and ridden cross-country, usually to raise money for worthy causes. So, I’m sure I could pull it off too, but what motivates someone to pursue a 3,000 mile act of charity? Not what Freddie was singing about, or Walt for that matter. But weren’t they?

Uranus and Pluto were conjunct in 1966, the central time band of the civil rights movement. The cycle arguably has a 10 to 12 year orb. We are still in the throes of this transformational cycle, albeit on the outer edge of the opening square (2015).

At the time Leaves of Grass was written, Uranus was opposed Pluto (1859-1851), and intellectual mavericks, especially the visionary poet Walt Whitman, captured the zeitgeist of individuality, freedom of expression, and the embrace of taboos in their work. It seems that historical movements at the start of these cycles (1850-1851, 1965-1966) become challenged at the squares (1932-1934, 2012-2015), but reinvigorated at the opposition (1792-1794). We know that censorship tends to squash the spirit of individuality, and sometimes at the expense of the naked truth, that is, we are all the same at a distance. Undifferentiated, like grass, or what Whitman called “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” Yet, up close and personal we are also highly unique, individuality magnified beings; brought together such that each blade of grass contributes to the whole, the leaves of an ongoing story.

HVA

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