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Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 20:50:31 -0600 Subject: [Centaurs] Ishi, the last of the Yahi. Some of you may have heard of him. His is a true and very moving story. It is also very well documented, but despite all the information that could be gathered from him, the true dimension of his being was impenetrable to the scientific efforts of his protector Alfred Kroeber and the other anthropologists who became his friends after 1911, when he was found. I just saw a documentary about him in the National Geographic Channel. Before that, I had seen a TV movie entitled "Ishi, the last of the tribe", based on the book by Theodora Kroeber published in 1964 after her husband's death. At that time, I saw the whole movie speechless, like hypnotized. When it ended, there was a very profound sadness, a deep feeling of loss. It is a solemn and noble story, though very sad, like most of what happened to all other American Indians. Some people believe that his story was an invention, that the Yahi never existed. His exact date of birth is not known. But we know that he died of tuberculosis on March 25, 1916, while his friend Kroeber was away. At 12 GMT that day: Sun = 4,31 Aries
Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 09:49:31 -0600
I wrote a small post entitled "Ishi, the last of the Yahi" on December 31, 2001. At that time I mentioned that Ishi's date of birth is unknown, and noted the Sun/Nessus "incarnation" signature at the time of his death. Now I would like to comment on what this means to me, and to examine the case more thoroughly. As a start, here is what I wrote then plus a small commentary I am adding now: [SEE PREVIOUS POST ABOVE] Comment: A personage like Ishi, for those who have seen the TV movie or the beautifully-written documentary of his life (details on these later) is typically centaurean from the perspective of the "orbital paradigm": they are lonely (few in number as a group) nomadic inhabitants of the wilderness (the no man's land between the regular rounder orbits) that clash with civilization (the orbit-crossing). This is particularly dramatic in the case of the "winged" (very elongated orbit) centaurs like Pholus, Nessus, and Asbolus. Winged (and really, all) centaurs wander amidst the "void" left by society's shadows, they live in neglect and incarnate the darker areas of our lives and of society, those contradictions that we usually do not want to face but which often confront us in "the fear and the trembling", the vulnerability and the cracks of daily existence, "our passion". Ishi incarnated Nessus to us (one of the meanings of the time of death); in other words, his case illustrates or informs about the astrological meaning of Nessus. This means that Ishi-Nessus represent the plight of American Indians, and they in turn represent Ishi- Nessus. We know the history: racism, genocide... Quoting from what I wrote in "Winged Planets II: Nessus":
<<... Nessus has to do with the awareness
of our vulnerability against darkness, abuse, and emotional death. Nessus
is very vulnerable... From this come ideas or images about how someone
deals with this basic frailty against the forces of darkness and death,
either in oneself or in society.
In other words, Nessus is, like Ishi, "a survivor". His story, as seen in the movie and in the wonderful documentary, makes us confront <<the paradoxes of Nessus, of tenderness and cruelty at the same time, of extreme delicacy and extreme destruction, of carnal abuse that destroys purity, of innocence that is converted into blood, the unyielding power of un-requited love that is consecrated in death by suicide...>> [ref.: see above] In the case of Ishi, it wasn't suicide but tuberculosis, the "civilization" disease of sadness and coldness (i.e., death). The love theme is exploited by the movie (to be commented later), with extreme delicacy and beauty, but it was marked by sadness, denial, and death: running from the white people, his beloved went into hiding with his grandmother to the other side of the river, and he never saw them again. Later, at the museum in Berkeley that was to become his home, he found her basket, that she had made herself in the wilderness many years before, when they were young... Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2002 11:17:39 -0600
All these references were found writing "Ishi Kroeber" in Google. Some of the url's are incomplete and some are missing but can be easily found with the data provided. In some cases only the year (no date) is recorded. The dates are: 1860-62: probable year of birth
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from the Britannica:
Theodora Kroeber-Quinn was born on March 20, 1897 in Denver, Colorado
Theodora Kracaw Kroeber (1897-1979)
Ishi: Man of Peace, by Nick Phillips
November 10, 1908: Surveying party surprises a band of four; Ishi escapes
and hides...
from "The Internet Movie Database":
from "Biography Resource Center":
The site of Ishi's discovery is California Historical Landmark no. 809,
six miles north of Oroville in Butte County.
May 14, 1997: The BCNACC passes Resolution 97-01 authorizing the BCNACC
with the support of the Forest Service, City of Oroville, Chamber of Commerce,
Butte County Board of Supervisors and the Native American Elders, to "locate
and place Ishi's remains and spirit to his native Homeland."
1st appeared 22 September 2000:
Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 22:23:38 -0600
In the following, all positions will be represented in the Fagan-Bradley sidereal zodiac. As always, this is done with the sole purpose of comparing positions from different dates. The meaning of the zodiacal signs is not considered. Only one-degree conjunctions and oppositions will be used, with exceptions noted. We saw that Nessus was exactly conjunct the Sun when Ishi died on March 25, 1916. At noon GMT that day: death Sun = 11,11 Pisces
I already suggested that the word "survivor" may be a good representation of Nessus here, and that Ishi became the incarnation of the plight of all American Indians and the history of "racial cleansing", abuse, and genocide of the white man directed against them. Ishi's tribe had been massacred when he was a child, and he lived with a few surviving family members hiding all his life from the white people, continuing the hunting and gathering stone-age culture of the Yanan speakers that inhabited the Sacramento Valley until they were exterminated during the gold rush. When he was about 50 and found himself completely alone, the last of his family having died or disappeared, he decided to give himself in and appeared at a slaughter house near Mount Lassen, almost naked, emaciated and terrified, sure that he was about to die. He was put in the cell for the mentally insane of the Oroville jail, but instead of being killed, because nobody could understand his language, a telegram was sent to the University of California at San Francisco, and in a few days he was taken to his new home at the museum of the Anthropology Department near Golden Gate Park. This was to be his home until his death 4 years later. He became a good friend of anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber, whose wife, Theodore, who was a writer, published Ishi's biography in 1961, after her husband's death in 1960. Theodore Kracraw Kroeber was born March 20,1897. Ishi's story began in the early morning of August 29, 1911, when he was found. We have: Theodore Kroeber natal Sun = 6,51 Pisces
(noon GMT)
This seems to point towards a confirmation that the story of Ishi, as was told by Mrs. Kroeber, is a representative of Nessus. It was obviously so to her, so that was the way she portrayed him. When he was found he had his hair burned, which was a sign of mourning (the Venus/Nessus opposition). Ishi's story "was born" that day under a Venus/Nessus aspect that reveals the fragile and gentle nature of a man that had been torn apart by the hostility of the whites, who invaded his territory and murdered his kin, but who nevertheless never showed any type of resentment towards them. And we can see dramatically in the above aspect how Theodore Kroeber's creative effort and commitment to write his story really "incarnated" Ishi/Nessus to the world, thanks to her book and to the movie based on it made in 1978. Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 07:02:04 -0600
Vesta has a prominent role in the Ishi story. When the TV movie on his life based on Theodore Kroeber's book was released (Dec.20 1978), we find: movie Sun = 4,31 Sagittarius (24h GMT,
6 p.m. CST)
This means that the movie was emphasizing Ishi's biographer's Vesta, making her "shine", as well as his husband's Mercury. We also find: Vesta when Ishi was found = 5,05 Cancer
This aspect shows that Kroeber's intimate friendship with Ishi (Venus) was of the nature of Vesta, that somehow Vesta's interest in the conservation or preservation of the past, of the "cultural heritage" that Ishi incarnated, was to become a very personal or intimate concern for him. This becomes dramatically clear when we consider the following: natal Vesta of Alfred L. Kroeber = 11,47
Virgo
again, making Kroeber's Vesta "shine" with great power, exactly the same that the 1978 movie did for his wife. Vesta is acting here as a symbol of something perpetual (recall Ishi's monument near Oroville made in 1966) that gives spiritual grounding and nurturing, an emblem for "America's Indian Heritage", of the desire to preserve an important element of the national identity. That the story of Ishi is an essential part of that identity is confirmed by the feelings it is able to evoke in the public, mainly through the work of Theodore Kroeber (and the resulting movie) and her husband, one of the "fathers" of American Anthropology. Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 21:49:26 -0600
As I explained before, there are 2 TV movies on the story of Ishi. The first, made in 1978 with Eloy Phil Casados as Ishi, is based on Theodore Kroeber's novelized biography published in 1964; the second, made in 1992 with Graham Greene, is of the documentary type. Naturally, I thought it was interesting to examine the natal planets of actor Eloy Phil Casados, but in spite of the numerous movies and TV series in which he appears, I found no personal data whatsoever in the Internet, not even his year or place of birth. I found only 2 items of interest: the first is a small jpg in which I think he is doing Ishi (not sure of this), which I am reproducing right here:  the second item I found is that he was born September 28th (no year
given), and is found in:
But fortunately, we know that "Sept 28" allows to know where his natal Sun is within 1 degree, or 2 degrees at the most. If I take for reference the year 1950 and 12h GMT, I obtain: Eloy Casados Sun = 10,44 Virgo approximately (sidereal) and we know that when Ishi died in 1916: death Sun = 11,11 Pisces
a really beautiful "coincidence" The 1978 movie was directed by Robert Ellis Miller, and won the "Western Heritage Award" of 1979. It gives a special weight to the relationship between Ishi and the girl Lushi, since they were small children until the day Lushi run from the white men to the other side of a river with her grandmother and Ishi never saw them again. They had developed a code that consisted in imitations of birth calls, and Ishi spent many months calling her this way, until he became so possessed by sadness that he couldn't do it again. Each time he heard the real bird calling, deep pain overpowered him, and when, living at the Museum the last 4 years of his life, he once found the basked that she herself had made as a teenager, sadness never left him until he died of tuberculosis. This sad story belongs to the world of Hylonome, and this can be seen clearly in the chart of the director Robert Ellis Miller, born July 18th 1932 according to the IMD: Hylonome director R. E. Miller = 10,49 Pisces another really beautiful "coincidence". Centaurs reflect so well the main features of American Indians as they appear to us: the hunting, the communion with nature, the nomadism (Pholus), the death-prone, warrior-like daily living under very harsh conditions (Nessus), the diverse forms of shamanism (Chiron), the melancholic chanting and ceremonies (Hylonome), the spiritual kinship with the land and the earth (Chariklo)... etc. I think it is safe to say that American Indians are the incarnation of centaurean archetypes. Juan ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 15:57:38 -0600
When I said "as they appear to us", I had in mind the time when they still had their hold on North American territory, before they were exterminated or concentrated in reservations. I feel they represent everything that is centaurean. Their condition today is like the shadow of what they once were, but is also very centaurean (as Mark pointed out, the racism, the poverty, the alcoholism, the homelessness, etc.). Of Chariklo, the clearest link to me is their relationship with the "sacred ground", their ancestors, their spiritual kinship with the earth and the land. Asbolus I would associate with "the dream" state, their vision quest, their initiations. Of the many quotes found in T.C. McLuhan's compilation "Touch the Earth" (Touchstone, 1971), I think the following is pertinent regarding the way we tend to perceive as "negative" what comes from the centaurs: <<We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth, as "wild". Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage" people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it "wild" for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the "Wild West" began>> [Chief Luther Standing Bear of the Oglala band of Sioux, page 45]Pholus and the rest of the centaurs began to appear when "Dances with Wolves" showed to a very wide audience what Standing Bear said above, and all the brutality of "how the west was lost". This happened parallel with a change in our relationship with wild animals,and also with death and the dying, that had started in the days of Chiron. The recent hostage-taking by Chechens in Moscow, where more civilians than terrorists died, served well the Chechenian cause because it made the world remember the brutality of the Russian military occupation and the terrorism they practice daily against Chechens in their own country. We see the same in Palestine. Centaurs show how people are able to live their daily lives amidst all the death. Seeing the strength with which the leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth today openly promote large-scale destruction and killing to serve selfish nationalistic interests shows that little has changed fundamentally, so the centaur's gift of light is reserved for the few to be lived privately. The world will have to wait, and witness how centaurs "catapult" us (or scatter us) into the world of the scattered disk objects, making a lot of people say, like Chiparopai (an old Yuma Indian): <<Yes. We know that when you come, we die>> (page 113 above) Those vulture politicians have yet to understand what Catherine --of "The English Patient"--, wrote in her diary when she was dying in the cave (I love this quote and feel that it represents the luminous promise of the centaurs): <<We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes. Tastes we've swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in, like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We're the real countries. Not the boundaries drawn on maps, the names of powerful men... I know you'll come carry me out into the palace of winds. That's all I've wanted, to walk in such a place with you, with friends, an Earth without maps.....>>
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Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 07:32:53 -0600
I had left pending the consideration of 2000OO67 in the story of Ishi, afraid that its orbit might turn to be inaccurate, but today the MPC published an orbital update, and indicates that the uncertainty is "0". We can therefore trust its positions completely. A new calculation of its ephemerides in Riyal produced no noticeable change in the positions. I examined carefully many bodies looking for connections in the case of Ishi, and the only ones that appeared very significant were Nessus, Vesta, and OO67. The evidence for OO67 is as follows: When "Ishi, the last of his tribe" was released for television in Dec. 1978, we find (using 19h EST): Sun = 4,19 Sagittarius
We already have seen the importance of Venus in Ishi's story. The day Ishi died, we find (using noon GMT): Venus = 24,15 Aries
More Venus connections are found here: Venus at the movie release = 21,26 Libra
We know that Ishi was found "early in the morning", this is the only time indication I obtained of this story. The data is August 29, 1911 near Oroville (39n41/121w33). Sunrise that day happened at 5:35 a.m., so "early in the morning" could be 7, 8... or even 9! But this allows to approximate the position of the Moon when Ishi "was born" to civilization: at 6 a.m. it was 18,18 Libra (sidereal), and at 9 a.m. it was 19,50 Libra. We then establish that... Moon Ishi was found = (18-)19 Libra
This link is not surprising considering that the movie is based on her book, published 14 years earlier in 1964. Finally, we note: death of A.L.Kroeber OO67 = 13,42 Scorpio
I have not done any work on 2000OO67 (size around 70 Km). Its period of about 13,000 years makes it the farthest reaching asteroid known so far. At aphelion it goes beyond 1000 AU, and at perihelion it comes close to Uranus. It partakes of the sdo's "revival of ancient times" metaphor but takes it further. It is like a dissolver of dissolvers, coming closer to a fixed star than any other minor planet when far away from the Sun. But because it penetrates the Neptune barrier, it becomes "human", at least for a very short period of its cycle. One can think on the extreme hardship and the extreme loneliness of Ishi's life. His "birth into civilization" lasted only 4 years, from August 1911 to March 1916 when he died of tuberculosis at the approximate age of 56. All his previous life was spent away from civilization, surviving on the stone-age technology and culture he had learned. The metaphor of OO67 becomes significant when we consider the contact he made with modern civilization, directly from the stone age, and the brevity of it. The 1978 movie in particular should be taken as a model to reflect on the possible meaning of OO67. Francesco Schiavinotto had mentioned before (post 3 Oct 2002) the case of the geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener, born November 1, 1880: Sun = 9,28 Scorpio
I don't know anything about Wegener's personal life, but one can see the orbital signature of OO67 in the fact that he is remembered for his ideas on continental drift, i.e., earth's evolution on a geological time scale of tens and hundreds of millions of years, something that completely transcends the merely human, that extends the concept of time almost to infinity, to what is humanly impossible to experience or even imagine. The "human touch" (OO67 coming inside of Neptune towards Uranus) is perhaps the fact that his ideas are not "astronomical" (like the aphelion of OO67) but belong to "our Earth", they belong to the scale of time of our earth. His ideas also represent a very "space age" concept of the Earth as a whole, as a unit (the Sun) but extended in the geological time dimension (OO67). This is what Wegener and Ishi have in common: the extended time dimension, except perhaps that Wegener lived it more in his mind, while Ishi incarnated it in his flesh and pain as a living solitary remnant of stone-age man. The role of Venus in the Ishi story is also a clue to how his story is able to touch something deeply universal about being human. Juan
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