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The Universal Horoscope and Zodiac

Twelve figures in the blazoned zodiac
Set by the gods in their unchanging track
Spin in a regulated, yearly round
Until an infant’s primal, wailing sound
Puts an end to labor’s strained dilation.
Transparencies of detail, implication
Refract to a single jewel: this hour, this place,
This name, this sex, this parentage, this race.

The sign’s significance divides in two—
Once for itself, and after that, for you.
A basic character is known to all
But private fate is far too large (or small)
For outsiders to know. You might be able
To conjure up a half-remembered fable
That hangs about the edges of your life,
Promising no remission of due strife.

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The Legend of Saint Christus

Tormentors took the scourged and faithful Christus
To the penal hill beyond the city.
Christus spoke but seven half-choked words
Extracted from his agony, and died.
The saint is known throughout this humble province
And on the vigil of his day of pain
In Michael’s church, a thorn, a nail, a lance
Are duly shown and honored with great reverence.
Craftsmen carve his life and holy passion
Deep in the wood and stone of memory.

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Poet’s Note

These were written many years ago, and I call them “strange” because until recently I could never quite categorize either of them except as “iambic pentameter.”

The first poem attempts to create a link between the system of zodiac signs and the personal horoscope that can be drawn up for every human birth. The zodiac is an arrangement of constellations that is historically and culturally given, and unconnected with any individual life. But a horoscope is specific to a certain person, born in a certain time and place. The zodiac is general and objective; the horoscope is particular and subjective. Or one might say that the horoscope is where cultural and historical reality zeros in for a brief moment on a single human life. Here in this poem I imagine “the universal horoscope” as a symbol of one’s cultural and historical inheritance—something just as important as the small personal details the might be indicated in one’s horoscope. The macrocosm of the zodiac focuses itself on the microcosm of the newborn child.

The second poem works on this fanciful notion: suppose we tried to imagine Christ’s passion and death in the same manner as we ordinarily describe the martyrdom of individual saints? He would be “Saint Christus,” the details of his execution would be remembered, there would be a vigil and a feast day for him in the Roman Martyrology, relics of his suffering would be treasured, and works of art dealing with him would be created. In short, he would be imagined exactly as those later martyrs who came after him, and to whom he gave the example of suffering and death. This why I do not capitalize the pronouns for Saint Christus in the poem.

I brought these two poems together here, for the first time, simply because they share an interest and a concern with what is Above and what is Below, or what is Archetypal and what is Particular, and how fictive mimesis can create a fruitful interplay between the pair.

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Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry, and his poems, translations and scholarly articles have appeared in over one hundred publications world-wide.  He is the editor of the literary magazine TRINACRIA and writes for Expansive Poetry On-line. He teaches in the Department of Humanities at New York University and in the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College.

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18 Responses

  1. Bruce Phenix

    Joseph, Thank you for these fascinating and thought-provoking poems, so skilfully and powerfully expressed.

    Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Only a sharp mind like yours can conjure up a word image like “penal hill.” These two unorthodox, juxtaposed poems each have kernels of truth and reality that challenges our thinking and demonstrates your outside-the-box intellect.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Thank, Bruce and Roy, to you both. I try to make every poem interesting and unusual in some way.

      Reply
  3. Drilon Bajrami

    Joe, I never thought I’d like a poem about the horoscopes and zodiacs, partly because people’s understanding of it is so poor, as you’ve allued to in your note. The relative positions are always changing, yet most “horoscopes” are given based on centuries-old information. But you’ve shown that an erudite and skilled poet can take these topics that one would think banal and create a great poem that’s an enjoyable read.

    The second poem is an interesting example of the re-imagining of history and I wonder what the cultural implications would be for Europe and its history if instead of being the son of God he was “relegated” — for lack of a better word — to a Saint. I always like to think how history would change with one simple alteration and the butterfly effect that it could engender.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Well, I certainly have no wish to relegate Jesus to an inferior position. I’ll leave that to the Novus Ordo Conciliar Church.

      I simply wanted to momentarily reverse the Archetype and the Particular as an aesthetic experiment.

      Reply
  4. C.B. Anderson

    I’m sure your biographer, Joseph, will find the poems you waited many years to publish (and this is far from the first time) very interesting. I have sometimes done the same, and generally, looking back at poems relegated to a “cold file” reveals things about the poems I didn’t quite understand back when I wrote them, which makes it worth elevating them to active status. You were a thoughtful man when you were younger, and have grown even better with age. Dare we ncall this wisdom? I myself don’t feel any wiser than a potato chip, but then, you have a couple/few years on me. It’s always a pleasure reading new old stuff from you.

    Reply
  5. jd

    I found both of these poems very interesting. I must admit the 2nd bothered me a bit maybe because of its impossibility. Since you mention the Novus Ordo in one of your responses, I must mention something from the Sunday Bulletin of the church we attend which celebrates both the NO Mass and the Tridentine. The Bulletin title is
    “A Kingdom divided cannot stand.” The NO celebrates the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time; our holy Mass celebrates The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Can the distance between the two be any clearer than that?

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Yes, the distance can be clearer: when the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican displays pride flags for “pride month,” which the Church recognizes as the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Vatican is just fine and dandy with this. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247852/us-embassy-to-vatican-flies-lgbt-pride-flag-for-month-of-june

      I guess if any of the seven deadly sins had to have a flag and a whole month, it would be pride.

      I have to agree with you about the second poem. If Jesus were just another saint, our faith would be meaningless. “If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain … Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 18, 19.)

      There’s another reason such a thing would be impossible. A saint would never say some of the things Jesus said about Himself: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever.” (John 11:25-26.) “Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” (Matthew 9:2; this was considered blasphemy because only God can forgive sins.) “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6.) “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30.) The list goes on. Can you really imagine one of the Apostles or Roman martyrs saying any of these things?

      I’m sure it’s just meant as a speculation of what might happen if the Church were to formally dethrone Jesus to just another saint… maybe that’s why I find it disturbing; much of the current Church leadership already seems to believe that.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        As I tried to explain above to Drilon, the poem wasn’t concerned with making any kind of theological point. It was purely an aesthetic experiment. There is nothing in that second poem that you are required to “agree with” or “disagree with.”

        Since the poem was written years before Vatican 2, it has no argumentative, polemical, or satiric purpose.

        And it is tiresome of you to quote five scriptural passages in a critique of a ten-line poem.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        I meant no offense; I was just trying to put words to J.D.’s discomfort once I realized I shared it.

        I didn’t catch that your poem was from before Vatican II. I knew you had left it unpublished for a while, but not that long!

        I also didn’t realize there was a limit of a fixed number of quotes per line of poem discussed. Because so much of a poem is the part that’s implied in a single line or even a single word, I don’t think of poems in terms of line count. However, I’ll try to be mindful of that going forward.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        I apologize to you for being so testy and grumpy. It was uncalled-for. It gets worse as I age.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        Thank you, Joe. I accept your apology.

  6. Brian A. Yapko

    You may characterize these as “strange’ poems, Joe, but they leave me excited and wanting more! I would consider these both to be mystical pieces and as different from each other as the east is from the west. The poems are, of course, skillfully wrought but it’s not so much the technique that’s interesting here as the concepts – the poetic conceits you’ve spotlighted.

    The Zodiac poem is essentially descriptive and interpretive of an aspect of our inherited culture. Most readers understand what the Zodiac is and most readers are probably aware of the significance (or lack thereof) of horoscopes. For myself, I rarely think of the fact that I’m a Sagittarius. And yet it pleases me to think that I have certain attributes associated with the Archer. But I digress. What you do in this poem is very economically take the macro concept of Astrology (which, though hardly objective is based on objective Astronomy) and then present a close-up of the significance of Astrology on the individual. As you say, “The sign’s significance divides in two.” It’s a truth which is rarely contemplated and therefore fascinating to now see in poetic form. The poem is mystical, of course, because it relates to Astrology – but even moreso because it links the individual soul directly to the Cosmos in a fundamental way. It implies the existence of arcane knowledge, deep connections and — most importantly — destiny. This is a lot to communicate in 16 lines and you do it with great verve and clarity.

    But of the two it is St. Christus that really grabs me and makes my pulse race. I find it to be both mystical and fascinating. It as an amazing concept for a poem – one which is extremely clever, mildly transgressive and hugely thought-provoking. There is so much to discuss here. First, in this alternate reality who is Michael? Is “Michael’s church” a reference to a specific edifice or is it what the alternative reality recognizes as a substituted universal church? Then there is the concept of Christ as a martyr but not part of the Trinity. This suggests a hugely different theology (I realize this is not meant to be a theological poem but speculation is inevitable…) Strangely, that theology is obliquely suggestive of Islam where Christ is not the Son of God but is recognized as a prophet, no better or worse than Moses and the others. But it is clearly neither Islamic nor even Jewish (although “Michael” is a clearly Old Testament figure and name.) The alternate reality is firmly Christian — at least culturally. The concept of saints, the concept of a church…

    Then there is the very idea of Christus as a martyr, which we might think of as a downgrade. Except it has a domain of validity. It is, in fact, reality. But not the whole picture. This, then, makes one question one’s personal interpretation of reality — to what extent can we see the big picture? To what extent are we trapped by our perception of what is objective versus subjective? And is it also not true that one man’s prophet is another one’s madman?
    Your short poem forces a careful reader to look into deep reality with eyes which are being asked to reconsider what we think we already know. That’s a lot for a poem which you considered something of a “fancy” but which actually begs a lot of questions, some of which concern the alternate reality’s timeline. Would “Christus” even be the right name for this saint or, given the messianic specificity of the word/name “Christ” would St. Jesu not be more apt? I don’t imply that as a criticism because I have no idea what has come before in your alternate history. All bets are off. I simply point out that a plethora of questions come up for me regarding what has been, what is and what is to come.

    Your poem reminded me strongly of a book by alternate history novelist Harry Turtledove – “Agent of Byzantium.” In this book Byzantium never falls. In this alternate reality, in the distant past, Mohammed had become a Christian Archbishop – “St. Mouamet.” And because of the absence of jihad and the Crusades, Byzantium never weakened or fell. It became THE world power, one whose dominance and wealth are unimaginable. Science fiction and alternate history are probably not your thing, but it’s a very fun book which shows how an alteration in the timeline can really cause enormous differences.

    I’d still like to know about “Michael’s church.”

    Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    Dear Brian —

    I’m glad these very old poems still have some juice in them. I’ve always had an interest in the zodiac, horoscopes, and astrology, just as C.G. Jung did. You stir up an old memory — when I was in grade school, around 1956, our teacher asked students to volunteer to come up to the blackboard and write a new or strange word that they had learned, either from reading or on their own.

    I was a very shy child, and did not volunteer. But then the teacher, who wanted to draw out silent class members, asked me to come up and write something on the board. I came up and wrote ZODIAC in big letters, since my mom had just recently explained to me and my brother what our zodiac signs were, and how they were connected with our birthdays. I tried my best to explain what “zodiac” meant, and I could tell that the teacher was somewhat taken aback, as if I had touched upon an uncomfortable or taboo subject. And as you say, it is precisely the linkage of macrocosm with microcosm that naturally suggests fate or destiny. It brings up religious or philosophical issues that could generate sharp debate. Our teacher (her name was Miss Pfeffer) might have been a little rattled by what I wrote and said.

    “Michael’s church” was chosen at random, to be just the name of some small local church consecrated to any saint named Michael, or perhaps to the Archangel Michael. “The Legend of Saint Christus” is above all else “local,” in that it attempts to focus attention on how religious belief, practice, rituals, and all the cultural artifacts and customs that adhere thereto are always fixed in time and place, even though they are ultimately connected with universal Divine Truth. The nice thing about our countless saints and their legends is that they are local and familiar and friendly, just as the local liturgical rites and usages of the Middle Ages were place-specific (the rite of Sarum, of Hereford, of York, of St. Ambrose, of the Mozarabic, and dozens of others all over Europe). One of the many reasons why I hate left-liberalism and all forms of Marxism is that they are profoundly anti-local and universalizing, and are intent on imposing mandatory rules and compulsory thought-patterns on the entire world. The Vatican’s attempt to force the Novus Ordo mass down every Catholic’s throat is an instance of this same mentality.

    I’m very glad that my poem raises questions, and provokes thought. Thank you for your extended and perceptive comments!

    Reply
  8. Margaret Coats

    The zodiac poem represents great reasoning about the interface of zodiac and horoscope; I like it very much. You are right in your categorization of it as dealing with macrocosm and microcosm, though I would say too it is a poem of sacred time and particular place. The categories for poems of sacred time and sacred space are large ones; your juxtaposition is a thoughtful one that makes this poem practically unique. Regarding subject matter, it might go into a category with one I remember–a medieval French ballade specifying very precisely the year, month, day, hour, and location of the birth of one of the French kings. There’s enough information to cast a horoscope, although the author makes no reference to zodiac figures. He does, interestingly, also include details of the king’s baptism: place and time, but more important are the persons of the priest and the godparents.

    The second poem here immediately made me think of the “downgrading” of Christ in the Novus Ordo by changing the liturgical color of Good Friday to red, same as any martyr. That color is in fact and should be, black. There are scriptural quotes used, and patristic references to the day as one when the Church and the earth are “mourning for an only son” (only Son of the Father and only son of the Virgin), while the martyrs are a glorious and ever-increasing company. The natural human feeling of mourning, of course, seems inimical to the Novus Ordo, with funerals celebrated in liturgical white as if the deceased is in heaven, and not in need of prayers from bereaved friends and family.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Thank you for your comments, Margaret. They are thoughtful and informative. The Novus Ordo mentality dislikes references to Purgatory, and utterly loathes any mention of Hell. I can’t stand modern Catholic funeral services because they are suffused with a celebratory air more appropriate to a college commencement than to the death of a loved one.

      What happened to “Requiem Aeternam”? What happened to “Dies Irae”? What happened to “Officium Defunctorum?” Why is the funeral service like a Feelgood-Happy-Hour where we can all have pretzels and beer?

      Reply
  9. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Joe, both poems are captivating. I am particularly drawn to “The Universal Horoscope and Zodiac”, especially these lines:

    Transparencies of detail, implication
    Refract to a single jewel: this hour, this place,
    This name, this sex, this parentage, this race.

    I am fascinated by the possible influences of the external and supernatural tied in with the time and location at birth… factors leading to many questions. Curiosity and brevity are two of my favorite words, which is why I love this poem. It is swimming with linguistic ensorcellment and otherworldly wonder. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Like fine aged wines, human beings come from a specific time and a specific place. C.G. Jung said that this was all that astrology claimed, nothing more.

      I’m very glad that you liked the poems, Susan.

      Reply

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