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An Introduction to Morin's Method of Determination by Penny Seator This essay is a slightly modified version of an article that appeared in the Mercury Direct section of the April-May 2007 issue of The Mountain Astrologer. The character and physical make-up are actually brought to completion by the disposition of the sky which at a suitable time brings the child forth from the womb in accordance with its destiny. And - as it were - a seal is imprinted on the native which is a representation of the nature, condition, location, and particular determinations of the celestial bodies. - Astrologia Gallica, Book 21 Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche, 17th-century French astrologer, physician, and mathematician, wrote a 26-book treatise on astrology and natural philosophy that sets out a systematic and practical astrological approach.1 The treatise, written in Latin, was published posthumously in Paris in 1661 under the title Astrologia Gallica. Morin intended in the work to cull a reasoned and elegant system of horoscope interpretation from what he saw as a compromised Western astrological history. Morin's method of determination, which is the foundation of his system, relies on astrological houses to show how influences2 enter individual lives. The method highlights the Ascendant as the basis of down-to-earth astrology. Morin demonstrates that a planet and the sign it occupies have general (or universal) significations that do not reveal the planet's particular significations in a horoscope. He identifies the misuse of planets' universal significations as an error that compromises astrology. This essay tracks Morin as he considers the use and misuse of universal significators, and as he defines planetary nature, celestial state,and terrestrial state. It follows him as he systematically combines these factors by means of analogy to specify a planet's significations in a horoscope. In Morin's system, a planet's nature and celestial state - its placement in the Sky - show its influence; houses, particularly the Ascendant, represent the native, the receiver of influences who determines the planet'sparticular effects. One section of this essay glances at the Ascendant through the lens of Morin's method; another section notes some of the method's implications for understanding human action. The essay demonstrates the basics of Morin's system using the natal horoscope of Sarah Vaughan, and concludes with recognition of Morin's gift to astrologers. Misuse of Universal Significators Morin demonstrates that astrologers have misused the universal significations of planets and signs. A universal significator refers to all members of a class or category, without distinction among them. A planet is a universal significator of those sublunary things that are analogous to its categorical nature.3 In other words, a planet signifies by its nature a whole class of things with which it has an analogy4 - the things the planet is said to rule. Each thing in the category a planet rules is a potential referent of the planet in a horoscope; it is a thing the planet universally signifies.5 Morin says astrologers have relied on planets to show, by nature alone, which of their analogical significations operate in a horoscope. A universal significator, however, does not distinguish among members of the category it rules; a planet by its nature signifies, without distinction, all its categorical meanings. To make the point, Morin quotes a question that the 16th-century astrologer Girolamo Cardano posed: ' Cardanus ' states that Ptolemy introduced a great deal of confusion when he assigned several meanings to one significator, and made the Moon, for example, the significator of the body, the morals, the health, the wife, mother, daughters, maid-servants and sisters. Says Cardanus: 'What then must be the condition of the Moon in the horoscope of one whose wife had died in childbirth but himself lived a long life, who had many healthy daughters but also maid-servants who ran away, who had a sound body but a mother who died young, and who himself showed a poor moral character?"6 Morin imagines others may say that sign occupation and aspects condition a planet's significations and thereby specify the planet's meaning in a horoscope. Morin agrees that what he calls (in translation) a planet's celestial state qualifies the planet's meaning in a horoscope. Yet, although celestial state qualifies and, therefore, narrows, it does not particularize: Ptolemy, Cardanus, and others were also in error when they claimed that in every diurnal horoscope judgment concerning the father of the native is to be made from the celestial state of the Sun ... [T]hey did not see that this is absurd, because if the Sun were in Leo and, for example, conjunct or trine Jupiter or Venus no child would be born anywhere on earth during the course of that day whose father would not be fortunate and long-lived ... And of course, as this aspect would remain in effect for several days it is clearly foolish to suppose that during this period every child born would have the same kind of father ... 7 Celestial state, which refers to all significant elements of a planet's placement8 in the Sky, includes (1) a planet's sign occupation, particularly whether it is in domicile, exaltation, triplicity, exile (detriment),9 fall, or is peregrine; (2) the nature and celestial state of the planet's dispositor and the planet's aspectual relationship, if any, with its dispositor; (3) aspects from other planets considered by nature and celestial state, and as delivered in a particular aspect form; and (4) various other factors such as planetary motion (direct or retrograde, rapid or slow), whether the planet is oriental of the Sun or occidental of the Moon, and so on. Skeptics argue that astrologers make statements that are general and, therefore, broadly apply to many people. Morin would say that astrologers' statements reliably apply to a particular person only if we make right use of astrological determinations. Yet, as Morin notes, sometimes interpretations based only on planetary nature and celestial state seem to work. In some horoscopes, the Sun does signify honors; sometimes the Moon is a significator of moral constitution. As a result, Morin says, astrologers have come to misuse universal significators to the compromise of astrology. Terrestrial State In Morin's method, astrological houses limitand direct - that is, determine - the universalmeanings of planets and signs to particularize and concretize their meanings in a horoscope. Morin sets out his method of determination in Astrologia Gallica's Book 21. Determine derives from the Latin terminare ("to set bounds to") and can be defined as: "to limit; (logic)to limit by adding differences, to limit in scope; to give a terminus or aim to, to give tendency or direction to, to decide the course of, to impel to; to give a direction or definite bias to."10 Morin shows that the houses of a horoscope determine and soparticularize astrological effects. He explains that planets transmit influences that houses receive and determine to earthly realizations: Astrological houses limit and direct significations inherent as potentials in a planet's nature and celestial state to shape the planet's influence in a life. Morin (in translation) refers to a planet's placement within the houses as its terrestrial state or local determination. In descending order of influential strength, a planet's terrestrial state is its (1) location:the house in which it sits; (2) rulership: the houses it rules (which answers the question: from where does this planet come?), the house location of its dispositor (which answers: to where does this planet go?), and the house location of planets it disposes (which fleshes out the answer to: from where does this planet come?); (3) aspects and (more weakly) antiscia: the planet's relationship by aspect or antiscion with planets located in houses, and with house rulers and house cusps; and (4) reflection:11 the planet's influence onthe house opposite the one in which it sits. These determinations are reducible to the two basic forms of local determination:location and rulership. Robert Corre uses the image of an artesian spring to explain the means by which houses - which represent Earth and earthlings - determine the Sky. An artesian spring bubbles up from beneath the ground in a manner determined by its nature, quantity, and quality, and by forces that propel it. Once it rises to the surface, the topography of the land onto which the water courses directs and conditions its flow. Without knowledge of the land onto which the water emerges, we cannot know where the water will flow when it reaches the surface, or whether it will become stream, fountain, lake, or flood. Morin shows that, to transliterate the Sky into earthly meanings,we rely on the houses to represent life on Earth. Houses relate tothings and events that people care about. We care about body, home, partner, children, work and career, friends, food, money, health, illness, death, and so on. Morin gives us a scheme that enables us to translate the Sky's symbols into human terms. Nature, State, Determinations, and Analogies Morin's method shows its power when he uses analogies to combine a planet's nature with its celestial state and local determinations. Morin demonstrates how, with systematic combination of these factors, the astrologer can assess the strength, quality, and direction of each planet's influence. To form an image of a living person from the horoscope's symbols, the astrologer systematically analyzes combinations of houses, signs, and planets whose effects are actualized and made visible through analogy. Morin's system guides the astrologer to see analogies as they selectively light up networks of influence and determination that planets and signs string among themselves and direct from house to house. When a planet's nature, celestial state, and local determinations are unified by shared analogy, the planet realizes signified house affairs. For example, if Jupiter is well-placed in Sagittarius in the 10th house and receives a trine from the Sun in Leo in the 5th, the shared analogies to honors, creativity, and visibility signify a publicly honored and creative destiny. Each planet, however, exists in a community of planets in which each has a distinct nature, particular state and determinations, and powerful influence. It is usually necessary to evaluate and synthesize multiple planetary placements that affect particular house affairs to understand their relative and combined influences. Combinations of planetary placements that are confluent (analogous) and strong (or, in the absence of beneficial realization, weak) are needed to predict readily apparent results. Morin's discussions of planetary nature, strength, and celestial state, are multifaceted. In basic terms, a planet's nature shows whether the planet will realize house affairs. A planet's influential nature12 is known through its categorical analogies; these analogies are the source of the benefic or malefic13 nature of a planet's influence. A planet's strength14 - a measure of the quantity of its influence - calibrates how much the planet will realize in the house affairs that it influences. Its quality, seen in celestial state, indicates whether realization of house affairs will be refined, satisfying, and stable, and whether realization will be achieved through ethical, well-timed, and harmonious means. Factors of planetary strength include location or rulership in angular houses (especially the 1st or 10th), occupation of cardinal signs, disposition of many or key planets, disposition by a strongly placed planet (especially with an aspect from the dispositor), participation in exact aspects or in aspects with many planets, aspects to the Ascendant or Midheaven or their rulers, aspects to the Sun or Moon or their dispositors, and aspects to other key planets. The other end of the spectrum of strength includes location or rulership in cadent houses, occupation of dual (mutable) signs, disposition of no planets or few relatively weakly placed planets, a dispositor whose placement is relatively weak, and participation in few or wide aspects, especially to relatively weakly placed planets. The lights (the Sun and Moon) strongly placed, especially in aspect to the Ascendant and to each other, or to the Midheaven, also contribute mightily to strength. Primary factors of a planet's good celestial state, which favorably condition its nature and show the quality of its influence, include occupation of a sign with which the planet's nature is compatible (where it is in honor by domicile, exaltation, or triplicity),15 favorable aspects from benefic planets, absence of unfavorable aspects from malefic planets, and a dispositor well conditioned by celestial state. Morin shows that a planet in a horoscope first identifies itself by house location and nature. A natural benefic located in a fortunate house realizes house affairs through the benefic analogies that planet and house share. A natural malefic located in an unfortunate house (primarily the 6th, 8th, or 12th) tends to give effect to unfortunate shared analogies. The confluent effect is further heightened when the planets celestial state also bears an analogy to its nature and determinations. Contrary analogies or the absence of analogies limit or deny realization of house affairs. A natural benefic located in an unfortunate house protects the native from misfortunes of the house, and tends to bring out the house's potentially beneficial significations. A natural malefic - primarily Saturn, Mars, and (post-Morin) the modern planets - located in a fortunate house tends to obstruct or disrupt realization. When Morin looks at determination by house location, he considers the influence on house affairs of one planet located in a house. He also considers multiple planets located in a house and measures their relative and combined influence on the house. He weighs each planet's influence based on considerations of its rulership in the house, its analogy with affairs of the house, its orb of conjunction to the house cusp, its relationship to its dispositor and to the house ruler, and its place in the sequence of planets through the house, among other factors. After Morin considers a planet's nature, location, and celestial state, he factors in remaining elements of terrestrial state. Rulership is the second most effective form of local determination. Morin looks at the effect of a house ruler located in a house it rules, and he considers the effect of a house ruler located in another house. He shows that planets related by disposition shape each other's local determinations, and demonstrates how a planet and its dispositor combine the effects of one house with those of another. House rulers include rulers primarily by domicile, importantly by exaltation, and weakly by triplicity. Planets that rule a sign placed in a house but do not rule the house cusp also act as rulers of the house. The third form of local determination is given to a planet by aspect. A planet that sends an aspect to a house cusp, house ruler, or a planet located in a house is thereby given a determination to the affairs of the house it influences. An aspect between planets acting in accord with their local determinations modifies the terrestrial state of each mutually aspecting planet. Planets combine the affairs of one house with those of another by their mutual aspects. Morin considers the panoply of combinations of natural benefics and malefics in good, intermediate, and poor celestial state given determinations to fortunate and unfortunate houses. For example, a natural benefic in good celestial state that is given a determination to a fortunate house to which it bears an analogy generates refined, satisfying, enduring, and well achieved realization of house affairs. A natural benefic in poor celestial state realizes affairs of a fortunate house; the realization, however, may be of compromised quality, may prove unsatisfying or unstable, or may be accomplished by questionable means. The poor celestial state of a natural malefic renders its influence more difficult to manage. A natural malefic's good celestial state lends it benefic effect, and gives it capacity to realize fortunate affairs or avert some unfortunate realizations - at least in the fortunate houses. Yet, whatever its state, a planet always influences by its nature: [A] malefic even in good state always grants things attended by imperfections, or through evil methods or in difficult ways, or with some accompanying misfortune, because of the malefic nature of the planet through which it is more prone to evil than to good. Whence it can be said that malefics in good celestial state in the fortunate houses are like a dissonance in music that has been resolved to produce a consonance.16 The Ascendant The rising point, or Ascendant, is the originating place where the band of Sky in which the planets wander touches the Earth. In most methods of house division, the Ascendant is the first point the system defines and, with the Midheaven, the point from which houses are constructed. The Sky enters the ken of earthlings at the Ascendant. We turn east (from Sanskrit ushas, "dawn") at sunrise to know and enter the coming day; we turn to the Ascendant to know a person. The Ascendant describes the person and the person's orientation (from Latin orienter, "to place facing east") to life. Consistent with tradition, Morin refers to the 1st house as the House of Life. Robert Corre teaches, as Zoltan Mason taught, that the Ascendant is 80% of the horoscope: the sign on the ascendant and planets connected to the Ascendant contribute to the formation of personality.17 Mason placed his finger on the Ascendant as he interpreted a horoscope to remind himself to keep track of the rising point. The horoscope shows how the native receives and determines influences. Factors that do not appear in the horoscope are also determinative. Those factors are, first, whether the horoscope is correctly cast; and second, whether it is the horoscope of a human birth - circumstances the horoscope does not show. Nor does the horoscope show the person's social, cultural, and religious background, gender, or (without calculation from planetary positions) age. As Morin explains and Corre emphasizes, the horoscope shows only half the picture; the other half is the context in which the horoscope operates. Action and Determination In Ptolemaic cosmology,18 the primum caelum, which translates to "first heaven," is the first moveable sphere and the sphere of fixed stars. The primum caelum, as the first cause in Nature, imparts motion to lower celestial spheres that carry planets in their orbits. In the traditional view that informed Morin's thought and practice, the Unmoved Mover inspires love - experienced as breath - that animates the cosmos and generates life as it also draws the creature home to its source. In Morin's model, at creation the Author of Nature determined the nature and active power of the primum caelum, and determined the planets' essential natures and active powers; the planets determined the zodiacal signs. As a result of planets' original determination of signs, planets and signs work as (cooperative or uncooperative) partners through relationships found in rulership, sign occupation, and analogies. Since creation, planets and signs mutually determine each other. Planets, acting as transmitters of signs' influences and as senders of their own natural and conditioned influences, are first causes that actively influence houses; houses - which represent Earth and so represent us - receive and determine influences of planets and signs. When humans act as a result of influences we receive, we become, Morin says, "particular causes of [our] own effects."19 This model of the relationship of cause, creative determination, and effect is a schema of cosmic order. It shows how human beings become creative actors: In Morin's traditional view of cosmos, we are secondary causes who act to determine the particular effects of celestial first causes. With Morin's method, we can assess influences, circumstances, and potentials in accord with cosmology to focus the crucial question about human action that arises again and again: What is the best I can do in thesecircumstances under these influences at this time? An Application of Morin's Method Sarah Vaughan was a great jazz singer whose highly successful career began when she was 18 years old and spanned almost 50 years. Vaughan's phenomenally strong, flexible, and captivating voice had an extraordinarily wide range. One of the early influential bebop musicians, she used her voice as a horn. Vaughan crossed boundaries that redefined musical genres and profoundly influenced jazz singing. She performed successfully in jazz and pop genres and sang with symphony orchestras. She was largely self-taught and perfected her art by working with other great musicians. She had a wonderful musical imagination; she created and executed to perfection intricate harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic changes. She was a master and innovator of scat singing, which is the art of improvising in sounds and syllables without words. Vaughan's voice retained its beauty, expressive power, and flexibility throughout her long career; as she aged, her lows became richer, and her musicianship matured to become increasingly masterful. In view of the wealth of information that a horoscope encodes, the challenge is to glean what is salient for a given purpose. The purpose here is to demonstrate some basic principles of Morin's method. The focus here will be on the most publicly outstanding characteristics of Vaughan's life - her voice and musical artistry - with an occasional glance at other matters. The 2nd is the house of the throat and mouth and, thus, of voice and nourishment; it is the house of money and material resources. Musical artistry is a 5th-house matter.20 The Ascendant: Life and Direction In order to understand the effect of any planetary placement, it is necessary to understand who is subject to the influence. Scorpio rises in Vaughan's horoscope. As the eighth sign, Scorpio connects Vaughan with 8th-house affairs. The house locations of Ascendant rulers Mars and Pluto confirm the connection and direct Vaughan to the 2nd/8th axis: Ascendant ruler Pluto is located in the 8th house in Cancer; it throws a tight opposition to Ascendant ruler Mars, which sits exalted in Capricorn in the 2nd. The Moon in Capricorn sits in exile in the 2nd house, where it disposes and tightly aspects Pluto within an orb of 20 minutes. In Morin's system, each house has accidental significations that mirror the essential significations of the opposite house, and a dispositor of a house ruler can become as effective in house affairs as the ruler itself. Thus, Pluto's 8th-house location and its disposition to the 2nd further intertwine Vaughan's life with 2nd-house matters. These major arteries powerfully connect the Ascendant with the 2nd/8th axis, with a decided tilt toward the 2nd; they vitally direct Vaughan's life toward 2nd-house affairs. This confluence of factors directed toward the 2nd is striking. It becomes more striking still. Three planets, including the 2nd-house ruler, are located in the 2nd; what's more, every planet in thehoroscope pours its influence into the 2nd, and all are tied to the Ascendant or Ascendant rulers. Uranus, Neptune, and Venus are the planets that most closely aspect the Ascendant. All three planets are strongly connected to the 2nd house by disposition or final disposition21 and by aspect. Jupiter, which rules in the 1st (representing Vaughan) and in the 4th (representing Vaughan's foundation and ancestry), is the 2nd-house ruler; it is placed powerfully in domicile closely conjunct the 2nd cusp, and disposes Ascendant ruler Pluto by exaltation to the 2nd. The Sun and Mercury, the 10th-house rulers in Aries in the 5th house, aspect into the 2nd and are disposed there by Ascendant ruler Mars; they aspect both Ascendant rulers. Saturn, which rules in the 2nd, sits in the 12th in Scorpio, the ascending sign, in mutual reception by domicile with the Ascendant ruler, exalted Mars. This comprehensive and tightly woven pattern signifies Vaughan's integrated focus on 2nd-house affairs and the affairs of the 2nd/8th axis; it also shows the remarkable complexity of those affairs. Vaughan, with a Scorpio Ascendant, was directed to voice, money, others' money, food and drink, sex, trauma, regeneration, and death. Uranus in Pisces sits in the 4th, an angular house that it co-rules; it makes the closest aspect to the Ascendant and aspects both Ascendant rulers, Mars and Pluto. Uranus is located in the house of parents, past, foundation, and ancestry in a sign of music. It is disposed to the 2nd and in a tight square to its powerful dispositor, Jupiter; it is disposed to the 9th by Neptune, which has honor of elevation in the royal sign of Leo; Venus, which sits powerfully angular in domicile, sextiles and disposes Uranus by exaltation. Uranus' final dispositor is the exalted 10th-house ruler, the Sun in Aries, which is located in the 5th house of performance, music, and creativity. As these placements presage, Vaughan burst into visibility with song. Her parents were amateur religious and traditional musicians. Vaughan got her start in music when she sang in the choir and played organ in church as a child and adolescent; her jazz roots were in innovative bebop, with its revolutionary harmonies and rhythms. Vaughan's past led her to unique, visible, and inspired musical performance. The second-closest aspect to the Ascendant is Neptune's square from the 9th house. Neptune participates in fierytrines with Jupiter in the 2nd and with its dispositor, the exalted Sun, conjunct Mercury in the 5th; it closely squares Venus in domicile on the 7th-house cusp. Neptune is a significator of longing and divinity in a sign of royalty and performance in a house of aspiration and divinity; the exalted Sun that disposes Neptune is a significator of royalty and divinity in the fortunate and musical 5th house. Vaughan sang ballads of yearning and romance in a beautiful lush voice; laudatory critics sometimes called her voice "operatic." Vaughan was known as the "Divine One"; she said her favorite and best among her early recordings was "The Lord's Prayer." Vaughan's aspirations led her to divine song. Venus makes the third-closest aspect to the Ascendant. Venus is one of the two angular planets and is a benefic powerfully placed in its earthy domicile closely conjunct the 7th-house cusp in a Scorpio-rising chart. The 7th signifies the public as well as the partner. Venus sextiles Uranus and disposes it by exaltation. With analogies to throat and voice in a sign with the same analogies, Venus is disposed by exaltation to the 2nd house and casts aspects into the 2nd to its dispositor, the Moon; it closely squares Neptune. "Tenderly" was one of Vaughan's signature songs; another was "Misty." Vaughan sang ballads and innovative jazz; she also made recordings backed by string orchestras. Venus' placement gave Vaughan's music divine, sensual beauty and stunning creative originality; her rich and arrestingly beautiful vocal expression brought her success with a devoted public. The Midheaven: Action and Destiny The Midheaven in Vaughan's horoscope is very powerfully placed and, in itself, promises something extraordinary. Vaughan's Midheaven falls into strong, fixed, fiery Leo. Its ruler is the exalted Sun in Aries, which is disposed to the 2nd by exalted Mars. The Sun comes from the elevated 9th and 10th houses to the fortunate 5th, where it sits closely conjunct the cusp it rules by exaltation. The Sun participates with Mercury, which also rules in the 10th, in powerful fire-sign trines that occur in strongly-placed fortunate houses. All the planets in these key fiery trines - Jupiter in domicile on the 2nd cusp, the exalted Sun on the 5th cusp where it trines and disposes elevated Neptune in the 9th, and Mercury conjunct its exaltation dispositor - are given determinations to the 2nd by location, rulership, dispositorship, and aspect: Vaughan's actions and destiny are directed to the 2nd house by way of the fortunate 5th and 9th. Both 10th-house rulers aspect the Ascendant rulers and are disposed by Ascendant ruler Mars. Vaughan's actions, signified in the 10th and its rulers, are integrated with her self and her life, shown in the 1st and its rulers. Vaughan was destined for actions that created brilliant, inspired, visible performance in song. The Lights The Sun, as noted above, is very powerfully placed. Like the Sun, the Moon is placed in a cardinal sign in a succedent house. The two lights are in close square to each other; both are strongly configured with the Ascendant rulers. The Sun is exalted and in a square with its exalted dispositor; the Moon sits in exile with the same exalted dispositor, Ascendant ruler Mars. Both lights are given determinations to the 2nd, 5th, 9th, and 10th houses; both rule fortunate, elevated houses: The Sun is the Midheaven ruler, and the Moon is the 9th-house ruler; the Sun also rules the fortunate 5th by exaltation; the Moon rules by exaltation in the angular 7th house. The placement of the lights confirms Vaughan's strength, integration, powerful motivation, and visibility. Quantity: Strength Vaughan's strength is immediately apparent. The strong placement of the Ascendant and the lights, and the very strong placement of the Midheaven, even taken without other factors, give the horoscope enormous strength and promise an unusual life. The Ascendant is in Scorpio, a strong, fixed sign. The Ascendant rulers, Midheaven rulers, both lights and the dispositors of the lights all occupy cardinal signs, and all are located in succedent houses. Both Ascendant rulers make favorable aspects to the Ascendant, and many other planets send tight aspects to the Ascendant or its rulers. The strength of the Ascendant enabled Vaughan to make effective use of her remarkable gifts under demanding conditions. In Vaughan's horoscope, many planets, including the 1st and 10th rulers, are related by tight aspects. All the planets, except Saturn in mutual reception with its exalted dispositor (Mars), are in domicile or exaltation, or else they aspect planets that dispose them by domicile, exaltation, or both. In general, the most important aspect a planet can receive is from its dispositor; aspects between planets and their dispositors strengthen, stabilize, and integrate the chart. The horoscope shows a preponderance of placements in the active and powerful fire element; no planets occupy air signs. The poet Rumi's line applies: "The reed is played with fire, not wind." Vaughan was creatively inspired; she had enormous physical energy and, as she recognized, was prone to excess. Her first nickname was "Sassy." She worked and socialized for long hours, and her social life included overindulgence in food, drink, and other substances; when she was young, she stretched the limits of her body's great endurance by getting by on very little sleep. Jupiter's powerfully benefic presence in domicile closely conjunct the 2nd-house cusp gave Vaughan's voice enormous strength and durability. Vaughan's strength, and the strength of her voice, enabled her to keep on singing wonderfully, despite demands on her body and compromises to her well-being. Two benefics, Venus and Jupiter, sit in domicile on the cusps they rule - Venus angular. Uranus is located in the angular house it rules and casts tight aspects to the Ascendant and key planets. Only two planets, Saturn and Neptune, are in cadent houses; although they are located in cadent houses, both planets partake of strength. Neptune is elevated and is disposed by the strongly placed Sun. Saturn is in mutual reception by domicile with exalted Ascendant ruler Mars in a succedent house. Both planets in mutable signs partake of strength: Jupiter sits in domicile on the cusp of the succedent 2nd house where Vaughan's life is powerfully directed; Uranus is angular and receives a tight square from its powerfully placed dispositor, Jupiter. The two strong mutable sign placements alleviate the horoscope's weight and single-minded focus, even as they contribute to its intensity. Quality: Nature and Celestial State The progress of planets through the 2nd house describes Vaughan's voice. Jupiter in domicile on the 2nd cusp has paramount influence on this pivotal house. Three planets of varied nature and state in the 2nd - benefic Jupiter in domicile, the benefic Moon in exile, and malefic Mars exalted - and the many influences on the house show enormous complexity in 2nd-house affairs and great variety in Vaughan's voice. Vaughan often stated a melody in pure tones with grace (under the influence of Jupiter's placement); took it through unique changes that incorporated great leaps, harsh or flat tones, and dissonance (still under Jupiter's placement and under the exiled Moon's); and brought it to a successful resolution (under Jupiter and Mars). Vaughan followed a similar progression within phrases; she even carried the pattern into single held and shaped sounds.Vaughan's vocal genius was powered by the exalted Sun's brilliance, guided by Jupiter's overarching influence, "jazzed" by Uranus, sensitized by Neptune, embodied in Venus, rendered magnetic through Pluto, informed by Mercury's discrimination, and given voice through Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars. The placement of the exiled Moon, in a house under the sway of Jupiter, shows Vaughan's often-heard musical humor and her humor in performance. Mars (natural significator of timing) and Saturn (natural significator of time itself) combine by mutual reception; the Moon (natural significator of the measured sense of time) combines with them by conjunction and disposition. The placements of these planets show Vaughan as a master of timing and rhythm in song who was able to integrate phenomenally diverse patterns of sound, rhythm, and silence. Vaughan's accompanists - most of whom found working with her exhilarating, inspiring, and musically revelatory - described how they hung in wait as Vaughan masterfully calibrated the timing of her next note. Saturn's disposition of Mars and the Moon pulled timing into a 12th-house realm that seemed to threaten its loss. Exalted Mars's disposition of the Moon and its disposition of Saturn into the 2nd, all under the influence of Jupiter, brought Vaughan flawlessly back to solid ground. Vaughan was recognized as a great jazz musician; she also had a parallel career as a financially successful pop singer. The rulers of her Scorpio Ascendant in Capricorn and Cancer - security-conscious cardinal signs - tightly configured with an exiled Moon on the 2nd/8th axis show Vaughan strongly oriented toward money. Factors that describe her orientation to money coalesce with Venus's determinations (including Venus's disposition by the exiled Moon in the 2nd) to describe Vaughan's husbands as interested in her money. Venus is finally disposed by Saturn in Scorpio in the 12th (because the Moon disposes Venus by exaltation, and Saturn disposes the Moon by domicile). This placement, combined with Venus's rulership of the 12th, describes Vaughan's husbands as her secret enemies, particularly in financial matters. These placements, combined with the placements of Mars, Pluto, and Uranus (including Uranus's exact sextile to the Descendant and its tight sextile to Venus), show the husbands were controlling, confining, and prone to violence. Vaughan was the money-maker in her three failed marriages. She supported her parents after she became successful, and also supported her daughter, whom Vaughan and her second husband adopted and whom she and her mother reared. Saturn in Scorpio disposes the Moon and Mars from the 2nd to the 12th house of loss and misfortune. Jupiter's powerful placement and analogy with wealth reveal Vaughan's wealth. These factors and the sequence of planets through the 2nd house - Jupiter in domicile on the cusp, with the exiled Moon and exalted Mars following - paint a picture of financial success followed by loss that is resolved. Vaughan recovered from significant financial losses related to her first two marriages to enjoy substantial wealth. Consistent with her Scorpio Ascendant and direction to the 2nd/8th axis, Vaughan put her singing to financial use. The Moon's exiled state and placement in configuration with multiple malefics describes the poor quality in songs and arrangements that Vaughan recorded for commercial reasons. Her first million record seller, "Broken Hearted Melody," was so musically impoverished that even Vaughan was unable to enliven or draw out beauty in the song. She felt silly every time she sang it. On the other hand, Vaughan found and expressed beauty in songs of varying merit; she applied her genius to any musical genre she touched and created something unique and beautiful. Later in her career, Vaughan was able to focus on material of high musical quality that permitted her to use her innate genius and creativity more consistently than some of her earlier popular material had allowed. By that time, Vaughan had narrowed her repertoire to a relatively small number of songs that she performed repeatedly - although wonderfully and often differently from performance to performance. The continuing influence of Jupiter placed in domicile on the 2nd cusp, and the exalted Mars that concludes the series of planets in the house, show dissonance in Vaughan's compromises resolved to consonance. Analogies Vaughan's horoscope directs her ineluctably to brilliant, visible, innovative musicianship and promises a powerful, beautiful, and highly expressive voice. The analogies, including those noted above, are strong. The Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, Leo, exaltation, fire, and the 5th, 9th, and 10th houses have analogies with visibility, brilliance, and creativity. Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, Sagittarius, Pisces, fire, water, and the 9th, and 12th houses have analogies with divinity and the creative poetry of sound. The Moon, Pluto, Neptune, water, and the 4th, 8th, and 12th houses have analogies with mystery, illusion, riveting power, and affecting depth. The malefic analogies in the horoscope, which become relevant to the discussion in the section below, are also strong. Malefics and Unfortunate Houses The same horoscope that describes Sarah Vaughan's strength and her brilliance, expressive genius, visibility, and success also describes misfortune. Ascendant rulers Mars and Pluto are natural malefics that are in hard aspect to each other and are given determinations to the three unfortunate houses; they both cast hard aspects to the two lights. Neither of the two principal angles - the Ascendant and Midheaven - nor their rulers, and neither light, receives close harmonious aspects from well-conditioned benefics. The malefic analogies are apparent and effective. These fundamental significators of Vaughan and her life, under substantial malefic influence and with little benefic support, represent a life that included a significant share of difficulty and pain. Saturn's placement looms large. Saturn is the planet of illness, isolation, and silence that, except for the mutual reception with Mars, sits quite isolated in an otherwise tightly woven horoscope in the hidden, silent, and isolating 12th house in the silent sign of Scorpio. Saturn rules the 12th by exaltation; its only close aspect is a sextile to the Midheaven, the place of action and destiny. The 12th gives a determination to loss, illness, and hospitalization. Saturn, natural significator of illness, disposes or finally disposes both Ascendant rulers, both lights, both 10th-house rulers, and the rulers of the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses. In fact, Saturn disposes or finally disposes every planet in the horoscope except Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Saturn's power as a dispositor, and its mutual reception by domicile with Mars, repeatedly pulled Vaughan from exalted performance and intense living into isolation, silence, and loss - and back again to song. Saturn's placement describes Vaughan's experience of career limitations and private sorrows in a life that included creative mastery, public success, and financial wealth, allachieved against great social odds. Saturn rules the 4th house. The 4th signifies the end of life; Saturn has an analogy with death and endings. As the 4th ruler in the 12th - with the confluence of other key planets also disposed to the 12th and connected with the 6th, 8th, and malefics - Saturn shows hospitalization at the end of life. The 2nd house gives a determination to what comes out of the mouth - and also what goes in. The malefics rule smoke and health-destroying chemicals. Placements of malefics and unfortunate houses here show a chronic, long-silent illness that arises from what is ingested. With Ascendant ruler Mars, both the 10th-house rulers, and both lights also given determinations to the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses, Pluto's placement as Ascendant ruler in the 8th shows that Vaughan's actions were a cause of her death. Vaughan smoked cigarettes and died at the relatively young age of 66 from lung cancer. Uranus, located in the house of the home and the end of life, is disposed by domicile and exaltation to three fortunate houses; it aspects into two of those houses. Uranus, given a determination to death by its aspect to Pluto in the 8th, sextiles 12th ruler Venus, who also rules the 11th, the house of friends and love received from friends. These placements signify that Vaughan died at home with support from friends and family. Morin's Gift to Astrologers Morin's view of the misuse of universal significators casts a clarifying light on astrological practice. Misplaced reliance on universal significators is one reason that Western astrologers now shy away from what has come to be called predictive astrology toward a more amorphous descriptive astrology that focuses primarily on planets, signs, and aspects. Morin says that astrologers can speak reliably of a particular person engaged in life by systematic, proportionate, and right use of signs, planets, and aspects with houses. In Morin's method, factors that combine to shape a person also delineate a life. With use of Morin's system, the astrologer's view of cause and effect becomes clearer and more connected with life as we live it; with these methods, the astrologer can give practical, helpful, and focused consultations that understand lived experience and place it in cosmic perspective. Morin's approach is comprehensive and systematic. It sits on a strong foundation of basic astrological factors used in accordance with a method that lives intertwined with cosmology, meaning, and tradition. Modern Western astrologers have introduced new factors - for example, asteroids and midpoints - and their associated techniques. These modern factors can describe details with striking accuracy. If Morin is correct, such factors should find their proportionate and rightful place in systematic and comprehensive horoscope interpretation. Morin's methods show astrology's symbols as they operate in a horoscope to describe a life. Astrology's symbols in action reveal cosmic order, or - because cosmos means harmony and order - reveal cosmos. Modern Western astrologers tend to reject the tradition that categorizes planets as natural benefics or malefics, houses as fortunate or unfortunate, and celestial states as states of honor or dishonor. It is important to recognize value in human experience, including painful or destructive experience. Yet, it serves human beings who seek perspective and guidance to see within our lives patterns of mundane happiness and unhappiness, success and failure, skillful and unskillful actions, and ethical and unethical means. Morin shows how to look at a horoscope through houses that focus the gaze on life. He shows how to see sublunary life in action under cosmic influences shaped by human determination. In the sacred art of astrology, we join Earth with Sky to know the divine in human life. I am grateful to Robert Corre, a New York astrologer and teacher who was a long-time student of Zoltan Mason, for his teaching of Morin's system through the Forum on Astrology. I thank Laura Torbet for her comments on earlier drafts of this essay and Pat Ranger for e-mail exchanges on Sarah Vaughan's horoscope. Errors and limitations are mine. Chart Data and Source Sarah Vaughan, March 27, 1924; 9:44 p.m. EST; Newark, NJ, USA (40N44^08^^, 74W10^22^^); AA: quoted birth certificate/record; AstroDatabank cites Contemporary Sidereal Horoscopes and Gauquelin Book of American Charts.For purposes of this example, I have taken a minute from the 9:45 p.m. birth time given. References and Notes 1. Teaching and other information on Morin and his system areavailable through Robert Corre's Web site: www.forumonastrology.com. The Web site is the portal to Mr. Corre's Internet classes on Morin's system and gives his schedule of in-person classes and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. 2. Influence (from the Latin influxus, "emanation from the stars") is: "The supposed flowing or streaming from the stars or heavens of an ethereal fluid acting upon ... character and destiny ... and affecting sublunary things generally." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, CD-ROM, 2002 (hereinafter OED). Influence is used in this essay for the most part without the duplicative celestial preceding it. 3. Nature is essence expressed in action; essence (from the Latin esse, "to be") is what makes a thing what it is. The influence a planet has by nature is the influence it has by virtue of being itself. 4. Analogy is "correspondence ... of one thing to another ... resemblance of things with regard to some circumstances or effects" (OED). 5. A planet's nature and universal signification is also seen, for example, in the Sun's solar influence, Saturn's saturnine influence, and Jupiter's jovial influence. 6. J. B. Morin, Astrologia Gallica, Book 21: The Active Determinations of the Celestial Bodies and the Passive Determinations of the Sublunary World, trans. Richard S. Baldwin, American Federation of Astrologers, 1974, 1, ch. 3, p. 13 (hereinafter "Book 21"). English translations of several books of Astrologia Gallica are currently available; James Herschel Holden's translations of other books are in progress or forthcoming. 7. Book 21, 1, ch. 3, p. 12. 8. When used here without qualification, the word placement comprises all the factors that condition and determine a planet in a horoscope. These factors include house location, sign occupation, aspects, and all other elements of celestial and terrestrial state. I've adopted this usage from a similar definition that Hart deFouw gives in his Jyotisha classes in order to standardize astrological terminology. It facilitates communication to distinguish placement from less comprehensive factors that are included within it, particularly sign occupation and house location. 9. The planetary state that modern Western astrologers call detriment Morin (in translation) calls by its traditional name, exile. An exiled planet is strong, not weak. It is, however, ill at ease in enforced absence far from home in a place incompatible with its nature. The planet's performance depends largely on the placement of its dispositor, ruler in the foreign land where the exiled planet finds itself. 10. OED (ellipses omitted). 11. Morin recognizes a planet's influence on the opposite house, an influence here called "reflection." This influence gives the weakest form of local determination. I omit it and antiscia, for the most part, from this introductory discussion. 12. Morin distinguishes a planet's elemental nature from its influential nature. This discussion is of influential nature. 13. Natural benefics have analogies with sublunary things that are humanly desirable and contribute to a satisfying and ethicallife; natural malefics have analogies with things that are generally undesirable and tend to undermine the creation of a satisfying, ethical life. 14. Morin distinguishes a planet's intrinsic and extrinsic strength. He measures a planet's intrinsic strength, which is inherent in its nature, by the radius of its ascribedorb of influence. Extrinsic strength, which is under discussion here, arises from a planet's conditioning by state. 15. A peregrine planet, one that is neither in high honor nor in dishonor, may have a beneficial influence when disposed by a benefic. 16. Book 21, 2, ch. 2, p. 45. 17. As Robert Corre explains in his Forum on Astrology classes, the luminaries (particularly in relationship to each other and to the Ascendant), the 5th (house of love given to others), and the 9th (house of philosophy and belief) also contribute to the formation of personality. 18. In the cosmology that Morin embraced, the five true planets orbit the Sun; the Sun (with planets in attendance) and the Moon orbit the Earth. With this cosmology, Morin sought to account for measurable astronomical phenomena and simultaneously affirm geocentric church doctrine. 19. Book 21, 1, ch. 4, p. 16. 20. The 3rd house also gives a determination to skill and artistry. 21. As the term is used here, a planet's final dispositor is the dispositor of its dispositor. 2007 Penny Seator / all rights reserved Penny Seator is an astrologer and student of Western astrology and Jyotisha, with particular interest in the system of Jean-Baptiste Morin. Visit her Web site: www.encirclinglight.com. You can reach her by telephone at (760) 366-9911 or by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com. AN OUTLINE OF MORIN'S METHOD OF DETERMINATION Signs and Planets: Are universal significators: they refer to all members of a category of sublunary things. Are determined - limited or directed - to the affairs of the houses they influence. Form a reliable basis for astrological judgment only when combined with particularizing determinations. Mutually determine each other and act as (cooperative or uncooperative) partners. Send their influence, transmitted through the planets, to Earth in accord with nature, state, and determinations through the actualizing operation of analogy. Houses: Represent Earth and earthlings, and delineate earthly life. Receive and determine the influences of signs and planets. Enable the astrologer to make concrete assessments that speak with specificity of life and apply to a particular person. Show, especially through the Ascendant, the native's orientation to life. Show, especially through the Ascendant, who receives and determines the influences of planets and signs. Show, especially through the Midheaven, the native's actions and destiny. Houses, Signs, and Planets: Interact in specified ways with cosmology. Demonstrate the dynamic of cosmic influence on earthly life as determined by human action.


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Personal Information
Teaching Philosophy / Personal Statement
I just want to see students be successful. When I was a student here at Sandburg, the faculty here changed my life. I not only gained knowledge, I gained confidence in myself. Effective teachers help students gain confidence as well as knowledge. One of the goals I have always wanted to achieve here at Sandburg has been to be considered an effective teacher.
Degrees Earned
A.S., A.A. from Carl Sandburg, B.A. Knox College, M.S. Western Illinois University
Previous Teaching Experience
Carl Sandburg College adjunct faculty from 96' to 2003. Full time faculty from 2003 to present. Teaching classes in General biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology and Environmental science.
Memberships / Affiliations / Awards
2004 ICCTA Distinguished Alumnus Award
2008 ICCTA Faculty Member of the Year
Cofounder and sponsor of the College's student science club, S.E.A.C. (Sandburg Environmental Awareness Club).
Additional Info
I enjoy golfing, fishing, hiking, and spending time with family, friends and my dogs.
Associate Professor, Biology
Building C
Room 207A
Send email
Last updated: 01/29/2020

subset: commoncrawl


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by Janet Gilmore
Sometimes you love a gift that you made for someone else so much it's hard to part with.
"This quilt is really for Jane, not her grandson; isn't it?" my husband Hugh asked, looking at the tangled mess of fabric I'd laid on the sewing room floor.
My friend Jane is an architect with ideas, principles, hopes and dreams. We're friends anyway.
He caught me by surprise with that. I stopped what I was doing and took another look.
"You know, I think you're right," I said. "I've never met Jane's daughter, and I'll probably never meet Jane's grandson.
He dropped a kiss on my head and said, "You're a nice lady."
Making a baby quilt is a special thing to do. After all, whether the result is a work of art or not, it's certainly one of a kind. And it takes hours and hours to make.
After making sketches, I went to the fabric store and saw hundreds of bolts of fabric available. I coldly chose a few by color alone.
After pre-shrinking and cutting it into the pieces I needed, though, I became attached to those scraps. After all, some of them are from clothes I or people I know wore, and still have memories clinging to them.
Auditioning bolts of cloth in the shop became the long process of cutting, piecing, sewing and hand-quilting. I came to love the time, sacrifice, pieces of cloth, the feel of the fabric. I held a freeze-frame image in my mind of a sweet baby asleep under a quilt I made for him.
However, I knew the baby would drool on it, throw up on it, invite his little friends around to mangle it, and worse. I might as well take it out in the driveway and run it over with my car myself. Oh, well, I shall call that "well-loved" and proclaim it a good thing.
A successful quilt takes focus. One can't obsess about anything else at the same time.
"What's for dinner tonight?" my husband will say.
"I don't know; have any creative take-out ideas? I have to return to task," I said and headed for Sewing Land in the basement for the rest of the night.
"I can't find any clean underwear," said my son.
"Sorry, I must return to task," I said.
"Do you want to watch a movie tonight?" Hugh asked.
I laughed.
"I know, I know, you have to return to…"
"Exactly," I said.
"Hey, Hugh," I said late one night. "Look at this!"
"I'm reading," he said. "Why don't you write down everything you want to say on a piece of paper and put it on the table at breakfast tomorrow?"
"Because this is VERY important," I said.
He sighed, but put down his book.
"Which of these fabrics looks better with blue?"
"I like this one better; what do you think?"
He gave me a look and picked up his book.
I made a Fibonacci (a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two previous two — 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 etc…) quilt, which is cut in long strips, then pieced, cut again in the same series and flipped so that wide strips are next to narrow ones, making me look like a genius.
I touched the quilt hundreds of times before it was done. I transferred every loving touch to the baby. I want him to be touched the same way.
But the work became tedious. Because of the mathematical progression, the quilt got very large very fast. Enormous.
"Hugh," I called upstairs. "Can you come here for a minute?"
"I'm reading," he said. "What is it?"
"Quilt issues," I said.
Imagining he'd have his wife back faster if he helped, down he came. We turned pieces of fabric this way and that and, without arguing, agreed on a design that was manageable.
Making a quilt is like a tiny religious experience. So many things can go wrong at any time; I could curse the universe and lose faith. I chanted, "Steady as she goes," and went ahead in the belief at every step that all would be well in the end.
It was still snowy when I began my weeks in the basement. Staying indoors to quilt seemed appropriate. One side of the quilt went according to plan, and the other side took on a life of its own, as things sometimes do, but everything worked out all right. Suddenly, though, the weather turned nicer, and I was still in the basement. I went outdoors and liked it. Then I went to the gym and I liked that, too. I took a short walk and missed the quilt. That's how it went. When I was out, I thought about the quilt, and when I was indoors I longed to go out.
Meanwhile the baby was gestating and preparing to appear, like the crocuses in my garden. I didn't tell Jane I was making a quilt for her grandson; I wanted to surprise her.
"What have you been up to?" she asked on the phone.
"Oh, nothing…"
She hung up quickly because I had no ideas, principles, hopes or dreams to talk about. How could I? I spent all my time sewing.
Finally, the quilt was done. It looked good, and there weren't too many mistakes. I showed it to Jane, who loved it. I had a few threads to snip and other finishing touches, so I told her I'd mail it to her. But I stalled, not wanting to part with my work yet. I took a little nap under it to see if it worked. It did.
Then I had an e-mail from Jane; her daughter was in labor. Time was up. We photographed the quilt, then packed it to mail.
I mailed the quilt that very evening, but it wasn't easy. If you were driving along Gravers Lane the other night, yes, that was me kissing a package good-bye at the drive-up mailbox.
I hope that kiss brings the child a lifetime of love.


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Watch TBS
Holy Crap
Peter's dad is forced to retire from the mill. A stern workaholic, the elder Griffin does not take retirement well. When Peter and Lois suggest that he come spend some time with them, Peter's dad agrees, and Peter gets excited at the prospect of bonding with his father. But the new living arrangement doesn't go according to plan: In addition to being a workaholic, Peter's dad is also a control freak. He tells the children what TV shows they can watch, tells Peter how to spend his free time and instructs Lois on how to raise the kids. Peter decides that the best way to get closer to his father is to bring him along to the toy factory, but this plan also backfires. Peter's boss is impressed by the retiree's work ethic and hires him as a foreman, ensuring widespread misery at the plant. After Peter's dad increases work hours and implements strict rules, Peter is desperate to make him quit, and tries to convince him to participate in a plot to kidnap the Pope. The Pontiff is also impressed by the retiree's ambition, and offers him yet another job.
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|It was super bright outside when we were taking these photos!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
McCall's 6402 - Leather + Wool black mini skirt
55 comments:
Wow, Amanda, your version looks better than the envelope photo! Not sure if it's the pleather causing the puckering along the seams on the envelope photo, but yours looks flawless.ReplyDelete
Awesome! Yours is SO much better than the pattern picture! Out of curiosity, how will you clean the skirt?ReplyDelete
I guess I'll dry clean it.ReplyDelete
LOVE your skirt! Yes, it looks much better than the pattern--the pattern appears to have puckering in the pleather. Your is perfect!ReplyDelete
Your skirt looks amazing and I love the curved seam details. Fantastic job!ReplyDelete
I agree! Your skirt looks so much better than the envelope. I love it so much!ReplyDelete
I looks terrific on you. Thank you so much for sharing how you solved your problem with the zipper.ReplyDelete
Wow, that is one fantastic skirt, I love it! And so well made, as always. You really look stunning.ReplyDelete
Oh lovely! But I wonder how you "launder" your mixed fabric garment when one of the fabric is leater?ReplyDelete
Great outfit and you did a fantastic job on matching those side seams. Not easy!ReplyDelete
What a wonderful skirt. I have got to get up the nerve to try mixing with leather.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 1, 2012 at 4:48 PM
Impeccable! It looks perfect on you! I'm with everyone else, it looks way better than the envelop pictureReplyDelete
Love it. Great choice of style and material. You look fab.ReplyDelete
Wonderful skirt! I follow your blog for months now and I must say you are a very precise sewer. Here is prove of that.ReplyDelete
I agree with the others - your version blows the original out the water. Your ability to sew with leather and two different fabrics combined - incredible!ReplyDelete
Awesome skirt! Excellent work, and it looks so good on you!ReplyDelete
Super cool skirt. Impeccably made, too, as always. :-)ReplyDelete
Love it, looks so expensive! Nice job!!!ReplyDelete
It looks amazing! Your matching at the side seams is perfection. They should re-do the cover of the envelope with your version.ReplyDelete
Fabulous skirt! Yours looks miles better than the envelope picture. Well done and it fits you beautifully. :)ReplyDelete
You did an amazing job! I'm nervous about leather, but you make me want to try it!ReplyDelete
You did such an amazing job, as always. Your version is definitely better than the envelope!ReplyDelete
Really cute...great job on its construction!!ReplyDelete
Amada you look fantastic and the skirt awesome!ReplyDelete
Well, that is a wonderful skirt. It's inspiring me to work with leather....almost!ReplyDelete
Your skirt looks much nicer than the one on the envelope. Well done!ReplyDelete
I feel like a copycat, but I agree with everyone above: your version is so much nicer than the envelope. Great job!ReplyDelete
oh wow you look very glamarous in this outfit - that skirt is perfect for your amazing figue. In fact I thought you had posted a picture of Anne Hathaway when I saw the thumbnail pic in my reading list!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 2, 2012 at 6:11 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 2, 2012 at 6:13 AM
You've done a lovely job of this skirt and I have to agree with the above comment that yours looks better than the actual envelope photo :DReplyDelete
I've created a link to your blog as I find you very inspiring and thought that I'd share it with others :D
The difference between your version and the one with pleather is eye opening :) Way to make that skin work for you. It looks terrific!ReplyDelete
This is gorgeous Amanda way better than the original.ReplyDelete
This is fantastic! And a fine example of how to improve on the original sample.. particularly I love your waistband much better.ReplyDelete
This is such a good looking skirt. I was definitely struck by how much better your version looks compared to the RTW version. I also hand-baste my invisible zipper in before I stitch with my machine. So glad you came up with a solution for the tail bump.ReplyDelete
I second that emotion! Your version is out of the park. I haven't worked with leather yet. Maybe one day...ReplyDelete
This is amazing. And it is so much nicer than the pattern picture--I don't know if I would have bought the pattern based on that picture, but seeing your version makes me think I could. And thanks for the zipper -tail- solution... I had the same thing happen to a dress, and I am ashamed to say I just left it that way! Maybe I will go back and try to fix it now because I had no idea before HOW to fix it.ReplyDelete
Amazing skirt!ReplyDelete
Amazing job on the skirt. Love.ReplyDelete
Great skirt, you look awesome! Yours looks better than the photo.ReplyDelete
That skirt looks much better than the pattern envelope. Great look.ReplyDelete
Great looking skirt, Amanda.ReplyDelete
Gorgeous skirt! Much better execution than the pattern envelope (that side seam intersection is astounding). Fabulous style, as usual.ReplyDelete
That is an excellent looking skirt!ReplyDelete
Wow, this is very designer looking. You did an fabulous job on it and well worth the extra effort you put into the zipper. Thank you for sharing.ReplyDelete
Insanely hot skirt! I am so glad you had a solution to the zipper bump. It is amazing how an idea can pop into your head after a few days of mulling it over. And now it is only a matter of time until I buy leather and sew something. I may copy this exactly, I will be your leather skirt twin.ReplyDelete
Beautiful work!!!
- AnonymousFebruary 14, 2012 at 11:40 AM
It turned out great! You did a fabulous job sewing! And this a great sample for anyone's closet. Bravo!ReplyDelete
Oh my gosh, this is fantastic!! Congratulations on the fabric matching! You look amazing in this.ReplyDelete
Great skirt! I would love to give this one a try!ReplyDelete
I've been missing your posts! I hope all is well and you're just busy being mommy! ;)ReplyDelete
I've just stumbled upon your blog. You've got some lovely sewn clothing! Do you need a special sewing machine to handle the leather?ReplyDelete
Wow I love it!!ReplyDelete


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Updated It's another case of internet 1, print media 0 today as the first picture of the spawn of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has just surfaced on the web following an apparent leak by someone at UK gossip rag Hello!.
The snap features on a cover of the magazine with the headline "The biggest exclusive of the year. Angelina and Brad with their new baby Shiloh Nouvel", and shows "Jolie, 30, her hair swept back, lying sideways with her head propped on her hand, looking down at the sleeping infant beside her" while "a smiling Pitt, 42, is seen in profile, gazing down at the child from the opposite direction", as The Age puts it.
There's very little smiling going on down the US's People magazine, however, since it had already secured the exclusive rights for first bagsies on the family album.
A People spokeswoman said: "Somebody from Hello! must have leaked it ... I'm sure it's a legitimate cover. I don't know how it got there."
The Hello! cover is dated Thursday 8 June. The People intends to carry its Shiloh Nouvel/Angelina/Brad Jolie-Pitt spread on Friday - for which it allegedly paid a whopping $4.1m
Jolie and Pit, meanwhile, have "agreed to let photo agency Getty Images market pictures of their newborn to other outlets", and will donate the proceeds - estimated at between $5m and $7m - to charity. ®
Hello! has moved quickly get the offending image removed from the internet, the BBC reports. Both the magazine and Getty images say they will sue any website which reproduces the picture.
The mag's features editor, Juliette Herd, said the snap "has been obtained totally illegally". She added: "We are very concerned at this breach of copyright", while admitting how the photo got into the wild was "a complete mystery".


text:
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Sunday, April 7, 2013
Part-time Residency
If anyone who has done a part-time residency wants to weigh in on this option and what it's been like for you, then that would be great. But according to the article, hardly anyone does it.
Considering a lot of pediatrics residents have children during residency and then choose to work part-time after graduation, it seems like this would be an option more people would choose. Granted, it does extend residency about about 15 months and who wants to be a resident for an extra year? Still, what's an extra year, really?
The article hypothesizes that women don't choose this option because they want to be taken seriously. We don't want to be labeled as the part-timer and have that follow us our entire career. I've noticed a general theme in medicine that women often don't want to be granted exceptions because we want to be equals. Yet.... do we wanted to be treated as equals? Yes, we want to be treated with an equal amount of respect, but I personally feel like we're not equal. So I'm not sure if I want to be treated just like a man.
If there had been a part-time option in my residency, I don't think I would have taken it. It probably depends what it would have entailed. We didn't have a heavy call schedule and the days weren't long, so the only thing they could have offered me would have been blocks of time off, and I'm not sure how much that would have helped me.
13 comments:
If my residency offered part time positions, I would have taken it in a heart beat. I already have to expend residency due to maternity leave and some illnesses with my children. Having a part time position may have taken off some of the stress associated with finding coverage for all the time I had to take off anyways.ReplyDelete
I've heard of several of this year's interns in the peds program where I'm a student doing part time. At least 4 I think. One is off every other month, extending her residency by 3 years. One is off ever 3 months, extending residency by 1 year, and another man-wife couple are each off every other month (one is on while the other is off) so that childcare responsibilities are always covered. I did not get the sense that they are less respected. Less camaraderie with their co-interns? Maybe. You'd have to ask them though.ReplyDelete
I remember a couple of mom's stretching out med school in this manner. And being ostracized and denounced as "lazy." Oh yes, we are so lazy, us procreating women in medicine. Nothing less than 200% (pregnancy and birthing and breastfeeding and motherhood plus full time residency/doctoring) will do. Society dictates that we run ourselves into the ground, often our own expense.ReplyDelete
No part time for me either, residency or currently. But I imagine there are others out there (a very few) who took that option that will live longer than me. Good for them. I don't mean to sound bitter, I'm happy and proud of where I am. But what it took to take me here? I think it was a little ridiculous, in retrospect.
I am in Australia, just about to have my first baby and planning on completing my EM 'residency' (not really what it's called here) part-time. For us the system is a bit different - your 'residency' which we call 'specialist training' takes 5 years, after 2 years of general hospital rotations (which we call 'internship' plus 'residency') - similar to the UK system. So most people work for 7 years after graduating from med school before they become a consultant (= your 'attending').ReplyDelete
In this context many female doctors preferentially choose specialties that have greater flexibility to allow part-time work - in particular General Practice (= your 'family med'), Paeds and EM. For me, I love having the option to finish my training part-time. It means that I can have good balance between work and family, give adequate time and energy to my family and friends, and not have to spend years resenting giving up personal goals for the sake of finishing training. Basically, feel like a more balanced human being (rather than a cog in a hospital machine!)...
Yes, it does take longer - and in our system, a lot longer. But it's not so bad when you consider that all the bad aspects of training are stretched out too and become less intense - work less tiring overall, less commuting, less nights/on-calls, more time to get research requirements and exams done... so it's not the same as if residency were to become actually longer, but with equal intensity.
As to what people think - yes there will be people who think part-timers are lazy (I'm working into late pregnancy and I'm sure there are people at work who think I'm lazy because I can't move and walk fast anymore, darn it! - and see less patients as a result). There will also be people who think we're bad mothers because we're not at home with the kid FULL-time. And sometimes, I find that the people who judge and criticise are actually JEALOUS of someone being able to, say, have a more flexible schedule or balanced life to what THEY have...
I reckon ('reckon' = Aussie slang for 'think') that the key is - work out what are your life priorities (is it work? becoming the next president? family life? skydiving? serving at church?) - and make decisions based on them - not on your colleagues' or bosses' priorities (which chances are, will be very different)! After all, they're not going to be there in 20 years time when one looks back on how decisions were made and life lived...!
I added an extra year to medical school to spend more time with my baby and it was one of the best decisions I've made. I'm not sure if people felt that as lazy, but I could not care less if they did, and my med school was very supportive of it. I'm now in my final year of a Peds residency (no breaks except 6 weeks of maty leave for baby #3), and I haven't personally heard of any Peds residencies offering part-time stuff. I think programs would have to get at least enough willing residents to make up one whole resident (otherwise there would leave gaps in coverage) and this has to get tricky to sustain long-term. The bottom line is, moms will always have guilt, whether they're in medicine or not, and we just have to set priorities and make the best decisions we can. People who judge often don't have the whole story, and besides... they're just people.ReplyDelete
I am a psychiatry resident in a large, reasonably highly ranked program, and people convert to part-time resident status ALL the TIME here! Generally people wait (as I did) until at least half way through your second year, in order to get all of the all-or-nothing rotations out of the way (because one month on, one month off really is kind of lame). Then people can chop things up by the day or half day, depending on your schedule. It's awesome.ReplyDelete
And for us, we can scale up and down pretty much at will, with relatively little warning, even. I came back after my second maternity leave at 50% time for a while, dialed up to 75%, and am about to kick back up to 80%. I'll end up about 9 months behind - but boy is it a better life being 75% when parenting two little ones. No regrets at all! And if anyone thinks we're slackers when we do this, they certainly haven't let on - our call gets cut proportionally, but since a few people a year do this, it all just evens out - for every 3rd or 4th year resident with a reduced call burden, there's someone who's extended into a 5th year picking up that slack.
Seriously. Life is so much better this way. I can hardly believe it's as rare as this post makes it sound!
RCHK- please do share- where are you? Have you heard of other places that readily offer this part-time awesomeness in training scenario? This is NOT public knowledge!ReplyDelete
I too extended medical school by 1 year to spend time with my first baby & then deferred residency for a year to spend time with my 2nd baby. I do not regret the extra time with my family at all and would have gladly chosen an extended part time residency were that an option.ReplyDelete
However, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I have regretted going into medicine repeatedly. No matter what the schedule, it is difficult to reconcile the many hours of their lives missed for the stress and abuse that is medical training. As a fellow, my schedule is a little easier but when I'm at work I work, when I'm at home I work & on too of this add in moonlighting to help pay off exorbitant student loans. All of this in the setting of increasing regulations and required documentation, pressure to see many more patients per day (thereby limiting actual time spent with them) and the impending threat of a saturated patient load that demands even more time and so-called efficiency for less reimbursement. I'm not sure it is really worth it.
I did a part time residency in pediatrics in the 1990ees. It was one of the best decisions that I ever made. I was encouraged in my pursuit by another med student who was at Harvard. She had started a program called Pediatric Residency Partners to help those seeking p-t residencies to find each other. (It was all by mail--no email back in 1990) She and her partner were the first ones to complete one at Harvard. By the way, it did not hold her back as she is on the faculty at Harvard. The woman that I shared a residency with is also part of the academic faculty at a major university. I went into private practice. My children are now in their 30ees and I have one grandchild. Was it offered at the school that we applied to? No...but we presented our case and they approved it. My message is ;" don't be afraid to ask..." The first time that I asked the answer was "no"---then I did more research, found a partner to share with me, and asked again....ReplyDelete
Thank you for posting this information. I recently was accepted into medical school. I am so excited. I will be 28 by the time I start though. I really do not want to miss out on the opportunity to have children. I am not married yet. Although, I am hoping my boyfriend will pop the question in the very near future. I hear all of these mixed messages about when to have children. I have been out of school for a while now so it might be a good idea for me to focus on school in years 1 and 2. I heard 3rd year is the worst, so I will stay away from that. I was thinking of doing an MPH so maybe between my 3rd and 4th year. I know a friend who is doing that. Would that be easier? I heard that 4th year is the easiest medical school year and then I could probably get a part-time residency until I felt comfortable going full time. I would love to hear everyone's advice. I would like to have 2 children probably sometime during my training because I fear I will not be able to have children after I have completed my training.ReplyDelete
I am a female in my late 20's and have recently received a full-tuition scholarship to medical school. (I will be starting medical school at age of 28.) I am very excited but also a little scared because I do not want to miss out on the opportunity to have children and a family. I am not currently married but I am hoping that I will be within the next two years. My boyfriend is an engineer and is looking for a job near the medical school. His family is amazing but they will not be near the medical school. My family is near the medical school but I am not sure how much help they will be (I imagine that they will be able to offer some support).ReplyDelete
I would like to know the best way to do this. I have been out of school for sometime so I figured it would be good to focus during M1 and M2. I heard M3 is very hard and time consuming so I was thinking of taking a year off between M3 and M4 and possibly getting an MPH (as I am very interested in this). Would getting an MPH be more manageable during pregnancy or with a newborn? Then I heard M4 is pretty easy so I am hoping that it will be manageable with a child.
Also, what is it like to find a part-time residency? I keep on hearing different stories. Depending on how things go with my first child I may try to do it full-time some of the time, but we will see. My current interests are in FM, Peds, or Peds/Neuro. (Although that is subject to change as I have not started medical school.) However, I would probably like to have a second child during residency. Do I need to find someone to share a residency with me? Do you ask about it during your interviews? Do you start residency full-time and then go to part-time once you get pregnant? Do I do a research year during residency?
What is the best way to try to plan this? I wish I didn't wait so long to go to medical school but this is where I am now and I have this amazing opportunity and I want to do it but at the same time I know that I would HIGHLY regret not having children or a family of my own (and unfortunately my time is limited for that).
I plan to try to stay near family the entire time during my training, etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I am a family medicine resident PGY1. I am starting to look into part time residency. My child was was dx with DM1. I am having trouble finding these residencies. Is there a website that list all the family medicine residencies that offer part time positions. Thanks.ReplyDelete


text:
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A jury in Kenosha County has convicted a man of beating and strangling a 26-year-old woman and leaving her body in a Somers cemetery.
Javier Garcia was the last person seen with Lisa Marie Mezera before her body was discovered in the B'nai Zedek Cemetery in August 2012. The Kenosha News reports jurors deliberated about an hour before returning with guilty verdicts for first-degree intentional homicide and four other charges Monday.
The homicide conviction carries a mandatory life sentence, but the sentencing judge can set a date for which the 52-year-old convict would be eligible for supervised release.
Information from: Kenosha News, http://www.kenoshanews.com


text:
How careful was I when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
Sonnet 48: Translation to modern English
How careful I used to be when I went travelling, to put even the most trivial of my possessions behind the most secure locks available to keep them from the hands of thieves. But you – my best comfort – compared with whom my jewels are no more than trifles, have become my greatest worry, you dearest of dears who means everything to me, because you're left open to every vulgar thief. I haven't locked you up in any chest, except the one where you are not – although I feel you are – inside the tender enclosure of my breast, from where you may come and go as you please. And I'm afraid that you'll be stolen even from there because even honest men would become thieves to get a prize so rich.


text:
Associated Press WASHINGTON - Parts of the nation's $500 billion farm bill that Congress is considering would prohibit the government from disclosing some information about farmers or their employees, possibly preventing people from learning about nearby agricultural and large-scale livestock operations blamed for polluting water or soil. The secrecy effort arose after the Environmental Protection Agency said it had mistakenly released names, email addresses, phone numbers and other personal information about some farmers and employees twice this year under the Freedom of Information Act. The EPA later determined it should not have released the information; in at least one case, an environmental group that received the data agreed to return it.
The provisions in the farm bill were intended to protect farmers who fear they would be targeted by animal advocacy groups. The House version, now part of negotiations with the Senate, would prevent the EPA from disclosing the addresses, among other identifying information, of an owner, operator or employee of an agricultural operation. Other federal agencies could not release such information. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, blocked a Senate amendment similar to the House proposal. "We must take care not to draw a veil of secrecy around important information about threats to the public's health and safety or government accountability," Leahy said. Journalists and open government groups that want Congress to remove the proposals say federal law already bars the release of most personal information and the provisions are too broad. "Members of the public have a right to know about agricultural and livestock operations that affect them, including where such operations are located," a coalition of 43 groups, including Society for Professional Journalists, Sunlight Foundation and Openthegovernment.org said in a letter Wednesday to House and Senate farm bill negotiators. "This information is especially critical for people who live near or share waterways with concentrated animal feeding operations." Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., who wrote one of the proposals, said many farmers and ranchers live on their farms, so releasing corporate addresses of their companies is the same as releasing their home addresses. Crawford said farmers and ranchers should be able to provide personal information securely to the Agriculture Department, but they believe that environmental activist groups could obtain the material if it were shared with the EPA. "Activist groups should not be able to leverage their relationship with the EPA to get this information that could pose a threat," Crawford said. Colin Woodall of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association cited cases of people trashing farmers' property. "There are more and more folks on the activist side that don't like what we do, and we want to protect our members," Woodall said. An attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jon Devine, one of the groups that received the personal information about some farmers, said his group wasn't interested in such details and returned the information when the EPA asked for it. He said the farm bill would go well beyond limiting such personal information and could jeopardize groups from getting facts they say they need, including the locations of farms. Craig Cox of the Environmental Working Group said he worried that the provisions could interfere with his group's ability to compile information about farm subsidies distributed every year, which the farm industry complains about. It's unclear whether the House language could be interpreted to restrict information about subsidies, he said. His organization has run into problems from exemptions in the farm law in 2008, which prevent it from learning the names of some individuals who received subsidies through businesses. The Obama administration last year withheld all or parts of government records more than 23,000 times under laws that prohibit the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act. That was a decline from a four-year high of nearly 31,000 such times in 2011. The Agriculture Department has remained consistent in the number of times it cited any of 14 such different laws to withhold its records, an average of 462 times annually since President Barack Obama took office.