User:Claxhanson/Thesiseoutline

A SAILOR'S GUIDE
TO EARTH

Before we engage in this journey, and in order for you to bear with me, it is essential that I tell you what I will be taking you through.
The intentions for this work appeared to be dual :
The first one was to provide a margin of interpretation that would frame the practice of astrology as reflective, yet generative a surface for both culturally grounded, and politically engaged discourses.
The second was to address the delusion that technical work is ever morally neutral.

In his masterclass : From GAFA to Gaïa, the imaginaries of the ï , Alain Damasio questions the position of political imaginaries, the way we create them, and how we can make sure the values they carry participate creating fertile grounds for discourses of emancipation, for liberatory practices. I’ve boiled them down to 3 fundamental concerns, which will set the framework for the structure of this research :
- Is the imaginary I open up didactic, normative, or is it polyphonic ? Does it impose visions and phobias which it might host ?
- Is it confronted with forms of alterity with which it needs to compose ? How can it emancipate from them ?
- Does it provide a fertile ground to envision different political models ? Does it make you feel like changing the world ? What does it potentialise ?

THE DESERTS OF MODERNITY
♑︎//♋︎

Like most our practices, much of present-day astrology’s meaning has accumulated during colonialism and modernity. Dealing with this cultural heritage and its significance necessitates a continuous process of negotiation and re-evaluation.

OVERALL QUESTION FOR THE CHAPTER :
➫ Is the imaginary I open up didactic, normative, does it impose its visions and phobias ?

A_ (♁) THE DESERTS OF MODERNITY

_ Introduction to the practice - give some context
_ The notion of archetypes as in Carl Jung’s understanding through the Cancer/Capricorn axis :
The archetypes are a socio-cultural heritage through which we activate ourselves - what truth do we engage with ?
_ Mention why we’re working through the oppositions, and why we’re focusing on the earth/water oppositions :
‘Mother’ V. ‘Father’ archetypes : The sense of home V. Tyranny of structurelessness

REFS :
How to Tell When You’re Going to Die: Astrology for Writers' - Johanna Hedva, KABK, Online Studium Generale Lecture
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung
Tyranny of Structurelessness, Jo Freeman
Everett’s theory of ‘rational belief’

B_ (♄) A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IS WORTH A BATTALION

_ Chronos, Saturn - the furthest planet : rigidity, hierarchy, control, everything that allows passage :
Modernity and colonialism studied through Saturn V. the Moon
_Reveal some of the political and economic dynamics embedded in the practices of french protectorate in Morocco :
dig into the conflicts that result from the creation and management of colonial heritage.
_ Technology is created and deployed to reproduce historical patterns of social control

REFS :
Hymn to Saturn, Orpheus
Architecture and colonialism, The Funambulist Nº23 An etymology of Saturn, Alice Sparkly Kat In the Deserts of Modernity : Colonial Planning and After, Marion von Osten, Haus der Kulturen der Welt

C_ (☽) I’VE BEEN THINKING ALL DAY ABOUT THE MOON... _ A fabulation about the moon - what cancer reminds capricorn
_ The allegory of the “deserts of modernity” used to describe the ‘structurelessness’ of modern times :
Newton said that was moon was pieces of earth but we gave up our connectedness to earth
_ Understanding astrology as an Eco-feminist practice
Menstruation - cycles - People who menstruate can experience their bodies in synchronization with the cycles of the moon - swiftly suggest Matriarchy

REFS :
Future Feminisms - Anthony and the Johnsons Architecture de survie, Yona Friedmann, (2003), édition L’éclat poche Mapping the self in the deserts of the real, Toby Shorin, subpixel.space Astrology, Science and Culture : Pulling down the moon, Roy Willis, Patrick Curry, 2004, Routledge

CONCLUSION : ➫ Technological progress does not mean ethical progress. Low-tech futures as desirable futures ? Transition from cyberpunk to biopunk - > more research to do

♉︎//♏︎
GATES OF HADES

While the practice of astrology still embeds some of the power dynamics that grew along with it, these biases remain, however, merely an inconvenience to disputers of the practice.

In contrast, the conventions lying within the rising with the prominence of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism... more of the -isms, *gasping for air* and so many more of what we call ‘phobias’ — constructed outside of the practice, though incredibly damaging, are rarely considered irrational, so long as their structural formations benefit the power structures in place.

OVERALL QUESTION FOR THE CHAPTER :
➫ Is it confronted with forms of alterity with which it needs to compose ?
How can we emancipate from them ?

A_ (♀︎) THE SIN OF SLOTH

_ Where does the idea of Laziness come from ?
Mercantile renaissance, the enlightenments, and the whole pro-work, anti-idleness doctrines
_ Meritocracy suffers from severe biases, comrades.
_ If you laze around too much, you are going to think too much, and we don't like this too much.
Especially women, we don’t like women who have too much time to think.

REFS :

B_ (♇) TRAGEDY OF THE COMMON

_ Magic was a lot more believed in, and women who practiced it made it harder for capitalism, as a model, to get establish :
Contextualise the witch hunts and the Myth of the witch within it’s early rising capitalist context
_ Paradigm paralysis: the inability or refusal to see beyond the current models of thinking.
Is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism ?

REFS :
Reclaiming magic as a subversive practice, Silvia federici, Online Studium Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici Angela davis, Les goulags de la démocratie

C_ (♂︎) _ Resilience will not create social change, we need to reinvest in the immense alterities that the living has to offer. _ We’re going to mars and I have hot takes about it (more to come)

REFS :
Mijk Van Der Drift, Love Spells & Rituals for another World

CONCLUSION : There has to be an end to capital accumulation and extractivism : what will it be ? - Reinvest in the immense alterities of living : Re-admitting astrology into the cultural conversation is taking a radical stand for what both the capital and the state mock, marginalise, yet still try to appropriate and exploit. By reclaiming occult practices as liberatory and emancipatory practices, we equip ourselves with tools to support the emergence of new narratives.

♓︎//♍︎
A CHANGE IN THE SEASON

revolution (n.) originally of celestial bodies "course, revolution (of celestial bodies)" (13c.), or directly from Late Latin ‘Revolutionem’ General sense of "instance of great change in affairs"

When it comes to power struggles, the truths we engage with and the stories we tell each other are at stake. Language is never just there, never neutral, nor innocent. Words are actions, they are not irresponsible fabrications, they respond to necessities. They are heavy, they are powerful. Every word, every story, carries a message, and holds philosophical, moral, political positions.

OVERALL QUESTION FOR THE CHAPTER :
➫ Does it provide a fertile ground to envision different political models ? Does it make you feel like changing the world ? What does it potentialise ?

A_ (♃) ARCHIPELAGOS _ Extension of the term from geographical to cultural theory :
‘Archipelago’ is developed as spatially distanced orderings, yet contiguous in logic.
_ Tension between spatial notion to cultural context : Some thoughts about the word ‘Revolution’
_ Islands present sites via which one might observe the Anthropocene:
the ethical and philosophical implications of human waste and colonial world-making : MURUROA, French Nuclear test in Polynesia from 1966 to 1996.
_ “desert islands” have been rendered “inhabitable,” thus perpetuating the colonial narrative of Robinson Cruzoe.

REFS :
Contemporary Archipelagic Thinking: Toward new comparative methodologies and disciplinary formations. Michelle Stephens and Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel The Funambulist N°9, Islands

B_ (☿) RULES WORK OUT OF NECESSITY _ As a practice focused on revolution, astrology is a decent tool to generate accelerationist ideas (a lot more to come)

REFS :
CCRU (=Cybernetic Culture Research Unit)

C_ (♆) UNDERWATER IN 2050

_The deluge, perhaps one of of earliest myth, is an archetype :
civilization are wiped out by flood as a result of evil plaguing humankind, creating a virgin slate for civilization > Eco-fashism, bio politics
_ Dystopia/Utopia as distancing mechanism

REFS :
Malka Older on The Open Mind: High-Tech Dystopia and Utopia

CONCLUSION : Overtake the post-apocalyptic - Storytelling languages