Aries 19. A skeleton dressed in garlands of flowers.
On a spring day a skeleton had become so bored sleeping in a grave that he dug himself out, and finding the cemetery filled with fresh flowers, wove them into garlands and hung them all over his bones, reveling in their beauty. As he was dancing around the cemetery he noticed some mourners who, though they looked his way, seemed not to see him. Their fear of death had made him invisible.
Azoth Oracle
“The reason, ” said Irnad, “that the works of the master portraitist Alarvo Ovrala are no longer extant is because each time he painted a person from that day forward the face in the portrait grew younger ad younger. Because of this many waited until they were of an extreme age before they sat for him, in the hope that somehow his work might last. But even when they died their portrait would continue to grow younger until it turned into an embryo, shrank, and disappeared, leaving a canvas which only depicted an interior, or a few objects, a book, a plant, or a favorite dog with no lap to sit on. And then, no matter how carefully the remaining work was guarded, somehow it always disappeared, frame and all.”
“Did Ovrala have any explanation for this?” asked a student. “Not directly or conclusively,” answered Irnad, “though he was quoted often as saying that human life was like dew, a condensation of mist that was destined always to return to mist.”
Aries 19: FEARLESS OPENING or EMBRACING OF CHANGE
Omega Symbol: A skeleton dressed in garlands of flowers. Rejoice in change and renewal. You have an immense capacity of making the best of things through your always-fresh approach to experience. You are good at taking old ideas and dressing them up in new attire, and have a refreshing effect on whatever you touch. Combine practicality with beauty to help overcome the boredom and dreariness of the world.
Pleiadian Symbol: A rug grows larger and larger, sprouting grass, trees, and flowers as it turns into a landscape. Take care of what is basic and fundamental and everything will naturally grow up from there.
Chandra Symbol: Someone performing trephination. The skull is hard because the brain needs a lot of defending, but any defense system can also become a prison – and so the hardness of the skull needs an opening through which it can connect to a greater reality. Break through the hard crystallized thought forms that we have turned into a wall to defend the brain, and see that death (the skeleton) and life (the flowers) are one, and beautiful.
Azoth Symbol: The portrait of a man grows younger and younger. Give in to the compelling pull of innocence and let it rejuvenate you.