Did I Say Prometheus?

While you would have a legitimate complaint about the time it has taken me to get this post out, I feel like I have a good excuse. You see, it turns out that I may have been a WEE bit lax in my initial market research for Prometheus and missed an existing astrology software package of the same name. So I got to spend several weeks rebranding.

And if you have been paying attention to prior posts, you know how much I LOVE branding.

But it is done! Did I say Prometheus? What I meant to say is Urania.

Same software, only more awesomer brand!

The new app icon is at the top of this post.

I should acknowledge that there is a thing called "Uranian Astrology", which was originally created by an interesting German astrologer named Alfred Witte prior to the start of World War II, and then turned into a dumpster fire of crazy by modern silly people. But hey, that's just an SEO challenge as far as I'm concerned!

If you aren't aware, Urania is the muse of astrology and astronomy (which weren't separate things in ancient Greece), and the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne along with her eight muse sisters.

New Website

Along with the brand change, the official website is also up and you can now sign up for the beta program. It's all at Urania.app. There's even some high(er) resolution videos there and an FAQ! See, I told you I was busy.

The next step is to fix a couple of minor bugs then get the beta builds out to beta testers. It's getting close!

Hold the Line

We are now officially in the second phase of crazy. Depending on where you are and what is going on around you, it may be more or less intense. Given how beaten down everyone already is, this second round is going to test resolve in a way the first round only hinted at. And I don't think it will be constrained to just the ongoing pandemic either (although that's clearly part of it). If there is a tarot card to describe where things are at, I feel like it's the Nine of Wands.

Beat up, not recovered, and facing a second wave. It's like the run back to the Citadel in Fury Road. No one has recovered from the long haul to the promised land, which turned out to be a fools errand, and now they are going to head back through hell to return to where they were in the first place. Only this time, liberated. As Max says: Look, it'll be a hard day.

The sentiment of: "this breakdown of structures is necessary," is also getting a bit old (and not useful) now that we are really in the thick of it and about to go through the worst of it. So what can people do? Again, depends on where you are and what is going on around you, however, I have a couple of things to share which may be useful.

Bring It

While the RWS Nine of Wands pictured above shows a person battered and bruised and casting a weary gaze toward the horizon, there are some other versions of this card that I think capture another side of dealing with the second wave effect. One is an amazing work by an artist named Gwen Rosewater. This work is at Modern Eden Gallery and I think was part of a show on tarot. It's fucking amazing:

Fuck yeah. This is the Nine I want to embody right now. I think, given how much we strive to reduce friction, pain, and suffering that we forget how resilient we are. There's a reason humans have gotten as far as we have. Now is the time to tap that deep inner well of human resolve. Bring it. I'm beat up, but I'm not going down.

One last depiction of this card with a similar angle, and from a deck I use regularly:

I took this picture with my cell phone from my copy of the Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan, so sorry for the graininess. It's the raised eyebrow that I think really captures it. It says: I'm ready, are you? It's not easy to get back into a fighting stance when you feel like you've already been through hell and your back is against a cliff wall.

Micro, not Macro

The second thing I want to share is advice I got from a Unitarian reverend in Seattle, which at first sounds like inspirational poster text, but give it a chance: "do the best you can, with what you have, where you are". It's really easy right now to fall into fear traps, conspiracy theories, doomsday thinking, alarmism, and despair. One good way to get out of that loop is to stop putting so much focus on the macro, which you can do very little about right now, and instead focus on the micro. What you can do, within your capabilities and resources, in the place you are. This is just generally good life advice, but is even more critical as we face the second wave of unravelling.

This could be something really small, like just making your bed. It's different for everyone. But the point is that you focus on what you can actually do, with the resources you have, in the area of effect you have access to.

Stay safe. <3