20 January

What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one. It’s this in-between… this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one, which is really the realm of the artist.

Federico Fellini: born on 20 January 1920 in Rimini (Italy) with Sun and Moon in Capricorn and Ascendant in Virgo, (10.10.6) he is one of the major film-makers of the second half of the 20th century. His first international successful movie was La Strada (1954), the poetic story of an innocent woman who is sold by her family to a rough man in a travelling circus. Other memorable movies with major multidimensional elements are Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960),  8½ (Otto e Mezzo, 1963), Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Satyricon (1969), I clowns (1970), Amarcord (1974),  La città delle donne (1980), E la nave va (1983), The Voice of the Moon (1990). Fellini died in 1993.

Fellini’s works are full of multidimensional and shamanic references. Turin magician Gustavo Rol introduced him to the world of Spiritism and séances. He also experimented with LSD 25 “objects and their functions no longer had any significance. All I perceived was perception itself, the hell of forms and figures devoid of human emotion and detached from the reality of my unreal environment. I was an instrument in a virtual world that constantly renewed its own meaningless image in a living world that was itself perceived outside of nature. And since the appearance of things was no longer definitive but limitless, this paradisiacal awareness freed me from the reality external to my self. The fire and the rose, as it were, became one.” Long fascinated by Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Fellini accompanied the Peruvian author on a journey to the Yucatán to assess the feasibility of a film. Then Castaneda inexplicably disappeared and the project fell through, though Fellini’s mystico-shamanic adventures, titled Viaggio a Tulun (Trip to Tulum) were published in 1989 as a graphic novel with artwork by Milo Manara. “Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”

One amongst many significant scenes in Fellini’s movies is from Nights of Cabiria (1957), an epic romance in which the protagonist (Cabiria) moves through the three stages of Intention, Release and Healing. Upon finding the man of her dreams, she sells away all her material wealth so as to be with him. In the final scene below he steals all her money and abandons her. Cabiria goes through tremendous pain and despair, which then turns into a deep peace and inner joy.

Other celebrities born today:

David Lynch, (10.6.8) Sun Capricorn, Moon Virgo, Ascendant Scorpio, American film director 20 January 1946. His movies are characterized by deep dream imagery, surreal and provocative elements. His first motion picture is the surrealist cult classic Eraserhead (1977). The Elephant Man (1980) gave him mainstream success. Other relevant movies: Dune (1984), Blue Velvet(1986), Twin Peaks (1990–1992), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story (1999), Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006).

Quotes by David Lynch:
All the movies are about strange worlds that you can’t go into unless you build them and film them. That’s what’s so important about film to me. I just like going into strange worlds.
There’s this beautiful ocean of bliss and consciousness that is able to be reached by any human being by diving within, which is really peaceful and harmonious and can be enlivened by the group process. This group is a peace-creating group. It saturates the atmosphere. This is all about establishing peace. Right now, we gotta get peace back in the world. Peace is a real thing.
There’s so many problems in our world, so much negativity. Don’t worry about the darkness — turn on the light and the darkness automatically goes. Ramp up the light of unity within — help do that for yourself, help do that for the world and then we’re really doing something, we’re doing something that brings that light of unity.
Dark things have always existed but they used to be in a proper balance with good when life was slower. People lived in towns and small farms where they knew everybody and people didn’t move around so much so things were a little more peaceful. There were things that they were afraid of for sure, but now it’s accelerated to where the anxiety level of the people is in the stratosphere. TV sped things up and caused people to hear way more bad news. Mass media overloaded people with more than they could handle, and drugs also had a lot to do with it. With drugs people can get so rich and whacked out and they’ve opened up a whole weird world. These things have created a modern kind of fear in America.
Being in darkness and confusion is interesting to me. But behind it you can rise out of that and see things the way the really are.

Eric Stewart, (10.1) Sun Capricorn, Moon Aries, English musician and songwriter (10cc) 20 January 1945, known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995. Do Not Bend (2003), Viva la Difference (2009)

Ron Townson, (11.8) Sun Aquarius, Moon Scorpio, American singer (The 5th Dimension) (20 January  1933-d. 2001)

R.A. Salvatore, (10.3) Sun Capricorn, Moon Gemini, American author 20 January 1959, best known for The DemonWars Saga, his Forgotten Realms novels, in which he created the popular character Drizzt Do’Urden, and Vector Prime, the first novel in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Orderseries.

Ernest Chausson, (10.12.2) French composer (20 January 1855-d. 1899)

Colin Clive, (10.6.8) Sun Capricorn, Moon Virgo, Ascendant Scorpio, British actor (20 January  1900-d. 1937) best remembered for his portrayal of Dr. Frankenstein in James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.

Ernesto Cardenal, (10.9) Nicaraguan theologian and politician 20 January 1925, one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas,

Tom Baker, (10.1.9) Sun Capricorn, Moon Aries, Ascendant Sagittarius, British actor 20 January 1934, best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1974 to 1981.

José Luis Garci, (10.8) Spanish filmmaker 20 January 1944,  Volver a empezarBegin the Beguine,

Nancy Kress, (10.2) American science-fiction writer 20 January 1948

Liza Goddard, (10.11.11) British actress 20 January 1950

Edward Hirsch, (10.11) American poet 20 January 1950

Edwin McCain, American singer-songwriter 20 January 1970

Will Young, (11.7.6) Sun Aquarius, Moon Libra, Ascendant Virgo, British singer 20  January 1979, “Anything is Possible   William Robert Young BA (Exon), Pluto Vessel

Denisse Lara, American singer-songwriter 20 January 1988

Anna Riva (20 January 1922 – 10 March 2003) pen name of Dorothy Spencer, well-known American occult author and manufacturer of hoodoo spiritual supplies.

Gospel of Thomas: (12) The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?” Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”

ACIM: 20. I am determined to see.

Concise Epitome: 3.4 Once, there on Handor, something absurd transpired. (Su Handor, in un’epoca assai remota, accadde un evento senza eguali.)