Clocks - Tumblr Posts
Clockwork Robins
inktober day 14 clocks
Clock
Designed by Bruce J. Talbert; Made by Skidmore Art Manufactures Company (English)
c.1865
Indianapolis Museum of Art (Accession Number: 1998.285A-C)
Captive on the Carousel of Time
*This is going to be something like an essay of a random burst of thoughts I had concerning humanity's relationship with time, clocks, and watches*
Warning: this can feel very disorganized and choppy but what can I say? Mercury in 1st is actually quite scatterbrained and a flibbertigibbet (I love that word) and don't even get me started on the mind of an aquarius moon. Please don't be offended by this - I have nothing against Capricorns, businesspeople, or people who love watches.
So my parents bought me a watch for my birthday because being 22 now, and without a part-time job since I lost mine last year due to conflicting work and school schedules, they firmly believe that wearing a watch will improve employers' impression of me during interviews because apparently wearing a watch gives the impression that one manages time well and values time "like an adult".
They went to such lengths not only due to my age, but because I have an extreme baby face that can still pass off as a 13-14 year old. My study of astrology tells me that I, having mercury in 1st, is gifted with the blessing of eternal youth a.k.a. having a face that stays youthful.
Very honestly, though, I dislike watches. I mean I'll appreciate the design if it's pretty enough but I dislike wearing watches. It feels restraining, like it's constricting my movements even though it actually doesn't.
In terms of astrology, I actually have a pretty young chart in the sense that most of my planets are in the younger signs. I have sun/mercury in leo, venus in gemini, and saturn in aries. Aries, gemini and leo are the eternal children of the zodiac. In addition, having mercury in 1st as previously mentioned adds to the childlike feeling and I honestly enjoy being and consider myself young at heart. I also have moon in aquarius which is more goofy and silly than serious most of the time, and I have the baby mars in cancer. Overall, I find myself to be happy-go-lucky and I utterly despise social hierarchies and the rules of the adult world. Is anyone starting to see where I'm heading with the concept of time and adulthood?
I'll first explain the parts of my chart prior to my thoughts on time.
Beginning with gemini, according to my favourite astrology blog, astrolocherry, gemini is considered to be young mercury, mercury as a child while virgo is adult mercury. Gemini is also often associated with Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, immune to the effects of time (i.e. aging), and is compared to a fairy, another symbol of eternal youth.
Saturn, who is Cronus in Greek, rules the sign Capricorn. Capricorn is associated with the stern father and businessman archetypes in astrology, and sometimes even the Devil. Cronus is the god of time in Greek mythology, and the father of time is often portrayed as an old man holding either a clock or an hourglass. Saturn falls in the sign of aries, the baby of the zodiac, and I think this is because saturn is about the hard lessons we learn so we grow up disciplined (capricorns are often stereotyped to be stern, stiff, disciplined businessmen) but aries, the baby, is like a newborn just trying to experience everything and learns more from experiences gained from immediate actions than rules.
I relate to Peter Pan and Alice from Alice in Wonderland because fuck growing up, honestly.
I remember when I was a child, I once read a book that described the relationship amongst humans, fairies, and time, and how humans came to age and lose their youths. The story described that humans used to play with fairies all day, while time was a small, insignificant thing that humans didn't play with, and humans had eternal youth. Then one day, humans began playing with time, and time grew larger, more significant, and humans soon began experiencing the effects of time, growing up and forgetting the fairies, eventually aging and losing the eternal youth they shared with fairies.
I used to think, no wonder according to Disney's take on Peter Pan and fairies, a fairy died every time a child stopped believing in fairies, a sign of growing up.
In Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice considered time a thief at the beginning, stealing everything away she loved from her. Though her perspective changed at the end, I personally think that time can be a thief.
My mom used to listen to a song called "The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell and there were a few lines from this song that really struck me since I was first heard it when I was a child. "We're captive on the carousel of time" and "We can't return we can only look behind from where we came". To me, that is exactly how humanity's relationship with time is like.
Clocks and watches, they are humanity's way to capture and manage time. An hourglass does similarly and I often think of how Jafar trapped Jasmine in an hourglass in Aladdin, how she would've died when all the sand fell to the bottom of the hourglass, how it'd have been time's up for her like how every human is given a designated time on earth in Alice Through the Looking Glass, and how these are perfect representations of how humans are held captive by time - we're captive on the carousel of time because even if we try, we can't get off this carousel nor can we stop it from moving like how we can't stop time from passing.
We try to capture, manage, and control time, to bend time to our will, but in doing so, we willingly enslave ourselves to time itself. You know those people who are always checking their watches, their schedules packed as though in doing so they made the best use of their time? My dad, a Virgo with North Node in Capricorn is like that and he always needs to eat at/by certain times, getting anxious, fussy, and moody when he doesn't. I feel sorry for these kinds of people because they are slaves to time.
Ever notice how we determine when to sleep by the time rather than whether we feel tired? How we wake up not when we feel rested but at a time we are told to wake up by alarms from our clocks (or cell phones) so we are "on time" for other activities that are also controlled by time? Businesspeople often say "time is money", and the best businesspeople are always on time, making the most money in the least amount of time, racing against others and against time, choosing the right time for every business decision. They believe they have perfect control over time, but really, they're the ones controlled by time. Do they even know the bliss of not having to live worrying about whether you have spent too much time on one thing and not having enough time for another? It's like the bliss of getting to sleep without setting an alarm, like staying up late talking to someone endlessly into the night till you see the sun rise.
The most successful businesspeople in society's eyes are rarely the most moral individuals. They're slaves to time, money, and the Devil, money being an offering from the Devil himself. So it's no wonder Capricorn, ruled by Saturn who is Cronus the god of time, is associated with the Devil. In fact, psychological research has found some evidence that some of the cruelest/coldest criminal offenders and some of the most successful businesspeople are similar/the same types of people, the difference is the way they choose to manage/manipulate people with their intelligence. Not to scare anyone, but really, both types are quite talented at understanding people and thus how to influence them, giving them the power to manage or manipulate people. No ability is inherently good or bad though - it's what you choose to do with it.
We believe we have a good grasp of time, but even our forms of capturing time aren't perfectly successful. Clocks and watches lose several seconds over time (no pun intended) and we need to readjust our watches and clocks every once and a while to be "on time" again. Thus I think, then why bother anyway? The best days are when you aren't due anywhere and your schedule is basically doing whatever you want whenever you want. Though we can never be immune from the effects of time, we don't need to further enslave ourselves to time. I feel like freeing ourselves from the restraints of time will allow us to truly live well. The best way to use our time is not to attempt to capture, control, or manage time, but to live and let time live without binding time to us or ourselves to time.
That is why I dislike watches. It is a measurement of time concealed and bound onto your wrist like a handcuff, which is why I said it feels like it restricts my movements. I don't like the feeling of being enslaved to time, to measure everything I do against time, to have to act in accordance to time. It may seem childish, but I much rather prefer to live without attempts to track time. I feel like that's the right way to live if we're going to lose it eventually anyway - why waste time checking how much time you have left?
~🍀
Mermay day 7 dalì
I just want to say that if I don't see goncharov (1973) group costumes next year then im gonna enter my ice pick joe phase
