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Billie Holiday

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BY SANJA KLJAIĆ
10 minute read
Goddess be Present, Life be Felt
A long time ago there was the etheric female realm of the subconscious mind; the Great Mother, within whose womb all the worlds had their existence. Out from this great void, the deepest natural magic and the highest metaphysics sprung into life. The art of the soulful, legendary Billie Holiday speaks directly to that primordial frequency. Her melody initiates the goddess who, like Noah’s dove, pulls us towards reflection, and asks us to give thought to one magical question, "Are you present and receptive in the now? Only those who are bravely in the present can understand the goddess that resides in the subconscious syntax of their mind. 
Don’t be fooled by the renowned feminine vibrations Billie’s music stirs in you. If repressed, ignored, or drowned in masculine energy the feminine aspect of one’s psyche will turn into a fierce, all-powerful Wolf Mother 2. If circumstances demand it, Kali the Destroyer 3 will move the waters. For as things go, subconsciousness cannot be commanded. Gently persuaded, yes. Commanded, never.


As Émile Coué 4 observes

“when the will (conscious mind) and the imagination (subconscious mind) are antagonistic, it is always the imagination (subconscious mind) which wins, without any exception.”


Naturally, the left hand of the Goddess holds many secrets. She strips off the outer protective layers of defenses and invokes the powers of the archetypal feminine priestess of the Moon quintessentially affirming - approach me by feeling, not by knowing, feel the mists of life and let me be present, intentionally and on purpose.




Moon in the chart constellates energy that is of feminine spirit – the feminine creative aspect of Godhead, Isis on her silvery throne, Hera in Heaven, Persephone on earth. This feminine aspect of the psyche takes us into unknown territories hidden beneath the surface, where infinite mysteries of the feminine path of power are activated.



The Moon, in general terms, corresponds to the subconscious mind. She is the Creatrix, called the medulla oblongata of the Grand Human,  and is located right at the tip of the spine. Her purpose is to accept vibrations from the eyes and ears and transmit messages to the rest of the body. The Moon is about two things: receptiveness and reflection 6.

Due to the subtle sensitivity to the Moon, Billie was able to convey emotions from a deep well of power and inner strength, located within the temple of her own private, subconscious self. As a divine priestess of jazz, literally and metaphorically, Billie stood on the leading edge of her emotions,


“blue moon you knew just what I was there for, you heard me saying a prayer for someone I really could care for.”

She emulated many of her Moon 7 in Capricorn/12th house qualities, turning up in the world authentically cool and reserved, with vulnerability as her greatest strength.

Capricorn moon opens the door to energies of security, both practical and emotional. The position of her sun and moon, respectively, predisposed her to have an ambitious, striving personality which in turn helped her amass great wealth 8. This is because, in the middle of Billie's universe full of stars, she inherently knew she was destined to shine.




On the day of her birth, Billie’s Sun entered the constellation of Aries, with fiery Mars as its ruling planet. The Ram, being the chief that guards the flame of courage is the first archetype 9 10 of celestial soldiery and, as such, is endowed at birth to be the force that directs the will into powerful action.



Sun signs in astrology carry the masculine energies of Godhead, representing the conscious mind and will; the soul facility that constructs and maintain us. 



Aries-ness bravely declares – I AM creation, and creation is what I AM, breathe deeply and feel my pulsating vitality, the basic characteristic of my energy. Aries is the initiator of individuality, meaning it is not interested in the affairs of the Sheep (the collective) but the affairs of the Shepard (the self), never sacrificing its individuality by falling under the spell of another. The formative force of Aries nature is to live boldly, beautifully, imperfectly, and wildly. Very much like the life led by our Jazz signing luminary, Billie 11  12

As an Aries, Billie was not afraid to be honest with herself, to stumble upon irritants, to learn lessons, and to proudly, without apology, own her wounds and pains. The Mars-ruled person forever believes with all their heart, even when falling down, they get up again to try once more. Nothing keeps them down forever, failure least of all. 


“Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.” 

Her upbringing was troubled and vastly different from a normal, happy childhood. She was born in 1915 in Philadelphia to two free spirits, 16-year-old Sadie Harris and 18-year-old Clarence Holiday, who yearned for glory and the excitement of life’s adventure. Her father, Clarence 13, left the family home shortly after Billie’s birth to pursue his passion for music as a jazz banjo player and guitarist “I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.” 

In her autobiography, Billie tells the story of her wounded life, experiencing racist indignities and abusive men, prostitution, heroin addiction, heavy drinking, corrupt cops and jail time: “I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own”.

Poverty and racial prejudice were present in every area of her life 14. She endured various forms of rejection and humiliation from her family and public authorities; she became streetwise and sexually experienced beyond her years. 




This survival-of-the-very-fittest certainly led our leading lady to quickly acquire the two most distinguished Arian qualities: resourcefulness and independence. She developed what Sigmund Freud called 'sublimation'. The concept of sublimation relates to the idea that one can take destructive, harmful energies and transmute them into an opportunity for growth.



It appears that Billie’s experiences in life, however uncomfortable, were all initiations, a step towards building and moulding her character on her own terms. While working in a brothel 15 and hanging out with the luminaries of the night, the hustlers, and the harlots, young girl Billie heard and responded to the call of destiny, her ‘first jazz’. It can only be assumed that this was the sacred moment when the Wheel of Fortune was set into motion, activating her internal compass and pre-ordaining her to recognise the opportunity of her destiny.

This was the genesis where Billie embraced Music, the most sacred of the arts 16, and became one of the most important jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. It was no secret that throughout her life, Billie idolised strong men and had many romantic flings outside her three turbulent marriages. Interestingly, she carried the dynamics of her childhood right into her adult life; without an ounce of self-pity, Billie longed for a sense of connectedness and comfort in loving surroundings, seeking her eternal self in the embodiment of her feminine soul.


She engaged in countless peculiar escapades of self-discovery 17, leaving clubs with men and women and smoking hash in a cab while driving around Manhattan:


“music everywhere, feet are pattin' puttin' tempo in old Manhattan everybody is out high hattin' spreadin' rhythm around”.




With humbled awe and swooning adoration, Billie admired the music of her celestial siblings Bessie Smith
18 & Louis Armstrong 19. They were her major source of inspiration. 




Despite not having any formal musical training Billie was commonly known as someone who had an extraordinary understanding of music, often playing by the ear without rehearsing. “If I’m going to sing like everyone else, then I am not going to sing at all.” The training of the voice did not appeal to her either.


“What comes out is what I feel, I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it, that is all I know."


Herein, Billie being Billie, is invoking the presence of her Arian archetype 20, an imminent initiator who shapes her artful revelation. An Arian vanguard truly knows that there is a voice hidden in every work of art. The voice that conveys the artist’s ethereal expression, going through the senses to the mind, to the heart, to the soul, riding high towards the infinite sky. Billie certainly touched this infinite sky 21, and while the art in her music was strongly influenced by hymns of gospel, spiritual and religious themes, Billie recorded almost nothing that could be considered religious. Instead, she sang not for the audience but for eternity.

She knew in her bones that a thousand years from now, as long as language endures, people will still listen to and be moved by her music. Even though she was not religious, she must have felt guided and recognised in some ethereal way, citing the Matthew principle in her lyrics: 

“them that’s got shall have, them that’s not shall lose…God bless the child that’s got his own” 22


However temporary her physical experience was, in her music, she left us a symbolic portrait of who she was; a self-reliant powerful spirit that invoked every principle and value natural to her journey. She laid her own personal tribute at the feet of the great goddess and rendered a great service within the culture, a service that pours like a miracle balm into the souls of those ready to hear it.



Literary source:


Coué, É. 1920 Self Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion, England: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform


Duffy, W. 2011 Lady Sings the Blues, US: Random House Publishing Group  


Laplanche, J. & Pontails, J. B. 1974 The Language of Psychoanalysis, US: W.W. Norton & Company. 


White, J. 2012 Billie Holiday: Her Life and Times, US: Omnibus Press.




Image references:



1.  Albert Gleizes, 1915 Composition pour Jazz, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Wikipedia commons


2. Armour, Margaret 1896 Songs of Love and Death, Open Source. 

3. Dalí, Salvador (1904-1989) Barcelona Mannequin 1926-1927 Dalí Theatre-Museum

 

 4. Author Unknown 1986 The Half Hour Library of Travel, Nature and Science for young readers, British Library image 

1
In the beginning, was One Mind. This mind split into Consciousness + positive masculine polarity and Subconscious - negative feminine polarity. He is an Initiatrix, and She is the Creatrix; he is the Light, and she is the Darkness, and the two dance together.
2
Wolf is fiercely loyal to the Moon. She raises her muzzle towards the sky and consciously mediates between Heaven and Earth. This guardian of knowledge urges us to find our inner powerful force and to sing our creations into existence.
3
Lilith archetype, the handmaiden of Inanna, the most powerful form of Shakti energy representing instinctual urges deep inside.
4
French psychologist and pharmacist introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.
5
The Medulla stands at the entrance of the subconscious mind. She is the inner goddess that receives the omnipresent cosmic source energy. She is the seat of life and the reservoir of life force.
6
Especially when it is located in the 12th house of the subconscious, unknown, introspective state of being.
7
“The moon,” writes D.H. Lawrence, “certainly isn't a snowy cold world. Nonsense. It is a globe of dynamic substance, like radium or phosphorus, coagulated upon a vivid pole of energy.”
8
Part of Fortune in Aries in the 2nd house holds the frequencies of resources well earned through the confidence of her artistic ability.
9

Carl Gustav Jung developed a religion of archetypes, an initiation into mysteries, and others.

10

The archetypes have their own initiative and their own specific energy. These powers enable them both to produce a meaningful interpretation and to interfere in a given situation.

11
Billie’s Sun sign square Moon indicates that she inherently understood the cyclic nature of things. Moon sextile Chiron - emotionally painful experiences suppressed deep in the psyche—the need to belong within the realm of the family.
12
She embraced the path of strife and understood that only through signing the peace agreement with the ebb and flow of life she would evolve towards the perfection of her artistry.
13
Saturn in the 5th house. Billie's gift for performing was passed down through her father.
14
Pluto in Cancer deals with themes of strong survival urges and transformational forces within the home environment. Lilith in the 4th house indicates that there is a sense that Billie wasn't able to receive enough emotional nourishment. This left her feeling full of longing.
15
Jupiter in quintile with Lilith. Expansion of Billie's persona (Jupiter in Pisces in the 1st house) in the home of Venusian pleasure (Lilith in Taurus in the 4th house.)
16

Venus in Pisces in the 1st house. Neptune in the 6th house carries the frequency of a musical calling.

17

Saturn and Pluto are comfortably nestled within the heart of Billie's 5th house of what one creates. She dared to be herself in the world despite the deep emotional traumas she experienced.

18

Sun and North Node in Aries in the 1st house.

19

Sun and Part of Fortune in Leo in the 5th house.

20

Moon in sextile with Mars indicates someone who is daring and speaks directly and to the point.

21

Ascendant in Aquarius exudes innovative and influential Starlight aura. Billie emanated original quality of style in everything she did, from her persona to her music, to her soul’s journey. Billie’s soul came forth to express itself as an innovative and influential pioneer (Ascendant conjuncts N. node); she brought a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo in jazz. She saw above the status quo, crossing the bridge to freedom and living outside of conventional perception. 

22

“For whoever has, to him, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” Mathew 13:12