nature's zodiac

Her name was Watts and she was the coolest girl I ever laid eyes on when I was in high school. Anyone who has ever seen John Hughes’ Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) may be familiar with Watts and her dynamism as a tomboy drummer played by the actress, Mary Stewart Masterson. I was enamored. I dyed my hair blonde and cut it short to emulate her. I started playing the drums. I was compelled to be her in my own way. What is it about the teenage years when an archetype can have such sway?

 It is right around this time of life that the thymus gland, master of immunity reaches its peak. The immune system recognizes ‘me’ from ‘not me’. It reaches its peak and then stops growing, and eventually shrinks to near nothing in older age. I think the archetype has the potential to speak directly to a person’s sea of psychic self-recognition. It does so in a waltz-like way, utterly cinematic, coming at one with the full spectrum of dramatic intensity. Like fish in the sea, they are to be caught! This is the day, the year, the time! The Moon is full and they are leaping out of the water. After this stretch, we have to establish a better discipline to catch big fish. And that works great, even better, but it’s work.

Whenever I hear a song from that movie I feel my inner ocean stirring. And the drums have stayed a big theme in my life. I did some playing myself, but the drums as an instrument that affirms the life of a song is what is truly so dear to me. My favorite drummer is Charlie Watts, of the Rolling Stones and the inspiration for my heroine’s name. He plays a bit behind the beat, which generates some lively anticipation within the songs. I always tried to play this way myself and sometimes it would feel like time was perpetually suspended for an entire gig, like watching one snowflake and seeing the rest float slowly in the distance. I would start to feel anchored in an empty space just behind everything else and it was exhilarating. It was definitely a flow state, a balance struck between myself and the vibrations of the earth.

 These archetypes that arise so forcefully at a time when we are beginning to need to have a sense of direction in life are very nuanced. I don’t play the drums too often these days but the beat certainly goes on. I feel that my affinity for the drums is of the same ilk as my affinity for the work I do now; I like affirming something good, like nature. I am interested in understanding its rhythms and affirming its ‘song’. Nowadays, a soulful beat hits me on more cylinders, extending into a love of life and lively processes.

The point is that these precious archetypes that arise in our lives and maybe still stir our private oceans when we reflect on them, hold many clues to our place here on earth. It may not be the way you thought it would be, but it still might hold an enormous promise of new possibility. The things that strike you, that stir you and move you are living symbols that affirm the life in you, and this is no small thing.

What archetypes spoke loud to you? How did they help shape your path? How do they still? What new archetypes speak to you now and encourage you to follow the beat of your own drum? 

Happy nature pondering!

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