Despite what the newspaper horoscope says, the Sun has only just begun to move through the region of Aquarius stars at this time, setting up a powerful who’s-who-in-shaping-the-
It was February 18th in 1930, when the 24-year-old American Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Also on February 18th, but 55 years earlier, Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” was first published, in which he wrote: It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened…
Also on February 18th, the Renaissance Master artist Michelangelo died, in 1564. Michelangelo’s life was nearly concurrent with the famous Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus, who was born this week, on February 19th in 1473. I have often wondered whether Michelangelo would have painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the way he did, or if Copernicus would have removed the Earth from the center of our planetary system the way he did, if they had known each other?
On February 24th in 1463, the Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher Pico della Mirandola was born. Pico was only 23 when he wrote his “Oration on the Dignity of Man” through which he argued that the human being must look for the divine within, not in an external godhead, nor in the dictates of the stars. Pico wrote: Man’s place in the universe is somewhere between the beasts and the angels, but, because of the divine image planted in him, there are no limits to what man can accomplish.
Considering the tremendous contributions to the great history of the world by those who were born and died and made their discoveries during this week, it’s fitting to sign off with the words of the early 20th century scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, also born at this time in February, who said: Such is the writing of the stars, our own deeds inscribed into the cosmic spaces.