Rudy Mervin was the Consulting Astrologer at Phoenix Books in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. He began practising Astrology in Spain in 1972, and it had been his vocation until 1998, when it became his full time occupation.

He was born in Avonlea, Saskatchewan at 8:09 PM on January 20, 1939. He was a poet who speaks in the medieval tradition and was in the process of finishing an epic poem using the Astrological Archetypes as characters. Rudy passed onto spirit July 9, 2002 at 18:20 at Lake Louise in a fatal car accident.

Gemini

At puberty took his hands
Off his Taurean father's plow
And ran off to the town
To become scribe to the king,
For he had a way with words
His father couldn't appreciate.

He took up an apprenticeship
To a scribe in the town
And his twin brother
Became an itinerant pedlar
Visiting the farmsteads
In quicksilver conversation
And on Market Day
Taking a stall in the Town Square
Playing the shell game
With ambidextrous dexterity
Teaching the slow-wits
The value of quick thinking
And he could con anybody
Into buying his wares
-And if not
A cruise through the crowd
And quick hands into slow pockets
And his profit was made for the day.
And no slow-wit ever caught him out,
Though he was once accosted
By a fiery Sagittarius
Who had seen enough of the world
To know when he was cheated
And had contempt for words
That only played at being wise.

But, they were both travellers,
Though Sagittarius wandered farther
And reluctant respect was garnered
As campfire tales were traded,
And Gemini gathered information
To impress the yokels highly
While Sagittarius gathered wisdom
From the stories that were told.

Cancer was his future.
One day he'd settle down
And cease the endless movement
In a home within the town
And there were children, two,
But the future was not now.
The nurturing of Gemini
Was the nurturing of the self
With words that would endow
Immature wisdom and superficial truth
With a patina of intellectuality.

Gemini found himself at odds
With Pisces and Virgo.
Pisces said he understood exactly,
But was an obvious liar
Because he couldn't put it into words.
And it was an affront to the pride of Gemini
To have an amateur liar
Assume he could fool a professional.

Not only that,
But the man didn't even have a trade
-No ambition - just a squawky old fiddle
And an insubstantial look to the eyes
Holding his hand out for unearned money,
Trying to make Gemini feel guilty
With sob-stories.
And he'd even tried a bit of thievery,
Though he wasn't fast enough
For the quick eyes and hands of a professional,
And Gemini sent him packing, in tears.
The nerve of that weakling
Trying to steal from a Gemini!

And as for Virgo, there was another
Always irritable when asked to serve,
Though God knows, that was the trade he'd picked.
The man was a good craftsman,
-Good with his hands,
Though more precise than fast
And could read and write
Though his airs of intellectual superiority
And, oh yes, the way he would correct
Gemini's flow of words
Made Gemini feel like shouting at him.

Now, Libra and Aquarius
Those were true intellectuals
Who understood the value of words
And word play, and puns,
And jokes with a double meaning
-Both very enjoyable company.

Take Libra for instance.
The man could even put words to rhyme
And when he bought something
It was in obvious good taste
Though because he could never make up his mind
He generally ended up paying too much.

But he was diplomatic
And had saved Gemini's skin
When Sagittarius had layed hands on him
By pretending to be even-handed
And persuading Sagittarius
It would not be justice
To settle the score violently,
Giving Gemini time to mollify
With insincere apologies
The anger into humour.

And Aquarius
Always friendly, and as quick of mind
As Gemini himself
Was always interesting
And his concepts of brotherhood
Though impractical in today's world,
Might be of some use
In that far-off future
Aquarius always talked about.
Sometimes, he would disappear
For days at a time
Off by himself, so he said,
To think and meditate
-Though Gemini couldn't see why anyone
Would want his own company.

Aries and Leo had Gemini's respect.
Not for their intellects,
But because they were dangerous to cross.
Something like that Sagittarius
But closer to home.
Aries had a quick temper
And a hand too ready for sword,
But he didn't hold a grudge
And if one day he lost his temper
And was ready to kill,
The next day he was his affable self
Though you would never get his apology
Even when Aries was wrong.
And he was easily disarmed by conciliation
If he thought you were sincere.
He was forthright, and predictable
And handled not through confrontation
But by opportunity for action
On his own behalf.

Leo had Gemini's ungrudging admiration.
Here was dignity and presence
And natural leadership.
Gemini's pride was his intellect
Which wasn't threatened by Leo
And he had been well-paid by that king
For information well-gathered,
Particularly about Scorpio
Whom Leo detested and mistrusted,
And there was this natural alliance
Against this powerful opponent.

Scorpio made Gemini uncomfortable
Not directly threatening
-Power held in check
Against a strategic future
A time for his revenge
-An inner ruthlessness
Which could frighten even Gemini
Who sensed his glibness
Not enough protection against a secretive gaze
Which discerned beyond
Gemini's wordy camouflage.

Gemini found Capricorn irritating
With his restrictions on trade
And dissemination of information.
He held his position
Not through a commanding presence
Or natural leadership qualities
Like Leo,
But step by step
From humble beginnings to power.
A planner like Scorpio
And almost as secretive.
Cold, but pretending affability.
Not as ruthless, and more overt.
Irritating to the King, but valuable
Because of organizational abilities.
Gemini resented being treated
Like a common messenger
His information more valuable than himself,
As if he were the slow-wit
And not Capricorn,
Unlike the treatment by Leo
Who showed his appreciation
With a gift.

© 2001 Rudy Mervin

Cancer by Rudy Mervin

Mothering, nurturing
Not crops, or money, like Taurus
But people
The sympathetic hand on the brow
The home, those walls
That offer protection to the family
Where Cancer may retreat
In wounded self-pity
From the threats of Aries
And the tactlessness of Sagittarius.

To his left stands Gemini
That past person of frantic wanderings
And glib intellectualism
The itinerant pedlar
Who through cruel experience
Aquired feelings
And became Cancer.
Gemini, whose secret yearning
For protection against random misfortune
Made him build four walls.

To his right is Leo
His future.
Oh, to be a person
With the power of command,
To whom others dare not render insult.
Oh, to be powerful
And not powerless
Outside those four secure walls.

Cancer renders fealty to Leo
So that Leo will protect his home and children
And in return
Sends his children into battle
To protect the national home
Which Leo commands.
And it is through patriotism
That feeling of identification
With those walls outside of walls
That Cancer aspires to security
Within his environment.

Cancer feels at cross-purposes
With Aries and Libra.
Aries, with those piercing eyes
Full of contempt
And that aura of potential violence
Makes Cancer retreat into timidity.

And Aries cannot be won over
By pity and hurt looks
And tears make him scornful
For he only respects strength,
And has liking for vivacious conversation
And a battle of wits, adventure,
And the thrill of the chase,
And Cancer avoids struggle
Escept where the home or children
Are concerned,
And here the battle is not for sport,
But to the death.

And Libra,
Why, that woman, with all her airs
Cannot even make a decision
And stick to it.
She is always rearranging her home
Into more and more uncomfortable patterns
As if it were a work of art
And not a place to live and work.
And always saying "On the other hand,"
Endlessly, as if she had more than two.
Why, if she, Cancer, were like Libra
She would no doubt have a dozen breasts
Like Sirius the dog.
Yes, that woman gave herself airs
Dressing like a high-class harlot
In light blues and pinks, frilly things
As if she were some kind of baby
Pretending to be helpless,
Though not with wanting a mother
But another man.
-Though who would want to be married
To Aries, with his wild and selfish ways,
And to cope with the man,
-Why, I'd have to give her credit there,
But certainly no credit for good judgement.
Well, she's ruined many a man
With her endless quest for perfect love
And insistence on Romance
That I suppose they deserve each other.
Why, I heard from Gemini
That she had an affair with Scorpio last year,
Though what a man like that
With true feelings
Would want with light fluff
When he has Taurus
With her lovely voluptuous body
And true, practical feelings
-Well, Scorpio is a man, and highly sexed,
And he gave me a look the other day
That I knew saw deep inside me.

Oh, to have a man like Scorpio
Strong and patient, and so knowing
When the mother wants to be mothered!
And Pisces is another one
Who knows exactly how you feel
Without words
As if it was himself that lost the child
And not me.
Such a compassionate man
So warm, and I gave him cookies
With honey, and milk
For every tear he shed.
And before he left that night
He played some tunes on his fiddle
That even had old Capricorn dancing.
And Taurus sang, and Leo
Did a fine bit of theatre,
And Gemini mimicked the lot of us
'Til we were in tears.
Oh, it's so nice to have
Good friends over!

I was over at the Blacksmith Shop
And there was Virgo
Crafting away - such a fine man
I swear he's getting younger
As he gets older, just like old Capricorn
Who hasn't changed since he was twenty
And I was twenty, and thought
I'd married an older man.

But Virgo has been married twice,
Once to Gemini
Though that didn't work out
Because they both
Wanted to talk at the same time
And nobody was listening.
Now, Virgo is a good catch
For an honest woman.
He's hard-working and careful
With his money,
Though he'll always work for someone else,
Unlike old Capricorn
Who has a position in the government
And can make our home
As secure as Leo's castle.

Taurus and I have always got along.
There's a good honest, hard-working woman.
She keeps a nice, comfortable house
And we can go on all day
About the renovations we are doing.
One thing about her
-It's hard getting her started
But once started
She'll see it right through.
She's practical, and doesn't take risks
Except for putting her money in the bank.
Myself, I'll put mine under the floorboards
Where I can put my hand on it.

Sagittarius and Aquarius
Now, there's a pair of n'er do wells,
The one always off on long trips
To far-off places - I swear
He'll end up with a home in a foreign land.
And he's never learned any manners
Or consideration for the feelings of others.
For all his talk of gaining wisdom
From speaking with foreigners
As if anybody else knows as much
As those in our own homeland.
If he bought some land
And built himself a home right here
He'd learn good, old-fashioned wisdom
Right at the mother's knee
So to speak.

And Aquarius
Always sounding off about the poor,
As if their laziness
Wasn't responsible for their poverty,
And always talking
About the meaning of planetary positions
As if the beauty of the stars
That God put there for his glory
Wasn't enough for any god-fearing man.
Why,he even talked about a property tax,
As if any sane person would risk his home
To give some lazy do-nothing
Food he could earn by the sweat of his brow.
And as for the truly poor,
Why, they wouldn't come to my house
If I wasn't charitable
And generous with my baking.

© 2001 Rudy Mervin