This is a poem in this series of 144 poems that I’m writing based on the dodeks, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. As far as I know, everybody else calls them dodekatemoria, but that’s a very complicated word to say, so I just call them dodeks.
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Gemini of Taurus: The Private Library
2° TAurus 30′ to 4° Taurus 59′
Umberto Eco oft observed that books
which you hadn’t yet read were more useful:
Yet many volumes are worth second looks,
since first nostalgia can make us wistful
but also help us recollect what’s lost.
Every writer provides useful stories
that aid us in times when we’re tempest tossed,
when we need both past follies and glories.
So here we stand in a private study,
surrounded by books unloaded or unread;
and each book can be a foe or buddy,
a teacher of our heart, or soul, or head.
Yet public wisdom won’t spread from these shelves;
these are the secrets we keep to ourselves.
Image: A happy little man with glasses wanders through an overcrowded library with no other people.
Important Relationships
- Part of Ptolemy’s Term of Mercury
- Part of Decan I of Taurus (administrated by Venus): The Plough
Colophon
This is a part of a series of poems based on the dodekatemoria, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. The dodekatemoria are sub-segments of the Zodiac, each representing two degrees thirty minutes (2° 30′) of arc; there are 144 dodeks (as I call them) in the full Zodiac, or twelve in each sign. Each dodek is supposed to be a recapitulation or miniature repetition or summary of its parent zodiac sign, as though it were filtered through the lens of the main sign.
The Sun crosses this distance of 2° 30′ in about two and a half days, making these dodeks cognate with the Moon, which crosses one sign of the Zodiac, or thirty degrees (30°) in about two and a half days. The Sun’s passage through a dodek thus mirrors the Moon’s passage through a sign, and squeezes a “mini-year” of passage through twelve signs into a single month.
Each series of dodeks begins at 0° 00′ of its parent sign with the same sign, and there are four dodeks in each sequence of 10° degrees. Each poem in this series will give a (my) name of the dodek, its relevant degrees, a sonnet describing it, a 1-2 sentence description of the dodek, and some other information.
