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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Virgo of Taurus: The Oil Change Shop
10° Taurus 00′ to 12° Taurus 29′
Any machine will need lubrication
in order that it continue to work —
and oil must be changed in rotation,
or else the machine is certain to break.
From sunlight, trees and herbs make sugars sweet,
yet oil and fat come from digestion
in lightless places, by what mortals eat
or by force of geologic action —
heat and pressure from Tartarian deeps.
Gears and cogs turn on imagined cycles
when each clever part, its proper place keeps.
Yet each tooth shatters, by cracks and trickles
unless the device is fed with hot grease —
then it runs easy, happy and at peace.
Image: Two mechanics change the oil in a threshing machine or tractor, while a third cleans rusted parts.
Important Relationships
- Part of Ptolemy’s Term of Mercury
- Part of Decan II of Taurus (administrated by Moon): The Lingam-Yoni
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.
