Chiron’s Keyword Corner: Puns

© 1993- 2009 by Joyce Mason

Puns or plays on words: Some people consider them the lowest form of humor—others, the highest.

The mere fact that people react to puns from one extreme to the other suggests they’re Chironic, for wholeness (Chiron’s key-most word) is achieved by integrating opposites. Practitioners of paronomasia, another word for punning, get ample opportunity to do that, while their audiences react to their “routines” with anything from amusement to anguish.

In Lily Tomlin’s one-woman show, The Search for
Intelligent Life in the Universe, her character, Trudy the Bag Lady, keeps her perspective by doing “awe-robics” daily.

Why else are puns Chironic? Because they combine many concepts associated with the centaur/comet:

~ They are a bridge between Uranus and Saturn. Especially when spontaneous, puns are lightning bolts of wit, striking and upsetting the meaning of otherwise orderly sentences. They are clear acts of rebellion in the well-kept world of “straight” communication. They usually disarm “serious types” and lighten them up, bridging the gap between heavies and those of a lighter variety. (For a brilliant discussion of Chiron and humor, read Chiron and Humour: Wounded Clowns That Heal Us by Mimi Christ.)

~ The word pun comes from the Italian term punctiglio, meaning a fine point. When a comedian, professional or otherwise, is a really good punster, he or she might elicit a response such as “you just slay me!” The pun’s piercing source word reminds me of Chiron’s wounding by a stray arrow. But even the most pointed pun isn’t lethal—it lingers like Chiron’s wound (“a real groaner").

~ Puns bring a different perspective and a maverick refusal to keep within the bounds of the Queen’s English (or the Commoner’s Everyday American). Like Chiron in its erratic orbit, puns are often somewhat unpredictable. And like those who just don’t “get” puns, Chiron goes over some people’s heads (no pun intended).

~ Puns span “the Chiron Sector” from Virgo to Sagittarius. Very Virgoan, the compulsion to create them comes from loving words. One of my favorite comedians is Virgo Lily Tomlin. In Lily’s one-woman show, her character, Trudy the Bag Lady, keeps her perspective by doing “awe-robics” daily. Puns keep people off-balance (Libra). They transform (Scorpio) through laughter (often on Scorpionic subjects, especially sex), and they often exaggerate certain words or syllables (Sagittarius). What’s more, people who like them tend to “puntificate!” If you’re into anagrams, you’ll note that the adjective Chironic contains the word ironic, which puns often are.

At least I think so, but if it turns out that my theory has a few wrinkles in it, just let me know so I can Chiron them out!

Then maybe I can take a stab at becoming Comedian of the Centaury. Unfortunately, I suspect that when it comes to fame, it’s not my cen’taur or even my 15 minutes.


~~~

Photo credit: MAGNETIC BOARD - CHOPIN LISZT ©

Tim@awe Dreamstime.com with shopping list bullets by Joyce.


This article first appeared in the December 1993 edition of Chironicles.


Extra Pun: If you love puns, you’ll love this site! Punpunpun.com is the official site for the annual O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin, TX. Attending the Pun-Off at least once in my life is on my Bucket List. Next May 22? A Radical Virgo meet-up at the pun equivalent of the Pillsbury bake-off? Let me know if you’re in!

Update: I just got the O. Henry Museum's report of the last pun-offs winners. It says that the event started in 1977, the year of Chiron's discovery--more proof that puns are associated with Chiron!

Wordgo: The Virgo Way with Words

Why are Virgos in love with words?

For years, I have used the Celestial Influences astrological calendars. There is a two-word affirmation for each sign every month. Examples: “I Am” for Aries; “I Have” for Taurus, and “I Think” for Gemini.

The I-statement for Virgo is “I Analyze.” That job would be really difficult to do without words—lots of them!

There are some main areas of life that Virgos work on: knowledge, health, and service. Note the difference between the I-statement for Gemini and Virgo, both traditionally ruled by the Thinker Planet Mercury. Gemini thinks, but Virgo analyzes. Analysis can often make the difference between information and knowledge, between facts and wisdom.

Gemini often likes information for its own sake, the reason why so many folks with a lot of Gemini in their charts are likely to beat your butt at Trivial Pursuit. They throw factoids, dates and data around like confetti.

Virgo, on the other hand, is not happy until s/he knows why the fact is important, what the data means and exactly why a date was significant. To a Virgo, this is not a party, and that Gemini can take his damned confetti and mess elsewhere. This earth sign literally wants to bring the data down to earth, to know what it’s good for, and how it will help people.

We all know the expression, “garbage in, garbage out” or GIGO when it comes to using computers or any other kind of data crunching mechanism, including our own brains. A Virgo would never put in garbage. You know how much Virgos hate dirt! “Garbage out” would never be an acceptable outcome. The Virgo’s need to sift and winnow, her proverbial job of separating the wheat from the chaff, is ever so much easier if she starts with a decent crop of wheat, preferably organic.

Mercury is also the quicksilver god of communication, the winged messenger. It’s fun to contrast the Mercury-ruled signs. Gemini would love the thrill of having to run the message to its destination lickety-split. He’d deliver it with clever conversation and perhaps report on the weather and interesting encounters on the way. Virgo would be much more worried that the right message got to the right person at the right time. She’d be looking for shortcuts to get there efficiently and the correct person authorized to sign for the article.

So, how do we make the best of our Wordgo tendencies? Many of us are writers, editors, publishers, and composers. (Music is a more math-based type of writing, but if you’re a lyricist, too, what an impressive right- and left-brain merger!) The sign of Virgo has its share of actors and news personalities, all who make their living with words.

There are many potential jobs for Virgo, one of the most employable signs of the zodiac, because we love to work! But since this is the Radical Virgo blog, I hope you’ll comment and tell us your personal way with words, especially if you were a Virgin birth (born with Sun in Virgo); or if you have other Virgo planets that bless you with these proclivities. What do you do with words? How do you love them? (Count the ways.)

I’ll go first. Here are some of mine:

Writer, publisher, shameless punster, a word game player (Scrabble, Jumble, Spellbound) … and a person who loves words in art. One of my favorite artists ever was Corita Kent, whose words made beautiful became designs for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 Love Stamp and Rainbow Swash, the 150-foot (46 m)-high natural gas tank in Boston. Her artwork, focused on messages of peace and love. That made it particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. (Have you noticed how the peace sign is coming back, and not just on The Radical Virgo’s new blog header?)

I also love to rearrange words on the Internet Anagram Server. Some of my faves for “Radical Virgo” are Caviar Do Girl, Garlic Via Rod, A Rival Doc Rig, and Vocal Rag Rid I.

Of course, I research the derivation of words, and wear word jewelry. For my croning ceremony when I turned sixty, I was presented with a Light Drop Jewelry necklace that says Heals on one side, With Words on the other. I covet a pair of earrings made to replicate old typewriter keys. Unfortunately, my Mercury in Libra can’t make up her mind which keys she wants. While my initials, JM, are obvious possibilities, I sure would like an exclamation mark (!) or a dollar sign ($).

Finally, I thought I’d introduce you to Wordle, if you haven’t already met—word collages that capture the essence of a blog or website—or any cut ‘n’ paste concoction of words you want to feed into it. This Wordgo Wordle (say that 10 times!) was created by The Radical Virgo on April 19, 2009—a picture in time of what’s happening on this blog. Check out the words that stand out most:

Astrology Chiron Moon New Life Hero One Want

Freely translated: Astrology can be a healing path to receptivity, new life, and becoming our own heroes, the one thing we all want.

The Word from On High!

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Word-Class Reminder: Don't forget to mark your calendar for Donna Cunningham’s teleseminar on finding career signatures for writing in astrology charts, May 3, 2009.