In October 1968, Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini began a fabulous crypto-romance. The Sagittarius soprano and Piscean film director were not only mutually super-talented, notorious and charismatic – both were in the wake of caustic, heavily publicized relationship break-ups.
Callas was world-famous and considered the greatest female opera singer of her time, if not ever. In a pre-Kardashian era, her ‘difficult’ and diva-esque demands were slavishly chronicled by a usually hostile media. She’d left her husband to become the long-time mistress and aspirant wife to the quadruple Capricorn shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
A ruthless Mars-Pluto guy, he ended their ten-year affair to pursue a bigger trophy – the iconic Leo Jackie Kennedy, former first lady and the widow of slain president John F Kennedy. They were married on Skorpios, Aristotle’s private island, the weekend that Callas and Pasolini met to discuss her role in his upcoming adaptation of Medea.
They Met During A Mutual Uranus Transit
After nine years together, Pasolini’s long-time lover, the actor Ninetto Davoili, had just left him to get married. It stung because Pasolini adored the much younger Neptunian Libra but also as he’d been living as “openly homosexual” a life as anyone practically could in those days. Davoli’s decision to marry a woman was “insufferably bourgeois” he said.
“There must be a reason why the idea of attending some art school or academy never occurred to me. Just the idea of doing something traditional makes me nauseous, it literally makes me sick.” Pasolini was a multi-talented, multiple Pisces but his signature astro-aspect? Uranus in Pisces rising. He was always an iconoclast, a lightning rod for controversy.
So these two unique individuals met in their mid-40s, at a uniquely turbulent time in their lives, heartbroken and – worse – their predicaments scorned by a bigoted media – to discuss Pasolini’s “Freudian, socialist, experimental” adaptation of Medea, the story of an abandoned, vengeful sorceress. With transit Uranus on her Moon and his North Node – they connected immediately, forming a passionate bond that defied all attempts to explain it.
A Vengeful Sorceress
As the film Isle of Medea and the array of big-vibing images of them together reveals, their chemistry and effect on one another was tangible: they adored spending time together. Paparazzi pictures of the renegade duo, as well as Pasolini’s announcement that Maria was the first woman he’d loved aside from his mother, polarized the media.
Some went with the “engagement imminent” take, clearly delighted at the famous film director’s ‘bourgeois conversion.’ Others took an anti-Maria-stance, saying that in the wake of her ‘humiliating love defeat’ via Onassis, she’d taken to ‘throwing herself at homosexuals.’
Regardless of whether or not there was mutual physical attraction, why does an affinity or a romance need to be “consumated” to count as legit? They clearly connected brilliantly on multiple levels – intellectual, emotional, metaphysically, whatever – and were in deep awe of one another.
I haven’t done a deep trawl through every single image of them together compared to Callas with other people but photographically, she seems far happier with Pasolini than with the allegedly abusive Onassis.
You can see it in the synastry between them as well – yes, I ran their Cosmic Compatiblity report. Why aren’t crypto-romances afforded more reverence? Along with ‘best friend’ ties and those between soul-linked family members, they’re every bit as rich and real as the classic couple bond but they’re lower ranked.
Thoughts?
Love defies all odds.
When you connect you connect. It’s perfect.
ok, I had no idea he was a pedo….yikes…
Neither did I!
I admire anyone that challenges the status-quo on convention. Lines are blurred regardless when energy entangles and that’s even before it becomes sexual. I spent quite along time around the LBGTQ community, before it had that reference and my own sexuality became very…. hhmmm fluid. If you find companionship in any form it should be celebrated, society will just have to deal with their own prejudices. Sexuality in its many expressions isn’t discussed as openly and honestly as it should, especially before you’re seeking to consummate.
@Mystic the Italian actor was Ninetto Davoli. The name is not written correctly in the article.
Oh and obviously nowadays nobody mentiones him being Pasolini’s long term lover but “a friend”.
Fixed, sorry! And yes I was struck by the idea of how they formed this indefinable bond at such a poignant time in their lives…
As a person who is about to experience the exact transit of Maria Callas – Uranus on my Moon something that, with Uranus completing a cycle in 84 years, not everyone gets to experience – I am extremely curious on how it will manifest. And this article is amazing!
Excellent: come with me to Raqmu, where you will star in my provocative, experimental, hypnogogic film production of Inanna, Lady of the Largest Heart, by Enheduanna.
Omg could you do a post on Endheduanna? Wish she and that history were taught in pre-school. I discovered Lady of the Largest <3 book a couple years ago and find it so rich. Jupiter-Neptune were just on my natal Jupiter; Saturn on my moon-merc: I volunteer to produce // write the screenplay.
This is the first time I hear about this. I am going to research it now. It might have interesting tips for this life altering transit I am about to experience 😊
Didn’t know how she was until you mentioned her. Getting her book from Amazon tomorrow morning and reading it over the weekend.
Same here, MissDee… Anticipating with some trepidation! Still roughly 2 degrees to go before Uranus connects with my 10th house Taurus Moon… For me, by the way, a lot of upheaval has occurred already in the past two years since I moved to a wooden eco house in the countryside after 30 years in the city while Uranus opposed my Venus in Scorpio in the 4th
I hadn’t realized that I am having Uranus opposition to my Natal Lilith in Scorpio. The conjunction to my Moon is not happening until summer though.
Uranus transiting opposite Lilith in Scorpio sounds interesting, MissDee. I could imagine Lilith to be at home in non-conformist, uncompromising and intense Scorpio… maybe not easy though (even if Lilith is never easy). Best wishes for Uranus transiting your Moon, this Summer. I would certainly be interested to hear from you here at Mystic’s if something special happens. Only if you are willing to share, of course 😊
I don’t mind sharing it. Let’s see if there’s going to be a proper place here on the blog at that point. The playfield is going to be the 9th house – where my Moon is. So I guess the “from outer circle” people or elements in general should be augmented. Uranus is the ruler of my 6th and the Moon of my 11th. So those areas should be involved or influenced too some how. 🙂
I love this.
Though there was huge mutual admiration, it was not for lack of trying on Callas’s part that the relationship between her and Pasolini wasn’t “consummated” in the biblical sense. She thought that she could “convert” him to heterosexuality and marry him. Everyone in their circle knew this. The media being what it is, went to town on it.
As for why crypto-romances are not rated as high as conventional coupledom? Procreation and the patriarchal value system, is all.
Maria Callas was a woman very much in pain. I think she had the tendency of picking up unsuitable guys. Yet their pics
together are amazing.
They look like two people basking in each other’s reflected glory & mutual adoration. Much like people “IN love” – which I’m sure they were. However, Callas was yearning for something more – in the traditional sense – something that he could not give her.
Exactly – it would be interesting to see how such a woman would operate today. The double standards in her era were breath-taking.
Look I don’t know anything, and I try not to comment on other people’s biz, but on love – I guess it has so many permutations, and transparencies and opacities, just like people themselves, that I wonder it occurs at all, for any length of time..!
If you can find kindness in another human being when you’ve seen cruelty in others, well that’s a miracle. If you can also find forgiveness, well that’s also another miracle. If you can find artistic or intellectual accord, even better, but the silence that fills any (inevitable, however small) vacuum after the high of such a connection can be deafening. However you hand the keys to yourself over (willingly) to someone else – bon, but hopefully they realise the gift, and hand them back with extra keys to doors you never knew existed.
‘Hand them back with extra keys to doors you never knew existed,’ so very true and beautifully expressed! I’m starting to embrace that a seemingly failed relationship often held gems, even if it didn’t work out (aside from instances of abuse, severe humiliation or intentionally bad behavior).
As a domestic abuse survivor, I have to say there *are* gems. I’m one of those people no one believed, precisely because I was the type of chick who would break a bottle over someone’s head for grabbing my tits. The labyrinth of further abuse, dismissal, well-intentioned yet extremely damaging reactions from friends and family are all “gems.” In fact, having watched them for almost ten years now, I now believe, that, just as “relapse” is now seen as part of the recovery process, “further abuse” will eventually come to be seen as part of the abuse cycle — obviously not in the “useful” way relapsing is viewed, but as an unfortunate, yet unavoidable step in the actual abuse cycle. I have section in a the poem I performed at last year’s Fringe (which is, in part, about this subject. It’s a convo between (GASP!) a chick who gets stuck in the US Southwest on her motorbike, accidentally takes peyote (left) and meets one of the land’s caretakers, Cougar (right):
“I am marked with a Scarlet A for Abuse You are alive so they cannot see you
Everyone can tell. The men think you It is not the first time for you
fair game for more of the same and nor is it about you
the women think themselves superior. Women who generate light bring
Either way, I have to resign myself exposure all that no one wishes to see
To a lifetime of threats and condescending orders It is a matter of keeping secrets
And ignorant advice. I scared people before You are alive you are alive you are alive
I really scare them now. 1000 years ago they would have killed you
He tried. They’ve tried”
Maybe it’s Pluto Rising, AND 1H Uran/Moon/Lillith AND 5H Aqua/Merc/NN, but I think crawling through the horrible and idiotic reactions people have to the abuse going on around them is some of the most interesting shit I’ve ever learned / watched people do. It’s made me a more compassionate person. Not for the abusers or the fucking insensitive idiots you might make the mistake of telling about your experiences, but to other survivors. And we’re the ones who need it. *I* left my abuser and 1.5 years later he killed himself, leaving me with a bunch of bills, etc. Who did/do his crowd / fans / family blame? I once got sent an envelope of dirt addressed to “C. Love.”
In terms of “public image,” it would have been better if I’d allowed him to kill me, then himself, and then every idiot who opened their mouth since the moment I announced his body had been found (because no one would have even known if I’d not been contacted and decided to go public, as he’d so alienated everyone) could have spewed absolute self-indulgent SHITE about how they wished either of us had said something or asked for help. People are absolutely useless. THAT is a GEM of a lesson.
This full /scorp moon is really intense, y’all, It was exact oppo my 7H Mars.
P.S. I really tried to fix that formatting, but y’ know. at some point, who cares.
Hi SheRat, you are a survivor…I see this, because I too survived domestic violence from ages 4 to 17. And yep, generally, people don’t have the tools to handle it. It re-traumatises because again, you are left unseen or unbelieved. With a gaping wound that your soul fled through. And no map. Just “exposure”, as you tenderly wrote.
I don’t have the answer, I so (selfishly) hope you believe me & others on this commentary, that you are seen. Your poem about a chick in SW USA, caught between peyote and a Cougar, hit me right in the guts. *Love*.
Earthstar: Thank you so much, I’m a little teary-eyed. I’m so sorry for what you went through also. I was in a “Survivor Arts” workshop here in Glasgow this past Fall that was an amazing experience. If anyone is interested, I can post both the link to “The Adventures of Cougar and the Runaway Lady” (the performance) and the web site for the Survivor Arts place, it could give peeps ideas. IF Mystic sez it’s okay.
Hi SheRat, I so wanted to write “I am so sorry to hear of your ordeal” when I first replied, but I didn’t want to sound like the circle of “well-intended” but unintentionally hurtful people in our “real lives”, who say this because they haven’t the tools to say anything else… Your hurt is precious, you are more so, and your poetry alchemises that sh*t into gold. Luv ya 💖❤ – and would love to see all and any of your links..😍🥰 XOOXOO
Wow just wow. Incredible isn’t it how it can happen to the strongest most competent women and no one believes it because of just that.
That is a serious of intense experiences, and thank you for your bravery and openness in sharing.
I will admit my experiences hadn’t gone as far as yours, but you touched on something ours had in common. It’s bizarre how those who side with abusers have an alternate reality with those who had to experience it. It’s like a widespread gaslighting mixed with downright denial, even with a smoking gun or strong evidence.
What makes this worse is I believe the vast majority of people who side with an abuser know it happened or at least knew it was highly likely because of how/ what they knew about an abuser. For whatever reason, they deny it and either scapegoat or blame the victim just as you described, or continue the abuse in a different way.
I’ve had to accept these differences in reality and tried my best to stay as far away from theirs as I could. But, I definitely feel stronger in holding and living my truth rather than wasting energy trying to persuade them to see differently! It sounds like you just packed it all in and went that direction, so I’m glad you are so much more free and in safety!
Heya GalaxyHiker, You are the Gem. Always remember this. I get the educational aspect (so much more than you know!!☺ lol) but your compassion for You is the only key you ever need. Lots of love, take care and hold yourself in your ❤, always. (Like in a loving-kindness meditation, every day!) XOO
Thank YOU, Earthstra! <3 Self compassion was one of the toughest climbs I’ve made but it was so worth it!
Self-compassion is right up there with copping kicks, punches and blocking-maneouvre bruises in karate class, as part of “body-conditioning” (toughening your tendons and muscles – and mind?!- up, as an insurance prep against further injury), in terms of its “ouch” factor and difficulty. And I don’t know about you, but as an Aries I find it difficult to keep a day in, day out routine, because, #boredalready!! – and self-compassion needs that daily plod. (For me!!) Hang in there pet xxxxoo
This is absolutely beautifully written.
“If you can find kindness in another human being when you’ve seen cruelty in others, well that’s a miracle. If you can also find forgiveness, well that’s also another miracle. If you can find artistic or intellectual accord, even better… you hand the keys to yourself over (willingly) to someone else – bon, but hopefully they realise the gift, and hand them back with extra keys to doors you never knew existed.”
Do you mind if I share this with my friends?
Please do, Penelope!! Hope you are going, ok?? XOO XOO
This is so lovely <3 Currently living in the silent vacuum after the necessary separation from a true deep once in a lifetime love. I don’t cry every day anymore. And you’re right—there are new keys and new doors. Will try to remember that.
Hiya DS, wow.. You are really in the deepest and hardest place, right now. Xoo xoo Sending biggest hugs – and you don’t have to remember to do anything – just hold yourself, and remind yourself you are so loved. Always.
I hope my comment about somebody handing you extra keys didn’t come across as an imperative. It was actually borne of sadness – the several times in my life I have sat in that hallowed* room you are in right now, this is what I have discovered left remaining, in my hands. But in absentia of the person who gave it to me. And of course, it’s tragic and beautiful in the same breath. Xoo
*Again when I say hallowed, I am so not being smug or attempting a lyrical hijack. It is just that in that room of heartbreak, you have to be so tender with yourself because you are confronted with the truth of life, which is, everything in this life dies, somehow and somewhere. This room, in my mind, should have Byzantine mosaics or candle soot on the walls, from millenia of heartbreak. It took me until my 40ies to discover Thict Nhat Hahn’s quote, “Everything is impermanent”, and he said this is the only way seasons change, a flower blooms, or a person becomes pregnant or people come together, as well as the sadder sides to these cycles.. It is all change. But I remember whenever I sat in this room, it did occur to me that relational break-up was only one way to lose somebody. Illness, or accident are others. And none of us can control this, and yet, it is the reality. I try to meditate on this every day, to keep things real in my mind and soul. But – I am only saying all this to try and make you not feel so alone, dearest DS. You are not alone.. And I have no idea about anything, but I know you so deserve the deepest love. Go gentle. XOO
Darling that is beautifully said. Compassion and kindness mean more to me than traditional forms of love and a shared passion of anything at all.
Heya darling Pegs, have missed you. XOO XOO All copacetic in SA..?? Hope your neighbour is minding his own beeswax, still. 😘💖❤
the photo shows an awkward off lips affectionate type kiss, she looks into it, he looks self consciously caught off guard with his drink as a defense that she counters with a grab.
Did she know he was gay, or a pedo?
It was unfortunate to downgrade the word “Crypto” in this manner. It felt like a negative association, but maybe that’s just me.
I don’t have any opinion on her romance.
What I do have an opinion on is the “affinity romance” : if it is real, between two people who actually meet, and who have a real relationship that is not a fantasy or a made-up myth that someone conjured up, then, yes, love is love.
But what if the highly publicized “romance” was nothing more than a myth, an ongoing publicity stunt? I have been the subject of such a “romance” with a person or persons whom I do not know, there are no photos of us together, no time spent together, no shared social scenes, and yet, many people believe or believed that there was some such romance. There was nothing I could do about it, but those with the resources to create and maintain these myths do it for whatever reasons it may serve. This is more like a kind of identity theft, not a romance.
In the dream I had and described in the l last post, one of these men was calling himself “my husband”, and my response was, on an energetic level, then I am serving you the divorce papers, but I have only been married twice, and have had no other relationships.
In the dream, I felt at that moment nothing, and not knowing who to direct my frustration at in real life, it comes back to me. Still, the feeling of being used as a pawn in some sort of unknown game is real, and so is my anger, sadness, and helplessness. My inner-self says that, somehow, that man, or these men, got cords connected to me, and it instructed me to cut those cords.
This is all real, on some level.
Emotions felt towards people, dead or alive, incarnate or disincarnate, real or imagined, are always real, but the relationships are not.
Mysterio from a Spiderman film:
“I’m giving people something to believe in.”
“People will believe anything.”
I love how you explained the depth of your experience, this feeling seems to still be plaguing your mind / spirit. I always find my dreams become a space for the unconscious mind to digest the imbalances of the soul, or at least alert me to them.
Have you had your energy cleared since these dreams? A healer could restore your chakras in this case, especially the sacral sounds like it needs clearing and recharging! If you’re open to energetic healing that is….
Public perceptions do resemble an identity theft, your life becomes what the media angle is on that day. I have been off socials for years and I can’t tell you the noticeable levels of repair it’s provided to my own sense of identity. The outside stimulus had completely distorted my sense of reality.
Yes, and yes. This article was a trigger. My attackor was a gay man-turned-bi, whom I had no feelings toward, and definitely did not want to “turn” but whom I wanted to protect my children from, as he was a predator. One man became a group.
Also, the word “Crypto” is meaningful to me as I’m writing about that right now, and I find it to be out of place in this article. So this is now, not in the past.
I went off social years ago, but the “theft” went much further than that: it was ongoing and a lot of stalker activities were involved. It was all very, very cruel. That man/those men/those people are the last people in the world I’d want to have a relationship with, let alone socialize with.
At any rate, because of my most recent experiences, which occurred just months ago, which I admit are still haunting me, I am still in need of further healing. It’s an ongoing process but this past 7th house full moon and the Mars transit are very helpful.
Still, how do people actually know that the stories portrayed here are facts? My experience says that people with resources can spin stories out of the smallest tidbit of fact.
I can completely relate to everything you said here, and have felt attacked by many different groups throughout my life and with varying degrees of visibility publicly. It’s a diminishing feeling that strips you of identity and turns every person into a threat (new/old). It’s a horrible feeling to be operating out of, so I’m happy to read you’re giving it the attention it deserves…..
Yes it’s true that stories can be fabricated completely without any hint of truth, but I believe that their own personal perceptions from their unique experiences usually sets the tone for what their spoken/believed truths are….
When I’m personally affected by a quote > statement > story I trace the emotion back to its source and acknowledge that’s the place that still needs healing and my attention 🤍
I am so sorry to hear this – the post was not at all intended to evoke such horrible associations. By crypto, I meant merely cryptic as in – especially in those days – not an official ‘role.’ For example, my great aunt was a missionary doing what she thought of as ‘good deeds’ in South America and for as long as I knew, she lived with her lady companion – that was literally what their church referred to them as: lady companions – they were a couple, even a child could see that but it was never allowed to be spoken of.
She seems to have that Mars-Saturn conjunction found in surgeons on the wonderful previous post. While she said that her singing was a chase after something intuitive and insubstantial, it seems she was able to use her natural precision to uncover something remarkable. But I get the impression she didn’t have a great sense of how to relate to people, sadly. Perhaps the lack of reverence is personal to her choices. Her love for a gay pedophile being a case in point. Or the husband who stole from her. Or the billionaire who left her and then continued an affair behind his new trophy wife’s back. In any case, as to the question of legitimate love in the eyes of the media, or even people like us, who watch from a distance and make assessments.. I am not sure I have any thoughts. Her story is so sad! Remarkable as she was with dramatic Scorpio looks, her graceful Moon in Libra and all her fire.
I love that photo, him grinning widely and her grabbing him by his drinking arm. They both passed at 53 (2 years apart). That part of their lives together seemed very exhilarating. Who would play them in a movie?