I Am A Strange Woman

Don't love deeply, till you make sure that the other person loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

Art by : Julia Soboleva

If a storm hits me

If a storm hits me and the winds shake me, the voice of hope in me says: that the storms will calm down, If a lightning bolt strikes me and does not leave me a wing, the voice of hope in me says: that I fly without range, If my branches wither and thirst from their longing for water, the voice of hope in me says : that the sky is cloudy and dew. And if I were to be imprisoned for twenty years, the voice of hope in me says: that I have a morning and a promise. Even if they cut off my head while it's at the tip of spears, the voice of hope in me says: that life has just begun. But if a friend betrays me and I am alone and he leaves, the voice of hope in me says : I am done…this was my last call.

Poem by : Muhathil Alsqor

Cain

Cain now beats with a bird made of shale He descends to the earth and showers it- with tremendous rains of fire. Towers and houses collapse before its desolation The dead escape from the embrace of the earth upwards Cain is now floating around in his tank The sheep were terrified Cain is tearing down the wall of his barn Since night turns to morning in the village, the barn is not suitable for sleeping. Emitted by the light coming down Like a dragon's tongue Hurricane ravaged the face of the earth

by: Mohammad Al-Buraiki

One day

We’ll meet again You’ll look at me And while i look at you I won't feel a thing I'll walk past you With a smile on my face And inside you'll be dying because it took you too long to realize It was me

| Unknown

kardeşim

Annemin rahminde yedi dakika boyunca beni terk ettiği için ikiz kardeşimi asla affetmeyeceğim.

Beni orada, karanlıktan korkarak, o yapışkan sıvının içinde bir astronot gibi yüzerek, diğer tarafta onu nasıl öpüp ona taptıklarını dinleyerek yalnız bıraktı.

Bunlar hayatımın en uzun yedi dakikasıydı ve onu ilk doğan ve annemin gözdesi olmaya adayan şeydi.

Bundan sonra, her zaman Pablo'dan önce bir yerlerden ayrılmaya özen gösterirdim: yatak odası, ev, okul, kitle, tiyatro… bu filmin sonunu kaçırmak anlamına gelse bile.

Bir gün dikkatim dağıldı ve kardeşim benden önce gitti ve o sevimli gülümsemesiyle beni izlerken bir araba geldi ve ona çarptı.

İkiz kardeşim öldüğünde, annem cesedini tuttu ve adımı haykırdı ve ben şimdiye kadar ona söylemedim...

Ben öldüm ve kardeşim yaşadı.

Rafael Noboa - My Brother

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

📝Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī-known in Latin as Albumasar

Born in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) in 787, a former hadith scholar who turned to the stars in midlife.

His Kitāb al-Madkhal al-Kabīr (The Great Introduction) became the bedrock of European astrology when translated into Latin.

He systematized planetary natures, zodiac signs, houses, aspects, and the elements.

His “conjunction theory” argued that history moves in great cycles, marked by rare celestial alignments—especially Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, which he claimed heralded the rise of prophets and empires.

"All change under heaven is written first in the sky."

📜 Al-Kindi – The Philosopher of the Arabs

A polymath in the Abbasid court, blending Greek philosophy with Islamic theology and celestial theory.

In De Radiis Stellarum (On the Stellar Rays), he proposed a theory of stellar influence—not superstition, but a natural force, like light or magnetism.

He laid early groundwork for what would become natural philosophy (proto-science), suggesting stars transmit influence through rays affecting Earthly matter and human temperament.

🌍 Al-Biruni – The Observer from Khwarezm

Though more astronomer than astrologer, he cataloged astrology in full without ever endorsing its claims outright.

His Kitāb al-Tafhīm contains precise definitions of astrological terms, planetary motions, and how horoscopes are calculated.

A master of cultural synthesis: he compared Greek, Indian, and Persian systems, noting their commonalities and contradictions.

🕊 Abū al-Rayḥān al-Sijzī & Al-Zarqālī – Instruments of the Sky

Developed the astrolabe, armillary spheres, and zij tables—astronomical charts used by astrologers to pinpoint planetary positions with astonishing accuracy.

🪐 PART II: What the Arabs Contributed to Astrology

🧠 1. A Philosophical Foundation

Arabs didn’t just practice astrology—they thought about it. They debated whether the stars compel or merely incline.

Al-Farabi and later Avicenna argued the stars could only affect the body, not the soul—a blend of Neoplatonism and Islamic ethics.

The stars whisper, they do not command.

📊 2. Horoscopic Techniques Refined

Arabs inherited and enhanced horoscopic astrology from the Greeks:

Twelve Houses (Bayūt): Places in the chart signifying career, love, health, death.

Lots (Arabic Parts): Points calculated from planetary positions, like the Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit, used to fine-tune predictions.

Triplicities and Dignities: Systems to assess planetary strength.

Interrogations (Horary Astrology): Divining answers to specific questions, such as “Will I marry?” or “Will the king win this war?”

⚔️ 3. Political and Historical Astrology

Astrologers like Abū Maʿshar claimed that world events—plagues, conquests, religious shifts—were written in planetary cycles.

Used to time coronations, launch battles, found cities.

Caliphs would sometimes delay decisions until the astrologers said the heavens were "favorable."

🏥 4. Medical Astrology

Used zodiac signs to diagnose and treat illness—Aries rules the head, Pisces the feet, and so on.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) himself, though skeptical of predictive astrology, used astrological charts for medical diagnoses, especially in fevers and crisis periods.

🌠 PART III: Astrology in Islamic Society

🌗 Religious Debate

The Qur’an warns against claims to know the unseen:

"Say: None in the heavens or on the earth knows the unseen except Allah." (Qur’an 27:65)

So Islamic scholars:

Allowed astronomy (for timekeeping, Qibla direction).

Permitted astrology only if used to understand natural rhythms—not fate.

Condemned fortune-telling or attributing independent power to stars.

Yet astrology persisted—not as dogma, but as courtly art, folk belief, and scientific curiosity.

🕯 PART IV: The Transmission to Europe

Translations of Arabic astrological texts into Latin via Toledo and Sicily reawakened Europe’s interest in the stars.

Terms like zenith, nadir, azimuth, almanac, and even algorithm come from Arabic.

Albumasar, Albohali, Messahala—all Arabic astrologers Latinized into the canon of European learning.

The Renaissance astrologers (like Ficino and Agrippa) drank deeply from Arab wells.

🌌 In Closing: A Legacy Like the Night Sky

The Arabs did not merely gaze at the stars—they listened to them, charted them, debated them, and passed on their wisdom in tomes that still echo today. Astrology, as they practiced it, was never just fortune-telling—it was philosophy, poetry, medicine, and mathematics entwined in a cosmic dance.

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;        For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings        That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

˜ Shakespeare

The Rain

By sea...towards another space, shaking off my dust. Forgetting my name, the names of plants, and the history of trees.. Escaping from this sun that flogs me with its boredom... Fleeing from cities that slept for centuries under the feet of the moon.. Leaving behind me eyes made of glass and a sky made of stone. I will not go back to the sun... for I now belong to the rainstorms.

by: Nizar Qabbani

I like to stay at a safe distance from everyone, I am neither near to blame nor far forgotten, present and invisible, like the setting sun, departing and comforting at the same time.

| Charles Bukowski

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