- “A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!”
Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest II.ii.79
Horoscopes for 9.17.2020
New Moon in Virgo, September 17, 2020 around 5:59 AM.
The Sun enters the Tropical Zodiac sign of Libra September 22, 2020 around 7:58 AM.
Virgo
Resist the temptation to change too much, too soon. It’s that simple. At one point in my career as an astrology author — been at these weekly horoscopes for 25 years now — but at one point I was doing website design and construction as a side hustle. I guess I could still do it, but I’m really too lazy. Take a pointer from one of my lessons learned, in that kind of work, and let’s apply that lesson to wonderful Virgo, even now.
It’s really a simple mantra, and one, here we are at the close of Virgo, a phrase that will serve your Virgo self quite well. There’s a long line of reasons, and solid astrological reasoning, behind the phrase, but you’ll find, as we move forward, the best way to approach this energy?
- Resist the temptation to change too much, too soon.
Libra
There’s always an adjunct to what the stated goal is, was, or still might be. The stated goal? To arrive at a certain destination, via a specified route. Me? I’m not Libra, and I’ve managed to take my meandering ways and idle curiosities and turn that it into valid intellectual pursuits. But that’s not what this is about. This is about the material that lies off to one side of the stated objective. Material that is that happy collision of luck, happenstance, location, timing, and who knows what else. Just the odds events occur. The goal? To consume a certain amount of knowledge in one area. What happens?
On the way to getting material to read up on that one subject, there’s a link for an ad that seems out of place, and clicking on that ad? The ad itself isn’t a good idea, but what that leads your Libra self to look for? That becomes a thing. It’s that weird, interconnectedness of everything. Not what catches your Libra eye the first time, but what is off to one side, down a step from where we started. The goal was to get from “here” to “there,” but in this next week, the journey, how we get there, that’s what is way more important.
- “Well, would you look at that!”
See?
Scorpio
Dream sequences can yield vital information. When Mars started to backslide, there was a series of events that tickled the Scorpio unconsciousness. That gentle tickle and playful nudge? A cosmic reminder to look at a particular issue, and perhaps, see if from a different way of seeing it. This next few days offers Scorpio — a good Scorpio — an opportunity to “see” an old issue from a different way of seeing it. Previous cognition, prior biases, the traditional way of understanding a certain point of order? That goes sideways. The little trick, the way to make this work? Be uncharacteristically amenable to change. Adapt. Adopt a new attitude. Be more willing to consider the other point of view, if just for a moment.
“No, seriously, look at it from where I’m standing. See the difference?”
While most — typical — Scorpio energy will refuse to even shift positions to see this thing in a new light? If you’re reading this, think about shifting positions, at least long enough to see it differently. Might have a new way to solve an old problem, and they all lived happily ever after. Hint: it could happen that way.
Sagittarius
Many years distant, and I’m stuck in “reverie” mode, but many years distant, I kept a small text file on my computers. It was a simple piece of text about computers, operating systems, and platforms, because customers would have a hard time downloading, or otherwise acquiring a file they got from me. I tended, in the past, to drop the file itself into the body of an e-mail, and then, with a separate e-mail, attach a text version. Two copies, redundancies covered.
That text file covered a couple of obvious suggestions, restart the machine, try using a text editor, look for it in a word processor, or for audio files, try whatever audio player was current. I’ve long abandoned that kind file, but I thought about it when I was looking at our Sagittarius horoscopes. See, there’s a time when this is simple, rote material, nothing new, and instead of taking a small problem and blowing it up into a bigger problem? Keep it all as it is. I’m sure there’s an easy way to do this, but I can’t wrangle your problems for you. Before you send that hate mail? Stop, look, and see if just double-clicking on something doesn’t fix most of the mess.
“Oh look! It’s working now! Thanks for fixing that!”
I didn’t do anything, but you’re welcome.
Capricorn
“So we’re doing this crap again?”
- Looks like it.
“So.... there’s no way around this crap? I mean, again?”
- Looks like that’s the situation.
“And there’s nothing I can do?”
- Would appear so.
“Oh man,” laments the Capricorn.
I don’t have a facile answer. There’s good. There’s bad. There’s rough roads, and there’s smooth sailing. For me, it was more like smooth motoring, as we were flying with the wind across a lake, in a fast bass boat. Very fast boat. Running with the wind at our backs? We got there in a hurry, picture on a website someplace, smiling fishermen with fish in hand. Old cove, still a good place to fish at the end of the summer. But the trip back? Less than wonderful? Not the worst ride, but kind of punishing, and my old bones don’t need to be shaken. Stirred, sure, but not shaken. So the good and the bad, the smooth sailing and the rough ride. All in one week. Enjoy it. Fishing’s still good.
Aquarius
Pretty common expression around my people? “Don’t make me open a can Whoop-Ass on you!” It can be friendly, it can be a warning shot, it can be humorous. The images that go with this, locally, anyway, tend to be a can labeled “Whoop-Ass,” and indicative of strength, hot temper, and brute force. There’s a certain lack of finesse in the imagery, and while usually humorous, perhaps even satirical in its intended nature, the message is clear: don’t irritate me.
I wish other people would get the same message about Aquarius in this next week. Regrettably, I doubt the message will carry forward, and that’s what should be cause for Aquarius concern: other people not getting it. In some respects, the t-shirts, and silly slogans, and the exaggerated artwork? “Don’t make me open a can whoop-ass?” In some cases, yeah, that's amusing, but mere mortals — non-Aquarius peeps? They don’t get it. There’s a certain amount of resident ire, angst, and pent-up frustration that can come tumbling out of your Aquarius self if we’re not careful. Make sure that the message is clear before going all, before going all, before opening a can of whoop-ass? Sure.
Pisces
For several years, I got in the habit of using the local, digital library to check out books. The pandemic really brought this into focus. I wasn't, like “check them out,” I still do that, but when I would see an ad, or posting, or a review by a trusted source? I would try the library version first. There are a few books that I like to collect. Certain authors, either their works, or the memories of what was in the works, collected, that might have some meaning. In the bigger picture, these are merely books, just words printed on paper and not of lot of use to many people, but I tend to start my investigation at the library.
The digital library, I should say, and especially these days? While I like the tactile feel of a book, a real book, I enjoy the speed that I can rip through a potboiler mystery, or current best-seller, or some other happy crap that is mass-marketed and mass-consumed, by the masses, and that’s the best way for me to read some of that. I check out the free, online resource, first. As I’m older now, I’m at a point where, if I don’t get “hooked” on the first couple of pages, or if the style doesn’t grab me, or if it’s just not particularly suited to my obtuse sense of taste? I can let it go. On more than occasion, I’ve circled back to a book I started, abandoned, then started a second or third time, and that really applies to “classics,” as deemed by others. Follow my example, this next few days. Before you “buy?” Before you part with any Pisces coin? Make sure it’s what you want — check out the free version, first. Save yourself the trouble,
Aries
Libra will happen soon enough, but the challenge as I see it? It doesn’t happen quick enough, nor does it happen kind enough. Running through Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, the source of this week’s inspirational quote? One theme that is constantly bantered about has to do with the character Caliban being a native, and imprisoned, in his own world, drawing a clear analogy, or allegory, towards the natives in the New World, what is now the Americas. While Caliban is cursing his his “master,” there’s a sense that order will be returned, and Caliban will be set free at the end of the play.
What that means, for Aries? There is the onerous task of gathering wood and water, collecting berries, all while transfixed by a spell-like obsession. Like Caliban? The good news is, at the end of the five acts, you will be set free. The challenge, as I see it, for Aries? Getting through this next period of time without doing anything too stupid, to yourself, for yourself, or causing pain in others. My simple solution? Kvetch, moan, and complain as need be, make empty promises, but realize that this will all fall back on you, at the end end. There's a simple solution to our problems, you know.
Taurus
‘Emergent patterns’ are crucial, as these hold the keys to the Taurus future. At least, the keys to the next couple of days, anyway. The patterns are like an overlay, and there’s a sense to the patterns, if we all just stick a giant pushpin into the heady march of time, and if we just pause. Doesn’t have to be a long pause. Just as quick pause to assess the damage, then figure out where to move next, and before we move our Taurus selves, let’s take a look at what is where, and see if there isn’t a way to push this forward, a little better.
There is, you know.
Look at the overall patterns, the over-arching design that seems in place. Look at that bigger picture stuff. See: Mars slows down and makes it easier to catch a glimpse from way up on high, that Taurus wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Look for the emergent patterns.
Gemini
I was with a client, dear friend, long-term relationship between us, but I don’t predate the current husband. However, that one’s a close call. One of our first readings was, “I just met this guy....” So there’s an ease and familiarity that we share. To an outside observer, it looks like we’re carrying on like an old, married couple. Or an affair.
Looks can be deceiving. Dig into past lives, if you will, and maybe we were married before, or, at least a couple of some kind, hence the air of familiarity, that ease and grace two people share. It’s just, what is seen on the outside? Folks assume. Outside observers consume, judge, and then render options with few facts and only cursory observations.
As a Gemini, this is a trap, and this warning works two ways, one, don’t fall into the mire of making a judgement call based upon observing me and my client, for all of about 20 minutes. Can’t believe just what you observe in a short time. Then, two? If you encounter those who are making such hasty judgement calls, and spinning whole stories cut from the cloth of non-reality? Enjoy the tale, but consider its sources: not real, and therefore? Not dependable as hard data. Supposition? Sure.
Cancer
Scouring some old astrology texts, I was looking for an answer to this week’s questions for the salubrious Moon Children. One astrology author suggested that Cancer not leave the house, except when absolutely required, as an answer to this week’s set of weirdness and various challenges. To give an even stranger counterpoint to that first answer? Another writer suggested that getting out of the house was the single, best solution to this week’s weirdness for the Moon Children. With such divergent views points, I can’t say that I agree, wholeheartedly, with either suggestion. Yes, Mars is in apparent retrograde motion, and yes, Mar is in Aries, and yes, that forms a tension angle to Cancer.
So what should the gentle Children of the Moon do? There’s a happy spot in the middle of those two opinions, a place where one moves forward, but does so with extra caution, a little more guarded, and perhaps, more careful about placement. Where one places energy, where one places one’s feet, and where one might think about going. I got that backwards. Move with deliberate intention as to where one places one’s energy, where one might be going, and where one places one’s feet — headed in that specific, well-though out direction.
“I meant to do that.”
The Leo
Venus is arcing her way through the majestic sign of The Leo, at this moment. That’s good. Mars? Not so much, even though, where this is happening? It’s about rethinking an existing situation and framing it in a new light. Or new darkness, I’m not sure.
“Black light?” Remember that? It was largely purple spectrum of light that gave everyone, everything an ethereal shade, and it really didn’t matter. Supposedly, some stains and soils would show up better under the Ultra-Violet light. UV? Maybe I’m too old, but there still is small market that caters to this, and it does, under the right conditions, make everything look better, even if this is just a fresh coat of paint on an old situation.
Part of this is a Venus. Part of this is the relative motion of Mars, in Aries. Part of this is the New Moon in Virgo and what that signifies, for The Leo. But mostly this is about taking an existing situation and trying to see in from a different perspective. To some, this would be seeing it in a new light — hence the sideways thoughts about black light. Be a new light, wouldn’t it? And everything would look better, right?
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“Nothing runs on automatic.” - L.W. “Bud” Shipley, Jr.