“Like a dull actor now,
I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace.”
From Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Act V, scene iii.
Aries : You are in the midst of preparing for a great day, which, yes, is coming your way. Only not this week. In fact, it doesn’t look like it will even be this month (but there’s not a lot left of this month — anyway). So consider that this is a time to be getting certain things prepared. It’s like embarking on a hunting trip. Even if you’re not a hunter, work with the idea here. First, there’s the ammunition that you have to buy, taking the shells out of the boxes and putting them into the clips, the spare clips, and adding some shells to your hunting gear, too. Then there’s the knives which need to be sharpened, the skinning knife, the camping knife, the filet knife, the steak knife, and the Swiss Army knife. Then you need to make sure that all your camping gear is ready to go. Unroll the sleeping bag, fluff it up, make sure it’s warm enough. Are you with me so far as we get ready? Tent, canoe, maybe some emergency fishing tackle, just in case, and by now, your significant other is wondering whether you’re going hunting or going to war. Since you’re about to venture out into the wilderness, you need to make sure that you can handle any emergency, no matter how small or large, with ease. This much planning could take all week, and by the time the weekend gets here, and you think you’re ready to go, it’s obvious that the Mercury thing will make you forget one thing. So before you leave on this mythical (or real in my case) hunting trip, make sure that you’ve got everything you’re going to need to be completely self-sufficient for the coming weeks. You’ll b a lot happier. Food? Did we include that? Right. If you plan on catching or killing all your food, you might go hungry on this expedition, so make sure you take something nutritional to eat, too.
Taurus : If the planetary action this week hasn’t done it already, you can just wipe that smug look off your face right now. Don’t roll your eyes at me either, when you do that you can’t read the rest of the message. Nothing is going to look like it will go right this week. All your plans seem to fall apart. Nothing is working out. It looks like the whole week will be a total disaster, a complete failure. And it’s only Monday (or Tuesday or one day this week). It’s not a complete disaster. It’s gentle sweeping motion by the planets, a gradual shift in emphasis as to what is really important, and what just seem important right now. that’s the fallacy of this week, that’s the common Mercury misdirection. That’s the planets in motion, doing what they do best. Now, after setting you up for really bad time, let me explain that it’s not nearly as bad, dire or catastrophic as I make it out to be. Of course, I’m not wearing Taurus boots this week, either. If I was, I might change my song a little. I will over my own, sage advice, though. The stuff that’s falling by the wayside, the (people, places, events) that you considered so important at the beginning of the week, and the part of the week that is really most important will change. So when it looks like it’s all falling apart, realize it’s part of giant conspiracy to pick you, and settle you on a more correct route. As that stuff tumbles in front of you creating an impassable blockage, just go another direction. If you’re like me, you can just say, “I meant for that happen.” Sometimes, people will even believe you.
Gemini : Although I’m rather fond of a good Gemini or two, I’ve only met one who really likes the planets when Mercury is retrograde, the sum total of Gemini’s who do well during this time, is that one, and everyone else hates it. This is compounded by several other planets who all seem to be leaving footprints on your delicate Gemini backside. Someplace, some where, there’s a Gemini who is getting by just fine this week. The rest of you, if it’s not Mercury being in apparent backwards motion (and disturbing your fine order to the universe), then it’s Mars leaning on you from a late degree of Virgo, or it’s Jupiter himself, backwards in your own sign. One, or another, or maybe all of these are going to get you this week. Happy? Probably not. Distraught? A little. What to do with it? Imitate the actions of the planets themselves, back up and run over some old material. Any other sign, I’d suggest a more pedantic approach, but for the talented Gemini sign, a quick review session of old research might stand you in good stead. I know you think you’re prepared for the week. But back up, just one more time, and run through that stuff, just quickly, and make sure you’ve got all the odd bits of paper, and marshal up all your stray data to make sure you can really prove your point. You’ll be much happier if you’re prepared this week.
Cancer : The real planet influence this week is hardly Mercury, but you can blame him if you want. It’s like slow, downward spiral, a gradual decline into a morass that turns out to be an okay place. The real activity doesn’t pick up until the weekend gets here, but in the meantime, it’s like watching a weather map, and you’re suffering from a “low level depression” as indicated by the little bar with arrows on it. Now, given that your a water sign, perhaps the finest of the Cardinal Water signs ever, you can do a little tinkering with the isobar, and you can certainly manipulate its boundaries. A little gerrymandering at a time like this is perfectly acceptable. It’s the easiest way to escape the low level depression. There’s at least one manic Cancer who will write to me this week and insist that her life is not bad at all, an, in fact, there is no depression whatsoever. I’ll gratefully accept that statement, and I’ll turn it around and suggest has it’s proof — solid evidence which suggests the little line on the astrology map can moved round and your Cancer self doesn’t have to fall into a giant pit of despair. It’s not like it’s bad to begin with, it’s just that there’s this hint, a subtle nuance, of sadness. Get over it — we’ll both feel a lot better. Moving those lines around on the map is a simple gesture and relieves a lot of the problem.
Leo : it wasn’t so long ago, I can remember the exchange of email rather well, and it came from a particular Leo who was not happy with that particular week’s horoscope. I suggested that the good influences would outweigh the bad influences, and then this Leo suggested that I could get nothing correct. And that made me a little shy about suggesting anything good this week. But I will suggest that there are couple of invigorating little planet actions this week. Of course, Mr. Sun and Mr. Mercury dominate a section of the sky called Scorpio, and that’s going to have some pejorative effect of the sweetest of Leo’s. Actually, all Leo’s are sweet, but I guess that’s enough about that. Sure, Mercury is in a rather convenient position for you, but it could be worse, Mercury could be doing that little retrograde thing in Leo (as he’s done before) so this isn’t that bad. And the relative position of a few of the other planets makes this rather an amusing time, if you are willing to work with it. I would look at this week as a flirtation rather than a commitment. I would see this as a lively exchange of banter that doesn’t have much substance. And if you get a special person promising just about everything to you this week, once again, take it as a light hearted exchange of information rather than a solemn oath. It’s just one of those weeks when you can’t take anything too seriously. Go at with that attitude, and I predict it will be a good week.
Virgo : A straight ahead astrologer will tell you not to commence a new business venture when Mercury is retrograde. While that’s a great idea, not all great ideas can time things in way to suit you this week. And the new venture which is showing up this week isn’t really a new venture, it’s an old idea that’s been kicking around in your head for a while. You get a little Mars action which really wants to put some new idea into action. I’ve talked about this before, where you are supposed to take notes, but not start anything new under an influence like this. This week to refer back to those notes, and see what Mercury ideas you’ve covered before, and see how these ideas might come into action now. There’s just the oddest hint that there’s something worth working on. There’s just the oddest hint, maybe even it was a misaddressed email that you can use. This is one of those weeks when you can tease up an old project, put some hair spray on it (hair spray is a wonderful fixative) and put this old project to work for you in a new and better way. And if you’re concerned about the astrological implications of starting a new endeavor when mercury is in a tail spin, remember that this is really an old idea that you’re updating — it’s not really anything new. Add your spin to the old stuff and see if it doesn’t develop rapidly.
Libra : If I was ever going to pick a week when the very best message I had for a single sign was “stay home,” this would be the note to Libra this week. In the confines of your own castle (okay, so MY castle looks a lot like a single wide trailer built in the middle of the last decade, oops, two decades ago), you will feel safe. Within the walls of your own abode, you’re going to feel like everything is okay. Mercury is like an assailant, but once you’re safe at home, he can’t get to you. He tries to attack your walls, but you can look down on him from the ramparts and peer over the castellated home front, look across your mote, and you’re fine, safe from his various cannonades. So your safe at home — the problems arise when you have to lower your drawbridge and venture forth unto the world to do battle with various other forces in your life. That’s the source of much of this week’s consternation. In my case, I have to go forth and do battle with fish, especially big lunkers. The idea o framing the business opportunities as a battle of wills is very y good because that’s what it feels like. As long as you are safe at home, there’s no way “they” can get to you. As soon as you get out, that’s when the trouble starts. It doesn’t have to be a bad week, but ask a monk how much fun he usually has.
Scorpio : There’s a certain lift you get from this week. It’s not like it’s a particularly good time, no, not with Mr. Mercury being retrograde in your sign, but there’s still a ray of hope in here. Certain mornings in late October, in Texas, there’s a quiet calm to the surface of the lake. There’s a stillness in the air at dawn, a slight chill to the atmosphere, the barest hint of a mist rising from the surface of the lake. There’s a degree of hope, as you sit out there on the lake of life all by yourself. Everything is wonderful in Scorpio land. Then the week is going to break wide open. As soon as you have to encounter us, the rest of the 11 signs, as soon as you are face to face with interaction with other people, that beautiful image of the lake at dawn is gone. Long gone. Remember that Mercury rules communications, and right now, you’re just dealing with unjust problems, and the whole source of the problem goes right back to the communications. If you could just communicate via telepathy, just wire that message straight into our brains, then the nuance of language, the written word, the telephone call, the voice mail, nay, even the fax machine, wouldn’t screw it all up. Just for this week, as long as Mercury is doing his thing, as long as the best time of the year has started (Scorpio time), imagine that I’m sitting at the back of the Scorpio boat, and you’re sitting in the bow seat, and we’re looking out over the lake, and I’ll just follow your unwritten, unspoken directions this week. Of course, I might be the only person who is taken proper directions from you, but at least I’m there for you. Good luck with the other, less enlightened folks this week — they need help, and I’m not sure you’re the one to do it.
Sagittarius : Some of the man made lakes in Texas are huge, and these bodies of water feel like an ocean, or a sea, at the very least. I was working with a boat full of tourists one time, going after fabled big bass, and it was quiet day. Venus was in Sagittarius, Mercury was Retrograde, and the Sun had just crept into Scorpio, like it is right now. I was determined to have some fun. At one point, as we were in a deep cove, and there had been relative quiet for a moment, I (mistakenly) decided to have some fun. “Look out! Shark!” One of the guys in the boat, a terrible fisherman with too much money and not enough experience jumped up, “Where? Where!” He almost sent us all tumbling into the lake. A few minutes later, after everyone calmed down, and the one guy really felt foolish, I had to ponder my mistaken attempt at levity. This is a week like that one time, the planets are in the same places, and an attempt at a joke this week — while I find it really funny — might not go over nearly as well as you think. First, the person will feel foolish then, at the end of the day, you don’t get a tip. That’s sort of a double payback. What’s worse, that guy will definitely not be sending me any of his rich fishing buddies, either. I was going to video tape the whole thing, but once again, Mercury fouled that one up, and the batteries were dead so even prospects of blackmail didn’t work. Don’t yell “Shark!” this week if you don’t mean it.
Capricorn : Where I live, in my home town, a pair of shorts, a Hawaiian shirt with a loud print, some sandals, that’s every day office wear. Sure there are some guys in suits and ties, but they stand out,m look odd and are more the exception rather than the rule. But I ventured out of my home town for a business meeting, and I took what I needed for work, a lap top computer, a hand held, a cell phone, and a briefcase full of charts and graphs, ready to make my point in a corporate setting. However, I used to my local environment as I am, I just wore a nice shirt, shorts and I even put on my good sandals, the ones with the least mileage. I was a little out of place. This is a week when you need to stand up in front of a group of people, make a pitch, perhaps hawk yourself or your product, or even your employer, and there’s no way you can do this wearing “Island dress.” While one uniform works well in your own hometown, if you’ve ever noticed, there seems to be certain standards which are arbitrary at the least, and you’ve got a week when you’re going to find that a little more thoughtful preparation will go a long way towards making your situation work well. Perhaps the inverse would be true, would you show up to meet me, ready to get on a boat and go out for some killer bass fishing, dressed in a suit with nice tie?
Aquarius : What’s life without a little bit of tension? What’s life without a little bit of feeling like there’s just one too many things to do, and not quite enough time to get it all accomplished? You’ve got a week filled with a work load like that. There’s a really easier answer, though, a simple solution to this problem of your week. Of course, first we should all address the obvious culprit, that would be the current disarrayed state of Mercury. Having duly noted his penchant for causing minor mischief, let’s get about a solution for this week. What are your priorities? Fish, eat, sleep, work. Four items are on your list for this week. Notice the order that they have been put to you. I’m sure that one or two Aquarius folks will disagree with the relative order there, and you can substitute anything you want for “fish,” but you get the idea. Now, there’s one or two people who might not like the order that you’ve got your priorities in, but the Aquarius part of my chart thinks it’s great. I have news for you, too, this is a week when you’re not going to be able to get to everything on your list, so figure what’s more important to your Aquarius self, then deal with the list in the proper order. Personally, I think you can get by just fine with no sleep, and as your week gets longer and longer, I’ll suggest that I’m not the only one who has this way of looking at your life — your employer, boss, or clients might just agree with me.
Pisces : The relative motion of the planets develops a certain kind of musical progression right now, almost like a very slow and faint march, something with an almost military beat to it, something that you can barely hear in the background. I’m reminded of a piece of classical music at this time, and those old (white, dead, European) composers would often dally with a bit of a martial rhythm to ad some back bone, a nit of ambiance, to their symphony. The Pisces musical group this week is like that, except that you can’t quite make out what the real beat is. You can almost hear it, and being a good Pisces, you can feel that beat coming through, but it’s as if the tone is just outside of the normal, audible range. That’s a problem. It’s as if there’s a driving notation to this week, only you can’t get on the same page as everyone else. Fortunately, for you, this isn’t too much of a problem, nor is this such bad time. Be prepared to strike out on your own, listen to that Pisces drum machine with your own syncopated beat determining your pace for the week. You’ll notice that there is a discordant noise emanating from the other signs, and there is certain lack of coordination with your beat this week. It’s the mystical misanthropy of Mercury, doing his thing, and frankly, I would’t be too worried about it because the main thrust of the Mercury time is going to slide right past you, leaving you untouched. You’re fine this week, until you have to deal with us.
