For the week of: 7/16-22/2001
“The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet.”
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94 [line 9]
It’s official, as of this week, Mars will no longer be in apparent retrograde motion. Time for rejoicing for some, but you know, I’ve always wanted to give the little planet a certain amount of space. It ain’t over until it’s over, you know. By the week’s end, we all say “Good-bye” to Cancer, and “Hello to Leo.”
Aries: Yes, it is better. Yes, it is going to be a better week. Yes, everything will eventually work out. Now, I’m not really a psychic, just a darned good astrologer. So before you write me that note to explain to me how terrible everything is, before you get off on your rant about there being no hope, and the world is out to get you, and before you let loose with any kind of diatribe against me, the poor, humble Fishing Guide to the Stars, stop. How did I know you were going to write to me about angst riddled situations which seems to be spinning beyond your control? The highest portion of the web’s traffic, for this column, is usually Monday morning. And that’s not such a hot time for you. Odds are, you want to wring my neck, or the next available neck to wring. But if you’ll wait patiently — not a typical Aries trait — then you’ll feel better before too long. Hold off on the poison pen stories of woe as they will have happy endings by the end of the week.
Taurus: You can well imagine what a bedroom in my trailer in South Austin looks like. There’s a pile of clothing, sorted in ascending order as to “wearability.” The bed itself is only half-covered with a sheet and a blanket. The pillow where the cat sleeps is covered with fur, as well as her favorite spot on the mussed up blanket. Got the picture? Normal chaos. Now pretend this is your Taurus bedroom. Pretend you need to install a little order in your house. Pretend that the easiest way to make this mess more manageable is just to spread the cover out on the bed. Try it. Put the theoretical actions into real world practice. Something as simple as making the bed before you go to work will have a domino effect. One little action, one positive step forward, one tiny and seemingly insignificant act — like making the bed — will start a new trend in your Taurus life. Take that first, tentative, experimental step, and see what happens next.
Gemini: How do I put this as delicately as possible? There is a huge pothole in the Gemini street. It’s not like your average pothole, not like something that the street repair division could just come and drop a little hot tar or asphalt into, nope this is a giant, gaping maw of a pothole, quite possibly linked to the very underworld itself. What are you going to do about this potential conflict? I would suggest, unless you’re really interested in purchasing a lot of suspension parts for the undercarriage of the Gemini car, I would suggest you slow down when you see the obstacle. Maybe nose around it, maybe just sort of act like an old hunting dog, get up close and sniff a little, but didn’t nudge the thing itself, and especially don’t nudge it with the tip of your super-sensitive nose. Nope, just take it easy, slow down, approach with caution, maybe plot a route around the obstacle. That would save on wear and tear, instead of just trying to pilot right through. That could hurt.
Cancer: I’ve got this one Cancer friend, and she was trying to meet new people, so off she ventured into the world of the online personal ads. Scary place, if you ask me. After a few failed attempt, she discovered that she was spending more and more time, after her dates, down at the animal shelter. Apparently, when she was looking for love, and not finding it in a suitable date form, she took to visiting the animal shelter to find critters who did love her, no matter what. To her credit, she didn’t wind up with a backyard that resembled a zoo. To beat her problem, she just quit trying to find love online. Your situation may vary a little, but what you do to compensate for the various shortfalls in your life is a real problem right now. This is exacerbated by Mr. Mars, and his newfound direction. Tread carefully — not everyone wants to be rescued right now.
Leo: Things in your Leo World (note: if this was any other sign the word “world” would not be capitalized), anyway, things in your Leo World are not what they could be right now. So close — and yet, well, you know the rest of that tune. But close counts. And it’s getting closer and closer to a time when things are going to be good. As the weekend draws nearer, there is a subtle sense of anticipation that you feel building in your brain. You hear the voices in your Leo brain, the tiny voice of reason, suggesting that there is party about to happen. Things are just heating up, just getting good, and just getting themselves turned around. It’s not like it’s been the most pleasant of summers, but there is a change coming along, and you can feel it now. The highly sensitive Leo Advanced Warning Devices — your intuition, your ears, your sight, your sixth sense, all of those are picking up signals that indicate a change is brewing, and this is going to be a change for the better. Lose the frown. Lose the sad face. Get ready to play.
Virgo: Just between you and me, all these notions about romance are hugely overrated. I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s much too much work. Much too much energy, and those marketing departments at the happy shops, those guys obviously don’t dwell in the real world very often. There’s this uncomfortable little romance element that doesn’t quite work out the way you want it to. It just doesn’t go according to your plan. Not that this is all bad, but there’s always a shift when things start to go a little better. Yes, that will happen before the week is up, but we all have to get past “hump day.” And while that is traditionally the term applied to the middle of the week, it might fall just about anytime. Once you get past the bump part of the hump, once you get over the little conflagration in the romance Virgo romance department, once you get past the problems, then everything begins to work out much better.
Libra: Stop reading this and look around you. Okay, so that exercise won’t work for me, because the only other person here is the cat. And she has a rather bored look on her face, one of those, “I think I’ll take nap now, please don’t type so loudly,” looks. But back to Libra. Assuming you can see other people from where you are, you’ll notice two things: 1] you feel okay right now, and 2] most of the other people look like they are in pain. It could be a bad joke in email, it could be something they had for breakfast — not everyone likes spicy breakfast tacos and a quart of coffee — or it could be some sort of emotional dilemma they are facing. Notice this is everyone else, but not you? Get the hint? Just because they’ve got problems doesn’t mean you’ve got problems, too. But then, you are the kind, sweet, caring Libra, and their problems are your problems, too, right? Wrong. Don’t let anyone else interfere with your good times. Keep that happy face on.
Scorpio: Enjoy the revels while you may. Enjoy the summer nights which seem to be too short. Enjoy the evenings when, just as soon as the sun gets to certain point, low in the western sky, it feels like there is some coolness in the evening, a time to get out, and play in the summer evening. Frolic as best you can. “Frolic? That’s an odd choice of words,” is what your Scorpio mind is thinking. Yes it’s an odd choice, but there is a special, little, minor, minute, tiny wonderful degree of mirth which comes creeping around the edges of your world view. You don’t really see this in the harsh daylight hours, but in the short summer nights, either at dusk or dawn, when the light is not at its fullest, then and only then, do you get to feel this teeniest little cackle of Scorpio glee. To make this better, you get the tiniest amount of respite from an oppressive summer at this time, too. It stacks up to be good. Maybe not great, but good nonetheless.
Sagittarius: I get a catalog from a fishing and camping “headquarters” place. And this week, it’s just like me, sitting down with that catalog, looking at all the brightly colored lures, the new reels, that special new knife that will clean fish automatically (almost). There’s a degree of retail lust in my heart, looking at the pictures. My mind races with images of me, sitting in a boat, pulling in fish after fish. Reality always sets in, a little later. The pictures in the catalog are taken by professionals, with professionals, in order to look as professionally appealing as possible. Fight the temptation. Just consider what you’re getting into. I order up some of that stuff, do sizable damage to my own credit rating, and when the package arrives, the stuff I get bears only the faintest resemblance to the pictures. And then, when I’m “out in the field” as the catalog calls it, the darn new gear never works as planned. Or advertised. Be careful about lame promises made by marketing people. Take it easy with this sort of wishful thinking. Are you really sure you need a whole grab bag of little fluorescent worms?
Capricorn: You’re about to get all fired up, now that Mars is cooperating — in a manner of speaking. You’re about to get up and go, and you’re about to take off. But it’s not all that it could be, not yet. There’s this one kind of tree we’ve got here in Texas, I can’t think of the name for it, but it has the prettiest little flowers on it. And even in the heat of the summer, even when every other plant, vegetable, human, and even a few minerals are sweating it out and trying to keep from having a permanently wilted look, even when even the sidewalk itself is complaining about the summer sun, this one type of tree just keeps on merrily blooming away, the prettiest little delicate flowers, usually a variation on a purple or red, depending on the time of day and the viewer’s condition. Stop what you’re doing. Find some pretty flowers and bask in their presence. Like that opening sonnet quote, the summer flower is sweet, even if the rest of us are pitching a fit because it’s so darned hot. You’ve got two choices, complain about the heat, or look at the pretty flowers and bide your time.
Aquarius: It’s not like there hasn’t been enough frustration with stupid little things, which just get under your fine Aquarius skin and make it want to crawl. It’s not like there hasn’t been enough trouble, not of the big variety, just the little, annoying kind. It’s not like you need this sort of prognostication for the coming week, either. It’s not like you’re really up for this mess. Regrettably, though, the supposed break from the routine, the little shift in the various planets’ positions, this minutiae of movement, it doesn’t really feel like it’s enough of a change to break the downward spiral of inertia you’ve got going. It’s like a losing day at the slot machines in the casino in El Paso [yes, there is legal gambling in Texas, but that’s another story]. You keep sticking money in the machine, thinking, you’re about to win, you’ve got to be about to win, and the machine just laughs and eats your quarters. Here’s the hint: stop playing. If it ain’t working for you, then it ain’t working, and you’re safe moving on to something else.
Pisces: This whole transit of Mars is supposed to finally speed things up. Guess it’s not happening just quite yet, though. You know those obnoxious singing fish that were popular a while back? I got about a half dozen of them as special gifts from various fans. Now, running the gauntlet at the front door of the trailer was a challenge until I figured out where the “off” switch was. And being able to see fish when you enter a residence is a good Feng Shui thing. But it’s fine line between “high trailer art modern” and just plain bad taste. As the week unfolds, and you start to get itchy from Mr. Mars, consider what you can do to make your own space more inviting. The once popular singing fish? I’ll wager you can get them in bulk at the flea market these days, and you don’t have to put a battery in them, if you don’t want to hear them songs every time. Change the energy around you with a delicate trick, and slow down that Mars rash.
(c) Kramer Wetzel for astrofish.net, 2000, 2001
