"Such harmony is in immortal souls."
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (V.i.72)
Pisces: We’re still celebrating Pisces Birthdays here. Still having us a good time. And it’s only getting better. The general timbre of the time isn’t so hot. Not so bad, really, just not so hot. But that overall ennui isn’t going to deter the fine Pisces from having a good time. Birthday parties, yee – (something) – haw!
Next week, a couple of star-studded events are going to occur. There’s the shift for Mars, from Gemini (air) to Cancer (compatible water), and that means Mars is doing you some good. Or will be. And, it’s time for the annual, or so it seems, alignment between the Sun and Uranus. That hits next week, too. I think I’ll save that news for next week.
In the meantime, in the between time, there’s a weird, but oh-so-good-for-Pisces thing happening. The main difficulty is with other other people. Personally, as a solution to the problems and the folks who drop out of the parties at the last minute? I’d suggest a solid, Pisces-only party. Makes it easier, makes it better, and you don’t have to worry about anyone who’s not on the same page as you are. There’s a cool, odd, still good, kind of weird influence with the planets. Lot of stuff in the Pisces solar 12th house. Which is good. In a weird way. So enjoy it but also realize that it’s mostly Pisces who will understand, and the rest of us? We’re behind, as usual.
Aries: My curious culinary habits are constant sources of amusement for some. I do my best to be obliging. I found, in my freezer, a box of frozen waffles. I’m not sure if there is an expiration date on frozen food like that, but the box looked sound and closer inspection revealed that the contents appeared edible. I prefer my frozen foodstuffs to be frozen. Adds crunch, seems fresher, and, in the case of the waffles, tasted better frozen. There was a wrapper of just three or four waffles in one end of the box. I opened those and set them on the counter.
I ate the first one, tasty, in a frozen waffle way. Second one was good, too. Third was even better as it thawed just a little. Then I forgot about the package, did something else, and when I got back to that last frozen waffle? It wasn’t frozen. It wasn’t soggy, it was just a very stale waffle. So my frozen lifestyle food isn’t such a bad idea, as the original condition added a zesty consistency to the grub, whereas the thawed version is just old and stale.
I’m trying to keep your ideas fresh. It’s all about three quarters, too. The moon is sliding down the skyway, and that old moon is getting smaller and smaller until it virtually disappears. As we process through this lunar cycle, it’s like me working my way through that stack of frozen waffles, one at a time. First couple of them are good, the third one is the best, and after that? It isn’t as good. The trick is knowing when to quit. I’d guess, after the third, that was my experience, but I’m looking at three-quarters, either way.
Taurus: I started noticing, in South San Antonio, that there was prevalent namesake, "Ice House." Generally preceded by a first name, but the generic title seemed to be "ice house." Two come to mind, immediately, "B & D Ice House" and "Waterloo Ice House." Venerable names. While it’s winter in some places, on the south side of San Antonio, it’s more summer-like and the more summer-like weather means we turn our thoughts to summer nights hanging out in place like the "ice-house."
I can safely assume that the name is derived from history that’s not too far gone, when ice was a commodity, and the benefits of ice were shared in place like the old ice houses. It’s also a slightly more romantic name than "cheap beer place."
The weird weather lately? It’s making me think about that place with the suffix "ice house." It’s on the south side, but I saw a great number of places like this. East side, too. West side, probably. I don’t think it’s typically a place that would be found in the more tony sides of town. There’s a gradual shift this week. Not like a big, slam, in-your-face move, but a gentle, however perceptible change is occurring. As a Taurus, you’re going to feel this gentle shift. It’s like the local weather, and suddenly, there’s a yearning to spend hot summer nights in crowded taverns and beer joints with the last name of "ice house."
Gemini: I was watching as a young lass, maybe not so young, but as this woman popped a quarter in the slot on a phone. She listened to the handset for a minute, then she banged it against the phone kiosk’s outside covering. Wasn’t even a phone booth, just a phone stuck on a pole in the middle of a neighborhood.
I must admit, especially for a pay phone? Banging it on the side usually makes it work better. As a guy, though, I tend to slap the phone against my palm as a more effective method for getting the darn thing to work. Pay phones, aren’t they, like, almost antique and disappearing now? Which, of course, makes that recent image of girl slapping the phone against the pole? Makes it that much more amusing.
She had on her little black dress, and this was close to sundown. My imagination can run away with reasons for a Gemini to bang the phone against the phone booth, the pole, or, in a similar situation, to bang the phone against the steering wheel of the car. Doesn’t make the phone work better, not usually. In some limited cases, I’ve seen where a portable phone, with one good slap, figures it out and starts dialing correctly.
But the pay phone? And the little black dress? I wonder what the tale is there. My imagination, and the Gemini imagination, we can fill whole volumes about why that phone was being banged against the side of the phone booth. Now, with Mars just making what’s going to be a hasty exit, ask yourself, does machine violence really help?
Cancer: "Can I get a touch of whip?" As a question, in and of itself, maybe it’s not so strange. But I was just sipping on an afternoon espresso, and I was wondering about how that sounded. The guy pulled out his money, the girl making the drink pulled out the whipped cream canister, the guy mumbled something about this was for his sweet tooth, and they both never touched the subject of whipping.
To me, there’s always been an erotic overtone to the idea of whipping. Real or imagined. I may be flogging a dead horse, or worse. Might be indicative of deep-seated emotional issues. Or maybe indicates I’ve got a sick sense of humor. Or worse, I’ve got deep-seated emotional issues and sick sense of humor. Never can tell. Perversions aside, I still thought the comment, and the way it it went unnoticed, "a touch of whip," I wondered if there really was some kind of tacit collusion between those two?
Who knows? Mars is about to hit Cancer. Get prepared. As everything that’s fallen apart, all of that mess will be properly reassembled. Not without some spurring onward by your Cancer self. You might have to help move things along, maybe, even, with a touch of whip.
Leo: The current situation is one of little relief and little recognition — that’s the short version. There is, indeed, a little relief headed your way. Not much, not great, but some kind of relief is always good. And then the problem with little recognition. While the planets line up in Aquarius, that just means the spotlight, the true recognition owed to your Leo self, that just means the public’s attention is drawn elsewhere.
Just for the time being.
It’s not a long time,just a short and quick deal, a bite of limelight for another person. It’s a function of the pointers in the sky, mostly the Sun, but the tenuous little planets Mercury and Venus, still poking along in position that is opposite you. The Mars thing, too, as he’s moving towards you, and when he final arrives, in a few weeks, he’s going to roast and cook with glee. There will be a fine Leo party, as only a Leo can make happen. But once again, this little planet isn’t there yet, and for the duration, Mars is poking along, from Gemini and then on into Cancer.
Check your chart: Cancer precedes your fine Leo self. Again, relief, and equally important, recognition, is headed your way. But the relief happens in small doses, and the recognition? Not quite yet. Almost, but not quite yet.
Virgo: Saturn’s a tough bear. No way around that. One of the "country crooners" cycled up on the music, background noise. And the gentle yet manly voice, the lilting strains of guitar and the single violin. Fiddle. Whatever. But his reassuring vocal message was what needs to be sung to a Virgo. Strong and self-reliant. Not depending on anyone else for succor. Pushing yourself because, dammit, it needs to get done, and no one around you seems able to get the job. Except for yourself.
The oddest echo, the strangest flashback to some previous problem? I’ll allow as how there’s a momentary time wherein you feel like you’ve been there before, or that you’ve seen this pernicious problem in the past. That’s also the way this works, that echo, the flashback, the hint from the past? There’s a solution that lies within the purview of that hint. What worked last time? Or, to be more precise, what didn’t work last time? What was the way you finally sorted out, after a half-dozen tries? What did work? Save yourself the time of repeating the mistakes. You know what works, and for that matters, what doesn’t work.
Libra: "Oh man, I don’t like this, it’s going too easy. Just like it’s supposed to go." I handed my buddy a pipe cutter. He was replacing the PVC plumbing in a trailer. In South Austin. I was his swamper for the afternoon. I’m not big on plumbing, freshwater or otherwise. But I’d agreed and I was tool-pushing.
I was worried, too. A fifteen minute job takes at least two hours. Way it is. Can take a lot longer, if there’s multiple trips to the hardware store and then a place to get more plastic pipe. Sure, can turn into an all-day ordeal. Way it goes when we’re involved in manly tasks, doing manly labor. But there isn’t a catch.
That job, we had everything we needed, the rotted out pipe was replaced, and the longest part of the job was the clean-up. Not the cleaning up our mess, but the cleaning up ourselves. To date, the part we replaced? It’s holding fine, no leaking. Which just goes to show that something can go smoothly for Libra. Even when it looks like it’s going too smoothly, maybe, just maybe, you planned well and it’s all going according to the plan.
Scorpio: The Cloak of Invisibility? Wouldn’t one of those be wonderful? Perfect Scorpio attire, too. You can fade into nothingness and not be observed, and then, you can only reveal yourself, your true, Scorpio self, to those who you want to know what’s under that cloak.
Two problems: no real cloak of invisibility exists. Yet, anyway. Maybe the military is working on one, but as I understand, our "stealth" technology isn’t there yet. Again, I might be wrong, but from what I’ve seen, it really doesn’t exist.
The other problem? The second half of that equation? This is the week that you don’t want an anonymous nature. Therein is our weekly conundrum, too, because — oddly enough — you want draw attention to yourself. You want to make sure that folks know that you’ve done something. You want to see and be seen.
Sagittarius: One of the pre-manufactured, computer-generated horoscopes I used to check? Without fail, it would cover three items, every day in Sagittarius. Old flames, unexpected money and travel. When I used to travel a lot more? Say, I would be gone every other weekend? Then, that travel prognostication would be accurate, every other weekend.
With Sagittarius?
That’s a safe bet. One or two days out of every two-week period, it would be accurate. In as much as I’d like to see foreign travel for the Sagittarius, that’s more of hit or miss deal these days. And like as not, all things being equal, it’s probably a miss. Might be a near miss, but I’m still suggesting that foreign travel doesn’t figure prominently in our horoscope. Nor, for that matter, do old flames or unexpected money. Pains me to write this, but that’s the essence of the times. It’s a matter of what is rote as opposed to what is wrote. Rote material just doesn’t seem to fit. I’d be careful, too, as the odds, that’s one out of fourteen, those numbers aren’t too good.
Capricorn: I was chatting with a buddy of mine, not named "bubba." He works as a freshwater plumber, laying down water lines. Good work, manual labor, but still, good work. He was wearing a tattered T-shirt, across the front, the shirt said, "GOT JESUS?" I think it was an old design, a riff on the old "got milk" routine. I was curious because I’ve known this guy for a while. Simple rules, "Water flows downhill, pay day’s Friday." So I found the overtly xtian shirt a little misleading.
I never knew he had converted from a buddhist/Universalist/pagan to a new religion. I wondered if he had been saved? He looked down at the shirt. "No man, see there’s a guy on the crew, carpenter, and he thinks he can save the world. So I just wear a shirt like this to keep him off my back. Praise the Lord. Got Beer?"
The story is longer, and I’m all about freedom of religion. I’m all for whatever faith one espouses. I’ve also worked along side fanatics, folks overly dedicated to one cause. I tend to shy away, in a gentle way, as is my style. I’m not confrontational. Neither is Capricorn, usually. I’m suggesting, in a gentle way, that you adopt an undercover trick like my buddy the plumber. It could save you time, save your patience, and frankly, operating undercover? It’s not a bad way to keep folks from directing their attentions towards you. Mars, Mars is fast approaching a point where it’s opposite you. Avoid confrontations.
Aquarius: Mercury and Venus begin to pick up speed and that’s going to feel like your personal stars are beginning to (finally) line up in a correct direction. The more subtle humors, though, that is really caused by the motion and direction of Mars. The last of the good Mars stuff is this week and there’s a chance, one last romp, one last drive, one last "hail mary," whatever that means, one last gasp, one last grasp to get it done. To get that goal accomplished. To get there from here.
I’m sure there will always be ongoing Aquarius projects, but as the dark of the moon approaches, early next week, it’s a matter of getting a number of smaller goals out of the way so you can hit that one big goal. Hit it hard, and finally make a dent in the problem. Finally get enough drive, push, momentum, that’s the word, finally get the momentum built up to get over the hill, across the river, build the bridge, tear it down to start over, it’s one of those.
This might seems a little confusing, but see, there’s a rapidly approaching new moon, and the solar alignment late next week gives an added kick to this all. So use it. I’m your cheering squad for the time being, sad state of affairs, but use what you got. It really does turn into a large step towards a permanent resolution, if you’ll just make the effort.
