"It is the purpose that makes strong the vow."
Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (V.iii.28)
The weekend before the July 4th Weekend.
Cancer: I was walking downtown, early evening. The bigger building were like canyons with the deep summer shadows. I wasn’t too far from a rather fashionable place, locally famous for almost celebrity status. A fancy (European) sports car was parked on the sidewalk.
The car hops, the valets, were busy moving cars around. I liked that shot of the car, on the sidewalk, it was just a temporary parking spot, really, and I’m sure there’s a city ordinance, if not a state law, or federal regulation, about parking on the sidewalk. I’m no lawyer, nor will I likely ever be, not at this point. But the law about parking on the sidewalk isn’t what this is all about. It’s about the Sun Sign Cancer and some of the interesting influences.
It’s like that car, you’re momentarily in the spotlight. For the time being, you’re parked in a place that might be, or might not be, illegal. Doesn’t much matter, either way, you’re getting some weird attention and you’ll notice, you didn’t park there, just the valet. Or car-hop. Somehow you wind up in a place that could draw a lot of attention. I wouldn’t be too worried — birthday time. Why not sit back, and why not enjoy some of the extra attention. Besides, if you don’t like the way I drive? Stay off the sidewalks.
Leo: I know the proprietor of local business. He had a chance to expand lately. He’s growing a small store into a slightly larger store, and this isn’t without some growing pains. You’re a Leo, you understand growing pains. In the midst of the sawdust and construction, with everything tossed upside down, I stopped by. I was about to lend some words of advice, but my Leo friend held up a hand, "Stop. If you’re going to offer advice, I’ll just hand you a saw and a hammer. Then a stack of bills — to pay."
I was merely going to offer words of encouragement, but I wasn’t going to offer interior design ideas, or Feng Shui admonishments, or anything of the sort. Not my place, and, as a small business person, I know that everyone knows how to run my business better than me. If it was so easy, why aren’t the folks with the copious free advice, doing it themselves?
There are two parts to this, are you offereing advice where it might not be welcome? Or worse, are you getting unwanted advice? If so, think about picking up the saw and the hammer, and offer to put your money where your mouth is. Or, for that matter, think about ponying up some dollars of your own, to prove your point. Either way, I think you understand.
Virgo: Buddy of mine, no, his name is not really "Bubba," this fellow fancies himself to be quite the little BBQ jockey. He was explaining some of the finer points of craft. As we get ready for the big weekend, maybe some of these points, passed on to my Virgo friends, can help. Makeshift BBQ grills are easy to fashion out of a shopping cart. I spend so much time in a virtual world, other than a few of my homeless friends, I don’t see real shopping carts that much.
But my little Virgo buddy, the BBQ god as he likes to think of himself, he was explaining that they are still common and some of them are really good for grill parts. However, he did admonish a word of advice on this topic, and he delivered this admonishment with a straight face, so I’m not sure he was joking. Use the metal carts, not the hybrid plastic or fiberglass or whatever the "seemingly" plastic carts — no, don’t use those. According to him, they melt and/or catch on fire. Not something I’d like to experiment with.
So as Mars readies his approach, think about my buddy trying, let’s just say a red (plastic) shopping cart as part of a BBQ grill. Think about how it didn’t work, although, if I know that guy, he would eat the smoked meat, anyway. How this experiment didn’t work and little bit of forethought will save your Virgo self from embarrassment and a bad holiday weekend. Test before you fire it up. That’s what this extra weekend is for.
Libra: I’ve used the example of mosquitoes, not recently, but at one time. So I can’t use them as an example of the irritant and way the week feels. But I don’t think I’ve used the example of the "No See Um’s," and that would work. Usually spelled and pronounced "noSEE-ums," I think they are really a juvenile form of the gnat family. I’m not sure. They don’t bite, they just land and fly and most important, annoy. Harmless. Blameless, too, but that’s another situation altogether.
The smallest of the insect life form, I’m guessing, at least the smallest that I can repeatedly detect, that’s what these are. Not a big problem, not really, don’t breed and spread disease, don’t leave welts or bite marks, like some girlfriends do, and the biggest problem? I think I was once hit by a passing jogger who was trying to wave to a cloud of "noseeums" out of his way. Just a glancing blow, too, nothing painful, didn’t leave a mark, not like some girlfriends. The way the Sun, the Moon, Venus and June all work in the Libra chart? It’s like a cloud of those littlest insects. Not painful, not really, just a minor irritant. As long as you don’t get hit by a passing jogger.
Scorpio: One of my buddies was telling me about a certain fishing spot, and he was talking about long-lost memory. Fish tales. All good fisherman have a slew of them. "We had," he explained, "about five or six black-tip sharks, we’d caught, too big to put in the cooler, so they were just in the bottom of the boat."
Turns out he made near-fatal mistake with the sharks, too. He took them home to clean. Sharks are good eating, true, and some men are brave enough to clean fish in the backyard. Shark, it would seem, is a different story. "Soon as I gutted the first one, I realized my mistake." What made the shark fishing so successful, the food and subsequent bait used? That was a half-digested mess, in the backyard. With what is happening in Scorpio, I’m sure you’re going to make the same mistake of gutting that first shark in the backyard.
Unlike my buddy, though, I would think that you could get away with just making that mistake once. He continued to open sharks and make a big stink. You’re Scorpio, you can learn much faster. As you get along this week, think about that first shark. Do you continue making a bigger mess? Or can you, like I suggest, stop? Unlike my friend’s tale. Sure would prevent a smelly mess in your own backyard.
Sagittarius: Buddy of mine runs a coffee shop. He’s the proprietor. Sagittarius. Basically, he runs the store. Along with his soul-mate. I’ve watched as the store, the little coffee shop has mutated, grown, contracted and grown again. It’s a tricky balance point. He didn’t really want to be open at 6 in the morning, not being a morning person, although, he is the neighborhood caffeine dealer. Then, the more lucrative business is a little later in the evening. Again, didn’t want to interfere with his own hours, too.
Closed on Sunday, and less about any religious affiliation, and more about six days a week is enough. Sunday was the least productive day. The hours, they’ve shifted, almost with time and tide. I suppose a stop-action film would be a good choice. Opening to closing, as the local characters drift in and drift out.
It’s hitting that magic number, the right balance between the right hours to be open, and spending too much time at the store, paying overhead on a project that doesn’t work. Anyone who’s ever been around a small store like that knows that it is more a labor of love rather than a big profit deal. Second, there’s that balance point, when to open, when to close, what works, what doesn’t work. Mars is heading into Virgo.
Capricorn: I don’t get it, really. Sandwiched between loquacious Gemini and vociferous Leo, the mental gymnastics of the Gemini and the roar of the Leo, there’s this quiet and easy-going Cancer. Just how did that wind up opposite from your Capricorn self? Way it works. While the Cancer is all about feeling something, this or that, whatever mood strikes them, the Capricorn, in this next week or two, you’re gong to be all about analyzing what it that you’re feeling.
There’s a reason for this, too, as the relative placement of Saturn in the heavens is making you a little more sharp witted. More than usual. And that also means your analytical ability is sharper than ever. Which is a good thing. Right? Right. Let’s move on. Got brain, got thinking horsepower, and you’re revved up. No place to go? I doubt that. But as this weekend gets closer pick and choose destinations for your mind. Pick places that entertain and educate. Maybe it’s less of formal education, but some kind of point needs to be carried home. That brian power, put it some good. Mars, in about ten days, maybe a little more, Mars will put you to the est. I’m sure you’ll pass — provided — you go with that good destination, now.
Aquarius: Mental exercise, poise and physics. How good are you? Me: 200 pounds, moving at a rate of, let’s say, 4 MPH. I weigh less than that, but I was aiming to keep the math simple. Hot afternoon, sweating some in the summer sun. I’m at a crosswalk, downtown, "walk" light just blinked on. New truck: 4,000 pounds, moving at an estimated 20 MPH.
While, according to the Texas Driver’s Handbook — the law — I have the right-of-way, the question is, how far will I bounce? Valid question because, even though I’m in the right, legally, that doesn’t overule the simple physics. Do the math. You can work it out, but you’ll see, the numbers don’t add up quite right. Truck wins, over the law in the book, every time.
Face-to-face with a similar arrangement, consider, even though you’re — legally, morally, karmically — correct? I’m back to the simple physics. The driver of the truck is really breaking the law by his "failure to yield right-of-way." Which doesn’t make you, or me, any less flat from the impact. My advice? Do the math.
Pisces: Mercury backwards sort of scatters our Pisces attention span. Therein is the problem. But what’s happening, in this next few days, is that there a cosmic hint. There’s a shuffle going on, maybe a little bit of a skiffle beat, and you can see, coming up, that there’s less scattered attentions.
Focus. You’re going to need to focus to see clearly. Still have a little bit of a fog surrounding our Pisces selves as of now. But coming up, in a few days, like, actually, really, next week, Mars bumps into Virgo. Yeah, that Virgo. The one opposite you on the chart wheel. Yet, this Mars matter? What it’s going to do is lend laser-like focus to your Pisces way of seeing things. That previously alluded scattered feeling, leftover from Mercury? Sharpens. It”s like playing with a camera’s focus, and twist the lens, and suddenly, a distant object swims into view, into focus and the smallest details are clear.
Aries: A the end of this week, or rather, at the beginning of next week, like Monday, Tuesday, you get some breathing space. There’s also the double thing going on. Two items line up at the same time, one would be the New Moon, early next week, and the second would be the relative position of some of the planets.
Dwarf planet, asteroid, call him what you want. Still, there’s a moment, a small window, a period of time starting after this weekend, when you get some breathing room. One way or another. How much space you get and what you do with it? That’s up to you. Might be elbow room, might be a wide open space as big as West Texas. Could be like the Big Sky Country. Might be a New York minute, too.
Which, from what I gather, isn’t really very long, or, by my standards, very much. But what works from one Aries to another, while the definitions of "space" might vary, I’ll promise that it happens, That much is good. How much, where, and what? I don’t know, that varies from person to person, but the skies above conspire to allow a little more room in the Aries world. A little more freedom of movement isn’t too bad. Enjoy the respite.
Taurus: This is so cool. In about ten days, maybe a little more, there’s trigger point in another sign. Works like a charm, for Taurus. If you want the background, maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but anyway, ten, maybe fourteen days from now, Mars lines up Saturn, both in Virgo. Virgo is an earth sign, means, like Taurus, it is associated with the element of dirt.
Those two action planets, Saturn and Mars, aligned, is the pressure point. Good pressure for your Taurus self. Not so good for the Virgo, but we don’t care about them at this moment. I’m pushing you to think about your future, right now. Not the immediate future, but something you can do around the long holiday weekend.
A little planning, now, can make for really good fireworks, or whatever you want, then. It’s a matter of using this pressure point, this trigger, getting set for it, and being prepared, which means, you’ve got to do stuff now, plot, plan and follow a course of action, so when that moment arrives: your Taurus self is ready. You’re ready, right?
Gemini: "Man, I know there’s a way to unsend a message. There’s just got to be. I’m sure I saw that here, someplace." Buddy of mine, on one of those "social networking site" and he was busy trying to unflame one of his typical fireball notes. It was some woman, he was seeing, then not seeing, then seeing again, and now, apparently, not seeing.
And the message? It would have effectively hammered shut the door. It’s one thing to gently shut the door on someone you’ve dated. It’s an entirely different episode to flame out in a spectacular fashion with the email and text message equivalent of a dogfight. Or cat fight. Or dogs and cats, fighting against each other.
Since I don’t know of a way to unsend a message like that? Maybe don’t send it. Unless you really want to nail that door shut for good.
