Fishing Guide to the Stars starting 2.2.2012

“O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?”
Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part ii [V.i.166]

O, faith, where is Neptune? (Neptune enters Pisces.)

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Aquarius: There’s a beautiful kind of clarity that arrives later this week. The single issue of the moment, though, isn’t the clarity, it’s the little things. As Neptune sweeps a path clear of Aquarius, as the Sun and Mercury tango then split up, there’s an urge to talk, loud, long, fast. One of my buddies, he looked over at me, it was a January event. We chatted about a particular point, it was an astrology point, in fact, about Neptune shifting signs again, and what that might entail. We nodded, concurred, and then decided to hang and get coffee some time next week.

My buddy, he looks at me, “Yo, later, dude.” One Capricorn will get a musical reference point out of that. The rest? And even me? Think about this, at our age, or our collective ages, in a professional setting, I was wearing a pressed shirt and sport coat, in setting like that, that comment, “Yo, later, dude.” Or, maybe it was just, “Later dude.” Still, age, experience notwithstanding, just something odd about that combination. The clarity I was addressing, for Aquarius, though, there’s a sense, for some reason, that comment, the closing, parting shot, not intended in any type of ironic notion, just, it seemed oddly out of place. Or not. To Neptune? “Yo later dude.”

Pisces: I recall, the exact person speaking, the time, the place, when girlfriend suggested I just photoshop a particular image. I was considering that because I’ve got a few lovely shots of a certain Humble Oils station, perhaps the last extant copy of such architecture. In some of the images, there’s a big, ugly sign post, a support beam for a billboard, looks like it doesn’t belong there. From the first time I heard that expression, to thinking about that one Humble Oils image, there’s a span of years and images.

The concept of altering a digital print, to remove an otherwise very integral part of the picture? I have a problem with that. There is, too, the question of ethics, is it really a digital image then? Or is it more like digital artwork, a reworked image? Finally, as part of the series of questions, how much time? I could edit the picture, but to get the lacy clouds, the right shade of blue for the sky, to work all that in, I’m looking at 8 plus hours at the computer screen. Is it worth that amount of time? As Neptune gets comfortable with you, let’s stop, before you start on the project, is the destination worth the amount of time to get there? Is the finished product worth the necessary hours of toil?

Aries: During this Mars Retrograde period, kind of a weird and not exactly easy time for most of my Aries friends, what I watched, here’s an idea, look, this is a way to deal with the energy. Friends I stay with from time to time, sort of extended family, they had a fancy coffee maker. Kicked on at 5 in the morning, brewed a perfect pot of coffee, had a stainless steel carafe kept the coffee hot, and the problem, it leaked.

The more complex a device, the easier for an engineering flaw. Good marketing, not so good on delivery. Since it was an expensive and fancy coffee pot, coffee maker, it grinds, brews and stores the coffee, there were problems. First, there was pride, “See the new machine,” then, over time, “It’s cool, but it leaks,” and finally, “See? We got a new coffee pot.” The fancy one is in the garage, as of this writing. The expensive, fancy, does-everything, coffee pot has been replaced by a simple Mr. Coffee. Not elegant, not pretty, but useful for the intended task. While Mars is like this? Think about a step towards simplicity.

Taurus: “Plus sizes a dollar more,” and “plus sizes two dollars more.” It’s about location. Same giant brand store. Probably the same product, too, same T-shirts or dresses or whatever I was looking at, and I wasn’t really looking for that, I was searching for something else. Only, I couldn’t help but notice. The price of the “plus size” varied from location to location. One place was a dollar more and the other location, perhaps five hundred miles distant? Cost two dollars more.

I don’t figure the 500-mile ride is worth paying only a dollar less. Or more. It was just an observation about price structures, and what sells, and for that matter, what doesn’t sell. Or how what it is sells. Or, all in all, this could be about the plus size for Taurus. With Jupiter? It’s about that “plus” size.

Gemini: Bougainvillea is a favorite photographic target. Spring, summer, fall, sometimes, even in the winter, in South Texas. Booms and blooms.

The “petals” aren’t really petals of the flower. They are like leafs, and the common misnomer, I’m guilty of this, calling them the petals of the bougainvillea. I was sorting through some images and I came across those brilliant flower “petals.” Which are not petals. Common mistake. I’ve corrected your thinking about bougainvillea and made you curious enough to go look it up online. My mission is done. The real point of the Gemini illustration, though, it’s not about the bougainvillea, it’s about a common misconception.

Less than three Gemini minutes would do you well, to correct your misunderstanding. Might be about flowers, might be about something else. Three minutes, Gemini time, thirty seconds in real time. Look it up. Look it up before you speak. Look it up before Mars mars your comment.

Cancer: “Put on your thinking cap, see what we can come up with,” it’s a familial expression, but I like it. Do so adore my Cancer friends, but “thinking cap” might be an extraterrestrial expression. However, pause for just a moment. Stop. Complete halt. There’s a ton of stuff up in the air. Most notably, Mars in retrograde motion, Mercury/Sun in Aquarius (air sign), and a low-flying moon. Venus hits Aries, headed towards Uranus. A full moon, early next week.

Step away from the Cancer emotions. Just as a suggestion, in this next few days, as this Full Moon gets underway, stop, pause, maybe, and think about it. Instead of an emotional response to the situation, instead of answering what your heart wants, stop. Analyze. Think. Critical thinking. While the Cancer tide of emotions runs strong and deep, the tidal pull might not be the best answer. Pause long enough for a mental analysis.

Leo: Friend of mine called me up, “The baby’s coming, the baby’s coming!” This was followed by a quick look at the astrology chart, what moon sign the child will have and so forth. This is a first-time grandma. She was a little freaked out, a little panic in her voice. After her first gush and rush, a flood of panic words, I suggested, in my mock-panic tone, “Boil water! Dial 9-1-1! Hurry!”

My apparent panic calmed her down. Made it easier. Her daughter had birth pains, husband and daughter were on the way to the hospital. Baby was born. Them first grand-babies have it easy. Spoiled. That’s a separate tale. This is about panic for no reason. This about meeting panic with panic. Or my mock-panic. Although Neptune “exeunts” Aquarius this week? Still have lingering Aquarius energy. Meet and match the outpouring from the other people. They happy? You be happy. They sad, you be sad, as sad as a mighty Leo can be. They are in a panic? Try my mock-panic. Now! Hurry! No, I said, “HURRY!!!”

Virgo: Winter fishing is weird, at best. I’m not making jokes about ice fishing, either, I mean the winter fishing along the Gulf Coast. We made our way into the back lakes on San Jose Island (around Corpus Christi, TX, north of Padre Island), and typically, these aren’t really “lakes,” but it’s bay fishing. Tide was going out. Reds were schooling, stacked up in a back lake. We stayed and fished, even as the water slowly ebbed from the tidal pool. Running back in the afternoon, the boat got stuck on a sand bar that was really a mud bar. Had to get out and push.

Here’s how this works, when Mars is retrograde in your sign, as soon as we all piled out of the boat to push, it floated free of the underwater, shallow water obstruction. Between the four of us, must’ve been close to a thousand pounds, not dead weight. Pushed the boat on over the bay and rode home in style with a cooler full of fish. Mars is backwards in Virgo. Notice how a simple action, like getting out of the boat, how that kind of action let the boat float free? Still had to push, but it wasn’t that bad, water was a little more than ankle deep, and we had been fishing–and catching. All important. Pause. Get out of the boat. Step away from the computer. Something to pause your Virgo self.

Libra: I do hundreds of astrology readings in a year. Maybe thousands. One of the most common questions I ask, trying to burrow down in a short time, one of the questions I ask, pointblank: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answers vary, from one to another, blue-sky scenarios to practical, to down-trodden. The real reasoning behind the question has to do with figuring a good direction, a pathway, as guided by the stars, to find out what direction for Libra will yield the most acceptable results. How to get what you really want. Starts with the answer to the question, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Scorpio: I have several novels I’ve written. Novel-length manuscripts, anyway. Exercises, more or less, for me. Good exercises, just, apparently, not commercially viable, not then, not now. That’s what the literary groups, agents, and so forth have stated. I collected a pile of rejection letters and moved on to other pursuits. I’m thinking about one of those manuscripts now. As a Scorpio, you have a similar, if not exactly the same, kind of work floating around.

As long as Mars is like he is? As Saturn churns along at a very late degree in Libra? I’d think about, if I were Scorpio, I’d think about digging out that manuscript and going over it again. Just because, two, three years ago, just because it wasn’t a viable project then? Doesn’t mean you can’t do something with it now.

The image, strictly a mental image, it’s a Scorpio project, a novel-length manuscript, all 200 plus pages, typed out and dusty, and you’re going to drag that out, look at it, then think about a few changes to update it, add some tone and timbre, shade the allusions a little, couch one of the extended metaphors, and then, you’ve got some work ahead of you. Worth it? Oh yes. Look long-term, at a project that can’t be fixed in a few minutes, or even in a few days. We got another few weeks to go on this one, so take your time.

Sagittarius: “Keep Calm and Carry On,” is a British World War II advertising campaign. Started in roughly 1939, with the threat of war, and it was the Queen’s admonishment to the public, best way to shoulder through. The copyright on the original artwork and expression ran out in 15 or 25 years, and then, buried in a bookstore up on the English East Coast, until someone uncovered one of the posters.

Original pre-war poster. I don’t know where the legal battle sits at this moment, who owns what rights, and who gets to collect when the image is licensed &c. Caught my eye as a postcard. Caught my Sagittarius brain as an idea. Caught someone else’s imagination, too, as it was turned into an “app” for the phone. Not much more than the image itself and the phrase, “Keep calm and carry on.” I searched the web and found a free version of the image, plugged it into my phone. Then I had the Sagittarius thought, and I worked at translating that expression into Latin.

Looks good. Anything said in Latin sounds better. As a piece of homework, use whatever resources, and translate that to Latin. As a message, as the Moon gets Full, Mr. Mars backwards, and so forth? (So forth = Pisces/Neptune)?

“Keep calm and carry on.”

Capricorn: How much are you willing to change? That’s the question. I kept gazing at your chart, then looking at influences, confluences, and wondering what it meant. I see change. How much change? Sort of depends on where you draw the line in the sand. Does this have to be a big, earth-shattering change, like, moving from the east coast to the left coast, or back, and does this entail a job offer, a promotion, or a lateral move? Or is this a change on another level?

For years, I used a single brand of fishing line. I was hoping for an endorsement or advertising contract. Years and years, maybe I liked their advertising. Maybe I liked the product. Used it for years and years, never changing. Always the same brand, same weight, same color. Got used to it, strong enough for the lightweight bay fishing, stout enough for the bass fishing, just a good combination. Worked well for me. Worked until I started wrestling larger and larger fish. Lost one big one, it was that big, got away. Hey, some days, the fish win. Part of life. So anyway, I started looking at other brands, and I started thinking that I needed a change. Had to re-think my fishing line. So, it’s time again, ask that question how much are you willing to change?