What fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

King Edward in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 3 act 4 scene iii, line 58-9

Horoscopes starting 2.18.2016

Pisces

Happy birthday Pisces! There’s a speed bump at the very beginning, just as the Sun slides into Pisces, but after that? All good, getting better. Reminds me of recent fishing trip, way this week unfolds, next 6 or 7 days, for Pisces. I left out under the cover of the winter dark, think we were up and headed out by 5 in the morning. Bass fishing early spring, Texas lake. As the rosy fingers of dawn inched up over the eastern horizon, we realized it was foggy. Wasn’t until the sun popped up, and the fog was the weird, wispy stuff, inverted temperatures, almost like tendrils of smoke.

The low-lying clouds were not a serious impediment, but once the morning dawned, we slowed down a bit. Have to be careful out on rural Texas roads, early morning, in the school year. We were a few minutes late, but we had a valid excuse: weather conditions. As a Pisces, there’s a similar kind of atmospheric effects, a low-lying fog that surrounds you. Less of a speed bump and more of a school bus with the big “stop” sign that swings out. Means stop forward motion in order to better assess Pisces directions. Do not stumble blindly forward.

Aries

I’ll be the first to admit that strange things speak to me. I’ve got a sense of the absurd, having been in this business for more than two decades now, and that renders “normal” quite useless. So when I say, “Strange things speak to me,” it’s about images, comments, music, and more.

“Strange things speak to me,” is the running commentary for Aries. As this next few days start to unfold, listen for the unbidden voices that “Speak” to you. I was snapping yet another picture of peppers in the produce section of a local grocery store. It’s just one of many weird fascinations that I entertain. I’ve always noticed, and tried to grab an image, when the planets are in disarray, like now, the image being mostly green, usually jalapeño peppers with a stray orange-colored one, sticking out. The first image was amazing since I caught it in a completely unsuspecting way. After that? I just noticed. For some time, I incorporated pictures of peppers into my efforts, because it pleased me. I suggested that it was “strange things that speak to us,” and as an Aries, there’s an image, a song, a literary fragment, or, in my example, a lone orange or red, over-ripe pepper in a field of green. There’s a clear and cogent message for Aries, listening to the “strange things that speak to me.”

Taurus

I spent several years in Austin, hanging around the “Internet Guru” types. Funny to me, as I’ve been online and making money much longer than any of them. This is what I do. The “guru” types all had a basic premise, I’ll share.

Find a problem.
Offer a solution.
Charge for access to that solution.

Pretty simple, be willing to sell anyone a solution to perceived problem. The final part of that equation for “Making money online?” Advertise the heck out of the solution without giving it away. As a Taurus with Mars in the final parts of being opposite from you? I’ve offered you a money-making idea. I’d like 10% of whatever you make, but I’m not counting on it as revenue to help me. Still, that’s a nice thought. There’s one, last, Mars-inspired, Mars-tinged, or Mars-infused issue bothering your sweet Taurus self. Instead of seeing this as a problem, though, let’s look for a solution to the problem. What can be done to work through this “problem?”

Better yet, after you solve the problem, can you document what you did? Take a few picture, write up a summary, something? Not sure we can sell that idea, but please, document the problem — and this week? The Taurus solution to that problem. Remember: show ALL work.

Gemini

One of the more interesting “DJ Mash-Ups” I’ve encountered was a working track that mixed Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” with the Eurythmic’s “Here Comes the Rain Again.” The artist who overlaid and then layered those tracks together? That DJ emphasized the refrain, “Talk to me like lovers do.” The first part of this is that it speaks to a certain generation. The more I looked at the Gemini chart, and as that vocal refrain was layered, and repeated, over and over, I kept thinking there’s a specific Gemini message therein. “Talk to me like lovers do,” is the secret. In everyday conversation, try that, next few hours. I’d suggest that this is longer running thematic element, but let’s just try for the next few hours.

DJ Mash-Ups are strange art form unto themselves, with no two ever turning out like each other. There’s a remarkable amount diversity in a set list, and those two songs, there’s further thematic element that runs between the two artists who figured prominently in that mix, too. Best if that’s left alone. Still, the idea, the refrain oft repeated, and the one that the DJ chose to sample back and forth? “Talk to me like lovers do.” As a Gemini, in this next couple of days? After you try that for an hour and it works well? Think about it as a week-long solution, “Talk to me like lovers do.”

(Annie Lennox: Capricorn, Laurie Anderson: Gemini.)

Cancer

Some years ago, I got on a kick where I would only tell the absolute truth. In a business fraught with possibilities, prevarications, and endless “maybes,” nothing but the absolute truth is a challenge.

To this day, I stick with that, as best I can.

I was asked for a formal commitment on a business deal. My reply, lawyered-up, “We can do that.” The other reply I like? “I can easily see that happening.” Neither statement is absolute, and neither statement is untrue in any sense of the word. Plus, neither statement makes hard fast commitment to a specified outcome.

It’s one of the reasons I offer to record my readings, so my exact words can be heard, as need be. Follow my suggestion here, with all the waxing lunar triggers in the next few days? Tell the truth. Absolute truth. No lies, no dodges, no wholly impossible statements. None. However, as need be, and you might have to adjust the words to fit your style and location, “We can do that,” for example, is not promise that “we will do that.” Careful with the words. Make no promises that can’t be kept.

The Leo

I used to really enjoy cigars. There was a time when the cigar was both cool and unusual. I have a couple of funny stories about cigars in different venues, and at one point in a trailer in South Austin, I discovered the perfect $2 cigar, good enough to be a good cigar and cheap enough to be affordable.

Little secret I learned from smoking cigars, and it’s been many long years since I’ve touched one, but a little secret when we used to sit around and sample cigars? Take a bite of an apple between smokes. That bite of apple would cleanse the palate of cigar flavor and make the next one more enjoyable, plus I was better able to discern the differences, the peppery follow-through of one brand, with oak-overtones, and a woodsy-finish. Sounds like a wine? Kind of is like that, but with a smoky essence, instead. Worked for me. As I’ve observed Leo for the start of this year, what I found was that you need something to “Cleanse your palate.” You need a bite of an apple to help clear out the taste from something that didn’t taste as good as it should. Now, to this day, I use apple to help serve as a oral indication of a flavor change. With this full moon, there’s a change afoot for The Leo. Cleanse your palate before the next sample.

Virgo

How good are you at dealing with reality? Not virtual reality, not artificial reality, not make-believe reality, but the real deal?

While this has been an on-again, off-again theme for a few weeks, reality, consensual reality as we all know it, or most of the folks know it, I might not be part of that reality, but consensual reality rears its ugly head in the land of Virgo. We have a choice to make, and you have to decide how much of this reality stuff you want in your life.

I was on a reality TV show: once.

Links on the website and and as an experience, it scarred me for life. What I discovered is that precious little of what called “reality TV” is real. Yes, I was there, and yes, it was real show, and yes, it aired, but the behind the scenes stuff, the set-up, then, the execution of the show? It wasn’t scripted but it was close to being that way. Not much “reality” in that. So this reality headed into Virgo-land? It’s how you choose to deal with it. Carefully, is the first response, but then, again, it’s a solid reality. Not make-believe. I’d suggest, full moon and all? I’d still suggest tip-toeing around this “reality” thing until you can get a strong grasp on it. Obviously, I’m not the one with the firm grasp on reality. But I’m not Virgo, either.

Libra

Over the years, the size of my coffee mugs have changed, dramatically. When I was in college, I figured I needed an extra large mug, the kind that would hold 24-ounces of coffee. Over the years, though, that shifted. I eventually wound up with true Arabian-espresso cups, from an old girlfriend. Tiny thing. The coffee cups, too, tiny things, not much bigger than a thimble, designed to hold one shot of espresso.

What is that? Ounce? Ounce and half? I’m not sure.

Since then my coffee cups have graduated in size, and this week, I’m currently using an 8-ounce size, again, looking for that balance point between the extra-large mug and the tiny espresso demitasse. In my various travels and plethora of locations, from college years to a trailer park in South Austin and now, further south? Two constants, two collections have been with me, every inch of the way. The coffee mugs and the library. Books and coffee mugs. Essential items that still get used, a great deal, and I keep looking for the perfect combination. This week’s goal, and the place for Libra to start? What is useful to hold onto, and what’s good to let go? Books and coffee mugs, all I got for me. I’m not Libra, either, so what’s the way we break this down for you?

Scorpio

Not long ago, I was illustrating a point with my kitchen knife prowess as an example. I’m not Scorpio, so I’m a little clumsy with kitchen blades. That horoscope had a specific example and specific suggestion as to how to deal with my cooking nicks and cuts. Looking at your chart, looking at Mars, looking at my own fingertips, I had an idea. Reminder, really, more than an idea.

As long as it takes for the last’s week’s cut to heal, been more than a week now, as long as it’s taken to heal? Little nick on my fingertip, and while it’s been healing? I’ve been very careful. Not fully healed over, which, in turn makes me extra careful in the kitchen. Makes me extra careful with sharp objects, in general. I realized, though, as soon as that cut totally heals, as soon as the painless but horribly inconvenient cut has healed, I’ll be back to my careless ways. As a Scorpio, normally, you’re careful ALL the TIME, but these aren’t normal times, and — like me — you might find yourself a with a situation, like a problem that has healed over, and you’re thinking, “Great, let’s try that again!”

Mars is not always your friend. Soon as my finger heals, I get careless and I’ll cut a finger tip again. Don’t follow my path of careless.

Sagittarius

Plumbers have it so easy. “Water flows downhill. Payday’s Friday.” Two rules, two, simple rules. Two rules that are easy to remember. Last time I worked with a plumbing guy, old buddy of mine, the side of his truck says, “Septic Service.” I joked about the two rules.

He looked at me, “What’s up with these planets, everything I touch today turns to shit.”

I was at a momentary loss for words. Side of his truck, company name, “Septic Service.”

I would think, on a good day, that’s exactly what should happen. It should turn to crap. What he deals with on a daily basis. He’s actually a purveyor of “aerobic septic systems,” a very green way to deal with this kind of material. But the more complex the system? The greater chance of a part failing and bringing the whole system to halt. As a Sagittarius, this is a time, it’s a Mars-inspired item, this is a time to take it easy.

Go slow. Water flows downhill, so when there is a leak, it usually shows up at the weakest, and lowest, point. Start there. Payday for Sagittarius in this scenario? A week from Friday. Not until then. Goes against the plumbing rules, but it’s not far off. Close, so close. This week? Careful, what does the side of the Sagittarius truck say?

Capricorn

It was that freaky February weather we have in South Texas. I was wearing shorts and my buddy was wearing his work clothes, basically heavy jeans, steel-toe boots, lined canvas jacket, and so forth. His shop, he’s a foreman, his shop is essentially an industrial garage, as he services oilfield equipment. Or his shop does. Hot in the summer, cold on the those few freak nights in February. I looked, as I had on shorts and Hawaiian print shirt, and I made snarky comment. His reply?

“I was at work, it’s going to get cold again. I was too tired to change.”

As a Capricorn, you have to wonder about this local weather. Hot one afternoon no, I mean really warm enough so shorts are not out of place, and then? Two days later, freezing temperatures. The two of us, standing there, not sure what to make of it. I was dressed for comfort, that afternoon and he was dressed for work in an outdoor, semi-frigid environment. For the afternoon’s moment, at the intersection of space and time, I was best-dressed for the moment. However, that very morning, it had been cold enough to warrant his heavier attire. Later in the evening, if I was still out, I would’ve been shivering in my shorts and thin shirt. To face this next round of Full Moon energy? I’d face it like my buddy, shrug once, and mutter, “Well, it was cold this morning when I went to work.”

Aquarius

Several years ago, I set a goal of only owning cowboy boots and sandals. I can take this even further, my sandals are locally made, as a model of sustainable, local commerce. Plus the sandals fit really, really well. I do have a couple of pairs of flip-flops, and assorted sport sandals which are better for certain activities (like fishing). The other footwear? Boots. One pair of nice, dress boots, handmade in El Paso, TX, with two more pair of “work” boots, also handmade in El Paso. That’s it. Couple of months out of the year, I have to wear boots, at least part of the time. Sandals are the rest of the time.

For Aquarius, this is an example of my way of simplifying my life. Structure, order, and simple steps to make my life move in an orderly fashion with less stuff. My fancy dress boots? I haven’t been to a formal event this year, yet, so I might not even wear them for another year. Simple. By the time we get through Pisces, I should be, I will be in sandals full-time.

The challenge issued by this full moon? What steps can you take to simplify your Aquarius life.