I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world;
And for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I’ll hammer it out.

King Richard the Second
in Shakespeare’s Richard II, act v scene v 1-4

Venus, soon to be in Virgo will “square” Mars, in Sagittarius — a rolling exchange of energy that isn’t always pleasant. People get cranky about the weirdest things.

Horoscopes starting 8.4.2016

The Leo:

Happy birthday to one special Leo. Now, let’s have some fun with this. You will note that there are a lot of close friends who are terribly inconvenienced by whatever is going on. Not you! All that flexible and spineless “mutable” energy is trying to interfere with a Leo Good Time. Rise above it. That simple, and for a Leo, keeping it simple during a birthday week is better idea than most. Some Leo buddies orchestrate a huge party. Some Leo buddies prefer quiet and solitude of just a few friends in an intimate gathering.

Whatever it is that you want? Two easy steps. One? Ask. Be thoughtful, kind, but direct in what you are asking for, got that? Ask. The second part, the “Number Two,” so to speak? It’s one thing to ask for something, but expecting you get it? Not always the way this works.

This isn’t about The Leo, as I’m sure, with you, you always deliver exactly as promised. But the other signs, especially with lots of non-Leo parts, particularly the mutable that is affected by that tenacious little square, the 90 degree angle between Venus and Mars? Flighty. Flakes. Can’t count on us. Eventually, yes, but maybe not this week, even if we promise. Just a warning, not to count on us to be there like we said we would. Not a Leo thing, but the “Lesser 11” signs.

Virgo:

I was about to start a reading, and I looked down at the chart, I screwed my face up, and then looked again, sideways at the chart, then at the person. I paused. There was sudden, torrential rush of available information, almost too much, and I couldn’t pick the right place to start. Left me speechless. There were hotspots and tight angles, influences and detractors, all in, or all out, sort of depends. I picked a starting point, saw something else and stopped.

If this were a typical Virgo, sitting across from me, as this information flashed across my face, the setting and tone would slide downhill. This is not a typical Virgo setting, though. Mars sets up a tight tension angle with a fly-by from Venus and the early stuffing Virgo gets an extra dosage of “Venus and Mars,” and there might be another term for that. Scrutiny. There’s a closer than usual inspection, and you’re unsure of its outcome. I keep making faces, but there’s some good stuff here, and I’m not quite settled on where to start. Maybe, just maybe, we continue to look at this before we start anything.

Virgo: Let’s analyze this one more time before we decide where to start.

Libra:

I like having a single, coherent metaphor to suggest. When I flipped your Libra chart around and around, I kept thinking about the “everyday carry” bag I’ve got. Packed. Ready to go. Periodically, I take everything out of the bag, weight the items in terms of importance, usefulness, actual time used, and so forth.

Is it something I’ve used in the last month? No? Then I set it aside. One bag I use when I have to go the county courthouse and on airplanes, so I have to make sure no stray razors or pocketknives are left behind, nothing that could be construed as a weapon. Some people think I murder the English Language, so a keyboard could be a weapon, but that’s not what I mean.

Women of a certain age? Think: purse. What goes. What stays. What I didn’t use, but it never hurts to have on hand? Might not be a “daily carry” bag, could apply to any number of items in the Libra’s life, but I tend to see this as a handy metaphor. It’s about cleaning it out. Last time I did this? I took everything out, looked at it, then scooped it all back in place. Still, never hurts to take a trial run at cleaning.

Scorpio:

Listen and learn. Observe, listen and learn. Some people, like myself, I tend to observe for a few minutes, then jump right in, making assumptions that I can complete the task at hand, easier, quicker, and better than the person I was observing.

It’s not true.

I’ll wade right on in, and I’ll get up over my head in no time, and eventually, I’ll have to ask for help. Then, and here’s where we get to this week’s lesson, this is where the patient and observant Scorpio comes in, having observed the entire process, end to end, and having learned a thing or two, before making an attempt to replicate the efforts. Listen and learn. Observe. Then, when asked for assistance, then you can help. But wait for it, trust me, just jumping in like I do and relying on luck? Not such a bright move for a Scorpio. Not this week.

Sagittarius:

There’s a point, one of my fishing buddies pointed this out to me, Virgo, if you have to know, and it’s about the pockets on my ubiquitous Hawaiian shirts. To be honest, I’m too cheap to bother with real Hawaiian shirts, as they cost way too much. So most of mine are inexpensive, discounted, sale items. Floral prints, preferably, with at least one pocket. The pocket’s the thing. An old girlfriend used to buy shirts for me, and her selections were far better than my own. On each of those shirts, the print pattern on the pocket lines up with the pattern on the shirt. What this is about? It’s not about what I wear, or that an old girlfriend used to buy me shirts, no, that’s not it. It’s about looking for tiny details.

Fishing buddy looks over at me, “She bought that, didn’t she?” Sure, how can you tell?

“Pocket pattern lines up with the shirt. It’s the little details.”

Sagittarius? It’s the little details.

Capricorn:

Sign up for my mailing list; get an automated answer. Sign up for the horoscope subscription; get an automated answer. Purchase my books online; get an automated response. There is no human touch in any of those three options. The other side, though, the Capricorn side of this? There is communication. Sure, it’s triggered automatically, but it’s there. I tend to answer all my personal correspondence myself, with only a junk mail filter between me and the crap. I can answer in a period of minutes, hours, days, or even, weeks in some situations.

All depends on the inter-webs and the electrical currents, the pulses that drive this place. However, I still get around to answering with a personal touch. As a Capricorn, in this next few days, there’s a required effort on your Capricorn part, to answer yourself. Doesn’t have to be an epic email response, think, more like 140 character limited tweet. That instilled a kind of stoic decorum that Capricorn would benefit from. Short, terse to some, but personal and answered by an actual person rather than just machine spitting out a response. To some, you’ll appear to be a mechanical, uncaring, unfeeling Capricorn machine. Not to me, but that’s the way I see it. I know it’s really you and not a machine. You’re not a machine, are you? Personal touch. You might feel like it falls on deaf ears at the moment, but give it time. Like me, sometimes it take a few days for this sink in, and make sense.

Aquarius:

Some years ago, I purchased a small backpack, really, just a daypack. It’s tiny. Hardly more than a cubic foot in size. My original plan was an overnight trip, but, as conditions changed, that pack was too small. Still, I held onto it, convinced that some day, it would be a useful piece of equipment.

I had to buy two pieces of fruit, a bag of chips, a lemon, and a couple of squeeze tubes of almond butter. That pack was the perfect fit. Reusable. Stylish.

In the following few days, something you bought, but maybe never used? I’ll be off to the grocery store again, guess what I’ll use?

Old equipment can see new uses.

Pisces:

As a Pisces, as much as you would DEFINITELY benefit from a dedicated mediation practice, maybe now isn’t the exact time to embrace that endeavor. However, as Pisces-compliant astrologer, I figure I could share some information that one of my earliest metaphysical teachers shared with me. It was about what happens when thoughts pop up in mediations.

As we sit zazen for a spell, the mind churns up thoughts. Instead of embracing them, imagine those thoughts are in a bubble, like a soap bubble, and then, gradually, on the summer’s breeze, those thoughts drift away. With both Jupiter and Mercury opposite you? Thoughts will drift up. Some good. Some bad. Neptune’s influence? “Oh no, this will end very badly!” Like my former teacher’s remark, like soap bubbles. Look at them. Watch that negative thought drift away. No need to embrace the downward spiral. Just the planets, playing out at possibilities. We can talk about a dedicated Pisces Mediation Practice at another time.

Aries:

I love me some Shakespeare Scholarship. Love reading that stuff on the web, adore the theories and analysis, and then the analysis of the analysis. I was listening to a Shakespeare lecture, from an English Professor at Oxford (UK). The lecture was about particular play, not Richard II, that’s this week’s intro quote. Anyway, the lecture went sideways in a hurry, discussing performance history, then discussing the publication history of that play, and finally, the history of criticism about the play. All the while, the play itself was not discussed. It was all about everything that’s been seen, done, watched, and written about the play, without looking at the play’s entrails themselves. Pretty cool approach, as it’s scholarship about scholarship rather than addressing the play’s internal bits, like, who does what to whom.

That lecture is the perfect example of how I would like Aries to respond. Around and around we go. Talk about the foundations, the history of the source, the locations, the possible players, from whence the plot was derived, who wrote about it, whose review was better, notable performances, and the list goes on. It’s all background. While several planets play into this, let’s just pretend it’s all Mars. In Sagittarius. It’s a week for Aries breadth and depth of topic, without actually attacking the topic itself.

Taurus:

Years ago, I adopted a humorous approach to handling in and out bound materials. I use a single “In/Out Box.” I’ve written about this, previously, in a horoscope cf., Gemini. That being noted, I miss the old Sky Mall catalog. It always showed trinkets and baubles that were useless, but positioned and photographed in such a cool way, I wanted to pay more for less.

As this week unfolds, think about gathering up magazine articles, real, paper magazines. Perhaps some catalogs, like the now-dead Sky Mall. Other sources? I’m sure, as a Taurus, you’ve got some ideas. Still, gather up magazines with idea, catalogs showcasing products that make your life easier, and then? I’d stack all of that in one place, like the old, “In-Out Box” I use. These are ideas, for a later date. Over the next few weeks, think, instead of just a weekly, this is a half-month? Over the next couple of weeks, there’s a very strong urge to buy something that will fix your life. And, in the next few weeks, this is not a good time to buy something that promises to fix your life. Slow down. Gather some ideas. Look, shop a little, then, let those ideas set a spell before taking action.

Gemini:

I had some “rainy day” coffee beans. This was a sealed can of relatively inexpensive coffee beans, not certified organic, not certified fair trade, but a decent dark roast, so, one would think, these would be a good enough. Since the can was sealed, airtight-vacuum? I just figured these would last, like, for—ever. Middle of sort a flurry of business activity, and I had to get from here to there, and looking, I was out of fresh-roasted coffee beans. I opened up that can of rainy day beans. Despite my best effort, those beans were not that good. Sure, it’s coffee, and sure, it’s a cut above diner, truck-stop, convenience-counter swill, but still. Not that good. I pride myself on being able to take even stale beans and managing to extract a good cup of coffee. In this case? Barely serviceable. However, next time? I won’t be saving any of those “rainy day” beans. Sealed and vacuum packed, or not. No, not going to do this again.

Gemini: It was an experiment, and it was an example of saving for a future situation. I was trying to be expedient. As a Gemini, this next few days, you’ve got something “Stashed for a rainy day.” Pretend it’s raining, and dig out that stash. My example? Wasn’t too good, but it helps me not make the same mistake again.

Cancer:

Supposedly, this is a good week to spend time at home, a traditional interpretation. While that’s interesting enough, and for a select few of my readership, sure, that works. But I’d like to suggest this is a different kind of energy, and it can be put to better use, outside of the house. Outside of the typical Cancer comfort zone. Maybe not too far outside of the comfort zone, but a little ways, maybe. Simplest example? Outside of the comfort zone? Perhaps a new destination. There’s a new coffee shop, an independent, that opened recently. Hang out there, for a slight change of pace. Just one step different.

Shake up the Cancer cadence, change the tempo, try for new, more syncopated beat? Just a quick shuffle to change the pace, perhaps with just new window dressings on the surroundings, sometimes, just some fresh scenery is all it takes. Me? I still suggest you change the ‘down tempo’ for ‘up beat,’ but it’s a shift, not wholesale change. It prompts a better response from yourself.