“Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, take the Fool with thee.”

The Fool in King Lear 1.4.225

Horoscopes for 5.9.2019

Taurus

Happy Taurus birthday. “William, I guess that’s your name?” I was in one of those places where they write your name on a cup, and the guy in front of me? His shirt had a name, on a patch, left side, said, “William.” Guy looked bemused, at best, “Y’all make this mistake all the time; name’s AC Repair,” he looked back at me with wry grin, and “and I work at ‘William,’ they got it on the wrong side of the shirt.” We’re guys, we don’t tend to do eye rolls properly, but punctuate as need be with gestures. A few moments later, they called out a drink, “For ‘AC Repair,’ I guess.” Shrug. Take what humor, what we can, where we can. As Mars shifts signs, there’s a need for obvious humor. Bit of another joke, buried in this experience, as one fishing buddy used to suggest I had blue collar job, you know, the kind with my name on my shirt. I do. The name of my company is on the shirt, too. Gives it a different spin, looking at it like that. It’s about how we approach what others perceive to be problems, it’s how we approach those problems, and how we deal out the answers. Besides, with a name like, “AC Repair?” That’s a popular name for a very well-received person, in the coming months in South Texas.

Gemini

The character of the The Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear disappears after Act 3, Scene 6. It’s a mystery in life, why the character doesn’t have any lines after Act 3. Couple of Shakespeare theories abound. One I like — this week — suggests that the original actor playing the Fool was also doubling as another character in the play. I like that one, and for this week’s Gemini news, it helps to think about that doubling. Helps to be able to be in two places at once. For that skill set? Helps to be Gemini?

Since there is no author blog, we have no way to know what the plan was, and why the character disappears. Could be the Fool wound up on the cutting room floor. Could be a single actor played multiple parts and was required on stage in a different costume. Or, another theory, this is Gemini after all, perhaps the King Lear himself becomes the fool, and then, no other player is required. Unlike Lear’s Fool, I don’t want Gemini written off halfway through, but with the current shifts? Be aware that some of the doubling might no longer be required.

Cancer

When Mars finally enters Cancer, the sign of the Moon Child? There will be action — action and frustration. The frustration level of this Mars transit is greatly exacerbated by Pluto and Saturn on the opposite side of the wheel. While not inherently bad in themselves, the Pluto/Saturn influence get doubled or even trebled by Mars. It’s coming, and the best I can do is warn you. The quickest, and easiest way through this planetary mess? Slow down — which is the opposite, or feels like the opposite, of what Mars will want you to do. However, start now, look at the project, look at the future timeline, look at your datebook, or, in my case the example of my calendar. Usually, allow an hour to an hour and half for an hour-long reading. There’s preparations, too, so a single hour can take up to two hours. In my schedule, instead of booking people back to back, what I’ll do is allow some slop time. I have to get a cup of coffee. I have to get another cup of coffee. I need to get some water, then some more coffee. See how this goes? Mars will try to compress time, and the short cut version I’ve got? Allow more time to get specific task done. “Should only take 15 minutes to get this done.” Allow an hour. “This should only take 15 minutes,” allow an hour, and when you get done in half that time? You can call it a success instead of being angry and frustrated. Mars? Mars is coming: allow more time.

The Leo

I don’t do “death” predictions. While a life-line can be etched out in a natal astrology chart, and while I can do a “whole life” reading, I tend to shy away from exact “death” predictions. That just spooks me. This popped up because a certain Leo was inquiring about his parents, or his remaining parent, who seemed to be in failing health. “If I gave you her birthday, could you, you know, look and see if the time is near?” I don’t need that specific birth chart to explain, to the majestic Leo that time is near for great changes. Next couple of weeks bring on sudden — and dramatic — shifts in perception for The Leo. Death prediction? No. Change? Yes. Shift in perception? Check yes, again. The great change that occurred, in this rather pointed and specific example? The parent’s health rebounded, and they are all on the mend, not just the parent, but the adult-child’s relationship. See how that works out? In this case, all for the better. Is there a death looming on your horizon? I doubt it. Is there change? I think so.

Virgo

I used to use an essential oil that smelled good. It was simply labelled, “Strength.” The proposition was that wearing a drop of that oil on me, as I headed out to work, or to do whatever, wearing a drop of that oil lent me strength. It was — as if — that oil was imbued with magical powers that made me stronger, more resilient, and able to face greater, more daunting task with ease. Ease and grace, really, and looking at the way things are stacking up in Virgo-land? With a preponderance of material in both Taurus and Capricorn, this suggests an astrological essential oil like that stuff called “Strength.” Does that stuff really work? I’m much divided on its efficacy — on the one hand, seems a lot like voodoo and stage magic, cool, but not real. However, flip that around, and it seems to work. I’m unsure if it was the proprietary blend of herbs and spices in that oil, or if it was the way it smelled, or if it was that I could smell it all afternoon, or if there really was a magical, paranormal super-power that infused the concoction. Totally not sure. But it worked. The planets are like that essential oil called “strength.” For Virgo? Take a whiff and put some shoulder into getting that task finished.

Libra

Towards the end of his life, my own father identified with Shakespeare’s character, King Lear, more and more. In this example, it was my own father lamenting some of his decisions, as near as I could tell. Wasn’t until I started thinking about this, and this was for the weekly Libra missive, that I understood. I suspect he was also reaching for some kind of redemption from his children. No idea.

Still, I recall his more lucid commentary, about Lear, in particular. For me, there’s was one version of Lear I saw on stage, and it was so well done, yes, I cried, even though I knew, ahead of time, it has an unhappy ending. Get caught up in the moment of the performance? Yes, even though I know the script, I still stand amazed. Sit amazed, I guess, in the audience. For me, the question is it the play’s words, was it the actors’ skills, or is the director’s touch? What part of this is what makes it work? I’m not sure. With the last production I recall, on stage, it was the actors, with a hat-tip to a creative director who apparently disassembles the play for the actors. Really well-done, it evokes great sadness, and in that sadness? We were cleansed. They suffer, suffer horribly, then die, on stage so we don’t have to face such tragedies in our own lives. This week is like a Shakespeare tragedy, where all the bad stuff happens to other people, on stage, and our Libra selves can have empathy plus sympathy, but at the end of the week? Catharsis from watching, but not participating, in the tragedy.

Scorpio

One person’s trash is another person’s gold. What is discarded and unusable to one person might appear to be a rough draft, possible projects, or historical find of inestimable value. All depends. One person’s trash is another person’s gold. One of my buddies was looking at a stack of crap I had by the front door, old t-shirts, a couple of fishing hats that are frankly worn out, and similar clothing that needed to be discarded. There were some “medium” shirts, and the chance of those every fitting again?

Yeah, the popular line at my work? “I used to be a medium, but now I’m a large.”

I’ll pat my belly after the remark. So that was material I was getting ready to donate to charity, as I have a friend who collects that stuff, then distributes the recyclable clothing to various church charities. Think she lets it all go to a St. Jude Resale Shoppe, but I’m unsure of the facts. So my other friend, looking at the pile of clothing headed out the door, asks if he can snag a t-shirt or two. He sorted through until he found a t-shirt with band’s name on it, then grabbed that. Later, I asked what he used it for. “Cleaning.”

Hey, this is about one person’s trash being gold to another person, and it was a perfect shirt for what he wanted. For me? It was gone. The trick is, when giving away something like that t-shirt? Once it leaves our Scorpio hands, what happens to it is no longer our concern. My original goal, the Scorpio goal, was to get rid of some stuff that no longer is useful. What happens to it? As long as the recpient is happy? Do we care?

Sagittarius

I went looking for a book, I thought I had. It was a “channeled work,” a kind of wholistic text about a topic, but the material that is fully drawn from the ether? I’m unsure that I wholly trust that kind of source. Might be a good source, but — in my mind — it also highly suspect data. Not always reliable. I prefer concrete, not abstract, roots and sources. I like to see data replicated, across a broad spectrum, to insure that I’m dealing with something that might be considered “facts.”

I like my facts to be factual, easiest way to explain it.

More than one “channeled” work comes to mind, though, as entertaining and ultimately, educational in its source. However, I still consider that suspect data, and treat it as fiction, not fact, a great story, not really true history. Kind of like “Historical Fiction,” good stuff, but always some supposition, not absolute truth. Can “feel” true, but the best fiction has to make some kind of sense whereas true human behavior, is, on a good day, befuddling, at best.

I never found that book, but some of data is available online, so I found what I was looking for. Interesting way to interpret a situation, but it wasn’t one that I liked, so, well, it was channeled work, so for me, no great loss. Looking for one thing led me to another. Sagittarius: looking for one item leads us to what we were really looking for in the first place.

Capricorn

Interesting Shakespeare tidbit, the character of King Lear, in the play? He never appears at the same spot, twice. Each setting is a different location. Subtle stagecraft, and one, when seen on a conventional stage, might escape the audience’s conscious mind. Still, that has to roil around in the subconscious, and as a bit of narrative metaphorical foolery? Works well. The character, King Lear, is always moving forward, quicker and quicker, towards his inevitable — by the play’s standards — end.

Yes, it is called a tragedy and it ends — it ends “not well.” When well-performed, last time I saw it on stage, the ending brought tears, even though, I know how it was going to end. The constant motion of the narrative swept me up and did what it was supposed to do, transported me across the eons of time to a pagan Britain, and its king. So the king is never in the same setting, each scene places him in a new place, never retracing his steps. Ever forward.

Is there a message in Lear’s actions that might apply to Capricorn? Yeah, don’t divide your kingdom up, right? No, that’s not what I was thinking about, this is about never appearing twice in the same place. Don’t throw out repetition and habit, but maybe, like Lear, never appear at the same place twice. Mars. Mars and the approach of a Full Moon. Mostly Mars, though.

Aquarius

The “crescendo” is the way a piece of music gradually gets louder. This week as musical piece? Sounds good. Too bad I don’t have better roots in classical music. I could explain the way the symphony hems and haws around, then gradually starts to get louder, and builds up that crescendo. There was some “rock opera” that played with those themes, the problem there being the first half of the term, “rock opera,” and inherent in rock music in general is volume. It’s just better at a fuller volume. Most rock music is less about subtleties, and more about raucous noise.

“If it’s too loud then you’re too old!”

Hurts to be on the other side of that one, now. Anyway, the planets are slowly rolling towards a crescendo moment for Aquarius, but watch it: not now. Not this week. Close, but not quite, still, you can hear it as it slowly builds. The challenge is to not over-anticipate the arrival of the conclusion, which isn’t this week. Building up towards it? Yes, less for the swelling of the music, as it — gradually — gets louder.

Pisces

I got stuck on a single brand of afternoon libation, a kind of imported water, some years ago. Toting around a bottle of that stuff necessitated to always have a bottle opener on hand. Towards that end, attached to the key-ring holder in various bags, plus tucked inside a briefcase I still use some days, I’ve got various forms of bottle openers. Seems simple enough, but it is a bit odd, to find a bottled beverage that doesn’t have the “twist-off” top. At first, this started with just a single item, a “Port Aransas, TX” labeled bottle opener. This grew, however, into a minor obsession with various ways to carry a bottle opener, keeping in mind that I like stay sleek and ready to hop on a plane at a moment’s notice. That is a Family Thing, ready to bounce quickly. Always prepared. The bottle openers I carry? I tend to use them on specialty bottled water and not much else. Every once in a while I’ll have a fishing buddy with fancy bottled beer, but you know, not my thing. Still, as a token and safety tool, always nice to have an opener around. So the hot tip for Pisces and the days ahead? Find a bottle opener. I tend to just use it for that bottled water, but some of them have a myriad of uses. Never can tell, and then, it never hurts to be extra prepared. One fishing buddy has a pair flip-flops with an opener on the bottom, built in. A practical Pisces I know, she always carries an opener, a simple, flat one, on her key ring. Always be prepared.

Aries

Solidify dream, goals, and directions. There’s an inherent amount of focus that comes with some of the shifts occurring in your Aries world. The idea, the way to harness this energy in a fashion that benefits you the most? Get a distinct target in mind.

Pick a single direction that makes the most sense at the time. Sort out what makes the most measurable results that you’re interested in, pick that one. What I do is pick a series of finite, sometimes merely component pieces, of a goal. Not getting it all at once, but setting a course, with it firmly in mind? The motions of Mars help. It’s a simple way to handle a number of emerging exigent circumstances, pick a direction. Solidify — in your Aries mind — solidify dreams, goals, and directions.

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“Nothing runs on automatic.” – L.W. “Bud” Shipley, Jr.