The sun begins to gild the western sky,
And now it is about the very hour
That Silvia at Friar Patrick’s cell should meet me.
She will not fail, for lovers break not hours,
Unless it be to come before their time,
So much they spur their expedition.

Eglamour in Shakespeare’s
Two Gentlemen of Verona 5.1.1-5

Jupiter turns direct in Sagittarius.

Horoscopes for 8.8.2019

The Leo

While the source for the quote used this week is an early play by Shakespeare, the inspiration stems from my travels. From the Pacific Coast, backwards towards West Texas and the High Plains, down to native Austin with its violet crown, and then, for the many years I commuted, from Austin to San Antonio, especially in the summer, an evening with sunset, “The sun begins to gild the western sky,” &c. I live in the land of magical, mystical sunsets: Texas, West Texas, Austin, New Mexico, and Arizona. I see — and feel the magic.

The witching hour for The Leo, in the immediate future? Right at sunset. While Jupiter does his thing, he’s going to lay on a little extra “juice” to The Leo’s activities. A regal pause helps. The magic, during the next couple of days? Always around sunset for The Leo. Pause, as need be, and look to the heavens.

Virgo

There’s a propensity to attribute certain action to planets. Sometimes, I hear about, or read about, certain planets getting way more credit than due. However, as I was poking at this week’s horoscope, and thinking, “Virgo, what’s up with that?” I noticed two items of interest. One, the opening quote had faulty attribution. I fixed that immediately. In doing so, I was working on what it means to mutable earth Virgo to have Jupiter pause, mid-stride, and start to move up. Great realization? For Virgo?

There’s a halting motion, a time to pause and rewind. A cosmic hiccup that suggests we all just stop and look at it for a minute. I don’t usually get worked up when big planets shift, and once Jupiter starts moving forwards in earnest, this won’t be a factor, but during this pause period? That’s what it takes. Perfect example? I looked at the opening quote, and tried to remember where that was in Two Noble Kinsmen. I caught my mistake, but only because I used this Jupiter moment to pause. For Virgo, though, it might be a little more like crashing into something, but a simple pause might help. The planets suggest this action — or lack of action.

Libra

The way the planets spin? Or, the pattern decribed by the planets and their apparent locations, as seen from here on Earth? We have a pattern that hits every 20 years or so, and this one is getting here a little earlier. This is the first touch of what is to come. The biggest obstacle that faces Libra at the moment? Patience. “I have plenty of patience, I’m a very patient person. I just wish they would hurry up already!”

Doesn’t sound like a lot of patience, as advertised. “No, really, I’m very patient. But can you please hurry?”

Starting to see Libra fray around the edges. Which is the problem, and there is no solution. From the old, self-help days? “Pray for patience, and the good lord will give you something to be patient about.” I might have that wrong, and if the wording doesn’t fit with your own sensibilities? Then change it around to work better. “The universe gives us something to patient about,” or, “I asked for patience, and I got an obstacle, what’s up with that?” The final one, always amusing to me, “Is Mercury Retrograde?” No, this is a function of other planets, and it’s up to Libra to start being a little more resilient, going with the flow, and not getting in a too all-fired-up hurry. Soon. Maybe not quite as soon as your Libra self would like, but soon.

“How soon?”

Soon enough.

Scorpio

With all the motion in Leo? What to watch for? “Gently used,” as in the sales copy that suggests, although the material is recycled, it is almost as good as new. I’ll go two ways with this, as I’ve had great luck with “new-used” items. Like buying a “pre-owned” vehicle? Sure. Sometimes that works. Other times? Not so much.

The problem with this week’s Scorpio stars is that the “gently used” tagline might not be accurate. In part, I’ll bet it is. I’ll bet the stuff is “used,” but it also might be all used up, with no hope for redemption. In the bad, old days, we used to use a cheap, spray can lacquer to touch up certain engine parts. (Motorcycle days — way back.) The idea was that the flat black looked like the factory finish, or the aftermarket finish and that sold the item. Cheap, black lacquer? Out of a spray can? Crap would burn off the first time the motor got really hot, like a long summer run in Texas. But until that moment? Looked even better than “new.” This doesn’t just apply to vehicles, either, it can run across a broad spectrum of retail sales.

Varies from Scorpio to Scorpio, but the idea is that this week requires more than just “kicking the tires,” more than poking around under the hood. Pull out spark plugs and see if they are fouled. Yeah, and maybe that applies to more than just vehicle sales.

Sagittarius

There are certain skill sets that require practice — patient practice — to maintain. These are “fungible” practices, though, like — fishing is a good example. Certain portions of the skills are similar, like casting with a spinning rod. That can be a lightweight and flexible pole used for crappie fishing on a local lake, or it can be a much stouter pole used for inshore fishing at the coast, the skills remain similar and require a certain amount of use in order to keep from getting rusty.

I can slip from super-lightweight, almost flimsy crappie pole over to a bass fishing rig, and then to a coastal inshore set-up with relative ease. All gear I own, use, and enjoy. I suspect the last part of that is the secret to the practice with that “fungible” skill set, though. I enjoy the activity and that makes it less like “work,” and more like fun, adding fun to the fungible equation. Still there’s is a certain amount of rote, like enhancing muscle memory. Besides, the light bite of a crappie, the way it tickles the pole, and barely hints that there is a fish on? Feels a lot like sea trout do, inshore. Same skills, or remarkably similar skills, and this is a good time to hone them, one way, or another. Lake, pond, stream, bay, ocean, any of those.

Capricorn

This is about the life lived in the margins. I’m not asking about marginalized Capricorn, no, not that. I was thinking about material that I hastily scribble in the margins of texts that I keep on hand. While I’ve mentioned this before, it bears repeating, I think. I have a text copy, a cheap pocket paperback copy of Meditations by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It has various placeholders stuck into it: old business cards, airline napkins, a coffee stir stick, post-it notes. Along the margins, in pen, pencil, and other forms, are notes with dates.

This is a single example about what I mean about Capricorn and the life lived in the margins. This isn’t about less, or some weird Saturn stuff, although, sure, that’s part of it. Life lived in the margins is a bit what we add to what is already there. One of the biggest regrets I have? In a used bookstore, there was an astrology text I’ve used and long discarded, but that one copy in the store? The book was full of post-it notes, obvious that the previous owner had studied the text thoroughly. I still kick myself for not getting that book — just for the margin notes. I have a couple of used textbooks that I hold onto, merely for the margin notes. So this is about the notations we have, possibly just to ourselves, what something means, maybe just to us, and maybe, this isn’t for publication. Not entirely private, either, but not for general consumption. This next week is about what, the act of, and why, you’re writing stuff in the margins of the textbook of the Life of Capricorn. Life lived in the margins, next few days.

Aquarius

When I moved this last time, new address and all, I hadn’t been here more than week or two and I got package from Apple. New business bauble, sure, we know how that goes, but I hadn’t broken in the new delivery guys, so they don’t understand. He left the package with a neighbor, really, mis-delivered the package, and the “signature required?” No one signed for it. My new, very expensive tool (toy) was sitting someplace, the problem? The online “tracking” link said, “It had been delivered — and signed for.”

I eventually figured it out, introduced myself to the new neighbor, chatted briefly, handed him a business card with my call number on the back in case he needed it, and picked up the new toy. Tool. Techno-bauble, really. Part of this is a failure on the package delivery service. But most of this is my own fault, for starters, I have to “break in” the delivery guys. Get them used to my hours, and that I’m here some afternoons, and that when it says “Signature required,” then a signature — by me — is required. Not an afterthought, or a, “This doorstep is good enough.” Matter of training them and letting them know I’m the good guy. Always ready on hot summer’s afternoon with an ice cold bottle of water. Always nice. Praise good works. All a matter of training — breaking in the new location.

“Here, I’m Aquarius, can I get you a bottle of water?”

Pisces

“Never do today, what we can put off until next, week!” Wait, I’ve heard that advice before, where? Oh, from me! Words to live by. It’s a solid mantra, for sometime now, you know, “Never do today what we can put off for weeks, or, maybe, not have to do at all.” Avoid responsibility and avoid blame. Can’t get blamed for something you didn’t do.

I should amend that a touch, as I get blamed for things I never did, but I’m not Pisces, and you are. The trick to this tricky astrological weather? “Do nothing, and avoid the problem.”

There is one Pisces, “But I have to fix this right now!” Not, no you don’t. Look at it. Pull out a cell phone and pretend to look up an answer on the inter-webs.

Avoid responsibility by avoiding action. While this is no kind of a long-term solution, next couple of days, come on, Full Moon in Aquarius? Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Sun in Leo? Lots of very determined energy, and action taken at times like this? Long-lasting repercussions. By-word for the Pisces week? “Never do today what we can put off until…” I’ll let you be the determining factor about when. “Next week?” Week after that? “How about next (indeterminate amount of time)?” Sounds perfect.

Aries

Reel in the expectations for this week. There’s the full moon, lots of fun, but it is, at best, problematic because it is a fixed moon. “Fixed” refers to all that Leo (compatible fire sign), and that full moon in Aquarius (fixed air). So there’s a resolutely stubborn quality that abounds, and that doesn’t really work well with the straightforward, but quick-responding Aries. Hence, our problems.

Or problem. Or just an irritation because there will material that pops up that only seems to serve to appear as an obstacle. It’s not really an obstacle, just a reminder that your Aries self need to adjust, light on your feet you are, adjust your trajectory, around, over, or under the obstacle.

I kept thinking, “Feint left, feint left,” with the follow up being “dodge right.” In other words, zig one way, then, in the next minute, zag the other way. Easy enough. “Yeah, easy enough for you, have you tried it like this?” Nope, and I’m not going to, either. This is Aries specific suggestions. Pick one direction, then adjust as need be to work around, walk around, or drive around whatever that fixed object is.

Taurus

Fishing trips are not usually inexpensive affairs. What started out as a hobby off the back porch of my place in Austin, along the lake — had morphed into a more expensive proposition. Used to be, it was me and single fishing pole, and some worms. I did burn through a tremendous amount of tackle, always trying to find the correct arrangement. Still, that was super-simple.

Some days, I want to go back to that, as well, just a single pole, a pocket full of some kind of fishing gear, and a creek, a river, a small pond, a medium sized lake. That was fun.

Next few weeks promise to be really good fishing along the coast, at least, for me, it looks good. As a Taurus, think about this, as it is a good time to think about fishing. For me, now, we have to get to the coast, have a place to stay, arrange for live bait, gear for several guys, and the list goes on. Planning meals, in some capacity, although I do tend to favor just stopping at BBQ joint and picking up fresh smoked meats. All adds up over time. One week, bait is cheap; the next week, bait prices soar. Supply and demand. It’s not longer a cheap trip. With a certain amount of planning, though, this can be easy to do. We’re in the Taurus planning stage for that next fishing trip. When? Soon; very soon.

Gemini

It was an off-brand bag of potato chips. Well, chips, anyway. Not sure real potatoes were used in the construction. Glancing at the back, I looked, it said something like 100 calories per serving. Cool, right? Read the details on the back of that “nutrition” label. It looked like, to me, it was single serving size. A single bag would be a good snack, and at 100 calories? I guess not too much, right? Looking at the details on the back, it said, “100 calories per serving.” The kicker, and we’ve all seen this before, “3.5 servings per container.” That means 350 calories per bag, or, in my mind, 350 calories per serving, as it looks a lot like a single serving bag to me.

The old joke was about the little pints of ice cream, “Serves four.” Most of my friends all agree at that the little pints of ice cream serve one. With a sugar coma afterwards, dairy rush then crash. In our current world, such tricks in marketing aren’t so unusual, ”Only 100 calories per serving!” Comes a time when this stuff works, and comes a time when this stuff doesn’t work. As the Gemini, do you want to believe that a single serving, only about 17 chips, has a mere 100 calories? Then the question, will you only eat 17 chips? Me? We know I’ll eat the entire package in a single sitting. I’ll also lie to myself and tell me that there were only a hundred calories — in that whole bag. But I’m not Gemini. So how does this work for you?

Cancer

I get in trouble for the things I say. Part of this, I can now attribute to age. Twenty or thirty years ago? I’m not sure what I would blame. Me being me. It hasn’t changed, but any excuse, I’ve grown into my excuse. I can play this off as me being an eccentric old man. Part of this, though, is merely my lack of filter. Way it is, and by now, I’ve grown accustomed to my mannerisms, and I doubt this pattern will change. I do make an effort to be nicer about how and what I say, in person, but I can still evoke strong feelings with my own naïveté and sheer innocence. Not like I’m trying to elicit a response, or, more to the point, not like I’m trying to piss someone off; I just do it naturally.

It’s an inadvertent skill set, one might suggest. We know that I can do this. We know that this is a special, like, a super-power I have. I go on at length about this because I find it rather amusing. Some folks find is disquieting and disconcerting, possibly even upsetting. While I brush this off with Sagittarius aplomb? With Mars and Venus where they are? Good chance, in a a moment of rare Moon Child (lack of grace), you’ll open your mouth and say something like me. Something stupid, offensive, derogatory — or construed as sexually explicit — even though that’s the furtherest meaning from our minds. I’m trying to save you pain, embarrassment, possible problems by begging you to think it through, pause, or just not say anything, but nod you’re head, this next week. Are you good with that?

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

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