“O powerful love, that in some respects makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast.”

Falstaff in Merry Wives (V.v.4)

Horoscopes for 2.20.2020

Pisces

I ran across that quote, totally out of context, and popped it up for this week’s horoscopes because, well, it carries a message. Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor is sometimes regarded as an inferior play because it doesn’t fit the overarching themes. Then, too, there is the apocryphal evidence that the play was requested by Queen Elizabeth — I just think of Dame Judi Dench in that role — so that the popular character Falstaff would get his just rewards. The quotation does play to the duality of the times, and the duality of the nature of the recent events, on both a larger, grander scale, and then, even in my own experience, here on a local level.

Does Pisces have any experience with love, or one of its analogs, that tamed a beast, or turned a man into beast? The holidays are over, at least, for some, and here, we’re gearing up for either spring break, the bass spawning, some coastal fishing, or other holidays. I just work with what I like. As the Pisces birthday months start, ask, “Is this man or beast?” Then, I guess, which one would you prefer, Pisces?

Aries

As long as Mercury is Retrograde in Pisces, you know what that spells, right? Just one annoying delay after another. Just once more item that interferes with moving forward in a rational way. I rather liked stumbling into that opening bit from Shakespeare — The Merry Wives of Windsor is, best guess, a topical attempt at an Elizabethan era romantic comedy, and those never end well. Or do they? For Aries, this next few days?

In the “Shakespeare structure,” we’re in Act 3 where events are going badly for all involved. This is that point, if life were like a TV show? This is that third act twist where it looks rather bleak for all involved. Eventually, at least in varieties of fiction, like Shakespeare plays, or TV shows? The good guy gets the reward, and in this play I’m thinking of? The miscreant Falstaff gets dumped in the river with dirty laundry, a comeuppance of sorts. He really deserves a much harsher sentence, but all in good fun, right? This week is the the middle of the turning point from which there seems to be no hope. It’s going to work out well, for Aries, eventually. Just, you know, not without some Mercury in Retrograde inspired follies.

Taurus

Kitchen faucet, place I used to live? It was a sort of fancy, kind of nice, kitchen like, it has been recently redone. I think it was redone by the previous tenant, sort of a mix and match of styles, a cross between Pinterest, Home Depot, and the DIY channel, know what I mean? An unseemly collection of material that didn’t quite match and always appeared second best. Many items didn’t quite line up properly. I never complained to the landlord because the place was cheap. The one kitchen faucet, though, it was always felt like it wasn’t installed properly. If I wasn’t careful, when I shut it off, if I didn’t tap it just right, it would drip. The endless “drip-splash-drip” cycle, repeated over and over. In the still of the night, when it was dark out, and the neighbors were quiet, probably passed out, for a small amount of time, if I didn’t hit that faucet correctly? From the other end of the house, I could hear it, “Drip. Splash.” Un-syncopated beat, as this was a not metric beat, not musical, then, one more time? “Drip (space) splash.” If it was a steady issue, then this wouldn’t be a problem, as that’s like the tattoo sound of a hard spring rain on the roof. But that wasn’t the faucet in question. Cure? Simple. Get up in the middle of the night and adjust the faucet’s handle so it was totally shut-off, and thereby, totally shut-up. Going to be a long week of dripping faucets with emotional backsplash for Taurus.

Gemini

There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way. In my own experience, the wrong way tends to be a lot more fun, and the wrong way can be way more enjoyable. All good, right? Except it’s the wrong way, and therein is part of the problem. There’s also the wrong way to handle a situation, person sits down across from me, and I’m a little amped on coffee. Not unusual. I spin into my usual patter, planets, signs, energies, and I can see I’m losing this person. My candor and frank metaphor isn’t for everyone. Some folks are shocked at what I suggest. I’m old school, a little too truthful at times, and I don’t like to hold back. Or shut up.

It’s that moment when I realize I’ve over-shared, even though it’s what I’m getting paid to do, and there’s that heart-beat moment, “I really should shut up.” Know the feeling? Bet you run into that this next few days. Right way, wrong way, my way. Or the highway? No, that won’t work. But before you over-share, over-communicate, or keep going passed that point of no return? If you think about me, and my ability to really get lost? Are you sure you want to follow me down that verbal, Mercury-plagued pathway? Before it gets awkward? Maybe try shutting. Here, have some coffee.

Cancer

There’s a kind of digital asset management that comes into play at times like this. In may own life, I have this worked it into an effortless arrangement wherein my junk mail gets hosed out every week, after 7 days, and my static mail, the stuff I want to keep? That correspondence gets backed up within hours of arrival. Anything else? If I hit “delete,” then the material is deleted and permanently erased after 30 days. All nice and tidy. If I forget something, if it’s not in the digital files? Not going to happen. If your computer — or phone — or whatever — didn’t get a notice from my phone — tablet — or whatever? Then there’s a high probability that whatever we discussed wasn’t going to happen. Check back with me to make sure it happens, in a timely fashion, or otherwise? Not going to happen at all. I have a great fount of creative ideas, and to make sure that I never lose track of whatever the next great idea was? I have a way to make a notation. For me, I have to “write it down,” and that means, tapped into a digital note product of some kind. For me, the act of “writing it down” entails tapping on some type of a keyboard, or keypad, or whatever we’re all using this week, the on-screen key-thing.

That’s me.

For the Moon Children, the Cancer corner of the heavens? Write it down — you know — whatever form that takes.

The Leo

My library, a personal library, has grown and shrunk and grown, and all depends on my state of mind. However, there’s always an odd collection of books that don’t make a lot of sense. One-off novels by certain authors, and typically, I try to stay away from too much “mainstream” fiction. Not that it doesn’t have its place, just can’t have too much — might rot my brain. Intellectual cotton-candy? Flipped around, and this is about The Leo, right? Flipped around, and there’s this odd collection of books that don’t seem to have a home. The books don’t belong to a series, or I might just have the single volume by particular authors. One of the great thinkers of the last 50 years or so, started with astrology, and I have his astrological text, and then, he’s got a series of other books, and those are not strictly speaking astrology. Not lumped together, unless I’m organizing only by author. Even then, there are odds and ends in the library. The Leo’s library has some odds and ends, detritus, mental and intellectual, leftover. What you decide to do with this? I have shelf that is just crap that doesn’t belong to any mind of a collection, but I can’t bear to part with, either. For whatever emotional or sentimental hold the text might have, I can’t let it go. In my example, this is about books and my collection thereof. In The Leo’s life? This could be anything that defies a certain grouping, singles, unresolved, unsociable, or too sentimental to toss. Whatever the way this breaks down? Not this week, yeah, maybe don’t toss it this week.

Virgo

Some years ago, I made note of a character actor using this line in a period piece, and it was amusing to me. One source of the comment is that it seems like a fairly current term, and as another source of mirth? It seems to be true irony. It’s the kind of expression, a preface to any Virgo commentary for the next week? The idea is that there’s a disturbing, disgusting, abusive, or otherwise unwelcome comment headed down the old verbal highway. There is an audio clue, a way to be prepared. As soon as you hear this? Then you’re aware about what is about to happen. I tend to be on the recidivist end of this kind of a commentary, and when I hear it, I get prepared, as what the words says, and what comes next seems to be diametrically opposed. Words that come out that sound like one meaning, but, the following commentary has a different meaning, altogether? Therein is the problem. You know the source, right? Plus, and when I use this expression, I mean it, you know?

“I mean this with all due respect, but…”

The more common expression amongst my friends? “True story, no lie.” Either way, these are verbal clues for your future.

Libra

Comes a time in everyone’s life when the idea is simple, we just need to get a bigger hammer. The idea is easy enough, with an adequately large blunt-force device, i.e., a bigger hammer? With such a device we can force a situation to go in our preferred Libra direction. Herein is the problem, no matter how a big a hammer we get? No matter how large a blunt force device, mallet, anvil, whatever? No matter what kind of crude device used for a kind of primeval course-correction, no matter how much this can be viscerally fulfilling? I doubt this will solve this week’s Libra challenges. Feels good to mash stuff with a big hammer. Fells even better to use a five-pound, short-handled sledge on the problem. Depends on the situation, individually, but overall? Hammer, hammering, and trying otherwise force a situation, coerce the correct answer by sheer force? Not the right answer. Emotionally satisfying, in the short term, but no, not the best Libra answer in the overall picture, no matter emotionally fulfilling it is at the time. No, not a bigger hammer, not this week.

Scorpio

I had one class in technical writing. Considering I was already writing for a newspaper, and I was already doing some graduate-level course-work in literature studies, yeah, I figured the class would be a breeze. Easy A, right? Instead, I had to learn a new way to communicate; strictly dry, boring stuff. Lose the conversational style. Change the flagrant misuse of the language. Use fewer emotionally charged words. More plain exposition. Yeah, that wasn’t a really good experience, not for me. The technical writing is more plain, less fanciful, and more concerned with a stricter, step-by-step approach. Introduction, beginning, middle, end, conclusion. Five parts. In order. Conclusion ties back to the introduction. “Tell me what you’re going to tell me, then tell me what you tell me, then tell me what you told me.” Simple outline, strict, and adhere to the outline. Beginning, middle, end. Structure and simple logic. Too simple for me, but I wanted a good grade, so I did it like I was supposed to, and considered that technical writing was one of my strengths — and weaknesses. Consider that outline structure for Scorpio and the weeks ahead. “Tell me what you will tell me; tell me what you tell me; tell me what you told me.” Really a simple idea, and a simple structure. Scorpio: stick to the simple idea and the simple structure. You know the outline, now.

Sagittarius

One of my favorite defense mechanism, simple enough expression, “It seemed a like a good idea at the time?” Even as a happy-go-lucky, and mostly clueless Sagittarius myself? That line, as tempting as it might be, and no matter how well it might fit within a certain scenario this week? Stop. Pause. Wait a second. Have you ever heard someone else use that line, or a similar kind of excuse, maybe worded differently, but still of that ilk? “You know, I realize, in hindsight, that perhaps that wasn’t the most opportune decision at the time, but in the moment, it sure presented as the most correct answer to the problems at hand.” Lot longer but still, essentially, “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Has that ever worked, really? I can shrug, roll my shoulders, and pretend that it works, and it does work — inside my head. My internal “Kramer” says, “Sure, that works well.” Outside forces, and events, occurring outside our immediate realm of influence — seems like stuff we can’t control? That brings a different point of view, and — perhaps — the expression, “It seemed like a good idea at the time?” Maybe that is better left unsaid, or — at least — not uttered by our Sagittarius selves. Yes, I know, it did seems like a good idea at the time, but let someone else, some other sign, let them draw that conclusion. Me? I would go ahead and do it anyway, no regrets, because, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Capricorn

An archetype for several generations, the cover to Pink Floyd’s album, Dark Side of the Moon is highly iconic. It shows a single beam of light being split by a prism. Which illustrates a perfectly sound scientific principle, the way light can be refracted into its different wavelengths. What I liked, I’ve seen that image echoed across from generation to generation, which, in part suggested that the music is truly classic in its own right. My familiar lament about the loss of album cover art, that simple image belies its efficacy because it is simple. I’ve seen it on baby clothes, and younger pre-teens, as well as adults, and in some cases, people clearly born long after the album was originally released. There’s that single white line that gets turned into a rainbow of colors. What this means for Capricorn in the week, weeks, ahead? Reverse the image. Reverse engineer the meaning. Take that rainbow, the fan of colors spread out like color swatches, and distill that into a single, organized beam of light, with laser-like efficiency. Instead of being split into a myriad of colors and directions, think about taking all those spectrums of colors and combining them into a single, Capricorn-like laser. It’s just like that iconic image, only, instead of splitting into a rainbow forest of colors, we’re picking a single, focused direction for that Capricorn attention.

Aquarius

Such a strange time even by Aquarius understandings, am I right? It’s weird notion that the stars govern our conditions, but what I’ve observed is that the stellar influences do pave certain pathways, and what better route to follow than no direct destination? I understand that a clear point of demarcation, a place where we all leave is clear, but the destination seems to be hidden. Part of this is general obfuscation, part of this is very Aquarius specific, and some of this derives from the general zeitgiest as that plays into this weirdness quotient.

Dispensing with the roots and causes of this weirdness does nothing to relieve their presence. And to some, I spent a lot of time in Austin so weird is relative, and my relatives are weird, but to some, this level of strange goes beyond whatever passes as your normal, Aquarius, eccentricities. Caught between opposing forces, one of the best courses of action, at this time, this week, this next few days? As the strange stuff appears? Do nothing. On certain occasions, no action is perhaps the best action. Might be the best example, right now, do nothing, and don’t get caught.

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

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