“What can be their business
With me, a poor weak woman, fall’n from favor?
I do not like their coming. Now I think on’t,
They should be good men, their affairs as righteous.
But all hoods make not monks.”

Queen Katherine
in Shakespeare’s Henry 8 3.1.21-4

The term also shows up in different form, in Latin, in Shakespeare’s 12th Night — “Culcullus non facit monachum.”

Horoscopes for 5.7.2020

Full Moon 17 Taurus/Scorpio on 7 May 2020 at 5:45 AM.

Venus starts a retrograde pattern on May 13, 2020 at 1:45 AM (local), so some charts will show May 12. All depends. Goes direct on June 25.

Mercury goes retrograde on June 17, while Mars has just entered Pisces.

Taurus

Mix water and earth? Mud. Mud can be fired up in a kiln, or just with heat, think: fire? That creates a hardened surface, or in more advanced forms? Ceramics. The two principle elements currently present are basically water (Mars/Neptune in Pisces) and Earth (Uranus/Sun/Mercury in Taurus) with Jupiter and Pluto lagging in Capricorn.

No, there’s other stuff, but for now, think about the incipient forms of ceramics, as that’s the goal for the end of this cycle, and we’re just at the point where we’re starting out, but we haven’t gotten far, and maybe, we need to smash the stuff apart so we can — eventually — rebuild it. Better. Stronger. More durable. More useful. More artful. But for now? We’re just mixing up water and earth to make mud.

Gemini

Just a bullet list for Gemini? Think that would work. Just a bullet list of what to do. Or what not to do? 1.

I’m no good at lists, other than a short list that becomes a long list of items that I want to accomplish over time. I wasn’t, after a few years, much in support of the “Get Stuff Done” business, be that formatted tablets and day-minders, or the more common form of the digital minders. “Now with Bluetooth and Internet!”

Productivity software that never made me more productive. By the time Mercury flies retrograde? We will have forgotten what we were trying to get accomplished and spend too much time trying figure out the software, and how it works. So I don’t have a bullet list for Gemini. But this week? Maybe if you do your own bullet list, that might help. Just about three things that need you attention. No, wait, four. Five?

Cancer

Love me some inter-webs, but there is a problem with too much material available. I ran into this with one sign — not a Cancer moon child — but I saw this replicated, over and over, several times. Wasn’t patently false information, just a little misguided and misleading. While technically accurate, as to the position of the planets, the idea that “This has never occurred before” wasn’t quite true. Hasn’t happened anytime in recent memory, but history junkies like myself can easily back track dates and align data, which is what I did. This energy didn’t go back centuries, more like a couple of decades, and I recall what it was like, then.

The hazard is reproducing a set of conditions and then assuming this is the way it will be. Because a statement is repeated, over and over, doesn’t make it any more true. So this is about actually testing the waters yourself, as the water-element plays in well with the planets in play. Yes, we’ve seen this before, recently, even. Not even the end of the world. Breathe. Test the waters before you get all fired up about “The end is nigh!”

The Leo

Quick detour away from fishing, stars, and stuff. Bear with me, gentle Leo. Shakespeare’s Scottish play is considered a “bad luck” play. Can’t say the name and if you do? Turn around three times and spit. The bad luck has a theory, too, about how it is a very popular play, so before a playhouse or theater would go out of business, they would stage that play then the owner or investors would abscond with the proceeds. Hence the bad luck and “cursed” notion for that play, bunch of unpaid actors and a wrecked theater.

Anecdotal evidence, presented as real. Not really factual, but close enough to work, right? Me? I’m still superstitious about that play’s title, and treat the bad luck aspect with a certain trepidation. True? Not true? Not going to risk it. As the majestic Leo? Do you want to risk the ire of the planets, although some of this is anecdotal evidence, or “I knew a guy who had a friend, whose sister knew…”

I heard one story from a famous Capricorn who had similar, evil experiences with that play. Funny story, now. Then it was serious — fell off the stage and literally broke a leg. The collected evidence indicates a period, up and coming, when there’s much relationship “fretting.” How bad? Only as bad as you make it out to be.

Virgo

Mars creeping into Pisces is almost as bad as Venus going backwards in Gemini. Pick one, or the other, kind of depends, but they are both love planets and they are going to rain on about 79% of the Virgo relations in the next week. Not quite 8 out 10, but more than 7 out of 10, best way to think about it. After re-reading that statement, I realized I’m not communicating the notion of what is most likely: not bad stuff, just uncomfortable material that seems to fall out of the sky.

None of this is bad, but getting stuck in a negative loop about this series of unfortunate astrological events can be misleading. It’s what we do, in Virgo land with the material at hand that matters. Plan for disruptions, delays, and the printer returning a proof that is largely “uncorrected.” Perfect image, I occasionally receive “Uncorrected advance preview” copies of books. That’s what this week is, an “uncorrected advance preview copy,” and treating it as such might be a big help in moving forward. Oh yeah, and as noted elsewhere, “Not for sale.”

Libra

Central Texas has a number of outdoor “festivals,” for lack of better word, events, parties, gatherings, and these start in February then don’t wrap up until “Drinko de Gringo.” Cinco de Mayo is kind of their cap to all the spring festivities that didn’t happen this year, and now we’re dealing with school being out. There’s an inevitable feeling that comes with this for Libra, alternating between dread, regret, joy, and hope. Personally, I’ve been “Shelter In Place” since mid-March.

I’ve closely watched this one little Libra as she is glad and sad at the same time. Sad that the summer’s heat is upon us, but then, glad that the summer’s heat is upon us. However, looking at the way this is wrapping up then moving forward? There’s a period that will require some review. Review, revise, renew. This is an old, possibly sore, subject that requires some kind of Libra presence this next few days. Here’s the part where Libra shines: presences. no, not “presents,” but I’m always in a receptive mood, but no, this isn’t about me, this is about being merely present for the situation. You’ll understand when it happens, but the onslaught of Venus and its mayhem? Just be available to be available.

Scorpio

Bass, not unlike Scorpio, are predators. I tend to think of bass as more like opportunistic predators, and I kept thinking about this one place I used to fish, right at a parking lot drain spout. Big, ole bass would lurk there, and the slight chance of a summer rain, that would wash critters, bugs and stuff, down the drainage spout, and right into the waiting mouth of the ole bass. This is not new data, and the idea that the bass are truly predators does a disservice to both the species of Micropterus and Scorpio.

While they both have the reputation of predatory-like behavior, understanding that the bass themselves are merely lazy and opportunistic helps. Follow my lead from wildlife for the Scorpio week ahead: park yourself where all you have to do is open your mouth and the bait falls in. While I was thinking about this in terms of a downspout where I could easily toss a bait and stand a good chance of catching a river-fed black bass? For Scorpio, this is about putting yourself in the right place to receive whatever the offerings are, or, for that matter, whatever it is that you’re seeking. Less of a “Build and they will come,” and more of “park here, and wait for dinner to be served.”

“You know, some of the state parks are open now.”

Sagittarius

It’s not secret that I have a rich fantasy life. Inside my head, I’m a little thinner, a little darker, a little taller, and I have more hair. In this fantasy life, I’m also much smoother as an operator than I am in real life. That ten-second delay of a smart-ass comebacks? The proper use of satire? Yeah, in my head that all works the way it is supposed to. I am Sagittarius, and these are some of our traits. The biggest issue, now that, well, you know, Mercury, and that’s only one of many offenders, and anyway, the big deal? In our heads, we are just fine. No problems. No issues. World works the way we think it should. In our heads. The biggest problem, once we leave the confines of our imaginary, perfected mental image world? Back in the real world. And back in the real world? There are areas fraught with problems. One of the worst problems I’ve faced, and will be facing this week? My brain — remember the fantasy world? My brain keeps assuring me that I can do, perform, party, and otherwise carry-on like I did when I was in my late 20’s. Not happening. My body now wants a nap. The Sagittarius brain is saying one thing, and the Sagittarius body, yeah, not able to keep up.

“Don’t be making promises that you can’t keep.”

(Brain: We can!)

Capricorn

It was just a cup of gas station coffee, early one morning, last week. Headed out to fish, mask on, the sun wasn’t peeking above the horizon yet. I took a long pull on a styrofoam cup of “gas station coffee,” and I marveled at the smoothness. It was genuinely tasty. Maybe it was the brown, baked coffee pot it came out of. Maybe it was the generic, no name brand coffee. Maybe it was because the water was just tap water. Might’ve been because I was in the cab of a pick-up with a bass boat behind us, and my “lake poles” in the bed of the truck. Could be any number of factors. Was the first cup of coffee, that’s for sure. There is a need to take delight in the smallest of pleasures, especially for Capricorn. It wasn’t a 17-dollar cup of coffee with hints of fruity excellence, wherein the burro who helped harvest the beans was named “Juan.” Nothing like that. It was gas station coffee, go-juice, mass-produced, no flavor, just black, acidic coffee. But for some reason, that morning, and I’m sure there are pictures of me with fish someplace on the site, but that morning, it was perfect.

In order to make the best of the current situations? Take delight in the ordinary. Find those discreet pleasures where one would least expect it. In my case, this was as simple as gas-station coffee that was surprisingly good.

Aquarius

I caught an image of a local hawk the other morning. Phone camera from the hip, and while I got a couple of good shots, it wasn’t distinct enough to identify the exact kind of hawk. I tend to think of all hawks, locally, as Red Tail Hawks. I’ve seen a number of the Red Tail Hawks, an occasional eagle, osprey are quite common around local lakes, but this one hawk? More like a teenager hawk? The feathers on the chest didn’t line up with my understanding of what a Red Tail Hawk should look like. Flipping through an e–book on bird taxonomy, I think it was a Meadows Hawk, but I’m not sure. The immature nature of the bird itself, no way to know. It’s not so much that I’m patient observe of wildlife, just this is one that piqued my curiosity. This paved the way for an interesting few minutes poking around in that digital edition of “Birds of the world,” or some such title, and I discovered I was using a too-broad of a search term, as I wasn’t narrowing the location down to just South Texas. That ruled out a few kinds of birds. As we get started down this path, next few weeks, Mercury in Retrograde, consider that we need to limit our search terms. A little more strict on the search term and there is a better chance of success for Aquarius. Limits. Find the limits , or the delimiters, or whatever that is called.

Pisces

Comes a time when practice, like, “Practice-practice-practice” is what works best. One guy I know, he swears it’s “Muscle Memory.” I’ve heard it put a number of different ways, but the idea is that repetitively performing an action results in that action being a fluid-form action, like it’s possible to perform without having to “think” about it. I can fish like that, from repetitive action performed over and over, so I can land bait within inches of its intended placement.

The old saw I was raised with? “How do you play Carniege Hall?” With “Practice-practice-practice.” There’s a need for the repetition, and just because I did something well the first time, that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try and do at least three or four more times, just to make sure that the first time wasn’t a fluke of some kind. With the way the planets stack up, line up, or fall apart? For Pisces? That “repetitive action,” that muscle memory, knee-jerk response? That is what saves you. Instinct. Instinct born and bred from practice. Or, as I intoned before? “Practice-practice, practice.”

Aries

While this is hardly a “perfect storm” scenario, there is still a few weeks of tumultuous weather ahead. Collected elsewhere, I have an aphorism with a cute name, “Anything that begins well ends badly.”

Kind of what happens right now. “So this ends badly?” Not necessarily, but those are two choices that seem to run concurrent with the current collections of energies represented by the planets. There is always a converse side to the equation I presented, though: the problems that seem to be multiplying at this moment? The portion of the Aries narrative that isn’t working out correctly? The stuff that seems to be falling apart? That’s will get it together, that will start to make better sense, and the disparate pieces that refuse to work in concert with each other? That changes, too.

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

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