By th’ clock ’tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.

• Shakespeare’s Scottish Play (II.iv.5-6)

Horoscopes for 7.30.2020

The Leo

There was an article, online, a few years back that cited the research used by the Frito-Lay corporation, scientific data used to build the better tasting snacks. Chips. The first Fritos were made in San Antonio, and it was, at one time, a localized treat, patterned after the what is, to me, ubiquitous corn chips at most near every TexMex palace. There’s something about the essence of the coarse-ground corn meal, grease, and I don’t know what else is used as herbs and spice. Something. I grabbed a bag of chips, though, a small, “lunch portion” package of chips and was idly musing about the aroma and the highly addictive quality. Can’t eat one. There’s something that’s oddly satisfying, and therein is where science weighs in, something about the way their grease interacts with the animal nature of the human brain and drives us forward.

Also: drives our hands into the bag of chips. There was a science to this, as I recall, building the perfect snack, as it had to have a certain amount of salt, sweet, fat, and grease, and the elements needed to be combined in a certain fashion in order to operate correctly. Think they did it: built a better snack, scientifically speaking.

For majestic and mighty Leo? First, yes, happy birthday, thought I forgot, huh? And then? You can look at the list of ingredients, but remember, they all have to be combined in just the correct combination in order to have the desired effect. Like, with those spices? Some salt, but not too much. Same “hot” but not too much. And some garlic, but again, not too much. Read the ingredients. They researched your Leo tastes. Might want to remember that before opening another big of chips.

Virgo

Pick your way carefully. I am not a Virgo, I pretended I was when I stepped into the kitchen to refill my coffee. Lately, I’ve been using a demitasse espresso cup, really only holds about two swigs of coffee, but using it cuts down on the caffeine and increases the amount of time spent walking back and forth. Then, too, it also feels like I’m drinking gallons of coffee when it’s only a small pot. Still, as I traversed the route, I pretended I was Virgo. “Pick your way carefully.” That means?

That means, act like there are number of obstacles and your most delicate touch is required to negotiate forward. Can’t blindly stagger forward like my Sagittarius self would, no, that does not work. Lunging forward? Cool for me; bad for you. Got that? Pick your way carefully. I was faintly, well as dainty as I could be, when I was making way to refill the tiny coffee cup, and pretending I was Virgo, like every other floorboard was hot lava, or alligators, or something. Carefully, daintily, like a like little flower, making sure that my footing was secure, and I wasn’t violating any boundaries, as arbitrary as they were in my head. Still, carefully traipsing, not just rushing forward.

Virgo: Pick your way carefully.

Libra

Mars squares off against some tough opposition and that focuses an irascible energy on Libra. Normally, sweet, kind, gentle Libra? A little quicker to anger, a little quicker to flip someone off in traffic, a little quicker to have a retort that might not be in our best interest. I would expect it to be sharp and witty, but perhaps some people might find that the Libra wit cuts a little close, failing to tread the fine one between sarcasm and hurtful commentary.

That’s jut an example, doesn’t have to be that way, but there’s a point wherein a good, well-timed pause works better. I was working with one Libra, and I used the fishing metaphor, “Let it sit for a two-count,” and in the example, I would count, “One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four.” A four-count? My four-count, the Libra four-count is about the same as anyone else’s two-count. Right now, anyway. “No, I can do a proper two-count.” If that makes your Libra self appear too hasty? Try my version. I use it when fishing. “You let that bait touch the bottom then reel it up, after a two-count, just a brief pause. Fish gobble up the bait on its way up.” Yeah, after a Kramer (Libra/Mars) four-count.

Scorpio

“Are you confusing a habit with a routine?” Not an original question, but appropriate for this week’s Scorpio flavors. I’m in the habit of writing most mornings. My routine includes making coffee, first. I’d like to think it’s a good habit to have. Oftentimes, especially in our more modern era, though, a person will confuse the two, “habit” and “routine,” one is something we do almost naturally as it is an innate skill-set while the other is merely the steps we take. Good habits. Bad habits. Good routines. Bad routines. All sort of depends. My habit of arising early and typing away to make some sense of planets, life, destinies, and whatever else may cross in front of my attention? I tend to view that as a good habit: wrestling meaning out with a keyboard and word processor of one sort or another. But that’s me. At least one Scorpio took a shot at me and claimed my habit was merely routine hack stuff. To each his own.

My habit, when traveling more than a few minutes by car, my habit to is to spool up some lecture about Shakespeare, or one of the plays, so that it is an audio backdrop and my time doesn’t feel wasted. That’s my habit. My routine usually involves stopping at a certain coffee shop for juice.

Scorpio: don’t confuse habit and routine.

Sagittarius

Pulling up some weeds in my backward, I somehow got tangled with a vine that had small thorns. Briar of some kind, I guess. I lightly scratched my wrist, barley making its way through that first layer of skin. A tiny droplet of blood appeared, thick and red. Then a second, but I kept on working, as it didn’t hurt and I wasn’t going to be bothered. I’ve drawn more blood with pocket knives and fishing hooks, just as an example. It was a mere scratch. The problem, it was on my inner wrist. Didn’t cross any veins, didn’t nick an artery, nothing like that. Just a scratch that bled a little.

However, a few days later, I was someplace — probably working — and a certain person got very concerned about my mental well-being. Some aspects of life are ripe for jokes, and in this situation, I thought my blundering the backyard was perfect for self-deprecating humor. With Saturn, where it is, and with Jupiter, where it is, apparently my humor was either gross, callous, or too dark for comfort. My self-deprecating joke cut too close to the bone. Imagine that, one of my tasteless, off-the-cuff comments was taken out of context and that was a source of much consternation. I stumbled, yet again, into that area where bad tastes and ill-timed commentary further exacerbated a bad situation.

Here’s the trick: don’t.

For Sagittarius? Don’t make the comment. Don’t make the off-color joke. Stay away from the lame attempts at humor when the audience is deadly serious. While it works, Sagittarius to Sagittarius, anyone else? Any other sign? They won’t get it, and we appear crass, tasteless, and socially inept.

“Dude, you’re killing me with these jokes!”

Capricorn

Buddy of mine ran a small business. At first, he called it a tiny business, as he didn’t make much but rather enjoyed the part-time work. Over the years, though, the business — his reputation for attention to detail, thoroughness, and long line of very satisfied customers, gave him room to expand. He hired workers. He turned over some of his craftsmanship to employees. There were growing pains. Employees started taking short-cuts with the work. Quality fell off, and there was the slow decline back to where he started when it was just him and handful of people he worked for.

He never got the knack of franchise in a manner that means his quality would scale up with his growth. In part, this is handmade, individually crafted type of business, and as such, it’s way better if it was just him doing the work, solicitation, sales, closing, and, most important, the actual craftsmanship itself. Beside, when he started out, there was genuine love of the job, and that showed. Why it became such a big deal, to begin with. So as we move forward with the twin influences of Jupiter and Saturn, “Go big or go home?” Is is sustainable? Simple question, and unfortunately, the answer is different for everyone, but maybe, just stick with what you know, and what you like. Ask, before jumping, “Is it sustainable at this pace?”

“It would be if I could hire more people who do as good a job as I do.”

How’d that work out so far?

Aquarius

I am a product of my environment. I was born here, raised here, and probably will perish here, eventually. Just kind of the way it is. Can’t — won’t change that. As a product of my environment, I respond in a predictable manner in most situations. This isn’t an apology. This isn’t an excuse. Straight up observed behavior. Some things change quickly, easily, and others? Less grace is involved. There is, indeed, a series possibly useful changes about to occur in, on, and for Aquarius. Meet this same degree of grace. Meet this some degree of aplomb. Perhaps don’t have a grandiloquent freak-out at the notion of change. While I’m very much a product of my environment, I’ve learned to adjust to changing and challenging morals as we creep into the new world views.

What was once “OK” by the then-current standards is no longer cool. Just not a thing anymore. Or what was casually forgiven, is now an unpardonable sin. Move on. Move forward. Adapt. Realize that grace and willingness to adapt goes much further towards a satisfactory resolution — rather than stubbornly refusing to see the other part. As a product of the environment, does that permanently dictate how we choose to react? Or can we learn to do with grace and aplomb?

Pisces

Won’t be the first — or last — time I wander into a zone of questionable taste and decorum. Old — vintage mid-century modern — meme: woman on a riding lawnmower and then new text? “When you wife is mowing the lawn is not the right time to ask what she fixed for dinner.” This is dated material and it’s all from before my time. Vintage TV, probably freely available on line someplace, shows the old black and white version of this life, that mid-century modern.

The updated text? Move aside the sexist crap, and think what the message might really be. If someone is doing one thing nice for you, now is not the time to ask for another favor. That’s also how I read it. That was my take-away. One portion of the readership will exclaim how frankly sexist and demeaning it was, and another side will chuckle. Act like an adult, for once, and see the image, plus the commentary, for what it is. It’s the old adage, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” recycled in a different format. That’s how I read it. For Pisces? Maybe that’s how we should take it, too. Two points, really, one? Have the decency to have a sense of humor. Two? If someone is trying to do something nice for you? Don’t ask for more on top of that, especially not while she’s mowing the lawn.

Aries

A reasonably frequent sign I used to see, commuting to Austin? Back of big tractor-trailers? Arrow points left, “Passing side.” Arrow points right, “Suicide.” Infers a blindspot. I wondered if that could also carry a label, “Not my fault if you’re in my blind spot.”

While it’s a painfully obvious sign and for some, a little too clear? As we careen through this next week, with everything seeming to fall apart of then coalesce in new and alien forms? Time to ride aware of the blind spot others might have. The example is simple enough and while a little “in your face,” that works as Aries needs a warning that is “in your face,” or you might not get it. You’re navigating a highway, and just up ahead is a slow-rolling semi. Zip around on the blindside? I’d suggest not.

Taurus

Heavy Metal music is, seems, always associated with Satan. The devil? How do we know that the Devil doesn’t like Hip-Hop? “After torturing souls all day, I like to relax to a little classical, you know, guys I didn’t get, Mahler, Wagner, so forth.” At least one critic would suggest that Hell deserves the heavier German composers, but that’s not within the Taurus purview of this horoscope. This is about associations, and what some people might assume, and what is real. Unless one has talked to the Devil himself and ascertained, for sure, that he (the Devils is male, or might that be a false assumption, too?) Unless we’ve asked and gotten a truthful answer, there’s no way to know for sure. While this was an amusing notion at first, the more I explored the idea? One person suggested the modern variations of “country” music would fit into that category of “devil music,” and personally? I thought that the so-called “easy-listening” aural pablum might be the real first choice of the devil. Careful with the twin influence of Saturn and Jupiter — before making assumptions.

Gemini

It’s an older one, but it works — especially for Gemini.

“I’m not talking to myself, I’m self-employed. This is a staff meeting.”

However, that simple, hopefully amusing, line? It encapsulates a lot of this week’s Gemini energies, all in a single phrase. This week is all about getting one’s self straight with whatever there is that one believes in at the moment. Changes. Ever fickle, to some, but I prefer just the notion that the belief system itself, and especially for Gemini, that series of understandings can be a highly mutable library. Core beliefs seldom shift dramatically, but trappings, understandings, and what I would term, “Window Dressings” do shift about, and for a mutable air sign like Gemini? This stuff changes a lot. Looks like you’re talking to yourself. Just remind anyone within earshot, that, as a self-employed person, or as a Gemini, this is a staff meeting.

Cancer

There’s a tendency — I am a poster child for this — there’s trend to over-think a problem and its solution. Not such a great idea. Doesn’t work well. Nice idea, and there are some entertaining notions as to what will fix it all. However, this is about a not overthinking an issue. Sometimes, a person who is an expert in one field is absolutely clueless in the next area. I tend to respect my own strengths, and I understand — now that I am older and more beaten? I understand what fields I know nothing about, and what arenas where I can shine.

As a Moon Child? Given the current array of planets, with a concentrated look at what’s in Capricorn, opposite from yourself? Play with the strengths, and make sure we all take enough time to assess what are strengths.

A certain willingness to defer to experts in particular field? Sure helps.

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

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