“You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.”
— Chuck Yeager
Yeager was a record-setting test pilot who became the first pilot confirmed to break the sound barrier in level flight. His incredible flying career spanned more than 70 years.
Year ahead? What does that look like?
“What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?
Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more.
- MacBeth 4.1.116
Mercury goes retrograde January 30 – February 21 (Aquarius), May 29 – June 22 (Gemini), and September 27 – October 22 (Libra). An observant person might note, those are all air signs. Venus starts a retrograde pattern December 20, 2021 to January 29, 2022 (Capricorn).
The eclipse patterns shift. There’s a partial solar May 26 (Gemini/Sagittarius), with its companion lunar June 10 (Gemini), and the start of the emergent patterns, with a solar November 19 (Scorpio/Taurus), and its companion lunar December 4 (Sagittarius).
Horoscopes for 12-31-2020
Capricorn
Old trailer park joke, “My retirement plan is buying lotto tickets.” Yeah, not how this works. For approximately 8% of the Capricorn population, that might work in this next year. Want to play those long odds? Not a safe bet, just sayin’. With that in mind? This isn’t a time to place a long-shot bet with impossible odds. It is a time to make calculated steps towards a specific goal. Tackle the goal, and wrestle it a bit, try to figure out what the real goal is, is it to get rich? Or just be comfortable? Pick. Pick and choose. Choose carefully, and then, since this is a birthday time, pause long enough to recalculate that decision. Old fishing buddy used to tease me, we’d be in the boat, and I’d be telling a story and then, the water’s surface would start to show signs of activity and my attention would be drawn elsewhere. Fishing. So then, he would always complain that my mental processes needed better buffering. I just don’t think I should talk too much when I’m fishing. Concentrate on what’s at hand. Pick and choose, and if there’s a problem answering quick enough? “Please wait, sarcasm is still loading.” Insert a little bar graph?
Aquarius
Teamwork. A single, useful buzzword for the next week, especially, but also for the coming year. This is a situation that requires teamwork. Requires a helping hand, an outside source of assistance, just a buddy with a pickup truck, a friend who’s got a spare seat in the back of the bass boat, any number of situations fit this role. But it requires Aquarius teamwork.
In my mind, I’m thinking of teamwork wherein people work together towards a single goal. Or where one person provides assistance for another. There is no shame — for the Aquarius — to ask for help with that project, that problem, that conundrum, the issues, that obstacle. I tend to see this as a situation where the person, the team, or part of the Team Aquarius, looks at the problem, and asks, “You were going to try this by yourself?” Shrug. No, you weren’t really going to try this by yourself. Well, maybe, but this week, and the ensuing year? Going to require some teamwork, one way or another. Help is available.
Pisces
Loss and illusion, or hopes and dreams? When you wake up, new day, even a new year? What’s the choice? It’s easy to see that this can go either way. Maybe you don’t see it that way, but I do, and I’m pretty sure, when you start new, again, you have a distinct choice. Is it a “bad” day or is it a “good” day? I want everyone to be happy and healthy, fit and so forth, all the time. I want nothing but the best, always. However, as a Pisces note?
You get to make a choice. Your attitude determines how this will all turn out. Should be a wonderful week full of new opportunities, coming up. “Oh great,” dripping Pisces sarcasm, “opportunities for growth. You mean, it sucks?” No, I mean it depends on how we approach the day. You get a fresh start. Treat that well.
Aries
The big planets are now getting comfortable in a new situation. Calls for some Aries action. Delegate or dump. That simple. If there is task that your own, Aries self is uniquely suited for? Then it’s yours. But if there’s an onerous task that you are neither suited for, nor wish to perform, due to its odious or unpleasant natures, or that you’re just not the right person for it? Simple plan: delegate or dump. Or this next week? Oh, that’s almost too easy, New Years’ Resolutions? But above and beyond, and looking further afield? Look and think about the two D situations. Delegate or Dump. Makes it almost a perfect Aries binary equation. And that works.
Taurus
“Neural networks,” a computer term for taking large problem-solving routines, and breaking those down to smaller routines, like a bunch of small computer processors working on a single problem instead of just one big computer. For the next week, and as a theme in Taurus for the new year? Take the big issues and break them down to component pieces. Take the larger problems and work on a smaller subset, just a piece of the problem rather than the whole problem. Big problems here are merely small problems, struggling to get out. While I doubt that you’ll really employ a “Neural Network,” the idea of, the symbolism, can’t escape that. Big problems. Take them, break them down to smaller routines, and each smaller, subset issue gets solved, and with each smaller problem solved, there’s that happy release of dopamine in the brain, and this creates a happier Taurus. The bonus is, after each little problem gets solved, you find yourself close and closer to larger solutions. The big problems get solved, this year, by taking them and breaking them down into smaller, solvable equations. Like a neural network?
Gemini
One of the last fishing trips, just this last fall, I was catching a whole bunch of undersized “rat reds,” Red Drum, Redfish, all just half an inch or so within the limit for a keeper, but not quite. Caught 30 or 40 fish, but none of them were legal-sized keepers. It was less fishing, and more, just feeding the fish. Eventually, think I had two quarts of live shrimp, and eventually, we ran out of live bait. The option was to continue feeding the under-sized fish, hoping that a larger one would show up, or just call it a day.
Why go big when we can just go home?
Some days, some weeks, and in this next year, when the goods, like those fish, just don’t measure up to Gemini expectations? When you run out of bait? Head on back in. Those fish will be big enough to keep, in a few months.
Cancer
School’s out, for now. I still slow down when I hit a school zone with its lights flashing, because? I never know. Might be a test. This started out, my oldest real driving memories stem from Northern New Mexico, and I recall, back in the day, the school zone there? 15 MPH, and a warning, “No Passing in School Zone.” What that implied, if I was coming up on a car moving at a slower pace than me? I have to adjust and move at the same speed. I don’t know, been a while since I’ve been through New Mexico school zones. However, that rule, “No Passing in school zone?” That’s etched into my head, and when I slow down for a school zone, even in Texas, years distant? I think it’s bad form to pass, as I always think about those warnings, “no passing in school zone” from when I lived and worked there. That was a long time ago. This is about what gets ingrained in our psyche, and in this example, I think it’s a merely an additional safety rule, and one I tend to follow. It’s an old, ingrained traffic law, not even in my current state, but after driving for years, it’s one that I still — for some strange reason, adhere to. Never did figure out why, but as a safety notion, yes, this one works. This week, let’s look back at material in our Cancer (Moon Children) lives, and where that stuff is derived from. Then, does it serve us to this day? I’d rather not go 20 MPH, but 15, and not pass any other cars.
The Leo
I drew a map of this, sketched out a diagram, and never followed up. Lingering in a notebook, I’ve got an image of a particular closing dialogue box (User Interface) where the shaded button that is usually “OK,” or “agree?” That’s actually a “Buy Now” button. Clever bit of misdirection. I use this as an example because it’s a piece of software I’ve used for more than a year, website, really, and it’s perfidious relocated buttons always amuse, plus they are a built-in moment of pause. The Leo needs a built-in moment of pause.
It’s that moment of built-in pause that I like. I hate that the buttons are cleverly relocated to trigger a certain response from a consumer, but as a ‘freemium’ service, I tend to err on the side of “free,” because, well, it’s who I am. For me, though, this illustrates how to build in a moment’s pause for The Leo to keep from making a bad decision. That momentary pause, however it shows up? That’s what this is all about, next week, next year. In the following year, Jupiter and Saturn will tag their way across the opposing sign’s arc of the sky. Build in a pause, Leo-like long enough to thoroughly assess a situation before taking action.
Virgo
I tend to arrive at this through Zen and various related zen-like studies. I tend arrive at this with a certain bemused calm. I’m not Virgo. My casual smile, and nonchalant attitude is based on years of meditation, practice, and patient observations of humanity, in all its forms, the good, the bad, the ugly. There comes a time when compulsive Virgo over-thinking yields less rather than more. Compulsive Virgo over-thinking is the root cause of this week’s issues, and when we reflect back a year from now, you’ll look back and see that you were concerned about something that had no bearing whatsoever on the future outcome of this situation. No correlation. No connection to the current, compulsive, Virgo over-thinking. The way to hit the Virgo pause button? Varies from Virgo to Virgo, but I tend to favor a light kind of exercise followed by a meditative state. A brisk walk, or an hour standing at my desk, followed by a short “meditation” on the couch, in a supine position. A nap. Time it out at 15 or 20 minutes, not long, just a quick power nap, or just some shut eye, or, at the very least? Be still for a few moments. Think about the problem. Think about the solution. Realize you can’t get there (the solution), from here (where you’re at), with the current conditions. With nothing left to do? Then move on to the next problem, the next issue, the next thing that can be fixed. A year from now, you’ll thank me, for reminding you to pause.
Libra
Having grown up under a Libra parent, I get this continually running visual of the balancing act. “This? Or that? I’m just not sure which one I like better…” Left hanging. Still trying to decide. There is always a multifaceted answer to any question, and the little decisions can be the most difficult because, well, it matters, you know? We got Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius, essentially all the next year. That adds clarity, and a certain kind of focus factor to the Libra balancing act. It’s easier to be more clear and more direct, with a certain kind of internal assurance that this is the correct way, the best decision, the most appropriate answer. Not without some warnings, though, as that Saturn placement does this little number where he wants to check and make sure you understand, does your internal, Libra self understand that there will be consequences of the decisions made, even now. Serious consequences. Look before you leap, always look both ways before crossing the street, and never take just one answer as the only answer you’ll accept. Think that last one is the money shot, this week, this year.
Scorpio
One day in January, in Austin, it was over 70, sun was out, light fluffy clouds, and I was able to move about freely in just shorts and sandals, not really too cold for that. Pretty sure I went fishing, among other pursuits. One day in January, in San Antonio, it was bitterly cold with a layer of ice on the ground, enough frost to kill most of the fair-weather plants in the garden. Just never can tell what the weather will be like in the middle of the winter down in Texas. Some days are gorgeous by my standards and other days, I find it best to huddle inside, under the covers, maybe curl up with a book or a good girlfriend. The problem with this week’s Scorpio mess? Whichever one you want, the book, the good girlfriend, or the super-nice, outdoor weather? The chances are you won’t get that, not just yet. Got to pick and choose carefully, too, as all three wishes are set to be delivered, just not in a timely fashion. There’s some obvious work ahead for Scorpio, and that all depends on how you want to tackle this. None of it is bad, just do one thing, and it feels like the timing is off. It’s not really bad timing, just slightly out-of-step.
Sagittarius
The term I see most frequently, and this is more in popular fiction than in real life, but the term? “Radicalized.” What it refers to, from context, is taking an individual who is subject to peer pressure, or societal influences, then working in some brand of religion or political philosophy and turning that weak individual into a martyr for a cause. Sagittarius, bless out little hearts, can be subjected to repeated bombardment of a certain set of ideals, and sooner — or later?
We give in. Just happens.
The trick is that this is a time when the thinking is unusual, and while weird, different stuff does appeal to me on an intellectual level, the problems this poses is that we get too caught up and fail to look at the longer term implications. Or, we fail to look at the complete package, just some of the philosophical beliefs, the parts that are dressed up to make the package look nice. This is like the swimsuit model at the boat show, the package looks wonderful, but the bottom line is that the boat costs a lot of money and that doesn’t include the young woman in the swimsuit. That’s a different payment plan. The plan is to try and see through the packaging and marketing material, and not wind up radicalized by some thread of a belief system.
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