Horoscopes for 5-6-2021

Then thus our steeled battles shall be ranged:
The leading of the vaward, Ned, is thine;
To dignify whose lusty spirit the more,
We temper it with Audley’s gravity,
That, courage and experience joined in one,
Your manage may be second unto none:
For the main battles, I will guide myself;
And, Darby, in the rearward march behind,
That orderly disposed and set in ray,
Let us to horse; and God grant us the day!

• Edward III in Shakespeare’s Edward III (3.iii.219-28)

I’m not sure what caught my attention, the battle plans, the term “courage and experience joined in one,” or the conclusion, “Let us to horse; and God grant us the day!”

Taurus

Looking at the stars, planets, really, I realized you can use a little relationship advice. From the back of the boat, so to speak. The first suggestion? Date, spouse, whatever? Don’t listen to what he says, pay attention to what he does. The second bit of advice? Its companion? Don’t pay attention to what she does, listen to what she says. I might have this backwards. So it’s either don’t pay attention to his or her actions, or do pay attention to actions and ignore what she or he says and don’t listen. Think I missed something. It sounded better when I was setting this up, but there’s a Taurus birthday situation that requires either paying attention to the action, and ignoring the words, or paying attention to the words and ignoring the action. Kind of depends, you know. Here’s a spurious Kramer thought, why not try both? Pay attention to both words and deeds?

Gemini

One of the Shakespeare plays I listened to? I realized, part of the way through the play, that it was veritable feast of auditory goodies, with poetical rhetoric running in and out of the language. Driving along, I would repeat phrases, snippets of the play’s dialogue, hitting pause, and reciting a line or two, as I heard it. That’s how I came up with the weekly introduction, one line, “Let us to horse; and God grant us the day!” (Edward III) — it’s a rallying call. Gemini?

You’re going to need a rallying call, a short phrase or just a single word, maybe a mere gesture, something. A point that makes the Gemni energy want to venture forth unto the problems ahead. Tackle, fight, dispatch, and vanquish a foe! Need some phrase, or a word, or just an action, like a sword, held high. I’m not sure where you get your inspiration, but just after I hit the play button on the audio track? Ran into stopped traffic in Austin. Which is why you need a cry to echo back to that point where you do have the energy and valor to vanquish that foe.

Cancer

I use metaphors, symbols, and allegory. As the Moon Child with Mars frying through your Cancer sign? There are no easy answers, and the allegory, the myth, the metaphor gets lost.

“Tell me what to do,
how to do it, and when to do it,
and tell me right now.”

I can’t tell you what to do, you have that figure out for yourself. I can’t tell you how to handle that because it’s your life, and it’s up to you. When? That’s easy. Now. Now that Mars is here, lending energy? Yeah, go for it. Be a false start — or two — but that’s no matter. At least you figured out what to do and how to do it, right?

The Leo

I keep wanting to simplify this, and I can’t find a way to do that. So I struggle, and push forward. There’s a series of items, events, perhaps people, and there’s a way to make this all a neat, tidy, package, but for the life of me, and for the life of The Leo, we can’t figure out how to do that. I know there’s a way to slim this down. I know there’s a way to remove the excess. I understand that there is a way to get this all reduced to much smaller containers, letting go of some extraneous crap. I still don’t see how to do this. A meditative moment might reveal that, but there’s the ongoing rush and crush of material we have no control over, and that makes it harder to see how to do this. Less. Need less. Not more, less. Just because I can’t see how to do it? Doesn’t mean you don’t inherently have an understanding of how to do it. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Virgo

The gentle shift in planets and their location suggest a gentle change for Virgo. I have one way of making coffee most mornings. Kind of a set pattern, grind beans, boil water, pour over. Kind of a set pattern. To change this up, I made coffee with a different coffee maker. In, and of, itself, this isn’t a big change, but a subtle disruption to the routine, I still got up, and I still made coffee, just, I didn’t do it the way I had done it before.

It’s a gentle shift, just a slight adjustment to the morning routine.

Instead of a pot of coffee, I made a single pour-over, then I made a second one, an hour later. Not a big deal, same amount of coffee consumed, same basic practice, but the break in between, and the skewing of the process to one side, that causes a small disruption in my morning routine. Which isn’t bad, and for Virgo? What I’m sugggesting is small adjustment to the routine. Not a big change, like going “no caffeine” cold-turkey, no, that’s not it, just an adjustment. Make coffee a different way? That’s an example, but that’s just a starting point for that new, disruptive idea.

Libra

When I concentrate on one area of the Libra heavens, I get a clear sense that there’s this pressure to perform, and that the source of the pressure? Might be all internal. That “Inner critic” is a useful feature on some occasions, like, it keeps me from wandering outside in nothing but underwear. A bit of modesty, but just a tad. Flip that around, though, and look at the other side, Libra style, and one doesn’t have to be fully decked out to work in the garden. A wide-brimmed hat, maybe, some gloves, and preferably, some old clothes. Something you don’t mind getting dirty. There’s a voice in your head that drives this — I’m thinking Mars and Venus — and that voice keeps suggesting that this is a race, this is a competing situation, and that your Libra self has to win. Whoa. That inner-critic has gotten a bit forceful, almost like there was a promotion or upgrade, only, there wasn’t. As suggested? A couple of planets make the voice louder, pushes harder, tries to goad you into a situation where the scales are unbalanced. Ya’ll don’t like that. Suggestion? Temper, can’t tame, but you can temper that inner-critic with some sound logic.

Scorpio

I plugged in some new technology. Simple little box that performs one technological function, and the instructions weren’t even written out. It was a series of eight small drawings, four to a side, showing which wire plugged incoming data, then the next showed the outgoing data, and one showed the power cable, and finally, a frame showed the power button. The rest of the frames were about warnings, don’t submerse in water, void where prohibited by law, and the rest of that ilk. What happened, I pulled it out of its box, played with the wires, turned it over in my hand, and guessed at where stuff should good, but before I plugged the power in, I consulted that instruction sheet. With it just in images, I guess that didn’t need French, Korean, Spanish, and some Cyrillic Alphabet, when pictures can tell the story. Follow what I’m suggesting here, I consulted the instructions before I plugged in the power. I had, already, incorrectly guessed at what went where, and if I plugged it in before I looked at the instructions, it might’ve fried everything. Or not. But I glanced at the instructions before powering it up. Get the hint? Look for the instructions, might say something like, “Instructions for people who don’t like to read the instructions,” or, in my example a small set of diagrams that were visual, not written.

Scorpio: I didn’t say you had to follow the instructions, but look at them, first.

Sagittarius

One business consultant buddy always harangued me about the “Low hanging fruit.” When I looked at our charts, I kept thinking about that term, “the low hanging fruit.” What my buddy meant? There was something that was not maybe the prettiest, but the certainly easiest accessible. Instead of working harder to get the really good stuff? Go for what’s most accessible. In times like this? Most accessible is the low hanging fruit. I don’t think I’ve had a fruit tree in my yard in 30 years or more. Not like there’s an excess of examples for me. Neighbor had a pecan tree, but that was messy, and its pecan pollen, or sticky sap, or something was more trouble than it was worth, to me. However, as an example of a fruit tree, that would be it. I still recall a woman gathering pecans in her front yard, years back in old Austin. Perfect example of low hanging fruit. So there’s an opportunity, and at least one Sagittarius brother-in-arms will send me a message, “I’m worried, that was, like, too easy.” However, that’s what the stars suggest, at this time, that low-hanging fruit. So? “Easy is good?”

Capricorn

Strip away at the problem. Just, stop, pause, think. Strip away at the problem. Take out the “extenuating circumstances,” of which, there are plenty. Remove the “highly improbable” because there is no way that it could physically happen, at that distance, the strength required, and the dynamics, no matter how improbable, just, no, can’t get there from here, not that way. Rational, or even irrational physics suggest that it “just ain’t possible.” Strip away the details that might, or might not, be germane to the question, that problem. There’s a strong force that will try its very best to distract your good Capricorn attention away from the correct answer. You’re getting there, but the trick is to strip away the details that may, or may not, matter. The problem is much less complex than you think. Much less a problem if you just remove the layers of extra material that doesn’t belong there. In other words? Strip away at the problem.

Aquarius

For every revolutionary, there has to be what? Maybe a dozen non-revolutionary figures who are the support team? Numbers might skew a little lower, and I was thinking between seven and ten for the non-revolutionary supporters for every firebrand in the front exhorting change, fighting to tear down existing walls, and establish a new, more egalitarian structure. Sounds pretty Aquarius, if one were to ask. It is. There needs to be one in ten who are the spokesperson, the front-piece, the stage persona, the one out there doing the talking, motivating, and otherwise driving this forward. My guess is about somewhere between half-dozen and a dozen, some place into between is where the numbers fall. For each person at the front of the line, protesting, arguing, fighting for what is right? There will be a half-dozen, maybe more, in the background, being supportive. That support system is what is so critical, even now, the not-as-noisy, the not-as-flashy, the Aquarius stagehands who make everything run better.

Pisces

Facts of modern life, as it is now? We all have these little plastic things that connect from one device to another. Electronic ephemera, cables, connectors, all about connections. I discovered, late one night last week, I had a (thing) that I needed plugged into a (thing), and no way to get those two items to connect. Go online, find two retailers that have it, with my first — natural — choice being Amazon. Who had it, but the steep discount price was around $20. It glowed in the dark, had a light-emitting diode at one end, and promised an astounding refresh rate. Still, another place had it substantially less. Didn’t glow in the dark, no promised light emitting doohickey, just a connector, cost about half. Both prices included “free, expedited shipping.” While the pictures of the dongle looked exceptionally attractive, with rays of light shooting out from the enlightened one, yeah, not worth twice the price, and really not worth it since this is a cord-piece that might not be seen outside of my bedroom. As a Pisces, how much is that cool factor worth, and is it worth it, for real?

Aries

Doorbell rang on a Saturday morning. I looked outside, it was a long, orange-branded, home-repair, big-box store delivery truck. Opening the door, I looked at the driver as he handed me a single can of spray paint with a couple of invoices. Smiling, I read the invoices, yelled over my shoulder, “Anybody order spray paint? No?” The invoice had the previous resident, now gone for five years or more, with a charge for that can of spray paint, plus a Saturday hotshot surcharge. I wrapped the invoiced around the can and handed it back to the delivery guy. He looked at me funny. The problem is easy to decipher: online order, hotshot delivery, forgot to check and the address was the old one — they don’t even live in the state anymore, near as I can tell.

Easy enough to see happening. Seems to fit. Two messages for Aries? In part, think about checking all of that order before putting it through. In part, to have it show up some place you no longer live, and if I was less forgiving, I might’ve just kept it. But the other part? Think about that delivery, and even though the address was correct, it wasn’t anything I would need in the foreseeable future, and keeping it would just cause problems for at least three other people, the intended recipients, the driver, and the customer service person who had to untangle someone else’s mistake.

Aries: think before you blindly order or accept.

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