“O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister’s orb
Infect the air!”
- Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens 4.3
Horoscopes for 8-1-2023
Full Moon 9° 15’ Leo/Aquarius 1:31 PM 8/1/23
The Leo
I heard them called, “Tibetan Prayer Flags.” Over the years, the mythology and way I can conflate the local Fiesta Flags with those other ones? That’s a separate issue. The way I understand the “Tibetan Prayer Flags?” Each square of gaily-colored cloth is inscribed with a specific mantra, like a prayer, and then? As the flags, the long banners with the flags flapping and snapping in the breezes? As the flags gradually deteriorate? The threads themselves get carried on the breezes and are scattered across the valleys, distributing those good wishes from the prayers inscribed on the flags. I’ve had variations of these Tibetan Prayer Flags stretched across various bits of architecture from a trailer park in old Austin to where I currently live. One neighbor asked, rather pointedly, why I don’t take down the raggedy Fiesta flags in my backyard. Leo: fly your flag, whatever it is, loud and proud — like Tibetan prayer flags — to the ragged end. Bonus birthday hint: it’s the way it is supposed to be.
Virgo
Just because it is quick and easy, does that make it best? Look: I am all for “quick and easy,” me being a lazy Sagittarius and all. But you knew that. Plus: I am all for a “Virgo answer that is quick and easy.” I like simple solutions. However, the way this works out? That Full Moon, and the assorted other astrological debris floating freely?
Fancy set of terms? The “availability heuristic” applies here. Too often, I fall into that trap myself, with my memory playing the available and therefore biased choice, and then? Me thinking that it is the best answer. It might be. But in my most Libra-like voice, I ask, “Are you sure?” I found that I spent more time than I planned looking up terms, definitions, and reading research about the terminology, “availability heuristic.” It can be a trap, but it might not be, depends on what you uncover, and how you remember it.
Libra
How do you say, “No?” I prefer to hear this from the dulcet tones of the Libra voice, “Maybe we try a different route?” Or, “How about we try not doing it that way, next time?” While basically couched as a question, it’s a gentle form of coercion, and it’s also a very Libra way of saying, “No.” “No?” “Right, I mean, no, I mean, yeah, you get it, correct?” “I think I do, but you mean ‘no’ instead of ‘yes,’ if I have this correctly?” It’s the way of always doing it both as a question, and as a negative — the opposite of an affirmative answer. Still, the basic tenet to this week’s messages, “No?” That’s right. It’s about not letting the stupid suckers get away with what they’ve always gotten away with, but letting them know, in a gentle manner, that the answer is still a resounding negative. “No way that would work, or would it?” “Not going to happen today.” “It’s a good idea idea, but let’s put on our thinking caps and see if we can brainstorm a better approach?” Call it how you see it, but wrap it in a negative and as a question, you know what I mean, no?
Scorpio
I’ve been online since — long time — 30 years or more. I’ve been actively “blogging” — what an ugly portmanteau — for more than 20 years. The two activities cross lines, and I use the weblogs as an experimental platform to test products and processes, see what works. In all those years? I learned a weird trick, about posting at a certain hour, as the earliest software didn’t allow for a scheduled time, but after a while, it did. Here’s the trick: post at an irregular hour. Like 3:33 instead of 3 or 3:30. For some reason, and I’m not able to get a satisfactory explanation, but for whatever reason, the odd hours work better. The various posts get better traction. A few years ago, I noticed that irregular posting hours triggered the automatic posting software whereas a regular time frequently returned a “missed scheduled post.” I don’t know if it is still like this, but habit is habit, and I still schedule for weird times since the regular hours seem to return error messages. For Scorpio? Odd numbers, strange hours, and apparent random choices work best. Less thinking.
Sagittarius
I’ve tried, and I’ve failed, but sometimes I just keep trying. This week? Great time in Sagittarius to admit it doesn’t work, and we can’t fix it. It’s broken and no amount of my — our — excellent know-how will fix this. It’s broken, shattered in a thousand pieces, and yes, in theory we could gather up each piece and painstakingly piece it back together, maybe with enough super-glue, but no, we lack the patience for just such a task. Theory says we could fix this. Practical Sagittarius experience dictates the obvious: we lack the time, wherewithal, and space to get this done. We might not have broken it and some might look to us to fix it, but realistically? No. “Not my rodeo; not my bull to ride.” (See here for more on that.)
Capricorn
Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, for Capricorn. I was linking back to a horoscope from 30 years ago: 8/1993. Digging into the archives are amusing, at best, and then? There’s a time-consuming desire to edit the material, correct mistakes, and most important? There’s a terrible issue that I see, and only I can see it, from the material’s backend. Terms, conditions, and current standards? The dreaded “double space” after punctuation. Doesn’t really interrupt the flow of the visual display, although, it does add a slightly dated look to some of the material. What I can do? Get in and correct some of it. There are 12 signs, and for years, the format I was given? Sign then colon, then double-space. While it is true I was taught to type with a double space after a period, I’ve long since learned, or unlearned, that habit. Given what’s transpiring? There’s an incessant Capricorn urge to root around and fix old stuff. Leave it alone. I mean, I corrected a single typo, but that was about it.
Aquarius
In the next ten days or so, retrograde Venus will be at a tight, uncomfortable “square” with Uranus. This adds an unwelcome focal point to gentle Aquarius. It serves to draw attention, desires, and sometimes unwanted scrutiny to an area of the Aquarius life that might’ve previously gone unobserved. This means a couple of things, really, one? Don’t do anything that you don’t want to be caught doing. Or don’t do anything that you wouldn’t want publicized on the web. Think of it like that? Some of us are old enough, we’re lucky enough to do all that stupid stuff before there were cell phone cameras. Makes for a much less embarrassing existence, and that’s what I’m warning, really chastising, Aquarius about. The planets are going to conspire to make you a focal point. You can be the clown, the bad actor, the point for ridicule, or? Follow my lead. “I’m just here, reading a book. Nothing to see.”
Pisces
Accentuate the oddities. Living in and around Austin as long as I did? I recall the original, “Keep Austin Weird” mantra, long before it became a Chamber of Commerce kind of slogan. There was a time when it was a mantle, worn with pride, and there is no secret meaning to any of the words, just weird. As I looked, and poked at the Pisces charts, I kept thinking, “Instead of fitting in? Display that weirdness quotient like a flag!” The opposite of shy and retiring? Out, loud, and proud. The secret for Pisces? This next week, as everyone else ties to fit in to whatever societal norm is presented? Accentuate the oddities.
Aries
I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or amused. A local business obviously turned over their online, social media marketing to some kind of an agency with no clue as to what works. The stock images showed flora, fauna, and landscapes that are clearly not local. Not native, not local, alluring yet, for me, problematic. Amused or annoyed? As far as the reach, that kind of “universal imagery” might play better to broader audiences, or people who don’t know what the local terrain really looks like. Stock images, especially if they are stock images that get clicked on? Maybe those serve a good purpose. Click-bait? I’m one of the few and far-between types who gets annoyed, at least at first. The more I thought about, and the more I thought about genial Aries, the more I wondered if you should be annoyed or amused. “That doesn’t grow here.”
Taurus
Cicadas are part of the aural backdrop to my life. With few exceptions, most summers I’ve been in Texas, or at least the southwest, and every summer, the little critters come out of their burrows, gestating for 17 years, and then there is 3 days of life. If I was buried for 17 years only to awaken to getting baked in the summer sun? I would scream, incessantly, for the days I was alive. More than the sounds of traffic, or the roiling thunder, more than summer’s rain, it’s the song of the cicadas that I was thinking of, for Taurus. I’m sure it’s really a mating call, or similar tune, to the bugs, but to me? Sounds like screaming. Taurus: you’ve been waiting a while, like the cicadas and their 17-year hibernation, and like them, you want to scream. Full-moon and its fallout? Maybe not the best way to approach this next few days, screaming loudly.
Gemini
“It’s under warranty so all you have to do is pay for parts and labor.” Sounded amusing and sounded like something I might have buried in my fineprint. (Think I got it.) However, the quick discussion about the major home repair (first world problems) issue, it could be resolved, and because of the aforementioned warranty, the whole job was lot cheaper than it could’ve been. As a Gemini-compliant individual, please use this as a take-away, “All you have to pay for is parts and labor.” More than one Gemini will take that comment as a rebuke. There are two ways to approach this full moon and its subsequent damages. You can argue, possibly correctly, that the comment is wrong, and it should all be covered under warranty. Or, like me, just acknowledge that there might be some additional fees required. I’m not saying you’re not right, just what gets the job handled quickest? What is most expedient?
- There might be a small surcharge.
What gets the job handled quickest?
Cancer
What is one movie you can go and watch, over and over again? Either as a source of comfort, or as a reminder, or whatever it is that the particular “film” does for your Moon Child, Cancer self? For me, this might be a critically panned movie of a Shakespeare play. While the auteurs and artists didn’t like it, the theatre critics thought it was badly done, I’ve enjoyed it as a way to get the sense of the play without getting bogged down in specifics. Besides, as a Shakespeare comedy, it ends in marriage and happily ever after. Truly a myth, but one that works. Both in context and out of context, that one play on film, that is what I’m suggesting. But as an example? It is what works — for me. I don’t know what works from person-to-person, but that one movie you can watch over and over? That’s this summer’s solace for gentle Cancer, the Children of the (full) Moon.
