“A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.”

Horatio in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (I.i.113)

Horoscopes for 10-17-2023

Solar Eclipse 10/14 20° Libra
Mercury conjunct Sun 26°33’ Scorpio 10/20 12:19 AM
Mercury enters Scorpio 10/22 1:49 AM
Sun enters Scorpio 10/23 11:21 AM
Lunar Eclipse 10/28 6° Scorpio/Taurus

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

Libra

Happy Birthday. We’re in a holding position, go, play, have fun on your birthday, call it a whole birthday month. I’d even impinge a little on the Scorpio times, and help yourself. I know, as a decent Libra, you don’t want to overtake the Scorpio times, but you do like sharing, so share and share alike? There’s a fuzzy set of boundaries, and instead of trying to define those? Think of them as warm, fuzzy socks, that are an indeterminate thickness. Top side feels thicker than the bottom side, maybe? See? The definitions and the stakes in the ground? The measurements that define the exact locations are a little less exact, so allow for that. Then? Have a happy birthday all month long.

Scorpio

As I was spooling up some astrological data, I looked at how I did the dates. First, I use a thoroughly American way of dating my material, Month slash day slash year. In just about the rest of the world, and the military, it is dated day slash month slash year. I’m so used to using the dashes, though, I had to learn a new way. The web publishing software, the database-driven front-end to display the data? It helps if the data is in a certain format. On the backend, as well, if left alone? It does Year dash Month dash Day. Old school computers and post-Y2K requirements.

What I had to “unlearn” was using a slash instead of dash. I used a dash for 20 years or more, and it became ingrained. That chokes the display, and renders the data and date formats untenable, at best. At worst? Hot mess. Confusing data point. None of it makes sense. This is a simple typing issue. It’s not life-threatening nor is it mission critical, but unlearning the slash and using a dash? That’s a simple example of just trying to change one Scorpio item that needs to be switched out. Sounds easy?

Sagittarius

The first couple of weeks of November tends to be cloudy emotional weather for Sagittarius. Problem: the eclipse season and relative Scorpio motions has stirred this up, fogged it over, and brought our cloudy emotional weather in a little earlier. It’s not bad, it’s just unsure. Unstable? Not steady? A little less direction? Rudderless? One of the fun bits, I get to try to attack this lack of direction with a little less structure than before. As a Sagittarius myself, I can suggest we outline a few goals, but keep in mind these are nebulous directions, and subject to the whims of the fates.

Drifting along isn’t without merit in itself, either. The other day, bright fall afternoon at the coast? We drifted, pushed along by a gentle zephyr, while letting our lines trail along in the water, sometimes casting up against the inter-coastal shoreline. A shallow-draft bay boat, not making much effort? Makes it more fun, and I had at least one big red pull the boat around a bit. That was fun. Try drifting. We’re already in our “November mind” and it’s not even Halloween yet.

Capricorn

I still have a couple of old, beat-to-death copies of The Complete Works of Shakespeare. More sentimental than anything else, I hold onto some of the copies because they are great props. I would tend to use a digital copy of the play, if I was reading it or rereading it. Easier for notes and point-click trivia. But as props, and besides, on certain cold nights in the fall? I want to reference something that is only in a book. Still, looking at your chart, I was thinking about a Capricorn who stepped on stage with a handful of texts, and notes slipped into the pages, but those were only props. The purpose of the books was to appear scholarly. To this day, I’ll still look stuff up in books, but anymore, I’m a rarity. The books are props. When I used to travel extensively, I always carried a book, but in the last dozen years, that’s been supplanted with a tablet and charging cords. Still, the book itself is the best prop. Besides, with the way this works out? You might want to reference the data in that prop.

Aquarius

There are times when we should all listen to our intuition. This is a time when we might want to run that intuitive idea past some kind of Aquarius review committee before taking that leap. Not judging, just thinking this through, and the analysis is that the there’s a 50/50 point with that Aquarius intuition. Might be all right. Might be spot-on. Might be way, way off. This reduces to a classic “thinking/feeling” situation, which tends to compound itself with extraneous details that might, or might not, be germane to the question — and its answer — at hand. Definite “maybe” right now, and the best idea? Ask an “Aquarius review committee” if it is a good idea. If I had say in the composition of the committee? Sagittarius, Capricorn, maybe some Libra or Scorpio, but that would be about it. Ask them. Don’t guess, then second-guess yourself alone.

Pisces

This came up the other afternoon, and I thought I’d pass it along, as we’re stuck in the limbo zone between events, and Scorpio hasn’t quite started, yet. My simple goal, on a digital format, is to keep original files. A single copy of an image, not always the modified, cropped, teased, filtered one I posted, but the simplest of the raw files themselves, and at that? Just a single copy of the image. From the old, cheap digital camera days, I got used to taking at least two pictures, never could tell what was what with cheesy old-school digital cameras. Besides, storage was relatively cheap for the larger format images. However, as the amount of digital crap we collect expanded along an exponential axis? I found that a certain amount of digital disciple helped. Just keep one. One is enough, and really, it’s merely a source file. The layers and levels of manipulation, the digitally altered states? Don’t need everything, not all copies, just the single master file. Keep one. All you need. Think of this as Pisces digital discipline.

Aries

My sister used to joke, “Kramer? Don’t let his mind out unsupervised; it might wander off.” Much as I like to see a good Aries focused on a specific target, a single goal, that ultimate destination for now? Much as I like to see that, and as much as a good Aries likes to have that singular example of just one task? Let that Aries mind wander. It’s a weird time, between eclipses, and they are strange influences at work, so let’s move forward — and the Aries way forward? Wandering mind. I would tend to think that a leash, or a tether of some sort, that would help with the wandering mind of an Aries, something to tie it into a certain realm rather than letting it just float free, like my sister used to suggest, “It might wander off.” But let it wander about a bit, as the corners we turn? They are dependent upon a certain serendipitous Aries exploration. Set the mind free, if only for a little while.

Taurus

It’s odd. When I was working as a journeyman journalist, a career that sadly was doomed before it ever started, I was taught to check all sources twice, at a very minimum. Which, as noted before, I didn’t do. Two sources, checked twice, and three or more sources are better. So much for what I was taught compared to what I practiced. I headed over to the fiction section, and again, I wasn’t any good at that, but at least I still enjoy reading fiction. However, my lessons, and failings, as a journeyman journalist? Take heed, dear Taurus, take heed. Two routes are good, but three sources are better. Checking all of what you’ve been told, make sure the story checks out, all the way. Fact-checking is more than reading a single article online, like a wiki piece. That doesn’t really count as “research,” just a starting point. While everyone else is running round, screaming? Take time to dig in, and look at the story from more than one perspective. Two routes, especially if they have opinions different from your own valid Taurus view, but two is good, and a third is even better.

Gemini

Some days, the simplest solution is the best. It’s scene straight out of Austin’s legendary traffic. Car in front of me stops. Light changes color, or traffic starts to move forward and an arm comes out of the drivers side, maybe the flashers are turned on, and the paused driver waves me around. I’m not Gemini, so I put on my flashers, and get out to see if I can help much, or make suggestion or offer to run the driver up for gas someplace, anything to get the traffic moving because, after all, I am a nice guy and try to be helpful to my fellow humans. This is a scenario that gets really ugly with snarled traffic and other drivers’ raising tempers, quickly. The trick, the one trick to make this better for this week’s Gemini? As much as you would like to lend a hand, pause, get out, bear the other driver, express displeasure at the inconvenience, and temerity of breaking down right in front of you, yeah, not the time. When that person waves you around? Look for a break and go around. Makes your life a lot simpler. Yes, we all like to help, but you’ve got places to be, and I don’t think you can fix what’s wrong. When you’re told to go around? Go around.

Cancer

Personally, I’d look to my original family, the people I was born into their circle. Mom, Dad, Sister, etc. They can easily take a small situation and complicate, obfuscate, denigrate, disparage, and then duplicate the same issue. Over and over, and I’m at the other end of this, now, looking back? Sure, easy to see. This is my family, and for good or for ill, what I was born with, can’t argue genetics and bloodline, much as we would like to dispute that. Learn from my brief reverie. There’s a single point that’s bothering your sweet Cancer, Moon Child self. Don’t, let me reiterate, do not take a small issue and complicate, obfuscate, denigrate, disparage, and then duplicate the problem. “If one is bad, then maybe three?” I’m just suggesting, over-thinking, over-analyzing, and over-correcting can lead to more problems and less cures. The opposite direction from the way you want to go? Don’t: take a small situation and complicate, obfuscate, denigrate, disparage, and then duplicate the same issue.

The Leo

It’s a week for a “near-miss,” a very Leo-like “near miss,” which means it’s a nearer and more dramatic than a normal near miss. I tend to think about my Leo fishing buddy, and him recounting a tale, and the added flair, the dramatic tension, and the way the whole story hung together with pivot points clearly demarcated by his own choices, and playing him out to be the victim of circumstances, all most assuredly beyond his control. I was riding in the back of the boat so I was just listening. The way he told it? Certainly was a near-miss of epic proportion, and worthy of his retelling in a dramatic fashion. “Close call, huh?” I’ll say. If I were The Leo? I’d take that near-miss scenario, craft it into a tale, and celebrate the fact that I didn’t get tapped, hit, run over, or otherwise impacted by the near miss. However, being assured, by me, that it won’t happen? Doesn’t mean that you should drop the awareness that “they are out for The Leo” in the next few days.

Watch for it. Don’t volunteer for it.

Virgo

“All you can do is concentrate on the next pitch.” For some reason, a slightly out-of-season baseball thought popped up, and looking at the Virgo stars? I kept thinking about that one pitcher, and the trio of commentators, one of whom was a retired pitcher himself, and his comment?

“All you can do is concentrate on the next pitch.”

I’ve fairly successfully avoided most sports metaphors, but this one seemed so apt for the oddball energies facing Virgo and the way some events just aren’t going according to the plan. In order to make progress? Here in Virgo-land, all you can do is concrete on that next pitch.