“O my most gracious lord,
I hope you will not mock me with a husband!”

Mariana in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (4.2.328)

Horoscopes for 11-14-2023

Scorpio

Such a perfect logo, tacking onto last week’s semi-thematic baseball element? The Baseball fields at the Ghost Tracks. I hadn’t thought about that image for years. It was a typical grinning skull, over crossed baseball bats. The lore and myth surrounding the ghost tracks themselves? It’s a good place to spook kids, but the actual deal is that it’s an optical illusion, looks like it’s uphill, but the grade is off-camber, and downhill, despite appearances. Still, that baseball field logo? I mean, I haven’t seen it in years, but it was amusing, and maybe better than any major league design.

Scorpio: look around. Underneath your fingertips, there’s one, last forgotten piece that might be the best. Might be local, too. No need to hunt far away.

Sagittarius

There is a time to hold them, and there is a time to fold them. While there’s a musical allusion, sure, that doesn’t really count. There’s sage advice for my fine Sagittarius brethren and sisteren — do both. Hold them and fold them? Yes. To further muddle the already overworked metaphor?

Mercury and the rest of it, but mostly Mercury? As long as Mars and the Sun lag behind us in Scorpio, we are best served toning down, or turning off the Mercury spout of information that we spew forth. In a concise format? Shut up. Sit down, shut up, and hold whatever it is you think, I think, we ought to say? Zip it. Zip it, lock it, put the key in your pocket. There will be a chance, Mars is on approach, but he isn’t here yet, and the Sun, it’s on its way, too. But neither of them have arrived, and giving into mercurial machination at the moment? Doesn’t serve us well. Best thing to do? Shut up.

Capricorn

“I’m not you cup of tea.” Something to remember as we approach the holiday turmoil season. The more I thought about that expression, based on an old meme? I might not be your cup of tea. Besides, I’m more like coffee. Coffee, no adulterants, served dark, hot strong. I wanted to be more like a double-shot of espresso, but that implies a certain refinement. What I’m more like, instead of that refined taste? I’m not your cup of tea, but I’m more like a cup of convenience store coffee, served in a ragged, soggy paper go cup with its leaky lid, and the coffee itself? It’s been sitting on the warming plate for the last hour or two, and looks a little cooked. I’m available, and more important, I get the job done, but I might not be as refined, elegant, or classy as you would like — but get the job done. As a Capricorn — get the job done. You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Aquarius

I toyed with a couple of elements in the Aquarius chart, but what I finally arrived at? It’s a question of a price point. Where does discomfort and desire meet? There’s a line, going up, and it represents the level of discomfort, the line represents the amount of pain, emotional or otherwise, that Aquarius experiences. Then, there’s a line going down, headed the other way, and that’s the point that dictates the amount we’re willing to spend, as an Aquarius, to alleviate that pain. The two meet, in the middle, they do intersect, and makes a convenient X, so, I guess, “X marks the spot?” What’s that price point, for our typical Aquarius? What’s that point where the two intersect, the need, want, desire, and the cost, be that an emotional price, a physical price, or just a psychic tool, where does that intersect?

The clue, what I look for? That comment, “I just can’t take it anymore!” X marks that spot.

Pisces

There are always data points that are difficult to reconcile. Information about a person, for example, say a Pisces friend or acquaintance, some point that is hard to understand. I was wearing a KISS T-shirt, and at the time, it was a relic from a thrift store, and at the time, one family member got upset at the notion that I had on a shirt that represented the worst rock band in history, and that it was about crass commercial capitalism, at its worst, rather than anything to do with pure music. Like buying a book at the used bookstore, the royalties have already been paid by the first-use purchase, so no more money changes hands, and then? I had a brief interest in the music, but lost that years ago in the annals of pop music and reality TV. Distant cousin was still offended, until I patiently explained that I was wearing the shirt ironically. Not really irony, but the term, in its mutated form, serves well enough. Data points that are difficult to reconcile, for Pisces? That’s what this is about. Helps if you think in terms of this is ironic rather than meaningful.

Aries

A little less talk, and little more action. Simple idea, the problem, the challenge that the simple idea presents? Picking the correct direction for that action, or more pointedly, picking the correct Aries direction for that action. Blindly running off in just any direction is fruitless. It’s an exercise in wasted motion, and while you’ve got an extra amount of energy, wasted motion infuriates you later, and that does none of us any good. The trick, this is a navigational concept, the way to do this? Carefully select that destination, then look at the old maps, as well as whatever else is available online, and do this in advance. Ahead of the schedule. Ahead of the game, and before anyone else even starts out? Getting a jump, but the idea, this is an Aries-Mars influence, looking at the route, the goal, that destination, then figuring the best way to get there, and then, remember that we have to make allowances for other people getting in the way.

Actual maps are best, the real, paper ones.

Taurus

I followed one journalist on social media. Local guy, and, at first, seemed like our goals and politics aligned. But over the course of a few months, as an active journalist, I found that one guy started to lean in direction that I don’t like. Made no sense to me, as I’d seen the earlier stuff, and what happened? I don’t know, exactly, but the material went from cozy to offensive. I had options: one, I could send scathing messages, deriding the shift in policy. I could engage in a written (verbal-style) altercation. Maybe that would change the guy’s sentiments, and he could see I was clearly right? Better yet, I could mute his ongoing commentary for a few days, which is what I did. Then, two pieces fell into place, as a prominent journalist, he had to report, and therefore, had to follow, two sides. A second notion, instead of muting his feed? I just deleted it. I’ve felt better. For Taurus? If the noise hurts? Turn it off. If the news feed offends?

Just “un-follow.” It’s much simpler than one realizes.

Gemini

Most Gemini that I deal with? Almost to a letter, they all prefer verbal communications, and even then, the video phone calls are best, if we can’t swing face-to-face. It’s still an example, and still a valid one, at that, with my Gemini buddy talking to me as he navigated Austin traffic, then still having more to say when he arrived. While verbal communication is Gemini-specific, and the usual, preferred format? In the next week, as we get the first of the holiday preludes started? This is textual. This is written form. This is commit it to print, in one format or another, and see what happens. Mars is poking along in Scorpio, and opposite from good Gemini is Mr. Mercury, in Sagittarius, and what this spells out? Commit the idea, the communications, the way to move Gemini forward? Commit it to print. Handwritten, to some, text message, to others, or just a simple and lowly e–mail.

Cancer

It’s simple, really, don’t get invested. “Don’t get invested? Like don’t send you money?” Yeah, sure, that. But that’s not really what I mean, since I’m talking to a Cancer Moon Child? I was thinking more along the lines of emotional investment. Not getting emotionally invested in an apparent situation that is either way good or way bad, but off the charts, and yes, it’s wonderful, or yes, it’s terrible, but you want to care deeply, feelingly, about that situation. The heart soars, the heart sinks, it’s so good, or it’s so bad, and the ups, the downs, looks like a manic Monday prelude. It’s simple, really, don’t get invested. Run the situation past me, and I’ll agree with what you’re feeling, but I’ll also suggest that the wooly eye of time will grant a better perspective in a few weeks, in a week or more, just not right now. For the present? Maybe don’t get invested.

The Leo

The expression that I’ve heard? “Keep two sets of books,” and it refers to a publicly available statements and private profit statements. The other expression? “Off the record.” Either way, there’s the data that is publicly available, like, what’s posted on social media and whatever can be scraped up from web perusal. The other part of this? I keep a handwritten journal, almost daily, with various graphic entries, and some material that is not suited for publication. Notes to myself. There’s a phone number there, a customer service number in case we got cut off, a client’s security code, not the card number, just a three-digit pin for something. This is the private set of books that I keep. Nothing to do with accounting, or some tricky double-standard, just material that I don’t publish, but keep a record of, as much for my own entertainment as anything. References? Sure, so I have a record of my off-the-record material, and some days I post a snapshot of that, but only a single page, or just part of a page. Moving through this morass of week ahead for the wonderfully majestic Leo? Keep the private stuff private. Careful, maybe extra-careful about what’s public record.

Virgo

If you knew me before I turned 30? (Saturn Return.) If you met me then? Doesn’t count. That was like the prequel? The stuff that comes before Season 1. There was a budget, but no one spent any money on the plot, just splashy special effects that didn’t add anything to the story itself. Likewise, for Virgo? As this Scorpio crap unfolds and tries to install some kind of foundation? This is the freshman effort, the prequel, the first draft, and not always a good first draft. Notable for the effort, but not noted for skills, styling, and references. Think about that as we motor forward through the tail-end of Scorpio because this has special meaning for Virgo.

Libra

One of the recurring themes, and recurrent issue? It’s that boundary between who I am, what I do, and how much contact I allow. There was an early interaction, mostly via e-mail, and the correspondent was asking for me to change my publication schedule, to make it easier for one individual. With editors, publishers, and the marketing department, not to mention the cute receptionist, and the guys in the back garage? At the time, the arrangement was pretty much etched in stone. Horoscopes were due in a batch, four sets of weeklies, in the month prior to the first publication. Think like this, all the November horoscopes were due in at the first copy desk on — or before — the first day of October. The dates and publication schedule then go swirling out of my control. That’s not what this about, though, this is about my lack of tact when dealing with that question. All of this now moot as I run my own site, and I keep it simple. I’ve played around with the publication dates, but I also can run this right up to the wire. But that’s not the Libra boundary I was thinking of, I just got sidetracked. Which, in part, is what we should look out for in the Land of the Scales.