“My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and Time
Goes upright with his carriage.”
Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (V.i.2-3)
Horoscopes for 2-20-2024
Mercury into Pisces 2/23 1:59 AM (local)
Full Moon 1° Pisces/Virgo 2/23 9:54 PM (local)
Books by Kramer Wetzel: astrofish.net/books…
Pisces
Used this before, gets used again. Buddy of mine was recounting how this happened in his therapy session. Therapist produces a smaller tumbler, we used to call them “rocks” glasses, holds a shot, and some ice, maybe a 6-ounce glass? Therapist pours about two fingers, a shot, shot and half of some cheap bourbon into the glass, and asks my buddy if the glass is half-empty or half-full. My buddy downs the shot, the cheap bourbon burning in his throat, but as a seasoned drinker, he didn’t tear up, then announces, the glass is empty, and he’s either a problem drinker or a problem solver, depends on what the therapist want to do with the empty glass. There’s a secondary notation, from one of my buddies, when I used this as a Pisces birthday example, he wanted to know if the therapy session was before noon. See? He explained, if it is before noon, then it’s a problem drinker, but if it’s afternoon, then it’s not a problem, not for a Pisces. Nothing is really binary, but there is a set of very Pisces problems looming in the near distance. What are the solutions? Bottoms up?
Aries
I would say I let my emotions guide me, but that is patently false. I don’t have much of a poker face, but I’ve found that my emotions can lie to me. “I want this,” and that feeling, “I need this?” The emotions get those items confused, and in hurry. There isn’t just one hot-button, big-ticket item on the immediate Aries list. There are several touchy points. The full moon merely makes this feel worse, or better, depends, but the trick?
Don’t let this emotions run away with the scenario. There’s always that one thing: could be a person, could be a situation with a person, might be an event, could be something as simple a news ticker that might — or might not — be true. Look, just because it “feels” true doesn’t make it fact. Factual? Sure, but fact?
“But it feels true!”
Taurus
I learned my lesson, the hard way, as I usually do, about not committing anything to printed form — commit nothing — I don’t want to see it published? Don’t write it down. This came back as messages from current media sources. Local political thing, and what was written down all got published with some of it, not really germane to the conversation, but that doesn’t stop the muck-racking public from laying it all open to be seen. Or, as I started out, the simplest of notions? Don’t want anyone to know about it? Want to keep it a secret? Don’t write it down. It’s fairly simple, and this lesson gets reverberated across the Taurus spheres because of a simple note. Don’t want anyone to know about it? Don’t say, don’t write it down, and you might forget all about it. Doubt you’ll forget, but there’s no other trace evidence, so there is that. Or there isn’t that. Look: I learned the hard way, and I’ll save you trouble. If it’s a secret? Don’t commit it to print in any form.
Gemini
I’ve gotten lazy. The full moon fills you with spirit and energy, and then, like me, you get really lazy again. I got hooked on one piece of software, really just a word processing app, and I got used to its shorthand shortcuts. Made online formatting an inline breeze. Super-easy. Also created a bit of a problem, as the software itself has its own, internal mark-up language, which looks standard, but is fine-tuned. Using this for more than a year, I got really lazy with how I would address certain issues. Made it almost too easy to run off at the mouth, or at the typing, a certain loquacious nature with an over-abundance of words. While I would like to think it’s nuanced and carefully constructed, that’s not really how this works. I get a chance to shovel a few extra helpings of words into a package. If I had more time, I’m sure I could make this properly succinct, but then, that defeats the purpose of my “Just in time” delivery. It’s the notion that we’ve got enough time to make this shorter, and instead, like me, dear Gemini, you’ve gotten lazy, letting the software carry the load. After the full moon? Back to work. Cut ruthlessly.
Cancer
Part of my family heritage is “southern.” As such, there are colloquialisms sprinkled in my language that I can’t shake, they’ve been worth me since birth. One of those expressions is about time and timing, and refers to an event in past tense, as it “Already happened.” Think: “This was before today.” I can’t evocatively catch the correct expression in textual form, but the sentiment is certainly there. The problem I encounter, when using a similar expression, and what happens with the Moon Children, the Cancer portion of the chart? “Before hand,” can refer to anytime from birth to this morning before I write this. It’s a broad, indiscriminate, unwieldy to some, indeterminate measure of time. I love my family, but I can’t count on them for exactness in elocution — particularly if it involves an absolute definition of a specific time. “Happened before,” when, exactly? This morning? Yesterday? Last week? Last month? Last year? Two decades back? Moments after the creation? To move forward, think in a southern lilt, and consider that whatever was referred to in past tense, it is passed, but the exact time? We’re not sure. Stop trying to pin down something that doesn’t want to be exact, you know, we can figure that out later.1
The Leo
For — think it was a full decade — a span of time, maybe ten years or more? One of my circle of local friends, a fishing buddy, if you will, and I will, let’s say his first name was Peter, and we all called him, at his behest, “Pizza Pete.” He was maybe five years into the name when I met him, and he it was more than a decade long that he went by the soubriquet, that moniker of Pizza Pete. It came from his vocation of delivering pizzas. Started as a part-time gig, and eventually, he became known for it. He’s also got a degree in language, he’s an accomplished pro at some other sport, but he was most known in our clique for showing up, smelling like pizza. Ran into him the other afternoon, and I asked what he missed the most. “The tips. Ready cash.” But flip that around, and he’s now a mid-level admin with transportation, although it doesn’t use his degree, the regular hours, paid leave, and insurance is nice. Dropping “pizza” from him name is the hardest part. “Peter, just call me Peter.” With ten years, almost a tenured name? Hard for the rest of us to break that habit. For The Leo?
Virgo
Ever date a Virgo? There are both good and bad points. I recall most of the pain, and my Sagittarius frustration at never being good enough. Whatever I did, it wasn’t quite right. Not perfect. As I grew older, and looked at more charts, I realized the differences between individual perfect Virgo peoples, and I understood, a little of what drove them. Drove them into my arms and then, drove them away. Usually a late model car. But understanding the Virgo mind helps, and what it means? It’s the drive for the ideal, the perfectionism, the mental neat-freak where everything is in its place. Pisces is messy. It’s an emotionally messy time, and the Fullest of Moons backs me up, and what’s worse, for gentle Virgo, is there no way out. Understand — gentle Virgo — understand that this is a messy time, and no effort will clean it up, and instead of trying to clean, fix, and arrange matters? Let them fall where they may.
Libra
It was a large, cavernous room, a converted warehouse that was serving as a theatre space. The distant walls were draped with black, making it more distant and more solitude-like. For one scene, there was single candle on stage, and that might’ve been the only light, I was watching a play, I didn’t notice otherwise. Captivating, in its own way, sure, but as an image for this week’s Libra, the candle’s light is about all we got. The briefest alignment of the Sun, the Moon, and Mercury shines like that candle in the otherwise large and dark space. Not much light, but enough to take all our attention. That’s the secret, too, look where the light is. Look where we’re supposed to look. Follow the trail. Stay on the beaten path, in some ways of seeing it. Saying it. Whatever, just stay where you can see best. That light, Mercury, serves to draw your Libra attention to one place. Follow that. Hint: that’s what you’re supposed to focus on at this time.
Scorpio
There’s an entire subsection of Shakespeare Studies dedicated to the herbs mentioned or used in the plays. At one point, there was a thread that suggested Shakespeare was a master apothecary since he apparently knew the right combinations to mix for the desired outcomes. Personally, I’m a big proponent of the “mixed use” approach to health care, partially holistic, partially pure western medicine. I’ll combine herb tea with straight up western medicine that treats a specific ailment, and hope for the best. As with all herbal remedies, I’ve found a little bit of light stalking doesn’t hurt, just to make sure there are no known drug interactions. Still, I like the old ways best, and some of the herbal remedies work better than anything else. For Scorpio, part of this is herbal, new age, or otherwise spiritual in nature. (Meditate on that one.) But for Scorpio, part of this is astrological, although the stars do point the way, the regular doctor, the regular pill, the regular medicine that has been peer-reviewed, clinically-tested, and FDA-approved? That’s the way to go. There’s a fine line, runs right down the middle, and your insured happiness, Scorpio happiness, is dependent on navigating that thin line between Scorpio spiritual, plant-based, and doctor-approved.
Sagittarius
On my desktop, such as it’s is, there’s a coaster-like piece of plastic, and it’s for coffee cups. Mugs, tumblers, insulated vacuum holders, any number of combinations from a tiny demitasse expressly for espresso, to giant “Bubba’s Bait Barn” plastic tumbler, the half-gallon size (bigger than a quart, might not really be a half-gallon, but who knows?) I got used to a Yeti-style, if not the Yeti name-brand tumblers, and those work, with the bonus of keeping hot coffee warm throughout the morning, if I get distracted and forget to refill the coffee. It’s that distraction, and what I was going to mention, about always using that one spot for coffee containers, whatever size I was drinking? It prevents a mishap. I had a tumbler half-full of near-leftover coffee, and it wasn’t in that one place, on the coaster. I hit the tumbler with the back of my hand which reaching for a phone connector. I was fast enough, and there wasn’t too much coffee left in the container, so I didn’t spill more than a few drops that sloshed over the side, but the problem is apparent, is it not? If I used the coaster, really just a square of plastic, not really even a true coaster for a glass, but if I used that? I wouldn’t have hit the tumbler and coffee wouldn’t have almost spilled which spiked my heart rate and then the watch asked if I was having a heart attack. No, just almost spilled coffee. All of this is avoidable if gentle Sagittarius puts everything, and I mean everything, in its proper place.
Capricorn
Do you or don’t you?
What do you want?
Are sure this is correct?
I think this is right, but are you sure?
Let me see, what does it say over here?
Wait, before you pull the plug on that, maybe let’s look one more time?
All of this sounds familiar, an unusual amount of uncertainty in the normally sure-footed Capricorn. It’s what’s going on, and there’s an extraneous set of influences that leave question begging open. That’s a problem, as there’s a little too much data available and not quite enough data to reliably draw a single conclusion. Sometimes, it’s too much. Sometimes, it’s too little. Never is it the right amount, and this isn’t a week to count on the supporting elements to be “Just right.” Too much, now it’s too hot! Oh, no, now it’s too little and too cold! Seems like no one is ever happy, correct? My simple suggestion is make a choice, take one branch of the road, pull on that single thread, see where this goes. When this over in a few weeks, you’ll probably blame me for you taking the wrong path, but at least you tried, and that’s half of it, isn’t it?
Aquarius
This popped up under my personal radar — recently — and it was about why we do what we do. The old rub, “Because we’ve always done it this way” no longer applies. That statement can be taken in a number of different contextual formats, but the idea is simple enough, “We’re doing it this way because we always do it this way,” with my more modern emendation, “and without looking at at any underlying principles?” I assembled a bed frame other afternoon. Simple enough, look at the exploded diagram, ensure I had all the parts, then start by building the platform, lacing the supporting boards, tightening everything up, then, per the instructions, adding the headboard, and finally the mattress set. Final step? Making another pass at all the connectors to make sure everything was tight. Several weren’t, the construction, the jostling, and the added weight, loosened it all up. That’s an example of following the instructions — for a reason. Used to blindly following with no question as to why we do it this way? That can be an Aquarius obstacle, and no one wants that — unless you like sleeping on the floor.
- Later? When is later? Today? Tomorrow? Next Week? Next month? In the next decades, or what? “Soon.” ↩
- Aperture: ƒ/1.8
- Camera: iPad Pro (11-inch)
- Flash fired: no
- Focal length: 3mm
- ISO: 64
- Shutter speed: 1/60s
