Scorpio 24° (November 16)
Le shit hits le fan. I was awake most of the night with waves of anxiety regarding the ongoing drama with farmer fuckface. And my psychic power was pumping. We learned that he put our electricity in his name, which would have entailed telling Eversource that we moved out, which we hadn’t done. We had to get that turned back on. I had a draft of a letter ready. We pulled the trigger on that and on the official one from our lawyer. It demanded access to the house but did not replace the storm door insert. It camped outside in a chair and glared and gesticulated at the house and us. Still we managed to have a lovely salmon dinner with salad, stewed tomato and avocado. But sleep was pretty much non-existent.
The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of Blagues, nos. 1146-1150 I am reading through all of my Blagues, five per day, and posting some samples here. Now, in my sixth year of writing this Blague, by the time I get to my seventh, I will have journeyed through all the daily Blagues of my first five years. If that’s confusing I apologize. Year seven, I’ll only have to read through year six, once a day.
One of the topics I’d like to tackle today are those psychic storefronts everywhere. You know how in every neighborhood, including the most expensive ones, like say the West Village in Manhattan which I called home for fifteen years, you find not one, not two but several Psychic joints where, if you were to enter, you’d be greeted by a typically older black-haired woman, seeming to what to discourage you from asking anything of her, let alone her services. Well there was a time, during the early Starsky + Cox years, when we first half-jokingly and then seriously but naively imaginaed taking over these establishments and making them chic versions a la Starsky + Cox; but one day at Jackson Square in the West Village we saw a whole bunch of Russian thugs coming out of one of those places and it suddenly dawned on us (rather late, probably—you all likely know this already) that these places were fronts for the Russian mob and probably tiny bits of money laundering. But of course! But maybe more than that.
Some Ptown friends had an apartment on Bank Street in a large building near Bleecker. I always thought the building creepy when I passed it pretty much daily for that fifteen years; but here, friends had a friend, a woman, who had an apartment on the top floor; but she had moved to another city and, because it was really cheap slash something shady was going on she kept it and these friends of hers we knew paid part of the rent and stayed there sometimes and they offered us in on the deal to split the rent even more. We stayed there and nearly died from what was obviously a gas leak (that we couldn’t report because we weren’t supposed to be there) but from next door, through the wall to this dump’s living room, we could hear loud fucking, but never ending loud fucking; women moaning and screaming—no doubt faking it—and low male voices, Russian voices.
The hallways of the building were filthy, the tiled floors strewn, sometimes with broken green beer bottles. There were always Russian thugs outside, on the sidewalk; if not the same exact guys we saw coming from the psychic on Jackson square, then part of the same tribe, shall we say.
Taken all together I feel that Starsky + Cox have a sort of history with the concept of these ubiquitous “psychics”, “readers”, curiously lodged in all the best neighborhoods. My spidey sense tells me that it’s money laundering, it’s prostitution, it’s sex trafficking, it fucking all of it. And the fact that that fronts for this criminality were the very store fronts I once innocently thought about “buying up” to turn into chic Starsky + Cox versions of the same? O. M. G.. They are there for a reason and it’s not a good one.
So I think this is going to be my angle of attack.
In other news I’m fucking pissed off about Chris Hardwick. Sorry, but there is no fucking way he was abusive. I mean there is but he wasn’t. The ex accusing him I’m sorry but I know her type. I’m serious. I side with women 99 and 99/100% of the time—anybody who knows me knows that—so my emphatic defense of Chris doesn’t come easy. And I concede: I don’t know. But, you know, to see him fired off his show and his name be taken off his brand. Fuck that. I told him: Let me tell you something: Don’t lose heart. The spidey sense says this isn’t a derailment but a redirect. Also people aren’t really buying this one. I see you very clearly rising from whatever ashes this might create. This is more a test of how you deal with it. Don’t succomb to any negative hyphenated words that start with self-. Weather this with grace and ultimately speak your truth. We are with you!
In our book Sextrology, the Aries Man chapter is titled The One. It is a nod to the inherent sense of appointment, being singled out as special, that the Aries possesses; as well as a reference to his innate ability to approach life from his own singular perspective. Aries takes a warrior approach to life, entering into forms of training, if even of his own devising, that will keep him on the straight and narrow, directed toward his goals. He is fiercely competitive, which is why, ironically, he tends to shy away from contests and comparisons. He doesn’t much entertain the aims or even the concerns of others, because for him they might constitute a distraction. Aries is Latin for Ram‚the word arietare means to ram or to butt. As the male personification of this premier astrological energy, Aries embodies initiation and the birthing of new ideas and orders. Mars, whose namesake planet rules the sign. is the Olympian war god who carries a spear—in more ancient mythologies, he was a hunter then herder, carrying a staff, still, like the spear, a phallic symbol. All told, he is a male fertility god, and the virile Aries doesn’t fall far from that tree. Whether it be of a flock, or of a hunt or an army, the archetype is that of a leader. Aries energy is all about initiative if not being on the attack. And to say the Aries man isn’t a follower would be an understatement.
Aries man is on his own trip and it’s near impossible for him to on on others’ He is aggressive in his attempt to get you to engage in what he’s doing, his activities and interests, chief among them: himself, and his goals. The most lone, if not the most lonely guy, their is a natural silence to his existence with which he’s most comfortable, yet with others he can be a bit extra. Not to say all Aries come on strong—many are intensely solitary, even in company. But, either way, he makes a great impact. The Areis male is the most unironically butch, with the fewest androgynes (if any) found in their order. And, whether solo or before an audience, it’s always the Aries man show. He is great at putting it (his ideas, his plans, his creative efforts) out there but it’s difficult for him to take things in. Let’s just say this buster can filibuster, like the fire sign he is, sucking all the air out of a room. He is the most honest of the gender signs, for shiz, and often brutally so. He is the proverbial boss, and he’s good at it, so long as his associates buy wholesale into his vision. Voted most likely to achieve singular goals, Aries man is shot through with adrenalin, just one of many A-words associated with Aries, along with ardour, assertion, aggression, ambition, actualization, achievement—even his biblical and mythological archetypes, Adam and Ares (Roman: Mars) do likewise.
Aries man is the most unapologetic of signs. He embodies the notion that a person must put on his own oxygen mask before helping others do likewise. The unevolved Aries can be excedingly demanding in the assertion of his agenda, given to infantile outbursts when he feels he’s not being heard. At his most evolved, Aries is completely self-sufficient and, when participating with others, will do so detachedly. Somerset Maughm’s Larry Darrell, the protagonist of The Razor’s Edge, is an archetype of the Aries man, the war (god) hero on a soulful, existential journey that sees him renounce the people, places and things to which he’s supposed to be attached. Aries is the embodiment of purpose, the one true one being the full understanding of upper-case Self. Buddha himself was apparently born an Aries. The paradox of being an Aries man is probably the most striking of any individual on the astrological wheel. He is the most physical of men and yet he is the most inclined to realize his purely spiritual nature, separate from others. He is the most objective and objectifying of creatures and yet one who is compelled to look inward, to isolate a sense of pure goodness. He arguable possesses the largest ego of any of us—endowed with an outsized sense of purpose and importance—and yet this will drive him to the most vigilant of men in the pursuit of enlightenment, often through some denial of his physical self, wants and desires. He’s all me, me, me but ultimately in service of some greater good.
C’est moi, is the song sung by the character Lancelot, another Aries archetype, in the musical Camelot. In it, he extols his own superior virtues, both his extraordinary physical prowess and might as a knight but also his remarkable soul and purest heart and mind, “the envy of every saint.” Such is the hyperbole that Aries man is want to reserve for himself. And yet he didn’t escape his animal, sexual nature in the end, no matter how much he exercised his spiritual muscle.
- They take everything personally • Not only do they have difficulty seeing others’ perspectives, they exhibit no irony in believing that everyone should be looking at life from theirs. • They are the biggest hostage taker. •They are the most unbeholden living life on their own terms and on their own time. If they find, as they often do, a solo vocation where they needn’t much interface with others—solo artist or business owner, carpenter, graphic designer, anything where they can create and come up with any goods alone. Other notions: Stalker tendencies (if denied what they want), hard workers (bad bosses), strong body odor, bossy bottoms, bluster and bravado, Up for anything not for too long, thumbsucking and having to change their diapers. They adore without being clingy. In charge. Always moving onto the next thing. They have short tempers and are prone to tantrums. “Charismatic mansplainers. Active adventurous, but not in it for the long haul. In it for the “moment” and ultimately good with being in the moment (via meditation, etc).
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Aries Woman
Aries is, in a word, spirited. In our book Sextrology the Aries woman chapter is called The Original and it does indeed seem her natural birthright to stand out from the rest of the flock, to be unique, if not decidedly so; but the title also refers to something more primal; that the Aries woman embodies femalehood in its purest sense, untinged by the societal dictates or expectations of women, all of which Aries considers to be artifice, compounded over the millennia. She is someone about whom one says she broke the mold. And she is the most naturally feminist of female, cosmically programmed, on can argue, to take an objective view of life, making of it what she will. A strong defense is her superpower and she is forever on-guard, armored, against any people, place or thing that calls for her submission or deference to some patriarchy, especiallly.
Aries is the premier strategist of the Zodiac, endowed with the power to think many moves ahead of others in any situation. She is a master planner and architect of a life lived “at the top”—of whatever field or experience she enters into—planning her work and working her plan until she secures herself a lofty enough position—professionally, socially, artistically—where she will not be put down or subject to censure. She does not take criticism constructively. And, like her Aries brother, she wants freedom in autonomy, had either in solo pursuits or as one in charge with total carte blanche. She is cool, even aloof, on the outside, but internally her mind and spirit burn with ambition, mostly of the goodly kind. That superpower of hers makes Aries a notoriously great defender, particularly, of those whom, or that which, cannot defend themselves—be it women, minorities, children, animals, natural resources or the environment.
We have always found much treasure in the typecasting of actors of the various signs, as they often get pigeon holed by virtue of the archetypes and attributes associated with them. Aries women play unapologetic and unabashed. Their characters can be at war with the world and the men what made it. Though she holds herself apart, she is objectifying of that which she wants, which she wants when she want it. What she fancies should be hers by rights, and she sees no irony in that perspective. Aries is highly selective, after all, and thus singular in her ambitions and would-be conquests. She can be most selfish for love, if not in it. To connect the aliterative dots she is alert, attentive, aware, audacious, avid and avaricious. She assimilates and seeks to do so, most simply. She is exacting and employs an economy of moves, suffering no fools. She isn’t by nature sentimental, and she jettison people, places and things from her life, without regret. When she goes, she’s gone, to coin a phrase.
Like the male Ram, Aries woman also draws on the archetype of the warrior, albeit in female form. The prudent goddess of war and diplomacy, Athena, is her classical archetype. Like her, Aries woman’s steely exterior—never warm and fuzzy—belies a natural compassion not only as a defender of those in need, but on seeks to lift others up. In this we see true purpose of her pursuit of lofty positions: they are a necessity for benefitting those on whom she aims to bestow her patronage. She likes to feel important in this way, to make a positive impact and an obvious difference in the word, to be that proverbial one in a million. Athena gave the olive tree to her namesake Athens, a source of food (survival) and oil (fuel, or metaphorically speaking, enlightenment). War deities were always originally shepherd gods (which is why the first sign of the Zodiac, associated with the origin of life, is that of a sheep) agrarian staffs turning to spears as the world populated and peoples clashed. And we see that original nature in the Aries woman who is uniquely qualified to lead some flock or another, defending them against the wolves of the world. But that takes a fierceness all its own
Which is why, on the flipside, Aries woman is acutely attuned to others’ weaknesses and vulnerabilities and will readily point them out or exploit them in the pursuit of her goals. She is crafty and cunning and won’t hesitate to hold things over other people’s heads, or work them into a corner, if it suits her goodly purposes. Aries is reactionary in the extreme, and yet one might scarcely know it, she is that good at keeping her cards close to her vest. But she will play them, never fear, at the self-appointed time, and she is determined to win. Unfortunately, it can be at any cost, which is her fatal flaw. Perhaps because she is, by nature, rather righteous, she always has to be right, loath to ever admit she’s wrong. This can cause a lot of casualties—broken bonds and bridges—along the way. In signature steely style she might pretend to the bitter end that she couldn’t care less about it; but the truth is she bears the pain of regret deeply. Funny that a large part of the Aries woman’s personal evolution and enlightenment could be hastened by a few heart-felt apologies; they are, as a rule, not forthcoming.
Taurus man is the most evocative of creatures. He is a master of self-cultivation. Like a gardner he designs his persona to appeal to those whose attention he most wishes to capture, presenting himself as an anti-hero of sorts, seemingly subtle and insinuating and self-reverential—even if in the form of self-deprecation. He is rather unstraightfoward in the way he puts himself out there. That is to say he can be oblique, usually asking a series of questions (to which he already knows the answers you’ll give him) designed to illustrate his agenda while you’re the one who seems to have asserted it. He obscures his desires and motivations while diligently exacting them.
In keeping with his symbol Bull, the object (you) has to incite the Taurus’ charge (that agenda). Funny that Taurus is associated with responsibility because Taurus man doesn’t seem to take much of it—however, in the literal sense of the word, he is always responding to people’s reactions to him, and forever making tweaks to his approach so to maximize his appeal. You might say he is synonomous with his wants. And his process in achieving them is one of selective people-pleasing, all the while expressing (or feigning?) a certain guilelessness. The garden being the metaphorical landscape of this fixed-earth sign, his innocent self-cultivation gives way to pointed temptation as he promises others some form or other of favor or delight. But he always takes for what he gives. It’s All About (St)eve, a fact of which most people will be blissfully unaware, just how the little Bully intends it.
Taurus man is endlessly self-reflective, his seeming insouciance belying a carefully crafted persona. The French have the term decontracté which is a sort of negligent chic, in both style and demeanor. Taurus is an expert in this arena, never wanting to appear contrived in any way—when, truth be told, he can be the most self-art-directed of men, down to his paper-thin jeans, perfect stubble and well-rehearsed conversation. He does all he can to look, and make it all seem, natural. He learns early to take stock of skills and talents and to target the precious few that provide him admiration and assistance, even if in the vaguest form of praise. More than most he seeks to be considered an artist at whatever he does.
His main goal is ease, so he might settle for a comfortable success or tiny slice of renown, forgoing a surplus of hard work or sacrifice that might score higher achievement. He is however all for being swept up toward goals by endless assists and favors provided by his ever exanding immediate fan base. Taurus has a way of ingratiating himself into many lives, and often in a way that invites others to take care of him, on some level. Thus he evokes a certain patronage and sometimes stirring some sexual element into the mix. Taurus draws on the archetype of such male flower gods as Adonis, Hyacinth and Narcissisus, the cartoon version being Ferdinand the Bull and his roses. He is better than most people at sustaining a lifestyle that can be characterizes and stopping to smell those posies, that is to say, living in the present.
What Taurus can’t afford in his life are who might see through his more sychophantic ways and thus threaten to out him as an opportunist. This slice of the population is typically comprised of former friends he collected who helped him along the way but found themselves to be stepping stones. Those who continue to serve a purpose to the Taurus, however, will find his friendship addicting, because they are heaped with praise and attention in return, rewarded in kind for their patronage.
Taurus man is a notorious name-dropper, forever seeking to rise by version of his associations. Money is a major motivator to this man of careful action; and even those who pretend to be in love with certain poverty, or to champion the downtrodden, would be the first to cash in if he could…and he often does.
Astrology 101 is always talking about the Taurus appetite and how people born under the sign can overindulge in substances, food and drugs among them. It’s not quite true. Taurus man is more inclined to let you think he has a problem because it elicits more help from others, at the same time endowing him with a romantic, tragic brand of cool reserved for legendary hedonists who become iconic cultural figures. He is more, again, carefully cultivated and controlled a dabbler than he’d have others believe; if anything he is prone to be a pusher of such delights as might border on dangerous, a literal manifestation of the temptation energy associated with his sign. To psychoanalyze this tendency, one might infer that he seeks to derail others as a way of knocking out the competition; because it’s usually those he supposedly admires most that he, if only subconsciously, seeks to undermine. It’s not so much malicious as it is myopic, maybe. And ….
Taurus Woman
Taurus woman comes with a checklist of things they need to achieve and aquire, and they work it till they’ve ticked off each and every item, and then some. This modus operandi provides them security, or at least the sense that they I securing it for themselves. They are sensual creatures with a natural innocence, even when batting their cow eyes at you. Think of them like shutters of a camera, taking in and recording, from every angle, what the abundant world of possibility, or you yourself, might have to offer them. They are efficiency experts, loath to waste precious time—to them a true commodity—on people, places and things not worth their salt. They embody the notion that life should be carefree, doing all in their power to create a safe enclosure for themselves against the savagery of society. They see these same people, places and things in terms of value, investing interest, even the loving kind, only when confident of a solid return. The face of value being deceiving, they can be duped by appearances and overemphasis external trappings, which ultimately leave them wanting.
She is born under the archetype of the naive earth nymphs such as Io, who took the form of a snow-white heifer—the fairy tale of Snow White, innocence incarnate, is a retelling of that myth. These stories are hinged on experience and resiliance—the unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, typecast with a Taurus actress, is a funny, modern echoing of the same old story of the guileless female learning the often wicked ways of the world, without losing her childlike spirit. And so Taurus’ journey is about understanding her own strength and value without becoming jaded. She embodies the knowledge that our natural state should be one of happiness and living in harmony with nature. But this wide eyed view can also make the Taurus overly trusting, thus vulnerable to would-be snakes in the grass. She will readily learn this in life, and hopefully not too much the hard way.
If Taurus man is the gardener of the Zodiac, Taurus woman is like a flower, itself, delicate, pleasing, and needful of cultivation and care. Enviroment is everything to the Taurus woman, and a loving one is essential for her to exhibit her full expression of talent, value and beauty. She must be rooted in some talent or purpose and allow her surroundings to be a nurturative force. Flowers don’t seek to open part way, they intend toward full expression of their perfumed power and beauty. Flower power is the law of attraction, a superpower Taurus woman personifies. The power of passivity. Partnerships, one-on-one relationships, are key. Trust is her main theme, and yet it requires a setting of absolute safety, emotional or otherwise, in order for her to invest it. Funny that a show of trust is expressed in such financial terms—just as a trust itself can also mean a fund of sorts—as Taurus is the most material of signs, associated with value and esteem. To earn her trust, one must continually prize all the positive and loving assets that Taurus woman brings to the table, which is a lot. As such, she can find herself being used more than most people, whether for her talent or beauty or whatever else might make her a potential cash cow. So discernment is something the Taurus needs to develop lest she become distrustful, especially in love relationships. The irony of being the Zodiac’s proverbial innocent is notoriously attracted to bad-ass, baller characters. The best kind of company she can keep, however, is childlike, fun-loving creatures like herself.
Taurus tends to be naturally playful and prone to goofy, comedic antics and practical jokes. She can, however, be the most demanding of individuals, expecting a lot from the people in her life. She knows her worth and appreciates (read: demands) demonstrations of people’s affection and appreciation. She is a private but social creature who amasses a close circle of friends, those with similar tastes and lifestyles. She is a devoted friend; but she can cut those from her life who belittle or betray her loyalty with nary a regret. She can be competitive financially, and in the measuring of success, and her biggest challenge is being prone to envy of others, which she must learn to channel into inspiration from them. Sisterhood is something from which Taurus draws strength, and she is very much interested in the feminine experience beyond her personal own. She doesn’t revel in solitude; rather she enjoys sharing experience and working as a team, or ensemble, though she naturally acts the boss. If she possesses a bankable talent, she will bring friends and family along for a successful ride. She is mindful with money, even when flush in the extreme, but it won’t keep her from spending on creature comforts—her taste being more cushy than overly extravagant.
Prone to focussing on appearance, Taurus woman will especially indulge in fashion and beauty, and she is rather on the nose when it comes to telegraphing status or wealth—choosing designer labels, luxury cars, living in tony neighborhoods and the like. These all signal proof of her success, as much to herself as to others who might take note. She tends to see herself through others’s eyes, anyway, comfortable in a subjective role.
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To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree point of the Sabian Symbol may at times be one degree higher than the one listed here. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°, for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360 degrees spread over 365/6 days per year—so they nearly, but not exactly, correlate.
Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2020 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved. Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2020 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox.
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