Aquarius 19° (February 7)

Gone a bit fetal and watching Gone With The Wind. There is such a backlash against it but it is still an amazing film that doesn’t warrant being cancelled. I need to turn a corner emotionally and break some patterns I’ve had in place as coping mechanism that have since backfired. Some more astrological thoughts.

Mercury and Puck are messengers, instruments of communication, but they are also tricksters of the first order. And Gemini man struggles with this archetypal inheritance in the sense that, instead of being straight forward in his dealings, he tends to employ a signature slight-of-hand, if only to make his interactions more interesting, which isn’t always considered appropriate, that is to say rarely or never, by those on the opposite side of the table. Needing to get away with stuff or get things over on other people is like an addiction for the Twins man. It imparts a thrill. The real trick is to find a healthy outlet for this, namely sports and games, but even so it might be a challenge for Gemini to resist catching a buzz from, what he would consider harmless, cheating. The zodiac’s Robin Hood just can’t seem to help stealing from the rich—most everybody else—and giving to the poor—himself and those he labels his people. There is always something of the anti-establishmentarian about him, a bucking of whatever the system might be, the perennial rebel in search of his next cause. He naturally possesses the pluck, the nerve, to go against the grain, the original upstart of the zodiac, which is yet another one of his superpowers that can be employed for bigger purposes than he usually uses it for. Among its rule of body parts, the sign of Gemini governs the nerves, along with the breath, respiration, which, as anyone who has ever suffered a panic attack will attest, are related one to the other, deep breathing soothing the overloading of nerves and neurons. Neither deep breathing nor deep thinking come naturally to the Gemini man, the paradox being that, with proper meditative focus his efforts in so doing can reap profound results. But it takes some work, and especially around your realizing, Gemini, that this is not going against your nature. You may consider yourself a surface dweller but that isn’t even the half of your true story. We will delve more into that topic before long. Meanwhile, to say that Gemini is the least introspective of characters would be an understatement, and, yes, he will need to endeavor harder than others to gain even a glimmer of understanding to meaning and beauty of an inner life. Even the work of the great Twins poet Walt Whitman—his name being something of an aptronym in that Gemini man lives most by his wits—is an exploration of what he sees, feels, senses right in front of him, a celebration of what is right under his feet, the street-level of existence. What can be more exhilarating and exalting, though, than finding the sublime right there on the sidewalk.

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1556-1560. 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.

Movie opens. Credits rolling over Yves Arden (a JVB type) working the phones or rather fielding calls coming in—they are an exec type in stunning Balenciaga and Blahniks. Dialogue focusing on the whereabouts of Stella and Quinn. Yves says these like they are due in Paris/Stockholm/Copenhagen to be awarded/deliver speack on their new philoosophy The Turn Theory or some such (the philosophy is Kabbalistic? but relating to “the energy of the mind in its ability to alter outcomes”) maybe Stella kissing goodbye to the boulangere Quinn studying “Aries Phenomenon” in Iceland or some such, making ways back separately to meet at NY Headquarters, first with Yves. Former dialogue or Yves: “Sorry ang but I can’t squeeze you in, said in Taiwnese with subtitles “He/she/they are only here for a day before heading to Stockholm”, etc. At some point Stella and Quinn appear in a show in the West End. In fact every scene sees them coming off a different “expert activity” as if they are living testament to the power of their own theory “something,” one of them will say “which I always believe in but never thought could be formalized into being—literally have a mathematical formul for (this is what The Turn of the Whell from Pisces “I bleieve” to Aries “I am” means. Before Arien Being is Piscean beleiving…anyway..as living examples of this power. again this is why S + Q have so many expert adjustments one reason whey they are real-magical (their being, their understanding of time and experience. However they never predict times for their clients It conflicts with turning the wheel and limits/alsters the piscean power of beleiving maybe Quinn does some rant on theory. quinn is a sexy theorest, James Bond of academia. Someone else says “astrology is not academia” “the other person says ahh tell it to the Sorbonne. IN a To the maniess style. I have no idea what any of that meant.

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.

Aquarius 18° (February 6)

I’m just going to post more astrological thoughts. Otherwise today is yet another wash, which I can’t really afford. Anyway, I have to be strong and bold and just keep forging forward.

The fairytale version of Mercury, Peter Pan, whom we’ve long associated with the sign, amasses his own tribe of lost boys who seek solace and guidance in equal measure. The sign of Gemini rules the hormonally raging age group of 14-21 a time when boys band together into schoolyard gangs, socially gathering together, into flocks of boon companions. And the Twins guy an embodied snapshot of those salad days all his life. He runs on the steam of such tribalism, if not mob mentality, like that other fellow in green tights, Robin Hood, operating in secret, employing the element of surprise, being rather thuggish, even, in the loftiest of enterprises. We might add that DC Comics’s original character Robin (Dick Grayson), Batman’s sidekick cum superhero in his own right is likewise attired and, as we’ll explore, is archetypally on brand. (And yes, nerds, we know that there is more than one Robin.) In keeping with this character, in our first book Sextrology we titled the Gemini man chapter The Goodfellow, a major nod, too, of course to Robin Goodfellow, aka Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not only is midsummer the culmination of the sign of Gemini, but Puck is the fairy incarnation of the mythic Mercury (Greek: Hermes), both being messengers to their king masters, Oberon and Zeus, respectively. Where we are going with this: Born under the premier air-sign in the zodiac, and the sole mutable one at that, Gemini people draw on the archetypes of the air spirits, sprites, fairies and, arguably, some angels and demons in equal measure. Not Shakespeare’s invention, Puck is a pagan spirit out of ancient northern European folklore, whose name may derive from the Old Irish and Old English puca, or the Old Norse and Old Icelandic puki—in either or both case, it is from whence we get the word pixie and, by extension, pixilated, which was first introduced by Mary Chase in her Pulitzer prize-winning 1945 stage play, and the 1950 film of the same name, Harvey, the title role being an invisible pooka, a benign but mischievous creature out of Celtic mythology who takes the form of a giant rabbit. To be pixilated, is to be dazed and confused, which is very much what it is in Mercury and Puck’s—and by extension Gemini man’s—power to do to others, not to be, well, confused with the similarly spelled digital pixelization (although that word presents a good visual to describe the deconstructive atmosphere the Gemini guy is wont to create). 

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1551-1555. 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.

Getting my brain around a timeline today. We will make salmon with salad and stewed tomatoes and avocado for dinner tonight with some wine from the Orleans shops. I spent the day mostly in bed feeling very weird and sweaty. The fou-fous are now in full force. This is proving to be the kind of week you wanted to be a period of immediate snap back; but instead it has been a one of somewhat dysfunctional aftermath. It happens. There is no real crime in it and I can only do as much as I can do. I did have some good time alone to myself and I did manage to get a few things done, but today is going to have to be a something of a rerun. So here is something I’ve written in the past:

I love Julia Child. Who doesn’t, I know, but she has always held a special fascination for me. When I was a waiter in 1986 at the Harvest in Harvard Square, she and her husband Paul would come in for lunch. You would here “Bonjour Roger” in that booming unmistakeable tenor as she greeted the tiny alcoholic nicotine sodden  maitre d’ whose name she properly prounced in French, ro-jay. Paul, a curled shrimp of a man who had already suffered his series of small strokes, followed hist towering wife into the dining room where she would always order the same thing: a burger, rare, no bun. She is a Leo and I’ve often remarked on the similarity between her choice of lunch and the bloody meat one would throw into a lion cage.

Before the book and movies about her during the last decades, I always thought she would make a great subject for a work of art. I won’t go any further into that thought lest I actually end up pursuing this instinct myself. At the very least I think she and her husband would make great costumes for Stella and me, come Halloween. But, obviously, there’s more to it. Here was a couple who worked together (even though you didn’t know he was behind the scenes), who had no kids and were rather late bloomers. They were also obsessed with France and had an affinity for Cambridge, Massachusetts and Maine. All of this I can relate to.

She described herself “as the cat looking at the king” when she was a student of Le Cordon Bleu—what can be more Leo an expression than that. And what person from any other sign could turn what was for her a personal passion into an entire movement, changing the way Americans cooked, forever. What other sign could see a chef superstar embodied in the form of a fifties something woman. I’m happy I had the few opportunities I did to wait on Mrs. Child whose name couldn’t be more fitting for someone who lived life with a childlike exuberance and who gave so much to the world.

As we often are, we were approached by an event planner to do readings for guest at a private party. But there was something mysterious about this whole affair as the planner didn’t seem to be someone who threw a lot of parties, and we came to learn she worked for just a few clients helping them with their private and corporate events which kept her busy. This event was to be at a private home in Rhode Island and we took it as an opportunity to see a new part of New England. Only was there did we realize the island was where much of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom was filmed. So we drove around to visit location spots, most notably, the “cove” of the place that serves as the film’s title.

The party itself only had about forty people in attendance but it was pretty elaborate and the grounds on which it was held, a private home on the water with multiple acres and buildings, was something the likes of which I’ve never seen; and I’ve spent a lot of time around rich people. We were set up in a sort of tower structure from which we could look down on the partygoers whom one couldn’t help imagine lived very privileged lives. One never knows exactly on which side of the political equation people might be in this position but, we were in short order led to assume that these people here assembled were on the right side of politics and history. How did we know this? Because they were all incredibly nice and unassuming people. In a world where the biblical adage that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven often rings so true, this party of people was to prove twrong that saying.

We had no idea the name of the hosts all the while we were at the party. Only by doing a bit of Google detective work the next day were our assumtions corrobarated. The host of the party was indeed a well-known, celebrated, very wealthy man of the Warren Buffet school of philanthropy where he was determined to give a great deal of his wealth away and to put it in service of others. We’ve always said that when it comes to private clients the best people in the world seem to find us and to be genuintely interested in raising their consciousness, making it a joy to help them in that aim. What we realize is that the same holds true for those who come to hire us for events. In either case we have never solicited interest but allow word of mouth and, I’d like to say, some good karma, make the referrals for us.

Emerging from the fog. I have what we call round these parts the “fou-fous”; (I caught some kind of something that my body is trying to rid itself of by way of sweating). A surplus of things is occuring to me. I need to run down the list of existing sponsors and send them the party invite. I also need to go for the jugs with getting “the persuadeables” (sorry) to donate. Scallops and leeks for dinner tonight. I need to fill in with more rerun material:

Why do I do what it is I do in regard to the half of each year, I spend, putting together performing arts festivals and series. Well, the simple answer is that Ed Sullivan and I share more than a birthday. Like Ed, I was a journalist from the age of 22 to about 40. IN fact the main reason I thought to adopt the pseudonym of Quinn Cox was because I wanted to keep my journalistic world—editors and publishers and the subjects I wrote about—separate from what might or not be a success as an astrological duo which has affectionately come to be known as Starsky + Cox. But you see paradoxes began to spring up. Like my Libran brother Oscar Wilde said, and I paraphrase because I’m too lazy to look this shit up: Give a man a mask and he’ll reveal his truths to you. Okay I’m going to look it up and see how close I got. What he actually said was: “Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.” Which is much simpler and better but I was close.

People do not know me and that’s been okay. I think I’m getting ready to reveal myself in teaspoonfuls. The fact is that back around 2005 I thought Stella and I needed to take to a stage, something we had only done together, rarely, in acting classes where, at HB Studios, we were labelled “the Lunts” which, I won’t lie, I loved. I had a sort of rock-bottom epiphany where I thought, hang on, our book Sextrology came out last year and it has been a success, so we should take to the stage and somehow combine comedy and astrology with some music thrown in. At a place called (under) Elmo in Chelsea, which one tried to convince oneself was a boutique version of Fez under Time Cafe which had recently closed down, we launched our first “Cosmic Cabaret” to a full house of wonderful people we knew personally and periferally. Lots of fashion people—Zaldy and Ruben and Isabel Toledo and John Bartlett—as opposed to performer folks. And, I have to say, after another decade or so “being” with performer folk, I much prefer the people in the fashion and design world, despite the fact I was so utterly convinced, in 2005, that I wanted to stop hanging around with fashion folks whom I did at the time find fatuous and enter the “real” world of performing artists who were down, dirty, honest and true.

Performing artists, who had been down, dirty, honesty and true for the whole time I dipped in and out of their circles, for the past 20 years since I made my way to NYC, but when, in 2006, I began to seek their company, they were on their last gasp of genuine experience. Now, first, let me say, there is no downtown. And I say this as both a journalist and a downtown denizen who more dabbles in performance. I have said this for a decade now: Round about 2007, “downtown artists” began emulating some hybrid breed of Upper East Side Socialite and opera, indie-movie and/or rock star. Quite a leap, I know; but one felt, downtown, that one should speak in a mid-Atlantic accent previously reserved for Rosiland Russell and garb oneself from head to toe in outfits that were spontaneously ready to pass, if pressured, at a Met or Whitney Event.

Suddenly the creme de la creme of the downtown scene used words like creme de la creme. Though they might still live in apartments where the bath tub was recently or still, in the kitchen, they thought they should no longer have to pay for meals or makeup or plastic surgery because they were iconic, and they were. Some still are although that particular brand of enchantment is wearing off and, dare I say, thin.

And I started to miss my friends that worked at magazines that no longer existed. I started to miss the art directors and fellow writers, like myself, who live such solitary lives that it takes a proper poking or, at the very least, a more gregarious partner to stap you into interaction. But what I missed most about living life as a more anonymous character was the ability to move on a dime, to travel, undetected, without needing to be any one place on any certain date….

Awoke from a dream about the Olsen Twins. They were landing a helicopter onto a plane that we were traveling in. They looked old and terrible and one of them (Mary Kate I think) was binging on licorice. Today will not be a good day. Yesterday was too frought for that. More car trouble. More professional impasses. More fundraising pleas falling on deaf ears. There is no time for joy it seems. And my other dream was me looking for a car I parked somewhere and wondering if it got towed. That happened once in real life back in the very early nineties when I went to visit Dean Niarkis at his apartment somewhere in the twenties. I had parked my car and slept over and in the morning I went looking for it and couldn’t find it—I suppose I didn’t remember where I had put it. I was so desperate looking for probably a full hour and then, not giving up, I finally found it. Anyway even though the title of today’s posting is slightly rosier sounding it is a total lie. Things are super shitty right now and no matter what I attempt in hopes of reversing the fact it just leads to more problems and psychological warfare. Anyway I’m still have fever dreams and I’m still trying to feel physically better. I have thirty days now until festival eve and I am determined not only to enjoy the last vestiges of summer, which really lasts a good long time after the fact. And I have to look at these darker hours this week as a way of touching a certain kind of rock bottom from which we can rise.

Happily things did turn around and we did some emotional housework and then went for a second sushi of the week (don’t judge). The weather was changing, the oppressive heat being sent out to sea, as winds and clouds from the east swept over us, plunging the temperature to a tolerable level. We shared a bottle of rosé bought from the shops in overcrowded Wellfleet and then still had a little Chinon to take to bed with us. I am urging someone to watch Years And Years somewhat against her will. Yes, the subject matter is really scary; however the product is such top quality and the acting/ensemble superb. Belfast is on my mind today—I do love Maine so very much. But I have to stop my real-estate porn addiction because it doesn’t keep me in the now which is where I want and need to be. This should be an interesting month as I allow the intermittent fasting thing to take hold while I make the beach an everyday thing and go off any and all sauce for the duration. With so much holiday fun this summer already under my belt I don’t really expect this to be much of a challenge. And anyway I have to be all foward movement. It’s a psychological thing. I almost want to be awake as much as possible. Why is that? I’m predicting I will live until eight-four. Is that weird to say? I just have a vibe.

I have to clear out my brain and get my psychic self buzzing. That’s what these daily summits will be all about. We have to create our own excitement. And part of that is also clearing away the cobwebs of past negativity and dysfunction and, yes, destruction. I for one have never been perfect (I know that might come as a shock) and I have behaved badly in my life but it has never really, at the core, been anything but beating myself up, whether I’ve done it privately or in public. I want to fall back in love with writing again. This is one of my goals for the coming year. I’m prolific I know but I have to be a bit more purposeful. I need to find an almost physiological focus, a literal unscrambling of my brains. There is something about me always that feels as if I’ve been shaken by a giant babysitter. I sent a note to JCM asking if he would give a little shout here and there for the Afterglow Festival and he wrote back in gleeful affirmation. I’m so grateful for this kindness. I really am counting my blessings and friends as one.

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.

Aquarius 17° (February 5)

Blent, Day 6. The good news is I’m feeling rested, although my dreamscape still has the quality suggestion of my having suffered a brain injury. I wish I could explain to you better what I mean by that but I really don’t have the time. For sure my nerves are smoothing out and I can attribute that to Blent. I’m going to stick close to bed and pajamas today and try to write what needs writing as if I’m just here doing my Blague. I am trying to ease into it all. I am learning what I need to learn. I will start a list of evening activities as I get into a rhythm. Off the top of my head these will include packing, working on fundraising, and doing the extra book writing and reading and listening to books by the fire. That is what I’m looking at. My basic mantra for the day is: don’t think. I just want to assemble, to treat blocks of text like furniture and just chuck them willy nilly into different chapter sections, as if they are rooms, to rearrange and then decorate later. 

It was a noble thought and then I fell off the axis. It upsets me that I haven’t been able to sustain what needs sustaining but it doesn’t help me to wallow so I’m just going to post some notes on current astrological observations:

Gemini is forever striking some kind of bargain or another, internally negotiating opposing forces—along the proverbial right vs. wrong dichotomy—and outwardly navigating his needs against what, he supposes, others want from him, exacting his next move, the next deal, to further any number of his agendas. His can be a tricky head to be in; and yet there is very little the Gemini doesn’t do mindfully, being less prone than most to unconscious motivations, compulsions, and the like. He is determined to keep others guessing for as long as he may, which can make him appear indecisive or confused, when in fact he is dazzling others with infinite information and imagined possibilities, outcomes, and other such shiny objectives, if not sowing confusion, creating distractions, to better move his own needle, undetected. The Twins man is self-aware, if to a fault, purposely creating a buzz, excitement aimed at keeping spirits bright, especially his very own; and he will do so all the more if he knows that what he’s selling—always something—isn’t quite what he’s cracking it up to be. Beyond personifying the old refrain, fake it till you make it, Gemini has the ability to convince himself, in a flash, that whatever he is saying is actually true. If only he would use this superpower of positive thinking for good. (Ah, but you can Gemini, you can.) For the Twins man, it’s all about his field of experience, and what electricity he can create within it. Immediacy is his watchword in more ways than one. Ruled by Mercury, named for the eternally teen-aged, quicksilver god who can be here or there in an instant, the sign of Gemini is hinged on both the instantaneous and the intimate, the immediacy of both time and space. This nervy powerhouse of a person is focused on the moment, needing to be occupied by interaction, physical activities or conversation, and surrounded by loyal and compliant cronies who consider him the bee’s knees and themselves fortunate to be in his posse. Gemini has a knack for taking those with broken wings under his own, and he trades his bestowal of affection for, and approval and validation of, these fellows in exchange for their fidelity. He thus attracts (scouts for?) those who may lack a strong will or direction of their own, and provides these malleable peeps a sense of purpose they mightn’t otherwise gain for themselves. 

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1546-1550. 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.

So the five Blagues from these days chronicle the return from Rome via London, where that amazing Jenny (who cured herself of a hernia by jumping up and down) breezed us through to terminal back to Boston, the Eliot, the ferry to Provincetown and the windwhield of my car being smashed by my hood which flew up and cracked it while I was on the highwy. Yikes.

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.

Aquarius 16° (February 4)

Day 5, Blent. The Mercury retrograde is making itself known and today felt really quite depressing as a result of being denied something we were sure was, well, a sure thing. Faith is being tested and that’s okay. This year is all about the book and my challenge is not to just do it but to enjoy the process. I have an opportunity to put everything into th project at hand. It is active faith hou might say, and I’m very willing to have this be a thing. Now a little bit of astrological thought:

He is the best of guys, he is the worst of guys. Sometimes wholly gravitating toward one extreme or other, Gemini mostly embodies a provocative mix of both polarities, placing him somewhere midway along that spectrum. That may sound a bit ominous, but least of all to the Gemini, who embraces and indeed celebrates badass elements of self. One thing is for sure, there is rarely a dull moment in the life of the Twins guy, not for him, and certainly not for his immediate associations. His protocol, be it voluntary or not, is to keep the rest of us guessing, the element of surprise being endemic to his experience. Gemini likes to shake things up, as if all the world were one big snow globe, challenging the status quo, and letting the chips fall where they may. He seems the most spontaneous of characters, but that can be part of his cunning, as he would rather others not comprehend just how precalculated he can be. Exuding youthful charm and exuberance, designed to enliven situations and people he finds too staid or serious, Gemini seems to possess the power to change the very arrangement of molecules in the air, and typically, for the better. Not to say he always lightens the mood, because when things are not going his way, the turned-down atmosphere all around will seem to be on a dimmer switch. Thankfully, for the most part, he seeks to infuse life with that much more fun, his animated, near cartoon expressions registering his every reaction and emotion as he intently listens to others—or is it a well-rehearsed display designed to signal he’s engaged while his brain alights elsewhere. The thing is we will never know. Even the most angelic Gemini has, shall we say, an interesting relationship with the truth, which is hardly ever an absolute in his book. Nobody thinks quicker on his feet than this fleet-witted fellow, while his signature snappy repartee often belies a broad, original philosophical mind, which can be reluctant to develop. Gemini is impatient, which, on one hand can make him prolific, able to churn out whatever he puts his mind to, without over thinking; on the other, he can sell his intellectual alacrity short, only employing it in ways that won’t tax his notoriously short attention span. One of the natural-born leaders of the zodiac, he sticks to an inner circle, surrounding himself with seconds, lieutenants who can carry out his bidding. Even when in great positions of power, over many people, he runs his operation like a mom-and-pop shop, relying on close friends and family who provide cover and run interference. Charismatic to the core, he breathes life into circumstance

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1546-1550. 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.

Full on Blagues from our trip from Ithaca to Sicily and Islands so not going to repost them. But if you were to go back to read you can just type in Ischia.

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.

Aquarius 15° (February 3)

Day 4 of Blent. Today will not end up great on the real estate front, but we are undaunted and trusting in this retrograde to point us toward the right opportunity. I will manage to get some more pages under my belt today but not all I need. We get a nice note from Joe’s Pub and will take them up on their generous offer. I continue to slowly pack, putting all my affairs, by category, into their own boxes, etc. Some ideas are coming to mind about what needs doing to finish the current chapter I’m weighted down in and moving on to new pastures tomorrow. Meanwhile here are some notes:

That gaslighting and second guessing: It causes a rift in personality, such that one feels that being their true, natural self isn’t enough, or worse, too much. Taurus females are a sensitive bunch, and they feel the brunt of any assault, no matter how subtle, register in their emotional body which can ultimately manifest physically. To use a bovine metaphor, Taurus feels branded by the labels people slap on her, and they aren’t easy for her to shake off. So as carefree, and even wild, as you are meant to be, Taurus, you are, paradoxically, the most readily yoked and corralled. Now, sometimes it’s not just jealous peers and siblings who take part in cutting you down to their desired size—we had long suspected, and years working with clients has confirmed, that there’s about a fifty-fifty chance that Taurus’s own mother can, if only at times, pile on, incapable of keeping her own jealousy of her daughter in check. Taurus and her mom are generally not cut from the same cloth, the elder being very status- (and self-) conscious, cautious and admonishing, and so she might turn a blind eye to the Taurus being emotionally body-slammed by other children, including her own. More times than not Taurus’ parents lead quite separate lives, even if they’ve remained together under the same roof, and the Bull girl may feel that it is her father alone who sees through the glare of the gaslight for who she truly is. Together, they perhaps share an unspoken understanding; still he mightn’t outright stand up for her either, rather minimalizing the situation, and silently suggesting Taurus pay her in-house dementors little mind. But she feels that divide. And she will talk to herself, without words, as she does with her dad, perhaps, asking herself why it is she inspires so much joy in some and disdain in others. It wasn’t always this way—she wonders, or was it? One thing is for sure, it seems to be getting stickier as she gets older, mild censure turning to outright derision. And so, she bides her time until she can break out on her own, which she will do, like a Bull right out of the gate. Geographical cures are generally frowned upon for most people as they never truly do the expected trick of leaving emotional baggage behind; but for Taurus, it can do a great deal of good in an ironic twist, of which she won’t be aware at the time. Taurus will see breaking out on her own as a chance to reinvent herself and being anyone she wishes to be; but, typically, she ends up reclaiming the self she’d been squashing deep down inside herself for so long she doesn’t recognize it when it comes flowering back to life. Taurus can feel that this new-found freedom of authentic self is actually her faking it—how’s that for irony? The point is, by young adulthood, Taurus might perceive herself as having been put through the ringer, twisted by the tales of her upbringing of mixed messages, trying to go where the genuine love is, while struggling with her own sense of self, a perpetual pop-quiz in a true or false format, hoping maybe somebody out there has some right answers. Maybe she can glimpse her veritable self in the mirror of an admirer’s eyes.

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1541-1545. 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.

Five more days of Blague from 2019 being on the Boat in Greece and Sicily. So not going to post these expository entrees.

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.

Aquarius 14° (February 2)

Groundhog Day but for real this time—meaning everyday has been the same since this pandemic struck and, let’s face it, it’s not going to end any time soon. So I have to make the most of this reality and put all my effort into writing. I was exploring the notion of myrrh and myrtles, both of which figure into the landscape of the Taurus estate, it turns out. Myrtle is a flower sacred to Aphrodite and it rhymes with girdle, which the goddess wore around her waist, making her irresistible. In the bible, Esther is originally called Hadassah, Hadass being the Hebrew word for Myrtle. There is much to do today and I really have to get on it the next two days actually are really pivotal in my estimation. I was thinking now she isn’t a *********** but feels like one he doesn’t know he is then there’s a terrible one. Also have the whole hathor angle to explore. That has happened today is that I have to get completely off book with this particular chapter even if I have to go late . Overweight I’m speaking from the perspective that this is today but this is yesterday. On this day I will make some major inroads but nothing really spectacular will happen. By the same token a lot is getting done in other parts of our brand . I’m very excited about our collaboration with P town company. Also getting my brain around the news feed on the website. Feeling optimistic and for some reason not as freaked out by the farmer folk face. It’s as if he really has no power here and that’s the way we’re going to keep it. I’ve saved a lot of what I want to save and put in to boxes so now I can be pretty much brutal about the rest of it. Going to let the optimism of this time lift me up somewhat. It seems so strange to me that Democrats would have gotten rid of someone like Al Franken Woodley Republican Party won’t curatives a kook like that ******* nameless whatsamacallit. anyway we will have a lovely lunch uhv this frittata of egg onion smoke salmon and herbs served with a lovely salad of baby leaf lettuce; and for dinner I’m going to make a Golden beet risotto with time and tarragon. 

All About Eve isn’t the only retelling of the Hera/Io-Evil Queen/Snow White myth to be set upon a stage, which (Taurus) William Shakespeare characterized as “all the world.” In John Cassavetes film Opening Night the main character Myrtle Gordon is haunted by a young fan, Nancy, who is struck down by an automobile while seeking her autograph, inspiring a mental breakdown treated with emotionally wrenching scenes, one involving, you guessed it…mirrors! The name Myrtle is that of the fragrant flower sacred to Aphrodite/Venus, while Gordon derives from the Scottish, meaning “great fortress” and/or, from the Irish, as “beloved”—any which way, right on brand for Taurus! In reading the Taurus man chapter of this book, you would see that his main archetypes are the flower gods and, chiefly, Adonis, whose mother Myrrha was punished by Aphrodite for not worshipping her (i.e. not expressing sexual desire) such that the goddess cursed Myrrha with lust for her own father, whom she secretly seduced in the dark, only to be discovered and threatened with death by his sword. She fled for nine months before the gods, taking pity, turned her into the myrrh tree, Adonis being born of a mother in a literally vegetative state. Aphrodite mothers Adonis (with help from Persephone, queen of the underworld, foreshadowing death) but ultimately, in a karmic turn, develops a burning lust for the boy, taking him as a lover, before his tragic, sacrificial demise and “resurrection” as the anemone flower. Before we unpack all this, there is a biblical correlation: Queen Esther (aster), so called, was originally named Haddasah, the Hebrew word for myrtle, the flowers of which form the shape of a star—she disguised her Jewish identity while being prepped as a candidate to wed the king of Persia, which she did; and in the year-long preparation to meet him, she was purified daily with myrrh, which was typically used for embalming (the Magi offering it as a gift to the baby Jesus is also a foreshadowing of his sacrificial death).

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1536-1540. 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.

Not going to post past Blagues again but just to remind myself this is where we spent last couple of days in Myddleton Square before flying to Corfu where our bags did not meet us.

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.

Aquarius 13° (February 1)

It’s rabbit rabbit once again. And tomorrow the Groundhog is going to do his thing in some kind of virtual way. February is one of those months where so it occupies midwinter in only three weeks time will be in the last third of the season. And when you’re doing a kind of task like I now have at hand I find that it’s like sneaking in on spring getting as much under one’s belt as one can possibly get before the fever strikes and you want to escape into the day. Started the day with prepping the kitchen I ended up doing a big clearout and going to the dump and also doing the food shopping stripping beds putting on sheets etc before settling into work. There’s an ongoing thing with bank statements and tax returns so that took a little bit of my time as well. They had a lovely carrot ginger soup for lunch. Now I’m in this sort of Limbo state where I need to get myself motivated for a timed writing in about 20 minutes so I’m going to go through and read in some of the note the prompts that I need to get myself moving such that in the worst case scenario if you wake up tomorrow and I still have Sir plus of 10 pages to do just going to use the scaffolding of what I put down here on paper today and just get up Castle hot coffee and just type my little fingers off until the cows come home no pun intended since I’m working on Taurus. 

talking about looks of things can be more important to her than others The upshot would then be what all his reflection her opposite sign goes through the looking glass Scorpio more than skin deep 

We talk about ritualistic fervor and then I’m onto JVB getting dressed 

Owning her Eve second sexiness what we said how is this not feminist really when this is the same form of respect and treatment drag Queens inspire 

Doing the same thing we did in tourist man gardens put on a shell showing talent we can say she’s a dabbler as conscious of her belief system as a price tags maybe we should instead say value system but she holds to be true’s secret about which she can reach out and touch So in no certain order say something about loving the idea of a vanity is a piece of furniture  tends to have a number of talents, a multi threat

Ability to save her life and be savard  not saved.

Back to barefoot part like Alice can be most unplugged maybe . Should also think about Kathleen what her issues might be how she should evolve we say she knows her worth but maybe we think about how she is learning that what is this sign here to learn 

Being able to respond . Let us do more with hathor. Both Eve and Iowa attract really metaphoric snakes in the grass RWT metaphor don’t know what that means Egyptian and Indian gods 

I miss sometimes a change of scenery a geographic cure works best for this preeminent sign still the point the visual is very important to her what she is admitting putting out there incarnated as tourist to focus on talents does she do too much even Renee Zellweger is a triple threat JBB sing paint act red book when we say something is sound what are we saying it is stable there is the entire Jesus myth to an Explorer in the metaphysical musings section 

Can’t help it see herself through others eyes we say that but this is about her associated value . She’s had a suggestive managerial streak asserts agendas by asking questions we already did that in the male part. We say the tourist daughter is sweetness beauty tord father. That the father rubs nose in it huh sounds kind of creepy we can do better but then again it fits the mirror myth negligent chic Bianca Jagger expensive quality garments in a comfortable form she always dresses the part how she expresses this through clothing hair makeup part of the show showing you her quality her taste which is who she is toruses or taste synonymous one with the other she is also her appetites for values but towards the same voice with her appearance the statement she’s making especially because we have told Taurus Kathleen that it’s not a superficial thing that’s all about empowerment dressing for success takes on a new meaning yes 

Performative but doesn’t know it or does she she is trying to be subtle and sometimes not at all this is not fleshed out but this is a good distinction between her and Taurus man 

Had the idea for sidebars to make more of the angles the signs next to each other the opposite signs quincunxes being a spiritual dialogue magical signature tourists and sad gioan Hera Aries and Scorpio the underground Mars etc 

Gender is in the brain so if you’re a tourist woman Reid tourist woman personally we think the trans people will know should read the sign they transition to because that is really them right 

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1531-1535. 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.

I’m not posting anything today from the five blocks from July 2019. But there are too entries about Diss. Nothing but exposition of our trip to London and Suffolk but weird synchronicity given the fact that over the weekend we watched The Dig, set in Suffolk and Diss, in particular.

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.

Aquarius 12° (January 31)

Day 2 of 100. Well it is the end of another month and that was quite the nail biter. I’m so concerned about this country as well we all should be. I’m going to take a very laid back approach to the day, letting the major themes be hydration and teeth whitening, in that order. There really is no reason to bore you with the banalities of the day, so I won’t long linger here. Time passes. I got a great deal done today actually, not as much as I wanted to maybe. I could use a day where I get eight pages down on paper which isn’t impossible actually. I am sleeping better now and there are no appointments lurking at all this week. And besides this is the time to do it. I am absolutely determined to make myself proud and in the process be the best friend I can be to myself. I have never been that reliable. I fair whether friend have I been to me. I have often abandoned myself just as the getting gets good. I’m so much better when the going gets tough. I get cocky, all Icarian. But I am truly ready to let that go. Tomorrow’s going to be another day and so be it. I’m prepared to write some bad pages tomorrow and just start sentences with the words…I”’ll say something like”…

I definitely plowed through and I believe came up with some new and original thoughts. I did things in a different way even reframed Paul Snow White kimmy Schmidt thing to be about resilience. I’d like to talk about the checklist in a different way I did I believe I’m not focusing so much on like her being this vanity plate although I do like the idea of re framing load Facebook thing it’s sort of like weird ironic way of keeping things the same although it doesn’t appear to the rest of us to be that I want to talk about time got into the Hall nymph thing I want to talk about the natural state not really sure where I left off but I decided to postpone speaking on one subject can’t quite bring it up but I’ll get there being rooted the law of attraction being her own power of passivity I may just cut and paste bunch of this in just for the hell of it see where it takes me I think that if I really focus a little bit of quantity today then as I start my day tomorrow I can come through all that and that should be enough planting of the seeds I am determined to beat the Clock in a sense with my schedule I’ve allowed five days per sign, but I think I can get it down to four which would move my calendar back up to where it approximately was before and that the bulk of all I need to do will be complete before any kind of summer vacation were to happen period of course the whole lawyer situation is something you really want tackle and it may be time soon too revisit the whole moratorium topic . What I need not do today is really get lost in any kind of online surfing which is really a form of addiction at this point. I’d like to keep things very clean I’d like to focus my evenings on continuing to organize and pack and maybe even get some reading done that sort of thing I find it very good for the brain overall to be waiting through all these bits and bobs. 

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1526-1530. 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.

bits I’m not using today here and call it a day:

A benchmark of our philosophy and work, and what has registered most poignantly with our readers is that: the various archetypes that we’ve come to personify as mythical deities, spiritual and literary characters also live in us. Or rather, we are living personifications of them.  Each sign has main and ancillary archetypes—male, female and transgender energies cum characters—native to it. And we, the people, born under the various sun-signs are suffused with these spirits, these thought-forms, these energies, these deities, endemic to our star signs. We are, indeed, endowed with their specific brands of godhead, what we have referred to, herein, as “super powers”, particular to each of the gender-signs.  The mythic stories of these beings are metaphor for our human conditions and life paths, the hero’s journey, if you will. The Leo man hero is not the Virgo man hero nor the Virgo woman hero, for that matter. In some cases, one sign’s hero skill-set is another sign’s shadow-side manifestation, a challenge to be overcome.

In addition, and directly related, to these powerful archetypes are the innumerable other astrological assignations specific to each signfor instance: the specific combination of a sign element (fire, earth, air or water) and quality (cardinal, fixed or mutable), the fourelements times three qualities forming the element-quality mixes unique to each sign. There is a vast wealth of knowledge to glean from that combination alone and, knowledge being what it is, this too becomes a source of personal power, motivation and direction for the reader.  Other factors that provide us great insight into the personalities are the sign’s planetary ruler, the sign number, the astrological house—it alone has a laundry list of attributes—the sign’s graphic glyph, the seven-year age span associated with the sign, the sign’s and planet’s rulership of organic and inorganic objects and entities—the list of attendant attributes is probably endless, and we will pick and choose appropriately in support of both our treatise and the reader’s understanding, absorption and progressive transformation. We will thereby help and guide the reader in a healthful process of personal evolution comprised of and/or mirrored in an increase of self-acceptance, easeful relationships, social productivity, creative passion, personal value (and wealth), psychological understanding, emotional connectivity, hunger for knowledge, ownership of authority, compassion and love. We spotlight and explore the individual’s gifts and assets as well as their traps and challenges, providing specific direction for accentuating the former and negotiating the latter so that the momentum of one’s experience can be optimized, obstacles discarded, distractions and detractors silenced, and destiny callings made clearly perceptible.

In our view, much of why any of us feel the way we do—experiencing our own individual brands of existential angst or exaltation, and our own swing between them—is arguably due to our sun-sign placement and the archetype we personify at our core. Our view of life, our goals, our relationship to the world, to nature, to society-at-large and the world of ideas, to our own thoughts and experiences, and to other people, emotionally, is not as much colored by our astrological assignation as it is the color by which our life is coded. And while we’re on the subject of colors: Each sign is actually associated with not just one but a set of colors, a seemingly trivial fact, like a sign’s correspondent birth stone or precious metal, something people generally know, with the seeming importance ending there. It doesn’t. For it is the relevant vibration of colors and of those buzzy minerals that the zodiac is really pointing to with these particular points of fact per sign. And it’s true with most if not all astrological assignations; they go deeper than face value, and we’ve done the digging. What we’ve come up with is the belief that the breadth of ones feelings and behaviors are in large part, if not entirely, determined by the estate of one’s star sign. Someone might raise their hand here and say, well, what about conditioning, the early-childhood variety or the ongoing form. To that we counter thusly: We don’t know why it is true—and we can never explain it—but from our experience, both nature and nurture seem to be encoded in ones astrology—in our sessions with private clients we can perceive and pinpoint with accuracy, down to the year, the occurrence of a pivotal event which caused a trauma or a rupture or an emotional hit of some kind for the individual. Likewise, in more general terms, we can survey the kinds of emotional and psychological trials, tribulations and, yes triumphs, that an individual of a certain sex/gender-sign is likely to encounter, with certain specificity. We spoke of flowers before, now we’ll talk of trees:  Every plant, really, is governed by a particular sign and they share qualities and purposes with people born under it, offering insight into our temperament and actions, not to mention directions for the pruning of our experience to foster the most growth. (Expect a sidebar on this theme in this section.) We are all natural things. Supernatural, perhaps.

Sounds about right…..Anyway here is more of what I didn’t use in my proposal:

In our philosophy, true desire and divine callings are two parts of a whole seeking connection. The former resides within us and the latter comes from the universe. We like to say that our desires are a bit of real estate the universe owns inside us. Desire and destiny-callings do seem to share the same quality of urging us in a direction that isn’t necessarily of our conscious choosing. It is said that many are called but few answer; and why is that? Because it’s daunting—even though that call is only ever coming from inside the house, mostly deep within our subconscious, a word often paired with desire. It’s as if that bit of real-estate starts blinking or glowing—like E.T.’s heart light—drawing us “home” to fulfill said calling. Swallowing our true desires only increases their pressure on us, which can be intense. And yet, to spout another cliché, most of us lead a life of quiet desperation. Which is just a poetic way of saying not going for the gold, the brass ring, or whatever you want to call what it is you wanted—your true purpose—before life got in the way. I didn’t choose that longing, that desire, after all, one tries to convince oneself, never truly succeeding. It’s just ego. Is it? We think it’s rather more egotistical to go against the grain of that desire cum destiny, we maintain has been divinely seeded in you. But hey, who are we? We’re Starsky + Cox that’s who and we’re here to tell you George Eliot was right in saying—yes, another platitude—”it’s never too late to become what you might have been.” And, truth be told, more than anything, our work with private clients is hinged on setting people on the path of true desire toward fulfillment of that destined purpose; and together we have found that even progressing just a little ways up that path is more rewarding than the slam-dunk achievement of goals and awards that appear monumental on the outside, but hold no real value for us, inside. Spirituality is, by definition: the quality of being concerned with the human spirit. And though we are humanistic astrologers, those who deal in the development of the individual, right here on terra firma; we nonetheless embrace a transpersonal approach that includes fostering the individual’s relationship to (their own) divinity. In so doing, it is key to help our clients and our readers mete out what are their true desires from the endless yearnings of their body and our overactive, conditioned, brainwashed minds. In addition to astrology, this is where sex comes in.

The one thing about all of us that tends to be pure in its expression is that which turns us on sexually, whether or not we reveal that fully, or in part, to others. And, just like those destiny callings we are wont to ignore, many people try to put down certain sexual desires which they feel might bring them shame, embarrasment, isolation, ostricization or loss. They suppress, they repress. Compounded pressure: To the human subconscious a stifled desire is a stifled desire—it doesn’t distinguish between the repression of a sexual longing or a “spiritual” one—we use quotation marks here to underscore the fact that a true desire or purpose or destiny calling is that quality within us concerned with our spirit or, by another term, our soul. There we said it: Soul. Soul, soul, soul. It sounds so religious a thing when, really, it’s just a little word to name the boundless, non-material, wholly energetic (therefore immune to creation or destruction), eternal aspect of our being. And okay, we admit it: we’re also esoteric astrologers, those concerned with the evolution of the soul over lifetimes; but if we led with that you mightn’t have read this far. In truth, we never put too fine a point on this in our private practice, let alone in our books. It’s a backdrop belief—reincarnation—still any formally trained astrologer worth their salt would have learned to read people’s charts from this esoteric, soul perspective. Which can be mind blowing. But we were talking about sex; we tend to conflate it with spirituality…

Actually took the bus right across the way to Provincetown to catch the ferry. It was late arriving but we got to the ferry in plenty of time. It was tolerable but I wouldn’t choose it as a favored mode of transport to be honest. I’m just about at the point where I will be able to focus on nothing else but the sample copy and the promotion of the festival and its fundraising. Things are definitely in a different position than they have been in the past but then again the whole world has gone crazy. I don’t think we would have ever imagined just how unhinged one fucked up president could make us all feel, that being the operative word. He is a Gemini in the worst imaginable form but all the adjectives used to describe him, and some of the verbs, too, are downright eery in their archetypal assignation. And it will feel good to escape a certain reality for awhile; there is some kind of marker about going away on significant trips. I will miss the Cape for sure all the while and I took a photo from our last beach walk to keep my mind sorted. Anyway the ferry was fine, the water calm as can be, but then we were rattled upon arrival.

It was very clear that she needed a “real taxi” so when we were approached and the beginning of the pier by a guy asking if we wanted one she very specifically asked are you a real taxi. His car did have writing on it and the whole taxi look but the authenticity would end there. Just about a block into the journey he started pushing the buttons on his meter saying that it wasn’t working and what did we want to do about it. I said we would give him ten bucks or something regardless as we were not prepared to get out of the taxi just on the onramp to 93, which was obviously the desired response. However he said it would be more like twenty. We just sort of said whatever and then he began huffing and puffing (at the traffic not at us) and cutting in and out of the crowded lanes and honking and we were like cool it right now. We managed to get to the hotel in one piece and then offered him twenty dollars. He held the bill in his hand while staring at us manaically as if to say it was not only not enough but that he was either on drugs or not right in the head. Unfortunately our usual bulldog of a doorman, Manny, was not there to play interference, but he started sort of threatening us and staring into S.’s wallet and it was seriously weird and uncomfortable. I should point out that at this point S. made it clear that he had no cab medallion, an accusation that he couldn’t defend. And in fact we were in a serious scam situation and really had been in some danger me thinks.

He continued to hold the bill out in front of us as if to say this is not enough when I lost it a little and just said okay you don’t want it? And I took the bill back. We then took a few photos of his car and his license plate and he was suddenly holding his hands up as if to say “you got me” and got back in his car but didn’t really leave. We then called the police but that was just a round about of leaving messages. Oh first S. called the taxi number on his car but that was just as scammy as the driver. Anyway it was not a big deal in the end but we were pretty shaken by the erratic driving mainly and the fact we felt unsafe. S. had to go off to an appointment and the room wasn’t ready so I headed to one of my favorite places just a block away the Cornish Pasty and had a nice chat with the boys there while they tried to fix the keg for half an hour to give me a draft beer that wasn’t totally flat like the first try. I got into a nice conversation with a fellow I hadn’t seen there before called Brandon who turned out to be (one of?) the owner. We talked about Michael Pollen and certain new breakthroughs and discoveries in psychology of which he was a student getting some kind of higher degree.

One thing he said was that it was discovered that birds’ brains are packed with neurons. Of course this immediately triggered a Gemini connection in that birds are archeypal of the sign and also the sign rules those firing neurons. Once again illustrating how the ancient Zodiac seems to know things in advance of scientific discoveries made millennia later. It was a fascinating chat all in all and he was talking about meeting this psychologist on the beach while collecting rocks and she was a specialist in rapid eye therapy. Anyway something about hearing that made me want to reach out and try and get some therapy on that score. I think because I’ve become something of a nervous driver (since the accident) I might benefit from something that treats post traumatic symptoms in this way. Anyway it was the first thing I’d heard of this sort that rung a bell. So the room was ready and I headed back and did a little bit of work and went for a walk in the air conditioned mall and strolled all the way to the Marriot and then back to Select to meet S. There was a couple waiting for the place to open as I was and we ended up chatting the three and then four of us. They are called Maria and Paul and we are definitely going to see them again. Maria has already texted S.

Back to the hotel I took a very quick nap and then we went down to have dinner with N. and G. I don’t know if it was the beer or the nap or a combination of both but I was in an “on” mood entertaining the troops (or hijacking the conversation depending on how you look at it). In any case it was a jolly evening for me and the food (at Uni) is bloody delicious and N. and G. really liked it and they got to meet our friends at the Eliot who take such good care of us and it was a lot of fun. And I was asleep early. I have been sleeping a lot lately. From the moment I got on the ferry actually I realized how tired I’ve been. I do tend to overwork this time of year but especially this season for some reason the hill feels more uphill and I do have this proposal and sample chapter weighing on me a bit as I try to keep the festival afloat and not have to sink all my own money into it while having written next year’s books and launched the tee-shirts with Tim and getting the new product, and all the spokes of doing so, into place. It is a lot.

S. went out on some appointments this morning and I stayed in the room. I didn’t even want a coffee. And then the absurd happened in that I fell back to sleep and she was knocking at 11am to get back into the room and I didn’t even hear her. So she had to go back down and get a key. Like I have some kind of sleeping sickness. Anyway we got packed up, checked out and left the bags, did a little shopping and decidedto have a proper lunch at La Loile, inside in the air conditioning. The French waiter asked if we were frenched which is always a compliment to our accents. I have a pretty lousy vocabulary but I can surely fake a good accent. S. had a salad of course and I got the moules frites and a small salad and we had a lovely bottle of red Sancerre slightly chilled topped off by a little cheese course.

Back at the hotel, bid everyone farewell, ordered a car and this lovely Ethiopian man picked us up. He told us the story of his coming to American, how he had two sons, one of whom had autism—he showed us a picture of him on his phone and he was an absolutely enormous ten year old. Anyway it was such a nice journey to Logan when it could have been the opposite. We tipped him twenty on top and projected our best intentions toward him. Check in was quick and easy but even so there was a moment where I’m in the little scanning tube with my hands over my head and the TSA agent has the nerve to bark at me: “pull your pants up.” I kept from splitting him a new infinitive. We beelined to the lounge which was very large and pretty stuffy. I didn’t even look at the buffet but people were stuffing there faces right and left. They had Coppola wine which wasn’t terrible and it paired nicely with the gummies I’d manage to sneak through.

Got on the plane had a single glass of champagne ordered dinner then never even ate it. I vaguely remember seeing a plate with salmon on it which they took away. I feel asleep and stayed asleep the entire time but for half-sleeping through about ninety minutes of turbulence in the middle. I just lay there flat on the bed bouncing away. I never even put on my blanket; nothing. I have never in my life been so completely out of it on a plane. I typically at least take advantage of the amenities in biz class and attempt to watch a film. None of that happened. (I am aware I am recounting pretty boring stuff here but I can’t really explore the world of ideas while traveling—I probably won’t be able to speak beyond the quotidien blow by blows until I’m settled in, if not in England, then next week once I reach the boat. But I will do my level best to acclimte as soon as possible.

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.

Aquarius 11° (January 30)

Where to begin today? I was up in the night for hours and hours. Then finally took some powerful gummies around six and slept till 10. Was meant to get an early jump and here it is 2:15 in the afternoon and I’ve yet to even begin my workload for the day. Still going to let the day unfold . I’m looking at my desk and all the notes that are strewn upon it and I’m gonna start just by reading these notes in and then cutting and pasting them to where they might need to go. 

Talk about the signs as parents this time around. 

In general think if so then what? 

Aries man. Man of Steel. Pure passion and fury. Easily snubbed. Overly sensitive. Unbridled energy. He is here to experience pure sensation. Morris is father of the amazons. Ares loves his daughters. Something about a brutal nature maybe he passes it on to his children. Aries and myth typically focuses on his humiliation. Slice ends: prone to mansplaining. He’s like a puppy coming at you. 

Libra Apollo equals KALOKaGATHIA.

Had a lovely flounder dinner last night, with fingerlings and spinach. And tonight will be salmon and bok choy with quinoa, red onion and thyme. Cooking is the perfect compliment to writing as you can get on your feet and just chop and such as the preparation dictates, and then take that same energetic approach to the writing at hand. Gardening also provides this same transference of creative muscle, one endeavor to another. Ended up writing only one page but it is the keystone of the chapter and I have enough notes to flow through and create another six pages, at least, tomorrow.

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1521-1525. 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.

Had a text from Olen with an attached article about JD which kinda triggered me I have to say. I have a lot to get over on that score. It’s part of my psychic complex, though. I remember having visionary flashes back in 1987 when I first moved to NYC for work (lived in Hoboken at first) and I would get these images that involved JD and champagne. Well champagne turned out to be a rather literal metaphor of what was to come. I have to remind myself of how cruel JD could be; because I have a habit of beating myself up after the fact and all too easily convincing myself that there could be a healing. I have to know that this is impossible. And the fact is that he is cruel and I should have broken it off long ago instead of constantly putting up with his punishing behavior. It’s just that he is such a great faker and people are so taken with him; and because of who he is and what he does he geeds on the constant worship he receives. And he has that awful minion who constantly stirs the pot. I never liked or trusted that character.

Anyway, I have things to do and I have to banish these thoughts from my brain and shift gears in the next two days so I can really make some headway. I’m taking stock of people I’ve sent initial pleas to so to follow up. The folks who received emails from me in May with whom I haven’t followed up since include Ken, Tatiana (who was resent in June), Dan—I have sent Chris and Mark nothing thus far—Ralph/Karl, Victor, Edsel, Clark, Sproat, Fred, Steve, Chip, Fenton, Rob A has not been sent anything as of yet. Either has Skeens or Rafanelli or…..I should do a separate Missionary one for Tim, Maria, Eric Martin, Shaun O’C, Kevin Mc. And when it comes to the the sparklers I will post something on FB AF and then share that post with text. Anyway I can’t really get this particular ball rolling until after the holiday weekend which is fine. Meanwhile I can think about what I’m saying to folks. It is still ten weeks away. But starting next week I will really have to turn up the gas and get this thing cooking.

I did a little clean up on the work front and also on the house front and a bunch of clothes I orded for the trip came in and I sent a bunch back as well. We had a client today, one of my favorites, and that went really well. I took to the upstairs and had a little sneaky pete session and overshot my mark on that score, but never mind, it’s all fine. Made a rezzie for sushi dinner at Uni this coming week and Monday will basically be grooming and packing and so I have to pack it in now and get the work at hand in works. It is a bit daunting and do I wish I was travel with no work to do at all. Of course. But it is never the case and so be it. I need to do some wording of the last gasp of fundraising and marry it with our new social media person. I really can’t wait to break out that character. I will try to get the usual suspects to come through. I will then start hitting the Sparklers hard. And I will come up with something whereby I ask everyone I know to donate. It’s what I’m going to do. I have to drum up as much support as I can this year that much I do know; and I’m looking very much forward to the opening night at Baie this year as we are going to have such fun people in town.

We got a lot done, too, in terms of jewelry and I wrote a whole bunch of letters to folks and got that entire thing cooking. Wrote up instructions for our visitors and otherwise sorted through necessary plans. I really am running on fumes here today, trying to get things together that I’ll need to take with me, draging the work. Tonight is D’s party and Kate wrote to ask if we are going. We are not. I don’t know what’s up with those people but I’m getting a weird vibe so I’m staying away. I truly only enjoy being in Provincetown when I’m on my own or with La Stell. I cannot abide the general tone there anymore; and especially around the fourth of July, good grief. I think it’s become skankier and sleazier with these aging circuit boys. Can we even call them boys anymore. I don’t think so. What a weird world. I long for a genuine experience and some place I can buy a nice house, maybe with a pool. It’s become fairly untenable otherwise I have to say. We’ve gotta move the merch and I think we are doing it the right way. I just need to know how we can move the needle on all these things. I should probably touch base with my friend Dave on all this as he does have a business degree and I do not. I think the whole notion of doing limited edition something will be a good one. That’s enough for today I think I’m not feel all that creative right now and we all know from experience that we shouldn’t force it.

We are credited with being “eerily accurate” in our work. And knowing our stuff means knowing other people’s stuff. Short of meeting every reader individually, we can corral the population into these twenty-four sets of people, each set sharing enough like conditions and experience as determined by their gender-sign that it would seem we have a crystal ball tuned into the frequency of folks’ hearts, minds, and souls. We don’t. But we do have an exhaustive understanding of the near infinite landscape of each of the sign’s estates. And so, we aren’t about to give the same advice or direction toone sign as we would another. The chrysanthemum, a winter flower, ruled by snowy Capricorn, cannot be the rose that blooms, late spring, during the month of Gemini. Like these posies, people of a certain sign express the energy of the time in which they are born, and it is our job to help them to embrace and fully possess all the magic and wisdom lodged in their natural estate, so to, well, flower into the full humanhood that is their due. The original diviners of the zodiac didn’t draw this system of pretty pictures on a whim or randomly or for nothing. The zodiac was designed to endure, down through the ages, because it contains all any of us will ever need to know about how to live our lives, love those around us, and, mostly, be ourselves. We live in fast-paced times; and though the scenery changes, the truths remain the same. For one: Existence is miraculous. And we, the paragon of living things, possess powers that clearly express this miracle. We just need a little zodiac book with some clear instructions to get at the nitty-gritty of doing so.

Virgo, for instance, rules digestion, among other functions—the virgin symbol of the sign is about to ingest or impregnate herself with a phallic seeded sheaf of grain—and, yes, the character and experience of the Virgo person is hinged on their ability to digest circumstance, separating the wheat from the chaff in life, virtue from vice, discerning what is nutritious to their person and what is detritus. Virgos are vehicles, vessels for change. Their sign is mutable-earth. Like clay, they are all potential, willing to change, to make something of themselves, something useful, of service, perhaps, or something beautiful, or both. We can see this in their physicality, which can be undulating or a seeming collage of sections; we can read it in their body language, which can be hesitant and shifting, and in the states of their appearance, which tend to vary more than most’s. And without getting too far into it, let it suffice to say that all of the above would-be description relates to Virgo’s own particular mythic archetypes whose literal, visible traits Virgo people seem to inherit. The myths themselves—stories of this god being challenged by X, or that goddess overcoming Y—are allegories that live inside all of us. It is our task and our talent to draw out for our readers these stories, which have been told and retold, in infinite variation, down through the ages through oral and written literature and visual arts and ultimately in films, TV, even video games. (There are only so many tales to tell.)

As dense as our subject matter might potentially be, we have a knack for keeping it light and keeping it moving, and for providing our reader with amusement and stimulation along the way.

The zodiac itself is rich in imagery and meaning, none of which is extraneous to the character of people born under each sign. The sign symbols relate directly to classical myths and biblical stories and allegories as well as to corresponding figures found in all cultures’ spiritual systems—in the astrological view the comparative aspect of religion is a given. Archetypes are immutable, no matter how they manifest in this or that cultural corner of the world, or how they’ve trickled down through fairy tales, drama, literature, films, even comic books and cartoons.

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.

Aquarius 10° (January 29)

Landscape of mind like a pastoral scene serene portrait of natural perfection which is why others can read to the Taurus as invasive shadow sentiment endemic to their natural subjectivity I think I know what I mean. Venus is about union but being a centrifical force magnetic drawing others tourists is about relationship to self whereas the other Venus ruled sign Libra is hinged on relationship to others Venus is all about relationship no matter where you are it speaks to a dialogue going on inside between two voices and so tourist is naturally attuned too his inner voice the two parts are the adoring and the adored . Most metaphorically reactive needing to preserve that bucolic space between their ears this relates to that precious thing likewise in literature characters that are pastoral if not pagan. A pastorale sets a complex life and modes into simple ones. That is what Taurus seeks to do . We get into that precious thing again. They do not what to be engaged really. Life is an Idyll. Fixed Earth: Taurus is Whimsy, the desired experiece of the garden. Where Taurus is Whimsey the other fixed signs are Leo Passion, Scorpio Obsession, Aquarius Truth or at the very least Conviction. 

To speed the reader along is one major goal. To inspire all readers to read the whole thing. 

Stumbled onto something interesting today in the tour which is spelled PUER I found that it was related back to wimsey which is interesting I need to do a little bit of kind of free associating here I wonder if he is sexualized by his mother on some level. Looks for strong mommies that give him full birth doesn’t have love interests once a woman who will get him in trouble cause trouble I don’t know keeps characters around to block him see if there’s anything else pretentious in inappropriate situations he might like you but he’ll pretend as long as there is a payoff why are picking Bella fork way will not fight rubbishing Ronald not aspirational in relationships doesn’t have to invest emotionally feels like it gives enough people take money gifts and advantage she will do anything to keep him boyish might be wrong word to use for him. 

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 1516-1520. 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.

[and we got nothing!]

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.