Pisces 23° (March 14)

Morning is in Hyannis, after I close the bank accounts. Then I take myself out for Mexican food and slowly make my way back. I’ll stop for a something at Brick House after I do a food shop in Orleans. And by the time I work my way back I am hungry for a pizza which I plan to take to go but I can’t caught up in conversation with nice folks so decide to eat there, at Montano’s. Second, the next in Nextrology refers to what’s next for the twenty-four astrological characters, each of which has an upward spiral to tread in their journey toward self-realization. As humanistic astrologers, our true view of the signs isn’t a static one but endlessly dynamic, spiraling onward like unique strands of spiritual DNA.  It is built on the notion that people of a particular sign evolve according to the mandates of that sign, each of the twenty-four archetypes having specific tools and celestial powers at their disposal. Embracing their individual archetype is key to unlocking personal success and fulfillment on many levels. Even in our consultations with private clients whose birth charts we can read with accuracy, in detail—seeing into which signs and houses all their planets fall—even then, we put heavy focus on the placement of the Sun in their charts, that is to say, their sun sign. We set clients on their paths toward self-realization, based, in large part, on this basic sun-sign placement, which is primary and inscrutable. If our many years of study and consultation have illuminated anything, it is the fact that people born under a particular “sex sign”, though they will have their own distinct destiny to fulfill, also share an umbrella of destiny-callings with others of that sign, endemic to them all, which calls for specialized guidance and prescriptions for negotiating their emotional and psychological challenges, and drawing out their dormant, hidden or ignored talents and abilities.

Thirdly, the next in the title is a nod to our view that the signs of the zodiac are themselves evolving. If the zodiac is a perfect mandala for existence and the universe, it thus expresses the evolution of that universe. Think, if you can, of the zodiac as a portal, a wormhole, that transcends time and space. Though created in ancient times, the zodiac knows the future, beyond the banal predictive hocus-pocus of a daily newspaper horoscope. It presages scientific and technological discoveries, philosophical movements, social and political patterns and outcomes, and, well, in a word: Everything. Its particular evolution is related to major planets spending epochs in this star sign or that, and, on a grander scale, corresponds to the astrological ages. We aren’t here to impart this level of knowledge to readers of this book, necessarily. But we do think it important that you know that we know. You know?

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 22° (March 13)

A Sundayish kind of day. I am cooking up a storm. Chicken and rutabaga and immediately making stock and vegetables. Finished. I’m not really sure what else to say except I am really starting to power through the mounds of papers in my possession and really feel that once I move from here that I will be more streamlined, probably, than ever. I am scared for the future I must say. I want so much to feel settled and I know that I have many unsettling years ahead. I am really and truly still reeling and am surprised at this coupled with how soon others have gotten past it all. I do find myself completely alone in the world. It is truly upsetting that I have no family members and that friends are very much hard to find at this juncture. The coming weeks will become even more stressful as the counsel on the other side will have stretched this out like a giant was of Silly Putty. As resonant with readers as Sextrology has been over the years, the book is comprised of twenty-four chapter-portraits of the astrological characters, which are nonetheless necessarily static in nature. It may at times pinpoint certain motivations in these characters, but mostly it answers the question who am I? And, within the scope of sun-sign astrology, we believe we provided readers with a great deal of precise insight on that score. Nextrology, The Astrology of Personal Evolution, while providing even deeper understanding of our individual characters, is designed to be an astrology book that bridges into personal development. Assuming you have a pretty good handle on who you are from an astrological perspective, Nextrology goes you one better, providing guidance, direction and answers to the question how do I make the most of who I am? You might say: where Sextrology isolated the twenty-four character-types, Nextrology now activates them.

The next in Nextrology speaks, first, to the sequel aspect of the book, giving us license to publish an ever-increasing treasure trove of astrological epiphanies and insights, something we’ve been fairly aching to do for years. In the course of our continuing study, and in private practice with clients, we have recorded this new wealth of knowledge, building upon our initial discoveries. So Nextrology is quite simply what’s next from Starsky + Cox, and we hope our readers will feast on all the fresh information and perspective we have to offer.  There is an inexhaustible wealth of knowledge and self-understanding available from a deep dive into any one of the twenty-four signs, the archetypes of which are forever unfolding.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 21° (March 12)

Woke to find that I am truly cut off from communication. No more texts at all. It is so disheartening I can’t even deal. I’m taking a gummy and cooking all day. Making turkey bacon hash, chicken chili, guacamole, chicken stock and finishing up the spicy vegetable soup. I set up the menu for the next week and then some as well. Boy do I ever miss my previous life. There was so much joy and wonder in it. I have to try to find my way anew; dunno how that will go. So hard to meet people at this age but I do need to try. I definitely require a new social scene although I am in no way sure how that will happen. I think about finding a place near Pantheon. I do need to reach out for work because the bread and butter needs to reboot. I want to take the next year to figure it all out. Losing weight which is great. Being very mindful of quantities. No sugar, no booze, very limited carb, Doodle Oodle Loo. Back to the future:

It has been over a decade since we’ve come out with a book, in printed form, from a major publisher. Our first book, Sextrology, subtitled The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes hit the shelves in 2004. In it we explored our philosophy, which asserts there are twenty-four main archetypes, not twelve, determined, in binary terms, by sex, and that men and women of the same sign embody separate and unique astrological characters. The book really was about the sexes foremost and sex secondly, although we included sexuality by sign as it is an integral part of personality analysis, in this case, as determined by the stars. It’s a funny thing about time because, as we explored the spectrum of straight and gay sexuality in our work, something that hadn’t really been done before in popular astrology, our book was considered groundbreaking; now, however, these years later, the social dialogue surrounding gender and sexual identity has developed so rapidly and intricately, that Sextrology strikes some people as dated and too binary in a world of increasing fluidity, for lack of a better word, in sexuality and gender. 

Although we have ourselves always held a flexible view of gender and sexual identity, as a collective, we simply weren’t talking about these things then the way we are now. And we, the authors, have, since the writing of this book, gone back into our older work, making necessary changes and additions to text, so to reflect where culture and society are now in this vital conversation. All that to say: because this new book follows the same basic binary structure of our previous works, we want to be clear that we are inclusive of all genders in our text. If, for example you are a Taurus woman, whether cisgender or transgender, you should make that your primary chapter of focus. How you identify is what is important here. In any case, we have intended this book to be read in its entirety by everyone, and we’ll provide you suggestions on how to do so at the close of this introduction. Before we do that, though, we’d like to explain how we found our way to writing this particular book at this time.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 20° (March 11)

Woke up to terrible text from S. who apparently took much of what we discussed yesterday the wrong way. I am back against the ropes once again and communication is being cut off. I try like hell to get through to her by text or by phone but I am back to being sanctioned. I am officially over feeling bad for my whole life. Ru Paul Snatch Game is a bomb. Kenneth Branagh is on Bill Maher. I then start binge watching The Morning Show. Doodle Oodle Loo. Back to the future: And writing my book proposal. Entering into the zeitgeist as a leading voice and presence in the field of astrology may have occurred organically, but it didn’t happen accidentally. I began to mastermind the creation and development of the brand years before the publication of any books. I knew that Starsky + Cox needed to be more than a byline; that we needed to emerge from the book cover, three-dimensionally, and become larger-than life-personalities to just the right degree. Though serious humanistic astrologers with authentic academic credentials, a real-life consultancy practice and books that expressed our honest, unique philosophy of personality and personal development via the stars, I purposefully sought to bake a performative element into the brand, such that, as a duo and as individuals, we were supersized versions of our real selves. Even as first-time authors, we staged splashy book launches at the world’s chicest boutiques with many of those famous names I dropped in attendance, positioning ourselves as “the astrologers of fashion insiders,” embodying a high-status spirt and attitude as these super stylish and entertaining, enlightened beings, even when not onstage performing before a paying audience, but simply mingling with the people. In a real, vivid way, our life itself became a meta form of living performance art, and, fast forward to the present, those who people my professional and personal life know me only as Quinn Cox, unaware that this is my pen and stage name. Even old friends call me Quinn because it’s just bloody easier. The point being: That, as a producer and director of hundreds of shows and festivals, there has been no greater production that I have mounted than that of the multi-spoked brand I’ve carefully cultivated over the last near two decades. And though Starsky + Cox continues to pursue shared professional goals and projects the natural evolution of the brand is also now manifesting individual pursuits and enterprises. For me, writing books remains the cornerstone of my career as both a creative and an expert in my chosen field whose inimitable take on the subject of astrology has resonated so profoundly with a widening gyre of readers. 

And though I have a number of writing projects in mind to ultimately pursue, the one I’m convinced is assured the greatest success at this time is a book nearest to my heart, one I know my ardent fans are most eager to possess, devour, and from which they’re bound to benefit in the extreme: 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 19° (March 10)

Back in action, cleaning up, working on client stuff. Spoke to the tire guy. Then what is meant to be a great chat with S. which I will learn tomorrow isn’t. We are in this pattern of having deep conversations which then get followed up with recrimination. We seem to be taking each other the wrong way. I am now finishing Ted Lasso and it’s lifting my spirits a bit. I speak to the bank manager. Also had long chat with Steve who is also going through similar pains. Anway, I’ve compiled the following notes.

Heathful Spells: Mindsets, Sustained Emotions and Action Items by Sign

Aries

Animation or is that Libra? As different from Life = Libra

Preparation and Maintenance of the temple. The framework.’

Taurus

How to work power of attraction.

Want what you have.

Persephone speaks to the axis between

Cancer

Forgiveness

Virgo Woman

Kore carries sheaf of grain and sometimes a little box

Eleusinian mysteries focus on securing a happy afterlife

Persaphatta

Parsa in Sanskrit means ear of corn or sheaf of grain

Phatta means beater of corn or thresher of grain

Libra Man

Taking that “we are” thing too far as I have and getting screwed over because of it or in the case of Dobe putting himself in a place where if he leaves she’s fucked

Scorpio

Rooting around (the interior)

Scorpio Woman

Dual nature Taurus-Scorpio axis as she is goddess of springtime (her return to the surface world is one and the same as the advent of spring)

To File:

Abundance is a sustained emotion….Cancer?

Celebrate Tolerate. (Sag?)

Aquarius

Look up. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 18° (March 9)

Stayed in all day ate meatloaf lefties twice watched finale of Pam and Tommy. I do have two quick great chats with S. about banking stuff. And I decide to upload Apple and I watch all of The Shrink Next Door. Robin Bartlett is in it (a friend from Hoboken in the late eighties who played Meryl Streep’s best friend in Postcards from the Edge). Then on to Ted Lasso. Doodle Oodle Loo. Back to the future: I can feel the hope I felt, even in the face of divorce process, that there might be some reparation in the offing, which of course was the height of wishful thinking. In truth, divorcing me couldn’t happen fast enough. But it’s the past and I’m here now working on my book proposal: The continuing growth and success of Sextrology garnered growing interest in the brand. Both Kelly Ripa and Chelsea Handler have been outspoken in their praise, in print and broadcast. As has Megan Fox who contractually secured the rights to mention Sextrology in her film performances. J.K. Rowling, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, the lateGloria Vanderbilt, Emma Watson, Jessica Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Cameron Diaz, Marc Jacobs, Scarlett Johansson, Isaac Mizrahi, Sharon Stone, Karl Lagerfeld, Parker Posey, Mario Testino, Kate Moss, Russell Brand, Kim Cattrall, Gloria Reuben, Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett and Princess Caroline of Monaco are among our very vocal fans. Tori Amos even wrote a song inspired by Sextrology (crediting this fact in her own book, Piece by Piece). As a duo, we were recurring guests on Chelsea Handler’s “Chelsea Lately” during its lengthy run; and have appeared on various MTV and VHI programs. On several occasions Kelly Ripa has featured our book on “Live,” most vividly in a lively segment with Anderson Cooper. Recently, a top production company, with offices in the U.S. and UK, optioned the rights to our second book, Cosmic Coupling, and are currently in the process of pitching a pilot for a series based on our collected work.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 17° (March 8)

I slept until 11:20. Meant to speak to S. again on Thursday. Back and forth with Daniel and I end up just staying in and making roasted cauliflower, suede and Mexican meatloaf. Really laying low today otherwise. Yippi for Tuesdays. Bridesmaids again. Oh well, why not. Doodle Oodle Loo. Back to the future: As I cycle through reading these posts, scant as they are, I am struck by how vague and disconnected they are. Not to mention the fact I often have no idea who the people are reference even are. I have no idea who Daniel is, now, for instance. Obviously someone from town with whom I may have made a vague plan that didn’t pan out. But what is most telling is that I can’t really recall, which makes me realize how checked out and in shock I still was during this time. Back to work on the book proposal: And as far as show business goes: We began “appearing” as Starsky + Cox to connect, live, with existing fans and new followers, telling our true tales of growing up in white-witch families; of our education at the very Hogwarts-y London Faculty of Astrological Studies, campused, as it is, at Oxford University; of our star-crossed run-ins with royalty and other rich and famous folk; and of our supernatural experiencing of real magic in this world; on radio, television and in live shows. To date, over the last two decades, we performed upward of thirty shows of original material I wrote for us, as a duo, to present at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York City, and just as many other shows staged at venues like Ars Nova, Dixon Place, Elmo, and The Zipper Factory in New York, Club Café in Boston, Oberon at the American Repertory Theater, in Cambridge, and at the Art House, Provincetown, the town I’ve made home for twenty years.Starsky + Cox have been unique among astrology authors in achieving the kind of cult following usually reserved for cabaret stars, pop-culture arbiters, or other such influencers.  Under the auspice of the brand I have regularly written features for Condé Nast publications worldwide, as a contributor to Elle, Allure, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Vogue (France), Bolero (Switzerland), Image (Ireland), Glamour, Style.com, and, most notably (and ironically) The Daily Beast. Conversely we’ve been featured in all the Vogue(s), Time, O, Us, InStyle, Marie Claire, GQ, Elle, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Observer and The Times of London, making the cover of London’s Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman magazine and The New York Times “T” magazine—in that particular instance the actress Robin Wright was pictured wearing pieces from our own AsterCast fine-jewelry collection. The brand has collaborated with Marc Jacobs stores around the country in the mounting of our Cosmic Clinics—on-site charitable or, in this case, commercial events where customers line up for instant astrological readings. As the live window display, one Valentine’s Day season, Starsky + Cox conducted more than six hundred readings over two weeks, at Marc Jacobs’ Bleecker Street shop. We’ve collaborated with top international event planners, too, who engage us to do this sort of thing at private parties. We have also created content for a number of companies and artists like Kylie Minogue, M•A•C Cosmetics, Sephora, Neiman Marcus, Johnson & Johnson and for creative, branding and advertising agencies.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 16° (March 7)

Went to bed late last night but did finally, actually sleep. In fact it was past eight when I awoke, just in time to get ready for Zoom call with Tim and S. It went well I think. She has a Juno ring where her wedding one once was; and two tattoos on the same wrist. I have been energetically dispelled from the hand I once held in matrimony. I go for a long walk into town with my backpack Mike comes by early evening and I am having the last of the Donkey Goat. I feel so relaxed after today. Trying to find some new things to watch. But end up going down to the Pig for a glass of wine instead. Doodle Oodle Loo. Bac to the future and working on book proposal. In addition to being a contributor to The New York Times“Styles’ section, I wrote for The Boston Globe arts section and was a contributing editor to Detour magazine and wrote for other publications including The New York Observer, InStyle, YM, Paper, Stop, The South China Morning Post, having worked on the editorial side of Paris’ Passion magazine, Avenue, DV8*, The New York Social Calendar and, ultimately as executive editor of Wallpaper• in London. I was also field producer for the television show “Ooh, La, La”, a streetwise spinoff of “Fashion Television,” both produced by City TV in Toronto. In the late 1990s, Time Inc. was launching Teen People and the editor asked me to create a horoscope. We decided on a his-and-her concept, treating males and females as separate signs, befitting our philosophy and the magazine’s mission of attracting young male, as well as female readers. At the time, Ellen Degeneres had a joke about God’s waiting room containing only two magazines, Guns and Ammo and Teen People, goofing on the fact that adults everywhere were reading this teen zine. This was true enough: Enter one publisher with his own glitzy imprint at William Morrow who asked if we would like to write a book for grown-ups hinged on our theory that there were twenty-four, not twelve, sex/gender signs. Et voila: Sextrology was published in 2004 by HarperCollins, which purchased Morrow and dissolved the aformentioned imprint while we were typing away. Ultimately launching at Barneys New York, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges in the UK, Colette in Paris, and other bastions of chic around the world, Sextrology was touted by top fashion press like Vogue and Elle and Vanity Fair, affirming our unique vision that astrology could not only be smart and sexy, even satirical, but also super stylish, all at the same time.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 15° (March 6)

Went to UU church. That’s all I seem to remember happening at the time. Doodle Oodle Loo (time traveling ten months into the future), here I am working on a revamp of my book proposal. And here are some words to that effect: While a friend across the pond was redrawing the landscape of global publishing by penning children’s books that proved that youngsters were encyclopedic in their ability to digest multifarious age-old myths, spoon-fed to them in the guise of a world of young wizards wearing hoodies, I was doing something not totally dissimilar, albeit on an infinitely smaller scale, and in substantially fractional sales numbers. The inside joke of this author’s redemptive depiction of the otherwise flaked-out “astrologer” character in her books not withstanding, as a writer of astrological non-fiction, I’ve considered the particular brand of magic I cast in my work to be, in a word, real. Our readers, hungering for a multifarious feast of self-knowledge, might well agree. I met the person behind the personality Stella Starsky in college during our junior year abroad in France. Aside from the usual attractions, interest in astrology was something we shared, each of us having descended from families with mystical leanings. On that starry subject, what struck us both was the fact that men and women of the same sign seemed to be, often radically, different in character, and we set upon exploring the astrological reasoning for this, not realizing where this would one day lead us, despite the fact I was also developing some snazzy predictive powers. (As the years have ticked by, it turned out that I had inherited viable psychic gifts, no doubt, from the Celtic side of my family. In fact, my astrological practice, working with private clients, provided a framework for my psychic faculties to crystalize into a functionally intuitive tool.) After graduation from university, we first moved back to Paris, where and when we first met that children’s author, then on to New York, sparking careers in fashion and journalism (with the off- inauspicious foray into show business) traveling, mainly, between those cities, in addition to London and Milan, throughout the 1990s. After a day working in the fashion trenches, we would conduct astrological readings in the evenings for our friends—designers, photographers, editors and burgeoning artists and actors—who would one day become the early readers and adopters of our books, products and services. As editor friends moved up the mastheads at magazines, I began writing features and then columns under the Starsky + Cox byline (at this juncture didn’t want my The New York Times and other publications’ editors know I moon-lighted slinging horoscopes).

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pisces 14° (March 5)

Of all the entries I have tagged to write at a later date this is the only one I’ve encountered so far where I have absolutely no idea or indication, by jotted down memory or some trigger, what occurred on this day. I do assume, given yesterday’s entry, that I kept a low profile. Anyway I’m perfectly okay not knowing that went down on this Saturday, not even what it is I ate, apparently. But that will distinguish this post from the rest, all of which, anyway, will be relegated to obscurity if not certain oblivion. Doodle Oodle Loo. I am now back to the future and on this actual day of writing, some ten months later, I have to tell you that there is nothing left to watch on television—you’ve seen it all—and you’ve lost the desire, need, whatever we are call it, to x-out or anesthetize and, certainly, to socialize. The comfort of shock has completely worn off and I am left bare to my feelings which are so bruised to the point of permanent damage. I think that’s what happens. I will never know the truth but I learn as time goes on that there was more and more support for the actions of discardation—a word I’ve just created, apparently. Anyway, one does what one can with what one has. I have been played by more than one double agent, one of which is now dealing with an even worse pain of losing a partner, permanently. At least mine is puttering around the planet somewhere, which is, weirdly, at times, cold comfort. Sometimes I envy the widowed who were connected to the end; at least they have little doubt in their mind if they were loved in return. Unlike the disposed of of this world. Okay going to cut and paste part of what I worked on today: Truth be told, I’ve not traded in sex willy nilly. I’ve done so because sexuality is both intrinsically and universally central to our being. Surely, since the publication of Sextrology, a more sex-positive culture has emerged and played catch up with that notion, just as media and entertainment have become, in some cases, lightyears more sexually sophisticated. Point being: I’ve long been in the business of examining human beings and all their behavior, sexual and otherwise, through the lens of the zodiac, in both my writing and my one-on-one consultations with clients. The itself reminds us that we are wholly connected to our animal natures. In case you’ve ever wondered, zodiac means “circle of animals,” drawing on the same etymology as the word zoo, as all but one of the astrological signs are represented by an animal or human symbol. To my cosmically inclined mind, this factoid alone, along with the exceptions to it—Virgo and Aquarius having human symbols and Libra, the Scales, the sole inanimate one—opens a window onto character interpretation. And that’s just for starters. In fact,  Sextrology, turned readers onto the many astrological assignations associated with their signs, expressed in both the main text and in clear-cut sidebars. To name several: their sign symbols; the unique element (fire, earth, air, water) and quality (cardinal, fixed, mutable) combination of their sign; their planetary rulers and namesake gods and myths, associative biblical, literary and pop archetypes; the bodily systems ruled by their signs and planets and the corresponding metaphorical significance of those systems to our psychology, physicality, sexuality, and even our sense of spirituality; and so on. A little light reading? Not exactly, but so it seems: Many readers have bordered on obsession, devouring every intricate detail of the book. No wonder Sextrology has come to be called “The Red Bible” by a multi-generational audience weaned on a culture of instant gratification yet yearning for deeper personal insight and self-understanding.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.