Archive | Astro Matters

Stone Soup at Your Service

I have a powerful urge to start this post by rumbling, “Now is the season of our discontent.” But since I’ve decided this is going to be a great year, all Richard III references are null and void even if 2016 has been off to a rocky start. The good news is I don’t really think a new year begins until your birthday, and mine isn’t for another few weeks. I’m in what astrologers call the “balsamic” phase, which means this slow start is not really a start so much as the wrapping up of last year’s business. Hence the mother of a flu I’ve had: a total detoxing of all of 2015’s bugs.

A few days ago I forewent a fancy-schmancy event to get acupunked–it seemed unwise to traipse around in black-tie finery in subfreezing temperatures while hacking great gobs of phlegm–and was rewarded yesterday by feeling well enough to go on one of my long walks. And lo! what a walk it was. I wandered back to Brooklyn from the Flatiron District, stopping off to greet various friends and neighborhoods and to wolf an enormous burger and fries at Diner. Continue Reading →

Not Just Another Day on the IRT

Mercury retrograde begins tomorrow and will last through January 25. This round, it’s taking place in know-it-all Capricorn and big-ideas Aquarius, which means that it’ll be a better time for making plans than executing them–and a generally terrible time for clear, direct communication. Back up your electronics, make contingency plans, slow down (make even get a reading), and above all, don’t blame everything–especially your transgressions–on Mercury Retrograde, which gets an unnecessarily bad rap. I find these periods an excellent time to hole up with a book, a fireplace, a brand-new notebook, and our personal connection to the divine intelligence of, well, everything.

Under the Gemstone Sky

Moon was void of course all day yesterday so naturally I arrived two hours early for the very long screening I had to attend on 42nd street. The good news is that flying off the beaten path is magical during these astrological downtimes. I wandered west and found a Catalan bar with a brilliant happy hour wine list and drank a pretty red while writing letters to people I love and eavesdropping on conversations in my favorite language. Ninety minutes later I emerged into the city’s splendor: velvet and gemstone night sky, high and low culture bumping shoulders, clattering high heels, the works. “Ah,” I said with no small amount of satisfaction. “This is where I live.”

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy