Carl Reiner Told the Truth (1922-2020)
I’m so so so sad Carl Reiner has passed over. His impact on TV, film, and comedy was legion and it was legendary. He worked with everyone from Neil SImon to Lily Tomlin to Steve Martin to Ruth Gordon and made them all funnier–better, really. His CV included Your Show of Shows, All of Me, and Where’s Poppa?–tons and tons of waggish staples. Even in his 90s he was still showing up on screen in the Ocean’s 11 franchise and on page as an author. Even yesterday he still shone such a bright light that he was tweeting what we all thought about 45. Not to mention that Mel Brooks will feel SO ALONE.
Their model of male love–their decades-long commitment to each other and to laughter–hurt my heart in the greatest way. They represented the very best of my tribe (the Jews!) by understanding that being tough and smart didn’t preclude being silly, soft-hearted, and socially just. Really, I wanted Mel and Carl to become the 2,000 Year Old Men. Or at least to live to see Trump leave the White House in handcuffs. (If you’ve never listened to The 2,000 Year Old Man, do yourself a favor and download it. Growing up I listened to it every day after school and it never failed to crack my shit up.)
In work he joyously played second fiddle–even in his masterwork, the Dick Van Dyke Show,
modeled after his own family life in New Rochelle, he ceded the central role to Van Dyke whom he generously deemed a “better actor.” Top billing never mattered as much to him as top form because he knew to love long and love well. Thus he remained happily married to the brilliant Estelle from 1948 until her 2008 death. Thus he spawned the brilliant Rob Reiner and a long line of other comical, kind humans. Thus he died at 98 in top form, true to form.
Carl Reiner was a mensch. He was a mitzvah. He will be missed.
Astro PSA with Plenty of Prince
Happy Monday! Usually when people utter this phrase, I feel venomous. But today Mars enters its home sign of Aries, and I’m inspired by this rush of positive, capable energy.
Mars is the planet of courage, ambition, sex drive—desire, basically—and for the last six months it’s been parked precariously in watery, indecisive Pisces. Now it’s raring to go in fire-starter Aries, and ready to fight the good fight! I’m not pretending our immense social justice, environmental, pandemic, and economic problems are going to magically disappear. But this aspect gives us the power and confidence to accomplish our goals, no matter how seemingly unsurmountable the obstacles.
To give you a sense of how paradigm-shifting this aspect can be, Steve Jobs and Prince had Mars in Aries. So over the next six months expect creative, 
constructive, concrete solutions to our personal and national crises. New business and technological opportunities, powerful social change, and creative Covid-era sex!
I for one am here for it. This week Ruby Intuition readings begin for the first time since May, and I am so excited to tune into the divine again on your behalf. So book a reading or a ritual. It’s time to clear a path.
Astro PSA With Tons of Quotation Marks
“Shantavia Beale II,” Kehinde Wiley.
After six weeks of retrograde, Venus stationed direct in the wee hours of this morning. What does this mean? That beauty and congeniality are back in the house. Does this mean that our country is going to miraculously return to civility? Not bloody likely, because what Venus Retrograde shows us is where real care, love, and compassion is disrupted. In other words, this time around it showed us what lived below the surface of “nice” and “normal” in the “United” States of America. So though a lot of “allies” are showing the inevitable signs of weariness, the point is not to return to business as usual so much as to integrate the lessons of these last weeks’ turmoil and transformation into your daily routines. A positive “business as usual” has always been a privilege unavailable to many, anyway. So petition reps AND go to the beach. Color roots AND attend protests. Buy oysters AND donate to social justice causes. Post about your cute pets AND concrete ways to topple institutionalized white supremacy. True change is a long haul, so we must pace ourselves so that we never let up. At the end of the day, social justice worth fighting for isn’t nice and pretty. Rather, it is kind and beautiful. Venus would approve.
I am scheduling intuition and tarot readings again beginning July 1; book here.