Astrological Insights & Updates

Monica + Andy Halloween Event

October 28, 2019 update: Thank you to all who came out to partake of the festivities and show off your amazing costumes! I was so pleased to get a little time to spend with each family who stopped by. Each one of you left me feeling very optimistic about the forthcoming talents of this next generation. (And yes, I went home singing “Baby Shark Do-do-do-do” for the rest of the day…)

Julia of Gilded Stars at Monica and Andy's flagship store in Manhattan — Julia at Monica and Andy’s flagship store in Manhattan

Julia is very pleased to offer a presentation of zodiac beasties and calligraphied sun, moon and rising signs for your child at Monica + Andy’s official Halloween event, which will be held from 11 AM to 1 PM on Saturday, October 26th, at their flagship store in Manhattan, located at 410 Columbus Avenue (between 79th & 80th).

As featured in Vogue magazine and WWD, Monica + Andy offers a line of beautiful baby and children’s clothing made from the softest, safest GOTS-certified organic fabrics in limited-edition prints.

Please stop by!

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Summer Solstice Horoscopes

I am pleased to offer you this book of horoscopes (200 pages with illustrations!) that covers all signs for June through December of 2019. The official release date is June 4th, and the ebook is compatible with tablet devices, mobile phones, and the Kindle e-reader. The illustrations come through beautifully, in colour, on tablet devices and mobile phones!!

It’s been a huge effort and feat, especially given all the mayhem of daily life over these past several months while I was writing this. If you’d like an advance, sneak peek at what trends are forthcoming through the rest of this year, then this is for you! Also, please know that what I write for monthly horoscopes on this page will not be a verbatim re-hash of what’s already in the book.

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New Post for 2021

These endless months of the pandemic have thrown my days and habits topsy-turvy, especially as one day folds relentlessly into the next. So I started reading this book for inspiration and motivation. It’s about making the best use of your time. Time schemes are what I study anyway, so it makes perfect sense.

As far as this book goes, in a nutshell, it’s not really about what the most successful people do before breakfast as much as that they are Doing Things Before Breakfast.

In chapter 5, the author also states that you have to take some time off in order to preserve the quality of the work that you do, like hitting a pause and refresh button. Yet she also points out that leisure time “is too precious to be leisurely about leisure,” and advises penciling in a loose idea of how you’d like to spend that time.

I was walking around 5th Avenue toward Union Square yesterday, doing the Manhattan double-tasking thing of listening to the audiobook as I ran errands through old corridors that I’ve passed by for decades. Earlier times came flooding back to me, all that seemed important then, whilst observing so many places boarded up and gone—shockingly.

Vanderkam brought up the old argument of some people’s preference to do absolutely nothing as a break from the week-day’s relentlessness. Lounge! Loaf! Loll! However, the author advocates planning one’s time off. She acknowledges the reason why most rebel agains the idea is because they associate the word “plan” with “preparing for stuff you really don’t like doing.”

She puts forth cleverly, “why put all the care into the work-focused week-day and no forethought at all when it comes to using your time to do something fun and satisfying?” After all, it’s easy to lose time to screen-scrolling, deleting spam, and other distractions. The author points out this is “the paradox of weekends—that you need to schedule time off, especially as weekends can slip away into chores, errands, email-checking…”. Oops, I was caught red-handed at that remark.

“Weekends are both expansive yet not as infinite as they seem.”

Hilariously, she breaks down the hours of a 2-day weekend: 60 hours from 6 PM Friday and 6 AM Monday. 60 hours – 24 hours for sleep = 36 hours of wakefulness. 36 hours = a full-time job. Who signs up for a full time job without asking what you are expected to do with that time?

“Life changes and rituals can change, too.” Last year definitely conveyed that. Nothing is ever perfect. Disruptions happen in spite of the best intentions.

It’s food for thought. It’s so easy to rail against having a structured schedule and then bemoan NOT having one.

This speaks of this past March 2020—that a considerable number of people came under a mandate to rearrange their schedules the world over, for their own good.

Come late January 2021, because of the new routine experienced in the past year, it’s not surprising that new habits, goals and technology will emerge, along with new structure and new leadership. It’s not going to be a smooth process but a sustained one that sees spurts, adjustment and reconfiguring, like a fitful jalopy. And, of course, there will be that faction that wants to see things return to the old way that once was. That’s understandable, but it’s simply not where the world is anymore.

2020 in Review

This post offers an overview of what developing trends stood out to me over the course of this past crazy year.

12.9.2019: The medical advancement clearly turned out to be the new mRNA vaccine, which opens the door to developing new vaccines so yes, it is a breakthrough. I didn’t think the general population would be vaccinated fully until some time by late 2021 to early 2022. Right now, what we have is being distributed mainly to medical personnel so…it’s not been made widely available to the public just yet.

1.1.2020

I’d chosen that image for the opening of 2020 for a good reason.

This year’s resolve: If I see it, I will write about it, the good, the challenging, and the in-between, and I’ll write about it as plainly as possible.

Sometimes an event poses a question with extenuating circumstances and does not pose an easy solution, but I would say this: to find inspiration in how people make an effort in the face of whatever’s daunting. With the pandemic, for example, skilled people did push to create a vaccine with remarkable speed.

How do you apply your skills in a useful and meaningful way? That’s a universal question.

Much of this is about about delving into past time cycles for useful insight and problem-solving techniques.

Case #1: Years ago, when visiting a battlefield site in Fredericksburg, VA, I encountered a troop of Marines cadets who listened to their sergeant recite the exact chain of events of how the battle unfolded. Difficult topic, yes. Instructional, too, particularly when it comes to the results of what happens with leadership mismanagement and confused orders.

Case #2: Sometimes, it rains because it is going to rain, or the weather forecast calls for clear blue skies and sunshine. Not everything carries deeper meaning and import. It’s up to you to decide how you’d like to respond to it.

3.1.2020

I was still tip-toeing… until 3.4.2020.

3.9.2020

In the 2021, I’ll see if I can come up with some of the applications for what I do with time-cycle assessment. I was looking directly at time cycles tangentially related to systems of currency and this detail popped up and caught my attention. If I am not looking at it, then it’s not on my radar. That’s how this generally works.

A lot of what I do here reminds me of mudlarking. If it captures my attention, up it comes with a little prying and swish around in the water. Buffed up and examined closely, it’s a relevant bit history, re-discovered. As Edmund Burke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

So when I report trends, it’s because I’ve spotted it elsewhere already, way down deep in mud of time past, partially submerged.

PS: I follow this guy’s amazing work, as the stuff he finds is like rediscovering portals of time or a lost moment through found objects.

3.15.2020

Read it.

3.31.2020-4.15.2020

4.4.2020

This theme again, blackouts.

May 6-7.2020

Understatement of the year, “the U.S. Postal Service may see some reprieve toward the second half of May that lasts just under a year before it undergoes some reconfiguring.”

5.24.2020

Ship blast. I marked this earlier in this post dated 7.12.2020 because it looked thematic in potential.

7.19.2020

More.

8.9.2020

What I could have expressed better is that the level of divisiveness over the election was the reigning factor showing up that would create conditions for protests no matter who won the electoral college.

8.31.2020

The 2020 election.

9.21.2020

I’d thought the judicial replacement hearings would take place post-election, but they happened prior.

You can figure out the 12.14.2020 event, now that it has come and gone. Hint: U.S. Supreme Court/Electoral College.

10.27.2020

Thoughts on December 2020 into January 2021.

11.19.2020

Now what? More on November into December 2020.

The December 2020 posts are focused mostly on January of 2021.

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Pre-New Year 2021

Roughly two weeks ago, I had planned to post a year in review and a forward glance for the New Year but have since thought the better of it, possibly because I dislike the expectations, anticipation and general hullabaloo posed by the mere flip of a calendar page. THIS will be the year that I [fill in the blank]! (Why doesn’t anyone ever say that in February? Or, June, for that matter?). Go do your thing to celebrate getting through 2020. The rest of the new year still has yet to happen, which it will, no rush.

I might still post an overview of old posts, especially as 2020 is nearly at a close. There’s been a number of back-end technical updates to this site, and I’ve been seeking resolution to why some of the widgets are not functioning properly, so bear with me—it’s being worked out!

I’m also re-thinking the idea of writing monthly horoscopes on this page. While I do have January scopes prepared…and they shall go up, I do need a brief break to focus on a couple of projects and expect to offer new horoscopes for March.

Twinkle, Part II

Continued from yesterday’s post…

I’m writing this for those who study astrology more than for the average layman, but I’ve tried my best to make it entertaining.

[Note: This post was updated 12.18.2020.], and I’ll probably continue to mark updates on this post.

Jupiter/Saturn in 0 Aquarius, to reiterate, it’s a brand new situation, somewhat unexpected, regarding:

[12.18.2020 Update]. Pay attention to this. The problem with 1.13.2021 through 1.23.21’s Jupiter/Saturn 0 Aq square Uranus/Mars 6 Tau is that it’s brand new, which means I really do not have a precedent for it, except to say that it’s disruptive.

Taken alone without any aspects:

An online entity/corporation, governing structure or social media outlet.
A large building in an industrial area
A large capacity vehicle
A marvelous piece of new technology
New emerging leadership that inspires, informs and unites
New laws regarding technology
Careful, sustained growth.

Problem #1, what I left out of the picture yesterday: Uranus/Mars/Moon. The Uranus lego piece, the Mars and the Moon are each their own colour, and they’re sitting at this moment on a carpet where they blend in perfectly. And yes, at some point, you’re going to step on them, no matter how cautiously you tip-toe. That’s what it’s going to feel like. In other words, fast reflexes at play.

For a clue of what’s coming the week of January 13th-23rd 2021, pay attention to the headlines that develop between: (1) December 22-24, 2020; (2) January 6-8th 2021 and then (3) January 11-13, which launches a new cycle that carries from (1) January 20th-23rd into February.

Uranus+Mars by itself offers these themes:

A dynamic, active group
Protesters
Cauterizing
Disruptive
A fast machine
Ignition
New technology

Located in the sign of Taurus:

Market swings
A large, beautiful and fast vehicle or an expensive one.
Fire that damages valuable property
A rally that protests financial conditions
Swift reaction
Technological aggression…hacking.

Squaring Jupiter/Saturn 0 Aq: Houston, we have a problem. One that requires swift action because it implies malfunction of a system or a glitch, a theme I’ve been harping on since earlier this year. Ponder that idea metaphorically, given events of this year. A pandemic is widespread malfunction. The civil unrest of earlier this year speaks of malfunction…etc., etc. And, with effort, these things can be fixed. Think of it as a reset/restructuring.

Pause here for a second and rewind to the week of March 10, 2020, pretty much the same line-up but in mirror-reverse. We look backward because March 2020 is a known factor: lockdown due to COVID. Restricted movement and curfews.

~January 7, 2021: I think this week is when we see our worst COVID rates in spite of the vaccine roll-out.

Officials may officials insist on new lockdown measures, but this time some groups are less receptive due to financial conditions—THOUGH bargaining is on the table. A financial package is very likely to happen in January, probably just not soon enough, as this entire past year, it’s been, “You shall have jam yesterday and tomorrow but not today,” since last May. I would fall over in surprise if it happened earlier. [12.24.2020] update: You shall have jam yesterday and tomorrow but not today, indeed.

Expect to see more headlines regarding big tech and social media corporations coming under legislative calls to dissolve and fragment.

In terms of natural phenomena, the odds are high for a significant 6+ mag earthquake the week prior to Christmas and another significant water-based one in the month of February 2021. 12.15.2020 already saw one 6.0 73 km NNE of Calama, Chile, yet next week remains a question mark. The fact is, at least three to four 5.0 mag quakes occur daily in places you’ve never heard of so it never makes the news. Right after a solar eclipse, that # generally flies upward to a half dozen with at least one 6.0+ in the mix.

[Update 12.18.2020]

On Tuesday, 12.15.2020, there was a 6.1 mag in Mindanao;
And on 12.14.2020,the day of the solar eclipse, a 5.8 mag in the Norwegian Sea, 19:35 UTC, 727 km NW of Tromsø Troms og Finnmark, Norway.

[Update 12.30.2020]

6.3 mag, Calatagan, Philippines, 12.24.2020;
6.7 mag, Corral, Chile, 12.27,2020

The week of January 13-23rd, 2021. Standby for mechanical or electrical difficulties. It’s loud and hot and fast, disruptive, and, odds-on, a direct echo of August 4, 2020, or else it’s of the natural phenomena stripe.

Problem #2: I work with start dates/times. Something like an inauguration time-stamps the starting point that offers a picture of themes for next 4 years of that term. If I jump ahead, leadership as a whole appears to be a younger man’s game come 2024.

Twinkle-Twinkle Christmas Star

I feel like talking starry trash today.

Tomorrow marks the exact conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 29 Capricorn. And what does that have to do with the price of kumquats, you ask?

I nearly scrapped this post altogether after laboring over it in spite of a myriad of annoying distractions. Yet after hauling a 25 lb. ancient sewing machine in both arms off to a donation center a half mile away in the rain, I feel somewhat reinvigorated, especially given that I didn’t take the easy way out by dumping it downstairs near the trash for someone to scavenge. I’d gotten it fixed a couple years ago so it’s good. And now someone will make good use of it for a good cause.

I’d worried about being too technical here, though it’s important to point out practical applications.

For starters, the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction represents a time scheme that doesn’t occur too frequently.

Though the pretty memes circulating online these past couple weeks state that this configuration has not occurred, “since the year 1226,” Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions do occur once roughly every 20 years, albeit in different signs. The last one took place at 22 Taurus on May 28, 2000 and, prior to that, at 4 Libra on July 24, 1981, and onward.

March 5, 1226 is specifically the very last time that a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction took place at 2 Aquarius, which is the closest reference point in history to this year’s 0 Aquarius conjunction.

What this usually means is new, emerging leadership and actions that fall along the lines of controlled expansion. It’s a large organized structure or business and implies restrained yet steady growth. For each one of us, there’s a sector of life that presents incremental, sustained growth and accomplishment yet…there’s another emerging factor to all of this that could up-end the apple cart, shake-a-shake-a-shake, OR it suggests new leadership supplants the old rather abruptly.

As of 12.15.2020, the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction transpires at 29’ Capricorn. This indicates a traditional, conservative leader or governing body that’s on its way out or preparing to abdicate. That’s why I mentioned the baton-passing earlier. Someone rises into authority specifically because the old authority steps down. It’s the last gasp. Especially so, coming fresh off the 12.14.2020 solar eclipse. Pluto/Jupiter/Saturn screams, “I’m not going anywhere because I’m the law of the land and don’t care if you have a problem with that.”

But then come Saturday, December 19, 2020, the Jupiter/Saturn pair does something that this conjunction does not ordinarily do. Unlike the 1226 year line-up, it passes from Capricorn to a new sign: Aquarius. Sure, go sing that Hair song…get it out of your system. When you’re done, I’ll be here waiting.

What it implies is an element of unpredictability, toward January 13th. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings? More like, it ain’t over until the fat lady shuts up because something even louder has taken everyone by surprise.

Within the next 6 months that follow, observe how the grinding pace (especially of the hurry-up and go-nowhere of 2020) literally takes off like a rocket after the third week of January 2021. And I’m not one to abuse the word literally. If you wade back through history, you will observe the dates of the previously mentioned Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions tend to connote an event of serious diplomatic import, a bit of political brinksmanship within the year that follows the conjunction.

Also, December 15th’s Jupiter/Saturn at 29 Cap happens to be squaring a Uranus SRx 7 Tau, which, after a solar eclipse, generally means disruption of an organized structure, and in this case, fixed quickly. Pay attention to this theme and file it away for future reference.

By itself, the shift of Jupiter/Saturn into Aquarius delivers: A “by the people/for the people, we’re all in this together” sort of leader. A unifying force, though things are far from unified at the moment.

It also suggests a brand new piece of sophisticated bit of electronic machinery that you’ll likely gain first wind of in about 5 years that will be very expensive…. Just a guess, but I think this could be the emergence of self-driving vehicles into the mainstream. It’s either airborne or electrical or both, and personally, I wouldn’t mind if it delivered take-out. Seriously, we’re heading into the Industrial Era, Part Deux meets tech so think back to when all the Victorian craftsmen griped about mass manufacturing putting skilled tradesmen out of work.

Those astrologers reading this are probably aware that I’m leaving out a few pertinent details at the moment. If we’re looking for major events, then there’s something, re: an email or online social network. But we already know what this is.

Restructuring and reshuffling of leadership personnel in a way that creates disruption of the status quo.

A developing, new-fangled form of architecture or high-tech construction material. And I’d have to say it is something safety-inspired for the greater good.

Institutionalised technology or new laws regarding technology.

I suspect the headlines of 12.23.2020 offer a precursor to events of January 13th through the 23rd, 2021. What goes up must come down, so to speak.

The problem here is that I’ve presented the Jupiter/Saturn event you in all its configurations like 2 legos stuck together without showing you the other two that turn them into a hot potato maraca.

Part II of this post.

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Butterscotch Kitten – 1 Year Anniversary

If you follow my instagram page, you’ve probably noticed the antics of this fluffy character, The Goof Cat aka The Pre-Pandemic Cat. This weekend marks her first year home. I didn’t think I would be getting a pet at all, yet I felt this inexplicable, pressing urgency this time last year to race all over the city in search of a kitten.

My first stop was to the wonderful ASPCA in search of a long-haired rag doll (dream on) or a Norwegian Forest Cat (dream on some more), but all they had at the time was one pretty tiny kitten with a sensitive skin condition that I wasn’t prepared to deal with. The ASPCA has a great facility and the workers there handed me an invaluable resource list of other shelters to visit. During my wait there to check out the kittens, I couldn’t help noticing how difficult it was to see the older animals vying for attention without worrying what will become of the ones that no one adopts. A little boy from a family who came in to sign papers for a cat adoption called for his parents to check out “this older fat cat” who was pawing at the glass to capture his attention. I think they’d already decided on another.

I trooped further uptown against some wickedly cold headwinds to the city’s animal shelter, which depressed me further, as I could sense the desperation and resignation in all the beasties housed there. There, I saw a beautiful 11-year-old long-hair. But I wanted a kitten so I could make sure to train it. Two sibling kitten Bengal mixes glared at me from one cage. Actually, one was doing the glaring while the other bunkered behind him in the corner. I didn’t want to break them up because it was clear to me they both needed each other. They were gorgeous. I simply couldn’t take two.

The next day I headed downtown to another, somewhat ritzy pet adoption place to check out a furry profile I’d spotted on Petfinder.com, which is a great website for pet adoptions. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of another two sibling cats for Takers of Two.

This led to my last stop at Bide-a-Wee in Turtle Bay. Fantastic facility. All the volunteers were cheerful and upbeat and the place has a good feel to it. When I entered the cat section, I saw this tiny Torbie curled up. One of the caretakers gave me a few treats to try to coax her upright. She wasn’t interested. However, the older greedy velvet grey tom in the cage above her head-butted his cage to gain my attention, as if to say, “If da kid don’t want dose treats, hand ’em over pronto.” (He got one. Okay, two treats.)

The caretakers urged me stick my hand into the tiny Torbie’s cage. I felt reluctant about that and took it slowly…and she accepted a chin scratch. Done deal. She’d been recovered from beneath a car near a construction site a couple months earlier where two of her siblings were found dead.

I went through quite a bit of turmoil whilst waiting for the adoption papers. This had been a 3-day non-stop adventure that criss-crossed the city, as I felt this inexplicable NEED to scour every shelter to bring home a kitten. Why? I had this vague yet incremental sense that something awful was about to happen and that time was of essence. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though I knew it was going to be obvious by mid-March, which you can also read of here and here.

The last time I felt that way in December was back in 2004. I was crossing a bridge on foot in the city over a busy highway when I had the completely irrational image of a giant, unstoppable monster like something out of a campy Japanese Gamera v. Barguron film that crushed anything in its path. It didn’t make any sense. As I watched the rush hour traffic whizzing by below, I wondered what kind of thing was capable of sweeping away and immolating whatever fell into its path? Four days later, the Indonesian Tsunami happened.

As I waited on that clipboard to fill out the pet adoption paperwork, my other thought was, “Am I doing the right thing?” It was now or never. I signed the papers and brought her home in the rain, holding an umbrella over the top of the carrier the entire way.

Later on, I heard of people getting pandemic pets. And I do wonder how these animals will adjust if/when we all return to a normal working/travel schedule, unless all that world has altered for good.

This is my pre-pandemic cat. She’s sweet-natured, happy and loves chasing a laser pointer directly onto a door that she can thwack and boom because she derives lots of joy from making that big skid and resonant BOOM, not unlike the way little kids who enter hallway vestibules become even louder because they’re aware that the acoustics lend them this wonderful effect of delivering a sound that’s bigger than they actually are. And I know she wants to stay because her first impulse was to race for my room and hide rather than bolt out the open front door (when she easily could have) when a repairman left it wide open one day.

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Monica + Andy Halloween Event

Summer Solstice Horoscopes

New Post for 2021

2020 in Review

Pre-New Year 2021

Twinkle, Part II

Twinkle-Twinkle Christmas Star

Butterscotch Kitten – 1 Year Anniversary

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