#Mercury Retrograde 2021

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech workers and gig workers need each other

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

We're living in the enshittocene, in which the forces of enshittification are turning everything from our cars to our streaming services to our dishwashers into thoroughly enshittifified piles of shit. Call it the Great Enshittening:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

How did we arrive at this juncture? Is it the end of the zero rate interest policy? Was it that the companies that formerly made useful things that we valued underwent a change in leadership that drove them to make things worse? Is Mercury in retrograde?

None of the above. There have been many junctures in which investors demanded higher returns from firms but were not able to force them to dramatically worsen their products. Moreover, the leaders now presiding over the rapid unscheduled disassembly of once-useful products are the same people who oversaw their golden age. As to Mercury? Well, I'm a Cancer, and as everyone knows, Cancers don't believe in astrology.

The Great Enshittening isn't precipitated by a change in how greedy and callous corporate leaders are. Rather, the change is in what those greedy, callous corporate leaders can get away with.

Capitalists hate capitalism. For a corporate executive, the fact that you have to make good things, please your customers, pay your workers, and beat the competition are all bugs, not features. The best business is one in which people simply pay you money without your having to do anything or worry that someday they'll stop. UBI for the investor class, in other words.

Douglas Rushkoff calls this "going meta." Don't sell things, provide a platform where people sell things. Don't provide a platform, invest in the platform. Don't invest in the platform, buy options on the platform. Don't buy options, buy derivatives of options.

A more precise analysis comes from economist Yanis Varoufakis, who calls this technofeudalism. Varoufakis draws our attention to the distinction between profits and rents. Profit is the income a capitalist receives from mobilizing workers to do something productive and then skimming off the surplus created by their labor.

By contrast, rent is income a feudalist derives from simply owning something that a capitalist or a worker needs in order to be productive. The entrepreneur who opens a coffee shop earns profits by creaming off the surplus value created by the baristas. The rentier who owns the building the coffee shop rents gets money simply for owning the building.

The coffee shop owner can never rest. At any moment, another coffee shop can open down the street and lure away their customers and their baristas. When that happens, the coffee shop goes bust and the owner is ruined. But not the landlord! After the coffee shop goes bust, the landlord's asset is more valuable – an empty storefront just down the street from the hottest coffee shop in town.

Capitalists hate capitalism. Faced with a choice of retaining their workers by paying them a fair wage and treating them well, or by saddling them with noncompetes that make it impossible to work for anyone else in the same field, and obligations to repay tens of thousands of dollars for "training" if they quit, bosses will take the latter every time. Go meta, baby.

Same for competition. Faced with the choice of competing to win the most customers with the best products, or merging so that customers have nowhere else to go, even the bitterest of rivals find it remarkably easy to intermarry until our corporations landscape is so interbred the dominant firms all have Habsburg jaws. Think: Facebook-Instagram. Disney-Fox. Microsoft-Activision:

https://locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-doctorow-tech-monopolies-and-the-insufficient-necessity-of-interoperability/

Enshittification has complex underlying dynamics and a reliable procession of stages, but the effect is quite straightforward: things are enshittified when they become worse for the people who use them and the suppliers who makes them, but nevertheless, the users keep using and the suppliers keep supplying.

There are four forces that stand in the way of enshittification, and as each of these forces grows weaker, enshittification proliferates.

The first and most important of these constraints is competition. Capitalists claim to love competition because it keeps firms sharp: they must constantly find ways to improve products and cut costs or be swept away by a superior alternative. There's a degree of truth here, but that's not the whole story.

For one thing, competition can "improve" things that we would rather see abolished. Critics of the GDPR, the EU's landmark privacy law, often point to the devastation that enforcing privacy law had on the European ad-tech industry, driving small firms out of business. But these firms were the most egregious privacy offenders, because they had the least to lose, lacking the dominant position of US-based Big Tech surveillance companies.

Having the least to lose, they were the most reckless with their privacy invasions – but they were also the least equipped to pay expensive enablers from giant corporate law firms to hold off European enforcers, and so they were obliterated. The resulting lack of competition is fine, as far as privacy goes: we don't want competition in the field of "who is most efficient at violating our human rights":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/fighting-floc-and-fighting-monopoly-are-fully-compatible

But there's another benefit to competition: disorganization. A sector with hundreds of medium-sized, competing companies is a squabbling mob, incapable of agreeing on the site for an annual meeting. An industry dominated by a handful of firms is a cartel, handily capable of presenting a unified front to policy makers, and their commercial coziness provides them with vast war-chests they can use to suborn governments and capture their regulators:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Competition is the first constraint. When there's competition, corporate managers fear that you will respond to enshittification by defecting to a rival, costing them money. They don't care about your satisfaction, but they do care about your money, and competition hitches their ability to satisfy you to their ability to get paid by you.

Competition has been circling the drain for 40 years, as the "consumer welfare" theory of antitrust, hatched by Reagan's court sorcerers at the University of Chicago School of Economics, took hold. This theory insists that monopolies are evidence of "efficiency" – if everyone shops at one store, that's evidence that it's the best store, not evidence that they're cheating.

For 40 years, we've allowed companies to violate antitrust law by merging with major competitors, acquiring fledgling rivals, and using investor cash to sell below cost so that no one else can enter the market. This has produced the inbred industrial hulks of today, with five or fewer firms dominating everything from eyeglasses to banking, sea freight to professional wrestling:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

The endless and continuous weakening of competition has emboldened corporate enshittifiers, who operate on the logic of Lily Tomlin in her role as an AT&T spokeswoman: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company":

https://vimeo.com/355556831

But the drawdown of competition has also enabled regulatory capture, by converting cutthroat adversaries to kissing cousins. These companies have convinced their regulators not to enforce privacy, consumer protection or labor laws, provided that the gross violations of these laws are accomplished via apps.

This is where tech exceptionalism is warranted: while the bosses that run these companies aren't any nobler – or more wicked – than the Robber Barons of yore, they are equipped with a digital back-end for their businesses that let them change the rules of the game from moment to moment.

Think of labor law: as Veena Dubal writes, gig-work companies practice algorithmic wage discrimination, turning your paycheck into a slot machine that pays out more when you are more selective about which jobs you take, and which then docks your pay by tiny increments as you become less discriminating about answering the app's call:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

This is a plain violation of labor law, but the fiction that gig workers are contractors, combined with the opacity and speed of the wage discrimination back-end, lets the companies get away with it.

But the monsters who hatched this scam are no worse than their forebears, nor are they any smarter. Any black-hearted coal-boss memorialized in a Tennessee Ernie Ford song would have gladly practiced algorithmic wage discrimination – but there just weren't enough green-eyeshade accountants in the back office to change the payout from second to second.

I call this "twiddling" – turning the knobs on the back end to continuously adjust the business logic that the firm operates on:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Twiddling is everywhere, and it is only possible because "it's not a crime if we use an app" has been accepted by (captured) regulators. Think of Amazon's "pricing paradox," where deceptive search results – which Amazon makes $38b/year on – allow the company to offer lower prices, but charge higher ones:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

The first constraint on enshittification is competition – the fear that you'll lose money when a disgusted customer take their business elsewhere. The second constraint is regulation – the fear that a regulator's punishment will eat up all the expected gains from an enshittificatory move, or even exceed those gains, leading to a net loss.

But the less competition there is in a sector, the easier it is for the remaining companies to capture their regulators. Say goodbye to that second constraint.

But there's another constraint – another one that's unique to technology, and genuinely exceptional. That's self-help. Digital technology is infinitely flexible, which is why managers can twiddle the business logic and change the rules on a dime.

But it's a double-edged sword. Users can twiddle back. The universal nature of digital products means it's always technically possible to disenshittify the enshittified products in your world. Mercedes wants to charge you rent on your accelerator pedal via a monthly subscription? Just mod the car by toggling the "subscription paid" bit and get the accelerator for free:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

HP tricks you into installing a "security update" that sneakily disables your printer's ability to recognize and use third-party ink? Just roll back the operating system and you won't be forced to spend $10,000/gallon to print out your boarding passes and shopping lists:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Self-help – AKA "adversarial interoperability" – isn't just a way to override the greedy choices of corporate sadists. It's a way to hold those sadists in check. It's a constraint.

Imagine a boardroom where someone says, "I calculate that if we make our ads 25% more invasive and obnoxious, we can eke out 2% more in ad-revenue." If you think of a business as a transhuman colony organism that exists to maximize shareholder value, this is a no-brainer.

But now consider the rejoinder: "If we make our ads 25% more obnoxious, then 50% of our users will be motivated to type, 'how do I block ads?' into a search engine. When that happens, we don't merely lose out on the expected 2% of additional revenue – our income from those users falls to zero, forever."

Self-help is the third constraint on enshittification. But when competition fails, and regulatory capture ensues, companies don't just gain the ability to flout the law – they get to wield the law, too.

Tech firms have cultivated a thicket of laws, rules and regulations that make self-help measures very illegal. This thicket is better known as "IP," a term that is best understood as meaning "any policy that lets me control the conduct of my competitors, my customers and my critics":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

To put an ad-blocker in an app, you have to reverse-engineer it. To do that, you'll have to decrypt and decompile it. That step is a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine. Beyond that, ad-blocking an app would give rise to liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (a law inspired by the movie Wargames!), under "tortious interference" claims, under trademark, copyright and patent.

More than 50% of web users have installed an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

But zero percent of app users have installed an ad-blocker, because they don't exist, because you'd go to prison if you made one. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to add an ad-blocker to it.

This is why self-help, the third constraint, no longer applies. When a corporate sadist says, "let's make ads 25% more obnoxious to get 2% more revenue," no one says, "if we do that, our users will all install blockers." Instead, the response is, "let's make ads 100% more obnoxious and get an 8% revenue boost!"

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/16/23763227/uber-video-advertising-ads-taxi-food-delivery-apps

Which brings me to the final constraint: workers.

Tech workers have historically enjoyed enormous bargaining power, thanks to a dire shortage of qualified personnel. While this allowed tech workers to command high salaries and cushy benefits, it also led many workers to conceive of themselves as entrepreneurs-in-waiting and not workers at all.

This made tech workers very exploitable: their bosses could sell them on the idea that they were doing something heroic, which warranted "extremely hardcore" expectations – working 16 hour days, sleeping under your desk, sacrificing your health, your family and your personal life to meet deadlines and ship products ("Real artists ship" – S. Jobs).

But the flip side of this appeal to heroism is that it only worked to the extent that it convinced workers to genuinely care about the things they made. When you miss you mother's funeral and pass on having kids in order to meet deadline and ship a product, the prospect of making that product worse is unthinkable.

Confronted by the moral injury of enshittifying a product you care about, and harming the users you see yourself as representing, many tech workers balked at the prospect. Because tech workers were scarce – and because there were plenty of employment prospects for workers who quit – they could actually prevent their bosses from making their products worse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

But those days are behind us, too. Mass tech worker layoffs have gutted tech workers' confidence. When Google lays off 12,000 tech workers just months after a stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, they deliver two benefits to their shareholders. It's not just the short-term gains from the financial engineering – there's the long-term gain of gutting worker power and stripping away the final impediment to enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

No matter how strong an individual tech worker's bargaining power was, it was always brittle. Long before googlers were being laid off in five-digit cohorts, they were working in an environment where harassment and predation were just part of the job. The 20,000+ googlers who walked off the job in 2018 were an important step towards replacing the system where each tech worker's power was limited to their moment-to-moment importance to their bosses' plans with a new system based on a collective identity.

Only through collective action and solidarity – unions – could tech workers hope to truly resist all the moral injuries of their bosses enshittification imperatives. No surprise then, that tech unions are on the rise:

https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union

But what is a little surprising – and very heartening! – is what happens when techies start to self-identify as workers: they come to understand that they share common cause with the other workers at the bottom of the tech stack. Think of Amazon's tech workers walking out in solidarity with Amazon's warehouse workers:

https://gizmodo.com/tech-workers-speak-out-in-support-of-amazon-warehouse-s-1842839301

Superficially, the bottom rank of the tech industry is as different from the tech workers at the top as you can imagine. Tech workers are formally employed, with stock options, health care and theme-park "campuses" with gyms and gourmet cafeterias.

The gig workers who pack, drive, deliver and support tech products aren't even employees – they're misclassified as contractors. They don't get free massages – they get AI bosses that monitor their eyeballs and dock their paychecks for peeing:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

Gig workers desperately need unions, but they also derive extraordinary benefits from self-help measures. When an app is your boss, another app can make all the difference to your working conditions. Take Para, an app that fights algorithmic wage discrimination by allowing gig workers to collectively and automatically refuse any job where the pay is below a certain threshold, forcing the algorithm to pay everyone more:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/tech-rights-are-workers-rights-doordash-edition

Para is fighting a grim legal and technical battle against companies like Doordash, whose margins depend on atomized workers with atomized apps, prohibited from countertwiddling. This is a surprisingly effective tactic: in Indonesia, gig workers co-ops create suites of "tuyul" apps that modify the behavior of their bosses' apps', unilaterally securing concessions that they lack the bargaining power to secure by other means:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

Tuyul apps and other forms of countertwiddling aren't a substitute for unionization, they're an adjunct to it. The union negotiator whose rank-and-file are able to modify the apps that monitor and control their working conditions operates from a position of strength. "Please give my members more bathroom breaks" is a lot weaker than, "If you want my members to stop hacking their apps so they can piss when they need to, you're going to have to give them official bathroom breaks."

This is where solidarity between the high-paid tech workers at the keyboard and low-paid tech workers on the delivery bikes comes in. Together, they can wring more concessions from their bosses, sure. But unionized coders can give their unionized delivery riders the apps they need to countertwiddle and increase the bargaining leverage of all the workers in the union. And when unionized coders' bosses force them to put enshittifying anti-features in the apps they care about, unionized front-line workers can run counter-apps that disenshittify them.

Other sectors are already working through versions of this. The ouster of the old corrupt leadership of the Teamsters ushered in a new, radical era that produced historic wage and working condition gains for drivers and the abolition of the two-tier contract system that eventually destroys any union that tries it.

That change in leadership was possible because the Teamsters organized the Harvard Grad Students, and those Harvard kids memorized the union rulebook. At the historic conference where the old guard was abolished, it was teamwork between the union rank-and-file and the rules-lawyers from Harvard that turned the proceedings around:

https://theintercept.com/2023/04/07/deconstructed-union-dhl-teamsters-uaw/

We are deep into the enshittocene and it is terribly demoralizing. But by understanding the constraints that kept enshittification at bay, we can rebuild them, and shore them up. Labor organizing among all kinds of tech workers isn't just a way to get a better deal for those workers – it's key to the disenshittification of all our lives.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

[spiritualitywithtally]

astro observations (10/24/22)

🪐 5th house saturns could hate to see children not be disciplined & heavily dislike disrespectful children. im not talking about any abusive methods of disciplining children, of course. but they could just hate to see children just not listen & be disrespectful & not even be corrected or spoken to about it. in turn, they may end up raising very respectful children.

🪐 always know what your solar return moon is. whenever the moon is in that sign, those are significant dates for that year for you. you could meet someone significant, start something significant, have an important conversation, or finally do something you’ve been wanting to do, etc…

🪐 as a gemini sun, i dealt with this virgo sun guy for the first time back in a mercury retrograde in 2021 and stoped speaking shortly after it was done. & now, we’re reconnecting again during the retrograde 🤣🤣. i just find that so funny AND our suns are also in mercury houses. his in the 3rd & mine in the 6th.

(^^ p.s. : mercury isn’t retrograde currently, i know. i wrote that when it still was. we stopped speaking when retrograde was done again y’all 💀💀 this is hilarious)

🪐 mercurial children cannot be quiet (as in not talking) to save their lives.

🪐 aries moon children cannot be quiet (as in not yelling) to save their lives.

🪐 cancer moon men tend to wanna date/marry someone who has similar traits to their mom. a lot of people do this subconsciously but i feel like it’s more of a conscious decision for cancer moons.

🪐 wanna live out all your sexual fantasies? find someone whose lust asteroid or eros is in 8th house. bonus points if it’s double whammy. you guys will always be on the same page sexually. thank me later !

🪐 scorpio/8th house placements in the solar return chart indicate a year of deep transformations

🪐 2nd house reflects our values, but so does your venus placement for sure. remember that the 2nd house is literally venus’ house.

🪐 adding onto that ^ , i see taurus & the 2nd house as the “values & pleasures” part of venus. while libra & the 7th house is more the “relationships” part of venus. but of course, those things intertwine. so they’re all (venus placement, 2nd house, & 7th house) important when considering what you need in a partner.

🪐 i think it’s pretty much common knowledge that you’ll feel deep emotional bonds/attachments to the people in your water houses (4th, 8th, 12th). but the same also applies to anyone who has their birthday on the degree of any of those houses in your chart.

[a-d-nox]

what's a mars return?

did you know that you can check more than just your sun's return? any time a planet transits and becomes exactly conjunct your planet (it is in the exact sign and degree it was when you were born), you undergo a planetary return. mars returns happen roughly every 2 years (unless there is a retrograde too). my mars return is coming up this august and i couldn't be more thrilled to shed the lessons of my 2021 mars return chart and step onto a new battleground.

but what can a mars return chart show you?

what are you passion at / what you desire to do. your confidence and lack thereof. sex. what makes you angry / frustrated / aggressive / competitive. your impulsive behavior. where you are dominant / a leader. the challenge(s) you face.

sun

ego, leadership, self-confidence, sex life, focus, creative passions, authority, dominance, individuality, leadership development, dignity, awareness of other's intentions, and self-expression desires/passion.

moon

frustration, passion, desire, lust, anger, survival instincts, care for your unit/squad, where you feel most powerful, your blood family, passionate/lustful instincts, fertility, adaptability, relationship with your mother, menstruation, and habits.

mercury

communication about what you want, verbal inspiration of others, debates, arguments, how you antagonize others, the determination of your mind, physical health, perception, short trips, ground transportation, diplomatic mannerisms, aggressive mannerisms, and profanity.

venus

who you lust over, who you're attracted to, your reception of others' love, empathy/sympathy for others, pleasure, self-love/pleasure, compromise, values and moral drive, and possessions.

mars

passion, desire, confidence, ambition, lust, sexual desire, anger/combativeness, aggressiveness/competitiveness, athletics, temper, impulse, dominance over other, activity / physical energy, and violence.

jupiter

luck at pursuing your passions/desires, wins/successes, opportunity to move into leadership roles / win, who is willing to follow you, expansion of you empire, knowledge of the things you desire / are passionate about, wisdom gained from previous experiences, air travel, how you seek justice, exploration of foreign land, and spoils/profit/gains from what you win/achieve.

saturn

hard work, challenges/struggles, what the absence of your father/fatherly figure is like (mars has no father - read that myth here), lack of confidence, delays in you passions/desires, physical limitations, physical discipline, responsibility for others, physical effort, self-control, physical stability, endurance, emotional detachment (battle compartmentalization), and grudges.

uranus

allis, fluctuation in attitude/confidence, online arguments, physical uniqueness, rebellion, unplanned/sudden occurrences (surprise attacks), independence, freedom from others, p0rn0graphy, shock (usually of the traumatic variety), (battlefield) chaos, disasters scenarios, and fans/followers.

neptune

creative plans/strategies, camouflage and how you blend in, over-sensitivity, selflessness/egoism, retreating, intuition, deception/lies/manipulation, passionate inspiration, and fascination.

pluto

physical transformation, power, sex, 0rgasms, destruction of others, death, intensity, physical magnetism, physical regeneration, infatuation with other, obsession with others, seduction, manipulation of other, how you plans evolve and change, and the liabilities you remove from your life.

1h/asc

how you approach life, physical body, confidence, the initiative you take, your ambition, your behavior, physical alterations, individuality, and passion.

2h

impulse spending habits, passion projects / side hustles, your work ethic, material possessions (spoils), stability, giving/receiving, and resources.

3h

communication, your strategic mind, your perceptions, interests, ground transportation, social media (the arguments you get in and your followings), and short journeys.

4h/ic

homes/houses (raiding homes that aren't yours or location of your own home), family/family roots, and the foundation of your plans foundations.

5h

children, talent for arguing or your passions, creative plans, risk-taking activities, hookups, pleasures/desires, and strategy games you play

6h

physical health, fitness routine, your duties towards others, your hygiene, and analytics/strategy.

7h/dsc

long term relationships, physical attraction towards others, partnerships, allis, known enemies, and negotiations.

8h

major physical transformation, sex, death, changes of heart, your partners resources/assets, seduction, secrets, spiritual transformation, surgery/operations, and trauma (ptsd).

9h

(battle) wisdom, morality/ethics, foreign environments / long journeys, travel, and learning about leadership / your passion.

10h/mc

your legacy, your reputation, long-term goals/plans, mission, responsibilities towards others, authority, expertise, and leadership.

11h

allis, gains, desires, awareness of other's intentions towards you, groups you lead, politics, and interaction with others.

12h

mental healing/health, hidden weaknesses, hidden enemies, k!nks, fears, losses, closure from tense situations, repressed memory, past challenges, and mental restrictions that become physical restrictions.

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© a-d-nox 2023 all rights reserved

[astroeleanor]

🎉˚✧ ﾟ2024 Begins with Mercury RX!˚✧🎉

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₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

2024 begins with Mercury Retrograde! We haven’t had a Retrograde-free New Year’s since 2021. This highlights some setbacks we experienced in terms of achieving our New Year’s resolutions. The most affected signs this year will be Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo, and Pisces.

The beginning of 2022, 2023, and 2024 is characterized by introspection and re-evaluation. Instead of charging headfirst into the New Year, the Retrograde energy has prompted us to take our time and ease into it. On the surface, this may seem to hinder our progress and the usual pace of our intentions for the New Year. In reality, this is an opportunity for contemplation, reassessment, and for redefining our action plan for the year ahead.

2022 started with Venus RX in Capricorn, making relationship (Venus) issues & responsibilities (Capricorn) the main obstacle in achieving our goals. The key takeaway of this transit was to find a harmonious balance between our emotional needs and our professional obligations. The most affected signs were CAPRICORN, Libra, Cancer, and Aries.

2023 started with Mercury RX in Capricorn, highlighting pessimistic (Capricorn) thinking patterns (Mercury) as the main obstacle in manifesting our desires. Mercury RX highlighted how our ideas might have been weighed down by our limiting beliefs, hindering our ability to envision strategies to achieve our goals. The most affected signs were CAPRICORN, Libra, Cancer, and Aries.

2024 starts with Mercury RX in Sagittarius, meaning we will need to readjust our vision (Sagittarius) & make our expectations realistic to achieve our goals. It will be crucial to recalibrate our expectations and avoid biting off more than we can chew. This dynamic will come into play due to the energy of Sagittarius — which is associated with exploration, optimism, and expansive thinking — being channeled through the introspective energy of Mercury Retrograde.

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! Your curiosity & engagement mean the world to me. I hope you not only found it enjoyable but also enriching for your astrological knowledge. Your support & interest inspire me to continue sharing insights & information with you. I appreciate you immensely. • 🕸️ JOIN MY PATREON for exquisite & in-depth astrology content. You’ll also receive a free mini reading upon joining. :) • 🗡️ BOOK A READING with me to navigate your life with more clarity & awareness.

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

[growwithmeastrology]

Thursday, May 16th 2024

Sun in Taurus ♉️🌎 Moon in Virgo ♍️🌎

While we don’t have any major transits going exact today, we certainly have the energies building for some that we are most certainly feeling. The Moon is in Virgo which allows us to deal with our daily routines or establish new daily habits. It can make us really overthink things though.

Since Virgo is ruled by Mercury we should talk about this transit rolling in. Mercury in Taurus is beginning a square to retrograde Pluto in Aquarius. This will go exact tomorrow and last until the 21st. This energy motivates us to dig deep into the subconscious mind. So much for not overthinking things. Watch out for some passive aggressive behavior.

We are in the thick of a planetary super stellium in Taurus right now. A stellium is when you have three or more planets in a sign and right now we have five in Taurus. This area of our lives is the focus, going through a very stimulating time. What house is Taurus ruling for you? You are no doubt experiencing a frenzy of groundbreaking stuff here. The best use of this energy is to get out in nature to find some inspiration. Look into ways to improve your financial state within technological opportunities. It’s also a good time to find some me-time and get creative. If you are overthinking things, look back to 2021 and review any intellectual epiphanies you have during that Taurus season. Those are the ones paying off right now.

It’s a really good time for finding better alternatives to your current situation. This energy is stubborn so you have to do the work. Explore opportunities to collaborate with others or break free from relationships that don’t allow you to be you.

If you enjoy my daily forecasts please like, comment, share and consider a gratitude tip in support. 🅿️ PayPal, Venmo or CashApp - @NaliniFlor

Learn more about your personal energies and how the daily forecast affects you! Comment below⬇️ or DM me for a consultation.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Eris stations retrograde

Sunday, July 21, 2024, 18:43 UT, 25°29’ Aries

Caveat: this may not have much of a personal impact on you unless Eris is prominent in your chart (closely in aspect to the Sun, the Moon, &/or an angle).

In fact, Eris stations tend to have a global impact. The January 6, 2021 insurrection by aggrieved MAGAts is a good example of what can happen. Eris was exactly square Pluto/Capricorn at that time, as well.

This time, we have an exact trine from Mercury. The phrase “fighting words” comes to mind. Angry, loud rhetoric; some of us think that being the loudest means we “win.” No evident listening skills, just shouting down the enemy. “I have spoken.”

A better use would be to make sure we’re authentic about what and how we communicate. We need to focus on positive, constructive change, not on obliterating the “enemy.” Speak your truth, and give others the same courtesy.

[libra-stellium]

Venus opposite Mercury transit

Let me just say I love astro so much i just can't LMAO

I was writing down my Venus transits coming up and in April I have Venus opposite Mercury and the description basically said be careful what you say to friends because someone may take it seriously and you'll hurt their feelings. Immediately I was like can't think of any recent time when people took me seriously when I was joking??? Thought a bit more and APRIL 2021!!! I had such a random friendship conflict that to this day I'm still a bit confused how it got to that point (spoiler alert we're no longer friends lol not bc of that) I looked at my transits back then and it's the last time I had Venus opposite Mercury! The same exact weekend!

Background: Friends and I drive up to NY for a friend's bday for the weekend

Friday Apr 2nd - transit hasn't started yet - we get to NY in the morning and we chill and we get ready to go out, friend this happened with wasn't at the house she had stuff to do and then later came and got ready after us, I have a snapchat video of me saying what's in your purse? bc it was a big purse like a laptop could fit in there and she only had wallet phone and chapstick in there lmao sorry but that's comical

Saturday Apr 3rd - transit starts - I didn't notice it until days later but she did not speak to me directly that day unless she had to

Sunday Apr 4th - Transit still applying - we drive back home and we're tired so no one is really talking but I'm the last to get dropped off at home and we were chatting normally

Monday Apr 5th - transit is exact - I get a lonnngggggg text from her long like 6 iphone screenshots long lmfao and she's basically saying how the entire weekend I was attacking her and intentionally putting her down and how I was inconsiderate and so much more and I was SHOCKED! Literally couldn't respond for like two days! And she also said that "people" had told her that I was talking behind her back and I was like bro what??? The only "people" are us who traveled together and our friend who's bday it was!

Wednesday Apr 7th - transit ends that day - I respond and I'm like so sorry I didn't realize I was doing too much and clarified some things that she said that literally didn't happen like that at all and then I was so upset I wrote in the group chat that next time if they have a problem with something I'm saying just speak up in the moment and they were like we don't know what you mean and I was like okayyyyyyy

Lesson learned I am taping my mouth shut this time around lmao staying inside!! Mind you mercury wasn't even retrograde for that in 2021 and it is this time so no one will be hearing from me! My Libra heart can't handle that again lol

[houseofbrat]

Hi, who do you think will be next american president? also, do you think people will accept the results?

The answer to your first question might depend on your definition of "next."

Are you assuming that Joe Biden makes it to 20 January 2025 as president? I don't. I think it's highly likely he gets 25th Amendment-ed this fall.

However, based on the 2021 Inauguration chart for the Biden administration--which lasts from Biden's inauguration until the next new president or next inauguration four years later--it does not appear that Kamala will succeed him as president. This is why I suspect Kamala is going to get a new job in a different branch of government.

Could Kamala's new job be controversial? Probably. Would some people be upset about it? Probably. But it also looks like she won't be doing the oath of office at noon on 20 January 2025 because the person who does will die in office.

As for the election results, I think most people won't have a problem. Trump may scream & whine about losing, but I think this election will be decided by a bigger margin than either the 2016 or 2020 elections. Just a guess, but I think that's the likely result. Also, I expect the Republicans to take the Senate, which will give them full control of Congress. There will be less motivation for the craziness that happened after the 2020 elections.

Also, astrologically, you don't have something like Mercury retrograde happening around the election. Mercury goes retrograde in late November, which is weeks after the election, and Mars goes retrograde in early December, which is almost a month later.

I think there are a lot of professional astrologers flying blind at this point because they're not looking at the right people and details. Trump's chart isn't super strong and is actually weaker than it was in 2020, so definitely not a repeat of what happened the last time around.

[elminx]

Energy Update: June 2023

June is a "4" Universal Month [6 (June) + 7 (2023) = 13 = 1+3 = 4] in a "7" Universal Year. The number 4 is considered stable or stabilizing and months that carry 4 energy are much the same. Where in your life do you need to slow down to make sure the pieces are fitting right? We are coming out of a rough two months that involved two intense eclipses that overlapped with Mercury's second retrograde of the year. Things got stirred up. June is the month to let the dust settle and get back to it, whatever "it" is for you.

The Set Up

We begin the month of June with the Sun in Gemini, Mercury playing catch-up in Taurus, Venus in Cancer, Mars in Leo, Jupiter Uranus and the North Node in Taurus, Saturn and Neptune in Pisces, and retrograde Pluto in Aquarius. By month's end, the Sun will have entered Cancer, Mercury will have moved through Gemini and on to Cancer to join the Sun, Venus will have entered Leo, and retrograded Pluto will have re-entered Capricorn from the back-end. Additionally, Saturn and Neptune will station retrograde this month, and Venus will enter her pre-retrograde shadow period. That's a lot of change for a month where we are supposed to pick up the pieces, but it's where we are. All we can do is live in it.

The Nitty Gritty

We come into June under the energy of the waxing moon that will peak on 6/3 or 6/4 depending on your timezone. The full moon in Sagittarius is traditionally a time for excitement and newness, as is represented by Sagittarius's ruler, Jupiter. This year will be no exception as this will be further augmented by Venus in Cancer's watery trine with Neptune in Pisces (a sweet aspect of togetherness on 6/2) and Mercury's annual conjunct with Uranus at 20° Taurus on 6/4. This is a great time to start a new project - especially one that is creative in nature (Venus) or some sort of higher learning (Sag). If you don't know where or what to start, this is a great time to ask Mercury and Uranus for inspiration. Mercury and Uranus have a close relationship with one another and can be seen to be two sides of the same coin - Mercury awakens in the human realm, and Uranus is the awakening of the beyond.

On 6/5, Venus enters our fixed fire sign Leo where she will remain for the next three months. This is an exceptionally long time as she normally moves through a sign in two to three weeks. We are gearing up for another Venus retrograde. Venus last retrograded at the beginning of 2021 in the sign of Capricorn so we may see some of the same themes start to arise from June-October that we experienced them. Because Venus is one of the personal planets, her retrogrades are always felt deeply both by the collective and in our individual lives.

Interestingly, Venus in Leo immediately meets up in opposition with Pluto in Aquarius who has already entered their retrograde cycle. When Venus last went retrograde, she did so in direct conjunction with Pluto. This again shows this recurring theme - something about our way of drawing in and getting what we want (themes heavily ruled by Venus) needs to change. Whereas last time, while the planets were in conjunction, the change may have had to be personal - we may find that this time, with the opposition, the change needs to come from or be helped by our closest Others. Venus will not make an aspect with Pluto during her retrograde cycle, so this is something that has passed us, even if we need to momentarily revisit it.

This is likely an old ego story that needs revising. Venus and Pluto's opposition will align with our lunar nodes that are just barely hovering on the line between Taurus/Scorpio and Aries/Libra to create a fixed grand cross. This may highlight an area where you feel very stuck in your life. Even though Venus will move quickly on Pluto and the nodes will hold this as a t-square throughout the month which shows that it is an ongoing situation. If you identify the problem, great. But be aware that the energy to shift and move through it may not come until Pluto reenters Capricorn (6/11) and the nodes switch to Aries/Libra (7/17). Aries, Libra, and Capricorn are cardinal signs, after all, and cardinal signs NEED to move. Use that to your advantage when you can.

The weekend of 6/9-6/11 will likely be eventful. The sun in Gemini meets up in sextile with Chiron in Aries so we can assume our core wounds are close to the surface. Additionally, Mercury and Pluto meet up in trine with one another as they each change signs. Mercury is moving forward into its home sign of Gemini where it really likes to be. Pluto is moving backward into Capricorn, a transit that has been shaking up the old bones of our financial systems for the last 14 years. Additionally, Venus in Leo squares off with Jupiter in Taurus. This is a week to lie low if you can, or accept what comes up if you can't. Watch out for excesses, particularly excessive spending or overindulgences fueled by a hedonist Jupiter in Taurus. This would be a great weekend to do work towards ending addictive cycles as the energy of the waning moon will support you in these endeavors.

On 6/15, Mercury in Gemini squares off with Saturn in Pisces - this is our regular reminder that words have power, and with great power, comes great responsibilities. (thanks Uncle Ben) If you've been speaking out of turn, you may need to eat your words or fess up. In general, communication may just feel heavy through all of this week.

On Saturday, Saturn retrogrades at 07° Pisces. When considering Saturn, one should always remember that it is always somewhat looked at in its relationship with Jupiter. Where Jupiter expands, Saturn contracts. In this way, as our two intermediate planets, they are the inverse of one another. And when one of the two retrogrades, it takes on some of the natural energy of the other as often works with inverses. Saturn retrogrades start out like you got hit with a ton of bricks but tend to lighten considerably. When Sky Daddy Saturn's not home, all bets are off. Do you even need to follow the rules? Do you even need to do your homework? Because Jupiter is still moving in a direct motion, we've got the energy of Jupiter (expansion) now combined with the energy of retrograde Saturn (expansion/contraction) to contend with. It can be a bit unbalanced if you've sensitive to Saturnian movements.

The next day we will experience a new moon at 27° Gemini which will form a tight square with Neptune in Pisces. Gemini and Pisces have a lot in common with each other. For one thing, they are both mutable signs. They are also both twin signs - Gemini is literally the sign of the twins and Pisces is represented as two fish swimming in opposite directions. Both also like to live in a fantasy world of their own creation and have a tendency to (at times) lose track of reality - a trait that will further be enhanced by Neptune, the planet of secrets and illusions. All that glitters is almost certainly not gold during this time - in fact, it's probably a mimic and not gold at all. If it looks too good to be true, it certainly is. Save your decisions for another day and practice your very best self-care if this energy is too much for you.

Venus enters her pre-retrograde shadow the very next day at 12° Leo. Venus will retrograde at 28° Leo on 7/23 and remain in retrograde until the beginning of September, casting the second half of our summer in pallid tones. It can be really hard to find love or compassion when Venus retrogrades and this will be doubly so while Venus is in the ego-drive sun-ruled sign of Leo. This is just the warm-up, though - she needs to pass through her pre-retrograde steps first. Remember that from here on out, every aspect Venus makes will be made thrice: once in forward motion, a second time backward while in retrograde, and a third time again in forward motion. If you work astrological energy to mollify the effects of personal planet retrogrades, now is the time to start planning your strategy for this transit.

On 6/21, the Sun enters Cancer and Summer officially begins. Happy Summer Solstice! The Sun immediately meets up in sextile to our North Node in Taurus and in trine to our South Node in Scorpio. We are almost at the end of this lunar node story which may be triggering for some. Mars in Leo trines Chiron in Aries the same day which shows that old pains may lie close to the surface.

Mercury enters Cancer on 6/26 and Mars in Leo squares off with Uranus in Taurus. Mars plus Uranus is pretty intense no matter the aspect and the square creates a lot of tension - watch out! Stay away from explosives in general, including but not limited to explosive conversations. This is break-up weather - watch what you say because you may not be able to take it back. The Sun in Cancer sextiles retrograde Saturn in Pisces two days later so consequences may be swift and swampy. On 6/29, Venus in Leo trines Chiron in Aries to activate those old wounds. Try to use it to heal them rather than wallowing in the pain, if you can.

On the last day of the month, Mercury trines retrograde Saturn which is another day when consequences may be close to the forefront. Pay the piper for your mistakes if you need to. Own up to your part in things. Look at it rather than away from it.

I can see how some of you after reading this would be going: Minx, how is this a break from all of this intense astrology we've been having?

I assure you that it is. Venus is going to retrograde through the second half of the summer - make amends while you can now. This is the easiest most that we will have for a hot minute, so try to enjoy it. Okay?

The Details

6/2 - Venus in Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces 6/3 - Full moon 13° Sagittarius (11:41 EDT so may be 6/4 for some) 6/4 - Mercury conjunct Uranus 20° Taurus 6/5 - Venus enters Leo, Venus in Leo opposed retrograde Pluto in Aquarius 6/7 - Venus in Leo square North Node/South Node 6/9 - Mercury in Taurus sextile Neptune in Pisces 6/10 - Sun in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries 6/11 - Retrograde Pluto enters Capricorn, Mercury in Taurus trine retrograde Pluto in Capricorn, Mercury enters Gemini, Venus in Leo square Jupiter in Taurus 6/15 - Mercury in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces 6/17 - Mercury in Gemini sextile Venus in Leo, Saturn retrograde 07° Pisces 6/18 - New moon 26° Gemini, Sun in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces 6/19 - Venus enters her pre-retrograde shadow 12° Leo, Jupiter in Taurus sextile retrograde Saturn in Pisces 6/21 - Sun enters Cancer, Mercury in Gemini sextile Mars in Leo 6/22 - Sun in Cancer sextile North Node in Taurus, trine South Node in Scorpio, Mars in Leo sextile Chiron in Aries 6/25 - Mercury in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces 6/26 - Mercury enters Cancer, Mars in Leo square Uranus in Taurus 6/27 - Mercury in Cancer sextile North Node in Taurus, trine South Node in Scorpio 6/28 - Sun in Cancer trine retrograde Saturn in Pisces 6/29 - Venus in Leo trine Chiron in Aries 6/30 - Mercury in Cancer trine retrograde Saturn in Pisces, Neptune retrogrades 27° Pisces

If you like my post, you can support me as a writer by Buying Me a Kofi, sharing this post, or using the tip function here on Tumblr. I also have multiple offerings on Kofi of astrology reports written just for you.

[sun-in-retrograde]

Outer Dwarf Planets - Taurus New Moon

This month we have a very very very very Taurus Taurus New Moon. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, the North Node and Jupiter are all in Taurus but rather than speaking about that I wanted to cover the outer planets we ignore. I’m covering:

Eris is the same size as Pluto and honestly it’s a very potent planet whose energies always seem to show up. 

Sedna, Orcus, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Gonggong and Salacia are more subtle in my view, and honestly I use them mostly when they have a close alignment to other planets or to significant natal positions.

Eris has no part in this whole deal - look at your own chart to see if its different for you! Eris is slow so when it has aspects, especially with outer planet bodies or natal positions on your chart they last years and are worth knowing about. Eris energy is fast, agressive, assertive, dangerous, and not really the vobe for Taurus season. With no aspects you may find that energy difficult to access so stay true to your beliefs and don’t let people push you around!

Sedna is trined to Pluto, sextile Mars and conjunct the Sun and Moon. So a lot of energy here! Sedna is usually seen as a planet of trauma, victimhood, and evolution. Conjunct the North Node makes this a powerful time to heal, especially with that transformative Pluto energy coming in. Heck, especially because Pluto is retrograde so old pains may be a little tender and come to the surface for a while.

Sedna is slow it’s making its way out of Taurus. It has one more New Moon to go before its first new moon in Gemini, but then it will immediately retrograde and we’ll be retracing old ground in Taurus for much of the next year. It was in 29 degrees of Taurus July to October 2021, May to December 2022, and will return December 2023 to April 2024. So you may want to play close attention to hurt from this time and understand that this hurt is part of a cycle - Sedna will return to these points again and you can continue to work on releasing pain and healing in future new moons.

Orcus entered Virgo in 2009 and will stay there till 2038. I’ve often seen it described as a little, darker, Pluto. It’s associated with obsession and death. It’s in a close sextile with Venus that for some reason astro.com didn’t pick up on. Venus. Orcus seems well placed to pick up on problems at home or in places you feel emotionally safe. It’s a little voice warning you about red flags and heck, it might not be necessary to act on it right away, but I think it’s always a good idea to *note* this kind of thing

Makemake; Salacia; Quaoar 

Makemake Is in opposition to Salacia and has been active on and off since 2004. The t-square with Quaoar first emerged in 2014. Makemake is often associated with nature, degrowth and loss of resources and Salacia with both the sexual and the hidden. 

The Makemake-Salacia opposition began to be really felt in 2005 under mutable signs as George W Bush began to seriously prepare for a global pandemic and the ideas that formed the response to COVID were coalescing. The Iceland Volcanic eruption of 2010 and the Zombie movie craze seem to have fed into the message of a society preparing to stop. 

Quaoar usually comes into play with revelations and squaring this opposition at new moon might be a chance for us to consider what we lost track of in the pandemics and lock downs that we may want back, and what, we want to get rid of. It may also be a chance to think about the kind of society we want and can afford to have, and consider what we can get rid of to help save the Earth or survive in the difficult post-pandemic economy. These can be difficult questions. Believe in the power of “no”.

Gonggong the planet of outside context problems, hidden knowledge and turning things to a new angle, is conjunct Saturn in Pisces, sextile to Mercury and the North Node in Taurus. This to me seems like a good thing if you want to stay grounded while raising difficult issues. But it has a disadvantage that there’s quite a lot here to slow up progress. 

[catmarlowastrology]

Transit Saturn in the 2nd house: Olivia Rodrigo’s Million Dollar Loss

Olivia Rodrigo had to give credit to a few artists in the summer of 2021 for borrowing inspiration from their work for some of her songs on her album "SOUR." This decision cost her millions of dollars. 

Here’s what was going on in her natal chart at the time.

Mercury and Neptune in the 2nd house

Olivia has a tight conjunction between Mercury and Neptune in the 2nd house. Both of these planets suggest that Olivia may earn a living via her creative ideas. 

In the sign of Aquarius, it denotes someone who is one step ahead of the crowd and has the ability to inspire large communities with their talent. Aquarius is the one with brilliant and unconventional ideas who feed society in order for it to progress. Olivia's album was a strong driver for the revival of the 00s pop-rock sound.

Transit Saturn in the 2nd house

Olivia's loss was caused by Saturn's transit. 

Saturn represents a heavy load that falls on our shoulders, forcing us to mature. We have learnt a valuable lesson and have lost some of our naiveté as a result of a Saturn transit. 

This planet also depicts those with greater authority and experience than ourselves. Saturn, in this scenario, symbolized the older artists who wanted credit on Olivia’s work.

Saturn was retrograde and forming conjunctions with Neptune and Mercury during the summer of 2021. Something significant was about to happen regarding something Olivia owned (2nd house), and it involved a group of people (Aquarius). It would limit her creativity and make her depressed for a few months (Saturn’s conjunction with Mercury-Neptune). Her creative freedom was limited. The retrograde motion of Saturn denotes the unexpected interest of various artists in Olivia's work following the great success of "SOUR." 

In February-March 2023, she will experience another significant transit involving Saturn and her 2nd house: Saturn conjunct Uranus. Her financial problems are not over. Something bigger than her will try to take control of what she own, once again.

More: You can book natal chart readings on my website, www.catmarlow.com!

[snarkywrites]

After the Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn, the planet of communication will finally change signs on February 11th, 2023, and will remain there until March 2nd, 2021. Mercury in Aquarius will inspire many Air and Fire signs, pushing them to get out of their comfort zone, while Earth and Water signs will be prompted to reflect. Collectively, this transit continues the remaining themes of the current Saturn in Aquarius transit. We will look ahead with solid plans and goals, since Mercury and Saturn are in the same sign. It might feel like we could get an impulsive push thanks to Mars, but we will know when to slow down and take things one day at a time.

[bloombrain]

Field Notes on Learning #01: The Creative Process

Kumusta Kaibigan?

This is my blogging era redux, sans the oversharing. However, I'm still an advocate for sharing abundant knowledge. What better way to launch this blog than to freely share information that has touched my life in various ways?

This shortlist is highly inspired by Austin Kleon's newsletter which I religiously study in my free time. Plus, having heavy Gemini placements in my natal chart, particularly with mercury in it, makes writing and sharing ideas, observations, and realizations super healing for me.

There's no particular theme to this list. Just take what you need from this it to help you help yourself. Leave the rest for the others to enjoy.

Word of the Day: Vacillate. Adding new words to my vocabulary regularly is a great exercise to improve the way I express myself whether through speaking or writing. Here's one I learned recently:

2. As a creative, it is important to regularly ask yourself "Who Do You Make Art For?" In this podcast episode (Sep 2021) by Father Bronques of Make Art Not Content, he enumerates three major stages that creatives find themselves in when asking this question. Whatever your answer may be, they're totally valid.

3 Major Stages:

First (1st) Stage: Art for Self-Expression

Second (2nd) Stage: Art for Others

Third (3rd) Stage: Art for Uplifting a Target Audience

The third stage is the completion of this cycle. As creatives, we eventually go back to creating art for ourselves but with a more meaningful purpose and audience in mind. Having this mindset allows us to have a clearer direction in regard to our creative process.

3. An excerpt from the book I'm currently reading entitled "Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection" (2022) by Mimi Zhu:

"Rage is sacred and should be honored when expressed; honoring the rage means understanding it as an emotion, not a call to be violent or hurtful."

4. The other day ago I stumbled upon Yumi Sakugawa's Instagram post on "Inspiration for Creating Structure and Systems for Your Creative Practice". It emphasizes the importance of setting the ideal space, habits, and mindset to cultivate one's creativity with a sense of discipline but not restricting the creativity itself. By having healthy boundaries, we are able to maximize our fullest potential.

5. If you're into adult cartoons, a female lead, and conspiracy theories, I highly recommend watching Inside Job (2021) on Netflix. It's very fun and refreshing to watch, and maybe a tad bit relatable if you're the eldest/only daughter or if you have daddy issues. Just recently, they've released Part 2 so I'm excited to binge on this series!.

6. Today, December 3rd, marks Neptune going direct in Pisces, a major transit in astrology. Neptune, which is a generational planet, rules the sign of Pisces. It represents spirituality and the subconscious realms, particularly our intuition, illusions, and dreams. Finally ending its retrograde, the fogginess we've been experiencing since June will transform into clarity especially when it comes to our relationship with spirituality. This major astrological event allows us to focus this spiritual clarity outwards.

Thank you for reading! Till the next. 🌸🧠

[six-of-ravens]

I posted 5,928 times in 2022

That's 1,177 more posts than 2021!

2,246 posts created (38%)

3,682 posts reblogged (62%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@six-of-ravens

@agardenandlibrary

@vinceaddams

@kagenightray

@thedoctorknits

I tagged 2,986 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#nona the ninth spoilers - 133 posts

#ukraine post - 19 posts

#harrow the ninth spoilers - 16 posts

#gideon the ninth spoilers - 10 posts

#yup - 10 posts

#goncharov - 9 posts

#oh mood - 9 posts

#im screaming - 9 posts

#steph reads tas - 8 posts

#whoops - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#did not intend to play for that long but i foolishly took on a quest to find 12 leeks for evelyn and then i had to play 11 days of the game

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

shit, I thought up something important that I should really do today and then immediately forgot

8 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

#4

whenever something like this happens and I find out there's a retrograde I feel the bizarre sense of relief all our ancestors back to the fucking stone age felt when they discovered they could blame an increase of weirdness on a celestial event. I don't have to keep chewing on every little thing that happened today because IT'S JUST MERCURY! IT'S JUST MERCURY.

10 notes - Posted September 16, 2022

#3

anyone remember the good old days of your friend giving you a burned CD and you importing that CD into itunes so you could listen to it on your ipod and itunes couldn’t grab any data from the CD so all the tracks were called ‘Track 01′ etc and you had to track down all the info yourself and enter it?

anyway i still have a Rankins track called Track 02 from a burned CD my uncle gave us when I was a child and wore tf out in my discman and then imported onto my first ipod in like 2009. apparently i didn’t have a tracklist for it, and this track shall forever be named Track 02 because I can’t possibly change it now.

10 notes - Posted January 26, 2022

#2

okay I'm finally getting into A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, and this book is peak hurt/comfort. levels of hurt/comfort I haven't seen since my fanfiction days.

10 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

some kinda day, lads

13 notes - Posted October 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[imsotiredcanipleasegetabreak]

I posted 20,198 times in 2022

That's 5,331 more posts than 2021!

14 posts created (0%)

20,184 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bubblesthemonsterartist

@raventhekittycat

@audreycritter

@localbookshop

I tagged 644 of my posts in 2022

#prompt - 39 posts

#.... - 7 posts

#..... - 6 posts

#huh - 4 posts

#but like - 4 posts

#idk - 4 posts

#!!! - 4 posts

#<3 - 3 posts

#anyways - 3 posts

#me - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#we're at a stale spot at the moment but i'm hoping to rekindle our love through the introduction of a new friend that also wants to learn

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I’m not saying spite is the greatest motivator but oooohh boy is it mine at the moment 

3 notes - Posted February 28, 2022

#4

Never thought I’d be the one to do one of these things but alas here we are.

So here’s the thing, a friend of mine is in a real tough spot. She only has one more class to complete/pay for and she’ll be done with college. Congrats and all that jazz is great and all but she hasn’t paid for her last class 😬

There was this whole thing with her meds and insurance being wonky. She’s so close though and just needs 50 bucks.

Help if you can, if you can’t pass the post along pretty please with a cherry on top. 12/8/22, deadline is 12/15/222

https://gofund.me/50930d63

4 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

#3

Is mercury in retrograde of something or is me having a terrible no good downright awful week just a me thing?

4 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

#2

*worried and just generally feeling like a mess*

Ughhhaa will nothing end my suffering??!?

*Works out, drinks some water and eats something*

Everything's ok for some reason??

My body: bruh

6 notes - Posted April 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

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Terribly so lol

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[growwithmeastrology]

Friday, May 5th 2023

Sun in Taurus ♉️🌎, Moon in Scorpio ♏️🌊

We have arrived at the end of a karmic cycle point and the beginning of an energetic shift with the full moon in Scorpio and lunar eclipse taking place today. There is no doom and gloom to this energy and anyone who truly analyzes the events in their life for the last year and a half or so will understand the karma they’re clearing. But hey, I guess that’s only if you care. Some will float through this feeling quite happy and others will feel deep emotional pain. Either way, it’s a good day to just take in the heaviness of this energy, whichever way it’s coming at you because it will be felt for a couple of days more.

The background energies today are actually kinda cute with Venus in Gemini sextile Jupiter in Aries which is social and flirtatious energy. Sink your teeth into that energy if you’re lucky enough to be numb to this because at 1:34 PM here in the Atlantic, the Lunar eclipse will take place. The moon will oppose not just the Sun but also Uranus and Mercury in Taurus which scrambles our thought process. Why you ask? Well Uranus is the only planet that naturally spins backwards and signifies chaos and radical change. Mercury, the planet of the mind is at the half way point of its retrograde. Both planets dealing with communication and currently inducing reflection. One at the personal level and the other affecting society as a whole. They’re meeting up with the sun, our vital force energy and all are in a tug and pull with the moon, our emotions.

This is not the moon to manifest or set intentions or charge crystals or even clear energies. These planetary bodies are doing it for you. It’s a day to just be. To reflect, accept and try to understand the things that have either entered or left your life in the last year and a half. This eclipse is part of a set of eclipses along the Taurus/Scorpio axis line which started November 2021. It will set the course for a new path today but will wrap up the themes of this cycle by October 2023.

Today we understand. Tomorrow we improve. By October, we let go. That’s what today’s energies are about. Look around the areas of your life involving intimacy, attachments and/or your personal finances and see if you can find your theme. We’re not all the same and if you’d like some help with understanding the themes of this cycle for you, please reach out. That’s what I’m here for! ☮️💚✨

Learn more about your personal energies and how the daily forecast affects you! Comment below⬇️ or DM me for a FREE consultation.

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