ON A CELL PHONE, THE ADDED FEATURES (PLATFORMS, SHORT STORIES, YEAR AHEAD, ETC.) CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE TOP LEFT HAND CORNER (STACKED LINES). ALSO, THE ‘TRANSLATE’ & WORLD CLOCK WILL APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM.
在手機上，添加的功能（平臺，短篇小說，提前一年等） 可以從左上角訪問（堆疊線）。
*** All times / dates: Please remember that all time references (e.g., “dawn”) are PDT – Pacific DAYLIGHT Time zone. You can refer to the World Clock in the sidebar for more listings or Google ‘time zone converter’.
Email: suningem@gmail.com
Tim’s YouTube links: Unveiling Astrology
Unveiling Astrology Part 2)
START NOTHING (ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC DAYLIGHT) : 6:21 am Sun. to 6:19 pm Mon., 8:04 pm Wed. to 6:46 am Thurs., and 12:51 pm Fri. to 5:43 pm Sat.
PREAMBLE:
There must be a divinity: the world just makes too much sense.
***
This autumn, British Columbia will convert to Mountain Standard Time, permanently.
***
Yep, another short story, below, just before the AFTERAMBLE.
WEEKLY FORECAST:
ARIES: March 21-April 19
You remain in a communicative mood, Aries. This is a great time go catch up on correspondence, those greeting cards you forgot to send, etc. — or just to approach anyone and start a conversation. Your gold-plated real estate luck remains in force — but only for 4 more weeks. You’ll have to act fast to take advantage (unless you already have, since last summer). Family discussions end; everyone just settles into their domestic role w/o further fuss. Money flows to you until late June. Your optimism is starting to grow about investments, family finances, sex, research, health and a lifestyle change. This optimism will last to 2043, and will pull you into “significant” (tho’ perhaps not always honest, ethical) social contacts. Sunday/Monday are intellectual, with profound ideas, foreign influences, travel urges. But both days (after dawn Sunday, PDT) yield few results — better to stuck to routine. Be ambitious Monday suppertime to Thursday dawn (PDT). Your luck is mixed, but positive if you avoid facing a boss/VIP, and avoid deception, unrealistic ideas. Your popularity rises Thursday dawn through Saturday — expect social joys, flirts, entertainment and blue-sky optimism — you’ll be happy! Avoid an argument or accident Friday morning. Saturday’s a bit of a dud.
TAURUS: April 20-May 20
Continue to pursue money and possessions, Taurus. (Until June 20.) Casual sex and “spoon-fed” knowledge (by video, book or lecture) will attract you, to the same date. You are still overwhelmed by paperwork and all that nitty-gritty stuff. But take heart, this should end by July 1. Mars is making you more determined and assertive to June’s end — good, but avoid aggression. You might already sense that your finances, esp. your income, will change for there next 6 to 7 years. (Two influences here: one says money comes from ambition, career — good — and the other says you might not care about income (?!) and might let your focus wander, because freedom’s lure is stronger than money’s.) One good effect: your nerves, a bit raw during the last 7 years, will calm considerably, returning you to Taurus’ usual mellowness. For the next 13 years, see government as a potential partner or benefactor, rather than an oppressor. Sunday/Monday emphasize intimacy, research and finances. Don’t invest, as these two days haven’t the power to grab results. Monday suppertime (PDT) to Thursday dawn brings big ideas, profound thoughts, gentle love, far travel, law, philosophy, media.However, many obstacles caution you to go slow. Be more an observer than an actor. Be ambitious Thursday dawn to Saturday eve. Good progress possible here, if you avoid a Friday morning disagreement.
GEMINI: May 21-June 20
You’re on top, Gemini — at a yearly peak in charisma, energy and outlook. Continue to chase money and possessions until June’s end. If buying stocks, aim for dividend payers. Your luck is good here. Protect yourself from physical assaults — avoid sketchy venues and belligerent individuals until June 28. Foe the next 6 years, you’re going to be very nervous, abrupt, but also much more favoured romantically. Right now, your hopes for the future are conservative, quiet, flowing. Be long-suffering on the home front. Eighteen months of bad luck or family disharmony will end as July ends. Until then, don’t buy real estate. Sunday/Monday are for partnerships, opportunities, public appearances, yet nothing significant nor lasting nor fruitful will “be available.” (So stick to routine, such as cleaning.) Sex, power, finances, investments, secret y, research, medial and lifestyle decisions — these are highlighted Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday. Go a bit slow, especially with commitments, as luck here is not high, and deception or practical realities dog your steps. Thursday dawn to Saturday suppertime brings profound ideas, far travel, higher learning, law, religion, media, and gentle love….all good, but avoid a Friday morning dispute.
CANCER: June 21-July 22
Lie low, Cancer. You’re in a “recuperation cycle” until June 21 — it’s time to contemplate, to examine the past and where you go from here, to seek advice and make plans. You remain unusually lucky, especially in work-related matters, but only for 4 more weeks. July will begin 12 months of great money luck, esp. if you have a career or business. Venus in Cancer will bring friends, admiration, even tho’ you’re in a quiet recuperation phase. (Quiet isn’t the word, as you seem quite chatty now.) Your inner world is changing, bringing (maybe) startling insights, and wisdom about finances — esp. other people’s finances. Tackle chores Sunday/Monday, but stick to routine, as whatever new project is started will not survive. Relationships, opportunities, fresh horizons, opposition — these arise Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday. Proceed cautiously, as reality (Tuesday) and deception or mis-conception (Thursday) can throw you off-track. Mysteries, secrets and valuable information, sexual temptations and financial lures, lifestyle and medical choices — these arise Thursday dawn to Saturday suppertime. A fruitful period, but avoid a Friday morning argument. An “okay” week, but quite jumbled.
LEO: July 23-Aug. 22
You’re still in “happy land,” Leo. You’re popular, and filled with anticipation of better things, with social delights, flirtations, community spirit, entertainment. This week isn’t an easy one, so my advice is to welcome the social, upbeat, and go light on practical or financial initiatives. Your ideas are growing increasingly conservative, but also intuitively accurate. This will last for years. Higher-ups or authorities can be hostile or impatient until June’s end; be diplomatic! Your private life is beginning to grow more active. A secret love affair is possible (tho’ not hugely probable). You have one more month — to June’s end — to impress and/or seek funding or support from, the gov’t, head office, or any institution. When June ends, you’ll start a year of huge personal luck, a romantic or creative year. If single, your life mate can be met anytime now to 2033, most likely through a group. It will be light, friendly, humorous, but a deep bond can grow. Sunday/Monday are romantic, creative, and children will charm you. But don’t start new projects — they won’t survive. Tackle chores Monday suppertime (6:20 pm PDT) to dawn Thursday — but watch for obstacles. Go around them. Thursday to Saturday suppertime brings exciting meetings, fresh horizons, new opportunities. Friday’s best, but avoid a dispute or accident this morning.
VIRGO: Aug. 23-Sept. 22
The accent remains on ambition, career, prestige relations and worldly standing, Virgo. This week contains jumbled luck, but ambition works with both obstacles and open doors, so push ahead. A new vibrancy has entered your ambition sector, for 7 years. This makes things more “nervous,” but also opens doors to new employment. Strictly avoid lawsuits through June. Your social life looks fine — others are talkative and affectionate. In fact, groups, socializing, is the source of strong good luck, has been since last summer, and will be until June’s end. If you haven’t yet, join one — can benefit you for years to come. Your partnership planet has moved into a sector of depth and secrets — this demands honesty and moral uprightness, for over a decade ahead. Sunday/Monday emphasize your home, family and security, but not much significant happens, and new steps here could go nowhere. Just relax, do routine. Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday brings a creative surge, risk-taking, pleasure romance, sports, games, charming kids — but not totally fortunately. Pay attention to practical realities Tuesday, and guard against deception Wed. Tackle chores Thursday morning to suppertime Saturday. Eat, dress sensibly. Some nice opportunities exist, but avoid an argument, AND an investment, Friday morning, PDT.
LIBRA: Sept. 23-Oct. 22
June will be very enjoyable for you, Libra. Your intellect, higher learning, profound ideas, far travel, law, media and philosophy dance around you like options (which they are). New ideas will blossom this month, and for 7 years ahead. Love can blossom, prosper, during these 7 years, esp. with an Aquarian, Gemini or Aries. (Aries is the toughest of these, acting both skeptical and evasive.) This love prospect/vista actually is a new trend (since last summer) to last until 2033. Your career is still greatly favoured — but only to June’s end. So if you’re angling for a promotion, act soon! (Many wishes will come true this July to July’27 — including, if you’re single, the wish for love.) Sunday/Monday feature errands, trips, paperwork and communications. Good and okay, but realize new ideas/projects will die on the vine — stick to routine action. Midweek, Monday suppertime to dawn Thursday (PDT) nudges you toward home, family, security. (If single, you will seek a partner to supply these.) Some good stuff here, but take care — Tuesday, practical restrictions could “halt” you; Wed., deception or fantasizing can lead you in the wrong direction. Both will impact family, and love. An opportunity, suddenly, Wednesday night. Romance, creativity, risk taking, pleasure, beauty, games — these enter Thursday dawn to suppertime Sat. However, one met before Friday morning will not lead to partnership. Friday pm’s a different story!
SCORPIO: Oct. 23-Nov. 21
Hey, Scorpio. How are you? The 3 weeks ahead emphasize secrets, mysteries, and investigation; finances and investment; sexual, power temptations, and medical or lifestyle decisions. This whole arena will be very lively until 2033 — with some far-out ideas, unpredictable people/events — but will reward investments (of $ or effort) in home, real estate and/or in computers, electronics. This week is no picnic, with as many bad aspects as good ones. So proceed cautiously. Your legal, international, educational and travel interests remain super-lucky until late June — if you haven’t already bought or grabbed or followed these interests (e.g., far travel) then you only have a month before this particular set of blessings ends, not to recur for 12 years. Work is weird — interesting, communicative, creative — and sometimes puzzling. Sunday/Monday flows easily, especially in money areas. Trouble is, nothing significant happens or grows. Stick to routine. Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday brings errands, paperwork, communications and casual acquaintances. Step lightly here, as both communications snags and deceptive “impressions” can lead you astray. Thursday dawn to Saturday suppertime leads you, at least in your heart, toward home, family. All’s well here, but avoid a work or machine related argument Fri. Morning. These, home/family and security, will grow increasingly important for almost 2 decades ahead.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22-Dec. 21
You’re one week into a four-week phase, Sage, a phase of relationships, exciting meetings, fresh horizons, opportunities (and opposition, so be diplomatic) and possible public appearances. The intimate and/or financial side of relationships can be very lucky, very lucrative, into July — you might need to keep a secret. Relations in general (to 2033) will be much more lively, vivacious, unpredictable, madcap than in the past. Romance in some form will exist for the next 13 years. Your energy and charisma are high, peaking, Sunday/Monday — yet without “new” results, so stick to routine chores, actions. Chase $, buy/sell, hug a sometime lover or read to learn, Monday suppertime (PDT) to Thursday dawn. Avoid big commitments, as your practical and perceptive faculties are somehow askew. Thursday morning to suppertime Saturday brings happy friends, calls and texts, reports and paperwork, errands. A good, productive interval, but avoid friction or an unintended insult Friday morning. Saturday eve says, “retreat, find some private comforts.”
CAPRICORN: Dec. 22-Jan. 20
More work, more chores, Cap. Protect your daily health, dress and eat sensibly. Relationships are affectionate, and will become very conversational. Your romantic courage is high, esp. if a Taurus is involved. But you seem a bit more bent on possessing than loving. Your relationship luck is very high — but only to June 30. If single and looking, look harder! Airports and other transportation hubs, courts and law offices, media/publishing concerns, universities, colleges and churches are good places to look. Your work will change over the next 7 years — this change will increase your income. Being social will also increase earnings. Deep but gradual changes in your home life. Rest, lie low and contemplate Sunday/Monday. You’re tired and nothing of importance will occur. (Both days are duds, empty of results.) Your energy and charisma surge upward Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday. Get out, see and be seen, give a push to long-standing projects/situations, but don’t start brand new projects now, as aspects are poor, and a period of confusion lies ahead (late June). You might be confused or disappointed by someone’s reaction, but Wednesday evening a true opportunity/potential relationship is available! Pursue money, buy/sell, pay bills, hug a sometime lover, and/or dig into learning something, Thursday dawn through Saturday — a productive interval, but avoid a dispute, “sudden” driving, or a lover’s spat Friday morn.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 21-Feb. 18
Ah, sweet romance! The weeks ahead feature love, creativity, charming children, arts, adventure, sports/games, and a winning streak, Aquarius. Lucky you — and this romantic/creative month leads to 7 years of the same. At least twice every one of those seven years, you will have a chance for love. (Usually June and October, but August possible, too.) Right now, your work load is large, but/and co-workers are pleasant, helpful. Be gentle at home, as friction can arise there all June. (Careful with fires there, too.) Before August, earning money yields better results than investing. Sunday/Monday are “empty” in practical areas, except for routine — e.g., washing the dishes. But both days are “full” in social, friendly and happy optimism terms. So simply have fun! But retreat Monday suppertime (about 6 pm PDT) to dawn Thursday. Rest, nap, contemplate, examine your past and plan your future. But don’t seek advice nor start an interaction with the gov’t or “head office” — the response would either depress you or deceive you. Thursday morning to Saturday suppertime, your energy, charisma and clout soar upward. Start things that you can complete before June ends, as a period of confusion and delay starts June 29. Avoid an argument Friday morning (PDT).
PISCES: Feb. 19-March 20
The general accent lies on home, family, security, food, and mother nature for the next three weeks, Pisces. In a subtle way, your home/family and your income/possessions, seem to be fortunately tied for the decade ahead. Until June’s end, you will be driven to travel and talk — mostly about money but also, if you’re female, about love. Until June’s end also, your romantic and creative luck is huge — be brave, try something. Sunday/Monday yield almost no results, but you’ll feel ambitious. My advice: stick to routine. The best thing you can do for your career these 2 days, is just do the job. Monday suppertime (PDT) to dawn Thursday brings happiness — popularity, social joys, flirting, optimism, entertainment. But — maybe depressing news about $, or a refusal to co-operate, to join, from another. However, Wednesday night opens a door to love’s luck — step through! Retreat Thursday dawn to suppertime Sat. Contemplate, rest, seek advice, make plans. But avoid a dispute Friday morning (PDT). Saturday night, your energy returns for a significant weekend.
THE END.
(PS: the AFTERAMBLE continues after the story below.)
TODD’S STORY
By Tim
Despite his comfortable retirement at 58 and his contentment
with his three-year marriage, Todd had felt clearly, several times in
the last few months, a large, not painful, not fearsome, but
bothersome emptiness. It sloshed inside him like a light, floating
liquid, so that in unexpected moments, while he was rounding a
mental corner, it would slosh up and surprise him with its touch of
emptiness. He’d made enough money. He was comfortable. But
now profit and interest rates and hunting for cheap supplies,
fiddling with his calculator in a restaurant — it all bored him.
Sometimes it felt like his life was lazily sliding over warm ice. Not
in any danger, but without traction.
He sat, ankle on knee, on a black iron-slatted bench in the
sunshine, on a downtown street in Cobourg, Ontario, an obvious
tourist in his duck shorts, while Margaret went poking about in the
local stores, hunting for souvenirs for the kids – his three and her
two, all grown except for his 17-year old Nancy, the bouncy baby
of the family, who mildly resented her step-mother.
He might easily live to 88 – 30 years away. Too long, if the
emptiness continued. He was even bored by his favourite hobby –
looking at real estate.
“Hi!” he said, rising, standing ready — it was half a welcome,
half a call to capture her attention as his wife approached.
“Hi. Look. I want to go to that dress store. Here’s a realty
thing.” She handed him a local real estate home buyer’s sheet.
“Can you give me another fifteen minutes?” She waited
impatiently for his answer. Lately she often showed a mild, hidden
impatience toward him. He assumed it was related to his fairly
recent, quiet passivity.
“Sure.”
The next day he drove Maureen to catch the GO train to
Toronto to visit her sister, then decided to visit a place in the
“realty thing.” Fifty acres at a bargain price, but strange directions.
He drove a half hour north of Cobourg to, as the directions stated,
a dead end road. Walk past the railway tracks. He didn’t see the
tracks, and the road wasn’t a dead-end, but continued, not paved,
water gullies running like rough emptied veins down its gravel
middle. It was broad, obviously drive-able. There was a “No Exit”
sign and a yellow government sign stating that this was a “non-
maintained” road. He didn’t want to be stuck in some back trail,
unable to turn the vehicle around, and the embarrassment of
reporting to the rental agency that he was a schmuck. So despite
the drivable appearance of the passageway, he parked the car off
the roadway, and proceeded on foot.
After the road climbed a hill under the arching green leaves, it
levelled out and large flat, abandoned agricultural fields lay on
either side. Knee-high grass and weeds grew in sudden, isolated
clumps, and here and there green bushes had grown up, like oases
in the dry rust-red fields, green mirages promising something
sweet and aromatic in the desert of sandy dirt. There’d been a
recent rain; the soil, compacted by the falling drops, baked softly
in the September sun.
The road was long, wide and very open for an un-maintained
passage. It surprised him, cast a spooky whisper over his journey.
As he walked, two vehicles approached from the distance before
him. He waved as they passed, the country wave, a hand held
peaceably up, open-palmed, but neither driver nor the passenger, a
young, big, grim woman, waved back from the first white car. A
black SUV with tinted windows followed. He trudged along,
considering whether to turn back. But a native stubbornness kept
him going.
A half hour later the road entered between two bosomy swells
of green, nodding trees, and soon forked. On Todd’s right, fifty feet
before him, a wide steel-and-wire gate, solidly locked and flanked
by a wire fence, blocked his way. No realty sign. Just a “KEEP
OUT.” He was half tempted to hop it anyway; it promised much
more than the poor second way to his left. But remembering the
grim people who’d driven past him, he decided not to push.
The other, left-hand way, dwindled into a much more modest
clay track, the width of a car, that ran at first through a grassy
clearing. It was a small, lush, sunlit clearing, and the bordering
trees were warm and shining in the sun, so he turned quietly and
wandered into that road, watching the trees. Twelve feet up one
tree were the remains of a weathered sign, obviously high up
because vandals had trashed the earlier, bigger signs that now lay
scattered, rain-curled, rotted and sun-faded in the grassy verge. The
small realty sign high up the tree announced: For #ale – #0 acr## –
Mat# Besoig##e 905-#43- #2#3.
Todd contemplated whether to go further, or to back away
from this place, which scared him slightly. To give himself time, he
stood and tried to absorb the goodness of things, the lush meadow,
the bright, shiny grass, the fertile earth, growing, blossoming – but
it didn’t get rid of the spooky feeling he had.
His mind jumped to an internet movie he’d watched some
weeks ago, a crude documentary that insisted Christianity was
merely disguised sun worship, and Jesus was a myth, based on the
progress of the Sun (“son” exchanged for “sun”) the 12 disciples,
the 12 astrological constellations, Jesus’ birth – born at winter
solstice, just as the Sun was reborn, and that Jesus was simply
another in a long succession of prior Sun-man-gods, Mithra,
Horus, Orpheus – all born of virgins, all born around Dec.21, all
with 12 disciples…
Intellectually he agreed with the proposition, but his Catholic
heart missed being encompassed by the boundaries, the arms, of a
nurturing, protecting invisible thing, by the promise that if he were
good, all would be well, forever…
I am good, he thought.
Not really heartened, he ventured further, diffidently,
wondering where the 50 acres lay. Soon the road thinned to a
deeply rutted 4×4 path, the clay now dry and hard as stone. The
ruts were so deep and narrow that he had to walk on top of the hard
peaks, in some spots a foot above the ruts. The thin-limbed trees
wrestled with each other to embrace the road, so closely that he
several times stopped himself from falling into the ruts by grasping
their branches. The peaks and furrows constantly interchanged, so
he had to half-jump from peak to peak. He tried walking in the
narrow furrows, but gave up after scraping his ankles painfully on
their hard, unforgiving sides – he grew afraid, too, that his foot
might lock in a furrow and, losing his balance, he might snap or
twist an ankle. So he stumbled awkwardly along the bruising road.
The trees closed in even more, their weak, leaf-swathed arms
brushing his face or bare arms with a tentative grasp. It was cool
here, gnats swirled lazily in the dank shade. The sunlight, though
he saw it above, didn’t lie in the path. Something made a sound in
the brush, and he jumped.
With an irrational sliver of panic, he ducked into a hollowed
side path from the rutted trail. He pushed through a screen of
bushes, fifty meters, then emerged in a vast, hot bowl dotted with
scrub bushes. It was so large the far tree line was greyed with
distance, even in the sunshine. In the bare bowl, maybe a kilometre
long and wide, paths ran everywhere, twisting, up and down small
ridges and hollows. He walked down one. He began to fear getting
lost, there were so many hard-packed trails baking in the sun, too
many to remember his turns and twists. So at each fork he took the
right hand one, assuming this would eventually bring him back to
where he was. He heard nothing, no machines, no dirt bikes —
this looked like the perfect place for BMX trials. They must be
biker trails, but the paths were such hard clay – and in some dips
so sandy – that no tracks showed. What else could these odd
chaotic paths be? He began to feel not silly, but ridiculous. He
feared being discovered alone by a wild troop of bikers or men or
young men. It was his aloneness, and his obvious lack of reason for
being here, his obvious lack of purpose, that would make him odd,
ridiculous, and he knew how gangs of men, especially young men,
sometimes felt a need to exterminate or thump the ridiculous, to
eradicate absurdity. A childhood in Vancouver’s east side had
taught him that. So absurdly, he strode on, almost brave now.
He tried to walk, but instead lurched, down one small roller
coaster path, then right, then right again (then, forgetting his “right
hand plan,” left) and at last, with a rising heart, a slight, light lift,
he gave up trying to note which way he’d come….
He stopped short and jerked upright in the twilight, heart
pounding: there, at the base of a bush, were feet, and bright blue
sky. A bolt of panic lit through him, then he realized it was a mirror
someone had propped against a bush: it was his own feet and legs.
He knelt and peered at the mirror, his face, oily, sweaty, his eyes
overly serious, startled, staring back to pierce him: all fierce and
scared. He stood quickly, afraid someone might be near, at his
back. He surveyed the land around, though he was in one of the
thousand small hollows, and couldn’t see much. The fierceness in
his face bothered him. Twilight was approaching. He had to go
home.
Then he stopped short. Without sound or warning, to one side
of the trail, a man squatted. Everything about him was dirty and
torn; he wore two different shoes. The man watched him.
Suspiciously, or with assured violence? Todd couldn’t tell. His
unkempt beard was grizzled grey. He held a large sack tightly by
its closed throat.
“You startled me,” Todd said. Though, strangely, he didn’t feel
startled at all. In fact, another human being was welcome.
“The mirrors tell me when someone’s coming,” the man said
in a voice that was slightly off kilter, his tongue hanging on an
eccentric hinge. “It reflects up there.” His eyes looked up at the
sky. “And when it’s gone, the light’s gone, someone’s here. Right
here. You.”
“I see,” Todd said politely. “…What’s in the sack?”
“Everything I need, nothing you need. No sir.”
“You live around here?” Todd asked.
“Only until someone comes home!” He shouted this, almost
gaily.
“Do you know the way out?”
“Yes, and no.” The madman closed his lips solidly around
that.
There was a silence. A breeze flew over and through Todd.
The atmosphere changed. Todd, still spooked by the intense,
serious face — his own — that had confronted him in the shard of
mirror, as if to ward it off, blurted out suddenly, “I’m going
home,” clearly and loudly, enunciating each word, as if the
madman could not hear. Then the breeze vanished. The air was still
and clear again. Todd felt ashamed, vulnerable and open.
“Got to go,” he mumbled, and stumbled away from the mad
man – not in fear, because he heard nothing following.
“What was that,” he thought, nervously trying to logically
place the madman in this desert of clay and sand. Why was he
here? But Todd’s hopes of getting quickly home reared up in
disappointed surprise as he saw, lurching down a hard-packed clay
hill, that mirrors now were everywhere, large shards and small
ones, well-preserved squares and circles and jagged pieces, all
strung haphazardly from bush branches by string, or crooked in the
forks of twigs and branches. There must have been thirty or fifty.
The sky reflected crazily in most of them; some were bright, some
were dark, reflecting nothing. At one point, surprised by an
unexpected reflecting shard, he drew physically into himself, drew
his shoulders in, his arms tight to his chest, legs squeezed together,
scrotum pulled in, and half-turned, almost like a small pirouette; he
shuddered, one huge shiver. He looked at the horizon, where now
the tops of trees showed, golden in the late afternoon. He had
somehow advanced to the middle of the huge clay field, so trees
surrounded him, all a kilometre or so distant.
“This will end soon,” he thought with determination. He took
one step forward, toward the distant tree line, then stopped, turned,
and headed back in – hopefully – the general direction he’d come –
veering to the left, though, to skirt around the place where he’d met
the madman. Generally, he hoped and guessed, he stumbled along
in the direction where he’d find the road – and everything familiar.
He clomped along. His legs were tired but his motivation was
strong, making his steps large and clumsy.
The way back almost accomplished itself, as if his instincts
had known where to go all the time. Suddenly, there was the line of
thin, vine-like trees that were surely a border to the rutted road.
Hot, itching, he wrestled thin branches to — there’s the road!
An hour later, back in the little red rented Yaris, he for a few
seconds sought, but couldn’t find, a sense of security. He might
never tell anyone what he saw that day. Adjusting the rear-view
mirror before he pulled into the road, he caught a glimpse of
himself. His expression was so fierce it surprised him. But now,
rather than worry about it, he quickly drove back to Cobourg. He
could never own such a piece of land, cheap as it might be.
His memory of his afternoon was simple: terror.
A day later, he joined his wife in Toronto and they flew home.
That evening, he sat in a booth at the White Spot Restaurant with
Maureen and his son Tony and his son’s wife. He hardly knew his
son’s wife. She was always quiet, but he could see intelligence in
her eyes. His son was intelligent too, he knew, but he masked it,
kept his voice guarded and his eyes wary. The four of them chatted
without purpose.
He first saw her bend down, two booths away and across the
aisle, all six feet of her folding at the knees with a strange,
fascinating poise, as she extended a graceful arm under the booth
to pick up something spilled. There was nothing remarkable about
her appearance, yet an invisible magic crept and moved about her,
a magic maybe only he could see (for no crowds gathered around
her – in fact, later, he half wondered if she had just appeared that
instant : part of him (he could not admit it) thought she might be a
goddess. She seemed suspended between every extreme, neither
beautiful nor ugly, fat nor thin. A healthy head of black hair,
movements slow and poised, a black skirt and white blouse – she
was nineteen or twenty. He turned back to his family, feeling both
satisfied and intrigued. The notion of fascination – letting himself
be fascinated – was impractical and inappropriate, so he dismissed
it.
But several minutes later she was at the table, laying their
cutlery, and he felt she’d come because she’d caught him watching
her. Her body, her stance and smile sent him into a kind of
paradise, and he liked it, immensely. She laid his setting last. The
cloth napkin wouldn’t lay flat; it had half opened. She opened,
folded and laid it again, without hurry, and flattened it with a
careful, sensual caress. Her whole hand slowly pressed the napkin.
Glancing upward at this gesture, he saw her looking with soft
directness at him. Her eyes stroked him with quiet, intimate
assurance. He averted his eyes swiftly, to stare down again at that
strangely pleasing hand as it withdrew. It seemed to signal untold
pleasures. He could tell that hand had never had children, it was
too calm and certain – mothers’ hands were tentative, hovering,
compassionate, alert with nervous care.
He was grateful, felt the experience was worth – everything.
He had been touched by a goddess. He knew immediately that
everything in life, everything, only equaled one moment of that
invisible touch. He also surmised, immediately, that this alluring
hand knew cock, it caressed that napkin to tell him just that. He
could see its graceful length stroking, hypnotizing. He looked up
again, but this time at the table of his family, masking his guilt. He
feared his momentary obsession had become obvious to everyone
at the table. He ignored her when she brought the dinner.
He ignored her because if she had said, “Arise and come with
me,” he would have. He would have dismissed his children’s
shame, his wife’s hurt, the human wreckage. Even as he watched
his son and Maureen talk, as he refused to look around the
restaurant for the goddess, he felt steeped in the elixir she’d poured
upon him. But he could say nothing, and he did nothing, except to
now look at his son and try to summon ordinary words, a bit of
ordinary conversation, to disguise his secret adventure. He felt her
absence, her gone-awayness, and he knew he would never see her
again. He had not proved worthy.
But he failed to find anything ordinary to say fast enough, and
his son stared blankly at him with opaque eyes (he felt the loss, a
quick, dull, invisible sword) and Maureen said to his son, “Do you
want wine, Tony?”
Regretting his earlier flight from her sweet influence, his eyes
covertly searched the restaurant for her as they exited. But she
seemed to have vanished as completely as she’d appeared.
“Why was I touched?” he wondered on the drive home. He
could see the goddess sitting in her bedroom, back straight, at her
vanity mirror, contemplating her beautiful self. “Does it have any
meaning? Was it a signal? Am I meant to change my whole life?
Am I meant to chase her? Nineteen or twenty-two maybe?”
That night, at home, Maureen couldn’t get a jar open. She
dropped a knife. She exploded, began screaming at him.
“What’s the matter with you?” he said.
“I hate you! Pedophile! Pervert! I hate you!” Her words sang
with anger and hurt. He didn’t understand. Of course, she must
have noticed something. But he’d been faithful. He hadn’t chosen.
Hadn’t abandoned her. He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand
in the bigger way, either, anything. He went into his office, shut
the door and sat at his desk with his hands over his ears, because
her voice hurt his brains. He didn’t understand. He seethed with
delicious dissatisfaction.
The End.
(The Regular) AFTERAMBLE:
Saw this on a “young Sheldon” re-run last week: Sheldon said, trying to cheer his mother up, to support her dying faith in God: (I paraphrase) The amount of gravity in the universe is exactly the amount to keep the universe functioning. If there was one millionth more gravity, or gravity was one tiny, tiny, tiny bit stronger, the universe would collapse on itself, and not exist. If there was one millionth less gravity, everything would just float around without any order, like toys in a bathtub. There would be no planets. (*)
So how was this precision attained, or set?
(*) the “less gravity” result here is my suggestion.
***
We all have wings, but few choose to fly.
***
Ukraine’s fate in the present war depends on their ingenuity, which is high. Russia’s fate in the war is/will be deeply dependent on the USA’s actions. In one sense, this would seem both blunt and obvious: if the US supplied Ukraine with limitless aid, Russia could not help but lose the war or use nukes, which I don’t think they would. But it may be in a different way that the USA is involved in the war. It might act as a peace broker, or in someway support Russia economically, in return for the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. When this war first came out, I wrote here that it would be endless in time. Well, I think it’s year four now, in a war that looked like Russia could just roll in and win in a month or two. Of course war can’t last forever, but it can last a long time — it all depends on Putin‘s stomach.
***
Sometimes, you just can’t depend on astrology. The lore says that Presidents elected when Jupiter is conjunct Saturn, are assassinated. That has proven true with five presidents: Lincoln and Kennedy, Garfield and McKinley, and Ronald Reagan, were all elected under a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Reagan was assassinated/shot, but didn’t die.
These two planets conjoin approx. every 20 years, so not every conjunction-election leads to death by an ass.
Biden was elected president the year Jupiter and Saturn were conjunct, but he was not assassinated – I think a couple of people tried. Perhaps, in his case, the death threat came in a different form — death of awareness.
In 2024, when Trump regained his presidential throne, there was no conjunction. And yet there have been four (five?) assassination attempts on him before his term is even half over. There is a strange echo in this of the 2020 election. Imagine that Trump really did win that election, as he claims, but the assassination girl, the death demon, was brought up short, with a jerk: she couldn’t complete her mission, as Trump was not president, even though he probably won the actual election. .
When Trump lost the election, I wrote here that he shouldn’t feel so bad as he had dodged the assassination bullet.
But if there really is a fate playing around out there with assassinations, you know that girl with little horns, the assassination demon, maybe her first energy and thrust ran into the wall when Biden, by stealing the election, actually might have saved Trump’s life.
Then there was a four year layoff. And when Trump was re-elected, this little Jupiter/Saturn demon was not around to help. The last conjunction was four years prior, and the next would be about 15 years later. So all the little goddess of assassinations can muster are these hapless, enervated attempts, which seem to get weaker in succession. (But does karma/fate have an energy?)
***
Trump demands and receives great loyalty; but anyone who commands great loyalty is also going to create great enemies. (E.g., see next item.)
***
I told you that John THUNE, Republican leader of the Senate, would undermine Trump. He’s one of those lunar south node enemies.
Now he has not only refused to let anyone vote on the America First Bill, a legislation that would require people to have some ID to vote. In addition, he has now closed the Senate and sent everyone home for a vacation so that they cannot vote on Trump‘s spending bill, which he wanted passed by June 1st. But Thune closed the Senate, sending everyone on vacation until after June 1, effectively killing the Bill. I suspect Thune is a believer in the Process, and hates Trump because he cuts through it. But he is a betrayer.
***
Why all this fuss and bother about the indigenous peoples and the proposed pipeline from Alberta to Northern BC.?
Why not just build a pipeline right beside the existing one that goes to Ioco BC? The right-of-way is already established, permission is already obtained from the indigenous tribes, and even better, the land has already been cleared. And surveyors don’t have to spend a year or two mapping out a new route.
So why all the fuss about nothing?
***
Do you wonder why New York is having such troubles and losing businesses and business people, while Texas is booming in the same areas? In one way it’s quite simple: New York is a Virgo name (N= Virgo) and Texas is a Pisces name (T=Pisces). For the past year plus, and lasting through July, the moon’s south note, representing karmic payback and other disappointments, was and is in Virgo. The north note, representing wise decisions, and a fairly mellow path, is in Pisces (i.e. Texas).
***
From faith comes grace; from hope comes coincidence.
***
I have a lot of respect for the left. Basically. It seems their idea is that all humans should be free, no matter their social status, economic status, background or actions. So even someone who has murdered his own family deserves, ultimately, to be free. All the seemingly unhinged and mad judges (remember the judge who helped an illegal criminal escape?) flowed from this idea. I basically agree with this general idea of an innate right to be oneself, even if one’s self is a pedophile, murderer, etc. BUT it needs to be coupled with the idea that a person‘s life is their own punishment – or reward. The spiritual and emotional laws are still in effect. (Of course they have to forgive pedophiles, because Biden was one. They have to forgive theft, because the majority of their party are crooks who use Congress to enrich themselves.)
I don’t know about their tactics. They’re extreme because the left is very worried. They have chosen the path that does not agree with the majority of Americans. They know that now. Still, I think they have chosen ideals over practicality and the race to went over the American voter. Most ideals belong in salons, not in contests. When ideals become political, they are in grave danger of corruption.
***
I told you in the May 17 blog, published May 14, that because Elon Musk initiated
The lawsuit involving Sam Altman, he would lose. On Monday, May 18, he lost.
***
The Covid pandemic hit when Jupiter was conjunct Pluto. (Jupiter means make bigger and Pluto means death.) that was in 2020? The next pandemic will occur in 2032. But in between there could be minor , more localized “ demics.”. One of these should have occurred around 2023/24, and again around 2026/2027 (Ebola outbreak + another) and in future at 2030. But these are localized, as though Pluto has decided to fight Jupiter‘s tendency to expand, so only the 2026/27 minor pandemic will really expand any death in a marked way. 2030 will be mild.
***
Reports say that criminals are using AI to defraud people. No kidding? I actually find it a little reassuring that criminals can so quickly and easily adopt modern technology. They obviously don’t fear, AI, like some people, but instead have an attitude of adventurism, creativity and exploitation of the new environment. I applaud them in a sense – what they’re doing is much better than cowering behind the couch worrying that some day AI is going to attack.
***
A reader, L, keeps urging me to add more birthdates to the north and south lunar nodes article I did some months (a year?) ago. I already did this for people born up to January 2025. So here’s some more, and it’s the LAST time I’ll do this.
So here is the past item, with future birthdates at the end(s):
IF YOU WERE BORN IN THE FOLLOWING INTERVALS, YOUR “ENEMIES” (MOSTLY, BAD ADVISORS) WILL TEND TO HAVE FIRST NAMES BEGINNING WITH THE LETTERS SHOWN BESIDE YOUR BIRTH INTERVAL BELOW:
FIRST, THE BAD ONES: (and below this, the good ones)
IF YOU WERE BORN:
June 25/33 to March 8/35 ~ F, W
March 9/35 to Sept. 14/36 ~ M, O
Sept. 15/36 to March 3/38 ~ E, X (and sibilant C)
March 4/38 to Sept. 11/39 ~ B, I
Sept. 12/39 to May 25/41 ~ A, R
May 26/41 to Nov. 21/42 ~ T, Z
Nov. 22/42 to May 11/44 ~ D, V
May 12/44 to Dec. 2/45 ~ H, S, Y
Dec. 3/45 to Aug. 2/47 ~ J, U
Aug. 3/47 to Jan. 25/49 ~ K, Q
Jan. 26/49 to July 26/50 ~ L, P
July 27/50 to March 28/52 ~ G, N
March 29/52 to Oct. 9/53 ~ F, W
Oct. 10/53 to Apr. 6/55 ~ M, O
Apr. 7/55 to Oct. 4/56 ~ E, X (and sibilant C)
Oct. 5/56 to June 16/58 ~ B, I
June 17/58 to Dec, 15/59 ~ A, R
Dec. 16/59 to June 10/61 ~ T, Z
June 11/61 to Dec. 23/62 ~ D, V
Dec. 24/62 to Aug. 25/64 ~ S, H, Y
Aug. 26/64 to Feb. 19/66 ~ J, U
Feb. 20/66 to Aug. 19/67 ~ K, Q (and hard C)
Aug. 20/67 to Apr. 19/69 ~ L, P
Apr. 20/69 to Nov. 2/70 ~ G, N
Nov. 3/70 to Apr. 27/72 ~ F, W
Apr. 28/72 to Oct. 27/73 ~ M, O
Oct. 28/73 to July 10/75 ~ E, X (and sibilant C)
July 11/75 to Jan. 7/77 ~ B, I
Jan. 8/77 to July 5/78 ~ A, R
July 6/78 to Jan. 5/80 ~ T, Z
Jan. 6/80 to Sept. 24/81 ~ D, V
Sept. 25/81 to March 16/83 H, S, Y
March 17/83 to Sept. 11/84 ~ J, U
Sept. 12/84 to April 6/86 ~ K, Q (and “hard” C)
April 7/86 to Dec. 2/87 ~ L, P
Dec. 3/87 to May 22/89 ~ G, N
May 23/89 to Nov.18/90 ~ F, W
Nov. 19/90 to Aug. 1/92 ~ M, O
Aug. 2/92 to Feb. 1/94 ~ E, X (and sibilant C)
Feb. 2/94 to July 31/95 ~ B, I
Aug. 1/95 to Jan. 25/97 ~ A, R
Jan. 26/97 to Oct. 20/98 ~ T, Z
Oct. 21/98 to April 9/2000 ~ D, V
April 10/2000 to Oct.13/01 ~ H, S, Y
Oct. 14/01 to April 13/03 ~ J, U
April 14/03 to Dec. 26/04 ~ K, Q (and hard C)
Dec. 27/04 to June 22/06 ~ L, P
June 23/06 to Dec. 18/07 ~ G, N
Dec. 19/07 to Aug. 21/09 — F, W
Aug. 22/09 to Mar. 3/11 — M, O
Mar. 4/11 to Aug. 30/12 — E, X, and sibilant C
Aug. 31/12 to Feb. 18/14 — B, I
Feb. 19/14 to Nov. 12/15 — A, R
Nov. 13/15 to May 9/17 — T, Z
May 10/17 to Nov. 6/18 — D, V
Nov. 7/18 to May 5/20 — S, H, Y
May 6/20 to Jan. 18/22 — J, U
Jan. 19/22 to Jul 17/23 — K, Q and “hard” C
Jul. 18/23 to Jan. 11/25 — P, L
Jan. 12/25 to July 28/26 — G, N
July 29/26 to March 27/28 — F, W
March 28/28 to Sept. 23/29 — M, O
Sept. 23/30 to March 21/31 — E, X and Sibilant C
IF YOU WERE BORN IN THE FOLLOWING INTERVALS, YOUR “ALLIES” (MOSTLY, GOOD ADVISORS) WILL TEND TO HAVE FIRST NAMES BEGINNING WITH THE LETTERS SHOWN BESIDE YOUR BIRTH INTERVAL BELOW:
These first letters treat you WELL and give you good advice:
IF YOU WERE BORN:
June 25/33 to March 8/35 – D, V
March 9/35 to Sept. 14/36 – H, S, Y
Sept. 15/36 to March 3/38 – J, U
March 4/38 to Sept. 11/39 – K, Q (and hard C)
Sept. 12/39 to May 25/41 – L, P
May 26/41 to Nov. 21/42 – G, N
Nov. 22/42 to May 11/44 – F, W
May 12/44 to Dec. 2/45 – M, O
Dec. 3/45 to Aug. 2/47 – E, X (and sibilant C)
Aug. 3/47 to Jan. 25/49 ~ B, I
Jan. 26/49 to July 26/50 ~ A, R
July 27/50 to March 28/52 ~ T, Z
March 29/52 to Oct. 9/53 ~ D, V
Oct. 10/53 to Apr. 6/55 ~ S, H, Y
Apr. 7/55 to Oct. 4/56 ~ J, U
Oct. 5/56 to June 16/58 ~ K, Q (and hard C)
June 17/58 to Dec, 15/59 ~ L, P
Dec. 16/59 to June 10/61 ~ G, N
June 11/61 to Dec. 23/62 ~ F, W
Dec. 24/62 to Aug. 25/64 ~ M, O
Aug. 26/64 to Feb. 19/66 ~ E, X (and sibilant C)
Feb. 20/66 to Aug. 19/67 ~ B, I
Aug. 20/67 to Apr. 19/69 ~ A, R
Apr. 20/69 to Nov. 2/70 ~ T, Z
Nov. 3/70 to Apr. 27/72 ~ D, V
Apr. 28/72 to Oct. 27/73 ~ S, H, Y
Oct. 28/73 to July 10/75 ~ J, U
July 11/75 to Jan. 7/77 ~ K, Q (and hard C)
Jan. 8/77 to July 5/78 ~ L, P
July 6/78 to Jan. 5/80 – G,N
Jan. 6/80 to Sept. 24/81 – F, W
Sept. 25/81 to March 16/83 – M, O
March 17/83 to Sept. 11/84 – E, X (and sibilant C)
Sept. 12/84 to April 6/86 – B, I
April 7/86 to Dec. 2/87 – A, R
Dec. 3/87 to May 22/89 – T, Z
May 23/89 to Nov.18/90 – D, V
Nov. 19/90 to Aug. 1/92 – H, S, Y
Aug. 2/92 to Feb. 1/94 – J, U
Feb. 2/94 to July 31/95 – K, Q (and hard C)
Aug. 1/95 to Jan. 25/97 – L, P
Jan. 26/97 to Oct. 20/98 – G, N
Oct. 21/98 to April 9/2000 – F, W
April 10/2000 to Oct.13/01 – M,O
Oct. 14/01 to April 13/03 – E, X (and sibilant C)
April 14/03 to Dec. 26/04 – B, I
Dec. 27/04 to June 22/06 – A, R
June 23/06 to Dec. 18/07 – T, Z
Dec. 19/07 to Aug. 21/09 — D, V
Aug. 22/09 to Mar. 3/11 — S,H,Y
Mar. 4/11 to Aug. 30/12 — J, U
Aug. 31/12 to Feb. 18/14 — K, Q, and “hard” C
Feb. 19/14 to Nov. 12/15 — L, P
Nov. 13/15 to May 9/17 — G, N
May 10/17 to Nov. 6/18 — F, W
Nov. 7/18 to May 5/20 — M, O
May 6/20 to Jan. 18/22 — E, X and sibilant C
Jan. 19/22 to Jul 17/23 — B, I
Jul. 18/23 to Jan. 11/25 — A, R
Jan. 12/25 to July 28/26 — T, Z
July 29/26 to March 27/28 — D, V
March 28/28 to Sept. 23/29 — H, S, Y
Sept. 23/30 to March 21/31 — J, U
That’s all! People born after 2031 will just have to figure it out themselves.