One, I'm not aspiring to be humble

A good quote from the tide of nonsense this week

A brief word on the sky
(astrology)

If it tells you anything, I’m wearing my mati bracelet last and this week. Last week was the chaos of eclipse ssn, end of this week we have Pluto going direct and swapping with Jupiter, going retrograde. We’re looking at a change of luck but also likely a really difficult conversation with a (business) partner, and it happens to be transiting my fifth house (creativity).

Look at your birth chart using the Whole Sign House system and see which house Taurus sits. This will tell you where you might be able to expect this change in luck. Bon chance!

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A brief word for writers
(of time & timing)

I love a lot about aging. Knowing life more, knowing myself more, knowing what I want, limiting what (/who) I don’t want. I don’t like knowing that our bodies glycate through time and basically cook themselves, but it’s easy enough to put out of my mind most days.

I don’t like knowing that our bodies glycate through time and basically cook themselves, but it’s easy enough to put out of my mind most days.

In my adulthood, I’ve been someone who experiences trouble with communication. When I was younger? Not so much. Sure I’d stammer or rush, but it wasn’t a problem to me. I was unselfconscious about it.

But through the years, I became astutely aware of how my spoken words separated me from others. Sometimes it was the delivery, oftentimes the content. I learned that while I could anticipate further meaning of other peoples’ words from context, emotion, posture, and other information known about the speaker, the majority of other people either could not, or would not afford me the same courtesy — instead they would often assume the worst, or simply think me strange. It used to really frustrate and/or depress me.

As time tempers all things, I’m quite comfortable with how I speak, and writing feels much easier than speaking anyway. It takes the projections of others and even the superficial “me-ness” out of it. It leaves behind the actual me-ness, divested from someone’s assumptions. I can sound young or rushed or hesitant or calm or smart; I can look silly or small or fat or angry or ugly or pretty or radical or queer or tired or blank and it doesn’t matter. It’s the words themselves alone. It’s my thoughts. They’re more accepted. I think a lot of people feel this way, even if they’re not aware of it.

[On Writing] It takes the projections of others and even the superficial “me-ness” out of it. It leaves behind the actual me-ness, divested from someone’s assumptions.

I wonder if this is what Mercury (planet of communication) looks and feels like in detriment (when a planet is in the sign opposite it’s ruler, considered “bad”/“weak”) or fall (I like to call this detriment junior/runner-up), or even retrograde (when retrograde, a planet looks like it’s doing something it’s not, hence it’s a little bit like trickster energy applied to whatever the planet represents). Mercury was in detriment and retrograde when I was born. Pertinent to the writers (“sigh, finally!”) MANY of probably your favorite or big name authors and poets have a mercury in fall or detriment and/or retrograde, and aspected to various planets for a little extra flavor.

Sagittarius 11: This is a symbol of the enlarged understanding which comes from an inner and spiritual outreaching, and of the rewards following on a ceaseless experiment with one or another mode of self-expression. Here is self-orientation through a continual balancing of consequences and meanings in everyday activity and relationship. The world is seen as a laboratory for the soul, able to provide each individual with the reality he seeks for himself.

— my Mercury degree

Margaret Atwood, Jane Austin, Emily Dickinson, Diana Gabaldon, Laini Taylor, Holly Black, and J.R.R. Tolkien were some of the folks born with either Sagittarius or retrograde Mercuries in their natal charts (or both) and many more. I did a quick Google since I’m out-of-touch with popular authors and their birthdays now, and there’s a great article that pulled some popular ones. You can tease apart the meanings for yourself if you’re so inclined, having so much data at your fingertips.

I suppose this is to say, when you find out or are told a scary word for something — whether it’s a health diagnosis, or feedback/critiques, or you discover some label for a certain part of you — it doesn’t mean it’s only bad. I have an autoimmune disease as well, and I have a memory that’s fading now (as time tempers it) of being diagnosed and all the additional questions that come with it and how afraid I was in that tidal wash of worry. I think Shakespeare said it best:

“Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits”

And so it is. I think you should keep going. Especially when it’s hard or feels wonky.

Speaking of JRR, did you know the lore in The Hobbit (MY favorite of his works, sorrynotsorry) has continuity flaws with the lore of Lord of the Rings? But I don’t think those make either stories less enjoyable. The Hobbit took three years to write. LOTR? Seventeen years. As writers, we see the quick turnaround of stories as crucial to the publication process — traditional or independent. It was not always this industrialized, fast-food method. Inadvertently, humankind has led all manner of production (not to sound like a luddite, but the antithesis in many ways of creation) down this path.

Last week I was having a disagreement with my partner about which book/story was better (independent of the films): The Hobbit or LOTR. Wouldn’t you know it? Daniel Greene just released an in-depth summary of The Hobbit, so you too can remember the nuance of the child’s tale: The adventure, the fury, the flawed characters of Bilbo and Thorin, and even “wise” Gandalf.

And the prose — the PROSE! All things are forgivable in dealing with prose that was stewed for long enough, it seems.

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✍️ Enjoy some of my previously-shared free resources & templates

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A brief word for readers
(a sale you say?)

WEYWARD. I actually spent money on another book ($7 on sale right now)! AND I have a surprise, hopefully next week, if I can get my act together this weekend and build something in my house (hint, hint).

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📚 Read some of my free fiction here on Substack or buy my books on Amazon

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Until next time,

Nico

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