In new environments, the sights offer so much fresh information that they can keep us dancing on the visual surface. In familiar environments, less attention gets paid to visual information our brains have already logged. So, the gift of familiar environments is depth. Working knowledge of what’s on the surface allows for subsurface viewing.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). It’s much easier to go the distance in comfortable shoes. This will be true figuratively and literally. Life is hard enough; your attire needn’t be. What can you do to take the stress away?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Any problem requiring you to be more than you were is a gift. So, all problems are a gift. Even so, don’t feel too bad if you look at today’s problem and wonder if there’s a way to regift it.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Peer pressure will be subtle, powerful and omnipresent. This is the main reason you should spend as little time as possible with people who undervalue you. You wouldn’t want to start thinking along those lines!
CANCER (June 22-July 22). You’ll surprise yourself by being strong without any of the things you thought were making you strong — proof of the untapped well of resources deep within you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Sometimes it’s better to act than to waste time with the procedures and protocols. This is not one of those times. You really will need permission, and not just from one person.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). It’s your project, so you care the most. That’s why everything needs to go through you. Be careful what you delegate. Put safety systems in play that ensure you get the final say.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). It will feel as though you’re working on what should have been finished a long time ago. Strike the “should” from your thoughts and suddenly you’re just working, doing your diligent best in the moment.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Stick with what you know and you just may be able to achieve flawless work, but you’ll also be uninspired. It’s the novel challenges that light you up. New territory equals new passion.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Be careful about what you glamorized and who you raise up. You will become more like the entity on the pedestal, so be sure it’s worthy of you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Any effort you make to share your projects will be favored by the fates. You won’t know who your fans are until you put your work into the world.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). When you don’t know who is on your side, first make sure you are on your own side, then amp up that support. Be your own advocate, and people will eventually join in.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). An idea seems to go against everything you thought before. Maybe you were wrong, or maybe there is more than one way to be right. Acceptance and flexibility of mind give you different options.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Oct. 11). Your cosmic birthday gift is superior risk assessment. Your accurate sense of what you can accept, surrender to and dwell in will have you doubling down on the very things that will repay you many times over in joy, money and more. Guided by your competitive spirit, a key victory will be yours before 2022. Cancer and Leo adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 3, 33, 19, 40 and 1.
HALLOWEEN PANTHEON: ZOMBIES, PART ONE: Before modern medicine, it wasn’t quite as easy to discern the living from the dead. It often happened that people were prematurely written off, only to wake up from some unconscious state to find they’d already been grieved and buried with a bible where it may have been nice to have, say, a pickaxe.
This is why many cultures developed rituals to make sure not to get it wrong, such as leaving a bell for the corpse to ring or chopping off a finger. If the digital snip startled the “corpse” alive, then whoops, there goes your guitar career, but at least breathing is once more an option.
Ancient Greeks sometimes buried corpses under large rocks to make sure they didn’t reanimate — an idea that is still a part of our collective unconscious, judging from what they make gravestones out of. This ensures that only the strongest rotters are able to join the zombie apocalypse.
Nowhere are the lines between dead and alive more blurred than in the case of zombies, which have ruled for decades as the prevailing monster of pop culture. More on this tomorrow.
CELEBRITY PROFILES: Joan Cusack follows her Pisces moon intuition across genre lines from the classic comedy “Sixteen Candles,” to Jessie in the “Toy Story” franchise and to her work in the mysterious thriller series “Homecoming.” The high level of Libran artistry she brings to her work has made her a Hollywood favorite for decades. Mercury in Libra indicates harmony on all fronts, including social, political and musical.
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