forecast for the week of July 13 - 20
It will not work for you to live a double life.
I’ve opened up my calendar for 2 more 1:1 astrology sessions each week. Are you looking for some undivided attention (read on, this is the theme of the week and the Mercury Rx) to your questions and planetary energy? Book a session here.
’ birthday is this week! Subscribe to Parts & Charts to get the Birthday / Profection Years episode straight to your inbox this Tuesday.
Exact Transits:
Thursday, July 17: Mercury stations retrograde in Leo
Friday, July 18: Mercury in Leo sextiles Venus in Gemini
Saturday, July 19: Sun in Cancer squares Chiron in Aries
Persisting Transits:
Venus in Gemini square to Mars in Virgo (she’s chasing him)
Saturn square to Jupiter (diminishing effect)
Saturn conjunct Neptune in Aries (not exact)
Saturn and Neptune in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius (whole month)
Uranus in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius (not exact)
the memo
In three different places on the internet I’ve seen Courtney Love quoted saying, “never have a plan b” this week. And, similarly, I’ve seen more than three people talk about resisting the ever-growing effects of generative AI on our culture and our ability to think critically — most conversations alluding to the idea that we don’t have anything interesting to say because we don’t read anything of interest and so we don’t think anything of interest. The Haruki Murakami quote has come up a couple times, too: "If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." In
’s newsletter this week he wrote:“We have nothing that interesting to say,” writes Audrey Watters on using AI to write, “because we have nothing interesting to think about because we have read nothing substantive.” After I read that, the algorithm served me an awful clip of a TED Talk by the CEO of an AI company who claims that “your grandchildren will be the last generation to read and write,” and not long after that, I found myself on an airplane in a window seat, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s “Green Shower” playing on a loop in my headphones, the clouds flying past my window while I read Tolstoy. I felt so damned happy, in that moment, to be a reader.
And I thought this funny because I had recently ordered an “acceptable” used copy1 of Tolstoy’s War and Peace after
mentioned talking to a writer who continually reads the book (to which I wondered why someone would read and re-read one book over and over… and then I wondered why I would wonder that). In my effort to read something of weight that not many other people attempt (and, for me, someone who reads at the rate of 2 minutes per page typically), I hear of at least two people reading this book in the same week.Let’s connect this to the energy of this up-coming week: there are three exact transits this week. This, compared to most of the weeks of this year already, is a “mild” activity week. But it is the persisting tensions that have been at play and will be for weeks still that interest me the most: Saturn square Jupiter, Venus square Mars, and all the outer planets making supportive connections to Pluto in Aquarius. I will spare you the planetary domino calculations and say that soooooo much of this points to our mental and technological systems and values.
I see the energy ahead as a challenge point for attention — your attention is split. How could it not be? You are becoming a flattened amalgamation of all of what you consume and give your attention to. This is the week (especially with Mercury stationing retrograde in the sign of Leo — the sign of self-hood, of personal light, of attention!) to claim the life you want to live inside of, and it all starts with what you pay attention to.
Be certain about it. Even though the energy calls for heightened uncertainty.
You don’t need to keep your antennas open for what might happen. You will know if there is danger or an emergency because dangers and emergencies make themselves known — you do not need to keep your eyes open on the vast scroll.
Take Courtney Love’s advice: pick one lane. Only you can do this. If you spread yourself thin with a good number of options, you will never choose the best option. Deny the plan b, and then you are free to live that one plan you actually want to live. It will not work for you to live a double life.
Take Murakami’s advice: find the reading only you would read. Take your time with it. Go deeply. And you, yourself, will walk (or run) deeply.
Claim what you are want to pay attention to this week. Say no to all else. And check back in next week: this is the first and the last step.
influences
Marty and I have deemed this summer “Blockbuster Summer” where we watch a summer blockbuster movie instead of flipping through the streaming lists and never really landing on anything. Let me tell you… I have watched more movies in the last month than I have in the whole year because of this themed approach.
I am preparing to teach an online course for seniors called “The Digital Divide” and the textbook I am asked to use was published 17 years ago. Of course, it’s laughable how outdated the references are. But what I am noticing the most is how “the kids” are talked about — like they are pests who can’t help themselves. I look forward to discussing this bullshit with my future students.
Dying for Sex is very good. Such a fun pace and delightful overlapping dialogue and voiceover. Highly recommend after a few weeks of watching slooooooooow contemplative movies.
field journal
hello—this week I told a friend that I see one of my shadows as being afraid of saying anything against the status quo or un-beautiful or controversial. In my poetry program, a fellow poet said my poetry is always “so beautiful.” The language is just beautiful. But the way she said it, though I think she meant to conceal her tone, was that there was something missing. I don’t remember if I indicated that I received her comment. I doubt I would have said “thank you.” Obviously I’ve held onto it for years at this point. I am concerned I do not have the skills to contradict, to add conflict, to do battle. And so maybe my fiction suffers. Maybe I suffer. This is all spurred by a conversation in my writing group about ChatGPT being an affirmation machine. ChatGPT doesn’t know they’re allowed to contradict or argue with us, unless we ask them to. And the more we hold conversations with them, the less we have access to dispelling ideas, disagreement, conflict— I worry I am already too far gone.
I prefer used copies and pray for handwritten annotations. It’s a very good day if I come across doodles in the margins.