Fair Trade Horoscopes (y mas)

Oh this would be lovely:

Meets or exceeds our High Quality standards
Provides more money to astrologers
Ensures better working conditions
Promotes sustainable environment…

Yeah, and it’s not made with child-labor in a sweat shop. It is, however, made with inner child labor, and to some, this place might look like a sweat shop. The hours are ridiculous and the pay is below minimum wage. Really.

Unrelated:
From the back of a candle:

Oracion de la Virgen de Guadalupe
Oh, unblemished Virgin of Guadalupe, perfect model of
wife and mother, I implore your help in all the needs
of my family and myself, begging the protection of
your maternal heart on my poor children. Look after
them and fashion their hearts in humility. Oh Mary
of Guadalupe, I beg your intercession so that we may
be granted the joy of being together in heaven
contemplating the glory of god, praising him and
blessing him forever and ever. Amen.
(make your petition)

Pricing:
Wandering about, thought this one out: price.

$2.95 sticker price, for 30 days. That’s 4 weeks, total. The weekly video averages three to five minutes. Multiply by four? Twelve to fifteen minutes of material. At the competitive price of $1.49 per minute (or higher)? Discount Horoscopes. Huh.

Jupiter in Retrograde:
Jupiter is in Aquarius, currently, easily visible as morning star, high overhead when I’m out in the predawn dark.

Jupiter turns retrograde June 15, at 27 degrees of Aquarius. Jupiter slides back from that point, covering ten degrees, to hit 17 Aquarius, on Oct. 12. It’s fast trip forward, from that point on into Pisces, early in January 2010.

It will be so nice to get out of the double oughts, right?

The significance of Jupiter retrograde? I’ve heard many different tales, and I’ve worked with some symbolism to posit my own theories, which seem to fall in line with conventional astrological lore, and there’s usually a slowing of the rapid, hectic, forward pace most people have, as Jupiter slows down and turns around.

Recital: Jupiter is pretty much on a 12-year orbit. As such, the mighty planet passes through, essentially, one sign per year, and the mechanics work out to where Mighty Jove appears in retrograde motion for approximately a third of the year. I’d do the math, but I have liberal arts degree.

When Jupiter moves backwards, there’s usually a hiatus in the forward crawl of the economy. In recent years, like now, the pattern unfolds clearly around the summer (northern hemisphere, sorry “down under,” bit centric) months. Summer vacation. In an agrarian society, the summer was needed for child labor. So it’s an easy pattern to discern. The summer months, not child labor. Only child labor here is “inner child” labor. That won’t hold up except in an insanity plea. Or not.

The general trend, then, in an astrology chart, is to watch for Jupiter and its objective. Where the rubber runs into the road? To thoroughly mix metaphor? In a natal astrology chart where Jupiter is already in retrograde motion, maybe a third of the audience, then, when Jupiter is backwards, it’s a good time for that individual. Which, going back to the first part of the postulate, that it’s time when everything slows down, then the backwards Jupiter (natal and in play), is a good time. Fosters a slightly “out-step” disharmonious and yet oddly appealing rhythm. Not bad, just slightly different.

Notables? Kate Capshaw. Mac Davis. Charles (paid by the word) Dickens. Anne Tyler. Joel McCrea.

Must be:

El Paso.