Mercury is very busy again this week, pretty much all week. He enters Cancer on Monday which shifts our communication skills into a very instinctive mode. It is logical but also intuitive and protective. Mercury communicates with most of the major planets (the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus!) this week and several of the minors. That’s a lot of transmission energy, both subtle and overt.
Venus and Lilith are conjunct this week, forming a badass little alliance as the long Leo summer begins. Venus will spend 5 months in Leo, as opposed to her usual 4 weeks, due to a retrograde in July. We’ll talk more about that in a week or so but it’s nothing to panic about. The Venusian Summer has all kinds of juicy potential for everyone!
Neptune begins its annual retrograde this week, casting a fog of confusion and a “lavender haze” over the 2nd half of the year. Intuition is heightened, but facts are hard to figure overall during his retrograde.
This week I decided it’s poetry time. I haven’t done poetry-scopes in a while. It’s summer and the livin' is (supposed to be) easy. Mercury is Mercury'ing...so let’s get a little less serious and dip into the romantic vibes of Venus and Neptune (and supposedly Cancer is romantic. Please message me if you know of a romantic or seductive Cancer! I keep seeing other astrologers talk about this and …not in my experience. No shade, but…nope.) and seek guidance from some of the more soulful energies out there! (Please note: I am not going to include any paragraph or line breaks in these poems because the formatting on 12Listen would take me forever. One does loose some nuance this way, but it is what it is for these BitchScopes)
ARIES - Your poem is “Skylark” by Percy Byshe Shelley. Immediately though, my mind is pulled to the Song. I am a huge Ella Fitzgerald fan, but k.d. lang’s version is SO good! (And is very apropos for Pride month!) The first stanza of the poem is:
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
the boys i mean are not refined they go with girls who buck and bite they do not give a fuck for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night one hangs a hat upon her tit one carves a cross on her behind they do not give a shit for wit...they speak whatever's on their mind they do whatever's in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined they shake the mountains when they dance
There are a couple stanzas I left out for the sake of space, but you should read it. Basically this is a tribute to the joys and stupidity of youth. Go get you somma that! (Pisces retrogrades in your 5th house of joy and children!)
SAGITTARIUS - Your poem is "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth
Shelley goes on for TWENTY ONE stanzas about the bird! So, Aries, slow down. Take your time. Spin a yarn. Say too much, feel too much, take too long to do everything. Jogging and gym be damned…pretend you have nothing better to do than to write 21 stanzas about a bird!
TAURUS - Your poem is “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
TAURUS - Your poem is “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong,That it can follow the flight of song?Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke; And the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend.
The implication is that we put our words and our selves out there in the world and we don’t know how they will affect countless strangers over time. The ripple effect of sharing your feelings, your art, your words, is always an unknown. There are consequences that come out of everything we do, because we are all connected in countless ways.
GEMINI - Your poem is the famous Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare
The implication is that we put our words and our selves out there in the world and we don’t know how they will affect countless strangers over time. The ripple effect of sharing your feelings, your art, your words, is always an unknown. There are consequences that come out of everything we do, because we are all connected in countless ways.
GEMINI - Your poem is the famous Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The message is that Bitch, you're beautiful!
CANCER - Your poem is...oh I love this... "Much Madness is Divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson.
The message is that Bitch, you're beautiful!
CANCER - Your poem is...oh I love this... "Much Madness is Divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson.
Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye -Much Sense - the starkest Madness - ’Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane -Demur - you’re straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain -
Emily Dickinson is famous for being emotionally unwell at times. She shared her darkest thoughts in her poetry. She is the classic tortured artist. In this poem she talks about how the "crazy" person in the room is sometimes the most sane. What society thinks is "normal" is often pretty screwy. So put that in your weird bonnet and smoke it! Rock your weird, Crabby Patty!
LEO - Your poem is new to me..."Oak and Lily" by Ben Jonson
Emily Dickinson is famous for being emotionally unwell at times. She shared her darkest thoughts in her poetry. She is the classic tortured artist. In this poem she talks about how the "crazy" person in the room is sometimes the most sane. What society thinks is "normal" is often pretty screwy. So put that in your weird bonnet and smoke it! Rock your weird, Crabby Patty!
LEO - Your poem is new to me..."Oak and Lily" by Ben Jonson
It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night — It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures life may perfect be.
If I were to sum this up, I would borrow a favorite phrase from my Brother in Law "I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time!" This poem speaks to finding joy and beauty in the little things in life. This Summer and well into the Fall your sign is exalted by Venus and Lilith. Live!
VIRGO - Your poem is "Ode to Solitude" by Alexander Pope
If I were to sum this up, I would borrow a favorite phrase from my Brother in Law "I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time!" This poem speaks to finding joy and beauty in the little things in life. This Summer and well into the Fall your sign is exalted by Venus and Lilith. Live!
VIRGO - Your poem is "Ode to Solitude" by Alexander Pope
Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. There are 3 more stanzas, but this poem speaks to a beautiful, simple life. He is unfucked-with by drama and nonsense. He values the quiet and anonymity of his plain life.
As the energies surround Leo and infuse them with light this summer, those same energies occupy your 12th house of solitude. Simplify. Let things be quiet. Ponder. Retreat. Meditate.
LIBRA - Your poem is "No Man is an Island" by John Donne
As the energies surround Leo and infuse them with light this summer, those same energies occupy your 12th house of solitude. Simplify. Let things be quiet. Ponder. Retreat. Meditate.
LIBRA - Your poem is "No Man is an Island" by John Donne
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
This is an excerpt from a sermon about how all people are connected to each other and how we must take care of each other. What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. I feel like you, as the sign that rules relationships, get this. This summer as Leo hangs over your 11th house of people we know, associations, colleagues, this message is perfect. Remember that even though you are wonderful and unique, so is everyone else...
SCORPIO - Ok I had to pick from ee cummings for you. cummings is my all time favorite poet and perhaps because of my 8th house Scorpionic Sun...he writes of everything that is sensual, forbidden, taboo, even crude. He holds nothing back. He even says fuck it to syntax and grammar. AND he says "fuck" a lot (and he wrote in the early 20th century!) This poem is from 1926 and refers to his boyhood friends.
This is an excerpt from a sermon about how all people are connected to each other and how we must take care of each other. What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. I feel like you, as the sign that rules relationships, get this. This summer as Leo hangs over your 11th house of people we know, associations, colleagues, this message is perfect. Remember that even though you are wonderful and unique, so is everyone else...
SCORPIO - Ok I had to pick from ee cummings for you. cummings is my all time favorite poet and perhaps because of my 8th house Scorpionic Sun...he writes of everything that is sensual, forbidden, taboo, even crude. He holds nothing back. He even says fuck it to syntax and grammar. AND he says "fuck" a lot (and he wrote in the early 20th century!) This poem is from 1926 and refers to his boyhood friends.
the boys i mean are not refined they go with girls who buck and bite they do not give a fuck for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night one hangs a hat upon her tit one carves a cross on her behind they do not give a shit for wit...they speak whatever's on their mind they do whatever's in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined they shake the mountains when they dance
There are a couple stanzas I left out for the sake of space, but you should read it. Basically this is a tribute to the joys and stupidity of youth. Go get you somma that! (Pisces retrogrades in your 5th house of joy and children!)
SAGITTARIUS - Your poem is "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze...For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Much has been made of this poem, historically. I love it because if feels so simple. The field of daffodils was pretty, and it made him happy, and sometimes he imagines that moment and that thought makes him happy. This summer, even while Leo beckons you from your 9th house of adventure, make sure you spend some time in nature. I know you want to go and see and do and travel and expand. But consider having some time for daffodils.
CAPRICORN - Your poem is by my 2nd favorite of all time - Robert Frost. "Two Tramps in Mud-Time"
Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay...And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right--agreed.
Like the other scopes, this was a random pull from flipping open a book of various poets. This poem is about the meaning of work and how it can provide purpose in life. Some work is even enjoyable. There is a complex message here. Should the wood chopper let the "tramps" do the chopping for pay? Or should he maintain his simple, individualistic, independent life? The poem's conclusion is open to interpretation. But you're a Cap, so I'll ask - are you working too much?
AQUARIUS - Your poem is another favorite of mine by Walt Whitman - "A Noiseless Patient Spider"
A noiseless, patient spider,I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.And you O my soul where you stand,Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Whitman compares the human soul to the spider endlessly building webs, connecting things, searching for connection. We are so small in an unfathomably vast universe...but we keep spinning! Cancer rules your 6th house of work. Neptune retrogrades in your 2nd house of income. Do you find meaning in what you do? Focus on your web.
PISCES - Your poem is new to me "A Friend's Greeting" by Edgar Guest
I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me; I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be;I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way.
This is a delightfully simple poem with obvious meaning. And considering how empathetic Pisces is, this is very appropriate. My Pisces people seem to have an un-ending well of compassion. The only place your compassion lacks, FishFace, is at times for yourself at time. Are you as good a friend to yourself as you are to others? When Neptune, your ruler, retrogrades in your sign, it would be a beautiful time to meditate on YOU.
Much has been made of this poem, historically. I love it because if feels so simple. The field of daffodils was pretty, and it made him happy, and sometimes he imagines that moment and that thought makes him happy. This summer, even while Leo beckons you from your 9th house of adventure, make sure you spend some time in nature. I know you want to go and see and do and travel and expand. But consider having some time for daffodils.
CAPRICORN - Your poem is by my 2nd favorite of all time - Robert Frost. "Two Tramps in Mud-Time"
Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay...And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right--agreed.
Like the other scopes, this was a random pull from flipping open a book of various poets. This poem is about the meaning of work and how it can provide purpose in life. Some work is even enjoyable. There is a complex message here. Should the wood chopper let the "tramps" do the chopping for pay? Or should he maintain his simple, individualistic, independent life? The poem's conclusion is open to interpretation. But you're a Cap, so I'll ask - are you working too much?
AQUARIUS - Your poem is another favorite of mine by Walt Whitman - "A Noiseless Patient Spider"
A noiseless, patient spider,I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.And you O my soul where you stand,Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Whitman compares the human soul to the spider endlessly building webs, connecting things, searching for connection. We are so small in an unfathomably vast universe...but we keep spinning! Cancer rules your 6th house of work. Neptune retrogrades in your 2nd house of income. Do you find meaning in what you do? Focus on your web.
PISCES - Your poem is new to me "A Friend's Greeting" by Edgar Guest
I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me; I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be;I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way.
This is a delightfully simple poem with obvious meaning. And considering how empathetic Pisces is, this is very appropriate. My Pisces people seem to have an un-ending well of compassion. The only place your compassion lacks, FishFace, is at times for yourself at time. Are you as good a friend to yourself as you are to others? When Neptune, your ruler, retrogrades in your sign, it would be a beautiful time to meditate on YOU.
PLANETS THIS WEEK
SUN - Cancer
MERCURY - Cancer
VENUS - Leo
MARS - Leo
JUPITER - Taurus
SATURN - Pisces
URANUS - Taurus
NEPTUNE - Pisces (Rx)
PLUTO - Capricorn (Rx)
CHIRON - Aries
CHARIKLO - Aquarius
CHAOS - Gemini
N. NODE - Taurus
CERES - Libra
PALLAS - Virgo
JUNO - Cancer
VESTA - Gemini
LILITH - Leo
ERIS - Aries
SIRIUS- Cancer (fixed)
TRANSITS THIS WEEK
Monday 26 June
Mars square Uranus
Mercury quincunx Pluto 29°
Mercury enters Cancer
Tuesday 27 June
Mercury sextile North Node
Mercury conjunct Chaos
Mercury square Ceres
Wednesday 28 June
Sun trine Saturn
Venus conjunct Lilith
Mercury conjunct Juno
Thursday 29 June
Venus trine Chiron
Mercury trine Saturn
Friday 30 June
Neptune turns retrograde 27° Pisces
Sun conjunct Mercury
Mercury sextile Jupiter
Saturday 01 July
Sun sextile Jupiter
Sunday 02 July
Mars trine Eris
Venus square Uranus
Mercury quincunx Chariklo