IFLA: The “It is by Will Alone” Edition of the Horoscope for the Week of Nov 29

by | Nov 29, 2020 | IFLA | 115 comments

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

It is by the brew of the bean that thoughts acquire speed

The teeth acquire stains

The stains become a warning

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

Say what you will about David Lynch’s Dune, it gave us some good stuff.

 

Speaking of good stuff, what do the stars have to say this week?  Chaos.  Tempest.  Wild horses and howling wolves.  Forces pulling you in multiple directions simultaneously.  That’s what you get when you’ve got the moon on your right hand and Mercury on left. Which you do in this case if I need to be more definitive.  Unless of course you live in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case the conflicting, chaos-causing currents are concordantly coordinated, but opposite (relatively).

The sun is in Sagittarius, which is a particularly auspicious time for astrology and astrologers.  For the rest of you, expect a time of wisdom, precision, rectitude, all that good stuff.  Only a few more weeks for Capricorn to deal with the Jupiter-Saturn weight.  You all know about Mars in Aries.  The moon joins Venus in Scorpio, which is a warning to look out for hidden hazards, but also is a recommendation for role-playing in the bedroom.  The “watch out for hidden dangers” bit still applies though, and the Moon in Taurus is a warning against trying anything requiring acrobatic skill.

 

Sagittarius:  The Star – Loss, theft, privation, abandonment, hope, bright prospects

Capricorn:  10 of Cups reversed – Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence

Aquarius:  8 of wands – Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, great haste, great hope, speed towards an end, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love.

Pisces:  Knight of Coins – Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude

Aries:  10 of Coins reversed – Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard, gift, dowry, pension

Taurus:  King of Coins – Valor, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind

Gemini:  7 of Coins reversed – Cause for anxiety regarding money especially with regard to lending

Cancer:  Page of Swords reversed – Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination but all of theses against you.  Unforeseen, unprepared state, sickness, a clumsy or inexperienced enemy.

Leo:  Ace of Swords reversed – Overreaction, overplaying your hand, your bluff called.  Overexertion leading to injury

Virgo:  4 of Cups – Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, a beloved dish tasted too often

Libra:  5 of Wands reversed – Losing a competition, litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction

Scorpio:  The Lovers reversed – Failure, foolish designs, marriage frustrated and contrarities of all kinds.

 

About The Author

Not Adahn

Not Adahn

Despite all my rage, I am still just an impeccably dressed rat.

115 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    Cancer: Page of Swords reversed – Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination but all of theses against you. Unforeseen, unprepared state, sickness, a clumsy or inexperienced enemy.

    It is not good to wish ill on your fellow glib

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Sagittarius: The Star – Loss, theft, privation, abandonment, hope, bright prospects

    Errr… okay?

    • Ted S.

      And then halfway through the first lap of the restart, a car flipped.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      check out Senna’s wreck, or Nikki Laudas’ wreck, or Jackie Stewart’s wreck at Spa, where he was trapped in a pool of gas ,in a Farmhouse basement, for half an hour…..

      • KOVIDKristen

        Tom Pryce was the worst open wheel crash I’ve seen

  3. westernsloper

    You all know about Mars in Aries.

    I do?

    • Mojeaux

      Ouch.

    • rhywun

      Guessing “doom”.

    • Bobarian LMD

      It’s a sexual position.

      • Chafed

        I’m glad we’re back to phrasing.

  4. Trigger Hippie

    ‘…realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude,…’

    I realized I only have normal intellectual aptitude on a good day a long time ago, thank you very much.

  5. Tundra

    Leo: Ace of Swords reversed – Overreaction, overplaying your hand, your bluff called. Overexertion leading to injury

    Seems legit. Tomorrow is squat day.

    • R C Dean

      Looks like a bad week for Leos to Glibfit.

      As for the rest, meh. I’m keeping my head down these days.

      • Nephilium

        I figure Thanksgiving and leftovers were already bad for GlibFit this week.

      • egould310

        Yeah. Not even trying. I’ll start back at it tomorrow. I took all of last week off. Didn’t run. Didn’t do low carb/keto stuff. I sat on my sofa and drank bourbon and played guitar all day. Except Wednesday, the wife and I took a five mile walk through the arboretum and the ship canal. It’s Thanksgiving, why even try?

      • Nephilium

        I’ll pick it back up when the leftovers are gone. So a couple more days at least.

        On the bright side my weight stayed stable, and based on averages I only gained about 2 pounds.

  6. Mojeaux

    @NotAdahn, I have another book project that involves Tarot. May I pick your brain at some point(s) in the future?

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Grosjean’s car literally ripped in half and burst into flames

    It’s not supposed to do that.

    I’m surprised he didn’t get electrocuted by the KERS.

  8. leon

    https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-belief-in-meritocracy-is-not-only-false-it-s-bad-for-you?utm_source=pocket-newtab

    Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing.

    This is to say nothing of the fortuitous circumstances that figure into every success story. In his book Success and Luck (2016), the US economist Robert Frank recounts the long-shots and coincidences that led to Bill Gates’s stellar rise as Microsoft’s founder, as well as to Frank’s own success as an academic. Luck intervenes by granting people merit, and again by furnishing circumstances in which merit can translate into success. This is not to deny the industry and talent of successful people. However, it does demonstrate that the link between merit and outcome is tenuous and indirect at best.

    (Emphasis, mine)

    Those guys were just lucky that they seized the opportunity they found themselves in, and they were just lucky that they had good parents who brought them up. And were of good Genetic stock.

    I’ll take my advice on success and opportunities from the Pet Shop Boys, thank your very much.

    • PieInTheSky

      well I am not a fan of meritocracy myself as I said before, but even if it is luck thems be the breaks. Even assuming every characteristic of a person is luck – which is silly – this does not change the fact that is best to leave people who are genetically blessed to use those gifts to get shit done . So libertarianism ftw

      • Fourscore

        “Age And Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, And A Bad Haircut”

        PJ O’Rourke

      • leon

        Even assuming every characteristic of a person is luck – which is silly

        This is the big thing i have against this whole shtick by the left. I don’t believe that the world _is_ perfectly meritocratic, nor am i really convinced that it could be, because it would mean that there is some universal way to measure merit, which doesn’t really make sense, it’s subjective.

        But the idea that no one “earned” anything because “it’s all luck, and your good qualities are just luck” is abhorrent to me.

      • Ted S.

        because it would mean that there is some universal way to measure merit, which doesn’t really make sense, it’s subjective

        One of the great advantages of capitalism is that if you want to drop out of life, so to say, and live modestly, it’s fairly easy to do. If you want to try to drop out of socialism, good luck with that.

      • juris imprudent

        You comrade were unlucky enough to born into this society that you owe everything to, in other words you are a slave to society.

      • Urthona

        The left believes in meritocracy more than the right, actually. A ruling class of well-meaning types with academic pedigrees should get to rule over us all, according to them.

        It’s just a different kind of merit.

      • R C Dean

        +1 apparat.

      • C. Anacreon

        +1 Philosopher Kings

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Fuck Plato with a rusty chainsaw.

      • R C Dean

        “this does not change the fact that is best to leave people who are genetically blessed to use those gifts to get shit done”

        Well said.

        Of course, New Soviet Man will selflessly use his gifts to benefit the collective with no desire for reward or recognition.

      • Gustave Lytton

        With no joy or pleasure, the nomenklatura will suffer the heavy burden of residing in their dachas on the Black Sea or Baja Mexico because it’s their duty.

      • Fourscore

        Otherwise why would they have put the dachas there? It’s not public housing, I mean, C’mon, man, use your head.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing.

      Genetic endowments? Brian Shul laughs at you.

      Upbringing does play into it, but rather than recognizing that we should encourage more people to raise their kids in a way that makes them ‘gritty’, you’re gonna suggest that we handicap people who do the right thing. The left is becoming the “punish all virtue” movement.

    • Ted S.

      I’ll take my advice on success and opportunities from the Pet Shop Boys, thank your very much.

      Everything you longed to do is a sin? 🙂

    • blackjack

      What about people who aren’t good at things? Shouldn’t we falsely attribute success to them just to make them feel better? Who cares if we have to take stuff from people who deserve it. Why can’t we just upend the whole idea of “deserve” and substitute our own. Of course, we’ll have to block out the input from anyone who actually deserves anything, we all know how they’ll vote. Let’s just create a committee of experts and let them decide who gets what. Can I be on this committee? I’ll be fair, I swear!

      • Fourscore

        If STEM people went to work at Starbucks they’d quickly start stirring up trouble,, re-inventing, making improvements in equipment, etc and putting people out of work.

        Who needs ’em?

        That’s why god invented Walmart, to give everyone an opportunity to excel.

      • C. Anacreon

        And indeed, so many at Walmart are XL.

      • Fourscore

        On both sides of the cash register

      • Homple

        Walmart provides work for many people who’d have a hard time getting a job elsewhere and provides stuff for a lot of people who couldn’t afford to obtain it anywhere else.

        So I don’t know why We Superior People should waste our talents on trashing Walmart or the people who patronize it.

      • rhywun

        Agreed. I may be superior but I never trash Walmart.

      • Mojeaux

        Agreed. My kid’s going to get a long head start on life (at 17) because of WM.

    • Shpip

      Despite the moral assurance and personal flattery that meritocracy offers to the successful, it ought to be abandoned both as a belief about how the world works and as a general social ideal. It’s false, and believing in it encourages selfishness, discrimination and indifference to the plight of the unfortunate.

      “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
      But in ourselves”

      • Chafed

        I particularly hate the part about selfishness. As far as I know, every western religion encourages both personal excellence and charity. The author may want to try it some time.

      • leon

        “23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men”

    • Hyperion

      The one thing we can be sure of, is that because of these idiots, we’re going to enter a new dark age and thereby solve global warming. Once you’ve taken away any incentive for anyone doing anything, no one will do anything. All progress, innovation, and production will come to a screeching halt and we’ll all live like peasants did 1000 years ago.

      • juris imprudent

        Not all of us. Surely there must be a class of nobles and ecclesiastics to shepherd over the peasants, just as there was then.

    • Broswater

      Success = Luck * Skills.

      Nobody is saying that luck doesn’t have anything to do with it. But if you’re too clueless to take your luck when you see it, there is not much anyone can do about it.

      • C. Anacreon

        There’s a lot of trust funder addicts living on the edge out there, we see examples all the time in the ER. Born rich, likely talented, and with tons of opportunity should they have chosen to try. How is this type of lucky person not automatically ruling us, while a kid who came from nothing and barely made it through high school becomes a wildly successful owner of a chain of plumbing supply stores? Guess everything is luck of circumstance and merit is meaningless.

      • Broswater

        I’m from a white collar family. I met a crack-addict in rehab that was horribly abused as a kid and was raised in pretty much utter poverty. Who’s the lucky one?

        Now guess who made his first million before 25? Not me lol.

        Given, he lost all of it and have shylocks on his ass but he’ll make it back way before I do.

        But none of us would have made it anywhere if we stayed in our basement doing our stuff. Whatever the amount of luck we got.

        It’s as if those people expect luck to come and knock on their door and will try to get in by the window if they don’t answer.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Roger Penske has a somewhat similar quote: luck = preparation + opportunity.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This particular argument ignores the larger issue.

      Success is an aberration. The natural state is poverty and despair.

      The only way to obtain any success in society is to allow those who are lucky and good to be rewarded for it.

      This does not mean everyone who is capable will obtain success, but it does mean that those who raise the tide thru their success will lift all boats in some small measure.

      By demeaning the imperfect yet successful system of meritocracy, they have made the perfect the enemy of the good.

      Utopia does not exist.

      • Hyperion

        “Success is an aberration. The natural state is poverty and despair.”

        Why can’t you see that when we are all poor and in despair together, we’re all so much better off, because equality!

    • Chafed

      David Goggins would like a word.

    • hayeksplosives

      I forgot just how homely Mare Winningham was/is.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        LOL

        She never did seem to fit in the Brat Pack.

      • C. Anacreon

        Old gray Mare, she ain’t what she used to be.

      • rhywun

        She stars in a movie I adore so she’s all right by me.

    • Ted S.

      I’m sold by the drugs falling out the dogs’ asses.

    • Jarflax

      I can understanding putting your faith in a Great Leader if it’s an Alexander laying the world at his feet, a Charlemagne uniting the shattered empire, driving out the moslem invaders and bringing back law, or even a Napoleon. What I cannot understand is applying that impulse to seek the protection of the strong against the terrors of the dark to the stupid, cowardly, inept slime we are offered today.

  9. Nephilium

    If you’re handing out free shots to promote your liquor, it should at least taste good. SoCo, Ameretto, and sour mix is not balanced or good.

    At least it was free?

    • l0b0t

      I once loved Amaretto sours, but now they hurt my tummy. Southern Comfort is a product I’ve never taken a shine to.

  10. juris imprudent

    BBC infringes on NYT intellectual property.

    • Shpip

      “Everything we worked for, that has taken 25 years, could be lost in a year,” says UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia.

      I’ll believe it when she gets booted from her sinecure and goes back to ironing and changing diapers.

    • Hyperion

      There hasn’t been anything intellectual at the NYT in a very long time, nothing to steal, I call fake news.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, caring for your family is such a fucking chore. Why can’t the government do that for us?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      There’s something particularly abhorrent about the culture of high caste Indian women. They seem to have a real taste for communism and a loathing of the proles.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        My hypothesis is that they’re used to being waited on hand and foot, and they recognize that same impulse in the elitist left.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Teni Wada is a brand consultant based in Tokyo and was working a part-time nursery teacher before lockdown began.

      And she’s writing an article on sake, which fits into the above how? But not to worry, she claims to do 80% of the unpaid work around the house while her husband only works a fraction of the day.

      Even before the pandemic, women in Japan spent on average almost five times longer than men on unpaid care work and chores.

      Now do labor participation rates of married women with children.

      • rhywun

        I just did my dishes and nobody paid me to do it. Not fair!

  11. KOVIDKristen

    So the WTF is leading the NFC East at 4-7?

    Sad!

    • juris imprudent

      WFT, but like the idea of redskin potatoes on the helmets and re-christening as the Redskins, the Washington Football Team just missed the opportunity to be the Washington Team of Football – which would have been so much better.

      • KOVIDKristen

        WTF. That’s the name. I have spoken.

      • Nephilium

        Just wait for the rule change that you can’t make the playoffs without a winning season.

      • KOVIDKristen

        OK that would be hilarious

      • juris imprudent

        Sort of like Ohio State missing out on the Big10 title game if they have another contest cancelled?

    • Hyperion

      I don’t know that it matters since Baron Von RothlisNaziBurgermeister has decided to use his white privilege and sit in the pocket carving up all the defenses. I thought we had gotten rid of this systemic racism?

  12. juris imprudent

    What is particularly depressing here, is the obvious lack of any place for the majority of us. Educated? Yes, and too intelligent for the stupidity the Dems believe in. And populists are just as prone to busy-bodiness as liberal/proggie and short-sightedness if they believe in economic nationalism.

    Populism entails resentment of elites. Left-wing populism targets the wealthy elite. You see it when Bernie Sanders attacks Wall Street and “the one percent.” Right-wing populism targets the educated elite. You see it when conservatives attack experts and high-minded liberals who use “cancel culture” to enforce political correctness.

    • rhywun

      liberal values (pro-science, pro-diversity)

      ?

      • juris imprudent

        Did I not say it was depressing?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Why shouldn’t we attack those who promote cancel culture?

    • westernsloper

      …the better educated you are more time you spent in indoctrination, the more likely you are to vote Democratic.

    • Sensei

      According to wiki he was visiting a friend and staying in a basement.

      No idea on specifics here, but this is one of times where building codes and common sense actually intersect.

      If you are going to have legitimate sleeping and full time utilization of a basement space you need a good means of egress.

  13. kinnath

    Someone showed some interest in the Iowa 2nd District race last week (don’t remember who)

    https://www.kcrg.com/2020/11/28/miller-meeks-holds-lead-over-hart-after-recount-for-iowas-2nd-congressional-district/

    The Iowa Press-Citizen reports that Miller-Meeks had just six more votes than Democrat Rita Hart after the recount wrapped up Saturday in Clinton County, which was the last of the district’s 24 counties to report its results.

    A state canvassing board is expected to meet Monday, the legal deadline, to certify the results of the race in which more than 394,400 votes were cast.

    Looks like it’s going to be official. Pubs pick up two seats in Iowa at the same time 4 cities give the presidency to Biden.

    • leon

      Six votes?

      All those libertarians saying your vote didn’t matter feel foolish.

      • kinnath

        Yes. Six votes difference with 394, 400 counted. After the recount of every county in the district.

      • leon

        Crazy close.

    • juris imprudent

      Does the winner get a mandate too?

      • Jarflax

        Yes. They get the mandate to wield the power of the office, just exactly the same as the guy who wins 380,000 to 0. We don’t have a weighted system where really popular officials get extra power.

      • leon

        Thank Goodness. Or else you’d have people like AOC with ridiculous amounts of power.

  14. westernsloper

    So the Broncos don’t have a QB. I might watch the game today.

    • Nephilium

      They’re got a running back filling in from my understanding.

      • westernsloper

        Practice team receiver is what the Twitters are telling me. Don’t care enough to actually find out.

    • rhywun

      I wonder why they didn’t just postpone it like everyone else is doing.

  15. KOVIDKristen

    So I see Copper Mountain is offering grab and go dining only this winter. Good thing I already decided to cancel my trip.

    • hayeksplosives

      I thought that the deal was we all pretend Biden won the election, and in return they pretend that Covid is miraculously contained so we could restart the voluntary interactions with each other that we collectively call “the economy”.

      This deal is getting worse all the time.

      • Tres Cool
      • hayeksplosives

        LOL perfect.

      • prolefeed

        It seemed like a stretch that people so hungry for more power that they would trash the economy and Bill of Rights to get one person kicked out of office, would suddenly change their behavior and become indifferent to using that newly acquired power once they “won”.

  16. hayeksplosives

    Past—-glibfit post is up.

    Whatcha waiting for, Nancy?