There's been a new addition to my wallet. In the space where most people keep pictures of their girlfriend or their dog or some other adorable being that is worthy of showing off, I have been keeping a drawing of a Danzig skull that has pleasingly bled onto the plastic film and developed a ghost image, and a fortune cookie message book-ended by smiley faces that informs the reader, \You have at your command the wisdom of the ages."" It takes a special item to fit into the gothic sort of theme I developed in that space, and I found the perfect one. Prepare for your mind to be blown.
My eye wandered off of the State Journal crossword puzzle I was completing and down to the horoscope, which I look at infrequently. There under Libra, my sign, was this batch of insanity, ""Today is a Seven--panic could rear its ugly head as you wonder how fantasy can triumph over reality. It can happen if you realize that both of those are illusions--as is panic."" I have since blown six minds with this clipping.
I'm not really sure what's going on in that horoscope. Is it about wish fulfillment? According to me, wish fulfillment is more of a Sonic Youth song than a reality. According to the horoscope, reality is an illusion. Sonic Youth isn't an illusion, so they aren't a reality, which is proven by their age, meaning that wish fulfillment isn't an illusion or a reality (one in the same), but a possibility? On conceit, on speculation, on waste of time. We must deliver the truth by sundown.
Now let's consider that fantasy is inherently valued above reality in this horoscope. They apparently are engaged in some sort of war within my mind. It must be a clash of titans that is violent enough to reach the panic regions of the psyche. When fantasy wins it's good, and dull reality is thwarted. Apparently there's nothing a person can do to affect his fantasies, except realize that they are only in the mind, as is reality. Crap.
All this raises a couple of interesting speculations about the nature of astrology. Astrology always has a tension between pre-destination and man's ability to affect will. That's present in the idea of treating everything as interior shades and letting things take their course. How would they take their course? By allowing the subconscious to move and shake and just live life? So does this mean that the subconscious can affect will, or that the stars will make it happen? I don't know. Then there is the problematic idea that the external world is an illusion. It seems a bit out of line with astrology, which is predicated on the belief that universal forces guide and predict our actions. If external reality is an illusion, does that mean that this horoscope has moved astrology into a post-modern realm in which it is useful as a construct that helps us to make sense of the world through our ordering of our lives parallel to the movements of external bodies, which are really just symbols that we place meaning on in order to find patterns?
Mind is blown. At least the little scrap of print makes a fine addition to my wallet and keeps in line with its aesthetic.
