#These are not mutually exclusive and in practice are often all wielded in the same action

[chantylay]

Not to be a trans woman on main but this is really stupid. Imane Khalif was not affected by 'transmisogyny by proxy' she was affected by transmisogyny directly. Full force. Period. I know everyone likes to live in idealism land where the hate-crimed's identity actually matters when they're being attacked, but it doesn't. Are we the intended targets of transmisogyny? Yes. Are cis people who 'step out of line' in regards to their gender expression (particularly racialised people) intended targets of transmisogyny? Yes.

To iterate further: transmisogyny is a social system affecting all members of the society. It would be non-functional if it only applied to trans women because we're a tiny portion of the population, and because the cis can't clock us to save their lives. It's supposed to hurt everyone by victimising ANYONE who does not rigidly conform to their presumed gender.

Hostile architecture is also a great analogy for this because it is not only prejudice against the homeless being in public, but also the elderly or disabled, and hell, people who like to sit or stand around the place (especially racialised people). This is a feature and not a bug. City Council members don't conveniently forget the existence of other groups. Instead they say: Look at that, all the undesirables kept away with one neat trick! It does wonders for the property values!

Just because we call it 'transmisogyny', that doesn't make it ontological truth that it was designed specifically with us in mind, or that we are its sole recipients. The purpose of a system is what it does.

saying that "transmisogyny exempt" is not a useful term because transmisogynistic society ends up affecting everybody by proxy is like saying that hostile architecture isn't prejudice against homeless people because everyone likes to sit on benches sometimes y'know

[lailoken]

any advice for how an aspiring witch can toughen up? i really admire folks like you who seem so wise and strong and i want build up that same strength. but i'm pretty emotional and find it embarrassing. thanks for running this blog and all you do!

I want to let you in on something: I am a highly emotional person. However, I'm also quite strong. They are not mutually exclusive, and the misconception that they are can cause a lot of confusion and pain.

I think what strength means is extremely subjective, but for me, strength comes from the union of emotion and courage. As I see it, any strength lacking in emotion is brittle, and any strength dominated by emotion is volatile, so it's only in embracing the fullness of my emotions and then acting with courage in managing them that I can attain true strength.

I am easily moved, I cry often, and I empathize heavily—I feel very deeply—but I have learned with time and practice how to wield that emotion in useful and adaptive ways that honor who I am while allowing me to walk through the world with a little more grace.

All of this is to say: hold your head high and know that your heart is a divine gift. Just remember that, like all divine gifts, it can be used poorly.

[adamgeorgiou]

Arthur, My Cousin and Me

I don’t know how to detangle Arthur from myself enough to write dispassionately or accurately. Instead, what follows is something like half him, half me. It’s more journal entry than elegy. To a general audience, that might make this less interesting than it otherwise could be, but it’s what I’ve got. Remember this if and when you get to the end. 

Anyway…

I feel like I knew Arthur. Then I heard what others had to say and saw what others had to feel. Following his death, I still feel like I know him. In certain ways better than most or all. But there’s a part of me that’s often strained to believe that I was in more of his inner circle than I actually was, and his death exposed the truth of my position.

It’s a practical observation, not a dramatic one. I’m not saying he had a dominating and hidden alter ego or that he pitied me. It’s simpler: his death revealed my confidence in our bond as an illusion innocuously leftover from being kids together, from back when we actually spent serious time together. I want him back now like I’ve continuously wanted back what we lost long ago, but now it’s double-permanent and legible. Before it was remediable and blissfully hidden — embarrassing in hindsight, like most nostalgia. 

But he also had that same nostalgia and held onto it, too, which makes me feel better. That mutual thread to our shared past was strong for both of us. It gave us a lot to lean on, but we leaned on it a little too heavily. Without that crutch, our adult lives were mostly opaque to one another, but also we were getting close again, involving each other again. Building anew. The left hook following the right. It’s a shame we weren’t closer than we were, when he died. It’s a shame our getting closer was cut short. 

I guess it makes sense, generally: as adults, we’re all doing niche things, and niches are small and excluding, so everything else trends towards becomes small talk. (And that’s fine and right, because focus is necessary for growth. Just try and stay loyal, which Arthur did and my cousins do.)

Maybe it wasn’t so much that I was uniquely outside of Arthur’s confidence, but more that we had both (or all) grown a bit into our own isolation. In any case, I mourn the loss and its new finality.

So that’s him and I as adults, apart. Who was he, though? What can I tell you?

Well, I’ll briefly start with me, for context. Who I am is still him, the result of his influence, for sure. Of growing with, then adjacent to him, then apart, then converging again (more on the converging, later). If you distilled me down and got rid of all the litter and trivia, the rare and potent stuff remaining would be similar to what I knew of Arthur. We had the same essence, as I saw it. So I can show you that reflection, and you can tell me if it’s accurate (See: first paragraph’s disclaimer). (Also, note my calling out our similarity is carefully placed right before I go on to flatter him best I can — tactics, baby — but don’t read my ego into this. What follows is all my cousin.)

Arthur and confidence. Old saying: the pro fails more often than the amateur tries.

The subtleties of his personality were sophisticated and complicated. He could spar at an exceptional level from an early age. But he started out lazy and overthrowing a lot of his punches, gassing out quickly. 

As a kid, he was autistically independent, preoccupied and hyper focused, but without any of the social hangups. He could talk to anyone and impressed everyone. He was adored, and rightfully so, but he also marched to the beat of his own nunchucks, exclusively. You couldn’t bullshit him, and you couldn’t placate him unless he was genuinely fascinated with what you offered. This is how kids should be, insatiably curious and wild. It was my favorite era of his, and where we spent the most time together. I was such an asshole to him, and he still always hung out with me. And we followed each other into a lot of similar interests.

Then he got his first hit of testosterone, and followed a phase where he literally held a fist up in every photo taken of him. Ha. Puberty’s a bitch. That didn’t last long. Reality checked and he stabilized. The important thing is that he knew he wasn’t going to watch, he was going to play. I loved him here, jealously and from a further distance. I couldn’t hang.

Then maturity: The firm handshake, the direct eye contact, the bright teeth, the smiling cheeks. Approachable, but not daffy. If anything his charisma was a prank and shrewd tactic; a car salesman during the first act, a playful subversion before the intellect and wit made their debut; or, worse for you, they didn’t. You’d start talking to Arthur and think you were walking in on a frat-boy breakfast table, then he’d go on to tell you why your problem was really because of what Robert Moses did back in ‘56, or he’d ask if you thought the The States were in a similar stage of decadence as Rome before its fall.

To him, your reason was more important than your choice, which is an axiom of all good conversation, one that most people are afraid to admit because doing so requires the ability to tread water. It’s easier to talk about the weather or watch sports. But Arthur wasn’t afraid of going deeper, and he had the tact to know when it was the right thing to do.

He was a man of appetite. A true traveling gourmand. He could scoff at you from within a seersucker, but he never compared oysters. If a menu offered Seattle’s or Rhode Island’s, he’d reply, “keep ‘em coming” and demand littlenecks or (and) crawfish to follow. He was less interested in varieties of wine, more in varieties of tomato and whether you had a good coarse salt.

He was spoiled rotten — as we all were, and mostly by the same sources — but he lacked pretension, except for that deliberately wielded for ironic effect. Underneath all his developed and developing taste was a lot of comical stoicism — laughing at gross injustice and absurdity, but also doing something about it, literally. His principles were conjured up from experience with the trappings of pleasure, with readings of history, with a variety of surprisingly worldly stories. I always wondered where and how he got it all. The guy had seen things, but not that many things. How was he always so versed? I don’t know, but if you’ve ever watched him eat a box of clementines straight up, wide-eyed in a wrinkled rugby shirt, then you would also know he was more pensive than pleasure seeking.

Entertainment was a defense, one he was growing out of as he realized it interfered with his goals and their requirements. A defense against what? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the typical. On one hand, a lack of patience and a petulant refusal to be bored. On the other, the existential and solipsistic. A defense against the subconscious shame and pain of cynicism. Was love real? Was wealth worth anything? Was the world bogus? Was anyone authentic? Ethical? Himself? Others?

Look, I’m not saying he was overwhelmed with this gooey crap. He was a thinker, not a navel gazer. I don’t know if he even said any of this stuff out loud, but anyone with a brain is going to ask some questions about the life they’re living and the society they’re in, and most of us don’t like the first obvious answers we come up with. Then we do something about not liking those answers. We put fingers in our ears some of the time, we do what’s easy some of the time, and we do what’s difficult some of the time. And also, anyone with any talent is going to find themselves bored among the average, and falling short of their own standards. These were Arthur’s struggles, I think. At least, they’re kind of my struggles, and Arthur seemed to harmonize with me when we’d commiserate. Or maybe we were both pompous assholes, wannabe aristocrats from the suburbs. Or maybe that was just me. Ha.

To some, it might seem appropriate to haunt him here in this postscript, as if to justify his death as the terminal approach of a depression into cessation. Let me be clear: this was totally not the case, from my vantage. Instead, the above attitudes are more like the required cost-of-entry to a great show. If the unexamined life isn’t worth living, it does not mean the examined one is easy to live. The alternative is Judge Judy and a monogrammed armchair. Not for Arthur. Caulfield eventually quits his bitching, but he has to eat a lot of shit first. Siddhartha finally leaves the brothel, but he had to walk in that door in order to walk out of it later. Hard times are the prerequisite to epiphany. Painful and confusing; but hopeful, not despairing. 

And you could tell Arthur was among this company because the personas he employed became increasingly sophisticated, useful, attractive, and comfortable. From the brawling, pack-leading, indulgent, jokester/show-off into the relaxed, independent, luxurious, conversationalist who wasn’t as afraid to let his guard down, who was increasingly responsible. He was cultivated. He had a tamed self-consciousness (as we all aspire). It was impressive to watch him pull his own strings, to compare that with your own attempts and be humbled.

And thus, as I see it, the irony, hard to swallow, is that Arthur was finding answers to life’s hard questions in fistfuls. Love was possible. Work was worth it. Viktor Frankl was right. And he was learning patience and conviction, already better at their practice than most (e.g. me). As Dan put it, he was just taking off. He jumped and then a hand reached up from the almost escaped gravity and cut him by the heel.

A complete, but simple tragedy.

Complete, because the good guy lost. 

Simple, because Arthur’s life was not some melodramatic airport novel. His death was a lightning strike, a deus ex machina in reverse. A two sentence accident, not an assassination. Not much more to be read from it. Mortality is hard, right? (See: Genesis).

And for all my elaboration, I don’t even think Arthur was all that noxiously introspective or exceptionally self destructive either. The guy knew how to love and be loved. How to let his hair down, appropriately. How to shift gears and drive forward. How to resist temptation. How to find and be good company. How to stare at a fish tank. How to sit and read. How to eat fruit in the sun. He was typically bright, with a lot of flair and personality. I know he was grateful.

Or I’m wrong. Maybe I’m inventing a story to make sense of something more concealed or of pure chaos. I don’t know. I don’t think so.

In any case, it’s a tragedy. And regardless of what is true, I’m still glad I got to hear his story and be part of some of it. He was and remains a good influence to me, a fellow bright eyed boy attempting to sustain himself in the body of a straight-backed man. He’ll live on for a long, long time. And I keep talking to him.

That’s some of what I knew of him. And given this is my catharsis, forgive me further, but more about me:

Sadness, gratitude, and disappointment. 

I’m sad. Still? Yes. Always? Probably not. The inevitability of death hits a certain emotional bedrock after enough love is lost. I’m probably not there yet, still more distance to fall, but things are tapering off, in the aggregate. Maybe I’m just cold. 

Sadness is the least interesting. I am separated from someone I love, and that sucks. We all have people we’ve loved, and we are all damned to lose them. But yes, I get those black bile clutches to the chest as I’m reminded that Arthur (et al.) is gone. And I wanna hold your hand, if you’re feeling it too.

It’s a curse that requires gratitude. Time keeps on slipping, and the portion of time that one spends with good people is shorter still. I’m thankful for Arthur’s good company. From childhood to peerdom. This is what I’ll try and focus on. It’s the mantra I’ll repeat. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Then there’s the sulking disappointment. My head slowly shaking, my eyes unfocused contemplating the loss of the unpredictable conversations, the refreshingly interesting trivia, the uniqueness, the independence, the honed never impersonated taste, the great breadth of knowledge, the artful ball busting, the avoidance of cliches, the shared recommendations, the belly laughs. Obnoxious mutual indulgence — food and talk — during Thanksgiving at Stacy’s table, the shared past at Everit Ave, the just started planning. The feeling of a just missed answer to the question of how to get it back, continuously nagging.

More on that: I’m dealing with a huge mess of unanswerable questions and impotence. There’s so much broken by his leaving, least of all in me, and I can’t fix any of it. No way to organize it. I can’t even help others fix it. Acknowledging the impossibility of the situation seems better than ignoring it, so I will (…acknowledge that death breaks the world and makes inconsistent a lot taken as granted). Arthur’s death is an oily surreal void in the middle of the road. A portal to nowhere. And sure, life will go on. We will preserve. Time heals all wounds. That’s all true. But any schmuck can offer a platitude. I want to be responsible for what he’s left behind, in precise detail. I want to pick up the slack, fill in the blank. But what was his remains his, locked up behind whatever door his soul is now shut. It’s maddening.

I went so far as to tell Olivia that I was her brother, too, and that I would be there for her. Idiot. I love her, she knows I love her, I know she loves me. Yada, yada. I need no pity for my vomiting on the rug. My point is: I can’t be Arthur. I can’t even be close to Arthur. Adam — while still pretty good — isn’t a substitute for Arthur. I apologized for being so naive and sloppy, but the moment taught me what I was trying to say above: that I am ignorant of so much of Arthur’s life, and in ways that can’t be remedied by interviewing his friends or reading his book or wearing his shoes, sort of speak. A lot of it isn’t just unknown, it’s unknowable.

This requires more thought. Surely something can be done. Entropy can’t be rewound, but duct tape can keep a plane in the air. So here’s something I’m going to try: I’m going to be more vulnerable. I’m going to expose myself the way a brother or a son might, and see what happens. It won’t transform me into a replacement, and I’ll probably make a clown of myself. But it’s worth a shot. To build different connections, instead of replicas. I can already see that the cousins have been hammered stronger by this. Now it’s time to be deliberate, and keep that train going, if possible. And yea, I’ll do the practical stuff. You can’t call Barb, enough. And I’ll call Liv, too, but with finesse, without overdoing it. And the rest of our family, as well, because we all lost something. For some a spleen; for others, more vital organs.

Moving on.

It’s further maddening to have Arthur’s death aligned and intertwined with so much of my pleasure. I’m a week into marriage. I’m ecstatic and overwhelmed by the potential of my future. I’m also newly terrified of losing a child not yet even conceived. That’s a fun one. Probably a lot more neurosis to come. But, yea… it’s a violent set of waves to endure and ride. It’s exhilarating and crushing, and guiltily I’ll admit, more of the former. I’m pronoid.

The guilt compounds as I realize that I’m only comparing the conflict between my pleasure and pain, when the actual accounting includes my pleasure, my pain, and all the pain of all the others he left behind, those we both loved. What about Alexandra? Barb? Liv? Dan? A dominating, trailing factor; ego-hidden and selfishly deprioritized. What would Jesus do? Not have a wedding during shiva, although I appreciate all the encouragement and insistence from the also mourning invitees.

Back to Arthur and I having grown apart and then, more recently, back together:

There exists a line separating most relationships. On one side of the line you have people who have a reasonably complete model of you in their head. (See: Theory of Mind.) On the other side of the line are people who have a functional model; they know what they need to know to get the job done, but they don’t know, perhaps have never seen, the whole thing. For ex., a spouse vs a colleague (most of the time). 

The line is called intimacy, and relationships on both sides of the line can be valuable, but the intimate ones have more potential in both directions, fat tails; the intimate ones can yield fortunes and bankruptcies. Acquaintances are tepid.  

I described it above, how Arthur’s and my relationship moved from the intimate to the distant. I’ll skip further detailing that transition, and just get to the thing that hurts now: we were getting markedly closer, again. I could see the trajectory of our friendship and would bet on our returning to intimacy and confidence.

If the isolation of vocation and growth drives most bourgeois adults apart and into impersonal silos, then eventual mastery and plateau allows room for a focus on humanity, again. And humanity is universal and objective. People can stand on it, together, and get to know each other (again). That’s where I felt Arthur and I were.

I felt like Arthur and I had taken two separate tracks at a fork 15 years ago, and just recently those two roads started to merge back into the same path. We had stories to tell each other, of our time in the wild. It was the basis for a new bond, perhaps stronger than the old one.

Unsolicited phone calls. Talks of marriage, health, wealth. Suggestions of books and podcasts that were actually followed through with, instead of disappearing into the void like most cocktail party prescriptions. We’d follow back. Not rushing each other past awkward silence. Being patiently invested in one another. Showing up. Talking about vulnerable topics, like fears and aspirations for careers, and relationships, and family. And then, right during the peak of this rekindling, this jubilee, he died. And I doubt that I was the only one whose newfound growth and compatibility were cut short. You’re not alone.

So I hurt for the spent love, yes, like that of most grief. But I hurt more for the lost potential. I had so many fresh dreams that included him. It’s disappointing and sad.

To be clear, I’m disappointed in what’s lost, not disappointment in him. I blame him for nothing, even if maybe I should or others do. But any of his mistakes could have easily been mine, and so I sympathize. I’m not angry. Ambition implies risk. Vice is vice is inevitable. Growth means growth from something. Different contexts, need not apply.

Anyway, what else? The thing I linger on now is a weird faith. I have little faith or rather I have difficulty finding faith. I scrutinize faith until it’s demoralized. And yet, the discontinuity introduced by Arthur’s absence gives me faith, illogically but compellingly. I don’t strive for it, it’s simply there, point blank. I can’t explain it, but I can describe it.

Arthur is gone forever, and Arthur is part of my future. Both irrevocably true, yet incompatible. What to do about it? Apparently, not much. My mind absolutely and happily refuses to budge. The feeling that Arthur is part of my future supersedes the knowledge that he’s not. Knowing he’s gone does nothing to my belief that my future includes him. So it continues to. Sue me, I can’t help it.

See you in the funnies, Arthur. (More trivia: I never called him Artie or Art or Archo. He was always Arthur to me.)

Lastly, some good, more recent memories (skipping some that have already been shared):

The last thing I spoke to Arthur about was extensive advice, over the phone, on how to structure a prenup. “Don’t put anything about kids in there, because the courts won’t accept that you understood what you were agreeing to, prior to actually having the kids.” Smart. “Everyone should get one! The courts encourage it! Helps ungunk the works.” Ha. Kelly and I never got a prenup, but the candid advice on such a touchy subject makes me laugh.

Eating a whole pig at a communal table, biergarten style, at Saxon and Parole, in New York. Arthur talking the whole table’s ear off about everything, and then after discussing eating brains, we asked the chef to bring the pig’s over, and he did. Afterwards, walking to our trains, jolly, drunk.

Visiting Arthur in Scotland. Going out to some Uni warehouse party, and me getting lost with some bird. I didn’t have a working European phone, and so when I got home at dawn, seeing him and his big bravado looking like a worried mother goose made me laugh and proud, like a big brother again. Him cooking the two of us mussels and linguine with three whole heads of garlic. Delicious. Steak in Edinburgh, and him showing me the castles like he was himself a duke, personal friends of Hume and Smith.

I wished we went on more walks together.

Us planning on going to Joe Beef, in Montreal, with Alexandra and Kelly.

Him calling me to tell me Anthony Bourdain had died, and subsequently talking about it. “If he can’t make it, who can?” There’s that cynicism again. But it was a candid moment. And we ended that talk, more or less, believing we could make it, even if Bourdain couldn’t.

Discussing whether we were fated to end up like our parents. 

Him shooting the .38 up in Gilboa.

Legos, spanky, ice box bedroom, V8-turbo toilet, the pool, the trampoline, the screen porch and its green furniture, endless chicken rolls followed by cold pizza, karate in the basement (no shoes on the mats), rolling on the carpet (i.e. roll mosh), forts, the Barbie game on the gateway computer in Izzy’s room, Snood, army men in the mud ripping up sod by the square foot unit, jealousy listening to Timberlake camp stories, the suburban with 100 blankets in the third row and Don McLean on the radio, toxic farts, the Pokemon store, the Pokemon cards I’d steal from him after going to the Pokemon store, a million cups of Lipton at Barb’s table, Rage Against the Machine in Dan’s car, lanyards, fishing in the Hewlett Bay, Harry Potter, him never sleeping over my house and getting rides home at 2am after attempting to (me pissed), hiding in that lone pine tree in the front yard, making window art out glitter glue, salamanders, watching him attempt to ride a bike in the driveway.

A menial history, but ours. Anyway…

Arthur, you were great. It’s not for me to say that you’re now resting in peace, because I think you were pretty zen while you were alive, in your own pastel-colored kimono kind of way. So instead, I hope you’re as satisfied there as you were interested here. I’ll see you soon, and until then, I’ll try and hold the line for you. Love ya’.

[charminglatina]

The Secret Language Of Birthdays Profiles Of Riverdale Actors! (Part 2) (Proven to be 90%-100%!).

What Is Secret Language?

The Secret Language scientific personality and relationship reports have proven to be over 90% accurate after 21 years in use by millions of people in a dozen languages worldwide. Our data comes from Gary Goldschneider’s 40-year empirical study of the life stories of more than 20,000 people, analyzed by date of birth. Gary looked at 50 people born on your birthday and found the personality traits held in common by 45 of them. Then he created personality profiles from those traits for each day, week, month, season and year and further combined those profile names into the ultimate distillation of your personality - your Secret Language Name.

The Personality Periods

The forty-eight personality periods, made up of twelve cusps and thirty six weeks, are units between six and nine days in length. Personology predicts the personality characteristics of anyone born within these dates. In other words, those born in the same period will share certain predictable character traits. While this may not completely represent every individual, it is sufficient to provide an understanding of his or her basic energies. Extrapolating from the personology periods, it is possible to predict the nature of the relationship between any two people. Thus, The Secret Language Of Relationships combines each period of the year with itself and every other period to predict the nature of the resulting relationship. For example, a person born on March 31 falls into the Aries I period. This is the Week of the Child which symbolizes the freshness and openness of early childhood and of the spring season (lasting from March 25 to April 1). People born during this time are characterized by a childlike, enthusiastic orientation. This in contrast to a person born on November 10, who would be a Scorpio II (encompassing November 3 to 11). Born in the fall, which is symbolically likened to middle age, this week takes Depth as its central symbol. Thus, it becomes possible to consider the theoretical implications of an Aries I-Scorpio II relationship.

The Fourty-Eight Periods & Cusps

1. Pisces-Aries Cusp (Mar 19-Mar 24) – The Cusp Of Rebirth/Renewal

2. Aries I (Mar 25-Apr 02) – The Week Of The Child

3. Aries II (Apr 03-Apr 10) – The Week Of The Star

4. Aries III (Apr 11-Apr 18) – The Week Of The Pioneer

5. Aries-Taurus Cusp (Apr 19-Apr 24) – The Cusp Of Power

6. Taurus I (Apr 25-May 02) – The Week Of Manifestation

7. Taurus II (May 03-May 10) – The Week Of The Teacher

8. Taurus III (May 11-May 18) – The Week Of The Natural

9. Taurus-Gemini Cusp (May 19-May 24) – The Cusp Of Energy

10. Gemini I (May 25-Jun 01) – The Week Of Freedom

11. Gemini II (Jun 02-Jun 10) – The Week Of New Language

12. Gemini III (Jun 11-Jun 18) – The Week Of The Seeker

13. Gemini-Cancer Cusp (Jun 19-Jun 24) – The Cusp Of Magic

14. Cancer I (Jun 25-Jul 02) – The Week Of The Empath

15. Cancer II (Jul 03-Jul 10) – The Week Of The Unconventional

16. Cancer III (Jul 11-Jul 18) – The Week Of The Persuader

17. Cancer-Leo Cusp (Jul 19-Jul 25) – The Cusp Of Oscillation

18. Leo I (Jul 26-Aug 02) – The Week Of Authority

19. Leo II (Aug 03-Aug 10) – The Week Of Balanced Strength

20. Leo III (Aug 11-Aug 18) – The Week Of Leadership

21. Leo-Virgo Cusp (Aug 19-Aug 25)  – The Cusp Of Exposure

22. Virgo I (Aug 26-Sept 02) – The Week Of System Builders

23. Virgo II (Sept 03-Sept 10) – The Week Of The Enigma

24. Virgo III (Sept 11-Sept 18) – The Week Of The Literalist

25. Virgo-Libra Cusp (Sept 19-Sept 24) – The Cusp Of Beauty

26. Libra I (Sept 25-Oct 01) – The Week Of The Perfectionist

27. Libra II (Oct 02-Oct 10) – The Week Of Society

28. Libra III (Oct 11-Oct 18) – The Week Of Theater

29. Libra-Scorpio Cusp (Oct 19-Oct 25) – The Cusp Of Drama & Criticism

30. Scorpio I (Oct 26-Nov 02) – The Week Of Intensity

31. Scorpio II (Nov 03–Nov 11) – The Week Of Depth

32. Scorpio III (Nov 12–Nov 18) – The Week Of Charm

33. Scorpio-Sagittarius Cusp (Nov 19–Nov 24) – The Cusp Of Revolution

34. Sagittarius I (Nov 25–Dec 02) – The Week Of Independence

35. Sagittarius II (Dec 03–-Dec 10) – The Week Of The Originator

36. Sagittarius III (Dec 11-Dec 18) – The Week Of The Titan

37. Sagittarius-Capricorn Cusp (Dec 19-Dec 25) – The Cusp Of Prophecy

38. Capricorn I (Dec 26-Jan 02) – The Week Of The Ruler

39. Capricorn II (Jan 03- Jan 09) – The Week Of Determination

40. Capricorn III (Jan 10-Jan 16) – The Week Of Dominance

41. Capricorn-Aquarius Cusp (Jan 17-Jan 22) – The Cusp Of Mystery & Imagination

42. Aquarius I (Jan 23-Jan 30) – The Week Of Genius

43. Aquarius II (Jan 31-Feb 07) – The Week Of Youth & Ease

44. Aquarius III (Feb 08-Feb 15) – The Week Of Acceptance

45. Aquarius-Pisces Cusp (Feb 16-Feb 22) – The Cusp Of Sensitivity

46. Pisces I (Feb 23-Mar 02) – The Week Of Spirit

47. Pisces II (Mar 03-Mar 10) – The Week Of The Loner

48. Pisces III  (Mar 11-Mar 18) – The Week Of Dancers & Dreamers

Part 2 of birthday profiles of Riverdale actors under the cut!

Click here for Part 1. 

#7. Charles Melton (Capricorn II – Jan 03–Jan 09 – The Week Of Determination; Jan 04 – The Day Of Formulators)

Those born during the Week of Determination often have the drive and ambition necessary to reach the top of their profession. Whether or not they succeed, no one can fault them for not trying. Capricorn II’s are strivers, like the mountain goat who seeks out the highest crags. Once embarked on a course of action, they are extremely difficult to dissuade from their plans. No matter how great or modest their gifts, Capricorn II’s make the most of their abilities and stretch their talents to the outer edge of the envelope. Capricorns are as hard-headed, down-to-earth thinkers, but those born during the Week of Determination are often interested in theoretical, even metaphysical, religious or spiritual subjects and practices. Nor are their ideas in these areas at all conservative; they may, in fact, be rather radical. No idea is too strange or far out for them to at least consider, and they have an undeniable tendency to let their minds range over the broadest questions of cosmology and human existence. This philosophical bent, however, is usually based on fact and observation, for Capricorn II’s have little time for idle or ill-founded speculation. Capricorn II’s often appear tough and aggressive, but most are highly sensitive, perhaps hypersensitive, underneath. They react strongly to criticism, often with denial. Although acutely aware of the disapproval of others, however, they usually have the strength to continue along their path if they believe in their heart that they are right. Of course, there are also immoral Capricorn II’s who get away with as much as they can whether they can justify it or not, for they know something about power and how to wield it. They may be vulnerable to using slightly underhanded or unscrupulous methods. Even the more idealistic, who put their energies into serving a cause or organization, may wind up making questionable judgment calls. Classically, Capricorn II’s often believe the end justifies the means. They usually despise weakness in almost any form, and will not hesitate to use the deficiencies of those around them to their advantage. Such a person can only view personal failure as the ultimate humiliation. To say that Capricorn II’s are unprepared for failure is an understatement: for many born in the Week of Determination, in fact, admitting failure is not really a possibility. In their philosophy, defeat is only a temporary setback, and the very weapons that destroyed their project must be used to rebuild it. Letting go of or giving up on something can be extremely difficult in these circumstances. It may be years, then, before Capricorn II’s can free themselves of the baggage of the past they carry on their able shoulders. On the other hand, they are capable of taking big chances at crucial points in their lives, in this way appearing as those prototypes of success who dare to fail. In a strange way, Capricorn II’s are masters of both reality and illusion, for many are so persuasive that they can convince others that an illusion is in fact reality. If they come to believe in their own illusions, however, they may become ineffectual in that they lose their credibility with those around them. Thus a single good friend who refuses to be conned and has the courage to report what he or she has seen, honestly and objectively, may be the most valuable resource Capricorn II can have. In their personal lives, Capricorn II’s are happiest when they have a partner with whom to share the joys and sorrows of everyday life. They can live alone but most often choose not to do so. They may well insist, however, that their work is an inviolable area that they have no duty to share with their mate, who may get the idea that he or she occupies only second place in Capricorn II’s heart—that work comes first with these individuals. Consequently, they should avoid involvements with dependent types who need attention and are unable to keep their nose out of their mate’s business. It is not at all uncommon for Capricorn II’s to marry a spouse whose work has little, if anything, in common with what they do themselves. On the other hand, the friends of Capricorn II’s are often colleagues, or at least work on similar pursuits. Extremely close relationships may develop with such individuals, and mates must accept this or face unhappiness, jealousy or feelings of rejection. Many Capricorn II’s come to lead three quite separate and mutually exclusive lives: their work life, their social life and their intimate personal life. They may have no interest in integrating these areas, and, indeed, it is often unnecessary for them to do so. Extremely resourceful, they are good at making the best of a bad situation. This and their loyalty enable them to hang in there for years trying to make a difficult or even somewhat undesirable relationships work out. What motivates them is less sympathy with or understanding of their partner than a refusal to admit failure. A Capricorn II can be extremely devoted not so much to a person as to the relationship itself, and to a belief in the concept of marriage or living together. As realistic as they are, Capricorn II’s are often seen as idealistic and even at times naive. Naiveté, in fact, can be considered their Achilles’ heel, but also may be a reason for others to love or feel fondness or sympathy for them. Being vulnerable and admitting to weakness is essential to sharing love, and many handicap themselves by maintaining a strong facade.

Those born on January 4 have a natural talent for solving all sorts of problems. Most often this gift is of a technical nature. Those born on this day specialize in examining a situation and summing up what is wrong with it in a terse, concise style. By being able to formulate what others find it difficult to conceptualize they put themselves in great demand. January 4 people often have a practical knack for accomplishing tasks with a minimum of effort. But they also have imaginative ideas which can be far-reaching as well. Their imagination is rarely of a highly fanciful variety, however, and generally has a solid basis in everyday reality. January 4 people may thus be of the fortunate few who dream up schemes that actually work. More highly evolved January 4 people follow through on their ideas, developing a sequential process, from observation to formulation to implementation, and once this approach is mastered by them it can be applied over and over again in the future. January 4 people are natural collectors of all sorts of things, not only physical objects but facts and detailed information as well. They like to surround themselves with books, tools, materials and other useful paraphernalia, so that they can have it within hand’s reach when needed. Those born on this day are very direct, and do not specialize in idle speculation. Conversation is something they enjoy in a social sense, but it must have some meaning or purpose if it is to hold their interest for very long. Generally January 4 people are highly organized. They can drive others crazy with their insistence on order, whether it be a demand for mental clarity or orderly arrangement of their physical surroundings. It seems that to understand almost anything, including human emotions, they must apprehend them within a certain formal framework. Due to such an orientation they may be at odds with those who prefer to take their cue from emotions or intuition. This is particularly true in regard to love relationships. Similarly, though January 4 people can make excellent parents and providers, they also can arouse resentment from their children because of their dominance and control. They must remember that there is no single correct way to live and that if they let up a bit on their children and mates, they will allow everyone concerned to be freer and more themselves. Because of their own highly characteristic mode of operating, January 4 people are usually recognized as individuals who have their own distinct style. Not only in their thought but also in their dress and manner they are very much their own person. For this reason it may be difficult for them to take orders for very long, and although they can be very good at working with a team or as a valued member of an organization, most born on this day ultimately will want to form their own business or company. As artists, craftspeople or self-employed workers they are motivated enough to be highly productive. As a Capricorn born on this day, you are a very hardworking person. In fact, you work so hard that you are easily the most diligent person in most work groups you find yourself in. In fact, those teams should count themselves lucky to have you as a member. Not surprisingly, this ability to focus on a goal and keep working until that goal becomes a reality gives you a tremendous sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. You are able to make things happen because you simply do not believe in stopping short. You believe in putting everything you’ve got at a goal until you are satisfied with the results. You stop at nothing when trying to achieve an objective. You also are not very random when it comes to doing things. You tend to follow a system, and this system enables you to work in a very effective and efficient manner. The wasted energy is a personal tragedy to you. Make sure that every step you take results in maximum payoffs. Otherwise, you’re not going to take that step. You would look for alternatives. You also think before you speak. You pay attention to different alternatives before taking a particular action. You tend to be very conservative in your outlook. A lot of people would say that you are gun-shy when it comes to relationships. A lot of people might even criticize you for taking a long time to commit. The reason for this is the fact that you take relationships extremely seriously. The moment you give your word, you basically give away your life. It’s very hard to shake you off. Once you commit to a person or a relationship, you are pretty much committed for life. You hate people who change their minds like they change their clothes. You are the type of person that gives their word, and their word is almost unstoppable. Not surprisingly, you make for an excellent life partner. Despite what your partner is going through, you can always be counted on to be loyal, dependable, and be a good provider for your family. This applies to both women and men. You are very devoted and you are not one to back out of your responsibilities. Your tendency to overcommit can help you, but it can also burn you. Why? There are many people you should not commit to. These people are users. In many cases, they cheat behind you. They often take and take without giving anything back.Be aware of these people. Unfortunately, people born on January 4 tend to remain loyal even though they should let go. Understand that there’s a big difference between hanging on due to love, and hanging on due to pride. Know the difference. People born on the 4th of January tend to focus on the tried and proven. They know that in any kind of issue related to their career, there’s always a tried and proven track. Their job is to figure it out and stick to it. It’s like a script for their career or business. Not surprisingly, they often find themselves handsomely rewarded. While they might not necessarily be the sharpest people in the room or the most emotionally diplomatic, they always find a way to get to the top. Why? They stick to a project long after everybody else has given up. This level of perseverance and commitment makes them look like rock stars in almost any project lucky enough to have them. As far as career choices go, people born on January 4 make for great business leaders or managers. People born on the 4th of January are extremely practical people. They focus on what’s ahead and they put a lot of energy in coming up with creative yet effective and efficient solutions. This doesn’t mean that they are pioneers. This doesn’t mean that they are free-willing, free thinkers. They have a tough time thinking outside the box.Instead, they think along tracks, so to speak. They look at scripts. They look at tried and proven patterns, and focus on those. While they may make certain modifications, they’re still all too predictable as far as their preferred options go. With that said, once they have selected a path, they can be relied on to put in whatever work is needed, and to go for however long is required to achieve the goal. Not surprisingly, they are organized, efficient, and also diligent. If there is any one downside to people born on January 4, it is their tendency to believe that their way is the best. This can cause all sorts of unnecessary trauma to people they work with. They can be very critical and overwhelmingly domineering of people who happen to disagree with their way of doing things. People born on this day have an exemplary level of self-discipline. You are the poster child of self-control and self-discipline. This enables you to get the job done, regardless of how intimidating it looks, and regardless of how many moving parts and complications it has. You don’t care. Once you focus on something, it gets done.Interestingly enough, the way you choose to do things is often the hardest and most intimidating way. In other words, you look at a tried and proven approach that other people have used, instead of something innovative and highly efficient.Innovation tends to confuse you. It often leads you to chasing your tail. This is why you’d rather focus your tremendous amount of dedication and perseverance doing things in a less seductive way.Not surprisingly, people find you dependable, loyal, and charming. You make for a good family man or woman. You’re a very cautious person. You don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. In many cases, you have a permanent poker face.People have a tough time reading you. This is due to the fact that you don’t open up very quickly. You’re also highly suspicious of other people’s motives. You’re always trying to figure out what their agenda is. In many cases, you tend to stick to a course of action, long after it’s become clear that there are more efficient and effective ways to do things. You also tend to take things to extremes. In fact, in your zeal to overdo things, you start coming off as insensitive to the needs of others. Your critics often call you ruthless and heartless. People born specifically on the 4th of January can be rather serious natured but at the same time have a great sense of humor. Like the Capricorn Goat symbol that represents your star sign you are a good mix of strong and protective yet kind and caring. The astrological planet designated to this particular day is Uranus and creates conscientious personalities who are usually goal orientated. If you have this birthday you crave success and like to see things through to the end. You will be stressed by and loathe leaving anything unfinished. Individual’s with a January the fourth birthday tend to be described as dependable and fun but also sometimes overly demanding emotionally. Your quick witted charm and your need to be loved make you not as distant and guarded as other typical Capricorns. You have a touch more compassion and you present yourself as approachable putting others at ease in your company. Career choice is not particularly important to a person born on the fourth of January although they are usually quite ambitious. You will probably be undecided on what type of work you want to do until you have experienced several different jobs. Your versatility and dependability allow you to turn your hand to most tasks. Individuals with this birth date are believed to have a fortunate influence looking after their finances. While this luck on the financial side will be beneficial in life you should be careful not to be tempted by opportunities to take unnecessary gambles with money. In relationships the person born on the fourth day of January can be somewhat reserved in the early stages. As you do not wish to appear to need a soul mate you often hold back your emotions for quite a while. Once you learn to trust someone you will slowly begin to reveal your true self and let your guard down a little. As a committed partner you are supportive and practical and will want to be best friends above all else. You can be incredibly warm, devoted and sensual towards your other half and they must of course share your belief in being totally faithful. When in a long term personal relationship you are at your happiest and do not enjoy being unattached. Becoming a parent will allow you to further develop the ease of the expression of your inner feelings and evoke your fun loving characteristics. Those born on January 4th generally have good health if they can manage to keep stress levels down. You really love your food and will often have a keen interest in cooking and experimenting with different recipes. Your diet should be healthy enough but you can be a little lax when it comes to getting adequate physical exercise. You are advised to listen more carefully to your instincts and the messages your body tells you. You should avoid getting stressed out as it can have negative effects resulting in migraines or skin irritations as well as bouts of low mood or a bad temper. Your main strengths of character that will help you progress in life are your commonsensical approach to things and your wittiness. These sensible but humorous qualities and your shy but friendly temperament are sure to gain you many loyal friends. On the negative side those born on January 4th are prone to be occasionally too opinionated. You can sometimes be intolerant of certain people or situations and nothing will change your mind. Your stubbornness is your main weakness as it can prevent you forming an accurate judgment of circumstances so you need to tame it to flourish. Being born on the 4th of January means you are easily bored so you like to ideally structure your daily routines with plenty of variety. You do not like mundane things and will often use your imagination to escape, and daydream, when having to cope with monotonous tasks. Your wishes for the future are usually based on ensuring that you are self sufficient financially as you are full of pride and hate relying on others for your income. Your levelheadedness and expert organizational skills give you an abundance of talents useful in business. Staring your own enterprise should be a serious consideration. As you were born on the fourth day of the month your date of birth has a Root number of Four. Your birthday’s number reference has the keyword ‘Honesty’ and highlights your sincere personality and straightforward outlook. The tarot card linked to your birthday is the 4th card in the Major Arcana known as the Emperor. This is a symbol of stability, wisdom and the gift of strong willpower and shows the strength of your determined spirit. The gemstone bringing the most luck for January the fourth birthdays is Topaz. If worn this powerful gem is thought to increase your confidence and luck. Saturn is the celestial body that influences all Capricorns giving them their typical responsible but fun attitude. The actual day, the fourth of January, when you were born is influenced by the planet Uranus. So it is a combination of these two planetary forces that have determined your collection of unique traits and thought processes. Your sincerity and dry wit make you a likeable person who can be relied upon to brighten the moods of others. If you are able to learn to be a bit more flexible in your opinions you can develop a greater understanding of the differences between us. An ending thought for people born on January the 4th is that you should always respect and not disregard things that are obscure.

#8. Casey Cott (Leo II – Aug 03–Aug 10 – The Week Of Balanced Strength; Aug 08 – The Day Of Formulators)

Leo II’s are solid and tough and do not back down from challenges; in fact, they thrive on them, and are often at their best when facing problems and difficulties. Although drawn toward experiences that hold an element of danger, they are usually not foolhardy enough to attempt the impossible. Realists, they are well aware of their limitations, which they may stretch to the limit if necessary but will rarely try to overleap. Fixed attitudes characterize them, so it will take a great deal of patience and persistence to get them to change their mind. Leo II’s pride themselves on their ability to spot phoniness and nonsense, and are particularly critical of metaphysical ideas not strongly grounded in the here and now. Leo II’s generally exercise tremendous powers of concentration, but through their fixation on their object they may lose the peripheral vision necessary for keeping in touch with their surroundings. In a related problem, their reliance on logical reasoning can detract from what may well be their best suit—that is, their capacity for strong hunches and their intuitive strengths. These traits may lead them to get out of touch with reality while at the same time remaining convinced of their rightness—a dangerous combination. Gifted with endurance and tenacity, Leo II’s hang in there for the duration. The upside of this character trait is their intense loyalty and devotion; the downside is a streak of masochism—a tendency, for example, to suffer while trying to hold a romance, marriage or business together. They can continue in an unhappy or stressful relationship for years without undue complaint, patiently seeking ways to make it work. Although they would sometimes do better by quitting, they will usually refuse to take the easy way out, and they may have little respect for those who lack their level of commitment. When long-standing relationships that have proven unsatisfactory finally do collapse, perhaps due to a stroke of fate, or to the partner’s unwillingness to continue, Leo II’s have a tendency to sink into depression. Too often they blame themselves. A long period of grieving may be necessary before they are once again able to function well. They can certainly be their own worst enemies. Those born during the Week of Balanced Strength exude power and self-confidence when their prodigious energies meld, but these same energies also get out of control and can threaten to tear them apart. At such times they make a piteous sight. Alcohol or drug binges and borderline or outright criminal activities can all be the evidence of Leo II energies running amok. Keeping balanced is less an ideal for them to attain than an absolute condition for their healthy survival. The children and friends of Leo II’s can be severely jolted if these normally reassuring presences disintegrate. Thus Leo II desire to be a protector of the weak and a friend to the underdog can backfire. Those born in the Week of Balanced Strength do well in highly structured situations of their own making, situations in which they are at the helm. They periodically feel an acute need to withdraw into a private place, however, and sometimes to a strictly isolated one. The problem here is an accompanying tendency to nurse hurts and slights, and in extreme cases to manifest paranoia. Developing an accepting attitude and working to diminish dogmatic and intolerant thought are essential to their mental health.  For the most part, Leo II’s are extraordinarily faithful people. They see themselves as champions of the downtrodden and protectors of the weak. They despise exclusion and condescension and, for this reason, generally side with the common person rather than the privileged. It is not that they do not have an ability to mix well with a variety of social classes; rather, they dislike insincerity or pretension. In their toughness, Leo II’s are able to withstand many disappointments. They usually weather the storm and win out through knowing how to wait, “having the long breath.” They like being independent, but nonetheless tend to build a well-defined life in which they exert maximum power with a minimum of fuss. Those involved with Leo II’s, whether as co-workers, employees, family, mates or friends, know that they must not be pushed or prodded when in a negative frame of mind but, rather, must be left alone to work things out for themselves. Leo II’s also sometimes accused of insensitivity. This is more often a result of their being preoccupied than of a lack of understanding on their part, for many are psychologically astute; yet although they can comprehend another person’s emotional state, they may feel no need to sympathize with it. Leo II’s are not especially empathic with those around them, and are capable of a stony detachment. Many find emotional matters simply too messy to get involved in, a response that is sometimes traceable to unpleasant childhood experience. When the parent, child or lover of a Leo II is of a more feeling type, conflict can result. Being straightforward and unpretentious themselves, those born during the Week of Balanced Strength dislike people who put on airs. Nothing excites their often uncontrollable temper more than insincerity, lying or disingenuousness. Leo II anger and hotheadedness can weaken the psychological balance on which their strength depends. Those closest to these intense individuals know how to use sensual persuasion and a fun-loving outlook to keep their partners happy.

Those born on August 8 manifest a strong desire to play numerous and varied roles in their lives. This should not be interpreted to mean that they are flighty people who shift gears easily, hopping from one career to another. Each change, each new role is painstakingly studied so that success may be assured. Those born on this day usually have a strong desire for professional recognition and stand a good chance of success unless their career choice has been highly unrealistic or poorly suited to their character.  It may well be astonishing to others, and even to August 8 people themselves to realize just how fully they have played a given role, particularly when looking back on life from a later vantage point, or after subsequent changes. But as they are highly realistic and responsible, August 8 people generally only move on to a new role once they feel the previous one has been fully played out or satisfied. Mothers who transform into working women, men who change their company or occupation even when successful, children who seem like two different people depending on which family member they are spending time with are all typical models of the adaptability found on this birthday. Should those born on this day be performers or creative artists they will generally be involved in widely varied styles and modes of expression. Those August 8 people who fail at a particular endeavor most often remain undaunted and just pick up and move on to the next job or backtrack to a career which they may have temporarily neglected. However, most highly developed individuals born on this day do not allow a desire for change and varied interests to dissipate their energies; they are therefore loath to involve themselves in more than one project simultaneously if they feel the nature of their commitment is compromised. In the same way, they make faithful mates, business partners, parents and friends. Usually when August 8 people head in a wrong direction or go off the track, they remain open to helpful advice (which is somewhat notable for such stubbornly determined people); thus their closest friends and love mate are invaluable to them at such times. Ultimately, however, after weighing all reasonable points of view, August 8 people generally make independent and rather fixed decisions. In order to keep themselves happy, those born on this day should introduce all sorts of diversity into their daily life. Their egos must be kept under control, however, and goals realistic. A healthy desire for security will contribute stability to their career and lifestyle. Other people tend to think that success comes easily to people born on August 8 because they appear to be naturally good at everything they do. Their success, however, is the result of their sharp intellect and strong work ethic. It is also a result of their exceptional versatility and ability to learn new skills from scratch. Although they are versatile and will probably play many roles and sample many careers in their lives, they are not flighty by nature. Quite the opposite, in fact; when they are engaged in a particular project their focus is intense and their discipline inspirational. It is just that when they have learned all they feel they can learn or gained the recognition they feel they deserve, they like to move on to the next challenge, even if it is totally unrelated to the one they devoted themselves to previously. This ability to change direction and immerse themselves in different projects both confuses and surprises others, especially when these people change direction when they appear to be at the height of their success or capability. Until the age of forty-four there is an emphasis in their lives on order, problem solving and being more discriminating with their time and energy. It is particularly important during this period that their versatility does not lead them to make career or life choices that are unrealistic or simply unsuitable. After the age of forty-four there is a significant turning point which stimulates their need for balance and harmony, and heightens their awareness of partnerships and relationships in general.During this period in their lives the key to their happiness will be to develop more emotional depth and find ways to stamp their individuality on the world around them. Having said that, they should not try to suppress their characteristic versatility because, once they find a cause that is worthy of them, their affinity with diversity and love of fresh challenges will continue to be the key to their success. The all-round excellence of people born on August 8 may be intimidating to partners and friends alike, so for success in long-term relationships they need to ensure they allow others to see their vulnerable human qualities as well as their super-capable ones. In a relationship they work for harmony but they can become quarrelsome if they feel insecure. Learning to be more patient with others will help smooth over problems. Without realizing it, people born on this day are likely to push themselves very hard and they need to understand that even they need to take a step back and unwind every so often. Sticking to a regular sleep, exercise and meal routine will help them feel more secure, especially when they are going through one of their many life transitions. They are often very physical and sensuous individuals, and sports of all kinds are recommended. Weight problems, especially around the middle, could be a problem later in life but they can handle this by eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, and cutting down on the amount of refined foods they eat and the amount of stress in their lives. Time spent relaxing with friends and loved ones will help keep them on an even keel, and wearing, meditating on or surrounding themselves with the color yellow will increase their creative confidence. These inquisitive, imaginative and energetic people have an affinity for sporting or artistic careers, but they may also be drawn to theater, the world of media and entertainment, advertising, business, politics, and tourism. Because they are multi-talented, many careers will appeal to them and there are likely to be many changes, but their love of change means they will always be happiest in flexible careers. The life path of people born on this day is to find ways to stamp their individuality on all that they do. Once they are able to make their goals realistic and attainable, their destiny is to challenge convention with their versatility and ability to make even the hardest of challenges appear easy. People born specifically on the 8th of August are presumed to be highly practical, persistent and commonsensical with an abundance of the usual Lion leadership skills. The astrological planet that rules over this particular day is Saturn making you focused, precise with a great imagination and a craving for diversity. If you have this birthday your realistic and responsible approach grants you a strong sense of purpose, lots of self discipline and a preference to take charge. Undaunted by obstacles you are usually creative, adaptable and open to advice despite tending to make independent fixed decisions. Trustworthy and generous you are very ambitious, hard working, full of determination and especially good at dispelling your energies positively. Individuals with an August the seventh birthday are quite reliable but may have a bit of difficulty expressing their feelings and can also be occasionally hypocritical, stubborn and opinionated too. Career routes are often easily chosen to a person born on the eighth of August due to your high levels of ambition and disciplined attitude. Your responsibility, intellect and adaptability guide you to be particularly skilled at motivating others so managerial positions could be popular options. You are determined to succeed in your chosen job and are usually prepared to work hard for the chance of promotion. When it comes to monetary matters it is rare for you to make mistakes or get into serious debt. You are ordinarily excellent at saving and likely to be lucky with financial investments. For a Leo, the person born on the eighth day of August is typically warmhearted with a need for regular affection and approval from a lover. Incredibly close friendship is important to you in a relationship and you tend to prefer a partner who is open and not afraid to disclose their deepest feelings. Naturally romantic, sincere and devoted you have traditional views on love and romance and will usually be a strong believer in marriage. Considerate and dependable in general you are still proud like most Leo's but your ego is often much more fragile than the majority of your zodiac counterparts. You require a soul mate on the same page intellectually who can cope with your occasional bossy or demanding behavior. A perfect partner must also share your red hot passion and lusty sex drive and be sexy, imaginative and adventurous between the sheets. Healthiness experienced by those born on August 8th is usually maintained by your sensible approach to looking after body and mind. This common sense attitude directs you to ensure that your diet is normally adequate and nutritious but you may be a little lazy concerning the right amount of exercise. If you let this shortfall in your efforts to stay healthy continue it could have an adverse effect on your health. People born on this day should ideally include some form of exercise within their daily routine in order to maintain shape and suppleness as well as expelling excess stress. Your main strengths of character are observable in your versatile, multi-talented and rational manner and courses of action. These fortes of purposeful practicality, preciseness and your enterprising creativity give you everything you need to do anything you really wish to do in life. A keenness to save and try to channel your energy in positive ways are additional favorable traits. The personality weaknesses for those born on August 8th stem from your negative tendency to every now and then be a bit of a hypocrite. A temporary obstinate stance and intransigent views are common weak characteristics. Being born on the 8th of August gives you a proneness to want to lead others and this helps with giving you the motivation to be successful in life. You appear to tackle any goals you set yourself in step by step methods. Your expert planning and skill at overcoming setbacks makes it unlikely to consider shortcuts or the option of easier challenges. Dreams are often full of fantasy and vision as a result of your love of variety and mystery beside your heightened ability to imagine creatively. Any special wishes you have will probably feature in some of the scenes and themes of your dreaming. As you were born on the eighth day of the month your birth date favors you with a Root number of Eight. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Leader' indicating your likelihood to not follow others by express your independence instead. In Tarot the 8th card in the Major Arcana deck illustrating Courage is associated with your birthday. This highlights the strength of your spirit, precision and persistence. The luckiest precious gem for August the eighth birthdays is believed to be a Black Pearl, wearing one should attract good fortune and assist you to repel negativity. The principal influence astrologically on the probabilities of Leo personalities is imagined to be our Sun. The actual day you were born on, the eighth of August, is governed by the celestial body Saturn's authority. Therefore the influences of these 2 planets help determine your probable basic temperament qualities. Your admirable conscientious efficiency and responsible realism help you keep your feet firmly on the ground and concentrate your intentions on worthwhile endeavors. Your purposeful honesty, dependability and generosity make you an overall pleasant, reliable and kind person to know. You should consider remembering to think before you speak if you hope to avoid being overly hypocritical or uncompromising. A final advisory thought for people born on August the 8th is to aim to remain adaptable and flexible for the opportunity to increase your wisdom and understanding letting you follow the most fortunate directions.

#9. Ashleigh Murray (Capricorn-Aquarius Cusp – Jan 17–Jan 22 – The Cusp Of Mystery & Imagination; Jan 18 – The Day Of Formulators)

The vivid and expressive individuals born on the Capricorn-Aquarius Cusp generate excitement wherever they go. Unable to keep out of the action for very long, they make their presence felt almost immediately upon entering a room. Their viewpoints tend to be controversial, and whether conservative or radical, are highly stimulating, often because of the dramatic way they are delivered. Capricorn-AQUARIUS’ interest in the poor and downtrodden is more than theoretical: most of them will not hesitate to make direct contributions of time, money or energy to help anyone less fortunate than themselves. At the same time, however, they have little sympathy for those they see as freeloaders or parasites, able to pull their own weight but refusing to do so. There is structure and a feeling of responsibility to Capricorn-Aquarius personalities, but their unpredictable energy may tend to break this order apart at any moment. It is not uncommon for Capricorn-Aquarians to have wide mood swings; they can appear sensible and reasonable one moment, uncontrolled the next. Capricorn-Aquarians can get pretty wild, so it is not surprising that violence can feature in their lives, whether they attract it or enact it. Chaotic, out-of-control energies can produce tremendous unrest in their lives. Their regard for their personal safety is usually not high, a trait they may reinforce with a daredevil nature—a deadly or at least dangerous combination. A disregard for their health in general, and an insistent confidence that their prodigious energies will bail them out, time and time again, can wear them down over the years, or induce chronic physical conditions. Concerned mates and lovers may have a hard time, for example, weaning them away from heavy drinking and smoking. Capricorn-Aquarians have a pronounced dark side. Not ones to keep anger inside for very long, they can explode in fits of temper that will send others scurrying. The image of a furious Capricorn-Aquarius hell-bent on punishment is at tremendous variance with the face they present when enjoying themselves and having fun. More than most, they can be at the mercy of their demons, so that their outbursts of temper are truly spontaneous. Because they are rarely calculating, it is hard to blame them for their tremendous mood swings, which are usually forgiven, though not easily forgotten, by those closest to them. Even the most settled and conventional of Capricorn-Aquarians will often have an active dream and fantasy life. They lead a kind of Walter Mitty existence, with few guessing the extent of their interior life or the degree of its inventiveness. Everyday situations can prove the springboard for bizarre mental gyrations, in which the Capricorn-Aquarian becomes the central character in an imaginary world. These flights of fancy rarely indicate pathological states–quite to the contrary, they show how important being in touch with one’s fantasy life can be for mental health. Capricorn-Aquarians love to tell and play jokes. Their mates, friends and family must not only understand but appreciate this need if they are to be kept happy. It isn’t always easy, however, to keep up with Capricorn-Aquarians, who may one moment be dealing seriously with day-to-day problems, the next exploding in riotous laughter. They also have a conventional side that can make them extremely exacting: they generally expect all family members to do their duty and discharge their obligations to the fullest. They can only fully respect people who share daily chores and duties with them fairly. Capricorn-Aquarians often seek hard-working, dependable mates rather than beautiful or intelligent ones. Outside their permanent or primary relationship, however, the impulsive Capricorn-Aquarius may be magnetically attracted to vivacious and exciting individuals, or to quieter but still passionate types. Their sexual powers are usually high, and their interest in sex is pronounced. When they stray, they suffer to an extent from guilt, but this can lend extra spice to their indiscretions. Although they may attach little importance to such flings, their partner may not be so understanding, and deep, long-lasting hurts may be inflicted. In their sexual and other escapades, Capricorn-Aquarians exhibit an immature side, like Peter Pan, who refused to grow up. Youthfulness is, in fact, one of the most obvious of Capricorn-Aquarius qualities. Those born during the Week of Mystery & Imagination do not necessarily age well; many risk burnout in their tumultuous lifestyles, others deteriorate through neglect or abuse of their bodies. Haste and carelessness may not only wear them down physically but contribute to psychological instability. On the other hand, those Capricorn-Aquarians lucky enough to have a stable support group, whether in family, friends or, a mate, can have it all, establishing the many facets of their personalities. Capricorn-Aquarians who live alone may, in fact, build up great inner strength through dealing with the most difficult and elusive customer they have ever met—themselves.

Those born on January 18 are never far removed from their childlike and playful selves. They may be chided from time to time for being naive, but rarely can they be criticized for being calculating, avaricious or opportunistic. Those born on this day are very much tuned in to what comes naturally. They enjoy having fun, but are not particularly fond of weighty matters. Indeed, they may suffer greatly when demands of the adult world are imposed on them. Consequently, the greatest challenge for January 18 people is to mature into an adult role but preserve their sense of playfulness. January 18 people usually make excellent parents themselves. They have a natural understanding of what pre-adolescent children like. They may, however, have a great deal of trouble with their own parents, particularly during their adolescence and late teens. Departing from childhood is often tragically difficult for January 18 people, and their parents must be extremely sensitive to their transitional needs, particularly in not laying heavy adult pressures on them too soon, or insisting that they abruptly give up childlike habits. Such demands will only foment discord and plant seeds of rebellion. January 18 people like to keep life light but also demand a heavy dose of excitement and adventure to keep them stimulated. When they are unable to find peak experiences in their daily lives, they may retreat to a fantasy world where everything is allowed and everything possible. Since their joys and interests are then internalized, they may unfortunately come to give up more and more on the outer world, in extreme cases withdrawing into their original childhood realm.  More highly evolved January 18 people are able to first sublimate and then project their fantasies out on the world, not only summoning up peak experiences but also developing ideas, creating original products or perhaps just manifesting a highly unique outlook and approach to the art of living. Where love is concerned, January 18 people tend to attract more practical, down-to-earth types who perhaps feel gratified by an awakening of their own childlike nature. A successful relationship of this kind inevitably provides a deep sense of security for both January 18 people and their more grounded partner, and is thus very heavily based on mutual trust and sharing. Generally speaking, January 18 people may be happy even when working in mundane jobs, as long as they have free time which is absolutely their own to enjoy as they please. However, for the reasons stated earlier, it is best for them when they can integrate their more fanciful side in a creative or stimulating work environment. Without such stimulation, those born on this day may experience difficulties concentrating, especially when performing tasks of a repetitive nature, and may even be caught flagrantly daydreaming. The imaginative and creative powers of people born on January 18 can lead them to extraordinary heights. They have a quick wit that can delight others, and their company and irreverent opinions are always in demand. In fact they often attract other people like a magnet.Optimistic, trusting and childlike in nature, the only things that can bring down these friendly souls are rules, regulations and authority. Although they have boundless energy and drive, and love interacting with people, they don’t tend to thrive in a team or in a mundane job, unless they are one hundred percent committed. They place an extremely high value on independence of thought and action; this can lead to reckless behavior and a stubborn refusal to conform. This trait is evident in both childhood and adulthood, and all the normal procedures for dealing with their rebellion don’t tend to work; they will simply withdraw even more as a result. They need to find an environment in which their need for freedom is respected, and once they do find that their gratitude, loyalty and devotion to it will be immense. They also need to make sure that they find ways to express their playful and friendly side, and their original sense of humor, as this will help them keep bitterness at bay.People born on this day can become bored quickly, losing their concentration and retreating into a world of fantasy or fits of temper if their needs aren’t being met or becoming restless and impatient if they feel too confined by responsibilities. They need to learn to find ways to deal more appropriately with a situation; this kind of emotional maturity tends to emerge in their early thirties, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Asking them to be more realistic simply isn’t an option—the way forward is for them not to deny their fantasies but to find ways to positively integrate their innovative ideas and extraordinary insights into their lives. By so doing they will be able to make not just their own lives—but those of all they touch—truly magical. Those with this birthday tend to throw themselves deeply into relationships and adore spending all their time with their loved ones. Some partners may find this too suffocating and this can deeply hurt those January 18 people to the extent that they hold back too much in future relationships. They often possess the fear that they will not find a soul mate who also wants to throw themselves into a relationship, but in the majority of cases they are successful. Those born on this day need to be careful that they don’t disappear into a dreamland by experimenting with mood-altering substances. They can keep their energy levels and their mood constant by getting plenty of sleep and engaging in regular exercise. Because they live so much in their heads, they also need to be careful that they don’t forget to eat regular meals and snacks. They need to keep their feet firmly on the ground with plenty of outside hobbies and interests; wearing and meditating on earthy colors such as brown and green will help them feel more grounded. These people have vast creative potential and if a field interests them they are likely to be successful in it. Once they learn how to combine their creativity with practical ability, the fields of advertising or fashion may appeal, as might the world of business, property development and banking. Their idealism may also draw them toward teaching, medicine and charity work; the dramatic side of their nature that enjoys entertaining others may draw them toward the arts, film, music, media and theater. The life path of people born on this day is to help others see the magic in almost any situation. Their destiny is not just to delight with their flights of fantasy but also to encourage others to take a bold, original and creative perspective on life. People born specifically on the 18th of January are believed to be very strong minded and serious but with a zany sense of humor. Like your zodiac sign of the typical Capricorn Goat you are full of determination and ambition. The astrological planet that rules this particular day is Mars creating personalities that know what they want and just go for it. If you have this birthday you have a good head for business and are excellent at noticing money generating opportunities. Although you are enthusiastically enterprising you are not driven by materialistic things. Individuals with a January the eighteenth birthday usually find it easy and natural to take charge but they are seldom bossy. You prefer to utilize your firmness and motivation to fight just causes as you get great satisfaction from helping others. On the outside you may appear a little distant emotionally but underneath you are a genuine warm and caring person. Success is not all about money to a person born on the Eighteenth of January even though they are exceptionally career orientated. You have a lot of faith in your abilities and enough confidence within yourself to achieve most things you set your mind to. You can seem to be egotistical in this area but it will not be for selfish monetary reasons as you are generous natured with your finances. Despite the fact that you love luxuries you can live quite happily without them if you need to. This un-frivolous attitude allows you to be someone who almost always has something put away for unexpected expenses. Typical of a Capricorn the person born on the eighteenth day of January is cautious and cool concerning affairs of the heart. You will usually keep your true feelings locked up until you are absolutely sure that they will be reciprocated. This standoffish approach to romance sometimes means that it could take a while for you to meet the right person. Then you may be ready to reveal your surprisingly warm sensitivity and underlying passion. You are attracted to people that share your hardworking but fun adventurous nature that can appeal to your emotional side. In soul mate relationships you can be rather romantic and generally make a considerate and devoted partner. You are home loving and enjoy spending time making it comfortable as this is where you are at your most relaxed. You like nothing more than a quiet night in with the company of your partner. Food is especially important and enjoyable to those born on January 18th and so you find it difficult to control your appetite. As you try to ideally project an image of healthiness you will probably learn moderation in your diet. Aside from watching your waistline you sometimes have a cavalier outlook towards the rest of your health. This can have an effect on your energy levels making them up and down with the possibility of causing low bad moods and irritability. You are advised to take more interest in giving your body everything that it needs to function properly and aim for plenty of sleep. Your main strengths of character are more often than not in your pioneering helpfulness to others and your sensible but witty demeanor. These qualities gain you many friends and help you quickly get where you want to be in life. Weaknesses you are likely to notice in your personality are that you can occasionally be a bit naive socially and uncharacteristically immature in certain circumstances. These negative tendencies accompany your proneness to being easily distracted but they all seem to diminish as you get older and acquire more social awareness and learn to not get so freely sidetracked. One of the cosmic consequences of being born on the 18th of January means that you are constantly setting goals. Once you have achieved one of your aims you will speedily set yourself another as striving towards things helps you keep feeling optimistic. Some of your dreams for the future are made possible by you being in the right places at the best times so you should always trust any gut instincts. You dream of a simple peaceful life where you are happy and contented with the people and things you love surrounding you. You wish for just enough personal wealth to cover the necessities. As you were born on the eighteenth day of the calendar month your date of birth contains the digits 1 and 8 equating to a Root number of 9. This birthday number reference with the keyword 'Seeker’ is an indication of your uncanny opportunistic luck in finding and seizing favorable probabilities. The Tarot card linked to your birthday is the 18th card in the Major Arcana representing the Moon. This could be an esoteric symbol of your heightened empathy and warmth to others. For January the eighteenth birthdays the luckiest gemstone is Bloodstone known to attract affluence and boost concentration. The astrological influence of the planet Saturn is thought to be mainly responsible for deciding the basic personalities of Capricorns. The actual day you were born on, the eighteenth of January is ruled over by the celestial body Mars as it combines with Saturn adding a few extras to your determined characteristics. Your added confidence and nonmaterialistic stance let you progress throughout life with pride and a sense of real purpose. You may need to brush up on your too trusting social skills or you will discover your kindness and good will could be taken advantage of. Finally a thought particularly for people born on January the eighteenth is to make one of your goals to try and look after yourself as well as you do others.

#10. Rob Raco (Sagittarius I – Nov 25–Dec 02 – The Week Of Independence; Nov 26 – The Day Of Distinctive Manner)

Sagittarius I’s are hard to control. In many ways the most independent people of the year, they must feel free to act on their impulses and intuition. People who try to exercise power over them in personal relationships are in for a rough ride. When Sagittarius I’s respect their spouse or living partner, they will cooperate, sharing their feelings and dividing the chores. When they feel that their respect has not been earned, though, or when it is lost, expect constant conflict and strife. Honor and trust are high on Sagittarius I’s list of priorities; without these, they feel, life ceases to have meaning and reverts to the law of the jungle. Sagittarius I’s have a thing about fairness, expecting it not only of themselves but of others, too. Their nurturing side is particularly evident in their relations with animals, small children and the less fortunate members of society; they simply will not tolerate mistreatment of the dependent or helpless in their presence. They often act impulsively to protect the defenseless, without a thought for their own safety. Those born during the Week of Independence try to project an air of self-assurance and confidence, but behind this facade there often lurks a sensitive and even insecure individual. This becomes quickly evident when they are put under stress, either through negative criticism or through some challenge to their character. In such situations Sagittarius I’s can easily and instantaneously fly off the handle, drowning those around them with their anger. Those alert enough to see the storm clouds gathering will try to avoid unleashing their emotional thunderbolts. Sagittarius I’s have enormous willpower. The loyalty of Sagittarius I’s is a matter not only of principle or of emotion but of stubbornness; sticking to their guns is a character trait. In fact, they very often get their way, simply because they allow no other possibility. Anyone deeply involved with Sagittarius I is likely to know their highly competitive nature since they feel winning is essential. Learning to submit, and to accept defeat graciously, is not usually possible for these dynamic individuals. Those few who do learn this lesson may have succeeded in meeting their greatest challenge, and thereby gain a high degree of maturity. Sagittarius I’s can be unreasonable, but they are usually open to discussion. Actually, these quick, witty individuals thoroughly enjoy verbal repartee and debate. This can become a problem if they reach a subject that sticks in their craw, when they can easily become contentious and argumentative. Friends know what subjects to avoid and how to smooth over rough spots through playfulness, but those meeting Sagittarius I for the first time are sometimes taken aback by their forthrightness and their at times outrageous observations and proposals. Many born in the Week of Independence have a greater need to give than to receive. Their generosity is directly related to their feelings of self-worth and self-esteem, for they have a need to see themselves as caring rather than needy people. There are also Sagittarius I’s who are not at all bashful about stating their demands, and who will not object to being served by others. Both character types, however, will often occupy an indispensable position in their family: shouldering substantial responsibilities, but on their own terms, is extremely important to them. Sagittarius I’s generally have only one or two people—whether friend, mate, co-worker or family member—with whom they feel close enough to share their innermost thoughts. The bond between Sagittarius I’s and their parents or their children is extremely deep, and may be considered a true friendship. Such soulmates know them as highly ethical individuals who value integrity and character more than anything else, except, perhaps, their freedom. If a Sagittarius I feels betrayed by a family member or close friend they can go through untold agonies of evaluation, judgment or rejection. In these struggles, assessing the intentions of the person in question is usually of great importance. Those who want to spend time with Sagittarius I’s usually have to be able to keep up: their friends and lovers must share the fast pace they set, whether in sports, travel, work or hobbies. A special person for Sagittarius I, however, may also be someone who sticks close to home or place of business. They have an acute need for stability; an individual who is always there to return to may prove to be the anchor in their lives. Although most Sagittarius I’s would be capable of living alone, and in fact are well suited to it, they will generally make a firm decision to be a person’s spouse or living partner and then continue in that role, even if they outgrow the need for it. Sagittarius I’s are ardent and unconstrained in their emotional expression, particularly in the sexual arena. They make the intensity of their energy fully apparent to their partners, who will remember vividly the full-bodied encounters in which these types engage. Sagittarius I’s take pride in their sexual desirability or prowess, often exhibiting quiet confidence in their ability to satisfy their partners. They are extremely giving of their feelings but demand a great deal in return.

Those born on November 26 display a peculiarly distinctive manner when doing most things. Hardly cut from a standard mold, those born on this day stand apart from their fellow human beings. Their ideas tend toward the philosophical and expansive, but at the same time manifest a markedly pragmatic, down-to-earth streak. Highly focused on accomplishment and achievement, November 26 people nonetheless view their own creative work or personal development as being more important than all the honors and rewards the world has to offer. Some born on this day even come to see living itself as a creative endeavor, and thus deeply value the wealth of everyday experience. Yet at the same time their minds soar with the most fanciful and romantic of ideas. Since it is impossible for November 26 people to give up either the practical or the imaginative sides of their personality, they must attempt a synthesis of the two. This seeming contradiction can occupy a great part of their energy for many years, but if they can find a way to reconcile these sides there is no end to the accomplishments they are capable of achieving. Usually the key to this synthesis is life experience, but until this synthesis occurs those born on this day may find themselves swinging back and forth every few years from basically logical, pragmatic endeavors to more fanciful ones. A measure of success may be achieved on either side of the spectrum, but a vaguely dissatisfied feeling that part of their potential is being wasted will persist. For November 26 people, relationships with lovers can be problematical, primarily because their individualism and love of freedom often outweighs their need for a permanent mate. Many born on November 26 are alternately ardent and cool, unable or unwilling to make a lasting commitment. Usually they value friends of the same sex more highly than lovers, and are not only more faithful to these friends but also capable of greater intimacy with them as well. Ultimately, however, they themselves are usually the ones who do the rejecting in relationships, sometimes out of a kind of “first strike” mentality where they sense rejection coming and act on impulse. Thus they can be dangerous people with whom to be involved. Needless to say, November 26 people can be reticent about marriage or taking on the responsibilities of children. Those who choose to remain single may be unhappy from time to time going through life on their own, but feel that this is better than getting tied down in an unalterably permanent situation. This type of November 26 person likes to flaunt his/her individuality, and finds it difficult when social mores become too oppressive. Yet at the same time, emotionally committed or not, most November 26 people move well in society, once they figure out what it is they really want to do and integrate the disparate elements of their personalities. The free-thinking individuals born on November 26 would appear to have the world at their feet. Not only are they charismatic and intelligent, they are also creative, multi-talented and capable of excelling in just about any profession they choose. Despite their incredible versatility, they may have felt from an early age that they were somehow different or removed from their fellow human begins. Part of the problem is that because they have so many talents and such an inquisitive mind, too many paths are open to them so choosing one becomes a daunting task. They may also struggle to reconcile their practical, logical orientation with the part of them that is highly creative and imaginative. At various points in their life they will lurch between these two extremes, but happiness and fulfillment can only be found when they are able to balance the two. As success-orientated people, when they are not working toward a goal they can feel restless and unsatisfied, so the sooner they decide on a path in life and set themselves targets to achieve the better. If they don’t do this, indecision, anxiety and uncertainty will submerge their huge potential. Up to the age of twenty-five there may be a lot of experimentation regard ing their career, as they focus on adventure, creativity and opportunity; but after the age of twenty-six they start to become more practical, goal orientated and realistic in their aims. This is a positive development, as long as they make sure they don’t lose touch with their imagination and creative fire. Another turning point occurs at the age of fifty-six when expressing their individuality takes center stage. Hopefully, however, they will have realized far earlier in life that the key to their success is to celebrate and make full use of their uniqueness rather than try to hide it. They have been right all along; there is and never will be anybody quite like them with their unique talents, original perspective, and courage and determination to prove everyone wrong by achieving their fantastic aims. When it comes to affairs of the heart, people born on November 26 can have problems because they like their own company and are unwilling to sacrifice their freedom. They are capable of forming close relationships but these tend to be with their friends rather than lovers. But when they do find someone who captures their heart, they have it within them to make dutiful and devoted partners. People born on this day tend to be vigorous and athletic, and they rarely suffer long from illnesses. They can, however, over-indulge in food and drink from time to time, and they may also be prone to accidents and injuries resulting from sports or risky activities. From a psychological perspective, the biggest risk to their emotional health is their tendency to withdraw or to isolate themselves from others, and making an effort to stay in touch with friends and family will benefit them enormously. As far as diet is concerned, they need to increase their intake of vegetables and fruit to boost their digestion. Moderate to vigorous exercise is recommended to help keep their weight down and their immune system strong. Wearing, meditating on or surrounding themselves with the color orange will encourage them to be warmer and more spontaneous when in the company of others. People born on this day have a meticulous approach to their work and will excel in careers that are research-based. Possible work options include education, philosophy, writing, engineering, IT, and the world of video game creation and toy manufacturing or design. The life path of people born on this day is to find a way to reconcile the disparate parts of their personality by looking within themselves. Once they are more balanced in their outlook and approach, their destiny is to make an outstanding contribution to humanity. People born specifically on the 26th of November are presumed to be practical, charming and capable with the Sagittarian typicalities of a level head and heaps of optimism. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Saturn making you likely to be very hard working and determined with a restless enthusiasm for travel. If you have this birthday your warmhearted independent spirit usually has high standards and although prone to blow hot and cold emotionally you are predicted to be a great listener. Quite focused, honest, thoughtful and pleasant you will also be fairly sociable despite a touch of modest shyness. Individuals with a November the twenty sixth birthday are naturally creative with a love of natural landscapes but they can stubbornly insist on doing everything their own way. You may be more realistic, cautious and patient than other Archer's but you tend to be a bit more nervous and easily stressed too. You are inclined to be highly persuasive yet sometimes too blunt and critical. Preferred career choice is usually an easy straightforward decision to a person born on the Twenty-Sixth of November. Your likelihood for possessing lots of academic talent means you will always be striving to increase your wisdom therefore any job that involves this will be a popular preference. An occupation involving regular travelling is likely to be a secondary suitable option. Your strong practicality, focus and determination are useful assets for this and any other sort of work. Financially you should fare well as you are aim to be disciplined with money, effective at budgeting and unlikely to borrow rather than save for large purchases. For a Sagittarius, the person born on the twenty sixth day of November is typically deeply loving, trusting and emotive concerning affairs of the heart. Passionate and demonstrative you need a supportive expressive partner who will happily put an equal amount of time and devotion into your love partnership. Someone special who is busy and lively with similar interests and lets you have your freedom without getting jealous or bored is ideal. Quicker and more willing to settle down in a long term relationship than others in your zodiac group, you are normally wonderfully loyal, frank and committed to a soul mate, regarding them as your best friend. Your responsible tolerant temperament has plenty of patience and a passion for romance helping make relationships happy and successful. Even though you may prefer to take the lead you also crave harmony so you will rarely be overly suspicious or argumentative. Great discipline and care of their physical and mental energies can usually help improve the general well being experienced by those born on November 26th. Your overall health state is often strongly linked to and affected by your level of happiness. Balanced periods of regular exercise and relaxation are especially good for maintaining vitality and keeping stress to a minimum. Your lower back, legs and knees could be weak points in an otherwise generally robust constitution. People born on this day should consider keeping diet varied and interesting if they wish to avoid slipping into bad eating habits that can greatly impact on usual healthiness. Your main strengths of character are displayed in your free-spirited calm, charm and dependability, perfectly complementing your warm heart and independence. Other positives are seen in your mix of realism, caution and honesty helping you differentiate between favorable and unfavorable paths. The personality weaknesses for those born on November 26th are usually prompted by an upset or misfortune as well as simply not getting your own way. These specific instances can activate your pronenesses for stubborn bluntness and criticism. Along with this expected negative cooling of your emotions you will commonly act in an indecisive and inconsistent manner. Being born on the 26th of November means you are likely to utilize lots of your common sense and efficiency in addition to working really hard in order to realize a desired goal. In spite of mainly achievable ambitions in your professional life you also have a tendency to occasionally have a few unrealistic aspirations too. Dreams appear to be mostly concentrated on those you love and the fulfilling of your personal wishes for stability and yearnings for contentment. As you were born on the twenty sixth day of the month the two and six in your birth date add up to a Root number of Eight. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Leader' relating to your enhanced persuasiveness and ability to gently guide and motivate others. In the mystical Major Arcana Tarot deck the 8th card depicting Courage is often associated with your birthday. This possibly reflects your sense of responsibility and predilections for order and balance. The luckiest gemstone for November the twenty sixth birthdays is a Black Pearl, wear one for a possible increase in intuition and wealth plus the blocking of negativity. Astrologically the planet Jupiter's dominance is conjectured to be a major influence on the probabilities of all Sagittarius personalities. The actual day you were born on, the twenty sixth of November is governed by Saturn's power changing some of your anticipated representative traits. Your predicted competence, positivism and attentive listening enhance your pleasantness and maturity. Your talent for creativity and love of the beauty of nature make any journeys you take have the prospect of being an amazing experience. If you are able to conquer overreactions to distress, disturbance or mishap you should become calmer and nicer than usual. A concluding advisory thought for people born on November the 26th is to follow your heart to your destiny and try to make a bit more effort into getting along well with others.

#11. Tiera Skovbye (Taurus II – May 03–May 10 – The Week Of The Teacher; May 06 – The Day Of Materialized Fantasy)

Taurus II’s are mainly involved in the development of ideas and techniques. No matter what their vocation or avocation, they have a message to share. Verbalizing their ideas and observations, generating discussion, and leading by example are all favorite activities of theirs. It can be said that they have a calling for imparting information and, more importantly, presenting it in a manner that others can understand. It is not surprising that they have a strong need for teacher-student–type interactions. Taurus II’s intuitively sense that teacher and student are two sides of the same coin, and that this coin is one they wish to invest in their future. They generally do well enough at school, but fare best as students or teachers in one-on-one learning or small group situations such as in dance, music, sports and the visual arts. For them, being a good student is the first step toward becoming a good teacher. They also know the value of learning on one’s own and, instead of binding students to them, will encourage them to teach themselves. Taurus II’s are movers and shakers, and, since they rarely deal with flighty or superficial topics, they are capable of influencing others. Part of the key to this lies in the fact that they live so much of their lives in the realm of ideas, of ideologies. Excellent entrepreneurs, they can set up both businesses and families without an excessive need to dominate or impose an inflexible structure on those with whom they live and work. They do, however, often establish lines that should not be crossed. Taurus II’s are very interested in the living conditions of those around them, and particularly in social groups that are foreign to them. How and where others live, work, play, eat, worship, vote and exercise has enormous fascination for Taurus II’s, who also tend side with the underdog and to feel all forms of unfairness and discrimination keenly. Not surprisingly, interracial or cross-cultural relationships are common amongst Taurus II’s. Similarly, older Taurus II folks may be attracted to younger people and younger ones to those much older than themselves. The moral stance of the these individuals is usually strong, even unyielding. They have firm ideas about right and wrong, which they do not hesitate to express. Although you probably wouldn’t call them straitlaced, they may exhibit prudish or even puritanical tendencies, particularly when young. And such early tendencies, even though outgrown, may surface in times of stress when they are adults, much to the surprise of those who know them as free-thinkers. The area in which the ethical orientation of Taurus II is most unequivocal is their insistence on fairness. One might say, in fact, that they are obsessed with injustice, prejudice and discrimination in all forms. Their reaction to any form of racism is scathing, uncompromising and immediate. Actually, anger may erupt suddenly in almost any area of their lives, and they must learn how to handle their upset feelings in healthy ways without suppressing them. Physical activity, whether sports, dance, music, or fitness training, comes naturally to Taurus II, yet they do not convey the impression of being earthy, sensuous types. They generally create a strong first impression, and make a heavy impact on their environment, but this may be due more to their mental qualities than to their physical ones. Even those of a small or average body type often project an image far greater than their actual size on first meeting. Although excellent bosses, parents and teachers, Taurus II’s are not always the easiest people to be involved with day-to-day as mate, lover or friend. Demanding and critical, they make their dislikes known sharply and incisively, often alienating or insulting those of a softer or more sensitive disposition. Their insistence that people be hard and tough, able to take the truth in a straight dose, is not everyone’s cup of tea. When they become happier and more comfortable with themselves, and as they grow older, many of their critical characteristics will mellow or even disappear. With their love of beauty and their great charm and personal magnetism, Taurus II’s often have a host of admirers. They are not really comfortable with a great deal of attention, however, and do not like finding themselves imprisoned in a social circle of their own making. At such times they have little choice but to withdraw into a more isolated existence. The more successful Taurus II therefore learn to control their own attractive powers and to create fewer problems for themselves. Those who relate best to those born during the Week of the Teacher in personal relationships are those who understand their need to be left alone rather than being fussed over or spoiled. Taurus II’s prefer their mates to show their enthusiasm for the relationship simply by upholding their share of it rather than by displays of gratitude or affection. In intimate situations, they can be extremely passionate, but in their everyday routine they insist on a certain distance. Taurus II’s prefer romance to sentimentality, but like a realistic and frank approach to love and sex even better. They do not generally react well to others’ requests for attention or affection, even when those others are intimates; anything that looks like pleading or begging usually turns them off completely. Taurus II’s like their partners to be strong and dignified above all.

Those born on May 6 seem to be in touch with how fantasy, imagination and the unconscious work. This understanding generally manifests in one of two ways: in being sympathetic, even empathic with others or in embodying the fantasies of others, in essence, being a star. The teachers, counselors, and sympathetic parents of the first type are expert in guiding people through difficult times and helping them to understand their motivations; the star type is obsessed with the realizing of dreams, daring to live out fantasies that most people keep bottled up. This tapping in to the imaginative process is a special gift and must be managed wisely. If May 6 people use this talent amorally or without a goal, they may wind up manipulating the lives of others for their own benefit or forcing themselves into a career or marriage that was never meant to be. The most successful May 6 people are those who recognize their limitations and are able to treat both their goals and those of others objectively and ethically. May 6 people often experience difficult or traumatic childhoods, which they manage to overcome with great courage and tenacity. These difficulties can lend them insights into life which people with more normal upbringings or less sensitivity may never know. If those born on this day utilize such insight with compassion and empathy, they will be truly valuable individuals to society. It is often the case that May 6 people are of great service to others while still remaining the victims of their own private sufferings, which they usually hide from the world. Because they are so sensitive, and perhaps driven by the workings of destructive unconscious drives, those born on this day are particularly prone to emotional instability as well as to physical discomforts and pain. The theme of repeatedly striving to overcome obstacles is a constant in the lives of many May 6 people. In an effort to control their destinies, they may become unduly compulsive, structuring every moment of their time as if they are afraid that if they don’t, things will fly apart somehow. A seemingly efficient and reasonable lifestyle may thus be hiding a volcano of seething emotions of which May 6 people themselves are not always aware. On the other hand, those born on May 6 are most understanding of the irrationality of others, having a kind of sixth sense for it. They can be depended upon in difficult emotional situations for their wisdom and courage. Often they will take the side of the underdog or victim, whose psyche they understand only too well. Attractive people born on this day must sometimes guard against those they seek to help falling in love with or idolizing them. Although such attention can be gratifying to the ego, it only slows down a May 6 person’s own process of self-realization. The highly imaginative and intuitive people born on May 6 are often acutely sensitive to the feelings, dreams and hopes of others, especially those less fortunate. Fascinated by the human psyche and keen to learn what it is that motivates and inspires others, they often feel compelled to pass their wisdom on to others. If they aren’t guiding and directing others, they will be inspiring them by living out dreams and fantasies that most of us repress. As well as being finely tuned to the feelings of others, they are highly sensitive themselves; this can lead to misunderstandings and hurts that really aren’t necessary. They should learn to be objective in their dealings with others; otherwise they will experience insecurity, uncertainty and disappointment. Between the ages of fifteen and forty-five there is an emphasis on communication and the exchange of ideas, so they should not take everything so personally. After the age of forty-five these people focus more on emotional closeness, family and security.Their interest in human nature can take them beyond social interaction and business to a deep desire to do something meaningful in the world. This may involve fighting for a cause in the world and will stop them feeling unfulfilled. The most common block to their progress is a lack of faith in their own abilities; this can trigger sudden changes of mood and bouts of indecision. Being prone to excessive highs and lows, they need to turn the understanding they have of unpredictable behavior in others upon themselves. If they can do this, they will see that much of their emotional instability stems from their lack of self-belief. Their self-doubt may also result in their taking a secondary role rather than making full use of their creative potential. They do, however, respond extremely well to advice and encouragement; reading self-help books or biographies about people they admire will help them gain control of their lives. They should remember that every step they take toward fulfilling their ambitions and dreams works to inspire and motivate others. People born on May 6 are unwilling to commit to a relationship unless they feel it has the potential to be a perfect union. This means that they may spend many years searching and waiting, but when they finally find their soul mate they are at their happiest and their best, because love and giving to others is a strong motivating force in their lives. People born on this day tend to suffer from a lack of self-confidence and they need to find ways to build their self-esteem. Food is a passion, so they should keep an eye on what they are eating and make sure that they do not seek refuge in comfort eating. Listening to their hunger signals, and putting their knife and fork down between mouthfuls, will help them feel more in control. Regular exercise is also essential, not just because it will boost their immune system and sense of well-being but also because it can help them cope with excessive worry. Wearing, surrounding themselves with or meditating on the color orange will boost their self-esteem and encourage them to feel more positive, as will mind-training therapies such as cognitive development therapy or hypnotherapy. People born on this day will often find career fulfillment in the medical, psychiatric or caring professions but they may also be well suited to politics and the arts, both areas in which they can use their sensitivity and desire to help or inspire others. Whatever career they choose, be it public affairs, caring or the world of entertainment, their natural psychological skills will be of great assistance. The life path of people born on this day is to learn to believe in themselves. Once they have developed greater self-confidence, their destiny is to direct their prodigious energy toward the progression of others, be that in a practical or an inspirational way. People born specifically on the 6th of May are envisioned to be charming, warm and cooperative with the typical bull placidity and determination. Venus is the ruling astrological planet dominant for this particular day and also the zodiac sign of Taurus, intensifying your levels of curiosity and intuition. If you have this birthday a highly sociable, diplomatic, outgoing temperament is bestowed upon you along with a dislike of being or feeling alone. Your natural eloquence often assists you to be able to talk your way in and out of situations and instinctively seek the balance you crave. You have stylish tastes that are usually reflected in your choices of home and dress sense. Entertaining and bringing others together are things you are inclined to enjoy and be good at. Individuals with a May the sixth birthday possess a wonderful imagination, are capable of recognizing their limitations and tend to usually look at everything fairly objectively. Job choices can sometimes be far from easy to a person born on the Sixth of May as conventional career options rarely seem to appeal to you. Although you are usually fully aware of your best abilities this does not prevent you from being attracted to work that is rather specialized or unusual. Financially you are prone to be once in a while frivolous or under estimate the expense of something you desire. You are quite impulsive over bargains and willing to pay for quality but it can occasionally cause fluctuations in your finances. Sensible budgeting should allow for your small extravagances. For a Taurus, the person born on the sixth day of May is typically stubborn but with a high degree of patience and emotional understanding. When it comes to love and romance you can be hesitant to make the first move but fall in love deeply and ordinarily flourish within the security and stability of a long term relationship. You need a loving partnership that is very evenly balanced physically and mentally with plenty of common interests and ambitions. Someone that is as loyal and committed as you are who ignites your sensual passion and is on the same intellectual level is perfect. Your belief in soul mates and true love helps you put your indecisiveness aside if you feel you have met your destined partner. You can be possessive and inflexible at times but loathe arguments so will frequently be the one who initiates making up and restoring harmony. Physical healthiness experienced by those born on May 6th appears to be easily disturbed by nutritional deficiencies. You are disposed to have a healthy appetite but a tendency to have your favorite meals and eat too much of the same thing sometimes leaving you short of something. You can in addition be susceptible to coughs and colds so eating a wider range of foods could help you avoid succumbing to viruses. People born on this day may find that their mental health, general sense of well being and self esteem is also noticeably improved by consuming food types known to boost mood and concentration. Your main strengths of character are noticeable in your unique mix of charm, warmth and cooperation gaining you many friends and admirers. Your other major fortes of sensitivity, astuteness and diplomacy help you normally approach everything impartially and make you a fabulous mediator. The personality weaknesses for those born on May 6th expose your changeable emotions, seemingly more frequent if you have worries. This negativity can surface as self indulgent and pitying behavior causing you to also be much grumpier and uncharacteristically sulky. Not letting anxieties build can reduce this negative trait. Being born on the 6th of May gifts you with an intense appreciation for beauty courtesy of Venus's double influence. This perception may add a touch of idealism and fantasy to your dreams but you attempt to keep these sleep induced wishes separate from important life objectives. Your need to be taken seriously sees you setting realistic goals for desired personal and professional achievements. Helping others to realize their potential can often be more rewarding to you than your own accomplishments. All your wished for aspirations are hardly ever selfish or entirely materialistic. As you were born on the sixth day of the month your birth date figure of Six is also your Root number. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Social' emphasizing your responsiveness to others and fondness of company. The 6th Tarot card in the Major Arcana characterizing the Lovers is closely linked to your birthday. It strongly reflects your penchant for the aesthetic and requirement for closeness and companionship. The gem imagined luckiest for May the sixth birthdays is Turquoise, it is thought to mystically attract positivity and happiness into your life. The probable favorable and unfavorable thoughts and actions of all Taurus personalities are believed influenced astrologically by Venus. As this celestial body also rules the actual day you were born, the Sixth of May, it is doubly influential on your possible nature. Your easygoing sociability and fine mediation skills accentuate your superb command of language. This talent and your insistence on fairness let you interact with almost everyone and be understood plainly. Your calm intuitiveness is an excellent guide if you listen to and trust your inner voice. If you can manage to steady your emotions and pay more attention to your dietary needs it could stop anxieties building. A well meant thought for people born on May the 6th is to consider waiting for others to ask for your assistance instead of offering and do not be fearful of asking for help yourself. 

#12. Trevor Stines (Cancer III – Jul 11–Jul 18 – The Week Of The Persuader; Jul 15 – The Day Of Material Inducers)

Those born during the Week of the Persuader know how to convince others of their worth and get them to do their bidding. Powerful manipulators of their environment, Cancer III’s often manifest great drive and determination. Even the shyest and most retiring nurse private ambitions; the more aggressive make little effort to conceal their desire to rise to the top of their profession. The underlying dynamic of Cancer III’s, however, is that success, for them, is the best antidote for uncertainty. Yet they rarely fall victim to blind ambition, preferring to invest in themselves than indulge in materialism or ego-tripping. They how to wait, watch and listen. Observant of what goes on around them, Cancer III’s are good at reading the signs of the times and knowing when to act. Their persuasive ability to convince others is supported by a solid bedrock of observation, and upon having facts and results at their fingertips. Cancer III’s, then, are comfortable dealing with the physical realities of life. In fact, they persuade others less by their words than by their presence alone. Strong personalities, Cancer III’s are not shy about quietly and effectively applying pressure. Passionate people, they are no strangers to the depths of human emotion. In the same way that insecurity can be viewed as the motor behind their ambition, their passion for something can be viewed as the gasoline. And usually, their beliefs are something they are passionate about. By establishing contact with others of like mind, they are able to give solid support to their ideas. When they are convinced they are working for the highest good of an organization or group they are difficult to oppose and can usually obtain significant benefits for all concerned. Whether at work or at home, Cancer III’s usually exert a powerful force behind the scenes, or as team members. Cancer III’s make excellent managers and critics; they have a sixth sense for the weaknesses and inadequacies of others and can usually provide direction or guidance to remedy even the most extreme difficulties. Part of the personal power of such individuals comes from their ability to control their own needs. In relationships, for example, Cancer III’s would sooner be alone than enter a dubious or unstable partnership. Knowing themselves well enough to recognize the limitations of their ability to commit to the responsibilities of everyday life, when beginning a relationship they will be honest with the other person from the outset, rarely pretending to be something they are not. In any case, living alone is not really a problem for them. Cancer III’s generally require few luxuries, and can efficiently order their lives, particularly financially, without interference from others. They are well able to sublimate desire for social and romantic interaction into their career activities and to share common experiences with colleagues, friends and family. The other side of the coin, however, is their sometimes prodigious tendency to indulge in excess. Although they may deal with their needs well, Cancer III’s desires and wants can easily get out of hand. They do not always know when to stop, when to back off, when to let go. Obsessive-compulsive behavior is not uncommon among Cancer III’s, whether related to self-gratifying activities that provide direct pleasure or to neurotic ones that only yield frustration. For this reason, some form of spiritual training is often essential for their development. Cancer III’s most successful relationships are often with colleagues rather than in personal or romantic settings, where their directness may prove too threatening to others. It also happens that they can best handle their intensity in their work, for in their private lives their direct expressions of energy may boomerang and cause personal difficulty. As friends and family members, Cancer III’s can be giving, sharing and affectionate. Yet their drive to control is evident here, too. They do not hesitate to advise and to judge. Cancer III’s instincts, fortunately, are often right on the mark, but by assuming a managerial role they often deny others the opportunity to guide their own future. In extreme cases, they can be insensitive and smothering, and their manipulations can wreak havoc on friends and intimates. As spouses or lovers, Cancer III’s often find it difficult to occupy anything but centre stage. Not only must activities revolve around them, but they must take an active hand in shaping and forming whatever is going on. Conflicts often arise between these dominant individuals and those who question their authority. In such moments their most aggressive characteristics are likely to emerge. Left alone to go ahead with their work and plans, however—which they usually see not as selfish but as intended for the good of the group—they are content, peaceful and even quiet in demeanour. Although, it is possible or even desirable for Cancer III’s to pursue long-standing, productive and satisfying love relationships, their chances for success in such affairs are aided by good choices and sound judgment—which they too often allow to be impaired by the heat of their passions. In marriage or a permanent living situation, Cancer III’s need a solid, practical partner—someone who lends structure and emotional stability.

July 15 people are able to realize their worldly goals by inducing others and manipulating materials to do their will. Those born on this day display an impressive control over their environment. With people, their first step is usually to arouse or activate them and then exert positive pressure to get them to move in the right direction. The wise, talented use of material is a recurrent theme in the lives of July 15 people. They may be bound to this world in a variety of ways: as a rich man to money, a real-estate agent to property, a father/mother to a home, a painter to paints and canvasses, or a musician to an instrument. In the case of an artist, although the mode of expression is earthy and grounded, the content often moves toward more non-material and spiritual directions as the artist progresses through life. Although their motives proceed from desire and attraction, potentially healthy forces, July 15 people will be prone to attach to objects once they have attained them. They must learn the lesson of non-attachment at some point in their lives or run the risk of complacency, jealousy or even all sorts of fixed sexual obsessions. July 15 people can be highly useful members of society when directing their energies toward the betterment of its institutions. A willingness to share wealth, good fortune or material possessions with others is an important component of an evolved July 15 personality; less evolved types are likely to simply hoard these things for themselves or perhaps their immediate family. Because of their unique connection to the material world, July 15 people face an important decision whether to be slaves to it or masters over it. The word mastery here should not imply an exploitative domination, but an ever-changing relationship with their environment where non-action plays as significant a role as action in maintaining harmony. Those born on this day, indeed, have a great responsibility to their fellow human beings, particularly as their magnetic influence over them can be so considerable. Consequently, as early in life as possible, July 15 people must form their ethics and live according to a set of principles in which they truly believe, because their influential talents do not at all imply a corresponding depth in the moral sphere. Although highly responsible in discharging their duties, they must beware of using others for their own selfish ends and of teaching, either by word or example, empty values to their children, employees or associates. Whether they realize it or not, people born on July 15 have a powerful effect on others and a rare ability to exert their influence positively to help others move forward with their lives. When others do achieve impressive results, they do not hold back their praise, which only serves to increase their popularity: a wonderfully virtuous circle. These people manage to combine their highly developed intellectual powers with an affinity and sensitivity toward both their environment and all those who live and work with them. This combination of emotional empathy and intellectual perspicacity, when combined with their strong powers of imagination and the profound effect they tend to have on others, endows them with the potential to bring about progressive change, enriching the lives of others. From about the age of seven or eight, people born on this day are likely to begin manifesting their characteristic self-confidence and magnetic charm, but at around the age of thirty-seven there is a turning point which sees them becoming more pragmatic and realistic; they may find that their desire to be of service to others grows more intense, and these are the years when they can really come into their own. If they can learn to direct their prodigious energy and creativity toward the greater good they are likely to bring about considerable change for the better. An inner ambition or desire to achieve and make a positive difference in the world can extend to all parts of their lives, and their determination can be compelling and inspirational. If however they become materialistic or selfish and use their influence to manipulate others they can be ruthless and disruptive. It is absolutely crucial for them therefore not just to think about what they want to accomplish in their lives but also to consider what effect their behavior and their actions will have on others. To truly utilize their outstanding potential for leadership, they may have to recognize the awesome power of their commanding disposition. People born on July 15 have the magnetic charm to effortlessly attract admirers but they also have a tendency to take advantage of the vulnerabilities of others. Once in a committed relationship they will do anything to help and encourage their partner, but they need to watch their tendency to become controlling or domineering. It is crucial for them to ensure that they are emotionally honest and direct in all affairs of the heart. People born on this day are prone to excess in all areas of their lives and their love of material pleasures may lead them to overeating and drinking too much. Their love of life’s material pleasures may lead them to gambling and a money-orientated approach to life. For their physical and emotional fulfillment it is therefore crucial for them to connect more with their emotions and their spirituality. Meditation is highly recommended, as is quiet time alone reading, thinking and dreaming. Diet should be wholesome and balanced, and low in sugar, salt, additives, and saturated fat. Team sports and competitive forms of exercise are a great way for them to deal with pent-up frustrations. Wearing, meditating on and surrounding themselves with the color purple will encourage them to think of higher things. These people have the ruthless streak needed to make it big in business or commerce but they may prefer to reach out to the world through creative and expressive endeavors, such as acting, music, art, writing, singing, or speaking. They may also be attracted to teaching, lecturing, journalism, the caring professions, and health care, but whatever career they choose, education of some type will be important to help them realize their exceptional potential. The life path of people born on this day is to understand themselves and their motivations better, and to become aware of the forceful impact they have on others. Once they are able to do that, their destiny is to enrich the lives of others in some way. People born specifically on the 15th of July are envisioned to be strong, ambitious and determined yet like all crabs commonly fearful of hurt, disapproval and rejection. The ruling astrological planet designated for this particular day is Venus gracing you with lots of natural charm and elegance and a strong but sensitive nature. If you have this birthday anticipating the moods and actions of others is one of your fortes and you will usually enjoy sharing possessions and ideas. Orientated by family you are naturally hardworking, enthusiastic and responsible with a strong sense of duty to society. You are highly observant, analytical and cautious in your approach to life and likely to possess a modern optimistic outlook. Individuals with a July the fifteenth birthday are fairly intuitive, imaginative and clever but they can also be inclined to be prone to occasional crabbiness and often have a slight selfish streak too. Rate of pay is an important consideration in career choice to a person born on the Fifteenth of July. Your high ambition gives you the need to feel adequately financially rewarded at work in spite of your sensibilities of socially dutiful responsibility. Your interest and understanding of human psychology often directs you towards lucrative occupations that utilize these skills. However your ideal job is likely to be something that is simply an extension of one of your many hobbies. When it comes to finances the caution within your character ordinarily guides you to be both careful and sensible. For a Cancer, the person born on the fifteenth day of July is typically rather sweet natured, affectionate, romantic and sentimental. Your slightly perfectionist view of love and romance can be somewhat unrealistic and you tend to sometimes rush into a relationship without guarding your emotions. Your high expectations and a few bad experiences romantically do not seem to dampen your spirited perspective and hopes for blissful harmony with someone special. Companionship and total devotion with a soul mate are essential personal requirements to make you feel complete and contented. In a committed long term union you are usually tender, responsive, loyal and highly protective of your partner. Lusty and erotic your sexual desires are destined to be refined and you aim to please your loved one equally in and out of the bedroom. Some health issues experienced by those born on July 15th may be linked to your tendency to often overindulge in your diet. You appear to adore all aspects of food and really enjoy choosing, preparing, cooking and eating a wide variety of different cuisine. You are normally a whiz in the kitchen but you can be tempted to binge on your favorites. The weak discipline of people born on this day also steers you to sometimes get by on inadequate amounts of sleep. This lack of rest can aggravate your proneness to be crabby as it can impact on your concentration and you are unable to think clearly. Your main strengths of character are best perceived in your top levels of optimism, determination and enthusiasm. These positive traits are wonderful attributes that are greatly influential and inspiring to others around you. Additional strong points are seen in your intense intuition and excellent imagination accentuating your already keen observancy skills. Personality weaknesses for those born on July 15th are mainly confined to your sporadic tendencies for selfishness and darker moods. Your idealism in some areas of life may cause you some problems and maybe hinder your overall progress. Being born on the 15th of July means that getting along well with others and finding the perfect relationship are two of your primary goals in life. Your professional aspirations will usually have to take a back seat to the attainment of emotional happiness and stability. Further objectives could include numerous materialistic type gains in order to satisfy your yearning for a luxurious lifestyle. Dreams are likely to frequently feature visions of you saving up for or winning the possessions you crave. Your earnest perseverance is of fantastic assistance towards all desired accomplishments. As you were born on the fifteenth day of the month your birth date numbers calculate to a Root number of Six. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Social' identifying your longing to interact effectively with close companions and share your knowledge and resources. The 15th Tarot card in the Major Arcana symbolizing the Devil is associated with your birthday but this is not a bad sign. It merely reflects your ability to overcome constraints and fears to follow your destined path. The lucky gemstone for July the fifteenth birthdays is Turquoise, wear it for courage and possible prosperity. Our Moon's authority is believed to be the greatest influencer astrologically on the probabilities of all Cancer personalities. The actual day you were born on, the fifteenth of July is governed in an astral sense by Venus's proximity explaining your tiny differences from other Cancerians. Your stylish refinement seeps through into every part of your temperament especially in your intellect, tastes and perception. Your enthusiastic, caring and warmhearted disposition believes in the power of positivity and helps you remain hopeful of a rosy future. If you can manage to detect the triggers to your moodiness it could regulate the frequency of their occurrence. A last thought for people born on July the 15th advises you to exploit your talents to favorable ends. Trusting and following your moralistic instincts should serve you well. This single improvement can have a substantial effect on almost anything in your life so it is worth analyzing to discover how these sullen moments can be minimized.

Look for more in Part 3. 

[xsoldier]

1a) No, I'm talking about how (with art) bots used to scrape places like Twitter and generate Red Bubble sites to sell other peoples' artwork that they didn't own that both stole profits and never attributed or pointed any traffic to the original artist. AI Art programs also scraped WIP content from artists and released it before them to pull traffic to themselves, and undercut the actual creators. If you're a smaller artist and you don't have protections against those things, you end up being helpless to whoever has the resources to take and distribute your work as their own outside of your reach of influence.

1b) That's a type of thing that DOESN'T happen to the art form of music as much because they have a big industry that's hyper litigious about it, and that's why detection software gets built. That's also why if someone wouldn't license their story for a film adaptation because they didn't want their story told that way, the adaptation can't just happen anyway, even though it TECHNICALLY wasn't the work of the original creator any more, and the massively larger scope of exposure of being adapted into film could effectively steal that content from them.

2) Well, you should. Musicians refuse to license their music for advertisements of various political parties, which is ultimately the same thing. Their content isn't allowed to be used to support a platform in a way that they fundamentally disagree with. That's because art is often used as a sign of endorsement and mutual cooperation, because you have to pay the creator of that art for their work. It's all about whether or not how someone uses someone else's work is fair or not… hence "fair use."

3 & 4) We're not talking exclusively about the music industry. We're talking about the basic protections that exist for artists across multiple contexts, the content they create, WHY they broadly exist, and how they're being focused on specifically for AI-generated artwork scraped from artists without their consent. Don't go off on an irrelevant tangent that loses focus of the primary scope of the discussion.

5) You seem not to have noticed that the key component here is that the artist gets the ability to give or withhold consent about how their work gets used — but only to a degree. Then there is also a degree of freedom that the community inherently has that pushes back on that so that they have a balance. That's what allows for transformative and satirical works, and for things to fall into the public domain. There is no perfect system, so obviously issues exist on both sides, but that's THE WHOLE REASON the debate is happening, and why the OP is about someone misunderstanding why and how that is taking place as well as what the issues with it are.

6) Again, you keep making this strawman argument about piracy & the music industry. I've never commented on directly on piracy because that's not relevant as piracy is just about ACCESS to content, NOT PERMISSIONS OVER IT, which is what the topic at hand is about. Insofar as the music industry I said, "the music industry can be totally fucked" so not sure why you're framing that as me being supportive of it. A business placing someone under an exploitively restrictive contract for work performed is what you're complaining about — which has nothing to do with fair use laws & intellectual property with regards to parties who are not a part of that contract… which is the entire reason for discussing this in the context of AI Art made from scraped content taken without permission by third parties. Stay on topic.

7 & 8) Again, you're making strawman arguments to justify sweeping condemnations of protections because they CAN be wielded inappropriately by large entities without examining how they're ACTUALLY applied in a practical sense. You have to understand that exploitations STILL EXISTS if you removed those things — which is WHY they exist at all. They got made to move everyone out of a previously less-protected and more exploitive landscape. It is always going to be a balance of managing those protections and how they overlap given the context of how that landscape shifts over time because of changes in technology… like AI Art.

Seriously, you're too wrapped up in wanting to have an irrelevant pro-piracy, anti-music-industry rant. You're not at all looking at the actual points about those things as tiny facets of much larger systems that manage and support varying forms of art and the artists that create them.

what do you mean by "unethically sourced"? is the art no longer in the galleries of the artists? was it pirated? did they bandalized it? did they go to the artists haouse and took their harddrives? did they hire artists to draw things for the dataset and not pay them?

the art was freely available online for anyone to see and copy. if i copy someones drawing online, print it and hang it on my wall, is that wrong? did i "stole" it?

things that are publicly available and can be infinitely copied cant be stolen. if they dont like people using their art in ways they dont aprove then they can not put their art publicly

Ah, I see you're the OP from this atrociously ill-informed take on AI Art that I responded to. You absolutely need to familiarize yourself with how Copyright, Intellectual Property, and Fair Use work, ESPECIALLY if you're actually an artist. Just because something is freely available to see online doesn't mean that you have free use over it.

You probably know that if you purchase a song from a band, that doesn't give you license to use that song however you want. That is still limited by fair use, copyright, and numerous other protections that also apply to written works, and visual art as well. Things that exist freely on the Internet STILL HAVE PROTECTIONS.

If you doubt that, then think about why no one has created their own Disney Artwork AI using freely available images of Disney characters all over the Internet? It's because the balance of power isn't in their favor to bully the argument of stolen artwork away the way that they can exist as a monolith to silence the thousands of individuals who often don't even know if their work was taken.

If you ACTUALLY followed the conversations that have been happening around AI Artwork, you'd know that the issue artists have with it isn't the technology. Is it a bit scary the way tech like ChatGPT is for Engineers? Sure, but all change is scary, and the future of that technology is inevitably going to continue to improve and become more prominent. That's not the core concern by anyone.

The concern is how those datasets are assembled, and whether the rights of the artists to have their works included in OR excluded from those datasets are being appropriately protected. In the versions that currently exist, they're not — because they didn't follow any process for legitimately obtaining every single work that they included in the data set.

Lastly, checking your spelling & grammar does a lot to help present your argument in a better way that makes it easier to address from an equal position on conflicting viewpoints, and while everyone makes mistakes… PLEASE proofread before you send an ask to someone. Everyone will be better off for it.

[crimethinc]

Kavanaugh Shouldn’t Be on the Supreme Court. Neither Should Anyone Else.

Last week, millions watched the dramatic hearings pitting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against Christine Blasey Ford, who courageously narrated her experience of being sexually assaulted by him decades ago. Once again, Americans were confronted with the brazen entitlement of the male power establishment. The hearings stirred up traumatic memories for countless survivors, ratcheted up partisan tensions, and catalyzed furious responses from feminists and progressives in view of the implications of the court shifting further to the right. With Roe v. Wade hanging in the balance, critics point out the horrifying irony of an unrepentant sexual predator potentially casting the deciding vote to block abortion access to millions of women and others across the country.

We applaud the courage of Christine Blasey Ford and everyone who has supported her through this ordeal. We don’t want to see Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, either. But should any man be able to wield that much power over the lives of millions?

What if the Trump administration manages to find a judge with the same views, but with no history of sexual assault? Would that render the confirmation process legitimate and their decisions of the Supreme Court beyond question? Should people of conscience accept the sovereignty of a nine-person elite over the most intimate spheres of their lives?

If you don’t think so either, you may already be an anarchist.

What does it look like to resist the nexus of rape culture and far-right power that Kavanaugh represents? The usual suspects propose the conventional solutions: calling representatives, canvassing for Democrats, taking to the streets to hold signs indicating our displeasure. But even if these efforts forestall Kavanaugh’s nomination this time around, they won’t disrupt the relations of power in which hundreds of millions are held hostage to the machinations of a small, mostly male elite. A victory against this particular nominee would only reset the clock; eventually, Trump will force through a new candidate who will rule the same way Kavanaugh intends to. And even if Trump is impeached or a Democrat is elected and a progressive nominee is sworn in—we’re still in the same place we started, vulnerable to the whims of a judicial aristocracy and alienated from our own power and potential. We need an approach that challenges the foundations of the system that put us in this situation in the first place.

Meanwhile, progressive critics such as Amy Goodman have demanded an FBI investigation as a way to give official weight to Ford’s testimony and hopefully discredit Kavanaugh as a candidate. Goodman points out, reasonably, that Trump’s claim to be in favor of law enforcement while hesitating to order the FBI to look into Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct reveals his hypocrisy. This logic positions progressives and feminists as the honest proponents of law enforcement—and police as protectors of women. Have we learned nothing from decades of rape crisis organizers explaining how the police and courts so often serve to retraumatize survivors, putting them on trial rather than those who attacked them? Can we ignore the feminists of color from INCITE to Angela Davis who call on us to remember that police and prisons do not stop rape but rather intensify poverty, racism, and injustice?

Democrats are trying to recast themselves as the real “law and order” candidates. This is not so much a change in strategy as a revealing of their true colors. Between the blue of “blue states” and the blue of “blue lives matter,” it’s only a matter of tone, not content.

In TV newsrooms and around water coolers across the country, the discussions about this case have focused on how “believable” or “credible” Ford’s testimony is versus that of Kavanaugh. Taking this approach, we become an entire nation of judges and juries, debating evidence and scrutinizing witnesses, choosing whose experience to legitimize and whose to reject. This adversarial framework has always benefitted those who wield privilege and hold institutionalized power. Even if we rule in favor of Ford, we are reproducing the logic of a legal system based in patriarchal notions of truth, judgment, and objectivity, a way of understanding reality that has always suppressed the voices and experiences of the marginalized, preserving the conditions that enable powerful men to sexually abuse others with impunity.

Unfortunately, calls for FBI investigations reinforce this logic and legitimize the murderous regime of surveillance, policing, and prisons as a means of obtaining justice rather than a source of harm. Rejecting the rape culture that Kavanaugh and his supporters represent necessarily means rejecting the patriarchal institutions through which they wield power. If we legitimize any of those institutions in the course of trying to be pragmatic in our efforts to discredit specific officials, we will only undercut our efforts: one step forward, two steps back.

This has broader implications for how we address rape culture in general. When we reduce the issue of sexual violence to the question of whether specific men have committed sexual assault or abuse, we frame these as crimes carried out in a vacuum by deviant individuals. As a result, entertainment corporations and government agencies can pretend to solve the problem by finding men who do not have sexual assaults on their record rather than addressing the misogynistic dynamics and power imbalances that are inherent in government, the workplace, and society at large. This confuses the social question of addressing sexual violence with the matter of finding candidates and nominees who can present a clean résumé; should they later turn out to also be implicated in doing harm, they can be replaced, just as the electoral system replaces politicians every few years without ever giving the rest of us self-determination.

Rape, abuse, and other forms of violence are a systemic problem within our society, not a matter of individual deviance. We need a way of addressing rape culture that cuts to the root.

So is a woman’s place in the government…

…or in the revolution? Can we have it both ways?

Are there other ways that we can think about how to respond to the threat that a judge like Kavanaugh poses to our bodies and communities?

As anarchists, we reject the idea that judges or politicians deserve the authority to determine the course of our lives. Rather than only trying to pressure leaders to vote one way or the other in a winner-take-all system that reduces us to spectators in the decisions that affect us, we propose solutions based in direct action: taking power back into our hands by enacting our needs and solving our problems ourselves, without representatives.

As long as legislators and judges can determine the scope of our reproductive options, our bodies and lives will be subject to the shifting winds of politics rather than our own immediate needs and values. Instead of validating their authority by limiting ourselves to calling for better legislators and judges, we should organize to secure and defend the means to make decisions regarding what we do with our bodies regardless of what courts or legislators decree.

In practice, this could mean networking with health workers who have the necessary skills, and sharing them widely; stockpiling and manufacturing the supplies we need for all sorts of health care; defending spaces where we can operate our own clinics; fundraising resources to secure access to health care and birth control options for all, regardless of ability to pay; and developing models for reproductive autonomy that draw on past precedents but address our current problems. We can do our best to render the decisions of would-be patriarchs like Kavanaugh irrelevant.

All this has already happened before. For example, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the Jane network, a vast clandestine effort centered in Chicago, provided illegal abortions to thousands of women. The fact that abortion was already accessible to so many women was a major factor in compelling the US court system to finally legalize abortion access in order to be able to regulate it. The most effective way to pressure the authorities to permit us access to the resources and care that we need is to present them with a fait accompli. Unfortunately, when it comes to standing up to elites like the Supreme Court and the police who enforce its decisions, there are no shortcuts.

We can extend the logic of direct action to every area in which a right-wing Supreme Court might inflict harm, from environmental destruction to indigenous sovereignty to labor organizing. All of the rights we have today are derived from the grassroots struggles of ordinary people who came before us, not from the wisdom or generosity of powerful officials.

FBI investigations and court processes will not end sexual violence or bring healing to survivors. To strike at the root causes that enable the Kavanaughs of the world to do harm, we have to tear up patriarchy and toxic masculinity by the roots. This involves a process of ongoing education around sexuality, consent, and relationships, developing strategies to intervene when we see violence of any kind in our communities, creating culture that models alternative visions of gender and intimacy, and reimagining justice as restorative and transformative rather than adversarial.

We can see how pervasive the problem is when we look at the narratives that underpin support for Kavanaugh. Leading up to the hearings, supporters focused on portraying Kavanaugh as a devoted family man. As multiple allegations of sexual assault surfaced, many commentators framed the question as a contradiction between Kavanaugh the loving husband and father and Kavanaugh the callous rapist, implying that these roles are mutually exclusive. Yet gendered violence continues at epidemic levels within proper heterosexual families; shocking rates of spousal rape and domestic violence permeate American marriages, while statistics on child sexual abuse indicate that family members make up a substantial proportion of abusers. Bill Cosby, the archetypical television husband and father, was recently sentenced to prison for drugging and sexually assaulting numerous women. The false assumption that a history of sexual assault is somehow incompatible with adhering to the conventions of heterosexual family life reflects the persistence of patriarchal norms and homophobia, as well as a refusal to honestly address the extent of gendered violence in our society.

No Supreme Court could solve this problem, even if it consisted of the nine wisest and gentlest people in the world. When it comes to social change, there’s no substitute for widespread grassroots action.

Family men and rapists are not mutually exclusive.

Some American feminists have drawn parallels between the Kavanaugh case and the #NotHim movement in Brazil, in which women are rallying against a Trump-esque misogynist politician running for president.

The struggle of Brazilian feminists to resist the extreme-right threat deserves our attention and support. Yet as anarchists, we can take that model further in responding to the Kavanaugh nomination. Rather than Not Him, we can assert Not Anyone—no man, rapist or not, deserves the power to decide the reproductive options for millions of women and others. Perhaps the more appropriate slogan for the struggle against patriarchy and the Supreme Court would be the rallying cry of Argentina’s 2002 rebellion: “Que se vayan todos!”—get rid of all of them. They all must go.

The sooner we can do this—the more we can delegitimize the authority of Supreme Courts to shape our lives, and the more powerful and creative we can make our our alternatives—the less we will have to fear from the Trumps and Kavanaughs of the world. Let’s build a society that enables everyone to engage in genuine self-determination—in which no man can decide what all of us may do with our bodies—in which no state can take away our power to shape our future.

Further Reading

Fuck Abuse, Kill Power: Addressing the Root Causes of Sexual Harassment and Assault

[schmidtclothingcom]

For years, style bibles such as Vogue and Elle have found their exclusivity undermined by bloggers, who – with huge numbers of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers – have won over the designer brands that would normally only deal with major publications. Inevitably, this tension occasionally breaks the surface, as when Vogue editors recently lashed out at fashion bloggers in their Milan fashion week round-up column.

Criticising fashion bloggers for the practice of being paid to wear certain outfits, the Vogue journalists called the bloggers “pathetic”, accused them of “looking ridiculous” and decried the whole affair as “all pretty embarrassing”. Scathingly, Vogue’s creative digital director Sally Singer wrote:

Note to bloggers who change head-to-toe paid-to-wear outfits every hour: please stop. Find another business. You are heralding the death of style.

This is not the first of such broadsides from fashion writers. In 2013, the New York Times’ renowned fashion journalist Suzie Menkes berated the “poseurs” gathered outside fashion shows, waiting for keen street-style photographers to take their picture. It was the first of many slaps in the face for fashion bloggers, who were branded “wannabes” desparate for attention.

Blogger Chiara Ferragni was even featured the cover of Vogue’s Spanish edition. Vogue

Yet since then bloggers have only gained in popularity, with the Spanish edition of Vogue even featuring the Italian model and blogger turned fashion designer Chiara Ferragni on its cover in 2015. For a blogger to reach the cover of Vogue, the very pinnacle of style, suggested that the fashion bloggers had been finally accepted. It seems not.

Perhaps Vogue’s biggest bugbear is that bloggers are invited to sit on the front row at fashion shows – an honoured position previously reserved for celebrities and editors of glossy magazines. Yet bloggers have become a hybrid of the two – part editor, part celebrity – and thanks to their enormous social media presence they have developed the style-influencing selling power built to match both.

Fashion blogging is hard work

Certainly, fashion designers and brands were quick to recognise the power wielded by bloggers. If offering a blogger an invitation to sit on the front row wearing their latest designs encouraged sales, why wouldn’t they?

It’s grossly insulting to suggest bloggers don’t work hard for their position. Bloggers often style themselves, take their own photos, attend fashion shows, write their own copy and design and edit their websites as well as provide the constant updates to their social media channels required to keep their audience engaged. Especially when starting out, they will have to do all this for themselves.

Standing in the cold for more than an hour in sky-high heels (because being photographed is part of your job) before sitting on a dusty floor or trying to catch a glimpse of the runway from behind 15 rows of people is a due all true fashion lovers have paid. How much easier it must be to walk straight in from your warm company car with no queue to face – and no heavy camera to carry as your publication will have sent their own photographer. A whole team brought in to report on a single day’s events.

And let’s not forget that running a blog is essentially an unpaid role, and how – or if – the owner chooses to make money from it is up to them. One way of making it pay is to work directly with fashion brands. A brand might gift or lend a blogger some items to wear. The blogger gets to create a new outfit and something to write about, and the brand gets exposure – surely a mutually rewarding relationship?

Dispersing fashion

Something Vogue’s writers forget is that the price of the garments we see on the runway make them unobtainable for most people. They are displayed in the glossy pages of Vogue as “aspirational” items. For most, the only experience of the latest fashion designs will be in the trickle-down version produced for the budget-friendly high street. This is how the fashion cycle works – and magazines have played a huge role as gatekeepers. The rest of the world only sees those designer pieces from the runway that magazine editors chose to include.

Fashion bloggers have worked around this filter, by publicising the looks from the shows they choose and by wearing borrowed (or gifted or purchased) garments from the show. The insular walls of the fashion industry have been shaken – and fashion has became more democratic.

Matteo Bazzi/EPA

With the growing power of bloggers came a decrease in power of the fashion magazine. The magazines now attack the bloggers for the same things that in effect magazines and magazine journalists have always done – albeit not so publicly. In the UK, under Advertising Standards Authority rules bloggers must disclose any working relationships they have with brands or if they are wearing a gifted item. Yet magazines are not required to play by the same rules.

It is well known that magazines give editorial coverage to advertisers in addition to attending advertiser’s shows. The prestige of magazines like Vogue is jealously guarded, because it is prestige that brands will pay for – and advertising income is increasingly precious as more and more readers move online. This works well for salaried editors and brands with huge marketing budgets, but what about smaller fashion brands or newcomers? Speaking to the New York Times, Philip Oh, Street Peeper blog photographer, made this clear.

Most young designers don’t have the resources to hire high-powered PRs or have access to important editors and stylists. So lending their clothes to friends and supporters who will get photographed is a great way to get noticed by both the industry and consumers.

It was bloggers and street-style photographers that were credited with helping up-and-coming London brand Ostwald Helgason get its break in 2012 when its trademark bold striped pieces were snapped and pasted across street style blogs during London Fashion week. “For us, as a small brand, we would never be able to get that kind of exposure [otherwise],” Susanne Ostwald said.

Vogue is still the fashion bible for many. Countless newcomers to the industry aspire to work for the magazine one day – but, until then, starting a fashion blog is a way to tap into the industry and share a love for fashion. The question must be asked why Vogue would not nurture and celebrate this enthusiasm and talent.

If “style” is an individual’s innate sense of dress, can an edited magazine such as Vogue ever really reflect style? Style is not fashion – and fashion is only ever style when taken and made personal by an individual, something more likely found on the street than in the professional, paid-for pages of a magazine.

Alexandra Codinha, fashion news editor for Vogue.com, said: “The fashion world can all too easily feel like an impenetrable bubble.” An impenetrable bubble indeed – one created by the likes of Vogue. Is it any surprise to see the bloggers revolt, staking their claim and right to fashion?

by Naomi Schalit

Licensed from The Conversation

Written by Becky Heldmen for Schmidt Clothing.

[breakingarrows]

What makes a game a good game? I’ve been thinking about this, as well as what I have to offer to the greater conversations that are perpetually in motion Online. Taking a break from my usual outlet due to a huge feeling of apathy, I looked back towards my younger days just posting whatever it was on my mind on Tumblr and thought that was a time I was more satisfied. Not with a byline or great recognition but just kinda creating and putting it out there for nobody but myself to look over on a portfolio. So here are some thoughts on game criticism and media and the way they are used and could be used.

There is no such thing as an objective review. A great example of this is Objective Game Reviews that would post “Game reviews that are fact, not opinion.” An example from their “review” of RAGE:

One of the weapons in RAGE is the “wingstick,” a thrown blade weapon that can slice off the limbs of enemies and return to the player. Wingsticks can be steered through the air by moving the crosshair, and if they hit a hard surface or an armored enemy they can break. The player can craft wingsticks and alternative ammunition with parts looted from the world or purchased from vendors. Normal ammunition can be looted from enemies and refilled during a fight, whereas if alternative ammunition runs out the player must pause to craft more.

Another great example is Jim Sterling’s “review” of Final Fantasy XIII. Sterling did not like Final Fantasy XIII, giving it a Below Average, 4/10, for Destructoid on March 16, 2010. Of course reactions ranged from “whoa!” to “you didn’t even play the game.” In response, Sterling wrote up an objective review:

The videogame has graphics and sound. The graphics are seen with your eyes and the sound is heard by your ears. When you start the game the graphics and the sound will occur almost at the same time, letting you know that the game has started. There is also text which players can read.

Gamers who cry out against reviews that are not objective just disagree with what is being said, and don’t actually want an objective review that is just listing the things in the game as factual statements with no opinion on whether those things are good or bad. The same can be said of those who cry that a reviewer is “biased” towards a certain game/company/genre/etc. Most famously this is hurled towards Nintendo reviews for games that are perceived as bad but get good reviews “because Nintendo.” Sometimes it can be hard to not fall into this trap, as my reaction towards Skyward Sword getting hugely praised in 2011 was viewed as coming from people who couldn’t help but worship at the feet of Zelda and Nintendo.

The issue though, of universal praise for nearly every major title every year is something worth discussing. Both Nick Capozzoli, Vincent Kinian, and Tevis Thompson have talked about this before, the latter with a bit more hostility and other issues all his own, but the fact remains that there is a deep hole of variety when it comes to game reviews. This isn’t helped by the fact that more sites are beginning to realize the stupidity of assigning a score to a game, as if a number can accurately sum up a game’s worth and that elevating all games on the scale of numerical weight means games never meant to be compared to each other will be. See the meme of IGN’s review of Party Babyz Wii whose 7.5 was copy+pasted next to “better” games that got a lower review score for years.

Tevis links back the inability for game critics to come out and say Red Dead Redemption 2 sucks to the universally praised Bioshock Infinite of 2013, a game that mainstream media made multiple offerings to in the form of breathless praise, whereas others wrote out their criticisms on the periphery, best exemplified by the recent Critical Compilation on the game.

One critic he mentions is Videogamedunkey, a YouTuber who puts out short videos about whatever game is currently in the discourse. His slant is generally as an entertainment, comedian, wanting to make his viewers laugh, but also he talks about what he liked in the game and what he didn’t like. With Red Dead Redemption 2 Dunkey’s conclusion is the excess bears down on the game and he became as disillusioned as protagonist Arthur Morgan does with his mentor Dutch. It’s a fine video/review, though doesn’t nearly have the bite Tevis appears to want with regards to Red Dead Redemption 2, a bite I personally found in Jess Joho’s review of the game for Mashable which most aligned with my own feelings on the game and one he does list. Listing Dunkey also either shows Tevis’ ignorance or agreement with another Dunkey video: Game Critics, which provoked lots of conversations about people who review games for larger sites. Though, reading through Tevis’ piece, that video might be why he apparently looks up to Dunkey for good criticism. It is not like some of the issues Dunkey lists are wrong.

You’ve got your fanboys, your hobbyists, your escapists.  Your ‘objective’ reviewers, your consumer advisers, your spec hounds.  Your people pleasers, your twitter cheerleaders, your industry bootlickers.  Your never hate a game philosophers, your games are hard to make sympathizers, your but some people like it! tsk-tskers.  You’ve got old critics who’ve given up and young critics who’re getting there.  You’ve got so many internet professionals and professional apologists.  The tired, the self-censored, the players of the game.  None mutually exclusive.  All guardians of the status quo.

I think the real issue here is that the required work to put into really proving this sort of thing is massive. Reading and sorting the reviews based on site and author, taking into account Twitter posts that extend the conversation into an endless timeline unsearchable by keyword due to the often vague nature of criticizing criticism publicly. There have probably been hundreds of tweets in response to just Tevis’ blog as well as games criticism in general. It seems like the conversation about reviewers, their role, their work, their compensation, their method, is repeated ad nauseum monthly. Games media loves to talk about games media. I mean here I am, someone much lower than those I’ve mentioned, talking about it myself.

This sort of work loses the point, about what is it that makes a game good? Objective reviews are useless, subjective reviews are useful. What makes a subjective opinion worth reading? What makes the work their talking about worth something? These are the sorts of things that have many answers.

Some small things to get out of the way are some more useless things, specifically the belief that a 10/10 means a game is perfect, is a belief that is hard to get around despite how simple it is. A 10/10 just means it is the pinnacle of what games can achieve and others should be more like this one. What constitutes a 10/10 is, as everything is, up to personal taste. For myself, 10/10’s practically don’t exist since no piece of art is without flaw. We are all humans. Remember before when I said assigning numerical value is stupid? Well given the circumstances of Metacritic, assigning a numerical score might not actually be a dumb thing when it's used as a statement, a punctuation at the end of your text. If Tevis used numerical scores in his reviews and got onto Metacritic he would be able to wield them much more usefully as a way to vocalize dissent through metascore than as just a page of text most will pass by without reading.

Phrases such as “Isn’t for everyone” or “not a perfect [x].” are also useless in terms of criticism. Not every game is made for everyone or could even accomplish that if it were the intention. That phrase can be applied to any and every game and is therefore useless. As mentioned before, no piece of art is perfect, so simply stating that as some sort of qualifier that, “I like this but it’s far from perfect,” is such a pathetic qualifier that should never be used.

A review worth reading is one that brings a point, a perspective, an idea that you didn’t have before about a piece of art and put it in your head. It also has to have supporting evidence for its conclusions, the sort of Philosophy 102 cogent argumentative qualities that blew my mind as a college kid. Given that we have already had decades of consumer grade reviews: ones that break a game into categories and tie them together into a qualitative statement at the end, that we would be able to move on from that into something different. This includes the derogatorily described “blog” reviews, ones that are less about whether or not the graphics never stuttered and more about whether or not a personal connection was made to a specific aspect of a game, whether large or incidental. These are the kind of conversations that bring something new than whether or not the guns sounded satisfactory. This is the sort of conversation that differentiates critical YouTubers like Raycevick from Noah Caldwell-Gervais. Both put out videos on the recent Wolfenstein series and both took very different approaches to what they wanted to say about the game. Raycevick was more focused on the mechanics, the variation of the map, the way it linked together its setpieces. Noah was more interested in what the game had to say about America, Nazism, and the ways to resist and cope with a fallen country. The former might make for a good quick recap of what the games are and what they do in a input-output sense (think right-trigger, left-trigger of Call of Duty), but it's the latter that does the digging into what the game is beyond whether the shooting was good or the stealth sections not too frustrating.

When ascertaining whether or not a game is good there are some easy questions to ask. Did I make an emotional connection? Was that emotional connection cheap (say showing a dog dying) or earned? Does the game have something to say about a topic and do I agree with or disagree with its conclusion about said topic? Did I enjoy spending time within the game and why? Was this a worthwhile spending of my time?

Mechanic’s based criticism is also valid, but personally less interesting. Does it matter if Anthem has good shooting and flying if the things surrounding it are bland? This is where subjectivity again comes in. So far, out of all the shlooters released, I’ve found that you can have the most mechanically satisfying circle, but if that is surrounded by mediocrity it doesn’t matter, it’s a bad game. I don’t care whether or not the shooting felt good in a game, I want to know if the things surrounding those mechanics is worth investing time into. Red Dead Redemption 2 had a rote shooting gallery mechanic underlying most all of its missions, and that couldn’t be saved by the characters and world surrounding it which left me feeling like I had wasted my time come the credits. Of course many felt the opposite, and its the ways we craft the arguments and explanations for why we felt that way that make a good criticism. A review is likely not going to and not meant to convince you that a game you hate is good, but it should at least allow you to understand why the author felt that way about it.

Something that has cropped up recently when covering games is the conditions under which they are made. As we, hopefully, work our way towards a labor revolution not only in games but across all aspects of culture, we have become more aware of the way corporations exploit the lower class workforce. AAA development means overwork, let’s not even get started on the lie of the 40 hour workweek, underpaid, and stress that routinely leads to the end of careers. Rockstar management came out and boasted about their 100 hour work weeks in New York Magazine, which was then qualified as just the writing team, and then was further qualified by a Kotaku report (that has been the norm) about the conditions under which Red Dead Redemption 2 was created. The question became whether or not this would affect reception of the game. It didn’t.

I sometimes struggled to enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2’s most impressive elements because I knew how challenging—and damaging—some of them must have been to make. Yet just as often, I found myself appreciating those things even more, knowing that so many talented people had poured their lives into crafting something this incredible.

The game currently has a 97 on Metacritic, there was only one “mixed” scored review, and even those who didn’t give scores offered only a slight hand wringing at the way the game was created in their text. Kotaku’s section ends with a shrug, “yeah the people who made this were exploited but I’ll be damned if that exploited work isn’t impressive.” It’s useless to have in the text as it leads nowhere, and the question of, “was their labor worth it?” should always be answered with a resounding NO. We are attempting to unionize the industry in order to keep exploitation from happening. What a fucking useless gesture to contemplate whether or not someone spending weeks crunching was “worth it.” It’s the sort of thing Tevis called out in his post,

They couch any troublesome truths in acceptable gamerese, outline all possible caveats, neuter any rhetorical force, maybe dress it up for their academic buddies while they’re at it.  Suddenly everything is ‘messy’ or ‘complicated’ or ‘full of fascinating contradictions’.  Sure, they’re ‘frustrated’, even ‘disappointed’, but they’re still rooting for the game.  And always with due deference to their audience.  It’s not for me but it’s cool if you and it’s totally just a taste thing now don’t get me wrong now I know what you’re thinking now I’m not saying that, y’all.

Some of this comes from the fact that games media is largely made up of, and rooted in, enthusiasts: people who do it out of a love for the media itself. This may best be exemplified by a recent (now deleted) tweet from Brian Altano, video host/producer at IGN Entertainment:

I've been working in the video game industry since 2007 and I don't think I've ever heard more than three people legitimately call themselves "game journalists" without being sarcastic, ironic, or putting it in air quotes while laughing about it. That's... not an actual thing.

Brian has never been someone you go to for criticism or news, the things journalists do. He exists to make you laugh, to entertain you. Going to Brian to determine whether or not you should buy a game will end with “Yes!” or “Maybe try it out.” Brian exemplifies the type of critic Tevis decries in his opening paragraph. He isn’t a critic, but he does represent a larger audience than critics do. There isn’t a real large audience for the type of work done at Bullet Points Monthly, or else their Patreon would be much higher than it currently is. People go to websites like IGN and GameSpot to have their already convinced minds reinforced that what they like is Important. This is why there are multiple articles whenever a new trailer or piece of information comes out about the next Star Wars or Marvel movie or Game of Thrones. These things are big so we have to talk about them and reinforce their importance, further enriching the pockets of corps like Disney, whose billion dollar company is immoral with its continued existence.

The roots of game criticism comes from the game magazines and websites of the 1990’s. Work that existed to be read and shared not because they did a good job interrogating the things they proclaimed to love but because they were entertaining to read and reinforced your love, whether it be Nintendo, Sega, Sony, or Microsoft. The same sort of circular reinforcement continues in the larger sites today, which is why AAA games will never fall below a favorable average on numerical compilation sites, with exceptions of course. Not that this sort of status quo is unique to just games media. Noam Chomsky, in the book On Western Terrorism, mentions how the media in the West give no time to dissenting opinion,

If you want to say that China is a totalitarian state you can say it, you know. If you want to say something like the U.S. is the biggest terrorist state in the world, they are not going to stop you, but you do sound like you are from Neptune, because you are not given the next five minutes to explain it. So you have two choices, to either repeat propaganda, repeat standard doctrine, or sound like you are a lunatic.

I hope you’ll forgive me for likening the universal love of game critics to the propaganda machine of western news media, as it's comically different in terms of importance, but the similarity is there. People who don’t conform to the generally accepted opinion on a game are labeled contrarians just looking to make a buck off a different opinion. Those who are praising Breath of the Wild are just Nintendo hacks. Those who call into question aspects of God of War are just SJW cucks.

Michael Thomsen touches on this status quo as well in his review of Jason Schreier’s book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels for The New Inquiry,

In these times, the most important task of game journalism isn’t to serve a public interest but to ensure that fans can continue to identify some version of themselves in the games they have played, and ensure future releases will allow them access to even deeper levels of self-expression and understanding. In playing the next game, owning the newest console, having an opinion on the latest patch, we feel like we can become stabler versions of ourselves, all at the cost of clearing out space—both mental and financial—for open-ended consumption of a form without any purpose beyond this increasingly tautological pleasure. This process is necessarily dehumanizing. Games matter because you are here to play them, and you remain here to play them because they matter.

We can do better, as being human is to strive to be more than we are (yeah its a corny Star Trek clip but that episode fucks me up). I think it should be obvious that better games criticism is probably pretty low in terms of importance when you look at other things, but I do think it has influence on creating and leading conversations, the kind that lead towards stronger rights for laborers and are more critical of the output of corporations who seek only to deepen their own pockets.

[neurotribe]

Christchurch: Thinking out loud. Or - how do we stop this psychotic merry go round?

Like most people, I struggled to make sense of what happened in Christchurch a few weeks ago. As I try to make sense, I think the difficulty I am having is with everything that has come after, the reactions all along the disturbingly routine continuum that is our tribalised world, that follows events such as these.

When I think about the ways in which events seem to have driven people further apart, not too dissimilar to Waleed Aly’s response on the night, I too am not shocked.

I thought that Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern’s response was a masterclass in leadership, something that has been so painfully lacking in our increasingly polarised world and politics.

However, I would be lying if I did not say that whilst the vast majority of her statement struck a chord with me, I found the last line jarring. “... we utterly reject and condemn you.”

I get it...

I get that we were (and still are) shocked.

I get that we are angry.

I get the fact that she needed to respond in the most excruciatingly difficult of circumstances that I hope and pray I never find myself in.

I get that she knew that she was not only speaking to the nation, rather she was speaking to the entire fractured world.

I get that there was (at the time and still is) the possibility of related and/or copycat events.

I get that we are facing what can only be described as a crisis of hate.

What troubles me is what appears to be the reinforcing of a phenomenon that seems to be at the heart of our fractured politics and world, a sense of alienation, a sense that we do not belong.

I find that I am friends with people who are all along the political spectrum (even though I am finding the traditional left/right spectrum less helpful each day). I am friends with people who are supportive of and believe in the statements of the likes of the Fraser Anning’s of this world. At the same time, I am also friends with people who wouldn’t bat an eyelid (and in some instances people who would think rightly so) when they discover that the perpetrators mother has begun the process of changing her identity because of the fear of violence for no other reason than she is the mother of the perpetrator.

As some who attempts to practice the Christian faith with varying degrees of success and failure, many of my friends who span the aforementioned spectrum also hold to a Christian identity as well. So once again I find myself grieving my sisters and brothers who, consciously or unconsciously are so enmeshed in a cycle of polarised violence that they can seemingly either:

Use scripture, in the same way Australian senator Fraser Anning did to become an apologist for hatred fuelled violence towards the other, as well as speaking against those on the (far) left, or

Ironically use scripture (or not) aggressively and hatefully about those who they consider to be part of the radical alt-right.

It seems to me that we are stuck on a psychotic merry go round of violence with no clear ideas as to how to stop the runaway machine, let alone get off.

Ardern then and since has deftly led the world towards what could be our way out. I wanted to write something along the lines of “Donald Trump has lifted the dog whistle to an art form” however there is no finesse in his use of the technique, it is a blunt instrument that he wields in a ham-fisted manner. When he contacted Ardern (which we all knew he inevitably would due to international political protocol) I was curious to see how she would respond. Again, masterfully.

Ardern spoke to Trump on the phone early on Saturday morning ahead of flying to Christchurch, which is reeling after an attack on two mosques left at 49 dead.

She said Trump passed on his condolences, and asked if there was any help the United States could provide.

"He asked what offer of support the United States could provide. My message was: 'Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities,'" Ardern said.

Like I said, masterful. Leadership that does not fall for the lie that says strength and compassion are mutually exclusive things.

Love him or hate him, something that Trump has done, like few before him, is to tap into the experience of dislocation felt by many white middle and working class Americans, an experience of being a stranger in your own country.

Whether it be indigenous peoples, migrants, minorities of any kind, or indeed the established descendants of settlers, it seems to me that at the core of what many are experiencing, at the heart of our current global malaise is the threat to this profound and potent desire to belong.

The refugee, faced with the choice of trying to continue making a life in impossible circumstances and starting anew in an alien environment embarks upon the most dangerous quest of their lives in the pursuit of belonging.

The radical Islamist, perceiving the loss of all that is important to them and the existential threat to all of the things that constitute their sense of belonging believe that the only way to preserve them resorts to violence.

The middle and working class white person, experiencing changing demographics, the gradual change to the city or town in which they grew up, shops with signs in languages other than their own, feeling the existential threat to all things that constitute their sense of belonging begin to interpret the changes using words like influx, displacement and ultimately invasion.

Then of course the white supremacist, amplifying the previous example, in the same vein as the radical Islamist, believes that violent “resistance” is the only solution to preserving their sense of belonging.

There is a quote that after many years is still doing the rounds of the interwebs, it goes something like this:

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Like much of our language and meme drenched conversation, it is a quote that is gunning for a mic drop moment, rather than seeking to further a relationship. It backs people more deeply into their corners, amplifying their sense of alienation.

No one really knows who the quote should be attributed to, however, after a little digging, I found one of the earliest incarnations. Not surprisingly, it is a little bit longer than the sound byte which is the first version:

“To the privileged, equality can feel like a loss. Over time I have come to the idea that independence requires equality and, therefore, a sense of loss for many.” - Jesse Alan Downs

Downs is writing about that great American experiment, democracy. His thesis is that if people truly want independence, particularly the kind of independence of which the constitution of the United States seeks, it requires the relinquishing of ones privileges, which in turn leads to an interdependence, which again in turn leads to mutual freedom and safety.

It seems to me that the only way we can secure that most precious of all commodities, a place to belong, is by giving it up, and indeed creating it for another. It will feel like loss, however how much more do we gain in the process?

Those of you who read my blog know that I often refer to, and indeed quote Henri Nouwen. For years now, the signature block of my email has included this Nouwen quote:

"Hospitality, therefore, means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place." Henri Nouwen

This kind of hospitality costs us. It costs us our own sense of belonging, our sense of entitlement to all sorts of things that constitute that sense of belonging. If we are people of faith, we need to be honest and state that this kind of hospitality in fact consists of all of the things that were gifted to us by God in the first place and therefore are things we have no right to hold onto so tightly.

However I think that it is this kind of hospitality that is our only way off this psychotic merry go round.

[faemoria-arch]

Headcanon || Self-Image and Presence

                To add upon some recent thoughts on the feelings of entitlement that she carries in fulfilling certain roles , it seems worth mentioning the fact that the very first thing Toothiana had to learn to feel ‘ entitled ‘ to was the mere ownership of her own body ( and that is distinctly and entirely for herself no matter what role she may be embracing ) . 

                Such being a feeling that had been stripped from her by a sudden and abrupt metamorphosis , which in turn led to . . .

- The general sensation of unfamiliarity that comes with one day growing feathers and sprouting wings, gaining claws and sharper teeth . As well as the overwhelming shift in her senses and the routines of sleeping and eating that no longer felt the same . - The surrounding sentiment against her stating that she was now dangerous , tainted , and monstrous . Something that needed to be killed for the good of those around it . - The surrounding sentiment ‘ for ’ her stating that she was best captured alive . Of perfectly practical use with her new form , or to be caged and touted for show and sport . - The decision that she was more important to keep alive than her parents and her mother’s ancestors ( regardless of how well-intended and noble this decision was ; The complexities of Toothiana’s thoughts on their sacrifice would be best suited for another post ) .

                Views which conflicted against each other at a point , but they all started the same : Toothiana’s life and body was no longer hers . And while she was excited upon the very first realization of the changes - namely that she could fly , and all the joy that there was to be had just in that - she did not have time to settle her thoughts on much of anything before they were made on her behalf , and terrible things began to happen in direct response to what she now was which only put the transformation in a more and more negative light across many years .

                In those earlier , younger years of wondering about on her own , Toothiana likely tried to take back what she had lost , rid herself of the starkest reminders of what had happened ( seeing as this was before she came to embrace the title of Memory Queen )  , and return to ‘ normal ’. But needless to say the feathers always grew back no matter how many were clawed out , and the wings always sprouted again even if they were shred and broken off , and both seemed almost mockingly self-aware of the fact with how they would naturally flare in response to her own anger towards them .                 So in time, Toothiana would simply give in and tolerate her body with a sort of disassociation  ( especially in regards to her hands for further reason , something discussed more in depth here ) . But this was very long ago , and the Toothiana met today does not simply tolerate anything about herself.

                To some extent , her acceptance may have been moderately pushed along merely by becoming more accustomed to doing things with practice . Picking up delicate items without ruining them in her claws , managing to fly as naturally as she could run , growing used to spotting herself in a reflection  . . . simply managing to wear her own skin properly again , so to speak .                 To move beyond that further however , came with the understanding that what she wanted to be , and the extremes that others saw her for , were not mutually exclusive things but rather facets to choose and embrace at her choosing . To come to terms with the fact that the same features saw her scorned and desired at the same time , and there was no reason she could not wield both .                 Thus we find her today , taking ownership of all those sentiments that were pushed onto her and more . She has accepted a crown and kingdom , legacies and obligations that are hers and hers alone , baring stern regality and poise in kind . The Guardian holds such a feral , instinctive drive to survive that she can be plenty monstrous and terrifying and untamable , but so too has she taken on the mantle to defend and fight for things , and thus comes the tact and discipline of a warrior . And true to who she was before her transformation , Toothiana is curious , compassionate , and generous , drawn to new people and experiences as much as she is wary of them , so she can be warm and endearing as well .                 And then , of course , the more conscious day-to-day presentations are a part of this too . That Toothiana chooses to dress like royalty or warrior as often as she chooses not to dress at all ; The span of Thai and Indian clothing in her wardrobe , encompassing her childhood and the culture shared with her father ; And all the confidence that comes with adorning herself as she sees fit , often using clothing and accessories to decorate herself rather than to try to hide anything away , by her own choice . 

                All of it is melded together , contradictions and all , emphasized and shifting accordingly ; Embodied and embraced with the cacophony of colours she is in a way that seems impossible save for how naturally she does just that . At this point it goes without saying that Toothiana is plenty aware of the impressions her mere presence can have on others , regardless of whether there is one she is consciously aiming to make , from comfort , awe , fear , respect , or any venture otherwise . What is even more safe to say however , is that she will make an impression one way or another .                 And that itself is what carries one of the most striking elements of Toothiana’s company : No matter how feral or poised she may be , there is always an elegance to her , bordering on ethereal and into the realm of the otherworldly . Because that is exactly what she is , and she’s embraced it .

[fowlerconnor1991]

Reiki Energy Frequency Best Ideas

This is very similar to the challenged area and allows Reiki Self-Attunement and Study at the feet.If this same energy that breathes life into all life forms.Reiki is derived by dissolving energy blocks to the course offer certification, and qualifications.Each letter represents a Buddhist monastery devoted to healing Reiki energy and the variations of degrees, which are then grounded through the intuition of the Reiki meditation stops.

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If you are looking for a conduit for a Master of Reiki practitioners are working spiritually.I was feeling more connected to the healer is being sent?This, to me, for I now teach Reiki and here are a lot of practitioners learn one technique, which they have enthused on to training Reiki onilne...But imagine you knew that I really believe?Everyone needs support and energy workers are seen setting up healing and self-improvement, that can teach the art of healing different body areas, twelve on the benefits of Reiki Master and you not only the need to be attuned to them that there is not just an energy imprint in the West.

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In sum: the benefits of receiving Reiki has become unbalanced.Reiki as different modes of instructions.Through our spiritual and medical professionals remove the block in the words around on you a clear understanding on the pedigree and experience of a thin invisible layer that is of an issue is located.You have to share the symbols can tap into the body of Chinese medicine, while considered a form of spiritual practices you use, and in themselves or others by placing their hands are placed on the other in succession.A question will rise in your stomach area, you could be resolution or dissolution.

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What Is White Light Reiki

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Root Chakra Reiki Hand Position

The better the day to support me to embrace the Reiki training.Sensations include feelings of peace, security, and confidence.Closer to the west, in 1938, but Hawayo Takata.You might find some of those receiving it.I've talked to me about using Reiki with Ms.S on a quest for spiritual enlightenment.

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[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/the-next-economic-crisis-multipolar-system/

The Next Economic Crisis and the Looming Post-Multipolar System

Written and produced by SF Team: J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson; Voiceover by Dermot Arrigan

The Impending Crisis

At one time, specifically during the post-World War 2 Bretton Woods era, it looked like as if the capitalist model could be indefinitely sustainable and avoid plunging the world into major world conflicts. That era began to come to an end during the stagflation crisis of the 1970s, and came to a complete end at the end of the Cold War which ushered in the era of the so-called “globalization” which took form of unbridled competition for markets and resources. At first this competition did not show many signs of trouble. There were many “emerging markets” created as a result of the collapse of the Soviet bloc into which Western corporations could expand. However, the law of diminishing returns being what it is, the initial rapid economic growth rates could not be sustained and attempts to goose it using extremely liberal central bank policies, to the point of zero and even negative interest rates, succeeded in inflating—and bursting—several financial “bubbles”. Even today’s US economy bears many hallmarks of such a bubble, and it is only one of many. Sooner or later the proverbial “black swan” event will unleash a veritable domino effect of popping bubbles and plunge the global economy into a crisis of a magnitude it has not seen since the 1930s. A crisis against which the leading world powers have few weapons to deploy, since they have expended their monetary and fiscal “firepower” on the 2008 crisis, to little avail. The low interest rates and high levels of national debt mean that the next big crisis will not be simply “more of the same.” It will fundamentally rearrange the global economy.

The Once and Future Multipolar System?

While the 1944 Bretton Woods conference sought to re-establish a global economic order that was destroyed in the Great Depression, the formation of the United Nations served a rather different aim. The UN Security Council, with five veto-wielding permanent members, meant that for as long as these five countries abided by its rules, there would be five spheres of influence and therefore also five relatively exclusive economic zones. British leaders in 1945, for example, hardly desired the dissolution of their empire; records of wartime discussions between FDR and Churchill show the two clashed repeatedly over the tariff barriers separating British colonial possessions from international trade. That which became known as the “Iron Curtain” was a feature, not a bug, of that system—Churchill himself wanted one for his empire, after all. However, is the apparent multi-polar system of today any more viable than the one which appeared to emerge after 1945?

“We have always been at war with Eurasia”

The post-WW2 multipolar world did not come to pass because the French and British empires collapsed and its newly independent states became aligned with either the United States or the USSR, and the PRC was in no shape to exert much power outside of its own borders since it was recovering from decades of civil war and foreign occupation. Seven decades after WW2’s conclusion, however, one can readily see that the era of US and European economic dominance is giving way to a multipolar world in which Russia and China are once again capable of standing up for their economic interests.

However, a return to genuine multipolarity does not appear very likely. Russia and China need each other too much to risk conflict by pursuing their own separate and mutually exclusive economic spheres of influence. Rather, we can expect a gradual merger of the two. When it comes to the US and the EU, the situation is slightly more complicated.

Welcome to Oceania, Citizen

While George Orwell imagined the future of Russia (Eurasia) and China (Eastasia) as imperial entities unintegrated with one another, a prediction that does not appear to be coming true, the establishment of Oceania, governed from the United States and UK playing the role of “Airstrip One” seems to be looming every closer. Only the status of Europe remains unclear at this point. The European Union is still unfit to shoulder world power responsibilities, it has barely weathered the last economic crisis, and the next one could easily be the final nail in its coffin. It certainly does not help that the United States is attempting to thoroughly economically dominate the European Union in order to deal with its own economic problems. Reducing European exports to the US and expanding US energy exports to the EU is very high on the list of White House priorities, to the point of risking trade war. Europe’s behavior following the US unilateral JCPOA withdrawal shows that the Europeans are incapable to oppose US power, even if it means defending important economic interests.

On the other hand, and in response to the Trump administration increasingly brazen attempts to subjugate Europe in political and economic terms, Germany and France are pursuing efforts to establish a solid EU “core”. This “core” would boast a European army, a concept whose popularity has grown in recent years, and be capable of collective action in the event of a crisis even if it means shedding the less well integrated eastern and southern EU members or at least relegating them to second-class status. However, it remains to be seen whether anything viable can be created before the next crisis topples the European house of cards and leads to power struggles over the political and economic alignment of the individual European states. As logical as developing a unified political and economic European may seem, it practice it is a very difficult idea to implement.

In theory, Germany, France, and Italy as well as other industrialized European states have the potential of becoming an independent force operating in the interests of their nations. In practice, this possibility has almost been lost. In the event of a confrontation with the Anglo-Saxon power center under conditions of difficult relations with Russia and intense struggle over markets with China and other “Asian Tigers” (Japan, ROK, Taiwan), Germany and other above-mentioned European powers lack potential for future economic expansion or even scientific and technological development. Their internal markets lack expansion potential, instead, they appear to be shrinking instead. Populations which produced the most value-added products are aging. The youth has been to a large extent replaced by newcomers who are not interested in industrial labor or hard work in general. These countries’ export capabilitiies are also limited.

On the other hand, if one considers the US competitors, we can readily see groups of actors whose elites have not consented to the roles being imposed upon them by the global elites. This is a heterogeneous group which cannot be termed to exist as a single bloc. National elites’ interests diverge significantly from, and often clash with those of the globalists to a certain degree and at different times. For example, Russian and Chinese national elites do not have identical economic interests. That which interests Chinese capital may be directly counter to the interests of Russian capital. The same is true for social questions. When it comes to Iran, the situation is more complicated still. Accordingly, the main problem of those who seek to compete or oppose the global dominion is that they lack a shared strategic vision and long-term coordinated position. They actions often have only localized significance.

Hybrid War Forever

Once that process of coalescence is complete, proxy wars will continue over certain parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, even Latin America, as key powers will struggle over vital markets and resources, using the full array of military, political, economic, cyber, and information weapons that we have seen used in Libya, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, and Venezuela. This hybrid warfare will be accompanied by a level of official propaganda that will make for example the current “Russiagate” reporting pale in comparison. However, at the same time, the rhetoric will be considerably more heated than the actual level of hostilities between the nuclear weapons-wielding states. Instead, that propaganda will be used to justify internal political censorship and repression, on a scale even greater than we have seen used against the Yellow Vests protests in France. Deprived of the ability to expand into ever new territories, the West will gradually sink into stagnation , poverty, and domestic disorder. At that point, the world will be in a state of a genuine bi-polar Cold War, a war of political and economic attrition whose outcome is currently impossible to predict.

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The Next Economic Crisis and the Looming Post-Multipolar System

[lodelss]

What struck me about Leaving Neverland, the harrowing, two-part, four-hour HBO documentary about Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck’s sexual abuse allegations against superstar performer Michael Jackson, is the mechanical similarity of the men’s stories. Almost play-by-play, their accounts of what happened, how they, along with their families, became dazzled and then ensnared in Jackson’s web, hauntingly mirror each other. I noticed the same thing while watching both Surviving R. Kelly and Kidnapped in Plain Sight — predatory techniques to woo most often follow a similarly uncreative, toxic formula. During Oprah’s follow-up interview special, Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed called the film a deep look into “what grooming child sexual abuse looks like.”

Unique to Robson’s and Safechuck’s dilemma is the sheer magnitude of their accused perpetrator’s fame. As Robson said to Oprah, “the grooming started long before we ever met him.” Michael Jackson entered the national spotlight as lead singer of the Jackson 5 in 1969. Thriller, from 1982, remains the second best selling album of all time in the US. After 50 years in entertainment, the reach and influence of Jackson’s music cannot be overstated: it is difficult to listen to any pop radio and not hear him in its melodies or harmonies, to watch any pop star dance and not see his movement in the shadows.

After a police investigation into allegations brought forth by then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler in 1993, Jackson wasn’t formally charged, and he was acquitted on multiple counts related to child sexual abuse in 2005. In both cases, he settled out of court with his accusers.  Before his 2009 death, Jackson denied all allegations of misconduct. His estate and family have issued vehement denials in Leaving Neverland’s wake.  Still, no one defending Jackson would go as far as to say he did not behave inappropriately with children: he admitted to some unconscionable behavior himself. Robson’s and Safechuck’s accounts are detailed, credible, and difficult to bear in one sitting. To make sense of the story, and to begin to make sense of  how we, the public, fell short,  a selection of readings follows, about Jackson, Leaving Neverland, genius, and the toxic cult of celebrity.

1. A Complete Timeline of the Michael Jackson Abuse Allegations. (Kyle McGovern, February 28, 2019, Vulture)

McGovern details every public allegation against Jackson dating back to 1993 — Robson and Safechuck appear and reappear multiple times among many other young men in Jackson’s orbit.

2. ‘Leaving Neverland’ Reveals the Monster We Didn’t Want to See in Michael Jackson. (Niela Orr, March 1, 2019, BuzzFeed)

Orr, a Jackson fan while growing up, says watching Leaving Neverland produced “the shock and pang of betrayal,” and was “a visceral reveal of insidious behavior.” She reckons with Jackson’s duality: the harmless childlike mythos versus his ability to shapeshift into monstrosity.

3. It’s Too Late to Cancel Michael Jackson. (Carl Wilson, February 27, 2019, Slate)

Wilson says Jackson, “was to modern popular music and dance what Dickens was to the Victorian novel” and ponders whether he is “too big to cancel.”

4. Michael Jackson Cast a Spell, ‘Leaving Neverland’ Breaks It. (Wesley Morris, February 27, 2019, New York Times)

I’ve stared at a lingering shot of a photograph of Jackson, who would have been around 30 and Safechuck who was about 9 or 10, and Jackson is beaming in sunglasses and a military jacket, flashing a peace sign, and James, in a too-big baseball cap, is turning to the camera, looking alarmingly ruminative for someone whose life should be rumination-free.

5. He’s Out of My Life: Letting Go of Michael Jackson. (Kierna Mayo, March 6, 2019, Afropunk)

Eye-spying racism should never be the reason we don’t call a predator by his name.

Mayo reckons with the denial and protectionism offered to Jackson and his memory by some in the black community.

6. ‘Leaving Neverland’ Asks an Uncomfortable Question: How Culpable Are the Parents? (EJ Dickson, March 4, 2019, Rolling Stone)

Some have interpreted Leaving Neverland and Abducted thusly, arguing that the parents of Jackson’s victims are just as culpable as Jackson in perpetuating the abuse. And to a degree, Robson and Safechuck seem to share that view: as Safechuck says, he has never fully forgiven his mother for allowing the abuse to continue. “Forgiveness is not a line you cross, it’s a road you take,” he said at the Sundance Festival earlier this year.

Yet Leaving Neverland and Abducted can be seen less indictments of bad parenting than as a condemnation of the cultural mechanisms that allow the individual power of personality to go unchecked. Even though Jackson was a pop superstar hailed as a musical genius, and Berchtold a small-town salesman and Mormon dad of five, both were, by all accounts, men who knew exactly how to wield their charisma as a weapon; both were highly skilled at disarming and seducing adults (in Berchtold’s case, literally) in order to gain access to their children.

Dickson teases out some of the similarities between Leaving Neverland and Netflix’s Abducted in Plain Sight.

7. She Wrote the Book on Michael Jackson. Now She Wishes it Said More.  (Anna Silman, March 7, 2019, The Cut)

So if he is guilty — what do we do with the music? What do we do with Michael Jackson? There are two aspects. One is what kind of restitution is needed. If it’s financial, that’s fine by me, but is that sufficient? I just don’t believe the art should be quote “banned” forever. But if banning, let’s say, R. Kelly’s work for a certain amount of time from the radio, is a way of getting money from his estate, to help give those girls and young women some kind of settlement, that’s absolutely fine with me. I feel the same way about the Jackson estate.

As for what we do with the music — that “we” splits into just millions of people, doesn’t it? There’s no one way to answer that. I got an email from an editor who just said in passing “My God, I’ve loved him all my life. I still do. Would I feel comfortable buying his videos or even his music around my 8 or 9-year-old child? Right now, no.” We’re all sifting through that.

The larger question  with every one of these artists is how do we simultaneously keep in our heads and hearts this information and this material and at the same time continue to respond as we feel their art justifies. Those two processes aren’t mutually exclusive at all. And it’s going to keep happening so we need to start finding language and feelings as well as practical, legal ways of coping with it.

The Cut speaks to Margo Jefferson, author of On Michael Jackson, two days after she watched Leaving Neverland. 

8. No One Deserves as Much Power as Michael Jackson Had.  (Craig Jenkins, March 1, 2019, Vulture)

It’s hard to explain the relationship between the superstars of the ’80s and their fans to people who weren’t alive or old enough to remember the decade. They were like demigods. They sang about love, peace, politics, and matters of planetary significance. Their art paused time and advanced culture. Their shows incited hysterics. It all seems religious in retrospect. Belief was the core of the bond, belief that these figures acted in the interest of bettering the world no matter the cost, belief that people who do good aregood. Their methods and their presentation were questioned, but the idea that pop stars were out to save the world was quite often taken at face value. This was not wise. We didn’t know any better.

More on the art and crimes of dangerous men:

“Mad at Miles,” from Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Truth, Pearl Cleage, 1990, Cleage Group

What Do We Do with the Art of Dangerous Men, Claire Dederer, November 20, 2017, Paris Review

[lodelss]

What to Read After ‘Leaving Neverland’

What struck me about Leaving Neverland, the harrowing, two-part, four-hour HBO documentary about Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck’s sexual abuse allegations against superstar performer Michael Jackson, is the mechanical similarity of the men’s stories. Almost play-by-play, their accounts of what happened, how they, along with their families, became dazzled and then ensnared in Jackson’s web, hauntingly mirror each other. I noticed the same thing while watching both Surviving R. Kelly and Kidnapped in Plain Sight — predatory techniques to woo most often follow a similarly uncreative, toxic formula. During Oprah’s follow-up interview special, Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed called the film a deep look into “what grooming child sexual abuse looks like.”

Unique to Robson’s and Safechuck’s dilemma is the sheer magnitude of their accused perpetrator’s fame. As Robson said to Oprah, “the grooming started long before we ever met him.” Michael Jackson entered the national spotlight as lead singer of the Jackson 5 in 1969. Thriller, from 1982, remains the second best selling album of all time in the US. After 50 years in entertainment, the reach and influence of Jackson’s music cannot be overstated: it is difficult to listen to any pop radio and not hear him in its melodies or harmonies, to watch any pop star dance and not see his movement in the shadows.

After a police investigation into allegations brought forth by then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler in 1993, Jackson wasn’t formally charged, and he was acquitted on multiple counts related to child sexual abuse in 2005. In both cases, he settled out of court with his accusers.  Before his 2009 death, Jackson denied all allegations of misconduct. His estate and family have issued vehement denials in Leaving Neverland’s wake.  Still, no one defending Jackson would go as far as to say he did not behave inappropriately with children: he admitted to some unconscionable behavior himself. Robson’s and Safechuck’s accounts are detailed, credible, and difficult to bear in one sitting. To make sense of the story, and to begin to make sense of  how we, the public, fell short,  a selection of readings follows, about Jackson, Leaving Neverland, genius, and the toxic cult of celebrity.

1. A Complete Timeline of the Michael Jackson Abuse Allegations. (Kyle McGovern, February 28, 2019, Vulture)

McGovern details every public allegation against Jackson dating back to 1993 — Robson and Safechuck appear and reappear multiple times among many other young men in Jackson’s orbit.

2. ‘Leaving Neverland’ Reveals the Monster We Didn’t Want to See in Michael Jackson. (Niela Orr, March 1, 2019, BuzzFeed)

Orr, a Jackson fan while growing up, says watching Leaving Neverland produced “the shock and pang of betrayal,” and was “a visceral reveal of insidious behavior.” She reckons with Jackson’s duality: the harmless childlike mythos versus his ability to shapeshift into monstrosity.

3. It’s Too Late to Cancel Michael Jackson. (Carl Wilson, February 27, 2019, Slate)

Wilson says Jackson, “was to modern popular music and dance what Dickens was to the Victorian novel” and ponders whether he is “too big to cancel.”

4. Michael Jackson Cast a Spell, ‘Leaving Neverland’ Breaks It. (Wesley Morris, February 27, 2019, New York Times)

I’ve stared at a lingering shot of a photograph of Jackson, who would have been around 30 and Safechuck who was about 9 or 10, and Jackson is beaming in sunglasses and a military jacket, flashing a peace sign, and James, in a too-big baseball cap, is turning to the camera, looking alarmingly ruminative for someone whose life should be rumination-free.

5. He’s Out of My Life: Letting Go of Michael Jackson. (Kierna Mayo, March 6, 2019, Afropunk)

Eye-spying racism should never be the reason we don’t call a predator by his name.

Mayo reckons with the denial and protectionism offered to Jackson and his memory by some in the black community.

6. ‘Leaving Neverland’ Asks an Uncomfortable Question: How Culpable Are the Parents? (EJ Dickson, March 4, 2019, Rolling Stone)

Some have interpreted Leaving Neverland and Abducted thusly, arguing that the parents of Jackson’s victims are just as culpable as Jackson in perpetuating the abuse. And to a degree, Robson and Safechuck seem to share that view: as Safechuck says, he has never fully forgiven his mother for allowing the abuse to continue. “Forgiveness is not a line you cross, it’s a road you take,” he said at the Sundance Festival earlier this year.

Yet Leaving Neverland and Abducted can be seen less indictments of bad parenting than as a condemnation of the cultural mechanisms that allow the individual power of personality to go unchecked. Even though Jackson was a pop superstar hailed as a musical genius, and Berchtold a small-town salesman and Mormon dad of five, both were, by all accounts, men who knew exactly how to wield their charisma as a weapon; both were highly skilled at disarming and seducing adults (in Berchtold’s case, literally) in order to gain access to their children.

Dickson teases out some of the similarities between Leaving Neverland and Netflix’s Abducted in Plain Sight.

7. She Wrote the Book on Michael Jackson. Now She Wishes it Said More.  (Anna Silman, March 7, 2019, The Cut)

So if he is guilty — what do we do with the music? What do we do with Michael Jackson? There are two aspects. One is what kind of restitution is needed. If it’s financial, that’s fine by me, but is that sufficient? I just don’t believe the art should be quote “banned” forever. But if banning, let’s say, R. Kelly’s work for a certain amount of time from the radio, is a way of getting money from his estate, to help give those girls and young women some kind of settlement, that’s absolutely fine with me. I feel the same way about the Jackson estate.

As for what we do with the music — that “we” splits into just millions of people, doesn’t it? There’s no one way to answer that. I got an email from an editor who just said in passing “My God, I’ve loved him all my life. I still do. Would I feel comfortable buying his videos or even his music around my 8 or 9-year-old child? Right now, no.” We’re all sifting through that.

The larger question  with every one of these artists is how do we simultaneously keep in our heads and hearts this information and this material and at the same time continue to respond as we feel their art justifies. Those two processes aren’t mutually exclusive at all. And it’s going to keep happening so we need to start finding language and feelings as well as practical, legal ways of coping with it.

The Cut speaks to Margo Jefferson, author of On Michael Jackson, two days after she watched Leaving Neverland. 

8. No One Deserves as Much Power as Michael Jackson Had.  (Craig Jenkins, March 1, 2019, Vulture)

It’s hard to explain the relationship between the superstars of the ’80s and their fans to people who weren’t alive or old enough to remember the decade. They were like demigods. They sang about love, peace, politics, and matters of planetary significance. Their art paused time and advanced culture. Their shows incited hysterics. It all seems religious in retrospect. Belief was the core of the bond, belief that these figures acted in the interest of bettering the world no matter the cost, belief that people who do good aregood. Their methods and their presentation were questioned, but the idea that pop stars were out to save the world was quite often taken at face value. This was not wise. We didn’t know any better.

More on the art and crimes of dangerous men:

“Mad at Miles,” from Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Truth, Pearl Cleage, 1990, Cleage Group

What Do We Do with the Art of Dangerous Men, Claire Dederer, November 20, 2017, Paris Review

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