#and the visions are less like prophecy but the word they use to describe what they think is looking into another adjacent world

[grimoirey]

🌛 Mediumship Pt.1🌜

Here is a link to Mediumship Pt.2

Mediumship is the practice of connecting with spirits, energies, or entities from realms beyond the physical, often to convey messages or gain insights. Here’s an extensive overview of the various aspects of mediumship, including its types, history, development, and practices.

What is Mediumship?

Mediumship involves connecting with spirits or non-physical energies for guidance, healing, or communication. A “medium” is someone who acts as an intermediary, often receiving impressions, visions, or messages from these spirits.

The goals of mediumship can vary; people may want closure with deceased loved ones, insights from spiritual guides, or assistance in understanding the non-physical dimensions of existence.

Types of Mediumship

Mental Mediumship

This is the most common type and involves receiving messages through thought impressions, often referred to as “clair” abilities:

Clairvoyance: “Clear seeing” refers to receiving images, symbols, or visions.

Clairaudience: “Clear hearing” involves hearing words, sounds, or voices from spirits.

Clairsentience: “Clear feeling” allows the medium to feel emotions or sensations from spirits.

Claircognizance: “Clear knowing” is an intuitive understanding without a sensory explanation.

Physical Mediumship

Less common, this involves the manifestation of spirits in a physical way, such as objects moving, spirit “voices” heard in the room, or phenomena like ectoplasm or spirit writing. Physical mediumship often happens in seances or controlled settings with multiple participants.

Trance Mediumship

In trance mediumship, the medium enters a deep trance state, allowing the spirit to communicate directly through them. The medium’s voice, mannerisms, and even appearance can change as they convey messages.

Channeling

Similar to mediumship but with a broader focus, channeling involves the medium “channeling” messages from higher beings, guides, or cosmic consciousness. It often includes teachings on spirituality, self-awareness, and the universe’s nature.

Historical Context of Mediumship

Ancient Roots

Mediumistic practices can be traced back to ancient cultures worldwide, where shamans, oracles, and mystics connected with spirits and divine beings. For instance, in ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphi was said to deliver prophecies inspired by the god Apollo.

The Spiritualist Movement

Mediumship gained popularity in the West during the 19th-century Spiritualist movement. Figures like the Fox Sisters in the U.S. sparked public interest by claiming to communicate with spirits through “rappings.” Spiritualism became widely practiced, and mediums were seen as bridging the gap between the physical and spirit realms.

Modern Mediumship

Today, mediumship remains part of Spiritualism, with individuals continuing to seek mediums for guidance, closure, or insight. Mediums also use their skills in therapeutic contexts, helping clients heal from loss or trauma by connecting with loved ones.

The “Clair” Abilities in Mediumship

Clairvoyance

This is often depicted as a “third eye” vision, where mediums see images, symbols, or even full visions. Some clairvoyant mediums describe seeing a mental “screen” where they receive these images.

Clairaudience

Mediums with clairaudience may hear voices, whispers, or sounds. The sounds may be internal, similar to thoughts, or external, like a soft voice.

Clairsentience

This involves feeling the emotions, physical sensations, or even personalities of spirits. Clairsentient mediums may feel warmth, chills, or sensations that aren’t their own.

Claircognizance

Often described as an “inner knowing,” claircognizance provides spontaneous knowledge or understanding, which the medium cannot logically explain.

Developing Mediumship Abilities

Meditation

Meditation helps mediums quiet the mind and open up to subtler energies. This daily practice is essential for increasing receptivity.

Grounding and Protection

Grounding helps mediums stay balanced, while visualizing protective light shields them from unwanted energies or entities.

Sensory Exercises

Practicing with each “clair” can build sensitivity. For example, visualizing scenes to strengthen clairvoyance, listening deeply to enhance clairaudience, and interpreting gut feelings to refine clairsentience.

Journaling Experiences

Recording experiences, symbols, or messages received in meditations or readings helps identify patterns and understand messages over time.

Preparing for a Mediumship Session

Setting Intentions

Mediums often set intentions to clarify their purpose, such as connecting with a specific spirit or providing guidance.

Creating a Sacred Space

Many mediums create a sacred environment using crystals, candles, or personal items, which serve as spiritual anchors for protection and connection.

Calling on Spirit Guides

Inviting spirit guides or protectors to be present provides additional support, guidance, and safety.

Raising Vibration

Since spirits are said to exist at a higher frequency, mediums use techniques like deep breathing, visualization, and music to elevate their energy.

Challenges and Ethics in Mediumship

Distinguishing Imagination from Spirit

This can be challenging, especially when messages are subtle. Experienced mediums often develop a “feel” for the difference between their thoughts and spirit messages.

Energy Drain and Boundaries

Mediumship can be physically and emotionally draining. Maintaining strong boundaries with the spirit realm is crucial, as is knowing when to take a break.

Ethical Considerations

Mediums have a responsibility to handle sensitive information with respect, compassion, and confidentiality. Many avoid giving medical, financial, or life-altering advice unless qualified to do so.

Spirit Communication Practices

Automatic Writing

In automatic writing, mediums allow a spirit to guide their hand, producing words or drawings without conscious thought.

Pendulum Work

Mediums may use pendulums, asking questions and interpreting its movements as answers from spirits.

Spirit Boards

Also known as Ouija boards, spirit boards can be used by mediums to communicate with spirits. However, some mediums caution against them, as they can attract a range of energies.

Seances and Group Mediumship

In a seance, a group gathers to connect with spirits, often guided by a medium. This can involve physical mediumship, automatic writing, or messages through clair abilities.

Differences Between Mediumship and Psychic Abilities

Mediumship vs. Psychic Abilities

Psychic abilities often relate to reading energies, events, or people. Mediumship specifically focuses on communicating with spirits. All mediums have psychic abilities, but not all psychics are mediums.

Use in Readings

In a reading, psychics may focus on a client’s past, present, or future, while mediums are more focused on messages from the spirit realm.

Scientific and Skeptical Views

Research

Some parapsychologists study mediumship, with a focus on phenomena such as clairvoyance and spirit communication. Scientific consensus remains skeptical, as these abilities are challenging to verify under controlled conditions.

Skepticism

Skeptics argue that mediumship often involves cold reading techniques, where mediums subtly read body language and verbal cues rather than truly connecting with spirits. The absence of empirical evidence makes mediumship controversial, though personal accounts abound.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌘🌑

Concluding Thoughts

Mediumship is deeply personal, unique to each medium, and a skill that typically requires practice, self-reflection, and dedication. While it remains a largely unproven phenomenon, many find it transformative, offering comfort, closure, and spiritual insight. For those exploring it, an open mind, patience, and discernment are essential.

[blessedchaosgod]

An excerpt from a book I'll never write

“Au Revoir… Mi Amor?” Lee put her head in her hands, “That’s not french. It’s Spanish”

Will beside her chuckled and kissed her cheek lightly, “You’ll get the hang of it”

The couple were sitting on the edge of the lake in the dark. Fireflies and stars illuminated the dark. There was a pleasant breeze and the moon was nowhere to be seen.

“You have too much faith in me,” Lee said, smiling, despite her words. 

“You have such talents, Lee. You can do anything. I know it” Will said.

Lee raised her eyebrows. She remembered him telling her about how he can see the future. She wondered if he could see hers now.

“Do many people ask you to tell their fortune?” she asked.

WIll looked at her a moment, “Yes, they seem to quite enjoy it. Do you want to know yours?”

Lee looked out at the ripples in the water. “No” she said, “You know how I hate prophecies? The only reason they are set into motion is because they are spoken. I think knowing our future dooms us, for better or worse.” Lee looked over at him. He was laying inches away.

She spoke softly, “How does it work? Do you just summon a vision?”

“Not really” he said, “Not unless I focus really hard and really want a vision in that moment. I don’t have many other talents.”

Lee laughed, “Of course you do.”

Will sat up on his elbow, smiling teasingly, “Yeah? Like what?”

Lee turned to face him, “Like being a cunning charmer”

Will came closer, “My sweet Jezebel, you are no less of an enchantress.”

Lee kissed him as the flustered look on his face remind for the rest of the night.

*  *

2 Years Later

Lot of stuff has gone down

When the knock came on her bedroom door, Lee was reading about the weapons she’d need for the war ahead. She quickly stuffed the books under her bed and opened the door.

Marcus, the family butler, was standing outside looking quite troubled. 

“Mr. Carter is here, Miss. Should I-”

“I will take care of it, Marcus, thank you” Lee started down the stairs with a sad sigh. 

The anxious butler followed, “Miss, perhaps you should-”

They reached the foyer. “I am in charge while mother and father are in London. I shall handle it.”

There was a tone of finality in her voice and he hesitantly bowed and left.

Lee walked into the parlor and made her way toward Will, who got up from his chair and bowed, “Ms. Hiran”, he said.

“Mr. Carter”, Lee followed.

She led him to the Ballroom. It was filled with odd furniture and rundown from disuse, but the room held precious memories. Will and Lee hiding, passing the time, playing games and occasionally stopping to kiss each other. No servants or people ever came here. It was perfect.

It had been a while since the two of them had come here. They faced each other.

This is the worst place to do this. Lee thought. But there was no turning back now.

Will smiled his soft smile, “Hey”. Some of her nerves seemed to calm down.

“Did you change your mind?” Will looked into her eyes, waiting for her answer.

She raised one hand and caressed his cheek gently, “I won’t. I can’t. We have to do this.”

Will took both her hands in his, “We can find a way to stay together. We can find a way. The war doesn’t have to break us.” 

Lee held back tears. What irony it was that a prophecy would break them apart. 

“If we don’t do this not then we will break us.”

Will could not describe the pain in his heart. He could not help but despise the world. All he could think about right now was the realization that this is the last time he would see her, feel her and the love between them. It felt like that love had grown spikes and was trying to break out of his heart at this moment. He swallowed his pain. “My Jezebel”, his voice broke.

Lee kissed him. A short, gentle kiss. 

“Au revoir”, she whispered, “Mi Amor” 

She pulled away. That was the last time Will Carter saw Lee Hiran.

Until 6th November, 1963, two years later.

The day he died.

Tell me if I should write more of this. It's fun. I hardly ever put down my fantasy stories into words. But this seems like a good place to start.

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

There's a lot of things that don't really add up with R+L=J and Mr. George has some explaining to do. That being said, I do believe Jon is Rhaegar's son, but I agree that the events leading up to that aren't what they seem at face value at all, let alone some of the artistic...licensees that damn show took. Like. Yeah. Rhaegar would not annul his marriage or name his son Aegon, again? I can't see him doing anything to jeopardize his current children or Elia, not knowingly and certainly not by setting her aside. And doubly yes, as far parenting/fathering goes, there's more evidence that shows Rhaegar being a decent father, even an exceptional one, more than it shows him being a bad one. All the instances you pointed out made, yes! He celebrated his daughter's birth and likely personally taught her about her heritage, allowed her a cherished pet, and was someone who she looked to to save her without question. And then the vision Dany had of him at Elia's bedside with baby Aegon? Elia asks him to make Aegon a song too and at the end, Rhaegar starts to actually do it. The scene is brief but there's the sense there there that Rhaegar was attending to Elia or visiting and spending time with her and Aegon, and the words used to describe them together are telling, "man and wife and babe" they are a family. He cared for them and them for him. What he does later is him attempting to fulfill the prophecy, and he dragged his family down into it, but he was never a neglectful or abusive father or husband either. With him and Lyanna, I take the stance that it was more transactional. After Lyanna's debut as the knight of the laughing tree, he might have appealed to her with the knowledge of his visions and asked her help to fight the coming threat via third prophecy baby. The crown of roses has always seemed less of a romantic statement and more of a well, statement. Lyanna had won a game or passed a test and the blue roses were a prize or token of that, Rhaegar had discovered the last piece needed to complete the triad to use again the Others. Something something Dany's blue flower growing from the Wall vision. And well, Lyanna ws convinced and agreed. She did cry hearing his song, which is telling, maybe an indicator of her receptiveness to the tragedy and doomsday portents Rhaegar was wrestling with. But again, yes. Rhaegar was good father for all his other many faults.

every single time someone says something about Rhaegar being a neglectful father or fathering children solely for the PrOpHEcY I just. I JUST. Rhaenys went and hid under his bed. she ran and hid under her father's bed in the hopes that he would save her. the bed that was in a room above the nursery. ABOVE the nursery. do you understand? in the last moments of her life she ran to to her father for protection. she. ran and hid under Rhaegar's bed. she had to be dragged out from under it screaming to her last breath. okay. Okay? fuck doesn't anyone get it?

[bare1yart]

[ID: A doodle of a young white guy with a brown mullet wearing a large red letterman jacket over a white shirt and jeans. He's blushing and looking off to the side with a grimace on his face. His hands are curled into fists, coloured to look like TV static. End ID.]

I've decided to work on some OCs for fun rather than with the goal of doing anything with them so I can talk about them as much as I want. This guy's named Asbeel and he's the worst!

[percabeth4life]

Nico and Percy

Okay so I’ve received a lot of asks about Nico and Percy and how Percy treated Nico and someone else sent me a link to a post that had more stuff.

90% of the stuff I’ve seen is either inaccurate or taken out of context.

Lets start with the choking scene.

This scene happened right after Nico lied to Percy to trick him into coming to see Hades so that Nico could learn more about his mom. They were meant to go to the Styx in order to give Percy the Achilles Curse so they had a chance at winning the war. This resulted in Percy being locked up by Hades.

Nico did not intend for this to happen, but he did knowingly lie to Percy. Percy understandably did not trust Nico after that.

The mountain of darkness loomed above me. A foot the size of Yankee Stadium was about to smash me when a voice hissed: ‘Percy!’

I lunged out blindly. Before I was fully awake, I had Nico pinned to the floor of the cell with the edge of my sword at his throat.

‘Want – to – rescue,’ he choked.

Anger woke me up fast. ‘Oh, yeah? And why should I trust you?’

‘No – choice?’ he gagged.

I wished he hadn’t said something logical like that. I let him go. (The Last Olympian page 60).

As you can see, the initial action was taken before Percy was even awake. After he was awake, and got through his initial anger at the betrayal with Nico’s comment, he released Nico and they escaped.

He acknowledged silently later that he didn’t trust Nico anymore and Nico was aware that his actions meant he wasn’t trusted.

So the choking scene: not Percy being unreasonably cruel to Nico.

Threats is another common thing I see people bring up and... I’m genuinely baffled by that one. The closest I can think of is the scene I quoted above? But that doesn’t seem to fit? Anyone want to quote some threats Percy made to Nico? Because I don’t know any.

Next up! The claims that Percy said they should leave Nico to suffocate. Funnily enough he actually says the opposite, multiple times.

Percy stared at his jelly donut. He had a rocky history with Nico di Angelo. The guy had once tricked him into visiting Hades’s palace, and Percy had ended up in a cell. But most of the time, Nico sided with the good guys. He certainly didn’t deserve slow suffocation in a bronze jar, and Percy couldn’t stand seeing Hazel in pain.

“We’ll rescue him,” he promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death.”

Is this first time kind? Not necessarily. But it’s certainly not saying to leave Nico. For multiple reasons, he didn’t deserve, Percy didn’t want Hazel to hurt, and (what he says outloud) Nico is an important figure in the war.

Percy also makes a comment later when they feared they’d be too late

The vision zoomed in again. Inside the jar, Nico di Angelo was curled in a ball, no longer moving, all the pomegranate seeds eaten.

“We’re too late,” Jason said.

“No,” Percy said. “No, I can’t believe that. Maybe he’s gone into a deeper trance to buy time. We have to hurry.”

Funny, this doesn’t sound like someone advocating to leave Nico to die. In fact it sounds like someone almost desperate to save him, or at least hoping strongly that they’ll succeed.

Interestingly there were comments about leaving Nico, but not from Percy. They came from Jason and Leo.

“Uh…” Leo shifted in his chair. “One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we’re walking into a trap?”

Hazel looked at Leo like he’d made a rude gesture. “We have no choice!”

“Don’t get me wrong, Hazel. It’s just that your brother, Nico… he knew about bothcamps, right?”

“Well, yes,” Hazel said.

“He’s been going back and forth,” Leo said, “and he didn’t tell either side.” Jason sat forward, his expression grim. “You’re wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I.”

Hazel shot to her feet. “I don’t believe this. He’s my brother. He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don’t want to help him?”

Frank put his hand on her shoulder. “Nobody’s saying that.” He glared at Leo. “Nobody had better be saying that.”

Leo blinked. “Look, guys. All I mean is—”

“Hazel,” Jason said. “Leo is raising a fair point. I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as… well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? We just have to be careful.” (Mark of Athena page 125)

How interesting that they’re the ones making comments about leaving Nico...

Next of course I’ve heard the wonder bread brought up? And I had to key word search wonder bread in the books to figure out what that was about and it appears to be a single thought Percy had while they were trying to rescue Nico.

Nico started to crawl away, groaning. Percy wanted him to move faster and to groan less. He considered throwing his Wonder bread at him. (Mark of Athena page 357)

Percy did not actually throw the bread for anyone wondering, and I hardly see how the panicking thought of trying to get them all out of there and keep Nico from being noticed by the people he was escaping from is even something for you to hold against him.

Finally the thing I hear the most, Percy calling Nico creepy and spreading rumors.

Creepy is used in MoA 5 times, in HoH 2 times, and BoO 8 times.

In MoA it’s used by Percy once, and that time is describing Persephone’s garden, not Nico. This comment is also only made in his thoughts, not outloud.

Funnily enough Leo does mentally refer to Nico as creepy in MoA

Nico and Hazel shared a look, maybe comparing notes on their Hades/Pluto death radar. Leo shivered. Hazel had never seemed like a child of the Underworld to him, but Nico di Angelo—that guy was creepy. (Mark of Athena page 396)

In HoH it is used once by Jason in regards to Nico, not at all by Percy.

Nico gave him a thin, creepy smile. ‘Ah … that legend.’ (House of Hades page 164)

In BoO it’s actually used by Nico about himself.

By now, Will Solace realized just how creepy and revolting Nico di Angelo was. Of course, Nico didn’t care what he thought. But still …  (Blood of Olympus page 317)

And once by Reyna about Nico

Reyna had stitched up the gashes on his biceps, which gave Nico a slightly creepy Frankenstein look, but the cuts were still swollen and red. (Blood of Olympus page 140)

So uh, no Percy did not call Nico creepy. And I have found no evidence of Percy spreading rumors so like with the threats, feel free to find me quotes proving that claim.

Concluding all of this I will point out that prior to book 5 (TLO) Percy was doing everything in his power to find Nico and protect him. After book 5 Percy only had one physical altercation with him (when he was half asleep and right after the betrayal occurred) and otherwise did not hold it against him beyond having his trust broken. As time went on we know from Percy’s thoughts that he doesn’t trust Nico, but he makes no comments saying such and agrees to help rescue him and does everything he can to do so.

Their conflicts are understandable due to their history. Percy’s feelings on Nico are complicated but understandable and he has not let it interfere with their jobs, if anything it interfered in a negative way making them risk the quest to save Nico (though Nico was a key figure needed to succeed in the end).

Overall I don’t know where these claims come from beyond people wanting to find issues with Percy (to the point they make stuff up).

[svedupelle]

Vision 47

@seventhscorpio here's everything i got from vision 47. i have no idea what's going on

the end gives more hints than the beginning: the second will never cease, the first always prevails, the third is born of all outcomes

I think this is where the idea of the "three queens" falls flat. "The first always prevails" and "the second will never cease" don't make sense if the third is the queen who raises an army and marches on the other two.

the idea of "all outcomes" screams Vex, but "[It] does not come alone. It cannot." does not scream Vex (aside from them being a collective, but ehh.... the collective is most often treated as a singular being). it doesn't really scream anything.

We do have a dynamic set up: first needs second to fail, and third needs first to succeed. Success for the first means failure for the second, so in reality both the first and the third want the second to fail. Yet the second will never cease, whilst the first will always prevail, soooo whats going on here.

"The first comes in a shadow.

A window becomes a door.

An ebb becomes a gulf."

“comes in a shadow” = arrives on the coattails of something else? / arrives shrouded in darkness, hidden? (Toland describes Crota as a "shadow separated from its source", more or less...)

“A window becomes a door.” = window, something through which you can see but not pass, becomes a door, through which you can pass but not see = something once observable but unreachable becomes unobservable but reachable/ you can now reach the other side

“An ebb becomes a gulf.” = ebb, water that draws back, gulf, 1. Ocean extending into land 2. deep chasm, abyss 3. whirlpool 4. wide gap

"The second comes in bones.

Tithes offering feasts, carrying laws.

A path torn, minds shattered."

“The second comes in bones.” = second, follows the first/ bones, connotation of death and corpse, ruin, but also structure?

“Tithes offering feasts, carrying laws.” = offering/tax “offering” abundance, bringing commemoration and honor to a deity/person and “carrying” order, practice, control custom, authority

(are the bones the tithes? Death bringing abundance and law?)

“A path torn, minds shattered.” = the future, a decided outcome or past path (is the torn path behind us or ahead?) is destroyed/undone, minds are ruined (?)

-> I don't know?? Another arrival, this one surrounded by death, given abundance and exercising authority? (the notion of death, tithes and laws screams Hive, and with this card being added in TTK i'm tempted to say that the second arrival is Oryx; but who would be the first?)

"Our truth woven into their being, desires beyond our own."

all i see here are Ahamkara... not much else.

"Unless, all ends flow from the same pit."

this one sounds like it should be conclusive, but it doesn't help at all! Usually the word "pit" is associated with the Hellmouth, you don't see it often in relation to anything else. But the Hellmouth isn't that important in the grand scheme of things (assuming that this is important in the grand scheme of things and not a prophecy annoucning the Dark Below for some reason... not that killing Crota was unimportant..).

Of course, pit also just means abyss, something deep and dark. Death could be a pit. In fact, death is something that famously unites every living thing, so "all ends flow from the same pit" makes sense if said pit is death.... not to mention death is the number one biggest motivator in Destiny. Everyone and their mother are philosophizing about death and existence, so it is technically something from which all ends flow.

I think this all relates to the hive or death in some way, but i'm not sure.

[ask-the-crimson-king]

More Stuff from Betrayer

[While on the topic, I want to show the various humans out there a very interesting scene out of Betrayer.

Two, technically, but one that's a bit longer than the other. Image IDs will be provided at the end of the post, cause there's going to be a LOT.

Some interesting insights into how Lorgar views Chaos and a bit about the Emperor as well. I always find this scene to be fascinating, especially since he's borrowed the astropathic choir of the Conquerer to listen to worlds dying across Ultramar while he muses on this.

And then there's when Angron walks up.

Some interesting, albeit a bit morbid, banter between brothers. I do like how Angron even greets Lorgar on the way in, and Lorgar is just standing there stunned. The insights into how Angron views the Devourers is also neat, and it is to be expected at this point. Lorgar trying to argue for them and trying to get Angron to stop ignoring them outright is another neat touch.

The two begin talking of Ultramar, and Lorgar reveals that Nuceria is going to be the capstone for his ritual. Angron asks why, and the following is said:

I like this passage for a few reasons. Firstly, how Angron "dreams" has always been something of interest to me. Because I doubt he ever really gets much rest and respite. Here we get some insight into this, although this also was already expressed a bit earlier. This passage also leads into Angron's recollection of the Night of the Wolf, but I wanted to focus on this.

Lorgar and Angron's "bond" is something that's always intrigued me. It definitely feels more one-sided, with Lorgar seeking for brotherhood that isn't really there, but there are a few moments to make it feel a bit more genuine. However, there is still something missing from these interactions. I can't really describe it other than a barrier between two primarchs who will never see eye-to-eye. Lorgar does, to his credit, try to be understanding and patient throughout, but I can also definitely feel his annoyance coming through at certain places.

In a way, I can almost feel a similar sort of vibe to how Magnus interacts with some of his brothers. Namely with Perturabo in one of the opening chapters of his primarch novel. However, the bond between those two is still very different from the one Angron has with Lorgar; those two actually do have a deep connection, while these two don't. There's a misunderstanding and underestimation coming from both sides in certain aspects; Lorgar in almost sounding condescending to Angron, and Angron still thinking Lorgar a weakling.

TL;DR, Betrayer good.

Image IDs below the cut:

Image ID 1 & 2: A scene from Betrayer where Lorgar is standing and listening to worlds burn. It reads:

Serving as conductor for an astrological orchestra was more taxing than he’d dreamed, though his blunter, more militant brothers would struggle to grasp the finer points of his efforts. Exhaustion left him wondering, even if only briefly, whether absolute peace would create a stellar song as divinely inspired as absolute war. Fate had played its hand and Chaos was destined to swallow all creation whether or not Horus and Lorgar raged against the Imperial war machine, but if what if they’d stayed loyal to the Emperor? What then? Would the Great Crusade have shaped a serene funeral dirge, to play behind the veil as humanity died in a defenceless harrowing?

Therein lay the fatal flaw. The Emperor’s way was compliance, not peace. The two were as repellent to one another as opposing lodestones. It didn’t matter what enlightenment the Imperium stamped out in its conquering crusade when obedience was all its lords desired. It didn’t matter what wars were fought from now into eternity. The Legiones Astartes would always march, for they were born to do so. There would always be war; even if the Great Crusade had been allowed to reach the galaxy’s every edge, there would never be peace. Discontent would seethe. Populations would rebel. Worlds would rise up. Human nature eventually sent men and women questing for the truth, and tyrants always fell to the truth.

No peace. Only war.

Lorgar felt his blood run cold. Only war. Those were words to echo into eternity.

He didn’t trust the Ten Thousand Futures the way Erebus claimed to. Too many possibilities forked from every decision made by every living thing. What use was prophecy when all it offered was what might happen? Lorgar was not so devoid of imagination that he needed the warp’s twisting guesswork to show him that. Anyone with an iota of vision could imagine what might happen. Genius lay in engineering events according to one’s own goals, not in blindly heeding the laughter of mad gods.

More than that, Lorgar sought to keep one thing in mind above all else. The gods were powerful, without doubt, but they were fickle beings. Each worked against its own kin more often than not, spilling conflicting prophecies into their prophets’ minds. Perhaps they weren’t even sentient in the way a mortal mind could encompass. They seemed as much the manifestations of primal emotion as they did individual essences.

But no, there was a wide gulf between hearing them and heeding them. Gods lied, just like men. Gods deceived and clashed and sought to advance their own dominions over their rivals’. Lorgar trusted none of their prophecies.

Image ID 3-5: A series of screenshots from Betrayer. Angron comes into the scene. It reads:

Angron entered the basilica, armoured in his usual stylised bronze and ceramite and with two oversized chainswords strapped to his back. He even wasted time with a greeting, raising his hand in the first time Lorgar could ever remember such a gesture from his broken brother. The Word Bearer tried not to let his amazement show at his brother’s new consideration.

‘Lotara says you stole her astropathic choir.’ Angron’s lipless smile was a ghastly thing indeed. ‘I see that she may have been correct.’

‘Stole is a strong word. “Appropriated” seems much less ignoble.’ Lorgar spared a glance for the skies above the cathedral, as the Lex ripped onwards towards Nuceria.

‘What do you need them for?’ Angron asked. His wounds from being buried alive had already faded to scrunched scar tissue pebbling his flesh, just another host of scarring to overlay the last.

The Devourers lurked behind him, stomping into the cathedral without the primarch sparing them a glance. To be one of Angron’s bodyguards was no honour, despite how fiercely the World Eaters’ champions had fought for it in the first, optimistic years. Angron ignored them no matter where they went, never once fighting alongside them in battle. In their Terminator plate, they’d never managed to keep up with their liege lord, and they were as prone to losing control as any other World Eater, meaning any hope of them fighting as an organised pack was a forlorn one at best.

Lorgar watched the Devourers – those warriors who’d spent a century learning to swallow their pride and pretend they weren’t ignored – speaking amongst themselves at the basilica’s entrance.

‘Hail,’ he greeted them. They seemed uneasy at being addressed, offering hesitant and wordless bows.

Angron snorted at his brother acknowledging them. ‘Bodyguards,’ he said. ‘Even their name annoys me. “Devourers”, as if I’d named them myself – as if they were the Legion’s finest.’

‘Their intentions are pure,’ Lorgar pointed out. ‘They seek to honour you. It’s not their fault you leave them behind in every battle.’

‘They’re not even the Legion’s fiercest fighters, any more. That rogue Delvarus refuses to challenge for a place in their ranks. Khârn laughed when I asked him if he’d ever considered it. And do you know Bloodspitter?’

‘I know Bloodspitter,’ Lorgar replied. Everyone knew Bloodspitter.

‘He beat one of them in the pits, and carved his name into the poor bastard’s armour with a combat knife.’

Lorgar forced a smile. ‘Yes. Delightful.’

Angron’s face wrenched again, at the mercy of misfiring muscles. ‘What primarch ever needed guarding by lesser men?’

‘Ferrus,’ Lorgar said softly. ‘Vulkan.’

Angron laughed, the sound rich and true, yet harsh as a bitter wind. ‘It’s good to hear you joke about those weaklings. I was getting bored of you mourning them.’

It was no joke, but Lorgar had no desire to shatter his brother’s fragile good humour. ‘I only mourn the dead,’ Lorgar conceded. ‘I don’t mourn Vulkan.’

‘He’s as good as dead.’ The World Eater smiled again. ‘I’m sure he wishes he were. Now, what are you doing with Lotara’s choir?’

‘Listening to them sing of other worlds and other wars.’

Angron stared, unimpressed. ‘Specifics,’ he said, ‘while I have the patience to hear such details.’

‘Just listen,’ Lorgar replied.

Angron did as he was bid. After a minute or more had passed, he nodded once. ‘You’re listening to the Five Hundred Worlds burning.’

‘Something like that. These are the voices of the freshly dead, and those soon to join them. The mortis-moments of random souls, elsewhere in Ultramar, as our fleets ravage their worlds.’

‘Morbid, priest. Even for you.’

‘We’re inflicting this destruction on them. We mustn’t consider ourselves distant from it. It may not be our hands holding the bolters and blades, but we are still the architects of this annihilation. It’s our place to listen to it, to remember the martyred dead, and to meditate on all we’ve wrought.’

‘I wish you well with it,’ said Angron. ‘But why steal Lotara’s choir? What happened to yours?’

‘They died.’

It was Angron’s turn to be surprised. ‘How did they die?’

‘Screaming.’ Lorgar showed no emotion at all. ‘What brings you here, brother?’

Image ID 6 & 7: Two screenshots from later in the previous scene, when Angron asks 'Why Nuceria?'. It reads:

‘The metaphysics are complicated,’ said Lorgar.

That had Angron growling. ‘I may not have wasted days in debate with you and Magnus inside our father’s Palace, but the Nails haven’t left me an absolute fool. I asked the question, Lorgar. You answer it. And do so without lying, if you can manage such a feat.’

The Word Bearer met his brother’s eyes, and the rarely-seen palette of emotions within their depths. Pain was there in abundance, but so was the frustration of living with a misfiring mind, and the savagery that transcended anger itself. Angron was a creature that had come to make his hatred a blade to be used in battle. He’d weaponised his own emotions, where most living beings were slaves to theirs. Lorgar couldn’t help but admire the strength in that.

‘We’re going to Nuceria,’ he said, ‘because of you. Because of the Nails.’

Angron stared, and his silence beckoned for his brother to continue.

‘They’re killing you,’ Lorgar admitted. ‘Faster than I thought. Faster than anyone realised. The rate of degeneration has accelerated even in the last few months. Your implants were never designed for a primarch’s brain matter. Your physiology is trying to heal the damage as the Nails bite deeper, but it’s a game of pushing and pulling, with both sides evenly matched.’

Angron took this with an impassive shrug. ‘Guesswork.’

‘I can see souls and hear the music of creation,’ Lorgar smiled. ‘In comparison, this is nothing. The Twelfth Legion’s archives are comprehensive enough, you know. Your behaviour tells the rest of the tale, along with the pain I sense radiating from you each and every time we meet. Your entire brain is remapped and rewired, slaved to the implants’ impulses. Tell me, when was the last time you dreamed?’

‘I don’t dream.’ The answer was immediate, almost fiercely fast. ‘I’ve never dreamed.’

Lorgar’s gentle eyes caught the warp’s kaleidoscopic light as he tilted his head. ‘Now you’re lying, brother.’

‘It’s no lie.’ Angron’s thick fingers twitched and curled, closing around the ghosts of weapons. ‘The Nails scarcely let me sleep. How would I dream?’

Lorgar didn’t miss the rising tension in his brother’s body language – the veins in his temples rising from scarred skin, the feral hunch of the shoulders, no different from a hunting cat drawing into a crouch before it struck.

‘You once told me the Nails stole your slumber,’ Lorgar conceded, ‘but you also said they let you dream.’

Angron took a step closer. He started to say ‘I meant…’ but Lorgar’s earthy glare stopped him cold.

‘They give you a serenity and peace you can find nowhere else. Humans, legionaries, primarchs… everything alive must sleep, must rest, must allow its brain a period of respite. The remapping of your mind denies you this. You don’t dream with your eyes closed. You dream with your eyes open, chasing the rush of whatever peace the Nails can give you.’ Lorgar met Angron’s eyes again. ‘Don’t insult us both by denying it. You slaver and murmur when you kill, mumbling about chasing serenity and how close it feels. I’ve heard you. I’ve looked into your heart and soul when you’re lost to the Nails. Your sons, with their crude copies of your implants, have their minds rewritten to feel joy only in adrenaline’s kiss. Those lesser implants cause pain because they scrape the nerves raw, thus your World Eaters kill because it gladdens their reforged hearts, and ceases the pain knifing into their muscles. Your Butcher’s Nails are a more sinister and predatory design, ruining all cognition, stealing any peace. They are killing you, gladiator. And you ask why I’m taking you back to Nuceria? Is it not obvious?’

End Image ID.]

[theresnosafeharbor4myships]

TITLE: Out of the Grave - Chapter 2: The Confession (Chapter 1 here)

Ichabod couldn't move, couldn't take his eyes off of the mirage before him, could barely breathe. How could she be standing here, days after she'd disintegrated into that confounded box that'd then combusted into nothing, looking none the worse for wear? Looking as gorgeous as the day he'd met her. Looking as real as the heartache clawing at his insides felt.

It had to be some monster's trick, a devil's devious ploy to destroy him. He raised his arm, his forefinger pointing to the sky. "Who are you?" he managed to demand harshly, though he felt none of the power the words conveyed. The creases of her smile deepened, her beautiful brown eyes sparkling at his confusion indulgently. "Crane." He longed to close his eyes and revel in her presence, let her voice wash over him and sluice the grief away, soothe the hurt in his heart like a healing balm. She hadn't answered his question, instead speaking his name as a statement, and he nearly gave in to his desire to accept this fake as the genuine article. He opened his mouth to speak, but she began before he could formulate any words. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions....and I'll do my best to answer them. I can't imagine what the past few days have been like for you," she lamented, her voice and expression dripping with sympathy. "And before you ask, it's really me." He squinted his eyes at her, doubtful and hesitant and simultaneously so damn afraid and desperate to believe her. "Prove it," he challenged. One side of her mouth quirked up as if she expected nothing less from him, and she held her fist out towards him. He eyed her hand skeptically, unable to reach out and touch her, even with a simple fist bump, until he knew for sure it was her. She waited a handful of seconds, but when he didn't reciprocate, she slowly dropped her hand. "I know this can't be easy. I know it doesn't make sense, not yet. I can't quite believe it myself. But it's me," she entreated him to believe her. "Prove it," he repeated, more heatedly this time. She thought for a moment, the intense look on her face willing him to trust her. "We were in Pandora’s lair, and the last thing I said to you was to never give up. The last thing I heard from you was...you calling my name." He nodded, the moment indelibly imprinted in his memory, a cursed experience his eidetic mind had relived a thousand times already in the past few days. "Before that, we sailed to the entrance to the catacombs. Found Betsy Ross in the hidden chamber inside the temple just before the essence of Pandora's box wrapped its ugly black tentacles around me. You carried me out, had..." she paused momentarily before continuing, "words with Betsy, and then she left. We followed not long after." The more she spoke the harder his heart beat against his ribs, the more heat flooded his body, returning warmth to him and the empty house he'd inhabited for over three days. "Abbie...?" he dared to believe. She smiled fully at him, and his heart broke itself back into place. "Oh, Abbie," he breathed in a broken whisper of relief, and she easily launched herself towards him as he moved to embrace her. 

They covered the several feet between them in a single heartbeat, and he snaked his arms around her, holding her fast, his knees nearly giving out at the feel of her alive, warm, breathing, the smell of her fragrant and clean, her arms cinched around him, a welcoming comfort he'd expected never to  experience again. "Abbie," he murmured again, nearly gasping out her name on a heaving cry, his eyes dropping closed. He knew it bordered on inappropriate to hold her so long, but he couldn't make himself let go for fear she'd fade away before his eyes again. He cupped her head, holding her against him, though by how tightly she held him she had no intention of letting him go either. He breathed her in, grateful for and reveling in every movement she made, inhaling, exhaling, her body pressed against him, her presence more powerful than any drug. Reining his emotions in, he slowly released her from his embrace, gripping her shoulders and peering at her like a vision from heaven. She still smiled gently at him, not overwhelmed or fearful of his desperation in the slightest. "Abbie, how...? It's been three and a half days. How are you here?" he marveled. "Miss Jenny and I searched for a way... Miss Jenny," he interrupted himself. "We must tell her! She needs to know." He patted his pockets searching for his phone but stopped when she pointed to it lying on the coffee table. He grabbed it up and scrolled through his recent calls. "Don't tell her over the phone; it’d be too cruel. Please, just ask her to come here. I want to tell her, show her in person." He nodded, sure Miss Jenny would think him drunk again anyhow if he told her Abbie had walked through the door and hugged him. He clicked on her name and stared at Abbie as the phone rang, unable to let her out of his sight for even a moment. Voicemail picked up after a handful of rings. "Miss Jenny, it's me, Ichabod. Please come by the house as soon as you're available. There's... something we must discuss. It's of the utmost importance, and I beg of you not to delay. I eagerly await your visit. Respectfully, Ichabod Crane." Abbie nearly smirked at him, and he wanted to query her about it, but he refrained, needing so much more than her wit and banter about his entirely too prim and proper voicemails. Without thinking, he sank to his seat, still staring at her in awe. "How is this possible?" "I don't exactly know," she admitted, moving the box of tissues from the couch to the coffee table, dropping to the cushion and angling towards him. "I emerged from the lake, much like I did—like we did—when we returned from the Catacombs. It's just down the way from the river cave where you were buried. All I can figure is that that body of water or that acreage of land is somehow linked to...whatever realms exist beyond." His brow furrowed in consternation, and she continued. "Anyway, I came out of the water a bit ago, without memory of where I've been or what happened after I felt myself slipping into the box. But I had this..." She fluttered her hand in a circle, trying to find the right word. "...this knowledge, like it'd been downloaded into my brain." "What knowledge?" he questioned warily. "You said it's been three and a half days?" He nodded, wondering what this count of 84 hours and—he looked at the clock—34 minutes had anything to do with anything other than being the exact count, nearly down to the minute, of how long he'd suffered in anguish without her. Her smile surprised him, and he waited, quite impatiently, for the punch line. "We've called ourselves Witnesses. Others, our enemies, have called us Witnesses. But we've never paid attention to the passage from Revelation that speaks of us. I woke up with this knowledge, this…unmarred understanding of our role, our destiny. And not even Pandora, her box, the Hidden One, or death can thwart that. As eternal souls, we’ve been given power against the antagonistic forces of evil. And this job of making things right, of justification, is never brought about by a single witness. There's always got to be two.”

He stared intently at her, in awe of both her and the information she relayed. Indeed, they’d never read much from the Scriptures about their role, instead merely settled in to their roles as warriors. This knowledge she now had seemed to grant her a lighter countenance, a more secure understanding of their place in this world. And it’d brought her back to him. He waited for her to continue. "See, Revelation chapter 11 describes the death of the two witnesses only after the testimony—our role to fight against evil—is done. We're only to die at the end of all trials, after all of the tribulation. And we're only to die together." "But you did die...didn't you?" "I don’t know,” she answered truthfully, visibly confounded. “All I know is Pandora, while she may have held more power than anyone we'd ever faced before, is no match for the biblical prophecy. You said it yourself once: the Bible foretells two witnesses. You and I must remain together if there is any hope of victory." He hung on to every word, trying to comprehend all she detailed, not to mention her presence here once again. "You’re saying...we're invincible?" "No, not as I understand it. We've been endowed with... fortitude and strength to fight these battles, the demons, the witches, the monsters, the ungodly. We can still die. And will. But not until our appointed time, and no one other than big-G God determines that. And even then, it's only for three and a half days." "Three and a half days," he muttered, the wheels in his brain trying to keep up with her revelation of their part in the cosmic war they fought. 84 hours. All this time he'd been calculating not how long she'd been gone but how long before she'd return. The notion filled him with a heavy dose of incredulity, and not a little fear.

Something tickled his brain, a conversation from long ago, and his fingers twitched as his tired mind drew up the memory. “Not long after we met, you told me about your encounter in the woods. You said you’d been missing for four days.”

“Four days,” she repeated quietly as her eyes went wide. “Closer to three and a half, if we’re being specific.”

“And Miss Jenny was spared too. Perhaps because of her relation to you. Or her proximity at the time.”

Eyebrows raised with uncertainty, Abbie nodded.

“You’re right,” he claimed in surprise. “Moloch couldn’t defeat you then, and Pandora and her hellish box couldn’t conquer you now. Three and a half days, and you’re revived.”

“Just as the prophecy says: we’re given power, able to overcome our enemies. And at the end…‘But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet,' Revelation 11:11," she quoted. "That's why you're here," he marveled. "The prophecy isn't complete, and He...He sent you back." She nodded resolutely. "We still have work to do." He couldn't respond, trying to take in all that she'd relayed, the weight of their destiny, the fact that she sat before him in perfect form, speaking to him of their future after he'd mourned the unspeakable loss of her for over three days. His heart's undulation from sorrow and despair to relief, wonder, awe, and astonishment left him reeling and emotionally spent, and he closed his eyes against the onslaught. "Crane?" The concern in her voice made his heart ache anew, and her hands settled on him like cool silk, one gripping his arm, the other clasping his fist.

God's wounds, how he'd missed her! Missed her quirks and foibles, her goodness and passion, her fierce spirit, persistence, and kindness. Her contagious laugh and beautiful smile, expressive brown eyes and teasing nature, the way she explained things when he felt confused and teased him when he became too academic. How she cared about people, held herself to the highest degree of integrity, defended him against any naysayers, made him feel valued in this time he was only beginning to truly settle in to. He missed hearing her putter around the house after he'd gone to bed, playing chess with her, discussing and solving cases with her, listening to her sharp mind delve into fine details, her surprises of confections or ethnic foods he'd never had the joy of experiencing before. Missed seeing her first thing in the mornings, bleary-eyed and coffee-deficient, bedhead hair wild and sexy, so excruciatingly adorable sometimes she stole the breath right out of his lungs. Missed the sound of her voice, her big brown-eyed stare, her petite frame next to him, how she'd always protected his back. Missed her flirtations and irritabilities, her soft touches and fierce hugs. Missed every single detail about her, flaws, favors, and features all. "Crane..." "Yes, I...I merely need a moment," he nearly begged. She started to pull her hands away, but he grasped them, gently but firmly. "Please," he murmured so softly he barely heard his own voice. "Don't go." She squeezed his hand in response, trying to comfort him, and the silence of the room filled with the knowledge of her presence. "I'm sorry. Crane, I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice full of sympathy. "You shouldn't be. You quite literally saved the world, Lieutenant." She turned her hands over in his until their palms met, and she clasped at him. "I mean... I'm sorry for the loss that you and Jenny have endured the last few days. Losing Joe and then...."

"And then you," he finished for her when she'd gone silent. "It must feel like whiplash, having me here." She almost sounded regretful, though he knew she merely sympathized with their suffering. He stared at her intensely. "Yes," he admitted honestly. "But I wouldn't trade you for a hundred battalions of soldiers to fight this war with me." A shy, appreciative smile eased over her face, and she looked down at their joined hands. His eyes followed, and he stared at the ying and yang of them, her hands so small and dark in contrast to his large, pale ones. Complete opposites in nearly every way, and perfectly complimentary because of it. The memories of all the things he'd wanted to say floated through his mind, the reasons he'd spent days mentally flagellating himself, how he thought he'd never have the chance to make up for all the times he'd swallowed down his affection for her, of the words of all those who'd seen that he loved her before he'd faced the realization, and too late it'd seemed.

Master Corbin knowingly prompting him to ‘talk to her.’ Miss Corinth blatantly denying his words. “I think you are ready for someone. I just don’t think it’s me.”

Master Mills’ words upon their first meeting. “Take good care of my daughter.” Betsy had spent less than an hour in their presence. "Only one truth matters: your heart belongs to Abigail Mills," she’d declared. “You love her, don’t you?” Pandora had stated. “She is your hope, your everything. I took her from you.” His mind flashed in picture-perfect fashion to his desperation for her, his need to rescue her from Purgatory and the utter desolation he'd felt at having left her there; the absolute despair that'd come over him when she'd become lost in the Catacombs, the numbness he'd forced upon himself to secret his emotions away in order to focus on finding her. The way he'd fluttered around her when she'd returned, ensuring she ate, making her laugh, keeping her company, wooing her with full candlelit dinners and rousing late-night games of chess. He had so much to make up for—he’d caused her such pain over the years when he'd only ever wanted her safe and cared for. He needed to tell her—now—what she'd come to mean to him. He watched his thumbs rub over her soft skin, the feel of her warm hands pouring liquid heat back into his frozen veins. "Having you back, I cannot begin to express my elation." He lifted his eyes to hers. "But I shall try." She lifted her eyebrows in innocent wonder. "Abbie, when I awoke in that cave four years nigh, I never could have comprehended this world and what my life would become. I felt lost. Defeated, and alone. And then you walked into the room. Despite our initial and mutual misgivings regarding one another, your compassion and integrity drove you. Your tenacity for the truth and your strength of character made me believe I could trust you. And I've never stopped. I know I've done things that've hurt you, things I regret and I'd go back to erase if I held that power. Please," he asked sincerely when she started shaking her head against his words. "Please, hear me out.” She nodded once, and he took a fortifying breath before continuing.

“So much of our time together has been me chasing an old life, one that’d become lost to me before I ever even crawled out of the ground. I tried to cleave to it…” He balled his hand tightly into a fist. “And the harder I held on, the further it slipped away from me.” He slowly opened his fist. “And through it all, there you were. You helped keep me grounded as everything I’d ever known and relied upon disintegrated. You spent more time trying to fix…the Crane family problems than you did grieving all you’d lost because I appeared in your life. And never did you complain. You’ve been the epitome of kindness, patience, virtue, and strength. And it’s more than I deserve.”

He threw a finger up in the air to halt her protests. “I’ve made some grave mistakes, the greatest of these being...  You’ll have to forgive me. In my day we weren’t quite so free with our sentiments. We were more…”

“Puritan?” she offered.

He smiled self-deprecatingly. “Indeed. Though I am striving to become a 21st century gentleman.” His expression turned serious again. “I’ve missed you gravely these past few days, Abbie. You’ve come to mean so much to me over the years, and when I thought you were gone before I ever took the chance to tell you how much I care, I…”

His trailed off, staring into her wide, trusting eyes. His heart beat wildly at this step he was about to take. He swallowed hard and plunged forward, her expectant look filling him with hope.

“You have been the greatest surprise and the most valuable treasure of my life. I love you, Abbie. I have for longer than what’s appropriate and more and more so every day. And I regretted it profoundly when I thought I’d never get the chance to tell you so. I love you. And there’s nothing in this world I desire less than to be without you. I want you with me always. That is...if you..." His words faded away, uncertainty replacing his resolve. She could reject him—dear God, he hoped not, but she could—and still he wouldn't regret letting her know she was loved. Not after the abject self-loathing of the past few days. In one smooth move, she tucked her legs beneath her, kneeling next to him on the couch, sitting back on her haunches. She reached for him then, one hand lacing through his hair and resting at his neck, the fingertips of the other settling against his scruffy jaw. She gazed at him from eye-level, tears flooding her eyes but not falling. He didn't know what they meant, but she'd moved so close, invaded his space in a way she'd never dared to before. He could only peer at her helplessly, not comprehending how he'd arrived at this moment after losing her. How her warm hands could be touching him, her ears hearing the words he thought he'd choke on for the rest of his lonely life, her eyes staring into his soul like the sun blazing onto the frozen tundra. She mesmerized him, his mind simultaneously reeling from and numbed by her presence. The trauma of the past few days and lack of sleep had him spent; he had nothing left to give at this moment and everything to lose. "Ichabod." She breathed his name, and his heart clenched in his chest, recalling the only other time she'd done so. Then, too, she'd left him speechless, though he should've spoken up; he couldn't now even if he wanted to. Her knees pressed against his thigh, and he felt the soft puffs of her exhales ghosting over his skin. Her fingers absently teased along his neck, and he felt tingles race down his body. It'd been so long since anyone had touched him so intimately, caused such sensations to course through him, and he stayed frozen in place, nearly overcome by sensory overload. He watched her, helpless, wondering what came next. Her eyes, filled with desire, flicked between his gaze and his mouth as she inched towards him. Strewth, he must be dreaming! Passed out on the couch after drinking heavily to try to numb the pain and grief. Hell of a job he'd done too, to conjure such a perfectly sensual fantasy. He let her close the distance between them, unable to think straight, unable to move, but prepared for the feel of her lips, the taste of her kiss, the heat from her flowing into his frozen limbs. Her expression, so soft and vulnerable, made his heart ache fiercely, the cavern inside his chest closing with each inch she moved closer. All he could do was watch her. Time had slowed, frozen just like he had, as if the heavens had pressed a pause button, and his blood pounded loudly in his ears. Then, without warning, it seemed to scramble forward, and he watched as her eyes dropped close. His did the same as her lips pressed against his. He was not prepared. Whether the torrential cocktail of the past days' emotions or the reality that his fantasy had come true deserved blame, he couldn't say, but he sat completely at her mercy. She moved slow, patiently, her kiss soft, tantalizing, hot, and he moaned out a soft breath in disbelief and wonder. She started to ease away from him, but he chased her lips, not ready to wake from this searing dream, and she easily fell into him, her arms looping around his neck as she pressed herself against him. He came alive then, blossoming under the scorch of her ministrations, and he turned towards her, one hand cupping her head gently, the other roaming her back, pulling her more urgently against him. "Abbie," he murmured heatedly against her lips, but she silenced him easily, her tongue teasing his, her mouth drawing another moan from him, even as she matched it with her own. She moved to straddle him, and he helped her, his hands steadying her hips as she slid one leg over his lap. His large hands nearly spanned her small waist, and he moved them over her petite frame, from her lower back to the curve of her...buns (that word didn't seem so offensive at the moment), up the line of her spine to her shoulders, then down again to her hips and up her sides until he felt her rib cage beneath his hands, his thumbs just below her breasts. He wanted so much more, but even as she allowed—encouraged—his handsy exploration of her and continued doing marvelous things with her mouth and tongue, his mind screamed at him to cease, the impropriety of their situation a haunting specter he couldn't shake. Before he could muster up the willpower to pause their fervor, his phone both vibrated and rang, and he reluctantly, regretfully eased away from her. He touched his forehead to hers, his eyes closed, self-conscious about his shortness of breath—though he immediately noted that Abbie suffered from the same affliction. His phone continued warbling loudly and sputtering across the coffee table, infernal thing it was, fraying his sensitive nerves. Clearing her throat, Abbie slid off of his lap and grabbed for the phone. He watched her, cheeks tinged pink, lips rosy from his kisses, contented look on her face, and wanted to pull her right back to the place she'd vacated. Instead, she glanced at the phone, then held it out to him. "It's Jenny," she intoned softly. He nodded, still not entirely convinced he wasn't dreaming, drunk or not, and took the phone from her. He swallowed hard before answering with a meek hello. "Crane, are you alright? I got your message." He peered at the petite woman in front of him, overwhelmed and grateful, exhausted and thrilled beyond reason she hadn't disappeared like a desert mirage, and wanted to weep at the realization that she was real. She stared back at him as if he'd hung the moon, eyes dilated, corners of her mouth upturned in a perpetually pleased smirk. His heart nearly gave out knowing he was the cause of such a wondrous look. "I am...alive." Miss Jenny wouldn't understand his dual meaning. Yes, his heart still beat, but more than that his body zinged with fervor, full of passion and longing, his lips hot from Abbie's kiss, his mind reeling with all the possibilities that lay before them. "Stay that way. Be there in five." And she hung up. Ichabod cupped the phone in both hands, drumming his fingertips on its back, trying to think of something to say, something to do that wouldn't find them back in a compromising position, especially with Miss Jenny on her way. He began twirling the phone in the palm of one hand, the fingertips of the other tapping out a beat against his knee. "Would you like to sit back down?" Abbie's eyebrows shot up, an amused smirk on her face, and he realized the unintended innuendo in his words. "Oh no, not... Of course, I didn't mean to imply... I meant..." His hand fluttered in a circle in the air, his tongue tripping over his words. God's wounds, he felt depleted. He needed sleep. But not just sleep. Rest. Still, he couldn't help thinking if he fell asleep he'd wake up to find this was an exquisite dream he'd never get back.

Focus, you imbecile. "I just thought you might want to sit a spell," he managed to explain, his hand indicating the other end of the couch, the large comfy chair. "Miss Jenny will be here soon and..." And he didn't know what. He could barely keep his thoughts in order after the past 20 minutes, let alone the past three and a half days. The look on Abbie's face turned to concern. "Jenny's not going to take this well," she surmised, beginning to pace. “Not at first.” He'd laid his heart out, spilled the words he'd thought would plague him to eternity, played all of his cards. And while she'd seared him with her passion, she was already moving on, unaffected. His heart sank, broken all over again for different reasons. What came next for them? For him? How could she feel so indifferent after branding his lips with hers? "We don't have nearly enough time for me to say all the things I want to say to you before she arrives."

He hadn't realized until this how many ways a heart could be devastated. Hearing her now... Wait, had she just...? He watched her pace in frustration for a moment, her words sinking in to his daft, sleep-deprived brain. His heart, lying in the pit of his stomach, fluttered to life, making him queasy and anxious to hear what came next.

"Abbie...?"

She stopped moving and faced him, the coffee table standing between them. Her hair, full around her face, sat perfectly, her wondrously pouty and kissable lips called to him, her eyes filled with compassion and—dare he think it?—love. He couldn’t stop staring at her.

"There's so much more I want to tell you, so many things we have to talk about." Her eyes pleaded with him. "This isn't over, Crane. Promise me this isn't over."

The desperation in her tone simultaneously ignited concern and anticipation. "It's not over, Lieutenant. It's only just beginning," he promised fervently, resolutely.

She opened her mouth to respond but was silenced by an urgent knock at the door.

Jenny had arrived.

[ladyofasoiaf]

ADWD:  Daenerys vs Jon

In this meta, I will try to find the clues of Dance of Dragons 2.0 in Daenerys and Jon ADWD chapters. 

(I will be pointing out how these two are meant to be against each other) 

Mostly: I will examine the chapters that follow each other. 

Let’s start...

A) ADWD; Daenerys I & Jon I:

Daenerys I:

He lifted the sack, and spilled its contents on the marble. Bones they were, broken bones and blackened. The longer ones had been cracked open for their marrow. “It were the black one,” the man said, in a Ghiscari growl, “the winged shadow. He come down from the sky and … and …” No. Dany shivered. No, no, oh no. “Are you deaf, fool?” Reznak mo Reznak demanded of the man. “Did you not hear my pronouncement? See my factors on the morrow, and you shall be paid for your sheep.” “Reznak,” Ser Barristan said quietly, “hold your tongue and open your eyes. Those are no sheep bones.” No, Dany thought, those are the bones of a child.

[ADWD; Daenerys I]

Dany’s dragon Drogon burns a child

Let’s look Jon chapter that comes after this Dany chapter:

Jon I:

Burning dead children had ceased to trouble Jon Snow; live ones were another matter. Two kings to wake the dragon. The father first and then the son, so both die kings. The words had been murmured by one of the queen’s men as Maester Aemon had cleaned his wounds. Jon had tried to dismiss them as his fever talking. Aemon had demurred. “There is power in a king’s blood,” the old maester had warned, “and better men than Stannis have done worse things than this.” The king can be harsh and unforgiving, aye, but a babe still on the breast? Only a monster would give a living child to the flames.

[ADWD; Jon I]

GRRM knew exactly what he was doing by making this chapter follow the Dany one. 

Only monsters burn children= Dragons are monsters. 

Even Dany says so. And Dany calls herself a monster too in her second chapters:

Daenerys II:

Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.

[ADWD; Daenerys II]

Monsters burn children= Dragons are monsters = Dany is a monster

This ADWD; Dany II chapter comes after ADWD; Jon III.

Let’s keep reading Jon I chapter:

Jon I:

Stannis read from the letter. “Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK. A girl of ten, you say, and she presumes to scold her lawful king.” 

[ADWD; Jon I]

Like Daenerys, Stannis also believes that he is the only lawful and true ruler, he sacrifices people to flames, he listens what flames tell him, he wants everyone to bend the knee to him.

Also let’s not forget about the Dragonstone and Azor Ahai parallels between Dany and Stannis. 

Just like Lyanna Mormont doesn’t bend the knee to Stannis; the other Northern lords won’t accept Daenerys either. 

Stannis sees Jon as his key to the North. But Jon made his choice and he chose family and honor over his own desire of becoming the Lord of Winterfell:

“By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa.”

[ADWD; Jon I]

Daenerys might also see Jon as her key to the North in the future books but Jon will always choose his honor as a Stark and his Stark family. 

Lonely and lovely and lethal, Jon Snow reflected, and I might have had her. Her, and Winterfell, and my lord father’s name. Instead he had chosen a black cloak and a wall of ice. Instead he had chosen honor. A bastard’s sort of honor.

[ADWD; Jon III]

This also comes before a Dany chapter:

[About Jon choosing Sansa and him becoming her hero, please check: Jon x Sansa Book Hints: C12, C13, E2 ]

B) ADWD; Daenerys III & Jon IV:

Daenerys III:

The next morning Xaro’s galleas was gone, but the “gift” that he had brought her remained behind in Slaver’s Bay. Long red streamers flew from the masts of the thirteen Qartheen galleys, writhing in the wind. And when Daenerys descended to hold court, a messenger from the ships awaited her. He spoke no word but laid at her feet a black satin pillow, upon which rested a single bloodstained glove. “What is this?” Skahaz demanded. “A bloody glove …” “… means war,” said the queen.

[ADWD; Daenerys III]

GLOVE IS OFF AND IT MEANS WAR!

Next chapter is Jon:

Jon IV:

As they did their count, Jon peeled the glove off his left hand and touched the nearest haunch of venison. He could feel his fingers sticking, and when he pulled them back he lost a bit of skin. His fingertips were numb. What did you expect? There’s a mountain of ice above your head, more tons than even Bowen Marsh could count. Even so, the room felt colder than it should. “It is worse than I feared, my lord,” Marsh announced when he was done. He sounded gloomier than Dolorous Edd. Jon had just been thinking that all the meat in the world surrounded them. You know nothing, Jon Snow. “How so? This seems a deal of food to me.”

[ADWD; Jon IV]

Jon takes his glove off and loses skin and maybe it gets even bloody?

In this chapter Jon is having problems with finding food and it is safe to assume that dragons are a threat to realm’s supplies. 

Jon thinks their best hope is untouched Eyrie- where his Tully cousin hides as a bastard: (source: Best Hope is in Eyrie) 

“If we had sufficient coin, we could buy food from the south and bring it in by ship,” the Lord Steward said. We could, thought Jon, if we had the gold, and someone willing to sell us food. Both of those were lacking. Our best hope may be the Eyrie. The Vale of Arryn was famously fertile and had gone untouched during the fighting. Jon wondered how Lady Catelyn’s sister would feel about feeding Ned Stark’s bastard. As a boy, he often felt as if the lady grudged him every bite.

[ADWD; Jon IV]

He once again chooses his Stark family in this chapter:

Which would you have as Lord of Winterfell, Snow? The smiler or the slayer?” Jon said, “Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa.”

[ADWD; Jon IV]

C) ADWD; Daenerys VII & Jon IX:

Daenerys VII:

This is Dany’s wedding chapter and she learns about her father’s jealousy about married cousins Tywin and Joanna and she also thinks about a love between a Targaryen prince and a Stark lady:

“I want to know. I never knew my father. I want to know everything about him. The good and … the rest.” “As you command.” The white knight chose his words with care. “Prince Aerys … as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, your father drank too much wine at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord’s right to the first night had been abolished. A drunken jape, no more, but Tywin Lannister was not a man to forget such words, or the … the liberties your father took during the bedding.” His face reddened. “I have said too much, Your Grace. I—”

[...]

If he loved you, he would come and carry you off at swordpoint, as Rhaegar carried off his northern girl, the girl in her insisted, but the queen knew that was folly.

[ADWD; Daenerys VII]

Tywin betrayed Aerys and Rhaegar’s love for Lyanna caused a big trouble for the realm... 

And we know that Daenerys is still waiting for a BETRAYAL FOR LOVE. 

The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath… three treasons will you know… once for blood and once for gold and once for love…

[…]  

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… mother of dragons, bride of fire…  

[ACOK; Daenerys IV]

And next chapter is Jon who is a secret Targaryen and the son of Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark. 

So Jon comes after betrayer Tywin. (betrayal)

He is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna.. (love)

Who is the cousin? 

Well A SISTER comes to him in this chapter: 

A grey girl on a dying horse. Melisandre’s fires had not lied, it would seem. 

[ADWD; Jon IX]

According to Melisandre’s vision this “grey girl” should have been Jon’s sister but Alys Karstark came to him. 

“I have seen your sister in my fires, fleeing from this marriage they have made for her. Coming here, to you. A girl in grey on a dying horse, I have seen it plain as day. It has not happened yet, but it will.”  

[ADWD; Jon VI]

But in truth Jon’s only sister Rhaenys is dead and the only sisters Jon knows are his COUSINS actually. 

Which cousin? The one that fits into the “grey girl” prophecy. Sansa Stark... Who is now facing a new marriage. 

According to fan made reading order for AFFC & ADWD: (source: AFFC&ADWD reading order)

ADWD; Jon IX chapter is following AFFC;  Alayne II chapter where she learns about Petyr’s plans of marrying her with Harry Hardyng. 

So according to same reading order, this Alayne chapter comes between this Daenerys chapter and Jon chapter. 

[About Jon and Sansa being Dany’s betrayal for love and doom please read: Jon x Sansa Book Hints: B4, D4, E6 ]

So the fake grey girl that comes after Dany chapter gives us the clues of Dany’s last betrayal for love by pointing out two cousins who are a Targaryen prince and a Stark lady. 

Let’s continue with ADWD; Jon IX: 

Queen Selyse descended upon Castle Black with her daughter and her daughter’s fool, her serving girls and lady companions, and a retinue of knights, sworn swords, and men-at-arms fifty strong. Queen’s men all, Jon Snow knew. They may attend Selyse, but it is Melisandre they serve.

[ADWD; Jon IX]

We know that Jon dislikes Queen Selyse and he knows that she is actually a puppet of Melisandre. 

In one of his ADWD chapters he describes Selyse like this:

A word from Melisandre, and she would walk into the fire willingly, embrace it like a lover.

[ADWD; Jon X]

This description reminds me Daenerys Targaryen. 

Who did walk into flames willingly and embrace it like a lover? Daenerys Targaryen: 

She had sensed the truth of it long ago, Dany thought as she took a step closer to the conflagration, but the brazier had not been hot enough. The flames writhed before her like the women who had danced at her wedding, whirling and singing and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat. Dany opened her arms to them, her skin flushed and glowing. This is a wedding, too, she thought.

[…]

And now the flames reached her Drogo, and now they were all around him. [...] Part of her wanted to go to him as Ser Jorah had feared, to rush into the flames to beg for his forgiveness and take him inside her one last time, the fire melting the flesh from their bones until they were as one, forever.

[…]

A rising heat puffed at her face, soft and sudden as a lover’s breath…

[AGOT; Daenerys X]

The interesting thing is that a Daenerys chapter follows this Jon X chapter where he describes Selyse.

Let’s keep reading Jon IX: 

If he is not a kinslayer, he is the next best thing. Axell Florent’s brother had been burned by Melisandre, Maester Aemon had informed him, yet Ser Axell had done little and less to stop it. What sort of man can stand by idly and watch his own brother being burned alive?

[ADWD; Jon IX]

another Daenerys hint: Dany-Viserys or Jon killing his kin maybe?

“Salladhor Saan?” “The Lysene pirate? Some say he has returned to his old haunts, this is so. And Lord Redwyne’s war fleet creeps through the Broken Arm as well. On its way home, no doubt. But these men and their ships are well-known to us. No, these other sails … from farther east, perhaps … one hears queer talk of dragons.” “Would that we had one here. A dragon might warm things up a bit.” “My lord jests. You will forgive me if I do not laugh. We Braavosi are descended from those who fled Valyria and the wroth of its dragonlords. We do not jape of dragons.” No, I suppose not. “My apologies, Lord Tycho.”

[ADWD; Jon IX]

Jon is warned against dragons.

D) ADWD; Daenerys IX & Jon XI:

Daenerys IX 

Dizzy, Dany closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she glimpsed the Meereenese beneath her through a haze of tears and dust, pouring up the steps and out into the streets. The lash was still in her hand. She flicked it against Drogon’s neck and cried, “Higher!” Her other hand clutched at his scales, her fingers scrabbling for purchase. Drogon’s wide black wings beat the air. Dany could feel the heat of him between her thighs. Her heart felt as if it were about to burst. Yes, she thought, yes, now, now, do it, do it, take me, take me, FLY!

[ADWD; Daenerys IX]

Daenerys rides Drogon for the first time and this looks like an orgasmic experience but don’t let it fool you: people in Meereen are not happy because they are dying etc... 

Next chapter is realm’s shield Jon:

Jon XI

Jon clasped the offered hand. The words of his oath rang through his head. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. And for him a new refrain: I am the guard who opened the gates and let the foe march through. He would have given much and more to know that he was doing the right thing. But he had gone too far to turn back. “Done and done,” he said.

[ADWD; Jon XI]

He remembers his oath about protecting the realm.

He thinks Ghost (his Stark side) is the only protection he needs:

Ghost was the only protection Jon needed; the direwolf could sniff out foes, even those who hid their enmity behind smiles.

[ADWD; Jon XI]

Jon wants to scream that fire obsessed queen is not his queen. And he wants Selyse and Melisandre gone. 

[Stannis + Melisandre + Selyse = Daenerys]

Val’s playful smile died. “You have my word, Lord Snow. I will be a proper wildling princess for your queen.” She is not my queen, he might have said. If truth be told, the day of her departure cannot come too fast for me. And if the gods are good, she will take Melisandre with her.

[ADWD; Jon XI]

A northern princess doesn’t bend the knee to fire obsessed queen:

“The queen’s face hardened. “A grievous oversight.” What faint traces of warmth her voice had held vanished all at once. “Free folk do not kneel,” Val told her. “Then they must be knelt,” the queen declared.“Do that, Your Grace, and we will rise again at the first chance,” Val promised. “Rise with blades in hand.”

[ADWD; Jon XI]

Jon remembers his Night’s Watch oath AGAIN:

“I know what I swore.” Jon said the words. “I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. Were those the same words you said when you took your vows?”

[ADWD; Jon XI]

So as we can see Daenerys’ bonding with her dragon doesn’t seem like a good omen for Westeros. But at least we have our shield and warrior: Jon SNOW. 

We are done with the chapters that follow each other but I am going to look at Daenerys’ last POV in ADWD too:

BONUS: 

ADWD; Daenerys X:

A wolf howls when she thinks about her betrayals and it makes her sad and lonely but not less hungry:

Yet who else could it have been? Reznak, her perfumed seneschal? The Yunkai’i? The Sons of the Harpy? Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. As the moon rose above the grasslands, Dany slipped at last into a restless sleep.

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

Ants, which are coming from a WALL, bite Dany:

It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he’d built it himself.

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

Wolves and crows are not good signs for her:

My flesh will feed the wolves and carrion crows, she thought sadly, and worms will burrow through my womb. 

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

She embraces “Fire and Blood”:

No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. “Fire and Blood,” Daenerys told the swaying grass.

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

In conclusion: Daenerys will be dangerous for Westeros. It seems like Jon and Starks will be against Daenerys at some point and in the end Daenerys will meet her doom because of them.. 

Thanks for reading... 

[beemusik]

How David Bowie Invented Ziggy Stardust

Jason Heller’s book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded is the story of how science fiction influenced the musicians of the Seventies. Out now in hardcover via Melville House, Strange Stars also examines how space exploration, futurism and emerging technology inspired the sometimes-cosmic, sometimes-mechanistic music the decade produced. In this section, Heller delves into the creation of Bowie’s most-famous alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.

A small crowd of sixty or so music fans stood in the dance hall of the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, a suburban neighborhood in southwest London, on the night of February 10, 1972. The backs of their hands had been freshly stamped by the doorman. A DJ played records to warm up the crowd for the main act. The hall was nothing fancy, little more than “an ordinary function room.” The two-story brick building that housed it – “a gaunt fortress of a pub on the edge of an underpass” – had played host to numerous rock acts over the past few years, including Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Fleetwood Mac. Sci-fi music had even graced the otherwise earthy Toby Jug, thanks to recent headliners King Crimson and Hawkwind, and exactly one week earlier, on February 3, the band Stray performed, quite likely playing their sci-fi song “Time Machine.” The concertgoers on the tenth, however, had no idea that they would soon witness the most crucial event in the history of sci-fi music.

Most of them already knew who David Bowie was – the singer who, three years earlier, had sung “Space Oddity,” and who had appeared very seldom in public since, focusing instead on making records that barely dented the charts. His relatively low profile in recent years hadn’t helped his latest single, “Changes,” which had come out in January. Despite its soaring, anthemic sound, it failed to find immediate success in England. But the lyrics of the song seemed to signal an impending metamorphosis, hinted at again in late January when Bowie declared in a Melody Makerinterview, “I’m gay and always have been” and unabashedly predicted, “I’m going to be huge, and it’s quite frightening in a way.” Bowie clearly had a big plan up his immaculately tailored sleeve. But what could it be?

Before Bowie took the stage of the Toby Jug, an orchestral crescendo announced him. It was a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, drawn from the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange. To anyone who’d seen the film, the music carried a sinister feeling, superimposed as it was over Kubrick’s visions of grim dystopia and ultraviolence. Grandiloquence mixed with foreboding, shot through with sci-fi: it couldn’t have been a better backdrop for what the pint-clutching attendees of the Toby Jug were about to behold.

At around 9:00 p.m., the houselights were extinguished. A spotlight sliced the darkness. Bowie took the stage. But was it really him? In a strictly physical sense, it must have been. But this was Bowie as no one had seen him before. His hair – which appeared blond and flowing on the cover of Hunky Dory, released just three months earlier – was now chopped at severe angles and dyed bright orange, the color of a B-movie laser beam. His face was lavishly slathered with cosmetics. He wore a jumpsuit with a plunging neckline, revealing his delicate, bone-pale chest, and his knee-high wrestling boots were fire-engine red. Bowie had never been conservative in dress, but even for him, this was a quantum leap into the unknown.

Then he began to play. His band – dubbed the Spiders from Mars and comprising guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, and drummer Woody Woodmansey – was lean, efficient, and powerful, clad in gleaming, metallic outfits that mimicked spacesuits, reminiscent of the costumes from the campy 1968 sci-fi romp Barbarella. The Jane Fonda vehicle had been a huge hit in England, and it became a cult film in the United States, thanks to its titillating portrayal of a future where sensuality is rediscovered after a lifetime of sterile, virtual sex.

In the same way, Bowie’s new incarnation was shocking, lurid, and supercharged with sexual energy. Combined with his recent admission of either homosexuality or bisexuality, as he was then married to his first wife, Angela, Bowie’s new persona oozed futuristic mystique, which Bowie biographer David Buckley described as “a blurring of ‘found’ symbols from science fiction – space-age high heels, glitter suits, and the like.”

But what bewitched the audience most was the music. Amid a set of established songs such as “Andy Warhol,” “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud,” and, naturally, “Space Oddity,” the Spiders from Mars injected a handful of new tunes, including “Hang On to Yourself” and “Suffragette City,” that had yet to appear on record. Propulsive, infectious, and awash in dizzying imagery, this was a new Bowie – cut less from the thoughtful, singer-songwriter mold and more from some new hybrid of thespian rocker and sci-fi myth. These songs bounced off the walls of the Toby Jug’s no-longer-ordinary function room. The audience, whistling and cheering, was entranced. A show eye-popping enough to dazzle an entire arena was being glimpsed in the most intimate of watering holes.

Although the crowd was sparse, people stood on tables and chairs to get the best possible view. The stage was only two feet high, but it may as well have been twenty, or two million – an elevator to outer space designed to launch Bowie into an orbit far more enduring than that of Major Tom in “Space Oddity.”

At some point, amid the swirl and spectacle of the two-hour set, Bowie announced from the stage the name of his new identity: Ziggy Stardust.

Like an artifact from some alien civilization, Bowie’s fifth album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was unveiled on June 16, 1972. By then, Ziggy had become a sensation. After the Toby Jug gig in February, concertgoers embraced Bowie’s new persona in music venues around the UK. Attendance swelled each night, as did a growing legion of followers who dressed themselves in homemade approximations of Bowie’s outlandish attire.

Just as the album was released, he and the Spiders appeared on the BBC’s revered Top of the Popsprogram, performing the record’s centerpiece: the song “Starman.” For many of a certain age, watching Bowie on their family’s television that evening was tantamount to the Beatles’ legendary spot on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States eight years earlier. “He was so vivid. So luminous. So fluorescent. We had one of the first color TVs on our street, and David Bowie was the reason to have a color TV,” remembered Bono of U2, who was twelve at the time. “It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space.”

Musically, “Starman” was an exquisite and striking slice of pop songcraft, exactly what Bowie needed at that point in his career. Lyrically, he smuggled in a sci-fi story that centers around Ziggy Stardust, who was both Bowie’s alter ego and the fictional protagonist of the Rise and Fall concept album, as loose as it was in that regard – it is more a fugue of ideas that coalesce into a concept. Through the radio and TV, an alien announces his existence to Earth, which Bowie describes in lovingly rendered sci-fi verse: “A slow voice on a wave of phase.” The young people of the world become enchanted and hope to lure the alien down: “Look out your window, you can see his light /If we can sparkle, he may land tonight.” But that alien is reticent, and his shyness makes him all the more magnetic.

Bowie sang the song on Top of the Pops clad in a multicolored, reptilian-textured jumpsuit, which Melody Maker called, “Vogue’s idea of what the well-dressed astronaut should be wearing.” In that sense, “Starman” is a self-fulfilling prophecy: before he could truly know the impact the song would have, he used it to describe its effect on Great Britain’s young people in perfect detail. He was the starman waiting in the sky, and the kids who saw him on TV soon began to dress like him, hoping to sparkle so that he may land tonight.

If Bowie intended “Starman” to be an overt reference to [Robert A.] Heinlein’s Starman Jones, the book he loved as a kid, he never publicly confessed to it. But the admittedly sketchy story line of Rise and Fall parallels another Heinlein work: Stranger in a Strange Land, the novel that had influenced David Crosby in the ’60s and, later, many other sci-fi musicians of the ’70s. The book’s hero,Valentine Michael Smith, comes to Earth from Mars; in Rise and Fall, Mars is built into the title. And both Valentine and Ziggy become messiahs of a kind – androgynous, libertine heralds of a new age of human awareness. Bowie claimed he’d turned down offers to star in a film production of Stranger in a Strange Land and had few positive words to say about the book, calling it “staggeringly, awesomely trite.” Be that as it may, he clearly had read the book and developed a strong opinion of it – perhaps enough for some of its themes and iconography to seep into his own work.

The opening song of Rise and Fall, “Five Years,” elegiacally delivers a dystopian forecast: the world will end in five years due to a lack of resources, and society is disintegrating into a slow-motion parade of perversity and moral paralysis. It’s a countdown to doomsday, with the clock set at five years. The song’s ominous refrain, “We’ve got five years,” is sung by Bowie with increasing histrionics, his voice sounding more panicked and deranged as he repeats the phrase. “The whole thing was to try and get a mocking angle at the future,” Bowie said in 1972. “If I can mock something and deride it, one isn’t so scared of it” – with “it” being the apocalypse.

“Five Years” set a chilling tone, but Rise and Fall didn’t entirely wallow in it. The coming of an alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust is relayed in a multi-song story that’s equally melancholy and ecstatic, tragic and triumphant. On tracks such as “Moonage Daydream,” “Star,” and “Lady Stardust,” Bowie wields terms such as “ray gun” and “wild mutation.” He also claims, “I’m the space invader,” as though he were channeling the ideas of his sci-fi heroes Stanley Kubrick or William S. Burroughs, particularly the latter’s 1971 novel, The Wild Boys.

As Bowie explained, “It was a cross between [The Wild Boys] and A Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become. They were both powerful pieces of work, especially the marauding boy gangs of Burroughs’s Wild Boys with their bowie knives. I got straight on to that. I read everything into everything. Everything had to be infinitely symbolic.” The photos of the Spiders from Mars inside the album sleeve of Rise and Fall were even patterned after the gang of Droogs of A Clockwork Orange; Droogs are mentioned by name in the Rise and Fall song “Suffragette City.” Furthermore, Bowie posed on theback cover of the album, peering out of a phone booth – just as though he were that other cryptic British alien who regularly regenerates himself and is often seen in a phone booth (specifically a police call box), the Doctor from Doctor Who.

Bowie also drew from work of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Born Norman Carl Odam, the Texan rockabilly artist released a twangy, oddball 1968 single titled “I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)” that Bowie wound up covering in 2002; it was from Odam that Bowie borrowed Ziggy’s surname. And after going on a record-buying spree while touring the United States in 1971, he bought Fun House by the Michigan proto-punk band the Stooges, whose outrageous lead singer was named Iggy Pop. He jotted down ideas on hotel stationary while traveling the States, resulting in a name that was a mash-up of Iggy Pop and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Ziggy Stardust was a fabricated rock star, one whose sleek facade flew in the face of the era’s reigning rock aesthetic of laid-back, unpretentious authenticity. Instead, Bowie wanted to puncture that illusion by taking rock showmanship to a previously unseen, self-referential extreme.

When it came to Bowie’s urge toward collage and deconstruction, Burroughs remained a prime inspiration. A pioneer of postmodern sci-fi pastiche as well as the literary cut-up technique, in which snippets of text were randomly rearranged to form a new syntax, Burroughs straddled both pulp sci-fi and the avant-garde, exactly the same liminal space Bowie now occupied. Rock critic Lester Bangs accused Bowie of “trying to be George Orwell and William Burroughs” while dismissing him as appearing to be “deposited onstage after seemingly being dipped in vats of green slime and pursued by Venusian crab boys” – a description that sounded like it could have been cribbed straight from a Burroughs book.

In 1973, Burroughs met Bowie in the latter’s London home. The meeting was arranged by A. Craig Copetas from Rolling Stone, and the resulting exchange was published in the magazine a few months later. In the article, Copetas observed that Bowie’s house was “decorated in a science-fiction mode,” and that Bowie greeted them “wearing three-tone NASA jodhpurs.” The ensuing conversation ranged across many topics, but it circled around science fiction – and in particular, the similarity Bowie saw between Rise and Fall and Burroughs’s 1964 novel Nova Express, a surreal sci-fi parable about mind control and the tyranny of language.

In an effort to convince Burroughs of the similarity, Bowie offered one of the most revealing analyses of Rise and Fall as a work of science fiction:

“The time is five years to go before the end of the Earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of a lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have all lost touch with reality, and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock & roll band, and the kids no longer wanted to play rock & roll. There’s no electricity to play it.”

Bowie went on:

“[The environmental apocalypse] does not cause the end of the world for Ziggy. The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I’ve made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole onstage.”

Curiously, it took him another twenty-six years before casually revealing in an interview that a sci-fi song called “Black Hole Kids” was recorded as an outtake during the sessions for Rise and Fall. He called the song “fabulous,” adding, “I have no idea why it wasn’t on the original album. Maybe I forgot.”

But Bowie dropped the biggest revelation about Rise and Fallin the 1973 conversation with Burroughs. Ziggy Stardust, according to his creator, is not an alien himself; instead, he’s an earthling who makes contact with extra-dimensional beings, who then use him as a charismatic vessel for their own nefarious invasion plan. But like Frankenstein’s monster being erroneously called “Frankenstein” to the point where it seems senseless to quibble with that usage, Ziggy Stardust continues to be widely considered the alien entity of Rise and Fall. Considering the shifting identity and gender of Bowie’s most famous alter ego, that ambiguity may well have been his intention. Talking to Burroughs, he ultimately labels Rise and Fall “a science-fiction fantasy of today” before reiterating its similarity to Nova Express, to which Burroughs responds, “The parallels are definitely there.”

Rise and Fall has always been as fluid as Bowie’s facade itself. Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion cast a shadow over Ziggy Stardust, especially the glammy incarnation of the many-faced character known as Jerry Cornelius – who was adapted to the big screen in 1973 for the feature film The Final Programme. It coincided with Ziggy’s own ascendency, not to mention the New Wave of Science Fiction and its preference for fractured narratives and multiple interpretations over linear stories and pat endings.

During their mutual interview, Burroughs brought up the then-current rumor that Bowie might play Valentine Michael Smith in a film adaptation of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Bowie again dismissed it. “It seemed a bit too flower-powery, and that made me a bit wary.” For his part, Bowie’s fellow sci-fi musician Mick Farren of the Deviants later admitted he always thought Michael Valentine Smith was a major influence on Ziggy Stardust. “I was certain someone would call him out for plagiarism,” Farren said. “Nobody did.”

Bowie may have denied his affinity for Stranger in a Strange Land by his boyhood go-to author Heinlein, but he was not shy about professing his love for one of the authors Lester Bangs compared him to: George Orwell. Almost as a footnote, Bowie told Burroughs, “Now I’m doing Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four on television.” That project would never come to pass, but it would lay the groundwork for his next, less famous sci-fi concept album – a jagged, atmospheric song cycle that plunged Bowie into the darkest extremes of dystopia.

[alittlefrenchtree]

Hiii, it's me again! I actually want to quickly move forward in my reading and not fall behind with notes. Because it makes less sense to write them if I already know what's going on 7 chapters ahead. So let's get started.

SPOILERS DUNE BOOK II : MUAD'DIB (Chapters 5-9)

Chapter 5:

*happy sigh 😌😌😌*

(learn silence, people. It's important.)

You already know how much I love this litany and if there's more in it, I'd be delighted.

Ok, I actually have a nerdy not really funny story about moving dunes. When the worm pops a bit later, Paul describes it at mound-in-motion and there's actually some truth about that. I've recently read an article (and I want to read more about it) about dunes and some scientist thinking that dunes are moving and communicating with each other (in their own mineral, sandy way of course). It sounds fascinating so I let you know if I learn more stuff more or less related to Dune.

This both hurt and feels relatable somehow, even if I don't know how exactly. I like the idea of things approaching from a different angle, of Paul being the only motionless point in a world that keeps spinning around him. The key then wouldn't be to change the world or even to do anything but only to adjust his own position in the universe so he ends up what he meant to be. And the sentence is pretty. The vision appeared to have shifted and approached him from a different angle while he remained motionless.

I still wonder how it works though. The visions and their changes. Do they significantly shift every time he comes close to death? Or say the litany of fear and survive? Or is it more realistic, the smallest details and decisions becoming the biggest changes? I wish Duncan would have been there with them and yet I like this journey through sand and survival just between Paul and Jessica. He probably would have been killed soon after anyway. Unless he's not really dead. Ok, moving on.

Remember when I said that Paul could have/find a way to control sand worms? And now he's saying this:

There are a lot of cues in these few chapters about worms, about riding (or whatever it's called) them with the hooks, about how they're in all likelihood the ones creating the Spice? That's why they're called makers? And that's what the Fremen who died with Hawat was about to called them? I kind of hope there is more to it though, other than only being respected because they're making the spice. There is another quote at the end of the chapter that intrigued me about the relation between Paul and the worms:

He looked at his hand. How inadequate it appeared when measured against such creatures as that worm.

I really like this chapter a lot. Firstly because I love scenes with only two characters so this is delicious for me. Secondly, I love reading about walks through endless lands with nothing but nature, so double yummy. Thirdly, there is a lot of informations. About the worms, and about how Paul is evolving in the desert. There is the rescue of his Mom but, even more importantly, how he rescues the pack. I think it's a very important scene both literally and metaphorically. It doesn't seem like an important scene but it really is in the building of the Paul's character. I hope to see it address in some way in the movie. Because not only he uses the Spice for another purpose than money and getting stronger or smarter or higher, but he uses it to take back what's necessary for his survival in the desert. If that's not adapting to Dune, I don't know what it is.

Chapter 6:

This is going to cause some trouble at some point, isn't it? Halleck and his people teaming up with smugglers, thinking the Atreides are dead. He's going to end up fighting against them without knowing it, right? 😔

Chapter 7:

Moooom, I love him so much 😭😭😭

But, I hate not knowing what's going on exactly and I hate it even more when it's about Paul and Paul's power so we're all going to sit here together, read this again and again util we've rambled enough to come up with AT LEAST five theories about something.

Like why. Why does he cross a time barrier at this precise moment? How does it work? He came close to death again so has he defeated another timeline where he was supposed to die? Hence the unknown territory, the darkness? Or are there defined blindspots? Around the worms maybe? Because of their spice maker job? Or is he just exploring and developing his new abilities? Learning to not rely only on his inner eye but on all of his powers and abilities? I need answers. I need to finish reading this book (books) and reading the theories of someone who's been thinking about every detail of them for the past 50 years.

I really liked this couple of chapters about Paul and Jessica's journey through the desert. You can really see Paul coming to terms with it. Fighting it, using it, accepting it, welcoming it. Seeing its beauty and his future in it. I'm looking forward this symbiosis. It looks beautiful.

Chapitre 8:

Ok, that was painful. Firstly, because I wasn't expecting to see Kynes die at this moment and secondly, because it was a very slow agony to witness. To be honest, I'm getting a bit tired to see characters die? It denies so much of the potential for characters development and for relationships development. The lack of it is going to become a bit sad for the whole story.

And it's heartbreaking to understand that Liet gave up his only chance of survival to save Paul and Jessica. I don't know how much he knew before, if he already knew he was going to die or if he thought he had a real chance but it's going to give so much power to Paul with the Fremen? If it becomes known that Liet died to save him and his mother, believing in them.

I supposed there is some kind of parallel to see here, between the previous chapter and this one, with Paul practically arising from the desert and Liet dying in it at the same time/shortly after? Like how Paul is supposed to take Liet's position of influence with the Fremen?

The chapter is also heavy on... social/political/ecological talks. Or one-sided conversation since the other side is dying. Not saying they shouldn't be there since they are the actual themes of the book but maybe it could have been made in a more natural way? Or not all at once?

But it made me think of Caladan. Which I could have done earlier, I agree. But Caladan is the planet of water, right? Water. The very thing Arrakis is lacking of and wants/needs. I would have like to see a bit more of Caladan, actually. How it was. How Paul was on it, actually. If he was as adapted as Caladan's environment than he seems to be to Arrakis'.

Chapter 9:

There it is. Paul as an outcast Duke finally facing Fremen forces for the first time.

This is a good chapter but I think the key point here is this:

I scrolled past a post the other day (without reading it entirely because of fear of spoilers), that was saying how people thinking Dune was about religion hadn't understand it because it was a story about propaganda. But, at the risk of sounding blasphemous and as a non-religious person... Isn't it kind of the same? Religion, propaganda, fandom,... At some point, there was someone with high powers of influence who comes to make people believe in something (whatever it's true, partially true, partially false or entirely false) to make them adopt a specific behavior, most likely a form of submissiveness? (@ tumblr porn bots, i'm not talking about you). What people make of that belief, it's what really matters.

What interested me more here is to consider this in relation to the opening chapter quote.

It's the eternal question with prophecies. Would a prophecy become true even if nobody knew about it or believe in it? Or do people, by acting according to it because they heard and believed it, make it real and effective? Did the Missionaria Protectiva create its own Kwisatz Haderach or would Paul would have been born with the same abilities and the destiny if they hadn't existed?

We see the future isn't set in stone in Paul's visions, but does his actions and decisions influence the shape of the future or is he just bumped from one predefined timeline to another? And are there really that much differences between the two? How many metaphysical questions can you write in one post?

Quick word about Chani before wrapping this one up. I think I'm going to like her? She seems cool at least. I'm not sure about Paul's reaction to her though. Yes, he supposed to be 15 but he's also something like half of a divinity so. *snorts*. Or maybe I'm just every day more tired of seeing romance being put everywhere and romanticized to the point of 99% people still thinking it's the ultimate form of love and relationship and the ultimate thing to achieve in life. OR maybe it's because everybody engaged in a classic couple-relationship immediately lost 12 points of esteem in my eyes. Don't know. Will see. I imagine I have to brace myself for Paul x Chani babies at some point, since it's 1964? If they survive that long. Very not looking forward to it. The babies, not the survival.

Anyway gotta go before I start wishing bad things to hypothetical fictional babies. Tschüss! 🌔💛

[stimmypaw]

Warriored Cat Thoughts: A Reply To A BrambleFan

I read this fan article about Brambleclaw, and I wrote some thoughts about it and OP liked it so I decided to share them here also. All below but summary is that his development made sense, even if it upset the fans, people just missed some of his darker qualities probably.

First thing that I notice in this article is this: "In a relationship, there are two people (or cats) trying to work together, and it’s a two-way street. Fights are usually made when one person is struggling to meet in the middle, and a lot of the time, the fights resolve themselves and both people in the relationship grow and learn from their mistakes." Now this is very confusing, why does a relationship need the participating parties to fight? When I'm not managing to uh "meet in the middle" with someone I care about I try to talk to them, I never get into a fight with my loved ones, the one time that happened in my life things were very wrong and turned very unhealthy! I can't understand your argument that it's more realistic and healthy for Bramblestar and Squirrelflight to fight, interesting maybe because it's drama sure, but realistic and healthy I don't know. I don't remember the books I haven't read in a while but this argument doesn't seem to make sense to me. If fight was just a word for "Communication" you should have said that instead. Warrior Cats has some issues doing proper communication and it's definitely not where I'd go to learn about it but uh as the article continues, OP seems to think it is: "But the fact that they reconciled in The Last Hope continued and stayed faithful to the message of how fights are important for those in a relationship to grow and understand each other." I think the cool thing here instead was that they reconciled, that Brambleclaw was able to process what happened and feel better and grow to understand and trust his mate enough to want to be with her again, let me know if that's not exactly what happened since it's been a while since I read OOTS but I think the message here shouldn't and isn't that fighting with your loved ones is good. It's not good, it's ok that it happens sometimes but it's still a bad thing and you should solve your issues in another way, waiting for problems to break into a fight is not healthy or necessary in any way shape or form. If that's how any of you live, please change. Then, OP describes what he calls "the Onestar effect", in which a character becomes leader and loses their development as the authors pay less attention to them, consequently becoming a jerk Personally howerver, I think Onestar was made a jerk on purpose and, while it seemed a bit sudden it makes perfect sense plot wise :o He was young and inexperienced. He worried a LOT about his image. And there was a lot of pressure, and a whole coup, because of how nice and friendly he seemed specially to Thunderclan. I'd be very surprised if he still managed to seem nice and friendly after that, I think if he tried to do that he probably wouldn't have managed and Windclan would have coup'd him out eventually. He became a jerk and unfriendly as a result of all the other happenings in his life and that is very reasonable and uh in my opinion some good character writing. I think that could be the case for uh Brambleclaw being an incompetent leader too. OP says it was just for conflict but, it feels a bit like uh just his development in Bramblestar's Storm which was uh not fun I'll say that here I didn't have fun reading Bramblestar's Storm I thought it was kinda boring, but it's what happened to his character and his actions followed his development from there I think. He wants to be loved as a leader just like Firestar was. This bit actually I think has always been kind of there in his character? He feels hated because of his origins and he really REALLY wants to prove himself and feel better no matter what he has to do to get there He learns some lengths taken for respect aren't worth taking (like accepting attention from your father's evil deceased spirit) and uh I think the ending of Bramblestar's Storm tries to tell us he learns he is already respected and a good leader and he just needs to chill a bit. And maybe the thing from AVOS is that he's kind of too chill sometimes, his son is exploding with anxiety because of the prophecy and he's like "Calm down kid it's just a lil Starclan

you'll figure it out" like it isn't a real issue that is affecting all clans as he speaks. I've heard people say this is him being a bad father but I think it's him being a bad leader, he's like a pretty average father in my eyes not particularly bad just kind of uh not very existent maybe but that's the average for Warrior Cats fathers, Alderheart seems to think kindly of him and their relationship but we don't actually get to see them uh bond that much, they have a fun interaction once or twice I think??? It's like, really average. Hm, in conclusion, Brambleclaw has always been average! A cat with flaws and qualities, and uh a lot of his flaws stayed and some got worse or more visible with time. As the readers grow our vision of the stories do too, and things won't always be the way they seemed when we were kids.

[argentdandelion]

Spiritual Beliefs in OneShot

Souls and Robots

It’s commonly supposed that a soul grants humans (the only indisputable “people”, in real-world terms) a unique, or uniquely sophisticated, ability to think and feel relative to their animal brethren. Although narratives about artificial beings (e.g., robots) often bring up the possession of a soul as the dividing line between people and mere imitations, and OneShot discusses this dividing line, not once does dialogue in OneShot even use the word ‘soul’. (if the dialogue respository of the game is accurate, and it is not always so)

In fact, even the game when it uses the similar terms 'ghost' or 'spirit', it's not used in a way that's synonymous with 'soul'. For “ghost”, it’s only when referring to a sort of helping program/journal that’s the trace of a character who no longer lives within the world. In three out of four times it uses the similar word ‘spirit’, it’s in the context of the dryad-esque “plant spirit” character, Maize. he only time ‘spirit’ could be used as synonymous with ‘soul’, judging by the dialogue transcript, is when The World Machine/The Entity is described as “the spirit of the world”, and it’s a context where “mind”, “self”, or “consciousness” could also work.

Nonetheless, it seems there’s some sort of belief in an afterlife within the world of OneShot. There’s one scene of two characters (Calamus and Alula) addressing their deceased mother at a graveyard, and Alula saying: “I hope she can see us wherever she is!”. Additionally, one character (Lamplighter) asks “Am I dead?” after seemingly dying/getting caught in a lethal trap. For the latter, if there weren’t some sort of belief in an afterlife, he’d surely say something like, “What the heck/fudge is going on?” (Although the use of “Good heavens, no!” and “Who the heck?” once each might be evidence the people of OneShot believe in an afterlife, it could just as easily a coincidence.)

Other Religious Terminology

It’s actually odd that the game doesn’t use the common word ‘soul’, when it frequently uses other religious terms like ‘god’ (18 times) ‘messiah’ (64 times) ‘prophet’ (~6) ‘sacred’, (8) ‘savior’ (19) and one instance of ‘altar’ (when it easily could have used ‘dais’, even!). The word ‘prophet’ is notable because it’s in the name of one character: Prophetbot (called just ‘Prophet’ in an earlier version of OneShot).

‘Messiah’ is especially remarkable, since the term is very religious and strongly associated with one specific religious entity, Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, according to the dialogue transcript, “messiah” occurs more than three times more than the word ‘savior’. People even call Niko ‘messiah’ instead of Niko’s actual name, and don’t even address Niko as “Messiah Niko”, suggesting there are multiple ones. Niko doesn’t seem uncomfortable about being referred to as ‘messiah’ or ‘savior’, which might suggest that, in Niko’s world, it’s not strongly religious in use, or connected to a very specific person.

Speaking of ‘sacred’*, it uses the word eight times: to refer to what’s basically a cemetery, the ‘sacred feathers’ of the Prophet, a deceased character, the enormous ‘sacred tower’ with the world’s sun at the top, and Niko’s ‘sacred ability’ to communicate directly with the world’s god (the player of OneShot). It’s interesting that the game would use ‘sacred’ and use it pretty often, instead of ‘magical’, ‘mystical’, ‘revered’, ‘ancestral’ (e.g., “ancestral burial grounds” rather than ‘sacred grounds’ with gravestones) or even ‘hallowed’ (religious, but perhaps less so than ‘sacred’).

No Organized Religion

No one ever mentions particular religious/spiritual books, whether in a Bible-like context, as storybooks, as manuals, as even as compendiums of religious teachings or sayings. Admittedly, one character mentions reading about visions being “like something a prophet would see”, and relates that to Niko’s visions as someone who can talk to the god of OneShot, but he doesn’t elaborate where he read that.

The closest there is to a religious authority is The Author, a mysterious man viewed by almost all characters as an absurdly prolific and talented author who’s an expert in practically every subject. Even then, he’s viewed more like a bunch of scientific geniuses and popular, prolific authors (Stephen King, James Patterson, etc.) rolled into one.

The world of OneShot (or a previous version of it) once had a being called The Prophet, who had glowing, nigh-magical feathers and the ability to see into the future. One character mentions “a prophet” predicted “a savior [Niko] will arrive from another land”, and this prophet is strongly implied to be her. The Prophet is now deceased, but what seems to be her home holds what seem to be relics or artifacts, and specifically called an “altar”.

Divine Abilities/Miracles

Prophetbot, a robot programmed to give background information to the messiah, tells Niko: “Being The Bringer Of Our Sun, You Have The Sacred Ability To Communicate Directly With [Player]...An Ability That No One Else Possesses, Certainly Not I.” (formatting added for ease of reading) Niko talks with the player, god of OneShot, multiple times throughout the game, thinks it’s really cool, and other characters bring it up.

Niko has ‘visions’ three times throughout the game, and one character mentions it’s like “something a prophet would see” and: “I mean, if you can talk to [Player], it would make sense, right?”

Not a God, But Still a Messiah

In the Solstice route, it's revealed that the world of OneShot is a simulation of a long-destroyed world on The World Machine, a universe simulator that runs on the player of OneShot's computer. Three people who came from the old, long-destroyed world, the "Old Worlders", all but acknowledge the player isn't really a god: it's described how the world of OneShot would feel just like game software on the player's end. By opening up the program for OneShot, the player would be "becoming god in the process."

Oddly, though, the Old Worlders talk about the Old World's old prophecy of a messiah from another world (Niko) and the building of a robot made to predict the specifics of the messiah back then, without any bit of skepticism. So, strangely enough, although the simulation doesn't have an actual god, it still has a real messiah: the Old Worlders keep calling Niko that and don't similarly re-contextualize Niko's role.

Comparisons with Other Media

OneShot’s retro-styled graphics and gameplay wouldn’t be out of a place as a mid-Gameboy Advance to early Nintendo DS game (perhaps 2000-2008 in North American release times), but by that standard, its use of religious elements is rather odd. It simultaneously has a lot of religious themes and surprisingly few.

OneShot has just one god, no organized religions or structures, and very few (arguably no) religious artifacts. In contrast, although Nintendo of America historically scrubbed away religious references for English video game releases, it nonetheless had a lot of temples, gods, and other religious concepts in The Legend of Zelda and Kid Icarus. Even Pokémon (a second-party franchise closely associated with Nintendo) has instances of religious, spiritual, or nigh-religious customs or legends surrounding Pokémon; most notably, one generation of games showed what’s all but stated to be a church.

Speaking of the word ‘sacred’ within OneShot, Ho-oh, a godlike phoenix Legendary Pokémon that features in local legends and has the power of resurrection, has the signature move “Sacred Fire”. This was back in the Pokémon franchise’s Generation II (~October 2000-~March 2003) when Nintendo’s policies against religious references were much stricter. One might argue that the games’ technical restriction of a 12-character move name limit made this necessary, but “Mystic Fire” has the same number of characters, but they didn’t use it. Apparently, certain religious terms like ‘sacred’ (in Pokémon) or ‘temple’ (like The Legend of Zelda’s infamous water temple) aren’t as objectionable as one might think.

[flameofchaos]

Whispers in the Dark - The Slayers Fanfic

A word or two from me: 

the main ship: Xellos x Lina Inverse . Necessary warnings will be included in the beginning of every chapter.

Special thanks for @naiokiara for being my Beta <3 and @wicked-game-black-butler for being my spiritual support <3

Prelude

Somewhere in the Beginning of Ages.

The Darkness moved in the astral dimension, forming, gathering and… slowly splitting. The Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, one of five the most powerful subordinates of the Dark Lord Shabranigdo was already tired, but her efforts weren't over yet. 

The Sea of Chaos had created them, Mazoku, and Zelas could only follow the need The Lord of Nightmares filled them up with: destruction. 

The material world existed, giving them pain, annoying, burning their astral beings. It had to be destroyed. It had to be changed into ashes all together with the Mazoku, and melted back to the Sea of Chaos. They needed more Monsters to achieve that. The World was huge. 

The Five Lords of Shabranigdo instinctively understood what to do. Four of them created each two cruel children: a General who would lead their army of darkness and a Priest who would lead mortals to their doom. 

Zelas Metallium had another idea. Why divide your own power so much, when you can create one perfect servant? A General and Priest at once, her only and the most perfect child.

The Darkness moved again like a snake around the smaller, weaker one. The part of her. The arm with which she was going to crush the world.

Wake up, my Xellos. Wake up and spread destruction for me, so we can be one again and return to the Mother of Chaos. We have to die and the World will die with us.

The smaller blackness was twirling faster and faster, taking the form of a tornado created from evil astral power.

His first form, but not his last. 

Xellos took his first “breath” and his newborn, still fragile mind was filled with the first feelings: hatred and frustration.

 He shouldn’t exist. He wanted to die at the moment he became alive. The newborn Mazoku trembled in suffering, his thoughts clinging more to his “mother”, not wanting to divide from her. Zelas showed him a vision of the World: living creatures there, their aim, and… she left him alone.

The twirling dark tornado scowled in the emptiness of the astral dimension.

Chapter 1

Present time. The Outer Lands after Hellmaster Phibrizzo's death.

The sorceress reached for another plate filled with a tasty-smelling meal, practically taking it from right under the nose of her comrade, a swordmaster, which caused his growl of disappointment. The gingerhead witch answered with her own look, full of lighting as a threat. 

What could she do? The fried shrimp in pasta at this inn was delicious. She wasn’t going to share it with anyone. Not even Gourry.

The last few days had been complicated and the plot twists of unplanned (or more or less planned by their new “friend” Filia ul Copt, the Priestess of Light) accidents led them into those lands outside the Barrier, where almost no one knew real magic, and had mixed them, adventurers, into a prophecy about the end of the world.

Again, others expected Lina to be a hero.

No vacation for me from dealing with Monsters, she thought, a little tired, but happy that on their way to the Flare Dragon King’s Temple, they had found such a cosy place to eat and rest tonight.

Zelgadis was resting on the other chair, drowned into a book he’d found in the library. He was always focused on his search for a cure for the curse of his chimeric appearance. Amelia also was somewhere near, probably teaching simple people about justice and law.

It was so comfortable at the inn now. Even a bard was performing, telling about legends and heroes. Lina was listening with one ear, though. Often she had opportunities to look at “legends” from definitely too close for her taste, and she knew too well that being a hero was overrated. 

Tasty food and cosy beds were the only things that could reward Lina’s suffering.

“We shouldn’t stay here,” complained Filia, approaching their table. “The night is bright. We can continue our journey! The prophecy clearly said! We will be doomed soon!”

Lina Inverse gave the blonde woman a rather gloomy look, chewing shrimp. The priestess and her notions for a mission. For sure it was Filia’s first time rescuing the world.

“I fully understand it and  -- Don't touch this fillet, Gourry! It's mine! --  and I respect your sacred role, but… Filia… You are a golden dragon. We are just mortals. We are tired! How can we defeat all the evil the prophecy will throw at us if we are so exhausted?”

“One night here won’t change anything,” interrupted a familiar male voice. The adventurers turned their heads to see a man in a black travelling priest outfit sitting at the nearest table. Dark straight hair hanging a little below jaw level, in the light of the fireplace, seemed to shine with a violet tint, and characteristically half-closed eyes alarmed the group more than a bucket of cold water poured on their heads, because they were the only ones in the inn who knew that those eyelids were covering reptilian vertical pupils. “Better stay here and have some fun. And hush!!! Listen to this story. It’s a good one!"

Lina raised her eyebrows, focusing her attention on the bard's tale. It was about a girl who fell in love with a Mazoku who wanted her dead, but in the end the pure soul of the maiden had won and the evil creature loved her too, abandoning his dark paths.

“Oh my. I will cry.” The violet-haired priest rubbed his eyes in a gesture of being touched and clapped his hands. “Beautiful story!”

“But Mazoku can’t love, Xellos,” noted Gourry brilliantly, blinking in confusion.

“Oh, don’t ruin a great tale with facts, my friend. I adore fairytales. And tea. Mortals’ inventions never cease to amaze me.” The man sighed in delight and took a tiny sip from the cup.  “Anyway, hello! <3” An innocent smile brightened his sympathetic face, which made mortals treat him like one of themselves. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU STINKY GARBAGE?” Filia finally recovered from the shock caused by the sudden appearance of a high-ranking Mazoku in the inn. Like always, her allergy to the greatest enemy of her race was stronger than anything.

“Oh my. Are you deaf? I’m greeting everyone. You too, my sweet Miss Filia.” Xellos’ smile became wider when he directed his next statement to the bard: “Please! Tell us another FAIRYTALE. Maybe now about the good manners of golden dragons of light?” 

Filia’s face became grey, then blue and finally red, when she realised that their group was  the center of attention for all the people gathered at the inn. The blonde priestess grunted, trying to calm down and not give that pathetic Monster a chance to humiliate her more. The dragon girl smiled politely at the violet-haired man and Lina thought that the priestess’ delicate face would crack into pieces from that forced expression at any moment.

“Oh, Xellos, what a… surprise! So nice to...ekhm... see you!” mumbled Filia.

“The feeling is mutual.” The Monster opened his eyes a little more to fix the pissed dragon lady with his mean amethyst irises.

“How is your... health?”

“Good, I can’t complain, thank you very much!” Exclaimed Xellos happily, his voice sweet like a poisoned chocolate.

Lina rubbed her temples. She had to part those two or soon the town would stand in flames. Like always.

Filia clenched her jaw and sat next to the sorceress as people in the inn returned again to their own business. Her beautiful blue eyes met Lina’s with a clear, angry message: Do something with him.

It wasn’t easy, though. Xellos' presence was a funny problem. Has anyone ever seen a chicken getting a hawk to just go away if it doesn’t want to? Chickens should sit quietly and pray that a hunter isn’t hungry. At least not at the moment. 

So the group should be happy that Xellos (for whatever reasons he has this time) was in a chatting and not killing mood, and Lina was very aware of it, praying that fate wouldn’t ever have them cross paths as strict enemies. Well, officially, they were. Mazoku desired to destroy the world. Humans desired to survive. But who says that they have to jump unprovoked at each other's throats? Especially when Xellos seemed to not be very friendly towards Valgaav. The former servant of Gaav was very thirsty for Lina's blood, as he wanted to avenge his master’s death.

As the saying goes: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Lina preferred to keep Xellos on her side, even if the alliance was fragile and temporary.

However, she could understand Filia’s feelings. Zelas Metallium's Priest had had a very significant role during the War of Monster’s Fall, more than a thousand years ago. Xellos murdered hundreds of golden dragons with just a wave of one finger. Maybe Filia was too young to remember that, but her superiors for sure described the massacre to her with details. 

In her place Lina also wouldn’t be very fond of this particular Monster.

“Can I kindly ask you to leave us alone?” Tried again the Dragon Priestess, still with that fake politeness. “I’m reminding you again: I found Miss Lina first and she will help me to rescue the world!”

“And I’m asking again too: Do you really want to quarrel with me about who, you or me, has the most right to use Miss Lina for their own goals?” Xellos took another sip of tea.

“Hey, you both know I am here and I’m hearing you two, right?” The gingerhead sorceress slowly lost her patience. “What do you want, Xellos? Tell us and go away.”

“And should I abandon such a charming dragon lady’s company?” 

Now Lina could literally feel and share Filia’s need to wash that insolent smile off the Mazoku’s face with a fist.

“Maybe I’m just guarding you from another nasty trick of Valgaav’s? You want me around, Miss Lina.” He opened one reptilian eye to measure the sorceress.

The girl wanted to stand up and scream at him. Mostly because he was right. Xellos always found ways to trick them but it was much harder to trick him. It’s not that the Monster could read Lina’s thoughts, but like every Mazoku, he was an empath. The sorceress could almost feel his astral aura licking her emotions. Besides, maybe in his human form Xellos looked harmless, and sometimes he acted like a total dumbass to confuse people, but a fool was the last thing Lina would think him to be. 

In this situation where Valgaav was hunting on Lina, and Xellos was hunting on Valgaav, it was clear that the Monster wanted to talk about the alliance in detail. Well, maybe not in Filia's company.

Lina nodded without a word, agreeing to his unspoken invitation to the “negotiation table”, and the Monster Priest closed his eyes again, finishing his tea and standing up.

“Well, you’re right. We can’t stress our dear Filia so much. She could get wrinkles because of anger. See you soon then.”

“You little shi-” The blonde was ready to jump on her enemy's head, but Gourry quickly covered her mouth, reminding her that as a Servant of Light she should have more control about filthy words.

Lina blinked and then gave a shrug when she couldn't find Xellos. He had vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, so the sorceress opened the menu to order a dessert. Who knew how the rest of the evening would go, so something sweet should reward her with a cool shiver travelling down her spine, even as she thought about what she had agreed.

A lady shouldn't let a man into her room in the middle of night. Especially when that man is the essence of evil.

[dirgeofcerberus111]

Gray Sapphire - A Gemsona

Okay. So. This is a Gemsona that I’ve had for a LONG time. I have no art for her, which is partially why I never posted anything about her. But I’ve been feeling unproductive and on a spur of the moment I’m going to try to make something of it.

Basically, here is Gray Sapphire, The Crone of the Sapphires, The Mad Oracle of White Diamond. 

I made this just before Change Your Mind so parts of her story become canon divergent so bear with me.

====================================================

Gray Sapphire. 

The oldest living Sapphire on Homeworld, White Diamond’s most valued seer and oracle. She is almost as old as the Diamonds themselves and has served White Diamond for eons. Normally she is kept in stasis, until times of great crisis, as she is greatly feared for her apocalyptic visions and the Diamonds are loathed to ask for her predictions.

A small, hooded figure, Gray Sapphire has a very wizened, almost crone or shaman-like appearance. Her hair is arranged in two very long dutch braids that hang down and almost touch the floor. You can’t see her gemstone, probably on her eye under her hair, but never confirmed. Just a small detail to give the subtle sense that something is wrong with this person. 

Many legends surround this ancient Gem and she is an object of fear to all Sapphires. Indeed, she is known amongst them as the Mad Sapphire and is only spoken of in hushed whispers. 

She was actually once a normal Sapphire, one of the first in fact. One day, she and a group of other Sapphires were tasked by White Diamond with combining their power and to see as far into the future as possible. This was to be the first true test of the Sapphire cut, to test the limitations of their power and use.

White Diamond wanted them to go as far as possible, regardless of the dangers, to see where the limits are.

Out of sixteen Sapphires, only she survived. The rest were scattered across the floor, the strain of their collective scry having reduced them all to smoldering burnt-out shards.

“Well, my Sapphire. Tell me. What did you see?” the great Diamond beckoned. 

For a moment, the Sapphire did not respond and simply lay there. Then, like a puppet rising on its string, she rose up from the floor. Her entire form had turned from brilliant blue to an ashen grey. As she looked up, her eye was wide with horror and her smile beaming with newfound and terrible insight.

When she spoke, her words came with a horrible mad twisted distortion. They announced gleefully,

“...E v e r y t h i n g !”

The experience actually turned her gray, and gave her her current older wizened appearance. An immortal, ageless Gem had visibly AGED. But she has gained perfect clarity of the future, but it seems that in exchange for this vision, her visions are apocalyptic tidings of doom. What’s more, no matter how terrible her fortunes, they cannot be avoided. And so the Diamonds are loath to call up on her for prophecy.

As Gray herself would later describe it: 

“I looked too far, and pierced the veil. Saw what was beyond the horizon. I saw what no other Sapphire has ever seen. What no being was ever meant to see...Everything.” 

She is a being who has seen the script of the universe. She knows exactly what everyone will say and do. She even knows what SHE will say and do next, even what she does to try and defy it, all before she even realizes it. This effectively traps her on a linear path, as no decision she makes will actually take her off the path she has foreseen. She is trapped, or "locked" as she puts it. 

She has great knowledge of past, present, and future events, even of events she couldn't possibly have been for. She is quite mad now, always snickering and giggling at things only she knows. She is never surprised, knows the names of everyone she meets before they tell her, and behaves like she has known them all their lives. When speaking of the future, she claims to “remember” events even though they haven’t happened yet.

Perhaps her madness is in fact some form of super-sanity, born of a complete understanding of the future and all connected events. Or perhaps it is just the madness of a puppet who can see the strings, but is powerless to act. 

However, in truth, she also bears a massive grudge against the Diamonds, for the things they’ve done, to her and to the universe. So she gave them apocalyptic visions, all of them true and unavoidable; Homeworld cracked, resources became short, Gem production declined, the civil war erupted, Pink Diamond “died”, and many other disasters on other colonies. Every horrible thing she ever predicted came to pass. 

For an example, she predicted a terrible disaster on one of Yellow Diamond’s colonies that would destroy it, and no matter what Yellow Diamond did to avoid it, it would only make things worse. Of course, Yellow tries to avert this outcome anyway, and of course, only ends up fulfilling the prophecy.

So now Yellow and Blue don't want to call on her, but White keeps her around. But there was still one more terrible vision on the way. 

Gray Sapphire predicts the end of the Authority, a great conflict between the Diamonds, and the doom of Homeworld as they know it...  ...Which happens to be Steven arriving and fixing all their shit. But White Diamond doesn’t need to know that yet.

“Well, my Sapphire. Tell me. What did you see?” The great Diamond bid the seer before her.

“One...two...three...then four…” the Sapphire droned, dull and dreamy. Then she looked up, expression strangely delirious and giddy. “Three, not-four, and then one again!” she giggled. Her mad smile split widely and she cast a finger at the towering Diamond. “You will stand alone.”

“Whatever are you going on about? Speak clearly, Sapphire,” White Diamond commanded serenely.

“A great conflict is coming. One that will tear the Great Authority asunder. The Diamonds will battle each other until they fall and it will be all your fault. In the conflict, you, White Diamond, will stand alone and at the end, you too will fall!” 

Gray let out a great howling cackle of mocking laughter. 

“It will be the beginning of the end of Homeworld as we know it!” she declared to the universe, and with those fateful words, sealed the fate of their whole world.

And with that, she was poofed for her heretical prophecy.

But it was too late as the wheels of fate were already set in motion, and thousands of years later, Steven arrives on Homeworld. 

Right before CYM was released, I had an idea that he explores the Diamond’s palace and accidentally bursts Gray Sapphire’s bubble.

“Ah, right on schedule! Hello again, Steven. It’s nice to have finally met you in person.” “Who are you?” “I am Gray Sapphire, grand oracle of White Diamond and crone of the Sapphires. And I have waited a very long time to meet you.” “Wait, how do you know my name? Everyone here thinks I’m Pink Diamond.” “Oh, I know lots of things about you...” “Like what...?” “Why, what you are, starling! What you will become...and what you will do.” The old-looking Sapphire was suddenly struck by a fit of cackling laughter. She held her face as her head rolled off to the side, like she was daydreaming. “Eeheeheehee, it has fiiiiiiinally begun…” “What do you mean ‘what I will become’? What will I do?! Will I cure the corruption?” “AHHHHHHHH, but the price of knowledge is silence! The more you know, the less you are allowed to say..." Her countenance suddenly ceased and became deadly intense. "The cosmos tends to frown on spoilers.”

Part of how I decided how freewill and destiny work as that everyone’s fates are the result of their own decisions. She just knows what those decisions will be. Including the ones they make if she tells them that. Gray Sapphire doesn’t tell people she likes the future. Because she knows what it is. But they don’t. And from a quantum standpoint, so long as they don’t know, it can be anything, including a happy ending. But if she tells them, the outcome can only be that. 

Gray Sapphire looked so far into the future that she saw the other side. Lives in a world where everything has already been decided. Every word, thought, and action. So her greatest gift to someone is the power to let their choices matter. 

To tell them would be to rob them of all agency and doom them to suffer her own fate.

“So what’s my future?”

“Mm, I’m not saying,” the old Sapphire hummed nonchalantly.

“Why?! Is it that bad?”

“It might be good. It might be bad. It might be something in between. I know what it is. But you don’t,” she smiled. “Which means, it can be anything!” She stepped a little closer and said to him. “Nothing can change your fate. But that doesn’t matter if you don’t know what your fate is.”

After all the craziness settles down, back on Homeworld, after CYM, White is sitting on her throne, chin resting on her fist, just thinking about everything that had happened today. 

“So, you knew all along.”

“Yup.”

“This was what you meant by ‘the end of Homeworld as we knew it’.”

“Mm-hm.”

“You crafty little devil…”

“Is it not exactly as I foretold?”

“Perhaps.”

White Diamond slumped in her throne. A rare sign of relief from her.

“So. It’s finally over then...”

“Oh, not a chance.”

White Diamond’s eyes snapped open and she sat back up. 

“What? But you said this was the end of Homeworld as we knew it! I thought you meant the physical destruction of Homeworld, but now everything’s changing. That was what you meant, wasn’t it?”

“I said it was the beginning of the end. Now the beginning has ended. The rest is yet to come.”

“What…? But I…”

“Congratulations, my Diamond. This was the easy part.”

And yeah, that’s basically that. Just wanted to share. Its really late now so please excuse any errors. Maybe someday when I commission someone I’ll add some art to this old thing.

[charminglatina]

Birthday Profiles Of Riverdale Actors Based On The Secret Language Of Birthdays Concept! (Part III)

What Is The Secret Language Concept?

The Secret Language scientific personality 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 I further combined those profile names into the ultimate distillation of your personality - your Secret Language Name. Combining astrology, numerology, and pure psychic intuition, The Secret Language of Birthdays is a wholly unique compilation that reveals one’s strengths, weaknesses, and major issues while providing practical advice and spiritual guidance. Many have suspected that your birthday affects your personality and how you relate to others. Nineteen years and over one million copies later, The Secret Language of Birthdays continues to fascinate readers by describing the characteristics associated with being born on a particular day. The 366 personality profiles are based on astrology, numerology, the tarot, and Gary Goldschneider’s observations of more than 14,000 people. Your strengths, weaknesses, and major concerns will be illuminated while you are given practical advice and spiritual guidance. After you study your profile, it will be hard to resist examining those of family, friends, colleagues, and even celebrities.

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 ever 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

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

Birthday Profiles Featured: 

13. Mark Consuelos (March 30 – Aries I) 14. Shannon Purser (June 27 – Cancer I) 15. Trinity Likins (May 12 – Taurus III) 16. Hayley Law (Nov 18 – Scorpio III) 17. Asha Bromfield (November 9 – Scorpio II) 18. Jordan Calloway (October 18 – Libra III)

#13. Mark Consuelos (Birthday: Mar. 30 – The Day Of Uncompromising Vision; Personality Period: Aries I – Mar. 25 to Apr. 2 – The Week Of The Child; Place Of Birth: Zaragoza, Spain)

Those born during the Week of the Child show the frank and open demeanor of the child. Because of this, they are sometimes accused of having a naive or superficial view of life. But the so-called naiveté that they project is only one manifestation of the awe and wonder they experience in response to the world around them, which they are constantly rediscovering. An intense need to express this wonder, and to share their observations with others, is also characteristic. Like children, they not only exhibit spontaneity and liveliness themselves but also appreciate these qualities in others. In fact, many may not understand how deep their need for direct expression really is. As children, they are faithful, on their own terms, but not particularly dutiful, particularly when it comes to fulfilling the expectations of parents who project their own dreams and wishes on them. Although born during the week of the “child,” they often give an impression of independence, as if they didn’t need parents at all, but this conceals subtle emotional dependencies and needs that can manifest in small ways. Rarely will these children make a great show of feelings toward parents, preferring instead to express such emotion in the form of thoughtful everyday deeds. Parents of such children quickly learn not to make the mistake of babying them, particularly as adolescents. These folks also dislike being reminded of their childlike demeanor when older, for it is vitally important to them that others regard them as mature and responsible. The less outgoing give the impression of being thoughtful, serious individuals, and even the gregarious and talkative ones tend to lead a highly private personal life. They have a quiet world to which they must retreat at frequent intervals, and it is inviolable. Often, an enclosed, even isolated existence has been forced on them in childhood through repeated criticism or misunderstanding, even that of parents who love and protect them. The danger of this is that as adolescents and mature adults they can fall into periods of brooding or depression, from which it may be difficult for them to work free. Moreover, these people are slow to seek psychological help, preferring to handle their emotional difficulties by themselves. Although they tend to spend long periods alone when away from work, their careers inevitably involve group or team endeavors. They have strong organizational energies, and others naturally come to depend on them. Rarely dictatorial, they even avoid being elected a group’s leader, preferring instead to occupy an important role right in the center of things. The morality of these people is usually fixed and will not allow them to act in ways that they see as underhanded. This inflexibility, reflecting both their strong beliefs and their idealism, can cause problems at times; if their ethical belief in what they are doing is strong enough, in fact, they will not hesitate to go against the established order of things, even to the point of committing actions that may be illegal in their society’s eyes. Their behavior is usually a mixture of lively and highly measured responses. They are capable of swinging quickly from spontaneity to thoughtfulness, depending on the situation. Those involved with them must be sensitive to their moods or risk seeing them fly off the handle, usually as a result of feeling that they have been misread or misunderstood. Although some can explode in anger, their more characteristic response is to turn heel and quickly leave the room. As those who are close to them will attest, however, they are usually agreeable to serious discussion of the problems of a given situation, as long as the conversation does not turn personal. These people demand a lot of understanding from their mates and friends. Those best suited for intimate relationships with these energetic individuals are willing to leave them the freedom to act and to be themselves, without attempting to place restrictions on them. The person perhaps best suited for them is down to earth, and has a good sense of humor, the ability to put things in perspective, and a life of his or her own. As far as friendships are concerned, they are dependable up to a point, that point usually arriving when they begin to feel that they are being taken advantage of. Again, those sensitive to their needs will protect the relationship’s longevity by avoiding pushing them to that point. In any kind of relationship with these folks, knowing when to back off is essential. Confrontation should only be attempted with great care and sensitivity. Generally speaking, a stable family life, including children, may not be the best prospect for them as young adults; they are better suited to this kind of life when they are older and have sown their wild oats. Their love relationships tend to the unusual, to say the least: they can be extremely unrealistic in their choice of partners, and their relationships may at times be suffused with a fairy-tale quality. They rarely respond to societal pressures to have a recognized love object, much preferring abstinence to maintaining pro forma relations with a spouse, lover or fiancé. Extramarital affairs are not at all uncommon for those born during the Week of the Child, who may not see such actions as transgressions. Such relationships underline their curiosity and their need for adventure, while at the same time announcing their refusal to be bound by society’s conventional strictures. An unconventional relationship with them can easily be carried on for years. Oddly enough, it is precisely in these areas that their most noble, moral and loyal sentiments may be expressed.

March 30 people are extremely forward, rarely mitigating the effect they have on others. For this reason they can arouse antagonisms and obstacles which stand in the way of their tremendous drive to succeed. They may fail time and again in their endeavors to reach personal or social goals, but remain undaunted. Eventually, this determination makes for success, though recognition may come late in life or even posthumously. Those born on this day are concerned with their image, for they take quite seriously what others think of them. This is particularly evident when denied appreciation, for they openly show their bewilderment and pain. Such setbacks, however, only build greater resolve. Because March 30 people are only capable of doing things their own way, they do best as self-employed freelancers, for as employees they are likely to clash with bosses or co-workers. If they are free to pursue their own personal vision, these conflicts can be avoided. Someone else’s dream they find difficult to share, as their mind is one-track and their energy usually directed in one line of endeavor only. March 30 people are very intense. Because relaxation does not come easily to those so driven, they can wear others out with their unflagging energy. Those born on this day can also create emotional difficulties through their childlike and often naive view of things. They are almost always self-taught types; formal education rarely manages to impart much to them. Fortunately, since they carry such a clear vision of what they wish to do in their heads, they have the inspiration necessary to master whatever technical skills are required to do the job. Having lots of friends is not important to March 30 people. When they do become successful, the accompanying social contact is difficult for them to handle. They may find themselves longing for the privacy they had before recognition, and even regret their achievements. Ultimately, however, they have no choice but to follow their inner drives. Sometimes, in extreme cases, the personality of these driven people becomes so deeply submerged in the flood of their activity, that it almost seems that they have become forces personified rather than flesh and blood human beings; their true existence lies in their work. In relationships, those born on this day can be extremely demanding. Those attracted or already involved with a March 30 person had better be prepared for almost anything. Matching the energetic output of March 30 people is indeed difficult; perhaps the best mate for them is an empowered but undemanding person, one who can appeal to their imagination. But such a mate must also be quite unusual, even unique, to maintain their interest over time. Furthermore, those born on this day may not always be the best at dealing with the success enjoyed by a mate and can be prone to projecting their own desires on their partner. Although March 30 people are very complex emotionally, they are loyal in their own way and will usually do their best to hang in there for their families and friends, at least as much as their driven personalities will allow. People born on March 30 are an irresistible combination of dynamic confidence and courage, and touching earnestness and vulnerability. Although their conviction is strong enough to help them bounce back from setbacks and criticism, it’s impossible for them to hide their pain, bewilderment and disappointment. For this reason they can both antagonize and endear themselves to people, more often than not at the same time. These people are at their happiest and best when allowed the freedom to work alone and set their own agenda. They may appear selfish to friends and colleagues, but they are not. They simply love to absorb themselves in their personal goals, fearing that if they allow others to distract them from their vision they might never attain it. It is important for them, however, to take the time to unwind; otherwise they run the risk of becoming driven at work and isolated in their personal life. They should not neglect their emotional and social needs between the ages of twenty and fifty, during which there is an emphasis on acquiring wealth, status and material security. After the age of fifty they may feel a need to communicate and exchange ideas; this is when their talents are most likely to mature and gain recognition. With a hint of the dramatic and the irresistible in their make-up, these people have an attractive, energetic but mild manner which masks a hidden sensuality and complexity. Because they are so upbeat, passionate and focused about their goals in life, they may find that they have more than their fair share of good luck. If, however, they surrender their natural optimism the opposite may be true, so it is important for them to keep as positive as possible. As long as these people don’t allow themselves to become buried by their ambitions or their tendency toward perfectionism—and others allow them the freedom to pursue their highly creative vision—they have the potential not just to achieve outstanding success but to provoke feelings of adoration in others. People born on March 30 are irresistible and will often attract partners who want to help and support them, as well as adore them. Their ideal mate will be someone who has an independent streak as strong as their own and a mind as inquisitive and far reaching. Sometimes their insecurities and driven nature can damage a relationship, but if they are able to make it work they make warm and endlessly fascinating partners. The biggest risk to the health of people born on this day is stress. Some stress is good for them as it makes them feel alive, but too much can lead to headaches, insomnia, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, forgetfulness, insecurity, and a host of other emotional, mental and physical disorders. Eating a healthy diet rich in nutritious whole grains, fruits and vegetables and low in refined and processed foods, and getting plenty of fresh air and exercise, will help ease stress, as will regular time out with friends and loved ones. Mind-body therapies and deep-breathing techniques such as meditation and yoga are highly recommended, as are massage and aromatherapy. A soothing cup of herbal tea, such as chamomile, before bedtime will encourage restful sleep; wearing, meditating on or surrounding themselves with the colors blue and purple will help quell their exuberant fires. Because of their determination and creativity, these people have the potential to achieve great success in arts, music, design, theater, and the entertainment world. Their pleasure in mental pursuits may also lead them to careers in teaching, lecturing, research, or writing, as well as management, sales, business, and public affairs. Alternatively they may choose to set up their own business. The life path of people born on this day is to place as much importance on their personal as on their professional goals. Once they have learned to get in touch with their feelings and the feelings of others, their destiny is to influence and inspire others with their fearless energy and passion for what they believe in. People born specifically on the 30th of March are presumed to be intuitive, enthusiastic and strong willed and determined as is typical of an Aries. Jupiter is the ruling astrological planet for this particular day creating your expressiveness and insistence on doing things in your own fashion. If you have this birthday a happy go lucky, generous, kind and bold disposition is bestowed upon you. You are ambitious, highly motivated and persuasive, tending to prefer learning from experience. A hard worker you are business orientated with artistic, adaptable and imaginative inclinations. Individuals with a March the thirtieth birthday usually have a fab sense of humor and a liking for the luxurious things in life. Often you can be quite sensitive about how others view you and may find it fairly difficult to relax. Impatient and easily bored you are rather complex emotionally and may be hard to get close to but you are immensely tenderly loyal to friends and loved ones. Favored career options to a person born on the thirtieth of March are ordinarily within academic type professions. You are commonly expressive and inspirational when conveying knowledge to others and so teaching or communication based jobs are likely to appeal the most. In the work environment although you feel the need to take charge you are equally happy to be part of a team. Where finances are concerned Jupiter's authority seems to gift you with lots of luck in this area. You are very able and responsible in the management of financial matters and chiefly unselfish and careful with your spending. As an Aries, the person born on the thirtieth day of March is typically full of charm and wit and a sweet talker when it comes to romance. You greatly value friendship and embrace the idea of a soul mate but you are capable of being happy while single. The way to captivate your heart and unveil your passionate side is inclined to be via intellectual stimulation. In a long term relationship you may be restless without common interests and long deep meaningful conversations. Physical attractions only will soon peter out. Your youthful vivaciousness helps you frequently get your way in love partnerships yet you show lots of consideration and flexibility towards a partner's needs and desires. Regardless of this you are prone to pangs of jealousy and if your loyalty is betrayed then you normally find it easy to walk away. Heath issues experienced by those born on March 30th are in some cases a reaction to you thinking that you are immune to illness. Your active enthusiasm and helpful nature keep you busy enough to sometimes forget body and mind basic requirements. People born on this day could have a proneness to stress behind that sunny temperament. This is often not helped by your fondness of eating on the go and not taking time out to properly unwind once in a while. Relying on short term props like caffeine can add to the problem so its intake should be minimal and ideally other forms of relaxation sought. The most prominent strengths in your character lie in the energetic motivation you have, your touch of originality and creative imagination. These positive characteristics and your powerful powers of persuasion assist you to express yourself effectively in all areas of life. Impatience is probably the main personality weakness for those born on March 30th. Secondary weak traits worth mentioning include the tendencies to get over anxious and occasionally act rebelliously or sulk for lengthy periods. All these negative behaviors usually occur less often as you grow older, wiser and calmer. Being born on the 30th of March gives you an independent learn as you go attitude alongside your determination to achieve things. You appear to frequently acquire more enjoyment and satisfaction from following the paths to a goal rather than attaining the end results. The sort of aspirations that you have in your younger years are likely to change in midlife as you become more focused on what matters. However the same cannot be said about your deepest dreams and wishes. Any dream scenarios featuring memories of contentment from childhood are expected to stay fresh in your mind as something worth aiming for. As you were born on the thirtieth day of the month your birth date figure reflects a Root number of Three. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Innovation' highlighting the vision and adaptability you are able to call upon. The 3rd card in the Major Arcana Tarot, the Empress is connected to your birthday symbolizing your creative imagination and alluring mannerisms. For March the thirtieth birthdays the gem considered luckiest to wear is an Amethyst. Carrying this precious purple stone promises the attraction of love, luck and wealth as well as clearer concentration. Astrologically Mars is believed to be the planet that is the dominant influence in the fundamentals of Aries personalities. The actual day you were born on, the thirtieth of March is supposed governed by the celestial body Jupiter. So these 2 influential planets both play an authoritative part in deciding your individuality. Your demonstrative free will and charisma are courtesy of Jupiter's cosmic force while Mars's dynamism gives you your boldness and generosity. Tuning in to the humorous aspect of your character and laughing at yourself should lessen stressfulness. Conquering your sensitivity to how others see you could prove to be a big advantage. A final apt thought to ponder for people born on March the 30th is that boredom is not always something to avoid, it can help with the lesson of patience. 

#14. Shannon Purser (Birthday: Jun. 27 – The Day Of The Defensive Developer; Personality Period: Cancer I – Jun. 25 to July 2 – The Week Of The Empath; Place Of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

Cancer I’s are hard to figure out. Emotionally complex, they combine sharply contrasting qualities in their psychological makeup. They may give an entirely different impression one moment than in another, according to their mood. A Cancer I may strike one person as outgoing, another as retiring, one as positive and expansive, another as negative and depressive, still others as easygoing, others as difficult. Only those who live with Cancer I’s day in and day out are fully able to appreciate their depth and diversity. Part of the reason for the variety of their emotional palette is their sensitivity. Empathic, Cancer I’s quickly pick up on the feelings of others—so much so that they may mistake such feelings for their own. They may find themselves replaying other people’s scripts and hence playing a role in life’s daily drama that is not really theirs. Developing their self-awareness, gaining an accurate view of their personal interactions and getting a grip on their emotions will be essential to them. Because they are so at the mercy of the feelings of others as children, Cancer I’s generally cry out for protection. Even when protection is granted, they may spend a lifetime seeking out people to mother and nurture them. But if they are instead exposed to tough and unsympathetic treatment by their families and, later, by the world, they are capable of surrounding themselves with a virtually impenetrable shell. Love can enable Cancer I’s to feel again, melting their outer defenses and allowing them to express their true emotions. A great deal of pent-up resentment and frustration may have to be voiced, however, before their hurt is eased and they are able to trust again. One should not get the idea, however, that Cancer I’s are wishy-washy characters out of touch with worldly realities. In fact, they are very clever in getting their way. They generally give money a high priority, and are often financially astute. Their investment sense can be excellent, and they frequently make stocks and other holdings pay off. Also in the realm of technical skills, they show a good grasp of whatever material they make their own, and a good ability to implement their plans. Aggression can play an ambiguous role in Cancer I’s lives: they are naturally aggressive, and can have difficulty sublimating this instinct into positive expression, particularly in the sexual, verbal or athletic sphere. Too often they swing from angry outbursts to repression, which often leads them into melancholia, in extreme cases, their anger can be self-destructive. Finding a métier that allows them easy expression of their aggression is an important life task for them, and one that they often overlook. These folks are capable of withdrawing from the world for months or even years, doing battle with themselves in an attempt to come to grips with their problems. The challenge a Cancer I faces is to move from being a person helplessly adrift in a sea of feeling, just able to keep his or her head above water, into being one who can swim confidently in the swift currents of life. The most successful Cancer I’s are those who can put their fantasy to work in a constructive way, and who can share their unique view of the world with others. First, of course, they must conquer their inner fears and liberate themselves from self-imposed, or parentally-imposed, behavioral stereotypes. Next they may have to overcome inflexibility and real or imagined handicaps. Through sheer guts and determination, they are often capable of overcoming these and other obstacles, and of putting their acute psychological perceptions to work in the service of those around them. Professionally they often do well when self-employed, operating from a home base that may be connected to their living space. Should they choose to have children, the caring and nurturing aspects of their personalities augur well for their abilities as parents. For those who live with them, it may be difficult to stand by and watch as Cancer I’s bottle up their feelings or enter into their self-imposed isolation. While it may look like self-torture, it is almost impossible, and in fact usually inadvisable, to get down in the soup with Cancer I’s. A more beneficial stance is usually to back off and wait patiently until they surface and seek human interaction again. Patience is an obligatory virtue for those desiring a successful relationship with these individuals. On the other hand, those born during the Week of the Empath have a great deal to offer in a relationship: sympathy, technical proficiency, financial astuteness and a good managerial sense. Because of their need to spend time at home, they can be counted on to keep things in good working order and to provide comfort and security. Cancer I’s can be extremely persuasive, at times too much so. Their need to persuade can outstrip the advisability of their counsel, leaving them saddled with the guilt of having sent someone off in a wrong direction. Cancer I’s pride themselves on doing their homework on given subjects, and when their research is thorough it will yield positive results. Good friends know, however, that emotional strain can cloud their thoughts, easily throwing them off track, so that they may offer confused judgments and advice with the same air of conviction and authority as cogent ones.

Those born on June 27 believe that the most effective offense is supported by a good defense. Extremely protective of their personal kingdom (be it family or business), they venture out into the world cautiously and only after their home base is secure from external threats. Once their guidance system is locked on, however, they proceed inexorably to their target, rarely straying off course. Thus, June 27 people are unbelievably determined once they set their sights on something and tend to get it, no matter what. There is usually a rock-solid set of moral convictions behind the drive and determination of June 27 people. Because of these convictions, those born on this day feel one hundred percent that their actions are just and correct, and they are rarely given to questioning themselves. The goals of most June 27 people are, generally speaking, highly personal rather than worldly, but they also have a strong competitive streak which urges them to overcome those they regard as competitors or rivals. In doing so, however, they can make very powerful enemies who later obstruct their progress, or in rare cases destroy or defeat them. At least in their philosophy and attitude, June 27 people have little capacity for admitting defeat. The benefits of such steadfastness are obvious, but may also result in an inflexible personality which is unwilling to accept unpleasant truths, and exhibits a kind of tunnel vision. When people are repelled by such a stance, or worse yet attack a June 27 person verbally, those born on this day may get bewildered, close down and withdraw into a kind of well-armored shell. An intense desire to protect not only themselves but also their family, friends or social group is of course one of the prime characteristics of June 27 people. They may, however, appear overly aggressive toward others; indeed they are masterful at alternating quickly between attack and defence. Because they are so firm in their convictions, June 27 people can make fine salespeople. They could sell ice to the Eskimos or pasta to the Italians. Particularly once they have formed their ideological goals, firmed up their belief systems and sorted out their principles, they develop an overwhelming urge not only to share their values with others but to persuade, educate and convince. Due to their marked empathic abilities, June 27 people pick up quickly on the feelings of others. But because of their somewhat antagonistic manner, they will often provoke less than sympathetic reactions from those with whom they live and work. Indeed, others may perceive them as so strong and invulnerable that they are somehow less deserving of compassion or kindness. The spiritual path for those born on June 27 is long and hard. Perhaps only after they have battled and achieved some measure of success can they allow time to first examine and then remake themselves. Hopefully, they will still be free to change and grow. People born on June 27 tend to be watchful, diligent and very capable of defending themselves and their interests from attack. They are competitive, driven and persuasive,and those who dare to criticize or argue with their convictions may find themselves out of their depth.They feel they have a duty to guide and, if necessary, force others to follow the same uncompromising moral convictions that they themselves hold. The profound empathy they feel for those less fortunate arouses their fiercely protective instincts and a burning desire to effect social improvement. Such steadfastness does, however, have its drawbacks: they have a tendency to become inflexible and overly defensive when others try to offer their opinions or criticize them. If this happens, their favored response is to withdraw, shutting out everyone and everything in the process.Emotions and family matters may occupy them into their mid-twenties, and they should take advantage of opportunities to become more sensitive to the feelings of others. Although they may appear self-assured, they may find that the solid confidence they seek is not forthcoming until after the age of twenty-five. It is important during these years that they keep their minds and hearts open, avoiding becoming too defensive or inflexible in their convictions, which could provoke unnecessary rifts in relationships and problems in their working life. After the age of fifty-five they become more practical, analytical and discerning. Remaining inquisitive and open-minded is the key to their happiness and success during this period.The single-mindedness of these people can also mean that they miss out on opportunities to develop new assets or relationships. It is crucial for their psychological development that they remain open to the debates that their actions will engender, because learning to become more accommodating is the key to their personal happiness and fulfillment. It will unlock their intuition, giving them the inspiration they need to fulfill their progressive urge to effect real and significant improvements in the human condition. Charming and friendly with a warm and caring personality, people born on June 27 are often loyal and devoted partners, as well as being loving parents. Although they find it easy to make friends and attract admirers, they can have fluctuating moods and be quick to take offence at any form of criticism, and this vacillating touchiness can affect their relationships negatively. People born on this day have a tendency to be inflexible in both mind and body, and this can manifest itself in physical discomforts such as joint pain, backache, sciatica, and headaches. They would benefit enormously from all forms of stretching, such as yoga and dance, or any form of exercise that encourages them to be more flexible. As far as diet is concerned, they need to optimize their intake of health-boosting nutrients. In addition, they need to make sure they include a wide variety of foods in their meal plans and don’t just keep repeating the same menu week after week. Wearing, meditating on and surrounding themselves with the color yellow will encourage them to be more open, optimistic and confident. People born on this day may express their humanitarian concerns in a range of careers, including nursing, teaching, therapy, social work, or charity work. Alternatively, they may choose to spread their message more overtly via the arts in music, acting or writing, although their theatrical side conjoined with their idealism may also lead them into politics. The life path of people born on this day is to learn to be more open-minded in their approach to people and situations. Once they have become more flexible, their destiny is to devote their considerable energy to helping and inspiring others. People born specifically on the 27th of June are believed to possess a strong but gentle presence worn with grace and amiability alongside their typical crab loveable charm. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Mars lavishing you with spiritual awareness making you empathic natured and compelled to be protective of others less fortunate. If you have this birthday your kind quiet yet unassuming temperament can be a little oversensitive and prone to react strongly to everything. Intuitive, creative and highly perceptive you have excellent observation skills and are likely to be good at reading, writing, art and music. Individuals with a June the twenty seventh birthday are a mix of cautious and sacrificing emotionally and a secure home base is important to you. A low tolerance of unfairness can cause you to be somewhat volatile and prone to occasionally act on impulse with rash thoughts or actions. You are also quite idealistic and tend to be sometimes presumptuous. Choosing a suitable career to a person born on the Twenty-Seventh of June often involves selecting a job to closely match your abilities. A profession that requires the skills you know you are best at is much more preferable but you may view financial recompense a greater incentive in your choices. Practical and highly motivated you are hard working, efficient and productive in any work environment you choose and nice to work with or for. You are usually fairly adept at keeping your finances in order so it is unlikely for you to get into debt, however your generosity can cause occasional problems. For a Cancer, the person born on the twenty seventh day of June is typically incredibly loving and giving with warm but intense emotions. You really enjoy the company of others and consider friendship a meaningful part of any personal relationship. Charming and humorous you are both sensitive and sentimental when it comes to affairs of the heart and love and devotion frequently plays a big role in your life. Your touch of idealism gives you high expectations of a soul mate yet you yearn for the emotional security and encouragement offered by a long term relationship. Your emotion intensity means that you will ordinarily need a mental affinity as well as a physical attraction to keep you interested romantically. You are tender and guided by instinct with a preference to be wooed as your lusty libido may need some special coaxing to fully ignite. The usual active lifestyle favored and experienced by those born on June 27th is of significant importance to overall health condition. Exercising on a regular basis is particularly effective in reducing tension and unblocking your energy flows. Keeping your body trim and toned helps create just the right balance for optimum vitality and counteracts your fondness for indulging in fine food and drink. People born on this day should avoid stress as this can have a disturbing impact on general healthiness. Stomach ailments and head and backaches are common symptoms when you are in an anxious state. Your main strengths of character are probably viewed best in your complimentary combination of a convincing determined manner and gentleness. These positive attributes bestow you with a firm but fair approach and views culminating in your commonsensical outlook and skilful ability to notice details. Recognizable personality weaknesses for those born on June 27th are usually based on your volatility and tendency to presume outcomes. When these rash negative traits put in an appearance they can be troublesome and direct you to once in a while miss out on some of life's opportunities or surprises. Being born on the 27th of June is imagined to make you quietly ambitious and likely to be overflowing with drive and motivation to be successful in life. In anticipation of success you are inclined to make well thought out plans that involve progressing slowly and carefully towards desired goals. You often have grand dreams especially with regard to finding perfection in a close personal partnership. Sharing the good and bad times with someone special is one of your priority wishes despite your ambitiousness. Another prominent wish is to travel and see as many different and interesting places as possible. As you were born on the twenty seventh day of the month the two and seven in your birth date award you a Root number of Nine. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Seeker' highlighting your observant responsiveness and enterprising spirit. In the Major Arcana the 9th Tarot picture card symbolizing the Hermit is connected to your birthday. This is an indication of your overall profundity, decisiveness and concentrated sense of purpose. The lucky gem chosen for June the twenty seventh birthdays is a Bloodstone, wear it for calmness, positivity and the possibility of increased happiness. Astrologically the lunar influence of the Moon is assumed to be mostly responsible for the probabilities of Cancer personalities. The actual day you were born on, the twenty seventh of June is ruled over by Mars's influential power. Your uniqueness is therefore predicted by the mystic forces of these 2 dominating zodiacal planets. Your warmth and sense of humor add to and really emphasize your finest qualities of empathy and unlikeliness to judge. Your top levels of creativity and observancy serve you well in everything you aim to do. Slowing down a little can help you to conquer your inclinations to overreact or be too hasty. A final couple of concluding thoughts for people born on June the 27th are to try and listen to others more intently and learn to admit your weak points. These small improvements should increase your awareness and spirituality.

#15. Trinity Likins (Birthday: May 12 – The Day Of The Mischievous Maverick; Personality Period: Taurus III – May 11 to May 18 – The Week Of The Natural; Place Of Birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Taurus III’s are highly sensitive individuals who need to be left free to express themselves as directly and naturally as they wish. They do not react well when others try to correct, reform or change their basic habits. These spontaneous, fun-loving, zany people insist on being themselves: indeed, they seem to have no other choice. Yet society can put pressures on them to conform, and they may consequently encounter serious frustrations and obstacles while growing up. Nervousness and neurotic behaviour not infrequently result and, in more extreme cases, depressions and acutely repressed feelings. A Taurus III child, like many adults born this week, is generally fun-loving and imaginative, full of fantastic thoughts and colourful behaviour. They are drawn throughout their lives to the natural world, in part due to the freedom it represents. In childhood, problems may arise when a parent, sibling, family member or teacher lacks sympathy for their “wayward” behaviour and attempts to straighten it out. Taurus III’s often lack the toughness to resist strong criticism, and they can be deeply hurt by a lack of understanding from those close to them. In the long run, however, they may also benefit from any resistance to them, becoming stronger and more capable of dealing with a hostile and critical environment. Leaving home and getting out on their own come early in the life of Taurus IIII’s, and even those who seem docile and content often secretly yearn for the time when they can exert their independence. As they grow up, they succeed in finding friends who appreciate them, and rarely will they carry hurtful or revengeful thoughts against childhood adversaries into adulthood. However, they may well retain some scars from childhood battles that, if repressed, can lead to sudden and baffling depressions or emotional outbursts. It is hard for Taurus III’s to keep a low profile. Craving action and excitement, and often unable to keep their strong opinions on those around them to themselves, they can easily get into hot water. Taurus III can be very emotionally volatile, and easily bored—qualities that invariably lead to many changes of friends, lovers and generally of their entire scene. An eternal fascination with the oddball, unusual aspects of life will always threaten to remove them from steadier and more stable situations and individuals. On the other hand, their instability can make them crave the grounding influence of people, places and professions, and for varying periods of time they may doggedly hold on, knowing that to let go could result in aimlessness and lack of direction. This duality between a natural impulsiveness and a need for stability (often a result of a fear of their own unsettledness) can be the key factor in all of the adult relationships of Taurus III’s. Although insecurities abound in their personalities, these can act as a powerful fuel for their drive to succeed in life, rise in their jobs and break through societal barriers. In this sense, paradoxically, their dynamism can itself become a stabilizing force, and their ambition both a rock they can hold to and a compass pointing the way. Thus many of them who might have been satisfied with an enjoyable, unstressed, easygoing life, and better suited to it as well, are driven upward by their own quest for security, frequently a goal involving financial independence. They are, above all, people who create their own challenges. Although one would imagine that adventure, sex, drugs and all forms of wild behaviour would exert a powerful pull on Taurus III’s (as they inevitably do at some point in these individuals’ lives), they are not invariably prone to lifelong obsessions and addictions. They are supported not so much by their good sense as by an understanding of the basic nature of these areas of behavior, and this kind of kinship or familiarity allows them to navigate perilous channels without foundering on the rocks.  In relationships, rebelliousness against authority can haunt Taurus III’s their whole life long. Those who enter into relationships with them, moreover, particularly their mates and lovers, risk coming to symbolize for them the repressive forces that they cannot abide. It is essential, then, to be understanding of the battles being waged in the psyche of Taurus III’s, while at the same time refusing to become a football or emotional punching bag. Difficulties may particularly surface when they want others to take Taurus III’s seriously—their combination of fantastic ideas and unpredictable behaviour is not always conducive to inspiring trust, and they may have to battle long and hard before their ideas are accepted. Still, as with their drive to financial success, fighting over issues like these can give them direction and security. Successful are those who are able to give form to their fantasy, to embody it in a product, service or artistic activity. Taurus III’s can strike deep responsive chords in the imaginations of their fellows, who may feel they live in a more humdrum world from which they secretly crave release. In the same way, Taurus III’s may draw others to them as friends and lovers.

Those born on May 12 have a naughty allure. Their mischievousness may not be extreme enough to get them into trouble with the authorities, but they are known for their teasing and the lighthearted pranks which they play with a twinkle in their eye. Some May 12 people are very serious in their approach to life, but still seem to have a knack for getting into hot water (or at least very warm). Basically, they just can’t do things like everyone else. They have their own highly developed style and mode of operation that often clashes with that of others. May 12 people are debunkers. They are never so happy as when they are refuting questionable claims, wielding irony, even derision with devastating effect. On the other hand they do not claim to have all the answers themselves and indeed it may be difficult to nail down what they actually believe in. Rarely will they go out of their way to help in this respect since they are insightful but somewhat guarded about discussing their own philosophy and principles. They are, however, able to offer fresh approaches to the problems of others which invariably prove useful. In so often going against the established order of things, May 12 people may be mistaken for radicals or rebels. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most often they are conservative in outlook, and decidedly logical. They may also appear hard, or at least cool and unemotional. In fact, a large part of this stony and critical facade is a barrier erected against the incursions of the world. Those born on this day are often found in leadership roles. Because they actually have little or no desire to rule others, they are most often chosen by superiors for such positions on the basis of merit. May 12 people stand out from the crowd both because of their capabilities and their intense drive and dedication. Not only do they radiate a very sympathetic image to their superiors but also to co-workers as well. Those born on this day have the kind of self-assurance that encourages a strong bond of admiration to form with their peers; they may therefore be asked to be a spokesperson for a group. Likeable, but not at all easy to get close to, they maintain their aloof status while making us laugh at the absurdity of life’s passing comedy. May 12 people are very sensible and rarely appear to be foolish or deluded themselves. They are by no means dwellers in a fantasy world, but through their lucidity allow others to see how silly social conventions as well as rigid philosophies can be. May 12 people generally see themselves as serious rather than lighthearted characters. It is the foolishness and delusions of others which necessitate the launching of their pointed barbs. It should be noted that those born on this day make good friends but bad enemies. People born on May 12 may appear steady and sensible on first acquaintance but past the small-talk stage a witty and engaging person emerges. In fact, their wealth of intelligent perspectives often takes other people by surprise. They have tremendous energy and will-power and although they do not necessarily seek leadership, they often find themselves promoted to that position because of their hard work and dedication. Independent and self-assured but also easy to approach, they inspire confidence in the people they live and work with. They are also extremely observant and their well-honed critical faculties can work to their advantage. Although they use humor and the element of surprise to question and challenge conventional thinking, this can degenerate into criticism and sarcasm. They do need to learn to curb their biting observations and avoid alienating those close to them.Until the age of thirty-nine there is an emphasis on study and developing their communication skills; during this time they should learn to soften their sharp tongue with humor. After the age of forty they perceive the importance of home and the need to care emotionally for themselves, as well as others. During these years they need to show their generous side by highlighting the strengths of others as well as their weaknesses, and by praising as much as they criticize. Once they understand that the more they give, the more they get back, there is nothing to stop them reaching for their dreams. When it comes to their own ideas and dreams, however, there is a tendency for these people to be reticent. As a result, others may sense something in them that always remains distant and a mystery. There is nothing wrong with keeping a part of themselves private; the only danger is that by not revealing what they think and criticizing what others think, others may accuse them of only finding problems and not solutions. This, however, is unjust as they have a unique perspective on the world that has tremendous potential to motivate and inspire others with its expansive optimism. People born on this day can put their partners in a relationship under scrutiny but, once they learn to back down, they can become their lover’s greatest supporter. They are passionate and energetic lovers although there will always be a tendency for them to hold back emotionally when it comes to their own feelings. They need to understand that their feelings, however insignificant or trivial they may seem, are worth sharing. The highly energetic people born on this day often have a fast metabolism that keeps them in good shape. If they do struggle with their weight this may be because they have confused their metabolism with yo-yo dieting, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. They can get things back on track by making sure they always eat breakfast, by eating little and often (five or six small meals and snacks instead of three large meals a day) and by taking moderate to mild exercise for at least 30 minutes, preferably on a daily basis. Meditation is recommended to help them be more objective in a situation and focus an equal amount of attention on the positive as well as the negative. Wearing, meditating on or surrounding themselves with the color yellow will encourage them to express themselves more optimistically. With their love of observation and ability to get to the point quickly, these people thrive in careers which allow them to analyze and dissect situations, such as movie or theater critics, or consultants or advisors of any sort. The caring side of their nature may surface with an interest in education, counseling, charity work, or healing. The side of them that wishes to express their creativity may also draw them toward careers in design, music and the arts. The life path of people born on this day is to learn that the more you give in life, the more you get. Once they are able to look for the positives as well as the negatives in a situation, their destiny is to offer the world their fresh, optimistic and innovative perspective. People born specifically on the 12th of May are presumed to be charming, thoughtful and versatile but more articulate and less stubborn than other bulls. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Jupiter bestowing you with lots of energy, wisdom, endurance and determination. If you have this birthday your warm heart is friendly and caring and you are gifted with a witty eloquent temperament. Practical and intelligent you usually possess an excellent memory and the ability to translate your mind full of intuitive ideas in an easily understood unpatronizing manner. Individuals with a May the twelfth birthday are fairly placid and prefer to guide rather than lead and are naturally creative and expressive. When it comes to emotions your mix of independence and dependability can make you appear to blow hot and cold sometimes. Despite this you have a strong need for warmth, stability and security that makes you immensely loving and loyal. Discovering the most suitable and satisfying work choice to a person born on the Twelfth of May is important. You may have to try several different career paths before deciding on an appropriate long term position. The adeptness for business and artistic talent you have are two proficiencies that are likely to direct your choices. Although salary is not ordinarily a determining factor you will usually opt for the better paid job if given a choice. You have a good head for money management that ensures you normally budget and save sensibly and rarely require assistance regarding financial matters. For a Taurus, the person born on the twelfth day of May is typically quite sociable and flirtatious with more spontaneity than many of your star sign counterparts. You tend to have a small group of really close friends but for the intimacy of a love relationship you require a special physical and mental attraction and rapport. You are not as self assured as you would like to be concerning romance but your sense of humor helps hide your insecurities. Easy communication and shared mutual interests are necessities for you in a personal relationship. You are soon turned on by verbal enticement and like to experiment sexually. Your inquisitive nature sees you being fond of revealing desires and eager to find out a partner's secret sex cravings. In a committed soul mate union you are intently devoted, however it is unusual for you to sacrifice all your freedoms. Ill health experienced by those born on May 12th is not often a consequence of disregard for body and mind requirements. You seem to have a great attitude towards all aspects of maintaining overall healthiness for three reasons. Firstly you eat healthily and are not prone to overindulge, secondly you take regular exercise but do not push yourself too hard. Thirdly you enjoy worthwhile activities that keep your brain active and stimulated. All these healthy habits commonly play an essential role in keeping you fit and well and minimize the possibilities of any major problems from developing. The main strengths of character are mostly apparent in your clear perception and understanding of everything and everyone around you. Additional strong points are your charm, thoughtfulness and versatility giving you balanced views and making you popular among your peers. The humorous edge to your disposition is another forte. Personality weaknesses for those born on May 12th could surface more frequently if you are feeling particularly stressed or emotionally vulnerable. These negative traits affect your usual behavior causing you to be uncharacteristically moody, agitated and overly critical. Being born on the 12th of May sometimes makes you set your aspirational sights a little lower than your real expectations. You can subconsciously do this in order to counteract your inability to deal well with disappointments, setbacks or failures. By lowering your anticipations you believe your chances of success will be increased but this approach can mean that you occasionally underachieve or fail to reach your potential. One of your biggest hopes is probably to the opportunity to love and be loved as this stable circumstance encourages you to put in extra effort to accomplish beneficial goals. As you were born on the twelfth day of the month your birth date digits total a Root number of Three. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Innovation' indicating your skilful faculty to quickly and easily collate, retain and revive information. In the Major Arcana Tarot the 12th card symbolizing the Hanged Man is associated with your birthday. It represents overcoming limitations and also reflects your deep thought, practicality and intelligence. The lucky gemstone for May the twelfth birthdays is believed to be Amethyst, wear it for improved concentration and wealth prospects. Astrologically Venus is the designated planet for your zodiac group and so considered the most authoritative on the probabilities of Taurus personalities. The actual day you were born on, the twelfth of May is cosmically governed by the planet Jupiter's influence. Consequently these 2 planets combine their influences to determine your likely mannerisms and ways of thinking. Your energetic enthusiasm and reflective coherence help you get a lot out of the opportunities life has to offer. Your friendliness and quick wit mean you are never short of company while your placidness keeps you mainly calm and unruffled. If you can gain greater control in expressing your inner sensitivities and curb your criticism it should lead to more meaningful conservations and and understanding as well as improved partnerships. A final ponderable thought for people born on May the 12th is that attempting to act a tad more tactfully and patiently is sure to reap big rewards.

#16. Hayley Law (Birthday: Nov. 18 – The Day Of Temperament; Personality Period: Scorpio III – Nov. 12 to Nov. 18 – The Week Of Charm; Place Of Birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Realists first and foremost, those born during the Week of Charm rarely overreach themselves. Because they have a realistic view not only of their own capabilities but of others’ as well, their judgment is generally trustworthy and their assessments keen. They do well in administrative positions or as leaders of a social group or working team, roles in which their evaluative, organizational and practical abilities can come to the fore. Because they have a great deal together internally, many of them risk becoming complacent, or perhaps self-satisfied. This may be particularly clear in their careers, where they may reach an attainable point, then make no effort to rise higher. Unless those near and dear to these individuals encourage them to take chances from time to time, they may stagnate and, eventually, come to regret lost opportunities. Those who prove the most successful in life, whether in their careers or in their personal and spiritual endeavors, are often those who have dared to strive toward realizing their most impossible dreams. Their passions are as strong as their control. Thus they may be subject to raging internal wars, which can even threaten to destroy them. The charming or inscrutable facade that they present to the world often hides tremendous inner conflicts. Those who are the objects of such passions, and the causes of such conflicts, may never realize how much emotion they are arousing, and therefore can hardly be expected to assume responsibility for it. Those who are able to show or at least discuss a small part of their feeling for another person will be closer to realizing success in their personal relationships. These people are not accustomed to putting themselves in a disadvantageous position, no matter how much they desire a job or person. Their dignity is important to them, and they will rarely compromise it. Should they reach one of those points in life where an attraction is so overwhelming that it does obstruct their good sense, they will only succumb after a tremendous inner struggle. Addictions of all sorts, whether to drugs, medicines, people or behavior patterns, they only break with difficulty, but such compulsions, once mastered, are rarely readopted. They must be careful lest they dominate others through overprotective or controlling attitudes. Such influences may be quite subtle, since they rarely seem smothering or dictatorial on the surface: fair and understanding, they arouse loyalty not only at home but at work. People tend to follow their bidding willingly, since they would never ask anyone to do something they wouldn’t do themselves. Yet they often throw up an unapproachable or forbidding exterior. Those who relate best to them are usually not put off by such a stance, or just don’t see it at all. These are the ones who can penetrate their defenses and win their hearts. Those who want to make friends with them must keep in mind their aversion to anyone looking for a free ride. They are often attracted to self-sufficient individuals with something unusual to offer. On the other hand, the more seductive of them are sometimes quite vulnerable to the seductive skills of others. In particular, those who choose to follow a more questionable or unscrupulous path are in danger of getting conned by those with superior powers of deception. Striving to remain open, even vulnerable, is the best hope for them if they are to avoid loneliness, particularly as they grow older. In seeming to have so much together, they often fail to arouse sympathy in others, yet their deeper needs are as great as anyone else’s. The ability to admit to their weaknesses and faults, and the courage to own up to their failures or to grieve openly over their losses, will be important for them in forming deep and lasting love relationships. A life partner may only materialize for these capable individuals once they have truly begun to master—and ultimately, perhaps, to relinquish—their own controlling attitudes. These people rarely kid themselves about their romantic lives. No matter how much in love they seem to be, they are rarely found hanging on to relationships that have proved unproductive or detrimental; usually resourceful, self-possessed individuals, they know that there are always more fish in the sea. Yet they are faithful and sincere, and will give a relationship its best chance—but not more. Their sexual partners and mates learn soon enough not to take their attentions for granted, and to heed all warning signs—or find that what has been freely given can also be withheld, or withdrawn entirely. Close friendships are important to those born during the Week of Charm who have chosen to live alone, or who lack the support of a family group. They can build a complete world around good friends, who, at certain points, may take the place of siblings, parents, children, mates or lovers for them. They often spend time with people who are very different from themselves, making for friendships in which each member supplies what the other lacks. By forging a circle of friends, they may succeed in making up for all, or almost all, of their deficiencies.

The highly spirited individuals born on November 18 are usually extremely active in both mind and body. One of their chief characteristics is their emotional lability, although on the outside they can appear cool, calm and collected when they wish to. In this respect they are masters at self-control, and indeed must be, since the boiling cauldron within them is not what they wish to reveal to the world. In the best case scenario, they are capable of creatively channeling their strong emotional energies directly into their work. November 18 people are highly social and most happy when they are the center of attention. They are often ambitious, and are perhaps cut out for leading roles in life. Their ambition generally manifests in the name of a social group which they come to represent or personify. Whether their talents are astonishing or modest they prefer to reveal them on their own terms. Thus November 18 people resist pressure to seek success before they feel ready. When in fact they are ready may be a matter they not only debate with others but within themselves.  Diligence is not often the strongest side of November 18 people, since they can accomplish more by intuition, sensitivity and vision than many can through dutiful application or hours of effort. Also their sensuous side is not as strongly developed as their varied and rich emotional side. They are the kind of people who invite interest and investigation; usually the more one digs the more one finds, as continuing surprises are provided by their inner chameleon-like twists and turns. In this way they encourage people to become fascinated with them. November 18 people need attention and will not rest until they get it. In this respect they are needy and therefore manifest some degree of insecurity, but in fact may be able to justify the attention they demand by being interesting and productive. Their product may be tangible, but more often than not lies in the realm of entertainment, service, or simply manifesting positive energy. In this last respect, November 18 people are highly sought after as friends and families members who bring sunshine and laughter into the lives of others. Charming (although admittedly selfish, tempestuous, moody or unpredictable as well), they give life to any event in which they take part. Since November 18 people are so adept at acting a part, they are sometimes accused of superficiality or irresponsibility. Such charges on closer examination generally prove unfair. Yet the November 18 need for attention is so great that they must indeed beware of compromising their ideals when in search of it. Like a ray of warm sunshine, the exuberant, energetic individuals born on November 18 have the ability to enliven any situation with their good cheer, optimism and humor. They are refreshingly upbeat in their approach to everyone and everything, and not surprisingly their company is much sought after. Not only do they enjoy being the center of attention, they are also fiercely ambitious, making them natural candidates for leadership. Those who do not know them well, however, would be surprised to discover that under-neath the happy face they present to the world there can be a lot of uncertainty and conflict. This is because they are unusually sensitive to the feelings of others, sometimes to the extent that they don’t know where their feelings end and another person’s begin. As a result, despite their clear potential and suitability to be winners or innovators in life, they often end up feeling confused, purposeless and directionless. If they can find a way to balance their sensitivity toward others with their ambitious urge to realize their own life goals, their success is assured. If, however, the balance tilts in either direction they can lose a sense of direction; the indecisiveness that results can stunt their psychological growth, blocking their chances of professional and personal success. Until the age of thirty-three there is an emphasis in their lives on issues relating to freedom, adventure and expansion. They may want to study, travel or experiment with their choice of career in these years. After the age of thirty-four there is an important turning point when they are likely to become more responsible, precise and practical in their approach to life, seeking structure and order. Whatever age they are, however, they need to use their sharp and probing mind to investigate their own power and potential. This is because with greater self-awareness and greater belief in their star potential—and a lot of dedication and hard work—these vivacious individuals can achieve almost anything they set their mind to.  People born on November 18 can be fun, sexy, entertaining, responsive, and romantic as long as their partner gives them plenty of attention and affection. But if the reassurance they need isn’t given, they can lapse into attention-seeking behavior and temperamental mood swings. It is important for them to make sure they are with a partner who is as giving and energetic as they are. People born on this day tend to have a rather negative image of themselves, and this can make them prone to stress and depression. Boosting their self-esteem is therefore absolutely crucial to both their physical and emotional health. The place to start is in their heads, and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques may be able to help them reprogram their thoughts from negative to positive. Spending more time with people who are upbeat and optimistic, and avoiding those who are glum and self-involved, will also help, as will a diet rich in fresh, natural produce and low in refined or processed foods. Regular moderate to vigorous exercise is also highly recommended for its mood-boosting and health-boosting effects, as well as for building up discipline and will-power. Carrying a tiger’s eye crystal or placing it next to their bed at night will have a balancing and calming effect, promoting greater confidence and courage. People born on this day may be drawn to careers in science, research or technology where they can be potential innovators, as well as the world of art, music and literature, where they can excel as writers. Once they believe more in themselves, other career options might include business, teaching, lecturing, politics, and the world of entertainment. The life path of people born on this day is to learn to believe in themselves and their creativity more. Once they are able to discover their sense of purpose, their destiny is to achieve or point the way to tangible progress on behalf of themselves and others. People born specifically on the 18th of November are presumed to be rather calm, collected and diligent with the usual charming, interesting Scorpio temperament. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Mars gracing you with an active creative imagination, plenty of determination and a strong intolerance of injustice. If you have this birthday your sharply intuitive nature is willful, energetic and productive with a tendency to thrive on challenges. You like nothing more than to win a debate or argument but you can be quite stubborn and impersonal if you do not get your way or are proved wrong. You are naturally brave, selfless and understanding with the likelihood to not be afraid of anything or anyone. Individuals with a November the eighteenth birthday are shrewd and ambitious yet emotionally a little sensitive with slight insecurities that can cause occasional attention seeking. You are ordinarily incredibly perceptive making you especially adept at picking up unspoken words or repressed feelings. The calmness, diligence and perceptiveness common to a person born on the Eighteenth of November makes them suitable to many different jobs. Your fondness of a challenge and making important decisions is coupled with a dislike of working behind the scenes. An ideal occupation will accommodate all your personal preferences and provide a sense of satisfaction and productiveness. You tend to be careful with money in addition to being highly unlikely to give others control of your finances. Despite this mindful approach you may once in a while make surprisingly bold moves in order to take advantage of a seemingly favorable financial investments. For a Scorpio, the person born on the eighteenth day of November is typically not really in to shallow short relationships and will need a meaningful love partnership. You seem to seek a partner who shares similar interests and views with the capability to cope with your ambitiousness, energy and the intensity and sensitivity of your emotions. In return you are likely to be a caring, compassionate and devoted soul mate that sometimes is a tad overly protective of a loved one. You will usually insist on loyalty and respect but you are not as expecting of perfection from your other half as the majority of your zodiac sign. Full of passion you often prefer to lead in lovemaking but a deeply involved emotion bond has more importance than physical attraction. You have a proneness to become very temperamental, resentful and intensely jealous if insecure and find it almost impossible to forgive unfaithfulness. The energized spirited zest for life you possess can greatly assist the usual good health experienced by those born on November 18th. As you tend to be constantly on the go and adore your food balancing your calorie intake with your high level of activity is often essential to prevent unwanted weight gain. Getting to really know yourself and your limits is usually the best way to preserve overall healthiness. Pacing yourself effectively will help keep fatigue and moodiness to a minimum. People born on this day could discover that excesses of sugar or caffeine may be detrimental to both your normal concentration power and skin condition. Your main strengths of character are exposed in your sociable charm and appealing composure and serenity. These positive fortes along with your enhanced intuition, spirit and vigor act as excellent guides for choosing favorable paths in life. The personality weaknesses for those born on November 18th are usually activated by a feeling of anger following an unexpected event or upset. In these particular negative circumstances and occasions your underlying obstinate unfriendly stance will probably surface on the outside. On the inside your emotional responses can consist of the displaying of either a weepy needy or grumpy tempestuous manner. Being born on the 18th of November means you are exceedingly enterprising with a liking for goal orientated techniques when it comes to achievement. You are willing to endure hardship or make sacrifices on a quest to achieve something really worthwhile. Generally tough and enduring it is rare for you to easily give up on a desired aspiration. Dreams are inclined to focus on your ambitious side and they can bring you lots of inspiration and hope for the future. As you were born on the eighteenth day of the month the one and eight in your birth date adds up to a Root number of Nine. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Seeker' identifying your love of debating and finding the truth plus your natural inclination for fairness and balance. In Tarot the 18th card in the mystic Major Arcana illustrating the Moon is associated with your birthday. This highlights your ample empathy and insight but also your overreactions to negativity. The luckiest gem for November the eighteenth birthdays is imagined to be a Bloodstone, to be worn for the probable further enhancement of your psychic senses. The probabilities of all zodiacal Scorpion personalities are thought to be astrologically shaped by the influential planet Pluto. The actual day you were born on, the eighteenth of November is ruled over by Mars's power. These 2 planet's combined influences are presumed to determine your predicted originality. Your unselfish and attentive perseverance and collectedness grant you the courage and dedication to accomplish much in life. Your considerate judgment and responsive awareness emphasize the softer part of your disposition. If you can aim to be more prepared for disappointing refusals or disapprovals every now and then your mood should to brighter and stabler. A concluding advisory thought for people born on November the 18th is to go with the flow, watch out for opportunities and never doubt your inner feelings.

#17. Asha Bromfield (Birthday: Nov. 9 – The Day Of Earthly Temptation; Personality Period: Scorpio II – Nov. 3 to Nov. 11 – The Week Of Depth; Place Of Birth: Ajax, Ontario, Canada)

Profundity in all forms is an irresistible attraction to Scorpio II’s. Shunning superficiality, they take a measured and serious view of life, both at work and at home. This is not to say that they don’t like to have fun—far to the contrary. In pursuing their hobbies, pastimes and lighter activities, however, they show the same full-bodied intensity and concentration that they do in the more purposeful parts of their lives. Scorpio II’s are highly competitive in their careers and leisure activities, but they seldom allow this impulse into their private lives. Jealousy and envy are naturally close to their passionate core, but they are generally able to understand and control such emotions to prevent them from running riot. In extreme cases, however, these feelings may emerge powerfully in their personality, threatening to engulf it entirely. One area in which the position of Scorpio II is firmly fixed is that of finance. They are well aware of the power of money in daily life, and rarely will they knowingly put themselves at an economic disadvantage. They may even worry unduly about financial matters, and although they are not miserly, they do tend to hold on to what they have. They can get very upset with mates and business partners who are too free with their spending or downright fiscally irresponsible. Yet they must beware of applying a double standard, for they, too, can go overboard, spending money on themselves shamelessly. To allay their own feelings of anxiety, they need to be good earners. Scorpio II can be empathic with the suffering of others, for they know what it is to suffer themselves. They don’t generally seek out painful situations, but they know that a life without hardship and struggle has little meaning. They will feel, say, the death of a parent, friend, child or mate deeply—so deeply, in fact, that it can have an overwhelming or catastrophic effect on them; indeed, they may never recover from it. Scorpio II may not ruminate on the subject of death, and usually try to put it out of their minds, but at a deeper level they are often obsessed with the subject. The need to sleep soundly for long periods yet the failure to remember their dreams can be characteristic of such personalities, who need a lot of time for unconscious expression and often cut off the content of such activities from daily awareness. It can be difficult to get Scorpio II to open up emotionally and to talk about whatever may be bothering them. Even a trusted life partner or dear friend must pass all kinds of roadblocks before getting close to their inner feelings. To listen to what they are finally ready to say requires patience, understanding and nonclaiming love. Any deep bond formed with such an individual obviously cannot be taken lightly; not everyone is ready for such deep and heavy commitment. Scorpio II’s are fascinated by forms of escape. Physical or psychic retreat to a safe haven, and the ability to switch off their mental motor at will, allows them to deal with aspects of daily life that they would rather not face. Television, movies, music and books are healthy habits for them, but addiction, to drugs, alcohol, sex or violence, is always a real possibility, too. When such activity involves others, Scorpio II’s are not necessarily the initiators; they often repress their shadow side. Instead, however, they may summon up possessive or violent behavior in their immediate environment, forcing their mates and lovers to act out their own repressed negativity. This may be directed against these people themselves, who then become their own victims. Scorpio II’s are not the best choice for victimization, for they are counter-punchers by nature and can be fierce in protecting themselves and their loved ones. Few who have experienced their anger will seek to arouse it a second time. It is typical of them, in fact, to be occasionally subject to volcanic outbursts of emotion, which, although rarely seen, are not easily forgotten. Scorpio II’s generally make steadfast friends and faithful lovers and mates. This is only partly a matter of morality; being overly flexible and changeable is really not possible for them, so turning from one partner to another, or adopting new methods and techniques in their work, is generally not an option. Being forced to make such switches by circumstances or fate can bring out their worst side. Both lovers and friends can testify to the softer side of Scorpio II’s. Although their presence is often formidable, they can be unusually kind, giving, and even quite sentimental. They are generally kind to animals and small children, who awaken their protective and nurturing instincts, and they can make excellent parents. Those born during the Week of Depth can also be secretive and controlling. Their sexual needs and demands often also run high, but they can equally well go for long periods of time without wanting intimate contact. Scorpio II’s are, generally speaking, very physical, enjoying the pleasures of table and bed. As long as they remain sensitive to their partners and capable of moderation, such drives and appetites can have a positive effect on their relationships. Indeed, they are often only able to overcome their strong attraction to fixed habitual behaviors by learning to share true affection and love.

Those born on November 9 face a tremendous temptation to give themselves completely to the here and now, to earthly pleasures of all types, and to submerge themselves in an unremitting search for experiential highs. They are often completely caught up in the excitement of what they are doing at the moment, and thus not fully aware of dark forces that may operating behind their drives. For those born on this day to look themselves squarely in the eye is a tremendous and potentially rewarding challenge, as is learning how to direct their prodigious talents and energies in a constructive and productive way. Temptation itself figures as a major theme in the lives of November 9 people and along with it corresponding moral dilemmas involving upbringing vs. adult experience, societal vs. personal morality, etc. Usually the ethical instincts of those born on this day are well developed, so when they sin, they are fully aware of what they are doing. Nevertheless, some born on this day may reach a point where they are only able to find satisfaction, whether mental or physical, when engaged in dangerous, shadowy or outright illicit activities. A very positive theme central to the lives of these complex people is the joy of discovery. Often they emerge from their intense experiences having made important realizations about themselves and life itself. Those November 9 people who grow more philosophical with age are capable of withdrawing into a contemplative or meditative state where they can assess their actions and make prudent choices for the future. Still, even after acquiring a large measure of wisdom, those born on this day rarely pause in the thick of battle to ponder their direction; for them, such work is to be done afterwards, preferably in tranquility. November 9 people live close to the edge, and therefore must learn to protect themselves. In addition it is important for them to maintain respect for their fellow human beings, and to beware of becoming mercenary in their relationships. As they are highly sensitive to rejection, those born on this day also face the danger of retreating into themselves, nursing private grudges and fears, and even in extreme cases coming to live in a dark fantasy world. More highly evolved individuals born on November 9 use their profound relationship with the dark side to gain insight into how life and the universe work, and equally important, learn to share these insights with others. Like Orpheus rising from the underworld, November 9 people must never look back but constantly move onward and upward toward the light. The greatest danger is that they will get stuck (particularly in the physical-material realm), and for this reason should set themselves high moral and ethical, albeit worldly, goals. Many times during their lives people born on November 9 will find themselves in situations that test and challenge their resolve. Temptation and the moral issues it uncovers for them are a constant factor in their lives. The pursuit of physical and material pleasure is a powerful drive for these people. The great majority of the time they do find a balance between satisfying their urges and doing the right thing, but occasionally they can dip into behavior that is morally questionable. This isn’t to say that they are amoral. Quite the opposite; they are honest and well-intentioned individuals. It’s just that sometimes they can get so caught up in the enticement of the moment that they lose a sense of perspective and of right and wrong. Not surprisingly, these people are risk-takers, and this gives them the potential to go all the way to the top. Unfortunately, they aren’t always good at dealing with rejection and, instead of treating it as a learning experience, they are likely to isolate themselves with resentment and self-pity. Learning to become more resilient or to roll with the blows by tapping into their inner strength is therefore essential for their psychological growth.Until the age of forty-two, they are most likely to feel a need to expand their horizons, take risks and seek out new challenges. Developing a more positive attitude will encourage them to seek out opportunities that can enlighten rather than confuse or disorientate them. After the age of forty-three there is a turning point when they are likely to become more industrious and practical, needing a strong sense of order and structure in their lives. Making sure that the spiritual side of their life is not neglected is absolutely crucial during these years, because when they are able to connect with their inner wisdom they will not only be able to resist the temptations that block their chances of good fortune, they will be able to rise above these and achieve remarkable success both professionally and personally. People born on November 9 love deeply and intensely, and, because they are extraordinarily seductive, they rarely lack admirers. Surprisingly, given their energetic and sexual nature, some born on this day may choose to be celibate. In the right mood they can be spontaneous and passionate, but they can also be moody and distant, which may confuse their partner. People born on this day may be prone to allergies of all kinds, in particular hay fever, but they may also find it hard to deal with cigarette smoke and dust. Keeping away from smoky environments and heavy traffic, and making sure their house is regularly cleaned and bed linen is washed at least once a week, will help. As far as diet is concerned, they could suffer from food allergies and intolerances; if this is the case, checking with a nutritionist to determine the cause is advisable. Because their lives tend to be stressful, making sure they eat a balanced diet, get plenty of exercise and a good night’s sleep will all help keep them grounded. Meditation and yoga are also recommended to help them get in touch with their thoughts and feelings. Wearing, meditating on and surrounding themselves with the colors white or silver will encourage them to examine situations carefully, and make the right choices for themselves and for others. The limitless possibilities of art and design have obvious appeal for these people but they may also be drawn toward law, psychology, research, or medicine. They have a natural talent for writing and lecturing, and may also excel in business, commerce, sales, promotion or negotiation, as well as show business and politics. The life path of people born on this day is to learn to look beyond the present moment. Once they have an awareness of the future consequences of their actions, their destiny is to inspire others to uncover the truth about themselves and their lives. People born specifically on the 9th of November are anticipated to be shrewd, purposeful and persuasive with the typical Scorpio creativity and sensitive emotions. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Mars making you naturally honest, a tad idealistic and especially good at uncovering truths. If you have this birthday your imaginative, quite fearless and confident disposition is usually fascinated by mystery and the unknown. You may appear rather dreamy but you are guided by heightened intuition directing you to be very receptive and assertive. Your immense curiosity makes you active and adventurous while your boldness and plentiful stamina allow you to easily overcome obstacles. Individuals with a November the ninth birthday are smart, stylish, determined and persistent but they can also be sometimes a bit bossy and obstinate too. You are ordinarily inclined to be optimistic, prudent and philosophical but you can be a bit guilty of occasional dwelling on the past and moodiness. A variety of jobs are suitable to a person born on the Ninth of November as long as they offer frequent challenges and new experiences. Your strong sense of purpose and assertiveness are useful qualities for employment in any occupation. Work that is varied with changing situations and scenery or involving a lot of time spent outdoors are commonly popular options. It may take a few career moves before you discover your ideal profession as you need to feel that you challenged and valued while working. Financially you are fated to be fairly lucky and usually adept at speedily seizing potential chances to increase your income and savings. For a Scorpio, the person born on the ninth day of November is typically incredibly romantic, intensely loving and in search of a destined true love. Full of energy and passion you make a thoughtful supportive partner who will be fully committed and devoted to a soul mate. When you commit to a long term relationship you do so with your heart and soul. You seem to strongly need to feel loved and wanted and you will expect the same degree of affection, respect and loyalty from your partner. When it comes to emotion and devotion you tend to show this best through your eyes. You possess a kind and caring nature that if emotionally hurt or feeling unloved can react with possessive, jealous and demanding behavior. A lusty lover you will usually be highly sexed with the inclination to be exceedingly intuitive to a partners needs and wishes keeping them happy and satisfied in and out of the bedroom. The general vitality and rarity of illness experienced by those born on November 9th is usually in response to your usual serious approach to health matters. You normally aim to eat a balanced diet however you may be likely to overeat if upset about something or feeling a little blue. You should find exciting sport or unusual hobbies appealing to keep fit. People born on this day could help minimize a proneness to a build up of stress by ensuring they have a calm bedtime routine to enable restful sleep as this is essential in your quest to stay healthy and well. Your main strengths of character are seen in your combination of physical enthusiasm and insistent shrewdness. These positive traits and your perceptive confidence and sense of adventure help you follow your instincts with plenty of motivation to do worthwhile things. Worries or unhappiness are two of the main triggers of the personality weaknesses for those born on November 9th. In these circumstances your negative traits put in an appearance causing an increase in levels of bossiness and stubbornness and a moody troubled expression. Additionally you may act impulsively and sometimes hold grudges by looking back instead of looking forward. Being born on the 9th of November means that you love exploring and learning about anything new and interesting. This inquisitive interest and a fondness of helping others with your skills are often the inspirational theme of many of your goals. It is unlikely for you to fret about failure as your ample ambition and drive is accompanied by your super resourcefulness. Traveling extensively to foreign lands or imagining living in an idyllic and luxurious paradise are common wishful dreams. As you were born on the ninth day of the month your birth date is allocated a corresponding Root number of Nine. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Seeker' reflecting the intensity of your curious side and attraction to unexplained mysteries. The 9th Major Arcana card in Tarot symbolizing the Hermit is associated with your birthday. This reflects your adherence to morals, ability to be organized and proclivity to be undaunted by delays. The luckiest jewel for November the ninth birthdays is a Bloodstone. Wear this gemstone for added courage and good fortune plus a possible increase in the calmness of the mind. All typified Scorpion personalities are thought to have their zodiacal descriptions astrologically influenced by the planet Pluto. The actual day you were born on, the ninth of November is governed by Mars's authority increasing your list of probable characteristic differentia. Your subtle persuasiveness and sensitivity evenly balance the honesty and sincerity in your mannerisms. Your creative imagination and touch of idealism let you see things that others may miss. If you can try and bounce back from all forms of negativity with a smile you could be less grumpy and impetuous. A last thought for people born on November the 9th is to consider taking a step back every now and then. These reflection periods will permit you to observe yourself and heed your inner voice.

#18. Jordan Calloway (Birthday: Oct. 18 – The Day Of Personal Leadership; Personality Period: Libra III – Oct. 11 to Oct. 18 – The Week Of Theater; Place Of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States)

If “all the world’s a stage,” as Shakespeare wrote, then Libra III’s are some of the finest players upon it. Acting out the drama of their own lives in everyday affairs is their specialty. They know the value of image in their professional lives and spend a lot of time working on how they present themselves to the world. Libra III’s detachment, even coolness, may sometimes irritate or infuriate those around them, but it is misleading; if they seem to lack affect, this is usually a result of a studied and rigorous training they put themselves through. These are actually very emotional people. Hardheaded, Libra III’s may stick to the same course for years, whether it is right for them or wrong. Their drive to move ahead at any cost makes them mistrust silence and repose; they prefer doing to thinking. Their mistakes can consequently be big ones, since they may give themselves wholeheartedly and sometimes prematurely to an endeavor without either analyzing and planning it or tuning in to their intuitions about it beforehand. Accidents of all types may well result from this unheeding attitude. Leadership qualities are often highly developed in Libra III’s, who typically find themselves at the head of a social group or business. Once again, however, in leading a family or assuming an executive role they may act with a certain hubris or sense of infallibility, neglecting to gauge the effects of their actions on co-workers, employees or relatives. On top of this, if they are finally forced to face failure they may be confronting something they had hitherto considered an impossibility, and the shock can prove too much for them. Those who can cultivate true humility with respect to their fellow humans will be much happier in the long run. If they have faced great disappointment, Libra III may become cynical. Such world-weary individuals can be revived through love and affection, but these are the very qualities they usually find most difficult to share. Opening their hearts to a trusted friend or family member is essential to their psychological well-being. Perhaps psychological help is the obvious solution, but most are resistant to it. In times of trouble, the loved ones of Libra III’s must often assume a heavy load indeed, knowing that they and they alone are keeping their partners going. Worldliness is perhaps Libra III’s greatest strength; their know how, knowledge and experience give them the confidence they need to enjoy the challenges of their chosen field. Almost invariably specialists or experts of some kind, they are quite capable of dominating their professional field. Libra III’s have a need to be well informed, and if they are ignorant in some area, they characteristically make this a challenge to learn. Although hardheaded, they will give consideration to any idea, no matter how far out, not out of a sense of fairness but because of the chance that it will contribute something to their knowledge. To Libra III’s, knowledge is power. Difficulties arise in their personal relationships when their lovers or mates feel neglected. In truth, Libra III’s are not terribly interested in other people, or in their feelings, and although they suffer exceedingly when misunderstood, they seldom go out of their way to understand others. They are uncomfortable when heavy emotional expectations are put on them, and they either withdraw or flee. They see themselves as serious, responsible and ethical, but they may relate more immediately to other people’s ideas or values, and what these represent, than to who these people actually are. Libra III’s friends or mates may have to play a subordinate role, since these folks usually take center stage. Yet they also have a needy side, and they often do best in relationships with strong, even dominant personalities whom they can lean on. When someone becomes partially or completely dependent on them, on the other hand, they can become uncomfortable and restless, longing to escape. They must feel able to assume and discharge responsibilities generously and of their own accord, rather than being forced to do so. The masculine and the feminine come together strongly in Libra III’s. They can be extremely intense in the bedroom, an area that permits their full range of emotional expression. Once released, however, these passions may well spill over in anger and upset, which they vent on their partner in the form of arguments replete with recrimination and blame. Their anger is violent but for the most part mercifully short-lived, for they are not inclined to bring strife into their daily lives. Probably the best thing that can happen emotionally to Libra III’s is to be or become an active member of a family group that can provide the affection, support and appreciation these hard-driving individualists need. The problem is, many of them are not particularly interested in families—whether spouses, children or their own parents. As a substitute, they may seek to live, work or play with a group of long-standing friends whom they trust and respect. Even so, their workaholic tendencies will often prevent them from spending a great deal of time with whatever group or individual they choose to live with, and may in fact reflect their true preference—to live alone.

Those born on October 18 are often destined to play important, active roles in life’s great drama. Not only cut out to be players, however, they may also function as powerful directors of what goes on around them, be it the concerns of their family, business or social circle. October 18 people are not shy about pushing their way to the top, but though their desire to be king or queen of the hill is great, they can keep a low profile if necessary. Yet, October 18 people are hardly typical leaders, for they have many other interests in life. If they are the head of a company, for example, they may steal away when they can to devote themselves to an endeavor for which they have still greater passion. Many born on this day who are selected for management positions look forward to the day when they can return to their former primary interest. When they leave, they are likely to be missed for their integrity and unimpeachable honor and honesty. Less powerful individuals born on this day can also find themselves candidates for fame or fortune due to talent, connections or sheer luck, but are not at all comfortable in an exalted position. They can suffer anything from a feeling of being overwhelmed to a complete nervous breakdown as they try to cope with the heavy responsibilities placed on them. Finally they must either reconcile themselves to a lesser role or risk falling victims to stress. October 18 people like to be where the action is, preferably right at the center of things. But even flashier types born on this day carry an introspective air about them. Although they can function in leadership roles, they should not push themselves too hard or far; their primary interest is their own work and private interests, and they will only be able to leave them for so long without becoming unhappy. Those born on this day love to have fun with others, yet because they are not highly social may at times find it difficult to fit in. October 18 people like to be included in the plans of their family or social group and can get pretty upset if they are left out; but because they despise self-pity in themselves and others, they are not the first to bare their emotional hurts. Typically, they would rather return to their work and individual pursuits than mope around like a lost Cinderella. Though such self-sufficiency is admirable, they have to be careful not to misread the intentions of others and cut off communication when in fact things could be straightened out. By keeping a dialogue open, October 18 people can also avoid appearing to be know-it-alls or aloof, smug types. They should always maintain both their dignity and humility, and never allow themselves a superior or overconfident attitude. People born on October 18 often have a regal, dignified air about them; from their early years expectations will have been high for them to achieve great success. As the years go by, more often than not they do fulfill those expectations by rising to the top; but although they long to make their mark on the world, another part of them longs to run away and hide. With all the imagination, intellect and talent to blaze exciting trails in life, their need for the approval of others can crush their self-esteem and stop them developing to their full potential. Perhaps in childhood they were criticized or neglected too much; lasting feelings of inadequacy and insecurity continue to haunt them, however successful they are. It is therefore vital for their psychological growth that they work on rebuilding their vulnerable self-esteem. If they don’t, they will be like reeds blown in the wind, flying high when others applaud them but falling down when the praise or support isn’t there. From the age of five until the age of thirty-five there is a growing emphasis for people born on this day on emotional change, power and transformation, and opportunities will be presented to them to take control of their lives. They must take advantage of these by becoming more proactive and saying “no” to others who seek to take advantage of them. Once they get a handle on their insecurities and realize their own worth, there is nothing they cannot achieve. When they approach their forties and beyond, there is another turning point when life will call upon them to be more adventurous, and it is more important than ever for them to leave self-doubt aside.This is because once they see what everybody else sees and realize what creative, courageous and inspirational individuals they really are, they have the potential not just to promote the happiness of themselves and others but to be an inspirational force for the common good. There is a danger for people born on October 18 of giving more than they receive in relationships, and it is important for them to have the courage to stand up for themselves and to walk away from relationships that are damaging to their self-worth. Although charming and friendly they, may be reserved when it comes to attracting partners. But once they do find someone who can love and support them and make them feel good about themselves, they can be affectionate, loyal and expressive lovers. Lots of physical activity is essential for people born on this day, not just because they have a lot of energy but also because it will help boost their selfesteem. All forms of exercise are recommended, in particular swimming and dancing. A regular stretching routine is also advised, especially if they are prone to aches and pains. As far as diet is concerned, portion control is advised as they tend to have a larger-than-life appetite, possibly setting themselves up for weight and health problems. It is important for them to avoid too much stress and not to overburden themselves with responsibilities and commitments to others; “no” is a word they need to practice saying more often. Meditation and visualization techniques will help build their self-confidence. Carrying a tiger’s eye crystal will also help boost their confidence, as will wearing the color orange. These people will often be drawn to creative means of expression such as art, writing, acting, and music, but they may also put their imaginative talents to good use in education, sales, promotion, advertising, and social reform. A gift for communication and language may draw them to careers in translation or work in foreign countries. The life path of people born on this day is to believe more in themselves, their creativity and their inner strength. Once they understand the importance of building their self-esteem, their destiny is to further their quest for knowledge, and inspire and benefit others with their discoveries. People born specifically on the 18th of October are imagined to be very inquisitive, persuasive and alert but more energetic than most Librans. The ruling astrological planet for this particular day is Mars making you naturally purposeful, diplomatic, charming and quite fearless. If you have this birthday your visionary temperament is tactful and cooperative and you will usually be a great listener. Your kindhearted unselfish nature is resolute and fairminded yet prone to be a tad opinionated at times too. Fairly confident and ambitious you prefer to feel in control of your life and really enjoy having fun. Honest and self sufficient you seem to gain much satisfaction from solving problems and are ordinarily good at seeing both sides to an argument. Individuals with an October the eighteenth birthday may strongly crave the approval of others but their optimism, determination, focus and eloquence makes them destined to go far. Your creative side is likely to appreciate fine food, wine, artwork and fashion. The strong ambition attributed to a person born on the Eighteenth of October often gives you a preference to work in a prominent important position. Analytical and intelligent you are quick to learn and usually prepared to study or train for favored jobs. Although you appear to dislike working in the background your sense of purpose and clever charm and tact guide you to be a wonderful co-worker. It is unusual for you to encounter financial issues as you tend to keep a careful eye on budgeting and take it seriously without being mean. Plenty of patience lets you normally save instead of borrowing for expensive or special items. For a Libra, the person born on the eighteenth day of October is typically someone who feels completely comfortable in a long term one to one relationship. You possess a mature serious attitude to love and romance and will make every effort to keep a soul mate happy but you can be sometimes overly protective. Incredibly loving and passionate you will shower a partner with affection and make them feel good about themselves. Your touch of romantic idealism directs you to be caring and giving and encourages you to try and avoid disagreement or confrontation. Home life is a high priority despite your ambitiousness and your artistic flair comes in handy for expressing your unique style and imprinting it on your surrounding living space. Seductive but also shy about your lusty sexual needs you are always keen to please in the bedroom and will usually favor privacy for playful intimacy. Lots of motivation to look and feel good can help sustain the usual healthiness experienced by those born on October 18th. You are likely to be sporty and competitive so fond of healthy exercise and eating a sensible healthy diet. With regular sleep patterns this motivated health care stance also helps you acquire the emotional stability you require. Learning to say No more often should benefit overall well being as you have the tendency to quickly become stressed by too many responsibilities. People born on this day can soon be addicted to caffeine, nicotine or alcohol therefore these type of stimulants should ideally be minimized. Your main strengths of character are displayed in your intense curiosity and persuasiveness guiding you to be inspirational, imaginative and forthright. These positive traits are backed up by your accompanying fortes of diplomacy and honesty giving you a fair balanced perspective to base decisions on. The personality weaknesses for those born on October 18th seem to come to the surface more frequently if you allow yourself to overload your body or mind. In these particular circumstances you become overstressed and may act uncharacteristically bothered, aloof and outspoken. Relaxation is the key to minimizing this negativity. Being born on the 18th of October gives you ample energy and a lack of fear that means there is not much you cannot accomplish. Organized and precise regarding detail you will be especially focused and determined when it comes to attaining your greatest wishes. Your self sufficiency may make it hard to willingly accept assistance of any kind in the pursuit of a specific personal goal. Dreams are inclined to reflect and boost your expectation of favorable outcomes. Dreaming of future successes in anything you attempt keeps you keenly motivated, extra observant for opportunities to shine and positively hopeful. As you were born on the eighteenth day of the month the one and eight in your birth date summate to a Root number of Nine. This numerical reference to your birthday has the keyword 'Seeker' highlighting the intensity of your desire to know and understand everything you experience. The 18th Tarot card in the Major Arcana symbolizing the Moon is associated with your birthday. This mystic connection urges you to be a bit more trusting of your instinctive intuition as it is an excellent guide. The lucky gemstone for October the eighteenth birthdays is a Bloodstone, to be worn for a potential increase in courage, happiness and vitality. The influential planet Venus is thought to be astrologically accountable for the probabilities of Libra personalities. The actual day you were born on, the eighteenth of October is ruled over by Mars's authority. Your talented creativity, sense of cooperation and ability to problem solve make you a useful person to know. Your controlled strong will and penchant for total honesty keep you on the right track for making steady progress. If you can conquer stress build up by relaxing regularly you should be able to maintain your usual equipoise and impartiality. A finalizing thought for people born on October the 18th advises you to not be so hard on yourself, know your limits as exceeding them could be highly detrimental.