Tarot Card for May 8: The Lord of Luxury
| The Four of Cups The Lord of Luxury, as I said in my first analysis of it, is a card with a sting in the tail. Whilst it indicates a great deal of loving affection surrounding us, it also warns that we stand the very real possibility of committing a great sin – that of taking love for granted.One thing you might have noticed in life is the strange way in which we value the love of people we feel deeply affectionate toward more highly than the love of people we are less attracted to. From my perspective this is an odd, and rather unkind attitude to have.It’s natural to want those we love to return our feelings, of course. But just because we do not feel strongly about a person, we may not imagine that the love they offer us is less valuable. If we are careless of their feelings, we will hurt them just as thoroughly as if we were careless of the feelings of our beloved – or they of ours. And there is no justification for such behaviour.Love is a mighty and precious emotion. It both creates and destroys with ease. That some-one loves us is a priceless gift from the Universe. Whether we necessarily reciprocate in quite the same way is totally irrelevant. This person’s love exists in isolation of our judgement of its importance.So on a day ruled by the Lord of Luxury, count the loving feelings that people hold for you. Treasure each and every one of these as the inestimable compliment and treasure it is. Do not stand in judgement. Rather, take a harder look at the people who offer you love, where you may not have sought it. And adjust your view of that love until you respect its worth, even though you may not return it.Do not fall into the trap of doing things because somebody loves you… simply hold their feelings in the high regard they deserve. And be very grateful and glad to be loved… There are a great many people out there who never experience the warmth of being held dear and special. And that is a very lonely experience.And if, for the time, you feel as though you are one of those people who is not loved and held dear, then use this day to seek out at least one place where there is an abundance of love, and go to it… everybody deserves to feel that they are not completely alone. Affirmation: “I see love around me and celebrate its presence.” |
(Angelpaths.com)
Free Will Astrology: Week of May 8, 2025
BY ROB BREZSNY | MAY 6, 2025
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Just for now, you might benefit from moderating your intensity. I am pleased to see how much good stuff you have generated lately, but it may be time to scale back a bit. At least consider the possibility of pursuing modest, sustainable production rather than daring to indulge in spectacular bursts of energy. In conclusion, dear Aries, the coming days will be a favorable time for finding the sweet spot between driving ambition and practical self-care. Your natural radiance won’t have to burn at maximum brightness to be effective.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Classical ballet dancers often seek to convey the illusion of weightlessness through highly stylized movements. Innovative Taurus choreographer Martha Graham had a different aim, emphasizing groundedness. Emotional depth and rooted physicality were crucial to her art of movement. “The body never lies” is a motto attributed to her, along with “Don’t be nice, be real.” I recommend you make those themes your guides for now, Taurus. Ask your body to reveal truths unavailable to your rational mind. Value raw honesty and unembellished authenticity over mere decorum.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) was a trailblazer. She was the first American woman war photojournalist, the first professional photographer permitted into the Soviet Union, and among the first to photograph a Nazi concentration camp. She was consistently at the right place at the right time to record key historical moments. She’s your role model in the coming months. You, too, will have a knack for being in the right place and time to experience weighty turning points. Be vigilant for such opportunities. Be alert and ready to gracefully pounce.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Each negative word in a news headline increases click-through rates,” writes Joan Westenberg. “Negative political posts on social media get twice the engagement. The system rewards pessimism.” She wants to be clear: “Doomsayers aren’t necessarily wrong. Many concerns are valid. But they’ve built an attention economy that profits from perpetual panic. It’s a challenge to distinguish between actionable information and algorithmic amplification, genuine concern and manufactured outrage.” Westenberg’s excellent points are true for all of us. But it’s especially important that you Cancerians take measures to protect yourself now. For the sake of your mental and physical health, you need extra high doses of optimism, hope and compassion. Seek out tales of triumph, liberation, pleasure and ingenuity far more than tales of affliction, mayhem and corruption.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Bees are smart. The robust and lightweight honeycombs they create for their homes are designed with high efficiency, maximizing storage space while using the least amount of resources. Let’s make the bees’ genius your inspirational role model for the coming weeks, Leo. It will be a favorable time to optimize your own routines and systems. Where can you reduce unnecessary effort and create more efficiency? Whether it’s refining your schedule, streamlining a project, or organizing your workspace, small adjustments will yield pleasing rewards.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1971, Virgo poet Kay Ryan began teaching English at a small community college. Though she wrote steadily, working hard to improve her craft and publish books, she never promoted herself. For years, she was virtually unknown. Finally, in 2008, she flamed into prominence. In quick succession, she served as the U.S. Poet Laureate, won a Pulitzer Prize, and received a $500,000 “genius grant” as a MacArthur Fellow. Why am I telling you about her long toil before getting her rightful honors? Because I believe that if you are ever going to receive the acclaim, recognition, appreciation and full respect you deserve, it will happen in the coming months.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Diane Ackerman combines an elegant poetic sensibility and a deft skill at scientific observation. She is lyrical and precise, imaginative and logical, inventive and factual. I would love for you to be inspired by her example in the coming weeks. Your greatest success and pleasure will arise as you blend creativity with pragmatism. You will make good decisions as you focus on both the big picture and the intimate details. PS: If you immerse yourself in the natural world and seek out sensory-rich experiences, I bet you will inspire a smart solution to an achy dilemma.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio-born Sabina Spielrein (1885–1942) was one of the earliest woman psychoanalysts. In the twenty-first century, she is increasingly recognized as a great thinker who got marginalized because of her feminist approach to psychology. Several of her big contributions were Scorpionic to the core: She observed how breakdown can lead to breakthrough, how most transformations require the death of an old form, and how dissolution often serves creation. These will be useful themes for you to ruminate about in the coming weeks. For best results, be your deep, true, Scorpio self.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In the middle of his art career, Sagittarian painter Paul Klee (1879–1940) was drafted into the German army as a soldier in World War I. Rather than fighting on the front lines, he managed to get a job painting camouflage on military airplanes. This enabled him to conduct artistic explorations and experiments. The metal hulls became his canvases. I am predicting a comparable opportunity disguised as an obstacle for you, Sagittarius. Just as the apparent constraint on Klee actually advanced his artistic development, you will discover luck in unexpected places.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else,” wrote poet Emily Dickinson. I often feel that truth. As much as I would love to devote over seventy hours a week to creative writing and making music, I am continually diverted by the endless surprises of the daily rhythm. One of these weeks, maybe I’ll be brave enough to simply give myself unconditionally to ordinary life’s startling flow and forget about trying to accomplish anything great. If you have ever felt a similar pull, Capricorn, the coming days will be prime time to indulge. There will be no karmic cost incurred.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): David Bowie was a brilliant musical composer and performer. His artistry extended to how he crafted his persona. He was constantly revising and reshaping his identity, his appearance, and his style. The Ziggy Stardust character he portrayed on stage, for example, had little in common with his later phase as the Thin White Duke. “I’ve always collected personalities,” he quipped. If you have ever felt an inclination to experiment with your image and identity, Aquarius, the coming weeks will be an excellent time. Shape-shifting could be fun and productive. Transforming your outer style may generate interesting inner growth. What would be interesting ways to play with your self-expression?
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Voynich manuscript is a famous text written in an unfamiliar script filled with bizarre illustrations. Carbon-dated to the early fifteenth century, it has resisted all attempts at deciphering its content. Even Artificial Intelligence has not penetrated its meaning. I propose we make this enigmatic document an iconic metaphor for your life in the coming weeks. It will symbolize the power you can generate by celebrating and honoring mystery. It will affirm the fact that you don’t necessarily require logical explanations, but can instead appreciate the beauty of the unknown. Your natural comfort with ambiguity will be a potent asset, enabling you to work effectively with situations others find too uncertain.
Homework: What’s your worst excuse for not being completely devoted to your dreams? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
Fashion for men
The mental health AI chatbot made for real life
Alison Darcy | TED2025
• April 2025
Who do you turn to when panic strikes in the middle of the night — and can AI help? Psychologist Alison Darcy shares the vision behind Woebot, a mental health chatbot designed to support people in tough moments, especially when no one else is around. In conversation with author and podcaster Kelly Corrigan, Darcy explores what we should expect and demand from ethically designed, psychological AIs.
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Relaxing Tea Better Fucking Work
Published: September 15, 2016 (TheOnion.com)
SMYRNA, DE—Saying he needed to be transported to a tranquil, untroubled state of calmness pronto, local man Pete McCartin, 29, told reporters Thursday that a fresh-brewed mug of purportedly relaxation-promoting tea had better fucking work. “This shit better soothe the fuck out of me and quick,” said McCartin, adding that the box of Hungarian chamomile blossom and lemon myrtle tea was making some pretty lofty promises with its soft light-blue hues and lotus flowers plastered all over the place, so it sure as shit needed to step the fuck up and put his mind at ease. “I need to start feeling utterly blissful and placid as hell. I want all my cares melted away fucking yesterday. If I’m not fully at peace by the time I finish sipping this cup, I’m going to be so goddamn pissed.” At press time, a scowling McCartin was steeping a second teabag in his mug in an effort to get the feelings of serenity and quietude to hurry the fuck up.
Hermann Hesse on breathing thoughts of unity
Tarot Card for May 7: Lord of Strife
| The Five of Wands A day ruled by the Lord of Strife is bound to have its inherent problems. This card brings restriction, limitation, frustration and annoyance with it. Often these problems will be experienced in the workplace, and they sometimes indicate that we feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks that we need to get through.Expect this day to be one in which even minor things create their own difficulties and obstacles. First and foremost, we all need to take our senses of humour to work with us!! It’s probably also useful to regard a Five of Wands day as a ‘bad attitude’ day. That could as easily be our own as anyone else’s, as well!So, having wrapped yourself up in your sense of humour, study the workload in front of you, and leave all the things you know will drive you mad till the atmosphere is better. Try to pick out tasks that you will enjoy. That way if they frustrate you, at least you’ll enjoy the bits before and afterwards!Assess your own attitude carefully and try to dispel any nagging negativity. Isolate anything that looks like it is an inner conflict brewing, and write it down to address soon (they all tend to come to the surface on this day).Also assess the mood of those people you come into contact with, and avoid any who seem to be having the same sort of bad attitude day as you!! That should minimise the conflict you meet.Finally, at the end of the day try hard to shed anything that you have picked up along the way. Use whatever method you find most effective to de-stress, in the hope that you’ll have a better day tomorrow!! By the way, the affirmation is designed to be hard to say – hopefully it’ll make you laugh!! Affirmation: “I meet conflict and obstacles with equanimity.” |
(Angelpaths.com)
Moon Wobble peaks June 13
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| Moon Wobble Peaks June 13, 2025 Click here to see the Moon Wobble Chart If this is useful to you please consider a contribution below: Contribute! *** General suggestions / observations *** • This cycle is based on empirical data meaning enough data was observed and recorded to make it possible to suggest attitudes and reactions. Keep in mind that we all have free will and thus results will vary from one individual to another. • The graph shows the energy high at the beginning of the cycle (not unlike any other astrological aspect) followed by a slow down before it gets strong and again this reflects years of tracking and noting feedback from our many students. • If you are making a decision during this time you might want to let it set for a day or two then check your decision again to see if it still makes sense. However, you can feel into the ebb and flow and find good times to work on self emotionally in both the low and high points. Impatience, emotion and acts without thinking are common. • With practice you can feel when the energy is there to help bring completion to tasks, goals and projects you may be working on. Aloha, The Prosperos |
Story: The Missing Watch
| The Missing Watch |
 There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while, he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded. Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance. The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough.” So the farmer sent the little boy back to the barn. After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed. The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.” Author Unknown AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY |