Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/24/24

Light stuff for Gemini season, plus deep dives into girlbosses and gallbladders

The Sun’s ingress into Gemini earlier this week was definitely felt in the blogosphere! Hot on Substack has a lot of new writers this time, as well as a few writers who have appeared in previous editions of Weekend Entertainment Guide.

The Pitfalls of Gemini Energy

Gemini rules both birds and communication technology. What could possibly go wrong?

NORWAC This Weekend

I am attending the Northwest Astrological Conference (NORWAC) online this weekend. In-person registration is sold out, but virtual registration is still open. I haven’t decided how/if I will blog about my NORWAC experience, but feel free to let me know if you’re attending!

Hot on Substack

Kim Lindgren

, Introducing Skylogs

Lindgren is starting an astrology platform called Skylogs that will catalog users’ experiences of particular transits, such as “the latest Full Moon in Scorpio, your first Saturn Return, or your natal Saturn-Neptune square.” Sign-up for the beta test is now open.

Janet Boyer

, What's Inside The Tower Tarot Card?

Boyer draws connections between The Tower and the Ace of Cups.

Sam Manzella

of

Venus Gays

via

Astrologers' Co-Op

, Gemini I: You Can’t Do It All

Manzella, who has the Sun in the first decan of Gemini, notes that this decan is ruled by Mercury (Triplicity) and Jupiter (Chaldean), fueling “intellectual insatiability.”

Alison Dale

, Your Weekly Forecast for May 20-27: Gemini Season, The Full Moon in Sagittarius, and the Power of Now

Dale has a good catch on “Blowin’ in the Wind” being an apt song title given Bob Dylan’s natal Sun, Mercury, and Venus in Gemini.

Lilith Rebellion

, How I met Jupiter in a strip mall + an invitation to spread honey on your tongue

This post provides relatable examples of how a generally positive transit like a Sun-Jupiter conjunction could be obscured or complicated by other factors.

Christina Waggaman

, A short note about spring

Waggaman gives an overview of how the season of spring is seen in Chinese Five Element theory, the system underlying acupuncture. Wood is the element associated with spring. Each element gets two organs (and their associated meridians), and those for Wood are the liver and the gallbladder.

Wood element stuff has been a major focus of my own acupuncture treatment over the past 14 years. Associated life circumstances often included situations where I wasn’t able to fully chart my own course due to stifling external forces — Wood wants to grow and expand freely, but sometimes I couldn’t.

I’ve done a lot of Googling about this on my own, and I came across a study on fish by Ryan Earley, et al., finding that social status affected gallbladder function. Dominant fish had clear, healthy-looking gallbladders, while subordinate fish had gallbladders visibly encrusted with gross, dark green gunk. I wonder if anything like this is true of humans, because my circumstances definitely involved being in a submissive role relative to other humans.

Frederick Woodruff

, Women And Astrology: But Where Are the Guys?

Woodruff comments on the gender dynamics of the astrology world. In his experience, women and gay men are disproportionately represented. I don’t disagree.

Woodruff goes on to say:

I’ve learned a lot about being a good writer by discussing things with men. Any topic will do. Men tend to be more direct and succinct with their thoughts and opinions. And you need that sort of brevity when you’re a writer (should you hope to have readers).

I myself was shaped as a writer during my twenties by participating in a long-running email discussion with my father, his brothers, and their father. One female cousin close to my age was sometimes involved too, but perhaps not to the extent I was. Although the constant fighting about politics and religion caused me serious emotional angst at times, I also relate to what Woodruff is saying about learning to get to one’s point quickly in such an environment.

I’m grateful for the writing skills I honed arguing with my male relatives, but I feel more comfortable overall in the heavily female astrology world. I also think astrology brings out the best in women.

Some writers of non-astrological Substacks, including

Nathalie Martinek PhD

and

Anuradha Pandey

, regularly comment on the excesses of “girlboss” culture, where women, finally unshackled from the unjust chains of prejudice, now seem to be accountable to nothing and no one. Seriously practicing astrology, however, requires the foundational acceptance that the Sun does not rise and set on you. The girlboss types may get far enough into astrology to declare that their Sun sign explains whatever flavor of unbearable they are, but they tend to wash out before they get to the higher levels, leaving peaceful waters for the more submissive fish.