Barstool Astrology by Reda Wigle

Barstool Astrology

August 2020

Between Fire and Fortitude

Welcome back to Leo season star children. In the Tarot, Leo corresponds to the card of Strength, the iconography of which reflects the complex nature of the sign. A fierce lion is depicted under the serene presence of a woman in white, a marriage of physical ferocity and gentle power.

The lion represents passion, the ego and the search for human connection. The cat also expresses the shadow side of Leo energy that can manifest when needs go unmet, deeds unnoticed and selves unknown. In contrast and compliment, the woman in white symbolizes the self-love required to cure, or tame, these destructive impulses.

The Strength card and Leo season in total show us the balance that must exist between fire and fortitude, as the lion and woman are not separate entities but different expressions of the same spirit, ever seeking resolution.

Fittingly, Venus the planet of love and relationships enters Cancer this week. In this position Venus is at its most unabashedly tender, and while I encourage sweetness and caretaking in all incarnations, I ask that you not neglect the primary relationship of your life, the one you cultivate with yourself.

For me, the sanctity of this union conjures the words of poet Derek Walcott who wrote the following lines post heartbreak, to himself, but perhaps with all of us in mind:

“You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life.”

by Reda Wigle

Leo:
July 23 - August 22

Uranus, planet of individuation, goes retrograde this month, inspiriting you to liberate yourself from whatever or whomever is preventing you from existing as your highest self. To encourage your freedom, heed the words of your fellow lion, James Baldwin, “You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.” For the sake of your own vitality, strike up the blood band and march on.

Notable Leo: Cees Nooteboom / July 31, 1933

Virgo:
August 23 - September 22

A Virgo recently told me a parable about a shaman who held counsel with two hunters. The shaman told the first hunter that if he climbed the nearest mountain, he would find a single elk. He told the next hunter that he would find a dozen in the same location. Why did he give the two men different predictions? The first would never have believed he was capable of so much good fortune. The lesson: your ability to have directly corresponds with your ability to believe you can have.

Notable Virgo: Rita Dove / August 28, 1952

Libra:
September 23 - October 22

Fellow Libra, writer and illustrator Shel Siverstein credited his creativity to a lack of success with girls and baseball in his early years. How much better and brighter the world is because of that absence of literal and metaphorical game! I wonder Libra, if you accept your failings as a way to narrow your focus, what gifts will be born from what you lack?

Notable Libra: Víctor Jara / September 28, 1932

Scorpio:
October 23 - November 21

I recently met a Scorpio who sleeps beneath a copper replica of the Great Pyramid. According to him, the triangulation provides a conduit that allows him to remember dreams and tap into energy sources. It doesn’t matter if anyone else accepts the supposed power of this pyramid — the magic and the benefit come from his faith in it. You could do well to follow suit scorpion. Whatever totem or canopy you choose will similarly reflect the power you already possess.

Notable Scorpio: Albert Camus / November 7, 1913

Sagittarius:
November 22 - December 21

A fellow Sagittarius and old flame of mine once wrote me a love letter in his own blood. Mentally unsound? Probably. Does it rank among the most memorable gestures of my life? Definitely. I send this story your way archer, to illustrate that bold actions lend themselves to a kind of immortality. Whatever you do, do it in a way that is unmistakably your own, and remember that in the bank of memory, a little blood goes a long way.

Notable Sagittarius: Gordon Parks / November 30, 1912

Capricorn:
December 22 - January 19

Leo season illuminates your eighth house of transformation and as you intimately understand, there can’t be change without challenge. As Victoria Erickson writes, “Transformation isn’t sweet and bright. It’s a dark and murky, painful pushing. An unraveling of the untruths you’ve carried in your body. A complete uprooting, before becoming.” The becoming may be arduous labor but what comes next will be sweeter, better and brighter than you can imagine.

Notable Capricorn: Recy Taylor / December 31, 1919

Aquarius:
January 20 - February 18

Indie filmmaker and fellow Aquarius Jim Jarmusch attended NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts where his advisors deemed his final project a failure and thus refused to award him a degree. Undeterred, Jarmusch later released that same project as Permanent Vacation, his award winning first feature film. The lesson? Don’t listen to your lessers and take heart in the knowledge that going your own way pays off in the long run.

Notable Aquarius: Babe Ruth / February 6, 1895

Pisces:
February 19 - March 20

A favorite Pisces of mine recently confessed that the onslaught of emotions she has been experiencing lately have left her feeling like a turtle on its back. Her four-point plan for getting right side up? Breathe, don’t panic, ask for help and recognize that need is not a weakness. I underline and bold that last bit for you, fellow fish. Not only is need not a weakness, it is evidence of our humanity and the invitation we give others to express their own.

Notable Pisces: Kurt Cobain/ February 20, 1967

Aries:
March 21 - April 19

Irish Satirist Jonathan Swift wrote, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” For too long you’ve struggled to make others see what is so clearly apparent to you. Luckily for you, rams, Mercury, planet of communication is moving through your fifth house, meaning whatever you’re transmogrifying from vison into being will finally, fully, be seen for the shining achievement that it is.

Notable Aries: Selena / April 16, 1971

Taurus:
April 20 - May 20

No one doubts your work ethic, Taurus. Yet, if you treat everything you do in your waking life as a privilege of being alive rather than an obligation of being an adult, you’re likely to cull any sense of drudgery. Raise your horns to the occasion and take heed the words of Naomi Williams, "It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment."

Notable Taurus: Harvey Keitel / May 13, 1939

Gemini
May 21 - June 20

Geronimo, famed Apache warrior and fellow Gemini, once heard a voice in the wilderness that assured him that no gun would ever kill him. He survived countless attempts on his life and though he died a prisoner of war, his death came from pneumonia, not gunfire. I offer this to you as evidence that what you accept as truth manifests as reality. Arm yourself accordingly.

Notable Gemini: Breona Taylor / June 5, 1993

Cancer:
June 21 - July 22

Fellow Cancer and Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader said in an interview that he created the character of vigilante cabbie Travis Bickel to save himself from becoming that character. I trust this choice will resonate with you moonchildren. What demons of yours are asking not for exorcism, but for creative expression?

Notable Cancer: Jake LaMotta / July 10, 1922

FQJ's managing editor, Reda Wigle, is a writer, editor and journalist who divides her time between the salt and grit of Key West and New Orleans. Her work has been published in travel anthologies and online platforms. Her profiles and astrology column, Barstool Astrology, appear regularly in the Key West Weekly and The French Quarter Journal. She holds an MA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado and an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of New Orleans. She is the winner of the 2020 Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers’ first place Non-Fiction award. In 2020 she was awarded the Fredrick Barton Service Award for her work as associate editor of Bayou Magazine, a literary journal curated and published in New Orleans, La.

Check out more current stories on FQJ's Home page or explore Archives.