The name popped up, a few years back, and I had already decamped tony Austin for the sunnier, calmer climes of San Antonio. In the years in between, old 6th Street earned a new name as Dirty 6th. SXSW was also a minor regional event to showcase new, possibly burgeoning talent that had yet to be “discovered,” not the industry standard, month-long convention1 it became.
I got carded at Emo’s (downtown), and 6th Street was a few blocks of bars that catered to collegiate-types. It was far enough distant — decades — that struggling artists could easily afford to live in Austin. The old Black Cat lounge had Stevie Ray Vaughn’s signature amid the sorted and sordid details. The old, creative cauldron that made Austin — and me — what it is today. Emo’s was a punk club, at the time, and that’s also where Johnny Cash played one year, early SXSW, if memory serves. It might not (serve).
Austin is home to humorous and frequently malignant Texas State Government, with our current — can’t make political jokes without someone getting upset. Like the great Will Rodgers observed, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”2
The recent outbreak of violence, points to deeper, more ingrained issues, and this isn’t about guns, the hot-button “Second Amendment,” or anything like that. My goal was to look at the astrology and see what it suggests.
Like I do each week in horoscopes.
During the window for the recent spate of seemingly unconnected violence?
- Sun in Gemini
- Mercury Retrograde in Gemini
- Venus/Moon (briefly conjunct) Cancer
- Mars at 0° Leo
- Jupiter 2° Pisces, essentially stationary
- Uranus 13° Taurus tightly square Saturn 13° Aquarius
- Pluto 26° Capricorn
The dates go so far back, the memory, it was an Aquarius, Sagittarius, and Scorpio, and the Scorpio was walking around my old East Austin apartment, in her underwear, dragging a knock-off princess phone as she chatted away on the line. The rest of the data is sparse and subject to editorial largesse.
Dirty 6th
That singular Scorpio image is important, as I didn’t act on animal instincts then, and I’m a better person for it. Alive, anyway, and after the recent outbreak of violence, that’s saying something.
While hardly the first time, after all, I was in a tiny East Austin apartment with three younger women. Two of them were “fixed” signs, and therein is the current source of ire. “Fixed,” and especially anyone’s chart with material between 10° and 15° of “fixed” (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) is feeling the unsettled energy. It’s a final point. It’s a pressure point. It’s an itch no one can scratch.
It’s financial. It’s emotional. It’s emo.
That itch that no one can scratch? It can also be a pain, emotional distress, or just self-inflicted stress, compounded by the planets.
Flashing way back to old times, near-lost memories? Then not taking action, at that time, or any time? That’s the clue.
A teacher, at some point along the way, explained that the real test of a person’s humanity has nothing to do with how we behave when the going is good. A real test of a person’s humanity, a soul’s character, the moral compass that guides each individual? When the going is tough: how we choose to act and react when the odds are stacked against us. That’s a measure of humanity and to some, a degree of maturity.
Dirty 6th
The recent spate of violence, and what I’m most familiar with, that stretch now known as Dirty 6th, and its recent shoot-out? Part of that is a reaction to the current astrological conditions, and in part?
Begs a reference to a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliette. It’s called the The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliette, which should be a hint that it doesn’t end well.
Short clip that explains this? Sassy Gay Boyfriend3.
Explains much of the current conditions and over-reaction, but then, where’s the joy in that heartbreak?
It’s a tragedy; it’s senseless suffering. Like that play.
- “Charlie Foxtrot” ↩
- “Can’t afford to fix the AC, granny dies from heatstroke, but we got billions for a wall.” ↩
- Usual disclaimers apply. ↩