Sign Language

No, I'm not talking about ASL.

You may have heard the old joke in which the straight man asks the comic, "What sign were you born under?", to which the comic responds, "Maternity!"

Yes, it's a groaner, but it provides a nice intro to today's discussion of astrological signs...

Agnes is taking an online course in digital scrapbooking and journaling, and her latest homework assignment is to create a two-page spread that describes her, using her astrological sign as a starting point. She's a Taurus, and in looking for information describing Tauruses (Tauri?), found this list of traditional positive Taurus traits:

Patient and reliable
Warmhearted and loving
Persistent and determined
Placid and security loving

Along with this list of "dark side" Taurus traits:

Jealous and possessive
Resentful and inflexible
Self-indulgent and greedy

Naturally, she had to ask me which of these traits applied to her. Unable to take the fifth, I agreed with all the positive traits (which are, in fact, mostly accurate) and disagreed with all the negative ones (which are only accurate to the extent that they apply to any of us).

Now, I don't put much stock in the usefulness or accuracy of astrology, but I figured I could get a good blog post out of what it says about me - a Scorpio. Here's the list of positive Scorpio (Scorpian?) traits:

Determined and forceful
Emotional and intuitive
Powerful and passionate
Exciting and magnetic

And the negative ones:

Jealous and resentful
Compulsive and obsessive
Secretive and obstinate

Well, I guess I should let people who know me well comment on how accurate those are ... I would just say that - in my own mind - I tend not to jealousy or compulsiveness, but can be obsessive, secretive, and obstinate. Passionate, yes. Emotional, yes. Exciting ... um ... ask Agnes.

Here are a few other things I found out about Scorpios:

"Their tenacity and willpower are immense, their depth of character and passionate conviction overwhelming, yet they are deeply sensitive and easily moved by their emotions. Their sensitivity, together with a propensity for extreme likes and dislikes make them easily hurt, quick to detect insult or injury to themselves (often when none is intended) and easily aroused to ferocious anger." (While I have a strong temper, I'm usually not "easily aroused" to anger ... it generally takes some effort for you to get me really angry, although if you're willing to go to enough trouble to do it, I can really make it worth your while)

"...(T)heir strong reasoning powers are tempered with imagination and intuition, and these gifts, together with critical perception and analytical capacity, can enable the Scorpions to penetrate to profundities beyond the average." (Does this reflect why I enjoy churning out pseudo-intellectual thoughts in this blog each day?)

"Rebelliousness against all conventions, political extremism to the point where hatred of the Establishment makes them utterly unscrupulous terrorists. Brooding resentment, aggressive and sadistic brutality, total arrogance, morbid jealousy, extreme volatility of temperament, these are some of their vices." (Um ... let me get back to you on those ...)

"Any profession in which analysis, investigation, research, dealing with practicalities, and the solving of mysteries are relevant, can appeal to them. So police and detective work, espionage and counterespionage, the law, physics or psychology may attract them, and they can become masters of the written and spoken word. They may be most persuasive orators and find fulfillment as diplomats or preachers ..." (Well, physics is utterly out of the question, but I'm interested in all the others. I do love to write and am a pretty good public speaker. Diplomatic ... mostly. But finding fulfillment as a preacher ... fuhgeddaboutit. I'll leave that to John.)

Strangely enough, in researching the characteristics of the Taurus, Agnes learned that it's opposite is the Scorpio.

Go figure. That old chestnut about opposites attracting must be true.

That's enough about signs of the Zodiac for now. At this point in the day, the only sign that is really important to me is this one ...

Have a good day. What's your sign? More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo