Madam Lichtenstein's Cosmic World

Venus Retrograde - May into June 2020

Eminent astrologer Felissa Rose Gero offers her insights into the Venus Retrograde of 2020.

 

VENUS RETROGRADE MAY INTO JUNE 2020

The planet Venus goes retrograde approximately every year and a half for about six weeks. The next time this occurs is on May 13th at 2:46 am EDT with Venus at 21 degrees 50 minutes of Gemini. Venus turns direct on June 25th at 2:49 am EDT when Venus will still be in Gemini but is at 5 degrees 20 minutes.

Gemini is the sign of communication and Venus the planet of love. The internal aspect of the retrograde helps one to reflect and integrate both their hope for a harmonious relationship and what is needed to achieve it. The inner nature of the retrograde also goes beyond observation when looking at art or a beautiful object or vista to a deeper search and understanding of what it is about. If beginning a relationship while Venus is retrograde it’s apt to change or end when Venus goes direct. But it’s favorable for getting to know the other person in an existing one and working out any differences. We’re here to learn and it’s easier to be by oneself but not as fulfilling. If you began a relationship not long before Venus went retrograde, you’ll have more of an understanding of the other person and if it’s right for you, it will flow more harmoniously when Venus is direct.

Venus along with Neptune rules art and music. Neptune is the higher octave of Venus for Venus rules personal love and Neptune spiritual. While Venus is retrograde whatever is created may not be as pretty as when it’s direct and could appear or sound discordant, but it could have an inner resonance as opposed to an external one. It’s like one is feeling what is shown or performed but one is not looking for an external esthetic.

In terms of fashion and appearance, it’s best to cut one’s hair, get nails done and buy new clothes when Venus is not retrograde. Realize because of the stay at home orders many of us have been prevented from getting a haircut or having one’s nails done, but both hair and nails grow so if done they can be repaired.

June is the month noted for weddings and if you’re hoping to get married during the retrograde and unable to change it go ahead. Assume you already know the person that you want to spend your life with but be prepared for the unexpected particularly when it comes to guests, food and the wedding and reception.

Diplomacy and discussions of peace fall under the rulership of Libra. Not sure during this difficult period the world is going through now whether diplomatic talks are presently going on. Have found that agreements made while Venus was retrograde tend not to be lasting. Gemini is a sign of thought and communication and Venus governs harmony and peace. It helps people to think about what they hope and need to do to create balance in their lives which also relates to rational world leaders and governments as well. Mercury will be retrograde in the sign of Cancer from June 18 until July 12th, so it’s likely to take more time for things to clear up. Gemini is a sign of flexibility so use it to make your needs and desires known and be open to what others want as well. As mentioned, we’re here to grow and learn, planetary movements teach us about ourselves as well as others. As in the Japanese proverb “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.”

Although Venus goes direct on June 25, it comes to the degree it went retrograde on July 28th. Once it’s direct it’s more favorable to cut your hair, buy some clothes, decorate your home. However, one is likely to make changes after July 28th when there’s more clarity and understanding of what you learned as well as what took place during the time Venus was retrograde. There will be lots of time to do this as Venus won’t be retrograde again until December 18, 2021 and go direct on January 29, 2022

Quarantining With a Ghost? It’s Scary

This New York Times article shows how ghosts are suddenly noticed in homes when the flesh and blood occupants spend more time there.

For those who believe they’re locked down with spectral roommates, the pandemic has been less isolating than they bargained for.

It started with the front door.

Adrian Gomez lives with his partner in Los Angeles, where their first few days of sheltering in place for the coronavirus pandemic proved uneventful. They worked remotely, baked, took a two-mile walk each morning and refinished their porcelain kitchen sink. But then, one night, the doorknob began to rattle “vigorously,” so loud he could hear it from across the apartment. Yet no one was there.

In mid-April, Mr. Gomez was in bed when a nearby window shade began shaking against the window frame so intensely — despite the fact that the window was closed, an adjacent window shade remained perfectly still, the cats were all accounted for, and no bug nor bird nor any other small creature had gotten stuck there — that Mr. Gomez thought it was an earthquake.

“I very seriously hid myself under the comforter, like you see in horror movies, because it really did freak me out,” he said.Now, though neither he nor his partner noticed any unexplained activity at home before this, the couple can “distinctly” make out footsteps above their heads. No one lives above them.

“I’m a fairly rational person,” said Mr. Gomez, who is 26 and works in I.T. support. “I try to think, ‘What are the reasonable, tangible things that could be causing this?’ But when I don’t have those answers, I start to think, ‘Maybe something else is going on.’”

They’re not alone … possibly in more ways than one.

For those whose experience of self-isolation involves what they believe to be a ghost, their days are punctuated not just by Zoom meetings or home schooling, but by disembodied voices, shadowy figures, misbehaving electronics, invisible cats cozying up on couches, caresses from hands that aren’t there and even, in some cases — to borrow the technical parlance of “Ghostbusters” — free-floating, full-torso vaporous apparitions.

Some of these people are frightened, of course. Others say they just appreciate the company.

There is no scientific evidence for the existence of ghosts, a fact that has little bearing on our collective enthusiasm for them. According to a 2019 YouGov survey, 45 percent of U.S. adults believe in ghosts; in 2009, the Pew Research Center found that 18 percent of Americans believe themselves to have seen or otherwise encountered one.

Before stay-at-home restrictions in New York, Patrick Hinds, 42, left Manhattan with his husband and daughter to spend six weeks at an “adorable” cottage in western Massachusetts that they rented on Airbnb.

One night, Mr. Hinds woke up around 3 a.m., thirsty for a glass of water. He said he walked into the kitchen and saw a white man in his 50s, wearing a well-worn, World War II-era military uniform and cap sitting at the table.

 

“It seemed normal in the split second before I realized, Wait, what’s happening? And as I turned to look, he was gone,” said Mr. Hinds, who is the host of the podcast “True Crime Obsessed.” “It didn’t feel menacing at all. It almost didn’t even occur to me to tell my husband the next morning.”

If you were to accept the premise that ghosts are real, it stands to reason that some tension would naturally result once their flesh-and-blood roommates start spending much, much more time at home together.

John E.L. Tenney, who describes himself as a paranormal researcher and is a former host of the TV show “Ghost Stalkers,” estimates that he received two to five reports of a haunted house each month in 2019. Lately, it’s been more like five to 10 in a week.

Mr. Tenney has seen something like this before: In 1999, immediately before Y2K, he witnessed a spike in reported ghost and poltergeist activity, as well as U.F.O. sightings (which, in his experience, are also on the rise in this moment). “It does seem to have something to do with our heightened state of anxiety, our hyper-vigilance,” he said.

Mr. Tenney has no doubt that the vast majority of these cases in his inbox are “completely explainable” in nature. “When the sun comes up and the house starts to warm up, they’re usually at work — they’re not used to hearing the bricks pop and the wood expand,” he said. “It’s not that the house wasn’t making those sounds. They just never had the time to notice it.”

Or did they? Janie Cowan believes she’s been haunted since college. The ghost she calls Matthew (a “good, biblical name” chosen in the hopes it would keep him on his best behavior, explained Mrs. Cowan, who is 26) has historically made his presence known in her Nashville home through the sounds of someone running up and down the staircase at night.

The noises are “not like a house settling, or like our cat walking around,” said her husband, Will Cowan, a 31-year-old accountant. “It’s very clearly out to get attention.”

Around the same time the couple began to self-isolate in March, Mr. Cowan started to use their guest bathroom so that his wife, a home health nurse who has been picking up more night shifts during the pandemic, could sleep in without the sounds of his morning routine disturbing her.

 

He has found that Matthew, who both spouses agree prefers Mrs. Cowan, doesn’t seem to appreciate these changes. On three separate occasions, while showering in the guest bath, Mr. Cowan has been unexpectedly blasted with cold water. But it wasn’t just a quirk of the plumbing: Every time, he said, he reached out to find that the hot-water nozzle had been turned off.

Madison Hill, 24, is riding out the pandemic with her boyfriend in her apartment in Florence, Italy. Ms. Hill, a writer and teacher originally from Charlotte, N.C., had always had her suspicions about her home, particularly the bathroom. There was the sense that someone was watching her, doors slamming, towels inexplicably on the floor.

 

A few weeks into quarantine, she woke up to find something on her nightstand that did not belong there. It was a camera lens, one she’d brought from the United States but lost when she moved in. She had long given up on ever finding it. But here it was.

 

Since then, other small objects, including a set of keys, have moved to strange new places inside her apartment. The reappearance of the camera lens in particular struck her as a “mischievous,” playful gesture — perhaps even a thoughtful suggestion that this could be the perfect time for Ms. Hill, who majored in film in college, to pick her old hobby back up.

 

Kerry Dunlap shares a one-bedroom apartment in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens with his girlfriend, Alexandra Cohl. Mr. Dunlap, a 31-year-old teacher, rapper and concert promoter, believes he first met their resident ghost last summer.

He saw her in the bathroom, in the middle of the night: wearing green scrubs, standing an arm’s length away from him. She appeared to be glowing. The woman vanished when he turned on the light. Mr. Dunlap knew that one of the friends the couple is subleasing from had spotted a ghost in the apartment; both agreed they’d seen an older Asian woman of small stature.

Mr. Dunlap and Ms. Cohl, a 27-year-old writer and editor, used to find themselves in a routine late-night tug of war over the too-small comforter they shared. Several weeks ago, Mr. Dunlap woke late at night to the sensation of what he assumed was Ms. Cohl adjusting the blanket at his feet to spread it evenly across the bed. When the movement stopped and he didn’t feel his girlfriend climb into bed beside him, he called out to her. She didn’t answer.

Then she came back in from the bathroom.

“It was so weird, dude,” Mr. Dunlap said. “It was so weird.” But the incident left him and Ms. Cohl with a lingering positive impression: like whoever — or whatever — it was had been trying to make the couple feel more comfortable, or to mediate a potential conflict between them before it happened.

Kurt Gray, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studies how we perceive and treat the minds of other entities, including animals, machines and the dead. Times of great unease or malaise, when there is an increased drive to find meaning in chaos, can lend themselves to perceived hauntings, he said — not to mention that disease itself shares certain psychological parallels with a “malevolent spirit,” creeping invisibly upon its unsuspecting victims.

This phenomenon could also be a side effect of the loneliness of our time. “In quarantine, you are physically confined and also psychologically confined. Your world narrows,” Mr. Gray said. “You’re trapped at home, you’re needing human contact — it’s comforting to think that there’s a supernatural agent here with you.”

For Danielle, a 39-year-old lawyer, isolation predates this pandemic. (The Times agreed to not use her last name, to protect her professional reputation.) She has been recovering at her home in Richmond, British Columbia, since contracting an unrelated serious illness over the winter.

She first experienced strange activity in February, she said, when she kept walking into her guest bedroom to find a particular lamp turned on, although she had no memory of leaving it that way. This happened again, and again, and again, until, on a whim, she said aloud, “Don’t turn that back on.”

The next time she entered the room, she found the ceiling light — which she never, ever switches on — blazing. On more than one occasion, she has heard the voices of a man and a woman having a conversation she couldn’t quite make out.

More recently, she was sewing face masks in the same bedroom. She had exactly enough fabric left to make one more mask, but when she briefly turned away from the ironing board where she’d just pressed the double cotton gauze, the two remaining pieces disappeared.

“It was gone,” Danielle said. “Like, in a 20-second period, gone. I went and checked the garbage pail, nothing. Checked the recycling, nothing. My fabric stash, nothing. I tore the house apart looking for these two pieces of fabric, and they have never come back.”

Danielle describes herself as a highly social person, someone whose friends and family had worried about how she’d fare cooped up all by herself. “This kind of feels like someone popping by to cheer me up, or keep tabs, or make sure that I’m not feeling alone,” she said.

If the idea of a paranormal identity can provide someone “a little bit of social sustenance” to help them endure their solitude, Mr. Gray said, then great. At least, as long as the ghost isn’t advising its hauntees to “go into emergency rooms without a mask and French kiss everybody,” he said.

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? “Don’t panic,” said Mr. Tenney, the “Ghost Stalkers” host. Take careful notes on what you observe. You may soon find a rational explanation for your fears. What if that strange noise at 2:50 p.m. every weekday is just the UPS truck clattering by?

 

Horoscope for the Week of May 18, 2020 - Mars Enters Pisces

The Starry Eye
By Madam Lichtenstein

Mars makes its move into Pisces this week tempting us to take a mellow approach to everything. We may also be more intuitive. Can you see the future? If so, you will know what to do.

(Marilyn Monroe had Mars in Pisces)

Never miss your horoscope again -- free sign up here. Here is my favorite book on astrology and a "must" for anyone interested in learning more: Secrets from a Stargazer's Notebook: Making Astrology Work for You and here's a guide to the best books available this month. This column is (c) 2020 MADAM LICHTENSTEIN, LLC., All Rights Reserved. For Entertainment Purposes Only. Madam Lichtenstein is the author of the best selling astrology book “HerScopes ” now in its 10th printing and available as an eBook.

ARIES (MARCH 21 - APRIL 20)
Aries may feel especially adept at surveying the current landscape, suss out a particular situation and making their best possible moves earlier rather than later. Your assessment of things is spot on and can lead to you to accurate actions. Slow and steady progress can be made in an important aspect of your life. But the emphasis is on slow and steady.

TAURUS (APRIL 21 - MAY 21)
Your connections to friends and large social groups will take on an added importance this week, Taurus. Do you yearn to become part of a greater cause? Check out the facts and see if a certain group really fits with your views on life. Then if so, and the urge is still strong, seek safe and healthy connections virtually. You can never be too careful.

GEMINI (MAY 22 - JUNE 21)
Whether you are working from home or an essential employee, you may find that your current efforts can take on a more global and impactful meaning. For those Geminis who are not working for one reason or another, you find that any charitable efforts will not only bring comfort but also give you new skills that can be used well after the pandemic is over.

CANCER (JUNE 22 - JULY 23)
Cancers may begin to feel especially cooped up with cabin fever. But there will be many ways to expand your horizons without leaving home. The internet can bring all sorts of nice and interesting surprises. You gain many new ideas as to what to do and how to do it. So don’t just sit around and wonder what to do. Sit around and just do it.

LEO (JULY 24 - AUGUST 23)
Leos seek deep connections now and what better way to connect than to reach out to those who you haven’t heard from in a while. Go as global as you can. You may be surprised at how emotional some of these outreaches can be. Whether you use social media platforms or conferencing software, you will have the ability to increase the love. Or is it lust?

VIRGO (AUGUST 24 - SEPTEMBER 23)
Partnerships need to be nurtured and Virgos know how to do it, even from afar. Seek out those who make you feel needed, secure and happy. Your calm and endearing approach will strengthen even more relationships - even the loose and fragile ones. The opportunity is there to build for the future and embrace the past while calming the present.

LIBRA (SEPTEMBER 24 - OCTOBER 23)
If you have a sudden urge to declutter your surroundings and embark on some spring cleaning, go for it, Libra. Tackle the dust bunnies and clean out a closet or three. This may be the perfect time to go through old items, papers and assorted stuff that are no longer needed or wanted. All you have is plenty of time and the need to be busy and productive.

SCORPIO (OCTOBER 24 - NOVEMBER 22)
Tap into your artistic muse and unleash your creativity, Scorpio. Maybe you will whip up the perfect cake or delicious meal. Or maybe you will paint, write or compose your masterpiece. Do whatever taps into your best ideas and see what can happen. Some of you may love more fiercely or laugh more uproariously. Everything will have its glorious moment.

SAGITTARIUS (NOVEMBER 23 - DECEMBER 22)
Sagittarians who are investigating their family trees may uncover new clues and branches now. There might be a longstanding mystery that can be revealed and a connection to something that seemed broken. The secret to your success will be to organize your notes, concentrate your thoughts and make some educated assumptions. Asking for help is good too.

CAPRICORN (DECEMBER 23 - JANUARY 20)
You seem to know just what to say to get others to agree with you, which is no small feat, Capricorn! So dip into your well of charisma, polish up your best communication skills and see where you can put these talents to good sue. You have the entire internet at your disposal and a range of great ideas to share. Don’t be shy. Your moment is here.

AQUARIUS (JANUARY 21 - FEBRUARY 19)
Aquarians can now focus on what is really most important to them. The surprise (for others but maybe not for you) could be that it is not money or status. It is simpler, quieter and less materialistic. Mine these personal treasures and make efforts to secure them. It is not difficult. You may even find others are very willing to help you.

PISCES (FEBRUARY 20 - MARCH 20)
Not only can you make a fabulous first impression, you are able to consolidate your followers and expand your circle of admirers easily and honestly. So, Pisces, what are your long term plans? Who do you need to connect to make things happen? How can you best reach them? The world is ready for you. Get online and start making noise.

(c) 2020 MADAM LICHTENSTEIN, LLC., All Rights Reserved. For Entertainment Purposes Only. Check out my astrology book Herscopes. Astrology readings and more on tinyurl.com/TheStarryEye

Lucky Numbers for the Week of June 19, 2020

Lottery ads tell us you only need a dollar and a dream. But it is also helpful to have a list of lucky numbers to help spur the good fortune ... or fortunes. So with that in mind, here are some lucky numbers that can be used in any helpful way. I gazed into a pool of water, Nostradamus-like, and contemplated the cosmos. Then I mixed the tarot cards and allowed the spirits to guide me to the cards that represent the lucky numbers for this week. Nothing is guaranteed but who knows ....?

I choose eight numbers because 8 is the number of of wealth.

Here are the lucky numbers for the week of June 19-25, 2020:

2, 6, 8, 17, 25, 27, 60, 79

There are many ways to delve into your own consciousness to find luck and intuition. Try reading Dream Power/Improve Your Luck (Super Strength Series) and see if your dreams give you any clues and premonitions. Here's a guide to the best books available this month

Lucky Numbers for the Week of May 15, 2020

Lottery ads tell us you only need a dollar and a dream. But it is also helpful to have a list of lucky numbers to help spur the good fortune ... or fortunes. So with that in mind, here are some lucky numbers that can be used in any helpful way. I gazed into a pool of water, Nostradamus-like, and contemplated the cosmos. Then I mixed the tarot cards and allowed the spirits to guide me to the cards that represent the lucky numbers for this week. Nothing is guaranteed but who knows ....?

I choose eight numbers because 8 is the number of of wealth.

Here are the lucky numbers for the week of May 15-21, 2020:

4, 17, 21, 25, 33, 34, 69, 74

There are many ways to delve into your own consciousness to find luck and intuition. Try reading Dream Power/Improve Your Luck (Super Strength Series) and see if your dreams give you any clues and premonitions. Here's a guide to the best books available this month