Every astrologer worth their salt knows that the wise man rules his stars, and the fool obeys them. We had a tutor in Ann Arbor in tarot named Morpheus who also was the drummer for a nationally prominent rock and roll band. The Tarot is very cool, since it stems from the Kabbalah, the ancient Hebrew book of mysticism. Twice a week, for two hours each time, Morpheus drilled the principles of the Kabbalah and its influence on tarot cards into our inexperienced psyche. The Waite deck, which is our favorite, gives strong emphasis to both the Kabbalah and the astrological signs and planets. We still have our deck from 1971, wrapped in the same silk scarf we got in Ann Arbor that year to go with it.

Some years later, while we were in law school, we learned Morpheus committed suicide. We were upset. We ceased our celestial divination activities in the early '70's and never looked back. Except to do an occasional Tarot card reading for friends, always the same way as Morpheus had taught us. And an occasional horary (predictive) astrological chart for a politican or two who wanted to know in advance what the outcome would be of their election.

For anyone wishing to learn more about Tarot and the Kabbalah, we recommend Paul Case's book, The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. It contains one of the most serious studies of the symbolism of the major arcana to be found anywhere. Our copy is from 1971.

For us, planets and tarot cards and charts are a distant memory of a chapter of our life that's long been filed away. We're filing this post as "off-topic" since it bears no relation to politics and crime. Nonetheless, we urge all of you to watch Venus pass through the sky in the next few days. Celestial is celestial, which is one degree higher than terrestial, no matter how you cut it.