This was only a tide ~

A note on the 28th of February.

The river iced over in January, it was morning.

It doesn’t look like this anymore.

I mean, all the ice has melted now.

It was only a tide, I suppose.

A tide meaning a place in time, and the photograph is only a dog ear on one of the tide’s many pages.

.

Last night, we had a new moon in the sign of Pisces.

It felt like the last slip of something old had crumbled away to make room for the new which was already in the wings poised to take its place.

At least, that’s what it felt like for me. What did it feel like for you?

Elias Lonsdale names the 9th degree of Pisces: A vampire awakens.

Something old and sleeping, its eyelids flick wide open and open remain, and the search for life rushes into its senses—becomes its only sense.

Blood in the birdsong that trills out the kitchen window, blood in the river unfrozen, blood in the sun that suddenly feels so warm on the skin.

Maybe we’re all a bit vampyric by the time February’s end rolls around.

.

And today, on the last day of the shortest month, I come to you with the Horoscopic Reading.

This one features excerpts from the potent and controversial zodiacal fish named Anaïs Niin.

Polarizing then and now, Anaïs Niin is a bit infamous for her erotica. The subject matter she molds with was and remains taboo—especially for a woman.

And perhaps you have seen some of her gorgeous, sensual lyricism cherry-picked for lip-curlingly saccharine instagram posts and didn’t know how much of a rabble-rouser she was, she remains to be?

.

And so, I think, she must not be unlike the two fish constantly chasing one another up and down the celestial poles in the symbol that is bestowed to Pisces.

One end of this celestial pole is the very deepest, darkest, murkiest, frightening depths of the primordial ooze: the ocean (a place less traversed than that of outer space). The other end of the pole is the highest of heavens, irradiant with light and buoyant with flying feathered things and rolling with clouds. In neither of these atmospheres can you breathe for long on your own before, well, either gravity or grace must do its work upon you.

And so, yes, she is a woman spooning you a mouthful of primordial muck one moment and then twirling a fork into a bowl of morning-fresh clouds for you the next.

And yes, I’ve pulled a collection of her novelettes entitled Winter of Artifice, off the bookshelf today to choose some excerpts for you.

I held the book in my hand and asked her what advice she’d give to each of the individual signs as we move through this lunar cycle (which will carry us a few days beyond the Vernal Equinox in March). I waited until I felt a shiver and then opened the page, and below you’ll find the fruits of this divination.

from a feature in the 15 October 1971 issue of Vogue magazine.

.

And, I know, I know! I missed the Horoscopic Radio this month… can I make it up to you?

Can I share a video of one of my favorite Piscean musician/poets performing live on stage in an oversized wool cardigan amongst candelabras and white lilies in a cushioned office chair under watery lighting…?

Enjoy ~

.

I’ll be back next week with the Almanac for March and a few announcements about a very small tour of NY and CT that I am going on with the Patsy to my Eddie, Conner Calhoun ~

Until then, enjoy the brevity of this warmth and the music of Nirvana and the words of Anaïs.

Gros bisous,,
Chanelle
꘏

---

Horoscopic Reading

Fragments & essences divined for each of the signs on the New Moon at 09° Pisces on 27 February 2025. Read for your rising, sun, & moon sign if you wish. See what lines, symbols, or images strike a chord in you. Take them with you throughout the lunar month.

.

Pisces:

Lilith went out into the street. She felt the day much softer on her skin. The snow was melting. It seemed to her that she let the day get nearer to her, permitted it to touch her. That before she had looked at the day like a stranger. Now she felt the day all over her body, the sensual touch of it… she felt this strange, continuous, vibrating life of plants and water.

— from The Voice

.

Turquoise mineral essence

.