A new Tarot card for the current times.

My coffee cup has this printed on the bottom:

Some mornings, this is necessary, since I’m trying to make coffee happen before having coffee.

This puzzle has a punnier-than-usual answer:

Reluctance
—Robert Frost

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question ‘Whither?’

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

We’re in Scorpio Season, which is my second-least-favorite time of year. (Least favorite is Leo, because it’s too bright and hot and freaking *endless*.)

Every astrologer is going, “Scorpio! Sexy! Intense! Sexy! Mysterious! Sexy! Did I mention Scorpio is sexy?”

Not everyone is in some form of intimate relationship.

Not every intimate relationship involves sex.

Not everyone values sex, sexuality, or sexiness, even though our culture tries to insist that our value as individuals is directly based on our attractiveness and sexual interest.

I’d like to hear about how Scorpio season can be a time to do powerful shadow work.

To do significant healing work on painful memories.

To connect with others and forge deep connections that have nothing to do with sex.

To channel passions into meaningful activity, whether that’s art, social or political action, or just getting the house in order so you live in a comfortable and pleasant home.

To acknowledge the deaths in your life, both the physical deaths of others and the effects on your life, and the personality deaths you experience as you navigate life’s changes.

To deal honestly with your thoughts and feelings about your own mortality, and perhaps to make changes in how you live in acknowledgement of that.

But please, enough of the focus on “boink your brains out” stuff. It shortchanges the readers for whom sex is not a priority, and it undercuts the incredible potential for deep work that can be done in this month—which, yes, includes increasing one’s sexual satisfaction. But that’s not the only thing, or the most important thing, and I am really tired of that being the only aspect discussed this month.

[Image description: A drawing of the stars in the constellation of Scorpio, against a dark background.]