LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 1811, Leo scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) formulated a previously unknown principle about the properties of molecules. Unfortunately, his revolutionary idea wasn’t acknowledged and implemented until 1911, 100 years later. Today his well-proven theory is called Avogadro’s law. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Leo, you will experience your […]
Astrology
Astrology forecast — May 2023
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’ve selected a passage to serve as one of your prime themes during the rest of 2023. It comes from poet Jane Shore. She writes, “Now I feel I am learning how to grow into the space I was always meant to occupy, into a self I can know.” Dear Taurus, […]
Astrology forecast — April 2023
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries-born René Descartes (1596–1650) was instrumental in the development of modern science and philosophy. His famous motto, “I think, therefore I am” is an assertion that the analytical component of intelligence is primary and foremost. And yet, few history books mention the supernatural intervention that was pivotal in his evolution as […]
Astrology forecast — March 2023
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author and activist W. E. B. Dubois advised us to always be willing to give up what we are. Why? Because that’s how we transform into a deeper and stronger version of ourselves. I think you would benefit from using his strategy. My reading of the astrological omens tells me […]
Astrology forecast — February 2023
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “I want to raise up the magic world all round me and live strongly and quietly there,” wrote Aquarian author Virginia Woolf in her diary. What do you think she meant by “raise up the magic world all round me”? More importantly, how would you raise up the magic world around […]
Astrology forecast — January 2023
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “I’m homesick all the time,” writes author Sarah Addison Allen. “I just don’t know where home is. There’s this promise of happiness out there. I know it. I even feel it sometimes. But it’s like chasing the moon. Just when I think I have it, it disappears into the horizon.” If […]
Astrology forecast — December 2022
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian comedian Margaret Cho dealt with floods of ignorant criticism while growing up. She testifies, “Being called ugly and fat and disgusting from the time I could barely understand what the words meant has scarred me so deep inside that I have learned to hunt, stalk, claim, own and defend my […]
Astrology forecast — November 2022
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Fear is the raw material from which courage is manufactured,” said author Martha Beck. “Without it, we wouldn’t even know what it means to be brave.” I love that quote—and I especially love it as a guiding meditation for you Scorpios right now. We usually think of fear as an unambiguously […]
Astrology forecast — October 2022
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Libran approach to fighting for what’s right shouldn’t involve getting into loud arguments or trying to manipulate people into seeing things your way. If you’re doing what you were born to do, you rely on gentler styles of persuasion. Are you doing what you were born to do? Have you […]
Astrology forecast — September 2022
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Now that I’m free to be myself, who am I?” Virgo-born Mary Oliver asks that question to start one of her poems. She spends the rest of the poem speculating on possible answers. At the end, she concludes she mostly longs to be an “empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.” Such a […]
The couple behind new shop Thistle’s Summit encourage Des Moines to eat, drink, be gay and get witchy
After bidding adieu to their Eastern Iowa bed and breakfast in 2020, partners Marti Payseur and Ash Bruxvoort are carrying its spirit forward in a new downtown Des Moines bakery/retail space. Payseur — the owner, recipe developer and baker for Thistle’s Summit — and Bruxvoort — an ancestral astrologist, earth intuitive and herbalist — have […]
Astrology forecast — August 2022
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): It’s always advisable for you Leos to carry on a close personal relationship with mirrors. I’m speaking both literally and metaphorically. For the sake of your mental health, you need to be knowledgeable about your image and monitor its ever-shifting nuances. And according to my analysis of the astrological omens, you […]




