Astrology shows up all the time around here. On Friday’s Mars Pluto opposition -and- Venus Neptune opposition, we played host to the planets. Once you get to know the archetypes of the planets and their personalities, you’ll begin to recognize them as characters in your life, too.

We had a dinner guest over on Friday night, Mars-Pluto.

We played the gracious host and hostess, Venus-Neptune.

Mars-Pluto was over 45 minutes late and hadn’t bothered to call. Mars-Pluto had been playing golf, and being the macho-macho man he is, we had to cut him some slack – it was a sporting event after all.

Venus-Neptune used the extra time to stare into one another’s eyes, hug, kiss, touch and prepare the ambience: candlelight, music and incense. At one point Venus-Neptune even said, “Screw it. Let’s just eat the dinner ourselves and devote the rest of the evening to us. Tantric candle gazing sounds much better than waiting for someone who’s too busy to be gracious. I would never be so rude to show up an hour late for dinner without calling. Who does this?”

Mars-Pluto shows up, brusquely apologizes for his tardiness and Venus-Neptune smiles (thinking: real sincere, buddy) offering him a glass of wine.

They sit down to a fine gourmet dinner. Apparently Mars-Pluto forgot to leave his driver club in the trunk. MP attempts to strike up an intelligent conversation about VN’s next career move, which turns out to be a thinly veiled re-working of MP’s own fears over making a leap of his own.

MP accomplishes this in rapid build-you-up-to-tear-you-down style. I watch, horrified, thinking women don’t do this to each other – it’s not in our DNA. Insults do not motivate comraderie -unless you’re in the army.

MP perceives VN’s wait and see style as risk-averse. He stops this short of name-calling. When VN begins naming the limits of his current venture out, MP says he’s being too picky. “What are you waiting for, everything to be perfect? It won’t. You’re going to miss the opportunity.” VN says he wants to fulfill his obligations to others, to not let his allies down, and MP says he’s far too invested in staying safe. “You’ll have the same obligations this time next year, what do you think will change? You’ll be sitting here with the same excuse 7 years from now.” In a light bulb above the head moment, MP smugly concludes, “Can I be honest with you? You don’t know what you want yet. You’re not ready.” VN wonders why this is news to MP. VN replies, “That’s what I’ve been telling you all night.”

Then MP relays his own career strategy, resembling a game of chicken. And it all comes together. Too scared to move from a secure and safe job (in which he was unhappy) MP dodged bullets until the hand of fate made the final call. Then he figured out (real quick) his next move. It has been a painful process for MP, and a decision to move into a new line of work wasn’t really a decision at all. His hand was forced.

I tell him, “Sometimes that happens. We try to be ahead of the curve, to figure it out before we don’t have a choice. Then the resistance becomes too overwhelming and heavy and either we find the strength to close the door and open a new one, or the universe obliges.”

It seems MP was still struggling with that one. Maybe he should’ve walked through that door a little sooner…

Then MP directed his laser like attention to me. “So what about you? How are you doing?”

“Oh no,” I replied laughing, “Thanks, I’ll pass.”

He says. “Don’t worry. I don’t know you well enough yet to be that honest with you.” “After all,” he claims, “if you can’t be honest with your friends who can you be honest with?

Hmmm, was MP being honest with himself?