The ancient Romans were full of superstitions, seeing both good and bad omens in such things as flocks of crows, the entrails of sacrificial animals, and the way the clouds passed in front of the sun. If there's a modern equivalent, it's like those folks who read their newspaper (or internet, for you young'uns) horoscopes every day and then tiptoe around looking for it to come true. I have nothing against internet horoscopes for pure fun if that's your thing, but seriously, if you want to be all superstitious about it at least understand that those mass-published horoscopes are so generalized they mean about as much as the slip of paper you pull from a random fortune cookie.
If you want to get all weirded-out after you have a full natal chart drawn up by a professional astrologer, then that's your prerogative. Just understand that when you tell me you can't go out drinking when the moon is in Pisces because Pisces is your rising sign, I'm going to grin a little bit. I might go so far as to laugh, until you give me a hurt look at which point I'll try to behave myself.
Your natal chart consists of all the planets in the solar system, set at certain degrees of one another and you when you were born, in the present, and in the future. To pluck out one planetary aspect to focus on as "you" is like pulling one hair from your head and saying it wholly represents you. With an internet horoscope, or a single planet in Pisces, you're getting a single hair.
At any rate, I had an odd "portent" if you will happen to me today. I was driving home after dropping the eldest at school. Coming up our street I saw a mourning dove in the road, just sitting there. Ok. Silly thing will fly up right in front of the car when I get to it, right? I get closer, and closer, thing isn't moving. I know it sees me because it turns its head to look right at me. So I slow down, and now I'm a crazy person talking aloud in the car. "Fly away birdie, come on. Come on, dumb birdie, fly!"
Even though my heart wouldn't break if I ran it over (although I would cringe a bit at the teensy bump of the tires crushing it to oblivion), I really don't want bird guts on my tires. My kids run barefoot in the driveway. The car is at a crawl, but by then I am rolling right over where the bird is still dumbly sitting. I don't see it fly up, but neither is there a crunch. So I drive a little further on, almost to my driveway, then stop the car and look back.
The bird is still sitting right where it was. The car apparently passed right over it, probably scaring the heck out of it, but that turned out to be a good thing because it froze in place. Then while I'm pondering this, a scrawny red fox trots out from the yard nearby, heading right for the bird. Oh man, this thing is about to go all wild kingdom on me, so of course I keep watching, waiting for the shriek, and the crunch, the feathers, and the blood. The dove then decides it knows how to fly, takes a few running hops and takes off. The fox kind of stops in the road, looks after his escaping breakfast, then at me as if to say "wtf?", and trots off down the street. You're asking me?
What does it all MEAN??
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