Holiday Mathis

To do what feels right to you, you must distinguish between “right” and its sneaky impersonator, “comfortable.” The right thing is often quite uncomfortable indeed. It may require you to face a fear, make efforts you weren’t planning and work harder than you wanted. But it invigorates and you and helps you grow in a way that “comfortable” never could.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). Generosity looks marvelous on you. You give what you have a surplus of — support, love, smiles and compassion. It’s not difficult for you because you’ve cultivated this your whole life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Would you ever have thought you’d be standing where you are now, among these people, doing what you’re doing? Yet here you are. Life is unpredictable, though trying to predict it will be a joy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Everyone has failings. Negative events and qualities do stand out in the experience of knowing another person. Rise above this primal fact of humanity and join in the grace and compassion of angels.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Luckily, you’re not the judge, so there is precious little requiring your evaluation. You can relax and assume a posture of acceptance. How exhausting it would be if you had to weigh in on everything!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Your creativity is going strong today. Keep making things like you do. Let nothing discourage you. This is part of what keeps you vital, and you’ll be remembered for it.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Stimulated by the challenge at hand, inside your brain, a million tiny light flashes turn on. Freshly illuminated and filled with courage, your mind sets sail to conquer new territory.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). In the past, you saw a red flag as important information to weigh against more favorable assessments of the subject. Now, you see a red flag as a signal to turn around, swerve to avoid or run in the opposite direction.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’re so relaxed within yourself that you can settle in and enjoy any environment, even completely foreign ones. You feel respectfully comfortable and at home wherever you go.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Awareness invigorates a tired scene. Boredom goes away when you focus well. Once you tune in to the deeper levels, you’ll notice many fascinations you missed before.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Abundance is not always about eating well, traveling in style or having nice things. There’s a divine intelligence doling out the blessings. Send a mental thank-you note for what you’ve recently received.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You see the same clear path to the smart choice that everyone else sees. But you’re not only smart; you’re clever. You can create benefits beyond the traditional course of benefits this path is known to provide.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Infatuation can strike anywhere. You can become fascinated with a person, an enterprise, a color, an idea or an area of interest. The energy of this state of mind is as powerful as it is temporary.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Oct. 19). When you look back on this year, what you did will matter far less than who you were with. Social fun fulfills. It will teach you about yourself and send you on adventures. You’ll work toward a goal with tremendous success that never quite feels like a big win; this is incremental, but life-changing, daily progress. Taurus and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 10, 4, 20, 31 and 17.

HALLOWEEN PANTHEON: WITCHES, PART ONE: From tall black hat to small black cat, most of the characteristics associated with the traditional Halloween witch are shared with European beer makers of the Middle Ages. Breweries were dominated by women who would learn a great deal about herbs and plants to make their ale. The cat was for keeping mice out of the grain. The hats were for advertising in the marketplace. It was known that a woman who stood out in the crowd due to her tall, pointy hat was likely selling drinks. Six-sided stars had to do with a rating system for the ale. Even the advanced age associated with witches tracks. In the mid-15th century, some villages banned women of childbearing age from making beer, so most of the hat wearers would have been over 40. Witch-hunting started as a desire to get women out of the lucrative beer business — a ploy that worked well. By the late 1700s, brewmasters were mostly men.

A recipe is very much like a spell. It is easy to see how the imagery of stirring over a cauldron while incanting ingredients could just be, well, cooking. Certainly, experimentation happened, and there were claims to the various medicinal qualities of various ales.

CELEBRITY PROFILES: Ty Pennington transforms lives as he makes over homes to the extreme. Millions of viewers are inspired to make improvements of their own and prove Pennington’s claim that “Good design can change your life.” Pennington is an aesthetic and artistic Libran people person. Moon in Leo promises that Pennington enjoys the spotlight, and sharing it with the well-deserving.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

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