Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the
other, that come from the puzzling East. However many
you discover, there is always one more. And her sweet,
mocking mouth had one kiss on it perfectly
conspicuous, in the right-hand corner.
.....they were together in the armchair by this time, and
Wendy plied him with more questions. "If you don't live in
Kensington Gardens now...."
"Sometimes I do still."
"But where do you live mostly now?"
"With the lost boys . . . "
This thing about the Libra woman's painful difficulty in making up her mind quickly - best to deal with it in the beginning, don't you think? Since the male Fish is not noted for firm, aggressive action in solving a problem, we'll give him a sure-fire formula for coping with the indecisiveness of the Libra lady who has lured him into her net. (He didn't resist all that much.) It's really quite easy,once you get the hang of it. I'll give the Pisces man a step-by-step illustration of the formula, by way of a true incident.
While writing this book in California, I asked an incredibly talented artistdesigner,a Capricorn Goat Girl, named Sinthia Sullivan, to create for me a large tapestry, depicting the Egyptian honeymoon scene of two good friends of mine in New York, who were recently married - as a wedding gift. (Cappy Sinthia produces these outrageously stunning works of art, not with a paintbrush, but by using layered, multicolored, multitextured fabrics.) The bride is a Libra woman, named Susan - dimpled, beautiful, intelligent - and indecisive. Her groom's name is Arthur, and he's a Scorpio attorney, but really not vital to the story. I didn't say he wasn't vital. Just not vital to the story. (One has to be careful with Scorpios.)
So Libran Susan called when the gift arrived, to say, in her musical voice,that she genuinely adored it - so much, that she simply could not make up her mind whether to hang it in the new apartment she and her equally new husband just redecorated - or on the wall of her office at the Metropolitan Opera Guild,where she's Director of Special Events for the Met. Of course she has an office.Of course she's an executive. You haven't been listening. Libra is a Cardinal Sign of leadership. You male Fish must stop dozing off in the middle of your strategy lesson.
Being a Ram myself, therefore overjoyed that she was obviously pleased with her wedding gift, I couldn't bear the vicarious pain of her indecision, so I told her I would order for her, as a celebration gift (celebrating anything at all) a second tapestry, depicting her favorite opera - so she could hang the Egyptian pyramid at home, and the operatic scene in her office. She was thrilled. So was I. (I was thrilled that she was thrilled.) One decision eliminated.
But then, you see, since the Egyptian tapestry so perfectly matched her new evening gown, down to the several shades of mauve and lilac, deep green and gold (with white satin), and since she would soon be attending a formal reception for the Met near the location of her office, where people would be stopping by, perhaps she should hang, instead, the Pyramid scene in her office - and the operatic scene at home? What did I think? It was, to be sure, an agonizing dilemma.Pay attention, Pisces! Do you know how I neatly solved this first bout of indecision? Very gently, I led her into another decision, which completely blanked out the first one. I asked her which was her favorite opera, so I could tell Sinthia, the Cappy artist-designer, to begin working on the second tapestry.During the anticipated silence of deliberation that followed, I made only one attempt.(It's important to remember never to try more than once to help Libra balance the Scales, or you'll spend a great deal of time, better spent planning the final strategy.) My single attempt was to quickly suggest Madame Butterfly.
No. That wasn't quite it. (I really hadn't expected it to be.) Then I suggested,cheerfully, that Libra take a couple of days to decide, and let me know her ultimate decision.
That was nearly two weeks ago. No decision yet. And so, today, I mailed the beautiful Libran bride a note, in answer to her own gracious thank-you note.I told her that - this is the vital step in the strategy - I told her in my note that, since she couldn't decide, I would decide for her - that I would choose an
opera I just knew would be one of her favorites - and Cappy would begin work on the tapestry approximately the same day my note was received in New York.Now, shall I tell you what will happen? I am absolutely guaranteed to receive a telegram or a phone call in a day or two, when Libra Susan reads my note. She will have made her decision. Firmly. And finally. And smoothly. Because, you see, Libra being a Cardinal Sign of leadership, if there's anything Libra women can't stand, it's having the authority of their personal prerogatives delegated to another. It forces them into an amazingly swift decision.
In summary, the strategy, then, is to (1) replace one topic of indecision with another, since the second decision will often cause the first to be no longer important and (2) make only one suggestion in helping Libra solve the second decision,no more (3) allow a reasonable length of time, since Libra's decisions, once made, are always the very best choice of all possible alternatives, thanks to the Venus wisdom, fairness, justice, logic and exquisite taste - and finally (4) if no decision is made during the reasonable length of time, make a decision yourself,and firmly pretend you are going to expedite it immediately, if not sooner. Four simple steps.
The only one Pisces will have trouble with is the fourth. It's never easy for a Fish to be firm, to expedite - or to do anything "immediately." Although it must be admitted that the "pretending" part will be duck soup for the typical Neptune man. He's quite good at make-believing and pretending. Every Fish is a frustrated actor - or an escaped character who wandered out from between the covers of a Grimm Brothers Book of Fairy Tales one day, to see what was happening out here in this world of illusion everyone but Pisces calls reality.The Fish knows which is which. He never gets mixed up enough to believe dreams are unreal, a world of fantasy, created by the imagination - and Life is the nitty-gritty of it all. No way. This man knows it's just the opposite. He knows the truth of the matter is that this is the dream - and the dream is where it's all happening for real.
Now we've given these two a subject (dreams versus reality) they can excitedly discuss for many months, maybe years. A topic so fraught with controversy,so lacking in any possibility of final proof (of a tangible sort, that is) it will quickly replace any other arguments the Libra lady and her Pisces man may have been having up till now. The perfect debate for Venus and Neptune Lovers. Dreams are closely related to Neptune, naturally, while Venus adores all things lovely and ethereal... anything with a touch of the imaginative. The Libra logic will be firmly on the side of the "actual," and the Fish probably won't budge from his defense of the esoteric. But it will be interesting for him to watch her try to balance the trays of her Scales between the Libra logic, on the side of reality - and her Venus softness, on the side of the ethereal and romantic.In fact, this is the very blend of qualities that caught his dreamy attention,and lured him into hopelessly loving her, into becoming helplessly caught up in her net of charm, when he first floated into the sky-blue clouds of her fragrant presence. The irresistible pattern of her masculine logic and intelligent reasoning combined with her Venusian tenderness and romantic imagination. That seductive Libra mixture of practicality and compassion. Her compassion nearly (though not quite) equals his own. Her practicality is something he could most certainly use. The exposure to it will be eventually beneficial and lasting, even though, at times, uncomfortable.
There's something vaguely Eastern about the Libra woman that intrigues the Fish. She projects such an essence of autumn-football-weather, apple cheeked rosiness and campfire wholesomeness at times. Yet, at other times there's an elusive air of incense and mantras, and temple bells chiming in the distance, that makes him think of Tibet, China, or maybe Japan. He's very sensitive to pick up on this, because the sign of Libra itself astrologically rules the Orient. She balances the golden-girl-cheerleader image with a mystical hint of ancient rites in a most unusual fashion - and the Neptune chords in him will silently respond.
Because she was born under a masculine (initiating) Cardinal Sign, and he was born under a feminine (passive) Mutable Sign, however dainty and sweet she may be, and however strong and wise he may be - his Libra lady will have the last word when it comes to ruling the relationship. But when it comes to the really last word - "goodbye" - it could be the Fish who says it. The Pisces man is capable of gradually drifting toward a peaceful pool of tranquility somewhere else, with maybe one of those "Butterfly Velvet Crimson" girl Fish mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, if the Libra woman he loves so deeply becomes too authoritative and demanding, overplaying the Cardinal role in what should be an equal partnership.
He'll be patient with her, though, and struggle less to escape their tightly woven Oneness than he might with another woman - because of the 6-8 influence.He's powerfully attracted to her, both spiritually and physically, and she to him. She magnetizes his desire into a more passionate and uncontrollable need than he ever experienced before - just as she's drawn strangely, against all her logic and reason, into the spell of his pastel rainbow of affection and sensitivity.The Venus vibrations within her soul long for the kind of enchanted ecstasy his haunted, Neptune songs of the sea soothingly promise to fulfill,through memories she sees reflected in his eyes, of a place she's never quite forgotten,and weeps to revisit, yearning a place she knew well when she was about four or so, where she used to search trustingly in the damp, sweet-smelling grass for diamond necklaces, left there carelessly by the elves and fairies who danced there the night before, while she was sound asleep. It broke her heart with a sharpness she still recalls, that spring morning when a cold-voiced adult told her they were only dewdrops, nothing more. Then it suddenly began to rain, soaking her favorite pink-striped pinafore. Now that she's mature and sensible,why does the sharp pain of that morning return to her mind every single time it rains?
Her Pisces man may keep some secrets from her, insisting on the sanctuary of his own inner world of privacy, and that kind of "almost-deception" angers and troubles her. But he would never tell her such a dewdrop lie. He knows all about druid diamonds. She found that out the first night they made love . . . afterwards. He even tried with her, trembling, to pick them up in his hands.When they disappeared at the instant of human contact, he merely kissed her hair, and whispered that they really didn't disappear at a l l . . . that, through some magic, they were transfigured into a new dimension. "See?" he murmured quietly, comforting, "they didn't go away. Here they are . . . they've turned into tiny raindrops." And he touched gently, then, the tears on her cheek.
Oh, she'll miss him if he should ever leave her! As much as he'll miss the golden dawn of her smile, the way her voice sounds like it's singing a long-ago lullabye he remembers, even when she's speaking only ordinary words... or maybe not so ordinary after a l l . . . "Darling, we really must find some way to add color to this room. It's so monotone and depressing. Why don't you paint a mural for us, on the west wall, where the sunlight will strike it every morning?You can, you know. You can do anything at all you want to do. Never mind that they didn't appreciate you on that last job. Someday, before long, the world will be happier for the things you've worked so hard to accomplish, the beauty you create in your own special way. I've never been so positive of anything in my whole life as I am of that. I know you'll be recognized, and finally be able to express everything you've held inside, if you keep trying, and don't give up when your miracle is just around the next corner. You can't see it till you turn the corner, so you can't stop when you're so close. I'm so sure of your tomorrow.Do you know how sure I am?"
Yes, he knows. Despite her sometimes bossy manner and upsetting mood swings, he knows she's the only person who honestly believes in him, and the only one with the right password to suddenly give him the enthusiasm to believe in himself. No one else could so gently guide him away from his "what's the use?" response to repeated disappointments. Besides, he's more than a little moody and changeable too. So who is he to judge her? As for his Libra woman,she knows this is maybe the only man who knows the way to that secret, far-off place, where she can refresh herself, shower in cool starlight, and return, feeling stronger than before. The only one who ever was able to tell her where druid diamonds go when they disappear . . . and kiss them into returning.
