Happy Birthday, WOODRUFF!

February marks my third year with Substack, and it's been a great run because of readers like you.

You’re reading WOODRUFF. I cover the convergence of pop culture, psychology, and astrology. Join my entourage (now 20% off for paid subscribers until Sunday!)—the party won’t start until you arrive.

CANCER FOLKS, I SUPPOSE, because they are Moon-ruled, often have an uncanny ability to suss out trends in the culture way before the shifts gain traction. This has been true for me throughout my life.

This was the case three years ago (this month), when I sensed that the mechanism of the internet that I was familiar with (and had been working with(in) for 25 or so years) was about to make a wild, nasty descent.

The author and tech activist Cory Doctorow described the turn as ‘enshittification’ (the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms)—although he only coined that term last year, and I registered the obsoletion of websites coming way before that.

And so, I abandoned my site (astroinquiry.com) and migrated to Substack. This proved prescient (and financially savvy). Longtime readers of my writing know I’m not a fan of the digital world we’re steeped in. So, writing something uplifting about an online venture like Substack is rare.

Without going on and on, I’ll share why I value my relationship with Substack and the folks who run it:

• Actual human contact is part of the platform’s biz plan, not just in how their team interacts with their writers, but through living beings engaged with their support department. Have you ever tried to get assistance from someone at Meta or Google? This does not exist in the Borg.

• Limited annoyance and manipulation by algorithms. See Meta’s shitty products and especially Google’s and Amazon’s degradation into shitholes. No need to harp on this, save to say modern life has been completely hijacked (including the devolution of democracy) by fucking algorithms.

• Substack attempts to tread the slippery slope (nowadays especially) of what constitutes free speech.

• And finally, it’s really fun being here.

⭐️🎂🌺 To celebrate, I’ve got a couple of gifts for you, my dear colleagues in the astrological realm. 🌻💗🍀

First, I’m opening up two of my archived articles that were published initially for paid subscribers, and those are:

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• A.E. Waite’s Vision: Two Tarots to Rule Them All

…and before astrologer Jessica Murray and I do our deep dive into Joe Biden’s birth chart this spring (after tackling Trump’s late last year), here’s an earlier piece of mine that I wrote on Biden that remains timely:

• Joe's Upside Down Ascent

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Secondly, some of you have been emailing me about my yearly Spotify playlist, and I’m pleased to say there are finally enough tracks in place for 2024 to share the list with you. Set the tunes to ‘shuffle’ or randomize for optimal thrills.

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Third, until this upcoming Sunday, annual paid subscriptions to WOODRUFF are 20% off. Celebrate! Join us today!

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Love,

Opening illustration by FW © 2024 Nightcharm, Inc. Cake line art by Freepic.

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⭐️ My new book, I Love You Jeffrey Dahmer arrives in summer 2024! ⭐️

• Is Astrology Making You Crazy?

• Blonde on Blonde: Taylor Swift! Donald Trump! When World’s Collide

• Charisma: What’s YOUR Quota?

• Pluto Enters Crazy-Town

• Saturn: The Work and The Love

• Mark Zuckerberg: Trouble Child

• Joni Mitchell’s Black Keys

• Nonsense & Malaise: Astrological Insights for Maneuvering the Hive

• When Mars Turns Against You—Uh oh!

• The 12th House: Astrology’s House of the Rising Sun

• Bad Astrology is Everywhere (my most popular last year).