May: Back To the Basics

Steven Mark Weiss

Anyone with even a small bit of gray in their mane has lived through a down economic cycle or three. During such times all businesses, not just restaurants, are inevitably directed by the gurus of commerce to perform one ‘simple’ feat. That is, “get back to basics.”

This admonition, generally emanating from consultants who are not actually operators with fiduciary responsibilities, carries a strange implication. One has to wonder whether operators during flush times have gotten away from basics such as food quality and hospitality and sound financial management. And if so, what wonderful things have they been doing instead?

What’s all this to an astrologer? It’s just that during this May period, a host of astronomical placements (including the Moon conjunct the south node in the seventh house of public affairs) suggests an overwhelming communal yearning to go (far) back in time to perceived (much) better times. Assuredly common sense, not to mention science, would cast doubts on this aspiration…but try to tell that to a general manager who remembers when a half-full restaurant wasn’t considered a decent night.

Basically this month, what with Pluto conjunct the Capricorn ascendant and the first house north node in the fifth degree of Aquarius, the stars are trying to urge us “forward.” It’s not that we are to entirely abandon the wise efforts of the past, but we must appreciate them as a platform rather than as a map. The best “back to basics” advice you’ll get in this space right now is “throw out anything at all that has become putrid.”

In short, clean your walk-in and clear your mind.

Steven Mark Weiss is a career foodservice trade journalist, consultant and author with a confessed addiction to messing around with astrology. His astrologically-themed books include ‘Signs of Taste’ and ‘Signs of Success.’ He cosmically blogs on business matters at blog.stevenmarkweiss.com.