It's an early Thursday afternoon and the world's most widely read astrologer is busy divining the future.
Lying in bed with his head propped up on pillows, Sydney Omarr, blinded and paralyzed from the neck down by multiple sclerosis, waits for a cue from his editorial advisor, Capricorn Valerie Barbeaux.
Seated before an old IBM Selectric II typewriter prepped with a blank sheet and carbon paper, Barbeaux says, "Syd, this is for Friday, Dec. 6 ... moon in Capricorn. Aries."
His blue eyes begin to dart back and forth as though reading a scroll unfurled in midair.
"Expect some changes in connection with business, career," he says in a monotone. "Written word plays major role; get ideas on paper."
"We need another line, Syd."
After a moment, the 76-year-old astrologer says, "Flirtation begins innocently but could become hot and heavy."
At Omarr's Westside apartment, where the walls are covered with framed photos of him posing with friends and celebrities, from sexpot actress Aries Jayne Mansfield to controversial author Capricorn Henry Miller, it was just the beginning of what would be another busy day in Omarr's 61-year career as an interpreter of the starry firmament.
In an adjacent room, assistant and friend Sagittarius Paul Smalls was organizing Omarr's daily pay-per-call telephonic astrological forecasts, and assembling material for the 13 books -- one for each sign of the zodiac and one for the entire year -- that his boss writes annually. His books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, making him a wealthy man.
He also was fielding calls from Omarr's prospective dinner guests, adoring women and his bookie.
A warm blanket draped across his bone-thin shoulders, Omarr struggled to catch his breath, then smiled with an explanation: "About those adoring women: It's the astrology they're in love with, not me."
As for the gambling, "I win more than I lose."
Well, of course.
Would anything else be expected of a man who has worked so hard to promote the ancient practice of divining a person's future from the juxtaposition of the sun, moon and planets?
Would anything else be expected of a man who, even when he was a teenager, worked so hard to promote himself?
Indeed, Sydney Omarr has made himself the horoscope master to the masses. He's also been a consultant of the rich and famous. A bon vivant. A gambler. And survivor.
