“Take the fool away.”

Olivia in Shakespeare’s 12th Night (I.v.17)

Horoscopes for 4-4-2023

4/5/23 Full Moon at 16° Aries/Libra
4/7/23 Mercury at 5° Taurus
4/10/23 Venus enters Gemini
4/11/23 Sun conjunct Jupiter 21° Aries

Aries

Happy birthday! Enjoy Jupiter and his lavish lushness! And with the good wishes out of the way? There’s a single point and detail about Mars that I’d like to warn you about, see? Mr. Mars? He pushes the competitive streak in Aries, and Mars might try and push you over the top. Look: birthday, Jupiter and all? Stop trying to compete with a target you have no hope of getting anywhere near. I watched as a younger brother competed with an older sister, and there was no way that the younger brother would ever, not ever, be able to accomplish what his sister had done. Not without a sex-change and probably divine intervention. Consider the limits. Consider the outside of whatever that illusionary target is that your Aries self is trying to beat. Can’t be done. There are no absolutes, but practically? Can’t make that happen. It’s about what your Aries self is competing against, and realistically? Just take the win, and call it a good birthday.

Taurus

Don’t get to see stuff like this often, but it was such an engaging scene. Local place, around the corner from here, small bar with mostly the place being restaurant. Sitting at a table were three males, indeterminate age, but a good guess was an array from pre-teen to tween, like 7, or 9, and maybe 11 or 12. Don’t know, I was silent observer, but the boys were boys, and at any given moment, the youngest was near tears from merciless and withering attack from his older siblings. The parent? That was a dad, and it looked like he was at the bar, raptly involved in a tall beer, while watching a sporting event. Think it was baseball. Go (insert favorite team name here).

Some will bemoan the lack or parenting, but then, boys will be boys, and there’s no way to get them to behave in any semblance of a reasonable fashion, and the dad, I think he had the best idea. Go the bar and let the boys fight it out. Siblings always manage to survive and they do look out for each other. Dad wasn’t more than two or three paces away, and his attention was drawn to the game on the TV, but we all understand his reluctance to intervene with the boys. There are no right answers. Personally, I admire the dad’s solution. What this example means for Taurus? Simplest solution is to take a single step away from whatever it is. Be present, but step out of the direct line of conflict, and let them sort it out amongst themselves. The brothers? They all did fine as alliances were formed, dissolved, and reformed along different lines.

Gemini

We’re not there, but looking ahead? In the very near Gemini future, Venus will briefly square Saturn, just setting off a number of very Gemini issues. Pushing problems to the forefront, making an obvious rift more apparent. This tends to be about a boss, a boss-like figure, or a person who seems to hold sway over the Gemini-life. So with that warning in place? As long as we’re still working with Mars-like energy, where it is? Consider that there is certain amount of straightening-up that will help. I kept thinking, “We know the big boss is coming, so clean up the workspace, now.” Great. Advance warning? Sure. “There’s going to be surprise inspection in about three days.” As a good Gemini, you appreciate the warning, but as a typical Gemini, you’ll put off getting ready, despite the warning. I’ve just suggested we clean up now, and be ready for what’s coming, a little later. Goes against my basic belief, that I should never do today, what I can put off until next week. But you’re not a Sagittarius like me.

Cancer

Over the years, I’ve gone from being a coffee snob to being less discerning. I don’t care what the guy’s name was, the person who harvested the coffee beans, and I’m less interested in the exact roasting process. Sure, a refined palate can tell the difference, but I’m interested I what the coffee does, more so than who it came from. I had a two-point-two pound bag of inexpensive beans from the big box store. Allegedly organic coffee beans, but I have my suspicions. The thing about that coffee? Making it, the aromatic blend was amazing. Smelled wonderful. The taste, the actual flavor? Not nearly as good as the aromatic promise. Herein is my problem with good coffee or just cheap coffee: both perform the same function. One tastes marginally better, but on a cold April morning, who cares? Go for the cheap, as this serves Cancer–Moon Children just as well.

The Leo

I was merely looking for the correct connector. I had to plug a thingy into my other thingy. (Memory card into a tablet, then the same memory stick into a computer.) I know I have a box of cables with all those things in it, the wires, adaptors, plugs, and assorted power cables. Sure, someplace. I’ve been using Apple and Mac devices for over three decades. I have an accumulation of specialty wires, cables, power cords, and adaptors that stretch back in time. I remember building rudimentary home networks before it was common. In that box, an old laundry tub, I’m sure I’ve got the right connector to adapt that thingy to that thingy. It’s a matter of digging for it. One smart-ass Leo will suggest going online and ordering it, might be faster. Back to the astrology? It’s better to dig through that basket of plugs, cables, and connectors rather than buy a new one when you don’t really need it.

Virgo

There’s a certain level of organization required. Changes from person to individual Virgo, but the concept rings through all of our Virgo souls. It’s about getting a single piece of kit in place so that it operates correctly. To me, this looks more like contingency material rather than mission-critical gear. Less about something you definitely need to have on hand, and more like a spare, which, if you look back over your long Virgo history, you’ll see that your experience suggests that it is a good idea to have that particular piece of kit on hand. For me? It’s a spare phone charger cable. Not even a connector-thingy that I currently use, but I keep a spare cable, on hand in my gear because I’ve had to offer it as a spare, more than once. Another example is the tiny crucifix that I carry. I’m not of the faith. Not opposed to it, but it’s not my faith, but as a religious icon and a token of faith, I’ve found it handy to carry just that. Some place between a lucky charm, and necessary piece of technology, there’s a review, and revision, in the Virgo gear that benefits, if nothing else, from close review. Organize it.

Thank the odd gods you’re Virgo?

Libra

There are several theories about punctuation in the written word. I’ve read, observed, that there are some great authors who work with as little as possible punctuation. Point of pride, to eschew most points of punctuation. Others, like I aspire to be? Others are quite vigilant about the Oxford comma, and making sure that every sentence has the correct breath marks in the perfect places. With a nod towards my distantly sexist upbringing, marred that it might be, this is an expression that can be adjusted to fit any situation. “Like a dress? Enough punctuation to cover the subject, but not so much that it obscures the topic.”¹ As we approach that annual Sun/Jupiter point? The tendency is to get too loquacious. Or, use too many breath marks and punctuation when it really isn’t necessary. With Jupiter weighing in on this part of the Libra problem, the deal runs towards excessive use of certain histrionics, and to me, that translates to excessive use of punctuation when the weight of the words themselves should carry the message.

Scorpio

I like the Mars and Saturn misalignment. Does well for me. Does well for Scorpio, too. It’s not really a misalignment, as the two planets played nice a few days back, but it lends a certain strength and focus to Scorpio. I’m so tired of using the expression, “Laser-like focus” to describe what this does, but that term seems to sum it up best. It’s that concentration of Scopio intensity into a tighter and tighter beam until it’s that laser-like essence. There is always an outside distracting element, and that plays with other planets, and then, your main planet Pluto is just now making egress into odd Aquarius. Makes for some weirdness, but stripping away the distractions? That serves to help that Scorpio laser-like focus. Which is where success lays hidden, after the full moon. Stay on point. No distractions, and most of all? Don’t listen to some silly Sagittarius saying, “Wow, look at that!”

Sagittarius

Comes a time when prurient interests get confused with other emotions. Not a good trap for a loquacious Sagittarius, now is it? The old rub, “Love or Lust?” That’s part of what this might be, but the ability to distinguish between the two? Gets into a “gray” area. With a nod to Benjamin Franklin? Sure, there is that. (I think the exact quote is collected elsewhere.) However, that inability to distinguish between the two elements, a higher mind and the lower mind? Understand that’s part of the appeal to this type of energy, and sometimes, we don’t have to acknowledge what our Sagittarius motivation might be, just that we’ve got some kind of drive, urging us forward. Just admit that you like that one place because he or she works there.

Or, why I always say, “Support your local public library?”

Capricorn

I asked an old guy what made his marriage work so well. In a very tired voice, he explained that, to this day, he and his wife discuss everything. “I wanted a new truck. We talked about it, and I didn’t get a new truck.” The theme is played out in a number variations, but it winds up with the Capricorn making a suggestion, followed by discussion, and then? The decision rests solely with the other person in this equation. There’s the presumption that the Capricorn is included in the conversation, and while that does bear some weight, the other person’s wants, needs, and desires seem to be placed ahead of the Capricorn choices. Seeing as how we get to fish often, I wonder about my buddy’s version of the process. I think there’s a more equitable outcome, more often than he allows, but we won’t let that interfere with this week’s full moon notices. “We talked about it. We decided to do it her way.”

Aquarius

There was a copy of book, I’ve got a dated paperback, I’ve carried around most of my life. I recall the way I felt when I read that book the first time, excited with ideas, opening new topics about sexuality, all while set against a post-modern world rife with brilliant possibilities. Recently, I checked out a digital imprint of the same text, and started to re-read it. The years have not been kind. Dated, stilted, frankly sexist, and overtly white-male protagonist turgid prose? Just no longer worked. In its time, it was a brilliant attack on the “system” or the status quo, but in more modern light? Kind of dated. Your chart reminded me of that experience, dipping back into a quasi-historical text, looking at the information and style from a more current perspective. So this week’s Aquarius message? It’s about holding onto the thin, yellowed pages of history, marking how far we’ve come, and what’s still ahead.

Pisces

Thus it begins. Thus it starts. Almost my entire career, as an astrology writer, and even before, as a reader? I’ve been haunted by a Winston Churchill quote, from around 1942, something about, “This is not the end, but the end of the beginning…” (link here). For Pisces, cemented into place with the lunar phase (full moon and ensuing fall out)? This echos what we’re facing, for the long, tired road ahead. The first of the cosmic pointers are out there, and now? It’s a matter of learning, plodding, plotting, and then, re-learning what direction is best. Some of this is clear, but some of this is clearly obfuscated by the a lingering effect of Neptune. Saturn and Neptune are not exactly compatible qualities. Plot, plod, plot some more, and then? Be willing to change directions as the situations dictate. For that one? “Situational ethics.” Apply as needed.

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

1. “A dress, like a sentence or paragraph, should be long enough to cover to the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.” ↩