Horoscopes for 12-31-2024

“Well, and I be serv’d such another trick, I’ll have my brains ta’en out and butter’d, and give them to a dog for a new-year’s gift.”

Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor (III.v.4)

Horoscopes for 12-31-2024

• Mars RX 5:33 PM 6°10’ Leo 12/6/24
• Venus into Pisces 1/4/25
• Mars RX into Cancer 1/7
• Full Moon 23°59’ Can./Cap. 1/13
• Sun into Aqu. 1/20/25
• New Moon 9°51’ Aqu. 1/29
• Venus into Aries 2/5
• Full Moon 24°6’ Leo/Aqu. 2/12
• Mercury into Pisces 2/15
• Sun into Pisces 2/19
• Mars un-RX 17° Can 2/24/25
• New Moon 8° 40’ Pisces 2/2
• Full Moon 23°56’ Pis./Vir. Eclipse 3/14
• Mercury RX 9°33’ Ari. 3/16
• Sun into Aries 3/21
• New Moon 9°0’ Ari. Eclipse 3/29
• Mercury back into Pis. 3/31
• Full Moon 23°19’ Ari./Lib. 4/12
• Mercury into Ari. 4/17
• Mars into Leo 4/19
• Sun into Taurus 4/20
• New Moon 7°46’ Tau. 4/27
• Venus into Ari. 4/30

Horoscopes for 12-31-2024

Capricorn

In this next year, there will be headlines, screaming headlines, “We’ve never seen astrology like this before!” The refrain, “We’ve never been/seen/done this before” gets repeated, over and over, in a variety of formats. The one I’m most familiar with are various astrology groups because that’s what I find in my news feeds. But we have seen this before, a tired Capricorn iterates, “We have seen this before.” Any half-decent student of history realizes that this is part of a larger pattern, and getting the pieces sorted out, that’s the important part. Happy Capricorn birthday. Getting the recognizable pieces of the puzzle, then arranging those pieces in some of kind of order, part of what this birthday time is about. Pieces, puzzles, patterns. The whole thing doesn’t make sense, but what Capricorn can do? Arrange the parts, the pieces of the puzzle, into a possible pattern.

Aquarius

This dates back more than two decades, and I think I’ve used it before, but I can’t find the references. I worked alongside a sub-contractor, bad old days in East Austin when it was a sketchy neighborhood. He had a truck, packed with parts and pieces, and he could fix anything, sort of specific, generalized handyman. Great guy, interesting. Austin born and raised. Fixed HVAC, appliances, plumbing, heaters, and coolers. We were chatting, one afternoon , a wan winter afternoon, after he fixed something where I was working, and he was complaining about his two sons, the youngest just finishing a degree at St. Ed’s, (St. Edward’s in Austin), wrapping up an international (something) MBA. Pricey private university, prestigious degree, and my buddy was complaining about his two sons. One was working, and like I mentioned, the other was just finishing the advanced degree.

“Dad, why didn’t we speak Mexican at home?” He shook his head. “They didn’t want to. Thought it was bad to speak Spanish.” Both the parents, and the kids were born in Austin, so that settles the birthright question, probably here longer than most natives. Only as the idea of entering the workforce with a degree and Latin name, only then did it matter. “They’re Mexicans who don’t speak Mexican,” the dad said. Shrugged. My retelling the story, and using the exact language from years gone by will probably irritate a portion of the population, and in my best Spanish? “Sorry.” But it points to a generational problem, and then, on a broader scale, an Aquarius challenge ahead. It’s about what was right at the time, and what is best, now. We know more now. We can be more culturally sensitive, now.

Pisces

Growing up, my parents assured me that carrots improved eyesight, especially at night. There’s at least two generations raised with that myth, that the betacarotene (orange stuff) in carrots is good for the eyes. Most notable? It improves night vision. Pure myth. Source? The British, more specifically, the British World War Two propaganda machine. What I heard? The British developed a kind of radar that worked, and then, to cover up the discovery in popular culture, in a manner that would get back to the enemy’s command? The British started the myth that the night pilots were eating carrots and that’s what made them deadly effective — better night vision. It was a rudimentary radar, not carrots, but never let the facts interfere with wartime propaganda, right? The persistence of the myth, though, the war was a long time ago and the way the story has taken root in imaginations and minds of more than two generations just shows how persistent a lie can be, especially if it is a lie with a “Good purpose” behind it. That carrot myth is merely an example of how persistent a lie, a myth, a cover story without a shred of truth to it, shows how bad it can be.

Aries

The year starts right after a New Moon event in Capricorn, and that unleashes a certain degree of Aries angst and frustration. The clue is the gopher hole. For several years, my sister lived with a gopher problem in her front yard. Wasn’t pleasant, and being a kind soul, she didn’t want to actively kill the gophers, just drive them away. Torrential rains, part of the Pacific system, helped, but the gophers and their burrows were far more clever. Sister tried sonic device to harmlessly drive the gophers away — didn’t work. She tried cruelty-free traps, and got nothing. She’s tried a bunch of different non-lethal, earth-friendly processes and according to her, nothing works. What she finally did, she ran a water hose into the closest gopher hole, and just drained a full rain barrel. Watered her trees, the garden, and the gophers final got evicted. Took a few tries, but it eventually worked. Eco-friendly, if not exactly easy, and that was her answer. The reason I use this example, it took several tries, and then, back to variation on what was used before in order to make it work. Took several attempts, and then, finally, did flood the critters out, but the answers — like Aries answers — aren’t quick. Builds on something you tried, and just needs a second go. Which, as you’ll discover, gets rid of the problem, eventually.

Taurus

While I don’t like technical issues with the backend of the work I do? I do — sometimes — find joy in solving problems. Most of what I was doing, simply put, was looking for a simpler way to display existing data sets. I just wanted a simpler experience on the front-end, the front-facing material, just something to make it easier, smoother, less difficult for me to manage. I found a single technical solution, but it was arcane, convoluted, and ultimately expensive. That’s not the direction I wanted to go. So I didn’t. But sticking with those search parameters, what I was looking for, what I could easily see in my head, and what was showing up in front of me? Two different problem sets. As the new year starts to unfold for gentle Taurus, there’s a sense, and for me, I hit on one answer late at night. Regrettably, I didn’t note the answer other than, “Better not forget that one,” which I promptly forgot where it was. However, given time and access, I can create the same set of search parameters again, and duplicate the effort to get that simple answer to a complex question. Wasn’t the exact same set of search terms, but I was close and by the third or fourth entry, I found what I was looking for, again, and now there might be a solution.

Gemini

Pick a new path. Pick a new pathway. Try a different route. Look at the existing set of Gemini-framed problems from a different perspective. Either leave, and come back, or come back then leave, it’s one of the two, but the issues, problems, hassles, and apparent Gemini obstacles change when you change your Gemini perspective. Just change, for no other reason than just changing? That doesn’t work. But the raw, new year, new moon, new start (all in Capricorn) leaves us in Gemini-land with a sense that there is a lot of the old problems, lingering about. Which it does seem that way. Which isn’t all bad, because this new start? The promise that the new year can hold a distinct change for the better? All there, and all good, but it requires changing that Gemini perspective in order to see it. Just change. Change how you look at it. Change location. Change clothes. Change rooms. Turn the problem upside down, and look at the underside. Just look at it differently.

“Wow! I never saw it like that!”

Easy as pie.

Cancer

I dated this one woman, and she kept an emergency box in the trunk of her car. Quart of oil, gallon jug of coolant, blanket, tarp, I’m not sure what else. Likewise, even to this day, I carry a small, used to be a milk crate, but this one is just a large plastic tub, and it has, among other things, an emergency space blanket, a tire pump (good for beach inflatables, as well), a text book, an old tablecloth from my work, a spare flashlight, an old pair of reading glasses, spare sunglasses, and a pair of cheap flip-flops. It’s not as odd as it sounds. I have, usually in the summer months, wandered out, then driven away only to arrive and discover over I have no footwear. That’s why I carry a spare set in the back, just in case. It has happened before. Because this has, indeed, happened before? There are certain items that belong in the special Moon Children, Cancer emergency bag, or box, or just a plastic tub, but one such example? A dollar-store pair of flip-flops. Maybe you don’t walk out the door barefoot as often as I do, but there’s a simple item, doesn’t cost much, and it can save great pain, a little later. Something to think about adding to that emergency whatever that you keep on hand. Might not need those spare flip-slops until next summer, but they will be handy, then.

The Leo

There’s an old Will Roger’s aphorism, something about “Ever read something in English, and yet you can’t understand it? Probably written by a lawyer.” Might not have the exact quote correct, but the sentiment is the same. But this highlights a level of frustration, if you let it get to you, present in majestic Leo. Mars, New Moon, new year, Pluto, all add up to certain level of frustration. There is a way to keep this from getting to you, and it’s an effective form of problem resolution, which will be helpful in the coming weeks and months, especially for The Leo. The first idea is to get out a dictionary. That works wonders. Or, like me, I just highlight the word and let the little software sprite do its thing to define a word. But that’s ticklish, at best because the semantic web will bow to current conditions rather than hew to the exact meaning. And we’re back to The Leo’s source of frustration. If one version, if one try doesn’t yield the results you want, if you can’t make sense of the phrase? Then try a second or even third time. Might take more than one-two-three to get that answer, but keep digging as that’s a better use of the energy instead of just throwing up your hands, “I don’t get it, what’s does it mean?”

Virgo

For a while, I was following a media feed that featured classic cafe racers. That’s in my blood from a youth spent in motorcycle shops, twiddling wrenches, and learning mechanics. (I wasn’t very good.) But the pictures are those idealized, filtered, flavored, and fitted images. What really attracted me, though was a series of images — the base motorcycle is from the early 1980s, the model astride the bike was from after the turn of the Millennium, so a 20-year old on a 40-year old bike. Modern paint, modern tires, nicely refinished machine, bet it sounds healthy with a decent burble in a loping gait, but not sure I would really ride one, not anymore. It’s about changes, and this next year is about juxtapositions, too, especially for Virgo, with our ongoing series of eclipses which promise — think about that image, no, a really cool, classic high-powered cafe-race sport bike, all custom, clean up, and looking pretty? With a pert model astride the machine? Yes. No. Virgo? No. Not my final answer, but I think you know what I would suggest.

Libra

Pursue any goal long enough, chase after a desired result with enough passion and energy? Eventually, we attain that desire. Hard work, determination, again with the desire, plus a healthy dose of instability all helps. It’s that “dose of instability” in the next year, first peek this week ahead, but that little bit of material that floats free, and drifts up? I was watching a small fire in the neighbor’s BBQ fireplace, and an ash, a single piece of charred remains drifted up towards the winter’s sky. He was burning old records, or outdated material, I’m not sure, I don’t follow too closely, but he just watched, and for a moment, we were both captivated by the large ash drifting heavenwards. It broke apart before it reached the overhanging branches, and our attention was drawn to something in the pit that sparked again. It’s the “dose of instability” that helps with good Libra directions over the coming weeks and months. Like watching that singular, large ash drift heavenwards, if only for a moment.

Scorpio

“To make a long story short,” is how the story starts. Not to put too fine a point on it? When I hear that introduction, “To make a long story short?” I settle back in because I know this is long and winding tale that will not be short. That’s the signal, for Scorpio, when you hear the refrain, you know it by now, “To make a long story short,” realize that there is no effort expended in making the story shorter. Or that it will be on the topic. Tangential relationship, maybe? A non–Scorpio like myself might not see the connections and therefore, we might not follow the tale, with its twists, turns, detours, and side trips that gentle Scorpio understands is important, but not everyone gets it. “So to make along story short, that’s how the year starts?”

Sagittarius

“Shepard’s Prayer,” Alan Shepard, first American in orbit? His prayer? “Please, Lord, don’t let me fuck up.” I got that out of a book of trivial notations, and I tried to source that on the web, to no avail. There are several apocryphal bits, quotes that get bantered about and another one I used? It was an image of Shakespeare, or I’ve seen it done with a Buddha, but the caption reads, “I did not fucking say that.” Einstein, too. There’s an apocryphal Einstein quote that caused much consternation among a certain portion of my readership, still buried in the horoscopes, decades past. Again, not verified. The prototypical psychologist, Carl Jung, is credited with a similar expression. What this is about? Two parts. One? Like the first prayer suggests, dear Sagittarius, please don’t mess this one up when that opportunity arrives. The second part? Consider the source, consider who the quote might, or might not be, attributed to. Verifiable data points, not this, “I know a guy who knew a guy, and he said, his brother-in-law, who knew this feller…” Like Shakespeare said?

• Aperture: ƒ/1.8
• Camera: iPad Pro (11-inch)
• Taken: 29 November, 2022
• Flash fired: no
• Focal length: 3mm
• ISO: 64
• Shutter speed: 1/60s