“Brother you have a vice of mercy which better fits a lion than a man.”

Troilus in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (V.iii.43-4)

Horoscopes for 3-25-2025

Horoscopes for 3-25-2025

• New Moon 9°0’ Ari. Eclipse 3/29
• Neptune into Aries 3/30
• Mercury back into Pis. 3/31

Aries

As Neptune eases his way into Aries? The absolute first thought I had was grabbing a copy of The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. I’ve got a couple of copies, one is straight digital, and one is paperback that I can’t seem to find at the moment. OK: true confession for Aries? I’ve never read the book end to end. Keep meaning to, as it part of the suggested reading in my line of work, but honestly? Yeah, I never actually read the damn thing. I noticed, when I cracked open the digital version, I had read the first couple of chapters, but that’s about it. Still, what the book details in a historical manner? All manner of mystical, magical, or even religious experiences that people have. Important to Aries as this is about getting ready for the profound. Get ready to have the kind of mystical, magical, otherworldly experience. Just be careful about any particular charlatan selling a brand of “enlightenment” that is nothing more than a rebranded religion. Really? Yes. The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Taurus

For several years, I carried specific tablecloth for work. Over time, my needs, desires, and the demands of spaces where I’ve worked, all of that has changed. I liked the idea of single table-top topper that was, like, a metaphysically sanitary-sacred space creator. Like, when I would lay out the tablecloth, my workspaces was duly anointed and safe. Hint: this is largely symbolic.

The idea of portable, sacred space, and what I’ve seen recently were portable altar kits, but that’s just one of several ideas. The goal is a way to create scared Taurus space by doing something. In my example, I felt that a tablecloth of design and carriage was enough to establish my boundaries for work; that was all it took for me to make it “mine.” Likewise, for Taurus? Some way to stake your claim, some way to exercise and exorcize your immediate space, work, home, something. Establish a symbolic, or real, boundary, barrier, layer, something.

Gemini

I’ve seen this on stage a few time. I’m thinking in The Tempest, as well as some of the other late plays, there’s a deus ex machina moment often called a Mask, or a masque. It’s a time when the gods — goddesses — descend from the heavens and grant wishes, preform miracles, or just do something, sing, dance, depends on the production, but they odd gods cause something to happen. Part of the plot and story. Depends on budget and the actual staging on the play, as I’ve seen it both highly ornate, and rather simply displayed. But there is just such an event about to occur, or occurring, or — the kicker — will occur in Gemini. For Gemini. To Gemini, or something. Wait for it. The heavens open up, the curtains part, a special effects generator draws lines in, something, swelling strings or mystical threads, some sort of aural recognition, good sound editing, lets us know this is about the happen. The trick? For Gemini? Wait for the magical moment to occur.

Cancer

There’s an inherent honesty I’ve learned to love. There’s an innate sense that someone is telling the complete, unbridled truth — as far as that one person knows it to be true. I like that, and we can usually sense when this is going on, it’s what a person believes, for good or for ill, and there is evidence, in that person’s mind to back this up. It’s a convincing, believable set of conditions, and usually, in our Moon Children, sign of the crab, Cancer heart of hearts, we know when this is true — or when it feels true. The only weird glitch with this next few days? What feels true and what winds up being true might not align evenly with each other. Feels true? Sure. Is true, backed by — verifiable — facts? Here’s rhetorical problem, because, like me, you’re used to listening to your heart, and the person talking really does believe it’s true. But can you find supporting evidence at this moment?

The Leo

I got used to a certain kind of fog, usually in the spring, in Austin. It followed me to coast on a couple of occasions, and even get it around here, although, without a lakefront, it’s less pronounced. That fog? It’s just a low-lying cloud, really, and it burns off before midday, but in the early hours? It’s like a big wet blanket over the land. Hugs the lowland, the dips and valleys, not really “valleys,” but certainly low spots in the topography. That fog? It’s what The Leo is facing. It’s not bad, just a visual amount of water vapor that hugs the contours of the landscape, and makes visibility a little troublesome. I doubt this is a bother for The Leo, but what does bother you? All the other people who similarly hindered by the lack of visibility. Next few days, go slow and watch out for us. “Before ya’ll start learning to drive in fog? Ya’ll should learn to drive in sunlight.”

Virgo

Read few horoscopes, and there will much about relief, and the cessation of nominal Virgo hostilities. The warning, and I don’t mean this lightly, but the caution? Take this next week or so rather slowly. I would give everyone a “Definite Maybe…” instead of a single, hard and fast answer. “Guidelines, not rules,” as I am wont to suggest. Think along those lines, and understand that — despite the relative motion of Neptune, the little planets are still confused, and will remain confused until we get to a latter date. The ideas are sound, it’s just that the good, Virgo execution of said ideas might not be seen, or perceived, in the best of lights. “Good idea, but not yet?” That’s one way, but I still like “Guidelines, not rules,” as a way to move forward, cautiously.

Libra

An old friend stopped by the other afternoon. Hadn’t seen her in years. We picked right up from where we left off, and I recall, there was a reason for the friendship, she stuck up for me in the face of an adversarial client. One of her challenges I wasn’t aware of, when I started, is the number of marginal mental cases I get exposed to, as in not quite crazy, but beholden unto other realms that not many people have access to. In the face of an attack on my character and work, that old friend stood up for me. Wasn’t comfortable at the time, and the suggestions that impinged on my character were damming. Not true, but still, it stung. There’s a chance to come to the assistance of friend, withering under the attack on character, something an old friend would do. Take away the slurs, the loud recriminations, and the general timbre of the attack, and look at the substance of what is going down, like my old buddy.

Scorpio

I need to age-up on my appearance, but I got to place where I favored comfort and function over style. Or a style that emphasized comfort and function. I live in an environment that borders on “tropical,” so my attire reflects that, as well. I suppose if I lived in colder climes, my version of utilitarian and comfortable might be different — that means Good Ship Scorpio must adjust as need be, for the local conditions, whatever those are. For me, though, this is a situation where comfort, function, and to a much lesser extent, style, all meet. Or this is the time when style, “looks” so to speak, collides with comfort. You can either look good or feel good, and I think, given the set-up I’ve used, we all know what’s more important for these next few days.

Sagittarius

Just, stop. Sagittarius? Just stop. I prefer when the punctuation carries a packed message, and the first example, “Just, stop,” that implies a pause between the two words in the command. Makes it seem like a request, or less command-like, and easier for a decent Sagittarius to digest. The answer to the questions, for the weeks ahead? “Just, stop.” Or? “Just stop.” It’s not a big deal; well, yes it is a big deal, but in the grand view, in the classically trained Sagittarius point-of-view, that image from on high? Yeah, it’s not a big thing. However, Venus and Mercury are going to take a small issue, boil it down to a concentrated issue, and then, we can latch our Sagittarius minds on this issue, turning an inconsequential item into a “Big Deal(tm)” — Sagittarius style. Just, stop. Just stop.

Capricorn

When I was grabbing one of my treasured reference manuals, a book about Shakespeare crap, the cover all but fell off. It’s a like tawdry paperback that’s been passed back and forth amongst friends, read and reread until the cover is falling apart. Which is what happened. The cover was about to float free of the rest of the text. I grabbed my trusty roll of duck tape, and lavishly ran several strips of tape over the spine, and one, just to be safe, along the bottom edge. That will hold it for a while. This isn’t the first book to be patched like this, but at the moment, and for Capricorn, this is the best example. It’s a reference that I use, frequently infrequent, but I do use it. I think the binding itself must’ve been pretty cheap, as it didn’t hold up over time, but the duck tape will suffice. Speaks to usage, revenues, allusions, and wanting to look up that single point about a particular question in one of the Shakespeare plays. For Capricorn? This is about patching up something that you use, and understand, that not everyone gets it.

Aquarius

I stumbled through a Shakespeare site, and it held some random trivia. “Worst Shakespeare play? Troilus and Cressida.” Look: I understands the sentiment. It’s a play without much direction and ends up nowhere. Based on Chaucer’s poem, same name. But when I first arrived at that play? I read it for a class, and I thought it was darkly, satirically comical. Not much is known, and I’ve seen it done a few times, the classical interpretation was one of my favorites, but it doesn’t neatly fit in any kind of a category. Set in the Trojan War, where one guy is pissed that his wife ran off with another guy, this is a microcosm where the stars and fates keep two lovers apart even though they are both on the same side. I see it now: yeah, maybe not a great play. But I’ve mined it repeatedly for material. Just because it doesn’t work for most? I understand that position, but for my own, personal tastes? Dark comedy, that’s how I read it the first time and I was forever changed. This week? Aquarius is best served when you keep your own counsel. Maybe don’t share it too widely, but we can snicker at the funny parts.

Pisces

A former employer once gave me a French Press coffee maker. By the time I drifted into a trailer park in Austin, and for a decade after, it was the only morning coffee maker I used. Made a little less than a single quart of coffee, liter in size, I think, but with the coffee grounds and then the way the maker works? I was lucky to get 750 ml of coffee on any given morning. With that decade in the distant past, I was looking at the French Press again, and I use one, from time to time, as it is the perfect way to sample really good beans. The challenge with a French Press? There are leftover coffee grounds floating freely in the bottom, not quite caught by the strainer. So out of liter container, there’s maybe, at the most, three-quarters that I can expect to palatable, and even then? I’ve found that I have to watch the bottom of the coffee cup to make sure I’m not sucking up any grounds. This week is full of Pisces promise and Pisces possibilities, however, recall that only about two-thirds is really useful.