“When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.—This’ a good block.”

Shakespeare’s King Lear (IV.vi.154-5)

Horoscopes for 9-9-2025

9/13 Mercury conjunct Sun 5:19 AM 20°52’ Gem.

Horoscopes for 9-9-2025

“Nothing runs on automatic.” – L.W. “Bud” Shipley, Jr.

Virgo

I’ve used this example before, but it was in a totally different context, so I can use it again. For several years, I had a signature line that included a quick quote, “Nothing runs on automatic.” What was funny, pruning older entries, I saw that quote, again, and it was automatically inserted as a footer signature. The irony of it? It was automatically inserted as a quote that defied automation. The origin of that particular quote is from a local chain of donut shops that make fresh fried dough-things, and have been doing so for years, decades even. Good stuff. On the way to the lake at zero-dark thirty? The Drive Thru tends to be open, and I can get a large coffee, and half-dozen glazed doughnuts for me and my fishing buddy. But it still doesn’t run on automatic.

Libra

Some days, problems look like a piñata — hit it just right , and you know it’s full of candy and treats. The difficulties just around the corner, though? Every problem looks like a piñata. In the version of the game I was taught, the kid is blindfolded and then set to swinging at the paper figure. Feels a little like how it is?

“Why does every problem look like a piñata? Why do I have stick in my hand?” The awful, the Libra awful part of the week’s challenges? “Why can’t I see what I’m supposed to hit?” It’s a planetary blindfold. Temporary, but still there.

Scorpio

“Football gloves.” I’ve used this before. I know I’ve used this example before. With local High School Football, not a sport, more like a religion, with the local stuff heating up? I’m reminded of cold-weather bass fishing. “The secret is football gloves.” One fishing buddy would extol the virtues of “receivers’ gloves,” especially the local version, sold in the sporting good store, advertised for high school football players. Among the padding, helmets, pigskin, and similar accessories, there would be these gloves. Built from a leather-like facing textured-material, they were “sticky.” The back side was usually cloth with rolls up and down the fingers for added protection. Not this week. Not next week, but soon? It will be cold, and on the lake? Those “receivers’ gloves” offer a better tactile response to the lighter bites from the fish. For Scorpio, the best fixed water sign there is? We’re looking at something, a tool, a piece of equipment, or something like gloves, just simple, really, that is intended and marketed for one specific job. Also works well for what’s in the Scorpio’s grip at the moment. that sticky grip makes it easier to hang on to whatever you’re gripping.

Sagittarius

It was a strange challenge, made more weird by my selections. The internet prompt was to take a picture of a book that one has, and continues to have, with the added notion that the book was instrumental in one’s life in some capacity. Plus? No commentary. I have no trouble, as there are number of books I’ve toted around, novels, mostly, that have big impacts, and in a couple of situation, formed my outlook, affected my personal philosophy and beliefs, engendered a near-religious experience. The bonus is that a couple of the texts? One or more were panned by critics and didn’t stand up well to test of time. To me, though, on my level, and my own enjoyment, the novels are seminal. Classics, in their own rights. Speaks as much to my own, weird tastes, and as to my own ability to see beyond the description into the myth and metaphor underneath the stories. This is about digging, looking, and to some extent? Straying from the normal “path,” whatever that might be. The weird, the offbeat, the unusual, the “not normal?” That’s where our answers are.

Capricorn

I bought a pallet of “pavers” to put down in the backyard, such as it is. The idea was a checkerboard pattern of the square paving stones, roughly a foot square? Seemed like a good idea, at the time. Truck delivered the pallet, and it was lifted off by a heavy-duty forklift. One at a time, I placed those pavers in the backyard, not exactly perfectly aligned, but in a way that I find pleasing. Each brick was just shy of 20 pounds, so doing the math in my head, I moved a ton and half. I’ve got a neighbor who always chides me about helping him. Just as the forklift was dropping off the pallet? My neighbor suddenly had some place to be. I noticed that he drove by, twice, to check on my progress, and it wasn’t until there were almost no bricks left, that he showed back up, patted his belly, and asked if I needed help. He drove past — twice — checking to see how far along I was. He waved one time. I’ll give him credit, he was a paragon of lazy virtue. Can’t complain, as I would’ve done the exact same thing, if the position was reversed. Capricorn, how good are you at avoiding work that really isn’t yours?

Aquarius

I swiped this from other files, but the sentiment holds true for Aquarius. The way I first saw it? “Boys slay demons. Girls befriend demons.” In more than one situation, though, this has proven correct, the monsters that males are taught to best, beat, slay, or otherwise dispatch? The females tend to tame the beasts. Get the beasts to do their bidding. There’s a hint, and this is about a way to “Future Proof” Good Ship Aquarius — instead of slowing the demons, or trying to beat those demons into submission? Make friends. Another way to see this? “An enemy of my enemy is an ally.” Instead of going after that which has been demonized? Maybe we should make friends with the little devils, only to find out they aren’t so bad, and might be helpful.

Pisces

Have I mentioned this before? Buddy gave me a cutting of some cactus, San Pedro Cactus, as a house-protection thing. When I got into the underpinning myths about the San Pedro cactus, I found out it was mildly hallucinogenic — explains my buddy. For me, though, it’s more just a house plant. I leave it outside in the summer, but before the first freeze hits, I have to gather up some of it, and keep it inside as it is not freeze-tolerant. It also, as a cactus, thrives on abuse. Leave it out in the sun and don’t water it often. Just, the freeze thing was weird, to me, as most of the cacti I’ve been around survive the freeze just fine. So that means, now, before it even looks like it might be getting cooler, I’ll want to drag a single pot of San Pedro Cactus inside and get it comfortable in a front window or something. If I do it now, when — if — when it we get a freak freeze-out? At least some of the cactus will be safe. This is a lesson for gentle Pisces, looking at what is happening, and what is still ahead. Simple gesture.

Aries

It’s a taste and test. It’s not the beginning. It’s not the end. It’s a simple taste and test. I got in the habit of buying just enough produce at the farmers market. Sometimes the grocery store, but usually the farmers market, just enough produce to make two or three meals. My eating plan was curtailed by the last doctor visit, so it’s frequently green, leafy stuff in avocado oil with a sprinkling of herbs and spices. I prefer the peppers, too, but the winter peppers aren’t in yet. Still summer peppers, and those can be rather hot. So this next week is about taste and test. Taste a little before dumping the whole thing into the pot or the pan. Taste. Test. See if it is that hot. For a while, I had some rather nice, very mild, New Mexico Red Pepper flakes. So good for cooking with, as they were flavorful, but not hot. Super mild, by my standards. Again, to arrive how to use these in cooking? Taste and test. Taste a little bit, just a dab on the end of one’s index finger to the tongue. Just a quick taste and test.

Taurus

I haven’t “surfed” in years. Maybe decades. True confessions, I suppose. However, last time I was at the coast, the kids wanted to play at the beach, and I had to go in the tepid Gulf waters, as a nominal adult-aged supervisor and as a chance to cool off, get salt water in my hair, the usual beach things. I waded out a bit, and the incoming tide was throwing up some decent breakers, out past the bar, so I played in the surf. Not really riding wave, or surfing, but at least once, I had fun little experience with the wave pulling me forward. There’s a caution, too, as playing like this, it can be a little hazardous due to some rip currents. Rip tides? I’m not sure of the title, but a strong undercurrent that pulls the other direction. With Neptune, Saturn at one end, Uranus at the other, Taurus is stuck in the middle. Which way are the tides pulling and should you just drift out, or fight back? Conventional beach wisdom? Seems to play well, just let the current pull you where you’re going, then move forward. Much easier if you don’t fight it.

Gemini

The Moon was just full on the 7th, or thereabouts, I can’t be bothered to check backwards, not now. That lunation upset a number of the Gemini in a number of ways. Just seemed a little more unsettled than usual. Then, too, there’s Mercury and the Sun, a brief re-alignment, and then? The usual, really more of the same that is unsteady. Not bad, just not a predictable, steady-state for gentle Gemini. Here’s an idea, a solution, a possible answer to that unsteady yet ultimately useful if somewhat erratic energy? There’s a way to move forward, but it doesn’t go in the direction you were expecting it to go. The answers to the problems? The challenges, and the especially Gemini-themed obstacles that are merely hidden solutions? While working diligently in one area? An answer pops up in another area. A solution. Problem solved! I know, it wasn’t the thing you were working on, but take a win, any kind of win, and you’ll move forward.

Cancer

“One in Ten rule,” for every new item in (1), ten (10) must go. First thought was suggest we look up the term “decimate.” Its original definition was to reduce by one-tenth. However, this is more like nine-tenths. One item in, nine items out. I learned this trick from an old girlfriend; she lived in one of the older homes with the tiny closets. I thought she was exceedingly disciplined about the single, itty-bitty closet in her bedroom, and the way she was always well-appointed despite its minuscule spaces. Living in a trailer the size of shoebox at the time, I liked that. I never realized that she had a storage unit out back. But the idea, and the idea for the Moon Children, the sign of the Crab? One and ten. For every new item in? Ten must go. Like, I was looking at a new concert T-shirt, from last weekend, which means, now, I have to “recycle” ten other items of clothing. One new in? Ten old items must be “recycled,” some to donations, some to cleaning rags, and one to an old friend who always liked that one shirt. “One in Ten Rule” for this week.

The Leo

The sign before The Leo is Cancer, the sign of the crab, as noted above. More a Jupiter influence, and goal, rather than a specific target, I suggested the “One in Ten” rule, wherein, for everyone one new item in, there are ten items removed. Simple concept, easy to understand, hard to follow. Because The Leo is special and because The Leo is different? I would cut that rule in half. Rather, I would modify it to simpler, more straightforward, easier goal to hit, a one-two ratio. For every new purchase, get rid of two older items that no longer serve your desired goals, destinations, or acknowledge the royal rights of The Leo. Oddly enough, it’s both Venus and Mars, in a cosmic game of tag, that lends a sense of this being a good idea to cut, by maybe a half, some of the surplus crap you’ve been hanging onto. It isn’t as drastic as seen above, but think about it. Maybe start a “donate” pile some place by the front door.

Remember, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”