You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of Fate. The elements,
Of whom your swords are temper’d, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock’d-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted.

Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (3.3.60-8

Horoscopes for 12-9-2025

• Neptune direct 12/10 29°22’ Pisces
• Mars into Cap. 12/14 11:58 PM

Horoscopes for 12-9-2025

Sagittarius

Pretty sure I’ve used a variation of this before, but it was an English Composition professor who used this technique, and in a variety of formats, I’ve used it as well. Talk about a process that stuck with me. He would start reading a student paper, stop at the first error, circle in red, then hand the paper back, ungraded. Get a chance to fix and repair the mistake. This was the dawn of writing papers on word processors and it was easy to fix, then submit a second time, and then repeat over and over, as need be. As a process, follow closely, reading along, hit a typo? Stop. Correct the mistake. Save again. Then move forward. I meant to correct a typo in Scorpio, but then, I saw something else in Capricorn, and none of the corrections were saved. See the problem, Sagittarius? Stop, fix the first error. Then, and only after the first is fixed, do we move forward. One at a time. Happy birthday, thank me later.

Capricorn

Mars plows through Sagittarius and just barely gets into Capricorn. This is like a quick pass or, like a preview, like a quick look, but not a real thing. Not a real thing, yet. It’s the “yet” that catch’s us.

“Hold up, what do you mean, ‘yet’?”

Good question.

I was listening to an interview, like news, or entertainment, and the person being interviewed used that exact line after each question. I realized, while listening that the purpose of the answer was to ingratiate the interviewer, and to buy a little time to formulate a better answer. So with Mars where is? The answer starts out with “Good question.”

Aquarius

One former work associate used the entire tarot deck when she did a reading. She’d spread all the cards out, then “read” the cards that — I don’t know. I don’t get it. I toy with tarot cards myself, but more for the inherent artwork and buried arcane symbolism rather than for any magical ability that cards are purported to have. When I do a card reading, though, I tend to stick one or three cards, no more, as anymore muddies the waters. As an Aquarius, the sign of the water-bearer? We don’t want to muddy the waters. We don’t want obfuscation and confusion. Clarity is around the corner and until then? Much as I adore my friends? Stick to one set of symbols. One card. Not the playing the whole deck.

Pisces

Reality, non-reality, and effusive discussion of both collide. What’s real, what’s not real, what’s dream-like, what’s solidly dream-land, and then, the ensuing discussion of these points is where this all intersects. Having been a professional reader for the last — more than — thirty years? One easy trick I’ve learned is there is a time to say spooky stuff, or star stuff, or other worldly material, and then? There’s a time when no one wants any part of that crap. The short version of this? Know your audience. The slightly longer, but still applicable way to see it? Understand how to talk to the people you have to talk to, and try to speak their language.

Aries

One time. I did this once, and it was in the Naughty Nineties when it happened. At the time, I was working closely with a couple editors, and that’s how I got “caught,” although, I admitted my laziness up front. I tried to use one of my weekly horoscopes for a monthly slot, as well, just modifying the text a little bit. Didn’t work, and I learned from my perfidy. Only person I hurt with that bit of copy and paste was myself, and my own reputation. I recall I was pressed for time, and the one outlet wanted a monthly when I was wrapped up in doing a weekly. Repurposed one weekly like that, and I never looked back. I mean, I did look back, recall that it didn’t work, and vowed never to do that again. Then, too, there’s another advantage, as I have a “No repeat” mantra about the horoscopes, and while there is some material that analogous, or I might forget if I used some metaphor before, I still endeavor not to recycle. This week’s Aries won’t show up in six weeks as Cancer, for example, and since this isn’t done by AI, it’s not regenerative. Learn from my singular mistake, though, Aries, learn not to copy and paste when just an original thought works much better.

Taurus

There are days when the Universe, whatever one believes in? There are days, follow me Taurus, there are days when the signs are obvious. The — whatever one believes in — is quite clear with directions, destinations, goals, and routes. No hesitation, no obfuscation, no doubt. Then there are days, like this next week when the actual details seem to be more subtle, “Left, right, straight, at an angle, from above, or down below, I’m not sure, can’t get a clear sign.” Let me suggest that the more subtle the message, the quieter the tone, the more indirect that it appears? That’s the one to listen to. That’s the answer. That’s the correct route, the most expedient directions, and the easiest goal to get. There’s a subtle notion to the this season’s Taurus missives. Listen carefully.

Gemini

“This morning with her, having coffee.” Attributed to Johnny Cash, as an answer to the question of what his definition of paradise was. It fits with him, and it fits with a way of seeing this, and for now, it also fits with Gemini because we’re looking for a definition of paradise. Instead of far-flung, and idealized “Castle in the sky” situations, though, a more affordable, more realistic, or in this example, practical and plausible explanation works best. It’s not unlike Occam’s Razor, is it? It’s easy to over-complicate this. Maybe look to that old country singer as the way it should be, or the way it could be, if you simplify it enough. Sometimes, the easiest answer is the best answer. Happy holiday.

Cancer

Obsession runs deep. Then, too, there’s a difference between obsession and just intense interest in a specific topic. But for this next few days? Looks a lot more like obsession. Obsessive, compulsive, “Can’t stop, won’t stop, can’t make me stop.” Dig in, dig deeper, pull at that thread, see the whole thing come unraveled. Try to put it back together? No? Dig through the scattered parts on the floor, or my example, across most of the garage’s floor. “I can get this one, I’m sure, let me just look this up online, one more time.” The obsessive behavior gives way to an urgency, and the most important use of time, especially with the holidays at hand? Patience. But you’ll have none of that. Obsession runs deep. “I know I can fix this, I just know it.”

The Leo

There is a willingness I have wherein I can delineate every step I take to arrive at a conclusion. Some of this seems quite mundane, and other times, it’s a bit Too Much Information, TMI for short. TMI foreshortened? This all falls under the old category of “Show all work,” and that relates to The Majestic Leo because we’re all in a situation wherein every arcane misstep and blunder is actually a critical piece to the puzzle about how this material gets put together. I went looking for a specific book at the bookstore. They didn’t have that title, or if they did have it, it didn’t spark interest like I thought it would but then, looking at another title because the cover caught my attention, I spied a third title, and then, that made me think about a fourth topic, and I wandered over to look at that, and here we are. Circuitous? Yes. But does it follow a logical train thought? As much as anyone can expect from me. Does this show all work? Yes, and that’s what I’m suggesting. Be willing, and able, to show how you got from here, to there, cf., Two-Meat Tuesday.

Virgo

More than two dozen years ago, a buddy picked up a token key ring souvenir for me, a red tape printed with the words, “Remove before flight.” It’s a left over Army Air Corps relic, still in use on modern jets. Eventually, that meant I went looking for a similar watchband, and from there, I got onto a place that had the NASA motto, “Guidance is internal.” For Virgo? I don’t know if you need a keyring flag, a patch, or like me, a watch band that has that spelled out, but the simple message? “Guidance is internal,” and that means? Shut up and listen to the inner voices. Not the inner monologue, that inner Virgo monologue will have you believe that you’re not tall enough, not thin enough, and not rich enough. Dangerous dialogue. But listen: guidance is internal.

Libra

One of the biggest challenges I ever faced? Sort of an ongoing issues in certain corners? The idea of being a mystic as a business. The nuts and bolts, so to speak, of the side that is a seer. I’ve wrestled with the notions and potions of being in my business for the last two-three decades, as there isn’t a healthy, decent blueprint to follow. I’ve forged a way when there really wasn’t one. The people I would look up to, either scions of other industries, or legacy roles that afforded a degree of structure? Every person is on his or her own, in my world. Lots of stuff to figure out, and no easy way to do it. That means, rest of this year, Libra is stuck figuring out what pieces fit where, and how this works, but the problem being, all of this up to Libra to do on his or her own. No manual. No set of guiding principles. No rules, other than the obvious rules of the road, or the laws of the land, but the structure itself? Up to you to figure out what this is supposed to look like.

Scorpio

It was a holiday arts and crafts bizarre. I’d call it an Arts and Craft Bazar, but it was in Austin, and owing to some of my own roots in the area? Family included, you know who you are, it was more like a “bizarre.” I’d dropped family off, and I was headed back an hour before closing, so I could be the roadie, a title I haven’t actually held in many long years. My hair was down, and I was in vaguely holiday roadie attire, which included a Santa hat, and black cargo shorts, just my usual. If I was real roadie, I would have on big, black boots with the shorts, no matter the temperature but it was fine fall day in Austin, so I was OK. I got to the front desk, the admission was a few bucks, but I just told them, “I’m with the band,” and sauntered on in. Poor, little old lady behind the table, “I don’t know anything about the band. There’s a band?” It’s an aging Austin trope, “I’m with the band.” I was, at one time, with the band, but I would go ahead and pay admission, to show support. Just about any place, “With the band” was an informal aphrodisiac. In old Austin? Too many bands, and not enough venues, so, no, not the deal maker one would think. You’re coming up on a turning point, a place where matters shift, and the easiest way through? A tired, sort of dismissive, “I’m with the band,” and then walk on in like you’re supposed to be there.

• Scorpio: confidence sells it.

“I’m with the band.”