ARIES (March 20-April 19)
The only reason developments will take you by surprise this month is because you’ve become distracted by less important things. In particular, I strongly suggest you not get involved in petty dramas and seeming problems in your workplace. These will only ensnare you in trivia. If you’ve already become involved, then snip and slip out of the web, cease giving your opinion and focus on working out old, persistent problems rather than anything that makes its appearance as something seemingly new and exciting. One thing it’s time to consider carefully is if the work you do every day matches your passion, your intelligence, and your creativity. If it doesn’t, that could be the root cause of any turbulence in your life. Yet there are deeper regions that the current Mercury retrograde is guiding you to explore, and one of them is your family’s connection to religion. This may be the source of a “work ethic” that consistently guides you a way from what you love to do, and what you’re the most talented at. One last factor is understanding the way in which your state of mind influences your relationships. This factor is not imaginary—how you feel, and the thoughts that you think, influence the people who are closest to you. Many of these ideas are, in turn, influenced by your relationship to the past, and that is what is coming to the surface now. Remember: Love brings up everything unlike itself.
TAURUS (April 19-May 20)
We often hear the admonition that “relationships are mirrors,” and often that works out to be true. Yet there is a mirror we often don’t consider, which is the looking glass of gender. Part of the “other” we seek in relationships is the seemingly polar opposite that lets us feel or experience existence from the viewpoint of the other sex. The differences between men and women are so exploited that we live with many false ideas about who this mysterious other really is. We make expectations on them, and on ourselves, that emphasize artificial differences rather than natural similarities. And we lose sight of something even more precious, which are the subtle shades of humanity that are authentically male and female, and which give us access to something that we can’t quite reach any other way. Yet what these differences also teach us is that we contain our opposite. That is part of the beauty of the reflection: What we see is interesting or beautiful because it shows us something within ourselves that we don’t usually see. That something exists in same-sex relationships as well, where we see another beautiful or challenging or curious reflection of self-as-other and other-as-self. As Venus and Mars move into your opposite sign Scorpio, you’ll be taken to some deep places on these explorations of the mirror effect in your relationships, and can gain some unusual insight into yourself. Mercury retrograde in Virgo emphasizes what I’ll call the psycherotic nature of this journey: the mind as the most profound sexual instrument.
GEMINI (May 20-June 21)
One of your parents had a mental sticking point, and it’s the place where you most often get stuck. This affects your work, your emotional health, and most of all, your sense of safety (which could translate into habitual anxiety). In other words, something that belonged to one of them—your father was the likely source—is affecting your life in ways that you may not recognize. The problem is that it’s a blind spot; you can look directly at it and still not see it clearly. Also, you may have a question about whether the issue even exists; in the face of considerable evidence, you still don’t believe it consistently enough to address the situation, or even to have specific information about what to address. The planets are set up such that a new level of truth is dawning on you, in a series of revelations. It’s like you’re unearthing layers of the past, including from past generations, that are influencing your life today, and that you can actually process and let go of. A few of these may take you by storm. Others will gradually come into focus. Whatever you suddenly discover, keep paying attention to the details, and gather your facts meticulously. Be aware that certain aspects currently in force, lasting well past midmonth, could be stirring up more than the usual amount of fear or emotional discomfort. Think of these feelings as being set free and bubbling to the surface. Then let them go.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Yours is said to be an emotional sign, ruled by the Moon. In truth, Cancer is one of the most mentally active signs. The two are related. Mental habits affect emotions and emotional tendencies affect our habits of thought. Think of the emotional realm as the energy source (sea currents) and the mental realm as the resulting expression of energy (waves crashing on the beach). Mercury’s current retrograde in Virgo seems to be suggesting that you reorganize, sort out your ideas, and focus your mind. I suggest that if you start deeper, on the level of your emotions, the mental level will sort itself out without much intervention. You can use your frustrations or complications as hints that you need to focus inwardly, though if you think of this more of needing to meditate and find some inner peace rather than needing to clean out closets or reorganize your desk. If you’re the genuinely restless type, then cleaning your desk might make a good meditation, but I suggest that your ultimate aim be to move away from the mental realm and go in as deep as you can. Once you do, you’ll see that your immediate concerns are actually of little relevance, and that your energy will shift in the direction of your long-term plans and your true aspirations. Let’s admit, you want more freedom than you have, and the way you’re going to get there is by tuning into the feeling of what it would be like to experience that freedom, and letting that sensation guide you home.
LEO (July 22-August 23)
In good times and bad, anywhere you go people seem to be obsessed with money. That’s because it’s one of the few tangible ways we have to express power. It can be acquired; it has the potential to make people equal. But more often it stacks the deck in strange ways, creating the illusion that if you have money you’re somebody; if you don’t, you’re not. I think you recognize the futility of this philosophy. You’re also talented at making your money go a long way, and the reason, I believe, is because you recognize the value of money, and invest yours in ways that are actually meaningful to you. Mercury retrograde in your 2nd house—both your cash and your values—suggests that it’s time to reexamine your opinions and attitudes that pertain to your resources. Make sure that your spending is actually in line with your philosophy of life. Most important, make sure that all your cash outlays are accurate. Read your bank statements carefully. Spot-check going back six months. Check the interest rates on various credit cards and adjust your commitments accordingly. You are likely to learn a few things that you didn’t know, but another discovery awaits: Your real wealth has nothing to do with your monetary assets. It’s all about what you share with others and what they share with you—those places where the whole adds up to more than the sum of the parts.
VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
Honesty with yourself is not just the core issue; it’s the best reward that you can give yourself. Self-honesty may be the most important necessity faced by our society. Indeed, we live in the midst of an epidemic of denial that many people comment on and few have ideas for how to help our culture sober up. The current Mercury retrograde (through September 12) is bringing many things to the surface, facets of your emotional life that you cannot deny. You may be feeling an urge to criticize yourself for not having worked through this material sooner, or for allowing it to still bother you. I suggest you do nothing of the kind. What you’re experiencing has roots in the distant past, most likely several generations. Multigenerational material has to be worked with carefully, and approached gently. If you take any form of a self-blame position, you’re doing neither. Search carefully the various people on your father’s side of the family who have influenced your life. Look at their patterns of alcohol use, what may have motivated their choices, and how they responded to their limited choices. Don’t be afraid to notice when you were actually treated without any moral or ethical sanity. The idea here is not to lay blame as much as it is to witness what has shaped your character, at a time when you actually can make some decisions about who you are and who you want to become.
LIBRA (September 22-October 23)
A tense dynamic is gradually leaving your life; it has been slipping away with the season, so gradually you may not even know when it’s gone, though I hope you feel a sense of relief. You’re replacing this tension with an element of stability and familiarity that leaves you free to explore more of the subtle facets of life, and of your own mind. Saturn is now in Libra for the long run, and Saturn’s presence in your life is easier for you than it is for most other signs of the zodiac—this, owing to a long and deep friendship between this planet and your sign. You may be feeling a deep craving to reveal the true nature of who you are, and to expose your layers. This, rather than doing the usual thing we’re brainwashed into doing, which is to hide them behind several coatings of excuses and ulterior motives. So, take the chance and be real; be true. As you do, you’re likely to discover something that is a threshold in any growth process, which is tapping into what’s called the unconscious level of the mind. Of course, it’s not so unconscious once we’re aware of it, but it has a way of dipping back down below the surface. So keep your inner eyes open. When we see the ways that our fears and self-criticisms have dragged us through the psychic mud, we’ve got that much more motivation to pay attention.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 22)
Sex always seems to ask more questions than it provides easy answers. Indeed, with the many ways sex is exploited by people and by business, it’s amazing we have any peace of mind at all. You’re in a healing process right now, one that is focused on your sexuality, though in ways that are not usually discussed in women’s magazines or on Oprah. One involves a deep exploration of your sexual orientation, and by that I include your gender orientation. We are given a lot of rules about what it means to be male or female, and we’ve usually swallowed and digested them long before we know what happened. Perhaps the most meaningful aspect of this involves cultivating your relationship to your feminine side. For decades men have been expected to express their feminine side while women have been pressured—by many factors, including economic—into suppressing theirs. With Venus about to be retrograde in Scorpio (October 8 through November 18, with early effects beginning now), you’re being summoned to some deep introspection about who this inner woman is, and how she expresses herself in a world still dominated by conflict and consumerism. It seems like you’re embarking on exploring a lost or concealed attribute of your inner nature. She may have hidden herself away because the environment feels so hostile. As regards sex, I would leave you with one question: Is it about power, or is it about pleasure?
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 22)
It looks like your ability to express yourself is at odds with how much you have to express. I suggest you take the long view of your creative process. Rather than focusing on your immediate desires, what are the ideas and projects that have been on your mind for years? What have you attempted many times and not actually brought to fruition? The amount of creative energy that you’re holding in your body, and its particular extraordinary quality, suggest far greater things are possible than you’re currently imagining. Indeed, the petty frustrations that may be hanging you up at work, or that are throwing delays and stumbling blocks into your immediate plans, are part of where your vision is getting stuck. None of those things are really the issue, or speak to the deeper possibilities—I suggest you not let yourself get too hung up. Separate what must be done or solved this week from where you want to be in a year or five years. Or, forget time—consider what is your highest creative vision for yourself, and organize your life and your mind around focusing on that. There’s an element of this that involves how you think of relationships. You may be caught in some old-fashioned (that is, outmoded and painful) concepts of what a relationship is supposed to be. Part of your creative process is reinventing your way into an entirely new concept of love and sharing, despite many past impediments to that.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 20)
You have not just turned a corner in your life—you have turned many. Your ruling planet Saturn has been through a series of oppositions to Uranus and squares to Pluto. This has been a two-year project, and the peaks of energy and the most difficult transitions are behind you. Yet I want to caution that you may be carrying trauma in your energy field from so many changes—indeed, what may feel like too many changes. This can affect your sense of well-being, of what it’s possible for you to achieve, of your freedom of movement, and whether you’re trusted by the people whose lives you influence. I suggest you suspend your doubts, and work on your own mind and feelings. All of these changes, and all the work you’ve done, both on yourself and in the world, are going to pay off. The signs are likely already there. There have been times when you’ve felt not just safe but also invincible, as if you were protected by a force beyond your own understanding. Who knows— that may be true. But your best moments have come at times when, by being uncompromisingly yourself, you notice the world moves over and makes room for who you are. As I have said many times, you are on a mission at this time in your life, one that blends the deepest levels of personal growth and the highest calling to leadership. On with the show.
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 19)
You know you’re intelligent, indeed, in a way that few people get to experience or even know exists: quirky, analytical, able to see five sides of an issue. You have a connection to the future that can seem strange even to you. Yet the discipline and luck that it takes to manifest your ideas can be rare commodities in the world, which tends to want the kind of innovation that was big last year. That said, you’ve recently had a taste of how influential your ideas can be. I think you figured out that there is a connection to being unequivocally yourself in the development of those ideas—which is to say, fearless about who you are. You see, this really is the key. Among the few things that could actually stop you, and have ever stopped you, is hesitation, self-doubt, and the odd sense that your mind is divided. These are all deeply personal matters, barely even environmental; true, your relationships can exaggerate the effect, but you know that how you use your mind is all about you. You’re in a moment of relative calm, though it does seem like you have a lot on your mind. I suggest you take whatever you’re working through and make it as simple as possible. Does it come down to money? Does it come down to what’s important to you? Does it come down to the fear of being independent? Name your issue, and address it directly.
PISCES (February 19-March 20)
I suggest that, in your relationships, you count on what you give without even trying. Trust that people are drawn to you for good reasons, though they may not fully understand them. Those reasons are about who you inherently are, which is something that you’ve gradually been getting a grasp on over the years. In terms of what years, let’s count back just seven. That’s long enough, and it happens to define a phase of your existence, your development, and your self-discovery that is reaching its culmination right now, in the current season. It’s true that you’ve paid a price in terms of instability and enduring constant change, both inner and outer. This has been the influence of Uranus in your life that dates back to your birthday in 2003. Around that time a process was set in motion. It took a little while to heat up, though by 2004 the signs were unmistakable. You’ve learned many things, and lots about yourself—among them, how to exist with any peace of mind on a planet where so little is certain. And yet all the while, you have no doubt noticed that you sacrifice very little when you give up any form of false certainty. Now you’ve reached a point where the benefits of your journey, of your many journeys, will gradually become apparent. Yet you have a few peak moments about to arrive, hinting of the gifts you have yet to receive.
Read more at the daily Planet Waves astrology blog.
