SIGN-BY-SIGN
February 2000

ARIES

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
We tend to make a big deal out of the distinction between “friends” and “lovers.” And yet the overwhelming tendency in our culture is to have sex either with total strangers, or with people with whom we are in “permanent committed relationships.” Both have one thing in common: It’s not necessary to be fully truthful about how we feel. Strangers don’t care about honesty, and our long-term lovers are not usually interested. But these arrangements keep therapists, lawyers and psychic hotlines doing a brisk trade. Now is the perfect time to experiment with something different: sex with your friends—that is, choosing sex partners from within your inner circle. There’s something truly warm about it—plus, you’ll really get to be you.

TAURUS

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
You possess the very resources that you seem to feel you can only get from others. You have so much right now, you are so much right now, and there is a lot more of you on its way. To say that you’re in a position of strength and abundance is an understatement. But what you don’t quite have is the ability to succumb to your own power. I would suggest that what you crave most is some experience of total submission, some encounter that stretches your limits, dismantles your psyche, exposes your innermost strains of emotion and gives your ego that delightful feeling of turning into boiled rags. This kind of desire sends a lot of corporate executives into the dungeons of professional doms. But there’s probably somebody right nearby who is willing to help, if only you are willing to take the first act of submission and ask for what you need very, very kindly.

GEMINI

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
For a years I was biased against the spiritual sex movement, feeling that what we really need is the freedom to express passion, not a new religion. But since it was religion that basically killed sex by banning its discussion and images, and in particular, Christianity that made sex a criminal act, perhaps the general heading of religion is an important place to re-explore sexuality, and use the opportunity to integrate, in a comprehensible way, another concept that is too often lacking from sex: love. But whatever happens out there in the culture’s movements, within your own life, you are poised to discover that the fastest way to show up at the threshold of heaven is with your clothes off, covered with sweat.

CANCER

CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Untold generations of censorship have muted the language of love. Our commercial culture has turned the relating of passion into marketing ploys that promise and promise what they can never deliver. But potent forces are afoot in your world, and the essence of the matter is that the more that you are able to convey erotic ideas and feelings in language, the more you will be able to connect with people. Sure, we are taught to shut up and be ashamed of ourselves. Sure, we need to stretch to find a few words to really describe these themes. But just talk to people. Keep it playful. Start with what you like. Ask friendly but very personal questions. And I gather that those younger than you know something you really want to learn.

LEO

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
A door into your life keeps opening and closing. Or rather, it opens or somebody comes in, and you kick them out and/or close and lock the door. Orchestrating, enumerating or dictating reality are just poor methods for preventing others from consciously having a real impact or you, or overwhelming you. Coming up with scores of reasons why you cannot trust, and then, with your responses, making those reasons real, are only keeping you in isolation from what you really want inside. In order to trust, you will have to use your intuition, and remember that trusting is itself an act of trust. But I am here to tell you that that doorbell is about to ring again, there’s very likely to be somebody really there, and the hinges are working and the knob turns. If you don’t use it, it could be a while before it it works so well again.

VIRGO

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Questions of commitment may seem to supersede those of simple affection, desire and passion right now. But I bid you pause and reflect about why this might be. Is there really someone in the way? Is there someone else that you want? Is there an idea that you are fighting with? And do you really have time to be distracted by what may be totally abstract issues when what you really want is to take real steps toward your personal and professional destiny? It comes down to this: In choosing partners, who are you really, truly comfortable with in your home? Who do you know has an intuitive understanding of your feelings, or at least, who can you trust with the real facts of how you feel on any given day? Who would never lie to you? This is where to start.

LIBRA

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22) If you find yourself tangled in the webs and meshes of some kind of karmic love story, help is on the way. It�s the kind of help that will allow you to burn through it all at once, to resolve the whole matter entirely; so to take advantage of this help you, will need to be aware that the entire situation may be erased from reality. It will enable you to see the subtle network of denials and deceptions that is holding the whole thing together and then light the whole weird thing on fire with a big lightning strike of reality. All you need is the willingness to let go of the entire scene. Be prepared to give that, and you are let�s say more than likely to find it all replaced with something much more interesting and far more fun.

SCORPIO

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Scorpio is the sign of letting go, and your story lends credibility to the idea that we teach what we most need to learn. Take an opportunity in which you feel adequate to let go part of the way as a chance to let go all the way. The two most important words are yes and no, and there are really no shades of gray in between. If you get a green light, you must be strong enough to say yes rather than merely to put yourself in a position to be pushed. You must be strong enough to ask for what you want rather than staying silent about yourself, and filling time by making offers for what other people want—which again shifts the emphasis off you. But I say: You have many reasons to say yes to life, and very few to hesitate.

SAGITTARIUS

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
Your environment is changing fast. There can be no denying this. To do so would be to miss real opportunities that are right at hand. As it turns out, what you’re about to be presented with may seem way too unbelievable to be true. You have reason to have your doubts, because so much of your recent life has been a futile search for what has been taken from you, and which you have not only been living without for years, but had probably come to the conclusion would never be replaced. Need I say it is impossible to turn back the hands of time? I don’t, because in fact, what you feel was taken was something that could never be removed in the first place. But if astrology means anything, what now occurs will more than compensate for your losses, and fuel your ideas and passions for many miles to come.

CAPRICORN

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
I would say that whom or what you discover this month should surprise you, except that you knew it all along. Is there anything else that you already know but don’t know yet? Is there any secret information coded in the lines of your hands or waiting to be discovered in the patterns of your coffee grinds that would be of great assistance right now? Is there anyone standing right at your door, or burning in your heart, whom it would be a positively grand idea for you to notice? Notice what? Notice the way they seem one way, perhaps a little straight, but upon investigation turn out to be something, someone else entirely, like beautifully outrageous. Or the way they are afraid of absolutely nothing? The way they draw from seven universes at once? Notice the way they remind you of your astonishingly unlimited potential?

AQUARIUS

AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
The emotional power of realities that for so long seemed to hold you in their grip has now finally been surpassed by the strength of your ideas, particularly your ideas about who you are. If, as you have done for so long, you allow others, past or present, dead or alive, to define the meaning and set the terms of your existence, you’ll find yourself living in the framework of a dark past, trapped by decisions not of your own making. Yet if you choose to set the terms of your existence, you’ll soon discover yourself in a blazing moment, determined to live with clear direction toward a future that itself may be uncertain, but that promises a vast array of possibilities. The catch is that by letting go of the influence of others, you may feel like you are betraying them. I assure you you’re not.

PISCES

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
It is not easy to negotiate between the vast cosmic forces that you barely comprehend that are pouring into your life, and the numerous practical realities set before you requiring meticulous attention to detail. Neither is it easy to mediate between your need for patience, your desire to be impeccable in all that you do, and your drive to blaze forward. One way to size up your whole situation, particularly in its most personal manifestations, is the Course in Miracles lesson, “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” This is an echo of the old Jewish expression, “If it doesn’t have a solution, it’s not a problem.” How you define your problems will be greatly influential in how you are able to solve them. How you ask your questions influences tremendously the quality of your answers. How you interpret the symbols in your life, and the people in your life, will determine precisely what they mean.

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Cut the grease, clear your karma, be more free, have more sex. Eric Francis is a professional astrologer doing private consultations. For information about private readings, see http://www.PlanetWaves.net, or contact Eric at eric@PlanetWaves.net. Office phone: (914) 339-3339.

Eric Francis is an astrologer and writer roaming the galaxy, currently sitting at the place where two rivers converge in the secret Zen country of New Jersey. Visit his homepage at planetwaves.net, or e-mail him at eric@planetwaves.net.

Eric's favorite links this week:
Horoscopes4U.com RealAstrology.com Herstar.com