SIGN-BY-SIGN
OCTOBER 2000

ARIES

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Slow down just a little and you’ll find that all those landscapes and forests and oceans you’ve been whizzing past on the way to getting done all that you must get done are actually quite beautiful. You need beauty, not just the beauty of logic; you need the awareness of sunlit reflection, not just the timeless state of being lost in your work; you need other people for more than just to assist you in the pragmatic aspects of your mission. And if you stop for a moment, you will see that they are waiting there all around you, offering their illumination, their gifts and their sense of balance. You will lose nothing by joining them; as far as I can see, you will gain a sense of your achievements, and see a picture of what beautiful choices you have that are not dependent on how impressed people are with you, or how impressed you are with yourself.

TAURUS

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
It is a little weird when we start to get what we need from people. Part of why it’s tempting to avoid knowing our real needs, or to learn who we are, is the risk that we’ll be denied those needs, and not find a suitable place for the real person we are. But I would dare to say that recent events have taught you that it’s worth the experiment. True, a lot had to happen before you could arrive in this place. For whatever reason, life taunted you with the role of “victim”, and yet in the process, you got a clear picture of how your most innate capabilities would carry you through even that embarrassment. And now the field of life is a lot less tilted. This world is a meeting of you and many situations to which you are integral. In such a state of mind, you can only strengthen and prosper.

GEMINI

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
One gift of astrology is its ability to show us that we all possess at least a little of all there is. Gemini is renowned for demonstrating its raging diversity, and these weeks of history have you plunging into some amazing depths of realization of what I can only call the true nature of it all. There is nothing momentary or superficial about this phase of your life, though you may be inclined to laugh off some of the more astonishing developments and revelations as the product of your imagination. It is beyond me to say in exactly what ways, but these weeks and this very season have the power to alter the course of your life in ways you have been craving so long that it would be prudent of you to pay very close attention to anything out-of-the-ordinary that occurs. These experiences are more than “messages.” They are the threads of an ancient story left for you to follow home.

CANCER

CANCER (June 21-July 22)
The words of Phish come to mind looking at the Cancer charts for October: “With your past and your future precisely divided/you’re at that moment, don’t take another step...” Well, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stop long enough to size up life, to have enough time to think, to reflect on the effects and outcomes of one move before having to make another? I see just such possibilities in the offing for you, which may manifest as an obstacle that guides you toward rest, or an opening through which you see a place and time of rebalancing shelter. Time is indeed moving very fast; it is not our imagination. But within this compression, small gestures of sanity, authentic acts of disengagement, and taking six to ten whole breaths can be brilliant opportunities. Take advantage of them.

LEO

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
The prevailing theme of Leo for the past few years has been getting real about your creative gifts, taking your place among the artists of the world, and not falling for the belief that you are somehow inadequate. True, the story of those years has done little to reassure you that the world is a perfectly fair place that hands out opportunities like the free creative substance that they rightfully should be. However, I am certain you are left with the idea that your movements have not been haphazard. But the particular turning point you are now about to reach should do more for your self-confidence than all of the most positive events of the past few years combined. This is really just one step along the way, but one likely to provide a vivid indication of just how far you’ve really come.

VIRGO

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
There is no world but the inner world these days, though I’ve noticed in recent weeks just how difficult that little bit of information can be to remember. We tend to think of cosmic divides as being things like “heaven” and “hearth” or “god” and “humanity” or “god” versus “goddess” (do they ever get it on?). We are the Gods, though we have created bizarre cosmologies that divide the universe all these weird ways. I was reading from an incredible book called Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio last night, and she makes this really obvious point that every notion in our traditional spiritual database relates to an abstract “god” rather than being referenced to tangible ideas like birth, eating, sex, dancing or death. But nothing is blocking you from touching the beauty of life, as long as you remember that existence starts within you and ripples outward—and what a blessing to know it.

LIBRA

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
In this Equinox moment, I am here to remind everyone how screwed we’d all be without the Libras in our lives. True, all the signs contribute their unique energy. Yet Libras are the people who never lose their sense of the whole picture without forgetting the little details, and who remind us that there are other people and other important things in this world no matter how wrapped up we get in the mire of living. Librans are the ones who can handle the fact that there are both emotions and thoughts, and that both are gifts. Who never forget that there is beauty amidst the worst chaos and despair, and who seem always to be doing very radical and innovative things in the most ordinary-looking ways. So... hats off to Aphrodite, the queen of your realm, and a bow to you. (For your free extended birthday horoscope, see www.PlanetWaves.net/Libra.html.)

SCORPIO

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
You typically make a far more effective underground operative than you do a vocal, visible political leader. But there are those times when you somehow need to be working out in the open, engaged in simple, direct leadership, face-to-face management, and at times, confrontation. No big deal, right? What you are doing in this process is healing the rent in modern consciousness that divides our inner values from our outer actions. Maybe it was always this way, who knows. Most people do not recognize the danger in pretending they are one person when they are really another, of being the mystic starting Friday evening and the corporate PR flak starting Monday morning. I see this as a moment of clarity for you, and a gateway through which you can pass united in your truth and freed of the burden of hypocrisy. Amen.

SAGITTARIUS

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
If I were you, I would be seriously wondering what in the name of Zeus is going on. Have you slept through the night lately? Have you even wanted to? Do you have any sense that you control your own life, or has some ancient message begun to sing once again from the cosmos, compelling you to drop everything, to release all that has been holding you down, and to finally answer the call of your true identity? Yes, I realize it’s nothing you can talk about openly or casually, nothing that you are even inclined to believe with your rational mind. But we both know it’s real, that you are real, and, though you may only hold yourself as a guest in this realm, you are a guest on a quest. That you allow yourself to forget about it for months, years or decades at a time matters not. You are summoned.

CAPRICORN

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
These months are filled with the necessity to reconcile two aspects of yourself that you fear may never find a home with one another. On the one hand it is frustrating to be in such a quandary. On the other, there are likely to be clear indications pointing you far beyond the either/or dualism that has, for so long, plagued human thought (if you have not read a classic called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, now would be a very good time). Anyway, it is not these seeming opposites that are at war within you; there is, rather, one thought, some idea that you don’t deserve what you know you can become, that is causing this false sense of struggle between choices that are not the real issue. Try thinking in circles instead of lines. Try writing an essay about how your father would handle your choices now, and how your mother would handle them, and then, with that out of the way, how you would go about it.

AQUARIUS

AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
The real change in one particular relationship has yet to come, or rather the changes that a close partner is embarking on have yet to fully manifest. Yet your needs are a lot closer to this partner’s than you think; please don’t fall for the illusion of separate interests. But I do suggest you look closely at how easy it is to fall for this very illusion, how easy it is to forget that we all share common needs (food, companionship, experiences of freedom), and that when people around us take action, that is a reminder that we are free to do the same. The only aspect of this situation that needs to change is, it seems, living in the recognition that the best progress will occur in an atmosphere of giving rather than of taking. In our crazy world, the two are often confused. There is a difference.

PISCES

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
We can safely assume that life will always be challenging, and that to have a good life means coexisting with the struggles and provocations that seem to be a fact of existence. Yet some of us get caught in the turbulence and others seem to sail straight through it. There are, I have seen, two factors that get us by. One is creativity, and the other is faith. For every challenge or obstacle there is a more enlightened or efficient way to meet it, and that other way usually arrives as an idea. This is actual creative thought, in the form of new solutions and new points of view that alter the perception of problems so that we can solve them. Yet it is faith that gives us the strength to apply our own ideas to our specific challenges, and to trust what we know. Remember this thought, and you will learn that you are more than capable of both at the same time.

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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, 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