Aries is the ultimate sign of individualism. Aquarius usually gets this distinction, but those people down the block just love to make a huge intellectual exercise out of the question. Aries bashes ahead and has a good time of it. Now, however, you're embarking on a rather lengthy journey into the questions "What makes me who I am?" and "Who am I in relationship to all these people?" The issue is no longer, "I am me," but rather, "I am me and you are thee." The deepest astrology books out there say that you cannot really be part of a group until you know who you are—and you certainly qualify. Your life has been nothing if not introspective the past few years. You have taken off the yoke and the harness, and decided that you no longer look so good in a gag. So speak, and listen, in equal measures.

Here is a quest you can take head-on: how to be unapologetically independent. For most people, true independence, whether from dumb obligations of society or from the ideas of others, registers as some kind of a sin. But you're not a little child, and you are not actually subject to any authority you don't voluntarily accept. If there are people in your life who have somehow taken on the role of boss or big-guy, they are soon to discover that you're meeting them on equal terms, as a sovereign individual. This will most certainly shake up the dynamics in all of your relationships, and in the end everyone will be a lot more comfortable. But other people don't need the burden of being your superior, and it will soon become clear that you are better suited for leadership than just about anyone else around you.

You're about to get an unusual taste of freedom. It's as if you've been lost in the back corridors of the world for many moons, roaming in places where there has been little other than complexity and confrontation. When Chiron dips into your sympathetic air sign, Aquarius, in a few weeks, the world may well become a different place: a bigger place, where you are more free to think, to explore, and to experience. It is true that most people on this planet can't see past their wallets, and that too many relationships are based on the power we have over other people. Walk through that if you encounter it. Don't look back, to the left, or to the right: look straight ahead and follow the light. This and many other factors are conspiring to bring you into contact with a new tribe, spiritual family, or community. All you need is love.

Sex is about to become a lot more interesting. And by that I mean physical sex and sexuality: your ideas, feelings, and style of expression of your erotic nature. You have been preoccupied with the details of relationships for half an eternity. You've been taking apart your wiring and plumbing for a dog's age, and you've made quite a few repairs in there. You know how you work, and you have a sense of what, in relationships, works for you. These are excellent tools to have and experiences that will serve you well. But it's experience that you seek. Therefore, choose the people in your life well, and from among them choose the one or ones who are in the closest affinity to who you are and what you need. If you are in a committed partnership, focus on the exchange of energy between you and your partner. Let it flow; you are all but irresistible.

If the lights suddenly come on this month and reveal the truth of your life, that truth is likely to be just how good you have it. I don't think this is any kind of fleeting revelation either, though those first moments of radical awareness are like none other. The people around you really are your people, and the life you're living really is your life. Take that in. You are quite accustomed to being the center of reality—of nothing but necessity; somebody has to keep all those planets in orbit, and you're the one who's always up to the task. And it's certainly true that you provide a central role even in your current circumstance. For now, I suggest you enjoy being one of the crowd. It's a lot less pressure, and besides, you're one of those people who is naturally brighter than any spotlight.

Work has been something of a feast-or-famine affair for you in recent months, and at the moment you should be feasting. In fact you may be wondering how in the name of the Goddess you're going to get it all done—and that's exactly how: in the name of the Goddess! Since your whole work orientation is about service, and since service helps everyone, I suggest you ask for the help you need. Get over that little mental block that says you can't or shouldn't receive direct assistance. Imagine that half the things you have to do today could be done by other people. Women, in particular, have the idea that they should take it all upon themselves. I've been on a campaign to support my female friends in getting interns and assistants to take the load off their hands, and give it to people able and willing.

Now that you've learned how not to feel guilty, you can take the next enormous step and learn how to celebrate your life like a child, or maybe even like 10 children. You have loosened up something within yourself and finally allowed your energy to flow. It took a lot of work, and it wasn't easy; it's as if every little step brought a new trial of some kind, or exploring some deep part of your shadow-self. Suddenly, the way is open and there is, at long last, a sense of ease and freedom in the air. You know what you want and you can allow yourself to want it. If you did nothing other than feel for the next few weeks, you would probably feel pretty good. But if difficult memories of the past come up, remember, they are just that—memories.

There are those moments when your whole life feels like it's on the back of a giant turtle, and one day he gets up and starts walking. This happens to be one of those times. The energy surge is coming from beneath you, lifting you up, shaking up everything you called safe and secure, and yet at the same time reminding you that you can actually afford to be confident. You are not in this life alone—and if ever you had reason to be confident of this fact, it is right now. This month you get to make a commitment. It is likely to come in the form of a decision, and that may relate to a physical space of some kind. I suggest that in the midst of so much other activity, you stop and feel that sense of a shaft of light going from your feet deep into the Earth.

You're a person with a knack for good ideas, but you're about to hit the jackpot. It may take some time before you see them for how amazing, advanced, and innovative they are, and a little longer before you get to put them to work. But I suggest you keep track of what you're coming up with, keep a notebook, database, or computer files, and develop each train of thought as far as you can. There is simply too much to remember. My sense is that you're blessed with some unusually accurate ability to see the future, to plan for it, and moreover, to solve problems that most people have not even acknowledged exist. Therefore, I suggest you take your current stream of consciousness seriously; speak about it only with people you both trust and consider of equal intelligence; and from the people currently around you, identify the roles different people can play.

There are those moments when you get to cash in, and one is approaching very rapidly. The question is whether you feel you deserve it, or whether you will use this next bit of evidence of your success as an excuse to question your own credibility. Please, do nothing of the sort. Let the world teach you. If you can sidestep judging the results of your work, you will see how positive and productive they are, and will surely agree that they should be equally productive for you. Besides, this is not a matter of how much you are getting; it is a matter of how much you have. The most vivid reminder at this time in your life should, in truth, be that your most abundant resource is your intelligence. You may think you're smart enough not to get into any trouble, but I propose you're smart enough to get out of it, and do a whole lot besides.

This month, two planets whose names may not be familiar to you enter your birth sign: Chiron (discovered in 1977) and Nessus (discovered in 1993). To astronomers, these are in the class of "centaur planets," which are similar to asteroids but much stranger in many ways. To astrologers who are paying attention, they are known to accelerate the process of life; they raise awareness rapidly; they can work so fast as to stir up a crisis. But mostly they work to reveal our hidden strengths and focus our power of healing and, over time, our power of focus. Yet with so much else happening in your life, you may not even notice the entry of two potent planets into your sign—yet. By the time the developments of late winter and early spring shape up, and you see your involvement in what will be nothing less than a true-to-life social movement, you'll get it loud and clear.

I strongly suggest you resist the impulse to think that any opportunity you have this month is your last chance. If you don't pause and question the reality of that perception, you're likely to act on something prematurely. The time for that something will arrive—but for now you need to be patient and do two things. One is to allow the circumstance to withstand the test of time. The other is to allow information, which you could have no way of knowing but may somehow suspect, to emerge into the real world. This will happen in short enough order; the Sun's entry into your own sign in just a few weeks promises to fill in a lot of missing information. For now, you need to practice just a little more of the restraint that's served you so well the past few years. You'll be very glad you did.