Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, #1029 | By Eric Francis
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and most people are thinking about what fun they are going to have. I suggest you keep your focus on what you’re going to accomplish. Aspects for the next few weeks strongly favor productivity, career and achievement. You might feel some tension between these two aspects of life. I suggest you apply the concept of structure and boundaries to resolve that tension. Devote specific times to spend with friends and family, and then focus on the great strides you can make, and are indeed making, in this rare moment. Keep your focus and you can ride this energy quite a long way to some unusual success. One word of caution: alcohol will not help you right now. Keep your drinking moderate to not at all. If you are going to drink, please follow the suggestion of a politician I worked for: stay three drinks behind the crowd.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014, #1028 | By Eric Francis
It is up to you to insist on justice, where justice must be done. This is true, even if you seem to be the only person who cares. It is therefore your right, privilege and responsibility to be fair, and to set the example of fairness. This is especially true in our times of shifting foundations and the decay of social values. Where there are no morals, that is when ethics must take over. These concepts are similar, though in my use of the words, morals are externally imposed, and ethics emerge from within oneself, as a voluntary choice. The thing is, you’re in an instant karma moment. The world will meet you exactly where you meet the world. Your fairness will be rewarded by that reflection in the universe. But what is more apparent is that your willingness to listen to others about what they value will create an environment where you feel safe being yourself. These small gestures add up to far-reaching changes.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, #1027 | By Eric Francis
Keep what you say meaningful, mindful and minimal. Your words have impact beyond what you know. I know the ‘meaningful’ part is challenging, since you can’t usually decide for yourself what is meaningful to others, anyway. You can, however, focus on what is meaningful to you, and describe it in as few words as possible. The tendency of your astrology at the moment is many words, not a few words, however. And the tendency as well is to water them down. If you want to go overboard, do it in writing. And you will stay closer to meaning if you stick to what you’re the least comfortable saying, what is the most private; or pushing the edge of your comfort zone, you will verge directly into meaning. You can say these things to yourself, and you can experiment saying them to others. The meeting point of the two is putting them into writing — and sharing the writing, while the inspiration and sense of daring is still with you.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for December 2014, #1026 | By Eric Francis
There is big business moving in your chart, and right at the same time planets come storming through your house of achievement and success, Saturn makes its first move into Sagittarius. The theme is ethics. Seen one way, your astrology is perfect for you to take a success-at-all-costs approach to life. It would probably work, remembering the ‘all costs’ factor. Saturn, for its part, is saying that you must be mindful of the spiritual ground you stand on, which would include (for example) the relationship between what you achieve and how you get there. It would include making sure that every statement you make is true for you and also for the person hearing the message. Yes, planets are strongly hinting at a time of boldly claiming your power, your talent and your authority. Yet unlike most business situations, the final result when we do the calculus on your chart comes down to do the right thing for the right reason. There is one other element: If you encounter a voice of parental authority, whether in the form of guilt, some religious regulation or a personal hangup with success, listen carefully. I suggest you take notes and map it out. Nobody else can tell you what’s right and what’s wrong, though voices from the past are trying to hijack the issue. It’s not up to them — this is your call.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, #1025 | By Eric Francis
Easy does it till the Sun ingresses your fellow fire sign Sagittarius on Saturday. By easy, I mean that what takes 25 pounds of effort today will take five pounds after the Sun has changed signs. Therefore, I suggest you invest your energy in something efficient, like planning ahead. You might want to try this thought experiment, just for fun. On Friday, sketch out what you consider to be some wide, far-reaching and extravagant plans. Then review them after the Sun has changed signs and ask yourself whether maybe you could expand your idea of your own potential. This will be the theme of your life over the coming year — stretching across the divide between who you are and who you could be. Just because your ideas get bigger doesn’t make them more difficult, or further away. Discovering yourself is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, #1024 | By Eric Francis
You must win by persuasion what you cannot win by force. Clearly you have only influence in this situation rather than power, but that’s usually the story. You will need to get inside someone’s reluctance to negotiate, and rather than the psychology of it, you must tune into the emotional dimension. You are correct if you have a hunch that this is resistance for its own sake, or to demonstrate some point other than the actual subject of the conversation. I suggest you investigate the real extent to which you need someone’s cooperation or consent for your deal or arrangement to go forward. A careful look may reveal that it’s not even necessary. In that case, the emotional attachment would be yours. That would be good news, because you can actually do something about that. You can also exercise your option to be fully informed. That would be helpful.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, #1023 | By Eric Francis
Curb your ambition. Think for the long haul. This involves your plans, and it also involves your partnerships. Every one of them is calling for attention. Each is calling for a practical approach, and where money is concerned, a sober and realistic approach. You need all of this more than you need any idealistic vision of how the world should be, and more than you need to worry about your appearances. Well, except for one little facet of experience: making sure that everything you do is impeccable, follows the rules to the letter, and that you present yourself to the public as a solid citizen. Many eyes are on you, though that is not the time to act up. It’s the time to play a tight, short set.
Inner Space Monthly Horoscope for November, 2014, #1022 By Eric Francis
Events this month seem destined to reveal the futility of jealousy and the thing it’s made of, which is the illusion of control. If you consciously give yourself the opportunity to be submissive to existence, you will find that you have more influence than if you try to run the whole show. I understand that you may be feeling the need, on one level, to exert your power. If you do something gentler, which is to stay in contact with your desires, and responsive to the desires of others, you will be able to get the energy moving in a way that allows a real exchange and also that brings you closer to people. This is subtle territory, and the land of mixed emotions. Stay close to your desire, informed by love.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for November, 2014, #1021 | By Eric Francis
Something you’ve recently learned or discovered about yourself now must be taken to heart in a relationship situation. Self-knowledge is the basis of any agreement you have with another person, and when you gain some of that (or what looks like quite a bit) it will necessarily influence your agreements with others. Or rather, it will if you are paying attention, and if you want to live sincerely. You have long known that you could not fit yourself into any situation or partnership that is smaller than you are. True, it’s the way of the world to try to cram ourselves into these situations, though such a compromise will eventually fall apart. You might start from the premise that no compromise is possible — not, at least, on the specific matters you have identified. And then what? Well, one solution to that puzzle is that you proceed as an individual on your own terms, and others will get to enter your life as individuals on their own terms. A relationship is not two people living as one, because in truth that is not possible. It’s two people acknowledging their mutual existence, respecting one another for their similarities and their differences. If this sounds like walking over a cliff, it’s because maturity is in short supply these days, though from the look of your chart, you are being called to tap into your deepest reserves.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, #1020 | By Eric Francis
Something that has made no sense may come into focus all at once, and then just as fast disappear like you had not noticed. It looks like a puzzling question or discussion point where the solution or the real situation becomes obvious, complete with the little tag about how it would be a good thing to write down because you might forget. For this reason I suggest you note your observation in some way, and in particular, how you feel about it. The missing piece, if there is one, is the feeling aspect of the scenario. If you are experiencing a loss of authority over your life, you may get a glimpse of the issue. I think it’s on the level of emotional connection. For example, you may seem to disagree with someone over an idea, but really it’s on the level of feelings and sensitivity.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, #1019 | By Eric Francis
A little desire goes a long way. The stuff is more powerful than you may know, which means that right now you must direct it with precision. Use focus, and proceed gently, aware of the law of unintended consequences. Said another way, you must do something that is rather un-Aries-like, and consider a diversity of possible implications of getting what you want. It would be preferable, I think, to focus on what is motivating you. That form of contemplation is precisely the opposite of acting on impulse. Rather, I am suggesting that you act based on self-understanding and a real assessment of your situation. It will be easy to forego this. It will be easy to just plunge in, or to make a choice and set off a series of consequences that you cannot control. Therefore, use control while you have it, which is mostly in the form of awareness prior to making any decision.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, #1018 | By Eric Francis
Just because an agreement you have with someone needs to be renegotiated or clarified does not mean that everything is coming unraveled. But would it serve you better if you did? Do your current agreements really serve you? Upcoming events will demonstrate the value of your independence, something that modern folks are all too willing to give up in order to have some assurance in their relationships. Often that ‘assurance’ is based on keeping secrets, and what happens next is the likely, indeed predictable, result of some seemingly deep secret coming out. I would propose that this is actually rather mundane information, the more potent for being concealed, offering you an opportunity for liberation when revealed.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for October 2014, #1017 | By Eric Francis
Events this month will be surprising and most of all you will surprise yourself with what you are capable of. You are likely to accomplish things you never imagined possible, which relates to emerging as someone you never quite thought you were. This will require more than ‘being real’, though in the most essential sense of that idea, it’s exactly what you will be doing. Yet this is more like being real in the way that you never thought possible. You seem to have gathered the idea that if you are bold and stand out, that will ultimately have an alienating effect on the people around you. You have the potential to discover an approach to life where asserting yourself fits a social pattern that helps you and everyone else. I will give you a clue how this works. Note the tendency for people, government agencies and countries to resort to aggression as the first resort rather than the last. The cosmic law of your chart says that you can do anything about which you can speak openly with others. Establish communication first and act second. Maintain a dialog. Make sure that you speak and listen in more or less equal proportion. And more than anything, don’t try to hide who you are. Assume that you are immediately recognized for who you are, and be that person all the time.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014, #1016 | By Eric Francis
What do you create in your relationships? That is, what exactly do you make with your partner? Do you make food? Do you make great sex? Do you make art or music? Do you make a work product of some kind? Do you make babies? Or do you make something a little less pleasant, such as jealousy or stress? Consider the idea that every partnership has a creative product of some kind. Usually, the thing or the feeling that is created is wholly intentional. It’s not an accident when something is made; it does not merely happen. As the Sun ingresses your opposite sign Libra, you are being invited to consider what, exactly, you want to create with the people around you — remembering that it’s going to be something. This is especially true if it’s a sexual relationship, which is a pairing powerful enough to create another life. Just remember that all sexual relationships are procreative.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, #1015 | By Eric Francis
You’re being invited to go beyond your known borders in a bold and adventurous way. You seem to have had more than enough with being confined in a partnership or contractual situation, and you’re figuring out that you have much broader horizons than you’ve acknowledged any time recently. You are under no obligation to live the way you lived in the past, following rules that you followed in the past. Yet rather than throw anything (or everything) to the four winds, I suggest you at least state your position clearly to whom it may concern. You do not need permission from anyone else, though you will benefit from the integrity that comes from speaking your truth and not leaving anyone guessing, blaming themselves or blaming you. Of course you cannot control that entirely, but you can have a positive influence and keep your karma positive.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 4, #1014 | By Eric Francis
You need an outlet for all this energy. It has to be something that matches your imagination, and this in turn is likely to be a bit much for the people you’ve been associating with lately. It looks like most of the people around you are running about 15 degrees cooler than you are. Said another way, you may not find many others who are willing to take the creative or social risks you want to take, so I suggest you not let anyone hold you back, or persuade you that you’re being a little too wild. You may be, for their tastes, but not for what your soul is calling you to express or explore. You may need a little self-coaxing to openly admit what you want, and a bit more to act on it — though I suggest you move with the current momentum of your imagination, while that momentum is carrying you.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for September 2014, #1013 | By Eric Francis
The chaos factor you’re experiencing may be the result of clinging to an idea about yourself — some point of identity, which feels like insisting on ‘I am’. This has its effect whether one claims to be a doctor, married, cool, pure, gay, straight, trans, smart, stupid, old, young or any other descriptor. One problem with ‘I am’ is that it changes, and right now it’s changing rapidly for you. This may be making you nervous enough to hold on tight — to anything. ‘I am’ rarely describes the deeper and more meaningful level of existence; indeed, the insistence on identity can serve to obscure much else. Your existence is an adventure, a fact that is especially true now. Yes, you need something you can refer to for stability. A relationship will not serve that purpose, especially if that relationship cannot contain the discoveries you’re making about yourself. So what does that leave? It leaves the quest that you’re on. Define yourself by the adventure that’s before you, and within you. Define yourself by the questions that you ask. Know yourself in your immediate experience, by perceiving what is shown to you — and then gradually recognizing the perceiver. Consider the notion, “I am the mind of the senses, the consciousness of creatures.” Who is that mind? Who is that awareness? This is who you are.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, August 22, 2014, #1012 | By Eric Francis
There’s no point holding on, or stuffing your feelings down, and there is no point pushing another person. There are what seem to be competing forces in your psyche right now — one is saying you must break free, or get control. Another is saying that you must devote yourself to healing. Either way, you need to vent some energy. You need to express your life force. And it’s vital that you not allow what you perceive as the constraints of a relationship to stop you from doing that. Nobody owns you, nobody can and they never will. It’s possible to convince yourself that they do, and that you don’t really have any choices, and that may be a core belief that you need to address. Equally, if you feel blocked by not having anyone to share with, it’ll help if you go beyond that perceived obstacle and get real about sharing with yourself.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 14, 2014, #1011 | By Eric Francis
You may be thinking you’re having too much fun, when it seems you have so much work to do. What I suggest is that you keep the fun going, then connect that frame of mind to the work you have to do. If work is not fun, it’s drudgery, and that is life-depleting. Your long-term mission is to choose situations specifically for their ability to integrate productivity and pleasure. It’s true that every minute of fun is not necessarily productive, nor is every minute of productivity a hoot, though in an integrated reality there is enough to create a mutual presence most of the time. It’s becoming apparent that you will benefit from setting specific goals, then reassessing every time you reach one of them. The central concept here is specific. It’s important to set a goal to a degree of clarity that you actually know when you’ve met the goal. Sometimes you must aim high, and sometimes you must stick to the basics.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 7, 2014, #1010 | By Eric Francis
You may be feeling a truly odd kind of insecure, as if within your greatest strength lies your worst weakness. You can turn that one around, however. All you need to do is remember that you can. If you think of your experience as being more like a dream, it will be easier to transpose between the two similar thought forms, ‘weakness within strength’ or ‘strength within weakness’. One of the ideas on which the thought form turns is your faith in your power to create. This you have, especially right now, with so many planets moving through your solar 5th house and a spectacular Full Moon coming. Of the Full Moon, the message seems to be reveal yourself. Show the world what you can do, and by extension, who you are. That gesture might be connected with some worry or some fear, though now is the time to push yourself a little, and to take the extra risk, in particular, the risk of being seen, known and acknowledged.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 31, 2014, #1009 | By Eric Francis
Your charts are a beautiful mix of dark and light, which I suggest you think of as colors and hues. The planetary alignment of Mars in Scorpio and Jupiter in Leo is granting you access to the full spectrum of experience — particularly sexual experience, which always translates into some form of relationship. Yet while this energy is coursing through you, I suggest you think of it in its creative and biological form rather than as needing some kind of social structure, form or commitment. The pleasures and benefits of this astrology are available in the moment, and would best be shorn of attachment to the past or the future. You might think that requires instant enlightenment, which is true, in a way, if you think of enlightenment as being in tune with yourself, what you want and what you have to share. Focus on that and you’ll have this odd sense of knowing who you are.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for August 2014, #1008 | By Eric Francis
You get to live a little bolder than usual, though I don’t mean impulsively. I mean taking thoughtful risks, knowing what you stand to lose and stand to gain. I also mean a commitment to development over time — at least one year, and maybe more. This is the kind of risk that involves taking a chance on what you want to see grow and develop in the world, what you might call a daring vision. Based on these criteria, casino gambling would not be included. It’s not nearly creative enough, plus there is too much risk for a very low potential for monetary or spiritual reward. There are all kinds of thrilling sports, and while you probably like them and would have lots of fun, your charts are describing something more. You want the kind of adventure that requires intelligence, passion and the potential to learn and grow. I suggest you consider your options and then make contact with the long-term benefits of what you want to do, and aim your choices in the direction of what has lasting value. Right now the way society is organized, there are few opportunities for intellectual risks, or rather, they are not especially popular or considered sexy. Don’t let that deter you. Eventually wisdom will come back into style, and you’ll be in the right place at the right time.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 17, 2014, #1007 | By Eric Francis
Humanity seems to live in terror of its own creative strength. We see this play out so many ways — in schools that ban creativity, in political movements where people sacrifice their own freedom, in people who object to sex in any form except for a scandal, or those who deny any notion that there is more to life than they have today. Fear of creative strength also comes in the form of denying the kind of pleasure that nourishes in favor of pleasure that depletes. This is no longer your path, to the extent that it ever was. I would describe this phase of your life as being about pumping your vital force with gusto, in every form you know it to take. Make your choices based on how edgy they are, not in terms of what you get but what you must offer or take the risk of becoming. Take the risk not of danger, but of failure — you will be glad you did.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 10, 2014, #1006 | By Eric Francis
Focus your ambition on actually getting something done, and you actually will. It’s easy to make plans and to spin out ideas. It requires a little something extra, such as focused effort, a game plan and one other thing — the desire to make it happen. You can have all the other ingredients, and they add up to nothing without the desire to make it happen. This weekend’s Full Moon in the angle of your chart associated with success and recognition will give you a boost of confidence, and the contact with Pluto will help you focus your determination. I suggest you stop talking about your plans and put all your energy into taking the concrete steps to completing something that you know is meaningful, necessary or potentially urgent. Focus on quality but not at the expense of getting hung up. Appearance is important but in the current equation it could be a serious distraction. Stick to integrity.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 3, 2014, #1005 | By Eric Francis
If you want to tap an energy source that will get you moving, let it come from a deep place. Ideas and insights will not suffice. They are helpful and you have a lot to say these days. But that is merely the wind above the tide. The tide, the moving water, is what you want to carry you. This is not about emoting but rather about feeling your strength as inner presence, as confidence and as freedom from the usual array of security issues that are so abundant these days. Your next major decision is not the usual ‘leap without looking’ endeavor. Rather, there are additional points of grounding and of confirmation available that will confirm that you’re making the right choice. One of those is harmony between the inner and the outer environments, which can flow seamlessly into one another. If there is conflict between what you feel and your external feedback — for example, emotional resistance from others — pause and investigate what that is about.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for July 2014, #1004 | By Eric Francis
Embrace the ever-present chaos factor. There is no getting around this; in fact it’s so close to your core, and enmeshed in our time of history, it’s what you want to indulge rather than avoid. Chaos can go two ways — toxic or creative. Creative would mean accepting that who you are is a constant work in progress, and that the ability to change rather than be stuck is a sign of vitality. Meanwhile, you are approaching a replay of opportunities that you may have missed earlier this year, and now you will be able to do more about them. You have more space in your life, and in your mind. Ultimately this will become a matter of commitment, but not in the usual sense, involving someone else. This is about commitment to yourself and to devoting yourself to who you are and what you do. Other people may be involved, but in truth there is just one moving part, which is you allowing yourself to feel passion. Ultimately this will be the factor that gets you beyond any contradictions, within yourself or within your environment, and which becomes the galvanizing factor in your psyche. Therefore, allow yourself to feel strongly about something you really want to experiment with. Allow yourself to take action and to bring your body and soul into the experiment. And remember — it is an experiment; or rather, you are.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 19, 2014, #1003 | By Eric Francis
You’re about to experience a moment of clarity that you might experience as transient, or as a subtly disguised opportunity; be alert, and know in advance what you want so that you will have a better chance of recognizing it when you see it. The Sun’s ingress into Cancer is your invitation to make this opportunity real. So make space for whatever this is in your home, and invest time and energy into developing it. Pop astrologers of the 1970s were right about one thing: Aries tends to be a strong beginner and not so strong at completing things. Connect your motives and tap into your incentive. Your drive may be coming from the practical side of your nature, the visionary side of your nature, or the rebellious one — mix and match, whatever it takes. This could be hot.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 12, 2014, #1002 | By Eric Francis
There are moments when it’s possible to open up to what feels like cosmic energy in a way that changes your life. There are things that feel like inspiration that are something else entirely. You will need to use your discernment if you notice any unusually intense flow of information, emotion or some form of light. Listen to what it’s saying and tune into where it’s coming from. That this might happen with the help of a cup of wine or such is less significant than the content of the message, such as the presence of any emotion other than love. Second thing to check is whether you can integrate what happens the next day. Do you feel inclined to put it to use when you’re in a state closer to ‘normal’ consciousness? The experience may exist in a world apart, such as a ritual, a dream, an erotic session or another state of mind. Bring it home to the big world and set it free.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 6, 2014, #1001 | By Eric Francis
You may want to choose your words carefully to convey an especially vital message, but find that this is just not possible. You may not have fully formed concepts for what you’re describing, and as long as the concepts are not quite coherent, there may not be words to follow them. But you can sketch, you can experiment and you can keep the focus on what you think and how you feel. I suggest that in any discussion, you set up the ground rule that what is said is subject to revision, which will acknowledge the discovery process that you and someone you’re listening to are in. You’ll need to hold the same space open for feedback. A few things will help — to speak in I-statements, to be conscious of your own frustration, and to monitor when what you are saying is actually painful or frightening. If you give yourself permission to feel, which means not judging yourself for feeling or for saying how you feel, this will be a lot easier.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 30, 2014, #1000 | By Eric Francis
Look carefully at what demands your relationships seem to make on you. For example, consider what you’re expected to sacrifice, or what you think you have to give up, especially if it involves an element of your identity. Consider the ways in which your affiliation with another person demands that you compromise your sense of right and wrong. Recent, subtle shifts in your astrology indicate that what is normally difficult to see is now easier to perceive. What has evolved is that you can feel your own values more clearly; you know what you hold dear, whether it’s an idea, a way of life or an approach to love. Once you have that context, it’s much easier to see the ways that what others say and do violates your sensibilities. Clinging to your values in the face of adversity is one thing; living them boldly is another — and now is the time to make, and act on, that distinction.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2014, #999 | By Eric Francis
It’s time to update your files on a relationship. All year long you’ve been in a phase of review or reconsideration of an important partnership. The question phase is over, and it’s time to apply the things you’ve learned. The core question that it’s time to answer is, what are you doing in this involvement? You may decide that it’s productive; you may decide it’s not working for you at all; you may decide that the situation is workable and that you’re still committed to it. However, you need to know where you stand, and anyone else involved must know that too. This meeting must be on level ground, with all parties agreeing that the situation is fair and mutually beneficial. This is likely to require some ongoing, careful thought on your part. For example, if you decide that the situation is not perfect but is workable, then the details have to be worked out. If you decide that it’s not worth going forward, then an exit strategy must be negotiated. And if you feel strongly about moving ahead with the relationship, you still have to do some careful review of the history of your involvement so that you don’t repeat any mistakes going forward. Whatever you do, it’s clear that you need to proceed with full information and a solid commitment. There are significant challenges ahead, and you have the ability to turn them all to your advantage.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 16, 2014, #998 | By Eric Francis
When Mars stations direct next week, the mystery revealed is less likely to be how someone feels about you, but rather how you feel about a relationship situation. When that moment arrives, remember how much thought you’ve put into this situation. So when you finally get that information, I suggest you trust it. The chart describes a scenario where you’ve wondered what to call something, whether you’re stuck there, what you want and what your environment is telling you — all of which are stylizations of the core idea of how you really feel. The only reason such a simple thing could be made so complicated is because it has so many other seeming manifestations, which all seem to move the central reality of the situation away from you. It never was outside yourself and it never will be. That counts for many other situations you may be wondering about.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 2, 2014, #997 | By Eric Francis
You will only feel abundant if you share who you are and what you have. If your plan involves doing something other than that, I suggest you come up with a better one. You have plenty to share, and though it may sound like a contradiction, you’re more likely to feel that way if you actually extend yourself and offer yourself to others. The easiest way to unravel the challenges you face in your relationships — which all seem to involve an exchange, be it of emotions, of resources or of trust — is to take the first step. Don’t expect things to go perfectly — be grateful if you learn something about yourself, or about someone else, or about life. Learning requires more than drawing a conclusion from one event or experience. Authentic learning is about gathering information and putting it into context, seeing contrasts and making an ongoing evaluation. Remember that idea — to evaluate is to determine what is really valuable.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for May 2014, #996 | By Eric Francis
There’s a fine line between being lost and being found. Have you ever become disoriented, then certain you knew where you were, then discovered you did not know, and then finally figured it out? That’s different from cruising along confidently, sure of where you’re going — a quality you would love your existence to have. Yet to be there, you would need to know where you stand with yourself, and where you stand with others. That is the quest of the moment. I suggest you start with where you stand with yourself. It will be tempting to consider what you would do based on another person’s feelings, or to plot out your life based on what might happen in a relationship. The order of the moment seems to be how you can live your life spontaneously as yourself, following your plan for your own existence. Yes, it’s possible that plan involves investing your whole consciousness and intent within the life of someone else. You might ask yourself how that’s worked out for you in the past, and how much of what you have wanted to accomplish you actually have accomplished. Or closer to the point, to what extent do you feel that your way of relating to others has interfered with your ability to actually live your life? Once you sort this out, it’s likely to prompt you to redefine many things you took for granted in the past.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 18, 2014, #995 | By Eric Francis
In every area of your life, you must proceed with caution, especially where your relationships are concerned. Caution does not mean fear. Rather, it means awareness and proceeding with a commitment to having accurate information. Where human relationships are concerned, there are three sources of information: yourself, the person you’re communicating with, and your environment. Because you must direct your own life based on your feelings, you are the most significant source of intelligence. Given that your primary mission in life is to define who you are on your own terms, that means it’s crucial that you actually listen to yourself. Yet others will give you vital feedback, especially about what they want and what they intend to do, though you may need to ask directly. I suggest you be bold and direct about that. As for your environment, observe whether it’s supporting you or not. What are the complexities and wrinkles in the situation? Who else is involved or influencing the flow of events? Where are you, and do you feel like you belong there? The more sincere your inquiries, the more sincere the answers will be.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 11, 2014, #994 | By Eric Francis
You don’t need to assert your independence or pitch a fit to get what you want. You would go a long way toward your goal by having one, and by being aware of what it is. Then put it into words that you understand, and that another person can understand. Your solar chart suggests you may be inclined to take a less progressive approach such as responding to some situation with a combination of jealousy and thinly veiled aggression. If I may be so bold, you don’t have to fight to be you. If you feel like you do, you might consider the nature of that relationship and whether you belong there. All of this said, intimate partners or female relatives will be more open to what you have to say than you may imagine, so make sure you write the bit about “they won’t care” out of the script. Be fair, speak your mind and see what happens. I suggest you do this well before push comes to shove, and with as little urgency as you can offer your ideas.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 4, 2014, #993 | By Eric Francis
If an involvement with someone you care about reaches a crux point over the next few days, the way to handle the matter is gently. The situation goes deeper than you think, and not every attribute of it directly involves your current relationship. Many tendencies going back to the earliest days of your life, and your earliest intimate relationships with lovers, are involved. You can avoid one error by imagining you will fix everything by fixing this one situation. I suggest that the most productive thing to do is observe. The planets are aligning in a way where what should be obvious will be obvious, if you’re paying attention. The core issue, as I see it, is the extent to which you invest your identity in another person when you’re in a relationship with them. As the month progresses, your desire to be independent is likely to press its way to the front of your mind. Yet the fears associated with this are likely to become obvious as well; you will need to address both.
Planet Waves Inner Space Horoscope for April 2014, #992 | By Eric Francis
You are prone to intense reactions, though I suggest you keep a grip on yourself this month. Your emotional energy has more than double its usual power, and the planets are set up in a way that, for everyone, lends itself well to chain reactions. Your own planetary picture suggests that you may make judgments based on a mistaken sense of being unworthy of others’ love. I strongly suggest you research the facts of the situation and account for your own struggle with self-worth before over-reacting or even responding to something you perceive. Between the potential for misunderstandings and for things going out of control, it would be wise of you to put everything on a one-week delay before you make any accusations or decisions.
Planet Waves Monthly for April 2014, #991| By Eric Francis
You may be feeling confident, brassy and ambitious, though I suggest you monitor the world for your own reflection every time you turn around. You need feedback in realtime, and you need it from multiple sources. You have Uranus in your sign, which may be leading you to feel unstoppable. Jupiter in Cancer is offering a sense of safety while Pluto in Capricorn is suggesting that the sky is the limit. But your ruling planet Mars is in your opposite sign Libra. This suggests a more fragile and less easy-to-read situation than you may imagine, particularly as the energy heats up mid-month. Therefore, it’s essential that you tune into your navigation and feedback systems as soon as you can, so that you begin to notice the ways that the echo of your environment comes back to you. You may not think, or want to think, that this is somehow an expression of your own energy. The purpose of this feedback is not to judge it but rather to evaluate it. So before getting caught in your own opinion, notice the ways that shifting your approach to people and circumstances and altering your energetic posture actually gets a result. The nice thing here is while there may be some subtlety to what you’re perceiving and how you have to adapt, the feedback and the results should come quickly.
#990 Unavailable
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, #989 | By Eric Francis
You are a complete person without ‘a relationship’, though you will rarely find someone who steps up to this challenge. That means there are few examples in the world around you for how to live this way. You might become the first person you know who actually does, though it might take you a while to get there. A while, but not so long. This is a deeper shift in identity than most people realize, and it may involve what for most would feel like completely rearranging their psyche and their orientation on life. That in turn involves facing every insecurity that our society teaches us to use relationships to cover over. What I suggest is that you make decisions that are based on what you want before you’re forced to make changes. The sooner you act on what you want, and on what you know to be true, the more you will be choosing based on your own authentic freedom, your responsibility to yourself, and your own initiative, and less based on the seeming demands of a situation. The distinction is all the difference in the world.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for March 2014, #988 | By Eric Francis
You seem to be holding onto a lot of energy that you absolutely must express. I don’t mean a modest amount of energy; I mean on a volcanic scale. Energy always finds a way into manifestation. Given what you’re working with you must take up the power of directing it in a constructive way. That’s not a given, and there are no guarantees. The closest you can come is a commitment to yourself to be aware from moment to moment where you focus your mind, particularly in your intimate relationships. You may need some time away from a partner, or space to experiment in entirely new ways. Any relationship is likely to either feel the stress or come along for the journey, though I suggest you not try to push or drag anyone into what is inherently about you alone. If you value the relationship, be honest about what you’re experiencing and negotiate the space you need. At the heart of the matter seems to be an experiment in emotional independence for the purpose of exploring and experiencing life in ways you may have long dreamed of. This will not be a predictable process, and once you admit that it’s happening, you will be on a journey with a life of its own. Or rather, a journey of discovering, perhaps once again, that you have a life of your own.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, #987 | By Eric Francis
Avoid seeming full of your own power or making anything about you unnecessarily, especially at work. You don’t want to become the issue, whatever the issue may be. That would make it difficult to maintain any authority or discipline at all. However, factors in your chart are tempting you to keep the focus on yourself. If you are aware of this tendency it will be easier to address it; so consider awareness the first step. From there, I suggest asking people their viewpoint and listening between the lines for where they are coming from. Take all of this information on board before making any decisions. You are not under pressure to act at the moment, and you are on notice to make your decisions deliberately and meticulously. To do that, you need reliable data, not just hunches. Then you need to choose carefully when to decide and when to implement your decision. Till then, proceed slowly, and keep your ears on.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, #986 | By Eric Francis
This is a visionary moment, though you may be experiencing it with anxiety in a way that you cannot describe. Perhaps this is coming across as a sense of hesitancy, uncertainty or a struggle making a decision that has no basis in physical reality. In truth there is more going on below the surface of your mind than on the surface level. However, in order to tune into that, and get the benefits, I suggest you take some time alone and do some soul searching. Your orientation on life has become even more external than usual in recent seasons. The real nourishment that you need, whether for success or happiness or intimacy, will come from your relationship to yourself. And from the look of your solar charts, that can be a compelling experience — richer and more wholesome than nearly any experience you can have with someone else, at least right now.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, #985 | By Eric Francis
Count on a friend or partner who is ready to step up to the challenge. You can be sure that a recent close call in this person’s life reminded them what really matters; it was truly a lesson learned. Meanwhile, this situation or one related to it taught you that you must refine your political skills. This is not just a matter of being able to play the game, though that counts for a lot — or rather, doing so without losing your soul. It’s also important to say thank you and please, to leave no email unanswered, let people know where you stand on commitments to them, and be honest about your values. It’s important to treat allies like allies. Put on hold — for good — any impulse to be aloof, a bitch or needlessly cocky. Success is a human skill, always fostered by the good graces of your fellow humans.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for February 2014, #984 | By Eric Francis
Give partners and loved ones extra time and wiggle room to hesitate. Give them extra space to be self-centered. While you’re at it, give yourself that space as well; once you figure out you need these things, you’ll be more understanding of why others do as well. Over the next few weeks, you will gain a better understanding of where both you and partners are coming from. Remember that a partner or loved one’s lack of confidence may be associated with a memory that long predates your association. People will often allow their own past impressions to influence or even dictate what happens in a present-time situation. Ideally we would not do this, however, it’s more likely that the first step is learning to notice when it’s happening. This is the theme of the year for you — to know and understand the nature of projection, perhaps the most common psychological phenomenon. Projection is when you see something about yourself existing exclusively outside of yourself. As a clever writer recently pointed out, projection can only happen in the dark. So the first step is to gradually turn up the lights so you can see what is happening. The second step is to keep asking yourself what belongs to you and what belongs to someone else, and not to be satisfied with an answer till you have several points of documentation.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, #983 | By Eric Francis
I suggest you respond with awareness to the subtle change of direction that’s come over your life in recent weeks. It may not seem like you’re being dragged toward any specific destination, but neither are you drifting, nor are you stuck. It’s not necessary to make elaborate plans to get where you want to go, and I suggest you notice the worthwhile opportunities and extraordinary resources all located within arm’s reach and a one-hour trip of where you are now situated. Not only isn’t it too late; you’d be right on time.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 10, 2014, #982 | By Eric Francis
You have made your point; you don’t have to make it again, especially if it means in any way jeopardizing a relationship with someone who would be happier to cooperate with you than be your adversary. The theme of the next few months is that people will tend to become what you make them. You cast them into the role that you play, so it would be helpful to view the people around you in the most benevolent light. Look for opportunities to collaborate and take any chance you get to defuse potentially hostile situations and let any petty matters fizzle out. You currently live in a somewhat reactive psychic environment and it’s essential that you understand this thing known as projection — seeing things as you are, rather than as they are. Therefore, be friendly, spread good vibes and see how the universe responds to you.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope — January 2014, #981 | By Eric Francis
You’re figuring out that you’re capable of great things. Yet none of it will be possible without fostering cooperation. There is, of course, the danger of giving away your power to others by depending on them for the completion of your goals, so you need to know about that potential pitfall and remain in full alignment with yourself. That means being the primary authority in your life. Cooperation is a peer-to-peer enterprise, a consultative role, an exchange of ideas, but without the competition or authority stuff that we’re so accustomed to in nearly every facet of existence. This is a seed moment for you, particularly where your work and your contribution to society are concerned. If you’ve been having ideas that you believed could change the world (and it looks like that’s been true for years) this is the time to act on them. The gift of the present moment is twofold: one facet is the birth of a new kind of confidence, despite whatever confusion you may be feeling. You are starting to trust that you can have an actual impact. Another is discovering evidence that you were on the right path all along. You have already learned most of what you need to know, and what you gained in the past is one of your greatest resources today.