Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope — Dec. 17, 2015, #1080 | By Len Wallick
If you keep two words in mind, you will be present with many of your most important issues. The first word is ‘means’. The second word is ‘ends’. Knowing what means you have available is very much like knowing how much money you have in your bank account. The more limited your means are, the more important it is to be aware exactly what they consist of, and how they fluctuate from one day to the next. Having an abundance of means implies that it’s less important to be vigilant. Ends are a slightly different matter. To be clear as regards to ends you must know and be honest with yourself. Hence, it would be suitable to consistently ask yourself what you want from any person, place or situation. That way you can keep in touch with who and what you are, which will in turn help you to evaluate whether you would like to be something or somebody different.
Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope — Dec. 10, 2015, #1079 | By Len Wallick
Any restrictions on your physical movement in the weeks ahead are almost certain to be temporary. It’s nearly as likely that those same restraints will become the blessings you didn’t know you were waiting for. That’s the reason you should resolve to cultivate patience as your primary objective for the foreseeable future. That’s also why you should endeavor to see these developments as a gift of both time and space whenever it feels as though you have had either bodily freedom or prerogatives of mobility taken from you. If you play your cards right, any constraints now imposed upon you should provide you with ample opportunity to discover ways you can transcend any and all limitations you had previously accepted and resigned yourself to.
Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope — Dec. 3, 2015, #1078 | By Len Wallick
Most of us have another side we are reluctant to show, a vulnerable side. It would seem that your vulnerable side needs some love right now. At least to begin with, that love will probably have to come from you. Actually, that’s a good thing. After all, nobody understands your needs better than you do. The question is whether you can give yourself the same benefit of the doubt you would readily provide to another for whom you feel affection. The answer lies in going back to the basics. Among other things, love entails acceptance, trust and support. Therefore, do for yourself what you would want a lover to do for you. Give yourself a warm embrace every night. Tell yourself that you are good and worthy every morning. Invite your needs to stay in your heart and be what they are.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope — December 2015, #1077 | By Eric Francis
You must use strategy to accomplish your goals. Effort and passion are necessary (and you have plenty) but they will not be enough. Motivation is drive, and strategy is guidance. That means thinking. By this, I mean manual mode, step-by-step, careful and reflective thought. We’re not accustomed to this and Aries is not exactly famous for it — but you are capable of using your mind this way and you will profit from doing so. It will help if the strategy you use is an organic expression of who you are. You should not have to think against your own grain or use ideas that somehow violate your ethics. Rather, the best course of action depends on your own innate skills, traits and temperament, and most of all, your sense of right and wrong. You might want to tighten the mesh there, and do only what you know is absolutely correct for you, and does as little harm as possible to others. Your environment also favors long-range planning over meeting some immediate need. Therefore, an effective set of plans will take you a bit beyond your goal and into the next couple of phases of your idea. To do all of this well, it’s more important that you be real rather than exemplify love and light. Being authentic is not popular, and it’s not necessarily easy, but it will serve you well.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, #1076 | By Len Wallick
Both your inner and outer worlds are wider and fuller than they may seem. There is more support and there are more resources readily at hand than you might think. For one thing, we all have a tendency to take certain people or things for granted because they are always there. What remains of this year and most of next year would be a good time to exercise intent and take stock of those people and other resources in order to appreciate how much more they have to offer. Doing so will be a matter of breaking out of your own habitual ways of relating. In other words, get to know everybody and everything familiar to you more deeply by behaving as if you are getting acquainted for the first time. As for what escapes your notice because it is in some way hidden, you might want to employ a different strategy — active patience. Wait, but be alert for whatever surprises you. Then explore the reasons you were surprised.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, #1075 | By Len Wallick
When it comes to mastering artistry, students usually spend time developing skills in formal training before attempting to improvise. Musicians are often trained to follow the score before learning when and how to depart from it. It’s common (but not universal) to require apprentice actors to learn their lines and stick with the script. Many beginning painters start by copying the old masters, and so on. It’s about developing technique before giving free rein to creativity. In your case, the art of living may call upon you to do both in tandem. Learning and improvising at the same time can be a very good thing. The key is to be conscious of the extent to which you are in either role at any given time. Such awareness will soon come in handy as a way to understand your situation. Being aware of the extent to which you are ‘winging it’ will help you to better evaluate any risk you have undertaken. Knowing when you are in a teaching moment will assist you to more fully appreciate rewards you receive.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, #1074 | By Len Wallick
It’s not likely anybody is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, even though it’s always possible. Neither is it necessarily true that you are in denial, although it can happen to the best of us on occasion. It does appear, however, that you are missing some information you need to see the whole picture. As a result, you must make a decision about what decisions you can make right now, and what situations require more data. To simplify things, ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen, and plunge ahead to get things done when the risk feels acceptable. If the risk feels too great, ask yourself if you can hold the tension while doing some detective work to get the whole story. Either way, being in action is the key, above and beyond what or how you decide.
Marie Claire Horoscope for November 2015, #1073 | By Eric Francis
You have problem-solving power beyond anything you’ve experienced before. It’s as if your true intelligence has blossomed and is fully available. Part of that gift involves patience for details, something that’s also frequently eluded you. Put your mind to work on whatever might be vexing you or those you love, and you’re sure to win the game.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for November 2015, #1072 | By Eric Francis
There are two main aspects to this thing we call spiritual. One is the visible part, which involves bodies of ideas, teaching and learning those ideas in the world, the organizations people take part in to facilitate that, and more formal institutions and their various rules and laws. It’s in this area of life that someone may strive to be a better person, to accumulate knowledge, to attain purity, and so on. Then there is the invisible dimension — the one that lurks and lingers behind everything, occasionally finding its way to the front of awareness. It’s a parallel world, which can be visited through direct experiences: dreams, journeying, direct exploration of awareness, transcendent erotic experiences (such as through tantric practice), near-death experiences, and those vast moments of personal revelation that cannot be planned. It’s easy to see why Carl Jung said that religion (the first group of concepts) interferes with religious experience (the second). For you now, the conceptual and pre-programmed level of spiritual life is about to be dissolved into the direct, authentic experience. This will take some time — the next year or two — though it’s beginning now, as you read. Therefore emphasize your actual journey — what you feel, and who and what you experience. Put less into books and concepts and ‘practice’. The rehearsal is over. You are now the instrument, the musician and the audience.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 #1071 | By Eric Francis
You simply must think. There is no way around that fact. Your situation is calling on you to come up with your own ideas, and your own accurate information, which you personally verify; and to check in with many things you’ve learned up until now. The thing with thinking is that it’s not that easy, especially for people conditioned not to actually use their minds, which, sadly, is most of us. Thinking requires making some peace with the possibility of being wrong. You can reduce that possibility by thinking things through, using a few different scenarios. Remember the law of unintended consequences — which is to say, the one about how solving problems can create other problems. One last thing: here in Western Civ as now configured, our whole worldview is driven by money. What you’re involved with may be a professional task of some kind, in which case you may be wondering when payday is coming. I strongly suggest you set that aside for now, in favor of the work ethic of getting the job done well.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015 #1070 | By Eric Francis
The conversation you’re having within a particular relationship may turn around suddenly, so don’t get yourself in a huff about anything. Keep listening, and pay attention when you do. You will benefit from the information you gather over the next two or three days. You may gain insight into certain key people in your life that you would be unlikely to have otherwise, and this will change not just your opinion but also your emotional orientation. Put simply, what you know will help you get along better with significant others in your life. What would help immensely is recognizing that you’re working for a common cause — the mutual improvement of your lives. It would be wise of you to work out any anger or resentment that you may feel, particularly toward women. Come to terms with your sentiments, find an appropriate time to have any necessary discussions, and resolve to forgive (especially yourself) and move on. You have greater things to look forward to than you’ve come to expect. Therefore, let go of your old expectations, and point your life forward.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015 #1069 | By Eric Francis
We might ask about the intensity with which people cling to religion. Even those who are not actively religious or participants in its rituals can have a deep adherence to certain bottom lines, which have nothing to do with being a better person. This seems meant to avoid a struggle with death, and a struggle with sex, which are closely related. One thing they are related through is marriage, which is the ’till death do us part’ sex license. All the world’s major religions tend to monopolize these topics — which are indeed the most basic existential realities. My take is that leaning into religious values and beliefs (such as judgment for sin and going to heaven) are stand-ins for not coming to your own understanding of the very basics of existence. You may find that the harder you lean on religious concepts, the less tangible and useful they become. That’s an invitation to pull back the facade of what you’re supposed to believe and go deeper into yourself.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for October 2015 #1068 | By Eric Francis
You certainly have plenty to do and you’re motivated to get it done. What’s essential is that you bring your imagination to your work rather than just your time, effort and focus. There’s a purpose to what you’re doing, and the way to keep in contact with that purpose is to allow in the creative element all the time. This may run contrary to what colleagues and coworkers are doing; they seem to have ideas of their own, and they may seem obsessed with something that misses the mark. Therefore, you’re the person who must interject the element of that special something that keeps the project meaningful. Be subtle about this. There are ways to add the magic elixir that are not quite obvious, though you do have the advantage of understanding the original purpose of whatever you’re doing. That said, and collaborations aside for a moment, this can be an incredibly productive and, moreover, creative month for you. Make sure you leave yourself enough time and space to focus on your own individual priorities, both professional and creative. Don’t let work commitments siphon off all your energy, ideas and motivation; make sure you take a little something home every night after work, and that you focus on your own priorities. That means projects, but it also means people — especially after Mercury stations direct on the 9th.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 #1067 | By Eric Francis
Two events this week, the Sun entering your opposite sign Libra, and Mercury stationing retrograde in Libra, place the emphasis of your life on your relationships. If someone is seeking clarity, spend some time with them and offer that clarity. Notice if any of the questions people around you are asking also reflect themes, concerns or unspoken matters that you might have on your mind. That, actually, would be an excellent place to start. What have you had on your mind that you have not vocalized? What’s your concern about those specific topics — or just one topic — that’s prompted your silence? You may need to consider that carefully, even reflecting on what you may have withheld without even recognizing that fact. It’s possible, however, that you feel your potential to disrupt your relationships by being real. I have news for you — the only thing that can really up-end your life is not being fully authentic all the time. That may seem to come at a cost, but consider that an investment.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 #1066 | By Eric Francis
On our planet, it’s a helpful idea to keep busy with something productive that serves the greatest good for all concerned. If you have something of that nature that you love to do, and want to do more of it, then do more of it now — now, as in right now and over the next few days and weeks. Make an impression on yourself. Set a pattern, in your mind, in your schedule and in your energy field. While you’re doing this, the solar eclipse of Sept. 13 describes the perfect opportunity to strike a balance between productivity and self-care. Part of the pattern you can establish is doing both, with each not at the expense of the other. Yet the deeper value is service, which is a concept not well understood in our profit-driven culture. I am not suggesting there’s any issue with living well. I am suggesting that within your personal cosmic order, you will feel better if that’s connected to daily activity that enhances the lives of the people you come into contact with. One measure of whether this is working for you is the accumulation and sharing of knowledge. If you’re learning and teaching, you’re on the right path.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 #1065 | By Eric Francis
It’s time to let yourself out of whatever bottle you’ve been hanging out in. You may be thinking that close partners or lovers are the ones who have been hesitating, and your current scenario may be the result of a mutual reaction. However, only you can move your own energy. Only you can make your decisions. Only you can set yourself free and, notably, only if you want to. While your relationship life seems to be your highest priority or most compelling interest, for that to work at all you need to focus on yourself, your feelings and most of all your willingness to take risks. That’s a matter of confidence. If you focus on what you want, you can indeed afford to let the dice tumble where they may. If you are distracted by what others want, your chances of success are not quite as clear. One thing to always keep in mind is that many turns of events yet to unfold over the next few months were set in motion back in early January. Live the adventure.
Monthly Horoscope for Sept. 2015, #1064 | By Eric Francis
You may not make sense to others, and this is something that you’ll need to get used to. What you want, how you think of yourself, how you explain yourself — indeed, the essence of who you are — are all changing. This is happening while others may be expecting you to fit their idea of what is reasonable. It’s easy to fall for this. Being different, and going through a process of change that reaches to your roots, are vulnerable places to be. Often others who are intent on conforming and doing things the supposedly right way will try to make others hold the line. The key to doing this successfully will be choosing to not worry about what others think. Get accustomed to doing this now, and then get better at it — you’re going to need this skill the next few years. It’s not your job to live up to anyone else’s presumptions or expectations. You can go through five years of therapy or you can embrace this simple fact. This remains true no matter how much authority anyone exerts, or tries to claim. Look for any hint of religion or religiosity as the basis of the head-trip. Such rationales are almost always rooted in hypocrisy. Part of what you will learn over the next two years, beginning now, is to never, ever put up with that kind of bullshit.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015 #1063 | By Eric Francis
Your desire seems to be pulling you in two directions. The way it looks astrologically is that being passive is not working as well as it usually does. By this I mean you know you have to assert what you want, though you often end up just allowing things to happen; this in turn leaves you with people, things and circumstances that you don’t necessarily want. The other direction is newfound confidence in bold experimentation with desire. You have the moxie to go for what you want, by which I mean who and what you want. This involves taking various risks, such as rejection, or discovering that you don’t like what you discover. I suggest you allow a spirit of curious adventure to override all such concerns. Tempt yourself with what is possible. Allow yourself unfettered desire for exactly what interests you, be it someone or some creative endeavor. You will discover that this is a very different approach to life than hoping what you want notices you, or responds to your signals. Quit the Morse code and just plunge into the experiences that you want.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015 #1062 | By Eric Francis
For many people, work is toil. It’s the place where they must leave their soul behind. You may have been struggling with this idea, feeling or experience in recent years; it plagues nearly all of society. But some people figure out how to do what they love, or at least love what they do, and have it support them. You’re in a position to create this for yourself, though you will need to be bold and imaginative, and most of all, actually apply your intelligence to your circumstances. There are no pre-made solutions to this issue; indeed, the problem itself is created by all of the predictable paths the world has laid out for people to follow thoughtlessly. So the first things to set aside are predictability and thoughtlessness. You must take some chances, and take advantage of the odd opportunities that arise by surprise from time to time. Count on the fact that the world is full of urgent necessities, and there are ways to make yourself useful that serve the needs of others. But don’t start there. Start with what you love, then notice how practical it is.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015 #1061 | By Len Wallick
It appears as though a new chapter and another (quite separate) new verse are opening up for you. For the near future at least, it may seem as if you are living through both a song and a story at once. The story probably has to do with some newfound freedom you’ve labored for weeks to write into your private life. Your new song, on the other hand, is almost certainly represented by a new level of community involvement that seems, more than anything else, to have chosen you. Your mission is therefore straightforward, if not simple: to remain whole. In order for that to happen, it will be important for you to arrange things so that your personal and public life support each other rather than being at odds. Eschew compartmentalization at every turn. Instead, use your personal moments to support testing and defining yourself in the world, rather than letting them sap those efforts.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 30, 2015 #1060 | By Eric Francis
What you’re seeking is something within yourself. You may have the temptation to search in the world around you, though that’s not where you’ll find what you’re looking for. I believe that this is an engineered issue that in effect pits people against themselves. Turning this quest around, by which I mean inward, is one of the great achievements in anyone’s life, and what we might call the inner/outer issue is surely a meaningful one for you. The question translates to whether you’re a complete entity unto yourself. The outer search is a way of convincing yourself that you’re something other than whole and fulfilled. You might begin by pausing that; by giving your relationships a break; by at least committing to developing your inner journey. You might even remind yourself that you have one, and that it’s likely to be a longstanding commitment, often distracted by relationships in particular. You have what you need. You are what you need.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for August 2015, #1059 | By Eric Francis
To express oneself boldly and freely does not always feel free. Often there is work involved. Yet this is different from ordinary toil or effort, because it’s possible to experience time in a much lighter way — to get lost in one’s work. Really that expression is the opposite of what it means, which is to find oneself in one’s work. That’s what I suggest you do, and what I think your soul is calling for. Remember as well that expression is introspective, at least initially. That thing you’re expressing is yourself, which calls you into yourself to make contact with this seemingly elusive aspect of existence. You may decide that there’s something specific you want or need to do. There may be a connection between your impulse to heal yourself and to have an experience of yourself and also to make or say something. Follow that focus. As you do, you may encounter the specific resistance, judgment or deception that has, in the past, prevented you from feeling, being or speaking what you truly are. This may feel like something that was ‘installed’ in you, and getting yourself free may feel like bypassing or, better still, dismantling or uninstalling it. The mere fact that you are allowing yourself to try means that you don’t have full faith in its power to control you. Keep unraveling, and feeling, and expressing.
Weekly Horoscope for Wednesday, July 15, 2015 #1058 | By Eric Francis
Stand your ground. I don’t mean fight, and I don’t mean in a defensive way. I mean define your boundaries, your territory, your state of mind, and claim these things as a kind of basic entitlement to existence. There seems to be the shadow or specter of some parental authority that you’re feeling, which is clearly an element of your past. It’s too often true that such influences leave people feeling like there’s no space on the planet for their feelings, their desires, their needs or even their body and possessions. I am here to tell you that there is room for you, though you need to stretch into it. You must establish your entitlement within your own consciousness, and then spread that into the world. If you feel guilt, persist. If you feel fear, persist. Take these as signs that you’re on the right track, since guilt in particular is evidence of claiming back internal emotional territory. As for fear, you simply don’t need that. You have far more creative things to do with your energy.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 9th, 2015 #1057 | By Eric Francis
Doors will open for you, if only you would actually express what you’re feeling. You have plenty going on in there, and it’s an unusual blend of confidence, fear and desire. But feeling is not enough. Emoting is not enough. What you need is actual expression. The way you know you’re doing that is you feel like you’re taking a chance — and as a result you feel good. Sex is involved. You might be inclined to convert all of your hormonal impulses into some form of sentimentality, nesting instinct or a drive for security. That has next to nothing to do with what I’m describing; indeed it may directly contradict, in that currently embracing the feeling of taking a risk is essential to your happiness. I don’t mean bungee jumping or parasailing. I mean expressing something you ordinarily would never say or otherwise offer to the world, in a way you would never typically do it. Note how much of what we do these days is designed to be free of any risk, including a moment of going off script. Start there — burn your script and feel the heat.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 2nd, 2015 #1056 | By Eric Francis
You’re getting a taste of what it means to be ambitious — to strive for longterm goals that you might have doubted you were capable of reaching. You’re entirely capable — and there’s something much more encompassing calling you. Your life is not about what you achieve but rather who you are becoming. Yes, they are related. This far exceeds any external goal; in truth, what you express in the outer world can only ever be an extension of who and what you are inside. That’s the place to focus, particularly as you discover that your ideas and your experience of self are way ahead of the current state of society. You seem willing to take the chance to cultivate or provoke real change. For that to happen around you, it must happen within you as a matter of habit. Get used to the fact that you’re a different person every day.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for July 2015, #1055 | By Eric Francis
By now you’ve figured out that you have to break a few rules to get anything done — and it certainly seems you have plans for what you want to accomplish. Here are some guidelines for breaking rules: First, make sure you try the conventional channels and methods first. This includes knowing what rules or guidelines you’re expected to follow. Then, your next strategy would be to negotiate. See if you can engage others in a give-and-take process where your mutual interests are supported. Your astrology is suggesting that you have significant room to alter some important agreement, particularly one that you entered within the past two years. In fact, your astrology suggests that tuning up this contract or understanding is a high priority, and the sooner you get to it the better. All of that said and done, you might have to bend the rules to accomplish something. If so, stick to rules that are somehow contradictory or vague. Make sure you understand the consequences of your actions. And if possible, be subversive. Avoid direct challenges or any show of bravado. Most of all, be fair. Do what you need to do, at minimum, and skip the extras. Right now, psychology is your most useful tool. You’re well positioned to assess where others are at, and you have every right to put that information to good use.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 18th, 2015 #1054 | By Len Wallick
Let ‘connections’ be your key word. Itemize connections you have made in the recent past. Define ‘recent past’ as no more than three years back. Try to go beyond making a mental inventory. Go through business cards, correspondence, phone records, social media relationships and ‘favorites’ of all kinds. Let these people all know you are alive. Imply you are available to make some mutual rain — or art, or in any other way work toward mutual creative benefit. After refreshing recent connections, start seeking new ones. Look to become friends with friends of friends. If you encounter an acquaintance you don’t know much about, ask them to tell you about themselves. Admittedly this prescription for better fortune may start off feeling as though you are going around kissing frogs. Give it a few months, however, and it should at least open the way towards a princely result.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 11th, 2015 #1053 | By Eric Francis
You must work consciously and carefully with any resistance you may encounter. It will be risky to use force; it could be just as risky to yield to inertia. Therefore, persist gently and with full awareness. You are working through an inner block of some kind, and it would seem to involve what you are and are not willing to say. What do you think the consequences would be, if you were to say exactly what you think? I suggest you start by making peace with those consequences, whether they might come to be or not. Get yourself to a place where you have nothing to lose. From there you can assess the potential benefits of revealing your truth. You might also encounter a level of necessity or urgency in doing so, which could get you beyond any resistance you feel. The benefits would outweigh the risks. But are there really any risks? The greater gamble seems to be silence, which has a way of spreading its consequences. Meanwhile, take one step at a time, and keep asking yourself where you are at that moment.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 4th, 2015 #1052 | By Eric Francis
There is such a thing as too much integrity. In order to remain standing, every structure must flex and bend. In order to flow, every system must have some resilience, and be able to tolerate some excess strain, a bit of waste and fluctuations in energy. And for you to be happy, you need to be more open to ideas — which means not being threatened by them. By one reading of your solar chart, it would seem that you’re making sure nary a single dangerous thought gets through. But I would ask: are there any dangerous thoughts? And if there are, is it sex that makes them so? And if that seems true, then what is the actual risk? Well, the risk is revealing your humanity; daring to be seen and felt. Your worst fears may take the form of ‘something actually bad’, some irreversible consequence of your choices. I would propose that what you fear is actual unscripted existence; making contact with someone and allowing them to make contact with you, not knowing what’s going to happen next. Remember when you used to live for that kind of thing?
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, May 28th, 2015 #1051 | By Eric Francis
You never know what you’re going through till you’re going through it; and you never know what others are going through till you figure it out. Then you have to figure it out a few more times, and slowly get to what seems like the bottom of things. You are not there yet, though you are weeding out what is not true; what is not relevant. Process of elimination is a kind of logic and it can be helpful, as long as you remember what you have ruled out and why. In service of that, I suggest you take some notes to augment your memory. You need to remind yourself of what you know and what you’ve determined is not true. Yet what you’re moving toward is an actual discovery. At that point all the sorting out you’ve done will disappear, and an entirely new idea will emerge. Take things one step at a time. Small acknowledgements count for a lot. Put them together and they count for a lot more.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2015 #1050 | By Eric Francis
You may have changed your mind about something in the past month, something that really matters. You may even rethink that same thing several times in the coming few weeks. And you may be wondering why you’re not able to get a clear fix on your real position, though you’ve learned a lot from working through the question so many times. What you’re about to discover is that what matters is not what you think but how you feel. Emotions are the real motivator for most people, if not for everyone. You can test this out by noticing how often the facts are ignored entirely and people respond only to their emotional impulses. You may find that in doing so, you harness a lot more of your authentic motivation. It will help immensely if you remember what you’ve learned in sorting out things like harboring two perfectly contradictory desires or opinions simultaneously. It can be really annoying while you’re working through that, then you start to get the benefits. One of them is seeing how what seems to conflict does not have to. Often opposites contain one another, and support one another more than they compete. The ability to hold contradictions cultivates profound strength. From there, when you make a decision, you align yourself with some deeper core reality of who you are and move forward with bold determination.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, May 14th, 2015 #1049 | By Eric Francis
The usual advice about Mercury retrograde is to be conscious, aware and cautious around matters of communication. But the retrograde that begins Monday, for you, takes that to the level of a moment-to-moment devotion. Be aware just how much can go wrong if you make the mistake of being imprecise, or of assuming you know something when you do not. Therefore, continually check your facts. Read your outbox and send corrections to any errors in emails you’ve sent. Get on the phone to clarify any issues that are resistant to email or are getting caught in time lags. The most important thing to watch is the potential that you might believe something that is not true, and then act on it. Therefore, interpose at least two layers of fact-checking and any necessary delays to make sure you get it right. And if you are vaguely uncertain, pause and check again. Just make sure you don’t choose to ignore that feeling of ‘vague uncertainty’.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, May 7th, 2015 #1048 | By Eric Francis
For maximum benefit, focus your life close to where you live, sticking to your neighborhood and your home over the next few days. What is familiar is what will be both nourishing and helpful. What’s more significant is that you be available to sort out the facts in a situation that may require clarification — and direct knowledge of your local environment. If you do what you can now to resolve a small matter, you will prevent it from becoming a larger one. While it’s your inclination to trust and to take everyone at face value, your current scenario calls for careful fact checking and analysis. It’s essential that you not be stuck in any one opinion or point of view; flexibility is your best friend right now. And while you must be discerning and cautious, it’s important that you not give the idea that you’re biased for or against any one side right now. Preserve your objectivity, or at least the appearance of objectivity.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, April 30th, 2015 #1047 | By Eric Francis
Yours is the sign of ‘me’ and ‘I am’, but something else is in the air at the moment. I suggest you focus your orientation on both shared resources, and collective resources. Political and corporate rhetoric for the past 30 years has force-fed people with the idea that they themselves are all that matters, everyone else be damned. We need to recognize what an anti-social concept that is, since the whole notion of society is based on the sharing of resources that pay for things like streetlights, fire departments, storm drains, parks and even shopping malls. I suggest you think of everything in collective terms, and notice your connection to everyone with whom you transact even the most casual business. Notice how people depend on you and how you depend on them. Notice what energy (in any form) moves when that dependency is activated. You may pay someone to make your lunch, yet even so, are you grateful they did it for you?
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for May 2015 #1046 | By Eric Francis
Pull your mind into focus and set your priorities. This will give you a sense of direction. As you move through the next few weeks, you’re likely to revise your plans many times, or more likely, rework the language you use to describe them. I suggest you not get lost in the sauce of thinking that the words you pick to describe something are more important than whatever they are designed to illustrate. Focus on your central idea and you’ll find it a lot easier to be clear. Stay close to your subject matter. At the same time, keep shifting your viewpoint, so you get a fuller panorama. Notice when your perspective gets stuck. When it does, move around and look from another angle, or through a different lens. If you find yourself arguing, argue the other side of the case as well, and then weigh and balance what you learn. Language is always a matter of experimentation, of revision, and of getting the best approximate fit between a concept and how you sketch it out. Think in terms of improvement rather than perfection. Remember that good writing is not merely about clear words but rather about expressing clear ideas. And it can take some time to get there. If you consider that you’re describing something that already exists, this process will be much easier.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, April 16th, 2015 #1045 | By Eric Francis
Take care of unfinished business. Make sure you’ve said what you have to say, and done what you have to do. I suggest you go back and do an inventory of what you have not completed and any promises you have not kept. Choose from your most important priorities and start with the top tier. You might also take care of a bunch of easy ones right up front so you build some momentum. We are approaching a New Moon in your birth sign, followed by the Sun changing signs. That means new opportunities, and more than that, new priorities. In preparation for that you will want to wipe your slate as clean and clear as you can, with little or nothing lingering from the past. And if you take up that issue you will see you really do have plenty of influence.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, April 9, 2015 #1044 | By Eric Francis
Relationships are not everything and everything is a relationship. Or as Thaddeus Golas once wrote in The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment, “We are equal beings and the universe is our relationships with one another.” What has recently developed with another person is likely to have shifted your orientation not just on that particular encounter, but on existence. You have seen through something, perhaps a belief you held about the world, or an appearance that you were taking for ultimate reality. What you’ve really experienced is the propensity of people and their circumstances to change. As a result of taking this on board, your own story is moving in some interesting directions. You are likely to be free in a way that you were not before, because you’re considering real data from your environment rather than something you wanted to be true. This will have a way of bringing you closer to yourself — and allowing you to be closer to others.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, April 2, 2015 #1043 | By Eric Francis
What is your concept of original? Something you haven’t heard of? That would be a good start, though you’ll probably need to go further than that. Your relationship circumstances are calling for a deeper approach than you might ordinarily take. Or said another way, something unusual is happening and you need to respond in a way that’s appropriate to your situation. It’s not exactly a new development. It’s more like a situation that’s been brewing for a long time is revealing something you hadn’t seen before. The surface of something is being drawn back, and you’re getting a look at some of the underlying tensions. Those, in turn, describe a level of necessity that it would help you immensely to consider honestly. You are in a “things are not what they seemed” moment — which means you get to see them as they are.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for April 2015 #1042 | By Eric Francis
This month will be full of surprises, though mostly you will surprise yourself with your ability to come up with creative solutions to problems that others would dare not touch. The thing you must do, however, is take control of your money. Make sure that your approach to the various challenges of life uses money as the last line of resort. Correspondingly, you would be wise to turn your attention to generating and accumulating money, the better to secure your ability to fulfill your long-term plans. This is going to take determination, a measure of shrewdness and most of all, discipline. Steer as clear as you can of the burdens of others. It’s not that you don’t care; to the contrary, you do. The issue is that others will depend on you if they can, as if calling in old favors or compensation that exist entirely in their imagination. Follow this theme through the next few months — it’s essential that you establish yourself in your actual, present-moment here-and-now rather than being drawn backwards into the past. Point your mind, your senses and all of your intentions forward. Use your intelligence to know where you are headed at any time, and keep turning yourself in your chosen direction of travel — no matter how many times you must choose again.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, March 19, 2015 #1041 | By Eric Francis
You’re about to discover the missing piece. Yet it will be more like a scrim is lifting and you can suddenly see the full scene for what it is. What you discover was missing will turn out to be very nearly everything. That everything is context. It is understanding something about your environment that was rather glaringly obvious that you somehow overlooked. Don’t feel too bad about that; the environment is the most difficult thing to see at all, much less observe keenly. Over the next few days you will make many discoveries about just how (and better still, why) you want to be fully aware of and engaged with your surroundings. Once you get the hang of that, you will never want to do anything else. Being able to see and feel everything around you, and see through it to the deeper layer, is the way to live.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, March 12, 2015 #1040 | By Eric Francis
If you think you’re unstoppable, you probably are. But you have to be clever about it. In particular, use your mind first, rather than banging your head on anything. You have a number of tools at your disposal. The most important of which is your ability to conjure and invent. You’re also working with an abundance of energy. You have a gift for penetrating the veils of illusion with understanding. And finally you have charm going for you. That may be the most valuable of the bunch, and the easiest to use. You’ll get the most economy out of calm confidence and optimism. Be generous with how much you like people; you don’t always need to say it, but make sure you convey that through your approach to others. One last tool — you have a touch of clairvoyance going for you. Trust your hunches.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, March 5, 2015 #1039 | By Len Wallick
It’s step-up time for everybody in general, but most of all you. What is required is not beyond what you have to offer. Indeed, the frictionless ease with which celestial lights appear to move should provide you with an example to follow and a way to know you are on the path that suits your own progress best. It is not so much the path of least resistance for you as it is less resistance from you. Instead of struggling to sustain what is no longer appropriate, you will know your personal evolution is proceeding apace if life gets easier and getting along is less work. You might want to start on this path by ascertaining where others would like you to take more responsibility, then acting to do so while avoiding any temptation to claim greater credit. — by Len Wallick
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 #1038 | By Len Wallick
You go, Aries. You have every reason to be confident. What you have right now is all that’s required to plunge ahead with your most cherished ambitions. Who you currently are is more than enough to excel. To further assure that you are the complete package of efficacious energy, all you have to bring to the table is a sure and certain knowledge of what you want, along with a disciplined focus on getting it. All you need to watch out for has to do with your feet. First off, watch where you step. After that, please try to be careful that you always step up, not on. Don’t be a heel. Stay on your toes. — by Len Wallick
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for March 2015 #1037 | By Eric Francis
There’s something unusually beautiful or momentous brewing, though you may not be able to focus on it well enough to predict. Plenty has been happening; you have been keeping busy and from the look of things, positive and involved with life. Yet there’s something beyond all that, as if hiding off to the side of another dimension. If you listen carefully you will hear the movement backstage. If you go backstage and look around, you will gain both insight and influence. The way to guide this event is to envision it. Imagine that you have been offered an opportunity to make one significant change in your life, yet something all-encompassing. You may know what you want to get away from, or what you want to replace, though the question is, with what? How would it look visually, and feel, viscerally? I know this is easier for some people than for others; and that most significantly, this involves giving yourself permission to exist in some form other than what you are now. That is the actual boundary that you stretch with a real experience of growth. You are not far from this now. There is some wild momentum moving in your life. The sensation is as if something you will thrive on is about to precipitate, seemingly out of nowhere. But it’s definitely coming from somewhere, or rather someone, and that would be you.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 #1036 | By Eric Francis
It’s time to reconcile who you are with who you present yourself as being. As the digital era has developed so rapidly during the past 10 years, evermore people are acting as their own publicists. To some extent this is true for all of us. You have reached a moment of reconciliation, where your image and your reality need to be perfectly in sync, or at least honestly reflective of one another. This is about more than having an accurate Facebook page or Match.com profile. It’s about a level of integrity wherein you actually are who you are. Recent events may have demonstrated certain inconsistencies between image and substance, and the problems they can create. You may not feel comfortable fully exposing yourself. But if that is true, the question is, why do you want people to know some things about you but not others? What goes on what list?
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 #1035 | By Eric Francis
What is your ideal concept of a group? And if those people got together, where would it be? Most group activities have shifted to the Internet. Your chart describes you planning some kind of collective activity, designed with a specific purpose (rather than only recreational). I suggest you plan on the small side. And keep it original, and a bit secluded. You might think of this as a gathering of people who speak the same language, which might be the common ground of science, literature, art or technology. Imagine if you had the opportunity to fully express and explore some unusual idea with people who clearly understood it. Think of it as a sacred space for that particular interest, no matter how odd or unusual, with the result being a moment of freedom to consider and share your ideas. Try it out, and keep it real (in three-dimensional space rather than online).
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 #1034 | By Eric Francis
Use your imagination. It’s all you need. If you can visualize something, you are most of the way to creating it. You may not even need to take that second step, because just considering the possibilities is beautiful. Yet you’re likely to take action, and when you do, make sure you’re focused on what you want the most. Please don’t compromise based on what you think is possible or impossible. Right now all potentials are equally accessible. What you can render in your imagination is just one step away from manifesting in reality, which is why it would be wise of you to stick to what you want to manifest, create or access — then allow that to be real with no guilt. Focusing that one thought will have more healing power than a year of therapy.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for February, 2015 #1033 | By Eric Francis
You seem to be getting involved with people in new ways. This may look like a rearrangement of your social life, perhaps as canceled plans, then other things coming up spontaneously. You may find yourself in different social circles, or arrive somewhere and say gee whiz, how did I get here? You’re in the midst of a reshuffling experiment, and while you’re there you can have great fun. Yet what I see happening is that you’re engaging with people in a different way, for a different purpose. That new purpose obviates certain kinds of social activities and opens you up to other ones. The difference between old and new will seem like you are relating on a lighter but simultaneously more meaningful level. There is a focus on authentic communication. You’re able to express and evoke from people opinions that they might not ordinarily share. Energetically, the shift within you may feel like this. Normally you relate through Mars, which has a distinct polarity. Currently you are relating through Mercury, which has many possible valences, and thus, can relate on equal terms to more people in more diverse ways. If there’s a focus on language, much of that involves a different type of listening — the kind that evokes trust, because people get that you understand and that you care.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 #1032 | By Eric Francis
Your role in a group or organization that you’re affiliated with is about to change. So too will the purpose of that group in your life. Developments will occur in a series of events over the coming week, and you’ll want to take them one at a time, and consciously process the information. Each time you learn something, make sure you’re aware there may be one more bit. As you gather the details, you’ll get a better idea of what you need to do, who you can trust and what the purpose of the changes is really about. Pay close attention and act cautiously, because these developments can influence your professional income, for better or for worse. Be aware that the dust won’t fully settle until the second week of February, when Mercury stations direct. Till then tread lightly and make no assumptions.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015 #1031 | By Eric Francis
Trying to imagine how others perceive you can be perilous, and you’re almost always wrong. It’s such a waste of time and energy I suggest you skip it, and hang out where you feel good, where you feel welcome and where people willingly make eye contact with you. However, this is a fine time to keep your promises, take extra responsibility for and with the people around you, and hold yourself fully responsible for what you choose. It’s also a great moment to defuse any disagreements in your environment or at least to take the opportunity to ratchet them down rather than ramp them up. Go gently in your environment. The vibe in the air is that of instant karma, so spread peace and love in ways large and small.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for January 2015, #1030 | By Eric Francis
You are way ahead of yourself, even though you may have this crazy idea that you’re lagging behind. Like any inventor (that does seem to be your role these days), you have more ideas than you can put into practical use on any given day, though now you must embody the principle of cooperation. One sticking point here seems to be the idea that nothing of any worth is accomplished unless some people are exploited. But it’s time to question that one. Cooperation is voluntary. That voluntary factor is also an important step out of false individuality and into true autonomy. So you don’t have to feel bad about asking people to collaborate with you. However, you will need to be aware of any murky psychology that emerges once people form any kind of collective, or share in any goal. Remind people that it’s a privilege to partake in anything larger than themselves, and to work toward goals that benefit the whole community. Some of the more unusual psychology will be your property alone, focused on the theme of your early environment. What, exactly, happened when the child you once were tried to get people to cooperate with you, or with one another? That set up some negative expectations, and it’s time to let them go in support of better outcomes. If you can, so can everyone else. That is leadership.