Aries (March 20-April 19) — Chiron in Aries (2018-2027) represents a maturing process for you. Chiron takes the slow approach, sifting through every grain of personal experience, and encouraging you to search yourself in every mirror. You have plenty of those, though the current place to look is in everything you do in the digital environment. How is your digital personality different from your in-person one? Have you accounted for the impact that participating in the digital realm has had on your overall state of mind, psychic health and productivity? The astrology most closely associated with the digital realm, Uranus conjunct Eris in your sign, represents all of society being pushed out of its body and taking up residence on what you might think of as an electronic astral plane. Chiron arrives with a focus on reality, observing and documenting what is so. To the extent that you’ve shifted your reality as a consequence of investing some portion of your life in the digital realm, Chiron is here to bring you back into your body and back into your self-awareness. Additionally, Uranus leaves your sign after seven years on May 15, and its shift into Taurus will come with some kind of prod or jolt that reminds you that the place you belong is in your body, paying attention to what your senses offer you. The rest is froth, fluff and nonexistent pixels.

Taurus Birthdays 2018:
How Will You Dance with the Unexpected This Year, Taurus?

“Awesome, so uplifting and so ‘IT’ — a wonderful birthday message.”

— Eryca Willinger

Dear Friend with Taurus Sun, Rising or Moon:

In just three weeks, Uranus will enter your sign. As Eric described in your Taurus annual reading for this year, “Uranus transits are exciting and a little nerve-wracking. There can be the sensation of a constant buzz running through your mind and your feelings, along with an ongoing dance with the unexpected.”

Eric Francis.

He goes on to explain that, “the alchemy of Uranus and Taurus will create some interesting, exciting effects. If you allow it to, it will bring out the best in you. It seems that to do this effectively, with the least struggle and the most adventure, you need to identify as an agent of change rather than as one who resists changing.”

As you might imagine, in your 2018 Taurus Birthday Reading Eric will be doing his best to get you prepared, limbered up and excited to meet Uranus on solid ground — the kind of ground upon which you can move and think with agility, respond to the unexpected with grace, and initiate new adventures with confidence.

In two segments of astrology (at least 30 minutes each) you’ll get the motivational coaching, insight, reassurance and practical tools you need to get this new phase of discovery and growth started on the right foot. You can download the audio to listen as many times as you like, and you’ll also get an extended description of your sign.

“It’s like Eric was talking directly to me. Everything he said is what has been happening. The last year has been a tremendous challenge in pretty much all areas of my life, but the birthday reading gives me hope that I really am on the right track. Thank you for such a great birthday reading Eric! Longtime Planet Waves fan.”

— S.R.

If you’re new to Eric’s audio readings or would like an in-depth review of your last year, please accept the gift of last year’s Taurus Reading here.

Also, please note that when you pre-order your Taurus Reading early, you secure the lowest price we offer. The price will increase as publication nears — and then again after it’s published.

Wishing you the best in your role as an “agent of change,”

Amanda Painter

P.S. As always, the 2018 Taurus Birthday Reading makes a fantastic gift, sure to be valued by your favorite Taurus friends and family members.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Yours may be the sign most resistant to change, and now you’re about to have Uranus, the very agent of revolution, with you for the next seven years. This will shift your relationship to progress, movement and, most of all, your attachments to the past. What astrologers call “Uranian energy” has one outstanding property: it’s unpredictable. So this transit means opening yourself up to more possibilities than you might normally consider, including the potential for discovering new things about who you are, and who you are becoming. Uranus is high-voltage, inventive, spontaneous and lacking in all morals. It has a way of provoking the best and the worst from the human spirit. To get the Taurus connection, we need to go deeper than conventional astrology, and check out the work of Alice A. Bailey (1880-1949). She goes beyond the cool, impeccable presentation of Taurus, and describes your sign as the “blacksmith shop of the soul” — the dark and smoky place deep within, where growth actually happens. It would seem that this is the place to tap into your potential, and the place to focus your identity for a while: on your capacity to shape yourself, using the forces of nature and your own nature. The notion of stability takes on a different role, where you now may be relying on the people you love to create a safe container for your process.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — It’s good that you’re so adaptable, because the conditions of your life, and of society, have called on you to use that gift. This is especially true in social situations, where you’re at your best and tend to be a natural leader. Yet the social ground has been shifting beneath your feet. As versatile and as open to new modes of communication as you are, you’ve probably noticed the way in which necessary structures that would ordinarily hold a community together have been shifting rapidly. Were you to go back just five or 10 years, and actually remember the way people treated one another, communicated and got together, what is happening today would seem toxic and insane. You may be noticing this, seemingly all at once. When Uranus leaves your 11th house mid-month, you’ll have a clearer view of your environment, and you’ll be able to perceive things more clearly. And when you do, you will want to make some adjustments to the way you interact with the world. You may feel a strong need to pull in and focus on yourself rather than your outer environment. You may decide you need to be more selective about who you engage with, even on the most casual social level. You might need to set some limits on “social” media, and perhaps commission a thorough review of how it’s changed not just your life but who you are.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Two rare transits are influencing the most public angles of your solar chart — Chiron has entered the responsibility and reputation 10th house (Aries), and Uranus is about to enter your 11th house of social experiences (Taurus). Taken together, these represent a realignment of your public profile, most likely in ways that you were not expecting, and which are compelling you to take a close look at your life. Yet the initial results of these transits will be something quite apart from how they develop over time; and it’s in the long run that you have the most influence over the course of events. For now, the thing to do is to move with the changes, and to pay attention to your environment, meaning your physical and social surroundings. It will help to keep your house in order, though this is likely to be something you already do. Chiron in the 10th house, in particular, has a way of putting a person under a spotlight, and subjecting them to greater scrutiny than may seem to be useful, practical or fair — but you can take it. What you must remember is that while you have some ability to present yourself to the world, you cannot determine how other people respond. Mainly, you have the ability to document your own life, and to be fully accountable at all times — to yourself.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — New developments in your solar chart are calling on you to take authority. Yet you must do this in a way that’s distinct from the world’s top-down models of leadership, which seem to care little about right and wrong. In a world that’s ruled by power, where people do things just because they can, there’s a special necessity to suspend ethics. You, however, must make ethics your first — and, in some cases only — priority. Primarily, this means being in alignment with your own ideas about what is correct and true, and acting only in accordance with them. You have the power to do pretty much anything you want, regardless of whether it works for you or anyone. This is similar to driving a car. You make the choice of how fast you go, what side of the yellow lines you stay on, and your state of mind while operating your vehicle. You can do anything you want; and in what you do, you’re guided by some principle — for example, obeying the law, not wanting to harm anyone, or wanting to get home safely. The time has arrived to apply this kind of idea to your whole life. You need to know where you stand with yourself, and how that sets up the parameters of your choices and actions. The wide world is not watching: it’s you.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You’ve been maneuvering through some complex territory, both in your personal life and in your profession. And as the month develops, you’ll start to get on top of your game. You’ve had the gift of brilliant strategy, though now you’ll get to discover the power of charm and persuasion. You cannot be all warrior, manager or litigator. It’s essential that you harness the power of informal leadership and authority rather than the more structured and official kinds. This will necessitate bringing your feminine side into what you’re doing, which is easy enough for you to leave out these days. To feel, to receive, to express care in tangible ways, all leave you open and what some would describe as vulnerable. Yet if you want some love in the dream, this is where you’ll need to go. You might make peace with one thing: nobody does anything for you because they have to. Those who serve you do so because they want to. You would be wise to set aside any pretense of ‘power’ and embrace the reality that humans are social beings. We share a strong impulse to take care of one another, to protect the brood, and to ensure that everyone has enough to eat. With those things covered, there’s plenty of work to be done. And as one looked to for leadership, those are the only planks in your platform.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Chiron has now moved into your 7th house of relationships; by mid-month Mars will be in your 5th house of pleasure, play, creativity and curiosity. Uranus is about to move into your 8th house, representing sexuality on the deep bonding level, and as a product of relationships with shared finances. For now, let’s consider Chiron, the planet of healing, which will be in your relationship house for nine years. No matter which way we look at your charts, the story told is deepening intimacy, addressing the fears associated with doing so, and taking a more mature approach to your sexuality. Society remains obsessed with that which is salacious, which takes 7th grade emotional development and projects it out over the entire population. Though it may not be obvious now, the maturing and healing process (same thing, basically) will gradually bring this point into focus. It may take time; Chiron always taps on the door before it knocks and then thumps. In any discussion, whether about a private experience you may be having, or some public issue, I suggest you make room for healing, and the potential for any party to the subject to grow and mature. No matter who or what you’re talking about, there is no “it” or “them.” Your life, what you perceive, experience and believe, is all about you, and nobody else.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Uranus taking up residence in your opposite sign will keep you on your feet, dancing the tango and the twist. Lasting seven years, this transit will present you with the kinds of situations you might like to avoid, yet which will be impossible merely to dodge or wish away. Such experiences may span from whatever is happening in society that will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, to your most intimate ties that bind. Taken on the deepest personal level, one message of this transit is to make sure that you give your intimate partners space to change, to learn and to grow. This would also embrace creative and business partners; and it would describe your environment in general. You’re being summoned to take a more daring, inventive and even revolutionary approach to art, to love and to life; and the more you resist, the higher the stakes will seem. Here’s one way to consider the shift in dynamic: One of the ways you typically deal with change is to get others to do things your way; you use your considerable gravity to bend things in your direction. Uranus will have none of that. You will therefore need to master this energy, and do something we both know you’re capable of: be flexible; and when challenged, come up with a better idea — much better.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — There’s about to be new emphasis on your work life: not your career or profession, but rather the actual work that you do. Those born under your sign tend to walk a narrow path between striving for total creative freedom, and wanting to monitor and control every detail. This is the source of tension for you, and it’s time to burst that bubble. Ultimately what must count for you is your idea and its expression. You’re also the steward of going from one to the other. You will need more room than you currently have, in your current workspace or mental field. You will need to be more experimental, and give yourself the liberty to make mistakes. There will be various gambles involved, where you will embark on projects and opportunities, consciously willing to take a loss. Those are really the only conditions under which you stand to grow in your work, and to profit from it. This process will push you up against your boundaries. First you will discover where they are, then you will evaluate whether they work for you, and finally, you’ll have the opportunity to make adjustments. Yet you cannot plan any of this in advance, without the specific knowledge and experience you’re presented with in any situation. You will need to play by ear, which means listening to the music, and adding your own individual statement.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’re the kind of person who wants to do everything right, though too often this is about what you think others believe. Worse, you can be a slave to convenience, or to bend in the direction of what you might call the current administration. For you who want to grow into an actualized human being, relate to others from the heart, and perhaps make your mark on the world, those are not sustainable strategies. There may soon come a time when you’re subservient only to your own creative impulses, your curiosity and your desire. Once you accept those factors as your guides, authority will lose its appeal, the opinions of your relatives will be laughable, and conforming for the sake of convenience will feel, rightly, as a form of cowardice. Your true strength will flow from connecting with how your body feels, who you love, and what your soul wants to make. Though you yearn for family connection, Chiron and other factors are calling you deeper than the tribal level, deeper than race or personal creed, and onto the level on which humanity exists as a distinctive entity. The human experience and all of its drama is a vast experiment. Can we take on the creative power of the cosmos? Can we honor and hold space for the distinct entity that each of us is? Do you admit that you exist?

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Be sure to keep your emotional responses proportional to reality. It will be possible to overreact, and equally possible to keep a handle on how you perceive your reality. Much of this will require that you focus on the present and the future, and use the past for context. Speaking of: the mystery of certain events that have transpired the past month or so will reveal themselves when Mars enters your sign on the 16th. Yet, despite what you learn, you must react slowly rather than quickly. Mars in your sign will make a square aspect to Uranus, which arrives in Taurus on May 15. That is a potential formula for radical misjudgment, so be sure you interpose a delay, and that you consult with the older and wiser people in your life. Any decisions you make must be well thought out, though the most significant theme of the summer will be figuring out what you want. That’s mostly a process of being honest with yourself, because you know the truth of that, though sometimes you struggle to admit it. That, and you’ve been living much of your life in a blind spot. Suddenly, you’ll be able to see, and to see what you want. Just be willing to listen, particularly to what you find the most irritating. There’s valuable information contained in anti-social viewpoints.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Pay close attention to who your friends are. Your usual policy is to presume the best in people, then give them a chance to prove you right. I suggest you take the opposite approach for a while, which is to assume nothing, and give people a chance to fail. Rather than extending your trust, make sure people earn it, through their actions and not just their words. Then, take care that your actions and words are exemplary. Powerful forces are at work in your life, and it will be your ethics and commitment to truth that puts you on the correct side of nature. This month’s sign change of Uranus from Aries to Taurus will help you stabilize certain aspects of your life, and radically reinvent others — in particular, the message that you send to the world in everything you express. It’s time to up your game, to reach inwardly for the very heart and soul of who you are, and to express only that. Don’t be surprised if you shake things up a little bit; the seemingly simple act of telling the truth or describing reality as it is can cause an uproar. Yet it’s your integrity that will protect you, and will help ensure that whatever you have to say is both received and understood, regardless of any position people may take.