Aries (March 20-April 19) — 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.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — I’ve noticed a bias not just against anyone perceived as emotionally needy, but against those who express emotional needs. You may have to address that prejudice yourself some time in the next few weeks, as you actually get into closer contact with what your needs are. I would propose that in life, needs should be relatively few, and desires more abundant. ‘Needs’ really means your bottom line; one cannot have too many needs denied in a situation and still have it be tenable. So, I would suggest you consider what your bottom line is. What do you actually require? As a Taurus this is likely to be somewhere on the physical spectrum of food, rest, solitude, social contact, sex or some other biological element of life. If your physical needs are met, you’re usually pretty happy. Check those first, then move on to your emotional bottom line. Be real with yourself about what it is, and consider your environment and see if you are able to respond to the emotional bottom line of others. There is a meeting place; it’s just that you need to identify it, and do your best to get onto common ground with partners and actually make it happen. In any relationship, actual shared values will exist on the level of what is not negotiable for either of you. It’s worth the effort to get there.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Shared finances now come under the spotlight, and this means you will be doing some negotiating. You might consider everything to be negotiable; you might practice in antique shops in case you’re not used to haggling. The benefits or rewards are potentially significant, so you would be wise to slow down and really, truly understand your situation. Take a conservative approach, which means focus on numbers, resources, shared responsibility and how any arrangement is structured. You will need to apply some old-school thinking (adding up the figures definitely counts), though you’ll also need to account for what has developed, shifted and rearranged during the past seven years. Plenty has, particularly values and attitudes; and any business plan you develop with partners needs to account for those changes. You can afford to think ahead; indeed you really must, which will call for some ambition on your part. Yet your form of ambition really involves thinking of something beautiful that doesn’t yet exist. It might involve having faith that the seemingly impossible is no such thing. While you have a pragmatic, strictly business side, with so many Pisces planets dominating your charts your real aim must include how you will serve people or how artfully you can do things (preferably both). Money is not everything. Yet realistic ideas about finances will lead to better work and substantial profit.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The next year-and-a-half will be an unusual and potentially brilliant time for you professionally. Yet there is not a clear path set out before you. Your growth will not be like advancing through the ranks of the Department of the Interior, nor will it take as long or be as boring. Rather, you will have many interesting turns, and unexpected (but somehow should have been obvious) developments. I think you’ll advance through a series of personal initiations that coincide with advances in what some call a career but what I would call your vocation. The difference is spiritual. A career you do in order to rise up in the world. A vocation is something you do because you must, come what may. A vocation means you have been called or summoned, and you are responding. It’s something that you do every day, all the time, no matter what other activity you might be involved in. What would appear to be the real variable here is how you identify with what you do. Success on some level involves adjusting your public presentation to harmonize with your inner goal. This will require a stretch. You’ll also need to take some unorthodox approaches in order to focus the appropriate kind of attention on what you’re doing. You are visible; you must do what you can to be seen in the most favorable light.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Do your ears hear those who need your help? I suggest you monitor carefully how you respond to the struggles and plight of others. Most people base their response on what would be convenient for them. I suggest you base yours on what you perceive as authentic necessity. This will remind you about your quest for purpose. It’s easy to be self-serving, and just about every influence of our society rewards us for being so. It’s less intuitive, less obvious, to offer oneself in service. Yet that is where you will find your true strength. You connect to your purpose and your sense of belonging by consciously participating in constructive ways. You might try setting aside the question, ‘what’s in it for me?’ or at least noticing how long before you ask yourself that question. It’s been a long time since Ayn Rand tried to brainwash us into the notion that there’s no such thing as altruism, that in the end, everything is about self-interest. Yet she has had way too much influence on our society. The question of whether altruism exists is, in the end, a deeply personal one. In any event, your current aspects describe your relationship to selfless service — or perhaps we could restate that as useful service where self-interest is just one factor among others, and not the most important of them.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — It’s not always easy to ensure that people see you as who you are, not who they think you are. Yet it’s just as challenging to see yourself as who you are and not who people want you to be. Part of what you’re doing now is learning the nature of that boundary. That will involve asking questions about the choices you make and the positions you take. You’re slowly being prodded and nudged out of automatic mode. You know you’re getting there when you start hearing the things you say, and evaluating your choices against what you know your deeper values are. Yet there’s a really interesting quality to your environment, which is likely to be a collection of truly unusual people, people with whom you don’t have much in common. The question is, how do you treat someone who comes off as an original, odd or out-of-place character? What’s your expectation that others should blend in with the scenery? There is a mirror effect going on; your perception of your environment will tell you a lot about how you perceive yourself. The main question is, how concerned are you about fitting in? What are you willing to do in order to seem like you fit in, and why does that matter? There may be excellent answers to those queries, if you ask them well.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Where do your relationships stand today, as contrasted with Jan. 1? I would recommend a thorough review. There may be many events that seem like water under the bridge. That’s how life is organized these days; everything is presumed to be ephemeral. That may be true, but what happened recently is still vital to you, and what I suggest you look for is both the story arc of the past 12 months, and also a timeline of key events: mainly connections made, transitions and separations. Remember who from your past seemed to resurface, and what happened when they did. This may have also related to past values, attitudes and viewpoints that reminded you of their existence. To put the question in the most direct way, I would ask what you feel like you resolved this year. What are you now confident that you have settled emotionally, or put to rest? What new values and attitudes have you cultivated that will lead you in new directions? The past still remains a somewhat complex subject for you, and what you developed in the past 12 months may be more appropriately described as strategies and approaches to dealing with your own personal history. One of those may be your process in the present: it would help to take a resolve-as-you-go approach to life, and not leave things to resurface from the ever-lengthening past.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — When in doubt, consider the concept of role reversal. Imagine yourself doing what someone else does, or actually try it out; imagine someone doing what you do, and asking them to consider it. Humans tend to be blind to the viewpoints of others, and it doesn’t help that we don’t generally express our own perspective to others willingly, or well. Yet that is exactly what you need, so that you can get along with people and, better than that, do something creative. One set of roles to consider involves gender. These tend to be the most prepackaged and inflexible positions we play, even here in the world of metrosexual, transgender and heteroflexible. If you’ve already been experimenting with this, what have you learned? How has your worldview changed? Can you see ways to widen your inquiry into other areas of your life? Try this as many ways as you can think of. At the least, consider how others respond to you from their viewpoint, and see what you observe. What you may find is that this opens doors of communication and of empathy. Yet it will also open up possibilities that were previously concealed from view; access to ideas that were lurking below the surface; and your willingness to take action, whereas before you were content to wait for something to happen.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Saturn in your sign will develop as an interesting walk along the ledge between confidence and insecurity. It’s not till you start to experience that directly that you really make valid observations and decisions. Otherwise it’s just theory. And more than anything it’s your theories that need to be put to the test against lived reality. This includes the value of past experience in any form, including prior learning from your parents and other authority figures. One might presume that the presence of Saturn is about maintaining stability, since that’s supposedly what Saturn is about. It’s more likely that Saturn in your sign is pointing to your need and even a kind of drive for new experiences and approaches to life. Saturn’s drive for change, initially, is going to be an experiment in how you relate to your insecurities. If you feel like you’re on solid ground, you will be more inclined to take steps on that ground. If you feel like you’re floating, or walking on a bog, you’re less likely to take firm steps. Therefore, the thing to work on is confidence — which is another way of saying learning to address fear in a cogent, thoughtful way. Ultimately this is less a psychological question and more of a spiritual one, though approaching from both angles will be helpful. Remember that change is inevitable; making your own decisions is optional.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Based on images from the unusual astrology influencing you this month, I referred to the Allan Watts book The Wisdom of Insecurity. You know that Pluto has been coursing through your sign for seven years, making it seem like there’s no such thing as solid ground. Now Saturn is in your 12th solar house, which evokes a deep inner mystery and potentially a sense of isolation. Saturn is square Neptune, reminding you how vital it is to be able to focus your mind into coherent thoughts, using language and ideas. Yet nothing is certain, and if you can make peace with that, you can have some of the significant benefits of living without the need for false security. In one of the great works of modern philosophy, Watts writes, “You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run. To ‘have’ running water you must let go of it and let it run.” Such is the story of your life for the next year: a potentially amazing adventure into the flow.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You are trying to establish yourself in the world, and you seem to be making some significant progress, though it may not feel that way. You might want to pause measuring your failures and successes and instead devote your energy to understanding something about yourself. That something involves the relationship between who you are and what society is. Your mind is a microcosm of the world that you’re wanting to establish yourself in. That raises the value on self-knowledge at this time in your life. Self-knowledge means going deeper into your motives and your learning process, and into seeing the way that patterns from your personal history manifest for you. If you are seeking change, and seeking progress, then seek self-understanding. You may be tempted to put all your effort into understanding the world, but even if you succeeded in doing that, the information would be of little value without the one-and-only necessary context of your life — you. The more transparent you become to yourself, the more transparent the world will become. The more flexible you become, the more flexible the world will seem. The more alert you are, the easier it will be to spot other alert people and engage them collaboratively. Yet you will need to suspend judgment as much as you can, and observe yourself carefully nearly all the time.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You may feel like you’re under some strange pressure, which is true enough. But how you describe that sensation and what you choose to allow it to motivate you to do are under your discretion and control. Your astrology describes the theme of synthesis. This word started off meaning ‘deductive reasoning’ though the current definition is about combining the parts of something into a whole. Presumably we are talking about your life, your work and what you’ve accomplished so far. I would take the meaning a step further, which is about the synthesizing of something new from previously existing elements. In other words, there are parts of this holistic entity you’re assembling that you will have to make yourself. This requires the use of chemistry and physics, in the metaphoric sense. Things that don’t seem to mix or combine on the first try may need a few more rounds of experimentation. You might need to account for the missing elements that will make your process work. The single most important thing you can be in possession of is an idea of what you’re working toward — a description and drawing of what it is and how it’s supposed to work. You might start that process with identifying the purpose that you need fulfilled, and let that purpose and vision guide and motivate you. Take up your role as the inventor of your own life.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — 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.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — For any individual in possession of talent or desire to accomplish something, there is a phase of learning about how the quality of your work and the audience response are two different things. This could be said about any phase of life, though let’s focus on the work you do: the thing you want to be known for, and what you feel is your true gift. One reason people hold back developing their talents (we all have them and in my experience, just about all people are aware of that fact) is out of fear of how they will be received. I would remind you that some of the very greatest artists and thinkers have received initial responses verging on insulting. To give one hilarious example (which I will come back to soon): the Wright brothers were busy flying an early model of their airplane around a field in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, but the local newspaper refused to send a reporter. I could rattle off dozens of these tales from memory. The message of the story is that your work must proceed regardless of what you think people will think, what they actually think or whatever the heck else. This includes your friends, your ‘friends’, your family and so on. Ultimately you must resonate with your own creative core. Be true to your vision, come what may.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Beware of anything that someone claims is both a moral and a medical issue. Said another way, how you feel is not a matter of some external opinion, and neither is how you seek your wellbeing. Gradually you’re breaking down your old, mostly inherited beliefs of right and wrong. An ethical person must be in command of their own understanding of their personal truth. You recognize that people do what they do, and you will do what you do. There’s actual freedom in that, because when you recognize that you have a choice in any matter, you’re more likely to exercise that choice honestly. So I could start this horoscope over by saying, beware of any situation where you seem not to have a choice, or where someone tries to convince you of that. Or: be aware of your options. If you seem to run out of them, ask yourself, what would I do if I didn’t feel some authority was breathing down my back? What would I do in a world where judgment and grudges were not such an issue? Incidentally, if you’re at some crossroads where the choice seems to be either relationship or career, you might start by asking yourself who set that up and why it is you would have to choose one over the other. There are potential reasons, though it may not be true.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The feeling of risk is not the same thing as actual risk. The notion that ‘this feels like I’m about to jump off of a cliff’ is not the same thing as standing at the edge of a mountain precipice with the wind blowing and condors gliding around. Make sure you understand the difference, because where your creative (and sexual) process is taking you is in the direction of a personal boundary. You might say that’s the place where you will decide to keep it real, or to choose some other alternative. Why would you do anything but be real? Well, you might feel out of practice. You might think it’s scary, mistaking a personal edge for an actual thing you can fall off of. This zone I’m talking about is the place where you can make contact with your vitality. I know this seems to spook or freak out those who are easily frightened. Many people think there’s such a thing as too real or too alive or too free or whatever. That simply must be their problem. You have reached a point in your development when nothing but actually being — and feeling — alive will suit you. This truth or necessity or bottom line (as you wish) resounds through all areas of your life, which are not really areas at all. Part of being alive is embracing how all of your existence is indeed your existence.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You must remember what you’ve learned and are still learning about how to handle your finances. First of all, I reckon you’ve gotten the message that the details matter. Second, it looks like you’ve figured out that the bigger scenario matters — and that these two things must align into a unified whole. However, there is deeper information in terms of understanding what your assets really are. Whenever you make or earn money, you are converting something into it. That might be your time, it might be your ideas, it might be your labor. Probably it’s a mix of all three. In terms of really understanding your assets, I suggest you consider what blend you’re currently using, and how you would like to change that in some way. Less time and labor requires having better ideas. Not caring so much about ideas means more effort over more time. The thing to remember is that you actually do have personal assets, a fact which may be asserting itself many ways at the moment. It would be wise of you to keep track of what you know about what you have to offer. Yet more significantly, it’s in the experience of actually offering your gifts that you make them real. Be generous. Measure with a cup and not a spoon. Measure by the week rather than by the hour. Or perhaps don’t measure at all.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You are learning how to get out of your own way. This is a lifelong theme for you, though recent developments have made this a necessity rather than some kind of luxury. Virgos are the experts at outsmarting themselves. That’s the first of many seeming skills that you will get to dismantle on the way to accessing your true purpose and gift. Another is the thing about trying to convince yourself of something, such as whether it’s true or false. You could more easily do an assessment, review the facts and make a decision based on what you actually observe. A third thing is the concept that you are less than anything or anyone. That’s something that seems to prove itself, though that’s why you really need to subject it to some scrutiny. Now, as for what is actually true — it’s very likely that at your core, you live to be in service. That can work against you. It will, unless you choose consciously to make it work for you — which directly implies a kind of plus-plus symbiosis with your environment. Getting out of your own way is about seeing the relationships you have with others. Mostly it’s about understanding that you exist both as an independent entity and also as one who is interdependent with others around you. That is a fact of existence, and it’s beyond reproach. Put it to good use.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Venus returns to your sign in a week or so. This happens about once a year, though it’s still a beautiful thing, coming right when you need it. It was only recently that Saturn (another planet that represents you) moved out of Scorpio, which signals a loosening up of your resources. If you have not noticed this, you can use the Venus principle to help get things moving. In a word, that’s about attraction. But attraction doesn’t mean standing around looking cute, seeing who offers you what. Libra and Venus in Libra are self-assertive. The image in the planets is about having the confidence to present yourself to the world in an open and accepting way. There’s a serious confidence issue in our society right now, crippling many people. Our obsession with spectating is a direct expression of lacking the courage to dare. You now get some direct relief from any such shortage. You still must present yourself to the world, start the conversation and practice the art of mingling with the human race. It’s just that you’re likely to be feeling better about yourself, as if you’ve somehow found yourself after having lost track of who you are. Thing is, your current experience of finding is likely to bring a real discovery. Keep your sense of wonder right where you can feel it.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — After sending an email query to all the Scorpios in my database, I got an earful one weekend in late October, hearing what many have been through during the past two years of Saturn in your sign (that ended in mid-September). Saturn is usually experienced as lessons learned or struggled with. The purpose of Saturn is to convey the authority principle, inviting you to make your own decisions, rather than having the rules imposed on you from the outside. You’re now in a delicate position of having to step up to this challenge. Look around and you’ll see that it’s clearly more than most people can handle, hence the extreme over-reliance on government, family and corporations. Saturn in Sagittarius presents similar, but subtler, challenges. Do you believe what you believe because you were told to, or did you actually determine that it was true? A rare aspect (Saturn square Neptune) describes some of your most cherished opinions being challenged. This in turn calls for a total reassessment of your reality. It’s not enough to believe something because you always believed it, or because someone presented it as the only option. Where this really comes home is your self-worth. Your opinion of yourself must be balanced and realistic, and usually that means recognizing that much of what you were told simply was not true. When you get there, it’s a profound and stunning revelation.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Saturn’s journey through your sign will have many plots and themes, and each will feel like a distinct phase of your personal history. A new one is about to begin. The immediately prior phase involved accountability (that was Saturn square Nessus). That was the message about how it’s easier to take responsibility than it is to blame. It’s better to have a personal code than be subject to the laws of others. Now we have the first of three Saturn square Neptune events, which extend through 2016. This describes the challenge of certainty, which so often seems nonexistent. You may have heard the term ‘moral relativism’, a fancy name for the idea that we decide what is right for us. That’s exactly what you must do, but the challenge is honoring the wider context in which you live. You can and must do what is right for yourself, though for that to work you need a fairly wide definition of self. What you will be exploring is the intersection between you and the connection you have with others, who to some degree are also part of your ‘self’. That’s not a fixed line. It’s barely visible. It will change based on context. Remember, there are no absolutes; there are no proscribed definitions. You must apply these ideas with each decision you make, and learn something from each experience.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You might be wondering what you’re pushing against, or what you’re running into. It’s something that’s there but which you can neither see nor feel easily. Trying to describe it to others is akin to describing the logic of a dream, which doesn’t even make sense to you when you try to consider it rationally. You must start this phase of your life being the only one who understands who you are or what you go through. Because so much is in motion, it would not be helpful to declare, “There, I get it!” Rather, I suggest seeking the kind of understanding that comes in layers. Remember, though, that we’re in the territory of dream logic. That implies a unique point of view, and at other times a state of isolation. When you find people who actually understand something you say or feel, spend some time with them. When you encounter someone who cares enough to listen, pay attention and share in any way that feels appropriate. You have one special responsibility right now, and it may be difficult: to be absolutely honest with yourself, even when you’re uncertain what the truth is. If all you know is that you don’t know, that’s a good place to start. Your other quest is doing something with fear. Running, hiding and avoidance have outlasted whatever use they had, which was not much to begin with.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — The Sun, and soon enough Mercury, will be in your 10th solar house of getting things done. Whether you use your solar chart (as I’m doing here) or your natal chart, it’s helpful to follow the Sun’s journey through the various seasons of your year. The 10th house is about visibility. It’s about being seen but, moreover, making sure you’re known for what you want to be known for. Reputations, properly established, take time to be built. The returns can seem minimal, even over long years. But you are starting to accrue some experience, and to make some progress on the issue of personal power and influence. Still, I suggest you seek to establish yourself with your good work rather than try to collect. The world is in an extremely confused state right now; the wars and violence seem never to stop, and we get very little in the way of pleasure that doesn’t come with corporate sponsorship or a high-priced admission ticket. Therefore, keep your focus on what is right. Remind yourself that you’ve cleared out enough psychological baggage from your internal space to have a clue who you actually are. Not everyone has made this investment; most people have kept filling their attic while you were busy cleaning up yours. You are therefore in a distinct position of leadership. You can actually see, feel and breathe.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You’re in a period of achievement — though it may not feel like that, or at least not every day. Such a phase is different in that it’s not so much about preparation as it is about the results of the work you’ve already done. Of course, you’re always still learning, and this is essential to maintain as a daily yoga. Your current project is about working on the perfect hybrid of what you do and who you are. (I originally typed that as ‘who you do and what you are’, also accurate.) We see a lot of problems arise in the world when people try to split their character. By that I mean they have a reputation for one thing, and then conduct themselves in a way that entirely contradicts that. For you, Saturn square Neptune is about being one with yourself, which you will get to do on a moment-to-moment basis. The more you do ‘out in the world’, the more you will need to reconcile that with who you are, and who you are becoming. This is saying a lot, given that the end of the year is the busiest time for your professional activities. The underlying theme is about never losing touch with your humanity. But it works the other way too — the closer you stay to your core truth, the more you will achieve.