Dear Friend and Reader:

The 2016 election was never closer than it is today, and that’s good news. Everyone wants it to be over. For two years we’ve been run through a nonstop political cyclone of vapid tirades, ignorant speculation and statistical prediction that vaporizes into raw emotion. Anything anyone says, whether political or not, is subject to being immediately reduced to a toxic substance, with just about everyone coming back in line for another cup.

Mention the weather and it can become a debate about global warming denial. Mention going for a hike and that can turn into a discussion about hunting, which turns into a fight over the Second Amendment. Is everyone darker than an albino a potential terrorist?

Hanging chad guy, counting votes in Florida. Photo by Alan Diaz, who also took this astonishing photo. Photo and graphic on the top of the page (from election ’08) by Eric Francis.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has laid back a little on his sexism and misogyny, only for that space to be taken up by Hillary Clinton supporters: any critique of her can be perceived as a statement against all women, everywhere.

We’ve stopped wondering how Trump got as far as he did, which is similar to how Clinton got as far as she did (they just did, which suffices for our current mental environment). Now we’re about to have an election. In this article I intend to read two charts: that for Election Day, and another for the inauguration of the new president. I don’t intend to predict the winner, but rather to look at the conditions surrounding the election and the inauguration.

Elections have been fairly calm since that fateful night in November 2000 when Al Gore won and George W. Bush was declared the winner. But they are contentious for many reasons, including the Supreme Court weakening protection for minorities, while those same people are being falsely accused of voter fraud. There remains some post-traumatic stress about how presidential elections might turn out, which has grown worse since the internet has taken over.

Them was the days — late 2000.

The results of the Bush/Cheney presidency, which included botched, illegal wars as a result of 9/11, mass surveillance of the public by the NSA and the banking collapse of 2008, are warnings of what might happen if the election does not go well.

Now we have a contest between two candidates who are, if nothing else, well-established slick operators, working in an environment that verges on explosive. The volatility is papered over by the American obsession with everything being hunky dory, underneath which is a thick layer of paranoia. If you’re reading this article and you live outside the United States, take a moment and be grateful.

One last thought before I get into these charts. It’s astonishing that the war in Syria and Iraq is not an issue in this election. It gets mentioned every now and then, but it seems to be a foregone conclusion that it’s happening, will continue to happen and will still keep happening after that.

The deities of politics have noticed that there’s no opposition, and the problem really is that the whole thing is too complex to fit into the little packets of information on the internet, so everyone can conduct their electoral business and pretend it’s not happening. The war is widely understood to be a product of the internet — and it’s too complex for the internet to contain or describe meaningfully.

What do we get instead? Day after day after sodding day of news reports and commentary about predictive polls, which are portrayed like a sporting event but are not vaguely as much fun.

Dixville Notch, NH: First in the Nation

Let’s take a look at the election chart. Because early voting and absentee voting start many weeks in advance of Election Day, there is no actual time for the first ballot being cast.

The chart I use is for one minute past midnight on Election Day for a town called Dixville Notch in central New Hampshire. The 12 residents of that town gather at midnight, vote and announce the results. If nothing else, they are the first locale in the nation to complete the election process and to report a vote tally. The results of that voting are not predictive, but the chart is a symbolic commencement of the election process. Everything in astrology is ultimately a metaphor. I’ll refer to this chart as the election chart.

Dixville Notch, population 12, even has a postcard.

First of all, it appears that the election actually happens. There has been some discussion among political astrologers that it might be called off, but I don’t see that. There is the potential for some chaos, mostly involving data and other electronic factors. Hacking incidents are reported in the news regularly; the internet-based voting system is far from immune from that problem.

This chart’s first statement is that the election will be close — closer than most sources are currently predicting. After the nominating conventions, when Clinton had a clear lead, this seemed difficult to believe; today it’s easier. The near-tie is illustrated by a rarely used, slow-moving point called Transpluto that’s rising to the degree in the election chart. Transpluto deals with everything that’s narrow, tight or restricted.

We might see a vote tally that’s reported as too close to call, in a sense paralyzing the process. It’s almost certain that litigation will follow the election.

The narrowness of Transpluto also describes the so-called discussion of the issues. The problem is that what we think of as discussions are not oriented on actual problems and therefore cannot be oriented on solutions. In our safe-space digital daydream, anything that is potentially offensive is filtered out or deemed a crackpot theory.

This election seems to be taking place on the level of junior high school class president, only instead of being a popularity contest, it’s about who hates whom a little less than they hate someone else. The process has been reduced to voting out of fear of whomever one is least repulsed by. And yes, some people actually like these candidates, but they are famously disliked compared to any recent election. Those taking sides are both convinced that the world is in serious trouble if the other party wins, and both sides may be right.

Chart for the election of 2016, cast for Dixville Notch, NH, the “first in the nation” to report results. Interesting features include Transpluto rising (the circle with the slash on the left), Nessus and Neptune near the descendant (the two blue points on the right, above the horizontal line), the Uranus-Eris conjunction (top right) and the Moon-Pallas conjunction (on the right, below the horizontal line). That late-degree Mars (anger at conspiracy and collusion) is on the right, below Moon-Pallas.

This chart looks like the shrill quality of the discussion gets worse over the coming weeks, and that there is a steadily decreasing interest in understanding much at all.

The second thing that jumps out is a description of the environment that looks deceptive and mean. The conjunction of Neptune (illusion, fog and deceit) and Nessus (karma coming back, the results of a long chain of events) describes the psychic climate. There is the genuine expectation of something dark happening. There is the open expectation of fraud. This is far easier with the whole election rigged through the internet.

The full effects of the internet did not set in until the smartphone showed up. This has had a dissembling effect on consciousness; everything got smaller, shallower and more subject to immediate dismissal.

Another message of the internet is that nothing is real. This is the first presidential contest in the age of the pocket computer. The impact of the digital age shows up boldly in this chart. Remember that we are in the time of the Uranus-Eris conjunction, the aspect of our era in history. This is about the impact of the internet on self-concept and also on society itself.

The effects of this conjunction reach back to around 2011 and ahead to about 2018. They can be summed up in this quote by a philosopher named Eric McLuhan: “The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”

If you’re wondering why everything everywhere seems so chaotic to the point of unraveling, you might ponder this and see if it resonates. Say the words, “deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture” a few times to yourself. It’s not the content of the internet but its architecture that’s behind this effect.

Absolutely safe and secure. No way for teenage hackers, the Russians or the Chinese to mess with these things. Photo by Chris Gardner.

The mind is also assaulted, primarily by the robotic factor of the internet (the ‘net is one gigantic robot). The news feed tells you what you have to think about in the order you should think about it. Our machines are now our teachers of how not to think for ourselves, and in the election chart, this gets infused right into politics.

For those curious, the aspect I’m looking at is the Aquarius Moon conjunct Pallas (the body politic; the public, under the influence of politics), sextile Uranus and Eris (the internet and its effect on consciousness). That is shorthand for “the public is now fully connected directly to the internet and therefore is easier than ever to manipulate.”

The chart includes a dose of dark conspiracy theory (Mars in the last degree of Capricorn), which is also about rage at corruption. The problem with that rage is it has nowhere to connect to. When it’s expressed, it’s usually in a partisan way (the other side is corrupt) even though everyone knows that the issue reaches across party lines.

All of this is set in an idealistic context, where there exists hope that somehow the process can work out well, and that the presidency itself is somehow a benevolent thing. There is still some association of the United States presidency with national parks, amber waves of grain and George Washington who did not chop down the cherry tree.

The Inauguration Chart

The time the new president takes office is noon on Jan. 20 following the election. It’s easy to cast the inauguration chart; we always know when it’s going to happen.

Our nation’s capitol, all dressed up pretty for the inauguration.

Because the inauguration happens at a fixed time, the new president is always inaugurated with the Sun in Aquarius, with Taurus rising and with Capricorn on the midheaven. Everything else is variable.

Features of the 2017 inauguration include the Moon in Scorpio, many planets in Pisces, and our friend the Uranus-Eris conjunction hiding in the 12th house (which is like a veil that conceals things).

My impression is that this chart is describing the concealment of something huge. There is pageantry and fanfare; there is a most excellent show. The show is the scrim that hides everything going on behind it.

The new Aquarius Sun gleams from on top of the chart — and then in the next house over in Pisces, a cluster of planets describe the public show, and the public eating it up. The first time I saw this chart, my impression was that Bernie Sanders would be president; though now, barring some truly strange circumstances, that’s not likely.

It’s almost like this chart is flaunting nostalgia and a sense of how good it is to be back in the past, while being in denial of the present. I believe that most of the time what we call politics operates on the level of religion: that is, hope, belief and fear of the unknown. People tend to see what they already believe is there, and this is particularly true of politics.

Chart for the inauguration of 2017. The streak of planets on the top left are a cluster in Pisces in the 11th house. This would be an image of grand populism, or coming close to fooling all of the people all of the time.

The person who is sworn in knows how to exploit this factor in consciousness, and how to do it in a sly way. There is an indication the new president understands that their most significant official power is making appointments to the Supreme Court.

The chart contains an endless well of consequences coming through this event, which people pretend not to understand. The flow of consequences feeds a bigoted, narrow, critical viewpoint that makes it nearly impossible to think in a creative way.

In order to solve national and global problems, it’s necessary both to be creative and to take some risks, and this chart describes every other approach.

It’s necessary to agree on what the problems are before anyone tries to solve them. That seems to be one of the biggest issues: what is a problem for one side is a boon for the other, or so it seems, and the whole structure stays in place.

The Problems With Presidential Elections

When the U.S. presidency is up for grabs, it distracts the country from other issues for nearly two years. It seems important. Yet the conversation tends to go nowhere.

The president has limited actual, legitimate influence over governance of the country, but thanks to electronic media, a huge image. This image is a mirage. There are three co-equal branches of government in the United States — executive, legislative and judicial. Yet the federal government’s role is way overblown; most of what it does is wage war and collect taxes. The majority of actual governance happens on the state, county and municipal level.

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, candidates for president in 1858. Before TV you could have candidates this ugly and nobody cared. You could also have debates that went on for hours, where spectators watched standing up, and reporters wrote down what was said by hand, and got it into the newspaper the next day.

The president is largely a figurehead. Because his or her power includes access to the nuclear arsenal, a truly modern problem, that raises the stakes. Yet during an election we treat the presidency like it’s a hybrid between regent and superhero.

In essence, the United States wastes two years listening to people lie about how they’re going to solve all our problems — and expecting them to do it.

Then it spends the next two years angry that no problems are being solved — a genuinely codependent state of affairs.

Along the way, exceedingly few people actually stand up to the government. For all the talk, we take it as it comes, but go on happily complaining. Little attention is paid to congressional races, which is where the real action is: it’s Congress that actually allocates money and makes the laws we live by, but you would never know that watching a modern presidential debate.

I don’t think we will have sane civic life until more people have stood up to their parents and claimed their lives as their own — which any therapist will tell you is a rare phenomenon. Until then, the authoritarian miniature state (the family) will be the model for the full-on authoritarian state (the government). And we get the perfect place to act out mommy and daddy issues galore, and it all seems very grown up and proper, and leads nowhere.

I hate to break the news, but nobody is going to descend from above and solve our problems for us. We must do it together.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Designer: Lizanne Webb. Finance: Jonathan McCarthy. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Eric’s Assistant: Gale Jazylo. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Ellis Marshall McLuhan. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno and Carol van Strum.

Come Explore Astrology with Eric: It’s All In the Houses

12 Noon to 4 pm EDT, Saturday, October 8, 2016

Don’t be intimidated! The houses are really much less technical than you might think. And while they might not make for a swingin’ Seventies pickup line like your Sun sign does, houses are one of the best places to start when learning astrology.

Many people study astrology books, read webpages and take courses that go on for years but still struggle to get basic information out of a chart. Do you ever have that feeling?

I have a class for you, called It’s All In the Houses. If there’s one secret to astrology, this is it.

This live audio class (with a video introduction) covers the most basic level of astrology: where things happen, the houses. If you understand the houses as environments and groups of themes, you can read a chart. I will cover the ‘debate’ about whole sign houses and house systems, and show how these methods work together. We will use several houses as examples and provide study materials that will guide you through the rest.

This class will last four hours, with a half-hour break. The class comes with a recording, and class materials will be preserved online, so you don’t need to sit through the whole thing unless you want to. The class will be preceded by a video presentation that lays out the very basics, so that we will be starting with a foundation.

We will hold the class by teleconference at noon EDT on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. You may sign up here.

Libra Equinox, Mercury Direct and…New Vacuum Cleaners

By Amanda Painter

Sometimes even when things are most frustrating or confusing, the universe will offer a little humor. Case in point: just before writing this on Wednesday, which is trash day in my neighborhood, I took a walk. Along the way, I saw a total of three empty vacuum cleaner boxes, and another box for some other cleaning device, in the recycling bins.

Morning fog dissipating over a silvery sea. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Why is this funny to me?

Because today, Thursday, Mercury stationed direct in Virgo at 1:31 am EDT (5:30:30 UTC).

And it did so with the Sun in the last degree of Virgo — the Sun enters Libra at 10:21 am EDT today (14:21:03 UTC), for the Libra equinox and the beginning of a new season. But at the time of my walk, the Sun was at the far edge of Virgo.

Now, Virgo is a sign closely associated with being (or getting) organized and focused on the details, and putting a plan into action. All those new vacuum cleaners seemed to suggest a common experience of people wanting to tidy up better.

Yet, at the same time, I had to wonder: with Mercury retrograde, did these people actually get the best vacuum for their needs? Will it work right? Will they have to return it for a more suitable model?

Regardless of those details, the sightings made for an amusing illustration of the astrology: After journeying deep into Virgo and acquiring a new tool (vacuum), you release the parts that are not necessary (the box), and then you’re free to use the tool productively.

Continue reading →

This Week on Planet Waves FM
Before the Equinox: The End of a Long Season

Dear Friend and Listener:

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM [play episode here], I discuss the details on the end of Mercury retrograde as the Sun approaches the sign Libra and the equinox.

Unknown icons of the Sixties: Love, featuring laid-back frontman and mystic Arthur Lee, rear right.

We are in a complex moment, though the astrology is gradually settling down. As Mercury ended its retrograde (it stationed direct early on Sept. 22), we were reminded how challenging this Virgo phase (Jupiter, Sun, Mercury and so on) has been.

Virgo is about integration of opposites, and that can take work. In response to some reader inquiries, I begin with a comment about why it’s both good sense and accepted political custom to discuss the health of all presidential candidates.

And of course, I cover the Sun’s ingress into Libra, which happened Thursday about nine hours after Mercury retrograde ended.

My musical guest is Love, bringing us vibes from deep in the heart of the darkest Sixties.

What I love about Love is that they capture the intensity and the conflict of that era honestly, without romanticizing it a bit. You can order Love’s Forever Changes on Amazon or on iTunes.

Planet Waves is sponsored by your memberships and purchases.

Thanks for your business.

With love,

 

What Colors Do You See?

By Amanda Painter

Are issues of social justice less activating when they’re presented as art? I don’t think so. In fact, one could argue that while raw news footage can shock people into action, too much of it shocks people into numbness — and we are way beyond the ‘too much’ mark, even though many people do not realize it.

By contrast, difficult subjects presented creatively, even beautifully, often seem better able to keep us open to empathy, compassion and even to our own creative problem-solving abilities. We’re more likely to want to make contact, rather than turn away.

Creators of the video “Color of Reality” write, “Transfixed by racial, political, and socioeconomic tensions saturating the news, movement artists Jon Boogz and Lil Buck (Charles Riley), enveloped by the art of Alexa Meade, switch off the TV and release their emotion into a stirring dance that is both a lament and a spirited call to action.”

Color of Reality is beautiful and heartbreaking; and, I think, it opens a door to staying present in our emotions enough to find our voices and take a stand. The Sun entered Libra today, a cardinal sign ruled by Venus and known for its aesthetic sensitivity, and for its theme of justice. Sadly, with yet more protests about yet another apparently unarmed black man shot dead by police this week, Boogz, Buck and Meade have created a video that is likely to be relevant for a good while longer.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We’ve published your extended monthly horoscope for October below in this issue. Your extended monthly horoscope for September was published on Thursday, Aug. 25. We published the Moonshine horoscope  for the Virgo New Moon, by Len Wallick, on Thursday, Sept. 1. Your Moonshine horoscope for the Pisces Full Moon was published on Thursday, Sept. 15. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — There are those moments when you must give up control over the course of events, and you’re veering into one of them now. You might find this helpful, because there are certain possibilities you may not have fully connected with, and those have a better chance of coming to the forefront if you’re not trying to hold everything together in the way that you have. Said another way, this is a time when you make some chaos work for you. This calls for the one thing that’s in the shortest supply on the planet right now, which is trust. By that I mean trust in the flow of time, in your development and in your relationship to yourself. Those are the most significant factors that will help you align with the world around you, and it’s clear from your astrology that what you’re experiencing is not merely an inner trip. Your relationships, your professional calling and your physical environment are all involved. We are in an edgy moment right now, on many accounts. There is an abundance of fear going around, most of it directed at instability and lack of trust. You are now in the fortunate position of needing to trust yourself, and knowing that your faith in everyone and everything else flows from there. True, this is easier said than done, and you can do it. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — As the next few weeks progress, you may feel as if you’re going to burst. The amount of activity, both physical and psychic, may push you toward the edge, particularly around the Full Moon on Oct. 16. Even people who are not prone to anxiety may be feeling more of the stuff, though there are many ways to manifest and to express the same energy of which fear is made. The main points to remember are that there will be a lot of that energy moving, and that energy has to go somewhere. The more you express what you’re feeling in constructive ways, the better you will feel, and the more likely you’ll be to see the events of this time as an opportunity. The prevailing message is to lighten up and dance to the music. Venus in your opposite sign Scorpio is not exactly light and airy. This has you feeling deeply, and describes your investment in a relationship situation that you depend upon. Yet that’s secondary to your own experience of your feelings and your perceptions. Though this is always true, it’s particularly necessary to understand this now: your state of mind colors and shapes your perception of the world around you more than any other factor. Therefore, work with your feelings as they emerge, and do what you need to do in order to feel good. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You must be careful what you commit to this month. During the Mercury retrograde into late September, you got a clue just how little it takes to create a misunderstanding. You need to be vigilant about this going forward. That means understanding your responsibilities and commitments under any contract you sign or promise you make. To put it bluntly, you must figure out how much power over you any agreement gives the other party. From the look of your solar chart, that power will be lopsided in favor of others. The first step toward claiming it back is not giving any more away. Any situation where there is some question about this is likely to come to a head, so you will want to be prepared for any discussion in advance. You are not the type to submit to anything against your will; you’re too intelligent and you value your autonomy. Yet what’s unfolding in the current scenario involves old patterns that go back to parents and early caregivers, wherein you had to content yourself with having no influence over the course of events. This is no longer true; however, most of your strength and volition will come from knowledge. Therefore, set no limits on what you know about your circumstances, your rights or anyone with whom you’re dealing. For this is indeed your power. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You have been working toward something, though you might discover that it was something other than what you thought. Whatever unusual developments arrive in your professional life, meet them full on and without hesitation. You have been preparing for this moment. It’s your chance to do two things. One is to break free of some pattern that’s kept you living or working one particular way for longer than you have wanted or expected to. The other is to meet people whom you perceive as powerful either on their level, or on your terms, or both. You are done being intimidated by people, only to discover the daunting factor was in your own mind. Said another way, the genuine benefit of this time in your life is your opportunity to even out the field of play. If you remember that this is entirely psychological, it will be easier and more fun. Along the way, you’re likely to see an opening to an expanded reputation or a level of notoriety that far exceeds your hopes or expectations. Yet forthcoming aspects describe you discovering the ability to connect, emotionally and creatively, with something much larger than yourself. That something is usually experienced as intangible or vanished into the landscape. You can feel it, hear it and smell it, and you’re about to see what the heck it really is. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may need to work hard, though that’s also an invitation to work brilliantly. You will save yourself effort and get better results by applying intelligence first to any situation. Get a concept, an overview, a vision. Rather than a sense of direction, what you will benefit from is a concept of what you’re working toward. This might be more or less specific, lavishly detailed or less so. Let that guide you, in a loose and evolving way. It’s essential that all of your plans and even intentions be flexible enough to express themselves in a way that can actually manifest. One quality of our times is the environment changing so rapidly that it’s impossible to adapt. Rather, the thing essential to adapt oneself to is the sensation of constantly shooting the rapids. The beauty of speed is that small moves mean a lot. Momentum is doing most of the work; your role is to guide and direct. That’s the difference between working hard and working smart, as the old expression goes. There is plenty of energy coming out of the ground, and the fire-breathing dragon of time is hot and heavy at the moment. Therefore, settle into your seat and guide your craft; or if it suits you, step outside and walk.  For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Somehow recently the financial stakes went up, and it seems that you see more potential for yourself than usual. It’s a fact that you are now in a position to expand your income, though this will take a degree of personal commitment and dedication that you might decide is just not worth it. We live in the age of supposedly easy millions, which looms like a mirage over people’s hopes and dreams. The potential to be suddenly set for life gets in the way of all the steps that it takes to learn a trade, begin a business, work with partners, and manage modest resources efficiently. This is far from poverty consciousness: to the contrary, it’s about maximizing your access to what you already have, so that you can keep your projects going and build them up to a new level. This will invariably involve working with others, though you must be careful about the influence that people with whom you’re involved have on you. It will be easy to get carried away in the values of others, if you don’t keep your focus on your own values and priorities. You are the creative engine that you need to harness and maintain. You are the person with the drive and the passionate curiosity. You don’t need those things from others. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

On Your Mark, Get Set…Get Your Libra Birthday Reading!

Okay, Libras (and that includes Libra Rising and Libra Moon):

Believe me, I know that life has been squirrely and tense lately. But now the Sun has entered your sign, Mercury has stationed direct, and big ol’ Jupiter is just waiting for you to grab the baton and start running with it.

No more weighing back and forth whether the stars say it’s ‘just the right moment’ or whether you’re ‘ready’. No more talking yourself out of what you know you really want and need, just because you’re not sure what others might think.

If you’ve really been struggling and need help, you may very well find it through the empowering insights Eric will be offering in this reading.

“Wow. Thank you for this moment of clarity, Eric — just one of so many really.”
— Beth Reineke

Pre-order your 2016-17 Libra Birthday Reading for just $19.97 today, and we’ll email you access to the two 30-minute audio sections as soon as they are ready. Then, just as you’re really digesting and integrating and putting those ideas to use, we’ll let you know that your video tarot reading is completed for Part Two.

And with that, you’ll be off and running in a solar year like no other, with Eric at your side the whole way.

“You are a sage of stars and souls and do your work honestly. I love that!”
— Libra Stephani Stephens

Yours & truly,
Amanda Painter
Planet Waves Astrology Editor

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You must take the lead in your relationships. By this I mean take a strong hand in setting the agenda in both business and personal partnerships. If you don’t, you could be subjected to the wild swings that other people take you through. Another approach could be to take a step back and be detached. Yet you are way too involved, and your circumstances are too sensitive, for you simply to let go of your control or of your influence. The main thing you will need is a strong degree of self-leadership and self-guidance. This is the only factor that you can count on to help you navigate your environment when the intensity level goes up (which it will mid-month). Let’s put this into terms suited to Libra. You depend on balance, but you cannot depend on others to help keep you in balance. Only you can do that for yourself. It will be tempting to look to others for support when they may be your most dependable source of chaos. This posture may leave you feeling like you’re on your own or out in the cold, but it will work better than any form of toxic togetherness. You have a much deeper agenda: to cultivate and maintain your emotional independence. You’ve been working at this for a long time, and this is the perfect month to practice and learn. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Though it will be tempting to use pressure or force on certain people who seem stuck, that would not help your situation. Instead, do something that’s relatively easy: let them know you want to understand where they’re coming from. Then really strive to understand their viewpoint and the emotional reality behind it. Your persistent focus on what matters will be an orientation point for others, and it will have a clarifying influence. You merely need to apply the penetrating quality of your mind, and keep the conversation low key. Ask questions and really have a sense whether you understand or not. This will be especially important in work situations where groups are involved. Groups can be entirely lost and either nobody in the group wants to admit it, or they are all following one another around blindly. You’re the one who has to see beyond this. That means recognizing patterns as they point to problems and then to solutions. This is closely related to creativity; or rather, it’s identical, only you would substitute ‘puzzle’ for ‘problem’. You are in a highly unusual position to see the potential in all the chaos that the world is drowning in. You might even be able to understand the spiritual crisis of the internet, because currently you have a sense of the scale of both the problem and the creative puzzle that it presents. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Now would be the time to focus on increasing your income. You have the ideas, and you have the motivation, and most of all, you have the opportunity.  It’s rare to put all of those factors together in the same place and time. That’s your direct opportunity to take advantage of what you have available. Most of all, this means focusing on actual tasks. It’s easy to get consumed by meaningless details, abstract plans and list making. What you need to do to get this party started are the challenging, potentially difficult but in any case actual tasks with a beginning, middle and end (with emphasis on the end). Know what must happen, and do that first. Know what you want to happen, and get to that a little later in the day. At the moment, you have the added advantage of some relative calm (particularly after the frenetic madness of the past month). So use that space and mental bandwidth wisely. It won’t last forever — though it’ll last long enough to help you make some progress toward your most valued goals. One last thought: this progress will come partly in the form of building things, and partly in the form of taking some things apart. The level of structure is the one to focus on, that is, the underlying layer: walls and doors rather than the furniture. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’re going through a phase of catching up with yourself. True, you’ve made plenty of progress the past couple of months, despite factors that would have deterred others. Still, you need to gain some essential experience, so that you can focus your direction based on real information. It’s essential that you be willing to get your hands dirty, and essential that you not go into any project with the expectation that it will be easy. Many factors in your chart are insisting that you be willing to go deep, and that you be willing to embark on projects whose destiny you don’t know. And while everything is designed as a learning process, it must never stop there. It’s imperative to engage with the worth in what you’re doing, and to make sure that you follow through to the point where something actually serves a purpose extrinsic to yourself. People are fed up with complication. That’s the mark of our times. Yet you know that getting a result is not as easy as tapping the screen on a phone, but rather more like the work that took to design and create the app. You don’t need simplicity as much as you need a broad perspective. Jupiter is here to help you, if only you’ll remember there’s more to heaven and earth than you may have believed previously. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This month comes in two distinct phases — before and after the Full Moon of Oct. 16. Rather than arrive at phase two and wonder what you were so worked up about, I suggest you pace yourself and turn your squelch knob up to about eight. (Squelch is the thing on a two-way radio that suppresses background noise but allows through strong signals). There is plenty distracting you in your immediate environment, yet despite this you must persist in weaving your vision for the future. You have the added challenge of being motivated by something other than fear. It may well seem that wanting things not to go badly is a more powerful driving force than wanting them to go well. This would be especially true if you don’t quite have a clear notion of what ‘well’ would be. And this is why you will benefit from focusing specifically on that idea. To do this you will need to rise above the fray of daily activity and get your mind to a clear place. I recommend altitude: a tall building, a mountaintop, a cliff side with a view, a bridge you love. Stay there long enough to take in the perspective and allow it to make an impression on you, so that you think different thoughts. You will be tapping into your ‘alt mind’, which knows more than your regular one. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You must be discerning about your ideas, your talents and your possessions. It’s true that you’re in a time of changing fortunes, and you don’t really know what each day will bring. Yet you have plenty to work with. Even so, you need to sift through your resources carefully and select the gems. Regarding your talents: it’s time to get an understanding of both what is worth the most — that is, what you can get paid for, which also aligns the most closely with your values — and what gives you the most pleasure. There are all kinds of things you can do, and might do, though it’s now necessary that you have a better match than ever before. When you come into that alignment, you will notice that others respond by coming into harmony with you. But, as every musician must tune his or her instrument to be in tune with the orchestra, you must maintain focus on yourself, which means feeling and listening to the notes that you play. To use another musical metaphor, there’s a big difference between an electric guitar and an acoustic one. An electric instrument can express more sounds with less effort, and tap into the power grid to shake the stadium or wake your neighbors. That’s the instrument you’re playing right now. Therefore, slow down, center yourself and allow the music (and art, money, love and sex) to flow through you. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.