Eric has requested that for this week’s edition you have a full set of horoscopes relevant to tonight’s powerful eclipse. Each sign will therefore include today’s (July 12) daily, the Monday Morning horoscope for this week, and the July monthly.

Aries (March 20-April 19)

Daily: It’s said that success takes confidence, though it also works the other way. Don’t sit around waiting till you feel like you can conquer the world to begin doing it. Just begin, and act on your best ideas — and you will tap into a depth of strength, connection and grounding that will surprise you.

Weekly: Act protectively, not defensively. Offer the benefit of your awareness and resources to anyone who may need them, particularly young people. Your survival instincts are running strong right now, and you can do plenty to secure your boundaries, feather your nest, and work toward your greater wellbeing. Yet you may also expand that into a kind of “protectorate” of anyone who comes into your sphere. What you cannot do is protect people from their own folly, self-destruction or delusion. If you observe that is what’s happening, you might consider not investing your resources, emotional or otherwise. Attempting to save people from themselves is, in itself, self-destructive on the part of the rescuer. Yet you can at all times act in your own best interests, and you can make it known that you’re available to anyone who chooses to be responsible to themselves. That, however, must be your bottom line.

Monthly: You will have an unusually close-up view for one of the strangest shows on Earth, and you may also be a participant in the changes that are now in progress. The first thing to be conscious of is who you consider a friend. This is not an honorary position in your life; the word must have real meaning, which is demonstrated through both correct action and honesty. Most people you know have already established a track record with you. You will need to be aware of what that is, and not pretend it’s something else. A friend is someone who accepts you as you are, who embraces you no matter what you are going through, and no matter what your opinions may be. That may seem like a tall order — and in fact, most of us have very few actual friends. You are likely to find yourself in many situations where you will feel called to go against the grain of what is popular, and this is likely to last through the summer. You are also inaugurating another phase of your life, wherein you live up to your reputation of being the headstrong one who always goes your own way, who sees the world through your own eyes, and who makes all your own decisions. Pay attention: this is about leadership.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)

Daily: You have something to say. And when you speak, or write, you come from your feelings. It’s true that your views change more than you may be comfortable with, though if you follow the cycles you will notice there is a logical progression — and you have breakthroughs.

Weekly: You must say what you mean and mean what you say, as your words will have impact on both you and the world around you. This is often forgotten in the Twitter Age, where the majestic power of the alphabet has been degraded and cheapened. It’s up to you to make sure that every paragraph, sentence, word and letter count. You have it in you. You are, at heart, an efficient, cautious, yet also creative being. And you have something on your mind, and whatever that is can have an influence on your environment. Yet the real beneficiary of one who makes a clear statement of their ideas is whoever dares to do so. The way you know that writing is real is because it in some way changes the writer. For you that will mean deepening your feelings, tuning yourself into your local environment more keenly, and associating only with people you deem responsible. The stakes are high.

Monthly: Mars retrograde takes place in your solar 10th house. While this region of the horoscope has many associations with fame, notoriety and profession, it also comes back to your dominant parent. That’s the one who did most of the parenting; and in the 20th century, that usually meant mother. Mars retrograde in Aquarius is about challenging the thought patterns that have, in a sense, ruled your life, or that at least set templates you have tried to follow. Underneath all the activity and the choices and the strange ways that mothers tend to maintain control over their daughters, there is a thought form lurking. This would be easier to find, if anyone knew it was there. It would be easier to address, if you could identify it and maintain a dialog with it. Yet let’s translate that: whatever this notion, idea, or concept is, it lives inside you, although it came from somewhere else. All of the rationalizations and neurotic tendencies that grow from it are meaningless. Even so, this thought form is concealed by them. It is a specific fear or belief. It is closely related to religious ideas, and all the knots they tie people in. Remember that religion is built on declaring sex as its antagonist. Sex is about your body but it’s also about your capacity to love. God is great. Human love is what you need and must learn to trust.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)

Daily: Today’s eclipse falls along the financial axis of your chart. The message is to figure out how incredibly well set you are — in the way of talents and resources. Well, perhaps incredible is not the right word. You are indeed credible, and you provide a vital gift to the family of humanity.

Weekly: Be careful who you get into financial arrangements with. You need a vetting process that lasts anywhere from 90 days to a year. That may seem like a long time, though it’s not. If you’re talking about marriage, the process would need to last at least two years — one full Mars cycle, so you know that you’ve experienced at least one instance of every kind of disagreement you can have. With Mars retrograde in Aquarius, the thing to be mindful of is the bottom-line relationship to existence: what you might call the meaning of life. The place to start that process is to gain some understanding of why you’re alive. Many people struggle with this, though it’s a high priority. It’s not something discovered by theoretical pondering but rather through direct experience. Think of it this way: what do your experiences mean to you? What do the people in your life mean to you? What do you make, and why do you make it? That is the meaning of your life.

Monthly: We are in an era where belief is proving to be extremely problematic. It always was, though we’re entrenched in times when to believe something is to think it’s not only true, but that it must be true for everyone. Questioning one’s beliefs takes courage — and it takes the mastery of certain spiritual and psychological tools. Yet it’s also the work-a-day tradecraft of people known as fact-checkers, who spend their day asking one question over and over: “Is this true?” Translating a little, it means: how do we know this is true? What evidence is there to support this assertion? Is this number or quotation or location accurate? Does the story check out? The way to “question your beliefs” is to spend your day questioning them, in a structured manner. Therefore, the first step is identifying something as a belief. The way you do that is to question all of your thoughts, and you find the ones that are not standing on a foundation of facts and data. This is likely to include anything that you have not personally witnessed, or read about from multiple sources — none of them accessed on a smartphone or through a social media platform. The problem here is that most people don’t recognize their beliefs as such. They’re just simply “what is right.” So that is the place to start. Therefore, strive to prove yourself wrong. You will discover many interesting things: about yourself, and the world.

Cancer Birthdays 2018:
How to Celebrate Your Eclipse with Planet Waves

Dear Friend and Reader:

Tonight there’s a partial solar eclipse in your sign — opposite Pluto. And while the accompanying eclipses in the next month happen in Leo and Aquarius, you’ll be getting more eclipses in your sign (and in your relationship sign, Capricorn) next year.

I know you’ll want to be in a good position to make the most of those events. What better way to prepare than with your 2018 Cancer Birthday Reading?

Eric always designs these audio readings to look well into the future, which makes them ideal for repeated listening over the course of several months.

Right now, you’re being called to step up and step into your life in new ways. I’m sure you can feel it, though it can be hard to trust that calling at times. If you need some immediate guidance, I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering your Birthday Reading in combination with this year’s written annual reading for Cancer. You’ll get instant access to the written part, and we’ll email you as soon as the audio reading is ready.

If you already have The Art of Becoming (this year’s annual) for Cancer, you can pre-order your 2018 Birthday reading on its own.

The price of your Birthday Reading increases when it publishes — so I do recommend pre-ordering it soon to secure the discounted price of $33.

What better time to commit to the growth and healing of your relationships, your career, your family, your creativity, your spirit, your sexuality and more than during an eclipse opposite Pluto, the profound planet of change? Whether you have a Cancer Sun, rising sign or Moon, this looks like an auspicious time to commit more deeply to these processes.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Daily: Today’s eclipse in your sign represents a turning point for you — a push ahead, new challenges, new opportunities, and a new depth of sensitivity. It is true that the world has an impact on you — and you have an impact on the world. Be your own leader. Claim your power, and don’t give it away.

Weekly: Thursday’s New Moon eclipse in your birth sign is exactly opposite Pluto in Capricorn. This chart has two main features: one important matter or relationship you must focus on, and many things you need to be aware of but leave to themselves. All that stuff off to the side might seem compelling. It might seem dramatic. It’s likely to include a cast of characters who have no idea what is good for them; some may be delusional, and you need to not let yourself be sidetracked by their antics. You have, on the other hand, a perfect alignment that will help you move heaven and earth — and make some important changes you have been working toward for a long time: potentially going back 10 years. What you’re experiencing now is a culmination of that process (symbolized by Pluto in your opposite sign Capricorn). You might say you’re going to do a lot of catching up with yourself in a short time.

Monthly: The 8th house is the one that covers ordinary secrets — the kind we tell to others. So it’s not really secret at all; rather, it’s the house of pillow talk, financial arrangements and whisper campaigns. It’s the house of information that’s supposed to stay in the family. Now, we live in a world where the 8th house has exploded, largely due to the internet: the concept of privacy is nonexistent. For this reason, it’s better not to have secrets. The necessity to live transparently has never been more urgent, because if people know the truth about you, you have a much greater chance of setting the terms of your life. For the next two months, Mars will be retrograde in this region of your solar chart, and you will be making discoveries about what you want. You may come up against some seemingly invisible pressure not to desire that person, or experience. This is where you will need to go your own way, which will take some rearrangement of your psychology and possibly your relationships. In essence, your contracts with the people around you, which are one form of your contracts with existence, must permit you to be who you actually are. This will be a process of both negotiation and defiance. Yet you have many options besides destroying your relationships. Try being who you are. Yes, it takes practice.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)

Daily: The eclipse of the Sun that happens overnight is urging you to take practical measures when it comes to maintaining your health and wellbeing — especially your spiritual, mental and emotional health. This matters every bit as much as what you eat and whether you go to the gym.

Weekly: Most of the work you have to do is what might be described as inner work. There may be some outer manifestation, though that’s secondary to the awakening you’re going through, and the choices you’ll be making as a result of it. The thing about inner work is that for many, it’s often elusive, lacking tangible form or substance, or words to describe it. And frequently, the interior described is itself nebulous, and difficult to access. This week’s partial eclipse of the Sun is taking the opposite approach: there is specificity; there’s substance; there is illumination of your inner realm. Yet with that may also come what A Course in Miracles calls “the fear to look within.” This fear is based on the premise that what one will find, if one looks within, is darkness and judgment. Yet what if the opposite were true? What if you looked inside yourself, and discovered that you are made of love, and that love is your only reality?

Monthly: One thing that Mars retrograde is likely to bring up for you is the necessity for you to associate with people who have similar belief systems, particularly where religion is concerned. It’s true that not everyone is “religious,” though everyone was impacted by some form of religious tradition. Especially in American society, there has been a false imposition of the beliefs of a certain few people onto everyone, and this, too, presents a condition we must address. Also, everyone has a relationship to existence, though for some this is dim, and for some it’s more conscious. Consider any changes that develop in your relationships within this frame of reference and they will make more sense. The one thing you cannot do is pretend that you abide that which does not work for you. You don’t need to be violent about this, or aggressive, though you will need to hold space for the ideas that are true to your soul. What you may find out through this process is that you’re discovering what those ideas are; nothing is a given. Nothing is fixed, and part of what you’re doing is challenging fixity itself. The real difference between the beliefs of one person and another may not be the content, but rather whether there is the ability to adapt to one’s circumstances and human environment. One other bit: It’s been said that “sex changes everything,” to which I would add, “sex must always change.”

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)

Daily: An eclipse of the Sun later today takes place in the angle of your chart associated with the rewards of your work. Your value is not how diligent you are, or how much effort you’re willing to invest, though those things help. Rather, your true gift is creativity, coupled with chutzpah. Remember!

Weekly: Art has the power to transcend social and political strife like few things can. Nobody fully understands this property, though we’ve all seen it in action. Whether we’re talking about a novel that changed the consciousness of a population (Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Grapes of Wrath), an artist who made AIDS awareness friendly and accessible (Keith Haring), or a musical that transcends racial and cultural barriers (Hamilton), the creative process is a transcendent power, and is a force for healing. If you seek to change the world in some way, you might try art rather than politics. This does not mean turning art into a political statement. Rather, you would create art in response to what you feel, or what you witness. The creative process must come first. Beauty and integrity must precede your message, and you must strive to allow your work to change you, before anyone else will change. I reckon you’ve been waiting for this moment a long time.

Monthly: You depend on your work patterns to be as productive as you are, and this summer will be an excellent time to make sure that your routines really support you. This is especially important if you are devoted to the work that you do, or to the organization you serve. Your wellbeing and your ability to be of service are closely related. Another factor you may engage with are changing social patterns; and, if those are influencing you, it will help if you go deeper than what may seem obvious. When it comes to the ways that society organizes itself, including on the most mundane social level, things are rarely what they seem. One reason for this is that the perceiver’s point of view is rarely taken into account. We are encouraged to claim that a certain thing is reality, without questioning who is doing the observing and the interpreting. This is what you most urgently need to do. Many factors of your reality are based entirely on your quest to get to know who you are. To do that, you invest yourself heavily in people and in situations. Part of your process involves a measure of conflict, which is understandable if you look at it closely; we really do learn about ourselves through clashing and crashing into others, among other ways. Is that really your first choice, though? There are many methods to work out relationships. Some are more pleasant than others.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)

Daily: Tonight’s partial eclipse of the Sun in the achievement and reputation angle of your chart is a message that you are noticeable, and that you are being noticed. You need to cultivate a level of comfort with this. There are drawbacks for sure, but the advantages outweigh them considerably.

Weekly: Make your important decisions in accord with how you want to be known, going forward. This is about more than your reputation, which in our era exists mostly in the commercial realm. This is something bigger: it’s about what you’re known for creating, which is an extension of the deepest vision of who you are. Indeed, your creations are an extension of you, in a way similar to how parents create children. And just as children grow up to live independent lives, so too do your creations, and the results of your work. All you can do is put as much integrity and love into them at the time you have the chance to influence them, especially at the beginning. And even then, things don’t go perfectly. Even if there would seem to be some disturbances around you, trust that your core message has come through. That is another way of saying to trust that who you are comes through your work; you are the message. You set your own example.

Monthly: From time to time, people wake up for a moment and question the impact of technology on their minds, and on our society. Now is an excellent time for you to do so. There are two main facets to the question. One is the impact of the technology you use on your ability to think coherently; meaning, in language that makes sense. What have you noticed on this topic, in your personal meditation on your life? I would ask: what is the condition of your writing skills now, as compared to 10 years ago? What about reading? Just checking: what was the last book you read that deeply influenced you? Second topic: creativity. Do you use your technological devices as creative tools, or are you more of a consumer? If you determine that you use the web more for consumption — by which I mean either to read, to view videos, or to make purchases — I suggest you begin to shift that balance. The impact of technology on society is something you can monitor, and observe your part in. Yet your personal experience of the digital environment is something you can do a lot about. Here’s how Marshall McLuhan put it, many years ago: Most people pick up a technology and, because it’s so intense, they numb out. An artist picks up a technology and uses it to stay awake, alert and expressive.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)

Daily: An eclipse of the Sun in your 9th house is encouraging you to expand your vision, and be bold about the future. This arrives when we’re all being trained to live like there’s no tomorrow. Yet that will not serve you. You need a long-term plan, and the courage to carry it out.

Weekly: At the heart of any spiritual project or mission must be love and forgiveness. When those are present, there is no need for morality, and there is nothing to teach, and there is nothing to learn. The problem is that love and forgiveness contradict every value of the capitalist system in which we live, which is inherently based on isolation, scarcity, competition and, worst yet, deception. Love and forgiveness are about mutually shared interests, not separate ones. Love is about truth and truth alone. The question you may face is how to bring these values more fully into your lived reality, when you must be a creature of the world. And that is where the spiritual life must evolve into a direct relationship to what you might call “the living information.” This comes through most strongly when you are committed to love and forgiveness as a way of life. This is an act of faith. And through that act of faith, you discover something called soul.

Monthly: The importance of family and tribe stands out for Scorpio in a way that is unusual among all the other signs, even in our increasingly tribal world. The thing to study is patterns: in particular, where your family of origin’s social and psychological patterns seem to mimic those of your current world. You are in the process of becoming aware of, and clearing away, the tendency of your current social experiences to mimic those of the past, seemingly to no end. Yet you must claim your space, and your right to organize your world in a way that consciously suits you. The question on one level is about patterns; though, on the visceral level, it’s about attachments. If you endeavor to consciously make changes in your world, that will require changes in individual relationships. You will need, therefore, to trust that the loving ties that bind are more valuable to everyone involved than the toxic patterns you are trying to transcend. At first it will seem to require the greatest depth of courage you’ve ever mustered — unless, of course, you’re aware that you’re suffocating or otherwise stifled. Even then, it can take some guts to draw a whole breath and assert your right to some freedom to move about the planet, and the social spheres, on your own terms. Remember: this all comes back to very old patterns, long predating your current life.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)

Daily: You seem to be reaching for a new agreement or understanding with someone close to you. They appear to need something conventional and dependable; you need something innovative that gives you room to grow. The question: is there a compromise between those two positions?

Weekly: So much chaos and controversy surround the realm of sexuality, it’s amazing anyone on the planet has a single positive erotic experience their entire life. Yet you long for this. Your sign may be the most exotic of all, in terms of your sense that you’re not “from here.” Whether that is a metaphor or something more tangible, eroticism is one of your ways of finding home on our planet. It’s one of your deepest sources of emotional nourishment. This week’s partial solar eclipse is in this region of your chart, the sign Cancer, which represents mother’s milk, breakfast in bed, your home and the very coziest spot in it, and your style of lovemaking. See if you can filter out all the noise and madness that surround something so natural. See if you can go beyond the economic interests, meaning anywhere that money might infiltrate the erotic realm. See if you can find a way for what is loving and natural to be just that.

Monthly: You are rapidly letting go of old thought patterns, which will make room for a new form of intelligence. Yet as those old thought forms crumble, you may feel like you’re losing something valuable; in truth they are no more useful than the outgrown shell that a sea creature is shedding. You are an unusually intelligent person, though certain forms that your mental abilities take limit your ability to perceive ideas. The patterns are too rigid, and need to be challenged, and evaluated, based on their capacity to do what you want them to do. You may, therefore, encounter issues that require you to think in new, different and expanded ways. This is not merely about ‘knowing more’ but rather about how you work with the information and the perceptions that you have. This is likely to arrive in real-time experiments, based on immediate circumstances you may be facing. We have all heard the term “thinking outside the box,” which refers to a specific puzzle you can find in Wikipedia. This is a good example of what you’ll be learning, only imagine this on a three- or four-dimensional model. You can practice this by doing things like physically looking at a circumstance from as many viewpoints as possible. Take one question and get 10 opinions and notice the patterns. Remember that mathematics is an invention of the human mind. You are such an inventor.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)

Daily: No relationship is really under your control. The best you can do is practice goodwill every day, and adapt to the natural changes that your partners always seem to cycle through. That is the main thing to remember: relationships run in cycles, and you’re currently in an important one.

Weekly: You have a more profound impact on others than you may imagine. The effect of this is to draw you more deeply into your relationships than you may feel safe or comfortable going; and through the mirror effect, you may only notice the depth to which you experience people, rather than how they experience you. It will help you, and the people close to you, to tune in to the effect you have on others. Now for the challenge: what if, for example, someone you care about deeply is a hot mess, and claiming that this is somehow about you? Well, now you have a boundary question of the first order. You might start by taking the claim at face value, and inquiring whether it has any validity. Then, consider the person’s personal history prior to your arrival in their life, and see if you can detect any patterns. You have the ability to work this out. Remember how much of life and of happiness depends upon one’s agenda.

Monthly: You must have some strong motivation to get your finances in order, and I suggest you ride that horse while it’s fresh and the day is young. You can start anywhere: for example, digging out and organizing your old files, or picking a current project. One exercise I advise my clients to do, when money is a question, is to figure out exactly where they stand: determine precisely how much debt, how much cash and how much credit you have. Just the process of doing this will be empowering, and I mean that directly. You must know where you stand. Then, do an evaluation of all of your other resources: a kind of inventory of talents; people who will help you; spaces that you own, rent or can use; ideas you’ve developed; art and manuscripts lying around; undeveloped ideas; and whatever else you might consider an asset. Once you have this inventory going, you will start to get ideas for what to do next. You will also clarify what no longer needs to be part of your life. It’s important to dispose of anything you don’t need, don’t want and don’t use, which can include passing many things forward to others. The overall idea here is to clear the way for what is new, what is alive, and what you really want. This is best done as a conscious act, so that you stay one step ahead of nature.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

Daily: The thing you must remember, which so many people forget, is that the first thing to take care of is your health and wellbeing. You are sensitive, more so than you give yourself credit for being. Honor that sensitivity, and nourish your life with exactly what you need.

Weekly: Pluto’s position in your solar chart is driving you deeper into your journey of inner awareness. Yet you’ve reached a point where your experience is making contact with some practical matters of health and wellbeing, and that is where your solar chart stands at the time of Thursday’s eclipse. This is a moment of contact, where you’ll be able to recognize ways you can make specific changes to the patterns of your life — adjustments that, with Mars retrograde, have no doubt been in process for a while. What you’ve experienced is composed of many individual decisions, yet it goes much deeper. Life patterns exist on many levels, from behaviors (for example, what you eat, and where) to drives (why you crave certain foods) to something more existential (your relationship to nourishment). You are in a position to thread the needle on all of these at once, though it will help if you’re responsive to your desire to do so; and make a choice to let go of resistance, to the degree that you can. A little willingness will go a long way.

Monthly: This summer, Mars will be retrograde in your sign for the first time since 1971. Astrological events gain meaning and influence through being unusual, and this qualifies: it’s describing a truly momentous time in your life, a time not just of re-evaluation, but also re-creation. Don’t be afraid to ask the big questions, and trust that you will get answers. Those answers may not arrive immediately. But they will indeed show up, perhaps in pieces that you assemble, perhaps in layers, and perhaps in the form of revelations or discoveries. I would borrow an idea from A Course in Miracles that you may find helpful: your role is not to seek love, but rather to seek and find the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence. This will entail coming to terms with anger; we are talking about Mars, after all. You will need to come to terms with desire, whether sexual or otherwise. You will need to understand the various shades of assertion, aggression and attack, and gain an understanding of what those mean, and where they are rooted in your psyche. Find a way not to take anger out on yourself. Rather, direct it outward at what cannot be hurt, such as in martial arts training of some kind. When Mars is active in your life, you need to move your energy through you, and learn to focus it as you do. This and many other factors will help liberate you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

Daily: Tonight’s eclipse of the Sun will open up new creative and romantic horizons for you. Doors that seem to be closed or even boarded over will turn into portals. Projects that may have languished will burst into life. Take these advantages. Use and appreciate your many gifts.

Weekly: You’re a pleasure-seeking being. It would be wholesome of you to remember that, and also to remember that we live in a culture that is, at the moment, having a love affair with a kind of neo-Puritanism. One question you’re working with is the extent to which you’re willing to allow cultural dictates to drive your choices, influence your desires, and externally impose a moral code on you. There’s another way to see this, as well: Pluto’s movement through Capricorn has created the illusion of control and, at the same time, it’s created an opening through which you have a direct path of self-expression. While you might think that this is a crack in the structure of society, the actual potential is within you; you cannot seek it outside yourself. Yet you can navigate the world both through social choices and being fully conscious of your state of mind wherever you are. Notice the ways that your emotional state and your mentality open certain things to perception and to availability.

Monthly: Mars retrograde takes place in your 12th house, which is where you keep all your deepest secrets from yourself. So we could say that the theme here is learning to be scrupulously honest with yourself, about everything there is to be honest about. As a Pisces, you have a way of containing the universe within you. My favorite way of describing our sign is to say that the ocean refuses no river. You take on a lot; all the other signs, and what they represent, flow into yours. You have a way of organizing all that you absorb; and now the time has come to clean off the shelves and dig out the closets and the storage unit and all of that. Make that your focus this summer. Lighten up your load, whether mental, emotional or material. This will have results on the spiritual level: that is, your sense of self will come into focus as you pare back what you don’t need and don’t want. You will also notice that certain ways you’ve been conditioned to think — perhaps going back to specific ancestors you can identify — no longer serve you. In sum, the bottom line here is learning how to let go of fear. You will be doing this in a time when there is plenty to be afraid of in the world, and when we live in a time of rampant uncertainty. This will make your efforts all the more meaningful.