Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, #1029 | By Eric Francis
Gee, it looks like you’re expecting company. Or like you’re headed to a family reunion. Or like the family reunion is headed to you. Ok, that doesn’t exactly qualify as spot-on clairvoyance with Kwanzaa, Christmas and Hanukkah coming up, though it is a fair reading of your chart. That symbolic picture looks like a collection of every relative and ancestor you ever had is sitting at your kitchen table. Not the formal dining room — I mean stuffed into the kitchen, up against the stove, with bread in the oven. It looks like a collection of characters of wit or at least wisdom, including Uncle Ralph with his dirty jokes, cousin Martha who still after all these decades wears a mini skirt in December, and the presence of many people who have sat around that table in years past who are now memories. Even if that gathering does not come to you, then go to it — and bring someone who’s never been among your tribe before. They will notice many things invisible to you.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014, #1028 | By Eric Francis
You have a story to tell. But you seem to be hesitating. You seem to think it’s too much, maybe more than anyone wants to hear, or more than you want to say. That, and you appear to be waiting for a moment where you can approach the work thoughtfully and carefully, with some discipline. I suggest you move forward now. You can have all the discipline in the world, and if you’ve lost contact with the seed of your idea, with the drive and the living impulse inside you, the perfect moment won’t mean much. So scratch your pen or pencil on the paper, even if it’s in broken or scattered thoughts that you cannot seem to capture fully. Work your way up to a few sentences. Soon enough you will have the focus to develop what now exists in a state of potential. At that time, any first draft at all is better than a blank page.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, #1027 | By Eric Francis
It’s time to bring the passion back into sex. Passion does not necessarily mean love affair, and it does not mean soul mate. It has nothing to do with ‘spiritual’ unless you’re someone who associates spiritual with biology. This is less about being horny and more about being curious and creative. Imagine if we unhooked from sex all those other values, and just left curious and creative. We would have something fun to play with. You in particular need sex to be interesting, whatever kind of sex it may be. Interesting translates to something different, and a spirit of experimentation. I know this passage of writing will never get into The Missionary’s Guide to Perfect Fidelity, and that’s a good thing too. You’re not a missionary and perfect fidelity is not your goal. In fact it may be the last thing on your mind right now. Remember, curiosity, creativity, experimentation.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for December 2014, #1026 | By Eric Francis
We all live in ‘the environment’, which we usually think of as the air, the water, the neighborhood, the cityscape or some other external factor. You’re about to be taken on a journey through your mental environment. You will have the option and the ability to see how real, or unreal, it is. Yet real or unreal is not the actual dilemma. The dilemma is the relationship between inner and outer. To what extent is your inner environment influencing or even controlling your perception? The boundary between inner and outer may seem extremely thin at times, and at others, it may seem like it’s as wide as a canyon. The thing to do, while you have an excellent opportunity, is to experiment. Is it really true that when you smile the world smiles with you? Is it true that when you’re feeling depressed you cannot tune into happiness in a sincere way? How powerful is the mental filter? This question matters a lot, because if the answer is, ‘It controls everything else’, then you may decide that you need to learn how to master this element of yourself. Or at least, you may decide that you need to master the art of exploring your own mental environment. Events over the next few weeks will facilitate that, as long as you remember that everything you perceive is not necessarily what it seems to be.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, #1025 | By Eric Francis
From the look of your charts, the heavy feeling that may have been stalking you the past week or so is about to clear out of the way. However, it remains an option. That’s the thing to remember, and to remember all the time. State of mind, and emotional state, is optional. The problem is that it doesn’t always feel that way, and when you need that information the most you may be the least likely to have it available. Now is a good time to memorize the fact that you have a choice, because your options are not only wide open, they have equal magnetism, equal accessibility. You can move between them like moving from room to room in a physical space. Notably, all of your options have value right now; once you start exploring them you are likely to see that each supports the other. The most significant point here is learning how not to get stuck in any one of them.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, #1024 | By Eric Francis
Often I wish there was a better term for self-esteem. It seems like such a reductionist way to describe the quest for meaning and value that everyone on the planet goes through at some point. What is clear from your charts is that you rarely let on that this is happening. You have a cat-like way of concealing your interior reality. What you cannot do at this point is hide from yourself. Indeed, the thing that’s happening now is a kind of inner confrontation where several levels of your personal belief system are merging into one cohesive reality. The reason this is challenging is because those levels have a way of conflicting. There are different versions of events, values you’ve collected from a variety of sources and that have been formed by different influences. And then there is what you organically know to be true. You might simplify this whole process by starting right there.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, #1023 | By Eric Francis
Don’t struggle for self-esteem. Offer it to yourself. You do seem to be experiencing some kind of inner conflict, rooted in whether you really approve of yourself or are acceptable to others. Yet if that language resonates, I suggest you go deeper, to that level that you might be inclined to describe as raw, real, emotional or controversial. There is another layer to this self-esteem thing, and that is about cracking out of a shell that you were put in when you were very young. If you’ve kept yourself in that shell, it’s likely been to make sure that you have the approval of others (particularly if they controlled your supply of food and access to shelter). At this point, the thing to do is everything you want to do that you think would be shocking to all those people. You are not doing it to prove how shocking it will be. You would be doing it to demonstrate that they really don’t care, and you really are free to make your choices.
Inner Space Monthly Horoscope for November, 2014, #1022 By Eric Francis
I have written many times that self-esteem is the most significant problem in Western society. There are bigger problems where people don’t have toilets, but on our side of the tracks, self-esteem is what you might call the plague. You’ve been onto this one for a while. I think you know what I’m getting at. Self-esteem regulates all other possibilities. There are some people who just naturally feel good about themselves and can live that way, though they are few and far between. You are going through a series of what you might think of as tests or experiments that will help you cultivate respect for, and confidence in, yourself. You have what it takes; you are strong and you have some energy. And you will be happy you passed through this phase of psychological growth — once you stand up and walk right into the territory.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for November, 2014, #1021 | By Eric Francis
You must continue to be careful with your money, though if you are both cautious and shrewd, you can come out well ahead by one month from today. Financial literacy is something that’s sorely lacking in a culture that’s supposedly all about money. However, ignorance is not your friend, not now and not ever. Presently, there are practical matters that need your attention, but the larger theme seems to be a question of honor. I know those don’t usually count for much, especially where money is concerned, though at the moment this is something that matters a great deal for you. Honor translates to impeccability. It means that all your actions with money and finance must match your stated values, including how you earn and how you allocate your resources. It’s essential that you work with a plan, and with full knowledge of how much you have at any time. Money is a measurement of power, though few people see it that way; it’s more often a place where they feel disempowered or cut off. Nobody who is good at handling or manifesting money got that way by accident. At minimum it required a decision and at most a long series of experiments, challenges and lessons. Do your part to help yourself. Get serious about your finances. Get real about how important this is to you and the people who depend on you.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, #1020 | By Eric Francis
You may be feeling, acting or speaking rather unlike yourself. The thing is, you know you’re still you. You know that nothing has really changed. It just seems like there are other voices popping up from your psyche, saying or thinking things that are out of character. I would ask though, are they really? Or have you tapped into something deeper than you usually access? Have you changed your perspective (literally, your physical or psychic point of view) enough to change your opinion? The current astrology may be subtly tricking you out of a long-held position, including the notion that you struggle to change your mind. You might think of that as the illusion of being stuck, which is merely a kind of ‘special effect’, and one that has never served you well. The ability to shift your point of view both rapidly and accurately is not just a fantastic creative gift — it’s a matter of survival.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, #1019 | By Eric Francis
You may be waiting for the other shoe to drop, though I suggest you not waste your time waiting. It’s up to you to take conscious steps in the direction that you want to go, which may involve taking a new route or deciding on a new destination from the one you were considering yesterday. Between sticking to one course for decades, and changing one’s mind every 15 minutes (the two most popular options, it seems) is the reality that change happens. You are in the process of encountering a series of influences that are shaping the course of your life. Note carefully whether you’re resisting these changes, and in the alternate, whether they seem to be taking you by surprise, happening totally outside of your control.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, #1018 | By Eric Francis
The Sun has a long story to tell before it leaves your sign in a few weeks. There are many adventures ahead, though you might not notice that if you cling to any form of certainty, or go out of your way to avoid change. Indeed, progress is impossible without change, and so I suggest you tune yourself to all kinds of movement, large and small. Do yourself a huge favor and let go of any expectations you have on other people, and for that matter, yourself. You seem to be sending yourself a mixed message about whether you matter. You are neither the most important thing nor totally insignificant. Between the two is a whole range of actual, authentic meaning, though you are unlikely to believe that if you try to convince yourself otherwise. Nourish your soul. Feel, look and listen.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for October 2014, #1017 | By Eric Francis
Stay close to your roots. Stay close to the person you have always been — the one you have come to trust. You often forget that this being resides right inside you, below your various circumstances, ideas about yourself and most of all, your relationship scenarios. One particular bond could become volatile and unstable; this will compel you to locate and to stand on your foundations. Yet you might want to consider the ways in which not doing so has contributed to that instability. You are at the point where losing contact with your self-respect can result in a nearly immediate shakeup in your life. The remedy, then, is not to ‘fix’ the relationship but rather to move closer to your core. This will have the effect of putting you in a calmer state of mind, and helping you see that there is nothing to fight about; there is no real controversy. Still, you may imagine that others want to dominate you, and that the only way to prevent that is for you to dominate them. I suggest you try a different approach, which is taking a wholly positive, constructive view of the situation. Your battle cry needs to be something like, ‘How can I make the most of this?’ or ‘What can I offer this situation?’ Your ability to do so is a dependable and immediate metric of your self-worth.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014, #1016 | By Eric Francis
It’s time to refine (and apply) your political skills, which are your social skills, though a special kind. By political I mean your ability to negotiate, as well as to work within an organizational structure, or within a power structure, to be helpful and also to get a positive result. This is no minor skill in a world where so much is decided on the basis of how well people get along, and who has the informal influence. Politics, properly understood, goes beyond the level of formal social roles. It’s all about how people relate to one another as people, establish the pecking order, exchange favors and exchange resources. Politics is about how people motivate one another and get something done. Other factors in your chart describe you as a bull in a china shop, for whom the notion of diplomacy might be entirely repugnant. Don’t go there — you will lose. Relate to people in a way that you both understand, and never count yourself out of the game.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, #1015 | By Eric Francis
Don’t get too caught up in plans and strategizing — plenty more useful information is about to emerge, timed approximately with the Sun’s arrival in your sign in just over one week, followed by a magnificent New Moon. You may, however, be obsessed with one particular plan that seems like exactly the right thing to do, and it may be. I suggest, in that case, that you make a generous list of everything you don’t know and keep all of that in mind. As long as you know you don’t know, you will be on solid ground. Remember that idea: the key to knowing is to know when you don’t know, and to the best extent you can, to know what information you are missing. Then be patient, and pay attention to what comes your way. Once you structure your learning process, you magnify its power, and make more efficient use of the information that comes to you.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Sept. 4, #1014 | By Eric Francis
Pleasure, imagination, curiosity — these are some of the most potent healing tools available to us. Yet to be effective there needs to be some soul presence, or a conscious idea of seeking self-knowledge. I am not talking about entertainment. For many people the opening into the healing dimension may as well be a sealed door expertly polished into marble to make it seem like it’s not there. However, it is most certainly there, and you already have confirmation that such a dimension exists and that you can indeed access it, even if you cannot predict when. Right now the astrology is aligning in a way that makes this dimension closer than ever, and that increases your ability to feel your way to it. Just remember that you know you’re responding to something that is real, and to which you have direct access, if you need it.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for September 2014, #1013 | By Eric Francis
Focus less on appearances and more on saying what you really mean. You might even consider forgetting appearances entirely and investing everything into speaking, and living, your truth. I normally would not cast this in such polarized terms, though these two concepts are often mutually exclusive. Appearances are usually designed to conceal the truth. You have a choice to make, though it may not be so starkly clear now as it’s likely to be around the time of your birthday. The decision involves not just whether you want to live with a veil thrown over your reality, and therefore isolated from others, but also why you would want to do so. You are more transparent than you think, and it would support your concept of integrity to be seen and known for who you are. This is for you, not for anyone else. One happy result will be you’ll have more energy to invest in what you love the most dearly. Yet there is something deeper at play here, which is your need to have an open conduit of communication with others, one that is based on actual vulnerability. I recognize how scary this is, especially in our moment of social history when the climate is chilled to below freezing. Others may think this works fine for them; you need warmth, contact and most of all, honesty.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, August 22, 2014, #1012 | By Eric Francis
When people are afraid to look within themselves, usually this is associated with the darkness they expect to be there. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is in reaction to this one perceived fear — that the inner world is a kind of nightmare. But what if the opposite is true? If you feel any aversion to looking inward, consider that what you’re afraid to see is the light that’s within you. It may be that the veil of self-blame is just that, a scrim that blocks your inner view, onto which all kinds of scary imagery is projected. You may find that obstacle especially frustrating over the next few days, to the point where you’re ready to tear it down and see what’s actually on the other side. You can trust one thing, at least — there is another side, and what’s there is different from the movie projected onto the screen.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 14, 2014, #1011 | By Eric Francis
What exactly are you struggling with? What is the nature of your inner conflict? Is it about what you want, or what you want but you’re denying yourself? What are those two factors involved, the desire and the denial? There’s another angle of approach to your life that will feel much more fruitful. It can start with not trying to prove, deny or disprove that you’re worthy of love, no matter how you feel. Rather, you can take the leap to loving — that is, loving everyone. This may sound crazy, or like nostalgic 1960s jive. It is anything but jive, especially for you, right now (if astrology means anything). Widen your world. Expand your sense of yourself by encountering more people in more places. Take a breath and notice how alive the people around you are, and count yourself as one of them. If you cannot quite get there, take every opportunity to learn from example — especially from people who know how to forgive themselves as a way of life. This is the key, to nearly everything.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 7, 2014, #1010 | By Eric Francis
Do you really want to be the boss? Do you really need to? Despite some recent impulses to that effect, I really don’t think so. Taking authority (in any conventional form of the notion) would be pointless in this situation. Yes, you know things really should be happening a certain way. What you want is cooperation. For that to happen, it would help immensely if you cooperated. Make it a point to work with, collaborate with, and draw inspiration from others. Consider this a special benefit of who you are. Out of these associations, another model of leadership will emerge — something more distinctly collective, made of individuals, self-organized, in which everyone has their unique role. Everyone knows that the world can work this way, and many people have been envisioning this for decades. Even if it’s not happening on a massive scale, it can happen in your life.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 31, 2014, #1009 | By Eric Francis
Yes, you are naturally social, though this is going past all limits now. You are in a moment of contact, so spend as much time around other people as you can, especially in small groups rather than crowds. Of course, the meeting that turns out to be the most meaningful could come at any moment, so be alert to who is around you and take every opportunity to say hello to someone you don’t know who you happen to meet in a public place. There’s another side to this — this is an excellent time for financial negotiations, particularly where your career is concerned. The thing to remember is that you are a rare resource, you possess knowledge and skills and you get results even in the midst of the unraveling world. You have solid ground to negotiate from. Your asset value to others will have at least one fine moment this week where you get no compensation; the term is pro bono.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for August 2014, #1008 | By Eric Francis
Mars has finally left your sign, which changes a relationship dynamic that seems like it’s been stuck for months. The actual dynamic that changes is a resounding message of looking to yourself for the fulfillment that in the past you would seek only in relationships. We have this idea, perpetuated by generations before us (but basically a romantic concept) that we must seek completion in another person. This is a setup for incomplete people seeking completion with one another, and never finding it. This is so taken for granted that people who do not play this game are considered weird, and those who work toward a sense of inner fulfillment and resilience have relatively little to discuss with others who avoid this whole topic. That is a disclaimer — reaching into yourself for your opposite polarity may have the effect of alienating you from certain people who play a mean game of gotta-be-normal. Yet other factors in your astrology suggest that you are so resplendent, visible and bold that you are a powerful example for your friends. You have the chance to deepen your relationship to yourself and to find a place where your relationships to others are not based on a neurotic need for self-completion. Hold that energy and you can have experiences of actual sharing and exchange rooted in being a whole person who appreciates the company of other whole people.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 17, 2014, #1007 | By Eric Francis
Although Mars stationed direct in your sign on May 19, it has yet to enter new territory. Said another way, Mars is still in ‘shadow phase’ and has not gone past the degree where it stationed retrograde back in March. This happens soon — but not before one final experience of whatever the retrograde symbolized. True, it meant many things to many people, but since early December your life has had a dominant feeling, a recurring theme or persistent issue. It’s the one thing that many or most things have had in common. There is an underlying circumstance or pattern that is related to this issue, and you’re about to see what it is. There is some theme of fairness, and it’s related to honoring commitments. It may also be related to the ways in which you hold others to honoring their commitments to you. The way you did things in the past will no longer serve you. Now you have one distinct advantage: you know this, and that will help you make the decision you need to make.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 10, 2014, #1006 | By Eric Francis
Mars in your birth sign, combined with a variety of other factors, describes you in a situation where you may have to push an issue that you don’t feel comfortable doing. The sensation will be something like exceeding your authority, and possibly feeling guilty about it — but knowing intuitively that you’re correct in doing so. This might also come with the feeling of claiming some space to exist that you might have previously abandoned. Be aware of the fear of others wanting to get revenge or acting against you subversively — this is more of a feeling than an actual probability, but the feeling is what counts, because it has the power to dominate your reality. Said simply, the time has come to pluck up the courage to run your own life. That means being direct with others, which means speaking up, not festering on your own secrets till they ferment into resentment.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 3, 2014, #1005 | By Eric Francis
You seem ready to attempt something that in the past would have had you shaking at the knees. However, you’ve come a long way since then, and you’ve come a long way the past couple of months. You can question whether you’re confident enough. You can question whether you’re ready. You can question whether you’re standing on a solid foundation. But the only way to answer those questions is through experience. Experience will require that you actually assert yourself — or rather, that you continue to do so, because Mars in your sign for the past seven months has done a lot for your initiative. Said another way, you’ve figured out that your role is not merely passive; your role is not merely to adapt. Your role is to be someone who changes your world in creative ways. And to the extent that anyone can ever give you permission to do that, you just got it.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for July 2014, #1004 | By Eric Francis
This month, two planets describing forces that have shaped and even defined your existence move on to other signs. Jupiter exits the cardinal cross and ingresses Leo, which represents a windfall or step up in the world. Your point of view shifts from parental to peer-to-peer. More significantly, Mars will exit Libra, where it’s been since early December, and ingress Scorpio. Mars plus Libra has been an odd mix — maybe one of the strangest in astrology; we’ve all had to live with it, and you’ve experienced it most directly. Putting it politely, this transit has been provocative. The result has been to put you into contact with a new dimension of who you are. You may not have changed your boundaries much, but you discovered what they are, and you discovered that you need to work with them consciously. The deeper question is about what motivates you, what drives you, what values exist on the level of breathing, and this I reckon you’ve made some progress understanding. You have one more quest before you fully engage this energy. It involves exaggerated feelings, and recognizing when they are in some way taking over your mind. You must be able to safely handle intensity, passion, lust and the drive for experience. But that’s different from anything exaggerated.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 19, 2014, #1003 | By Eric Francis
You may finally be letting go of some residual anger and resentment, but also feeling a sense of loss. All you really need to do is to be conscious of this fact, rather than keeping it stuffed somewhere. The tides of your life will be turning rapidly over the next few days, and it will be vital that you stay focused on the moment you are in, which is another way of saying be present for your own life. Options are likely to open up suddenly and unexpectedly, and if your mind is in any way preoccupied with the past, you will miss what life is offering you. Note that this might be an exit path from any number of situations that you are not happy with. Yet you must take a break from arguing for what is impossible and instead come to an understanding with yourself that in truth anything is possible, if you keep an open mind.
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 12, 2014, #1002 | By Eric Francis
The question, as always, is “how is the sex?” Yes, there’s a con game going around where you’re never supposed to admit that; not long into any conversation sex is supposed to genuflect to relationship. While we all need, want and do sail the good ship Relate, that’s often a way up the ladder and out of the water on which it floats. Among the many aspects of sex to consider is what you love that you also feel guilty about. The reason does not matter — guilt is extremely creative at coming up with rationales to justify its own existence. If there’s such a thing as the ego, this is it. It may be the power aspect of a relationship that turns you on. It may be the age factor and it may be that you seek from another person what you really want to give yourself, and you’re letting that be OK for now. Now, as for my original question…
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 6, 2014, #1001 | By Eric Francis
In order to slip into the ease of your situation, you must also slip into the unknown, which may be intimidating or feel like you would totally lose yourself in the process. You would, but it would be somewhat like losing the feeling of being tired in order to feel rested, or losing feeling stuck in order to feel like you’re free to move. The movement you seek at the moment may feel like an intellectual freedom, though in truth it’s the freedom to embrace your own process of emotional healing. Please go slowly if you’re tempted to insert ‘spiritual healing’; where I see you ready to do the deepest work is on the level of trust, which pretty much makes anything else possible. In order to trust your environment, you would have to trust yourself first, and that is what the unusual astrology of the next few days describes. Make your decisions gently and remember, you are writing or sketching in pencil, not with a tattoo pen.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 30, 2014, #1000 | By Eric Francis
You have all kinds of plans, you’ve been unusually decisive and yet you may be wondering how much progress you’ve made the past month or so. The real marker of progress is your direction of movement, not how far you’ve come. Look for evidence that you’re more committed to what you’re doing. Look at what you’ve let go of that was not working for you. Consider the extent to which you express the value you hold for the important people and situations in your life. Notice whether you show up someplace significant, and how you feel when you do. Do you feel more confident than you have in the past? Your astrology describes you as internalizing or dialing-in personality features that are not typical to what you’ve done in the past. So this may be a tentative kind of confidence, like what you might feel when you’re in an unfamiliar place yet still know you have the experience and maturity to handle anything that might turn up.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2014, #999 | By Eric Francis
Yours is known to be one of the most laid-back signs, but you know this is an act. In fact you are one of the most driven and determined individuals you know, once you make up your mind what you want — and as long as you don’t simmer in resentment and regret, uncertain whether you deserve something. Now, you always have the option to hook into that, but it’s old, and it’s the very thing you’re trying to let go of — so I suggest you cut your losses, give back what is not yours, and move on with a clear conscience. If you have to make amends to anyone, do so sincerely and move on. If you need to apologize to anyone, do so and get on with your life. And one other thing: if you have to forgive anyone, including yourself, then integrate that into everything else you’re doing as part of the move-on process. Forgiveness is not stuffing something, or forgetting something, or demanding that someone take the blame. It’s the opposite of all these things, and though nobody can really explain the process, it does exist and it seems to be easier if you ask for help in whatever spiritual language you speak. The most important thing nearly everyone agrees on about forgiveness is that in truth, it’s not about anyone but yourself.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 16, 2014, #998 | By Eric Francis
You are approaching a moment of truth. It could be about any aspect of your life, though it’s likely that an intimate situation is involved. Your charts tell a story about your having gone through a series of initiations over the past six months, which has put you in a place where you could hardly have expected to be. You may, as a result, have outgrown a relationship. Rather, it looks like you’ve become the thing that you’ve always sought in other people. That means that you no longer need them to provide it; this in turn will save you loads of time and energy pursuing something outside yourself. Yet at the same time, you want to relate to others, and this is suggesting that your contacts with others will benefit from a new purpose. I don’t know what that will be, but I would propose that it’s more about being a whole person than it is about being half of a relationship.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 2, 2014, #997 | By Eric Francis
Rare is the moment when you can encounter your perfect match, but you may be there. It’s an ‘opposites attract’ kind of thing, but the question is, what kind of opposites? Inverse, converse, reverse or obverse? They all have one thing in common, which is the root verse, which means to turn — therefore, much will depend on which way you turn. I suggest you turn toward who you desire, and face them. Speak if you want, though what will get their attention is your magnetism. Note, it may take a little while; during that time I suggest you be patient, friendly and take care of yourself. The most significant direction you can turn toward is awareness of your own existence, and your freedom to choose. That you may have considered this perilous in the past, and that you may have your concerns now, should not stop you. The path through life is guided by decision, though too often we ascribe that power to fate.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for May 2014, #996 | By Eric Francis
After nearly three months of Mars retrograde in your sign, I trust you’ve done some thinking about what you want. It looks like you’ve learned about what you don’t want. Mostly your charts suggest you’ve seen what happens when you set the whole matter of desire aside, and just ‘let things happen’ and ‘see how they work out’. One hint from your astrology is learning to experience desire without guilt. To do that, you might need to use guilt as a way of discerning the degree to which you actually want someone or something. Guilt is a toxin, but for you it also may be a sign of authenticity. How is this possible? Guilt is an indicator of having been pruned, controlled and manipulated. It’s an emotional response that clues you into being under the perceived control of someone else, whether in the distant past, the recent past, or by someone in your life now. Authentic desire is one of the most dependable methods of navigation through the physical plane. For that to work, you must take hold of the freedom, indeed, the necessity, to want what you want, and also learn the art of unraveling guilt so that you have true authority over your life. This is one of the most challenging growth lessons in existence, but it’s also one that delivers both immediate and long-term results.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 18, 2014, #995 | By Eric Francis
Confidence is the issue. On Earth it’s always the issue, but for now, it’s really, truly, the issue. Keep that in mind every moment, and ask what you would do, if only you had the confidence. Meanwhile, you need to keep in mind when you are reacting, when you’re responding and when you’re provoking. The difference may be sly and subtle; for example, you may be reacting to someone a certain way in order to provoke a response. You may resort to manipulation. In order to be confident, you have to know what you’re doing. You must understand the politics of any given situation, including the most intimate, and proceed appropriately. Chances are that will involve a blend of being real and choosing your words carefully. Doing both will compel you to know your own mind, and to practice stating your desires and your intentions to others. Said simply, you have to stop bullshitting people about who you are and what you want. Withholding your true feelings is not getting you anywhere, and you know personally how many setbacks it’s been responsible for. It’s time to be real and only real.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 11, 2014, #994 | By Eric Francis
I can only imagine what it feels like to be you right now, and when I do, my imagination goes a bit wild. Then again, I’m not a Libra and you may be feeling overwhelmed by the various surges, pulses and astonishing variety of experiences that life is offering you. One message that you may be getting is, there’s no point living like it’s 1994 or 2004 or for that matter April 2014. If your chart is pointing you overwhelmingly to one idea, it’s about the present catching up with you, all at once, in a big way. Wherever you’ve been, whatever frame of mind you’ve been trying to contain the experiences that are coming your way in, everything will be a lot easier when you experience now as if it’s now. It’s difficult to describe the incredible weight that humanity bears trying to force the present moment into its prejudices about the past (but we can see some of that pain dramatized in politics and what families put themselves through). Nobody needs that, even if they have not figured it out. You have better things to do with your time and vital force — a lot better.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 4, 2014, #993 | By Eric Francis
Be mindful of the emotional reactions of others. Notice when you’re getting drawn in. This is easier said than done, particularly with the transits that your solar chart is taking right now. It’s difficult enough to maintain one’s individuality under the best circumstances in our society, when you’re confronted daily by so many forces telling you who and what you’re supposed to be. Your current charts have a potent emphasis on the emotional dimension of relationships. It’s not easy to distinguish your feelings from those of someone close to you. At the same time, there seems to be someone compelling in your environment with whom you identify closely — and that’s a temptation to ‘lose’ yourself in them. One solution to this puzzle is maintaining a high level of self-awareness and making decisions in every moment. Another potential is getting drawn all the way into the scenario, finding your way out, and evaluating what you learn. Question: how much time do you have on your hands?
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, March 28, 2014, #992 | By Eric Francis
You may feel like you live in the hall of mirrors. But if you look closely at what seems to be your reflection, you might notice that it doesn’t vaguely resemble who you know yourself to be. Indeed, the whole mirroring thing seems to be an illusion that is only real to the extent that you believe it. Your solar chart describes where you will find yourself — in the zone of consciousness where you’re willing to take a risk. Where you feel the potential, the calling or the need to dare, that is where you’re the most likely to find yourself, as in discover something new about yourself. You will know you’re in that space because it feels distinctly different than the mirror chamber or echo chamber that you were in before. You will know you’re there because it has the distinct sensation of something to gain and something to lose. Note that your ruling planet Venus is in Aquarius. That is a reminder to be yourself and not buckle under the pressure or low standards of any group in which you’re involved.
Planet Waves Monthly for April 2014, #991| By Eric Francis
Mars retrograde in your sign is about to take center stage. Mars represents a process that started long ago and over which you have little control; it seems to represent something that you must go through and experience at full intensity. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that would be the best course of action. Yet several factors describe the way you might be inclined to take this experience in an unconscious way, acting out the past, or that of your ancestors. For you, there are two keys to this astrology. One is to remain fully present in your experience of what is happening. Find people who are willing to help you stay grounded and give you honest feedback, and moreover, who are able to provide a sense of context. The other is to maintain your compassion at all times. The theme of Mars retrograde in Libra is a dangerously slippery form of inwardly directed anger. Venus, the actual planet that represents you, is placed in Pisces, where you are being invited to see your life from a whole other perspective. The time has arrived to devote yourself to healing as a full-time occupation. If you want to do your part in helping resolve the global crisis and guiding humanity through its raging adolescence, your own healing process is the place to begin — and now is the time.
Horoscope #990 Unavailable
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, #989| By Eric Francis
Mars stations retrograde in your birth sign this weekend. It will be retrograde exclusively in Libra through May 19. The last time this happened was 1982; the time before that was 1935. So Mars retrograde in Libra is fairly rare, though this one stands tall because it’s happening at the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square. If we think of Libra as the sign about the love of beauty and balance, this Mars retrograde is about as un-Libra as it gets. It will push every inner boundary, packed with an explosive charge of every imaginable passion, drawing energy from some unusual underground source. This is Libra more in its role of welding torch, and it grants you a gift that must be handled carefully and with precision. As the retrograde develops, you will discover how influential you are, and how carefully you must use that gift. While you need not learn that the hard way, that is, by damaging people and things you care about, you need to be vigilant. Pay attention as you do your part to be constructive, helpful and integral to the situations in which you participate. Remember, this is not about power. It’s about dharma: acting as if to hold the world together.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for March 2014, #988 | By Eric Francis
Mars is about to station retrograde in your sign. That spans from March 1 to May 19. The retrograde process actually reaches back to early December, when Mars first entered Libra. So if you notice any shifts, changes or shakeups in the coming week or two, take the story back to late last year. The theme of this retrograde is profound self-discovery, though it may seem at first that others are the forum for what you learn, and you are the forum for their learning. That will work for a while, as you explore your inner dynamics within the context of a relationship. Yet as the retrograde progresses, you may feel the need to have certain experiences on your own. The forces involved are too powerful to cling to anyone or anything. If you feel a need, desire or obligation to maintain a connection or commitment, make sure you proceed in a way that is open and honest, and most of all, that works for you. If your personal needs require you to shift the pattern of relating, do so in a way that preserves trust and your options in the future. Said another way, you can live your life without burning your bridges — something you would come to regret. Your emotional involvement with someone may be intricate and delicate, and that calls for special handling, high awareness and always — always — remembering who you are.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, #987 | By Eric Francis
We live on a lonely planet — one inhabited by more than seven billion people. That being the case, the loneliness must be a product of consciousness, regulated by a diversity of internal factors. Most of those are emotional. One thing you’re in the process of doing is carving out more inner emotional space for yourself, which is closely related to dismantling the influences of early caregivers and family patterns that you know have locked you into a kind of crypt. You are, stone by stone, feeling by feeling, dismantling this inner environment. The thing to remember is how this is bigger than you. It’s about what was done to you, and the ways in which the distant past was imposed on you without your having a choice in the matter. Now you are discovering that you do have a choice, but that discovery is coming at a cost. The cost is going through the feelings, recognizing your situation and taking appropriate action.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, #986 | By Eric Francis
The current astrological news involves Mercury retrograde, which may be making it more challenging than usual to keep your composure and your focus. However, for Libra, the more compelling factor in your solar chart takes place on March 1 — Mars stations retrograde in your sign. Retrogrades of Mars are among the most palpable. They can put even confident and decisive people into a state of limbo, because Mars is all about going for what you want. When retrograde in your sign, Mars will have the effect of putting you into contact with the aspect of yourself who desires and who chooses. If there is a healing crisis associated with this, it’s along the lines of being honest with yourself about your desire. It’s also about maintaining a steady keel when you have reasons to doubt — that is, not allowing your doubts to take over your whole mind. The next three weeks of Mercury retrograde will be excellent practice for the real adventure.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, #985 | By Eric Francis
You’re not a child anymore — be glad of that. You are also larger than the maze of feelings that have dominated you for so long. It would be worth asking why you had to make the mistakes so often, so that you don’t have to make them again. Yet there really was only one error in judgment, which was doubting your right to exist as the person you are — not who anyone else would have you be. There is always another opportunity to make that mistake — or to choose differently. The new form it could take is reluctance to do what is right for you; or as reluctance to act on your feelings. You might assign that to an emotional obligation, however if you feel any sense of obligation or guilt, you are probably dealing with a hangover from someone who was determined to teach you that you were not really free. Any such teaching would be false, because such a thing cannot be determined by anyone but you.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for February 2014, #984 | By Eric Francis
The past five weeks of Venus retrograde seem to have been designed to help you understand the impact of your family history, and your complex emotions. The two are related; partly why your emotions are so complex is because you filter them through so many past impressions and memories. Yet many of those are not your own; they are habits and values you picked up from various people who influenced you. Take the time to sort out what belongs to you and what does not. Once you claim what is your own and let go of what belongs to others, you will feel a lot less lost, and be able to call yourself more fully present. This does not necessarily involve severing ties to anyone, though at times that is necessary. But it will help you immensely to know when someone else’s emotions became a point of orientation for you more important than your own feelings, and to see the distortion that created. That may go in two directions at once — being overly self-centered at times, and not being able to find your center at others. Understanding why you are the way you are is a theme that persists through most of the year. You’re likely to continue your review of the past, which is for the sole purpose of helping you know yourself better. That, in turn, will help you have clearer, more trusting relationships.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, #983 | By Eric Francis
Surviving is a gift you were bestowed with long ago and have proven over and over again that you can make use of. Yet is human life about survival? It may be, in sub-Saharan Africa. It may be, when an earthquake hits China. But as people living in an advanced culture with many creative and economic opportunities, we need to do better, and you need to do better. I suggest you go on a hunt for where your ideas about life came from. I would propose that most of them are not really ideas — they are really emotions that pass for ideas, or emotions that you try to explain or deal with rationally. Please, stop explaining and start feeling. If you can do that for a while, you will start to feel like one person instead of one person cut into many parts.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 10, 2014, #982 | By Eric Francis
You seem to be working out some deep insecurities, or grappling with self-doubt. Yet I would suggest that what’s really happening is that you’re letting go of some issue that’s been pestering you forever. This seems to involve whether you really need someone else to ‘make’ you feel safe and secure in the world, whether you can do it on your own, and what you need in order to do so. This is an excellent time to question the emotional influence that others have on you, or rather, that you seek and strive for. You need to know when you’re being overpowered, or giving up your power, so that you have a basis for choosing to do something else. This is likely to involve your family. Do they really help you feel safer on the planet? Do they encourage you to go beyond your self-doubts, or make you wonder when you’ll ever get around to getting over them?
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope — January 2014, #981 | By Eric Francis
Let this be the year you succeed at not making the same mistakes as in the past. Mistakes are excellent learning laboratories, though for that purpose, usually one or two tries is sufficient. This is your time to learn from past errors in judgment or less-than-careful decisions, whether they happened recently or in the distant past. Mars in your sign for most of the year will give you plenty of opportunities to review; so too will the retrograde of Venus that began recently. So much historical data may be bubbling to the surface that you may be overwhelmed. But it’s all going to boil down to one thing, which is how you make decisions. I am familiar with the special struggle that many born under your sign personally describe. It’s not that you don’t make up your mind; it’s about how you hesitate before doing so. That hesitation is different than considering the factors involved in a particular choice. These days, you’re likely to be pushed in some direction by circumstances or by someone close to you if you don’t choose a direction of your own. Though this may temporarily relieve the burden of making the decision, it doesn’t take away responsibility for the consequences. You know what is right for you. You always have and you always will. Trust that.