Aries (March 20-April 19) — What does the word spiritual mean to you? It has to go beyond incense and candles. Your chart is describing a situation unfolding in your life that requires you to bring your highest awareness to your experiences and your relationships. It may be enough to say that spiritual is about love, though there would have to be a series of exceptions and clarifications for that to be true. As an opening framework, I would propose that spiritual is about trust. It’s about awareness of your relationship to existence: for example, how did you get here, and what are you doing here? In what ways do you see yourself as connected to all of existence? When you were young, the older people around you gave you a concept of God. Have you questioned, challenged or investigated that concept, and what is your relationship to it today? Each of these questions is really a tool. Keep them ready this week.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — For many reasons, your sexuality is one of the most important places where you learn about yourself, about your partners and about the world. The fact that our society reduces sex to some blend of crime, harassment, scandal, advertising and porno does not stop you. Your connection is too deep for that; your knowledge is intuitive, and you’ve had your ideas confirmed over and over again. If your body and your feelings have served as a dependable spiritual divining rod at any point for you, you will be lit up by the current astrology, most of which is taking place in Scorpio and Sagittarius (the two signs primarily associated with relationships for you). Your points of reference are both physical and nonphysical. For as grounded as you are in your body, you have a deep and deeply alive streak of mysticism. You are willing to face the mysteries.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Go back to some of the times when you felt threatened as a child, but also knew you would survive. You were a clever, alert kid, and you were always a few steps ahead of the adults. You may have been frightened, but knew you had some unusual form of protection around you. Do you still feel that protection today? It’s worth questioning whether being under that umbrella has, as an adult, shielded you from certain experiences that you want and that you need. IF you drop those defenses, you will expose your vulnerability. That’s the necessary step for a true exchange to happen. You may feel like there’s too much going on for you to be able to do that. You may feel like you’re under pressure that you don’t understand. You may not like the power dynamics of your current sexual and relational opportunities. As such, you may feel like the best thing to do is withdraw or shut down. However, that’s unlikely to be true.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — This will be a busy week at work. Make it a meaningful one. Indeed, one of the great gifts of those born under your sign is to bring something deeper to your daily activities, your most modest efforts and, in particular, the most serious assignments you take up. Whatever you’re doing, bring your full attention to it: there would seem to be an important project you’re developing, or at least some pressure at work to get the job done right. You play a role in this, particularly early in the week, though you may feel like you’re less significant than you really are. Strive to do your part well. Be available to take leadership when necessary. Remember that the work you do is not really about someone else. The quality you invest in anything, and the devotion, and the sense of honor you bring to the work, are all about you. And that’s also true of whether you think something is meaningful.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may be feeling that your romantic, creative or erotic life is like a London youth hostel on the first day of the summer season. Who are all these people (or what are all these ideas), where are they from, and how are you going to handle them? Yet in reality this is about you and your personal development as artist, lover or both. You are at a breakthrough point. If the past two or three years have come with special challenges in these areas of your life, or if you’ve felt frozen, or like you could not get a result, be aware that something is cracking open. You won’t feel all the results immediately, as this astrology describes a long-term process. Yet there will be unmistakable signs that you’re coming to the end of this process. They might seem positive, such as an emergence or transition with a partner, or with your creative work. You might also find yourself in the midst of resolving some conflict or karma that emerges, and that work will carry you forward.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Your solar chart looks like someone decided to renovate your apartment while you were out to dinner, then left the job half-complete. There’s also some data here relating to a potentially complex family situation, in a week when many people will be visiting with their living relatives and ancestors. There’s a cautionary note here, which is to bring your adult self into any family situation, rather than some vestige of your child self. Were you to ask neurologists about this, they might describe the challenges in doing so: childhood responses are deeply encrypted into brain patterning. So you must be aware of when you start to feel like a powerless little kid among people who are trying to intimidate you. You may respond by standing up for yourself, or just being a stand-up person. You might decide to hang out with the kids, the cat, the dog or the bunny rabbit. The important thing is that you stick to your truth, and what makes you feel good, and don’t be intimidated.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You may not know your own strength. You may be feeling it, though you’re not necessarily aware of how influential you are, and what impact you might have. This would be complicated by any feelings of frustration that you’re experiencing, such as when you try to express yourself, or even get your thoughts in order. You might feel like a hot mess, though I assure you that something better or at least more meaningful is going on. Although you might not feel sorted for quite a while, these weeks ahead of you can be brilliantly productive. Use the skill you possess known as writing to track your thoughts and your thought process. That will put your ideas, feelings and reasoning process in front of you, where you can see what you’re doing. Second, take the time to explore your neighborhood. Really dig in and worm your way around and knock on doors. You might wonder what that has to do with anything, though you won’t know until you find out.

Dear Friend of Planet Waves:

Last week, on the eve of Venus conjunct Jupiter, I did the astrology portions of the Scorpio reading. That reading is ready for instant access.

While I was working, I had a feeling I often get doing these readings: this is information I would want to know were I interested in astrology, if it was available. I would want to know about this, if only I had an astrologer I was fairly sure had a clue what was happening. [Listen to audio preview here.]

Over the next year or so, three critical planets will change signs: Saturn, Chiron and Uranus. (Chiron is often thought to be a morph of Saturn and Uranus, so that’s pretty cool.) Saturn will ingress Capricorn at the end of the year, then next year, Chiron will enter Aries and Uranus will enter Taurus. Plus, several important minor planets will change signs.

What you get with my birthday (and annual) readings is astrology that’s too complex to put into the horoscope column, but too personal to say much about in my articles. Using a very old technique called whole-sign houses, I am able to cast an actual chart and read that chart just like I would if you were sitting here.

For just $44, you get a reading that comes very close to a personal reading, containing much that a competent astrologer would say — if they understood both the classical and modern astrology. This is the thing.

So much of what’s happening now compels an understanding of contemporary developments in astrology. A minor planet that was discovered in 1999, and named a few weeks ago, fills in a missing piece of the puzzle in the current astrology. You can read about that above.

This reading, and my approach to by-sign readings, fills in a vast middle ground in astrology: we have horoscope columns (most of them irrelevant), we have blogs and newsletters (most of them speculative) and we have “prepared reports,” drawn from a database by your birthdate, which if you were lucky were written fewer than 15 years ago.

The reading I’m offering now was done today, based on research I’ve been doing with my team all week and weekend — and supported by my decades of work, writing, research and presenting in the astrology field.

I’ve included a graphic of the chart so you can see how sophisticated my approach is. In my presentation, though, I am speaking directly to you, in everyday language. You won’t need a Ph.D. in astrology to understand this: you just need to be curious about yourself. You may appreciate the fact that I am direct and honest about relationships, sexuality and the social constructs that influence them — a topic of vast importance today, and of interest to you. I cover much more than that, however.

You will love and benefit from this reading, or you may have your money back.

Here’s how to get instant access.

with love,

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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your solar chart is describing a situation where you make the same mistakes over and over again. This seems to be about presumptions you make in relationships, in your psychological assessment of yourself, or both. Yet these ideas or experiences might run so deep that they’re out of your normal range of perception. And in fact, you may have data coming back from your environment that affirms your impression. For example, you might be wondering why people seem so inaccessible, and connect that to a pattern in your life. Your tendency might be to blame yourself. However, if you can step back from that, an unusual breakthrough is possible. While I don’t have the space here to explain exactly how, this situation comes back to self-esteem. You have been working overtime for a breakthrough here. You know that how you feel about yourself ultimately determines how you feel about being alive. Keep nudging this forward, gently and steadily.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — This week, Saturn, now at the end of its three-year run through your sign, does two things. One, it is now exactly conjunct the Galactic Core for the first time in 29 years. This is a moment of awakening, when the discipline you’ve applied to your self-development (particularly professional, but also deeply personal) might reveal its results. Second, Saturn (the symbol of structure and what does not easily change) makes a conjunction to Pholus (a small, hot, potent planet that tends to open or rupture structures). Something you’ve been working through, or dealing with, is about to give way. This is a genuine point of breakthrough for you. You don’t have to do much except participate. However, where an intimate relationship is involved, pay close attention to what someone you care about deeply says to you. They hold a key, an activating ingredient, or a certain fact about you that will be essential in the progress you’re about to make.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You can take it easy exerting your will and dominance. You can in general, partly because you need to upgrade that strategy, though mainly because so much is happening in your inner world that you have no idea how your self-assertion of will might come out, or what effect you might create. Keep your focus inward for a while. Big movements are happening in your inner realms (see the Sagittarius reading this week for a description; that’s the sign that describes your inner reality and deep psychological process). You are working through some of your deepest fears. There’s only so much “work in progress” that you want to reveal to the world, especially where colleagues are concerned. If you need to work out this material with others, either stick to close friends or a spiritual advisor you trust, and who is in harmony with your overall viewpoint. For example, if you’re an artist, talk to someone who understands making art.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) –You seem to be living your life out in the open, where everyone can see you — by which I mean your inner private life. You may have an interesting time of that this week, as so much is developing in the angle of your chart where this is all taking place. I suggest you not worry about it, and remember that you’re immune from many of the normal types of embarrassment that would make other people cringe. And at this stage, you have little choice but to let your private business be a matter of public discussion. There’s something useful about it; and the truth is, you’re going through a kind of initiation. Part of how this is happening is you’re reckoning with the contrasts between how you perceive yourself, and how others perceive you. Learn what you can while you’re here. Saturn will soon enter Capricorn, and you’ll want your private life to be just that .

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Whatever happens for you professionally this week, it will be interesting, it will be meaningful and it’ll be exciting. All the action in the sky over the next week or so is focused in Sagittarius, your 10th solar house of reputation, accomplishment and accountability. All these things go together; think of them as one thing, with one purpose. The astrology describes a breakthrough point. Saturn has been working its way across this zone in your chart for most of three years. It’s now at the peak of energy, conjunct the Galactic Core and a meaningful planet called Pholus. In the midst of this, the Sun enters Sagittarius, which is usually helpful and supportive of your work. It would seem that something gives: there’s an opening, and you get to emerge through it. Whatever may happen, remember your core values. Remember why you were called to do what you do. And if you’ve been hearing a calling that you have not yet answered, now would be an opportune time.