Aries (March 20-April 19) — This month you will have a series of opportunities to confront your fears, particularly those associated with authority. This would count for whatever form authority may take, whether the most powerful corporate or government powers, or whoever lives with you in your bedroom. Yet if you do this in an aggressive way, you will only reap more of the same. Anger and attack thoughts lead to insecurity more than any other factor. They don’t even need to be expressed to have the effect of making you feel impotent or helpless; you are likely to take them out on yourself, which is the root of the problem. However, that can get to the point where you need to discharge the energy, and get it out of your own consciousness, which is what typically leads to directing it at others. This is where it’s necessary to pause, preferably before the temperature gets too hot or matters seem too urgent, which is now, early in the month. You have an opening to conduct a civil conversation, which is best begun when you have something to say. This may seem to take courage, where waiting until you’re frustrated, enraged or depressed does not. But this is not a reasonable tradeoff, as finding the inner strength to speak about what is troubling you can and usually does get a positive result. I suggest you do so sooner rather than later, and that you get to the underlying matter — not the relatively minor surface issue.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You’re in a delicate space of figuring out how your sense of the way that others perceive you undermines your confidence and self-worth. It is true there is a connection between the value you think others put on you and the value you place on yourself. That link is entirely in your mind, and you begin to lose the moment you make the connection. The loss of energy comes, among other ways, in the form of thinking that if you can only change someone’s perception of you, you can change the way you feel about yourself. Yet this verges on hallucination; it is all in your mind. And this is particularly challenging when the opinion you think you’re trying to change, or that matters, is that of everyone. The place your antennae must perk up is the moment you stake your self-worth on anyone else’s point of view. I don’t mean the value of a product you make, which has a relationship to one marketplace or another. I mean your value as a person. Even the most successful public figures have a hard time with this one. And now we are all living in the hall of mirrors of the internet, and many of us are heavily invested in social media. It may seem a contradiction, though it helps to seek understanding of yourself through relationships — by which I mean real ones; honest ones; ones wherein your value is tangible, to you. Yet even that will only get you so far toward coming to an understanding with yourself that only you can reach.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — In several crucial ways this month, you will play a supporting role in the lives of others. This is rarely a situation that is in balance: a great many people are either hardcore givers or takers. I’m talking about something different: investing yourself in a situation or circumstance that is not exactly your own, and working for an outcome that you may not directly benefit from, but which you understand needs to happen. To my thinking, this is the ideal modality for helping another person: a combination of involvement and detachment that adds up to true commitment. The bottom line of any situation you’re in is taking control over your sense of purpose. There is something here about doing things for their own sake, even if you “have to” do them. Once you have taken over why you are doing something, you have claimed the most important element of your creative power. You can then convey this into your sense of mission for anything you do in life. You will have freedom from various trappings associated with money (issues around doing things only for pay, doing them for no pay, and many gradients in between). As for assisting others (or someone specific) in immediate and upcoming scenarios: your role is to do what you can. That means what you have the time and energy for, and what you make time and energy for, because you can. This is different from coming in and saving the day. It’s different from sacrificing yourself. Be mindful of your potential role recruiting the assistance of others, and serving as a positive example.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Stay a few steps ahead of the many situations that are brewing in your life. Write the Boy Scout motto on your mirror, or put it on the home screen of your phone: Be Prepared. Your primary worldly and spiritual lesson at this time is that you are the leader of your own life. The way to not let anyone usurp or undermine your authority over yourself is not to hand it to them. This means choosing who you respond to, and how. It also means choosing the ways you confront others when that has to happen — and in this world, at this time, such is inevitable. Strategy guides, both ancient and modern, tend to recommend against going blow for blow. This necessitates clear thinking, and working with viable strategies. That, in turn, requires knowing your goal; knowing what you want — and then everything else follows from there. But you must hold your objective in mind. You determine the outcome you want (whether you get there or not), and you establish the steps on the way to getting there. Once you claim these crucial steps in the process of whatever you’re doing, you will find that it’s more difficult for others to hold power or undue influence over you. Therefore, keep making decisions. That is how you navigate through this world; it is your most awesome and sacred power. It is the difference between driving a car and falling asleep at the wheel. If you feel yourself getting drowsy and starting to nod off, or going into denial, stop, take a breath, take a nap, or eat lunch — and go back to making decisions.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Keep a close pulse on your fears this month. The challenge here is that fear is something most people would rather not think about, so they tend to push it under the surface of consciousness. I suggest you do the opposite, which is to bring your fears to the surface, and use them as a guide to your awareness. However, there is an issue at the moment in that we’re being pelted with reasons to be afraid pretty much around the clock. They seem to come from across your phone, every news feed and, most of all, from inside your mind. That is the real source of fear; it is a thought. Then one has a series of responses to that thought. Some objects of fear, held in the mind, seem rational, and many make no sense at all. Yet they are all the same, in the sense that they are mental phenomena. While it may seem odd to take fear as one’s teacher, on this plane of reality, we have little other choice. When you hear spiritual teachers talk about “working with shadow material,” this is what they mean: to pay attention to “negative” emotions including fear, guilt, anger and shame, all of which are related. Do you notice these feelings? Do you judge them? And what do you do with them? Your options may seem like taking them out on yourself, or taking them out on someone else. Neither of those is suitable. There are other possibilities.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Your chart describes high aspirations this month, though you will need to remember your manners. It will be easy to get into conflicts with friends and allies, and this does not help your personal or professional aspirations. What I suggest is that through June, you spend as little time in public as possible, and as much time doing the work you do the best. Your astrology contradicts that idea; the surface level has you out in public, moving and shaking. There will definitely be occasions for which you will want to get out, though caution in those environments is essential. Your emotional impact is far greater than you can conceive. People will respond to things you say in ways you did not imagine. Therefore, staying close to your actual work — the creative substance of who you are and what you do — will make much more productive use of your time. You want your work to have the impact and the influence, and it can, as long as you stay one step detached from its effects in your community. This is an important step in the life of any artist, writer, or person of social influence: to let your work speak for you, rather than you speaking for it. And before your work can speak for you, you must dig in and work out what you are doing, which can only come through a process of experimentation, revision and more experimentation. This process will drive your evolution forward, and it will have an influence that you may not see and can surely trust.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Be mindful of your relationships with those who have authority over you. This might include anyone from your boss to the government to a relationship partner. Some facet of the corporate world could also count — an insurance company, for example. You will want to be at your diplomatic best at all times, and stay way ahead of any developing situations. In other words, where you see the potential for confrontation, work in advance to defuse the conflict. If you focus and listen, you will be able to unravel problems before they go out of control. And if you find yourself in the midst of a controversy, or some situation where you need to take charge, you will have plenty of intelligence to work with. The most vital issue you can consider is how you treat your adversaries. Public image is of the essence. Make sure you address them with the utmost respect, or at least the appearance of respect. Speak in understatements, and use inference. Let the facts speak for themselves, without needing to argue for them with too sharp of a point. In terms of the politics of the situation, it’s not clear who is on whose “side” at the moment, and it would be wise not to take anyone’s loyalty for granted. You will need to let people stand the tests of both time and stress, and remember that in all situations, actions speak louder than words. Demonstrated example speaks louder than theory.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — In any negotiation process, make your expectations known, and inquire as to those of others. This is not a time to make assumptions, or to take anything on faith — and you will likely be inclined to do so. Therefore, be cautious. Take care to work out the conditions of the discussion in advance, on mutual terms. If you’re engaged in a conversation and you notice that the topic drifts outside of the agreed parameters, gently bring it back into bounds. This, too, is likely to happen. Persist in these methods any time something of value, or any commitment, is being worked out, even if it’s fairly small; there will be instances where the small points may count for more than they seem. What you are practicing is your words having meaning that is documented and therefore verifiable. If your words have meaning in this sense of the idea, then you are grounded in reality, and therefore have relevance. There are times when it’s necessary to take things on faith, or to ask people to take your position on faith, though this is not one of them. It’s the mental trend of our times to take everything on belief, with an emotional gust pushing behind it. Now and for the foreseeable future, your life policy needs to be a commitment to standing on the solid structure of thought and language. Not only are you vulnerable to being challenged, you could easily provide others the means to effectively challenge you on matters where it truly counts. Your strength is available in objective truth, not subjective opinion.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Be mindful of how your emotions are influencing you. This will be a special challenge, because often you think they don’t affect you at all. And at the moment, that power is rather invisible and, in most other ways, difficult to discern. So you will need to look for indicators of your overall mood, beginning with how expressive you feel. Use this as the primary metric of your mental health. Do you find yourself holding thoughts and feelings inside, or can you easily express what you need to say? If you’re usually a creative person, how is that going? Are you writing, drawing, making music or moving your body as you usually do? Or do you feel caught in some invisible morass? Another thing to check out is how the people around you are conducting themselves. Are they being reasonable and truthful? Or are they acting out in some way? Make sure you’re using documented observations to make this assessment, to avoid being persuaded by any bias you may have. Meanwhile, if you want to be more involved with life, the thing to do is to stoke your curiosity. This will work in nearly any form: artistic, mental, erotic, intellectual. You will find it satisfying to read old books on psychology, by authors like Fritz Perls, Eric Berne, Alice Miller, and other classic writers. Above all, you need to cultivate understanding of your situation, your growth process and your creative process. This is an active endeavor, not a passive one.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’re not in the mood to be provoked, though people seem to keep doing it. Or are they? Are they merely being themselves, which on certain days is a little too erratic and emotional for you? There may be two different things going on: how people are conducting themselves around you, and how you are responding. With both Saturn and Pluto retrograde in your sign, your attention is likely to be inwardly focused; the inference is that you are engaged in some deep growth work that must be done in a solitary environment. Yet it’s also a position of what you might call maximum density, and can indicate resistance or unwillingness to change or even budge. In that condition, any irritant from the outside is likely to seem worse than it really is. How you respond to your surroundings will be an indicator of your mental and emotional state. In any event, there is something that seems external that is trying to get your attention. You can think of it as an element of your own awareness, or some facet of yourself that you’ve disowned or cast away. It could be showing up as someone’s desire for you or your attention. Or it might be manifesting as someone being provocative, assertive or aggressive. What matters is how you respond to this influence: what you call it, and what you think it represents. Since it’s likely to be coming from a person, consider who this person is to you, and what their presence in your life means to you.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Be mindful of your health this month, which will be directly related to your state of mind, or more accurately, your emotional state. You seem to be holding a lot in; that may be related to feeling like you don’t have a suitable way to express yourself, or you’re not noticing one that is available. With Saturn, Pluto and the Moon’s south node lingering around the most sensitive angle of your chart, it would appear that you’re trying to process something difficult and somewhat dark from the distant past. This has you extra sensitive, and other factors have you feeling like you’re pushing the limits of your emotional capacity. The best approach to this scenario is to find people around whom you can be easily conversant about your feelings and your overall situation. I suggest this be people who do not have a vested interest in you, or vice versa, as that tends to complicate matters and remove the objectivity that is necessary for a clear conversation. Consider the possibility that you don’t really know what you’re dealing with here, though the state of your body will be an indicator. Look to any form of irritation, inflammation or heat as a metaphor. Notice when a problem is cyclical. The nature of the cycle holds the clue to what the physical issue represents on the mental or emotional level, and also holds the most useful clue to how to resolve the problem on every level. You want a gentle approach that helps you unravel things gently.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Keep your energy moving outward. That is the message of Mars in Cancer, and many other factors. How you go about it matters, though. Not everything will help. For example, confrontation in anything but the most ritualized form (such as martial arts, chess, or writing to a politician) will be counterproductive and serve as a drain on your energy. Being truthful in an understated way will be helpful, as it will ease your sense that the world has no integrity whatsoever; at least you can express yours. What you really want to do is what you can feel. Painting, drumming, daily personal writing, and any honest sex that you can get will all feed your soul. While your professional plans may seem to be moving too slowly or not at all, work in the background while Jupiter is retrograde (which ends Aug. 11). Set up the conditions for success: efficiency with time and money, learning to direct your energy, and working with modest goals that you can more readily attain. Now is the time for a total reassessment of your larger goals or visions for both your professional life and your overall existence. Don’t rush this process. It will take until around the autumn equinox to get clear about what it is you want to be doing and why; what you don’t want to be doing and why; and what possible means you might use to get to your goals. Keep in mind, though, that as you attain genuine inner clarity, many of those means will present themselves and be within reach.