Aries (March 20-April 19) — Take the time, and the emotional risk, of encountering people as people; not their online avatar, their image in pixels or their disembodied voice. Make real contact, in person, without a time limit. That part is easy: when you plan to visit someone, don’t schedule anything else afterwards for the same day; and if you might stay over, clear your morning hours. The idea is to give yourself room to stretch out and experience something you’re not necessarily planning for. You might know what you want. You might also recognize that it’s a little weird to declare (for example) that you will never, ever do something with someone. If you’re saying that, then you’re carrying around some energy. What’s that about? It rarely happens that you’re knocked off of your center specifically due to the actions of someone else. When you are holding your center, and you know who you are and what you want, you tend to be in balance and on solid ground. There’s something more significant: know what you have to offer. You will feel relevant in your relationships based on what you give; not what you take, or ask for, or expect. You’re the one in a position to start the process of exchange, by being generous with your mind, your body and your spirit; with your time, your love, and your resources. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You possess the gift of healing; in particular, helping others unravel their emotional and physical knots. It’s true that everyone has this gift, at least in potential, though at the moment, you have especially strong access. It’s been gradually developing over the past years. Learning to use this can benefit the people around you, though it will help to recognize how minimal your role really is. First, remember that when you’re assisting someone in any way, it’s not about you. You might indirectly benefit, though the focus must stay on the person you’re assisting. It’s also far preferable to help only when asked, or when you reach an impasse and have someone’s consent. At that point, you might gently guide people to the edge of their seeming limits, then let them make the choice to enter new territory or not. You cannot push or pull anyone beyond their boundaries. But you can continue to relate to them, and stay open, when they are at that point of hesitation; making sure you’re open and willing to accept whatever choice they might make. One useful tool is a sense of play. Keep things light, and engage them gently. Many people are caught in paradoxes that they don’t understand, but which you might. Meanwhile, consider how all of these ideas relate to you personally. Where is your edge, and why? For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The problem with life inside the robot — by which I mean wall-to-wall internet, and every automated device connected to it — is that we humans are losing our sense of play. That’s such an interesting word, because it works to describe what one does in a game; and also wiggle room; and a drama for fun, like a skit. In the digital mind, one error in one line of code can shut down the whole program. In the creative and physical realm, you can skip over mistakes, you can improvise, and you can go off-script. You can be curious; a computer cannot. All the algorithms in the world do not equal the hunger for knowledge or experience. You, however, are all about curiosity and passion for experience. You are a Gemini, after all; a sign represented by two little kids who, you can be sure, would prefer to play nearly all of the time. Therefore, look for every opportunity. When someone says something funny, toss them back one of your witty lines. When someone smiles at you, actually smile back and return the positive vibes. Get your hands into clay, paint, dirt, dough or a piano keyboard. Most significantly, bring a sense of play into this thing we call work. Right now, the world is smothering in boredom, which is a form of suppressed anger. Bring your loving heart and quick mind everywhere you go. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Here’s the deal: the charts for Cancer have not been this good in a long time. This is less about what’s going on in your sign and more about what’s happening in your empathetic water signs Scorpio and Pisces. (The astrology is pretty good for them too, though you get triple word score.) Mercury, the Sun and Jupiter are currently in Scorpio, which is your 5th solar house (pleasure, play, games, romance and sex for fun). Venus is on the way, arriving on Nov. 7. This is enough to bring out the artist, the lover and the adventurer in anyone. It will only take a little discipline to prod yourself into having fun all the time, wherever you are, and whomever you’re with.  However, given the prevailing state of the world (currently being redesigned as a nonstop panic attack) and the freaky social environment that’s obsessed with treating sex like a crime or a disease (things were not always this way, though it happens from time to time), you will need that bit of discipline. You will need to take the initiative and spark up the conversation, strike up the band, or invite people over to your crib. Don’t be deterred if anyone seems uninterested. Don’t take it personally. You are being groomed for leadership, and this is a rather pleasant aspect of your training program. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

 

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You simply must be more confident. This is a choice. It’s not something bestowed on you by a fairy godmother or earned like the Eagle Scout badge. You just wake up one day and decide you’re going to take some bigger chances with your life. You decide it’s time to push your seeming limits. You arrive at the point where you must be your own authority, and consciously boot the vestiges of your parents and various other control freaks out of the way. You seem to have been hesitating for a while; you may have run into the same limits repeatedly. One factor to unravel is any fear you might have of going out of control. One mental meme that’s been circulating goes something like this: If I let go a little, I won’t be able to reel myself back in. Or, if I have some fun, I won’t want to work. Or, if I smile at that person, I’ll get stuck in a 20-year relationship. These thoughts, which come in a thousand other forms, do nothing but undermine confidence, and creativity. They interfere with your ability to live your life rather than have your life live you. In these very weeks, ultra-serious Saturn is ending a long, three-year run through Sagittarius, which is your 5th solar house of pleasure, play and passion. It’s time to move on. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You have something to say. It’s now time to say it. Why you might not have done so in the past is not so mysterious: many of the things you want to share are taboo. Even to say the first word about the topics most important to you is to risk a controversy. That, however, is impressive in itself, and it’s a clue about the power of your particular message. I suggest you practice getting the conversation going; and more to the point, get your ideas into writing, and then put them where others can read them. If you do this, you will begin rapidly to cultivate your knowledge, and your ability to express yourself. You are, for a number of reasons, immune from the effects of any debate you might stir up; particularly if you express yourself from a loving place, with the desire to both learn and inform. This will stretch you in many ways: it’s time to leave behind any embarrassment about the actual ideas you are interested in. It’s time to have sensitive conversations in person rather than exclusively on the internet. You are in a position to be a leader in your community, by which I mean one who sets the example as a sincere seeker and helps open the way for others to seek sincerely. This process has just begun. Upcoming developments will deepen and accelerate your journey. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Through these last two months of the year, you’re about to experience an unusual transformation that will reveal the one thing all conscious people are wondering: your purpose on Earth. That might sound like a tall promise for a horoscope column, though the astrology is indeed unusual. What comes to you probably won’t be in the form of a tweet (for example, “It’s u’r destiny 2b gr8 cellist”). Rather, your guidance will more likely arrive in the form of doing something that you know is right. It might not be the thing you do all day, every day, though you’ll likely be actively engaged with it in some way now, and you’ll notice that it’s just the thing to do. Also, you’ll probably have had this same revelation before, though somehow you forgot, or got distracted, like having the idea for a novel that you were about to write down, but didn’t. This time, however, take the message, and act on your knowledge with your body as well as your mind. Yes, the truth is subtle. It’s a softly spoken calling, not a clap of thunder. Developing your path or project may take time, though you’d be wise to take steps in your new direction without delay, and keep taking small actions that gradually help you build momentum. There’s plenty more to this idea than you currently recognize. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

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Scorpio Birthdays 2017-18
What Will You Do with Your Astonishing Potential This Year?

Dear Scorpio Friend and Reader:

With today’s Sun-Jupiter conjunction in your sign, your solar year is beginning with astonishing potential. That might feel ironic, given the state of the world around you: there’s a lot of pain, destruction and chaos out there. But who better than a Scorpio to transmute that energy with pure passion, to get the emotional waters flowing again — both within yourself and, as it ripples out, in those closest to you?

Depending on how your year is going, that might feel exciting or it might feel daunting. Either way, you can have a trusted guide by your side in the form of Eric Francis and your 2017-18 Scorpio Birthday Reading.

Eric will be covering the truly fortunate transit of Jupiter through your sign for the next year (you’ll want to tap into that big ball of goodness as consciously as possible while it’s there!) — as well as several other major-planet sign changes in the coming months. With Saturn, Uranus and Chiron on the move, your environment will be shifting.

In particular, Uranus entering your opposite sign and ‘relationship house’ — Taurus — could bring some surprises over the next few years. As a fixed sign, you may do better at handling the unexpected (and your partners) with a little heads up. It gives you time to get oriented on the inherent creative potential, and to channel your energy and emotion in deeply productive ways.

Your reading will include two astrology segments of at least 30 minutes each, plus a tarot reading using the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless (you also get an extended description of your sign). Recorded in pro-quality audio, you can listen as many times as you like.

And, you’ll want to: Eric designs these readings to combine the best of his motivational life-coaching skills; the best of his therapy training; and the most down-to-Earth, practical, jargon-free astrological insights you’ll find anywhere on the internet.

If you’d like to secure your full reading at the lowest possible price of $33, you’ll want to pre-order the 2017-18 Scorpio Birthday Reading here. And you’ll want to do it soon: the price will increase as publication nears, and then will increase again upon publication of the full reading.

How will you use the blessings of Jupiter in your sign this year, Scorpio?

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. If you know and love anyone with a Scorpio Sun, Moon or rising sign, the 2017-18 Scorpio Birthday Reading makes an incredible gift.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Jupiter has arrived in your sign for one year. If there’s such a thing as an astrological need, this fulfills one: for Scorpio to have an infusion of water (provided by the Jupiter connection to Pisces) and of spiritual leavening (provided by its connection to Sagittarius). The last time a major planet visited your sign was the Mars retrograde of 2016, which was not exactly wet and juicy; Saturn, for part of 2015, was not exactly a ripe mango, either. Now you have extra resources to work with, and room to maneuver. You’re likely to be feeling more optimistic; not just about life but about who you are. That’s most of what you need to go on in life. When you feel good about yourself, you can accomplish just about anything. At the end of the year, another planetary move will have a similar effect: Saturn enters Capricorn, which will take the brakes off of your self-esteem. Between now and then, however, you must fully claim your self-respect; something you’ve been struggling to do in recent years (with some success). You will know you’re doing this because you feel demonstrably better about yourself. You will be less defensive, and more supportive of the people around you. You’ll be more interested in whether you’ve kept your promises to others than whether they’ve kept their promises to you. That’s true self-confidence. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Let’s continue to focus on the movement of Saturn through the last degrees of your sign, which might only occur twice or maybe three times in your lifetime. Saturn is the lord of the material plane; that is, of physical reality and its structures as we know them; and that has a lot to do with time. Saturn is now conjunct the Galactic Core: a spiritual source, and a homing signal. The combination of Saturn with its orientation on matter, and the Core, with its spiritual focus, represents the quest of all true seekers: how does one live in accord with divine intelligence on this level of reality, with all its madness? Now you have the story of your life short enough to fit into a fortune cookie. You are going through an integration process that will build in intensity through the winter solstice. This will put you in a position where you feel compelled to make decisions that guide your life based on your actual values. At this new stage of your life, if you know something is true, you must act on it. If you understand that some things serve your purposes and the greater good, you must choose them, rather than what harms. Combining the Galactic Core and Saturn, the one thing for which there’s no room at all is self-deception. Write that on your birthday cake. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Do you really think you can put your faith in technology? Your solar chart suggests you might be doing this. If so, give it up. It’s the current mental plague that will strangle everyone and everything in its path, and is already doing a good job of it. Rather, you would do much better to invest your faith in the human realm, such as the living example you set every day. You’re currently in one of those phases where your leadership skills are in demand and in focus. Most of what you’re leading with is your own desire. You are demonstrating that what you want must be the guiding principle of your life. That sounds selfish, I know; though there’s one way to test the validity of these desires: they work for everyone else, too. This isn’t the trickle-down theory of economics. To the contrary, there’s a direct, mutual and immediate benefit between what serves you and what serves your family, company, community or the public. That’s the standard to orient on. At this stage of your life, nothing can be good for you and simultaneously bad for anyone else. The world has a lot to learn about this kind of plus-plus symbiosis (a fancy term for win-win). Set aside any feelings of competition you may be having. And remember, computers won’t solve any problems. Only you can, especially if you collaborate. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — With Jupiter, the Sun and Mercury traveling through Scorpio, the potent midheaven angle of your solar chart, you’re experiencing a calling to success and achievement. On some level, that equates to the ability to do good or ill. We live in an age when accountability is typically either a thing of the past or something enforced on people. You need to subject yourself voluntarily to an evaluation process. Make sure that older, wiser mentors who are not afraid to disagree with you are involved in your decision-making process. Because you have influence, and because your aims are likely to develop into something bigger than you’ve planned, you must at all times keep one eye on the law of unintended consequences. It’s often said that knowledge is power, and the one thing that Aquarius of all the signs must be aware of is what you do not know. Understanding that your decisions have impact and that you don’t know everything will help keep you in check effectively enough to make better decisions. Be cautious of the desire to accomplish everything at once, something that could vex you over the coming year. Rather, work from a list of priorities, which you keep flexible with ongoing re-evaluation. This will help prevent you from getting stuck on anything, and ensure that you stay fairly close to being in the moment — and facing toward the future. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — To the extent that you’ve gained standing in society, you’ve earned it through effort, trial and tribulation. For three years, Saturn has been making its way across the top of your solar chart, an irresistible calling to attempt the impossible. Alternately, you may have been put into positions where you had to rise to the occasion whether you wanted to or not. Now is your moment to claim your place in the world, which means the right to do what you do best. You’ll be doing this in a time when many people are struggling and uncertain, and you will need to navigate this carefully. You might think of your function as expressing the particular gift, talent or desire that you have. You can take that a few levels deeper and remember that your actual purpose is to connect with people, and encourage them to participate: that’s to say, to demonstrate whatever you do by doing it lovingly. At the moment, you have access to some astonishing resources, all of which are yours to share. Nothing is actually yours, per se, or not yours, per se. Your role is to ensure that the people you care about have enough of everything, so much as you can make that possible. You are a Pisces, the Omega point of the zodiac. Now is the time to answer your calling and step into your true purpose. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.