Aries (March 20-April 19) — Events this month will be surprising and most of all you will surprise yourself with what you are capable of. You are likely to accomplish things you never imagined possible, which relates to emerging as someone you never quite thought you were. This will require more than ‘being real’, though in the most essential sense of that idea, it’s exactly what you will be doing. Yet this is more like being real in the way that you never thought possible. You seem to have gathered the idea that if you are bold and stand out, that will ultimately have an alienating effect on the people around you. You have the potential to discover an approach to life where asserting yourself fits a social pattern that helps you and everyone else. I will give you a clue how this works. Note the tendency for people, government agencies and countries to resort to aggression as the first resort rather than the last. The cosmic law of your chart says that you can do anything about which you can speak openly with others. Establish communication first and act second. Maintain a dialog. Make sure that you speak and listen in more or less equal proportion. And more than anything, don’t try to hide who you are. Assume that you are immediately recognized for who you are, and be that person all the time.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — There’s no limit to what you don’t know about yourself, which you notice every now and then. This makes some people nervous, and it makes some people into artists, writers, musicians and philosophers. Those born under the sign Taurus live with a special version of what I would call the Persistent Mystery of Self. It can have a way of driving you, whether forward or in circles, though the impulse is not always so conscious. This month two eclipses influence your chart in profound ways. The first, on Oct. 8, seems designed to relieve internal pressure that has been bottling up for a while. This could manifest as a revelation about yourself, as a personal crisis or both — you can be less attached to the form it takes if you know why it’s happening. The effect will be to help you settle down emotionally and feel better in your skin, perhaps after a little storm. The next eclipse, on Oct. 23, takes place on your relationship angle. You may experience a similar phase of transition in an intimate partnership, though this is designed to bring you closer. Remember that many people don’t want to be closer to others, for whatever reason. It’s always helpful to know thyself, then encounter the other, and that is the arrangement. You do seem committed to your current path. Keep your faith.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may be facing a persistent question about the role of sex in your relationships. Cultural mythology on this subject would make any anthropologist’s head spin. We could at least begin by saying that sex plays an important role even in ‘non-sexual’ relationships, for countless reasons, but at least one that you can relate to: People are curious about one another. And there are lots of people who turn you on. But there are no provisions for that in The Rules, and denial is no longer going to work for you. The thing to remember all the time is that you are a biological entity first, and a socially conditioned entity second. So let your biology and your curiosity speak. Notice who is noticing you — these days, plenty of people are –and maybe experiment with that being OK. You don’t need to make excuses for why you supposedly don’t care, especially if you actually do care. There is a zone in life and in your chart where healing and sex meet and blend, and for several different reasons, that zone is under focus right now. Any emotional, psychological or spiritual question deserves a thoughtful review of how your sexual feelings, experiences and values influence that matter. This of course all points directly to your relationships with others, and the question of how real you can be, which is another way of saying how honest.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You’ll get more done if you work collectively rather than individually. You might forget this just when you need it most — so I suggest you remember just at that moment. Let any struggle that lasts for more than an hour be a reminder to get the help of other people who may know more than you, have greater resources or more patience and experience for a particular task. Don’t worry if you have to pay them; that is what money is for, though you’re likely to find assistance that can be done as seva (selfless service) or in-kind (you help them later). In any event, the thing to do is ask rather than pretending to be a lone wolf, or thinking you have to go it alone. Once you do, a whole world will open up — a world of passion and creativity, and one where taking certain kinds of risks makes sense and is the thing to do. It will help if you express your goals in a way that appeals to the idea of serving everyone. It’s true that this goes against the prevailing ethos of our time: every man for himself, helping others is pointless, and everything must be done for personal profit. The steps you take this month will guide you and the people around you to a higher level of awareness and more meaningful involvement with the world.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Most people are constrained by what they believe is possible, or rather, what they believe is impossible. Over the next few weeks, all of that is about to go pop. Things you never imagined in the realm of possibility will emerge as something you can do right now. Embrace the idea that in truth, anything is possible. You don’t even need to ‘believe’ it, or see how you could get there. You must only get out of your own way, and refrain from trying to convince yourself that something cannot be done. Along those lines, it would help if you elected not to subject yourself to the influences of anyone who is telling you what is not possible, particularly if you know they are coming from the place of their own injury. This can be challenging, since so many people think they have a vested interest in convincing others what cannot be done, or protecting them from the possibility that their dreams won’t come true. Be mindful of this and learn to recognize this viewpoint when you hear it. Your world is opening up. Your horizons of space and time are widening. Your sense of who you are is arising before your eyes. You need not debate this with yourself; rather, step into the future with calm confidence and you will see that you’re standing on solid ground.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may be more emotional than you’ve felt in years, wondering just how everything you were sure you had worked out is suddenly reminding you of its existence. While it’s true that some of what you’re feeling is a calling to deeper healing, other experiences are more like reviewing an extremely vivid book of the history of your life. Even though you have made immense progress resolving the past, and doing what my Virgo friend Paloma calls “cleaning the tree” of your family of origin, it’s necessary that you stay close to your roots. This is because your roots are your connection to the Earth, and therefore your connection to your own strength. But as you know, this connection takes you deeper than any ordinary concept of the ground, and shifts your awareness to what you might call the cosmic ground of existence. All of your experiences have served to deepen your ability to feel, and to make contact with what many other people would consider to be entirely extraordinary. Therefore, treat all of your experiences and all of your inner feedback with respect and even a bit of reverence. As this phase of your journey continues, it will grow deeper the more conscious you are. It’s heading very steadily in the direction of a discovery of yourself, about the true nature of the past, and your deepest origins.

 

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — 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.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may be wondering when things are going to change; you may start to think you’re going backwards rather than making progress. You may seem to lose sight of an important goal, or some crucial idea that you’ve been developing. Fear not. The astrology of the next few weeks is certainly mysterious and will leave plenty of people guessing. Yet as those weeks unfold, you will discover that something is brewing under the surface, and that something is likely to manifest on the day that the Sun ingresses your sign, which is Oct. 23. Now, this leaves a question of what to do if you find yourself in a zero-gravity space, or feeling like you’re unable to think clearly. Your chart says that you will get maximum value from getting lost in your work. Proceed with what you are doing, with full devotion, authentic passion and a healthy dose of curiosity. Imagine that you have no need to think about what’s coming next, nor any desire to do so. Keep yourself focused on the task at hand, which over the next two weeks is likely to get more interesting and take on a value of its own; that is, to be interesting for its own sake. You could call this art or science in its most essential and sincere form, which is the setup for an inevitable breakthrough.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Mars is transiting your sign all month long, and it’s making 17 conjunctions to everything from asteroids to centaur planets to the Galactic Core. Translated into English, you more resemble some kind of superhuman mutant than your average person. You may be feeling your strength more profoundly, as well as your doubts and your seeming imperfections. I assure you, however, that what you’re experiencing is distinctly human. You’re being called, or perhaps compelled, to notice a process that has been underway for years. You usually get some sense of this around the time of your birthday. Now you’re seeing and feeling something that may be vaguely familiar, but which you’ve never quite perceived acutely. One manifestation of this journey has been an inability to focus a clear definition of who you are, a clear sense of identity. You cannot even fake it, which I would say is a beautiful thing. You may, however, feel like as you experience each one of these seemingly different facets of who you are, you’ll be looking for some logic or some unifying theme. That would be you. The dreamer is never separate from the dream, no matter how many forms it takes. The perceiver is never separate from perception. The artist is never separate from their art. Follow this thread and you will emerge in a space where this is so obvious that it’s funny.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — From time to time, or all the time, you may be feeling like you’re about to explode. You must be careful with this. You are indeed experiencing some profound internal movement, which is provoking you to question and investigate every aspect of desire. If you have not recognized this yet, I suggest that you weave together the many clues that you have. If there is an issue involved, it’s how much you conceal from yourself. This is not a joke. From the look of your chart, it would be fair to say that you conceal (or try to conceal) very nearly everything from yourself, as if doing so would somehow protect you from it. But now the action of Mars, one of your special agents, is provoking every one of your desires, your instincts, your secret issues and most of all, your ambition. The thing to remember is that you cannot pick and choose. To have your power, you must confront your shadow material. To have your strength in the present, you must confront your past. To embrace your desires, you surely must confront your fears. Not doing these things has been stirring up all kinds of chaos in your heart and soul. This is putting you under a lot of unnecessary pressure, and cutting off your true strength. Set yourself free and take a good look inside that vast, extremely interesting inner space you contain.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — There is nothing wrong with you, though something seems to be sending you that message. From the perspective of your solar chart, this appears as a thought form, probably something you picked up in childhood and that has had a grip on you ever since. You might find more than one of these ideas, and they might be clinging together in what psychology calls a ‘complex’. Events early in the month are likely to propel you to awareness of this issue, and to propel you to escape velocity. By now you have figured out that what I’m describing is a wholly internal situation. It’s not even vaguely caused by your current relationships; rather, your relationships follow the rules that you set for them. And now is the time to revise those rules in a truly radical way. In this process, it’s essential that you use words to express yourself. I recognize that words are not perfect and cannot express anything perfectly, but what they offer is evidence of your thought process. They allow you to track the evolution of your ideas about yourself. Your ideas manifest in a way that you can review the next day, share with others, or state as a tangible vision. Words can be edited, which means revised — which means you get to re-vision yourself with each successive draft. Words are images. Words are maps. And they hold the power of healing for you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — For months the theme of self-esteem and money has been dancing around the charts, and it’s about to dance its way over to Pisces. This month’s astrology describes a revolutionary turn of fortune, as if you finally make contact with your real financial power. There is an inventive quality to this, and the thing to remember about any process of invention is that it involves experimentation until you get to the breakthrough point. Therefore, don’t be discouraged by any past ‘failures’ — they were the necessary ground to tread, an initiation process, to get you to where you are today. Indeed, it would seem the only thing that could stop you is the conscious choice to give up, and fortunately there are other factors in your chart that are leading you forward with a real sense of adventure. Adventure is not a trip to Disney World. It’s this unpredictable kind of thing, with ups and downs and challenges and a sense of independence — a sense of quest, with an unknown destination — and that’s exactly where you are right now. Just remember that your financial liberation is an essential element of the story, part of which includes exploring, and reminding yourself just how radical your values really are. There is a direct relationship between that and whatever you define as success. If you want a working definition of self-esteem as the concept applies to you, there you have it.