Horoscopes worth reading and worth living by are worth paying for. This is a separate post with just the extended Planet Waves monthly forecasts for October 2016, covering all 12 Sun signs and rising signs. Extended horoscopes, and weekly horoscopes by Eric Francis are available on this website to Core Community and Backstage Pass holders. They are also emailed directly to all subscribers, including basic subscribers.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — There are those moments when you must give up control over the course of events, and you’re veering into one of them now. You might find this helpful, because there are certain possibilities you may not have fully connected with, and those have a better chance of coming to the forefront if you’re not trying to hold everything together in the way that you have. Said another way, this is a time when you make some chaos work for you. This calls for the one thing that’s in the shortest supply on the planet right now, which is trust. By that I mean trust in the flow of time, in your development and in your relationship to yourself. Those are the most significant factors that will help you align with the world around you, and it’s clear from your astrology that what you’re experiencing is not merely an inner trip. Your relationships, your professional calling and your physical environment are all involved. We are in an edgy moment right now, on many accounts. There is an abundance of fear going around, most of it directed at instability and lack of trust. You are now in the fortunate position of needing to trust yourself, and knowing that your faith in everyone and everything else flows from there. True, this is easier said than done, and you can do it. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — As the next few weeks progress, you may feel as if you’re going to burst. The amount of activity, both physical and psychic, may push you toward the edge, particularly around the Full Moon on Oct. 16. Even people who are not prone to anxiety may be feeling more of the stuff, though there are many ways to manifest and to express the same energy of which fear is made. The main points to remember are that there will be a lot of that energy moving, and that energy has to go somewhere. The more you express what you’re feeling in constructive ways, the better you will feel, and the more likely you’ll be to see the events of this time as an opportunity. The prevailing message is to lighten up and dance to the music. Venus in your opposite sign Scorpio is not exactly light and airy. This has you feeling deeply, and describes your investment in a relationship situation that you depend upon. Yet that’s secondary to your own experience of your feelings and your perceptions. Though this is always true, it’s particularly necessary to understand this now: your state of mind colors and shapes your perception of the world around you more than any other factor. Therefore, work with your feelings as they emerge, and do what you need to do in order to feel good. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You must be careful what you commit to this month. During the Mercury retrograde into late September, you got a clue just how little it takes to create a misunderstanding. You need to be vigilant about this going forward. That means understanding your responsibilities and commitments under any contract you sign or promise you make. To put it bluntly, you must figure out how much power over you any agreement gives the other party. From the look of your solar chart, that power will be lopsided in favor of others. The first step toward claiming it back is not giving any more away. Any situation where there is some question about this is likely to come to a head, so you will want to be prepared for any discussion in advance. You are not the type to submit to anything against your will; you’re too intelligent and you value your autonomy. Yet what’s unfolding in the current scenario involves old patterns that go back to parents and early caregivers, wherein you had to content yourself with having no influence over the course of events. This is no longer true; however, most of your strength and volition will come from knowledge. Therefore, set no limits on what you know about your circumstances, your rights or anyone with whom you’re dealing. For this is indeed your power. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You have been working toward something, though you might discover that it was something other than what you thought. Whatever unusual developments arrive in your professional life, meet them full on and without hesitation. You have been preparing for this moment. It’s your chance to do two things. One is to break free of some pattern that’s kept you living or working one particular way for longer than you have wanted or expected to. The other is to meet people whom you perceive as powerful either on their level, or on your terms, or both. You are done being intimidated by people, only to discover the daunting factor was in your own mind. Said another way, the genuine benefit of this time in your life is your opportunity to even out the field of play. If you remember that this is entirely psychological, it will be easier and more fun. Along the way, you’re likely to see an opening to an expanded reputation or a level of notoriety that far exceeds your hopes or expectations. Yet forthcoming aspects describe you discovering the ability to connect, emotionally and creatively, with something much larger than yourself. That something is usually experienced as intangible or vanished into the landscape. You can feel it, hear it and smell it, and you’re about to see what the heck it really is. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may need to work hard, though that’s also an invitation to work brilliantly. You will save yourself effort and get better results by applying intelligence first to any situation. Get a concept, an overview, a vision. Rather than a sense of direction, what you will benefit from is a concept of what you’re working toward. This might be more or less specific, lavishly detailed or less so. Let that guide you, in a loose and evolving way. It’s essential that all of your plans and even intentions be flexible enough to express themselves in a way that can actually manifest. One quality of our times is the environment changing so rapidly that it’s impossible to adapt. Rather, the thing essential to adapt oneself to is the sensation of constantly shooting the rapids. The beauty of speed is that small moves mean a lot. Momentum is doing most of the work; your role is to guide and direct. That’s the difference between working hard and working smart, as the old expression goes. There is plenty of energy coming out of the ground, and the fire-breathing dragon of time is hot and heavy at the moment. Therefore, settle into your seat and guide your craft; or if it suits you, step outside and walk.  For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

 

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Somehow recently the financial stakes went up, and it seems that you see more potential for yourself than usual. It’s a fact that you are now in a position to expand your income, though this will take a degree of personal commitment and dedication that you might decide is just not worth it. We live in the age of supposedly easy millions, which looms like a mirage over people’s hopes and dreams. The potential to be suddenly set for life gets in the way of all the steps that it takes to learn a trade, begin a business, work with partners, and manage modest resources efficiently. This is far from poverty consciousness: to the contrary, it’s about maximizing your access to what you already have, so that you can keep your projects going and build them up to a new level. This will invariably involve working with others, though you must be careful about the influence that people with whom you’re involved have on you. It will be easy to get carried away in the values of others, if you don’t keep your focus on your own values and priorities. You are the creative engine that you need to harness and maintain. You are the person with the drive and the passionate curiosity. You don’t need those things from others. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You must take the lead in your relationships. By this I mean take a strong hand in setting the agenda in both business and personal partnerships. If you don’t, you could be subjected to the wild swings that other people take you through. Another approach could be to take a step back and be detached. Yet you are way too involved, and your circumstances are too sensitive, for you simply to let go of your control or of your influence. The main thing you will need is a strong degree of self-leadership and self-guidance. This is the only factor that you can count on to help you navigate your environment when the intensity level goes up (which it will mid-month). Let’s put this into terms suited to Libra. You depend on balance, but you cannot depend on others to help keep you in balance. Only you can do that for yourself. It will be tempting to look to others for support when they may be your most dependable source of chaos. This posture may leave you feeling like you’re on your own or out in the cold, but it will work better than any form of toxic togetherness. You have a much deeper agenda: to cultivate and maintain your emotional independence. You’ve been working at this for a long time, and this is the perfect month to practice and learn. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Though it will be tempting to use pressure or force on certain people who seem stuck, that would not help your situation. Instead, do something that’s relatively easy: let them know you want to understand where they’re coming from. Then really strive to understand their viewpoint and the emotional reality behind it. Your persistent focus on what matters will be an orientation point for others, and it will have a clarifying influence. You merely need to apply the penetrating quality of your mind, and keep the conversation low key. Ask questions and really have a sense whether you understand or not. This will be especially important in work situations where groups are involved. Groups can be entirely lost and either nobody in the group wants to admit it, or they are all following one another around blindly. You’re the one who has to see beyond this. That means recognizing patterns as they point to problems and then to solutions. This is closely related to creativity; or rather, it’s identical, only you would substitute ‘puzzle’ for ‘problem’. You are in a highly unusual position to see the potential in all the chaos that the world is drowning in. You might even be able to understand the spiritual crisis of the internet, because currently you have a sense of the scale of both the problem and the creative puzzle that it presents. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Now would be the time to focus on increasing your income. You have the ideas, and you have the motivation, and most of all, you have the opportunity.  It’s rare to put all of those factors together in the same place and time. That’s your direct opportunity to take advantage of what you have available. Most of all, this means focusing on actual tasks. It’s easy to get consumed by meaningless details, abstract plans and list making. What you need to do to get this party started are the challenging, potentially difficult but in any case actual tasks with a beginning, middle and end (with emphasis on the end). Know what must happen, and do that first. Know what you want to happen, and get to that a little later in the day. At the moment, you have the added advantage of some relative calm (particularly after the frenetic madness of the past month). So use that space and mental bandwidth wisely. It won’t last forever — though it’ll last long enough to help you make some progress toward your most valued goals. One last thought: this progress will come partly in the form of building things, and partly in the form of taking some things apart. The level of structure is the one to focus on, that is, the underlying layer: walls and doors rather than the furniture. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’re going through a phase of catching up with yourself. True, you’ve made plenty of progress the past couple of months, despite factors that would have deterred others. Still, you need to gain some essential experience, so that you can focus your direction based on real information. It’s essential that you be willing to get your hands dirty, and essential that you not go into any project with the expectation that it will be easy. Many factors in your chart are insisting that you be willing to go deep, and that you be willing to embark on projects whose destiny you don’t know. And while everything is designed as a learning process, it must never stop there. It’s imperative to engage with the worth in what you’re doing, and to make sure that you follow through to the point where something actually serves a purpose extrinsic to yourself. People are fed up with complication. That’s the mark of our times. Yet you know that getting a result is not as easy as tapping the screen on a phone, but rather more like the work that took to design and create the app. You don’t need simplicity as much as you need a broad perspective. Jupiter is here to help you, if only you’ll remember there’s more to heaven and earth than you may have believed previously. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This month comes in two distinct phases — before and after the Full Moon of Oct. 16. Rather than arrive at phase two and wonder what you were so worked up about, I suggest you pace yourself and turn your squelch knob up to about eight. (Squelch is the thing on a two-way radio that suppresses background noise but allows through strong signals). There is plenty distracting you in your immediate environment, yet despite this you must persist in weaving your vision for the future. You have the added challenge of being motivated by something other than fear. It may well seem that wanting things not to go badly is a more powerful driving force than wanting them to go well. This would be especially true if you don’t quite have a clear notion of what ‘well’ would be. And this is why you will benefit from focusing specifically on that idea. To do this you will need to rise above the fray of daily activity and get your mind to a clear place. I recommend altitude: a tall building, a mountaintop, a cliff side with a view, a bridge you love. Stay there long enough to take in the perspective and allow it to make an impression on you, so that you think different thoughts. You will be tapping into your ‘alt mind’, which knows more than your regular one. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You must be discerning about your ideas, your talents and your possessions. It’s true that you’re in a time of changing fortunes, and you don’t really know what each day will bring. Yet you have plenty to work with. Even so, you need to sift through your resources carefully and select the gems. Regarding your talents: it’s time to get an understanding of both what is worth the most — that is, what you can get paid for, which also aligns the most closely with your values — and what gives you the most pleasure. There are all kinds of things you can do, and might do, though it’s now necessary that you have a better match than ever before. When you come into that alignment, you will notice that others respond by coming into harmony with you. But, as every musician must tune his or her instrument to be in tune with the orchestra, you must maintain focus on yourself, which means feeling and listening to the notes that you play. To use another musical metaphor, there’s a big difference between an electric guitar and an acoustic one. An electric instrument can express more sounds with less effort, and tap into the power grid to shake the stadium or wake your neighbors. That’s the instrument you’re playing right now. Therefore, slow down, center yourself and allow the music (and art, money, love and sex) to flow through you. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.