Aries (March 20-April 19) — On our planet, it’s a helpful idea to keep busy with something productive that serves the greatest good for all concerned. If you have something of that nature that you love to do, and want to do more of it, then do more of it now — now, as in right now and over the next few days and weeks. Make an impression on yourself. Set a pattern, in your mind, in your schedule and in your energy field. While you’re doing this, the solar eclipse of Sept. 13 describes the perfect opportunity to strike a balance between productivity and self-care. Part of the pattern you can establish is doing both, with each not at the expense of the other. Yet the deeper value is service, which is a concept not well understood in our profit-driven culture. I am not suggesting there’s any issue with living well. I am suggesting that within your personal cosmic order, you will feel better if that’s connected to daily activity that enhances the lives of the people you come into contact with. One measure of whether this is working for you is the accumulation and sharing of knowledge. If you’re learning and teaching, you’re on the right path.

 

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — This weekend’s solar eclipse is encouraging you to try a whole new thing creatively, by which I mean exploring in some direction you’ve never gone before. It’s true that your current endeavors will be expanding over the next year, though there’s a kind of leavening or catalyst that you will activate by doing something actually new for you. By new, I would include a passion that you gave up long ago, or have wanted to do for a long time. What you want is the feeling of unfamiliarity. You want something that shifts the continuity of your self-creative process. There is something here about sex as well. Anyone who has read more than 100 words of my writing knows I’m an advocate for developing a conscious, nourishing sexuality. For you, there are two elements that now come into focus. One of them is receiving. Open up to that. Another is a sense of experimentation — the willingness to try what is unusual, interesting and perhaps a little challenging to your sense of order and control. This, too, is a kind of leavening or catalyst for many things; many new horizons.

 

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You seem to be torn between craving security and knowing that you must take chances. The two concepts do not necessarily conflict. They could, of course — though let’s consider the ways they support one another. The reason someone would dare to do something unusual would be to build a better life. One reason one would want to have some grounding (known in our culture, over-simplistically, as security) would be to live a little more adventurously. The kind of grounding that you stand to gain over the next few weeks will be the product of your not clinging to a concept of what is supposedly safe. What you may notice is that what gave you the feeling of security yesterday no longer matters tomorrow. What made you nervous yesterday may suddenly emerge as the thing you need to do, in order to feel at home on the planet. You might take that as your mantra — feeling at home here on Earth. What offers you that feeling? If you think in terms of feeling at home rather than ‘safe’ or ‘secure’ you will see and be aware of much more tangible options to choose from.

 

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The written word — it was and remains vital for the advance of humanity and of society, and it is vital for you, your happiness, your growth and your evolutionary journey. It always has been, though now this comes into focus with new meaning, even urgency. In exploring your ideas in writing, you will discover how much you have to say. You will enter a new world of ideas that transports you beyond the reality that you now know. This will help guide you into a new existence. I suggest you describe your reality, describe what you want, and describe who you are and who you want to be. You can say what you need to say to anyone — this would be an excellent time. The feeling you’re looking for is the sensation that both writing, and sharing your writing, bring you to a point of no return. When you get near that sensation of ‘oh my god I can’t believe I’m saying this’, you know you’re heading the right way — so keep writing. I suggest you not appease yourself with the idea that nobody has to see your words. Rather, take the opposite approach — in sharing my personal truth, I make it real.

 

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Venus has returned to direct motion in your sign, to some great relief. Yet you may now be feeling the urgency of moving forward with your plans. I suggest you do this not swiftly or urgently, but persistently. Part of what you’re doing is establishing yourself as someone with knowledge and credibility. Yet deeper than that are the personal impressions people have of you as someone with empathy, someone who is available, and someone who respects commitment. This is more meaningful than establishing, for example, your expertise. You might also focus on demonstrating that you’re an accountable person, which means you take responsibility for what you do and what you say. We live in a time when this whole concept is under siege in some places. Yet there are those who are holding strong, and they are the people you want to associate with. You are, slowly and gradually, making your way to a new level of involvement with the world. This will happen stitch by stitch, from promise made to promise kept.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Your relationships exist because you exist. It is therefore a physical — and you might say metaphysical — impossibility to put your relationships before yourself. You are what’s doing the relating; your presence is what constitutes the existence of a relationship to anyone to whom you’re connected. Therefore, I suggest you pay attention and strive above all to feel your own presence in the world. It may seem ridiculous to suggest that anyone would face a question about whether they exist. Perhaps, though one would then have to account for all the people who act like they’re not really there; who act like they’re not present in their own life. The solar eclipse in your sign on Sept. 13 is calling on you to stand fully in your own world, your senses, your choices and most of all your potential. Claim the power of decision for yourself, and recognize that anything you’ve chosen in the past, you can choose again for it to have substance and validity from one day to the next. That same idea suggests you can in fact opt out of whatever you want to.

 

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You may be feeling as if you have to make some major change in your life, though I think this mostly involves the message you deliver to the world. That message is more than words, though those include the words that describe your idea of who you are. And it is this I suggest you consider carefully. There’s a strong element of considering who you are not that’s brewing in your astrology now. That’s good as far as it goes — though ultimately you cannot describe yourself by process of elimination, such as, “I’m not all those other things! Now you know who I am.” What you’re seeking is some affirmative statement of your reality. When you succeed at making one or more such affirmative statements, you’re likely to get a strong response of some kind. Notice how you, in turn, respond to that; note how you interpret it; and what you choose to do next. There’s enormous tension in our culture between wanting desperately to be seen, and terror of being seen. This includes physical beauty but I think it describes one’s emotional or intellectual being even more intensely. I suggest you study that seeming conflict in yourself and see what you discover.

 

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You seem to be making up your mind about who you are. Remember this is not a final decision. Neither is making up your mind about who you are not. You are subject to change, as is everyone else, and the world around you. Once you remember that, any decisions you’re making will not seem like such a big deal. There is one possible exception, however, which is allowing others to define you. How would that happen? It would start with your own uncertainty, leading to little panic attacks. If you combine that with some idea that others need to see you as perfect, that’s the recipe for being defined by them. The only remedy for this is to assert yourself, as you are, as imperfect as you may (or may not) see yourself. Perfection is not a value. What is a value is that your learning process, your journey of self-development and self-creation, involves an active dynamic with the world around you. By this I mean that the many interactions you have with others are not predictable; and that you must be the mediator of those exchanges. You decide what things mean, and mean about you, which hints at one thing — the need to be practical above all else.

 

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Planets and unusual events are moving in the direction of your 10th house — that of achievement, reputation and accountability. First among these markers is Jupiter, your guiding planet, making a one-year visit to your 10th house. That means you can, and would be wise to, identify with your highest potential. You can identify with that quality of being known as a person of accomplishment and integrity. With that comes the responsibility for what you do, and taking success as a matter of duty. In other words, for you being brilliant and shining out into the world are not matters of glory as much as they are getting the job done well. I know this is not the way of the world these days. I know that the money-for-nothing era has metastasized into pure madness. You, however, are still in the era of late nights perfecting your task, and being known for being prepared, for being grounded and intelligent, and for persisting. Last night I flipped on the TV to PBS and caught a few minutes of American Masters on Jimi Hendrix, your brother Sagittarian. One of his associates said, “He was an amazing guitarist but he worked for it. You would never see him without a guitar in his hands.”

 

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Saturn, the Capricorn planet, does seem to be taking forever to cross that very last degree of Scorpio. Seen symbolically, this is like hesitation before some vast journey to an unknown destination. Saturn is standing on the edge of a state of mind, of a phase of your growth, of an emotional condition characterized by one thing — uncertainty. The thing is that you still have a strong connection to false certainty, including the idea that you can control certain things clearly not under your domain. Once Saturn changes signs, all pretend notions of control might vanish, or you will have the chance to let them go. You would do this for no other reason than the fact that they are useless to you. The new element you’re entering is lighter than all of this. Yet if the rays of light are brighter, the shadows are darker, though at least you can see the contrast between them. This is not so easy with Saturn in Scorpio, where everything seems to be some shade of blue, black or gray. You need contrast now; you will benefit from it and thrive on it.

 

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — I am sure you could use some relief from the many responsibilities that have been placed on your shoulders the past three years, and the ones that you’ve taken on as a matter of choice. You did this because it was the thing to do, and I reckon that it actually was. In my reading of the charts, that condition is shifting. Your concept of responsibility is shifting, as is the pressure to achieve and perform. Now you have the option of doing, of living, of exploring, for its own sake. The thing to remember is that you’re someone with an emotionally-rooted sense of duty. I know there’s a psychological dimension and a powerful social one, I would just note that the anchor of your sense of responsibility is in your feeling-body. And this has been emphasized profoundly the past two years, with much else going on at the same time. If I had to sum up the sign change of Saturn for you, it’s about engaging your potential in a new way — what you can do rather than what you must do. What you want rather than what you need. This certainly comes with its own challenges, though I think you’ll like them better.

 

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Give partners, loved ones and lovers room to move around. They may seem more certain than they are, and are likely to reconsider things they were certain of a week or three or six weeks ago. Get accustomed to being in a changing environment where all your relationships are concerned. Just to give a few examples, Jupiter is now in your opposite sign, which for you is an invitation to contact. There’s about to be a solar eclipse, which is another way of saying movement and change, with the potential for progress. Venus and Mars are working toward a conjunction in your opposite sign. The message I’m seeing in these patterns is for you to be open to the many possibilities, which means pay attention to your whole environment. Rather than just focusing on your life and what you want, notice the wider world for as many hours a day as you can. Notice what is changing; notice what people are saying; notice the ways in which others are becoming flexible enough to relate to the world in a way that’s a bit closer to what you recognize and can abide. It’s true that you’re the protagonist of your own story; we are each the hero in our own dream. Spread out your mind and embrace the full horizon, the background, the unusual way the light falls on the Earth these days.