Aries (March 20-April 19) — It’s time to let yourself out of whatever bottle you’ve been hanging out in. You may be thinking that close partners or lovers are the ones who have been hesitating, and your current scenario may be the result of a mutual reaction. However, only you can move your own energy. Only you can make your decisions. Only you can set yourself free and, notably, only if you want to. While your relationship life seems to be your highest priority or most compelling interest, for that to work at all you need to focus on yourself, your feelings and most of all your willingness to take risks. That’s a matter of confidence. If you focus on what you want, you can indeed afford to let the dice tumble where they may. If you are distracted by what others want, your chances of success are not quite as clear. One thing to always keep in mind is that many turns of events yet to unfold over the next few months were set in motion back in early January. Live the adventure.

 

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Venus, the planet associated with Taurus, stations direct this week after spending much of the summer retrograde. This suggests a few shifts in your personal environment — one of which will be emphasizing the present rather than certain elements of the past, potentially household or family issues, which have taken some time and energy to resolve. The real threshold that I see is your stepping into understanding that you are the foundation of your own life. You, as in not anyone else: for example, partners or family. Your independence is the most significant ingredient in your personal happiness. You have learned many times that if you cannot count on others, you must count on yourself. But now you will see that if you can count on yourself, it takes significant pressure off of your relationships, leaving you and the people close to you free to experience things based on desire and not on need. The activating agent here is being real with yourself all the time. You may need to toss aside your expectations and just ask yourself: “What is so?”

 

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You don’t need to live your life wondering when the fun is going to run out. It’s true that several different factors are guiding you to take a more focused and serious approach to existence. This may include the idea that you need to shift your relationships and choose one that really works, even if that means sacrificing something. I suggest you take the opposite approach, and filter out the people who are not participating in what you want; people who don’t really recognize you. They have plenty of other opportunities and so do you. Yet where you may start is with yourself. It’s rare indeed that people focus on their inner relationship. Most of what we do with others ends up being a distraction from having an inner life; from being content on your own. Even the thought of this is often experienced as scary, dangerous, undesirable or impossible — but somehow inevitable. Saturn soon to arrive in your opposite sign Sagittarius is a bold invitation to get to know yourself, like only you can.

 

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You can now focus an idea or a project that has seemed difficult to condense into some tangible form. It’s likely that whatever form this ends up becoming — be it imagery, music, a novel, an art installation — it will start with writing. Begin by describing what has seemed ethereal or challenging to describe. See if you can convey the feeling and the central concept. Note, this may not directly involve a creative project; it may involve a change you want to make in your life, or your environment. The more clearly you relate the basic elements and focus your desire for a specific outcome, the more attainable it will seem. Any feelings that something is impossible to create are likely the result of lack of clarity about what it is. So think of this process as being about getting clear, and then concentrating something in cohesive mental form — that is, a description. Once you get past any initial awkwardness, it will be easy to refine and modify your verbal sketch, adding additional detail; as you do, the methods will come into focus.

 

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Venus has been retrograde in your sign for the past six weeks. This has been like training for a new mission, ambition or goal. Think of what you’ve been experiencing as preparation or training for a new phase of your life. If you’ve been hesitating, stop and ask yourself what you really want and whether you’re finally ready to move forward with full commitment. I say this aware of how elusive this ‘full commitment’ thing is. We tend to think of goals as being outside of ourselves, like a ladder or mountain to climb. Whatever you may want to do in the world, the real objective is inside yourself. You are learning to embody an idea or an ideal of some kind. You might think of this as cultivating a state or being associated with leadership. The first requirement of leading others is self-respect, and this too has been one of the learning goals of Venus retrograde in your sign. The message: accountability for your life goes all the way to the top — that is, beginning and ending with you.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — This is your birthday season, and the Sun in your sign is joined by Jupiter — the planet of promise and potential, which shows up every 12 years. You may well be asking yourself what is possible. You may be asking yourself what you’re capable of. Or, you may be wondering what’s going to come to you; when your ship is going to come in. A year is short, and it would be better if you learn the message of Jupiter sooner rather than later: take initiative. Then, be patient as you assemble the pieces of your dream. Remember that anything going from concept (or fantasy) into physical reality will require some translation, and it won’t necessarily manifest as you were envisioning it. That’s enough to deter most people from persisting in creating something for themselves; don’t let it deter you. Engage your curiosity about what will manifest. Allow for what you have not planned or envisioned. Let your process take unusual turns; and most of all, don’t bother yourself with what anyone else may think. If there is one necessary step on the way to tapping your real creativity, that’s the one.

 

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — This is going to be an interesting week for you socially. Try to get out of the house or the office, every day if you can. Notice the difference between your day worlds and your night worlds. They will be as different as, well, night and day. The essence of your current astrology is a revelation of how you perceive yourself as a social being, or a public being — as someone perceived by others. This is usually awkward territory for people; they tend to carry distortions about how people see them, what makes them attractive, what others will notice, and so on. I am not suggesting you should worry about these things. To the contrary, what seems to be happening is that you are slipping into a more confident space, a sense of ease about who you are, what image you project and how people see you. The key to this is confidence. You can start with caring less, and being yourself more. I suggest you push this, that you take more social risks, and that you immediately process and work through any residual discomfort you may feel and get right back to being yourself. Yes, it takes practice.

 

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You have every reason to be confident, though you still may be hesitating. It’s true that there are certain decisions you have to make, and that there’s a possibility you’ll need to leave some people in the past. Yet it’s just as likely that your relationships will transform, if you take the first steps. What I suggest you avoid is not doing something because someone else seems reluctant. As bold as you are, you still need the support and encouragement of others sometimes, though it would be excellent if you took a step and took initiative, particularly social, on your own timing and your own terms. The story of your life the past few years is about your desire to be a bolder, more ambitious person. You’ve reached a time in your life when others need your leadership more than you need theirs. Most of that involves where you will allow your mind to go; your actual state of releasing your inhibitions rather than fostering them. They no longer protect you from jealous or envious people. You are much bigger than that.

 

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Much of the frenzy about God on our planet is really about sex. How else could you get so many people so riled up? Of course, it’s only religion that insists this cannot and must not be true. We’re told over and over that our bodies and our feelings are not just sinful, but — in the words of one holy book — an attack on God. This is an overt way to say something that’s usually distributed in background-level toxic doses. I would say that it’s time for you to question this doctrine, but the question has probably been brewing for a while. That brew is coming to a boil; one of many signs that your body temperature, and emotional temperature, will be running a few degrees hotter the next few years. It’s essential that you invest your passion in tangible desires. You cannot capture lightning in a bottle, though you can invest your motivation into what is the most meaningful — that is, into those people and experiences you’ve wanted for a long time. While you’re at it, make friends with sex every chance you get. Think of it as the hearth at the center of your home.

 

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Saturn is oh so slowly working its way toward Sagittarius. This may be coming with the feeling, “When will the past finally be over?” Well, this is perhaps the most complex psychological issue that humans must engage, if they want to actually exist with the full power of their minds, their creativity, their ability to choose. We could start with the last on that list, choice. Pick a decision that you’re having difficulty making, or sticking to. Then be brutally honest and map out all the little hang-ups that are getting in your way. The more ridiculous they are, the better — various potential consequences, fear of how others will respond, what you might get entangled in, whatever phobias you might have of being yourself, and so on. What are these concepts connected to? If you put that out in plain language, you will get a snapshot of your relationship to the past. One thing that Saturn in Sagittarius will ensure is that you deepen your relationship to yourself. That deepening will take you into the place inhabited by your ancestors, where you will get to confront them and your relationship to them. Remember, you don’t owe them anything, and whoever you thought they were, they are now ascended masters who want to see you live the way you choose to live and no less.

 

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You seem to have put certain relationship matters on hold, or to be proceeding on a wait-and-see basis. Whatever is revealed this week, as Venus stations direct in your opposite sign Leo, you might well be done waiting and ready to start seeing. So what do you see? Who do you see? Look carefully and better still, listen attentively. The one matter you may be ready to fully engage or indeed confront is what happens to your autonomy when you enter into a close relationship with someone else. You are long past the time when you can give up your individuality and personal volition for the sake of companionship. It’s likely you would rather be ‘alone’ than give up who you really are, what you really want to do, or to have to shut down some aspect of yourself. For you, the thing to do is stay open and available at the same time you exchange love and affirmation with others. The story of your life for the next two years of Saturn in Sagittarius is to stand in your own personal space of who you are. Easier said than done, but easier done than not done.

 

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — There’s plenty of you to go around. Your sign represents the ocean and the cosmic ocean. Currently Pisces is home to sea-god Neptune and master healer and mentor Chiron. And Jupiter, the classical planet associated with Pisces, is in your relationship sign Virgo. That means: take initiative. Offer what you have. Be bold about this, and consider every proposal that involves someone else to be an offering of yourself. Many factors suggest that you are the activating agency in your environment. You supply the fertilizing power, the water to sprout the seeds, the creative liquid that melts the paint and inspires movement and exploration. It is therefore essential that you be bolder than you might ordinarily be — that you be the one to start the conversation, to make the offer. Start the project, make the call, get the canvases out of the closet, tune the instrument, charge the camera battery, clean out your car and get ready to go someplace. Every influence in your chart is saying it’s time to live and to live well. This is what I’m talking about.