Tag Archives: Patric Walker

Cosmic Confidential: My Life as a Horoscope Writer

Time exposure of the ancient stadium on the acropolis of Rhodes, the Greek island where British horoscope master Patric Walker lived much of the year. According to Sally Brompton, who once got the assignment, he would send his students there to commune with the gods. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Horoscopes are a writing form that’s close to my heart for two reasons. One is that reading the Patric Walker column in The New York Post in the early 1990s was the first demonstration to me of how relevant astrology could be. I knew astrology existed, and I knew astrologers, but I did not see the point of doing it. Patric’s daily column, nested in with Jumble on the Post’s comic page, was not merely accurate; he offered some of the most sage insights I’ve ever heard from an astrologer, to the present day.

One day in 1994 I could no longer stand the mystery of how he did it, so I ventured to figure it out. Using an ephemeris (to look up the positions of the planets) and a deck of Crowley tarot cards (to illustrate the energies), I camped out in my then-girlfriend Hilary’s bed and cracked the codes not just of writing astrology columns, but also into the top level of an industry where very few people ever get — writing horoscopes for the London tabloids.

The Chironian, an abandoned mine nice enough to live in, once part of the Norton Cement Works, where I did many rituals and spent hours communing with the deep Earth and its elemental spirits during the spring and summer of 1995. Photo by Eric Francis.

Horoscope writing in England is another world compared to the United States. Instead of syndicated columns, every major newspaper has its own horoscope writer, who becomes one of the voices of that publication.

Jonathan Cainer is one of the best-known horoscope writers in England, and many years ago he adopted me as his vacation stand-in. For four years I got a taste of the big time, even writing in some of the same newspapers where Patric Walker had appeared. It was quite a trip having millions of readers of newspapers in Australia, England and Europe, and worldwide on the Internet. It was clearly Jonathan who put me on the larger map; he has always had a thing for making sure people discovered younger astrology talent. I met Jonathan with the help of my old friend William Lilly (1602-1681), but that is another story.

Many ‘proper’ astrologers look down on newspaper horoscopes for a variety of reasons, and some go so far as to say that they are destroying the image of what is otherwise a legitimate profession. My take is that with astrology, interpretation is where the tires meet the highway, especially when it’s raining. The horoscope column is an example of just that — an interpretation designed to be relevant to a person, right then, right when they seek it out. People need astrology to offer them an idea, a strategy or some reassurance. If astrology cannot do that, what good is it?

Horoscopes are also my literary love because when I started writing them, I was looking for a way to do journalism that was more relevant than what I was doing at the time, which was investigative reporting on fraud cases involving toxins and very large corporations.

No matter how accurate or damning my investigative articles were, they did not seem to be making contact with the people who needed the information the most. It occurred to me that a well-written horoscope could be a way to make contact with the softer side of humanity, and a place to move information you might not see anywhere else, certainly not in a newspaper.

House on Binnewater Lane in Keators Corners, Rosendale, New York (on the site of the former Norton Cement Works) where I wrote my first horoscope column (upstairs on the right) in April 1995.

It was Patric, a venerated British astrologer, whose writing taught me the rudiments of astrology and set up the model I use to translate from the chart to the message I offer you. And it was from Patric that I learned that a horoscope must be written to an individual, not to a group. You don’t write to all the Geminis who are reading — you write that horoscope to the one who is reading.

That takes confidence, and an experienced writing voice, and it also builds the confidence of the reader. The horoscope is part of an ongoing relationship between a reader and an astrologer. It’s a meeting place and a space to share ideas. I intend for mine to be relevant even if a person reading does not believe in astrology. All writing, I believe, must stand on its own merits.

This week’s edition comes with Planet Waves Weekly #1000. The number on top of each Friday horoscope is a sequence number, so that we can tell the columns apart (we also identify them by the first few words of Aries). When I hired Jessica Keet to serve as my horoscope coordinator and proofreader in 2004, I made an estimate and started the sequence at #531. Arriving at 1000 is not an absolute count, but it’s close and probably an underestimate.

Since I started my column in 1995 — as The Navigator, first appearing in Free Time magazine in Poughkeepsie, New York — I’ve written in daily, weekly, twice-monthly, monthly, quarterly and numerous different annual formats. I’ve written my column in many regions of the United States, as well as in Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Sicily and Spain (and on many trains and airplanes on the way to those places).

Shortly before I started writing horoscopes, someone named Laurie Burnett (who I met through a classified ad in The Mountain Astrologer) suggested that I look into something called Chiron, a newly discovered planet. She also suggested that I spend some time with a book called Esoteric Astrology. One day she mailed me her tattered copy, minus its cover, and slowly I started to dip into its at-first strange concepts. While I was living in Germany in 1998, I got my own copy and studied it cover to cover in preparation for writing this article, about the 1999 grand cross and total solar eclipse.

Planet Waves appears in one of its many incarnations as the Destiny horoscope, in the leading British magazine “Woman.” The thought of the week is about how the Full Moon will favor psychics, night owls and cats.

As for Chiron. When I started to go deeper into my study of astrology, using a diversity of classic texts by people like Isabel Hickey, Rob Hand and the writing team of Louis Acker and Frances Sakoian, I knew that astrology was not making sense presented in textbook format. Memorizing (for example) the different values of placements like Venus through the signs was not giving me any sense of the whole.

Then I started reading about Chiron and halfway through my first book, all of astrology made sense in a new way — an integrated way. This went beyond the conceptual right to a direct connection with astrology as it works. Astrology, as anyone who has studied it knows, can be an intellectual morass. The concepts need to be sorted out and understood, but ultimately interpreting the aspects is an intuitive art, like composing music.

As I studied Chiron, I knew I was in the domain of new planet research, on the cusp of a new era. I devised a way to work with my clients — by asking them about their past Chiron transits, rather than immediately telling them what their chart supposedly meant. This revealed how transits work in the context of a person’s life, and how a person’s chart unfolds and reveals its layers through experience, over time. Then I would read the chart.

When I was living in Germany in 1998, I learned that there were a diversity of other newly discovered planets, including Pholus, Nessus and 1992 QB1, and I began looking into those. That process put me in touch with Chiron pioneer Melanie Reinhart, who I adopted as a mentor. I also met and studied with Robert von Heeren, co-author of the only book on Pholus.

From early on, I was curious about the asteroids, so I started reading books by Martha Lang-Wescott. I contacted her and adopted her as a mentor. I have a lot of Chiron in my chart, and mentorship is one of its key themes. As I identified competent astrologers, I would make contact with them and found them to be generous with their knowledge, among them Rob Hand, David Arner, David Solte, David Roell (a lot of Davids), Dale O’Brien and others. I never took a formal course of study; I just made a habit of finding people I thought had something going on and engaged them in a dialog, often lasting years.

Planet Waves appears in The Daily Mirror of May 4, 2004, standing in for British horoscope writer Jonathan Cainer. It’s really been 10 years?

The Planet Waves horoscope became a fusion of horoscope writing in the classical British style, as well as a forum to bring in what I was learning about the minor planets and from my experiences working with clients. I have incorporated everything I learned from my therapist Joseph Trusso.

Part of what makes my column distinctive is that I apply many details of what I have learned from observing my clients’ transits, as well as what I learned in therapy and in spiritual practice and training.

That most horoscopes aren’t so helpful is not the fault of the horoscope format itself. Those who write them need to have trust in what they’re doing, plus a vision and a sense of mission — otherwise the whole thing falls flat. But when it works, it works brilliantly, and I think the potential of the horoscope column is vastly underdeveloped. As I have said and will keep saying, the astrological profession needs to take this seriously, horoscope writing needs to be taught at conferences, and the very best horoscope writers need to be put forward into the most visible positions — because they are the ambassadors of astrology to the widest public available.

The Internet has made it much easier for people to start a horoscope column; all you need is a blog. If this field is brimming with talent, I have not encountered it yet and would be grateful to be introduced to those who my readers consider the better writers.

Yet thanks to the Internet, we have more space to work. The format of the Planet Waves horoscope I offer you here is not constrained by an absolute word count. A printed horoscope column of 1,200 words or 100 words per sign is considered long. In this format I take up to 180 words per sign if necessary, longer for the monthly. This gives me the space to develop more complex themes.

A Personal Form of Journalism

When I say that I consider my horoscope a form of journalism I really mean it. For one thing, it started in newspapers, so it’s journalism by default. I started in newspapers as well. I came to the work with many years of experience writing about issues that are extremely difficult to explain and even more difficult to show as relevant.

The Underground Astrologer, an early incarnation of Planet Waves, which was distributed in cafes around the Hudson Valley of New York. Even in this early form, the column has the essay plus horoscope format. This seems to be from February 1996, right before being picked up by Chronogram magazine, where I’ve been publishing continuously 17 years.

The horoscope is a space where I can apply anything I’ve learned and synthesize it with the unique, immediately occurring positions of the planets, and get the news out fast. It’s a mode of journalism that is actually relevant to the people who are reading it.

That’s a cool invention — a way to deliver up-to-the-day psychological and spiritual information, packaged as a form of inner news. I have often joked that the horoscope is the most accurate part of a newspaper. What I did was start from the horoscope and reinvent the whole concept of news.

One quality of the Planet Waves horoscope is that wherever I can arrange it, it appears with a news and astrology commentary column — that’s the bit you’re reading now. Not everyplace can accommodate this, but I negotiate it where I can. I consider the accompanying article to be an essential complement to the horoscope because it grants wider context and the ability to take subjects in-depth. It also reveals something that many people don’t know about — how astrology can be used as a way to observe, analyze and reflect on world events, on the movement of history and how we as individuals are involved in things much larger than ourselves.

The point of view of the horoscope column is distinctly personal. It must be written in a way that bypasses political prejudices and spiritual beliefs. It must address people who are having an awesome day and be sensitive enough to reach those who are having a horrible day. This is a fine line to walk, and it obviously precludes being either overly optimistic or in any way pessimistic in my horoscopes. Yet they still must convey a feeling of advocacy and demonstrate a measure of understanding. I recognize this not an easy form of writing to teach, though I believe it can be done.

The article that accompanies the horoscope is designed to take a wider scope, and to venture into controversial territory when necessary. Yet when I write about the news in this format, that too is kept to a scale where it’s personally relevant. The great failing of the news as we know it is that for the most part, it’s irrelevant. It may have impact; some events are too vast or tragic not to feel. Yet it almost always lacks actual meaning in an individual person’s life.

So with the Planet Waves column, I turn the news inside out and strive to show the connection. Astrology happens fast and news happens fast, and it’s possible to combine them in a way that’s both exciting and that teaches us all something about the world, about ourselves and about how the planets describe human affairs.

I work with the common ground that people share with major events and newsmakers — we all have the same planets in our charts. We are all in some way synchronized with the cosmos, even if that experience is rough at times. I believe that using astrology can help smooth the way, and at least can provide some meaning where it might have been lacking before.

A few years ago, an old book fell into my lap. It’s a first edition copy of The Astrology of Personality by Dane Rudhyar, published in 1936. Rudhyar, by the way, is considered the inventor of the 12-sign horoscope column. Alice A. Bailey, who would later write Esoteric Astrology, suggested that Rudhyar write the book, and for that reason he dedicated it to her. By some miracle, I was given the presentation copy that he signed to her, dedicating it to her a second time, this time in his own handwriting on the title page.

Bailey made the book her own with a large pencil signature on the front inside cover, and by affixing the Lucis Trust Lending Library plate on the front endpaper. Reading the book, I have to remind myself that the impeccably neat pencil underscores may be those of Bailey herself. The very first one, on page 7, highlights this quote:

“What the ordinary astrologer offers to our present generation is not only far from coming up to the mental level of the intelligent thinker; it is moreover, often decidedly nefarious and psychologically disintegrating. The living astrology of all times can, however, be said to have a basic keynote: integration. And we claim that any astrology which does not bring a man a message of integration is an adulteration and a perversion of true astrology.”

The last Patric Walker daily horoscope for Pisces, for Sunday, Nov. 12, 1995. I never figured out the Saturday horoscope, but Pluto changed signs overnight and his Sunday horoscope was the first with Pluto in Sagittarius to stay; he had the right idea.

Well now…way to sum up the intention I put into my life’s work. The chapter on the history of astrology closes with this passage, which I will share with you in full.

“Astrology must be reborn to perform again for our modern world, made chaotic by an unbridled and false individualism and by the sudden opening of psychological dams, the task of practical integration which has always been its own. Wherever the correlated motions of Sun, Moon, planets and stars are used to bring order into the confusion of our everyday world — there is astrology.

“The type and range of the phenomena of nature which astrology correlates, interprets and makes significant in terms of a cosmic principle of Order, change age after age. At first they were physiological and elemental. Now they are to be essentially psychological and mental. But the fundamental work of astrology remains the same. It is to reveal the ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ at whatever level man’s consciousness is centered. It is to carry the symbol of Order wherever man finds chaos. In modern terminology, it is the algebra of life.”

It’s funny, I have always thought of writing the horoscopes as calculus, solving the equation of the aspects in some life-affirming form. I look at the planetary pattern, align my chart for the reader of a particular sign, and work out the psychological mathematics in a way that I think is useful and motivating. It’s a lot of fun — and every time I write, I get to look at the world equally from 12 different points of view, the perfect game for a Pisces.

In that spirit, here’s to the next 1,000 horoscopes.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Moreno, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

Mercury trine Nessus: Listening to Humanity

Mercury has ingressed the sign Cancer, and today is forming a trine (120-degree contact) to Nessus, the third-discovered centaur planet, newly arrived in Pisces. Nessus describes the cyclical unfolding of events, and of making personal choices to intervene in what seems like karma.

Said simply (borrowing from Melanie Reinhart), Nessus is about how the buck stops here — meaning with you. (The buck in this expression is not a dollar, but rather a buck horn traditionally used in poker games.) When someone gets the buck horn, they must deal the cards — or they can “pass the buck” and not deal.

Heracles shoots the centaur Nessus, painted by Jules-Elie Delaunay (1828-1891). There are certain inaccuracies in this painting; I’ve read that Nessus is described as having a much darker skin tone.

So the buck stopping means you get the opportunity to deal — with your own personal material, in a direct way. This is a kind of personal intervention; you take hold of an issue that is troubling you, and accept the responsibility to address the material, for yourself, not by blaming anyone, but by seeking understanding.

Understanding the lines of responsibility and of accountability is necessary — and that is different from blame.

You don’t pass your pain along (for example, to your child or another younger relative). You take the opportunity to stop the cycle of abuse, knowing that one convenient option for victims is to become abusers. When we talk about the “cycle of abuse” this is exactly what we’re talking about, and the thing that needs to be stopped.

Where Mercury is involved, that means cultivating inner honesty and communicating, using I-statements, about the ways in which you have been hurt, betrayed or been in any way involved in hurt and betrayal. Nessus goes deep (as do all the centaurs), so this may reference the most serious things that have happened to you and, by extension, to relatives whose lives have impacted you.

Mercury is making an usual pattern of movement; it will station retrograde right in those early degrees of Cancer. It spends a total of 19 days there, in a water trine to Nessus. In the process, Mercury stations retrograde on June 7, which you can think of as a profound opportunity for introspection and self-honesty.

Those fleeting opportunities to say what has been troubling you are now slowing down to a degree where it’s possible to look, to feel, to hear and to see. What is most interesting is that Mercury stations in early Cancer — in a close aspect to what is called the Aries Point. This is a mysterious degree of the zodiac where personal material intersects with collective material.

When we speak from Mercury in Cancer trine Nessus, we are speaking from a common place, and when we listen, we are listening to humanity. The implication is that you are part of humanity, sharing a common experience with everyone around you. And when we do actually listen, I believe we will discover something that’s been discovered many times before — that we have far more in common than we recognize.

The fine print: “I used the first 5,000 words for 7 of Shakespeare’s works: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, As You Like It, Winter’s Tale, and Troilus and Cressida. For Melville, I used the first 35,000 words of Moby Dick. All lyrics are provided by Rap Genius, but are only current to 2012. My lack of recent data prevented me from using quite a few current artists.” Graph and data by Matt Daniels.

A Shout-out to All the Word Lovers in the House

With the Sun in Gemini, words and wordplay are a featured theme, though not everyone who says a lot really has much to say, or uses much of a vocabulary to say it. Data scientist and graphic designer Matt Daniels decided to chart the vocab depth of hip-hop artists — with some surprising results.

“Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, he uses 28,829 words, suggesting he knew over 100,000 words and arguably had the largest vocabulary, ever,” writes Daniels. “I decided to compare this data point against the most famous artists in hip hop. I used each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. That way, prolific artists, such as Jay-Z, could be compared to newer artists, such as Drake.”

Both the Bard and Moby Dick scored higher than most, with a good 20 rappers on par with them in terms of unique word use. Although as Robert T. Gonzalez points out at io9, “vocabulary is clearly an inadequate metric for success, profundity or impact.” Yet nobody — not even Shakespeare or Melville — could touch a rapper who’s taken his name from another great from classical literature: Aesop Rock. He was born June 5, 1976, making him (of course) a Gemini.

Gemini New Moon, the Isla Vista Incident, Planet Waves Horoscope 1000 and a Shout-Out to Bob Dylan

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I cover the Gemini New Moon square Neptune. This is quite an aspect pattern, involving the asteroid Apollo in Virgo. I do the chart of the Isla Vista shooting from Friday night and comment on the toxic combination of advertising images, anti-depressants, hero-worship, guns and alienation. After a song break by Suzanne Vega, I talk about the desire to go beyond alienation that led to my becoming an astrologer, and read some thoughts of Dane Rudhyar, published in 1936. Finally I give a shout-out to Bob Dylan and acknowledge him for the turn of phrase after which Planet Waves is named.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published Friday, May 23. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for June Tuesday, May 27. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 30, 2014, #1000 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Look carefully at what demands your relationships seem to make on you. For example, consider what you’re expected to sacrifice, or what you think you have to give up, especially if it involves an element of your identity. Consider the ways in which your affiliation with another person demands that you compromise your sense of right and wrong. Recent, subtle shifts in your astrology indicate that what is normally difficult to see is now easier to perceive. What has evolved is that you can feel your own values more clearly; you know what you hold dear, whether it’s an idea, a way of life or an approach to love. Once you have that context, it’s much easier to see the ways that what others say and do violates your sensibilities. Clinging to your values in the face of adversity is one thing; living them boldly is another — and now is the time to make, and act on, that distinction.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Venus has returned to your birth sign, another way of saying that you’re getting a boost of confidence in understanding a matter of commitment that may have been testing your endurance. Commitment is not a competition, though it’s often presented that way. Controlling another person is not a precondition of being committed to them, though that’s a narrative that we are often conned into believing. In the life of every conscious person there comes that moment when they discover they must adopt different relationship values from the ones they got from their parents, and for you this time seems to have arrived. Fortunately, you know more than your parents did, you have more options, and you’re very likely to be more self-aware. What has not changed is the ongoing influence of peer pressure to make stupid decisions. Don’t fall for it.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The recent New Moon in your birth sign has demonstrated how good it feels to act in unison with yourself — mind and body, heart and soul. Your solar charts describe mighty goals, and state that you have a vision for yourself that’s becoming clearer every day. It will take strength and focus to meet those goals, and that begins and ends with being in harmony with yourself. Most of us are taught to fight ourselves. Simone de Beauvoir in her masterpiece The Second Sex described how women are raised to spend so much time in conflict with themselves that they have little time to rise to the challenges of the world. Wilhelm Reich described the plight of the “little man,” the man who is conditioned to feel small, worthless and powerless, and is therefore weak and miserable. So it seems that everyone is in the same boat. To rise up and meet the challenges of creativity and career, you must be aligned with yourself, and get over any delusion of littleness. You would do well to have these things be your first goal, every day of the week, for every decision you make.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If you have something to say, particularly to an intimate partner, family member or therapist, this is the time to say it. Humanity in its current state has plenty that it bottles up, and after a while, these secrets come to define us; they shape who and what a person is. For the next couple of weeks, you may have a rare perspective on how this process works for you, and you can actually do something about it. That something begins with tapping your body-knowledge, then translating that into words — no matter how imprecisely they may seem to describe your situation. You must start somewhere, and that means opening up to yourself. As you do, information will come through from your dreams, which will serve as a healing modality on its own and help you put matters into context. Then at a certain point, sooner rather than later, you will have the option to initiate conversations with one or two people with whom it’s absolutely necessary. That will open up other possibilities; one step at a time.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You need to get out more — and not just for social purposes, but also for business purposes. You can walk the line between them just fine and have fun in any event, though it’s clear that you need a wider conversation than you normally get to have. This will serve two purposes — one is that you’ll be able to consider more diverse points of view, which I suggest you instigate by engaging people in conversation. Second is that you will get to overcome certain insecurities that have become more noticeable in the past year or so. What seems to be happening is that your viewpoint is being confined to a smaller place, thus, it cannot stretch out like it might otherwise. When you do get out and among others, make sure you converse with people about anything and everything, no matter how weird, questionably appropriate or taboo. Listen to what others say about their existence and you will learn a lot about yours.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — If you have to solve the same problem repeatedly, you’re not really solving it. If you figure something out and come up with the same solution again and again, you’re probably not taking action. This week’s New Moon in your 10th house of achievement is an invitation to do things differently. That means setting new goals, and approaching them with different strategies. The upcoming Mercury retrograde is calling on you to take a more intuitive approach to what you do, rather than a logical one. I don’t mean an emotional approach, though at this point there is no denying what you’re feeling; there is no denying what you want or what you need. Intuition is gentler, quieter and contains more specific information than most other forms of inner contact. It may contain a caution but rarely contains actual fear. So if you’re feeling fear, I suggest you look into what that’s about. Your solar chart suggests you ask yourself about the fear of going deep. Since you want to go deep, you’ll have to confront that issue.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You have all kinds of plans, you’ve been unusually decisive and yet you may be wondering how much progress you’ve made the past month or so. The real marker of progress is your direction of movement, not how far you’ve come. Look for evidence that you’re more committed to what you’re doing. Look at what you’ve let go of that was not working for you. Consider the extent to which you express the value you hold for the important people and situations in your life. Notice whether you show up someplace significant, and how you feel when you do. Do you feel more confident than you have in the past? Your astrology describes you as internalizing or dialing-in personality features that are not typical to what you’ve done in the past. So this may be a tentative kind of confidence, like what you might feel when you’re in an unfamiliar place yet still know you have the experience and maturity to handle anything that might turn up.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — What happens when you get what you want is always an interesting reality check. Not everyone is happy about it. Not everyone is comfortable. Some people are thrilled and others are resentful. Some feel entitled and some feel guilty. Some want more, and some are eager to share. So, I would put the question to you — how do you feel when you get what you ask for? Next level or layer, how do you feel honestly wanting who or what you want? How do you feel when you notice or see whomever or whatever that is? Some people feel control, some feel greed, some feel desire, some feel appreciation, some feel a focusing of their intent. Your astrology calls for careful reflection on your responses to who or whatever you may desire, inquiring deeper than you might ordinarily go, noticing things subtler than you might usually observe. Pay particular attention to fear that may arise, in any of its many forms.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — For a little while, consider everything a potential message from the gods. You’re philosophical, curious and adventurous enough to do this. Listen carefully to what people say, and imagine for a moment that it’s a direct revelation of truth. Observe the visual world around you for symbols that have personal or universal meaning. This isn’t because everything you see is indeed a divine message (though the case could be made that it is, from a metaphysical standpoint). Rather, I suggest you do everything you can to keep your mind open to the cosmos. If you do, you’ll notice things that you might not have noticed had you considered everything simply to be average, ordinary stuff as most people will perceive it to be. Notice, in particular, the quest, desire or struggle for the people to orient on healing. Listen to what they say and notice the choices they make, no matter how small or meager they may seem. Notice that value taking hold anywhere around you — anywhere at all.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — If you are trying to sort out the difference between self-esteem and narcissism, I have a clue for you. I know that these two ideas are often confused or conflated, and that’s a problem. It’s necessary to center one’s life on oneself, but there are many ways to do that. One way to distinguish them is to notice whether you’re interested in other people for their sake rather than for your own. The problem with narcissism is that it really does not care — either what happens to others, or how others actually feel about them. There is a kind of chilly emotional detachment to narcissism, and that is what makes it such a problem. If you care, show that you do. Don’t play it cool; be real. Say it in words and demonstrate it in deeds. Allow yourself to be part of someone else’s existence in a real way. This calls for vulnerability, the real thing. Now, if you happen to discover that you don’t really care so much? You can start by inquiring as to how that came to be. Once again it comes back to vulnerability.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — There’s a direct relationship between insecurity that has its root in a sense of being injured, and the potential to be an equal partner to others. The two ideas mirror one another. If you have some sense of yourself as injured, then the idea that you could be someone’s equal will seem to lack any credibility. It might even be too frightening to consider. The sensation may be, if I am actually met on level ground, then this person may see through me. They may see what I’m struggling with. They may figure out how hurt I feel. Now, all of this is an idea. There is not the perfect, independent person, and anyway if you ever meet one, they would know the path that it took to get there. Part of being an equal partner involves having a healthy relationship to the plight and the quest of being human, which these days is pretty challenging. That is the level ground — it’s not about perfect people getting together to be perfect, or injured people getting together to be injured. And this level ground — well, it starts inside of you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — When I sat down at my desk in April 1995 to write the first Planet Waves horoscope, I don’t think I could have imagined writing my 1,000th column. Yet here we are, nearly 20 years later, and I am grateful for that. Being a horoscope writer is mysterious enough perceived from the outside. From the inside, it’s the experience of getting to write to you — and that means ongoing introspection. The beauty of writing horoscopes is that to do so, I must carefully consider every aspect pattern I write about from 12 distinct points of view, and write both to and from that perspective. I would not want to be a horoscope writer were I not a Pisces, because Pisces is the ultimate sign of ‘shape shift and see things from 12 points of view’. That kind of holistic viewpoint is one essence of Pisces, and of Chiron in Pisces, and if you step fully into that perspective you will see the world in a way that few people can see. I believe that is a gift, given for a purpose, and in Pisces fashion, intended to serve the greatest good for all concerned.

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Stars of October: You Go On

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October / And Kingdoms rise
And Kingdoms fall / But you go on…and on…
— Bono

Dear Friend and Reader:

This is a clip-and-save edition of Planet Waves, containing vital information that will influence your life between now and mid-December. This is a time when astrology matters. Please mark important dates in your calendar. Saturday is the Full Moon, which I’ve covered already (in Tuesday’s edition). This is a big Full Moon — the full expression of the 2012 aspect, and a planetary setup to handle with awareness and a measure of caution.

Star sculpture on playa floor at Burning Man 2012, with the just-past-full Moon in the background. Photo by Amanda Painter.

As you’ve no doubt read, we are in the middle of an historic aspect, Uranus square Pluto. When the more immediate astrology highlights something big (but which is usually in the background), energy, events and ideas previously lurking behind the scenes can emerge into the foreground. The Sun and Moon make the Uranus-Pluto square into a personal event.

Taken in the highest possible light, it’s about creative breakthroughs, awakenings and moving along (or even resolving) situations that have seemed stuck — even for years. Yet many people will be experiencing this event as destabilizing, unpredictable and even a bit frantic. All the usual Full Moon recommendations apply, but redouble the ‘think before you act’ part. Expect the unexpected and remember that awareness and flexibility are your best friends.

Developments of October

The world is watching these last weeks of the presidential election in the United States. Our globe is now global; events that happen in one country can and do influence developments in many other parts of the world. October will be an interesting, somewhat strange month in the ‘international’ department, though each and every development has personal implications. In the event you’re considering international travel in October or November, I suggest you plan carefully and check in with an experienced, qualified astrologer before making your plans.

This is one of those months that begins one way and ends another. You can make all of these changes work for you, as long as you’re aware of the energies involved, and you’re ready to adapt. We all have things in our lives that we want to change — know what that means for you. Look for your opportunities, and if you don’t see them, create them.

On Oct. 5, Saturn changes signs from Libra to Scorpio. The Saturn in Libra phase goes back an unusual three years, to October 2009 (Saturn took its time transitioning out of Virgo). Saturn is now leaving a sign where it’s well suited (Libra, where it is exalted), and entering a sign that it has little in common with — Scorpio. Yet there are many other planets in the water signs right now, and I think that while Saturn may be challenging, it will offer some stability, and it emphasizes the theme of emotional maturity that all of the water signs are resonating with.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Mars also changes signs, from Scorpio to Sagittarius, just as Saturn changes signs. So this is a significant shift in the climate, involving two planets that people tend to have the most difficulty with — the one about expressing desire and energy (Mars) and the one about handling authority (Saturn). I also recommend being cautious and alert in all matters involving international travel and international business while Mars is in Sagittarius. It’s not strictly a red light but definitely a yellow light.

One thing about Mars is that in entering Sagittarius, it immediately squares Neptune in Pisces. Aspects from Mars to Neptune (especially the conjunction, square and opposition) require temperance, mindfulness, moderation and most of all, keeping self-destructive and also escapist tendencies under control. Monitor your consumption of alcohol and any drugs that change your mind. Keep them far away from important decisions, negotiations and discussions about emotional and sexual matters.

The problem is that most people tend to open up under the influence of alcohol. That would be fine, except for the ways in which it bends judgment and distorts emotions. Mars square Neptune is not naturally given to integrity and honesty — it’s one of those things that you have to work for, under that influence.

Mercury Retrograde: Real Span is Oct. 18-Dec. 14.

Finally, we are approaching a Mercury retrograde. This one starts in Sagittarius on Nov. 6 (which is Election Day in the United States, covered in this article).

However, its influence reaches into mid-October and extends out to mid-December, so I’m mentioning it now. That will be good for an adventure or two; I suggest you plan around this one, and know in advance that it’s a good idea to put off major purchases, signing contracts and new commitments of any kind under this astrology. Yes, this is astrology 101 but you would be surprised how much grief I have saved my clients by helping them steer clear of the standing wave, undertow and shifting wind known as Mercury retrograde.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

The retrograde process begins when Mercury enters shadow phase on Oct. 18. This is Mercury entering the degrees where it will be retrograde in just a short while.

Mercury stations retrograde in early Sagittarius on Nov. 6. Mercury stations direct in mid-Scorpio on Nov. 26. Mercury then crawls along through the end of Scorpio, ingresses Sagittarius again and then leaves shadow phase on Dec. 14. That is your ‘all clear’ signal. If you’re feeling rushed about anything during this process, the chances are it can wait.

Mercury will make three squares to Neptune in the midst of all of this (Oct. 29, Nov. 13 and Dec. 11) and this aspect can be challenging to get a handle on. It will require extra discernment, focusing your mind, and striving for honesty. Factor in the interests of everyone concerned, even if you plan to make a decision that only benefits yourself; Mercury square Neptune is a reminder to consider whether there even is such a thing as ‘separate interests’.

Many other aspects say essentially the same thing — so please take this one to heart.

Lovingly,

Note to Libra and Libra rising readers — your birthday reading for 2012-2013 is ready. Please check this link for more information.

Voter Rights Watch 2012: Targeting Latinos

Through this year, one of the most prominent election stories has been the restriction of voter rights to tip the election. Twenty-three states have passed laws that could restrict or deny the right to vote to 10 million Latinos — a number that could affect the outcome of the entire election — according to The Advancement Project, a civil rights organization.

Don’t miss The Onion’s special feature on the 600-levered, steam powered voting machine that sums up the voting issues in the election of 2012.

The wave of restrictive new voting laws threatens to crash on voters in 16 states that have adopted or are considering voter purges. Most of these target people suspected of not being citizens, plus nine states have new voter ID laws (and two more are considering them). The laws stipulate documentation procedures many people lack the time and/or money to carry out; many are equivalent to poll taxes — that is, making people pay to vote.

Federal protections against noncitizens registering to vote, already in place for ages now, have generally rendered extra measures unnecessary — hence the prevailing view that these new laws aim to disembowel democracy, not encourage involvement.

Democracy Now! reports that in swing states Nevada, Colorado and Florida, where Obama receives tremendously more support from Latinos over Romney, the undertow from these laws could mean sinking rather than swimming for Pres. Obama — and indicates yet another area where Mercury stationing retrograde on Election Day could cloud the waters.

We’ve been warning that Mercury stations retrograde on Election Day. This might have the effect of many seemingly smaller issues coming together and making a large problem. We’ll be following this story.

Monsanto’s GMO Corn? Nyet!

The French study linking Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO corn to increased rates of cancer and organ failure in rats (covered by Planet Waves last week) has prompted Russia to ban the stuff outright. The news broke just as Ceres, named for the goddess of agriculture, entered the sign Cancer, associated with agriculture, the digestive system and its connection to the emotions — thereby engaging the political/personal power of the Aries Point.

Photo by Achim Raschka/Wikimedia.

Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog group, has said the country’s Institute of Nutrition has been asked to assess the validity of the study.

In addition, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has ordered its own review of the research, which is noted for following rats for their entire two-year lifespan, rather than the 90 days common in industry studies. GMO corn is not available for human consumption in Europe, but is used for animal feed.

Monsanto is confident the French study will not impede its take-over of European agriculture; however a number of independent scientists are praising its extensiveness, even though its results must be replicated and confirmed.

“The results are significant,” said Mustafa Djamgoz, the Professor of Cancer Biology at Imperial College, London, who describes himself as a neutral on GMO. “The experiments are, more or less, the best of their kind to date.”

It remains to be seen whether other countries follow Russia’s lead, which might cause an actual dent in sales and international credibility for Monsanto. Meanwhile, France says it will continue to uphold its own ban on GMO crops, and a group in New York City is holding a fundraiser Oct. 1 to help support California’s Proposition 37, which is seeking to label GMO foods in supermarkets. The initiative is up against heavy spending by several corporations, including Monsanto. If you’re in New York, you can get more info and buy a ticket here for the event.

“Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.”

When Cindy Gallop, a chic, British-born 52-year-old ad exec (now Web entrepreneur) living in Manhattan decided to test the online dating website her firm was pitching, she had no idea it would change her life — or that it would put her in a position to become a sex educator. Of sorts.

At the time, nearly a decade ago, she was delighted to find young men attracted to her — but not so delighted to find many of their moves were taken straight from the scripted, often-bizarre and highly one-sided world of hardcore pornography.

In 2009 she left her TED talk audience all a-twitter, revealing that abstinence-only sex ‘education’ meant easy-to-access Internet porn was the only source of information for many young people, resulting in insecurities, unrealistic expectations and disappointments; stunting sexual communication; and cutting a whole generation off from fulfilling, loving and genuinely hot sex (whether kinky or vanilla).

Gallop’s solution? To establish the website MakeLoveNotPorn.com, which attempts to compare the “porn world” with the “real world” of sex. (The testimonials from 20-somethings on the “About” page are poignant in their gratitude for Gallop’s mission.)

“The issue I’m tackling is not porn,” she explains. “It’s the complete lack of open, healthy dialogue around porn and sex.”

Now, Gallop is taking it to video. Still in an invitation-only beta testing phase (you can sign up to be invited!), the premise of MakeLoveNotPorn.tv is that real people send in videos of themselves having real sex with a $5 submission fee. Then viewers pay $5 to ‘rent’ a video for three weeks of unlimited viewing, with up to half that fee going back to the person who submitted the video. It’s part sex ed and part sex toy, using social media and a cheeky, DIY-style business attitude to make the world a happier, sexier, more authentic place.

“It’s not about performing for the camera,” Gallop adds. “We’re looking for the comical, the messy, the ridiculous. We’re looking for the real.”

She has made the personal political in a positive way. With much of the Aries Point action lately having to do with trying to suppress women and sex, astrologically this is like finally finding a partner who understands foreplay. And likes it.

An iPhone a Day Keeps the Riots Away?

About 2,000 Chinese employees at a factory in Taiyuan that makes iPhones rioted early Monday, resulting in 40 taken to the hospital and a number arrested after 5,000 police were sent to end the brawl. Occurring just three days after Apple finally made its highly anticipated iPhone 5 available for purchase, Foxconn Technology Group, the plant’s Taiwanese owner, called the violence a personal disagreement fueled by regional tensions in a dormitory.

Contrary to the official story, employees and their friends have posted messages online that suggest the fighting was spurred by security guards beating a worker nearly to death.

“Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released,” Geoff Crothall, communication director at China Labour Bulletin, a labor rights group in Hong Kong, said in a statement. “There is no dialogue and no means of resolving disputes, no matter how minor. So it is not surprising when such disputes escalate into violence.”

This is not the first time that Foxconn, which also makes components for other electronics companies, has been cited for poor working conditions and mistreatment, though reportedly they have been working to improve conditions and wages. Whether or not this takes the shine off the ‘Apple’ for salivating consumers remains to be seen.

Spout ‘Inspirations’, Earn Flags, Become President!

Certain members of the Planet Waves editorial staff were barely able to stop laughing long enough to actually post this item in today’s issue. The Gregory Brothers have created a mash-up of the acceptance speeches delivered by Obama and Romney at their respective recent national conventions, complete with 80s-era Atari graphics and music. Published online by The New York Times, you’ll never look at talking points quite the same way.

Planet Waves FM :: Jesse Ventura on 9/11; Patric Walker

This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM looks at the Sun in Libra and Saturday’s Aries Full Moon. This is a potent Full Moon, which lights up the 2012 aspect — the Uranus-Pluto square. I covered this in Monday’s daily edition as well as Tuesday’s subscriber edition. I begin with a discussion of the Sun in Libra aspecting Uranus and Pluto, and what this says about the state of our relationships.

Patric Walker.

My musical guest is American composer and performer Diane Cluck, who has recently ventured into being a full-time professional musician and has offered to share her work with us. I play three of her songs — “Sara,” “Red August” and “Why Feel Alone.”

In the second segment, I look at Jesse Ventura blowing the whistle on the Sept 11 incident, live on the Piers Morgan show on CNN. This is an astonishing moment in TV history, which happened while Mercury was transiting through the Uranus-Pluto square.

I also fact-check Jesse — he gets a few things wrong but in essence he has the right idea — and becomes the first person to challenge the official story, in a vocal, obvious way, in the American media.

Finally, I look at the life and work of British horoscope master Patric Walker (1931-1995), who would have been 81 years old Tuesday. I read some of Patric’s horoscopes, describe some of his techniques, tell some stories and then do a short reading of his natal chart, focusing on his Mercury-Moon opposition — the perfect blend of intellect and intuition. This is a rare look at the life of Walker, who is remembered by his fans from back in the day and unknown to many contemporary astrology readers.

Note to Readers — If you have old Patric Walker columns in your files and would like to add to my collection, please get in touch. Thank you!

Planet Waves monthly horoscopes provide a broader perspective that surveys the themes of the coming month and often, the weeks that follow. The September Monthly horoscope was published Friday, Aug. 24. Inner Space for September was published Tuesday, August 28. The September Moonshine Horoscope was published Tuesday, Sept. 18. Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign (the October monthly is below in this issue); Inner Space still publishes on Tuesdays. Last week’s weekly horoscope (#918) covered the Libra equinox in detail.

Monthly horoscope for October 2012 standing in for Weekly Horoscope #919

Libra Birthdays This Week (Applies to All Libras!)

If you have a birthday in the neighborhood, this year is a doorway into a new life for you. The current astrology is about breaking free from any deadlocks and opening up blocked energy. It’s true that you’ve been under many influences that are encouraging you to turn the page, yet there are just as many that are leading you to obsess over the past (and perhaps even the distant past). Yet potent forces are provoking you to face the future with a sense of adventure. Which will win the day, and your year? Well, time marches on, wherever your mind may be — and you continue to make your presence known on the planet. You continue to live every day, as consciously as you want. The key to you thriving is about not taking the outside world, particularly your intimate relationships, too seriously. That is, they are not the ultimate goal, nor the bellwether, of your life. Every outer event or encounter has an inner correspondence that is far more important than the particular circumstances that are surrounding you. Let everything you experience point you deeper into yourself. If you can follow this philosophy for a while, you will get a sense of what it’s like to feel your presence in the world much more tangibly. Meanwhile, Saturn ingressing your solar 2nd house (Scorpio) says that your number one project for the coming few years is working out every possible dimension of your self-esteem questions. While in the past you might have told yourself that you can live with compromised self-respect, that is no longer true — Saturn won’t stand for it, and neither will you.

Note to Libra Sun and rising readers: I have just finished recording your birthday reading, which includes more than an hour of astrology (in two sections) and a tarot reading. The reading develops these and other themes. Check this link for more information.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The time has arrived to carefully consider the role of religion in your life, in society, and in the place where the two meet — which is where you make your most personal choices within the context of society. Your charts tell the story of someone who goes from making their decisions more or less autonomously, to then suddenly making them in the context of numerous outside influences that vie for which of them will run your life. One of those seemingly outside forces is religion, as if you have some kind of stunning awakening, conversion experience or revival of belief. This could be productive, and who knows, it might be, though your charts describe a scenario of both getting high on power and also of restricting your emotional and erotic freedom in the name of purity. I suggest you start with the notion that there is no such thing; even under laboratory conditions, actual purity is rarely attainable. Within the psyche, there is so much churning around and such a mix of elements that denial would be a more suitable word. I suggest you save yourself a lot of conflict and remember that you’re human. As such, you have both sexual impulses and also the impulse to a relationship with the mysteries. We’re basically forced to convert ‘the mysteries’ to some notion of God or higher power, who invariably wants you to be a better person. It’s time to question whether any of this is really true.

Hello Aries — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Saturn enters your opposite sign Scorpio this month, and that’s a dependable cue that you’re entering an extended phase of housekeeping in your relationships. As with many things Saturn, this is a study in boundaries, which is another way of saying agreements. Part of this experience will be practical: who in your life belongs there? With whom do you have wholesome and healthy connections, and with whom do you have unhealthy or destructive attachments? What are you going to do about them? You may notice that you’re attracting older, ‘more serious’ people who you may recognize have something to teach you about yourself and about life. They will hold up a mirror to the aging process, through which you will be invited to make some decisions about how you want to grow older. Another aspect is conceptual, and even philosophical. What does commitment mean to you? What is bonding? What is the nature of attachment? What does jealousy have to do with any of this? Perhaps most significantly, what role do you allow others to have in your life? One of the most beneficial things you’ll gain from the experience of Saturn in your opposite sign is that of learning how not to give away your power. You may feel like the universe is taking some extreme measures to keep you in alignment with yourself, though remember how challenging it is for you to change in response to any factor besides your own will — and even that can take a miracle.

Hello Taurus — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). If you would like to hear your Taurus birthday reading, please visit this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — One role that Jupiter plays within our solar system is to absorb stray asteroids and comets, and as a result there are fewer that might strike the Earth. Currently Jupiter is in your sign — and there’s boundless energy coming at you from your opposite sign, Sagittarius. You’re subject to these incoming influences, which will arrive in a diversity of forms, and what they have in common is high energy. Some will be obvious and bold; others will be subtle, and change you in ways that you would never have predicted. As for the obvious, this may come in a diversity of offers to play, to engage with different beliefs and to wage a social crusade or two. As for the less obvious: pay attention when others are inviting or enticing you to compromise your ethics or to rearrange your moral structure. Such may come in the form of “well, now that I’ve had you do this [against your ethics], you may as well do this [even more against your ethics].” Remember that you become like the people you have sex with (this is based on a direct transfer of energy), so if you’re wondering why you’re becoming the way you are, pay attention to who you’re waking up with. The thing to remember is that for the next two months, you’re going to be deeply susceptible to influences that come from outside yourself. The key to managing this is choosing which of these influences to accept, and which to reject — at the first possible opportunity.

Hello Gemini — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Have you listened to your birthday reading? Click here for an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Heed early warnings, especially where sexual boundaries are concerned. This isn’t about saying no; it’s more like saying maybe, until you understand your environment and everyone’s involvement in your life. Then, do what’s appropriate based on your understanding of your situation. At first this may seem like you’re having a limit placed on your fun. Actually two other things are happening. One is a limit being placed on the new karma you incur based on choices you make. Whatever you encounter is sufficient for a moment of reflection, and to put you on notice where you need to be more vigilant. Second is that you are about to discover ways to channel your vital force in a more structured way. In a sense, you have to get organized about what you want, and make sure you are also aware of what you don’t want — then make your choices using this as your guide. The thing to bear in mind all the time is that whatever theory of relationships we may subscribe to, sex leads to something deeper. That depth could be love, and it could be a diversity of other means of human bonding, connection or entanglement. Saturn is the lord of time, and it’s essential that you use time to your benefit, in order to save time. Taking a little while to test the true nature of your relationship to another person, before you dive in, would be well advised in this moment and for the next couple of years.

Hello Cancer — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). To hear your birthday reading for the year ahead, please visit this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Saturn’s ingress this month into Scorpio, your solar 4th house (security, home base, family) is about the use of space, and its relationship to your emotional grounding. Scorpio is a somewhat strange energy to have on your house of security, since it’s all about plunging into the deep dark waters of the psyche, and coming out a different person (something you do fairly regularly, and you’re safe knowing that you can). Seen another way, it’s the image of living with a swamp in the basement of your house, wondering if you’re going to get swallowed, or if the whole house is going to sink — and calling that shelter. Saturn making its way through this region of your chart for the next 10 seasons is about getting onto dry ground. It’s about shoring up your foundations and clearing out inner space. As part of this journey, you’re going to stabilize emotionally, which will be good for you and the people you care about. As part of this emotional stability, you will be doing an inventory of family influences from your early childhood, and making sure that you have them contained and confined to your own inner space — this way, you won’t pass them on to anyone younger than you are. One of the over-arching themes of this transit is learning how to feel safe. The combination of Saturn and Scorpio may conspire to do this in strange ways — but if you work with these influences, you will get the job done.

Hello Leo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Did you miss your birthday reading? Click here to order an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — From time to time, you’re subject to bouts of what feels like emotional chaos, insecurity and deep questioning. This can compromise your happiness, and at worst, limit your ability to function in the world. In truth, these episodes are about your inner spiritual life, which means it’s deeper than you may think. If the issues were just emotional, it would be a lot easier to address them. Yet you can count yourself lucky when you have any real insight into your situation, or meet anyone who has an actual grasp on what you’re going through (rather than speculating or guessing). Your sign is said to be earthy, intellectual and focused on rationality, though the truth is that you have your vital roots in the world of spirit, a dimension that most of the world denies the existence of. My sense is that you’ve been processing the issues using your intellectual capacity as best you can. However, to effectively learn from, grow from and actually cope with what emerges over the next few weeks, you will need to go directly into the deepest available level of your psyche: your core spiritual identity, or what you might think of as soul level. There’s a lot of competition for what that really means, though I can say at least this: soul level embraces everything and does not deny anything. Therefore, any feeling or memory that comes up for you is normal. Soul level is oriented on the greatest good for all concerned. And there are no problems that don’t come with solutions — as long as you state the problem in a way that makes sense.

Hello Virgo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Hello Libra and Libra rising readers. I’ve just finished your 2012-2013 birthday reading. Check this link to listen to your hour-long astrology reading plus tarot. If you’re a Virgo and you missed your birthday report, it’s still available at this link. All other signs, please check our audio store for your birthday reading.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — There’s always a difference between theory and reality, and you’re about to find out what it is — in reality and not in theory. Through most of the month, your ruling planet Venus is trekking across Virgo, where you do lots of contemplating, ruminating and a very precise kind of fantasizing. Toward the end of the month, Venus emerges into your sign, where it starts making aspects to planets that have already been stirring a revolution in your life. You’re likely to see how little a real-time experiment has in common with all of your (admittedly) fascinating concepts and plans. You can expect the pace of events to pick up rapidly. You can expect to go deeper into questions that have been nagging you, though about which you have only skimmed the surface. And there is something about allowing your relationships to change you. I suspect this may be a sticking point for you, as one of your goals is stability and change happening only in a controlled environment, and only with your consent. That’s more for the laboratory, and you’ll be there for a little while longer; then comes an extended field experience. As you’re going through all of this, a new theme emerges in your life, which is: understanding the reasons you do and do not respect yourself. Most people know there is something called self-esteem, but what exactly is it made of? How does it express itself, in its positive and negative manifestations? In the long run, everything hinges on this — and I do mean everything.

Hello Libra — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You are approaching one of the boldest ‘get serious’ moments of your life, a process spanning nearly three years. When you get to the other side, you’ll have acquired additional self-knowledge, privileges and responsibilities of adulthood. This is about Saturn in your sign, which arrives on Oct. 5 and departs in early 2015. I’ve described Saturn in your Sun sign (or in your rising sign) as an extended phase of coming to terms with yourself. Said another way, this transit is about becoming your own inner authority, something that few people ever do — and which is much likelier with Saturn in your neighborhood. One sad story of our society is people refusing to grow up; other people continue to have authority over their choices and even their opinions. Saturn in your sign can feel like authority figures or seemingly more powerful people imposing themselves on you. This is a reminder to take authority over all of those aspects of your life, and many more where you anticipate this kind of involvement by others. There are structured and organized ways to do this. Many people have described therapy as a kind of ‘re-parenting’ process, at the end of which you’ve taken over the role previously delegated to them. This is what I’m talking about, in whatever form works for you. You have to answer to some authority — whether you provide it, or whether someone or something outside yourself shows up and imposes it on you. The choice is yours.

Hello Scorpio — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Know when you’re coming from belief, and when you’re coming from knowledge. Somewhere in the high 90th percentile of people live like they have no idea what I am talking about, though you cannot afford the luxury of ignorance. I say this because you run the risk of being driven by belief, at the expense of what is true and verifiable. It’s not any excuse that many believe “there is no such thing as the truth.” That’s a good assignment for students to discuss in postmodernist philosophy class. I mean verifying in the most practical ways what you believe against facts that you can identify. I mean reading the fine print, reading between the lines, and remembering what people say to you. I also mean belief in the biggest sense — for example, your relationship to your cosmology. I’ve only heard about five hundred people tell me they weren’t influenced by religion, while they spend their lives acting out the irrationality, guilt and obsessive conduct that can have few other sources. Therefore, reconcile your ideas about life with the actual facts about how you treat people and how you want to be treated. One thing about beliefs is that they tend to be fixed like epoxy, or change every 10 minutes. I suggest you be suspicious in either case, and engage yourself in a reasoning process of evolving your ideas consciously as new information becomes available. Don’t just move on and forget; remember where you’ve been, because before long, it will become significant.

Hello Sagittarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — This is the time to be responsible not to your own ambitions, but to your community. I know that this idea is pissing into the wind of the privatization, privation and exclusion that is all the political rage now. Greed worshippers can keep their lies; not only don’t they influence you, you must stand up to this false philosophy, both in yourself and in society. Establish a commons in your life: hold the space for an authentic, equitable exchange of resources. This is leadership in action; there are goals and results involved. There are competing interests involved. There are those who will immediately take advantage of any fair system, and you will have to address that factor as well. Note that there are aspects of this that will happen in your ‘official’ capacity (such as your professional role) and outside of any official capacity, and perhaps even out of sight of others. Another way to describe the aspects that are developing in your chart is that you are shifting your concept of self-interest into a full embrace of the conditions of the world around you. Your role is to use your power, your knowledge and your experience to uphold the personal values you have stated many times are precious to you. Acting on those values requires taking a chance, not the least of which is wondering what all those greedy people will think of you when you insist on fairness and integrity. What they think of you is their issue; what you do is yours.

Hello Capricorn — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Saturn finally changes signs this month, ingressing Scorpio, where it will be into 2015. This is your 10th solar house, the one associated with your highest ambitions, your reputation and your true professional calling. Saturn through the 10th is sometimes associated with having the golden touch of King Midas; however for you there may be some extra challenges involved. As you hear and heed your calling, expect some adversity. Expect a tempering process, where you refine your goals. Imagine that your life is a theater production, where you do the performance, listen to the director’s notes, rewrite, rehearse and do the show again the next night — over and over again, with no intention of just ‘settling in’ to a routine. Bear in mind that the world does not owe you success: not because you’re a good person, not because you’re talented and not because you choose to develop any useful skill. Success is the product of all of these factors, and something else: your determination, and a commitment to be true to your values. This is the kind of success that doesn’t happen overnight, and to which you must dedicate yourself for much longer than you might think. Most of the early progress will be invisible, and you may be convinced you’re in the midst of a setback. It’s nothing of the kind — though you may see it that way unless one of your top priorities is to use anything and everything that you experience as a resource.

Hello Aquarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Sexuality has always been your portal into your spiritual side — or rather, sex and the cosmic questions that it evokes, and the inner mysteries to which they grant you access. Yet this organic approach to existence is denied and resisted by many forces in society, including those that would control sex to promote religion, those that use sex for commercial gain, and anyone whose approach to natural human feelings is moralistic (controlling rather than exploratory). Even as adults, we can be constantly entangled in the control dramas and moralizing of others, which include scandal and jealousy. It’s fair to say that unless we intervene, for all our lives, someone else seems to be in charge of our sexuality, and this extends into our creative power, our perspective on life, death and relationships. The time has arrived to live your way of life with full commitment. That means taking charge, and deciding what is right or wrong for you. If you don’t step in and take over yourself, it’s likely that someone else will. This is the Saturn principle in operation: where you lack discipline, boundaries and structure, these things will be imposed on you. If you have discipline, and take a realistic, honest, longterm (and, notably, not a hedonistic) approach to your sexuality, you will have done something that few humans ever accomplish. What would that be? To be the master of your vital force, your creativity and your emotional drives, rather than their slave.

Hello Pisces — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

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