Tag Archives: Relationships

In Search of Love (or Self-Identity)

Dear Friend and Reader:

The Sun is in Libra, the sign of relationships — and this is a month where relationships are a strong theme for other reasons. One of the aspects that makes October 2011 unique is Saturn opposite Eris. It’s an opposition between the planet of structure and form (Saturn), and the planet associated with the identity chaos of the modern psyche (Eris). Saturn has been around literally since forever. Eris was the planet named in 2006 that was responsible for the ‘demotion’ of Pluto to minor planet status. Remember that? Eris upset the known order of the solar system, and was named for the Greek goddess of discord.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso (1907), Museum of Modern Art, New York. Picasso’s style of imagery reminds me of how we might see the world through the lens of Eris.

Saturn is now in Libra. Eris is in Aries, the sign of self. One speaks about structured relationships; the other about a chaotic self-concept. This is a hint that many people are trying to have structured relationships in a time of personality chaos. Often we use our relationships to try to stabilize our sense of who we are. More often than not, the restless need to exist as an individual can wreak havoc on our partnerships, which are not designed to embrace the reality of growing people, who are in motion. Our relationships, as we’re taught to have them, can offer stability that can come with a sense of confinement. This is an old situation, though I think one possibility of this time in the human story is to work that out.

Saturn opposite Eris is a picture of that. It’s a relatively rare event. There will be a nearly exact repeat of this same opposition next year, then the next time it happens will be in 2041.

This speaks to the old ‘freedom versus commitment’ issue. Our persistent challenges balancing this is what I believe makes so many relationships so unstable. We tend to assume, for example, that people are going to remain the same rather than change or grow, but growth is inevitable. We talk about making progress in our lives — then many of the arrangements that we live don’t take it so well. Our self esteem, such as we have access to it, is rarely built on solid ground.

Due to the presence of another planet in Aries, this situation is ramped up at full strength right now. That is Uranus, which is specifically about the drive to independence and freedom. It’s a relatively new arrival in Aries (it entered that sign to stay on March 11), and for those who can feel its influence, it’s pushing the drive for individuality to a new height. We are currently in one of the most restless moments in many generations. It’s as if something is stirring in the human spirit, eager to bust free. Of course, then there is the other side of the psyche, which wants to cling and hold fast and make sure that nothing important changes.

La Vie by Pablo Picasso (1903), Cleveland Museum of Art.

Many are noticing that the compromises they used to make in their partnerships and households no longer work. Relationships will have to adapt to contain a meeting of actual individuals. Many decent, loving people struggle to find an appropriate partner. There is a large swath of the population that needs a partner who can really honor them as a whole person, which would mean someone else living as a whole person as well.

Saturn in Libra may seem to be setting limits on your relationships. You may be feeling the sense of being enclosed within something more palpably than usual. You may feel like you don’t want a relationship, but you do want to relate. Now is the time to consider what kind of relationship structure best matches with the reality of who you truly are, and what kind of person would be best suited to that reality — if anyone.

For those currently in intimate partnerships, you might ask: how much of your identity is wrapped up in your relationship? To what extent do you use your relationship to stabilize your life, rather than doing inner work on the issues that might be destabilizing you? Even if this is a question that has persisted for many years, you may finally be able to embrace the subject matter now. One key to doing so will be people acknowledging restlessness, the need for independence and the desire for a more complex social life as qualities rather than as things that describe us as dysfunctional. In other words, you’re not weird if you feel restless. It’s not a sign of intimacy issues — it’s more likely a sign that you’re alive. The need to exist as an individual is a healthy and necessary state of growth, and we can still want companionship, trust and closeness to others.

Saturn opposite Eris is exact on Oct. 27. Here are some other details from this month’s astrology. The Aries Full Moon is on Oct. 11. That event may bring out the themes I’ve described above in a distinctive, polarized way. You may seem to be confronted by an either-or choice. The Sun will be conjunct Saturn and the Moon will be conjunct Eris. This will emphasize the polarity. It’s up to you to discover the common ground you share with the people you’re close to. Full Moon is an excellent time to work through deadlocks.

In this chart, Mercury is trine Neptune — an aspect that heightens intuition. I suggest you let your intuition be your guide to communication. Don’t just guess what someone is feeling, or expect them to guess what you’re thinking and feeling. We assume that we’re supposed to do a lot of that in our relationships.

Femme nue au collier by Pablo Picasso (1968), part of the Tate collection of art, held in London.

Next is the Sun entering Scorpio on October 23. The Sun joins Mercury and Venus, which are already in Scorpio by that time. So this is going to be a rich, sensuous season of Scorpio. The days that follow the Sun’s ingress into this singularly important sign are often profound. They are the days that the veil between the dimensions is the thinnest. You don’t need to be a clairvoyant to feel the poignancy of this. Many cultures celebrate the Days of the Dead at this time, when they welcome home the spirits of their ancestors.

Scorpio shifts the emphasis from relationships to sex. The presence of Chiron in Pisces accents the healing aspect of sexuality — something that many of us are aware of but that few people know how to access or work with. One suggestion I have is to work with the distinction between ‘fantasy’ and ‘reality’. Create a space wherein it’s safe for you and anyone you’re intimate with to open up on the level of imagination. Notice if you feel threatened by potentials or ideas. That’s a good space to observe your responses and relax into the different possibilities, which is likely to be more fun and not as destabilizing as you imagine it would be.

The Scorpio New Moon follows on Oct. 26. This happens early in the Sun’s trek across Scorpio, so both the Sun and the Moon are trine Chiron. The New Moon also makes a strong, useful aspect to Pluto (a sextile), granting mental and emotional leverage. And the New Moon is opposite Jupiter. That brings the theme back around to where we started — what is the true meaning of relationships? How much do we seek them for love, and how much for the supposed benefits they offer?

Lovingly

P.S. Sometime over the weekend you’ll receive an announcement for the 2011 Autumn Report, which describes this month’s aspects in greater detail for each of the 12 signs. Check your inbox. — efc

Now Playing: Virgo Birthday Report

Dear Planet Waves Reader:

Your Virgo birthday reading is available — a little late, and perfectly dry. It survived the great Virgo Hurricane Irene and is now ready for you. It’s about 70 minutes of astrology and tarot — two sections of astrology and then a reading with the Voyager deck by James Wanless.

Another Virgo hurricane.

In the first section of astrology I cover a topic that I’ve been developing over the past few years for Virgo — family material and ancestral history. Your charts have the theme of resolving old karma. It’s in high focus, a clue that this is the time to do it. This is based on the Sagittarius alignment you may have read about, that is in your solar chart’s house of family, safety and security.

One of the themes I address is your tendency to use spirituality as your primary line of defense in the world, rather than say locks, alarms and karate. Your early environment had some unusual properties regarding religion, which I describe in terms of how they influence you now.

In the second section of astrology, I cover relationships and then your work/professional life. Relationships are of course an outgrowth of our family environment, and there is something new in your environment now. The past seven years have been a challenging spell in your love life, and now something new is coming into focus: a new energy, and a new quality to the communication. You have more in common with some of the people you meet, and also there are some greater risks involved, and greater vulnerability necessary to make real contact.

In the section on your professional life, I talk about what it’s like to have two career goals, or two entirely different professional paths. This is also a time of purging old goals and embracing the new ones.

I will let the tarot section speak for itself. Photos of the spread are included.

The whole package is yours for $14.95. Here is how to order.

Lovingly,

Dear Friend and Reader:

I’ve prepared a new 12-sign report for you — one that covers the rest of the year. These little projects have proven to be a popular and efficient way to provide extended astrology information. They’re based on the same method I use for my horoscope, but with spoken word it’s also spacious, with most of the readings being about 15 or 20 minutes long.

Eric Francis chez Blue Studio.

Most of my colleagues do weekly 12-sign audio. I am working toward that with these seasonal projects, which go into greater depth than you can usually get in a scripted four or five minute recording. Your 12 signs come with a free half-hour introduction that anyone can listen to. Then you can listen to your Sun, Moon and rising signs, or those of your friends.

As for theme: there is an unusual focus on relationships for the next few months and into the first half of 2012. It goes a little like this. We’re conditioned to find our ‘missing piece’ in relationships with others. Sometimes that seems to be the only option available — until we figure out that we really do want to be a whole person relating to another whole person. That provides something solid to stand on, and the security of knowing that someone else is not basing their whole life on you. Looking at the aspect Saturn opposite Eris, I introduce this theme, among others. I covered this subject in the October monthly horoscope.

The idea of independence and autonomy extends into many areas of life, including the creative and work aspects of existence. Those are, in truth, going through as many changes as our relationships. I cover some of this material as well.

My audio readings are casual, free-style (direct from the chart, not from a script) and designed to get you thinking and choosing rather than designed to stoke up your expectations. While I spend a lot of time listening in my one-on-one sessions, I take advantage of my many dialogs with my readers to get a sense of how to tune my interpretations.

Every time one of these products goes out, we get some amazing responses that always surprise me and encourage me to keep experimenting. Just a moment ago, this message came in: “Eric, I love listening to your voice. Your reading was quite enlightening and confirming. Lots of new information that I can work with. Paired with the reading I was able to listen to for 2010…. Wow! You are a gem in the universe. Love to you and your staff.”

If you’re interested in exploring this report, here is the sales link.

Please let me know how you like this series of readings — and by the way they are guaranteed; if you’re anything other than fully satisfied, just call Chelsea and we will return your payment.

Sending the love right back to you —

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope – October 2011

Revised and Updated! Click for Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — In every relationship where the parties are opposite sex and anywhere close to reproductive age, there will be reproductive politics involved. The relationship does not have to be an overtly sexual one; pheromones know no boundaries. By politics I mean there will be some negotiation or struggle for power that is based on biological instructions that tell us to reproduce, and how those are activated by the presence of people who might help us do that. Within relationships, part of the struggle involves the question of whether the ‘real’ purpose of sex is to make babies or to make love. I don’t mean to set up a dichotomy, or worse, a false dichotomy. The actual purpose is not necessarily one or the other — but the truth is that relatively few people explore their sexuality in order to have children. That happens without much exploration at all; in fact it usually happens unconsciously, leading to all kinds of adventures and misadventures. This is the time to take control of your creative power, in whatever form it takes. It’s the time to look for your wholeness not in relationships but within yourself. It’s been that time for a while, but as the next month or two develop, you may discover that you have no choice. Your relationships will remain important; they will provide the necessary reflection that your self-discovery and healing process are your business. Yet beyond a certain point, they can no longer be the main focus of your life.

Aries, your birth sign or rising sign, is getting some of the most potent transits of them all right now. I’ve recorded an hour of astrology and a tarot card reading for you. Learn more by visiting this page.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You’re about to reach a limit in your relationship to your mother or to her legacy. The days of deep therapy where we looked honestly at the influence of our parents seem to be a relic of history, supplanted by prescriptions and distractions. Yet there is wisdom in understanding how these previously all-powerful, all-knowing people shaped us, taught us how to feel about ourselves and influenced our concept of the world. This month you will have the opportunity to see something involving your parents that has been impossible to observe, perhaps ever. Factors that operate ‘subconsciously’ can have a profound influence on our lives, often being point sources of the psychic chaos that we don’t seem to understand. These are the same internal wave machines that keep us running in circles or searching obsessively for who we are. They are often invisible; we have to infer their existence, and that can seem like a clairvoyant feat. Yet a kind of clairvoyance is exactly what you get now: the ability to see into the dark, into the world of your ancestors, and in particular, into the psyche of your mother. I can describe what I am seeing in your solar chart: seemed to be something strong about her, which was a mask over something that was missing. It’s not just this fact that you can observe, but also the results. Once you understand the ways you’ve been turned against yourself, you may find it a lot easier to be your own friend.

I’ve recorded an hour of astrology and done a tarot reading especially for you. It’s information that will help with your relationships, your professional life and your personal growth. Visit this page to find out more.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Creativity is serious business. I agree with Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way: actually expressing your creativity is more about focus and discipline than it is about inspiration. Yes, it’s wonderful when work seems ‘truly inspired’, but that says nothing of the 15 drafts that went into an article or novel you love. It’s a little like the feeling you get sitting inside a cathedral, responding to the architecture — then you realize it took a century to build, requiring a mix of inspiration, engineering and persistence. Your chart is strong with all three right now. Gemini is famous for its challenges focusing; in order to harness your creative (or other) talents, what seems like an extreme kind of discipline is necessary. It’s not really extreme, though. It’s more about guiding your work process into a container. This might be about anything from a job search to a project you’ve wanted to do for a long time. The container is primarily about time and space. Define the time and set aside the space and you will make a lot more progress. I suggest you work with limits, such as ‘one hour on this project every day’, until whatever you’re doing has a life of its own. You will feel a threshold shift at that point. I would add a word of caution about the influence of friends. They are only your friends if they have the same basic agenda as you.

Gemini is one of the most misunderstood signs — and as someone born under this sign, part of your role is to hold a mirror to the world. I’ve recorded an hour of audio for you, plus a 20-minute tarot reading. You can get access to these by visiting this page.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — What exactly are you exerting yourself against? Let’s say you want to be more confident, so to do that you wage a campaign against insecurity. How well is that going to work? Another approach would be to master the elements of confidence, while gradually understanding your insecurity. In that case you would not be waging a campaign against anything, but rather reaching into another way of being more suited to your goals. I suggest you keep your efforts proactive, rather than attempting to fix something about you or about the world that is ‘wrong’. There is a fine line, I know. But rather than being about something you can see, it’s about something you can feel. Fixing something feels different than creating something new. Of course, to switch from one to the other, you would need to shift your orientation from the past to the present/future. Your primary goal would be different as well, and by that I mean your concept for what you want to accomplish. It’s both easier to focus on the past, and easier to get stuck there. What you might call the key to the future is a vision; that is the difference between fixing and creating. Gradually you are strengthening the part of your mind that allows you to visualize what does not exist. This is going to take some time, but you are about to receive an energy boost. This month, I can sum up the key to discerning the past from the present in one word — passion.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You are working with a lot of energy right now, and you need to direct it consciously. It would help if you figured out just how much you are working with, a fact that may be concealed by the odd sense that your energy is suppressed. In truth it is not; that is merely a thought, but it’s a powerful one. You may be concerned that if you tap into your energy, you’ll go out of control. I can assure you this will not happen; the more you make contact with your sense of presence, your will and your clear desires, the more you’re likely to direct them in a constructive way. I would caution you that in the angle of your solar chart that addresses matters of a spiritual or religious nature, there is quite a bit of chaos — as if you’re not sure what you believe. For this reason, I suggest you explore your beliefs in the form of practical actions: making things, exploring places you’ve never seen, business activities and even sex. I think you may be sensing the potential for harming others, or for being perceived as selfish — or worse, actually discounting the needs of others and being self-centered. The astrology has some built-in safeguards that will pretty much ensure that you take the needs of others and indeed your whole environment into account, though until you dare to do something different, you might not notice they are in place.

The 2011 Leo birthday report is 70 minutes of in-depth astrology plus a 20-minute tarot reading for you, exploring relationships, personal growth and your professional life. Visit this page for additional information.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You would do well to ask yourself just what happened to you the past month, and where those events leave you right now. For a few years, you’ve been addressing a situation with roots deep in the past. Each year around your birthday there is a flare-up of what you might think of as emotional activity, or family issues, or karma. Then it tends to sink below the surface for a while, only to arise again in a new form. You may think that you’re not making any progress but I can assure you that if you compare the past three birthday seasons, you will see signs of movement, maturity and increasing emotional clarity. One thing to bear in mind (I will repeat this later in the year) is the relationship between emotional wellbeing and your sense of being spiritually grounded. These may be connected for everyone, but for you the contact point is especially vivid. There is a deeper connection to your ancestral past that you may have noticed during these phases, if you look beyond family-related dramas — they go much deeper. As for where that leaves you today, having been through this? I would suggest that you’ve never been closer to who you are. The opinions of relationship partners, business partners or those who would seek to influence your life are now in their correct place. Feel the sensation of being solid in who you are, your own authority, your own source of trust.

The 2011 Virgo birthday report is ready! I’ve recorded 70 minutes of astrology plus a tarot reading for you, exploring how you’re working through family material, your use of spirituality, some new energy in your relationships and your professional goals. Visit this page for additional information.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Relationships as we practice them are not set up for the partners to keep individuating. They tend to be designed for conformity, which in theory is the easier of the two ways to go — unless, of course, ongoing growth is your desire and your intention. There’s also something else going on. Much of the struggle we see in relationships is between the desire of people to be free and their desire to have companionship. The phase of life you’re in right now is about working through that seeming contradiction. It’s actually possible to resolve this one, but you need a lot of maturity and determination to do it. It comes down to understanding the purpose of your existence, which is secondary to the purpose of your relationships. This is the big one; this is the thing. Those who focus on existence first and relationships second can highlight or evoke the insecurity of those around them. Yet what you may be discovering is the simple and necessary truth that you are the most significant point of continuity in your life. Your path through the universe is consistent; the people around you will come and go. To get to this spot, you may have to pass through a sense of loneliness or isolation (or the fear of this potential). But something is waiting for you on the other side. I believe this will be a crucial step in transitioning toward your authentic personhood and independence.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — As a perpetual gender studies major, one thing I’ve noticed about the world in recent years is women openly expressing their desire to be in contact with their male side. This used to be expressed as (clearly misnamed) feminism. These days, it is something more basic and not attached to much ideology — nor to being lesbian. I believe that men have been openly pushing the envelope on expressing their feminine side for a lot longer, even risking arrest, prosecution and clobbering to do so. The astrology of Scorpio this month is all about exploring sexual identity. I mean that from the inside out — the emotional and hormonal experience of sex and gender rather than any kind of affect or show of style. For a while you may feel like you’re two different people, one who likes to dominate and conquer, and one who thirsts for submission and craves allowing your more vulnerable side out of its usual hiding places. You may have the illusion that this is building to some kind of a crisis, particularly if it’s causing any consternation in your relationships. It could just as easily be a fun place to explore, if you put your desires face-up on the table. But I don’t really see a crisis at all — what I see is a direct experience of resolving some long-held tension, which will allow you to clear up important elements of the past and move on to a new agenda in life and in love.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Ethics are always situational: they depend on the moment. As such they are flexible and useful. Morals pretend to be absolute, and as a result they are brittle and lack sensitivity to the actual circumstances involved in any question of right or wrong. You’re in the process of getting clear about all of this, and I reckon it’s been through personal experience and not by sitting in philosophy class. The world is in a state of moral decay (which is frightening enough), but in the midst of this extreme disorientation can arise the simple question of what is appropriate. I suggest you keep asking yourself that, from moment to moment. The word ethics has its root in the Greek word ethos, which was considered the highest ideal — and the true spirit of a person or a society. When we say, ‘This is a person of character’, we are talking about ethos. I think of it as the guiding ray within a person, something you can tune into that informs and enlightens everything else that you do. I suggest you allow all of your experiences to guide you toward making contact with this core experience of humanity: they certainly can right now, if that is what you want. The sensation is a distinct morph of that which is spiritual and that which is human. It’s the place where there is no difference; that well-tuned state of mind where life becomes art and art becomes life.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — In what ways have you succeeded at doing things differently than your parents? I really mean it — truly, significantly differently? Humanity has a way of not making progress on this particular issue, partly because people are so enamored of their parents, and so many others aspire to their mediocrity. I have noticed that much of what we call self-improvement, personal growth or having better relationships usually exists in contrast to our parents and how we think of them. In a sense, we’re always dancing with their limits — that is, until we stop. One of the most popular ways to go beyond those particular limits is to wage a revolt. However, where you are in life that’s not only not an option: it’s just a tad adolescent, when your primary objective (so far as I can tell) is to be a dependable adult. There is certainly a rebellious streak that is stirring you up deep inside, but your expression of that impulse is designed to be all about solid, unflinching leadership. One thing about Capricorn is that it’s always a child inside, and that you tend to get younger as the years unfold. Let your desire to stir the pot entice you to be that much more fearless, that much bolder, but always taking a well-proportioned approach and giving the appearance of playing within the rules. In essence, the perfect revolt for this moment is to be unequivocally yourself.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Religion is a supposedly simple way to cook down the complexities of who and what a person is. It takes many forms, but the one thing they all have in common is reducing many intricacies and subtle shades of meaning down to rules and a few rigid ideas. They paper over how much we have going on inside, how jumbled our minds can get, and how difficult it can be to have a clear sense of self. This is especially true now, due to two current, and rather extreme, trends: increasing limits placed on our options (all of us), and the deep restlessness of the human soul. You don’t need to impose an external ideology onto yourself, no matter where it comes from; that is not a solution. You also have a rare perspective on seeing the ways in which beliefs box you into your limitations, and know how questioning your beliefs can set you free. Over the next few weeks, you’re likely to encounter situations that compel you to challenge what you believe and why. The deeper issue is who has set the limits on your vision of yourself and of the world; who has set the limits on your happiness. You may be inclined to say that it’s you, but it actually goes back a lot longer than any memory of the ‘you’ that you now know. I suggest you push back; your mind is vibrating with the need to express yourself, and though it seems chaotic in there, it’s the fertile, passionate kind of chaos.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You are poised to make some truly innovative decisions about money, which will be disguised in the appearance of conventionality. By innovative I mean radical, based on your values and your willingness to dare. By appearance of conventionality, I mean through some kind of structure or agreement that seems, on its face, like it’s a normal thing: a contract, a company, a partnership of some kind. This is an opportunity to remember — and work with — the difference between content and form, which is another way of saying that appearances deceive. There are many forms of deception, and one of them is camouflage, which is precisely what you’re doing. In a similar way, your charts talk about working both ends of the polarity that seems to run from risk to discipline. It’s not really that linear; these are ingredients that you can and must blend artfully; you need the right proportion of each. As you do this, remember your purpose; focus on why you’re doing what you’re doing, and consider your ultimate goal. That goal is likely to change and evolve, which is a healthy sign: it means your values are in a state of evolution. If the people around you seem stuck or slow to pick up on what, to you, is obvious, don’t waste energy trying to convince people of anything. Your actions and their results will speak for themselves.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

May is Self-Awareness Month

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Dear Friend and Reader:

In late 2010, one of the Planet Waves editors posted to our blog an article she found about the odd relationship options offered by Facebook (for example, the category ‘it’s complicated’ being a stand-in for everything other than something supposedly normal, without saying what). Following that article back to its source, a blog called Onely.org, I discovered the existence of a singles movement.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

A singles movement? This is about people for whom conventional relationship models do not work, or more simply put, a movement of people who want to go solo. Methods of doing this vary, but I can generalize a little. They don’t want to date in any conventional way, they don’t live with the expectation of marriage, they don’t cohabitate, and they don’t do the boyfriend-girlfriend thing. They don’t want to be half of a couple, in the immortal words of Erica Jong; they want to be a whole person, and the easiest way for them to facilitate that is to be single, our society’s ultimate form of queer.

There are a lot of possibilities here, but the main idea overall is stepping outside the box of relationship expectations in which we so often get caught, like it or not. Those who are living a solo way of life might count their friends and erotic partners as being on an equal par, on the basis that all relationships have value. One is not on a higher rung than another. From what I have read, there’s substantial questioning of how society compels many people to embrace relationship options that might not (or absolutely do not) work for them.

There is as much questioning of heteronormative conditioning as there is in any queer community. In case you haven’t heard that word, it’s a keeper: heteronormative — a concept to contain all the rules and regulations you’re supposed to follow in a world oriented primarily on heterosexual relationships, which are considered the norm — indeed, there’s still a compulsory quality. I am always intrigued every time I see a wedding band flashed in a TV commercial, particularly on a man’s hand, which is often. No matter what product they’re selling, the other product is marriage.

The idea of a singles movement immediately sounded revolutionary because much of the relationship discussion is about what form of long-term committed relationship one chooses (mono or poly, married or living together, gay or straight), rather than questioning the orthodoxy of relationship. Many people have the feeling that if they’re not ‘in a relationship’ they’re not normal. Many places having a partner or spouse is the equivalent of fully-vested citizenship. Once you have someone on your arm, you’re allowed into society. Meanwhile, if you’re not ‘in a relationship’, what about all your other relationships. Why don’t they count? Well, as for what counts, we’re almost always talking Relationship with a big R.

Over the years I’ve been an astrologer, I’ve worked with, and heard from, many people for whom the relationship game as it’s currently set up simply does not work. Who they are does not fit any known model of relationship, and they cannot seem to find partners who match their values. Many of these people are the aware and questioning types, who strive to live consciously. Many of them even want to be in a relationship that suits them, but don’t seem to find suitable situations.

So I was happy to find some information and validation that seemed to be skewed in their direction. Exploring other websites in this genre, the discussion I read was often politically astute and a bit indignant. There was a lot of discussion of why married people get such significant tax breaks. And why should the dentist be asking about your marital status? Is that vaguely relevant to getting your teeth cleaned? If they need to notify your next of kin that you have a cavity, they can call your sister.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Out of curiosity, I started typing the word ‘masturbation’ into search engines on various singles movement sites and getting nothing back (with the exception of one derogatory reference to ‘mental masturbation’). I thought this lack of discussion was interesting and more than a bit strange. Here was a movement advocating living freely and being detached from relationship expectations as a vocal choice.

We all know that many people stay in relationships to assure a supply of sex, even if those relationships don’t always serve their other growth needs. To be free of these dysfunctional relationships, it would help (in my fantasy world) to have an idea of sexual independence we could aspire to. And one logical starting point for that would be really, truly understanding one’s inner sexuality, and doing well with being one’s own lover. But the movement advocating how you can be free of these relationships, at least that I could find that evening, had nothing to say about sex with oneself.

The movement advocating being single was the very last place I would have guessed there was a taboo on discussing solo sex. Clearly, if you’re single and want to be, that implies that sex with oneself is not a substitute for anything, and also that (assuming you have a sex drive) it’s an entirely necessary state of affairs. If being single implied having a low sex drive, Thomas Edison would have never invented the singles bar.

I wrote to the editor of one of these websites, and after a round of emails that went on for a few weeks, she basically told me that they just didn’t feel comfortable talking about self-sex. I admit to being a bit naïve, but truly, I was stunned. Okay, just a little stunned. The lack of authentic sexual conversation is normal fare in our culture. In exploring the many reasons why masturbation is still taboo, we must include that as one of them. But I think it goes deeper. It’s fair to say that considerable embarrassment surrounds the topic of masturbation. It’s private, and most people would rather keep it that way (unless you count their fantasies of getting caught).

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, Brussels.

It’s about to be May, which was officially designated Masturbation Month back in 1995 by the Good Vibrations toy stores in Berkeley and San Francisco. We now have 31 days of cultural sanction for the conversation. Speaking as an astrologer, I’ve always thought it was appropriate that the time of year when the Sun is in Taurus (the sign of self-value, associated with physical sensuality) was a great time to start the festivities. And by the end of May we have Gemini lighting up the sky, a delightfully kinky sign associated with the ‘dual self’ phenomenon — a kind of inner mirror where you can see yourself as any gender you like.

What exactly is Masturbation Month? It’s a little like Chrysanthemum Appreciation Week, only it involves masturbation and it lasts a month — and it’s a lot more radical. I don’t think Obama signed a proclamation, but we can pretend.

What would the conversation be about? I would propose that masturbation is about a lot more than masturbation — and that’s the reason it’s still considered so taboo by many people, and in many places. First, I would say that masturbation holds the key to all sexuality. It’s a kind of proto-sexuality, the core of the matter of what it means to be sexual. I mean this in an existential sense. Masturbation is the most elemental form of sexuality, requiring only awareness and a body. Whatever we experience when we go there is what we bring into our sexual encounters with others — whether we recognize it or not. Many factors (such as projection and denial) contribute to obscuring this simple fact.

However, people who are comfortable with their sexuality in general are likely to be comfortable with masturbation. It also works the other way. If you want to know how someone feels about sex, ask them how they feel about masturbation and you’ll get your real answer. Self-sex is a path to self-knowledge, which is essential to mature, healthy relationships. The less mature relationships can be mazes of ignorance and codependency, and often, sexual dependency is a major ingredient in the glue that bonds these encounters together.

This, in my opinion, is why masturbation, and by that I mean conscious self-sex, is so revolutionary. It’s a bold way to be who you are, as you are, regardless of any expectations of relationship.

In contemplating the masturbation taboo, I figured out something that turns out to be a factor in the oldest literature that insists masturbation must be forbidden: it has a tendency to open up one’s fantasy life. And we all know this knows no bounds. That, in turn, can point to desire for sexual and relational options other than what one has at the moment, outside the rules. Far from being a mechanical experience of sexual maintenance that it’s often portrayed as being, self-sex helps us open up an inner world of possibilities.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Within that world are two basic elements: what we want, and what we keep in the shadows. Where pair-bonded relationships are the norm, desire for anything other than what we have in the current relationship is often regarded as forbidden territory. If you have sex with yourself, who are you thinking about? That can grant a tremendous sense of inner freedom, something we dearly need. If revealed to anyone else, it can also open up a can of worms. If you have a partner or spouse, I ask you — can you reveal the contents of your fantasy life to him or her? Some brave couples may be able to do this with powerful results. As one of my favorite authors once wrote, only the truth is erotic. Pretend for a moment that the contents of your imagination are not private.

Consider the possibility that the people closest to you, or even those who pick up on your energy, might catch on to what’s going on in your inner world of desire. The more perceptive people in your world can see through you, and those with whom you’re sexually intimate, or attracted to, might be able to tap right in. Yet what we call the ego puts up all kinds of blocks to this awareness, and by that I mean fear expressed as shame or embarrassment.

For many people, knowing that their partner is thinking about a past or potential lover (or a current secret lover) would lead to some deep insecurities coming to the surface. So when we stash away masturbation, we’re stashing away all the secret desires held in our erotic and amorous fantasies, as well as papering over those insecurities. They will then tend to surface in our relationships in other ways, primarily as jealousy.

The term shadow material from Jungian psychoanalysis fits well here. Shadow is all this stuff we contain within ourselves, including guilt, shame, the fear of abandonment, rage, hatred and all their cousins. These are emotions we tend to project into relationships. For example, we might see them as qualities in others but not ourselves. They might become ‘issues’ in the relationship. It’s easy to understand how this works. An insecure person is much likelier to be jealous of a partner than someone who is confident in themselves and in the relationship (usually in that order). In that case, jealousy would be a projection of insecurity (and/or envy and/or the fear of abandonment).

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Conscious masturbation, and by that I mean your inner erotic reality experienced as part of your ongoing relationship with yourself, is one way to access and process these dark feelings rather than project them outward. If you experience any embarrassment, shame or misgiving around masturbation (and most people do, at least occasionally), consider the possibility that these things obscure something deeper, that being your point of contact with yourself. You can call that self-love or self-esteem; you can call it being centered in your reality. I am talking about an authentic inner journey, the kind that usually gets categorized in the bin with the label ‘spiritual’, but which has a distinctly sexual sensation.

Given that religion as we know it (particularly as Christians, Jews or Muslims) has not only made sexuality allegedly bad, but has also built its fortune on doing so, it can take quite a bit of determination to go here. We are all influenced by religion’s misgivings and control dramas around sex. The fact that so many people experience forms of false modesty, embarrassment, shame and guilt, in many facets of life, and also where masturbation is a factor, suggests that there is a connection. And I would add that because the control games of religion are most often aimed at women, self-eroticism in any form is particularly revolutionary for them. For many women it is the first place they can step out of their chains and confront the shame of existence that is so often projected onto female sexuality. Let’s remember that there are many, many women for whom masturbation provides their only orgasms.

I’m also speaking to anyone who feels like they depend on others for their sexual pleasure and sense of self-contact a bit more than they want to, and who may live with the secret knowledge that they want to be more independent.

I will leave you with an idea that I’m developing in other venues this month, which is self-centered sexuality. I know, this is the thing we’re supposed to avoid in that we’re ‘not supposed to be selfish’. I’m not talking about selfish, I’m talking about self. Self-centered sexuality means being centered within yourself. This is different from narcissism, which translates loosely to, ‘nobody besides me exists, or matters’.

Taking this to a fully conscious level, say, as conscious as yoga practice, is something that would benefit everyone, and is a space for unpartnered people to explore their authentic sexuality. I would also propose as part of this that couples explore getting closer to one another by masturbating in one another’s presence. This is perfectly intuitive for some people and just as counter-intuitive for others. In the experience, I suggest including the full content of your mind and not just your body. In case you experience embarrassment, I would offer you the idea that the very hottest sexual experiences are just on the other side of that veil.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

For those who consider themselves ‘not in a relationship’, this opens up many possibilities, including a great option for ‘friends with benefits’. That would be sharing masturbation, something that can be surprisingly natural and fulfilling, but absent most of the usual worries about sex (pregnancy, STIs, over-attachment). It’s a way to share sex without the baggage of thinking you have to get married or even send flowers.

You’ll also have an opportunity to encounter material that has come up in your past relationships, and (for example) explore healing your self-esteem, body issues or sexual shadow material. Imagine if you could enter your encounters with others from a confident and self-aware place, understanding who you are and what you want. That would give you a new basis for choosing a partner, or allow you to consider the idea that you might not want to be in a conventional relationship. Imagine if you could fully embrace the sexuality of everyone you meet, with open-minded curiosity rather than a sense of threat. This is what I mean by self-centered sexuality.

So, the sex toy stores may be calling this Masturbation Month. I would revise that to Self-Awareness Month.

Lovingly,

Photo selections by Sarah Bissonnette-Adler.

Was Royal Wedding Chart Planned by Astrologers?

Yesterday, I asked what royal astrologers — assuming they exist — were thinking when they planned the chart for today’s wedding of William and Kate (which began at 11 am London time, 6 am EDT). The chart has one unusual property — the Pisces Moon is void of course, meaning that it’s not making any aspects to other planets prior to entering the next sign. That’s not the kind of thing that you would expect a professional astrologer to include in a chart this important — the marriage of the future king and queen consort. To me this suggests the chart was not planned by astrologers but rather was based on a guess that worked out pretty well. One thing that seems to have been intentional enough was putting the wedding on the day of Catherine of Siena. Catherine, of course, is the long form of Kate, who is now Princess Catherine.

Chart for today’s royal wedding places the concentration of planets at the top of the chart. Venus, the blue girl, is the most elevated planet. The void of course Moon is high up slightly toward the right. At the bottom of the chart is Saturn in Libra, occupying one of the chart’s most potent angles, the IC. This tells us that no matter how modern the new couple may be, there is a deep anchor into tradition.

Let’s look at the very basic elements of traditional astrology first. The whole endeavor looks royal enough; the ascendant grants the appearance of things, and the chart has Leo rising — a sign of royalty. So there is something kingly about it; it is the marriage of the future king.

At the top of the chart (skewed a little to the right), the Aries cluster is in the 10th house — the house of the king or the president, so that is royal enough. There is a lot going on in this house; the affairs of state are definitely a key part of the subject matter of this chart. With Aries on the 10th, it’s not too cynical to say that the business of state is war. But with Venus as the most elevated planet, we see at least a pretty face being put on that agenda, and at best, the possibility for something else. On the personal level, Venus in Aries as the most elevated planet suggests that this is the chart for the coronation of not merely a princess but rather of a queen.

Yet the narrative of a chart is usually told most articulately by the Moon. And the Moon is the odd thing about this chart — it’s void of course. That is to say, the Moon is late in a sign (in this case Pisces, late in the zodiac), and it’s not going to make aspects to any other planet before it enters the new sign. It’s a little like saying there is no story. The Moon is in Pisces, but it’s void in that sign, which can subtract the energy in question rather than add it. Pisces is about empathy, going through struggles together, service and public contact (the latter point emphasized by the Moon as well).

Looked at one way, we have a story that is ‘no story’. Or at least it is not directly indicated by the chart what transpires. Yet there is a partial exception to the Moon being void, suggested by William Lilly, one of the great astrologers in English history. That exception says that if the Moon is in one of the signs that it rules (Cancer or Taurus, where it is exalted), or one of the signs ruled by Jupiter (Sagittarius or Pisces), it will do some of its work carrying the story forward, because nothing is in the way that might stop it. And yes, there are many charts where it would be great if you could get the Moon out of the way. It seems to bollix things up at least half the time.

The Moon is first associated with the sign Cancer, so to see where the Moon is ‘coming from’, we can look at this sign. In the marriage chart, Cancer is in the 12th house — and the whole sign is intercepted there. Cancer does not touch the cusp of the 1st or the 12th. It’s like Cancer is swallowed by, or locked into, a house that’s usually associated with secrets, prisons and things too weird to comprehend. This can include dead people. And from this house, the Moon emerges and shows up void in Pisces. That’s the next best thing to it not being there at all.

So this leads one to wonder — what is this really about? William is designated to be the guy who leads the kingdom and moreover protects the fortunes of the Windsors (the royal house) well into the 21st century. Few of us who are adults today will live long into that reign. Elizabeth seems to have figured out the secret to eternal life, and we may even get to endure Charles being king for a while. So William is being groomed for a phase of history that is unforeseeable now.

These are some of the minor planets gathered around the degrees of the Moon, checking just the mutable signs. Typhon, a point in the region of Pluto, is located middle of those late mutable degrees. That evokes the tornados that have whipped across the U.S. the past few days. Also, the mysterious 28+ Gemini degree, which links together so many key world events ranging from Sept. 11 to the Fukushima quake, is occupied. The point is Apophis, a near-Earth asteroid discovered in 1976, and which was briefly a source of worry about a possible collision. It’s closer to the Sun than is Earth, and its orbit potentially crosses ours. The name is of Egyptian origin.

Part of the goal of a royal marriage is to produce an heir. For information about that, we look to the 5th house — and there, we find Scorpio. Note that there are no planets in Scorpio (which I’ll come back to in a moment). What we do in any event is follow Scorpio to wherever we find Mars, and that is in Aries, in the 10th house, conjunct Jupiter. That tells us that the child produced by this marriage will very likely be king. Aries, the 10th and Jupiter are all regal enough. But Scorpio lacking any planets reminds us that we have no description of who this person will be.

The fact that Mars-Jupiter is also conjunct Eris does give some reason for concern. So, all in all, we have a pretty mysterious chart, one that suggests what we’re seeing is more like a movie than a real event.

Let’s check in with the minor planets. Using the set selected over the years by Tracy and me at Serennu.com [see minor planet ephemeris here], the asteroid closest to the ascendant is Requiem, which is associated more with songs about death than about love. This may be a reminder of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose presence still looms large in the royal house and modern history of England.

Let’s take a look at what the minor planets say about that void of course Moon. In the rules of traditional astrology, aspects to astroids or newly discovered bodies would not change that Moon from being void, but astrology is in a transitional phase, so let’s take a look and see, at least, what is described. The Moon’s closest aspect is an exact opposition to Makemake. This is a dwarf planet (like Pluto or Eris) and it’s considered an important discovery. It was named for the creator god of the indigenous folks of Easter Island; it’s also a fertility god. So we have, at least, a clue that the purpose of the marriage — creating an heir to the throne — will be fulfilled.

The Moon is also square the Galactic Core. That brings in the large, sweeping themes associated with the core, and the ‘great presence lurking behind the scenes’ effect for which the Galactic Core is famous. The Moon is summoning the energy of the core, trying to bring that quality into the more conventional ‘spirituality’ of the Earthly realm.

Looking at the little table that lists the minor planets, notice that there’s a sequence of planets in Pisces to which the Moon will indeed make conjunctions. Actually, there are four of them clustered in the last degree of Pisces (all with the number 29 next to them) — Circe, Urania, the Osculating Apogee (Black Moon Lilith) and (last but surely not least) Karma.

This Moon seems to be describing something specific, or rather, someone. That someone emerges from the spirit world of the 12th house and manifests high in the sky in the spirit world of Pisces. She has no assigned role; she is ‘out of the way’, but she’s very much a presence. Her name is being evoked every few minutes — that would be Diana, named for the goddess of the Moon.

— By Eric with additional research by Tracy Delaney

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 29, 2011, #857 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The thing that you feel is in the way is actually your balancing point. It may be annoying for being in the way, though it’s vital as a counter-balance to the energy pouring through your life. For the moment, you have to live with this situation and, I trust, learn to turn it into an opportunity. While you may not think you have any real freedom, you have many viable options available, though they aren’t opportunities in the sense of five job offers. It’s more like you have five talents that you know it’s time to get working in harmony with one another rather than competing with one another. If you seem to be facing a limit, think of it as a container. For example, let’s say we’re talking about a job situation that you want to change. How much can you bring your talents into your current situation, despite its drawbacks? The more you can, the more you will open the way to a future where all of you is welcome.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Remember that meaning is only meaningful in context, and currently most of that involves your experience of your own mind and emotions. Typically we cannot see this because we see everything through the filter of our own mind. Yet for the moment, you have a window into a kind of blind spot in your psyche. That’s the place where so much is influencing you, but which is so difficult for you to get a grasp on. It’s the source of the pressure you’re feeling, and the volatility. You may not be able to resolve those feelings now, but you can ground yourself in productive or creative activity that will at least give you the opportunity to put your energy to use. What you’re doing may not live up to your imagination, but actually it looks like a great opportunity to bring your creativity into a project or task that will benefit from some love — and which will benefit you as well.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Mercury is still shell-shocked after its retrograde phase in Aries. The feeling reminds me a little of the Earth vibrating after a quake. Aries is a bold sign, though what it represents — our sense of identity — is a fragile thing. For you, Aries represents how you are perceived, where you fit into your social scene, and how you define yourself as a ‘public’ individual. Yet there is a deeper theme to this house, which is what you want out of life. This, you seem to be grappling with. There are days when everything seems like a fantastic possibility. Other days it seems like you have no options at all. Yet in both of those scenarios you are watching life like a movie. At this stage of your growth it’s essential that you take up the charge of visioning your own way in life. You will know the difference because a movie screen reflects some other light, and a vision gives off a light of its own.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You’ve been spun around recently, and may be struggling for some direction in your professional life. There are many things you want to do, while you’re confronted continually by one thing that you have to do. Looked at one way, this is a crisis; looked at another way, it’s a sign that your creativity exceeds your current structure or framework, particularly your mental structure. In order to work this out, I suggest you take a long-range view; think in terms of two to five years. Yes, this seems like a long time, but the years go by quickly, and most of why we seem to fall short of the progress we want involves the lack of long-term self-guidance. If I am not mistaken, there is one thing you’ve wanted to do, or accomplish, for a very, very long time. Somehow you keep missing that goal, or forgetting it. I suggest you make a series of decisions, starting now, to guide your life in that direction. Keep your focus, and don’t worry about the results.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You’ve been running an obstacle course lately. Many plans, revised plans and possibilities are flying around your head like so many airplanes at O’Hare. I trust that over the past week some of them, at least, have come in for a landing and others have flown off to different horizons. You’re now free to take some tangible action and accomplish something you’ve put off for a while. I would point out that amidst all of these different concepts for what is possible, there is something that is particularly alluring; it has a mix of daunting and inevitable. It may be the least predictable among your many objectives — or the one that causes the most disruption when you try to get it going. That is a sign that your idea contains energy, which is, in turn, a sign of its actual potential. As for the lack of predictability — you might call that the ‘god factor’ — the unknown element that leads to a truly creative outcome.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Remember that you’re still in the early phase of a long process of establishing your relationships, and your relationship to existence, on new ground. At times it may not feel like ground, any more than the floor of a canoe does as you’re coasting down a river. Yet this floating, moving surface area is providing you with a stable enough platform to stand on. At the same time, you seem to be surrounded by a diversity of people who are making various offers and demands. I strongly suggest you look for the one or two that are in close harmony with your values. By close, I mean truly, authentically connected to who you are and what is important to you. Learn to identify this point of contact when you encounter someone, and moreover, to identify when it’s not present. The key is to not be guided by prejudice; you might find this bond with those significantly different than yourself, and be absent in those you consider more similar to you.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You may be under more stress than you think. The fact that you’re able to handle a lot of push, pull and delicate balancing doesn’t change the fact that it affects you. You may not be able to tell how you actually feel until you get away from people and tune into your inner being. I suggest you do this as much as possible. At the moment you live between two worlds; one is more obvious, louder and full of commitments; the other is subtle, it’s quiet and it’s easy to distract yourself from. But both are real and vital parts of your life. It is the inner calling that is drawing your attention now; it is the source of your energy and the way to orient on your wellbeing. If you’re looking for a way in, start with silence and solitude. From there, any meditative act will take you deeper, such as drawing or music. Deep within the many swirling activities of your world is a deeper place that you are craving.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You seem to be in the place of renewing a relationship, or are feeling a new experience on the horizon. This could be truly beneficial, as you may be feeling. I suggest, however, that you make peace with two possibilities: one is how you might feel if you’re actually desired. Usually, you’re the one who does the desiring. Often, being wanted can stir up a lot of controversy, among other things, because one has the feeling of being seen and noticed. When someone, indeed, anyone wants you, you cannot feel invisible, no matter how much you want to. Second, there is the possibility that you will have to engage with a kind of conflict that you have often vowed to leave behind. You can leave it behind, if you remember (ongoing) that the shadow material that comes up in relationships relates directly to the shadow material you are carrying. Address it within yourself first, and the relationship is more likely to follow your example.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You should now be able to get a little more traction on your creative plans. Even if you’ve been beset by various delays and mix-ups, and even if this has hurt your confidence, I suggest you take a few solid steps and see where you end up. You’re not lacking for bold ideas, that’s for sure. As for confidence, you seem to live in two realities — one in which you’ve got what it takes, and another in which that can evaporate in doubt. The only way to resolve this is through action, which is to say, by daring and seeing what you’re capable of. Once you get the hang of that, and see how much you’re capable of, you may still experience doubt — but at that point it’s merely a thought that doesn’t have to take over your life in any way. In my opinion, the one and only key to freedom is experience.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — This must be an emotionally complex time for you. If so, I suggest it’s time to apply what you learned recently about your attachment to the past, and to who you thought you were in the past. I would also suggest that you ask yourself whether you’re becoming more like your parents, or less like them. This is the question. You have the power to take that process in any direction you like. You can integrate their positive attributes, and outgrow their anxieties; you can take on the worst of who they are (or were). In our time, in your generation, the choice is yours. Yet this is a bigger choice than you may imagine. Collectively, we are at a moment when we need to make a break with the past. That is not about flying cars or solar panels. It’s about how we experience fear, and what it means. It’s about how we think of ourselves; it’s about who we think we are, and what choices we make as a result.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may get a clear idea where you want to put down some new roots, be they emotional, physical or both. You may not be able to act on it right away, but you can create a strategy based on a calling or devotion that you feel. These three concepts are grouped as one idea: roots, calling and strategy. The feeling, when you tune into it, is one that comes with an unusual sense of depth. It’s something you know and feel in your body. In a sense, you’re not making a decision, it is making you. Meanwhile, your mind may have a diversity of opinions, doubts and thoughts of its own, and you can watch those go by like a movie; you don’t have to react or even respond to them. Yet the thing you’re most likely to get is confirmation of some kind that what you’re feeling is authentic and solid. What to do next will follow logically.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — I’m always impressed how messed up so many people are when it comes to money — how mystified, closed-minded and afraid. Money is tied for first place with sex on the list of things people get weird about. The weirdness seems to run in the same basic direction — a crisis over sharing, by which I mean giving and receiving, which can then culminate in withholding and being taken from. It’s as if when we shut down the voluntary process of exchange, and refuse to do what we actually want, some other system takes over. This is the time to own your money, to own your desire, and in fact to own any other resources that you consider your own. The reason to do this consciously is so that you can give and receive as you choose, with what is rightfully yours, undaunted by anyone who refuses to actively, consciously possess what is their own. Your power is your power. You can go anywhere from there.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Is Our Obsession With Relationships Healthy?

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Today is the annual cult of romance known as Valentine’s Day.

It’s time for all the coupled people to buy chocolate and flowers and diamonds, and pump the romance of their love affairs; time for all the uncoupled people to unabashedly ramp up their search for the special relationship; or to sit home woefully dreaming of what might someday be or what one day was. With each passing year, Valentine’s Day competes with Christmas and Halloween for the “most money spent” award. Many single people feel left out; for some it’s a sad day.

Have you ever questioned whether this approach to relationships — that is, to romance — is healthy? As an astrologer who has discussed relationships with nearly every client who has come to me, I propose it’s time to ask. Valentine’s Day mania is just an example of the many ways our society is oriented around ‘coupledom’, from benefits in the tax code to one of the biggest civil rights issues of our day, that being the right of lesbian and gay people to marry. What is interesting is the extent to which this meme of pair bonding is presented as the only legitimate relationship option. If you’re not in a relationship, some odd rule somewhere says you have to be in one; there’s a kind of mandatory search for the ‘special someone’.

Does anyone remember that line from Fear of Flying, in which Erica Jong says she wants to be a whole person instead of half a couple? The astrology of 2011 is all about being a whole person. Astrology or not, the moment we’re in is calling on us to be a whole person, in harmony with our own energy. We talk a lot about being in integrity; that means whole and integrated.

The astrology of our moment strongly favors whole personhood. In fact, if not for the devoted resistance to the concept that seems to be such a part of the dualistic human experience, I would say it’s all but inevitable. This is illustrated several different ways.

First, Saturn in Libra is peeling back the facade from our relationships. The standard narrative (the nuclear family, monogamy is the only way; if you’re single, you’re weird) is wearing thin under the compelling energy of Saturn; astrology that is urging us to get real. Part of real is about making sure we are emotionally self-sufficient; part of real is about conducting our relationships on adult terms. One thing our society does is romanticize relationships; as if once you have one, you’ll always be on a Caribbean vacation. Saturn in Libra is saying we need to be more practical from the outset. Yes we need passion, yes we need to dream and yes, we need to treat our relationships like real-world entities that require a strong sense of purpose and regular maintenance.

One of the most challenging things about relationships is that they rarely acknowledge the individuality of the people involved — that the people in the relationship are whole people and not half a couple. Uranus entering Aries next month is likely to stir up a tempest of the desire to be an individual. That may put a strain on some relationships that are not accustomed to this state of being; one thing we may learn is that our structures are too brittle and need to be more flexible.

Chiron has just entered Pisces for the next eight years, drawing us deep into our unconscious, helping us become aware of our motives, and what we need to resolve emotionally. We have a lot to learn about this; there is a deep need for emotional healing. I suggest that partners recognize that everyone has different emotional healing needs, and your primary relationship is not the only place you may need to get those needs met.

Many people recognize their need to be more independent, but are afraid to do anything about it. Despite all they do with others, and seek from others, their deeper nature is calling on them to stand on their own feet. You may be one of those people, and if you are, I suggest you follow your instincts and take action that will help you get strong in the ways you need to get strong. You can do it — and you will benefit greatly from doing so. It’s just that you may not find a lot of support around you — but this fits the description of being able to live your life without needing the constant approval of others, or being driven through life by the fear of abandonment.

I propose living in a way dedicated to approving of ourselves, affirming the lives of others no matter who they are to us and exploring love based on honesty and emotional freedom. It could be simple. It will be, if we let it be.

And this, I would evoke as the new spirit of Valentine’s Day.

Yours & truly,

Editor’s Note: Normally we distribute Chiron Files on Tuesday morning, but because this issue has a Valentine’s Day theme we are sending it Monday evening. This will take the place of our previously scheduled mailing tomorrow. In case you’re curious and would like more ideas to consider on the theme of our wacky relationship lives, here is a link into a new archive of past articles on sexuality and relationships by Eric. Friday we published an article called Be My Valentine, which explores alternate models of relationships. These articles are full of inspiration to explore whether your status is single, monogamous or ‘complicated’.

Egypt: For Now, the People are in Charge

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Dear Friend and Reader:

After yesterday’s very strange day in Egypt — beginning with early reports by numerous supposedly reliable sources that Mubarak would resign and ending with him transferring power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, but keeping the title of president — nobody can say for sure what is happening in Egypt. Today is expected to be the biggest day of protest since the demonstrations began 18 days ago.

Chart for the military stating that it had convened the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has not met since 1973. The chart shows a situation delicately balanced on the military but with the people in charge of the country.

Outrage at Mubarak’s refusal to actually quit has pushed the country to the point of explosion.

As we go to press Friday morning, it seems like everything rests in the hands of the military, which is holding space between the Egyptian people and Mubarak, whose ouster they are demanding. His refusal to step down seems calculated to push a showdown between the people and the army. Though the military is in a sense neutral, “That neutrality helps the crowds and hurts Mr. Mubarak,” historian Juan Cole said on Thursday night’s Rachel Maddow Show.

This morning there were news reports that ‘Al Arabiya television reported that Mubarak and his family had left Cairo to an unknown destination from a military airbase in the suburbs’.

A heavily armed contingent of Marines has moved into the American embassy in Cairo and has been maintaining a perimeter from the inside for several days. Egyptian security forces are guarding the embassy from outside. After considerable research last night we could not confirm reports that American warships from the 5th fleet had moved into the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Most sources on-scene are saying that the Egyptian military — while divided in its support for Mubarak, who has ruled under a state of emergency for 30 years — is not going to open fire on the people. Thursday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued what it called Communique #1, at 5 pm Cairo time, confirming this. The Supreme Council has convened only twice before: during the wars against Israel in 1967 and 1973.

“In affirmation and support for the legitimate demands of the people, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces convened today, 10 February 2011, to consider developments to date,” an army spokesman declared on state television, in what was described as communiqué No. 1 of the army command, “and decided to remain in continuous session to consider what procedures and measures that may be taken to protect the nation, and the achievements and aspirations of the great people of Egypt,” The New York Times reported.

The chart for communique #1 seems like a decisive moment, or at least a turning point, at the end of a really weird day. It’s an interesting chart, which illustrates the stance of the military as stated in its letter. Here is what I see.

The Moon is the highest planet. It’s in the 10th house of government, extremely strong in Taurus (its sign of exaltation). The Moon represents the people, who are solid in their values — the generals, as they have said, perceive that the people are in charge and that they have legitimate issues. Cancer (which the Moon rules) is on the 12th house, so the Moon comes out of the vast and overwhelming 12th — the Egyptian public, the most populous in the Middle East. The 12th is an intangible; the Moon’s presence in Taurus gives it a more solid form.

Notably, Mubarak, born in early May, has become the brunt of a good few Taurus jokes, based mostly on his tenacity in the face of extreme resistance. But he does actually appear to be going through a transformation. The ruling planet of that midheaven, Venus, is currently conjunct Pluto and Vesta. He has given up something, namely the powers of the presidency.

There is a massive crowd showing up in the 7th house, shown by all those planets on the right side of the chart. That would be the opposition movement. Leo is rising, which tells us about the matter in question — the military’s statement. And the military (the Sun, ruler of Leo) is aligned with the people in Aquarius, opposite the sign rising. So far, so good. [A second indicator of the army, the ruler of the 6th house (which is Saturn) lands in Libra, retrograde — another sign of restraint.]

There is, however, something that indicates how fragile the situation really is. Though you cannot see it clearly in the chart, when you look at the numbers, Mars is exactly (to within one degree) halfway between the Sun and Mercury. Mars, always a co-ruler of the military in a public chart, is also conjunct Nessus, a centaur planet of karma coming back through a cycle of events. Nessus also indicates an injury based on psychic abuse of some kind; it would seem the armed forces have also struggled under the dictatorship.

That midpoint is tricky and a little unstable, and if there is peace it’s a delicate state of affairs. In addition, the Sun — the military and its ideas — are headed toward Neptune. There may be a loss of the apparent solidity of the Sun: a message gets lost, its power gets lost in a fog, or there is a deception going on. And there is stuff they don’t understand and that they don’t know. Obviously Mubarak is concerned that there could be a military coup — that is more likely than the army firing on the people.

My sense is that the military is not entirely trustworthy. While they are not opening fire on the public, there have been reports of disappearances and torture. We also see this untrustworthy quality in the natal chart for the Republic of Egypt, which we covered last week. There is something two-faced about the beloved Egyptian army, in which people have so much faith.

The real tension point in this chart is that the Taurus Moon is about to make a series of square aspects to all those Aquarius planets in the 7th, starting with Ceres, Mars, Nessus, the Sun and last, Neptune, ending this chapter of the story. As the Moon makes these squares, it will push the situation closer to the edge, and it may seem like it’s bent well past the breaking point. If the sides or the meaning of events are unclear or uncertain today, they only seem headed for greater uncertainty as the Moon waxes toward full phase and popular momentum gathers.

There is plenty we don’t know about that is not being reported by the U.S. media. For example, the Global Intelligence blog reported last week that, “US intelligence sources disclosed that exactly a week ago, on Jan. 29, an attempt was made on the life of Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman in central Cairo as his convoy left the presidential palace. He had just been sworn in by President Hosni Mubarak as Vice President. Suleiman escaped unharmed but two of his bodyguards were killed. The sources said the attack bore the marks of professional, well-trained hitmen. The attack was denied in Cairo but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed it in Munich when she said the assassination attempt was a sign of instability in Egypt.”

We will update the Planet Waves blog with details as we learn them.

Yours & truly,

Be My Valentine

Note to Readers: This week’s article is an expanded version of my February column in a regional magazine where I live, called Chronogram.

Dear Friend and Reader:

When I first started writing for Chronogram, an arts and culture magazine where I live in the Hudson Valley, I once succeeded in causing a controversy.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Oh really? you say. And how was that?

Well, I wrote a three-part series on polyamory — that is, on what some call ‘responsible nonmonogamy’ and others call ‘open relationships’. I guess this was around 1997. It seems like so long ago. I started the first of the three articles by coming out to my readers as polyamorous; I thought it was a good idea to get that fact out of the way. I love relationships and the art of relating, and I like to connect with whomever feels right to relate with, in whatever way is mutually agreeable.

(Trust me, those terms and conditions don’t leave a lot of room for the anarchy you may think is brewing.)

I described my motivations and a bit about my experiences, and mentioned that there exist a significant number of people who either are polyamorous or want to be, but who don’t quite feel comfortable speaking up. Sometimes, though, just learning the word has a way of setting someone free — I’ve heard that a lot. Other people, though, can get defensive, as if the one and only legitimate form of relationship is being compromised. Jason Stern, one of the founders of Chronogram who was then its editor, said that he was hearing from readers and advertisers about the series from people even five years later. Five years! You know, the usual complaints about how his writer was going to bring down Western civilization and so forth.

As of today, the topic has been covered by everyone from Newsweek to Huffington Post and appears as a regular feature on the website of Psychology Today.

Polyamory has been discussed on the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Independent (UK). There exists a very nice blog with archives going back to 2005 that is devoted to keeping up with all the news coverage and analysis polyamory gets. It’s called Polyamory in the News and it will come up with Google’s ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ option. There are so many published news and website references to polyamory that it’s both impressive and funny. The archives are brimming with this open secret, this thing that’s so taboo nobody can bring themselves to talk about it anywhere but at a polyamory conference. I’ve found that most of the news stories are fairly balanced, describing well-adapted adults making choices about the structure of their families.

I have my reasons for suspecting why the issue is so touchy-hushy, which I won’t get into in this article (I covered them in an earlier article called The One and The Many.)

Photo by Eric Francis.

But before I go on, let me say this.

You read it here first.

If you were reading Chronogram or Planet Waves at the time, you read it before it was a thing in the mainstream press, and long before the LGBTQ movement had its wings or its many letters. You read it before many documentaries were made. You read it here before it was cool to come out (as anything). You read it nine whole years before the word polyamory was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006.

Here is how those erudite scholars define the word: “The fact of having simultaneous close emotional relationships with two or more other individuals, viewed as an alternative to monogamy, esp. in regard to matters of sexual fidelity; the custom or practice of engaging in multiple sexual relationships with the knowledge and consent of all partners concerned.”
In other words, not Tiger Woods. And not King Henry VIII, about whom the term polyamorist was used in 1953 to describe him, in the Illustrated History of English Literature, Volume 1 by A. C. Ward. This may have actually been the first iteration, and in a sense Henry was polyamorous in the eyes of the church. Today, he would be called a ‘serial monogamist’, which I think is an oxymoron; I prefer ‘serial polyamorist’ for those who have their relationships in a long sequence.

I would add a couple of things missing from the OED’s definition. One is that it’s a sexual and emotional orientation. It is not for everyone, and there is a good chance one is either born polyamorous, or that the capacity or need exists on a deep level in the psyche. Many people who are in monogamous relationships are closeted polys. They can be filled with the same guilt and shame and self-questioning as a gay kid whose friends are predominantly straight.

And while relatively few people openly identify as polyamorous, there are many who are so in practice. They just don’t want to be labeled. I can see the point, though I’m not a big fan of denial. There comes a time in life when you have to say who you are, to the people who really matter.

Many others are curious and restless, knowing that for them monogamy has run its course. The one certified form of relationship is not giving them space to get their needs met. Many couples are eager to open up their relationships, and not just because they want some sexual variety; they also crave the bonding, growth opportunities, and expanded community that come with doing so. And yes, some grounded sexual freedom feels really good. If you’re one of these people, go on Amazon and start ordering books.

Photo by Eric Francis.

In many of my other writings about sexuality and about polyamory I emphasize the idea that the actual thing we need to be doing is exploring our individuation. I believe that our obsession with relationships, finding our soul mate, hooking the right guy to marry and so forth, are a big distraction from learning to be who we are. I believe that exploring polyamory can — no guarantee here, but a possibility — help facilitate that quest for individuation because it requires us to take a conscious step into who we are.

Then the practice of being yourself, which means being fully honest, with several different people, and explaining this to your friends and family, is the perfect kind of confrontation that provides us with the space to individuate. People provide different kinds of mirrors, and the more mirrors you explore yourself in, the more points of view you will get.

As part of this process, you will get a rare and beautiful opportunity to face your insecurities, do something about your jealousy and unpack lots of the baggage you’re carrying from childhood. And you get the chance to hold space for your brothers and sisters to do the same. There is a lot of processing inherent in being polyamorous, especially at first.

Granted, this is merely a step on the way to the deepest level of self-exploration, which involves stepping as far out of emotional co-dependency as possible. Any form of relationship can become a spiral. But being fully authentic in your relationships (as opposed to hiding, lying, denying, etc.), is a great step in the right direction.

Mixers, Potlucks and Jealousy

The word polyamory is an umbrella term. It refers to no one particular relationship style, and the concept goes well beyond sex. At its essence it’s about love and relating, but the sexual aspect of relationships, including sexual feelings, is considered normal and is treated in a more open way. Sex is not ‘mandatory’ but it’s absolutely included.

There exist many methods and styles of polyamory; I will describe a few of them to the degree necessary to help you check whether you identify with one or more. My initial intent of this article (when I wrote it to be published locally) was to get some poly action going in the Hudson Valley. There are no groups here that I know of; nobody holding events. If you like the idea, I suggest you circulate it among your friends and get something going in your neighborhood as well. At least, you can get a conversation going.

For those who identify with these ideas but might hesitate, I can assure you that once a concept has made Newsweek, the Oxford English Dictionary and a dedicated blog on Psychology Today, it is sufficiently mainstream that you don’t have to mutter ‘I’m not so weird, I’m not so weird’ under your breath on the way to your first potluck dinner. This, by the way, I will host in my photo studio Valentine’s Day (contact instructions are at the end of this article). I’m also open to doing evening or day workshops (I have presented dozens of them — everywhere but locally.)

Name That Celebrity

Here is something you may not have thought of, vis-à-vis poly. We can all name gay and lesbian celebrities. Can you name one openly polyamorous celebrity?

Obviously they exist. But who are they?

Photo by Eric Francis.

Poly folk have a few odd things in common. We tend to be a bit bookish. We love a good theory; we tend to read and write about our way of life. A lot of talking is involved. There’s a fantasy among many that being poly is like one endless night in the old Penthouse mansion at the peak of the 1970s. Every now and then it might be, though usually it’s pretty different from that. Some of us consider ourselves social engineers, helping design and build better structures and concepts of human interaction. Most of us just want to love the way it’s natural for us to love.

The poly movement got its start in science fiction novels, particularly Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. The upshot of that story is that a human born and raised on Mars by Martians (named Valentine Michael Smith), was returned to Earth by his foster parents. Being raised off-world, he lacked the typical human hang-ups (guilt, body shame, mendacity, limits imposed on his capacity to love) and, as a result, he manifested a very friendly scene around him. He was also a good kisser. A very interesting adventure ensued. It’s one of the books I’ll never forget and one of my inspirations for being a sci-fi and fantasy writer.

That was a book. It turns out that nonfiction humans are less monogamous than they claim to be, and that many of the ‘standard narratives’ are simply not supported by observation or genetic research. But the thing that makes a person polyamorous is being up front about that fact.

Jealousy, the Kids and Compersion

Then two questions always arise: What about jealousy? and, What about the kids?

Jealousy is a factor in most relationships, particularly monogamous ones. As we all know, presumed exclusivity does not address the issue itself. Usually it’s swept under the rug by the presumption of monogamy or by not telling one’s partner about an affair because ‘that would hurt them’. Polyamory takes jealousy as either therapeutic subject matter, or as a teacher (same basic idea). The issue is put right out onto the table. When you can look at it, it’s no longer the daunting monster that it seems to be when left in the closet. It becomes the basis of a growth and healing process designed to unearth and address the insecurity, envy and lack of self-esteem beneath the surface.

Photo by Eric Francis.

One of the first concepts that anyone stepping into polyamory finds out about is compersion. That is the experience of being turned on by the love and pleasure of the people you care about. Some say it’s the opposite of jealousy; I say it’s an alternate universe of a world where jealousy is a ubiquitous toxin. Compersion is like taking a Buddhist approach to relationships. It is an emotion, but it’s also an approach to existence. It is the equivalent in polyamorous relationships to oxygen in the biological world.

As for the kids, I don’t think that any conventional form of relationship can, in practice, claim to be inherently good for kids. Many of our parents who preached or attempted to follow the doctrine of monogamy had many extremely messy relationships, right in our faces. Rather, it’s how we conduct our relationships that matters: the content rather than the form. There are some truly functional marriages — but not all of them are, and it’s not marriage that makes the relationship functional. Not so long ago, sexual monogamy used to be set in the context of an extended family. There was always a sister, aunt, or uncle around to watch the kids. There was always company around. In many contemporary marriage-based households where two parents work, the kids are severely neglected. And if the parents don’t get along, the kids will suffer no matter how monogamous the parents are. If the parents are deceptive, the kids will know.

Most people practice what they call serial monogamy, which typically means instability and lack of real support that a more stable form of relationship would provide. That is not a good environment for kids. Many of us raised since the ’70s and ’80s are the products of this relationship style. Serial monogamy is a way of treating people like they’re disposable. Polyamory is a mode of relationship that, for many people, involves putting friendship first.

It provides a context in which to explore creative experiments. It’s designed to create a stable environment, which, if it does not automatically work, is at least workable. If polyamory can’t make a claim on sustainability, at least it is practical. The idea is to embrace conscious family and household design.

I admit this requires honesty and maturity, which can seem to be scarce commodities. In an old book called Bringers of the Dawn, the Pleiadian entities who are the purported source of the material make a good point. They say that humans are inherently polyamorous, but we have an integrity problem. Therefore, the most efficient form of relating is monogamy.

Thanks, guys. It’s nice to have a non-human perspective on this. Speaking as a person, I would say that we need to be who we are and along the way, open up and address the integrity issue. I’m not suggesting that anyone who is not polyamorous pretend to be so, and I’m not saying that it’s some kind of mandatory thing. What I am suggesting is that whoever feels the calling take the opportunity to get real. If you would like a guide to doing that, check out the book Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton. Not the later ones in the series — the first one, with a two-word title.

Triads, Panfidelity and Intimate Networks

In the space remaining, let me introduce you to three kinds of polyamorous relationships, to give a sense of the diversity of possibilities. I’m going to explain them in the first person, using I-statements for consistency. These are just three basic examples out of many possibilities, all of which are in truth unique to the people involved. They are all interesting, when you listen to the people who are involved.

The Triad. I’m in a pair-bonded couple. We’ve been together for a few years and have good clear communication. My partner meets a man she likes and begins seeing him socially. I encourage her to explore if she wants to; I’ve met him and I get along with him. She’s open about their experiences with me. They are both respectful of our primary partnership. They get closer and want to explore sexually. I’m open to this. Jealousy is not an issue because I think her sexuality is beautiful no matter how she expresses it. There are many other possibilities for triads, including situations where all three partners are sexually and emotionally involved, or live together (the real definition of ménage a trois).

Photo by Eric Francis.

Panfidelity. I am in a long-term relationship with my lover on the East Coast, where I live. I have a friend and sometimes lover on the West Coast who predates this relationship by years. We are close friends and have a deep understanding; what feels in truth like a lifelong bond. A few times a year, we meet up somewhere and spend time together. Our other relationships accommodate this because we’ve been open about it with new partners from the outset. There are other forms of panfidelity, which all involve long-term, committed polyamorous situations.

Intimate Network. I prefer to live independently. I have a number of friends, locally and around the country, with whom I am emotionally close and can be sexually open. I also have one or two ‘friends with benefits’. I enjoy closeness and sexual variety but I don’t want to be in a traditional pair-bonded situation or household-based relationship. I prefer my social freedom and I want to keep my options open.

What all the forms of relationship under the umbrella of polyamory have in common is an ethos of honesty and authenticity. Love is offered in a spirit of freedom, and when challenges arise, which they almost always do, the people involved are prepared to work them out. There are tools and resources that we can avail ourselves of, including a growing community of poly-friendly counselors. I’ve been tapped as a poly-friendly (and bi-friendly) astrologer for many years. If you’re poly and your therapist says you need to grow up or you’re acting out, I suggest you talk to someone who has a clue what your life is about.

As for That Valentine’s Day Potluck

Now for the local action piece. If you live in the Hudson Valley of New York, or somewhere close by and you feel like taking a ride, you’re invited to inquire about coming to my Valentine’s Day Poly Potluck. This will be Monday evening, Feb. 14. You may write to me at poly@bookofblue.com. Tell me a little about yourself and your interest in polyamory, and please include contact information. The curious are welcome.

By the way, I have a friend who is a well-studied astrologer and who is poly. She did a study reading the charts of poly people, to see what the successful ones had in common. Can you guess what it was?

The answer is a strong Saturn. That is astrological language for healthy boundaries.

Yours & truly,


Weekly Horoscope for Friday, February 11, 2011, #849 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Are you at the end or the beginning? They’re closely connected. I suggest you take care of endings first. In particular, focus on any growth projects you’ve initiated the past seven years. There have been a few. Seven years is a while; dredge up the whole agenda, remembering the things you’ve forgotten. Take a look on your bookshelf for some ideas; take anything from the ‘self-help’ genre and remember your intention behind acquiring or reading that particular book. How many of the ideas did you put to work? If you take a subtle approach, you may discover that you applied more of them than you think. What you may not have done is assemble the various pieces into a cohesive notion of what you think growth or spiritual development is about. Pause and reflect — it will be obvious.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The time has arrived to notice that you actually have dreams — specific dreams, not vague ones. While it’s true that manifesting the visions for what you want your life to be takes some action, mostly it takes focus. And all the action in the world will get you nowhere without a concept, an idea or an objective of some kind. You may need to go against your practical and/or humanitarian nature and choose something like ballet dancer, filmmaker, novelist or erotic party hostess. What you may encounter as you remember what you want is how much you wanted to do in the past that you didn’t get around to doing. Let go of your regrets quickly, so you can move on. Some of those dreams still have plenty of life in them — much more than you think.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Having tangible professional goals may not be one of your strengths. Having a healthy imagination about what you can potentially do, however, definitely is. Your planets this week offer two bold suggestions. One is to set a career goal based on a longstanding plan. The second is notice what happens when you focus and invoke your desire. Try it as a mental exercise. Concentrate on something you want, and sense how you feel. Do you feel clear, or do you feel guilty? Do you feel that the actual possibility is available, or do you hear any voices telling you that it’s not the right thing to do? You have an opportunity to claim back something that was taken from you. It seems like you’re taking it back from a collective of some kind, such as a church, your family or your circle of friends. Once you see the group psychology involved, you can claim what’s rightly yours.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — I suggest you hold off on making contractual arrangements or initiating new collaborations for a few days, till the Sun is in Pisces. Stick to doing what you want to do, going where you want to go, and developing the abundant ideas that are running through your mind. Though you may not have noticed yet, your horizons just got a whole lot wider, and in truth those of the people around you are apt to be somewhat narrower. So keep your ideas to yourself; let them cook in your notebook or a document stashed off to the side of your screen. There are moments where something potent germinates, and you’re in one of them now. Honor that, and soak in the feeling of true creativity. Feel the movement and the shifting sense of perspective. Remember, you’ll feel more like you’re dancing than like you’re in church.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — It’s amazing how many people are hurt. It just seems to go on and on, and most people you meet limp around on their injuries without paying attention to what’s going on. You have insight into their situations, but what’s more interesting is the insight they can give you into yours. Nearly all illness is caused by, or comes with, a delusion of some kind. It’s difficult to see one’s own delusions, but others around you are providing a kind of mirror. It’s not that you have their problems; it’s that you can apply to yourself the logic you use when you figure out what they have going on. Look at what the people around you believe that makes no sense, and look at what they think is funny. Everyone will become mysteriously transparent, and the issues (along with how to handle them) plainly obvious.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Chiron has made its way into your opposite sign Pisces, where it will be every day from now until April 17, 2018. This represents an extended phase of your growth and exploration in relationships. It’s nearly coincidental with a seven-year phase that is ending, wherein you may have decided that relationships are either not dependable or too much trouble to bother with. It’s true, there is something well deserving of deep questioning. Yet you can be sure that your relationships from this point on will be taking on a new purpose. For a while there will be a phase where the themes of the old and new cycles overlap, and you’ll need to consciously choose who represents your past and who represents your future. That is a great skill to have. Practice while the contrasts are particularly bold.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Your charts are telling me how close to the hot core of your reality you’re reaching these days. Whatever you may be experiencing, you’re very close to doing this thing called ‘finding yourself’. Yet at the same time you may have the sensation that you’re being forced to give something up. What exactly would that be? A combination of factors point to some deep emotional evolution. The theme involves a nexus of where commitment meets guilt meets the emotional dimension of your erotic nature. Whatever it may seem based on your circumstances, the thing you’re giving up is guilt. Straight away you can dismiss that this is a useful emotion. It is merely toxic and oppressive. It is not evidence of being wrong; it’s evidence that you were made to feel wrong. Encountering guilt in any form means you’re moving in the direction of your freedom. Keep going.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your sign is most famous for its sexual prowess. Whether you feel you deserve this distinction is another question, but sex is quickly becoming the theme of your charts. I see this coming from two angles. One is that Chiron has ingressed Pisces, your 5th house of creative love and passion. The 5th is sexuality without any trace of power trip. Its purpose is pleasure and exploration. The other angle involves the viewpoint that a close partner (or potential partner) may be adopting, which is that sex has an important role to play in emotional healing. Most of that healing involves learning to feel deeply and to let go of guilt. The two positions are perfectly compatible. As you begin to see the ways in which your sexuality is changing, I suggest you assess carefully whether you’re with the right lover. You have a specific mission in these years, and your whole life must support that.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Don’t worry, you’re not crazy. Your mind is not broken beyond repair, or broken at all, for that matter. And in case you don’t get reminders of this regularly, you’re more intelligent than you think, not less. What you would benefit from is learning the art of drawing light from dark; of letting uncertainty be a kind of foundation on which you build your sense of who you are. I know this sounds like a contradiction here on Planet Cocky. Insecurity is a reminder that life is transient; uncertainty is a reminder to pay attention, to take care of yourself and to reach for your goals from a deeper place. True confidence must always contain a bit of its opposite. This is precisely the opposite of stoking your fears. Rather, it’s giving them a productive use, tapping into energy that would otherwise be wasted.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — I suggest you be aware of a quality of polarization that may be developing in your life. There are a few possibilities for how this might feel. One is that you are struggling to reconcile your professional life and your home life. Both want attention but you feel like you have to give more attention to one. Here’s a thought about that particular polarity. You’ve made some tremendous strides professionally the past two years. I say this knowing you may have faced some significant crises and growing pains. But the main lesson you’ve learned is that you’re a lot more than a survivor. So I suggest you honor the calling in the direction of home, and in the direction of your interior life. You will refresh who you are, and one side benefit will be a wealth of ideas that help you build your fortunes.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may be feeling like you’ve got some serious self-improvement to do. I suggest you not fall for this trap. The notion of ‘making yourself a better person’ is not like going to the gym. When people grow, the main thing that changes is their perspective. Often that perspective involves taking a more compassionate view of what’s happened to you in the past. There’s also the step of not inflicting what has happened to you onto others. What you may be experiencing are the remnants of psychological abuse, as well as some form of betrayal. If you have the feeling that ‘something is going to come back to you’, you know you’ve got the thing right in your hand. The part about expecting karma to bite you on the ass is a direct outgrowth of the abuse. It is not the truth. It is, however, a thought form, and with a little awareness, you can unravel it. Writing to someone is likely to help.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Chiron arrived in your sign earlier in the week, and Neptune (the modern ruler of your sign) is on its way. You may have the sensation of standing out; you may not appreciate the attention you’re getting. While you’ve often lamented feeling invisible, there’s a kind of psychological — or maybe it’s emotional — sensation of safety in not being seen. There is more going on than you think. What you’re actually doing is negotiating a new position in the world. Your ego structure is taking a new shape. The inner light that can shine through a healthy ego is coming in stronger. And this is going to alter your relationship to the people around you. For a while their responses may be more intense than usual, or seem a little weird. Take it in stride and keep remembering who you are.

To pre-order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

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Eric Francis, the founder and editor of Planet Waves, is an astrologer and investigative journalist. He was working in his first job as a municipal newspaper reporter when he discovered that his editor also owned an astrology bookstore. This began a long relationship between astrology and journalism, which has taken Eric through the pages of many newspapers as a horoscope writer, including the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror plus numerous other venues. Today, Eric covers global turning point events through the lens of astrology. He is a specialist in newly-discovered planets.