Aries (March 20-April 19) — You need an outlet for all this energy. It has to be something that matches your imagination, and this in turn is likely to be a bit much for the people you’ve been associating with lately. It looks like most of the people around you are running about 15 degrees cooler than you are. Said another way, you may not find many others who are willing to take the creative or social risks you want to take, so I suggest you not let anyone hold you back, or persuade you that you’re being a little too wild. You may be, for their tastes, but not for what your soul is calling you to express or explore. You may need a little self-coaxing to openly admit what you want, and a bit more to act on it — though I suggest you move with the current momentum of your imagination, while that momentum is carrying you.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Marriage is not the solution to everything. If there is such a solution, that would be trust, and it seems obvious that trust is what people are seeking when they invest themselves in relationships that are designed to be ‘permanent’. Yet it’s easy not to trust, and to give oneself reasons not to trust, even in the seemingly most secure situation. Where do you stand on this subject? One way to measure that is by considering carefully what you say and what you don’t say to the people you consider your intimates. You seem to be of two minds about this — sometimes willing to be totally transparent and at others feeling like this is inconvenient, or an unnecessary risk. You don’t need to overanalyze this. If you have something on your mind, say so, and if you have a question, ask directly. In fact, make a wish.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The forthcoming Full Moon streaks across the sky in the angle of your chart involved with achievement and reputation. It’s a direct invitation to be bold about who you are and what you do, and to keep those two things as aligned as you can. I suggest you eliminate the concept of ‘career’ from your vocabulary and instead replace it with the concept of your vocation. A vocation is a calling, and there has rarely been a time when a calling was summoning you more boldly. Are you listening? Can you hear it? Can you see the signs leading you to the place you want to be? Or are you afraid that what you want to do is too good to be true, or too adventurous to be possible? Perhaps it might be for most people on most days, but not for you, at this time in your life.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — There’s just one thing left to do, and that is to have faith in yourself, in your dreams and in your potential. Well, there’s just one other thing to do, which is to take action while you are feeling inspired and bold. It’s way too easy to wait for the wave of confidence to pass. It’s also way too easy to allow yourself to be motivated by frustration, which has its place, though as you’ve seen over the past few months, there are much more preferable ways to get yourself going. Next week’s Full Moon in your fellow water sign Pisces is inviting you to dream big. This means not allowing yourself to be limited by what you considered out of reach in the past. Consider what you would do if you didn’t believe in any limits at all, and then move precisely in that direction.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Go beyond secrecy and taboo in any form. The more secrets you let out of the bag, the more fun you will have. There are two reasons for this. One is that keeping information to yourself is like wearing a brick around your neck. The other reason is that all of the really enticing stuff we have to share is usually kept behind the veil of secrecy, where it doesn’t get a chance to flourish. The Pisces Full Moon takes place in one of the most intimate angles of your chart. You will get a chance to see that intimacy means openness and transparency. To get the benefits of this event, it would be helpful to lean into the side of revealing more rather than revealing less. If you find yourself revealing one fact or feeling, that is the one to reveal. You will feel better, and unplug those places where your energy has been getting blocked.
Your reading includes a live question-and-response session with Eric (date TBA), archived in case you cannot make the live event. These conference calls have been a productive and fun way to learn about astrology and how it affects us. You also get access to last year’s reading to check Eric’s accuracy, and to review the past few seasons. In addition, your reading includes an extended written sign description.
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Yours & truly,
Amanda Painter
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Imagine a world with no concept of ‘other’ or of opposition, a world where you are in harmony with everyone and everything around you. This may be difficult to conjure up on a planet where just about everyone and everything seems to be in some state of competition or conflict with something else, though I invite you to use your imagination. How might that feel? Now consider the possibility that each day that you live is a step that you take on the way to getting to that place of integration. In truth such a state of existence begins within your mind, not as something you impose on yourself but rather as something you observe about yourself. What’s beautiful about the next few days is an opening through which a rather unusual light shines, and you get to see yourself reflected in it.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Pleasure, imagination, curiosity — these are some of the most potent healing tools available to us. Yet to be effective there needs to be some soul presence, or a conscious idea of seeking self-knowledge. I am not talking about entertainment. For many people the opening into the healing dimension may as well be a sealed door expertly polished into marble to make it seem like it’s not there. However, it is most certainly there, and you already have confirmation that such a dimension exists and that you can indeed access it, even if you cannot predict when. Right now the astrology is aligning in a way that makes this dimension closer than ever, and that increases your ability to feel your way to it. Just remember that you know you’re responding to something that is real, and to which you have direct access, if you need it.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Monday’s Pisces Full Moon happens in what you might think of as the pleasure center of your solar chart — the 5th house. Most of what passes for pleasure in Western society is really an effort to avoid pain. There are several ways you can tell the real thing from the counterfeit version. One is the presence of curiosity about yourself, and it’s an intensely pleasurable curiosity. It’s the kind of feeling good that goes deeper into previously unknown, or forgotten, regions of who you are. Another is the desire for freedom. That can translate to craving the unknown, which is a specific kind of liberty. This will teach you something about pleasure anxiety, which is really a form of self-control rooted in a ‘need’ for what is absolutely familiar. Take an extended moment and allow your existence to be a mystery and an adventure. You are being invited into an unusually deep inner space.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Creativity must have an emotional source. It can feed you intellectually, and feed your quest, but the drive to create is body-level, akin to the need to breathe, or your response to pain. Actually those are fitting metaphors for the creative process, as it does involve an in-breath and out-breath of experience, and some of the world’s greatest creative works have served artists, musicians and writers as a way to process loss. For you, creativity helps you build your inner home. When you tap your gifts, you create a space of safety for yourself, and you can then move into that space and live more confidently. You might think of that as a kind of healing cave, from which emerge many resources and jewels you can share with those you love and care about.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — These years of your life have been some of the most driven and urgent ever, arriving with one enforced change after the next. Yet there is another way to evolve, which is to relax into what is possible. You don’t need to resist yourself, and you certainly don’t need to dwell on your worst fears. You can find that space inside yourself where you have no concerns at all about whether you’re accepted by others, or have a place in society, and when you get there, you may feel like you’re taking a warm bath for the first time. There is a way of being where you can, at least for a while, step out of any judgment, which is more likely to feel like stepping into self-embrace. If you feel a tinge of guilt, don’t fight it; keep going; you are headed in the right direction. It will rinse off of your skin like soap.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — What is it that makes you human? I would propose that it’s a self-reflective quality — the awareness of your own awareness, which leads to consciousness of your own existence. Because everyone has a unique emotional makeup, that consciousness might emphasize pain, or pleasure, or love, or anger, or desire, or the desire to create. Humanity is the capacity to be aware of such a feeling and to respond to it. As the Pisces Full Moon lights up the dimension of your horoscope associated with your inner resources, and the feelings you have for yourself, I suggest you let the awareness of any emotion, thought or desire remind you of the fact that you exist. After awareness, the next stage of evolution is the ability to respond to what you feel, and to consciously create a desired state of experience. You are closer to that self-creative state than you’ve ever been.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Speaking of human, what is it that makes you a Pisces? What is the confirmation of your inner knowledge that you were born at the right time? Is it your love of nature, of sex, of music, of sensory experience in any form? Is it your unquenchable longing for cosmic connection, to yourself and to other people? Is it the love of sacred plants? Whatever it may be, this weekend (and Monday) is the time to go fully into that experience, with no expectations — give yourself the gift of a full-on experiment and see where that takes you. With the Moon conjunct Chiron and with Neptune right in the neighborhood, that could well be anywhere — or anywhere you want. For reference, the Moon ingresses Pisces Sunday at 7:47 pm EDT (23:47 UTC) and reaches full phase Monday at 9:38 pm EDT (Tuesday at 1:38 UTC). See you there!