Given all that’s happened in recent days, many people are feeling as if there’s no future. You might be wondering whether there’s any point in trying to strive for the kind of growth, personal fulfillment or community involvement we often encourage in these pages. I’d like to start this week by saying firmly that there is a future, there is a point, and there is plenty of room for you on this beautiful planet. I strongly suggest you refuse to allow fear or apathy to prevail; and that you instead redouble your efforts to infuse your life, and those of the people you love, with joy and meaning.

“Driver” by Charlie Lemay.

So, you might want to ask yourself: what are you doing with your life? Have you identified any goals, or tried to firm up your vision for the future? Do you feel like you’re in a constant defensive state of just trying to react to what comes flying at you? Are you afraid to make any big steps, lest you get it ‘wrong’?

Plenty of people are feeling a lot of pressure with the current astrology. Particularly if you tend to take a passive approach to life — seeing what the universe plops into your lap and then responding, but rarely trying to steer things preemptively — it’s easy to get panicky around eclipses. Knowing that retrograde Mercury could be scrambling things tends not to boost confidence; but it need not obliterate it, either.

Remember, the idea is not to make the ‘perfect’ choice. Yes, what you do during the two weeks between eclipses tends to set a tone or trajectory for many months to follow. But ‘many months’ is not the same as ‘forever’. In any case, so-called ‘mistakes’ often teach us more than getting things ‘right’ the first time ever could. Sometimes what seems like a mistake at first turns out to be a stroke of great luck.

Really, what do you have to lose? (Assuming you’re not about to gamble your house and life savings at a blackjack table in Vegas.) Sure, you might risk looking or feeling foolish; you might risk being disappointed; maybe pursuing your dream even puts your stability (financial, job, relationship, familial) at risk. Those are all things worth weighing, and not all risks weigh the same.

Yet, as Eric alludes to in one of this week’s horoscopes, most people will hang onto a pretty meager scrap of ‘security’ rather than offer it up to the universe in exchange for really taking the driver’s seat in their own life. Lord knows I have at times.

Art car crossing Burning Man in 2012; photo by Amanda Painter.

Getting the hang of commanding one’s life — being willing to make decisions and take responsibility for both the successes and failures that follow — can be very, very difficult and scary. Not everyone was empowered by their parents to do that; not every soul comes into this plane of existence with a clear memory of how it can work.

But it can work. It doesn’t work in a vacuum, however. And Venus in Cancer opposing Pluto in Capricorn (exact Tuesday) is a reminder to handle hidden or semi-conscious tensions in relationships as consciously as possible. The more you can do that, the more power you’ll have for positive change. On Thursday, Venus squares Jupiter in Libra: enjoy others’ company and, as much as possible, give yourself a break on what you ‘have’ to do and focus on what you love to do.

If you were completely free this week to pursue whatever lights you up the most, what would you do? Most importantly, what makes you think you can’t do it — or at least move toward it in some meaningful way? If you have not noticed just how much freedom you really have, it’s time to see it and use it.