Dear Friend and Reader:

How is your swimming going? The sky is still overwhelmingly Piscean in the wake of Tuesday night’s Pisces New Moon with a total solar eclipse. We’re now in ‘the eclipse zone’: the two weeks between a matched set of eclipses, one solar and one lunar.

The March 9, 2016 (March 8 in some time zones) total solar eclipse as seen in Belitung, Indonesia, Wednesday. Photo: AP.

Although the solar eclipse was not visible for most Planet Waves readers, the energy was open for anyone to drop into. Or perhaps I should say ‘float in’? From what I could tell, it was pretty introspective for many people, befitting a Pisces New Moon.

The corresponding lunar eclipse will not take place in Pisces. Rather, it will span the Aries-Libra axis — a Full Moon with the Sun in very early Aries and the Moon in very early Libra. In fact, the Sun and Moon will be early enough in their signs for this to count as an Aries Point event — the Aries Point being that first degree of the zodiac in the sign Aries where personal and political events seem to intersect and magnify to impressive effect.

If you encounter even just minimal news stories, you’re certainly aware of these personal/political issues: race, misogyny, extremist religions of all stripes, war, whether or not your drinking water is poisoning you. Based where I am, I see these issues most often in terms of American culture and politics — but the rest of the world is grappling with them, too. Not everything will affect you personally; what does, however, gives you a tangible point of understanding and action on a personal scale.

That, in turn, is your line in to that issue’s collective expressions and consequences, and why they matter beyond your experience. Whether or not events beyond your personal experience matter to you (that is, enough to get involved) is another question.

With each rumble of action or reaction, extremes of viewpoint are getting thrown into starker contrast. It might feel scary and overwhelming, but really it offers clarity — which allows you to choose how to align your energy and efforts.

A woman wears protective glasses to watch a solar eclipse at the main business district in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 9, 2016; AP photo via Indian Express.

So: That is one layer to the story of where we’re headed at this point, just two days after the Pisces New Moon and total solar eclipse over the Pacific Ocean. I’m going to come back to another facet of those themes; first, let’s take a moment to get our bearings.

Focus and Flow

Look around you (literally and figuratively) and within you as we head into the weekend. Related to the eclipse, did you notice any unexpected synchronicities, particularly vivid dreams, or compelling fantasies that seemed to hold a clear message? Did you notice any insights about your past, especially something that seemed to release its hold on you?
You might want to explore anything that got your attention.

Notice over these next couple weeks if anything else rings the same bell that got rung for you Tuesday or Wednesday, or seems to move your personal eclipse themes ahead like flotsam on the tide. Is it an outgoing tide or incoming?

The two weeks between eclipses can sometimes feel rather like another dimension, one where life can shift markedly. It could be easy to read a statement like that and begin to worry that you’re not ‘doing enough’ to launch your life into a new phase, or that you missed some magical opportunity if you slept through the eclipse or did not even know it was happening.

Relax.

For one thing, not every eclipse is going to unfold dramatically for everyone. You might just be keepin’ on keepin’ on, doing your thing. After all, Pisces is all about flow. If you’re already flowing, there’s probably little need to question it aggressively.

It’s a good pattern-setting habit to do some of what you love on and around eclipse days, even if you can’t see the eclipse. Photo by Amanda Painter, a few hours before the solar eclipse March 8, 2016.

Also, the universe always offers another opportunity down the road to learn important lessons. That is not to say you shouldn’t bother trying; more like, don’t freak out if you notice a spiral-type shape to your path. Each time you meet a situation with a familiar theme, chances are you’re encountering it in a slightly different way and can apply more of your acquired understanding to deal with it better.

This weekend’s astrological highlights include more Pisces events, as if to underscore the eclipse and the overall vibe for the month. That said, the Moon has already left Pisces for Aries; Friday it moves into Taurus to offer some grounding and earthy tangibility that might help balance you if the seas you’re sailing have felt rough or unnervingly bottomless. There’s a lot to love about Pisces (creativity, passion, empathy), but when things get too boundary-less, it can feel a little overwhelming if you’re already a very sensitive type. Take care of yourself in tangible ways.

On Thursday, the Sun conjoins centaur planet Chiron in Pisces at 11:27 pm EST (4:27 UTC Friday). An hour-and-a-half later, at 1:01 am EST (6:01 UTC) Friday, Mercury conjoins Neptune (modern ruler of Pisces).

This presents a curious combination of a diffusion effect on mental processes (Mercury-Neptune), with a focusing effect on ego consciousness (Sun-Chiron).

In addition, Venus ingresses Pisces at 5:24 am EST on Saturday (10:24 UTC). So the extra-romantic, sensitive and poetic influence of that placement gets layered into everything else.

The seemingly bottomless Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize. Photo by Eric Pheterson under Creative Commons.

First thing I’m seeing is that you might get a wake-up call regarding giving yourself permission to heal, to stand out and, indeed, to exist at all as your whole self (Sun-Chiron).

For men, this could relate to feelings about your masculinity, your sensitivity, and any past injuries to your integrated embodiment of those two facets of self. For women, questions about how you relate to your father and subsequently other men in your life, and where you place your identity in relation to them, might arise.

The slippery part, thanks to Mercury-Neptune, could be separating logic from illusion (or recognizing denial) as you encounter these themes. In other words, how can you know when you’re being honest with yourself, versus when you’re trying to escape the questions facing you?

We have so many planets and points in Pisces (including Nessus, Neptune, Mercury, Ceres, Chiron, the lunar South Node, the Sun and, after Saturday, Venus — plus others, as Eric has discussed). The sky is practically begging you to indulge your creativity — paint, sculpt, play music (or listen to it deeply), make movies (or watch them), get on stage, dance, write, collage; perhaps have sex.

Whatever your chosen medium, and whether you participate actively or observe others doing so, ask yourself: Is what you are encountering taking you deeper into yourself and closer to your questions and their answers? Or are you indulging in escapism to distract yourself from certain truths that keep dipping a toe into the ocean of your consciousness? It might be hard to tell this weekend. But come March 23, that Aries Point Full Moon and eclipse could very well ask for some clear action using what you’ve learned.

About That Uranus-Eris Conjunction Approaching…

Speaking of the Libra Full Moon eclipse on the Aries Point: as we transition between these eclipses, closing one astrological year and beginning another, we also enter the final leg of Uranus’ trip to conjoin Eris in Aries. This is one of the major astrological events Eric used to orient the Vision Quest annual readings.

A 2005 photo of Uranus showing its rings, southern collar and a bright cloud in the northern hemisphere. Image by NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter / SETI Institute.

The first exact contact of Uranus-Eris happens June 8 or June 9, depending on time zone. And though it looks like a sparky meeting in a combustible sign, there will still be several planets swimming in Pisces (Nessus, Pallas, Neptune, Chiron plus the South Node, among others). That sounds steamy.

Yet with Chiron in Pisces almost exactly semi-sextile (that is, 30 degrees, or one sign away from) Uranus-Eris, there appear to be productive ways to handle that steam besides just blowing a valve. If you scroll below and read Eric’s classic essay How to Cross an Ocean; How to Light a Fire, you’ll see where he wrote in December 2010:

“I am trusting that Uranus is going to light the fire of curiosity about self, and remind us how being centered within ourselves is the key to sanity. I don’t mean narcissism and I don’t mean egotism. I mean learning to focus our sense of being at our own core, and relate to the world from that alert, mindful space.”

He continues: “What will protect us from Uranus in Aries turning into an eruption of vanity is Chiron and Neptune connecting us to the spiritual depths of Pisces. It’s as if Chiron and Neptune are helping us reach aspects of soul awareness and Uranus in Aries is helping us project our life force through our personality and body. Together, these transits — which last for years — will help many people wake up to the beauty of existence, to life and to participating in the changes that the world is going through.”

Goddess knows the world, and us along with it, is going through tremendous changes; some — such as the pace of digital life and global warming — we are barely keeping up with (and perhaps we aren’t — yet). As I noted at the beginning of this piece, the upcoming Aries Point eclipse on March 23 is a direct invitation to participate in these changes in some new way; some way you feel called to, as a matter of soul purpose.

Looking ahead to the Uranus-Eris conjunction, I suspect part of that purpose is to get as reacquainted as possible with any parts of your self-identity (and especially your feminine side) that you’ve previously dismissed, repressed, ignored, feared, etc. In terms of the world stage and politics, we can anticipate illustrations of these facets of Self as they demand attention on a collective level — whether through proactive events or through an increase in the extremity of those looking to keep the world’s Eris energy (and their own) minimized and out of view.

Painting of Eris by Gabriel Mark Lipper.

Yet, ironically, those individuals invoke another facet of Eris — discord — along the way.

Take one look at the Republican candidates running for President of the United States, and the vanity and egotism Eric noted in the passage I quoted is quite obvious. The Far Right offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to individuals who possess repressed or extremely shadowy feminine sides (as described by Eris in Aries).

These same people overcompensate for wounded masculine sides (as highlighted by Chiron in Pisces). We see this in their rampant, vicious attitudes toward women and reproductive health rights, gays, minorities, recent immigrants (especially Mexicans and Muslims), the environment; their obsession with gun ‘rights’; and so on.

These people are not just neglecting to invite Eris to the party. Rather, it’s like they’re trying to emulate Uranus by imprisoning all of Gaia’s children out of view — whether behind a wall at the U.S. border, or by so limiting their (our) access to reproductive health care, clean food and water, and various social services that those in need may as well be invisible.

I was struck by an odd synchronicity as I mulled over some of the current and upcoming astrological themes. It likely does not ‘mean’ anything literal, but I offer it to you to ponder nonetheless. Earlier today I refreshed my memory of the Uranus myth: in which Uranus’ son, Cronus (Kronos) finally overthrows him by using a scythe fashioned out of flint — not bronze or iron — by his mother, Gaia.

Bernie Sanders just took the Michigan primary in a surprising win over Hillary Clinton. And what news story from Michigan has been generating outrage in the news for several months? The poisoning of the water by the Governor and his emergency manager in the city of… Flint.

I asked the universe for help titling this essay; I got the Wild Card from the Sustain Yourself oracle deck by James Wanless.

There is something rather poetic here about the literal children of Flint, who have experienced lead poisoning at the hands of the state’s ‘father figure’, being championed by Sanders via the votes ‘fashioned’ for them by their (collective, figurative) ‘mothers’. If anything, Sanders strikes me as the presidential candidate who perhaps has best integrated his emotion-feeling masculine-warrior side and his action-oriented feminine-nurturer side.

Hillary Clinton is a good deal better off in that regard than the Republican candidates, but seems to have thrown facets of her inner goddess under the bus so she could play war with the boys. So that leaves Sanders to wield the populist issues represented by Flint, Michigan, like taking a scythe to the corporate-political machine.

Of course, the story of how Cronus/Kronos overthrew Uranus is repeated and continued in his own eventual defeat by Zeus, who finally freed his swallowed siblings and Gaia’s imprisoned children. Rather than trying to pin the Zeus role on any current politician or activist, it’s enough to understand that bringing the pendulum back from its current extreme is going to take several stages of revolution, evolution and rebalancing.

That will most certainly ask for all of us to participate. And our participation will ask for a strong yet flexible foundation: a sense of self in which all facets — light and shadow, feminine and masculine, active and receptive, warrior and nurturer (and ‘other’) — are recognized, integrated and put to creative use. The current astrology is pointing the way if you’re willing to pay attention.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Note: the archive selection by Eric below was first published in the Dec. 31, 2010, edition of Planet Waves. You can read that full issue here.

How to Cross an Ocean; How to Light a Fire

“A belief is only a thought you continue to think; and when your beliefs match your desires, then your desires must become your reality.” — Abraham

Dear Planet Waves Reader:

Pisces, as the last sign of the zodiac, represents the primal waters to which thought, action and memory return — and from which they emerge. Seawater contains traces of nearly every element, from oxygen to iron to gold. The history of humanity is contained in the world’s oceans, as rivers course through canyons and cities and carry everything to the shore. Those things carried include the trace contaminants and drugs that have been created during our current age of industry, and which inevitably find their way into the sea — which we then dip into as the supposedly eternal source of food. Meanwhile, scientists have reported a ‘water memory’ phenomenon, where water retains the properties of what it once held, and responds to everything from thought to prayer to microwaves.

Photo by Bev Dulis.

In calendar year 2011, we will learn a lot about Pisces. You can think of the most watery water sign as the universal recipient. It’s the cosmic realm that contains every element, and is the place where the story of humanity collects from moment to moment. The ocean refuses no river.

Pisces is about to receive two new planets, which will shape our experience of life and be reflected in changes in the world we know. One is Chiron, which made a brief visit in 2010. On Feb. 8, Chiron will return to Pisces, where it will stay until it begins its process of entering Aries in 2018. Chiron, which has a wildly elliptical orbit, is currently moving at close to its slowest speed through the signs (eight and nine years in Pisces and Aries respectively); at the other end of the dial, in Virgo and Libra (where it was in the mid-1990s) Chiron sails through a sign in 18 months — faster than Saturn moves through a sign (which takes about 30 months). So currently we have Chiron in its incarnation as an outer planet, slow and powerful. I have many reasons to believe this transit will take center stage, even amidst the truly momentous changes portended in the transits of 2011.

Wherever it may be, Chiron focuses attention, and the oceans (signified by Pisces) need attention. So too does the vast interior of human consciousness represented by Pisces. This last sign of the zodiac works for all of us as a source of creativity, emotional contact and escape from the hard-edged world of the ego. If not for Pisces, there would not be music or art, and sex would not be the same. We would not recognize the subtle shades of our emotions. Yet we tend to pollute this realm with everything from mind-bending psychotropic drugs to contact with 5,000 advertisements a day.

Melanie Reinhart says of this sign, “Forms disintegrate, the past is dissolved and our separateness is relinquished.” These are processes that extend over time, rather than sudden shifts. Chiron focuses energy and accelerates any movement already underway, instigating its knack for healing first by raising our awareness — or attempting to do so. With Chiron in Pisces (the sign of the hidden dimension), we will see what we’ve been missing.

The other planet entering Pisces is Neptune, which has not touched the waters of the sign it’s so often associated with since shortly after its discovery in the 19th century. Neptune is wrapping up a long journey across Aquarius, which began in January 1998. This transit has in many ways taken over consciousness; at the beginning of this transit in the late 20th century, nobody would have believed we would be walking around with computers in our pockets, checking email 200 times a day, and basically investing our souls into cyberspace.

Photo by Bev Dulis.

Few would have guessed that every local police department would be feeding information into the FBI database (not about arrests — they’ve done that for decades; I mean about ‘suspicious’ behavior, your employment history, who you associate with, etc.), something more suitable for the old East Germany than the land of Jefferson and Madison. And who would have foreseen the opportunities this same technology creates for countless digital artists and musicians to create innovative work and share it around the world?

Neptune will exit Aquarius and touch the shore of Pisces on April 4, 2011, staying for a four-month visit. Then in 2012 it will re-enter Pisces to stay until 2025-26. This brief visit of Neptune is another harbinger of the 2012 era, representing a distinct shift in the spiritual vibration of the planet and a new phase of what we can call the history of our inner lives. This influence may overwhelm some; to others it will feel like flushing fresh water into a dry lake.

The extended, simultaneous presence of Chiron and Neptune in Pisces is about developing the awareness and discipline to handle deep emotional, and what you might call mystical, energy. You don’t swim across the ocean — you travel in a boat. The same is true for the oceanic multidimensional realms represented by Pisces. You can think of Chiron as the boat, the vessel which includes such tools as perception, analysis, documentation and — most significantly — boundaries.

The first boundary is where the collective realm ends and the individual realm of self begins.
That is represented by the imaginary line between Pisces and Aries. Uranus has been in Pisces for seven years, stirring things up. In February, Uranus enters Aries, illustrating a radical transformation in our sense of self, and how we express the whole idea of self. We dearly need this shock to our self-awareness. I am trusting that Uranus is going to light the fire of curiosity about self, and remind us how being centered within ourselves is the key to sanity. I don’t mean narcissism and I don’t mean egotism. I mean learning to focus our sense of being at our own core, and relate to the world from that alert, mindful space.

Photo by Eric Francis.

What will protect us from Uranus in Aries turning into an eruption of vanity is Chiron and Neptune connecting us to the spiritual depths of Pisces. It’s as if Chiron and Neptune are helping us reach aspects of soul awareness and Uranus in Aries is helping us project our life force through our personality and body. Together, these transits — which last for years — will help many people wake up to the beauty of existence, to life and to participating in the changes that the world is going through.

Speaking of that — the planets I’ve just described that are making changes in 2011 add momentum to another outer-planet change, which is Pluto in Capricorn. That has been in progress since about 2008, and has come with many changes in society, some of them jarring and frightening. We think of this variously as the banking crisis, the recession, the foreclosure crisis, the turmoil in government, the big hole in the Federal Reserve, and of course the general sense that everything might collapse tomorrow. That is Pluto restructuring the institutions of the world — and our ideas about them. Pluto in Capricorn is liberating something from deep within these institutions — WikiLeaks is a good example. They are having their corporate structures rearranged, and we are having our minds rearranged. We have to think about where and how we fit in differently than we did yesterday.

So it’s a good thing that we have Uranus in Aries reminding us to wake up to who we are. Now, here is a clue about 2012. That’s the year that Uranus moving through Aries first meets Pluto moving through Capricorn. This is called the Uranus-Pluto square. This is part of the cycle that delivers some of the most radical astrology ever documented by historians — the astrology of revolution and of revelation. Think of how this is developing — society changing, perhaps seeming like it’s ‘failing’, while at the same time individuals are awakening to our creative power, one at a time getting into the process of creation and change.

The Uranus-Pluto square describes the place where radical self-awareness (Uranus in Aries) meets the vast and sweeping changes that the world is going through (Pluto in Capricorn). We all know the world is changing, and we all know that many of us feel a profound need to rethink who we are and find our role, our place of participation, our point of influence. We may feel driven by passion (Aries) and practical needs (Capricorn) as part of an urgent series of awakening events. The thing to do in the midst of it all is to feel: to be present with your feelings, and to notice what your senses are telling you.

Uranus in Aries is here to light the fire of self, and Chiron and Neptune are here to guide us across the ocean of our soul.

I’ll see you there.

Yours & truly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Designer: Lizanne Webb. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Marshall McLuhan. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick.

Choose a Super-Spiritual Guru During Super-Spiritual Solar Pisces

Tuesday Edition of Planet Waves FM
Watershed Moment: Total Solar Eclipse in Pisces

Dear Planet Waves Reader:

This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM [play episode here] offers a close look at the chart for the total solar eclipse in Pisces. I also talk about all other things Pisces, including why you want more of what this sign has to offer in your life.

I have three bonus items for you this week too. One is a full recording of the Vision Quest music session (shown above) from which tonight’s music is extracted. That’s in a separate player.

Next is part one of the Pisces reading — all of part one, about half an hour, so that anyone may listen, and if you want the rest, you may acquire it here. That’s on a separate player at the top of the edition’s home page.

Finally, I’ve done a new edition of Planet Waves TV, offering a televisionary description of tonight’s eclipse.

Thank you for tuning in.

With love,

Miracle Hour Episode 5: Mind and Spirit: Clarification of Terms

Today’s edition of The Miracle Hour covers the theme of mind and spirit. Haven’t you ever sat around wondering what the difference is, and pondering whether it was your mind or your spirit that was trying to figure it out? This edition looks at the “clarification of terms” located at the back of the Manual for Teachers, and explores this interesting theme. Miracle Hour is distributed weekly to the Pacifica Radio Network and is a project of Planet Waves FM.

Are you born with your Sun, Moon or rising sign in Pisces?

Hello and welcome to our incredible Pisces moment. Last week I completed the reading for Pisces. There is so much happening in Pisces right now that I added an extra section. This is a series of four recordings, which look intimately at the themes that are likely to be arising in your life.

In the first section, I do a kind of guided meditation and overview of what makes this turning point so distinctive. This is likely to be a moment of culmination of many years of effort, crisis or delay. I take the territory gently. For the first half-hour session, I barely mention astrology.

Then in the second section I cover the vast array of planets in Pisces. I give enough detail to make it interesting to those with astrological literacy, but never so much that someone not trained will lose the narrative. This covers personal and relational matters.

In the third section I focus on the 10th house — Sagittarius, which represents your professional aspirations. Saturn is making its once-per-29-year visit to your career house. And Mars will soon be there, stationing retrograde and working its way back into Scorpio.

Finally in the fourth section, I cover one astrology afterthought: the Uranus-Eris conjunction — and then I do a tarot reading for you.

You can binge listen, or listen to one section per night. You can download this and play it in your car or riding the bus or train. You can play it as you fall asleep and allow it to work on a deeper level. This is relevant, clear-headed and thoughtful astrology, accompanied by brand new music composed and performed by Gregory Schofield.

You will be very happy to have this information and point of view, to help you focus your efforts, heal your relationships, update your files and do whatever beautiful thing you’re wanting to do.

You may sign up here for just $27.97. By the way — there will be a Pisces conference call wherein you can speak with me personally, as I’ve had several requests. That will be included. Thank you for your participation in Planet Waves, and for trusting me as your astrologer.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for March were published Thursday, Feb. 25. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for February on Thursday, Jan. 21. Your Pisces New Moon Moonshine horoscope by Len is published below in this issue. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Thursday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Your vision, hearing, smell, taste and tactile senses provide you with valuable information about the world. That information, however, is always experienced in your mind. Such a state of being conscious provides great advantages. For within your mind is where the experiences of your own lifetime combine with all you have been taught, and even with the essence of life’s history on Earth. Now, perhaps more than ever, it is vital for you to be aware of what your mind brings to your encounters with the world as perceived by your senses. That awareness will be the final ingredient that will blend in with the entire content of your psyche to make you more than the sum of your parts: somebody capable of changing the world at least as much as it changes you. This means what you do with the information you receive is your call.— By Len Wallick.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Nearly everybody wants to be respected. In all probability, it’s especially important to you. Even as essential as it is for you, you know that esteem cannot be bought, coerced or demanded. As with most things you value, respect must be earned. With all you have taken on and accomplished in your life over the last decade or so, there should be no question in your mind that you have earned a great deal of regard, perhaps even deference; maybe even reverence. All of which leaves two questions. First, are you honoring yourself appropriately in proportion to what you have achieved? Next, who already demonstrates that they understand the high regard in which you should be held, and who needs a chance to catch up with all you have become? — By Len Wallick.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Education is more than formal schooling. Learning is a process that never stops. Even so, erudition is more than accumulation. The true value of education is revealed when it is put to use. Indications are that you have reached a point where your storehouse of knowledge is quite valuable indeed. Now, the trick is to figure out just how to offer and exchange what you know for something of value in return. It’s a big world, but don’t let that intimidate you. Indeed, let the size and scope of the world encourage you to feel sure that this is the time, and that there is a place, for you to apply your unique combination of skills and scholarship. Start now to look for that place with the same patient effort you have put into your life’s education, and keep the faith until you find it. — By Len Wallick.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — More than most, you must pursue your own path to your own satisfaction. If you do indeed feel satisfied with your life right now, give yourself the acknowledgement that you have found what works for you. Then, rather than rest on your laurels, begin thinking about how you can work to both sustain and better share your sense of contentment with others you care about. If satisfaction is currently eluding you somehow, apply your intellect in tandem with your intuitive feelings to conduct an inner inventory. Over the next few weeks, carry a piece of paper with you and gradually compile a list of your emotional needs as they come to mind. Then, sometime before the end of this month, review those needs and get started on a plan to get them met. — By Len Wallick.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Conventional wisdom is just that. It consists of aphorisms, which many people agree to agree upon. You, however, are not ‘many people’. You should feel no pressure to conform to conventional wisdom. More importantly, you should not feel something is wrong with you if your own experience does not resonate with pithy proverbs, no matter how commonly accepted. Rather, it is your role to be the learned skeptic. Whenever you find that common sense makes no sense for you at all, first do your research. Get to the bottom of how things actually work, as opposed to how they are supposed to. Then, combine the fruit of your investigations with your currently strong sense of doing what’s right: make the world work better for you and better your work in the world. — By Len Wallick.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Somewhere along the line, your relationship skills have graduated to a greater level of maturity and proficiency than used to be the case for you. Now, it’s time to make sure you are fully conscious of just how far your development in making and maintaining connections has progressed. You can begin with a review of your boundaries. You may find that guidelines that were appropriate for you in the past should now be renegotiated, both in relation to yourself and with others. To reflect the expansion of your wisdom and understanding, you might want to relax at least some of your old boundaries so you can live with greater ease. By the same token, consider tightening other boundaries up a bit in proportion to how much more clearly you are now defined. — By Len Wallick.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Sometimes getting along with others means going along with them. That’s not easy when going along doesn’t sit well with your conscience. In order to best rise to such a challenge, it’s necessary to both envision a middle way and believe that it can be found. This middle way would allow you to honor your conscience while also maintaining a social life. The path between one extreme (of abandoning yourself to others) and another extreme (of abandoning others for the sake of yourself) begins with your own conduct. It means behaving as you would like others to behave, while also remaining in society with them. In that way, others can see and (hopefully) learn from your example. Setting an example can be lonely at first, but so long as you trust that others also have a conscience, you won’t be lonely for long. — By Len Wallick.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Dedication and devotion are admirable traits. Odds are you have been demonstrating those qualities in how you live. As a matter of fact, your nose may have been so diligently applied to your version of a grindstone as to miss how something has shifted in your life as of late. Perhaps it was subtle; but if you think a bit, you should be able to pinpoint where and how something has recently changed. Once you are clear on what that change is, you may want to consider two additional things. First, this change is probably not permanent. Rather, it is a temporary opening of sorts. Next, the nature of this opening might well consist of a chance to get away from the grind for a while. If your lot lately has been all work and no play, take a break now while you still can. — By Len Wallick.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Long distance runners are familiar with a phenomenon called a “second wind.” It occurs after a brief period of crisis marked by the apparent onset of exhaustion, long before the course has been run. Experienced runners know not to give up, and how to push through the misleading sense of being worn out prematurely — until they overcome what turns out to be their mind’s resistance to avail themselves of their bodily reserves. Whether you are a runner or not, indications are that you will get your own version of a second wind very soon. Of course, you must discern when it is appropriate to slow down for the sake of your health. But as long as you know that you are both fit and fully capable, persevering at this time should soon bring you to a point where you suddenly feel that you can go the distance and then some. — By Len Wallick.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — If there is a pebble in your shoe, it makes sense to stop and remove it even if you are in a hurry to get somewhere. The same is true for anything that is bugging you now. It makes no sense at all to live with unnecessary discomfort even if you feel too busy to avail yourself of relief. Don’t disregard any persistent physical aches and pains. To the extent that you can, consult with an appropriate provider of healthcare and give yourself a chance to better enjoy living. By the same token, allow yourself whenever you can to do whatever it takes to address any mental, emotional or spiritual challenges. If it is at all possible for this time to be one of the best times of your life, don’t let the equivalent of a pebble in your shoe keep you from having the fullest experience possible. — By Len Wallick.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This would be a good time to examine your attachments. Some attachments (such as those motivated and informed by love) are ennobling and worthy of your energies because of the energy and support you receive in return. It is very possible, however, that at least some ties which you formed at another time now serve only to make you less free. One way to pinpoint your attachments is to make note of what you might call ‘knee jerk’ reactions. Behind every case of reacting without thinking is a conditioned response. Some of that conditioning (such as taking your foot off your auto’s accelerator when you see a red light) is good and healthy. Other reflexes, however, might deserve a closer look and a discussion with either a trusted friend or trustworthy professional. — By Len Wallick.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — When in doubt, say you can. Assume you can do anything unless proven otherwise. To do so is not overconfidence; rather, it is understanding. Where your limits have in fact been proven, take them as benefits of experience that serve to define both who you are and what you might want to overcome. The more clearly you can define yourself, the more easily you can both appreciate and demonstrate all the qualities that make you both valuable and special. The better your perception of what you might want or need to overcome, the more realistically and efficiently you can apply yourself to improve and make progress. So think twice before saying that you can’t, and if it is indeed necessary to do so today, leave the door open to saying you can tomorrow. — By Len Wallick.