PLANET WAVES | By Eric Francis
June 18, 1999

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ARIES (March 21-April 19)
You will still need to be patient in the "resolving things" department. Dust and debris from what turned out to be an unusually tumultuous Spring in some of the very personal areas of your life still needs to be picked up piece by piece, and you may need to attend to deeper reparations with close partners. Take it slow, because thoroughness now counts more than efficiency. In the next stage of your journey, you will have precious little psychic capacity for excess baggage or unresolved issues. Now is the time to lighten your load, and get clear.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
By this time, the theme of your Summer should be fairly apparent, but I'm here to tell you that if you don't like the way things are shaping up, there is still time to redirect your course. What you are seeking is true direction, not a substitute for what you did not do in the past. Indeed, your true direction may in fact involve something you left behind long ago, or a long unfulfilled wish, but remember, it is not a substitute of any kind. It is real gold, not just that which glitters.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Though Gemini is often called a mental sign, we both know it's more in your nature to react emotionally than you feel comfortable letting on -- especially these days. It would appear, however, that to get your way, you will need to turn on some of the political skill that is quite natural to you, but may feel, on one level, manipulative. Please forget any such reservations. How you feel matters, but you will need to direct your passion and your intense values in productive ways, and at the moment, that's going to start with putting on some polish.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Summer is the season commenced with the Sun's passage through the sign Cancer, and that makes it an especially wide open field of reality for you each year. But now, more than ever, you must take advantage of your openings, and approach life with a more aggressive attitude. Too much is possible now -- indeed, much that will not be possible in the future -- for you to let opportunities go by, whether they of a professional or personal nature. For your purposes right now, there is no distinction; you are one person, on one mission, and it's full speed ahead.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Pay careful attention to your life in the next few days. Treat this small time span of one week as a kind of test laboratory for how your life is likely to proceed for quite a few months, and possibly years, to come. Watch human encounters, dreams, correspondence, what you read and see in the media, all as markers, or what some people call "reality checks." If you're happy with the way things are going, then develop what you like best and want the most. If not, now is the time -- a critical time -- to make careful adjustments.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
The minor issues are now the important issues. In our cultural mental trip, we have a tendency to discount the importance of anything that does not crash and bang or scream for attention, but my sense is that what's really calling for your awareness and healing touch are the questions, problems and situations that your friends and relatives would tend to ignore outright. Getting to the bottom of why, for example, your romantic relationships are what they are is a key point, rather than papering over the issues with pretty pictures, words, or self-blame. Something profound about your life is changing, and changing for the better, but if you don't look, you won't notice.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
Are fame and fortune high on your list of priorities? It looks that way, and truth be told, you've never been in such a good position to accomplish what would commonly be held as unlikely or even impossible. But remember not to look at the outside of other peoples' journeys and expect to get a picture of the inside of yours. What I am saying is that appearances deceive, so pay careful attention to the interior reality of both your life, and the lives of the people you hold in high esteem. As David Bowie so aptly said, "Fame makes a man think things over." Go forth, shine your light, but by all means, think things over.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
I hardly have words for the confusion I suspect has you snagged by the heel. Perhaps you do, and all you'll need are a few clues from me. I can say definitively that the issue of marriage is involved, and I use the word "issue" deliberately. Marriage is a strange concept from any modern, reasoned standpoint. There is exceedingly little it guarantees, and a great deal it demands. On another level, there is so much that it promises, and so little that it, in itself, actually delivers. If you're married, try having the current discussion two ways -- once, honoring the contract, and again, forgetting the contract. If you're planning marriage, I can say in all earnestness: you have some serious soul searching to do. Alone, by the way, but don't be too hard on yourself. In fact, don't be hard at all.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
Sagittarius often gets accused of not going into things deeply, but unfortunately for the two-pence astrological critics in the world, and very fortunately for you, this ain't such a time. In fact, I propose you take some crash courses in how to deal with a life that actually becomes profound even as you stand around eating pizza or throwing quarters into the dryer. I quote from a little book called The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, of which I've bought about 35 copies for friends over the years: "The way you see the world depends entirely on your own vibration level. When your vibration changes, the whole world will look different."

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
You are in a dilemma, there is no question about that. And it's not one of those average everyday little ordinary dilemmas; we're talkin' Karma. We're talkin', multiple lifetimes, and some issue that keeps coming up and up and up and knocking you on the side of the head, begging for you to notice. Two questions: One is what steps have you been skipping over and over again? And what if you started making up these skipped steps now? Two is, if you don't do this, how will your present course of conduct result in a total disruption of everything that you know and trust, and are you doing this intentionally? Please mull it over.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
Rock critic Bud Scoppa once described Bob Dylan as "the enigma, the elemental force, the phantom, the 'self-contained unit of communication'." Yes, yes, yes, yes. Consider all of these things individually, and what it would mean to embody them at the same time, and you will get a picture of what your power is at this moment. Your position is so strong, you don't really have a clue because there are no precedents. You cannot rely on the past for information, and the past, I would add, cannot rely on you. In fact, the past is quickly approaching an encounter with the elemental force known as yourself, and it better watch out.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
This is definitely a time for big ideas, but you will need to be responsible, to a fault, for maintaining a sense of proportion in your life. You will need to watch your speed, your altitude, your attitude, and what you do with your mind when you're not in strictly creative mode. Your life is a gamble right now, and it's one that you are well poised to win, but careless judgments and lack of observation can have a way of stacking the odds back in the favor of the bullshit outcomes that so plague the sensitive, creative types in the world. By all means, remain sensitive and creative, but also vigilant and a little ruthless.

FOR THE FAITHFUL
In the United States, the Cancer (Summer) Solstice happens early the afternoon of June 21. This is one of the power-points of the year, and the theme is reorientation. This is the moment to actually stop and reflect on all matters of intention and direction. It's a time to focus your awareness on that which you know is genuinely important, and to initiate a plan of action. To whatever extent you are aware of this astrology will give you a distinct edge in any competitive situations in your life (remember, most of the world laughs at astrology, but it's their loss). As for you folks whose skin is still blanched and have not seen the light of day since last September, do yourself a huge favor and get off your ergonomic butt, and get outside.