By Eric Francis | Weekly for Dec. 31, 1999 Copyright ©'999 by Planet Waves Digital Media, all rights reserved. For the Faithful:
Planet Waves articles for January 2000Contents | Horoscopes | Astrology Assistant Update ARIES (March 21-April 19)
You are your dreams. Many astrologers would say that Aries are more likely to identify with their desires, but desires represent a present and rather focused state of wanting or need, even if that points to some success or achievement in the future. You are entering a much looser and more versatile reality, one in which there are less likely to be fixed points of reference, and in which you are free to use your intuition with far greater certainty than ever. It appears that an entirely new system of guidance has taken over our reality, though it may take some weeks for you to get a sense of things, including why, in the past, you have been so afraid of your own imagination.TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Talk about it, whatever it is. At this point, you can only benefit from communication and sincere gestures directed toward shared efforts, mutual goals, exploring common philosophies of life and seeking a wider view of existence with those people who are the closest to you. Talk about things that are difficult to say. Talk about things that are inappropriate to say. Talk about how perverted, warped and depraved you are deep down inside the recesses of your brain stem. Talk about the possibilities. Talk about your longings. Talk about your idea of freedom. Talk about who you are and what you've been through and where life is pointing you now. But whatever you do, talk about it.GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Keep checking that mirror. You are changing, and you will change with or without what you might call visual assistance, but it would be both wise and wonderful to bear witness to your own process, which is a reflection of an inner process so deep that astrology is barely equipped to handle it in its own language. There simply are not words, and neither are they necessary. But not only are you moving gracefully, you are doing it well, and with flair, and the rewards will be obvious. Pay attention, in the mysterious world of human mirrors, who arrives and who departs your life this very week, and you'll see a picture of just what's happening on the deepest levels of your being.CANCER (June 21-July 22)
These days carry a serious undertone for you. The world may be celebrating and resolving to start life anew, but you have responsibilities on your mind, and concerns much larger than those around you. I suggest you make no effort to force yourself into any other state of mind, or to "lighten up." If anything, I would personally like to see a more serious public discussion of just what it means to supposedly be moving forward from what has been one of the most difficult centuries in human history. But as for you -- just stay with your feelings, ease through this particular personal wedge, and in a short time, I think a warm current will carry you to a great space of freedom and change.LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
A charming semi-quintile between the Sun and Uranus has me wondering -- When Are You Going To Stop Underestimating Your Talents? Hey, I have a BRILLIANT idea. How about RIGHT NOW? Furthermore, by "estimating," I don't mean to suggest you merely sit around and ponder what a genius you are, though I would pay green money to hear you do that, and I would take notes. What I mean is that, in my picture of the cosmos, you need to experiment with your inner gifts so you can a) have more fun, and b) get down to the next few layers of why you get so scared when it comes to really exploring your potential. You deserve to be free from such burdens, the time is indeed ripe, and you are ready.VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Something about current events may be hard for you to get a handle on, as if your vision is blurred, or as though you feel like you're missing an opportunity. But lack of a clear vantage point isn't a measure of success or failure with your current projects, or your personal revolution that has, in reality, been many years in the making, and which now reaches into every aspect of your being. When it suddenly dawns on you just what you've been up to, what you've created and what you've succeeded at doing without even consciously planing to achieve so much or change so profoundly, I believe you'll finally have a sense of what life has to offer you. The moment of revelation is at hand.LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
I suggest you take a moment now and resolve to rethink your whole idea of intelligence, because it is going to be rethinking you. In the coming few weeks, you are likely to experience a series of changes, both inner and outer, that slowly dismantle your idea of thought, conceptualization, and the formation of ideas. While this change has been in the works for some time, you seem to be meeting yourself right on the level where the deepest transformations are occurring, as if you want to gaze right into the fires of metamorphosis and watch your new mind become itself, and touch the core of your fresh thoughts at their very hottest.SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
There are certain processes in life that you consistently experience below the level of awareness. You might call them subconscious. If you go back and assess all the times you've been in trouble the past 10 years (give or take five years), you may notice that just about all of those episodes occurred when some kind of subconscious process ran away with your life, but before you figured it out, it was too late. From this day forward, it will be much more difficult for that to happen again. In fact, if you maintain vigilance, it will be quite nearly impossible. And you know: this is a very happy development.SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
It is, to the extent that I am in a position to place such an assertion about your life, imperative that you no longer think of yourself on the same terms as you have in the past, or even as the same person you were. What is now occurring in your world may be subtle, or it may be blatantly obvious in real-life terms, but astrologically there is no question. You stand in a threshold, a kind of gateway between all that was, and all that will yet be. Yes, any moment in time can function this way. But any moment in time is not this moment in time, and I assure you that where you are, you have never been, and will never be again.CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Just hang out in the perfection of this moment, my little goat. So much strength, so much awareness, and so much protection will appear within your life if you can just hold the thought that as it is now, so it was ordained to be; and as it is now, so little else really is necessary. There is, in fact, little harm that can come to you. And you have many choices available to you, choices which, unlike many recent times, will not be coerced, but rather simply openings that you can choose to move through or not. Whatever else comes to you from this time on is a kind of cosmic bonus, but only if you see it as such. So hang out in perfection, and you'll be fine.AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
The mind has its limits, kid. Reasoning is only one form of consciousness. Rationales may be persuasive but are not passion. Pleasing others, being what they want, setting aside your own feelings -- noble as they are, and even though these gestures ultimately grease the wheels of human politics -- all have their limits. You have now reached one major dimension of those limits, and what you think of as your identity has reached a point beyond which it will no longer flex to the designs of others. What comes next will not be nearly as difficult as you think. It is much easier to be different than it is to conform, so take it easy.PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
Track the progress of your inner sphere, the sphere of your personal relationships and that of your professional activities carefully this week. There is a kind of consolidation occurring, and in this process, you will be presented with situations in which carefully thought-out decisions or what may feel like tactical maneuvers can affect all three seemingly separate spheres at once. It is clear that what may, in the past, have been unrelated aspects of your life are now much more interdependent upon one another, and that today, moreso than ever before, you are in a position to make intelligent choices.For the Faithful
Everything changes and nothing changes
Centuries end
and all goes on
as if nothing ever ends.......as new suits hurry to work
in swaying skyscrapers
as newsboys still cry out
announcing the latest lunacy
And laughter arises
on the distant sea-- Lawrence Ferlingnetti,
from A Far Rockaway of the Heart