February 2001 | By Eric Francis Eric Francis On Sale! Midwinter: In the Belly of the Stars by Eric Francis About Mercury, Venus and Mars Retrograde ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Coming events may lead you to reconsider some of your ideas about love in light of your actual experiences of love. Idealism is one thing, but getting what you need is another. Prevailing cultural teachings on both the subject of love and of religion tend to pull us way outside of ourselves, and pressure us into negating what we actually notice about life, people and the cosmos. Lofty notions about relationships are put into our minds by everyone from ministers to Hollywood movies (there is little difference between the grandiose 'Love of Gud' and glamorized romantic ideals); both fragment us from what we observe to be true, and what we know we need and desire. God indeed loves us, and the lips of the beloved are surely sweet. There is no conflict here, unless we make one. Perfection of the soul is a prerequisite for neither, but making a few simple decisions surely is.TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
You may still be too afraid of yourself to reach the depth you desire in your relationships. Lurking in the Taurus psyche is the specter of "narcissism," which, far from being an expression of self-appreciation, is really self-judgment. Right now such fears may be annoying you in subtle ways that magnify into strange forms. I don't know exactly what they are; the Tauran heart is a mysterious place. But there are ways out of the dark. For every experience in which you feel that another person does not accept you, identify one place where you are withholding acceptance from yourself, and make an adjustment. If you are inclined to judge yourself for doing or feeling something human, forgive another person for the doing same thing. More than you are in a process of finding love, you are in a process of dealing with fear; they are closely related, particularly for you, and especially now. Refer to your dreams for further insight.GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
You're about to discover, or rather become, the secret formula for existence. This revelation, if you'd call it that, will guide you through what is normally a thorny thicket of love, albeit one where roses grow galore. There are those times when all that needs to change is one's mind for everything to change; one's perception of life; one's idea about oneself. Life may be on this brink at every waking moment, though it's typically quite subtle: but hold on -- or rather, hang loose. What now occurs is not subtle. You may be faced with the question, "What if I woke up one morning and was a completely different person?" You would do things very differently, you see people very differently, and respond differently. But exactly how would depend on who you invented yourself to be, which remains an unwritten book. But as you write, give you a chance to catch up with you; give others a chance to do the same.CANCER (June 21-July 22)
"Every decision you make stems from what you think you are," reads the Miracle Sutra. This is the most succinct statement of the idea of "values" that I can present to you, in this moment when the value you hold upon yourself indeed matter, and are poised to influence your life in both its sexual and economic expressions. What I see is the breaking of an impasse between your view of your self-value and your view of the value that others have on you. For a long time these have not added up. Much may seem open to negotiation but that is not the case, and negotiations, if they are conducted carefully, will lead to one preordained conclusion: you are, financially, worth more than you are getting, and in matters of love, you are more important to people than you recognized previously. Hold these thoughts and not be swayed by anyone's doubts, particularly your own; there are rewards for doing so.LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
The actions of someone close to you are likely to seem puzzling or heartless. Stand back. This person's process is entirely out of your control and beyond your help, and any attempt to rescue this individual may yield hassles galore. This is not selfish, but rather a way of allowing another person to make their own choices and grow up (at best), and not participating in someone's crime against themselves (at worst). Meanwhile, the question arises again: what is the purpose of intimate relationship in your life? Why do you do it at all? This is not a rhetorical question and I am not being cynical. You need answers, and answers will come from questions. This will provide a basis for making far better decisions about people in the future. If, at this juncture, you proceed with awareness and a spirit of allowing people to own their stuff while you own yours, the future is a lot closer, and better, than you may think.VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
It may seem that a rare opportunity for human contact becomes swallowed by your somewhat ridiculous though in fact highly fulfilling workload, and if so, it's time to have a long talk with yourself about your real priorities in life. Yet work has become a cover for your struggle with the question itself. Somebody in the equation is always too busy for love. It's true that few people could meet your high standards for what a partner would be, but your projects deliver real satisfaction. That is because you have reasonable demands on your projects. Recently, someone has come close to your standards, but I suspect they were put off by the fact that you seemed to retreat no sooner than they appeared, and they very likely felt judged in some way. Take it easy on this person, and take it easy yourself; he or she will be back in your life before long.LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
We are haunted by the past in our relationships, by what might have been. Andy Warhol went as far as to say that all sex is nostalgia; that we look for our grade school sweetheart our whole life. Yet we are not the people we once were; like it or not, experiences have shaped us, time has made us softer in some ways and harder in others; more or less trusting, more or less resigned to the hand we've been dealt. There's not a person on the planet who is not hungry for love, yearning for understanding. A wide variety of spiritual paths teach that this is the formula to never find love, and there seems to be no way out. You have little choice now but to love the part of you who craves and needs attention, for this is indeed who needs to be loved. Since it's not the yearning that drives others away, but our judgments about it, it's worth a try.SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
In your ever-mounting drive to get what you want, pay attention to what others are offering. What you want is just what you want, but what you are gifted is yours to receive. The current shape of your life is not one in which you can take anything for granted, particularly trust or emotional security, and, much like in dealing with banks, these things depend upon your ability to maintain an even exchange of energy with the people around you. You may be inclined to feel that you have demands, particularly emotional ones, that are not being met, or perhaps that people are making commitments that are not bearing fruit. But to what extent was there a spoken arrangement? And to what extent are you claiming authority? This is all a misadventure. You have enough of what you need, and the people around you are in fact being generous with their spirits and their gifts; you merely need to open your hands to receive, or open your arms to embrace.SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
There is a beautiful metaphor for relationships which says human encounters are what happens when two people walking in opposite directions get a brief chance to meet. Lately, though, it's felt more like two trucks passing on the Interstate. Ease back on your fears and discouragement, if you can, because the word for the month, indeed for the season and well beyond, is contact. However I don't suggest you look for all the usual people in all the usual places. As adventurous as the Sagittarian spirit is, you do get caught in what one might call spiritual habits, and these can lead you in circles. It's impossible to let go of expectations, but you do need a few new ones; it's not usually easy to shift your state of mind, but it's not so difficult now. And while your mind often entices you to search far and wide for what you want, I suggest you look a lot closer to home for that which will be dearest to your heart.CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Saturn in your fifth solar house (fun, adventure, romance and being a kid) for the past three years has not been a day at the beach. Saturn likes to work, and when he plays he likes to cut loose; the most awesomely indulgent of the Roman festivals was held in his honor, Saturnalia. Saturn in its seemingly endless but soon-ending journey across Taurus has been a kind of bane, a weight that has come with its share of strain and sorrow in not just your personal relationships but also your creative freedom. We'll all feel better when Saturn enters Gemini in early spring (even Geminis); for now we are in the very significant last moments of the old cycle. Any planet in the last degrees of Taurus is directly, and visibly, aligned with Alcyone, in the constellation Pleaides (the Seven Sisters), one of the most gentle, loving vibrations in the night sky. This is truly a blessing, if we're open enough to notice, and gracious enough to accept.AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
You will need to remain calm in order to handle the situations you'll be facing this month. The first order of business is finding out what people think and feel, and remembering it. Of course if people change their minds a lot, this complicates the process, but you'll have to hang in with human nature. The real challenge will be dealing with anger, which you may be inclined to take out on yourself. I just don't recommend this, nor do I recommend taking it out on an easy target -- that compounds anger with frustration and guilt. The solution for anger is to acknowledge it and ask others for help, and remember that there are times when meditation is more important than communication. There is, at this time, a sub-population of Aquarians set up for some of the most brilliant revelations and celebrations in many years, strange of sorts though it may be. If you're struggling, remember that a whole other world is available; another way of looking at life.PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
If you can't decide whether these are the best times or the worst, decide they're the best. Do what you can to make yourself feel at home on the planet and in your current environment; you can do quite a bit. Yes, there are sources of irritation, and surely, you're feeling like the pressure to change is upon you, and it is. But change implies a new relationship to the past. The whole issue of the past is a serious problem because its reality is so convincing, and we seem to have given up so much; but this attachment is only in our emotions. Making yourself at home means, more than anything, doing what you can to catch up with the moment in which you are alive. This is extremely challenging and few people ever do it. Yet you simply don't need what was, and it wasn't so great anyway. You do indeed have much to love about what is, which will open your heart to who and what is to come.++Home | What's New | Learning to Dance
