Time tells all...
Looking Back at an Unforgettable Year
Planet Waves for December 1999By Eric Francis Copyright ©1999 by Planet Waves Digital Media, all rights reserved. In Gratitude Time Tells All, the year-end horoscope column, is sent out with love to Jonathan Cainer, who is teaching us about the meaning of Dharma and great astrology. Horoscopes | Contents | The Year You Don't Forget I REMEMBER SITTING IN MY MOTHER'S KITCHEN a long time ago, when she uttered the words "the year 2000" and "the turn of the century" to my ears for the first time. Her tone was just a little ominous, suggesting that I was in for some kind of privilege that would be rare in this world, or perhaps some unusual responsibility just by dint of being on the planet. Being about five, I didn't quite know what to think, but I took her message to heart.
.......Right around that same age, in that same kitchen, during one of those deeep philosphoical discussions that I seemed to instigate all the time (some things don't change), she looked at me squarely and said, "Anything is possible." I think, no, I know, that on some level I took that to heart as well. I hope you will to.
.......So this is it, kids. Once we thought the world would end here. Now we can see, if we are looking, that it is changing now. Consider all that we did not do out of fear of cataclysm and disaster. Consider what is still possible.
.......Whether the bridge most of us now get to cross is a hypothetical concept, or a tangible reality, is about to be revealed. But whether events merely seem to happen around us, or whether we take an active role in creating them, is closely related.
........Our experience of time is about defining a relationship to the future, and to what is possible. We live in this dynamic with potential, and coexisting with the unknown. And while it may seem that fate or destiny guides our way, I believe that we are really in a negotiation process with existence, and the better negotiators we are, the better of a deal we can get from life.
.......In a column I posted one year ago, I called 1999 The Year You Don't Forget. If this year was indeed memorable for you, I hope it was in ways that ultimately helped you to grow, prosper and, if nothing else, to be grateful you're alive.
Sign-by-Sign-by-Sign ARIES (March 21-April 19)
There are at least two viewpoints you might consider taking on events of the past year. One is that they represented a struggle for control, specifically, the control of your own life and destiny. Certainly you've' experienced a great push and pull with the people to whom you have given power over you, or who have it by default -- perhaps sex partners or business partners, for example. The other perspective is to see events as a quest for innocence. Every specific subject or theme might match up exactly between these two angles: freedom in your relationships; financial independence; the ability to express your sexual desires; the right to be free from the past; your privilege of living without people having authority over you. But whether you view your life as a contest of the wills, or as a quest for expression of your innate self, will stack the odds against you, or in your favor. And this particular choice remains open.TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Saturn in Taurus has been your constant companion since the summer of 1998. This is a twice-in-a-lifetime process designed to compel your maturity in ways you might otherwise resist. Saturn sets limits, in this case, on what can no longer be. Some of the most difficult phases of this process are now working themselves out, and the world is preparing for a final salvo around your birthday in 2000 that is likely to shake collective reality, and your personal reality, on its pins. If you can learn to hang a little looser, and think a little bigger, and this could be very positive for your happiness and progress in the world. Another theme in your solar charts over the past year relates to expelling ghosts from your life. Ghosts come in all varieties, from actual entities in your environment, to past loves, the ideas of your ancestors, your relationship to family history and how it guides or goads your life. By now you must know: the future belongs to you, not them.GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Recent years have come with special challenges in the relationship aspect of your life, and 1999 was probably no exception. Facing people with deep, dark agendas, dealing with invisible adversaries, and relating again and again to those whose energy is intense but does not flow with the speed and grace of your own mind, all show up in the picture. The plus-side is that you're being driven deeper into yourself as a result of experiencing these qualities in others. Faced with emotional struggles, you are connecting with your emotions. Being plunged from hot to cold and back again, you have repeatedly been thrust uncomfortably back to awareness, but it is awareness you have needed. I suspect that by this time, you're ready to do things a different way. You rightfully have your own very clear ideas about what you need and what you want. Fear not that they are unreasonable or impossible to fulfill. The year's end promises a few surprises that will offer proof that you are making actual progress, even in these strange lands.CANCER (June 21-July 22)
The promise of 1999 was great good fortune: advancing in your career, a growing sense of ease in your relationships, a fresh view of sex, and a constant glow of divine protection about you. How has the universe done in keeping its promises? Check in carefully with each of these important themes, and reflect on whether in each seemingly separate aspect of your life, you are considerably better off than you were on January 1st. Consider carefully. Somehow, have you failed to notice all along what was happening? Could it be that one little thought -- the idea that you did not deserve all of this -- was blocking its reality from your view? Could this be what delayed your passage through the dark in earlier days and years? Now that you know what you're made of, will you make this same mistake again?LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
A new age of your history began in the autumn of 1998, and if I had to guess, I would doubt you're 100% thrilled with all the turns of events so far. It has not been easy, though the start of a new life rarely is. To your credit, you have, at long last, recognized the need to go digging beneath your foundations, and address important issues of structure at the very base of your life. Some of you around the ages of 29 or 40 have been getting this in double and triple doses, and have been pushed into total self-redefinition. Those Leos who actually feel the sense of forward motion are a lucky few, or perhaps just those with a good sense of life's architecture and engineering, and I hope you're one of them. But for most, it is, at this point, difficult to see how actual much progress you have made. And while you are not exactly at the beginning, the pace of change picks up even greater speed in the coming three seasons. Take heart, take up the tools of your craft, and yes, take some chances. Keep your hands busy, and press on with the vital task of seeking your true purpose.VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
You live on an island of the future surrounded by a sea of the past. Try not to be too distracted by what is going on around you, for it is, in truth, fading from power, if not from existence. We all know that islands can feel like paradise, and can also feel isolated. Yet being on an island is better than being thrust into the open sea, where, in so many places, self-hatred, greed, insensitivity and ignorance -- not to mention eating poison -- are prevailing ways of life. Of all people, I believe you most clearly see the present potential of the human family. Your heart wants to share this, and do what you can to guide the world in directions of positive change. You feel the struggle of the Earth, and want to ease it. Within your own reality, you have learned that it is possible to connect to the deeper sources, to feel joy, pain and compassion, and to make peace with the awareness that we share one world. You have done much in the past five years to make this a world smaller place. Now comes a time of building the bridges you have long envisioned.LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
An important aspect of 1999's history was how often, and under what adversity, you had to stand alone. I bid you pause and reflect, and thank yourself for your true perseverance. What cooperation you had, you used well. What company joined you, I would imagine, for the most part, you welcomed. Yet this is but small respite to allay the great sense of isolation that comes as a necessary consequence of leadership. Worldly renown or attention mean little when it is your task to shine brightly, and not for attention, but rather to light the darkness, often in the darkest hour. In these days of shadow, days which burn cold with the harsh glare of television, neon and florescence in colors that lie to the eyes of the unseeing, your radiance has been the brightest in the sky, when so many others gave up, and while so many others slept all around you.SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
No one but you knows for sure what you went through in these past ten years, and few besides me would believe it. In fact, it's likely that you don't even know for sure quite what happened. Just when you thought "it" was over, "it" began again, creating a thought pattern in which, even when you were at peace, dictated that you couldn't really be at peace for fear that you would be jarred by trauma or provoked by out-of-control changes. True, you have evolved rapidly in this time. True, as well, that this process has rewritten your perception of reality, and now it's time to write it anew. You may do so no longer compelled by harsh circumstances, but rather by your ever-increasing sense of value in yourself. You would best do so not from compulsion, but rather from a clear desire for a view of life which grants a fair chance to everyone, and in which the ways you contribute to cosmic justice are recognized and returned by others in kind. Please settle for no less.SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
At one moment, your life is moving in a brilliant direction, sure of purpose and free from obstruction -- then suddenly everything seems to reverse. Unless you're a mental gymnast, boxer or martial artist, it's annoying to bounce around like this, to be teased with the promise of change, reward or resolving your problems, only to discover that there is some reason why this is not possible right now. And it's demoralizing to feel the hope of focusing the power that your very worthwhile views of life have to light the minds of the world, only to find that it's not yet time, or that people, in their dullness, think you're a fool or a misfit. Not that you would ever reveal these misgivings for an instant. Sagittarians are indeed blessed with optimism and a sense of adventure, enviable traits that have kept you going when many others would have dropped. But take heed that the recent era of your life has added a subtle, but burning, sense of urgency to your growth -- and the promise that very soon you will make a major leap forward, the like of which you have neither known nor envisioned. Making your mark on this world is something you must do not just for yourself, but for the rest of us. Many seasons and many moons have led to what now occurs. Clear and focus your mind. Measure your breath. Await your moment.CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
What in God's name is a sea goat, the official animal of Capricorn? Well, that's a long collection of myths, but in Babylonian times, he was known as the "Antelope of the Subterranean Ocean" (the sea beneath the land), and also as the god Ea, "He of vast intellect." Modern astrology credits Capricorns with great wisdom based on extensive memory from the past. This is a real phenomenon, so you among few others must be seeing clearly how fast, and in how many ways, times are changing. And I can hear you laughing. Just because everyone else is so blasé about what amounts to total cultural upheaval hasn't got you fooled for a second. Your challenge in these seasons has been to change swiftly and with great awareness. You are a traditional person, but you also know that to be real, tradition must be alive, and that to be alive, people must change. So, my dear, keep on rolling, enjoy the once-in-a-universe show, celebrate with the living, and fear not the dead whom time has left behind. They can't hurt you; they barely even notice you.AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
Great confusion exists in this world between the concepts knowledge and belief. We tend to think knowledge is the trump card. Yet what we believe and wish to be true so often guides what we're aware of. Facts can be stacked to support any pre-existing theory, which is dangerous when we have no idea what that theory is, because it was passed through ten or twenty generations before it ended up in your head in the modern world. In the highly advanced mind of an Aquarian, trained and shaped and crystallized by lifetimes of pondering, confusion such as this can lead to great difficulty in apprehending reality as it is now, and seeing opportunities to make authentic changes. Doubt can plague your creativity and your sense of justice. Life can become dull. In the past 12 months, you have faced many challenges, seemingly to what you know. Really, it's your opinions that are being shaken, and opinions are basically trivia. What this exposes is your continued need to probe deeply, to seek, ask, and learn about what you do not know; and, at times, to face not knowing, and the possibility of never knowing. It's better than being wrong, and far better than being right.PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
Is there anything else you need to clear out of the way of your success? Are there any more demons you need to cast away, who might distract you from the opportunities now before you? We both know these recent years have been spent in endless preparation, rehearsal, and examining the many possibilities and liabilities of this strange world -- and, most important, learning how to dream. Pisces, needing to learn about dreaming? Dot's what I said, fishy one. The late daykeeper Patric Walker once wrote, "Scratch a Pisces and you will find a Virgo under their skin." Did he know, or what? You are finally learning not to be so practical, or rather, so scared of being impractical, after decades of everyone trying to shock you "back to reality." You are learning that you can use your power of visioning to reveal things besides your weaknesses and potential disasters. So let me change my original question. Is there anything you want that you're not asking for? Is there any wish, dream or creative vision you've overlooked? Are you fighting with any unnecessary compromises? Hmmm. Take a good look.For the Faithful
I learned a bit about water this year, as it turned out. In March, my friend Keiko took me down to Santo Domingo, where I fulfilled one of my New Year's revolutions -- tumbling backwards off the side of a boat and visiting the fish, coral and undersea forests for the first time. Suddenly, the ocean transformed from what you could call a surface experience into a universe of thousands of colorful beings, timid ones peeking from rocks, and bold ones investigating me and eating from my hand. Then in September, a tiny stream next to the house where I was living with my old friend Neal swelled to a muddy Mississippiesque river, all but destroying the structure and most of its contents. Conveniently homeless, I kept a decade-old promise to myself to live in warm place next to the sea. Now I write these horoscopes meditating on the waves and on the horizon. The colors of the water and the sky change from day to day, and hour to hour. At night, I taste the breath of far-off hurricanes. Planets rise, the sun rises, and life is always a little different. I'm learning to commune with water again, and to live always like I'm beneath its surface, moving a little more gently, at once with less thought and greater sensibility, the way you must down here. I can feel so much more; what was hopelessly impossible yesterday feels brilliantly inevitable today. Who would have thought? Anyone but me! ++Horoscopes | Contents | The Year You Don't Forget Planet Waves Online: www.PlanetWaves.net
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