Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 2, 2010, #810 - BY ERIC FRANCIS

Aries Confidential	Most of what has held you back this year has been in the realm of relationships. Your desire nature is hot, and you're pushing for more freedom, more experience, more creative risks. Your relationship circumstances, at the moment, seem to be presenting you with quite the opposite equation: for every one of those things you want, there is an equal and opposite reaction -- and it must be frustrating. Think of it this way. At least you have something to push against. You have a structure that can serve as a container. I know it doesn't feel that way now. Before long, you're going to have some experiences as if that barrier is not there. Whatever reasons or circumstances you have encountered and have seen as a cause or an excuse will temporarily shift out of the way, and you will get a chance to experiment with your passion and your energy. Observe carefully what you do.
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Taurus Confidential	Venus in your sign may feel like prying open a door. There is a sense of ease about this, and concurrently a sense of enforced growth, of necessity, of urgency that will build over the next few days. I would describe Venus square Mars, and trine Pluto, as an easy opportunity to do something challenging; to grow in a way that has perplexed or evaded you in the past. There is a spiritual component to this: that is to say, something that goes beyond the idea and reaches directly to the energy level, or to what may feel like the 'nonphysical'. Of course this is all physical in this dimension, since it's happening because for the moment we've taken up residence in bodies. Food remains a crucial theme -- this goes for Taurus and all those with strong Taurus placements. Make your kitchen table into an altar. Plant seeds and gather flowers.
Gemini Confidential	I often think of the idea of Donald Shimoda (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach) that we teach what we most need to learn. This is really one of the most pragmatic spiritual equations of all times. Teaching is learning; teaching is consolidating one's knowledge; teaching is offering yourself as an example and then having to live up to that. Teaching is a demonstration of your values, which for you means exploring those values in realtime, demonstrating them and basically noticing both how far you've come and how far you have to go. Get used to it: there's no such thing as a private life. It's true that there are places within ourselves that we can't reveal directly, but much of what we consider personal or introspective, we dramatize from moment to moment. The world is your reflecting pool.
Cancer Confidential	The price of success is faith in yourself. Okay does it really make sense to call that a price? Kind of, because it's such an issue for so many people; it seems so hard won; and most of all we have to give up so much lack of faith and that, if you ask me, is what really constitutes the price. However, you're getting to that point where success really is inevitable. You need to position yourself for it; and you need to get out of your own way. I don't suggest striving or efforting any more than you have to, and as far as I can see there are always going to be alternatives and workarounds to stressing yourself out. Stress is not creative and creativity is the name of the tune these days. Borrowing from an old truism, don't work hard -- wake up.
Leo Confidential	Emphasize the visual. See your options, and illustrate your agreements. Draw diagrams; explain things in terms of color and texture rather than mere concepts. Explain things in terms of story; of narrative; of continuity of flow and more than anything, scenarios that are based on relationship. Remember this about all agreements: the contract has validity to the degree that both parties benefit. Acts of charity and altruism aside (and let's be real, we do benefit from those), construct every story in such a way that the benefit is mutual and that each party profits from access to the other's resources. This is not conceptual. It's tangible, visible, real and most of all, reflective of an innovative approach. Where mutual profit is lacking, apply creativity: not liberally, specifically.
Virgo Confidential	This whole thing about balancing the masculine and the feminine -- it can come with a crisis, or what seems like one. If there was ever such a thing as an 'identity crisis', this is the real thing. An identity crisis involves either 1) discovering that you've changed and that you're not who you were in the past or, more likely, 2) discovering who you are, which does not match with who you were told you were in the past. And the way things are going on the planet, and the way they've been going for a sodding long time, the underlying theme is gender identity. For a while, you will switch between one notion of yourself and another, back and forth, until you begin to reconcile the two. While you're doing this, note what gender-based roles you ascribe to others. That will help you figure out what you're trying to integrate yourself.
Libra Confidential	You may need to quickly seek another solution if someone close to you is being uncooperative. Note that you may think they are being stubborn, and you may be right. However, in the current situation, your values are the ones that are the sticking point; you are the one who could either reach a compromise, or make peace with the fact that you're not going to compromise. Or, perhaps more accurately, that you are taking your time changing your mind about something. The next few days are an excellent time to pick up the pace on that project. What you resist will reveal something about you and how you see yourself. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but you're attached to something about your public image and this is slowing you down. How others see you is their own business. Changing how you see yourself will change your life.
Scorpio Confidential	It's more difficult for someone to adapt to your desires, intentions and goals than it is for you to adapt to theirs. If someone is making a fuss about this, trust that it's accurate; that it's meaningful. The idea is not for you to change, but rather to hold the door open for them to change. Here is a clue: A close partner seems to be in reaction to one thing about you -- it looks like something in your outer life: some role, goal or objective. In fact, he or she is in crisis because you are in a process of changing your mind about yourself; you are revising ancient ways of thought, and this person knows that their role in your life has to change as long as you proceed on your current path. When you modernize your perspective, you will have no room for the old-fashioned jazz you've been putting up with.
Sagittarius Confidential	There is no need to chase an ideal. The way you're headed, you're going to catch up with it fairly soon, and you've got no need to knock yourself out trying. I mean, you can if you want to, but the benefit will be the same either way, and in fact you may miss some vital creative and leadership opportunities if you try to sprint. I suggest rather than engaging in any kind of competition, strive for comfort and cooperation. I don't mean the laid-back and going nowhere kind of comfort, but rather a sense of ease with movement and trust that your many ideas will have a series of opportunities to manifest in the world. At the moment your astrology is in gradually developing mode; soon enough it will shift into spontaneous action mode, and I have every faith you will know when you're getting that cue.
Capricorn Confidential	You seem to be in a struggle for balance. A lot of us are. At the moment, plenty is being demanded of you, and you have spent most of the past three or four months feeling like you've got the weight of world karma balanced on your head. You understand how much responsibility you have, for how many people, events and for something else you cannot describe. In fact, you are personally responding to a global call for ethical leadership. This kind of leadership requires that you be willing to change internally every time you take a stand in the world. However, that pressure is starting to back off and give you some relief. For a while, you have more space to lead your life your way. And you do have some personal changes on the horizon, for which you're beholden to nobody but yourself.
Aquarius Confidential	An impossible situation is starting to seem like something else. Your mental outlook is beginning to improve. You seem convinced that real change is possible. I know this because I'm looking at several 'minor' points that most astrologers don't bother with; they are indeed subtle points and are likely to be reflected in your life through the subtle points. Most of these involve the way that your state of mind influences the human dynamics of your world. In the day and age in which we are alive, one that is defined by energy, by nonphysical communication and by the law of attraction, our thoughts and feelings are just about the most vital navigation tool we have. Therefore, the first step is gaining some skill in the navigation of one's own mind, and yes, this should be taught to small children as a simple concept. At the moment, for you, it's going to be about that easy to learn.
Pisces Confidential	I assured you last week that you have all the evidence you need: evidence that you can actually shift your emotional pattern. Right now you're under an illusion that everything in your life is bigger than it really is, which is designed to give you the opportunity to see what you're dealing with. I sense you're a bit intimidated by what seems like a state of excess, be it emoting, ambition, creative vision or desire to do what's really right for you. There seem to be so many small matters; there is so much to negotiate, and everyone is demanding a fair deal, leaving you to wonder whether you're getting anything of the kind. There is information in the planetary setup that develops over the next eight to 10 weeks, which suggests that many small issues (which look large now) are going to be resolved by a few simple, elegant innovations.