Weekly Horoscope for Friday, August 20, 2010, #828 - BY ERIC FRANCIS

Dear Fellow Traveler:

It is better to have a slow start than many false starts. Therefore, proceed with care and awareness through the 12th when Mercury stations direct, and even then, don't trust everything you see and hear. As for trusting your feelings, I would say yes -- as long as those feelings consist of something besides hope or fear. Complicated is different than complex, and what you need now is a multi-faceted approach to exploring the potentials in your life. Collect the facts, check them over a few times, and see what they add up to. This will provide some grounding for your thought process. Yet two powerful conjunctions that occur around the time of the equinox -- Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Pisces, and Chiron conjunct Neptune in Aquarius -- both say essentially the same thing: trust your intuition, and trust your ideas.

Yours & truly,

Aries Confidential	I suggest you avoid competitive situations, and do your best to make sure that you urge a spirit of competition from your intimate encounters. I would not need to say this if the playing of games, and putting people through the paces, were not such a common experience where erotic and emotional encounters are concerned. But playing at love as if it were a game of Top Chef will be the single fastest way to eliminate any sense of intimacy in your relationships. It's also likely to be a cover story for a sense of disconnect that you may be feeling with someone you want to be close to. And this invokes the deeper and perhaps more challenging part of human contact, which is developing your connection to yourself as you explore the journey of being close to others.
Aries Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.
Taurus Confidential	You are close to a breakthrough in a relationship that is dear to your heart, your soul and your libido. Yet you may be wondering why you are so involved, and why it seems like you have so little influence over the course of events. I suggest rather than getting caught up in the mystery, that you think of your situation as walking down the street, or on a path. You cannot fly, but you can choose where to put your feet. You can walk slower and see the scenery and shop windows. You can walk quicker and move toward a certain location. You have options. It is true that you may feel like you're in too deep, but that's not necessarily true, and what you have is more pleasurable and meaningful than something that you could describe as 'too shallow'. Your destination is water; when you get there, remember to swim.
Taurus Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.
Gemini Confidential	Creative process often goes in fits and starts. There are days when you get everything done, and days when between the electric meter reading, your mom or your kid calling you three times and the monumental task of making lunch, you get very little done. The important thing is that you persist from day to day. More meaningful than that, go deeper, reach for the source of creativity rather than the results, and do your best to let appearances drop away. I suggest you be undeterred by delays, and return to your creative objective, whatever it may be, on a daily basis. Bear in mind, as well, that there is no creative process that is disconnected from a healing process. I suggest you keep both in your thoughts and your feelings, touching base with the deeper sense of history that you're working to resolve, as you simultaneously create this next phase of your existence.
Gemini Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.
Cancer Confidential	You may feel that you have more in the way of ideas than you have the tangible means to express them. That may be true for the moment, but it's not true forever; in fact, it will hardly be true for long. Right now I suggest you appreciate and explore the abundance of your creativity. You also have something else going on, which is an odd angle of analysis, a particular slant in the way you see things that has the ability to reveal both hidden problems and, correspondingly, hidden solutions. This particular mental gift is something innate in you, but it's particularly brilliant now. At times it's thinly veiled by frustration. Don't fall for that: anytime you sense that you are limited, or that you can't see the issue, look closely, turn the paper upside down, or rearrange the steps in a process.
Cancer Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.
Leo Confidential	You have something to say, so I suggest you say it. You may be terrified to, but this is the time to take some new, if tentative, steps in the art of self-expression. I am aware the depth of commitment involved in making any statement. I am aware that saying anything incurs the risk of being wrong. These are two things that you would do very well to face boldly. Trust your balanced perspective. Have faith that you see more to the picture than most people do, and that you know what stands on the other side. That is the perspective from which to speak -- to reveal the hidden world behind the façade of existence. In doing this you would, of course, be revealing something beyond your own façade. You would be allowing a new depth of vulnerability. These will be steps toward freedom.
The Leo Audio Birthday Report is now ready. This is more than an hour of astrology for Leo and Leo rising, covering the cardinal T-square from a personal perspective. I've also included a 20-minute tarot reading using the Voyager Deck. For instant access, order here for Leo and Leo Rising. Only $14.95, this also makes a meaningful and economical birthday gift.
Virgo Confidential	Wake up every day and wonder who you are. Ask the question. To do so would be to assume that you don't know the answer, and that is precisely the point. You spend too much time convincing yourself that you are who you are, rather than asking boldly and letting the question stand. You're likely to see that you put emphasis on being the same person from day to day or honoring your past goals. If you look at this directly, you may notice just how many have nothing to do with what you want now. So why are you still invested? You may not be; you may be falling prey to a quality of the human mind that is terrified that it doesn't exist, or doesn't know for sure. Cast that off. Embrace uncertainty and you will find your power.
Libra Confidential	You're at a crucial tipping point in declaring your independence from your parents. I say that whether you're 15 or 51; whether you live at home, or whether you've lived in China for the past 20 years. Most people aren't truly free of their parents' negative attachments. The most challenging situations occur when we think we're free, but are still dragging around 'unconscious' feelings in the part of the mind we pretend doesn't exist. For the next few weeks you can study the flow of events and trace backwards to what they say about your relationship to the past, to the people who once had so much authority over you, and to what you believe about authority today. To what extent do you have the freedom to structure your life? To that same extent you are free of your parents' baggage.
Scorpio Confidential	Are you rebelling against your own sexual energy? Are you maintaining a kind of purity to give you a sense of safety? Or do you simply feel alone in the world? I propose that how you feel about sex describes how you feel about your whole life. You can in fact make a detailed description of your erotic existence and then read it as if you're explaining your feelings about being on the planet. The sense of isolation you may be experiencing will help you break free of someone or something: an attitude, a relationship, an emotional pattern or a sense of being stuck. The planets are aligning in such a way that is promising you the experience of being anything but stuck, though it may seem daunting to make that first move. Gather your courage and do what it takes.
Sagittarius Confidential	We live in a self-obsessed society that lacks self-knowledge. You are probably one of the illuminated. You have a vision, you are in contact with your creativity and you understand that there is such a thing as liberation. For you, liberation and knowledge are one, and as this autumn progresses you're going to figure out that the only true knowledge is rooted in your emotional body. This is not true of everyone, though we would all benefit from this level of awareness. For you, it's always true and yet this time in your life marks a special time in your growth, where you tap into the deepest inner sense of your senses and thoughts and confirm what is true by a purely emotional response. Some call this a gut response, and I would agree, except to say that it goes deeper: right down to your cells.
Capricorn Confidential	You have been through so much. You might want to rest, but now is your moment to shine. Long rehearsals always precede opening night. You need a few good nights sleep, a few good meals, and then it's time to take on the world. Your goals have been long in coming to fruition, and you may have given up on some. I suggest you do nothing of the kind; your moment is just arriving. Events of the past few months may have come with hard lessons and seemingly impossible challenges. You may have spent so much time on deep inner work that you forgot about your desire to make your way in the world. Now is the time to remember. People around you are waiting for your ideas, your clarity, and your blessing. You're not alone, but you are the one who must bring the initiative.
The Capricorn Audio Birthday Report is now ready. This is more than an hour of astrology for Capricorn and Capricorn rising, covering the cardinal T-square from a personal perspective. I've also included a 20-minute tarot reading using the Voyager Deck. For instant access, order here for Capricorn and Capricorn Rising. Only $14.95, this also makes a meaningful and economical gift.
Aquarius Confidential	You seem to be experimenting with different approaches to having faith in yourself. I can tell you right away that holding yourself to a standard of perfection is not one that will work; an ongoing critique will not be so helpful; trying to live up to the expectations of others will not offer you much. What is likely to help is utter sincerity. Be aware of when you are putting up an appearance of any kind. More to the point, notice why you would conceal something behind a façade. While these things do not exactly represent faith in yourself, at least they won't get in the way; they will help remove obstacles rather than add them. When the strong rays of faith arrive, they are likely to feel like an inner sense of devotion to a long-term vision. You may have your doubts, and they don't matter.
Aquarius Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.
Pisces Confidential	Though you may not understand why, over the net few weeks, you begin to make progress in places that it seemed impossible. There are many factors at work. Sticking to your basic requirements for what constitutes worthwhile, authentic or sincere have helped, and they will continue to help. Your willingness to be flexible has also contributed -- this is called having standards and also the willingness to assess them continually. Yet there is one thing that is providing benefit above all the other factors, which is your innate sense of what is right for you. Trust that you can see through the fog; you can see to the quick of any issue, and you know how to put that information to work. Of course, this doesn't always make you the flavor of the month, but you quit that assignment years ago.