Approaching the Capricorn New Moon and Eclipse

Dear Friend and Reader:

Happy New Year! Even though most people try to set their New Year's resolutions and intentions by Jan. 1, the astrology this year is clearly indicating a wider window for this process -- and for beginning to take active steps in accordance. The major event with this theme is Saturday's New Moon in Capricorn, which also happens to be a partial solar eclipse.

The March 20, 2015, partial solar eclipse visible over a statue on the rooftop of the Austrian Art History Museum in Vienna. Photo by Joe Klamar.

This being the second holiday week in a row, however (at least here in the U.S.), you might be feeling a little disoriented. So this New Moon and eclipse could also be useful for reorienting yourself, both inwardly and outwardly, amidst some of these recent events:

-- NASA's New Horizons mission has sent back its first images of 2014 MU69, nicknamed "Ultima Thule," which it flew by on Jan. 1. This Kuiper Belt object, located some 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, is the most distant world ever explored by a spacecraft from Earth. Ultima Thule has turned out to be a "contact binary," which is two connected sphere-like shapes held in contact by mutual gravity. It kind of looks like a snowman.

-- China’s space agency has released a photo from the lunar surface, after its Chang’e 4 space probe became the first ever to land on the far side of the Moon. The mission could reveal important clues about the formation of both the Earth and its satellite.

-- A partial government shutdown over the funding of Trump's proposed border wall is now in its thirteenth day is having severe effects on many people who depend on federal services, in addition to the many federal employees working without pay. Remember, this is the same wall Trump swore he'd make Mexico pay for, and he's now trying to foist it on U.S. taxpayers.

-- Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was re-elected speaker. Already the first female House speaker in history, Pelosi is now the first woman to hold the job twice and the first person in nearly six decades to regain the post -- though she did so under vocal objections by many of the more progressive members of her party.

Tweet yesterday from freshman Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) prior to her swearing in to the U.S. House today.

-- Democrats took control over the House of Representatives as new members were sworn in today. Democrats picked up 40 seats in the November election, while in the Senate Republicans expanded their majority slightly to 53. Over 100 women will serve in the House for the first time in U.S. history, including the first two Native American women, the first two Latina women from Texas, and the first two Muslim women. Palestinian American Rashida Tlaib of Michigan was sworn into the House today on the Qur’an that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

Perhaps it's no surprise that Mercury, planet of the mind and of travel, is still in the sign of the far-off horizon (Sagittarius) yet in close proximity to centaur Pholus (small cause, big effect) in Capricorn, the sign of government and structure. There's a resonance between that mix of themes and several of this week's news highlights that might be worth holding up against your personal life as we head into the weekend's astrology.

Saturday's New Moon -- a conjunction of the Sun and Moon -- is exact at 8:28 pm EST on Jan. 5 (1:28:05 UTC Jan. 6). The peak of the partial solar eclipse is about 13 minutes later. One notable feature of this event is that it occurs right at the midpoint of Capricorn.

Incidentally, it's also very close to the midpoint of the current positions of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn (those planets are about three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half degrees on either side). This looks like some real "engine of change" astrology based on that proximity alone; I'm also wondering if it carries some foreshadowing or early echoes of the 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunction.

From what I've read about Saturn-Pluto conjunctions, I suspect one message of this New Moon and eclipse is to begin really focusing your energies: on your highest priorities, or perhaps on anything that seems to be restricted. As in, if something in your life feels narrowed or limited, what is your attention being trained on? What does it mean to be very thorough within certain parameters, as opposed to trying to 'do it all' in a more dispersed fashion?

Interestingly, the minor objects in closest alignment with the New Moon (within one to two degrees) are also in Capricorn: Atropos, Amycus and Icarus. Atropos was one of the three Fates in mythology, and relates to endings and transformations as well as inflexibility and inevitability. Amycus, a centaur, seems to represent the proper way to treat people and the consequences of not doing so (and may also symbolize innocent victims of violence). Icarus, the mythological figure who flew too close to the Sun (thereby melting his constructed wings), indicates themes such as the desire to escape limits and restrictions, the exuberance of youth, and reckless decisions that ignore both sound advice and potentially disastrous consequences.

This historic image is the highest resolution photo of Ultima Thule released so far from the New Horizons mission. The science team behind it has dubbed the larger lobe Ultima and the smaller one Thule. Photo by NASA / Johns Hopkins University APL / Southwest Research Institute.

In Capricorn, the sign of government and big business, it's hard not to think immediately of the many ways government and corporations are running afoul of almost all of these themes. Does this New Moon and eclipse signify a deeper awareness of this collective karma? Do we have a new opportunity to engage with these powerful global structures and really focus on the ways we all must change for the good of the planet?

Perhaps, even though this event is not happening on the Aries Point (the first degree or so of Aries, extended to Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, where individual and collective meet).

Cap is also the sign of leadership -- the kind not 'divinely given to kings' (as astrologer Isabel Hickey says of Leo), but rather the kind of respect, reward, humility and leadership that is earned and delegated. And just as we all have Leo's divinity somewhere in our personal chart, so too do we each possess an area of life where we can and must earn respect, and humbly take the lead.

In that sense, you may wish to zone in on the places in your life where transformation is beckoning (and where it may be butting heads with inflexibility); or where the consequences of how you treat others are manifesting; or your desire to escape limits (especially instances where that desire has led to reckless choices, or could do so). I also get the sense that this New Moon and eclipse is an opportunity for some focused introspection and reorienting that could be more accessible than what the solstice and New Year's Eve might have offered, in the midst of holiday distractions -- depending on your circumstances.

As you may know if you've been reading astrology for a while, eclipses generally come in pairs. And the time between those pairs can be very useful for releasing old patterns that no longer serve you, and for setting new patterns.

The second eclipse in this pair is a total lunar eclipse with the Leo Full Moon on Jan. 20-21. The lunar nodes (the perpetually opposing points that indicate where and when eclipses happen) are in the process of moving from the signs Leo and Aquarius to the signs Cancer and Capricorn. In between two eclipses, it can sometimes feel like time compresses or like events take unusual turns, and there can be opportunities to move your life in a new direction.

Full chart for Saturday's New Moon and eclipse. The Capricorn Sun and Moon are in the lower-right corner. View larger size here.

With Mars now in Aries and planets gathering in Capricorn (Mercury arrives there Friday night into Saturday, 10:40 pm EST / 3:40 UTC), industrious action should be more feasible than it may have felt most of last year.

Yet, before we get to the New Moon, the mental landscape, as represented by Mercury, is still ranging far and wide in Sagittarius. Today, Mercury is making a conjunction to the Galactic Core and Ixion in late Sagittarius, and is square Chiron in Pisces.

There's a question here about how you integrate what's been brought to your awareness by Chiron (this year and during the last eight years) with anything that feels like a 'second chance' at something.

In particular, this might have to do with your sense of spiritual purpose, long-term goals, or ethically questionable behavior -- especially in relation to anything needing healing.

Additionally, Mars is bringing in themes around how you identify with your sexuality, and how that may be at odds with certain family narratives -- or how it resonates with greater cultural issues. Chances are you can begin to bring things into alignment with seemingly small actions and conversations.  

There's also a trine between Mercury in Sagittarius and Uranus in Aries, exact tomorrow. If you seem to get a brilliant idea out of nowhere, why not let it spark your imagination? Maybe when Mercury enters Cap later tomorrow, you can hang on to that brainstorm and any recent optimism and channel it into a very practical plan.

Mercury in Capricorn may also help in concentrating and staying grounded during Saturday's New Moon and eclipse. With the centaur Pholus right there with Mercury, seemingly small ideas could indeed move you toward grand goals. As mentioned, those goals may go through a focusing or limiting process of transformation in the future. For now, though, like with any eclipse, touch on the things you'd most like to cultivate in the next six to twelve months. And maybe spend a little time clearing out some space in your home, within your consciousness, or in some other area of life in which new patterns can take shape.
Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter


An Astrologer Who Understands You

Dear Friend and Reader:

The New Year is upon us -- and for the first time, the Planet Waves annual is ready for you to have as the year begins. Like most people, you're probably happy to leave the whole 2018 thing behind.

I'm here to tell you about the INTELLIGENCE reading -- but before I say any more, I want to offer out loud how beautiful it is to be able to do this work for you -- to provide you with some guidance or illumination or ideas for how to consider your existence.

iMac selfie in my faux fur vest.

I've been doing this work a long time; I've seen it work for many people; yet I still consider it a miracle that I get the results I do. I don't take it for granted; my readings are an exercise in mindfulness and in ethics.

We live in terribly confusing, exhausting times, where there seems to be little guidance available. I think the first thing we need to do, though, is frame the issues we're facing, get a sense of the environment, and make decisions about how to take care of ourselves.

My readings provide you with a space to contemplate your existence, in a meaningful way. I use gentle, clear language. I understand the passage of time. Most significantly, I have a sense of the future. I use this not for prediction, but to help you light the way forward. (I get to be a headlight on a northbound train.)

These readings all come with original music -- some 50 pieces in the whole set of readings, much of it composed and recorded in 2018. For a sample, listen to my Aries Afterthoughts here.

Here are two comments that came in today. I'm leaving them full length, so you get the feeling. I am always amazed, and grateful, to receive comments like this:

This is the best Virgo reading I've heard on Planet Waves, in that it gives Virgo the agency it deserves without any of that tiresome 'self-criticism-holds-you-back' stuff you hear so much. Integrating the 2018 Mars and Venus retrogrades into this reading is so helpful in understanding the dynamic of Chiron and Uranus changing signs/houses. As a Virgo rising I could list so many ways this reading applies to my circumstances, but I'll save that for my journal. So great to listen to this on the last day of the calendar year, usually such a retrospective/prospective time. Thank you!

And...

Decided this week was to be a reset. Loved that PW 'reset' turned up just in time for the close of year. Anyhow, have to say that this year's reading has gone above and beyond my expectations. The capacity to speak to us at our various levels of consciousness as if it was a 'personal' reading is extraordinary. So helpful to have a summary of the year that was for 'sense making' and determining the inner work traversed. It has not been for the faint of heart. Onwards we tread in a time that is challenging and requires the best of all we have. Thank you Eric and team. Your work is stellar and I appreciate its depth and integrity as we navigate the paths.

Here are your options for purchase. I highly recommend getting your Sun and rising sign; best value is to get all 12 and share with your family (only one purchase needed per household).

All 12 Audio Readings Only -- $99

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Individual signs, written and audio -- $44 for the first sign, $22 for each additional sign.

Backstage Pass and Galaxy Pass holders please write to us at cs@planetwaves.net for best price.

Thank you for your business, and for trusting me as your astrologer.

With love,

PS -- Fifteen percent of revenue from INTELLIGENCE goes to Chiron Return, Inc., nonprofit publishers of Planet Waves FM and host of The Gemstone File.

PPS -- Read your January monthly horoscope here.

Capricorn Birthdays and Rising 2018-19: Get Instant Access to Part One of Your 2019 Astrology

"While I'm listening I shake my head and I've got a big smile on my face, because this year really has been an internal journey. Another amazing reading. Thank you!"

-- A. Wilson

Dear Friend and Reader:

Eric has recorded the first segment of your 2019 Capricorn Astrology Studio (formerly called the Birthday Reading) -- and plans to follow up with the second astrology section and the tarot reading as soon as he's able. This means you can get instant access to the first segment -- and that you have limited time to secure the current pre-order price before it increases again.

Eric Francis.

If you're in the process of setting year-ahead intentions and goals for the New Year, you'll want to have Eric's freshest thoughts on your upcoming astrology at your fingertips.

With two of the most powerful change-makers in the solar system -- Saturn and Pluto -- in your sign and headed for a conjunction, the next couple years appear to hold a lot of potential for you, whether your Sun, rising sign or Moon is in Capricorn. Uranus and Chiron are also headed for sensitive areas of your chart (your house of creativity and risk, and your house of home and 'emotional environment', respectively), bringing new surprises and calls for awareness.

Eric designs these readings to empower you to make the most of these developments, no matter what shape they take in your life.

"I have *really* been enjoying my Capricorn Sun sign Empathy reading, listening and re-listening. Like others have said, it feels personal to my life, even though you've interpreted the astrology off of a group chart. It's awesome! I am going to add the purchase of my Scorpio rising sign also. Thank you for all that you do."

-- Chris D.

You can order here to get instant access to the first astrology segment and extended sign description (we'll email you when the other parts are ready), or give it as a gift to a loved one.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. If you haven't yet, check out last year's Capricorn reading, as a gift from us, to review 2018 and check Eric's accuracy. Constructing the Light

By Amanda Painter

With Capricorn being the sign of structure (thanks to ruling planet Saturn) and, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, also a time of year often marked by ice (which appears glass-like), the meticulous and labor-intensive glass sculptures by Jack Storms seem fitting to feature this week.

He uses a cold glass process, rather than heating the glass, to layer in highly polished dichroic glass with lead crystal -- resulting in pieces that can take months to create and seem to morph as they turn in the light.

As described in this Art Insider video, Storms suffered an eye injury while making one of his pieces; the resulting surgery left him blind in one eye. Although re-teaching his arms and hands to judge distance made for a very difficult year, Storms says he's come out on the other side with even better designs. You can listen to him describe his process in greater detail here.

Listen to Vision Quest on Live Stream

Planet Waves has an in-house music ensemble, called Vision Quest. We have a 38-hour loop of our music, which you can listen to any time. Included are finished pieces, rehearsals, live concerts, drum grooves, and spoken word recordings. I consider it a kind of musical divination. Click in randomly at different times of day and see what you discover. Our Gifts to You: A Little Something Extra

Dear Friend and Reader:

It took me a long time to figure out what kind of gift to offer for new and returning subscribers. Tee shirts seemed too complicated; you need at least six sizes to get started, and not everyone wants a shirt. Tote bags are useful but kind of boring.

So I thought: journals. I love notebooks, and just about everything I write starts scribbled down on paper. I know my readers are a little old-fashioned, so this seemed like the perfect thing.

Black smaller, pink larger, embossed with the Planet Waves logo. There are a few hand painted sketchbooks left, with heavy, acid-free paper.

Then...I researched embossed journals for about six months. That's how long it took. I requested or purchased samples of the best that suppliers had, and all kinds of stuff came floating in the door. It was more challenging than I imagined to find a nice one, though finally I did.

Everything had to be right: the paper, the lines, and how the book feels in your hands.

However, the one I selected was being discontinued. I ordered as many as we could reasonably afford. We now have two main options: small black ones, and larger pink ones (these are new).

Together, they are the approximate color of Good & Plenty candy. I am one of these people who loves anything pink (sweatshirts, nail polish, headbands, a hot pink Squier guitar that I gave to Zosha a few years ago). We also have a few hand-painted notebooks left, which are acid-free sketchbooks.

You can get an embossed notebook with any monthly, quarterly or yearly membership to Planet Waves. If, by the way, there's a calling for hand-painted ones, I will make one more-or-less to your preferences (for those who sign up for a full-year Backstage Pass).

Continue reading this letter here.

Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

We've published your extended monthly horoscopes for January below in this issue; you can also find them on the INTELLIGENCE website, which you're invited to explore. Your extended monthly horoscopes for December were published on Thursday, Dec. 6. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope after the Sun has entered a new sign. Aries (March 20-April 19) -- This year you will meet Chiron. You might have at some point in the last four seasons, though most likely you were addressing some urgent material from the past that took up most of your energy. Yet in the sense of experiencing a particular kind of activation, and an unusual challenge that compelled you to grow, or threw you into some kind of crisis, what you experienced was pure Chiron. What you are learning is how to distinguish yourself from others. This is mostly an internal process. You begin by awakening to the degree that you allow your ideas about yourself and your existence to be determined and even dictated by others. The early stages of this -- which you may well have experienced -- may include the consequences of being different, such as you might stumble into accidentally, by stating your opinion. The place you will want to study is the point of resistance, where your will meets that of "some other force." The "other force" you're encountering is a combination of your past conditioning and the current movements in society that might reinforce it. So you might look at this as a clear case of you against the world, or vice versa. That is how Chiron can seem, at times, because it's so closely associated with standing out and standing apart. There's another way to experience this dynamic, which is internal: expressing your self as contrasted with your not-self. The quest -- and the urgency -- to be real exists entirely within you. It has nothing to do with all those other people. Get your full Aries reading by Eric here.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Taurus is considered the sign of stability, of etiquette, and of determination. You reach for impeccability, whether with the passion of an artistic master, or the steadfastness of an oak tree that drives its intention to exist deep into the ground, and into the sky. Yet few see what you go through to maintain this state of being. To say the least, it's not easy. I would remind you of what Alice A. Bailey said of your sign in the well-known but little-read work Esoteric Astrology. She describes Taurus as the blacksmith shop of the soul. It's dark and smoky, hot and loud. Down at the core is not the elegant Aphrodite but the limping Hephaestus, whose mother threw him off of Mount Olympus due to his apparent imperfection. Then, as the metalsmith of the gods, he made all the weapons of the Olympians. He served a profound purpose, though it was in no way glamorous, or related to appearances. It was born of practicality and of honor; his singular role emerged from the agony of abandonment and misunderstanding. With Uranus entering your birth sign for the next seven years, you are now in a new phase of fashioning yourself, and the tools of your consciousness. Keep in mind that this is not a delicate or pretty process. There's no pageantry and no accolades, and few who will even notice the progress you're making -- so that must come from you. Remember: you are not only constructing tools. You are developing the skills to do so. You will need to be patient, and accommodate the potential for change every single day. Get your full Taurus reading by Eric here.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- At this stage of your life, the focus of your growth is on your agreements. This includes the agreements you've already made, the ones you are about to make, and the legacy of those that existed in the distant past. You are also subject to the agreements that others make on your behalf, such as through various arrangements in marriage, business partnership and trusts. I suggest you develop your skill in contracts. Start by reading the ones you're presented with, no matter how boring they may be. You might also read something in the genre of Contract Law for Dummies. Find someone in your life who has a knack for the topic, and work with a collaborator or two -- someone who has no interest whatsoever in the outcome of the arrangement. That part is essential. Contract law is a cold art. There is one principle I suggest you hold above all others, which is knowing what is asked of you, and entering no agreement that you are not 100% confident you can fulfill. This applies to business arrangements, intimate situations and family business, with a special emphasis on the agreed time of delivery. And one other: every agreement you sign must have a reasonable exit clause. There will be times when, despite all of your precautions, you find yourself in over your head. And in those situations, you will need to be something of a ninja, keep your cool and make decisions. One thing to keep in mind is that this is all a group enterprise. You're not in anything alone, though it's also essential that you allow nobody to make your decisions for you. Hold people to the fire, especially where the facts and figures are concerned. Get your full Gemini reading by Eric here.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- In order for your life not to seem like an ongoing confrontation, you will need to study your environment. Translated, that means learning how to see what everyone else misses, and how to see what's invisible. This will give you many, many advantages over those who simply don't pay attention. You're willing to defend yourself and your brood when you have to, though this is not your preferred way of life. Therefore, you must know people and know yourself. Study the landscape, and get a sense of what strategy others are applying in their dealings with you. You must surround yourself with people you actually trust, which means understanding what trust is, in the strange verging-on-insane world in which we are living right now. Notice who demonstrates their fidelity to you, and stick with them -- and return the favor. Your real project this year is not defensive; it's about setting your mind on tangible, useful and necessary achievement. Chiron is about to enter Aries, and will be there for another eight years. That's your 10th house, which is about leadership, responsibility, and the authority you wield in the world. After many years of studying this house, the concept that threads the needle is responsibility. More than anything, this means taking charge of your own affairs. That will become a habit and then a pattern, all the while serving as an example for those around you. In many ways, you were born to lead; you are a natural pioneer, and you have the ideas to back it up. Therefore, I'll say it again: know people, and know yourself. Get your full Cancer reading by Eric here.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- You've been through many unusual changes in the past two years, mostly centered around eclipses of the Moon and particularly those of the Sun in your birth sign. The question now is of restoring some stability to your existence. The place to focus your efforts and your energy is the work and wellbeing angle of your chart, which means some form of enhanced work/life balance, or work/life integration. There are two approaches, though I would suggest that what you're doing is all about integration rather than balance. For you, life and work are not distinct entities. Work is so integral to your existence that it's essential for any notion of living well. This will mean, in the coming seasons, working at what you find to be the most meaningful, and making the most of each day as it passes. There's a word tossed about lately, I believe improperly: that is sustainability. This is not an especially helpful concept, since nearly nothing qualifies at the moment. You would do better with the notion of resilience. This is a working principle that can be applied from moment to moment, rather than something that exists only in theory. It's the ability to recover from the expenditure of energy; this implies having some reserves -- of energy, of cash, of time, and of other resources. Leave yourself headroom, rather than pushing your efforts to 10 or 11. Prioritize, and master the art of collaboration, so that you can shift the nature of your responsibilities and your efforts to accommodate your energy level and other demands. Consider time your ally, and be bold about making the changes you need to make. Get your full Leo reading by Eric here.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- There's something within you that you urgently need to set free. This will inevitably call for you to let go of your concepts of what it means to be a proper adult, a well-behaved person or a responsible child. Those self-images and roles have come under some tension this year, as something else about you has been struggling to be born. You would serve yourself well to be a little less risk-averse. That means taking possession of your experiments; you will take your chances, or they will take you. The first thing to do is let your imagination run a little wild, and explore some of the possibilities. Then start bringing your body into the scene, and physically explore some of them: go somewhere unusual, do something you've never done, or have an encounter with a person you're curious about, and take your time doing it. Every cell in your body is reaching for the child within you, who lives for how strange and interesting life is. As you do this, you will begin to shift your relationship to what you consider your responsibilities. You will recognize that you can let some of them go; others may seem to be taken from you -- and it would be helpful if you gave them back from whence they issue, or delegate them to someone who likes them more than you do. One thing that the pressures of adult life do for you is to shield you from new experiences. This includes within your work, where you would benefit from boldly exploring aspects of your profession that you've never experienced before. Get your full Virgo reading by Eric here.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Over the next year, your primary job is to bring to a close every matter of your life that is ready to end. This end phase of what must conclude goes back a year, though certain matters have been on your agenda for up to a decade, and now is the time to write the final act. Part of what's distracted you is your need for security; however, you may be in that situation where you're struggling to make decisions, and that gets worse as the pressure builds. For this reason, I suggest you begin taking steps sooner rather than later. You may have a mistaken idea of what it means to make a decision, or what readiness is, and are likely to figure out that you were ready and decided long ago. You will not know that, however, until you actually move, which for you is the last stage of making a decision: to actually enter the territory, and then you recognize you complete your decision-making process by taking action. Said another way, taking action is how you finalize your decisions, and no amount of contemplation can get you there: only movement itself. Therefore, make a punch list of that which you know must end. That could mean personal arrangements, business arrangements, living arrangements, the storage unit: the things that influence your life every day and that you've said anywhere from 10 to 1000 times are done. Let them be done. Meditate on the phrase, "the end of the matter." Write it on the wall, or tape it to your computer, and make it a way of life. Once you get started, you will want to keep going, and going, and going. Get your full Libra reading by Eric here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- You may think it will be impossible to get your head together; to have some peace of mind; to have one voice that you communicate in. Yet a little focus will go a long way, as will some flexibility. Your mind is a living creature, not a machine. You will develop what you cultivate, and if you want clarity, then you need a way to grow it. I propose writing as a daily discipline; and further, that your approach not be precious but rather practical. This is not about the beauty of your words or the precision of your expression, but rather about clearing clutter, and making room for your real ideas. Henry Miller said that to find one's writing voice, it's necessary to write a million words. For you, finding your voice means thinking clear thoughts, and knowing where you stand with yourself. Life is rather different when you can do these things; when you're not squirming around trying to decide what you really think and feel. This is also a process of learning how to be more honest with yourself, at which you have a C+ average most of the time. Such honesty is about breaking through the clichés of your own thoughts, and getting to the real material that's beneath them. But you don't know you're down there till you actually arrive, and it can seem like a long, craggy slog for a while, until it's not. From the look of your chart, it's possible that being able to write is really, truly something you want to learn, like wanting to breathe. I would encourage you, and I would also remind you that for a while, moving words can feel like hauling rocks; and then you find that they are as portable as yoga blocks, and as soft and as colorful. Do the work. Do not stop. You will thank yourself. Get your full Scorpio reading by Eric here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Make careful use of your technology. Ensure you are the one using it as a creative tool, and that it is not using you. This is challenging, because we tend to become like the tools we use; our minds shape and form around them. It can be painful to take up your tools, because they are sensory devices, sending you feedback that can be overwhelming. So, too, can thought itself. We are now well into the age of delegating the making of decisions to technological processes (falsely called "artificial intelligence"). What our society does not see right now is that our technology exists on the level of a religion. That is the part of the brain and of consciousness they occupy. We accept that they are miracles and that the gospel is true. You must keep your conscience about you in the coming years. Above all, this means making your own choices, and knowing the moment you deflect the responsibility to do so. Normally I might say that you can trust your own goodness, but this time I'm going to suggest that you raise it to question. Subject your intentions to scrutiny. Make sure you differentiate the emotional level of your consciousness from your mental process. You are more easily subject to propaganda on the emotional level, where it's easier to be persuaded and to persuade yourself. Therefore, the planets in their courses are calling upon you to be a master of doubt. And if that is true, your most effective tool will be your curiosity, because it will lead you to the place of true intelligence: the desire to know and understand. Get your full Sagittarius reading by Eric here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- You may have the urge to run from your responsibilities. You might ask yourself how you would feel if you did; just say screw it all, I don't need this crap. Who are you living for, anyway? And what are you living for? The chances are that you're trying to maintain several agendas or sets of priorities at once, and you need to figure out which one is really yours and yours alone. Yet this will take courage of a special kind, because you're so accustomed to doing everyone's bidding, even to your own detriment. You've learned a lot in recent months about your true priorities, though you may have had a difficult experience of seeing what happens when you go against the grain of what you think is expected of you. That's what this is all about, Grasshopper: expectations. That word deserves to have a disgusting feel in your mouth; I will skip the metaphor but invent your own -- something you really, really don't want in your mouth -- and connect it to that word, and that concept. You will do better to sweep the deck clear of all of your preconceived ideas about life, and then add them back one at a time, and ask yourself, one by one, if this really matters to you; or if it has that gross feeling of being tethered to someone, something, or some other time -- purely as a consequence of your own thought process. Nobody else can free you of these things, but they can try to heap a little more on you. At a certain point you will need to decide what's more important: your freedom or thinking you're perceived as perfect. It's time to give yourself a break. Get your full Capricorn reading by Eric here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- You can trust that whatever just happened will never happen again. You've released an enormous amount of pressure that was clouding your whole environment, and bending your reality -- and now you can get down to what you really need to do. That involves ongoing inner work, though few people have a sense of what that means. Here's a clue: it's not about rehashing the past, and it's not about denying the past. And it's too complex to sum up in a tweet or two. Yet history is very much a factor, by which I mean the history of your family going back many generations. It's no easy task claiming back your life from what seemed to have an invisible grip on you. Yet you've had a good 10 years in the process, and now the pace of changes is accelerating. I suggest you make peace with one basic fact, which is that much of what you're dealing with is not really about you. You're still responsible for it on some level, because it's been passed down to you as some kind of inheritance, like an old house you're not sure you want but suddenly you're paying taxes on it and you have to fix the roof and all of that. There's a plus side to all of this, which is you have material to work with, if only you will take a creative approach to the questions you face. Yet now, that facing will be inward, not into your thoughts or into your feelings, but directly at the cosmos from which you emerged, as strange and as turbulent as it may be. Borrowing a line from the eternal professor, Bob Dylan: "I have a brother or two and a whole lot of karma to burn… Isis and the Moon shine on me." Get your full Aquarius reading by Eric here.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You've been through the great initiation known as Chiron in Pisces. Well, technically, it ends the day the Sun enters your sign on Feb. 18. The time remaining presents you with a brief opportunity to look back and consider how far you've come since April 20, 2010. While you're doing that, make a list of everything you need to complete, which will probably mean closure with certain individuals, specific creative projects, and matters of healing that date back to around the beginning of the transit. The growth process you were taken through involved the clarification of your emotional body. Depending on what day it was, this might have had the feeling of dropping a hook down the drain and dragging out all the weird gunk that was down there. Other days, you might have felt like you were pumping water out of a well, waiting for it to finally come through clear and cold. And at other times you were standing in front of an ocean, knowing that in truth it's not the only thing in the world you actually respect -- it just feels that way. With Chiron moving on to Aries, you're on your own, in your relationship to your intuition and your creativity. You will need to be discerning, focus your mind, and know the difference between your prejudice and what you truly perceive. You will need to split the difference between instinct and fear. You will need to know when you can trust yourself and when you must pause and get additional data. These are tools that will help you on the way to aspiring to greater experiences and accomplishments than what you've known, though all depend -- and depend entirely -- on exercising your capacity to be honest with yourself. Get your full Pisces reading by Eric here.