Your Weekend Almanac

At the time of this publishing, the Moon is in late Capricorn. It enters Aquarius at 2:16 pm EST today (Friday) and then conjoins the Sun at 2:20 am EST Sunday for the Aquarius New Moon.

Chart section for the Aquarius New Moon conjunct Nessus (aqua 'N'), with Venus in early Aquarius. Also shown: Neptune, Mars, Mercury and Chiron, all in Pisces. See glyph key here.

The Moon's conjunction to Nessus is exact shortly after the New Moon at 8:27 am EST Sunday; the Sun's conjunction to Nessus is exact at 1:12 am EST on Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day).

The Moon enters Pisces at 4:19 pm EST Sunday, setting an intuitive, compassionate, creative tone for the end of the weekend and the beginning of the workweek. The Moon will conjoin Neptune, Mars, Chiron and Mercury fairly quickly once it enters Pisces, emphasizing many of the themes discussed in the article above as it slowly begins waxing again.

Mercury will conjoin Chiron in Pisces at 9:53 am EST on Sunday, Feb. 10. Mars does the same at 11:52 am EST on Tuesday, Feb. 12. (Mercury and Mars form a conjunction to each other in Pisces today at 12:57 pm EST.)

Also notable this weekend and beginning the week is Mercury's square to Jupiter in Gemini at 7:07 am EST on Saturday, Feb. 9. This could equal an active mind trying to think in too many directions at once. Chiron will assist in keeping focus, though it's likely to be most effective if you stay aware of your inner world rather than getting caught up in external distractions (especially where money is involved).

Mars will square Jupiter at 3:12 am EST on Sunday, Feb. 10. Again, external ambitions will benefit from keeping close tabs on inner desires. What do you really want, and is what you're doing to get it actually helping or is your assertiveness crossing the line into aggressiveness?

Finally, Venus squares Saturn at 1:42 am EST Monday, Feb. 11. Watch out for selfish urges in money, love and sex. The goddess of love is a little cool and aloof in Aquarius right now, and Saturn is digging out the muck that's been clogging up deep, erotic Scorpio. If you want a hand with Saturn's digging, you won't get it by keeping all the shovels to yourself. Give love to receive love -- whether to another, or to yourself.


Valentine's Day Gift Offer from Planet Waves

It's just shy of a week from Valentine's Day. You may have noticed that Planet Waves doesn't do this holiday in a traditional way, but we like to acknowledge and affirm any chance we have to spread love. So, in honor of the upcoming holiday, we'd like to extend a special offer for you to share Planet Waves with the people you love. We'll be sending a separate email about this soon, but for a limited time you can give a year membership to Eric's weekly and monthly astrology for only $49. Or you can order a three month gift membership for only $19.95.




Interview on the Centaurs with Melanie Reinhart

Melanie Reinhart is my guest in this week's edition of Planet Waves FM. We cover Nessus in Aquarius, the discovery of the centaurs and the healing messages of these planets. We will be talking about the centaur planets and in particular Nessus in Aquarius, which has been big news the past few weeks. This is a breakthrough discussion on the understanding of the centaurs.

Melanie is the author of Chiron and the Healing Journey, the most comprehensive book on Chiron, as well as Saturn, Chiron and the Centaurs: To the Edge and Beyond and Incarnation: The Four Angles and the Moon's Nodes. She is a leading figure in contemporary astrology, and people travel from around the world to attend her classes and seminars. She's a good friend of mine and has offered many interviews.

Chiron and the Healing Journey is now available as an eBook for kindle and other formats. Melanie is offering Planet Waves a substantial discount. Entering the coupon MM28X will give readers a 30% discount. The coupon is valid until the next Full Moon (Feb. 25).

Here is that movie Melanie references, featuring many centaurs -- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I also mention an article about Gabrielle Giffords and Jared Loughner.




Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The February monthly horoscope was published Friday, Jan. 25. Inner Space for February was published Tuesday, Jan. 29. We published the Moonshine Horoscope for the Aquarius New Moon on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Please note that Moonshine horoscopes by Genevieve will now occur twice per month, for each Full and New Moon. I recommend reviewing the monthly horoscope at the end of the month. Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign; a new Inner Space is still emailed on the following Tuesday.




Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 #937 | By Eric Francis
Aquarius Birthdays This Week

If you have a birthday anywhere in the vicinity, you know this is a tipping-point moment for you, a point of no return. You may be reconsidering very nearly everything -- including the direction of your life and where you want to go from here. Do not be distracted by any dark or fearful ideas you may have about yourself.

They are not actually you, and their deeper source is more like ancestral baggage than it is some active experience or behavior. Access your passion and your desire for beauty in all its forms and you will provide yourself with a new basis for living, a new point of contact with yourself and the experience of authentic meaning. You are, in truth, being drawn to a much larger idea of who you are, and being invited to participate in the world in much deeper ways than you ever have before.

I recognize from your charts that you may have your moments of doubt and insecurity -- just like children, just like the greatest artists, just like everyone. They may manifest in a form that seems larger than life, though that's merely a reflection of your true creative power. Go past the doubt; go beyond needing a reason not to doubt, and simply dare to be who you are.

Note to Aquarius and Aquarius rising readers: Your 2013 birthday reading is ready. In every way this is different from your LISTEN reading (there is always so much to comment on in the astrology). It's priced to be affordable -- $19.95 for an hour of astrology and a tarot reading. Get instant access here.

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- In the cosmic scheme, your sign is the one designed to be about assertion and action. With Mars currently in Pisces, life may not be presenting you with clear direction; you seem to be lacking a tangible sense of where you are at the moment. This is an invitation inward. Yes, there are other influences that are heightening your desire for social contact, though I suggest you ask yourself whether these are offering you what you want, or presenting a distraction or worse, a source of needless drama. You may have the sense that you'll find someone you want, someone you've been looking for, 'out there somewhere', though I suggest you question that theory at least long enough to see whether the one you're looking for isn't right inside you. One other point to consider this week: this is a time of completions rather than of beginnings. Yes, there's a New Moon coming up -- which you could say initiates a time of closure and resolution that extends from now until your birthday.


Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- You may be wondering how you're going to handle all this responsibility; your astrology answers that in two words: organization and cooperation. The first word implies the second -- an organization is a cooperative enterprise. If you feel like you're pushing against something immovable, it will help if you invoke the collective mind and develop new ideas. This may not be straightforward, and you will need to be in a coordinating role. What you need to be doing is keeping track of all of the ideas and variables surrounding a particular seemingly intractable situation, and see the whole picture in composite rather than fixating on any small piece of it. From there, it will become clear that certain ideas are more useful than others. Make sure you evaluate the impact of every option. The law of unintended consequences is in full force and effect. Therefore, you need to think in multiple dimensions and anticipate the problems that any potential solution might create -- and change course sooner rather than later.


Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- Many factors are trying to call your attention to the ways in which it's time to take control of your life. This is not going to be instantaneous, nor should it take 'forever'. While you may be inclined to think you want to get your career in order, the matter at hand is much larger. This is about taking back authority over all of your affairs, though to do that, you will need to see the places where you've given up that authority, or had it taken from you -- beginning with your parents. Along the way, you may vacillate between thinking you're a force to be reckoned with and fearing that you have no power whatsoever. Both are distortions. You tend to think in absolutes; in this instance, seeing shades of gray and different hues of color will help you. I suggest you plan for a rethinking process as you make each decision. You will not be arriving at final destinations; stop first and see where you are and how it feels to be there. Then decide what to do next.


Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- There are those days when we seem to live in a world of the self-centered and superficial. It's frustrating if you're one of those people who practices self-awareness, because a little goes a long way, though it comes at a cost. And what cost would that be? Well, self-awareness is the antidote for hypocrisy, and not being a hypocrite puts one at a voluntary disadvantage. Anyway, for the moment, you will be encountering some people who cannot see past their own self-interest, and it will help immensely if you recognize them for who they are. You should have the information you need to sort this out fairly quickly after you meet someone. You then will have the option to forget what you discovered, or put the information to work. If someone is not interested in anyone or anything besides themselves, as evidenced primarily by their actions, then you cannot logically expect them to be of any help to you. This is not an accident; it's a way of life, and I'm here to tell you that you have a different agenda.


Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- This weekend's New Moon is encouraging you to see the widest possible picture; to think systemically. I suggest you do this as you solve every seemingly small, separate problem. Look up from what you're doing and consider the total circumstance -- the human as well as the technical; the psychological as well as the emotional. If you are noticing a world in crisis, it's about the lack of faith in love, and the expectation of betrayal. The people around you need more emotional contact, though they may seem to be indicating otherwise. That contact doesn't need to drain you, though there are several distinct stresses on your energy at the moment. Contact is just that -- it starts with hello; with a basic acknowledgment of existence. It includes being somewhat consistent, even a bit persistent, making sure that others know that you care and that you have their best interests at heart. They may not seem appreciative, though I assure you that they are.


Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- Certain relationship situations seem to be at a boiling point, and you may feel like people are transgressing your boundaries left, right and center. It's up to you, therefore, to be the gatekeeper in your own life. The challenge here is about your emotional investment in those who might cross some line that you may not have clearly articulated. To speak up may feel like you're betraying someone. This is a form of codependency not often called what it is, mainly because it's considered normal behavior. It may be normal but it's not helpful, particularly to you. I suggest that you get clear with yourself about what you want and don't want. Then make sure that others know your position before they act on some other assumption. The key is before, not after, so I suggest that -- though it might seem difficult -- you get your situation sorted out. As for the betrayal piece, it's not true -- it's a holdover from another era of your life. The only person you have to worry about betraying is yourself.


Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- In our society at our time in history, there is no aspect of sex that's not touched or compromised by the abuse of trust or power. This is one reason why sexual situations typically become so complicated so fast. We can find ourselves involved with abuse survivors; we might find ourselves involved with perpetrators. Yet one of the core hypocrisies is that most of the time, we tend to see ourselves as neither. You can safely assume you're somewhere in the system because you grew up in the midst of all of this. The typical way to deal with this situation is to ignore it, but you're at the point where that's no longer possible. The thing you may be feeling is that to confront this web of psychological and sexual intrigue, you have to take a chance -- and if so, I would agree with that. All progress requires taking a chance. In this case, the chance is akin to H.G. Wells' metaphor of how the one-eyed man in the land of the blind is considered crazy -- because he can tell light from dark and night from day. It's worth the risk.


Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- Often the most interesting aspects of people can be found in the places they've been hurt. This is true whether they've dealt with the injury or not; it's more convenient for everyone if they have. Hey, it's more convenient for everyone if you have as well, and apropos of Scorpio, the question of the moment is where some aspect of 'sexual' intersects with some aspect of 'spiritual'. Or more accurately, you'll find it in the place where sexual has been ripped apart from spiritual. There is more in this split than you may recognize, since it's actually about severing you from your creative power. It's also about whether you have an inherent respect for life. Sex is not something to be consumed, tolerated or used as a bargaining chip. It's the creative core of existence -- and how you feel about sex is exactly how you feel about life. Therefore, I suggest you consider carefully how you feel about sex and why. This includes what you say and do not say, and why; what you do and don't do, and why.


Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Sagittarius has one of the coolest and grooviest reputations of all the signs, though secretly, I believe this is one of the most reserved and even conservative signs of the zodiac. Part of this is how you tend to think -- in fixed patterns and abstract ways rather than the tangible and the concrete. And those patterns and abstractions can easily get hung up on themselves. Every now and then you reach a point where you simply have to flex your mind in new directions. You might have to make a decision you've been avoiding until the last possible moment. You might have to face some unpleasant fact and then deal with it -- and when these times come, you can be bold and decisive. That's about where you are today. Sunday's New Moon will help you go even deeper -- you can address what we could call a systemic issue, some quality of how you tend to think all the time that you may not have given a name to yet. Now, it's likely to be visible and in clear focus, to the point of being obvious.


Note to Capricorn and Capricorn rising readers: Your birthday reading is ready. It's a whole new thing, separate from LISTEN, covering different subject matter. It includes two sessions of astrology, a tarot reading, an extended description of your astrological sign, the charts and spreads used in the creation of the work, as well as access to last year's reading so you can check for accuracy. You can order that here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- For both of the Saturn-ruled signs (yours and Aquarius), self-esteem is the issue of the season, though there are subtle shades of distinction in how that will manifest. For you, there seems to be a titanic struggle to let go of an idea about yourself that is not true, and which is not working to further the course of your life. You need to know what that idea is, so you can change your mind about it. It's likely to be something that you've always taken for granted, and which was supported, or implanted, by the people who were around you when you were much younger. There is some element of what you had to say or do in order to have their approval, which may have included going along with things that violated your conscience. You've reached the place in your growth where you cannot persist in thinking or doing anything that goes against your ethics, and that seems to be the focus of the moment -- and it may feel like a kind of squeeze point.


Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Have your persistent self-doubt and self-questioning actually gotten you anywhere? They may have, though not as far as you think, and even if so, whatever purpose it had now seems to be served. Get used to the idea that self-improvement doesn't necessarily improve you. What does? Let's see -- it looks like your passion for beauty is both helpful and in full bloom right now. Beauty might come in any form of art or music, talents I would be surprised if you would hear any astrologer ascribe to your sign. However, we both know you deeply value them, though you may not have come as far as counting yourself in. I suggest you do that. There are spiritual and psychological approaches to growth and healing, and if you ask me most of them are getting pretty old. And then there is the creative approach, which is always new, and which is designed to get your whole brain thinking, feeling and growing.

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Note to Aquarius and Aquarius rising readers: Your birthday reading is ready. I cover entirely new territory from what I did in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition. I review the ways in which Aquarius itself has been changing and evolving. I describe your process of discovering your sense of mission; of opening up your inner life; and relationships based on creative exploration first and 'commitment' second. It's two sessions of astrology plus tarot, with an extended description of your sign coming soon -- and access to last year's reading so that you can verify my accuracy. You can get instant access here.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- This is a moment of passion, drive and clarity for you. Yet on a deeper level, it's a moment of authentic alchemy and some truly mysterious transitions. Mars and so many other planets in your sign might be a caution not to overdo things, though I would say you would be better advised to use this moment to focus your intentions and your plans and get into action -- now. You know what you need to know, including about yourself; you've done all the sorting out you need to do. Therefore, act on what you want. Make the changes you need, and don't let anyone stop you. You have some unusual mojo going at the moment. I would, however, remind you of its real source -- your inner life. As I emphasized extensively in your annual reading, the two fish of Pisces are the introvert and the extravert. This is a moment of contact with the world, of asserting yourself and figuring out that there is room for you here. The other side of this is honoring your interior space, the space where nobody else can really meet you. That is the real source of your inspiration and momentum. If you want the best guidance and the real facts, meet yourself there regularly.