Acting As if to Hold the World

Dear Friend and Reader:

         Saturday, we will experience the third of three unusual eclipses. This begins a disengagement process with something that's been at work for a long time -- long before the current Mars retrograde and the recent lunar eclipse that happened in conjunction with it. With this event, we begin a gradual process of disengagement with what has been happening, and begin to move forward into what happens next.

         This is a sensitive time, of shifting a delicate balance. The process of closure is easily disrupted at first, and must be guarded. Nearly everyone is going through something unusual, whether directly in an intimate situation, or indirectly, through a community of some kind.

Illustration © Jess Shepherd.

         We all live in the world; the whole world appears to be in crisis. This calls for individual action. Action is the fruit of knowledge. Therefore, we are called upon to be in possession of our awareness, and to act on it.

         The word, which we've all heard, is dharma.

         It means acting as if to hold the world together. Dharma is the conscious creation of a condition. We think of karma as a result. Yet that word really means action. It can be any kind of action, though. Dharmic action is acting as if your own choices serve to make the world a better place specifically by preserving its delicate, intricate threads of relationship, kindness, healthy dependency and mutual sharing.

         The opposite of this is to rip and tear at the world, which is what we see going on most of the time: in politics, in business that does not reinvest or support its workforce; in privatizing what should be nonprofit public service; in the brutal tendency of so many people to lie so casually: all of this weakens the fabric of the world, ongoing. These things pull the world apart.

         We're in a delicate spot right now, and we must act as if to hold the world together. Notice the "as if" -- that means do what you know is right whether you think it works or not; whether you think you'll get a result or not.

         "As if" is an act of faith. It is an experiment.

         We can also try the idea of dharma in a more concise form: acting as if to hold the world. Imagine yourself holding the planet, which you do, in your consciousness. However big the world may be, you must contain it in some form, through your ideas about it, which means your ideas about existence.

         I know that it's difficult to have any positive thoughts about the state of the world right now. I feel the temptation to surrender to the chaos, the deception, the onslaught of greed and aggression. We don't have to go there. Doing your small part, with as little attachment to outcome as you can muster, will give you some leverage. What you do matters. What you think and feel matter. What we do together makes a difference.

The Problem of Digital Consciousness

         Mars has been retrograde in Aquarius, which is underscoring the digital problem. This is a problem without a name, in mainstream society. It's not considered an issue any more than doorknobs or mailboxes. They are considered part of our invisible environment, as is the overwhelming and ubiquitous presence of digital. Just because something seems inescapable does not mean we should pretend it doesn't exist or have results.

         The sign Aquarius is a good fit for the digital environment, with its cliquish social bubbles, its entrenched patterns, its electrical nature and its seemingly humanitarian purpose. Yet Aquarius is a power that must be used judiciously (those with this sign prominent in their personal horoscope, take note).

Illustration © Jess Shepherd.

         It is an awesome power, like Ice-nine from Kurt Vonnegut's work, that can crystallize nearly anything into a pattern. And though these patterns are often toxic, we also depend on certain elements of the fabric of society in order to be able to participate in society at all. It's just that, as with money, the medium of exchange can dominate consciousness in a way that is difficult to see.

         Mars retrograde can be taken two ways: first, as an image of something ripping at society. Second, as an image of someone standing up to society. By society, consider that in the context of "society as dominated by the internet." Let's see, in the first instance, how about Russian social media account farms, and the resulting disinformation and the manipulation of elections?

         If you don't think that's possible, then you're not in tune with your environment. The internet propagates disinformation like an immune compromised patient can propagate infection.

         The main effect of electrical media in general and digital in particular is to shove people out of their bodies, somewhat violently. This can feel like a "spiritualizing" effect, though the opposite would seem to be true. We are born into bodies and incarnate within them, and we need to stay connected.

         Mars represents desire, and what we do to fulfill it. Desire gets a bad rap, though it's what drives the creative process. When Mars is disconnected from creativity, it fast finds a home in destruction. One level of desire that Mars represents is sexual desire, in the form of who and what you consciously want. Right now, digital is driving sexual consciousness, and this is dangerous, because it's disembodied.

         Digital is also a polarized environment (like any astral plane). Things are either pleasing or terrifying, black or white, all or nothing -- in the spirit of the zeros and ones that drive the entire environment one level behind the scenes.

         This is opposed to the gentle process of exploring boundaries, feelings, emotional connections, your senses and your relationship to your body. Digital develops in tangible versions; humans are a sublime gradient.

         Along with being driven out of body is the parallel problem with digital: being conditioned to behave like the robot that the entire digital environment is. We are handling powerful tools, which extend the nervous system. This feels good at first, and then it quickly gets to be too much, and we usually withdraw. Any tool used unconsciously turns us to robots -- especially if that tool is a robot.

         We don't have to worry about "artificial intelligence" taking over. We are becoming like machines faster than they are becoming like us. We really have to worry about artificial stupidity, which means insensitivity and mechanical thinking.

Illustration © Jess Shepherd.

         And as far as I can tell, there's only one way out of that, consisting of these options: following your curiosity about people, listening to what your hormones are telling you, staying close to your senses, keeping your hands in creative work as much of the time as you can, reading carefully instead of skimming, writing carefully (and longer pieces, so you develop your story-arc), hanging out with people in-person, and having deep orgasms, whether alone or together.

The Third of Three Eclipses

         Just to recap, we are now in the third of three eclipses. This takes place in Leo. It's the second New Moon eclipse in a series that went: New Moon eclipse, Full Moon eclipse, New Moon eclipse. It's time to bring unresolved matters to gentle closure, and shift gears to match the sequence of Mercury stationing direct on Aug. 19 and Mars stationing direct on Aug. 26.

         Saturday's eclipse happens on the 19th anniversary of the final major eclipse of the 20th century: the Aug. 11, 1999 grand cross and total solar eclipse. Think back to what you were doing in those days. Remember how you felt. Remember a world less dominated by computers. Remember before Bush and Cheney. I think I captured some of the optimism of that era in this article, called The River of Night, written at the turn of the millennium, a few months after the 8/11/99 eclipse.

         Saturday's eclipse offers some closure on whatever has surfaced for you this year, and in particular, in the wake of an eclipse of the Sun opposite Pluto, and an eclipse of the Moon conjunct Mars. That closure may arrive in the form of beginning a long-delayed process that is now unavoidable, because you know what you contain, and what you need to do about it.

         Mars retrograde has, on a certain level or two, shredded the obsession with community acceptance and, at the same time, revealed peer pressure for what it is these days. Conformity and the pressure to conform are not just useless, they're toxic and dangerous if they involve denial of obvious reality, which they almost always do.

         It's time to act as if to hold the world together.

         It's time to act as if to hold the world.

         It's time to hold the world, and time to take meaningful action.

With love,

PS -- Sabbatical or no, I was not going to leave you without an August horoscope, wrapping up these eclipses. I've also included, below them, the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope, written in advance of the grand cross/total solar eclipse.

PPS -- On the first day I could write whatever I wanted, I took a nice long ferry ride across Lake Champlain (to Port Kent, NY, and back), and wrote an essay called Are You My Mother? (An Aquarius Moon Memoir). It's my first try at autobiography, which you're invited to read.

PPPS -- To get on our horoscope mailing list, sign up for the free Four Winds Almanac. You will get the monthly horoscope each month, and the daily when it resumes.

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- You may not consider yourself a creative force of nature, though the time has come to not just experiment with that notion, but to step into it like you're boarding a vessel of light. Your chart has Leo in the vibrant, illuminated 5th place: the art studio of the zodiac, the creative space where the spark of life is transacted from one person to the next, and one generation to the next. This is more than a physical space; it's like a transport beam that will carry you, through your own creative process, from one experience to the next, from this phase of your life to the next, from your current idea about yourself to the next. Yet there is one requirement, which is your full participation in your own existence. You must admit that you are connected to core source, which is within you. You personally are not that source, nor do you want the burden of being so. Yet you contain it, and can access your strength as a source of energy that feels distinctly like who you are at your best. Bring the small willingness to engage with the strength that you contain. This strength is one and the same as your sexual energy. Saturday's eclipse may come with a temporary dimming of the light, as if you're resetting yourself, reforming your personality, or preparing to take some great inner risk. Do not hold your breath. Rather, keep breathing. Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Where is home? Who is home? What is family, and where do you fit into the constellation of your own world? The answers to those questions are changing, and if you're living consciously, so will the questions themselves. Think of these things in the widest sense you can imagine: not, for example, your immediate relatives or your neighborhood, but rather that you live on a planet orbiting a star, somewhere in the deeps of space and time. In such a formative moment of your life, you need perspective, broad enough to contain ideas you might not normally experience. I say experience because with Uranus in your birth sign, ideas are less likely to come floating along as little concepts you can pluck from the air and scribble down, but as full-on confrontations with existence. You may suddenly come face to face with vast new possibilities for yourself. You may wake up to the experience of needing to liberate yourself from the world that you currently inhabit, with the accompanying feeling of thunder in your heart. As one born under the sign Taurus, you value stability above all else, and yet you have fire within you. Make room for new possibilities, and welcome them. Some of those will be revelations for how to transform your current existence into something on another level entirely, as if you've suddenly solved some vexing puzzle. Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- The world we live in seems to be abandoning reason and rationality in favor of being driven by raw emotion. This is probably not your idea of progress, though it's easy to either get caught up in, or to experience as something crashing over your head. I suggest you use a method taught to all children who grow up near the seaside: when you see a wave coming, dive straight into it, and you will come out safely on the other side. This takes some faith the first few times, though it works. Now, consider this as a model, as a technique upon which you can base others. You're at a time in your life when you need a clear plan. This is not always true. Sometimes it's necessary to throw yourself to the four winds and let them take you wherever they may. Now, however, you need, at least, a sketch; a rough draft; a few notes scribbled onto a paper bag, on which you can build. Your chart describes an urgent calling to express yourself. You know you have a gift for this, a natural inclination to put your ideas into words. This is true even if you're an artist, musician or potter. Indeed, the less you normally transact your life in sentences and paragraphs, the more this applies to you. Keep your pencil sharp. Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Your ethics are your values. Your values are your ethics. Your value is what is right and true for you, and that is the basis of your existence. In reality, you can have no other, so trim away everything in your life that is no longer reflective of your actual being, and emphasize what supports you from your core. What you focus on will grow. Therefore, feed the tree that is at the center of your being, and spend a lot of time in its shade, and feeling its love. Think of this as learning how to value yourself. When your value in yourself is strong, you are strong. Yet in truth, we're talking about something that's one of the greatest challenges for nearly everyone, in our time in history: establishing self-trust, self-respect, and the primacy of your existence above all else. For someone as service-oriented as you are, it may be helpful to think of this as being the only way you can be of assistance to others. Yet at the moment, this must be secondary: let that be OK. Allow your central purpose in existing to be the organizing principle of your life. If you can do this for a while, you will find real freedom. You will liberate inner resources, and you will get to decide how to allocate them. It is clear from recent events that the winds of change are blowing, for you and for the world around you. In such a time, you need a clear point of orientation. And that would be what you know to be right and true. Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- Let's travel back in time to the summer of 1999. We can only do this in our imagination, though that may be plenty to observe what you need to get from the experience. First, before you remember any specific events, remember where you lived at the time. Then, consider how you felt: about yourself, and most of all, about the future. It's likely that things didn't turn out exactly as you envisioned them, or planned, at the time. You probably faced greater challenges and achieved more than you were expecting to. Today, you're nearly two decades older, which naturally changes your sense of the future. But I would ask you: where are you today, and how do you feel about your existence? And what do you feel is the journey ahead? Are you still able to envision bold possibilities for yourself? This is vital. Stretch your mind. Push yourself to consider your potential. Now that you are older and wiser, you know that you must use your time efficiently, and meaningfully. I suggest you set some boundaries about what that might mean for you, in a tangible way. For example, you might resolve to spend less time online, and therefore devote a smaller proportion of your life expectancy to anti-social media. You might decide that, above all else, it's time to travel. You probably have the inclination to drive your life in the direction of one major achievement. Choose well, and one will lead to another. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- There's a whole chapter of A Course in Miracles devoted to "the fear to look within," and there are many other references throughout the work to this issue. The situation, as described by this particular work of spiritual psychology, involves some potentially wrenching anxiety about what you might find in there. This stands as a barrier between you and yourself, a kind of primal fear to see yourself for who you are. To embrace your own power of witness, though, you need to set this fear aside, and enter your own self-awareness courageously. Let me be the next person to remind you that shadow is only a temporary blockage or absence of illumination, and you contain a river of light, the source of which is beyond you. Yet it's possible to block one's view of the entire universe merely by wearing a blindfold. So remove any blocks to your vision, which in this case would be the willingness to see, and dive into your reality and notice where you emerge. Let the world vanish for a moment: the one made of petty fears, squabbles, disputes, and misunderstandings created by ignorance. You are also unraveling a struggle that was created by falling for some pressure to conform to what other people believe. Let a greater world open up, which you will recognize mainly by your own peace of mind. This is a journey, and it may require daily meditation or communing with nature or with your artwork. Yet if you dependably give yourself some time and space beyond the mundane world, and focus inwardly, you will arrive within. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Your role in your community is expanding, evolving, changing: whatever word you like. Yet this may be accompanied by a temporary dimming of the light, and an experience of discontinuity. There is a shift of some kind happening, one that you cannot exactly control, but you can assess and evaluate. Use this to your advantage. In times of change, you can make adjustments to your position and your purpose that will scarcely be noticed by others, but which will make a big difference for you. In essence, a solar eclipse in Leo is about realigning your relationship to your community, however you define that. You may want to do more. You may want to do less. You may want to be a more private person, or a more public one. The change you make will feel natural and at the same time, like a little stretch, or a push, or a leap. It's not as far as it may seem, and you have the advantage of a wrinkle in time to shorten some of the distance between you and where you're going. While you're doing this, make sure of one thing: that you plan for the economics to work out in your favor. This is not merely a marketing project, but one of establishing a new deal. Do this openly, outwardly and wholly transparently. Your value is established. You must trust in this fact, and work with it, and bank on it. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- The one thing standing between you and accomplishing great things may be the desire to accomplish great things. Real achievements rarely happen on those terms. America's Next Top Model is never America's next top model. Great achievements are never great in their time. They're usually controversial, annoying, or seen as irrelevant. They're the book manuscript that was thrown in the trash, or the solution to a problem that nobody else can see. Therefore, if you want to be useful to the world -- and this you seem determined to be -- work on your vision, and fully inhabit whatever you count as your workshop. Take all emphasis off of greatness and place it on quality. Subtract the ideas of others, including what you presume are their expectations, and develop your vision. Yet this must happen beyond the realm of your imagination. Bring your efforts into physical, tangible form, on a daily basis. Stand apart from your reputation, and invest in your abilities. Never count yourself as a master, only as a journeyman, or even a beginner. Meanwhile, in any situation where you're summoned to leadership or management, honor the politics of the situation. Rely on informal power far more than formal power; that is to say, extend your influence through helpful people, and gently bring others into your plan. Just remember: at this stage of your life, the real work is solitary: the cultivation of your gifts, the refinement of your ideas, and most of all, taking care of yourself. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Despite all the talk about focusing on the "here and now," you need to focus on the future. That doesn't mean in any way abandoning your current projects, talent development, or investments. Rather, your primary task is to trace various trajectories into worlds beyond the one you currently inhabit. In doing this, you simply must have a vision for who you want to become. The old and somewhat annoying job interview question -- "Where do you see yourself in five years?" -- is really a question about how you envision your future. Right now, you might say that a door is open, allowing you a porthole into your own possibilities, and your own potential. Imagine you're a science fiction author, describing yourself as a character. Imagine the story is unusual, strange and a little spectacular. Imagine the person you're writing about has some rather unique talents, which will emerge into some form of rare distinction if they are consciously developed, and if the principle of synergy is activated. This idea means "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." Exclude no aspect of who you are from your vision. Include nascent abilities, longings, and forgotten accomplishments in your assessment. Come up with three vastly different possibilities for yourself: for example, the virtuoso musician who becomes a theater director. The search and rescue team leader who becomes a historian. The devoted mother who leads a nation. This kind of thing. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- Tectonic forces are at work in your life. Look up that word. It involves the pressure of one geological plate upon another, which is the power that shapes continents, mountain ranges and oceans. It is the power driving the friction along fault lines. There is no way to understate this idea. As the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 approaches, the pressure will mount, and there will be more frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions. What you need right now is awareness. You will find a vast resource of information by studying late 2001 through 2005, when Chiron was in your birth sign. Consider everything: all of your relationships, your work, and most significantly, your relationship to yourself. You also need self-mastery, though the first step in this process is self-knowledge. I know this concept has taken a beating lately, which is primarily a function of our whole world being driven into illiteracy by digital consciousness. You must go deeper than you ever imagined. One way you know you're approaching core territory is that your experiences become indescribable, though you're also met with a pressing need to reveal them to someone. Lay back on that for a while, and let yourself stand in an inner confrontation with the unknown within you -- and what, in truth, can never be explained. Consider another possibility: if you think you want to be enlightened, what you really want is to be a mature adult: someone who can make decisions; someone who honors your values and your desires; one who takes responsibility for the course of your own life. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Through much of the year, Mars has been retrograde in your birth sign; nothing like it has happened since 1971. This was accompanied by a total eclipse of the Moon two weeks ago, conjunct retrograde Mars, making this perhaps the most unusual spell of astrology you've experienced in your current incarnation. Rare and perhaps strange things are likely to be happening in your physical reality as well. A mix of 'conscious' and 'unconscious' forces are driving events, which means things you may have been aware of previously, combined with certain facts that you missed. Their combined effort is driving you to find yourself, and to individuate in ways you didn't know were possible. While Aquarius is famous for its liberal-mindedness and commitment to being one of a kind, too often you fall under the thrall of what you perceive as the expectations of others, of cultural patterns, and the need to be seen as a good person. This is simply impossible now, with Mars (the planet of desire) running roughshod through your existence. There is no conforming; there is only taking charge of your life. Expectations are not merely meaningless, but plainly obvious as the toxic influences that they are. In a few days, Mars will retrograde into your 12th solar house, Capricorn, where it will remain for a month (and where it stations direct on Aug. 27). This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to peer within yourself, to gain a new depth of understanding, and to make contact with the influence of your sexuality as a primary, driving force in everything that you do.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You set the terms of your existence. I recognize that we live in a universe of many forces acting upon one another. Right now, the primary thing acting on you is an internal factor, described as retrograde Mars in your 12th house, and a potent eclipse conjunct Mars two weeks ago. This is a description of an inner condition or circumstance, either resulting in the illusion of an outer one, or describing how your power over an outer circumstance can be gained through inner mastery. It is not an easy position to be in, to command the role of what A Course in Miracles calls "the dreamer of the dream." Even the most sincere efforts to take responsibility for one's life and one's choices can be fraught with peril and seeming failure. And as many have noted, the theory that "you create your own reality" is dangerous, especially when someone is in a tight spot, involving something they cannot control. Yet the Mars retrograde process talks about something you can influence through your awareness. The tone of Mars retrograde is about to change, as it re-enters Capricorn on Aug. 13, and something that is now veiled or difficult to access emerges where you can work with it. This involves your commitment to your values and your ethics. It involves your commitment to your work. You live by one set of rules, no matter what you may do.

Introduction to the August 1999 Horoscopes

         Every day, humanity passes gateways into the future. Most of the time, we hear about the scary ones: species dying off that will never return; environmental disasters which can never truly be cleaned up; laws passed that will create generations of social regression; technological breakthroughs in fields like biotech which can never be reversed, and which threaten to lead humanity down some very dark roads. I believe we must pay attention to those kinds of obvious thresholds, and do what we can about them, but at the moment there is a far more intriguing issue at hand.

         By now, you've probably heard about the total eclipse of the Sun on August 11th. This is a rare and beautiful astrological and astronomical event, as unique as the appearance of a brilliant comet, but far more personal and tangible in its meaning. The solar eclipse is in the sign Leo, the sign of the Sun itself, and it is worth noting that, due to an unusual pattern, it has been a generation since solar eclipses have visited this zone of consciousness (the first Leo solar eclipse in about 18 years was last summer). This means wherever Leo exists in your chart, heart and mind, there has been some kind of great delay which is in the process of very dramatically reversing.

         Because of the "grand square" aspect which accompanies this eclipse (thus the big fuss), Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius -- the other "fixed signs" -- are very much involved. Speculation is running wild in the astrological community about what this eclipse means, with some suggesting collective disaster is imminent, and others asserting that it's about a planetary birthing and a dawn of consciousness. I believe the reality is that this eclipse represents a personal choice between the two, and that our personal choices will add up to a collective decision that will pour into the future.

         Normally, we are never given the opportunity to cast a vote about the fate of the Earth, or so we think. We are told we are powerless and meaningless, and that we just better work at personal survival (or greed) and forget the larger questions. Never was this cynical viewpoint more dangerous. Choice is at hand, and we will live with the effects of our decisions for a long time to come. We live in a very special age in history -- with its exceedingly rapid technological progress, with its seeming state of mass-hypnosis and mass-suicide (ecocide), and yet with some unknown percentage of the human family experimenting with, or succeding at, realizing its full potential.

         While the "new age" is a kind of fad on one level, it is clear to me that it may only take a small but critical mass of sincere people agreeing to go through a psychological and emotional healing crisis, and to work with the light to turn the whole process of destruction around. At minimum, those people who work with the light now are agreeing to be links in the chain of karma that will carry the message of love forward through time. And this is very, very important to remember.

         I believe we stand at a fulcrum point in planetary history. A fulcrum is a pivotal instant of change which is magnified by time and space. It is the telescope that moves a millimeter on Earth and sees a difference in the heavens that can be expressed in light years. It is the seed we plant that cultivates through the ages, becoming something much vaster in the future.

         At this fulcrum, everything we say, think and do is, I believe, entered into the long-term growth process of the planet, and has the potential to become greatly magnified in the times to come. So our choices, our ideas, our statements and especially our actions are truly vital right now, more than ever before.

         In the simplest terms, our choice is betwen whether we want to live in a reality that is based on love, or one that is based on fear. Many of you who are reading this have spent countless hours in workshops, seminars and involved in spiritual devotions designed to create some kind of enlightenment or change in your life. But what is that change? And how do you know you are really there?

         It comes down to how we relate to fear. If you are still afraid, no matter how much work you have done on yourself in the past, you're living in a state of limitation, and, some would say, illusion. You'll know you're afraid if you worry a lot, if you're scard of people, and if you have a hard time surrendering to the present moment and your own highest potential (which are the same thing). Now, right now, you have a chance -- a rare, brilliant and very potent opportunity -- to take a quantum leap forward. You and only you have the power to let this be real in your own life, and to make your singular, authentic contribution to the fate of the Earth. And you have it right now.

         If there was ever a month when all the signs of the horoscope related to all people, this is the one. We all live in one universe. I have done my best to interpret the eclipse as well as I can, and much of my writing, in horoscope columns and elsewhere, has been aimed at preparing for this shift in awareness. In the interpretations a follow, I have strived to be practical rather than exuberant. I will let you fill in the lust and passion for life as you go through your process of becoming. In terms of which signs apply to whom, at the very least, the Leo horoscope is collective in nature, and Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius will be meaningful to many of you as well. And because our reality is such a tense stuggle between structure and feeling, Capricorn may speak to many of you as well. If you don't know your rising or Moon signs, this would be a good time to have a look at your chart and get these important pieces of your astrological puzzle in place.

         Astrology, though, is an imperfect art. I would urge you to allow life itself -- far more than your stars -- to be meaningful right now. Do what you must to let this moment be real and your life process be valid, because we are going forward, and we're not coming back.

-- ERIC FRANCIS
Berkeley, California, July 1999

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- Perhaps life would be easier if you understood the nature of the confrontation you find yourself in the midst of. I give you a lot of credit for taking it this far, and I suggest you do the same. You are finally seeking your freedom, but remember that this takes a highly advanced sense that life is about play more than it's about work. In terms of your relationship to whatever is challenging or provoking you, it's possible that you've reversed the roles involved; that it's really you who now finds it necessary to challenge the stifling, limiting values you have internalized from authority figures, rather than someone else doing it to you. Next, the person to whom you've delegated the role of apparent challenger has far more in common with you than you are noticing, and by that, I mean he or she is here to awaken you to what you really want out of life but have long forsaken. Remember that whatever you are facing involves all of your relationships, not just one, because you are the one thing that all your relationships have in common. You are far too accustomed to viewing yourself as the inferior being, whether in family involvements, professional situations or personal affairs. If you want to be happy, bringing this philosophy of defeatism to a swift and conclusive halt would be quite helpful, for it is all that obstructs your path into a life that's about exploring joyous and untold creative adventures with people who are truly your equals. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Perfection is not a value. Remember this when facing your human limits and evaluating your human creations. What seem to be your errors do not throw the universe out of whack, though your mind is a different story. At the moment, this is especially important to consider in your most personal relationships, which may have seemed distorted or somehow imperfect over the past two years. In these and all other affairs, it would help immensely if you eliminated the endless preconditions you have set for yourself. Perfectionism is a vicious mental game. It's a way of holding yourself to the imagined standards of a long-gone past, which is an inheritance from ancestors (including parents) who largely viewed life as an unfair struggle. Living their defeatist philosophies is a way of guaranteeing that you will always fail no matter how good you are, which is a thinly-disguised form of hating yourself -- and experience has surely taught you this leads nowhere. If you're wondering what you need to do or be prior to accomplishing something real, I would propose the answer is nothing. You need no special preparation, no additional learning, and no permission. You need merely to act. If you need help, try a different game than "perfectionism." Imagine you have the infinite assistance of spiritual agency, or that you have direct access to universal intelligence. Call it your higher-self, angelic intelligence, an inner adjuster, living spirit, or Goddess/God. Pretend -- and pretending is faith enough -- that it will take care of all the details you've missed or forgotten. Let it do all the worrying, while you do all the creating. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- Consciousness is the medium of reality. For all the debates over how the world physically manifested, evolved or was created, our real journey here is an endless stream of observations, decisions, and emotional reactions. Rarely do we consider the genesis of awareness itself. It's arguable that awareness is the only thing that can ever truly change, or activate change. And while the notion of "evolution" used to be about apes becoming people, we now know it is an evolutionary journey of consciousness. The mind interprets the meaning of what we experience, and adapts to the necessities with which we are faced. We are now learning the extent to which we can change our beliefs and make the "impossible" happen. We are slowly learning to use thought to direct and create our values and emotional responses. The important thing to remember is that we are the ones deciding; we are steering the vehicle of consciousness. In this moment, you stand in a place that is at once unfamiliar, unpredictable and may be truly daunting in its power. You stand on the threshold beyond thought. What you possess -- as ever -- is a most agile ability to respond, and to adapt; this means you really can create a new universe for yourself from the exceedingly fertile ingredients available to you right now, in this moment. You get to create the choices that will take you to the next place in life. At least on the level of ideas -- where everything begins -- limits are perfectly meaningless. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- The crisis of "self-worth" is one of the most pervasive in our culture, and nobody is exempt. Consider all the millionaires who have the money thing down to a science, but who are lonely, and feel worthless, wishing they had the guts to pick up a paint brush, or play a Mozart sonata on their $20,000 grand piano. What now occurs is a revelation of your true value, a personal exposé of something long-concealed beyond the distorted picture you have formed of your true meaning. The distortion is consistent with the idea that the bottom line equals an hourly wage. Due to the perverse nature of our materialistic society, the hourly wage question seeps its way into all kinds of more private matters, such as whether we are "worth" anything in loving relationships. Yet your personal revelation is not about whether you are worth $10 or $1,000 per hour, or "worth" being loved; it is about the question of self-possession versus being possessed. It is about whether you ultimately see yourself as a free person or as a slave. On another level, it is about whether you view yourself as a marketable commodity, or as a contributor to soul-deprived society in dire need of true and authentic participants. Approach the question as a financial one, and you address a tiny fraction of the matter. Approach it as a question of your total life, in which you are seeking prosperity, freedom, love, and the right to make a difference, and you'll discover the divine gold of which you are made. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- The essence of the total solar eclipse in your own birth sign is recognizing the essentially identical nature of creativity and the sexual force within you. Our culture struggles with both creative and sexual crisis. Our jobs are, for the most part, totally boring. There is a war between the sexes, which blocks full expression of love and sexuality, and hence, full expression of life. Meanwhile, homophobia blocks not only exploration of same-sex experiences, but also self-exploration. Then we get stuck doing things one way, or thinking in one pattern, wondering how life got so jammed-up. Making the connection between your sexual power and your creative power on a very personal level would allow you to get beyond this battle. Perhaps you have been getting this message in recent years, in the form of those bells ringing with your true potential, combined with the presence of provocateurs who have entered your life. In any case, you're unlikely to miss it now, as long as you flow with the energy. A key to this eclipse is the experience of movement. To move with grace, you must find your center, align your mind to that center, and then flow with the rhythm; in simple terms, be yourself, no matter how passionate, sexual or creative you are. Do not compromise this for anyone or anything. Movement involves autonomy (literally, becoming self-named), and possessing a sense of progress independent from the world's harsh judgments on people who exhibit beauty or originality. To grow and thrive in the coming years, you must stay one with that dependable inner flame which ignites your soul, fuels your creative passion, draws you to others, and lights your way through the dark. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- The beauty of this eclipse, for you, is that it throws open the cosmic flood gates, granting you access to awareness that, among few people on the planet, you are prepared to make excellent use of. Perhaps this is because you take the teachings of wisdom so personally, and apply them so directly to your reality. What this world calls "spiritual movements" have a great deal to learn about involving themselves with what is practical and sensible; in a sense, with the mundane rather than the abstract. Virgo is one of the most important significators of both practicality and of service. More than ever, your tendency will be to work in service of what is far greater than yourself, and to access information from beyond the ordinary realms, then put it to work in the verifiable world. What you need to focus on is to making this process work for you personally. We have had enough martyrs and people who have lived lives of sacrifice. So, strive for symbiosis between planetary needs and your most personal needs. Imagine that they are really one and the same; let this be real, because it is. Humanity is not really at war with its environment.This thought will allow you to work toward your highest possible goals in a way that serves your needs for community and prosperity. Along these lines, I offer you a word of caution. Love relationships that are based on sacrifice, possession and control can no longer persist in the becoming world. They defy everything for which we are working. You can refuse to play that game by insisting on equal terms in all of your relationships, starting now. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Dreams often take time to come true. And what sometimes happens is that while we're patiently working and developing our dreams, new ones spring from our hearts, seeking our attention. This can be very challenging, and we often tend to view it as a problem. But look at it this way. Many people persist in this life without any kind of visioning process. There is no infinite wellspring from which to draw, no creative geyser spouting forth new ideas and new desires, and so life dries up and eventually amounts to something you and I would barely call "life" at all. So first, please thank the forces of nature for your creativity. Take a moment every day and reflect on the beauty of the Infinite Mind and its Infinite Source. This Leo eclipse is, for you, a brilliant opportunity to wipe clear your personal dreamscape, to erase your field of worldly and heavenly desires, and, in a very real sense, to catch up with yourself. Examine your mind, and evaluate what you find carefully, discarding the dreams you no longer desire or value, throwing away what no longer aligns with the strange and beautiful self you are rapidly becoming. And then start again, expressing your freshest, most real desires to yourself with passion and authentic creative innocence. Remember to envision what you want to become, what you want to receive, and what you want to give, for you will have opportunities to do all of these things. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- What is the basis of your idea of power? Is it belief in "power over," is it fear, or, in the fabled Scorpionic-style of the ancient astrologers, is it the power of secret control? Hmmmm. Or is it, perchance, the awareness that you possess an unspeakable something that commands respect without your having to do much of anything? Wouldn't it be nice if you could bring this aspect of yourself into full bloom? Is this not one of your dearest desires? In truth, you may be at war with this very quality (or potential quality) of your being, owing to all those past times when it seems to have failed you. But in these days, the past is no basis by which to judge the future. In support of your birthright, I can offer you these ideas. In order to tap into what we can call your silent power, you must let go of control, particularly the emotional kind. Along these lines, it's important to let go of the notion that fear ever works toward any positive end or constructive purpose except in the most dire moments of survival, and even then, it is best kept to a bare minimum. Fear contradicts love. They do not exist in the same place and time. The core power you are accessing is the power of love, and love is dependable, and will invest you with the true strength you need to carry on. Use this idea to protect and create, and to take your best opportunity in many, many years to penetrate the invisible ceilings into which banged your head so many times as you've aspired to greater things. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- The practical task at hand is for you to sort out what helps you and what does not. Everything and everyone in your life needs to be put to this basic test, and when you discover hindrances, move swiftly to purge your life of them. When you discover who or what helps you, note it carefully. Keep asking within. Connect with the part of you that already knows. Life in the 20th century western world is obsessed with denying intuition, but if you partake in this insane game, you will be giving up your single most valuable resource, and what turns out to be the most important collective resource for humanity at this time. As you sort out what works and what does not, you will be contributing to something much larger; you will be preparing for assisting in an evolutionary leap that every person on the planet will be given an opportunity to take. Together we have the ability to change the destiny of humanity from its current path of violence, sleep and technological domination, to a more natural state of knowledge, love and freedom. It may take centuries for the majority of people to embark on this process, but for you it may now be a matter of days before the full commitment to a life that can honestly be called conscious is directly at hand. This is no small gift, and it has been bestowed upon you by neither by accident, nor by fate. You have worked every day of your life toward this moment. Let it be real. Let you be real. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- It is clear that you're being provoked, perhaps even to the point of feeling attacked. It's also true that you feel compelled give up something about yourself. With all things Capricorn, deliberation processes are long, careful, and questions rarely resolve quickly. Yet I suggest you now prepare for an unusually rapid jolt of progress. Progress insinuates going beyond the past, and the entire past can be considered a vast haunted mental structure within which we find ourselves trapped now. It is not really possible to give up the past bit by bit and piece by piece; there is so much of it to deal with. It must be released all at once. And while many of the world's spiritual traditions advise this, few proscribe easy or reliable methods. The answer, you could say, is learning to let go. So, here's an obvious one. Consider the mystery of orgasm, of total surrender of mind, structure, time, place and knowledge; a surrender into freedom and awareness of an infinite now, through a gateway in which what can truly be called living wisdom is available. Because your life is about to become a cosmic orgasm, which can suddenly release you from all past values and all past attachments, it would work for you very nicely to practice the art of coming, of releasing your mind to ecstasy over and over, anticipating an imminent moment of transition in which you will be invited to step into a life beyond -- a great beyond. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- It's the mythology of our time in history that humanity is culminating in a stage of the great cycle named after your sign -- the Age of Aquarius. Surely, no matter how far-removed from astrology you may be, you must have pondered your personal connection to this transition. In my opinion, you play a special role in the process of integrating values and ideals that must become real for many people, lest the human family take a turn down a very dark road. Aquarius is by nature extremely original, but I have no doubt that often, your process of originality is blighted by what amounts to guilt about how your ideas will challenge established structures of thought. It's time for this to end. Your endless collecting information, ideas and wisdom has gone on long enough. Your process of seemingly limitless doubt has, as well, gone for more than an adequate time to determine that your ideas about the world are valid, if not absolutely true. It is time to begin sharing what you have gathered, collected, and synthesized. Your time of silence has ended. Whoever may be the potential recipient of these gifts is now ready to receive them, as you are more than ready to begin sharing. The two wavy lines of Aquarius are lines of conductivity. The process of society transforming is a process of relationship, of connecting. So when relating to all people, in the most private or public contacts, cultivate and extend a vision of a new world, and live that vision. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.) Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Buddhists, Yogis and others on the enlightenment trip frequently address the need to "be here now." In western culture, we are so entwined in schedules, commitments, debts, and desires that we usually have no clue whatsoever what this means, much less a tangible sense of its reality. We are rarely ever here now. The mystical traditions speak of both a past and a future that neither exist, nor have any real power over us, and urge us to realize that when we are caught in either mode, we are lost in a fantasy world. But then, there are the moments when reality just dawns on our minds. Have you ever slipped into the awesome state of consciousness in which this truth blazes out at you? Have you seen a field of weeds or the pattern of bricks resonate with universal wisdom? Have you ever experienced a flash of insight into how much you just simply know in this very instant? I have reason to believe you are ready to experience this quality of thought all the time. If, however, you view this as "embarking on a path of spiritual practice," remember that practice insinuates future results, and the results of which I speak are an immediate change of mind. We both know you have ambitious goals and a sense of important choices to make. Yet the only time within which we have access to choice is NOW. Now is the only dimension of time in which thought or action is truly possible. And, oddly enough, if you stay in this very moment, fear becomes a meaningless notion, because it's so rare that there's cause for fear right now. Check it out. (This was the August 1999 Planet Waves horoscope by Eric Francis.)

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