Dear Cheryl
We have received quite a few "what does the transit of Venus mean for my sign" questions.
I can assure you that every half-decent or better horoscope writer has been tracking the transit of Venus closely for the past week or more. Many have been keeping an eye on the chart for months, and have also factored it prominently into their annual predictions for 2004. Even if they are not mentioning it, this chart and the event behind it are so enormous as to be inescapable.
Remember that because no living astrologer has experienced this event, to say any anything about the transit is, in sense, to speculate -- which astrologers do plenty of and can do it well, but it's often based on experience. With this event, none of us have any direct experience. We are learning from what is happening now. Also, the next transit of Venus is in 2012, as we approach a major turning point of more than 5,000 years (called the Long Count) in the Mayan calendar. So it's big stuff.
So if I may, I can suggest a few things to make sense of this for yourself personally. One is to scan back in the archive over the past two weeks of Jonathan's daily horoscopes, as well as Yasmin Boland's monthly horoscopes for June. Whether they are mentioning the transit of Venus or not, that event was like the North Star by which they were navigating. Jonathan for one has given many excellent clues, just based on what I've been noticing for my own sign. On my web page, as well, there is an annual horoscope site called Aquasphere, and I have written at length for each sign using this as one of the main charts, as well as providing articles addressing the transit. Just keep in mind, this is a "world horoscope" more than it is a personal horoscope -- one that affects everyone in ways that go beyond the personal.
The second thing I suggest is that you look closely at your life. What is happening to you now? By now, I mean this week, and back to early spring and building in intensity up to the present time. The transit of Venus is an eclipse-like event, and eclipses have some distinct properties: they build in intensity as they approach; they have effects long before and long after; they represent turning points that we often fail to see until we have some perspective.
I suggest you look first at all the areas covered by Venus: particularly who and what is the most important to you. Then I suggest you branch out and, as objectively as possible, look at the big picture of your life.
Astrology is not really about theory. Theory helps, but astrology is something that actually happens to us, shapes and changes us, shows us opportunities, and places us at crossroads in life where we get to make choices. I know those choices don't always seem as important in the moment as they seem in the long run, but this is one of those moments that will point many, many people in new directions for the next eight years -- when a Venus transit happens again, this time in 2012.

Dear Eric
I get so confused about reading both my Sun and Rising forcast. I know that we should read both...but i was wondering which forcast has more to do with what is happening in our lives. Also... should i read my moon sign which is Libra also? Does that forcast tell me anything ? Thank you ...
Marie

Dear Marie
Different astrologers are going to tell you different things about this, and they have the right to change their minds over time! As a horoscope writer, I will reveal my own philosophy in writing the horoscope and in reading those of other writers.
The Sun sign is the sign that most columnists are using to make certain assumptions about your predisposition. True, some are more subtle than others; some have a sense of humor; some have deeper insights than others; and some are very good at going past the prejudices. But the basic set of assumptions comes from the Sun sign. Then, newspaper astrologers base certain timing factors on the Sun sign -- for example, when a certain planet arrives in the opposite sign, many will comment on a relationship.
Now, if you know your rising sign -- which I recommend -- you can get extra information from that write-up, and the same holds true for the Moon sign. I personally write with the awareness that people are going to check their rising sign and Moon sign as well. But it helps if you know a bit about the implications of those chart factors. The rising sign is what we are aspiring to become in life. It is life seeking its true ascendancy -- what is rising or arising. The Moon sign speaks to our needs, and to the little kid inside us that never quite grew up. We have to take care of that kid, and what we learn about the Moon sign tells us a little about how.
I would love to try an experiment to see if, when people know other chart angles -- like their 10th house of career, for example -- the horoscope for the sign that is on the 10th has any bearing on their professional life. If you'd like to try an experiment, cast your proper chart, look for the sign 10th house and let's see how it works.

Dear Eric
When will be a better time for Sagittarius? So, I am a Sagittarian, Cancer rising, Moon (opposing my Ascendant/Saturn) and Venus in Capricorn... and I am also in a pretty bad mood since the year 2000.
Ana

Dear Ana
From my read on things, Sagittarius has certainly been facing some important challenges, and there was a turning-point event in that sign on New Year's Eve going into 2000 -- the conjunction of Chiron and Pluto for the first time since the early 1940s. To many, this was a pretty shocking time, and where Pluto is involved, the effects of a transit can last for years. I'm not looking at your chart, but I'm going to take a guess and say this sounds a lot like the experience of Pluto. This is a deeply meaningful planet that compels us to grow, to purge deep emotions, and to make seemingly impossible changes.
I know this is a hard time for you. But am I correct in saying that it's a get real time as well? The thing about Pluto is we often feel its pain without realizing how much it's helping us. And we often miss Pluto when its gone.

Dear Eric
There is a wonderful and rare spiritual depth to your work (I noticed your reference to A Course in Miracles in this month's forecast for Pisces). What does it really mean to be a Piscean? As a fellow Piscean, do you believe that to be a Fish means we have chosen particularly difficult lives to live and lessons to learn? We have all had traumatic childhoods; experienced enormous loss, abandonment and rejection; been unlucky in love (I'm a widow); are sensitive and caring human beings; often feel totally misunderstood and alienated from the rest of (in)humanity. Any tips to help us find peace in this challenging world? Thanks, fellow Fish.
Giselle

Dear Giselle
I learned something about Pisces the first time I went scuba diving, and was surprised to see lots of little fish hiding inside of rocks, peeking out. I didn't know so many fish lived like that rather than swimming around the open sea.
The rest of what I'm going to tell you is based on my experience as a fish personally.
I think that all people and things Pisces are among the most vulnerable in the world. Yes, all people are vulnerable, but Pisces must live with being so permeable, like a sponge. We need to be careful about our environments in ways that most other people rarely have to think about. We need to be more careful about what we eat and drink. And while Pisces has a reputation for imbibing excessively in substances and alcohol, there is no sign (rising or Moon included) that must be more careful about these things than a Fish, because they affect us so deeply.
I would add that Pisces has a different relationship to the material world, being the least material sign. True, there are some unusually wealthy Pisces, but they have, I believe, just mastered what for many Fish is a very challenging game of playing along with the world's values when all most of us want to do is enjoy life. But that, of course, is a challenge, because many Pisces are deeply compassionate and must serve people all the time.
Most of what I know about Pisces I know from my own experience, and yes -- it is a challenge. But as an astrologer who works every day with people of the other 11 signs, I know this is not an easy planet to live on, and we must help one another do our best.