And -- as regular readers of this column will appreciate -- we get a shocking appearance of the Aries Point, with Mercury, the planet of communications, sitting exactly on that degree.

There is no way to choose the right time for a chart like this, unless we could somehow know when the first copy of Today was read by a reader early one foggy London morning -- pretty much impossible. But since the astrological day begins at sunrise, and that would have been a logical chart to use for a daily horoscope, we can use a sunrise chart. Let's see what it says.

To me, the first thing that comes blazing out about this chart is how much Sagittarius there is: Saturn, Juno, Mars, Uranus and the Moon. Jonathan's column feels Sagittarian if nothing else: written on the fly, based on spiritually grounded philosophies and ideas rather than 'strict' interpretations, and most of all, something that became BIG. All of these planets are clustered around the ultimate Sagittarius point, the Great Attractor, a cosmic magnet drawing a million galaxies toward it.

Even the fast-moving Moon appears in Sagittarius for what was in truth a massive generational wave of that sign's energy. The Moon is conjunct Uranus, the planet of innovation, invention and revolution, close to the Galactic Core. Indeed, the morning this column appeared in newspapers, the Moon was exactly conjunct the Galactic Core.

Then we get a placement that pretty much confirms the validity of sunrise charts: Chiron and the Part of Fortune appear in the 3rd house. The 3rd house is the house of writing, and is closely related to Gemini. We get a double blast of Gemini energy coming through that Chiron.

Chiron has an obsessive and innovative quality, dedicated to healing and most of all, to being a maverick. The Pars Fortuna right there says "success through writing." Also, think of the Part of Fortune as another ascendant (its original purpose) relating specifically to the topic at hand. In the "fortune" chart for Jonathan's column, the main archetype is Chiron in Gemini.

Chiron is opposite Saturn, as it is these days -- a rare enough event to be noteworthy in any chart. The opposition of Chiron in Gemini to Saturn in Sagittarius can be looked at as a meeting of innovation and an iconoclastic view of writing, matched by a rock-solid foundation in tradition (Saturn in Sagittarius). Given Jonathan's writing style, few would guess that he was classically trained. Yet many of his interpretations challenge the traditions of astrology while in a sense remaining true to them.

Pisces appears powerfully, in the form of the Sun, Jupiter, and Venus -- more than a footnote, for sure. The column is itself a Pisces: naturally mystical with a touch of self-sacrificing energy, taking a wide perspective, and presented in a way that relates to people on the level of their feelings. He seems to know empathically how people feel and how they relate to their problems. But the Sagittarian energy dominates, as the prevailing message of Jonathan's writing is, to me, "Don't get caught in your problems. You may not be all-powerful, but you do have influence in your life, so you might as well make the very most of it."

But to me, the most entertaining appearance of all in this chart is Mercury glowing on the Aries Point, which is neither widely accepted nor understood by astrology. We have discussed this point numerous times in Astrology Secrets Revealed, and have come to think of it here as a spot in the chart that says, "The personal is political." It is the intersection of personal responsibility and collective movement; of individuality and of influencing many people.

Jonathan's writing is an excellent example of an Aries Point influence and, combining it with Mercury, pretty much reveals how that point works at all. Mercury is exactly conjunct the asteroid Kassandra -- from Greek mythology, a prophet who was accurate, but whose predictions were not believed. As usual, he seems to be bringing out the other side of what conventional astrology would suggest.

"I wish I could find an archive of that first column," he said. "I'm sure it's around somewhere."

We don't have it today, but if I were writing the Sagittarius daily horoscope for Tuesday, March 4, 1986, this is what I would have said:

"SAGITTARIUS - Many people dream of being a smashing success in a highly unusual way, but today you have the ability to make that dream real. It's as if you're being named ambassador to the world for a viewpoint that most people overlook because it's too complicated, or rarely presented in an appealing way. But your own excitement about the subject will spread like waves of energy, and the more you speak in a natural voice and put forth the person who is uniquely YOU, the more you will go past all your limits, if you thought you had any."

On behalf of many astrologers who have been introduced to the wide world by Jonathan, and millions of readers who show up every day looking for a little peace of mind and usually finding it, thanks for all the great ideas, encouragement and indeed for doing your very best with astrology.

Our first question this week happens to touch on the subject of Sun sign horoscopes.

Astrology for the Masses

Dear Eric,
Hello. My name is Kristen. I met you many years ago in Ulster County. You did some chart work for me. I don't necessarily expect you to remember me without me giving you more information and that's okay. I am happy to see how you have grown over the years, both personally and in your writing and bringing astrology to the masses. You have grown by leaps and bounds. Hats off. Today I purchased a quarterly subscription to the newsletter because I hear good things about it. And because I have always trusted you, I have remained a devoted reader of your monthly horoscopes all these years. Here is my question: I do believe in the validity of astrology and particularly your readings. But I am curious as to how mass readings are effective when I was under the impression that astrology is very individual and in fact when doing a chart you get quite specific in terms of time of birth and location. How is it that so many people can share the same reading? I am sure that you are very busy but any time you can give to this question would be appreciated.

Thank you Kristen

Dear Kristen,
Good to hear from you after so long. This question comes up in many forms, and I've answered it many times; so part of what I'll do is refer you to some additional resources in a moment that unpack the subject of newspaper horoscopes.

It may seem like there is a big difference between what an astrologer reading your natal chart does with a lot of detailed information, and what a newspaper astrologer does knowing nothing about you per se. In reality, the difference is not as big as it seems, and it is astrology itself that the two processes have in common.

Perhaps a metaphor or two will suffice to convey the idea. It's possible to take a picture of a willow tree and show it to someone and they will easily recognize it. It's also possible to have a DNA sample of that tree and the right scientist can confirm that it came from a willow tree. One gives you only minimal information; one provides a lot of highly specific data. In both cases, the tree is recognizable from an image.

Let's go a step further. A poet could look at a picture of a willow tree and write a few descriptive lines that characterize the tree, in such a way that most people would recognize. You could say:

A great old creature, loose and swaying, but somehow sure
Craving water, she'll crack pipes of steel drink it pure.
Roots reaching into the ground, where her branches end
When the great rains come, she survives, because she bends.

Now, we don't need a DNA sample of a willow tree to write that, or to recognize the image that is presented, or even to find some personal meaning in it -- or to actually learn something about willow trees.

So, the simplest answer to your question is that astrology gives enough information that it works on any level, whether a writer comes up with something simple in a horoscope column, or a natal astrologer does precise calculations for your chart. A lot of it involves how well the astrologer recognizes an image in the planets, how well they describe it, and to a real extent, how intuitive they are.

Short horoscopes can be accurate without giving every detail. And, the one detail they give, or the confirmation of a situation they may provide, may be enough to get the job done that day.

Remember that with any form of communication, we all bring our own interpretation. This is true whether a person is reading a technical article, seeing a Shakespeare play, or reading a horoscope. Whether it's done intentionally or not, a horoscope column uses this quality of perception: we each bring our own meaning, and the writer and the reader engage in a little collaboration.

So, while on the one hand you could say they are "general readings written for millions of people," it's also accurate to say they are the work of one unique writer, read by an individual reader, and this is about as personal as it gets.

Thanks for your question, Kristen.

Here are a few articles on horoscope columns, which will give you all you need to know to start writing them yourself.

Go Figure

How Do I Write Horoscopes?

How Could it Possibly Work?

The Cosmic Voice of Reason

January is the Cruelest Month?

Hello Eric,
A recent article in the local paper titled 'January: Cruel Month for Couples', cites January as a time when couples break up and dating services see a spike in new clients. Citing a Yahoo survey conducted in the UK which found that 'twice as many breakups happen in January than in any other month of the year', the article proposes a number of factors which may contribute to the trend: People seek temporary holiday dates and/or wait until afterward to split up; bad partner behavior and/or conflicts with in-laws during holiday festivities; college relationships don't withstand the break; New Year's resolutions inspire people to take a fresh approach; people balk at Valentine's Day pressures. Is there any astrological indicator at that time of year for relationship dissolution (or dis-illusion)? Thanks for providing a great service and forum for topics. I admire your insight, and Planet Waves only keeps improving.

Kudos and appreciation,
Michelle

Dear Michelle:
This is an interesting trend you're bringing to our attention, and I would say that the Yahoo! article's ideas seem pretty valid. However, doubling the statistics for breakups in any one month may seem like a big increase, but for all those factors, it's still not that many more people by head count. If someone said that half of all breakups occur in January, that would be a bit more shocking.

On a similar note, I have heard that in some places right before Pride Week, a lot of gay couples go through a similar trend of breakups; a big party is coming and they want to be available meet somebody new.

Without going into too big a tirade on the nature of monogamous relationships in Western culture, commitment in this context is often a pretext for other subject matter, such as convenience, personal interest or security. I think we have a long way to go before we can say that, in general, we're really relating to one another because we want to, or to meet needs that are openly acknowledged, rather than to fulfill a hidden agenda.

However, since you asked, yes, I could point to a few astrological factors that distinguish January from other months. First, the Sun is in Capricorn from about Dec. 21 through Jan. 21. We all know this is an intense time of year, and I don't think it's just holiday obligations and year-end commitments. Personally, I think it has something to do with the Sun being aligned with the Galactic Core, which pushes a lot of energy through our plane of reality and shakes everyone up.

The holidays are an incredibly stressful time that pushes everyone to their limits, and over the year I've grown to feel strongly that it involves the Galactic Core.

Second, the Sun in Capricorn is a phase where the notion of obligation is emphasized greatly, which seems in part to be due to the nature of that sign's energy, at least as we interpret it now. (Sun in Capricorn used to be when the feast of Saturnalia was held, the most debauched party of them all.) Today, on the most basic levels, there is an extreme overemphasis on structure and stability. And materialism. This may create a feeling of suffocation; or, looking a little deeper, more people may get the idea that there really is such a thing as dedication and authentic commitment, and they want to try to find these qualities.

Then we have the Sun's change to Aquarius to consider. This is a sign traditionally associated with freedom, movement, and groups of people. And as that shift approaches, it could be that more individuals want to make themselves available for greater social contact which (according to the conventional rules of monogamy) can be rather limited in the context of one-on-one partnerships.

Last idea, part astrological and part basic observation, spring is coming, and the sap rises in all living things. Most people have still not figured out how to make monogamy sexually interesting (there is a method, and it's called bold honesty with your partner), and so by January it's getting on time for a change, which seems natural enough, anyway.

Thanks for an interesting question. If anybody has other thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

What is Nessus Saying?

Hi Eric,
I've just had a quick look at your Q&A and read with interest about Nessus. I've had a quick look at where it is in my chart, it's the only planet in an earthy sign and doesn't have any aspects to the rest of the planets apart from Q to my sun, which is part of a T-square. What is it likely to be saying about me? Where should I be looking at to heal? I do have a problem forming relationships to men and it is something I want to address, 'cause I'm fed up with getting it wrong.

Best wishes,
Vanda

Dear Vanda,
Everyone born in the 1950s and 1960s has a conjunction of two Centaur planets, Nessus and Hylonome. These planets were around the same position and moving at around the same speed for close to two decades. Through the 1950s and very early 1960s, they were in Taurus. Then in the 1960s the conjunction switched signs to Gemini, but remained fairly close. You were born with the Taurus version.

I'll refer readers back to a recent column two weeks ago when I covered Nessus in detail. Hylonome, which I have not covered much on these pages, you can sum up in two words: self-inflicted. My take on this conjunction is that it's about the abuse that was inflicted on the generations that came through the 'divorce era' of western society (which has not ended, but the trend seems to have really gained steam with this conjunction), and then the ways in which we took that abuse on, and continue to inflict it on ourselves.

You know, it's interesting. I hear a lot of people say that they have problems forming relationships with the other gender and they want to do it better. But I don't think I've ever heard someone write into this column and say they want to learn to communicate better with the other gender, how they can do that. This would fall under the general category of 'forming relationships', but it's a specific subtopic.

I think that to honor the themes of Nessus/Hylonome, we would need to form relationships with people who are dedicated to their own healing process. Those of us who hang around astrology (at least the way it's practiced in our neighborhood) are part of a little cult of self-awareness and personal growth. This is not exactly a mass-scale phenomenon, as most people really are out to get the best deal for themselves and that is their view of life.

Actually, we could say quite a bit about Hylonome/Nessus in Taurus as this relates to our society's obsession with what I will call selfish security. Rarely do we make an equation like, 'If the people around me are safe, then I will feel safe', or, 'My well being and that of my community are directly related'. Rather, we tend to say, 'I better get the best deal I can get'. This is how Nessus in Taurus might think, but because of the outer planet nature of Nessus, we're talking about an intergenerational situation and something that is inflicted on us by a kind of grand plan in society that few people are conscious of. (The ones who tend to be the most aware of people's values and also of how to exploit them are the top-level masterminds of advertising, marketing and public relations.)

Then, adding Hylonome to the equation, we perpetuate this thinking on ourselves, but it is a kind of trained self-attack. Are the values we espouse really are own? Or are we being pirated through a kind of 'values opening' or injury in Taurus signified by the Hylonome-Nessus conjunction?

Note for Robin

Dear Eric:
After reading the latest email from Robin this morning, I just had to write. My third child was injured on two separate occasions, in two hospitals, at three months of age by being given two separate drug overdoses.

We were living in Chicago at the time, and it was a HORRENDOUS experience. We were also lucky. We had someone at whom to point the finger of blame, and my son is now 20 years old and has a devoted team of nurses who care for him at home. But, he will never ever be able to do the things that others do: he is unable to walk, speak in language, sit up, see or do very much. He requires 24 hour care for everything.

My son's injury has affected his siblings and parents in a way that others have difficulty comprehending. I've been divorced twice, and my other children have had to deal with the near death of their sibling and the divorce of their parents under awful circumstances. What I would like to say to Robin is this: we all make decisions based on the information available to us at the time.

Having lived with a handicapped son who HAS resources for his care, and having seen other families who do NOT have such resources, I need to say to her that these kinds of events can tear families apart. I know that it may sound cold, but those docs in LA were probably right. I've lived with this every day for twenty years and one never stops grieving. At best, one comes to acceptance. "God never gives you more than you can handle?" Well, God must really think a LOT of me! And, of Robin! I think that Robin needs to find it in herself to forgive herself for choosing her husband and other children upon the advice of a doctor and for choosing the way and time and place that she decided to live.

None of us is completely perfect and hindsight is always 20-20. Also, since I believe that these kinds of events are tied up with karmic debt and spiritual evolution, I would say to her that the way she chooses to handle this will make a big difference down the road. But all of that is self-evident. I certainly wish her the very best in coming to terms with an event that has clearly made a great deal of difference in her life.

I send her my deepest feelings and hope that she can find meaning in this tragedy and can somehow heal. For myself, I have found it interesting that Saturn was sitting on my ascendant at the time when my son was born.

Update from Eric H.

Hello Eric,

Wow. I somehow missed Astrology Secrets Revealed last week and was pleasantly surprised to see the warmhearted response from Mary that you posted. Both her (and of course your own) response gave me quite a bit of food for thought.

She had a few comments about Chiron, and you mentioned curiosity about my Chiron transits. I am not sure what one would be looking for in Chiron transits. One interesting trend in my life is that my health has always been a bit volatile. I don't really have the means right now to do the research with an ephemeris, but I have had an above average share of health related experiences that have shaped my views on life, death and permanence (in a positive way).

I am a bit of a medical anomaly, being stricken with three completely separate and serious diseases since I've been in my early teens. The first was tularemia (7th grade, and if you're interested, you can look it up to see how odd it is that I contracted it and survived at all). Then, when I was 17-18, I had a tumor removed from my elbow which for all intents and purposes was cancerous, and yet the medical researchers never figured out which sort of cancer it was, or how my body knew to grow a hard shell around the tumor to protect me.

Third, I spent the better part of summer '03 in the hospital recovering from a particularly nasty case of viral meningitis (nearly died twice). Again the virus which caused it remains a mystery, as well as why exactly a normal 3-5 day long recovery time would be so persistent (and may I add painful). Something had me protected from these experiences, not to mention my mother is a simply wonderful human being and was by my side through everything.

From each, I was tossed into reviewing the way I look at death, which is a gift I hope to share with those faced with it (especially the elderly population). Please let Mary know that I certainly appreciate her kind words and support. Also, as it stands now, I am leaning toward the decision not to have children, and being gay certainly gives me a little control in determining such things =). My main reason for this is that there are parts of my personality that still surprise me and can occasionally leave me feeling uneasy.

I am not an angry person, but a rare moment will find me throwing my indoor male cat outside to prevent myself from injuring it in any other way (especially after catching it in mid squat on the clean laundry pile). It is moments when my teeth grit like that which make me truly analyze whether or not children are a good idea.

I remember some things I did at age four or five at a foster home/daycare (I was not one of the foster children) to a younger boy, things which clearly indicates abuse that I have no recollection of. I'd give him a toy and then start screaming 'no' until he cried. I've never forgiven myself for inflicting more damage on that boy on top of whatever circumstances landed him in the home in the first place. I have quite a few problems with boys, ranging mainly on the inferior/superior spectrum. If I do ever decide to adopt, it would most certainly have to be a girl. Again, it is nice to have the ability to choose.

I want no part in passing down my family's legacy, as I seem to have been dealt the brunt of it. After lengthy conversation, my other siblings exhibit no signs of the same sort of treatment. To answer Mary's question, I was the first-born child, not the second, and yet I certainly seemed to have the second born child shadow-transfer she was talking about. I dealt with quite a bit of my father's bouts of severe anger, something that had been removed from the majority of my brother's day to day life while he was still infantile. I lived with it until I was five, my parents split when my brother was two. It says a lot about my father's anger and its impact on me.

Didn't really intend to write a novel here. If you have time, let me know which periods of my life I should checking for information relating to Chiron transits, and I'll let you know what I dig up. Thanks a million for your time. -- Eric H.

Dear Eric,
I'll get to that one soon.

Response for Robin

Dear Eric,
So, you are basically saying that you see astrology as something like a weather forecast (or like a measurement of hormonal levels, which is equally relativistic in predicting future mental states/behaviour). Bereavement or death won't show up in charts as such, or even in 'spiritual language' (usually using the metaphors of transition, new beginning...etc.), but you can answer the question of how someone is likely to re-act to bereavement, i.e., what purpose it is going to have, how it's going to change them, but only after you have been told that bereavement is involved. That's not really prediction, is it?

It's psychology, or rather, the meaning that you fabricate, could equally be achieved, by looking at how the person in question re-acted to similar stressors before and then induce how they are likely to re-act this time around, and even tell them how they could re-act, to make life easier on them, have I got that right? It makes sense, too. Because I doubt that there is a point in my chart, my mum's chart and my gran's chart that are congruent, even though we all have these deaths in common. Similar with charts of all the people affected by natural disaster, for example. But then, logic dictates, that there would have to be a common denominator, right?

I could sense both deaths before they happened, but I think that is down to the fact that they were caused (with involvement of the medical profession) by sudden bodily failure, not sure if I would register these as accidents. I'm not averse to the idea that the future can be foretold, simply because this future is the consequences of the past/present, though they may be occluded from conscious awareness, and I don't see why astrology shouldn't be able to uncover/make aware of the past events that are most likely to have consequences, but it beats me why personality/major events in someone's life could be pre-determined by where and when they were born, unless you're inducing this from what kind of impact this life is going to have on the grand scheme of things. I'm confused by all of this and I don't think I'm expressing this particularly clearly, I'm lacking the linguistic concepts to be more precise, but I hope you're getting the drift.

For New Year’s I let myself be persuaded to give my mum a rune reading (don't think I will do this again, as I am too closely implicated) and the reading was astonishingly harmonious in the sense that she has all she needs to succeed in getting herself happy again, and of course I put it in language that focuses on telling her what she needs to hear in order to make use of what is available, plus I have a personal investment, of course.

And so I'm quite worried that I misinterpreted 'complete transformation of your relationship with your mother', and that actually, my gran is going to die this year. You must be very busy and I'm usually uncomfortable making those kind of demands, but if you have time, I'd be immensely grateful if you could help reduce my worry by having a look at my mum's (17 March, 1958, Leipzig, Germany), my gran's (17 October 1929, Krostitz, Germany) or my (01 January 1981, Leipzig) chart.

Thanx for your help.
Best, Creature

Dear Creature:
Personally, I don't make death predictions. Like most astrologers practicing today, I feel that some things are best left to God/dess and this is one of them. But I think you need to honor your own intuition not for the sake of prediction but rather for the sake of being complete with your grandmother.

I think that the whole subject of "foretelling the future" would be an appropriate and indeed excellent subject for this column, and I'd be happy to hear from readers with specific questions on this subject.

---

Planet Waves Weekly is the only place online to get the weekly horoscope of Eric Francis, both emailed and posted to the Web on a subscriber homepage each Friday. Eric is now writing Parallel Worlds, the 2006 annual edition of Planet Waves with the year-ahead forecasts, available to all subscribers. As a subscriber, you can keep up with Eric's essays on astrological developments, chart reading techniques, Tarot cards, and world affairs. Experience Eric's unique perspective as an astrologer-investigative reporter. Read more than three years of archives of essays and horoscopes. We invite you to look around and become one of many satisfied readers of Eric's daring and innovative astrology journal.