Eris in the 7th solar house. Spiral Door aspect, Quaoar and Ixion in the 3rd solar house. Pluto working toward the solar 4th house or IC. Saturn in the 11th solar house heading for the 12th. Chiron-Nessus conjunct in the 5th solar house. Mars retrograde in the 10th solar house. Venus retrograde in the 11th and 12th solar houses.   Libra is the relationship house for Aries, the career house for Capricorn, and the home and security house for Cancer. This interpretation works for Libra rising as well. Those with Chiron in Libra might find it interesting..

YOUR SIGN has such a strong empathy with other people that it's difficult for you to see the impact you have on them. In other words, your effect on people is so pervasive that it's often invisible both to you and to them, blending into the environment in which you live. Cause and effect are never separate, but to observe the process working it's necessary to look from a different point of view than that to which you are normally accustomed.
 
Fortunately, a diversity of different aspects are giving you just the opportunity to do that, and a personal development project that has been underway for some years appears to be coming to fruition. That project involves an initiative in community and relationships that is designed, for lack of better words, to make the world a smaller place, a more accessible place, and to ensure that you and the people around you have enough space to be yourselves.
 
My impression from your astrology is that both sides of the equation have equal emphasis -- your niche, and everyone else's. I suggest, though, that you assess where your personal emphasis has been: have you been working to find a place for yourself, or primarily for others? Or has your place been working in support of others?
 
Saturn transiting Leo the past two years is a commentary on your role in the world, in particular an active enterprise about finding the right role, the one that specifically matches your talents. Many would say this kind of perfect match is a lot to ask in the world, where evermore people need to work at both McDonald's and KFC to make ends meet. This is not your particular assignment, though, unless you're working your way up from the French fry station to Industrial Hygiene Manager for the global franchise -- you know, whatever job you were born to do, but you have to start by making some darned good fries.
 
I would propose here that like in many forms of life endeavor, the journey is as important as the destination. The process of searching and discovery, if sincere and oftentimes even if not, frequently leads to actually finding something. The way this has been developing, there is something important about your growing out of "little old me" and into someone who is able to assert your ego, your identity, your sense of self, your mission, your sense of responsibility for the world (as you prefer to call them, probably some combination). If you're taking this transit negatively (Saturn in Leo in the 11th solar house), the result may be confrontational, a power trip or some boring form of seeking authority or reputation for its own sake. If you're relating creatively to the transit, the result will likely be some combination of social satisfaction, a growing sense of mission, and a bit of well-earned money. Even if you're not quite there yet, you have time. Jupiter recently joining Saturn in a fire sign will lend some support, as will consciously working with Eris in your opposite sign Aries -- something I'll get to in a moment.
 
We do need to bear one thing in mind when considering Saturn: it's in a long opposition to Neptune. Saturn is to Neptune what a lighthouse is to the ocean; but when you play these archetypes out in the human mind, you can get doubt, confusion, skepticism, and cynicism. So this has been a challenging transit, perhaps riddled with doubts and questions about whether you would actually succeed. If you haven't figured it out yet, along the way to succeeding, the most important resource you have is your creativity, but also your ability to bend social rules in order to get around the rule about not getting what you need. The point being that you are in an active dynamic with the world, one which is changing you and changing it. In this respect, if one is alive, it is impossible not to change the world.
 
Before we get into the real theme of this horoscope, which is community and your role in it, let's talk a little about your unusual gift for empathy. This discussion is partly based on Eris in Aries, your opposite sign and the sign addressing your relationships and partnerships. For the full discussion of Eris, please see my article in the 2007 Planet Waves Almanac.
 
Not everyone is so stable, and most people are searching for themselves and don't know it. We don't have the language or acceptable social mode in current society for "finding yourself." For most people this has been reduced to finding the right ring tone for the right cellphone.
 
Being a Libra grants you certain qualities, particularly a measure of emotional intelligence, if you choose to access it. This, combined with the ordinary kind of intelligence, can get you pretty far in life.
 
Yet things can get a little screwy when, because of your gift for empathy, you start to identify with the identity crises of others in a way you don't recognize is happening. And it can get super duper screwy when, responding to your influence, which you don't necessarily notice, their identity crisis is sparked.
 
If other factors in your natal chart (which we're not working with here) are working for you, you have a natural affinity for relationship that many others lack. Just like some people are really good at playing piano and others seem to know about plants from when they are little, Libra is able to access the usual maddening dualism of human consciousness and convert it into something useful: a multiple-viewpoint perspective. Bear in mind that most people you encounter are able to think about the situation of another person, but only when it's seen as not quite relating to them, i.e., at a distance -- or when the subject of "someone else" is all about them. Most people can go back and forth between the perspectives self-other; you can see both at once, as if they are the same thing (they are not, always). So, while you're seeing both at once, you would do well to notice your impact, and the environment into which you're broadcasting.
 
Most people see themselves as passive elements in their environments; they don't consciously create their own experiences, and they don't create the experiences of others. These things 'just happen'. Well, anyone who thinks about it for 12 seconds realizes they don't just happen, we make them happen. Most folks don't realize that their insecurities, blasé expressions, denial trips, playing dumb, and other social games actually create the world in which we live. Those who dedicate themselves to creative living in some way are the ones who have woken up to their power to co-create the world in the constructive sense of the idea. You have a gift that allows you to see through the whole process, and fortunately so. You can use this gift to create a better life for yourself and for everyone around you.
 
I would propose that the discovery of Eris in your opposite sign, your relationship sign, is a factor that can prompt you to reconsider the environment of your life, your relationships, your business partnerships and any relationship that verges on enmity, or plunges all the way in.
 
How to sum this up? I think my next article on Eris will be called, "Something Missing." A lot of people are walking around with Something Missing. Then they find you and they think that you are it. This is good; you get to relate, you have a captive audience, you have an abundant supply of relating subjects. It is also bad; you often get to relate in a way that is not fully satisfying because you have so many relationships with Something Missing. At least you find people interesting. That is a help. But Something Missing is only so interesting.
 
Here is one thing I can tell you, and it relates to Eris, because Eris speaks of the chaos and discord of the world, and its roots in the personality that are the source of that chaos. Relationships in American and English society used to be very structured. (In Europe too, but things are currently a bit more structured and traditional here than in the US or the UK.) There were strict rules of courtship and establishing relationships, and most people tried to follow them. Over the past century, anarchy has set in. On the one foot, anarchy is great because it presents opportunities to do things differently, and to invent your way as you go along. On the other foot, this is very difficult because there is a creativity gap in the average human brain, and when most people are not told exactly what to do, sadly, they do not know what to do, and don't typically feel creative enough to make it up as they go along. Hence, we humans often fill our hours with brooding thoughts of jealousy and resentment, or figuring out how to win, or how to avoid what scares us, when we could be playing, frolicking, making food, making art, fucking and experimenting with life.
 
To me, the discovery of Eris has a resounding message for Libra, which is get curious, turn on your headlights, use your radar, and pay attention like you've never paid attention before. Look for people who are consciously becoming self-aware.
 
While you're at it, learn to spot vain people. It's easy. Here is the formula: They are not really interested in you, or in anyone, or in anything. Everything and everyone is just passing through. Watch how people relate to their environment. Anyone who does not notice their environment is either vain, depressed or deeply insecure, and the three are sometimes closely related. Anyone who cannot talk about an idea is a candidate. But you really need to spot these people fast, and respond appropriately.
 
Anyone who pretends not to notice you is a prime candidate for being vain, depressed or insecure. How do you know they are pretending? Simple, you are standing right there, and they are pretending not to notice. Because if they were not pretending, they would notice. So -- notice who notices; notice who does not; see if you can spot the live ones. Remember you are a live one. Learn to spot games. It's a skill you will need.
 
We get a few interruptions in the normal flow of emotional events later in the year with retrogrades of Venus and Mars, which should make things interesting. They are separated by some months, fortunately. Two at once is a bit much to deal with, but both of these transits tend to vibe in early and also linger in their effects -- and make it difficult to guide the flow of events.
 
What is interesting about Venus retrograde later in the year is that it's going to blur a lot of old boundaries and push you a little further into the world where nothing is really decided in advance and, where the past does not matter so much. The retrograde occurs on your 11th/12th house cusp, taking place in Leo and Virgo; these houses, respectively, pertain to groups (in the case of the 11th) and isolation and/or merging with 'the cosmic all' (in the case of the 12th). What you get with this retrograde, potentially, is the following:
 
1. A chance to test how the boundaries of friendship, love, romance and sex work for you, and what it means to exist apart from these things. Any phase where you feel isolated is a good opportunity to step back from the world and assess your life. Indeed (on another topic), when Saturn goes into Virgo over the summer, you may get a good bit more time to yourself.
 
2. A chance to test boundaries in general, as you find out the limits on who you can be to others, and the needs you have as an individual.
 
3. A review period of some kind, including a review of several important past relationships that may mysteriously come back into your life in an odd or seemingly haphazard way, most likely in the form of friendships, or as follow-up romances to a past experience.
 
As for the Spiral Door aspect. Pluto is aligning with the Galactic Core late in your 3rd solar house, on the cusp of the 4th. Both houses are involved, and I'll take them one at a time. They are related, because they are neighbors. The 3rd house is the local environment. Traditionally, it's the house of brethren, and brethren used to be neighbors. These days it's the house of the neighborhood, one's mental environment, and one's local dialect. Writing and speaking are themes of this house. For children, it's the house of what you bump into when you're crawling around on the floor, and any understanding of the 3rd house would come with understanding what that early environment was about.
 
With Sagittarius involved in this angle of your solar chart, we get an interesting picture: it's big, it's exotic, it's full of ideas, it's extremely interesting, and it's not necessarily so responsive to you. That might lead you to want greater impact, or to search for how you find your place in the world, though imagine a little child confronted that big, big world of Sagittarius.
 
The effect this has had on you is likely to be some significant form of adopting a life philosophy of "think globally, act locally." You may or may not travel, but you can certainly find the world in your neighborhood, town or city. You can say some interesting things and reach some interesting people; the foreigners come to you, and the exotic types, the Armenian chefs, the Iranian belly dancers, the space aliens, and the rare books and probably a few rare authors to boot. You may wish you could be a writer, but feel you could never be up to the task (this is a Mercury/Sagittarius overlay). Now is the time to get over it, that is, the time for a breakthrough, be it as a writer, thinker, or in discovering and experiencing the impact of your ideas in some new way. When you combine Mercury with a sign where it's not typically well supported (Pisces or Sagittarius, in particular), you can get a Chirotic effect: based on an irritant, the power level goes up, not down.
 
The essence of the Spiral Door is the flourishing of your community, and your place in it, and as Pluto draws toward Capricorn, this is your safety, the place in the world that is your own, where you have deep roots. There is an echo of Saturn in Leo here, but this is easier; this is a way of reaping the rewards of having lived through most of Saturn in Leo, having endured the doubts and self-doubts associated with the Saturn-Neptune opposition (and perhaps continuing to do so), the sense that you don't necessarily belong -- but that in some way knowing you must belong. That, it would seem, is pretty much an inevitable development, and as the world situation heats up, along with a backlash to the war in the form of social and community activism, and the many creative opportunities this offers people to be part of the world, the more you will find open doors and adventures.


LIBRA
For more information about your relationships, please see Aries. This will give you an idea what is happening for those closest to you, and how they may experience you. For more information about your career, please see Cancer. You can consider this an alternative take on your professional life, as it's an assessment of your 10th house. For more information about the home and security angle of your chart, please see Capricorn. This will give you greater detail on themes just covered in this horoscope that relate to home and security. For an explanation of the houses, please see this article.