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Mars in Libra Tour, 2025

Introduction to This Whole Scenario

Dear Friend and Reader:

As of 7:23 pm EDT Wednesday, Mars was done with Virgo and is in cardinal air sign Libra. It will traverse Libra between now and Sept. 22 (the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins), when it enters its domicile Scorpio.

This promises to be an exciting few weeks, if we can remember the value of curiosity and equanimity. Mars at its most basics represents a certain kind of masculinity (so do the Sun and Chiron). And it’s going to take us on a very exciting tour. However, it’s worth mentioning that any thing male or masculine is facing difficult times, including the inner masculine nature of many women.

Over the weekend, I read in The New York Times Magazine that, “It must be mildly embarrassing to be a straight man, and it is incumbent upon each of them to mitigate this embarrassment in a way that feels authentic to him.”

This statement could only be made in the digital world to digital gender cultists. I will be sizing up this notion on Friday’s Planet Waves FM. However, I think that the newspaper of record has stretched its editorial policy to allow into print the idea that it’s shameful — however slightly — to be a not-gay man.

In a similar fashion, Mars in Libra is in what’s called “detriment.” That means it’s out of its element, as if visiting a foreign country. Mars is the diurnal ruler of Aries; in its opposite sign, it’s not supposed to do well.

However, I notice that most of astrology misses the point of such a concept. Anyone who has traveled the world (by which I do not mean as a tourist) knows that exposure to foreign places makes you a better and more interesting person. The anti-dignities “detriment” and “fall” tend to strengthen planets in that they help create adaptations that make them influential in unusual ways.

Herbalists tell me you don’t want to grow medicinal herbs under lush, cushy conditions. You want the plant strengthened by less-than-ideal conditions.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Full Moon in your opposite sign paired with Mercury turning direct is now influencing you. You may have the idea that you can take on the world. That may be true, though the planets suggest you use diplomacy instead of force or aggression. You don’t know what you’re up against. You can’t really see your competitors, opponents or even your partners, clearly. Diplomacy is not manipulation; neither is it ‘passive’ aggression, which merely means concealed. Rather, when you sense a confrontation or a disagreement is brewing, get a conversation going and find out where people are at. This involves the now rarified skill of listening and evaluating in a way that’s not designed to funnel someone into a point of view they don’t really have. Handle difficult situations with finesse and you’ll build respect and help hold the world together rather than fracture it even more.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You’re not through making discoveries about yourself, and a significant one is on the way. There’s something here about figuring out how and why your self-confidence is so often blocked. This discovery will come with the drive to take action — though I suggest you slow down the movie. You might want to jump any time between now and when Mercury stations direct on the 11th. However, you’re still missing information that will prove to be very important. If you act without this knowledge, the results could be needlessly difficult and costly. Prepare for making the right choice at the right time. Stop and ask yourself if there is anyone’s confidence or trust you’re betraying in the name of your own personal gain or progress. If the answer is yes, you’re not ready to make your move. Have the difficult conversation. After all, you have nothing to hide, right?

Spiritually grounded astrology readings from Eric Francis. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Interior Conjunction, then Mercury direct

Dear Friend and Reader:

Greetings from a deliciously dark, rainy day in the Catskills. It’s been a hot, dry summer and the trees and critters need a drink. Tonight at 7:41 pm EDT, Mercury and the Sun align for their interior conjunction, which is the basic meaning of Mercury retrograde. More on that in a moment. First, some local color.

Last night on the way home from the farmer’s market, I happened upon the scene depicted above. It was maybe a minute or two old. I was the second car behind the accident. The driver, a young guy, was pacing around, saying he didn’t understand how such a thing was possible, it was the last thing he needed, and how he had swerved to avoid a deer.

All understandable enough, but there are deer everywhere especially as dusk approaches, and clearly he was going way too fast for a little local road. Too fast to avoid the deer, and so fast he took out the utility pole like a bowling pin. He was not quite grasping how lucky he was to be alive.

I expected my power to be out when I got home, and it was. I was able to do an orderly shutdown on two of my three iMacs — but backup power had run out on the one with the midyear reading drafts and horoscopes written out to September. Oops. I need a better power backup on that machine, and in the back of my mind, I was concerned about my horoscope copy — I’d put in two solid creative days of new writing.

Coming home to a dark, silent house, I was reminded of how the environment is invisible until it changes. In this case, the electrical environment that I write so much about was suddenly more apparent for its absence than for the hum of ACs a couple of hours earlier.

I started my laptop, toggled the internet from my phone and informed various people of my status. I had no idea when the power would come back on and envisioned myself working from a motel today.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — A squaring-up of accounts might come in the form of a series of conversations where you and a close loved one or partner study where you align and where you do not. People get squirmy about these kinds of conversations, so you might want to go into observation mode first — especially of your own attitudes and approaches to life. Avoidant people usually avoid acknowledging those facts about themselves; it would be the antithesis of their MO. So ask yourself: is this your perception or is it true? This is best worked out on a situation by situation basis: for example, discussing what happened, or what something was about. You don’t want a showdown and the way you would sidestep that is by owning up to your own situation. Take it gently. The factors involved are three powerhouses — Mars, Chiron and Eris. Do what you must; fulfill your responsibilities to yourself.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may make some profound discoveries about yourself over the next few days. The challenge will be remembering them. This is similar to remembering a dream that you woke up from because it was a little weird. Yet no matter how odd or disconnected your discovery may seem, it will be of spiritual value. And I suspect that a moment of true clarity is possible, one that contains actionable information. You may not be told what to do, but the choice should be fairly self-evident, self-affirming and also help you see beyond the often dark view you have of the world. Your whole life right now is about transforming a false perception of existence into a true perception of yourself. One is the tail and one is the head; pay attention to what your senses — and your inner senses — are telling you.

Spiritually grounded astrology readings from Eric Francis. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Preorder Easy Does It, the 2025 Midyear Edition from Planet Waves

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In fact, you were lied to.

Dear Friend and Reader:

The seemingly hot new meme — the way to build audience and game the algos and rack up paying subscribers — is to tell people they were lied to. This is now big business — the modern version of P.T. Barnum’s big top.

I’ve been tracking this trend for several years. It started seeming absurd, but now it’s built to a frenzy. A feeding frenzy, and you’re being served for lunch. The latest emerging market: de-education. The lies came through education, so now you need to have all of that erased. Then we can enjoy the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

Maybe you’ve heard some of this. Maybe you’re into it, staying up late at night following the clues, in hot pursuit of the truth.

Ohhhh! The Earth really isn’t a sphere. In the “corrected cosmology,” “outer space” does not exist. Gravity does not exist. Einstein was an idiot and a fraud. Nobody has ever “isolated” an atom, so there’s no such thing as an element. Biological cells do not exist; you’ve never seen one, have you?

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This is Your Conscience Speaking

Dear Friend and Reader:

The most important decisions you will ever make are those where you have to discern right from wrong. Grappling with truth might keep you up many nights, such as with situations that involve determining how a decision you will not be able to reverse will impact a relationship, or influence the people around you.

The determining factor in these choices is knowing what is correct for you — something that only you can determine. Or, they are situations where, so far as you know, you must act against your own best interests because you know the interests of someone else are more important.

They are potentially situations without an objective right or wrong; situations that weigh and balance in many different directions.

Such decisions are made using a moral sense that requires exercise and practice. Making small choices helps refine this inner sense so that when it comes time to make the larger choices, you have some dexterity; some developed ability; and some experience seeing the consequences of your choices — which will probably slow you down a little and encourage you to take care.

All decisions require curiosity, using your personal agency, and being aware of consequences. If you want to be human, that comes with the territory. How many times a day does someone say, “Tell me what to do”? I am sure, quite a few.

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The Emperor’s Full Moon

Author’s Note — I don’t remember when I wrote this article. I think I was living in Paris, so that would make it about 20 years ago (here is how it looked in its original format). It’s my tribute to the Capricorn Moon, presented as published way back when. I have not had a moment to add sub-headers, which would be helpful.

Capricorn Moon people have appeared many times and places in my life, starting with my mom. So for me, with women, Freud’s notion that “the mother’s body is the original landscape” is what I think of, and how I respond.

I usually find the men to be ardent and loyal friends.

This is not an easy lunar position to have; but it bestows strength of character that manifests as a deep and soulful quality if integrity (and not its appearance) is honored. That’s the thing about this position: people always assume that its native has credibility. So they can get away with anything, even if they don’t realize that; they are the very best emotional compartmentalizers of them all.

Regarding the person shown above, that is Christopher McGregor, who died in late 2024. You can hear my tribute to him here, including the story of that photo taken a few minutes after I ended a presidential cabinet-level press conference by asking the Secretary of the Interior a real question. Chris, who was videotaping the police a quarter-century before the iPhone, caught it on camera.

I will not say any more; I think this article speaks for itself, and I am curious your response. — efc

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Two Weeks of Geopolitical Torture, a/k/a Freaking Out About World War in West Asia

Dear Friend and Reader:

Anyone with a meek hint about west Asia (previously, the Mid-East) knows that it’s no exaggeration to be concerned that open war between Iran and Israel could lead to regional or global war. Cooler heads seem to be prevailing, for the moment. If you were worried, I don’t blame you at all.

To the shock of nearly everyone, under astrology that could crash your software, Pres. Trump joined the mess, allegedly sending seven B-2 bombers on a 37-hour flight around the planet, dropping the biggest bombs ever created on Iran’s underground nuclear labs.

If we are to believe official reports, these 30,000 pound “bunker busters” ordnance hit the ground at close to the speed of sound — and did nothing special other than block the entryway to the facilities.

Well we could have paid some teenagers a hundred bucks to do that.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Living well is its own reward, and this includes when you have substantial responsibilities. The solution is not to have “life-work balance” but rather to live in a way that is both meaningful and productive as much of the time as you can. Take pleasure in offering what is expected of you and what you have committed to. Our present society knows little of stepping up to life with the attitude and perspective of a mature adult. Maturity calls for more than going through the motions, which is, sadly, what most people do most of the time. When you find yourself doing that, pause, call yourself to the present and connect with your purpose. If you don’t think you know what that is, stop and ask inwardly — you will get a response.

Astrology that understands you. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may think you’ve gone as far as you can, and accomplished as much as is possible under the current conditions — though you have not even begun to access your true potential. There have been all kinds of fireworks in the planetary patterns for the past month or so. Yet the Sun, now at Solstice and about to enter cardinal sign Cancer, is here to power up the new structure that has been built by the hands of destiny. All you need to do is stay awake in the presence of overwhelming pressure to drift off to sleep and forget who you are. You cannot eliminate your vital force, though you can deny it, you can struggle against it, and you can use it for purposes other than it was intended. So stay close to yourself, and remember your priorities — not just the day-to-day bits, but rather the larger purposes you came here to serve. This will require a change in perspective, since you seem obsessed with local news and immediate business. Take a look at a picture of our galaxy, or one of those images of a galactic cluster. Ask yourself where you are and how you got here. In one sense, the question is theoretical, since it does not have much of a factual or scientific answer. So let the question stand, and ask yourself sincerely what you truly want and need to do in the face of such overwhelming mystery. There is something, and it’s larger than just you.

Eric Francis reads your solar chart. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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The Greatest Story Never Written

“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”
— Thomas Watson, IBM’s CEO, in the 1940s

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”
— Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

Dear Friend and Reader:

Apropos of Chiron conjunct Eris, of Pluto newly in Aquarius, of Sedna newly in Gemini about to be joined by Uranus, and of Saturn conjunct Neptune with Jupiter all on the Aries Point — those are the astrological sigils of our moment — I have a question.

What’s it all about?

It’s happening right before every sense except for smell and taste (loss of which is attributed to an as-yet unnamed disease that I call “digititis,” since on the internet you cannot taste or smell anything).

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Jupiter in Cancer is inviting you to live your blessings rather than count them. Expand into your potential, and dust off a few of your long-cherished though neglected personal goals. The more you aspire to, the more you will accomplish. Implied here is thinking large in a way that you’re not accustomed to; usually you fit into the space allotted and do your best from there. Yet the stretching point involves the realization that your life is not just about you. You do not exist merely for your own sake. You exist to contribute to the common good. If you think this means sacrifice rather than offering who you are, that will put you into a state of inner conflict rather than generosity and creativity. The more you give, the more you’ll discover that you have. Raise the quality of your work and you will find out that you possess abilities you never imagined you have. Yet to bring them out of a state of potential and into the world will take some work. Rather than thinking through what may seem like complicated issues, take action and see what you discover. Let go of your obsession with planning, at least as an experiment. The only real learning comes from experience, and to grow is to change. Good fortune comes in many forms, including being willing to dare — then doing so.

Astrology that understands you. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may think you’ve gone as far as you can, and accomplished as much as is possible under the current conditions — though you have not even begun to access your true potential. There have been all kinds of fireworks in the planetary patterns for the past month or so. Yet the Sun, now at Solstice and about to enter cardinal sign Cancer, is here to power up the new structure that has been built by the hands of destiny. All you need to do is stay awake in the presence of overwhelming pressure to drift off to sleep and forget who you are. You cannot eliminate your vital force, though you can deny it, you can struggle against it, and you can use it for purposes other than it was intended. So stay close to yourself, and remember your priorities — not just the day-to-day bits, but rather the larger purposes you came here to serve. This will require a change in perspective, since you seem obsessed with local news and immediate business. Take a look at a picture of our galaxy, or one of those images of a galactic cluster. Ask yourself where you are and how you got here. In one sense, the question is theoretical, since it does not have much of a factual or scientific answer. So let the question stand, and ask yourself sincerely what you truly want and need to do in the face of such overwhelming mystery. There is something, and it’s larger than just you.

Eric Francis reads your solar chart. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

 

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Maximum Stretch, Maximum Squeeze

Dear Friend and Reader:

We are fast approaching Northern Solstice, when the Sun enters the cardinal sign Cancer. The seasonal effect is created by the Earth’s 23-degree axial tilt, which provides longer days and more sunlight to the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year, and less to the Southern Hemisphere.

This is maximum stretch for those of us up north, and maximum squeeze for those down under. Tune into your body and see if you can feel this happening. It’s entirely natural, beautiful and real as it gets on Earth. And you can directly experience the Earth-Sun relationship.

As the solar journey to the north reaches its peak, all at once there is a reversal, which can feel like the pressure being let out of a sealed container. I once experienced it as the celestial machine stopping and reverting directions — right at the moment of Northern Solstice.

Solstice is Overnight Next Friday to Saturday

The solstice and Cancer ingress takes place at 10:42 pm EDT Friday, June 20. So it’s late evening across the US and early morning in the UK and Europe. This is exciting because the Sun mounts the cardinal cross and makes aspects to Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune all weekend. That’s a heck of a lot of energy at the time of the seasons changing.

Five days later this is followed by the New Moon in Cancer, which is conjunct Jupiter, another chart that brings in the whole early cardinal pattern.

This is leverage. Use some basic focusing power and set your mind on what you want to create — adding “for the greatest good of all concerned,” in case you’re a little off the mark.

The unusual early cardinal sign emphasis is about the Aries Point, which brings individual and collective experience much closer together.

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Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Jupiter is now in your 2nd house of resources and available cash; you are a magnet for success. Keep the energy flowing. And remember that while money can solve most worldly problems, it’s not the first ingredient necessary. The more resourceful you are, the less of the stuff you will need. This translates to knowing your inventory of people, things, and ideas, and running down the list before you spend money. Intelligence is the most underrated commodity, especially in our current version of the world where everyone knows everything (and it turns out that nobody knows anything). But you do know something, and you know how to think when you want to. So, use your intelligence and use it well. Every problem has many potential solutions, and what has no solution may not be a problem at all.

Astrology that’s better than therapy. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Jupiter is in your sign for one glorious year. Do not waste a single day of this most beneficial transit. This is not the kind of thing where I have to use careful language so as not to set up your expectations. What you aspire to, you are extremely likely to achieve. Jupiter will lift you out of all the usual cycles of your life, and put you in contact with a much larger pattern and more encompassing point of view. And while you stand to gain a lot, the thing to remember is how much you have to offer. So miss no opportunity to share your resources and your knowledge — appropriately. Be generous with your time. Listen to people and their problems, learn from them, and do what you can. Jupiter in Cancer is the original sigil of the gift economy and the plus-plus symbiosis. Your animal totem is the dog. Study them carefully!

Astrology that understands you. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Venus Passing Through the Hot Spot

Dear Friend and Reader:

In this week’s Starcast, I offer my recognition to all who have survived this latest wave of astrology, which I take back to Pluto entering Aquarius in November through the Chiron-Eris conjunction. The various flare-ups of the Hunger Game pattern.

It’s been six months of nonstop everything.Tonight, however, I’m here mostly to discuss something else.

Events of late winter and early spring seem to be left behind in the foggy ruins of time, though we lived through it all — the inner planet retrogrades, the eclipses, the sign-changes and much else.Unfortunately, in the digital environment, it’s nearly impossible to tell the scale of anything, since everything feels like a hoax or is just another bit of email.

This was not easy — it was the most tangled planetary bumper car and roller coaster ride I’ve ever seen, combined with standing in a batting cage trying to hit 60 mile-per-hour pitches. At least you may have a better idea where you stand with existence.

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Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Most people put popularity (or power) above truth and healing. You may be sensitive to the utter folly of that; left to their own devices, most humans would jockey and game themselves to oblivion. Assuming you’re not riding that supposed high, you’re likely to be especially sensitive right now to the games people play. They are unproductive and are designed to avoid intimacy rather than to allow or invite it. There may be situations where you see a diversity of social traumas and disasters. If you’re witness to any of these, count yourself as a stabilizing and healing force. Not a rescuer: that is something different, and it’s dangerous. Your role is closer to fair witness, honest presence and the one who can see all sides of various issues, whether you like the people involved or not. Know that at the bottom of anyone’s stress is their sense of injury, and much that we experience is about social wounding that feels like junior high school with an American Express card.

Astrology that’s better than therapy. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Saturn and Neptune are now in your 10th house of professional activities, an alignment that has not happened in quite this way (according to astrologer Leo King, who did the math) since the Great Pyramid was built. Chiron and Eris are aligned for the first time in more than 50 years. You’re likely to be feeling this as a summons to greater responsibility but also either a) motivation or b) oppression. Yet taking up the mantle of your life is not optional; the time has arrived. This, in turn, arrives with your need to catch up on long-postponed growth and talent development. You have tremendous potential, including the potential to not do much with it. These incredible alignments of planets are taking effect as a failsafe. You have embarked on the great climb of the mountain that is life. You can turn back, but then where will you be? As your credo, make sure what you like to do the least is what you do the best.

Astrology that understands you. Visit the Astrology Boutique.

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