BY ERIC FRANCIS
The Sun is in Cancer and summer has begun, it’s starting to feel like it in some parts of the United States that have been rained on for the past month. (Many parts of the Northeast have felt more like the Pacific Northwest lately.) Venus and Mars, still clinging to one another in Taurus, are adding emotional and physical heat to the season. The two are about to form a square with the triple conjunction in Aquarius, which can stir up all kinds of interesting feelings, turbulence and fun over the next few says. That could be emotional in nature; be dependable in your dealings, be honest and if you feel yourself getting aggressive, back off while you have a chance. We begin the month with Mercury in Gemini, which is as curious and expressive as astrology gets; it’s time to put words to our experiences and make our words into physical reality. Extend yourself to others, emotionally and erotically: be generous with your positive wishes and be clear about what you want. Life is too short for games.
Aries (March 20-April 19)
Make room in your mind for what you want. If you clear away old ideas, the clutter of the past and some of your less functional expectations, you will make room for an entirely new kind of experience. You will never know whether you’re free unless you try, and in this particular bargain, you cannot lose: either you take a real step toward your liberation and independence, or you recognize that you’re somehow prevented from doing so; which will provide incentive for you to open up emotionally and therefore break free many other ways. Even pain, in its moment, can be an effective teacher, as you may have observed by now.
Taurus (April 19- May 20)
You may feel conflicted in your desires; you can just as easily find pleasure in resolving inner tension. In truth that is the only way to work it out, though this takes consciousness and a commitment to dialog. State your needs clearly; just two or three will suffice, to give the people who care about you something to aim for, on the assumption that they want to please you. In this way, simple statements about what you need can serve as focal points for another to have the satisfaction of giving to you. The process will work well in both directions, as at the moment you can offer your emotional nourishment from drawing from a rather deep well.
Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Your charts currently reveal several different levels of awareness working at once: emotional, mental, physical — which add up to more than the sum of their parts. You have incredible potential for clarity at the moment, and to use your open quality as a means of supporting others in healthy ways. Beyond your immediate sensory and relationship experiences, the gift you are offering is on the collective level: many people are opening up right now and you are facilitating the process for some of them. Your main gift is to teach that ‘spiritual’ is not about being good, it’s about being real.
Cancer (June 21- July 22)
At the moment of the solstice on June 21, the Sun was conjunct Vesta, the brightest asteroid and one that is deeply meaningful to our state of mind. She is the goddess of the hearth and yours is the sign of the hearth. The message is to tend your emotional, sexual and spiritual fire. If you make that the central organizing principle of your life, truly amazing things will happen. Remember, this is about devotion and that devotion comes from the inside out; if you maintain your core, your awareness and your sense of purpose, no matter how humble, the world will respond to you in ways that are unmistakable. Remember — people need you as much as you need them. Get the mutual generosity going.
Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
Creative is the key, and creative is potentially dangerous, uncertain, unstable — and when it works there is always a touch of the miraculous. We live in a time when we are conditioned on pain of execution from our careers if we mix sexual energy with our reputation, unless of course we’re some 20-minute MTV star. There is never a time when the people around you are not responding to your sexuality, your beauty, your appeal; this is true as the Sun right now. Own this fact, apply it gently and if someone or everyone wants to help you rise to the top because you’re red hot, that is their privilege.
Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
Get spiritual with your body. You have Taurus (the senses, the body, desire) in your 9th solar house — spirituality, knowledge, wisdom. There is no distinction in your mind, nor should there be. Venus and Mars are making a conjunction there. Judeo-Christianity is the only major branch of religion where the gods and goddesses don’t get it on — and look where it’s led our society: to a world of greed and war. Believe in passion, tap into your cosmic source, accept and embrace the transience of physical reality, and in short, be your brilliant self every chance you get. Your body knows. Your body loves. Become the passion you want to see.
Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
There arrives a time when one must give oneself over to the process of existence; so many of us hold back. We are taught to cling to ourselves and ultimately this is useless. You will hear others say that the path to a concrete goal is to focus on that one thing. I would say the most direct route is to devote yourself to everything; to the experience of devotion itself. In order to avoid diffusing your energy, work from your core. The particular means of expression, the specific objective or the outcome of the work, is not the goal: your own inner orientation is the goal. But this is no longer a private experience. Your self-knowledge is a public thing. Let it out. Set yourself free.
Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You are in a rare moment when others just might live up to your reputation as the local hormone fountain. Now you get to act on the requests that you have, or not. I suggest you set an acceptance threshold of something other than perfection. If you are in a bonded relationship of some kind, remember that these can exist anywhere along a wide spectrum, and we tend to stay at the cramped end. You are trying with all your vital force to make space for your own feelings; for your vision of what you want your emotional life to be — and that vision is bigger than what you currently have. Speak your truth and your world will grow larger.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
One year setting up the annual edition of Planet Waves, my first webman, a (then) 17-year-old guy Jordan Laughlin, invented a new astrological sign: Sagittaurus. I have laughed about this every time I’ve thought of it, since 2002. Well, we are now in a truly Sagittaurean moment: the blend of the physical and the mystical is upon us; the divine and the mundane, seemingly different but not really different things, are reacting to one another with a kind of alchemy that is rare to find in any astrological setup. Nobody can explain this better than the poet Allan Ginsberg, by the way — check out his early poems for a taste of fire.
Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You have discovered a new aspect to your personality in recent months, and in a word we could call it potency. Not that you were a wimp, but on many occasions you have become lost in your own complexity, or divided your loyalty between the past (personal history, traditions) and the future (your goals) rather than focusing on the present at full strength. Now the present is focusing on you; the world is moving into an orientation where the deepest gifts you have to offer are obviously necessary; and where you see that you are in an environment where you have actual impact on the world around you. I think you’ll like it.
Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
Your psyche is constructed in layers. Some are more obvious than others; some you arrive at with a sense of freedom and others with a sense of constriction and even pain. Lately you have been working with all your strength to integrate the different sphere of your awareness, having come to some painful revelations about what happens when you relate to people with just part of your psyche, or forgetting who you truly are inside. Integration is about remembering; it is about bringing one level to another, bringing darkness to light and light to the world. Along the way to learning consistency you will find many inconsistent qualities, and discover some new strength from each of them.
Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
Your point of view is obvious to some people and requires some detective work for others, but it’s time you made it plain to yourself what you stand for and what your life is about. I would say that this has been happening, but the bulk of your energy may still be bound up in potential rather than in action. The Sun’s move into your empathic water sign Cancer — one of the most daring and dynamic angles of your solar chart — is saying that this moment, right now, is all about an experiment in taking chances. By this I mean putting your passion into the world, and making sure you create a space for yourself to do precisely that.