Lemonade for August

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Do your thing. True, some of life must be spent doing somebody else’s thing, but let that happen as little as humanly possible this month. You have the resources, the focusing power and most of all the ideas to guide your life new places, and develop your most valued creative projects. What would stop you? In a word, perfectionism. Remedies for that include curiosity and a devotion to experimenting, but best of all is the pleasure of being who you are and expressing that in ways you love. So, keep your weekends clear and dive into yourself.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Routines can be helpful at focusing energy, but they can also become prisons. The most constricting ones are made entirely of ideas: ideas which go unquestioned, beliefs which go unrecognized, and self-perceptions that fix us to false notions of identity. Imagine all that exploding in a burst of fireworks. Imagine your mind melting into gobs of wet acrylic paint and then illustrating a whole new pattern of self. Who is doing the painting? That’s the person you are — not the past, not the results of what you create today.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
We live most of our lives being told what’s important to us, but a series of circumstances too personal to describe here have led you to understand that none of that really matters. It’s always shocking when we discover we’ve been brainwashed since childhood, but the truth high above the dense clouds of denial is light worth seeing. If the stars and planets are saying one thing over and over again right now, it is this: invest in yourself. Direct your resources into what matters to you the very most. Feel your truth, and don’t stoop to arguing over it.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Mercury has been in your birth sign most of the summer, taking you on a long, introspective journey. The benefit of this is that you now have a much greater sense of your own mind, but it’s interesting how that does not answer the big questions — only makes you more comfortable with them. This is a healthy relationship to mystery, more productive than trying to decode it, more creative than trying to explain it, and more liberating than feeling trapped inside of it. Mystery is something we live with, and the best we can often do is to live with it consciously.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Sometimes the most complex relationships have moments where they are easy to understand. It’s almost like the eye of a hurricane passing overhead; all around is rain and wind, but at the center is a column of calm and serenity, and there is the memory that there is life outside the storm, and this calmness reflects something inside you. Your own character seems to have this spiral shape right now, and you can sense the way in which your inner reality is strong and supportive and supporting the reality of who you are, even if there are places where the rain and wind are swirling all the elements.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Who knows what is the true source of inspiration? It’s different for everyone — but for you it seems to be as much about commitment as it is about inspiration. Think of yourself as married to yourself. You are wedded to your daily devotion and the growth this provides. Your developing sense of self-awareness is allowing you to be a better person, to accomplish more, and to express yourself more clearly. But your inspiration is coming from someplace else, from an aspect of yourself you cannot identify, know or nail down so easily. And that’s why it’s so effective.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You can now see where you can, and must, and truly do, stand apart from the world. Suddenly any risk you may have felt doing this is replaced by the freedom that deep commitment to yourself brings. Because you feel your own presence, it’s natural to feel the world move over and make room for you, or to sense that there is a purpose that only you can fulfill. It may feel like this is ‘about time’ and long overdue, but this is just the beginning of a long process of reconciliation with yourself that will only get better.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Perhaps you feel young to be so ambitious, or others around you have that feeling. Truth is, you’re doing what is right for you at this time in your life, and you’re learning skills that you’ll take with you many years into the future. The key to others yielding to your authority is your own silent recognition not that you have power, but rather that you are centered on your intentions and you know your own agenda. If you can hold that center core as you move through life, you will develop a respectful relationship with the world, and it with you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
Many spiritual and healing traditions talk about the ‘higher self’, which is sometimes described as a ‘real self’ as opposed to the illusory ego. No matter how people are described by psychology or spiritual tradition, there seem to be two or more competing notions of what a self is, one of which is allegedly more real than the other. Your life these days is about breaking down the barriers between any of these ideas, and the corresponding feelings. You are one person, but it’s not always so easy to feel — though these days, the curious sense that your life is stable and safe are the result of just exactly that sense of unity.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
What does it take to have your life in order? Part of it is the feeling that you can handle your own affairs, which is often a matter of     confidence that is matched, for certain periods of time, by success. More than anything, however, the sense of ‘in order’ is a matter of faith, a kind of unspoken agreement with yourself that you are at peace with the way your life is now, because you sense the ability to change and grow as necessary. Now the stars and planets are calling upon you to be aware of your confidence based on your history, and your deep personal trust in the cosmos that is, in truth, based on nothing but intuition.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Whatever challenges you faced in your most intimate relationships earlier in the summer, you can now see the sense and meaning of. To say that whatever developments you experienced shaped your character and helped you come to a new understanding with yourself is an understatement.  While you can’t necessarily put it into words, you seem to have been left with a strange sense of clarity, the ability to see through yourself, and no need to analyze your life circumstances. This can lead to many unusual opportunities to be close to people, on terms that are strangely equal for this world.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
A visionary is someone who may see things that are far away, in the future or the past; who may envision things that do not exist, and then through that inner seeing, has the ability to dream them into existence. This can work for you now with the most unlikely, improbable or impossible aspirations you may have. While visioning is a form of seeing, it is also a form of not seeing that which you don’t want, or choose not to create. It is the affirmation that witnessing the possibility you desire or need is a step in the process of creation. This is a great gift, and you have it — use it wisely.

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