Planet Waves by Eric Francis
For LEMONADE, January 2006
Aries (March 20-April 19)
Developments are poised to unfold exceptionally well in your professional life, as long as you don’t slip on the floor on the way to the meeting where you’re due to get promoted. Said another way, you need to take the right kinds of risks, and be aware of others that you might not ordinarily notice. Over-caution would be a mistake; so too would pushing certain emotional issues or risking your integrity. If you want to get ahead professionally, this would be a good month to take a break from drinking, or at least stay three drinks behind the crowd.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
You may be inclined to go at full throttle after months of reformulating your plans so many times you may have forgotten what you figured out. But you have made a long series of observations about yourself and your deepest nature, particularly how you relate to others. And now that your opportunities to connect are on an upsurge, you don’t want to forget all your meaningful discoveries. Under energies as intense as you’ll experience over the next couple of weeks, self-awareness is a very handy thing to keep not just in your pocket, but in your mind.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Gemini is the kinkiest sign, and you’ve certainly been working out the kinks lately. At least you have the common sense to give yourself the experiences that you want and need, which are really the only way to assure you’ll grow or have a good time on any kind of a regular basis. This has been particularly impressive lately, given what appears to have been a little hurricane of fear passing through your life. The main thing you have going for you is curiosity, and the other main thing is flexibility. You could not ask for better assets in our particular world.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You are born under the stars of a water sign, and January’s astrology presents many opportunities to put your navigational skills to work. Moving through water or across its surface utilizes entirely different physics than landlubbers who stomp across the earth are used to. Indeed, the main skill is working with the weather and not against it. And though it may be chilly in most of the world, for you the season is heating up and you have more opportunities to explore and expand in ways you’ve been dreaming for a long time. Opportunities, that is — not just possibilities.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
There’s likely to be so much emphasis on work this month that you neglect an important relationship or partnership that deserves your attention. Still, you need to do what feels natural, and a little communication would go a long way. I suggest that communication start with listening, though to get the discussion going you may need to do more than drop hints. You need to ask and observe. Someone close to you is changing in ways they may not understand, but since you understand just about everyone and everything, you’re a good person to have around.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Right and wrong are almost always arbitrary, but you are the arbitrator. You have always had this power and I dare say you have taken a long time getting used to it. But now is not a time to pretend you don’t know, or worse, that you don’t care; you know perfectly well what’s important to you, what constitutes ethical conduct, and the curious way it’s only possible to be free if you’re unusually disciplined. The beauty of your life today is that you have no need at all to hold others to any high standard, nor need to be held to theirs.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You have a way of making emotional matters more complicated than they are. The fact that you’re currently dealing with someone else’s emotional material is not helping matters; that someone would appear to be your mother. However, you can take this opportunity to sort out how she feels about you from how you feel about you. Pretend for a brief moment that I am Thor and I’m standing on a high mountain and you know I’m going to utter one short statement, which will thunder through all of reality and shake the ground upon which you’re standing. Get ready. Here it is: “There is a difference.”
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Jupiter in Scorpio has wasted no time at all staging the greatest show on Earth. There are many ways this can take shape — the heavens are vibrating with potential, with ideas and with conflict at the moment. Your assignment from the home office at the center of the galaxy is to turn that energy into something productive; to meet everyone on a creative level; to explore the world as if the only events that take shape are those which will benefit everyone. You don’t really need permission to be optimistic — but if you think you do, now you have it.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
You may have the feeling that your optimism is leading you down the wrong path, or that you’re missing some crucial information. I do see reasons to question your intuition, but not to deny it entirely. It’s difficult to listen to your subtler senses when you’re overwhelmed by your emotions, and this seems to be developing. So before you get caught in any whirlpools, make some decisions about what’s important to you, who is important to you, and what you’re willing to give to the people around you. You may cross the line, but at least you’ll know where it is.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
I trust you’ll have plenty of opportunities to turn on the charm; the Good Lord does not bestow her gifts for nothing. Just make sure that if you apply persuasiveness, political influence or even garden variety desire to any situation, you know what you want — because you’re likely to succeed. There is plenty of room for error, and you would be all the wiser for thinking in the long term, setting up the results you want, and having them come to fruition in a month or more, rather than pushing them into reality now.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Chiron is back in your birth sign, after making a brief visit in the spring for the first time in about 40 years. So as far as you’re concerned, there really is something new under the Sun, and the energy of this five-year transit (truly big news) is about standing out; expressing yourself; about being absolutely uniquely you. Sure, this always comes with moments of crisis and moments of breakthrough, but that’s the cycle of evolution and the story of your life. One little clue: anger is power. Passion is a sign of life. You are alive.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Pisces has two distinctly different natures more than most signs, but pop astrology has conned us into thinking we’re a bunch of idealist stoner-slackers capable of keeping a commitment for about 45 minutes. As for the other side: the experience of your own life has no doubt acquainted you with your raw intensity and deep inner desire to devour experience and spread love like fire. Music, film, photography and painting are all under the domain of Pisces, and nobody knows the meaning of cosmic lust quite like you. So keep saying yes, yes, yes.