From Self-Actualization to Soul Retrieval — plus your September 2020 Monthly Horoscope by Eric Francis

Get instant access now | The Story of I AM — 2020 Autumn Reading

Mars retrograde in Aries is the final transition, the emotional, psychological and experiential bridge, to the last event of 2020: Jupiter conjunct Saturn in Aquarius. Mars retrograde represents the work of individuation and of self-actualization that will make the group experience in Aquarius more relevant and more easily workable.

Borrowing a line from Lou Reed, “Self-knowledge is a dangerous thing — the freedom of who you are.” Dangerous perhaps to a way of life that involves allowing yourself to disappear and be insignificant. Mars retrograde in Aries invites boldness and embodiment and the exploration of your will. Order here for instant access, or choose your individual signs here.


From Self-Actualization to Soul Retrieval

Dear Friend and Reader:

First, before we get into Mars retrograde, remember: everything is headed for the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the first degree of Aquarius. Mars retrograde is preparation for whatever that aspect is about, and whatever that is, it’s something big.

At the same time, Chiron is still early in its trek through Aries; we have a lot to learn from this. The relationship is that the individuation of Chiron in Aries is essential for functioning under the intensified group energy of the forthcoming Aquarius planets.

Whether or not you get assimilated into the Borg and reduced to an IP address has much to do with your response to the conditions on the planet as they are developing now.

We are experiencing once-in-a-lifetime events; the pattern we are in will never repeat itself on any timescale relevant to contemporary history. The choice as always is to wake up or go to sleep, though it’s never been so crucial as it is today. We were in many ways blindsided by Saturn conjunct Pluto back in January. We are now under new astrology of equal magnitude, which is approaching fast. We are on notice to pay attention and to be ready to take action.

Photo by Lanvi Nguyen.
Photo by Lanvi Nguyen.

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Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for Sept. 2020 | By Eric Francis Coppolino

Aries

Aries (March 20-April 19) — To claim your desire is to claim your confidence. When you acknowledge what you want, letting nothing stand in the way of your mind and feelings, then you will emerge as the truly bold person that you are. For the next two months of Mars retrograde, you will find yourself on an inner quest to make contact with your passion, your yearning, and your needs. You will see all the ways you did not take possession of your feelings, and you will also get a kind of grand tour of all the emotional obstacles you encountered when you tried. You may notice a theme emerges, which is the influence your family had. They may have been wholesome and well-meaning people. They may have been deeply flawed. They may have existed a few places on a continuum between the two. Yet they made their mark, and in many ways it curtailed you. It is time for the consequences of that to end, and you are the only one who can make it so. This will come not through psychologizing or spiritualizing, but through direct experience. That means the exercise of your volition. The exploration of your curiosity. Experimenting with your determination and your drive. Allow yourself to ask all the most challenging questions, knowing that to do so is to challenge the authority others have exercised over you — and knowing that in doing so, you are seeking the light of your own soul.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Aries preview video


Taurus

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The unusually anxious state of the world the past six months may be catching up with you. You’re strong and durable; you know you’re built to withstand the ongoing crisis that is life on Earth. Yet with Mars going retrograde in the most psychologically sensitive angle of your chart — Aries, the 12th house — you will want to be mindful of your mind and sensitive to your sensitivities. Powerful aspects are influencing you in a zone of your chart where they could be amplified, or where they could also disappear under the surface of your conscious mind and apply pressure that you cannot easily identify or point to. But we can see it in the astrological chart: retrograde Mars in the 12th is enough to stir the point, and more so as it will be conjunct Eris, square Saturn and square Pluto. These squares need a point of expression; you will not thrive if you bottle up your feelings. You will do well if you honor your inner search for truth, and acknowledge to yourself and to others what you’re experiencing. Most important is that you have a dependable way to express yourself, including your sexuality (a deep, often unacknowledged theme of the 12th that we know about from Vedic astrology practiced in India). If you feel in some way caught or trapped, note that this is likely to be a trick of the mind. You will feel more liberated if you can share with someone who you trust will not judge you. And then do something creatively bold, in the physical tangible world, i.e., a new webpage does not count. A sculpture definitely counts.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Taurus preview video


Gemini

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You are a social creature, and you thrive among people. It’s not like this is an option: your happiness depends on it, and so too does your personal growth. The time has come to claim back your social existence from the internet. As an air sign, it is easy for you to find a home in the ethereal, vapid world of “social” media, and yet you lose most of your power, beauty and charisma there. You get the challenges but not the benefits of true human contact. Indicated by Mars retrograde (Sept. 9 through Nov. 13), this is part of a much deeper awakening for you, which includes asserting yourself as your own autonomous, independent critter. What may seem first to influence your quasi-public life has deeper roots into your most intimate affairs. It is time to question the presumptions of any association you have with others. Those are likely to be rooted in ideas far beyond your generation; relics of your great grandparents are turning up in your underwear drawer, and it’s time to see them for what they are. You don’t have to live by these codes and rules, which exist mostly in our minds rather than as active ideas circulating in society. This begins and ends with being your own person, which for you will come as a benefit of asserting your physical existence in your social relationships. Call yourself fully present in the world. Be exactly who you are, and say what you need to say. Yet to have its full force and effect, eye contact is required.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Gemini preview video


Cancer

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — For you, Mars retrograde in Aries is about asserting your privilege of what you want to accomplish, and your unique ability to do so. Your work is more important to you than you may recognize. You do not respond to a job; you respond to having a mission, and by all indications, you do have one. Over the next couple of months as Mars works its way backward in time and space, you will have the opportunity to retrieve many gifts and abilities that you may have left behind. This includes reviving contacts with people you worked with in the past, where you will be in a leadership position. This is helping you fully claim the calling of Chiron in Aries (2018-2027), your house of responsibility and personal authority. This has the potential to be a bona fide period of achievement in your life, though you can think of Mars retrograde as basic training for the next seven years. Impeccability is the order of the day. Others are looking to you for both instruction and example, and your actions will always set the tone. Your words matter, though only for the finer points of clarification, and only if they are in full alignment with how you actually live and breathe. We live in decadent times, when people seem to abuse power as if it’s the natural thing to do. You, on the other hand, must be a crystal of integrity. That is responsibility on a level few are interested in taking, which in one sense is a good thing. There won’t be much competition for the job.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Cancer preview video
 


Leo

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You will find your best advantages where you feel the least stable. Whatever might rattle, shake, crack or creak is the place where movement is already happening, and where something has become outmoded. It’s also the zone in your world, or your psyche, that will be the most responsive to ideas. This would all be in the spirit of turning mere change into evolution; anxiety into imagination. There is much in your world that would benefit from light editing, heavy rewrite or a whole new storyboard. Yet the thing that is moving the most deeply is your experience of yourself, which is calling for you to be fully present for a personal revision. This is going to happen whether you like it or not. It’s as if you’re at the bus station, and you have to go somewhere. You can take a bus anywhere. Which one do you take? What about the one heading for the place you want to go? Yet now consider that first, that place must be within you. What is the “self” that is calling you with the greatest appeal? Considered the other way, what about who you are today is ready to go the way of all dross? What do you absolutely need to change? If you start there, and actually begin making the adaptations to your inner world, you will find that concepts for what you want enter the cleared-out space without any effort. Remove the obstacle and you will discover what it was obscuring. It’s not really a block. This is about perspective more than anything.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Leo preview video


Virgo

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mars retrograde in Aries is about extracting yourself from some of the places you’ve invested your identity, and recognizing a pattern that has likely followed you from back to your earliest years. At minimum, you will be able to see the ways in which you’ve lodged your identity outside yourself, and in some ways may seem to have lost it. However, recognize that of itself, identity means very little, or rather, it has only as much meaning as you give it. Who you actually are and what resources you possess are far more significant. You are not your identity. You are your actual self, though this distinction gets blurred in contemporary times. Mars retrograde will feel like the rumbling to claim your whole being within the context of relationships where you have invested yourself. This may feel strange, and have you feeling insecure, as you may entertain the notion that others will not fully accept you if you present your true being to them. But do you want anything else? How is it possible to compromise something as basic as who you are? Make a note if financial needs play a role. Observe whether there is any matter associated with approval by your family, for instance, the expectation that you will be a certain kind of person or play a certain role. If you’re feeling agitation or discomfort, address that with those whom you consider your intimates. You do not need to ask permission to be yourself; you are already that person. Others however must bend and accommodate to your process of making peace with who you are, including giving you space to work out your inner conflict. Give yourself space to do so as well.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Virgo preview video


Libra

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Long ago there was a thing called the “Gestalt prayer.” It comes from a book called Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Fritz Perls. In it, he offers his most basic message about relationships, which is that “I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine.” In today’s society, this is an especially bold statement, as we tend to drown in codependent tendencies and have handed one another so much power over who we are. One of the ways this happens is that many people are averse to conflict. That is understandable, though there is a deeper issue to address, which is what to do with the feelings of sacrifice and resentment that may lurk under the surface of tacit agreements. The thing to do is talk about them, and take the chance of asking others where they are really coming from. Silence can conceal disagreements, but it can also obscure the many things that people have in common that they don’t necessarily recognize. This can take a leap of faith, and the exercise of trust in people you care about. Here is one thing you can count on: whatever may seem to be the case, people close to you are on a path of self-discovery. With Mars stationing retrograde in your opposite sign Aries, they will be coming to revelations about who they are that may be a little shocking to them. This is a good time for you to practice unconditional love, which is really the only kind of love, because the conditions are usually placed on who someone is, supposedly to make them acceptable.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Libra preview video


Scorpio

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your work is of profound importance to you. This is a keynote of Scorpio, and it’s the essence of your life right now. The fact that what you do every day, what you produce, where you go, who you work with, are all so crucial to your happiness is something to come to terms with forthwith. Your work must be service that you know is of value, service that leaves you with a feeling of self-respect. Aries for you also represents wellbeing. Mars will be retrograde in the house that covers these matters for the first time in 32 years. If you’re old enough to have experienced this as, at minimum, a young adult, that means revisiting the whole issue of why you do what you do. And this reevaluation will inevitably call for a decision or a series of them. Here is the thing: your focus, I propose, must be on the basis for deciding, not the decision itself. What is motivating you? Who are you now and how is that influencing your choice of how you take action in the world? You cannot rush this question; developments will proceed quickly enough, as the short-lived Mars retrograde stirs the pot and raises many interesting questions. These will answer themselves if you not only do what you love, but also love what you do, and find yourself through what you do. One thing that stands out of your chart is that you must never aspire to fame or notoriety. Rather, aspire to demonstrate true, sincere dedication to your purpose as you define it, and as you explore it.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Scorpio preview video


Sagittarius

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The theme of Mars retrograde (Sept. 9 through Nov. 13) is creative confidence. One of the ways to facilitate that is to not compare who you are or what you do to anyone else, in the competitive sense. Rather, learn from everyone and everything you see. Mostly, learn from yourself. Whatever you may do with your life, the place you seek your true being is through your creative experiences, and doing whatever you do artfully. That’s another way of saying invest yourself fully in whatever you engage yourself in. There is no such difference as “work” and “real life.” You are who you are and you do what you do. There is another element to creative confidence, which involves connecting what you actually do every day to your financial wellbeing. There are several keys to opening up this passageway, one of which is being true to yourself and to your values. Then there is the structure element. Money flows toward structure, and you are the person who must maintain this, or see that it gets done. It’s not easy to hold things together these days; between flaky people and constantly shifting ground, you must depend on yourself to provide your own framework more than at any other time in your personal history. The benefit here is that you have the power and also the motivation to make sure this is done correctly, and done well. The next three months will provide you with an ongoing experiment wherein you can tinker with various formulas and get a sense of what works for you and what does not. Take care of what feeds you. Nurture the ground that makes your food.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Sagittarius preview video


Capricorn

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Two astrology assignments for you, both in the form of lists. The first one is: What remains incomplete in your life? What changes have you been wanting to advance for the last few years that you have not come to closure on? Second, which of your personal attributes are you most concerned your family will not accept if they knew the truth? This can include any group of people you are close to and on whom you depend for your security. If your original family no longer exists, which were you concerned with in the past? The two sets of ideas are related. You are in the process of extracting yourself from many former investments, where you left behind aspects of your being — in fact, some of the very best of who you are. Your solar chart describes a situation, going back to the beginning of your life, where your identity became conditioned on what makes you feel safe. Therefore, you had to lie low and not rock the boat by revealing who you actually are. There is another side of this; it can work the other way: you will only feel grounded and confident when you present yourself as you are, and don’t give a toss about the opinions others have of you. It might seem like this would take some real guts. However, push has now come to shove, and through the Mars retrograde process, you are likely to discover that you simply cannot hide your reality any longer — nor do you want to. None of this is a luxury; your wellbeing depends on it.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Capricorn preview video


Aquarius

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Yours is the sign of mental patterns, and of crystallized ideas. As the digital age has progressed, these factors have increased by orders of magnitude; once ideas take hold, it’s extremely difficult to change them, or to get anyone to rethink their position. This is particularly risky for you; at this time in your life, the thing you need the very most is flexibility. I mean this in all senses of the word, from how you define yourself, to how you think, to the ways you filter and define your perceptions. This also includes how you think of your past, including how you experience any pain or frustration that you carry from the past today. Mars retrograde through Nov. 13 is here to provoke your inner awareness, and help you get in contact with what some would call ‘unconscious’ motives and conditions that drive you. You are the one who wants to change. You are the one who wants to take a fresh approach to living. You want new ideas to guide your life, and new ideas about who you are. This is a discovery process, and there is no need for it to be painful or even difficult. There are things you were told about yourself that were not true. You also carry the past karma of many generations of people, which has accumulated around you, and which you are now in a position to clear. Your whole being is moving toward a rebirth. This will happen one way or the other. You can go through this experience with more or less resistance, more or less pain. If you allow your preconceptions to thaw, you will discover what an amazing place you are in.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Aquarius preview video


Pisces

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — One great benefit of the past three years of Saturn in Capricorn is that you have carved out a niche for yourself. This has happened by hook and by crook; by shake and by quake. Notice the ways your world has been rearranged since late 2017, and evaluate where you stand right now. You may have suffered some losses, though if so, consider whether what you lost is actually something you needed. As Patric Walker once wrote, “Saturn always gives more than it takes away.” One of the things that Saturn has given you is some clear space to work. Yet to take advantage of that, you will need to move into that space and occupy it consciously. You have learned who your friends really are, and it’s likely that a good few people who were not your friends are no longer in your personal circle. Just this alone was worth the price of admission for Saturn in Capricorn, though you have learned and gained a good deal more. It is up to you to take your space in society. You do not need to be invited any place, appointed to anything, or crowned by anyone. Rather, it is now time to step up to whatever challenge you choose. I suggest you reach a little higher than you think you’re capable of, because you are capable of far more than you may believe. You will not know unless you try. Meanwhile, Mars retrograde will be provoking you, and I suggest you grab onto this as motivation. The major theme for you is recognizing the power of money, and the validity of using financial gain, and organization, as your motive. Stay with your values and you will do brilliantly.

Story of I AM: All 12 signs | Choose your signs | Pisces preview video

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