The Journey to Joy

 

 

 

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 20, 2008, #719 – By ERIC FRANCIS

Aries (March 20-April 19)
By all rights, you are feeling your very best. I would propose, in the alternate, that you are in a time that you can make the best of it if you try. A variety of developments in your solar chart the past week suggest that you can draw your energy inward to your emotional world, your home base and a certain dimension of your psychological journey. In other words, inner, inner, inner. Later in the year you will meet or be met with many developments in your outer life that will call on you to have an unusual depth of emotional grounding and, in particular, awareness of the way one of your parents conditioned you for failure. That conditioning had something to do with religion, no matter what it may have seemed or what it was called. This may be about religion literally, or about a set of hidden beliefs that were accepted as real but with no actual basis in truth. Be glad of this.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
What compromises do you feel called upon to make, and why, exactly, do you feel you must make them? I do mean exactly. Someone did this to you, and it wasn’t any time recently that the initial impression or impact was made. It would seem that you are coming under that influence again. The good news is that you can, if you look, see and feel this for what it is; and if you can do that, you can make some strides toward working through this complex set of emotions. If you had some clear imagery about the internal makeup of your psyche, you would have more clarity about your personal goals and professional aspirations; you would have a clearer sense of who you are in the world. I can tell you this: at a certain point, success was defined to you as a popularity contest. Nothing has done more to undermine your confidence or focus.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Only the Good Lord Mercury knows what you have been through the past month; I imagine you feel like an adult who has just stepped off the magic teacup ride. Your kids may be all giddy with dizziness and glee. You are trying to stand up straight and sort out the left side of your brain from the right side. Anyway, you can now see that some of the questions you were asking had everything to do with your unfounded doubts about yourself. You will ask different questions when you are in a different mood, and as a direct result, you will get different answers. However, you, if you want, can squeeze some wisdom out of what you’ve been through. It would sound like something attributed to Edward R. Murrow: sometimes there is just one side to the story.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You are no longer as close to the edge of that cliff as you seemed a few days ago. Despite how many things have improved in the past 24 hours, there still seems to be something bothering you, something you don’t have words for yet. You have turned this question around and around in your mind, though it seems to be floating just below the level of thought, or lingering in your dreams. See if you can bring it to the surface. See if you can start to gather some words around it, rather than just visions, feelings or vague concepts. These may turn out to be words you need to say to someone, though first you need to say them to yourself. It may be a week or more before you finally have your ideas together, and by that time there will be no denying your personal truth. What you do about it is another question.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
There is a fine line between work and play, but we’re not conditioned to see life that way. This is one of the many places we put up a wall where a tree will do just fine. It would not be an issue had our parents not conditioned us to do what “makes money” and “makes sense” instead of what we feel we need to do. It would be even less of an issue if that were not being passed along as a dominant message to yet another generation of young people. This issue has come under the microscope for you now. The contrasts involved seem enormous, and may give the impression of being impossible to reconcile. At the moment, you are leaning toward the creative side of the divide. You are being reminded of a vision you have carried for a long time. This is a kind of last reminder. It will last through most of this year, but after that time you will need to remind yourself.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Personally and professionally, you have been taken on a wild ride the past few weeks. You’re not one who is especially predictable, nor do you want to be seen as such. Lately you’ve stunned even yourself with your reassessment not only of your key life goals, but of who you think you are. Remember, there is a game aspect involved with not wanting others to feel they know you too well. Yet this is not a game you need to play with yourself (and it’s a strange game to play with others). I am not suggesting you indulge in false certainty, or make promises you cannot keep. In fact, I suggest that you honestly embrace your uncertainty, so that when you finally understand your goals and why you have them, you recognize that particular revelation as true when its moment finally arrives.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You are finding your way to the top of your game, but you may be figuring out that there are enormous forces you need to reckon with. Those are mostly emotional currents so profound that they affect the color and tone of life in the background of everything; that is, society itself, not just your personal existence. I mean this on the largest scale: look at the news for 10 minutes and imagine what the world would feel if it could really feel what is happening. You are now meeting one of those forces directly, and it may be coming with a profound sense of responsibility, of stewardship, of a sense that your leadership matters. You may feel that all eyes are on you and watching you for your example. You need at this very moment to tap in to the greater sense of who you are, rather than the smaller one. Feel, and you will feel the difference instantly.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
The planets are quickly moving in your favor, and it’s help that has arrived none too soon. The mental and psychological stress that has surrounded one particular set of negotiations during the past weeks cannot be compensated by any amount of money, success or agreement in principle. The cost to you has specifically been an emotional one, and the freedom you need will come precisely in the form of creative and emotional nourishment. Part of what’s occurred is that you have become lost in the minor details of something that does not matter as much as anyone thinks. The greater principles involved are more important than all the details put together. Principle one is that the purpose of commerce is to nourish the people involved. Not profit; not winning the game; mutual nourishment for the common good.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
If someone you love has not driven you half-mad with their contradictions and endless indecisions, you may decide you actually have room for this person in your life. The question is how conscious of their own patterns are they? Do they understand that their existence is part of an environment that influences others? You can ask yourself the same questions and see what comes back. You seem to be aware of a pattern of not wanting to be so generous, or not feeling so wealthy as usual. You seem to be aware of another pattern of not wanting to be so generous with yourself as you usually are. You may be in one of those extremely rare conservative moods where you want what is yours, rather than your usual state of wanting to share everything you have. Finally, you may be in the midst of a profound wakeup call that you managed to deflect the past few months. It is not too late, but I suggest you listen.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You may feel like you have to face the futility of it all, in a way that you were certain was over. Or you may feel like you’re ready to revisit a profound spiritual or philosophical question that nagged you endlessly, and which in truth became the basis by which you have defined your life in the past decade. I think we can sum it up as follows: is there such a thing as justice? You know, divine justice, cosmic justice, a true capacity for the world to be a fair place? For many reasons, you simply must believe that such is possible. Here is the catch. It’s not about an abstraction of truth; it is about a commitment to truth. It was Gandhi who said you must become the change you want to see in the world. Pluto is saying the same thing.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
You have a number of valid options for how to deal with the hostility or aggression of another person, but none of them involve denying its existence. That would count for the most dangerous option of the lot, and it suits your personality because you tend to be someone dedicated to having harmony around you at whatever cost. The second most dangerous would be going blow for blow; it will only raise the stakes and potentially facilitate more psychic damage. Beware, this is poison that can spread. Recently, you were able to deal with a similar situation. You deflected it brilliantly, using a combination of awareness, owning your own issues, and responding with the minimum energy necessary to facilitate change. These are perfectly excellent matches for the crude weapons of any would-be warrior.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
I suggest you look at the effects of your policy of being so psychically open. I can assure you that you don’t see them for what they are; in many ways your current astrology is pointing you to your blind spots, encouraging you to scope them out and be a little more guarded. During the past few weeks of Mercury retrograde, a lot that could have been said was not said. Instead, much of it was transmitted, vibed or otherwise hinted at. You have probably benefited by saving yourself misunderstandings with those who did not feel safe or ready to have actual conversations where they actually take responsibility for how they feel; much of what you have to say involves communicating directly how you feel, first to yourself, then to others. The question now is not how many times you have to repeat yourself, but rather who hears you when you say something meaningful once.

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