Weekly Horoscope for Feb. 13, 2025 by Eric Francis

The U.S. Pluto Return is Really in Aquarius and is Happening Now

Dear Friend and Reader:

What is going on in the United States? The government is getting whacked like a piñata. Funding to programs is being cut. Federal employees are being offered buyouts. And it looks like they will be replaced by the machine thinking of “AI.”

Very simply, the U.S. Pluto return. But, you ask, wasn’t that in 2022 or something? Isn’t the U.S. Pluto in Capricorn?

That is partly true. In this video, I explain how and why the Pluto return is really happening in Aquarius. This is due to the U.S. Pluto having precessed into Aquarius. So we look at the chart for the precessed Pluto return, which happens throughout 2025 and into 2026. The Aquarius theme is the conversion of the United States from an oligarchy to a technocracy.

I also explain the concept of a planetary return — somewhat like Saturn, Chiron or Uranus — but most things don’t go for two-and-a-half centuries, not even countries.

This is subscriber-only video utilizing my new ChartCam system — so you can see what I’m talking about, with the charts clearly displayed. I’m also including them below. I am now using this two camera system for Astrology Studio and other presentations. Astrology is visual, so let’s see what’s going on.

In this presentation I also explain the public relations strategy of the Trump/Musk administration. PR is a topic we don’t understand well enough as a society. In many ways, it runs our lives.

I hope you love this interesting, next-generation Planet Waves video.

With love,

About My Horoscopes

We are in strange and intense times — characterized mostly by chaos and deception. It’s fair to ask “why do we need astrology?” My best answer is that it’s a way to see patterns and make some sense out of not just strange events, but also to get a better look at your possibilities. I’m here to bring the world a little closer into your reach and take the edge off of the fear.

I see my role as an astrologer as providing reassurance, and also seeing what cannot be easily seen from our limited viewpoints. This is about working with archetypes, cycles and patterns, and it takes practice to see them. I’ve been writing my horoscope for nearly 30 years, starting in the spring of 1995 — my anniversary is May 1. In all, I’ve written about 2,000 of these columns, which means about 24,000 individual entries. And it’s still fun and exciting to do.

I stand in the tradition of the British horoscope column (and have written for the Mail and the Mirror, as well as the New York Daily News). I was called to the work in the early 1990s by Patric Walker, who demonstrated that astrology is real. Over the years I have developed my own approach. Each entry for each sign is a little world of its own. I challenge the standard notions of what the signs are about, defining them my own way (which I advance every year when writing the annual edition).

I use about 50 different planets, centaurs, asteroids, Pluto-like objects and special points, and weave the story of our lives from my understanding of the charts for the current week and the current season.

Here is the story of how I got into the work.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Perhaps the most significant blind spot of our times is the delusion that the Sun rises and sets over each of us as an individual. It takes more than advertising, TV and movies to create this kind of egocentrism. It’s a product of one’s total upbringing, whether your existence was exalted by your parents, or you were made to feel like you don’t exist. The family influence angle is crucial right now, as Venus in your sign scrapes against the ancestral baggage concentrated in Capricorn (the Family Hunger Game). While the discussion of trauma and abuse goes on and on, there are always subtle effects of how you were treated by your parents that shape your character profoundly. If you’re triggered, be honest with yourself. Yet this will require going slowly toward the lies you were told about yourself, and not rushing into some kind of half-truth or false clarity.

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Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Most of the baggage you’re dragging around belongs to other people. It’s not yours. Yet there is some that really does belong to you, and whose creation is of your doing. In order to find out which is which, you have to do some sorting out and giving back to others (symbolically or in reality) what belongs to them and not to you. This may violate your sense of propriety and dignity. You may feel there is a little “fuck you” in the giving back. You also may have been guilted into taking on various burdens, and if so, much of that guilt came through religion (directly or by proxy). The biomarker for this problem is guilt in any form, including shame and embarrassment over your existence, your sexual nature or your feelings. Take what is yours; put it to good use. Get rid of the rest and claim your life.

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Gemini (May 20-June 21) — In a week or so, the Sun crosses over the visionary 10th house of your solar chart. The 10th is usually held to be about one’s reputation, though I think it’s the place where you are most inclined to take action. And at its best, action is based on what you want, or what you define to be necessary. With Mars still moving retrograde until the 23rd, you either may not know what that is — or you may not be willing to admit it to yourself. You cannot make an egg hatch, and we all know about the mythological goose that lays the golden eggs. If you cut her open, you will only kill her. So despite any temptation to make a big move, I suggest you sit with your feelings until you determine what you want, and what is right for you. There is a truth to both of those qualifications, and it will reveal itself to you soon enough.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Soon enough, the Sun will enter your fellow water sign Pisces, and you’ll feel like you have more room to maneuver. It’s true that Mars is slowing to a stop in your birth sign, and will be retrograde for another 10 days or so. Yet that is your cue to focus your energy, refine your plans and get ready to take action — in what is certain to be a much wider field of possibilities than you’ve felt like you’ve been exploring any time lately. So limber up and get yourself a much larger map, and a better compass. You are being groomed by the cosmos for new responsibilities and a more significant role in society. While some of this will manifest without you needing to do much, the combination of Saturn and Neptune says that your vision is what must give direction to the cinematic artwork that is your life.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The quality of your exchanges with others is the central theme of your life, especially as the Sun transits Pisces for the next four weeks. You need sensitive, emotionally grounded relationship experiences, with people who share your idealism and orientation on service. Your deeper relationship theme comes into focus at this time every year, only now there is special evidence on completion. You are entering territory different from where you’ve been living for more than a decade. The tide is turning; if you’ve been at a low ebb for a while, the waters will rise, and if you’ve been feeling flooded, the waters will recede. It’s time to acknowledge this sea-change. Certain elements of old business have lingered long enough; incomplete situations with at least one specific person are ready to be resolved. When the opportunities present themselves, that is your cue to step up in a definitive way and not just ‘let things happen’.

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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — If some of your friendships are stressed out, this may be a matter of what you’re not saying. You know that you need to take the lead in social situations, though sometimes you resent being the Den Mother who must organize various activities. It could be worse. Be grateful you have people in your life that need your encouragement or who might care about what you want. We are in a stressful time for all relationships, because people still have vague memories of what it was like to do things without needing the intervention of robotic communications and scheduling devices to go out for a cup of coffee. You might resolve to organize all future events by phone call or even an invitation card you send in the mail, or stop in for a visit. You and your friends will be happier for doing things the old-fashioned way. And your home would be the perfect setting for potlucks, dinner parties or salons.

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Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — If you’re interested in someone, find out what they think is right for them. You might want to get their clothes off, or you might want to make a movie with them, or just hang out. The guiding principle that will not fail you is knowing something about their values and what drives their preferences. Said simply, find out what they want and if you can, a little about why they want it. If you know these things, you will be better able to make decisions about their role in your life and your role in theirs. This will require listening carefully, in a diversity of situations. Once you open your ears, you’re likely to hear about unusually deep things that surprise you but please, don’t be surprised. Just listen and know that you may be the first person someone is opening themselves up to. And that could lead to interesting places. Just honor the trust factor above all else.

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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Continuing the discussion of Mars stationing direct, which takes place on Feb. 23, there is the question of the spiritual dimension of your life. Enough books have been written about “spirituality” since 1970 to fill a university library and most of them dodge the main point. And that is your relationship to death and how that informs your life. This is going on all the time; the Grim Reaper is a party to every discussion, even if he or she is eavesdropping silently. Death makes some people greedy and others generous; it reminds some to be more loving and inspires others to be aggressive and mean. When we say “spiritual,” death is the key element — as all the world religions know. They’re all selling some kind of escape hatch, redeemable in the future, if you do what they say today. However, your relationship to your existence is between you and your inner teacher.

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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Mars square Chiron usually denotes some kind of extreme reluctance. Sometimes it’s about going to the dentist and sometimes it’s about something or someone that you want. One challenge you may be facing is dealing with whether you’ve been fair to someone in an intimate relationship. Have you held any part of yourself back? Have you been forthright about the details of your life? Have you brought empathy and caring to close, intimate situations? Or have things been a little prickly? There’s also the question of blame; whoever Mars represents to you may have been a convenient person to assign responsibility for how a relationship is working out or even how you feel about them. When Mars turns to direct motion, you may suddenly decide you have a whole other viewpoint. And if you suspect that’s true, it will help if you make amends sooner rather than later — and commit yourself to the truth of how you feel and nothing else.

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Capricorn Astrology Studio 2024-25 is now available.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Your project at this time of your life is to make friends with your inner authority. Capricorn, by long reputation of astrologers, is all about external authority. The concept embraces things like corporations and government; it’s allegedly the sign of the CEO. Yet this is a rather circumstantial view, and those notions were all consecrated before Uranus, Neptune, Chiron and Pluto had passed through your territory, significantly altering your nature. Anyway, as for this moment: inner authority. There are different ways to describe this; in the language of A Course in Miracles, that is the “still, small voice within” who speaks as loudly as your willingness to hear. You will find yourself faster when you let go of your attachment to orthodoxy. You are an original being; you came into this life with your original game plan. Desire is a far more trustworthy guide than wholly misleading guilt — though be aware that the two directly compete.

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Aquarius Astrology Studio 2025-26 has been released, preview available.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You can relax about one particular matter where you were certain the consequences would be much worse than they were. And the Sun changing signs on the 18th will help you feel good about yourself. This is not a matter of opinion. Your challenge here is that you have the most unusual sign Pisces describing matters of self-esteem, and for many that can describe a deficit. At its best, Pisces has a rare value system for this world, which is about service and not profits. And if it’s not about service, then you might enter a delusional state where you experience yourself as greater than, or lesser than — not as on the level. The Sun’s transit through this part of your solar chart for the next four weeks will give you a clue what it feels like to be supported by your feelings, rather than flying above them or sinking into them.

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Pisces Astrology Studio 2025-26 is now available for pre-order.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — The Sun entering your sign on the 18th will feel like your ears popping after a long flight in a jetliner. But note that it will be easier to forget all you’ve been through for the past four weeks than it will be to remember. So you might want to devise a means of commemorating what you have learned and making sure you take those experiences and lessons to heart. The opportunities for maturing remain abundant, though bear in mind that this is the last thing most people want. Engaging a sane and composed response to adult situations would never fill a stadium or sell a bottle of beer. Our society is addicted to petulant, adolescent behavior. And for the past few years you have been subjected to metamorphic pressure to grow up and take responsibility for your existence. To the extent you have, you’re in possession of something precious.

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