Weekly Horoscope for Friday, November 28, 2008, #742 – By ERIC FRANCIS
Aries (March 20-April 19)
As you enter a phase of your life where achievement becomes the thing you reach for and finally attain, remember that you don’t matter quite as much without the people around you. Indeed, you may not matter at all. What you accomplish is meaningful in the context of community: be it your company, the locale you inhabit, or the culture wherein you are making your mark. Nothing is about you alone, though you may think it’s supposed to be that way. Remember your context. Remember whom meaningful developments must serve, if indeed they deserve that name. To do any of this, you need to have faith in something larger than yourself.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
The part of you that’s a skeptic, traditionalist or purist is the part that’s going to come under the most intense scrutiny now. This is the aspect of yourself that someone gave the job of blocking your progress. Why they may have done that is a story of its own, and it involves the rigid, fear-based psychology of one of your parents — most likely your mother. The past makes a great refuge for people who don’t want to face themselves, or embrace change. You are alive in a time when we are confronting nothing but change, and the values of the past cannot dictate our way of life in the present. I’m not proposing you throw tradition to the wind; only that you be aware of a deep desire to bring it, and yourself, up to date.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You may wonder how it is that people get so much power in your life. By now you’ve figured out that, in part, a key aspect of yourself is accustomed to thinking of relationships in terms of authority. I can tell you where this most likely comes from: a cosmic model wherein marriage is the central defining factor. It doesn’t matter if you’re married or not, or whether you believe in marriage; you have inherited a set of instructions, and you need to be conscious of them so that you can either dance to the music, or become the conductor of your own orchestra. The instructions you’ve received have you programmed to believe that a certain kind of commitment is the only thing deserving of the name, and that a certain kind of relationship is the only type that can be called authentic. And in this equation, you tend to lose. That is why I am suggesting you get hip to what is going on.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Think of a way to remember this time in your life. I used to get my ear pierced on very important occasions, and to mark key transitions in my life. Other times I pick a spot and make a fire big enough that I’ll never forget it. Some people get tattoos and some take a trip to their favorite place. The autumn of 2008 will go down in the story of your life as a time when you finally figured out how to open up to others; how to embrace your relationships; when you actually got it that soul is the thing you want from your experiences of love — and nothing more or less than that. Therefore, meet soul with soul. Allow others to touch you deeply. Give up that part of you that clings, and clings to yourself. Allow love to be what it is meant to be: something alive, with its own volition, owing nothing to the past.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Most of the people I serve as an astrology consultant are struggling for professional direction. The culture seems to be gradually shifting in this direction: from the search for the “special relationship,” to the search for the special thing that we are supposed to do. Lately you may be feeling overwhelmed by a calling for that elusive something. I don’t think it’s going to be a struggle; that is, I think your calling is going to find you. Most people (as with love) will tell you that’s usually what happens; there is something to do, and we do it. I would remind you to subtract the glamour from the equation. Keep your focus on what is practical; on what you can actually do; skip the appearances entirely. Then the clues will be obvious.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
You have learned many times that anticipation is more difficult than action. How many times? Only you know that. I think you’re through hesitating, though. I think you are craving experience that is devoted to pleasure and creation, not merely to growth and knowledge. You can take your first steps into this endeavor slowly and gently, one at a time. The vortex will take you in the right moment. In this first moment of tasting freedom, tune into your senses. Look around at the world and imagine what you would change if you could. Remember that the past is becoming the present and being drawn toward the future with every passing moment; remember that everything, no matter how old and permanent it may seem, is transient. The difference between your life yesterday and your life today is that you are taking part in that transience consciously.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You have deep roots, and you know it. But you don’t always reveal this fact about yourself, cautious as you are in a world that so often shuns that with strong vitality. However, you seem to be craving a means of expressing your sense of positive potential, and I suggest that you do so at your pleasure. I know that you’re a modest person; you prefer understated beauty to anything flashy or pretentious. Yet what you’re feeling is anything but understated right now: clearly stated describes the feeling better, yet passionate and driven make the point more vividly. I don’t suggest you hold back. Yes, approach the world with your usual grace. And say what you mean, when you mean it. The way your charts look, this would work better in writing than verbally, and get accustomed to the fact that others will read it sooner rather than later. That would appear to be its purpose.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Existence is continuous; you are your dreams, your desires, your fears, your experiences and your ideas. Most of what we call mundane or ordinary consciousness is about seeing as divided that which is blended into a gentle and unique holism. The journey of your life is, at the moment, about recognizing and embracing the continuity of who you are. Aspects of your experience only seem dark and dense if you deny them, or withhold energy from them. In these very days, you are working to push energy into aspects of yourself that will drink it up like water. You are even succeeding; just work into the territory gently; allow a new state of consciousness to take over gradually. You will see the world differently; you will perceive people in unusual ways; you will finally recognize the extent to which the past dominated your thoughts, precisely because you are growing free of that affliction.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
Nothing can stop you now, and you may be wondering how you ever thought it could. All through your life, you have been the person with vision, with a sense of potential and with a connection to your inner truth that was not merely confounding to the world; it seemed like nobody even noticed. Here is the problem: you grew up and never got over that belief or observation. Now when people do notice, you may be the one who doesn’t quite get it; you may be the skeptic or the one whose perception can’t quite contain the truth that you are making contact. One of the odd ways you work around this point is by having certain people in your life who reflect the strange idea that you are somehow less than you are. These people don’t need that job; and you need a wider field of consciousness to express your true self. Let it happen — or rather, check it out: you’re actually happening.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
Pluto’s ingress to your sign is a distinctly psychological event for you; you have been under pressure you don’t understand, for longer than you understand. At times it felt like the urgent need to change, to grow or to become, without any corresponding sense that this is possible; even to change your own way of thinking. The shift in the energy not only makes it possible that you can do so, but suddenly makes it necessary. A hope becomes a requirement, and you may feel that this is somehow unfair because you don’t actually get to appreciate that moment of doing something because you can. Well, the truth is, that doesn’t make a difference. You are going to become the person you want to become because you desire doing so, but the truth is, you know you really need to.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
The question or quest of your life right now is the balance between inner and outer. Most people struggle with this profoundly. For example, in intimate partnerships, many have the sense that if they are with a partner, they must neglect an aspect of themselves, specifically, their individuality. If they are free of a relationship, they must reject intimacy as threatening to their identity. This may be one expression of your situation; another involves the distinctly social and antisocial attributes of your personality. You live with a lot of tension here, between being so oriented on what only you understand, and wanting contact with people you can relate to as a community. It may take you a while to work this out — but resolve to use the time well. There is strength and energy in there.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Patric Walker, whose daily horoscope demonstrated to me that astrology is real, wrote his last column the weekend that Pluto entered Sagittarius, on Nov. 12, 1995. He had died a month before, with a month of columns written ahead. His parting comment to Pisces: “You will shine in your chosen field.” I’ve always appreciated his emphasis on choosing your walk of life; and the insinuation that success and decisions arrive together. I would ask, in these years that Pluto has been working its way across your 10th solar house, what have you created a reputation for? Have you brought your vision into focus in any way? Have you appreciated the extraordinary freedom granted by this transit? And if you had an unusual chance to direct your energy and your intentions, where would you apply your impact? The planets are ripe for a revolution, and you seem to be brewing an idea or two.