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.
This Week’s Photos
I mentioned that I was at a potato latkes Hanukkah party recently that turned into a kind of folk jam. There were a lot of guitar players, so I got the drum that I keep in my car. I jammed for a while and was ready to leave, still recovering from a cold.
But as I was walking out, the host, Jon Cohen, mentioned that a professional session bass player had just arrived. (That’s one sure way to get my attention.) I took off my coat and found this fellow Don Miller in a side room tuning up the house bass, which was in somewhat rough condition.
He got it started up, and when the music resumed, I sat with him, creating a mini-rhythm section. He’s also part of a jazz ensemble that had a gig the next weekend, and this week’s photos are from that evening. I don’t know all the names of all the guys, so I’m skipping proper captions. I am starting to love jazz because it’s…just music. No “message.” Except for the title of Don’s album — Dial M for Bass. — efc
Aries (March 20-April 19) — You don’t have to do anything special to make a powerful impression. Mostly, you need to show up looking tidy and say as little as you prefer — unless you are feeling extraverted (though this is unlikely at the moment). This sensation called “self-consciousness” is one of the most uncomfortable feelings, though the actual thing being felt is self-judgment. What you’re going for is self-awareness, which usually contains its own guidance about what to do and what to say, and would have you feeling confident and modest. Self-awareness is the state of mind from which all choices are possible; you can go in any direction from there. On the other hand, self-judgment is paralyzing. If you think of these as two choices available in any possible moment, you will have more freedom than you usually experience.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The Sun joins Pluto in Aquarius this week, and you may be feeling at your most aspirational. That’s the new word for “ambition,” in the gentrified language of the 21st century. What I mean is, you may feel like going for the kill in a career-related matter, or some new enterprise. Yes and — hold your horses, please. Mars is retrograde for another month — and you may have no idea where partners, collaborators or adversaries are really coming from. Invest your time gathering intelligence. Go through social networks and find out what is going on behind the scenes. By this, I mean you have to know what everyone wants, and not be blinded by your own biases. They probably want different things than you do, though for maximum success (or any at all) you will need to find common ground.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The key word is strategy. I realize therapists hate this concept; be cautious with anything other than honest communication in a relationship. But business — that calls for contingency planning: thinking several steps ahead, understanding the different potentials of each, and having an exit strategy if you need it. Slow and meticulous is the way, with a mind toward gathering the basic facts that make up the rare and elusive thing known as the fact pattern. Otherwise all those individual bits of data are trivial. The best perspective from which to view your situation is above. Draw something you can look down on. Also remember that several different factors could be stoking your worst fears and a touch of paranoia. Factor that in, and do not assume that any worst-case scenario is the most likely. But have a plan — and stay in contact with your allies.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Now is the time to line up your professional plans but it is unlikely to be the moment to make your move. When that moment arrives, you will know it — and you will feel good. An important element of your confidence will come from preparation. Events this week will help you figure out what contingencies to be ready for. However, here is a clue: Work with the chaos factor rather than against it — all the time. This amounts to practicing the art of pattern recognition, the ultimate creative studio in our time of seeming toxic anarchy and covert combat. Are you familiar with the Magic Eye books, conceived by Marc Grossman (who wrote the prescription for the glasses I’m wearing)? You can’t force your mind to see the kangaroos or the locomotive in the dot pattern. But you can learn to focus behind the page and relax — and they are revealed. That’s the feeling.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Sun’s forthcoming entry into your relationship angle Aquarius will illuminate topics you’ve been trying to figure out. Yet there is a question hanging in the air: are you not getting enough, or are you not giving enough? Before you confront any situation with the notion that you’re being shortchanged or left in the cold, consider what you’re offering and take your own temperature. You seem to be gripped by the fear that emotional sharing could get you into trouble, or a parallel idea that you don’t really want to know what people have to say about their feelings. Hearing where people are at will be helpful. Keep your ego out of it: let someone important to you offer some thoughts about where they are coming from. You’re likely to feel much better about your mutual situation if you’re dealing in the rare commodity known as reality.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Maintain your sense of proportion at all times, and do your best to respond rather than react. This may be tricky, but there is real power in practicing the art of not taking things personally. How many times have you thought something was about you, or someone’s feelings toward you, only to discover that they lost their phone or were preoccupied by a personal matter? Whatever unfolds this week, whether in your social circle or your intimate life, it will be helpful if you suspend judgment and make no assumptions. You can, if you want, take the approach that you’ll learn what you need to know when more information comes in. Cast off any stress and give people adequate space to experience what they must — which will coincidentally be an appropriate distance to observe. You have plenty of creative options that don’t involve anyone but yourself.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You are probably feeling the instinct to avoid making new commitments until you know what you’re committing to. Be especially careful with contracts or agreements involving your time, money or effort. While I am not suggesting you be a selfish person, the work you put into resolving personal matters at this time will serve you throughout the year. And the needs of others could serve as a distraction. They will do fine without you, and you need as much of your own bandwidth as you can put into one place. You have everything you need, as long as you are truly devoted to your own cause. Guilt, attachment and regret all serve as hooks and snares. If you notice any of those feelings, you will have guidance about what is unlikely to serve anyone. You still need plenty of time to yourself. Make no excuses.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You need more wiggle room. Your inner prude is going at full force right now, and you may be trying to convince yourself that you’re right because bad things might happen. Well sure, people get occasionally hit on the head by baseballs at ballgames but nobody stays away. What matters at this moment are your ideas about what is right or wrong, and this loosely translates to your views about sex, sexual feelings, relationships, desires and expectations. Remember the context you’re in, which is about more than your relationships. Whereas in the past we had religion and morality to control all forms of speech and behavior, or to put people into profound conflict, now we have technology doing it for us automatically and nobody has to take the blame. Let me make this simple: You have the right and the privilege to be turned on.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The Sun enters Aquarius this week and immediately forms a conjunction to Pluto. This will grant you insight and mental focus, and at the same time convince you that you’re right about a great many things. Who knows — you may be. Yet you run the risk of getting stuck in a mental superiority complex that will block you from taking on new information and viewpoints. It will be better to use question marks liberally. There is an art form to knowing when you do not know. Usually, that begins with systematically investigating what you think you know, one thing at a time. If you hear yourself make any assertion of fact, ask yourself: How do I know that? The chances are, you won’t be able to say, or your source will be questionable. If you verify your sources, you will be in for some unexpected discoveries.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — There is something driving you, by which I mean a source of motivation. The question is whether it’s about engaging your feelings, or avoiding them. It looks as if you’re split down the middle on this, though powerful forces are insisting that you actually confront how you feel. You may well be ensnared in a problem that’s going around — to do so would mean opening up a dimension of past crisis and pain. And this is just not interesting, and it’s not pleasant. Yet here is where motivation comes in, which generally gets filed as “the desire for instant gratification” these days. Your long-term mental and emotional wellbeing would be your ideal actual motive, and this will require pushing the pause button on letting others decide what is right for you. In fact, they don’t know, and you need to find out.
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Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — The fundamental tension in your solar chart is between what you want, and what you want to do every day. Anyone who has ever accomplished a long-term goal knows that it’s done a little at a time over a sustained period. And this can involve setting aside other seeming priorities — at least for a few hours a day. Now is an excellent time to experience a little of that discomfort in order to establish habits and priorities that get you to your longer-term goal. Use the tools of structure and timing to keep your focus. For example, if you’re planning to put two hours a day into a project you might be resisting, start the day with it and get it behind you. Just about anything can wait for a couple of hours, and after a while you will create a workflow and a container for getting what you want.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Continuing on the theme of Saturn conjunct Nessus on Feb. 7 (which had a minor peak last summer, and was exact most recently in 1973), I suggest you make two lists. First, study your responsibility in everything that’s happened to you over the past few years that you attribute to others. Look for your points of responsibility in those events: decisions you made, warnings you ignored, motives that turned out to be selfish, and others. Second, consider what happened to you, particularly as a young person, that you “took on” responsibility for where you really had none. This includes things done to you by your parents, and experiences where you were not capable of giving or withholding fully conscious consent. Both sides of this equation lead to difficulties, and both need to be confronted honestly. You may see, if you look carefully, that the two are related.
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