signs

Aries (March 20-April 19) Your life may seem like a puzzle box, where you get into one layer and then there’s a new one you have to figure out how to open a whole new way. The question to ask yourself is: why are you going through this exercise? Curiosity is enough. Wanting to know is a good reason to find out — perhaps the best reason there is. However, you are the puzzle you seek to solve. It does not exist outside you. It is your own being that you are trying to understand. You are not nearly as complicated as you may feel. It would help if you acknowledge that your needs and desires can vary and that you have many inner voices that you must be attentive to. It will help if you listen to yourself when you speak. Notice any ways you might be expressing a split personality by (for example) seeming to contradict yourself when you say the words “I want.” There’s nothing wrong with that, though it will help if you focus on one thing at a time and figure out if that is what you really were after.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) Most people go to great lengths to avoid public responsibility, and then wonder why the world is the way that it is. Solving collective problems is always supposed to be someone else’s job, since we all have our lives to live. You deserve to feel good and have fun. We all do. And for our unwillingness to participate in solutions, we fall under the thrall of those who exploit problems and perpetuate them for personal gain. However, as I have been suggesting for months, your karma is different than that. It is in your most elemental nature to take responsibility for matters that far exceed what might impact you personally. Yet now with many planets in your 10th house Aquarius, you are being called to direct leadership, involvement, and taking responsibility for outcomes. The results you’ll be working for are likely far greater than you can accomplish yourself. That means you are going to have to work with others, and it means doing more than your “fair share.” Leadership is by example.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) You may be wondering what is expected of you, and why it seems like so much. You can bob and weave all you want, though the essential nature of your life at the moment is making peace not simply with commitments but with being a person who honors them. For some this is truly a pleasure. For others, it’s a source of resistance and despair. I suggest you think of it as being about quality and competence, something you expect when you go to the dentist or board an airplane. You expect people to do their job like your life depends upon it, and I suggest that is how you approach every single thing that you do. Take full command of your faculties and spare no energy, time or expense. Get the job done right and on time, with love. A spectacular New Moon in your house of career and reputation has recently called on you to up your game. Often your goals are nebulous and foggy, which makes it difficult to attain them. It’s up to you to sharpen up your mind and focus your plans.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) It is essential that you take the long view. While we all must live one day at a time, you now need to do that while you’re thinking a year out, five years out and ten years out. Do not let it bother you that time seems to be collapsing. You still need structure, a focused agenda, and clear contracts with your collaborators. Yes, these things may be old-school, but so are you. Yes, the world is unraveling, though you do not need to; it does not serve any purpose. The best thing you can do for yourself is to gain some perspective about where you want to be, and what you want to be doing. That will require going to a proverbial high place, and maybe a literal one, and looking out at the horizon. See what you see and feel what you feel. The closer you are to water when you do this, the better. It is true that your potential is like an ocean, though you will not be able to swim across it. You must hold your vision and then build a seaworthy craft out of intentions, time structures, strategy and action.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) It seems to have taken you many weeks to get to the bottom of a communication issue with a close partner or associate. What have you learned? By that I mean what have you learned about where others are coming from, but mostly I mean what have you learned about yourself. The group contexts where you extend yourself have provided valuable information. Right now the essence of the new lives we have been thrust into is where individuals encounter any form of collective reality, whether it is TV, your friends, your coworkers, your family or ‘what you think people think’ about you or anyone. You will need to keep studying these dynamics, particularly as Pluto works its way toward your opposite sign Aquarius over the next two years. Yet most of what you need to know you’ve learned since this past Dec. 21. Review all that you’ve observed about the dynamics of fitting in, or not doing so, or wanting to, or any other consideration where you encounter them. Here is my question: are you being yourself, and if so, how do you know?

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) The first essential element of healing is making space for it to happen. This is usually some form of both mental and physical space, which would include time. If you find yourself in a situation where you are called upon to assist, remember those three elements: space, time and personal bandwidth. Your role is facilitator, and you must set boundaries around that. While there are many facets to the healing process, and at times it can seem complex and difficult, it’s always good to start with the basics, which come down to food, water and other environmental conditions. Note that these will also be a bellwether in personal relationship situations of any kind. If you’re trying to figure out the nature of your own involvement or investment in a situation, notice your eating patterns when you’re physically proximate to that situation, and when you’re elsewhere, particularly on your own. Check such issues as where you eat more sugar, when you feel hungry or not, how certain foods make you feel, and whether you stick to your dietary intentions. And remember: healing utilizes space, time and bandwidth. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) Mark carefully any progress or backsliding on work- or health-related matters. Bring some skepticism to the task and recognize that your perceptions may have been colored or clouded by the recent Venus-Neptune conjunction in Pisces. This is feel-good astrology, though it’s cautionary. You must be aware of influences that evade perception, or that may be veiled by your optimism and perhaps a moment of relative calm. Pay attention to any emotional triggers, especially involving women or mother-daughter situations. It is likely, though, that the source of any negative vibes is veiled, and that the apparent culprit is not actually the one. Therefore, do not rush to judgment if you notice that anything is amiss. You may not notice such for a few days or even a week from now, by which time you’ll probably forget you read this horoscope. So I suggest you print it out and hang it on the fridge or tape it to the dashboard of your car. The name of the game is “reality check,” which means having multiple points of reference to account for any drift or disorientation.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) It’s possible that the source of any discord between you and an intimate partner relates to what you want from life. You seem to be ready for creative adventure, and to explore the outer reaches of your psyche. A partner, on the other hand, may be seeing the world in more either/or, black vs. white terms. First, though, make sure that you’re not the one with the polarized lenses, or judging based on your own expectations. That is acceptable as long as you know you’re doing it. Relationships are not one-size-fits-all, nor are they general-purpose experiences that can accommodate all facets of your life. Consider that you may have too many interests and a level of curiosity about life and love that exceeds your usual concept of relationship, or one espoused by relationship partners. It may also be that you’re concerned that others might react if you have too much fun. Since we are not talking about A Thousand and One Nights, you can afford to push some boundaries and test the limits of your reality. Until then, you will never know them.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) The ability to regulate your emotions is crucial now. You may not see it that way, though at minimum that is the essence of your transits at the moment. This could take many forms, from wild optimism to a sense of isolation; from feeling like you’re on top of the world to the sensation that nowhere is really safe. Pay attention to when your psyche goes all the way out to one direction. The nature of any health-related issue is likely to take one of two forms: it will be emotionally-rooted, or it will be about food, and these two topics have many areas of overlap. Over the next few months, you will be called to take full responsibility for an issue on which your life is balanced. You may not recognize it as such, which is itself part of the situation. However, if you notice that the flow of your life gets hung up on something you don’t understand, you now have an actual opportunity to work it out. It will fit this description, more or less: that which you cannot complete, that is rooted in the past, and which keeps surfacing again — over which you feel powerless.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) In many ways, your chart is saying get together with people. Together does not mean a Zoom meeting, it means breathing the same air and eating the same food, and even hugging, shaking hands and taking a sip of someone’s drink. Together means together. We are in a rare and largely unnoticed moment when the social patterns of society have the potential to rearrange in wholly positive ways. That could include new friends, groups coalescing around actual affinity rather than phony community of interest. That means things you actually care about, most likely outside of work — unless your work is your passion. The thing to feel for is experiences that connect you to your neighbors, first and foremost. I know I keep saying this at different times and in different contexts, though this is about using your feet to poke around the area where you live, and seeing who else lives there. It’s about knowing who you do business with: who provides your services, and who your customers are. Right now your chart is about people rather than places or things.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) There is so much going on in your sign right now that you may feel overwhelmed, and like you cannot catch up with yourself. A few people will be doing fantastic, though just Jupiter and Saturn together represent more than half of the weight of the planets. That’s more than enough to feel like it’s all just too much. Mercury is now finished working out its retrograde process that began about two months ago, so you may have a better handle on what you need to do. That is likely to include a good few rounds of having learned from your errors. Make sure you collect those lessons and keep them firmly in mind. Even if your options are limited, you will find them useful tools. The question is, are you interested? This is about learning and learning is about change. Aquarius is one of the energies that faces the greatest challenge making adjustments to its thought patterns. However, that is much of the pressure you’re feeling. Saturn in particular will hold you captive till you make the changes that you need.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) The recent, astonishing New Moon in your birth sign or rising sign serves as a reminder to you of all that is possible if you have faith in yourself. That is the secret ingredient to living in a meaningful way on this plane of existence. By meaningful I mean accomplishing at least some of what is important to you. For most this is an abstract concept. For many, repeated failures have led them to give up having what they think of as faith, though that was most likely hope. The thing is about faith is that it’s small, it’s subtle and you might not even notice it. It’s the sublime drive to keep going. You might say it is refusing to disbelieve in yourself. Or you could say it’s about appreciating your own efforts. The chances are if your self-esteem is injured, that is very likely to be the product of someone else’s experience. You are at a point in your growth (in particular, your ability to see into yourself) where it’s firmly time to evaluate that possibility. The buck stops with you — though there are different approaches to dealing with an actual problem you have, versus a nagging doubt that you have inherited from someone else.