| February's Highlights for Children. Mercury is retrograde through the 8th, when s/he stations in the last degree of Capricorn, headed back for Aquarius. Saturn also stations direct one day before -- these promise to be interesting days; be reasonable with yourself, and with others. Mercury then moves out of the shadow phase on the last day of the month, officially ending the whole retrograde business for a couple of more months. February 11 is the Nude Moon, followed by the Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Horse, followed by Ash Wednesday, the 13th, when the Sun conjoins Uranus, followed by Valentine's Day. What a week! The red Cupid all over the place is actually the Greek god Eros, consort of Psyche, the soul; together they became immortal. Dusting off my Dictionary of Saints (puff, sneeze) St. Valentine appears to have been "a priest in Rome and a physician [who] was beheaded there under Claudius the Goth on February 14 and buried on the flaminian way, where a basilica was erected in 350. On the same day in the Roman Martyrology is celebrated another Valentine who was bishop of Interamna (Terni) about sixty miles from Rome and who was scourged, imprisoned and beheaded by order of Placidus, perfect of Interamna." Woo hoo! The tradition of sending love cards on that day involves the medieval belief that birds begin to pair on that day. I always thought it was kinda medieval! El Sol enters Pisces on the 18th, Luna does her strange thing of eclipsing Saturn for like the fifth time (Sep. 10 was the first of recent memory) on the 20th (first quarter moon) and then eclipsing Jupiter the 22nd. Mercury conjoins Neptune for the third and last time for a while (first two not mentioned here) and the month concludes with the Virgo Fool Moon on the 27th, or rather, concludes with the last day of the month on the 28th. | Sign dates below are approximate. They now overlap by one day. The date and time of the Sun's ingress to the new sign changes a little each year, so please check with an astrologer if you want the exact position of your Sun, and while you're at it, your rising sign -- this horoscope is written for both your sun and rising signs. Astrology Readings on CD by Eric Francis | | Aries (March 20-April 21) | | In the words of Lou Reed, "You can't always trust your mother," but I would translate that to you can't always trust what your mother wants for you. It's well worth pondering for a while, but there were things that your mother did not know about, experiences she didn't have, and fears she passed along to you. And there were desires she had never dared to taste. There is a universe of possibilities opening up for you now. Some may seem strange, others beyond hope, yet others too fearful to even think about. There is, I can see, some kind of fog hanging over your most worldly desires and cosmic aspirations, made no more clear by your shocking passion and poignant curiosity. But whatever uncertainty you feel, the unknown is your friend, the fertile void from which all real possibilities emerge. | | Taurus (April 21-May 20) | | Our current years, if you ask me, stand out as some of the more interesting times in the history of religion. It was the Austrian psychoanalyst Carl Jung who warned that most religion is a cover-up for, or designed as protection from, direct religious experience. In short, today we are tending to move past doctrine and back into direct contact with the numinous, often looking right at the great mystery. Your charts tell me you are in the midst of a new kind of spiritual awakening or renewal, though it may not feel that way. Your tendency to think of God or Goddess through filters, tradition or structure may seem like it's getting in the way, though I suggest you let it serve as a conduit for your dawning reality. When in doubt, go deeper into your spiritual tradition, and seek not only for what it teaches about right thought, but also about right action. | | Gemini (May 20-June 21) | | As you read these words in late January or early February, Mercury is blowing past Earth in one of its thrice-annual retrogrades. As with events for Taurus, there are potent religious or spiritual (if you prefer) overtones here, but the framework is a more immediate revolution of your ideas about what you call 'yourself'. This 'yourself' thing is misunderstood and entirely taken for granted by most people, and its potential almost always underestimated in vast ways. Remember those three concepts: misunderstanding, taking for granted and underestimating potential. Relating to what? To you! I am aware that you've been extremely preoccupied dealing with personal crises or getting out of pain and isolation for so long that down looks like up. But please, you'd better check both directions just to make sure you're clear which is which. | | Cancer (June 21-July 22) | | Between what is perfectly uncertain and absolutely certain in your closest partnerships is a narrow window of true potential. This window is not always open, and its view is most unfamiliar. Whole worlds have arisen in a short time. New dimensions of what is possible to share with another person have emerged in your perception. I would say this probably feels a little daunting, really amazing and also scary because you know it may not happen any time soon. But some days your entire perspective is obscured by doubt, fog and mystery. Though security ranks among your actual priorities, you are also capable of embracing deeply uncertain realities. In a strange way, you can draw a sense of perfect safety in just how mysterious and unpredictable your situation is. I would call this putting all your personal attributes to work for you, rather than against one another, just when you need to the most. | | Leo (July 22-Aug. 22) | | To lack the courage to dare does not mean that you are in any way incompetent or worthless. The world is presenting a very complicated and not-so-inviting landscape right now. One particular situation is especially disturbing, and appears to be shaking your confidence. It's obvious that a philosophy of "deal with it, learn from it" is one of the best means of handling adversity. Yet real feelings are involved: Your own. Why deny this? Why deny yourself? The situation or relationship by which you are confronted has a chilly, impersonal or indifferent air. Yet logic holds no water, or rather the type of logic that's required seems to change every day. But at which point will you figure out that this is not a reflection of your worth or potential, only an overwhelming distraction that could just as easily be calling you beyond its own chaos? | | Virgo (Aug. 22-Sep. 22) | | By now, you have figured out that all the events, developments and unusual emotional challenges left their mark on you were there for a reason, which was to get you closer to the entity known as your soul. The soul bears a kind of wound by its nature, what we could call the wound of existence. But religion's insistence that soul is star of the cosmic show is but a piece of the puzzle. There are a couple of priests I'd like to walk up to and remind that it was through the marriage of Psyche and Eros that the soul was made immortal. What has happened over the years of your life has called you ever deeper toward the depths of yourself, bringing you to a space of consciousness that in its utter fullness is only half-complete. What occurs next will be no less beautiful for its feeling of sudden surprise or unexpected beauty, or the revelation that you are, indeed, a whole person. | | Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) | | While the modern notion of 'a good job' is better than a slightly older version, which was any job at all, there are apt to be many messages reminding you that you deserve more, are capable of more, and have more to offer. I don't speak of 'more' as a quantity, but rather as a quality, which is not measured so well in linear terms. While a physical change or improvement of your workspace is a real possibility, what I see blooming in some magnificent ways is your approach to what you do, and what you make of the situation you have right now. The trick will be allowing yourself to get drawn into the present moment of your life, seduced by two things. One is the beauty of work well done. The other is the security of knowing that, for what may be the first time in years, you are noticing that just about everyone around you agrees that your chosen role in the world is very good for the world. | | Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) | | By now I really hope you are coming to terms what a profoundly mental being you really are. I mean, it's stunning, and I've never read any cookbook description of Scorpio that says 'mind that can pull a 747 down the runway'. But is that necessary? Is there not some concealed need to prove you're more than just an over-emoted ball of hormones pulling that airplane? What would it feel like to completely update your mental files, to vastly simplify your thought process, to work on many levels at once, and to pour the intelligence of your body into your intellectual machinery? What if you could get yourself out of the trap of linear time and its drawn-out approach to problem-solving? The way is open, and your life really would benefit immensely from efficiency, ease and some space to wiggle in the wisdom of your own patently unique logic. | | Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) | | I don't claim to have the bottom line on reincarnation; I will leave that to the Hindus. But I've noticed something I call the reincarnation effect, which is an apparent phenomenon of people being affected or influenced by unresolved past life experiences, encountering people from prior incarnations, and the spontaneous recollection of past life knowledge. I don't know how it happens or whether the past is involved, but it works. For the next year or more, this effect may be so strong in your life that you can't miss it. Yet of the several possibilities for how it manifests, the influx of intelligence from beyond your current reality framework is by far the most awesome right now. You know you've been working off some crazy karma for past year or two. Now, stay tuned for the benefits in wisdom, justice and a blast of true freedom, straight from the heart of our galaxy. | | Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) | | This by far one of the most fascinating astrological phases for Capricorn through which any of us have ever lived. The early 1990s were the closest comparable times, but still (for most) dim by contrast. Fascinating? It is, as long as you're content to contain all the mystery, strangeness and dark monsters of the cosmos. I know that you are being given the chance to make peace with all of who you are on the deepest possible level, for now. But you may also think that you're being subjected to a kind of inner freak show that is threatening to drive you mad. Well, I look at it this way. Fear always threatens to push us to insanity, but stops just short of doing so. And the creative impulse always pushes us toward brilliance, but usually we stop it just short of breaking free. But at this point it appears that you're not willing to go halfway with anything, so now you get to choose which to choose. | | Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) | | Your ongoing wild ride is leading you somewhere, even if you find yourself catapulted back through ancient territory, long-ago-forgotten dilemmas and an assortment of scary ideas. In the words of the bard Robert Hunter, you must inch your way through dead dreams to another land, and you are on the borders of that land right now. Part of what you are given to do in these weeks is come to terms with your own nature in a whole new way. I surmise that you have not really made peace with, or gotten to the bottom of, your complexity, your intensity, or your awesome intelligence. And this seems like something of minor importance as you try to do something much harder: make peace with living in what often feels like a hostile or amoral universe, and in times when it seems that, culturally, we are flushing ourselves down the very pipes of creation. But I assure you: the more pressing task is the first. | | Pisces (Feb. 19-Mar. 20) | | There are miracles in the air, and in your heart, and in your mind. You stand at the contact point between who you are and who you need to be. You have reached the juncture where preparation meets opportunity. In order to activate this potential, you may need to depend on some very old wisdom, some deep tradition that you may have abandoned or forgotten. Remember this, Pisces child. Of all the signs, your relationship to the past is the most productive, because you have the gift of seeing all things in perspective, if only you will look. Here is one perspective that you may have forgotten in all your lifetimes of doing other things: this universe was made as a creative experiment, and your life was co-created by you and the Divine to participate in it. You possess a gift, one that the world needs, and is prepared to embrace, and to reward. The only price is faith. ++ | Search | Horoscopes | What's New | Index | Updates | Consultations  Space graphics above from the Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
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