Planet Waves for Nov. 29, 2001 by Eric Francis

"Art is not chaste. It should be kept away from ignorant innocents. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Yes, art is dangerous. And if it is chaste, it is not art." -- Pablo Picasso, from this week's Leo horoscope. Above, La Muse, 1935. Óleo s/ ela, 130x162 cm. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, França.

By Eric Francis | Horoscope for Nov. 29, 2001

Fabulous Workshops! | Gift Readings | Learn Astrology in 2002

2002 annual posts in about a week. Don't miss the Planet Waves daily edition for Sagittarius, The Centaur's Arrow.

It's eclipse time again. Twice a year, the Sun moves in range of these mysterious things called the lunar nodes, now in Gemini and Sagittarius, and everything gets jiggy in a very special kind of way attributable only to eclipses. We have two coming: a solar eclipse on Dec. 15 at 12:47 p.m. PST, in Sagittarius, and a lunar, in Cancer, on Dec. 30, 2001 at 2:40 a.m. PST. Please note a correction: There is no eclipse in Gemini on Friday, but there is a eclipse of Saturn by the moon with the Gemini full moon, called an occultation. This is the third month running that the moon has occulted Saturn, the first being on the eve of 9/11. For those astrologers who follow the karmic bond Luna shares with Kronos, it's in rare form these days.

The feeling of eclipses can be like getting hurled through the magic threshold, or a dangerous one. Remember the beginning of last summer? That sense of acceleration beyond control or a point of no return, the big cosmic orgasm? Or think back on the summer of 1999. Well, letting go is definitely in order, be it into or out of or through or within yourself, into or out of another. Most likely all of it. Friday's full moon is directly involved with the Saturn-Pluto opposition that has been rewriting reality for the past five or so months, and will continue to do so through next year. And it involves events from early last summer, right around the solstice.

And yet the upcoming eclipses are the first across Gemini and Sagittarius for about nine years. More with the next edition, right before the Sagittarius solar eclipse. For a fast look, see the updates section. And, there are lots of new articles at What's New.

Sign dates below are approximate. They now overlap by one day -- this is the day the Sun changes signs in 2001. The date and time of the Sun's ingress to the new sign changes a little each year, so check with an astrologer if you want the exact positition of your Sun. The reason for this is that our calendar is still not accurate, or rather, natural.

Aries (March 20-April 21)

This week's full moon in Gemini tells you to focus on the big stuff, not the small. So do a lot of other factors in your solar chart. But there's this really major issue regarding what you believe about yourself, which I hope rises to the level of a crisis. It's always good when you get to that point where you have to say, okay, if I don't believe in myself now, I can really screw things up. A touch of panic sets in. Then, you'd have a little motivation and everything will work out amazing.

Taurus (April 21-May 20)

Are you on the verge of giving something up, and are you afraid that it's something you really value? Don't be so sure. Your stars are aligned such that if you give up something you don't value, you will be able to exchange it for something you really do value. This like the universe saying, bring in your empty bottles for a free case of chilled whatever. Yes. Recycle. Take out the trash. Introduce your neighbors to your elbows.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)

Friday's full moon, with an eclipse of Saturn, in your own birth sign is all about growing up. Sure, you may be 29 or 38 or 51 and believe growing up is a thing of the past. But not this week. My read: this involves the issue of desire. What I'm writing at is that necessity is ultimately childish, and that fulfillment can be built on a more solid foundation: desire. Stealing some pen from Dylan's ink (red, I think), "Your debutante knows what you need, but I know what you want."

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

One thing is rather damn sure: most of what we feared in the past did not come to pass. Indeed, almost all of it did not come to pass. Though it may not feel as such when you're busy freaking out, fear is a vast waste of energy. Would it not be nice to forget your fears? The deal is, though, that you cannot forget your fears without remembering your bliss. Something must fill the space of consciousness, at least for those of us who cannot sit in absolutely empty meditation. If you're feeling fearful, just give yourself a new and more pleasant agenda

Leo (July 22-Aug. 22)

Please, spare yourself the fuss about your public image, or worries about threatening people (especially friends) with your creative power, or fretting over whether you fit in. Honey, let us feel your raging jazz. Pablo Picasso said it nice and plain when he told us, "Art is not chaste. It should be kept away from ignorant innocents. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Yes, art is dangerous. And if it is chaste, it is not art." Now, there's some good material for a public relations campaign.

Virgo (Aug. 22-Sep. 22)

Never forget that your real power comes from inside you, not outside. This may seem strange to you for whom inside can feel like utter chaos on a good day. Yet what feels like chaos is really emphasis on your long-neglected (I mean decades) sense of power. You have been making your triumphant return to the engine room, to feel your rumbling gears and smell the diesel. Your outer power may seem to falter this week for a few choice moments. Your inner power will do no such thing.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)

No idea is too powerful right now, and no standard of appropriateness needs to contain your imagination or creativity. You have begun a powerful process of stoking your furnaces and at the time shedding old ideas and self concepts, or rather, incinerating them like the dry old paper on which they are written, one sheet at a time. You are likely to be in some kind of extended struggle with values that make you small, and all that will save you is your own spirit of plundering genius.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)

In your personal exchanges, you are the valuable commodity, the gift, the source of inspiration. If you allow yourself to feel this, you are likely to find that you have company in your present quest, and that you become the recipient of your own benefit and value. People do see who and what you are; it's difficult not to notice right now. And yet there is a deep need you have to communicate what you think, feel and most of all, what you want to accomplish. Those around you are likely to be very receptive.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)

The fact that a relationship seems to be dim or flickering can only lead you back to yourself, and this is where you need to be investing your energy. There is a move that some describe as calling in your projections, which means claiming what you say, think and believe others are made, of but is really just an extension of what you are made of. In this case, you have an opportunity to stop holding people to the illusions of your own past. If you can do this, and it is likely, you will find yourself in an unusually free space with one particular person.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)

Are you feeling confined or unusually free? Are you understanding that to the extent that we are in bodies on the physical plane, we exist within a prison, and that this knowledge alone leads to a sense of freedom? A sense of freedom is all we need to exercise the freedom we have, just like a sense of direction is enough to move toward a goal without rushing but without hesitation. If you get confused, stop exactly where you are, and invoke the cosmic question: Where am I, and what am I doing here?

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

This week is a release point. You may have been experiencing some enormous tension in the area of your life or mind where you give yourself the freedom to dare. I would suspect that you are wrestling with a sense of responsibility, a feeling of heaviness and the feeling that no matter what you do, you just create more karma. The law of karma may state, "No one can escape what they create," but I would add, escape is not the issue: creating something new is.

Pisces (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)

People are watching, and noticing. Let's just say that invisible is the last word I would use to describe your condition right now. So make your comments, your actions and your decisions count. The main risk you face is burning out on your own energy, so pace yourself, and before you do anything, ask if it really needs to be done, and what else might be more important. It may well be impossible to balance what seem to be personal needs against professional ones, but at the moment, professional is very, very personal.

Space graphics above from the Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
Credit: T. A. Rector, B. Wolpa, M. Hanna. Planet Waves logo by Eric, and Via Davis.