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| For a while, I've been tracking the progress of your movement from the idea stage to the action stage of your life. This is not about any one project in particular, it's just about a lot of energy opening up, and the opening up of what may seem like a new dimension of who you are. (Psychologists might call this the "superconscious" and mystics might callit the "high self." Astrologes call it the 9th house. This phemomenon involves the Mars-Chiron conjunction.) And it would seem you have (or will soon have) an equal mix of rare opportunities in the personal and professional spheres, and the places where they overlap. Enough has changed in recent weeks, and is about to change again, that it would make sense for you to check through your relationships and projects one by one to make sure they're all in accord with The Plan as you've been cooking it up. Once you reach a certain point fairly soon, there will be no turning back. And if you run into an unforeseen problem, remember this: you've been through this one before. You figured out the solution long ago, you just need to remember what it is. You'll remember a few other important things right around then, too. | ||
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| Taurus is the sign of wealth; its symbol, the bull, is an ancient sigil of prosperity, of the ability to farm and eat, of harmony with nature and mostly with strength. Yet the horns of the bull take the shape of the moon, which points us to the inner world. Any enlightened master you meet on the street will tell you that your wealth is an inner phenomenon, having nothing to do with money or things. But so too is your strange ability to discount your value once you have finally figured out what it is. You can avoid this; you don't need to be trapped in the same game that seems to do in so many people. Just beware of the idea of sacrifice, which is the actual core belief operating within our culture of gluttony. Beware of thinking that your value to others is on an exchange basis: that you can trade or pay people with certain personal qualities and thus have worth to them. Maybe that's true, but there's something even more true. | ||
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| Events of the coming month are destined to teach you not to take it all so personally, but it will be a much better month if you started off with that mental posture. You're feeling the pressure, I know. It is, at times, more than your mind can bear, and your body is probably feeling some limitations as well. But most of the burden you feel is that what's happening is somehow intentionally directed at you from the outside. The result is that you're set up for a lot of self-blame, because of course there must be a "reason" for all of this. We might think that self-blame is the first step toward self-improvement, because unless we come up with a nice list of things that are wrong with us (or with others), what will we have to improve? Okay, I mean, it might seem to make sense, but see how far this gets you. Or, you can take a look at the larger picture, which is trying to get your attention. And then you might ask: "How would I live if I were not afraid of myself?" | ||
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| It's always helpful when we're ready with the necessary resources when life doles out a few extra challenges, which it seems to do with some regularity. You're in a fairly strong place, actually, but it's going to be very helpful if you sharpen your knack for spotting people's agendas. Everyone has an agenda. It may be so strange, senseless or visionary that you don't fully comprehend it, but it is there, and you need to know its implications. Asking people what their purpose is will help (the ones who 'have no agenda' are the ones to be the most careful about) if you get the chance, but you might not always have that. Mostly you'll need to observe, and the best way to do this is to catch people out of context. When we know people in only one aspect of life, it's easy to be fooled. If you see your boss interact with his/her family, or spend time with your partner interacting with his/her friends, to give two examples, you will have an extra window of perspective on who they really are. Then, do something with the information -- sooner rather than later. | ||
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| In the past month or two you have learned a great deal about yourself, much of it unexpected. But of course, you knew it already. The perspective of knowing/not knowing persists in one aspect of your life, relates to how a set of childhood events had the effect of both denying you a childhood, and lodging you there perpetually. You know all about this one, but you may not want to think about it. Yet there is no use pretending, for if you do, the tendencies will both perpetuate in their negative implications, and be unavailable to you in their more constructive potentials, which are quite rich. The situation comes down to whether you feel like you're entitled express the impulses of your heart and mind. You may view this as an issue of talent, but I say it's an issue of entitlement. Some call it art, others call it music, a few call it writing, and it's known elsewhere as fishing. But the tension around whether you feel like you're allowed let out your feelings, and in reality, to actually exist at all, is pretty awesome. It would bode well for you to inquire as to who is denying you this permission, and to stop begging them. You're big enough to tell people what you want, and to tell any little voices in your mind that it's none of their business. | ||
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| If it's getting more difficult to discern whether you have a career or are running an unofficial charity, you need to give yourself more credit for your accomplishments. And, apart from the usual fear of being seen as a failure at some point in the future, there remains the small matter of what you want to be a failure at if or when the time comes. For example, work can protect us from the failure of relationships. Work for inadequate or no pay can protect us from the failure of trying to make money but not succeeding. Doing projects that nobody sees can protect us from the failure of people's judgments about our ideas. But there are options. You can take the rock-and-roll approach by declaring all of your work as a bastion of freedom, by allowing all your statements to be rebellions against that which you do not espouse, and by using the business world to succeed at undermining the values we know you'd like to blow to bits. And don't forget the most important thing, to play loud. Birthday note for Virgo. We are now in the Mars-Chiron conjunction's third pass this year; it returns next in Capricorn in about two years. A new cycle of what you might cal the journey of the sacred warrior begins. This is one of the most important cycles of your life because it represents a continuing series of stages of your growth into a being fully conscious of what you think, what you feel and what you can do. This conjunction, happening in your solar 4th house, is evidence that you are bringing the light into the emotional dark corners of your life, and feeling the awesome power and release of doing this. There is the potential for a greatly enhanced sense of your environment, and deep sensitivity to others. That environment is the planet, where you have arrived, and where it is both your responsibility and your privilege to spread out, grow, create and help make progress in a challenging, beautiful time to be alive. The keyword is incarnation. You are here, you are indeed alive, and this is your moment. We could say, very simply, that you now have the power to get your emotional (which for you means spiritual) act together enough to do something more challenging in the world. Happy birthday, Virgo. | ||
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| Another birthday is about to arrive at your door and the question persists: Are you ever going to get there? Ah yes, get where! You are just beginning to see where it is that you'd like to get to. It is coming into focus, and the sense that the potential is real is becoming quite tangible. There has been test after test for quite some time, particularly in trying to relate to The Other. And now that you're out of that forest, a new energy has seeped in, which is invoking a seeming need to sacrifice some of the creative ideals you hold most dear (somehow, children or less important creative projects might seem to be at the center of that problem). You can be thankful that your impulse to express yourself has not left you; you can be thankful that in your primary career you probably hit the target, if not the bulls eye, on something you value; and you can always refine your ideas, look at your circumstances and make yet one more set of adjustments. But this time it's for your learning how to meet your own needs, not those of anyone else. | ||
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| Many sex writers, myself included, give a lot of ink to subject matter surrounding parents, relationships and sex roles (I think Freud started this discussion and the Internet has been buzzing ever since). However, a story is developing in your chart suggesting that you look at your siblings and how they helped shape your erotic and amorous values. A big reason this area is the off-limits is the incest taboo. And because so many of us have only same-sex siblings, to venture here might include dipping a toe into queer territory. But it's not so simple. How (or whether) we shared our toys and related to other kids outside the family has as much to do with the formation of our sexual values as anything else. If your parents favored your brother and not you, that will bend your sexuality and your relationship expectations a certain way. If you can sort through this complex region and make the connections, you'll find you're able to drop a lot of old ideas, and make room for a few new ones that you really need. | ||
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| Mars, which has a two-year orbit, has been in Sagittarius since February. This has been due to a Mars retrograde phase that lasted between May 12 and July 20, dates which may have some special meaning to you. The effect of this has been to add fire, strength, clarity and a sense of mission to your life. Or, maybe to create havoc and irritation and difficulty with the people around you, which can serve as beneficial influences if you rise to the occasions they present. Combined with the influences of Chiron, the healer/sacred warrior of astrology, and Pluto, the transformer (which has been in your sign since 1995), you have come through a once-in-a-lifetime rite of passage. Even amongst the many recent transitional years of your life, this one stands out as a threshold. Before you go blazing on into the future, remember well what you have learned and accomplished during this important time. You will need it. | ||
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| Many people in this world give up. It doesn't look like it; they can make the gestures of life look convincing, get themselves through the day and maybe take an occasional vacation. But fundamentally, if you look closely, a great many people have just resigned themselves to a low-level of existence; to survival. They had dreams. They had desires. They had a thirst for knowledge. They may have possessed a sense of quest. And now they have cynicism or a sense of defeat, or worse, resignation to their supposed lot in life. We know you're a fighter, and that you hang in for the long haul. But I fear that you have given up on something important to you. And I suggest that now is the time to reclaim that particular mission, move back into your territory or revive your vision for yourself. If you make the decision, the power and strength you need to complete the task will come back to you. And -- mark my words -- your worst fears will prove to be completely false. | ||
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| Everyone has religion. Atheism is a religion, and so is capitalism, and so is (theoretically) anti-religion Communism. I believe that Romance is a form of religion as well. The word religion comes from the Latin root "ligios," which is about a connection (this is the same root as ligament, or connective tissue). We think of it as an organized system of thought, which may be more or less true. But in reality, religion is a means of connecting. The practical question of religion is what we want to be connected to, or what we discover we are connected to without making the choice. One might surmise that the real aim is to connect to Spirit or God/Goddess, but we all connect to Spirit in different ways. For you, it seems that the pressing need is to exist within community, surrounded by people you respect as your equals. This has always been true, but now there is a specific spin: a community of people devoted to their creative work, and who are not afraid to take it seriously. | ||
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| Change happens. Those of us dedicated to changing ourselves, however, may wonder how to handle the people who seem to do little other than resist progress. Here's a social theory you can test. You change the shape of the world when you change yourself. You alter the whole constellation of people around you, and their consciousness, just by changing your mind or your life, much like any one poem changes all of literature. But people are more powerful than poems. We exist in a network of subtle relationships that are based on energy flow. Those around us must respond in some way to who we are becoming, and their response is a form of change. Even if people do not change on the outside, they are confronted within their own feelings, and that is a beginning. I am not suggesting you embark on a social crusade of personal reformation. I'm suggesting that you have your influence, and it's working its wonders, which means it's okay to live your life your way.++ |
