PLANET WAVES | Equinox Update | March 21, 1999

By ERIC FRANCIS

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Just in case you haven't noticed, the theme of it all, in a single word, is "possibility." Those annoying limitations, enforced circumstances, delays and obstacles of the past few years have, for the most part, worked themselves out, and your fields of dreams are now more fertile than they've been in perhaps a dozen years. There may be a temptation is to rush out, to expand your ideas and your activities rapidly, and thus to risk losing yourself in the process. Remember that with expanded potential comes the need to make choices -- a fact which helps explain why so many people are so comfortable such dull, restricted and unimaginative lives. The inner realms are now more important than the outer ones, and once you are clear about what you really hold dear, when you've made contact with whatever you care about above all else, the correct path will be obvious.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Taurans are known for their stability and rock-solid natures, but you and I know that on the inside, the Earth boils with constant volcanic tremors. And this is especially true now, for you have, in recent months, begun your long-awaited process of reckoning with yourself, which will come to a peak in mid-summer. Yet while hard-to-define cosmic forces and what may feel like hard, cold reality are pressing you to take everything in your life more seriously, I suggest that a lighter heart and alert sense of humor will get you further than anything else. So spend your money on things that are funny. Enormous gains are possible in the coming two years, and what's equally certain is that you will develop the maturity and practical wisdom to make the most of your real opportunities. Though you may currently feel plagued by problems you thought you already solved, by relationships you thought were over, or questions you thought you answered, pay attention to these things when they surface, and use the opportunity to make amends or come to terms with whatever happened. Face it all with an open heart and mind, and you will surely discover you hold the world in your hand.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
The biggest news in the Gemini Zone involves the way your relationships are finally and truly changing. One theme of recent years has been a subtle and, at times, extremely painful sense of isolation ­ perhaps the most powerful longing ever for your "missing other," your missing twin. Another theme has been obsession, which does not exactly lead to emotional fulfillment. Yet there have been recent moments when the lights have just suddenly come on, and you could see clear through your own sense of loss. Pay attention and you'll notice that unique and highly intelligent people are appearing before your eyes, and they are likely to take a genuine interested in you. By year-end, much that has somehow remained hidden in your relationships will make itself known; it's as if all of this year points to one specific revelation. Meanwhile, beware of envy. Remember that true knowledge and experience, whether in people older or younger than yourself, are worthy of your respect. Remember also that you have a lot to learn, but that of all things in this world, learning alone is certain.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)
It's commonly believed that human beings are made of flesh, bones and blood, but my theory is that we are really made of our values. And I am not talking about 99-cent Whoppers or Great Year-End Deals. When you take a human mind and strip away all the thoughts and concepts that are instilled by religion, government, education, family, tradition and just plain fear, what you're left with are the deepest thoughts and concepts that drive that person forward in the world, or that rightfully should. I call this the values level, and it's an aspect of Soul. Remember that Soul lives by intuition, not information. This reduction process -- remember those words -- is precisely what's happening at this stage of your growth. The end result, if you are gutsy and consciously approach life with a positive attitude, will be a poet's perception of reality; a cleansing of the windows of perception; a sense of reality in which only what is right and true matter at all. As you live through these unusual, at times daunting months of our history, I urge you to keep in mind that nothing moves Heaven and Earth more than an idea about yourself that is real.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
All the cosmos and all the people in it are shouting one thing at you, my little kitty: WAKE UP! It's true that male lions sleep 18 hours a day, but there is something, something strange and mystical, suggesting this particular snooze of yours has been more like the past 18 years. Not that your life during that time was in any way a waste; not that you haven't had many valuable experiences; it's just that during this time, I suspect some vitally important process stopped for you. Please think about this. Perhaps it involved refusing to take one particular kind of risk. Perhaps it involved abandoning an aspect of who you are for rather complicated reasons. Whatever the case, the time has come to start living through that particular aspect of your reality again. The world knows this, and has been sending you vivid messages for quite a while, but the time has arrived when you can no longer ignore them. The universe is sending you dreams, and you can no longer forget them. And most of all, it's important for you to take full responsibility for your own process of coming alive, of getting what you want, and being aware of what you are creating. Not that I mind joining the rising chorus of voices heralding the dawn, but trust me, if you do it for yourself, life will be far easier, and much more fun.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Ever had one of those dreams in which an extra room or entire wing appears in your house? In such a dream, you may wonder in amazement how it's possible that you just didn't notice this vast and interesting space was there all those years. This image ­ an opening-up of familiar spaces into new and unfamiliar territories ­ is the perfect astrological image of your life. But remember it works through the interior of your life. Many of the world's great philosophies and some of the most practical spiritual teachings say the real work of personal growth is inner integration, which mysteriously leads to a more whole and peaceful experience of reality around you. Though difficult to explain, I believe this is true. So what new spaces are you looking for in there? What new wing of life can you dream up? Notice your emotional responses to people, and see if anything different appears. Search for the borderline between thought and feeling, and observe how important each of those two processes is to the other. And finally, see if you can tune into a reality that is neither thought nor feeling, just simply a greater awareness of your environment. If you do this, it's a safe bet that you'll have significantly more options in life, now and forever.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
For the most part, Libra (much like Virgo, actually) is considered a fairly boring and unimportant sign, but this says more about the lack of insight by astrologers than anything else. It's also a comment by society that living beauty ­ the most important attribute of Libra ­ is both trivial and easy to come by. Needless to say, you and I both know otherwise, and much of what is different about you, you can safely attribute to this basic fact. Libra is not about any scales. It's about the knife-edge upon which the scales are balanced, what the sacred texts of India call the "razor's edge" which we must walk on the way to Salvation. This helps explain why you live so close to the brink, and why so many people born under your sign are endowed with a penetrating power granting inner-vision of things as they are, particularly where art is concerned. And art, of course, is the magic glass through which we see reality, and without which we would be blind to our own folly. But then there is the art of living, and that is a fine line to walk. Remember, you are a work in progress, but fortunately you get to revise yourself again and again.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
The past several years of your life have involved one intense drama after the next, and for the most part, you've had a free run, and hence, lots of opportunities to make blazing progress or create serious problems. However, it's officially time to pull in the reins. Major planetary movements lasting through all of 1999 and beyond are putting what you could call natural limits on your life, particularly where your relationships are concerned. It's a critically important time, and it will not last forever, so live it well. Watch as every association you now share with another person is tested, and as relationships that do not work are mysteriously purged, while the ones that function and are truly important will deepen and develop. Above all else, though, you must slow down; you must me patient with people; you must spend more time observing the very basics of what the people around you need. More than anything, the keyword is necessity. What is truly necessary will survive and flourish in your life, and what's a frill, an add-on or plain wasteful will vanish.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
The theme of these months and years in your life is what I can only describe as the Golden Quest, which fuels the golden light at the core of the Sagittarian soul. At times, this sacred journey through the vast unknown region we call "life" may be something directed outward at the world around you, which you may experience as wild curiosity about the realities beyond your current limits. At other times, this will be a passionate and at times frightening investigation into the depths of your heart. But one thing is sure: you can handle it. There is something about this phase of your life suggesting that you are more like you than you've ever been. I don't mean to talk in circles here, so you'll need to ponder that for a while. There is an indescribable essence or deepest quality to every person, and much of what we do in life (including our jobs, our relationships, and education) hides and obscures it. But now the essence of you, the very thing that makes you who you are, is rising to consciousness and it needs to be expressed. Go with this; follow your true quest; and remember that often, it's much better to go it alone.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Capricorn is often considered the state of being associated with what's practical, structured and known for sure. Contact with "the beyond," with the spiritual reality beneath the surface appearance of life, is usually reserved for signs like Sagittarius and Pisces. But this is just an outdated theory, based largely on the connection between Capricorn and this thing we call the past, and as you are figuring out, it's currently now, not then. For many months of 1999 and 2000, you are blessed with a special vision allowing you to see into the motives and feelings of the people around you. This will, in turn, grant you a more accurate sense of who is your friend and who is not, allowing you to see both help and danger at a greater distance. A major lesson of these seasons of your life, one you would do well to tape to the wall or write in the beginning of your diary, is that everyone is connected. The web of life is something of which you are an essential part, so why not live that way?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
"The poet, the artist, the sleuth -- whoever sharpens our perceptions tends to be antisocial; rarely 'well-adjusted', he or she cannot go along with currents and trends. A strange bond often exists among anti-social types in their power to see environments as they really are." These wise words of Marshall McLuhan, the famous media analyst of the 1960s (author of The Medium is the Massage and other books), are one of the best descriptions of Aquarius, and especially Aquarius at the Millennium, that I've ever heard. You've always been fully aware of how much pressure you're under to conform to structure and other people's ideas of what is true or proper. Yet have you ever considered the possibility that this is quite impossible for you, and further, that your personal contribution as an outcast, an artist or an original thinker, is a desperate necessity of this ridiculously hung-up planet which we call home? Freedom begins in your mind, and it spreads like fire from there. Live this truth now, and you'll be doing yourself, and the rest of us, a very big favor.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
Browsing the Internet the other night, I visited Astronomy Picture of the Day web page. In a deep-space photograph, there appears a puff of cosmic dust, called a "nebula." The nebula is the ancient remains of a star similar to our Sun, which burned out after its hydrogen reservoir ran out. Consider that of all the civilizations that lived on planets around that star, for all the countless aeons of their history, of the lives of all their great leaders, creators and villains, all that remains is a little glowing puff of smoke in a vast cosmos. Not a single memory. Not a single artifact. Not a trace of a "timeless" landscape or an "immortal" structure. And now consider where this perspective leaves you, and where it would leave us as a society if we were to take notice. Pisces is blessed with the ability to see the big picture, and to keep track of oneself within the most vast and even confusing realities that confront a human being. As you ponder the endings of 1998, the beginnings of 1999, and the unimaginable potential beyond, keep your perspective, and remember that true meaning is something of which only you are the author, and for which NOW is the most important moment.

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