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Horoscopes 5-04
by Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Extraordinarily promising events may seem to be fIf you feel like you’re in a burning building, you’re in the right place. What’s burning is karma: old stuff, such as the ancient psychological and emotional material that clogs your life. This has been going on for months, but the furnace is just reaching full temperature. There is also something about needing to be released from a commitment. It will not be long before you have the go-ahead you need to feel like you’ve done what is called for. At the same time, you will also feel the anger, passion, and pain that will motivate you to be free and clear. Don’t medicate yourself. Stay with every sensation and sentiment until you work it through. What it all points to is a pattern of enslavement that may be sexual in nature, and which is working its way out of your world. Remember, there is a difference between power and pleasure.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
You stand in what is likely to be the most complicated period of personal reassessment of your life. Complicated, or so it seems. Life would be simpler if you really understood the way in which you’ve become divided against yourself, and if you could see the influences that keep you that way. The problem has been that, like most vast and ancient issues, this one lurks in a blind spot. But unusual conditions will soon allow you to see something vividly that has long eluded perception: family patterns, your relationships with people who have harmed you, and those that have compelled you to grow. It’s true that you’ve been shaped by external factors, and it’s also true that, finally, you can choose what you take in and take on. There comes a moment when everything stops and you can make a decision as one person, for yourself.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Now that you know a little something about who your friends are, you can make enormous strides in discovering who you are. You are headed for a meeting with the other side of your nature: the famed “secret sharer” or opposite self of Gemini mythology. Discovery implies finding something within yourself that was already there, but in this case might have only turned up in one lifetime out of every ten. I’m not guessing when I say this has something to do with your sexual orientation. However, there are more than two of these; a unique sexual orientation exists for every person on the planet, and your project for the next couple of months is opening up to yours. This, in turn, relates to the most basic facts of existence. To question your sexuality is to ask, “Who am I?” Most people never inquire, so most never find out.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You have invested much of the past year in a restructuring process. Often this restructuring has required imposed external structure, enforced changes, and taking authority over your own life. You may have noticed in these days that you’ve finally come to terms with some of your deepest fears, or at least discovered what they are and put them out on the table. Should I keep going? You know how strong you are, and you know your vulnerabilities. To this equation we can now add the cosmic force known as desire. This is something new. Where desire runs up against an old belief, something needs to change: the belief or the desire. Which is it going to be? What would it mean to reclaim your life? You have changed so much, so well, with such dedication. You don’t need to let one oppressive idea deny you what you want and need the most.

Leo (July 22-August 23)
Still waters run deep, they used to say. You do this well. You also do something unusual at the same time, which is shine out in the world rather brilliantly at the same time you hold a vast space wide open within yourself. More than usual, there is a certain balance you seem intent on maintaining between appearance and your inner reality, as if you are working to rectify the two. What you are actually doing, I would suggest, is seeking to maintain balance, integrity, and continuity between the past, present, and the future where certain close friends and personal visions are concerned. More often than not, our dreams live or not by the virtues of those with whom we surround ourselves. In this process, there is a factor you have not yet considered, which will soon enough change the face of your life as you know it. Let’s put it this way: Make a wish, and remember it.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
You may think you’ve got the most useless or annoying career in the galaxy. But if you can hold yourself together and maintain just a bit of faith, you’re heading for a rare and brilliant breakthrough. What you must remember at all times is that your work must fulfill your deep personal commitment to beauty and healing. You always need at least two major roles in the world; if you can’t get to be eclectic, you get bored and boring fast. You will never be content in the role of mere functionary. As part of your faith-building process, I suggest you get yourself into the wider world. Your vision is too limited by certain limits in your local environment. Travel, for example, but not for a vacation. The idea is not to vacate but rather to fulfill a vision or a desire in a physical, tangible way.

Libra (September 22-October 23)
Face your fear of sex. Please. If you’re thinking, “Who, me? I’m a Libra, what is he talking about?” I’m whispering, “Yes, you.” You will be doing yourself an immense favor. Let’s go back a few steps and recognize straight off that our entire culture is neurotic about sex, and that half the money we spend is intended to make us somehow more appealing. Let’s go back a step beyond that and remember that no matter what faith we were raised in, we were most likely subjected to harmful religious messages. The combined effect is to undermine our deepest sense of self, our sense of value in the world, and limit how effectively we can use our power. You are headed for a big promotion in all these departments. You have earned it. You just need to keep an eye on the old trap that sex isn’t really important all the time.

Scorpio (October 23-November 22)
It is one of the most challenging lessons of life to realize that the world we believe in is the world we see. If it is difficult to make changes in life, that’s often a measure of how difficult it is to change our beliefs. Now, I would offer you a chance to see that process in action. It seems, on one hand, like you are changing. And it seems rather like your relationships are changing. But what’s happening is that certain fundamental beliefs that hold up your entire reality structure—“sponsoring thoughts,” in the words of Conversations with God—are rearranging their chemistry. In summary, certain painful and, moreover, false beliefs that you have carried since childhood are being clarified—literally, made transparent—and if you look, you will see what is beneath them. It’s rather different, isn’t it?

Sagittarius (November 22-December 22)
Relationships now come to the forefront of your life like never before. It may seem like you’re being confronted, challenged, or met directly full-on by a certain individual who may possess you with an intensity unusual even for you. What you may not see is the extent to which, though genuinely unique and independent, they are also reflecting your own light back to you. The message of this relationship is that you are not separate from your relationships. What your human encounters contain is made up of what you are. You may not recognize it when you see it in another form, such as someone outside yourself that you need, desire, or by whom you are deeply fascinated. The act of surrender being asked of you now is to allow those who meet you their original voice, motives, and choices.

Capricorn (December 22-January 20)
Faced with the circumstances and necessities you’re now looking at, most people find that the structure of their relationships changes. You may have noticed that after a long delay, this process suddenly began to pick up its pace again. There are a number of likely potentials. Long-term partnerships can seem to end suddenly or against one’s will. There can be a catharsis process in which, piece by piece, the dysfunctions of partnership are taken out and looked at, and the strengths shored up and appreciated. Other people enter into marriage or marriage-like relationships, form contractual bonds, or solidify long-term ties. The question throughout all of this is how conscious you are of the experience. To what extent do you allow your preconceived ideas to be challenged? Can you live your experiences and relationships and not possess them? You will breathe a great sigh of relief when you do.

Aquarius (January 20-February 19)
The terrifying thing about being real is the feeling that you were faking it all those years. But if anyone can confront this, it’s you. Of all the signs, I believe, Aquarians are most dedicated to the truth as a matter of deep principle, because the truth is a kind of contract by which we live. You of all people can, therefore, see the pressure society puts on every one of us to be a lying hypocrite. At a certain point, one must make a decision: which way of life is easier? And one must make a stand, which is the decision between living for who you are versus living for who you’re told you have to be. At the moment, the top item on the agenda is your career. Does your work fulfill your deep intention of building and strengthening the integrity of the world? Just ask—don’t answer.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Yes, this life takes guts, heart, and soul, but is that such a high price to pay? True, there is a certain raw quality that comes from noticing how you feel and refusing to hide it. More shocking yet, there is a daring and life-or-death quality of thought and emotion that comes from feeling what you feel and acting on it. Brilliant and revolutionary Uranus in your sign continues to add a new and highly unusual influence to everything you experience. If you are feeling pain, it’s only because giving up old emotional patterns can be extremely difficult in the first moments. Uranus is constantly pushing you to go deeper and deeper, never allowing you to be satisfied with the status quo. Now that we’ve acknowledged the obvious, it will be a lot easier for you to get control in ways that matter. Remember: freedom begins in your heart and home.

Planet Waves is published twice weekly as a subscriber service. For more information, check out www.PlanetWavesWeekly.com, or call (877) 453-8265. Planet Waves Weekly includes a horoscope, an essay, and a birthday report each week as well as aquasphere, the 2004 annual horoscope homepage.

You can read the Eric Francis horoscope, essay, and birthday report every week at PlanetWavesWeekly.com. Look there for information about Aquasphere, Eric’s 2004 annual gift CD. The CD comes with online access to annual horoscopes (three different ones—Sun sign, Moon sign, and the Year in Sex) as well as essays on the transits of 2004 and much about the condition of water on World Earth. Aquasphere is the ultimate Astrology meets Ecology art and music project. You can also contact Eric for information about personal sessions or holiday gift readings by calling (877) 453-8265 or checking PlanetWaves.net.