Planet Waves :: Mercury, Weaving the Story of Nessus

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Mercury, Weaving the Story of Nessus

Those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder. -- Alice Miller

Dear Friend and Reader:

Nessus, the third centaur planet (discovered in 1993), recently entered water sign Pisces. This is a slow-moving point that can go so far from the Sun that it extends into the Kuiper Belt, crossing Pluto's orbit, and comes so close to the Sun that it goes inside the orbit of Saturn. Nessus is on its way there now. After spending nine years in Aquarius, it will spend 19 years in Pisces, which is pretty rad even in the context of eccentric centaur orbits.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Nessus was last in Pisces during the turn of the 20th century, from around 1893 to 1911. And it was in Pisces during the American Revolutionary era, from 1772 to 1790 -- spanning from just before the Declaration of Independence was signed to right after the Constitution was ratified. More about that in our Friday, July 4 edition.

Mercury has recently entered Cancer, a water sign, and it's doing something interesting there over the weekend -- stationing retrograde in the very early degrees of that sign. In doing so, it's spending 19 days in early Cancer, holding a long trine aspect to Nessus, making three exact contacts -- on May 31, another while moving retrograde June 15 and a third while moving direct on July 13.

The retrograde will take Mercury back into Gemini for a while (between the last two contacts) and then Mercury will move forward and return to Cancer, making the last trine (on July 13). Mercury moves pretty fast most of the time, so this is an unusual phase of rapport between the planet of consciousness and communication and a minor planet associated with some of the darkest themes that humanity must address on its path of growth and healing.

Nessus moving into Pisces has shifted the story from the theoretical realm of Aquarius into the intuitive, emotional realm of a water sign. The shift also represents that between an earlier discussion among an elite group (in Aquarius) to a wider public (in Pisces). The material of Nessus is challenging to speak about, especially in Pisces, where it may be veiled or take some as-yet unrecognizable form. Speaking about it must come from a place of feeling so as to remain clear and accessible, yet not boil over into aggressive or defensive emoting. That calls for awareness and a safe space to process one's experiences.

To help clarify the themes of this unusual extended aspect pattern, I think it would be helpful to start with the myth of Nessus and see how its themes play out in the contemporary world -- and the discussion that's currently happening in the wake of the recent murders in Isla Vista.

My tarot spread in the Grotto of Heracles, Isle of Delos, in May 2005. Read this article for more information about Delos and the spread.

Nessus is a centaur. What all the centaur myths have in common is a creature who is half-man, half-horse; and in the story, the centaur dies. On one level, all of the centaur myths are actually the stories of the death of the centaurs. In mysticism, psychology and astrology, we can use these stories as healing tools and define death as the process of change. So you might look at the death element as describing the transformation element of that particular centaur.

Notably, all of these myths were buried in the backs of libraries, most of them still in ancient Greek, until the first centaur, Chiron, was discovered in 1977. Then working together, astronomers, astrologers and translators recovered the stories and brought them into contemporary thought.

Thursday morning I picked up a 1958 book called Myths and Their Meanings, and the first thing I checked the index for was Chiron -- the most famous of the centaur stories. The writer, a respected author in his field, got the lineage of Chiron wrong. His parents were Kronos and the nymph Philyra, not "a mortal named Ixion and a cloud." (That is true of all the centaurs except Chiron and possibly Pholus, whose story may be an offshoot of the Chiron myth.)

The Nessus Myth: A Study in Revenge and Karma

Just about everyone is familiar with Heracles, the great hero of Greek mythology. He's more commonly known in his Roman form, as Hercules. He represents the human quest in the world, often associated with the work of men. He had his 12 labors, and was constantly accomplishing them on one mission or another. In our superhero-obsessed culture, Nessus is important because his myth is the story of the death of Heracles. In other words, Heracles, the great hero of Greek mythology, who starts as Chiron's student, meets his demise at the hands of Nessus.

Heracles shoots the centaur Nessus, painted by Jules-Elie Delaunay (1828-1891). There are certain inaccuracies in this painting; I've read that Nessus is described as having a much darker skin tone.

This tells us a bit about the centaur myths: clearly, they are not well known, they're not common fables or fairy tales and not taught in school. Yet they are some of the most significant side streets of mythology, which is a map to human experience and psychology. This is exactly how the centaurs work in astrology. They are not commonly known but somehow their experiences are familiar to all of us.

Here is the story: Heracles and his wife Deianira are escaping from a bad situation -- where Heracles had single-handedly killed perhaps a thousand centaurs in a full-on war. The two of them came to the river Evenus. There, Nessus was the self-appointed ferryman, who carried people across the river. Heracles threw his club and shield across and then forded the river, and Heacles negotiated a deal wherein Deianira was to be carried across the river by the centaur Nessus. There are several versions of the story. In one version, the fee that Nessus negotiates with Heracles is the privilege of carrying his wife across the river.

Here is where the story gets blurry, so for clarity I will quote the original translation, by J. G. Frazer: "So Hercules crossed the river by himself, but on being asked to pay the fare he entrusted Deianira to Nessus to carry over. But he, in ferrying her across, attempted to violate her."

There is one other significant point. In one telling of the story, Heracles' marriage to Deianira was based on an arrangement with her dead brother. It's possible that Heracles passed Deianira to Nessus, knowing he would abduct her, thereby getting out of his marriage. I say this because we know Heracles knew all he needed to know about centaurs. In addition to having been mentored by Chiron, he had just waged war on the entire race of centaurs, and knew their reputation as rapists and murderers.

Centaurs in the Ixion line (as Nessus was) are almost all portrayed as rapists. Heracles has just left the scene of his war against the centaurs, so he knows who he is dealing with. Deianira, meanwhile, is portrayed as a hapless victim of circumstance. But we know something from her name: its etymology translates to "destroyer of men."

Seeing Nessus "attempt to violate" Deianira, Heracles shot Nessus in the heart with an arrow. The arrow was poisoned with the blood of the Hydra, whom Heracles had killed in an earlier scenario. That poison blood is how Heracles had just killed a thousand centaurs. Its also the poison that killed Pholus, and it's what was on the arrow that inadvertently hit Chiron. (Those scenes unfold just prior to this one; the myths of Chiron, Pholus and Nessus are intertwined and all involve Heracles.)

In his second labor, Heracles confronts the Lernean Hydra, a many-headed reptile-like monster so toxic that even its breath and tracks were deadly. Poets describe it as having more heads than any painter could draw; this one was illustrated by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898).

The Hydra's blood was deadly, and Nessus was poisoned by the arrow. As he lay dying, the centaur gave to Deianira a vial of his toxic blood, or a mix of blood and semen (this is ambiguous in the versions and translations), and tells her that it's a fidelity potion. He says she can use it on Heracles and it will ensure that he'll remain faithful to her. Whatever happened between Nessus and Deianira, she trusts him enough to believe that this vial really contains a fidelity potion. In reality, he turns her into an unwitting contract murderer of her own husband -- once again, hapless.

When she suspects that she might have a reason to use the potion, she spreads it on a tunic which she gives to Heracles to take to a tournament. After he had gone, some of the liquid fell on the ground and it frothed as the sunlight warmed it. Realizing it was toxic, she sent a messenger to warn Heracles, but the messenger arrived too late; the poison was taking hold.

"After killing 12 immaculate bulls as a sacrifice to celebrating the spoils of battle," Melanie Reinhart wrote in To The Edge and Beyond, "Heracles had already donned the tunic." As its poison ate into his flesh, he was in long agony, roaming the forest ripping trees out of the ground.

This fulfilled the prophecy of the Delphic Oracle, many years earlier, which said, "No man alive shall kill Heracles; a dead enemy shall be his downfall." I have also heard this translated to he "will be killed by the blood of a dead enemy," which has the flavor of one of those Delphic riddles. In this case it was two enemies -- the Hydra and Nessus. Heracles, wanting a dignified death, returned to Olympus, where he asked to be burned on a funeral pyre -- at which point he revealed the Delphic prophecy he had kept secret for years.

This myth raises more questions than it provides answers. Nessus would seem to be quite a conniver, but Heracles clearly should have known better than to hand his wife off to him. There are certain people who you know are just going to be trouble, and you avoid them -- but he does not. In addition, Heracles was the mightiest of men, with divine powers -- he could have carried his little lady across the river himself. But he did not. He passed her off -- he passed the buck, as it were -- to Nessus. And Nessus passes the buck right back to him -- by way of his wife.

Stopping the Cycle of Abuse and Revenge

In this myth, we have a triangular situation between a man, a woman and a third entity. We have the theme of rape, and a question of whether there was a setup for that happening, or some nebulous form of consent, implied consent, payment or taking advantage of a situation. We have scenes of trusting untrustworthy people. We have a scenario where "bad blood" is passed on from one party to the next. All of these point to the theme of a cycle or chain reaction of abuse or revenge.

An illustration of the Karpman drama triangle.

There are many contemporary themes in this myth. The bad blood could be seen as karma, it could be seen as the cycle of abuse, or it could be seen as a sexually transmitted infection (they may be related).

Questions of fidelity, ensuring fidelity and revenge for infidelity are as old as civilization. So too is the notion of a woman's body as property. Matters of consent, of taking sexual advantage of women, matters of sex as a toll, are all part of our contemporary culture.

All of this is soaking in a society that both practices and preaches ignorance around sex and seems to reward hypocrisy above all else. I would add that the use of sex in commerce, that is, turning sex into a commodity, is one of our most serious problems we face as a society -- and nearly everyone buys into it.

The Nessus scenario reminds me of something called the Karpman drama triangle, which is where we get our main concept of codependency. The idea first appeared in a 1968 article called "Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis" by Dr. Stephen Karpman in Transactional Analysis Bulletin. The article sets up the familiar concept of a triangle between the persecutor, the victim and the rescuer. As Karpman says in his article, anyone can play any role at any time, adding, "There is no drama until there is a switch in roles."

This can happen when a victim decides not to be victimized anymore -- and often becomes a persecutor. Or a rescuer is victimized, not understanding that this was part of the script. Often, Karpman says, people play multiple roles in the drama simultaneously. The drama in the Nessus myth involves many changes in roles. In the end, everyone plays out some form of persecutor, victim and rescuer. [As an aside, I must thank my 4th grade teacher at PS 207 in Brooklyn, Mrs. Ursula Fennely, for teaching our class that Greek myths are highly accurate descriptions of the psychology of our society. She knew what she was talking about.]

Where Nessus is at work as an astrological factor, you can look for a complex web of interrelation, a sequence of events where one thing leads to another but the pieces of the story don't necessarily seem connected. You may have to connect the dots and see the pattern for yourself.

The concept of 'victim' is central to the thinking and structure of our society. In this advertisement, the right to have a gun is being advocated as the right not to be a victim, with the simultaneous risk of making someone a killer. Few people consider this.

Nessus has themes that feel like the return of karma that may have an extremely long trajectory, like a boomerang that takes the long way around the world. Yet actions have consequences, and causes have effects, and effects have causes. Once you notice those relationships, you can almost always discover the source. Nessus is a helpful diagnostic tool in handling situations with these themes of betrayal, deception, murder, sexual abuse and sexual infidelity.

It works just as well to reveal something about where and how we've been hurt in the past, and how we're likely to hurt others -- and how we can heal that pattern and its resulting injuries. [Note, nearly all readers have Nessus in Taurus (1950s), in Gemini (1960s) or in Cancer (1970s). These dates are approximate and should be checked against an ephemeris.]

Yet in the current environment, especially the political one, Nessus seems to be reminding us of our need to stop the endless cycle of persecutor, victim and rescuer. As my Facebook correspondent Beverly Spicer put it, "Here in the West, we are stuck in the relative stagnation of unconscious behavior on a wild merry-go-round, riding first the horse of persecutor, then victim, then rescuer. But the carnival never stops. Real life begins when we say no to the ride on any of the horses."

I think what is not exactly transparent here is that from the political standpoint, claiming the right to be the victim is the time of reckoning and revenge. One gets to be next in line for recognition, compensatory damages, protective laws, assured privileges and maybe the punishment of the persecutor. From a spiritual or psychological standpoint, the Karpman drama triangle is invoked. Victims become persecutors, rescuers become victims, and the cycle continues -- creating ever more casualties and injured people ready to persecute.

There is also the well-accepted idea that victims are entitled to special rights, and another that one has the right to be a victim. In the drama triangle, the concept of 'right' is associated with being a persecutor.

Another of my Facebook participants, Khai Macauley, a female-to-male transsexual (FTM), still in transition, wrote on my timeline Wednesday: "This can no longer be a question of fault and blame but what is possible and what you/I/we can create. Holding someone else accountable doesn't create anything but another hierarchy."

There has to be some concept of accountability or ownership, a new kind, because blame makes guilt and guilt makes attack. This is because attack is the projection of guilt. One way to describe the cycle ending is the end of projection of guilt. That is possible but it's tricky because the people on the new frontier, newly outside the cycle they may have been caught in and weakened by, have to be really, really strong in their love and forgiveness -- because there is a shit storm of guilt flying.

The most touching thing Khai wrote was, "I have been many things to my biological family, the worst of which is crazy, but crazy because I'm ‘pretending' to be male? Too far. But this is not just a personal journey. I am finding many men feel this way. And they are contorting themselves to try to find inclusion within a culture that only holds space for them as perpetrators."

Mercury in Cancer, Stationing Trine Nessus

Mercury is now in Cancer, the sign of family, of feelings and of natural instincts. It's also in aspect to the Aries Point, which is like common ground shared by both the most personal and the widest collective issues. Mercury has been picking up on the themes of Nessus in Pisces, and they have been rippling out into society -- in ways both helpful and grossly distorted.

Mercury has been direct through its week-plus of slow motion in Cancer, and now it's about to station retrograde. This represents a change in polarity for Mercury and it may represent the potential for a ceasefire in the ongoing projection of guilt. There is something deeply emotionally introspective about Mercury retrograde in Cancer, and this can manifest as honesty with oneself about personal accountability and ownership.

Photo by Danielle Voirin.

That ownership is not going to happen in a space of blame, of self or otherwise. It's going to happen in a trusting space, where the whole truth is welcome. We have much to reckon with, and the whole revelation of truth will take time.

We live in a society that does not stop waging war on others and often wages war on its own people. The men who are forced to do this, and everyone around them, carry many injuries associated with warfare. Nearly all of us have an experience of constant psychic or emotional violence through exposure to images of war.

Today, we are "celebrating" the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the invasion of Normandy -- if you turn on the TV you will see scenes of the bloodiest battle in modern history.

To some extent we are all complicit, even if only through paying taxes, by refusing to speak up, or by acting directly in support of what we know are illegal military operations. This has been going on for so many years few people remember anything else. It's no surprise that the war has come home.

Everyone who has come through our culture has suffered pain, abuse and humiliation to some extent. Everyone carries some sense of injury -- shame, guilt, fear, the sense of missing personhood and moreover, everyone has plenty to grieve. Due to gender polarization (pushed by religion, family, advertising and on-the-ground culture), injured personhood is polarized to "injured manhood" and "injured femininity," yet in reality they are identical problems, seemingly vindicated and then polarized by gender.

If we are going to get anywhere, we must make a safe space for everyone to feel vulnerable. That will only happen in a trusting environment. We might measure that as a common place where women don't feel stalked and men don't feel humiliated if they cry.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Moreno, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night -- and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

"I see this image in my mind's eye, now in 3-D, every time I imagine how my hand moves through space-time." Researchers have been studying Jason Padgett’s brain, and he recently published a book about his experience with Maureen Seaberg called "Struck by Genius." Image: Quantum Hand by Jason Padgett; more of his art can be seen here.

The Geometry of the Cloud’s Silver Lining

Mercury stationing retrograde can feel as though our brains have short-circuited, but there's often beauty and insight to be found if we're willing to pause long enough to see it in the midst of whatever's not working. Very rarely when a real-life short-circuiting of a person's brain occurs via injury, they discover an unusual artistic proficiency (called acquired savant syndrome); exactly that happened to Jason Padgett in 2002.

After receiving a severe concussion when two men beat him up, a silver lining emerged along the cloud of PTSD he was grappling with: the ability to see complex mathematical patterns in everyday objects, and to grasp the physics concepts behind them intuitively -- then translate what he sees into incredibly precise, complex geometrical art.

"I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life" -- such as the fractals in water spiraling down a shower drain, Padgett told Live Science. "It's just really beautiful."

A physicist saw Padgett drawing in a mall and suggested he consider studying mathematics. A self-described jock and partier who had "always cheated" in school, he's now pursuing a degree in number theory despite his persistent PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Even with those hurdles, Padgett says of his new gift, "It's so good, I can't even describe it."

Planet Waves

How advertising is destroying our society and our world, Mercury stationing retrograde trine Nessus, and the natal chart of performance artist Laurie Anderson

Advertising is evil. With the help of UMass Amherst
professor Sut Jhally, I set out to prove this in this week's edition of Planet Waves FM. But first I look closely at Mercury stationing retrograde in an exact trine to centaur planet Nessus -- focusing the astrology of a discussion that’s been brewing on various Planet Waves forums all week.

I also cover the Sun square Chiron, which happens the day after Mercury changes apparent directions.

Then I look at the natal chart of performance artist, storyteller, musician and inventor Laurie Anderson. The page includes Laurie's charts and several videos.

In addition, Planet Waves is currently hosting two discussion threads that continue our community-wide inquiry into gender roles and sexual consent. I cover this astrology in detail, though I would also refer you directly to those threads, in which you are invited to participate.

Discussion Thread on Sexual Projection, Control and Insecurity

Discussion Thread on Men’s Rights and Pickup Artists

Lovingly,

Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published Friday, May 23. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for June Tuesday, May 27. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Planet Waves

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 6, 2014, #1001 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- You may want to choose your words carefully to convey an especially vital message, but find that this is just not possible. You may not have fully formed concepts for what you're describing, and as long as the concepts are not quite coherent, there may not be words to follow them. But you can sketch, you can experiment and you can keep the focus on what you think and how you feel. I suggest that in any discussion, you set up the ground rule that what is said is subject to revision, which will acknowledge the discovery process that you and someone you're listening to are in. You'll need to hold the same space open for feedback. A few things will help -- to speak in I-statements, to be conscious of your own frustration, and to monitor when what you are saying is actually painful or frightening. If you give yourself permission to feel, which means not judging yourself for feeling or for saying how you feel, this will be a lot easier.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Sharing is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. Sharing an intimate partner seems impossible for a good few as well. What if you consider your intimate partner(s) to be the property of existence -- first of themselves, then of the world? What if your privilege of holding them was similar to visiting a national park, which is yours because it's a collective holding rather than an individual one? It might be easier to consider yourself, rather than someone else, in this light. It would at least be worth the experiment. Our concepts of ownership of others are difficult to see, and they are damning. That's a dangerous combination because there are implied effects of a cause that's not easily seen, perceived or acknowledged. Yet it's easy to feel when you're inviting or embracing an openness to existence, one that is not based on property rights but rather rests on the gentle foundation of existence itself.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- There is a power source in your ability to embrace the fertile void. That could start with embracing uncertainty, of which there is plenty in the world, and plenty in your chart. Though this may take a little courage, it almost always comes as a relief to let go of false certainty, whatever may come next. What is likely to follow is contact with an intuitive level of knowledge, not quite instinctual but definitely centered on your body and on your feelings, that is easier to follow than the chaos of trying to sort things out again and again. Said another way, if you don't try to ‘make things make sense' but rather start from the position that they don't make sense, you will feel your way to a level of perception that's much more trustworthy than where you might otherwise be. I suggest you be highly conscious of the stories you tell yourself, and remember that is what they are. Remember that your stories are likely to become true, so that would be a good incentive to choose well.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Notice the subtle shifts in your perceptions, particularly your orientation on your inner and outer worlds. Your point of focus is shifting, which is about as much as I want to say, so that I don’t bias you but rather allow the potential for a clear experiment. What I will say is that you may soon become aware of things that you did not notice before, but which suddenly seem obvious, as if they were there all along. I suggest you not latch onto this clarity but rather keep moving with it and see where it leads you, in whatever sphere you are exploring. The one thing that might be challenging is the depth you’ll be called into, as you notice that you’re in the process of making a discovery you’ve had hints of but which may have eluded you for years. Not knowing has served a purpose. Now, knowing must serve a greater purpose, so that you will be motivated to find out, and to use what you learn.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- Public discussion of private issues can be extremely distorted. Rather than avoid it outright, I suggest you observe the twists and compare them to what you know. There’s a pattern to the way sensitive matters are twisted; there is an agenda, and if you see that agenda for what it is, you will be doing yourself and the men in your life a huge favor. There is something that desperately needs to be understood for what it is. What’s complicating matters is that the issue has two distinct sides, and it’s wrapped up in some of the most taboo subject matter of our culture. You have a distinct line in on whatever this is -- you can see and feel it for what it is, and can see through the apparent split or controversy over right and wrong. If there seems to be a paradox involved, you’re the person most likely to be able to see right through it. This will come as a benefit to everyone.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- In all matters requiring leadership or your relationship to authority figures, you’ll need to proceed gently, seeking clarity at every turn. I suggest however that this be emotional clarity, which is to say, tap into where people are coming from on the level of feeling first, make contact with that and then figure out where they are coming from intellectually. This order of flow is from the easier mode to the more complex one, though connecting on the emotional level will make everything easier to see. You may feel a strong temptation to do otherwise, especially since others may be expressing an argumentative tone or quibbling over facts that don’t seem to matter much; that is exactly what I suggest you not get lost in. I also suggest you sidestep any direct use of power and not give any specific instructions until you have more information than you have today. The nice thing is you can afford to be empathic, and to honor people for who they are, even if they don’t necessarily notice you.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- In order to slip into the ease of your situation, you must also slip into the unknown, which may be intimidating or feel like you would totally lose yourself in the process. You would, but it would be somewhat like losing the feeling of being tired in order to feel rested, or losing feeling stuck in order to feel like you're free to move. The movement you seek at the moment may feel like an intellectual freedom, though in truth it’s the freedom to embrace your own process of emotional healing. Please go slowly if you're tempted to insert ‘spiritual healing'; where I see you ready to do the deepest work is on the level of trust, which pretty much makes anything else possible. In order to trust your environment, you would have to trust yourself first, and that is what the unusual astrology of the next few days describes. Make your decisions gently and remember, you are writing or sketching in pencil, not with a tattoo pen.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- Saturn in your sign is urging you to hold fast, while other factors are saying that you must dance with existence in a bold way, with the rhythm seeming to change from moment to moment. Yet you’re no longer dancing at the edge of a cliff, or under any threat to your existence. Your relationship to your fear has changed profoundly over the past six months, and this has changed your relationship to existence. Perhaps I may offer a point of clarification there. Imagine you live a life where you don’t fear that the universe or the world is a hostile place. It may not always be fully cooperative, but you know it’s not specifically hostile toward you. How would you live differently? At the moment you are being asked or feel compelled to change in some way that you know is profound, and that seems (correctly or not) like an either/or choice. How would this choice be different if you could proceed with trust in existence? Remember, fear ain’t what it used to be.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- You must feel like you’re headed to a new place, or to a new place in life, with some bold determination -- and you can afford to proceed with confidence. The fact that certain other people around you may lack cohesion or direction is not a reflection on you, and I suggest you not take it on, no matter how tempting that may seem. As the Moon rapidly builds toward full phase, exact in your sign on the 13th, you will need to keep your focus, slow down and make decisions more consciously. It will be increasingly important that you not be influenced, sidetracked or distracted by others, and the potential is definitely there. At the same time, as the days go by you will have the potential to be more reactive than usual, especially if you’re under the influence of alcohol. So between now and the 14th I suggest you be conscious, even scrupulous, about this. You are at a critical juncture in your life and I suggest you avoid setbacks and make every decision count.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- It's finally come to the point where what other people think does not matter, and it's got less influence on you than ever. Or certainly it can, while you take care of things that are absolutely not the business of anyone but yourself. One particular issue that may have been troubling you for ages is coming into focus, and you are in a position to do something about it. But to make full contact you have to pass through a kind of nonexistent barrier, similar to what used to be called the ‘sound barrier'. There is no boundary, just the fear of chaos, and the fear that your own sense of identity could be threatened by the healing process. I suggest you sit quietly with that and let the fear speak up even as you move forward. What you are seeking is also moving toward you, and when the meeting happens you won't have to cross the whole distance yourself.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- You are in an extended experimental moment, and this is the time to keep your mind open. For you that translates to exploring different patterns of communication, different topics, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. There are many ways to express yourself, and you have a few that you don’t use often. These possibilities may feel more tumultuous than you might expect under the current astrology, since the unknown comes along with the unpredictable and unexpected and that raises the question of unprepared. Oh, and possibly being perceived as such. I am, however, talking about words and ideas expressed and shared locally, not a spontaneous Broadway performance. Yet the fact of being known for what you express is indeed a factor that might be making you nervous. Be aware of an exaggeration effect with that; but what is not an exaggeration is how much you can learn from any experience of sharing anything you’ve created that has actually involved you taking a risk.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- There’s a way to experience the astrology of the next few days as a surge of confidence. There’s another way to experience it as everything coming unraveled. It might come across as fear of all the dark forces operating in you and the world, especially on the theme of sexuality, or it can manifest as a contact point with deep self-understanding. I would remind you that this is mostly a matter of perception, and that you have a choice in the matter as long as you see your options and consciously make a decision. The key will be this: if you feel like you’re losing control, don’t take that as a sign that you in fact are. Rather, take it as an invitation to focus, muster up your confidence and make a decision about how to proceed. There’s an emotional element to everything and I suggest you keep your focus there. This would be emotional with a direct connection to creative and sexual elements of who you are, remembering that these are a way to go deep into your primal nature. You don’t have to be civilized. Aware and real will work beautifully.

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