Today's column appears courtesy of Jonathan Cainer, http://cainer.com/
Thought of the Day
The horoscope is an undeveloped medium. I think it would work better taken out of the hands of mere writers and given to film directors and other truly creative people. For example, we could have the Alfred Hitchcock horoscope, which would be more terrifying each minute, but undeniably brilliant. The Fellini horoscope would only apply to 8-1/2 hours of your day. In the Warhol version, every sign's forecast would be identical, with just one syllable changed. You would need to partially strip before reading the incredibly vulgar "Last Horoscope in Paris." Michael Moore's horoscope would be based on ambush video footage of your private life. In "Sex, Lies and Horoscopes," you would confess everything to the astrologer. The Dali horoscope would create extra signs and days of the week. In the Beatles horoscope, the words would have to be read backwards for their true meaning. The Tony Blair horoscope would be based on imaginary or nonexistent charts.
Aries (March 20-April 19)
Everything is negotiable and you are in an excellent position to begin the conversation. Your real power is in your compelling ideas rather than your hard-driving bargaining; as you've seen lately, there are limits to muscle power, and banging heads gets tiresome. You can start by making the assumption that what's important to you actually means something, which will take you off the defensive. Next, stop worrying about whether you have enough resources to get the job done. Then don't tell everyone how brilliant you are; show them. It's far more entertaining for the rest of us.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
The aftershocks of last week's eclipse are still rattling around your chart and your heart, but think of it this way. The world has been a pretty uptight place, and the cracks in reality that have opened up are giving you room to breathe, think, change and see a little light. Yet results of what you've endured and what you're creating have yet to manifest fully. Developments brewing in one particular relationship will provide a vivid contrast between truth and lies, and show you a few options for what to do when you feel like you've got no options.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You may think you're in some kind of no-win situation with respect to family or marital responsibilities. Or the rules of your household may clash with the rules you prefer to live by amongst friends. Meantime, a story developing on the work front is telling you the extent to which you've sacrificed your freedom to get a job done. These situations all represent your attempt to meet the world on its terms rather than insisting that it meet you on yours. Experiment with the power of being resolutely who you are. People who want to deal with you can adapt, and they will.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You've grown accustomed to taking one kind of risk to the exclusion of many others. It's become habitual, but the rather unusual developments of recent days and weeks are showing you that there is in fact a difference between the past and the future. While you could argue that some kind of invisible force is compelling you to hold back the most creative aspects of your personality, in fact you're doing an impressive job of advancing your quest for artistic freedom. And while some habits are hard to break, there are those times when nature comes along and does it for us.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
On many accounts, you're being called to bigger and better things. At the same time you're being drawn to a role in the community that is testing, pushing and developing your most creative gifts. I assume you already know this, but in case you don't, you're being summoned to give publicly what you have for so long developed privately. You are in a position akin to a painter compelled by circumstances to speak about your ideas, or to write about your theories rather than just living them. Play along with the game; you'll be glad you did.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
I don't exactly want to be the next astrologer in line to tell you that you think too much, but what the heck. You think too much. While you've been pondering this and that, I have a feeling you've rather severely underestimated your negotiating position, but it's not too late to close the deal in your favor. That's another way of saying not selling out to interests that you have no desire to serve. Remember that you promised yourself there were certain points on which you would not compromise. Keep that promise and then watch what happens.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
There exists a useful homeopathic remedy called pulsatilla. You could probably give this to the majority of women and many men and get good results. The remedy treats people who yield to the will of others but actually have a kind of steel bar inside preventing them from flexing and swaying with the natural pulses of life. Something has come to a showdown. The match hardly seems fair or equal. You cannot just go merrily along pretending everything is dandy. And you cannot stand like a pillar of concrete. All you can do is change, and be thankful that you can.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
An urgent situation is compelling you to plunge headlong into a relationship matter, and it appears to be diving into you with equal intensity. Usually you can resist, but suddenly the pull is twice as strong, as if the hormones have been turned up. I don't recommend kicking, screaming or slithering in any form. This is a situation that calls for direct engagement, direct response and full indulgence. Recent experiences have proven it's possible to experience total involvement in someone or something and not forget the fact that you exist. The raw pleasure of this encounter should be a good reminder.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
Quite a bit hinges on you, true enough. And you may have the notion, "If I don't dare, no one else will." That is usually true enough as well. You are, after all, a Sagittarian and the normal rules of reality exist in your estimation to be rewritten by you and made more sensible. Let's begin with the practical. Something that was supposed to be a lot of fun has turned out to be the source of enormous chaos. A risk that was supposed to work feels more like having your finger caught in a mousetrap. But have a little faith. If a mousetrap is involved, you merely invented a better one.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
No, this is not quite what you bargained for, but forget that for a moment. Most fortunately, life is not something you order from the catalogue. Yet I suggest you've written every single limitation you face into the script of existence. If you take credit for the way things are, you'll begin to see the virtue of your position and the strength of your opportunities. So little can go wrong at the moment that you have nothing to lose at all by adopting this viewpoint. Not to be a pessimist or anything, but at worst, pure random chance has landed you upright on your feet.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Nobody really knows an Aquarian. Would you agree? Yet there seems little worth fretting over this when the more pressing matter is that you so rarely feel you know yourself. This week something new has got into you. Amazingly you have not even been Born Again or joined the Krishnas. You are discovering the feeling of being more rooted into solid earth. Yes, a rare planetary alignment is at work. Yes, you have remained dutifully dedicated to something since around May 2000. But more lately and more important, you are changing your mind about how you treat the little kid in your heart.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
You are generally not the master of structure and make a better opera star than stage manager. And while there are some who would say you're currently up for the Royal Anarchist of the Year award, you know that a real measure of stability is entering your life. The benefit of structure is that it provides channels for the creative use of energy. The key has been honoring your freedom above all else, then consciously engaging in relationships that have the primary quality of being supportive rather than oppressive. Your latest stroke of genius has been discovering there is a difference.
