THERE IS a big difference between fantasy and reality, or so we are told. We forget that the one thing they have in common is more impressive than both combined: consciousness itself. Or we could say the one thing they have in common is you.

I truly doubt this phenomenon has escaped you. Though Saggies get all the credit, Geminis ask a heck of a lot of questions, and the personalities of many are defined by their obsessive curiosity. And much of what you are curious about is yourself.

Because your mind is a particularly vivid, even tactile space, maybe you can even feel the power of your thought to synthesize reality. It may even be that you can actually hear the voices of your imagination as sound, and sense the things you think even though they are not actually solid.

To imagine may at times feel so much like experience as to render the difference between the two meaningless. That is, until you want some actual reality, which you're not so bad at conjuring. But there are other times when it doesn't seem to happen. And those times can be frustrating, because the tangible detail with which you're able to sense your thoughts cannot always find a place on Earth.

There is a frequent parable from the world of sexuality, told by (some) people who attempt to live out their fantasies: the reality did not live up. Well, fantasy and reality are different; the mental picture is often more vivid than the physical reality; and hey, reality deserves a few chances. If you're someone who has wanted to do something for a long time and tried it once, and decided it wasn't what you wanted, I suggest you give it at least three excursions. Then make up your mind. And this doesn't go just for sex; it counts for the intercourse that is experience; the interpenetration that is life; the seduction that is surrender to deeper layers of who you are.

Dreams to Reality

The first order of 2006 is that you're discovering a considerably greater ability to transpose from the dream or fantasy realm to the tangible realm, and the first wave of this newfound talent, now in effect, may feel a little like putting a 14-year-old behind the wheel of a Porsche. Reality is very, very responsive at the moment. If you don't believe me, try it.

Thoughts and ideas may manifest with stunning speed into reality, having effects in your relationships, shifting your environment and generally bending life to your will -- or to some deeper will you discover you contain. Remember that intention exists on several levels. We have what we think we want, there is that "superconscious" level where Spirit acts through us; and then there is what we just happen to do. It's not always easy sorting out these layers and the results of taking action or expressing intentions are not always so peachy.

This may be a bit frightening, but you cannot let it stop you. You need to experiment with your conjuring ability so you can actually believe it's real, so you can get in the habit of trusting yourself, and most of all, so you can get plenty of practice. Cops practice their guns, fireguys practice their hoses, bowlers keep rolling the ball. You need to work with your intentions, see what comes back, see if you like it, and then make adjustments and try again.

Meanwhile, who knows how people are going to respond when you start playing Merlin in the living room. Maybe people will be thrilled; hopefully you share some common tastes with the people closest to you. However, it's reasonable to expect some disagreements or minor shocks to your environment as you implement your version of reality. I recommend having verbal conversations with people while you're in your decision process, at appropriate moments either when you're making up your mind, or when you've done so (as you choose, depending on your confidence level). You may want to go as far as saying to people, "This is what I am going to do with my life. Are there any objections from the peanut gallery?"

Okay you can skip the peanut gallery comment, but in truth the opinions of others must take second priority to your own needs. Yes, there needs to be an egalitarian element to life. However, for a very, very long time -- indeed, for the entire adult lives of some younger readers, and beyond -- you have lived in an atmosphere where it seemed like you were subjected to every power but your own. (Hello, Pluto in your opposite sign; big grin; flail arms and wave.)

The Pluto Years Come to a Peak

This has happened so many times and so many ways you probably don't want to even think about it, and you may have decided that these limits would stick and nothing else was possible; indeed, just in time for the opposite to become true. But now the Pluto in Sagittarius years are coming to their stunning climax, and everybody who has been doing their Pluto work (soul evolution, spiritual study, take ethics seriously, deal with your power) will be seeing the cumulative results of their efforts.

Moralizing about why you had to live under these conditions would be pointless; the issue was not moral (it never is with Pluto) -- it was experiential, and every person is on this Earth learning about their power, the limits on its expression, and how to conduct themselves in relationship to others. Much of this is a direct function of how we perceive ourselves and the world. If we believe there is a limit, we will respond as if there is one, be it there or not; if we believe there is no limit, we can have an odd way of walking right through a solid barrier.

For many reasons, it happens that you've been unusually open to the influence of those who played a role in these experiences and, for reasons that will become obvious, you were drawn to them. Obvious, because you have to learn from somewhere, and people tend to learn from example and experience. Both involve other people, most of the time. Yet now, experience is going to a new level, and the people who once served as your exemplars will stand back a bit and give you space to shine, as you take up your talents consciously.

Now, the funny part is that you'll be feeling a lot of "deja vu all over again," as you realize you're not learning, trying, experiencing or daring any of this for the first time. Because there have been so many thick chapters to your existence, and turning points where you spun around 14 times before going in a new direction, you've had an odd propensity to temporarily forget the past. This is an improvement over those who obsess over the past, wallow in it or worship it.

You, on the other hand, will more have the experience of noticing, "Oh, I've handled this before." And it was not just in your mind, your dreams, or in books. Be realistic! Saturn passed through your 1st and 2nd houses (Gemini and Cancer) between 2000 and last summer, and you not only actually survived. Survival amounts to learning how to experience change both on the level of endurance and adaptation, at times extreme.

Yay! More Outer Planets

In contrast, the outer planet transits that take effect this year -- principally, Saturn opposing Neptune -- will seem minor by comparison. They will be real, you will notice them, but the difference will be that of a novice sailor and an experienced hand sailing through the environment. Hopefully. Neptune is tricky; Saturn is a serious dude; we have not experienced them acting together at full strength for quite a few years. Saturn in Gemini opposite Pluto in Sagittarius (i.e., Sept. 11, through late 2002) was no joke for you. You have a lot of experience with outer planets, and with Saturn, and you will do fine.

What is different about this transit, because it involves Saturn and Neptune, is that reality itself, the physical one, is likely to have a nebulous quality, where decisions seem less sharp-edged and perceptions seem less definite. In other words, we could say that the physical world is taking on the properties of what most people experience as fantasy, and for you, fantasy will seem much more real. But reality is actually what counts, at least if you're reading my horoscope column.

You have been accustomed to clear alternatives or compelled one-way "decisions" and enforced changes. Those are actually fairly easy to cope with. What I am seeing is your upcoming choices having a property of an odd ambivalence. Part of where I see this is because Mercury, the Gemini planet, spends much of its time in water signs this year. Not only that, it will make a couple of palpable movements between fire signs and water signs. It's like: wow, things are so clear, this is want I MUST do (fire sign); oh, well, I don't know how I feel, I had better stop and feel it for a while (water sign); I have the right to change my mind (fire sign); and hey it doesn't matter so much anyway (water sign).

There may also be a certain moral ambiguity, which is usually a good thing if it gets you to think about what is right for you. And yes, it is not about morals and it is all about how you feel, and the great benefit is that you will experience yet another dimension of how your feelings change. The result will be to compel you to get to know yourself, well, even better than you have lately, which is saying a heck of a lot.

Active, Not Passive; not Passive, but rather, Active

This is no passive process, and it's not for nothing. Indeed, you are going through this new set of experiences specifically for something and as part of getting clear about what you think, how you think it, what it means, and how to inform people of all of this.

Two of the most important houses in your chart, the 3rd (Leo) and 9th (Aquarius), are being activated by the soon-to-be-deeply-respected Saturn-Neptune opposition.

One last and not so minor point:

As I have mentioned, one of the transits that's been vitally influential in your life has been Pluto in your opposite sign, Sagittarius. This transit has been quite a saga, having had its peak in 2001 and 2002 and many significant mountains, plateaus and dark valleys along the way.

Now, this transit reaches a peak beyond all the others, one that will quite literally make the world seem like a small and at times insignificant place: Pluto crosses over the Galactic Core. Since this has never happened even in the entire history of the United States, there is no saying exactly what the influence will be. But it's likely to shine the light through a lot of the insanity of the world, and point the way for many people to a frame of mind that truly has the power of transcendence.

You may once again find yourself in a space where the people, events and even the scenery surrounding you all seem to tower over you. And even in the midst of these experiences, you will need to summon from your depths the most vital experience of all that has shaped your life -- which is the sense of being equal to the world around you.

You've done lots of this; yet you may feel this will be all the more difficult for involving such a shift in scale. I suggest, however, that it may be easier this time around, in part because you've got some practice, but more to the point, because you will feel the beauty and urgency of the moment and many petty cares will drop into oblivion under the influence of two such prodigious influences as Pluto and the Galactic Core. Just what this will be or who it will involve, we don't know, and it's best not to predict.

Gemini is the sign of predictable surprises and strange but steady rhythms. Its fast changes are something we all must get accustomed to, but ultimately they are part of normal life. What is happening as we embark on the next few seasons is anything but normal. One direct result of this shift in scale is to allow your mind to conceive of the collective level, the global community and the living body of ideas that runs timelessly through the human experience. For most people, this is little more than a vague sense, something they hear about in an occasional movie with a philosophical bent, or worse, something that does not exist at all in the world where there is only football.

For many moons, life has been conspiring to push you into the bigger world, the one beyond your ideas and well past experiences, and those of your parents, and your significant others. You have stretched and considered your ideas about Divinity, even some that were daunting and shocking and really cool. Often, it has been the nature of confrontations that have succeeded in drawing you out of yourself; out of your internal dialog; out of your imagination; and into the world, physical and sensory and tangible, where you can meet the day, or in this case, the Galactic Dawn.