horoscopes

The world cannot run on the basis of anarchy. There must be a guiding principle, and if it does not come from inside of us, it will be imposed (far less pleasantly) from outside. Saturn in Sagittarius conjunct the Galactic Core is reminding you, in ways large and small, that you must have and live by actual ethical principles. Sagittarius is your house of spirituality and what you might think of as 'higher being', and what this translates to is how you run your life, how you treat people, and the code you live by. The stakes are high, because what you work out now will lay the foundation for your future success when Saturn enters Capricorn, your house of responsibility and success, later in the year. Now is the time to do your cleanup work; to make amends for any past transgressions; and to practice using the power that you have in a fair-minded way. 

Venus was retrograde through much of the spring, and the process is still developing. The essence of this process, if we could call it that, is about determining where you begin and where the world ends. Normal human consciousness tends to exclude others. This thing we call the self perceives its being as the center of the universe, and to a point, that is true. Without your consciousness, the world would not exist, to you. Yet that's a point of beginning, because were that all there is, life would be incredibly lonely -- and it is, for many people. Venus retrograde, ending in a conjunction to Chiron in Pisces, brought some lesson about vulnerability and availability. To relate to others, you must be open and you must be vulnerable, or no exchange is possible. The question is, can you center your awareness on yourself, and still be open to empathy, sharing and receiving what others offer you? 

Mars in your sign is granting you powers of language, charisma and moxie. There's nothing like the god of war visiting one's sign to pluck up one's courage, and this you have. Yet there's an important word of caution, and a balancing factor. Mars will be square Neptune for much of the month. This suggests that people will believe anything you say, whether it's true or not -- and that you might believe anything you say, whether it's true or not. In fact the more you believe what you say, the more others will. So the message of this transit, which peaks on May 11, is that honesty is the only policy. You may get a thrill when your words are taken on authority. But this is a power that must be used carefully and cautiously, and in service of the greater good for all concerned.

Track your fear level carefully this month. That's to say, before responding or reacting to any anxiety you may feel, notice that you're feeling it. On our whole planet, the level of fear and aggression seems to be rising toward some nondescript boiling point. In a sense, it's the essence of the times we're living in, and an undisputable part of our environment. You have a useful periscope into this now, and what you learn about yourself and the methods that you develop can help you and many others. It would seem that this is part of your professional calling, which might mean that it's an aspect of your current job, or something you want to do in the near future. In any such event, you seem to be a first-responder and on the front lines of making the world a better place. 

Of the many, many things it's possible for you to do, you must narrow your possibilities down -- so that you can do any of them. Right now your mind is teeming with ideas, which are not just about what you can do, but also who you want to be. You might focus on the relationship between doing and being: what do you do that inspires you to live the way you want to live? If you were exactly who you wanted to be, what would you do? You might want to narrow the possibilities by choosing the one thing that feels most intuitively right, and do that for a while. One clue that you're conducting a valid experiment is that you may feel like you're too narrowly focused. It's a little like new shoes: you need enough room to wiggle your toes, but you don't want them to be loose. 

Your life may be a maze of financial concerns, joint partnership issues, and you wanting to be free of the whole mess. Be assured that what is happening is indeed designed to liberate you from all that complexity, though this may take a radical solution of some kind. You simply must look at the numbers in an orderly way, such as in a spreadsheet that describes who is paying how much for what, and how often. Use your analytical mind to ascertain the most basic facts, and then you can decide how you feel and what you want to do. Your life is more solid than you may think, and any feeling of being on shaky ground is directly rooted in what information you're lacking about your own reality Like a good reporter, you must be willing to question everything you see and hear, crosscheck everything, and get the facts and figures. 

Society puts enormous pressure on people to be in a certain kind of relationship, without which one does not feel like a person. Think of this as a kind of predatory lending: for example, sending someone a credit card with a high limit, and ensnaring them in debt. Like advertising, this drive to be in a certain kind of relationship plays on people's insecurities and their deepest needs, which it then purports to fulfill. You don't need that kind of relationship; you need the real thing. Any disruption or shakeup of your current partnership life is designed to help you distinguish the difference, and guide you closer to what you actually need. When you do all the calculus on what society calls relating, much of it turns out to be projection. That's to say, we're largely relating to images and feelings that are shining out of our own mind, showing us something about who we are.

This is good news for many Scorpios: the sex angles of your chart could power up a major metropolitan area. The bad news is that in 2017, about half the population thinks that's just a terrible thing; it's just that sex is so real and challenging and makes you confront yourself and your feelings. And it's risky and then things go crazy and nobody knows what to do. Two problems underlie all of this. Number one is, it verges on impossible for most people to speak honestly about desire. Number two is guilt. You have some beautiful potential open, for every kind of relating: emotional, erotic, experimental and whatever else you might call it, though it'll be impossible to get there unless you can be honest about desire and understand that guilt is merely a social control tool that has nothing whatsoever to do with being wrong.

Saturn's presence in your birth sign describes this as one of the most important times in your life. This is the transit that's about fundamentally coming to terms with yourself. It may seem like someone is imposing limits on you, but that's the Saturn principle: what you don't structure in your own life gets structured for you (i.e., criminals who cannot control themselves run the risk of prison, which is a rather structured life). Right now your chart is exploding with creativity and, thankfully, at the same time, Saturn is making itself known. These two things are not only happening conveniently at the right time: it's a miracle of karma that they are; or rather, a perfectly paired combination of factors to cultivate you into a fully functioning artist, musician, writer, healer or whatever form of mature adult you want to be. 

From the look of your solar chart, family or household matters have recently come to a head -- and you're wondering what to do. The question is, whose business is this? Is it really yours? Or are you haplessly being drawn into someone else's drama? And if this has happened before, how hapless can it be? I recognize that the notion of false security is alluring, especially if you think it's the only security there is. Emotional independence may seem frightening. Closer to the point, though, is that craziness and chaos serves a purpose, which is to distract you from your purpose. Why would you want that? Well, to some, success is terrifying. After all, you can fail. But does that make any sense at all? You seem to be a hostage of a situation that's nothing more than a distraction. Meanwhile, you have work to do, and there's fun you want to have. Get busy!

Your mind is on fire these days, and you might want to cool it off by a few degrees. Just a little air conditioning for the high-tech equipment that is your inner creative shop. Here's the thing to remember: Your productivity and creativity are not actually mental. You would be more productive and creative if you diverted some of your energy into emotional intelligence, which is about listening and feeling rather than brainstorming. It's a holistic and integrated approach to thought. It's slower, it's deeper and it works better. The Sun moving through Taurus is summoning you to do this: to get in contact with the inner ground of your own being and approach life from that perspective. It's difficult to do while you're plugged into a computer, phone or TV. You will think different thoughts and have different ideas when you're sitting in the woods or even a park, or when you have a musical instrument or drawing pencils in your hand.

Planets are once again gathering in Aries, including fast-movers Mercury and Venus, along with mighty slow-movers Uranus and Eris. Then there's Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom and strategy. This is the time to engineer your financial independence. You have everything you need: the talent, the motivation and the ideas. The astrology is describing you pushed to the point of having momentary flashes of actual genius. You merely need to pluck up some confidence in yourself, and do a bold assessment of your talents and what you can do with them. This will partly be based on a review and evaluation of what you've done in the past, mostly to remind yourself what's possible. And it will mostly be based on an entirely new concept that sparks your imagination, and takes advantage of an opening where your preparation meets an opportunity that few other people are looking at.