You can read the rest of Aquasphere at this link.

With Uranus now electrifying the waters of Pisces, it might seem easy to overstate the case of what a momentous and formative era this is for you, cousin fish. But I don’t think that’s a problem. Overstatement is not the issue; accuracy is.

Aggregate Anemones, Vancover Island, BC. Photo by Bev Dulis http://waterworksdesign.net

I said recently that it’s not “your life” that’s changing. You are changing, and your life is shifting, stretching and bending to accommodate you.

It is accurate to say that both your creative power and your yearning for freedom are growing in equal and somewhat shocking measure, and that these make a good combination. Your appetite for life is returning as if from nowhere, and that’s a sign that you’re growing healthier and stronger. A sense of restlessness that set in last year around your birthday has taken hold of you fully, and now, nothing that once seemed impossible, daunting or too dangerous to consider – or too positive, liberating or amazing — is beyond serious consideration.

Please ask yourself, and tell me: are you starting to really get it that anything is truly possible, and that anything is possible for you? The great thing is that, for some reason, this is not scary any more. I see you ready to revolt against all those who held you down, but it’s a revolution of creative fire, not of anger or discontent. There is a big difference, as you’ll see.

The Venus-Sun conjunction of late spring happens in your 4th solar house, Gemini. This offers you something very strange for a Pisces: a sense of worldly security. There’s also the promise that a dualism (i.e., a stressful schizophrenic emotional influence) from childhood resolves itself. This opens you up to an entirely new emotional perspective. There may be a major change or substantial improvement in the life of a parent; something rare to see and feel. I suggest you participate to the degree that feels appropriate for you; know what that is.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

In 12 years of writing annual horoscopes — as of this year, one edition for every sign of the zodiac — I’ve never looked at the charts and thought: Man, I’m glad I’ve been at this for a while. Not until now, that is.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Given the care with which my words are read, I do my best to get it right. I do this knowing there’s not really a right to be got. Astrology is interpretive. When I suggest what is happening in your life or what theme might offer some insight or comfort, I’m using intuition to guide me through a wide range of choices shown in the charts. So I need an internal ideal to aim for; and for me that is following the planets in the direction of a compassionate unfolding of our personal stories.

I look for the best possibilities in the aspects, and at the same time I view them as calculus equations to be resolved creatively. The planets never present a problem without offering a solution. The art of astrology is about working your way from one to the other, then putting that into words.

When the sky is really amazingly exciting, I’ve learned to take a mellow approach to describing it. It would be easy to get caught in all the promise and forget the obstacles that so often crop up on the way to getting there. Those are generally interior: false beliefs we hold about ourselves; our relationship commitments, which are not designed to help us open our potential as much as to offer a kind of delicate stability; our emotional entanglements, which eat energy but which don’t feed us; our fears and that lurking sense of not quite belonging.

I try to get underneath these and see them as the temporary situations that they are; not as actual problems. If I’ve addressed the points of resistance or the stumbling blocks, maybe I’ve helped open the way to your potential. I offer some ideas; you do the work (and often send some great ideas back).

Continued for Subscribers to Cosmic Confidential

Wow…its 9 pm. I’ve been here at Joshua’s restaurant in Woodstock since 1 pm, working on Cosmic Confidential. Long day. For days and days I was writing at Taco Juan’s, where for some reason I always get a lot done…but on Christmas Eve, Bob (the owner; Taco Juan is just the name) suggested that I find a new place to write because it would be too busy on such a mad shopping day; so I discovered the cafe upstairs at Joshua’s, with big windows overlooking town, Wifi, great food, a coffee bar and a cool staff. So I’ve kind of moved in — what a great space.

Self portrait in the famous, chilly, incense soaked, graffiti-strewn bathroom at Taco Juan's in Woodsock.

Sunday, most of my energy went into the Cancer edition, which looks like the first sign I’m going to finish. It’s close and that’s always an exciting turning point in the annual project. The first turning point was the ‘short edition’ of the annual — the January monthly horoscope. This is about double the length of a normal monthly (about 380 words per sign — in magazine horoscopes you have to know this…a usual monthly is 225 words per sign and a usual weekly is currently 135 words per sign).

The ‘short annual’/January monthly is a complete annual edition by itself, covering all 12 signs with a rockin’ introduction; though it’s much more focused on theme rather than specific interpretations or working out the kinds of psychological puzzles I’m tackling in Cosmic Confidential. [Note, this edition will be distributed Tuesday to all CC and PW subscribers.] I’m actually surprised at the depth that I’m getting out of the charts, but then these transits in 2010 are are high energy, and big planets are on the move, changing signs and/or making aspects that will help us turn the page of history — that tends to make it it easier.

I am doing this year’s annual differently — in modules, based on aspects. About one week ago, I started the module on Mars retrograde in Leo (at the back corner table at Taco Juan’s of course), taking about three working days and going around all 12 signs. Since then I’ve been coming back to that every day (save for Christmas) and rewritten a little more every day – and that’s where I caught the groove of writing (after months of research and preparation).

We have a lot of spectacular astrology in 2010, and I’ve researched many layers; the first aspect that I went around the signs on was Mars retrograde. I think Mars retrograde is the heart of the matter; the heavy lifting of 2010; the deeply introspective astrology in a year of really, really extroverted astrology. Many changes in the world, with a focal point i the spring; Mars retrograde in Leo is saying: find yourself and get ready.

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As a journalist, I am trained to stand in the sidelines of life and observe its events. But as a person, I have taught myself to enter life as fully as possible and participate directly. For many years, I struggled with this division between person and journalist, often getting directly involved in the events of my stories, at times feeling guilty about it, at times being accused of “lack of objectivity” while knowing objectivity is impossible, and yet at other times feeling like I was just pretending to be alive in the times I was merely a writer/observer. This kind of crisis is typically Aquarian, for it is often the way of this archetype to detach and observe, while craving real emotional contact, participation and surrender to the events of life.

Several years ago, I received the Indian sacrament of Darsan (pronounced ‘darshan’) from Ammachi, a sage who is viewed with the respect of an enlightened master by her culture and her followers. I went as a seeker, but as a journalist I am always in observation mode as well, and ready to tell the story. The long evening culminated in a marriage, and I went back inside to watch the ceremony. The couple was wed, the orchestra of swamis and disciples raised the strange Eastern music to a thundering, joyous climax, the packed crowd swirled in a circle, and Ms. Ammachi stood in her sweet, childlike majesty and tossed pounds of blessed flower petals onto the mass of people. The Hindus sure put on an amazing show! I stood next to the stage, at the dividing line “the event itself” and “those experiencing it” where I like to hang out.

It was there, in that moment, that the internal wall within me burst open. I was moved to a flood of tears, at once seeing and being, watching and engaging, knowing and believing, all with total freedom and trust in myself; and in an instant knew that I was now free to live fully, at once, as participant and fully as observer, and that I could now observe as one directly involved and report my findings to the human race. In the year to come, my Aquarian cousin, you may feel like you’re at the last stand between two colliding systems of thought or belief. They have been in an uncomfortable war for some time, and it is a war against yourself. What you are really trying to do is find a way to make them both real at once. Many say it cannot be done. It is possible, as long as you remember that you don’t have to sacrifice one or the other aspect of who you really are in order to be a real person; or rather, that you don’t have to sacrifice anything.

Note, this post will stick to the top. New diary updates are below. Additional information is at the “about” link to the right.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Cosmic Confidential: A Future Investigation is the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. As I’m working through this, our 12th annual, I’m wondering if I’m describing it right — so here’s another gander. What this project actually offers are detailed, extended horoscope readings each of the 12 zodiac signs and rising signs. By detailed, I am able to bring a rare gift as an astrology writer to the work and, without needing your birth data, create a useful, easy to work with interpretation of your astrology for the next four or five seasons. Oh, I forgot to mention affordable. I am designing Cosmic Confidential to be the best value for your money compared to any other astrology product on the market — with a money-back guarantee.

I do this using the same technique as I use in my monthly and weekly horoscopes, which have been in print since 1995. [Here is an example, my December 2009 monthly horoscope.] My basic method is to use a combination of transits (the movements of planets in realtime) plus extensive experience working with transits — then communicating them in the clearest way possible. The main difference between this and my other horoscopes is that I take a longer view, and I don’t have a strict word count to stick to. The result is a generous helping of your astrology, in a way that you can only get from Planet Waves.

Months of research and development precede the actual writing. These expert astrology readings cover money, relationships, sexuality, creative and professional activities, your children and other more philosophical and spiritual issues. Rather than being predictive, they are designed as a self-empowerment tool.

You will learn about the effects of Mars retrograde, the amazing Chiron activity we’re now experiencing, Saturn in Libra, the Saturn-Pluto square and other potent astrology that is shaping our lives and our moment in history. Everything in Cosmic Confidential is written so that a human being can understand it: easy to understand and to apply to your life, if you so choose.

Cosmic Confidential has many other features, including a set of four Key Life Transit reports that look at your astrology by age range rather than by sign. If you’re familiar with astrology terms, I cover the first and second Saturn returns (ages 28-31 and 56 to 58), the Pluto square (age 34-35) the Uranian opposition (age 38-42), and a diversity of Chiron transits, at least one of which will cover those over the age of 60. We are all at one of these transits, leaving one or heading into a new one — and so are many of the people that we live among.

Cosmic Confidential is written to apply to your Sun sign and your rising sign. I suggest you read both — and read those of close partners or family members you’re concerned about.

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