BY ERIC FRANCIS COPPOLINO
ARIES — Over the past month, a series of planets moving into your career and success angle describes you waking up to your ambitions. Tomorrow’s Full Moon in the domestic angle of your chart is reminding you to pace yourself, and not push yourself so hard. Rather, slow, steady progress is what will work the best for you. This also means having an actual home life. You may do this; it’s certainly one of your innate personality features, to center your life around your home. However, as work commitments pick up, you may forget to do this. If you feel yourself going out of balance, the place to restore that balance is your kitchen or bathtub. So take the time to make these places extra appealing, and from the first day of 2018, make sure your life is structured in such a way that points you toward home on a regular basis. While you’re at it, make sure your bedroom is the perfect pleasure salon.
TAURUS — Everyone must have a code that they live by. With my abundant knowledge of those born under the sign Taurus, I would remind you to keep your code flexible, and subject to new discoveries. I’ll give you two examples. Attorneys talk about the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law. One is based on a strict reading, and the other is based on the purpose a law is supposed to serve. Another example is how your passport says you’re responsible for following both laws and customs in the countries you visit, which any experienced traveler will tell you is right on point. Some would even say that customs are more important than laws, since that’s what people really care about. This is a reminder to hang loose. You’re a person who really cares about your integrity. You actually grapple with matters of right and wrong; this is part of your psychic foundation. So, easy does it.
GEMINI — If nothing else this year, you will come to terms with any fears of commitment that you may have. There has been an interesting evolution in your astrology lately, which represents a significant shift from the past nine years. You’ve had a way of associating commitment with people holding power over you. In many instances, this has turned out to be true, though the deeper question involves the ways in which you give away your power. Now that Saturn, the Sun and other planets have moved into Capricorn, you can see commitment as a way to claim your power, and to use it consciously. You will need to monitor each and every transaction in your life, and notice how you handle negotiations of any kind. Do you read contracts you sign? Do you have a rule against committing to anything you’re not sure you can do? And what about holding others to their promises to you? As you focus on these topics, the tables will gradually turn.
CANCER — It’s amazing how much can change in how little time. The sudden influx of many planets into Capricorn, your opposite sign, does two things, mainly. One is that it shifts the emphasis from Sagittarius, which is your work-related zone, and which was (to put it mildly) in a state of high pressure going back years. You may not have any less responsibility on your plate, though you’ll feel differently about it: better able to organize yourself, and feeling less like you must do everything at once. The second is that Saturn and other planets are now in your relationship house. This might feel like a missing piece showing up in your personal life. Saturn has a way of completing Capricorn, and will provide some solid substance into your social environment. Notably, from classical astrology, the association between Saturn and Capricorn is the strongest when it’s dark out. So get your work done and, as the old song goes, “Bring on the night.”
LEO — Everything in your chart points back to taking care of yourself. This has three components. The first and most important is emotional. At your best, you’re in contact with your feelings, and you respond to what your body is telling you. Second is making sure that you follow health regimens and medication schedules, and do all the things you need to do in order to stay healthy. Finally, there’s the matter of keeping your work in balance. Work is therapy for many Leos. It’s a way that you connect with your purpose, stay productive and do your part to hold the world together. Yet your chart now indicates that you both need and have help doing this. Don’t take everything on all by yourself. Let there be a discussion of what really needs to happen and how you’re going to work with others to get it done. Obviously you’re not the type to shirk responsibility or sacrifice quality. So there has to be another way, and that way is collaboration.
VIRGO — Virgo may be the most risk-averse sign. You might have been the type of kid who read the inside of the chocolate box so you knew which one you were biting into, and could select your favorite in advance. Your chart now describes you not just wanting to taste every last piece of chocolate, and not just wanting to eat them all, but also suddenly having the mad, wild passion to be a chocolatier. You want to know how it’s done — and do it yourself. That would make a fantastic way to orient your life: hand-made, homemade, the old way, as traditional as possible. You might try things like: if you’re going to make your own corn muffins, try grinding the cornmeal yourself. It’s easy to make your own yogurt, kombucha, bread and many things we take for granted. For you, this is not about being cool and artisanal. It’s about getting down to the basics of what it takes to live. It’s about making sure that you get what you pay for, and it’s truly all your own.
LIBRA — You may feel like the Master of Ceremonies for the holiday, though do your bit and then get off the stage. You have more important matters to tend to, mostly involving family and household. Your leadership is needed, and it turns out you’re the one person many people with different opinions and viewpoints have in common as someone they respect. This is something meaningful to remember about yourself, and why you need, at least, to maintain the appearance of objectivity. There are relatively few people in the world who are trusted by those who disagree on major points of discussion, and you have that particular asset. So, you must always present yourself as objective, which means willing to hear people out, and then do your best to evaluate all situations equitably. However, indecision is not an option; you must always seek, and find, a compromise that works for everyone — if you remember that there’s such a thing as the right thing.
SCORPIO — You may be feeling everything all at once, but you cannot say everything all at once. That may be complicated, because you also have a lot to say. You might start by shifting your speech to all that is friendly and loving. Emphasize the positive in everything. It’s easy to be a critic, and more challenging to see the one genuinely impressive thing about whatever anyone is doing. This same attitude will shine its light back onto you, as you notice what you’re doing right rather than what’s not going so well. You may feel it’s insincere to focus the discussion on the beautiful element of what otherwise might be lacking, though there’s a philosophical issue underneath that: in making improvements in anything, do you fix what’s wrong, or develop what works? There’s more to this question than is obvious. An extended real-time experiment is in order. Anyway, no matter how much one fixes or eliminates what’s wrong, that does not create a positive. Also, humans proceed most successfully on the basis of motivation.
SAGITTARIUS — If you’re concerned that you might take things too far, go out of control, or lose your cool, you can test that out and push your limits — on every topic but one. That one thing would be alcohol, or any seriously mind-bending substance. This “weather advisory” will be in effect for months. It’s saying, essentially, err on the side of caution. That doesn’t mean go straight-edge; it means use your common sense. Respect the idea of moderation, and keep tomorrow in mind. You’re still early in a phase of your life where some heavy constraints have finally been lifted. You’re now off-leash, free-roaming and unregulated, except by yourself. So you need to dial the responsibility piece up by just a little, and make sure your actions are in accord with your values. Check that your values, in turn, are flexible enough to adapt to any new situation. The best place to do any potentially risky or adventurous experimentation is safely behind your front door.
CAPRICORN — Stop yourself every time you notice yourself say, “But what would my [mother/father/family] think?” This may be subtle; it may be below the level of tangible inner dialog, though the message will still come through. It might relate to any aspect of your personality from work-related choices to the fun you want to have to your most intimate relationships. One point of growth you’re experiencing is your desire to open up your sexual horizons, right when doing so might encounter the nagging voices of authority figures from the past. This could be such a seemingly natural part of your psychic makeup that you’ve just learned how to live with them. But now there’s a showdown: how long are you going to let yourself be caught in the spider web of taboo, especially if you know that web (and the spider) is in your own mind? On our planet, anyway, there’s no approach to self-actualization that does not involve fully claiming, owning and setting your own standards around sexuality. And having your own rules usually means breaking everyone else’s.
AQUARIUS — One of the great themes of this era in your life is noticing the ways in which what seem to be your own choices, life patterns and personality traits are really a response to someone else’s needs and desires. Your chart describes you in a state of questioning and releasing those patterns, only to be taken deeper, so you can investigate their source. There’s no reason why, today, you should be walking around worrying about the same things that troubled your ancestors two or three generations back. There’s no actual reason why you should be stuck in their hang-ups, their political views, and their turf wars over what is true and what is not. If you are seeking independence, foster that first as your ability to see, and then question, the influence of the past on the present. Life is not about living up to anyone’s expectations, or expecting the world to live up to yours. It’s about something a lot better.
PISCES — On New Year’s Day, there’s a Full Moon in your fellow water sign Cancer. This is a reminder, valid through the year, to emphasize having a good time. You have invested plenty of energy into your work, reputation and career, which seemed to reach a frenzy in the second half of 2017. I’m not suggesting that you slack off, but rather set yourself into cruise mode rather than climbing mode, and devote some of the excess energy to the pleasures of living. You are a Pisces. Pleasure-seeking is a form of spirituality to you, perhaps the most important one. There are plenty of influences guiding you to be pure and wholesome, to maintain a good image and to be grounded. Those need to be counteracted by your conscious choice to have fun. In this project, discipline will come in handy. Work before play is a useful ethic, as long as you remember to do both every day.
