By ERIC FRANCIS COPPOLINO
ARIES — If you encounter resistance, check your own beliefs. It’s likely that any strain or pushback is coming from within your own mind rather than from your outer environment. One would think that the ability to alter one’s thoughts would be the easiest thing in the world, with a tool as flexible and as brilliant as the human brain. It turns out, however, that changing one’s thoughts is one of the biggest struggles that most people go through. However, your ideas and your beliefs are indeed changing, particularly where relationships are concerned. You don’t have to do much to facilitate this, except to not put up tons of resistance, or cling to your beliefs on the level of a religious fundamentalist. Jupiter is about to enter Scorpio, which you’re fortunate to have as your 8th solar house. That means you can go as deep as you’re willing to let yourself be free.
TAURUS — Move carefully this week, not walking on eggshells but treading lightly on the Earth. Jupiter ingressing your opposite sign Scorpio will place emphasis not just on your relationships but on your presence in the world. Everything is about to be magnified, and amplified, and made more vivid. You’re about to discover what a large world you inhabit, and how influential you are in it. Yet you must handle this power carefully, like a musician standing on a stage with an electric instrument that sends the slightest touch of her hands reverberating out into the environment. Notice the new dynamics of your surroundings as they take shape. Start by speaking softly, to get a sense of how your voice fills up the space you’re in, and influences people’s feelings and ideas. Then, experiment with turning up the energy, a little at a time. And remember, you are still you, no matter what is happening around you.
GEMINI — Honor what inspires you, what makes you curious, what stokes your creativity and passion. These things all work together to support your journey in the world: curiosity, creativity and passion. When in doubt, revert to being curious. You have unusual access to apprehend the world with the stark fascination of a small child. That means letting yourself intentionally be a little naïve, and approaching the world as if you know nothing about it. Once you start judging things, you stop learning about them; if you hold open that conclusive part of your mind, you’ll leave plenty of room for direct experience to pour in. What you’ll discover is that you can trust your curiosity, and that it will dependably lead you to interesting places. Some will be beautiful and others will not; choose what you want as a conscious act. You don’t have to fixate on anything you don’t want to.
CANCER — At least early in the week, your feelings are not the best indicator of whether something is trustworthy or not; you will need to validate your hunches other ways. Yet as Jupiter enters your fellow water sign Scorpio on Tuesday, and then the Moon enters your birth sign soon after, your intuition will light up. Mostly this will come through feelings in your body, physical sensations from the neck down. Pay attention to these messages. Notice which way you naturally move, and which way you have to push yourself to move. Try flowing like water and taking the past of least resistance. As you do this with your emotions and your physical body, your mind and your ideas will follow. This is an essential order of operations; you have plenty on your mind, and going through your mind, and it’s all begging for expression. The way to go is feelings first.
LEO — While most of the world is busy going insane, I suggest you focus on food. Pay attention to what you eat. Shop more carefully, and dial back your tendency to eat out. You’ll feel better, save money and raise your awareness. Slow down your life to the point where you have time to prepare a couple of meals every day, especially breakfast and dinner. At the moment, food is central to your wellbeing and indeed to your success. Emphasis on food will lead to an emphasis on your home space. You will branch out into taking better care of your kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, which is a central theme of the next four seasons of your life. You must claim your home as your own. You will know you’re doing this because it becomes the place you want to be the most, the place you feel truly yourself, and the place where you feel safe.
VIRGO — Venus and Mars continue their long, unusual conjunction in your birth sign. On the most basic level, this is about making peace with the essentially hermaphroditic nature of your sign: you embody both male and female properties in a rather bold way. For a while, the conjunction had you morphing them into one thing. Now that the conjunction is separating, you’re starting to sort out these distinct facets of yourself, and make peace with them individually. How will this play out in your relationships? That’s a good question, which you will get some feedback on as both planets make oppositions to Chiron, the planet of healing, which is in your relationship house. The important thing is that your path of exploration cannot be dictated by another person or their seeming requirements of you. Rather, you get to be who you are, and notice how they respond — and then respond to that.
LIBRA — This week, Mercury and the Sun form a stunning conjunction in your sign. This is a bold reminder that your life is your own. You must make your own decisions. You are responsible for your own sense of security. You make your way in the world, as the leader of your life. Yet it’s essential that you not be stuck in the feeling that you must “go it alone.” As an autonomous person, you have the privilege and the responsibility to ask for the help that you need. You have the privilege of fostering your family of choice, if you cannot get what you need from your family of origin. In fact it’s essential that you find new ways of relating to people other than those you learned in your childhood environment, and it’s up to you to spearhead that project. Events this week will bring certain matters into focus, giving you the opportunity to do just that.
SCORPIO — No matter how people may perceive you — or are experiencing your supposed intensity, your passion and your need to be free — hold your center. Don’t believe the hype, and take all feedback with a few chunks of pink Tibetan salt. Focus on your creative, sexual and emotional center (they are the same thing for you). Jupiter is about to enter your sign; this takes place on Tuesday, and it represents a significant change in your life. Let that change begin with your awareness and your own experience of your presence in the world. By that I mean tune into how you relate to the social and physical space around you. Notice how people notice you. Experience what it’s like to be seen, and how people respond when you pay attention to them. Jupiter will expand not just your influence, it will also expand the ways your senses and emotional body experience the basic fact of your being alive.
SAGITTARIUS — Commitments and responsibilities are making you rise to the occasion of your vast potential, especially professionally. Contrary to the rumor that Sagittarius is all about the broad strokes and the big picture, but hates the details, you are a taskmaster at the moment. You have the ability to manage many complex tasks that absolutely must be done right. Somehow you are not only balancing these two seemingly separate aspects of the world, you are integrating them. This may feel like bouncing back and forth between focusing on your wider mission, and then moving to some specific elements that need attention, and then back. Keep going with that process until everything integrates seamlessly. Note that Jupiter’s sign-change this week will bestow you with a kind of clairvoyance. This might manifest as eyes behind your head, or the ability to ‘remote view’ and see what is outside the reach of your vision or hearing. Pay attention to what comes through.
CAPRICORN — Express yourself truly. That does not mean being a jerk or giving yourself permission to self-contradict every hour. Rather, this idea means being true to who you are, and to what you know. If you’re in harmony with that, you’ll also be true to what you don’t know, and maintain awareness of when you don’t have the answers. Over the next day or so, you’re likely to focus some important goals in a new way, which will give you some direction and clarity, particularly in your professional life. This is, in part, about how you state your own objectives, by which I mean the phrasing (which counts for a lot). It’s then up to you to proceed with the utmost diplomacy and organize the support you need to set your goals in motion. Don’t count on others for leadership: that’s your role and yours alone. Rather, count on others to help you with the specific tasks at hand.
AQUARIUS — This week, Jupiter crosses the midheaven angle of your solar chart, entering the sign Scorpio. There it will be for a year, providing you with an expanded sense of your potential. Before you open that chapter, however, you would be wise to conduct a review of all that’s happened during the past year of your life, particularly where your professional affairs are concerned. What have you learned about the concepts ‘right’ and ‘wrong’? What have you learned about aligning your spiritual values with your work-related goals, and your desire to grow and rise up in the world? If you’re paying attention, there will be one particular point of integrity that comes into focus, as you begin the next phase of your outer development. Aligning this inner knowledge with your outer actions is your karmic goal for the next 12 months or longer.
PISCES — Yours is the sign most completely aligned with sexuality as an expression of your spiritual life. St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day was last week, believed that all of nature was a reflection of God. You know he was right, though to you, all of nature includes and emphasizes your erotic nature, and that of your environment. Many consider this taboo, too much to bother with, or an impossible dream. You know that this magnificent thing called eroticism contains the secrets of life, of creativity and of your humanity. If you honor this knowledge, you will be rewarded with opportunities to experience it directly. One learning goal will be clearing from your mind and feelings any notions that sex is dirty, sinful or contrary to nature. The true nature of sex has yet to be discovered by humanity, though at the moment, you’re on the forefront of that particular wave. And you will love it there.