ARIES: The start of the New Year is a time for challenge and growth for Aries. Around January 2nd, you may have a few weeks where you're feeling intensely nostalgic and wistful. Once you get some intellectual distance from these emotions, you function better than ever. With a little more freedom, it's easier to understand your role. Your powers of concentration reach their peak on or around February 22nd. Instead of feeling constrained by limitations, you appreciate this streamlined way of living. Over the next month, your destination is increasingly clear.
You make a fresh start when the Sun enters your Sign. The real you emerges: ambitious, assertive and ready for anything. Most of April is ripe with opportunities for your success. The glow starts to fade during the last week -- no one can sustain such intensity forever. Around May 3rd, it's hard to be completely realistic or objective. Concede a point or two without excessive argument. The veil of distraction lifts around the 21st. Other people's ideas are more appealing and easier to adapt for your purposes. Instinct seems to govern your will after June 6th.
On June 22nd, your life as a high roller settles down. Misguided instincts lead you into an uncomfortable situation. Between July 24th and 28th things take a turn for the better, but then something changes. Expect up to two months of real or perceived difficulties, along with some strong or stressful emotions. You can handle these feelings, although toward the end of August you run out of diversions. Seek other methods of coping. Your Summer of challenges leads to new possibilities.
Late in September, you reemerge into an altered world. New couples and alliances herald the changing season. Friends are involved with different projects. You stretch your imagination and make up for lost time on October 22nd. The Sun enters Scorpio around this point. You've had your rehearsal, and now the game is for real. Admit it -- you actually enjoy displaying self-control in a demanding situation. Even so, you might be staying true to your impetuous nature again by mid-November. Events around the 23rd conspire to knock you from your high horse, but something surprising rides to your rescue. You have one more month to play before the Winter Solstice gives you an urge to hibernate.
TAURUS: It's your year to surge ahead! The road is clear while certain familiar obstacles have disappeared. The only down side of this supreme confidence is that slips and pitfalls seem even more severe. You first notice this around January 21st. Compliant people refuse to cooperate.
Everyone has their own crazy ideas, leaving you feeling vulnerable. A change in circumstance gives you some emotional distance, and after February 22nd, you find the will to deal more effectively with your world on both the material and spiritual levels.
The theme of conflicting egos returns a little later, this time in the more manageable context of business or sports. Laugh away the things that once bothered you. Well-being blossoms into true contentment near April 21st. You take great pleasure in pursuing and strengthening personal ties this month. The beauty of private, impossible dreams is that no one can really disprove them. Around May 20th, you wake up from your idyll and swing into a more productive mode.
The more others understand your ideas, the more likely they are to argue. It's no skin off your nose. Debate is healthy.
From late June through mid-July, Earth and Water influences are friendly and strong. The Universe is taking care of you. But after the 24th, you may feel more like a victim than a beneficiary. Extremes offend your mild sensibilities. Again, you're at the mercy of people that don't know about your agenda. In the last week of August, self-sufficiency returns with a few hidden strengths that swim to the surface close to the 28th. Pests and bullies, sensing your resurgence, are eager to leave you alone.
After September 24th, the cosmic spotlight returns to highlight your Venusian qualities including love, romance and pleasure. You score easy points and maneuver others without stepping on their toes. If you let your attention wander into faulty assumptions, schemes may backfire toward the end of October. Respect could share equal time with uncertainty. Future privilege is tied to past performance. By mid-November you actually crave boredom. The Stars respond with the gift of contentment, leaving you cheerful but unmotivated amidst the mounting holiday frenzy.
Near December 17th, you realize that you haven't been doing your part. Get moving! There's still time to make loved ones happy while pleasing yourself.
GEMINI: The year begins with some baffling events, but you use them as opportunities to learn and grow. You're ready for a new program, but everyone else is still watching reruns! After January 22nd, you integrate divergent elements into a solid whole. You're more accepting and acceptable. You're a breath of fresh air in any social situation. By the end of February, however, you want to be sitting on the sidelines, happily content. Use this down time to take care of your personal business: The stacks have grown tall with neglect.
The Spring cleaning bug bites hard in late March and early April. You throw out whatever you aren't using and start over again. Although you're known for your verbal skills, after the 3rd you need direct experiences. By the 26th you're relating to reality in a new, safe and beneficial way. A new phase of awareness begins after May 15th, sweeping you back into the mainstream. When the Sun finally enters your Sign, its influence brings logic and passion, art and industry and many other seeming opposites to a state of harmony in your life for the rest of this season.
Late in June, decisions are based on assumptions that flow from your desires. This system works as long as everyone agrees with it. After July 24th, solos turn into ensembles. Community brings its rewards as many people get their opportunity to shine. This level of sharing becomes a mixed blessing in the last week of August. Critical thinking displaces warm fuzziness and you're pulled along by a deep urge to get involved with something more challenging.
After September 24th, you're back in your element. You have some outrageous, good, clean fun with those that you love. Think the best of others even if they seem to be fair-weather friends by Halloween. After November 8th, you get a taste of the vindication you felt back in February when heads swivel in your direction. A new restlessness emerges after the 23rd. If you spend the holiday season traveling, constant variety may grow old after December 17th. Find your roots and settle in for the Winter.
CANCER: You're not about to publish those New Year's resolutions. For the first three weeks of January, your agenda is nobody's business. Remove the wraps on the 22nd, and you'll see why your earlier instinct was correct. Reactions will be extreme: You'll get some polite murmurs of interest, while others will care just a bit too much. Life in the spotlight definitely feels like all eyes are on you for most of February. After the 20th much of the pressure goes away and life returns to its easy and enjoyable state. Carry your recent lessons into March. Good feelings shouldn't stand in the way of realistic expectations.
After March 22nd, a shift or change distracts you from territorial issues. Aggressive people might take advantage, moving into your space and usurping key elements. The first weeks of April offer a series of opportunities in which to reassert yourself. By the 26th you either win this game or outgrow it. Comfort and culture are strong themes for the next few months. The Moon, your ruling luminary, balances your energy in the second half of May. Between the 15th and the 30th, you display your bright and dark sides while demonstrating your subtle mastery. Anyone that needs to know the pertinent info will get the message.
Late June and most of July are all about you. Any subject worth discussing falls into the categories of your ambition or your style. You have the stage almost entirely to yourself until the 29th, when an intense partnership or a friendly rivalry is introduced. Integrated and energized, you thrive under these conditions.
Whatever you begin is easily executed, assuming new shapes and logical variations by the end of August. With plans and procedures to occupy you, you remain happily busy for the rest of the season.
Matters of will and ego become less fun after September 24th. Competition is strong, and your argument weakens. After October 22nd, you make another quantum leap by letting go or reaching a new level of maturity. Come November, you're happy with your new identity and may not want to take off your Halloween costume. Uncomfortable issues heat up near the 23rd. If you were putting off a self-improvement program, this is the time to look at it again. It's okay to end the year at a slower pace and a lower volume. No one can deny that you've had your fun.
LEO: Your year begins at a standstill, but this is more frustrating than harmful. Seemingly insignificant things demand your attention when you have bigger fish to fry. The revelations of January's third week justify this so-called energy drain. If you were good, the advantages prove endless. If you avoided doing your duties up to this point, the consequences will be snapping at your heels for the rest of the Winter. Either way, your focus is shaken when the Sun comes to Pisces. Artists and lovers welcome the change, although some might have trouble with their consistency throughout March.
The Aries Sun brings immediate, tangible benefits. There's no crime in celebrating yourself. By late April, though, you're suffering from too much of a good thing. Maybe you haven't learned this lesson. Around May 15th, something reminds you of the inner life you've been denying. Blind instinct drives you for a week, but you're home free after the Sun reaches Gemini. You have high expectations and reasons to falter, but for the next few months, others are happy with whatever face you show.
Water and feminine energy are continuing themes during the end of June and most of July. Maybe you're acting out of character, but the costumes fit beautifully. You're back in your element when the Sun enters Leo. Life becomes a party again. From July 29th to September 26th, your life will be even more intense and absorbing than usual. Others love you for what you are, although they become more interested in your potential than your accomplishments around the end of August.
Take the suggestion and strike while the iron is hot. You're still happy to represent the movement you started.
The Autumnal Equinox re-energizes you. Your life is a work in progress, and your sense of justice has a positive effect on your community. Toward the end of October, a spiritual impulse or metaphysical mood leads you away from the world's noise and material concerns. After November 8th, you look more like a refugee than a pilgrim. It's so easy to tune out what you can't control. When the Sun arrives in Sagittarius, your heroism comes to the surface again. Rise above the chaos to shine once more.
VIRGO: A string of good personal days starts your year. You're self-aware and self-motivated. After the Sun enters Aquarius, your comfort level plummets as others demand more. You can maintain control even if these aren't exactly the happiest days of your life. Unrealistic opportunities surround you in late February and for most of March. You'd never agree to these choices in your right mind, but they're just so tempting. You might go willingly now, but later you could regret your decision.
There's nothing easy about the first month of Spring. Ambitions step aside as fear masquerading as convenience enters your life. Other people's optimism leaves you feeling cheated. By April 26th, you're in a position to indulge your whims.
The following three weeks bring a critical shift in how you see and feel about the world. You spend the rest of your Spring trying to keep your head above the water. Luckily, you're a strong swimmer.
Your year improves dramatically at the Summer Solstice. People trust each other enough to start having fun. Friendship, romance, business and public service are all highly rewarding during July and August. You scale new heights of physical and mental fitness as the Sun reaches your Sign, a phase intensified by planetary events on August 28th. You gain safe access to dangerous knowledge. You're bursting to use all you have, but show a little self-control. Some of this will prove extremely handy a few months from now.
By late September, the externals matter as much as the essence. You have to bargain for what you'd prefer to control. Events set in motion a long time ago are pushing you toward the point of no return. Come out swinging with your best and bravest as the Sun comes to Scorpio in October.
Your directness is alarming, but you have to do what feels right. Thanksgiving makes you nostalgic for the past on which you recently slammed the door, although there's little chance of undoing what you did so energetically. On December 17th, however, you learn to appreciate the gift you gave yourself. If others could benefit from sharing it, don't hesitate.
LIBRA: The New Year changes your theme song from 'All Together Now' to 'I Me Mine.' Through February 22nd, you're all about finding and defining your power. You'll continue to push against a resistant world. Ironically, you can do the greatest good for people from January 21st to February 19th. By March it will be too late, unless you choose to pay the escalating price of operating in visible, fashionable ways.
Around March 22nd, you have trouble telling the past from the future. Not knowing what you need affects your relationships with others. You can bluff your way through until the end of April.
Venus plays a strong, welcome role in your affairs during May's first three weeks, although someone might overwhelm you emotionally.
Adaptation is easier after May 22nd. As long as you can guess the answers, the questions won't seem nearly as challenging. Maybe you're finally outgrowing an old, inconvenient habit.
The first days of Summer prove that you're not ready to let go. At least you can expect a pleasant surprise at the end of July. The power that you sought earlier now erupts with enough force to knock lesser people off their feet. For you it's the beginning of a joyride straight through to the end of the year. By late August the first blush of excitement fades. It's time to get busy. With restored vision and clean windows, you see farther and with greater detail. Take over the duties of someone that doesn't have a clue.
After September 24th, you move easily among others, adjusting them to your specifications. You could meet some resistance after October 22nd, but everyone around you is polite and justified while the world descends into Halloween madness. Mid-November is delightfully unsettled until the 23rd. Once you see the reason, you're free to make new laws and strategies. Nothing goes as expected between the Winter Solstice and the New Year. Take it as it comes, and enjoy yourself.
SCORPIO: For one who lives so passionately, you begin the New Year with remarkable calm. For a few weeks, your only desire is to do your duty. All this changes after January 22nd. You're suddenly full of ideas that you lack the ability or permission to carry out. Others see your ruthless intellectual side, possibly for the first time. When the Sun enters Pisces, however, your approach is softened. Now your visions seem possible, and throughout March, possible is the same thing as likely.
March 22nd is an auspicious moment for the Scorpion. Around the Vernal Equinox, you feel an organic shift that may be impossible to describe with your conscious mind. Remember this feeling when inexplicable things happen over the next few months. Your feet barely touch the ground in the beginning of May. By the 15th, you're feeling more than a little spaced-out. Pay attention to your dreams, visions and fantasies for the next few weeks. This rare, precious time will be hard to duplicate.
By the end of June, your volatile nature is soothed by fellow travelers in the same boat. Deadened senses come alive. Your mastery over others is amusing at first, but it becomes intimidating in July's last week. Do you really want to be obeyed, or is recognition enough?
Being kind and reasonable is a challenge, but the payoff is worth the effort. On August 28th, you get the space you need to review your actions and steer their consequences. This sudden perspective shift changes your luck for the better. Serious worries won't darken your door until sometime in 2004.
Your gains intensify around September 27th. You push others harder once they're ready to serve you. None dare to thwart you when the Sun reaches your Sign toward the end of October. Strategy and charisma put the best goodies into your trick-or-treat bag. Your driven, acquisitive nature goes unchecked until November 23rd. There's nothing personal about it -- even you have to follow the laws of the Universe. Get into the holiday spirit of sharing. In the final week of Autumn, you return to the calm, dutiful state in which you began the year. In your heart you know it's better this way.
SAGITTARIUS: Thanks to a Mercury Retrograde on January 2nd, your first view of the New Year shows limits rather than freedom, but the sooner you face unfinished business, the sooner you'll proceed with life as you know it. You spend some serious time dreaming about what you want around the 16th. Within a week, you reach out and take what's yours. Word gets around when the right ears tune in. Your freedom goes unchallenged until February 20th, when cooperation fades. You could meet active resistance. There's a downside to being so far ahead of your time.
By April 3rd, you hook up with a more forward-thinking crowd. Keep your commitments fluid, because these people might have other ideas about the future after the Sun enters Taurus. Some new dreams pull you into a dangerous state of unreality after May 15th. The next ten weeks promise to be a struggle as you try to match your perceptions with the actual world. If you forget what a formidable enemy you are, being at war with yourself is sure to remind you.
You see most problems from the human angle after June 22nd, but this doesn't bring you any closer to solving them. Fire Signs benefit from the energies in late July through mid-August, when the Stars encourage and enable you. The magic loses its shine in Summer's last month as others give generic names and reasons for what you happily accepted as personal feelings. Around September 20th, you're ready to surrender the illusions that gave you such a difficult season.
Autumn is by far your best time of the year. New relationships begin for you. Physical fitness and emotional health are pleasures rather than chores. The spiritually inclined move closer to enlightenment, while the high-spirited find quality playtime around Halloween. Starting on November 8th, you feel a power surge that could be alarming if you're not ready for it. Your moment of truth comes when the Sun arrives in Sagittarius. A full month of adventure is now mandatory. Around December 17th, someone reminds you to slow down. Why argue? A little hibernation now would be like a beauty rest.
CAPRICORN: As the Sun rides through Capricorn, you are what you do. After January 16th, there may be a few ripples in the calendar keeper's schedule. No one is making you be flexible, but flowing with the current fits neatly into your plans. Let others go their own way for a few weeks, and they'll be back on February 20th. The rest of the Winter is now yours to control. You shouldn't expect the other seasons to be exactly like this, but understanding basic cycles will help you throughout the year.
There are other lessons after March 22nd; some are big and not much fun. You already know this stuff, but here it comes again, this time from a new angle. Problems could crop up around April 26th. Watch those details that might turn good decisions bad. Some good vibes that occur around May 15th bring a sense of peace and holiness, but this is swept away by feelings of frustration and chaos on June 6th. For a season that should be about growth and development, this Spring seems to be driving you backward.
Starting June 22nd, you have a month to turn your life around. Exercising your options requires you to act out of character. Others will tolerate your attempts and maybe even help. You lose this positive attention once events pick up speed on July 29th. It's easy to blame friends and bystanders, although you know you shouldn't. You enjoy people more after the Sun reaches Virgo. You're more aware of purpose and place, a strategy that comforts and guides you around anything that might go wrong. Why assume the worst when you could make the best happen just as easily?
From late September to mid-October, you feel overloaded. The burdens and toxins depart after October 22nd. You still take the world personally, but all it does right now is pay compliments. In November you come to realize how impressive and special you are. It's about time you realized it. Winter, your season of strength, has already begun when the Sun returns to your Sign toward the end of December. You know what to do again.
AQUARIUS: Strong, internalized New Year's resolutions put you on the right track. Although necessity makes you impatient, you remain cheerful. Your efforts peak when the Sun reaches Aquarius. You move freely through the world, attracting and inspiring others through your actions. Toward the end of February you become sensitive to any disagreement with your ideals.
It should be clear that this is mostly in your head, but March finds you more concerned than usual about privacy, secrecy and protection.
The Aries Sun snaps you out of this mood, as the arrival of Spring puts you back in action. You find reasons to be excited and you feel an urge to improve things. Forward momentum hits a wall after April 21st, and you're dismayed to actually lose ground. It's easy to be disillusioned during the first half of May. The world as you know it is changing. The Sun shines on your gloom and dispels it on the 22nd, helping you adapt to conditions that can be turned to your advantage.
Nagging insecurity undercuts confidence by July. No amount of logic tames your sneaky feelings. By the 24th, you welcome the strong Leo influence that bolsters your independence and inspires you to splash out in daring ways. Time flies, but your pace matches it. The last days of August bring disappointment. You trip over things ignored or shoved aside, and they send you stumbling off in a new direction. Talking usually helps, but in this case it could be almost a month before you find the most effective words and the ears that are willing to hear them.
Missing energy returns to your life around September 22nd. Some say you're proactive while others would call you aggressive. This distinction should matter, although you can ignore it for most of October. Situations could get unpleasant by Halloween if you haven't pulled a few irons out of the fire. Around November 8th, drastic change is only natural. No matter how much you stir things up, though, real improvement may not come until the 23rd. Now that you have a little extra to get you through the end of the year, struggling against the established order no longer seems quite as necessary.
PISCES: You know it will be a good year when Mercury retrogrades on January 2nd. Some people are at a loss when forced to look inward, but you're in your element for a few weeks. Most of February is about spreading and absorbing ideas, but you make a soul connection with your true purpose when the Sun enters Pisces. It's your birthday season and, until at least the third week of March, everything goes as planned, if not better.
After March 22nd, pass the baton to someone more energized. There's much to digest, and you'd rather not multitask. Late in April you focus on what you have and what you're getting. If there's any danger of getting lost in the material world, it comes to a head on May 15th. Why do you need more when, in effect, you already have everything? On the same day, you're reminded that you're just one person in this world. You'll need that acceptance and humility a week later when serious challenges pile up.
Summer sees the return of your wiser instincts. Until July 29th, your body knows what's best for you. In August, though, this self-indulgent trend turns dangerous, and possibly self-destructive.
You never know whom you'll meet or how they might take advantage. Once the Sun reaches Virgo, you have a chance of standing up to your adversaries. After August 28th, secret and timely knowledge is your ultimate strength. It will be a few weeks before you can use this evidence, but the comfort of your plan is like money in the bank. Let the interest build.
Make your own luck after September 24th. Only you know when to be ready or where to jump. Toward the end of October, and especially when the Sun enters Scorpio, personal politics merge with the art of living well. You're passionate yet pragmatic. If you break a few extra eggs for your omelet, so be it. Thanksgiving is a reflective time, and bargain hunting saves your holiday shopping from extravagance. Shortly after the Winter Solstice, you recapture the magic that carried you through the early part of this past year.
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