Aries: “Catch Me If You Can” might be a fitting movie motto for you in 2011, Ram-rod. In the film with Leonardo DiCaprio, chutzpah and fear emulsify into juicy inducements, spurring his character to enact an amazing array of identity shifts, while playing leading roles in surprising situations. Forget that he was chased and captured by the F.B.I. What connects in terms of your upcoming year, Aries? – the boldness and edgy uncertainty stimulating you to go all the way as you passionately engage life. What goads you through 2011 is the horrific possibility that you might miss out on being a part of the action. Song-wise, turn on to The Doors’ “Break On Through” to get a hit of the energy and urgency electrifying your storyline for 2011.
Taurus: “Wonderful” by Gary Go might be sweet, yet complex enough, to convey the 2011 theme for you, Bullish one. The first six months are different from the last six of 2011 for the Taurus tribe. It is a search for meaning, purpose and inspiration that motivates you for the first half of the year. Once your quest for answers and omens is fulfilled, you will sense that your mission, now soul-sanctioned, can be undertaken with the blessings of Fortuna. And blessings there will be – so follow the sweet flavors and delicious aromas, metaphorically speaking, along your very own golden pathway to the emerald city of your soul’s design. Bring The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein as a traveling companion for the restful reading moments during your expansive, adventurous year.
Gemini: “The Climb”, sung by Miley Cyrus, comes to mind as I project your destiny in 2011, Gemini. The cosmic influences suggest less fun than you would wish, and more soul-searching than you perhaps, have a taste for. You are in training for something really big and really special, connected to your creativity, love-life and destiny in the world. What is your true calling Twinkle-twin? You share dreams and aspirations with many, both known and unknown to you. Sorting out your very own grail quest is a primary task this year, Mr/Ms Busybody. Try to de-personalize your trials and tribulation while getting below the surface and into the heart of things with some important people in your life. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho is the allegory for you for 2011. Living life fully engaged and free of guilt, shame, and doubt are some of the supreme treasures awaiting you after the emotional roller-coaster ride of this upcoming Solar cycle.
Cancer: Inner strength, peace-of-mind, and the steadfast anchoring of your Being-in-the-Real are the exalted outcomes of the work you have been doing on yourself, Sand-scuttler. “Solsbury Hill” by musician Peter Gabriel is the ‘school fight song’ for Cancerians for 2011. The story to inspire you to keep-on keeping-on is the classic tale, “Ugly Duckling”. Mired in retrospection and powerful interpersonal confrontations may seem like a miserable way of life, nevertheless, your strengths and skills are needed now and in the future, so the sensitization therapy visited upon you by the Universe serves the purpose of making you more tolerant of the emotional power that flows through you. Like a roto-rooter plumbing snake, every single feeling and mood from every hidden corner of your psyche is getting prodded and un-plugged, aided by the agents of transformation in your inner and outer circles of playmates. Once purged, you will have nothing left to protect, so you may open your heart and psychic feelers to help you and your clan navigate through this teetering civilization’s noise and confusion – and thrive.
Leo: It might require some effort to obtain this gem, Lion-breath, but the message you may need to help you help yourself in 2011 can be heard on Firesign Theatre’s 1974 album, “Everything You Know Is Wrong”. For ‘perspective’ gleaned from the page, read Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. Because you are special (and you know you are), Lovely Leo, I will even add a film suggestion for you: “Mindwalk” with John Waterston and Liv Ullman(?). What does this all mean? That is exactly the question you need to keep foremost on your mind in 2011. Give up the habit of being right and telling others how you see it. Grab a double dose of Gemini curiosity and free yourself of your habitual ways of interpreting your reality. The Universe has decreed that it is time for you sleeping Lions to WAKE UP! Brrrriiinnnngg! Yes, those are alarm bells going off, and probably some sirens, too. The world is far more magical, fantastical and naturally supernatural than you have been allowing for, so 2011 is the year to cleanse the doors of your perception and tune in with all your faculties and intelligences.
Virgo: When someone updates themselves, it is usually because of dissatisfaction, boredom or impatience with what has been the same for so long. Is this an evolutionary impulse, disguised as prickly restlessness? When people decide to improve themselves, it is often after a cathartic crisis, or when repetitive, destructive patterns have been recognized. Is this self-actualization or simply an instinctive reaction from ‘feeling the heat’? When a singing artist updates one of their own hits, such as the smoky, lovely-yet-wise version of “Both Sides Now” on Joni Mitchell’s 2000 release of the same name, one must wonder what new maturity and perspective is brought to bear on the same material. What makes the new version different from her hit from 1967’s Clouds? I encourage you to find both versions of “Both Sides Now”, Virgo, and then consider how you have matured, how your perspective has shifted, while you struggled to maintain your tenderness, hope, and innocence. Your task for 2011, dear Virgin-child, is to reclaim your innocence and wonder, put aside bitterness and self-pity, and know yourself to be whole and complete, the true meaning of what it means to be a virgin, Virgo.
Libra: “Digging In The Dirt” by Peter Gabriel might be therapeutic enough for you, as you continue to balance the scales between your past and present predicaments, Libra. Better said, balancing the scales between your past and present selves. What has been, in 2007 – 2010, a crash course in the lessons of “No more Mr/Ms Nicey-nice” now cycles into workshops at the hard-knock school with “Why won’t I fit through this gateway with this baggage I am carrying?” type of lessons. Your capacity to take ‘full and complete responsibility for your current experience of reality’, the shining and worthy achievement you now claim as your own after the rigorous training of the past three years, will be tested on the perfect Libran playing field – in your love life! How does one take a newly-defined, and still raw, sense-of-self into the demands of inter-subjective intimacy and communing, while taking full and complete responsibility for one’s current experience? You are here to show us the evolutionary way, truth and light, Scale-y One, because the cosmic clock seems to say that we humans better get this one right – and swiftly, because the blame game we play is dangerously regressive, leading to another Dark Age, while the successful path through shadow-work that you have been pioneering is one of the few Saving Graces available at this junction. Therefore, Lucky Libra, you also get to listen to “Getting Better” by the Beatles, to counterbalance the raw grittiness of the Peter Gabriel piece.
Scorpio: The message from the stars for Scorpions is about the message itself, the messenger, and the tools you use to decode the signals bombarding, enticing and manipulating your thoughts and actions. Who better that the master hypnotist him/herself to short-circuit and expose the propagandizing that substitutes for news in this disinformation age? No sign is better at, or despises more, subtle influence and manipulation. The powers to mesmerize and unlock the gateways to the sub-conscious can be used for healing the psyche and recovering fragments of lost personality. When serving the interests of Dominating Power and Greed, these powers to subvert and undermine can sway entire collectives into fear, denial and mob hysteria. These powers are the domain of Scorpio, sign of deep wells and underground transformations. Your song for 2011 is “I’m The Slime” by The Mothers of Invention. Your movie is “The Truman Show” featuring Jim Carrey. When you manage to snap yourself out of it, kindly come and snap your fingers at the rest of us so we might awaken out of trance, and then kill our television sets also.
Sagittarius: It is basically basic for you horse-bound, dart-shooters in 2011. Clichés bore us, yet often contain wisdom, which we adore. ‘It is not who you are, but who you know.’ An apt old re-tread for the Sagi-tribe. Here is another: ‘The apple does not fall far from the tree.’ That moldy oldie is linked with ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water’. Finally, ‘May your work be play and therefore a blessing upon the world’. (I am not sure if I remembered that last one, or if it is an old saying I just made up.) The roots that reach back, back, back into the distant tree of family history are loosening their grip on the past, potentially allowing the family heritage and ancestral intentions to filter into the present. Mixed blessings these, for along with noble motives are regrettable tendencies, making acceptance of the one a liability to the other. Research task for the Archers: find the quotes attributed to Wilma Mankiller, starting with “In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past…” Since you like to broaden your scope every chance you get, Sag, consider the massively broad river of ancestral humanity that brings you to the wave-cresting of the present moment. Gratitude and humble acceptance – those are keynotes to successful navigation as you dance your way through 2011. Another reading assignment for the year ahead: The Healing Of Individuals, Families and Nations by John Payne.
Capricorn: How to have a sense of humor when clanging bells and searing sirens warn of not-so-distant disturbances shaking the structure and foundations of western civilization? Listen, Cliff-clamberer, to the amusing piece by the amusing band, 10cc – “I Wanna Rule The World.” Taken from band members’ observations of their tyrannical tots, the song provides an anthemic score to infantile megalomania. What does this have to do with Capricorns in 2011? Am I typecasting again? Perhaps, but I stand by my prognostication: you are being ‘called forth’ to meet the challenges authoritatively, and with determination. The most important ingredient will be your sense of humor, for if you allow the rush of divine energy now available to you to go to your little horned head, then you might look back upon your mighty accomplishments with more regret than pride. For help in these matters, try Lincoln On Leadership by Donald T. Phillips. While helpful for actual business executives, it is inspiring if you admire Lincoln, and serves up useful principles that are as applicable for mommies and daddies as managers, CEO’s or presidents.
Aquarius: Your assigned reading for 2011 consists of a classic, Dr.Jeckyll And Mr.Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and a left-coast favorite, Nonviolent Communication: A Language Of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD. First, you need to get the various parts of yourself to at least recognize and acknowledge each other. Your sub-personalities may not harmonize like the Brady Bunch, but the integrative process you entertain will enable you to listen, learn, and teach at the rapid pace demanded of you Aquarians. Your regular involvement with others will set the tone for how you feel on a daily basis, Cosmic Channel. The concepts that make you such a high-minded and admirable professor-of-ideals are getting road-tested this year. Can you walk your talk? When the rubber meets the road, are you able to be kind to your neighbors, compassionate with your friends, and understanding of your sisters and brothers? Act out the example of the ‘evolved human’ in the most mundane of situations – at the laundry, car wash and market – and you will complete your annual circuit with high marks and gold stars!
Pisces: Whatever keeps you occupied during 2011 will only be half-revealed to the rest of us. Even if not a naturally introverted member of the Piscean gang, you will be either carefully keeping something close to the vest, or mysteriously, find little understanding and minimal receptivity from the outer world with what you attempt to bring forth. Consider yourself in preparation mode, Fishy-wishy. What you have in the oven is knowable only to yourSelf, and Goddess Divine. Your theme music should be “Fixing A Hole” by The Beatles. Become intimately familiar with the comedic opera by Richard Wagner, “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”. These will give you clues about what you need, and how to ultimately achieve the glorious outcome whose finished form only the heart of your soul as yet truly knows. The year 2011 is not a dud, Pisces, merely a prelude to The Next Phase.