You instinctively respond to stress by using your wit and your intellect. Humor, rationalization, and wielding the power of the written or spoken word are your forte. Oftentimes, however, your "good idea" or rational solution overlooks the emotional factors in a situation. And your jokes or refusal to take matters seriously, while defusing the stress somewhat, can easily become a denial and a defense against feeling the less pleasant aspects of life.

At your most mischievous you use your verbal and intellectual cleverness to play with people's heads. You also like to play with words or ideas, and entertain various possibilities or options at the same time. Essentially curious and open to whatever new experience presents itself, you are not eager to be pinned down to anyone. There is a streak of "Peter-Panism" in you, a distinct disinclination to grow up, to commit yourself to someone or something and stay with it, and a desire to fly away (at least emotionally) when a situation gets too heavy. There is, as well, a certain casualness or breeziness with which you flirt with life (as, perhaps, other people's feelings). This does not negate the fact that you may have a deeper side, simply that you have an ingrained tendency to intellectualize or emotionally detach yourself, and to see people (including yourself) as if they were characters in a story, without fully immersing yourself in the emotional experience.

In your incarnational past you most likely moved around a great deal, and you developed a capacity for adapting yourself to new people and circumstances. This presents itself in this life as an underlying physical restlessness, a need for variety, and a tendency to get fidgety if you stay put for too long. You require a great deal of mental stimulation, and may be addicted to television, reading, talking or keeping busy. While you may very much desire home and roots, you do not find it easy to establish them for yourself. Subconsciously you expect to be on the move and at a deep level you are more comfortable being mobile than being firmly anchored. You may also be wary of committing yourself to another person "forever", because in your deep subconscious memory, you have little experience of stability and permanence.

One gift you bring with you into this lifetime is your ability to make conscious that which is subliminal and emotionally felt, to put words or bring conscious awareness to your own and others inner lives. This may take the form of writing (lyrics, stories, articles with a personal slant), or perhaps simply talking about your own or another's feelings.

You have an avid interest in psychology, and could be a perceptive counselor or simply an incurable people-watcher!

This is a lifetime in which you have chosen to purge yourself of some deep psychic pain and some emotional refuse that you may have carried for quite a long time. Your most intimate relationships, especially with females and with family members are apt to be highly-charged, karmic affairs which churn up some very intense, primal feelings. Experiences of separation, loss, betrayal and abandonment, especially early in life, trigger memories of similar events in your incarnational past. You may find yourself over-reacting to situations in the present, and the vehemence of your feelings may seem excessive and irrational. From time to time, you are likely to get swept up in a tidal wave of emotion, the source of which may not be obvious to you. You equate closeness and emotional intimacy with fearful experiences from your past, but you are compelled to seek out situations and people who will force you to re-experience much of your unresolved grief, and thus to finally release it. Emotional power struggles and subtle (and overt) attempts at emotional blackmail may be major themes in at least one significant relationship in your life.

You may be the black sheep in your family, the one who brings to light some hidden aspect of your family life, discovering and delving into the skeletons in the closet. Periodic emotional crisis and catharsis are likely. You have an opportunity to use these times to greatly accelerate your growth, deepen your self knowledge, and heal old wounds. It can be very helpful to find supportive friends during such times, for you tend to isolate yourself. Because of past trauma, you tend to fear emotional dependency or allowing yourself to admit how needy and vulnerable you are. At times you feel like an insatiable child who can never get enough reassurance, comfort, or nurturance. These feelings are difficult for you to admit. You may have very intense feelings about not having your own children (who would bring up all of these issues for you), or an equally deep, urgent desire to have them, in order to somehow give them the support and care you need yourself. Past-life regression and healers of core issues address the wounded "inner child" and would most likely benefit you a great deal. Certain stones can also be worn or carried to help facilitate your process, including: amethyst, malachite, moonstone and watermelon tourmaline.

In your incarnational past, the needs of the group or collective took precedence over your individual wants and needs, and while you perhaps enjoyed the sense of belonging and comradery, your individuality was submerged. Your growth direction now is to become a strong individual in your own right, developing your own creative talents and abilities.

Your past tendency is so natural to you, so much a part of how you are, that you probably do not think twice. Let others help bring out your new attitude or growth direction; be willing to be a learner. Selfishness and a deeply rooted "me first" attitude needs to give way to a consciousness of "us" and/or what you can do with or for the other.

Chapter 2: The Sun
The Sun in your birth chart represents the primary creative thrust for this lifetime, those qualities you are to develop (or further develop) and express, and your current life focus. This may be in harmony with your instincts and your emotional habits, or along completely different lines. The Sun represents your conscious identity in this lifetime.

Your path of soul development in this lifetime revolves around developing your awareness of yourself as a distinct, unique individual. It is not enough for you to simply be who and what you are, you must radiate your inner essence outwardly, express it, bring it forth in a creative way. Although ultimately your goal is self-discovery and self-recognition, you initially have a profound need to make an impression on others and to be recognized and appreciated by the world. In many ways you are like the eager child who, delighted with the discovery of a new power or accomplishment, demands of all and sundry "See ME! Look what I can do!". Of course, you do this in subtler ways (usually!). Nevertheless, the joy of self-discovery and self-expression, and the yearning for "strokes", applause, and affirmation is very much present in you. Put simply, you tend to be rather fascinated with yourself. Your tendency to dramatize or exaggerate, and your desire to be the center of attention comes from a need to project yourself into the world in order to see yourself and what makes you special. However, your acute awareness of yourself as an individual can also lead to an excessive, constant self-consciousness which may actually inhibit your free flow of self-expression. You may feel that you are always on stage and have to perform or have to be the best, because you are being watched (at least by yourself!). And you can be incredibly self-centered at times, blind to other people's realities and to the larger realm of life which does not revolve around you.

It is imperative for you to find an area in which you can excel and shine and truly make a significant, personal contribution which matches your inner sense of nobleness. You must have a domain, one which is yours alone to shape and fashion according to your own inner dictates. Unless you are acting from your own heart, from your own core, you are not fulfilling your destiny. Thus, you will resist imitating and being dictated to by others, for your task is to find your own inner light and radiate it. While young you are apt to have heroes and images of greatness in whatever form most resonates with your heart. Ultimately you must become your own hero.

The obvious potential downfall for you (in terms of spiritual growth) is becoming overly preoccupied with the more superficial aspects of your ego, your sense of pride, and personal importance. At your worst you feel threatened by others' original, creative expression or their successes and are unable to give them the acclaim and recognition they have earned. It is as if no one else exists in their own light, except as extensions of yourself, minor characters in a play which stars you. But at your best you affirm not only your own worth and specialness, you also warmly encourage other people's creative talents and the blossoming of their potentials and greatness. You cherish individuality and creativity in other people and nurture that spark wherever you find it. Once free from the great allure of and interest in your ego, you begin to fall in love with the creative process itself and to experience a great joy in being a part of life expressing itself, not only through you, but through others' lives as well.

A high degree of spiritual perceptiveness and psychic sensitivity opens you to the intangible side of life. You may possess unusual gifts, such as the ability to see auras or to "read" people intuitively, clairvoyantly or the ability to channel healing energy or a prodigious musical or artistic talent. Your imagination and capacity to create from images in your fantasies or dreams is one aspect of your giftedness. An awakened sense of unity with all other living things also engenders within you much compassion, gentleness, and a desire to help or "save" them. Part of your soul mission is the further development and refinement of these gifts.

However, such sensitivity and openness is not without potential problems. Being aware (however subtly) of the vastness of life and of the spiritual dimension may lead you to abdicate personal responsibility for directing your own course in life ("let God do it", or "It's my fate"). Escapism, evasiveness and passivity in the face of challenges from the outside world are negative potentials. You can be too yielding, too gentle. Your assessment of yourself may also be unclear and less than accurate. Quite often you underestimate your own power to determine your life and your own abilities in other areas. When out of balance, you tend to glamorize or overidealize yourself or others, to get caught up in some fantasy (without distinguishing between truth and fiction), to neglect your emotional and/or physical self for the sake of some dream or spiritual ideal, or to be naive and gullible and easily manipulated. There is some indication that a misunderstanding or mis-direction of spiritual energies in your incarnational past needs to be addressed and balanced out in your present cycle. It is especially important for you to be thoroughly grounded in the physical world, and especially to avoid mind or mood altering substances which could serve to distort your perceptions, confuse, or destabilize you. Incorporating a regular, rhythmic pattern and some form of self discipline in your life will also enable you to use your imaginative and spiritual gifts to the fullest. Above all, rigorous honesty with the self is required. It can also be helpful to get feedback and assistance from people who are mature, well-grounded, practical, and effective in the world.

Chapter 3: Rising Sign

The point that was on the eastern horizon at the moment of your birth is called the ASCENDANT, or rising sign. While the Sun describes your conscious direction and current life focus, and the Moon your subconscious predisposition and past, the Ascendant indicates a way of being that transcends and embraces past, present, and future. It describes the way you engage and merge with the outer world and how you bring through into life the energies depicted by the Sun, the Moon, and the rest of your birth chart. Everything is filtered through the Ascendant from an esoteric point of view. It indicates your soul's function and thus a key part of your destiny.

Your personal destiny and soul function is ultimately related to the impulses toward progressive change, experimentation and innovative, creative thinking which reside in the collective psyche of your generation. You are a conduit for change, for awakening new thought. As such, you will always be seen as a bit avant garde, offbeat, or different. Spiritual unity and weaving individuals into harmonious cooperative groups are the ideals that you are intended to embody. You focus is on the power of the group which transcends the individual. An innate and genuine humanitarianism and altruism are the high side of this; and uncompromising dogmatic social ideology is the other extreme. Ruled by both Saturn, the planet of form, and by Uranus, the planet of pure mind, you must bring your ideas and ideals into a real, practicable, livable form.

Your Uranus is in Leo: The rejection of all external authority or tyranny is a theme in your generation, and FREEDOM of self-expression is your deepest impulse. You have a gift for organizing group endeavors and leading efforts for individual's rights.

Chapter 4: Saturn, Your Achilles Heel

Karmically considered, the placement of Saturn in your birth chart indicates where your energetic blockages, weaknesses and fears lie, and the areas of your life where the most concentrated effort and discipline will be required to master and overcome them. Yet it also points to the aspects of life which can become your greatest strength if you are willing to face your fears and difficulties honestly, and work with them patiently.

The quality which is most likely to undermine you is your propensity to be very judgmental and hard on yourself (and on others as well). It is as if there were within you a very stern, exacting Father, always critically assessing your actions and condemning your weaknesses or mistakes, urging you to grow up and take responsibility for yourself and reminding you that life is serious business, not a playground. While this is not entirely without merit, it is hard to live up to these internal standards all of the time, and a sense of inadequacy, of never quite making the mark, can plague you. You can become overly responsible, overly conscientious and depressed by this burdensome state of mind. Coldness, cynicism and a callous worldliness are negative potentials. And if you project these attitudes outwardly, you will find other people can never meet your expectations.

A karmic link to your father with whom you are apt to have a rather difficult or distant relationship is also indicated. The test or lesson for you is to learn to embody all of the positive attributes of a father (regardless of your own gender), while also having compassion, humor and forgiveness towards yourself.

The anxieties and insecurities you struggle with may loom large in your inner life simply because you tend to avoid looking them in the eye. You are like the little child lying in a darkened room imagining hideous monsters under the bed and becoming paralyzed by these imaginary fears. Your sense of powerlessness and fear of being victimized by some "bad thing out there" may prevent you from functioning effectively in the world and living out your full potential. Definitely you are your own worst enemy and severest critic, and you may be plagued by feelings of self-doubt and condemnation, worthlessness, and guilt, much of which is either unfounded or based on ancient, not clearly recognized "sins" from the past. Believing the worst about yourself, you are prone to hide from others, certain that they, too, will reject you. Unconscious messages you still carry (possibly from a critical father) are probably weighing you down and preventing you from seeing yourself realistically.

On the other end of the spectrum, you may repress your own fears, your natural sense of caution and limits, "never allowing yourself the luxury of a negative thought", and consequently go blithely along until you are hit over the head from behind with an undeniable dose of reality. You may see-saw between believing you are far more limited (and bad) than you actually are, to not seeing limits or boundaries until you run straight into a brick wall.

You need to "make friends with your shadow", though this is by no means an easy task. It has been said that "there is nothing to fear but fear itself".

All of the above is complicated by the fact that you carry a rather heavy burden of self-doubt, mistrust, or guilt over having let yourself and others down in your past, when you struggled (and failed) with these same issues. You now have the opportunity to correct your course, make amends and resolve a difficult karmic tangle, or a difficult state of mind.

You carry tremendous inner tension which you will have to work to resolve and harmonize in order to have any peace in your life or any ongoing success in either your personal relationships or your life ambitions. You have what some would call a "disobedient spirit": habitual and chronic irritability and rebelliousness, a refusal to accept or cooperate with any kind of outward authority, and perhaps most troublesome of all, a tendency to blame others(the government, the system, your parents, your ex-) for your discontent. Because you tend to resent any kind of restrictions or limitations (including those imposed simply by living a "normal" orderly existence), you may periodically revolt, and any sort of stability, security, or seniority you may have acquired is badly damaged or destroyed. Or, your inner stress may be expressed in physical symptoms such as grinding your teeth, TMJ, headaches, or imbalances caused by disrupted rhythms. Your karmic pattern is to operate out of an extreme, polarized, all-or-nothing position. You may believe you must either conform and be an automaton or totally disregard convention, tradition, and the old order. On the other hand, you may identify entirely with the established orthodoxy and feel you must repress any impulses toward change or unconventionality, that it is somehow dangerous to experiment or deviate in any way. You may see-saw between these two extremes. Transitions tend to be especially difficult for you. You do not want to let go AND you want to sever your ties entirely. To begin harmonizing these patterns and healing your life, decide first of all to stop blaming others or the way the world is for your discomfort. Make friends with "the enemy", those parts of life you have been polarized against. On a physical level, regular, rhythmic exercise such as bicycling or swimming, and receiving massage therapy to release emotional and muscular tension can be helpful.

Chapter 5: The Hard Aspects

The following is a description of your MAJOR LIFE CHALLENGES, both in terms of energies you are to learn to develop and express in a positive way, and those which are the result of struggles and unresolved karmic issues which you have brought into this life.

Forging a link between your conscious intellect and your super-conscious or higher mind is a major focus for you in this lifetime.

This may be felt initially in a number of ways: an urge to expand mental horizons and absorb as much knowledge as possible through broad study or world travel, an attraction to spiritual philosophy, or simply as mental restlessness and dissatisfaction with the mundane details of life. What you are seeking is to see the larger pattern, an overview which gives both an integrated understanding and meaning to one's experiences. This cannot be apprehended solely through the conscious intellect, but comes through the capacity to intuit and make connections and see patterns. This desire to see the big picture sometimes translates as a certain sloppiness or imprecision in your thinking. The broad brush strokes are often enough for you. Also, you quickly grasp the overall idea or concept and do not want to get bogged down with the particulars.

You tend to focus on what is possible (the limitlessness of potential) rather than what already is. Optimistic and open-minded, you see reasons why things could happen rather than why they cannot. The development of this kind of faith and the belief in things not yet realized is also an aspect of your linking your conscious mind to your higher mind.

The ability and the calling to communicate truth is a part of this energy pattern as well. When out of balance you can be preachy, exaggerate what you know, or think you know it all. Channeled positively and productively, you could evolve into a teacher who brings parts of the world together. Long distance communication and journeys (both in the physical, outer world and in the inner realms) are part of this aspect. At your finest with this particular pattern, you will act as a mediator or bridge between different places or realms.

Some of your greatest challenges in life revolve around the question: "What am I willing to sacrifice in order to have comfort, ease, pleasure, and "the good life?" (however you define the phrase.) You have a definite tendency toward laziness, self-indulgence, irresponsibility towards money. There may be a desire for a "sugar daddy" or "sugar mama", and/or an unwillingness to say "no" to immediate gratification in pursuit of a long range goal or higher pleasure" (i.e., the "higher pleasure" of having a fit, healthy body, versus eating dessert whenever you wish or the "higher pleasure" of achieving something substantial from your own efforts versus letting someone else take care of you and do all the "hard stuff"). Money and material prosperity may be inordinately important to you or you may care nothing for . In either case, you are apt to be rather wasteful, overly generous, or negligent about money and other resources.

In this lifetime you are learning about values. A need to develop temperance and moderation, healthy, balanced self-discipline and a sense of proper limits is essential. The "play now/pay later" plan will eventually catch up with you and your middle and later years may be filled with regret if you do not pay attention to this.

You do attract wealth and/or material comfort rather easily, but whether you use it well is up to you. Your extravagance and rich tastes can cause you considerable suffering if you DO NOT possess them. Even if you do obtain luxuries, they may be empty pleasures if you do so at the expense of living out deeper values.

Moral concerns (including lingering unresolved issues stemming from a prior lifetime or lifetimes in which you exercised poor judgment in moral, ethical, or religious matters) come into play here. Thus, it is especially important for you to maintain high standards while pursuing your aspirations.

Foregoing old allegiances and ties which bind you to the history, forms, and authorities of the past is an essential part of fulfilling your growth direction. You must improvise, leave the beaten path, align yourself with like-minded others to offer alternatives to the old way.

Chapter 6: Soft Aspects

The following is a description of your GIFTS and STRENGTHS which can help you work with your major life challenges. These are abilities and qualities of heart, mind, and soul which are quite natural to you. You probably take them for granted. Because these represent the lines of least resistance for you, you may rely too much upon them at times; hence, there are some cautions suggested. Still, these are the areas where good flows into your life and/or where you have considerable inner resources.

Your ability to communicate in a personal, sympathetic manner, and to sense and take into account others' moods and feelings, are some of your gifts. Because you are interested in others' personal stories and are a good listener, you draw people out and may find yourself the confidante or personal advisor to many. You are also apt to be the sounding board, mediator, or messenger between members of your family. You have natural counseling abilities and innate psychological insight.

You also understand the public temperament and have a sixth sense regarding mass psychology and social trends. The capacity and desire to educate the public and to personally interact with the public is also evident.

You may take your writing abilities and your knack for learning languages and using words for granted. However, if you put any effort at all into tapping these skills, you might be surprised at how natural and easy they come to you.

You have an innately expansive, buoyant, hopeful attitude toward life, based (subconsciously) upon the previous-life successes, ease, and abundance you have enjoyed. It is easy for you to believe in the goodness of life and in your own ability to win. Your positive expectations and faith enable you to overlook potential problems and to aim high when setting your goals, to dream and then achieve big dreams. Furthermore, you have developed the gifts of emotional generosity, tolerance, inclusiveness, wide sympathies, concern for other people on a broad scale, and the tendency to see strangers (or foreigners) as potential friends. As a result, in this lifetime you are likely to be both popular and "lucky", but your seeming luck is actually the karmic return generated from your generosity and good will in your past. The only potential draw back here is a tendency to rely solely on your luck and popularity or good connections, rather than challenging yourself to strive in new directions. Your sense of humor is also a true gift and blessing in your life.

Your toughness and ability to endure, to go the distance, to work hard and patiently - these are gifts you have to enable you to fulfill your life's tasks and challenges. Self-discipline and careful conservation of your own resources and energies are second nature to you. Because you possess these attributes, you are capable of definite, substantial, concrete achievements. Working with form and structure in some creative way is what you do well. Using materials such as mental, stone, or other hard substances in creative ways can be a form of rejuvenation for you.

Collectively, this is a time in history that enables you and those of your generation to advance spiritually through a heightened awareness of the invisible and intangible realms. A rebirth of spirituality through direct contact with higher forces is occurring in this generation. This contact takes many, many forms, including a compelling interest in life beyond death. You may or may not have a personal involvement with this, as it is a group karma rather than a primarily personal one.

While the Sun reveals your intended purposes and lessons for this present life cycle, the MOON represents what you have already done and developed, hence, what is instinctive and natural to you, and what you tend to do over and over again. Your childhood is also reflected in the Moon's placement, as it is through those childhood circumstances that any unresolved past-life issues are re-stimulated. Your subconscious predisposition is indicated by the Moon's position. It is the psychic imprint of the past. The nodes of the Moon describe behavior patterns from the past, as well as delineating a direction out of outworn or overdone behaviors and habits.

You instinctively respond to challenges or stress by suppressing any emotions you have which might interfere with the job at hand, and taking control of the situation in an unsentimental, no-nonsense sort of way. You may become super responsible or throw yourself into your work - anything to keep feelings of helplessness or other "unacceptable" emotions at bay. "Don't agonize - organize!" is your motto.

Early in life, and in previous lifetimes, you learned through circumstances not to expect others to take care of you, to rely on yourself emotionally, and to stifle or neglect your own needs for care and comfort, in order to survive. As a result you developed a certain toughness and a disinclination to trust, an underlying cynicism, which can interfere with your ability to establish emotional rapport and intimacy with people. You want proof of another's love or good will, some tangible evidence of their loyalty and commitment and you may "test" your friends or lover over a long period of time before you surrender your defenses and allow yourself to be truly close to them. Or you may care very much but, because your emotional self-control is so deeply ingrained, may be unable to communicate and express it openly, directly, warmly, with feeling. You may substitute symbols of affection, gifts, or even money, for the real thing (being with the person, touching, listening, sharing your feelings.) You fear dependency, and may be intolerant of others' lack of discipline, emotional self-indulgence or neediness, and "babyish" behavior in anyone, even little children. You were not allowed those sorts of feelings, either because of life circumstances or due to a rather critical, strict, authoritarian upbringing. For whatever reason you absorbed the message that "life is a struggle", "no one is going to take care of me", and possibly "I don't deserve to have my needs fulfilled". Very likely the approval and love you received were not unconditional, but contingent upon proper behavior, achievement, or being responsible and not being a burden. It may be hard for you to remember a time in your life when you were truly a child, carefree and innocent.

Due to these subconscious imprints and beliefs about yourself, you could experience a sort of chronic, low-grade depression, and a tendency toward pessimism and negativity. You may feel a compulsion to achieve in a material sense, in order to feel good about yourself. Or, you may be comfortable in the role of protector and provider, offering stability and security to others, but (once again) neglecting your own needs to do so.

You can socially endure and forbear for long periods of time in rather meager or difficult circumstances, due to past experiences of deprivation and hardship. This may work to your benefit, for instance, in the pursuit of some academic or professional goal, or in any endeavor that requires denial of immediate gratification for the sake of a long-range objective. In your emotional and personal life, too, you are willing to hang in there through the hard times. However, sometimes you will stay with something or someone because you are used to subsisting on very little nourishment (emotional or otherwise) and you cannot envision or accept the possibility of anything better for yourself. Security is extremely important to you and you are willing to sacrifice or forego much in order to maintain it. A great fear of poverty and emotional or material lack underlies this even if you have never really experienced such in your present lifetime. Memories of such lack from your incarnational past are likely to continue to influence you, unless you consciously change or "re-program" yourself (splurge a little, challenge those old patterns). Along those same lines, an overconcern with your reputation and public standing, proper form, adhering to certain societal rules and standards, having approval from the "right" people, ritualized etiquette, and so on, is deeply embedded in you. You have learned to bow down to authority, and to achieve a measure of security in return. Most likely, you expect others to do the same. You can be emotionally dry, seemingly unfeeling or detached, and, when pushed to the extreme, a very controlling disciplinarian.

You would benefit from learning to relax, not to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and that life is not all struggle, all duty, all work.

This is a lifetime in which you have chosen to purge yourself of some deep psychic pain and some emotional refuse that you may have carried for quite a long time. Your most intimate relationships, especially with females and with family members are apt to be highly-charged, karmic affairs which churn up some very intense, primal feelings. Experiences of separation, loss, betrayal and abandonment, especially early in life, trigger memories of similar events in your incarnational past. You may find yourself over-reacting to situations in the present, and the vehemence of your feelings may seem excessive and irrational. From time to time, you are likely to get swept up in a tidal wave of emotion, the source of which may not be obvious to you. You equate closeness and emotional intimacy with fearful experiences from your past, but you are compelled to seek out situations and people who will force you to re-experience much of your unresolved grief, and thus to finally release it. Emotional power struggles and subtle (and overt) attempts at emotional blackmail may be major themes in at least one significant relationship in your life.

You may be the black sheep in your family, the one who brings to light some hidden aspect of your family life, discovering and delving into the skeletons in the closet. Periodic emotional crisis and catharsis are likely. You have an opportunity to use these times to greatly accelerate your growth, deepen your self knowledge, and heal old wounds. It can be very helpful to find supportive friends during such times, for you tend to isolate yourself. Because of past trauma, you tend to fear emotional dependency or allowing yourself to admit how needy and vulnerable you are. At times you feel like an insatiable child who can never get enough reassurance, comfort, or nurturance. These feelings are difficult for you to admit. You may have very intense feelings about not having your own children (who would bring up all of these issues for you), or an equally deep, urgent desire to have them, in order to somehow give them the support and care you need yourself. Past-life regression and healers of core issues address the wounded "inner child" and would most likely benefit you a great deal. Certain stones can also be worn or carried to help facilitate your process, including: amethyst, malachite, moonstone and watermelon tourmaline.

In your incarnational past, you tended to be a very emotional and sensitive person and you instinctively tried to protect and take care of the ones around you. Possibly you have been clannish. Your growth direction is to develop more detachment and objectivity about your feelings and the feelings of individuals who are emotional close to you.

You may find your past tendency particularly focused in the area of your philosophical beliefs, religious affiliations, or your overall world view. Let your "growth direction" or new attitude influence your day to day interactions with people, and your every day thoughts and decisions.

Chapter 2: The Sun

The Sun in your birth chart represents the primary creative thrust for this lifetime, those qualities you are to develop (or further develop) and express, and your current life focus. This may be in harmony with your instincts and your emotional habits, or along completely different lines. The Sun represents your conscious identity in this lifetime.

In this lifetime you are at a point in your soul development that requires you to do the work of refining and purifying your own nature. Like the ancient alchemists whose goal was to take bare materials and turn them into gold, your own process of self-transformation involves taking what is crude or disordered in yourself and refining it. It is a cycle of separating the wheat from the chaff, requiring acute discrimination, rigorous self-analysis and self-criticism.

This impulse to perfect, to create order, and to focus on the flaws in order to improve and correct is the basis of much of your behavior. When you project it out into the world, it manifests as extreme fastidiousness, meticulous attention to detail, the ability to do very fine and exacting work, precision of thought and expression, and sometimes a peculiar fussiness. You can be the critic, the razor-sharp analyst, the master craftsman with a reputation for the greatest finesse and polish. You quietly observe, dissect, and measure everything against your own inner standard of perfection. Everything must be tested and go through the refiner's fire in order to prove its efficacy, Rarely do you swallow anything whole. Everything must be examined and judged, the acceptable parts ingested and the unacceptable rejected. This is true on many levels, including the physical. You are apt to be extremely discriminating about your diet, concerned with proper nutrition and the avoidance of pollutants and impurities in your food or environment, and so on. Your physical body itself may be very sensitive to what you take in - more so than other people are. On an intellectual level, you are similarly discriminating, perhaps to the point of frank skepticism. Because of your underlying need to create order, you like to categorize and put things in neat little boxes, and you may deny, avoid, invalidate, or refuse to take seriously something that does not fit in to your scheme. Even in investigating the spiritual or mystical, you seek a system, an order. Ambiguity, multiplicity, chaos or disarray of any kind may vex you considerably. You can also be very critical and demanding of other people, in a nagging, petty way. This is if you are projecting your need to refine and perfect onto the outside world. However, that is really a misuse of what is essentially an inner process, getting rid of the dross and refining your own character.

Turned inward, this purification process is likely to manifest, first of all, as high personal standards of conduct and often much guilt and anxiety if you fail to do so. You will need to develop some humor and compassion for yourself, and a more merciful and tolerant attitude toward your own foibles and humanness to offset your innate propensity toward strict justice and judgment. Excessive self-doubt and self-criticism, an obsessive concern with self-improvement, extreme humility based on unrealistic perfectionism, fear of making mistakes or of being wrong, and an overly cautious attitude toward life can be common pitfalls on your path. You can overcome these patterns by finding an avenue of service to others to put your energies into, or a particular craft that you can continue to develop and perfect. The soul or character development that results from self-giving and self-discipline is an important part of what you are here to do.

Part of this ongoing inner process of purification can be achieved through devoted service to others, and through doing a good job for its own sake, rather than for the personal glory. Very often, you may be the invisible man or woman, in the supportive, assistant role, the power behind the throne, the worker bee rather than the queen. You may be quite comfortable being anonymous, for it is the quality of your work that really concerns you. You are happiest when you are being useful and productive, fulfilling a necessary function, being helpful in a tangible, concrete way.

Chapter 3: Rising Sign

The point that was on the eastern horizon at the moment of your birth is called the ASCENDANT, or rising sign. While the Sun describes your conscious direction and current life focus, and the Moon your subconscious predisposition and past, the Ascendant indicates a way of being that transcends and embraces past, present, and future. It describes the way you engage and merge with the outer world and how you bring through into life the energies depicted by the Sun, the Moon, and the rest of your birth chart. Everything is filtered through the Ascendant from an esoteric point of view. It indicates your soul's function and thus a key part of your destiny.

Your soul function involves establishing balance, and harmony in your world, and an awareness of beauty, of relationship, of style, and how things fit or blend together. Reconciling opposites and finding "the middle way" is your path, and the fine arts of compromise, negotiations and cooperation are key elements. You are the dove, the diplomat, the peacemaker, the friend; partnership and personal relations are your forte.

Your ruling planet, Venus, is in the modest, devoted sign of Virgo, suggesting that your humility and your genuine desire to help and serve others are among your most endearing qualities as well as important aspects of your soul function. You may serve as an assistant, the support person, right-hand man, or faithful helper to another as a significant aspect of your life. No matter how far you go, service to others will be your strength.

Chapter 4: Saturn, Your Achilles Heel

Karmically considered, the placement of Saturn in your birth chart indicates where your energetic blockages, weaknesses and fears lie, and the areas of your life where the most concentrated effort and discipline will be required to master and overcome them. Yet it also points to the aspects of life which can become your greatest strength if you are willing to face your fears and difficulties honestly, and work with them patiently.

You are overly sensitive, and may put up walls and isolate yourself in order to escape the threats that the outside world seems to pose. Vague fears and feelings of being helpless, powerless or victimized by forces greater than yourself may plaque you, and overcoming self doubt, discouragement, loneliness and these "fears of unknown origin" is an ongoing task for you.

You are also apt to feel a strong need to atone for some wrong you have done, even if you can not consciously recall what harm you have caused or why you feel that way. You feel a desire to redeem yourself or purge your guilt (whether earned or not), perhaps through some personal sacrifice. Guilt is your Achilles heel - and you need to carefully examine such feelings, for you may be carrying a cross that is not yours to bear.

You may be afraid of anything that is consciousness -altering (drugs, alcohol, even spiritual exploration) and this may be well-founded. You could lose yourself in any of these. However, a focused, disciplined attitude towards the expansion of consciousness, a particular "path" or a set of regular spiritual practices, etc. can be very stabilizing and helpful to you. Part of your challenge is how to make real and concrete your compassionate, altruistic, idealistic hopes and longings.

For you, the interrelationship between work and health is a particularly crucial one, and it is the arena through which many of your karmic imbalances or unresolved issues are addressed. You may suffer ill-health through overwork, especially if you feel guilty when you are not working. If you blame external circumstances and demands for the frustrations and burdens your work entails, it may behoove you to examine just what you get (besides an income) from working so hard or in such restrictive circumstances. On the other hand, you may get sick in part as a legitimate way of avoiding work or other pressing personal dilemmas. You also tend to greatly fear ill-health and, in a sort of vicious circle, open yourself up to disease through your anxiety about it.

Any congenital health problems or predispositions to certain inherited diseases or dysfunctions need to be dealt with patiently, compassionately, and in-depth. For you, problems in this area are an opportunity and a call to delve deeply into the hidden causes or deeper spiritual issues that arise as a result of a "physical" health challenge. (This is not to say you will have such problems, simply that if they occur, they usually reflect karmic patterns).

All of the above is complicated by the fact that you carry a rather heavy burden of self-doubt, mistrust, or guilt over having let yourself and others down in your past, when you struggled (and failed) with these same issues. You now have the opportunity to correct your course, make amends and resolve a difficult karmic tangle, or a difficult state of mind.

In this lifetime the arena of human relationships and personal love will be full of challenge and lessons for you. Love is hard to find, hard to sustain, or just plain hard! Shyness and loneliness, due mostly to an acute sensitivity to the possibility of rejection, are apt to plague your younger years. Even when friendship and open affection is offered to you, you are prone to doubt it, push it away in disbelief, or feel unworthy of it. Pure, unadulterated pleasure in any form discomforts you. Subconsciously at least, you believe that there is a price to be paid for any love or pleasure you receive, that you may be punished if you enjoy too much or love too much. There is an inner link between love and loss, love and separation, or love and punishment that inhibits you or makes you wary. Worst of all, you may feel that you are unlovable or unwanted. All of this is a karmic carry-over which needs to be handled with great compassion toward yourself. You may have toughened up and hardened your heart a great deal due to past injury, so that you have acted in cold, unfeeling, ungenerous, or unloving ways towards others and yourself. Perhaps, too, you have put work or other responsibilities ahead of the needs and desires of your heart. An opening and healing of the heart, first of all by cherishing yourself, is necessary. Once you start valuing yourself, your personal relationships will reflect that, and happiness in love in your later years can do much to make up for the earlier difficulties.

You might wish to wear or carry rose quartz, tourmaline, lavender, jade, or chrysoprase.

Your psychic antennae seem particularly sensitive to the pain of the world, and you are apt to take your spiritual and moral responsibility to respond to this very seriously. However, you carry a pattern of absorbing and taking on the burdens and suffering of the world, and because of this you may struggle with pessimism and discouragement, periodically becoming overwhelmed. Furthermore, your imagination tends to amplify these problems so that your view of reality can be rather sorrowful. It is important for you to learn to use your imaginative faculties constructively, and also to recognize that many of the nebulous worries you have are unfounded.

Past incarnations as monk, nun, ascetic, or ashramite during which a worldly life was considered antithetical to inner development or progress toward God continue to influence you. You may be hampered in your material progress by devoting yourself entirely to the spiritual life. A persistent desire to retreat from the world and leave all superficial distractions behind stems from this also. One of your karmic lesson is to integrate the inner or spiritual life with your ordinary existence.

Chapter 5: The Hard Aspects

The following is a description of your MAJOR LIFE CHALLENGES, both in terms of energies you are to learn to develop and express in a positive way, and those which are the result of struggles and unresolved karmic issues which you have brought into this life.

You are like a very high-spirited, temperamental horse, full of great energy and drive, but also impulsive, erratic, fitful, and prone to sudden starts and stops. Also there is within you a fierce independence, a strong craving for freedom, and at times a fiery rebelliousness. If you have free rein, you can be relatively happy, though not ever completely "settled" or contentedly serene for long. Under conditions that are too structured and constricted, however, you are more apt to blow up.

When out of balance you are prone to express yourself in ways that can have negative karmic consequences, such as: irritable impatience and a volatile, unpredictable temper (which can affect your health as well as damage the trust and quality of your relationships); intense restlessness (resulting in an inability to persist with a project long enough to see it through to completion); a complete unwillingness to cooperate or compromise (which also can undermine relationships, particularly with authority); physical recklessness (which an lead to accidents); and/or the inclination to ignite controversy and unrest in your environment. Because of your high (if somewhat unstable) energy level you are apt to forge ahead, oblivious to the fact that you are running right over the people around you. You may believe you are your own law or are above the law. Too much attachment to action and to being right are also potentials within you.

Learning to slow down, developing patience and the capacity to wait and cultivating a more steady, peaceful spirit will enable you to express the higher creativity, originality, and inspired passion of which you are capable.

You are a visionary, a philanthropist, an idealist whose imagination knows no bounds. You believe in miracles, in the reality of the intangible realms, and you KNOW that nothing is impossible. Because your higher centers of intuition, spiritual vision, and openness to the divine are very active, you accept and experience things many people would think quite impossible.

When out of balance with this energy (if, for instance, you are operating out of greed or neediness), your imagination and expectations can be grandiose, impractical, naive, and overblown. You may have difficulty accepting and working within the limits of mundane reality, and with setting boundaries in many areas of your life. Escapist fantasies, gambling on highly speculative ventures that promise great gain with little effort expended, or wandering far and wide without grounding yourself anywhere are also tendencies when you are less emotionally and spiritually mature. You will evolve as you choose to discipline yourself and FOCUS your intent on real, concrete, practical ways. You can bring your vision to earth.

All of the above is complicated by the fact that in prior times, you experienced great personal instability as a result of impersonal, collective impulses toward change (during a time of revolution, political upheaval, war, etc.). You may well have been an agent of these movements, with a lingering inclination toward radical solutions, extremism, flauntingly disregarding social mores. Or you may have become a reactionary, fearing and resisting all reforms or departures from the "main stream". It is thus difficult for you to be balanced and fair towards any eccentricities (in others or even in yourself). A misuse of science or technology, perhaps participating in experiments which were harmful to you or others, is also indicated. Thus, you may have a deep distrust of or an attraction/repulsion toward science and technological advancement.

Chapter 6: Soft Aspects

The following is a description of your GIFTS and STRENGTHS which can help you work with your major life challenges. These are abilities and qualities of heart, mind, and soul which are quite natural to you. You probably take them for granted. Because these represent the lines of least resistance for you, you may rely too much upon them at times; hence, there are some cautions suggested. Still, these are the areas where good flows into your life and/or where you have considerable inner resources.

You tend to be a little different, and just a bit ahead of the pack, and are not one to bow to tradition for tradition's sake or to cling to old, outworn customs or methods. Your strengths are your penchant for originality and invention, your creative spirit, and your ability to sense future developments before they happen. You are one of the avant-garde, and embrace the new long before it becomes popular or accepted by society at large. As such, you may be seen as an outsider or a threat to more cautious individuals or institutions, but this is not likely to trouble you much. As long as you are free to act as your own heart dictates, you will be quite happy without the support of the conservative element. Your courage and your willingness to be unique and to be yourself in all circumstances is part of your gift to life, as you encourage others to be true to themselves and not one of the sheep. Another strength you possess when meeting challenges is knowing when to move, when to let go of the secure and make a change for the better even amidst uncertainty and a lot of unknowns.

You have developed the capacity to direct your masculine/active, yang energies in healthy and positive ways. Thus, you have confidence in your "masculine" strengths and abilities. Ennobled by ideals of fair play and concern for the broader social implications of your choices, your actions are most often fortunate, leading to success and increased opportunities. A gift for leadership and inspiring others is also yours. Physical playfulness is an important way you can re-create and rejuvenate yourself.