Planetarium

MICHAEL LUTIN

PISCES

February 19-March 20

Because you have never adjusted to this crass and noisy world, you need to withdraw periodically from the tohubohu of honks, beeps, bells, buzzers, and whistles into your own private domain. Even your grade-school teachers thought you were a little strange. Some people say that the entire life of a Pisces is one long period of recovery from the process of birth itself, which for Pisceans is simply too exhausting. With the new moon in your 12th house and Saturn in your sign, it may be hard to discover a place to hide right now. Knowing you, though, you'll find one.

ARIES

March 21-April 19

It's nice that you've taken time out from your secret desperation to socialize with friends. With Jupiter in your 9th house and Mars's going direct on March 24, it's great that you're able to speak enthusiastically about the future, even if you're not altogether sure it's going to happen. Part of you is all pooped out and convinced the world will end before the millennium, but that's only half the story. You're also excited and hopeful, and can still think up crazy stunts, get attention, and distract yourself from your private panic. Romance before the 24th? Don't be ridiculous.

TAURUS

April 20-May 20

You really should be commended for the brave way you were able to give up so much over the past year. With just a couple of sniffs into your hankie, you let go of priceless, precious stuff you once thought you could never live without. With Mars retrograde in your 4th house until late March (not a great period for emotional nourishment at home), you're looking longingly back to old days which probably never actually existed. Thanks to the transit of Venus, your sleepy mind awakens. Prepare for a close encounter, even a brief affair, with an alien legal or otherwise.

GEMINI

May 21-June 21

With planets in your 9th and 11th houses, you're bound to be more socially active and geared for taking chances, and you're humming a tune much more lyrical than the Wagnerian dirge that's been going through your head. Geminis are usually billed as light, flexible, and casual, swinging this way and that in the twinkle of an eye. The fact is, though, that some Geminis are not versatile at all. They don't dare deviate from womb to tomb. With Uranus and Neptune in your 8th house, however, you can't avoid unusual sexual urges. You can try hiding behind celibacy, though.

CANCER

June 22-July 22

It yanks your chain when people don't follow through on their commitments. Their hearts are in the right place, but outer planets in your 7th house make it impossible for them to deliver. So, when a loved one makes another half-assed promise, try to smile forgivingly. Besides, is it really uncertainty that drives you mad, or do you dread monotony more? You cannot bear the unknown (it gives you a headache), but when all is well and there's nothing but the ticking of the clock in the hallway, do you or do you not sit there knitting more ferociously than Madame Defarge?

LEO

July 23~August 22

The retrograde motion of Mars must be as frustrating as hell for you. It forces you to stride into a packed hall with much less presidential bravado than usual and lowers the level of a substance we could call the Schwarzenegger hormone in your body. Retrograde Mars until March 24 means cool it. Rush in like gangbusters and you're sure to step into a bucket of paint. Rather than kicking butt, try the passive-aggressive approach. Act more polite than you feel. That's what society is about. It has nothing to do with self-respect or feeling like a wuss.

VIRGO

August 23September 22

If you are being romanced by exotic foreigners or courted by big producers (nonsexually, of course), you have to be fit enough to enjoy it. When it comes to good health, most doctors agree that low fat is 50 percent of the battle. Some say that leafy greens and fresh water can be just the ticket (especially when planets are lined up in your 6th and 12th houses). There are healers, though, who insist that good health is vitally dependent on another factor besides raw garlic: a stress-free emotional life. Now, just how many of them do you suppose are Virgos?

LIBRA

September 23-October 23

Socialize? Actually go out in public where people can see you? What a quaint idea. Oh, no, it would be much more fun to stay indoors, sponge up leaks, nail down the furniture in case of an earthquake, and just sit there waiting to tear another month off the calendar. As Venus passes through your 4th and 5th houses, notice that you're torn between an honest need to maintain at least a shred of the security it has taken you years to build and the increasing desire to get out there on the floor and do some real moshing. And just what is moshing? Come, now. Get with it.

SCORPIO

October 24-November 21

The games that will have been played by the end of February should make you hip to the fact that (a) in all your business dealings there's a Mommy/Daddy/Baby thing going on, and (b) even in your personal life there's a business transaction in which someone is feeling gypped. If you believe the gospel according to Freud, then in order to be healthy you've got to be in a committed, monogamous relationship. With Venus dancing around Uranus and Neptune in your 3rd house, though, healthy or not, it's going to be darned hard to know just whom you're married to.

SAGITTARIUS

November 22~December 21

You've gone through hell for the past 10 years, but in typical Sadge fashion you made it a fun trip. Now it's time to wash the green slime off your collar and the egg off your face, re-enter society, and begin to deal comfortably with restaurants and other places where normal people go. To accomplish this, you need to perform a major ritual this year. No sweat, though. You're no chicken. You love change. You can do anything. After all, remember the G.I. in the old war movies who could walk 50 miles with his buddy on his back, shrapnel and all? Definitely a Sadge.

CAPRICORN

December 22-January 19

One great thing about a Capricorn is the forever-and-a-day-type loyalty and stability that a relationship with you promises. The only problem is that it simply isn't true—at least not now. With Uranus and Neptune still rumbling around at the end of your sign, your boat is rocking, and you're scattered, unstable, and restless. You're not as up for sex as you have been or possibly will be (Mars retrograde in the 8th until March 24 is a definite turnoff), but what you can offer right now is a most unusual and fetching kind of love, even if it winds up being dangerous.

AQUARIUS

January 20-February 18

This year Uranus comes to your sign. The change you've dreamed about is on its way. It's just a matter of figuring out how, where, when, and what, but you know it's a mission you have to fulfill—to make your Aquarian statement at last. It may mean walking away from security, and you're scared of that. You've had to suck up to an Establishment whose tastes you deplore, but deep down you still want to make a difference in this world. You'll just have to do it and not talk about it, though, because you don't want to be one of those boors who go on and on about their "contribution."