Monthly Horoscope for October by Eric Francis
Events will proceed quickly this month, and there is little you can do about the decisions that someone close to you makes. Your best course of action is to see your options for what they are at any given time, and make the best choices you can. This implies that you will observe your whole environment rather than fixate on any one situation, no matter how serious it may seem. Focusing too closely on a particular person or issue will distract you from the many possibilities open to you. This is a good time to consider the ways that your professional aspirations are in any way mingled or mired with the values of your family, and your relationship status. It would be reasonably easy for a person to make his or her way in life, were there not so many emotional obstacles and competing commitments. You may be looking at an opening over the next few weeks that could develop when a previously hot-and-heavy emotional situation shifts, and suddenly you find that you have more freedom. Of course, you always had it. But now you may see it for what it is — and be able to make decisions free of any guilt associated with breaking or changing a commitment for your own convenience. There are a diversity of ways this could manifest, though it’s essential for you to know what you want, and to remember who you are outside the definitions into which any relationship may seem to confine you.
Aries (March 20-April 19)
The great theme of this time in your life is aligning your ethics with your actions, particularly what you do for work. Most people find this difficult: they work for money, and do what they think of as the right thing the rest of the time. You are not made this way, and it’s especially stressful when your sense of justice misaligns with your daily activity. Events of October may shed new light on the topic. Consider that how you conduct yourself, what you actually do and how you treat people represent your ethics — and what you say you espouse is irrelevant. Life is action, not theory. What you do is one thing; believing is another. We live in a time when it’s vogue to put on a tshirt and think that changes one's inherent character. The question of the hour is, do you consider both sides of an issue before you make up your mind? Do you ask whether there are other critical viewpoints that need to be considered? Do you go through a deliberation process when making an assessment of something external to yourself, or do you just decide what you think is right? It would seem that you need to do a lot more weighing and balancing. It’s essential that you step back from thinking you’re right. This will put you in a vulnerable place you may be quite uncomfortable with: living with uncertainty — for long enough to make some peace with it.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Jupiter in your birth sign is the ultimate astrological sigil of good luck. This happens every 12 years or so. You have access to many opportunities for expansion of your life and your plans and also refreshing your ideas about who you are. Yet this time around, there are limits — three of them in particular — and you’re probably feeling this tension between your potential and certain restrictions. Jupiter in Gemini can be undisciplined and lack direction; the first factor here to help you get a grip is Saturn in Pisces. All of Pisces is your 10th place, which is about taking action. The Saturn influence is saying that you need tangible goals and, no matter how old you are, your reputation matters. You only get to have one of those. Second, actions have consequences. This is about Nessus in Pisces. When it comes to anything you touch or are meekly responsible for, the buck must stop with you. Therefore, be conscious of what you touch and thereby take responsibility for. Last, Jupiter is in the process of making a long square to Neptune. This insists that you have genuine and realistic goals. Saturn will help you here; start by eliminating what is not really a valuable personal objective. You can measure value on one simple basis: have you taken action toward that goal? If you have not done so, then it’s probably a whim or a wish and not a true personal ambition.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Many years ago (in 2002), I wrote in this space for the sign Cancer: “In essence, you don't know someone until you're familiar with their relationship to their own dark side. Typically, we pretend our partners don't have a dark side. But humans not only have those unlit and unexplored regions; these are often their most vital and attractive aspect. As for the rest of what we call soul, most of it involves how we deal with our power struggles, hormonal impulses and fear of death. So, having learned a few unexpected things about yourself in recent months, and being in an unusually strong position in life, take a look at those close to you.” Skipping to the present, there is quite a bit that is coming through from the direction of relationships, partners and your wider environment. There are certain factors that seem on the brink of running out of control; though this has been true for a while, and you’ve been able to keep a grip on your affairs. The question is, what’s really going on? Are you experiencing some facet of your own karma — or are the influences coming in from outside of you? Look for the ways that very old family patterns match your current situation. There are forms of therapy based on this; who resembles who? Who reminds you of someone from your past? There will be certain lines that are easy to draw, and others that are more difficult. See if you can get this discussion going in your intimate relationships.
Check out this year’s Cancer Astrology Studio, preview above.
You have several important decisions to make, and it will help if you understand your motives. Now, the potential issue here is that they are not always what they seem. So this may require some subtle investigation and degree of self-aware objectivity that most people find difficult to attain. Yet you have the ability to search yourself, and as the month progresses, you may find that this becomes a skill that you rely on. The ability to see and acknowledge one’s inner drives is a kind of superpower that can save you all kinds of trouble. What some call “unconscious motives” are nothing of the kind; usually they disappear under the surface of the mind due to some form of denial. There is an astrological key, which is to study the things that make you distrust others. Personality traits, manners of speech, and elements of behavior that lead you to have your doubts are all included. The essence is to honor those doubts rather than to ignore or rationalize them. This is not about you becoming a suspicious person but rather honoring your own observations. And this includes maintaining your situational awareness: paying attention to what is happening wherever you are, and in whatever capacity you are there. The theme of your solar chart, particularly with the forthcoming solar eclipse, is that you are on the verge of seeing many things you’ve been missing. This information will help you socially and in business and may reveal the opportunity that you need the most.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
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Alice A. Bailey, the author of Esoteric Astrology, wrote that in ancient times, Virgo and Scorpio were one sign, which later split into two. One clue is the similarity in their symbols, though no technical information is provided; this is one of many Atlantean topics that surfaces in her unusual book. Imagine, though, that the integration power of Virgo, the drive to mental perfection, and the need for self-autonomy, were blended with deep and watery Scorpio. This would add passion and the drive to connect with another, which in Virgo style would more likely be directed inwardly. And from this fertile space of self-completion, many forms of connection are possible. One of the struggles that humans have is we often feel that a partner is necessary to provide a sense of meaning and completion. Yet many factors, all of which involve the planet Mars (ruler of Scorpio, and also of Aries, where you strive to find completion in close relationship with others) are saying it’s time to differentiate yourself. That means reaching for a state of inward completion rather than directing this whole project outward. While one potential response to this possibility would be separation anxiety, when you reach a space of wholeness without the need for another, the experience may be one of bliss and liberation. I don’t think you want to depend on anyone else to experience yourself as a whole being, because that’s not true as long as anyone can leave you feeling separated from yourself.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
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A solar eclipse in your birth sign may come with some pressure, a feeling of fate, and a sense of too-fast movement. Yet there are few better invitations to improving your life in every way. The eclipse is a moment of forgetting and of remembering. There’s a shift in continuity, and an interval of possibility. A shadow is cast across the Sun, and also the Sun’s illumination as it falls on Earth. So you might say that in various ways, you get to see things in a different light. And that different light is just what you need to make sense of the world and your place in it. This is no time to have a fixed viewpoint on anything, especially yourself. A diversity of long-range influences are calling you into a whole new sense of your being. From there, you will see the world much closer to how it is rather than how it appears. This is a time of gathering those who have similar values to you, who resonate with you both emotionally and intellectually. Then there is the matter of sexual resonance. This is an evermore distant notion for people as we become electrified by digital frequencies and soaked in artificial hormones. Yet there is still a deep current of emotional, hormonally vivid sexual awareness running through humanity. If you allow yourself to be drawn in its direction, you will leave behind your family’s limited ideas about existence and find the energy to open up in ways you never imagined possible.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
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The forthcoming solar eclipse may stir up some of your deepest fears, desires and concealed memories. Feelings you thought were long resolved, including for past lovers, might come bubbling to the surface. This could include a diversity of ambiguous or conflicting emotions that you thought were long gone. What you’re experiencing is a point of release: a kind of cosmic trigger that is allowing you to drop emotional material you’ve been carrying without realizing it. So, no, you’re not going nuts, and what filters into your dreams is not necessarily a reflection of what you want today. From a healing perspective, the important thing is to feel the feelings before letting go of them. This includes a wide range of possibilities, from deep erotic passion to mistrust and suspicion to any concerns about infidelity. There you may be crossing back through territory you’ve been in before (if you’re old enough, the mid/late-1990s come to mind). All in all, this is an important time of review and release. With Pluto lingering around Capricorn for another month, and Mars about to go retrograde in December, this is an important time for you to look back and make peace with your personal history — and as it may turn out, the personal history of your ancestors. All of the factors I’ve mentioned can jump the generations, though the solar eclipse is the most potent factor in that sense. So whatever may come up, let it rise to your awareness and then set yourself free.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Check out this year’s Midyear Reading for Scorpio, preview above.
I’ve read that about 8% of Americans say they don’t have a single close friend. I suspect the problem is more serious, as many that people consider friends would be unlikely to come through, or they live too far away to be helpful (or to sit down for a meal together). Countless millions more have no family ties. This is what I hear most: I’m getting old, my friends are either gone or far away, my partner is gone or very sick, I’m away from my family, or estranged from them…and so on. Many have still not recovered from the loss of their support network due to the 2020 incident. There’s about to be a solar eclipse in the social angle of your solar chart, which for you is Libra — the original sign of ‘let’s get together.’ Yet there is caution indicated about what “together” means. It must relate to the values that you share: the fundamental elements of your humanity. Values are the ground underlying your decisions and your most closely held beliefs. Despite the wild reputation of Sagittarius, you have a deep traditional streak, and you’re reluctant to blaze ahead into the unknown and untested. Yet the times we are in are calling for liberation from the past, so we can deal with the problems of the present. We are not going to do this alone. Humanity must meet on some new common ground, unencumbered by ideology. You are being summoned to help lead the way.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
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The Oct. 2 solar eclipse at the top of your solar chart is urging you into action. Usually you can attract some form of what you want, and your fallback position is to negotiate. Both work pretty well most of the time. But the eclipse is calling for you to take charge of your idea, your message and your presentation. There’s an unusual challenge calling you to stand up and step out. You could slip into the continuation of something you’ve done in the past — something familiar that you’re comfortable with. Another interpretation is that you dearly need to let go of what you’ve accomplished before, and your ideas about it, and do something entirely new. You’re a person who takes your reputation seriously, and regards it as something you’ve built cumulatively. You might have to forego all that in order to take on a new challenge, part of which is the adventure of being unknown. Another way to say this is that you are in a time when you must depend on the strength of your character rather than your reputation. You will need to assert what you know rather than what you’re known for. And looking good will not get you all the way there. Sure, you can dress for success, though that does not substitute for being aware and well-spoken. And the part that there is absolutely no faking is using your ability to read the room. Where are people at, and what do they need?
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
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If, as Gordon Sumner wrote, “There’s no political solution to a troubled evolution,” then that leaves a few possibilities. One of them is a spiritual solution, which can encompass the closely related idea of creative. And that necessitates a relational approach, meaning that we would collaborate — something of an Aquarian speciality, on a good day. But first, what is the problem? Well, actually it seems to go right back to working together. Capitalism, from which some of us benefit and most of us bear the brunt of, is the original “every man for himself” economic philosophy. That’s the one where nothing can be collective; where there can be no common areas; where you have to go as high as the Supreme Court to give out leaflets in a shopping mall. It’s the economic structure that facilitates a business paying 20 or more different kinds of taxes. And now we have arrived at this late date, at what is being called “late stage,” even though we don’t really know where we are, and it turns out that the thing missing is cooperation. That is to say, for its own sake, and the sake of the participants, and for some larger ideal. People are desperately trying to get from the “I” to the “we,” grafting themselves onto all kinds of notions and movements that are ultimately self-serving. We will find the “we” among one another, one-to-one and then in small groups. You find the “we” in your heart when you see someone else’s interests as the same as your own.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
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You have an unusual opportunity this month to reset all of your balances. This may include clearing the decks of certain financial issues and generally getting your house in order. The Oct. 2 solar eclipse is a release point, and also represents a new beginning. Other factors describe similar experiences, though they are stretched out over a longer time. Saturn in your sign from 2023 into 2025, for example, has you under pressure to make important decisions and to get control over your life. This comes after what you may not have recognized was a loss of influence (associated with Neptune, whose sneaky ways can obscure its action). You may be discovering problems for a while, and be inclined to resolve them. Keep following that lead; you must always be the place where the buck stops in your own affairs. Yet the eclipse in Libra is describing something more immediate and potentially with more sweeping effects. It’s describing something that is available now. So take the opportunity to settle old debts, to assess your situation for what it is —and as Peter Gabriel said, to know your plastic from your cash. We live in times of imminent change. The ongoing square of your ruling planet Jupiter to Saturn in your own sign will hold you to your truth, and keep you focused on your commitments. If you are given a new start, accept it graciously, and keep clearing, keep setting matters right, and keep putting your house in order.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Check out this year’s Midyear Reading for Pisces