Happy Birthday Taurus! May is your traditional month of power and beauty, and it opens with a powerful full moon in Scorpio on the 5th. This is when you can project yourself forcefully. The new moon of the month, in Gemini on the 20th, is equally powerful because it’s a solar eclipse. It falls in your financial house and hopefully represents some sort of a fresh start for you. The idea to think about is coming upon money from an unplanned source. It may not be a huge amount of money, but any money will probably help. Look for it!

Mercury also breezes through your sign this month, from the 9th to the 24th. Mercury puts an emphasis on speaking and on other language-related activities. Not the time to keep your mouth closed. Speaking of which, there’s an awful lot of emphasis on chatty sign Gemini this month. I already mentioned the new moon eclipse. In addition, the sun, Mercury, and Venus will all transit this sign. Gemini, as you may know, is the sign of the twins. It is an externally oriented sign that likes to socialize, but it is also a sign known for its incessant thought. It cannot turn its mind off.

The best manifestation of something like this is finding a sort of twin of your own. Someone who thinks like you do, with whom you can talk endlessly and comfortably without the least bit of hesitation. All the Gemini activity makes it somewhat easier to find someone like this because people of all signs will be being encouraged to speak their minds more freely. You’ll have a better chance of spotting the ones with whom you have a lot of stuff in common. And yes, I did mean a soul-matey type twin of the romantic kind is possible; you do have Mars in your love life house helping you too. Don’t forget about this or the fact that it is your power month–put yourself out there if you want results in this area.

Okay, that’s the good news for this month, what about the longer-term trends for your personal year ahead? Well, we’ve got Jupiter moving out of your sign next month and into the sign of Gemini (yeah, there’s a lot of Gemini action going on in the near future). This is maybe not so good on a personal level, but it could be good on a financial level if you learn to work with Jupiter by paying close attention to how you are supported by the universe (not how your nerves are driven to distraction by the universe, different thing).

Saturn also changes signs about midway through your personal year, in October 2012. Saturn’s shift will try to get you to stop thinking about your job or health (currently legitimate areas of concern) and start thinking more about your primary relationships. Saturn in Libra (the current sign) is very logical and rational; Saturn in Scorpio (the sign he’ll enter in October), not so much. Part of the discipline of Saturn in Scorpio for Taurus folks is learning how to think before they feel (I didn’t say it would be easy) so that emotions don’t overwhelm them.

Uranus in Aries will be duking it out with Pluto in Capricorn over the next 12 months. Uranus is in your solar 12th house, trying to stir up the notion that your life is filled with alternatives. This is an abrupt and upsetting notion because the sign of Taurus, when allowed full reign, likes to set up things so that they are exactly right the way they are, precisely so that alternatives won’t have to be considered. The sign of Taurus considers alternatives exhausting and generally useless.

Your job is going to be to view alternatives from a detached and neutral standpoint, not as a threat to the order that you have established in your life. This will keep you surprisingly busy over the next year because folks in other signs will be dealing with their own versions of threats to their established routines. Your practice being detached and neutral can help them, which will make you feel oddly heroic. Pluto plays into this too, because he’s trying to change your beliefs, give you a big picture that will ultimately make you more powerful.

Fortunately, Neptune will be doing its best to see that you have friends to talk everything out with. Lots of friends. Neptune likes to present things in great quantity and he’s swimming slowly through your friendship house these days, looking for likely prospects to toss up onto your friendship beach.

In fact, the next 12 months are amazingly good for the exchange of thoughts and opinions and the secret kind of relating one feels with people who just ‘get’ you. It’s all about detachment in this area, too. It’s like a Taurus personal ‘mastery of emotions and conquering of objectivity and neutrality’ year.

Finally, in the coming 12 months, eclipses will switch back and forth between the Sagittarius/Gemini axis and the Scorpio/Taurus one. That’s right, eclipses in your own sign are coming up! Not for awhile yet, but a year from now. In the meantime, a solar eclipse in November 2012 will put the spotlight on your relationship with your closest companion, romantic or best friend. Get ready for a new chapter in this area of your life!

First, we start the beautiful month of May with Mercury in your sign and the sun in Taurus. Mercury is supposed to make your mind sharp, quick, curious, eager for variety, and ready for action. The sun is supposed to guide that mental activity toward the subject of finances because Taurus is your financial sign. So far, so good.

Now let’s pile on some other influences. Mercury will zoom out of your sign and then into Taurus and then boom! into Gemini before month end. The sun will also scramble into Gemini, just in time for a new moon eclipse in that sign. Venus is already in Gemini and not planning on leaving anytime soon. Mars is in Virgo, finally moving briskly in a direct fashion. What does all this add up to?

A very, very, Mercury and Gemini-oriented month (Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo both!). You’ve essentially got Mercury influences coming out the wazoo this month and they’re all mushed up with your finances (Venus rules Taurus and your financial sector). Mercury is not Mr. Honest.

Mercury is Mr. Get Away with Whatever He Can. Your Aries solar chart will be tempted to get away with whatever it can when it comes to financial dealings–but so will everybody else’s! You’ve been warned. Keep your eyes open for your own accidental slidings toward ethical lapses, but keep an equally wary eye on everyone else.

Other than perhaps around the full moon on Cinco de Mayo (a day for drunken revelry if the astrology has anything to say about it), the month should also seem to move rapidly, and you should be functioning energetically if all goes well.

Hopefully, it will be going well by the time we hit that new moon eclipse on the 20th. This is a mind-oriented eclipse for you, which is a roundabout way of saying it would not normally be an emotional eclipse. The effect is often to bring a bit of variety into your life. It’s also a people-oriented eclipse; hence, one often finds oneself meeting new people around this time.

Finally, just a little romantic tip. When the planet of love (Venus) is in the sign of language (Gemini), she’s often a sucker for that exotic langue de l’amour, French. If you can work a few je t’aimes into your romantic conversation this month or channel your inner Brigitte Bardot, you could make out like a bandit.

Big month for Gemini. The sun moves into your sign just in time for a new moon eclipse on the 20th that seems intended to open doors for you. There’s increased sensuality and beauty this month, too, thanks partly to the influence of sun and Mercury in Taurus until the 24th. Touchy-feely days include Mother’s Day, when the sun conjuncts Jupiter, and the 22nd, when Mercury joins Jupiter. After that, it’s pretty much all you. The sun in your sign, Mercury in your sign, Venus in your sign, and next month, Jupiter moves into your sign. Everything’s coming up Gemini!

There is some resistance to the rule of Gemini, mostly from Mars in Virgo, who makes a habit of resisting whatever he can. You may feel that on the homefront. But mostly, especially as we get to the end of May, it’s just the kind of month that suits your sign. What that means is there’s plenty of turnover in the energy. Not a lot of routine and repetition. Multiple things going on, different things to be interested in, new ideas, a springy feeling.

Of course, you may wish there was a bit more routine around the house. Your sign actually tends to like things tidy and organized in its living space, the house clean, everything in its place and easily located. It also tends to have an extreme dislike for mechanical objects breaking down, even though your sign is pretty good at fixing them. Things aren’t actually scheduled to settle down in regard to residential affairs until July. But heck, you’ve been dealing with disruption in that regard since October, you can handle another couple of months of unsettlement.

Other influences are largely favorable. Saturn in Libra is behaving himself and his influence this month bodes well for creative types. Geminis in a more romantic frame of mind can get some help from Saturn too, especially if you remember that he is transiting your love life sector with the intention of helping you clarify your values and make conscious choices when it comes to your desires. Saturn loves conscious choices, which is a good thing to remember. Some people don’t like Saturn’s influence for precisely this reason; they prefer to make their choices on autopilot, without stopping to think about them. Your sign actually likes to think, though, so Saturn gets along with your sign quite well.

Not a bad month.

Eclipse month! Yes, there’s a new moon eclipse in Gemini on the 20th of May. This is the type of eclipse that brings hidden information to light, and you could feel its influence at any time from late April through late June. Gemini is a language-oriented sign, so that makes this a language-oriented eclipse. Writing and speaking with an elegant or beautiful touch are highly emphasized, enough to be your first priority this month. That’s partly because the month’s Gemini energy isn’t limited to an eclipse. Mercury enters the sign on the 24th and Venus goes retrograde in Gemini on the 15th. Use your words, as modern parents say these days.

Eclipses are one thing that none of us have much control over, and the whole month may have a bit of that kind of feel for Cancers. All that eclipse-y and Gemini energy may throw a few wrinkles into your well-pressed plans. Mars barreling through Virgo doesn’t help much in that regard. Expect an aura of hectic busyness to pervade and lots of turnover and changeableness in your day to day activities. None of this is new, by the way, and the pace isn’t supposed to slow until July.

But you do have some career energy at the beginning of the month that you can use to exercise your will via Mercury in Aries until the 9th. This is a holdover from April, but if you haven’t taken advantage yet, you still have time. The idea is to deliberately choose career-progressing actions and then take them. Best bets include playing up your intellectual strengths or just talking yourself up in general. Promote yourself; put yourself forward!

From the 9th to the 24th, Mercury will be in Taurus. Mercury makes a nice angle to Neptune on the 10th, one that’s good for educational matters. Neptune is in your solar sector of education for a long stay, which is excellent if you have aspirations of getting your college degree or if you work in an educational field. During the brief angle between Mercury and Neptune, you have a chance to make use of an opportunity to further a short-term educational goal. A day with similar energy is the 22nd, when Mercury meets up with educationally oriented Jupiter.

May is something of a laugh-a-holic month for Leo. It starts with Mercury (a humor planet) in your laughter-loving solar 9th house until the 9th of the month. That’s nice, but nothing special. Later, though, the skies start exploding with giggly Gemini energy, an energy that won’t subside for a long time. Beautiful! We could sure use a few laughs these days. At any rate, you have full permission to amuse yourself in merry May and to find others amusing as well.

This is also career month for Leo. The sun and Mercury both join Jupiter in Taurus, your solar career sign, in May. These planets give you the ability as well as the encouragement to push your career forward in whatever way suits your situation.

Now, about that Gemini energy. It’s the energy of play. It’s at its strongest theoretically at the new moon eclipse on the 20th. Certainly from the 24th on (when Mercury enters Gemini), there’s a ton of Gemini-ness in the skies. It asks you to fill your time with stuff you like to do, to make recreation a priority, to laissez les bon temps roulez (let the good times roll). Go out, hang out, socialize and all that jazz. Venus actually goes retrograde in Gemini in May, on the 15th. This is another potent time, perhaps as potent or more so than the eclipse. It shouts “Fun first!”

If things go really well, your bank account will be bigger than normal too in May. That’s because Mars is now going direct in your financial sector (he started moving ahead again in April). When Mars gets going, he can be really helpful in getting the income party started. Just make sure he’s using his energy to bring in the bucks as well as spend them.

The month starts out with lots of good physical energy via earth signs like your own. To wit, the sun, Mercury, and Jupiter in Taurus, Mars in your own sign and of course Pluto in Capricorn. The combination of energy is good for things like working with the hands, dealing with particulars or small chunks of information, attending to details, and dealing with mechanical issues. If you like to tinker, this is good energy for you. Taurus is also your travel sign, and this is good energy for going overseas.

By the 20th, when there’s a new moon eclipse in Gemini, these themes continue but there’s a shift toward your solar 10th house of career, visibility, reputation and so on. This new moon eclipse itself falls in your solar career house and can signal a fresh start in this area of your life. Sometimes this kind of eclipse will coincide with a promotion, a new project, a change in duties, a change in employers or career paths, or even just a new attitude. By the time of the eclipse, there’s a buffet of Gemini energy in the skies. The sun, Mercury, and Venus will all be in your career sign.

The combination of lots of activity in your solar 10th house plus Mars in your own sign tends to be highly ambitious. It depends on your circumstances of course, but there is often a strong drive to advance, to gain status, to compare yourself with others and beat them by some measure. Unless you actually don’t like advancement, I’d take advantage of this energy if I were you. You will have strong career energy for about the next 13 months, but you can really kickstart yourself right now. Go for it!

Venus will go retrograde on the 15th, another potent time this month. Venus in Gemini may relate to your career, but it is also possible that it will relate to different things, such as a makeover, a desire to be pampered, a reputation for beauty, or even being noticed for your body. When Venus goes retrograde, sometimes it indicates a desire to return to a previous state of bodily comfort. For example, if your joints are stiff from arthritis, you might want to try gentle methods to bring them back to easy functioning. Stuff like that.

The combination of Venus at the top of your chart and Neptune in the sign opposite yours can also indicate an increased interest in balance, grace, and flowing movement. And last but by no means least, the combined energy of your chart could also indicate beaucoup love life action. Lots of possibilities for you, Virgo, and you have full permission to enjoy them.

There are all kinds of possibilities for fun and adventure in your chart in May, dear Libra. Let’s start with just one example. Sports. We’ve got pleasure-loving Venus in your sports-loving 9th house all month, joined as the month progresses by the sun, Mercury, and a new moon eclipse on the 20th. We’ve got Mars in exercise-craving Virgo in the back of your chart’s mind, itching to burn off some steam.

We also have organized activities loving Saturn in your own sign and competitive Uranus in Aries in the part of your chart that governs doing things with other people. And we’ve got planets in Taurus that would love to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful weather. Can you see how the month is designed for getting you out on the softball field?

Okay, fine. You’re wary of moving your body about and risking injury. No problemo. The month is also tailor-made for mental activities and games. Sudoku at the beach? That works. Hate numbers? Okay, fine, word games then. You’ve got lots of alternatives, maybe too many for a Libra to handle. If you can’t decide, have a party, and let your friends choose.

What about work you ask, about getting down to business? Well, if there’s a lot going on at your job someone failed to get the Neptunian memo, cuz your chart is just not that into it right now. Admittedly, you may have family business to attend to. Pluto in your sector of home and family is still pretty powerful and you may have literal physical stuff to get rid of, as in it’s really really time for a garage sale or to get your butt on eBay so you can auction off some of the excess junk your loved ones have accumulated. Or the opposite may be true, you may need to be investing in goods for a new or remodeled residence. But you can squeeze that in around your fun time, can’t you?

Oh, did I mention, there’s a ton of travel energy for you this month, too? I didn’t? Well, there is. What are you waiting for; get your vacation booked!

It’s a Venusian kind of month, Scorpio. Venus in Gemini goes retrograde on the 15th, and for much of the month we have the sun and Mercury and Jupiter in Venus-ruled Taurus. What does Venus rule? Oh you know, stuff like grace, beauty, art, love, money, pleasure. The tango. Stuff people like.

For you, the combination of energies could favor things like earning money through mental activities or skills, through speaking or writing, or through using your hands in some graceful manner. Earning money through other forms of creativity or art is another possibility. This is especially true around the time of the new moon (which is an eclipse) on the 20th. The eclipse is in Gemini, a language-oriented sign, so polish up your language skills and put them to good use.

With Venus in your rather hidden 8th house, the phrase ‘dancing with myself’ also comes to mind. During the week that begins with Mother’s Day on the 13th, though, the planets in Taurus line up rather neatly with Mars in Virgo in your friendship house. At that time, it would be more like ‘dancing with a bunch of my friends at a music festival, party, or club in a wanton display of sheer physical pleasure.’ Stuff like that.

Another nice angle occurs near the end of the month on the weekend of Memorial Day. The sun and Mercury in Gemini hook up with Uranus in Aries in your solar 6th house of job and health. Your physical and mental abilities to earn money, get a job, or improve your health are in fine form.

Of course, you may not care about earning money or dancing with your friends, maybe you only care about your love life. Well, yeah, the stars certainly wouldn’t mind if you put a priority on that instead. The indications are certainly there. Whenever there’s a lot of energy in the sign opposite yours (Taurus), there’s a possibility of getting pointed in the direction of love, relationships, or just harmony and unity. This month, the sun’s in Taurus until the 20th and Mercury’s in Taurus until the 24th.

Oh, lots going on in May, Sagittarius. The sun and Mercury and Jupiter are in Taurus to start the month, all in your job house. These are all good for business, for enjoying business, or for making money. Mars is still in your career house, also good for business. Maybe not as fun as the Taurus influences, but still good for business and for earning money if you set your mind to it. In the middle of the month, Mars hooks up with Pluto (via a trine) and that’s even better for business and earning money.

By the way, Jupiter leaves your job sector next month and Mars leaves your career sector in early July. These two planets, Jupiter especially, are tasked with pushing you toward a rewarding job or career situation. If you don’t feel satisfied with your job, you still have a bit of time to use this energy. The rewards don’t have to be exclusively financial; you can go for psychic or emotional gratification as well. As long as you are going for something.

In the middle of the month, Saturn and Venus are getting along very well which links beauty, love and friendship. A friendship may turn to love (or I suppose vice versa) relatively easily. This is also an aspect that strongly favors politeness, courtesy, observing the social niceties, and reaching out to others. Neptune also starts slowing way down in your residential sector around that time, which could make things seem intoxicatingly pleasant on the home front for awhile.

And now for the other theme of the month: communication. There’s a ton of Gemini energy in the skies in May, including a new moon eclipse on the 20th. Gemini is a communicating sign by nature and represents your solar relationship sector. Ergo, lots of emphasis on communicating in your relationships.

I will admit that eclipses are highly unstable influences. They can bring deliciousness and wonderment or toxic surprise. Theoretically, this eclipse should be good for you, maybe even great, and bring about a new era of open communication in a relationship or in some way move one to the next level. But if a relationship is not up to snuff for some reason, the eclipse could open your eyes to the inherent problems. Either way, expect something to change.

May should be a pleasant month for Capricorn, and I hope it will be for you. Every year during May, the sun spends some time in Taurus, the sign of beauty, in your solar 5th house of pleasure. This year is no exception, and the sign of Taurus will be hosting Mercury and Jupiter too. Jupiter is generally a pretty darn pleasant planet, so you have almost no excuse for not at least trying to invest your time in things that please you, in the things you find beautiful. The universe is giving you permission to do so, and as a native of a sign that puts great store by getting permission, this is important.

To put this in perspective, next month will be different. There’ll be a lunar eclipse, Saturn will try to shake up your career, and Jupiter will leave Taurus, not to return for another 12 years. Next month also sees rather ferocious battles between Pluto in your own sign, Uranus in Aries, and planets in your opposite sign of Cancer. Not so pleasant. So make hay while the sun shines, as the farmers say.

Neptune also starts slowing down in May, in preparation for stationing (getting powerful) next month. Neptune is in your solar house of speaking, writing, language, communicating, etc. The obvious implication is that as Neptune slows down, so will your speaking. It’s like Neptune wants to feel its way through whatever it is you want to communicate and so will take its time before letting you spit out the words. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can expand your ability to communicate by opening you up to subtleties and levels of thoughtfulness you wouldn’t previously have considered.

Mars is still in your travel house and makes a nice angle with Mercury (another travel planet) on Mother’s Day. If you need to trek out of town to see your Mom, the signs look pretty good.

Now, on to the other big theme of the month: Gemini-ness. Gemini represents your job sector, the part of your chart that rules your time at the office. A new moon eclipse in this sign on the 20th could bring welcome news to Capricornian job-seekers. This sector of your chart is very active from the time of the eclipse on, and you should be too. With Venus in this part of your chart (especially powerful around the 15th), your best bet for job success is to team up with other people. Go for it!

Compared to some months in 2012, the astrology for May is relatively relaxed, friendly, easygoing. There is an eclipse on May 20, but it is a solar eclipse in Gemini, a sign friendly to yours. In fact, none of the outer planets are in an unfriendly position for your sign right now. Next month your sign’s ruler, Uranus, will get in a vicious dogfight with Pluto, but right now he’s just giving you permission to be active and to speak your mind. You might, however, want to take steps to guard your technology, IT structures if you work with them, or your data. When Pluto and Uranus fight next month, it could affect all of these areas in your chart.

Neptune is slowing down in your financial house, in preparation for stationing (getting powerful) next month. That’s not necessarily an unfriendly phenomenon either. It could even lead to you stumbling across some unexpected money. Probably not a lot of unexpected money, but maybe a little. Neptune encourages serendipity and when he’s moving slowly, sometimes our eyes are more open to the odd little favorable synchronicities of the universe. Or you may find that things are simply easier financially.

Now, what about those inner planets and the eclipses? Well, there’s a whole mess of Gemini energy in the skies this May, and Gemini represents your solar sign of relaxation, pleasure, fun, happiness, good times, and creativity. It’s almost like the universe is demanding that you relax a little bit, telling you to put aside your worries and cares for a time so that you can remember how to enjoy life. With Venus strong this month and with lots of Taurus energy and a strong focus on your solar house of creativity, it’s almost like permission to begin some sort of a beauty project, whatever that may mean to you. Just getting out and enjoying nature could fit the bill.

The sun doesn’t enter Gemini until the 20th, but Venus is there from the get-go this month. Gemini energy, including the new moon eclipse on the 20th, also favors curiosity, learning, education, short trips, cultural activities, and general out and aboutness. The whole month also encourages conversation, easy and pleasant conversation. This month is also good for Aquarians with children to spend time enjoying their company, especially around the 15th of the month when Venus in Gemini is especially powerful.

All this outwardness is balanced by the sun and Mercury and Jupiter in Taurus, all of which favor staying at home, unless you are traveling to visit family. You may also want to spend more time talking with family this month, especially until the 24th, although truth to be told, the entire month is potentially pretty packed with interactions with relatives. In fact, May represents a last burst of activity in your solar sector of family and strengthening relationships with family members. Next month, Jupiter leaves Taurus and your family sector for Gemini–the above-mentioned sign of curiosity and learning.

May is rather an arty month for Pisces on two different fronts. Artistic Neptune is slowing down in your sign, getting ready to station next month. That makes him a bit more powerful than usual and potentially increases his interest in the visual arts that he enjoys so much. Venus in Gemini is also prominent this month, especially around the 15th. Venus in Gemini favors the verbal arts.

The month is also overflowing with Taurus energy, and the Taurus energy is artistic as well, both in terms of graphic and verbal arts. Writing of all sorts is actually highlighted throughout the month, including writing for income. Freelance writers and those who work from home should be in particularly good shape.

If art or language are not your things, you can also think of all of this energy as being energy of attraction. In your own case, there’s a bit of extra magnetism as Mars continues moving through the sign opposite yours, Virgo. As we all know, opposites attract!

And lest we forget, Taurus is also the sign of beauty. Around the 10th, Mercury in Taurus and Neptune in your sign make a nice connection that pairs either imagination and beauty or glamor and beauty. Sweet!

Yet another theme of the month is details, not an area that your sign is known for being fond of. Mars in Virgo is big on details and so are the sun, Mercury, new moon, and Venus in Gemini this month.

The new moon on the 20th is also an eclipse and may present you with some sort of a choice to make or new information to consider. The area of change would most likely be your residence or family. For example, a sudden opportunity to move may come up and you need to decide whether you want to do that or not. If this eclipse affects you strongly, an entirely new phase of your domestic life may begin. Furthermore, next month Jupiter moves into your sector of domesticity and he’ll stay there an entire year. If things in this area aren’t developing yet, they will shortly.

Finally, the full moon in Scorpio on the 5th falls in your solar house of education. If you have an education related matter to complete, now’s the time to do it. Seems like that ought to be enough to keep you busy!

Happy Birthday Aries! The first half of April sees Mercury still lagging in Pisces, going direct on the 4th. Outer planet Neptune is here as well (as usual) and so is Chiron. Pisces is your solar sign of going within. With Mercury here, the indication is that if you want answers to nagging questions, however mundane (like ‘where should I go on vacation if I ever get one?’), you should consult yourself and not the travel magazines.

The continuing Pisces influence also indicates that until the 16th, you could do with a little down time, some quiet leave-me-the-heck-alone time. You probably know that better than anyone, but beware the temptation to just flop down on the bed the moment you get away from the hecticity that is your life. To really recharge yourself, you need to plan some semi-structured engaging activities. Something where you can really focus on the low-stress task at hand. Mere flopping, however well-deserved, will simply leave you feeling restless and discontented.

Why so? Because the early part of the month is also counter-balanced by the energetic sun in your sign and the hyper-energetic Uranus there as well. You’ve got to give your mind something soothing to do or work on because the restless Aries planets will give you no peace unless you’re doing something, even while you’re relaxing.

Not only that, when the sun is in your sign, people tend to pay more attention to you. Generally that’s a good thing, but with your active chart this month, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the attention came in the form of being peppered with polite questions by everyone who needs to know your opinion or decision on something. It’s like you’re the director of the movie of your life and while many want to assist you, they cannot seem to make any decisions about how to do so without checking with you 5 times first. Not only that, but on the 4th, there’s a full moon in Libra that seems to bring a certain urgency to relationship matters.

Perhaps fortunately, on the 19th, the sun moves into Taurus, your money house. The questions may subside a bit and you can perhaps actually pay attention to your financials and see what’s up in that sector of your life. Your financial new moon takes place on the 20th, a good time to ask and get answers to your questions about your financial status.

Okay, now let’s look further down the road into your year ahead. Your ruler Mars turns direct on the 13th in Virgo, and remains in Virgo until early July. Whatever your life has been like job and health-wise, expect even more of the same until then. In July, your ruler resumes normal activity, speeding through the signs as if he’d never stopped to stir up activity in your work life. That’s Mars for you; once he’s gone, he doesn’t look back. You won’t be able to either, so if you desperately need to get some stuff taken care of employment or health-wise, do it before July.

In June, Jupiter moves from Taurus to information-gathering Gemini. Prepare to gather and dispense information like a maniac for 12 months, starting in June 2012. Saturn also changes signs this year. He moves from Libra to Scorpio in October.

While in Libra, Saturn’s in what’s called an angular house in your solar chart. What this means, in essence, is that Saturn doesn’t rest while he’s in Libra. He pokes and prods at your relationships until you’re just desperate for him to cut it out. That’s why it’s good news that when he moves into Scorpio, he’ll be much less attentive. I don’t mean he’ll just lay around doing nothing, but comparatively speaking, the shift in signs is like getting a vacation from Mr. Saturn.

The downside of this is that when Saturn’s in your 8th house (which is what Scorpio represents in your solar chart), sometimes your sex life takes a vacation too. If it doesn’t take a vacation, sometimes you get much more serious about it. Or you pay more attention to it. A lot more attention.

Meanwhile, Uranus continues its 7 year sojourn in your sign, and Neptune rests quietly in your solar 12th house. Neither of these influences is that new; you have some idea what your life has been like in 2011 and so far in 2012, and these planets continue in the vein they’ve already established. The action really comes from Pluto in your career sector.

This month, Pluto turns retrograde on the 10th. Around that time, things can suddenly die, specifically in your career life, such as major projects. In June and September, Pluto squares Uranus, in a perhaps successful attempt to cause as much trouble as possible. Ahem, I mean, in an attempt to facilitate change by rooting out and eliminating old structures that have outlived their welcome.

In real life, this can mean anything from a boss leaving your company to an overwhelming sense of pressure that your career path is squeezing the life out of your soul and pressing you into a box you don’t want to fit into.

The very general idea is that you will have a desire to protest or change something that you’re sick and tired of, and that it will take courage and judgment to decide how much protesting and change is in your best interests. The planets will do their best to muck up the judgment thing in the hopes that you will make the kind of fundamental and significant change that they love. You don’t have to do what they urge you to do; you do have free will–but you do have to acknowledge that something is happening, something’s in the air, and you need to decide where you stand in regards to it.

The month begins with a full moon in Libra on the 6th, just four days after Venus moves out of your sign. Libra is the designated relationship sign of the zodiac and a full moon in the relationship sign can indicate that a relationship matter is either culminating or running out of gas. Either situation can trigger strong emotions.

The prudent course would be to keep your relationship expectations modest during the first week of April so that the temptation to overreact to news doesn’t take hold and drag you off to upsetness land. Perhaps not coincidentally, April starts out with the sun in your 12th house in the unreasonable sign of Aries.

The 12th house might be called the house of irrationality; it’s the house where all the weird suppressed subconscious beliefs you cart around hang out, waiting for a chance to express themselves. As you might guess, these weird subconscious beliefs will be more than happy to leap out and attack people at the full moon if you let them.

If you decide not to take the prudent course, they’ll want to explain their feelings about justice, fairness, guilt, everything you do for someone else that someone else doesn’t do for you, or vice versa and so on. Depending on your temperament, they’ll either want to explode or cry. That’s because these repressed feelings have been being stressed by the presence of Uranus in Aries and Mars retrograde in Virgo, who are igniting hero/victim situations in your relationships if they can.

Put bluntly, if you are a susceptible type, Mars in Virgo is strongly urging you to help your lover in whatever way you can with his or her stressful situation, while Uranus in Aries is urging you to run screaming from the room because you can’t take it anymore and need some alone time. I won’t tell you whether it would do you good to have a meltdown or whether you would do better to avoid the people and things that stress during the first half of the month, but I will say that Mars may give you and your sweetie some assistance when he finally turns direct on the 13th.

In the meantime, if you want to back slowly out of the room when things get hot, I certainly won’t blame you. Your savior during the astrologically intense first half of April may well be Pluto, which changes direction this month. If you were born near the end of this month, you are especially blessed by Pluto for the coming 12 months.

On the 21st, the sun moves into your own sign, where it is of course anticipating your birthday celebration. Your personal birthday wish new moon occurs early this year, on the 21st itself. Wish away!

In other astrological news, Mercury goes direct in Pisces on the 4th. Pisces is your solar sign of connections, networking, casual relationships and so on. In this sign, Mercury is politely curious, on its best behavior, solicitous but not pushy. Then it moves into the dreaded sign of Aries mentioned above, on the 16th, where it is anything but polite. If you value courtesy, stop and think before you speak during the second half of the month.