Saturn represents the limits put on you by other people. These can be good, although that doesn’t necessarily mean enjoyable. For example, there’s a lot of energy in your sign right now, and when there’s a lot of energy in your sign it can represent attention to your health. Saturn in this case would be the designated nag in your life, the significant person who cares about your health.

She or he would say ‘now, watch your salt intake, you know what the doctor said about your high blood pressure!’ Or, ‘eat more fish, you know that’s supposed to be good for your heart.’ Or ‘keep it at the speed limit, it’s dangerous to drive so fast.’ And so on. Like someone trying to spoil all your fun and get rid of all your favorite vices.

But…with your own planetary power, you push back and come to a reasonable compromise. Limited salt, not no salt. Some fish, not 8 times a week. Close to the speed limit, not driving like an old lady. And so on. One of your main jobs over the next couple of years is figuring out how to incorporate functional limits into your life. That’s the point of the whole Saturn exercise.

This May, though, you might just feel that you are reaching the edge of your patience with all the limits and whatnot. That’s because Mars will be in your sign all month. Patience is not Mars’s strong suit. Be prepared.

Thankfully, for your money-friendly sign, the limits this month are not likely to be financial. Your financial sector is quite happy throughout the month. That’s one good thing. Your senses are also heightened this month, which can be another asset.

Now, about that eclipse. It’s a very personal one, occurring in your own sign. A solar eclipse in one’s own sign often does is give a person a renewed or new sense of purpose. You might not wake up on the 9th (eclipse day) with a brand new purpose, but some time between April and June, it may well sneak up on you and introduce itself. That’s another good thing.

There is also a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on May 25th. Sagittarius is the sign of foreign travel, so something foreign-travel-y may occur or something involving someone from another country. Sagittarius is also an educational and learning sign, so something intellectual might jolt its way into your consciousness. You have Pluto at odds with Uranus in your own personal foreign travel and educational sector, so things could be rather tense.

Sometimes a lunar eclipse actually signals some sort of a loss related to foreign travel or education, although rarely a hugely significant one. You’ve been through a number of eclipses in this sector over the past couple of years, so you may actually feel that something settles down around this time as though a final piece of a puzzle has landed.

For your year ahead, the themes of this month actually continue to loom quite large. That sense of purpose thing is likely to have a significant impact on your next 12 months are you are energized by new goals. Throughout the normal ups and downs of life, the new found goals will persist. In fact, whatever you attach yourself to in the near future, you are likely to remain faithful to for some time, whether that is a person, idea or even a cause.

The overall energy of the next 12 months will also include energy in your solar third house of talking, quite a bit of it. Your sense of purpose may include a real effort to improve communication, reach out to certain people or brush up on your linguistic skills, perhaps even learning a new language.

Pluto in your travel sector will continue to exert an outsize influence, not always a pleasant one. If you like to travel, you may feel your options are limited. If you don’t like to travel or have fears of flying or something similar, Pluto may do his utmost to make you confront them. This is a good thing in the long run and will stretch your limits to a more comfortable size for you.

Pluto’s battle with Uranus in Aries doesn’t end this month, and Uranus wants to take something from Pluto that Pluto doesn’t want to give. You may experience a great desire for something that you find very difficult to obtain as continuing theme over the next year.

Saturn in Scorpio will also make relationships a big area of focus. You might spend a lot of time with your partner or find yourself compelled to comfort or care for a partner experiencing a rough time. Yours tends to be a devoted sign anyway, and the strength of your devotion may be extremely important to your partner over the next couple of years.

You may spend a lot of time thinking about family relationships as well, due to Jupiter in the family-oriented sign of Cancer. You may also put more effort into increasing your connections for various practical purposes.

Cancer is your solar sign of thinking as well, so you may put effort into thinking more carefully about big issues. This would be partly because the next 12 months have a rather serious tone to them, somewhat more so than the last 12 months.

With Jupiter leaving your financial sector, you may have to think more about the economy either in a general sense or in the sense of being more prudent with your own finances. You won’t necessarily lose money, but you’re not as likely to see income growth. Your finances may stagnate a bit, now that there will be less planetary attention given to them.

For Aries, this square occurs in parts of your solar chart that are very powerful for you. This could be seen as a true power struggle, one that you might not win. Uranus in your sign is likely to urge you to act, possibly against something that seems unjust. The square with Pluto, though, may make it seem that your efforts are not effective.

However, exerting your efforts to become more powerful (in any or all senses of the word) could end up making you much stronger than you would otherwise be, even if you don’t enjoy the process of getting there. You could think of this as resistance training. In fact, if you want to get philosophical, you could think of the next couple of years as an extended lesson in building strength and stamina.

Back to this month. The majority of the month’s energy is actually in the very physical sign of Taurus. But that energy is also restricted by Saturn in Scorpio. These very strong and competing energies are then counter-balanced by a lot of energy in very light and even frivolous Gemini.

There’s also a solar eclipse in Taurus on the 9th. That could bring Aries folks some good news financially. Or you might not even notice it because you are so busy dealing with Pluto and Saturn in Scorpio, which is limiting your financial options these days.

As if that’s not enough to deal with, there’s a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on the 25th. We’ve had a lot of eclipses in Gemini and Sagittarius over the past couple of years, so in some ways, this one is old news. But given all the other competing energies in the skies, this added bit of disruption could be enough to push some people past their limits. Take care of yourself so that you don’t become ill by the end of the month with a sinus infection or other spring-type malady.

May is also a romantic month because Taurus is a romantic sign. For the first half of the month, Mercury in Taurus approves of romantic words, phrases and expressions of affection.

During the second half of the month, Mercury is in Gemini. Gemini is said to be a highly distractible sign, one that finds it difficult to concentrate. Actually, it concentrates extremely well in short bursts of attention, and it is an excellent observer of people, the subject that interests the sign the most. That makes the second half of May the time to pay attention to the people around you.

Finally, a head’s up for next month. A big bout of Cancer energy moves into town in June. This is actually going to be good for Aries because it will increase the quality of energy in your home and domestic sector. And, if nothing else, Cancer is the sign of good eats. Look forward to some tasty meals in the year ahead.

New restraints don’t necessarily sound like a lot of fun and they might not be, but people have inhibitions because they play a useful role. For example, deciding you feel too strangely tired to get out and socialize for awhile could give you a chance to reflect, to differentiate yourself from other people a bit, develop some inner strength or whatever fits your circumstances.

The second eclipse is a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on the 25th. This eclipse is more likely to affect someone else in your life or a relationship. You’ve been through a whole series of these eclipses over the past couple of years, so you’re sort of used to this energy by now. For some Geminis it will be significant though. The eclipse will indicate that you finally have the strength of will to end a bad relationship that has been hard for you to let go of. Finally, you get to the point where your decision to break things off sticks, whether because you enforce the decision or the other party does.

May also sees a clash between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. Aries is your solar sign of friendship and Capricorn is your solar sign of mysterious stuff. That mysterious element makes the effect of this particular clash a bit tough to call. It may end up not being particularly important in your chart. It would be fair to say, however, that May is a stressful month globally as far as the astrology goes.

A lot of planets do gather in your sign this month, though. The sun, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all spend some time in Gemini and Mars moves in on the very last day of the month. Lots of different sides of the multi-faceted Gemini nature could have a chance to shine. There’s the meticulous, careful, picky, mentally acute and alert side, for example, that Mercury could enhance. That would be good because the month as a whole rewards conscientiousness if it rewards anything.

That’s particularly the case in your work. If you work in an office or in some sort of white collar or knowledge-based occupation, showing your careful and conscientious side is actually quite important over the next couple of years. Saturn in your occupational sector is looking to reward (eventually), those who can hang with the demands of a challenging work environment without losing accuracy or attention to detail. If you don’t work in the traditional paid sense, the same vibe would apply to any similar activity you do regularly, including volunteering.

The new moon eclipse this month is on the 9th in Taurus. The full moon eclipse this month is in Sagittarius on the 25th. The eclipse in Taurus affects your solar house of friendship. The eclipse in Sagittarius affects your solar sector of work and occupation. Be prepared for surprises in these areas of your life.

There’s also a clash between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn this month. This clash could be a bit scary, perhaps more so than the eclipses. That’s because Aries is your career sign and Capricorn is your relationship sign. Career and relationships tend to vital to people and they don’t typically like to see clashes in this area. It wouldn’t be surprising if you found yourself rather hyper-alert in your work setting as the second half of the month picks up steam.

In fact it might be helpful if you were super tuned in because you might be able to get a better sense of what’s going on below the surface and make adequate preparations. It might be prudent to be ready for changes in personnel in your work, just in case that’s the way the energy plays out.

The Taurus eclipse is one that falls across the your sector of friendship and romance. Taurus is your friendship sign and Scorpio is your love life sign. There was a lunar eclipse in Scorpio last month that you may still be feeling the effects from or may soon feel the effects of. The bottom line is that the universe is making persistent attempts to adjust your romantic life, through the combined efforts of Pluto, Saturn, and the eclipses.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, although it can mean clearing out a lot of accumulated crud (and perhaps people) that have been clogging up your romantic outlook. Cleaning out accumulated crud is not always a fun endeavor, any more than cleaning out the garage is. Theoretically, the eclipse in Taurus will bring you a friend to stay with you as you work your way through the clean-up process. That should be a good thing.

The other major energy of the month comes from Gemini, which represents your solar 12th house. The 12th house is where our subconscious fears go to hang out and give us feelings of intuition, dread, fear, disturbance, danger and so on. The accumulation of planets in Gemini (the sun, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all spend some time in Gemini this month) could have you experiencing a lot of anxiety. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The global astrological skies are indeed stormy this month. Being a bit keyed up would be normal. The storm will pass though, as storms always do, so keep that in mind too.

Pluto in Capricorn is the kind of placement that forces the affected individual (or nation, because it’s a global aspect) to face failure in some endeavor. Whatever it is that Uranus in Aries wants, it is Pluto’s job to see that it does not get it. In some ways, we can be glad of that because sometimes what Uranus in Aries wants is disruptive or potentially harmful. But people don’t usually like to have their desires thwarted, and it does require some adjustment to deal with being blocked in something that you want to do.

So let’s bring that idea down to an individual level for Leo. Uranus represents the impulse to experiment and sometimes an experiment just does not pan out. In the Leo chart, Uranus is in the travel sector, the sector that deals with all things foreign. An individual Leo might want to experiment with foreign travel or adventure travel (Aries likes adventure). Meanwhile, Pluto is in your work sector.

So Pluto may say, you know what, you cannot travel this month, the demands of your work are too great. You have to stay home and get some stuff done! This is not the end of the world. But it pisses off Uranus in Aries who feels like a great injustice is being perpetrated. If Uranus insists on trying to jet you to Europe, Pluto makes things nasty and uncomfortable while you’re traveling or cooks up an unpleasant surprise that brews while you’re gone and greets when you get back home.

The point of this is not that travel and adventure and foreign things are bad. The point of it is that you cannot always get what you want. That responsibilities are sometimes more important than desires. That’s a fairly important life principle and one worth keeping in mind in May.

The new moon eclipse in Taurus on the 9th, however, offers an alternative way to look at things. Taurus is your solar career sign and it works well with the Pluto energy. So an alternative way to experience the frustration that Pluto will want to visit on Uranus is that a setback in one area can open the door to a new career opportunity.

Not vacationing or adventuring or following your impulsive desires can pay off in a potentially big way in your career. You need to stay home and get stuff done because getting stuff done right now is really important to your reputation and professional standing.

The lunar eclipse in Sagittarius goes along with this because Sagittarius is your sign of recreation and fun. The lunar eclipse indicates that the meaning of fun in your life is ripe for change. To put it another way, it is time to let go of a bit of your inner fun-loving child and embrace the grown-up you that is ready for more responsibility and a future that does not simply repeat your past.

This combination of energies is taking aim at Uranus in Aries which is neither careful nor ruthless and is something of a sitting duck.

For Virgo, Capricorn represents children and anything else you carefully raise or tend to (including your romantic relationships). Aries represents your sense of power. Scorpio represents your relatives and neighbors. Put them all together and you’ve got something of an epic battle brewing around your children or a romantic relationship or some project you’ve been nurturing.

If there is a battle of wills with a child in your life – the child is likely to win, especially with the help of neighbor, relative or the like. Same deal with a lover or a creative colleague and so on. Somebody else needs to get their way for the time being. This epic battle is rather strong from the last half of May through the first half of June.

That sounds rather stressful and it may well be. Fortunately, a new moon solar eclipse in Taurus on the 9th gives you permission to get out of town to help relieve the stress and maybe even give you a different perspective on things. I would suggest some sort of trip that allows you to engage in physical activity because Taurus is a physical sign. Your chart is light on the exercise-loving energy these days, but you would probably greatly benefit from it anyway.

The escape hatch of Taurus energy this month gives you a way to get out, get active and enjoy the spring weather without turning exercise into a job. You may even be motivated by the month’s energies to slim down and get yourself in bathing-suit friendly shape so you can spend a week in Mexico catching rays or indulging yourself in some similar manner. Getting out the of the country would be especially good for you.

There’s also a lot of energy along your career/home axis in May. Gemini is your career sign and there’s a lot of helpful energy there this month. Be attentive, though, because the month’s overall energies are unstable. You wouldn’t want to blow a good thing by being careless. On the 25th, a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius hits your home sector. Be careful, there, too. It’s unlikely to be anything major, but there could be something in your home that needs to be replaced.

Next month is a bit more friendly, if you can ride out the continuing Pluto/Uranus clash. Cancer energy will start coming in and Cancer energy is good for your sign. Also, if you cannot get away this month for a vacation, be aware that the travel-loving eclipse in Taurus might be more effective for you next month (or it could have been last month). One way or another, though, you are due to get out of town.

Finally, the truth is, your chart is a complex web of interacting energies right now. If you can’t sort it all just yet, or if this horoscope seemed completely off the mark, understand that things will be more clear later on.

We’ll start with relationships, the Libra bailiwick. Uranus in Aries and the Taurus energy of the month both relate to relationships and things you do with other people.

The first eclipse of the month is a Taurus one, on the 9th. It indicates that some way, somehow, you will be embarking on something relatively new with someone else. That something new may very well be a financially-related venture designed to help mitigate the financial distress that Saturn in Scorpio is trying to inflict on you. That will probably be a good thing.

Uranus in Aries also represents relationships but it is stymied by fierce challenge from Pluto in Capricorn (in your home and family sector) during the second half of May and the first half of June.

Uranus has lots of Gemini energy on its side (Aries and Gemini are friends) and Pluto has Saturn in Scorpio on its side (Pluto rules Scorpio). Uranus in Aries wants to reign supreme in your life, partly because your sign was born with the idea that relationships are always supreme.

Pluto in the family sector wants to supplant Uranus with dreary unromantic responsibilities and family or domestic burdens. Uranus and the many planets in Gemini this month will urge you to get out of town and go have fun. Pluto and Scorpio will urge you to stay home and take care of business and attend to your financial and other obligations.

Theoretically, Pluto and Saturn should win this battle because they’re stronger and meaner. They’re more willing to play dirty to get their way. But you can’t let them win entirely or they’ll try to swallow you up and make your life unbalanced and unfulfilling. So you’ve got to figure out how to get out and do a little lighthearted socializing so you’re not spending all your time worrying and being responsible. It’s good to be responsible, but enough is also enough.

It is true, though, that you may have to give up investing your time in insubstantial casual relationships and focus on a few more rewarding ones that can sustain you when your time or resources are pinched. You can’t do everything and be there for everyone and their trivial activities. This may become especially clear around the time of the lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on the 25th.

And you can’t blow off family and responsibilities either. If anything, family and responsibilities will gain in importance as 2013 continues. It is understandable if Uranus in Aries is pissed off with your family or home-related problems. But he can’t just get rid of them. And he can’t just get rid of your career either, which is scheduled to pick up in activity in June and the months after that. And you need that career energy because your chart needs the money!

In short, dear Libra, you need to figure out how to balance all the competing demands of your chart. You are good at balance aren’t you?

Here’s the astrology. Uranus in Aries is clashing with Pluto in Capricorn during the second half of this month and the first half of next month. There’s a new moon eclipse in Taurus on the 9th and a full moon eclipse in Sagittarius on the 25th. Lots of energy in Gemini is colluding with Uranus in Aries, and Saturn in your own sign is colluding with Pluto in Capricorn.

Uranus is in your work sector and rules your home life. Pluto is in your communication sector and rules your sign. It’s a real mixed bag of influences zinging around and bumping into each other. It’ll be enough to make susceptible people want to pack their bags and head for the Himalayas for awhile.

So let’s look at the good. The solar eclipse in Taurus on the 9th could bring a new and lovely relationship into your life. This may come as a startling surprise, and who doesn’t love a nice surprise?

Some elements of your finances could also be startlingly good thanks to the abundance of energy in Gemini. But your regular income could see a setback thanks to the lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. Most of you will be better off, for the time being, with non-ordinary, non-recurring income. Your own chart could be different but a lot of Scorpios will be able to be more aggressive in securing extra or outside income in June, which could offset disappointing results in regular salary or wage type income.

Just so you know, outside income has been favored by Jupiter in Gemini and it continues that way through May. In late June, Jupiter will leave Gemini for Cancer and by mid-July that will no longer be a focus in your chart.

The most influential element in your chart, of course, is Saturn in your own sign. Saturn is the one making you aware of the pervasive nature of society’s rules. You may or may not like that, but it would be greatly to your benefit to figure out how to adjust.

Meanwhile, Uranus in Aries in your job sector is hurling himself with all the force he can muster against Pluto in Capricorn. This is probably not such a good thing. Whatever battle he is fighting at work is not likely to be one he can win. It might be good to keep that in mind.

I understand that Uranus will have allies this month, which will probably show up in your life in the form of other people or a group of people. And the lovely relationship vibes in your chart from the eclipse and Neptune in Pisces may make you happily over-optimistic about your potential power in numbers. But your true power this month really lies in your ability to escape and enjoy life, not to battle it.

So here’s another potential motto for the month: When the going gets tough, the tough sometimes stay home and watch mindless TV while the other suckers knock themselves out fighting the inevitable. See if that one works for you.

There’s a lot of nice energy in your relationship sector, which also governs balance and equality in your life. That’s somewhat offset by a lunar eclipse in your own sign that may bring something to an end. The month may not be one so much of making progress as of holding your own or managing to keep a steady state.

To give a bit of a bigger picture when it comes to relationships though, we need to talk about Jupiter and Mars. Jupiter rules your sign, so is extra influential in your chart. It has been in your relationship sector for almost a year. In late June, it moves into Cancer and changes its tune. But Mars moves into your relationship sector next month and stays there until mid-July. After mid-July, the intense focus on relationships in your chart starts to fade.

Which brings me back to that bit about the extra job. Jupiter in Cancer could easily favor your attempts to bring in extra money through some sort of outside source that doesn’t represent your primary income. Things are shifting in your chart, although the shape of the shifts may not be excessively clear in May. What that implies is that if you feel a need for a new partner relationship or to fix things in your existing one, you need to really put in the time, energy, and effort as much as you can right now and during the next month.

There’s also a lot of global astrology affecting people as a whole. The Saturn in Scorpio/Pluto in Capricorn alliance is clashing with the Jupiter in Gemini/Uranus in Aries energy. For your chart, the Uranus/Jupiter energy is the happy energy. The Saturn/Pluto energy is more gloomy. The Saturn/Pluto energy is more of a zeitgeist thing and you may be able to ignore it except for noticing how hard some people seem to be working to harsh your mellow. It might be good to stick with your friends and loved ones during this time and not get caught up in the general vibe if you can avoid it.

Those of you with children, however, might find your children affected. Some of you will feel that your children are carrying heavy burdens or facing very difficult outside circumstances. The people you live with may also carry the Saturn/Pluto vibe into your life, as you tend to be very sensitive to the feelings and moods of those you live with, especially these days. Do you what you can to protect yourself from psychic residue or garbage.

Enjoy your job; savor it if at all possible. The job energy in your chart won’t last forever. It continues in your chart through to about mid-July and then it just drops off the radar. That means you have about 2 1/2 months to secure your reputation as a super-star on the job.

You may also get another nice job-related bump around the 25th, due to a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. It could mean (not guaranteed) that some sort of hidden enemy or pernicious secret in the workplace disappears or is neutralized.

There is equally good energy when it comes to your love life, kids, and creative projects. There’s a new moon solar eclipse in Taurus (your love life sign) on the 9th and an abundance of energy in Taurus overall. Taurus is the Capricorn happy sign, so that’s quite nice. Mars is also in Taurus this month, making the happy energy stronger than normal for this time of year.

With your ruler Saturn in your friendship sign of Scorpio, your friendships are also quite strong these days. (By the way, you might want to take that literally because astrological influences often like to be surprisingly literal. As in, go to the gym and start lifting weights to make yourself physically stronger and build some enduring bonds with fellow gym-rats while you do it. Nothing wrong with having a muscular pal or two.)

Now for the tough stuff. From about mid-May through about mid-June, Uranus in Aries and Pluto in your own sign are perilously close to an exact square. In fact, they make one on May 20. Uranus is in your home and domestic sector. You’ve been through this before and you’ll go through it again. We all need to get through this energy, but it is challenging. Now that you know when the symbol for challenge occurs, you’ll be somewhat prepared.

Be aware that the timing of the exact square is precise (5:09 pm Eastern time), but the boundaries of the influence, not so much. Your sign overall is in the curious position of dealing with very definite boundaries through your sign’s own inclinations and the influence of Pluto, while at the same time contemplating the indefiniteness of so much in life due to the influence of Neptune in Pisces. Your own personal sphere is quite bounded these days, but your mind is getting bigger and bigger.

At any rate, in your own personal life, the Pluto square is trying to make something in your life not go well. Pluto can be an important liberator in astrology, but when it’s in a bad mood, it’s a negative influence. What Pluto is in a bad mood about is very particular to your own circumstances and whatever it is will heal through your own ability to transcend it. But it would be too much to ask of the stars to get them to say yes to everything right now. Be willing to accept and deal with a few ‘no’s’ for the time being.

The solar eclipse seemingly represents something new on the home front or perhaps an investment in some new property or a significant possession. For example, with all the energy in Gemini (sign of transportation) and Taurus, you might end up getting a new car in May or June, even if you don’t technically need one. The sign of Taurus also represents your private life and the eclipse may indicate that you need more private time at home these days.

The lunar eclipse in Sagittarius theoretically represents some sort of turnover, most likely in your friendships. Some of you may find that a romantic partner replaces a friend as a primary source of companionship. Another possibility with a lunar eclipse like this is that you will let go of some belief or even a religious idea or scruple, because Sagittarius is the sign of beliefs and of religious texts and institutions.

The Capricorn/Saturn/Pluto energy, on the other hand, has to do with bearing some kind of burden or carrying some kind of load. This could easily be at work or in your career, but it could also, quite frankly, be in any area of your life. That’s partly because this burdensome energy is clashing with your sign’s ruler, Uranus. Uranus is in your communication sector, technically, but the energy these days is so tangled that it could become prominent all over the place.

For example, Capricorn/Saturn/Pluto are energies of slimming down, losing weight, being disciplined and orderly and rule-bound. These energies could clash with impulsive Uranus in Aries by strongly encouraging you (almost forcing you) to try to lose weight, cut your calories, be disciplined about eating or exercising and not being impulsive about your food intake. Those could be very good things, but they are, of course, challenging for anyone, but especially for someone whose ruler does not want to settle down and be the least bit disciplined about anything.

Or you may have to be very responsible on the job when you’d rather be lazy and relaxed. Or very responsible with your finances when you’d rather spend money. Or you could have to stay home and work when you’d rather travel and escape. Or your participation in a group may have to come to an end even though you don’t want it to necessarily. Issues of loneliness may arise. Your private faith might conflict with the prevailing atmosphere in your environment. All kinds of possibilities.

However you slice it, May is likely to be an important month because it highlights the ongoing (for a couple of years) astrological tension between your home life and your public or career life. Remember that you need to give some time to both.

Of these influences, the ones in Gemini are the most friendly. Those influences relate to home and family, and to abundance, pleasure and satisfaction associated with them. Your chart seems to be proud of some accomplishment or worthy act relating to your home or family. This good feeling is opposed by a potential loss or ending in the opposite sector of your chart, which represents career and your public life.

The loss would come via the lunar eclipse on the 25th. Lunar eclipses tend to be erratic in their effects, with something noticeable occurring up to a month before or a month after the eclipse date itself. This is the last eclipse in a series affecting Gemini and Sagittarius over the past couple of years.

The meaning of this particular eclipse is hard to predict. The effects could be negligible if you’ve already cleared out whatever you needed to clear out in your professional life. On the other end of the scale, the eclipse could indicate a complete change of career.

As for the Pluto/Uranus square, the Pluto in Capricorn energy works well with Saturn in Scorpio energy in your sector of foreign travel and learning by experience, balanced by the energy of Taurus in your sector of curiosity. All of that energy in turn works well with Neptune in your own sign, which is also trying to expand your range of experience. That part is good. Much of your chart is energized by a regenerated interest in the possibilities of life.

But the Pluto/Uranus square tries to force your attention away from possibilities and toward what you need to do to survive in the real world, or perhaps toward what you need to not do, where you need to show more restraint and less impulsiveness.

The overall trajectory of your solar chart is to become more serious. Saturn in Scorpio, an influence which lasts a couple of years, has as its purpose teaching you to think more carefully and more deeply about important matters.

The eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio this year are also trying to teach you to be more careful in how you think about things.

The eclipse in Taurus on the 9th of this month, since it is an eclipse, is subject to the same ambiguity as the eclipse in Sagittarius. In general, it represents a new intellectual beginning. Sometimes, an eclipse in this sector also indicates surprising news related to an intellectual matter, such as results from a test you took, or something related to your education or a school.

This month is also eclipse month, marked by a lunar eclipse in Scorpio on the 25th. Scorpio is a feeling sign, the moon is a feeling planet in astrology and this is therefore a very feeling-oriented eclipse. For you, the feeling aspect may be very physical and literal, for the eclipse falls in your solar sector of sex and sensuousness. The eclipse encourages encountering emotions oriented around your sense of touch, your ability to perceive through physical contact. Scorpio also represents power in your chart as well as merging with others and receiving assistance from them.

You could feel great at this eclipse or not so great, depending on your own circumstances and personal chart. For example, you could realize that you have deep feelings for someone that you thought you were dating casually. That could feel wonderful. Or, things could swing the opposite way. You could realize that instead of feeling powerful in some area, you actually feel an uncharacteristic sense of powerlessness that you need to address. You could seek and get assistance from other people (perhaps regarding a financial matter, as in getting a loan) or you could see some sort of assistance end (such as the end of your alimony checks).

There are a lot of possibilities, and the effects could occur most noticeably at any time in the 5 weeks or so that surround the actual eclipse date. Keep the above themes in mind and see what develops as the month progresses.

Now for a quick look at your year ahead. There’s an odd mix of outer planets affecting your chart. You have the planet of feeling helpless (Neptune) in the sector of feeling helpess (the 12th house). This doesn’t affect your sun directly, but a lot of Aries folks have Mercury or Venus in Pisces and at some point they will be introduced to a hidden sense of helplessness that their Aries suns like to keep hidden. This is in marked contrast to Uranus in Aries, which brings out your inner adventurer.

There are all kinds of possibilities with this combination. A fairly literal example would be choosing to travel to exotic or unfamiliar locations and getting lost and having to rely on others for assistance. It’s as though your chart wants to explore places it has never been (physically, emotionally, psychically, etc.) but it wants to know it can come back home again to its regular tough-guy persona. It wants to take risks, but with backup. It wants to open up and be exposed to new things but not change your identity.

The year ahead will also introduce a series of eclipses in your own sign (and the opposite one Libra), starting in mid-October 2013. Eclipses in your own sign can relate to almost anything in your life, but a broad general way of looking at it would be to say that they show your chart is on the hunt for something new to incorporate into your life and something old to get rid of. Other eclipses should assist you financially this upcoming year. Finally, your sign will continue to face pressure in your career sector from Pluto in Capricorn. You may be used to this vibe by now; if so, strap on the ordinary seatbelts and hang on as usual when things get bumpy.

When the inner planets move into your own sign, they represent your vitality and energy. Another way to put it is that attention to things about your health that are not so good at the beginning of the month allows you to focus on achieving truly good health during the second half of the month. Get healthy!

Another major event in April is a lunar eclipse in Scorpio. Scorpio is the sign opposite yours on the zodiac wheel and it represents other people in your chart. This is the sector of compromise, of relationships, of rivalries and marriages. A lunar eclipse suggests that a relationship may be threatened unless both sides are willing to seek balance and settle their differences reasonably. You’ll need to decide for yourself whether the relationship is worth saving or whether it has become constrictive and destructive.

A more minor theme in April involves friendships, thanks to Mercury in Pisces during the first half of the month. This placement allows you to get together with your friends and party, indulge yourself, perform your own version of spring break activities, whatever those may involve.

This energy harmonizes to some degree with the energy of Pluto, which stations this month on the 12th. Stationing makes Pluto strong in your solar house of long-distance and overseas travel. A trip or vacation with friends could be exactly what you need right now to regenerate yourself. The whole month is good for restorative travel if you have the opportunity to engage in some.