by Michelle Piller

Thank goodness for a fresh start at Wednesday's New Moon. Relationships take on a warm and fuzzy feeling as we work towards finding a balance between giving and receiving love. Sure, some of us may go to extremes, but with all of this excitement in the air, it's hard not to want to bust out of whatever little corner we boxed ourselves into last month. Words may fail us as we get caught up in the giddiness of it all. No matter - there are other ways to express this delirium. Don't withhold your mojo, 'cuz you can expect a whole lotta love.

Click below for your Sun sign horoscope. For additional accuracy, read the horoscope for your Rising Sign. (How do I find out my Rising Sign?)

Aries	Taurus	Gemini
Cancer	Leo	Virgo
Libra	Scorpio	Sagittarius
Capricorn	Aquarius	Pisces

Labels: horoscope

My good friend Samuel Reynolds will be hosting his Zodiac Lounge party this Saturday the 28th in Manhattan. Astrologers and a tarot reader will be doing readings, Samuel will give a talk on the destiny of Cancer, and there will be cake and dancing. Check out his site for details.

Editor's note: The recent sexual orientation and gender poll indicates that approximately 1 in 4 readers of this blog are queer (i.e., not heterosexual). And for a definition-expanding discussion of queerness, read Eric Francis' recent post at Planet Waves Daily.

The following guest post is by Laura F. Walton of Astro What?

Human sexuality is a fascinating thing. It's almost impossible to imagine life without our species-wide fixation on sex -- we'd have very few popular magazines, even fewer novels and movies, and daytime television would consist entirely of Bob Ross reruns and dog shows. Marketing and modeling firms would all go bankrupt; thousands of pouty, half-naked post-adolescents would wander the streets, attractively grubby, yes, but jobless.

Luckily enough, our obsession with sex is firmly established; there's nothing more interesting to people than what other people are doing in their bedrooms. Whenever a new person (especially an attractive single) enters the scene, one of the first things we want to know is: gay or straight?

Astrologers are people too, and share the collective obsession. We've searched for hundreds of years for factors in the natal chart that might indicate a person's sexual tendencies, all with questionable success. Well-respected astrologers have offered a whole slew of natal factors as indicators of homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender variance. The more commonly cited include:

1. A strong emphasis on mutable signs or Aquarius
2. Squares, oppositions, or inconjuncts between Mars or Venus and Uranus
3. Strong aspects between Mars or Venus and the Moon
4. For women: stressful aspects between the "feminine" planets and Saturn
5. For men: stressful aspects between the "masculine" planets and Saturn
6. Strong Neptune aspects with any of the personal planets
7. and others involving Pluto, the 8th House, the 12th House, etc.
   

As you might guess, even these few factors leave plenty of room for error and misinterpretation. So far, none of the statistical research has provided a clear-cut astrological answer to the gay or straight question.

Perhaps that's because there is no definitive answer. Researcher Alfred Kinsey (one of my personal heroes) studied human sexuality more thoroughly than anyone else had ever dreamed possible; his conclusions on the hetero/homo issue can be summed up as follows:

Males [and females, he later proved] do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.

In other words, there's no such thing as gay or straight, not as an either/or proposition. Individual sexual preference ranges up and down an almost infinite spectrum, and tends to shift several times during a lifetime. Kinsey's scale of human sexual behavior has seven categories, not two, and his research convinced him that even a seven-category scale was too limiting.

Since sexuality is so crucial to our core identities, it's no wonder that we search natal charts for astrological clues. If we look hard enough, can we can find something there that tells us, once and for all, who and what we really are?

For better or worse, the evidence points to "No." Decades of inconclusive astrological studies support Kinsey's assertions that placing people and their traits into static categories is fairly useless. People are funny that way. Maybe what we really are is more complex than we can count or predict.

We may have a Venus square Saturn that tends to sharpen our awareness of all things feminine. We may have a Sagittarius Mars/Venus conjunction in the 5th that tends to increase our desire for novel experiences and sexual adventures. We may have a ton of planets in Pisces, which is just downright confusing all around.

Some of these aspects may wind up describing same-sex relationships, or then again, they may not. Our Venus/Saturn square subject may become a women's rights advocate, while remaining happily married with three kids. Our Sagittarius Mars/Venus subject may do all her adventuring with members of the opposite sex (maybe every member of the opposite sex within a hundred-mile radius, if she's really diligent.) Our befuddled Pisces subject may decide it's all too much and hie herself to a nunnery, where, bad porn plots aside, she remains celibate for the rest of her life.

If astrology teaches us anything at all, it's that our charts describe the organic process of becoming a unique individual. Even if we do identify a few indicators of LGBT tendencies -- statistically or within our own charts -- they're still merely representations of real life's dynamic, fluid interactions, a process that consistently flips the bird at categorization.

Gay, straight, bi, queer, trans, whatever ... regardless of what our path looks like, the experiences reflected in our chart ultimately lead to a sexual identity that grows deeper, clearer, and ever more ours as we mature. And as we more fully experience our unique sexual identity with all its variations and permutations, we more fully experience ourselves.

Is it any wonder we're so fascinated?

For more info on Kinsey's Heterosexual/Homosexual Rating Scale, visit the Kinsey Institute (the above quote's source can be found there as well). And for more information on astrological research into LGBT indicators, the article Astrology and Homophobia by Peter Clamp cites several well-known studies, and is a good place to start.

About the Author
Laura F. Walton is a writer, artist, and arts instructor based in Texas. She has been a practicing astrologer for nearly ten years; she specializes in areas of sexuality, individuality, and creative self-discovery. She has contributed forecasts for print media, and currently provides monthlies on her blog Astro What?

Photo by Patrick Doheny under Creative Commons license.

Outer planet conjunctions are some of the most powerful astrological events, as they signify the beginning of a cycle involving two transpersonal archetypes. Transpersonal means beyond the personal. On a daily level, we feel (Moon), talk (Mercury), flirt (Venus), and so on. The outer planets concern more life-changing experiences, and when they are connected to personal planets, our mundane activities serve as a channel through which these archetypal energies express themselves. For example, with a Uranus-Venus aspect, Uranus challenges Venus to find alternative or innovative ways to relate or create art. With Pluto-Mercury aspects, Pluto intensifies Mercury's message, giving the messenger planet the power to transform with words.

Outer planets also express themselves in a specific area of a native's chart. The horoscope is divided by space and time into twelve parts called houses -- and the Seventh House, which corresponds with where the Sun would be in relation to the horizon before it sets, governs the native's partnerships.

Uranus and Pluto conjoined in the late 60s, a time of tremendous tumult and transformation. Uranus is the planet of revolution and sudden change, while Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth, destroying the outmoded to create something more authentic. The social revolt, experimentation, violent protests, and rock 'n' roll that defined this era were all part and parcel of this outer planet conjunction. Anyone born around this time -- and using a ten degree orb, we're talking between 1961 and 1970 -- will have this energy imprinted in their chart. And since a house more or less contains 30 degrees -- depending on your location of birth and the house system you use -- Uranus and Pluto possibly occupy the same house using an even wider time range.

If you were born within the date range specified above, you have a more or less 1 in 12 chance of having a Uranus-Pluto conjunction in your Seventh House. Because these outer planets conjoined in Virgo, those natives with Pisces Rising would most likely have these planets in the Seventh House. You could also have late Aquarius Rising, which would give you Leo on your Descendant and much of Virgo in your Seventh House. (Uranus was in Leo and Libra during the very beginning and end of this conjunction, so don't take my word as gospel -- look at your chart. If you don't have a copy of your chart, you can easily find out your Rising Sign -- and see which house(s) Uranus and Pluto occupy -- if you know your exact time and location of birth.)

If you do have these planets in your Seventh House, you may experience the energies of these outer planets in your relationship life. Following are some basic interpretations associated with this placement, but note that there are surely more that I have neglected to mention:

• Pluto -- relationships as a crucible in which you undergo rebirth; power struggles in relationship; being manipulated, abused, or controlled by a partner; being attracted to someone powerful, intense -- an agent of transformation, possibly a Scorpio or Scorpio Rising.
• Uranus -- experiencing unpredictability or sudden turnarounds in relationships; needing independence in partnership; attraction to an alternative or status quo-challenging relationship, or to a partner who embodies these qualities, possibly an Aquarius or Aquarius Rising.

The closer these two planets are to each other in your Seventh House, the more the quality of the conjunction itself -- as opposed to the influence of two discrete planets -- will influence your relationship life. (If you are interested in mundane astrology, Bill Streett has written an interesting essay on the Pluto-Uranus Cycle.) If either of these planets are within five degrees of your Seventh House cusp, they will have even more of an impact.

Comment below: Share your experience of having Uranus and Pluto in the Seventh House.

Related post: Uranus in the Seventh House

Photo by boliston under Creative Commons license.

Labels: pluto, seventh house, uranus

by Michelle Piller

Phew! We can finally engage in clearer conversations than we've had in almost a month. But we've still got some conflicted energy around: On the one hand, we crave stable and long-term relationships and, on the other hand, we're itching for more freedom. Can you say paradox? With that in mind, it's time for us all to get real about the romantic illusions we're buying into, and drop them. Same thing goes for power-plays. Delivering ultimatums to your partner is like throwing a grenade into the relationship. Work on your source of inner power before coming down on your mate

Click below for your Sun sign horoscope. For additional accuracy, read the horoscope for your Rising Sign. (How do I find out my Rising Sign?)

Aries	Taurus	Gemini
Cancer	Leo	Virgo
Libra	Scorpio	Sagittarius
Capricorn	Aquarius	Pisces

Labels: horoscope

How many relationships are destroyed once two people move in together? Cohabitation is a rite of passage in long-term partnership, but the ability to live under one roof is not terribly related to sexual compatibility, the ability to talk for hours, and so on.

So why is there an inevitable progression towards shared housing after having been serious for a while? To save money? To avoid loneliness? Surely -- one reasons -- if you sleep together every night, you may as well share a kitchen, living room and toilet.

But sharing a home can be so difficult that sometimes you're better off permanently keeping your own apartment or room. Everyone comes from a unique family environment, which they consider normal. It is only when, as a child, you visit other friends' homes that you understand that your family's way is not the way. However, it's hard to adapt to someone else's idea of home, even if you don't like the way your parents ran theirs.

The Moon and Your Home

The Moon is the planet that signifies home and family. It describes your experience of your mother (or the nurturing parent) and what you need to feel comforted or "at home." In addition, the Moon describes your habitual responses to life. In the astrological alphabet, the Moon corresponds with the Fourth House. The beginning of this house -- the angle called the IC or Imum Coeli -- is especially important, as the sign on it describes your roots and your heritage, as well as your home and family. One way to differentiate between the Moon and the Fourth House is by looking at the former as how you go about meeting your comforting needs, and the latter as the area of life that corresponds with this theme.

Two Moons: Collision or Cohesion?

When looking at cohabitation compatibility, the easiest strategy is to compare your Moon signs. The Moon sign will describe the general tenor of how you experience home life. Remember that home is ideally where you feel safe -- otherwise, you're just living in a house, protected from the elements but not from the emotional torrents of relationship conflict. Ideally, your Moon sign would share the same polarity as your partner's. Positive signs are Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) and Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). Negative signs are Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) and Earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn). In general, the positive signs are outgoing and the negative signs are introverted.

• An AIR home needs conversation, games, lots of mental stimulation.
• A FIRE home needs entertainment, play, an environment that invites creative inspiration -- even some battles to get the energy moving.
• A WATER home is emotional and fosters closeness, empathy and self-exploration.
• An EARTH home needs a sense of order and productivity. It fosters sensuality and a close connection to nature.

If you look at composite charts, look to your composite Moon's sign and house placement.

Your Daily Routine

Another factor to look at when you're considering moving in together is how you organize your day. What "groove" do you fall into? Are you most productive early in the day or at night? Do you exercise often or are you a couch potato? Do you snack on prepackaged foods all day, or do you love to spend an hour preparing an exquisite meal?

Much of this can be described by your Sixth House. Look at the sign on the cusp, as well as the planets -- if any -- that occupy it. Then look at your partner's. If you lounge on the couch browsing blogs while your partner feels like a house servant, you may have a problem.

Taking the Leap

In conclusion, to be well-informed before moving in together, you can look at

• your respective Moon's signs, houses and aspects
• the sign on the cusp of the Sixth House in both your charts, as well as the planets that occupy this house
• the angles your respective planets make to each other's Moon
• your composite Moon
  

You may decide to cohabitate even if you aren't terribly compatible in these areas, because both social pressures and the desire to create one's own family are so powerful. The key is to enter this arrangement with an understanding of how you both differ -- and what you have in common -- in how you "live." Then, you can co-create a home that meets your respective needs and minimizes conflicts that arise from your differences.

Comment below: Are you living with a partner? What are your Moon signs, and how would you describe how you both approach the household?

Photo by desi.italy under Creative Commons license

Labels: moon

The following guest post is by Beth Turnage of Astrology Explored.

"Hey baby, want to play?" With a fun-filled glint in his eye and a come hither smile, you can hardly resist the charms of Mr. Jupiter. And he knows it, too, because he has played this game before -- many, many times.

Unlike your former lover -- Mr. Bad Boy Uranus -- this fella is eager to please. You can hardly believe your luck, as this guy wines and dines you ... and even acts interested when you speak! Swept away by the larger-than-life quality of this romance, you think, "Maybe, just maybe, this is the one!"

Then as quickly as it began, he stops calling -- or another girl answers his phone. When you do finally get to confront him, he acts confused, like a four-year-old asked to explain the theory of relativity. "We were just having fun, weren't we?" he says, with his all-encompassing smile. "Look, I've got to go, sweetie, but I'll give you a call, soon ... really." As he saunters off up the street, you realize that maybe it's best if you delete his number from your cell phone ... because he's already deleted yours from his. And you wonder, "What happened?"

Papa is a rolling stone, darlin', and Mr. Jupiter is all that and more. He's living for the experience, like a toddler exploring his world in uncoordinated baby steps. Nothing pleases this guy more than a good time, and in his mind, a good time is only good if it's shared with whomever he rolls into. But because experience is what he is here for, once he's sucked up whatever it has to offer, it's over -- and he's off to find his next experience.

Or not. If he realizes that he didn't drink all of his milkshake, he may come back for more. How maddening! "Is he serious this time," you ask? Well, how can you know, considering the number of times he's moved in and out of your apartment?

Jupiter, God of Opportunity

Jupiter, an enormous gas giant, is the second of the so-called impersonal (or social) planets. Jupiter is traditionally associated with expanding boundaries, opportunity, freedom, optimism and enthusiasm. From the Sun through Mars, the emphasis is on personal needs and concerns. Saturn -- the planet of form -- defines our boundaries and the rules we live with, as well as the practical application of earthly affairs. Jupiter is the first breath of heaven, the sense that there is more beyond that which exists on this mortal coil. The flip side of Jupiter is less attractive. Extravagance, indulgence, and a shallow understanding of the consequences of actions taken can dog those under the influence of Jupiter.

If Jupiter or Sagittarius planets are prominent in your chart, you are susceptible to the Jupiter-ruled relationship.

Jupiter is prominent in your chart when (natally) it makes a connection to a personal planet -- Sun, Moon, Venus or Mars. This can be any energetic connection -- square, trine, sextile or opposition. Jupiter really makes you crazy when it forms the 150-degree angle aspect called an inconjunct to one of these planets. Then you swing back and forth between loving and hating the guy!

Sagittarius is marked in your chart when one of the four personal planets mentioned is in the sign of the Centaur. Regardless of the way Jupiter or Sagittarius manifests in your chart, your innate sense of personal freedom leads you to choose partners who manifest the same ideals.

If by transit -- that is, by its current position in the heavens -- Jupiter makes a connection to one of the four personal planets mentioned, the stage is set for you to experience this kind of relationship. If Jupiter is sweeping through your Fifth House of Romance or Seventh House of Partnerships, this coupling is possible as well.

Is it possible for a Sagittarian/Jupiter-ruled person to settle down into a relationship?

Let me clue you in to a little secret of these folks. Often, they carry a torch for "the one that got away" -- usually an idealized version of the actual person. It is difficult for you to live up to the image of that person, unless you, yourself, embody one of your lover's most essential ideals. Study his Moon and Venus to see if you closely match the qualities of the planets in those signs.

Should you be such a person, or if your Saturn sits on his Sun, Moon or Venus [i.e., conjoins by interaspect], then you have a shot at long term stability. This is dependent on how mature your lover is. If he's in his teens or twenties, you may have to wait until his Sun has progressed into the next sign (Capricorn) for different facets of his personality to emerge. Since the progressed Sun moves only one degree per year, this usually results in an unacceptably long wait. This is why you hear stories of people who reunite after a decade or two of separation.

Even if you were to get your Sagittarian/Jupiter lover to settle into a permanent relationship, you need to be aware that restlessness is part of the package. One Sagittarian Moon man who is settled into his long term marriage describes it as being locked in a cage. Its not that he doesn't love his wife. He does, absolutely and without reservation. But itchy feet is part of his astrological heritage, and sometimes he expresses a desire "to get away from it all." Be prepared to provide steady doses of spontaneity and playfulness in your mutual daily routine, and don't protest too much when he goes out for a newspaper and doesn't return until seven hours later. He needs his freedom to be who he is, and when you realize it, you do, too. That's what Jupiter-ruled relationships are all about.

About the Author
Beth is a professional astrologer with over twenty years experience counseling clients in career and relationship issues. She writes an astrology column for a weekly newspaper along the Connecticut shoreline and blogs about astrology daily at the 451 Press blog Astrology Explored.

Related posts:

• The Jupiter Effect: A matter of proportion (by Neith)
• How we turn people off with our planets

Photo by Seo 2 | Salvador | Dolores under Creative Commons license.

Labels: jupiter, sagittarius

by Michelle Piller

This Wednesday's Full Moon intensifies feelings and brings things to a head. We all want to nurture and be nurtured, and everyone's feeling sensitive this week. Have you noticed how everyone's obsessing over relationships? An opportunity to meet someone with similar tastes may present itself this week - but Mercury's at a standstill, so this isn't the best time for new beginnings or formal commitments. We're all experiencing this roller-coaster energy at the moment, and we tend to feel more emotional at the Full Moon, so try not to take things too personally.

Click below for your Sun sign horoscope. For additional accuracy, read the horoscope for your Rising Sign. (How do I find out my Rising Sign?)

Aries	Taurus	Gemini
Cancer	Leo	Virgo
Libra	Scorpio	Sagittarius
Capricorn	Aquarius	Pisces

Labels: horoscope

Christine N. Davis writes about why horary astrology can't find you your soul mate:

Maybe when we ask for a soul mate, instead of expecting "the one who completes us" in some idealized, romantic way, we can expect the one who reflects us: one who shows us what we need to do in order to grow. If the next relationship to come along does not match our expectation of what a soul mate is for, perhaps it's our expectations that need to change.

Amid reports that Madonna has started divorce proceedings against Guy Ritchie, Astrology of a Train Wreck writes about the transit of Saturn through Madonna's 12th House:

Saturn through the 12th house can indicate times when we feel extremely isolated and at the end of an entire 27-year cycle of being. It is not unusual during these times for estrangements to occur, as can be seen by the fact that the couple rarely live together these days. Things that do not survive this process often get cast off when Saturn starts its new cycle by crossing the ascendant, which it is in the process of doing now.

I've always been a movies person, and if there is one thing that connects Pisces and Leo, it's entertainment, baby! Leo is the star performer, Pisces is the cinematographer. Pisces rules the image, creating the illusion that makes film work its magic.

The Leo man -- whose immaturity has been explored elsewhere on this blog -- ultimately needs to feel inspired in a romantic relationship. Of course he will want to be respected and admired, and he will want a partner who graciously receives his generosity. But more than that, the Leo man will need to feel that he has a partner on his hero's journey. The Leo man has a purpose, and he wants someone who shares in his passion for life.

If Leo has any problem with a Pisces woman, it is that her engagement in life is so internally focused. The movie is in her mind, she doesn't need to do a song and dance for an audience to get satisfaction. And it is only when she creates that her vision is visible to the world. Many Pisceans do this work, but just as many seem content to keep the reels moving in their own minds, with the help of marijuana, meditation or music.

If a Pisces woman can proactively become the set designer, director of photography and film composer for the 24/7 documentary "Leo: The Man Who Would Be King," then her guy may be inclined to stick around. Not only because she makes him look good, but because he knows that as much as he needs to be front and center, her behind-the-scenes work creates a space for him to shine his best self.

Labels: leo, pisces

Sometimes we get caught up in the power of the outer planets, but even a little trickster like Mercury -- planet of communication -- can cause havoc in one's love life, which is traditionally ruled by Venus.

In one's natal chart, the widest possible aspect these planets can make to each other is the sextile, or 60-degree angle, because they both travel so close to the Sun. So the only truly "stressful" aspects they can make are the semi-sextile (30 degrees) and semisquare (45 degrees). However, each planet makes all possible angles to the other via transit.

A flowing combination between Mercury and Venus can manifest as a certain grace or charm in the use of one's words. Language is sweet, or musical, or used in the service of cooperation. What you say can "go down easy." If you have the sextile, you may be more aware of their interplay than if you have the conjunction, because conjoined planets are so unified that you don't see them as separate.

If you have these planets at a 30- or 45-degree angle to each other (plus or minus 2 degrees), they don't work as well together. You may have difficulty communicating your values or desires, essentially making it a challenge to get what you want from others. The manner in which you think and talk conflicts with the the way you attract others. For example, a Scorpio Venus prefers to remain hidden and mysterious, while her Sagittarius Mercury is blunt and outspoken. Or an attention-loving Venus Leo may have trouble flirting once her Virgo Mercury is called to the task.

A transit from Mercury to natal Venus -- or from Venus to natal Mercury -- will be short-lived, only lasting a few days (depending on the orbs you use), unless the transiting planet is aspecting the other three times in the same cycle due to retrograde motion. The general theme of how you talk about what you desire may come up during these transits. During the opposition, a partner may "take on" the role of the transiting planet, voicing a point of view that challenges what you're used to. You may try to find a balance between opposing perspectives during this time, but unless the transit is long (once again, due to the transiting planet's retrograde movement), you may just have a quick argument that finds no immediate resolution.

Comment below: How difficult is it to speak about your desires?

Photo by kalandrakas, under Creative Commons license

Labels: mercury, venus

In Love a Good Scorpio Woman, Kingsley -- who has both a Scorpio Descendant and North Node -- writes about his several relationships with Scorpio Sun, Moon or Ascendant females. Here are some tidbits:

Scorpionic women continually test the capacity for passionate involvement in the relationship.... the Scorpionic woman "needs" to know that their partner is 150% emotionally committed. Complacency or the foolish idea of complacency within the relationship is constantly being appraised by the scorpionic woman.

The wrath of the Scorpio woman after the bonds of commitment have been broken is like a fierce firestorms which leaves one icy cold. If you fail the test of complacency at any stage, the Scorpionic woman will burn you into the next world. She will however, do this by leaving a way for the relationship to continue, as much as this seems impossible at the time. All things are possible according to the Scorpionic woman and in the "napalming" process she fully believes in the principal of the phoenix. Fire restores all she thinks or in a "live and let die" concept at least, she will be re born into another passionate and committed involvement.

Labels: scorpio

I've been making assumptions about the typical Seduction Central reader, and what better way to find out the truth than via a poll?

To the extent that you can "box yourself" into a category, please do so below. By female or male, I mean that your gender identity matches your biological sex. By trans, I mean that they don't, or at the very least that your gender identity is fluid and doesn't depend all that much on whether you have a penis or a vagina. The sexual orientations for trans refer to the gender with which you identity, not your biological sex. MSM refers to men who have sex with men but don't identify as gay. You can also just enter your own self-description if the none of the following apply. Or you can choose not to participate.

Labels: poll

by Michelle Piller

The big news this week is that the Sun and Venus—planet of love—are enjoying a sweet union in the sign of versatile Gemini. Oh, and there's that pesky Mercury retrograde you might have heard about. Everyone's thinking about how to improve their relationship, how to get into a relationship, or how to get out of one. We wrestle with whether to apply our mojo to the same-old same-old or to something new. How the options dazzle! But things are in flux for another couple of weeks, so try not to get too married to one idea or another.

Click below for your Sun sign horoscope. For additional accuracy, read the horoscope for your Rising Sign. (How do I find out my Rising Sign?)

Aries	Taurus	Gemini
Cancer	Leo	Virgo
Libra	Scorpio	Sagittarius
Capricorn	Aquarius	Pisces

Labels: horoscope

I'm excited to announce that, starting this coming week, we will be featuring Weekly Love Horoscopes for all 12 signs. Visit this blog Sunday or Monday to read the general horoscope, and then click through to the pages for both your Sun sign and Rising sign. Unlike most other sites that feature horoscopes, I'm enabling comments on all pages, so you can share with other readers how the horoscopes reflect your love life. Horoscopes can be effective if well done -- which they will be! -- and if you know your Ascendant, they add an additional level of accuracy.

I've also created a Community page, listing all the ways you can can connect with other Seduction Central readers. And if you want to include a viral component on your blog or social networking page -- like a widget, badge or slideshow -- I've listed these resources as well.

Have a good weekend!

~ Jeffrey

A reader found this blog by searching for "Pisces men are like girls." It's a provocative statement, but I can see where she (?) was coming from. Girls are into unicorns and fairy tales and magical kingdoms, sappy love songs and romantic movies and stuffed animals. Hey, that describes me!

No, not really -- I'm not into mythical creatures, unless you mean a woman who takes care of all my domestic and sexual needs ... on demand. But Pisces is a rather girly sign. All Water signs are archetypally feminine, as the world of emotions is experienced inwardly. But not all members of this triplicity are equally girly. (Although feminine polarity does not equal female, the development of a language of emotions is more encouraged among women here in the U.S. -- hence the sight of a man crying or being sensitive is often derogated as being like either a woman or a gay man.) Scorpio is tough, and Cancer -- however nurturing and sentimental -- is protective and defending. Pisces, on the other hand, has a floaty, wispy quality which in no way can be construed as masculine.

Think of it this way -- Pisces is both Water and mutable. Water needs form to contain it, or else it just spreads itself over whatever surface is available -- or it sinks into any porous material. Mutable is the most flexible, changeable modality of all three quadruplicities (the others being Cardinal and Fixed). Therefore, it is the most receptive modality, and this quality is traditionally feminine.

Part of the problem is that "girly" is, to some extent, a social construct that our culture imposes on girls and young women. My daughter, for example, is no "girly girl." She (with five planets in fire) defines herself as a tomboy. Yet she's no less a girl than a 10 year old who dresses in pink and adorns her notebook with Hello Kitty stickers. Yet if you're strong-willed, fearless and impulsive, somehow you have to describe it as "boyish"?

If Pisces men are like girls, it's partly because the quality of being sensitive and yielding is considered weak. But think of the strengths of this sign! Unicorns spring from the Piscean imagination (unless you believe they're real!) -- as well as songs and films and works of art. And if more men were Pisces (that is, if they were girly), there would be less war. There would probably be lots of guilt-inducing, martyrish behavior ... but that never killed anyone.

Has it?

Related posts:

• Do you love your man for his Venus?
• Do you like Venusian straight men? Take the poll!
  

Photo by szen under Creative Commons license.

Labels: pisces

The following guest post is by Laura F. Walton of Astro What?

Few of us make it out of adolescence without forming a few ideals about love. Whether we know it or not, we enter the playing field of adult relationships with certain built-in fantasies and expectations. We know how our partners are supposed to treat us, how they're supposed to react to our needs, how they're supposed to feel about us.

Unfortunately, some of our ideas about life and love may be closer to fairy tales than to reality. Enter the relationship lessons from hell, courtesy of Pluto and Uranus.

Both of these outer planets are notorious for shaking up our lives, and their wake-up calls are extremely painful when love is involved. Plutonian/Scorpionic and Uranian/Aquarian relationships can rip your heart to confetti and leave you crying hysterically on the bathroom floor. Both types of relationships have heartbreak in common, but how are they different? Better yet, what's the point? What are we supposed to be getting from all this?

The hallmarks of the Plutonian encounter are easy to spot. Here's a typical scenario: you meet this wonderful guy and become madly obsessed with him. After six months of mind-blowing intimacy, things start to deteriorate. The tone of the relationship becomes controlling and manipulative. There are screaming fits of unreasonable jealousy, lies, deceit, and sometimes verbal or physical abuse. There's often an addictive quality about it -- it's a cycle you can't seem to break, even though you know your life is falling apart around you. You break up, you make up, you break up again, ad nauseum.

Pluto presides over death, power, deep sexuality, and transformations of all kinds. People who have lived through Plutonian encounters have the scars to prove it, but if they're lucky, they also get something much more important: the shattering of certain dangerously childish illusions.

People aren't always good, even the people who love us. Fear, selfishness, and the desire to dominate are an ugly but unavoidable part of human nature. If we make it out of high school believing that loved ones are always unconditionally invested in our welfare, we have no defenses against the raw, self-serving side of human nature. We have no boundaries, no canniness, no internal justification to say "Stop it!" and truly mean it.

Pluto shows us the dark side of love. It's up to us to face it realistically. Once Pluto's lessons have been truly accepted, we find ourselves better able to spot fear-based manipulation, even if we're the culprit. Eventually, forgiveness begins -- not forgiveness for the person in question (they usually have to be ditched), but forgiveness for ourselves and for the whole sad, silly, bent, and beautiful human race.

Now, enter the Uranian experience. Uranus presides over humanitarianism, abstraction, and freedom from convention and routine. Uranian relationships can also leave you sobbing in the shower, but their ultimate lesson is somewhat different.

Here's the scenario: You meet a girl and become close friends; at some point you realize you're falling for each other. After a few months of great fun and dating, you decide you'd like to take it to the next level. You ask her to move in with you. She says no, she's not ready to give up her freedom. You begin to press her for proof of her long-term intentions, and one day she simply disappears with no warning. When you run into her in the coffeehouse a month later, she says there's no hard feelings and sits down to have a chat like nothing's happened. There you are, still a blubbering wreck, and she acts like it was no big deal. How could anyone be so cold, and how could you have been so wrong about her?

Guess what? You've just become the casualty of a different set of childish illusions. These illusions have to do with the subjective nature of emotions. Most of us walk around assuming that our emotional reality is the emotional reality -- we know what love is, and we know we're owed.

We assume that somehow our feelings of longing, desire, pleasure, and pain are mandates to the world at large. All too often, we can't sense the difference between our emotions and our selves, so that emotions (based entirely on the actions of a few bodily chemicals) get tangled up with our moral will, our higher selves. We set up expectations based on a set of totally unfounded ideas about what love is supposed to be.

These ready-made expectations place unreasonable limits on love, sometimes crippling ones. Love doesn't always respond well to demands, and assumptions are really demands in disguise. What we're saying to Love is this: "If you can't show up in a form that makes me totally comfortable and secure, then go away!" Sadly, it usually obliges.

Uranian lessons are all about separateness. If we accept the separation of ourselves from our emotional assumptions, we can enjoy a wider variety of interactions with the world. We don't make the same emotional demands, nor do we feel the need to respond to the emotional demands of others. We discover a new sense of self-sufficiency, which ultimately gives us the freedom to make choices that are better for each of us as individuals. We discover new ways to love.

Relationships based on the energy of the outer planets -- Pluto and Uranus included -- are the "big lesson" relationships. Through them we learn a few broad and sweeping truths about life itself and our place in it. The coursework can be heartbreaking; and for better or worse, once you're dragged kicking and screaming into the outer planet's School of Hard Knocks, you'll usually be forced to repeat the classes until you pass.

You can pass, though. And with the diploma comes a broader, more realistic, and ultimately more satisfying understanding of love, life, and human nature itself.

Believe it or not, it's worth it.

About the Author
Laura F. Walton is a writer, artist, and arts instructor based in Texas. She has been a practicing astrologer for nearly ten years; she specializes in areas of sexuality, individuality, and creative self-discovery. She has contributed forecasts for print media, and currently provides monthlies on her blog Astro What?

Related posts:

• Pluto problems in relationships
• How we turn people off with our planets

Comment below: What lessons have you learned from Uranian or Plutonian heartbreak?

Firs photo by hypertypos, second by riot jane

Labels: pluto, uranus

Not all men are equally into sex. A Gemini may just prefer to talk about it. But a Taurus could probably live on it -- provided he's also well-fed.

Every sign of the zodiac is "ruled" by one of the planets in our solar system, and the ruler of Taurus is Venus. The second planet from the Sun is archetypally related to the goddess of love, beauty and art. Venus is a sensual, erotic planet. In mythology, the Greek Aphrodite was a beauty who frequently cheated on her husband, Hephaestus.

So, Venus has needs, and her zodiac placement indicates the style in which she fulfills them. Taurus happens to be an Earth sign. Of all the four elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water), Earth is most concerned about the physical body, what can be experienced with the five senses. Taurus doesn't put as much stock into intuitions, inspirations and thoughts as what's here and now. This sign lives and breathes sensation. The texture of someone's skin, the smell behind a lover's ear.

The added benefit of lovin' with a Taurus man is that his is a fixed sign, which means that once he gets going, he's got stamina for the long haul. Taurean sex is akin to the slow food movement -- he savors every bite!

What Taurus doesn't do

Taurus is neither experimental (Aquarius) nor into power games (Scorpio). He does not need to be worshiped (Leo). He's not into talking about it (Air), and although he loves to connect, he's not all mushy (Water) during lovemaking.

Comment below: Dish about your Taurus lover!

Image by Leonard Low