Planetarium

Michael Lutin

PISCES

February 19-March 20

This is not your moment to step out of a limo and wave to the paparazzi. Don't even think about your reputation now, or about how people have betrayed you. Mars is in your 12th house until the last weekend in March, and you can deal with that in a variety of ways. You can go sit at a bar and tell the bartender how easily you could have made it if it hadn't been for all those jerks out there. Or you can demolish your ego, find happiness in intimate surroundings, dedicate yourself to a higher cause, and contemplate the impermanence of all things. If that doesn't work, maybe you should try the bar.

ARIES

March 2-1—April 19

Like you, your Aries role model, Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise, had long periods of obedience and docility, punctuated by wild spells. Like you, he couldn't resist finding heroic rationalizations for breaking the rules and getting in trouble. With a new moon on February 3 and the entrance of Mars into Aquarius on February 17 (it will be there through most of March), you'll be zapped with a real case of Kirkitis. Your grandmother will say you're just kicking up your redblooded heels. Your shrink, however, will call it acting out. And that's why you hate shrinks.

TAURUS

April 20-May 20

Thank heaven for the joy kids will give you at the full moon on February 18, because hot triangles mean big pressure this month. Split loyalties will tug at you till you feel like the baby King Solomon had to rule on. Both inlaws and outlaws could demand your undivided attention or unconditional love. The sun, Venus, and Mars square Pluto on February 12, March 8, and March 18, respectively, and during the whole period you'll be squeezed by everyone to give yourself up and become the Stepford Wife, the Model Husband, the Exemplary Parent, or the Consummate Professional. People call you inflexible? If they only knew.

GEMINI

May 21—June 21

Loved ones have been telling you to let go and let God, and about now you're getting pretty sick of it. How great it would be if a certain somebody would send you a sign that your taxes will be taken care of, or that you will not be attacked by some vicious critic who doesn't like the way you run your life or the twang in your voice. You've taken to staying home a little more, maybe just to be able to check on what goes into the food. The passage of five planets through your 9th house from February 3 well into March means good news. So come on, smile. No more fear of flying.

CANCER

June 22-July 22

Predictions make you sweat more than a dose of jalapeno pepper. All you really need to know is that the entire population of the earth is not conspiring against you or waiting until the moment you feel safe to abandon you. When you're frustrated because the round peg won't fit into the square hole, call your sister or a neighbor who can talk you off the ledge. The focus now is on sex, death, wills, and money, so if you must obsess during the next few weeks, that's what to obsess about. The conjunction of Venus and Mars on February 19 would be great for romance. Too bad the moon's in Virgo. Work around it.

LEO

July 23—August 22

You have good reason to be gun-shy in relationships. You know damned well where soft lights and old Frank Sinatra records can lead. When Venus meets Mars on February 19, you'll want to believe a whole new era is dawning. However, when those planets meet Saturn on February 28 and March 6, respectively, new lovers will be likely to meet ex-husbands, or old girlfriends will show up. Lawyers may become indispensable at this point. Remember, good relationships thrive best on irritating reality, and we all need romance—even if it's downright stupid.

VIRGO

August 23—September 22

From the moment the new moon hits your 6th house on February 3, you will for some time need to muster all your skills for detail. If certain people make fun of you, let them laugh. Get healthy and work hard now, and it will pay off. In the old MGM musicals, where somebody was always putting on a show in somebody else's bam, presto, there was suddenly a magically choreographed, orchestrated, Technicolor extravaganza! In real life, however, you need to know there was definitely a Virgo somewhere around arranging the bobby pins in the star's hair and sweeping up the hay on the set.

LIBRA

September 23—October 22

With Venus in Aquarius until March 13, here are descriptions of your ideal mate, HER: If this were the sixties, she'd wear love beads. She's Bette Davis in Now, Voyager, after she tells her mother to shove it. Even now, in appropriate nineties garb, she wears at least one ridiculously clashing accessory, HIM: Normally he's the uptightest Wasp at the country club, but now, determined to recapture the feeling of Paris in the thirties, he orders Pernod at lunchtime. He's the straightest guy on Wall Street, except for something deviant he does on the way home from work. Message for all Libras: Learn to love deeply.

SCORPIO

October 23—November 21

Last November you proved again that you could jump through a fiery hoop and not even singe your curls. You also may have used up another of your twenty-seven lives. Why bring yourself so close to that bottomless pit? Your ruler, Pluto, is slowing down and beginning its fivemonth retrograde on February 24. Review your efforts and accomplishments over the last seven months and be content on your secret little island. Try not to slip back into old patterns. Stay conscious. Why get yourself stranded in the desert and then have to race the vultures to the oasis?

SAGITTARIUS

November 22—December 21

Although you love the thrill of unfolding a road map for the first time or taking off with your passport in hand, you have been very earthbound lately. You haven't sold any furniture out of your garage in a long time. Of course, it was too good to be true. Now the blinders are off, and your interests are widening. Your 3rd-and-9th-house axis is going to be triggered, even before the full moon on February 18. You must experience the taste of another culture now. So go ahead. Move to Russia or marry a Russian. At least try the chicken Kiev on the menu, with or without butter.

CAPRICORN

December 22—January 19

Many Capricorns resort to spangles and curly blond wigs just to prove that they are not soulless drones. This February, while Venus is aspecting Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, you'll attempt again to disprove the stereotype by acting a little scandalously. Of course, you're always listening for the sound of the trumpet that signals judgment for the sins of pleasure. With planets touching Saturn before the second week in March, you'll hear it. Don't totally forget that time is money. Your right to freedom notwithstanding, you're a Capricorn. Self-acceptance will make it easier for you—not to mention everyone else.

AQUARIUS

January 20—February 18

Why are you driving yourself so hard? Must you prove you're still young, potent, attractive, creative, and, above all, not obsolete? Must you let absolutely everybody know that if that stupid parade passes you by, it will have to be over your dead body? Venus and Mars enter your sign on February 19, allowing you to be all those vital things without having to huff and puff to prove it. Saturn in Aquarius is still causing a few major wrinkles in both your master plan and your face. You're also grappling with the question of whether to kiss all butts or to punch out the first person who looks at you cross-eyed.