Planetarium

Michael Lutin tells Virgos to embrace the chaos

VIRGO

23-SEPT.

Though you're quite capable of getting hysterical over the slightest little thing, you have the enviable ability to carry on calmly when major catastrophes hit and the going gets really rough. Even when you are on the brink of exhaustion, you always seem to find a way to stay cool and continue your mission of directing sinners toward the path of repentance. With a planetary grand cross currently occurring in your mutable houses, however, you face a more formidable challenge: can you stay sane when the tables turn and you're the one who is all goofed up?

LIBRA

23 - OCT. 23

If you could just push a button and instantly free yourself from a crippling preoccupation with money, you might finally be able to throw yourself into the arms of humanity and live for the betterment of all sentient beings. The good news is that such a lofty goal is realistically attainable even as you go on scratching and clawing for every last crust of bread. The current planetary grand cross in fixed signs demands that you make an attempt. Meanwhile, to make matters more interesting, your "love life" is keeping you up till all hours.

SCORPIO

OCT.

24 - NOV.

It may take lots of self-discipline to restrain that diva within you who can rear up at the most inappropriate moments and demand a limo. In order to pull off your latest professional magic trick, however, you'll need to do more than blow everyone's mind by yanking another rabbit out of the hat. You must also remember that, with fixed signs predominating now, the people fronting the money also want to call the shots. Try to silence the inner brat screaming for Mommy's and Daddy's attention. The wise and successful know that clout is most powerful when it is not used.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21

Raising your consciousness to the highest level possible is the best method for overcoming fear and confusion as the new moon rises through your 9th house. Broadening your intellectual and philosophical horizons—whether through travel, education, or religion—will liberate you from fruitless mental exercises that serve only to twist your thoughts even further. Going over the same tired old issues will never pull you out of the maelstrom, but putting your head in a higher place certainly will. A little denial goes a long way.

CAPRICORN DEC.22-JAN.I9

For months now, Capricorns with only a smattering of astrological knowledge have been worrying themselves sick that this summer's solar eclipse will do them in. The truly hip members of your sign, however, realized long ago that with a little help from them the universe will unfold exactly as it should. Apart from the death-rebirth experiences you can look forward to during this period of enlightenment, the eclipse will present you with a sharp picture of the complex links connecting love, money, business, friendship, and sex. The split-loyalty thing should be fun, too.

AQUARIUS JAN. 20-FEB. 18

No matter how worn out or needy you may feel inside, it is unlikely that you will cave in, or collapse in a sobbing heap, or allow yourself to be pampered and coddled, even though that is what you are secretly longing for. What the solar eclipse in your 7th house does indicate is that the moment has arrived to acknowledge all those on whom you have been pretending not to depend. You've still got the last word, though, so there's no need to be scared. Your loved ones are not expecting you to sell out and become a total vegetable anytime soon.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20

Life on earth can be either satisfying and enriching or trivial and meaningless. All card-carrying Pisceans know that, just as they know that people can be either loving and kind or cruel and stupid. In fact, there are times—and this is one of them—when the whole thing can become one giant, contradictory mess. With all your mutable houses being activated, you can choose to grow up and throw yourself into your work, or you can take the low road, start listening to the voices in your head, and eventually get yourself arrested.

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19

You have four great reasons to go on living this month: friendship, love, sex, and money. And if you have to have an astrological cross to bear, there's probably none more fun to carry than the fixed planetary grand cross occurring in your 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th houses. Socially, you've got to be more on than a campaigning politician. Emotionally, you've got to satisfy more appetites than there are in all the monkeys in the zoo clamoring for bananas. Everybody wants a piece of the action, and nobody wants to budge an inch. That makes negotiating hell.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20

Only a moron would attempt to predict whether your career will skyrocket or fizzle in the months to come. There's more on your mind than your job anyway, because all the activity going on in your 4th house forces you to focus on the family too. Meanwhile, partners and managers are hammering away at you, like sculptors chiseling a hunk of stone, in their effort to make you into something you're not. Thank God Saturn's position in Taurus gives you the determination to keep going, even if there are days when you feel a thousand years old.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 21

The Gemini brain, normally able to project two pictures at the same time, is now flashing more images than a bank of monitors in a TV studio. The reason: your solar 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th houses are all operating at once. As a result of this unusual configuration, you are probably running around town and getting advice from four different sources—all conflicting, naturally. Where should you live? How should you proceed? Whom should you believe? If all your personalities suddenly find themselves in the hot tub at once, just splash around and enjoy it.

CANCER

JUNE 22-JULY 22

If you were living alone on a tropical island, you could sit there all day counting your coconut shells and be as happy as a clam. Too bad you're surrounded by hungry people. Although thrift should rule now that the solar eclipse has energized your 2nd house, for some reason it is still very important for you not to appear cheap and stingy. Because Mars, Saturn, and Uranus are simultaneously afflicting the sun and moon, you have to spread the wealth around. You may as well do it gladly, since the vultures will eventually get it anyway.

JULY 23-AUG 22

Was Rudyard Kipling right on the nose or what? Especially now, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, you'll be in great shape. They'll surely be coming at you from all sides this month, what with a solar eclipse in your sign afflicted by Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and a moon south node conjunction. Since this celestial event is certain to spell the end of one whole era of your life and kick off an entirely new one, you've got to be brave, strong, true, and, most important, more honest than you've ever been in your life. Lots of luck.

To hear more about what's happening in your horoscope—and everyone else's—listen to Michael Lutin weekly by calling 1-900-28V-FAIR on a Touch-Tone phone. Cost: $1.95 per minute. If you are under 18, you need parental permission.