Annual Horoscope for 2011

by Eric Francis Coppolino, December 31, 2010

ARIES (March 20-April 19)
How many commercials have we seen promising some version of “the new you,” whether it was for a workout gadget, hair color, or a mental outlook offered in a self-help book? Despite our collective obsession with personal renewal, this seems to be something that rarely works. Part of why involves our attachment to the past, and the typically human fear of change. Yet these tumble when we have a vision that we want to create with passion.

With Uranus entering your birth sign for the next seven years, your sense of self becomes something entirely flexible, and you may have the feeling that anything is possible. That is true: Yet what, exactly, do you want to be possible? Over the past few seasons you’ve had a clue. It may have seemed like something too good to be true, or impossible because it was so amazing. That’s the thing to guide yourself with. Don’t worry about whether it seems possible, or concern yourself with plotting every step in the process. You grew from a zygote into a fetus into a child and then into an adult understanding nothing about how that worked on the anatomical level. Thank goodness for DNA.

The DNA of Uranus in your sign suggests not merely personal renewal but rather ongoing personal revolution. It may take a while to figure out what I mean, but it will become obvious. From the inside, this may feel like the desire to burst free even though you did precisely that yesterday; to drop every pretense you ever put up; to act boldly and immediately, instead of taking years to plan things that rarely happen. Something inside is seeking to set itself free. In short, this transit brings out your true nature, as if a veil were being lifted off of your psyche.

Your inner awareness is being joined closer with your daily expression. You will tap the rich potential even of what seemed like negative developments. Whatever may have happened during the past four seasons, trust that the world has made room for you, for the work you want to do, and the person you want to be in your deepest relationships. Patience may be the most challenging virtue you can muster in these seasons of your life. This is a new kind of patience—one based not on waiting, but on cultivating trust in yourself, practiced like yoga from day to day.


TAURUS (April 19-May 20)
Though most descriptions of your sign cast you as practical, grounded, and organized, you have one of the dreamiest minds around. This is why you can find yourself getting caught in fantasy, and it’s why material things often take so long for you. The story of your astrology for 2011 and well beyond is about gaining clarity. Most of that clarity is to your emotional nature. You are sensitive; the solution is about enhancing that sensitivity rather than toning it down. Though it may seem odd to say, your true liberation will come from fully honoring your inner life. That will set you free to act with confidence in the world.

One of the most exciting aspects of your journey through the next four seasons involves discovering that you create who you are as you go. At times this may feel like a path of discovery, but that’s an illusion of time. This is true to the extent that, for the sake of grounding and a sense of stability, you’ve often preferred to depend on who you were yesterday, but your imagination is way too rich for that. The thing about having a lavish imagination is that it truly helps to be disciplined about it.

As part of that discipline, you must turn to everything you ever considered as a fault and turn it into an asset. For example, if you consider yourself a procrastinator, you can discern the thing you’re most motivated to do at any given time—such as choosing the thing on your “to do” list that’s the most fun. If you do that consistently, you will get everything done. If you are a raging idealist and don’t think the world is ready for you, then test out your own belief and try something specific and see what happens.

The trend of your life is moving away from theorizing and into action; away from guilt and into pleasure; away from being concerned about risks and toward being a kind of test pilot of the soul. As you experiment in all these ways, remember: Manifestation always proceeds from an idea into tangible form. And the one thing between the idea and its expression is, most often, what you believe. So if you want to make real changes that are 100 percent certified by the cosmos, change what you believe. It’s easier than you currently believe.


GEMINI (May 20-June 21)
It can be challenging maintaining a balance of power between you and the people in your life. That is especially true when so much in the world seems to come down to a question of power or control. The essence of balance, in that case, is making sure your life has a different theme and a different purpose. To do that, you need more creative concepts, but the first thing to do is to respect power for what it is. This way, you can enter a direct relationship with it; from here you will have the feeling of dancing with destiny rather than merely being subject to it.

That is a big difference, yet it only becomes clear through experience. Now, the question is, how do you get there? At the essence of your growth mission is freeing yourself from emotions that tend to lock you into certain relationship situations “against your will.” First among these is guilt. Next on the list is your sense of obligation. Then comes a tendency to honor the status quo. You may experience a value that says someone with more money is a better person than someone with less of the stuff. All of these notions are ideas you have inherited rather than invented—and what you are doing at this stage of your life is giving back that inheritance. To whom? To the ancestors; to a culture that defined your relationships before you had a chance to; to your family for the examples it set.

You have your own ideas, and this is the time in your life when you get to express them—if you want. As you take apart the ideas from the distant past that don’t work for you, the next step is to evaluate people and events on their own merits. That implies applying your discernment to every situation in your life. This is more than most people are willing to do, because if you’re wrong, then the error is all your own. Yet if you’re correct, then you have nobody to thank but yourself.

You are seeking more social freedom than most people would ever dream of. One of your most cherished dreams is that of absolute individuality. Thus, never apologize for being yourself. And remember that embracing what works for you always involves letting go of what does not.