No matter how normal you try to be, everybody in the world has a weak spot where their fantasies take over. This month, will you be behaving yourself, or do you just have to sneak in a little forbidden naughtiness?

That seems to be the major deal in September during two major eclipses in the signs of Virgo and Pisces. You’ll probably get all fired up and enthusiastic about working on some project or other, then turn around and wonder why you ever give a damn about it in the first place. It’s the eternal battle between industry and sloth, diligence and escape. It all eventually boils down to how hard it is to stay sober, hardworking, rational and virtuous or just give in to glamorous, seductive, tempting and blindly emotional inspiration.

Enjoy both but don’t get lost in either.

ARIES / ARIES RISING
Without filling your head with grandiose notions, it must be said that you do have some sort of super genes. As often as you may plunge into the murkiest depths and make us all think you’re done for, devoured by crocodiles, you always pop up laughing with a pearl in your hand. Aries is certainly the force of life, and you have certainly been known to push that beyond the limit.

You do, however, possess human qualities as well—you have a body and a mind- a body that needs periodic maintenance, a consciousness that sometimes fills you with creative inspiration and at other times drags you into the past and nibbles on your confidence and desire to go on.

You’re fortunate this month that your ruling planet Mars is traveling toward the top of your horoscope. Such a strong and liberating position increases the positive spin you could put on everything,

So you will tolerate no interference from physical, mental, or psychological bugs in your system.

Yes, you have secret sorrow, and even if you sometimes seem superficial and breeze over things that happened long ago, some of the hurt is still there. So take care of your body, stay busy and working, forgive yourself and others for those sins, and whatever you do, keep that wagon train moving.

 

TAURUS / TAURUS RISING
With Mars and Saturn in your eighth house and the outlet of a T-square in your second, this crisis, a conquerable one, involves money. Especially in matters of wills and legacies and joint financial deals.

The issues up now ask the questions about love and friendship. How do you handle it when the friends you love, the associations you belong to, reject, or disappoint you? How do you deal with it when the escape routes you took hit a brick wall? These eclipses raise deep issues about intimate love or taking care of children, or even having kids at all. The core issue drives you back to the intimacy that you require, but have been reluctant or afraid to embrace because it interfered with your freedom.

If you’ve got kids, that’s where you have to put your energy now. This is a grown-up kind of love, not adolescent romance, but a true and mature kind of nurturing. Even on a business or personal basis, in the area of relationships you’ve been through hell over the last four years. This new test is about love, with or without sex. It’s funny; when you are young, such a concept is unthinkable. When you grow into maturity, the depths of your emotions are revealed, and your heart opens in a different way. That is just what’s happening during this eclipse. It’s easy for people to tell you that whatever unforeseen events seem to come out of nowhere, are blessings in disguise. They are not at all leading you off your path, but taking you on a new and more spiritual one.

 

GEMINI / GEMINI RISING
Well this is ironic: For all the times people have called you ditzy and skitzy, you’re proving to everybody that you can take on all possible stress, cope with the criticism, needs wishes and demands of everybody on all sides, and remain amazingly flexible and relatively sane. You’re still breathing, despite the fact that the relationships you seek out and desperately need are the most challenging ones.

The eclipses of September 2016 affect you deeply, you’re certainly getting major attention. It must be said, however, that politically, you’re probably in way over your head and have as many rabid detractors as you have fans. It’s hard to please you on a personal level now, mainly because you are seeking approval from the system you do not respect or to which you don’t even really want to belong.

You don’t want to be told that you’re just a small town yokel out of your league so go back where you came from. There are many ways to make a name for yourself, but if you get caught in the crossfire with unclear motives and contradictory statements, it will be hard to get out of the political trouble you can cause among your fellows.

Down at the bottom of your astrological solar chart, lies Mercury Jupiter and the north node of the Moon. There is at least one but probably more family members who deeply support you. They represent the true source of nurturing and safety and protection far away from the outside world. It’s funny, mainly because it shows that no matter how far from home you stray or how hard you try to

To run away from the family, when it’s storming outside there’s turns out to be a door you can always knock on that will be opened to you.

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CONFIDENTIAL TO KANYE WEST
You’ve got everybody from diehard fans to your harshest critics, buzzing and questioning your antics, ethics, and motives right now. It’s wonderful to have the courage of your convictions and continue to make breakthroughs whether people are comfortable or not, but some folks are wondering: Are you moved by personal taste, creative ideology, and a firm belief that choices you are making are purely artistic and sincere ones? Are they socially driven to wake up a sleeping culture? Or is it the mark of a tantrum-driven, mannered iconoclast, designed to get attention at any cost?

By the way, thanks to an unusual lineup of the planets, you’re not the only Gemini to be under the microscope this month. Another one who happens to be running for President of the United States appears to have similar issues.

CANCER / CANCER RISING
Let’s face it. Even honest-to-goodness mystics will go through a crisis of faith now and then. Once upon a time there was a guy who wanted to find the one person on Earth who knew what life is all about. So he gives up his career, family, wealth, because he heard that there’s somebody up on the mountain who knows the secret of Life, Finally he reaches the top of the mountain and there’s a little guy sitting eating a bowl of rice. He approaches and asks “What is Life?” And the ancient old geezer looks up and

“How the hell should I know?” he giggles. “ Don’t bother me. I’m eating.”

This eclipse is teaching you that no matter how far you go, the answer never lies in anybody else’s mind. Nobody knows it all and nobody has an ultimate answer. Your own opinion is as valid as any one who boasts a fancy education or claims to have the secret to existence or love. You have to get your voice back. You have to say what’s on your mind and don’t let it fester. Remain connected to the people who matter to you and don’t be afraid of communication that is scary or threatening, especially if you approach any subject with wisdom. Relationships with people who seem very far away can be healed and mended.

Communication is an arch that demands that you sift through complex and confusing issues and come up with rational logical observations that will help clarify murky mental constructs. You are a cancer after all and that means you’re rational only half the time, if that much.

Your message this month is short and sweet.

Stay in touch if you’ve been in touch and if you haven’t, get back in touch. Period.

 

LEO / LEO RISING
You’re more fortunate than many, however, since you are ruled by the Sun and can throw off problems and heal yourself of almost anything. Plus, looking at your life from a greater perspective, we can see that this is an amazing period of growth and expansion of consciousness and opportunities for you. You’ve already been going to places you’ve never been—geographically or psychologically or both, thanks to the fire trine of Mars, the Sun, and the planet Uranus.

The eclipses of September 2016 provide you with a further opportunity to deepen both your personal relationships and your business relationships, but you’ve got to keep your head.

You have to carry the financial burden, pretty much alone now. So try not to resent it. If you have a family, you have to be the primary breadwinner. If you’re single, you have to try to make more money on your own. Obviously we are all in a weird financial position in this world right now, but barring that, the north node of the Moon with Jupiter and Mercury in your second house shows that you have the power to be a better business person, mainly because partners have fewer resources possibly for personal or health reasons.

It’s the time to focus on being a better business person in every transaction you make.

For some Leos, the fear of loss of sexual attractiveness can lead you into the darkest places you should not be hanging around in. A misplaced or obsessive sexual vibration and frustration can and do lead to messy problems in business. They render you vulnerable to seduction and pose questions of your desirability, attractiveness, and even your own sexuality. Of course we all need our little dalliances, and we all have our naughty moments, but a defensive pursuit of sexual validation erodes your business acumen.

Don’t let that happen.

VIRGO / VIRGO RISING
People need your cool head now. They do NOT, however, need you to get all enmeshed and ensnared in their gooey issues, which could happen if you lose your objectivity. You can’t please everybody. You can’t fix everybody. You can’t heal everybody. No matter how sincerely dedicated you are to the service and joy of all the people around you, you have to face the fact that those with whom you come in contact and those you draw to you may have problems that existed before you knew them.

Some of those stories are touching, tragic, or inviting you to add your positive energy to their lives. Other situations can be seductive and glamorous, and without actually consciously promising you anything, your own fantasies can color your rational judgment. When you are feeling vulnerable or particularly lonely, you can lose your objectivity and find yourself in a swirling confusing relationship – – where you have convinced yourself something is true and it turns out not to be true at all.

The New Moon fills you with the renewed zeal to take on all challenges with enthusiasm and to stay rational and cool and do your Virgo work thing to the fullest. Your friends marvel at your tireless efforts to tell everybody nicely what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. At mid-month, however, the Full Moon on Chiron will show you that nothing is clear in relationships at all. Contact has its price. The yearning for closeness is natural and normal, so there’s no reason for you to beat yourself up if you lose your sang-froid now and then. But you have to learn that keeping your own space and maintaining good boundaries is the way to happiness.

 

LIBRA / LIBRA RISING
This month should be experienced fully as your spiritual retreat. The way to move ahead is to not push, despite the fact that you are itchy and restless and find it difficult to sit still. It is important to completely surrender up to the forces of the Universe whether that annoys you or not. The planet Jupiter with Mercury at the end of your 12 house does demand absolute faith in and adherence to the unflagging belief that you are part of a greater plan. You do not control the outcome. Jupiter is rising at dawn before the Sun, and that means that the Sun is still in the dark.   Jupiter, however, astrologically speaking, is preparing the way for liberation and rebirth. Even if you were the most down-to-earth materialistic well grounded Libra in the world, this is the moment—just a moment, a brief candle flicker of a moment, to surrender to the higher powers that exist even without our awareness and guide us all.

If you have any physical discomforts or what your body has brought into physical manifestation, and has been going on in the deepest part of your mind.

This mysterious link between body mind and soul may someday be scientifically demonstrated. At this point however, it has been a practice adopted by many wise individuals to make a conscious effort to raise the level of mental vibration to the highest degree. It is possible that, instead of waiting for the body to feel better to have a better outlook, you have to understand it doesn’t work that way. Body does not control mind. Mind controls body. Be dedicated to your earthly work and your spiritual work.

At the moment you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from putting your faith in a future that you cannot even see.

 

SCORPIO / SCORPIO RISING
We all know what total hell Scorpios have gone through in the last four years. Fortunately you are now coming out of what we could euphemistically call a transformational period.

What was unthinkable, untenable, and impossible just several months ago is now once again putting you back into life—reconstruction nearly complete.

There are financial constraints, so you are being asked i.e. forced to reconfigure business, economize, become more thrifty and wise in all your financial dealings.

Forgetting the money issue for a moment, you still need love and attention. How can you fulfill those dreams needs and wishes and still be age appropriate? On a friendships and human level, you are definitely going to be connected with influential people—individuals who can help you advance your work along the humanitarian lines. Emotions could get in the way if you allow adolescent fantasies or inappropriate needs create a behavior that would interfere with success .

The eclipses in the 11th and fifth houses tempt you to create romantic fantasies because everybody needs romance. The long-term non-attached connections are the most fruitful and fulfilling. Relationships established on the basis of friendship, trust, and common goals will pay off handsomely. If you can elevate your feelings, gain some detachment, and think about a long-term goal and a longer-term relationship you will see how much more valuable that can be sometimes than any mad infatuation.

That may seem silly and not applicable to the current situation, but you would be surprised how unconscious, unfulfilled wishes can leak into the most lofty and noble, ambitious goals. Elevating your responses from unconscious to conscious is the trick of this eclipse.

 

SAGITTARIUS / SAGITTARIUS RISING
Mars in your sign provides you with new enthusiasm to continue on your journey and explore new avenues of creative expression. You will need to apply self restraint so you don’t go and put your big foot in your mouth as you have been known to do in the past. One of the great drawbacks to success is acting prematurely, shooting first and asking questions afterwards. So cool it. The trick is actually to stay in a positive mode toward career goals, even though part of you and would prefer to stay in bed. No such luck. You must not let family preoccupations drag you away from your life in the world.

The 12th house transits of Saturn and then Mars may have been devastating. No surprise, the planetary effects from 2012-2016 demanded so much personal energy and were so draining and personally exhausting (plus the grief), that you barely had time for anything but your own survival. In short, it was all externally paralyzing. That’s over now. You got to get back on the horse and now you are ready to ride.

You really will have more motivation and be better equipped to balance your energies between your personal, familial or intimate associations and still give proper attention to the opportunities in the world to accomplish more professionally. You will likely be recognized and honored for those accomplishments. It’s an honor to take a greater place professionally or politically in the world, in spite of your own resistance to greater responsibility and professionalism. You are energized. You are still ambitious. Even if truth be told, you have lost a little bit of the fire in your belly, this is the moment to rekindle it. And the world approves of your efforts.

 

CAPRICORN / CAPRICORN RISING
Big revelation: Intelligence can pass between creatures even though a verbal language is virtually impossible, at least at this stage of our evolution. In plain English: Capricorns don’t usually go in for fancy abstractions and parables. You like straight talk, polite but even sometimes with your own hidden agendas, but essentially honest communication.

This eclipse pattern raises the level of your understanding of your own behavior. It’s a psychological moment. You’re beginning to see patterns and relationships you were never aware of. Now you can understand behavior, other peoples and your own, that may have been in accessible to you with less sophistication, education, life experience and just enlightenment that comes with the age.

With Jupiter mercury in the north node of the Moon in your ninth house concurrent with a Transit of Saturn in your 12th, you have been presented with a paradox, a challenge, a conflict between dogma and belief. This is not about career or aspirations of power politically or otherwise. You are seeking insight and inspiration.

It’s not going to be a particularly social time in your life. You need more quiet time, some seclusion even to gather your wits about you and open a new grasp of your actions. Engendered by past experiences, your actions have almost been buried completely. For a person who normally likes clarity, planning, order and practical solutions to everyday problems, psycho-spiritual enlightenment and awareness goes way beyond normal communication. In fact normal communication fails miserably when trying to communicate with people who have no idea what you’re talking about.

 

AQUARIUS / AQUARIUS RISING
With your ruling planet Uranus transiting your third house these days, you astound maze people with your ability to be into 1000 things at once and keep moving. Plus, it’s amazing how you have been able to cater to some folks who held your fate in their hands—even those whose ideologies made you nauseous.

And all that while you needed more freedom than ever.

Well, your having to be political is so over.

The time has come to put art back into your life. Art, not in the sense of “what’s that painting supposed to be? My kid could do that,” type thing. More about the art of living.

As detached and unemotional as Aquarians are cracked up to be, you have passionate needs of your own, many of them highly repressed for social or health reasons. Or for the reasons of fearing emotional contamination you found it hard to cope with. Now maybe you’re letting the cracks show. You’re moving away from social appropriateness and beginning to connect with people – like-minded people who don’t live so close to the middle of the bell curve.

With the South node and Neptune and Chiron in your second house during this eclipse you’re probably concerned (or even obsessed) with what’s going to happen to you financially if you open your life up. So when we say you are letting art into your life it doesn’t necessarily have to be formal painting or music or architecture.

We are looking at art as the appreciation of life, moving away from the rules of the Established Regime, and embracing the excitement of the adventure, of being on a journey with no map other than your enthusiasm for exploration.

It’s the art of being alive: less concerned with position and more interested in pursuing a freer more fulfilling human existence. Did somebody say if you pursue your passion the money will follow? Let’s hope that guy was right.

 

PISCES / PISCES RISING
Pisces provides Technicolor, the color for the black-and-white movie which usually passes for normal life. You yourself may look like everybody else, but inside you are a swirling mix of and sound and light. A multimedia conglomeration of feeling, inspiration, and intuition that usually drives everybody crazy because they can’t figure out. Period. As rational as you try to be, you keep the story just a little ambiguous. When you fall deeply, you’re deeply committed, and you could surround somebody with a enormous amount of passion and love, not to mention your strong intuition and talent. The secret that lies behind Pisces, however, is that every Piscean knows that all things are impermanent, and what promises forever in the moment is no more than a fleeting illusion across the mind.

At the moment it’s more complex than ever. With Neptune passing through Pisces for the next several years, you’re actually more confident than ever. You know you have it. You’ve got the stuff—no ego involved. But… with the South Node of the Moon and Chiron also present in your Sign, you can get into a love-hate battle with yourself. As usual, everything is true and not true when it comes to Pisces. Thanks to this eclipse, however, with the north node and Jupiter in your seventh house, you’ve got fans and supporters. People love you. You got a place to put your talent.

Worldly success has its price, however, and the catch is: you have to play ball politically and fit into a certain kind of image or mold that is anathema to a Pisces. You need a strong relationship now that will define you, embrace you, support and enhance your position. It’s difficult though to be in any relationship that defines you too clearly. It’s refreshing to be connected on this level. It’s incredibly validating despite the part of you that remains curled up and all alone in the corner. You’re enjoying life to the full and yet… When we see you with that little tear at the corner of your eye, we can’t really discern if you’ve been laughing your head off or you’ve just been crying.

Michael Lutin is Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College and a member of the National Press Club in Washington D.C. He has been a Vanity Fair columnist for 25 years, American Airlines columnist for 12 years, and a Vogue Germany columnist for 17 years. He is also the author of four books, five musical plays, and has lectured to Harvard Business School alumni, and many other organizations internationally.