Belief Is Not Required

Back to life/Back to reality/However do you want me? Soul II Soul back in the ’90s, and let’s get back to basics. From which script is each sign reading? What are the basic question(s) each sign asks itself?

Element and Improvisational skill level:

Fire (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius): Identity and dignity inspire them to be all they can be.

Earth (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn): So-called reality matters, the physical world.

Air (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius): The mind, communication and circulating ideas.

Water (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces): The soul and the world of feelings and instincts.

Fire Element

At your best, your improvisational skills far exceed the other three elements, especially when you are confident regarding some unique activity. Discipline and structure of your individual vision make all the difference from being a blowhard and a force with which to be reckoned.

Aries, March 20-April 19, initiating spiritual (fire, visionary)

You and your first house of initial presentation state, “Who am I?” “What do I bring to the table?” You are hellbent on proving yourself to yourself. You thrive on the adage, “You’ll never know unless you try … ” And, if at first you don’t succeed, you’ll simply head-butt your way through. However, the last nine weeks, you have had to pause and reflect on which direction to move. Having less energy? No need to worry. By April 13, your plucky ruler, Mars, will set to blazing new trails again. A little humility in your life’s path helps your improvisational skills improve. You begin to listen to our notes on your performance. After all, is not life like a stage? Do we not have to change up the script once in a while?

Leo, July 23-August 22, concentrating spiritual (building your identity)

After impulsive and direct Aries, you have a capacity for suppressing your instincts in order to save face You ask, “How am I important?” You will work hard on displaying your gifts to the rest of us. This is exactly the behavior our society needs. Realize, one of sunny disposition, that the family is the first place where we all get introduced to “society.” Nanny (mother) state and lawmaker (father) state have traditionally created these scenarios. Of course, all families are not oriented strictly in this manner. Your fiery point, particularly in compatible fire sign of Aries, clearly demonstrates the way in which you play well with others. Be controlling or domineering at your own demise. The beginning of Aries requires your best face, especially when ya ain’t feeling it. It’s like what your mama used to say, “Don’t stare or make faces at strangers.” C’mon now, you realize everyone outside of your family was a stranger at one time, no?

Sagittarius, November 22-December 21, adapting spirituality, wise adviser

For the last several weeks, it may have seemed that I’ve been kissing your well-formed ass. You’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t shoot the messenger”? Well, these days don’t confuse the messenger with the message. I am a channel of planetary forces, an interpreter of sorts. The wandering energies, aka planets, have simply been on your side. And they will continue to be until June 11. Your major question of late (and generally throughout your life) is, “How can I push the envelope?” What limits may I blithely ignore? Understand that we look to you for a rambunctious row or two, an inspirational coach whenever we need to imagine a bridge over troubled waters. Do not sell your spirit to play the role of Pollyanna, but remember that you do not cast well as a sad sack either.

Earth Element

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You were born to remind us of our responsibilities to the physical world. Sure, this can make you seem controlling and conservative. Secretly, though, we appreciate your playing bailiff to our free spirit. Just don’t overdo it, OK?

Taurus, April 20-May 20, concentrating earth (physical)

I remember a talking bottle of syrup in TV commercials. “Mrs. Butterworth’s, I presume.” Unlike Dr. Livingston, she was kissing cousins to Aunt Jemima. Our worth as a people hinged sometimes on playing to certain stereotypes. When you brim over with self-confidence, it shows. Your specific question is, “What is my worth?” The more self-worth, the slower you are with your “hookups.” The current planetary lineup conspires to give you so much access to self-worth and esteem that you could be an African-American woman who collects antebellum memorabilia or anyone who goes home again as their true self. One of the most beautiful aspects to your nature is that you treat everyone you meet on the sidewalk of life the same. It makes you extremely attractive.

Virgo, August 23-September 22, adapting earth (physical)

One of your ruling planets has just begun to move. It is Mercury. Mr. Communication himself has spent more than eight weeks in the astrological real estate where your ability to have conscious relationship lands. Huh? You are learning to speak up after deliberation. How may you serve those closest to you? Your exacting service must be without resentment that often comes with over-giving. It will not be until the week of April 16 that you will begin to sense you can create new pathways to mutual satisfaction in your closest relationships. For now, ask and imagine where you can adapt to your given set of circumstances with the least amount of pain.

Capricorn, December 22-January 20, initiating earth (physical)

Taskmaster Saturn demands that you know which role you play in society. Our families being our introduction into society, you have a well-tutored capacity to demonstrate the proper mature mask outside the home, while playing the role of child inside your home. Hello, it’s all about balance. “What is my social role?” And, like fiery and confident Leo (who feeds your melancholy spirit), saving face means much to you. Presently, your mind is alive with thoughts of how to get ahead. Please remember that those you see going up the ladder of success are the same folks you see coming down. Treat the janitor the same way you treat the management, OK?

Air Element

No fire without air. We need your detached and observing ways to keep our spirits fresh and inspirational.

Gemini, May 21-June 20, adapting intellectual

Yes, three times a year for approximately three weeks, your guardian angel, Mercury, slows down and goes retrograde. It is important that this happens because it causes your mind to become reflective and concerned about the intention behind communication. You learn through these periods that the surface of speech can belie the meaning of said speech. A gaffe in the infotainment media garnishes entirely too much attention. And they happen a lot during these Mercury slowdowns. Etch A Sketch ring a bell for you? This childhood toy is an appropriate metaphor for you for the next 10 days. Shake up and scatter images you have placed in our minds that simply are not real or true. You are entirely better than from where you’ve come. Your Christmas miracle on your proverbial 34th Street is that you are starting to believe that you have immense mental capacity, no matter what “they” told you.

Libra, September 23-October 22, initiating intellectual

“Can we talk?” This question speaks volumes to your relational skills. In order to relate to others, you must be able to listen. Sometimes, you choose to use an owl totem’s energies to hear what isn’t being said. (Owl medicine in Native American/First Nation lore represents the ability to see through deceptions of all kinds you know; those tufts of feathers look like ears.) With Venus sitting oh so pretty in Gemini until August 7, your ears will hear all sorts of things you thought were long out of range. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to give voice to those seemingly intangible conversations inside your mind. Please share what you are perceiving. The more it makes us uncomfortable, the more you’ll have to listen to when you have to get over an aversion to confrontation. Suspending a temporary and superficial peace will work wonders for your relationships in the long run. I guarantee it like the clothes makes the man (and so does exceptional jewelry worn well).

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Aquarius, January 20-February 18, concentrating intellectual

Oh, star child, you are a cosmic family member of mine. Beyond Taurus’ question of self-worth or Leo’s constant turning up the drama knobs to be seen as important, you ask, “How do I make the world a better place?” Sure, at times, you can treat your private world like an itinerant worker who rebels against drug testing. However, your gift is to demonstrate how lovers and close mates get no romantic hangover; everyone is the same. Through accepting your own quirks without wounding those closest to you increases your charismatic ways. At spring’s beginning, your mind is aglow with possibilities for short journeys, taking a class or getting a new challenge at work. Follow these insights, and you will make our world a better place through looking at that man in the mirror, forthrightly. Integrity is very magnetic (and hot).

Water Element

As the fire signs are all over the identity principles, you soak our collective spirits in the history of our integrated souls. Love, love, love resonates like a realtor speaks to location, location, location. It’s midnight. Do you know where your heart is?

Cancer, June 21-July 22, initiating feeling (soul)

It is way beyond time to confound your healers. Doctors, acupuncturists, massage therapists and yogis alike are ready to look at you with new eyes. Over the past year, you have been learning to take your healing under your precise direction. “Where do I belong?” is a constant refrain. You belong in domains that are so supportive, you run the risk of becoming complacent. You belong in relationships where you are seen and appreciated for your capacity for intimacy. You belong in working atmospheres where you can be your real self without fear of judgment. Heal your mind; heal your heart. On this resurrection day (Easter), let go of at least one wound. Reframe said wound as an initiation to increasing your personal power. Personal power thrives on lessening any need for external control or demands on us based on fear and paranoia.

Scorpio, October 23-November 21, concentrating feeling (soul)

Now that we are in our last week of Mars doing his every two years backward dance in Virgo, you have a better assessment of who your real friends are and who are not. You can be capable of immense eroticism. You intuitively know that eros is not the same as sex. Your questions to yourself are, “How do I handle my emotional depths?” “What (or whom) must I transform?” It is akin to being an exceptional spiritualist, and you are sending your internal Christian soldiers on a mission to save souls who want to be saved. Huh? Teach only those who get you, period. Leave your considerably profound insights on fertile mental soil. Resist taking on other people’s garbage simply because you want to be useful. Those who want your brand of quiet rebellion will find you.

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Pisces, February 19-March 19, adapting feeling (soul)

Through your adaptable and watery nature, you can easily lose sight of why you are so sensitive. You were born to learn compassion. You do not learn compassion when everyone gives you your way. Compassion is learned at the long red light in suburbia. Compassion is learned when relationships become difficult. For you, especially, compassion is like a double-headed ax. It cuts both ways. And you have been the initiator of unnecessary cuts since 11.11.11. No, you are not a Scorpio, so you do not get to go around the planet suspecting everything. In other words, Mars (self-assertion/healthy, violence and anger/unhealthy) went into Virgo (your opposite sign, which simply means he presents himself through your relationships) on 11.11.11 (aka “I didn’t just pull that out of my well-formed ass”). And because of his retrograde (re-evaluating) cycle from January 23 until April 13, you have been learning true submission. Be like one of J.C. Penney’s promotions: “It’s all inside.” Because if you don’t and you continue to project onto us like an old movie screen, what’s left of our waning affection will evaporate and not return. Your questions are, “What’s possible?”, “What gives me the faith to rise above my compulsively mixed emotions?” and “How can I realize that faith without action makes living empty and inauthentic?”

Text or call Quan at 816-931-0010 or check out his website at beliefisnotrequired.com.