Astrology and I have an uneasy truce. I want to believe, and seeing the danger in that, I make sure not to believe too much. Since I can’t commit without more evidence I’ve never spent a dime on a personalized chart. I prefer to experiment indefinitely, testing it anew each day. When I’m on my deathbed, I’ll be able to look back and say whether it was true or not, I guess.

My dual nature, mystic/cynic, which I’ve discussed before, has been such a challenge for me. Astrology caught my attention when I realized it explained my duality *cough*schizophrenia*cough* perfectly. I was born a scant couple of hours before the cusp of Virgo/Libra. (Not even sure I’m using the correct terminology here.) Virgos can be controlling, and they love order above all else, generally speaking. Libras are dreamy and artistic and love beauty. And I was born virtually on the line between the two aspects.

Now before you get all indignant with me, remember that I’m not advocating astrology as a way to explain your life. I’ve seen all those debunking experiments on TV. I understand the psychology that makes people want to believe, the self-fulfilling prophecy and all that jazz. In the Cosmo Bedside Astrologer, the Taurus horoscope fit me as well as the Aries as well as the Virgo. I get it. I’m a smart girl. My Virgo side demands caution. *wink*

There’s something I’ve discovered recently, however, that I was missing all those years that I didn’t want to spend a dime. With a generalized horoscope you get, well, a general horoscope, one size fits all. You have to use not only your birth date, but your birth time and location as well. This is where astrology blossoms. (And this is where all the astrologists say together, “Duh!”)

So I’m going to pass along a site, Astro.com where you can create a free account, put in your birth time and place, and get a personalized horoscope. Since there are many aspects on your birth chart, some lasting hours and some years, on Thursdays they open up all the long-range aspects to non-paid accounts. I’ve never gotten any mail from this site, nor do their “partners” spam me, as sometimes happens. You can join me in this life-long experiment.

I’m also starting to realize that belief in astrology almost has to be a conscious choice. Since it deals with “aspects” and “influences” rather than predicting events, there will be no bright, irrefutable, lightbulb moment. I’ll probably never make a solid decision one way or the other, so I’ve resigned myself to keeping an eye on it, dismissing the things I don’t agree with and saying, “Cool,” when it fits. Although many times when I go back I can see how a certain influence manifested in a way I couldn’t foresee.

That’s probably what keeps me interested. Just enough fits to keep me reading despite the knowledge that it will never be definitive. I want to make it definitive. I am a knowledge seeker to the core, in both aspects of my personality. I believe in a divine plan, and constantly search for evidence of that plan, which is probably true of most of us.

This whole post started as a preamble to my horoscope for today, which is actually a long-range influence that explains a lot of the crap in which I keep finding myself.

During this time you should be careful and keep a tight rein on yourself – especially if you are anyway of a spirited disposition. If you are after some kind of “conquest”, it is quite possible that under this influence you ignore warning signs and advance too directly and abruptly.

There is also the danger, at the moment, that you sense competition or opposition where there is none. If you are too sensitive and quick-tempered, take every criticism personally and react in an offended manner, then around every corner is an enemy, and every conversation can turn into an argument in which you finally – without reason and probably without conscious intent – hurt others and are presumably yourself hurt to the same extent.

Activity period from middle of October 2007 until 28 March 2008

Thank God it’s almost over. If it’s true.