Meanwhile, Pluto is in your solar 6th house of work and health, slowly pushing forward toward a breakthrough in mid-April. Issues with either of these areas can be addressed through realistic experimentation, looking for what works and what doesn’t work. Common sense helps too, as Pluto is in Capricorn and Capricorn loves common sense and using your rational mind to address problems. Finally, if you are lacking in skills, Pluto encourages in-depth training in practical procedures that will help you manage and control potential problems.

Since work is all business, the planets have kindly offered you an option for experiencing the lighter side of life. Venus and Uranus meet upon the 9th, and they urge you to try something new, just for fun. Spring a pre-Valentine’s surprise on your sweetie, and go have an adventure of some sort. This is also an excellent aspect for writers and public speakers–it’s a time of inspiration.

On the not so lighter side of life, Saturn stations and turns retrograde this month, one of the more significant astrological happenings in February. Saturn is in the part of your chart that represents thinking, the mind, mental stress, communication difficulties, and what Saturn wants is for you to get your mind right. The time of maximum stress is at the full moon in your own sign on the 7th. Full moons are a bit unstable by nature, and Saturn doesn’t like that. The bottom line is that this is a time to think before you speak and to determine whether how you feel now is how you are likely to feel in the future. Don’t let your emotions run away with you.

Now on to the other big news of February: Neptune moving out of Aquarius for good and into the sign of Pisces. Neptune in its own sign is going to be giving everyone lessons in how to deal with a lack of specifics, definition or clear-cut direction. In your case, this lack of specificity revolves around power issues. Who’s got the power? Why? How? How much? It’s hard to tell and things seem to keep changing.

On the other hand, Neptune in your solar 8th house can be very productive in the long run for things like psychotherapy, things that deal with the subconscious mind, memories, buried feelings–and even mysteries. Neptune in Pisces (which lasts for 14 years) can be one of the best things that ever happened to you–but before you reap the benefits, you’ll need to learn how to handle a lot of not knowing. At least all the rest of us will be in the same boat!

On a different note, Mars in Virgo begins retrograding this month (on the 23rd) in the part of your chart that rules tangible items. This is the sort of influence that can make a person discontented with his or her possessions and start wanting to replace old and worn out items with new ones. If you have items that need replacing and the budget to replace them, go for it.

Otherwise, your solar chart is heavy on the cadent houses this month. What the heck does that mean, you ask. The cadent houses (houses 3, 6, 9, and 12) are the pondering houses, the houses that gather information, reflect on it, organize it, and figure out what to do with it.

You have Saturn still in your solar 3rd house, where its job is to help you gather facts and learn. Your solar 3rd house is represented by the cooperative sign Libra, which implies that you are supposed to gather information about people rather than about abstractions or technical subjects like engineering. This is because part of Leo’s role in the world is to be a natural politician, aware of the sensitivities of others and how to manipulate them toward a worthy goal. A Leo who isn’t paying attention to how others react to things is a dysfunctional Leo. Still, some periods require more effort to navigate successfully and this is one of them. The other people in your world require conscious attention these days.

And you have Uranus in Aries in your solar 9th house. This house also involves learning, but in your case it is more about learning how to express yourself than learning how to absorb information. You take the information in via the 3rd house, then synthesize it and turn it into something worth expressing in the 9th house. The 9th house is where you make the connections between the various bits of information you’ve gathered, where you sense patterns.

Finally, you have planets in Capricorn in your solar 6th house this month. This cadent house is a bit different in nature than the others because it typically puts the focus on work and health information rather than information in general. It’s an important house in your chart these days, because Pluto moved in a few years ago and isn’t planning to budge for a good long time. Pluto’s here to help you marry process to goal, which isn’t as easy as it sounds like it might be.

We all have habits, but often our habits are at odds with what we think we want to achieve. We might have an ambition to excel but a subconscious pattern of assuming that taking on extra work is the way to achieve that goal–when in fact excellence might be a by-product of doing fewer things at a higher level. Pluto’s here to help you figure out things like that by periodically hurting your feelings and pointing out to you that what you’re doing currently doesn’t work. With the sun and Mercury also in Capricorn this month, be prepared to examine your work habits and processes and take the initiative to upgrade them as necessary.

I know that the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is supposed to be your annual holiday fun time, not your extra work time. And it still is. There’s plenty of fun energy and the whole month is pretty darn good for romance and going out with people. It’s just that this year puts an extra emphasis on working as well.

This work energy is not for naught, either. With Venus in Capricorn until the 20th of December and Jupiter in your career house moving forward on Christmas Day, you could get some real benefits from putting some extra oomph into your occupational efforts this month. You could actually get somewhere in your professional life.

There’s also a lunar eclipse in Gemini this month, on the 10th. You may have felt some eclipse rumblings last month or you may not feel them until some time in January. Or–the eclipse may be so mild that you feel nothing at all. The most common manifestation I see with this type of eclipse is a falling out with a friend or a falling out with an entire group of people.

Usually, the falling out or ending of the friendship comes across as something like a bombshell. Given that Mercury is retrograde at the time of the eclipse, it is possible that communication mix-ups or even excessive tactless frankness pushes someone over the edge. Sometimes the friendship doesn’t need to end, it just needs to ratchet itself down a notch, especially if romance and friendship have been getting ambiguously confused. The traditional advice is to make sure you get the facts before you jump to any emotional conclusions during eclipse season.

Unless it’s inappropriate in your career field, you can benefit from this earthy energy to bring the human touch to your work and possibly increase your own income. You may be spending more time at work as well or traveling for work during this period–even to exotic locales. In some way or another, your work seems to be greatly emphasized in your life for awhile. This is not at all bad, and it can be kind of nice to get rid of Mars in your sign, which can be a frustrating or claustrophobic influence sometimes.

Mars into Virgo also represents physical things in your life, possessions, stuff that’s tangible and that you can touch. Virgo is a discriminating sign, one that focuses on specifics and chooses carefully. Prepare to spend the next 8 months shopping carefully. Given that this is Scorpio month and highlights your home, you might want to invest in tangibles for your home right now. There’s been energy in your home sector since mid-October; it lasts until the 23rd.

Now for the big news–the irresistible lure of love. November sees boatloads of energy in your love life sector, including an eclipse and love planet Venus herself. Love is going to try real hard to cast a spell on you this month. It’s going to try to come to you rather or persuade you to come to it.

It’s not just all the energy in Sagittarius this month that’s trying to bewitch you. Romantic Neptune is also stationing in your house of committed relationships in November, for the last time in your lifetime. He’s got one final chance bewitch you before he leaves this part of your chart, so he undoubtedly will want to make the most of it. Great!

Finally, last and probably least, Saturn is finally moving forward in your solar third house. Writers can start writing more again and the rest of you can tackle your paperwork!

This dynamic makes October your listening month instead of your talking month. Listen to others, to your own still small voice, listen to your intuition regarding your career (Saturn is always interested in your career and this year Jupiter is too.) And listen to your family members. As if stern Saturn wasn’t enough to encourage you to keep your own counsel for the most part, inner planets also move quickly into Scorpio this year.

Scorpio in its pure form is the ultimate tight-lipped sign, preferring to see everyone else’s cards before it tips its hand. It’s not that you can’t say anything this month–it’s just that the general atmosphere encourages speaking thoughtfully, discreetly, and tactfully after due consideration. Concentrate on accurate specifics rather than broad generalizations. This month’s planets love that!

October also sees planets in all 4 angles of your chart. Mars is in your own sign, the first house, the sign of you alone. Cosmic Neptune is in the 7th house of your relationships. The already mentioned Scorpio planets are in your 4th house of home and family. Plus, expansive Jupiter is in your 10th house of career. These areas are considered the most important in your chart.

That means that all 4 fixed signs are activated this month, a phenomenon that doesn’t just affect you but everyone on the planet! It would be greatly exaggerating to say that these planets are fighting each other to the death this month, but it would be fair to say there’s little grease in the wheels to help people be flexible and adapt. Your own sign is scheduled to feel aggressive, even combative, but no one else is scheduled to give in or accommodate your demands and desires. Try to look at the big picture and think about the potential effects of your actions on your future.

Normally, this kind of configuration would create stability and resistance to change, which may indeed be the case in October. But planets in cardinal signs are horning in on the action this month, too, so it’s possible that there will be change but that no one will really be  in the mood to accept it right now. It’s kind a of a bummer to have to keep quiet during the one time in two years when you have Mars in your sign–but discretion really is the better part of valor right now.

Your solar income sign is Virgo, and this month the sun, Mercury, and Venus move through it. With Venus here, the energy in September refers to both things and people as well as potential income. Venus here symbolizes both giving and receiving, as well as possessions and the arts. Through the first half of the month, place value on your relationships as you may see gains through them.

The third leg of the earth triangle is represented by Pluto in Capricorn in your solar sixth house of employment matters. Pluto stations this month, turning from retrograde to direct on the 16th. The upshot of this is that Pluto moves so slowly that it barely moves at all. When a planet moves slowly, its influence gets stronger. You may be able to take advantage of its strength by allying yourself with older co-workers or mentors in your field.

After the 14th, Venus moves into Libra and your solar 3rd house of messages, phone calls, written works, speaking and communication in general. The sun moves into this sector on the 23rd and Mercury follows on the 25th. Libra is an artistic sign and Venus is especially strong here because it rules the sign. You may find the last week of the month a good time to enjoy classical artistic works (Saturn’s in this sign too and Saturn loves anything classical) when Venus and Saturn meet up just after the new moon in Libra on the 27th.

By the 23rd, there will be four planets in earth signs, all of which relate in some way to your income, job situation, and career. Furthermore, the new moon in Virgo on the 28th is also on board with the whole career/income thing. It takes place just after the sun in Virgo and Pluto in your job sector make a nice helpful trine. By the way, all this happy energy doesn’t mean that something will magically drop into your lap around these dates. What it means is that this is a good time to embark upon a plan or project related to these areas.

My suggestion is that you make writing down your financial desires a top priority in August, along with a wish/intention ritual to be done just before the new moon on the 28th. Of course, I realize that for some of you what Venus in Virgo will signal is a desire to go shopping with someone. Okay, that’s fine, as long as you write down your financial intentions first!

Now a word about Mercury. It starts the month in Virgo, but begins retrograding as soon as it can, which pushes it back into your own sign by the 8th. The Virgo portion of this is like a weird suspended animation, but the Leo portion is actually rather supportive for your sign as it gives you a dose of extra planetary attention. Mercury goes direct in your sign on the 26th.

Of course, you have other planetary support too in August. The sun’s in your sign until the 23rd. Venus is in your sign until the 21st. For most of you, now is a good time to make progress in your relationships, to take them in the direction you want to go.

For those of you with planets at the very last degrees of your sign (e.g., those born around the 21st of August), it’s a slightly different story when it comes to relationships. Neptune is making its last gasp in the sign opposite yours, Aquarius. Simplifying a bit, Aquarius is the sign that represents the other people in your life, and Neptune has been putting relationships into odd stuck places, holding patterns, and mysterious pauses for Leos over the last 14 years. Not all Leos all the time, just bit by bit.

These weirdnesses have been intended to increase your empathy levels. Hopefully, they did and you’re more mellow for it. In August, the very last set of Leos is getting the final peculiar Neptune tutorial so your relationships with other people may get a bit unusual for the time being. Neptune will permanently leave Aquarius in February 2012 for Pisces, where it will stay for about 14 years.

As for your year ahead, well, as mentioned, Neptune will move back into Pisces where it will bring a certain spongy softness to your intimate life and your joint finances. That could be delightful or alarming, and will probably be a bit of both. Pluto and Uranus will move into full-on squaring each other mode in 2012, battling each other in the areas of your chart that relate to travel vs. work. This will not necessarily affect you unless you have planets near 8 degrees in Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn. If you do, you’ll need to batten down the hatches and get help. If you don’t, the battle may affect you only in terms of your work environment as co-workers struggle with their demons and in terms of your sense of ethics, as you become an unwilling witness to bad behavior.

Saturn will continue to attempt to bring ripeness and maturity to your communication style during the next 12 months, something you may be able to capitalize on. Eclipses may affect your love life, children, or friendships. Jupiter will continue to aid your career. Most of the dramatic stuff doesn’t kick into gear until summer of next year and in the meantime, you may find this a rather fruitful year in Leo-land.

P.S. Your annual birthday wish new moon takes place on July 30th this year. Ask the universe for what you want in the year ahead.

Being surprised by your own expressive candor can be a good thing; at least it’s meant to be in your chart. Try not to fight the process; see what you have to say. Keep in mind that this is the part of your chart that also represents principles. The idea is to be honorable and true to your principles while disclosing what needs to be revealed. Furthermore, Uranus is the planet of originality; by allowing yourself expression you may come up with an original idea or insight that you will be able to use in the future.

This is also the time of year when inner planets start congregating in your sign to support you. Mercury leads the way on the 2nd, bringing yet more conscious awareness and expressive energy to the month. The sun and Venus straggle behind, entering on the 23rd and 28th respectively.

Your annual new moon also takes place on the 30th. This new moon belongs to you; use it to make a wish for whatever you want. The other inner planets add emphasis and perhaps a touch of drama to your month.

This is also a potentially quite social month for a number of reasons, including Mars in Gemini in your solar house of friendship. Mars is a lot like Uranus this month; it wants you to get straight to the point when you deal with people. But that’s not all. Jupiter is now in Taurus in your solar career house. Jupiter is forthright and honest too and he’ll be encouraging expression in the professional arena.

But wait, there’s still more. There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the first. This eclipse, last in a series of eclipses in Cancer, takes place in the part of your solar chart wherein things are usually obscure, hidden, confusing, hard to understand. The eclipse throws a blazing spotlight on this area of your chart and makes something plain to see.

I am not going to promise that you will like what the eclipse illuminates; you may not like it at all. Or it may turn out to be something ultimately insignificant that you can move past. Most commonly you will find out that someone has been lying to you, but there are other possibilities as well. You may gain a spiritual insight or even start down a new spiritual path.

And you probably can’t get the vacation time because Mars is also in Taurus and your career house during the first part of June, until the 20th. When Mars is in your career house, you generally have to stay put to attend to the fires Mars likes to start in your professional life. One way out of this would be to hop on a plane for business travel to put out fires in some far-flung destination your career takes you to. That would make Jupiter, Uranus, and Mars happy if you can swing it. If you don’t have that kind of a job, then the energy most likely translates into a need for you to be direct and even confrontational this month in asserting your desires.

We also have a couple of eclipses to address in June. The first one is on June 1st, a solar eclipse in Gemini. The second one is on June 15, a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. The second one is the one you probably want to hear about, for a couple of reasons.

One, lunar eclipses are often more emotional and noticeable than solar eclipses. Two, this lunar eclipse falls in your love life house. This is the type of eclipse that can make you want to dump someone. Occasionally, the other party will beat you to it, but a relationship that ends during such an eclipse is usually wisely ended no matter how the ending occurs.

For Leo parents, this Sagittarius lunar eclipse can also relate to children. Typical examples would be children graduating from high school or college while you, the parent, realize that an era has ended. Children become less dependent as a result of such an eclipse and move out of your orbit in some way. In some ways this is joyous, but in other ways it can be hard for loyal and devoted Leo. Prepare yourself psychologically.

Meanwhile, the Gemini eclipse on June 1 could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The implication is that now is the time to dig in and study something that you normally consider difficult to learn. You have a lot of help right now. Next month, Jupiter will move into Taurus and your career sector, so this is your last month to take advantage of Jupiter’s help in your studies. Not that the emphasis on learning will disappear after May.

In fact, Uranus will continue in the learning sector of your chart for about 7 more years. You will be asked and indeed you should use this energy to tackle difficult fields in your own unique way. Science is a particularly good area of study with Uranus in this sector.

Mars meanwhile will move into Taurus and your career sector on the 11th. Mars paves the way for Jupiter to enter next month. Mars can be a passionate planet, but he can also be logical and practical. He can be a good help in figuring out what’s real and what’s not in your professional life these days.

When Jupiter moves into Taurus next month, he’ll attempt to help you formulate principles you can use in your career going forward. Jupiter in Taurus can also emphasize the importance of hard work and reliability to get you where you want to go. Mercury and Venus will also enter your career sector this month, and your annual career new moon takes place on the 3rd. Get the details right at work, especially after the 15th, for best results.

Your chart is also adjusting to Neptune in Pisces. Pisces in your solar chart represents  intimacy as well as those things that are buried deep within ourselves or our lives. With Neptune in this sector, stuff is buried really deeply, stuff that affects your ability to achieve intimacy.

But this buried stuff is also rising to the surface, slowly perhaps, but inevitably. Try not to be too alarmed when long-hidden stuff comes bobbing up.

The energy is about love. Not love for a person, but for ideas, for experience. The energy is strongest for you around the 6th, when Jupiter and the sun meet. Although the part of your chart where the planets will meet is a philosophical house, concerned with the big questions of life, don’t feel that you need to go deep to benefit. The idea is more to get yourself out of a rut than to explore some idea in depth. Even a short trip to a new destination will perk up your chart’s spirits this spring, especially around the weekend of the 9th.

You could center your activities around travel, around educational experiences, even around exploring your belief system. The energy this particular month is very hot, but you’ll continue to receive inspiration via these areas on a long-term basis, as Uranus in Aries will spend 7 years in your solar 9th house of journeys. Let your mind travel, even if your body can’t.

The other main influence of the month is intangible. Neptune moves into Pisces on the 4th. Whereas the Aries energy is about exploring new passions, the Neptune influence is about exploring the inner space of intimacy. It’s about feelings rather than actions. So you have a little bit of both during this interesting month.

Aries is the sign willing to stir up dissent (just look at world events here lately). Uranus, the big player in this pack of planets stirs up new original ideas. You haven’t had this much Aries energy in so long, you may not have have realized that you even have new original ideas to stir up dissent with! But you do–big, fat, brave ideas.

How will you implement these brave new ideas? Well, your chart’s probably not sure about that. It’ll probably get more certain as even more planets crowd into Aries next month–Venus and Aries join the fray in April. You may get a shot of insight around March 21, though. That’s when the sun and Uranus are conjunct in Aries.

The clues to look for are feelings of courage and endurance. Think of Egyptian protesters bringing down a 30-year dictatorship. Think of not being intimidated by threats or hooligans. Think of these things especially around the 28th of March, when the sun clashes with Pluto. The 21st is like the first rush of exhilaration as you banish some conventional but repressive idea you’ve been saddled with in the past. The 28th is when that idea threatens you with death and destruction if you don’t follow its dictates any more. Hold your ground to achieve amazing intellectual freedom.

That’s one task you can get going on during this season of winter doldrums. The second task you can work on in February comes at your annual full moon on the 18th. This is the time of year when you can make an assessment and see how far you’ve come since your last birthday. This will give you a clue as to what journey you’ve been taking during your solar year so far (on purpose or not) and you can use that to assess where you’d like to go in the next 6 months.

You have yet another way to reorient your compass this month, if you choose to make use of it. There are a whole bunch of planets in Aquarius during February (as usual) and when planets are halfway around the wheel from your sign, they are in a position to give you feedback on how you’re doing. This year, we have Mars in this position, which doesn’t happen every year. Conflicts with and feedback from others up through the 21st can also tell you where you are headed and give you a chance to make course corrections if need be. Pay attention to the signals other people are giving you to make maximum use of this planetary configuration.

As of the 22nd, things get a little more soul-oriented in the skies as we have the sun, Mercury and Mars in Pisces. The same idea of a journey actually applies to this energy too, but it’s more of a journey into your personal form of spirituality and even healing than an adventure into new frontiers. Which gives you permission to be a bit more inward as the month winds down.

As the sun moves into Aquarius on the 20th (joining Mars who enters that sign on the 16th), it is supposed to make you more conscious and intention-driven with regard to your relationships. Some astrologers also say that your half birthday is kind of like a cosmic mid-term exam that gives you feedback on how you’re doing. It can also be considered a time of re-setting for the next six months of your solar year.

January also sees activity from Mercury and Venus in your solar 5th house. These influences bring attention to your love life and social life. Put them together with planets in Aquarius and you’ve got a pretty good month for romance going on.

As for a peek at 2011, some changes start this month. Jupiter moves out of Pisces and into Aries on the 22nd. Aries represents the sector of your chart that deals with beliefs and plans and intentions for the future. Jupiter will be joined by Uranus in March. Theoretically, both of these influences will help you march forward with a sense of purpose. Neptunian weirdness will move from your relationship sector to your 8th house, where it will probably hang out below the surface of your awareness. This happens from April through July. Then Neptune will move back into your relationship sector for a final attempt to bewilder you before moving on for good in 2012. Jupiter will also move into your career house in June and stay there for the rest of the year. The sum total of all these influences should be that you will finally be able to have a greater sense of where you’re going in life and why you want to get there.