One part of you is very independent, impulsive, eager for action and rooted in a sense of yourself as an opponent of social injustice. This part thrives on self-assertion, on making things happen and feeling at the helm of all the action-making. But another part of you shrinks from excessive exposure, risk, bright lights and noise, and prefers to slip away into the inner sanctuary of your own room, or mind, to brood and worry and often just to dream. This part of you abhors the brisk self-definition after which your other part strives. You know what you want, but do not feel right about insisting that you get it. You know what needs to be done and can rally the troops to join your crusade, but all of a sudden you can feel like a stranger in your own crowd – lost, misunderstood, convinced in self-pitying mood that no one could possibly understand the real you or your true intentions. Masculine assertion versus feminine receptivity; bold defiance versus the soft blurring of boundaries; self-interest or self-sacrifice; sticking your neck out or living it all out in fantasy – this is your dilemma.
The needs of your Arien ego versus your Piscean instinct for self-immolation can create a conflict within you. This is perhaps best resolved in a career that brings you both personal recognition as well as a sense of being emotionally involved with people and life. You are an aspiring individual who wants a unique identity and, well, just a little bit of recognition, but you also need to feel connected in a broad impersonal way with the world in which you find yourself. In some ways you are a maverick, and in other ways you very much need the support of understanding colleagues and friends.
Unusual ideas interest you, and you need a harmonious environment in which to develop your own self-expression. You feel happier when you get these ideas down on paper, canvas or photographic film – whatever the particular direction you take. When you find yourself feeling that life is too harsh and demanding, you can be sure that the gulf between the realist and the idealist within you is widening. It is time to withdraw, to get in touch with your own feelings and dreams and make sure that they are your own. Then you must work to master a medium of expression so that there is always a bridge of communication between the bold Arien and the elusive Piscean dreamer within you, between the daring child and the artistic visionary.
At your very best, you combine the spirit of enterprise with the human touch of care and understanding. Together they make you a powerful force for good in the world.
Relationships
You are a very romantic person and you need intimacy, but you will find it difficult getting everything you need from one person. When it comes to emotions, you are easily influenced and have a tendency to go for the tragic love story at least once in your life, where you get involved with a person or people who let you down. The sense of emotional suffering you may be left with can either eat you up – if you allow it to – or it can fuel your heroism and creative inspiration.
One minute you are all dreamy and ready to risk all for love, the next you are industriously engaged with your own personal goals and concerns, with no intentions at all of leaning on anyone. Whilst you are both passionate and caring, you may experience a conflict between running the show and giving in. Try not to martyr yourself by attracting the lame dogs to show how strong you can be: moderation in all things!
Your Greatest Strengths
Fertile imagination; off-beat but wonderfully original style and philosophy of life; vulnerability and openness to experience; commitment to the never-ending quest to find your real identity and to be true, intellectually and emotionally, to yourself.
Your Greatest Weaknesses
Tendency to worry too much, which can weaken your vitality; the power of your mood swings, which can undermine your relationships and darken your state of mind; emotional impressionability; tendency to drift into dreams rather than concentrating on the here and now.
Image for Integration
A world-champion boxer and an artist in Greenwich Village meet, fall in love, marry and struggle happily ever after.
Famous Personalities
Herb Alpert (bandleader and trumpet player), Roberta Cowell (transsexual), Paul Daniels (magician and showman), Dr Richard Dawkins (geneticist), Sarah Michelle Gellar (actor), Hugh Hefner (creator of Playboy magazine), Thomas More Johnson (Neo-Platonic philosopher), Robert Lowry (novelist), Ann Miller (actress), Mistinguette (actress).
—13—
SUN TAURUS
Power takes as ingratitude the writhings of its victims.
The greed for fruit misses the flower.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
All poetry is putting the infinite within the finite.
Oh, to be in England/Now that April’s here.
ROBERT BROWNING
Themes
EARTH/FIRE Determined; forceful; strong desires; go for what you want; great panache; musical; artistic; energetic; enduring enthusiasm; independent; powerful; selfish; steadfastly ambitious; good at practical or technical skills; a leader.
Are you a wandering gypsy, a nature mystic or a kind of Davy Crockett figure, king of the wild frontier, who aspires to become lord of the manor? Whatever you do, you have the instincts of an artist and the mind of a businessman. You want fixity, permanence, power and security, and yet you are ever the pioneer, looking for new frontiers once your territory gets too familiar and easy.
You want action, so you make things happen, throwing yourself into life. If something feels comfortable, however, you put your foot down and it will not budge. Instinctively tuned into your own needs and desires, you have extraordinary determination and unabashed self-interest, which probably carry you into the drama of your life at an early age. You do not wait around for the approval or permission of others – you are a self-starter and usually finish what you have begun. Direct and forthright, you call a spade a spade, and are so certain of yourself and your ideas and feelings that you do not easily stop to question your actions or how they could be improved. You want what you want and usually plough full-steam ahead to get it.
You love action and enterprise but you also need security and roots, and this can create a tension within you which manifests from time to time in impatience and intense irritability. At home you can be the benevolent dictator. You possess such a strong instinct to manage and control that the co-operative spirit you say you believe in – it makes good sense, right? – is usually put on the shelf. You were made to be captain of your own ship, but to prevent mutiny you have to learn how to treat others with more respect, kindness and equality.
Your need for achievement, and indeed your talent for using your resources with inspiring innovation, is much stronger than your interest in human nature. Practical and hard-working, you just do not have time for people who moan or have complex emotional problems. With so much drive to conquer and establish, you will find it difficult understanding dreamier, more fragile types.
Uncontrolled passion and temper is what trips you up: you can express real infantile rage if pushed to the limit. But with more self-awareness, that same energy can go into creative endeavours