What could be more fascinating and exciting to imagine than the notion that we may visit the Earth many different times, in different forms and places? Ancient beliefs and writings of distinguished thinkers such as Plato have kept the idea of reincarnation from being forgotten, even in a modern world dominated by a scientific mindset that demands evidence, or at least mathematical resolution, of the theories of life's systems.

Ancient prognosticators and astrologers have looked forward to the last decade of the 20th century, saying that great secrets about the history and the true nature of humanity will be revealed at this time. Some say that this includes a new understanding of the concept of "death." Well here we are nearing the end of the century!

To trace the celestial sources for this awakening, pick a planet - almost any planet. For example, you might say that the "Neptune/Pluto shift" during which Pluto is traveling within the orbit of Neptune, will bring the dark mystery of Plutonian death within the realm of eternal Neptunian spirit. Or you may say that the transits of Uranus and Neptune through Capricorn during the ’90s will bring new dimensions to our consciousness.

Souls who have gathered on earth to take part in these very special times (that's us) are experienced and very, very purposeful. The fabric of these end-of-the-millennium days is woven of threads of the past. Let's take a look!

ARIES (March 21 through April 19) Souls who choose to enter earth at the time of early spring are coming to a fresh start. You may have recently "graduated" to a new plateau of mastery of one life mystery or another and are now ready to meet a whole new set of advanced challenges. Chances are, you are returning to a personal point of view, after a life (or series of lives) spent in devotion to work that was very important to others. You may have attained great advancement as a priest, doctor or head of a family who depended greatly upon you. Your personal identity was submerged in such a role, and while selfless service is admirable, any workaholic can tell you that it can also be a form of escapism. A tendency to avoid sticky personal situations through burying yourself in work may remain with you (ask your spouse and loved ones).

In this lifetime, Aquarians will "recognize" you and "remember" you from your highly esteemed past identity. They will help your career advancement, which is still very important to you. You have much "good karma" career-wise, and you can have extraordinary success.

But it is very important to realize, Aries, that your present birth date in the early spring of the year shows a need to start at the beginning with some area of self-development; one-to-one relationships that endure should be your goal. Forming bonds of pure love and affection (rather than leaning upon respect and admiration for your "position") is your soul's lesson now. By the way, learning this lesson can be a lot of fun and provide undreamed-of-fulfillment!

TAURUS (April 20 through May 20) Many Taureans who are presently with us are of a very advanced type, having returned to help the whole world come to terms with material imbalances. No matter what environment you were born into in this life, you have an innate attunement to the rhythms of nature. This you acquired in past lifetimes spent in agrarian cultures and probably as a "pioneer" type, who pitted survival skills against the unknown in some adventurous endeavor - such lives enhance one's sensitivity to life's forces.

In this lifetime many Taureans will apply knowledge from the past to help with manmade environmental problems. Planetary magnetics of the '90s suggest that you may travel to distant places to the source of such troubles such as the decline of the rain forests and pollution of ground waters due to misuse of industrial wastes. Others of you will lend your soothing aura of stability and common sense to aid in the unstable financial conditions that are the inevitable results of revolutionary social changes in countries around the world.

In the past, you "proved" yourself to yourself, whether during wartime or by surviving "acts of God" and difficult conditions of life. You have no need to waste time in daring feats or violent confrontations, and you walk away from fights whenever possible. However if you ever have important cause to "get defensive," male or female, past knowledge comes through (just like riding a bicycle?) and woe to whomever opposes you.

GEMINI (May 21 through June 21) Perhaps your facility for small talk was developed in a delicate and dangerous political climate. Perhaps you were among the chosen companions of kings; some of you developed sleight-of-hand ability as court magicians. In any case, your mental excellence is kept honed and used as a survival skill; you take games seriously. You are witty and talented, often a fine writer. Many Geminis are returned from lives of fame or heady brilliance. They find refuge in using their Mercurial gifts in quiet pursuits such as teaching and criticism, since a life spent sharing knowledge is often a nice balance that the soul seeks after a high-pressure lifetime of being "great."

Some say that Gemini is one of the signs that returns upon the same birthday at least twice. In these cases, your famous "duality" may indeed be an identity shift to a past personality that awaits you, with a store of useful traits and knowledge that are easily accessible because the same degree of the sun was the source for that experience.

A secret you may confide to few is that, as genial and social as you genuinely are, you don't really trust many people. Special purpose for Geminis in the '90s: to participate in building strong communities! When you work with others in a hands-on way at the local level to fight big-time social problems such as crime and drugs, or if you help to improve educational opportunities for those in your neighborhood, you will re-establish your bond with the best in your fellow man, and you can RELAX at last!

CANCER (June 22 through July 22) Cancerians and Capricorns are back at this time of Earth's history for very special and personal reasons, each and every one of you. To have returned on the summer end of this polarity means that you have people to meet and places to go - almost none of them for the first time. Every relationship is picking up from where it left off long ago. Chances are, your present business and marriage partners are all former family members, with whom the patterns of your interactions are already in place.

If the old ways were harmonious, a magical ease will accompany your time together now. If it was hard to get along in the past, then the work is to grow and improve together (obviously, you are important to each other or you wouldn't have continued the association through time). Awareness that some of the "touchy" spots between us in a relationship have ancient wounds at their source is sometimes helpful in making positive changes - you crabs, by the way, find it much easier than most to remember past lives, if you care to.

A tendency to live vicariously may have made it natural to enter Earth under the aegis of Cancer. In this lifetime, Pluto is giving you the chance to be reborn to yourself through expression in the arts, going into business for yourself and other independent pursuits. Do these! You'll find all your relationships improve when you appreciate others for who they are, rather than through their role in your life.

Children who come to you in this lifetime may be the masters of the days to come, and they are certainly your teachers, so listen and learn!

LEO (July. 22 through Aug. 22) Admit it Leo, you have a feeling there's something to this reincarnation stuff, even if you are one of those conservative Leos! As the polar opposite of Aquarius, you have a special job in helping the world adjust to the New Age. Some say that today's Leo is often a reincarnated Atlantean, a powerful but arrogant race (which so far exists only in legend).

Astrologically, the empire of Atlantis is associated with the Leonian Age (10,900 B.C. to 9,820 B.C., so the story goes). Thus, the opposing Aquarian millennium is when Atlanteans return to confront the consequences of their behavior in the "glory days." In some cases, of course, this means "the first shall be last," which is tough for the ego-oriented Sun child. But karma is simply the soul's way of finding its balance in time and space - in many cases it's your turn to be first!

But in all cases, you MUST set the evolutionary standard for a new concept of individual power! Aquarians will show that all men are brothers, and all equally valuable. Your job, Leo, is to inspire all you meet with the divine possibility within each one of us! Your gift is knowing that every single individual contains immeasurable untapped power. Leos are the true democrats of the zodiac (no matter what astrologers tell you), and it is your job to bring consciousness of individual power to the New Age.

Wherever you were in the past, you probably got in trouble with the immature use of power. You let your leadership position or adulation go to your head at one time, and you still have trouble realizing that the rules apply to you, too. Your own status is assured when you concentrate on seeing and bringing out the specialness in others.

VIRGO (Aug. 23 through Sept. 22) Perhaps you developed administrative abilities in an official capacity in some vast empire - you took the census for Rome, kept track of the potato harvest in the Inca Empire or were a Chinese scholar. Wherever you were, you developed a sharp eye for detail, extraordinary organizational ability and a sense of the music within natural systems.

As a Mercury-ruled earth sign, you have what it takes, in this age of runaway technology, to help the world figure out how to keep track of this incredible glut of data. And you alone can understand the instruction manual!

In the past, you suffered personal deprivation, and you take care of your present-time body group that suffered deprivation and hardship. Virgos often prefer the role of "second banana" in a working relationship and marriage. This is because they spent plenty of time as "first banana" and very wisely choose to let the buck stop somewhere else for a while. Your tendency to worry is a hangover from a life of burdensome responsibility, too.

First, you must become aware that there is nothing to be afraid of - simply concern yourself with applying your talent and resourcefulness to making the world a better place, and any "damage" that past trials did to you and yours will be taken care of in the process. The great promise of the law of karma is that we get to do it until we get it right! Such a realization may frighten some, but for sincere and perfectionist Virgo, this is quite a spiritual comfort.

LIBRA (Sept. 23 through Oct. 23) Having learned well in past lives the lessons of function, you return in beautiful and balanced form to reap the rewards of grace and social leadership. You arrive with a bone-deep sense of organization, perhaps through having perfected Virgoan sensibilities in the past.

You have absorbed influences from a highly developed culture or you wouldn't be a Libran. You played third violin in a great Viennese orchestra, perhaps, or were one of the anonymous artisans who constructed Gothic cathedrals in medieval Europe. Or perhaps you were apprentice to a great jeweler or Swiss watchmaker. Wherever you were, it was CIVILIZED there. And where there's civilization, there's tradition, social mores ... RULES!

For many of you, that's the other side of the coin - you may have carried the constraints of a family structure into this life's lessons. Your family may try to "run your life," or you may feel that family holds you back, one way or another, from attaining the true heights of creativity that will set your airy soul at peace. And, if truth is known, in your endless seeking for balance you’re actually drawn to a bit of the primitive in your lovers.

Just so you don't refine all the passion out of life! You would hardly have made that rather blunt or sarcastic remark yourself, but you love it when your dashing Sagittarian lover says it. Nor would you have been so bold as to suggest that you and your Aries lover slip away early from the full-dress ball for a romantic assignation in the garden; but you thoroughly enjoy letting yourself be swept off.

In this life, you are ready to begin exercising the talents you developed in the past to become a "star" in your own right. That urge to have a partner shows you in a sense how lonely it can be at the top.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24 through Nov. 21) This may not be your first life as a Scorpio. This sign can take awhile to master, and you may return a few times at roughly the same degree of the sun in order to thoroughly explore the depths of soul that can be plumbed from this source. Scorpios follow their own intuition in the mysteries of life. You may feel you remember having lived before. Many Scorpios are drawn to study reincarnation, not for the parlor game aspect of it (you are very skeptical of "seers" who are paid to tell you that you are Napoleon returned) - what interests you is how this birth and death thing is done. How does the YOU of YOU get from one plane of existence (and consciousness) to another?

In the past, you were privy to profound moments. You may have inherited a position in religious life (these jobs used to run families in the middle ages), from which you observed acts of true faith that touched you deeply. Or you may have had a soul stretching experience near the time of your death in the past, and the powerful knowledge that it continues to influence you, no matter how "ordinary" a life you may choose now.

Scorpio arrives with legacy of having once acquired extraordinary discipline. Perhaps you were a samurai, or member of such group that combined extreme physical conditioning with philosophical training. You have mastered as no other sign the principles of mind over matter. Though you were ambitious for earthly power and possessions, you understand that real power emanates from within.

In the New Age, many will need your knowledge that the greatest power is attained through pain, that the freedom of truth is acquired through suffering.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 through Dec. 21) Somewhere, somehow, you've been held down physically, Sag, and the result is that your mind is as big as the world. You were forced to develop a mental realm as fully realized as the physical is for the rest of us, since you were physically restricted in some way.

Perhaps you were imprisoned for dissent or other political reasons in a high-born life in the past. Or perhaps you were bound to fulfill a role in society - such as that of a scholar or merchant, in which you glimpsed the vastness of the world but were unable to taste its adventures personally. The scholar read of amazing people and places; the merchant saw the fine fruits of other cultures arrive in the form of salable goods to the home port where he was stuck unloading and selling day after day, never able to visit the source of these exotic products. As a consequence, you regard this lifetime as an emergence from the bonds of position or responsibility, and you are a bit phobic about the prospect of any job or personal relationship that threatens to "tie you down."

It's time to realize the benefits that your expanded mental outlook have to offer! The world can benefit from your overview, your ability to see the larger issue expressed within the incident and the moment in the context of history. No wonder so many of you are wandering the world as media representatives, reporting the world's changes and helping us assimilate and adjust to an increasingly international community consciousness. It's easy to spot you, whatever your present job, because you don't look confused, no matter how fast the changes come.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 through Jan. 19) That determined look on the face of a little Capricorn child when in repose tells the whole story. Those who enter when the sun is in this sector of the sky are here for a reason. Capricorn is the sign of social and governmental structure. Your place in society is an important part of your soul's discussion with itself in this lifetime.

Most of you are returning to a country, nationality, family AND occupation that you know from the past. Perhaps you'll pick up where you left off in your career climb, making it to the top this time. Or, if you played a part in creating a certain social condition, you may return to help with necessary changes. For example, many of those who will help create the new governmental and economic structures for Eastern Europe are patriotic souls who lived in those countries in earlier times of history - they have timed their entrance into this life in order to help re-establish the independent identity of the country they love.

Your sign rules the wisdom that comes with experience. This was never more true than of Capricorns who are on the earth now. You are bringing memory to bear upon the task at hand, even when solving what appears to be a brand new problem. Have no fear or self-doubt. Listen to your dreams - they'll help you coordinate the past and the future. Your job is to help the past and future meet and mesh.

Tradition and technology often appear to be at odds. A Capricorn will find ways for the new to operate in harmony with the old. You will help preserve important historic sites. You truly love the city as a concept, and if anyone will help make our urban environment safe and clean and beautiful, it will be a Capricorn.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 through Feb. 19) You are everywhere, in all walks of life, but each of you has his/her version of the same karmic task: to turn to the person next to you and say, "Watch that first step up!" Aquarians are truly prepared for the evolutionary lurch that is opening the Aquarian Age. The soul choosing an Aquarian sun has come to add the magic to the mix (and heaven knows, we can use it!).

Science has just begun to explore the power of electricity in the human physiology. According to the New Agers, these studies will eventually discover that electrically charged body fluids are the source of inspirational hunches and other psychic experiences. Then, at last, the puzzling symbology of the Water-Bearer for your airiest of air signs, ruler of electricity, will be understood. Meanwhile, you'll have to continue operating as a super-being in a society unaware of your true nature.

Aquarius has great responsibilities in the changing world. You will be at the forefront of the advances. At this very moment, an Aquarian somewhere is designing advanced technology for purely humanitarian purposes - without them we would have to wait for a money-making procedure that had an incidentally helpful side effect. Probably the product of many, many incarnations, you have inborn understanding of human foibles. You may have spent more time than most on the "Watcher" planes, where it is said, those who are interested can monitor events on earth and be a helpful influence between earth-lives.

Only advanced souls can operate on these mental planes successfully, and such people have extra intellectual ability, as well as increased understanding of human nature, from the experience. Have patience with more earthbound souls, and you'll be revered leaders of us all.

PISCES (Feb. 19 through March 20) You attained the heights in lives past, and you may have become a bit disillusioned in the process. Part of you may have arrived still steeped in the concerns of the past. A sort of "stuck" condition exists for many Pisceans, which makes them unable to completely embrace the present lifetime. They spend a lot of time alone, or in what appears to others to be a sulk. Actually, this life is related very directly to unfinished past business.

In the case of most Pisceans, the time spent in a withdrawn state, lost in their own thoughts, is actually an effort to reconcile an event in terms of its total meaning to the soul, past and present. Pursuit of meaning into the foggy areas beyond memory can result in considerable confusion, especially for the Piscean who has not been allowed to develop a strong faith in himself. For those of you who are encouraged to follow your powerful intuition, life becomes a glowing fulfillment of all the possibilities that you opened in past lives.

In the New Age, Pisces special job will be to impart a sense of the order beyond the reality we see in front of us now. You will impart the MEANING to the changes that humanity undergoes now. You will quietly dig up a fact from the past - perhaps in the form of a bone or pot from an archeological site that sheds light on historical mysteries. As you do so, you may as simply be returning to the spot where you left that pot or bone in the first place. Listen to the inner voice, Pisces, while working hard to educate yourself to be of service to your fellow man.

If you stay in the swim of mainstream life, while at the same time remaining open to your own hunches, you'll be the one who fits the final piece into the puzzle, so it all makes sense in the end!