SHIMURE

How to Recognize AQUARIUS
"In spring, when -woods are getting green, I'll try and tell you what I mean:

In summer, when the days are long, Perhaps you'll understand the song.'"

"For this must ever be -A secret

Kept from all the rest Between yourself and me."

Lots of people like rainbows. Children make wishes on them, artists paint them, dreamers chase them, but the Aquarian is ahead of everybody. He lives on one. What's more, he's taken it apart and examined it, piece by piece, color by color, and he still believes in it. It isn't easy to believe in something after you know what it's really like, but the Aquarian is essentially a realist, even though his address is tomorrow, with a wild-blue-yonder zip code.

Like the bewildered Alice, taken through the maze of Wonderland by Aquarian Lewis Carroll, you'll have to be constantly prepared for the unexpected with Uranians. Generally kindly and tranquil by nature, Aquarians never*theless enjoy defying public opinion, and they secretly delight in shocking more conventional people with oc*casional erratic conduct. These normally soft-spoken and courteous souls can suddenly short circuit you with the most amazing statements and actions at the most unpredict*able times. The typical Uranian is half Albert Schweitzer and half Mickey Mouse. His feet can be wearing sandals, boots, oxfords, or hush puppies, and he'll seldom bother to check whether they're appropriate for the occasion. He'll show up barefoot if he feels like it, and laugh at you for laughing at him. Aquarians often deliberately adopt weird attire to show their refusal to conform.

You can often recognize people born under this fixed, air sign by their frequent use of the word friend, Aquarian Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats invariably began with, "My friends . . ." and the typical Uranus question after a broken romance is, "Can't we still be friends?" Aquarius is neither jaded nor naive, neither enthusiastic nor blase. Continuous experimentation simply leaves him curious to penetrate the next mystery, and the next mystery could be you. That person who seems to be either a million miles away mentally, or else dissecting you under an invisible microscope, is probably an Aquarian. It can be disconcert*ing to discover, after all his intense, nattering curiosity, that he's just as deeply interested in the personal lives of the corner policeman, the bartender, the bellboy, the night club singer or the inmates of the funny house as he is in yours. Politics fascinate him, sports absorb him and chil*dren intrigue him. But then so do horses, automobiles, elderly people, medical discoveries, authors, astronauts, alcoholics, pianos, pinwheels and prayers-not to mention baseball and Louis Armstrong. Join the crowd and toss your ego in the wastebasket, or his coolly impersonal ap*proach will be sure to bruise it.

Look for a strange, faraway look in the eyes, as if they contained some kind of magic, mysterious knowledge you can't penetrate. Aquarius eyes are typically vague, with a dreamy, wandering expression, and often (but not always) blue, green or gray. The hair is frequently straight and silky, likely to be blonde, sandy or light brown; the com*plexion is pale and the height is usually taller than average (thougiythe ascendant can modify the appearance of any Sun sign). You'll notice a marked nobility of profile. Uranus features are finely chiseled, suggestive of Roman emperors cut on old gold coins. True Aquarians will often adopt the pose of the drooping head when they're thinking about a problem, or just after they've asked a question. The head drops abruptly forward, or cocks to one side, waiting for your reaction. Curiously, thanks to the dual sexuality of Uranus, there are often feminine characteristics in the male bodies, such as broad hips, for example-and masculine characteristics in the female body, such as broad shoulders.

Freedom-loving Uranians can be acutely funny, perverse, original, conceited and independent, but they can also be diplomatic, gentle, sympathetic and timid. The Aquarian will almost desperately seek the security of crowds and saturate himself with friendship. Then hell fall into a gloomy, morose spell of loneliness, and want to be strictly left alone. But whether he's mingling or singling, he'll retain his sharp perception, which is at once both deeper and quicker than others. Uranus makes him a natural rebel who instinctively feels that all old customs are wrong, and that drastic alteration and revolutionary change is what the world and people need (although if he's in politics, he's clever enough not to broadcast his views prematurely and spoil his strategy).

To this end, Aquarians are always analyzing situations, friends and strangers. It can be disturbing when they start asking pointblank questions, with a bare minimum of tact, as they probe into the heart of your private feelings. When they discover the puzzle wasn't so complex after all, they become bored, sometimes even upset. Nothing is more insulting than to have an Aquarian tire of his game of microscopic examination and turn to the next interesting person, just when he's convinced you he thinks you are the most important human being on earth. It stings.

Despite their fixation on friendship, Aquarians don't have many intimates. They seek quantity rather than quality in their associations, and they seldom settle down to a steady relationship for more than a limited period. There's too much to discover around the next comer to remain tied to one or two friendships exclusively. It does little good to make an emotional appeal to such an im*personal nature, but if you touch the heart of an Aquarian (which is not the same thing as mere emotion), he'll usually get off his bicycle and come back to see what he might have missed.

A peculiar sort of isolation hangs over the Uranian, and he's often misunderstood by mankind. That's because man*kind hasn't yet caught up with the Aquarian Utopia. Since the water bearer lives in the future, coming back only briefly to the present, he can seem just plain pixilated to more mundane souls. He senses this, and it deepens his sense of isolation. But just because others can't keep up with him is no reason in his opinion to go backwards. So he wanders among his lonely clouds, while we mere mortals wonder what he's doing way out there. Astrology teaches us that "As the Aquarian thinks, so will the world think in fifty years." That may be true, but it certainly doesn't narrow the gap between the Uranus-ruled and the rest of us today. This Sun sign is known as the sign of genius, and so it is, since over seventy percent of the people in the Hall of Fame are either Sun Aquarians or have Aquarian ascendants. On the other hand, a substantially high per*centage of those confined in mental institutions, or who drop in for regular couch sessions with an analyst, are also Aquarians. There's a fine line, they say, between genius and insanity, and your Uranian friends can some*times make you wonder which side of the line they're on. A great deal of the confusion is due to man's tendency to belittle his prophets. The familiar quotes that "they laughed at Fulton and his steamboat," "they thought Edison was mentally retarded," and "they wanted to lock up Louis Pasteur," are examples of the attitude of the materialistic world toward those whose senses are tuned to higher spheres of thought.

Uranians are a curious mixture of cold, practicality and eccentric instability, and they seem to have an instinctive empathy with the mentally disturbed. It's a curious fact that almost any Aquarian can substantially reduce the anxiety of the insane simply by talking to them quietly. He has a marvelous knack for calming hysterical people and soothing frightened children. Is it because of his own thinly-covered, highly acute nervous system that he has such deep understanding?

The Aquarian outlook is so broad that youll seldom find one who is prejudiced, unless there are severe planetary influences in the natal chart. Even then, he'll be deeply shocked when his prejudice is pointed out. The brother*hood instinct is so strong in him that when a rare Aquarian is guilty of being intolerant, he's not only unaware of it, he hates the label. Ordinarily, everyone is his brother or sister. He'll wander through affluent society and the slums alike with his symbolic jar, gathering the waters of knowl*edge and pouring them out again, except for those occa*sional lapses into hibernation. But his hiding put periods seldom last long, and before you get a chance to miss him the Uranian is back gregariously making the rounds again. Don't try to interrupt his solitude. When he wants to be alone, he wants to be alone, but he hasn't retired from the mainstream permanently, even if he does take a sudden Uranus notion to get an unlisted phone number. His address hasn't changed, and neither has he. He can never renounce people for long. Ignore him and he'll soon be walking around town on those home-made stilts, as alert and inquisitive as ever.

Ordinarily, it's difficult to get an Aquarian to make a precise appointment. He'd rather keep it loose, because he doesn't like to be pinned down to specific duties or obliga*tions at specific times. He prefers a casual "111 see you around-maybe sometime Tuesday" to a definite hour for a meeting. (And he sometimes means the second Tuesday of next week.) However, I will say that once you've suc*ceeded in nailing him and he gives you his word he'll meet you at a particular hour he will be there on the dot. You can count on it, even set your watch by his punctuality, and you'd better not be late yourself. Hell show up dependably, unless he's been kidnapped on the way (which, being an Aquarian, he could be. Anything can happen to these people at any time. I mean but anything).

You can expect him to give his opinion frankly, but he won't try to dictate how you should think or how you should live your life. Conversely, he doesn't intend to let you tell him how he should think or live his. Unlike Aries and Leo or Gemini, he has no desire to hard sell his ideas to others. The Aquarian philosophy is that everyone has fais thing, his special yearning. Each person dances to his own fiddle music, and individuality should be respected. It's interesting to see that, as the world moves into the Aquarian Age, the heralds of the new era are the flower people and the Gurus. In exaggerated fashion, they are simply reflect*ing the Aquarian ideals: equality-brotherhood-love for all-live and let live-seek the truth-experiment-and retire to meditate.

You'll rarely find the Aquarian fighting fiercely for a cause. They live their code, and feel that's enough. Let Aries, Scorpio, Leo and Sagittarius grab the sword and battle gloriously to free the downtrodden. The Uranus-ruled souls are too busy figuring out the reason for the revolution, listening to people's troubles and sharing sym*pathetic understanding. Aquarius believes in violent change, but he leaves the violence to others. He's not a moral or a physical coward. He just isn't geared for battle. When a fight catches him unaware, he may strike out blindly in confusion, or he may simply agree, to end the argument. His reaction is unpredictable, but one thing is certain. The next day his opinion will be as fixed as it was before. Any*one skilled in debate can usually get the best of him, since his attention can so easily wander to the abstract in a battle of wits. The Aquarian fights best with his hat. He puts it on and leaves. His truth-respecting mind, however, won't budge an inch when he has a firm conviction, despite his distaste for unpleasant confrontations. All the shouting and emotional pressure in the world won't keep him from determinedly going his own way with his independent ideas, while the fireworks explode all around him. Our two Aquarian Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, demonstrate this principle perfectly. The con*cepts were equally original and strikingly unpopular in both cases. There was no aggressive insistence on personal theories, yet the sweeping reforms were made, regardless of lack of cooperation and bitter opposition.

Another reason why Uranians often meet with hostile criticism is that they're so full of surprises. They can lead you west, then suddenly turn and march east, without warning. Aquarius has an obstinate way of not letting you know what he's up to. For weeks, the February-born father of a friend of mine ignored his wife's complaints about a stove that didn't work. He buried himself in his newspaper, oblivious to her desperate hints. Suddenly one day a truck pulled up, two men unloaded a brand new stove and con*nected it in the kitchen under the surprised eyes of his wife, who should have learned to expect such behavior.

Trusting people doesn't come naturally to the Aquarian until after he's scrutinized your motives, even your .soul, if possible. It's easy to grow restive under his intent analysis of your every word and gesture. You get the feeling it's all being filed away in that penetrating mind for future refer*ence, and it is. He may seem to be in a dreamy fog now and then, but don't you believe it. He can probably tell you how many eyelashes you have. Never expect the Uranian to take you at face value. His innate courtesy will never keep him from shining the Uranus spotlight on you from head to toe. He wants to know what's behind that face, and he'll ask some mighty embarrassing questions to find out. But it's comforting to know that once you're accepted hell be loyal and his friendship will be unshaken by malicious gossip. If you're his real friend, he won't believe the nasty whispers of your enemies, although hell undoubtedly listen to them out of sheer curiosity. Rest assured, however, that he'U make up his own mind in the final analysis.

Uranus illnesses are usually connected with the circula- s* tory system. Aquarians shiver and shake in the winter, and suffer with the humidity in the summer. They're ', susceptible to varicose veins and hardening of the arteries in old age, if their emotions are directed into negative channels, and they tend to have accidents to the legs, especially the shin and ankles. The ankle bones are often weak, and there may be pains in the legs, due to poor circulation; frequent sort throats; and sometimes heart palpitation, usually not serious unless there are severe afflictions in the natal chart. Uranians need lots of fresh air, sleep and exercise, but they seldom take advantage of these remedies. They don't get much fresh air because they close their windows, pile on the blankets and still complain that they're freezing. The high frequency nervous tension that accompanies Uranus mental activity keeps them from getting enough sleep, and often the rest they do get is troubled by strange dreams. As for exercise, unless the Aquarian developed an early love of sports by playing stickball in his neighborhood, it's difficult to prod him into moving fast, let alone running around the track. His mind gets a continual workout, but the body needs a strong push. Aquarian health is usually excellent in child*hood, barring weird, Uranian complaints-impossible to diagnose. The real troubles don't begin until maturity in*creases stubbornness. These people are extremely suscepti*ble to hypnosis. Intuitively, lots of them sense this and won't expose themselves to it for love nor money, but this is a mistake, because hypnotic suggestion from a good medical hypnotist could successfully remove their myriad phobias. They're acutely responsive to electrical treatment, too, which can be just as beneficial.

Aquarians don't have the best memories in the world, but then they really don't need to memorize much, since they seem to pick up knowledge out of thin air, with some kind of invisible antennae. Why should they clutter their minds with information they may never need, when they can reach out by osmosis and grasp just about anything they want? They're likely to come home from the store without the most important item on the grocery list, be*cause they can't be bothered with remembering what is, to them, non-essential. The typical Aquarian is the em*bodiment of the legendary absent-minded professor. I know one who planned to meet his wife in front of the City Squire Motel at noon. But he arrived early and ran into an old friend. (Aquarians are always running into old friends. In Africa or the Aleutian Islands they will be sure to find somebody they know.) The Uranian was engrossed in conversation with his pal when his wife approached, all smiles. As she came closer he stared at her blankly, gal*lantly tipped his hat, then turned, took his friend's arm and walked down the street, deep in conversation, leaving the furious, frustrated woman standing on the comer, alone and forgotten.

The Uranus power of concentration can be awesome. Yet, they're also able to pick up things going on around and behind them when they choose, like a radar screen. They can carry on a complicated discussion and still not miss an inflection of what's happening in the other part of the room, if they decide to tune in. Sometimes you could swear the Aquarian paid no attention to anything you said, but the next day he'll repeat it back to you like a tape recorder. Never underestimate the Uranian process of soaking up knowledge while they seem to be oblivious, even though now and then they get lost in concentration, like my friend who left his wife standing on the street, in a mood to kill.

What the Aquarius man or woman thinks is always a clue to tomorrow. The uncanny Uranus ability to plunge into the unknown and absorb mystical secrets without half trying leads to a peculiar sort of intuition which gives them a high degree of psychic precognition. I know one who literally answers the phone before it rings, and what's more, he knows who's on the other end before a word is spoken. Abraham Lincoln had several premonitions of his own death in startling detail. Almost every Aquarian has a unique kind of sensitivity that lets him know your inner desires. Without talk, he understands a need buried so deep that you're almost unaware of it yourself. Using that magical osmosis, the Aquarian can transmit his own thoughts with an unseen charge of electrical current. Even when his back is turned, he can project strong feelings by this strange process. During a long silence on the telephone, he may be sending and receiving vibrations when you think he's fallen asleep. Some Uranians don't need Western Union to send a telegram.

Yet, there's nothing superstitious about their thinking. A true scientist even if he's a mechanic or a musician, the Uranian won't jump to a conclusion until it's passed the test of his keen mind. However, once he forms an opinon, it remains firmly fixed in his brain, and I do mean firmly. As strongly as he loves change in society and government, he won't change his own idea one iota for anybody. He's completely open-minded about world progress, but his mind clamps shut when it involves his personal behavior, which can be unexpectedly conservative. You can see that his liberalism has its boundaries.

Aquarians despise lying and cheating, and they avoid borrowing and lending. They'll give you money as a gift, but don't ask them for a loan. Did you ever try to touch Aquarian Jack Benny for a fast fifty? Jack may surprise you by saying yes, but be sure you pay him back promptly. A broken promise or bad debt can put a wide crack in your friendship. Aquarians keep their word and pay their bills, and they expect others to do the same. Charge ac*counts don't normally excite them and credit cards can frighten them. All this love of honesty, however, can sometimes be distorted into questionable behavior. As much as he hates hypocrisy and double-dealing, the Aquarian can somehow answer questions so cleverly that he gives a false impression. Yet hell be outspokenly indignant if he catches anyone else guilty of such a delicate nuance of deception. He'll seldom tell an outright lie, but he can fool you in very subtle ways, which is hardly the essence of the honesty he so constantly preaches. His un*relenting search for truth and the desire to hide his own motives are incompatible traits, and the Aquarian must eventually face this inconsistency if he's going to learn the real truth about himself.

Aquarians get credit for being idealists, perhaps too much credit, for true idealism consists of blind faith and optimism, and the Uranian is too shrewd to fool himself with lost causes for long. He knows that most dreams are illusions, like the rainbow he has examined so closely and still loves. Tradition and authority leave him unimpressed. He'll politely respect them, but they won't stop his com*pulsive drive to uncover fallacies, distortions and illogical assumptions.

His mind and body must both be as free as the wind. To try to pin down the Aquarian is to try to stabilize the butterfly, to stuff a spring breeze into a closet or confine a winter gale in a bottle. It can't be done, and besides, who in the world would want to try? Though he's so far ahead of his time that you have trouble catching his view*point immediately, it's still worthwhile to make the at*tempt. You'll always come away a little wiser, if a little bewildered. His astrological flower is the daffodil-and now you know the derivation of the word "daffy."

The soul of the water bearer is constantly torn asunder by Uranus, the unpredictable and violent planet of change which lets him see ahead with electric blue clarity to the future. Aquarius belongs to mankind. He represents its truest hopes and its deepest ideals. Even his metal, uranium, is not really a metal, but a radioactive, metallic chemical, found only in combinations. It's important in atomic re*search, and it can undergo continuous fission. The magnetic majesty of eight bolts of brilliant lightning reflected in the Aquarian sapphire can split open his secrets for those who seek to know him-but only for an instant can you see into his lonely heart, long ago infused with Saturn's ancient wisdom-unless you too live in tomorrow.

Famous Aquarius Personalities

Francis Bacon Tallulah Bankhead John Barrymore Jack Benny Shelley Bennan George Burns Lewis Can-oil Katharine Cornell Charles Darwin Jimmy Dean Charles Dickens Jimmy Durante Thomas Edison Mia Farrow dark Gable Galileo

Langston Hughes Jack Lemmon Abraham Lincoln Charles Lindbergh Somerset Maugham Jeanne Moreau Paul Newman Louis Nizer Kim Novak S. J. Perelman Leontyne Price Ronald Reagan Vanessa Redgrave Norman Rockwell Franklin Roosevelt Ann Sothern Adiai Stevenson

　

　

"When people consult me, it's not that I'm reading the future; I am guessing at the future. Based on the omens of the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it, what comes later will also be better."

SHIMURE

The AQUARIUS Man
All this time the Guard -was looking at her,

first through a telescope,

then through a microscope,

and then through an opera-glass.

At last he said, "You're traveling the wrong way,"

and shut up the window ...

To wade bravely smack dab into the center of the problem, don't expect an Aquarian male to behave the way people in love are supposed to behave. If you do, you're in for quite a jolt, maybe even a series of jolts. When it comes to friendship, he's all you could ask for in a pal or a con*fidant. Love? Well, as an Aquarian I once knew said, "Any*body can have a girl. But love is something else again." That was an astute observation. It's "something else," all right, with Aquarians.

It's when he acts as though he doesn't like you that he's close to being hooked, and the reason is elementary- simple logic. The Aquarian water bearer likes everybody. Everyone is his friend. He'll even refer to his worst enemy as "my friend." So it means something when he says he doesn't like someone. Just what it means may take some study. The various nuances can be complicated.

An Aquarian man doesn't want to reveal his true feel*ings, in spite of his favorite pastime of penetrating the feel*ings of others. His own reactions and motives are complex, and he intends to keep them that way for the pure pleasure of fooling you. Many strange experiences will come to this man, through both love and friendship, and he'll scrutinize each one avidly. Until you get him to the altar, you're just another experience, another experiment, hard as that may be to take. Don't sniffle. He can be tricked, for all his caution. But before you start tricking him, you'd better try to understand how to cope with his unique outlook about people.

He's a group man, and teamwork comes naturally to him. Aquarius understands the fair play rules of sports as if he had invented them, and he carries these rules into his personal relationships. His interests are scattered all over the place. That's because his love of people is so impersonal;

he gives a certain value to everyone he meets, while the rest of us save such efforts for only the very special people in our lives. To an Aquarian, everyone is special. And I mean everyone. Even those he hasn't met yet. Few Uranus men are either selfish or petty. When he does show those qualities, a gentle reminder that he's being narrow-minded will bring him around. Aquarians just can't stand to be called narrow-minded.

He responds to unusually high ideals, thanks to his rigid moral code (though you'd better understand that it's his own code, which may not necessarily reflect or correspond to the one accepted by society in general). He'll almost surely lead a life of change, controversy and unexpected events. Yet there will often be moments of perfect tranquility with him, impossible to find with any other Sun sign. Once he's over the shock that he's allowed him*self to become interested in one woman above all of man*kind, he can be an extremely considerate lover. The danger area is before he's over the shock. Since he's so accustomed to neglecting his own problems in the interest of the ma*jority, hopefully some of this attitude will rub off on his love life. Don't count on it, though. The chances are just as good that he'll suddenly realize he's devoting his com*plete loyalty to you when there are all those other name*less faces out there who need him. Then he may lean over backwards to prove to himself that he hasn't lost his love for his friends and the rest of humanity by being attached to just one person.

Forever analyzing, the Aquarian man will frequently ask himself, "I wonder what she meant by that?" He won't rest until he finds out either. A puzzle drives him simply wild and don't be fooled by his nonchalance. When he senses something is hidden, he just won't sleep at night until he's unraveled the mystery and penetrated the veil. There's always the possibility that he might be disappointed in what he finds, so make sure it's worth discovering. If it isn't, he'll have no qualms about making it painfully evident-and off he'll go to unravel a new veil.

The girl who wants to land him eventually has first to intrigue him. An open book will never pique his curiosity.

He's attracted to closed pages, the more tightly closed, the better to arouse his detective instinct. When a female either ignores him or keeps her own counsel, in the beginning at least, his eyes will open" a little wider and hell get an alert expression, amazingly like that of a bloodhound on the scent of something missing. Why is she so emotional? (You can be emotional, you see, as long as you don't explain why.) Is she really so changeable or is it an act? Why does she wear all that perfume and make-up and such low-cut dresses, and then get insulted when those Leos and Sagittarians and Scorpios whistle at her in front of the drugstore? Does she want male advances or doesn't she? Is she a puritan or promiscuous? What makes her tick? As he probes and questions and examines, the girl is at first flattered, naturally-but when she sees he's just as intently curious about the waitress who just served them (not to mention the bus boy), she begins to cool somewhat. Feel*ing like an insect trapped under a scientist's cold eye isn't exactly calculated to cause the heart to flutter in any feminine bosom. So she finally drifts (or runs) away to a more fiery or earthy male, and the Aquarian sadly sighs for an instant or two before he begins his next romantic investigation. (If some new invention or unique idea hasn't aroused his interest first. In which case the next female research project must wait.)

Aquarian men can be touchingly gentle and docile, but you'd better tie a bright blue electric string around your finger to remind you that his surface calmness is a mirage. So is his apparent pliability. He won't tolerate an ounce of opportunism from a female. If he thinks he's being ex*ploited, that unpredictable Uranian charm can vanish so quickly you'll think Cary Grant has turned into James Cagney, poised to throw a grapefruit-half in your face. The frightening thing is that an extremely upset Aquarian is perfectly capable of such shocking action. What's even more frightening is that you may forgive him. Don't. At least, not more than once. He admires a woman who holds her ground, if she's not too masculine about it, and if she lets him fly hither and yon, unencumbered by mushy prom*ises and tearful accusations. As for that grapefruit, it's only fair to point out that Aquarians are usually most gallant with the fair sex. But sometimes they can forget to distinguish between the sexes in the throes of excitement.

Couple that with the Uranus unpredictability, and it does add up to a possible squirt of grapefruit juice in the eye.

There's always an excellent possibility that an Aquarian will achieve some sort of prestige during his lifetime. If it's only a trophy for stickball or a brass plaque for being the tallest man in Succatosh County he's sure to be honored with some kind of recognition. It could be something as splendid as winning the Nobel Prize. Lots of Aquarians achieve such distinctions. (On the other hand, a large per*centage of disturbed Aquarians are weekly visitors to a head shrinker. It may be kind of tricky to tell the differ*ence. )

Some Uranus-ruled men have a fetish for cleanliness. You may bump into one who shrieks if anyone uses his towel or breathes on his oatmeal. Back of this is an almost neurotic fear of germs and illness. The Aquarian isn't above letting his phobias trail over into his romantic life, when they can serve a purpose, though he may do so unconsciously. Don't be surprised if he complains that he's allergic to your eye shadow and it makes him sneeze. Uranians have a way of developing allergies to things they'd rather avoid, and they can even fool the doctors, let alone innocent, unsuspecting girls.

He's not the type to woo you with extravagant gestures. He's as likely to pull up a dandelion and toss it at you as bring you an orchid. To be honest, more likely. He won't present you with mink coats and diamonds. But life with him can still be glamorous, even without the mink. There's the well-known story about Helen Hayes and her husband, Charles MacArthur. When they first met, he handed her a bowl of peanuts and said, "I wish they were emeralds." Many years and many dollars later, he gave her a cluster of glittering emeralds with the remark, "I wish they were peanuts." I don't know if MacArthur was an Aquarian, but Uranus was certainly prominent in his natal chart. That's exactly the kind of unexpected glory you'll know with an Aquarian lover. Who needs mink?

Now let's face the worst fact courageously. No flinching or wishful thinking. Here it is. Unlike Cancer, Capricorn, Leo and Libra, Aquarians don't take to marriage like a baby takes to candy. To be truthful, most of them avoid it as long as it's humanly possible. A rare Aquarian male will be enticed into a shower of shoes and rice at an early age, but it doesn't happen often enough for the statistics to be encouraging. The way the impasse usually starts is that the Aquarian makes beautiful, wonderful, glorious friendship the basis of the love. (Easier to slide away from later, my dear.) They choose a girl who's also a chum, and who can keep up with the Aquarian interests, including Mickey Mantle's batting average, crossword puzzles, Arabian horses, fireflies on the Mississippi and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Why? That's easy. With so much to talk about, there's less time for lovemaking, which can get him seriously involved and committed. His ideal is the female who is his friend, and who doesn't make heavy emotional demands on him. Where do we go from here? Nowhere, usually.

Aquarian men find it difficult to relax in physical ex*pressions of love. That first goodnight kiss may be a long time materializing. Admittedly, it's often well worth wait*ing for, and the suspense makes it even more special. But he'll cling to the illusion that he's involved in a nice, safe platonic friendship long after such a palsy-walsy relation*ship has become impossible for you.

Even after he's mustered the courage to say "I love you," he'll avoid the issue of marriage with every excuse in the book. When those run out, he can think up some pretty imaginative new ones. He'll patiently explain that he can't support you in the manner you deserve, his parents need him at home, or he's not good enough for you. If that doesn't work, he'll claim that the future is too uncertain, what with the threats of nuclear destruction and all. What if his boss sends him to Alaska next year? You might die of pneumonia up there, and he would be grief-stricken the rest of his life. You think he can't top that? One Aquarian man I know was engaged for twelve years to a girl he wouldn't marry because "she would have to sacrifice a great career on Broadway." The fact that the girl had never set foot on a stage in her life was beside the point. He thought she had talent. Someday, a producer might just discover her. Then how would she feel if he had held her back by marrying her? Worse yet, how would he feel? Guilty. Just plain selfish and guilty. It's not surprising that this poor female finally escaped to a more positive rival.

But all is not lost. Though it's true that most Aquarians wed late, they do eventually wed-usually. It normally happens after the last bachelor friend has sailed away to a Bermuda honeymoon, and the Aquarian wakes up to realize that here is a mystery other people have solved that he hasn't even investigated. Naturally, he- can't stand that, so pop goes the proposal! Suddenly, of course.- Uranus, you know.

In the early stages, you may think he needs a lesson and decide to let him think he's lost you to a more aggressive suitor. Let me warn you that you're likely to stay lost. Your broken-hearted Uranian is not nearly as apt to come charging after you with the fire of possession in his eye as he is to shed a couple of quiet tears and say, "Well, I guess the best man won." He'll resign himself to a life without you with insulting ease. He's even liable to ask the unbearable question, "Can't we still be friends?" If you say no emphatically, he'll probably just shrug dejectedly and slowly walk away. If you say yes-well, you're right back where you started-friends.

Jealousy isn't his cup of eggnog. He'll trust you until you show him you can't be trusted. Not because he's trust*ing by nature, but because his analytical dissection has already satisfied him about your character. Unless there are marked afflictions in his natal chart, he's not capable of unfounded suspicion and possessiveness. If he does have a rare stab of jealousy, you'll never know it if he can help it. He will rarely, if ever, be physically unfaithful himself, mostly because the whole subject of sex, though it's interest*ing, doesn't consume him. An occasional Aquarian may spend a great deal of time intensely pondering sex, but if you know one of these, you can safely assume there's a heavy Scorpio influence in his natal chart. (And chances are even this type won't pursue it actively and openly.)

Once an Aquarian has chosen a mate, he figures he can concentrate on more important things. He can relax and investigate the boy-giri or man-woman relationship at his own leisure in his own private laboratory (which isn't a bad possibility for its eventual chance of success when you stop to think about it).

Uranian sex is part of a larger image or ideal. Should a temptation to engage in illicit romance arise (illicit in his eyes, that is), he'll usually end the affair abruptly, though it may hurt him deeply, rather than continue what he considers to be a dishonest relationship. The situation that made him feel -guilty could be almost anything, from the disapproval of your parents or conflicting religions to an old boy friend not completely discarded, a promise he made to himself at the age of eight, or something he once read in a book. But whatever it is, it will somehow have to be adjusted and resolved before he'll ever renew the closeness, even if the love is as fated as that of Victoria and Albert. The Aquarian will always let his heart break silently, lest his friends hear and ask questions.

He's capable of waiting undl he's ninety to claim you, even if you feel that's a bit long to wait for consummation. The worst of it is that hell never give a reason for the break. That's for him to know and you to find out. He'll perversely let you think it was just a fantasy from the beginning, and hold back the real truth that it was genuine for some hazy future day of forgiveness and reconciliation. It can be pretty cruel, but that's the way he plays the game.

Your only comfort is the knowledge that he's suffering in his own way, too. How will you know that? Read "How to Recognize Aquarius" again. He has his subtle ways of telegraphing his feelings, and they can be enormously frustrating-especially when his unique, private communi*cation signals a green go light while he publicly keeps hold*ing out a red stop light until he's ready to switch. It can make for some nasty romantic traffic snarls. It's hard on the pedestrian, but he's in the driver's seat, so there's not a lot you can do-except perhaps think up another mystery to tempt him with, or maybe shake him a little with some smashing success to make him curious to talk with you again-like being the first woman to orbit Venus.

Not that such a feat will change his feelings. If he really loves you, he'll love you even if you don't orbit any farther than to the comer delicatessen, but it might interfere with his fixed strategy. You may gather from all this that a Uranus man can be pretty stubborn when it comes to love. You would be so right. His fixity in affectionate matters can drive you straight into the booby hatch or drive you to someone else in desperation. That's a big fat waste of time. He's not jealous, remember? Or he won't show it if he is. Besides, with his darned Uranian intuition, he'll know it's all an act. Because he knows what makes you tick. Don't forget, he studied you for a long time. About the only thing you can do is hope you'll still be attractive at ninety or else start practicing those Venus orbits.

Putting the shoe on the other foot, an Aquarian can arouse a heap of possessiveness in you when the tables are turned. Don't let it throw you off balance. Thanks to the everlasting Uranus proclivity for friendship, whenever and wherever he finds it, there may be times when you won't know where he is, even after you're married and you should. Just tell yourself that, no matter how late he sits up with a friend, it's only his normal curiosity at work, his never-ending interest in people. If the friend is a woman, pretend you didn't notice. In all honesty, he most likely didn't. You can expect the truth when you ask him a direct question. But if you doubt him and ask again, he'll figure you don't want the truth. To punish you, he'll make up the wildest story he can dream up (and he can dream up some pretty wild ones). You may regret your suspicions when you spend a few hours in abject misery wondering if he really did tell that redhead she was gorgeous. (That's after he told you he didn't even remember talking to her and you said, "Ha! I just bet you don't remember.") He honestly didn't, but you asked for details, so he gladly obliged with some purely imaginary ones to teach you a lesson. You'll learn fast.

Don't be hurt when he's in one of his solitary moods and prefers to be alone with his silent dreams. He'll return to share them with you, all the more warm and tender for his spiritual retreat and anything that warms him up should definitely be encouraged.

He may not be the best breadwinner around, but he's capable of inventing something beneficial to the world or being the first man to land on Mars. He'll feel right at home there, too. There's always a surprise just around the comer with an Aquarian husband, even when the budget is shaky. Naturally, there are a few Uranian men who are wealthy, even millionaires, but a high income bracket is seldom a burning ambition. All the rich Aquarians you see probably stumbled on it. It's certain they didn't greedily grasp for it. If he has a fat bank book, the chances are it gained weight while he was attempting to improve some product or idea for the good of humanity in general-or he's saved it to support his eccentric old age. Who knows? He might want to take a trip in a time machine someday, and he wants to be sure to have the fare. Most of the time he'll be reasonable about money, but save when you can, and don't run up charge accounts. He'll never recover from sheer extravagance on your part. Sometimes he can sur*prise you with a burst of generosity, but he won't go over*board, unless he has an Aries, Leo, Sagittarius or Pisces ascendant. Even then, he won't be a big butter and egg man.

The children will find him the greatest listener on the block. He'll be fascinated at the perfect breath control of the wolf when he blew down the three little pigs' pad- and curious about how the old witch pickled the poisoned apple that put the whammy on Snow White. A small boy's trouble learning how to strike a home run and a little girl's tears over a broken doll are simply the problems of a couple of pals in trouble to an Aquarian father. He's a whiz at complicated arithmetic questions, too.

Don't let your career make you neglect to feed him or sew on his buttons. Don't encourage your girl friends to camp on his couch or tie up the telephone for hours, and don't get engrossed in TV or a novel when he wants you to find his old soft ball in the attic or pull a splinter out of his finger. He married you for several reasons. Though romance may play its part, the most important reason was to have you around-so he would always have someone to mash his baked potato, cross-stitch his buttonholes, find his lost articles and operate on an oc*casional splinter. He won't cotton to your letting television, reading or female chums interfere with those duties. His idea of a good wife and mother is quite simple: a woman who keeps at it almost constantly. Even the more liberal Aquarian husbands will frown on a glamorous gadabout. But you won't mind it too much. He's so full of interesting surprises himself you won't need soap operas, women's magazines and tete-a-tetes with girl friends to keep your mind and emotions challenged. (He may be about all the challenge you can take.) You can always catch up on the female gossip and such when he's engrossed in some new project and gets a little absent-minded about what you're doing. But just be sure to be there when he has a sore finger, because he can be a real sorehead when he's neglected.

Strangely, since he's so realistic about most things, the Aquarian will never forget his first love. (Not the first date, but the first girl who ever gave him a rainbow. There's a difference.) Uranians frequently marry childhood sweet*hearts years later, or cling to a faded illusion. An Aquarian can usually describe his first love in detail, which can be annoying to a wife. The solution is to be that first love. You may have to wait a long time to wear orange blossoms, but at least you won't be replaced by a ghost. Who else could turn peanuts into emeralds or vice versa, never mind a little grapefruit juice in the eye? Despite his gen*eral romantic clumsiness, he can come up with sudden phrases which could only have been invented by the angels. He can forget your wedding anniversary, but he'll bring you violets in January. Christmas? Who says it has to be on December 25th? It can be any dme you want it to be. He may go for days or weeks or months without a single word of romance or affection. Then some morning while you're slicing his blueberry pie, he'll look deep into your eyes and ask gently, "Do you know how beautiful you are?" There will be something about the way he says it that will make your knees weak.

Jingle bells on the seashore, birthdays at dawn. Valen*tine's Day on Halloween, rainbows at midnight. Pin a red heart on an orange pumpkin, roll Easter eggs in the snow, light the candles on the cake on top of a ferris wheel- you're in love with an Aquarian, didn't you know? I wish you a Frank Merriwell ending. But be careful. You can get lost out there in Wonderland.

　

　

　

"When people consult me, it's not that I'm reading the future; I am guessing at the future. Based on the omens of the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it, what comes later will also be better."

SHIMURE

The AQUARIUS Woman
But Alice had got so much into the -way

of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen

that it seemed quite dull and stupid

for life to go on in the common way ...

Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea- And welcome Queen Alice with thirty times three!

The safest way to enter into romance with an Aquarian female is to remember she's as paradoxical in love as she is in everything else. That way, you won't be expecting Priscilla Alden and get Pocahontas.

This girl has all the faithfulness of the fixed signs when die's in love, but she also has the detachment and lack of emotion of the air element. It's possible to have a happy relationship with the Uranus woman if you leave her free to pursue her myriad interests and circulate among her friends. Never try to tie her to the stove or the bedpost. Ask the man who's tried. She can suddenly decide to study ballet, meditate in the mountains or join the Peace Corps. Remember the story of the princess with the long, golden hair who lived high in a tower? That's the Aquarius fe*male. Cutting off her flowing tresses won't change her any more than it did in the fairy tale. She dreams different dreams than you or I. She hears a distant drummer-and follows a star most of us have never seen.

She belongs to everyone, and yet to no one. Her love can be tender and inspired, but there will always be a vaguely elusive quality about it, like a half-remembered song. You can hum the melody, but the lyrics keep slipping away. The Aquarian girl's demand for freedom is insistent, but her allegiance to anyone who can accept romance with*in such limits is boundless. Here's something you'll like:

She won't be terribly interested in your bank book (unless Cancer or Capricorn or Taurus is on her ascendant). Money is never the prime consideration of the typical Aquarian woman. She won't care if you're not the richest man in town, but she'll expect you to be respected in some way for your intellectual achievements. Dr. Christian Bamard and his heart transplants or Wemher von Braun and his rockets interest her far more than J. Paul Getty and his billions.

When you set out to catch this butterfly in your net, remember that she'll never spend her unpredictable life with a man who isn't true to himself. Her own code of ethics may be as weird as anything you've ever come across, and quite different from the accepted codes of society, but she lives up to it totally. She'll understand that your rules may also be highly individual. That's fine with her, but don't compromise those rules. If you're looking for a passion flower, you've picked the wrong daisy. Passion is not her forte if she's a typical Aquarian. She'll think physi*cal love is pleasant enough, if it's not overemphasized. In other words, she can take it or leave it alone. Uranus fe*males can respond to lovemaking with a haunting, deep intensity, but if you prefer to keep it platonic for long periods of time, that's all right, too. Like all Aquarians, she may have an unconscious fear that desire for one per*son will imprison the spirit in some way, and keep her from being true to her one great love-freedom. Freedom to ex*periment and investigate and freedom to give time to hu*manity. Also freedom to pursue her rather kicky, off-beat fancies.

She's an ideal girl if you're planning a political, scientific or educational career. You couldn't do better, unless you happen to run across an Aquarian girl with adverse planetary positions in her natal chart who enjoys shock*ing people by walking barefoot down Main Street or smok*ing big black cigars on buses. There are some pretty wild, way-out Uranian females here and there. But the average girl born under the sign of the water bearer is a social delight. She's graceful, witty, bright as a penny, and ex*tremely adaptable to all forms of society, high and low and in the middle.

Her lack of suspicion under normal circumstances is a special bonus. A traveling salesman should find his dream girl in the typical Aquarian female. If she actually catches you being unfaithful, it will cause a deep wound to her sensitive nature. You'll know it the minute you look into those strange, dreamy eyes. But she won't suspect you without cause, and she'll rarely doubt your word. The typical Uranus woman will never check up on you after you leave, phone you at the office, inspect your handker*chiefs for lipstick stains or look for blonde hairs caught in your cuff link. Deception will have to be brought forcibly to her attention; she won't go out looking for it. Before you give her too much credit, consider that her lack of pas*sionate jealousy is due to something more than strength of character. First of all, she probably dissected your psyche under a microscope before she gave you a second glance. Besides, she has so many outside interests and so many people who turn her on to talk with, there's not much time for her to worry about what you're doing when you're out of sight. Out of sight can often mean out of mind for Aquarians of both sexes. Absence seldom makes the Uranus heart grow fonder. Occasionally, an Aquarian woman will suffer a promiscuous or flirtatious mate, be*cause there's something she needs which she can find only with him, so she looks the other way. On the other hand, if she doesn't really need you, that moral strength will work in reverse at the first actual proof of infidelity. Shell simply walk away. Don't try to kindle the embers, they're stone cold dead. Of course, you can still be friends. Why not?

She's willing. It never embarrasses an. Aquarian girl to be chummy with ex-lovers or husbands. She's forgotten the past and wiped the slate clean of memories.

There is one peculiar and notable exception to the rule. Like the Uranus man, the Uranian female will remember the first true and honest love for a lifetime. Only the first, however. Are you wondering whether that Aquarius girl you once knew still remembers you? The answer lies in her definition of love. It could have something to do with the first boy who gave her a bunch of sweet peas when she was nine-the boy who walked her through the park in the rain-or the one with the funny ears who knew the clown at the circus, and used to feed her peanuts.

Uranus women involved in extra-marital affairs are rare. They can be tempted in exceptional situations, but a dis*honest relationship goes against their chemistry. It won't be long until an undercover romance is broken off for good. Yet, there are many Aquarian divorcees. There's a reason. If a situation becomes intolerable, the Uranian nature turns cold suddenly. They can disappear overnight, and never look back. They don't seek or enjoy divorce, but it isn't the shock to them it is to their more sentimental sisters. Uranus rules change, you know. Since she's such an individualist, with a list of friends several miles long, the Aquarian female never hesitates to make her way alone if the need arises.

Expect her to probe into your heart until you haven't a secret left, or a dream that hasn't been analyzed. But don't try to dissect her private thoughts. That's not the way the game is played with Aquarians. She'll keep her motives hidden, and sometimes take a perverse pleasure in de*liberately confusing you. She'll usually be truthful to a fault, but remember, with an Aquarian, telling a lie is one thing. Refraining from telling the whole story is another.

It's comforting to know that an Aquarian girl is pretty cagey with a buck. That is, it's comforting to know unless you're planning to hit her for a loan. She might say yes a time or two, but if you let your credit rating slip, she can be colder than the guy at the bank when you skip your car payment. On the rare occasions when she ac*cepts a small loan herself, you'll get back every penny with no stalling, excuses or feminine wiles, if she's a typical Uranus female. As for every man's nightmare of charge accounts, you'll have little worry on that score. Aquarian women are uncomfortable about owing money. Bad debts don't fit in with the Uranus code.

Her appearance is puzzling. Most Aquarian women are lovely, with a haunting, wistful beauty. But they're change*able. They can give an impression of smooth whipped cream, then suddenly switch to salty pizza as quickly as a bright, blue, zig-zag bolt of Uranian electricity. Next to Ubrans, Aquarian females are often the most beautiful women in the zodiac. At the very least, they're interesting-looking. The Aquarian manner of dressing can stop you dead in your tracks. There are a few of them who could grace the cover of a fashion magazine, but the average Aquarian girl is anything but conventional about her cos*tumes. She can wear some outfits a gypsy would envy, and her naked individuality can produce some mighty unique combinations. She'll usually be the first to wear a new fad, no matter how zany it is, yet she can also stick to Grand*ma's styles-even great-grandma's styles. With typical - Aquarian indifference, she'll mix yesterday's lace snood with today's metallic jump suit, and the effect can be a little startling. She'll wear her lace nightgown to a formal ban*quet, ostrich feathers to the supermarket, bell bottom slacks to the opera, sneakers to the theater, diamonds when she visits the zoo-and top it all off with a faded Mother Hubbard she picked up in a thrift shop.

Your Aquarian girl will probably have an unusual way of wearing her hair. Her tresses are as unpredictable as her personality. They can be worn braided, pig-tailed, pinned in a bun, flowing down like a waterfall, short as a marine's, in Mary Pickford curls or as straight as a poker. One thing you can depend on. Her hair won't look like the hair of any other female on this planet.

A conversation with her can be remarkable, to say the least. She has charming manners, and usually behaves in a timid, almost reserved way. Then comes one of those sudden Uranus urges, and out will pop a remark with absolutely no relation to what anyone is saying. You'll be talking about the fluctuations of the stock market, and she'll interrupt out of nowhere with: "Did you know that Woodrow Wilson, Jack Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Calvin Coolidge, Benjamin Harrison, Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley all have double letters in their names?" There's only one way to answer a question like that. Tell her she missed Millard

Fillmore, Ulysses Grant and Thomas Jefferson. Then gen*tly, but firmly, lead the discussion back to the stock market. Other minds may progress in fairly logical steps, but hers rigs into tomorrow, then zags back into today with no more sense of direction than a flash of lightning. Now and then she'll toss off an unexpectedly poignant phrase. You'll ask her what she thinks of space travel and she'll answer, "When I was a little girl, I thought the stars were holes in the floor of heaven where the light shone through." If she's in a different mood, you'll say that melted snowmen make you sad, and shell counter with: "A melted snowman is just a pile of slush, Charlie." First misty-then practical. First timid-then rowdy. Aquarian women will rudely ridicule flying saucers, then tell you a story about a polka-dotted elf on a windowsill. Never talk down to an Aquarian female. She'll resent not being considered your equal, and an unsympathetic attitude will cause her to retreat and become unapproachable.

Since Uranus rules the future, you might imagine that these girls would be natural mothers. Children do, after all, belong to the future. But the average Aquarian woman may be bewildered by motherhood in the beginning. She has to adjust to devoting all her attention and energy ex*clusively to one human being for a period of time, when she's used to spreading herself far and wide, and this can take some practice. Her natural aloofness may make it difficult for her to demonstrate warm affection outwardly. The typical Aquarian mother is devoted to her offspring, but also somewhat detached toward them. But shell prob*ably be the most willing PTA worker in the neighborhood. She'll talk happily for hours with their small friends on their own level without patronizing them, and she'll give up her afternoons to work for a school project. The chil*dren will learn the lessons of brotherhood and humanity from her by observation. Aquarian mothers are never fiercely protective of their children. They take a tolerant view of the most startling confession. A Uranus woman will seldom punish a child for telling the truth, no matter what he's done. With her unprejudiced viewpoint, she'll gain the complete confidence of her little ones. She's great at reassuring young minds about everything from monsters hiding under the bed to the pain of being ignored in the playground. She can turn their tears to laughter in minutes. Your children will find her jolly fun, a little helter-skelter, relaxed about housework, helpful with homework and gentle when they're ill. She won't smother them with affection, and she'll seldom nag. Maybe Tommy didn't wash his hands the third time he was told, but she's more interested in what he learned in science class.

We may be a little ahead of ourselves. Even though Uranus likes to reverse the existing orders of things, before your Aquarian girl becomes a mother she has to become a wife. And before she becomes your wife, you'll have to convince her that marriage isn't synonymous with Al-catraz. She won't exactly rush into matrimony. She's in no hurry to take your name until she's weighed you, sorted you, tested you, and found out what makes you tick. The opinions of her friends and family will mean nothing, though she may ask them what they think out of curiosity. She has her own yardstick for measuring you. Assuming you pass her test, marriage to an Aquarian girl can be confusing. She'll listen pleasantly when you give her advice, but there's something in the Uranian make-up that prevents her from following directions explicitly. She can't stick to the recipe when she bakes one of her angel food cakes anymore than she can park the car exactly where you told her to. There's some kind of a snag in her thinking that causes her to believe just a little twist will improve any*thing. But shell smile agreeably as she goes on her own sweet way. There's a constant urge to experiment with a different way to make the coffee, fill her pen, fasten her ice skates or cross the street. She'll wear a sweater back*wards, mix her brandy with milk, arrange flowers in a fish bowl, rinse her hair in shaving lotion or make a rock garden on your desk. But don't ask her why. She doesn't know herself. The unique and unusual is her wave-length, that's all.

Because her nature is so impersonal, expressions of deep feeling won't come easily. Except for those sudden remarks that sound likes a combination of Robert Frost and Yogi Berra, she has few words with which to express her love, and her pattern of physical passion is woven closely with threads connected to the mind and soul. Although the unique Uranus outlook leads some Aquarian girls into peculiar attachments, once they find the right mate their marriages are usually models of happiness.

Your Aquarian woman can float through her days and nights with all the grace of a proud swan, but she may behave like a clumsy bear in romantic situations. The line between friendship and love is often all but invisible to Aquarius. Love songs about people who only have eyes for each other strike her as silly. There are so many miracles in the world for eyes to behold, it seems to her a terrible waste for two pairs of them to do nothing but gaze into each other's depths. Shell be glad to let you take her hand and walk beside her as she looks with happy delight on the sunrise, an antique car, the milkman's horse, a yel*low garbage pail, a stuffed owl or a red balloon caught in a church steeple. But don't distract her with too much to-getherness. Let her wander through her wonderland alone when she chooses, and she'll never question your pinochle games with the boys.

The quickest ways to lose her are to show jealousy, pos-sessiveness or prejudice; to be critical, stuffy or ultra-conservative. You'll also have to like her friends, who will come in odd, assorted sizes and shapes.

She's susceptible to sudden flashes of inspiration, and her intuition is remarkable. Her judgment may not seem sound or practical at first, because she sees months and years ahead. The Aquarian girl lives in tomorrow, and you can only visit there through her. What she says will come true, perhaps after many delays and troubles, but it will come true. I suppose, after all, that's the most special thing about your February woman. She's a little bit magic.

　

"When people consult me, it's not that I'm reading the future; I am guessing at the future. Based on the omens of the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it, what comes later will also be better."

SHIMURE

The AQUARIUS Child
The dream-child moving through a land

Of wonders wild and new, In friendly chat with bird or beast-

And half believe it true.

According to Mother Goose, if your offspring is dressed in blue, he's made of snips and snails and puppy-dog tails. It baby is wearing pink, she's made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. But if he or she was born in February, dress him in an aquamarine cap and electric blue booties and forget that old rhyme. This infant is made of the raw material of Uranus, and he's going to make you chase him into tomorrow.

He's a quivering, sensitive, stubborn, independent mass of invention and electrical impulses. Even if he has a slow and careful Taurus ascendant, his mental processes will be as fast as Uranian lightning. His thoughts will vi*brate like high frequency radio beams, and as he grows up, you may feel like sending out an S.O.S. yourself.

Every mother and father think their child is special- different and unique, compared to other youngsters. But this one is just ridiculous. Lots of parents of a young Aquarian puzzle whether to send him out on the farm, where he won't frighten neighbors, or let the word casually get around that he may win the Pulitzer prize someday. Which route should you take? You have a problem. Yes, you do. The Pulitzer is possible, but my advice would be to try the farm for a few summers and watch. Observe. Wait. He's liable to invent a new plow, or just eat them out of house and home. It depends. There's never a cut and dried rule with Aquarians.

I know one New York mother who just called her Uranian son "the Bronx Wonder" and let it go at that At least her relatives and neighbors were as mystified as she was. Nobody knew if the nickname meant he had three heads or he was headed for the Hall of Fame. As it turned out, he was a pretty good basketball player, and most folks thought that's why he had the tag. But they shouldn't have been so hasty. The story's not over yet. He's presently rotating between composing the score for a musical which may go on Broadway or in the wastebasket, playing bit parts in detective films, and making himself available for TV commercials. (The kind that need men from Mars types for flying saucer approaches on soft-sell automobile spots.) He's also working on an invention in his bedroom (between watching the Mets play and eating pickle sand*wiches), but since he won't tell anyone what it is, I can't give you any clues. He has a kind of thing about clocks and watches, so it may have something to do with a time machine (a common Aquarian obsession). Well, well see. There's no rush. Lots of Aquarians don't break loose and shower electric sparks of genius on a waiting world until they're a young fifty. It makes it all a little nervewracking, waiting around like that. Of course, there are quite a few

Aquarian child prodigies, but we're tangled up enough trying to figure out your average Aquarian youngster (and I use the term average loosely).

He may end up working for the FBI or a private eye outfit (he loves to figure out mysteries), and become an ordinary, sensible, conservative citizen. (Don't hold your breath, but it's a possibility.) We'd better concentrate on his tender years. That way, you'll have a fighting chance to guide this Uranus rocket in some kind of direction.

Until maturity has mellowed Uranian influences, and society has molded more conventional attitudes, an Aquar*ian youngster can be strongly negative. The immediate reaction to a command (or even a pleasant suggestion) is often an emphatic no. But let him think about it, mull it over, and it's surprising how many times his final reaction will be sensible-the answer he found by himself correct and acceptable.

These boys and girls can be calm and sweetly docile on the surface, but the north wind can turn them suddenly topsy turvy. (Except that, with an Aquarian, it could be turvy topsy. You can expect anything.) Unpredictable in their behavior, but lovable and often amusing, the February child can be quite a spinning propeller to contend with. I used that analogy because Aquarians and Uranus rule air flight, planes and Charles Lindbergh and things like that. Yet, these youngsters are so full of contradictions, instead of taking to flight naturally, many of them have a strange, unreasonable fear of planes and elevators-even electricity (also ruled by Uranus). It isn't easy to direct them or channel them. They have no idea where they're going, but they have definite ideas about how to get there.

Raising and teaching these "wonders" can be a big re*sponsibility. Their minds combine fixed practicality with uncanny perception and sharp, probing logic. Mix it all up and it can be acutely embarrassing, like when your little Aquarian asks your best friend why she got her face lifted (she did)-or asks your Uncle Elmer why he cheated on his income tax in front of the Internal Revenue man (he did).

They love to do favors for friends. Buy your little Aquarian boy a brand new pair of boots and he's likely to wear them out the first day-smoothing down the snow to make it slick so the neighborhood kids can use their sleds.

Expect your February child to have a dream and hold it fast-until he gets another one. With a girl, it's likely to be a projection of herself as a prima ballerina, with a pure dedication to her art that would put Pavlova to shame, a thirst to be the first woman president or a hunger to follow in the footsteps of Madame Curie. With the boys, it could be an oceanographer, ichthyologist, archaeologist, anthro*pologist, an exterminator or a tree surgeon. Normal career choices like nurses, secretaries, clerks, salesmen, teachers, bankers and brokers are too mundane for the average Aquarian child's fantasies. He may have to settle for one eventually, but the original dream will be tucked under his left ear and not forgotten. It's eerie, but Aquarians can sometimes cause a thing to happen by simply con*centrating on it and waiting.

You'll never know quite what to expect from day to day. This is a child who may not want to stay indoors when it rains. He'll be out with your best sterling silver table-spoon, digging a drain so the hill in back of the house won't wash away.

Remember the old verse you heard as a child that went, "The bear went over the mountain-the bear went over the mountain-the bear went over the mountain-to see what he could see. The other side of the mountain- the other side of the mountain