We are almost to February, and that means—like it or not—we’re entering the season of love. Love Valentine’s Day or hate it, whether you’re happily partnered, seeking your soul mate, or delighted to savor the single life as long as possible, this season offers an opportunity to reflect on love in its many forms. From self-love to romantic love to platonic love to familial love and beyond, love is at the core of all human connection.
And what better way to reflect on these myriad types of connections than through an exploration of the zodiac signs? Those of us interested in all things paranormal and "pop-occulture" can't help dipping our toes into the mystical world of astrology once in a while. Whether you’re a full-blown astrology nerd or just like to flirt with the zodiacal wheel, it’s fun to explore the possibilities for different types of connections through the language of the sun signs.
Which sun signs are most compatible? What are some potential roadblocks for different types of zodiac pairings? Which sun signs have the worst compatibility—and is there any way around this? Linda Goodman's Love Signs: A New Approach to the Human Heart—first published in 1978—explores the answers to these questions and much, much more. It’s an intriguing read, so whether you take astrology super seriously or not, it’s sure to sate all your mystical curiosities.
Read the excerpt below—and in learning about the ways your sun sign interacts with the others, you just might also learn a little something about yourself.
Read on for an excerpt of Linda Goodman's Love Signs: A New Approach to the Human Heart, and then purchase the book.
Linda Goodman's Love Signs
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The Twelve Mysteries of Love
Love is man’s and woman’s deepest need. It’s not the threat of illness or poverty that crushes the human spirit, but the fear that there is no one who truly cares—no one who really understands. We all reach desperately for love, no matter how healthy, wealthy or wise we may be, because the alternative is loneliness. And so love I sought both in heaven and in hell, by both saints and sinners, wherever the search may take them.
The swingers and the idealists, the puritans and prostitutes, the frigid and the promiscuous, the male chauvinists and the feminists, whether they read Browning or Playboy, whether they watch Walt Disney movies or the latest erotica from Sweden, are all looking for the same thing. No matter which road they travel on their pursuit of happiness, the inner need that drives them on is love. Not to give it. Not to receive it. But to share it. To love and be loved in return.
Why is lasting, mutual love so elusive? To reach a complete and permanent union with the other half (the Twin Soul) man and woman must learn the lessons of the twelve Sun Signs. They must master the wisdom of these Twelve Mysteries of Love before they can achieve a nal, perfect harmony between their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual natures.
As we make the trip around the astrological or karmic wheel of life, through the rebirth under the inuence of the various Sun Signs, sometimes progressing swiftly, sometimes lingering, many times returning to a certain Sun Sign experience to relearn old lessons—we evolve, each at his or her own speed. We are forced, by our own Superconscious selves, to gradually perfect the positive qualities of all twelve signs and purge our natures of their negative qualities, so that we each may eventually become the rened gold of a totally evolved entity, worthy to join the other half—the Twin Self. In our longing for love—for our Twin Soul or Soul Mate—lies our latent metaphysical wisdom. The secret of life itself. Esoteric truth.
Every Sun Sign contains a strength that can be reversed into a weakness, and every Sun Sign contains a weakness that can be reversed into a strength, through the law of positive-negative polarity. What is Taurus stubbornness but Taurus patience turned upside down? What is Aries impulsiveness but the negative side of the Ram’s positive Mars courage? Will Leo choose to use the great pride and nobility of the Leonine-Solar birthright for the positive purpose of protecting the helpless—or for the negative purpose of becoming an arrogant tyrant over the defenseless? Will the sensible Cancerian caution be turned into Lunar fears and phobias? Will Pisces compassion and humility be reversed to the negative Neptune aspects of deception, introversion and escape? The choice of our Sun Sign polarities is always ours to make. And if we make the wrong choice we must relive that Sun Sign experience repeatedly, until we master the positive strength of that sign.
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The Twelve Initiations of Love
In each of the following experiences, man or woman is fully capable of giving and teaching others the first quality, but for the personality to learn the second quality is a struggle. When one’s understanding of this second quality equals that of the first, he or she has then achieved mastery of a particular Sun Sign. The soul must pass more than once through the First Six Initiations of Love as:
After achieving emotional maturity in these first six stages of development, man and woman must then pass through love’s Final Six Initiations (more than once) to discover its deeper spiritual meaning in:
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