Reincarnation and/or the belief that parts of our essence have been on earth before, is a much-accepted philosophy. Even science has to admit that hydrogen atoms in our bodies are a shared link with people and places from the past. Eastern thought has always accepted this concept. Yet more and more these notions are becoming part of Western culture too. The patience of the East, the connection between humans and the land, and other less goal-oriented processes are intriguing to Westerners for one good reason: Current Western trends are producing disharmony between the environment and the people. Therefore, Eastern religions and philosophies are gaining credence all over the globe.

This is so much so that conventional Western religions are thinking about these processes and, while not necessarily accepting them, they are still confronted with these ideas by their parishioners. Whether you believe in this concept or not, the insights from your zodiacal sign can give you new information about yourself and what motivates you.

So with animals you could cut through to the core of a problem. You were instinctive, loving and sensitive. However, with people there was an abrupt personality change. Being revered because of your knowledge about cures for animals and plants, you had power in your village or community. But how did you use this? Certainly you were courteous. But you saved your kindness for nature. And people? Well you may have stonewalled things a bit.

THE RESULT: During this lifetime you still have a lot to learn about relating on an intimate basis with others, especially family and community. You desire - and often obtain - power through some knowledge or skill that others don't have. While this is the way of the world, it prevents you from interacting with close friends as an equal. You don't feel secure unless your function is extremely unique.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Try to feel the inner stirrings of anxiety when you are not in a one-upmanship position in a work, social or love relationship. If you have an animal (now don't laugh), try and recreate the calm, happy feeling you have around the pet with others on a one-to-one basis. Surely people are special, but the FEELING you have is what needs to be duplicated.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) In the past, you were impulsive, dynamic and most likely a warrior. You loved the thrill that a life and death situation brings up in everyone. In fact, you may have lived from crisis to crisis. Let others handle the spoils or the results of war and disharmony, you were the man or woman who created the challenging environments and then let others decide how to deal with these issues. What you were waiting for was the next hill to climb or the next country to conquer.

In this life, you modify situations so that you have really high emotional peaks and valleys. You go off to war (in your heart) - things get exciting, passionate, wildly interesting - then, having expended all your energy, you go back to a cloistered existence waiting for the next stimulating, us-against-them issue. This causes confusion because, being a Taurean, you truly have a more mature understanding of how to deal with others.

In spite of your sun sign, an old karmic connection may bring out this warrior in you for no special reason. Links with the past - maybe a situation you karmically remember - could make you react with far more venom in a personal situation than you truly feel.

THE RESULT: Every so often you astonish yourself and friends with the way you go off on a tangent. You may emotionally be very calm, then the strangest or most innocuous comment may veer you in the opposite direction.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: First, try to count to five - don't relate to the remark as quickly as you normally do. Secondly, there is always a guardian angel waiting for you to ask for guidance. Listen to this interior advice, and you will be well on your way to dispelling past negative patterns.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) The past made you very cognizant of what others say, think or feel about you. You were constantly on tenterhooks trying to figure out ways to please others. But the tragedy was that IT DIDN'T WORK. No matter what you did, the "never enough" tag came attached. So in your struggle to adjust for others' wants, you submerged your own interests.

This created tension around people, although this false energy made you very popular. What friends interpreted as strength was really your Achilles heel. So you chatted away and maybe you still do, again trying to accommodate your audience.

THE RESULT: Consequently, you are very afraid of not having control in a situation. If you don't have the floor so to speak, then you don't feel comfortable. The past life experience has created stress when and where others don't feel it. Conversely, you may put pressure on friends and family to accede to your demands. They'll be surprised, at first, then the amusement ends and the problems begin.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Who said you had to be the life of the party? Or the master communicator? That inner drive - from the past - to be witty, fascinating and always on is not your inner drive for the future. This relates to past life experiences, and not necessarily to the now. Read some Zen Buddhism to dismiss these ancient wounds.

This leads you to behave more and more like the Ann Landers or the Dr. Spock of your era. But where were your strokes? Who or what organization was your caretaker? Frankly, you never sought power, but since you had it you wanted it to continue. And, by consulting some psychological help for yourself, you were afraid that your power stance would eventually erode.

THE RESULT: You now find that others still seek you out, without your asking for reciprocal help. Additionally in an earlier life, you were surrounded by many people who talked a good game but never came through for you. So now you are tremendously suspicious of promises, words or praise and even romantic cooings.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Be willing to hear what others say without remembering or thinking about their motives. Take in the compliments and the sweet words. Don't resort to puffing down people who compliment you. Listen to criticism realizing that many times it is meant to help you. In a past experience, maybe some of the sweet words didn't mesh with the actions of loved ones, but in this life that isn't the case.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Were you a regal monarch in a past life? Well you surely would like to be on in this incarnation. Why? Here's a secret. In many past lives (and you Leos often have very many) you were servants. Say this very softly. You were treated horribly. Even relatives dismissed your feelings and intellect. So now you are extremely possessive of people and objects. Recognize the back-story of this dilemma.

Temptations to rule others are accompanied by a need to always be right or on top of things. This is the Leo objective. But the past is driving you subconsciously, preventing you from savoring your successes and triumphs. (And, yes, you Leos have them continually - it is your zodiacal mandate).

THE RESULT: You are either hot or cold about people, ideas, careers or emotions. One minute you are passionate about a new love, the next you want to spend your interests thinking about money and career. Thus, people don’t know where or what to think. You confuse them, and so they shy away from intimate contact.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: One notion: be more consistent. Give people, especially loved ones, clues to your upcoming behavior. Talk about goals, before you spring them on others. Then, when you want to rule - as all Leos do - friends, loved ones and associates will accommodate you. Remember the past anger of having to serve others is not appropriate now. Trust yourself. They will serve you if only you sit back and wait.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Keep from letting side issues pull you off the mark as you did in the past. You wanted to be so egalitarian that you sometimes - in an earlier life - used ideas that were not truly worthy of you. Why did you act this way? Because you wanted a group of accolades. You wanted to be the great mentor or instructor.

This is well and good, but you sacrificed excellence for peer recognition. Currently, this past life attribute is still lingering in the back of your mind. You say and do the norm, instead of following your own agenda. Why do you shirk from the brilliance that Virgos have? Because of this rope to the past, saying that if you are too good or too perfect, you'll lose this peer appreciation.

THE RESULT: Your humor and view of life is not explored in a natural way. You pun back from those once-in-a-lifetime situations and goals. You think too much of what your pals are doing and not enough about what you want. Trying to fit in makes you uneasy, yet you long for intimate relationships.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Go for it. Whatever you want; especially power. Know that you not only deserve it, but your sole ideas - (forget listening ALL the time to others' views) - are the new ones that count. Go to your own well of emotional strength or information. Then decide what should be done. Also, don't shy away from taking leadership positions - even in love. This creates a lovely, positive, personal style that the past has been infringing upon.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Duty. That one word characterizes the past life, which prevents you from enjoying this life. No matter how good you were in the past, the karmic tie with relatives - that you failed in some way - permeates what you do. There are issues, regarding brothers and sisters especially, that may infuse your own current family situation with tension or disharmony.

Libras always are trying to accommodate these (past life) disruptions with their current desire to achieve familial popularity. And it's not easy, since you consistently anticipate what you think they want to do. You both long to bond more closely with your relatives, and conversely, they make you so nervous that you often invest your interests in your love or new family life.

THE RESULT: Marriage becomes a crucial element in your life. You adore becoming "one" with another. And your record at marital success is one of the best in the zodiac. The flip side to this advantage is that you put so much emphasis on your partner, you can strain the relationship - where one love has to be brother, sister, parent, child, therapist, lover and best friend. AND you expect or insist on spending all your time with them, so something has to give.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Try and have friends or family participate in your life more. Of course, being a Libran, you'll want to be with your partner, but maybe the two of you can expand your social life. Encourage your lover to have pals of the same sex, and you do the same. That way, the burden of handling all your confidences isn't solely in the hands of one person.

But you hid your sensitivity and probably - in ancient times - were thought to be a loner. You may have married someone your parents wanted, even though your heart was with another love. Romantic marriages, being a thing of the present, may not have been an option for you or others. Still, your heartstrings were with someone else, causing you to mistrust marriage.

THE RESULT: In this life, you also are mistrustful. Not just of marriage but of all close, one-one-one alliances. You seek to have an emotional escape clause because of this past life trauma. And trauma it was. Scorpio's emotions run deeply but are not often displayed. So, in this incarnation, you may be far more restrained than you want. However, you may not even realize how guarded and closed you act.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Your heart was brutalized in the past. But it was only the past. Talk to others, and don't clam up. Improve your emotional skills, and don't expect to be stabbed in the back. (Maybe a lover did that in another life). By anticipating the pain of the past, you send out psychic messages precluding you from connecting with the people whom you'd like to love and who have the love to return.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) In a past life, you were a prophet of some sort. You may even have had great forecasting abilities. An intellect, you were always seeking the truth - another difficulty in a past epoch when possibly the community didn't want to know. You liked to prepare for the possible consequences of these predications, but were probably thwarted at every turn of the bend.

The past life made you very frustrated because your great gifts of prophecy went unheeded or, if they were noticed, you received very little credit. You may have decided then to keep information to yourself and thus developed a reputation for being secretive (for good reason).

THE RESULT: Now you go in the opposite direction, choosing to be so open that you may hurt yourself, all without knowing why. The past life hovers over your personality, causing you to reveal things that are not especially helpful for you. Then, too, you may shoot from the hip and blurt out what you may not really think, when you were still formulating a position. This evolved into an atmosphere where you never give yourself enough time to think.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Attempt to reach some middle ground. This means you needn't be as secretive as in a past life, but you needn't be too forthright, either. The fact that you were constrained in the past, possibly from communicating and in some instances maybe even from speaking, puts more strain on you than you realize. So listen to a question completely - and don't feel you have to jump to an immediate conclusion. Use this time to think.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) What a pace you kept up in the past. Very likely you were an athlete or did some sort of hard labor. But you enjoyed it to no end. Society or our family may have ridiculed you for this interest, or for taking joy in simple outdoor, sports-like endeavors. Your boyish or girlish behaviors during the middle years (remember, everyone had a very short life span then), were not well received.

Additionally you had some physical ability that made you very special. This set you apart from community members. If you aspired to positions of power, there were jealous, less well-endowed villagers who did everything they could to diminish your natural powers. You - being less ambitious than everyone thought - were totally surprised and even unaware of these behind-the-scene actions.

THE RESULT: Capricorns now have what amounts to a karmic imperative to fulfill the roles of chieftains in this incarnation, the ones they were denied in a past life. So, they have an inner voice suggesting they do more, go higher up the ladder of a corporation or society, or just make more of their lives than normal people do. What a burden to shoulder, especially since Capricorns are so driven that they rarely take the time to think about deep personal anxieties.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Set aside time for yourself. Who's career and life plan are you following, anyway? Do something, or study a subject that was taboo in your family's or friend's eyes. In other words, open up your world. You most probably will come right back to the spot you are sitting now. Your goals, though, will incorporate your own personal interests. And if you are, or want to be, a fast tracker, then this sabbatical will increase your momentum.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Past lives held many successes for you. You learned the karmic lessons of what power, authority and respect meant. Consequently in this life, the normal aspirations aren't as accurate for Aquarians as for other signs. First, you care more about being, not ruling, others. You seek out spiritual values even if you are not educated in philosophy or religion. Believing in the connectedness of all things on this planet, you are a born environmentalist.

Here's the puzzle. Your present incarnation is really one where you are the bridge between different peoples, different views or different societies. The past intrudes because although you understand the limits of power subconsciously, on a more immediate conscious level you appear to disdain power or to misunderstand how to use it.

THE RESULT: On a day-to-day basis, you go hot and cold. You are the eternal anti-government anti-traditionalist. All well and good, except that you may not advance your own interests or cause as much as if you at least recognized some of the rules (power games) of your environment. Even those who are raising children or retired may not get the best out of services due them. Either you ask for too much or too little. Why? You assume that others will be as fair and as much of a humanitarian as you are, since in a past life you had the power to make sure you were not cheated.

WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Learn about how others manipulate the system, and don't denigrate these activities until you have fully investigated if these strategies are fair. You don't have to play all the corporate games, but there is some politicking done at work that may benefit you, the boss and the company all at once. Try to network more with those who can help you, and don't be afraid to appear pushy. Aquarians, the best-liked sign of the zodiac, are true egalitarians, so stop worrying.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) The lesson of this incarnation is that your higher values will predominate. More recent past lives had unresolved issues relating to kindness and warmth. Others found you intellectually superior, which made you interesting but not someone that people wanted to get closer to. And the more you strove to learn and to share with your community friends, the more distant in their eyes you became.

So your past life was one of intellectual intensity, but also emotional starvation. No one else could see this. Being very logical back then, emotional factors were either dismissed or never even conceived of. You felt the alienation creep over more and more of your activities. A happy marriage was possible, but a gulf existed because you were the superior intellect. You most likely won romantic arguments, but lost the marital war.

THE RESULT: Presently, you are overly timid about any type of confrontation. Though you'd like to clear the air regarding disagreements, you find it emotionally impossible to do so. If you'd had education, you may try and use facts and figures to prove you are right in circumstances that deal with heart-felt matters. But the most devastating element from a past life is that, in very trying emotional matters, you acquiesce instead of fighting. Giving in solves the immediate problem, but then you end up resenting the fact that you are going along with something or someone you don't honestly believe in.

 WHAT ACTION TO TAKE: Pisces must give in to their psychic bonds with the past. You should concentrate on getting as much from any relationship - with business associates, children, lovers, friends - as you give. Stop being victimized by this past shadow that compels you to use logic completely. Listen to those inner stirrings of intuition, and don't feel the need to explain all your actions. Naturally, you must not throw all logic to the winds, but if you follow it totally you'll still be living out a past life scenario that prevents you from going to your next stage of spiritual development.