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  A highly developed sense of discrimination may lead you to be hypercritical. You are unsatisfied with things as they are and continue to analyze situations and people in the hope of finding a way to make them better. At times your finely tuned sensibilities can even make you unhappy, for they give you a heightened awareness of the world’s imperfections. However, you resist criticism of your faults from others. It’s a rare Virgo who takes criticism well or who can admit to being in the wrong.

  You are health-conscious and try to make sure you get enough vitamins and go for regular checkups at the dentist. However, in this as in other areas, you can’t help being a worrier. As a result you are prone to tension and nervous ailments. Hypochondria is common among Virgos.

  A warm, loving relationship brings out the best in anyone born under this sign because basically you are kind, devoted, and very loyal. When your affections are engaged you tirelessly try to serve loved ones. They will never have to worry about who’s going to keep the checkbook balanced or look after them when they are ill.

  The Inner You

  You have plenty of willpower and dedication, and you work harder than anyone to make sure something is perfect. Why? Because if you can’t do everything superbly, you begin to fear that you’re failing. You are much too critical of yourself. Actually, you’re an enigma that no one has quite figured out. You hold back with people you don’t know well and are reserved even with those you love. Inwardly, though, you feel very deeply. Intensity and extreme sensitivity are part of your secret self. You like looking after others—giving advice to friends, feeding stray animals, tending sick plants—but you need to be appreciated for the kind things you do. Above all, you want to be useful because you truly care about people.

  How Others See You

  You’re regarded as a real go-getter. People trust you to handle any job. They think of you as a person who can analyze almost any problem in a logical way. Others come to you when they want their own actions explained to them, or are feeling confused about relationships. You are valued for your ability to set priorities and to create order out of confusion. Because you’re both discriminating and truthful, people trust your judgment on books, theater, and clothes. However, you don’t wear your heart on your sleeve, and as a result others often perceive you as haughty and cold.

  FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH THE SUN IN VIRGO

  * * *

  Marc Antony

  Yasir Arafat

  Lance Armstrong

  Lauren Bacall

  Anne Bancroft

  Ingrid Bergman

  Leonard Bernstein

  Jacqueline Bisset

  Charles Boyer

  Kobe Bryant

  Sid Caesar

  John Cage

  Taylor Caldwell

  Agatha Christie

  Craig Claiborne

  Patsy Cline

  Confucius

  Sean Connery

  Harry Connick Jr.

  Jimmy Connors

  Jackie Cooper

  Macaulay Culkin

  Roald Dahl

  Cameron Diaz

  Theodore Dreiser

  Queen Elizabeth I (the Virgin Queen)

  Peter Falk

  Greta Garbo

  Richard Gere

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hugh Grant

  Buddy Hackett

  O. Henry

  Faith Hill

  Jeremy Irons

  Christopher Isherwood

  Michael Jackson

  Jesse James

  Samuel Johnson

  Tommy Lee Jones

  Michael Keaton

  Gene Kelly

  Stephen King

  Peter Lawford

  D. H. Lawrence

  Alan Jay Lerner

  Rocky Marciano

  Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

  John McCain

  Freddie Mercury

  Grandma Moses

  Paul Muni

  Bob Newhart

  Arnold Palmer

  Itzhak Perlman

  Regis Philbin

  Ryan Phillippe

  River Phoenix

  Keanu Reeves

  LeAnn Rimes

  Cal Ripken Jr.

  Margaret Sanger

  William Saroyan

  Claudia Schiffer

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Peter Sellers

  Charlie Sheen

  Upton Sinclair

  Oliver Stone

  Mother Teresa

  Leo Tolstoi

  Lily Tomlin

  Shania Twain

  George Wallace

  H. G. Wells

  Your Most Likeable Trait CHARM

  * * *

  LIBRANS ARE EASY TO LIKE, for you have a captivating charm, possess elegant taste, and are usually beautiful to look at. In addition, you have the gift of making others feel important, for you are a superb listener and instinctively know how to draw out another person. You’re famous for how effortlessly you smooth ruffled feathers, bring out smiles, and make others think they’re the most wonderful people in the world. You’re a born charmer.

  Ruled by Venus, goddess of love and beauty, you admire loveliness in all its forms, in music, art, decoration, and people. Your home will always have a touch of elegance, and you love to entertain in style. Flowers, champagne, lovely jewelry and clothes, beautiful (and expensive) objets, luxurious surroundings—these are the ornaments of life to you. You enjoy all the things that money can buy.

  A narcissist at heart, you expect admiration. You wish to be the jewel in the center of any setting, and you have a computer memory for any compliment ever paid to you. You tend to judge others by outward appearances. If someone has a charming facade, you won’t look any deeper. As a result you may become easy prey for a sophisticated schemer with an affable manner.

  Libra is the zodiacal sign of Partnerships—in psychological terms the sign is outer-directed. Your energies are focused on melding and combining with other people; you are at your best in personal relationships. Your real energy, however, goes into people. Whether they be partners, lovers, mates, family, friends, business associates, or even guests at your party—relationships are your metier. You’re simply not a loner. Instinctively, you try to magnetize and pull others toward you. However, your main interest is on yourself within the relationship. You deal intuitively with other people’s emotions, and no one is better at understanding and taking into consideration another person’s point of view. Yet all too soon that outside viewpoint will be lost or subsumed within your own subtly self-centered concerns.

  In the professional world you’re a superb team player. You’re able to meld many disparate egos into one smooth-working union. Your friendships and associations bring opportunities, and your best luck comes when you pool your creative talents and intelligence with powerful individuals who open doors for you.

  Born under the sign of the Scales, you strive for balance and harmony and are happiest when your environment is ordered and serene. Peace is worth any price to you and usually you will go a long way out of your way to avoid friction and dissension. Because you see clearly every side of an argument, every possibility of a given course, you have the tact and ability to smooth over disputes. You are a born diplomat. In order to avoid an unpleasant scene, you will even stifle your own true feelings. In fact, far too often you are not sure what your true feelings are. Because you try to be all things to all people, there is a general impression that you are indecisive. You appear to be constantly poised on an edge, seemingly unable to move one way or another, balancing pro with con, advantage with disadvantage, risk with gain. Underneath your genial, calm surface, you have to struggle in order to make decisions.

  The problem is that at Libra’s center is someone who does not feel complete in himself or herself. Beneath your brilliance and charm, you feel a psychic lack, something missing—whether this something is a perfect lover, a fulfilling career, a wonderful project that shows off your talents, etc. And so you sp
end a lot of time feeling you’re not “real,” that you’ve conned others into thinking you’re smart and successful, but very soon they’ll find out you’re a fraud. One of Libra’s best-hidden secrets is how shaky your self-confidence is—and certainly your sense of not being whole and creating a false front is at the core of your insecurity.

  Although you have superb instincts, you don’t trust them enough. You are likely to be an underachiever because of your easygoing attitude. For the most part, you don’t want anything badly enough to fight for it. The exception is when you’re denied a privilege to which you feel entitled. That ruffles your fur. Librans have a reputation for stubbornness, but that’s because you are sticklers for fairness. You resent being treated unfairly and become upset at inequity in the world at large. In general, it seems your strength is only brought out by crisis. This is when you’re at your most courageous.

  You get along harmoniously with people who are even-tempered, particularly those who can laugh in the face of difficulties. You are particularly appreciative of talent in any field, whether art, literature, or music, and if you lack talent yourself you often indulge in artistic hobbies. Often people are surprised at the wide range of your interests because you hide your superior intellect under an agreeable, easygoing exterior. Libra is a cardinal sign, which means you’re an initiator. You love new projects, unusual people, different ideas, and you’ll travel anywhere. Gifted with imagination, flair, and enthusiasm, you have an open, independent mind that tries to evaluate the world dispassionately and rationally. You also have a good head for money (though your great weakness is a love of luxury).

  Indeed, money has a way of slipping through your fingers because it isn’t money you love, it is the things money can buy. Essentially frivolous, people born under this sign dislike hard work—unless someone else is doing it. A love for beauty leads many natives of this sign to careers in art, decorating, the theater, and composing, but the approach often remains that of a dilettante who enjoys the reward but avoids the effort needed to attain it.

  You are an incorrigible idealist and quintessential romantic. Affectionate, warmhearted, sentimental, naturally optimistic, you do everything in your power to please. Your stock-in-trade is charm.

  The Inner You

  You work hard trying to please others and as a result, they find you captivating. However, beneath your friendly exterior, you desperately long for love and approval. You have trouble saying no to others’ requests and you take on too many jobs or commitments—and then to prove how nice you are, you keep smiling through the strain while you hide a lot of resentment. It might be more useful to spend time building up your self-esteem rather than looking to others to give it to you. Basically, you give away your power. You hate anything unpleasant and avoid conflict, vulgarity, or strife. If life were a play, you’d always insist on a happy ending. The problem with trying to have constant peace and harmony is that you have trouble making decisions. At times you fear that any move you make will bring something terrible crashing down around you. If you could just lighten up and not be so hard on yourself, you’d be much more satisfied with what you do achieve. You have every ingredient for happiness!

  How Others See You

  People feel important when they’re with you because you always seem to understand their point of view. You are considered warm and outgoing because you know how to draw people out, and you’re thought of as someone with an unparalleled ability to deal with the public. However, because you want others’ approval, you tend to go along with what they want—and this sometimes makes you look wimpy. To some people, you also appear vain and overly concerned with your appearance.

  FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH THE SUN IN LIBRA

  Julie Andrews

  Hannah Arendt

  Armand Assante

  Brigitte Bardot

  David Ben-Gurion

  Joyce Brothers

  Art Buchwald

  Truman Capote

  Al Capp

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Ray Charles

  Montgomery Clift

  Jackie Collins

  Simon Cowell

  e. e. cummings

  Matt Damon

  Catherine Deneuve

  Angie Dickinson

  Michael Douglas

  William O. Douglas

  Alfred Drake

  Hilary Duff

  Eleanor Duse

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Britt Ekland

  T. S. Eliot

  William Faulkner

  Carrie Fisher

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Annette Funicello

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Mohandas K. Gandhi

  George Gershwin

  Bryant Gumbel

  Linda Hamilton

  Helen Hayes

  Rita Hayworth

  Jim Henson

  Vladimir Horowitz

  Lee Iacocca

  Julio Iglesias

  Jesse Jackson

  Donna Karan

  Buster Keaton

  Deborah Kerr

  Evel Knievel

  Angela Lansbury

  Ralph Lauren

  John LeCarré

  Ursula K. LeGuin

  John Lennon

  Walter Lippmann

  Carole Lombard

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Mickey Mantle

  Wynton Marsalis

  Groucho Marx

  Marcello Mastroianni

  Johnny Mathis

  Walter Matthau

  John Mayer

  Mark McGwire

  Melina Mercouri

  Arthur Miller

  Yves Montand

  Martina Navratilova

  Admiral Horatio Nelson

  Louise Nevelson

  Eugene O’Neill

  Gwyneth Paltrow

  Luciano Pavarotti

  Juan Perón

  Luke Perry

  Paul Potts

  Mario Puzo

  Christopher Reeve

  Anne Rice

  Kelly Ripa

  Rex Reed

  Tim Robbins

  Mickey Rooney

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Susan Sarandon

  George C. Scott

  Paul Simon

  Ashlee Simpson

  Will Smith

  Annika Sorenstam

  Bruce Springsteen

  Gwen Stefani

  Wallace Stevens

  Sting

  Ed Sullivan

  Margaret Thatcher

  Cheryl Tiegs

  Desmond Tutu

  Usher

  Giuseppe Verdi

  Ben Vereen

  Gore Vidal

  Barbara Walters

  Sigourney Weaver

  Oscar Wilde

  Serena Williams

  Thomas Wolfe

  Your Most Likeable Trait IDEALISM

  * * *

  THIS IS THE SIGN of extremes. Scorpio people are variously described as powerful, weak, independent, clinging, passionate, and cold. Clearly, you are a bundle of contradictions encompassing the best and worst in human nature.

  The key to your personality is intensity. You do nothing by half-measures. Magnetic, emotional, capable of exerting tremendous force, your strength is hidden in the depths. In the sign of Scorpio the element of water is fixed, an image that suggests an iceberg or a bottomless well. You may appear impassive, sometimes unapproachable, but turbulent passions are always roiling underneath, invisible on the surface.

  You live on many levels. While you present a calm and smiling face to the world, you’re ferociously persistent and extremely strong-willed. You’re also flexible when it comes to working out solutions. When thwarted, you don’t just accept defeat. You’re extremely agile when it comes to sidestepping obstacles and figuring out a dozen new ways to get to your goal. In a wonderful paradox, flexibility is one of your most effective methods of controlling situations.

  Scorpio is the most misunderstood sign in the zodi
ac because of its complications and convolutions. Basically, you always have a hidden agenda. You’re someone of incredible depth and brilliance, and your inner psyche is a labyrinth of wheels within wheels, boxes within boxes. Even when you seem to be at ease and relaxed, you are always evaluating, figuring out your moves, working out strategy. Much of this has to do with control, which is what you are all about. For Scorpio to be out of control is to be in psychic danger. Nothing is worse for you than to feel swept away by outside forces. When you control you are safe. Your Scorpio evolution is the journey toward controlling in positive ways—putting order into chaotic situations, being of use to others and therefore meeting an unfulfilled need, arranging your personal environment so it works smoothly for you. The unevolved Scorpio tries to control other people and manipulate situations for its own greed. Thus, as you see, the forces of light and dark continually oppose each other in your turbulent psyche.

  What you need is to transmute your fervor into positive relationships and meaningful work. It is very easy to waste yourself on what is unworthy of you, and then your feelings turn inward, become imprisoned, at times even destructive. More than natives of any other sign, Scorpios live at a high pitch of emotion. Its negative aspects are brooding, jealousy, resentment, even vengefulness. The positive aspect is your unswerving dedication once your emotions are engaged. The Scorpion energy, drive, and endurance are legend. Above all, you seek to give your life a meaningful pattern, to find a deeper purpose.

  You have a philosophical turn of mind and may become interested in religion and the occult. Your sixth sense enables you to intuit things before they happen. You are blessed with a native understanding of the human heart and a great awareness of life’s secrets. All the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) tend to be psychic, but you Scorpios delve into the powers of the mind that others are afraid of. This is the zodiacal sign of birth, sex, death, and regeneration—areas of human existence in which a person confronts the mysteries of the universe. Many Scorpio natives are brilliant doctors, surgeons, scientists, and spiritual leaders. Jonas Salk, Christiaan Barnard, Marie Curie, and Martin Luther are among them.