The nurturing Cancer moon rules the day, pumping empathetic vibrations into the atmosphere. "Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these." — Siddhartha Gautama

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You have principles that keep you good even when you don't feel like being good. You like the way your principles restrain you and guide you into being the best possible version of you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You have a strong desire for variety. Explore different modes of interaction. There are many ways to express what's in your heart. Today the best ways of speaking out won't be verbal.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Normally, you could ignore certain irritations, causing them to fade away. But now it's better to handle them before they grow into something big enough to interrupt your rhythm.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). You will direct your energy well, thinking about happy things, opportunities and beauty. When tempted to go negative, you'll gently redirect yourself. You'll accomplish what needs doing to move in a joyful direction.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You may refrain from playing a game because you sense that you're not on the same level as the other players. Saying "not now" is different from saying "never." You'll be rewarded for seeking arrangements that are a good fit.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Your emotions are friends. They are there to keep you safe. With this in mind, try to determine the purpose of an emotion when it starts. Ask where the feelings are coming from. The inquiry will change how you feel.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). There's no question: You are good at what you do. Whether or not it's acknowledged now, you know it. It makes you feel confident. And though you may wear a poker face, inside you're all smiles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). The amount of work before you may seem daunting. Expect some ups and downs. Time will fly when you're having fun and also when you're not. At the end of the day, you'll feel accomplished.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). The most successful people are those who do not back down in the face of possible failure, setbacks or pain. You'll be among the successful because you go forward no matter what.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You're naturally interesting. You'll get a gift: boring subject matter that begs you to spice it up. You can make anything fascinating by adding your personal spin to it.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You think you know what's going to happen today; you planned it, after all. Still, you have no idea how it's going to happen, which makes for an exciting, intriguing experience.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You may get positive attention by saying the opposite of what people expect. Later, you will cash in on the points you win by being so amusing.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAY (Sept. 11). People will look up to you because you're a person of action. Your instincts about people are right on through the next seven weeks, so move on them to great personal and spiritual effect. You'll make a professional leap in October. November brings a renovation. New relationships make 2013 exciting. Pisces and Leo people adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 49, 2, 35, 19 and 28.

ASTROLOGICAL QUESTIONS: "How can I have more self-discipline? I'm a Taurus and very stuck in my ways. There's something I'm doing now that I really have to break myself of."

The bad news is research points to the idea that people have a fixed amount of self-discipline at their disposal. Stress and environmental factors can wear away at a person's reserves of self-discipline, weakening the resolve to stick to a plan for accomplishing goals and changing habits. But the good news is very good, indeed. Once a habit has been established, a person no longer needs to dip into the willpower reserves in order to maintain the action. It becomes automatic, therefore requiring no self-discipline at all. In other words, once you turn an action into a habit, it will be easier for you to do your new habit than to not do it. Many scientists say 21 days makes a habit. Conventional wisdom stretches that to a month because it's an easier period of time to manage. I like to establish new habits on the new moon (for instance, the upcoming Virgo new moon on September 15th). And by the following new moon (in this case, October 15th), the habit will be ingrained. Best wishes — I know you can do it!

CELEBRITY PROFILES: Lovely Virgo Virginia Madsen has several projects in the works, including a screen adaptation of Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" and "The Hot Flashes," a movie with an all-star cast about an unlikely basketball team. The Academy Award-nominated actress was born when the moon, Mercury and Mars were in Libra, the sign of art and relationships, and she has Venus and Uranus in entertaining Leo.

If you would like to write to Holiday Mathis, please go to www.creators.com and click on "Write the Author" on the Holiday Mathis page, or you may send her a postcard in the mail. To find out more about Holiday Mathis and read her past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.