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Horoscopes | Week of March 8-14, 2004

ARIES (March 21-April 19): If, during the first part of the week, you are open enough to having fragments of confusing logic make imperfect sense, conclusions inadvertently drawn from these discontinuous moments might start falling out your mind and mouth by week's end, in a good way. Mid-conversation, while listening to what someone is saying, your attention doesn't exactly drift but rather taps into another hidden layer, and you unexpectedly hear these same words but in application to something else entirely. The words resonate with personal poignancy for you regarding some issue totally unrelated to what the speaker is saying. In fact, the speaker truly has no idea the power of what he/she is addressing. In reaction, you abruptly jump a couple steps ahead, advancing in some philosophic rationale where you've recently felt stuck. No one else hears what you hear. No one else understands the mini-epiphany taking place behind your otherwise-politely-listening face. But soon, having become unstuck, you will speak and think as if your mental processes have been granted freshness. Confident and less self-conscious in your own words, you'll have discovered the mental freedom to admit certain of your ideas have passed to the wayside. Lighter, you exude less internal crossed-logic and thus can approach practical requirements without irrelevant moral-dilemma distraction.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): We've now hit the waning half of this superproductive-for-Taureans lunar cycle, which means that these last couple weeks leading up to Mar. 20's New Moon will be best spent by combining a finishing-off of tasks necessary to complete your goal [link] and any adjustments in consciousness required for you to learn from the trickiest parts of this past month. For those of you just joining, rewind to my original heads-up about this current period of Mars-Venus assistance (so you get a sense of what I'm talking about), and let me reiterate how happily the planets are playing along now with whatever efforts you take. Uranus and Saturn are working together to ensure that you elicit the proper blend of breaking away from tradition and retaining enough so that you're not totally uncomfortable and/or discombobulated. If you're participating in my assignment, you've already begun to glean the reward of beating the self-limiting ideologies into submission by proving you can do what you've believed you couldn't. If you haven't participated, I've left a back-door method open—imagine all the effort you took in not completing a project or achieving a goal, and use the next couple weeks to process that effortful supposed effortlessness, so you can learn a lesson from the repeated pattern of inertia. At least qualify busting through a mental blockade as some form of achievement.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Of course, it's both a blessing and a curse that Geminis have been gifted the impeccable ability to see both sides of a situation. Especially because, in allowing your cerebral versatility to graze across the broad expanse of your worldly possibilities (a blessing in that you can explore a multitude of ways of being), you see too many tempting pathways for achievement to channel your energies into excelling at one (which is the part most likely to feel oppressively curse-like). Alas, as you've learned from timely chats about said issue, not everyone experiences their search for a calling in quite the same decentralized fashion. Welcoming in a major change of tides equals letting conversations and other external pressures from particular poignant individuals (whose seemingly one-track, or at least focused, aspirations provide contrast) push you into internal-crisis mode. Other people—including one or more who might actually be involved in whatever career or outer-world scenario contains your sense of stuckness—wouldn't hesitate to move balls-out ahead without consulting an all-sides-must-be-considered approach. Whether through their encouragement or model, or whether through the realization of your contrast with them (shameful? competitive?), your consciousness should be willing to bend to incorporate such a single-minded approach, at least in the short term.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The planetary punch of Mars and Venus invigorating your eleventh house, a matrix of social linkages in which you are but one node, makes this an opportune week for all forms of connecting and networking and transmitting vibrations from this point to that like a hot potato, only in not quite so frenzied a fashion. Social connection with a multitudinous variety of other folks is both a lot of fun and potentially rewarding in a professional sense, but even more than those worthy benefits, it is good practice for the new Saturn-defined you, who needs to starting doling out the emotional nourishment in regulated shares so there's plenty to go around. If you are serving dinner for a hundred and have just the perfect quantity of prepared victuals, you must take extra care when plating each individual portion not to overserve—even to those who are your favorites—unless you're ready to face those unluckily-seated last few guests who will be left without anything to eat and, consequently, low blood sugar and a grumpy temperament. Even those favorites will have to understand it's nothing personal that they don't get special privileges (at least not at this function), and if that creates a tear in your heretofore-seamless relationship, then it's a necessary and productive cleavage.

LEO (July 23-August 22): It continues to be all good in the career-slash-external-accomplishment realm, and that includes any aches and pains (if there are any, physical or emotional) that might influence the manner in which you must continue getting your work done. The strategic ability to shift, adapt or overcompensate when needed is another polished trick you can now keep up your sleeve. At the same time, the recent boon in public recognition both helps you to separate the dogging self-doubts from those necessary moments of self-isolation and to recognize that this current incarnation requires a certain psychological free-spiritedness. If only you could convey the powerful love you feel for the most important ones in terms they could fully understand. If only you could remember exactly what it was you felt, the way you remember all your lines in the play or your list of official responsibilities. If only the summarizing statements you utter about your love, your life and your pursuit of happiness (as when explaining to someone who knows nothing about you or your charms) were as tightly composed and complete with revisions as the scripts others have crafted for you to eloquently perform.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): I can only imagine what the specifics of your last six months have included. Changes in work or partner status? Surgical removal of unsupportive friends, family members or other toxic influences? Have you sorted through boxes and gotten rid of some old crap? Or have you simply allowed your mind to dream bigger than it ever has, though have yet to enact external movements to mirror what's gone on inside? (If nothing similar to the above has happened, well, get busy!) All I told you to do last week was to look around and take stock of what you see. Now, having done that, you might have discovered that a new home is in order to house this altered incarnation. I am speaking less about making any sudden moves to your place of residence, and more about tinkering with consciousness shifts with regards to what labels, relationships, garments, attitudes, bedding, household cleaning products or other seemingly significant or insignificant items, ideas and people surround you from day to day. If you indeed looked around, that looking might also have involved comparing to others, talking about comparisons to others with others, and comparing the talks you had with others to other talks. Congratulations if I've confused you. Now use the highly fertile planetary vibe to combine concepts drawn from one-on-one relationships with awareness of your changed position in life, and start figuring out over coming months what a proper domain to contain all this might entail.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): A beautiful woman who has never understand why the men around her always act so strangely finally accepts her power. And with this acknowledgement of her certain allure, which makes her not haughty so much as wise and in control, she applies this power toward the continual careful molding of her outer-world personage, an embodiment of graceful ascendance to the top of the field of her choosing. She is willing to accept tradition and authority, as it plays out in the rules that regulate the terms of her success. All the while, she good-heartedly snickers at the quiet way she thumbs her nose at tradition and authority when actually doing the work, for it's nobody else's business how she accomplishes what she does, as long as it gets done. By willfully owning those qualities in herself that make others both respect her and secretly (or not so secretly) swoon, by taking such care to balance unorthodoxy with maturity, she grows increasingly secure that she can simply say what she needs to in any given moment—as truths stand on their own two feet—and trust that she won't be misrepresented to her detriment.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): There are more types of interpersonal chemistry to milk, with Mars and Venus continuing all that hand-holding in your seventh house, than the garden-variety romance bullshit that astrologers always herald for their love-thirsty readers. Other people have more uses than for flirting with, kissing and making goo-goo-ga-ga eyes at. Don't misinterpret my use of 'use' as if I'm encouraging you to be a 'user', but let's be honest, there's nothing wrong with utilizing aspects of a relationship to advance personal growth, so long as such self-focused gain isn't the reason for the relationship and it isn't done at the other person's expense. You have my blessing to deploy the assistance provided by the planets—they wouldn't provide it if it weren't intended for deployment—to use your one-on-one relationships as a platform for taking big creative risks, for attempting 'love' as a radical experiment in individuality rather than as a direct path to marriage and/or the baby in the baby carriage. You can let others help gently guide you into securing the ethical conclusions you've been wavering on, and relationships can also bring much-needed healing to your ability to enjoy play instead of being so seriously intent on practical solutions to practical problems. Plus, if you get a kiss or two out of it, that won't necessarily hurt things either.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Geez, doesn't it seem pretty often, like once every week or two, that you're faced with those same identity worries about whether you're becoming whatever brand of superstar you believe you should be by now? So what if, on the deepest levels, you know that asking yourself these questions and emotionally engaging in the search for answers is turning you fuller, more complex and intense, qualities that will serve you well for the rest of your life? Sometimes it's emotionally draining, other times disorienting, and never simple. Now that I've provided this room to acknowledge that I know what you go through, on and off fairly regularly, and I've given you props for it, I'm returning you back to work. Not heavy-duty, intense, who-am-I?, identity-transforming personal work, but basic nose-grindstone, sweaty-brow labor. I've already told you in past weeks that Mars and Venus together are giving more oomph to the daily grind than you've had in a while or will have again for another chunk of time. When in stress, remove mental cogitations and increase physical exertions. Heal the sense of lack by exercising more, cleaning out more closets, volunteering to help friends move heavy boxes, and clocking in some overtime (helps with the bank account too!). Let yourself be aware that psychological issues persist, but for another couple weeks, work not through them but over them, and feel the burn quiet the voices.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Perhaps I've confessed this to you before, but I must admit I'm sometimes kind of hard on my Capricorn buddies because I know you can take it (and because I'm sure that nothing I can dish out will be more harsh than what you serve yourself). This tough-love strategy is not intended to torture you, and I only take this approach because it parallels the role that you seem to assume (through both others' expectations and your own active adoption), which is the one who is always 'all right', who can hold it together and take care of business in difficult situations. I bring this up now, Capricorn, because I know I've been tough with you over recent months, with the combination of Saturn dogging your relationship issues (to teach you greater boundary definition) and Chiron driving you to reidentify yourself as less-than-perfect and openly vulnerably wounded (ultimately a very healing maneuver and inspiring to others). All that said, Mars and Venus want you to have a little fun now, to reconnect with the joy and creative self-expression that life is truly about, even in light of whatever difficulties or disappointments continue to loom large. Capricorns have an unbelievably vital and rich sense of humor, one that is able to turn life's difficulties into hearty laughter through recognition of humility, in yourself and by good-naturedly knocking others back to their rightful earthly level. Set your consciousness toward enjoying the week, understanding that it's just what you need to retain great faith in life as a container for vast stores of love.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): You already know what you're supposed to be working on, so I don't feel like even repeating it. In fact, I don't feel like even providing a convenient link to past weeks' horoscopes in the body of this horoscope—if you really want to claim ignorance, then I challenge you to follow the link to archived horoscopes provided near the top of this page and do your own back research. The planets are acting as a tight and solid shield, reflecting back to you every attempt you make to seek external adventure or to nose into the affairs of others with advice, situations in which you know you'll excel without really trying, as if your ego needs more reinforcement in the same areas where you always receive the praise. No, the planets want you looking inward, finding answers from the seclusion of your living room or bedroom rather than through intellectual explorations of others' answers, generating fertile wealth from getting your hands dirty instead of theorizing systemic improvements to the concept of hand-dirtying. Every time you try to latch your hopes onto the helium balloons of someone else's hard-earned reputation, under the pretenses of sharing and caring, there I'll be on the sidelines, shooting small stones at each one with my slingshot, popping each attempt to escape from earthly responsibility and forcing you back down to the ground. Work from the ground up, not the other way around.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): You have just been informed that you are the winner of an all-expenses-paid all-day shopping spree in New York City. (Consider this as the parallel to this past month's continued glorifications of enormous exciting changes afoot.) The shopping spree is still a few days away. A good thing, too, because the problem is that you don't really know much about New York. You need to figure out which stores you want to go to, and, of course, they will be scattered all around town, so you'll have to figure out which ones to go to in which order, to ensure that you hit all the crucial stops within their respective open-for-business hours. Plus, you're only allowed to end up with an amount of free belongings that you can carry on your person without additional assistance. You'll have to strategize what kinds of bags to use, which lighter items to buy first, which are the most valuable belongings that also weigh the least (hint: jewelry!). And you have to be prepared to give away at least a good portion of the booty you procure—or else your friends and loved ones are going to be bitter as hell!—so you have to plan what gifts you're going to buy for whom from where and in what order. You get the picture? Don't forget the good news—you've won the shopping spree. And don't overlook all the logistics you must think through in order to maximize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Pisces, you have more than a few days to strategize the specifics of your major life changes and more than a single day to scour the streets looking for the most intelligent freebies. Let's give you, say, a month or two to strategize the specifics of Part One of Dramatic Transition Time and the rest of the year to make it happen. If you wait too long, you forfeit the winnings. And if you don't do a bit of proper planning, you don't gain nearly as much as you otherwise would. Ready, set…