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Horoscopes | Week of April 26-May 2, 2004

ARIES (March 21-April 19): See, and you were wondering when some sort of logic would materialize to explain the unifying significances to all the excitement. Now, and finally. It's a good thing you didn't sit around and wait until the rationale rose to the surface before forging forward (not like it's really your way to overspeculate in preparation for action). As you well know, sometimes you must just do it, and this eclipse-powered moment has ensured it's virtually impossible not to. You would have had to possess some seriously entrenched psychological issues, if you felt compelled to dig your heels in and (try to) fight the wave. With Mercury turning direct in your sign and next week's lunar eclipse approaching, the evolving information unfolds to reveal more relevant specifics about the cosmic appropriateness of what you've been rather blindly carrying out. You see now why you were right to maintain motion. And in areas where motion was (self-)inhibited, it's time to look behind the anxieties and approach the darkness with a healing touch.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): At last, you're talking. Thank yourself for the caretaking, if you've sincerely done it well, then polite excuse this self-nanny and let her/him know that you'll take it from here. You might have to fight your way out of the safehouse, if your self-protective superhero self is blocking the door. But trust me, the planets are lining up like words in a perfectly crafted sentence of prize-winning prose, finally allowing a to logically and artistically lead to b and c the minute you put your heart behind your moving lips. Speak the emotional truth with delight, even the parts where you fess up to having only limited perspective on how others are handling their emotional truths. Truth does not necessitate agreement; more often than not, it elicits strong passionate reactions (whether seen in full-view or merely sensed from the impervious outside), one way or the other. All sorts of disrespect and delusion and disingenuous hangings-on melt from the light of truth's harsh but essential rays.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Taking care of business, which entails tightening the reins and reserving resources for practical value, leads to an enhanced feeling of emotional comfort. Funny how this easy equation easily eluded you all that time you fought from looking carefully by keeping busy with other distractions. But, ah, bless those distractions and the central role they play in your life… and the easier enjoyment you can draw from them, now that you know which boundaries you must play within and now that you can rely on yourself for dinner on the table. With this more restrictive and yet more stable foundation, imagine the fun you can have in receiving the Venus-inspired adoration still coming your way (for a couple months more, even!). You're poised to thrill at the attention and prosper with the increased social stimulation without having to invest your well-being in their opinions of you. You are free to let their uncomfortably powerful attractions or aversions to you come and go, learning more about relating (in the general sense) without taking it too personally.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): They're starting to understand you better. Well, it helps that you're letting them see a bit of the more serious you, a fuller and less guarded picture of the special part you're here to play, in collaboration with them. Don't let temporary dread of material reality (and you did catch the word 'temporary', right?) dampen your group-minded spirits; don't bow out because you'd rather stay home and mope about perceived scarcities. Perhaps part of the point of any fleeting fear is the vulnerable experience of sharing your concerns in an environment where others may offer you calm practical support. If you can't tell a friend, tell a stranger. You are rich in human contact, if you choose to include your social affiliations on the balance sheet. And all they want from you is you, not any particular version, not with a minimum deposit or level of achievement expected, just the person with the heart and soul.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Success will buy you freedom from spiritual bondage, if you let it. But you must write the check and, in the process, quash the irrationality that blocks accurate assessment of what you have. Interpret at your will, but: You have more than you know. If anything is fogging up the windows and obscuring the view, it's the intensified whirring of emotion that's pureeing your generally solid state of self like bananas in a blender. Yes, there is that much real emotional drama going on (and don't pretend there isn't a part of you that loves it!), which is a totally natural and understandable reaction to continued action in your public or professional situation. Keep the drama from going one step too far by not allowing yourself to forge self-defining statements from passing states. You are not always like this. You are not this or that kind of person. Freezing the free-flow of momentary fancy in this way ends up crystallizing sadness, fear or anger into a chronic condition. Let it in, then let it out. Cry and laugh and scream and spin around, but don't declare with egoist certainty.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Over the months, I've coached you on a journey to becoming a fuller you, in line with Jupiter's ongoing good-luck transit through your sign. Unlike my relationships with the other signs (don't tell!), I have invested ongoing narrative passion in your story this year, Virgo, because I feel you need the extra encouragement in order to take the most advantage of this time in your life. I want you to push for your own further spiritual development because you deserve it (and have taken the backseat to others too much in the past). I've walked you through the transition to greater self-expression and goaded you into trying it out with long-existing friends and loved ones, 'testing' to see who will flow with your changes and who will need to be expelled due to lack of support. Now, Virgo, it's time to try it out in the group situation, in any team setting or institutional involvement or social affiliation in your life. It's time to put a more visible face on it, by wearing the new team colors or the appropriate ribbon, and to align yourself publicly with those whose viewpoints you share (rather than those with similar inherited traits of cultural comfort). Don't hang together out of convenience or unconscious habit. You must build webs of support through connections with the like-minded, even if it means attending scary meetings or events without knowing a single soul, if you ever hope to be that person who does those things, and to sustain that identity on an ongoing basis.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): No one's accusing you of being superficial when I alert you to the ongoing deepening process unwinding over these weeks. But everyone knows Librans like their smooth glistening surfaces, out of affection for beauty and pleasantness, of course, rather than any desire for deception. Still, your surface is simply unable to remain maintained and contained in this eclipse-frenzied world of ours. Consequently, the inability of your politest efforts to result in the preferred aesthetic effect releases an unexpected inner spiritual peace. If you can't do anything about the surface, then there's no need to worry about it. You can let go and live in the domain of the rest of us normal human beings, who exude salty sneers and pseudo-snobbish vulnerabilities without much control. You can allow the outside world to make its judgments on your attributes and accomplishments, rather than on the texture of your resume paper or the graceful style of your interview getup. After the initial shock of exposure wears off, the freedom feels ecstatic.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Throughout the week, Scorpio, pay attention to the Moon in the sky at night. Watch its light increase each night, building to the full moon lunar eclipse next Tues May 4 in your sign. As each day passes and the Moon grows brighter, so too will you, daily, gain important insights into how the many different social connections you've made throughout your lifetime connect to form a net which will catch you from falling. You cannot help but become the ethically-intact super-version of yourself of which you dream because we won't let you flounder. Life is about mutual support, feeling like you can draw on others' strengths because you are also willing to be drawn upon to help the ones you love. Each night's lunar shine spreads over the whole earth, and every individual out there who is important to you sees that same moon, wherever he or she is. By next week, be as fully aware of the many nodes in this nexus for you to skip across like stones in a creek, so that you make a safe and prosperous crossing to the next resting place. And we are happy to help.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): It will be very useful for you to remain in tune with whatever responsibilities you must fulfill in order to take complete advantage of your good-luck career opportunities. Sustained step-by-step work on the necessary steps will ensure all the right pieces are in place when the moment of truth presents itself with little distinct forewarning. Remember all this, and let it inspire you to restrain some of your passion, to be channeled in the direction of displaced pleasure and transformative daily duty. Otherwise, the ongoing titillation of Venus in your seventh house opposing Pluto in your sign will pull you too far away from your achievement-oriented goals with the powerful allure of flirtation, intense conversation, interpersonal bliss (alternating with confusion as to its 'meaning'), and all types of relationship action. You are helpless to resist (and why would you?), but not without the ability to keep your all-important work life undeterred by amorous tangents. Draw the necessary box around your earthly duties, then revel in the passionate madness on your off time.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Things are looking up, Cap, for what has hitherto been a sobering seriousness blanketing your approach to one-on-one relating is magically morphing into strength of spirit. You're mastering the lair-of-love known metaphorically as a heart, developing better control over the valves that carefully mete out genuine emotion and caring so that they neither shut off the flow completely nor flood the fields with too much at once. Holding in your love is asking for trouble, no matter how difficult it is to let it out when someone's watching so closely (and risk the leaky drops creating such unsightly stains!). But love for the world turns into something far darker and more malignant, when kept trapped inside due to selfish self-preservation. Spewing unruly bottomless love all over the place, meanwhile, is no better, as it depletes the reserves so quickly and/or establishes unreasonable expectations of excess that are hard to undo. If you are to learn anything from this period of interpersonal challenge, it's the fine art of giving just the right amount, so you are neither frigid nor overpowering in emotional exchange.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): The people, the ideas, the emotional reactions to the people and the ideas. All of this is moving forward, propelled by the eclipses (bringing abrupt transitions) and Mercury going direct (bringing sudden recollection and resubmission of notions) and Venus in Gemini (bringing all kinds of admirers and admirees). Ride it out, but don't let it enchant you past the point of prioritizing your longer-term emotional stability, which, if I may remind you, deems this current time a phase of serious attention to matters of work, duty and physical health. You can most certainly enjoy augmented intimacy, but don't do it at the expense of healthful habits or nose-to-the-grindstone acknowledgment of pressing projects. In fact, foster only those intimacies that develop in conjunction with acting more responsibly. Anything other than that, even if the individual(s) in question spur your romantic or intellectual passions, will be indulged at your own risk to private serenity. Make yourself feel better for an eternity, not merely an instant.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Be social. Be around people. Meet people. Reconnect with people. Call people. Stare at people. The combined power of Jupiter and Saturn makes it easier than ever to reach beyond your comfort zone in being yourself, even if you do it one tiny bit at a time. Fight the tempting pull to stay at home, even if it seems like the perfect moment for a home-improvement product or a spell of artful isolation (you can do those too, but only if you're being social first!). Too many of us are actively engaged in too many exciting new projects, and it's to the benefit of all things Pisces to get outwardly involved in listening and sharing, finding connection through the rapid changes we're all going through. It doesn't matter if you hit your own walls in the process of talking to someone else—you have a lot to learn from following others' examples rather than expecting to happen upon final answers through continual self-reflective churning and chewing. Who cares if you don't know? None of us really does. But the discussions between us generate the combinations of vulnerability and ignorance necessary to draw conclusions. We hold each other's missing pieces, if only we can get together and swap.