Horoscopes | Week of January 3-9, 2005

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The ringing-in of a New Year provides the occasion to help you draw more substantial conclusions, wringing the unnecessary complications out from your understanding of recent situations and clarifying the main point(s) you've learned by going straight in and refusing to refrain. The most relevant realizations have finally hit you with a resounding power in their simplicity. The speed-bumps along the way have not hindered you at all—in fact, they've probably boosted your ultimate sureness—so who cares if, in retrospect, what you previously thought was the bottom line wasn't quite bottom yet. Now, finally, you see it. In the aftermath of reaching a kernel of moral truth at the end of the strenuous adventure, stand atop the mountain and breathe in the clean air. But don't rest too long upon laurels… because the fertile joy of building something enduring on this foundation calls from right around the bend.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When compared with shallow, deep is where it's at. With every ounce of your non-fearful being, you long for straightforward, unabashed disclosure—mutual and free-flowing, rather than one-sided, saved-up and requiring 'special' conversations. Recent weeks' internal conflicts, which likely inhibited your ability to come across as clearly as you thought you were, are a thing of the past. In their wake, the only obstacle to tried-and-true truth-telling is that little internal voice from the hyper-persnickety Decorum Department, trying to goad you into obeying the protocols of 'polite' and exploring half-thorough contacts without commitment: 'Never let them see you sweat.' Alas, it's okay to bypass this finicky fastidiousness and model a sweaty brow in public… so long as the sweat has been earned through the toil of speaking straight from the Source, without omissions in honor of what's imagined appropriate. It's okay to appear heated, impassioned, emboldened or bugged when delivering the goods—but when truth verges into personal digs, the buzzer will sound, indicating you've strayed from integrity and must return to the root of the message as quickly as possible.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Over these past two weeks, I'm hoping the sentiments shared among you and one or more noteworthy intimates in your life have helped elucidate the dynamic(s) floating out there between you. Any important tidbits that have, up to now, been expunged from the official record are liable to crop up in unpleasant uncontrolled allusions, through snide asides or unexpectedly after that extra glass of wine, unless spoken up soon. Review your notes to ensure that all testimony has been given, all witnesses given their due say and all relevant strings tied up in the closing statements. I feel you with regards to the inescapable insecurity that arises when your sense of well-being is complicated by the necessary inclusion of other people's feedback on matters that affect you and them. However, withholding key evidence or refusing to engage in tough cross-examination qualifies as obstruction of justice, and the last thing you want is for these weeks' diligent efforts to yield a hung jury and force the process to begin again with new representation.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Recognize any of those impulses to drag, whine, harrumph, delay, push away or generally lack enthusiasm for just what they are—not mere run-of-the-mill, back-from-vacation blues, but a more subtle intrusion from emotions that may barely hit your conscious radar. Sluggishness or resistance to duty are not simple motivation problems, and fresh bouts with physical illness are likely manifestations of too much energy being expended (or not expended) as opposed to a symptom of deficiency. You should be bubbling over, fueled up and full of fervor for the work that must get done—but my use of 'should' is intentionally fallible, so any variance from this state is totally expected, though must be honestly evaluated beyond surface-level bemoanings of laziness or exhaustion. This week, hesitance is emotionally motivated. If none is present, then enjoy the smoother sailing. If it is, however, then ask yourself what emotion(s) could be behind the drag-whine-harrumphing. It's worth understanding any feelings that hold you up, not giving yourself insincere batterings for incomplete reasons.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): This is a time to collapse those frantically coursing jitters and jerks into a single serving of celebration for the very fact of being alive. Even if you're terrified of breaking out or moving past, grief-stricken by painful changes or entrenched inertia… whatever the worst grumpy-day filter can cast over the broader reality of your life… all of it is ultimately a privilege that comes with the human experience, and all of it holds the potential to be reinterpreted as joy, once you realize that sensation of any kind is the vibrant antonym to numbness. Leo, sign of the Sun, you have been gifted with a life-affirming talent for drawing out the light from every dark corner… and what a time of year to deploy it for inspiring others and, ultimately, yourself. There will be other opportunities, in future multi-dimensional incarnations we cannot begin to understand, to explore the merits of dormancy and detachment… but these current precious moments of being a breathing human are temporary and worth maximizing, no matter the variable ecstasies and antipathies, for the simple smell-the-flowers enjoyment that only passes this way once.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): First and foremost, your new-year's priority should be to make your bed… in the widest, most metaphorical sense of this domestic task. The conditions under which you decompress in private chambers, the quality of your linens and the care with which you cradle your tender soul in their softness… such concerns ask for your undivided attention, and anything unrelated to your quiet self-made comforts cannot help but retreat to the back of the line. If you resist the call to counteract the rawness of the season by being your own favorite and most supportive family member—because modesty prevents you from serving your own emotional needs (bah, humbug!)—then you're essentially leaving yourself out in the cold, and that is decidedly not what you'd do if someone else needed you as much as you need yourself. Daring both to pamper yourself and to defiantly deserve it may not make you the most popular guy or gal on the committee, but your self-nurturance is necessarily run by a single voice (i.e., yours), not consensus.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): You would be the ideal one to canvass your neighbors for contributions to the relief efforts. You'd be perfect at organizing your ornery, uncooperative relatives to chip in together for the perfect anniversary gift for your grandparents. And you're the wo/man to circulate among the guests and convince them to participate in the hokey party games. Why? Because right now, Libra, you possess the zeal to productively and wholeheartedly advocate toward some purpose you deem significant… and the communicative versatility to speak to each potential partaker in his/her own language, to bridge gaps between clashing cousins or adversarial acquaintances, and to convince him/her to get with whatever program you're spearheading. The trick, not that I need to tell you, is to come off casual and unconcerned with forcing the result you're concerned with creating. As long as you speak from the heart, it's not so troublesome that what you say might leak from both sides of the mouth.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): If you so choose, Scorpio, you hold the power to embody the essence of a certain picture that will not leave my mind when I think of you—a pig digging through the dirt, rooting out rare and expensive truffles from their hiding places, to your profit and the delight of gourmands everywhere. If you're willing to look past the unglamorous (and un-kosher) image of a mud-covered hog, you'll recognize the value in emulating its excavation skills. If you mobilize your energies to a razor-sharp pinpoint focus and determine precisely what it is that you want, it's almost impossible not to get it. Needle-in-a-haystack exactitude is yours for the taking, if you can accurately describe the needle in advance of finding it and are willing to spend as many hours or weeks in the hay as are needed. I wouldn't want to play hide-and-seek with you right now, Scorpio, because you'd surely beat my ass. But if you search for nothing and squander this shot, not only are you unlikely to find what you would/should be looking for, but you'll also likely lose something you might not even remember you already had.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): I feel as if, perhaps, you should be writing this week's Sagittarius horoscope instead of me. With one more week of four planets in your 1st house, your orientation favors spontaneous action over lackluster forethought, and you know better than I how this injection of destiny-kissed rowdy is playing out since you're living it everyday. The motion must continue its movement as long as it stimulates you from within, and you can worry about picking up the pieces of ramifications later (though their presence has already begun to make itself needlingly known). Late in the week, Venus moves on and takes her unendingly flattering aura-glow along with her… which means, if there are any, um, more difficult or challenging parts to your currently-in-process actions still left to complete, I'd get to them this week or lose the planetary spoonful-of-sugar that helps the medicine go down. Both you and I will have clearer, more detailed and sense-making things to say about this state of affairs starting next week, when Mercury will join Venus in your 2nd house and help you build practical strategies for the future upon this recent dynamism. Until then, continue running for the roses, over the hill and toward the far-off horizon, without knowing exactly what awaits there.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Happy Capricorn season, Capricorn friends! The Sun is already halfway through your sign, and yet it's as if you're just barely beginning to wake up to its invigorating light. That's because, as I told you last time, a lineup of four planets lodged in your misty 12th house has kept you wandering through the ethers with your headlights off. Indeed, you have changed position considerably since last you were able to glance your navigational gauges, and yet couldn't be reliably relied upon to accurately describe how here differs from there. By week's end, lady Venus heads into your sign and lends her kind and gracious assistance to your plight. It is as if she's grabbing your hand and pulling you from deep inside the cloud and out towards the light. She won't be offering any summarizing explanations—that's Mercury's job, and he's still another week from Capricornland—but the smiles and nudges and winks should be enough that concrete knowledge won't much matter. Enjoy the favor from others, and let recent anxieties melt away in a little lightheartedness.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): 'Listen up, world. This is the voice that speaks on behalf of the Greatest Benefit to the Widest Many, as channeled through the body and being of Aquarius. It does not matter whose feelings you momentarily startle when crusading for the holy Whole, for, as but one speck in the infinite Color-Block, no single individual is entitled to maintain his/her personal mythos at the expense of Universal Truth. We simply cannot afford to ignore the cries of the Masses for the profit of the ferocious Few. Too much Comfort is Selfish. I entrust my Aquarius soldiers to judge the merits of all dogmatic postulates, proclamations and declarative deeds—including, though not limited to, their own—on the basis of what gross percentage of the Populace is directly served by its dictates, and who is summarily excluded and/or held down as a result. Yes, these are bold verbal strokes, in lofty terms, with Lots of Capital Letters. But my Aquarius friends are best positioned to hold open ears and act as Cosmic Mouthpiece this week, before they wander off for a few weeks into their own moistest skies. The Whole through the Dignity of its Parts; the Kingdom of Heaven through the eye of an ordinary needle. End of Spirit Transmission. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.'

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Rise to the occasion, and foster a free-flowing brainstorming session to elicit your deepest, truest, highest goals out from the land of unarticulated surreality in which they dwell. Write them all down, more than you could ever possibly accomplish in a single lifetime, and do not let the harsh critic/censor/idea-truncator have any say whatsoever. Use poster-sized paper and big magic markers to spell out your potentialities—and no commitment here. You must allow yourself to dream on this enormous scale if there's any hope of eradicating the nope-can't-do-it crap that snuffs out the tries before they materialize. In the realm of creative visualization, there should be nothing but freedom. Write fast and furious, not stopping to correct spelling or to ask yourself too accusingly what you meant by this or that. Complete this exercise while on the job, if you dare. Tell your boss what you're doing if s/he asks. No one can charge you with 'staying in the box' when you think this far outside it, and this sort of wide imaginative net-casting will only benefit whatever you do, now and in the future. Only after you have a document to show for your creative efforts will we be able to move to the next part of the exercise: handing out copies to all your friends and associates, and asking them to pick the two or three aspirations they most clearly picture you accomplishing.