Horoscopes | Week of February 14-20, 2005
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don't force it. Whatever 'it' is, let it glide into its place smoothly and with as little coerced effort as possible. If it doesn't fit, it probably doesn't belong there… at least for right now. Aries, it's one of those weeks when you'll miss the most truly advantageous opportunities if you insist on relentlessly gripping to your self-contained bubble of perspective, if you expend oodles of projective yang on thoughts and actions and leave nothing up to yin. The mental breakthroughs promised by Mercury's conjunction to Uranus are likeliest to arise in meditative quiet-time, without expectation on how problems should be solved or preconceived visions of the solution. Activity stalemates, meanwhile, are best broken through collaborative participation rather than full-throttle attempts at independent mastery.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The pleasure from a duty enthusiastically accepted, a first preliminary shot authentically taken and/or a job well done is enough. The buzz of being open to relinquishing both identity concerns and attachments to particular outcomes floats you up and over the dull, and suddenly colors are more vivid. Welcome eager without even that slight pressure of eager to or eager for. Being of real service to yourself, first and foremost, calls for unadulterated endorsement of your present position (especially professionally speaking, or in terms of the life struggle to 'get' where you suppose you're going)… and that's true, despite whatever dissatisfactory circumstances you continue to strive for (or dream of) changing. You're here now, a time and place with an endless supply of pride-filled details and dimensions to counter-balance any and all annoyances. Simultaneity over either/or. Don't put off living until you've got it 'just so'.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Revel in the next-size-up possibilities, not necessarily because they are any closer to actually happening (though it's not as if they are less likely to occur either). At this moment, bigger is better, mainly for the extra room it provides for stretching out and growing past. One thing's for sure: You probably won't be doing anything new (or, for that matter, particularly exciting) if you insist on keeping your imaginative capacities limited to areas of thought already in regular rotation. You'll know exactly what to expect, except for a couple relatively insignificant variations. Tune in to a different channel, or browse through the titles in a bookstore aisle you usually skip. No same-old gossip; no copycat-conditioned explanations for perpetuating the same erred system; no mimicked mumblings. Enjoy the identification of patterns, for that is the first and most necessary step for breaking them and doing things differently.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I aim you back at last week's affirmation that, yes, the mysterious vibes are twittering in that in-between space and adversely impacting your ability to hone in on what belongs to whom. I made a point of warning against raising the issue in explicitly articulated discussion, mainly due to the possibility it could confuse rather than clarify the situation. Wherever you are with it this week, Cancer, there's more of a chance of you legitimately understanding the higher meaning of what you're sensing, beyond the he-said/she-said type of forensic reconstruction that substitutes a compendium of facts for any daring determination of significance. You must settle for nothing less than an answer to why you were psychically privy to what you picked up—and what you're supposed to do about it to ultimately benefit all parties, even if one or more of you reacts immediately displeased or distraught in this interim. Of course, the answer is probably not what you've been thinking… it's both bigger than the confines of any recent developments (a good reason not to take it so personally, easier said than done) and simpler in the universal applicability of its fundamental psychological truth (i.e., we'd all relate to it). The best way to find it is to stop anxiously looking and calmly work on other matters.
LEO (July 23-August 22): With Venus and Neptune cooperatively conspiring to conjure up incalculable connectedness between you and every Tom, Dick and Harriet who crosses your path, you have a chance to demonstrate immaculate compassion in every silly or serious interaction you engage in—or to overidentify with your most idealized image of who each person could be ('if only she stopped drinking, dealing cocaine, robbing convenience stores, beating her kids, and threatening to blow up City Hall…') instead of coping with the right-now reality. To exercise the former option, conduct your most active listening methods, complete with nodding (to reflect visible understanding) and the occasional sympathetic arm- or shoulder-touch, instead of trying to impose logic or present advice or explain how what she's telling you 'reminds me of this one time', shifting the conversation into being about you. To forestall the latter, halt any flights of fancy which imagine 'positive' changes in her so that she's closer to how you think she'd be better off. Romance, in the broadest optimistic sense, is best enjoyed in small spontaneous doses; trying to hold it too tightly often lapses into self-deception.
VIRGO (August 23-September 22): This current sensitivity on the physical plane, Virgo, breeds a thinned-out rationale (so let it go), but boosts access to magic-ritual methodologies (miracles or madness?), along with an exaggerated possibility of catching colds or uncovering hidden treasures, depending on how well you're paying attention. Positive hopeful intent (hmm… challenging), when added in heaping helpings to your continued exertion (the easier part by far, my virtuous Virgo), makes all the difference between working hard and working wizardly. 'If you will it, it is no dream' goes far, especially with the wells of inner wealth you behold when you bother to look. This same energy can either enable you to revive by the laying-on of your healing hands or to drain faculties by sucking up paradise (even if 'paradise' = labor) in too greedy of gulps. Wellness is the incantation that ensures flow in the right direction. And toward the 'them', be clean and forward-thinking.
LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Children make up games with each other. In revelry-revelatory code, they negotiate rules and strategies for how to spend hours of clockless romp together, eliciting each other's squawks and squeals by rolling down hills and rounding corners on bikes together, according to some barely-breached though somehow-shared series of preordained guidelines that only make sense to them. So why can't you do it too? Can't you (re)enter that world, where the hue difference of floor-tiles differentiates between hot lava and safety, where stuffed animals participate in Olympic competitions by country and you can't be tagged 'it' as long as one hand is touching the old oak they call 'the bee tree'? If children are part of your life, then I suggest you spend a chunk of time this week, Libra, playing according to their specifications—if they say the sofa is a spaceship, then it's a spaceship. Let them lead, and you can follow jubilantly. If your adult life is a kid-free zone, then you'll have to push harder at the restraining constraints to find the secret door at the back of the wardrobe or behind the grandfather clock. But it's there, with the otherworldly wisdoms of worry-free existence waiting to escort you on a short trip down the arch of a rainbow, if only you'll leave the chore wheel at home and follow the talking bunny. We'll call you home in time for dinner.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): For this week only, you get to filter through your memories and reimagine your early youth as having been faithfully and unproblematically nurtured by the most preciously perfect parental personality possible. Is she a whitewashed version of your real mother—all the cupcake-baking and sideline-cheering and tender late-night nightmare-chasing-away, with none of the neglect or self-absorption or manipulative tendencies? Surely, you can let the good memories (whether many or few) rise above any unresolved feelings of anger or hurt (which most of us have, in drips or downpours). Or maybe, just for this drill, you'd like to discard your real parent altogether and craft an ideal composite from scraps of desired traits, favorite fictional characters and those 'cool moms' your friends got to enjoy. The purpose, Scorpio, is to go one step past this fantasy… because, assuming you had this most magically supportive childhood, you'd have less excuses for perpetuating certain behaviors and mindsets that hold you back. I really want to enable you to visualize who you could be, if only. And then, you can start providing those parental gifts to yourself—and begin to nurture yourself into that 'if only' person who (yes, in real life) still has the potential to exist.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Last week's prescription still stands, and like antibiotics, the medication is only fully effective if you complete the entire sequence of treatment. Keep speaking out, then listening up. In particular, I encourage you to spew unfiltered reports from the underground, talking off the cuff about those very things (i.e., emotions) you'd often prefer to stash in sacred privacy. You'll never know with whom and in what context the much-hoped-for epiphany will present itself, which is why I encourage a non-discrimination policy in deciding who to share with. This time around, it could be a stranger on the street or your own worst enemy who has that fortunate phrase. Another addendum to my recommendation: Writing works well, too. But to best channel its power of release, you must show what you've written to at least one other person (preferably to someone you wouldn't normally show your work) and request honest, nothing-held-back feedback.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): What you may lack in dollars and cents, you can more than make up for in contemplative appreciation of the more ethereal aspects of abundance this week. Alas, Capricorn is one of the more material zodiac signs, so my words may fall on deaf ears, especially since 'awareness' doesn't keep the electricity running and the fridge stocked. But the leap of faith required to let these non-monetary riches sustain you actually supports your ability to, yes, make more money, in addition to fostering a greater freedom in you to explore those next great heights . (If you're stuck on the great 'lie of scarcity' and cannot see the deep 'truth of sufficiency', check out Lynne Twist's The Soul of Money for further inspiration.) Of course, plenty of you probably have enough money (you are a Capricorn, after all)… so are you satisfied, or do you need more (and how much more is plenty)? Beneath all the money-or-no-money, enough-or-never-enough thoughts, the big issue is whether you experience your life as providing an adequate level of security for you to pursue achievement, adventure, relationship and some degree of spiritual peace, to make your life interesting and fulfilling. And that perspective of wealth is far more complex than what your account balances read at the end of each day, yet far more basic in reach… and dependent on no one but yourself.
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): What a week for Aquarius! Just enjoy being yourself, without criticism (toward yourself or others) or regret (about the past, present or future), letting spur-of-the-moment concepts for strengthening the foundation upon which this enviable You gets to do his/her thing present themselves (acknowledge them and record them, but no need to enact them all right now), and everything will take care of itself. Staying present is enough. The universe has much more to show than I could possibly tell, this week and into the rest of the year. Can I get away with leaving it at that?
PISCES (February 19-March 20): The planetary factors affecting Piscesworld this week provide a peculiar pairing of self-focused intellectual liberation (Mercury/Uranus in the 1st) and dreamy decentering delusion (Venus/Neptune in the 12th), so contradictory a combo as to nearly baffle the astrologer. Do I advise you to watch for wistful wishfulness that threatens to unhinge into the unreal (of either ecstatic or despondent varieties) or urge you to emancipate those electrifying insights that've been rattling just outside your consciousness and are about ready for expression? Are you suddenly brilliant or dangerously self-deceived? While the answer for each of you is a unique blend of the two (some are almost completely one or the other), I can offer my subjective viewpoint on differentiating. (Note: This system of understanding only works this week, and maybe next.) If it's quick, concise, inconsistent with what would normally make sense to you or you'd imagine for yourself, and situated almost outside your body near the scalp of your head, it's probably more of the intellectual brilliance speaking its detached truths. If it melts together, moves between the throat and the belly, with a hard-to-pinpoint yearning and a promised perfection attached to its answer, it sounds more elusively escapist. Do with my opinion (and it's only an opinion) as you will.
