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Horoscopes | Week of March 7-13, 2005

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You have every ounce of energy you need to proceed with the plans to get ahead. But whether you actually feel like moving forward and mobilizing all that gumption to drag yourself up that extra step or two just now is another issue altogether. The question is: Do you push yourself through, convincing yourself you have no 'legitimate reason' to desire a slow-down-curl-up-and-chill-out since you're not really that physically tired… or do you surrender to the feeling (and its unknown or partly-known source) and permit yourself to meander rather than storm the steps of the castle? Obviously, the choice is yours, but I warn you against assuming that, just because the blockage is of a personal, self-contained emotional nature, it's not real. If disrespected, your spirit will revolt against you by casting a rotten disposition.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Just think, if only you could channel those same inspired feelings that propel you in your fulfillment of personal duties and professional obligations into your social connections, how much more happy and satisfied you'd be. But through some convoluted (and faulty) chain of self-protective logic, you often convince yourself that spreading your tentacles far and wide into corridors leading to new friendships and acquaintanceships is not as essential—fun, but not crucial to your well-being. Let me be the one to inform you of the astrological truth of your situation, Taurus, for forever and always, your natural-chart houses of social allegiance, alliance and relationship will be ruled by the water signs… which both explains your enhanced sensitivity when it comes to social situations and necessitates continued social stimulation for your highest emotional health. From this perspective, then, getting out and involved in conversation and collaboration and social risk-taking is one of the most practical duties that requires your attention. The work stuff will always come easier to you, and thus doesn't need as undivided a focus as you give it—especially if it caters to an unconscious desire to escape other people in more enjoyable contexts.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): There's an undeniable pull to the intrigue of interpersonal intimacies right now, my clever Gemini… and the draw is toward a more measured approach, one step forward, another to the side, spin around and dip, in a carefully choreographed dance where no single motion gives too much of the whole plotline away too soon. It's probably better you take your time anyhow, seeing as the allure of mingling mind and matter with some other figure of interest is likely to be dampened at every turn, due to the sobering demands made by your own need for greater emotional security, the kind you can only find for yourself. You require a lot of your own most cherished attention, just to get your personal shit together, let alone involving someone else too profoundly in any new fashion. I'm not saying to lay off the intrigue… rather, enjoy it as a side-dish rather than the main course, and keep your eye on more pressing concerns like money, jobs, belongings and domestic stability.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): This is a week in which you'll benefit greatly for standing up for yourself when challenged in any one-on-one interactions. The opposition of Saturn and Mars across your 1st/7th axis tests your ability to hold firm in what you know about yourself, and to keep your genuine emotions (not the ones you think you should feel or are being coerced into feeling) behind your stance. It's a moment to explore the difference in vibe between confrontation and conflict, putting your needs and concerns to the other person in a direct and unambiguous manner and expecting embrace rather than rejection. You might be surprised how it often only takes a clear blunt description of the behaviors in others you cannot tolerate in order to make them stop. You could actually find yourself more eager to engage in the riskier aspects of relationship-making, once you master this skill of confronting… and certainly better prepared to create situations that suit your emotional needs. Now, will you be able to stand your ground, even express anger if you must, in order to become a wiser friend, partner, co-worker or peer? And are you prepared for the possibility that the response you get might be less to your liking, at first or in the end, and still it's the right thing to do to confront? Time to toughen up.

LEO (July 23-August 22): You have oh-so-very much to share with the world, simply by putting your fullest presence into the relationships in your life, big and small, casual and life-sharing. The people who know you well or simply come in contact with you as you move through your regular routine are truly touched by what you provide them. Don't forget that, no matter whether you've recently withdrawn yourself, have found the schedule to be too hectic to include moments of genuine bonding, are suffering from self-doubt or fear, or fell victim to the common making-it-all-about-me syndrome. Just like your Aries brethren, you are thwarted this week in your well-intentioned attempts to get your work done, by run-ins with the elusive uncontrollables. One way to eliminate the adverse threat of heightened stress is not to try as hard, focusing on the people in your life rather than the tasks. They need you more than some boring old stack of papers or stringent new regimen.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Here's how I suggest you commemorate Thursday morning's New Moon in Pisces, the sign on your 7th house, where you meet the other person on a face-to-face level of parity: Commit to trying a new approach to relating one-on-one. Less personal pride. More free acceptance of how differences between individuals are what makes this wild world go round. I understand that his/her ways of doing and interpreting and believing may often seem more mad than masterful in your perfectionist eyes… and that your judgments are not arbitrary but come from having actually tested out your own preferred methods, fiddled with them until you got them just so, and practiced them enough to become skilled at all your crafts. The odd thing is that, though what works for you most certainly appears to work magnificently well for getting you what you want, it doesn't necessarily work the same for someone else. You can both be right—you're right for you, and the other knows his/her own natural propensities. Love without conjuring ideas for how to fix. Maybe nothing's broken.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): If you took a glance through the other horoscopes, you'll probably notice that so much of what I have to report stresses the importance of social connections and relationships. For you, Libra, this is not an area of life about which you generally need a reminder, since the instinct to think about yourself and your behaviors in relation to others is virtually automatic in you. In fact, under these astrological conditions, there's the potential threat of you getting even more wrapped up in worrying about what other people think, and going to excess in terms of gearing your every nod, wink and polite smile toward evoking a particular reaction from them, shirking your own responsibilities to yourself in the process. The comments I made two weeks back about needing to take some prep time in advance of excitement ahead still ring true, and I just want to gently direct your attention back to yourself, lest some other somebody or other pull you into their sphere of too much influence and keep you from attending to your duties.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): The guidance I have for you, Scorpio, is rather straightforward, though its ultimate consequences for your life are quite complicated and dense. The best technique for getting more fully into your power (which is something I'll bet you're craving right about now) is simply to work on knowing your emotional self more fully. Your energies are too scattered, operating on unconscious steam, if you aren't aware of your own motivations when acting from emotional reaction. If you can't explain (at least to yourself) what you're feeling at a given moment—and provide a fairly reliable hypothesis regarding why you're feeling that way—you're just diddling away your time. In order to figure out some of the more mysterious emotional roots to your current behaviors, try such practices as meditative exploration (get into a hyper-relaxed state, without the mental noise, and see what comes to you), free writing (set aside a sizable chunk of time, an hour or two, and don't let yourself stop the pen's movement, no matter what pours out), and interviewing friends and loved ones with an open heart (maybe hearing their perspectives on what they think you seem like you're feeling, even if it proves wrong, will spur some enlightenment).

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): You're mainly known for taking that least time-consuming 'straight line' line of attack, ignoring the irrelevant detours to the best of your ability, because you have too much else to do in life to be bothered. And this tactic generally serves you well, keeps you interested and invested in the bold journey forward and gets you farther faster than most other folks. Sometimes, though, no matter what your intended mode of progress, roadblocks appear and inhibit your most efficient push ahead. At this time, Sagittarius, the obstacles are being thrown up by other people, and thus, there's not much you can do but apply the brakes, if only for a bit… oh, wait, there's also the possibility it's merely what certain other people represent to you, rather than who they actually are, that's causing the delay. In either case (and I wouldn't want to be the one to distinguish which is in action for you), I suspect some connection between this current holdup and residual family issues. Is the human roadblock a member of your family, or does he/she simply conjure up a familiar familial reaction? Since you're momentarily stuck in traffic, you might as well do some heavy consideration of the links between them and you, then and now.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): My dearest Cap, on account of Thursday's New Moon (and some other stuff I'll get to in a moment), your conduct this week is critical in setting the tone for the entire upcoming month, which only intensifies in activity and emotion as we draw near the equinox and the next set of eclipses. The 'other stuff' alluded to in the earlier parentheses refers to Mars in your sign opposing that same thorny Saturn in Cancer in your 7th house, framing a situation in which your own strong will faces off against the need for emotional patience and responsibility in your one-on-one affairs with others. If you thought the potential for conflict was bad last week, it's worse now. Either you will step up and convince yourself to hold back for the sake of demonstrating kind consideration (even if it drives you friggin' mad), or someone else will step up and do the holding back. Either way, you just can't get it done the way you would if you existed in a vacuum (which, duh, you don't). How you make it through the week, how well you keep your aggression at bay and/or express it with measured and muted respect, and how others accordingly deal with you has a great personality lesson to teach you. Set good events into motion, and you've got a lot to look forward to over the coming weeks and months. Put nastiness out there, and… well, I'm not even going to go there, presuming you won't either.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): At this juncture, the porous boundaries of your skin are hardly sufficient to keep all that spirit, idealism and verve enclosed within your self. As it seeps out, overflows, rushes and swirls all around, be aware of the possibility that reality will surreptitiously swing toward surreality, leaving you somewhat ungrounded in the unbelievable overstimulating excitement stemming from that sense of knowing. Yes, you know the breadth of universal transformation that lingers just outside everybody else's sights, at the border of this dimension and the next. The trick is to appreciate its magic from this side of the painted line, without lapsing too far into the perceived spiritual haven over there. Please remember that you cannot reach transcendence by foregoing material reality; in fact, that kind of thinking is what sends folks too far too fast, without any anchors holding them into the here and now. Use totem objects—crystals, precious family photos, a favorite hat—to tether you to your present incarnation. You need the things that make you feel real. You'll be of no help to the world (and I'm certain you want to be helpful) if you float off into outer space before your work here is done.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): As the very active astrological situation continues to envelope you, Pisces, I almost find it too hard to wrap my head around all the details of this complex larger picture. I do intuit some sense that a cruel joke is being played on you (rather, that's how you're interpreting the strange combination of thrills and pitfalls) because you simultaneously have persuasive charm on your side and yet can't seem to get it to function reliably. Is it possible that there's an unseen, unknowable logic to why you can so easily procure certain spoils and yet cannot grab hold of what you imagine to be the 'simple' or 'basic' stuff? And of course, you want to believe that whatever's stopping you or spinning you around just isn't personal, though you have the (largely correct) suspicion that, in fact, it is. All I can tell you is: Keep putting it all out there, with the faith that, as long as you're trying something new instead of repeating the same tired patterns, it will all eventually prove to be both beneficial in the spiritual sense and actually beneficial here in the real world.