Horoscopes | Week of May 23-29, 2005

ARIES (March 21-April 19): For three more weeks, your ruler Mars will be wandering aimlessly and unhurriedly through your 12th house, and the result is a continuance of this convoluted mechanism of motion, wherein you attempt to stretch the fingers on your right hand and the toes on your left foot wiggle. That's why I used last week's space to discourage you from consciously making major directional shifts—because I wasn't sure the potential to misjudge the translation of idea to action was worth the hassle. I wouldn't go so far as to label your current situation a 'holding pattern', since you're not actually standing still, though it might feel that way at times. Rather, it's a great moment to conjecture, postulate, theorize or question, any use of the abstract mind that broadens the view from right here rather than tries to actually transport your life position from one spot to another. Believe me, once Mars moves into Aries on Jun 11, you will get plenty of opportunities to get things revved up, roarin' and ready to rock 'n' roll. Plus, you'll have better control over your body and your will. Why not take this philosopher's break now, while you have the time?

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): One of the advantages of the prototypical slow-and-steady-wins-the-race Taurean approach is that you buy yourself time to choose your words carefully, to circumvent too many foot-in-mouth incidents that more typically befall our air-and-fire-sign friends. Usually, before you embrace a view or (gasp!) change your mind, you moll it over and weigh its functional consequences to their logical end… then you decide. While this can be an effective tool in business or management of other practical duties, it also sometimes inhibits the most thorough release of your fundamental psychological truths, since 'speaking from the heart' is often quick, messy, and unimpeded by rational thought. It feels less tight in the throat and chest. It resonates unambiguously in both the speaker and the listener, and it can't be argued with. It just is. You, Taurus, with the bad rep for holding onto things longer and stronger than many of us… it's a great time to let 'em out from hiding. The best method for doing so is to set that as your intention, repeat it to yourself over and over again, and then just open your mouth without planning what to say. If you allow it to, your heart will do the rest.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I feel like I want to sit this one out, Gemini. I don't want to offer generalized commentary on what I think you should do this week. You still have Venus charming you, so it's almost like anything you do will have sugar and spice sprinkled on top. Even something as disruptive as conflict on the job or battles against folks in positions of authority are likely to ultimately work in your favor… though I wouldn't take this as an incentive to stir shit up. Instead, perhaps you might ask other key partners and peers in your life what they think you should do this week. Tell 'em your astrologer instructed you to get their advice on how best to spend the week. And then, when they tell you what they think, either follow the advice or let them know why you won't. This exercise will both promote your asking and listening skills and generate dialogue in your relationships… plus, it gets me off the hook for a week. (Not really, I guess. Doesn't this count as 'commentary on what I think you should do'?)

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I'd like to start by asking you to congratulate yourself on all the ways in which, over the past three years, you've pushed yourself to live more fully in the 'real world' and less dreamily in the realm where you can't explain to anyone why anything you feel would make any sense. You need the self-congratulations to keep your spirits high when I deliver the second part of the news… which is, you're due for some subtle, but significant, readjustments to the 'new and improved' (yet, seemingly suddenly, already having become 'tried and true' and too familiar) methods you've developed over this time as part of your 'real world' success story/coping strategy. The notion that you're a perpetual work-in-progress can be as flummoxing at times as it is inspiring at others, and right about now, you might be somewhat frustrated that you still aren't sure exactly where you fit in. Concern yourself less with that, and more with continuing to tinker and futz with being more comfortable with being uncomfortable… and tweak a few more small details of the big things you already thought you'd tweaked.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Under Monday's Full Moon in your 5th house and its afterglow following you around all week, you might well suffer the consequences of others attributing the more negatively stereotypical Leonine characteristics to you. That is, they could potentially find you boisterous, melodramatic, and/or gratingly self-concerned… and you would know better than I whether these descriptors ring true, generally and/or more so now. And why would they think that? You are right to wonder if your general enthusiasm and engagement in what you're doing is merely being read wrong and/or triggering resentment in the envious or repressed ones. After all, the Sun shines its strongest in your sign—of course those of us with fainter lights will sometimes mistakenly seek to brighten our own by dimming yours. Extend your psychic sensors, and compassionately intercept others' responses to you before they turn annoyed. And without censoring your true self, play more pointedly to your audience, drawing them out rather than frying them around the edges.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Taking care of yourself means refusing to settle for a role you've been relegated to by default, just because you're the reliable / quiet / precise / uncomplaining / easy-going one. Whatever adjectival excuse for cordoning you off into a safe-room is applied to you, resist it if it makes you feel oogie or ucky inside. You don't have to be the person everyone else tells you you are… though it's certainly worth taking note of which words they're using and why they aren't working for you. Are they inaccurate? unflattering? lifeless? Once again, I refer back to the notion of dashing others' expectations of you, so this is most definitely a pressing issue for you at this time. You simply must insist on being your own person, now and into the future, no matter what the ramifications for existing relationships are. But—and this is a big 'but'—please make sure you're aiming for what makes you feel good because it's emotionally necessary and deeply nourishing, not because it flusters the other person and delivers a sneakily vengeful pleasure in the process. Otherwise, you've just continued to make it about them, through reactionary behavior instead of self-motivated action.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): What's that knocking on your door? Why, it's a gang of renegade ideas, clamoring to be granted access to the closed-door planning meeting of the committee in charge of your future successes and accomplishments. And they're demanding to be heard, even if not eventually acted upon, just so that all conceivable variations on your life possibilities are given voice and due respect. How can you be so sure it's just a matter of arranging and rearranging the pieces of the Grand Plan that you already possess, especially when there are one or more shiny objects pulling your attention from the corner of your eye? You don't have to drop everything to drop the illusion that the deadline has passed, the application period has closed, and everything must be decided upon from among what's already arrived. Hogwash, Libra! If you've already stumbled upon 'the right answer'—not as if there's only one—then hearing a few new ideas and alternative insights and dissenting opinions will do little to spoil your resolution. But if, even on an off chance, you've overlooked a lurking desire or twist-of-fate or some entertaining footnote, it's worth opening the door and reopening the case. Your dream career or ideal environment or most significant path to achievement could be waiting on the sidelines, hoping the coach will call a timeout and welcome it into the game.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Desire is a strong motivating factor in a Scorpio. There might be complicated structures of exploration, explanation and justification deployed to obscure the root of your drive, or the pure hunger might throb hot in its most basic form… but either way, a motivating desire lurks there somewhere. Where it gets more challenging—and where the tension heats up this week—is when you possess two distinct and divergent desires that cannot both be simultaneously satisfied. One is a more elementary feeling of want: 'I want this table / that job / the bigger room / the large pile of unmarked bills in a paper sack on the park bench.' The other is more lofty and abstract, though no less central to finding personal fulfillment, and it has to do with the kind of person you want to be. This desire is an ethical one, a yearning to experience a lived unity with whatever you decide are the most important and meaningful things, along with the willingness to dismiss your energetic investment in whatever doesn't ultimately matter. Obviously, plenty of moments of lust for a former desire will disrupt your ability to move toward the latter… and herein lies the challenge. This week, Scorpio, beware of those quick grabs for the easy desires, insofar as they might lead you to betray the unspoken rules you (hope to) live your life by. Maybe it's time to actually speak those rules aloud or put them on paper, to hold yourself accountable (with real consequences?) when your passions dare to overrule your higher strivings.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): With this week's Full Moon in your sign, as well as Pluto's long-term influence on your identity, there's a palpable sense of emphatic emphasis affixed to everything you say, do and touch. There's an even freer and more direct channel from what you aim to put out there and what we pick up off of you. Unfiltered, you refuse to apologize for being who you are, essentially stating, 'Go ahead, people, love me or hate you, as you so please.' I can't disagree with that stance on living your life—as long as it genuinely represents your truest truth, and that this presentation of so-called self is not preemptively reactionary. 'Take it or leave it' this-is-me-ness has a built-in defiance, an inherent expectation that some people will, in fact, leave it. And maybe, just maybe, you're protecting yourself from potential rejection by including an already-in-motion rejection of the potential rejectors into the fabric of your personality. It's actually a great strategy for conserving your energy for people that really matters. My only question is: Are you always able to decide so quickly who matters and who doesn't, or have you possibly stonewalled some potentially wonderful intimate friends because you feared they wouldn't like you if you actually tried to be more gently open? Just a thought to ponder…

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): What you cannot control in your life—how other people behave, how companies merge and foundations shift and appliances break, how the wind blows—is a lot… but what you can control is how you treat others in the heat of these uncontrollable events and circumstances. A rephrasing of this sentiment: You cannot control other people or their behaviors… and if and when you do, you will be treated to a harsh reminder of all that you cannot control in your life. Once again: All you can control is yourself, Capricorn, and how you navigate this obstacle course of life while people and institutions and nature throw things at you. The astro-climate is currently luring the psychological obstacles you throw in your own way (often by drawing other people or institutions who are more than happy to do the throwing for you) out from their shadows, where they're loitering in anticipation of whether you will react appropriately or not. No matter what surprising interpersonal feelings or situations rise, the only thing you can control is how you treat others as you all go through what you're going through. Be clean and virtuous (but not self-righteous) in these interactions.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): It's a time with great creative potential for you, Aquarius, if you can do your best to suspend concern for how to translate your raw creative materials into ego-affirming successes and achievements. That kind of self-imposed pressure will only squelch and suffocate the fun that is making something out of nothing. My suspicion, if I can be so bold to share it with you, is that you may ultimately prove to spin your playful experiments into real-world gold… but you shouldn't risk putting the cart before the horse and spoiling the play by working at it. Your responsibility to the society at large (one that I know you take seriously) requires you to quit focusing so fanatically on the end product and start centering yourself in the process, in order to keep the golden faucet freely spewing forth life's vital force now instead of collecting bits of twine and thread for the perpetual Later. For someone supposedly so relaxed with constant dynamic change, you sure get fixed on your dreams for tomorrow, while, in your body and your work, you snooze today away. Wake up, and enjoy that this is all there is… health, service, spirit, pleasure.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): The need for forward movement, my Piscean playmates, requires you to distinguish between (1) emotional attachments to genuinely nurturing ideals and individuals and (2) gossamer/steel-chained bondage to unreasonable sentimentality. And I admit it can be hard to tell the difference. When you go to snip the cord, is it so you can travel toward some warm embrace that necessitates your greater freedom in order to feel its fullest goodness, or are you trying to run away from a painful history that, realistically, will continue to follow you like the tail trails the dog no matter how far from home he strays? When you feel sad about leaving the past, is it a healthfully mourning goodbye or a depressive longing to go back there and stay? The key to moving ahead is to neither romanticize nor demonize what you're leaving behind… and most certainly not to (try to) strip it of its emotional content. It's acceptance that you are what you are because it was what it was. Thank it for bringing you here, and thank the feelings it will always generate in you for the constant reminder of what you want and don't want, what makes you happy and sad and disappointed and mad, who you were and what you're becoming.