Horoscopes | Week of July 11-17, 2005

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I wouldn't want to be the one to try to stop you, Aries. You're basically unstoppable… which means you should probably pause from time to time, in order to find enough compassion for those of us who are slower, weaker, more fearful or unsure of ourselves (or less able to fake it). Otherwise, you could prove to be totally unbearable. The good news is you can definitely advance your project one or two giant steps this week, with the combination of three fire-sign planets, led by your own personal warrior-god Mars, snowballing their effects in dynamic synergy. The bad news, even if you can't see it as such, is your assertiveness will be anything but inconspicuous… and that includes your potential for going overboard in single-mindedly and pushily proselytizing (even if inadvertently) your agenda to the point of alienating possible allies. Not everyone is slower, weaker, more fearful or unsure of herself than you. And those who aren't won't take kindly to being strong-armed.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): As you continue to cash in on the benefits due under the terms of last week's coupon, good for two weeks' worth of unrestrained moodiness, you mustn't forget the primary characteristic of emotions. They are inherently and unavoidably subjective, which means that no impartial external truths can be derived from them, though they are meaningful nonetheless. Allowing moods their full expression lets you know where you are, but it tells you rather little about where the rest of us stand. I want to remind you of this, Taurus, because during peak emotional times, we are all guilty of reading and reinterpreting outer-world circumstances under the gauze of our own moody taint and thinking we've finally discovered some deeper 'truth', only to learn that we were just being dramatic or blinded by feeling. I say, enjoy your feelings (maybe 'enjoy' isn't quite the right word, but you know what I mean), but don't let them lead you into unfair assumptions about anyone else's feelings, to which you ultimately are not privy.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Play with the people who make you great. All variations on relationship, from eye contact with stranger to intimate conversation with best bud and everything in between and around, benefit from your alert attention to what you share in common. Among differences are always shared traits, goals, dreams and visions. Lure these out in your interactions, even if you don't bother to use words or to make your intentions surface-level conscious. Being around as diverse an amalgam of human beings as possible will stimulate the tiny goose-bump sensors on your light-body and remind you of all the things you like about yourself and do best. This personality of yours is virtually nothing without the fervent fabric of faces off of which to bounce your quips and grins and glances. You were made to mix with others, and flourish at fullest capacity when left to let each swap of sociality sit on its own terms and add up to nothing beyond itself. Stimulation of curiosity, not mastery, is the name of this game, and you are its most ardent player.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Please use this week to make things happen, or else you're indirectly informing the universe you aren't as serious about your highest goals as you purport to be. Timing is everything, and this is an immensely apt time to trail-blaze in the direction you desire to go. The synchronous astrological forces supply richness in resource, coupled with a reinforcement of your profound commitment to reimagining your daily relationship to work, to power your bravery in reaching for it with grabby hands. In case you still entertain fantasies of Ed McMahon showing up at your doorstep with a larger-than-life embossed invitation to everything you ever dreamed of, it's time to wake up and leave the house and start knocking on some doors of your own. The prize money is all there for you to collect, but you must embark on—and persist in—the time-and-energy-consuming scavenger hunt, in order to collect all the pieces to complete the puzzle to receive the reward. And what you set into motion this week will carry on to more profitable proportions than what you might start in any other 7-day span.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): As of this week, Saturn will be up in your kitchen, Leo, through September 2007. You will hear plenty more about this influence from me… so much that you might get sick and tired of it… but too damn bad because it will affect your life tremendously over these next couple years. You will be continuously pressured to make the 'right' decisions over the 'easy' ones (a determination that only you can make)… and you'll more decidedly feel the unpleasant consequences when you don't. So start ingraining into your consciousness the heightened necessity of your taking the high road now, and over and over again. Of course, you won't feel the full brunt of this toughening-up maturation process all in the first week. Plus, you still have the delightful influence of Venus and Mercury in your sign to keep the mood light, your mind clear, and your fan base showering you with love and good fortune. Which makes this a good place to start by letting your most ideal moral standards guide your actions (rather than concocting ethics to fit what you're already automatically doing), and living as you truly believe (rather than hoping for a future day when you might actually embody your beliefs). Remember: Saturn does keep score.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): The astute Virgos among you (and I will assume that includes most of you, since Virgos are among the most astute crew I know) might have noticed a recurrent trend in your horoscopes over these past few months. I've repeatedly dwelled on mounting relationship tensions, including both the needs to establish a sense of freedom from joint identifications and to vent any built-up angst in order to stave off less conscious eruptions on those people who matter most. Presumably, many of you have known exactly what I've been talking about… and a few of you, less so. Now, though, I ask you to take stock of whatever psychological sensations infuse your life this week, whatever they are, and to reread them over the context of your last few months. In fact, zoom out even further in the scope of emotional continuity and find the links between this moment right now, your feelings over these past months, and the unsettled remnants of your juvenile experiences. I am confident these links are there, whether or not you've undergone actual interpersonal challenges during the recent past or whether deeper-seated issues from a longer time ago have arrested your relationship-related progression. These present-day passing moods are not unrelated to the rest of your life. In the field of feelings, ask yourself the difficult questions, and you will yield an abundant harvest.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Don't let lurking differences between you and another person loom large in your mind as an imagined menace. This is one of those times when conflict or confrontation can prove to be productive or even advantageous to your current position. You shouldn't back down if you don't really mean it, but neither should you tune out in fake listening while s/he offers another perspective. It's all about achieving the higher awareness of true compromise that comes from legitimately beating out the terms through sustained backs-and-forths, and not about false agreement in order to end the disagreement and return to gratingly insincere conviviality. Refuse to settle for anything less than authentic justice, a virtue for which Librans are famous by their very connection to the glyph of the scales. These scales will not balance if you only pretend to lift weight off one side. It must actually be lifted off, with sweat-producing effort, in order to achieve equilibrium. You may be a participant in the struggle, but you're also the best-suited broker for the bigger-picture peace, which is larger than any single party's interests.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Serious strength. No profit in getting sidetracked. If it doesn't benefit your health, it siphons off your energy. Sustaining requires sustenance. Wealth is fingertip-length away, but what you do with your hands summons it or swipes it away in gusts of I-don't-care. Smiles from up-high are pouring down on you. Do you miss them by looking elsewhere? Do you thank them by proving your worthiness through working harder? Work hard, knowing a reward is somewhere invisible, full and complete. You cannot help but win the marathon, if you let the lightweight hotshots think they stole the sprints, knocking out the supposed competition, though you know the only worthy competitor is your own fullest potential. Why would anyone in your position play it easy-does-it, water down the magnitude to get picked for just another role on the neighborhood stickball team? You will never be 'just another', unless you will the mediocrity into being. And yes, you're strong enough to will mediocrity as you can anything else. Are you so scared that you're willing to turn in the royal robes for a benchsitter's uniform? Feh. Work for the you greater than such neediness. Go for it all… but heed your health in the process. You need it all to be it all.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): There's only one way to find out for sure. Go balls out. (As if that's not how you live your days anyway… but do it with even ballsier aplomb!) Life is too short not to bet what you have on your luckiest numbers and watch the tiny ball spin to determine your fate. The only thing you really have to lose is the outright pain that a Sagittarian endures when holding back on your true motivations to befit convention. Everything else can be regained or traded for a handful of magic beans. This week's fire-sign trifecta-Mars in Aries, Venus in Leo, and good ol' Pluto in your sign for forever and a day (that is, 1995-2008)-lights you aflame with the love of life, compels you to throw restraint to the hurricane-force winds, and rewards adventure with more adventure. I certainly can't guarantee how those who meet your roaring rotors will greet you… probably some will embrace you as the angel they've awaited, and some will try to kick you in the groin. That's what makes life interesting. And this week, Sag, you are destined to make you life a bunch more interesting or risk the repercussions of missing the bullet train to Shangri-La. Inertia = freeze.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): While everybody else is out instigating ruckuses, you're the one most likely to request or require a time-out. Your bustle is inwardly directed, a clamor to till and seed whatever's going to make you feel better… and to hell with the circus carrying on around you. No one knows how you might best spend your time and attention, if you actually care about subduing your stirred-up sensitivities, except you. (In fact, they might be quite surprised to learn what soothes your savage spirit, which is why you might choose to keep these behaviors a secret.) In terms of actually interfacing with other breathing humans during this moment of internal focus, you'll likely do better to receive than to give. I know this can be an uncomfortable spot for a Cap, but stay publicly gracious and save the growling for retreats into your private place. It's actually useful on a soul-development level to be grumpily disquieted… so long as you use your conscious energies to appease and coddle your agitated self, instead of piling the characteristic self-criticism atop. With all that you can control, be sweet and nice to yourself.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): With Saturn moving into Leo, you can bet on me repeatedly dwelling on your need to more clearly define yourself in terms of your one-on-one relationships over these next couple years. The relationship theme will continue to show up because, for such a people-centered sign, you still need some work in how you handle closer-focused partnerships. Point 1: You cannot have all the benefits of a relationship when you want them, step away from oppressive-feeling 'obligations' when the other person needs you, and then expect the bond to thrive. Point 2: Because the only thing that matters in a one-on-one relationship is what the two parties involved agree upon, all your reliance on 'how it should be done in the world' or 'what other people do (or think or feel)' doesn't amount to squat. Point 3: You need close partnerships more than you think because you can't accomplish everything you want by staying solo. For now, just think about these points and, if you dare, ask the folks in your life what they think… not just in theory, but in relation to how relatively well or poorly you specifically are doing.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Wealth is largely a matter of perception, and if you don't believe me, ask any number of speculative entrepreneurs who've got a lot of numbers in certain columns but barely enough bills in their wallets to cover cab fare. I tell you this, Pisces, to avert the inevitable protestations you might proffer when I posit you are this week's richest member of the zodiac. What cannot be accounted for in cold hard cash must be compensated for in high self-valuation of what you can use, trade or sell. And the only way to see it is by wearing the special eyeglasses with the lenses made of courage. Through these specs, you are an exceptionally attractive investment opportunity with potential for endless return, swelling like a summer fruit full of seeds that others will be happy to help plant, and ripe for the picking. You must-must-must convince yourself not to dwell on the insecure idea that this emperor wears no clothes. When you're donning the glasses, you're fully clad in designer threads. Wealth is in the eye of the beholder, so enforce the proper filter, quit nervously glancing to the sides, and you're swimming in the bread.