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Horoscopes | Week of January 9-15, 2006

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Whether or not it's an obstacle is in the eye of the beholder. One person's obstruction is another's fruitful detour, and which is which depends on who accepts the inescapability of things never going exactly as planned. Aries, your resourceful productiveness is currently accelerating, so that, sooner rather than later, you'll be able to expand upon what you've already got nailed down. But you cannot solidify your plans in a vacuum of complete (imagined) control, as if what you say will go, no questions asked or interferences allowed. There are interferences… or are they potentially profitable developments? If, instead of puffing out your chest in indignant protest to the perceived complications, you're courageous enough to roll with the punches and share in the doing, you'll have more to work with and more to reap—plenty to make the loss of total control worth its while. Only good can come from entertaining additional options and increasing the voices listened to, forming an expanded vision of what's possible. And maybe the only thing in your way is you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Pull out your wide-angle lens and affix it to your face, Taurus, so you can appreciate this optimal time for broadening your sight. Envision yourself growing past the safety of where you've been for the past while, especially with regards to the past few months' events, in order for your self-image to include a fuller participation in relationship. If you feel threatened or stymied by a particular person's influence, and/or by the very concept of giving so much of yourself in voluntary compromise, then you're thinking way too small… stuck on what you'd have to give up, rather than what you might gain. It wouldn't be a bad idea to further your thought processes on this matter by grabbing a book on relationships (preferably not The Rules), or to actively seek theoretical discussions on 'Ethics of the Ol' Give-and-Take' with your brainiest friends. If you're still struggling to get beyond, 'This is what I want to do, and this is why he/she/my-imaginary-mate prevents me from it,' then simply get away from it for a week or two (you're too close to see!), to gain a better sense of appreciation for why individuals bother to get together in pairs.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Words are easily rearranged into phrases to say anything you want, to lead an intricate dance around whatever pink elephants occupy the room or to defend any behaviors (whether appropriate or rather escapist) you've chosen to undertake. But the most difficult phrases to communicate, to yourself or to somebody else, are short and to the point. They need no colorful buildup or highly detailed introduction. They just beg to be kept concise. Such admissions are often big truths wrapped in layers of fear or shame, their climactic utterances ripping the proverbial covers off the bed or revealing the emperor in all his clotheslessness. Got any you'd like to utter, Gemini? Remember, it doesn't matter what your goal is in speaking, other than simply removing a heavy load from your back, to support your better psychic posture. But won't it be interesting to discover who, if anyone, will bend down to pick up what you've left… or what happens to you once it's not cramping your style… or why you thought you needed to lug it around in the first place?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A combination of (1) this week's Full Moon in your sign and (2) the third of three recent Mars-Jupiter oppositions will likely incite the 'what about me?' feelings, which exacerbate emotional cravings for acknowledgment and acceptance of your special greatness. And not because of what you've done for others, or how you help by acknowledging and accepting their greatness, either. Of course, it wouldn't be fair to go blaming them for your own quick default to doing what makes them feel good, rather than insistently voicing what you need. (Who wouldn't take you up on your perpetual offers of care and concern?) You mustn't react too strongly against the role you've found yourself in, considering there's obviously something fitting and useful about it… even as it's only a piece of who you are, and sometimes (like now) stifling to other parts of you. You've got to be more creative than mere rebellious refusal to participate according to the rules everybody's been playing by. Anybody can hold their breath and say 'No'. You, Cancer, will need to find a way to say, 'Yes, and…', to speak beyond perfunctory (and resentment-filled?) responses to requests, to state your own suggestions and stipulations without waiting to be asked. 'What about me?' is a question you must answer first.

LEO (July 23-August 22): It's all about the work, Leo. Keep telling yourself that, and watch as professional stalemates finally show progress, thanks to incremental problem-solving measures starting to make a real difference. Physical momentum issues, too, begin to see improvement… if you consciously decide to follow a couple good ideas about the habits you're keeping. (Maybe it's time to cut back on sugar or caffeine. Or perhaps the stacked-high papers on the back table long for their overdue organization.) However, questions of ego—whose idea it was, who's working the hardest or fastest, what the breakthrough and developments mean about you—detract greatly from your focus on the work, more than you might realize. For now, those ego items just don't matter. They're a waste of efficiency and efficacy. Whenever urgency about recognition or emotional hunger crop up and dare to interrupt the workflow, rechannel it into more passionate engagement in doing the best job possible… for its own sake, period.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Somewhere along the line, you've allowed yourself to forget about some joy-filled little practice… a favorite activity, ritual or blessed superstition that really gets your juices flowing, that reminds you how amazing and awe-inspiring it is to be alive. I can almost guarantee it, Virgo, you've let something slip away, because you've been too busy or too emotionally distracted or you convinced yourself you're too old for such childish pleasures. What is it? A parlor game that makes you smile? A funny hat or coat of many colors you delight in donning? A favorite family memory of long-gone loved ones or holidays from days past? What puts that 'in-love-with-the-world' bounce in your step? If nothing immediately comes to mind, then you'll need to spend some time thinking about it. (There's not necessarily one answer, either. I'm sure plenty of thoughts and behaviors bring joy to your life.) The point this week is to reconnect with a pure form of timeless happiness, one which you've known in your life before and will recognize as familiar when it's reintroduced, creating a continuity between your 'now' and your 'then' that's based on something you'll always love.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): It's okay to return your attention to matters that were supposedly dealt with already, but which still linger. Closure, by the very nature of life's unpredictability, is always tentative anyhow. Besides, reprocessing now what was already processed will take advantage of your currently better understanding of what you've been feeling. And therefore, you're liable to have a better ability to verbalize it to the person who needs to hear it. And then you may finally make real headway, where before you merely butted heads. All of this is reason enough to reopen the can of worms, regardless of how difficulties from the last go-around may still haunt you. Once you initiate this fresh round of disclosures and negotiations, you'll immediately find you bring more to the table than before… and you'll be pleased to discover how much better equipped you are to deal with whatever arises than you thought. This time, you may actually get it all out of your system.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): If you're privy to some form of awareness that will help the other person out, go ahead and speak it aloud to him or her. Surely, you can find a carefully structured and hyperconscious manner in which to say it, so as to minimize the potential of inadvertently flustering feathers. It needn't sting in order to get through. To assist you in achieving an impeccably pristine tone, hold your intention to be helpful firmly in the forefront of your mind while you're talking. This focused thought sends invisible waves of support to the party in question, couching your words—whatever they are—in a quantum-level web of positivity. With this protective mechanism in place, feel free to not hold back when sharing your insights. (Another suggestion: If you phrase them as 'opinions' rather than implicit truths, you're likely to come off less threatening.) If you don't say what you need to say, then you're squandering the benefits of your incisive knowledge… and informing the universe not to bother gifting it to you anymore.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): The occasion is ripe for extremely profitable plan-making sessions, resulting in your successful ability to reach the goals you set for yourself during this time. As you concentrate on nailing down the specifics, you'll discover that the missing piece you've been stumped by all this time is… the missing piece, that which can't be nailed down, no matter how intelligently you try. You mustn't interpret this unknowable unknown as the enemy, for it could end up being your best friend, the source of the world-renowned secret ingredient or the advantage you couldn't possibly have accounted for ahead of time. The best plans will be extremely tight in certain places, but with huge spaces for the necessary improvisations. Be inspired, rather than intimidated, by the recognition of multiple variations on routes to the same desired destination. For all you know, you'll pick up something essential to your success somewhere along the road… but how could you possibly foresee that, if you've never been before?

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): You're filthy rich with good ideas, solutions you've come to only after years of trial and error, answers that have quietly and patiently been incubating and are finally ready to hatch. Issues other folks are only now wondering about, you've already considered at great length and have much to add to their dialogue. Can you leverage your experience, expertise and thoughtfulness… without coming across distastefully, as somebody who thinks you know better than they do (even if, in all likelihood, you do)? It would be a damn shame to waste what you know, out of a hesitance to get involved or a lack of tolerance for needing to distill your message to its most easily assimilable form—especially in light of the fortuitous opportunities available to you through joining together, rather than forging valiantly alone. You should contemplate ways to open a discussion in which you volunteer information for the greatest benefit of all, no matter whether it initially pricks someone else's sensitivities… and then be willing to continue in the debate, once your thoughts are dissected, modified and mutated into new form. In the end, it'll be a collaborative effort, but your unmistakable genetic thumbprint will lurk in the microscopic nucleus at its core.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): As I see it this week, Aquarius, there are two ways of thinking about your current situation. (1) Your budding opportunities for gaining additional authority in the worldly field of your choosing are continuing to unfold nicely, in spite of the perceived stifle brought on by continued internal strife. Or (2) your budding opportunities for gaining additional authority in the worldly field of your choosing are continuing to unfold nicely, thanks in large part to the injection of life brought on by continued internal strife. While (1) may be the logical version (or that which you tell yourself in moments of seemingly distracting emotional distress), it's actually (2) that comes closer to capturing the truth. Yes, Aquarius, as intellectually counterintuitive as it sounds, the seeming discord between your insides and your outsides frames a dynamic creative tension, useful to your higher ends. Your intensified emotional presence actually assists the spontaneous generation of wisdom and motivation. Keep persisting in whatever feels uncomfortably healthy, knowing that you're getting even closer to conscious manifestation of your dreams-come-true. All the factors need to come together in good time, just as they're in the process of doing… because, as astrology likes to remind us, timing is everything.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Imagine for a minute that people are nothing more than ideas, formulae of concentrated conceptual energy thought up by some creator-deity in a differently vibrating alternate dimension. Each of us is nothing more than a laboratory experiment, a hypothetical example of what happens when one item is randomly chosen from each column and brought together, like the cheap lunch special at your favorite Chinese restaurant. We move through the world like library books magically imbued with the power to walk and talk and breathe, to bump up against each other with our fundamental theses supposedly whole in themselves, flirting with the painful pleasure of flipping through each other's pages, where we might learn a thing or two not already included in our official accounts of the truth. Alas, dare we swap theories without a latex barrier, we'll be forced back to the drawing board for edits and reedits and republications of revised editions. If we don't, though, we resist the natural evolution, not just of our Selves as ideas but also of the entirety of human thought. Together, we as individuals—according to this 'people as ideas' metaphor, at least—represent all there is to know. Don't you want to know more? Well, then pick another book off the shelf, open it up and start reading.