Horoscopes | Week of February 13-19, 2006

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Tired of doing the safe thing lately? Well, of course you are… and the planets are now eagerly supporting your separation from all practical reasons for clinging to home base, or to whatever your wallet says you 'should' be doing. Those fatiguing internal scripts, which at recent moments served you well, are liable to lull you to half-asleep zombie-walking if you don't shut 'em off now. How are you supposed to hear the dramatic revelations of divine inspiration, if you keep listening to all that fear-driven survivalist drivel? Disquiet is otherwise known as exhilaration, the more locomotively you're in motion. Anxiety, meanwhile, is merely energy being incorrectly clutched and withheld, rather than properly moved into and deployed for the sake of life's great explorations. Remind yourself what it's like to embody all those Aries stereotypes—courageous, fast-acting and forceful—and show your true colors. Even if it hasn't been for a little while, it's time now.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Mars in your sign? Outta there! Mars into your 2nd? Safety in numbers… of acquaintances, social contacts, friends and neighbors, people you know and don't yet know and may never know at all. You may be a rock, Taurus, but you've got little to gain by also insisting on being an island. Life isn't just about 'getting it right', so you can grow increasingly comfortable with yourself (though there's a lot to be said for comfort). It's also about adventurously swapping stories, smiles, images and energies with all the other folks sharing the surface of this mighty planet. The other planets in the sky are trying to get this message across to you, aligning in just such a way that breathes liveliness and vitality into your scope… whenever you step outside the protective frame on behalf of socializing. More than mere entertainment, your attendance at group events and visitation to busy public spaces hold the possibility to deliver uncanny bursts of high wisdom. How else to draw universalizing truisms about life (and ultimately determine if you're 'getting it right'), if not by surrounding yourself with different examples of how other people live it?

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): No news is bigger this week, Gemini, than the movement of Mars into your sign… which also means the movement of Mars out of your 12th house, where, for seven long months, it has repeatedly inhibited your ability to reliably direct physical energy in enacting your intended will. Mars in your 12th—like a bank of sticky fog, or an invisible sheet of flypaper adhering to the bottom of your foot every time you try to take another step ahead. Its cosmic point was for you to accept that which is out of your control, and to insinuate your desires to the universe through non-physical, non-sensical means. With that lesson (hopefully) under your belt, we now return you to regularly scheduled Geminese programming. And your first order of business is to welcome lightning-bolts of sudden awareness, particularly with regards to what you need to do in professional settings, in order to improve your esteem in the eyes of giants and/or to finally pursue what you really want to do.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You might recall a horoscope from three weeks back, when I informed you the planets were clearly favoring love for you, Cancer. Well, just in time for Valentine's Day, the same amorous aspect is back—Venus in your 7th, in sextile to Jupiter in your 5th. But now you've had the retroactive benefit of Venus's retrograde period, during which you had a chance to review how much (or little) any particular relationship means… and even if you determined it to be a temporary affair rather than marriage material, you're still at liberty to enjoy passing pleasure and significance from it. If you haven't found it yet, expect sudden clarity on the dynamics of your relationship(s)—as long as you're willing to stretch past certain conceptual limits and blindspots in your belief system, which block you from fully appreciating unique connections on their own terms. That is: There's no right or wrong way to engage in a relationship. All that matters is the folks involved agree upon its form and function. When you consider how other people conceive of these things in radically different fashion, it buys you the freedom to mold your own relationship philosophy as you see fit. I advise including a built-in rationale for letting yourself have a good time… for no other sake than fun.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): On your agenda for the week, Leo, are cathartic acts of thinking and speaking. But only if you're prepared to accept responsibility for your true feelings about a specific difficult situation that's lingered… and then to leave them behind after they've been voiced, to yourself and/or the appropriate person. This is an activity designed to improve your general health (physical, emotional, spiritual) by releasing that which you no longer need to hold, like trimming your toenails or dropping those 25 pounds rudely loitering around the midsection. The antidote—to the anxiety arising from the need to come clean, and to the endless inner chatter obstructing your path to truths that elude you—is to center into your body. Moving your emotional matter is best facilitated by physically moving yourself: cardio, yoga, martial arts, tai chi, long long walks around town. This designated catharsis is hardly a mere mental exercise. It's about literally getting it off your chest, so you can breathe more deeply. Fitness for life isn't only something you strive for at the gym, but also rests on how regularly you flex your confessional muscles.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Where last week emotionality marred your trademark analytic keenness, this week you've got a greater grip on objective reality. If you believe in such things, that is… and Virgos generally do hold firm to such rationalist notions. The truth is, though, it actually doesn't matter if what's 'real' for you is real in quite the same manner for anybody else. With the sway of frazzled feelings having now subsided, you're much clearer on what you know and better able to express it freely, fairly, flexibly… and with the other party's sincere desire to understand you squarely in your mind. Even if said party still has a different take on matters, he or she will grasp the upshot of what you're saying. The defining distinction between last week's communicative attempts and this week's is your ability to convey yourself without the emotional desperation to be heard, listened to, and respected. Thankfully, you've broken away from self-defeating expectations of how you will—or, more properly, won't—be received. You can instead just talk. And then, just listen.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Amiable interactions between Mercury, Venus and Jupiter—all in houses related to your personal comfort, security and well-being—indicate a highly beneficial week for brainstorming new ways of caring for yourself. Rather than be tempted by a momentarily distracting wanderlust or sucked into others' destabilizing dramas, concentrate on clearing the air with yourself, so life can run smoother and more profitably. If there were ever a perfect week to break habits (which, just so you know, start in the mind and move out into the environment from there), this would be it. Despite my fear of oversimplifying the issue, I'll do it anyway—it really is just a matter of deciding to think differently. No single part of your routine is too holy to be off-limits, as you consider measures to trim the fat and waste less energy. No single symptom of bodily unease is inconsequential enough to ignore; this is a material clue to what needs tweaking. This is a week of oiling the gears, detailing out the nicks and applying a fresh coat of polish and wax. What in your life doesn't support your best efforts to be healthy, wealthy and wise? Buff it away.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Free at last, Scorpio… footloose and fancy-free! There ain't nothin' should be holdin' you down this week. Burst out with excitement. 'This is life, the one you get, so go and have a ball!' Any type of creative endeavor in which you're involved: Invest in it this week, to foster miracles and bring forth breakthroughs. You can't lose. Even potential mistakes are lined with silver and paved in gold. Any one who you love, a little bit or a lot: Love them loudly and unabashedly, with gushing kudos and tender touches (and, in the right circumstances, lasciviously lusty looks of longing). You can't err at doling out adoration and affection. Visit your favorite spots around town. Sup at your number-one restaurant, and ask to be seated at your preferred table. The genuine glint in your eye will charm the hostess, the cab driver, your date and the several other bystanders who wish they were your date. Smile graciously. Beat on your chest. Pound, and roar. Wave at them as they stare in admiration. You deserve their stares, in direct proportion to how open you are to sharing. With what you've got going on, it'd be so wrong to hoard or suppress.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Don't be too startled if, during your regular rounds this week, you trip over an emotionally liberating epiphany about how particular feelings have been inherited from a lineage of family drama (as opposed to being freshly born from your lived experiences)… and that you can train yourself to cordially decline to continue the pattern. Watch, especially, for such self-discoveries at home—whether because household issues that arise are too reminiscent of familiar familial commotion to disregard the link, or because home is the only place you can unwind enough to receive flashes of heavenly insight. Of course, you needn't wait around for the insight to yell 'surprise!' and jump out from behind the couch. When you feel charged up by some situation or interaction, don't leap to the same old conclusion about what it means. Instead, look to your favorite source of mysterious wisdom—the sky, the cards, the candle, the altar, the point of white light—and ask for a sign of something else. It's a request the universe won't be able to resist.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): You have the celestial permission of a Mercury-Uranus conjunction in your 3rd (as interpreted, of course, by yours truly) to upset the apple cart and drop an off-the-cuff bomb of a comment… if your intention is indeed aligned with what benefits the sanctity of the greater whole. (If you have questions about that intent, please discuss the issue with friends or colleagues unconnected to the bomb being dropped.) And just because your intentions will be good, that doesn't mean you have to mince your words or go out of your way to be nice. (Yes, Venus in your 1st will automatically soften most blows… but don't go out of your way to be mean, either.) The opportunity is exceptionally ripe if something need be said to siblings who are too caught up in their circular stories to imagine another family member might have another version. And the same goes for neighbors who have overlooked the fact that sharing space necessarily involves being less self-centered. Your best method for delivery? Rip off the top like you would a band-aid—quick and relentless, with a short biting sting, followed by a soothing rub on the spot.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Bills piling up? Creditors breathing down your neck? Need cash fast? Well, this horoscope won't actually give you the moolah, like those e-z-loan-brokers whose commercials I'm imitating. But Mercury and Uranus, conspiring toward innovation in your 2nd house of material resources, comprise the best possible influence for breaking away from your previous methods of accounting for what you've got and what you need. It's very likely you've missed an entry or an asset on the balance sheet, some practice or skill you haven't considered valuable or overlooked in its moneymaking potential. Then POW!… another way of looking at it changes the whole picture. Sprinkle on a little of the Venus-Jupiter wide-angle lens of cosmic opportunity via the unknown… reach high and believe strong… stir, and leave to ripen so the flavors can meld. This is the recipe for busting the pragmatic stalemate and pushing through to profitability. (Note: The literal payoff won't come as instantly as if you'd called a toll-free 800 hotline, though the wisdom to get there may come in a flash.)

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Begin by emptying your mind of all concerns other than this horoscope. Open yourself up, biding farewell to all preconceived notions of where this passage is about to go. We're trying to tap into the knowledge you already bear somewhere inside you, beneath the ringing and clamoring and prattle, to guide you to your truth. I'm only the escort. Now, be prepared to respond with the first thoughts that come to your mind when you ask yourself… who do you want to be? Halt the analytic mind from taking over, and simply record your response. Yes, literally write it down. And let's continue by adding directive specifiers to help flesh out the reply. Who do you want to be? Is it the embodiment of certain qualities or attitudes? (What are they?) Is there a particular person you admire who you desire to be more like? (What is it about him or her?) Is there a specific profession or calling you're moved to follow? (What must you do to pursue it?) A geographic locale? A type of belief? A landscape of feeling? You hold the answer to at least one of these questions, if you bother to ask in pure open-mindedness… and trust yourself enough to listen. And one newly revealed answer is enough to go on for now.