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Horoscopes | Week of June 12-18, 2006

ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you sincerely know who you are (not who you wish you were or who you want us to think you are), then your week will ring with a profound sense of the world's acceptance of you on your terms. The way you love, your artistic expressions and outlooks, and/or your instinct to blissfully play will all reflect the palpable signature of someone who's right on track. And if you're a good parent, you'll enjoy a deep sense of pride and self-satisfaction from some sign you're doing a fine job. Of course, if you're a poser or a cheap imitation of the role you play on TV, you're in for a sobering awakening. Your attempts at creativity will ring flat. Your supposedly blissful pastimes won't offer the true satisfaction you seek. And if you have a child, he or she could demonstrate an unpleasant side-effect of your parenting techniques. If any of these negatives show up, then, at the core of it, you're trying too hard to be someone you're not—and that inhibits your ability to love yourself, unmitigated and total. If you don't love yourself, all other products of that love—your art, your romantic life, your dear offspring—will consequently suffer.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I have every reason to believe you display amazing compassion, insight and pragmatism in whatever professional or public contribution you make to the world. But if you think for one minute that what you put yourself through behind closed doors, after hours, when nobody's watching, doesn't bleed into your outer-expressed existence, you're totally kidding yourself. Taureans who have recently come to terms with their excessive sentimentality or habitual woo-is-me routine—in favor of feeling the feelings once through thoroughly, then getting on with life—know what I'm talking about (and can ignore the rest of this horoscope, if so desired). Trust me, it's not that I want you to repress anything… but reliving a half-formed reaction to yesterday's injustices and disappointments, day in and day out, is like subsisting in a limbo state of stunted development. And I know you wouldn't allow someone you deal with at work or around town to get away with childishly playing and replaying their tears. While I'm not ordinarily the type to tell folks to suck it up, in this case, I lovingly believe it may be called for.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Normally, I'm more than happy to stand behind your dabbling habits, since your receptiveness to the many possibilities out there is an essential part of the Geminian nature. However, the conjunction of Mars and Saturn in your 3rd house tells a different story for the time being… which is that you now must face all the repercussions, benefits and bummers alike, of this way of being. There's a definite difference between (1) enjoying an experimental attitude in life and (2) purposely leaving options open, even as you authentically favor one option over another, just to forestall commitment and (try to) avoid getting hurt. The whole point of experimentation is to eventually establish preferences—inevitably, you'll like one thing (or person) better than another, eh? But if you never make the choice, to rule certain options out altogether while fleshing others more fully out, you miss out on those rewards only available through extended durations of interest. Not only that, those folks who represent merely one option among many for you could independently decide to rule themselves out.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Just as there are 72 names of God and 613 seeds in a pomegranate, you can certainly unroll hundreds of different slants on your life story… many of which will attribute deep significance and essential insight to even those experiences that were weighty and/or traumatic at the time. What happened happened, but the vast freedom to rewrite history—not factually, but symbolically—is yours for the taking. And please, Cancer, take this liberty this week, to compose motivational parables from the meat of your life thus far. Don't forget to leave intriguing openings for the chapters still forthcoming, in which you'll soar toward the ultimate merit of meaningful existence, proving that, yes, all along there was a spiritual logic to what initially appeared as madness. This astro-weather shines on you as the prophetic visionary of the week. Tell the future how you'd like it to turn out.

LEO (July 23-August 22): The occasion of this week's Mars-Saturn conjunction in your sign beseeches you to make a serious self-assessment, to determine how well you're living up to your life challenges. Such challenges vary from person to person, but usually make themselves clearly known through repetitions of issues that familiarly reappear in moments of stress or difficulty. In case you haven't taken note, my recent Leo horoscopes have returned again and again to the notion of imposing conscious limits on yourself, so that you not take up more psychic space than you've earned—running at the mouth, hogging the spotlight, forgetting to consider others' feelings. I'm not implying you're guilty of these things, but you certainly could be. Are you or aren't you? Saturn's lesson in Leo forces you to examine this question closely. If you really want to know how you're doing, ask those who know you the best. This week's progress report will instill a greater sense of accomplishment in you, showing how you've grown to accept limits—or else you'll be confronted with such limits imposed upon you, and not much you can do about it.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Allow me to include you in a little secret. Saturn in the 12th house, a transit currently going down in your solar chart, has an illustrious tradition of making folks feel insane—the unshakable sense of glumness, with no apparent source, as if a shoe's about to drop; spiraling dreams or drunken blackouts; a looming weight of responsibility that you're not actually responsible for; and an uncanny aloneness, which you might even convince yourself you prefer, but which ultimately persists because you imagine no one could possibly understand… what? Now, throw in a conjunction to Mars (occurring this week), and you've found yourself (consciously or not) pursuing this craze, rather than just stoically bearing it. However, Virgo, there is a way out: sharing what's going on, no matter how stupid or pathetic or wholly unlovable it may make you feel. Psychosis is harder to maintain at a table for two, where one party is grounded and open and willing to talk through it. (By the way, that grounded party isn't you.) It may embarrass you at first, but if you've picked a truly loving and supportive comrade, you'll soon discover that sharing the truth of private inner turmoil can ultimately leave you feeling smart and brave and intensely lovable.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Just as your romantic urges flare up, bathing your view of a certain relationship in carnally intoxicating shades, your level of responsibility to the larger body is tested or stepped up a notch, to determine how serious you are about doing your part to help others in this wide, wacky world. Through all that sultry smoke and the mirrors above your bed, can you see yourself and your motivations clearly? Or are they clouded by interpersonal intrigue? Don't you dare badmouth the members of your community, who simply want your presence as part of their process (and seem so demanding because they need you to live up to your commitments). It's not their fault you're consumed in a battle between instantaneous excitement and enduring legacy, and you're fighting with the rebels. There are definitely creative ways you can still meet your obligations by reshifting how they'll get done, and rescue plenty of extra time to lounge away in la-la land. (That's for you to figure out.) But the minute your peers sniff you trying to pull the wool over their eyes, you're in deep doo-doo.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Your week's experiences, especially in professional situations and/or around folks whose opinions really matter to you, will give you a broad indication of how you're doing at fulfilling your higher calling… where you can pat yourself on the back or must cut yourself down to size, where the earnest efforts have paid off or where they could be better-directed or refined, or where (god forbid) you've made an absolute mess. Pay serious attention to the symbolic signs you're receiving, for even a seemingly innocent remark from a higher-up, an unexpected compliment or nerve-wracking hiccup will speak larger volumes about this moment, as it relates to the larger trajectory of your career development. If the realizations are grim, then take 'em stoically—not as an excuse to feel sorry for yourself (or angry at the deliverer of karmic messages), but as a fortunate hint at where you can best amend your behaviors. And if you hit a new level of stable authority or receive some honor, accept it with grace… knowing that sincere work, put in over time toward a specific purpose, usually hits its mark, and congratulate yourself for that.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): If I were to tell you that, over the new few years, you'd only be permitted to engage in one exhilarating, soul-stirring, bold-and-risk activity, trip, study or adventure—apart from the same rote schedule of daily checklist items, car-pool rotations, grocery-grabbing errands and household routines—would you be able to choose? Obviously, you'd have to make it a good one. Could you pare down your wellspring of avid interests in everything this big bountiful world has to offer and focus on a single area? The aspect behind my inquiry is a Mars-Saturn conjunction in the 9th house (Sagittarius's naturally-ruled house), which raises the bar on how you spend your physical, soul-searching impulses. He who eternally reaches far beyond his present place, for those perfect pieces of fruit on the highest branches of every tree in the garden of knowledge, ends up with a sore back and more experience of the exotic than he can ever digest. Here's where the shadow to Sagittarian energies shows up, in its so-called polar opposite of Gemini—too much curiosity, not enough staying-power to adequately fulfill any of it. You also hold that capacity: to merely tire yourself out, detaching too severely from everyday intimacies, in pursuit of that next bigger mountain, wave or theory of God.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Here's your opening to reaffirm and/or reevaluate your boundaries in those most highly charged relationships in your life—especially those that involve sexual or financial entanglements—to make sure the current level of sharing is appropriate. Now is your chance to speak up if you feel, in any way, like you're being taken advantage of… or live uncomplainingly with the consequences of staying silent. It's also your moment to ask for more, if you desire to go farther in the intensity of your bond, or if there's an inequity you hope to equalize. Mind you, Capricorn, all the possibilities of action I've thus far suggested will likely involve difficult maneuvers in touchy situations… so though the aimed-for result may be deeply fulfilling, the process to get there could create a few moments or days of deep discomfort. Speak the truth of your needs with as much detachment as possible from the expectations of what'll come next, and stay in the moment. Remember, if you settle for too little, you'll crystallize a psychological distantness that makes life less enjoyable. But if you push for too much, the other person's limits could shock you back into submission to the reality: You haven't yet earned what you're wanting.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): I've railed and railed on you (and will probably continue to rail on you) about your relationship life… whether it's entrenched in old patterns, frozen at arm's length, scattered all over the map, or glaringly nonexistent. That's authoritative Saturn in your 7th again (remember him?), refusing to budge, shining its interrogatory searchlights into your couplings, and forcing you to look and listen. You're not squeezing your eyes tightly shut, plugging your ears, and singing 'All You Need is Love' to yourself in a catatonic-like prayer it'll drown everything else out, are you? Because this week, with Mars conjoining Saturn, the pressure to honor and uphold your commitments bears down stronger than ever, and you'll literally harm yourself (at least relationship-wise) if you refuse to heed its message. There's one irrefutable pathway to releasing the stress and accepting the relational legacy you've reaped… and that is honesty. Nobody expects you to be the perfect partner, friend, colleague or lover—just to be real about what you bring (or don't bring) to the table. Meanwhile, unaware self-righteousness (never a pleasant trait) will only dig you way deeper in the hole.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): …and now, Deep Breathing with astrobarry. When you are ready, you'll need to sit in a comfortable position, away from the glare of this computer screen and other external distractions, and start to pay close attention to the air entering and leaving your lungs. As you sit with a straight back and an open heart, begin deepening your breaths, inhaling further into your belly and exhaling all the way out. Continue this for the duration of 25 breaths (I know, it'll seem like forever)… then, listen to your body. The awareness you can come to this week, if you silence your head and enter fully into your physical self, is enormous—but not necessarily uplifting or easy to handle. The aches and pains, the imbalances and blockages, speak volumes about where you're working too hard, playing too hard, or holding on too hard to old emotions… all of which can make you tired or ill, if you're not careful. Your body is the only vehicle you've been permitted to lease this go-around, and you must serve it, with respect to its limits. The earth-body rental company will charge you a karmic fee for mistreating the merchandise, later if not sooner. You don't have to be an immaculately ascetic master of pure living—just kind and attentive and respectful to the reality of physical being.