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Horoscopes | Week of July 24-30, 2006

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Good things come to those Aries folks who let good things come to them… as opposed to thrusting their grubby me-first paws out into the aisles and clutching at whatever passes by, like a contestant in a 'grab as much money as you can in one minute' contest. With a grand trine of watery winners, the smartest approach is a less direct one—silently sending out signals of interest and desire, not blurting blunt demands or manically flagging down the wait-staff. Too much noise or motion will scare away the magical oceanic nymphs. They'll just pass on by, and give away your prize to the next patient lingerer in line. You won't even know what you've missed… but you'll miss something that's worth not missing. If you can't keep yourself from waiting quietly and must occupy yourself with some type of tactical maneuvering, then bargain with your own emotional occupations. Which private feelings are you willing to confront or more fully honor, in exchange for being granted another piece of pie? If the deal you offer yourself will result in opening your heart up wider (and thus boosting your emotional integrity), it will be met in kind by a blessing… one you maybe didn't even ask for, consciously

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do not wonder what you'll have to talk about. Just pick up the phone, draft the email, ring the doorbell, and make contact. These are your people, and will enjoy most any interaction they'll have with you—except, perhaps, one in which you've already marked the territory with too many off-limits areas. If you like somebody, simply make efforts to spend some time with 'em, whether it's fifteen minutes or an entire evening. Please don't sap the spontaneity out of your interpersonal relations by going in with an agenda. And let's say a pal, a potential honey or just some appealing stranger tries to sway you into heading somewhere new, scary, off the beaten track and/or totally different than where you'd usually find yourself… by all means, agree to go along. This week's energies strongly favor good relationship luck (with existing mates or completely fresh meat), especially when you hit up odd spots and unusual events without preconceived judgments. Standing out, meanwhile, is preferable to blending in. That soul you've been breathless to meet could be behind the beaded curtain or around that corner you don't normally turn, waiting for you to quit playing it safe.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): A typical reading on this week's grand water trine between Venus, Jupiter and Uranus in your material houses would emphasize money… and the advantageous potential for pulling in some bigger bucks, if you're willing to work a little harder and take a glaring professional risk or two. But if we focus too specifically on what you're going to get, rather than what you already have (and the fact that your current skills and resources are what'll bring in more), you're liable to miss the boat. The windfall could already be spent before it shows up—and consequently serve to block its very arrival. Venus and Jupiter together in financial matters often brings a great ability to fill the coffers full of cash… and just as great a tendency for the coins to fall through your fingers, as you ignore price-tags and credit limits to overspend on just about anything. Throw Uranus in too, and 'sudden reversals of fortune' are the name of the game. (Note that a 'reversal' can work either way.) With one foot in the land of Reason, use every new-age visualization technique in the book to conjure images of overflowing abundance. Set your vibration to expect pay raises, winning lottery tickets, tax refunds, finder's fees, and fantastic deals. However, it might be wisest to wait a while longer—perhaps until the check clears and the month's balance balances out—before blowing the wad on a fancy new sofa.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Okay, Cancerian dudes and dudettes… this is the week you've been waiting for. You are the kings and queens of the world this week, as Venus glorifies your sign with twin trines to Jupiter and Uranus. If you don't feel absolutely invincible and capable of bringing your wildest dreams to reality, then please put on the best faking act you can muster because I'm a believer that even just going through the motions can have a powerful effect. Perhaps you'll only be setting the fabulous forces of fortune into motion during these coming days… with the rewards to be reaped in future weeks. That's okay, right? The important thing is to treat your every last effort and interaction like it's a winged dove carrying pure love, perfect happiness, and all the riches of various persuasions on its tailfeathers. Of course, with Mercury also stationing direct in your sign, some of the best luck could come disguised as mistakes, misspeaks, or momentarily misdirected or misunderstood messages from long-lost somebody-or-others. Don't belabor the missed points or murder the messengers. You can't go wrong, unless you get your shoelaces tangled by your own frantic do/undo/redo madness or refuse to heed the sacred astro-signs. Please have faith that your week is bursting with seeds of splendiferousness, and sprinkle them wherever you go.

LEO (July 23-August 22): This week brings a New Moon in your sign, Leo, and on this occasion, I encourage you to repledge yourself to spending the next four weeks embodying as pure a reflection of your truest being—the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the shining spotlit star and the stumbling backstage mess—as you possibly can. No apologies, and no adjusting your posture or tone of voice to craft a certain (illusive?) image. 'Purely you, as is, all the time,' is much more challenging than it sounds… but kind of fun, too, for learning more about yourself by noticing when you lapse into and out of 'character'. It's also a useful exercise to accompany the other astro-influence: felicitously flowing breaks of happy luck (courtesy of the grandly-trining water element), which only show their best face by your releasing all control over everything… except, of course, how purely you put yourself forth. Water is funny that way—you can't see what's beneath its opaque glassy surfaces, how far down it goes or how much treasure is sunken in the ground below. Island chains, for instance, are just tips of massive mountain ranges. And what begins to emerge for you this week, visible or not, is much larger than you can currently fathom. No matter what it is, there's no better reaction that welcoming it with open arms: 'This is me, and who are you?'

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): I cannot emphasize this enough, so listen up: Please spend as much time as you can out on the town, in attendance at the interesting events and can't-miss parties, talking up the people who delight or fascinate or impress you immensely… and please no excuses for trying to weasel your way out. Even if you don't consider yourself particularly comfortable in such social settings, don't let that stop you from exposing yourself to the wider fabric of folks that make your community go 'round. All the most auspicious energies of the week—and with Venus, Jupiter and Uranus in a grand water trine, there are lots of 'em—will swirl around you when you're out, getting your mingle on. Granted, it'll work best if you have no specific intention in mind, other than to follow whatever larks lead you to certain venues, or to the sides of certain favorite pals. (In other words, don't use this vibe to try 'getting' something from someone.) And feel free to invite conversations to take organically unexpected turns, to topics you might not usually take up in public. It's worthwhile to disclose more than you typically would, if it's in the proper context… and you'd be surprised how those daring contexts will supply themselves, as eerie chances to quickly develop a deeper rapport in a casual exchange. Just please don't stay isolated, alone and/or at home too much this week. Trust me on this one.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): I don't suppose telling you to be in the right place at the right time, in order to collect the professional rewards and golden opportunities due your efforts, is much of a help. How are you supposed to know where that right place is, when exactly you should arrive and how long to stay? And yet, the fruits are all yours to grab, at this certain location at that certain moment. In this astro-climate, the only path to knowing is to release all tries to 'figure it out'. The incessant figuring and planning will merely busy your mind, blocking the rest of you from instinctively following the drift. However, the 'right place' is likelier to reside a bit outside your regular routine—perhaps requiring you to rearrange your schedule, take a few steps beyond your usual limits, or otherwise shift perspective to reach it. And the 'right time'? When you feel uncannily moved to turn left instead of right… to take a break from the afternoon hustle for a cup o' tea (at the other café on the block)… to suddenly ask your boss if that extra seat at the after-work event is still open. It's not something you can 'figure out' ahead of time. Just be receptive enough to sense the need to act now instead of later. Chances are, you'll stumble your way right there.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): We all need to take those moments from our buzzing schedules to honor our inner dreamer, without whom we'd be highly unlikely to make it very far from our childhood bedroom door. As all the superplayers will tell you, it's their unwavering vision of something greater that possessed the strong-enough momentum to pull them through the ranks to the cherry on top. You'll never become big without first thinking big. A grand trine of provocative-and-peppy planets of expansion, anchored specially for you by Jupiter in your sign, is your personally engraved invitation to this week's 'dream big' soiree. Grab your current situations, ideas and whispered hopes… and turn up their volume by a noticeable chunk of decibels. Enjoying your job as a journalist? What if you ran your own magazine? Thinking how badly you need a vacation? How about a month-long jaunt to that most-fantasized-about faraway land? Do you want to meet a nice new romantic partner… or wouldn't you rather fall madly, passionately, knocked-on-your-ass in love? There's no reason to keep these wild dreams quiet, Scorpio—tell all your friends about 'em, and encourage them to do the same. All you've got to do is believe, in the core of your heart and below the mental noises trying to convince you otherwise, that it's truly possible for these dreams to come true. Don't bother yourself with computing how it might happen; for now, that's irrelevant. Just dream, and hold the belief.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): This is your ideal juncture to forge yourself an 'in' into whatever forbidden, potentially menacing or just not-looking-forward-to topic you've been avoiding. Startlingly, it won't be nearly so difficult as you expected it to be… precisely because you chose to engage it now. Since I'm in the business, I should know: Timing really is everything. For instance, compare this advice to last week's, in which I couldn't urge you strongly enough to avoid processing your interpersonal stuff unless you absolutely had to. A week makes all the difference, thanks to both a grand water trine and Mercury's station to direct rooted in your 8th house. You should feel free to break from prior tradition (e.g., issues that had previously gone unexplored, old emotions irrelevant to new situations), to initiate a brave entrance into the dark cave of heavy-duty intensity. As I already said, it won't sting past the first couple steps. If it's added inspiration, remember that, underneath the cold crusty top-layer, lives a rejuvenating well of passion—both your own personal fire, and the passion of the relationship—waiting for you to reconnect with it. What you've avoided disclosing or asking about is the only thing blocking you from the sacred well. And now is the time to enter, stand proud, and give it a go.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Your 7th house is lighting up with providence and adventure, so the only issue to figure out is how the existence of another person—your lover? your business partner? your best friend? your arch-nemesis?—is going to drench your week in goodness. Are you going to reach out with a bouquet of flowers, an olive branch, or a detailed plan for your most profitable collaboration ever? Or are you the one to whom the reaching-out is aimed? (By the way, you don't have to choose one or the other.) What I'm absolutely sure of is that couplings, connections and collusions are strongly weighted to the positive for you right now, Capricorn. And therefore, the most wasteful approach to virtually everything would be to do it alone. Nothing will necessarily go wrong, but a whole lot of 'very right' possibilities will pass you by. That said… accept their proposals of involvement, respond to their conversational entrees in kind, bring them along for the ride, and confide your wishes in their trust. If nobody has shown up to offer invitations or opportunities, don't wait around and murmur falsehoods about your unlovability or ineptitude—take the initiative yourself, and pull in companions of your own choosing, on your terms. Just don't insist on treading the solitary road (yes, again)… if for no other reason than simply to put boredom to bed.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Work your ass off, and enjoy every minute of it. If you're going to take serious advantage of the magical communion of planetary players stroking your professional practices to ever-increasing profit, you'd better like what you're doing. And I don't mean 'like what you're doing' in the abstract sense of 'the type of thing you like to tell people you're doing, for all it symbolizes and conveys'. I'm talking about literal enjoyment of the actual hours spent… of the long-winded tasks you do and redo, of the brain-power you expend to ensure the job's done well, of the manner in which your day flows, of where you sit and how you're seated. You'd better enjoy every minute (or almost every minute) of the real work. If you've momentarily neglected your connection to the joy—because the overwhelming load has sapped you of excitement or lingering fear spoils the show; because you've been so 'in it' that you've forgotten it's where you want to be—this is the week to restore the link. If there are parts of the work you legitimately dislike, give yourself permission to postpone them (if the delay won't create major setback) and focus on the stuff you like best. Chances are, as you're whistling while you strive and sweat, you might have so much fun that the not-fun parts suddenly seem less not-fun. But what's most important is that you keep working… and that this advice is something you're thrilled to follow.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Consider 'the parents' minivan' well on its way out of town… and the unbridled bash to have begun! The underground excitement that began bubbling up last week has hit the surface, gushing forth gobs of good times like a champagne geyser. If you're not reading the same memo ('Subject: Fun at All Costs') all the Pisceans should've received, then tear up whatever piece of garbage you're holding that's robbing your attention from everything uplifting in your world. This bubbly bash is co-sponsored by Venus, Jupiter and Uranus, who are currently grand-trining in your element… and generously compensating all your authentic moves to crack the shell, relinquish the mask, relish the spotlight, and make beautiful mischief with a bevy of luxurious prizes. Romance! Adventure! Creative inspiration! Child-like wonder! Too many entertaining choices to keep track of! And all yours for the taking—if you promise to arrive with bells or boas on, wearing a smart-ass t-shirt or skimpy items that show some skin, and dripping with a Fun-at-All-Costs attitude. (Didn't you get the memo?) If you dare to argue that this horoscope misses the mark… well, maybe it's you missing the mark, paddling frantically upstream in stubborn refusal to let the current simply carry you to the party.