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Horoscopes | Week of March 3-9, 2008

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Let's be judicious with our exertions this week, shall we, Aries? To do so, you'll have to contemplate likeliest possible outcomes in advance of actually bothering to invest energy. And if the odds aren't pretty excellent that it'll turn out damn close to how you'd want it to, then you should probably consider taking a pass. In all interpersonal putterings, start out by asking yourself the question that'll remind you to make this crucial foresight measurement: 'If I'm unlikely to win, why fight the battle?' If your answer is something like, 'Just to make a show of public strength,' or, 'So they know who they're messing with,' then skip the involvement altogether. Those aren't good enough excuses for burning out on all cylinders, in order to roar and growl in a public scene. If it's merely about venting your fury or wrath, do it on your off time—instead of, say, in your boss's office or during a routine traffic stop. And if somebody powerful is part of the kerfuffle, that's a double incentive to deal with your ire privately. Handling your displeasure with tact will make all the difference this week… not only saving you from unnecessarily undesirable consequences, but reserving your precious ch'i for struggles or challenges actually worth all that effort.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Really, there's no need to interrupt an otherwise lovely drift of agreeability, purely to elucidate particular details that other people might not quite grasp in their entirety. Relax about the unspokens and underexplaineds. If the folks mostly catch your gist (but still remained somewhat misguided in certain areas), please let that be enough for now. The more exacting points, while they'll ultimately prove important in a future stage of the process, don't need to be picked through with a fine-tooth comb this week, that's for sure. So don't get yourself caught in long-winded descriptions, exaggerated extrapolations or know-it-all admonishments. More than anything, these will serve to bombard your peeps with far more information than they legitimately need in wagering their approval… and the added words, concepts and considerations are likelier to bias them against you than to make your case for you. Say little, and ride along on the indefinite enthusiasm they'll show the second you display confidence in your ability to see it through to the end. They just don't need the specifics. In fact, you'll jeopardize their generally positive reaction by fussily correcting 'em over something relatively minor.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If you really want that mutual understanding with You-Know-Who, then please, by all means, keep holding your belief that it's possible. You will get there, sooner or later, as long as you leave that possibility open… as opposed to letting your restless desire to end this aggravating dragging-on-and-on get the best of you. But in order to allow that to happen, Gemini, you must be willing to continue talking about the tough stuff—even if you feel like you've said it all before, or even if you'd rather run to the farthest edges of the earth than be forced to discuss that (whatever 'that' may be). There is simply no other way. In fact, the very reason this is still going on has everything to do with something that's not being said… though, despite you reading my words, you might not be able to identify quite what remains unspoken. (Or maybe you know exactly what.) That's why no off-limits topics must be permitted to stay off-limits. While your decision to leave certain boundaries in place may have little-to-no direct relevance to the situation at hand, it still assumes a knowledge of what qualifies as 'relevance' that isn't exactly fair to all parties (since the other person might posit different qualifications)… not to mention, it keeps you in 'censorship mode'. If you genuinely want that understanding, then you must prioritize it over any other face-saving concerns you might be reserving up your sleeve. See it all the way through by saying everything that crosses your mind during the conversation.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): With the return of Mars to your sign (after his slippery retrograde-impaired ass slunk back into Gemini for a couple months), you're back in the saddle again. This should hopefully restore a good chunk of the physical initiative that might've inspired you to push forward in one area of life or another during October and early-November '07… before the complicating events from late-November '07 through January '08 appeared to halt your progress. After all, as the coming weeks will demonstrate, you were never actually 'halted' at all—merely delayed and (in the process) tested, to find out just how serious you were about forging ahead into change-making. (And, boy, were you tested!) But this recent confusing comedown of an irritating intermission is now, at last, giving way to a newfound ability to assert yourself. Yes, Cancer, whatever hasn't killed you by this point will definitely make you stronger in the months ahead. With this additional time to stew, I'd expect you've become much clearer on what you want—and don't want, as the case may be. From here on out, it's on you to get the goodies… and get rid of the undesirables. And I wouldn't be surprised to discover, either, that some defining exchange or event occurs this week, representing your choice to do just that—no matter who you might have to stand up to, face off against or send packing, in order to resolutely route your life in the direction it should be headed. Don't be afraid to take charge. With faith, feeling and ferocity, the latest advancements will begin unfolding ever more quickly and eventfully.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Who is that person looking back across the table at you, really? Are they the guy or gal you see them as? Or have you subconsciously repainted their face (or their soul) in less-fine focus, airbrushing out the pockmarks and wrinkles and scars, photoshopping away the cruder features, to give it that poreless porcelain perfection your creative mind has come to favor? These questions are worth asking, Leo, on the occasion of a Mercury-Venus-Neptune congress in your solar 7th… an astro-influence smacking with the idealistic tendency to glimpse only that which promotes our sense of unity and oneness, while glossing over anything suggesting the need for discrimination or caution. It makes us want to believe, to keep the faith no matter if tiny cracks and chasms in the polish start to mar our peripheral vision. (And of course, the 'love at first sight' and 'happily ever after' narrative strains—which adore any Neptune involvement—make for a better story.) Still, at this stage in the game, such forward imaginings into next year or the year after are riddled with wishful thinking because, despite all apparent evidence (or is it something other than what it appears to be?), you can't possibly know. Does that mean you're supposed to withdraw from the proceedings immediately? Blast 'em with a battery of questions 'til you're convinced your little inquisition has spoken to every last variable? Beg for a undying commitment? No, no, no… refrain from the dramatic actions. Simply enjoy things as they are, for the present moment, without manically trying to pin it all down. Yet, prepare to later see a different, more complete side of your beloved—one that you may prove not to like as much or in quite the same way.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Obsessive worries about work or some other terribly important duty that continues to linger represent a glaring imbalance in your recent day-to-day experience… as well as a clue to your currently amplified potential to overdo, when it comes to focusing on what has to get done. Not only does such nonstop worrying-and-working pose a real threat to your physical health (stress leading to exhaustion leading to illness, forcing you to rest), it also precludes your chance to take advantage of other astro-influences that promise to breathe new life into your relationship zone. Whether you're coupled off or single, Virgo, you deserve to enjoy some hot one-on-one times… no matter what's required to get your motors running again. For the single among you, it's the kind of week where a blind fix-up or an online dating match is likelier than usual to prove successful—any surprising encounter or electrifying initial meeting that will bring a brand-spankin'-new energy into your life, to shake up what you thought was possible. Even you coupled-off Virgos should follow this advice, and sort out some out-of-the-ordinary activity for you and your other half to participate in, to remind you two why you first fell for each other. Don't settle for the 'honeymoon feelings' to be gone forever. Recapture 'em already. Those 'first love' somersaults in the stomach are aching to flip all over again, with either a fresh face or a refreshed fondness for your longtime love. Of course, you have to stop stressing first, before any of this will occur…

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Some of you Librans will surely have invited Venus's 'love magic' into your life over these past couple weeks… whether through dumping your grumps and dashing headfirst into the fun parade or by allowing other people's 'why care?' attitudes to tickle you 'til you're giggling pink. If you're among this group, then I'd expect the good times to continue—perhaps to the point of overindulgence, should not keep watch over the clock, the tab and/or your intake. (And if you sincerely want to become part of this group, don't wait one more minute. Make plans for a wild night with your kookiest mates ASAP.) But the other batch of you Librans are, unfortunately, still languishing in a case of soggy spirits… one that I can only attribute to your difficulty in letting go of triggered emotions from an interpersonal disappointment some weeks back, likely because it brought back unpleasant memories of a similar experience further back in time. As far as you people go, I won't try talking you out of your bad mood; if it's persisted this long, despite the activity in your solar 5th, it's pretty deep and probably requires your attention. I will, however, make one nuts-and-bolts solution: Put in extra elbow-grease on the job, on behalf of your larger life goals and/or immediately pressing responsibilities. Not much fun? Well, if you won't bother cheering yourself up, at least get the most out of your moping—by simultaneously using the time to plow through other stuff.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): In opposition to your typical 'play it cool' style, I encourage you to paint the actions in your life this week with bold, obvious and totally unsubtle strokes. Don't expect anybody to read between the lines, fill in the blanks, or glean the added symbolic significance you might slyly slip into meaningful glances or pregnant pauses. All of that is way too understated. Sure, you may often find a clear benefit to withholding large parts of yourself behind a hard-to-read exterior… buying you the time to gather facts and impressions of the other person before laying yourself on the line, increasing your chances of 'winning' (whatever you may want from the situation) by remaining patient, observant and carefully controlled. However, that usual advantage will doubtfully buy you much at all in this current astro-climate, where these fools are just as likely to miss your whole point completely, essentially moving right past the 'foolproof' trap you thought you'd set. Too damn underwhelming for your own good? Then, rip the friggin' mask off, and blow your cover on purpose. By letting a lot more hang out, you're accepting the knowledge that, for the time being, your attempts to calculate their impressions of you will fall flat. So why worry about appearances? Be blatant about everything, and they can't possibly overlook you.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Before you begin to defend yourself, stop right there, dead in your tracks… and ponder why you're getting defensive. It's probably due to one of two reasons. Either (1) you aren't completely confident with the rationale behind why you're feeling a certain way, thus tripping yourself with an internal conflict between 'heart' and 'mind', or (2) somebody else is pushing you to explain your reasons for feeling as you do. If the reality of description (1) is bogging you down, then it's evidently a matter of not trusting your intuitive instincts, though they're certainly speaking up (if you're willing to count a strong emotional reaction as 'intuition', which I definitely do). Look, Sagittarius, as smart as you are, you must humbly bow down to the personal god of Feeling because it often delivers us messages that our brains are too cagey and cunning to tell us flat-out. Emotions carry the sorts of truth that simply cannot be neatly explained by logic. When they file a report, we just know. Cut yourself the slack to 'know' without 'knowing why'. Meanwhile, if the interpersonal pressures of (2) are what's winding you up, the solution is even easier since, truth be told, the problem is theirs. You don't owe anybody a clarifying point-by-point breakdown of your stance, merely a clear summarizing statement of it. Rather than toiling to devise the perfect answer to their pushy quizzing, just tell 'em: 'Because that's how I feel.' No logician anywhere can contend with that.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): If you dare to take their word for it, you might come to believe that, yes, this is a black-or-white issue the two of you are facing. But if the term 'black-or-white' jogs your memory sufficiently for it to recall the closing words of your two-weeks-ago horoscope—'shades of gray'—then you already have your reason to disagree. Succinctly put: It's just not that cut-and-dry. And since you're the one with both Jupiter and Pluto by your side, you should be able to tap into a far broader outlook, as well as a fuller understanding of all that's at stake (which is so much more than their simplistic summary takes into account). Hopefully, then, you see there are many more options than just these two ('black' or 'white'?) being crudely pitted against each other as the opposing poles. You mustn't permit this complexity to become collapsed into a this-or-that caricature… if, that is, you really hope to treat the issue itself with the conscious consideration required for clear thinking. This 'either/or' analysis is purely theirs, not yours. The question as to whether you should adopt it or not is, at the end of the day, a personal one—as is their attempt to back you into a corner with an ultimatum. Therefore, don't treat this like the 'evolved' intellectual deliberation they're playing it off as… but instead as the interpersonal power struggle it actually is.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Between us, Aquarius, there's very little you have to do this week. Going easily along with the gentle slope of Mercury, Venus and Neptune (conjoined in your sign) is probably all the guidance you need from the planets for everything to work out just fine, if not better than that. Of course, the biggest potential negative lurking around is the increased likelihood of 'everything working out' under incomplete (or partially misleading) auspices, while certain inconsistencies and impediments get swept under the carpet (for the time being)… which may ultimately require additional tweaks, techniques and turn-arounds before everything really functions as all these positive signs are promising. Yet, there's nothing to be done about that now. Were you to attempt to raise these exceptions, they still couldn't be adequately addressed to avoid this likelihood I'm describing. Only time will bring further critical development. Knowing all this, you'd be foolish to expend any efforts whatsoever on clarifying, coordinating or controlling basically anything in your life, but particularly those areas where close attention to detail is required—despite the upbeat outlook of your week, such concentration isn't what you should sign on for. Accept the blessed ease, and don't waste any strength. If you let it all be, you'll float by on a cloud of unassuming grace. But if you feel turbulence and waves, it's because you're swimming against the currents.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Even though last week I encouraged you to drag your heels in any pressing discussions you're presently embroiled in, I suspect you've already attained some degree of clarity on the situation. And if not, you should expect at least one lightning-bolt of spontaneous enlightenment during the course of this week, Pisces—unless you've been unable to isolate yourself from those whose psychic coercion techniques will bear a corrupting influence on your mindset, blocking you from receptivity to Your Real Feelings. Honey, you need space to figure it out. Otherwise, you're batting around the same compare-and-contrast options (each with their own convincing-enough pros and cons), with little decisiveness to reap from it. That's why, even if you think you know what you want to say, I'd still urge you toward another week in the meditative self-discovery of a vacuum chamber… and away from 'this is your final answer' line-drawing. I will tell you this much, though: To a large degree, you're again facing that same tough choice you've sidestepped for a while now, and avoiding it will not make it go away. Do you follow your own bliss, no matter what else needs to happen? Or are you incorruptibly set on making that huge irreversible sacrifice, just to prove loyalty and/or love?