Horoscopes | Week of June 8-14, 2009

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I can actually envision you with the money in your pocket, Aries… if (and it's a big 'if'), that is, you can envision yourself with it. Your material-resources zone (the 2nd house) is presently hosting a very happy Venus, who's also presently allied with Pluto in your 10th… all of which seems to augur you steadying yourself into a more powerful position vis-à-vis realizing your aspirations. The principal potential pitfall, however, has to do with whether you can own this power—or whether you'll continue thinking of yourself as the scrappy challenger, too hungrily contending for the crown you imagine is rightfully sitting on someone else's head. Should you feed this gnarly blend of competitiveness and envy, it will block you from getting what you need to take care of what you're working on. The flipside of this same token, of course, is that you not overvalue your importance, falsely assuming your rising power in this world is the same thing as being entitled (by virtue of your, ahem, 'obvious superiority' to everybody else?) to the prestige and the cash that comes along with it. In both parallel scenarios, what'll trip you up is concerning yourself too much with where you stand in relation to others in your field, co-workers or bosses, or where you think you should stand at this point in your life. For your own economic good, don't get caught up in all that psychological mind-tripping. Confidently take what's rightfully yours, no more and no less… and immediately put it to good use, reinvesting in your burgeoning personal empire.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): All three personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) are in your sign throughout most of the week. Bask in the comfort of an astro-vibe that's totally playin' your tune, Taurus. The only area in which I wouldn't push your luck, my dear, is in the career zone, where Mercury's muddling square to Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron in your 10th means that the broader forces at work are likely to misunderstand your motivations, should you make too bold a proposition, having been rightfully emboldened by the newfound confidence and energy levels the Taurus-placed planets have bestowed upon you. The same proposition made next week would not suffer from this same handicap, and therefore holding up on professional proposals 'til then will greatly increase the possibility they will pay off in legitimate gains (even possibly financial ones). Take career out of the mix, however, and you're pretty much good to go in terms of running the show how you'd like to see it go, in almost any other zone of your life. Make the moves romantically. Pull the house back into order. Get the squabbling family members or friends back on the same track. Overall, though, the main strain I see coursing through your week: Returning everything to where you believe it should be, as far as you have any control over the matter.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): When in doubt, put 'em off until next week. And if that doesn't work, how 'bout putting 'em off until the following week? Okay, the second part of that advice is me being glib. But as far as the first part goes, I'm deadly serious. With Mercury, Venus and Mars all in your solar 12th for pretty much the duration of the week, Gemini, you have very little at your conscious disposal to work with. Dare I even tempt myself to write off your entire upcoming seven-day period as a 'dead week', the way we used to categorize the waiting-and-studying-and-stressing phase between the end of classes and the beginning of finals back in college? The more respite-style activities you can fill your schedule with—wistful walks through nature, extra-long massages or yoga classes, viewing marathons of classic movies, hours spent sketching or scribbling in notebooks—the less havoc your speedy impatience will wreak on your psychic health. By the time the weekend arrives, Mercury will finally return to your sign, clearing its retrograde shadow by next Monday… and your mental agility, at last, will be regained. At that point, though you'll still be victim to a relatively useless 12th-house Venus and Mars leaving you to continue stumbling through the foggy confusion, at least you'll be able to outsmart your way out of looking as confused as you are, with your quick-witted ability to say whatever will keep folks satisfied and off your trail. Hang in.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Your network of relationships will continue to evolve and deepen, Cancer, as long as you keep challenging yourself to not merely assume your most natural role as 'caring helper'… but to actually be a full-on participant, voicing opinions (possibly dissenting ones) and letting everybody manage their own emotions. Of course, this so-called 'network' is comprised of multiple one-on-one relationships—between you and each other person, and, in many cases, between two other people who both know you. And even one unclean link in the chain can contaminate the whole matrix. While you cannot ensure the individual relationships that don't directly involve you are all on the up-and-up (and please, oh please, do not try), you most certainly can keep all your involvements authentic and forthright. This week, you'll have at least one wonderful chance to solidify a bond with somebody who you may not currently have a deep one-on-one dynamic with, but who still qualifies as part of your circle. (Perhaps they're a friend of a friend, a casual acquaintance or a new arrival on the scene.) Suspend your expectations about this person, particularly if you're 'heard through the grapevine' (i.e., become privy to gossip or shadow-talk) something about 'em that left you feeling funny. Make your own way with them. Even if now isn't necessarily the best time to clear the air about whether what you heard was true, you ought to give 'em the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Meanwhile, shy away from triangulation within the circle: No he-said-she-said, talking-behind-the-back indirectness. If you've got something to say about somebody, say it to their face.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): It's another banner week for getting noticed as a direct result of any hard work you're putting forth in the public sphere. Venus and Pluto are happily holding hands (via a trine) across the two houses associated with career achievement and the daily grind required to make it happen (solar 10th and 6th), which means the sharper your focus is placed on the actual shit you're committed to accomplishing (rather than the accolades you'll reap as a result), the sweeter you'll come off smelling. Put another way: It's better for them to see you with sweat beading on your forehead and dampening the armpits of your t-shirt than it is for you to appear neat and tidy and in complete power, as if you're more comfortable issuing orders from your fancy mahogany conference-room table while the peons actually dig in the dirt. Throw yourself into the trenches, Leo. Even if you're the official 'boss', toil alongside the people working for you… as if there is no difference between you and them, seeing as you're all dedicated to the same goal. (In fact, there isn't a difference, is there?) In closing, I want to add a warning identical to one I offered you a few weeks back: Do not speak on behalf of other people. Only speak on behalf of yourself. That means be especially careful about the use of the word 'we' when what you really mean to say is 'I'.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): You may tempted to repeat a declaration, perhaps directed toward a certain someone, whether aimed squarely at them or aired within their earshot, just to confirm it was adequately received. Don't waste the breath, Virgo. If it hasn't yet been understood by the desired party, steps to rearticulate the main point (which you probably can't imagine they could possibly miss) made this week aren't likely to help. And in fact, there might be too many extenuating circumstances occurring simultaneously to your attempt to 'clear the air, once and for all' (ahem) that the background noise may mangle your words, distract you while you're talking and/or them while they're (supposedly) listening, and result in the whole intention dissolving into thin air like a skywriting message an hour after the plane has left the area. Seriously, don't bother with them. Reserve the passion for yourself, instead reiterating your dedication to this newfound clarity in a self-serving ceremony. Treat yourself to a celebratory experience, perhaps some activity that only has personal meaning to you. Or if you're going to involve other people, how about including someone other than the person who still doesn't grasp what the big hoopla's all about anyhow? maybe a mentor or peer who's already part of this new path you're dedicating to? Move forward, rather than fussily trying to tidy up remnants of the recent past.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Can we pause a moment, to ensure you've fully acknowledged what I wrote to you last week? The awareness that, no matter what your defenses might be telling you to discount or discredit, this particular situation intertwines your destiny with somebody else's (in a rather profound way) is indeed a big deal, Libra… and I really don't want you to rush through accepting this fact. For better or for worse, you're not functioning with quite the same relative independence as you were, say, two or three months ago. You're in it. Spend good chunks of your week really and truly feeling the broader ramifications of this gradual—but now undeniable—change in status. You are liable to feel intermittently giddy or terrified, hopeless or blissful, eager to throw your whole self in or desperate to try anything, including burning the house down to hide the evidence and escaping to Venezuela, to get yourself out. Sit with all of it for the next several days, so none of your various (and potentially contradictory) reactions could later reveal themselves as a surprise to you. You'll want to know your psychological landscape on this situation inside and out… mainly because, within the next two or three weeks, you'll need to make explicit defining statements as to your intentions. And trust me, once you're in that discussion, you won't want any unconscious emotional responses sneaking up on you the moment you're asked a difficult question or faced with someone else's equally complicated thoughts on the matter.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): What I'm about to write to you, dear Scorpio, could ring terribly familiar… and that's because it has been a recurring theme as of late, thanks to Mercury and his recent exploits (retrograde and squaring Jupiter/Neptune): Your efforts to reach a mutual understanding with a certain someone will again be impaired by a barrage of subjective reactions you're liable to eject every time the other person seems not to 'get' what you're saying or has a totally different take on the matter. Even as I write this, it feels like it could've been cribbed verbatim from another horoscope from some prior week I'm not going to bother to look for or link back to. Why bother? To belabor the point? Next week, Mercury will be back in your solar 8th and out of its retrograde, meaning you'll finally have a fighting chance of getting the message across, as well as better grasping the message they'd like to convey—if, that is, you're willing to treat the discussion with as much importance as it truly warrants. Presumably, if you've been stumbling through communication blocks with this person for a while now, a bunch of extra emotion has built up behind the initial issue. Plan on the next round being not terribly easy, but plan on it being the one that actually reaches a conclusion. During this week, really spend the time to think about what's the emotional heart of the issue. Refine it down to one or two key items, leaving enough room for letting less crucial bits go in an inevitable compromise. This is a recipe for making genuine understanding possible.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): When it comes to the stuff piled up on your 'to do' plate, there's scant little to really say about it. Refrain from indulging the temptation to talk about it too much… about what you're doing, what you should be doing, what you do or don't want to be doing, how it might be best done, who else should've been doing it in the first place, or any other such distracting topics of time-frittering conversation. Talk is cheap, Sagittarius… and the price of not taking care of business now, when the big astrological clock in the sky is clearly reporting it's an ideal time to do it, is an expensive one. A Venus-Pluto trine involving your work and money houses (the 6th and the 2nd, respectively) reminds you to keep your eye on the prize throughout your week—first and foremost, the monetary prize. But beyond pure economics, there's also a confidence issue tied into how effectively and productively you can accomplish what you've got in front of you. Tangible results, whether in raw dollars or in seeing the desk mess shrink as the 'complete' file grows, will build upon themselves. The more you get done, the more you will want to do. This is simply one of those moments when you may have to plug earphones or earplugs in, disable your access to gossip websites or solitaire games, and get busy. Keep reminding yourself: This is not a punishment, but actually a gift to yourself that pays off in eventual dividends of stabler self-worth.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Whether or not you demanded the front-and-center attention you presently warrant, as per the horoscopic monologue you should've spent last week audaciously reciting , you've still got it coming to you, Capricorn. There's just somethin' about you, at this current moment, that others are liable to find simply irresistible. You've got the public humility routine down pretty damn well, but please don't let it block you from receiving the kind words and respected honors, suggestive looks and salacious catcalls. By all means, take it all in. You've already suffered the self-inflicted wallflower syndrome long enough in '09, for crying out loud, and it's time to have some damn fun! (Yes, more exclamation points!) Another compelling reason to bathe in the rays of pleasure and adoration: Your 'strictly-business' mindset isn't operating at its most accurate this week, during the final pass of Mercury's obscuring square to Jupiter/Neptune, when the numbers in the columns won't seem to add up to what they ought to no matter how many times you add and readd the figures. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the accounting you might be struggling with—just a passing hiccup. Or maybe, on only a semi-conscious level, you're having a hard time concentrating, knowing that certain eyes are penetrating the walls and your aura, desperate to snag just one more adoring glance at your fine puss. Won't you give the audience what they want?

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): In writing you my weekly love-letter, I was torn between two opening sentiments so, rather than ranking one above the other, I'll share them both under the guise that they're both supposed to be the opening sentiment. Opening Sentiment #1: When I think of you this week, Aquarius, I imagine a precious deer or cute little bunny rabbit stopped dead in its tracks, having just sensed a threat to its safety, frozen, working off the instinctual belief that making no sudden moves (or any moves at all, really) will prevent it from being detected by a predator. This is not an altogether unwise strategy, in fact, for the threatening party would need to be very observant to notice one adorable woodland creature among all the sights and sounds and smells of the forest or meadow. In other words, why draw attention to yourself, when there's little to be gained from waving your arms up and down while in the line of fire? Opening Sentiment #2: Just keep your mouth shut, Aquarius. Whatever you think you want to say is probably better left unsaid for the time being. You'll actually get better results by benevolently wishing for the best, holding all critical remarks back from your tongue, and waiting until next week at the earliest for 'The Discussion' (whatever it might be). Far smarter to feel all the feelings first on your own time before then trying to explain yourself, without unresolved emotions contaminating the clarity of the message. Two opening sentiments, I guess, take up an entire horoscope.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Your presence on the scene throughout the week, Pisces, makes more of a difference than you may realize. So I'm hoping to play upon your desire to 'serve your fellow men and women' by letting you know this fact, in case it'll stir you not to hide yourself away and moon about the state of the world or other such too-big-to-do-anything-about issues. The best way to actually do something about 'the state of the world', for instance, is through humble means: appreciating the other people sharing this crazy ride with you (and not necessarily just the same ones you always hang with), offering very small and subtle acts of random kindness, passing along the various examples of Lady Luck smiling down on you (and we've all got 'em) by showing great appreciation, and just generally being reasonable about what any single individual can (or should) do to improve the quality of our collective life. None of these examples are especially profound or groundbreaking, in that you could've thought of 'em yourself and just as easily practiced them any other week besides this one. Only thing is, at this unique moment in time, your casual approach to touching one human being at a time possesses an extra invisible power… and just being present with another living soul, especially one you ordinarily wouldn't share a 'meaningful encounter' with, is indeed an integral part of a wider revolution in consciousness. Don't underestimate your effect.