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Horoscopes | Week of July 6-12, 2009

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Considering the tremendous strides you've made since the start of '09, try not to exaggerate the extent of any momentarily frustrating lulls or lags that may currently be presenting themselves. The apparent lack of progress (and please note the use of the term 'apparent') that's shown up over the course of last week and into the beginning of this one has, in at least one fundamental area, very little to do with you personally. You've gotten caught in the crosswinds of larger trends: circumstances transpiring within a relevant organization, issues your colleagues must attend to, societal situations you have little control over. Therefore, don't fret, Aries. No matter what kind of hardy individual you may be, you simply cannot contend with currents stronger than any person's ability to outswim 'em. Luckily for you, though, these cross-currents ought to calm down toward the tail end of the week… with a new noteworthy rush of fresh breaths and friendly boosts of assistance due to blow in over the coming couple weeks. We are officially in eclipse season again, after all, which means you mustn't attach yourself to any certain interpretation of 'how things are going' (or, more specifically, 'how badly things are going'), as we're flipping from one chapter to the next and the narrative action could turn on a dime.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Settle back in. The 'epic' gives way to the more 'standard'. Your feet, ordinarily so firmly planted on the earth, have been hovering a few inches above solid ground for a few weeks now… a sensation you might not have wholly comprehended since you've been so busy motorin' along, spinning and stirring and stimulating the scene with full forthright release of your truer attitudes. Come back down, dear Taurus, and allow the self-defined/-defining shake-ups to integrate themselves into your slower sections. Give yourself a few moments to compose thyself. You don't usually move so much entrenched situational meatiness in such a short time, as you don't usually host both Venus and Mars in your sign in the same span, so you mustn't underestimate the power of what's just happened in this last month or so. Downshift and decelerate, darling. Return proudly to your touchstone, for safety back at base, and stop worrying about what's next. This refueling stop is the only 'next' thing to concern yourself with. No need to scour this horoscope (or any other form of self-help instructive) for urgency in the advice. There isn't much. But haven't you had enough urgency lately to hold you for a while? Have a slice of pie, and call it an afternoon.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Thank goodness you're such a versatile soul, Gemini, with so many different facets to your personality… since, over the course of the coming couple of weeks, you're apt to step out of your dressing room as an entirely different person than you've been over the past month-and-a-half or so. Of course you'll still be the same you (insofar as you may still draw upon the parts of yourself you actually like), but without the dark cloud hanging over your head, threatening to rain on any parade you might find yourself marching in. By late Saturday evening (Jul 11), Mars will be in your sign, joining Venus for a totally Geminese experience that extends through the remainder of the month. (Venus leaves Jul 31; Mars remains through Aug 25.) Add a couple July eclipses, and you've got a recipe for massive go-getter-style change, over which you have much more power to influence in your desired direction than you have in quite a long while. Please pause to breathe in what I've just written you, rather than speeding off into the future. Where you are right now—emerging from a spell of disconcerting powerlessness—requires its full acknowledgment. Spend the week reviewing your most recent experiences, reminding yourself of which circumstances stirred the biggest chunks of dissatisfaction and worry, so once you blast into this rich creative period directly ahead, you put it to intensely meaningful use.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Before it becomes any more lucid, it's liable to get a whole lot more unintelligible and obscure. Before you know exactly how you're likeliest to proceed with the remainder of your year (or at least the next big chunk of it), you should expect your head to spin around on your neck a couple full revolutions, Exorcist-style, so that you aren't sure which way is 'forward' or which end is 'up'. Consider the rest of your July, then, to be a grab-bag of mixed feelings, irrational fears, unforeseen developments and unintended aftereffects… which, to be honest, Cancer, isn't actually as bad as it sounds, if you can surrender to the unknowableness of it all and find some thrills in anticipating where the little silver ball will finally land when this great Wheel of Fortune next stops its periodic frantic revolutions. August promises some benefic outgrowths from this whirlwind, as well as a much-favored ability for you to enjoy the simple pleasures of the season… while September and October point to you actually making some advancing headway at asserting your efforts with greater directness and self-possession. But that still leaves the remainder of this month enveloped in a thick mist of dewdrops blown around by deceptively ferocious wind gusts, making it near impossible to detect where your every next step will land… and consequently making it wise to move slowly, appreciate each new glimpse of scenery, and forget about deciphering much information from the landmarks and signs.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Do what's best for the mundane matter at hand, not what will make you personally feel the best (or most important) in the moment. Put off the ego's desire to draw attention to itself, even if it's for 'all the right reasons'… so instead you may demonstrate full (though perhaps seemingly unremarkable) support for the person(s) who now must be left to take the ball and run with it their way. At this point, Leo, it's best to concentrate on respecting the sanctity of the team (whether it's just you and a partner or a much broader accumulation of interests) than on making your splash—particularly since, if you played your cards right, that 'splash' was already quite conspicuously made in June. And even if you don't believe you impacted the scene notably enough over recent weeks, I still don't recommend trying to compensate for lost time by aiming all the floodlights and microphones toward your shining visage and taking this moment as yours. It legitimately belongs to something else. I didn't say 'someone else', did I? That's because it's really about the 'matter at hand': the project, the purpose, the plan, the people who will benefit. But as a result of that being the focus, it's probably true that someone else is a better-suited public face and/or mouthpiece for the moment, though it's not 'about them' any more than it's 'about you'. Keep the priorities straight.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): It's now coming up on long past time for continuing to hold onto any disempowering interpersonal situations that leave you wondering what you're supposed to do because, well, you're waiting for what someone else instructs, encourages or influences you to do. Worrying about them and their agenda, Virgo, is such old news. That's not to suggest you ought to become an impenetrable rock of self-enclosed intent… but I do think you've got plenty of tasks to concern yourself with that are directly involved with the goals you have for your life, regardless of who else is running alongside you (or attempting to sway you to take an unwise-for-you detour) for this leg of the journey. As this week bleeds into the succeeding few, you will elicit increasing attention from the eyes and ears of folks relevant to your aspirations—as well as from those who might seem to offer you opportunities which, though somewhat appealing in the sense that having other possibilities is always gratifying, aren't quite right for you. And that 'right' category of important peeps, the ones who are authentically in line with your personal desires, will want to see a fairly refined focus in you… an ambition that isn't as fickle as the direction of the winds, that's hungry to do whatever it'll take to succeed in a chosen role, and that most decidedly isn't so wrapped up in outdated personal business that it's functioning at subpar efficiency. Want to 'get somewhere'? Make that your guiding call.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Hold onto your mask and scuba tank just a few moments longer, Libra, because you are finally due to come up for some much-needed air relatively soon. The potential overwhelm of 'being in it' is soon to give way to enough distance—not gobs, but sufficient for now—to grant you a smidgeon of outside perspective, to help you reestablish a clarity you've recently misplaced. Over the coming weeks, you will grab a sturdier grip on why you've been doing what you're doing, as well as a restored optimism in its rightfulness for your personal growth and development. That says nothing, alas, about where you're going or what obstacles (of either the circumstantial or self-imposed variety) you may have to traverse along the way. But why get ahead of yourself? The important point, which is what's coming in the very near future, is that you'll have a moment to catch your breath… and to recommit to an adventure that, while it began with plenty of inspiring excitement, may have recently started to scare the crap out of you. You will also be in a better position, for the first time in a while, to more clearly discuss the ins and outs and rights and wrongs of the situation with both the other person(s) involved and your friend-advisors who might have a few insightful observations to put forth. I hope, at least, you're able to recapture the inspiration and garner enough up-to-the-minute clarity to continue along, rather than chickening out. If nothing else, 2009 is supposed to be offering pleasurable (if not simultaneously disorienting) fun-times to you Librans.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): While what I wrote you last week, Scorpio, definitely still applies, I don't intend to spend much breath in trying to convince you to 'tone it down' or 'back off' or the like. With Mars on his way to joining Venus in your solar 8th by week's end, you are firmly in the intensity zone—a place that, though it may terrify plenty of folks with its threats of getting 'em in so deep that there's no escape from having their insides rattled good, is somewhere you Scorpios feel incredibly comfortable. In fact, it might almost seem like a sick form of torture for you to expect yourself to skim along the surface, resisting recognition of 'what's really going on' between the two of you, somehow not poking your finger into the black-hole of the full (and maybe even brutal) truth of everyone's unabashed and uncensored feelings. So, in my horoscopic scribe guise, I will not therefore ask you to go against your nature… to suggest you behave with pure polite civility when, in fact, you've hit a point where you likely can't contain yourself from (as they put it) going there. The 'there' you're headed toward will naturally vary based upon the interpersonal emotional reality that's recently been deliberately avoided, barely hinted at, tentatively approached, or colored over with discussions filled with 'all the right things to say'. But if I know you, you've pretty much got to go there now… or you'll go nuts.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): To piggyback off the rear-end of last week's horoscope, let me state the single most important quality to foster in your week ahead, Sagittarius, is appreciation of the other human beings sharing this fascinating incarnation with you. Since you're the type who most flourishes when there's some exciting encounter or experience to throw yourself into, you must acknowledge how damn bored you'd be without the people who provide you opportunities for discussion (or argumentation), adventure (or tumult), and companionship (or animosity). Bored. Stiff. Without 'em. And yes, you'll notice I included (in parentheses) the shadow-side supposed headaches—not just the sweet stuff—that your interpersonal involvements, whether with close friends or total strangers, also afford you. These are also, believe it or not, stimuli that help keep you happy (and if you don't believe me, ask a pal or your honey how much they think you revel in cutting through the crap and chaos, and I bet they'll answer, 'a helluva lot!'). So, in addition to showing your favorite folks how much you value the wonderful goodness they bring to your life on a daily basis, you might also want to give a proverbial shout-out to those characters who seem to perpetually drive you crazy, whether actual individuals you know all too well or the 'types' you just have a knack for attracting. Sincerely, they keep your life interesting. And a disinterested Sagittarian is an altogether unpleasant creature.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): It'd be really awesome if you made some time in your schedule this week for an episode of wild release, in honor of the lunar eclipse in your sign. On the wider level, you're entering a period of increasing duty and diligence, requiring you to rein yourself in somewhat (which is typically not a problem for a Cappie) so that you might make the most from a potentially super-productive July… and leave yourself in great shape for the second half of the year. But before you do that, Capricorn, don't you think you need the chance to let out a couple rip-roarin' yelps?!? Perhaps you noticed I've kept any suggestions about the actual content of this rowdy expulsion purposely vague. Maybe you need to party like a feral animal (enough so you remember the sensation for days afterward)… sob and sob like there's no tomorrow (even if you aren't 100% sure what you're crying about)… say something terribly inappropriate (because, though you've dropped innuendos in the past, you just don't want to hold your tongue any longer)… or otherwise break free, if only for a few ragingly ecstatic moments, from the careful container that a Capricorn personality usually is. Leave the rules behind, temporarily of course, since you wouldn't be very happy to trash 'em altogether and never look back. Because you are due to get down to business in a marked manner over these coming weeks, let that be your official disclaimer to justify some totally disorderly act of wild release in these next few days.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Dare you give yourself permission to kick off your week by proceeding, with such brave honesty, toward the unapologetically irrational behavior that's stirring in your bones, Aquarius, you just might find a huge weight magically lifts off you by the week's end. If lunar-eclipse full moons (like the one occurring early a.m. Tue Jul 7) are useful for anything, they're potent vents of emotion—and falling in your solar 12th as this one does, you should plan on expelling the excesses of psychic residue (e.g., other people's drama, unproductive anxieties about the future, sadness on behalf of the world's woes) that have recently stuck to you. Mars also adds to the early-in-the-week dynamism, poking you in the craw to remind you that, yes, you are allowed to have (and even to express!) unpleasant feelings about how you've gotten caught up in such messes. Don't fear being perceived as a whiner or a lunatic, since your other choice is to swallow the truth (otherwise known as repression)… which only increases the internal pressure that, sooner or later according to laws of earthly physics, must eventually blow. You will feel better if you let it out—as long as you forgive yourself for your basic emotional humanity following the discharge. Next week is a whole 'nother story, best approached with the cleanest slate possible.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Fulfill any hanging-over obligations during the week, so you can finally gather up your bits of twine and twig and settle into your nest for a spell. Yes, Pisces, nesting is at last becoming an astrologically appropriate activity for you (after all these weeks of me advising you not to disappear from sight). But before diving onto the couch and under the covers, you ought to be hyper-diligent about not leaving any allies or acquaintances hanging on the line, waiting for a response or some action from you. I would hate for your month-or-so of private regeneration to be (rightfully) interrupted by someone to whom you still owe contact of one kind or another… or even for the underlying sense that you haven't kept a social commitment to infringe upon the inner relief I hope you intend to attain. Maybe the very suggestion that you will be 'officially' allowed and encouraged to disappear from public view for a few weeks is enough motivation to keep your social engines churning away for another several days. Perhaps the friendly smile on your face will be a genuine reflection of all that alone time you have coming to you… and how much more immensely enjoyable it will be if you can slip away cleanly, rather than dodging out in an escapist fashion.