Horoscopes | Week of January 25-31, 2010

ARIES (March 21-April 19): A Mars-flavored full moon this week falls in your 5th house, the zone of pleasure and play and creative self-expression… a sign that you are due to conjure up a zany good-time or two for yourself, especially as the weekend approaches. At the same time, Mars opposes the Sun and Venus in your 11th, which signals an enhanced ability to appreciate your wider social affiliations and ties to those you consider 'your people' in the world. (It was this current 11th-house action that inspired your horoscope from last week.) So how best to balance the two poles of this opposition, then, Aries? Well, by conjuring up a zany good-time for you and your friends, of course… by both (1) being the good fire-starter you are and initiating social happenings for the crowd and (2) being just as ready to step back and follow others' leads, once the entertaining escapade evolves in directions other than what you initially had in mind. Get things going, sure, but no need to keep 'em going your way.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): There most certainly is enough time in your week both (1) to continue reaping the worldly goodwill coming at you, thanks to this moment of proverbial harvest in your career or community life, and (2) to steal sufficient amounts of ultra-precious 'alone, safely, at home' time, since that is what your inner overtired child is clearly craving. Please don't try to ignore this inner voice, Taurus, out of your sincere desire to single-mindedly forge ahead in your outside-world efforts. Should you not take the need for private decompression seriously, your emotional self is liable to become cranky—which then increases the chance you'll moodily act out in some manner that collides with the very outside-world excitement you're refusing to step away from long enough to catch a few deep breaths. No one individual, not even a Taurus, can bear the brunt of 'being on' nonstop… at least not without flirting with unpleasant consequences. It's totally cool to throw yourself into what's going on out there—up to a certain point of human limitation. Then, be sure to disappear from view now and again.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): On one level, your hands are tied. I have so often repeated themes of 'more intense / less casual than you'd like' and 'ripples of complication' in the past-few-months' horoscopes, even I am getting sick of hearing it. And yet, you know as well as I do, Gemini—a threatening-feeling reality and/or a truth verging at times on brutal is trenchantly refusing to 'blow by' with the winds. Something big, uniting yours and someone else's destinies (but not exactly in an enjoyable way), simply must be confronted, and over a lengthy span of time. Yet, on another level, now that bountiful Jupiter has made it to your solar 10th (home of career and other public achievements), there is also some opportunity to grow whatever it is you're doing out there in the world. In terms of profession or worldly ambition, think more excitement or greater meaning, bigger role or broader perspective. (Don't fret: These thoughts could also mean 'new job'.) Activating your vision toward personal goals offers a nice contrast to the simultaneous hands-tied situation.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Let's start by revisiting last week's edition, in which I advocated for you to hold your own in situations where your union with another person or entity threatens to overshadow your independence. This remains an important theme this week, Cancer, when your emotions may heat up with regards to a piece that feels more 'yours' than 'both of yours'… and which you would like to keep as solely yours. What makes this potential hot-button more challenging for you to navigate, however, is that you may simultaneously sense some greater commonality and/or willingness to 'be in it together' with that same person/entity. And so, you may be rightfully torn between (1) 'making a big deal out of it' or (2) 'just letting it go'. Obviously, the choice is yours. But let's be clear about one thing: If it's important to you, it's important to you, and you should 'make a big deal out of it' because it is a big deal. Don't talk yourself out of caring about what you care about—as a Cancer, it's all about what you care about. And if you decide to 'let it go', you better really let it go… knowing full well any future resentments that develop from not having 'made it a big deal' will be your responsibility and problem, not theirs.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): This weekend's full moon plays right into the hands of Mars retrograde in your sign, Leo… which simultaneously forms an opposition to the Sun and Venus in your solar 7th (the relationship house). In plain language, this means your presently-renegade self-assertiveness has the potential to either (1) heighten the energetic attraction (whether romantic, friendly or productively collaborative) between you and a certain someone, based upon you taking the initiative to step towards them with interest and consideration or (2) disrupt the connective flow between you, as a result of you 'defending' yourself or insisting things proceed a particular way. How it ends up going, of course, depends on whether you use Mars's momentum to go for what you want with someone—or from someone. Did you catch that distinction? On the one hand, you could really get this coupling going strong(er) by making a move to come closer together. And on the other, you might rattle the interpersonal dynamic by markedly differentiating yourself and your desires from this relationship that, as evidenced by your very need to do so, obviously isn't giving you what you want. So much of what happens will be a direct result of the precedent you set.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Your inner rebel (as symbolized by a desperate-for-acknowledgment Mars retrograde in your solar 12th) is calling out to you, Virgo. Though he understands you're relatively content doing what you're supposed to be doing (rather than, say, overindulging your wild side or playing hooky or willfully emptying your brain of all those 'important details'), he wants to remind you that he needs a bit of attention and respect, too. Should you ignore his call and refuse to build in some healthy 'nothingness' time to balance out your schedule, he's apt to respond angrily. In fact, he could undermine your productivity altogether by introducing a severe case of the phantom grumps, a sense of energetic dis-ease (but one that's not necessarily an actual diagnosable condition), or a near-uncontrollable urge to eat or drink or smoke way too much… any combination of which has the potential to force you out of reliable commission. He's merely demanding to be heard, is all. Inoculate yourself against his worst ire using homeopathic methods: Give in to gentle doses of his rebelliousness, to both honor his role and to ward off a more extreme manifestation.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Be aware that your characteristic restraint, gracious and considerate though it may be, presently holds the possibility of being misinterpreted by a friend or teammate who, in all frankness, may be looking to get a rise out of you. Certain folks who can't help but loudly trumpet their own attitudes and agendas for all the world to hear can easily become threatened by people like you who, acutely aware of appearances and reputations, reveal yourselves measure by measure, a bit at a time. This in itself isn't exactly your problem, Libra… particularly as Venus happily beams from your solar 5th, where she'd ordinarily promise you a bit of easy social pleasure, were not for her simultaneous opposition to Mars retrograde in your 11th. However, it becomes your problem if, in the threatened pal-or-colleague's act of (consciously or not) pushing your buttons, you are publicly mischaracterized or misrepresented—and you do nothing to correct the error in judgment because you don't want to 'create an issue'. Be clear: If someone spreads false impressions of you, they've created the issue. But it's your duty to expressively put forth the more accurate impression.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): I can only guess at how many Scorpios among you are riding Mars's retrograde through your solar 10th like a bumpy rollercoaster in your professional (or public-world) life. I suspect there are many of you who are quite eager (maybe even desperate) to attain some reassuring sense of personal recognition for all you bring, have brought and/or could bring, if given the chance, to the career table… and perhaps developing some annoyance (or outright pissed-off-itude) at the lack of visible, stable progress. Hang in there, dear Scorpio. It is true that Mars is messing with you in this zone of life—and may have another few months of maddening mischief in store. But it will eventually work itself out. And in the meantime, what you're striving to accomplish out there on that great big world stage is not all you've got going on. Therefore, please don't reduce your self-worth merely to whether your efforts to fulfill some ambitious public calling are currently appearing to pay off (which only serves to justify feeling bad about your whole self). If anything, be extra-kind to your inner striver. S/he needs all the loving support s/he can get.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): The main reason why I see you appreciating relatively breezy or weightless social interactions—without your usual instigating of lively, interesting and/or potentially controversial discussion—is your present awareness that your interests lie elsewhere. In other words, Sagittarius, if you know what's good for you (and this current moment is all about staying very close to that knowledge), you've wisely devoted all your serious attentions to yourself… to securing your financial realm in the immediate sense, to exploring how your longer-term dreams are actively evolving right now for a fuller future, and to increasing your sense of inner domestic peace so those other things can be properly nurtured. With all that going on, who has time to spark up hour-long debates about ideals and abstractions? It's far easier to 'let things slide' (meaning: 'not calling people out on their shit every time another chunk of it hits the ground') when your mind is occupied elsewhere. And in a strange way, it's therefore also much easier to relish in casual interpersonal contact; you are less motivated to expend precious energy on 'schooling' or 'converting' them and can (superficially at least) meet them where they are.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): What you've presently got on your side, Capricorn, is the strategic ability to use your words with intention and discretion. This ought to assist you in staying on message, inching yourself toward its cleanest delivery—hopefully without getting sidetracked. What they've got, however, is an impetuous streak that could easily drive 'em to play dirty, to poke you where it's bound to hurt… in an attempt (conscious or not) to stir you to lose your cool and sink down to their same dirty level. But once pushed into psychological self-defense mode, you become way too likely to veer off from the main issue at hand (at least as you'd like to frame it) and end up a mutual participant in a messy amalgam of yesterday's crap and tomorrow's worst-case scenarios. As this week also marks the second exact peak of your ruler Saturn's square to Pluto in your sign, I see this as another test of your integrity. Can you remain in your fullest power, and still resist the temptation to use it against someone (no matter how justifiably they may seem to deserve it)? Proceed as if you're being judged on your reaction—nothing too harsh, nothing too namby-pamby.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Last week's warnings against bowing to the temptations of conflict remain strongly in effect. To reiterate the number-one excuse not to bother, Aquarius: You'd be squandering Venus's easy advantages. You are likelier to 'win' (though nobody necessarily has to 'lose') by doing nothing but flipping your hair seductively and flashing a grade-A+ grin than if you were to try to win by fighting. The recurrence of Saturn's square with Pluto (from your 9th to 12th) is a reminder to strictly adhere to your highest ethics, rather than succumbing to the creep of potentially irrational suspicions. Attempts to 'dig beneath the surface' of what a potential foe says is akin to digging yourself into a hole—it does more to trap you than expose them. Instead, simply be gracious. And if (as I mentioned last week) this is all playing out through sexual attraction rather than adversarial tension, you'll know clearer where it's all leading by the end of the weekend, after the astrology ebbs at Friday night's full moon. If no action has occurred by then, you've got some questions to chew on next week.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): There's presently a lot about your day-to-day workload routine—the unexpected chore-list add-ons, the constantly-changing minds of people you're obliged to, the odd messages your body may be giving that tell you to sleep less or exercise more or eat differently—with the potential to frustrate you. And while you may not have much power to simplify that situation in the immediate future, Pisces, I strongly urge you not to let these relatively minor irritants taint your overall attitude toward life in general. You've got some bigger and better stuff brewing behind the divine wizard's invisible curtain as we speak, I swear. However, being the mystical water-sign fishy that you are, your belief in this truth of 'burgeoning opportunities afoot' has everything to do with how massively (or meagerly) it eventually manifests. When we know something exciting this way comes, sooner rather than later, that knowledge can often provide the little boost in motivation necessary for us to continue weathering the frustrations… and to keep their ultimate significance in proper perspective.