Horoscopes | Week of November 22-28, 2010

ARIES (March 21-April 19): There's presently an ultra-perky hopefulness to your buoyant anticipations, and I'm the last person who wants to deflate somebody's high-flyin' balloon, Aries. Yet, I'd be doing you a disservice not to mention that this mindset is partly a result of the latest astro-effects… the type of strong Jupiterian signature we often associate with excess, exaggeration, overestimation or self-aggrandizement. In other, more direct terms: Watch out for lofty ideas, grand plans or idealistic notions growing too big to support themselves. All forward-thinking beliefs ought to be balanced against hyper-realism, not to pop your optimistic bubble but as a foil for pure pie-in-the-sky wishfulness. How does this advice, then, dovetail with last week's endorsement of 'a healthy dose of faith'? Easy. Remember that other part of last week's horoscope, which included consciously including other people's input? Hopefully, the 'other people' in this situation are grounding pragmatists who will happily help you blend vision with real-world functionality.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): This is between you and the other directly-involved party (or parties)... and however the both of you determine you'd like to proceed is your business, and nobody else's. I tell you this, Taurus, because of the increased likelihood that either (1) additional members of your community, friends-in-common or the like will start to interject their unwarranted opinions into the situation or (2) your own gut-instinct will be unduly intruded upon by your overvaluing considerations of how hypothetical 'other people' might behave in your shoes. In either case, this extra information doesn't actually help you clarify whether you are acting wisely or hastily; it's merely irrelevant background noise making it that much harder to listen to your heart. Since nobody besides you and the other directly-involved party (or parties) will have to live, day in and day out, with the longer-ranging consequences of decisions now made and paths chosen, they oughtn't get a say. What's ugly, unlivable, excessive or outright bizarre to someone else may be just the ticket for you, and/or vice versa.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Though the gloves have every justifiable reason to be off (as we covered in our last installment), that doesn't mean you should be totally bat-shit uncensored or foolishly unconcerned about who else may be watching. Not astutely considering context when letting loose with your opinions of, or about, certain individuals is a recipe for undesirable fallout… the matter-at-hand leaking uncontrollably into other zones of your life, particularly those where an appearance of decorum really does matter. The workplace is a special no-no, Gemini, when it comes to outwardly airing your frustrations—unless, of course, you're pretty damn sure you'd rather cause a big fat scene (which, if you think about it, could be the perfect impetus to get out at last and explore something else for a while) than swallow it one minute longer. If you have shit to work out with somebody, don't take the unsightly approach of 'having it out' in front of everyone. While you may be (consciously or not) hoping to score points by shaming them in the court of public opinion, it's likelier than not to backfire on your ass.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Reel in your future-oriented wonderings, Cancer. No matter how thoroughly you try to prepare for tomorrow's possible outgrowths and offshoots, you can't foresee everything… and meanwhile, back in today's world, you've got to keep the forward momentum progressing onward. Therefore, you might have to discipline your mind from projecting too far ahead, occupying itself with questions that, while fruitful for pondering in more spaciously philosophic moments, currently do little but distract you from the details at hand. For instance, one's ability to swiftly complete a data-entry project is adversely impacted by contemplating what types of fixes to make in the overall database structure once the upgrade finally happens a year or two down the road. First things first, okay? Your nervous system doesn't need the extra stress of worrying about issues still several steps ahead. Pick a pressing task to handle, and handle the unfinished business within its existing borders.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): You ought to know how often I defend you, Leo, from the unfair stereotypes you regularly reap from those who envy your warm vitality. I tell them you are more generous and heart-centered than they give you credit for… that it's their unresolved resentment about their own inhibitions which is where this projection stems from. Then, weeks like this one roll around, during which you're susceptible to inadvertently overlooking your differences with someone else, stepping on their toes, trampling their concerns with your overbearing commentary, not even aware of how you might be taking up all the space… and, well, the critics receive evidence to support their conclusions. So now you have been warned: You've got a lot of excited, expressive energy coursing through you at the moment, and not everybody you encounter will possess the wherewithal to respond in kind. They might instead fold in on themselves, ready to trap you in the self-centeredness they accuse you of, waiting for you to pause and acknowledge them and ask them for their thoughts. Dodge that trap. Every so often, stop to take the effort to proactively draw them out.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Don't bow to pressures to say more than you're ready for, to jump ahead into togetherness activities and/or otherwise skip past the private self-preparatory phase due to someone else's sense of urgency. It's just as urgent, Virgo, for you to insist on clarifying certain things for yourself first… though the reasoning behind your need to not leap just because they suggested it might be too obscure for you to articulate, or for them to understand. But do you really need a reason to proceed in the manner, and at the rate, you're most comfortable with? I can certainly see why it'd seem much easier to go along with the precedent they set, since any behavior to the contrary could leave you looking like 'the difficult one'. I guess, in the eye of that beholder, claiming your own agency to decide what's right for you in a given moment equates to 'difficultness'. That's not an especially accommodating way of looking at relationships, is it? Then again, that's actually not your problem. It's theirs.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): If one train of possibility proves unworkable or unpopular, another one could offer a better alternative. Doesn't much matter who thought of what, or which came first. Somebody's too quick to shoot holes in your proposed scenario? Shrug your shoulders. Why get upset, Libra? Are you supposed to wager your confidence on another person's arbitrary enthusiasms or antagonisms, likely mood-based or ego-driven more than rational? If they like it, great! If they don't, great! Either/or thinking serves your sanity far better than fierce advocacy of one position (and the disproportionate emotion that accompanies it). Don't involve yourself under the touchy presumption that your credibility is at stake with every breath of feedback you share. Instead, imagine you are the impersonal, non-attached 'idea machine', pitching out one creative curve after another, like those automatic tennis-ball-shooters, any time a new angle is called for. Miss a couple, maybe, but the next one's a sure hit.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Don't forget to check what's in your wallet before you volunteer to pick up the tab for everyone's dinner. Please remember to make that handful of important calls (particularly those that deal with money you owe or are owed) in advance of 'taking the rest of the day off' for any number of delightfully exuberant purposes. I still see you swimming with ample chances to appreciate the good stuff you've got going now, Scorpio… only, as a side-effect, you might also neglect to rein in the part of your personality who manages your practical business. It's presently way too easy to address these nuts-and-bolts issues (supposedly) with a one-time inattentive glossing-over (i.e., you can officially declare you 'took care of it' even though a cursory glance hardly seems to warrant being called 'care'), in order to quickly get yourself back to the fun fest. Must I explain why such sloppy attention to the nuts and bolts is a problem? Didn't think so.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): My number-one job this week, as I see it, is to point out how your hair-trigger calls to action are presently more strongly colored by an amped-up subjectivity than usual. Sure, to a greater or lesser extent, we're all guilty of rewriting the story of what's actually happening based upon what we perceive to be occurring, influenced by wishful thinking and/or defensive expectation. In your case, Sagittarius, this funhouse-mirror warping of perception is momentarily intensified… potentially leading you to presumptuously put words in others' mouths, prematurely react to hypotheticals or non-events, or unfairly blame someone for an imagined slight. That's not to say, of course, your internal subjective experience of a situation isn't important enough to proceed upon—if you're churned up, you're churned up, right? Just be aware, as you thrust yourself into the heat of the fire, there are other versions of the story, with their own collection of alternate facts and impressions possibly as worthy of consideration as yours. The main differences are interpretive subtleties, which you're either patient enough to investigate or not.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Your loose lips won't exactly sink the ship… at least not in a single dramatic torpedo-launch-like event. However, Capricorn, imprudent comments on your part will poke small holes in your credibility, perhaps invisible at first but ultimately self-compromising in that they let others' apprehensions leak in, unwanted, to disrupt your otherwise smooth sailing. As I indicated last week, you've got to guard against emitting overdoses of modesty, lest you convince them to undervalue you… to not to treat you with the respect you deserve. Yes, it is possible to talk one's self out of greater recognition, further responsibility or even (gulp) a snazzier income—and if anyone has the audacity to uphold unreasonable, self-punishing standards, well, of course, it's you. Even if you're genuinely doubting, rather than just playing confidence-testing games with, yourself, keep those sentiments quiet.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): You do hold a very personal stake in this matter, too. Don't forget to acknowledge—at least to yourself, if not to others—what you want to get out of the whole rigmarole. While it's wonderful to promote a socially-minded impartiality (to a certain extent), the whole routine goes too far when it overshadows your own interests. After all, Aquarius, you wouldn't even associate with this merry band of misfits and troublemakers if you didn't get something out of it for yourself. Even with the best of intentions, you have self-serving motives mingling with your humanitarianism… even if they largely boil down to a desire to be publicly recognized as a humanitarian (an image you can use in an attempt to neutralize your irrational guilt for secretly harboring selfish tendencies). There is nothing wrong, by the way, with wanting to satisfy your personal desires while, at the same time, working with others toward a common purpose. In fact, playing it off in any other fashion (as if, say, you were wholly selfless) is pretty darned disingenuous.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): For weeks now, an urge to no longer 'contain' yourself has been building… to the point you've now reached, Pisces, which seems to call for a release of some kind before your head explodes right off your neck. The allure of mouthing off is especially tempting in circumstances where a person in power has repeatedly dismissed your contribution as less significant than it actually is. Just because you're typically cooperative and don't mind yielding to others' authority, that doesn't mean you are less important than they are. Nor does it entitle them to you responding subserviently to their lazy or short-sighted decisions. Are you there to support a specific purpose, or merely to slavishly serve somebody's personal whims? Let's get that clear, both for you and for them. You're far too vulnerable to being overworked and underappreciated to allow stuff like this to slide for too long.