Horoscopes | Week of February 21-27, 2011

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Surrender to a passing powerlessness. 'What is' shouldn't presently be fucked with, Aries, now that the Sun, Mercury and your ruling warrior-god Mars are all under the limbo-like cover of your solar 12th. Yet, though your mental and physical faculties aren't available in their most reliable manner, your ambitious desires to 'make a stir' or show 'em you 'mean business' won't necessarily die down any. That's why you really will be challenged to let go and let God (or, if not that certain divine one, then perhaps your spouse or collaborator)—at the same time you're likelier to cause more harm than good, should you not refrain from cramming this moment full of willfulness. Step away from the action, and consider making a visit to your personal version of church, where you can light a candle or look up into the sky, setting your wishful intentions aloft using a hands-off approach. What could appear to unfaithful eyes as a big waste of time (beware: such a mindset leads to impatience, which leads to actings-out, which lead to fuckings-up) is instead the perfect amount of incubation time required to give these fledgling sprouts a chance. In another couple weeks, you'll finally have something to say. Then, the frenzying double-doses of actual doing arrive as March gives way to April.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Ask your pals or colleagues to cover for you, Taurus, in whatever context you need a helping hand or two while you catch your breath. You can only play the good child, parent, employee, boss, friend, spouse, neighbor and/or teammate for so long before your ends start to fray. Rather than overstay your fruitfulness as the one everybody relies on, you'd better steal yourself a break… or expect unpleasant symptoms of having pushed your luck too far to start seeping into your dealings. Thankfully, you aren't alone in the world (though your compulsion to 'buck up' and 'take it like a champ' sometimes leaves you feeling that way). Now would be the time to be unabashedly forthright, weepy even, with those who have your back. They will only love you more for allowing them into the mushy-gushy places beneath your rock-like sturdiness. But can you love this softer side of yourself, who needs to snag a few easier shifts for the time being, in order to rally yourself back up to game-play readiness in time for another heavy acceleration of developments a few weeks from now?

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Put personal concerns on hold, if that's what it'll take to throw yourself back into your professional work or other public-world activities. Contrary to any worries you might harbor about not being able to 'pull it off', Gemini, I believe that sinking your energies into something larger than what's going on between you and your intimate(s) may be just what you need to shift your thinking. You've got a whole lineup of 10th-house planets now, eager to effect some sort of forward-heading thrust in your career or community participations… and the fact other folks will be readily able to observe these efforts will indeed cause you to perform a pulled-together quality that actually becomes more genuine, the longer you do it. I should warn you, as a sidenote, not to unfairly project any of your unresolved emotion from personal issues still stirring you up onto co-workers or colleagues—there is a chance of you feeling unduly threatened or judged by folks who actually aren't thinking what you fear they may be. In this latest chapter of heightened public-arena activity, you have little reason to indulge such ego-fears.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In ancient times (or at least the version of them I'm now conjuring from my imagination), when folks reached an impasse in their limited understanding of a given life-situation, they'd travel for miles and miles to seek the guidance of a mysterious oracle. Perhaps this mystical individual came from a strange foreign culture unlike anything the seeker had previously been familiar with, wore an odd costume or used peculiar tools-of-the-trade, spoke in cryptic sentences that didn't immediately make sense… but all those trappings of 'different than the norm' only added to the flavorful experience of receiving enlightening wisdom from way outside one's usual perspective. If you find yourself unsure of how to proceed in breaking a pattern of interpreting your circumstances through the same tired lens, Cancer, or if you're merely bored of repeating yourself, allow me to suggest embarking on your own modern version of the quest to consult with the oracle. Look far from your normal places. Call up the long-lost friend with the weird wisdom. Crack open the holy book, the dusty edition of that philosophy which inspired you in the past. Take a weekend drive to that special contemplative spot. Listen to the voice that speaks in bizarre intonations, with an unusual accent, in riddles. The fresh outlook you seek awaits you in some 'elsewhere' that forces you away from the here-and-now.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Attempts to squirm away are futile. By this point, Leo, you'd be hard-pressed to deny that the recent intrigue—and/or that certain person who's the source of said 'intrigue'—has indeed gotten under your skin. So before you try to do anything about it (which might entail trying to get out or even further in, testing the new boundaries, asking for more or offering too much), just acclimate yourself to the altered surroundings. Whereas before you perhaps didn't have to consider others' thoughts or feelings as deeply, now you are bound to being increasingly considerate. Your ability to behave as a discrete individual has given way to a need for 'togetherness' thinking, since you and this certain someone else will have a greater impact on each other's lives than previously. In the short term, then, it's not especially useful to pass judgment on whether or not this is a 'good' development. (Dare I say it, but 'good' and 'bad' are concepts far too simplistic for describing this.) For the next few weeks, you're due to explore what it means to be 'this far in'. I advise you sticking it out for the time being… and only proceeding more definitively beyond this point, through wholehearted enthusiasm on behalf of or sharp reaction against, a month or so down the road, after you're had to time to more fully experience different facets of this situation.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Knock, knock, Virgo. This is the sound of serendipity, as embodied by a special individual who'd like you to unpin your myopic focus for a moment and look at up at him/her, knocking at your door. Will you stop what you've been doing for several weeks now, long enough to open up and let in the whiff of interpersonal pleasure? The week's astrology contains enough different elements spelling out L-O-V-E (or, if that's not exactly where your head is at, then L-I-K-E or L-U-S-T), I feel strongly that you shouldn't put it to waste. All the recent attention on your work life is due for an easing-up. The person in your life needs time with you… and if there isn't such a person (and you'd like there to be), you really ought to take initiative toward those ends right away. So far in 2011, you've had a good run at controlling how you spend the bulk of your moments, demonstrating great success on the productivity level. Now it's time to back off on that control, to endorse relationship minglings (romantic or otherwise) as a primary zone of activity for the next month or so. When the moment is appropriate, I do permit you your solitary machinations, don't I? That moment has passed. Going forward for the time being, be with You-Know-Who more than you have been.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, Libra… it's off to work you'd better go, if you know what's good for you. The parade of planets entering your solar 6th is the astrological equivalent of the assembly-line whistle sounding, which effectively ends this lunch-break and puts you back out on the floor, with a certain quota of 'need to produce' breathing down your neck. But don't fuss about whether you're going to 'hit your number' because, likelier than not, you already feel like you're missing a key piece of data or methodological know-how to get the job done right… when in fact you ought to dispense with such worries (whether, in the longer term, they're valid or not) since there's plenty of basic labor that can easily get done with what you already know. Out of your head, then, and into your body. Away from the grand-plan timeline scheduling sheet, and toward the raw materials. Mouth shut, hands occupied. Between now and the end of March, you're on track to accomplish a heck of a lot of sheer product. Somewhere along the line, you should expect a certain someone to start poking their head into your business… though that time hasn't arrived yet. Before that happens, you'd be smart to get a whole bunch done—so that interpersonal 'distraction' eventually ends up being more welcome and less stressful.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Make some noise up in here, yo. Freaky noises… goofy, wacky, I-don't-give-a-shit-how-silly-I-look kind of stink. Celebrate life, Scorpio! For the next three weeks (and maybe more, but let's start there), you are the king/queen instigator of the ridiculousness brigade. And though there's no particular form in which your playful-pussycat persona need put forth said ridiculousness (so if you want to wear clown makeup, a tiara, combat boots, a profanity-laden banner across your chest, or a barrel full of whiskey like some deranged St. Bernard), you do have a cosmic obligation to put on the proverbial ritz. You take your community service seriously, don't you? Then party like a rockstar, papa/mama! Pour it on extra-thick, so you leave at least one adoring fan panting at your feet. Why stop at one? Flirt your way through the whole town, my seductive scorpion-god. If you happen to be on the hunt for romance, you may be barking up the completely appropriate—but far from 'tame'—tree. Send out the signal, and roving packs will come running. And if I have to offer one piece of grounding advice to counter the indulgent lascivious vibe, can I settle for 'Be sure to drink a lot of water'?

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): What you need more than anything is a nice 'stay-cation'… a purposely scheduled few-evenings or weekend-long getaway in your own home (easier than having to deal with travel arrangements), where you get to enjoy the comforts of your cushiest piece of furniture, delicious food straight from your kitchen, a longer-than-usual shower or bath, and/or the extra zzzzzs afforded by a nap or a sleep-in. Even when the social bug bites, Sagittarius, see if you can finagle having your peeps come over to your place for a low-key time, rather than once again braving the noise and chaos of public space. You need not have to put on your outside clothes, if you can help it. (Don't those slippers sound like the most appealing footwear for your week?) The overall trends are much more hyperactive and extroverted than this mini increment of stay-cation time would have you believe, so please take advantage of it while you can. Soon enough, you won't have a spare second to bask in the domestic luxuriations I'm presently advocating. Pop in a movie, shut the blinds, and hang that 'do not disturb' sign on your door. Until later, dude…

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Purposely exposing your vulnerabilities probably doesn't feel very natural to you, Capricorn… not because you're particularly secretive, but more due to you not wanting to trouble anybody with your troubles (which, you tell yourself, you can handle just fine on your own, thank you very much). Yet, the current astro-scene suggests you'll gain a lot of emotional support by freely discussing with others—not merely your closest of friends, but random acquaintances too—those areas where you decidedly don't have your shit together. To be clear, this is not because someone out there is apt to provide you the perfect answer to your problems (though, on the off chance they do, will you be humble and accommodating enough to take it in?). It's more about giving yourself the chance to be unapologetically human in the fact that certain looming unknowns are freaking the crap out of you… and giving folks in your immediate community an opportunity to embrace you for the very imperfections that make you so uncomfortable with yourself. Believe it or not, there's tremendous strength in admitting where you're struggling; it wins you the kind of trust an impenetrable superhero can never gain access to.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): The time for pontificating has come and gone. The best of your ideas must now become tied to tangible endeavors, Aquarius, if they are indeed to prove as bright as they sounded a mere two or three weeks ago. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if you have to table some of the more innovative matters… in order to immediately attend to more of the same old practicalities, which may lack intellectual glamour yet nonetheless are required for keeping the landlord and the creditors fed, the taxman away, and the power turned on. The less you think about the visionary 'high' you're leaving behind, the better. You needn't entertain the distracting belief that you actually could be doing something other than this because… well, until this pile of crap is taken care, you really shouldn't be doing anything else. But in case you find this horoscope to contain nothing other than an undesired alarm-clock reminder of your real-world demands, let me add one last bit to frost this seemingly sugar-free cake: Venus hits your sign next week, when she'll throw you a couple nice signs that bothering to believe in something does indeed pay off.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): There's a rather dramatic turn of astro-weather affecting you this week, Pisces. Whereas before you might've had every sincere excuse in the book for why shit just wasn't happening, you now should be receiving clear indications that it's time to get off your butt and make that shit happen. Both Mercury and Mars are now in your zodiacal neck-o'-the-woods, giving you a dual boost of analytic acumen and bodily drive to reinvest wherever you see fit. You oughtn't buy into the false notion that you need any particular bit of training or experience beyond what you already possess, in order to start making a whole new mound of progress. Instead, consider your relative amateurishness as an asset; lacking the wearisome jaded quality of those who have 'been around the block a hundred times before', you'll bring a virginal pep to activities you try for the first time (or for the first time in a long while, with this much seriousness and/or a newfound commitment). What sets you apart as an individual is exactly what you should take great pride in. 'Looking like everybody else', for the time being, is the least motivational approach to take.