Horoscopes | Week of June 13-19, 2011

ARIES (March 21-April 19): A few moments to reflect would be nice, eh? More than 'nice', actually—a helpful, recharging reminder of why you've invested so much initiative and steam over these past several months. You are no machine, Aries, but rather a thinking and feeling (yes, feeling!) being who cannot successfully keep up the momentum, and avoid burnout, without periodic reflection. Step back. Look over the scene with a different lens. Adjust your eyes to altered focus. Maybe, while you're at it, turn the engines off for a spell. Why waste the fuel while contemplatively idling? Do something else, preferably something with far less direct importance to Who You Want To Be, for a little while. Chase a conversational tangent. Take a day trip to someplace with a picturesque view and lots of fresh air. Call your family: check in with what they're up to, and let them dominate the chat if they so desire. Ease up. Catch your breath. Give everything a chance to cool down. But don't worry: Soon enough, a supporting character will knock on your proverbial door, and you'll be dragged back in the hot-seat (where you want to be) before too long.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): This is your time to (re)claim the upper hand, not by obnoxious grabbing, but by arriving at it through subtle circumstantial confidence-asserting. Shared reality has an unusually moldable, up-for-grabs quality at the moment, Taurus… and with a few self-assured comments and well-timed reachings-out, you can powerfully shift an interpersonal dynamic that's being leaving you dissatisfied for some time now. Grand-standing on a certain issue, however, is not the declarative route to take. What could be reductively described as 'beating around the bush' is, from an alternative angle, just another way of saying you spent the necessary social energy to gain their trust rather than antagonistically hitting them over the head with your agenda... that you bothered to care about the interaction itself, rather than just what you'll get out of it. In other words, in '(re)claiming the upper hand', you shouldn't leave the other party feeling as if that's what you did, and especially not at the expense of their self-assuredness. Really emerging on top, in this case, mustn't be an act that spawns envy or competitiveness in anybody else.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): First and foremost, revisit last week's edition… and make sure you will take full advantage, if you haven't already, of this chance to win favor in your interpersonal communications. But at the same time you're expressing what's true for you, Gemini, please take a good hard honest look at them—and the fairly unambiguous information they have reported to you about their present circumstance. While you may be well-attuned to certain subtleties in your argument (an air-sign strength that affords you the ability to understand multiple angles of a situation simultaneously), that doesn't mean things are any less cut-and-dry in their book. So, even in the midst of this hypercharged period of change for you Geminis, I believe you still have a chance to grab the briefest moment of regrouping… to digest this photo-realistic snapshot of the other main player, undesired aspects and all, and to begin considering how, in practical terms, you might respond to what you see. You can spin and reframe and rephrase and suggest alternatives all you want: It won't make another person become somebody they aren't.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take note of any optimistic thoughts that cross your consciousness, tempting you to hold out hope that your near-future will bring clarifications to presently convoluted or up-in-the-air circumstances. These are prophetic whiffs, Cancer, which neither need be followed-up on with immediate action nor dismissed as pie-in-the-sky delusions. Just notice if an idea, as it passes in and out of your mind, causes a momentary surge of spirited eagerness. Then, should you detect such an example, cherish it with every ounce of faithful intent: this is your intuitive wisdom, quietly informing you of a direction to aim yourself in, if you want to live with more of that enthusing verve in your everyday life. Even to merely hold and nurture this clue to your expanded happiness safely inside is a challenging affair; external instability and/or interpersonal pressure can contaminate the purity of this wholly self-suiting message, pulling you this way or that, off the course that's genuinely yours. So for now, it's more than enough simply to invite yourself to know what it knows, independent of the outside-world's events. We'll figure out what to do with this knowledge later.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Please be careful not to assume you understand what's motivating the other person to feel as strongly as s/he does on this given topic, Leo. You're presently under astrological influences that could leave you to imprecisely identify 'common ground' between you two when, in fact, there lurks a more substantive difference there than you're seeing. On the other hand, if the disagreement is too obvious to miss, there's also a possibility you're attributing it to a particular psychological experience on their end that, flatly put, they aren't actually experiencing. In either case, or in similar circumstances where your interpretations are inadvertently glossing over complexities with a sleek subjective polish, the potential problem isn't that you've got everything wrong. On the contrary, you might be prematurely glimpsing through to the other side… and, if you're not prudent with this foreknowledge, end up short-circuiting the natural progression of events, like a time-traveler who carelessly alters the past by saying too much and adversely impacts the always-still-being-written future. Maybe you just haven't processed through to the eventual common-ground. Maybe the other person just isn't aware of their own psychological motivations. Don't jump ahead; let it play out at the appropriate pace.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): It's totally possible to know inside what's 'right' in your book… and still successfully go along with the consensus thinking, as far as all public participations are concerned. By 'successfully', I mean the socially-influenced compromises you make, Virgo, needn't ring insincere or leave a bad taste in your mouth. This hinges, of course, on your inwardly acknowledging your version of the truth (perhaps in the form of fantasies about how you might run the show if you were the sole stakeholder?) isn't jeopardized by its divergence from the 'official' agreed-upon take. Loosen any attachments that might leave you to take differences in perspective personally, as if your sense-of-self itself is threatened by privately falling out of sync with the other players. It doesn't have to be all that. We often must proceed, under the tutelage of leaders we did not select and/or in team formation with peers we disagree with, according to methods that aren't ideal… at least as far as our own ideals may dictate. Rather than allowing this to be a disappointing fact-of-life, I suggest considering it an opportunity to discover what's down that other road you never would've chosen—sans the ego-investment scrutiny.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): A key conversation you participate in over the next week or two, Libra, should point the way toward your increasing presence in the public eye. Therefore, if you are asked to go on record with your 'expert opinion' (or some other such feedback based on your experience or earned authority), take the request very seriously—and calmly, diplomatically and articulately, provide your honest thoughts. With your reputation on the line, this is not time to play to the non-committal middle… especially if it doesn't accurately express the conclusion you've personally reached on the matter. And any fears you harbor about potential ramifications of coming down too firmly on one side of the line or the other? Misdirected. You ought to be more afraid of being seen as somebody who's overly concerned with telling people what they want to hear, like some smarmy politician whose lovely words add up to fairly little substance, instead of an ethical truth-teller. If they don't like being told the truth, you might also ask yourself why you'd want to impress such folks… when obviously there are other VIPs who rightfully respect such candidness in the opinions they seek.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): It's time to dig back out your copy of that powerful book which changed your life for a re-read of key sections… or to finally crack open that untouched volume you suspect could change your life, if only you made time for a bit of mind-expanding reading. Maybe you do better with the spoken word, and instead should click over to your favorite online-media spots and download an inspiring talk from a hero or admired expert. If you prefer the interactive route, Scorpio, I suggest getting in touch with a mentor, guide, guru or oracle, and giving yourself the gift of outside perspective. The universe has a funny way of providing the ideal paragraph, moral, saying or viewpoint we most need to hear at a given moment, once we openly acknowledge we could use a few words of wisdom. This is no critical statement on your own ability to make sense of Life's Big Questions (and their particular relevance to the latest developments in your life)… just an encouragement to take advantage of all the insights others have reaped from their lives over decades and centuries and millennia, in a collaborative process, along your path to eventually contributing yours to the annals of deep human thought.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): How long is any decent Sagittarian supposed to refrain from commenting on the giant pink elephant in the room? Certainly not much longer than you already have. It's completely possible, of course, you've totally misjudged the size and/or specific significance of this so-called 'elephant'—perhaps because you're the one who's magnified the tangle to monstrous proportions? But is there any better manner for finding out what's what (and who's under- or overestimating whom) than coming out with it already? If nothing else, Sagittarius, you'll break any surface-tension of stifling politeness… and move the situation along to either a much-enhanced mutual understanding or a cathartic coping with the tough reality. Under the effect of this month's eclipse-wacky energy, it's far healthier to move the storyline along in whatever direction than to hesitate too long, deer-in-headlights expression on your face, passively waiting for external pressures to respond to. Blab out your wonderings, suspicious or provocative though they may be. If it turns out you were wrong, don't you want to get that pie cleaned off your face as soon as possible? And if you were right…?

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Please try not to fixate on their words, Capricorn, when it's their intent behind 'em that really matters. You face an increased likelihood of taking someone's innocent joke or trivial offhand remark as a personal offense—ultimately creating the sort of animosity that you hastily assumed they were throwing at you, though it's doubtful they were. And even if they are chiming in with slightly skewed information or a short-sighted viewpoint, I don't see much tangible purpose in correcting them as if you are the authority. If you find yourself veering toward such an attitude, your best bet is to redirect the conversation towards a totally non-controversial topic… and good-heartedly laughing off any tense moments. Listening without attachments will serve you exceedingly well this week, with so many people caught between old and new versions of themselves that they hardly know the full extent of what they're saying. From a position of compassion, then, how could you possibly judge their clumsy use of language as an affront to your self-evident wonderfulness?

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Start devoting more conscious thought to how you can tangibly serve as caretaker for those responsibilities you're most moved by. While there's still plenty of self-satisfying recreation slated to head your way in the coming weeks (so long as you create room for it), you needn't spend much mental effort trying to 'figure out' anything in that zone; it's just a simple matter of deciding to enjoy yourself any way, any time you can. On the other hand, Aquarius, your pile-o'-work does seem to require your brain's heightened participation… not only to report on which particular tasks or endeavors are calling out to you most urgently, but to counteract the unruly worries and/or attention-deficit fidgets that, if left uninterrupted, could snowball to detrimental proportions. If you intently organize your days so that you're constantly aware of 'which stuff to do', it'll simplify the types of demands your unconscious pessimism and/or lack-of-focus places on your mind. (1) You decide what to work on. (2) You work on it, without unduly stressing about anything else. (3) When you're done with a good day's labors, you insist on balancing it with something personally, selfishly pleasurable.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): You see things the way you see 'em, Pisces… a vantage on the world which is not wrong or illusory or hopelessly romantic, but simply your individual-and-unique-and-thusly-precious perspective. And if you appropriately value the notion that this makes you special, you'll be greeted with a mini creative-renaissance—a slew of possibilities for putting your delicate spin on a situation, a project, an environment or relationship, which serves to cast it in a light more meaningful and/or attractive to you. This is only the beginning of a trend that unfolds more substantially in coming weeks, mind you… a showering-down of aesthetic hints, artful angles, impish ideas and injections of color, suggestions you might choose to follow or merely observe in passing, to expressively demonstrate what life looks like through your filter. What great news for any and every Piscean presently engaged in some poetic pursuit or crafty pastime: New approaches to try out! New sources of inspiration! A renewed sense of pleasurable engagement! (It's also another compelling reason to follow last week's advice and keep somewhat to yourself: to more deeply exploit this sweetly personal boon.)