Horoscopes | Week of November 14-20, 2011

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the short term, work exclusively on those tasks that'll directly secure your footing, pad your wallet, and/or strengthen the foundation upon which the immediate next-steps must rest. Though there are surely plenty more exciting aspects of your impending future to absorb yourself in, Aries, focusing on them won't further your practical progress in quite the same way. Vision definitely plays a key role in keeping life worthwhile and engaging, but you've got no shortage of vision at this time. It's the nuts-and-bolts level that demands you knock a few to-dos off the list during the week ahead… and, for that matter, on a regular basis throughout the coming months. You'll repeatedly find lots of valid reasons (as long as you keep looking) for putting off the more mundane, slower-going items in favor of this or that idealistic imagination session or heartwarming flight-of-fancy. While you should feel free to dabble in those here and there, they inarguably come second to the plain ol' work presently at hand.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A surge of happy self-possession is overtaking your senses, Taurus. You've abruptly become much clearer on what you want in an immediate sense, and are presently able to make these desires outwardly obvious… which only increases your chance of satisfying them. Any recent dips or whirs in mood have given way to a relative ironing-out of your stance on the corresponding circumstances. (And if not, then you're evidently deriving some form of joy out of sustaining the turbulence, since things really needn't be as serious as you've made them.) Be confident and generous with this energetic upswing, while simultaneously bearing in mind you've got this extra-strong energy emanating off you, so as not to catch yourself off-guard when your seemingly casual move stirs an extra-strong response (of one kind or another) from the other person. I don't think you need to dial down this accentuated boldness, a potentially positive instigator of more fun for everybody involved. Just be aware you're wielding some major self-assertive mojo at present; use it to lift spirits all around.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Though part of you may be wishing to dig a hole in the ground and burrow yourself into it until this too has passed, please allow me to suggest saving that strategy for some future week when you actually need it that much more. My alternate recommendation for you, Gemini, is one or more gut-wrenching, vulnerability-exposing, heart-to-heart encounters with a very close friend or anyone you can sincerely express your feelings to. The pleasant influence of Venus and Mercury in your 7th points to your ability to actually get stuff off your chest… not exactly to 'fix' whatever situation could be causing you private unrest, but to experience the passing sense of relief that comes with speaking the truth aloud. Realistically, nothing's going to be 'fixed' overnight, if in fact it requires 'fixing' at all. This is a process which is due to unfold bit by bit over an expanse of several months. That's why, at particular moments when there is some favorable interpersonal astrology helping you out, you've got to use the opportunities it provides to your advantage. Connect with someone you know well, and let your turgid thoughts pour out.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): No sitting around the house baking muffins for your imaginary playmates, sir or missy. A dozen or more real-life characters would much prefer you'd join them out on the town, at the local meeting-spot, in the mix, spreading your love in actual social space. But please don't wait for their calls and texts, Cancer, and, when they don't arrive, falsely assume they're doing a bunch of awesome shit you're not cool enough to participate in. (That's some seriously delusional feel-sorry-for-yourself B.S. right there.) Most folks just get caught up with whatever's right in front of 'em, though they'd usually rather not be. That's why everybody will win if only you just interject yourself into their immediate frame-of-reference, with suggestions and invitations and diversions you can enjoy together… and simply because it's always worthwhile to stay in circulation with each other, swapping stories and laughs, freshening up one another's stale energies, breathing in life.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): With sufficient enough 5th-house activity to egg on your cravings for a fuss-free fun time, you could quite easily overlook the current benefits to instead channeling some of that verve into more constructive matters. A Mars-Jupiter trine across your money and career houses (the 2nd and 10th, respectively) make this a damn good week for initiating endeavors or actions that could directly lead to a boost in pay and/or prominence… though my use of the word 'initiating' is meant to imply this would just be the beginning, and that rewards could take some time to manifest. But astrology is predicated on a belief that the specific timing of when something is born (or 'initiated') has a significant impact on the qualities it ultimately expresses—and this is a good time to birth a profitable professional advance for yourself, Leo. So, if you can manage to table the frivolity long enough to stake some new claim on a future success, I'd definitely advise doing so.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): The power-pellet is beginning to kick in as I told you it would, Virgo… and the resultant 'superhuman capabilities' are just starting to make themselves known. The boundaries of what you could rightfully see as possible—as long as you look up from your desk, your lap, or whatever close-focus item has recently occupied your attention—are expanding ever outward. Please do not continue to 'play it safe'. The astrological clock reads: Time for something else! The breathtaking thrill of More (the specific context of which depends on what you are most interested in seeing more of) is knocking at your door. I understand how frightening it might be to confess you haven't a fucking clue what you're about to invite in, or what the hell you're supposed to do with it once the initial greetings have been dispensed with, or even why your curiosities have beckoned this experience over any other. But refusing to answer that knock, or keeping the safety-chain affixed and only opening up a crack, would be a choice that'll lead to much regret you can't now fully understand.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): You hear the echo of something forbidden, obscure and/or formerly-left-behind beckoning you into its gravitational force-field. To follow this call, you presumably well know, will not make life any easier. On the contrary, Libra: Take a couple steps closer toward it, and you'll soon be enveloped by its adhesive tentacles, for the first time or all over again, and won't be able to progress further without bringing all its entanglements along. I'm not saying that's an unmanageable proposition, if you're voluntarily courting the transcendent experience of so totally giving yourself over to an emotional current that you shed all attachments to the person who always thought you were… and doing so with your eyes wide open to what you may be signing away to claim this. But the supposed 'simplicity' of dissolving into it is a fleeting illusion; there is nothing simple about this. As long as you're clear on that fact, and still decide to proceed, you're certainly in for something memorable.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Rely on a close ally, friend or colleague to take on the 'public piece' during your passing impatience with the group experience. What could qualify as you making strides in insinuating your preferred process into the team's dynamic, Scorpio, might just as easily devolve into you getting angry with those members who are, um, slower to catch the specifics of your approach. The last thing you need right now, quite honestly, is to dissolve into another personality-clash case of somebody projecting their own fears and insecurities onto you, so you can be 'the bad guy' while they meekly lick the wounds they continue to inflict on themselves. Surely, that one trustworthy partner you can—and therefore should—rely on doesn't actually require you to explain your thinking in such potentially menacing detail. The two of you already 'get' each other. So save everybody a lot of misdirected angst and confusion, and let this trusted other-half do the talking. It's in your own best self-interest.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Express your ambitions proudly, not in an ego-showy manner but by enthusiastically demonstrating how your work-ethic's presently got pretty steady legs. You don't need to talk yourself up, Sagittarius, as much as talk about the work itself… and not merely talk, but embody your involvement with that same eagerness we discussed last time. You've still got Venus in your sign throughout this week and most of next, so you needn't worry about image or perception, since you can assume she's got you covered as far as that's concerned. In fact, the less you worry specifically about you and merely concentrate on sinking your productivity into that big goal at the top, the more favorable this moment will prove. Should anyone take misguided offense with your jump-in-and-do-it attitude (likely because they've mistaken your excitement for self-importance), reframe the potential personal-friction as a misunderstanding about some detail of the task. That ought to take the wind out of their sails quick enough.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): During these couple weeks ahead, a scene is being set… one which possesses a germinating likelihood of framing you as the sweetest-smelling rose of the bunch, if you can hold at bay your antsy desire to prematurely comment. Lock your eyes on the prize, Capricorn, without sullying your hands with details that probably are screaming out for closer attention but not necessarily from you. Your prime concerns ought to be elevated, virtue-driven ones: Am I headed in the right general direction? Are there ethical problems I will need to confront? Will my energies be utilized in a meaningful fashion, or potentially squandered? Work these issues out in the privacy of your own thought-processes. On the outside, all anybody really needs to see is an unspecific expression of your genuine enthusiasm for what's about to happen. (You are enthusiastic, right? If not, revisit those 'prime concerns' right away.) Venus hits your sign late next week (Sat Nov 26); that's the time for your grand entrance.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Your typical role as the coolly intellectual one, untarnished by the defiling influence of leaky emotionality, is not one you can reliably fall back… not this week, Aquarius, and not for the next many months of Mars scraping against your psyche via an interminable transit of your solar 8th. Periodically (for instance this week), you'll find your irrational desires to advance a power-play, even out the playing-field, pull at their heartstrings, steal a momentary advantage, take back what's rightfully yours and/or sneak in a vengeful kick will prevent you from being too dispassionately reasonable about such deeply personal matters. That's not really a problem, of course, as long as you're not trying to come off like you're somehow 'above' such maneuvers. Think of it as one more lesson in base humanness, that cornucopia of conflicting feelings, lusts and drives we all must navigate through, if we hope to actually understand why we behave as we do. Such lessons cannot be learned from a book or a lab experiment; they must be hard-earned on the muddy playing-field of intimate relations, where we all act like crazy-people at one point or another.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): What you have previously tolerated from others, despite your displeasure for it—whether from a certain significant individual in your life or as a general thread running through your interpersonal dealings—may really be starting to grate on your last nerve. But nobody says you have to tolerate it… nor should you continue to do so, Pisces, now that you've embarked on eight long months of Mars prodding away at your relationship house (the 7th), elbowing you into asserting what isn't working for you in any and all one-on-one dynamics. Don't silence yourself out of a judgment that the things bugging you are too small to bring up, and that it's somehow your fault for being so bugged. For now, the small shit serves as the grounds by which you'll either reaffirm your agency in the relationship or grow ever more annoyed. This won't be worked out in a week or two, but over the months ahead. However, this week is a great time for you to get mouthier about it.