Horoscopes | Week of June 4-10, 2012

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Over the past many weeks, I've been subtly translating the planets' gradual redirection of your energies away from a productively self-centered taskmaster orientation, and toward a more socially-engaging call to circulate yourself amongst a simultaneous multiplicity of interpersonal involvements. In other words, Aries, other people should no longer be primarily thought of in terms of how they either help or hinder your project-management capacities… but rather appreciated, moment by moment, for how they instill your life with wonderful little surprises. It would be a shame to miss the striking importance of these social treasures, due to the subtlety with which such exchanges announce themselves as 'important'. But, oh my, how important they indeed are. Especially now, at the tail-end of a period where your progress could be more directly self-determined… and on the horizon of a new one, in which you'll increasingly require small bits of support from a grab-bag of acquaintanceships and contacts. For the best results, by the way, you'll need to actively take part in the whole song-and-dance of social courtship; too directly asking for what so obviously serves you probably won't cut it.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Making the most from what you're working with—which carries the rich promise of boosting your self-esteem levels and your earning capacity over the coming months—requires stretching into a variety of new poses, yogi-style, to increase flexibility. Strength-of-character alone will not necessarily serve you, Taurus, if you're only trained to repetitiously run through the same rituals. Once your target moves position (and you should expect plenty of such squirrelly target-wandering) and you suddenly must reach and grab from a different angle, you just might cramp or sprain or pull something if you haven't actively worked to promote elasticity in your responses. This is your golden key to the pricier seats. Blessedly, multiple suggestions for how else you might reach enhanced prosperity on a firm foundation will be divinely streaming from the mouths of comrades and chums… though not exactly identifying themselves as such (and maybe even, at first, sounding insubstantial or silly). Stop forcing your will onto whatever you're trying to do for long enough to listen and absorb. Then, begin practicing how to bend and twist in these uncomfortable motions, eventually loosening yourself into more profitable versatility.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): For months and months, I have held you at bay with promises of a future moment in which you, Gemini, would be at the center of the planets' expansive benevolence… and now, at last, that moment has arrived. Are you feeling it yet? Have you begun to receive the cosmic signs of incoming blessitude? Please don't neglect to realize that, oftentimes, our richest symptom of fortunate serendipity is also one of the most confusing: the closing of a door. I regularly remind clients good luck usually doesn't show up wearing a nametag that says, 'Hello, my name is Good Luck'. Furthermore, sometimes we have to shut that door ourselves… slam it, even, if there's a likelihood of certain other people or energies continually trying to barge their way back in. Bear this in mind, especially in relation to (1) any relationship situation that's grown increasingly 'black-and-white', despite all your efforts to stay 'grey' about it, and/or (2) any instance of your feeling intuitively drawn toward or away from a particular job/career situation, due to being 'called' to use your skills or talents in a more service-oriented fashion. Such moves made now convey an extra-potent message to the deity-powers who heed these matters.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ideas are spontaneously popping up inside your head like one of those old-timey 1970s-era stove-top popcorn products (a la Jiffy Pop) that come prepackaged in their own aluminum pan. Yet, by this design, these tasty popcorn morsels are not available to be immediately consumed individually each time a single kernel has popped; the entire batch must finish popping first, before you can slice open the lid and start nibbling away. So, keep on poppin' 'em, Cancer, knowing that this next chapter of life is like the anticipatory cooking, an incubation phase that's readying you for a delicious treat still about a year down the line from here. Make sure, of course, that you've got a sturdily lidded container to catch the kernels of plentiful brilliance now bursting, one by one, into consumable openness—jot down notes, bat around brainstorms with insightful friends, snap photos and scribble drawings, preserve each seed inside hope-chests or wish-jars. These actions not only keep you from forgetting what's coming forth, but provide the fire to fuel even more mini-explosions of higher vision. If instead you're careless, this geyser of magic beans will spurt its bounty all over the place, both squandering the goods and soiling everything in proximity. Your gushing growth thus presently demands receptive stewardship.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): A more conscious (rather than accidental) participation in the collective experience is hailing you by name, Leo… for everyone's joint benefit, yes, and also as an immediate means for more of the fun that's only accessible through camaraderie. A juicy role in the ensemble cast has been written specially for you—nobody else could pull this one off with snazzier panache—but don't mistakenly presume that grants you some directorial right to mutate the storyline with self-aggrandizing ad-libs. We are all stars of this show. You standing too far off to one side or the other, missing your mark or monopolizing the spotlight will impact many of your fellow actors… and from there, the ripples of consequence could ultimately transform the genre of this narrative from savvy satire to frivolous farce, shapely masterpiece to droning epic, comedy to tragedy. Please trust that, contained within your designated part, there are innumerable creatively-fulfilling variations for you to experiment with and riff off of. Play within the group's agreed-upon frames, and you just might win an award for your performance.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Good fortune is likelier than usual to arrive disguised as a partial inhibiting factor, Virgo, forcing your flow of outward expression to be diverted down side-roads or drainage canals. You could naturally grow irritated upon discovering a certain single-minded focus of yours has not materialized its results fully enough to accommodate all the ambitions you've pinned to it. Please don't misinterpret such signs as indicative of failure, however. This is merely a symptom of divine intelligence having different plans for how and when the more comprehensive expression will manifest… partly due, perhaps, to the fact that your energies are meanwhile being requested elsewhere. This 'meanwhile' is presenting you an opportunity or two to spread your attentions into other areas where your expertise and/or enthusiasm can directly assist someone else's vision in becoming a reality—a gesture at once intellectually engaging and quite generous on your part. (Generosity, by the way, is a powerful magnet for attracting others' reciprocal kindnesses... though maybe not right away.) The most frustrating bit to swallow? Only being able to directly serve your own self-interests, at least as you conceive of them, on a part-time basis.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Philosopher-soul, blast off into the galaxy of luscious intellectual engagement… not just in the library's dusty back-corner reading room, but in clear visibility of all who treat the world of ideas with the devotion it requires of us, should we wish to be known as a 'thinker'. Here now is your invitation to actually present your thinking, Libra, instead of merely batting it around in safe rough-drafts that nobody ever gets to read, ponder and maybe, yes, critique. Through this radical act of sharing, they will see your heart, even as it is wrapped in the language of your mind. That's why you mustn't get ego-snagged on the specifics of whatever feedback is being given by the higher-ups charged with managing or mentoring you: As long as your underlying premise is solid in its heartfelt sincerity, you shouldn't be threatened by calls to significantly play with how the details are lined up. Play is indeed the rightful concept with which to engage these living-and-breathing ideas… though that is not to imply your considerations are anything less than earnest. Rather, like a puzzle or a brain-game, you're merely trying out different combinations until you hit on the one that best conveys your main driving gist.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Complications are not arising merely to fuck with you, Scorpio, like some sick joke from a devious trickster-deity. Should you think that way about this otherwise lively shell-game, you will suffer the continuing psychic aches-and-pains which come from refusing to relax into not-knowing. Accept: Apparent prizes may disappear and reappear. Accept: Co-conspirators could run hot and cold. Accept: What seems like mighty fine news one day is liable to leave you crying the next, though supposedly 'nothing has changed' (note 'supposedly'). Yet, once you come to understand this circuitous route as a spirit-building treasure-hunt, precisely intended (by whoever intends such things) to scramble your mind into surrender to your own wisest logiclessness, any self-pity becomes magically transmuted to a riveting sense of adventure. Through embracing your most romantic notions about how the world works—as well as every surprising shape-shift that interjects humility into the romance—you will gain gobs of philosophic insight. Thank, therefore, any party now gifting you with elegantly elusive intimacy-building.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Your potential for insightful self-development in interpersonal relationship, currently hovering at an all-time high and remaining so for some time longer, asks you to discuss more and more of your deepest (and not-always-prettiest) truths. But though you are typically known as a fairly competent truth-teller, Sagittarius, that reputation is often associated more with (a) bold declarations of belief and intent than (b) open-ended exchanges of conjecture and possibility, this latter manner now being called for. A key component of successful relationship is your willingness to be affected, impacted, maybe even swayed by what flows between you and somebody you're intertwined with—as opposed to already having your mind set on a certain outcome before hearing their thoughts and feelings and then interactively engaging with them. That, incidentally, is not the same thing as giving in to their coercions or selling yourself out. In fact, you may even end up drawing a similar conclusion to that which you'd previously reached… yet with a markedly different understanding of where they're coming from, one with greater sensitivity to this special individual and, more generally, to the variety of human experience.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Trying to shrewdly determine which set of duties should receive priority over any other seems to be an exercise in futility, Capricorn. I don't see you currently having the luxury of choosing one at the expense of another… and while that obviously means a more jam-packed daily slate of stuff to attend to, this needn't become a recipe for burnout. In order to stay physically healthy and well-adjusted, you'll have to take smaller bites more often instead of bingeing on long spans of single-minded concentration, in the same way that nutritionists recommended eating five or six modest meals to ward off blood-sugar crashes and spikes. Dare I also mention that concept so many Capricorns deeply dread: the value of delegating responsibility? Yes, it's true, someone else may not do it exactly as you do. Perhaps they're slower or less skilled; or perhaps, given the chance, they'll surprise you. Your ideal collaborator is, right now, chomping at the bit for their own opportunity to grow (in capability and/or income). And as you too grow, you probably can't dodge the reality of busier days ahead.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Venus energy is everywhere these days, flooding our consciousness with copious amounts of communion potential, calling us all to more freely connect with every being we interact with. And you, Aquarius, are presently like a beacon of this universal love—not merely as some devout practitioner of a precious sacred tradition, but also by partaking of its more earthy and accessible forms. Put another way: In each instance you proactively bask in the joy of living this unique life-path you've been granted, you beam out waves of holy life-love… a contagious energy that amplifies itself with each smile swapped between strangers, each bellow of laughter carrying through the room, each soft backrub and tender tongue-kiss, each exquisite artwork, warm color, pretty flower, inquisitive child of the galaxy. You can consciously choose to adopt this attitude and approach to everyday existence, or not; there are infinite opportunities to love and be loved, which we either recognize or we don't. To make the unabashedly correct choice now, at this charmed juncture—to willingly assume this emissary role, to transmit love as wholly as possible—will whisk you to incredible new heights.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): The answers to your prayers are not out there, Pisces, in the guise of a white-knight savior or a winning lottery ticket. When I instead tell you they reside within, I understand that I flirt with sounding like a weightlessly fluffy inspirational speaker. Yet, sometimes, this no-bullshit astrologer falls seamlessly in line with such feelgood sentiments because, on a certain level, there is some valid value to be found amidst admittedly trite affirmations. Dare you claim to confusedly wonder where, oh where, your next push forward in life could possibly come from, I would quickly advise you to retreat from all outside influences and huddle in your special place, listening for inner inspiration. The claimed confusedness is coming from your trying to be a certain something to a certain someone and/or for a certain reason largely outside yourself—get some boundarying distance, and you'll gain some clarity. If you're still feeling confused, I return you back to that concept of prayer, which I led off with, as a means for enhancing your inner intelligence. Whatever god (or absence of) you believe in, you can benefit from repeatedly and ritualistically asking for insight… then spending enough time alone to receive this gift.