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Horoscopes | Week of June 18-24, 2012

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You can't be sure of the potential significance (or, for that matter, the lack thereof), so it would seem somewhat foolish to dismiss any impromptu encounter or hurried exchange of maybe-relevant data outright, as if to prematurely restrict certain fates from manifesting. How could you possibly ascertain, Aries, which outcome will deliver you the most optimal future? Be measured and steady with your first-responses, especially if they will too quickly send a clear message to another person that you are not interested (in finding out more or digging even deeper; in getting to know each other better or 'taking it to the next level'; in exploring a possible collaboration or definitively ending one). Though I typically tell Aries folks to trust your first instincts, in this case, that nervous initial reaction is probably telling you more about your own inner fears than anything dubious about anyone else. Don't cap off conversations so soon that you don't preserve your chance to hear where they'll go next. No matter the emotions they might whip up, you can still put on a level head and persevere politely. Any and all sorts of visibly erratic gestures or remarks on your end will immediately limit opportunity.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In an odd conundrum, the best strategy for 'wisely moving ahead' is, for this briefest of moments, inextricably linked to a patient 'wait-and-see' attitude. You need to buy yourself a wide enough berth of time, Taurus, so you can sufficiently feel out whatever social-trend undercurrents are currently traveling invisibly through your relevant peer-group—without your being so hell-bent on 'getting shit done' that you operate in something of a vacuum-chamber, threatening the fruits of your labor with becoming out of touch with the people you're intending to serve. Be free, therefore, to temporarily lose yourself in a wave of others' pursuits and passions… not because you're somehow lowering yourself to the status of 'copying' anyone else's lead, but with willingness to soften your solid edges into a more fetching outer-visage, as a natural evolutionary effect of social erosion. Your solidity of self, typically a reliable asset, would benefit (in the short-term) by surrendering to a bit of give. Be on guard, however: Your inner fundamentalist is not likely to enjoy allowing itself to be influenced.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Feeling a little bit lost, at this point, suggests you have willingly signed on for the lack-of-confident-knowing that goes along with stretching into exotic territory… and you deserve hearty kudos for that, Gemini. You can't possibly comprehend all the ins and outs of this new place, the proper rules of decorum and/or what you ought to be doing with yourself here, if you're just now arriving. (Might I remind you this story is not yet written?) It takes time to acclimate yourself to this widened spectrum of surroundings, as well as an eagerness to openly investigate and explore. I encourage you, therefore, to embrace how little you actually understand about where your future's now curving… to drop any pretense of having your shit together, and instead ask a lot of innocent childlike 'why?'s, scavenger-hunt-style, to anyone who might hold just the tiniest fragment of additional insight for you. On the world stage, you're being subtly and obscurely called upon (by whom? agents of the sentient universe?) to expand upon a particular professional aptitude or affinity you've previously underutilized, because a larger segment of the populace can be directly served by you shifting in this direction. This is part of why you might feel 'lost': You're still trying to wrap your head around this calling, and how exactly you're going to answer it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The rational mind thinks it's being helpful by filling in the blanks with what logic dictates one ought to expect. But in this act of plastering over the mystical gaps in linearity that real reality always includes—and it's within these senseless in-between spaces where our own magical powers can actually assist in redirecting the flow of Destiny—we reduce the multiple quantum potentials into that single most-appropriate-and-predictable outcome. And then we have the gall to wonder why life keeps continuing along this humdrum track? You're now at a very early seeding stage, Cancer, in which daring to short-circuit the expectations your belief-system is force-feeding you will dramatically affect the quality of a climactic development still a year or more away from unfolding. If you consciously deploy careful slow-motion observational techniques (during a time which, admittedly, is even more 'rush' and 'hurry' than usual), you'll notice your experience of certain phenomena is displaying radical results unlike anything your cynically self-protective inner-narrator would ordinarily admit is possible. That narrator's strict viewpoint will, in fact, begin melting into joyfully transcendent nonsense… if, and only if, you start trusting what your senses (including that elusive sixth one) are directly reporting.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Cheerleader is presently a more apt position for you to occupy, Leo, than the star game-player… though that's not to imply it's a role any less important to the total participatory experience. Without an animated and energetic cheering section to egg 'em on, the crowd too easily neglects to invest their spirit into the process, falsely assuming the action on the field has very little direct relation to what they're doing. Cheerleaders are essentially ambassadors, the go-betweens who engage the spectators in their collaborative duty to the team and boost the players' sense they are appreciated by rousing visible and vocal affirmation. Plus, they sure seem to have a helluva fun time shimmying and kicking and back-flipping across the sidelines, while building the rhythmic togetherness required to pull off a united routine. But cheerleaders are not the individuals seeking a singular significance; they will not catch the epic game-changing pass or score the winning point. They—like you, for the moment—are there to support the whole endeavor, not to steal the show with a hero-making display of personal accomplishment or grandeur. And they only raise their voices in unison, to accentuate what their comrades are already saying… never to go self-indulgently rogue.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): With an 'all-in-this-together' outlook, you appear more laidback and laissez-faire than they've come to expect. Pausing and paying attention, as other characters do their thing (and perhaps clumsily shift the ground-rules in ways that likely could benefit you further down the road), can hopefully breed an appreciation of the scenery as if you were passing through exquisite countryside aboard a train. It is not that you are practicing passivity, Virgo, though it would be easy for an observer to mistake your poker-faced information-gathering as a lack of action. Instead, you're simply wise enough not to order your future plans on game-pieces that are still moving incoherently (at least to your eyes) around the board, unsure of where they'd like to eventually rest themselves. Tiptoeing through the chaos, with the delicate step that only a Virgo could perfect, helps ward off too much exposure to the construction dust… though you know better than to stop persistently showing up at the work-zone. Even if you're not obviously offering strict guidance, your very presence on a regular basis brings an underlying sobriety to their otherwise unruly trials(-and-errors?). They can't avoid noticing when you're watching, and thus behave accordingly; you need say very little.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): This is no time to wuss out, Libra, when it comes to your being called to publicly comment on an issue or matter you do hold a certain opinion on. Just because it's possible, maybe even likely (but surely not for certain), that an important stakeholder will not agree with your stance and/or not like the fact you spoke it aloud, this doesn't mean that person won't like you. And even if it were to play out according to the worse-case scenario, you mustn't worry about being 'liked' on partial pretense. Don't make it so damn personal, please. Letting a chance to be heard pass you by, simply to avoid the open airing of a disagreement that's lingering under the surface anyhow, is just like sacrificing your right to vote in a democratic election: It severely inhibits your ability to be taken seriously as a commentator on said matter at a later point, having already demonstrated a refusal to dirty yourself in the trenches. Thankfully, you are truly gifted at conveying potentially contentious or transgressive sentiments in a most palatable manner, increasing the probability you'll change others' minds by sharing what's on yours. But rather than focus on affecting anybody else's mind, simply make sure to express yours clearly… and without watering down the root of your truth.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Even as you theorize about the ways in which you desire not to behave like and/or identify with certain individuals or groups-of-people, you're still in a spot that doesn't afford you the luxury of just staying away from them. Their unavoidability is at once (1) a temptation to beat up on yourself, or them, out of frustration with the fact that they remain within breathing distance (and/or out of paranoid worry about why they're still around) and (2) a continuing lesson in coexistence. Can you, Scorpio, simultaneously hold your own ethical ground and permit them to do whatever the hell they're going to do, without either criticizing them or selling yourself out? While this is not an easy balance to achieve, it's also exactly the type of hands-on human-relations experiment that you thrive at engaging with… even while you grumble to yourself about how life is never simple. (The word 'simple', in this context, already makes me start to yawn. How about you?) For additional clues to what's going on in your situation, pay extra-close attention to storylines in your friends' lives, on the TV or internet, and/or in the conversations you overhear in public settings. Certain parallels are uncanny.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): A certain individual's strange and novel impact on your life these days is helping keep you from dwelling in a rut. It would make perfect sense, then, if you felt you'd momentarily lost your bearings; that's a heartening indication of you having allowed yourself to be positively influenced by someone else's attitudes and behaviors. There is, however, a chance that you'll inadvertently follow this certain individual too far into a grouping of their compadres, Sagittarius, only to discover you're somewhat uncomfortable with (or maybe even offended by) the company they keep. One clue this is occurring: You find yourself unable to freely speak your mind in this scene, out of fear you'll reveal yourself to be at odds with their dominant paradigm. You needn't cause a huge to-do, should you find you've stumbled into social territory unsuitable for you. (In fact, I'd recommend not going through with the potentially controversial remark—more out of respect for your friend than in submission to any perceived peer-pressure.) However, you will have some thinking to do: Can you continue to enjoy this person's close-up presence in your life, knowing you're not necessarily a huge fan of all their allegiances? Given time and consideration, the right answer might surprise you.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Serving as somebody who confidently holds space for others' feedback to be respectfully offered is a crucial matter of process… and far more important, in the end, than any of the actual content of said feedback. People want to feel heard, Capricorn, and you are in a privileged position to cultivate that feeling in those around you, as long as you don't indulge your fixation on wanting to correct their misperceptions and/or defend yourself. You may be holding quite valid exceptions to the tenor of their sentiments, but I don't think this is your best moment for schooling anyone else—mainly because you'll wind up sacrificing the perception you've earned as a cool-headed facilitator, merely by taking too vocal a stake in the matter. Does this mean you ought to forego your stake? Hell, no. To avoid being insincere, you might want to wrap the whole interaction within a voiced blanket-summary that acknowledges the 'variety of viewpoints' being registered on this item, without going into any further detail about what those other viewpoints may include. At this juncture, you're here to lead by encouraging others to share… and to reserve your judgments for now.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Seemingly basic questions about work methods or other organizational projects shouldn't be answered too hastily, even if you dragging your feet stirs a bit of unrest with another key player. You may well have a worthy ethical interjection to pose, Aquarius, in order to ensure the overarching purpose isn't being impinged upon by too close a focus on the day-to-day. Be the hesitant squeaky-wheel, if need be; I don't see this being too long a delay in the process. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out another factor in your need to buy yourself an extra week or two is likely that you've been having a tad too much fun lately… and, though your soul has desperately craved this perking-up in your fun-time zone, you still mustn't neglect the practical realities of life. Consider this passing work-related burp as a wake-up call: You really shouldn't allow the irresistible appeal of another friend-filled afternoon-and-evening of revelry to impede upon the demands of your role's responsibilities. This time around, you should be able to wiggle your way through with minimal fallout (other than, perhaps, a momentarily irked colleague). Next time, you may not be so lucky.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Quiet assumptions are liable to lead you down a rabbit-hole of exaggerated feelings, Pisces… so if you somehow value 'saving face' enough to not raise the issue, you're only causing yourself an excessive expenditure of emotional energy. Instead, do yourself the favor of cutting to the chase, swallowing whatever misdirected burst of pride has been keeping your lips buttoned shut. Who the fuck cares, really, if the other person acts all put out by having to engage with your unresolved anxiety or concern? Your only other choice is to spin in directionless little circles, wondering what their seemingly dirty look or odd remark was intended to mean. You'll drive yourself crazy trying to calm yourself down if you're still stirred up. But here's the catch: You will have to take the other person at their word once they explain what was going on for them, even if a part of you doesn't fully believe their explanation. If they're lying to you but you have no proof, there's not much you can do about it at the present moment (other than trust the deception will reveal itself more convincingly in coming weeks). Let their reassurances reassure you for the time being, while simultaneously taking note of any detail that smells fishy. Then, move on to the next thing. It's better to let the developments occur out in the external world, through actual interactions, than wholly within your head.