Horoscopes | Week of February 4-10, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Ride it; don't seek to control it. If you struggle with attempts to swim against these currents, Aries, you will exhaust yourself... and, as such, end up flirting with disaster. Grab your most reliable flotation device (most likely, your friends), and allow yourself to drift a bit, until these waters settle down somewhat. Stop trying to explain what it all means. Don't bother justifying behaviors, yours or anybody else's, with hollow simplistic sentiments that don't do actually do justice to the complex emotions behind the acts. Feeling a little lost? Commend yourself for the admission, instead of frantically seeking some out-of-date map. (You'd probably have a hard time even figuring out which side is up.) This passing condition need not be diagnosed as 'good' or 'bad', for any such judgments would be premature, if not ultimately reductive. In some mystical manner, what's going on now is the completion of a contract—and thus not a wise time to make any moves that'll reenlist you. Soon enough, you will be ready to definitively lurch ahead. That will be a new beginning; this moment is not.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Think team, Taurus. As we already covered last week, you're being strongly pulled toward a more group-minded focus… though, even as you may quietly know this is exactly the mindset you ought to hold, it could feel as if you're 'losing yourself' (meaning: losing your firm sense of unwavering selfhood) among the confusingly conflicting needs and desires of all the other players. Yet, you are decidedly not losing yourself: You are just as pragmatic a thinker, holding just as much potential to turn flights-of-fancy into tangible products as ever (if not temporarily more, considering the Venus-Jupiter trine across your career-and-money houses). This is simply a case in which it behooves you, for your own 'higher purpose' (however you'd like to interpret that), to channel these aptitudes into taking somewhat-less-immediately-self-serving responsibility for others' well-being. Listen compassionately to their needs, and do not hesitate to offer your assistance—not with moralizing corrective suggestions, but concrete task-related help. You can be, after all, an incredibly valuable teammate to have in one's life… if you're genuinely digging the role.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): One's public-world calling isn't always the position the self-absorbed ego would prefer it to be. Sometimes, Gemini, the role we're called to requires us to work harder than we'd like, to put ourselves in situations that make us nervous or bashful, and/or to sacrifice certain immediate comforts on behalf of a more consequential prize that doesn't arrive until much later. Such difficult realities are often a deal-breaker for many folks, especially those who don't see themselves as bearing any responsibility for assuming this or that particular chair in the orchestra of our cosmos, for the ultimate betterment of the universal tune. Let me be clear, there is nothing objectively wrong with choosing your own outer-life path based on what will make your life easier or more prosperous… though, if such a choice comes at the expense of persistent inner-voice whispers about 'what you're supposed to be doing' (not to please or impress other people, mind you, but to express a god-given talent and/or fulfill a special duty to the collective), you may be unconsciously creating an undercurrent of discontentment which, at the end of the day, may not be worth the lower-hanging perks. Be on the lookout for events that poignantly symbolize where you are now, relative to your unique calling… and how it may be impacting your well-being in indirect, though very, relevant ways.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): There are other locations where you could be. There are other topics you could immerse yourself in. There are strangers in strange lands, full of strangely wonderful outlooks on life, which could open your eyes to qualities of meaningful satisfaction you'd never in a million years come up with on your own, Cancer. All you need is a willingness to explore… a courageous curiosity about the immense world out there, waiting for your visit, anticipating the questions you want to ask of it, preparing the thrill-rides and circuit-blowing mindfucks that'll leave you breathlessly pondering your previously small perspective. You want a seat on this magical mystery tour? You eager to leave behind the predictable doldrums, that confining condition of everyone in town knowing your name and your business? You ready to learn? Better believe, then, that you hold far less awareness of the universe's inspiring diversity than you thought. Better believe it's possible to blast it wide open. And better believe none of this can happen while you're still in your comfort zone, feeding yourself countless insubstantial reasons why none of this can happen.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Freely allow yourself to be affected by any recent goings-on that closely intertwine your independence existence with other individuals or entities, Leo… as if you could help it anyway. For the moment, you can't get much distance from the whole emotional tangle, whether you've become ultra-sensitive to the impact someone else's travails are having on their life or whether you're the one whose gravitational complexities are pulling someone else in. This interpenetrating connection is at once (1) an incredible opportunity for both of you to achieve psychological intimacy and (2) a potential threat that one of you will become wholly sucked into the other's bottomless drama and end up going down with 'em. But even with this potential threat, you mustn't feign nonchalance: This is taking up a huge amount of your psychic energy at the moment, and it's on you to simultaneously stay rooted in your own self-care responsibilities, rather than investing everything to save anybody else and/or wishing against all hope that they can somehow save you. This emotive cresting will subside, like all tides do, in time. While staying present with the effects, try not to commit yourselves to too deep or lasting an involvement, at this point of not seeing your individual futures—and how they might (or might not) ultimately diverge—so clearly.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Presently, Virgo, there is a powerful, perhaps even (warning: loaded word ahead) spiritual reason to pledge an increasingly vast amount of your personal attentions toward a certain special individual in your life. (To review, I began discussing this last week.) Are they in deeply in need of support, companionship, or a compassionate sounding-board? Is your current fate, whether personal or professional, inextricably tied to your relationship with them? Are you feeling mysteriously drawn to them and, for whatever unintelligible reason, unable to shake it until you somehow act? The particulars will vary from Virgo to Virgo, but the archetypal premise speaks loudly and clearly: For the moment, you simply cannot draw a water-tight boundary between what's going on with you and what's up with them. So rather than trying to fight the obvious pull of this situation, just flow with it. Give yourself over to the interpersonal commingling. Allow this someone to influence you, and you them. Though such an ultra-close encounter may be unsettling, there's some still-nebulous awakening to be reaped from this communion.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): You knew it was coming, Libra. If you read last week's horoscope, you know that wholly and completely throwing yourself into work is the number-one item on your agenda at the moment. I have no doubt you're fairly well-acquainted with whichever specific items this call-to-work is speaking to in your life… but I'm pretty sure it's far beyond the 'concept' stage, and is really about the actual hands-in-the-dirt labor. You are due to generate the real goods, to move the materials to their rightful place, to turn messes into coordinated files, and/or to produce some physical evidence of progress. There may also be a bodily expression of this 6th-house energy I'm describing, which could inspire you to go all-in on a new fitness program or dietary regimen, to pay more attention to sleep or nutrition needs, and/or to quit smoking or drinking or drugging so damn much. Incidentally, the opposite approach to all this advice—i.e., refusing to get to work, resisting the body's quiet requests—could prove quite draining or depressing. Presuming you answer to these duties, however, your overall mood should leave you surprisingly giddy.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Whatever 'it' is, make art from it. Make love from it. Derive your special brand of not-the-usual-sort-of-FUN out of whatever leftover scraps or underutilized raw materials are laying around, Scorpio, as a result of recent challenges faced and/or familiar dreams transmuted into unrecognizable realities. From my view, this is part of your life-project as a Scorpio: Existence is like a freak-show of strange and sometimes gory developments you couldn't have conjured up if you tried, and claiming their dark beauty and uncommon pleasure without apology (rather than embracing a hopelessly pessimistic take on these unstoppable forces of nature) allows you to keep on playing, with just as much (if not more) romance continuing to throb through your heart. Though 'looking on the bright side' seems like a horribly un-Scorpio way to conceive of this creative process, I'm sure you can reconfigure this clichéd concept so as not to strip its shadowiness away, while still heeding its insightful instructive to make something life-affirming from challenge or struggle. This moment right here is like a deluge of these beauties and pleasures; don't let regrets or resentments squelch the loveliness.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Even if your social life remains active during the weeks ahead, a larger-than-usual degree of quiet internal listening is strongly indicated by your planetary outlook, Sagittarius. Your insides are presently as full of proverbial wateriness as a wet sponge… but rather than rushing to wring yourself out, to alleviate that distended feeling of supersaturation, I encourage you to hold the uncomfortable sensation for a spell. This is not intended to prolong any agony or prevent you from moving forward. It's more a likelihood that you'll stumble upon a new dimension of your emotional responses to recent (or maybe not-so-recent) events, divergent from the supposedly 'standard' or typically expected response to such events… and this is information that could prove quite instructive, in terms of teaching you something new about your unconscious drives or desires. Pay special mind to any yearnings you might experience for a certain home, which may or may not be the place you now live, the place you come from, and/or the place you wish to be. Since the archetypal Home really is where the heart is, it'd obviously be useful to listen carefully to what your heart has to say on such matters.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): What's the hurry? Where's the sense of urgency coming from? Well, on that second question, we can assume it's coming from your own relentless inner-taskmaster, Capricorn, who always seems to be demanding one thing or another from you. Yet, under this astrology, I strongly encourage you to expect your concentration to be hijacked by one or another so-called diversions—and, if you can believe it, to actively allow yourself to be interrupted mid-flow. Such 'diversions', if they are the result of any other person suddenly showing up in front of your face and desiring a few (or more-than-a-few) minutes of your time so they feel less alone or misunderstood in the world, are arguably the most meaningful way to fill up your schedule this week. Certainly, 'the human factor' should trump your productively completing one more checklist of inanimate items, no? I invite you to practice bending time while in the presence of anybody craving some of your attention: The clock hands should seem to freeze when your presence is temporarily devoted to them, and then, shock of all shocks, you somehow still accomplish everything you'd hoped to get done.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): What exactly has gone on in 2013 so far, Aquarius? While this may seem an unusually early moment in the year for such reflections, let me point out you've already made quite a bit of headway on this or that matter… all the while learning which approaches are, and aren't, practically working for you. As the results of your efforts continue streaming in over the coming weeks (a trend I described last week), please try to heed this obvious instinctual evidence about what you apparently do quite well, so you can maximize the amount of effort you expend on such purposes—and also what you don't do quite as well, in order to relieve yourself of the expectation that you 'should' be trying so hard with stuff someone else can do quicker and better. These observations ought not to be treated as moral verdicts, but merely a type of economic analysis: You'll get more bang-for-your-buck (literally, too) by building upon the self-knowledge this time-period is gifting you with. Just imagine how much more confident you'd be if, based upon such analysis, you simply set yourself up for greater day-to-day success. And just imagine what else you could do with this heightened confidence…

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Everything's coming up Pisces this week, with a triple conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Neptune in your sign… so first and foremost, please be kind and compassionate towards all your brothers and sisters of the other zodiac-signs, who are not quite as accustomed to this ultra-dreamy-and-psychically-sensitive state of affairs as you. They may not know how to operate their intuitive control-panels quite as adeptly as you and, as a result, might feel a bit like they're losing their minds. This is an instance in which extending your sincere sympathies for others' confusions—as well as making a select few statements of 'higher' wisdom because you know it's what they need to hear—can go quite far. As far as your own life-predicaments are concerned, let me reassure you that your heart is presently overflowing with distinct directives about which applications of your personal energy will come in most handy, even if your mind cannot precisely articulate the overarching purpose. Do not worry. Just proceed, with faith… and keep on going. As nice as it might feel to enjoy the comforts of home, staying in will not 'get you anywhere'. You need to be out and about, touching the world, imprinting its features with your agency. Please make some impact.