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Horoscopes | Week of March 4-10, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Next Monday (Mar 11), on the same day as the New Moon, your ruling planet Mars will at last come back home to your sign for the first time in nearly two years. From that point, and into mid-April, you will welcome a potent injection of rather robust assertive momentum, which should help you finally surge forward after enduring all these weeks of apparent (though not actual) standstill. Believe me, Aries, much dramatic progress in this ever-unfolding story of your life—including at least one outright eureka!-style surprise—will be made in the weeks ahead, such that the you who'll greet us by, say, May 1 will be quite a new-and-improved version. With this in mind, then, please spend these remaining days of relative 'down-time' as your opportunity to thoroughly cleanse yourself of any stubborn bits of psychic detritus still clinging to your auric sheath, unwanted souvenirs from struggles already fought and pains already suffered. You do no dishonor to the past by relegating it to its rightful place in history. An altogether different future is waiting right outside your front-door… and it'll start knocking in a matter of mere moments.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): One more time, Taurus, I will emphatically encourage you to surround yourself with the peers and pals who can keep you afloat during those stretches when you aren't sure which end is up. It is not only that those around you will be significantly affected (either positively or negatively, based upon what you're putting out there) by your presence in the group's goings-on… but also that you will likely need to lean on those folks who truly know and understand you, increasingly so, as you gradually enter a strangely disorienting period of time. Soon enough, as a series of planets start landing in your solar 12th one after the other (beginning with Mars early next week), you'll find yourself in what seems like a virtual freeze-frame (at least insofar as your ability to confidently project yourself forward is concerned)… though, in fact, it's really a phase of encountering jarring flashbacks from your unpleasant past and/or your feared-but-not-yet-actualized future, during which you must confront just how decidedly you'd like to leave this old garbage behind or whether you'll continue reenacting these episodes out of rote habit (rather than because they're authentic reflections of your current incarnation). Be prepared to lose a clear sense of what's going on, in order to retreat more deeply into this exercise of updating your psychic operating-system. Along the way, it'll be nice to surround yourself with non-judgmental, truth-telling confidantes who actually get what you're going through.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Can we please check in again on the state of your current reflections, Gemini, with regards to your professional standing (and/or any other outer-world aspirations)… as a timely follow-up on this past month's suggestive symbolic revelations about calling, and whether you're presently properly oriented to what yours is? Remember we discussed this a few weeks back? I'd be quite surprised if no relevant awarenesses have exposed themselves to you since then, either confirming you're headed down the rightfully meaningful road (even if you have no idea what the actual destination it leads to will look like) or trying to call attention to any 'wrong turns' you've made (so that you might find your way back to a route better suited for you). It's starting to become that time when you ought to share these insights outwardly, with other colleagues in the field of your calling and/or supportive friends who'll 'tell it like it is', so this network of similarly-minded individuals can help you build further upon your current successes and/or engineer any necessary readjustments. Not sure what to 'share'? Try speaking about this topic off the cuff, and see what responses you receive. Once you invite others to assist you in the continuing shaping of your professional being, there's no more getting away with performed confusion. You must clarify.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): This has presumably been a philosophically edifying few weeks for you, Cancer, as you've invested more conscious thought into your desired place in this world… and hopefully yielded a clearer understanding of what constitutes 'a life well lived' as far as your sense of personal ethics is concerned. These deep thoughts should be invited to continue developing further, even as a time of ethically-informed action is now calling you onto your feet. Specifically, you're readying yourself for any abrupt reorientations that may be required in your career zone (and/or other public-contributions realms), in order to affirm that you are actually creating some positive statement of ethical purpose through what you're spending all those productive hours doing. Over the month-plus ahead, you'll likely face at least one crossroads in your outer-world occupation, presenting you a chance to turn decidedly in the direction of more meaningful work… or to continue along an unremarkable path that, though it may not be causing any outright damage to your integrity, isn't exactly nourishing it either. Sudden changes, such as what might be required to take that decisive turn, are far less risky when motivated by clear principle. Regardless of what you choose, alas, a certain destabilizing effect is to be expected. If you know you need to make a career change, this could be your most obvious invitation.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Muddling through the muck is not without its eventual rewards, Leo… and soon enough (as in: beginning next week) you'll start to spy the sparkling rays of sunshine penetrating through, lighting your way to something else. For now, though, it's enough simply to have faith that there is a breakthrough coming. You will be hit by an electrifying revelation about what you're supposed to do with all this still-developing self-knowledge which, if you've been courageously confronting everything that's come up in the past few weeks, has been diligently hard-earned. You will begin to feel excited, optimistic even, about that purposeful pursuit you're going to build atop the ashes of whatever effigy of former-self is in the final throes of burning down. You'll actually become better able to coherently articulate the lessons learned, the call-to-action they have fomented, and the now-strengthening belief-system that'll help you keep from slipping backward into the familiar sinkhole. So, as long as you're holding that faith tightly to your chest, I encourage to spend the rest of this week crying your little eyes out, screaming at the top of your lungs, unflinchingly staring down the demons, and otherwise shamelessly emoting… to the purgative relief of your achiest parts.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): I have recently placed a lot of emphasis on the recent advantages you've been due to receive, Virgo, from being highly open and receptive and patient with what a certain someone (or someones) is showing and/or telling you… and I sincerely hope you have risen to this calling. I've asked you to listen without judgment, to responsibly own the instances in which you'd otherwise too easily project your own unsettled self-perceptions onto others' (and their supposed 'flaws'), and to generally be a considerate partner or friend. What we haven't spoken much of lately, however, is the possibility that, maybe, your observations and listenings are yielding a degree of discomfort or dissatisfaction with what this person is flashing you—that you might indeed have some valid cause for concern about how your own thoughts, feelings, hopes and desires are in increasingly obvious conflict with theirs. That's mainly because I wanted you first to have gathered enough information, from as free-thinking a subject-position as possible, before heading into potentially tense negotiations. But the time to engage with any misalignments or disagreements is now coming. You could start to air them as early as next week, knowing Mercury's still retrograde and the conversation would likely continue for a few weeks… or you could at least start discussing them openly with insightful outside-parties, to help sort through your thoughts, while waiting a couple more weeks to decisively confront You-Know-Who.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): One more week of full-steam, wholehearted effort, Libra… and you should be at a point of relative completion (of at least one substantial phase, if not the entire enchilada), which is a very well-timed pause-point. It is not that this window of super-productivity will be definitively shutting itself next week; on the contrary, I believe you will still be carrying this can-do attitude to all your actively-ongoing fiddlings with the work. However, starting early next week, you're going to begin a much more time- and energy-consuming engagement with a certain someone (or someones)—whether a romantic partner, a colleague or close friend who's squawking up for further attention from you—which will siphon away a chunk of your focus. This is as it should be, incidentally, which is why I encourage you to pour as much culminating, cohering, integrative purpose into your current project(s) during this week ahead… in preparation for soon not having the luxury of as much single-mindedness as you've recently enjoyed. Be organized enough with your week's doings, therefore, so that you won't be caught off-guard when other people begin to 'get in the way' in the near future.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): This seemingly never-ending stream of Scorpio horoscopes dripping with romance and love and kittens and ponies and rainbows obviously can't go on forever, now, can it? But just because you'll soon need to return your nose to its obligatory grindstone, that doesn't mean all the fun should screech to a hasty halt. In fact, I do see a continuance of this pleasure-and-play vibe in your future—only, starting next week, Scorpio, it'll need to be balanced out a bit by your more actively reengaging the productive gratification of getting practical shit accomplished. This is no party-pooping punishment, by the way: Rather than draining the energy away from whatever your present good-time preoccupations may be, I expect your newfound interest in managing the mundane to be positively powered by the personal contentment you've recently been blessed with. If all's going well, you'll want to spread the cheer into your work life. However, before we jump the gun (since much of what I've just described is really more relevant to the weeks ahead than this very moment), please spend the current week-ahead with some sort of delicious celebratory climax to this past wonderful month-or-so. Get the unapologetic (over?)indulgences out of your system pronto.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Life's about to get a whole lot more obviously, openly, outwardly fun, Sagittarius, in a gradual crescendo that continues over a few weeks… and you're right on the verge of this trend's inaugural trigger, which is next Monday's (Mar 11) arrival of Mars in your solar 5th. As I said, this won't likely manifest as a miraculous overnight cure for the blues (though, if it does, please thank your lucky stars and don't ask too many doubting questions)—instead, the recent urge to hole up in a vacuum-packed isolation-chamber with a pack of Mallomars and a stack of DVDs will begin to vacillate with a contrasting desire to do something more actively and interactively entertaining. Treat both drives as equally worthy of honoring during this sensitive transition period. You could change your mind halfway through an external-world activity… and feel like rushing home to your safe-space, for no intelligible 'reason' whatsoever. Go with it. You might notice unanticipated giggles welling up in your throat at the very moment you thought you were about to weep uncontrollably. Sure, why not? Rather than judge this vacillating behavior as schizophrenic, just accept that you're a complex person… someone who, for the time being, may experience rapidly changing moods. And for this week, indulge the secret drama-queen in you who wants to privately act out with theatrical over-the-top emotionality.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Your latest exposure to a multitude of other people's stray thoughts, disavowed feelings and/or eccentric behaviors is starting to trigger a resultant tide of introspection in you, Capricorn, that will become progressively more significant over the weeks ahead. Though your social life doesn't necessarily show signs of organically slowing itself down right away, in order to accommodate the growing need for quiet down-time, you may soon have to assert your self-serving desire to bow out of certain participations for this important purpose. There's only so much 'going with the flow' a Capricorn can comfortably oblige before it becomes crucial to your emotional survival to once again hermit yourself away… to re-attune to the priorities you have selected, rather than freely allowing everyone else to determine the tone, the setting, and the topic(s) of every exchange. Since I don't currently suggest attempting to exercise control over what's happening 'out there' amongst the people, your best choice for getting to exercise some control would be a willful embrace of periodic solitary cocooning. In your own safe bubble, you don't have to be considerate or compassionate to them. Ah, what sweet relief! By yourself, your business is nobody else's… while theirs need not fucking matter so much.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): What's been largely a serious-minded recent few weeks, Aquarius, starts to give way to a somewhat lighter-hearted and more socially-active scene once next week arrives… which, as far as astro-forecasting is concerned, seems to indicate that this week is ideal for putting any crowning touches on the efforts you've (hopefully) been exerting on behalf of your serious-minded goals. It will soon become far more difficult to concentrate as fully on the nitty-gritty, considering the growing parade of last-minute invitations and on-the-spot opportunities to commune with the especially invigorating cast of characters who have signed on for dazzling guest spots this coming season. Though your material well-being remains a consideration worthy of consistent attention, you will simultaneously find yourself happily distracted more and more often as the coming weeks unfold—and I would hate for you to needlessly indulge a guilty conscience or other forms of resistance to the beckoning social currents, due to having shirked your responsibilities now, while you still have a relatively easier ability to successfully concentrate on them. Put in a fantastically sensible week of handling the business-at-hand, then… in preparation for the arriving influx of other doldrum-busting energies, courtesy of those freaky fellow humans.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): This delightfully dreamy concepting stage—meaning that you've had no good reason not to amble around, enthusiastic but unfocused, prowling for the next preoccupation(s) that grabs your intuitive attention—is about to transmogrify into more of an explicitly sharpened hustle, Pisces. In other words, right at the beginning of next week, you're going to need to start hitting the pavement in an active search for ways to bank your latest enthusiasms… and by 'bank', I mean turn into money (or some other equally tangible instrument of value). Though these past few weeks have undoubtedly provided you quite a wild ride (and, don't get me wrong, this ride will still offer plenty of thrills and chills in the weeks ahead), you're reaching the point where you have to figure out how to pay for the ride. Or more specifically put: If you want the facets of life you've been thoroughly enjoying more recently to endure, then you'll have to channel whatever survivalist instincts are required for you to ensure they continue to survive as a regular element of your life. During the week ahead, consider what you need to do next to transform these latest whims into part of your routine. How much will it cost? Where will you get the cash from? What are you capable of doing to support this new way of being? And how great are you for daring to do it?!?