Horoscopes | Week of March 11-17, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Mars, warrior-king of Ariesland, has arrived home! The vibrational shift you'll undoubtedly detect during the week ahead, Aries, is your version of the proverbial groundhog emerging from his hole on a perfectly cloudy day and, not seeing his shadow (and thus knowing this seemingly endless winter is soon ending), races excitedly through the meadow in his skimpiest spring garb, eager to get this sunnier season underway. The sun is coming back out… and you can certainly do your part to encourage its bright shine, by emanating your own shiny expression of this first-blossom energy. Antsy though you may be to 'get going again', I must remind you that many planets still remain in your solar 12th—and, as a result, you aren't completely out of the fog-bank that's most recently enveloped you. Realistically, this initial surge of self-empowerment won't provide enough steam to power you through all the items you've been eagerly waiting to devote yourself to. Don't overreach; this is only the first of several weeks' worth of your increasing ability to create and sustain momentum where there was previously a relative standstill. Do, however, make something of a to-do with at least one proud forward step… treating it as a symbolic intention-setting ritual that momentously ushers in many more proud forward steps to soon follow.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Please do not dare say I didn't warn you, Taurus, that your day-to-day existence may soon be taking on a temporarily surreal quality… based, in large part, on how many major narrative developments will be transpiring all around you, with the likely potential to directly impact your life, though you won't necessarily have much sway over how they go. Take a deep breath, and swallow this pill: That's just how it goes whenever we experience significant planetary action in our 12th house (as I described last week), and you'll be greeting an unusual amount of actions in yours during the upcoming several weeks. What you can do, throughout this surreal period, is concentrate on private spiritual-health practices which remind you not to fall prey to any panicky fears that the superficial appearance of these events is telling you the whole story (when it most certainly is not). Though you may naturally feel threatened, moment to moment, by others' abrupt decisions or out-of-left-field disclosures, you mustn't worry too deeply about what it'll all eventually mean to you. Stay with the moment-by-moment experience. Embrace the transience. Confidently identify the holographic nature of these surface images, and pray through the illusions.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): It'll soon become a more conspicuous challenge to ignore the ways in which your self-selected life-directional choices (and, yes, passively playing along does qualify as a 'choice') intersect—either supportively or as a clash—with the social identifications you've claimed for yourself, Gemini. In other words, if you're actively participating in a mission that's largely in sync with what your people (i.e., the tribe you consider yourself part of) are also doing, you can expect your efforts to directly benefit from the synergy during the weeks ahead. As long as you're making a point of broadly providing informational peer-updates, you should be able to draw on their like-minded enthusiasms for both motivational boosts and tangible helping-hands. However, don't expect your friends to 'passively play along' with you if, in fact, your deeds are not lining up so neatly with the words you use to define yourself. If they feel you aren't legitimately walking your talk and, as a result, are resting on alliances that they don't believe you've earned, they may well call you out on it in the near future. This isn't a bad thing: It will help you better define your place in the social place, if you must articulate for them why they're missing a key point about who you are… and/or if you must realize you're not actually being who you think you are.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Your go-get-'em phase officially starts now, Cancer, though we'll excuse you if it takes \ a week or two to up-shift your engines to the appropriate higher-gear. Between now and the end of April, you're charged with asserting an unmistakable signal to the world-at-large about what your latest ambitions entail… in the form of some daring action that, presuming you receive a positive response, would open up a whole field of possibilities you almost certainly won't know exactly how to proceed with. That's the catch: Success in this desired arena will inevitably come with a host of unknowns that can only be adequately addressed on the spot, as you go… but which, if you think too long and (ahem) 'responsibly' about, could churn up enough nervousness to actually freeze you in your tracks. For now, forward motion of any sort is far preferable to your trying to resolve any variables before the options have even presented themselves. Courageous moxie is presently your trait to foster; with sufficient quantities in tow, you can confront anything that shows up along your path to greater personal investment in your outer-world occupation. Start warming it up now—you'll soon need every ounce of it you can muster.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): 'All this shit will have mattered,' you need to keep telling yourself, Leo, 'once I'm onto that next thing I have been promised is on its way. Having had my hands tied up so irritatingly tight by circumstances I'd lost control over, I will soon come to truly appreciate whatever subsequent modicum of freedom I'm fortunate enough to reclaim. And I will make the absolute most of it, too! I won't waste a single moment of this next chapter kicking and screaming with regret about what I may have lost (or so I think) during my previous chapter, caught in a cyclone of my own unbridled reactions… because, yes, I could've been using that time in a different way, I suppose, but, damn, it felt sort of like a giant relief to let all this fly recklessly through the air, chaotic and slightly hazardous, unsustainable as a lifestyle, sure, yet sufficiently cathartic to get it out of my system. While I obviously haven't completely cleared it all out yet, I'm on my way. Besides, this is an ongoing process, this "keeping one's self psychologically clear"—I'm just coming off an especially pungent interval of it and am, admittedly, a bit zonked. It will, however, have proved worth it; of this I am confident. All this shit will have mattered because I will make sure of that fact through what I move onto next, as you'll all soon see…'

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Don't be afraid to invite in a moderate amount of unrest, Virgo. You needn't go hunting around for it, of course, if there isn't already some potentially unrestful situation that you've been holding at bay through your best minimizing attempts. But if you have struggled, grin-and-bear-it-style, to not 'make a big deal' out of something that's actually become a pretty big deal… well, then, your time for making it the deal it is is fast approaching. During the next month, you have an excellent chance to profoundly alter the dynamic in a personal relationship and/or professional arrangement that hasn't suited your purposes recently—if, that is, you go into it with uncertain expectations for how exactly it will eventually turn out, since you won't be able to control what happens once this cage-door is swung open. I don't see this situation as a case where a single decisive-and-controlled conversation successfully resolves this host of complicated issues (because, yes, there's likely more to it than meets the eye)… but more as a cascading effect of one player's action followed by the other's and so on and so forth, the parties feeding off each other to quite dramatically progress things to a whole new level, a process that unfolds over several weeks. This is as it should be—unless you're satisfied to surrender your agency in this dynamic, and to keep bending over and taking it.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Maybe this certain person is suddenly showing up on your radar more noticeably because you've been overlooking 'em… because they're desperate for attention? mad that you've been busy with other stuff? yearning to woo you with their charms? Whatever the case, Libra, relational concerns will now be starting to loudly compete with your work-tasks for top billing in your world—and I wouldn't dare try to tune 'em out. Mars in your 7th can symbolize your renewed drive to insinuate your presence into an interpersonal coupling that matters to you a lot, to demonstrate or affirm your interest in this other person, and/or to correct any misperceptions they may have about your intentions or desires with regards to them. However, this same Mars can also point to an increased likelihood of interpersonal tension or outright conflict… particularly if one or another of you is feeling somewhat invisible and/or subordinate to the other person's self-centered priorities. How this ends up playing out, of course, has everything to do with whether you're consciously engaged and up-to-date on what's going on between you two—or whether you've been too wrapped up in your dutiful practicalities (and, perhaps, are still quite occupied by them) to pay it much mind. Regardless of what else you're focused on, this relationship situation will soon be absorbing more of the spotlight.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Much has changed since the last time you treated your day-to-day work with as much earnest, fired-up intent as you soon will be, Scorpio. So please do not approach this charge with the old expectations… even if your actual responsibilities entail attending to tasks so familiar that you could probably carry them out with your eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back. You've been undergoing a true creative renaissance, in case you haven't noticed, and, therefore, prior methodological blind-spots or bad work habits (or, gulp, a previously bratty attitude) may be much more easily transformed now. Look at each step with fresh eyes and 'beginner's mind': For the sake of innovation, pretend like you've never done this stuff before. How would you handle it differently if there were no 'longstanding tradition' or supposed 'best practice' containing your efforts within its veal-pen? Nothing is sacred. During the weeks ahead, you might find yourself challenging the idiomatic instructive that you shouldn't 'fix' it if it isn't 'broken'. Who says it isn't broken, anyway? If the joy had been previously been missing from your daily routine, then something wasn't working right. Right?

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): By week's end, Sagittarius, you'll almost surely encounter a reassuring reconnection with that outwardly irreverent provocateur who lives inside you… and who, for a moment there, you might've begun to fear had packed their bags and moved out of town. No fucking way would any of us (least of all, you) settle for letting that too-well-behaved version take over your personality forever. Who else will pose that uncomfortably revelatory question which causes the annoying know-it-alls to become momentary speechless and/or furious that their know-it-all-isms won't fly without a good challenge? Who else will go just that little extra bit too far, stopping everyone dead in their tracks with your directness, stirring a protracted awkward-pause… before you erupt into laughter, granting the rest of the crowd their free rein to do the same? You may be so friggin' thrilled to spot your familiar shit-stirring self reappearing, you could even become a smidge too desperate for a guarantee that it'll stick around for a while—and inadvertently spook it back into retreat. Be gentle in your enthusiasms, then. You are gradually reemerging from your recent shell, though still nervous and uncharacteristically emotive about it. Little by little, week by week, smile by smile.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): All this talking (or what, in grumpier moments, you might refer to as 'a whole bunch of fucking noise!') may be starting to get to you, Capricorn, but your planetary saviors are coming to rescue you, have no fear. Alas, you don't get to full-on escape the loudmouths, busybodies and gift-of-gabbers quite yet… though a greater focus on domestic-zone decompression, to preserve your emotional well-being, is a direction in which your life's beginning to trend. In the short term, then—when your attentions are not being absorbed by the latest community gossip—I urge you to silently dedicate yourself to at least one home-front project that'll give you even more reason to thoroughly relish your domestic down-time, whenever you're able to enjoy it. Make your favorite room that much more comfortable. Remove that load of energy-clogging junk. Scrub down the bathroom. Fix the telecommunications wiring. Lug the donations to Goodwill already. Choose home-improvement items that don't require further communication with anybody else. That way, when you feel fed up with other people, you can channel your annoyance into positive physical initiative that directly serves your personal satisfaction.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): In addition to providing yourself daily common-sense financial updates on what's in your account(s) and what's coming due, you also have another assignment from the planet-gods. Sometime this week, please reach out to two or three different people in your extended social circle (or to strangers who you wish were in your circle)… and ask them to join you for a meal, a drink, a cup-of-tea, a Skype hangout, or some other informal chit-chatty catch-up, for no other reason than you're jonesin' for some fresh interactional input to bounce yourself off of. You can't deny that, to a certain degree, your head has been a bit up your own ass as of late—for important self-securing purposes, sure—and you've consequently lacked in the other-people's-perspectives department. But now, Mars is leading the astrological mandate into your soon-to-be increasingly lit-up 3rd house, the chart-zone from which we keep connected with all the close chums and casual pals and sort-of-familiar faces that comprise our immediate social environment. This is a clear message that, over the coming month or so, you are due to get back in touch. Start this process now, little by little. As soon as you begin, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover how greatly your presence has been missed… and how appreciative your friends will be to hear from you.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): As part of your transitional reentry into the 'real world' (i.e., that ordinary existence in which everybody isn't behaving as if they're all Pisceans), you ought to take at least one critical action this week directly aimed at procuring yourself a key building-block of stability. And just to be specific about it, Pisces, this action should probably be related to your work-and-finances sector… though, if you're somehow able to arrange some deal that nabs you a place to live, a mode of transport, or some similar essential not attached to a labor-for-wages agreement, I suppose that counts. Not knowing which action is the so-called 'best' one is not, however, an acceptable excuse. There is no time for mulling it over; you must create movement, in one way or another, even if it proves not to be the end-all-be-all solution. You're still operating under Venus's benefic glow, thankfully, which suggests you'll have an easier shot at receiving favorable responses to your inquiries or initiatives. Be aware, of course, that the results of this 'good fortune' could appear different than expected… and/or require something of a wild good chase, through multiple checkpoints, before you finally arrive at the treasure chest.