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Horoscopes | Week of April 8-14, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your jetting-along carries on, Aries, but with a developing need to reengage with the impact of others' not-especially-'free-and-easy' feedback. Don't impetuously freak out, should you find an external limitation being (re)imposed upon your independent self-determination, suddenly (re)appearing with (renewed) intensity. You may not want to have to deal with this—especially when so much else is transpiring with relative speed and self-direction—but you simply must. In fact, how composed and in-your-own-power (though not in any menacing way) you handle this reengagement has a consequence far broader than the mere resolution of this ongoing situational saga. No matter how successful you become, you will always face moments of unpleasant challenge from those whose own interests (including their own desires for how you should behave) collide with your own. Abrupt fighting won't cut it, since that approach usually neglects to untangle the whole complex of dynamics at play. And avoiding it only means the problem, in one form or another, will just follow you around. You must be willing to allow the seeming slowdown in your progress, in order to have the protracted discussion(s) deeply enough so that actual progress may continue, unfettered by psychological strings.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): This uncharted wandering through the enchanted-forest funhouse of terrors and triumphs is finally coming to an end, Taurus. Up ahead, beyond that last thicket of blinding branches, peaks a tiny glimmer of restorative sunshine. Astrologically, the light is showing up as the return of your ruling goddess Venus to her earth-sign home next Monday (Apr 15)… the first signal of a much-shifting astro-vibe, which puts you more reliably in the center of your own circumstances, to counteract this recent interval of watching in awe and disbelief as events hit you like hailstones from a sudden and unexpected cloudburst. Again, I encourage you to hold off on issuing your official statements, responses and action-item agendas. There is simply no good reason to rush into it now, when benefic Venus will be working on your behalf starting next week and into early May. This week remains an invitation to observe, anticipate, and pray to your version of the Divine for guidance. One word of advance warning, however: Though your sign will be getting some much-needed planetary support, those planets must also contend with oppositions to Saturn in your relationship house (the solar 7th). In other words, the advances you aim to make in the coming month are highly dependent upon doing your due-diligence with a spouse, partner, or other key player—and any poor behavior in this relationship on your part will likely come home to roost.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Though there are few who enjoy a lively social existence more than you Geminis (and, for the record, I don't see this latest influx of other-people stimuli dying down in the immediate future), I also want to point out that you can overdo it if you're not careful… and end up feeling as if all your nerve-endings have been fried, due to not having enough moments of down-time. In the weeks to come, you'll notice a growing desire to slip away from the ceaseless spectacle for longer than you recently have—not because you aren't still enjoying that sense of 'being part of it all' (as well as getting a lot out of it), but more as a means of vibrational balance, giving all that cerebral stimulation a chance to integrate itself into your whole body-and-soul complex. Along the way, I think you'll discover those down-time moments also help you be more productive in the work you need to get done in between this get-together and that event (as opposed to your harboring that frantic sense of hopscotching from social-participation to solitary-duty, as if these require the same type of attention from you). The weeks ahead offer an opportunity for including more of what you've liked about your past month into a more realistic routine.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Assuming you have made your personal ambitions (career-related ones first and foremost, though other public-world aspirations count, too) outwardly known, Cancer, you're reaching a juncture at which you'd help yourself out by seeking collegial support and assistance from those who share your interests and enthusiasms. (Note: The person(s) who will be of greatest help are likely not those same folks we described in last week's horoscope who are too threatened by how your rise will impact them to be genuinely helpful.) Though it's squarely on you to keep pressing your assertive energy towards your desired aims, you certainly can't expect to achieve all you want purely on your own. Over the month or so ahead, you'll gain a more grounded orientation to this new or renewed professional calling by actively reaching out to those with more experiential knowledge, asking for methodological and/or stylistic suggestions, sharing stories from the trenches, and generally letting yourself feel part of this larger community. Don't, however, underestimate the potential power of any inner pushback you might notice in yourself (likely motivated by some blend of shyness, pride, and/or rebellious independence) as you open up to allies. Turns out, some part of you is strangely averse to this sort of collaborative spirit. What's that about?

LEO (July 23-August 22): Recently, Leo, you've had a lot of space for deep thinking. Maybe not the still-and-quiet kind, where you disappear into your considerations and reemerge with conclusions drawn or decisions made. More like a moving meditation, a sense of growing perspective emerging with greater and greater clarity, the further away you tread from the familiar traps and the deeper into unknown territory you wander. Not much further along, you will reach a place (not a literal one, perhaps, but a philosophic juncture) where you'll be expected to contribute ongoing productive energy (a process also sometimes known as 'work') towards sustaining your commitment to whatever priorities and principles have emerged as clearly your values. Put another way: You must assimilate your recent epiphanies into your professional and/or public-world self, so that you don't slip (back?) into a situation where what you're working towards either feels meaningless or conflicts with your newly secured sense of purpose. External forces may actually assist you with any such reorientations; however, your inner demons could act as saboteurs. This week, reaffirm the deep thoughts that'll guide you through this more public leg of the journey.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Stay in the hot part of the fire, Virgo, for at least the duration of this week ahead. As we discussed in your last installment, it behooves your future self to get all this shit out in the open now, so as to free yourself up from having to readdress the left-out bits later on. You will begin to get some distance from this highly uncomfortable 'in-it-ness' within the weeks ahead, at which time you can step back from what has transpired, sort the deeds and the disclosures into their proper sense-making categories, and actually come to more fully understand the profundity of it all. But you're not quite there yet… and trying to prematurely concern yourself with higher-meanings, long-term-consequences, and/or plans-for-what's-next will only serve to delimit how much more progress you might otherwise make, if you allow yourself to continue emitting and erupting and emancipating yourself from the burden of withheld feeling. Give your untamed, unapologetic, unafraid-of-stirring-the-pot 'evil-twin' side one more earnest week of letting it all out. You can start picking up the pieces and putting yourself back together next week.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Whatever interpersonal business has been whipped into frothier being over these recent weeks, Libra, shouldn't be expected to die down or disappear anytime soon. If anything, it continues to intensify—the good getting even better, the bad getting painfully worse—as the logical extension to everything that's already been opened up, and which can't be neatly resealed. Even in the more painful contexts, alas, this intensification is unquestionably for your own good. In the weeks to come, thanks to these escalating circumstances, you will absolutely need to actively participate in redrawing your relational boundaries… perhaps so that you may let this certain somebody further in than you are accustomed with, or maybe in order to protect your interests so that they don't become wholly swallowed up by excessive togetherness considerations. Whether you are coming to tense odds with the other person or, on the completely other hand, you're being offered more intimacy from someone who seeks to stay deeply connected with you, you still must be able to articulate what you want from the situation—either to clue them in on how to please you or to fight for your fair piece. However it's playing out, self-willed determination is demanded of you, so you may derive maximum personal benefit from this mind-scrambling entanglement.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): If you can squeeze out one more hyper-productive week of hard work (without, of course, blowing your engines out), I'd strongly recommend it, Scorpio. Your ability to toil and sweat with general carefree independence will likely be infringed upon in coming weeks, due to a fairly abrupt need to contend with other people (or, more specifically, a certain other person) and the relational issues that come along with 'em. Chances are, you will both (1) want to turn your attentions to the interpersonal realm and (2) be strongly pressured to do so, even if you didn't want to. As April progresses, you will come into a much clearer understanding (like it or not) of how your latest efforts have been affecting this other principal player in your life… and whether there are any lurking conflicts between what you are expecting from this relationship and what you yourself are giving. Therefore, before this still-developing interpersonal (re)engagement starts to demand more and more of your time, I'd use this opportunity to get a whole shitload of stuff done. You'll be really glad you did.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Bottle that delicious fun-filled taste, Sagittarius, so you may drink nips from it over the weeks and months to come, savoring the reminder to appreciate such pleasures… no matter what else is going on in your life. You've likely scored yourself an energetic re-charge recently, and we want you to extend its shelf-life as long as conceivably possible. And while I'm not suggesting there's any tangible reason to presume the good times will soon taper off, I do foresee an increase in day-to-day responsibilities in your not-so-distant future—and, along with it, the possibility of a rather senseless specter of dread reappearing in the back-reaches of your psyche, as if a pernicious little rascal is trying to convince you that joy and optimism only invite danger to the unprepared. Despite the likelihood of this palpably problematic presence, I still urge you to call bullshit on its nincompoopy nonsense. At the very moment a dispiriting thought attempts to wrangle control of your consciousness, slug another gulp from that bottle-o'-fun… and insist on clutching hope.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Keep giving yourself the wide berth of personal space you badly need right now, Capricorn. Please remember, of course, my advice from the last two weeks (here and here), which essentially suggests you be both conscientious and crystal-clear in how you communicate this need for space from the relevant (read: encroaching) parties, rather than expecting them to read your mind and/or to not take it personally (when, in fact, it might be somewhat personal) without sufficient explanation on your part. But once that's taken care of, you should grant yourself a lot of freedom to partake of whatever private activities will rid you of that undesired feeling of not having paid enough attention to yourself. Yes, there are countervailing obligations to your wider community of colleagues, friends, and/or support-system members which cannot be ignored… and will likely grow stronger in the weeks to come. That's where the clarity and conscientiousness come in: You need to keep them informed about what to expect from you, which is not the same thing as mindlessly volunteering more of yourself (because 'someone has to' and you're the most reliable one? poppycock!). The onus is on you to look out for yourself. Otherwise, your tempers will flare… with benefit to no one, least of all you.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): As this nonstop-busy avalanche of appointments and visits and klatsch-sessions continues to land upon you, I encourage to simultaneously (1) allow its influence on your day-to-day workflow to persist, despite certain inconveniences, mainly because you ought to take advantage of these swaps of interpersonal energies while they're presenting themselves, and (2) be aware that, soon enough, you'll be under increasing pressure to return more diligently to managing your worldly purpose. In other words, Aquarius, appreciate the folks who are just passing through town, who only have a spare few minutes right now, and/or who desperately crave friendly feedback from you… knowing that circumstances will imminently demand you reassert a businesslike boundary over your precious hours, sequestering yourself in relative privacy long enough to firm up your present professional position. This frenetic twenty-things-at-once pace has been exhilarating and, therefore, rather refreshing, but we both know it is unsustainable for too lengthy a span—at least if you hope to concentrate your efforts in a way that supports your longer-term ambitions. Ready yourself to slow it down.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): We've had you on a fairly steady regimen of constant self-promotion lately, Pisces, with a seemingly never-ending call to rake in the dough so you might revel in that rewarding sensation of having directly tended to your own practical needs. This call to financial responsibility and independence persists as a primary focus… though its immediacy, in terms of the pressure to act right now (and ask questions later), is beginning to give way to a more spacious situation in which you can pause to discuss and evaluate what you've most recently made happen. Material survival and security is often, and justifiably so, our number-one priority. Only once we have stabilized the boat may we seriously ponder the relative meaningfulness of how we've attained this stability—and whether, from our newly-earned position of luxury on that safer side of desperation, we identify any finer adjustments we should probably make in the future. Even as you continue working for your own economic peace-of-mind (and, hopefully, enjoy a few personal benefits from your efforts), you mustn't take your eye off these bigger questions of what really matters to you… and how to best align your monetary strategies with your principles. Ride this momentum further, rather than getting too comfortable with your short-term triumphs.