Horoscopes | Week of May 20-26, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Whatever is happening this week, Aries, please don't hide yourself away from the rest of the world, thinking that somehow shutting out the peripheral noise is your best approach to taking care of your shit. Whereas we discussed this similar notion last week, with regards to friends' sudden social reengagement with you as an energy-booster, I'd now like to address the importance of other people's influence from a different angle: For your own personal benefit, please conceive of every single human soul you encounter as a potential agent of serendipity (rather than, say, a distraction or a hassle). You should not assume any given individual has no relevant part to play or piece to add, just because you aren't accustomed to thinking about that person that way. Forget about judging them based upon the setting where you're meeting up, the clothes they're wearing, or the vernacular they speak. The mischievous voice of divine guidance speaks through a variety of guises, many of which appear superficially mismatched to the promise they hold. Consider all avenues for expanding your reach.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You may have what it takes to secure the goods, Taurus, but you can't expect to haul 'em in if you're proceeding by habit. You'll probably need to experiment with an alternative methodology (or two or three)... which implies a certain degree of unfamiliarity with what you'd be trying out, and thus requires calmly confronting any corresponding self-doubt that comes with attempting to do something you don't quite know how to do. Give yourself a wide berth for experimentally fumbling along, then—and with enough of a good-nature willingness to laugh at yourself, rather than feeling ashamed for not yet having attained a reliable rhythm. Be reasonable in your attitude toward these initial efforts. Would you harshly criticize a toddler's first steps because he's still a bit wobbly on his legs? Give him a few chances to practice, and, soon enough, you won't be able to keep up with him! That's how you could be with whatever new approach(es) you're testing out, if you stick with it past the clumsy stage. Your biggest challenge this early on in skill-building: continuing through the discomfort until it all gets more comfortable.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I expect your zest for life has rebounded with abundant fervor, Gemini. These couple weeks offer you easy access to some of the most effortless happy-moments you'll experience in 2013… and hopefully without the pressure to ensure they are also the most profound, meaningful, goal-oriented and/or life-changing. Too often, we sell out or trade away the smaller treats and treasures of life, wagering our whole wad instead on the kind of legendary jackpots that only come around once in a very long while, if at all. And what do we have to show for it? A constant waiting-and-wondering that leaves us ungratified and unappreciative, even as countless opportunities for passing pleasure and mutually stimulating interchange are left squandered or unremarked-upon. In other words, don't let the ultra-advantageous sentiments of this horoscope leave you hunting feverishly around for whether this or that will prove to be the big 'Happy-Moment': If you're hunting, you're already trying too hard. So much of what you really and truly desire is already here, hoping against all hope you'll simply acknowledge it.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Lists of wishes, detailed descriptions of daydreams, and prayers to your-brand-of-God to show you the wisest way forward… all qualify as productively positive results from the now-called-for exercise of privately articulating your developing enthusiasms in properly mystical form, Cancer. Let these serve as temporary replacements for lists of urgent to-dos, detailed descriptions of mundane realities, or prayers for enough strength to keep doing this same damn thing. To heed the planets' present positions, the most active work you ought to be engaged with is on the psychic realm: fostering a vibe of expectant excitement, clearing space so you can receive your fresh shipment of brand-new blessings, inviting happy chaos to reinvigorate your life with opportunities to create, banishing self-doubt from the equation. If you are indeed being psychically responsive, you might also notice a unpleasantly palpable tightening in your stomach whenever you consider the role of a certain someone (or your imagined idea of that certain someone's perception of you) in relation to what may soon be unfolding in your life. If so: Warning! That unsettling feeling means something big about your incompatibility. Your intuition is calling for some pivotal self-affirming move, as part of clearing psychic space.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Explore different possibilities for widening the extent of whatever involvement is presently interesting you the most, Leo. You're not the only one who's this revved up about it. Compelling opportunities to further your knowledge and/or participation level do exist already, if you are willing to look for them. Ask around. Call numbers you find on community bulletin-boards in relevant settings. Investigate all the social-media channels. Send out a few exploratory emails. Commit to yourself that you'll attend the next group get-together. Please don't underestimate the effect your presence can have on what these like-minded souls are up to. Thankfully, any initial social-awkwardness moments you might fear are actually likelier than usual to quickly evaporate into easy connection, courtesy of the current astro-activity in your solar 11th. I encourage you, however, not to think about this merely in terms of your own social comfort and/or what you are liable to derive from this. Widening your involvement means you'll be able touch more lives with the one-of-a-kind insights you've earned from your experiences, making it all somehow more 'worth it'.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): This few-week period is perhaps your most interesting, invigorating and auspicious window for professional (and/or public-world) activity of the whole year, Virgo… though that fact shouldn't come with any pressure to explicitly make something happen. Actually, plenty is already happening all around you, whether or not you could claim responsibility for such occurrences. Simply being 'in the mix', as characters arrive and depart and roles shift and data is exchanged, presently provides you enough exposure to the favorable influences. Therefore, do not demand a certain seat-of-honor or impose your insistent ownership over any certain project, purpose or party-line—not because your finicky preferences will rub anybody wrong (since, if they do, you probably won't find out about it right away), but because you may indeed limit your own potential by hastily freezing out other options that might ultimately suit you more satisfyingly. Your best career luck, for the moment, comes from leaving your options open. Though you could feel a bit funny saying 'yes' to too many things right away, please do your best to avoid uttering any decisive (and possibly kneejerk) 'no's at a time when so much seems so promising.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): The gift of consciously securing yourself perspective, Libra, is a gift of distance. It is a gift of purposeful prioritization, a strategy to neutralize the overpowering sensation that a given circumstance has taken over everything, a decision to decide for yourself what to concentrate on and what to perceptually will into background noise. It is a gift of reanimated optimism, a reminder that any single chapter does not—cannot—tell the whole story… and that, since all the chapters that come after this one have not yet been written, you still hold a lot of authorial agency in steering this story to whatever ending will exemplify your chosen moral. Grant yourself this gift of perspective, please, to help inspire forward-thinking plans for your next month or two. Obviously, such plans may (and likely will) be subject to change, though that's no reason to skip the exercise. Though you probably have certain loose-ends that'll require continued tying-up in the weeks to come, you also need to begin investing intentional attention toward the important aim(s) you'll more actively pursue as you become increasingly freer. Perhaps this period of inescapable overwhelm has actually made you clearer on what else is that important…?

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Your (overly?) idealistic side is shining through again, Scorpio… daring you to grant benefits-of-the-doubt to someone who's proven to be only partly on your same page, and/or expecting them to own those paradoxical motives which they may only be partly aware of in themselves. Sure, feel free to go ahead and discuss your thoughts on such matters with the party-in-question, if so inclined. More talk, and more information flowing between you, certainly can't hurt. (Unless, of course, either of you is allowing your impatience to manifest in unkind remarks.) But please be conscious of how, in your ongoing interpretative efforts, you might be (overly?) emphasizing certain storylines while (overly?) downplaying others, in order to produce a tale of epic romance (whether amorous in nature or just generally dramatic) in which you'd be proud to star. You're a hell of a method-actor, after all. You really get into your roles. Should you become too immersed in this particular retelling, however, you flirt with losing your ability to step back from this role and clearly see its relation to the sum-total stream of your performances.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Remember last week's horoscope and the great lengths I went in encouraging you to accommodate others' needs? Well, now, with a lunar-eclipse full moon in your sign this weekend, I expect you'll be reencountering these same interpersonal issues from the other side… meaning: If your own needs are colliding in any way with whatever another person is desiring from you, you have probably noticed this tension rising up in you. If you were accommodating them, in flagrant opposition to how you might've wanted things to go down, then you have succeeded in reaping more information about yourself through the conspicuous contrast. You're now in a better spot, therefore, for identifying where you two don't mesh and/or where you are unable (or at least rather unwilling) to compromise. Or maybe you never even got to the point of accommodation, so obvious was the disconnect between what'll keep them happy and what pleases you? You are still under excellent relationship astrology, by the way. Use any source of difference to your advantage… as a means for getting to know each other better, for learning to bend and sway, and/or for adequately respecting the divergences.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Many of our most maddening stalemates and standstills are victoriously busted through by happy accidents. It does not mean we are any less serious about our own duty to shepherd the ship through shallow waters, Capricorn, merely because we acknowledge that other people's inexperienced outlooks may perhaps hold a crazy idea that just might work. Keeping busily on task needn't entail pounding the stone ever harder against the ground, hoping that, this time, water will come magically flowing out. Your honorable attention to this matter isn't best measured by sheer work-hours, as if slaving away all day and night proves how serious you are. In fact, this question of 'seriousness' may be a big part of your problem: An attitudinal lightening-up, encouraged by a sociable willingness to proactively gab to those around you about any stubborn work-related realities, will boost both your morale and your overall productivity. Efficiency doesn't always resemble a cold lifeless assembly-line, and you should not strive to operate like a robotic arm.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): What a balancing act is required, Aquarius, in order for your one hand to hold aloft the always-demanding weights of your ever-still-developing success, while your other hand reaches into the proverbial grab-bag to pull a few new tiles. You will needlessly bore yourself and squander a wonderful chance to draw more creative stimulation into your sphere if you focus solely on responsibly upholding this status-quo you've worked so hard for. All the planetary hoopla in your solar 5th desperately wants you smiling and laughing, frolicking and flirting, reconnecting with this sense of life as game-play. Yet, you'll likely disappoint yourself, should you sink your whole self into the frolicsome foolishness… and end up falling short on a cherished benchmark. Incidentally, this latter extreme (i.e., overindulgent play at the expense of responsibility) is presently the more tempting and dangerous, though not without its value. If you're too feverishly reaching for the fun, it may be because the level of worldly demand on you has recently starved you of it. Rather than overcompensating, start considering gentler corrective measures.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Your thoughts about the family you come from are changing, Pisces, whether you're conscious of it or not. As you develop further sophistication in your ability to articulate the various shades of simultaneous grey (see also: last week's horoscope), you are growing to understand how it's possible both to love somebody unconditionally and still hold them accountable for their unacceptable acts… to want to assert increasingly firm boundaries with somebody whose behaviors cause you distress and still appreciate them for the positive impacts they've also made… and/or to feel fondness one day and annoyance the next, without owing anybody an apology for only desiring their presence at certain times. This blossoming of self-understanding may be playing out in a relationship with an actual family-member or in a non-familial context that's somehow been replicating this all-too-familiar dynamic you're now ready to disentangle from. The big shift: allowing yourself ample emotional space not to have a single perfect answer to all this.