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Horoscopes | Week of August 5-11, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The more freely you permit your tongue to flap, Aries, the deeper water you might find yourself in. There remains plenty of astrological reason to turn your attention inward, as opposed to externalizing all the incongruent feelings you're presently experiencing and then expecting whoever's bearing witness not to develop their own unsettled psychological response to what you're flashing. For instance, you might betray glimpses of an ungracious or peevish emotion you're momentarily passing through—though your overarching understanding of what exactly this emotion will eventually prove to mean is still unformed—and someone else could glom onto it as your gospel on the matter, essentially magnifying its impact beyond what it would've been had you simply let it pass on quietly. That would provide the making for quite a kerfuffle, with very little practical payoff from having vented a temporary feeling. Later on, you may indeed decide that, yes, you do need to invite this certain party into the inner sanctum of your private thoughts… but please at least do so after you get a bit clearer on where these still-fidgety feelings will come to rest. Don't project your internal unrest onto the outside world; understand it for what it is.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Why so serious, Grasshopper? Lighten up, for your own sake and everyone else's, Taurus. Gosh, don't you just love it when people tell you to 'lighten up'? Don't fixate on that angle, please, giving your defensiveness a reason not to do what the planets are suggesting. It doesn't have to be all that. There's nothing to argue, for or against, here. Just go do something fun, and leave the concerns—those stupid fucking 'concerns'!—alone already. When you decide to grind an axe or fuel some debate about virtue, you become so friggin' impossible… but for the given moment, whatever seemingly critical point you're trying to make, it needn't be belabored any further. Laugh off that contemplative cloud, and instead talk shit on topics that don't matter so much. Even if you're just now coming to a profound realization with regards to some private subject you hold quite a bit of emotion about, this week is not the time to have that big talk with a certain someone in which you try to enlighten them on your feelings. Likelier than not, you'd be met with a not-exactly-open-arms response… one which raises an inconvenient angle you haven't yet wanted to address, in part because you're not quite ready.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): This present step ought to be pretty straightforward, Gemini, despite how hasty your interpretation of the situation may be, as long as you're still expecting it not to be. Part of deciding to reclaim greater independent control of this situation requires you to disengage, as best as you can, from too obsessively considering any-and-everything which might possibly go wrong or otherwise catch you in a snag. Though sometimes such deep-digging self-preparation is exactly what's needed, your current case instead demands you keep redirecting your focus to the simple essence of your goal. Should there suddenly arise a pressing need to dive into questions about potential complications, you'll be made unavoidably aware of that fact; until then, why tempt fate? This advice applies whenever your always-curious mind tries to trick you into believing what you really need is to talk this out further. As far as I see it, that's probably the last thing you ought to do this week, in light of tangible tasks already having been clearly defined and now needing your attention far more than another conversation does. Why bring in more information (much of which will be incidental and/or trivial) when, for the moment, you've got plenty to go on.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Even as you're becoming more familiar with what it feels like to make your desires prominently known (thank you very much, Mars), you've still got to ward off the instinct to mutter needlessly compromising sentiments that water down what you're otherwise expressing. While I appreciate you previously had to develop a survival-instinct habit of brokering deals that secured you just enough to get by (but perhaps, at the same time, created built-in limitations to how much more you could later reap), you're now playing for bigger stakes, Cancer: You're in an ideal spot to actually hold out for full-on satisfaction, not mere getting-by. Though you're probably aware of the opportunity presently being afforded you (thank you very much, Jupiter), you're just as likely to fall back on old self-limiting ways when it comes to moment-to-moment conversation. When asked a question about what you want, for instance, do you automatically respond with a bare-minimum answer of only what you need… or can you pause long enough to feel more deeply into your response, so you can also consider what it is you actually want? This second manner of response, though it slows down your response-time (and creates some nervous energy in the process), leads to likelier longer-term personal satisfaction.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Following last week's recommendation to hang on for a spell rather than rush ahead, I want to encourage you to use this week's new-moon fresh-start to begin preparing for later advances… through intention-clarifying discussions with those whose opinions you value most. That's right, Leo, your thoughts about what ought to happen next might not be as clear as you imagine them to be, especially while they're still just swirling around inside your own head. You may not be seeing where your emotional hooks are causing you to unnecessarily muddle your view of the best path forward, perhaps because you're not looking closely enough at a potential bump-in-the-road and/or you're altogether missing a much easier way of addressing relevant practicalities. That's where your close friends or other intimate companions come in handy: You might be surprised at how they receive what you share, especially if they react in a fashion which reveals they have a rather different take on this matter than yours. Don't take their feedback personally; in fact, try not to factor your interrelational dynamics into the equation at all. Instead, think of 'em as some sort of divinely helpful oracle, channeling helpful sentiments you probably need to hear… perhaps without them even being fully aware of the resonant wisdom in what they're saying.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Expect reactive backlash from others if you indeed have made your stance more obvious, Virgo, instead of acting all shocked-as-shit that contrary opinions exist. That way, you won't be taken off-guard by anyone else's attempts to slant your behavior in an unflattering light which doesn't, in fact, accurately reflect your intent. If you are caught unsuspecting, your emotions could get the best of you… tempting a more careless reply on your part than you typically would offer, ultimately causing you to lose control over how you express your problem with their problem. The last thing you need is to scramble your goal-orientation because someone has (consciously or not) tapped into a sensitive zone in your consciousness and resultantly roused in you a manner of speaking that's uncharacteristically self-inflating. Even if you're justifiably defending yourself against a misperception, your tone will still read as defensive. Remember Venus remains on your team: Let the implied accusations roll off your back, knowing the facts will eventually reflect your true motives.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Be on guard against the familiar emergence of overly agreeable, appeasing, or self-apologetic communicative tendencies, Libra. Your continuing ascent to more conspicuous success depends on you being mindful not to underplay your personal aspirations, exposing your habitually easy (maybe too easy) amenability to doing whatever serves 'the common good' (which, too often, is merely a euphemism for what serves the loudest members of the group). Stay solid in your awareness of the unique value you bring to this table… along with an acknowledgment that you simply cannot deploy this value to its most personally profitable end if you're constantly have to squelch its expression, to supposedly keep from stepping on toes. By responding to any peer-pressure driftings away from your priorities and/or preferences with a firm redirection back to how you want things to go, you'll reflect more confidence in your belief that you do know best how to handle this situation. I trust you can do this in a tone that, naturally, remains pretty considerate… though nonetheless disinclined to sell out your own interests at such a critical time in your outer-world development.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Keep looking out ahead, Scorpio, reminding yourself where you're headed. This sense of going somewhere will help you stay both energetically pumped-up and motivated by driving principle. This comes in handy should you find a challenging exchange with somebody at cross-purposes (perhaps even a person you don't know all that well) threatens to scramble your concentration, throwing you off-course with their insinuation that you ought to be more engaged with what they're talking to you about—even if, when it comes to that 'somewhere' you're going, their preoccupations are fairly insignificant. (Note of explicit clarification: Just because someone's topic may be insignificant to you, that doesn't mean they themselves are an insignificant person.) This is probably a good week for conscious conversational restraint, and not just because it diminishes the odds that a chance encounter will run you off the rails: With a 10th-house Mercury squaring off against Saturn in your sign, you ought to hold your 'long-game' in mind every time you're chit-chatting with bosses, clients, mentors, authority figures or anyone in a position to impede your forward trajectory, should they poorly judge you. Rather than being too free and loose with opinions, treat all disclosures as if they are on public record.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Just to get a bit more specific on what I wrote you last week, Sagittarius, let's examine what's really required for fostering stronger independence in how you're directing your practical energy. Though I encouraged you to focus on projects and purposes with which you can make tangible progress without surrendering your initiative to anyone else, I also subtly hinted at the likelihood that the other party in this circumstantial entanglement would probably have some sort of reaction to noticing your focus shift elsewhere. What's happens next, in terms of meeting their reaction with your reaction, is what then qualifies as the moving-forward… insofar as your pressing need to operate more autonomously is, for now, in perpetual dynamic dialogue with learning more about why you aren't as autonomous as you might need to be. In other words, to reduce the confining knottiness of these intertwining complexities, you must actually dive further into them so you can better understand the psychological hook. To work yourself away from ties that constrict, you've got to look closely at what you're getting out of remaining so tightly tied.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): This week's exact opposition between Jupiter and Pluto across your self/other axis means you should remain on high alert for continued interpersonal strain, Capricorn… though, if you're willing to accept your fair half of the responsibility for whatever dynamics exist in your principal one-on-one relationship(s), this can be a productive tension that reveals a lot about your ongoing relation to relationships in general. To reap this highest potential out of any divergences, disagreements or out-and-out power struggles, however, you must commit to watching your tongue, refusing to say anything repugnantly personal that might hit the other party in an off-limits zone. Any difficult feedback you feel you must give ought to be phrased in a tone that would be appropriate for a wide variety of hypothetical ears to hear—as opposed to said in a manner intended to make this particular individual feel especially shamed or low. It's also important to remember that such tensions can prove to be a wonderful growth opportunity to learn more about yourself, rather than one more annoying hassle that disrupts your agenda. It's that habitual annoyedness of yours which likely leaves other people feeling as if they're less important to you than they might like… or that they, in fact, are.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): This isn't a bad time to reengage an important interpersonal dialogue from a new level of humility, Aquarius. It's not that you've been altogether immodest in previous rounds (or have you?), but whatever difficult lessons from your career or other outside-world zone you're now in the midst of integrating are having an impact on your general relationship attitude. Perhaps your own struggles have made you better able to endure tense encounters with another person's stressed conditions, understanding all too well how difficult it is to separate one's overall emotional state from their moment-to-moment interactions. Maybe your know-it-all-ness has lately been kept in check by glaring collisions with everything you don't know, leaving you less likely to respond to someone else's expressed sentiments with unwarranted opinions, unsolicited advice, or under-the-surface judgment. If you're trying to 'do it right' (or at least 'do it better') with a certain someone, this could be an excellent chance to adopt a consciously subdued vibe in how you communicate, allowing the other person plenty of room to talk freely about themselves—without thinking you ought to do something with what they're telling you. If you need something to do, might I suggest getting back to your own work? (Or did you think I was going to stop beating that incessant drum?)

PISCES (February 19-March 20): You continue to enjoy a backdrop to your week ahead which favors the 'pleasurable one-on-one mixing-and-mingling' I described last week, Pisces, so I thought I'd lead with that encouraging sentiment. As such, all the relevant prior advice still applies. In other news, however, I'd be somewhat cautious about any latest brainstorms that seem to magically resolve a lingering conundrum on the mundane physical plane. If you just can't believe your luck in having found an answer that seems too good to be true, well, you probably shouldn't believe it's as lucky as it momentarily appears. The catch: It's likely you're looking too closely at a certain detail—and combining so-called 'analysis' with a spoonful or two of wishful thinking—when a bigger-picture view would probably expose an eventual shortcoming in this too-good-to-be-true idea. Put another way, too fevered a desire to eliminate an immediate logistical headache leads to a superficial quick-fix, which could unfortunately cause a lapse in principle that creates greater cleanup for yourself later on. But please feel free to explore any such brainstorms with the careful caution I suggest. Should you catch yourself trying not to think about that one thorny consideration which makes this harder than you'd like, that's your wishful-thinking red-flag flapping in the wind.