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Horoscopes | Week of September 2-8, 2013

ARIES (March 21-April 19): It might well prove wise not to just blindly put your desires out there this week, Aries… not without at least contemplating the possibility that doing so could rapidly thrust you into more than you bargained for. Of course, considering this advice somewhat contradicts what I told you last week, you may already be facing unanticipated side-effects if you indeed chose to go for it, upping-the-stakes-style, by furthering the togetherness factor with a certain someone. I'm not playing tricks on you, I promise: These 'side-effects' do likely complicate the situation, though I believe wholeheartedly that such complications will bring you into a much closer understanding of each other (once this awkward phase moves through). So, please, no worries if you're already in this boat and now approaching deeper waters. In fact, your current snapshot seems to bode quite strongly in favor of deepening connections with others… and I'm only advising you not to proceed too quickly this week because the energy of this passing Mars-Saturn square encourages careful advances. That said, also, by next week, you'll have a better knack for getting into the other person's head—and therefore a keener ability to put forth any propositions in language most likely to appeal to their heart. Why not hold off a bit, then?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Any agitation you're experiencing, Taurus, is deriving from within, despite the fact that first-glances might mistakenly point to it being a relationship issue. Your challenge is to accept the primacy of your own internal restlessness as an influence on whatever interpersonal disharmony manifests… and, rather than feeling ashamed or substandard for daring to acknowledge your passing case of the inner grumbles, to just confess its existence to those who may be caught in the collateral sparks. What may start off as a divisive inhibiting-factor in a certain pairing could, if you push yourself to further disclose vulnerable material about what's really got you so unsettled, end up serving to bring you closer together. But whether or not that happens depends strongly on your choice to soften your stubborn face-saving edges—and, instead of steeling yourself against evincing visible signs of supposed 'weakness', opening the door to your private heart-concerns just a little wider. Trying to preserve your status as a 'rock', however, just leaves you with hard unrelenting surfaces.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The stereotypical Geminian excuse of your supposed short attention-span (which seems plenty convenient when you need to focus on something you're not all that interested in, yet doesn't apply quite as accurately to, for instance, the hours-long conversations you sometimes find yourself wholly absorbed by) does not presently provide you a valid exemption from the work at hand. The urge to be in constant communication with your friends should probably be resisted, at least for the passing moment, so as not to surrender a potential advantage you might otherwise enjoy by staying practically productive. A few extra minutes here and there wasted on trivia, gossip or small-talk quickly accumulates into an overall careless approach to time-management… and all for little-to-no significant purpose (other than, perhaps, procrastination). This is a week best spent curtailing any excessive socializing, so as not to create an unnecessarily energy-squandering tension between entertainment and efficiency. The astro-shifts due to occur next week and beyond, thankfully, indicate you soon won't have to choose between one or the other: You'll both gain more of an immediate desire to remain on top of your responsibilities and find your social urges less of a distracting threat.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): When survival instincts kick in (as they are wont to do with Mars moving through your solar 2nd), we are sometimes moved to behave in ways that go against our higher belief systems and/or what we ultimately want to do, triggered as we may be by scarcity fears. But whatever the actual material reality of your current life-circumstance, Cancer, you probably aren't in such need that it'd be a good idea to willfully forget about any commitments you made to yourself to not engage in x, y or z anymore. Though it may be easier for me to advise than for you to live out, I even think you'd ultimately be happier by holding yourself back from adopting the most desperate survival measures—though it could put you in momentarily anxiety-provoking straits—than going furiously forward and later regretting having broken one of your guiding life-rules. Put another way, pride in your choices is presently more valuable (and thus worth working hard toward) than a quick advantage. If there are real concerns bordering on survival-level severity, you'll be better situated to act on your own behalf in a non-ethically-compromised manner by mid-next-week.

LEO (July 23-August 22): No need to back away from realizations of how your unique emotional makeup distinguishes you, in rather significant ways, from anyone you're in intimate partnership (romantically, professionally, creatively, etc.) with. Your psychological motivations are entirely your own, Leo, and go far to explain the ins and outs of how you occupy this starring-role in the story of your life. As you proceed in expressing yourself with a newly-recharged resoluteness, you won't have to apologize for the wholly subjective reasons why a certain priority or predilection is so strangely important to you. You should, however, admit that such personal preferences are not self-evident to anybody else involved. Nor ought you to assume their preferences will neatly align with yours, since their personal history and, consequently, their underlying motives are as unique to them as yours are to you. Just because you're far readier to rock-and-roll than you've been in quite some time, that doesn't mean those closest to you will automatically understand where you're going and/or why you're going there. As you explain, please don't act as if they should already get it, or are dim for needing it spelled out.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Keep talking it over as much as you feel like it, Virgo, while trying to stop just short of uttering any decisive conclusions. Even if you believe you've indeed reached your final answer, I recommend you not pull the trigger on that irreversible shot… not because I think you're reached the wrong answer, but mainly out of continuing caution that the currently-in-your-solar-12th-house Mars isn't the best omen for your confidently asserting a forward move. Continuing to talk, meanwhile, does actually constitute something of a 'forward move', insofar as the whole endeavor (as in, the sum-total of all the participants' involvements) will subtly evolve through the process of further conversation. However, without your outwardly adopting any personal authority for summarizing the findings, making a firm judgment-call, and/or asserting a plan, you manage to simultaneously reflect your responsible interest and still elude ultimate bottom-line responsibility at a moment when your grip remains a little shaky. In other words, you've got a really really good perspective on the game, but aren't quite in the sort of tip-top shape to simply grab the ball and run with it, lest you trip and fumble and fall.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): For this week, Libra, it is enough simply to notice which peers, friends or colleagues you presently disagree with. These now-becoming-more-obvious differences are indeed substantive ones… though to proceed immediately with broaching them as a topic for direct address would pose too glaring a productivity-spoiling interruption to make it worth your self-serving while. I see you picking up this conversation next week, once Mercury is out of your 12th and more usefully in your 1st, when you'll be less distracted and better able to couch your dissenting opinion in articulate terms that make it harder for others to discredit your thinking. Yet, you may already begin taking small inconspicuous steps to protect your own interests, planning ahead for the possibility that certain alliances will get blown out of the water once you dive into that contentious issue which hasn't yet become an open source of contention. Such steps require a pragmatic attitude to potentially emotionally upsetting loyalty-splits: Efforts to enact vengeance and/or make someone else look stupid would be both unnecessary and practically unwise.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): First off, it would be a mistake to pretend you're not positioning yourself to reap the most personal satisfaction out of this work and/or community-related situation, Scorpio. Though I wouldn't blame you if you're trying to outwardly downplay your self-suiting preference in favor of appearing non-attached, flexible and (ha) easily influenced, it is important that you be forthright with yourself, at least, about how partial an assessment of your current attitude such a perception realistically is. Following that self-recognition, then, this is the week to direct any critical conversations right up to their suspenseful pivot-point… and, before you say anything liable to tip it over the brink, to leave the baton dangling mid-air so that it's too tempting for the other person(s) to resist grabbing. Far be it for me to offer explicit instructions for (gulp) manipulating anybody else (as if you need advice from me on such matters), and yet, you seem primed to personally thrive based on setting up another key participant to speak that very decisive sentiment you wish to be spoken—only you don't have to speak it yourself, leaving you to merely collect the good favor without dirtying your hands.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Notice the places in which you're pushing, Sagittarius. Could there be some cosmic explanation, as yet unrevealed to you or any other humble human soul, why that certain undertaking appears to be proceeding at a snail's pace? (Please note use of the verb 'appears'. Appearances can be deceiving.) As I mentioned last week, a long-game strategy continues to serve you well (even as it tries your patience levels)… particularly because it seems like other people's moves are still very much in the process of setting the bounds of this field where you're playing, and that you ought to accept this situation rather than struggling against it. It's never especially comfortable to admit certain fundamental elements of your now-unfolding reality are somewhat out of your control. Yet, according to that old adage, a key component of wisdom is embracing such admissions of relative powerlessness—and reserving the energy you might otherwise expend on futile attempts to assert control anyhow. So, wherever you're pushing, simply ease up. In the meantime, others will continue shifting the playing-pieces around as they will, their actions answering questions and opening-and-closing doors in the process… and saving you the need to do so yourself.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Behaving in an outwardly reasonable manner—which might include saying all the right things to demonstrate you've officially covered your bases, even if such matter-of-fact statements do little to resolve the ambiguities swirling around underneath—definitely does not mean that all the 'unreasonable' dynamics are someone else's responsibility to own. It always takes two to tango, Capricorn. And if you haven't figured it out by now, your cool-and-collected method of handling emotionally sensitive material is, in a certain way, your own special 'weapon' for fighting against perceived irrationality… one which does work pretty damn well, though also holds the capacity to leave the other person to unfairly feel as if they are the problem, the squeaky wheel, the crazy one or some unflattering character in relation to you and your principled calm. So, yes, you might 'win' the fight with this weapon, while simultaneously throwing off the balance-of-power in a way that potentially alienates the other person and, in the end, threatens the fair assignation of mutual respect upon which a relationship rests. Just be aware this may be what you're doing when you adopt too 'reasonable' a posture.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): You can't satisfyingly assert your relational desires (a la last week's horoscope), Aquarius, if you continue to resort to questioning or full-on undermining your own sense of self-worth based on groundless delusion. You will find yourself caught in fruitless interpersonal conflict, wondering why the other person just doesn't understand where you're coming from, if you aren't able to self-confidently grant yourself the leeway to feel the very way you're claiming they don't understand… because, at the end of the day, it's your own lack of self-acceptance rustling up the relational unrest. You wouldn't need to press your point with such urgent furor if you weren't, between you and the lamppost, quietly concerned you don't actually have the right to insist this certain individual consider that very point—even though precisely because it's important to you and you and this individual are in relationship to each other, you do have the right. Isn't it amazing to observe the headstands and backwards-flips you are willing to perform, just so that you don't have to ask specifically for some token-of-consideration you deeply desire?

PISCES (February 19-March 20): As far as motivational techniques are concerned, Pisces, repeatedly telling yourself you have no fucking idea what you're doing doesn't exactly rouse a can-do attitude. More than that, though, I find it to be something of a red herring… meaning, in my book, you actually do have some pretty good ideas about what you're doing, even if you don't know every last detail about how to make it all happen. Why mislead yourself with self-defeating messages when, truth be told, the vast majority of us often launch into our greatest achievements without the benefit of a comprehensive checklist of must-dos to confidently cruise along through? That's just how it's done. That's learning-as-you-go. That's creativity-in-action. And the only thing standing between you and the ability to effect miraculous workings in your day-to-day deeds is the ridiculous impression that you ought to possess any more hands-on insight into something you still have relatively little experience with. (In this context, silly comparisons between you and anybody else are a pointless—and damaging—mind-game.) Don't skip over the experience-gathering step in your path to greater mastery: It's your educational chance to speculate, sputter, size up, and soak it all in… all by just giving it a go.