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Horoscopes | Weeks of January 5-11, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): As 2015 opens, there's not necessarily a lot for you to do, Aries… at least not in terms of critical pressures calling for immediate self-driven action. If anything, this first full week of the new year is likelier to reveal you actually need a lengthier spell of relative inactivity—which 'officially' kicks off next week, once your ruling planet Mars hits your 12th-house retreat zone—to help you move through any crusty or cloudy buildup that's collected on your psyche, due to events from the past few months which you haven't had the luxury to totally process yet. So, instead of penning an ambitious list of new-year's to-dos and trying to hound yourself into diving in straight away, I recommend directing your attention to your favorite friends, esteemed colleagues, and/or beloved teammates… and immersing yourself in what they're up to, listening to their stories, engaging with them in deep discussion about their pressing life-issues, eating together, drinking together, taking walks together, and generally basking in the joy of their companionship. Not only will following this advice help you shift your focus away from needless self-imposed pressures to 'do' more than is presently demanded, it also reasserts the valuable perspective of 'what's ultimately most important' to you… presuming 'the people you love the most' is pretty high on that list. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You're on a definite upswing, Taurus, in terms of professional reputation and/or public presentation… provided you use your words, very craftily and deliberately, to uphold a dignified stance toward 'what's fair' in light of others' willful wishes to bend the rules in their favor. Though you certainly won't be able to control their responses—and, therefore, can't control the outcome either—you can (and should) refuse to negotiate on this matter past the productive point, especially if you already know in advance the limits of how far you are willing to bend. There will be ramifications either way, whether you allow yourself to be taken beyond your predetermined boundaries (and risk becoming colonized by their psychic onslaught?) or you insist on stopping the advance right where you intended to (and risk losing a degree of intimacy or inter-reliance due to your lone-wolf decisions?). It's up to you to discern the proper balance between involvement and independence… and though there's no objectively 'proper' place to drawn that line, let's hope your judgment-call is at least somewhat motivated by whatever will support your psychological maturation process. All this, I remind you, plays out on the public stage and/or in a professional context. It'll surely serve your standing, then, to aim for your most mature—but never weak-willed—strategy. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Use this first week of '15 for big-picture visioning, Gemini. Don't start your year without a clear intention to advance yourself from this present Point A to some self-selected Point B (which would represent a movement, no matter how modest, toward a life better integrated with what you find most meaningful). Otherwise, you're liable to get caught by one wave after another of circumstantial developments, having little or nothing to do with what you would've chosen (had you actually sat yourself down to purposefully choose something)… and, after continually reacting and regrouping and offsetting and overcorrecting, find, at the end of your year, you've made fairly little 'progress' while expending a lot of effort. As soon as next week, and over the several weeks to come, your career (or public-world) conditions will begin to assume an increasingly large amount of attention, the first of these 'circumstantial developments' that'll demand ongoing on-the-spot responses. If you haven't earnestly thought about where you'd like to be headed, your response could prove more short-sighted (in a 'putting out fires' sense) than what you might've done, had you strategized. And just to make matters slightly more interesting, let me add this: Other people's influence and/or your own high regard for a particular relationship could help you structure your vision—or it could confuse your capacity for clarity. That'll all depend on whether the role they play in your life is honestly aligned with your driving purpose… or just distracts you from it. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Inaugurate your year with an unvarnished look at the current state of your work, Cancer. Now that Saturn's in your 6th for the next few years, it's time to get real serious about the flow of your workdays. But before you can make any effective fixes, you first must examine the existing reality—the bad and the ugly, as well as the good—from an up-close-and-personal, nothing's-off-limits, confronting-the-full-truth stance. With both Mercury and Venus in your 8th playing nicely off your job-and-career houses, you'll have a better time than usual at facing difficult realities, engaging uncomfortable conversations, and looking at exactly how much money will be needed (from one source or another) to immediately improve your outlook. Yes, questions about loans, debts, ownership-shares, or other financially-entangling setups seem to play an integral part in this reality-check… so please don't pussyfoot around these money matters, especially when you're actually likely to make beneficial strides by going into the heart of the nerve-racking negotiations. Here's a helpful trick: Try to continually reframe the conversation (both with any other relevant party and in your own head) so that it's always about the work, not the personalities involved. Whenever it veers into a relational issue, you're already flirting with a narrative turn that won't serve your financial self-interests. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

LEO (July 23-August 22): It's a good new-yearsy moment for relational adjustments, Leo. Following all these holidaytime weeks of assertive, conflict-hungry Mars in your 7th, you've now got both Venus and Mars hanging out there, too… offering potential improvements in your capacity to attain good interpersonal rapport and a better chance at articulating your side-of-the-story in terms the other person will resonate with. Will this added planetary support resolve all the relational friction? Not likely, especially if there's a legitimate issue of contention to be addressed (rather than just a general edgy or cantankerous vibe between you, due to passing irritation). But it does make this arguably your best week to constructively dialogue about whatever's recently gone down, to voice frustrations or disappointments in a considerate or conciliatory tone (though without selling your concerns short), with hopes that a new level of mutual understanding can be attained. Looking ahead at the coming weeks' astrology, it seems the longer you wait to resolve your differences or tidy up the remaining fragments of antagonism, the more intense (and/or uglier) the eventual showdown is likely to be. Once these 7th-house planets veer into your 8th—beginning with Mars early next week—the considerate-or-conciliatory-toned gloves start coming off. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Perfectly on time, you can enjoy dual-action support from Mercury and Venus in your 6th to kick off your '15 with a graceful, well-thought-out workplan… which is like music to the ears of a typical Virgo. Rather than grumbling about holidays having passed too fast, you're likelier to bound into your new year with an eager eye toward cleaning up messes, cutting the fat, and figuring out which tasks to attend to first, in order to get the most momentum-fueling bang for your proverbial buck. But more than just a flatly practical enthusiasm, this upbeat immersion in your day-to-day work also holds a subtler emotional purpose for you, Virgo. By intentionally organizing your mindset around the myriad concrete items that'll benefit from your immediate attention, you're simultaneously setting a practical agenda for yourself that responsibly shields you from falling prey to someone else's emotional agenda. It's easier for you to say no to a family-member, intimate partner, or close friend when your schedule is full of objectively legitimate 'things to do'. Plus, you can almost guarantee your mood will be happier and healthier by purposefully keeping yourself busy through the week—both because of that wonderful feeling of whirring productivity and because it keeps you out of the interpersonal quicksand. Enjoy it while you can, please. Relational tensions are likely to increase starting next week. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Say what is true for you, Libra, because you want to say it… hell, because it might actually be fun to 'shoot your mouth off' (as you might conceive of the idea of not choosing your words to suit a certain effect), as a statement of personal style and flair. After an end-of-'14 that was more about quietly reaching conclusions and privately reacting to any upsetting circumstances, the twist in 2015's opening airs beckons you out of the self-protective shell—and back into the leisure-time social scene, where you and your pals can crack a few fuck-offs to whatever sucked about your last year and toast to its being in-the-can and over-and-done-with. A conspicuously new attitude on your part, meanwhile, is liable to bring with it a fresh burst of romance… whether by reminding you what's so charmingly goofy about your sweetie and/or reminding the world (or a certain tantalizing soul who's part of it) what a hot commodity you are, especially when you're having a good time. The underlying purposeful-benefit to such outwardly gregarious behavior is to support your overall relational health, through a heightened emphasis on more clear and direct communication. But let's not spoil a potentially awesome time with too much damn 'purpose'. Isn't it enough to just say what you want because it's fun?Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Head down, lips politely buttoned, the 'real' you safely ensconced behind a nondescript and unassuming front-cover… and a lovingly low-key, self-restoring, screw-your-head-back-on first week of the new year is yours to be privately enjoyed, Scorpio. As soon as next week, you're going to likely feel a surge of 'get back out there' sociability, along with the promise of reemphasizing the entertaining parts of life—and not just the appearance of 'being entertained' either, but genuine self-gratifying frivolity. So, rather than cajole your still-tender-and-tired spirit to pull itself together and put forth a fake-it-'til-you-make-it effort to not mope or brood or hide from the world, I suggest making room for this one more week of relative rest and retreat. If you're feeling antsy and wishing to 'do' something more palpably productive than 'rest and retreat', channel that initiative into home-betterment projects: a new-year's deep clean, a rearranging of furniture, a purchase of some much-loved artwork or attractive décor you'll get to relish for years to come, etc. Though you might be mentally ready to once again present a flattering face to the local scene, your emotional self would really prefer just a teeny bit more time behind the self-protective curtain. Don't rush into an eager re-presentation of yourself; it'll be more timely and authentic by waiting another week. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): For this very first horoscope I'm writing you during the newly-introduced Saturn-in-Sagittarius period, my main advice involves not rushing to determine your evolutionary path forward without plenty of conversation, Sagittarius, both with those you know you best and those you might have a more novel 'outsider's perspective' on your situation. Though you might have certain fairly-well-formed inklings about what your most important next-steps should entail, based upon those larger ambitions which you now must start putting-up-or-shutting-up about, it wouldn't hurt to bounce them off several other people's brains… and to listen intently should anyone recommend you begin with a different step, re-route your journey through a certain destination, or rethink your direction altogether. To be clear, if their take doesn't neatly coincide with your plans, I am not saying that they are right and you are wrong. But to altogether ignore external feedback and/or squander a chance to talk through the ins and outs with folks who might have a tidbit or two of insight to offer—because you're in too much of a hurry? because you're scared to hear anything negative or critical? because you don't want to change your plans, no matter what?—is like refusing to read the instruction manual of an expensive piece of equipment or totally tuning out a professor's directives right before the big exam. What would you be trying to prove, anyway? Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): An ideal way to start your 2015, Capricorn, is by adopting an immediately simplifying outlook on what to do next. No matter what sort of wonderfully or woefully wacky weirdness your past few weeks have brought, you probably need to refocus your attention on your own business—your resolutions, your next couple months' top-priorities, your short-term financial snapshot, your most straightforwardly attainable self-development goals—and, consequently, take the necessary distance from others' befuddling impact on your psyche. It doesn't mean you don't care, if you tell somebody your efforts are momentarily required for more self-interested endeavors. In fact, it's more compassionate to be direct about your personal needs than to feign a more pronounced emotional availability (which you'd likely come to privately regret, all while your own business remains untended-to). Your money situation, in particular, could definitely benefit from a closer and more diligent examination. You may, for instance, be unconsciously enabling needless expenses, outdated auto-withdrawals, unclaimed refunds or rewards, or overdue pay-hikes to keep your bank balance lower than it need be. But such loose-threads easily fall through the cracks when you're absorbed with other people and their louder spectacles. Take on these self-profiting simplifications as soon as you can, before the volume increases again… and you can't as easily excuse yourself from the conversation. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): You glide into your new year on a magic-carpet woven by Venus (who entered your sign last Saturday), Aquarius… a pretty smooth ride that'll help you soften the impact of any recent bumps caused by the peevish-and-pushy edge you've been wielding, with Mars in your 1st this past month. Having Venus on your side through most of January provides you with an appealing aura-sprucing, helping you to regain interpersonal favor and attract desired outcomes across all zones-of-life. In the short-term, I advise deploying this influence in a proactively positive manner, particularly with beloved friends or valued colleagues who you might've slighted, slammed, or scorned (intentionally or not) in recent weeks. Whether your offenses warrant a full-on apology or merely a renewal in warm doting attention, it definitely serves you to reassert how much you really do care for them… and how critical a role you feel they serve in your life. Because we aren't in their heads, we cannot know for sure whether they were genuinely upset by your martian actions or quickly let them slide out of fondness for you. With that in mind, then, it certainly wouldn't hurt to explicitly affirm your feelings for your peeps, just to be sure. Even if everything's totally cool with a certain someone, it's always a mood-booster to hear kind and loving thoughts from a person close to you. Why not, therefore, use your boosted mood to boost their moods, too? Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!

PISCES (February 19-March 20): As far as pouncing emphatically into 2015 is concerned, Pisces, I'd like to suggest you pretend that next week is actually the first full week of your new year… and to, therefore, think of this week ahead as some strange otherworldly in-between moment, during which you sort of foggily wander through a distorted funhouse of sense-memories and prophecy-fragments, noticing, feeling, experiencing, but not trying to effectively impact much of anything with your personal will. All three personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) will be in your solar 12th all week long, as clear an astrological indicator as we can get that you're still in the 'psychic letting-go' part of the cycle (unconsciously, that is, rather than as a task you're actively charged with)—and 'new beginnings' are not quite yet favored. That not-quite-yet vibe will decidedly give way to a 'let's go now!' burst of initiative once Mars hits your sign very early next Monday (Jan 12). That palpable shift will begin a rather dynamic phase in Piscesland, which only increases in noteworthy developments into late January and through much of February. Hopefully, by keeping this astro-schedule in mind, you can release yourself from expectations of anything productive or purposeful for this one week, in advance of a memorable couple months due to begin very very soon. Guess what? ASTROBARRY'S 2015 is here! Check out my latest year-ahead e-book, with detailed forecasts for all twelve signs. You won't want to greet '15 without it!