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Horoscopes | Week of January 26-February 1, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): It's energy conservation time, Aries. Please accept this reality gracefully, instead of mind-tripping yourself into believing this momentary lull means you're being lazy and therefore ought to push yourself forward. Don't you notice those whispers of peaceful inertia, beckoning you to take a load off and stay in the offstage side-alleys for another turn or two? You would have to gather all your strength just to peel your butt off the waiting-room sofa and overcome this obvious natural settling… but such a struggle would pit you (the 'Strong Individual') directly against larger energetic waves of Nature, which means any forward propulsion you manage to muster is in defiance of the macro-level vibrational trends. Do you seek to disidentify yourself with Nature's trends? Then, why follow your horoscope? Astrology is nothing more than a giant celestial clock, with lots of different planetary hands. We all have the free will to choose to take actions at the 'wrong' time, though we may not get the results we'd hoped for, just as those who expect to show up at a restaurant after 6:00pm and order breakfast food could be disappointed to find they stop serving eggs and bacon by around noon. If you feel your driving purpose is so powerful that it trumps the forces of celestial timing, then proceed full steam ahead as you so choose. Just be aware that the extra vigor required to overcome this passing inertia could also make some of your moves rather jerky, imprecise, or unreliable. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Keep gazing through that much-wider social lens, Taurus, rather than allowing too close (and/or obsessive) a focus on only one certain entangling situation to blind you to the love and support which are all around you. Rather than having to defend your sanctity as a very specific type of individual, in order to prevent this certain entanglement from overtaking your life, you could instead just surround yourself with the community of folks you've already come to trust and cherish… and not have to work so hard at constant self-definition. Dare I say it, but I suspect it would feel pretty damn nice to lose yourself in the throngs of people who share a common style, worldview, or identifying interests: no need to stand outside, differentiate from, explain to, or clash with. If you can't seem to see a way out of any presently confining urges to fixate on that one troublingly all-encompassing tangle, then, please understand this compulsion unfortunately reeks of self-absorption (even as 'absorption' in this may not feel as self-absorbed as it is). Should you be a current victim of such a syndrome, I prescribe at least one significant investment of your undivided energy-and-attention to a broader social cause, a movement, a volunteer opportunity, or the brilliance of a friend or colleague. Get beyond your ego-worries by dissolving your individuality within a worthy collective consciousness, working to support a community-related goal or the general betterment of society rather than navel-gazing via your moment-to-moment assessment of that certain interpersonal dynamic. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): And so, my dear Gemini, with Venus hitting your 10th and conjoining with service-oriented Neptune, I urge you: Ask not what your career achievements can do for you (in terms of ladder-climbs, ego-boosts, or power-plays)—ask what your career achievements can do for the world-at-large. That's right, if you want to get the absolute best results out of this passing boon in your professional (and/or public-world) efforts, you must intuitively understand how your success will truly improve the quality of life for others. The more helpful, healing, compassionate, and/or beautifying the effects of whatever you're working on, the likelier you'll receive a supportive nudge of divine encouragement to push along your progress. If you're caught between choices or wracked with indecision, uncertain about how your talents might best be utilized by the Universal Consciousness (or whatever you want to call our indivisible spirit-level unity), I strongly suggest relaxing your problem-solving brain… and letting your magical mind receive the evocative sense-message signs of which way to head, serendipity-style, even if you can't 'explain' why you know it's just 'right'. But if your aspirations hold very little relevance to making things better for anybody else, and are instead part of a grand self-aggrandizing plan to conquer the world for money or power or fame, don't expect the gods to help you out much. Though it may seem you, too, are experiencing a small swell of triumph, you'll be simultaneously stirring dissent or antagonism from certain individuals who see your self-serving ambitions as a threat, in one way or another. When it's about an ego (yours or someone else's) instead of the work itself, Saturn will lower its boom. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Your idealism about the future is ramping up to intoxicating proportions, Cancer, which is a damn good thing for all among you who have, up until recently, felt somewhat stuck in and/or smothered by that claustrophobia-spawning fear of endless amounts of 'more of the same'. More than you have in a long while, you can finally see beyond that apparent cage… to an existence far more cleanly aligned to what you believe is most important and/or meaningful in the world. But the future, we must remember, doesn't actually exist yet. For the present moment, we're still, well, in the present moment. And here and now, you're under legitimate practical pressures not to let up with the familiar routines. Whether it's your job, your health, and/or some other non-negotiable earthly duty which demands ceaseless attention from you, you know you can't just neglect this charge you've been entrusted to manage—not if you're pragmatically shrewd enough to understand the functional mess you'll cause by refusing to show up for this work, even if just for a few days. But because you're now able to see beyond this moment, too, you're under threat of losing your steam due to your impatience with still being here now. If you can, then, please appeal to your idealistic side, reminding yourself that you'll be far better able to throw yourself into that more meaningful future if you've properly kept up with your existing business all along, through the at-times-excruciatingly process of letting it responsibly unfold. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

LEO (July 23-August 22): At the height of a shared enthusiasm or mutually intensifying passion, our exhilarated impulses are often willing to sign everything over to our beloved accomplice in this transcendent affair, so eager are we to perpetuate its paradise as long as we possibly can. This is the sort of encounter our language frames as 'falling into' or 'losing ourselves in', Leo, because we're undeniably giving up a fair degree of personal control and autonomy, in order to fuse our independent existence so sublimely with another's. And what a lovely, life-affirming experience such a melding-of-souls can be… as long as, say, we're not falling into madness or losing ourselves in a self-destructive situation, in which case it probably behooves us to clutch those controls or safeguard our distinct ego-boundaries, at least insofar as we're protecting our sanest sense of discrete selfhood. Now, I'm not insinuating you're necessarily in immediate risk of behaving madly or self-destructively (though, I suppose, you may be), but rather I'm raising the possibility to illustrate the most extreme manifestation of the current astrology… which, in more moderate doses, could drive you to forgo or surrender a personal preference, pursuit, or pleasure on behalf of whatever will fuel the gallant collaborative zeal between you and a certain someone. Where might you 'fall' or 'get lost' if you're not careful? And is it worth forfeiting a significant degree of self-determination over? There are no right or wrong answers here, just a strong pressure to be wholly aware of the terms of this exchange, both what you're getting and what you may be giving up. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Though Venus's arrival to your relationship house on Tuesday (Jan 27) is an undeniable asset to your capacity for 'getting along well' with a spouse, partner, or best-pal, this isn't always the best interpersonal goal to strive for, Virgo—especially if the easier relational flow comes at some self-infringing cost. The same themes we discussed two weeks ago remain powerfully present… only, with Venus now involved, you're likelier to fall prey to a sweeter sympathetic stance which both allows you to better feel for their side of any story and threatens to whitewash your prior concerns or frustrations. I wouldn't ordinarily caution against Venus's smoothed-out relational rhythms, if not for her simultaneous Neptune conjunction and Saturn square, an astrological mix that pits total surrender to your compassionate and/or romantic impulses against the harder work of speaking up for whatever self-nurturing belief might obstruct or complicate the 'purest' connection. In other words, you probably shouldn't feign an easygoing attitude toward any certain sticking-point which you sincerely need for your own self-care. Venus can actually help you broach the potentially sore topic, improving your chances of being received favorably. Yet, letting its happy-go-lucky vibe gloss over a lurking dissatisfaction is only a temporary salve, numbing the pain like a drug but fixing nothing. By Saturn-and-Neptune's watch, this is not a passing issue, but one which will recur over many months to come if not dealt with. With Venus along for the ride right now, this might actually be one of your better moments to get into it. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): This week brings the mood-transition in your attitude towards your work which I mentioned at the end of your last horoscope, Libra. Thanks to Venus's arrival to your 6th (as well as Mars's momentarily kinder-and-gentler relationship to Pluto-in-your-4th), you will actually feel better about yourself if you pour more attention into your everyday job tasks, chores, and other mundane business. Whereas before you might've felt stumped by how exactly to proceed with projects or purposes which were at a crossroads or standstill (and, rather than finding inspiration in the pause, you were likelier to just want to hit your head against a wall), you now hopefully see that gut-instinct can guide your continuing progress where your practical-thinking machinations had left you short. Your brain is more preoccupied with personal matters anyhow, and will only bleed its 'trying to figure shit out' angst into your worklife if you allow it to reign supreme. Too much belabored analysis or needless side-conversation is liable to stop the unconscious flow of directional navigation from your spirit-guide manager (or whatever unseen influence inspires us to tackle one pile of assignments over another). You actually possess most or all of the 'facts' required for moving this whole thing profoundly ahead over the next few weeks. It's just a matter of dedicating the sit-down time to doing it. What better time to throw yourself into the job-at-hand than when Venus is blessing your 6th? Though it is unquestionably work, it will feel good to dedicate yourself to it. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Your last two horoscopes (here and here) were gleaming with beauty and poetry—or at least my encouragement to fill your life with these two divine ideals, Scorpio—and this week's addition of Venus to your 5th-house planetary mix only further adorns your current astro-setup with more of both. If ever there were a time to imbue your every exchange and communicative offering with whatever beautifully poetic vision might elevate it from mundane to sacred, please, by all means, indulge this lovingly creative voice of yours. And there's no need to shield us from the brooding or melancholic strains of your experience, which are part-and-parcel of consciously occupying the emotionally sophisticated intersection of simultaneously courting the soaring bliss and mourning whatever's left out of it. Flatly refuse to simplify yourself for others' easier digestibility. But though you remain in something of a dreamspace, you mustn't fully release your grip on certain practical concerns which, all along, require an unromantic consistency. You cannot, for instance, ignore business calls or emails from those who are waiting on your response, just because you woke up on the starry-eyed side of your bed. Bills still demand timely payment. Assignments expect their deadlines to be respected. And an evening's gorgeous escape from your identifying burdens or obligations will not excuse you from the next morning's alarm-call. Through this fleeting moment's captivating closeness to doing whatever you want, you still need to know where the proper enough-is-enough line is drawn—and to draw it for yourself, willingly, without seeing it as a total killjoy and thus resenting its safety-tether to reality. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Your hardest temptation to fight, Sagittarius, is the urge to allow momentary warmth and/or a compassionate understanding of their tough times to inspire you to 'just let it all go'… when, in fact, you have genuinely hurt feelings to express and/or try to resolve. Where just recently you might've endured a disconcerting tinge of unkindness at someone else's hands, you may now see blue skies and an 'everything's swell' attitude. But does that mean you should shrug your shoulders and pretend what's already happened didn't actually matter so much? Or maybe the veiled dig or subtle slight was all in your mind… and, should you dare to bring it up, you'll only reveal how 'oversensitive' you're being? To hell with that last insinuation! If something felt funny, odd, or off-putting to you, then you are perfectly justified in wanting to address it. If it was just a misunderstanding, the other person's astonished (and presumably hyper-apologetic) reaction will show you their intentions right away, and should quickly resolve the unsettled feelings. And if, instead, they respond with an indignant or defensive tone, that too will expose them and their guilty conscience. In any event, though, you can't really proceed with total emotional clarity unless you take steps which honor the fact that something inside didn't feel quite right—and that your inner well-being is important enough to justify pausing, reviewing, and revisiting the not-right feeling until you better grasp what's behind it. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Your assignment for the week, should you choose to accept it, involves spending as much time around other people being socially interactive and engaged, Capricorn, but without letting your relative dissimilarities or incompatibilities cause needless friction or internal upset. This is a productive exercise, akin to working out certain underutilized muscles, in order to support your ability to bear a sturdy balance of fairly greeting the diversity of human behavior, neither judging them too harshly nor blindly surrendering to their influence. Obviously, you're more at risk for forming the judgments than succumbing to peer pressure… though, for those of you who are eagerly seeking to expand your social circle, please take note of any discomfort you may feel in response to new acquaintances' offhand comments (and, therefore, proceed at a discriminating pace). For your own development, you should probably practice your psychic tolerance for others' less-flattering behaviors or problematic-to-you opinions—not as a wholesale excuse for what you may disagree with, but to reflect your understanding that you need not be perfectly in sync on every point to still enjoy their company. Not everyone you spend time with must be totally aligned with your worldview, morally flawless, or impeccably trustworthy on all costs. There's nothing wrong with shooting the shit with folks who, perhaps, you wouldn't rely on in the toughest of times. Are you afraid you might lapse into guilt by association? That shouldn't happen, if you treat the casual connection for what it is. Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): As you continue engaging in conversations about how you're intending to change your life, Aquarius, you might as well be as frank and unguarded as you can… even knowing that, under Mercury-retrograde's ongoing effect, you could end up saying more than you'd expected to. Rather than trying to cover your butt or uphold a certain perception in others' eyes, this current moment would be more shrewdly used as an exercise in bringing forth whatever semi-conscious sentiments your lips have been afraid to speak… an uncensored glimpse into the ultra-personal aspirations and achings you're dying to express more profoundly through your next set of decisive actions. But let's be under no delusions about the friction now brewing between (1) what feels like the most practically useful, valuable, and/or profitable way to deploy what's at your disposal and (2) what a certain segment of your friend-group, fan-base, or social-action cadre would prefer you to do with your time, energy, and/or resources. The more freely you communicate which needs and wants you next intend to pursue, alas, the more sharply and speedily you'll reap feedback from those whose loyalty or camaraderie may be challenged by your instinct to change course. Hard though it might at first be for you to listen to trusted peers' naysaying, it's better to have this developing clash out on the table. Trying to hold your tongue in order to hold an alliance together, meanwhile, just inhibits your capacity to go for what you crave… and in an effort to keep other people's conditional opinions of you intact. Bah! to that.Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Skip the requests for permission, the informational status-updates, and the need to secure anyone else's blessings, Pisces. With nary an official announcement or formal inquiry, you should be able to keenly slide yourself into the starring position more easily than ever, now that Venus is joining Mars (and, of course, Neptune) in your sign and drenching you with a coating of irresistible appeal. For the next few weeks, you'll be able to successfully play to others' most favorable impressions of you… allowing them to gift you with accolades, affections, and the benefit of every doubt as if it were wholly their idea or their doing, as long as you're willing to step through the open doors and accept what's being rightfully offered. Your own self-effacing modesty and/or discomfort with receiving some distinctive edge that isn't available to everyone else will, of course, be your biggest impediment to enjoying this advantageous astrology. Even if blatant self-congratulations isn't your style, you still must believe yourself worthy, mature, or accomplished enough to deserve the goodies being aimed at you… or you'll unconsciously convince the purveyors of such blessings not to present them to you, since, after all, it feels awful to give gifts to those who are reluctant or ungracious recipients. To stand in your authority as an adult human, you must be grateful to serve your tenure in the sweet spot. What's presently going on with other people has nothing to do with whether you should accept these passing joys. For crying out loud, don't refuse the joys! Okay, it's a whole month into the new year. If you haven't gotten your annual glimpse ahead, courtesy of ASTROBARRY'S 2015, then you must be slacking, darling! Come on, you know you want it.