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Horoscopes | Week of February 23-March 1, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): If I could get away with just printing 'Do it! Do it! Do it!' another two or three hundred times in a row and call that your weekly horoscope, Aries, I would. But the people always want more from me than that, so let's add a clarifying element. In honor of this week's dual trines from Mars and Venus to Saturn-in-your-9th, I'll remind you: Though taking almost any kind of forward action during this hyper-fiery few weeks is likely to efficaciously get things moving again after a relatively stalled period, you'll be far more satisfied with the results if you've purposefully aimed yourself in a particular direction. For instance, if you need a new job, you could probably go out and successfully snag yourself one between now and the end of March. But if you pause long enough to envision what you'd wish your professional life to look like five or ten years down the road, you might smartly choose to limit your new-job options to only those which directly support you achieving that vision. The same logic applies to whatever sort of crossroads you're currently at: Yes, it's unquestionably your moment to assert active effort toward fulfilling a desire—and you can do your life-principles one better, by discerning which desire brings you closer to where you really want to be, not just right at this present moment but ultimately, in the capital-F Future.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Beware of making short-sighted behavioral choices based on what promises to feel good in the moment, Taurus—e.g., consummating a forbidden union, transgressing a healthful bodily limit, taking the gloves off and vindictively getting even, going further than you should—but will likely weigh on you later, with a guilty conscience and/or retroactive consequences. You're at a point where it behooves you to consciously curb the amount of karmic strings your actions create, complications which would restrict your existential freedom and give others too defensible a say in how you ought to proceed in the present situation. It's far wiser to heed the watchful sway of that guardian-angel floating over your shoulder, whispering in your ear, in no uncertain terms, what's the divinely correct thing for you to do… even if it makes no sense to anyone else, even if they're riled by your shameless self-determination, even if your actions or attitudes necessarily carry you away from them, for a passing time or forever. You are the only one who must live eternally with the psychic ramifications of how you behave with regards to the circumstances unfolding in front of you. For your own highest accountability, therefore, choose what's most virtuously clean over whatever's indulgently tempting or interpersonally popular.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don't pander, kowtow, or politick, Gemini, when such social obfuscations will only give folks the wrong idea about you. Be unapologetically your most unfiltered self, as you continue keeping constant companionable company with scads of compelling characters, and you'll get a telling glimpse of who relates to you in which manner. This is not a time to perpetuate insincere cordiality or pretend friendships, playing to a bland agreeability at the expense of self-liberating authenticity. Why be afraid of 'losing' someone you haven't legitimately had on your side in quite some time, if really at all? Who cares if certain people don't like you? The need to be liked by as wide a swath of humanity as possible, if left unchecked, becomes a weakness of character. It goes against nature to assume we could ever inspire warm welcoming responses from every last soul, not if we're being true to ourselves. The pressure to withhold your more raucous social impulses, just to avoid rubbing someone wrong, is likely to build up to a distressing level under this astrology… which, in any event, will just tinge your accommodating overtures with an underlying aggressive edge anyhow, creating a different version of social tension, only due to indirect self-censorship rather than by virtue of genuine self-expression. By that logic, you might as well let loose—and let everybody decide for themselves whether you're their cup-of-tea, and they yours.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don't just reach for the stars, Cancer. Jump up at 'em. Climb to the top of the highest building, and leap toward the golden ring. Even if you aren't able to successfully clutch the most confident handle on your first soaring spring, take another pounce or two or three. If you want it badly enough, you must be willing to follow up each try with another, every effort improving your chances. It's not merely your nervy refusal-to-take-'no'-for-an-answer that'll continue fueling your aspirations. It's that other people will notice how friggin' intent you are on making considerable progress with your career and/or public calling. Who could miss the energetic dynamo jumping up and down, hustling determinedly for a prime spot? What you may lack in qualifications or experience, you must overcompensate for with huge amounts of heart. Your brazen shows of tireless vigor will appeal to any shrewd audience, boss, entrepreneur, or angel-investor who'll crave some of that roaring horsepower for their grand vision. You must be that winner, and anyone on a similarly ambitious path will want to help you win more, to win more themselves alongside you. How will they know what you're working with, if you don't wave it in their damn face?

LEO (July 23-August 22): Here's an uncommonly ripe chance to define your life with stunning virtue, Leo, by creating a statement with these next choices you make. Nobody should be left to wonder what passionately interests you, where your curiosities lie, and/or which direction you believe your most meaningful future is pointing. They'll get a pretty good idea based solely upon discovering what exactly you're presently diving into. If you're using these astrological dynamics (which are fairly auspicious for you fire-sign types) to your greatest personal advantage, you should now be in the active process of taking some breathtaking step which unequivocally speaks for itself: 'This is what matters to me. This is what I intend to explore on my next leg of the journey. This is how I'll learn more, see more, become more.' As such, very little explanation in support of these choices need be given. How else are you to explain yourself, really, other than by reporting simply that you want to do this, because you find it important or edifying or just-plain-cool-as-shit? The impulse to broaden your life's horizons is enough to go on. While you can't be sure this will carry you straight to your eventual destination, or is even ultimately 'right' for you, you'll never find out who you're capable of becoming without gamely stretching toward that which compels you.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Fight the temptation to simply give in and/or do whatever's easiest, Virgo, just because such a path-of-least-resistance response seems like it'll put things back into neater place more quickly. Your situation isn't supposed to be especially 'neat' right now. On the contrary, it's that very untidy lack of resolution, at the core of which you now find yourself, which holds your greatest evolutionary promise… and prematurely tying up loose ends (i.e., making or breaking agreements rather than continuing to confront as-yet-unbridged differences between you) will only thrust you into a psychological strangle-hold that'll eventually create more chaos rather than less, once you must address what you'd prefer not to deal with presently. While I understand the not-knowing feels almost as if it will strike you down with its accompanying anxieties, it's hardly shrewd to attempt to remedy it by rushing toward a superficial knowing. I promise you won't drop dead from staying actively engaged in hammering out a mutually workable agreement (provided one is indeed possible in this particular circumstance), though the process could likely entail one or the other of you being shocked, unsettled, and/or displeased at various moments. Don't fixate on the discomfort of those emotional reactions. Rather, remind yourself that they will morph, mutate, and/or mature into something else, as disclosures continue to emerge over time, if given the chance.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Picking up right where we left off last week, Libra, I cannot stress strongly enough that it's the conversational process itself—and not some particular payoff you've preordained to be the perfect ending—into which you should invest your relational self-assertiveness. You can and should say whatever you feel like saying, so long as it's both true and directly relevant to you increasing your level of satisfaction with the dynamics between you. This is no time to hedge your bets on some cagey calculated approach, as if holding your tongue until they flash a vulnerability will reserve you the upper hand. That's a recipe for a stunted discussion, a passively defensive positioning rather than a plain laying-on-the-table of the issues at hand… and it doesn't reflect well on your capacity for genuine interactive negotiation. A flat-out exposure of your wants and needs, jarring though it may feel in those initial moments of risk, is the more truly empowering approach. It lays bare any sense of uncertainty the other person may have about your intentions. Even though the sudden dissolution of fantasies, projections, and delusions could temporarily upset the free-flow of unspoken expectations floating between you, it's where you choose to go from there, together, that'll define the relationship in more realistic—and, thus, more ultimately promising—terms.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Back to a more linear grind, Scorpio. You'll do yourself—and the duties you're charged with, on the job and/or as a healthy and productive participant in mundane earthly reality—a major disservice by resisting this critical appeal. Despite the sobering effect on your imagination this return to tangible obligations is liable to have, you will be better off for swallowing the back-to-work pill like a champ. If you smartly accept an interpretation of your most recent phase as a restorative break from the typical routine (rather than, say, indulging the fantasy that you could sustainably live all your days like you lived those and still have something tangible to show for it), then you ought to feel properly revived… and rarin' to make the absolute most of these next weeks, an interval during which you hold the potential of accomplishing shitloads more tasks than any average un-revived human being could possibly muster. (We're talking shitloads of shitloads, folks!) But if instead you choose to rebel against this inevitable tide-turn, like the insolent guest who refuses to leave the party even after the hosts have shut off the music and begun cleaning up, you'll only accrue a backlog of physical energies aching to be channeled into some concrete purpose. And trust me, my friend, that will cause you much more harm than good, even as your inner escapist tries to convince you otherwise.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): There's nothing more gratifying than not having to vigilantly watch the version of you which you're presenting to the world, Sagittarius, because you're so unafraid of being real and honest and direct that whatever's coming forth isn't really any certain 'version' at all. The only vigilant self-consciousness worth indulging is that which alerts you whenever you slip into a disingenuous guise, claiming to like something you don't and/or giving non-committally namby-pamby answers to straightforward questions. To become the best Sagittarian self you can is simply a matter of mastering the knack for being frank and forthright without being an asshole… the difference between positively standing tall in your own truth and negatively attacking someone else for standing in theirs. When it's about you in this identity-constructing fashion, you emit a devil-may-care detachment from other people's impressions, which both reeks of self-confidence and, as a result, is powerfully attractive. You'll seem like you're having a good time, and avid admirers will want in on the action. But if instead you're too attached to others' perceptions and/or how you measure up in contrast to them, your expressions will be defensively invested with a competitive edge, making the whole thing feel a bit like a battle, with winners and losers jockeying for position, rather than sheer good-hearted fun.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): It's okay to loosen your grip on that well-composed impression you typically give off, Capricorn, as long as you're doing so to reinforce an interpersonal boundary critical to your peace-of-mind. Sometimes, people don't get the hint if you express yourself too 'reasonably'. They need to witness a demonstrative rise in emotional tenor, in order to take your personal needs seriously. And perhaps you, too, require yourself to break self-controlled character, in the act of defending your freedom to determine what exactly you care about having just that certain way, purely for your own private gratification… or else, without the emotive flare-up, it's too easy to convince yourself such things (i.e., your self-nurture preferences) aren't that important. When it comes to what'll make you feel either calmer-and-well-cared-for or cramped-and-on-edge, you're under no obligation to be 'reasonable'. You get to lay out your desires, straight up, and no negotiations are really necessary. The process of asserting how you want this to go, consequently, may be best handled on a relatively solitary basis. The moment you lapse into too much explanation (or is it justification?), you're already under the persuasive influence of someone else's psychic field—and the boundary has been breached.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): For the record, Aquarius, there's currently nowhere you should be 'going' other than where you already are. Hopefully, that knowledge will help temporarily quell any wanderlust ambitions or self-imposed pressures to perform at a wider-transmitting frequency. Yet, 'where you are' holds a lot of recently-underinvestigated potential for social chemistry and connection, should you make a conscious effort to be more unabashedly present amongst the folks in your immediate environment—and to do so without any deliberate agenda other than mutually stimulating contact. Why look so far from here for inspiration, when you have decent, thoughtful, interesting pals within this 10-mile radius who you've barely seen in months? As long as you're searching elsewhere for hints of your next great interpersonal synergy, you're essentially dis-identifying yourself with the community you actually already belong to… and though you Aquarians often love to situate yourself (consciously or not) as the 'outsider', you also needlessly sacrifice a certain amount of camaraderie, support, and basic entertainment by eschewing your comfortable rapport with those familiar faces you've known for a while. 'Known for a while', incidentally, doesn't mean you know each other well. Hang out with 'em a bit more than usual, and you might surprise one another with what's been floating under each other's surfaces this whole time.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Between you and me, let's consider it totally fine if certain colleagues, clients, or customers don't exactly see you for who you really are, Pisces… provided, that is, they're made to very clearly understand what specifically it is you want from them. They should be under no illusions about the practical agenda you're operating under—the skills you're looking to develop, the talents you wish to share, the cash and/or prizes you intend to score in the process of building wider credibility. Yet, it's hardly relevant that they sincerely sync up with the personal motives which underscore your efforts (i.e., how your striving to accomplish more worldly success is informed by your upbringing and history, and/or is part of a larger self-development project), in order to serve as a contributing player in these matters-of-business. What ultimately drives you is, truth be told, none of anyone else's beeswax (unless, of course, you choose to share your feelings with individuals you trust). And if preserving a relative poker-face, allowing them to presume a greater personal affinity exists between you than perhaps you experience (while, of course, stopping short of outright deception), helps you advance your worldly pursuits, that's a valid part of the game. In fact, in many contexts, such a posture is simply considered 'being professional'.