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Horoscopes | Week of June 29-July 5, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): As we discussed last week, no matter what else might be going on inside you, it's best to keep the outwardly visible goings-on as light and breezy and affable as possible. Just because certain concerns or considerations may be bearing down on your innards with fuller potency, that's no reason to utterly squander this otherwise happy-go-lucky astrology by constantly fixating on those certain troubles. In fact, if you don't stay keenly aware of this essential distinction between your inner and outer realities, you'll be increasingly susceptible to unconsciously leaking a bad attitude into situations which have little or nothing to do with what's actually troubling you—and, as an unfortunate result, attracting mistrust, animosity, and/or a retaliatory takedown from someone of a certain stature who's unwilling to be on the receiving end of your pissiness. Don't, in other words, use this emotional edge as your impetus to challenge any Powers-That-Be. This is an excellent moment for shrewdly compartmentalizing, relying on a well-supported Mercury-in-your-3rd as your handy tool for adroitly changing conversational topics and/or rescuing yourself from any exchange which veers, even in the slightest, from light or breezy or affable. The moment you feel your hackles go up, politely get yourself out.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): As badly as you may need or want to quietly focus your energies on more private, personal, practical, and/or emotion-laden business that has little to do with your more-widely-known public persona, Taurus, it seems you might have little choice but to also vocally insert yourself back into a certain outside-world dialogue… particularly if it involves a value you staunchly uphold, a belief you cherish, or a tenet of your integrity you cannot silently allow to be transgressed. Whether you must call somebody on their ethical no-no or whether you're the one being singled out by an ideological opponent, you shouldn't be surprised to find an emerging tension between so-called 'innocent remarks' and the far-from-innocent implications which emanate from them. While it continues to be important for you to consistently stand behind what's most important to you, I encourage you not to immerse yourself too totally in such dialogues, debates, or disagreements. Of course you'll want to go on public record with your statement, so as not to let anyone's improper bullshit slide… but once you've stated your case, it doesn't serve your interests to obsess over it, to force it down anyone's throat, or to refuse to quit until the other side surrenders. That's because, remember, you have more private, personal, practical, and/or emotion-laden business to take care of… and, at this point, the payoffs you can expect there are far greater and more immediately significant.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Now that your ruling planet Mercury, still at home in your sign, is both (1) out from the shadow of its recent retrograde and (2) forming a lovely aspect to a conjoined Venus-and-Jupiter in your 3rd, you will really have a way with your words, Gemini. This is a rather ideal set of astro-influences for communicating yourself exactly as you wish, making your voice heard quite clearly, and intently ensuring all the social gears are well-greased… even if you may be even likelier than usual to run away with the conversation, if you aren't careful to inquire into other participants' thoughts, feelings, and opinions. For the most part, I encourage you to savor this advantageous social edge however pleases you most and/or serves your interpersonal purposes, provided you're aware that taking up too much of the space is liable to alienate those who aren't as naturally able to express themselves as you are. It may be that much more important for you to reap these benefits of fostering friendly rapport, in light of the fact that, despite this otherwise pleasurable astrological climate, you might simultaneously be forced to confront another round of lingering consequences from past challenges (relational, emotional, financial, etc.) you've presumably already faced, but which nonetheless still have a certain hold on your psyche. Should such resuscitated bummers arise, I urge you to find a way to both address them head-on and stubbornly refuse to let 'em rain on the rest of your parade.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You are sitting on a goldmine, Cancer. I'm not kidding. You've got a truckload of hidden treasure in your coffers, waiting to be tapped into for confidence-building and/or income-generating activities. But if you aren't willing to dig past that first surface-layer of dust, rocks, and other distractions, to the riches beneath, how can you expect anybody else to know what you're keeping under there? Here's one practical hint of advice, to support you in recognizing your high profit-potential: Do not compare yourself to anyone else. Don't assess your relative progress based on other people's benchmarks, as if any two individual's unique profile of personal resources can be effectively weighed against one another. Do not feed any self-sabotaging narratives about how you ought to be 'farther along' than you are, or that you lack a certain trait or wealth-of-experience and it's holding you back, or whatever else you may tell yourself in the process of striving for something more. Instead, you must identify all the ways in which you, my dear, are totally and unequivocally special. Not a single person in the whole universe possesses your certain character, nor can do the things you do with quite the distinctive flavor you bring to 'em. Understanding this is what'll shoot your worth sky-high. Apologizing for not being someone else, meanwhile, is a ticket to nowheresville.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Please keep your wits about you, Leo, at this moment when everything is so bright and bold and beautiful… and totally beyond the ordinary bounds of reason. That's just the Venus-Jupiter conjunction in your sign making nearly any incident, issue, and interaction seem like more of a big deal than it normally would, more epic in scale and/or more profound in significance. This current astrological influence is essentially the textbook definition of 'too much of a good thing'—and though we indeed love 'good things', the 'too much' part really can be a problem. In this case, the 'too much' is liable to involve a delusory sense of untouchability or invulnerability, an undue focus on the glass being half-full (rather than noticing it's also half-empty), and/or a bloated concept of self-importance. For the record, I am not saying this merely to pander to the stereotypes often (unfairly, I might add) saddling you Leos: There's a sincere threat of excessiveness which accompanies a Venus-Jupiter pairing in your 1st. To help neutralize this threat, I suggest staying humbly dutiful in your day-to-day handling of work tasks, chores, and other humdrum bits of common labor (minus, of course, any expressed self-congratulations). It's hard to get too full of yourself when you're busy tilling the proverbial dirt.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Please remember to preserve a professional, politically diplomatic polish on all your outward communications, Virgo. And if at any point you should feel a rise of impatient or incorrigible energy in you which might threaten to soil this public presentation, please remind yourself, once again, that your time to shine is coming… not too many more weeks down the pipeline, in fact. Hopefully, that knowledge should be sufficient for knocking the sense back into your head, and the prudence back into your words. But, all this while, I really don't want you to keep pushing off your own thirst for a dose of personal freedom and/or a not-at-all-diplomatic good time for some other day—especially since you may be a lot closer to your breaking-point than you consciously realize. So, even as your official persona as the responsible one is presumably kept cleanly intact, you probably need to do something really, truly, intensely, cathartically fun… away, of course, from the sightline of any potentially judgy figures, colleagues, or clients, somewhere where you needn't worry about putting on a polite face and playing nicely with others. This would serve as your temporary release, a stop-gap during this increasingly antsy just-before moment. Soon enough, you'll be able to let it all hang out, without concerning yourself so much with maintaining appearances. Until then, throw yourself a bone… discreetly, that is.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Talk out the broader issues with those most-thoughtful pals or peers who know you best, Libra, instead of letting any emotional flare-ups get the best of you. Riding on the heels of last week's message, you remain under threat of unconsciously creating a power struggle—with a higher-up at work? a perceived competitor? the 'crooked' system-at-large?—that isn't actually as palpably existent as you may be making it out to be. Outside-world opportunities are open for you to claim, in direct proportion to however much day-to-day effort you earnestly invest. The 'block', believe it or not, is more internally-rooted than you might realize, so accustomed are you to a personal history of expecting to be discounted or bulldozed that you thus anticipate facing a struggle to be heard and respected. The psychological experience of it is no less real, of course… particularly if you leave yourself to stew, to scrutinize, and/or to scheme, absorbed in your own familiar responses. Outside feedback from trusted voices who may see a bigger-picture view on this than you momentarily can, therefore, will be exceptionally valuable. Talk through what you can do about how you're feeling, rather than what's so obviously wrong with the 'them' who's supposedly causing it.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): I want to begin by reminding you, Scorpio, the world is your oyster. I say that in honor of the two benefics, Venus and Jupiter, conjoining in your solar 10th, the house of public-sphere aspirations and achievements and recognitions. This is a splendid stellar influence on your capacity to evolve into a bigger, better position out on the world stage… even if that means first experiencing a loss, in the context of your having grown beyond the restrictive confines of an existing role. That said, you're flirting with a needless misstep if you feel compelled to make some pointed moral statement in your process of moving forward, as if your newly-evolving outlook somehow situates you on a 'higher road' than those you'd want to show up with such a statement. That would be a far less effective 'statement' than investing the added energy to forthrightly talk through the challenging issues which would otherwise inspire you to cut and run. To be clear, this suggested talking-through is not so that you can convince or be convinced, come to any cathartic understandings, or make peace. Rather, it's to raise the bar on your ability to articulate your grievances, both to help you better iron out these specifics into consistent, intelligible form and to build self-assuredness in your communication skills related to highly-charged matters. Huffing and puffing and blowing the house down, under the auspices of self-righteous ire, doesn't teach anyone anything. In fact, it gives others a reason to take you less seriously.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Even at this time of great anticipation and enthusiasm, Sagittarius, you really don't have the luxury of skipping ahead into the future… not when issues of practical self-sufficiency critical to your present circumstances threaten to insinuate themselves, once again, with a forceful reality-check. For the record, your future really does look that bright—if, and only if, you ride towards it on a vessel built to last, to sustain you once you reach unfamiliar frontiers. That's why it's so important you use this current time to concretely demonstrate your effectiveness, as proof that you truly are capable of solidly accomplishing what you said you would, not only for the sake of the result itself but also to strengthen your self-confidence. As far as other people are concerned, please be aware that concentrating too totally on what you and they may be doing together is liable to pull your attention away from certain 'practical self-sufficiency' items which necessarily demand a more independent, autonomous focus. Put another way, the discussions between you and other central characters are liable to produce a list of ranked priorities which looks decidedly different than the one you'd come up with on your own, if your interests were the only consideration. Bear that in mind, lest you eagerly follow a collaborative agenda at the expense of something you must do to stabilize your singular situation… and end up dropping an important ball, and/or getting bitten in the ass.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): There's supposed to be a certain push-and-pull, Capricorn, if you're doing this right. Rather than narrow-mindedly conceiving of any recent complications as a bad omen and/or a waste of your valuable time, I'd instead suggest you identify it as a creative friction. Innovative ideas and superior solutions are often born out of tension and disagreement… or aren't you familiar with Hegel's model of the dialectic, wherein an initial thesis is met with its fault-finding antithesis, only to have this tension elegantly resolved by a synthesis which depends on engaging the negative in order to produce an outcome that transcends the binary standoff? So, let's please focus on these sorts of best-practices, engaging-the-critiques, no-stone-left-unturned outcomes—i.e., what'll reap the most sterling results in the end, even if the process isn't without its headaches—rather than getting too wrapped up in the qualities or traits this other person, party, or entity of the equation may or may not possess, in measures greater or less than what you've got. To help out with that, try framing all relevant conversations in terms of functionality, process, and final-product… and not about personal preference, flavor, or ownership.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): There's a lot of warm, loving companionship available to you at the moment, Aquarius, even if collecting on it probably also means you must hold a lot of space for the other person's explanations, expositions, and expressions-of-emotion. It's not that their interest in and/or affection for you isn't wholly sincere, as much as the current astrology increases the likelihood that your own prominence in the interpersonal dynamic will come second-fiddle to theirs. While this is an excellent setup for attracting new friends or more-than-friends, you'll probably get to know them a lot better than they'll get to know you, at least for the time being… though you do have the capacity to break through their conversational dominance, if there's something you really want to say. Truth is, though, the convivial vibe you're likely to attain by giving yourself over to their lead could serve as a heart-lightening antidote to that stubborn strain of anxiety, mistrust, or paranoia quietly infiltrating your inner psychic sanctum. Even as you're effectively keeping up your outward rhythms and routines, you may be privately experiencing periodic swells of dread—which may or may not be related to actual circumstances presently affecting you. In other words, you don't know why these moments of fear or panic are showing up. Your job, therefore, is to resist giving in to any mental machinations which would feed your worst-case-scenario worries. What better way, then, than to let those who are fond of you carry you off on their cheery outlook?

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Keep doing good work, Pisces. Just as we discussed last week, you're liable to actually enjoy this uptick in productivity (provided you don't mind-trip yourself into rejecting that possibility)… and I still strongly encourage you to concentrate on whichever task-related angles, activities, or assignments are likeliest to engender an upbeat attitude. However, this window of productive opportunity does not occur inside a bubble, alas. While it behooves you to spend as much of your energy getting through items which you need to accomplish, to meet your obligations and support your goals, you're likely to encounter certain folks—friends, teammates, community allies, presumptuous members of society-at-large—who take some sort of issue with you choosing independent industriousness over what you might do with and/or for them. And if it's not that they're taking issue with you, it could instead be that you probably should take issue with them, in cases where your silence would indicate a tacit endorsement of whatever they're doing (in your name?) though you may indeed not support it. Whatever your specific case, you unfortunately cannot ignore the potentially controversial currents running through your wider social scene. If your right to self-determination comes into question, you must take sides—or one will likely be taken for you.