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Horoscopes | Week of October 5-11, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you're harboring any aspirations to advance to a more impressive position in your career (and/or outer-world role), Aries—bigger assignments! greater creative freedom! a higher level of mastery or command!—then this is an excellent time for up-shifting the intensity and attention-to-detail with which you're working on an everyday basis. You won't get any further, after all, without amping up your efforts (both in quantity and quality)… and a huddling of planets in your solar 6th (first Jupiter and Mars, and now Venus too) is the ideal astrological influence under which to effectively do so. Don't neglect to consider last week's horoscope, incidentally, as it's still possible your hard work will seem as if it's not producing the results you'd hoped for… though that doesn't necessarily mean this impression is altogether accurate. (In other words, keep working, even in light of such potentially misleading appearances.) This week, perhaps your bigger predicament will involve a certain someone's evident need for attention from you. Or is it your need to aim too much attention their direction? Notions of a conversation between you two being so urgent that it must be had out now may—or may not—be as valid as one or the other of you believes, though this window of super-productive potential is both unquestionably rich and fleeting.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If you're not starting to incrementally have more fun from one week to the next during this transitional moment, Taurus, then you're doing something wrong. Even with still-fluctuating work demands and/or slippery chores which apparently need to be handled more than once, you remain on call from the planets to intentionally seek joy as an increasingly important day-to-day priority. Of course, there may be some stubborn extenuating circumstance you could arguably point to as a reason for why 'having more fun' sounds like a totally unattainable assignment… which, in fact, is probably the very reason you ought to attend more deliberately to activities and attitudes likely to put a smile on your face, as a counterbalancing move to keep your entire life-perspective from being dominated by this formidable reality you can't immediately escape from. You'll reap no substantive benefit from putting all pleasurable pastimes and indulgent encounters on hold until after you definitively redress whatever injustice or upset continues to loom. Indeed, it's pretty much the opposite mindset I'm advocating: Because life is both short and crammed full of momentary thrills, excuses to smile or giggle, and glimpses of exquisite beauty (and because your 5th house is lighting up like a Christmas tree), now is your time to have more fun—no matter what else you're simultaneously dealing with.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Come up with your best next-response first, Gemini, in advance of showing up to the potentially triggering situation. Don't sloppily plan to play it by ear, which would amount to extending an invitation to the other participant(s) to essentially tell you how it ought to go, based on what works best for them. Though it's generally considerate to engineer action-plans that'll impact other parties in dynamic dialogue with them, such an approach presently bears a heightened likelihood of knocking you off your gut-level truth… and leading you perhaps too far down a path of bowing to interpersonal pressure, giving them what they want while leaving your inner conscience on edge. No amount of persuasive discussion can compete with the unambiguous reality of what your heart craves for its self-securing reassurance. Despite your trademark openness to various possibilities, you must admit—if you're properly listening to what's now emerging from inside you, instead of allowing yourself to be unduly swayed by justifying voices, conditional facts, or insecurity-fueling fear-tactics—you hold a rather distinct, straightforward, undeniable desire for how things ought to go. Get clear on that before grabbing a seat at any bargaining tables.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Whatever your current circumstances, Cancer, you mustn't hide yourself away from other people. You may still feel you'd rather not add anything meaningful to the conversation (because your thoughts remain unformed and/or you aren't sure exactly what the purpose would be). You might be in the midst of an important task that's captured quite a bit of your practical focus. Or you could simply see a holing-up or squirreling-away as your safest self-protective strategy, whether to guard against anyone else's overbearing intrusions or to offset the destabilizing effects of professional (and/or public-world) uncertainty. But none of those explanations (or any others you can come up with) will convince me to disregard that glaring astrological arrow pointing you toward ongoing social interaction, regardless of mood or schedule or concern. Other people bring the external perspective you just cannot attain for yourself… offering, through casual exchange, alternative wisdoms and gentle corrections in spots where you're struggling to see something other than what you keep telling yourself is unequivocally there. The very interactivity itself, regardless of its content or overarching significance, serves to move energy that would otherwise stay stuck inside you. Plus, its open-ended quality invites the 'wild-card factor' to deliver turns-of-good-favor you wouldn't have anticipated. So, no hiding: What you might mistakenly wish to 'shield' yourself from could, it turns out, be the best thing for you.

LEO (July 23-August 22): The next few weeks ahead represent a pivotal 'prove you're serious' moment, Leo, in your progression from these recent months' Venus-retrograde recommitments and/or reevaluations… and into a richer way of life, in which you're surer than ever about exactly what you bring to the table (and what's better left to more capable hands), as well as what would be your most personally meaningful gains to glean from such an investment (as opposed to what's merely a glittering mirage, sent to test the depth of your self-knowledge). Jupiter, Mars, and now Venus are lined up in your 2nd, traditionally read as the house of earned income, though also the zone where we put our particular concepts of self-worth to practical use (or don't, as may be the case if we lack self-confidence and/or aren't straight with ourselves about what we do, and don't do, well). This, therefore, ought to be a fairly profitable time for you—but only if you're embracing realistic ideas about how to organize your most competent qualities into a purposeful action-plan, with material security as a guiding priority above others. After a relatively bountiful harvest, you must now become the industrious squirrel who shrewdly stores the likeliest-to-endure leftovers and surpluses… betting on a promising future which requires ongoing sustenance throughout its developmental emergence.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): This week, you get to add Venus's benefic effect to the potent Mars-and-Jupiter duo already blessing your sign with verve, vitality, and vision, Virgo. That means you've got another four full weeks of bountiful astrological support for whatever reinvigorated version of yourself you're now in the process of esteemedly introducing to the world. I cannot stress strongly enough how this is your tailor-made moment for reaching outward, expressing desire, courting support, and attracting attention to yourself and your efforts. Without exaggeration, if you play your cards right during the month ahead, you're liable to make more spectacular strides in your onward progress than you've enjoyed through the whole length of '15 so far. Don't shy away from embracing the fullness of your personal ambitions, please, as if it's too crude or objectionable to appear so hungry for self-serving success. Saturn-in-your-4th is your most arresting obstacle to yielding gratifying results from this phase: Any limits to what you could possibly achieve in these weeks to come are likely self-imposed, a factor of having learned to settle for only the humblest piece-of-pie and/or not to risk a 'sure thing' for the rewards of an unknown commodity. It's doubtful you'll gain any more than what you feel you deserve. However, if you open the floodgates to acknowledge how badly you want what's beyond the charted territory, you just might maneuver yourself to that strange new land where novel pleasures await.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Grant others an exceedingly wide berth for their surprising sidesteps, senseless about-faces, and unexpected lurchings, Libra. And please do not take any such impetuous actions personally, as if their motives (whether obvious or not) are somehow just one more expression of a recurring trend in your life… which would simply be a case of your projecting some lingering story you tell yourself about yourself onto them (and how's that story working for you, by the way?). With Venus joining Mars and Jupiter in your 12th this week, you cannot possibly know how the developments you're now witnessing will eventually settle—or whether what you might rashly interpret as a problem or unfortunate turn-of-events might later prove to be a preparatory reshuffling of situational elements that actually better suits you, if you can keep yourself from an injudicious, impulsive first-response. Be warned, though, your emotions might initially experience the goings-on as a primal threat, an apparent resurgence of forces you've had to fight your entire life. Take ownership of those emotions, instead of allowing them to take ownership over how you communicate. Be sparing, restrained, and tactful with what you say; that'll reserve you a wider berth for favorable potentials to manifest once the dust settles.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): For now, Scorpio, you'd do better to team up, join forces, and ride the collective tides, rather than trying to make a go of it with too radically independent (and thus disconnected) an attitude. Though you may still conceive of your larger project as your own, the current pathway to get there leads you toward a larger conglomeration of individuals all striving to achieve similar aims, a communitywide movement already actively treading this ground, and/or a support-group of pals and peers who would goad you on, at moments when you might otherwise feel frighteningly alone in this world. To instead proceed in relative isolation, in a creative bubble where no outside forces will provide you with instant feedback on the appeal of your ideas and efforts, is to heedlessly play the part of the dreamer: Though there may indeed be an internal logic to your conjured visions, the cryptic language you use to describe it and/or the discontinuous order in which you've arranged the key components would likely sound a bit mad to the outside listener. However, if you include others in the process all along, they'll be able to point out where parts of your equation don't make sense (at least according to the rules of consensus reality) before you travel too far down an unfeasible—and potentially alienating—road. Don't freeze out your comrades; they know stuff.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): So, Sagittarius, are you trying to grow your career (and/or your place on the outside stage) or not? Do you want the opportunity to do more of what you feel you're meant to do? Are you yearning for greater recognition of your ongoing dedication, your proven mastery, the authority you've duly earned? Well, then, quit lollygagging, my dear! This continues to be the time, as I told you a couple editions back… only now Venus has joined the 10th-house planet-party, too, further increasing the likelihood your professional and/or public-world actions will be greeted with receptive favor. You won't find better astrological support for the efforts you assert in this zone than you're receiving at present, and for the next four weeks or so. To be fair, though, you're concurrently under Saturn's iron-fisted watch, a pressure to not be too fearful to keep advancing toward new ground—but, at the same time, neither to move so hastily that your advances prove messy, incomplete, and/or wholly impractical or unsustainable. Don't think of this fortuitous opening as a call to throw up some spectacular symbolic expression of your aspirations as fast as you can; rather, build one critical, foundational bit at a time, cleanly and thoroughly. It might look like 'less progress' to superficial eyes, but it'll last… thus continuing to serve your interests for a long time more.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Deploy your relative clarity to help keep the conversation on track, Capricorn… but without shutting down anyone else's earnest efforts at participating, on the grounds they don't know what the hell they're talking about. Your assessment of them may be somewhat accurate—they might not know nearly as much as you do about the governing logic behind what you're trying to accomplish—but a dismissive attitude on your part is only apt to increase the emotional desperation with which they feel they must express their undereducated point-of-view. In terms of utilitarian efficiency, then, you'll cut the chase more quickly (believe it or not) by simply allowing them the speaking floor for a couple uninterrupted minutes (followed immediately thereafter by an unpretentious 'thank you' and an unobtrusive re-centering of the conversation, having allowed them to go on record as a contributor without derailing the purposeful goal-orientation) than by hastily cutting them off, hurting their feelings and/or offending their sense of worthiness, and then having to engage in an extended processing session where you must reassure them in one fashion or another. It does not behoove your endgame to carelessly trigger someone else's self-worth angst, in an impatient rush to some self-identified finish-line.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): While you might default toward relying on other people's testimonies and/or the 'prevailing logic' (that is, the presumed conclusion of a sum-total of hypothetical individuals) to prove how rational your position may be, such a rhetorical strategy is not especially applicable, Aquarius, nor is it likely to win you this case. A more convincing tactic would take your argument out of the realm of idealized propositions… and, instead, ground it in the specifics of your lived experience. We covered this territory two weeks ago, only now you'll be in even better astrological shape to bare your soul, with both (1) Mercury turning direct, to help you communicate more clearly, and (2) Venus entering your solar 8th, to improve your odds of genuinely connecting with the other party by being unhedgingly candid about your feelings. If there's a situation with someone else still begging for its resolution, you'll get much farther by flashing some sincere vulnerability (because, let's face it, there are elements of this which scare the living shit out of you) than by feigning a cool imperviousness, then harboring a secret terror that threatens to keep you up at night. It's the more anxiety-provoking approach, to be sure, but it also exposes your most irrational (though no less critical) concerns to the light, where you can see they're far less scary.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): And yet, no, 'reining yourself back in', Pisces, does not mean just 'letting it go' or 'giving them the benefit of the doubt' if a particular somebody's been doing something you don't like. This is too powerful a time for shifting your relationship to relationships for you to revert to old conflict-averse habits, sucking up dissatisfying circumstances so as not to risk the idealized connectedness you so heartfully yearn for. If it helps boost your courage, please don't think about your need to assert a specific preference, priority, or prohibition as an attack on the perpetrating person-in-question… but rather as an attack on the undesired behavior itself, a functional move meant to block yourself from exposure to it. That way, at least from your angle, it needn't devolve into too emotionally volatile a situation. Of course, there are no guarantees the other party won't react with flippant emotionality—especially if you've previously indulged this side of their personality and are only now trying to transform the dynamic. That's why it behooves you to advance this matter with responsible care, as a singular piece of bounded business you must resolve to your satisfaction in order to feel good about the relationship… and, as such, to proceed with a cool, unflappable demeanor. The calmer and more focused you stay, the easier it'll be emotionally to stand your ground.