Horoscopes | Week of November 2-8, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): This might just be the first horoscope I've written you in weeks, Aries, in which the ongoing advantage of staying busily on task with your job duties, personal chores, and/or health-promoting practices isn't the primary message I'm moved to convey (though, as you probably saw coming, I must point out you've still got a lot of astrological support for continued practical efforts). By week's end, Venus will arrive in your relationship house (the 7th), serving as your timely reminder to begin redirecting some of your attention to that special person/people in your life… for no other reason than to enjoy their happy, pleasant, life-reaffirming companionship, and, naturally, to bless them with some of yours. The subtler undertone to such attention-redirecting, incidentally, is your developing lesson in how to tangibly accomplish more, for your own personal productivity and well-being—without becoming any more disconnected or self-absorbed. It would be natural to slip further away from those you care about, if you're so utterly consumed with refining your habits or making progress or getting shit done. You haven't necessarily done anything wrong; it's just time to make this slight course-correction to aim yourself back towards other people.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Spend this week in deliberate gratitude for all those delights great and small you've recently enjoyed, Taurus… a ratifying repetition of the thoughts and/or feelings which rose in you during those fleeting moments when you were adoringly appreciating life. Through this grateful review (which, by the way, doesn't discredit any other happenings which may be causing you worry or upset), you'll be helping to positively nurture perceptive patterns that produce bliss. With any self-supporting habit we're trying to create, we must repeatedly remind ourselves to train our attention in that particular direction which points toward the goal we wish to attain… at least at first, until we become habituated to aiming that way and it becomes second nature. In this case, I'm encouraging you to keep redirecting your mind to that which makes you happy… in the hope that, no matter what else may be going on with you at a given time, you can still find some simultaneous joy alongside any challenge or hurt. Come next week and those to follow, you'll likely find your day-to-day demands (whether it's on-the-job tasks or other work you're responsible for) picking up, leading you to spend a greater chunk of effort on 'that which must get done' rather than 'that which is fun'. Yet, if you take this week's horoscope seriously, the distinction between the two needn't be so sharp, since you'll be habitually recalling all those countless reasons to love your life, even as you toil away.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You're due to start having a whole lot more fun—beginning next week, Gemini, once both Venus and Mars move out of your 4th and into your 5th. But before that happens, I suggest you make the productive most from one last week of sticking close to home, gazing inward, getting pissed off or crying your tear-ducts clean, and not trying too hard to pull yourself together on anyone else's behalf. While this past month-or-so probably won't go down in history as your most gratifying (is that an understatement or what?), it's not been without its upsides: Most particularly, you have hopefully learned gobs about the current state of your inner landscape, including what's been bothering you the most (which perhaps you hadn't noticed as intensely before now), what makes you feel safe or secure (which you should therefore more markedly prioritize), what you can or cannot tolerate in your domestic space (which gives you a clearer guide for making necessary changes), and/or how you've broken free from or replicated inherited family patterns (which ought to either make you proud or motivate you to do deeper emotional work). Whatever specific realizations apply to you, please don't let them fade away once your immediate circumstances lighten and brighten a bit. Sometimes it's more effective to confront more difficult issues after we're feeling better, once the situation's not quite as acute and we can shift modes from 'survival' to 'metamorphosis'.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Creating dramatic change in your life may likeliest transpire, for this current phase at least, through a process of one unremarkable-seeming step after another unfolding in a wholly un-dramatic manner, Cancer—until, that is, you look back at where you were from several more steps further along and realize, 'damn!, I've really done something here!' Lately, you've been largely engaged by a series of relatively modest interactions with all sorts of folks, any one of which, in itself, might not strike you as especially significant or relevant to the major life-questions you're now batting about. Yet, the cumulative value of your having lately been more interactive, generally speaking, could be far greater than the sum of its constituent parts… both in terms of getting you back into a practice of socially externalizing your personal energy and through the continued exposure to others' energies and the revitalizing input they provide. I share all this because, as this week flows into the next, you're likely to find yourself starting to feel drawn towards your home-front once again, towards more privacy and/or a chance to catch your breath. Though such a turn may be appropriate, please don't completely bow to this influence, using it as an excuse to altogether halt your recent social momentum. Contrary to any doubts you're harboring, these unremarkable interactions are contributing to your progress, albeit subtly.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Enabling yourself to continue along the path to philosophic engagement, edification, and adventure, Leo, unequivocally means consistently taking care of all your far-less-exciting, utterly-mundane business like a champ. You cannot opt out of the obligation to secure your basic needs are getting met, just to idealistically pursue a spark-of-purpose which you find 'so much more meaningful'. Your very capacity to chase such purpose-driven, mind-expanding, spiritually-fulfilling quests necessarily rests upon the operative foundation you've built for yourself… and if it isn't stable enough to support a wild leap, you're flirting with the threat of functional collapse. I don't intend to be (too) melodramatic, merely to encourage you not to pit questions of income, debt, employment, and costs (both fixed and variable) against principles you valiantly believe 'matter' more, as if there isn't educational value in mastering material self-sufficiency which can be practically applied to 'saving the world' and other such related initiatives. These life-aspects needn't be in conflict with one another. If you're struggling with such earthly matters, please don't assume everyone resignedly holds the same attitude, understanding, and experience as those which inhibit you. Ask for help; it may be your most sensible option.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Now's when you must start gradually switching gears, Virgo, downshifting a bit from this most recent high-intensity, self-propelling thrust of inauguratory oomph… and into a gear better equipped to delicately handle all the little interpersonal negotiations essential to sustaining what you've gotten going. If you've indeed been using this godsent astrological benefit to reach for more, to build upon what you've achieved, and/or to work towards creating a whole new way-of-life, then it's highly likely you're already beginning to notice a difference in how you're moving through your days. You are growing and changing… and, therefore, you can't help but throw off the balance-of-power in any key partnership or collaboration which you've been part of for longer than, say, the past few months. Consequently, the other party in such relationships may be struggling with uncertainty about how to best engage the growing-and-changing you, whether with support or space, acquiescence or pushback, constructive feedback or silent nervousness. In order to attain a 'new normal' that'll suit both your evolving needs and their interests as well, there's no getting around the critical importance of explicitly acknowledging this overall shift in dynamics—and starting to talk out the specifics of how your day-to-day interdependence must accordingly adapt.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): One last week of playing it relatively under the radar, Libra. At the very end of the week (on Sun Nov 8), your ruling bounty-bringer Venus comes back home to your sign, followed later next week by surge-starting Mars… and pow! you'll be on your game once again, activating advancements and eliciting attention. But these recent downtime weeks have, I'm hoping, granted you a sharper understanding of the powerfully understated results one can reap from a certain amount of inactivity. You are an unquestioned ace when it comes to actively responding to ever-changing circumstances, thinking a few steps ahead, setting moods, calculating strategies, and phrasing your opinions and appeals in just such a manner that they strike their specific audience as you so intend. That, however, demands a lot of mental effort (don't worry: you make it look effortless) and sometimes you may actually be overworking the situation, causing additional problems which wouldn't have otherwise existed had you not proceeded with such certainty about how you'd most prefer it to turn out. On the other hand, leaving lots of room for the other person to inevitably pull the surprise maneuver—and, in the process, sparing yourself all that effort of trying to anticipate their every move—may actually be a rather practical approach, reserving your energy for responses to developments already taking place.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Be free and easy, wide-eyed and vulnerable, whimsical and passionate in openly speaking about your latest life-dreams, Scorpio. Just like we discussed last week, it's now the ideal time to expose your mind's wanderings and heart's yearnings to outside influence… to see, first and foremost, how those around you respond to what's lately had your imagination running wild. You'll be far more productively amenable to the feedback, even if it's unfavorable or leaves you scratching your head—rather than defensive or argumentative should someone miss what you're going for and/or point out a blindspot you're angry at yourself for not having noticed earlier—if you go into such exchanges acknowledging (at least to your own inner self-saboteur, if not to anyone else) that of course you aren't quite sure how you're going to comprehensively enact these life-dreams. For the moment, it's more important to feel clear on the level of interests, intentions, directions, and desires than to have a solid seventeen-point plan for building a ladder to the stars. Talk with confidence about what you know you care about, and let some decent logistical suggestions emerge from your collegial interactions.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Make one more big strategically-predetermined push forward with your attention-attracting outward efforts now, Sagittarius, while both Venus and Mars are still in your solar 10th-house. It's not that your window of professional (and/or outside-world) opportunity is closing—greater-benefic and ruler-of-your-sign Jupiter remains in your 10th through September of next year—but it's sure helped raise your profile to have this punchy Venus/Mars pair atop your solar chart these recent weeks, and they'll now be moving on. When next week arrives, you'll want to adjust your go-getter strategy so you're no longer standing in the center of the spotlit stage (at least not solo), but actively involved in cultivating mutually encouraging connections between what you've been working on and what others are up to. This strategic swivel on your part is a timely essential due to the astrological shifts which will no longer favor you in too blatantly recognition-seeking a role, instead nudging you toward a more deliberately collectively-minded or team-spirit attitude. Should you refuse to step off-stage or resist sharing the spotlight with like-minded compatriots, you will likely face animosity (whether overt or undercover) from those who otherwise could be greater supporters but instead are put off by your shameless self-focus.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Prepare to leverage your current public-world position to your future advantage, Capricorn, based on your having ironed out whatever's your driving ideal or purpose (per last week's horoscope). Soon, you will have an opening to finesse your way closer to a role where your thirst for educational opportunity, philosophic engagement, and/or outside inspiration is better quenched—though you'll have to delicately and diplomatically work your personal connections, with unflustering nonchalance rather than a pushy grab. No matter how awesomely high an achiever and/or insistently self-made a success you may be, you did not get there without assistance from multiple helping-hands and legs-up along the way. But you can take full credit for fostering the sort of relations with colleagues, mentors, and community-mates (even if largely professional or un-intimate) which would leave them wanting to help you… presuming, of course, you did take such care and, consequently, have benefitted in the process. (If my presumption is incorrect, you might want to consider why that's the case—and whether you've suffered as a result of too much self-containment.) This is a good time for conversations which could potentially lead to more exciting prospects, professional or otherwise. Oddly, this reliance on networks of other people now might eventually buy your greater freedom later.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Slowly but surely over the weeks ahead, Aquarius, the clarity you've been so distressingly lacking is due to return, bit by bit. But in case you're too quick to write off this past month-or-so as an anomalous wrinkle in the permanent-press fabric of your well-ordered life, guess again. One fundamental awareness which ought to be an integral part of your dawning clarity: acceptance of how this uncomfortable out-of-control feeling is not the exception, but an essential condition of life, unless you set up a sequestered existence in which you rely on no other people for absolutely anything (and even then, you never know when some fucked-up stranger might miss a curve-in-the-road and drive their truck straight through your living-room wall). True wisdom—not the book-learned type, but a psychologically-astute recognition of individuals' complex range of underlying motives—can only be earned through intimate interpersonal contact over sustained lengths of time, which unavoidably invites all the very 'problems' of integrating those contrasting attitudes, conflicting interests, and divergent histories that constitute human diversity. You will never be able to contain that diversity within a single comprehensive understanding; there will always be somebody who comes along to complicate what you thought knew. That's a beautiful blessing, if you allow it in.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): An integral aspect to what's been going on for you relationally, Pisces, is that you're hopefully learning not to try to be 'everything to everyone'… or, more specifically, to masterfully perform all the flourishes required of the role you believe a certain someone wants you to play, whether or not they accurately fit your temperament or you're any good at them. Knowing who you are also means knowing who you decidedly aren't, even if you fear admitting that knowledge places a central relationship (or type-of-relationship) at risk. You're actually in a great spot to appeal to folks who'll properly value you for who genuinely you are (and aren't), provided you give them a fair chance of seeing the genuine you while, at the same time, not worrying about the potential for a heightened awareness of one another's differences to surface. Relationships function at their best when we can learn from actively engaging these differences (for no two people are alike), rather than papering over them with a shiny, reflective mylar wrap. Funnily enough, embracing this perspective will not only help you in your personal life, but is also key to improving your financial earning capacity: You'll rake in the most by getting paid for who you are, not who you're trying to be.