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Horoscopes | Week of November 23-29, 2015

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You will never be in possession of all the informational and experiential details required for the 'full' understanding, Aries. And neither will anybody else. Such unerringly comprehensive an awareness is reserved for divinities and other life-forms beyond this dense, fractured dimension. I love philosophic self-assuredness as much as the next guy—in fact, at this juncture, it's quite critical for you to understand what you consider right and wrong, what is and isn't important to you, and which cherished values are driving you forward—but please don't too liberally extrapolate out the applicability of what you know, as the frameworks which make sense to you may not be relevant to or resonant with others. Conviction is one thing; smugness is quite another. Not only do those with differing opinions or viewpoints have a right to make up their own minds, but the Universe's most optimal evolutionary outlook may well depend on it (though we, of course, can't know that since neither of us are gods). While you presently need to be sure enough of yourself to keep pointing at your chosen grail, you needn't drag anyone else along on that particular quest. Actually, your willingness to acknowledge its particularity—rather than preaching its universality—could help you release built-up tensions with someone who, at least for now, disagrees with you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Keeping yourself 'out of trouble' (that is, not responding to psychologically difficult circumstances in a manner liable to increase the level of psychological difficulty) might be best done, Taurus, by toiling extra industriously on job tasks, household chores, gym routines, and/or other personal duties… items you can accomplish without 'getting into it' with anyone else, which will allow you to release pent-up emotions through physical doing, and which, upon completion, are liable to leave you at least feeling productive (even if you'd still prefer to aim that can of whoop-ass at a certain someone). If you already hold a decent understanding of the conflicting emotions underscoring your position, your role in any interactions with the provoking party should be fairly circumscribed: You tell them what you're feeling, if they're open and interested and you believe it's the right thing to do; then, you listen to them tell you what they're feeling, if they're able to do so clearly and respectfully and you're open and interested. That's it. No arguing. If you're both open, further discussion could occur. If one and/or the other of you becomes emotionally closed off, it no longer serves anybody to continue… not under threat that someone will lose their shit on the other, with only more shit to be thrown around from there. If you're still struggling to understand your own emotional friction, find an outside party to help you find perspective rather than trying to figure things out with the triggering party. As long as you remain unclear on where exactly you stand, there's no telling what you might say—and whether it'll ultimately serve your interests, or put them in jeopardy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): There's currently a direct link between the purposeful conscientiousness with which you invest your interpersonal energy, Gemini, and the natural drifts your career position (and/or public-world calling) are carrying you… though, even as this organic evolution will ultimately better help you in your capacity to serve that outer purpose, you may experience a certain sadness in accepting how you can't be everything to everyone. By choosing interpersonal integrity, forthrightness, and/or selectivity—a continually pressing concern with Saturn in your 7th house for another two years—you do necessarily limit how much compromise and concession you can tolerate, and from whom, in pursuing your professional goals. But it really is important for your relational development to brandish your right to not associate with folks who make you uneasy, say yes when you'd really rather say no, or dance ineffectively around a critical topic because you don't want to spook anyone. Otherwise, you could later find yourself 'reporting' to somebody who expects the world from you but doesn't consider its toll on you or care about whether their 'assignments' are in sync with your own aspirations. Of course, if being in what you feel is the right position requires you to deal with certain somewhat difficult individuals, I guess you'll have to put in whatever extra efforts are needed to stay relationally clean with such characters… at least to the best of your ability.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Presently, your most self-supportive method for discharging unsettling, irritated, or upset feelings, Cancer, is through productive labor, physical exercise, and/or other straightforward results-oriented activity. Rather than use emotional agitation as an excuse to screw off, I'd recommend flipping the logic… and using healthful habits and tasks-at-hand as an immediately fruitful distraction from mentally running repeatedly through all the emotionally-agitating angles (which isn't likely to do any uplifting wonders for your mood). That's why this isn't necessarily the best moment for vast theoretical reflections on your past, your future, or your guiding purpose in life. While I'm generally a huge advocate of regularly ruminating on life's big questions, as a best-practices guard against accumulating too many regrets, there also lurks a danger of convoluting and confusing otherwise cut-and-dry situations with undisciplined ponderings. Unless you've been stubbornly ignoring your intuition for a long long time now, it's unlikely you're currently so far off your rightful course that you ought to stop the ship and retreat to the navigation chamber for months more map-gazing and chart-plotting. Likelier, you're simply feeling a bit uncertain or anxious… and, meanwhile, you still have plenty of timely duties and deeds to attend to. If a major course-change is due, this isn't the time to figure it out.

LEO (July 23-August 22): If being true to yourself really is indeed a top priority—and for you, Leo, it's hard to imagine otherwise—then you're probably feeling some internal pressure to explicitly point out where you and a certain someone are not on the same page. Though you may be trying to convince yourself this difference isn't that important and therefore might not be worth 'making a big deal' about, it ultimately isn't fair for you to make such a decision for the both of you. If any significant degree of intimacy is at stake, you'd be essentially playing fast and easy with their emotional well-being by withholding details they deserve to know, to enable them to choose how much to invest in you by your providing them as much pertinent information as possible. Even if you haven't yet worked your way through your conflicting desires or formed any final opinions, your own unresolved state itself is a piece of news you ought to report… though, of course, such a disclosure could well open a can of worms. But here's the thing: If a lack of resolved feelings lurks beneath the happy-go-lucky surface, that 'can of worms' is already open. It's just that nobody's willing to acknowledge it… which means those creepy crawly little devils are freely squirming around of their own accord and who knows what kind of mischief they could cause. At least when you choose to put voice to an awkward or unsettling sentiment, you'll have more control over what it says about you.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Stay real, but be compassionate about it, Virgo. Be compassionate, yet without taking the other person's feelings so totally into account that they flood your own. Consider their feelings alongside yours, while remembering there's only one of you who'll be your number-one supporter throughout every single day of your whole life (and it's, by virtue of logic, nobody else but you). Support your own longer-term emotional health as the top priority, still wisely understanding you won't feel good about yourself unless you maintain connected relationships, sharing your heart's goodness with others. Share your heart with others, only up to the point where you lose the capacity to clearly discern your interests from theirs, the result of overidentifying with your role 'in relation to' at the expense of an individuated identity all yours. Pursue your individual interests, but not so single-mindedly that you block out awareness of the impact on those around you, who may be hurt or scared or confused. Be compassionate, remember. And if you are now somewhat dizzy from following this pendulum of advice, as it swings back and forth from one sentence to the next… well, that's probably as good a facsimile of your present conundrum-of-feeling as my writing could possibly create. You must draw the obvious conclusions from what's in your heart, and responsibly communicate them as called for, showing sincere care for that certain someone but not 'taking care of them' by mincing your words.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): With Mercury both conjoining Saturn and squaring Neptune, trust me, you won't want your people-pleasing mouth to issue checks which practical reality will be unable to cash, Libra. That means you may have to earnestly strive to hold yourself back from offering spur-of-the-moment endorsements, commitments, or other agreeable sentiments before you've checked your schedule, vetted the plan for functional viability, procured the necessary tools or equipment, or (dare I add it) recently eaten. Yet, to take us toward the other extreme for a second, that doesn't exempt you from the need to still participate in the conversation… rather than, say, attempt to avoid it altogether by claiming you're too busy or exhausted to find just a few moments of time for friendly catching-up. While it's presently critically important for you to maintain social presence, interactivity, and a willingness to dialogue, you must weigh this against the other responsibilities you have: to your work (both the actual tasks and any staff you manage), your bodily health, your pets, and any other chores you're charged with. As far as this list of day-to-day duties is concerned, you must neither (1) wish them away, and jeopardize your productive well-being, nor (2) lose yourself in them, at the risk of pissing off the people in your life. Conversational diligence (as we called it last week) is the field where this balancing-act plays out.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): What do you do well, Scorpio, and what not quite as well? Which of your skills and talents are likeliest to bring in the biggest bucks… and which interests must be honestly acknowledged more as personal passions or pastimes (at least in their current level of proficiency) than legitimate money-makers? These self-assessing questions and others like them are just another spin on the same topic we covered last week: how best to balance economic surviving-and-thriving against the desire to do things which make you feel happy, proud, and legitimately seen as the unique individual you are. One harsh truth this Saturn-Neptune square is driving home in your world is that what we're good at isn't necessarily what we want to do. That doesn't mean you can't get better at those activities or endeavors you most enjoy over time, provided you invest concerted effort and are willing to humbly accept instruction (and criticism)… but even then, other folks may more naturally possess keener ability than you no matter how hard you work. Coming to terms with the reality of your innate capacity in certain areas—and your lack thereof in others—shouldn't be a reason to stop engaging in pursuits which aren't so easy or natural for you, but nonetheless make you smile. Please keep delighting in them. But whether you ought to hitch your material security to that particular train at this point in time is another issue altogether. In the immediate future, there are likely quicker and simpler ways to earn those extra dollars, even if creative compromises are temporarily required.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): I'll begin by linking back to last week's program, since you remain at a heightened risk of suffering 'foot-in-mouth' symptoms, Sagittarius. But rather than just leave it at that reiterated warning, I'd like to deepen our understanding of what could be at stake. Your natural propensity for communicative boldness would've likely played some role in your formative family dynamics… whether you were encouraged for having strong opinions, argued with parent-figures and/or endlessly asked them for explanations or reasons, or lived under constant threat of being 'put in your place'. As adults, we often recreate and/or react against (two sides of the same coin, actually) whatever parental model we were nurtured by (or weren't), not always seeing where we betray our own genuine needs out of habit or rebellion. The current position of Neptune in your 4th (the house both of our family upbringing and our emotional self-care), in square to multiple planets in your sign, highlights how too provocative an outward attitude and/or too brash an outburst can actually work against your deeply feeling safe, secure, and grounded—even if it momentarily feels awesome to drive your point all the way home, refusing to kowtow to anyone. While I can't connect all these dots with the perfect clarity that speaks to your specific situation, it'd behoove you to explore the links between (1) the present call for pinpointed self-restraint and (2) the lived history behind why you might not want to practice it.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Knowing when—and how—to 'leave well enough alone', Capricorn, is a wisdom you're very actively in the process of learning. Truths which may be self-evident to you, for example, sometimes must emerge in other people's consciousness of their own accord and digestible timeline... and should you instead try to force them to understand before they're able, you'll just come off as the sharp-tongued villain (while they perhaps spend an even longer time coming to it themselves, due to the resistance you evoked in them). So while certain moments of tongue-holding are therefore quite obviously preferable, that does not mean your total absence from the relevant social exchange would be wise. On the contrary, you still have your part to play in the delicate dance of supporting others in the continuing development of their ideas (since, as friends or colleagues or community-mates, where they eventually land will surely impact you)… only, more with an encouraging presence and open-ended (not leading) questions, rather than insistent instruction or some unilateral game-plan. If you find yourself contending with impatience about their pacing and/or their undue concern for some detail you find petty or beside-the-actual-point, that's when you need to excuse yourself for a few—and switch your own focus to another preoccupation, some not-yet-fully-formed concept you're still batting around in the back-recesses of your private imagination, a zone where you can keep going without having to wait for anyone else to catch up.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Part of what's likely fueling any impulse to pick sides, draw lines, or tell off certain supposed allies who you're not too sure about anymore (a la last week's horoscope), Aquarius, is your currently excessive emphasis on comparing yourself to other people, and/or them to you. Though making such comparisons is a pretty natural way of orienting one's self in the world, too much of it can cause us to lose sight of what we uniquely bring to the table—traits, qualities, skills, and resources which inextricably belong to us no matter who else may be sitting in the seat adjacent or across the table. To define yourself according to the external principles of what someone else is or isn't good at, which ideals they firmly grasp or get terribly wrong, and/or how they measure up to you in the eyes of the collective is, unfortunately, to miss the more empowering opportunity to define yourself from the inside out. Why be reactive when, instead, you can be creative? While, when at your best, you are an innovative visionary, you're presently at risk of lapsing into the far-less-respectable role of ideologue, towing whatever party-line you believe will keep you on the 'correct' side of public opinion (though we both know that's an ever-shifting compass). Though such a social stand may feel simplifying in the moment, it threatens to dilute your reputation as a free-thinker… with the potential to cost you something valuable or lucrative later.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Standing behind whatever you publicly say, Pisces, could subject you to some uncomfortable responses from folks compelled (for whatever psychologically-tangled reason of their own) to rip your words out of context and/or take them to mean something you certainly didn't intend… and, potentially, to even call your character into question. Though you may be momentarily stunned by their unjust appraisal, you mustn't let those feelings dissuade you from fighting for your good name. You are not only allowed to defend yourself, but it'll actually model great leadership in the face of antagonism—but only if your defense is as professionally presented as all your other outward communications presently ought to be, strictly focused on the particular matter you originally remarked upon, and without any potshots or low-blows aimed at personally hurting the other party. Whether conscious on their part or not, they probably want you to react in an overtly emotional manner that would throw you off your game, losing control of yourself enough to give them the upper hand. Don't play into their bait by running your mouth or running away from the situation. By simply reiterating the basic message you'd been trying to drive home all along, you'll demonstrate unflappable clarity… and an absolute refusal to make this into something it really doesn't need to be.