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Horoscopes | Week of March 14-20, 2016

ARIES (March 21-April 19): There remains in you a bit of a struggle, Aries, between (1) getting your consciousness fully on board with believing in your inevitable success at assuming the special role that the Divine (however you may conceive of it, even if as mere metaphor) has set out for you and (2) feeling as if you must take some sensational step now which would indicate your staunch dedication to 'getting on with it already'. Let me be clear that the former consideration is presently more pressing than the latter—though your antsy impulses might try to tell you otherwise—especially at a time when such 'sensational steps' might distract you from more modest duties, to-do items, or bodily self-preservation practices that are immediately necessary and/or advantageous to address. Your mind is momentarily more attracted to epic, imaginative ideas-for-tomorrow than to patiently organizing the still-dangling loose ends in your present work-environment. As such, it can't be as trustily relied upon to provide a shrewdly-ordered set of priorities. That's why I'm here: For this week, continue entertaining your innovative brilliance, but hold its beckoning action-steps mostly on the back burner while you neaten up the existing pile-o'-assignments. If you must take some step, don't let it be so dramatic that it forces you to keep advancing at an unwieldy pace.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): How intensely do you wish to enmesh yourself, Taurus, in a quagmire of complexities and conflicts which show no glimpses of imminent resolution? How important is it for you to stand your ground, press your point, or rally for position right now? Because these rhetorical questions are inspired by the dual residence of Mars and Saturn in your 8th, I'm moved to point out that the circumstances relevant to what I'm asking about are likely to linger, in one form or another, for some months to come… and, therefore, the choices you make at this moment ought to take this protracted time-span into account. In fact, for the current time, a cadre of squaring 11th-house planets is making its pitch for a relatively more personally detached, strategically tactful, live-and-let-live tone to your general comportment—not because you intend to cede any contested territory to the other party in the long-term end-game, but in an intentional move to responsibly pace the unfolding, for maximally competent handling. For example, you needn't fan the flames of an ongoing standoff by publicly taking sides, whether by outwardly agreeing or disagreeing with any less-involved individual's viewpoint, when it's easier to say nothing of consequence. By simply absorbing the general strains of community opinion (as well as any informational gossip), you'll be quietly strengthening your case… for a later occasion when you may well have to defend it (at all costs?).

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Dream big, Gemini, about what's possible for you out there on the grand stage of worldly accomplishment. Though you might never achieve everything that's included in your wide-eyed vision, it's always better to carry a dream several sizes larger than what you can reasonably realize based on your here-and-now circumstances… if only to leave enough room to be touched by the luck-proctoring hand of magical beneficence. Of course, if you're under the influence of somebody whose role in your life is presently excessive (meaning: it's really hard to invest your heart in a goal or purpose when it's hopelessly devoted to this individual and/or your relationship with them) and/or who may seek to undermine your ambitions so as to keep you under their thumb, you might find yourself disinclined to bother striving for more. Unfortunately, sacrificing your fullest potential for another person (or 'other people' in general)—which is tantamount to deciding to quit trying so emphatically to publicly be your greatness—would be a mistake. You actually don't have to choose between your own ambitions and your involvement in a compelling partnership, if that partner values you as a complete person (and not just that side of your personality which gives them what they want). Look at any such participation, first and foremost, through the lens of how it makes you feel about everything else you're simultaneously attempting to pull off.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I feel like last week's horoscope did a pretty good job of cutting to the core of your current dilemma, Cancer. How can you persist with sincere faith in a not-fully-formed, yet nonetheless ultra-inspiring perspective on your future potentials while still staying up-to-date with all the everyday essentials and obligations the Universe (or whatever wacky manager is running its operations) keeps throwing at you? This same tangle of competing interests continues to color your consciousness this week, too… with both a strong impetus on you to persevere with the ongoing efforts related to properly handling here-and-now's business and an unqualified allegiance to believing that your forthcoming horizons will prove far broader in scope and/or purposefulness. A surprisingly effective way to proactively promote this forward-facing belief: paying closer mind to the words you're using (both with yourself and others) to describe your present status, so as not to unconsciously contribute to pessimistic messages about what else may be possible. Expend a little extra effort in stripping away the habitual repetition of phrases which denigrate your abilities or self-worth, dissuade you from trying new things, and/or resign yourself to dissatisfaction. Though part of you might indeed doubt your capacity for greater self-fulfillment in the future, don't keep telling yourself that. And when people ask about how you are? Try to couple a current-moment snapshot with a bit of anticipatory hype about what's coming up next.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Part of the inevitable sizzle between two people who are getting to know each much better (or who really want to), Leo, is learning that what they like may be decidedly novel and/or alien to what you're accustomed to (and, of course, vice versa with your preferences and their expectations)… followed by the nervously fun-and-titillating treasure-hunt of excavating more deeply into these differences, to discover what prior limitations-of-experience this new communion could help you to transcend. In order to play this dynamic toward its most passionate promise, you must be willing both to follow and to lead, to acquiesce and assert, to be flexible but also forthright. This is the only effective way to simultaneously come to know them more fully and allow yourself to become more fully known. Therefore, you really shouldn't center your getting-to-know efforts around a total capitulation to whatever makes them happy, lest they develop the wrong idea about who you are based on your most accommodating behaviors (and then, later, find themselves shocked that you aren't merely at their beck-and-call). Please disagree if you genuinely disagree. Please speak up if you want it to go differently. Please share your desires. Of course, if you wish to grow from this involvement, you'll probably also need to push back against any of your own obstinate kneejerk refusals to try new things. This is the necessary balance of developing interpersonal closeness.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Relationship-building is key to becoming the best person you can be, Virgo. It is indeed a hollow victory when we reach our highest aspirations only to find that our single-minded pursuit has led us to virtual isolation, as we collaterally shed those we once claimed to care so much about, due to our protracted inattention. With this in mind, you mustn't allow yourself to become so blinded by the benefic blur of all you're now able to accomplish that you forget to reserve enough energy for those less-tangible interpersonal aims, such as companionship, shared experience, and emotional interdependence. If instead you feel you've been saddled by an immoderate involvement with someone who, though you might feel fondness and/or responsibility for them, is draining more energy from you than you're getting back, you could notice an intensifying undertow is trying to suck you further back in. If you're in such a spot, please understand your own evolutionary potential is being unquestionably hindered by your continuing to offer yourself up in this sacrificial manner. Whether you're presently too self-focused, too other-person-centered, or mindfully attempting to strike the smartest balance, your most important insights to draw from aren't practical or logic-driven; they reside in the heart. Are you squandering or starving a relationship that really matters to you? Or are you selling yourself short, just to cater to a certain someone? Rather than think too much, try feeling into it.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): It'll be that much easier to immerse yourself in the surprisingly self-gratifying doing of the deeds now heaped atop your plate, Libra, if you keep remembering that this is the rightful plate-clearing step in your larger process of creating something else. I know I keep pointing further down the road at future potentials—and I suppose, if you're trying to 'advance to the next level' right this very minute, you might be a little sick and tired of waiting—but simply holding this awareness of imminently approaching opportunity (and insistently clutching to it whenever you fall prey to doubting whether you're 'headed anywhere good') should be enough of a motivation to keep getting shit done, just as eager soon-to-be-graduates can more effectively soldier through their end-of-term work knowing it's a finite entity and they'll soon be free. It is important, naturally, you come up for air at regular intervals (for you are at a certain risk of becoming so totally consumed by your buzzing industriousness that you deplete your physical reserves to dangerous lows). When you take breaks, please spend just enough effort staying in touch with your local cast of day-to-day characters that you don't become missed, worried about, or excluded from important conversations. Too much overly-involving chit-chat, however, is an escapist tactic which will only prolong the heaping-over status of your workload (and the corresponding nervousness it stirs).

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): As we touched on last week, Scorpio, there's a very strong idealistic, romanticizing streak now permeating your astrological forecast… which, in large part, is celestially designed to reenergize your life-giving senses, inspire you to foster as much pleasure and delight as you can muster, and remind you why love is almost always the answer to any question or quandary. This vibe can create especially wonderful experiences of connection whenever you choose to go the extra mile in your moment-to-moment communications, sharing a kind-and-uplifting sentiment with someone who could probably use it (instead of convincing yourself it would be too weird to say that), being fearlessly honest about your true emotional circumstances (rather than just telling them you're 'fine' and squandering a chance for sincere intimacy), and/or reaching out to folks who'd love to just know they're on your mind (and not allowing our endlessly busy schedules to serve as an excuse for cutting ourselves off from each other). There's very little I want to say as a warning against indulging this to its fullest, since we could all benefit from you taking this week's advice to its logical extreme, though I probably should offer this: Don't confuse your own self-serving interests (which do need simultaneous attention) with offerings of pure, open-hearted loving-kindness. The only way you'll 'mess this up' is by exploiting the language of romantic idealism to close a deal or otherwise 'get paid'.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Be a little more sweet, sensual, and seductive… with yourself, dear Sagittarius. Why treat an encounter with your own life like a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am? Alternate 'all systems go' with a heavy helping of 'luxurious lie-about'. If you're going to cram your day full of defining advances, please make sure to spend the evening screeching to a crawl, lolling about the living room, remembering the endearing immaturities of yesteryear and paying nostalgic homage to the helping-hands that got you here. Wake up one morning a little misty for no reason? Then, that's your indication to take it slower for the succeeding hours. Balance onward motion against periodic replenishment. Flirt with your reflection in the mirror. If you're lured to pause at home for a few additional minutes of private self-nurturing tenderness, your heroic feats will wait. I couldn't be more supportive of you taking the fullest advantage possible of this importantly intense time. But I can't stress enough: You must not diminish, discredit, or discount the presently high value of innate emotional wisdom, even if it whispers guidance which seems to collide with the marching orders your rational mind has issued. You can (and really should) heed both voices, encouraging them to dialogue with each other. Should you seek to overpower the softer, subtler, shyer one because it's temperamental or inconvenient, you'll be dishonoring a part of yourself in your rush to conquer the world… and you will suffer from this slight, if not now then once life slows down again.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): It's a week for finessing that fine art of staying chattily in the conversation, Capricorn, but without really saying anything which might engender forceful responses (other than, perhaps, an extra-hearty guffaw at your wry charms). One surefire method for doing just that: losing yourself in other people's stories, encouraging them to continue spilling heaps of potentially enlightening tea by asking lots of engaged open-ended questions. Think of it as your loving act of holding space and bearing witness to the variety of human experience (and of ways in which humans make sense of their experience by narrativizing it)… which also means, therefore, stopping short of passing judgment on the types of interests, worries, preoccupations, or obsessions they might be talking incessantly about (as if what compels your attention is always that much more profound or thought-provoking). Oddly enough, this type of non-judgmental exposure to diverse voices will actually support you, over the longer run, in making clearer decisions about who ultimately is worthy of more of your time: Getting past the first-impression level with those who may initially appear to be barking up some totally meaningless or irrelevant tree, you'll grow better at identifying the distinguishing marks of a truly (even if, yes, surprisingly) interesting person—and they might not be quite what you'd assume. But if you curtail this wider social exposure by cutting people off, tuning 'em out, or 'innocently' provoking conflict, you miss out on this odd perspective-twisting learning opportunity.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): The absolute best thing you can do for your own bottom-line (speaking both financially and more broadly), Aquarius, is to leave the door open for additional agreements, amendments, and/or about-faces in situations where you might've thought the 'final word' had already been spoken. No, this unapologetic amenability to welcoming new possibilities or further developments does nothing to help simplify your current position. If anything, it invites in the same sort of mind-addling complications which have already caused you a certain degree of confusion, uncertainty, and/or distress in recent months. But (and this is a big one), on the other hand, it also leaves open the potential for you to end up with a much more lucrative piece of the pie later… provided you can successfully continue riding these steep waves of unsettling emotion, based (at least in part) on somebody else's wishes or whims (whether they're fear-driven on their part and/or seemingly semi-sadistic). Beware of peer pressure (either real or imagined) aimed toward convincing you to 'move on already'—a piece of advice which, in no uncertain terms, goes against the premise of 'leaving doors open'—out of some erroneous notion that we show strength by drawing firm dividing-lines and, subsequently, appear weak by remaining willing to negotiate. If 'negotiating' feels too risky or distasteful, think of it as 'asking innocent follow-up questions' any time you get an answer you don't like.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Graciously receive what's coming to you, Pisces. It's not your job to question others' flattering observations or fawning affections, as if you need to provide modesty-supporting evidence for why they've gotten it wrong (or maybe it's you who's wrongly underestimated yourself?)… and it's definitely not becoming to reject it outright. While it is true this week's Venus-Neptune conjunction in your sign can deliver appealing exchanges and favorable outcomes based, at least partly, on other people's hopeful or idealizing impressions of you, there isn't any reason you need to make a point of correcting them straight away. For one, they may be seeing something which really is in you—whether underutilized, dormant, disavowed—and their recognition of it should be interpreted as a divine instruction for you to start flexing that muscle more often and/or overtly. For another, the very act of receiving (which is often harder for Pisceans to master than its flip-side, giving) carries much larger ripples-of-consequence than merely whether you comfortably consider yourself deserving. Further developments, potentially for the betterment of many other players beyond just you, will be set into motion when any certain someone decides to offer you an expression of their good graces. If your performed humility or self-effacing stance gets in the way of that, then who knows what other happy happenings won't end up happening?