Horoscopes | Week of September 5-11, 2016

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Another most-effective way to keep yourself on the right track, Aries, is to allow your closest companions to help you stay aimed in the appropriate direction… and/or to let the advantages your sharp focus will ultimately bring them inspire you to continue heading that way. Lots of good stuff is happening in your relationship house (the 7th) currently: Not only is joiner-together Venus there for another few weeks, but big-deal benefic Jupiter arrives this week for a yearlong stay. In other words, it would be a shameful missed-opportunity not to rely on the kindness of main-squeezes, best-friends, and creative-partners to ease your inflamed stress-levels, to remind you of the fuller picture when you fall prey to tunnel-vision, and to bat around ideas and alternatives with. (This is especially important to remember if certain career/outer-world challenges or pressures are bearing down: That beloved person who's trying to talk you down isn't the enemy, but a great asset.) Therefore, before you blow a gasket over some unanticipated course-deviation or release a can of moralizing whoop-ass on someone you're sure deserves it, perhaps you ought to talk it through with your honey or right-hand-buddy first. Maybe they can help you put everything into clearer perspective…?

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Currently, Taurus, your secret 'weapon' (though I hate to saddle it with such a combative label) in the 'battle' (again) to assert your position, hold your ground, further your interests, or cut your losses is to optimistically spend each day improving the mundane conditions of whatever job, chore, or practice will immediately benefit from your actions. Though it would be disingenuous to imply other people (or at least your understanding of your relation to them) aren't integrally involved in this 'battle', you can expect easier victories and bigger payoffs from funneling your efforts toward aims you can actually effect with your own doing… instead of, say, hitting your head against the wall of someone else's simplistic thinking, stubborn emotion, and/or volatile impracticality, as if continuing to take on an unproductive fight would qualify as 'at least I'm trying'. Don't you want results? While there are echoes of last week's edition in my encouraging you to straightforwardly direct your attention to what you can do without other people's permission, support, or help, this week's goes further: Actively working on yourself is how you 'defeat' anybody who'd prefer to keep you as you were.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I don't want to give you the wrong idea, Gemini, by unreservedly blaring the celebratory trumpets over this week's arrival of luck-maven Jupiter to your happy-place 5th house (where it'll stay through October 2017). Yes, this is cause for celebration. Jupiter-in-the-5th will make it considerably easier to glean more pleasure from your leisure-time, to express your distinct creative spirit through your chosen mode, to attract romantic admiration and affection, and to keep the child in you (and other children in your life) full of joy. So, what's the problem? This 'fortunate' Jupiter transit will not cause these wonderful developments to occur, but merely creates a climate in which the efforts you take toward these ends will be helped along by a benefic tailwind. And if you don't do anything to actively increase the role of specific pleasure-providing activities and involvements over others, you could simply become that much more 'content' (ahem) with whatever just happens to be happening… which does nothing to enhance your true happiness, and can actually inspire discontenting complacency. (Leave it to me to spin an awesome astro-event into a cautionary tale.) It's still your job to assert particular preferences—and to not let the proverbial 'other person' call these shots, even if it delimits the relationship. But if you do so, very good things will be afoot.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The perfect complement to an increasingly active social life, Cancer, would be an increasingly snug-and-secure-feeling domestic setting… especially for a homebody like you who, under certain emotionally-intense situations, would probably prefer to do everything from the comfort of your own nest-pod. Though I believe this current uptick in interactivity serves your evolution quite well, I also respect the need for sensitive souls to have a safe place (with a door you can shut tight, at your own discretion) to unwind, decompress, and replenish. This same need for emotional safety is also fundamental to sustaining your capacity for effective day-to-day work and health habits (for proper stress-relief down time is as essential a component of a busy schedule as anything else). Should you find tensions building up over the week ahead, likely as a result of too many things to do and too many conversations to participate in, fall back on your familiar home-base comforts… with the awareness that, thanks to Jupiter's move into your solar 4th, you're welcoming a year's worth of fortunate growth-possibilities on the homefront. In other words, it's a good moment to identify which qualities of 'home' (the place and/or the concept) nurture you most deeply. Over the months to come, any actions you take to augment the role of these qualities in your private-life ought to go really well.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): 'What you want to do' versus 'what you have to handle' has become all too familiar a friction, eh, Leo? That creative-dreamer in you, the life-of-the-party, the playful-pussycat, you as a dynamic and vitally love-loving being… that most-authentic version of the one-and-only you is coming in clearer and clearer (presuming you've been keeping up with your personal self-development work), revealing exactly what it is that distinguishes you from the rest, a natural extension of you just doing whatever you genuinely enjoy the most. This life-affirming self-knowledge will not suddenly disappear from your consciousness, now that you've earned it. So you needn't give into any desperate-feeling urge to go for every last bit of everything you yearn for right this very minute—especially if it comes at the cost of taking care of this month's earthly business, which (as I've already reported) appears to involve a lot of economically-minded cleaning up, sorting through, and clamping down. Look at it this way: This friction really isn't as flatly 'either/or' as it seems at the moment; you can successfully prioritize both, if only you look at longer timelines and more gradual rollouts. Struggling to hold that perspective? Please talk to your people about the frazzling impact of this juggling-act. (For someone who's not so shy, why choose to keep this so close to your chest?)

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Don't allow personal emotion to dictate how you proceed in handling business that's not as 'personal' as it may momentarily feel, Virgo. This isn't the sort of advice I typically dole out to your sign, of course. (You're usually a champ at this kind of thing.) But the brewing standoff between a 4th-house Mars and that retrograde Mercury in your sign is a standard indicator of short fuses, subjective understandings, and insurgent attitudes. And just because you're really good at communicating with an even-tempered tone and factual evidence to back your claims, that doesn't magically signify you're not still responding according to emotional logic. To keep this unfavorable potential for impetuously making unwise calls in proper check, I recommend discouraging yourself from making decisive calls of any kind… and instead simply surveying the circumstances, taking note of what needs addressing (or, as the case may be, what's frustrating the fuck out of you), and putting your mind to the task of proposing possible remedies, without creating much visible disruption to the current state-of-affairs. As for what is working well? The benefics are telling you to quietly gather the fruits, fill your pockets, and enjoy the earned abundance.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Let the rejoicing commence, and let the games begin, Libra! As of Friday (Sep 9), you've got benevolent-king Jupiter batting for your team, a preeminently 'very-good-thing' transit that extends for over a year (into October '17). Remember that lyrical horoscope from a few weeks back about the 'party in your honor' that hadn't yet begun? Okay, now it's beginning. And it's off to an especially ripe start, too, thanks to sweet Venus also still brightening up your sign a few weeks longer. Just so we're clear, though, I try not to be an astrologer who overpromises amazing developments… and while Jupiter in your sign is pretty awesome, it won't just deliver all its potential awesomeness to your doorstep like some giant sweepstakes check. You have to go out and make shit happen, or else Jupiter's easing-up energies will merely enable you to settle more contentedly into status-quo situations which aren't that genuinely gratifying. (There can't be a party in your honor if you don't organize the party, invite people, and show up.) If you do grab the reins and work to actualize a bigger-and-better version of yourself, however, you'll receive great astrological support. This is the time to start doing it, then. One quick warning for this particular week-ahead: No important discussions. Or really much of any substantive conversation at all. You literally may have no idea what you and/or they are saying.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): An insurgent Mars-managed part of you may start feeling pretty sick-and-tired of all the cooperative methods, politically-appropriate messaging, and team-minded behavioral expectations, Scorpio. Remind this part of you, please, that this is an essential aspect of nabbing more of what you strive so hard for (maybe not right this very minute, but in the end)… and that to disregard this fact, just to make some noise about a specific agenda or concern you fear is getting lost in all the feelgood groupthink, will actually work against that very thing. Especially while Mercury's retrograde in your social-network house (the 11th). Your most profitable strategy at the moment, at least when it comes to your own direct interests (particularly your economic ones), would be a relatively conservative wait-and-see. Despite what the hungry go-getter inside you might believe, you should probably firm up what you've already got rather than rattle for more right now. With both benefics (Venus and Jupiter) in your 12th as of this week, this holding-it-together on behalf of future gains is a shrewd posture.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): This week's astrology should put you on high alert against resolving too quickly, speaking too bluntly, and pushing too forcefully, Sagittarius. Yes, I know these are behaviors I warn you about pretty regularly (especially this year, when Mars has been mercilessly poking you), but I swear I'm not just crying wolf. Multiple coinciding astro-factors suggest that, if you do succumb to such impulses, the potential fallout could be quite prominent (if not just notably embarrassing). But you're also in luck: You've got a rich well of comradely support to presently draw upon, in the form of friends and/or colleagues who can both understand where you're coming from and help talk you down… provided you actually call on them prior to trying to move something along, interject your point, argue over a premise, or otherwise 'get to the heart of the matter' yourself. Not everyone is quite so directly impacted by this astrology. A pal or peer may well have a much better shot at taking on these certain duties, dialogues, or determinations, at least right now. And you will be stronger and more effective by tapping into this spirit of togetherness—and knowing when to seek guidance from others, or even pass the baton off to them.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Your public profile will be increasing over the coming months, Capricorn, as a result of Jupiter's appearance at the apex of your solar chart (i.e., the 10th house) where your ongoing efforts are exposed to the high-noon light for everyone to see. Though this is typically seen as an excellent astro-happening, it can easily come and go with little fanfare if you don't grab the ball and run somewhere with it that'll carry you closer to actualizing your out-in-the-world ambitions. What will you do to capitalize on this advantageous opening, then? No need to conclusively answer right away. There remains enough planetary presence in your 12th (including two impinged-upon malefics) for me to advise you to still stay cool… and, as far as any initiated action is concerned, to concentrate mainly on privately slashing-and-burning through psychic residue from your past, battling back demons, neutralizing the force of any self-sabotage behaviors, and clearing the metaphysical field. Don't engage in externalized combat, or even risk doing so by sending out the antagonistic vibes which might attract it. Your critical moment to get shit going begins at the end of this month.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Cultivate, coddle, and cherish your now-developing vision for your world-widening next-steps, the imminent adventure(s) on your calendar, and/or your entire gorgeous future, Aquarius. These astrological shifts currently unfolding are cosmically intended to re-inspire your prophetic genius… to get you patently excited again about what else there is to do, see, feel, experience, and learn from. This hinge-moment is just the beginning of a perceptual opening-out which will evolve over the next many months, contributing to an upgrade in your understanding of just how you (a unique Aquarian galactic-soul in a realm inhabited by dense earth-beings) might deliver more of your particular brand of magic to a world that desperately needs it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, please. You don't have to worry about the worldly life-work part just yet. In this upcoming phase, it's more important to nourish your curiosities, explore unfamiliar territory, and/or pursue a search-for-greater-meaning. And your immediate work? To carefully protect your developing vision from naysayers, rivals, pests, and anyone else who lacks imagination. Do so, however, with modest corrections and subtle distancing techniques—not bombastic arguments or attention-grabbing pronouncements.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Gently massage these complexities into optimal place, Pisces, rather than ramming cumbersome life-components into tight spots. Other people's psychologies need to be mulled over, played to, worked. But instead of using your knowledge of others to try rescuing them from themselves, mobilize it as a leg-up boost for your own climb. Hey, what's so wrong with a degree of self-serving purposefulness in your relational dealings? You don't have to be an asshole about tending to your aspirations. It's not like they aren't getting something from their union with you, too. You give; you take. So please afford yourself the benefits of that latter part of the deal, then… without pretending you don't have your own big target(s) you're grabbing for. If you dare disown this rush of personal desire, it'll leak through your sincerest attempts at 'just being there' for anyone else (because, well, you aren't as 'sure, whatever' as you might wish to be, and Mercury is retrograde). Help them understand how you feel, in just the certain way that appeals to how they feel—and allow that to inspire 'em to give you something.