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Horoscopes | Week of October 31-November 6, 2016

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Just because you can see past this stubborn sticking-point pause, Aries, that doesn't mean you've finished ironing out the essential details surrounding why you got stuck here in the first place. This therefore situates you in an awkward straddle, as you're simultaneously (1) under top-down pressures to endure through this prolonged discomfort, in order to demonstrate your unflappably strong stomach for even the most belabored or challenging conversations, and (2) experiencing an ever-clearer eagerness to move on to the next set of exciting activities, which could leave you willing to say or do nearly anything to get this dragging negotiation wrapped up. Don't rush through these most-annoying last steps, though, since you're liable to let certain considerations slip right through your fingers… mainly as a result of not having listened carefully enough and/or asked thorough enough questions so that you understand why those considerations are so important. In other words, caving to your impatience will only leave you with a less-ideal result from this bargain. Hopefully, however, you can still see through to the other side, allowing you to start genuinely stoking the anticipatory glee for what you'll soon get to enjoy.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Stay in it with them, Taurus. Don't cut the dialogue short, by charging you've hit against some ethical breach or lapse-of-judgment on their part which you just can't get past. While your visceral defense of the pertinent principles is admirable, it could become a hindrance to attaining your own best-possible outcome… mainly because not many people will want to continue earnestly attempting to hammer out a delicate agreement alongside someone who looks down on them, insinuating some moral lacking as a way to squash legitimate dissent. If you believe your perspective truly does represent a more just, righteous, or principled outlook, the onus is on you to convincingly explain your thinking to the other involved party—not with condescension or shaming, but by talking through the philosophic logic behind each of your conclusions, in a cooperative tone meant to extend the direct relevance of these fundamentals you've prioritized to specific examples they will find meaningful. Trust me, you'll want the other party to catch on to your drift… and to feel free (once they're no longer under threat of personal indictment) to riff off your recommendations with further extrapolations and tangents. That's because your most fertile advantages at the moment come straight from such intense intermingling of suggestions and stakes—and from you leaving room for the spontaneous interjection of a 'eureka!' from an outside influence.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): For a breath of social fresh-air, I recommend inviting your best pal or main squeeze to take you somewhere you haven't been, Gemini… to meet some of their chums, to expose you to an unfamiliar environment, and/or to give you an opportunity to play up a different side of your personality which hasn't gotten much attention lately. The week's trine between connection-fosterer Venus in your relationship house (the 7th) and wild-card Uranus in the zone of communities and friend-groups (the 11th) promises you happy surprises when you lean on an existing interpersonal affinity to introduce you to new faces, unexplored niches, and novel inputs. Meanwhile, in your work sector, please continue devoting ample brainpower to fixing any persistent problems-at-hand... concentrating mainly on getting the damn thing to function properly, and worrying less about impressing those in charge with the 'right' answer. Undue concern with how a possible solution might look—which is all about image rather than substance—will take you out of the results-oriented mindset likeliest to yield you a breakthrough. Ironically, your refusal to put on a show for the powers-that-be (because, of course, you're too damn busy digging into the actual job) will put forth an ideal impression of you as someone who cares about the work first.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Work-wise, this is an optimal time to proudly display the stylistic grace with which you gladly attack the tasks on your proverbial desk, Cancer. Your capacity to streamline any unnecessarily clunky process, based on your properly understanding the main purpose behind a given assignment (rather than merely mimicking the same steps folks have been mindlessly repeating for too long now), will reflect quite favorably on you as an innovator who considers the bigger picture before investing much effort in outdated or inefficient methods. Meanwhile, as far as your interpersonal relations (not just romantic ones) are concerned, you're presently able to frankly articulate exactly what you'd be happiest to receive out of your association with a given individual… and it would thusly be a shame if you passed up this golden chance to tell that person, due to your trepidation about how the existing dynamic might be irreversibly altered. By not speaking up, you'll only perpetuate that underlying state of disempowerment which leads you to believe you must honor everyone else's moment-to-moment comfort by passing up your own opportunity to seek greater satisfaction. Ask for what you want. The worst they can do is decline to oblige, which would at least 'alter' the 'dynamic' of you holding unfeasible expectations of them.

LEO (July 23-August 22): Your week strongly favors the taking-in of outsiders' eye-opening impressions, foreign outlooks, and alternative interpretations, Leo… not as some flattened-out book-smarts instructive, however, but through direct experiential exposure to what it might be like to walk a few steps in their shoes. Don't think my advising you to open to others' influences is an inference that you're somehow erring and thus require correction. Rather, this is more a case of you allowing yourself space to be positively piqued, prompted, or provoked by the exciting way someone else looks at the world. While you of course also possess certain life-wisdoms that others would benefit from hearing about, the astrology is currently oriented toward you remaining more distinctly on the receptive end of such exchanges. As you're thinking about how your day-to-day existence promotes a sense of inner emotional well-being and/or detracts from it, you need not feel obliged to articulate your still-forming findings. Instead, invite yourself to unreservedly bask in another person's light. Presuming you choose the company of somebody you authentically find intelligent and/or interesting, your open-minded basking in their insightfulness will only fuel this fondness… in whatever shape that may take.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): You'll draw more unwanted attention to yourself with your absence, Virgo, than you would if you just showed up (begrudgingly, if need be) and purposely aimed to be a reasonably unremarkable non-presence. Once you're there, of course, you're under no obligation to remain so nondescript—particularly if some topic arises which you do feel strongly about, one way or another—but you certainly could if you so chose, and no one would be likely to interfere. Hopefully that'll be sufficient logic to override the urge to ditch out altogether, even as your present impulse to reserve yourself ample emotional distance is definitely worth acknowledging. But perhaps because it would be unwise for you to simply disappear from view at a time when you're inescapably on other people's radars, you therefore ought to make the absolute most of those moments when you can steal away. Because your outward social commitments do oblige you to stay connected while you're 'on the clock', you therefore have every right to be relatively uncompromising with what you're doing in your 'off time'. Leave all the diplomatic bullshit on the porch when you get home, then lock your fucking door… and thoroughly relish every bit of your after-hours, behind-the-scenes decompression.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): You lay out a truth, a simple request, a statement of where your personal interests reside… and then, Libra, you ready yourself to deftly absorb the reverberations of any response you may receive. State your case; the equilibrium gets thrown off. Hear their retort; use your social adeptness to return the scales to an affable rapport-point. You'll emanate powerful acceptance of reality by swerving along with their curveballs, like a smartly-engineered structure is built to sway within its mooring while staying securely anchored. If you find their behavior irksome or offputting, you won't gain ground by flashing any personal contempt at them. You can vent your anger or offense later, when you're not busy representing yourself with a calm tolerance for all possible human reactions (no matter how deviant), as evidence of your value to any fair proceeding. Yes, you want to be as 'fair' as you can… which requires you to resist falling victim to whatever personality-driven distraction somebody thrusts at you, and to treat their conscious-or-not baiting attitude like you would any difficult party-guest who you still must cordially host despite their difficultness. That way, you're indirectly forcing them to engage with your specific self-designated business on its own terms.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Keep bringing forth copious amounts of freely-offered information, insight, opinion, and perspective, Scorpio. You're presently operating as an open channel of ingenuity and inspiration, directly hooked up to an ever-flowing spigot of enthusiastic ideas and suggestions… and, as such, this is not the time for trying to contain, control, or divert this streaming, out of egoic concern for what will happen to any one of these notions and/or who will get credit for it. Your standard tactic of holding observations close to your chest (so as to first shrewdly position yourself to receive the maximum impact from your disclosure) won't be your best approach at the moment, mainly because any consideration which might interfere with and/or obstruct this instinctive gush of raw brainstorm material is a threat to its unfettered continuance. Worrying about personal ownership of such material won't presently serve your interests. Please trust, however, that your unreserved willingness to participate so immersively in this critical creative-stage of the game will be noticed by the other participants… and will almost certainly raise your stock in their eyes, so long as you don't look like you're doing so only for such self-serving ends.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): It's a good week for breaking through whatever apprehensions you've been harboring, Sagittarius, by reminding yourself you needn't put all other gaiety-providing activities on hold until such apprehension-stirring issues get resolved. Yes, it does appear these more serious matters would benefit from you continuing to quietly think them over (rather than trying to premature wrap them up)… but this is not the only thing you've got going on, please remember. At the same time, a pleasurably invigorating Venus-Uranus trine from your 1st to your 5th suggests you can happily bide your time, as long as you're willing to bust open that sober-seeming surface-tension you'd otherwise be carrying with you—and, instead, to accept whatever invitations for uncomplicated fun come across your path. You're far likelier than usual to elicit enjoyable experiences and/or connections with interesting interpersonal prospects, provided you're open to uttering a venturesome 'yes' even when your intently-brooding inner strategist might lean toward insisting on a 'no' so as not to disturb all that intent brooding. Don't squander Venus's current pleasure-bestowing promise by living in your head. Sometimes, 'thinking things through' can benefit from taking a life-affirming good-time break.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Willingly adopt the language of your trustiest comrades, Capricorn, rather than thinking you must put some individuating spin on a discourse that others have already developed to a fine level of sophistication. It's simply not productive to reinvent this wheel, as if to imply that your word on this matter would be any more cogent or persuasive than all prior efforts made to press this point of shared interest. Instead, it would be enough to add your voice to this distinguished chorus, emphasizing your solidarity with the existing experts in the field and allowing them to stand in the glow of their esteemed ideas. Should you not make this team-minded support explicit and instead give off the erroneous impression that you're a lone wolf who valiantly came up with all this on your own, you're rightly tempting others to reject whatever you have to say… on the obvious basis that you're more oriented toward making a name for yourself than working cooperatively to pursue a common goal. This is more a moment for vocally cheering on others' contributions, deploying the same strategic phrasings and focal-points they used, than for seeking to elicit resounding attention for yourself—unless, that is, it's attention for being a true-blue ally to the other members of your tribe.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): A major astrological vibe-change is due to hit your sign next week, Aquarius, once animator-and-activator Mars arrives for a six-week revitalizing stint. With that in mind, I'd deem this coming week as an excellent preparatory moment, during which I advise you to check in with any officials, authorities, critical teammates, and/or those whose roles are liable to be affected by all the developments you're about to rapidly start putting in motion. If you need institutional approval or a certain someone's signoff, do so now. If you'll benefit from hearing others' recommendations about how to proceed, seek out this feedback as soon as you can. And if you're still harboring some terrifying fear or panic, please don't quietly let it eat away at your confidence; talk it through with someone you consider older, wiser, and/or more experienced until it's no longer growling so fiendishly at you from backstage. I want you get all these necessary relational interactions taken care of soon, so that, once Mars shows up, you can simply dive in to the doing. After a year of many disappointing draggings-on, you may find yourself quite surprised by how much you wind up accomplishing in these final weeks of '16.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Bold visions for your future greatness are in no short supply, Pisces… but, at the moment, they're likelier to actually develop into something beyond a mere flight-of-fancy if you lean on encouraging friends, like-minded colleagues, and willing collaborators to both stoke your passions and hold you accountable for taking action. This poses an interesting parallel to last week's horoscope, which was all about nabbing a realistic snapshot of your current professional (and/or public-world) position. After all, 'realism' is often pitted against the creative open-field of such a notion as 'bold visions for your future greatness'. Yet, striking an appropriate balance between these two is perhaps the critical element of concrete manifestation. Just so you know, you'll have continuing astrological support over the next many months for any self-starter risks, specifically related to directly investing more of what you've already got toward your actualizing your greater life-ambition(s)… provided, that is, you're willing to continue working in a sustained fashion, in that particular direction of your choosing, even when the road gets rocky. That should hopefully be inspiration enough to stir a rousing commitment in you at this crucial moment of pulling together the different pieces, with realism and bold vision.