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Horoscopes | Week of March 13-19, 2017

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Mercury's in your sign this week, Aries, just as I told you it'd be… and as this planetary chatterbox conjoins with a now-retrograde Venus, you can gain illuminating flipside insight into any unexamined assumptions about who is (and isn't) fondly drawn to you by simply saying whatever the heck comes to your mind and observing how they react. Because of Venus-rx's notorious relational mischief, please expect surprises. For instance, a person you always thought was lukewarm in feeling or interested only on a platonic level could suddenly behave quite enthusiastically adoring or amorous towards you. Or the reverse: Someone you've taken for granted as totally trusty or easy-to-be-with might bristle or bicker in offense to an utterance you'd never have thought they wouldn't appreciate. Neither possibility (nor anything in between) would be a development I'd bother attempting to fend off, though. Any such unexpected attraction or aversion may prove fleeting, especially if it was just a Venus-rx glitch in the matrix. The fact it got you looking at that person differently—and maybe rethinking your attitude towards them—is what really matters.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Be there, Taurus, in your full Mars-emboldened presence. No one will miss the mark you'll make. No one will mistake you for a pushover, a nebbish, or a wallflower. Propensities or hungers you're harboring are very likely to come through loud and clear. But don't make any of this a topic of conversation (as if you need to tell people all about what they're plainly picking up from you), for your attempted articulation is liable to backfire, on the grounds that your actions will speak much more accurately than whatever bumbling or bungled words dart from your mouth at any given moment. In fact, with Mercury joining Venus in your perception-distorting 12th house, I wouldn't set out to initiate conversations about anything meant to represent yourself, your state-of-mind, your interests, or your feelings toward anyone else, if I were you. Nor, for that matter, would I actively try to elicit a defining statement from anyone else about their feelings toward you. It's momentarily too hard to discern their maybe-still-shifting notions from your own hopes, fears, and/or projections. Right now, just being fully and unmistakably there is the correct current step in this unfolding discernment process.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): 'Not being quite sure' is only a liability when you're unwilling to claim its truth, Gemini. It also happens to be a great reason not to proceed any further onward, but to stay here a spell and feel out your next moves. Usually-propulsive Mars is now more sluggish and security-focused, due to its current residence in your 12th (where it stays into the second half of April)… meaning you shouldn't confidently take any step without at least leaving the other foot firmly planted in less-risky territory. But please do feel free to talk out your uncertainties with pals, peers, and partners-in-crime, with no shame about harboring mixed feelings about your 'purpose' or 'calling' and whether you're presently situated in a suitable role. Since you aren't quite sure, their active involvement in helping flesh out insights about what you want should be welcomed as vital input (rather than pushed away in an attempt to posture as if you don't need anyone's help). All the while, pay mind to your instincts, should they inform you certain characters' version of 'help' is more about promoting their interests than supportively sorting out yours.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Sincerely caring about the preservation of certain values or virtues—even when whatever needs to be handled is so utterly mundane that the pertinent 'values' or 'virtues' might seem to some like extraneous concerns—could put you at odds with those who don't sincerely care about preserving them, Cancer. But if you're going to be 'at odds' with someone (especially under such admittedly public conditions), it might as well be over a reputable practice or standard-of-decency that's precious to you. We covered this ground last week from the angle of you necessarily curtailing any overly idealistic visions that weren't very likely to functionally work. Yet, your impulse to dream so big that you'd be able to achieve great things and still feel proudly aligned with who you are beyond this singular zone-of-achievement isn't off the mark at all. Keep speaking up about your sincere cares… though please be sure to use first-person statements of belief, rather than lapsing into a self-righteous performance of supposedly 'objective' rights and wrongs. Regardless of circumstantial outcomes, you'll come off as admirably scrupulous.

LEO (July 23-August 22): There's a certain strength-through-vulnerability you'll be able to nobly wield, Leo, by acknowledging the nuances behind your driving purpose, stance, or belief… though such an acknowledgment needn't mean you must temper the passion with which you nonetheless pursue it. The 'nuances' I'm talking about will come from properly marrying your loud-and-proud motive with the actual lived-experience(s) out of which it was born, allowing your own personal journey to underscore your defense of exactly why this is so important to you. This will humanize what might otherwise sound like a fiery sermon full of philosophic absolutes, devoid of any recognition that different people develop different meaning-systems based on the different lives they've led. Your case is therefore stronger when you speak from the heart about how you, as an individual, ended up venerating one particular perspective over another… while, at the same time, leaving room for contesters to chime in with their relevant histories. They can't very well argue with you about your own experiences—and you'll get an illuminating window into what psychic imprint informs their stance.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Ambivalence and confusion are slowly but surely cohering into an unmistakable guidepost, Virgo, pointing out the direction it looks like you'll be headed. (Of course you could change your mind about it—just as anybody can at any time, dare I state the obvious—so that ever-present possibility shouldn't overshadow what is now coming into view.) But just because you're beginning to possess this awareness of a general directional pull, that's doesn't mean you are any more certain about how to get there. Here's what I can recommend on that front: Don't try to artificially 'get your shit together' in order to reassure, impress, or show up the other relevant player(s). It's perfectly okay to voice your present emotional situation without all the disparate parts fitting together into a neatly-resolved stance, argument, or outcome. Let the passions, fears, frustrations, and/or other feverish feelings arise in their natural form. Most of all, trust that your full psychological forthrightness will get you where your fullest psychological self needs to go, even if it's a bumpy ride on the way.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): A big part of truly getting to the core of any disorienting, demanding, and/or disputed issue, Libra, is doing a lot of listening. But intently listening for a certain detail or dimension to be disclosed—because you're expecting it and/or it'd provide the missing link to a story you've already mostly constructed—is not the sort likely to yield any new nugget of profundity which could cause the situation to transform. You have to listen to them on their wavelength, with as much clear-slate receptivity as you can muster, if you hope to hear not only their words but the emotional signature imprinted on them. That emotional stamp which characterizes them (and what they're willing, able, and interested to provide you as a result) is ultimately more important than the specific language, for shrewd rhetoricians or sharp deconstructionists can mold particular terms into meaning nearly anything or critically reduce them to nothing. Use this same rationale on your end of the communications, too: Talk to them in the tone and terminology that vibes most closely with how they think and speak. You don't want to be 'right' as badly as you want them to just hear you.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): If it's going to come to proverbial blows with a certain someone, Scorpio, let it be because you wouldn't abandon a certain hope that's in your shamelessly sappy heart. Please understand, though, that what's 'sappily heartfelt hope' to one person (namely, you) may sound a lot more like undue inflexibility or fussy pigheadedness to someone seeking to interject the always-to-fall-short reality of their existence into your present life-conception. They might not be asking you to 'abandon hope' just because they may see different possibilities for how your heart gets filled. But before you exasperatedly remind me it's your heart we're talking about ('… so how the fuck would they know how to satisfy its cravings?!?'), step back a bit from that simmering sense of interpersonal threat which would provoke such a reply. Don't let what could be a simple discussion of alternate methods, ordering-of-steps, and/or pacing end up degenerating into a battle-of-wills. Entertaining the possibility of altering the incremental day-to-day enactment of your ideals doesn't mean you're letting the ideals themselves be trampled upon.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Two items-of-note to share, Sagittarius. (1) Might as well be fearlessly open about what you want to be doing, how you'd like to do it, and who you'd like to do it with. Don't be shy. Don't mince your words. Put it out on the table. You know, that sort of thing. This advice doesn't mean you're going to get it all exactly to your liking, of course. It may not work out. The other person(s)-of-interest might say no. Or, surprise of surprises, you could discover this isn't as appealing as you'd imagined it would be. On the other hand, it could be way better… or at least way different. How could you have known? This is the only way. (2) All the while, Mars is sending mad support to your mundane-duty zone (your solar 6th), with a dose of earthy diligence and perseverance that's especially useful as an antidote to your trademark Sagittarian impatience. This is an excellent moment to tackle those tasks or obligations which require continual repetitive effort over a period of time. Not only would this be obviously useful for making practical progress, but it's also a grounding antidote to too frenzying an engagement with that first item-of-note.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): It's more pressing that you do something fun for yourself this week, Capricorn—and that you define 'fun' according to your own terms, not by any external standards—than bend over backwards to appropriately suit other people's expectations. It's also totally fine to respond to anybody's obvious desire to engage, supposed need for an explanation, and/or prying questions about situations that don't directly involve or interest you with a cordial, 'I don't have much to say [about that] at the moment.' In fact, these two declarations have more in common with each other than may first be apparent. That's because what you have to 'say' at the moment isn't necessarily verbal, nor especially interactive… and it sure as hell doesn't involve pandering to someone else's attention-deficits, justifying your own behavior, or drenching yourself in a sea of others' tangential dramas. 'Speak up' instead for what genuinely appeals to you, through the non-discursive action of doing those very things. By assigning your attention there, you'll make an effective statement about your self-chosen priorities.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): You won't want to keep everything all bottled up, Aquarius, during a time when your astrology continues to favor ample amounts of social engagement and interactivity… though, be forewarned, scratching just below your surface is liable to release a torrent of emotion that may not necessarily be about precisely what you feel it's about in that moment. Speaking freely about what's going on inside you will be useful only as long as you're describing the present day's emotional emanations, painting an evocative though abstract picture of your general mood and the small circumstantial details which are punctuating its experience… but stopping short of telling any 'full story' that would claim a decisive resolution. That's because, let me be blunt here, you don't have a 'decisive resolution' to share—even if, in that emotional moment, it may seem so—merely a process to narrate as it's still going on. Humility, therefore, is required… not only from yourself, but from your fellow conversationalists as well. Pay attention to who can and can't effectively flow with that vibe.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Speak up for yourself, Pisces, with the same vociferous assuredness you'd use to advocate on behalf of someone else in need. You are 'in need', too, after all: a descriptor that doesn't require you to be hopelessly down and out on the cold streets in order to qualify as true. You need to get your bills paid, to keep your body safe and fed… and, just as importantly, to feel genuine confidence in your capacity to do those things for yourself. What do you think is likeliest to help you with all that? Tell your answer(s) to those folks in a position to provide such help. And don't be reluctant to use those words 'need' and 'help' either. Afraid you'll put somebody off, producing the momentary discomfort that arises when cutting through the superficial pleasantries and saying something real about your current conditions? What type of person has no space of compassion for honoring one another's humanity? For starters, the type who's probably not especially well-suited for offering support or camaraderie to a compassion-treasuring soul like you. Better to know that about them now, rather than keeping mum just to spare their insensitivity.