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Horoscopes | Week of June 12-18, 2017

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Let your week meander, veer, amble off into territory you hadn't anticipated venturing into, Aries, and show you something you otherwise wouldn't have seen. The main motivating purpose of this advice is your timely embrace of other people's quirks and fancies, interests and interpretations... an essential part of the dance of life (or else why wouldn't we each be granted our own whole self-contained universe?) that reminds us who we are through all our exchanges with everyone who we are not. Through these social aspects also comes a more (dare I say) spiritual awareness you're due to connect with: a close encounter with the transformative power of meaningful coincidence. When we're unhurriedly observant and intentionally open to wonder as we move through social space, we're able to tap into a field of insightful correlations and synchronicities which often speak, rather uncannily, to whatever important matter or question we've been mulling over. Try and force a revelation, and we're stumped; but step back and let the universe respond, and we're bowled over with its sage wisdom. As long as you stop short of wandering into moral quicksand or danger, you've really got nothing to lose—and who knows what to possibly gain.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): For this fleeting Venus-kissed moment, please don't make life harder on yourself than it needs to be, Taurus. Stay constructively focused on what serves your development… which also means consciously containing how far you dip your wick into what other people are doing, even if you can see too clearly how their dealings are liable to impact you further down the road. You won't surrender your right to have your say at a better time by letting the temptation to interject yourself pass you by this go-around. If you're unable to resist getting involved, you should expect the resultant proceedings to consume a lot of time, emotion, or psychic energy—more, perhaps, than the immediate outcome it'll yield (which, I promise, won't be the end to this story) may presently warrant. Is that what you want to pour your attention into, yet one more showy scene in an ongoing saga ('and wait, there's more') you could just pick back up again later? This astrology is otherwise too temporarily good for you as an individual to justify siphoning it away into situations you ultimately have less firm control over. Create something positive for your own direct benefit instead.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Check back in with last week's edition, please, Gemini… for you will quickly see that this week is another one you won't want to waste on dilly-dallying or grinding your wheels. The Sun and Mercury are still activating your sign with rapid-fire brain power, allowing you to spin a bevy of proverbial plates in the air all at once, with the mental dexterity only a Gemini spirit possesses. However, in your mad rush to maximize the potential usefulness of these transits, you mustn't step on anybody's toes (especially your partner's, best-friend's, or close-collaborator's) nor disregard the proper chain-of-command in professional (or other official public) contexts. Saturn-in-your-7th's oppositions to both the Sun and Mercury are a warning to properly value the important relationship(s) in your life—even when you're engaged in extra levels of self-driven activity—or you'll suffer consequences which you'll then have to diligently attempt to remedy. People can't just be 'important' when it's convenient for us… not if we want them around for support, encouragement, and care when it's not convenient for them. That's not to dissuade you from taking care of your business, as fully as you can, right now. If you fall short of your commitment to someone else, at least address it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don't mind that misty, dreamy haze of another cosmic color, Cancer, which is presently washing over your perceptive faculties. As the current astrology tells it, your brain isn't supposed to be operating according to its usual rules of logic, practicality, or precision. As long as you know that's the case, though, it shouldn't pose too much of a worry. Rather, this mystical moment in time is ideal for finding a fresh spurt of inspiration in the unlikeliest of places… presenting you a very reasonable rationale for following your intuition wherever it takes you, if the hunch suggests you may learn from the trip, be bowled over by beauty, and/or feel the holy spirit (well, your version of it) fill you to the brim. But—and this is a critical 'but'—you still must abide by the rules of physical reality, meet your obligations and deadlines, and stick to all the regular routine practices that healthfully anchor you to the here-and-now. For instance, no dropping a bunch of acid and leaping from a seventh-story window just because your intuition told you to. (That would be an ill-conceived behavior no matter what the astrology's saying.) While my aforementioned example is somewhat extreme, it should deliver the message. You may bend the doors of perception, sure, but without inviting yourself to lose your grip.

LEO (July 23-August 22): While it certainly seems to behoove you to outwardly adopt a group-minded perspective, loyally tow the party line, and/or actively consider how all community-members will be affected by this decision or that statement, you must invest enough trust in yourself, Leo, to stop short of parroting any sentiment you don't feel is appropriate, authentic, or true coming from your mouth. Hopefully you won't find yourself in such a hot-seat situation, cornered into either betraying your conscience or inflaming peers who expect out of you something you can't provide them. But if you do, the right choice will be clear, if also difficult to make: You have to live with your conscience forever, and you owe it to yourself to proceed in whatever way will leave it to feel proud of your behavior (rather than retrospectively question it). If you piss folks off in the process of staying faithfully true to yourself, so be it. (There may be no better reason, in fact.) Let me add the possibility, though, that the anticipated or assumed displeasure you fear in others may not be quite what you think it is. We each manage, process, and express our displeasure differently. Maybe a moment's disagreement won't prove as fearsome or enduring as you imagine?

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Pragmatists like you, Virgo, often hate to curtail your willingness to say or do whatever the job may require just because something 'doesn't feel right'. And yet, that totally unpractical feeling which inconveniently causes you to question the conventional-wisdom's expectations is, in fact, your inner compass… and if you don't respect its alternate-wisdom notifications, which rise when you're about to tread on precarious ground, you're liable to lose your self-protective bearings. Be especially watchful of any tendency on your part to muddle or muffle an essential truth beneath 'official spin' language, in an effort to coddle or kowtow to another key player who you'd prefer not to disturb, upset, or confuse. Why would you be so quick to needlessly carry this burden on their behalf, as if fulfilling your official obligations (though perhaps by exploiting a loophole?) is more important than doing the right thing for your own internal well-being? You are shrewd enough to find an appropriately crafty way to bring up any misgivings that arise in you—because instincts really mustn't be ignored—and still demonstrate your dutiful diligence. Anything less, frankly, isn't as honorable.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Beware of any rise in impatience, Libra. As the big-picture priorities which are now driving your next steps become increasingly and unmistakably clear to you, you might find it a hindering crimp in your style to have to explain the little details and subtleties to those folks who either need to understand (because it impacts how they're going to tackle their own next-steps) or really want to stay current with you (mainly for social-connection reasons). Skipping the callbacks, forgetting to inform all players of the data that's relevant to them, or snipping when someone asks an obvious-to-you question will not get you to your goal any faster. On the contrary, it'll leave a trail of incomplete conversations and irritated characters in your wake… which, unless you wish to leave this all hanging (and maybe even burn a bridge or two along the way), you will have to clean up at some point. Besides, there's a chance you might've missed an important consideration or functional necessity in your comprehensive analysis—and having to talk your process out with others multiple times ups the likelihood you'll catch it.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): With all these moving parts, mixed feelings, conflicting opinions, and/or competing agendas ricocheting around the scene, Scorpio, it'd be understandable if you're finding it hard to reach clarity within yourself. Don't shut yourself off from any of the input, though, for each morsel-of-information and glimpse-of-emotion only deepens your knowledge of the situation. Where you can protect yourself from the likely threat of perceptual overwhelm, however, is by limiting how amenable you are to uncritically going along with a frenetic collaborator whose ungrounded behavior is adding to your anxiety, a harebrained scheme which hasn't been properly fleshed out, and/or a shortsighted solution that could end up costing you too many pretty pennies. You mustn't fall prey to the romantic notion that 'everything'll work out fine' just because you like the general premise, the creative process, or the other player(s) involved. You have the right to temper this frenzy, slow its roll, and force a few practical questions or economic concerns into the frame. In fact, more than a mere 'right', you have a duty to responsibly look out for the bottom line—as well as your own self-assuredness in having done the best job you possibly could in this crazying context.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Your current ability to 'get inside the head' of another person, Sagittarius, can prove very useful in situations where you recently tried to grasp their viewpoint but fell short, struggled to convincingly explain yours to them, or couldn't quite arrive at a same-page understanding. This is an excellent week for revisiting conversations which haven't yet yielded a desired result, attaining a new or improved consensus in any ongoing negotiations, or broaching a topic you fear might startle or spook the other party. But my one warning is a significant one: It'll be easy to go too far in your efforts to resolve a tension, reach an agreement, and/or be considerate of someone else's perspective—and to end up compromising away something that's critical to your emotional well-being or growth, overlooking a problematic utterance of theirs (so as not to rock the boat), or speaking feelgood sentiments which aren't entirely true for you. Be frank with yourself, then, about any such threats prior to entering the exchange. And once in it, if you have any subtle doubts or concerns about where it's going, buy yourself a pause… then step away for a fair spell, and feel into it on your own.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Do your best, of course, Capricorn… and remember that's all you can do. It may not be enough to get the job totally done (or perhaps it just won't get it done to your impeccable standards), but you will make some progress and nobody (least of all you) should expect anything more. The current astrology's nudging me to remind you about everything you can't control: the weather, the quality of materials you've inherited, flaws in a process set into motion long before you arrived, other people's moods and motivations, the always-present and always-ineludible 'x' factor which the Divine Intelligence (or whatever you want to call it) keeps up its sleeve for cosmic reasons unbeknownst to us mere mortals. You have nothing to gain by indulging frets about the impact of influences out of your control or trying to 'fix' what may not be as 'broken' as it appears. However, you do have a lot to lose, in terms of infringing on your own ability to 'do your best' with regards to that which you can control. Why fixate on the half-empty portion of the glass? If you're having trouble breaking out of an unproductive circular-logic fixation, don't underestimate the power of simple conversational venting or other interpersonal reachings-out to effectively shift your thinking.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Being uncompromisingly forthright about who you are and where you stand, your preferences and proclivities as well as your strong dislikes, gives everybody else a very clear idea of who they're dealing with, Aquarius. No problems there, unless you must deal with certain someones (for work-and-money reasons and/or because they're an integral part of your community or scene) who may now question their affiliation with you or otherwise won't take well to what you're unabashedly putting out there. So, how essential to your present happiness is it to share aloud every observation, opinion, or attitude you genuinely feel… even if it impinges on an active alliance or risks a lucrative deal? There's no right answer to this question, incidentally. I merely want to draw your explicit attention to a tradeoff you'd potentially be making by intentionally not playing politics. Perhaps you're ready to gamble with your social position, to creatively free yourself up to speak your mind in any and every context? Perhaps you're in a spot to sacrifice a potential income-generating opportunity because you're tired of 'the game'? Just don't be naive about it: Personal freedom is an awesome virtue to uphold. Just know exactly how much it's worth to you… and what you'd be willing to spend on its behalf.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): The attitude you're donning this week—and the responses you're likely to offer as a result—will be exceptionally subjective and influenced-by-mood even for you, my watery Pisces. It's one of those moments when you shouldn't just blindly trust the voice in your head to tell you how things actually are, just because they feel a certain way at a given time. There are at least two (if not several more) different but equally authentic versions of your main narrative now circulating through your psyche, based upon who you last spoke with or which side of the bed you woke up on. Under other conditions, I might advise you to keep your outward expressions to a minimum, so as not to give anybody a partial and therefore misleading take on your situation, while continuing to bat around these various feeling-statements until they cohere into an insightful whole. Unfortunately, Saturn-in-your-10th isn't offering you that luxury. As part of continuing to model consistent accountability to outside commitments, you may have to provide testimony or feedback to those counting on you. If that's the case, please do your damnedest to slice through that moment's mood-bias… and speak the most-pertinent angle from each version, trying to unify the disparate threads rather than leaving an incomplete impression.