Horoscopes | Week of October 16-22, 2017

ARIES (March 21-April 19): With your ruling energy-source Mars still in your 6th for one more week, Aries, I recommend utilizing its force for one more big commitment to pushing through your pile of practical work (whether specifically job-related or more personal in nature). I suspect, however, certain critical work-related advances will require you to confer, debate, or haggle with another essential player (whether professional collaborator, romantic partner, or financial institution)… which both promises to be fruitful, provided you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get all the way into it, and threatens to consume more attention or effort than may be functionally necessary. That's an interesting balance to try to strike: devoting yourself fully to an important conversation or negotiation, without drifting into irrelevant or emotionally transgressive territory and losing your focus on getting this time-sensitive task done. If you feel you must draw a boundary or cut an exchange short, use the pressing work demands as your excuse. If the other party's upset or offended by that (or some related issue it's triggered), you can engage the conflict starting next week.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What a fertile week to attempt an air-clearing, heart-to-heart, one-on-one conversation with someone you'd like to move forward with, Taurus… whether by confiding a difficult truth you must get off your chest, inviting the other person to give you potentially stinging feedback, working through a knotty problem together for greater mutual trust, or agreeing to disagree and acknowledging your growing separation-of-interests. But I say this with a warning that the sentiments flowing in either direction are likelier-than-usual to strike the listener as especially ardent, exaggeratory, or emotionally theatrical. As such, the conversation may get a little louder, messier, or tearier-eyed than you might typically prefer—though, as long as nobody lapses into attacks or manipulations, the heightened feeling could end up helping you really get one another's viewpoint and/or how important the issue-in-question really is. And if you've got nothing to work out with anyone? Maybe this is a chance to confess your burgeoning interest in a certain you-know-who.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I'd like to simultaneously (1) encourage you to 'think outside the box' when trying to figure out how to soldier through a stubborn job, improve your health, and/or save yourself some time, Gemini, and (2) caution you against diving too totally and trustingly into unproven methods or unconventional approaches. To safeguard what you've already accomplished and/or protect your public self from being perceived as illogical or flighty, it'll be best to delve further into such outside-the-box possibilities with tentative optimism, keeping one foot safely in 'the way it's always been done' while testing this new terrain with the other. Meanwhile, if you've been recently enduring an uptick in private moodiness, domestic unrest, and/or isolationist tendencies, you should be happy to hear this is the last week of troublemaking Mars poking around your emotionally-tender 4th. By the end of the week, Mars will move into your 5th… a sign of increasing interest in amorous dalliances, artistic interests, playful pleasures, and/or party-time pursuits in the weeks to come.

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don't be shy about expressing your preferences, interests, and wants, Cancer. Now that big-dude Jupiter will be jazzing up your 5th house for the next year, you're due to enjoy a heftier helping of pleasure, romance, merriment, and/or art… and the only way to guarantee it will be that enjoyable is to make clear what your idea of a good time specifically entails. Struggling to identify your inclinations (perhaps because you're too accustomed to gratifying everyone else's)? Think back to what brought you the most delight as a child or adolescent, and mull over how you might insinuate more of that energy—whether by reinvesting yourself in that particular activity or seeking something else which similarly activates that same mirthful side of your personality—into your adult life. However, please be aware that, thanks to Mars landing in your 4th by week's-end, you may soon notice a temporary rise in inner emotional disgruntlement or discord. Rather than allowing that unease to dissuade you from putting your desires out there, let it further motivate you to fight for greater joy (and against feeling like it's not worth the hassles).

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): Beware of putting actual voice behind any sudden realizations, spikes in unresolved hurt or upset, and/or other long-held feelings about a family-member or housemate that are only now cohering into a tangible gripe, Leo. I say this not to discredit your emotional experience in this slightest, by the way… but merely as practical advice for navigating it through this particular moment. First off, under a Mercury-Jupiter conjunction in your 4th, you'd be presently too prone to come off like you're making a big deal out of nothing and/or exaggerating the extent to which you've been affected by someone's actions, thus impinging on your capacity to communicate your feelings in a manner they'd treat as seriously as is warranted. Likewise, presuming your impulse to tell them how you feel is driven by a desire to clean up an emotionally confusing situation and/or repair a broken dynamic or boundary-problem, speaking up now is likely to have the opposite effect: Rather than (re)establishing your autonomy, you'll probably end up more immersed in this mire.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): This is the week to put your final flourishes on this recent interval of industriousness, insistence, and/or hyperactivity, Virgo. Mars will depart your zodiacal realm by week's-end, taking you off the hot seat and hopefully allaying any frayed nerves, so you may return your self to its regularly scheduled programming. But before that happens, I invite you to ensure the pertinent communications and informational dispatches have occurred, giving those affected by whatever self-determined deeds or assertive maneuvers you're carrying out their fair chance to hear the scoop directly from you and/or tell you how they feel about it. To be clear, that last part isn't meant to imply you should kowtow to their feelings or adjust your actions on their behalf. Think of it more as doing your due diligence, standing firmly behind your intention with the conversation to back it up… and thus eliminating anybody's chance to accuse you of being evasive or sneaky, or of leaving them out of the loop. Also, it's okay to cut off the conversation once your diligence has been duly done, especially if you don't like where else it starts to go.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): You are at the very tail-end of this hands-tying limbo moment, Libra, with Mars slated to exit your 12th and cross into your 1st early on Sunday (Oct 22)… which means that next week officially kicks off the phase when you can finally assert your will, pursue your desires, and/or grapple for what's yours with far greater effectiveness. These upcoming seven weeks will likely prove some of your most personally productive, reinvigorating, and courage-building—if not also potentially contentious, should you need to challenge or confront someone, in order to hold your ground or advance your aims—of the whole year. For this week, then, I'd use the Mercury-Jupiter conjunction in your 2nd to nurture a brainstorm of audacious self-promotion plans, keen money-making strategies, and/or sincere methods for distinguishing yourself from a too-crowded field. A suggestion: Rather than playing it cerebrally safe or coolly contained, reach for some emotional hook that'll play to your imagined audience's humanity. You can put it into action starting next week.

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): You'll be kicking off your first full week of hosting Jupiter in your sign, Scorpio, by celebrating its conjunction with Mercury… an aspect which ought to deliver a burst of big ideas, optimistic outlooks, and/or compelling conversation topics you'd like to bounce off your favorite peeps. Perhaps you've already begun to ponder, propose, or posit the various alternatives (or that one super-obvious option right under your nose?) for how you'd like to stretch past your comfort-zone, and into new territory, over these months to come? Just remember this is a moment best spent stoking the enthusiastic flames of your imagination, opening your mind to what you've been afraid to think possible, rather than decisively committing yourself to something and/or trying to get it off the ground right away. Don't rush this part of the process. With Mars just now hitting your 12th to stay for the next several weeks, I wouldn't dive into concrete actualization steps until mid-December. Plus, in the short-term, you may encounter a more pressing logistics-related curveball that begs an immediate response.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Try your best not to become so preoccupied with the imminent concrete demands of your day-to-day life, Sagittarius, that you leave yourself no mental space to receive potentially perspective-reshaping wisdom from beyond the purpose-driven confines of your job-description, tasklist, or routine. Make enough room so that your thoughts may wander. Take note of images or symbols which recur across multiple life-contexts in a relatively brief timespan. Explore the growing role of newfound curiosities or suddenly-reengaging interests from your past, reflecting especially on personal significances (or metaphysical meanings?) of why this has captivated your attention now of all times. Such interjections of excitement, thirst, and/or concern for subject-matter that isn't a usual everyday consideration could be fruitfully read as another enigmatic instance of 'divine intervention'… in which case it becomes your job to decide to honor it as such, then to quietly start figuring out what, if anything, to do about it.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Just want you to be aware, Capricorn, political passions and life-defining convictions will likely be coursing through your community or social-scene at an especially fevered pitch this week—and you are not immune to such temptations toward zealotry. As before, I detect a lurking stress between the compulsion to participate and the emotional need to disconnect (though it's of course on you to determine how you'd like to handle this). When you do chime in, please remain mindful of the rhetoric your closest chums or comrades are using to posit their aligned arguments. You won't want to go overboard with reductive reasoning, exaggerated claims, or disproportionate hype, particularly if allies have already developed a more judicious (and less polarizing?) set of talking-points you could borrow from. On the other hand, if you're going to join intellectual or cause-based forces with someone, you probably ought to first look into their full public record… lest you neglect to notice they've also uttered some pretty inflammatory, insulting, or tone-deaf remarks which you wouldn't want to give a pass to or associate yourself with.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): With its move into your solar 10th last week, Aquarius, you'll now have the expansively-benefic monarch-god Jupiter in your career (and/or public-achievement) zone for the next year… a piece of news I hope you'll proactively use to inspire ambitious intentions and daring stretches, since Jupiter's only going to help out those of you who take initiative and invest ongoing effort. If instead you indulge any patterns of disinterest, complacency, or avoidance, Jupiter will be just as likely to worsen a mediocre or stale situation so that you must look for possible improvements. Of course, Jupiter's influence on your professional position (and/or outside-world reputation) is due to unfold over the course of many months, not all right away… though, if you're observant or intuitively astute, you should already spy tiny hints and glimpses of which way this is going. For the moment, as Mercury joins forces with Jupiter-in-your-10th, you'll begin to set the more favorable potentials into motion by speaking your objectives and aspirations. You may still be a month or two away from full-on actualization time, but, in the meantime, talk isn't always as cheap as they say.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): There have been enough interpersonal provocations and/or psychological response-triggers in your life lately, Pisces, you could be excused for momentarily forgetting which values or principles you've been attempting to uphold for your own sense of integrity, regardless of who the other player is or what they want. Now is a good time, therefore, to step back far enough to catch a roomier perspective… and to begin looking at this situation all over again, with a sharper eye on honoring your conscience first and foremost rather than either winning anyone else's favor or knocking them on their ass. When you remove your personal attachments (whether positive or negative) to a given individual and instead look at their behaviors from a more generalized, philosophic angle, you're likely to gain much clearer insight into the respective rights and wrongs—theirs and yours. Would you sign off on or shut down such conduct coming from other folks who don't inspire similarly strong feelings in you as this certain character does? Lots of food for thought.