Horoscopes | Week of February 14-20, 2011

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Spend this pivotal turning-point week in earnest intellectual consideration of your role within 'the many'. Situate yourself among the people, as opposed to perpetually defiantly distinct from them. Align your efforts with the greater good, with as clear an understanding as possible of how what you're doing right now will further a certain world-bettering initiative. Otherwise, Aries, without this defining mindset, you're tempting a loss of 'higher self' purpose… instead apt to overwhelm yourself with semi-conscious lashings-out by a blind ego that's forgotten why (and, maybe even more importantly, for whom) it's bothering to bother. In the succeeding few weeks, with a powerful 12th-house signature permeating your life like the mysterious blob that devoured Cleveland, you will be unusually susceptible to riding uncontrollable waves of others' making. Without the proper alliances, allegiances and ideological guideposts in place, you're apt to feel somewhat lost and/or confused. The phase following that one, however, is yours for the crowning-glory. You won't want to have to use it in reaction to what you've 'undone' in these coming few weeks, but simply to build upon the lovely Fate your rightful fellows have helped weave you.

 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Disappear into your leadership role this week, Taurus, and for the following several weeks you'll be glad you did. That's because you're shifting into a more 'team player' situation, which has the potential to reinvigorate you (since you won't feel quite as alone in having to hold the firmly principled agenda for everyone)… if, that is, you set the appropriate precedent in advance. I'm sure you're a bit wearied from having stood publicly tall over this past month or so, modeling behaviors that others are now beginning to join you in. You really will be able to pass off the baton, making this more a relay than a lone marathon. Use this final week of concentrated 10th-house energy to leave a legacy mark—not necessarily because the normal-person you is simply dying to hog the reins like it's so much fun, but because the service-oriented you knows it's 'the right thing to do'. Get through these days ahead as if they are the pinnacle to your 2011 so far… and so, shortly thereafter, you can step to one side and enjoy being 'just another one of the guys / girls' once again.

 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): 'I stand on my tippie-toes and stretch just past where I might otherwise be able to reach. This is me, resilient Gemini, touching the edge of my future. I won't merely dawdle around these parts forever (though, at certain times, it sure felt like I might), and so I can actually appreciate all these symbols of the existence that's been my recent life, and feel their fundamental significance, while starting to look ahead to what's next. When I glimpse into the horizon, I see a group of others awaiting my arrival, anticipating my presence, welcoming me into their circle with open hearts and eager curiosities. They want me to become a part of them by being unabashedly myself… and I, having recently grown uncharacteristically stoic with my solitary burdens, am overcome with nervous excitement about once again re-entering the social sphere so profoundly. I dream about these new friends I have yet to formally introduce into my life, if I've even met them at all. It gives me something to feed to my soul, which has turned increasingly hungry for the lighter fare of easy companionship. I know I'm not there yet, but I can taste the humble stirrings of my pre-arrival. It helps me be where I am, without struggle.'

 

CANCER (June 21-July 22): What presently feels so messy that you can't imagine ever being able to make heads or tails of it will soon give way to a surprising bout of gut-level clarity. And such perspective, which you'll begin to enjoy as early as next week, wouldn't have been possible without these past few weeks' of stewing in the sludge. Be grateful, then, Cancer, for life's complexities presenting you the type of agitating friction that forces you to ultimately come down on one side or the other. Complacency may seem easier, but it's a slow rot. This is the more dramatic, cathartic avenue onward… and thankfully you weren't given a choice, one way or the other, or you might still be plugging your ears and singing 'I can't hear you!' to the piles of proverbial dust under the desk or behind the door. By now, I presume you've stopped struggling and simply given into the inescapable need to deal? In that case, you've actually done more 'dealing' than you may realize. Acceptance is a huge part of this. The stage beyond acceptance shows its yield very soon… and expect it to include at least one formal guideline for how to live going forward, and at least one call to a new adventure, where you can put said guideline into practice.

 

LEO (July 23-August 22): The stakes in whatever relationship or collaboration has drawn your focus in recent weeks, Leo, are about to quickly intensify… which means that this week, when you've got a chance of addressing certain matters while they're still relatively modest, is your opportunity to straighten out any up-in-the-air premises, misunderstandings, undisclosed facts or hidden feelings. Where you might now attain an easier mutuality, you could soon find the side-effects to be more major (or even rather menacing). What's working between you two is about to work even more astoundingly; and what isn't working will become that much more painfully apparent. In either case, you're approaching the 'getting real' moment… and it's one I'd mostly be looking forward to, if I were you. But there's no getting around how much simpler things remain, for one last week, and therefore how much wiser it would be to take care of any unfinished interpersonal business now, pre-intensification. In fact, based upon the manner in which you use this week's astrology to your advantage, you possess the power to partly determine the quality of the intensifying feelings—toward a totally-rewarding increase in intimacy, or a totally-entangling increase in mindfuck consequences.

 

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Throw yourself totally into the work at hand, for one more week of capping progress. The tides, they be a-turnin', Virgo, away from such supple handling of the nitty-gritty… and toward the attentions of a certain someone who, perhaps, you'd prefer to concentrate on more fully right away. But the practical demands just won't permit such unfettered interpersonal dalliances during these few short days ahead, unless you ditch your responsible side (and what? you can't wait until next week?). The work is where it's at. Don't stress, however, about trying to assess the 'capping progress' I'm describing, or its apparent measures will tell you a story that's quite different than the reality. Just throw yourself all in. With the exception of not going so far that you ignore the physical limits of what one mere mortal ought to be doing in a given day (and make yourself sick with overexhaustion), you ought to postpone the ego's wants until next week—when the outlook brings a whole different story.

 

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Be loose this week, Libra… with your lips and tongue, your dancin' feet, your diet, your manner of being, your drive to be 'on-task', and whatever other bits of your personhood are probably tighter than they need be. You're about to hop back on the merry-go-round of busy task-mastering, but hopefully not before one last hurrah of silly frivolity, to keep your thirst for pleasure quenched for the coming time-being. So whatever it takes to mellow your inner fussbudget into relaxing the rules, if only for a fleeting moment… let's just say, you should make it a double. Even if you bend into an extra helping of mac-and-cheese or a second dirty martini, I have no doubt you'll be able to 'make up for it' (as if anybody is keeping as close a tab on the 'score' as you) starting next week, once you're due to feel a (gasp!) craving for health-and-wellness, productivity and reorganization. Ignore this advice, and you're likely to suffer a heightened inability to relax, thanks to Saturn squaring off against your 4th-house Venus, making it hard to enjoy the quiet comforts of home (because, inside your head, it's still too damn loud). That's why the more outright outwardly loosened-up Libran routine is a far better strategy. One week only, rules be damned!

 

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Get all the private ranting and raving and griping and whining out of your system this week, Scorpio. You're due for a delicious 'coming out' beginning next week, once the trio of the Sun, Mercury and Mars have made it out of the 4th-house cocoon… and into the frisky spotlight of your 5th, where you can more freely throw the moody mooning off into the sidelines and have the fun time you've secretly been craving (even as you've told yourself how much 'fun' it is to rant and rave and gripe and whine). If it takes you indulging your 'worst' in order to snap, catapult-style, into soon showing your 'best'… well, do what you've got to do. If there were a passing moment in which it wouldn't be so terrible to stay at home, unzip your skin, and let the beams of darkness and light bounce back and forth against each other until you tire all those emotions out, this is it. However, this momentary indulgence must end sharply along with the week, lest you wake up next Monday morning to find yourself naked in the lunchroom, being laughed at for your gothic makeup or visible scarring. By next week, plan on pulling yourself together so you can join in on the laughter… instead of defensively feeling yourself to be the target of it.

 

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): It still seems you can't quite act with as much independence as you may crave, Sagittarius. With social commitments and friendship obligations tying you into participations you're ambivalent about seeing through, the 'moments to yourself' just aren't available. This situation turns itself around next week, however, at which point you'll be far better able to tell everybody 'not now!' (without actually letting 'em down), close the door, pull the drapes, and breathe. Let that be enough of an incentive, then, to fulfill this week's engagements… at the same time, being careful not to let events and appointments leak onto your schedule for the weeks ahead unless you really want them there. Release any airs of resentment or disinterest clinging to your end of the conversation, knowing that you won't have to continue the unwanted bits much longer, a fact which should hopefully renew your patience level enough to get you through. Keep telling yourself, 'I get my time very very soon.' Thank you for your continued interpersonal generosity.

 

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): You may have to partly restrain what seems personally best for you in the short-term, Capricorn, in order to continue striving for the big prize. It's like you must at once (1) look out for your interests and (2) sacrifice your interests, in a complicated blend that pits different sides of yourself against each other. But this isn't really as harsh an internal conflict as those first couple sentences might've made it sound, if you can conceptualize any so-called 'sacrifices' as investments in your future. Alas, this sort of investment doesn't show up very cleanly on the accounting worksheets—if you were going strictly by sequential left-brain thinking, it would probably appear fanciful or foolish. On the intuitive level, however, I believe you know that this isn't the moment to fearfully hoard resources for your own immediate sense of selfish security… when the real security you're building yourself requires keeping those resources in creative circulation. There's no liberating thrill in the sort of worrisome wealth that has you freaked about spending it on good works, and on the personal evolution that comes from your involvement in them.

 

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): The high of these six weeks of Mars in your sign is coming to an end, Aquarius… and along with that, you should expect a 'returning back to earth' sort of vibe to abruptly assert its reality-check nose into your business starting early next week. I hope, therefore, you've enjoyed it while it lasted—and that if you're still holding one more decisive card in your hand, you choose to play it now. A grand display of idealistic zeal would make for a wonderful farewell, not only to suit your own fancies but as a way to dig your imprint into the next stage of what's due to go down. You'll want the record to reflect that you stood for something. The safe diplomacy of wishy-washy in-betweenhood leaves absolutely no taste in anybody's mouth… and do you really want them to forget your name and what you're all about? Hell, no! You're way more interesting than that. Make your week count by reiterating the prophetic points you've lately been publicly addressing, with a flair uniquely your own. Once next week rolls around, you have to get back to the bookkeeping, the paper-pushing, and all the other follow-up work that shows you're not a flighty flash-in-the-pan. For today, then, proclaim your version of the world living happily ever after.

 

PISCES (February 19-March 20): The 'invisibility spell' you've been temporarily under, whether of your own choosing or against your will, is wearing off. By early next week, you'll rather quickly become quite visible, Pisces, and once again able to begin accomplishing all that's been on hold for the past few weeks. So, if there are any last behind-the-scenes moves or secret anglings best handled while still under this spell, please take care of 'em right away. If you need to squeeze in a couple last-minute rounds of make-believe or wake-me-in-the-morning, this is your time. Escapes from reality can be wonderful detours if only occasionally allowed; past that healthful point, they take a toll on your well-being. This latest escape is coming to a definitive end… but rather than lament what you're leaving behind, only making the transition more unpleasant or shocking, please embrace the knowledge that what greets you back in the 'real world' is something you can really wrap your hands around. Ready your vibration for center-square. Prepare the proper trappings. Treat yourself to a really thorough rinse-down. Cohere, once again.