The Neptune retrograde asks: Is it your true desire or the portent of the wind? If you don’t answer the question within the hour, it will persist. The day, the night, the week will keep you asking: Who decided this was what you should do next? Was it really you, or was it another entity to which you handed over authority? And does this idea of authority still hold up, or should you take it back? You’ll answer these questions and more this week.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). If you’ve ever gone fishing you know that nets might be light out of the water, but once you start dragging them around they can get heavy with debris pretty quickly. That’s also true of a safety net you’ve been carrying around. You’re skilled enough to let it go. Try it. You’ll end the week lighter and prouder.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). For smart people like you, it takes guts to be honest. How will you be received? After you tell the truth a few times, you discover it feels better and is not that hard, and not only can you handle all of the consequences; you prefer them. Your sincerity will win you a love deep and true.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Being appropriate in every circumstance means being inappropriate in inappropriate circumstances. You can be congenial, professional and cordial. You can be irreverent, funny and provocative. You’ve so many modes, and you’ll activate them all as you engage your week, doing more than going through the motions.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). There’s more than what’s in front of you. You know that — everyone knows that — but some need to poke through the paper scenery to peer to the other side, while others quite simply do not. Your curiosity will get the best of you. Don’t be reckless. Don’t poke and tear. Get an X-Acto knife and cut a window.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). There’s much to be praised of ambition. The arrow will fly higher because you aimed it at the moon. But if you don’t aim there, maybe you’ll break open something you already knew about. It’s not a bad thing to examine the insides of something very mundane. That may, in fact, be the seed of your breakthrough.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Are you showing up because you have to or because you want to? You are, oddly enough, probably not the right person to say. The others around you are giving signals as to how engaged you are. They help you learn what’s in your heart. Remember, love is attention. What are you giving it to?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). How long are you allowed to nurse the wounds before you stand up and declare yourself ready to move on? There is actually no time at all for emotional wound care this week. But luckily, wounds are on their own schedule. They heal in their own time, and your attention to it is neither here nor there.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Kindnesses exchanged are attractive. Unkindness is repellant. That’s the bottom line in every situation. You’ll admire the ones who take care of each other and you’ll be repelled, as well as tipped off in a spiritual red-flag kind of way, by the ones who are unkind, especially to the ones they are supposed to cherish.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Focus on the good in others, and that’s what emerges. Trust and you’ll make the other person want to be trustworthy. The week features friends who have, perhaps, more influence than they should. Have faith in yourself and your opinions! Who better to decide what’s good for you than you?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). These walls that keep you organized are made of boards. What if they were made of glass instead? Less privacy, it’s true — but having more knowledge of what others are doing could be worth the trade-off. Either way, this week a fun trickster character will come into your realm, pointing the way to your mental freedom.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). A person who doesn’t know anything else to do will make it all about himself. You are not such a person. You know better. You know who else is involved and have an inkling about how that one will be influenced. Therefore, you will do much more than any self-absorbed creature could ever dream to do.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Young and full of your own pure essence you thought no one would change you. What you didn’t realize is that the essence you were claiming was not your own. Now you’ll have the interesting challenge of separating that which is essentially you from that which you have been influenced to believe.
THIS WEEK’S BIRTHDAYS: This will be your year of writing letters. There is magic in this practice. It will focus you, get you on track, clarify and purify your heart and solidify your intention. The other thing is that you don’t necessarily have to send the letters, and in many cases you shouldn’t. This practice is about you, your feelings, your experience. As you tell the people you love and despise exactly why you feel the way you do, you’ll be setting an intention, freeing your spirit and bringing your dreams into reality.