This Week's Horoscope

Let the past be your force field. Much of psychotherapy is based on the premise that many of your problems and unhealthy mental patterns stem from traumatic or painful experiences in your youth. That may be true, but I'd argue that the inverse is also valid: If negative incidents from your childhood can hurt or hinder you now, your warmest memories have the power to heal and empower you. Dredge your past for those glowing gems of well-being and joy, and use them to shield you from the depressing moments that threaten to drag you down now. I contend that two minutes of innocent youthful bliss can translate to at least two weeks of adult contentment, if properly wielded. Prove me right.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

Love is real. It may last only five minutes, or five months or 50 years. But just because it changes or vanishes doesn't mean it wasn't real while it was there. A half-century romance is actually just a vast collection of five-minute love affairs between the same people, strung closely together. Regard all your loves, past, present and future, as what they are: beautiful moments. They're not illusions just because they're not a lifetime-long. I'm reminding you because the world is conspiring to make you forget this week: All the love you've had, have and will have is real?it's just not forever.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

It's frustrating to keep making the same mistakes. It might feel like you're not making progress, but you are. Slowly but surely, you're evolving through cycles of ever-increasing wisdom. How can you tell? You know less than you ever did. That is: the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. But don't be depressed by the depth and breadth of your ignorance (which we all share). It's a wise captain who perceives the vastness of the sea she has left to explore?and only that captain can have the courage and vision to roam as far as you will.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Nagging works on me, every once in a while, if what I'm being goaded to do is what I really want to do anyway. I'm a bigtime procrastinator, especially when the project I'm neglecting is as ambitious, time-consuming and just plain hard as the one I'm working on these days. So I encourage my friends to gently remind me, often, that it's what I really want to do, underneath all my resistance to it. Since you're as reluctant to try to realize some of your deepest desires as I am, I suggest you do the same. You need help to push through your own resistance or laziness. This week, remind yourself, and be reminded, as often and in as many ways as possible, about what you really ought to be doing. Then do it.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Usually, Geminis are notorious forward-thinkers. But every so often you're seized by powerful fits of reminiscence that infiltrate the present and make you do weird stuff. Remembering one glorious summer might prompt you to blast the heat and have a bathing suit party in the dead of winter. Fondly recalling the days when you believed in Santa gets you stuck in a chimney trying to recreate the magic for kids you know. These aren't necessarily bad things, but because your reconstructed moments will never live up to the originals, I suggest you not spend too much time on them. When nostalgia knocks this week, answer the door, but don't invite it in for tea.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Revamping mental systems that don't work well makes sense to you. If one attempt failed, why not try it again a different way? However, the next two weeks ideally lend themselves to a different kind of improvement. Instead of revising your past disappointments, the universe would rather you revisit your past successes. You're used to hitting on a technique that works reasonably well and sticking with that. This week, consider tampering with success. Your potential to improve upon earlier accomplishments is virtually unlimited. Why settle for "okay" results when you could have fantastic ones?

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

The telephone, in its first incarnation, was so inefficient users had to yell into their transmitters, and strain to hear the tinny reproduction of the other person hollering on her end of the line. This probably sounds familiar. You've been working way too hard just to maintain some kind of connection or communication. But this week history will repeat itself, revisiting the chapter where they figured out a way to amplify the signal so people could hear each other at normal speaking volume. So quit trying so hard, because pretty soon you won't have to?what you need to hear will come in loud and clear, and what you need to say will be understood almost without saying it.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Helping people is what you do. You can't help but help. It's a compulsion. For example, most of the Virgos I know (and one in particular) are quick to give me the lowdown on their horoscope each week?how accurate it is, or how dead wrong. I value the feedback (however unsolicited), although I contend it's impossible for something as general as this to be accurate for everyone all the time. The best I can hope for is to try to get it right for most people most of the time. You're in a much better position, luckily: your kind of help, when you're really on top of your game, like this week, means no one falls through the cracks.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Permeable armor is what you need. Your problem? When you've dropped all your defenses, you're moodier than a moon-ruled Cancer during menopause. Your natural inclination is to react to whatever and whoever is around you (and usually to fill whatever void you perceive). Thus your constantly changing outer circumstances become your constantly changing inner ones. Obviously, just blocking everything out completely isn't the answer, either. The trick is letting the right stuff through, and keeping the rest where it belongs?sort of the way silk long underwear can wick away moisture while simultaneously helping to keep you warm. This week, tinker with your emotional defenses until they can, say, block bullets while letting sunshine through.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Make a habit of breaking your habits. The less you do things by rote, the better off you are. Scorpios all too easily get trapped in repetitive cycles that they can't always see are caused by their own recurring actions. And as you well know, your tribe doesn't react too well to feeling trapped?you tend to lash out and sting whoever's within reach (often yourself). Don't be kneejerk about anything this week (or preferably, ever again). I know it's lamely easy to suggest being present, compared with the challenge of always actually being present. But since your happiness rests on reacting freshly to each moment as if it were completely new, please try. I promise I'll try, too.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Money fucks shit up. It infects relationships with poisonous impulses. People start resenting others for having too much. Best friends angrily dissolve relationships over unpaid debts. Money-related insecurities abound, among rich as well as poor folk. Luckily, your life is less complicated than Joe Millionaire. It's easy enough to take the money out of the equation. That's right, for the next week or two, ground your relationships like errant teenagers: cut off their allowances. Chances are, they won't die, even if they were sucking on that green teat. They'll just thrive in a new, healthier way.

Capricorn (Dec.22-Jan. 19)

The Magician archetype, in the Tarot, is adept at manipulating the concrete world. In order to manifest his desired reality, he uses any tool at his disposal, without attaching judgment or morality to those tools. Capricorns are usually adept Magicians, able to wield power to equip themselves with money and sweet situations. That's why I'm surprised that you've shied away from using some of the tools and options available, in order to achieve your goals. This isn't one of those "Do the ends justify the means?" situations. These means don't require justification, only humility. Swallow your pride, Cap?if it will get you what you want.

[Caeriel@yahoo.com](mailto:Caeriel@yahoo.com)