Aries (March 20-April 19) — Your role in a group or organization that you’re affiliated with is about to change. So too will the purpose of that group in your life. Developments will occur in a series of events over the coming week, and you’ll want to take them one at a time, and consciously process the information. Each time you learn something, make sure you’re aware there may be one more bit. As you gather the details, you’ll get a better idea of what you need to do, who you can trust and what the purpose of the changes is really about. Pay close attention and act cautiously, because these developments can influence your professional income, for better or for worse. Be aware that the dust won’t fully settle until the second week of February, when Mercury stations direct. Till then tread lightly and make no assumptions.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Step up to the challenge where professional responsibilities are concerned. You are no longer playing in the minor leagues. You’re working on a level where people are depending on your judgment, your knowledge and your skill at handling potentially complex situations. This has taken you time and a real investment, and you have every reason to be confident in yourself. Invariably, complex situations involve people, their personalities and coordinating communication among them. That seems to be the only management skill that matters these days. You’re in an excellent position to do something that many people find challenging — to listen. That will give you access to the mysterious power known as having a clue what people are saying. That will give you the opportunity to solve a problem, which by the way you may need to solve twice.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — If you change your mind about a long-term plan or goal, I suggest you not send out a press release. Keep your decision to yourself. I suggest you not cancel any plans or arrangements until you’ve given this some time — my recommendation is at least one month. And if you can avoid it, don’t make firm commitments for what you’re planning to do — rather, take steps to keep your options open. Rather than thinking of this as a ‘final’ decision, feel out your options. By feel I mean sit with, and get the actual feeling of. Slip into that reality for a while and give yourself permission to make that choice. You actually have quite a few more than two choices, and this is not an all-or-nothing circumstance. Many shades of mix and match are possible, and once you begin to move on your plans other possibilities will open up.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Keep a keen eye on financial and business matters. You’re in a more powerful position than you think, though as always where transactions, partnerships and shared resources are concerned, you must be alert, detail-oriented and as shrewd as you can muster up. If you have investments, keep an eye on them. If you’re interested in new investments, make sure you take care of the ‘due diligence’ thing, which I suggest you stretch out at least until Mercury stations direct on Feb. 11. During that time, I suggest you allocate cash only to basic necessities or operations costs and minimize other exposures. As you do this, you will learn a lot about your own finances, how you do business and the ways you can make decisions that give you a considerable advantage. This really is a scenario where knowledge is power.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Take extra care to ensure that what people tell you is actually true. However, we live on a planet where for many people, deception is a way of life. Question the obvious, look carefully at what seems unusual and even inquire about what seems perfectly normal. The thing you don’t want to do is let things slide and hope for the best. I’m not suggesting you change your nature and become a suspicious person. However, your trusting nature does not always work in your favor, and it’s often an excuse for slacking a bit and not verifying what people say to you. Sometimes it takes guts to ask a follow-up question, much less ask for documentation. I suggest that you do both, and take various steps to reality check, that is, check your own perceptions. And for a while, hold yourself to the same standards of verification.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may not be able to make head or tail of what someone close to you is going through, feeling or becoming, though don’t let that stop you from having fun with the experience. Yes, this is the extra zesty kind, and it’s probably not on the menu. What you may be concerned about is how others will perceive your experience, which is in reality nobody’s business but your own. If privacy means anything, it’s the right to feel and to experience intimacy in the way you choose to. Anyway, the shape of your chart is describing you going against the current of what is popular or considered a matter of common sense. Every factor in your astrology is pushing you to think for yourself, which means having exactly the experiences you want to have, for whatever reason you want to have them.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You simply must experiment. Whether this is with art, with ideas or with sex (or better still, all three), a rare combination of factors is taking you into your own personal avant garden. You can go beyond anything ordinary, which seems to be what the planets are conspiring to get you to do. The feeling of doing this is taking a risk. I don’t mean dancing on the edge of the roof. I mean the sensation of going into unknown, strange or unpredictable territory. Allow yourself into that state of mind where you don’t know what will happen next. Then once you’re there, consciously allow anything to happen. You can afford to have some misgivings that you consider and disregard. You are in a contained space; there are natural limits in place. Get to that spot where you know you’re pushing them.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — It’s obvious that your ideas about life go well beyond those of your family and very likely your closest friends. They are more concerned with keeping things tidy and organized than they are with discovering what is possible. Right now you are being drawn into acknowledging desires that would make many people around you nervous. When I say drawn into, I mean that it’s like you’ve been picked up by a current and are being carried into a place that you know you have in you all the time, but which recently seems to have stirred to life in an unusual way. What you’re feeling is the intensity that comes from inside you, needing no external stimulus. What is coming in from the outside is making things more interesting, adding some flavor and diversity. The creativity and passion are coming from you. Remember!

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — What may have seemed like a great idea may no longer seem that way — though there are a whole bunch of better ideas on the way. One of the themes of this year and of the foreseeable future is focusing yourself, which is another way of saying that the result of every day must be some form of work product. Work itself is not enough. Being busy is not enough. Making money is certainly not enough. It will help you immensely to establish a discipline associated with the projects you’ve had in mind for a while. Start with one of them. Break it down into steps and start taking those steps. Persist every day, not allowing the distractions of the world to get in the way of what you know you want to do. Around this basic daily practice, something much more comprehensive can grow. Commit your energy daily — preferably at about the same time every day.

 

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Be careful with money, and slow down the implementation of your business plans. A short delay now will save long delays later in the year. Take the time to get it right, and to plan your timing carefully. I suggest that with anything of a financial nature — that is to say, involving outlay of cash, unusual use of credit, or new plans for income — go on pause until around Feb. 14. There are some things that may not be able to wait, though if you evaluate them carefully you may find a workaround. Unless there is some kind of absolute, inviolable deadline, explain to others that you’ll be ready to sign or have that paperwork in a few weeks. Where money and commitments are concerned, it pays to honor Mercury retrograde.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — The Sun ingresses your sign in a few days, followed by a rather spectacular New Moon, followed by Mercury stationing retrograde in your sign. That’s a lot of Aquarius and that suggests an unusual degree of activity for you, some unpredictable events, and a new phase of your inner journey. In fact the ‘inner journey’ has been the main theme of your charts for several years, and I suggest that you take a survey of where you’ve gone. Declare the Mercury retrograde that ends on Feb. 11 a kind of review period, where you tell yourself the story of what you’ve experienced the past six years. Start with a list of the major events, changes of location, career moves, relationship developments and your own creative plans. You will get an idea how much territory you’ve covered. That, in turn, will help you figure out what you want to do next. Clearly, something is brewing.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Mars in your sign is stoking up your desire to live and to make contact. Mars in the fashion of Pisces is a self-sustaining creative dynamo. Monday, Mars focuses an exact conjunction to Neptune, which feels like connecting to some elemental source of who you are. You’re likely to have a drive to express that in some way, and I suggest you make contact now and let that inspire you for the next couple of years. Then next week Mars connects with Chiron, in a conjunction that will remind you how much strength, awareness and power you hold in your hands. That is more than a metaphor — Chiron almost always expresses itself through the hands, whether for healing, loving touch, some creative enterprise or digital (manual) contact with the wider world. Mars won’t be back in Pisces till the end of 2016, so get it while it’s hot.