Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You’ve had to fight for your right to party. Like a hawk soaring on an updraft, you’ve had a few recent moments to catch your breath and take in the view from a higher perspective. If you’re feeling optimistic one minute, vaguely anxious the next, remember that even calmer waters call for skillful navigation. After several rocky months and withdrawn focus on past or domestic issues, you’re emerging to train your sights on the future. This includes reviewing changes in material security and adjusting what’s necessary to create the freedom you seek. Professional and domestic concerns might have been so overwhelming lately as to eclipse an underlying need, now ripe for attention: to free your mind; to feed your soul; to seek truth. Inner prompts toward study, spiritual development, writing or travel should be taken seriously. Make the quest real by homing in on one idea you’re really drawn to, and take the first step. With focus, the creative potential in such a path is immense. – By Victoria Emory

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Each evolutionary process has milestones, and Uranus moving through your house of self-identity can deliver some memorable jolts. But the revolutionary changes this transit implies take seven years to play out (give or take), and you’ll have six months to review what’s been stirred, after Uranus (the Great Awakener) stations retrograde on Sunday. Jupiter turns direct the same day, lending powerful support to what looks like a propitious stage of integration. A nine-month cycle involving relationships also wraps up now, on fertile soil to sow seeds for a new stage of relating: to partners, your past, your family and to your own desires. Your foundations, literal and psychic, are well synced at the moment. A lot’s going on inside and below ground, so take a few weeks to turn within and re-group. If your living space needs an upgrade, resources should be easier to tap. Envision goals with an eye toward practical strategies, and you’ll soon emerge with considerable creative fire to take deliberate action. – By Victoria Emory

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — After months of ponderous focus on personal security — and how other people factor into it — you can finally begin to make progress in important relationships with less overwhelming emphasis on power dynamics, or mercantile concerns. The game changes on Sunday, though you might have picked up a few recent, uplifting clues. Both your mind and schedule look pretty jammed, but the tempo is set to accelerate, so guard against overwhelm. Communication and relationship patterns are in re-set mode, in a sense, and opportunities to re-energize key relationships, personal and professional, hold significant promise. New connections are also possible now, if you’re interested. Just proceed with eyes open. There’s a potential for over-idealized projections, or compulsion/obsession, in all relations, including career-related. Would you prefer enriching, creative partnerships or vagueness and fantasy? Honesty and discernment will steer you right. – By Victoria Emory

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You’re an alchemist. You may not realize it, but the challenges you’ve faced this year, the bruises as well as victories, have all been integral to a heroic transformation of your self-identity: the dissolution of old patterns, and distillation, refinement and re-creation of how you manifest in this world. A stage of re-building and solidification clicks in now, and magnificent power is at your disposal to establish the material base you require. To channel that power most effectively, you’ll need to clarify priorities and systematically focus on specific facets of your overall project. Map out practical, step-by-step strategies, and stick to the outline. If you need a job, or an assistant, or additional skills, The Force is with you. Just be disciplined in your approach. A pitfall to avoid is the potential to scatter your energies in far-flung schemes, or getting sidetracked by dreamy projections far into the future. Use that wealth of creative vision to identify concrete objectives. Then stay on course. – By Victoria Emory

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Your power to work creatively and courageously through any challenge is infinitely more accessible than it’s been for months, so don’t let a stalled professional project drag your speed. Whatever’s in play needs to be re-worked in some way, and you’ve got plenty of mojo to do your own thing. You’re emerging in a personal renaissance, and seeds planted now are charged with a fortunate ray. Mercury exits the shadows to enter your sign this week, so prepare to accelerate. The more you focus on creative projects, self-expression and objective self-examination, the less you’ll dissipate forces through buzzing all over the place. So much fire’s flowing through you these days; capture sparks of inspiration and put them to use, just don’t burn yourself out. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, your life is your canvas, and more optimistic, invigorating winds are headed in your direction. Note: Play and creative exploration should be potent, revitalizing elixirs now. Excessive indulgence would have quite a different effect. – By Victoria Emory

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Where do you feel most connected; that inner sense of belonging and security at the root of your being? For nine months you’ve had the opportunity, perhaps necessity, to consider the question from a higher perspective. It’s been a powerful cycle of inner growth, making peace with your past, your family, and your own sense of self. Externally, Jupiter’s transit through the foundation of your chart can express in terms of ‘home improvement'; if you’ve wanted to get that ball rolling, this week’s direct station will help clear that path. The real action in your chart is very much internal, however: primarily focused in terms of working through a specific relationship issue. A great deal of your energy’s been wrapped up there. It’s human nature to romanticize the past or idealize partners, but the more honest you are with yourself, the more you allow emotion to move, the more you’ll reclaim parts of you that have been trapped. Several convergent cycles support this process; you cannot lose what is truly yours. – By Victoria Emory

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Your approach to future goals has expanded this year. Previous frameworks of thought have evolved, and you’ve developed a higher level of perception. Key relationships in your community could factor directly in to what you hope to achieve, and after months of rumination, you should have a clearer sense as to how to proceed. A new start in such relationships is possible now, and you’ll do well to look at the history between you through that lens of greater wisdom now available. Communications in general, especially with allies you may have lost touch with, or involving long-term projects that have been on hold, are powerfully supported now. Express yourself as honestly as you can, with generosity of spirit and self-confidence. This might require transcending idealized scenarios, or insecurities you’ve held in the back of your mind. If writing is on your agenda, get real about discipline. You’ve got a message to deliver that will benefit others — trust your need to do so. Just strive for clarity; first within, then without. – By Victoria Emory

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Momentum is set to pick up this week regarding professional matters. If projects or negotiations have been hanging in mid-air, you should be quite well positioned to move forward and advance your interests. You’ll be most effective, however, when bringing your fine-tuned sensitivity to all communications. Your drive to succeed is intense, but potential ego clashes can be avoided with a little diplomatic intelligence. Feel into the environment and be very honest with yourself about your objectives. Brainstorming about creative ideas may indeed prove worthwhile, but the more methodical an approach you can take, the less power you’ll waste by getting side-tracked by fantasies or risky schemes. Relationships with employers or other authorities connected with your career seem especially highlighted this week, and it’s possible to establish new frameworks within which to operate. A metamorphosis in your relational environment overall is just getting started, but if recent fireworks caught you off guard, Uranus’ upcoming retrograde should tamp down that heat for a while, giving you plenty of time to adjust. – By Victoria Emory

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Jupiter resumes forward motion in your sign this week, with the house most conducive to their expression hosting a fiery power-panel of planets. The flow between them is electric, and when Mercury ignites that rocket the same day, you’re headed into a few weeks of Super-Sagg. With an encouraging wind at your back, the quest for truth hits Mach speed and adventure calls. It’s a rare, peak season for rewarding travel and study. The seeker of knowledge faces many tests along the path, however, and this epic year has delivered. Over-arching themes include freedom versus security, and withstanding the tension of evolving values and self-identity. Another challenge is trickier to pin down, and may be the hardest of all: to remain open without falling for tempting illusions. The process is deeply personal, and for a while longer, understand that you’re traversing a type of liminal realm.  You’ll emerge soon enough, with greater clarity and understanding. Note the terrain, and trust that the journey is worth it. – By Victoria Emory

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’re plenty familiar by now with the challenging side of Saturn’s conjunction with Pluto in your sign: the weighted, serious introspection; confrontation with unconscious shadows and drives, the works. But as your tribe knows instinctively, where there’s challenge, there’s reward. And the immense evolutionary rewards include the kind of wisdom gained only through deep exploration of inner dimensions; intimate self-knowledge; psychic transformation. This week some juicy juju provides powerful support to help tap these rewards. Jupiter’s whispering guidance to your inner being from off stage, and this benevolent teacher’s direct station lines up with your psychic receiver to turn that volume way up. To maximize reception, take time out and intentionally relax your body, quiet your mind and tune in. Gently turn your focus inward and try to let go. If you haven’t remembered dreams lately, just thinking about doing so helps. This is a dialogue between You and you; fortifying nutrition for your psyche and soul, that will serve your progress down the road. – By Victoria Emory

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Complex astrology this week expresses in your chart through exciting alignments between your cherished goals for the future and meaningful relationships that help you achieve them. Projects you may have been hoping for, or which required the right people, might spark to life to the mutual benefit of all. Conditions are very right for meeting friends who will help you realize ambitions, and more — who you relate to as part of the same tribe, in the sense of shared ideals. The light turns green under fortunate skies, so get ready to roll and get out there. A note to the wise: whatever’s involved has enormous creative potential, but keep an eye on any fuzziness around the financial component. Tension exists between needs and dreams. It’s also possible that a friend may become something more this week, or an intimate partnership gets re-negotiated. You’re integrating revolutionary changes in the deepest strata of your being: your roots; your past; your home. This is a work in progress. — By Victoria Emory

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You’ve had a vision of something of great significance that you’ve wanted to manifest in the world. It may seem as if that vision has drifted beyond your ability to actualize, and slippery friction has made gaining traction toward achieving that goal a genuine challenge. The time has come to banish self-doubt, however; to summon your will and get clear with yourself about how to make that dream real. Jupiter’s direct station this week can re-ignite faith in your power to do so, and you seem prepared to put in the work necessary. The more you direct your attention toward organized, tangible steps, the less overwhelmed you’ll feel by what may have become an over-idealized concept that needs to be brought into focus. You can access precisely the grounded, process-oriented commitment necessary. This is your key to mastery. But you must gather your intent and actively tap into it. Assistance is available; quite possibly in the form of allies you respect, who recognize your talent and potential. — By Victoria Emory