Horoscopes (Sept. 4-10)

James Noellert

ARIES: March 21 – April 20

A lot of things are coming to a head. In your private moments, you have to be wondering how it will play out. If your surface reality appears copacetic, the undercurrents of change are getting ready to burst through the dam of normalcy and certainty. Is it time to dye your hair green? Those closest to you will be in for a surprise if they expect you to keep nursing the status-quo. As much as you would love to bend over backward to please them, this is one of those times when your life depends on pulling out all the stops and telling anyone who doesn't like it to take it or leave it.

You've got too much going on to pin it down to one thing. The changes that you face go back to stuff that is older than time. Finding a way to reinvent yourself when there doesn't seem to be anything left of you is going to require a lot of faith and a little magic. Don't be held back by whatever it is that makes it so hard for you to get to the bottom of your stuff. It'll be like pulling teeth, but once you get down to the bottom line, there's nothing left but the truth. At the moment, returning to a place where you can live according to your own rules is where you need to go.

This is amazing! With all of the odds stacked against you, you've come out of the fray with flying colors. What happens next will be a natural extension of what you've done so far. It looks to me like your only pitfall will be the thing that causes you to sink into overconfidence. If you're young and foolish, this will be more of a danger than it will be for those of you who've been around the barn a few times. On the home front, some things are working and others are open to question. Relative to all of that, do your best to stay cool and keep coming from the heart.

You've been involved in all kinds of activity that has kept you running around like a chicken with your head cut off. Some of you have no choice but to keep on running. Others need to get off the treadmill and chill out. Recent encounters with old flames, blasts from the past, and in some cases, the last person you wanted to see, have raised all kinds of feelings and questions that you were sure you had put to rest. P.S., my dear: they would not show up if it was over. Coming to terms with what did, or did not happen between you and others is part of the deal right now.

The tendency to get all wound up over nothing is something you need to keep an eye on. It's great to care so much about how things go, but you suck the life out of them when you get overly obsessive. So much of what is out of balance could be easily remedied with a whiff of everyday things. You've had a hard time getting real. Your strength can only be found when you return to the visceral portion of your experience. Yes, my dear: it's your turn to let your hair down, or head for the hills, or lie face down on the ground and give yourself room to reconnect with Mother Earth.

You just bit off more than you can chew, but you've managed to graduate with flying colors. At times like this, it's hard to believe that we got through in one piece. Having landed safely on the doorstep of whatever's next, you feel pumped up enough to ride another tiger. Who knows whether or not that's the best thing? Let me leave it up to you to decide. All I can say is that it might be wiser to reflect upon what it costs us to keep chasing the brass ring. Review your motivations. If ego and ambition are behind the wheel, the next go-round could flatten you.

After a long stretch of too much work, or too much "nothing," you have a chance to regroup. The next few weeks will open the space to come back to yourself and figure out where you want to go from here. What happens between now and then will surprise you, so don't get stuck trying to manage your plans or your time. In this zone, the law of serendipity rules. There's an outside chance that perfect strangers and off-the-wall opportunities could come along and lead you in a new direction. Keep your options open. Life is about to offer you more than you bargained for.

It's so hard to know when we're fooling ourselves. You're either totally certain about things or you're going nuts wanting to know what's up. I'm sure there's a mixture of both. This is one of those times when it will help you to remember that what we believe to be true is often a far cry from it. If the road to enlightenment is paved with disillusionment, this could be a lesson in what happens when we only see what we want to see. At the same time, things that are governed by faith and love can always go either way, so keep the faith but don't ever hide from the truth.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of this made sense? Caught between being OK with things and wondering why none of it turned out the way you planned is an interesting state of affairs. What happens to us is unique to each individual; your story and my story are no different than snowflakes. To feel deficient because you live in your own private Idaho while everyone else is in tune with the status quo is a huge mistake. At a certain point, you'll begin to realize that there is perfection in all of this craziness. It may take time, but the sooner you embrace it, the better.

After all of this, you're wondering if it was worth it. The energy that you've spent trying to make a dent in this situation has backfired to the point where you need to stop and check in with yourself. The need to maneuver around people and their issues has kept you from seeing that you're better off doing your own thing. On another level, this is freaking you out. The idea that you won't be able to make it without someone or something is huge. If it keeps you awake at night, try to remember what brought you here and be open to the thought that it's time for a change.

Don't be too sure about how things will wind up. You've done everything that you can, and you've put your faith into what counts. Guided by what feels right to you, instead of getting caught up in the form that things are supposed to take, you're using a new approach to your life, to your work, and to your relationships. If there's uncertainty, you're learning to trust the fact that it's there to open the way to possibilities that you would never be able to see if you were sure about everything. Open your life up and trust yourself enough to continue to be guided from within.

You wish you could figure out what's expected of you. In a situation that hasn't made sense for a long time, you've gone over the top trying to deal with things that keep turning you inside out. If you thought you could handle it, you've come far enough to prove that to yourself. The question is: "Is it worth it?" Before the month ends, you'll figure that out. Between now and then, do what you can to check your facts and decide not just who you are in this situation, but how far you can go with it. At the end of the day, don't be surprised if you realize that it's time to move on.

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