AQUARIUS HOROSCOPE

Usually a Sun/Saturn square is a time of self-recrimination. It's a baleful energy and there's nothing that the planet of guilt and shame enjoys more than watching you make yourself miserable over some past mistake or fiasco. Curiously that won't be happening this week. Maybe it's because you've had all the aggravation you can take or maybe it's because you finally understand that without mistakes we wouldn't have anything to learn from. In any case someone who was expecting to find you licking your wounds on June 22d will be surprised to discover you're brimming with excitement and ready to get back into the game.

Uranus throws another curve ball from out of left field on June 15th. One would think you'd have gotten used to it by now given that the planet of revolution and change is one of your planetary rulers, but no. However instead of racing to salvage the situation, you may want to pause and reflect. This is the last time that there will be a Mars/Uranus square in Leo and Taurus which means you don't have to play by somebody else's rules anymore. Moreover with Pluto in Aquarius you get to call the shots. It's something to think about before you start jumping through hoops.

The combination of air and fire energy coursing through your horoscope this week courtesy of a Venus/Jupiter sextile on June 4th and a Mercury/Mars sextile on June 5th promises to accelerate the pace of any developing deal, negotiation, or relationship. Most people would say this is exciting, but as a Saturn-ruled sign you may find yourself squeezing the brake. It's ironic that for someone who processes things as instantaneously as you do, you still need to take your time to study the details of anything under discussion. Nevertheless you'll discover that everything is on the up and up and that you can proceed with confidence.

You may say you don't care what others think, but in truth you do. Aquarius is an air sign which means that you're always wetting a finger and pointing it upwards in order to determine the direction that the winds of public opinion are blowing. Yet public opinion can also be like junk food. It can stimulate the taste buds while delivering information that has little (if any) nutritional value. This is something you'll discover for yourself when Mercury forms a trine to Pluto in your sign on May 27th. Not only will this vindicate your recent actions, it emboldens you to build on them.

Somebody once said that people who need people are the luckiest people in the world. It's a sentiment you always understood intellectually but never truly embraced until now. Feeling like an outsider is nothing new, but discovering that you're not alone – that there are other outsiders just like you – is empowering. Saturn in Aries over the next 2 ½ years shows these like-minded outcasts becoming creative collaborators who are happy to share their insights, experiences, and expertise. Meeting up with like-minded people is always welcoming, but it becomes even more fulfilling when they turn out to be fellow travelers heading in the same direction.

The great irony about Aquarius is how much you abhor change. One would think you'd embrace it given that Uranus, planet of revolution, is one of your Ruling Planets but there's a big difference between being used to something and liking it. That's why you're in for a pleasant surprise when the final Sun/Uranus conjunction in Taurus on May 17th delivers some startling developments. Instead of things being shaken to your foundations you'll be asked to expand on what you have. You may finally get the go-ahead on a remodel, meet an investor with deep pockets, or receive renewed support for a project lingering in limbo.

It always helps to find one like-minded individual in a group. Not only do you feel like you've connected with someone who gets you, you also have a buddy to hang with. Yet there's so much more you can do. Instead of commenting from the sidelines, you and your friend could go on to change the general mindset and even the way things are done. There's an infectious playfulness to this week's Mercury/Jupiter sextile that gets others to stop what they're doing and come join you instead. You may come to discover in the weeks ahead that you're surrounded by more like-minded people than originally thought.

You'll want to care of any unfinished business – like an application, claim, or filing – before this weekend because that’s when Pluto turns retrograde. Pluto turning retrograde is like that moment on the food cooking shows when the time is up and the chefs have to present whatever’s on their plate. Hopefully you prepared things to perfection and remembered to include all the ingredients. If not then you could be chopped. But don’t worry if you are, because Pluto is also the planet of rebirth, which means that you could be invited back to reapply or resubmit when Pluto comes out of retrograde in October.

You're stubborn, but you're nice about it. You'll let people disagree, challenge you, and vehemently express their displeasure knowing full well that once they feel like they've been heard, they'll come around to your way of thinking. It's something you've been doing for years without calling attention to it. The difference, however, in the type of exchanges you're having nowadays is that Pluto is in your sign. This gives off a certain air of inevitability that others can find disconcerting so be sure when you wind up getting your way in the end to make people feel like they still had a choice all along.

You have no problem with someone making demands. It's their right just like it's your right to turn them down if those demands can't be met. The problem is their sloppiness. As an Aquarius, you often find yourself salvaging other people's messes. This can range from someone involving others in what should have been a one-on-one discussion to a disappointed party airing their grievances to anyone in earshot. It's exhausting transmuting the resentment into a more constructive conversation, but that's what you're good at which is why you do it. Pace yourself this week and you'll emerge on the other side still forming complete sentences.