You‘re ready to go back to your regularly schedule programming now that the Mercury Retrograde is over. It‘s been an interesting couple of weeks and if you could focus on your work and nothing else that would be excellent. You like remembering how important to the world you are when you get down to the grind and crank out some of the most creative, amazing stuff anyone has ever seen. Of course, if you happen to be in one of those doldrums jobs you might just rock the heck out of that inventory list, or reorganize things like a boss. Whatever you do, you‘re making yourself feel useful, which in turn makes you feel amazing. And this week you have no time for the drama, rumors or other personal stuff going on in your life, if it‘s not falling in the category of work you‘re not going to bother dealing with it. I suppose that means you‘re not interested in meeting anyone new at the bar or online sites, and that your friends had better stay away until the weekend. You want to remove all distractions, which likely means *gasp* are you shutting off your Facebook!? That‘s actually a smart move, you have better things to do than worry about the rest of the world. Ascendant: If your middle name was anything it would be determined.

You sometimes wish you didn‘t have to spend so much time working because there are so many other things in the world you‘d like to take advantage of. It doesn‘t help that you‘re living vicariously through so many friends and co-workers, seeing all their great family vacations and everything else they‘re up to that you‘re feeling pretty much in the dumps this week. It‘s not been great weather wise, you‘re feeling over worked and underpaid, plus you know that now that January is over there‘s no chance for a promotion or raise for quite a while. You have to get through the work with a smile and not worry about anything else because there‘s no time for other things. Those salsa classes you wanted to attend? Can‘t do that, not out of the office until late and the class is already over by the time you get there. You might be looking at consolidating some bills this week, in an effort to feel more financially secure, and then looking for ways you can find the time to do fun things with your money without losing your mind. It‘s all about balance and you want to find a new balance in your life. Ascendant: Time to find the happy place again.

You‘ll have an intelligent conversation with anyone proving to be intelligent this week. Mercury Retrograde ends on Tuesday which has you breathing some sighs of relief as business takes an upswing and everyone wants to seem to play ball. To make matters even better, your boss, and most of your co-workers have come to rely on you, they want you to deal with it, negotiate the big things, and get the results only you can get. It must be that gift of gab you have, or the fact you can accomplish anything you put your mind to, or the fact that you‘re a chameleon, hey all of this is working in your favor you should simply go for it. You know you can get the desired results it‘s just a matter of listening to the things they want and then giving them something they think they want, which is sort of like what they asked for in the first place, but is a lot more like what you or your company actually wants. Confused? You shouldn‘t be, you made this game and all the rules to it, you‘re the best player in the guild and if anyone even so much as questions your authority you know exactly how to remove them from the situation. Ascendant: You know how to get what you want.

You‘re having a hell of a week not knowing what to do with yourself. Mercury might not be in retrograde anymore, but Mars in Scorpio is putting you into T-Storm mode. You‘re cranky, difficult to talk to, and you don‘t want to tell anyone what‘s wrong. Worst of all, you‘re not even sure if you know what‘s wrong you just want to isolate yourself until the feelings of incompetence and insecurity pass. This might have to do with Mercury being in Capricorn, during the retrograde you can ignore all of its ambitious, hard-working, don‘t slack on the job energy, and think it‘s just wonky because there‘s a retrograde. Now that it‘s over there‘s really no excuse for you wanting to take it easy at work, and there‘s no reason you can‘t get out there and kick some ass, you just have to do it in a different way, your way and yes some people won‘t understand the method to your madness but you have to allow them to see that everything is going to turn out perfectly fine if they trust you. Getting people to give you a chance also means giving yourself a chance. Ascendant: You have your way; they have theirs.

You always feel like the wild card in life, as in, everyone else has their default modes and you always know what to expect from people. Most everyone is like clockwork, predictable patterns, the whole bit. With Leo there‘s no predictable pattern, no set of rules, and definitely no telling if you‘re going to get the compassionate, logical, well-wishing side of the Leo or the angry Lion that lives inside them. You simply have to roll the dice when dealing with them because any number of things has the power to set them off, and you‘ll never know which thing will do it. The unfortunate thing is that everyone has to work with a Leo or interact with one at some given point and as the Leo you need to decide which set of traps people have to get through in order to find the compassionate side of you. It‘s not testing so much as precautions both because you have a big heart and lots of love to give, but also because you have a unique skill set and neither of those things should be abused. You sometimes end up in situations where you‘re constantly giving and never getting anything in return, this week you‘ll need to assess what kind of situation you‘re in, and decide if this is something you need to change. Ascendant: Change is always good, especially when you‘re being taken advantage of.

It‘s really great when everyone goes back to work and it‘s simple, efficient, and everyone works together as a team. You really enjoy not only being part of the team but being a leader, and being the one who sees the project to fruition. You‘re never much for the glory of working but you always want to see the success of the company. Appreciation and recognition is always welcomed, but you‘d rather be surprised than be the type of person who absolutely needs to get something in return for your work. This often means that you don‘t ask for a raise or a promotion, you simply do the work and wait until your boss decides they want to give you more. Or, you often become the boss yourself, and it becomes easier to promote yourself when you‘ve pushed the company forward in a positive direction. There‘s only so long you can take being a doormat for a company before you decide that you can‘t do it anymore and that you‘re not going to put up with it. This might mean that you‘re thinking of leaving the company you‘re with or at the very least, making some major changes to the way you work. Ascendant: Time to be smarter.

Mercury going direct in Capricorn isn‘t good for Libras who have been playing games with their lives over the past few weeks. You‘re bound to be confronted about the things you‘ve really been doing, and what you really want. You won‘t be able to hide your true feelings, and you won‘t be able to lie or smooth talk your way through this one. It‘s like little bunny foo foo, hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head. The fairy is going to come down and she‘s not going to be happy with you. There might be consequences, but it depends on how much you‘ve been lying to the people around you, to yourself. If you‘ve been as honest as possible you‘ll likely have a very uneventful week, but I try not to write boring horoscopes for people who go to work and come home every day to their loving families and pets, because let‘s face it, you‘ve got it all figured out and you hit the happy jackpot on the head. For the rest of the Libras out there who are struggling to find that happy ending, stop lying to yourself about what will make you happy and take steps you need to take out of the comfort zone you‘ve found yourself in and throw yourself into the risk you refuse to take out of fear of where it will lead. Can‘t be worse than what you‘ve got going on now.Ascendant: It can only get better from here.

Life is marginally easier to deal with when Mercury isn‘t in retrograde and is still in Capricorn. This is making you feel more productive and less destructive, giving you the wisdom to leave your soap boxes where they belong and to get your hands dirty with whatever you think will help out the world the most. That being said, you‘re both taking on your usual day job and some other side ones just to get your feet wet and also to stay busy enough so you don‘t dwell on things and sit around and mope all the time about what‘s wrong with the world. You want the world to heal, at your core one of the reasons you can‘t stand things being out of balance is because you crave that balance and harmony in the world. You want to see people being good to each other, you want to be passionate with your lover, and you don‘t want to be bogged down by the number of bad things that happen in the world. This week is showing you that in order for you to get anywhere with your crusade you have to talk less and act more. There‘s a lot more work down this path if you stay on it and stick with your passions and initiatives. You‘ll actually make the world a better place and this in turn will solve all of the bitterness and anger within you. Ascendant: Fixing problems is better than dwelling on them.

You‘d like to avoid work and all things this week if possible. You‘re never sure if you‘ve really made a mess of things in your life, but when things hit the fan you know it, and it comes full circle and body slams you. There will likely be a whole list of other errands you have to run this week that you weren‘t even expecting, and it‘s going to be one of those taking personal days away from work so you can deal with things that have transpired in your life. Mercury leaving retrograde has something to do with this, but it‘s more that Capricorn energy that‘s causing you to face this. We could also look at Mars being in Scorpio making some situations intolerable, and Saturn in Sagittarius helping you learn long term life lessons and setting you up for a much better future than any of the ones you could ever imagine. Whatever the lesson is, and no matter how afraid you are this week you have to push past it because that‘s the only way you‘re going to hit your happy place, where you won‘t care and you‘ll see that the grass is really greener on the other side. Everyone deserves to be happy, you need to do what‘s necessary to get yourself there. Also, work will survive, it‘ll be there next week when you absolutely need to work it to pay bills.Ascendant: You need to take care of you for a change.

You‘re in your prime this week, impressing the people around you, and working harder than you have in a long time. The retrograde doesn‘t affect you as much because Mercury is still in Capricorn and dealing with a double dose of Capricorn is just as easy as dealing with half the Capricorn energy. What‘s really getting your goat this week is the Mars in Scorpio energy, which is making you lean towards being abrasive and rude to people. You don‘t like having to give people a piece of your mind but by midweek you can‘t help it, the claws have to come out eventually. You‘re usually so well spoken and matter of fact about the way things have to be when you‘re perturbed with people at work, this week you‘ve got a bit more passion behind it, which is only making people believe you‘re not actually the robot they thought you were. Since you don‘t talk a lot in public forums unless you have to, saying what‘s on your mind, and sharing it with all the important people in your life is a big step for you. Some of them won‘t like your opinion where others will be happy for your refreshing and blunt perspective. Ascendant: Say it the way you see it.

When things don‘t go well with one person or company you have no problem moving onto the next. After all, your skillset is unique enough that people will need it no matter where you go. And everyone always needs someone they can pour their secrets into. You‘ve become like a secrets collector, hearing it all, and knowing everyone‘s worst sides. You don‘t do anything with it though, it‘s not like you store it for blackmail, you‘re not vindictive like that. You might have a sharp tongue sometimes and you might share an opinion that‘s a bit harsh but you want people to learn from their mistakes, you want people to love themselves, and you know that in order for people to do that you need to be around so they have someone they can talk to. You never judge, you never talk shit about them, and you keep whatever they tell you in confidence. There‘s really nothing too bad a person could have done to another person that you could ever condemn someone, but that‘s because you understand the human heart and mind and you know that everyone makes mistakes. Sadly, what you struggle with is finding someone you can vent to, and that‘s what you need most sometimes because it‘s not like your life is a walk in the park or something. Ascendant: You make it look easy even when it isn‘t.

Hitting some sort of creative rock bottom because Mercury isn‘t retrograding anymore and Capricorn in Mercury is warring with Mars in Scorpio and with Venus being in Capricorn too that‘s just making Mars even more adamant to spread its Scorpio poison everywhere. So you‘re a bit on edge this week, you think people are going to take your ideas from you and use them against you, or worse, steal them and make money off them without your consent. You‘re worried about having to get lawyers involved, going into court, and having to worry about a lot of legal fees. You just wanted to have your ideas and be happy, you didn‘t want to have to protect them to the ends of the Earth, and you also thought nobody would be stupid enough to steal from you. Why are people so greedy? Why does everyone want to find someone they can take advantage of? You wish you didn‘t have to see the ugly sides of people because it makes you less inclined to pay attention. You may go back to going through the motions because sometimes that‘s easier than having to deal with the way people really are. On the plus side, you‘ll have someone in your life who will fight for you, so that relieves some stress. Ascendant: When you can‘t believe in people, what to do?