Horoscopes for the week of March 8

Zodiac tips for surviving life at the U of M

Damien Davis, staff ARIES

Your symbol for the week is a Saw. Among the wheatfields and the whispers of the things that slither below the earth, the wails of distant lumberyards beckon you to look both ways before traversing the crossroads of your life. The jagged edges of an old worker’s tool reflect the highs and lows that everyone faces in life, but that is what it means to be human. Pay your respects to what grows and reaches for the sun inside the Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain Storage Research facility when you pass it by and you’ll receive a token the next day.

Taurus

Your symbol for the week is a Map. Your sanctuary has become harder to locate. You’re getting lost in the walls you’ve built to keep strangers out. Spirits of all kinds paw at the door to your comfort, and in an attempt to get a good night’s sleep you’ve trapped yourself in a place you’re unfamiliar with. Pursue the art of cartography so that you may re-learn what it means to truly know yourself. Stay clear of tunnels on campus you’ve never been in before. Now is not the time to take a new journey.

GEMINI

Your symbol for the week is an Apple. Hues of red haunt the halls of your childhood home, even when you’re not present to witness them. Something is trying to communicate with you. Echoes of fruit being bitten into, the smell of decay woven into the smell of crisp life. How many times did women of ancient myth bite into their forbidden fruits before they realized something was wrong? They say its greener on the other side, but ask yourself — is something forbidden for your safety, or to suppress who sits in your chest?

’Toban Tips

Sleeping worries away

Dear Toby, I’ve been going through some difficult stuff recently and I have been sleeping a lot to avoid my problems. It feels like when I dream, I don’t have to deal with the real world since my dreams are usually fun or light-hearted, but I know the dream fantasy isn’t healthy. What should I do?

Thank you, Chronic sleeper

Cancer

Your symbol for the week is a Boat. There is no need for a burial at sea. Pick up the parts of your life that you thought were holding you back and return them to the photo album. To improve yourself isn’t the act of rejecting what’s undesirable, but accepting who you are as a whole. Practice your knots and patch up any holes growing in the vessel you live in because you’ve only got one. The seagulls, the constellations and especially the wind are all on your side, and the sea is not as cruel as you think.

Leo

Your symbol for the week is an Egg. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” a voice drones on from the radio. For weeks you’ve ignored eating in the morning. You’re far too busy after all, exams are coming and work has been hell. The cartons of eggs in the flyers for the local grocery stores have looked odd as of late. Each time you pick up the paper they get a little more distorted, discoloured almost. It’s important this week to eat breakfast, even if it’s just a protein bar. And if you feel the crunching and squishing of something under your shoes when you walk the halls of University Centre, don’t look down.

Virgo

Your symbol for the week is a Bouquet. The moon tonight is near its fullest form and resides in Virgo. The wildflowers frozen beneath your feet reach out to remind you to be cautious. Beware what the moon will ask of you. Collect your wildflowers, your tree branches and greenery. Leave them on the ice of the quad tonight and watch the moon from the warmth of your home. The man in the moon admires a little too much this week, but your presence can be substituted with a proper gift.

Libra

Your symbol for the week is a Hand. Frankincense, myrrh, jasmine, the interlacing of fingers with accompanied murmurs, stained glass windows and ancient things once forgotten. The power that hands hold is often underestimated. They are capable of great violence and great love. They are an important part of who you are. You care for yourself with your hands. You create art, you hold your loved ones and you defend yourself against tyrants with your hands. Every line holds a memory.

Scorpio

Your symbol for the week is a Sickle. Abandoned farmhouses outside the city have been crying your name at night but the sound never makes it past the highway, instead being run over by the rubber tires of everyday people. Perhaps the sound would make it to your ears if they tried a new technique, but patterns of behaviour are hard to break. You’re familiar with that. Long past are days where, sickle in hand, you had to fight for your seat at the table. You hung it up years ago in those very same farmhouses, and though it is tempting to answer a call from familiarity, resist. The fight is over, scorpion, no need to go back.

Sagittarius

Your symbol for the week is a Tooth. Music from generations past plays from a cassette player you don’t own. It’s the dead of winter but the air smells like humid, hot summer nights. Wind is rolling through the trees, and imprints of someone’s back molars reside on your steering wheel. You are anticipating something and aren’t quite sure of its nature yet, but you’re sure that whatever it is will have an impact. It’s waiting for you on the gravel roads of this province, where you left parts of yourself for the coyotes to dig up later and trade their canines for yours.

Capricorn

Your symbol for the week is a pair of Scissors. Your grandmother must’ve kept them, surely. A pair of those old school shears. She’d use them to cut cloth and scold you for trying to use them in a craft project, as their sharpness was important to her. It’s something you’re inheriting now, the knowledge that a sharp pair of scissors goes a long way. This week, remember your elders and the stories they told you. It’s time to utilize them.

Aquarius

Your symbol for the week is a Table. There is laughter so cacophonous you’re uncertain of its tone. The noise is coming from faceless partygoers surrounding the table you’ve set up. You can’t remember where you are or how you got there, but you can remember the act of creating the table, the food and the floral arrangements. Whether it’s a funeral, a wake or a social, you’ve found yourself locked in an environment that is unkind to you and your hard work. It would be satisfying to flip the table, to resist the laughter that makes your ears bleed. But then you too would be a faceless attendee, wouldn’t you? Take a seat at your own table and know that this doesn’t have to be a pity party.

Pisces

Your symbol for the week is a Staircase. You’ve been here before, don’t you remember? Just the other day when you were seven years old, you climbed the stairs to wake up your sibling. Only, that wasn’t really the other day, was it? It doesn’t really matter because you’re on campus right now, climbing the stairs to the third floor of Elizabeth Dafoe Library, except you’ve been climbing for 20 minutes now and you’re certain the library doesn’t have this many stairs. In the future, pay attention to where your feet take you. Sometimes, they have a mind of their own.

Dear Chronic sleeper, Many people use sleep as a coping strategy to deal with the daily stressors of everyday life. You’re not alone! However, as you’ve mentioned, it isn’t always healthy. You can combat this by developing healthier coping mechanisms to help you deal with the difficult things going on in your life. Going for a walk in nature, exercising, journaling, meditating and practicing mind- fulness or self-care are effective ways to deal with stress. A good way to overcome this may be finding reasons to stay up and out of bed. Exploring and maintaining hobbies, activities and passions that you enjoy can serve as a motivator to not go to sleep. Before you know it, you’ll have so many things you want to do that you won’t have time to fit excess sleep into your schedule.

So try new things, do more of what you love and try different coping techniques when you feel the urge to drift back into your dream world. You’ve got this!

Best of luck, Toby the Bison

To ask Toby a question, email comment@ themanitoban.com