As the Sun and Mercury join this year’s most Virgoan week, it’s time to wish all the zodiac’s perfect-as-they-are Virgos Happy Birthday! May their hopes and dreams manifest with symmetry and precision, may their hearts be carefree, their minds uncluttered, their presents impeccable and their birthday cakes deliciously nutritious...

ARIES: Right now approximate just doesn’t cut it, near enough isn’t good enough and mightn’t feel like something for anything less than best. Don’t demand it of others, but do find it in yourself. Be fearless, dig deep, rise high...

TAURUS: Ogden Nash once said: I don’t care if people say unkind things about me so long as they don’t say them to my face. Even if this week they do, don’t take it personally – put any critical information to work for you.

GEMINI: The Chinese believe that when someone throws a knife at you, there’s two ways of catching it – by the blade or by the handle. And this week offers the opportunity to turn a potentially painful situation into an advantage.

CANCER: This week definitely benefits from some anti-clutter therapy – chucking out whatever’s past its use-by date, make calls you’ve been procrastinating about, attending to the hundred and one messy bits and pieces of unfinished business in life’s pending file…

LEO: If this week’s people seem nit-picking, critical or petty-minded, no need to get the regal whiskers in a snit or the royal fur in an uproar. Not when they make you appear so gloriously generous and tremendously accommodating by comparison!

VIRGO: For sanity’s sake this week you’ll need to tame the turbulence of your internal dialogue – do it by empathising rather than analysing. Or remember Confucious: If you love what you do, you never need to work another day in your life.

LIBRA: People could be a touch grouchy and ouchy right now, but things – ah, they’re another matter. This is arguably the year’s best week for refurbishing: renovating, refreshing and renewing the house, office, wardrobe, hairdo and general aspect.

SCORPIO: Tempted to play the blame game? Not worth it Scorps, because what you put out always comes back and everyone suffers, including you. Can you instead think of what you consider someone else’s sin as simply unskilled behaviour?

SAGITTARIUS: A curious kind of cosmic jetlag happens, Archers, when you move too fast for too long – you start to leave parts of yourself behind. This week you really need to slow down and hang about so they can catch up...

CAPRICORN: Kali, goddess of ruthless pruning, is presently on the prowl, removing whatever no longer serves you, making space available for the new you to grow. Resisting her scissors is painful – surrender, however daunting it seems, works miracles.

AQUARIUS: Still battling with opposing emotions – the good, the bad and the insufferable? The only workable way is to embrace all these contradictions – because really, doesn’t that great panorama of contrasts add such interesting texture to the quantum soup?

PISCES: During this annual Week of the Detail Demons, pressure to Get it Right – whether applied by yourself or others – can cause quite a lot of high anxiety, so don’t buy into it. Just do your best and then let it rest…