Rob Brezsny crop
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The advice I’m about to dispense may have never before been given to Libras in the history of horoscopes. It might also be at odds with the elegance and decorum you like to express. Nevertheless, I am convinced that it is the proper counsel. I believe it will help you make the most out of the highly original impulses that are erupting and flowing through you right now. It will inspire you to generate a mess of fertile chaos that will lead to invigorating long-term innovations. Ready? The message comes from Do the Work, a book by Steven Pressfield: “Stay primitive. The creative act is primitive. Its principles are of birth and genesis.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Two years ago a British man named Sean Murphy decided he had suffered enough from the painful wart on his middle finger. So he drank a few beers to steel his nerves, and tried to blast the offending blemish off with a gun. The operation was a success in the sense that he got rid of the wart. It was less than a total victory, though, because he also annihilated most of his finger. May I suggest that you not follow Murphy’s lead, Scorpio? Now is a good time to part ways with a hurtful burden, but I’m sure you can do it without causing a lot of collateral damage.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Grace has been trickling into your life lately, but I suspect that it may soon start to flood. A spate of interesting coincidences seems imminent. There’s a good chance that an abundance of tricky luck will provide you with the leverage and audacity you need to pull off minor miracles. How much slack is available to you? Probably as much as you want. So ask for it! Given all these blessings, you are in an excellent position to expunge any cynical attitudes or jaded theories you may have been harboring. For now at least, it’s realistic to be optimistic.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn innovator Jeff Bezos built Amazon.com from the ground up. He now owns The Washington Post, one of America’s leading newspapers. It’s safe to say he might have something to teach us about translating big dreams into practical realities. “We are stubborn on vision,” he says about his team. “We are flexible in details.” In other words, he knows exactly what he wants to create, but is willing to change his mind and be adaptable as he carries out the specific work that fulfills his goals. That’s excellent advice for you, Capricorn, as you enter the next phase of implementing your master plan.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Here’s the horoscope I would like to be able to write for you by the first week of December: “Congratulations, Aquarius! Your quest for freedom has begun to bear tangible results. You have escaped a habit that had subtly undermined you for a long time. You are less enslaved to the limiting expectations that people push on you. Even your monkey mind has eased up on its chatter and your inner critic has at least partially stopped berating you. And the result of all this good work? You are as close as you have ever come to living your own life—as opposed to the life that other people think you should live.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “It’s an unbearable thought that roses were not invented by me,” wrote Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. You’re not as egotistical as Mayakovsky, Pisces, so I doubt you’ve ever had a similar “unbearable thought.” And it is due in part to your lack of rampaging egotism that I predict you will invent something almost as good as roses in the coming weeks. It may also be almost as good as salt and amber and mist and moss; almost as good as kisses and dusk and honey and singing. Your ability to conjure up long-lasting beauty will be at a peak. Your creative powers will synergize with your aptitude for love to bring a new marvel into the world.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sometimes you quit games too early, Aries. You run away and dive into a new amusement before you have gotten all the benefits you can out of the old amusement. But I don’t think that will be your problem in the coming days. You seem more committed than usual to the ongoing process. You’re not going to bolt. That’s a good thing. This process is worth your devotion. But I also believe that right now you may need to say no to a small part of it. You’ve got to be clear that there’s something about it you don’t like and want to change. If you fail to deal with this doubt now, you might suddenly quit and run away somewhere down the line. Be proactive now and you won’t be rash later.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Jugaad is a Hindi-Urdu word that can be translated as “frugal innovation.” People in India and Pakistan use it a lot. It’s the art of coming up with a creative workaround to a problem despite having to deal with logistical and financial barriers. Masters of jugaad call on ingenuity and improvisation to make up for sparse resources. I see this as your specialty right now, Taurus. Although you may not have abundant access to VIPs and filthy riches, you’ve nevertheless got the resourcefulness necessary to come up with novel solutions. What you produce may even turn out better than if you’d had more assets to draw on.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In accordance with your current astrological omens, I authorize you to be like a bird in the coming week—specifically, like a bird as described by the zoologist Norman J. Berrill: “To be a bird is to be more intensely alive than any other living creature. Birds have hotter blood, brighter colors, stronger emotions. They live in a world that is always present, mostly full of joy.” Take total advantage of the soaring grace period ahead of you, Gemini. Sing, chirp, hop around, swoop, glide, love the wind, see great vistas, travel everywhere, be attracted to hundreds of beautiful things, and do everything.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired,” wrote Nikos Kazantzakis in his book Report to Greco. I’m hoping that when you read that statement, Cancerian, you will feel a jolt of melancholy. I’m hoping you will get a vision of an exciting experience that you have always wanted but have not yet managed to bring into your life. Maybe this provocation will goad you into finally conjuring up the more intense desire you would need to actually make your dream come true.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “It is truly strange how long it takes to get to know oneself,” wrote the prominent 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. “I am now 62 years old, yet just one moment ago I realized that I love lightly toasted bread and loath bread when it is heavily toasted. For over 60 years, and quite unconsciously, I have been experiencing inner joy or total despair at my relationship with grilled bread.” Your assignment, Leo, is to engage in an intense phase of self-discovery like Wittgenstein’s. It’s time for you to become fully conscious of all the small likes and dislikes that together shape your identity.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God than in church thinking about the mountains,” said the naturalist John Muir. Let that serve as your inspiration, Virgo. These days, you need to be at the heart of the hot action, not floating in a cloud of abstract thoughts. The dream has to be fully embodied and vividly unfolding all around you, not exiled to wistful fantasies that flit through your mind’s eye when you’re lonely or tired or trying too hard. The only version of God that’s meaningful to you right now is the one that feeds your lust for life in the here and now.