Rob Brezsny
CANCER (June 21-July 22): When I slip into a meditative state and seek insight about your future, I have a reverie about a hearty sapling growing out of a fallen tree that’s rotting on the forest floor. I see exuberant mushrooms sprouting from a cowpie in a pasture. I imagine compost nourishing a watermelon patch. So what do my visions mean? I’m guessing you’re going through a phase of metaphorical death and decay. You are shedding and purging and flushing. In the process, you are preparing some top-notch fertilizer. It won’t be ready for a while, but when it is, a growth spurt will begin.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Dear Diary: Almost everything that was possible to change has changed these past 12 months. I am not kidding and I am not exaggerating. Getting just one of my certainties destroyed would have been acceptable; I long ago became accustomed to the gradual chip-chip-chipping away of my secure foundations. But this most recent phase, when even my pretty illusions of stability got smashed, truly set a record. So then why am I still standing strong and proud? Why is it I’m not cowering in the corner muttering to the spiders? Have I somehow found some new source of power that was never available to me until my defenses were totally stripped away? I think I’ll go with that theory.”
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): About 32,000 years ago, squirrels in northeast Siberia buried the fruits of a flowering plant deep in their burrows, below the level of the permafrost. Then a flood swept through the area. The water froze and permanently sealed the fruits in a layer of ice. They remained preserved there until 2007, when they were excavated. A team of scientists got a hold of them and coaxed them to grow into viable plants. Their success has a metaphorical resemblance to a project you will be capable of pulling off during the next 12 months, Virgo. I’m not sure what exact form it will take. A resuscitation? A resurrection? A recovery? The revival of a dormant dream? The thawing of a frozen asset or the return of a lost resource?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): For German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, the good news was that he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 81 times. The bad news is that he never actually won. Actor Richard Burton had a similar fate. He was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but never took home an Oscar. If there is anything that even vaguely resembles that pattern in your own life, Libra, the next 12 months will be the most favorable time ever to break the spell. In the next few weeks, you may get a glimpse of how it will unfold.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I should have kissed you longer.” I hope you won’t be replaying that thought over and over again in your imagination three weeks from now. I hope you won’t be obsessing on similar mantras, either, like “I should have treated you better” or “I wish I would have listened to you deeper” or “I should have tried harder to be my best self with you.” Please don’t let any of that happen, Scorpio. I am begging you to act now to make any necessary changes in yourself so that you will be fully ready to give the important people in your life the care they deserve. If you do so, you will be free of regrets later.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Longing, what is that? Desire, what is that?” Those are questions Louise Gluck asks in her poem “Prism.” Does she really not know? Has she somehow become innocent again, free from all her memories of what longing and desire have meant to her in the past? That’s what I wish for you right now, Sagittarius. Can you do it? Can you enter into beginner’s mind and feel your longing and desire as if they were brand new, just born, as fresh and primal as they were at the moment you fell in love for the first time? If you can manage it, you will bestow upon yourself a big blessing.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You could really benefit from engaging with a compassionate critic—someone who would gently and lovingly invite you to curb your excesses, heal your ignorance, and correct your mistakes. Would you consider going out in search of a kick-ass guide like that? Ideally, this person would also motivate you to build up your strengths and inspire you to take better care of your body. One way or another, Capricorn, curative feedback will be coming your way. The question is, will you have a hand in choosing it, or will you wait around passively for fate to deliver it? I highly recommend the former.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Now would be an excellent time for you to dream up five new ways to have fun. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with your existing methods. It’s just that in the next few weeks, life will conspire to help you drop some of your inhibitions and play around more than usual and experience greater pleasure. The best way to cooperate with that conspiracy is to be an explorer on the frontiers of amusement and enchantment. What’s the most exciting thing you have always wondered about but never done? What interesting experiment have you denied yourself for no good reason? What excursion or adventure would light up your spontaneity?
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Now is an excellent time to transform your relationship with your past. Are you up for a concentrated burst of psychospiritual work? To get the party started, meditate your ass off as you ponder this question: “What fossilized fixations, ancient insults, impossible dreams, and parasitic ghosts am I ready to let go of?” Next, move on to this inquiry: “What can I do to ensure that relaxed, amused acceptance will rule my encounters with the old ways forever after?” Here’s a third query: “What will I do with all the energy I free up by releasing the deadweight I had been clinging to?”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “When I was young,” wrote French author Albert Camus, “I expected people to give me more than they could—continuous friendship, permanent emotion.” That didn’t work out so well for him. Over and over, he was awash in disappointment. “Now I have learned to expect less of them than they can give,” he concluded. “Their emotions, their friendship, and noble gestures keep their full miraculous value in my eyes; wholly the fruit of grace.” I’d love to see you make an adjustment like this in the coming months, Aries. If you do, the astrological omens suggest you will experience a blessing like Camus’.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some earthquakes happen in slow motion. These rare events occur 22 to 34 miles down, where tectonic plates are hotter and gooier. Unlike the sudden, shocking jolts of typical temblors, this gradual variety can take many days to uncoil and never send dishes flying off shelves up here on the earth’s surface. I suspect your destiny will have a resemblance to this phenomenon in the coming months, Taurus. Your foundations will be rustling and rumbling, but they will do so slowly and gently. The release of energy will ultimately be quite massive. The realignment of deep structures will be epic. But there will be no big disturbances or damages.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I suspect that some night soon you will have a dream of being naked as you stand on stage in front of a big audience. Or maybe not completely naked. There’s a strong possibility you will be wearing pink and green striped socks and a gold crown. And it gets worse. In your dream, I bet you will forget what you were going to say to the expectant crowd. Your mouth will be moving but no words will come out. So that’s the bad news, Gemini. The good news is that since I have forewarned you, you can now do whatever is necessary to prevent anything resembling this dream from actually occurring in your waking life. So when you are called on to show what you’ve got and make a splashy impression, you will be well prepared.
Homework: I dare you to give a compliment to someone you’ve never praised before. Tell me about it at Freewillastrology.com