By Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Do you know what insomniac
dyslexic philosophers do?" asked one of the 20th century's great thinkers,
Terence McKenna. "They stay up all night wondering if dog really exists."
That just happens to be your assignment, Aries—whether or not you're an
insomniac dyslexic philosopher. It's time, in other words, for you to intensify
your exploration of life's deepest questions—even as you remember to do
so with sparkling good humor and the intention not to take yourself too damn
seriously.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
In Buddhist
tradition, bodhisattvas are seekers who put their service to others above their
personal goals--even above their quest for the supreme peace that comes from enlightenment.
In the eight-century prayer "The Bodhisattva Path," poet Shantideva
wrote, "May I be the doctor and the medicine/ for all sick beings in the
world/ until everyone is healed." That's a high standard to live by. In
asking you to try it out for a limited time, I'm not expecting perfection. But
my analysis of the astrological omens suggests that the people in your life
fervently need you to be a source of strong medicine. More than that, you need
to initiate the changes in your life that will ensue if you make yourself into
a soothing balm, a potent remedy, a love tonic.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): When East Timor gained its
independence from Indonesia after a long, bloody struggle, the United Nations
temporarily took control of the new nation, inundating it with aid and support.
But the international agency's work was short-lived, lasting just three years,
and ultimately became known as Quickfixville. The errors resulting from its
hurried efforts have been hard to undo. Don't make a similar gaffe in the
coming weeks, Gemini. It's not enough merely to have good intentions. Be
deliberate and thorough as you undertake your corrective actions.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): It's almost time to bring an end to
your phase of resting and recouping. The self-protective mode has served you
well, but if you stay in it much longer it'll begin to backfire. Soon you'll
need a wake-up call, an inflammatory summoning. If I were there with you, I
might even sing you the opposite of a lullaby—a disturbing yet inspiring
rant designed to rouse and agitate and excite you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I was sitting in San Francisco's Cafe
Gratitude, meditating on your horoscope. In my notebook I'd doodled a giant
hand reaching down to earth from the clouds. It was holding a silver platter
that bore a book whose title was "Fresh Instructions." This gift was
being offered to a half-lion, half-human creature that represented you. Shortly
after I finished this drawing, a woman came through the front door of the
restaurant and sat at a nearby table. Her T-shirt had a message that was the
perfect caption for the image I'd made: "Maybe God has bigger plans for
you than you have for yourself."
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The 5.5 million people who live in
Papua New Guinea speak 820 different languages, or one per every 6,707 people.
Two villages within an hour's walking distance of each other may use utterly
different tongues. The situation there has a certain metaphorical resemblance
to the current state of your fate, Virgo. The various parts of your world
aren't communicating with as much fluidity and frequency as they should be.
Your job in the coming weeks is to serve as a master translator, spreading
understanding among them. It's time to unite the fragments.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Uber-model Elle McPherson has been
nicknamed "The Body" for 20 years. But now an almost equally
legendary star of the fashion runway, Heidi Klum, is trying to horn in on the
title. She, too, has begun to call herself "The Body," enraging
McPherson and her team. While these two superegos fight it out, I'm going to
borrow their trademark and apply it to you Libras for the next three weeks.
Why? Because your physical organism will be at the peak of its health and
attractiveness. If you listen closely to its signals, it will give you good
ideas about actions you can take to further promote your well-being. Even more
than usual, it will be a source of wisdom and pleasure. You will have every
right, therefore, to call yourself "The Body."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his book
A Whack on the Side
of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative,
Roger von Oech quotes one of his clients, an architect: "Play is what I do
for a living; the work comes in organizing the results of the play." Make
this your guiding principle in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Ask the universe to
give you lots of opportunities to mess around and improvise blithely and
resurrect your playing-in-the-sandbox consciousness. Come up with good excuses
to let your attention wander and explore previously off-limits fun and
games.
A few weeks from now, you
can begin organizing all the good ideas that your frisky experiments will
generate between now and then.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The phase you're entering may
prove to be ridiculously confounding--ridiculous both in the sense of absurdly
extreme and very funny. Yet the immediate future also promises to provide you
with unprecedented opportunities to outgrow limitations you may have imagined
were permanent. To honor this synergistic blend of slapstick confusion and
juicy potential, I'm offering you two pieces of advice. The first is from
Eleanor Roosevelt: "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
The second is from Edward Teller: "When you get to the end of all the
light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is
knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something
solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You may not have God on your side,
but you've got the next best thing. Invisible means of support will soon become
visible. Life may even give you permission to have your cake and eat it too.
I'll go so far as to speculate that you'll be the beneficiary of a conspiracy
to help you achieve goals you didn't even know you needed to achieve. In light
of the fact that you will have most of the help you could possibly require, I
can think of only one piece of advice that might prove useful: Being a little
rowdy or impish could give your goodness greater impact.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "What is Great Purple?"
asks Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki in his book
Let's Eat Stars
. Is it "a piece of purple sky floating in my
lover's eyes?" he speculates. "A cloud made of purple wine passing
over Mt. Fuji? The color of a full-blooming magnolia's root? The shadow of a
star visible only to birds? The light of the last water you drink?" I
invite you, Aquarius, to brainstorm your own answers to the question "What
is Great Purple?" According to my reading of the astrological omens, you
now have a special relationship not only with plain old everyday purple, but
with sublime, magnificent, life-changing PURPLE. It's a perfect moment to
develop a closer relationship with whatever Great Purple means to you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "What's irritating about love
is that it's a crime that requires an accomplice," said French poet
Baudelaire. This is a perfect brainteaser for you to contemplate right now,
Pisces. Start your musings by trying to figure out what the hell he meant. Ask yourself,
in what sense is love a crime? Obviously, he's not saying it's literally a
felony or misdemeanor. Is he implying, then, that love, when practiced
correctly, disrupts routine, disorganizes the orderly flow, and violates
conventional wisdom? That's what I conclude, but you may have a different
opinion. Let's also meditate on why Baudelaire thought it's irritating that
love requires an accomplice. Personally, I don't understand that. While I enjoy
breaking the rules of respectable behaviour by myself, I also find it
exhilarating to have a co-conspirator. What do you say?
Homework: What's the most beautiful thing you've ever done? The most beautiful thing you will do? Go to http://realastrology.com and click on "Email Rob."