FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
*by Rob Brezsny*
Week beginning August 5
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For a special episode of her TV talk show, Oprah
Winfrey wanted a stage set that was fabricated out of chocolate. It took
workers 1,400 hours to construct it. When the day came to unveil the
decadent monument, Oprah offered her audience members the chance to
tear it apart, eat it, and take it home as plunder. They dismantled it in half
an hour. Let this be a cautionary tale, Leo. I dearly hope that the creation
you’re beginning to work on will endure for a long time and continue to
provide meaning and pleasure far past the time it makes its initial splash.
Build your baby to last.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): New Age author Bob Frissell wrote a book
called *Nothing in This Book Is True, But It’s Exactly How Things Are.* It
contains a host of seemingly far-fetched theories about UFOs, crop
circles, ascended masters, earth changes, and monuments on Mars, all of
which adds up to a beguiling Theory of Everything about the hidden
nature of reality. I see your life right now as having resemblances to this
curious tome. If I had to give a title to the next chapter of your story, it
might be “Nothing That’s Happening Will Make Much Sense Until It Has
Finished Happening, Whereupon It Will Yield a Burst of Insight about the
Big Picture of Your Destiny.”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): One of the best ways to cultivate your own
radiant brilliance or native talent is to look for excellence in other people.
So if you suspect there’s some half-hidden or partially dormant reservoir
of genius within you — a mother lode of intelligence that you have not
been fully successful in tapping into — I suggest you make it a point to
identify the genius in everyone you know. Whether it’s your cousin’s
knack for flower arrangement or your co-worker’s telepathic capacity to
read the moods of people she wants something from, you can fuel your
own luminosity by noticing and appreciating others’.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Imagine you and I and a bunch of our friends
are seven years old. We’re playing the rough game “King of the Mountain”
on a huge pile of dirt. Since there are some girls among us, we’ve changed
the name of the game to “Awesome Magic Boss of the Mountain.” Today,
you’re the strongest one, warding off all challenges to your authority,
pushing away everyone who tries to knock you off your place at the top.
It’s like you have extra power you’ve never displayed before; as if you’re
drawing on reserves of determination and stamina that were previously
unavailable. I believe this is a metaphorically accurate portrayal of your
actual life right now.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My Sagittarius friend Lisa dreamed she
was at a party with Jon Carroll, a writer she admires. In the dream, she
managed to join a circle of people with whom he was conversing. Twice
she tried to insinuate her way into the conversation with comments she
thought were flattering to Jon. But he ignored her. Finally she opened an
oversized picture book she had with her and showed him a striking photo
of a huge nest containing a speckled, glittery dragon’s egg. This caught
his eye. He took her by the arm to a table where they pored over this
fascinating image together. Learn from Lisa’s dream, Sagittarius. To
captivate the attention of the people you’re interested in, appeal not to
their vanity but to their imagination.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Homeboy Industries is an organization in
East Los Angeles that helps former gang members find jobs. One of its
most successful programs has trained over a hundred ex-cons as solar
panel installers. That’s the kind of dramatic conversion I’d like to see you
make in your own life, Capricorn — getting face to face with the most
messed-up part of yourself and conspiring to transform it into something
brighter and more useful. Now would be an excellent time to dive into
that worthy project.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’m all in favor of you pumping up your
yearning and stoking the fires of your ambition and fantasizing in explicit
detail about a fantastic dream — on one condition: The object of your
craving has to be real and achievable. It can’t be an impossible idol or
remote delusion, nor can it be an escapist distraction. The longing you
feel must empower you, not demoralize you. The vision that gets you
activated each morning must be something you can actually manifest by
carrying out a detailed, step-by-step master plan. If you’re willing to
satisfy these provisions, you have my go-ahead to get more than a little
wild with desire.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When you try to communicate with a baby,
you get nowhere if you talk as you normally do. Nor can you rely on your
usual assumptions about human behavior as you read the baby’s verbal
cues and body language. There’s a similar principle at work when you
interact with animals: You have to speak a different language. And that
brings us to your current challenge, Pisces. Life is currently sending you
signals that will remain incomprehensible if you insist on interpreting them
from the viewpoint of a rational adult. To decipher the encrypted code,
you’ll have to get into a mindset that is equal parts child, animal, and
angel.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The ancient Greek god Dionysus did not, in
fact, encourage people to get sloppy drunk, lose control, and do stupid
things. His preference was that they free themselves from their inhibitions
by imbibing moderate amounts of alcohol. With this medicinal spur, they
might get unstuck from their worn-out old behavior patterns and invite
refreshing doses of wildness into their lives. Healing was the intention, not
craziness and frenzy. It is true that if someone was not willing to escape
their rigidity — if they clung to their hidebound attitudes and refused to
open up to the call of self-transformation — Dionysus might lure them into
reckless inebriation. Keep these thoughts in mind in the coming weeks,
Aries.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In her 1960 song “This Bitter Earth,” Dinah
Washington sings, “If my life is like the dust that hides the glow of a rose
/ What good am I, heaven only knows.” I bring this to your attention,
Taurus, because you now have the power to prove once and for all that
your life is NOT like the dust that hides the glow of a rose. So please get
out there and reveal the glory of the world you inhabit. Draw out and
enhance the radiance of people you encounter. By week’s end, you may
be able to say, as Washington does in the final line of the song, “This
bitter earth may not be so bitter after all.” (Hear the song here:
tinyurl.com/BitterEarth.)
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): More than one-third of adults under 35 confess
that right after making love, they tweet or text-message or check their
Facebook pages. In the coming week, I strongly advise you not to do that
or anything remotely like that. You should give your best, brightest, most
focused attention to every phase of every adventure you have. The
foreplay and the aftermath are just as important to the total revelation as
the height of the action. This is a time in your long-term cycle when you
can’t afford to scrimp on completion and closure and resolution.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): August is Banish Your Superstitions Month,
Cancerian. To celebrate this auspicious festival, purge yourself of every
irrational belief and unfounded fear you can stand to live without. But also
keep in mind that you may have to keep a crazy delusion or two, at least
for a while. You’ve become so used to your chronic anxiety that it might
be risky to get rid of it all at once. So proceed deliberately, casting off
one false belief today and another quaint fallacy tomorrow and a third
rotten figment of your imagination next week. By September 1, you may
be surprised to see how high you’ve ratcheted up your level of
fearlessness.
