FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week of June 7
© Copyright 2012 Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): If your destiny has gotten tweaked by bias or injustice, it’s a good time to rebel. If you are being manipulated by people who care for you — even if it’s allegedly for your own good — you now have the insight and power necessary to wriggle free of the bind. If you have been confused by the mixed messages you’re getting from your own unconscious mind, you should get to the bottom of the inner contradiction. And if you have been wavering in your commitment to your oaths, you’d better be intensely honest with yourself about why that’s happening.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Diamonds are symbols of elegant beauty, which is why they’re often used in jewelry. But 80 percent of the world’s diamonds have a more utilitarian function. Because they’re so hard and have such high thermal conductivity, they are used extensively as cutting, grinding, and polishing tools, and have several other industrial applications. Now let’s apply this 20/80 proportion to you, Taurus. Of your talents and abilities, no more than 20 percent need be on display. The rest is consumed in the diligent detail work that goes on in the background — the cutting, grinding, and polishing you do to make yourself as valuable as a diamond. In the coming week, this will be a good meditation for you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The pain you will feel in the coming week will be in direct proportion to the love you suppress and withhold. So if you let your love flow as freely as a mountain spring in a rainstorm, you may not have to deal with any pain at all. What’s that you say? You claim that being strategic about how you express your affection gives you strength and protection? Maybe that’s true on other occasions, but it’s not applicable now. “Unconditional” and “uninhibited” are your words of power.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): What actions best embody the virtue of courage? Fighting on the battlefield as a soldier? Speaking out against corruption and injustice? Climbing a treacherous peak or riding a raft through rough river water? Certainly all those qualify. But French architect Fernand Pouillon had another perspective. He said, “Courage lies in being oneself, in showing complete independence, in loving what one loves, in discovering the deep roots of one’s feelings.” That’s exactly the nature of the bravery you are best able to draw on right now, Cancerian. So please do draw on it in abundance.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his book The Four Insights, author Alberto Villoldo tells the following story: “A traveler comes across two stonecutters. He asks the first, ‘What are you doing?’ and receives the reply, ‘Squaring the stone.’ He then walks over to the second stonecutter and asks, ‘What are you doing?’ and receives the reply, ‘I am building a cathedral.’ In other words, both men are performing the same task, but one of them is aware that he has the choice to be part of a greater dream.” By my astrological reckoning, Leo, it’s quite important for you to be like that second stonecutter in the months ahead. I suggest you start now to ensure that outcome.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Harpo Marx was part of the famous Marx Brothers comedy team that made 13 movies. He was known as the silent one. While in his character’s persona, he never spoke, but only communicated through pantomime and by whistling, blowing a horn, or playing the harp. In real life, he could talk just fine. He traced the origin of his shtick to an early theatrical performance he had done. A review of the show said that he “performed beautiful pantomime which was ruined whenever he spoke.” So in other words, Harpo’s successful career was shaped in part by the inspiration he drew from a critic. I invite you to make a similar move, Virgo: Capitalize on some negative feedback or odd mirroring you’ve received.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): What is your relationship with cosmic jokes, Libra? Do you feel offended by the secrets they spill and the ignorance they expose and the slightly embarrassing truths they compel you to acknowledge? Or are you a vivacious lover of life who welcomes the way cosmic jokes expand your mind and help you lose your excessive self-importance and show you possible solutions you haven’t previously imagined? I hope you’re in the latter category, because sometime in the near future, fate has arranged for you to be in the vicinity of a divine comedy routine. I’m not kidding when I tell you that the harder and more frequently you laugh, the more you’ll learn.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In addition to being an accomplished astrophysicist and philosopher, Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) possessed mad math skills. Legend has it that he was one of only three people on the planet who actually comprehended Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. That’s a small level of appreciation for such an important set of ideas, isn’t it? On the other hand, most people I know would be happy if there were as many as three humans in the world who truly understood them. In accordance with the astrological omens, I suggest you make that one of your projects in the next 12 months: to do whatever you can to ensure there are at least three people who have a detailed comprehension of and appreciation for who you really are.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Yesterday the sun was shining at the same time it was raining, and my mind turned to you. Today I felt a surge of tenderness for a friend who has been making me angry, and again I thought of you. Tomorrow maybe I will sing sad songs when I’m cheerful, and go for a long walk when I’m feeling profoundly lazy. Those events, too, would remind me of you. Why? Because you’ve been experimenting with the magic of contradictions lately. You’ve been mixing and matching with abandon, going up and down at the same time, and exploring the pleasures of changing your mind. I’m even tempted to speculate that you’ve been increasing your ability to abide with paradox. Keep up the good work. I’m sure it’s a bit weird at times, but it’ll ultimately make you even smarter than you already are.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Be on the alert for valuable mistakes you could capitalize on. Keep scanning the peripheries for evidence that seems out of place; it might be useful. Do you see what I’m driving at, Capricorn? Accidental revelations could spark good ideas. Garbled communication might show you the way to desirable detours. Chance meetings might initiate conversations that will last a long time. Are you catching my drift? Follow any lead that seems witchy or itchy. Be ready to muscle your way in through doors that are suddenly open just a crack.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): An article in the Weekly World News reported on tourists who toast marshmallows while sitting on the rims of active volcanoes. As fun as this practice might be, however, it can expose those who do it to molten lava, suffocating ash, and showers of burning rocks. So I wouldn’t recommend it to you, Aquarius. But I do encourage you to try some equally boisterous but less hazardous adventures. The coming months will be prime time for you to get highly imaginative in your approach to exploration, amusement, and pushing beyond your previous limits. Why not get started now?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): According to my reading of the astrological omens, you would be smart to get yourself a new fertility symbol. Not because I think you should encourage or seek out a literal pregnancy. Rather, I’d like to see you cultivate a more aggressively playful relationship with your creativity — energize it on deep unconscious levels so it will spill out into your daily routine and tincture everything you do. If you suspect my proposal has some merit, be on the lookout for a talisman, totem, or toy that fecundates your imagination.