ARIES (March 21-April 19): Thinking inside the box will be a crime against your nature in the coming weeks. If you’re in a one-size-fits-all situation, you simply won’t be able to access your highest intelligence. I am rooting for you to wander into the wild frontiers where unsanctioned wonders and marvels await you. I’d love for you to find virgin terrain and uncharted territories where the boring old rules don’t apply.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Mike Finnigan is a veteran keyboardist and blues vocalist who has toured with more than 20 major acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Etta James and Leonard Cohen. There’s a primal quality to his singing. I understand perfectly why Bonnie Raitt has called him a “tall drink of bacon.” The sound he makes with his voice is that lush and tasty. His astrological sign? Taurus, of course. I’m naming him your patron saint this week because you yourself are as close as you have ever come to being a tall drink of bacon.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): French painter Henri Matisse ignored critics because he didn’t think they understood his art well enough to produce intelligent critiques. There was one person whose opinion he was willing to heed, though; a colleague he said had earned the right to evaluate and assess his art: Pablo Picasso. I encourage you, Gemini, to come up with your own short list of people whose judgment you trust and respect. It’s a good time to seek out their feedback on how you’re doing.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): How can it be that you have come so far and worked so diligently only to be resigned to waiting around for the lucky break that may or may not ever arrive? I’m sure it’s a mistake for you to be passive and hope for the best. Still, you need to resume working diligently, focused for now on what’s right in front of you without worrying too much about the big picture. In my opinion, that approach will lead you to unforeseen help — and a clarification of the big picture.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Your levels of personal magic are high. Without even trying, you’re exuding natural charisma and animal magnetism. I suspect you will have an elevated capacity for both giving and receiving pleasure. In fact, I predict that your ability to feel really good and make other people feel really good will be at a peak. I hereby designate this the Week of Supreme Bliss.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The BBC reported on an expert who combs Switzerland’s Risoud Forest to find the spruce trees whose wood can be made into the highest-quality violins. Lorenzo Pellegrini knows exactly which few trees will produce instruments with the most resonant tones. Your task in the coming weeks, Virgo, resembles the master tree-picker’s work. It’s time to start selecting and gathering the raw materials you will use to craft your own lyrical story in 2014.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): All of us, you included, are periodically guilty of sending out mixed messages. We confuse people with our ambivalence; what we say is sometimes different from what we feel. Now is your special time to reduce your mixed messages to as close to zero as possible. Like all of us, you are a bit hypocritical. You engage in behavior that you criticize in others. Now is your special time to work on being forthright, genuine, and consistent.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I am very fond of strawberries and cream,” said author Dale Carnegie, “but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. … I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish.” Scorpio, in order to get your desires fulfilled by the people who have the power to do that, you should give them what they actually long for — not what you long for, nor what you wish they would long for.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Author Danielle LaPorte notes, “You will always be too much of something for someone — too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy.” But, she says, it would be a mistake to “round out your edges,” because then you would “lose your edge.” And I’m here to tell you that you need all of your edge right now, Sagittarius. To be true to yourself, you will probably have to be too much of something for several someones.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Going into my spiritual mentoring session with the priestess, I sought unknown truths about myself. That meant stirring up revelations about my ignorance, also my potentials. It worked. I was able to shed the debilitating nonsense stories I’d been telling myself about who I am. I awakened dormant strengths. What I predict for you, Capricorn, is a comparable experience. To expedite matters, seek out a person, adventure or breakthrough that can help provide you with the kind of prod I received.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I bet people will be gossiping about you more than usual. Is there anything you can do to ensure that it’s mostly benevolent gossip? Yes, there is. First, make sure that when you gossip about others, you are unfailingly positive in your comments. If you don’t have anything good to say about someone, don’t say it. And contribute more inspirational energy than usual to every group you’re part of. Be an effervescent team player.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Maybe your ego isn’t big enough. Could you benefit from being prouder of yourself? Would it be healthy for you to give yourself more credit for the struggles you have weathered and the beauty you have forged out of the chaotic raw materials life has given you? Pisces, I imagine you summoning the playful courage you’ll need to express more confidence — and to embark on adventures you’ve never believed you were strong enough to try before now.
— By Rob Brezsny
