SAGITTARIUS Birthdays
(NOVEMBER 22-DECEMBER 21)
The surest way to beat the system, my dear, is to elude it and erect your own system. The strategy most likely to leave your competitors babbling in the mirror, sweetheart, is to go completely over their heads. That doesn’t mean, darling, that you should be a remote and grandiose narcissist who listens to no one but yourself. Smile sweetly as you describe why your way is the best way, you gorgeous genius. Enlist worthy collaborators through the irresistible force of your guileless charisma.
Sagittarius Birthdays: Krista Davis, Heather Gibson and Robyn McNeil.
Send to bday@thecoast.ca.
CAPRICORN
(December 22-January 19)
“A neurosis is a secret that you don’t know you are keeping,” wrote
theater critic Kenneth Tynan. Your assignment is to uncover one of
those secrets in yourself. It may not result in an instantaneous cure
of your minor personality glitch, but it will be a potent first step
that will set in motion a series of healing events. Be brave,
Capricorn. I guarantee that any ugliness you might find lodged deep
inside you will be entangled with surprising beauty.
AQUARIUS
(January 20-February 18)
Seventy percent of the world’s fresh water is locked away in
Antarctica’s ice, which is 7,000 feet thick. Let’s hope it remains that
way for the foreseeable future. If global warming melted that giant
slab even a little, sea levels all over the planet would rise and
coastal lands would be inundated. As for your frozen areas,
however: I’d like to see at least 30 percent of them thaw. Would you
consider doing whatever it takes to release a mini-flood of summery
feelings?
PISCES
(February 19-March 20)
While walking in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, I saw a huge red
wooden chair on someone’s front lawn. It was big enough for a
20-foot-tall giant. An equally oversized martini glass was perched on
the arm of the chair. Nearby was a sign that read, “I have flying
monkeys at my command, and I’m not afraid to use them.” I assumed this
scene was the handiwork of an adorable crazy person who’s an admirer of
The Wizard of Oz mythology. I also flashed on how I could
totally see you sitting in that chair. Metaphorically speaking, you too
have flying monkeys at your command. I just hope you use them to
accomplish good deeds, not evil ones.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19)
One of the greatest superpowers a human being can have is the
ability to change herself in accordance with her intentions. Let’s say
you’re tired of feeling shame about something there’s no good reason to
feel shame about, and you decide to do whatever it takes to dissolve
that shame, and you succeed in doing it. Or let’s say you no longer
want to attract bad listeners and flaky collaborators into your life,
and you resolve to transform that pattern, and you ultimately achieve
your goal. These are acts of high magic, as amazingly wizardly as
anything a shaman does. It so happens, Aries, that this superpower is
especially accessible to you right now.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20)
Your story is taking a hotter and wetter and more cosmically comical
turn. The splendour and the rot are all mixed up. The line between your
strengths and liabilities is hair-thin. But have no fear. One of your
dormant talents will activate in the nick of time. Your wild guesses
will shed bright light whenever the darkness creeps in. And you’ll have
even more emotional intelligence than usual. PS: If your psyche tingles
like a funny bone that has been tapped, it means that unanticipated
help or useful information will arrive within 12 hours.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 20)
“The more you do what you want,” says Santa Fe artist Erika
Wanenmacher, “the more magic happens.” And what she wants, in part, is
to be surprised by how life’s random events ask to be included in her
creative process. During her long walks along the irrigation ditch near
her home, for example, odds and ends on the ground call to her,
suggesting that she use them in her art pieces: rocks, miniature liquor
bottles, bent spoons, parts of toys. Her “Spell Wall” consists of
amulets made from this found stuff. “I’ll make whatever I want,” Erika
says. “Out of whatever I want. About whatever I want.” She’s your role
model, Gemini. Borrow from her perspective. Go in quest of unexpected
clues that make you feel loose and free and fertile.
CANCER
(June 21-July 22)
Needing a creative disruption in my routine, I hiked into a forest
I’d never visited. The late afternoon light was wan and the wind was
chilly. In places, the trail narrowed to a scruffy rut barely big
enough for me to walk on, leading me to wonder if I was reading my map
wrong. Three times this happened, but always the wider path resumed.
Were there bobcats here? When I spied a flash of fur in the distance, I
wished I’d researched that subject before I’d come. Still I pressed on.
Then I came upon a single segment of a wooden fence, inexplicable in
this remote area. One end of its upper slat had come loose and fallen.
Moved by a whimsical urge to insert order into the midst of my
disorientation, I fixed the slat. My mood brightened, my anxiety
dissipated, and the rest of my hike was filled with small epiphanies.
Everything I just described, my fellow Cancerian, is an apt metaphor
for your week ahead.
LEO
(July 23-August 22)
I believe that in the coming weeks you’ll enjoy experiences that
have an emotional resemblance to those referred to by French novelist
Gustave Flaubert: “I want to cover you with love, with caresses, with
ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh…I want
you to be astonished by me, to confess to yourself that you had never
even dreamed of such transports…When you are old, I want you to
recall those few hours. I want your dry bones to quiver with joy when
you think of them.” Please note, Leo, that I’m not necessarily saying
the pleasures you gather will stem from an engagement with an actual
lover. They might. But your delight may also have a more mysterious
origin.
VIRGO
(August 23-September 22)
It’s not just our era that has a tormented relationship with time.
Many cultures have been frustrated by its tyranny. During France’s July
Revolution in 1830, for instance, rebels shot guns at public clocks.
While I think that’s too extreme for you, I do recommend that you
perform a ritual to empower yourself as you wrestle with the passage of
time. How about smashing a cheap alarm clock with a hammer? Or spending
an entire day without ever referring to a timepiece? Or taking 10 deep
breaths as you imagine you’re inhaling eternity and exhaling the
grinding tick-tock? It’s a perfect moment to claim more freedom from
temporality.
LIBRA
(September 23-October 22)
I agree with football coach Lou Holtz, who said, “The problem with
having a sense of humour is often that people you use it on aren’t in a
very good mood.” It’s possible to work around this difficulty, however.
What you have to do, before you unleash your levity, is conjure up
empathy for the sourpuss in question. You should also make sure that
your intention is not to mock or poke at the person, but instead offer
a potential escape from his or her locked energy. By my calculations,
you could be an expert at this kind of psychic judo right now. For best
results, practice on yourself. Whenever you’re headed toward a negative
thought or emotion, nudge yourself away with a jest or wisecrack.
SCORPIO
(October 23-November 21)
Do you know what you’re really worth? Not as measured by your bank
account and luxurious possessions. Not as reflected by your boss’ or
parents’ or enemies’ images of you. Not as distorted by what you wish
you were worth or fear you’re not worth. I’m talking about taking an
illusion-free inventory of the skills you have that are fulfilling to
you and useful to others. I’m talking about your wisdom more than your
knowledge, your self-love more than your popularity, your ability to
be good more than to look good.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2009.
