Free will astrology for the week of Jan. 2, 2019
ARIES (March 21-April 19): No one has resisted the force of gravity with more focus than businessman Roger Babson (1875–1967). He wrote an essay entitled “Gravity – Our Enemy Number One,” and sought to develop anti-gravity technology. His Gravity Research Foundation gave awards to authentic scientists who advanced the understanding of gravity. If that organization still existed and offered prizes, I’m sure that researchers of the Aries persuasion would win them all in 2019. For your tribe, the coming months should feature lots of escapes from heaviness, including soaring flights and playful levity and lofty epiphanies.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The night parrots of Australia are so elusive that there was a nearly six-decade stretch when no human saw a single member of the species. But in 2013, after searching for 15 years, photographer John Young spotted one and recorded a 17-second video. Since then, more sightings have occurred. According to my astrological vision, your life in 2019 will feature experiences akin to the story of the night parrot’s reappearance. A major riddle will be at least partially solved. Hidden beauty will materialize. Long-secret phenomena will no longer be secret. A missing link will re-emerge.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Millions of years ago, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and North and South America were smooshed together. Earth had a single land mass, the supercontinent Pangea. Stretching across its breadth was a colossal feature, the Central Pangean Mountains. Eventually, though, Europe and America split apart, making room for the Atlantic Ocean and dividing the Central Pangean range. Today the Scottish Highlands and the Appalachian Mountains are thousands of miles apart, but once upon a time they were joined. In 2019, Gemini, I propose that you look for metaphorical equivalents in your own life. What disparate parts of your world had the same origin? What elements that are now divided used to be together? Re-establish their connection. Get them back in touch with each other. Be a specialist in cultivating unity.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): 2019 will be an excellent time to swim in unpolluted rivers, utter sacred oaths near beautiful fountains, and enjoy leisurely saunas that help purify your mind and body. You are also likely to attract cosmic favor if you cry more than usual, seek experiences that enhance your emotional intelligence, and ensure that your head respectfully consults with your heart before making decisions. Here’s another way to get on life’s good side: cultivate duties that consistently encourage you to act out of love and joy rather than out of guilt and obligation.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here are four key questions I hope you’ll meditate on throughout 2019: 1. What is love? 2. What kind of love do you want to receive? 3. What kind of love do you want to give? 4. How could you transform yourself in order to give and receive more of the love you value most? To spur your efforts, I offer you these thoughts from teacher David R. Hawkins: “Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the world, a way of seeing oneself and others.”
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Most living things begin in the absence of light,” writes Virgo author Nancy Holder. “The vine is rooted in the earth; the fawn takes form in the womb of the doe.” I’ll remind you that your original gestation also took place in the dark. And I foresee a metaphorically comparable process unfolding for you in 2019. You’ll undergo an incubation period that may feel cloaked and mysterious. That’s just as it should be: the best possible circumstances for the vital new part of your life that will be growing. So be patient. You’ll see the tangible results in 2020.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Many plants that modern Americans regard as weeds were regarded as tasty food by Native Americans. A prime example is the cattail, which grows wild in wetlands. Indigenous people ate the rootstock, stem, leaves, and flower spike. I propose that we use this scenario to serve as a metaphor for some of your potential opportunities in 2019. Things you’ve regarded as useless or irrelevant or inconvenient could be revealed as assets. Be alert for the possibility of such shifts. Here’s advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The slow, gradual, incremental approach will be your magic strategy in 2019. Being persistent and thorough as you take one step at a time will provide you with the power to accomplish wonders. Now and then, you may be tempted to seek dramatic breakthroughs or flashy leaps of faith; and there may indeed be one or two such events mixed in with your steady rhythms. But for the most part, your glory will come through tenacity. Now study this advice from mystic Meister Eckhart: “Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian polymath Piet Hein wrote a poem in which he named the central riddle of his existence. “A bit beyond perception’s reach, / I sometimes believe I see / That life is two locked boxes / Each containing the other’s key.” I propose that we adopt this scenario to symbolize one of the central riddles of your existence. I’ll go further and speculate that in 2019 one of those boxes will open as if through a magical fluke, without a need for the key. This mysterious blessing won’t really be a magical fluke, but rather a stroke of well-deserved and hard-earned luck that is the result of the work you’ve been doing to transform and improve yourself.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What themes and instruments do people least want to hear in a piece of music? Composer Dave Solder determined that the worst song ever made would contain bagpipes, cowboy music, tubas, advertising jingles, operatic rapping, and children crooning about holidays. Then he collaborated with other musicians to record such a song. I suspect that as you head into 2019, it’ll be helpful to imagine a metaphorically comparable monstrosity: a fantastic mess that sums up all the influences you’d like to avoid. With that as a vivid symbol, you’ll hopefully be inspired to avoid allowing any of it to sneak into your life in the coming months.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In Canada, it’s illegal to pretend to practice witchcraft. It’s fine to actually do witchcraft, however. With that as our inspiration, I advise you to be rigorous about embodying your authentic self in 2019. Make sure you never lapse into merely imitating who you are or who you used to be. Don’t fall into the trap of caring more about your image than about your actual output. Focus on standing up for what you really mean rather than what you imagine people expect from you. The coming months will be a time when you can summon pure and authoritative expressions of your kaleidoscopic soul.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father who played a key role in getting the United States up and running. He wasn’t happy that the fledgling nation chose the bald eagle as its animal symbol. The supposedly majestic raptor is lazy, he wrote. It doesn’t hunt for its own food, but steals grub obtained by smaller birds of prey. Furthermore, bald eagles are cowardly, Franklin believed. Even sparrows may intimidate them. With that as our theme, Pisces, I invite you to select a proper creature to be your symbolic ally in 2019. Since you will be building a new system and establishing a fresh power base, you shouldn’t pick a critter that’s merely glamorous. Choose one that excites your ambition and animates your willpower.
Homework: I’d love to see your top New Year’s resolutions. Share by going to RealAstrology.com and clicking on “Email Rob.”
