.Rob Brezsny’s Astrology May 8-14

Free will astrology for the week of May 8, 2019

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Time to shake things up! In the next three weeks, I invite you to try at least three of the following experiments: 1. See unusual sights in familiar situations; 2. Seek out new music that both calms you and excites you; 3. Get an inspiring statue or image of a favorite deity or hero; 4. Ask for a message from the person you will be three years from now; 5. Use your hands and tongue in ways you don’t usually use them; 6. Go in quest of a cathartic release that purges frustration and rouses holy passion; 7. Locate the sweet spot where deep feeling and deep thinking overlap.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to science writer Sarah Zielinski in Smithsonian magazine, fireflies produce the most efficient light on planet Earth. Nearly 100% of the energy produced by the chemical reaction inside the insect’s body is emitted as a brilliant glow. With that in mind, I propose that you regard the firefly as your spirit creature in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you too will be a dynamic and proficient generator of luminosity. For best results, don’t tone down your brilliance, even if it illuminates shadows people are trying to hide.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here’s a message from author Susan J. Elliott: “This is not your week to run the Universe. Next week is not looking so good either.” Now here’s a message from me: Elliott’s revelation is very good news! Since you won’t have to worry about trying to manage and fine-tune the Universe, you can focus all your efforts on your own self-care. And the coming weeks will be a favorable time to do just that. You’re due to dramatically upgrade your understanding of what you need to feel healthy and happy, and then take the appropriate measures to put your new insights into action.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The next three weeks will be an excellent time to serve as your own visionary prophet and dynamic fortune-teller. The predictions and conjectures you make about your future destiny will have an 85% likelihood of being accurate. They will also be relatively free of fear and worries. So I urge you to give your imagination permission to engage in fun fantasies about what’s ahead for you. Be daringly optimistic and exuberantly hopeful and brazenly self-celebratory.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo poet Stanley Kunitz told his students, “You must be very careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin.” That’s useful advice for anyone who spawns anything, not just poets. There’s something unruly and unpredictable about every creative idea or fresh perspective that rises up in us. Do you remember when you first felt the urge to look for a new job or move to a new city or search for a new kind of relationship? Wildness was there at the inception. And you needed to stay in touch with the wildness so as to follow through with practical action. That’s what I encourage you to do now. Reconnect with the wild origins of the important changes you’re nurturing.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I have no complaints about the measures you’ve taken recently to push past unnecessary limits and to break outworn taboos. In fact, I celebrate them. Keep going! You’ll be better off without those decaying constraints. Soon you’ll begin using all the energy you have liberated and the spaciousness you have made available. But I do have one concern: I wonder if part of you is worried that you have been too bold and have gone too far. To that part of you I say: No! You haven’t been too bold. You haven’t gone too far.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Dreamt of a past that frees its prisoners.” So wrote Meena Alexander in her poem Question Time. I’d love for you to have that experience in the coming weeks. I’d love for you be released from the karma of your history so that you no longer have to repeat old patterns or feel weighed down by what happened to you once upon a time. I’d love for you to no longer have to answer to decayed traditions and outmoded commitments and lost causes. I’d love for you to escape the pull of memories that tend to drag you back toward things that can’t be changed and don’t matter anymore.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Desire is a profoundly upsetting force,” writes author Elspeth Probyn. “It may totally rearrange what we think we want. Desire skews plans and sets forth unthought-of possibilities.” In my opinion, Probyn’s statements are half-true. The other half of the truth is that desire can also be a profoundly healing and rejuvenating force, and for the same reasons; it rearranges what we think we want, alters plans and unleashes un-thought-of possibilities. How does all this relate to you? From what I can tell, you are now on the cusp of desire’s two overlapping powers. What happens next could be upsetting or healing, disorienting or rejuvenating. If you’d like to emphasize the healing and rejuvenating, I suggest you treat desire as a sacred gift and a blessing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “So much of what we learn about love is taught by people who never really loved us.” My Sagittarian friend Ellen made that sad observation. Is it true for you? Ellen added the following thoughts: so much of what we learn about love is taught by people who were too narcissistic or wounded to be able to love very well. And by people who didn’t have many listening skills and therefore didn’t know enough about us to love us for who we really are. And by people who love themselves poorly, and so of course find it hard to love anyone else. Is any of this applicable to what you have experienced, Sagittarius? If so, here’s an antidote that I think you’ll find effective during the next seven weeks: identify the people who have loved you well and the people who might love you well in the future—and then vow to learn all you can from them.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn fantasy novelist Laini Taylor creates imaginary worlds where heroines use magic and wiles to follow their bliss while wrangling with gods and rascals. In describing her writing process, she says, “Like a magpie, I am a scavenger of shiny things: fairy tales, dead languages, weird folk beliefs, and fascinating religions.” She adds, “I have plundered tidbits of history and lore to build something new, using only the parts that light my mind on fire.” I encourage you to adopt her strategies for your own use in the coming weeks. Be alert for gleaming goodies and tricky delicacies and alluring treats. Use them to create new experiences that thrill your imagination. I believe the coming weeks will be an excellent time to use your magic and wiles to follow your bliss while wrangling with gods and rascals.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “I was always asking for the specific thing that wasn’t mine,” wrote poet Joanne Kyger. “I wanted a haven that wasn’t my own.” If there is any part of you that resonates with that defeatist perspective, Aquarius, now is an excellent time to begin outgrowing or transforming it. I guarantee you that you’ll have the potency you need to retrain yourself—so that you will more and more ask for specific things that can potentially be yours, so that you will more and more want a haven that can be your own.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’m not a fan of nagging. I don’t like to be nagged, and I scrupulously avoid nagging others. And yet now I will break my own rules so as to provide you with your most accurate and helpful horoscope. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you aren’t likely to get what you truly need and deserve in the coming days unless you engage in some polite, diplomatic nagging. So see what you can do to employ nagging as a graceful, even charming art. For best results, infuse it with humor and playfulness.

Nietzsche said, “One must have chaos within oneself if one is to be a dancing star.” Are you a dancing star? Comment at freewillastrology.com.