Free Will Astrology	by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Let’s get a few things straight, Aries. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Facts are in the eye of the beholder. Logic is the opiate of those who are afraid of their feelings. Sorry if that sounds anti-intellectual. I’m exaggerating slightly in hopes of encouraging the free flow of your naked intuition in 2007. I want to prod you into cultivating so much emotional intelligence that you’ll be able to out-argue your cynically reasonable friends. I want to help you rip off the locks on your doors of perception so you can see the magic that’s just below the surface everywhere you look.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive and more constructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.” So said Dr. Frank Barron, a pioneer in the psychology of creativity. I believe that describes you pretty well right now, Taurus—even if you don’t usually think of yourself as creative or artistic. The astrological omens suggest that you’ve got more lust for life than any other sign of the zodiac; you’re in an intimate alignment with the throbbing hum of the Divine Wow. Please remember how important it is to be discerning about where you direct that much energy! Don’t waste it on trivial pleasures or goals that are unworthy of you. You now have the power to change things you thought you could never change in a thousand years.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Of your many selves, the one I’m most entertained by right now is the experimentalist who wants to mix ingredients that have never before been together. Another self I really like is the frontier-dweller who’s conspiring to fast-forward you into a rowdy rebirth. There’s a third self—the cagey mediator—who I’m hoping will get those other two to work together intimately. If that happy collaboration occurs, the whole motley crew will live stickily ever after, or at least until May, when a mid-course correction might be necessary.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): If you’re not rejected or refused at least once in early 2007, you’re probably not trying hard enough. Life is dying to teach you a thing or two about not giving up no matter what. The gods of success won’t hand you your purple heart, let alone your intelligence upgrade, until you prove that you can fight ferociously for your dreams even when you’re a bit puzzled. Here’s a formula that will serve you well during your heroic (but amusing!) ordeal: Find a way to coordinate your spiritual longing with your creative rage. Here’s another tip: Learn to identify and capitalize on the fertile chaos that’s all mixed up with the plain old ordinary chaos.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): One of the regulations listed in the book Rules of Golf states that if a player’s ball comes to rest near a live rattlesnake, the player may move the ball without penalty. This is a good metaphor for you to keep in mind as you play the game of life this week. According to my interpretation of the omens, your progress toward your next goal may bring a close brush with the equivalent of a noxious serpent. My advice is to not summon any false bravado, and not to go into denial about the risk involved. Before continuing play, move your ball well away from the hazard—preferably with the help of a ten-foot pole or your best spiritual ally.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Normally there are about 9,300 people on the planet who could be your very best friend, even your soul mate. But in 2007, I believe that figure will rise dramatically—possibly as high as 16,000. This hot tip from me to you should clue you in to the fact that the universe will be exceptionally sympathetic to your interests in the coming months; it should motivate you to ask aggressively for what you really want, as opposed to whining and pining for what you sort of want.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Is there anything fake going on in your home? Have any delusions been allowed to thrive? Is anyone pretending to feel or be something they’re not, even if it’s in a seemingly good cause? If so, Libra, head in the direction of radical authenticity. Gamble on the hypothesis that uncovering the naked truth will ultimately promote domestic bliss. Scared to try that? Remember this: Love trumps fear every time.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the past, love has on occasion had certain resemblances to a wounded three-legged wild boar from a swampy junkyard in hell. But if I’m interpreting the coming attractions correctly, love in 2007 could be more like a white dove balancing on the head of a black horse as it gallops along a beach under a full moon in summer. Does the phrase “higher love” mean anything to you, Scorpio? It’s there for the plucking, if you’ve got the right attitude. And what’s the right attitude? For starters, it means that you vow to cultivate a fierce determination to see—and keep seeing—the best in people. Secondly, it means that you deepen your understanding of the fact that you can’t prosper at the expense of others. Thirdly, it means you become intensely aware that one of the best ways to nurture your mental hygiene is to enhance the well-being of the people you care about.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Cosmic forces, being primarily spiritual in nature, rarely coalesce in such a way as to actually encourage you to shop till you drop. However, this is one of those inside-out moments in eternity when tapping in to your buyological urges can become an acute meditation on the meaning of your life. Here are a few questions to guide your quest. How do your possessions control you? How do they inspire you? Do the objects you seek to own usually encourage you to be more adventurous in seeking fresh experiences, or do they tend to serve as substitutes for seeking fresh experiences? How does the way you spend money reflect your ideas about what life owes you and what you owe life?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A Capricorn reader recently accused me of being too upbeat and utopian. He said that your tribe needs “more gristle and bone and sinew.” He suggested that I travel to the Sudan or Iraq, and expose my tender perspective to scenes of blood and fire. In lieu of carrying out that proposal (which was impossible given my limited funds and time), I instead watched three war movies before composing your horoscope. Here it is: I dare you to give your highest hopes and most idealistic dreams a trial by fire that raises those hopes and dreams to a higher octave.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): No other place in America has a worse reputation than the state of New Jersey. It’s called “the armpit of the nation” by some people, and is said to lead the world in strip malls per capita and terrible pollution smells. But my experience of the place has been different. I once lived in New Jersey for six years. It was a happy time. There were mountains in the north, beaches in the east, the mysterious Pine Barrens in the middle, and people I loved and enjoyed everywhere. Your challenge in the coming week is similar to mine, Aquarius: Find beauty and meaning while dwelling amidst circumstances that conventional wisdom and peer pressure might brand as boring or repellant.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Your world is teeming with talented people who are seething with frustrated intelligence. Everyone’s antsy for a rescue they can’t even imagine, let alone articulate. All of the half-baked solutions that are being proposed would lead only to more frustrated intelligence. That’s where you come in, Pisces. You have the potential, though you may not have been fully aware of it until now, to be an understated leader who leads your tribe out of the foggy morass. Especially if you increase your self-discipline, you can conjure up the magic that will catalyze an upgrade for everyone involved.

Homework: Make a prediction about the world not in the decadent gloom-and-doom tradition, but in the new zoom-and-bloom tradition. Write me at http://RealAstrology.com.