TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’m not necessarily suggesting you need a new soul mate. But if you do, this is the perfect time to search for one. I suggest you hang out in unfamiliar territory where you will be fresh and curious; in frontier zones where you’re likely to uncover secrets about who you really are. For fastest results, visit the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet (www.thespoon.com/costco/), a clearinghouse for soul mates at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert from Aug. 25-31. It offers "quality name-brand and private-label soul mates at substantially lower prices than can be found through conventional wholesale sources." P.S. If you’re happy with your existing soul mate, infuse your bond with a concentrated dose of smart, loving creativity. It’s a perfect moment to propel yourselves into the next phase of your evolution together.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Robust singing skill is correlated with a strong immune system in songbirds. Male birds with the most extensive repertoire of tunes also have the largest spleens, a key measure of immune system health. No studies have yet been done on humans. But if there is a similar link, I expect you will be crooning with unrivaled beauty and power in the coming days. You are currently at the peak of your ability to fight off bugs and adversaries of all kinds, including both the physical and psychic varieties.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): So begins the information-gathering phase of your yearly cycle, Cancerian. You’ll align yourself with the cosmic ebb and flow whenever you engage in activities that excite your love of learning and enhance your skills as a student of life. Here’s a gem from poet Heather McHugh to inspire your quest: "The knowledge I’m interested in is not something you buy and then have and can be comfortable with. The knowledge I’m interested in keeps opening wider and wider, making me smaller and more amazed, until I see I cannot have it all — and then delight in that as a freedom."
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Please muse a minute on the title of a book by Susan Harrow: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul: A Woman’s Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, Her Product, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit. I suggest you either consult this invigorating set of instructions, which works for men too, or else create your own version of it. You’re primed to receive fresh intuitions about how to make money from doing what you love. P.S.: I don’t know Harrow personally and have no financial stake in her book.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): What form of entertainment would be most likely to cure your brain cramps? Watching the demolition of an old building. What lucky break could ensure you won’t keep missing the forest for the trees? Finding a bird’s nest. What soul medicine would be most effective in giving you access to your repressed intuition? Reading mythic tales of resurrection. What is the hardest yet most rewarding possible lesson you could learn right now? How to whistle with two fingers. Where can you find a portal to another dimension? In your bedroom.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "You have to recognize the demons or else they’ll annoy you like mosquitoes," poet James Broughton told interviewer Jack Foley. "But if you acknowledge their existence, if you say, ‘All right, here’s a cookie, go sit in the corner,’ then you can go about your work and you don’t have to go into depression because of it." Follow Broughton’s advice. Neither ignore nor overindulge those pesky voices in your head.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The Big Texas Steak Ranch restaurant in Amarillo, Texas, has a standing offer to its customers: If you can eat its four-and-a-half-pound steak in an hour without getting sick, the meal is free. Oh, and you’ve also got to finish the side dishes — salad, shrimp cocktail, baked potato and roll. Only about one in six brave souls succeeds. Given your current astrological omens, however, I think five out of six Scorpios could win the bet this week. Your appetite — not just for food, but for pleasure, wisdom, adventure and self- transformation — is gargantuan.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): History is littered with the stories of people who didn’t have sufficient funds to manifest their brilliant ideas. Mahlon Loomis was one. Guglielmo Marconi is known as the inventor of the radio, but Loomis created a wireless telegraph system two years before Marconi was born. Unable to get financial backing, Loomis could not develop his innovation, and it remained a virtual secret. I’m hoping that this story will prod you into realizing how important it is to feed your own dreams with all the money they deserve. Don’t let them languish in the realm of fantasy.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): This Saturday I’ll leave for a visit to my version of paradise: the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. For eight utopian days, I’ll need no money and see no advertisements or TV. Exuberant works of art, erected in abundance throughout the seven-square-mile expanse, will feed my imagination. Half-naked dancing revelers who share my political and spiritual views will greet me everywhere I go. I’ll do workshops and performances for people who appreciate my peculiar brand of crazy wisdom. I think you would benefit from a similar escape. It’s a perfect moment to make a pilgrimage to the place you consider heaven on earth.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Bach’s "St. Matthew Passion" is one of the most highly regarded musical compositions in history. Yet the score disappeared and the work was never played for many years after Bach’s death in 1750. In 1829, composer Felix Mendelssohn rediscovered the long-lost manuscript being used as wrapping paper in the estate sale of a deceased cheese salesman. He arranged for a public performance of the piece, and its revival began. In the coming week, you’ll have a taste of the amazed and confounded joy Mendelssohn must have experienced. In an unlikely place with seemingly low value, you will find a neglected treasure.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Your thought for the week comes from French writer Alexander Dumas. "If you give the impression that you need something, you will get nothing," he said. "To make money you have to appear to be rich." The best way to get what you desire, in other words, is to be confident that you deserve it. Don’t dwell on how needy you are; don’t let yourself become a morass of aching deficiency. This doesn’t mean you should water down the intensity of your longing. Indeed, passionate yearning is essential for bountiful satisfaction. But make sure your intense longing is propelled by a certainty that you will ultimately be fulfilled. Be inspired by this wisdom from Picasso: "I am always doing that which I cannot do in order that I may learn how to do it." Report your findings to
