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38 November 12 - 18, 2008 l Planet Jackson Hole l www.PlanetJH.com updated daily
ROB BREZSNEY’S
freewillastrology@comcast.net
© 2008 Rob Brezney
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “You can’t know fire
unless you play with it,” says Mark Finney, a math
whiz who develops computer models for fighting
forest fires. I offer that as a motto for you in the
coming week, Aries. I’m not saying you should purposely
ignite a conflagration for the sake of impulsive
experimentation. I’m not saying you should
kick smoldering embers around like soccer balls or
light a cigarette while you’re pumping gasoline or
buy yourself a flame-thrower. What I am saying is
that it will be in your interest to learn more about
how to play safely with intriguing, useful fires.
(Finney’s quote comes from the July 2008 issue of
National Geographic.)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The time for keeping
the doors closed is passing. But it is not yet the
right moment to fling them wide open. According to
my reading of the omens, your best strategy is to
keep doors ajar — open just a crack, letting some
air in and allowing a hint of your light to trickle out.
This will discourage unfocused wanderers from
barging in, while at the same time it encourages
worthy candidates with a healthy curiosity to
sneak peeks inside.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “There is a rose in
Spanish Harlem,” sings Ben E. King in his old pop
ballad. “It is a special one/ It’s never seen the sun/
It only comes out when the moon is on the run.”
King is fantasizing with longing about an alluring
woman from a hardscrabble neighborhood. The
rose is “growing in the street/ right up through the
concrete” — a delicate beauty blooming amidst
tough conditions. Your assignment, Gemini, is to
cultivate a connection with your equivalent of that
rose.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Every second of
your life, your bone marrow produces 100 trillion
molecules of hemoglobin, the stuff that carries
oxygen from your lungs to the rest of you.
Meanwhile, every minute, your immune system
begets 10 million lymphocytes, which are key play-
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ers in your body’s defenses. These are just two
examples of the endless marvels you produce,
Cancerian. You are a creator of the first order.
You’re a supreme maker and a generative genius.
Remember that in the coming days. It will help you
be confident and purposeful as you birth minor miracles
and intimate wonders.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For decades the U.S. government
has handed out far more welfare benefits
to big corporations than to poor people. Companies
like IBM, General Electric, Boeing, and others rake
in over 100 billion dollars of subsidies each year. In
other words, socialism has been a prominent feature
of our so-called capitalist system for a long
time. Recently, Karl Marx’s influence has made
even deeper inroads into the American way, with
the government becoming part-owner of many
banks in order to keep them solvent. Will any of this
fantastic largesse be extended to us regular citizens,
like maybe in the form of nationalized health
care? I can’t answer that. But I do know this, Leo: In
the coming months, you will get help from powers
that you regard as above and beyond you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): For many people,
10:30 a.m. is the single best time of day to come
up with fresh insights and new ideas. But that
won’t exactly be true for you in the coming week. I
mean, 10:30 will be a time when you’re likely to be
really smart, but then so will 11:30, 1:05, 2:37,
3:46, and 4:20. For that matter, 6:35 may also
bring a gush of high intelligence, as well as 7:27,
8:19, and the last ten minutes before bedtime.
What I’m trying to tell you, Virgo, is that you’re in a
phase when being brilliant should come pretty naturally.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Ruminate a minute
about the people who don’t see you for who you
really are. Some of them are enemies, but others
may be loved ones or allies. Consider the possibility
that you have unconsciously bought in to their
beliefs about you; that you are at least partially
trapped in the habit of acting like the person they
think you are. Now visualize what it would be like
to free yourself from the images and expectations
they have of you. Imagine the exhilaration you’d
feel if you answered only to the still, small voice of
your own lucid intuition. The coming weeks will be
a good time for you to practice this high art.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The New York
Times ran a story about philosopher Nick Bostrom.
He believes there’s a significant chance our world
is actually a computer simulation. In his scenario,
you and I are living in a version of The Matrix. Our
“brains” are merely webs of computer circuits created
by our post-human descendants, who are
studying “ancestor simulations” of their past. I
bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because it’s
an excellent time for you to find out, one way or
another, whether Bostrom is correct. Right now
you have a special talent for knowing what’s real
and what’s not. You’ve also got a knack for escaping
what’s illusory and gravitating toward what’s
authentic. So even if you do find out that we’re living
in The Matrix, you could become a kind of messiah
with resemblances to the character that
Keanu Reaves played in the film trilogy.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In his book
Signs of Success, astrologer Steven Weiss says
“The question ‘Do you believe in astrology?’ is like
asking someone if they believe in art.” I agree.
Picture a no-nonsense physicist gazing at a
Kandinsky painting, with its teeming blobs of mad
color and exuberant shapes, and declaring it to be
a superstitious eruption of delusion that’s not
based on a logical understanding of the world. Like
Kandinsky’s perspective, astrology at its best roots
us in the poetic language of the soul, and isn’t
blindly submissive to the values of the rational ego.
It’s here to liberate our imaginations and encourage
us to think less literally and to visualize our
lives as mythic quests. I bring this to your attention,
Sagittarius, because right now it’s crucial that
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WEEK OF NOV. 12
you spend some quality time in modes of awareness
akin to Kandinsky’s and astrology’s.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Check out
this excerpt from “Those Who Do Not Dance,” by
Chilean poet Gabriel Mistral: “God asked from on
high, / ‘How do I come down from this blueness?’ /
We told Him: /come dance with us in the light.” I
love this passage because it reminds me that nothing
is ever set in stone: Everything is always up for
grabs. Even God needs to be open to change and
eager for fresh truths. Furthermore, even we puny
humans may on occasion need to be God’s teacher
and helper. Likewise, we can never be sure about
what lowly or unexpected sources may bring us the
influences we require. What do Mistral’s words
mean to you, Capricorn? Imagine you’re the “God”
referenced in the poem. What blueness are you
ready to come down from, and who might invite
you to dance in their light?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): All of the good
works you do in the coming week will send ripples
far and wide, but not all of them will be recognized
and appreciated. I hope that’s OK with you; I hope
you won’t get obsessed with trying to get all the
credit you deserve. The fact is, your influences will
be more effective and enduring if they are at least
partially anonymous. Ironically, your power will be
greater if it’s not fully noticed.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Describing his
writing class at Sarah Lawrence College, Jeffrey
McDaniel says: “There are two kinds of humor: haha
humor that is light and airy and floats into the
sky like a balloon, vanishing as the giggling subsides;
and then there is a darker, heavier humor
that is still there when the laughter stops, a humor
that must be reckoned with, a humor with teeth.” I
suggest, Pisces, that you make the latter your specialty,
your passion, and your medicine. Consort
with belly laughs and sublime guffaws that rouse
the ferocity you need in order to penetrate deeper
into the heart of the Great Mystery.
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