Free Will Astrology

ARIES (March 21-April 19): No more sour desserts for you; no more lovable danger or stylish sickness. Once you get the hang of rejecting all the double binds that have squeezed you recently, I predict you'll also say no to crippling luxuries, barren discipline, stupid truths, wasteful desires and irrelevant courage. The liberation that erupts in the wake of these rebellions will make you hornier than you've been in weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I predict that a physicist born under the sign of the Bull will discover the key to a commercially viable superconductor by this time next year. He or she will create a motor that runs far more efficiently and with dramatically greater power than existing technology allows. Free-associate on that theme and you'll come up with an analogous prophecy for you and your own line of work or play. Now is a favorable time to intensify the research that'll lead to your momentous discovery.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You're ready to make the transition from plodding to soaring; from muttering confused criticisms to unleashing bright toasts; from indulging in heavy-handed acts of self-incrimination to whipping up giddy, weightless sensations. To what do we owe this bracing turnaround in your fortunes? Probably that the Era of Brazen Narcissism has arrived for Geminis. During the coming weeks, ingenious displays of self-worship are not only permitted but encouraged. Can you stand even more good news? You'll be able to round up hordes of devotees who are also eager to celebrate your glory.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I feel famished as I think of you stewing in your bottomless hunger. You almost remind me of an anorexic beauty queen or a fasting saint or a mother sparrow who can only find enough worms to feed her babies but not herself. I know your longing is not a desperate craving for food, a yearning for impossible love or superhuman power or unrealistic miracles. You're mad for something you don't have a name for yet — a real and achievable something whose existence you've just begun to tune into.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The macho rituals of millionaire athletes sometimes produce metaphors as vivid as the Greek myths. The event around which I'm building this week's prophecy occurred in a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins. Top Giants slugger Barry Bonds (a Leo) broke his bat as he hit a pitch thrown by Josh Beckett. Normally, this humiliates the batter. It means the pitcher has fooled him. The ball doesn't travel very far or fast, so the batter is usually an easy out. Bonds has so much power, however, that the unthinkable happened: The ball that splintered his bat into pieces soared over the fence for a home run. This is the operative metaphor for you in the coming week.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Many things have been used as money besides paper currency and precious metals. Among them have been tulips, seashells, cows, velvet, tobacco, elephant tusks, beetle legs, cheese and giant stone wheels. I hope that these poetic variations on the theme will inspire you to designate a new form of legal tender in the coming weeks. You'll be exceptionally creative whenever you turn your thoughts to financial matters. Here are some questions to guide your explorations. What useful but undervalued beauty do you produce? Which of your unsung talents are finally ready to generate income? What hidden assets or neglected treasures could you turn into sources of wealth?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to the poet and scholar Robert Graves, the goddess Hecate "presides at seedtime and childbirth; she grants prosperity, victory, plentiful harvests to the farmer and rich catches to the fisherman." On the other hand, he notes, Hecate is the mistress of sorcery. She is the "goddess of ghosts and night-terrors, of phantoms and fearful monsters." How can a single deity embody such seemingly contradictory archetypes? Graves: She symbolizes "the unconscious in which beasts and monsters swarm. This is not the living hell of the psychotic, but a reservoir of energy to be brought under control, just as Chaos was brought to cosmic order under the influence of the spirit." In the coming weeks, Hecate will be your ally and guide.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, music critic Joel Selvin panned the singing of Mariah Carey. Concerning her "relentless swoops, whoops and fluttering notes," Selvin said, "no less an authority than Jerry Wexler, producer of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, calls it 'over-souling.'" I bring this up, Scorpio, because you're close to doing the equivalent of "over-souling" in your own life. Please step back from the brink. No matter how cool you are, no matter how skilled or smart or attuned, don't beat people over the head with your magic and prowess.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Greek philosopher Plato said he'd ban poets from his ideal society. Why? Because of their power to rouse unruly passions, for one thing. Plato feared that a poet's rhetorical skill could turn off his listeners' defenses and trick them into believing wild ideas — maybe even influence them to abandon behavioral norms. If I were a poet, I might try to inspire you to protest the widely accepted ugliness you see around you every day. I'd lure you into committing brash acts of beauty and truth, and incite you to fight tenderly for love and goodness, and coax you to tell everyone you know that evil is boring and you don't want to hear any more stories that glamorize it. But since I'm an astrologer, I'll simply inform you that cosmic luck will be on your side if you carry out all the above.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Eskimos use refrigerators to prevent food from freezing. Hyperactive kids are given amphetamines to slow them down. In this spirit, I offer you a message designed to keep your self-esteem at a healthy level. You are one of the most important characters in the history of the world. The gifts you have to give are so fantastic, it would be a crime for you to be stingy in doling them out. The lives of everyone you know will become steadily richer if you can manage simply to be yourself in their presence. Act as if every move you make will send ripples of influence to the ends of the earth, ultimately affecting everyone alive.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You're so close to discovering surprising new information about yourself — juicy secrets that have been hidden forever. Is there a chance in hell that you'll be brave enough to track them down? If you are, you'll set in motion a series of breakthroughs. An old enemy's curse will dissolve. You'll topple barriers that had been so insidious you weren't even aware of their existence. Two parts of your mind that have never known about each other will finally make contact. And you'll hook up with potential allies who have been waiting for you to notice them.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Once, your fate got tangled up with the twisted destiny of a beautiful monster. Well, technically it was a person, but "beautiful monster" is an apt metaphor. From the start, the give-and-take between you and this bigger-than-life creature was chaotic, refreshing, debilitating and soul-deepening. Ultimately, you had to extricate yourself from the snarled web the two of you wove. Now it seems that a new version of the beautiful monster is lurking in your vicinity. I have reason to believe this one is tamer than the original, though, and less addicted to the philosophy of no pain, no gain. Still, proceed with caution. Imagine it's 40 years from today. As you look back on your life, what is the one adventure you regret not trying? Tell all at