Freedom is the most important kind of joy you can seek right now. It's also the most important subject to study and think about, as well as the most important skill to hone. I advise you to make sure that freedom is flowing through your brain and welling up in your heart and spiraling through your loins. Write synonyms for "freedom" on your arm with a felt-tip pen: liberation, emancipation, independence, leeway, spaciousness, carte blanche, self-determination, dispensation. Here's one more tip: Connect yourself with people who love and cultivate the same type of freedom you do.

How well is your imagination working these days? Could it use a boost? A prod? A jolt of inspiration? Try tuning in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Attention please. This is your ancestors speaking. We've been trying to reach you through your dreams and fantasies, but you haven't responded. That's why we've commandeered this space. So listen up. We'll make it brief. You're at a crossroads analogous to a dilemma that has baffled your biological line for six generations. We ask you now to master the turning point that none of us have ever figured out how to negotiate. Heal yourself and you heal all of us. We mean that literally. Start brainstorming, please.

It's Love Your Messes Week, Taurus. In accordance with the astrological omens, you are authorized to love the hell out of the messes in your life -- from the small, awkward knots of confusion to the big, beautiful heaps of fertile chaos. This is not a time to feel embarrassed or apologize for your messes; not a time to shy away from them or ignore them. On the contrary, you should explore them, celebrate them, and even take advantage of them. Whatever else they are, your messes are untapped sources of energy. Learn to love them for the mysterious lessons they keep teaching you. Love them for the courage and willpower they compel you to summon. Love them for the novelty they bring your way and the interesting stories they add to your personal legend.

Want more clues? Need further insight? For more evocative questions and pithy suggestions about your unfolding destiny, check out your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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See how far you can spit a mouthful of beer
Pick blackberries naked in the pouring rain
Scare yourself with how beautiful you are
Stage a slow-motion water balloon fight
Pretend your wounds are exotic tattoos
Sing anarchist lullabies to lesbian trees
Plunge butcher knives into accordions
Commit a crime that breaks no laws
Sip the tears of someone you love

"A snowball's chance in hell" is an American idiom that's equivalent to saying "it probably won't happen." After all, a snowball would instantly melt if exposed to the scorching fires that rage in the underworld. But what if there's an exception to this axiom? Let's call on another American idiom: "when hell freezes over." It's another way to say "it probably won't happen." But the truth is that now and then a cold front does indeed sweep through the infernal region, icing its flames. When that happens, a snowball's prospects of surviving there improve dramatically. And that's exactly what I predict will happen for you in the coming week.

How much do you want to know about your life? How far do you dare to go in your quest for self-mastery? For more insight into your intriguing fate, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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To create a pearl, an oyster needs an aggravating parasite inside its shell. It builds layers of calcium carbonate around the invader, gradually fabricating the treasure. How long does it take from the initial provocation to the finished product? Five years for a pearl of average size, and as many as 10 years for a big one.

Our questions for you: How many years have you been engaged in the process of transforming your irritant into a masterpiece? How many more years do you think you still have to go?

In 2007, J. K. Rowling finished writing the seventh volume of her seven Harry Potter books, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The day it was published it sold 11 million copies. But Rowling had actually written the final chapter of this last book way back in 1990, when she first conceived the story she was to spend the next 17 years working on. She knew the climax right from the beginning. I foresee a similar theme unfolding for you in the coming weeks, Cancerian. As you plot a project you will be developing for a long time to come, you will have a vision of what it will be when it becomes fully mature.

Would you like to hear more about the hidden factors influencing your life? Do you want to uncover the secrets you've been hiding even from yourself? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Ariel was going through a hard time. She'd been weaning herself from a painkiller she'd taken while recovering from surgery. Her cat ran away, and there was a misunderstanding at work. One night while at a nightclub with her friend Leila, she spied her ex-boyfriend kissing some woman. Meltdown ensued. Ariel fled the club and ran sobbing into the street, where she hurled her shoes on top of a passing bus.

Leila retrieved her and sat her down on a bench. "Because up until now you've displayed such exemplary grace in the face of chaos," Leila said, "I'm giving you a free Crazy Pass. It gives you a karma-free license to temporarily lose your mind." This compassionate humor helped Ariel feel more composed. The rest of the night she partied with elegant savagery, achieving major relief and release without hurting ­herself.

Now I'm awarding you, too, a free Crazy Pass. How will you use it?

When you see your shadow, it's usually right next to you. It's there on the ground or floor, a fuzzy black shape that follows you around closely. But today I saw my shadow waving back at me from afar. I was standing on top of a hill, and the sun's rays created a dusky version of me in the meadow way down below. I think this is a useful metaphor for an opportunity that's available to you. In the coming days, you will be able to view the shadowy, undeveloped parts of your personality as if from a distance. That means you will have more objectivity about them, and thus greater compassion. You can get a calm, clear sense of how they might be mucking with your happiness and how you could transform them.

Do you wish you could get more clarity about the foggy, ambiguous situations you're dealing with? Want more help in exploring the Great Mystery that is your life? I discuss your coming week in greater depth in your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Think about your relationship to human beings who haven't been born yet. What might you create for them to use? How can you make your life a gift to the future? Can you not only help preserve the wonders we live amidst, but actually enhance them? Keep in mind this thought from Lewis Carroll: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward."

"You cannot use butterfly language to communicate with caterpillars," said psychologist Timothy Leary. That's good advice for you to keep in mind in the near future. You might want to find a way to carry on constructive dialogs with people who have a hard time understanding you. It's not necessarily that they are stupid or resistant to your charms. The problem is that they haven't experienced some of the critical transformations you have. They can't be expected to converse with you in your butterfly language. Are you willing and able to speak caterpillar?

Do you want further explorations of the intriguing twists and turns of your personal evolution? Would you like help in solving the riddles that confuse you? Check out your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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For years, I lived 13 miles from the top of Mt. Tamalpais, one of the highest peaks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Every day I gazed at it from afar through my window or while riding my bike in the hills, marveling as it glided through its ever-shifting relationship with the sky and seasons. It was a remote yet familiar beacon, an awe-inspiring touchstone against which I could measure my own undulating rhythms.

Eventually I moved to a new home at the foot of Mt. Tam. I felt as if I'd become part of it -- was embedded in its protective and majestic aura. It was no longer an objective gauge, but rather an intimate tone and texture in my subjective experience of myself.

Risk a comparable shift, from being there to being here; from outside to inside; from strength absorbed at a distance to power felt up close.

Are you thinking of linking your fortunes to a new ally? Or deepening your collaboration with a familiar ally? Have you fantasized about bonding intensely with a source that may be able to give you more of what you want and bring out more of the best in you? These prospects are worth contemplating, Libra. But I suggest you let your connection ripen a bit more before finalizing the shift. I'm not necessarily saying there's a potential problem. I simply suspect that you need further exploration and additional information before you can make the smartest move possible.

Need more help in figuring out the questions life is asking you? Crave more support in your efforts to build your courage? Check out your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Notice how you feel as you speak the following: "The strong, independent part of me resisted the embarrassing truth for a long time, but I finally came to accept that I'm someone who craves vast amounts of love. Ever since I surrendered to this need, it doesn't nag me all the time, as it used to. In fact, it feels comforting, like a source of sweetness that doesn't go away. I never thought I'd say this, but I've come to treasure the feeling of having a voracious yearning to be loved."

Saturn has been in the sign of Scorpio since October 2012 and will be there until the end of 2014. (It will make another visit from June to September 2015.) What does that mean? I have a view of Saturn that's different from many astrologers. They regard it as the planet of limitation, struggle, and difficulty. Here's what I think: While Saturn may push you to be extra tough and work super hard, it also inspires you to cut away extraneous desires and home in on your deepest purpose. It motivates you to build strong structures that free you to express yourself with maximum efficiency and grace.

What fresh blessings will life bring you? What questions should you be asking? To explore the ripening trends further, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Devote yourself to your heart's desire with unflagging shrewdness. Make it your top priority. Let no lesser wishes distract you. But consider this, too. You may sabotage even your worthiest yearning if you're maniacal in your pursuit of it.

Bear in mind the attitude described by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book Women Who Run with the Wolves: "All that you are seeking is also seeking you. If you sit still, it will find you. It has been waiting for you a long time."

Speculate on what exactly that would look like in your own life. Describe how your heart's desire has been waiting for you, seeking you.

When I took an intermediate painting class in college, our first assignment was to imitate an old master. My choice was the Flemish painter Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525-1569). I worked on reproducing his painting The Fight Between Carnival and Lent as precisely as I could. It was tedious and liberating. I invoked Breugel's spirit and prayed for his guidance. I sank my psyche deeply into his. By the end of the four-week process I'd learned a lot about painting. Given the current astrological omens, Sagittarius, I suggest you try something similar. Pick someone who excels at a way of working or a state of being that you would like to master yourself, and copy that person for a while. For best results, have fun with it. Play!

Want to explore this chapter of your life story even further? Dig deeper? Push harder? Consider tuning in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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For over two decades, Peter Jouvenal worked as a journalist and cameraman who filmed war-torn hot spots, including Iraq in the Gulf War and Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. He eventually retired from that gig and bought a restaurant in Kabul. He has few regrets, but one came after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

While exploring the organization's deserted safe houses, he happened upon a place where Osama bin Laden and his wife had recently lived. Among the items the couple left behind was one of her bras. In retrospect Jouvenal realized he should have pocketed the exotic piece of lingerie; a tabloid newspaper would have paid him a fortune for it. But because he had spent his entire career dealing with more mainstream news media that sought more respectable evidence, the idea didn't even occur to him until much later.

Was there ever a time when you were in such a deep trance, enthralled by your habits and belief system, that you failed to notice a valuable anomaly that popped up? How can you train yourself to be so alert that such a blunder won't happen again?

Capricorn author J. R. R. Tolkien spent 14 years working on The Lord of the Rings. In using a typewriter to produce over 1,200 pages, he relied solely on his two index fingers. He never learned the ten-finger typing method. I suppose it didn't matter in the end. Presumably, his impediment didn't affect the quality of his work, but only made it harder to accomplish and required him to spend a lot more time. Is there a fixable limitation on your own ability to achieve your dream, Capricorn? Is there some handicap you could, with effort, overcome? If so, now would be an excellent time to begin.

You're got more strength and intelligence than you realize. For help in accessing those untapped inner resources, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Imagine that you have been relieved of your responsibilities for a given time. They will be taken care of by people you trust. You won't have to work to make money during this grace period, but will be given all you need. Nor will you have to clean your house, wash your clothes, or buy and make your food. Now here's the big question: What will you do now that you are free to do anything you like?

"The truth's superb surprise," wrote poet Emily Dickinson, may be "too bright for our infirm delight." Sometimes we've got to be careful about articulating what's really going on. "The truth must dazzle gradually," she said. If it hits us too fast and hard, it may be difficult to digest. So did Emily suggest that we should lie and deceive? No. "Tell all the truth," she declared, "but tell it slant." This is excellent advice for you in the coming days, Aquarius.

How are you going to change what needs to be changed and accept what needs to be accepted? To get some support from me, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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According to Jewish legend, there are in each generation 36 righteous humans who prevent the rest of us from being destroyed. Through their extraordinary good deeds and their love of the divine spark, they save the world over and over again. They're not famous saints, though. They go about their business anonymously, and no one knows how crucial they are to our well-being.

Might you be one of the 36? As a temporary experiment, act as if you are.

Here's my report on your progress. You are not struggling to embody a delusional state of perfection as it is imagined by other people. Rather, you are becoming an ever-more soulful version of your idiosyncratic self, evolving slowly but surely. You are not dazedly trudging along a narrow track laid down by thousands of sheep. Instead, you are lively and creative as you bushwhack a path for yourself through the wilderness. To celebrate this ongoing success, Pisces, I suggest you get yourself a new power object that symbolizes your inventive devotion.

Sometimes it's a challenge to try to figure out what's important and what's not important. If you'd like more of my input, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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On the downside, your addiction diverts your energy from a deeper desire that it superficially resembles. For instance, if you're an alcoholic, your urge to get loaded may be an inferior substitute for and a poor imitation of your buried longing to commune with spirit.

On the upside, your addiction is your ally, because it dares you to get strong and smart enough to wrestle free of its grip; it pushes you to summon the uncanny willpower necessary to defeat the darkness within you that saps your ability to follow the path with heart.

(P.S. Don't tell me you have no addictions. Each of us is addicted to some sensation, feeling, thought, or action, if not to an actual substance.)

Extol your sublime, painful addiction -- celebrate it to death. Ride it, spank it, kiss it, whip it.