Franz Kafka produced three novels, a play, four short fiction collections, and many other stories. And yet some of his fellow writers thought he was uncomfortable in expressing himself. Bertolt Brecht said Kafka seemed perpetually afraid, as if he were being monitored by the cops for illicit thoughts. Milena Jesenská observed that Kafka often wrote like he was sitting naked in the midst of fully-clothed people. Your assignment in the coming weeks is to shed such limitations and inhibitions from your own creative expression. What would you need to do to free your imagination? To get started, visualize five pleasurable scenarios in which you feel joyful, autonomous, generous, and expansive.

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Assume that your drive to experience pleasure isn't a barrier to your spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it. Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and compassionate person. Imagine that feeling good has something important to teach you every day. For inspiration in practicing this approach, tune in to your Expanded Audio Horoscope for the week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR BIG-PICTURE PREVIEW -- an audio report about YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY. To hear it, log in through the main page, and then click on the link "Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2015." The cost is $6.

What are your visions and plans for your life in the next ten to twelve months? Could you use some inspiration as you mobilize your higher powers? Tune in. (The cost for either the weekly forecast or the long-term report is $6, with discounts for multiple purchases.)

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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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Here are some healthy, exalted, positive states of being you might want to cultivate in the coming weeks:

* CRAZED KINDNESS. Having frequent, overpowering urges to bestow gifts, disseminate inspiration, and perpetrate random acts of benevolence.

* ECSTATIC GRATITUDE. Feeling genuine thankfulness with such resplendent intensity that you generate a surge of endorphins in your body and slip into a full-scale outbreak of euphoria.

* IMAGINATIVE TRUTH-TELLING. Conveying the truth of any specific situation from multiple angles, thereby mitigating the distortions that result from assuming the truth can be told from a single viewpoint.

* JOYFUL POIGNANCE. Feeling buoyantly joyful about the beauty and mystery of life while remaining aware of the sadness, injustices, wounds, and future fears that form the challenges in an examined life.

* NONRESENTMENT SYNDROME. Having an ability to be friendly, open, and helpful to people with whom you disagree.

* RADICAL CURIOSITY. Characterized by the following traits: an enthusiasm for the mystery embedded in the mundane; a preference for questions over answers; an aversion to stereotyping, generalizations, and jumping to conclusions; a belief that people are unsolvable puzzles; an inclination to be unafraid of both change and absence of change; a strong drive to avoid boredom; a lack of interest in possessing or dominating what you are curious about.

* WILD DISCIPLINE. Possessing a talent for creating a kind of organization that's liberating; knowing how to introduce limitations into a situation in such a way that everyone involved is empowered to express his or her unique genius; having an ability to discern hidden order within a seemingly chaotic mess.