You like to run ahead of the pack. You prefer to show people the way, to set the pace. It's cleaner that way, right? There's less risk you will be caught up in the messy details of everyday compromise. But I suspect that the time is right for you to try an experiment: Temporarily ease yourself into the middle of the pack. Be willing to deal with the messy details of everyday compromise. Why? Because it will teach you lessons that will serve you well the next time you're showing the way and setting the pace.

*

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.

*

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.
*
Imagine that the whole world belongs to you. The birch trees in New Hampshire's White Mountains are yours, and so are the cirrus clouds in the western sky at dusk and the black sand on the beaches of Hawaii's Big Island. You own everything, my dear sovereign -- the paintings in all the museums of the world, as well as the Internet and the wild horses and the eight-lane highways.

Please take good care of it all, OK? Be an enlightened monarch who treats your domain with reverent responsibility. And make sure you also enjoy the full measure of fun that comes with such mastery. Glide through life as if all of creation is yearning to honor and entertain you.

Are you ready to revise your ideas about how love works? Would you consider re-evaluating your relationship to romance, your approach to intimacy, and your understanding of sex? I hope you will not only be willing but also excited to do these things. Now is a favorable time to make changes that will energize your love life with a steady flow of magic for months to come. To get the party started, brainstorm about experiments you could try to invigorate the dynamics of togetherness. Make a list of your customary romantic strategies, and rebel against them all. Speak sexy truths that are both shocking and endearing.

*

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.

*

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.
*
Here's an experiment worth trying: Don't try to analyze the Great Mystery. Instead, be the Great Mystery. Don't go with the Flow; be the Flow. Don't struggle and strain to put yourself in harmony with the Creative Surge of the Divine Wow. Be the Creative Surge of the Divine Wow.

Querencia is a Spanish word with many nuances. At its simplest, it refers to your favorite spot, a place where you long to be. But its meaning can go even deeper. Querencia may be a sanctuary where you feel safe and authentic, or a situation that enables you to draw on extra reserves of strength and courage. It's a special kind of home: an empowering shelter that makes you feel that you belong in this world and love your life. Can you guess where I'm going with this message, Gemini? These days you need to be in your querencia even more than usual. If you don't have one, or if you don't know where yours is, formulate a fierce intention to locate it.

*

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

*

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.
*
Jungian analyst Arnold Mindell explores the relationship between mind and body. He thinks you can achieve optimal physical health if you're devoted to shedding outworn self-images. In his book The Shaman's Body, he says, "You have one central lesson to learn -- to continuously drop all your rigid identities. Personal history may be your greatest danger."

Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us, agrees. Raised as a boy, she later became a woman, but ultimately renounced gender altogether. "I love being without an identity," she says. "It gives me a lot of room to play around."

What identities would be healthy, even ecstatic, for you to lose? Describe the fun you'd have if you were free of them.

The art of effective communication consists of knowing both what to say and what not to say. It's not enough to simply find the words that accurately convey your meaning. You have to tailor your message to the quirks of your listeners. For example, let's say you want to articulate the process that led you to change your mind about an important issue. You would use different language with a child, an authority figure, and a friend. Right? I think you are currently at the peak of your abilities to do this well, Cancerian. Take full advantage of your fluency. Create clear, vivid impressions that influence people to like you and help you.

*

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.

*

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.
*
"You can't wait for inspiration," proclaimed writer Jack London. "You have to go after it with a club." That sounds too violent to me, though I agree in principle that aggressiveness is the best policy in one's relationship with inspiration.

Try this: Don't wait for inspiration. Go after it with a butterfly net, lasso, sweet treats, fishing rod, court orders, beguiling smells, and sincere flattery.

Arthur Conan Doyle first used the term "smoking gun" in a story he wrote over a century ago. It referred to a time the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes burst into a room to find a man holding a pistol that had just been fired, along with the fallen body of a man who had been shot. Since then, the meaning of "smoking gun" has expanded. Now it's any piece of evidence that serves as compelling proof of a certain hypothesis. If you can't find the cookie you left in the kitchen, and your roommate walks by with cookie crumbs on his chin, it's the smoking gun that confirms he pilfered your treat. I believe this is an important theme for you right now. What question do you need answered? What theory would you like to have corroborated? The smoking gun will appear.

*

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.

*

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.
*
I invite you to become a rapturist, which is the opposite of a terrorist: Conspire to unleash blessings on unsuspecting recipients, causing them to feel good.

Before bringing your work as a rapturist to strangers, practice with two close companions. Offer them each a gift that fires up their ambitions. It should not be a practical necessity or consumer fetish, but rather a provocative tool or toy. Give them an imaginative boon they've been hesitant to ask for, a beautiful thing that expands their self-image, a surprising intervention that says, "I love the way you move me."

At least for now, I suggest you suspend the quest for order and refinement and perfection. The wise course of action is to disengage from your fascination with control, and instead give yourself to the throbbing, erratic pulse of the Cosmic Wow. Why? If you do, you will be able to evolve faster than you thought possible. Your strength will come from agile curiosity and an eagerness to experiment. Do you remember when you last explored the catalytic wonders of spontaneity and unpredictability? Do it again!

*

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.

*

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.
*
What is the holiest river in the world? Some might say the Ganges in India. Others would propose the Jordan River or the River Nile. But I say the holiest river is the one that's closest to where you are right now.

Go to that river and commune with it. Throw a small treasure into it as an offering. Next, find a holy sidewalk to walk on, praise the holiness in a bus driver, kiss a holy tree, and shop at a holy store.

This is the deepest, darkest phase of your cycle. The star that you will ultimately make a wish upon has not yet risen. Your pet monsters seem to have forgotten for the moment that they are supposed to be your allies, not your nemeses. Smoke from the smoldering embers in your repressed memories is blending with the chill night fog in your dreams, making your life seem like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a taco. Just kidding about that last part. I wanted to see if your sense of humor is intact, because if it is, you will respond resiliently to all the cosmic jokes in your upcoming tests.

*

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.

*

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.
*
Are other people luckier than you? If so, psychologist Richard Wiseman says you can do something about it. His book The Luck Factor presents research that proves you can learn to be lucky. It's not a mystical force you're born with, he says, but a habit you can develop. How? For starters, be open to new experiences, trust your gut wisdom, expect good fortune, see the bright side of challenging events, and master the art of maximizing serendipitous opportunities.

Name three specific actions you'll try in order to improve your luck.

According to the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, here's what God says to each of us: "Go the limits of your longing . . . Flare up like flame and make big shadows that I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final." Whether or not you're on speaking terms with the Creator, this is excellent advice. It's time to give everything you have and take everything you need. Hold nothing back and open yourself as wide and wild as you dare. Explore the feeling of having nothing to lose and expect the arrivals of useful surprises. (The translation of Rilke's poem is by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.)

*

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

*

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.
*
Is the world a dangerous, chaotic place with no inherent purpose, running on automatic like a malfunctioning machine and fundamentally inimical to your happiness? Or are you surrounded by helpers in a friendly universe that gives you challenges in order to make you smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier? Trick questions! The answers may depend, at least to some degree, on what you believe is true.

Formulate a series of experiments that will allow you to objectively test the hypothesis that the universe is conspiring to help you.

The sun and the expansive planet Jupiter are currently making a joyful noise in the sign of Virgo, which is your astrological House of Career and Ambition. This does not necessarily mean that a boon to your career and ambition will fall into your lap, although such an event is more likely than usual. More importantly, this omen suggests that you will influence luck, fate, and your subconscious mind to work in your favor if you take dramatic practical action to advance your career and ambitions.

*

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.

*

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.
*
Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt drew up an index to categorize the discomfort caused by stinging insects. The attack of the bald-faced hornet is "rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door." A paper wasp delivers pain that's "caustic and burning," with a "distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut." The sweat bee, on the other hand, can hurt you in a way that's "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm."

In bringing this to your attention, I want to inspire the pronoiac rebel in you. Your homework is to create an equally nuanced and precise index of three experiences that feel really good.

On August 28, 1963, Capricorn hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of thousands in Washington, D.C. In that address, he imagined what it might look like if African Americans were free of the bigotry and oppression they had endured for centuries at the hands of white Americans. In accordance with your astrological potentials, I encourage you to articulate your own "I Have a Dream" vision sometime soon. Picture in detail the successful stories you want to actualize in the future. Visualize the liberations you will achieve and the powers you will obtain.

*

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.

*

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.
*
"Two chemicals called actin and myosin evolved eons ago to allow the muscles in insect wings to contract and relax," writes Deepak Chopra in The Book of Secrets. "Today, the same two proteins are responsible for the beating of the human heart."

If you use your imagination, you can sense the connection between the flight of a dragonfly and the intelligent organ that renews its commitment to keeping you alive every second of your life. So use your imagination.

If you have been patiently waiting for a propitious moment to buy a new yacht, pledge your undying love, or get a tattoo that depicts Buddha wrestling Satan, now is as close as you'll get to that propitious moment, at least for a while. Even if you have merely been considering the possibility of signing a year-long lease, asking a cute mischief-maker on a date, or posting an extra-edgy meme on Facebook or Twitter, the next three weeks would be prime time to strike. Diving into a deep, heart-crazed commitment is sometimes a jangly process for you Aquarians, but these days it might be almost smooth and synchronistic.

*

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.

*

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.
*
The primary meaning of the word "healing" is "to cure what's diseased or broken." Medical practitioners focus on sick people. Philanthropists donate their money and social workers contribute their time to helping the underprivileged. Psychotherapists wrestle with their clients' traumas and neuroses. I'm in awe of them all. The level of one's spiritual wisdom, I believe, is more accurately measured by helping people in need than by meditation skills, shamanic shapeshifting, supernatural powers, or esoteric knowledge.

But I also believe in a second kind of healing that is largely unrecognized: to supercharge what is already healthy; to lift up what's merely sufficient to a sublime state. Using this definition, describe two acts of healing: one you would enjoy performing on yourself and another you'd like to provide for someone you love.

Ready for a ritual? Get a piece of paper and a pen. Light a candle, take three deep breaths, and chant "YUMMMM" five times. Then spend ten minutes writing down the qualities you would like your perfect lover to possess. Identify both the traits that would make this person unique and the behavior he or she would display toward you. Got that? When you are finished, burn the list you made. Disavow everything you wrote. Pledge to live for at least seven months without harboring fixed beliefs about what your ideal partner should be like. Instead, make yourself extra receptive to the possibility that you will learn new truths about what you need. Why? I suspect that love has elaborate plans for you in the next two years. You will be better prepared to cooperate with them if you are initially free of strong agendas.

*

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.

*

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.
*
"Creativity is like driving a car at night," said E. L. Doctorow. "You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." I would add that life itself is like driving a car at night. You're often in the dark except for what's right in front of you. At least that's usually the case.

But for a few shining hours sometime this week, I predict you'll be able to see the big picture of where you're headed. It will be as if the whole world is suddenly illuminated by a prolonged burst of light; as if you're both driving your car and also watching your your journey from high above. Write about what you see.