ARIES (March 21-April 19): In woodworking, “spalting” occurs when fungi colonize wood, creating dark lines and patterns that make the wood more valuable, not less. The decay creates beauty as long as it isn’t allowed to progress too far. Here’s the metaphorical moral of the story for you, Aries: What feels like a deteriorating situation might actually be spalting. Are you experiencing the breakdown of a routine, a certainty or a plan? It could be creating a pattern that makes your story even more interesting and heroic. So keep in mind that an apparent decomposition may be transforming ordinary into extraordinary beauty. My advice is to play along with the spalting. 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I suspect you will soon be invited to explore novel feelings and unfamiliar states of awareness. As you wander in the psychological frontiers, you might experience mysterious phenomena like the following. 1. An overflow of reverence and awe. 2. Blissful surprise in the face of the sublime. 3. Sudden glimmers of eternity in fleeting moments. 4. A soft, golden resonance that arises when you hear arousing truths. 5. Amazingly useful questions that could tantalize and feed your imagination for months and even years to come.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If I were your mentor, I’d lead you up an ascending trail to a high peak where your vision is clear and vast. If I were your leader, I’d give you a medal for all the ways you’ve been brave when no one was looking, then send you on an all-expenses-paid sabbatical to a beautiful sanctuary to rest and remember yourself. If I were your therapist, I’d guide you through a 90-minute meditation on your entire life story up until now. But since I’m just your companion for this brief oracle, I will instead advise you to slip out of any silken snares of comfort that dull your spirit, cast off perks and privileges that keep you small, and commune with influences that remind you of how deeply you treasure being alive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Biologist Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize by developing what she called “a feeling for the organism.” She cultivated an intimate, almost empathic relationship with the corn plants she studied. She didn’t impose theories on her subjects. She listened to them until she could sense their hidden patterns from the inside. When you’re not lost in self-protection, you Cancerians excel at this quality of attention. Here’s what I see as your task in the coming weeks: Transfer your empathic genius away from people who drain you and toward projects, places or problems that deserve your devotion and give you blessings in return.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Sufi writers describe heartbreak, grief and longing as portals through which divine love enters. They say that a highly defended ego and a hardened heart can’t engage with such profound and potent love. In this view, suffering that makes the heart ache strips away illusions and fixations, allowing greater receptivity, humility and tenderness toward all beings.​ I’m not expecting you to get blasted by an influx of poignancy in the near future, Leo, but I’m very sure you have experienced such blasts in the past. And now is an excellent time to process those old breakthroughs disguised as breakdowns. You are likely to finally be able to harvest the full power they offered you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In traditional Balinese culture, Tri Hita Karana is a concept that means there are three causes of well-being: harmony with God, harmony with people and harmony with nature. When one is out of balance, all suffer. I’m wondering if you would benefit from meditating on this theme now, Virgo. Have you been focused on one dimension at the expense of the others? Are you, perhaps, spiritually nourished but socially isolated? Or maybe you’re maintaining relationships but ignoring your body’s connection to the earth? Here’s your assignment: Do a Tri Hita Karana audit. Which harmony is most neglected? Add to your altar, call a friend or go walk in the great outdoors—whichever one you’ve been shortchanging.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You are a diplomat in the struggle between beauty and inelegance. Your aptitude for creating harmony is a great asset that others might underestimate or miss completely. I hope you will always trust your hunger for classiness, even if others dismiss it as superficial. One of your key reasons for being here on Earth is to keep insisting on loveliness in a world too quick to settle for ugliness. These qualities of yours are especially needed right now. Please be gracefully insistent on expressing them wherever you go.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The bad news: You underestimate how much joy and pleasure you deserve—and how much you’re capable of experiencing. This artificially low expectation has sometimes cheated you out of your rightful share of bliss and fulfillment. The good news: Life is now ready to conspire with you to raise your happiness levels. I hope you will cooperate eagerly. The more intensely you insist on feeling good, the more cosmic assistance you will garner. Here’s a smart way to launch this holy campaign: Renounce a certain lackluster thrill that diverts you from more lavish excitements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In classical music, a “rest” isn’t the absence of music. It’s a specific notation that creates space, tension and meaning. The silence is as much a part of the composition as the sound. I suggest you think of your current pause this way, Sagittarius. You’re not waiting for your real life to resume. You’re in a rest, and the rest is an essential part of the process you’re following. It’s creating the conditions for what comes next. So instead of anxiously filling every moment with productivity or distraction, try honoring the pause. Be deliberately quiet. Let the silence accumulate. When the next movement begins, you’ll understand exactly why the rest was necessary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Interesting temptations are wandering into your orbit. You may be surprised to find yourself drawn toward entertaining gambles and tricky adventures. How should you respond? Should you say, “Yes. Now. I’m ready.”? Or is open-minded caution a wiser approach? Conditions are too slippery for me to arrive at definitive conclusions. What I can tell you is this: Merely considering and ruminating on these invitations will awaken uplifting and inspiring lessons. P.S.: To get the fullness of the blessings you want from other people, you must first give them to yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The engineer Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) said he envisioned his inventions in intricate detail before building them. He didn’t need literal prototypes because his mental pictures were so vivid. I suspect you Aquarians now have extra access to this power. What scenarios are you dreaming of? What are you incubating in your imagination? I urge you to boldly trust your thought experiments. Your mental prototypes may be unusually accurate. The visions you’re testing internally are reconnaissance missions to futures that you have the power to build. Regard your imagination as a laboratory.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Sufi mystics tell us that the heart has “seven levels of depth,” each one bearing progressively more profound wisdom. You access these depths by feeling deeper, not thinking harder. Let’s apply this perspective to you, Pisces. Right now, you’re being called to descend past surface emotions (irritation, worry, mild contentment) into the layers beneath: primal wonder, the wild joy you’re sometimes too cautious to express and the sacred longing that can lead you to glory. This dive might feel risky. That’s good. It means you’re going deep enough. What you discover down there will reorganize everything above it for the better.

Homework: What’s the most taboo thing you want? Can you make it any less taboo? Newsletter. FreeWillAstrology.com.