Free Will Astrology: Week of June 23, 2022

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries actor Marilu Henner has an unusual condition: hyperthymesia. She can remember in detail voluminous amounts of past events. For instance, she vividly recalls being at the Superdome in New Orleans on September 15, 1978, where she and her actor friends watched a boxing match between Leon Spinks and Muhammad Ali. You probably don't have hyperthymesia, Aries, but I invite you to approximate that state. Now is an excellent time to engage in a leisurely review of your life story, beginning with your earliest memories. Why? It will strengthen your foundation, nurture your roots, and bolster your stability.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Poet Elizabeth Bishop noted that many of us are "addicted to the gigantic." We live in a "mostly huge and roaring, glaring world." As a counterbalance, she wished for "small works of art, short poems, short pieces of music, intimate, low-voiced, and delicate things." That's the spirit I recommend to you in the coming weeks, Taurus. You will be best served by consorting with subtle, unostentatious, elegant influences. Enjoy graceful details and quiet wonders and understated truths.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the coming weeks, you will need even more human touch than usual. Your mental, physical, and spiritual health REQUIRE you to have your skin in contact with people who care for you and are eager to feel their skin against yours. A Tumblr blogger named Friend-Suggestion sets the tone for the mood I hope you cultivate. They write, "I love! human contact! with! my friends! So put your leg over mine! Let our knees touch! Hold my hand! Make excuses to feel my arm by drawing pictures on my skin! Stand close to me! Lean into my space! Slow dance super close to me! Hold my face in your hands or kick my foot to get my attention! Put your arm around me when we’re standing or sitting around! Hug me from behind at random times!"

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Author John Banville wrote what might serve as a manifesto for some of us Crabs: "To be concealed, protected, guarded: that is all I have ever truly wanted. To burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there, hidden from the sky’s indifferent gaze and the harsh air's damagings. The past is such a retreat for me. I go there eagerly, shaking off the cold present and the colder future." If you are a Crab who feels a kinship with Banville's approach, I ask you to refrain from indulging in it during the coming months. You're in a phase of your long-term astrological cycle when your destiny is calling you to be bolder and brighter than usual, more visible and influential, louder and stronger.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "We wish to make rage into a fire that cooks things rather than a fire of conflagration," writes author Clarissa Pinkola Estés. That's good advice for you right now. Your anger can serve you, but only if you use it to gain clarity—not if you allow it to control or immobilize you. So here's my counsel: Regard your wrath as a fertilizing fuel that helps deepen your understanding of what you're angry about—and shows you how to engage in constructive actions that will liberate you from what is making you angry.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Jeanette Winterson was asked, "Do you fall in love often?" She replied, "Yes, often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all." Even if you're not usually as prone to infatuation and enchantment as Winterson, you could have many experiences like hers in the coming months. Is that a state you would enjoy? I encourage you to welcome it. Your capacity to be fascinated and captivated will be at a peak. Your inclination to trust your attractions will be extra high. Sounds fun!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran lexicographer Daniel Webster (1758–1843) worked hard to create his dictionary, and it became highly influential in American culture. He spent over 26 years perfecting it. To make sure he could properly analyze the etymologies, he learned 28 languages. He wrote definitions for 70,000 words, including 12,000 that had never been included in a published dictionary. I trust you are well underway with your own Webster-like project, Libra. This entire year is an excellent time to devote yourself with exacting diligence to a monumental labor of love. If you haven't started it yet, launch now. If it's already in motion, kick it into a higher gear.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Shouldn’t the distance between impossible and improbable be widened?" asks poet Luke Johnson. I agree that it should, and I nominate you to do the job. In my astrological view, you now have the power to make progress in accomplishing goals that some people may regard as unlikely, fantastical, and absurdly challenging. (Don't listen to them!) I'm not necessarily saying you will always succeed in wrangling the remote possibilities into practical realities. But you might. And even if you're only partially victorious, you will learn key lessons that bolster your abilities to harness future amazements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian novelist George Eliot wrote, "It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings—much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth." I believe you will be exempt from this rule during the next seven weeks. You will be able to speak with lucid candor about your feelings—maybe more so than you've been able to in a long time. And that will serve you well as you take advantage of the opportunity that life is offering you: to deepen, clarify, and refine your intimate relationships.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author bell hooks (who didn't capitalize her name) expressed advice I recommend for you. She said, "Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape." As you enter a phase of potential renewal for your close relationships, you'll be wise to deepen your commitment to self-sufficiency and self-care. You might be amazed at how profoundly that enriches intimacy. Here are two more helpful gems from bell hooks: "You can never love anybody if you are unable to love yourself" and "Do not expect to receive the love from someone else you do not give yourself."

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In April 2005, a 64-year-old Korean woman named Cha Sa-soon made her first attempt to get her driver's license. She failed. In fairness to her, the written test wasn't easy. It required an understanding of car maintenance. After that initial flop, she returned to take the test five days a week for three years—and was always unsuccessful. She persevered, however. Five years later, she passed the test and received her license. It was her 960th try. Let's make her your role model for the foreseeable future. I doubt you'll have to persist as long as she did, but you'll be wise to cultivate maximum doggedness and diligence.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the eighth century, Chinese poet Du Fu gave a batch of freshly written poems to his friend and colleague, the poet Li Bai. "Thank you for letting me read your new poems," Li Bai later wrote to Du Fu. "It was like being alive twice." I foresee you enjoying a comparable grace period in the coming weeks, Pisces: a time when your joie de vivre could be double its usual intensity. How should you respond to this gift from the Fates? Get twice as much work done? Start work on a future masterpiece? Become a beacon of inspiration to everyone you encounter? Sure, if that's what you want to do. And you could also simply enjoy every detail of your daily rhythm with supreme, sublime delight.