Free Will Astrology - Week of December 23, 2021

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may become a more audacious storyteller in
2022. You could ripen your ability to express the core truths about your
life with entertaining narratives. Bonus: The experiences that come your way
will provide raw material for you to become even more interesting than you
already are. Now study these words by storyteller Ruth Sawyer: “To be a good
storyteller, one must be gloriously alive. It is not possible to kindle
fresh fires from burned-out embers. The best of the traditional storytellers
are those who live close to the heart of things—to the earth, sea, wind, and
weather. They have known solitude, silence. They have been given unbroken
time in which to feel deeply, to reach constantly for understanding.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author May Sarton wrote a poem celebrating
her maturation into the person she had always dreamed she would be. “Now I
become myself,” she exulted. “It’s taken time, many years and places; I have
been dissolved and shaken, have worn other people’s faces.” But at last, she
said, “All fuses together now, falls into place from wish to action, word to
silence. My work, my love, my time, my face: gathered into one intense
gesture of growing like a plant.” I invite you to adopt Sarton’s poem as a
primary source of inspiration in 2022. Make it your guide as you, too,
become fully and richly yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2012, the writer Gore Vidal died the day after
Gemini writer Maeve Binchy passed away. They were both famous, though Bincy
sold more books than Vidal. Vidal was interesting but problematic for me. He
was fond of saying that it wasn’t enough for him to succeed; he wanted
others to fail. The misery of his fellow humans intensified his satisfaction
about his own accomplishments. On the other hand, Binchy had a generous wish
that everyone would be a success. She felt her magnificence was magnified by
others’ magnificence. In 2022, it will be vital for your physical and mental
health to cultivate Binchy’s perspective, not Vidal’s. To the degree that
you celebrate and enhance the fortunes of others, your own fortunes will
thrive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian political leader Nelson Mandela was
wrongly incarcerated for 27 years. After his release, he became President of
South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize. About leaving jail in 1990, he
wrote, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my
freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still
be in prison.” Although you haven’t suffered deprivation anywhere close to
what Mandela did, I’m happy to report that 2022 will bring you liberations
from limiting situations. Please adopt Mandela’s approach as you make
creative use of your new freedom.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): French poet André Breton wrote, “Je vous souhaite
d’être follement aimée.” In English, those words can be rendered as “My wish
is that you may be loved to the point of madness” or “I wish you to be loved
madly.” That’s got a romantic ring to it, but it’s actually a curse. Why
would we want to be loved to the point of madness? A person who “loved” you
like that might be fun for a while, but would ultimately become a terrible
inconvenience and ongoing disruption. So, dear Leo, I won’t wish that you
will be loved to the point of madness in 2022—even though I think the coming
months will be an interesting and educational time for amour. Instead, I
will wish you something more manageable and enjoyable: that you will be
loved with respect, sensitivity, care, and intelligence.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Many people in our culture are smart
intellectually, but not very smart emotionally. The wisdom of feelings is
undervalued. I protest! One of my great crusades is to champion this
neglected source of insight. I am counting on you to be my ally in 2022.
Why? Because according to my reading of the astrological omens, you have the
potential to ripen your emotional intelligence in the coming months. Do you
have ideas about how to take full advantage of this lucky opportunity?
Here’s a tip: Whenever you have a decision to make, tune in to what your
body and heart tell you as well as to what your mind advises.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said that a sense
of meaning is crucial. It’s the key gratification that sustains people
through the years: the feeling that their life has a meaning and that
particular experiences have meaning. I suggest you make this your theme for
2022. The question “Are you happy?” will be a subset of the more inclusive
question, “Are you pursuing a destiny that feels meaningful to you?” Here’s
the other big question: “If what you’re doing doesn’t feel meaningful, what
are you going to do about it?”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio guitarist Rowland S. Howard spoke of “the
grand occasions when love really does turn into something far greater than
you had ever dreamed of, something auto-luminescent.” Judging from the
astrological configurations in 2022, I have strong hopes and expectations
that you will experience prolonged periods when love will fit that
description. For best results, resolve to become more generous and ingenious
in expressing love than you have ever been.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I’ve been trying to go home my whole life,”
writes poet Chelsea Dingman. I know some of you Sagittarians resist the urge
to do that. It’s possible you avoid seeking a true and complete home. You
may think of the whole world as your home, or you may regard a lot of
different places as your homes. And you’d prefer not to narrow down the
feeling and concept of “home” to one location or building or community.
Whether or not you are one of those kinds of Centaurs, I suspect that 2022
will bring you unexpected new understandings of home—and maybe even give you
the sense that you have finally arrived in your ultimate sanctuary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): To ensure that 2022 will bring you the most
interesting and useful kind of progress, take good care of your key
friendships and alliances, even as you seek out excellent new friendships
and alliances. For best results, heed these thoughts from author Hanya
Yanagihara: “Find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not
cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then
appreciate them for what they can teach you, and listen to them when they
tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sometime during the Northern Song Dynasty that
ruled China from 960 to 1127, an artisan made a white ceramic bowl five
inches in diameter. About a thousand years later, a family in New York
bought it at a garage sale for $3. It sat on a mantel in their home for a
few years until they got a hunch to have it evaluated by an art collector. A
short time later, the bowl was sold at an auction for $2.2 million. I’m not
saying that 2022 will bring a financial event as dramatic as that one. But I
do expect that your luck with money will be at a peak.

®Copyright 2021 Rob Breszny