Free Will Astrology

�ARIES (March 21-April 19): I'm afraid I had to name you "Underachiever of the Month" for September, Aries. You didn't quite succeed at wrestling your frustrations into submission, though you had the power to do so. You also failed to cash in on much of the great potential you had for smashing injustice, exposing fakery, and toppling the rotting status quo. That's the bad news. The good news is that some of your missed opportunities will become available again in the coming week. Make up for lost time, please.

�TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I predict that in 2013, the United Nations will designate a 52,000-square-mile area in Canada's far north to be the world's dumping ground. By then global warming will have melted much of the ice that currently makes it problematical to access that area by sea, allowing a steady stream of ships to deliver loads of garbage from every country on the planet. I'm not saying this is a good thing; I'm just reporting the facts as I foresee them. But I'd also like to propose that you use this idea as a metaphor in dealing with your own psychic waste. What if you had a certain place and a regular time where you could ritually dispose of it? Let's say you'd go to there every Saturday at 10 a.m. After a short meditation, you'd take out a piece of paper, scribble down everything that's making you sick and crazy, then burn it or bury it or rip it to shreds. Try it.

�GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If you've ever dreamed of being a flamenco dancer or lion trainer or midwife when you grow up, now's a perfect time to make a big push in that direction. The astrological omens suggest the universe is more favorably inclined toward your wilder fantasies than it has been in a long time. At the very least, Gemini, revisit thrilling schemes that at some time in the past you dismissed as impossible. They may not be quite so absurd anymore.

�CANCER (June 21-July 22): I predict that in the future, palm-size "emotional control" machines will be available. With a flick of a switch, people suffering from unwanted feelings will use the device to beam an electromagnetic pulse at their brains, erasing the offending emotion and arousing a sense of well-being. Unfortunately, I don't foresee this new technology being ready until 2020. Fortunately, you can teach yourself how to do the same trick using only your own willpower. And it so happens that you're currently in a phase when you can go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): My friend Gail told me about her harrowing journey on a purple bus through small towns in Guatemala. "We needed three drivers," she said. "One to handle the steering wheel, one to constantly wipe off the windshield when it rained, and one to lean out the door and yell at pedestrians to get out of the way." This reminds me of the challenge you have ahead of you, Leo. A single guide won't be enough as you wend your way through serpentine but scenic complications. Nor will one cook or one planner or one choreographer. To succeed, you've got to have multiple directors who are skilled at coordinating their efforts. Keep control freaks out of the loop.

�VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In his "MuseLetter," Richard Heinberg writes that Jesus "taught renunciation of ephemeral desires, fearless and carefree public behavior, and contempt for riches." This happens to be a precise prescription for those of you who hope to put yourself in maximum alignment with cosmic rhythms in the coming week. I suggest you suspend your pursuit of the relatively trivial goals that soak up an inordinate amount of your attention, and instead intensify your devotion to your single most important reason for living. This should help you lose your unnecessary inhibitions. It should also free you from any delusions you might have that greed is normal or that you need more than enough of anything.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Many people who live in countries steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition look down on voodoo, considering it a mishmash of superstition and sorcery. But in her book Vodou Visions, Sallie Ann Glassman argues that Vodou (the preferred spelling among its practitioners) is an authentic religious tradition worthy of respect. She does acknowledge that some of its beliefs may seem odd to polite society. For instance, Vodou's calm, gentle, sweet spirits are not always forces for good, while some of its hot, turbulent, revolutionary spirits are not necessarily bad. Be open to the possibility that there'll be similar principles at work in your life in the coming week, Libra— whether or not you have any connection to Vodou.