Week of June 3, 2005

GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20): Twenty-nine-year-old Gemini actor Colin Farrell recently reached out to an older woman – a much older woman. While working on the film “Ask the Dust,” he made a prolonged attempt to seduce one of his co-stars, Dame Eileen Atkins, who was 69 at the time. Though she was flattered, she turned him down. In the coming week, Gemini, ­I urge you to try a more elevated version of Farrell’s quest. Seek intimate contact with an influence that will bless you with the sexy powers of age, wisdom, and experience.
CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): The state of New Hampshire’s symbol used to be the Old Man of the Mountain. Carved from rock by a glacier 30,000 years ago, it was a series of granite ledges that jutted out of a mountain in the shape of an old man’s face. It was a top tourist attraction, and its image appeared on numerous state souvenirs. But in May 2003, it collapsed overnight, weakened by millennia of freezing and thawing. According to my reading of the astrological omens, Cancer, this event has resemblances to an imminent disintegration in your own life. Like the original, your experience might be sad, but mostly for nostalgic reasons. No one will get hurt, and ultimately you’ll feel exhilarated as you pick a new symbol to inspire you.
LEO (Jul 23-Aug 22): Can you name 10 different beer brands but none of the 10 Commandments? That’s one of 25 signs that you will ultimately go to hell, according to divinity professor Jacob Pinewood, quoted in the “Weekly World News.” Here are other behaviors that may cause you eternal damnation: using the F word more than once a day; coveting your neighbor’s household appliances; watching five consecutive hours of TV; invoking the Lord’s name in vain when you stub your toe; and mentally undressing any person who would be bad for you to get naked with. Luckily for you, Leo, you’re now in an astrological phase when engaging in the above actions will “not” earn you a trip to the infernal regions. That’s because you’re in an unprecedented grace period when you have slack to burn. If I were you, though, I’d use my karmic credit more constructively than simply getting away with naughty things.
VIRGO (Aug 23-Sep 22): Janael Lee is a math teacher who suffers from muscular dystrophy and moves around with the aid of a scooter. Last January she was named Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin, and began to work as an advocate for disabled people. A few months later, however, officials stripped her of her crown after a newspaper photo showed her standing up, which she does now and then for brief periods. “We can’t have title holders out there walking when they’re seen in public,” the officials said. I believe you will soon experience a comparable demotion, Virgo. Maybe you used to be suited for a certain role that has cast you as an underdog, but you’re too strong and healthy for that now.
LIBRA (Sep 23-Oct 22): “Consistency is a highly overrated virtue,” wrote William Falk in “The Week.” “I’m not ashamed to admit I no longer believe half of what I was sure of 10 years ago. You make mistakes, you get new information, you change your mind along the way. It’s a natural process.” I urge you to write out the preceding statement and tape it to your mirror or phone for the next seven days. You’re in an astrological phase when you have everything to gain from changing your mind in 100 different ways. I dare you to see what life is like when it’s not filtered through your familiar opinions and theories.
SCORPIO (Oct 23-Nov 21): Last February, three people got lost while riding their mountain bikes in California’s San Bernardino National Forest. Luckily, they were rescued by emergency workers before any harm came to them. But the next day they returned to the woods to look for their bikes and got lost a second time. Again, help arrived in time, and they were escorted to safety. Don’t be like them in the coming days, Scorpio. You’re allowed to wander off-course and get saved once, but don’t make the same mistake twice.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22-Dec 21): Sometimes the best gift you can give your ego is to tell it you’re not going to be its slave anymore. You say to it, “I’m tired of being whipped around by every one of your ever-shifting little needs, and I’m sick of having to kowtow to your inexhaustible demands, and I want to be free of your insatiable craving to be appreciated, recognized, and adored. Go away and leave me alone. I’m just going to be who I am without worrying about you at all.” Delivering this message often has a radically healing effect. Your ego gets shocked into a state of humility, and you get to do what your soul has been longing to do. Ironically, this often results in you creating changes that make your ego very happy.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan 19): A maintenance worker at a restaurant in Queensland, Australia took the lazy way out when he found a dead rat while painting the floor red. Rather than disposing of it, he simply covered it with a few thick strokes of his brush. During a subsequent inspection, however, health inspectors weren’t fooled by the partial camouflage and levied large fines on the restaurant. You may soon be tempted to try something similar to what the maintenance worker did, Capricorn. I urge you not to. Don’t just try to disguise what’s stinking up the place; get rid of it.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20-Feb 18): I live pretty simply, and often have an allergic reaction in the presence of people who have their own jets, travel with personal servants and style consultants, drink wildly expensive champagne, and vacation in palatial spas on private islands. Having said that, I am duty-bound to report that you now have an astrological mandate to indulge in as much extravagant pleasure as you can afford. Your watchword for the week comes from Frank Lloyd Wright: “Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.”
PISCES (Feb 19-Mar 20): I invite you to try an exercise in creative pretending. Ready? In all the ways you can imagine, stop thinking that you’re outside, and instead visualize yourself as inside. In other words, suppress your tendency to fantasize the good stuff is out of reach and hard to get. Picture yourself as being right in the midst of it. End your sense of exile and come all the way in to the heart of every matter. If you do this meditation 10 minutes a day for the next seven days, by this time next week the world will already be changing to match the vision you’ve been building.
ARIES (Mar 21-Apr 19): Maybe all you really need right now is a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s quite possible that if you savor a well-made version of that earthy delicacy, the things that are off-kilter in your life will get smooth and fresh again. I’m not kidding, Aries. The adjustment that will help you get back on track is likely to be minor – if not a grilled cheese sandwich, then maybe a haircut or a new bedspread or a five-minute conversation that corrects a misimpression. That reminds me of another secret I want to tell you: Small actions can have big impacts.
TAURUS (Apr 20-May 20): The only work that will have lasting value in the coming week is work you do in the spirit of fun. If you approach any task with nothing more than a desire to get it over with, it will ultimately be useless. If you perform a good deed merely out of a sense of duty, it won’t bestow any of its intended benefits. These directions apply to the effort you put into your relationship, hobby, or art as well as to your actions on the job. Success depends on you playing hard with your spontaneity fully engaged.