Free Will Astrology: Week of December 22nd | East Bay Express
Aries (March 21-April 19): You may become a bolder storyteller in 2022. You may develop your ability to express the core truth of your life through entertaining narratives. Bonus: The experiences that come your way will give you the ingredients to become even more interesting than you already are. Now read these words of the storyteller Ruth Sawyer: “To be a good storyteller, one must be gloriously alive.” A fresh fire cannot be started from burnt embers. The best of traditional storytellers are those who live close to the essence of things – earth, sea, wind and weather. They have known solitude, silence. They have been given uninterrupted time to feel deeply, to constantly seek understanding.”
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author May Sarton wrote a poem to celebrate her growth into the person she had always dreamed she would be. “Now I’ll be myself,” she cheered. “It has taken time, many years and places; I have been dissolved and shaken, have borne the faces of others.” But finally she said, “Everything is coming together now, falling into place from wish to action, word to silence. My work, my love, my time, my face: gathered in one intense gesture to grow like a plant. I invite you to embrace Sarton’s poetry as your primary source of inspiration in 2022. Make it your guiding light as you too become fully and richly yourself.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2012, author Gore Vidal died the day after Gemini author Maeve Binchy died. They were both famous, although Bincy sold more books than Vidal. Vidal was interesting but difficult for me. He liked to say that it was not enough for him to succeed; he wanted others to respond. The misery of his fellow travelers increased his satisfaction at his own achievements. Binchy, on the other hand, had a generous wish for everyone to succeed. She felt that her elegance was amplified by the elegance of others. In 2022, cultivating Binchy’s perspective, not Vidal’s, will be critical to your physical and mental health. To the extent that you celebrate and enhance the fortunes of others, your own fortune will prosper.
Cancer (June 21-July 22): Nelson Mandela, the political leader of cancer patients, was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years. After his release, he became the president of South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize. On leaving prison in 1990, he wrote, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I would still be in prison.” Although you have not experienced deprivation anywhere near what Mandela did, I am happy to report that 2022 will bring you liberation from limiting circumstances. Please adopt Mandela’s approach as you make creative use of your new freedom.
LEO (July 23-August 22): The French poet André Breton wrote: “Je vous souhaite d’être follement aimée. In English, these words can be interpreted as “My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness” or “I wish that you may be loved madly”. It has a romantic ring to it, but it’s actually a curse. Why would we want to be loved to the point of madness? Someone who “loved” you like that might be fun for a while, but would end up being a terrible nuisance and a constant distraction. So, dear Leo, I don’t want to wish you madly in love in 2022 – even though I think the coming months will be an interesting and enlightening time for love. Instead, I will wish you something more manageable and pleasant: 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 emotions is underrated. I protest! One of my great crusades is to champion this neglected insight. I count on you to be my ally in 2022. Why? Because according to my astrology reading, you have the potential to develop your emotional intelligence in the coming months. Do you have ideas on how to make the most of this lucky opportunity? Here’s a tip: Whenever you have to make a decision, tune in to what your body and heart are telling you, as well as what your mind is telling you.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said that a sense of meaning is crucial. It is the key satisfaction that sustains people over the years: the sense that their lives have meaning and that certain experiences have meaning. I suggest you make this your theme for 2022. The question: “Are you happy?” will be part of the more inclusive question: “Are you pursuing a destiny that you feel is meaningful?” Here’s the 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 wonderful moments when love really turns into something much more than you ever dreamed of, something self-luminous.” Based on the astrological alignments of 2022, I have strong hopes and expectations that you will experience a prolonged period where love fits that description. For the best results, decide to become more generous and smarter about expressing love than you have ever been.
BODGI (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I’ve been trying to go home all my life,” writes poet Chelsea Dingman. I know some of you Sagittarians resist the urge to do that. It is possible that you avoid looking for a real and perfect home. You may think of the whole world as your home, or you may think of many different places as your home. And you prefer not to narrow the feeling and concept of “home” to one place or building or community. Whether you’re one of those Centaurs or not, I suspect that 2022 will bring you a surprising new understanding of home—and even give you the feeling that you’ve finally arrived at your perfect sanctuary.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): To ensure that 2022 will bring you the most interesting and beneficial progress, think carefully about your key friendships and alliances, even as you look for great new friendships and alliances. For best results, listen to these thoughts of author Hanya Yanagihara: “Find people who are better than you—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder and more generous and forgiving—and then thank 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 that was 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 the mantelpiece in their home for a few years until they had the idea to have it appraised by an art collector. Shortly after, the bowl was sold at auction for $2.2 million. I am not saying that 2022 will bring a financial event as spectacular as this one. But I guess your luck with money will be at its peak.
PISCES (February 19-March 20): In the Quechuan language spoken in parts of Peru, the word takanakuy means “when the blood is boiling”. Every year at this time, the community of Chumbivilcas stages a holiday called Takanakuy. People gather in the city center to fight each other, settle their differences so they can forget them and start anew. If my friend and I have had a personal conflict in the previous year, we would punch and kick each other – but not too hard – until we had purged our anger and resentment. The table between us would be clean. Is there a humorous version of this ritual you could perform that wouldn’t involve mild punches and kicks? I suggest you dream alone!
Homework: A year from today, what do you want to be congratulating yourself on? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com