Happy birthday (June 23): Your cosmic birthday gift is a kind of magic pen: Any writing tool you pick up will solidify your written wishes in your mind and life. As you nurture existing relationships, your social circle will grow to include, among others, contacts who will help you thrive professionally and/or financially.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): At first glance, it would seem you're in a mood to take a chance, go for the big spoils. Upon further assessment, this isn't a mood at all. It's an orientation built to last.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The complexity of a relationship will baffle you. Each nuance has meaning split open and reflecting an opposite meaning, like light refracted through crystals, dazzling and disorienting. The conquest is the surrender.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21): What you seek is inside yourself, but if you can't see it and don't know what it is, so what if you happen to be carrying it around? To recognize the internal quality, you need the external pursuit. Vision requires light from the outside.
CANCER (June 22-July 22): You'll construct your plan like any master builder, one brick at a time until it's complete. It's a comfort knowing tomorrow you'll be living in the fruit of today's effort. Can you also enjoy the labor?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The sort of work required will be deep and concentrated. It won't pair well with shallow, vain pursuits. It will be impossible to do this work in a place of distraction, which every place is now, unless you silence your phone.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): There is an uncoordinated quality to the day's unfolding, to the point where you might even call it a mess. Lovely things are born of messes, though, and in fact, messiness is just a fact of birth.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23): Groups are tricky. Shop around to find the right one. A good fit would be a place in which the spirit with which the endeavor is approached harmonizes with the endeavor itself.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): You have patience with those who seem to need to puff themselves up, posture and jockey for position. Fame and power are what people go for before they understand what they really crave, which is a union with their own soul.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The difficulties will clear up in stages. Get interested instead of frustrated. The more curious you are about how things work, the more they will reveal themselves to you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Constructive daydreaming is a joy and the most productive way to spend your creativity, as long as you keep track of where you've traveled on this journey of imagination.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Roses have thorns. Chocolate is a bitter bean. Classic love stories involve the longing of lovers who, for some reason, can't unite. Strip the thorns; add sugar; remove the obstacle. Viva capability!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You want enough order in your environment to allow for unobstructed movement to achievable aims. But don't expect or even strive for things to be perfect. Too much order is uninspiring and strangely demotivating. Strike a balance.
COSMIC COURSE CORRECTION
Aspiration is a long, steady haul, and rewards don’t start showing until you’ve laid plenty of track. This is why addiction, with its quick hits of pleasure (followed by a long, steady declination), can so easily slot into the place of aspiration — a dangerous switcheroo. The Jupiter aspect and Mars opposition to Pluto favor a course correction.
COSMICALLY CURIOUS ABOUT … SELF-PARENTING (PART THREE)
Adulting is essentially a journey toward becoming the ideal parent of yourself. For Taurus, the biggest self-parenting challenge centers around issues of willfulness. Taurus is gifted with tremendous tenacity and determination. The flip side of that talent is stubbornness and sometimes obsessive tendencies. Ever tried to move a 2,000-pound bull? Once a Taurus decides on something, he or she will dig in the heels, and there is no amount of force that can move Taurus from the decision.
Effective parenting of willful children involves helping the child want to do the right things, and this is the same with Taurus self-parenting. The successful Taurus will recognize his or her own tremendous willfulness and then, instead of fighting it, find ways of coaxing things along. Taking baby steps in the right direction will work. Rewards systems will work. Sometime distractions are a huge help.
For a Taurus, to oppose oneself is futile, as they have something akin to “oppositional defiance disorder,” regardless of who the boss is. Also, note that behavioral breakthroughs rarely come from a frustrated mind. If you’re a Taurus and you’ve come to an impasse with getting yourself to adopt the desired behavior, try walking away from the problem for a while. Progress will be born of a gentle, playful approach.
CELEBRITY PROFILES
Born on the cusp of Gemini and Cancer, Frances McDormand has astral influences in both signs. Mercury, her communication planet, is expressed in the versatile sign of the twins. Her sun in soulful Cancer emphasizes nurturing instincts and perhaps psychic ability. Next up, the role of a lifetime, Lady Macbeth in, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”