ARIES (March 21-April 19)

In its quest for nectar, a hummingbird sips from a thousand flowers every day. As it flaps its wings 70 times a second, zipping from meal to meal, it can fly sideways, backward or forward. It remembers every flower it visits, and knows how long it will take before each flower will produce a new batch of nectar. Now take everything I’ve just said, and use it as a metaphor for who you can be in the coming week.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

In 1947, the impossibly wealthy Duke of Windsor went shopping in Paris to buy a gift for his wife. She already had everything, so he got creative. He commissioned a black leather wheelbarrow. I am not urging you to acquire something like that for yourself. But I do like it as a symbol for what you need in your life right now: a blend of elegance and usefulness, of playful beauty and practical value, of artistry and hard work.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

Your brain absorbs about 11 million pieces of information every second, but is consciously aware of less than .001 percent of all that richness. Having analyzed your astrological omens, I suspect that you might soon jack that figure up as high as .01 percent! I’m pretty confident. I suspect you won’t become a bug-eyed maniac freaking out on the intensity, but rather will be a soulful, wonder-filled explorer in love with the intensity.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

You have a strong, intricate understanding of where you have come from. Until the day you die many years from now, your history will keep evolving. And yet, at this particular moment in your destiny, I think your most important task is to focus on where you are going to. That’s why I urge you to temporarily forget everything you think you know about your past and instead concentrate on getting excited about the future.

LEO (July 23-August 22)

In 1928, at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, a family of ducks swam directly across Bobby Pearce’s path. He stopped to let them pass. Yet he ultimately won the race. I foresee a comparable sequence in your life. Being thoughtful and expressing compassion may seem to slow you down, but in the end that won’t hinder you from achieving your goal—and may even help.

VIRGO (August 23- September 22)

In one of her “Twenty-One Love Poems,” Adrienne Rich talks about her old self in the third person. “The woman who cherished/her suffering is dead. I am her descendant./I love the scar tissue she handed on to me,/but I want to go from here with you/fighting the temptation to make a career of pain.” You will have an excellent opportunity to declare your independence from an affliction you’ve been addicted to.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

“You should be interviewing roses not people,” says a character in Anne Carson’s book Autobiography of Red. That’s sound poetic advice for you in the coming days. You will benefit from being receptive to and learning from non-human sources. I’m not saying you should ignore the revelations offered by people. But your emphasis should be on gathering wisdom from life forces that don’t communicate with words.

SCORPIO (October 23- November 21)

William Shockley was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who has been called “the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley.” On the other hand, Shockley became a controversial advocate of eugenics, which led many to consider him a racist. I suspect that you will have to deal with at least one Shockley-type phenomenon in the coming weeks. Will you overlook the bad stuff in order to take advantage of the good? Should you?

SAGITTARIUS (November 22- December 21)

Herman Melville wrote that in order to create art, “unlike things must meet and mate.” Like what? “Sad patience” and “joyous energies,” for example. “Instinct and study” are crucial ingredients, as well as humility and pride, audacity and reverence. Based on my interpretation of the astrological omens, I believe you will soon need to meld opposites like these as you shape that supreme work of art—your life.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)

Haggis is a Scottish pudding. To make it, you gather the lungs, liver, small intestine and heart of a sheep, put all of that stuff inside the stomach of the sheep along with oatmeal, onions, salt and suet, and then simmer the whole mess for three hours. I’m guessing that your work in the coming week may have a certain metaphorical resemblance to making haggis. The process could a bit icky, but the result should be pretty tasty.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)

Charlie Chaplin once took part in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. He didn’t come close to winning. But I think you would have a different fate if you entered a comparable competition in the coming weeks. Maybe more than ever before, you are completely yourself. You look like your true self, you feel like your true self, and you are acting like your true self. Congratulations! It’s hard work to be so authentic.

PISCES (February 19-March 20)

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease,” said French philosopher François-Marie Voltaire. You definitely need to be cured, although the “disease” you are suffering from is primarily psychospiritual. Your task will be to flood yourself with fun adventures, engaging stories and playtime diversions so that nature can heal you without the interference of your worries and kibitzing.