Arrowed!

I don't believe in Astrology, but I feel compelled to read my horoscope every day. Like a tick. I can't help it.

(Isn't it funny that even with all the newspapers going to hell, they STILL maintain the Horoscopes? When the final days of print arrive, there will be riots in the streets as readers are deprived of prophesy.)

For someone who claims not to believe in all that hocus pocus, I sure do know an awful lot about it. (I also know how to read Tarot cards - I can even read playing cards in a pinch.) It must be one of those things you pick up in college that never leaves. At orientation, we are thrust into the deep end, parent-free, and all of a sudden there are questions to be asked about who we are, why we are, and what our place is in the expanse of the universe. Smokey, late night conversations give way to the discussions of birthdays, signs, the occult, religion, philosophy. Experiments happen. What winds up working as a means to make sense of the world usually sticks.

Not eschew the belief in Astrology as a whole but, like anything (a personality test, a horoscope, a remembered conversation), we will perceive a reflection of whatever it is we want. Of course, I see elements of myself mirrored in my Astrological position.

Is it a total coincidence that every other Sagittarius I've met is similarly addle brained?

Years ago, I used to read Free Will Astrology in the Reader. What I liked about it was that it had less to do with prediction and divination and more to do with offering a varied perspective on the world.

This morning, I came across this scrap of paper - yellowed and almost clothlike - cut from the Reader's Free Will Astrology. I have a hazy recollection of snipping it from the paper. Whether or not you believe in this sort of thing...it's still kind of cool to come upon. I must have cut it out for a reason:

"I'm going to suggest an 'as-if' exercise, [Insert Sign Here]. It's meant to take place entirely in your mind's eye and most definitely NOT to be acted out, at least not yet. Here's my proposal: spend four days imagining what your life might be like if you decided you were no longer saving yourself for a mythical 'later'. See yourself doing exactly what you long to do most, passionately carrying out the mission you came to Earth to accomplish. During your brief sabbatical, you will banish all excuses about why you can't possibly follow your bliss. "