VIRGO (Aug 23-Sep 22): “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing,” said motivational author Dale Carnegie. Those should be your words to live by for the rest of 2006. It’s time for you to become almost ruthless in your intention to enjoy yourself as you carry out your life’s work. I’m tempted to go so far as to say that you should disentangle yourself from any commitment in which duty overshadows pleasure. Your drive to do good deeds and be of use to people will ultimately fall short unless you love what you do.

LEO (Jul 23-Aug 22): “Raising kids is like making pancakes,” muses Brian Copeland in his show Not a Genuine Black Man. “You always mess up the first one.” A similar idea might apply to a certain multi-pronged project you’ve been working on, Leo. I’m not saying you should abandon or throw away your initial effort. On the contrary, like rookie parents whose inexperience has slightly tweaked their first-born, you should be thorough in trying to undo your mistakes.

LEO (Jul 23-Aug 22): Travel writer Bruce Chatwin walked around Australia as he researched and meditated on the indigenous people’s beliefs about what the land was like in the ancient past. He wrote: “Aboriginal creation myths tell of the legendary totemic beings who wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path--birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes—and so singing the world into existence.” Given the fact that you’re now primed to create a new domain or two, Leo, may I suggest the aborigines’ approach?

CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): Are there influences that render you numb or even dumb? What experiences tend to shut you down? When you’re gliding along in your natural rhythm, are you sometimes interrupted by blips that make you feel lost and unresponsive? According to my reading of the astrological omens, Cancerian, you now have extra power to fight back against these little outbreaks of black magic. It’s a perfect moment to get the upper hand on anything that closes you off from the world or locks you away from your own intuition.

CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): A literature professor told me an amazing fact: Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems can be sung to the tune of the traditional folk song “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” (Try it with the poem that begins “The soul should always stand ajar,” which you can read at http://snipurl.com/sjrh.

CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): This will be an excellent time—maybe one of the best weeks ever—to try herding cats, coaxing hermits to do karaoke, and getting anorexics to eat veggie burgers with all the fixings. In other words, Cancerian, the once-inconceivable may become likely. The adventures you swore you would never have the courage to attempt are suddenly within your capacity. You can at least partially dissolve the one fear you’ve always believed would hobble you forever.

CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): In 1982 I moved into a new home in Santa Cruz. It was just a funky old cottage that had once been a barn, but I was ecstatic to have it. As I opened the front door to begin my first day there, a violet-crowned hummingbird bolted inside in front of me, stayed for a few minutes, then departed. I regarded its visit as a phenomenally good omen, and it turned out to be just that. During my years in that house, I wrote my first book, recorded my first music album, fell in love with the woman I married, and conceived my daughter.

CANCER (Jun 21-Jul 22): Since it’s my birthday this week, I decided to take a break from business as usual. That’s why I outsourced the writing of our Cancerian horoscope to an astrologer in Bangladesh, Farhana Rasel. Here’s what she came up with: It is an auspicious time to use the good will you have accumulated through your generous deeds. You should ask for favors from people who have enjoyed your favors, and coast along on the currents of the good karma you have set in motion.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20): Every year the National Grocers Association stages its own version of the Oscars. Among the honors it bestows is an award for Best Bagger. It goes to the person who displays the most élan while efficiently and speedily filling grocery bags with buyers’ purchases. The social status accorded the winner may pale in comparison to, say, Hollywood’s best film actress or baseball’s most valuable player, but personally I’m just as impressed with it.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20): In her book Strange New Species: Astonishing Discoveries of Life on Planet Earth, Elin Kelsey writes that though scientists have named 1.7 million species, at least 3.3 million others are still out there, as yet unidentified. In a similar way, Gemini, there are many invigorating adventures and intoxicating truths that you have not yet discovered—countless life experiences that remain unknown to you. It so happens that this is a perfect time to jumpstart your pioneering urges and go out exploring those frontiers.