Pregnant women sometimes have unusual cravings. From the fourth to sixth month of her daughter’s gestation period, for example, my friend Marta was on occasion beset by the longing to eat toothpaste. I’ve known other women who fantasized about nibbling on mud, coffee grounds, and chalk. Fortunately, they all resisted the urge, which is what health practitioners recommend. Instead they tried to figure out if their bodies were trying to tell them about some legitimate deficiency of vitamins or minerals. I offer this to you as a metaphor to keep in mind. As your own special creation ripens, you may experience odd desires. Don’t necessarily take them at face value.

Well darn, I was hoping to eat chalk.  Or have sex.  I dunno.  Guess I don’t get to give in to the urge…

Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) witnessed the full range of experiences that life on this planet has to offer, from war to love and everything in between. During an interview he gave in Jerusalem in 1994, he said, “I can stand on my balcony and tell my children, ‘Over there I was shelled for the first time, and over there, to the right, just beneath those trees, I was kissed for the first time.'” I suspect his words will soon be meaningful for you, Cancerian. It’s likely you’ll have a breakthrough or epiphany near a place where you once suffered disappointment. Halloween costume suggestion: the phoenix.

Well, since I’m loving my job right now, great people, seriously nice boss, a truly good human being she is, 30 hours a week suits me but it’s barely enough to get things done, and since it’s so close to a place where I had the absolute shittiest boss in the world, well perhaps I’m having the breakthrough already.  But I prefer to think that perhaps I’m soon to find love because that certainly qualifies and I’ve been doing that magical work too.  Abundance abounds.  But hey, I’ll settle for liking going to work.  I can deal with that.  It’s a novel concept for me.

Soup is your metaphor for the week, Cancerian. Symbolically speaking, it’s the key to your personal power and a model for the approach you should take in everything you do. On the most basic level, you might want to eat some soup every day. That will make potent suggestions to your subconscious mind about how to mix lots of ingredients together so that their value and beauty as a totality are more than the sum of their parts. Not just in the kitchen, but in every area of your life, blend many little miscellaneous things into one big interesting thing.

Working on it, working on it.

I’m happy you’re getting back to fundamentals and shedding pretensions and nourishing your roots, but I also want to make sure that you don’t get too funky and lowdown. I’d hate to have to be hoisting you up out of the gutter next week, or counseling you on how to cover for the fact that you’ve compromised your own highest standards. So please resist any temptations you might feel to descend toward the lowest common denominator, Cancerian. As you deepen your center of gravity, make sure you keep your attitude elevated.

Doing my best man, doing my best.

Better late than never…

As I gaze out the window of my home office, I see a vast wetland crossed by a creek that originates in the bay. At high tide, the creek is as wide as a river. At low tide, it’s as narrow as a village street. Sometimes it flows north vigorously, while at other times it surges south with equal force. Now and then it’s perfectly still. Its hues are a constantly mutating blend of grey, green, blue, and brown, and at sundown and sunrise they’re joined by tinges of pink, purple, and orange. As a Cancerian, I find this intimate spectacle to be both comforting and invigorating. It’s a reflection of my own ever-shifting moods, a reminder that I’m a watery creature whose fluidic changeability is natural and healthy. What I wish for you, my fellow Crab, is that in the coming week you will also surround yourself with prompts that help you to be at peace with who you really are.

I *LOVE* this.  He nails it so often it’s almost uncanny.

PEACE…