TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “I am in continuous pursuit of the color red,” says artist Andy Goldsworthy, whose specialty is creating large outdoor sculptures made of natural objects. “As I approach the source of the color red, the more I understand it.” That’s why he’s so fond of red rocks, whose hue comes from iron, the same element that makes our blood red. Your next assignment, Taurus, is to develop a more intimate and expansive relationship with red. Color therapists say that it inspires vigor, zeal, determination, and primordial longing. But don’t just let the experts define your connection with red. Find your own meanings, too.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Lately, it’s as if you’ve been riding a roller coaster on which you’re forbidden to scream. It’s as if you’ve been trying to suppress your laughter as you watch a series of the funniest stand-up comedians on the planet. It’s like you’ve been ordered to sit stiffly in a chair and keep your feet motionless while your favorite band plays the dance music you love best. I hope you won’t put up with this predicament any longer, Taurus. Either scream, laugh, and dance, or else escape any situation that’s keeping you clamped down.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): For a limited time only, you have cosmic permission to suck your thumb and drool freely and murmur “gaga” over and over again. More than that: You have a poetic license to spend expansive periods rocking back and forth while curled into the fetal position, either under the covers or on the beach, while singing little made-up songs about everything you love. The moment has arrived, in other words, to give yourself permission to melt into a pool of primal goo as you commune with the music of the spheres and tune in to the hymn of your deepest longings.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination,” wrote Anaïs Nin. “Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.” I share Nin’s perspective, Taurus; I know from experience how maddeningly slow the truth-gathering process can be. But I’m pleased to inform you that you’re in a phase when missing puzzle pieces will become available at a faster rate than usual. Be alert for the subtle onslaught.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’m drinking a toast to my grade-school teachers, five of whom were stern spinsters in their 50s and 60s. I may not have esteemed them when we were together those seven hours a day, 180 days a year; I may have been alternately bored and alienated by their nagging me to learn. But from my current vantage point, I’m ripe with gratitude: pleased with my ability to wield the English language and do the arithmetic my business requires and hold in my imagination a clear vision of the planet’s geography. Those maestros taught me well, and I’m in awe of their tireless efforts. Now I suggest you do something similar to what I just did, Taurus. Feel a flood of thanks for the helpers and teachers from your past (even the inadvertent ones) whom you have never appreciated sufficiently.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the coming week, I doubt you’ll misplace your keys or forget to set your alarm clock or spill soup on your shirt. While shopping, you’ll be intuitive about picking the checkout line that moves fastest. If you take a plane somewhere, your luggage will show up promptly in the baggage claim area. In other words, Taurus, the little things in life will go well for you, reducing your wasted time and inconvenience to near zero. May I suggest that you respond to this grace period not by cramming in more busy work, but by giving yourself regular opportunities to enjoy the luxury of taking deep breaths and gazing at the big picture?