TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Happy Valentine Daze, Taurus! During this lover’s holiday, I encourage you to devote yourself full-time to acting like a person who’s in love. Even if you’re not currently in the throes of passion for a special someone, pretend you are. Everywhere you go, exude that charismatic blend of shell-shocked contentment and blissful turmoil that comes over you when you’re infatuated. Let everyone you meet soak up the delicious wisdom you exude. Dispense frrreee blessings and extra slack like a rich saint high on natural endorphins. (I assure you that this assignment is in perfect accord with the astrological omens.)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In his book *Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships,* psychotherapist John Welwood writes, “Psychological work focuses more on what has gone wrong: how we have been wounded in our relations with others and how to go about addressing that. Spiritual work focuses more on what is intrinsically right: how we have infinite resources at the core of our nature that we can cultivate in order to live more expansively. If psychological work thins the clouds, spiritual work invokes the sun.” In my opinion, Taurus, both approaches are useful, depending on the season of your life. For the foreseeable future, though, spiritual work should be your emphasis.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your web of allies is a crucial part of your pursuit of happiness. The stimulation and support you ask them for are vivid evidence that you love life and have a strong sense of what’s good for you. Every now and then, however, you need to remember that it’s important to avoid falling completely under their influence. You’ve got to resist peer pressure, and declare your independence from the crowd’s power to shape you. Now is such a time, Taurus.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Should we attribute any oracular significance to the fact that hundreds of flowers bloomed on a cherry tree in Brooklyn during the first week of winter? Is it a portentous marvel akin to, say, the births of three white buffalos on a farm in Janesville, Wisconsin? (The odds of a single white buffalo are a million to one.) I don’t know for sure, Taurus, but my meditations do suggest that the Brooklyn miracle is an apt metaphor for a scenario you’ll soon be experiencing: an early ripening of a possibility that you had assumed wouldn’t be ready or available for quite some time.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive and more constructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.” So said Dr. Frank Barron, a pioneer in the psychology of creativity. I believe that describes you pretty well right now, Taurus–even if you don’t usually think of yourself as creative or artistic. The astrological omens suggest that you’ve got more lust for life than any other sign of the zodiac; you’re in an intimate alignment with the throbbing hum of the Divine Wow. Please remember how important it is to be discerning about where you direct that much energy! Don’t waste it on trivial pleasures or goals that are unworthy of you. You now have the power to change things you thought you could never change in a thousand years.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It’s possible you’ll live for 150 years. Scientific studies on how to outwit the aging process are generating increasingly compelling data, and so is psychospiritual research into the attitudes and emotions that encourage longevity. The coming year will be prime time for you to make yourself aware of these explorations, and to adjust your lifestyle accordingly. Here are two places to start your investigation: (1) the article “I’m Going to Live Forever” at http://tinyurl.com/6w4wh; (2) the book *Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever,* by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman at http://tinyurl.com/nv35y.