Making a New Year’s Resolution – Should the Stars Be Our Guide?

If you are anything like I am, you probably like to check your horoscope. There is something irresistible about learning what the stars have in store for us on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. Many people invest time, money, and energy in studying their signs and following the “advice” that comes from the heavens (as interpreted by astrologists with varying degrees of acuity).

I have often read my horoscope and felt it was sort of universal enough to cover the bases; however, there have been times that there has been such synchronicity between my life at the moment and the words I read that forced me to think that it was more than mere coincidence. I have researched more in depth horoscopes for people I know very well, and many times it seems more than the coincidental in how accurate the description was of their personalities and behavior.

So I have been passively checking my horoscope for years, but today felt different. On the cusp of a new year, I wanted my horoscope to mean something even before I read it. In the past year I have dealt with major changes in my life, and also came to terms with the loss of loved ones (some of the residual pain going way back before 2014).

Contemplating where I want to be not just in 2015 but for the rest of my life, I opened the page and was confronted with this:

Like all of us, Vic, you are mixed up in the events that surround you. The collective movements of the planets right now have the strength of a huge animal. Our individual forces are powerless against it. Just relax, and make an effort to let your life take its course. Imagine yourself drifting downstream, letting the current take you where you are meant to go. You will avoid much tension this way. Besides, the water is cool and refreshing…

I was completely unprepared for those words; furthermore, and most surprisingly, I felt totally receptive to every syllable. I am usually extremely practical, but now I was being drawn into what seemed a very attractive but highly impossible notion. Should I forget everything and follow the lead found in my end of the year horoscope?

I think my receptivity had much to do with the way I was feeling at the moment. There is always a bit of sadness on New Year’s Eve, leaving behind all that we could or could not do, remembering those lost, those beyond our help, and those who didn’t want it. Yet there is also that glimmer of hope that the new year will be better, be different, and bring joys unexpected or fathomed at midnight on December 31st.

Reading this horoscope made me think of wars, of plane crashes (and planes lost and not found as well), of Ebola and other diseases, violence in the streets in all countries, abuse of animals all over the world, the staggering volume of people suffering from poverty and hunger, and the continuing world-wide war against women, including those living right here in America – no matter how many glass ceilings are said to be shattered. All of this coalesces into the “huge animal” mentioned in the horoscope that seems like coming upon a bear in the woods, when all you have to defend yourself is a camera and a backpack. There is an ominous feeling to the thought of powerlessness, to being unable change anything no matter how wrong it is.

But the rest of the horoscope appealed to me, and the idea to “let your life take its course” seemed profound in its simplicity. Instead of always trying to steer the boat, wouldn’t it be infinitely more enjoyable to let “the current take you where you are meant to go”?

I took a deep breath and exhaled after reading this. It reminded me of the song “Let It Go” from the Disney film Frozen. My daughter exuberantly embraces this song when she plays it on the piano and sings, and I have often sat and listened to her and enjoyed it, but now I realized that the appeal of the song is the lyrics and the concept of not caring about what everyone else says to do – letting go allows you to avoid the wrong turns, the supposedly essential possibilities, and the hard stops. It is a frightening thing for us to allow the flow to take us freely away, but in the end we are not steering by the stars but just letting them bring us where we need to be.

This is, I suppose, my new year’s resolution – or a semblance of one. I really don’t like making resolutions because they are usually broken too soon or, upon reflection, are seen as impulsive and irrational. This one has a chance though, if I can be strong enough to believe in the universe as knowing much more than I do about what is best for me.

I don’t know what you year ending horoscope says, but I hope you find something in it that will help guide you as you turn the page to 2015. Happy New Year to all and to all a healthy and successful 2015!

Photo Credits: wallpaper-kid.com, Disney.com, hottytoddy.com

 

 

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