ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Qing Dynasty controlled China from the mid-17th century to the early 20th century. It was the fifth-biggest empire in world history. But eventually it faded, as all mighty regimes do. Revolution came in 1911, forcing the last emperor to abdicate and giving birth to the Republic of China. I’m inclined to think of your life in 2019 as having some similarities to that transition. It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another—a changing of the guard and a passing of the torch. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to be very active in deciding and visualizing the empire you want next.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I hope that sometime soon you’ll acquire a new source of support or inspiration. Now is a phase of your astrological cycle when you’re likely to attract influences that are in alignment with your deep values. This addition might be a person or animal. It could be a vibrant symbol or useful tool. It may even be a fantasy character or departed ancestor that will stimulate vitality you haven’t been able to summon on your own. Be on the lookout for this enhancement.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Poet David Hinton analyzed the Chinese word for “poetry.” Its etymological meaning is “words spoken at the fertility altar.” Let’s make that your theme, even if you don’t write or read poetry. I suspect the coming weeks will be a favorable time to take a vow or utter a solemn intention in front of a homemade fertility altar. The oath you speak might express a desire to boost your use of your physical vitality: your lust for life, your adoration of the natural world or your power to produce new human life. Or your vow to foster your fertility could be more metaphorical and symbolic in nature: the imaginative intimacy you will explore or the creativity you’ll express in future works of art or the generous effects you want to have on the world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne, who wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. He said there are two ways to navigate through life. Either you “take a bearing on something in the future and steer towards it, or take a bearing on something in the past and steer away from it.” So in his view, “There are those who look ahead and pull and those who look behind and push.” I’m hoping that in the coming weeks and months, you will make a delighted commitment to the first option: taking a bearing on something in the future and steering toward it. I think that approach will inspire you toward the most interesting success.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The national insect is the ladybug, and the national instrument is a stringed instrument known as the kantele. As for the national author, it’s Aleksis Kivi, who produced just one novel that took him 10 years to write. He also published a short collection of odes and a few plays, adding up to a grand total of less than 800 pages of work. I think that the efforts you make in the coming weeks could have a disproportionately large impact as well, Leo. What you lack in quantity will be irrelevant compared to the sheer quality you generate.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I follow the blogger Evanescent Voyager because she makes me cry with sad joy and exultant poignance on a regular basis. One of her other fans wrote her a love note I could have written myself. It said, “Your emotional brilliance and thoughtful passion break me into pieces and then weave me back together with more coherence than I had before reading you. I revere your alchemical talent for undoing me so you can heal me; for lowering my defenses so I can be open to your riches; for demolishing my habitual trance so you can awaken my sleeping genius.” I believe that in the coming weeks, life itself will offer to perform these same services for you, Virgo. I urge you to accept!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Love is no assignment for cowards.” That’s a quote attributed to the ancient Roman poet Ovid. What did he mean? Was he foreshadowing the wisdom of pop singer Pat Benatar, who in 1983 told us, “Love is a battlefield?” Was Ovid implying that to succeed in the amorous arts we must be heroic warriors prepared to overcome fears and risk psychological dangers? Probably. But I will also point out that it takes as much courage to create fun, interesting togetherness as it does to wrestle with the problems that togetherness brings. You need just as much bravura and panache to explore the sweet mysteries of intimacy as you do to explore the achy mysteries of intimacy. Keep these thoughts in mind as you marshal your audacity to deepen and expand your best relationships in the coming weeks.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The literal meaning of the French term jolie-laide is “pretty and ugly.” Bloggers at wordsnquotes.com define it as follows: “It’s a fascinating quirkiness that’s irresistible, like a face you want to keep looking at even if you can’t decide whether it is beautiful or not.” Jolie-laide overlaps with the Japanese term wabi-sabi, which describes a person or thing that is lovely because of its imperfection and incompleteness. I bring these facts to your attention because I think you have extraordinary potential to be a master embodier of both jolie-laide and wabi-sabi in the coming weeks.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): As Czech playwright Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) matured, he became a political dissident who opposed the Soviet Union’s authoritarian grip on his country. Eventually he was a key player in the Velvet Revolution that banished communism. When Czechoslovakia emerged as a new democracy, its people elected him president. Havel later thanked Lou Reed and the band the Velvet Underground for fully awakening his liberationist leadership. He said their unruly music stoked his longing to establish a culture where total creative freedom was possible. I mention this, Sagittarius, because now is a favorable time to identify the music or art or films or literature that might fuel your emancipation in the coming months.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author J. R. R. Tolkien toiled on his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings for 12 years. Once he finished, it wasn’t published for more than five years. So 17 years passed between the time he launched his precious project and the time when it reached an audience. I don’t think you will need that much patience in shepherding your own venture to full expression, Capricorn. But I hope you’ll summon as much faith in yourself as Tolkien had to rouse in himself. To do so will bring out the best in you!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Released in 1998, The Prince of Egypt is an animated film that tells the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses. In the climactic event, the hero uses magic to part the waters of the Red Sea, allowing his people to run across the seafloor and escape the army that’s chasing them. To make that seven-minute scene, 28 professional animators labored for 318,000 hours. In the coming months, you could create your own version of that marvel, Aquarius. But you’ll need a team to help you, and that team is not yet ready to go. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to get it ready, though.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean businessman Steve Jobs testified that taking LSD was “one of the two or three most important things” he ever did in his life. It opened his mind in ways he felt were crucial to his development. What are the three most important things you’ve ever done, Pisces? I invite you to revisit at least one of them, and see if you can take it to the next step of its power to inspire you. What if it has even more to offer you in your efforts to become the person you want to be?

Homework: What other sign would you want to be if you could take a vacation from your actual sign? Why? Write freewillastrology.com.