ARIES (March 21–April 19): Consumer Reports says that from 1975 to 2008, the average number of products for sale in a supermarket rose from about 9,000 to nearly 47,000. The glut is holding steady. Years ago, you selected from among three or four brands of soup and shampoo. Nowadays, you may be faced with 20 varieties of each. I suspect that 2019 will bring a comparable expansion in some of your life choices, Aries—especially when you’re deciding what to do with your future and who your allies should be. This could be both a problem and a blessing. For best results, opt for choices that have all three of these qualities: fun, usefulness, and meaningfulness.
TAURUS (April 20–May 20): People have been trying to convert ordinary metals into gold since at least AD 300. At that time, an Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos of Panopolis unsuccessfully mixed sulfur and mercury in the hope of performing such magic. Fourteen centuries later, English scientist Isaac Newton also failed in his efforts to produce gold from cheap metal. But now let’s fast-forward to 20th-century chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, a distinguished researcher who won a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1951. He and his team did an experiment with bismuth, an element that’s immediately adjacent to lead on the periodical table. By using a particle accelerator, they literally transmuted a small quantity of bismuth into gold. I propose that we make this your teaching story for 2019. May it inspire you to seek transformations that have never before been possible.