August 13

Who you are

You take a long time over things that other people would call finished, and you are almost never precious about it. What you cannot tolerate is work done carelessly by somebody who could have done it well, and that intolerance shows on your face before you have decided whether to say anything about it. Most people read the face correctly and act accordingly.

You teach what you know without holding pieces back, on the theory that anything kept secret dies with the person hoarding it. You also want your own work seen, and there is no shame in that at all. What you are still learning, in your forties or your sixties, is the difference between wanting witnesses and needing them.

Your gifts

• Heat without haste. You sustain intense effort far longer than people expect, because you learned early that hurrying ruins the result.
• Nearly right is not right. You notice when something is close and refuse to call it done, which is why your work has warmth in it.
• Generous teaching. You give away what you know freely, since anything kept secret dies with whoever is hoarding it.

Your shadow

Your standards, left unsupervised, become a running verdict on everybody near you, and people feel judged before you have said a word. You can also mistake attention for confirmation, producing more and more in order to hear the same praise. When the praise thins out you go cold rather than curious, and stop working entirely while you wait to be asked.

Your soul work

Make something because the world is better with it in, not because it buys you a place. Do the work nobody asked for and give it away. The day you manage that without keeping score is the day your standards start serving somebody other than your pride.

Days you get along with

Your sign

The fifth sign carries the sun itself: warmth, performance, and generous fire, with the lifelong lesson of learning to shine without needing the mirror.

Someone else

Look up another birthday

Check a friend's day, or your partner's, and send it to them.