Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter September 23, 2009

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
FreeWillAstrology.com

The revised and expanded version of my book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is now available. You can order it here:

Amazon: tinyurl.com/lxpnyt

Barnes and Noble: tinyurl.com/kkadtb

Here's my report:

For my next big writing project, I might have chosen to write a sequel to Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia, the book I first published in 2005. But instead I opted to fatten up that first edition.

And it was a pretty massive fattening. The inspiration kicked in really hard in June of 2008, and by the time I finished the manuscript in July 2009, I had stuffed more than 55% brand new extra material into the original text -- the size of a whole new book.

So the revised and expanded version of PRONOIA is richer, meatier, and more concentrated. It's lusher and plusher, having benefited from the personal adventures that ramped up my understanding of pronoia these last few years, as well as from all the mojo that my readers blessed me with as they told me about their experiences with pronoia.

The wilder and riskier new edition of PRONOIA has 17 totally new pieces. It also has amplified and intensified versions of many of the central pieces of the original book, including "This Is a Perfect Moment," "Glory in the Highest," "World Kiss," and "I Me Wed," the ceremony for you to use if you want to marry yourself.

I got especially pumped up and carried away while revising "Glory in the Highest," which is a manifesto celebrating the everyday miracles we take for granted, the uncanny powers we possess, the small joys that occur so routinely we forget how much they mean to us, and the steady flow of benefits bestowed on us by people we know and don't know. In the new edition of the book, this piece is eight times longer than it was in the first edition.

The new edition of PRONOIA also has 14 brand new Sacred Advertisements. Don't worry -- if you're new to Pronoia -- the Sacred Ads aren't real ads. Here's an example:

"This perfect moment is brought to you by the imaginary lightning bolts you can shoot out the ends of your fingers anytime you want to."

Like the 2005 edition, the revised and expanded PRONOIA has an abundance of space for you to write and scrawl and draw your responses to what you read. It's designed to make you my collaborator as we conspire together to incite the Great Awakening.

Enjoy my new creation. It makes me very happy to offer it to you!

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Check out my new Facebook page: tinyurl.com/nkay2n

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"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
- Buckminster Fuller

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE SUN?
Sun of gOd: Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness That Underlies Everything by Gregory Sams
What if the sun is a conscious, living organism?
tinyurl.com/obv4po
tinyurl.com/rcbszn

JUST ASSUME THAT BETTER COMMUNICATION IS MORE POSSIBLE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE
Initiating a Conversation
tinyurl.com/lmpnhb

THE UNIVERSE IS SHOCKINGLY BEAUTIFUL
Photos done by the Hubble Telescope
tinyurl.com/oau4yz

THE PROOF KEEPS BUILDING: THE GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE
Check out the compendium of all the pronoia resources I compile in this newsletter.
pronoiaresources.com

(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They are not advertisements, and I get no kickbacks.)

Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning September 24

Copyright 2009 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

This is an excellent time to celebrate the pleasures of emptiness . . . to extol the virtues of the blank slate . . . to be open to endless possibilities but committed to none . . . to bask in the freedom of not having to be anything, anyone, or anywhere. Are you smart enough to need no motto to live by? Are you resourceful enough to rely on nothing but the raw truth of the present moment? If so, you will thrive in the coming days.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

During the dialog about health care in the U.S., certain highly relevant facts are never discussed. For example, it's ludicrous for right-wingers to fear that a government-run health system would freshly infect our capitalist system with the stain of socialism. The truth is, America has long had the biggest socialist enterprise in the world: its sprawling military establishment, which is completely paid for by taxpayer dollars and run by the government! Another unacknowledged fact in the dialog about health care is this: The single smartest strategy for financing a new health care system (as well as dramatically improving the economy as a whole) would be to reduce military expenditures. Americans don't seem to realize that their monstrously huge military empire is a case of supreme overkill: It girdles the globe in ways that are unprecedented in the history of civilization. We have 761 military sites in over 100 countries! I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, to illustrate the way that a seemingly serious discussion can be thrown off course and rendered unproductive when it ignores critical information. Please make sure nothing like that happens in your personal sphere in the coming weeks.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

In the coming weeks, your medicinal effect and your power to incite change will be peaking simultaneously. You may heal people by shaking their certainties or you may scare people as you motivate them to shed their lazy approaches. You could be a stringently benevolent force or a disruptive fixer of broken things. My only advice for you is to work hard to stay humble. The potency of your influence might tempt you to get full of yourself, and that would undermine the beauty of your impact.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

I'm embarrassed to confess that when I'm shopping for an herbal supplement I've never bought before, my choice is unduly influenced by how much I like the packaging. For example, I might opt for the brassy orange and white bottle with bold black lettering over the brand with the washed-out blue-green color scheme and delicate purple font. I hope you won't fall victim to any version of my folly, Capricorn. It's especially important that you make your decisions based on a piercing analysis of the inner contents, not a superficial survey of the outer display.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Study the following facts to derive oracular clues about your upcoming destiny. 1) Some bacteria are inimical to human beings, but others are friendly, like the creatures that inhabit your intestine and help you digest the food you eat. 2) There are snakes whose venom is poisonous in large doses but healing in small amounts. 3) The term "demon" is derived from the ancient Greek term "daimon," which referred not to an evil supernatural being but to a benevolent guardian spirit that conferred blessings on a person.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

On the website "Yahoo! Answers," readers pose questions that are answered by other readers who have expertise on the subject. In a recent entry, a young woman asked, "Is there a spell to become a mermaid that actually works?" Of the 50+ replies, most are snarky and mean, ridiculing the asker of the question, and not a single one gives useful information. I encourage you to offer your own insight on the subject sometime soon. (Go to tinyurl.com/mdclt4) You are now at the peak of your ability to act, think, feel, love, and dream like a mythical sea creature.

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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED HOROSCOPE

In addition to the horoscopes that you're reading here, I create more in-depth audio horoscopes for your inspiration. Find out more at RealAstrology.com.

The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

"Your Expanded Audio Horoscopes provide me with the Rest of the Story. I'm not necessarily a believer in the scientific accuracy of astrology, but I do think you've got a lot of practical wisdom to impart."
- M. Tennenbaum, New York

"No one knows more about me than me. But you're right up there near the top of the list of people who do understand something about how I tick. How is that possible?"
- R. Goren, Albuquerque

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ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Jonathan Lee Riches is renowned for filing numerous lawsuits in U.S courts. Some of his targets are actual living people, like Martha Stewart, George W. Bush, and Steve Jobs. But he has also gone after defendants like Nostradamus, Che Guevara, the Eiffel Tower, the ex-planet Pluto, the Holy Grail, the Appalachian Trail, and the Garden of Eden. This would be a good time for you to draw inspiration from his example. I don't mean that you should become a litigious fanatic, but rather that you should seek redress and vindication from those people, places, and things that have not had your highest interests in mind. This could take the form of a humorous message, a compassionate prank, or an odd gift. Remember, too, that old saying: Success is the best revenge.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

This would be an excellent time for you to learn how to brew your own beer (tinyurl.com/zteca) or build your own telescope (tinyurl.com/2yert5) or teach yourself how to operate a forklift (tinyurl.com/lgoyk5). Your ability to master practical new skills is at a peak, and your need to develop more self-reliance is more pressing than usual. Once you raise your confidence levels, you might even move on to more challenging tasks, like concocting your own home-made flu shot (tinyurl.com/kmchwx) or reconfiguring the way your brain works (tinyurl.com/lxhuap or tinyurl.com/ns5vhv).

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Novelist James Patterson has signed a deal with a publisher to churn out 17 new books between now and the end of 2012. (By comparison, it took me six years to write my first book, nine years to write my second, and five years for my third.) According to my reading of the astrological omens, you Geminis will have James Patterson-like levels of fecundity for at least the next four weeks. I suggest you employ that good mojo to create a masterpiece or two.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

As I gaze out the window of my home office, I see a vast wetland crossed by a creek that originates in the bay. At high tide, the creek is as wide as a river. At low tide, it's as narrow as a village street. Sometimes it flows north vigorously, while at other times it surges south with equal force. Now and then it's perfectly still. Its hues are a constantly mutating blend of grey, green, blue, and brown, and at sundown and sunrise they're joined by tinges of pink, purple, and orange. As a Cancerian, I find this intimate spectacle to be both comforting and invigorating. It's a reflection of my own ever-shifting moods, a reminder that I'm a watery creature whose fluidic changeability is natural and healthy. What I wish for you, my fellow Crab, is that in the coming week you will also surround yourself with prompts that help you to be at peace with who you really are.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

What exactly is a "wild goose chase," anyway? Does it refer to a frenetic and futile hunt for an elusive prey that's never caught? Or might it also mean the meandering pursuit of a tricky quarry that after many convoluted twists and turns results in success and generates a lot of educational fun along the way? Either definition could apply to your wild goose chase in the next three weeks, Leo. Which one will ultimately win out will probably depend on two things: 1. how well you detect the false leads you get; 2. how determined you are to be amused rather than frustrated by all the twists and turns.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Your time is up, Virgo. No further stalling will be allowed. We need your answer now: Will you or will you not take advantage of the messy but useful offer that is on the table? Don't ask for an extension, because you ain't getting one. Please take advantage of this chance to prove that you love yourself too much to get hoodwinked and abused by perfectionism. Be brave enough to declare your allegiance to the perspective articulated by the mathematician Henri Poincaré: "There are no solved problems. There are only more-or-less solved problems."

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HOMEWORK:

Take a guess about what your closest ally most needs to learn in order to be happier. Testify by going to FreeWillAstrology.com and clicking on "Email Rob."

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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?

I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my astrological colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely matches my own. In our many discussions about astrology over the years, we've had a major influence on each other's work.

Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and a high degree of technical proficiency in horoscope interpretation; she is skilled at exploring the mysteries of your life's purpose and nurturing your connection with your own inner wisdom.

Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.

Ro's website is at YourSoulJourney.com

She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net

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Submissions sent to the Free Will Astrology Weekly Newsletter or in response to "homework assignments" may be published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion, including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve the right to edit such submissions for length, style, and content. Requests for anonymity will be honored with submissions; otherwise, reader names, screen names, or initials will be used. Please be sure to note your preference when sending to us. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.

Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2009 Rob Brezsny

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