Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter April 21, 2010

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
APRIL 21, 2010
FreeWillAstrology.com

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There's another release from the soundtrack for my book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA. You may have heard it before, but it's got a new page with a link that makes it easy to download and that includes the lyrics and credits.

It's called "This Is a Perfect Moment."
You can access it here: bit.ly/ThisIsaPerfectMoment

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Main website: FreeWillAstrology.com
Expanded Audio Horoscopes: RealAstrology.com
Facebook fan page: bit.ly/BrezFB
Sign up for the RSS feed: bit.ly/AstroRSS

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The revised and expanded version of my book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia

and also at Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells

Here's an excerpt:

LETTERS TO THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB, Part 1

We who are devoted to pronoia created the Beauty and Truth Lab and not the Beauty and Truth Think Tank because we want to put our ideas to the test in the field -- to apply them in unpredictable situations beyond our control and see whether they're useful to people who aren't necessarily steeped in the mystique of pronoia.

One way we've gone about that is to encourage the public to testify and ask questions about their practical experiences with pronoia. Below is Part 1 of a collection of exchanges that have unfolded since we began discussing pronoiac themes on the BeautyandTruth.com website and in the weekly astrology newsletter.

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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: I'm a very analytical person, with a doctorate in nuclear physics and a high-tech job. All my training and business savvy tell me that Rob Brezsny's astrology column is superstitious mumbo jumbo, yet every time I've faced a crisis in the last 10 years, his horoscopes have provided accurate wisdom and counsel when things seemed darkest.

The same is true about the book Pronoia. The scientist in me knows that you Beauty and Truth Lab people are utopian nutcases. It's absolutely demented to regard the universe as friendly and to fantasize that there's some vast, invisible conspiracy of blessing-bestowers. And yet I have to confess that whenever I try the pronoiac strategies you describe, my life veers in the direction of synchronicity and delight.

On the one hand, none of this makes any sense. On the other hand, I don't care that it doesn't make any sense. Somehow I'm able to draw sustenance from something whose power I don't understand or even believe in. In any case, thank you! - Humble Genius

DEAR HUMBLE GENIUS: You've described a quality that we aspire to in our efforts to cultivate pronoia: the ability to be helped by powers that are beyond our understanding.

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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: Does pronoia make you feel like you're falling in love? Not just with a person but with life itself? And can that be scary? Is it possible that you might feel a chord of gorgeous terror resound in your gut when you entertain the thought that every person and even every animal and plant and rock in the world is ganging up to make your life interesting -- almost more brilliantly interesting than you can bear? Does pronoia threaten to cause all perceptions, all sensations, all interactions to verge on being orgasmic?

I've been heading in this direction lately and it's freaking me out. Can extreme happiness be dangerous to my well-being? - Butchtastic

DEAR BUTCHTASTIC: First thing we'll say is that while pronoia inevitably feeds the soul, it doesn't necessarily further the agendas of the ego. The anxiety that's welling up may be the result of your old self-image clinging to the shrunken expectations it had gotten used to thinking of as essential to its identity.

The second thing is that when people invite pronoia to take over their perceptual filters, they often feel as if they're falling in love with a Scary Yet Friendly Vastness that kicks their butts until they wake up to the secret beauty they've been ignoring.

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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: I'm battling mixed emotions. On the one hand, I have frequent surges of intense compassion that make me want to build houses for poor folks. On the other hand, I'm beset by flashes of vanity that make me want to spend my money on Prada shoes and expensive jewelry rather than on trips to Third World countries to help Habitat for Humanity. Is it crazy and self-defeating to want both things? - Torn and Guilty

DEAR TORN AND GUILTY: Try honoring both your urge to express beauty and your desire to aid your fellow humans. We have a vision of you wearing a gold tiara and Prada's Sculpted d'Orsay pumps as you wield your hammer, framing a wall for a new house in Haiti.

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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: In your book Pronoia, you say, 'The universe always gives us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.' I have a different view. I often find that I disagree with what the Universe decides is best for me. But that usually turns out to be a good thing. It's fun for me to always be arguing with God! I learn a lot and generate a lot of high energy from trying to outmaneuver the divine will. What do you think about that? - Cagey Dissident

DEAR CAGEY: Congratulations! You are the thousandth dissident to testify that pronoia is not, in fact, the One Truth and the Only Way -- thereby proving to our satisfaction that we have successfully prevented our beloved Beauty and Truth Lab from being a shill for a fundamentalist ideology. Please accept our most fantastic thanks. Your prize will be on its way to you soon!

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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: The chemo treatments burned out all the math skills in my brain, which were already pretty meager. On the other hand, they awakened my ability to feel perfectly at ease while in the midst of paradoxical situations that everyone else finds maddening and uncomfortable.

The chemo also made me ridiculously tolerant of people's contradictions, sometimes even their hypocrisies, and freed me to enjoy life as an entertaining movie with lots of interesting plot twists rather than as a pitched battle between everything I like and everything I don't like. I guess I could say that my cancer helped turn me into a pronoiac! - The Chaos Artist Formerly Known as Risa Kline

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TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE "LETTERS TO THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB"

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO ABANDON YOUR LIFE IN ORDER TO GET HAPPY
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
tinyurl.com/yd5573l

NON-FAMOUS PEOPLE ARE CONSPIRING TO HELP OTHER NON-FAMOUS PEOPLE
"How to Fix Everything"
The Fixers' Collective gets together every Thursday night in Brooklyn to mend things.
tinyurl.com/yfawu4r

SOMETIMES EVEN CAPITALISM CARES
The book about the company that guarantees its workers jobs for life.
tinyurl.com/yzh2q4j

A compendium of these pronoia resources
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 April 22

Copyright 2010 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Yes, I know that the bull is your totem animal. But I'm hoping you're willing to expand your repertoire, because it's a ripe time for you to take on some of the attitudes of the king of beasts. Consider this. The naturalist and shaman Virginia Carper notes that lions have strong personalities but cooperate well. They're powerful as individuals but engage in constructive group dynamics. In many cultures, they have been symbols of nobility, dignity, and spiritual prowess. To adopt the lion as a protective guardian spirit builds one's ability to know and hunt down exactly what one wants. Would you like more courage? Visualize your lion self.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In 2011, I may do a tour of North America, performing my show "Sacred Uproar." But for the foreseeable future I need to shut up and listen. I've got to make myself available to learn fresh truths I don't even realize I need to know. So, yeah, next year I might be ready to express the extroverted side of my personality in a celebration of self-expression. But for now I have a sacred duty to forget everything I supposedly believe in and gratefully shuck my self-importance. By the way, Gemini, everything I just described would be a good approach for you to consider taking in the next three weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Is it true what they say -- that you can never have too many friends? If you don't think so, it's a good time to re-evaluate your position. And if you do agree, then you should go out and get busy. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you're likely to be extra lucky in attracting new connections and deepening existing alliances in the coming weeks. The friendships you strike up are likely to be unusually stimulating and especially productive. To take maximum advantage of the favorable cosmic rhythms, do whatever you can to spruce up your inner beauty.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

I have compiled a set of four affirmations that I think will keep you on the right track in the coming weeks. Try saying them at least twice a day. 1. "I am cultivating Relaxed Alertness, because that will make me receptive to high-quality clues about how to proceed." 2. "I am expressing Casual Perfectionism, because that way I will thoroughly enjoy being excellent, and not stress about it." 3. "I am full of Diligent Indifference, working hard out of love for the work and not being attached to the outcome." 4. "I am practicing Serene Debauchery, because if I'm not manically obsessed with looking for opportunities to cut loose, those opportunities will present themselves to me with grace and frequency."

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

The Great Wall of China is the largest human construction in the world, stretching for almost 3,900 miles. But contrary to legend, it is not visible from the moon. According to most astronauts, the Wall isn't even visible from low Earth orbit. Keep this in mind as you carry out your assignment in the coming week, Virgo. First, imagine that your biggest obstacle is the size of the Great Wall of China. Second, imagine yourself soaring so high above it, so thoroughly beyond it, that it disappears. If performed regularly, I think this exercise will give you a new power to deal with your own personal Great Wall of China.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

In the early 1990s, actors Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were engaged to be married. In honor of their love, Depp got a tattoo that read "Winona Forever." After the relationship fell apart, though, he had it altered to "Wino Forever." If you're faced with a comparable need to change a tattoo or shift your emphasis or transform a message anytime soon, Libra, I suggest putting a more positive and upbeat spin on it -- something akin to "Winner Forever."

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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED HOROSCOPE

In addition to the horoscopes 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.

"I don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the way of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio horoscopes."
- A. Arrosto, Indianapolis

"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself. Thanks for the gentle shocks."
- T. Preneris, Toronto

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

In the Bering Strait, Russia and America are 2.5 miles apart. The International Date Line runs through the gap, meaning that it's always a day later on the Russian side than it is on the American. I suggest you identify a metaphorically similar place in your own life, Scorpio: a zone where two wildly different influences almost touch. According to my reading of the omens, it's an excellent time for you to foster more interaction and harmony between them.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

I have a group of colleagues who half-jokingly, half-sincerely refer to themselves as the Shamanic Hackers of Karmic Justice. The joking part of it is that the title is so over-the-top ostentatious that it keeps them from taking themselves too seriously. The sincere part is that they really do engage in shamanic work designed to help free their clients from complications generated by old mistakes. Since you're entering the season of adjustment and atonement, I asked them to do some corrective intervention in your behalf. They agreed, with one provision: that you aid and abet their work by doing what you can to liberate yourself from the consequences of wrong turns you made in the past.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

The Weekly World News reported that a blues singer sued his psychiatrist for turning him into a more cheerful person. Gloomy Gus Johnson claimed he was so thoroughly cured of his depression that he could no longer perform his dismal tales with mournful sincerity. His popularity declined as he lost fans who had become attached to his despondent persona. I suspect you may soon be arriving at a similar crossroads, Capricorn. Through the intervention of uplifting influences and outbreaks of benevolence, you will find it harder to cultivate a cynical attitude. Are you prepared to accept the consequences that may come from being deprived of some of your reasons to moan and groan?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Educational specialist Dr. Howard Gardner believes I.Q. tests evaluate only a fraction of human intelligence. He describes eight different kinds of astuteness. They include the traditional measures -- being good at math and language -- as well as six others: being smart about music, the body, other people, one's own inner state, nature, and spatiality. (More here: bit.ly/Shrewd.) I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because you're entering a phase when you could dramatically enhance your intelligence about your own inner state. Take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to know yourself much, much better.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

South Carolina now requires subversive people to register with the state if they have the stated intention of overthrowing the government of the United States. I have no such goal, so I remain free to operate unlicensed in South Carolina. I am, however, participating in a movement to overthrow reality -- or rather, the sour and crippled mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality." This crusade requires no guns or political agitation, but is instead waged by the forces of the liberated imagination using words, music, and images to counteract those who paralyze and deaden the imagination. I invite you to join us. You're entering a phase when you may feel an almost ecstatic longing to free yourself from the delusions that constitute the fake "reality."

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"Although obstacles and difficulties frighten ordinary people," wrote French painter Théodore Géricault, "they are the necessary food of genius. They cause it to mature, and raise it up . . . All that obstructs the path of genius inspires a state of feverish agitation, upsetting and overturning those obstacles, and producing masterpieces." I'd like to make this idea one of your guiding principles, Aries. In order for it to serve you well, however, you'll have to believe that there is a sense in which you do have some genius within you. It's not necessarily something that will make you rich, famous, popular, or powerful. For example, you may have a genius at washing dogs or giving thoughtful gifts or doing yoga when you're sad. Whatever your unique brilliance consists of, the challenges just ahead will be highly useful in helping it grow.

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HOMEWORK:

Listen to a welcoming message from the Beauty and Truth Lab: bit.ly/TruthLab. Then tell us what you want more than anything else: Truthrooster@gmail.com.

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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 2010 Rob Brezsny

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