Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter July 14, 2010

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
JULY 14, 2010
FreeWillAstrology.com

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What is Pronoia: bit.ly/WhatisPronoia

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There's a new release from the soundtrack for my book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA.

It's called "Break the Law"
You can access it here: bit.ly/BreaktheLaw

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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:

TWISTY HEALING STORIES WITH A PRONOIAC THEME
(For more stories, go here: bit.ly/TwistyHealing)

Story #1
CONVERSATION WITH ETERNITY

Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Firenze Matisse traveled to Antarctica. On the first day, the guide took him and his group to a remote area and left them alone for an hour to commune with the pristine air and unearthly stillness.

After a while, a penguin ambled up and launched into a ceremonial display of squawks and stretches.

Firenze responded with recitals of his favorite memorized poems, imagining he was "engaged in a conversation with eternity." Halfway through his inspired performance of Thich Nhat Hanh's "Please Call Me by My True Names," the penguin sent a stream of green projectile vomit cascading against his chest, and shuffled away.

Though Firenze initially felt deflated by eternity's surprise, no harm was done. He soon came to see it as a first-class cosmic joke, and looked forward to exploiting its value as an amusing story with which to regale his friends back home.

Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Michael Logan was the first person to hear Firenze's tale upon his return from Antarctica. "You might want to consider this, Firenze," Michael mused after taking it all in. "Penguins nurture their offspring by chewing food -- mixing it up with all God's enzymes -- and then vomiting it into the mouths of the penguin babies. Perhaps you weren't the butt of a cosmic joke or some Linda Blair-esque bad review, but in fact the recipient of a very precious gift of love. Who knows?"

Now Firenze has two punch lines for his tale of redemptive pronoia.

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Story #2
FLIP-FLOP THE TRAUMATIC IMPRINT

Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Artemisia had just begun menstruating, and was suffering from debilitating cramps. Massive doses of ibuprofen were not relieving the distress, so she went to her regular acupuncturist, Dr. Lily Ming, to get relief.

Dr. Ming had Artemisia lie down on the table and proceeded to insert 10 needles in her belly and hand and ear. Then Dr. Ming introduced a treatment that Artemisia was unfamiliar with: She lightly pounded the nail of Artemisia's left big toe with a small silver hammer for a few minutes.

"Why are you doing that?" Artemisia asked.

"It is good for the uterus," the doctor replied.

Indeed, Artemisia's cramps diminished as the doctor thumped, and in the days to come they did not recur.

After the session, as Artemisia prepared to leave, the usually taciturn Ming started up a conversation. Artemisia was surprised, but listened attentively as Dr. Ming made a series of revelations. The most surprising was Dr. Ming's description of a traumatic event from her own childhood.

During the military occupation of her native Manchuria, a province of China, she was forced to witness Japanese soldiers torturing people she loved. Their primary atrocity was using hammers to drive bamboo shoots through their victims' big toes.

The moral of the story: Dr. Ming has accomplished the heroic feat of reversing the meaning of her most traumatic imprint. She has turned a symbol of pain into a symbol of healing.

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For more twisty healing stories with a pronoiac theme, go here: bit.ly/TwistyHealing

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

CULTIVATING PRONOIA IS GOOD FOR YOU
Relaxed people heal twice as quickly
tinyurl.com/2uux8vv

PRONOIA'S GOAL: JUSTICE FOR ALL
The Science of Forgiveness
tinyurl.com/2f94c4u

SOMETIMES THE TRIUMPHS OF HUMAN BEINGS ARE AMAZING
One of the great killers has been defeated: smallpox. The disease was responsible for the deaths of 300-500 million people in the 20th century. But now it has been defeated.
tinyurl.com/2d3f3nh

(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 July 15

Copyright 2010 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"Give us this day our daily hunger," prayed French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. It was his personal variation on the "Give us this day our daily bread" line from the Lord's Prayer. I suggest you use his formulation as your own in the coming week, Cancerian. It's the high season for your holy desires: a time when your mental and physical health will thrive as you tune in to and express your strongest, most righteous longings.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

In a recent horoscope, I wrote about Christopher Owens, lead singer of the band Girls, and how he wore pajama bottoms during a show he did in San Francisco. A reader named Eric was disgusted by this, seeing it as evidence that Owens is a self-indulgent hipster. "Just another spoiled trust-fund kid," he said in his email, "whose excessively privileged life has given him the delusion that he's uninhibited." With a little research, Eric would have found the truth: Owens was raised in an abusive religious cult by a single mother who worked as a prostitute to earn a meager living. I bring this to your attention in hopes it will inspire you to avoid making any assumptions about anyone. More than ever before, it's crucial that you bring a beginner's mind to your evaluations of other human beings.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

I want to see your willpower surge and throb and carry you to a ringing triumph in the next two weeks, Virgo. I hope to be cheering you on as you complete a plucky effort to overcome some long-standing obstacle . . . as you put the finishing touches on an epic struggle to defeat a seemingly intractable foe . . . as you rise up with a herculean flourish and put the stamp of your uniqueness on a success that will last a long time.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

The Italian word terribilit was originally used by art critics to describe the sculptures and paintings of Michelangelo. According to various dictionaries, it refers to "a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur," "the sublime mixed with amazement," or "an astonishing creation that provokes reverent humility." In my astrological opinion, terribilit is a prerequisite for the next chapter of your life story. You need be flabbergasted by stunning beauty. Where can you go to get it? A natural wonder might do the trick, or some exalted architecture, or the biography of a superb human being, or works of art or music that make you sob with cathartic joy. For extra credit, put yourself in the path of all the above.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

In a favorable review of Badger Mountain Riesling wine, Winelibrary.com said, "The sweet succulent aromas of bosc pears are woven with lilacs and just a hint of petrol." Meanwhile, Allure magazine named Secretions Magnifique as one of the top five sexiest perfumes in the world, even though its fragrance is like "floral bilge." Petrol? Bilge? Both commentaries seem to suggest that greatness may contain a taint -- or even that the very nature of greatness may require it to have a trace of something offensive. I'm guessing that'll be a theme for you in the coming week.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

During the grace period you're currently enjoying, you have a talent for tuning in to the raw potential of whatever situation is right in front of you; you just naturally know how to establish rapport with circumstances you've never seen before. That's why your spontaneous urges are likely to generate fun learning experiences, not awkward messes. You'll thrive as you improvise adeptly with volatile forces. It may therefore seem like your progress will be easy, even a bit magical. Some people may regard your breakthroughs as unearned. But you and I will know that you're merely harvesting the benefits that come from a long period of honing your powers.

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If you'd like to get an idea of what my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES are like, tune in to my free podcast "You Are a Prophet."

bit.ly/YouProphet

"You Are a Prophet" is a meditation about how your imagination is your greatest resource and treasure.

Find out more about the EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES at RealAstrology.com.

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

A few single friends of mine use the dating site OkCupid to meet potential lovers. One woman got the following notice: "We are pleased to report that you are in the top half of OkCupid's most attractive users. How can we say this with confidence? Because we've tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people's reactions to you . . . Your new elite status comes with one important privilege: You will now see more attractive people in your match results. Also! You'll be shown to more attractive people in their match results. And, no, we didn't send this email to everyone on OkCupid. Go ask an ugly friend." According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Capricorn, you will soon receive a metaphorically comparable message, not from OkCupid, but from the universe itself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

The liberation movement kindled in the 1960s wasn't all fun and games. It ushered in expansive new ways of thinking about gender, race, sexuality, spirituality, music, and consciousness itself, but it was fueled by anger as well as by the longing for pleasure and meaning and transcendence. A key focus of the rage was opposition to the Vietnam War. The adrenaline stirred by anti-war protests was an instrumental part of the mix that propelled the entire era's push for freedom. I'm hoping that the oil hemorrhage in the Gulf of Mexico will become a similar beacon in the next ten years. Can you think of a comparable prod in your personal life, Aquarius? A gnawing injustice that will help awaken and feed your irresistible drive to emancipate yourself?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Here's a thought from Piscean poet W.H. Auden: "The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me." If what Auden describes is true for you, I suggest you try this experiment: Merge the two images; see if you can make them the same. You're entering a phase in your cycle when you will have a tremendous opportunity to unify the inner and outer parts of your life. (And if Auden's description is not true for you, congratulations: You are either an enlightened saint or well on your way to becoming one.)

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"Thou shalt not kill" is a crucial rule for you to follow, and not just in the literal sense. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you should also be extra vigilant as you avoid more metaphorical kinds of destruction. Please be careful not to unleash ill-chosen words that would crush someone's spirit (including your own). Don't douse newly kindled fires, don't burn recently built bridges, and don't deprive fresh sprouts of the light they need to keep growing. To put this all in a more positive frame: It's time for you to engage in a reverent and boisterous celebration of life, nurturing and fostering and stimulating everywhere you go.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

The baseball game was over. TV announcer Mike Krukow was describing the "ugly victory" that the San Francisco Giants had just achieved. The team's efforts were sloppy and chaotic, he said, and yet the win counted just as much as a more elegant triumph. He ended with a flourish: "No one wants to hear about the labor pains; they just want to see the baby." That's my message to you this week, Taurus. All that matters is that you get the job done. It doesn't matter whether you look good doing it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Here's the really good news: CIA director Leon Panetta says there are fewer than 100 Al-Qaeda combatants in Afghanistan. Here's the utterly confusing news: The U.S has over 94,000 highly trained human beings in Afghanistan whose express purpose is to destroy Al-Qaeda. I bring this up as a prod to get you to question your own allotment of martial force, Gemini. You definitely need to make sure you have a lavish reserve of fighting spirit primed to serve your highest goals. Just make sure, please, that it's pointed in the right direction.

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HOMEWORK:

Identify your fondest childhood memory, and recreate in the present time the feeling you had back then. Testify at 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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