Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
OCTOBER 26, 2011
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Read "Dissident Horoscopes for Samhain (and Halloween) Insurgents,"
by Job Disney, Rob Brezsny's only partially evil twin:
bit.ly/craweu
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The piece below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA IS THE
ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA
available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
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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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF HEROES
Calendar of Jubilee Saints
Hundreds of radical cultural and political heroes are celebrated
here, along with the animating idea that guides this project --
the pleasure of overthrowing the Planetary Work Machine.
tinyurl.com/3l6yvh8
REINVENTING THE THING THAT BOTHERS US MOST
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
by Charles Eisenstein
The book presents a vision about our money system that is original
yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant
as the crises of our civilization deepen. How can you live according
to your ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money?
bit.ly/pGtClQ
THE EVIDENCE KEEPS ACCUMULATING
If you feel lonely for news about vivid acts of redemption, splashy
devotion to creative transformation, & ballsy adventures in
compassion, tune in to my Alternate News page. Recent entries:
childhood deaths in the developing world keep going down; Peru's
native people win a crucial battle to guard their land from corporate
decimation; Australia recognizes third gender on passports; &
hundreds more.
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 October 27
Copyright 2011 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
You could preside over your very own Joy Luck Club in the coming
days. According to my reading of the astrological omens, the levels
of gratification possible could exceed your normal quota by a
substantial margin. You may want to Google the Chinese character
that means "double happiness" and use it as your ruling
symbol. And it might be time to explore and experiment with the
concepts of "super bliss," "sublime delight,"
and "brilliant ecstasy." Halloween costume suggestions:
a saintly hedonist from paradise; a superhero whose superpower
is the ability to experience extreme amounts of pleasure; the
luckiest person who ever lived.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
For over a hundred years, an English woman named Lena Thouless
celebrated her birthday on November 23. When she was 106, her
daughter found her birth certificate and realized that mom had
actually been born on November 22. I'm guessing that a comparable
correction is due in your own life, Sagittarius. Something you've
believed about yourself for a long time is about to be revealed
as slightly off. Halloween costume suggestion: a version of yourself
from a parallel reality or another dimension.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
"Everyone is a genius at least once a year," said scientist
Georg Lichtenberg. According to my reading of the astrological
omens, Capricorn, the coming weeks will be your time to confirm
the truth of that aphorism. Your idiosyncratic brilliance is rising
to a fever pitch, and may start spilling over into crackling virtuosity
any minute now. Be discriminating about where you use that stuff;
don't waste it on trivia or on triumphs that are beneath you.
Halloween costume suggestions: Einstein, Marie Curie, Leonardo
da Vinci, Emily Dickinson.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
You're ready to shed juvenile theories, amateurish approaches,
or paltry ambitions. I'm not implying you're full of those things;
I'm just saying that if you have any of them, you've now got the
power to outgrow them. Your definition of success needs updating,
and I think you're up to the task. Why am I so sure? Well, because
the Big Time is calling you -- or at least a Bigger Time. Try
this: Have brainstorming sessions with an ally or allies who know
your true potential and can assist you in formulating aggressive
plans to activate it more fully. Halloween costume suggestions:
a head honcho, big wheel, fat cat, top dog.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I know a woman who claims on her Facebook page that she speaks
four languages: English, Elvish, Mermish, and Parseltongue. (For
those of you who don't read Tolkien or Harry Potter, Elvish is
the language of the elves, Mermish of the mermaids and mermen,
and Parseltongue of the serpents.) My Facebook friend probably
also knows Pig Latin, baby talk, and glossolalia, although she
doesn't mention them. I'd love for you to expand your mastery
of foreign tongues, Pisces, even if it's just one of the above
-- and the coming weeks and months will be an excellent time to
begin. You will have a greater capacity for learning new ways
to talk than you have since childhood. Halloween costume suggestion:
a bilingual bisexual ambidextrous expert in reciting tongue twisters.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"Life is not just a diurnal property of large interesting
vertebrates," poet Gary Snyder reminds us in his book The
Practice of the Wild. "It is also nocturnal, anaerobic,
microscopic, digestive, fermentative: cooking away in the warm
dark." I call this to your attention, Aries, because according
to my astrological reckoning, you'd be wise to honor all the life
that is cooking away in the warm dark. It's the sun-at-midnight
time of your long-term cycle; the phase when your luminescent
soul throbs with more vitality than your shiny ego. Celebrate
the unseen powers that sustain the world. Pay reverence to what's
underneath, elusive, and uncanny. Halloween costume tips: Draw
inspiration from the shadow, the dream, the moon, the depths.
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Free Will Astrology's
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Speaking on behalf of the cosmic powers-that-be, I hereby give
you permission to make your love bigger and braver. Raise it to
the next level, Taurus! Help it find a higher expression. Wherever
your love has felt pinched or claustrophobic, treat it to a liberation.
If it has been hemmed in by a lack of imagination, saturate it
with breezy fantasies and flamboyant dreams. Cut it free from
petty emotions that have wounded it, and from sour memories that
have weighed it down. What else could you do to give love the
poetic license it needs to thrive? Halloween costume suggestion:
the consummate lover.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
You've heard the old platitude, "If life gives you lemons,
make lemonade." The owner of a pizzeria in Mildura, Australia
updated that sentiment in 2010 when the area was invaded by swarms
of locusts. "They're crunchy and tasty," he said of
the bugs, which is why he used them as a topping for his main
dish. It so happens that his inventive approach would make good
sense for you right now, Gemini. So if life gives you a mini-plague
of locusts, make pizza garnished with the delectable creatures.
Halloween costume suggestion: pizza delivery person carrying this
novel delicacy.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Some doors are almost always locked. On those infrequent occasions
when they are ajar, they remain so for only a brief period before
being closed and bolted again. In the coming weeks, Cancerian,
I urge you to be alert for the rare opening of such a door. Through
luck or skill or a blend of both, you may finally be able to gain
entrance through -- or perhaps exit from -- a door or portal that
has been shut tight for as long as you remember. Halloween costume
suggestion: the seeker who has found the magic key.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Microbiologist Raul Cano managed to obtain a 45-million-year-old
strain of yeast from an ancient chunk of amber. It was still alive!
Collaborating with a master brewer, he used it to make a brand
of beer. One critic praised Fossil Fuel pale ale for its sweetness
and clove aroma, while another said it has a "complex and
well-developed taste profile." I regard their successful
project as a good metaphor for the task you have ahead of you
in the coming weeks, Leo: extracting the vital essence from an
old source, and putting it to work in the creation of a valuable
addition to your life. Halloween costume suggestions: a friendly
ghost, a polite and helpful mummy, a cloned version of Buddha,
the person you were as a child.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
"When I read a book on Einstein's physics of which I understood
nothing, it doesn't matter," testified Pablo Picasso, "because
it will make me understand something else." You might want
to adopt that approach for your own use in the coming weeks, Virgo.
It's almost irrelevant what subjects you study and investigate
and rack your brains trying to understand; the exercise will help
you stretch your ability to master ideas that have been beyond
your reach -- and maybe even stimulate the eruption of insights
that have been sealed away in your subconscious mind. Halloween
costume suggestion: an eager student, a white-coated lab researcher,
Curious George.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"Sit, walk, or run, but don't wobble," says the Zen
proverb. Now I'm passing it on to you as advice worthy of your
consideration. Maintaining clarity of purpose will be crucial
in the coming weeks. Achieving crispness of delivery will be thoroughly
enjoyable. Cultivating unity among all your different inner voices
will be a high art you should aspire to master. Whatever you do,
Libra, do it with relaxed single-mindedness. Make a sign that
says "No wobbling," and tape it to your mirror. Halloween
costume suggestion: Be the superhero known as No Wobbling.
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HOMEWORK:
Scare yourself with your exquisite beauty. Freak yourself out
by realizing how amazing you are. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2011 Rob Brezsny
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