Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter May 28, 2014

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
MAY 28, 2014
FreeWillAstrology.com

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My book
PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA
is available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells

Here's are excerpts, two twisty healing stories with pronoiac themes:

(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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"You are my inspiration and my folly. You are my light across the sea, my million nameless joys, and my day's wage. You are my divinity, my madness, my selfishness, my transfiguration and purification. You are my rapscallionly fellow vagabond, my tempter and star. I want you."
- George Bernard Shaw

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"Don't just be yourself. Be all of your selves."
- Joss Whedon

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

From the annals of pronoiac history: A British Man rescued 669 children destined for death camps from Nazis, arranged for them to have homes, and smuggled them to Britain. He's still alive at the age of 105.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton

The Rise of Islamic Feminism
tinyurl.com/lbwt39p

Energy [R]evolution: Nearly 100% Renewable Is Doable.
Study shows how US could democratize systems, create jobs, and radically reduce emissions by 2050.
tinyurl.com/ll657y5

(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 May 29

Copyright 2014 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

I suspect that some night soon you will have a dream of being naked as you stand on stage in front of a big audience. Or maybe not completely naked. There's a strong possibility you will be wearing pink and green striped socks and a gold crown. And it gets worse. In your dream, I bet you will forget what you were going to say to the expectant crowd. Your mouth will be moving but no words will come out. So that's the bad news, Gemini. The good news is that since I have forewarned you, you can now do whatever is necessary to prevent anything resembling this dream from actually occurring in your waking life. So when you are called on to show what you've got and make a splashy impression, you will be well-prepared.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

When I slip into a meditative state and seek insight about your future, I have a reverie about a hearty sapling growing out of a fallen tree that's rotting on the forest floor. I see exuberant mushrooms sprouting from a cowpie in a pasture. I imagine compost nourishing a watermelon patch. So what do my visions mean? I'm guessing you're going through a phase of metaphorical death and decay. You are shedding and purging and flushing. In the process, you are preparing some top-notch fertilizer. It won't be ready for a while, but when it is, a growth spurt will begin.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

"Dear Diary: Almost everything that was possible to change has changed these past 12 months. I am not kidding and I am not exaggerating. Getting just one of my certainties destroyed would have been acceptable; I long ago became accustomed to the gradual chip-chip-chipping away of my secure foundations. But this most recent phase, when even my pretty illusions of stability got smashed, truly set a record. So then why am I still standing strong and proud? Why is it I'm not cowering in the corner muttering to the spiders? Have I somehow found some new source of power that was never available to me until my defenses were totally stripped away? I think I'll go with that theory."

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

About 32,000 years ago, squirrels in northeast Siberia buried the fruits of a flowering plant deep in their burrows, below the level of the permafrost. Then a flood swept through the area. The water froze and permanently sealed the fruits in a layer of ice. They remained preserved there until 2007, when they were excavated. A team of scientists got a hold of them and coaxed them to grow into viable plants. Their success has a metaphorical resemblance to a project you will be capable of pulling off during the next 12 months, Virgo. I'm not sure what exact form it will take. A resuscitation? A resurrection? A recovery? The revival of a dormant dream? The thawing of a frozen asset or the return of a lost resource?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

For German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, the good news was that he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 81 times. The bad news is that he never actually won. Actor Richard Burton had a similar fate. He was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but never took home an Oscar. If there is anything that even vaguely resembles that pattern in your own life, Libra, the next 12 months will be the most favorable time ever to break the spell. In the next few weeks, you may get a glimpse of how it will unfold.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

"I should have kissed you longer." I hope you won't be replaying that thought over and over again in your imagination three weeks from now. I hope you won't be obsessing on similar mantras, either, like "I should have treated you better" or "I wish I would have listened to you deeper" or "I should have tried harder to be my best self with you." Please don't let any of that happen, Scorpio. I am begging you to act now to make any necessary changes in yourself so that you will be fully ready to give the important people in your life the care they deserve. If you do so, you will be free of regrets later.

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WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

Grace emerges in the ebb and flow, not just the flow. The waning reveals a different kind of blessing than the waxing.

But whether it's our time to ferment in the valley of shadows or rise up singing in the sun-splashed meadow, fresh power to transform ourselves is always on the way. Our suffering won't last, nor will our triumph. Without fail, life will deliver the creative energy we need to change into the new thing we must become.

Where are you in the great cycle of your life? For inspiration in figuring it all out, tune in to my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.

They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny and where you're headed.

They are not repeats or extensions of the written 'scopes you read here for free. They are entirely fresh explorations of your astrological omens, and are designed to help you tune in to your soul's code. (P.S. They're not free.)

Register and/or sign in at RealAstrology.com

They're available on your tablets and smart phones as well as your computers.

The forecasts are also available by phone: 1-877-873-4888

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

"Longing, what is that? Desire, what is that?" Those are questions Louise Gluck asks in her poem "Prism." Does she really not know? Has she somehow become innocent again, free from all her memories of what longing and desire have meant to her in the past? That's what I wish for you right now, Sagittarius. Can you do it? Can you enter into beginner's mind and feel your longing and desire as if they were brand new, just born, as fresh and primal as they were at the moment you fell in love for the first time? If you can manage it, you will bestow upon yourself a big blessing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

You could really benefit from engaging with a compassionate critic -- someone who would gently and lovingly invite you to curb your excesses, heal your ignorance, and correct your mistakes. Would you consider going out in search of a kick-ass guide like that? ideally, this person would also motivate you to build up your strengths and inspire you to take better care of your body. One way or another, Capricorn, curative feedback will be coming your way. The question is, will you have a hand in choosing it, or will you wait around passively for fate to deliver it? I highly recommend the former.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Now would be an excellent time for you to dream up five new ways to have fun. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with your existing methods. It's just that in the next few weeks, life will conspire to help you drop some of your inhibitions and play around more than usual and experience greater pleasure. The best way to cooperate with that conspiracy is to be an explorer on the frontiers of amusement and enchantment. What's the most exciting thing you have always wondered about but never done? What interesting experiment have you denied yourself for no good reason? What excursion or adventure would light up your spontaneity?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Now is an excellent time to transform your relationship with your past. Are you up for a concentrated burst of psychospiritual work? To get the party started, meditate your ass off as you ponder this question: "What fossilized fixations, ancient insults, impossible dreams, and parasitic ghosts am I ready to let go of?" Next, move on to this inquiry: "What can I do to ensure that relaxed, amused acceptance will rule my encounters with the old ways forever after?" Here's a third query: "What will I do with all the energy I free up by releasing the deadweight I had been clinging to?"

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"When I was young," wrote French author Albert Camus, "I expected people to give me more than they could -- continuous friendship, permanent emotion." That didn't work out so well for him. Over and over, he was awash in disappointment. "Now I have learned to expect less of them than they can give," he concluded. "Their emotions, their friendship, and noble gestures keep their full miraculous value in my eyes; wholly the fruit of grace." I'd love to see you make an adjustment like this in the coming months, Aries. If you do, the astrological omens suggest you will experience a blessing like Camus'.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Some earthquakes happen in slow-motion. These rare events occur 22 to 34 miles down, where tectonic plates are hotter and gooier. Unlike the sudden, shocking jolts of typical temblors, this gradual variety can take many days to uncoil and never send dishes flying off shelves up here on the earth's surface. I suspect your destiny will have a resemblance to this phenomenon in the coming months, Taurus. Your foundations will be rustling and rumbling, but they will do so slowly and gently. The release of energy will ultimately be quite massive. The realignment of deep structures will be epic. But there will be no big disturbances or damages.

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HOMEWORK:

I dare you to give a compliment to someone you've never praised before. Tell me about it at sacreduproar@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 2014 Rob Brezsny

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