Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter June 4, 2014

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
JUNE 4, 2014
FreeWillAstrology.com

+

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

Here are excerpts:

LETTERS TO THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB, Part 3

DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: I've wrestled all my life with fear. But lately it's been even worse than usual. My personal demons seem to be winning, or at least getting the better of the fight. I think it's related to the fact that when I caught wind of the idea of pronoia, I started working hard to lose all my illusions. Now I'm thinking maybe that was a mistake. Perhaps I needed my illusions to keep the demons at bay? - Crybaby

DEAR CRYBABY: Hang on. This is the toughest part of your struggle. It may seem that the illusions you dissolved were the main barriers safeguarding you from your demons. But what's more likely is that those illusions were food for your demons. Very soon now the demons will have devoured the last of their fuel and will start to starve. If they don't die off, they will at least fly away in search of other nourishment.

+

DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: Two months ago I met the first person with whom I am completely psychic. We fell deeply in love, of course. But it turned out that neither of us was ready or able to fulfill the potential of our connection because we are nowhere near as profoundly in love with ourselves as we are with each other. The good news is that through my love for him, I have intensified my desire to learn to love myself. The bad news is that we can't really be together as fate intended until we upgrade our self-love. Can you offer any consolation? - Lucky Yet Unlucky in Love

Dear Lucky: We appreciate your sage caution, but also offer this alternative view from actress Tallulah Bankhead: "If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."

+

DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: Lately I've been practicing an evangelical kind of pronoia. In addition to proceeding as if the universe is conspiring to help me, I'm extending that assumption to my fellow planeteers. I'm meeting people and visualizing realistically wonderful futures for them, filled with interesting opportunities or at least fertile riddles.

For instance, yesterday I saw a morose woman staring blankly into space at Starbucks as if she were the loneliest person ever born. I visualized her falling into a deeply engaging conversation with a new friend, and feeling emboldened by that encounter to be proactive about seeking out people who stimulate her. Two days ago I saw an unruly kid acting crazy at the grocery store. I visualized for him a future of uncompromising individualism creating unique approaches to old problems.

This evangelical push is a real stretch sometimes. (It's a challenge to visualize a positive future for, say, a homeless panhandler.) But I like how it makes me feel. Maybe it's no coincidence that my physical health has markedly improved recently. And it seems to be making me more highly attuned to the sometimes subtle blessings that life does bring into my vicinity -- blessings I might have missed in the past. - Architect of Empathy

DEAR ARCHITECT: At the Beauty and Truth Lab, we work on the hypothesis that all of us are affecting each other all the time, either by direct contact, via telepathic contagion, or through the culture we co-create. If even 25 percent of that hypothesis is true, why not be a beacon of blessings, constantly broadcasting images that promote health and well-being? People just might live up to our expectations, just as easily as they can live down to them. Plus, as you noted, it has a tonic effect on the one who acts as a beacon of blessings.

+

DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: You asked us readers this question: "The spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas believes that a genuinely creative act is always motivated by generosity. If that's true, how do you explain all the ego-obsessed 'geniuses' who treat everyone like dirt even as they churn out their supposedly brilliant art?"

Here's my answer: Those aren't really geniuses, and what they make isn't really brilliant art! It may be popular art, and it may earn a lot of money for the fake geniuses, but it's not brilliant. The truth is, many of the richest and most famous artists are those patronized for their ability to fetishize, glamorize, and trivialize our cultural pain. You can apply the same statement to supposed geniuses who apply their talent to the pharmaceutical industry or nuclear weapons. Creative and intellectual energy applied to cruelty, domination, and meanness is always stupid.

The true geniuses recognize that cooperation is a stronger evolutionary force than competition. They know that the only appropriate application for intelligence is to find ways to make us all feel stupendously good as much as possible. - Malian

+

DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: My mom calls me fat but feeds me pork rinds. My strongest supporter is a person I want to wrap up like a mummy, shove into a canoe, and push into the middle of the lake. My exuberant imagination has taken me hostage, violating its own principles. I'm so ambivalent and indecisive about everything that even my addictive nature can't figure out what to be addicted to. I'd embrace my contradictions if I could, but they've got me surrounded like a pink-haired, cross-dressing SWAT team frothed up on multiple espressos. Can you point me in the direction of the pronoiac exit from this circus-like hell? - Crazy Crank

DEAR CRAZY CRANK: We detect a lot of wit and style in your meditations. Maybe that's the purpose of the limbo you're in: It's an opportunity to build your skill at being lively and feisty and smart no matter what your outer circumstances are.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Are you in quest of an Intimate Ally? A Soul Friend? A Wild Confidante?

Check out Match.com via Free Will Astrology's link: bit.ly/SoulMatch

Look for a Co-Pilot, Co-Conspirator, or Collaborator . . . an Agent to represent you or a Disciple to worship you . . . a Secret Sharer who'll listen better than anyone or an Amazing Accomplice with whom you can practice the Art of Liberation.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

I invite you to write down brief descriptions of the five most pleasurable moments you've ever experienced in your life. Let your imagination dwell lovingly on these memories for, say, 20 minutes. And keep them close to the surface of your awareness in the next three days.

If you ever catch yourself slipping into a negative train of thought, interrupt it immediately and compel yourself to fantasize about those Big Five Ecstatic Moments.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

If you'd like to commune with the spirit I bring to the Expanded Audio Horoscopes, tune in to my free podcast, "Fear Versus Intuition." It's a meditation about the difference between your fearful fantasies and your authentic, accurate intuitions. It's here: bit.ly/A7YHj1

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

"Healing mantra for the day: May I feel all I need to feel in order to heal; may I heal all I need to heal in order to feel."
- Marguerite Rigoglioso

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

The Importance of being playful
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
tinyurl.com/mq7s9sq

In all the news media, from mainstream to alternative, there is only one source I know of that regularly calls on poets to add their flavors: the PBS News Hour. This is largely due to the influence of my old friend Jeff Brown, who is one of main journalists there. Check out the News Hour poetry page:
tinyurl.com/lajkap9

Being Nice Versus Being Good
tinyurl.com/brx6bgf

A compendium of pronoiac news.
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.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning June 5

Copyright 2014 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In Marcel Proust's novel Swann's Way, the narrator speaks of how profoundly he is inspired by an older writer named Bergotte: "Each time he talked about something whose beauty had until then been hidden from me, about pine forests, about hail, about Notre-Dame Cathedral . . . with one image he would make that beauty explode into me." I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because in the coming days I suspect a great deal of beauty will explode into you. Why? I think it's because you're more receptive than usual to being delighted and enchanted. The triggers could be anything: exciting people, eavesdropped conversations, good books, surprising music, and who knows what else?

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"Little horses cannot carry great riders." So says a Haitian proverb. Now, in accordance with the astrological omens, I'm urging you to meditate on its meaning for your life. Here are four possible interpretations: 1. Are you a "little horse" trying to carry a "great rider" who's too much for you? 2. Are you a little horse that could grow into a bigger, stronger horse worthy of a great rider? 3. Are you a "great rider" who is in need of a horse that is big and strong enough to serve your big, strong ambitions? 4. Would you like to be a "great rider," but you can't be one as long as you have a horse that is too small and weak?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Declare victory, Leo. Even if victory is not quite won yet. Even if your success is imperfect and still a bit messy around the edges. Raise your arms up in elated triumph and shout, "I am the purified champion! I am the righteous conqueror! I have outsmarted my adversaries and outmaneuvered my obstacles, and now I am ready to claim my rightful rewards!" Do this even if you're not 100-percent confident, even if there is still some scraping or clawing ahead of you. Celebrate your growing mastery. Congratulate yourself for how far you've come. In this way, you will summon what's needed to complete your mission and achieve final, total victory.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Give special attention to what will last the longest. That's my main recommendation for you in the coming weeks. Devote less of your energy to transitory pleasures and short-term hopes. Turn away from the small obsessions that demand far too much of your energy. Withdraw from the seemingly pressing concerns that will soon start to fade because they really aren't that important. Instead, Virgo, devote your love and intelligence to the joys and dilemmas that will animate your life well into the future. Express reverence and care for the mysteries that will teach you and teach you and teach you for years to come.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

My favorite bridge in the world is the Golden Gate Bridge. In the hundreds of times I have driven on it over San Francisco Bay, it has never let me down. I've always gotten from one side to the other without any problem. In addition to its reliability, it uplifts me with its grandeur and beauty. What's your most beloved bridge, Libra? I suggest that in the coming weeks you make it your lucky charm, your magical symbol. Why? Because the next chapter of your life story requires you to make a major crossing. You will traverse a great divide. Having your favorite bridge as a shining beacon in your imagination will inspire your strength and courage as you travel.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

U2's Bono has called Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" "the most perfect song in the world." It is mournful and triumphant, despairing and uplifting. It's a riddle that improbably offers cathartic release. Over 300 recording artists have done cover versions of it, and it has even been the subject of books. And yet it was a challenge for Cohen to compose. He wrote more than 80 verses before choosing the few he would actually include in the final version, and in one famous session he resorted to banging his head on the floor to stimulate his creative flow. "To find that urgent song," he said, took "a lot of work and a lot of sweat." I nominate "Hallelujah" to be one of your sacred symbols for the next 12 months, Scorpio. From your strenuous effort, I predict, will come masterful creations.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LOVE YOUR LIFE

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." So begins Charles Dickens' novel "David Copperfield." So let me ask you: Are you becoming the hero of your own life? Are you figuring out the secrets of how to create your destiny -- and not just waiting around for destiny to happen to you?

If you'd like help in this noble work, consider trying 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.

"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

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Let me outline the breakthroughs I hope to see for you in the coming months. First, what is pretty good about you will not interfere with what is potentially great about you, but will instead cooperate with it and boost it. Second, your past accomplishments won't hold back your progress; you will not be tempted to rely on them at the expense of your future accomplishments. And third, the brave ideas that have motivated you so well won't devolve into staid old dogmas; you will either renew and reinvigorate them or else move on to a new set of brave ideas.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

If you are in even moderate alignment with cosmic rhythms during the next 12 months, you will be a connoisseur and master of recycling. I'm speaking metaphorically here. What I hope is that you will reanimate worn-out inspirations and convert faded dreams into shiny new fantasies. You will find ways to revive alliances that went off track. A once-vibrant shtick or trick that lost its cool could be retrieved from the ash heap of history and turned into a fresh, hot asset. Gear yourself up for some entertaining resurrections.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

I wish I could tell you that your power animal this month is the eagle or dolphin or panther. Having a glamorous creature like that as your ally might boost your confidence and charisma. To be paired with one of them might even activate dormant reserves of your animal intelligence. But I can't in good conscience authorize such an honor. That's not what the astrological omens are suggesting. In fact, your power animal this June is the bunny rabbit. Please understand that there is no shame in this. On the contrary. You should be charmed and appreciative. It signifies that you will be fertile, fast, a bit tricky, and very cute. (To read an essay on the mythology of the rabbit as trickster, go here: tinyurl.com/rabbittrickster.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

The Buddhist meditation teacher Chogyam Trungpa said that one of the best ways to become fearless is to cultivate tenderness. As you expand your heart's capacity to feel compassionate affection for the world, you have less and less to be afraid of. That's the opposite of the conventional wisdom, which says you become brave by toughening up, by reinforcing your psychic armor. Of all the signs of the zodiac, you Pisceans are best set up to benefit from Trungpa's method -- now even more than usual.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us," writes novelist Robert R. McCammon. "We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow path and told to be responsible." That's the bad news, Aries. But now here's the good news: The next 12 months will offer you a series of excellent opportunities to re-magic yourself. If you have not yet caught wind of the first invitation, I bet you will soon.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

"When given a choice between owning an object and having an experience," says art critic Holland Cotter, "I always choose the experience." He prefers to spend his money on adventures that transform his sense of self and his understanding of the world. I recommend that approach to you in the coming weeks, Taurus. The most valuable "possessions" you can acquire will be the lessons you learn, the skills you hone, and the relationships you ripen.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

HOMEWORK:

What other sign would you want to be if you could take a vacation from your actual sign? Why? Write: uaregod@comcast.net.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++