Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter December 10, 2014

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 December 10, 2014
 FreeWillAstrology.com

+

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

Below are excerpts.

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

Have you said a prayer of gratitude any time recently for the fact that your feet remain steadily on the earth? Gravity is giving you the same gift it always does, pulling on you with neither too much nor too little force.

You should be glad for its versatility, too. It's working for the heavenly bodies with the same tender attentiveness it bestows upon you. As all the other planets do, the Earth relies on gravity's genius to keep orbiting the sun in its ancient hallowed groove, thereby providing you with all of the favorable environmental conditions you need to live.

Magicians of the Western Hermetic tradition say that gravity is actually a form of love -- the irresistible attraction that all things have for each other over even the vastest distances.

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

You can listen to the excerpt below right here: bit.ly/1tvxQrY

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep.

You can see! Light of many colors floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some process millions of years to perfect. The interesting gift of these vivid hues is made possible by an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its own body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.

You can't live without the sun's inexhaustible flood of unconditional love. Every move you make depends on it. Luckily, it never fails you.

Did you know that your personal star is located at the precise distance from you to be of consummate service? If it were any closer, you'd fry, and if it were any farther away, you'd freeze. Is that just a happy accident? Or is it a sign of favor -- a big, broad hint, from a cosmic intelligence that adores you?

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

Of the many things that have gone right for you during your time on Earth, the most crucial was your birth. As you crossed over the threshold, trading the warm dark sanctuary for the bright noisy enigma, you didn't die! It was a difficult act of high magic that involved many people who worked very hard in your behalf. The skills they provided in helping you navigate your rite of passage were in turn made possible by previous generations of threshold-tenders who bequeathed their expertise.

Months before that initiation, a more secret miracle bloomed: Your life began as a single cell, spawned by the explosive fusion of two highly specialized bundles of chromosomes. How could that tiny package of raw material have possibly grown a brain and liver and heart and stomach over a period of a few months? What inscrutable genius guided and oversaw the emergence of your fully formed infant body, that virtuoso creation, from the slimmest of clues?

"Something unknown is doing we don't know what," said astrophysicist Arthur Eddington about the universe. And we are the beneficiaries.

P.S. You have continued to grow since your birth, with millions of new cells continually blooming to replace the old ones that are always dying. At this moment, you're host to about 50 trillion cells, and each of them is really a sentient being in its own right. They all act together as a community, implementing the monumental collaboration you call your body.

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

Late at night when there's no traffic, stride down the middle of an empty road that by day is crawling with cars. Dance, careen, and sing songs that fill you with pleasurable emotions. Splay your arms triumphantly as you extemporize prayers in which you make extravagant demands and promises. Give pet names to the trees you pass, declare your admiration for the workers who made the road, and celebrate your sovereignty over a territory that usually belongs to heavy machines and their operators.

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

Go to the ugliest or most forlorn place you know -- a drugstore parking lot, the front porch of a crack house, a toxic waste dump, or the place that symbolizes your secret shame -- and build a shrine devoted to beauty, truth, and love.

Here are some suggestions about what to put in your shrine: a silk scarf; a smooth rock on which you've inscribed a haiku or joke with a felt-tip pen; coconut cookies or ginger candy; pumpkin seeds and an origami crane; a green kite shaped like a dragon; a music CD you love; a photo of your hero; a votive candle carved with your word of power; a rubber ducky; a bouquet of fresh beets; a print of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

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

This perfect moment is brought to you by the imaginary lightning bolts you can fling from your fingers any time you want to.

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

MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

35 Practical Steps Men Can Take to Support Feminism, by Pamela Clark
More: tinyurl.com/kxfysse

20 Tools for Men to Further Feminist Revolution, by Chris Crass
tinyurl.com/ngcgs9o

"This Country Needs a Truth and Reconciliation Process on Violence Against African Americans. The decision not to indict Eric Garner's killer is just the latest story in a long history of violence against black men. What response can disrupt patterns set by centuries of racism?"
tinyurl.com/oj729mj

"Police Violence Is Not Inevitable: Four Ways a California Police Chief Connected Cops With Communities. 'A critical look at any institution with as much power and authority invested in it as the police is probably a good thing.'"
tinyurl.com/ltvb6y3

"Science Fiction and the Post-Ferguson World: 'There Are as Many Ways to Exist as We Can Imagine.' Radical science fiction and fantasy are a remedy for the belief that there is no alternative to the violence and inequality that surround us."
tinyurl.com/kjbp9oq

(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 December 11

Copyright 2014 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Harper Lee was born and raised in Alabama. At the age of 23, she relocated to New York City with hopes of becoming a writer. It was a struggle. To support herself, she worked as a ticket agent for airline companies. Finding the time to develop her craft was difficult. Seven years went by. Then one Christmas, two friends gave her a remarkable gift: enough money to quit her job and work on her writing for a year. During that grace period, Lee created the basics for a book that won her a Pulitzer Prize: To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't foresee anything quite as dramatic for you in the coming months, Sagittarius. But I do suspect you will receive unexpected help that provides you with the slack and spaciousness you need to lay the foundations for a future creation.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

In the ancient Greek epic poem the Odyssey, Odysseus's wife Penelope describes two kinds of dreams. "Those that that pass through the gate of ivory," she says, are deceptive. But dreams that "come forth through the gate of polished horn" tell the truth. Another ancient text echoes these ideas. In his poem the Aeneid, Virgil says that "true visions" arrive here from the land of dreams through the gate of horn, whereas "deluding lies" cross over through the gate of ivory. Judging from the current astrological omens, Capricorn, I expect you will have interesting and intense dreams flowing through both the gate of ivory and the gate of horn. Will you be able to tell the difference? Trust love.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Your chances of going viral are better than usual. It's a perfect moment to upload a Youtube video of yourself wearing a crown of black roses and a V for Vendetta mask as you ride a unicycle inside a church and sing an uptempo parody version of "O Come All Ye Faithful." It's also a favorable time for you to create a buzz for you and your pet causes through less spectacular measures. Promote yourself imaginatively.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

At age 80, author Joan Didion has published five novels, ten works of non-fiction, and five screenplays. When she was 27, she wrote, "I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be." That wasn't a good thing, she added: "We are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends." I recommend her counsel to you in the coming months, Pisces. Get reacquainted with the old selves you have outgrown and abandoned.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Lord Byron (1788-1824) was an English poet who loved animals. In the course of his life, he not only had dogs and cats as pets, but also monkeys, horses, peacocks, geese, a crocodile, a falcon, a crane, and a parrot. When he enrolled in Trinity College at age 17, he was upset that the school's rules forbade students from having pet dogs, which meant he couldn't bring his adored Newfoundland dog Boatswain. There was no regulation, however, against having a tame bear as a pet. So Byron got one and named it Bruin. I think it's time for you to find a workaround like that, Aries. Be cunning. Try a gambit or two. Find a loophole.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Whenever I lost one of my baby teeth as a kid, I put it under my pillow before I went to sleep. During the night, the Tooth Fairy sneaked into my room to snatch the tooth, and in its place left me 25 cents. The same crazy thing happened to every kid I knew, although for unknown reasons my friend John always got five dollars for each of his teeth -- far more than the rest of us. I see a metaphorically comparable development in your life, Taurus. It probably won't involve teeth or a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Rather, you will finally be compensated for a loss or deprivation or disappearance that you experienced in the past. I expect the restitution will be generous, too -- more like John's than mine.

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

MY OTHER HOROSCOPES

Factual information and reasonable thinking alone are not sufficient to guide you through life's labyrinthine tests. You need and deserve regular deliveries of uncanny revelation.

One of your inalienable rights as a human being should therefore be to receive mysteriously useful omens on a regular basis. In this spirit, I offer you the free weekly horoscopes you read here.

If you ever want more, and think it's worth paying for, try my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny and where you're headed.

They're available here:
RealAstrology.com

You can also access them by phone:
1-877-873-4888

"I always feel like I know myself better after listening to your audio 'scopes."
- June R., Austin, TX

"Your audio horoscopes calm me down when I'm too manic and pep me up when I'm down."
- Arthur T., Cleveland, OH

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

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Through the scientific magic of grafting, a single tree can be altered to grow several different kinds of fruit at the same time. One type of "fruit salad tree" produces apricots, nectarines, plums, and peaches, while another bears grapefruits, lemons, oranges, limes, and tangelos. I'm thinking this might be an apt and inspiring symbol for you in the coming months, Gemini. What multiple blooms will you create on your own metaphorical version of a fruit salad tree?

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

No other structure on the planet is longer than the Great Wall of China, which stretches 3,945 miles. It's not actually one unbroken span, though. Some sections aren't connected, and there are redundant branches that are roughly parallel to the main structure. It reminds me of your own personal Great Wall, which is monumental yet permeable, strong in some ways but weak in others, daunting to the casual observer but less so to those who take the time to study it. Now is an excellent time to take inventory of that wall of yours. Is it serving you well? Is it keeping out the influences you don't want but allowing in the influences you do want? Could it use some renovation? Are you willing to reimagine what its purpose is and how you want it to work for you in the future?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

The Arctic Monkeys are British rockers who have produced five studio albums, which together have sold almost five million copies. Rolling Stone magazine called their first album, released in 2006, the 30th greatest debut of all time. Yet when they first formed in 2002, none of them could play a musical instrument. I see the current era of your life, Leo, as having a similar potential. How might you start from scratch to create something great?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was a British mathematician and pioneering computer scientist. After World War II broke out, he got worried that the German army might invade and occupy England, as it had done to France. To protect his financial assets, he converted everything he owned into bars of silver, then buried them underground in the countryside north of London. When the war ended, he decided it was safe to dig up his fortune. Unfortunately, he couldn't recall where he had put it, and never did find it. Let's draw a lesson from his experience, Virgo. It's fine if you want to stash a treasure or protect a secret or safeguard a resource. That's probably a sensible thing to do right now. But make sure you remember every detail about why and how you're doing it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

Even if you are not formally enrolled in a course of study or a training program, you are nevertheless being schooled. Maybe you're not fully conscious of what you have been learning. Maybe your teachers are disguised or unwitting. But I assure you that the universe has been dropping some intense new knowledge on you. The coming week will be an excellent time to become more conscious of the lessons you have been absorbing. If you have intuitions about where this educational drama should go next, be proactive about making that happen.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

You now have a special ability to detect transformations that are happening below the threshold of everyone else's awareness. Anything that has been hidden or unknown will reveal itself to your gentle probes. You will also be skilled at communicating your discoveries to people who are important to you. Take full advantage of these superpowers. Don't underestimate how pivotal a role you can play as a teacher, guide, and catalyst. The future success of your collaborative efforts depends on your next moves.

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

HOMEWORK:

Forget what Time magazine thinks. Who is your "Person of the Year?" Tell me at FreeWillAstrology.com; click on "Email Rob."

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

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

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