Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter February 10, 2016

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 February 10, 2016
 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

Below are excerpts.

ELATIONSHIP LOVE SPELLS FOR BEAUTY & TRUTH LAB ALLIES

The Beauty and Truth Lab's rapturists have formulated a batch of personal ads for you to borrow. If you're a Crafty Optimist or Mystical Activist or Ceremonial Teaser who aspires to put the elation back in relationship, check them out here:

bit.ly/LoveAd

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"Everyone carries with them at least one piece to someone else's puzzle." So wrote Lawrence Kushner in his book, Honey from the Rock.

In other words, you have in your possession certain clues to your loved ones' destinies -- secrets they haven't discovered themselves.

Wouldn't you love to hand over those clues -- to make a gift of the puzzle pieces that are most needed by the people you care about?

Search your depths for insights you've never communicated. Tell truths you haven't found a way to express before now. More than you know, you have the power to mobilize your companions' dreams.

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You understand that you can never own love, right? No matter how much someone adores you today, no matter how much you adore someone, you can't force that unique state of grace to keep its shape forever. It will inevitably evolve or mutate, perhaps into a different version of tender caring, but maybe not.

From there it will continue to change, into either yet another version of interesting affection, or who knows what else?

Are you making any progress in getting the hang of this tricky wisdom?

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I invite you to act like a person who's in love. Even if you're not currently in the throes of passion for a special someone, pretend you are. Everywhere you go, exude that charismatic blend of shell-shocked contentment and blissful turmoil that comes over you when you're infatuated. Let everyone you meet soak up the delicious wisdom you exude. Dispense free blessings and extra slack like a rich saint high on natural endorphins.

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Imagine that the merger of you and your best ally has created a third thing that hovers near you, protecting and guiding the two of you. Call this third thing an angel. Or call it the soul of your connection or the inspirational force of your relationship. Or call it the special work the two of you can accomplish together. And let this magical presence be the third point of your love triangle.

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"For a relationship to stay alive, love alone is not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty, boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but because we first stopped imagining."
- James Hillman

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Gertrude Stein defined love as "the skillful audacity required to share an inner life." It suggests that expressing the truth about who you are is not something that amateurs do very well. Practice and ingenuity are required.

It also implies that courage is an essential element of successful intimacy. You've got to be adventurous if you want to weave your life together with another's.

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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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Whenever I write about romance and togetherness, I attract a storm of complaints from readers who are solitary. "How dare you imply that everyone has or should have a partner!?" is a typical protest. "I'm quite content being alone!" is another.

Let it be known that I do not believe your happiness depends on having a spouse or lover. What I do suspect, though, is that your soul needs some sacred relationship in order to thrive, whether it's with a good friend, a beloved animal, a beautiful patch of earth, the Divine Wow, or anything that's not you.

Whenever I invite you to seek deeper, wilder communion, feel free to interpret it as a call to explore any kind of intimacy that draws you closer to the secret heart of the world.

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"The Orgasmic Roots of Pronoia" is one of the few NC-17-rated pieces in my book. If I published it here, it might get censored, so here's a link: bit.ly/OrgasmicRoots

NSFW! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! This material has graphic references to love, lust, tenderness, bliss, and rapture.

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

Women are better at expressing emotions, right? It's not that simple. P.S.: Deeper listening is the key to healthier, more engaged lives.
tinyurl.com/hp2wftt

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How Brazilian Women Are Using Graffiti to End the Cycle of Domestic Violence. From street art to law reform, women across Brazil are taking a stand against gender-based violence.
tinyurl.com/jz5w49u

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Big Oil and Gas Want Them Out, But One Small Clan Is Standing Up to Pipeline Expansion. A First Nations clan is bringing pipeline projects to a grinding halt -- simply by occupying their traditional lands.
tinyurl.com/gsgo4bz

(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 February 11

Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com/horoscopes

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

"We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime," writes Chuck Klosterman. "It's easy. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. You'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years." He concludes, "A lover like this sets the template for what you will always love about other people." I suspect that you have either recently met or will soon meet such a person, Aquarius. Or else you are on the verge of going deeper than ever before with an ally you have known for a while. That's why I think what happens in the next six months will put an enduring stamp on your relationship with intimacy.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Sixteenth-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso described one of love's best blessings. He said your lover can reunite you with "a piece of your soul that you never knew was missing." You Pisceans are in a phase when this act of grace is more possible than usual. The revelatory boon may emerge because of the chemistry stirred up by a sparkly new affiliation. Or it may arise thanks to a familiar relationship that is entering unfamiliar territory.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"Love is a fire," declared Aries actress Joan Crawford. "But whether it's going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell." I disagree with her conclusion. There are practical steps you can take to ensure that love's fire warms but doesn't burn. Start with these strategies: Suffuse your libido with compassion. Imbue your romantic fervor with empathy. Instill your animal passions and instinctual longings with affectionate tenderness. If you catch your sexual urges driving you toward narcissists who are no damn good for you, firmly redirect those sexual urges toward emotionally intelligent, self-responsible beauties.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Fifteenth-century writer Thomas à Kempis thought that real love can arouse enormous fortitude in the person who loves. "Love feels no burden," he wrote. "It attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible." As you might imagine, the "real love" he was referring to is not the kind that's motivated by egotism, power drives, blind lust, or insecurity. I think you know what I mean, Taurus, because in the past few months you have had unprecedented access to the primal glory that Thomas referred to. And in the coming months you will have even more. What do you plan to do with all that mojo?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Gemini novelist Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was fascinated in "life with the lid on and what happens when the lid comes off." She knew both states from her own experience. "When you love someone," she mused about the times the lid had come off, "all your saved-up wishes start coming out." In accordance with the astrological omens, I propose that you engage in the following three-part exercise. First, identify a part of your life that has the lid tightly clamped over it. Second, visualize the suppressed feelings and saved-up wishes that might pour forth if you took the lid off. Third, do what it takes to love someone so well that you'll knock the lid off.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"No one has ever loved anyone the way everyone wants to be loved," wrote author Mignon McLaughlin. I think that may be true. The gap between what we yearn for and what we actually get is never fully closed. Nevertheless, I suggest that you strive to refute McLaughlin's curse in the coming days. Why? Because you now have an enhanced capacity to love the people you care about in ways they want to be loved. So be experimental with your tenderness. Take the risk of going beyond what you've been willing or able to give before. Trust your fertile imagination to guide your ingenious empathy.

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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY

Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less facts. The experience tends to shut down your sense of wonder.

Every day, you're over-exposed to cynical narratives that have been sucked free of delight and mystery. That's why you have to make such strenuous efforts to keep your world enchanted.

I like to think I can contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense of wonder and enchantment. In fact, that's one of my prime motivations for offering you the free weekly horoscopes you read in this newsletter.

If you ever want more of that good stuff, and think it's worth paying for, please consider trying out my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.

To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to RealAstrology.com.

Register and/or log in through the main page.

You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.

The cost is $6 per sign on the Web (discounts available for bulk purchases), or $1.99 per minute by phone.

The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.

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P.S. My long-range, big-picture audio horoscopes for the coming months are still available. Register and/or log in through the main page, and then access the horoscopes by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." (Choose from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)

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"The best part about your audio horoscopes is that they pat me on the head and kick me in the ass at the same time." - Rita L., San Diego

"Your audio oracles go beyond helping me find the truth -- they inspire me to find the WILD truth." - Patrick K., Montreal

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Here's the counsel of French writer Anatole France: "You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving." What he says is always true, but it's especially apropos for you Leos in the coming weeks. You now have a special talent for learning more about love by loving deeply, excitedly, and imaginatively. To add further nuance and inspiration, meditate on this advice from author Aldous Huxley: "There isn't any formula or method. You learn to love by loving -- by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done."

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

"I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you,'" said author Maya Angelou. She concludes: "There is an African saying: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt." With this in mind, I invite you to take inventory of the allies and relatives whose relationships are most important to you. How well do they love themselves? Is there anything you could do to help them upgrade their love for themselves? If their self-love is lacking, what might you do to protect yourself from that problem?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

"Only love interests me," declared painter Marc Chagall, "and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love." That seems like an impossibly high standard. Our daily adventures bring us into proximity with loveless messes all the time. It's hard to focus on love to the exclusion of all other concerns. But it's a worthy goal to strive toward Chagall's ideal for short bursts of time. And the coming weeks happen to be a favorable phase for you to do just that. Your success may be partial, but dramatic nonetheless.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love," said Mahatma Gandhi. "It is the prerogative of the brave." That's my challenge to you, Scorpio. In accordance with the astrological currents, I urge you to stoke your uninhibited audacity so you can press onward toward the frontiers of intimacy. It's not enough to be wilder, and it's not enough to be freer. To fulfill love's potential in the next chapter of your story, you've got to be wilder, freer, and bolder.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

"It is not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages," said Friedrich Nietzsche. He believed that if you want to join your fortunes with another's, you should ask yourself whether you will enjoy your conversations with this person for the next 30 years -- because that's what you'll be doing much of the time you're together. How do you measure up to this gold standard, Sagittarius? What role does friendship play in your romantic adventures? If there's anything lacking, now is an excellent time to seek improvements. Start with yourself, of course. How could you infuse more camaraderie into the way you express love? What might you do to upgrade your skills as a conversationalist?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

"Love isn't something you find," says singer Loretta Lynn. "Love is something that finds you." Singer Kylie Minogue concurs: "You need a lot of luck to find people with whom you want to spend your life. Love is like a lottery." I think these perspectives are at best misleading, and at worst debilitating. They imply we have no power to shape our relationship with love. My view is different. I say there's a lot we can do to attract intimate allies who teach us, stimulate us, and fulfill us. Like what? 1. We clarify what qualities we want in a partner, and we make sure that those qualities are also healthy for us. 2. We get free of unconscious conditioning that's at odds with our conscious values. 3. We work to transform ourselves into lovable collaborators who communicate well. Anything else? What can you do to make sure love isn't a lottery?

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HOMEWORK:

Want some inspiration as you compose your romantic invitations? Go here: bit.ly/LoveAd

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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology 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 submissions for length, style, and content. Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.

Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2016 Rob Brezsny

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