Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter April 27, 2016

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 April 27, 2016
 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.

You are constitutionally incapable of adapting nicely to the sour and shrunken mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality." You are too amazingly, blazingly awake for that.

You are too crazy smart to try and master the stupidest secrets in the game of life. You are too seriously delirious to wander sobbing through the sterile, perfumed labyrinth looking in vain for the most ultra-perfect mirror. Thank the Goddess that you are a fiercely tender throb of sublimely berserk abracadabra.

You will never get crammed in a neat little niche in the middle of the road at the end of a nightmare. You refuse to allow your soul's bones to get ground down into dust and used to fertilize the killing fields that proudly dot the ice cream empire of demeaning luxuries. You are too robust and unruly and rapturous for any of that.

Now please speak the following affirmations out loud:

"I am a genius."

"I am a lucky plucky genius."

"I am a lucky plucky good-sucking genius."

- Read more: bit.ly/geniusyourself

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

In order to live, you’ve got to be a demolisher. You take plants and animals that were once alive and rip them apart with your teeth, then disintegrate them in your digestive system.

.
The inside of your body is always nurturing a slow fire, burning up the oxygen you suck into your lungs.

You didn’t actually cut down the trees used to make your house and furniture, but you colluded with their demise.

Then there’s the psychological liquidation you’ve done: killing off old beliefs you’ve outgrown, for instance.

I’m not trying to make you feel guilty -- just pointing out that you have a lot of experience with positive expressions of destruction.

Can you think of other forms this magic takes? As an aspiring master of pronoia, it’s one of your specialties -- a talent you have a duty to wield with energetic grace.
 

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

"In mythos and fairy tales, deities and other great spirits test the hearts of humans by showing up in various forms that disguise their divinity. They show up in robes, rags, silver sashes, or with muddy feet. They show up with skin like old wood, or in scales made of rose petal, as a frail child, as a lime-yellow old woman, as a man who cannot speak, or as an animal who can.

"The great powers are testing to see if humans have yet learned to recognize the greatness of soul in all its varying forms."

- Clarissa Pinkola Estés
 

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

Scientific American chimes in on the power of pronoiac thinking: "Your thoughts can release abilities beyond normal limits. Better vision, stronger muscles -- expectations can have surprising effects."

More excerpts:

"Thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. There is accumulating evidence that suggests that our thoughts are often capable of extending our cognitive and physical limits."

“People have significant psychological resources to improve their well-being and performance, but these resources often go unused and could be better harnessed.” The mind and body are not separate; our thoughts have remarkable control over our bodies; and our mindsets are capable of improving our brains’ performance."

"If mindsets can change us, maybe we can deliberately choose our mindsets to improve our abilities. We can choose to adopt a mindset that improves creativity, for instance. People who think of categories as flexible and actively focus on the novel aspects of the environment become more creative.

tinyurl.com/pqc4am5
 

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

"My idolatry: I’ve lusted after goodness. Wanting it here, now, absolutely, increasingly."

— Susan Sontag
 

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

MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

Green sea turtles of Florida and the Pacific coast of Mexico are no longer an endangered species. Officials hailed decades of conservation work for saving the long-imperiled creatures.
tinyurl.com/hh2raaa

In 1981, a pediatrician saved the life of a 3.2-pound premature baby boy by working around the clock to beat the odds & stabilize him. In 2011, the pediatrician was pinned inside a burning vehicle after a car collision, but was saved by the premature baby, who had grown up to become a paramedic.
tinyurl.com/jxufp5v

Romanian woman saves victims of sex trafficking, gives them shelter, counseling and an education.
tinyurl.com/j4c7ok7

(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They aren’t advertisements, and I get no kickbacks.)

Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
 

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

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
 Week beginning April 28

Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

You're in a phase of your cycle when you'll be rewarded for your freshness and originality. The more you cultivate a "beginner's mind," the smarter you will be. What you want will become more possible to the degree that you shed everything you think you know about what you want. As the artist Henri Matisse said, if a truly creative painter hopes to paint a rose, he or she "first has to forget all the roses that were ever painted." What would be the equivalent type of forgetting in your own life?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

"Am I still a hero if the only person I save is myself?" asks poet B. Damani. If you posed that question to me right now, I would reply, "Yes, Gemini. You are still a hero if the only person you save is yourself." If you asked me to elaborate, I'd say, "In fact, saving yourself is the only way you can be a hero right now. You can't rescue or fix or rehabilitate anyone else unless and until you can rescue and fix and rehabilitate yourself." If you pushed me to provide you with a hint about how you should approach this challenge, I'd be bold and finish with a flourish: "Now I dare you to be the kind of hero you have always feared was beyond your capacity."

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible," declares psychotherapist Thomas Moore. I agree. Our mental health thrives when we can have candid conversations with free spirits who don't censor themselves and don't expect us to water down what we say. This is always true, of course, but it will be an absolute necessity for you in the coming weeks. So I suggest that you do everything you can to put yourself in the company of curious minds that love to hear and tell the truth. Look for opportunities to express yourself with extra clarity and depth. "To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion," says Moore, "but it involves courage and risk."

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

I watched a video of a helicopter pilot as he descended from the sky and tried to land his vehicle on the small deck of a Danish ship patrolling the North Sea. The weather was blustery and the seas were choppy. The task looked at best strenuous, at worst impossible. The pilot hovered patiently as the ship pitched wildly. Finally there was a brief calm, and he seized on that moment to settle down safely. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you may have a metaphorically similar challenge in the coming days. To be successful, all you have to do is be alert for the brief calm, and then act with swift, relaxed decisiveness.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

"Show me a man who isn’t a slave," wrote the Roman philosopher Seneca. "One is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear." Commenting on Seneca's thought, blogger Ryan Holiday says, "I'm disappointed in my enslavement to self-doubt, to my resentment towards those that I dislike, to the power that the favor and approval of certain people hold over me." What about you, Virgo? Are there any emotional states or bedeviling thoughts or addictive desires that you're a slave to? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to emancipate yourself. As you do, remember this: There's a difference between being compulsively driven by a delusion and lovingly devoted to a worthy goal.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

"Everyone who has ever built a new heaven first found the power to do so in his own hell." That noble truth was uttered by Libran philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and I bet it will be especially meaningful for most of you during the rest of 2016. The bad news is that in the past few months you've had to reconnoiter your own hell a little more than you would have liked, even if it has been pretty damn interesting. The good news is that these explorations will soon be winding down. The fantastic news is that you are already getting glimpses of how to use what you've been learning. You'll be well-prepared when the time comes to start constructing a new heaven.
 

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

LOVE YOUR LIFE!

How's your fight for freedom going? Are you making progress in liberating yourself from your unconscious obsessions, bad habits, and conditioned responses? Are you turning out to be the hero of your own life?

For assistance and inspiration, tune in to my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.

These forecasts are different in tone and format from the written horoscopes you read here in the newsletter. They're longer and more leisurely in tone. They tend to bring out more of the patient counselor in me, and have a bit less of the poet.

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. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.

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

+

"Your audio horoscopes help me love myself better, and I mean that in a non-narcissistic way.”
-Deva P., Indianapolis

"I'm really grateful for the way you pick up my telepathic requests and answer them in your expanded audio 'scopes.”
-Marion H., Birmingham, AL

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

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

"Zugzwang" is a German-derived word used in chess and other games. It refers to a predicament in which a player cannot possibly make a good move. Every available option will weaken his or her position. I propose that we coin a new word that means the opposite of zugzwang: "zugfrei," which shall hereafter signify a situation in which every choice you have in front of you is a positive or constructive one; you cannot make a wrong move. I think this captures the essence of the coming days for you, Scorpio.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

We have to learn how to live with our frailties," poet Stanley Kunitz told The Paris Review. "The best people I know are inadequate and unashamed." That's the keynote I hope you will adopt in the coming weeks. No matter how strong and capable you are, no matter how hard you try to be your best, there are ways you fall short of perfection. And now is a special phase of your astrological cycle when you can learn a lot about how to feel at peace with that fact.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

How do plants reproduce? They generate seeds that are designed to travel. Dandelion and orchid seeds are so light they can drift long distances through the air. Milkweed seeds are a bit heavier, but are easily carried by the wind. Foxglove and sycamore seeds are so buoyant they can float on flowing water. Birds and other animals serve as transportation for burdock seeds, which hook onto feather and fur. Fruit seeds may be eaten by animals and later excreted, fully intact, far from their original homes. I hope this meditation stimulates you to think creatively about dispersing your own metaphorical seeds, Capricorn. It's time for you to vividly express your essence, make your mark, spread your influence.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

"It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves," said philosopher Simone Weil. I hope that prod makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, Aquarius. I hope it motivates you to get busy investigating some of your vague ideas and fuzzy self-images and confused intentions. It will soon be high time for you to ask for more empathy and acknowledgment from those whose opinions matter to you. You're overdue to be more appreciated, to be seen for who you really are. But before any of that good stuff can happen, you will have to engage in a flurry of introspection. You've got to clarify and deepen your relationship with yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education," said writer Mark Twain. That's excellent advice for you to apply and explore in the coming weeks. Much of the time, the knowledge you have accumulated and the skills you have developed are supreme assets. But for the immediate future, they could obstruct you from learning the lessons you need most. For instance, they might trick you into thinking you are smarter than you really are. Or they could cause you to miss simple and seemingly obvious truths that your sophisticated perspective is too proud to notice. Be a humble student, my dear.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

The oracle I'm about to present may be controversial. It contains advice that most astrologers would never dare to offer an Aries. But I believe you are more receptive than usual to this challenge, and I am also convinced that you especially need it right now. Are you ready to be pushed further than I have ever pushed you? Study this quote from novelist Mark Z. Danielewski: "Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati.”
 

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

HOMEWORK:

Describe how you've fought off the seductive power of trendy cynicism without turning into a gullible Pollyanna. Freewillastrology.com.

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

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

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