Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 11, 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
I published the original version of PRONOIA in 2005. For my next big writing project, I might have chosen to write a sequel. But instead I opted to fatten up the first edition.
The Revised and Expanded edition of PRONOIA, which came out four years later, is MUCH fatter. It has 55% brand new extra material, or 92 more pages and 63,000 additional words -- the size of a whole new book.
There are 17 totally new pieces. It also has amplified and intensified versions of many of the central pieces of the original book, including "This Is a Perfect Moment," "Glory in the Highest," "World Kiss," and "I Me Wed," the ceremony for you to use if you want to marry yourself.
I got especially pumped up and carried away while revising "Glory in the Highest," which is a manifesto celebrating the everyday miracles we take for granted, the uncanny powers we possess, the small joys that occur so routinely we forget how much they mean to us, and the steady flow of benefits bestowed on us by people we know and don’t know.
In the new edition of the book, "Glory in the Highest" is eight times longer than in the original. Read it: bit.ly/GloryGloryGlory. Hear a short version of it: bit.ly/highestglory
The Revised and Expanded edition of PRONOIA also has 14 brand new Sacred Advertisements. Don't worry -- if you're new to PRONOIA -- the Sacred Ads aren't real ads. Here's an example:
"This perfect moment is brought to you by the imaginary lightning bolts you can shoot out the ends of your fingers anytime you want to."
Like the 2005 edition, the revised and expanded PRONOIA has an abundance of space for you to write and scrawl and draw your responses to what you read. It's designed to make you my collaborator as we conspire together to incite the Great Awakening.
P.S. The following prophecy is even truer today than it was when I first made it a couple of years ago: Civilization may be unraveling in a lot of areas; some of its structures may be collapsing; but it is also in the midst of a tremendous upheaval of creativity -- a flood of innovation and genius and love pouring out of millions upon millions of people -- a Great Awakening that is far louder and stronger and more interesting than the sleepy resignation and corrosive maliciousness and ignominious decline that the media prefers to focus on.
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Below are excerpts from PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA
The people I trust the most are those who are always tenderly wrestling and negotiating with their own shadows, making preemptive strikes on their personal share of the world's evil, fighting the good fight to keep from spewing their darkness on those around them.
I aspire to be like that, which is why I regularly kick my own ass.
(For a demonstration of how to kick your own ass, go here -- about three minutes in: bit.ly/1QWemwr)
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What thought or trick do you use to help liberate yourself from unnecessary suffering?
What joke do you play on yourself when you're taking yourself too seriously?
How do you compassionately bust yourself when you realize you've been indulging in hypocritical behavior?
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"You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings."
- Elizabeth Gilbert
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Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
and the ways you go be the lines on your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
and your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well loved one,
walk mindfully, well loved one,
walk fearlessly, well loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
be always coming home.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Teen birthrate hits all-time low, led by 50 percent decline among Hispanics and blacks.
tinyurl.com/ht2ujws
Young gorillas seen dismantling poachers' traps for the first time.
tinyurl.com/zggkvwg
The Guerrilla Grafting Movement: secretly grafting fruit-bearing branches onto ornamental city trees.
tinyurl.com/ox35fdt
(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.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning May 12
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." Approximately 30,000 sites on the Internet attribute that quote to iconic genius Albert Einstein. But my research strongly suggests that he did not actually say that. Who did? It doesn't matter. For the purposes of this horoscope, there are just two essential points to concentrate on. First, for the foreseeable future, your supreme law of life should be "creativity is intelligence having fun." Second, it's not enough to cavort and play and improvise, and it's not enough to be discerning and shrewd and observant. Be all those things.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In Western culture, the peacock is a symbol of vanity. When we see the bird display its stunning array of iridescent feathers, we might think it's lovely, but may also mutter, "What a show-off." But other traditions have treated the peacock as a more purely positive emblem: an embodiment of hard-won and triumphant radiance. In Tibetan Buddhist myths, for example, its glorious plumage is said to be derived from its transmutation of the poisons it absorbs when it devours dangerous serpents. This version of the peacock is your power animal for now, Gemini. Take full advantage of your ability to convert noxious situations and fractious emotions into beautiful assets.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
"Clear moments are so short," opines poet Adam Zagajewski. "There is much more darkness. More ocean than terra firma. More shadow than form." Here's what I have to say about that: Even if it does indeed describe the course of ordinary life for most people, it does not currently apply to you. On the contrary. You're in a phase that will bring an unusually high percentage of lucidity. The light shining from your eyes and the thoughts coalescing in your brain will be extra pure and bright. In the world around you, there may be occasional patches of chaos and confusion, but your luminosity will guide you through them.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
"Dear Smart Operator: My name is Captain Jonathan Orances. I presently serve in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. I am asking for your help with the safekeeping of a trunk containing funds in the amount of $7.9 million, which I secured during our team's raid of a poppy farmer in Kandahar Province. The plan is to ship this box to Luxembourg, and from there a diplomat will deliver it to your designated location. When I return home on leave, I will take possession of the trunk. You will be rewarded handsomely for your assistance. If you can be trusted, send me your details. Best regards, Captain Jonathan Orances." You may receive a tempting but risky offer like this in the near future, Leo. I suggest you turn it down. If you do, I bet a somewhat less interesting but far less risky offer will come your way.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
"Some things need to be fixed, others to be left broken," writes poet James Richardson. The coming weeks will be an ideal time for you to make final decisions about which are which in your own life. Are there relationships and dreams and structures that are either too damaged to salvage or undeserving of your hard labor? Consider the possibility that you will abandon them for good. Are there relationships and dreams and structures that are cracked, but possible to repair and worthy of your diligent love? Make a plan to revive or reinvent them.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Once every year, it is healthy and wise to make an ultimate confession -- to express everything you regret and bemoan in one cathartic swoop, and then be free of its subliminal nagging for another year. The coming days will be a perfect time to do this. For inspiration, read an excerpt from Jeanann Vernee's "Genetics of Regret": "I'm sorry I lied. Sorry I drew the picture of the dead cat. I'm sorry about the stolen tampons and the nest of mice in the stove. I'm sorry about the slashed window screens. I'm sorry it took 36 years to say this. Sorry that all I can do is worry what happens next. Sorry for the weevils and the dead grass. Sorry I vomited in the wash drain. Sorry I left. Sorry I came back. I'm sorry it comes like this. Flood and undertow."
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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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"I don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the way of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio horoscopes.”
- A. Arrosto, Indianapolis
"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself. Thanks for the gentle shocks.”
- T. Preneris, Toronto
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
According to the British podcast series "No Such Thing as a Fish," there were only a few satisfying connubial relationships in late 18th-century England. One publication at that time declared that of the country's 872,564 married couples, just nine were truly happy. I wonder if the percentage is higher for modern twosomes. Whether it is or not, I have good news: My reading of the astrological omens suggests that you Scorpios will have an unusually good chance of cultivating vibrant intimacy in the coming weeks. Take advantage of this grace period, please!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"Some days I feel like playing it smooth," says a character in Raymond Chandler's short story "Trouble Is My Business," "and some days I feel like playing it like a waffle iron." I suspect that you Sagittarians will be in the latter phase until at least May 24. It won't be prime time for silky strategies and glossy gambits and velvety victories. You'll be better able to take advantage of fate's fabulous farces if you're geared up for edgy lessons and checkered challenges and intricate motifs.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Author Rebecca Solnit says that when she pictures herself as she was at age 15, "I see flames shooting up, see myself falling off the edge of the world, and am amazed I survived not the outside world but the inside one." Let that serve as an inspiration, Capricorn. Now is an excellent time for you to celebrate the heroic, messy, improbable victories of your past. You are ready and ripe to honor the crazy intelligence and dumb luck that guided you as you fought to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. You have a right and a duty to congratulate yourself for the suffering you have escaped and inner demons you have vanquished.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"To regain patience, learn to love the sour, the bitter, the salty, the clear." The poet James Richardson wrote that wry advice, and now I'm passing it on to you. Why now? Because if you enhance your appreciation for the sour, the bitter, the salty, and the clear, you will not only regain patience, but also generate unexpected opportunities. You will tonify your mood, beautify your attitude, and deepen your gravitas. So I hope you will invite and welcome the lumpy and the dappled, my dear. I hope you'll seek out the tangy, the smoldering, the soggy, the spunky, the chirpy, the gritty, and an array of other experiences you may have previously kept at a distance.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home." That's from a Coleman Barks' translation of a poem by the 13th-century Islamic scholar and mystic known as Rumi. I regard this epigram as a key theme for you during the next 12 months. You will be invited to shed a host of wishy-washy wishes so as to become strong and smart enough to go in quest of a very few burning, churning yearnings. Are you ready to sacrifice the mediocre in service to the sublime?
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Russian writer Anton Chekhov was renowned for the crisp, succinct style of his short stories and plays. As he evolved, his pithiness grew. "I now have a mania for shortness," he wrote. "Whatever I read -- my own work, or other people's -- it all seems to me not short enough." I propose that we make Chekhov your patron saint for a while. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you are in a phase when your personal power feeds on terse efficiency. You thrive on being vigorously concise and deftly focused and cheerfully devoted to the crux of every matter.
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HOMEWORK:
Whether or not we believe in gods, we all worship something. What idea, person, thing, or emotion do you bow down to? FreeWillAstrology.com.
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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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