Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter May 18, 2016

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 May 18, 2016
 FreeWillAstrology.com

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If you ever want to contribute some of your hard-earned money to support my work, I'll remind you of my Virtual Tip Jar at Paypal. It's open right here: bit.ly/TipsforRob

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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.

Plato long ago recognized that besides eating, sleeping, breathing, and having sex, every creature has an instinctual need to periodically leap up into the air for no other reason than because it feels so good.

Seeing as how you have probably not been attending to this need for a very long time, and seeing as how it's essential to creating the mood that will lead to the best decision-making, I encourage you now to do just that.
 

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ANTI-INSTRUCTIONS

Exaggerate your flaws till they turn into virtues
Pretend your wounds are exotic tattoos
Refuse the gifts that infringe on your freedom
Shun sacred places that fill you with boredom
Keep in mind it's bad luck to be superstitious
The official story's always fictitious
Pump up your karma with idiot laughter
The promised land's here, not in some hereafter

We are searching for the answers
so we can destroy them and dream up better questions

Use your third eye to watch TV
Sing anarchist lullabies to lesbian trees
Think with your heart and feel with your head
Spit a mouthful of beer as far as you can
Kick your own ass and wash your own brain.
Make fun of your fears and heal your own pain
Play games with no rules, save your own life
Push your own buttons and be your own wife

We are searching for the answers
so we can destroy them and dream up better questions

Plunge butcher knives into accordions
Forgive yourself of all your mistakes except one
Commit funny crimes that don't break any laws
Shock yourself with how beautiful you are.
Tell jokes to clowns and cook feasts for chefs
Sing songs to the birds, and kill your own death
Mangle your anger, transform it to pleasure
Change your name, steal your own treasure

Go wash some water
Mock your own hypocrisy

Go burn some fire
Brag about your perplexity

Go wash some water
Advertise your secrecy

Go burn some fire
Overthrow reality
 

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"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
 

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Proposed experiment: See if you can discover what has been hidden from you. Peel off the disguises. Outwit the hype. Forgive but also work around the fear that drives the deceptions and delusions. Penetrate to the raw truth that is buried beneath the official story and the sincere propaganda. And be alert for the forgotten treasure, lost keys, missing links, or magic elixir.

To help you achieve success in these endeavors, keep in mind the advice of inventor George Washington Carver: "Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough."
 

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"We should not think of our past as definitely settled, for we are not a stone or a tree," wrote poet Czeslaw Milosz. "My past changes every minute according to the meaning given it now, in this moment.”

So, yes, you have the power to re-vision and reinterpret your past. Keep the following question in mind as you go about your work: "How can I recreate my history so as to make my willpower stronger, my love of life more intense, and my future more interesting?"
 

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

India has slashed prices of 54 essential medicines by up to 55%, including commonly used drugs for cancer, hypertension, diabetes and other heart disorders.
tinyurl.com/zo7swnv

Tanzanian land rights victory earns Masaai leader Goldman prize. Edward Loure wins leading environmental award after helping communities in Tanzanian Rift Valley secure legal title to ancestral land.
tinyurl.com/zyeukpn

Jahana Hayes of John F. Kennedy High School in Connecticut was honored at the White House as National Teacher of the Year.

The cruise ship business between Miami and Havana resumed for the first time in over 40 years.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy received the 2016 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for being one of the biggest supporters of resettling Syrian refugees in the U.S.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law gradually increasing the state minimum wage to $15/hr.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors made the city the first in the nation to require 6 weeks fully-paid leave for new parents.
 

(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 19

Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
 

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

"There are situations in life when it is wisdom not to be too wise," said Friedrich Schiller. The coming days may be one of those times for you. I therefore advise you to dodge any tendency you might have to be impressed with your sophisticated intelligence. Be suspicious of egotism masquerading as cleverness. You are most likely to make good decisions if you insist on honoring your raw instincts. Simple solutions and uncomplicated actions will give you access to beautiful truths and truthful beauty, especially if you anchor yourself in innocent compassion.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

To prepare you for the coming weeks, I have gathered three quotes from the Bulgarian writer Elias Canetti. These gems, along with my commentary, will serve you well if you use them as seeds for your ongoing meditations. Seed #1: "He would like to start from scratch. Where is scratch?" Here's my addendum: No later than your birthday, you'll be ready to start from scratch. In the meantime, your task is to find out where scratch is, and clear a path to it. Seed #2: "All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams." My addendum: Monitor your dreams closely. They will offer clues about what you need to remember. Seed #3: "Relearn astonishment, stop grasping for knowledge, lose the habit of the past." My addendum: Go in search of the miraculous.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

"There are friendships like circuses, waterfalls, libraries," said writer Vladimir Nabokov. I hope you have at least one of each, Leo. And if you don't, I encourage you to go out and look for some. It would be great if you could also get access to alliances that resemble dancing lessons, colorful sanctuaries, lion whisperers, prayer flags, and the northern lights. Right now you especially need the stimulation that synergistic collaborations can provide. The next chapter of your life story requires abundant contact with interesting people who have the power to surprise you and teach you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

"Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible," says author Rebecca Solnit. She is of course implying that it might be better not to beat the possible, but rather to protect and nurture the possible as a viable option -- especially if perfection ultimately proves to have no value other than as a stick. This is always a truth worth honoring, but it will be crucial for you in the weeks to come. I hope you will cultivate a reverence and devotion to the possible. As messy or maddening as it might be, it will also groom your powers as a maker.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

An invigorating challenge is headed your way. To prepare you, I offer the wisdom of French author André Gide. "Through loyalty to the past," he wrote, "our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's joy makes way for it." What this means, Libra, is that you will probably have to surrender your attachment to a well-honed delight if you want to make yourself available for a bright new delight that's hovering on the frontier. An educational blessing will come your way if and only if you clear space for its arrival. As Gide concludes, "Each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding wave."

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

"How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls!" Henry David Thoreau wrote that, and now I'm passing it on to you just in time for a special phase of your long-term cycle. During this upcoming interlude, your main duty is to FEED YOUR SOUL in every way you can imagine. So please stuff it with unpredictable beauty and reverent emotions. Cram it with mysterious adventures and rambling treks in the frontier. Gorge it with intimate unpredictability and playful love and fierce devotions in behalf of your most crucial dreams. Warning: You will not be able to rely solely on the soul food that has sustained you in the past. Be eager to discover new forms of nourishment.
 

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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.

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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"Your expanded horoscopes get more personal and intimate with me than some of my closest friends. Thanks for the loving reflections.”
- Ari S., Ann Arbor, MI

"When I listen to your audio 'scopes, my free will lights up." - Alex D., Los Angeles

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

"Here's how every love letter can be summarized," says Russell Dillon in his poem "Past-Perfect-Impersonal": "What is it you're unable to surrender and please may I have that?" I bring this tease to your attention because it may serve as a helpful riddle in the coming weeks. You're entering a phase when you will have an enhanced ability to tinker with and refine and even revolutionize your best intimate relationships. I'm hoping Dillon's provocation will unleash a series of inquiries that will inspire you as you imagine how you could supercharge togetherness and reinvent the ways you collaborate.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

Fifth-century Christian theologian St. Jerome wrote that "it requires infinite discretion to look for gold in the midst of dirt." Ancient Roman poet Virgil on one occasion testified that he was "searching for gold in dung." While addressing the angels, nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire bragged, "From each thing I extracted its quintessence. You gave me your mud, and I made gold out of it." From what I can tell, Caprciorn, you have been engaged in similar work lately. The climax of your toil should come in the next two weeks. (Thanks to Michael Gilleland for the inspiration: tinyurl.com/mudgold.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

"At this time in my life," says singer Joni Mitchell, "I've confronted a lot of my devils. A lot of them were pretty silly, but they were incredibly real at the time." According to my reading of the astrological omens, Aquarius, you are due to enjoy a similar grace period. It may be a humbling grace period, because you'll be invited to decisively banish worn-out delusions that have filled you with needless fear. And it may be a grace period that requires you to make strenuous adjustments, since you'll have to revise some of your old stories about who you are and how you got here. But it will also be a sweet grace period, because you'll be blessed again and again with a visceral sense of liberation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

More than halfway through her prose poem "A Settlement," Mary Oliver abruptly stops her meandering meditation on the poignant joys of spring's soft awakening. Suddenly she's brave and forceful: "Therefore, dark past, I'm about to do it. I'm about to forgive you for everything." Now would be a perfect moment to draw inspiration from her, Pisces. I dare you to say it. I dare you to mean it. Speak these words: "Therefore, dark past, I'm about to do it. I'm about to forgive you for everything."

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

"An oar moves a boat by entering what lies outside it," writes poet Jane Hirshfield. You can't use the paddle inside the boat! It's of no value to you unless you thrust it into the drink and move it around vigorously. And that's an excellent metaphor for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks, my friend. If you want to reach your next destination, you must have intimate and continual interaction with the mysterious depths that lie outside your known world.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

The short attention span is now enshrined as the default mode of awareness. "We skim rather than absorb," says author James Lough. "We read Sappho or Shakespeare the same way we glance over a tweet or a text message, scanning for the gist, impatient to move on." There's a problem with that approach, however. "You can't skim Shakespeare," says Lough. I propose that we make that your epigram to live by in the coming weeks, Taurus: You can't skim Shakespeare. According to my analysis, you're going to be offered a rich array of Shakespeare-level information and insights. To get the most out of these blessings, you must penetrate and marinate and ruminate.
 

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HOMEWORK:

What's the one thing you would change about yourself if you could? And why can't you? Go to RealAstrology.com and click "Email Rob."

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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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