Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
June 15, 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.
Your lucky number is 3.14159
Your magic talisman is a thousand-year-old Joshua tree whose flowers blossom just one night each year and can only be pollinated by the yucca moth
Your special time of the day is the moment just before the mist evaporates
You have fire in your blood and sea salt in your tears
Your vision of power is the red-tailed hawk soaring over the shopping mall
The colors of your soul are ivory vermilion, sable, and jade
Your soil of destiny is peat moss
The legendary deed that most resembles the method in your madness is the story of the hero who tames the monster without touching it
You have a secret name that will be revealed to you very soon
Your sweet spot is between the true believers and the scoffing skeptics
Your holiest pain comes from your ability to sense other people's cracked notions about you
Your magic verbs are dig, descend, and disclose
The garage sale item you most resemble is an old but beautiful and sonorous accordion with a broken key
Your mythic symbol is a treasure chest dislodged from its hiding place in the earth by a flood
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I heard an interview with the German film actor Udo Kier. He specializes in playing villains. "Evil has no limit," he sneered, blustering like a naughty genius. "Good has a limit. It is simply not as interesting."
How many times have I heard that idiotic cliché? Most everyone everywhere seems to agree with Udo Kier. And I'm in a tiny minority in my belief that evil is boring. There seem to be few thinkers, communicators, and creators who share my curiosity about exploring the frontiers of righteous pleasure and amusing truth and boisterous integrity.
Some pretenders do make counterfeit attempts: Hollywood producers who produce sentimental fantasies with artificially happy endings, advertising executives who sell the pseudo-positivity of narcissistic comfort, and New Age gurus who ignore the darkness with their one-dimensional appeals to sweetness and light.
But how dare Udo Kier -- and all his like-minded devotees of the entertainment value of evil -- proceed on the assumption that "good has a limit" and that "good isn't as interesting" when there are so few smart artists and thinkers who are brave and resourceful enough to explore the frontiers of beauty and truth and joy and compassion?
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An article at io9.com lists 12 of the most common and pernicious cognitive biases that that prevent us from being rational. One is "Negativity Bias":
"People tend to pay more attention to bad news — and it's not just because we're morbid. Social scientists theorize that it's on account of our selective attention and that, given the choice, we perceive negative news as being more important or profound.
"We also tend to give more credibility to bad news, perhaps because we're suspicious (or bored) of proclamations to the contrary. More evolutionarily, heeding bad news may be more adaptive than ignoring good news (e.g. "saber tooth tigers suck" vs. "this berry tastes good"). Today, we run the risk of dwelling on negativity at the expense of genuinely good news.
"Steven Pinker, in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, argues that crime, violence, war, and other injustices are steadily declining, yet most people would argue that things are getting worse -- what is a perfect example of the negativity bias at work."
Read the article for more info on the other 11 cognitive biases: tinyurl.com/aqo9wth
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I consistently see people react to ideas about pronoia with anger and bile -- pissed off that I have the temerity to suggest that life is a great blessing. They are deeply committed to the idea that life is mostly just a terrible ordeal.
In the course of trying to understand this attitude, I have come across a lot of evidence that the brain is indeed hard-wired to overemphasize negativity. The articles I cite below are just some of many sources suggesting this.
My point in bringing it up is to reinforce what I say in my book: It takes hard work to cultivate the pronoiac frame of mind.
Scientists believe that your brain has a built-in "negativity bias."
tinyurl.com/yfzlzu2
The brain is hard-wired to be negative:
tinyurl.com/d947mcc
We may be hard-wired for bad news.
tinyurl.com/9ht9o9k
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“Everything I love most happens most every day.”
~ Howard Norman, translator of Algonquin, Cree, and Inuit folklore
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
River Revives After Largest Dam Removal in U.S. History.
tinyurl.com/gvl4pdl
Small Turbines Can Outperform Conventional Wind Farms With No Bird Kill.
tinyurl.com/hwkrj4c
Team creates edible 6-pack rings for sea life, reduces plastic waste and saves lives.
tinyurl.com/janlkas
(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 June 16
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
My long-term predictions for the next 15 months are a blend of hopeful optimism and a reasonable interpretation of the astrological omens. Here we go: 1. You will have an excellent chance to smooth and soothe the rough spots in your romantic karma. 2. You will outgrow any addiction you might have to frustrating connections. 3. Unrequited love will either be requited, or else you'll become bored with the futile chase and move on. 4. You'll be challenged to either refresh and reinvent an existing intimacy, or else get shrewd enough not to repeat past mistakes in a new intimacy. 5. You will have an abundance of good ideas about how to install the theme of smart fun at the heart of your strongest alliances.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Author Courttia Newland quotes the pre-Socratic philosopher Meno: "How will you go about finding the thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?" In response to this riddle, Newland riffs on what it means to him: "Even more important than the journey itself, is the venture into the unknowable. The ability to find comfort moving forwards without quite knowing where you are going." I nominate these to be your words to live by in the coming days, Cancerian. Have open-hearted fun as you go in search of mysterious and impossible secrets! I'm confident you will track them down -- especially if you're willing to be lost.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Your homework is to write a story about the life you're going to live between now and next April. The length of this predictive tale should be at least three pages, although it's fine if you produce more. Here are some meditations to lubricate the flow of your imagination. 1. What three questions would you love to have answered during the next 42 weeks? 2. Of the numerous adventures that might be fun to explore, which are the two that would be most consistently energizing? 3. What is the one thing you'd most like to change about your attitude or revamp about your life? 4. What new privilege will you have earned by April 2017?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
According to an old Chinese proverb, if you want to get rich, you must have a nickname. My meditations on your future suggest that this curious formula may have some validity. The next 15 months will be a favorable time to attend to the groundwork that will ultimately increase your wealth. And your luck in doing this work is likely to be oddly good if you add a frisky tweak to your identity -- such as a zesty new nickname, for example. I suggest you stay away from clichés like Ace or Vixen or Sharpie, as well as off-putting ironic monikers like Poker Face and Stonewall. Instead, gravitate toward lively choices like Dazzler, FluxLuster, Hoochie-Coochie, or FreeBorn.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
During the next 15 months, you will have an unprecedented chance to materialize a fantasy you've harbored for years. Essential to your efforts will be a capacity to summon more ambition than you ever have before. I'm not talking about the grubby self-promotion that typically passes for ambition, however. Arrogant self-importance and selfish posturing will not be part of your winning formula. Rather, the kind of ambition I'm referring to is a soaring aspiration that seeks the best and highest not just for yourself but for everyone whose life you touch. I mean the holy hunger that drives you to express impeccable integrity as you seek to master the tasks you came to Earth to accomplish. Get started!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
During the next 15 months, composting should be a primary practice, as well as a main metaphor. If you have been lazy about saving leftover scraps from your kitchen and turning them into fertilizer, now is an excellent time to intensify your efforts. The same is true if you have been lax about transforming your pain into useful lessons that invigorate your lust for life. Be ever-alert for opportunities to capitalize on junk, muck, and slop. Find secret joy in creating unexpected treasure out of old failures and wrong turns.
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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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"Your Expanded Audio Horoscopes seem to have the effect of activating my inner teacher. Thanks!" - Eleanor A., Toronto
"Your expanded audio horoscopes are the next best thing to actually having you here next to me to remind me who I really am." - Alyssa R., Des Moines, Iowa
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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Have you ever made a fool of yourself while trying to fulfill your deepest yearnings? I hope so. If you haven't, your yearnings probably aren't deep enough. Most of us, on multiple occasions, have pursued our longings for connection with such unruly intensity that we have made foggy decisions and engaged in questionable behavior. That's the weird news. The good news is that now and then, the impulse to leave our safety zone in a quest to quench our deepest yearnings can actually make us smarter and more effective. I believe this is one of those times for you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
During the next 13 months, what can you do to enhance your ability to be the boss of yourself? What practices can you engage in on a daily basis that will build your potency and authority and clout? How can you gain access to more of the helpers and resources you need to carry out your life's master plan? These are excellent questions to ask yourself every day between now and July 2017. It's time to find or create your ultimate power spot.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
The prison population in the U.S. is over two million, more than twice what it was in 1990. In contrast, Canada keeps about 41,000 people in jail, Italy 52,000, and France 66,000. That's the bad news. The good news, at least for you and your tribe, is that a relatively small percentage of you will be incarcerated during the next 15 months. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Aquarians all over the world will specialize in liberation. Not only will you be extra ethical; not only will you be skillful at evading traps; you will also be adept at emancipating yourself from your own delusions and limitations. Congratulations in advance! It's time to start singing some new freedom songs.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The English word "catharsis" is derived from the ancient Greek katharsis, which was a technical medical term that meant "purgation" or "purification," as in flushing out the bowels. Aristotle converted katharsis into a metaphor that described how a drama performed in the theater could "clean out" the emotions of spectators. These days, catharsis may refer to any event that precipitates a psycho-spiritual renewal by building up and then releasing tension. I foresee at least one of these strenuous blessings in your immediate future.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The coming months will be a favorable time to boost your skills as a cagey warrior. I don't mean you should push people around and get into lots of fights. Rather, the goal is for you to harness your aggressiveness constructively and to wield your willpower with maximum grace. In the face of fear, you will not just be brave, but brave and crafty. You'll refrain from forcing storylines to unfold before they're ready, and you'll rely on strategy and good timing instead of brute strength and the decree "Because I said so." Now study this counsel from the ancient Chinese statesman Zhuge Liang, also known as Crouching Dragon: "The wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Everything you do in the coming days should be imbued with the intention of enhancing the Flow. It's high time to identify where the energy is stuck, and then get it unstuck. You have a sacred mandate to relieve the congestion . . . to relax the tweaks . . . to unravel the snarls if you can, or simply cut through them if necessary. You don't need to tell anyone about your secret agenda. Just go about your business with zealous diligence and unflagging purpose. If it takes more effort than you wished, so be it. If your progress seems maddeningly gradual, keep the faith.
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HOMEWORK:
If you could change your astrological sign, what would you change it to and why? Go to Freewillastrology.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,
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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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