Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter August 10, 2016

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 August 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 is a sample of the good news that's reported on in the book:

Extreme poverty has been cut in half. The proportion of the world's population living below the extreme poverty line dropped by more than half between 2002 and 2012.

Fewer children are going hungry. The proportion of children under age 5 who are stunted -- small for their age due to malnutrition -- fell from 33 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2014.

More moms and babies are surviving after childbirth. Between 1990 and 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio declined by 44 percent to an estimated 216 deaths per 100,000 live births — and the mortality rate of children under age 5 fell by more than half.

More people have clean drinking water. In 2015, 6.6 billion people, or 91 percent of the global population, had a cleaner drinking water source compared with 82 percent in 2000.

Child marriage has been declining. Globally, the proportion of women aged 20 to 24 who reported that they were married before their 18th birthdays dropped from 32 percent around 1990 to 26 percent around 2015.

Full report on all the above at tinyurl.com/z8qncp3

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Remember, kids! What's actually happening in the world is very different from the delusions the mainstream media fabricate and disseminate. In some cases it's worse, yes, but in some cases it's much better.

(We might be tempted to hypothesize that stirring up anger and fear and pessimism must somehow be more profitable than whipping up redemption and reverence and celebration.) More examples below:

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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

The company that wants to be the Netflix of lucid dreaming.
tinyurl.com/gu5s2c6

Malaysia establishes a 1-million-hectare marine park. tinyurl.com/z9tklx2

"Mammals have an altruistic impulse. They respond to signs of distress in others and feel an urge to improve their situation. To recognize the need of others, and react appropriately, is not the same as a preprogrammed tendency to sacrifice oneself for the genetic good." - primatologist Frans de Waal at tinyurl.com/n8wd9be

The Great Green Wall is a planned project to plant a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara desert as a means to prevent desertification.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

Italy passes law to send unsold food to charities instead of dumpsters.
tinyurl.com/hm9a5mo

Female chief in Malawi breaks up 850 child marriages and sends girls back to school. tinyurl.com/zvxtk3oa

India plans to spend $6.2 billion to create new forests.
tinyurl.com/j4hbr4h

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

Howard G. Buffett has spent most of his life as a farmer, with little financial support from his father -- until recently. Now he runs a multibillion-dollar foundation dedicated to ending global hunger.
tinyurl.com/hosw9pm

Orangutan saves baby bird from drowning. i.imgur.com/9vAOYuH.gifv

Goldman Environmental Prize recipients focus on protecting endangered ecosystems and species, combating destructive development projects, promoting sustainability, influencing environmental policies and striving for environmental justice. Prize recipients are ordinary citizens who take great personal risks to safeguard the environment and their communities.
tinyurl.com/m5fdkv4

Edward Loure won a Goldman Prize for helping communities in Tanzanian Rift Valley secure legal title to ancestral land. tinyurl.com/zyeukpn

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

McDonald's says its wage hikes are improving service. Turnover is down, and customer service scores are up. tinyurl.com/hfar8xw

Costco is selling so much organic produce, farmers can’t keep up. tinyurl.com/h2bvmes

Officers from an Ontario department attended a temple for a lecture on mindfulness meditation and Buddhist philosophy.
tinyurl.com/gl9p4jv

Mysterious stacks of books in New York City are connecting strangers.
tinyurl.com/jcydw3t

A rich guy says he has $4 billion more than he needs. He plans to spend his fortune to distribute 10,000 free electric battery-equipped stationary bikes in India, which will run lights and basic appliances for one day per one hour of pedaling. tinyurl.com/ofkmpjc

Organization started to fight world hunger has packed and shipped more than 50 million meals to the hungry. tinyurl.com/gso2zbq

Sweden introduced a six-hour work day. tinyurl.com/npug4ng

Landmark deal with loggers protects huge swath of Canadian rainforest. tinyurl.com/hewq9zy

First of its kind in America: Plant will turn trash into fuel in West Virginia. tinyurl.com/gvlzxzt

Amount of mercury, DDT and other contaminants in fish is at 40-Year low. tinyurl.com/z2nr8bs

Berlin turns former secret police headquarters into home for 500 refugees. tinyurl.com/hj9g3xl

France votes to force supermarkets to give away unsold food.
tinyurl.com/jld3x7m

President of Gambia bans female genital mutilation. tinyurl.com/jz33qa6

Congress ends federal medical marijuana prohibition. tinyurl.com/nh9eqsg

People can pay their parking fines with cans of food for the hungry.
tinyurl.com/qh6327s

Zimbabwe bans child marriage. tinyurl.com/hdbwurj

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

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

Boston reduces veteran homelessness by 85%, housing 533 vets in 18 months. tinyurl.com/h478xhw

Largest desalination plant in Western Hemisphere opens in thirsty California. tinyurl.com/j869qtk

There's a Middle Eastern TV show bringing feminist views on marriage to 80 million people. In Turkey, a soap opera is informing women of their rights and challenging cultural assumptions about marriage.
tinyurl.com/h2xbl4u

The animal welfare movement has recently had major victories in the U.S. tinyurl.com/z75g6yx

Muslims who saved Jews during the holocaust are finally honored.
tinyurl.com/zw8l67p

Girl Power in West Africa comes from tradition—and wrestling.
Female wrestling champion Isabelle Sambou is inspiring a new generation of girls to compete in a sport long dominated by men.
tinyurl.com/hxu9joz

Is Big Food beginning to lose its sway? Companies like Coca-Cola and Monsanto have been called out for conflicts of interest, leaving many in the public health sector to wonder if transparency might soon become the new normal. tinyurl.com/zttdngl

Meet the indigenous eco-feminists of the Amazon. In Ecuador, indigenous Kichwa women are resisting corporate interests that threaten their land. tinyurl.com/jzpdyct

Big Oil and Gas want them out, but one small clan is standing op to pipeline expansion. A First Nations clan is bringing pipeline projects to a grinding halt -- simply by occupying their traditional lands.
tinyurl.com/gsgo4bz

A team of researchers from Yale University have some sweet news for humanity: Most people are inherently good and kind-hearted, and it's the mean girls and guys who deviate from the norm. tinyurl.com/jnlecee

The African village where every house is a work of art. tinyurl.com/lfmhfvp

New York sees a drop in crime. tinyurl.com/zytahj7

There are now more solar jobs in America than oil jobs.
tinyurl.com/h3t697u

12-Year-Old Arizona girl collects 1,000 coats for the homeless.
tinyurl.com/zhfqfoz

Australia returns 50,000 hectares of land to Aboriginals.
tinyurl.com/gsmolso

Daphne Sheldrick has dedicated her life to raising orphaned elephants. Once they are old enough, they are taken to protected areas and integrated with other orphan groups.
tinyurl.com/j83reft

U.S. is ordered to lower Navy sonar levels to protect whales.
tinyurl.com/j52z5s6

These 18 amazing street murals in Detroit rival anything in the world.
tinyurl.com/nzru2wy

Solar seawater distiller turns salt water into drinking water using only sunlight.
tinyurl.com/jxdft25

Left out by traditional unions, women-led domestic workers are winning fights for minimum wage and overtime.
tinyurl.com/z8vzbnm

Norway bans deforestation. tinyurl.com/jon6jjl

Chinese chemists have developed a super efficient method for turning polyethylene, the plastic which makes up almost all of the bags and bottles you use and throw away on a daily basis, into a liquid fuel.
tinyurl.com/zodmnr4

The Antarctic ozone hole is on the mend. Global regulation of chlorine compounds is giving the atmosphere time to heal.
tinyurl.com/h4789zk

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.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed the highly discriminatory anti-LGBT "religious freedom bill." Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe did the same thing to a similar bill.

Numerous corporations, churches, governors, and advocacy groups fueled the national backlash against North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for signing the most anti-LGBT bill in the country.

Sea World announced it will stop breeding killer whales in captivity.

LGBT-rights activists in Oklahoma contributed to the defeat of all 27 "slate of hate" bills in the Oklahoma legislature.

The Portland, Oregon city council unanimously authorized the City Attorney to sue Monsanto for contaminating its waterways with PCBs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines to help clamp down on the over-prescription of opioid painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin that kill 40 people a day in the U.S.

President Obama blocked oil drilling in the Atlantic and appointed Raffi-Freedman-Gurspan the first transgender person to be White House LGBT liaison.

District Attorney Tim McGinty lost re-election in Ohio after ignoring the police murder of Tamir Rice. Cook County, Illinois' State's Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her election over the cover-up of the police murder of Laquan McDonald.
 

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
 Week beginning August 11

Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
 

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Let's assume, for the sake of fun argument, that you do indeed have a guardian angel. Even if you have steadfastly ignored this divine helper in the past, I'm asking you to strike up a close alliance in the coming weeks. If you need to engage in an elaborate game of imaginative pretending to make it happen, so be it. Now let me offer a few tips about your guardian angel's potential purposes in your life: providing sly guidance about how to take good care of yourself; quietly reminding you where your next liberation may lie; keeping you on track to consistently shed the past and head toward the future; and kicking your ass so as to steer you away from questionable influences. OK? Now go claim your sublime assistance!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Although you may not yet be fully aware of your good fortune, your "rescue" is already underway. Furthermore, the so-called hardship you've been lamenting will soon lead you to a trick you can use to overcome one of your limitations. Maybe best of all, Virgo, a painful memory you have coddled for a long time has so thoroughly decayed that there's almost nothing left to cling to. Time to release it! So what comes next? Here's what I recommend: Throw a going-away party for everything you no longer need. Give thanks to the secret intelligence within you that has guided you to this turning point.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

Here comes a special occasion -- a radical exemption that is so rare as to be almost impossible. Are you ready to explore a blessing you have perhaps never experienced? For a brief grace period, you can be free from your pressing obsessions. Your habitual attachments and unquenchable desires will leave you in peace. You will be relieved of the drive to acquire more possessions or gather further proof of your attractiveness. You may even arrive at the relaxing realization that you don't require as many props and accessories as you imagined you needed to be happy and whole. Is enlightenment nigh? At the very least, you will learn how to derive more joy out of what you already have.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

In the coming weeks, I suspect that Life will attempt to move you away from any influences that interfere with your ability to discern and express your soul’s code. You know what I'm talking about when I use that term "soul's code," right? It's your sacred calling; the blueprint of your destiny; the mission you came to earth to fulfill. So what does it mean if higher powers and mysterious forces are clearing away obstacles that have been preventing you from a more complete embodiment of your soul's code? Expect a breakthrough that initially resembles a breakdown.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Maybe you know people who flee from the kind of Big Bold Blankness that's visiting you, but I hope you won't be tempted to do that. Here's my counsel: Welcome your temporary engagement with emptiness Celebrate this opening into the unknown. Ease into the absence. Commune with the vacuum. Ask the nothingness to be your teacher. What's the payoff? This is an opportunity to access valuable secrets about the meaning of your life that aren't available when you're feeling full. Be gratefully receptive to what you don't understand and can't control.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

I placed a wager down at the astrology pool. I bet that sometime in the next three weeks, you Capricorns will shed at least some of the heavy emotional baggage that you've been lugging around; you will transition from ponderous plodding to curious-hearted sauntering. Why am I so sure this will occur? Because I have detected a shift in attitude by one of the most talkative little voices in your head. It seems ready to stop tormenting you with cranky reminders of all the chores you should be doing but aren't -- and start motivating you with sunny prompts about all the fun adventures you could be pursuing.
 

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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.

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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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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

What you are most afraid of right now could become what fuels you this fall. Please note that I used the word "could." In the style of astrology I employ, there is no such thing as predestination. So if you prefer, you may refuse to access the rich fuel that's available. You can keep your scary feelings tucked inside your secret hiding place, where they will continue to fester. You are not obligated to deal with them squarely, let alone find a way to use them as motivation. But if you are intrigued by the possibility that those murky worries might become a source of inspiration, dive in and investigate.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Are you ready for your mid-term exam? Luckily I'm here to help get you into the proper frame of mind to do well. Now study the following incitements with an air of amused rebelliousness. 1. You may have to act a bit wild or unruly in order to do the right thing. 2. Loving your enemies could motivate your allies to give you more of what you need. 3. Are you sufficiently audacious to explore the quirky happiness that can come from cultivating intriguing problems? 4. If you want people to change, try this: Change yourself in the precise way you want them to change.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Using scissors, snip off a strand of your hair. As you do, sing a beloved song with uplifting lyrics. Seal the hair in an envelope on which you have written the following: "I am attracting divine prods and unpredictable nudges that will enlighten me about a personal puzzle that I am ready to solve." On each of the next five nights, kiss this package five times and place it beneath your pillow as you sing a beloved song with uplifting lyrics. Then observe your dreams closely. Keep a pen and notebook or audio recorder near your bed to capture any clues that might arrive. On the morning after the fifth night, go to your kitchen sink and burn the envelope and hair in the flame of a white candle. Chant the words of power: "Catalytic revelations and insights are arriving." The magic you need will appear within 15 days.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

This would be a good time to have a master craftsperson decorate your headquarters with stained glass windows that depict the creation stories of your favorite indigenous culture. You might also benefit from hiring a feng shui consultant to help you design a more harmonious home environment. Here are some cheaper but equally effective ways to promote domestic bliss: Put images of your heroes on your walls. Throw out stuff that makes you feel cramped. Add new potted plants to calm your eyes and nurture your lungs. If you're feeling especially experimental, build a shrine devoted to the Goddess of Ecstatic Nesting.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

You Geminis are as full of longings as any other sign, but you have a tendency to downplay their intensity. How often do you use your charm and wit to cloak your burning, churning yearnings? Please don't misunderstand me: I appreciate your refined expressions of deep feelings -- as long as that's not a way to hide your deep feelings from yourself. This will be an especially fun and useful issue for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. I advise you to be in very close touch with your primal urges.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Be vulnerable and sensitive as well as insatiable and irreverent. Cultivate your rigorous skepticism, but expect the arrival of at least two freaking miracles. Be extra nurturing to allies who help you and sustain you, but also be alert for those moments when they may benefit from your rebellious provocations. Don't take anything too personally or literally or seriously, even as you treat the world as a bountiful source of gifts and blessings. Be sure to regard love as your highest law, and laugh at fear at least three times every day.
 

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HOMEWORK:

What do you foresee happening in your life during the rest of 2016? Make three brave, positive predictions. Truthrooster@gmail.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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