Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 5, 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.
Alert, relaxed listening is the radical act at the heart of our pronoiac practice.
Curiosity is our primal state of awareness.
Wise innocence is a trick we aspire to master.
Open-hearted skepticism is the light in our eyes.
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Some of your illusions seeped into you before you learned to talk. Others sneaked into you later, while you were busy figuring out how to become yourself. Eventually, you even made conscious choices to adopt certain illusions because they provided you with comfort and consolation.
There's no need to be ashamed of this. It's a natural part of being a human being.
Now here's the good news: You have the power to shed at least some of your illusions in ways that don't shatter your foundations.
Here's one way you could begin the process, declare this intention at noon every Sunday for the next three months: "I am calling on all the power I have at my disposal, both conscious and unconscious, to dissolve my illusions."
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News Flash: The zodiac isn't wrong. Your sign isn't changing. Ignore the misinformation that has been rumbling around the Internet.
Every year or so, another astronomer erupts into the mainstream media with a portentous announcement about how, due to the precession of the equinoxes, the astrological signs are no longer aligned with the actual constellations. Often the supposed 13th constellation, Ophiuchus, is also invoked as a further proof of how delusional astrologers are.
What it means, according to these fake "experts," is that astrology is invalid. Most of the people who think they're Tauruses are actually Aries. Most Scorpios are really Libras. And so on.
A typical offering was from Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society. "When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces," he speculated, "it's really not in Pisces." His erroneous supposition swept through the Internet, including stories on Gawker and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, among other places.
I understand that scientists like him would prefer not to lower themselves to the task of actually doing research about how astrology works. But if they're going to question its foundations, they should at least learn it well enough to know what they're talking about.
Here, briefly, is the lowdown on what certain astronomers are too lazy to find out for themselves.
The astrological signs are not defined by the constellations you see in the sky. In antiquity, when both astrological and astronomical thinking were based on insufficient data, the names of the constellations happened to be paired with the astrological signs. Today, those pairings are no longer in sync: Astrological signs do not line up with the constellations in the same way they did way back then, due to the precession of the equinoxes.
Modern Western astrologers understand this perfectly. It's irrelevant to their work because the information upon which they base their hypotheses does not involve a study of distant stars or constellations. Rather, their data have to do with the movements of the planets in our own solar system within a zone of influence defined by the relationship between the Earth and Sun.
The key demarcation points in that relationship are the equinoxes and solstices. At the Northern Hemisphere's vernal equinox, which occurs on about March 20th of each year, the Sun enters into the sign of Aries. At the Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice, the sun enters into the sign of Cancer. The locations of the constellations are irrelevant; the "influence of the stars" isn't considered.
To reiterate: Western astrologers don't work with stars or constellations. Their focus is our solar system. They study the patterns of the planets and the moon as they pass through 12 zones defined by the relationship between the Earth and sun. Those zones have the same names as constellations because of a historical quirk, but they are unrelated to the constellations.
When Parke Kunkle triumphantly says, "There is no physical connection between constellations and personality traits," as if he has finally stamped out the delusions of us astrologers, he doesn't realize that we agree with him completely. We don't deal with constellations.
There aren't ever many corrective articles in the mainstream press -- most publications are content to let their un-fact-checked stories stand as if they were gospel -- but the New York Times and the Daily Beast did have the journalistic integrity to make a correction to Kunkle's nonsense.
My astrological colleague Deborah Houlding has a cogent response, too: www.skyscript.co.uk/zodiac.html
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
The Western Hemisphere has no wars.
tinyurl.com/zxy9w2d
Today’s parents spend more time with their kids than moms and dads did 50 years ago.
tinyurl.com/h2zu9pm
Surplus marijuana tax revenues, about $66 million, will be distributed to schools to be used for bully prevention in Colorado.
tinyurl.com/h46gvs5
(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 October 6
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"It isn't normal to know what we want," said psychologist Abraham Maslow. "It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement." He wasn't referring to the question of what you want for dinner or the new shoes you plan to buy. He was talking about big, long-term yearnings: what you hope to be when you grow up, the qualities you look for in your best allies, the feelings you'd love to feel in abundance every day of your life. Now here's the good news, Libra: The next ten months should bring you the best chance ever to figure out exactly what you want the most. And it all starts now.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
ractitioners of the Ayurvedic medical tradition tout the healing power of regular self-massage. Creativity expert Julia Cameron recommends that you periodically go out on dates with yourself. Taoist author Mantak Chia advises you to visualize sending smiles and good wishes to your kidneys, lungs, liver, heart, and other organs. He says that these acts of kindness bolster your vigor. The coming weeks will be an especially favorable time to attend to measures like these, Scorpio. I hope you will also be imaginative as you give yourself extra gifts and compliments and praise.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The coming weeks will be one of the best times ever for wrestling with God or tussling with Fate or grappling with karma. Why do I say that? Because you're likely to emerge triumphant! That's right, you lucky, plucky contender. More than I've seen in a long time, you have the potential to draw on the crafty power and unruly wisdom and resilient compassion you would need to be an unambiguous winner. A winner of what? You tell me. What dilemma would you most like to resolve? What test would you most like to ace? At what game would you most like to be victorious? Now is the time.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Are you grunting and sweating as you struggle to preserve and maintain the gains of the past? Or are you smooth and cagey as you maneuver your way towards the rewards of the future? I'm rooting for you to put the emphasis on the second option. Paradoxically, that will be the best way to accomplish the first option. It will also ensure that your motivations are primarily rooted in love and enthusiasm rather than worry and stress. And that will enable you to succeed at the second option.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Do you believe that you are mostly just a product of social conditioning and your genetic make-up? Or are you willing to entertain a different hypothesis: that you are a primal force of nature on an unpredictable journey? That you are capable of rising above your apparent limitations and expressing aspects of yourself that might have been unimaginable when you were younger? I believe the coming weeks will be a favorable time to play around with this vision. Your knack for transcendence is peaking. So are your powers to escape the past and exceed limited expectations.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In one of your nightly dreams, Robin Hood may team up with Peter Pan to steal unused treasure from a greedy monster -- and then turn the booty over to you. Or maybe you'll meet a talking hedgehog and singing fox who will cast a spell to heal and revive one of your wounded fantasies. It's also conceivable that you will recover a magic seed that had been lost or forgotten, and attract the help of a fairy godmother or godfather to help you ripen it.
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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 always feel like I know myself better after listening to your audio 'scopes."
-June R., Austin, TX
"Your audio horoscopes calm me down when I'm too manic and pep me up when I'm down."
-Arthur T., Cleveland, OH
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ARIES (March 21-April 19):
At a recent party, a guy I hardly know questioned my authenticity. "You seem to have had an easy life," he jabbed. "I bet you haven't suffered enough to be a truly passionate person." I didn't choose to engage him, but mused to myself, "Not enough suffering? What about the time I got shot? My divorce? My five-year-long illness? The manager of my rock band getting killed in a helicopter crash?" But after that initial reaction, my thoughts turned to the adventures that have stoked my passion without causing pain, like the birth of my daughter, getting remarried to the woman I divorced, and performing my music for excited audiences. I bring this up, Aries, because I suspect that you, too, will soon have experiences that refine and deepen your passion through pleasure rather than hardship.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
It's the Frank and Focused Feedback Phase, Taurus -- prime time to solicit insight about how you're doing. Here are four suggestions to get you started. 1. Ask a person who loves and respects you to speak the compassionate truth about what's most important for you to learn. 2. Consult a trustworthy advisor who can help motivate you to do the crucial thing you've been postponing. 3. Have an imaginary conversation with the person you were a year ago. Encourage the Old You to be honest about how the New You could summon more excellence in pursuing your essential goals. 4. Say this prayer to your favorite tree or animal or meadow: "Show me what I need to do in order to feel more joy."
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Many of my readers regard me as being exceptionally creative. Over the years, they have sent countless emails praising me for my original approach to problem-solving and art-making. But I suspect that I wasn't born with a greater talent for creativity than anyone else. I've simply placed a high value on developing it, and have worked harder to access it than most people. With that in mind, I invite you to tap more deeply into your own mother lode of innovative, imaginative energy. The cosmic trends favor it. Your hormones are nudging you in that direction. What projects could use a jolt of primal brilliance? What areas of your life need a boost of ingenuity?
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Love wants more of you. Love longs for you to give everything you have and receive everything you need. Love is conspiring to bring you beautiful truths and poignant teases, sweet dispensations and confounding mysteries, exacting blessings and riddles that will take your entire life to solve. But here are some crucial questions: Are you truly ready for such intense engagement? Are you willing to do what's necessary to live at a higher and deeper level? Would you know how to work with such extravagant treasure and wild responsibility? The coming weeks will be prime time to explore the answers to these questions. I'm not sure what your answers will be.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Each of us contains a multiplicity of selves. You may often feel like there's just one of you rumbling around inside your psyche, but it's closer to the truth to say that you're a community of various characters whose agendas sometimes overlap and sometimes conflict. For example, the needy part of you that craves love isn't always on the same wavelength as the ambitious part of you that seeks power. That's why it's a good idea to periodically organize summit meetings where all of your selves can gather and negotiate. Now is one of those times: a favorable moment to foster harmony among your inner voices and to mobilize them to work together in service of common goals.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Pike's Peak is a 14,115-foot mountain in Colorado. It's not a simple task to trek to the top. Unless you're well-trained, you might experience altitude sickness. Wicked thunderstorms are a regular occurrence during the summer. Snow falls year-round. But back in 1929, an adventurer named Bill Williams decided the task of hiking to the summit wasn't tough enough. He sought a more demanding challenge. Wearing kneepads, he spent 21 days crawling along as he used his nose to push a peanut all the way up. I advise you to avoid making him your role model in the coming weeks, Virgo. Just climb the mountain. Don't try to push a peanut up there with your nose, too.
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HOMEWORK:
What is the best gift you could give your best ally right now? Testify at 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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