Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
January 18, 2017
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Dear Readers,
I've gathered together all of the long-term, big-picture horoscopes I wrote for you in the past few weeks, and bundled them in one place. Go here to read a compendium of your forecasts for 2017:
bit.ly/BigPicture2017
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In addition to these, I've created EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES that go even further in Exploring Your Long-Term Destiny in 2017.
What will be the story of your life in the coming months? What new influences will be headed your way? What fresh resources will you be able to draw on? How can you conspire with life to create the best possible future for yourself?
To listen to these three-part, in-depth reports, go here:
RealAstrology.com.
Register and/or log in through the main page, and then access the horoscopes by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." (Choose from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)
If you'd like a boost of inspiration to fuel you in your quest for beauty and truth and love and meaning, tune in to my meditations on your Big-Picture outlook.
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Each of the three-part reports is seven to nine minutes long. The cost is $6 per report. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.
P.S. You can also listen to a short-term Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week.
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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 an excerpt.
UNLEASH YOURSELF
Even if you don't call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to life's ceaseless invitation to change.
It's to this part of you -- the restless, inventive spirit -- that I address the following: Unleash yourself! Don't be satisfied with the world the way it is; don't sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of the mediocre status quo.
Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it's in greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul's code.
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WHY GOOD NEWS?
It's crucial to relentlessly report on the abominations that are erupting from the Trumpocalypse. But for the sake of our mental health, let's also keep track of the good news. Below is a list of some: tinyurl.com/gsos67q
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OPTIMISM IS A SOUND STRATEGY
"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future," says Noam Chomsky. "Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope."
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THE DOWNSIDES OF NEGATIVE THINKING
From the New York Times: "All humans have a tendency to ruminate more on bad experiences than positive ones. It’s an evolutionary adaptation that helps us avoid danger and react quickly in a crisis.
"But constant negativity can also get in the way of happiness, add to our stress and worry level, and ultimately damage our health."
Can we do anything to diminish the power of negative thinking? It's a complex, nuanced subject, but here's a good start: tinyurl.com/hjn2ugs
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P.S. Many of us may be hesitant to diminish our negative thinking. Don't we actually need it now, more than ever, to help survive the Trumpocalypse?
One of my heroes, radical historian Howard Zinn, said that negative thinking tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we relentlessly imagine the worst possible outcomes, if we concentrate on all the things that are falling apart and going wrong, it cripples our capacity to make constructive changes. "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic," he wrote. "It gives us the energy to act."
More from Howard Zinn: "What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
Read more of Howard Zinn: www.thenation.com/article/optimism-uncertainty#
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KNOW AND LOVE WHAT YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR
Activist and author Naomi Klein tells a story about the time she traveled to Australia at the request of Aboriginal elders. They wanted her to know about their struggle to prevent white people from dumping radioactive wastes on their land.
Her hosts brought her to their beloved wilderness, where they camped under the stars. They showed her "secret sources of fresh water, plants used for bush medicines, hidden eucalyptus-lined rivers where the kangaroos come to drink."
After three days, Klein grew restless. When were they going to get down to business? "Before you can fight," she was told, "you have to know what you are fighting for."
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"MY FEELING OF CONNECTION DRIVES ME, NOT MY ANGER"
In the late 1990s, environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill spent two years living in a redwood tree she named "Luna." Her goal was to save it from being cut down by a logging company. She succeeded both literally and mythically. Luna was spared from death, as was a surrounding three-acre swath of trees. Hill became an inspiring symbol of artful, compassionate protest.
Later she told Benjamin Tong in the DVD "The Taoist and the Activist": "So often activism is based on what we are against, what we don't like, what we don't want. And yet we manifest what we focus on. And so we are manifesting yet ever more of what we don't want, what we don't like, what we want to change. So for me, activism is about a spiritual practice as a way of life. And I realized I didn't climb the tree because I was angry at the corporations and the government; I climbed the tree because when I fell in love with the redwoods, I fell in love with the world. So it is my feeling of 'connection' that drives me, instead of my anger and feelings of being disconnected."
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MY PLAN
My plan is to practice good imaginal hygiene -- curating the contents of my imagination with care and reverence -- while also fighting the Trumpocalypse and its associated racism, sexism, plutocracy, homophobia, nativism, and militarism with all my sexy smart anger in full regalia.
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12 WAYS TO RESIST THE TRUMPOCALYPSE
12 Ways to Resist Trump That Only Take an Hour a Day. Including making your city a sanctuary, boycotting all Trump products, and reaching out to independents.
More: tinyurl.com/h38rotr
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Cities and Towns Gear Up for Political Resistance Against the Trumpocalypse. In the years to come, community bills of rights are one strategy to shelter vulnerable populations. tinyurl.com/hjuyyzh
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Van Jones: ”What Trump wants to do at a policy level is much worse than most liberals understand. It's going to be a Blitzkrieg against everything we care about."
So: How to plan the resistance to Trump? Beyond direct action and street protest, five clear opposition strategies are emerging.
More: tinyurl.com/hrnoxby
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Utah’s New National Monument Marks Big Win for the Protection of Indigenous Cultural Sites.
tinyurl.com/go9ysst
Creating an LGBTQIA Safe Space in Rural America. Alternative art spaces are critical to establishing connections for queer people, but especially for those living in rural areas, where community is smaller and less supported than in cities.
tinyurl.com/gnzdbrr
The Science of Creating a Compassionate World. Last year’s most thought-provoking, important, or useful nonfiction books on empathy, kindness, and moving the conversation forward.
tinyurl.com/jestaw3
(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 January 19
Copyright 2017 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
The word "naysayer" describes a person who's addicted to expressing negativity. A "yeasayer," on the other hand, is a person who is prone to expressing optimism. According to my assessment of the astrological omens, you can and should be a creative yeasayer in the coming days -- both for the sake of your own well-being and that of everyone whose life you touch. For inspiration, study Upton Sinclair's passage about Beethoven: He was "the defier of fate, the great yea-sayer." His music is "like the wind running over a meadow of flowers, superlative happiness infinitely multiplied."
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
If I'm feeling prosaic, I might refer to a group of flamingos as a flock. But one of the more colorful and equally correct terms is a "flamboyance" of flamingos. Similarly, a bunch of pretty insects with clubbed antennae and big fluttery wings may be called a kaleidoscope of butterflies. The collective noun for zebras can be a dazzle, for pheasants a bouquet, for larks an exaltation, and for finches a charm. In accordance with current astrological omens, I'm borrowing these nouns to describe members of your tribe. A flamboyance or kaleidoscope of Pisceans? Yes! A dazzle or bouquet or exaltation or charm of Pisceans? Yes! All of the above.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Are you more attracted to honing group dynamics or liberating group dynamics? Do you have more aptitude as a director who organizes people or as a sparkplug who inspires people? Would you rather be a Chief Executive officer or a Chief Imagination Officer? Questions like these will be fertile for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. The astrological omens suggest it's time to explore and activate more of your potential as a leader or catalyst.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
An eccentric Frenchman named Laurent Aigon grew up near an airport, and always daydreamed of becoming a commercial pilot. Sadly, he didn't do well enough in school to fulfill his wish. Yet he was smart and ambitious enough to accomplish the next best thing: assembling a realistic version of a Boeing 737 cockpit in his home. With the help of Google, he gathered the information he needed, and ordered most of the necessary parts over the Internet. The resulting masterpiece has enabled him to replicate the experiences of being a pilot. It's such a convincing copy that he has been sought as a consultant by organizations that specialize in aircraft maintenance. I suggest you attempt a comparable feat, Taurus: creating a simulated version of what you want. I bet it will eventually lead you to the real thing.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The weather may be inclement where you live, so you may be resistant to my counsel. But I must tell you the meanings of the planetary omens as I understand them, and not fret about whether you'll act on them. Here's my prescription, lifted from Henry David Thoreau's Walden: "We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground." And why does Thoreau say we need such experiences? "We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, to witness our own limits transgressed."
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Welcome to the most deliciously enigmatic, sensually mysterious phase of your astrological cycle. To provide you with the proper non-rational guidance, I have stolen scraps of dusky advice from the poet Dansk Javlarna (danskjavlarna.tumblr.com). Please read between the lines: 1. Navigate the ocean that roars within the seashell. 2. Carry the key, even if the lock has been temporarily lost. 3. Search through the deepest shadows for the bright light that cast them. 4. Delve into the unfathomable in wordless awe of the inexplicable.
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EXPLORING THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE
Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your upcoming adventures in 2017?
You can still listen to my long-range, in-depth explorations of your destiny in the coming months. Each report in the three-part series is 7 to 9 minutes long.
Go to RealAstrology.com to register and/or sign in through the main page.
Then access the Long-Term, Big-Picture EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." Choose from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
A new short-range forecast for this week is also available.
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"Your long-range audio horoscopes encouraged me to think bigger about my life. As I listened, I could feel my shrunken expectations melting away." - Therese Pembroke, San Diego
"Your big-picture horoscopes filled the gaps in my imagination. They woke up the fun plot twists that had been just on the tip of my ability to visualize." - Ani Kraft, Brattleboro, VT
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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
What exactly would a bolt of lightning taste like? I mean, if you could somehow manage to roll it around in your mouth without having to endure the white-hot shock. There's a booze manufacturer that claims to provide this sensation. The company known as Oddka has created "Electricity Vodka," hard liquor with an extra fizzy jolt. But if any sign of the zodiac could safely approximate eating a streak of lightning without the help of Electricity Vodka, it would be you Leos. These days you have a special talent for absorbing and enjoying and integrating fiery inspiration.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Eighteenth-century painter Joshua Reynolds said that a "disposition to abstractions, to generalizing and classification, is the great glory of the human mind." To that lofty sentiment, his fellow artist William Blake responded, "To generalize is to be an idiot; to particularize is the alone distinction of merit." So I may be an idiot when I make the following generalization, but I think I'm right: In the coming weeks, it will be in your best interests to rely on crafty generalizations to guide your decisions. Getting bogged down in details at the expense of the big picture -- missing the forest for the trees -- is a potential pitfall that you can and should avoid.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal penned the novel Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age. It consists of one sentence. But it's a long, rambling sentence -- 117 pages' worth. It streams from the mouth of the narrator, who is an older man bent on telling all the big stories of his life. If there were ever to come a time when you, too, would have cosmic permission and a poetic license to deliver a one-sentence, 117-page soliloquy, Libra, it would be in the coming weeks. Reveal your truths! Break through your inhibitions! Celebrate your epic tales! (P.S.: Show this horoscope to the people you'd like as your listeners.)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
When Pluto was discovered in 1930, astronomers called it the ninth planet. But 76 years later, they changed their mind. In accordance with shifting definitions, they demoted Pluto to the status of a mere "dwarf planet." But in recent years, two renowned astronomers at Caltech have found convincing evidence for a new ninth planet. Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown are tracking an object that is much larger than Earth. Its orbit is so far beyond Neptune's that it takes 15,000 years to circle the sun. As yet it doesn't have an official name, but Batygin and Brown informally refer to it as "Phattie." I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because I suspect that you, too, are on the verge of locating a monumental new addition to your universe.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The tomato and potato are both nightshades, a family of flowering plants. Taking advantage of this commonality, botanists have used the technique of grafting to produce a pomato plant. Its roots yield potatoes, while its vines grow cherry tomatoes. Now would be a good time for you to experiment with a metaphorically similar creation, Sagittarius. Can you think of how you might generate two useful influences from a single source?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Some guy I don't know keeps sending me emails about great job opportunities he thinks I'd like to apply for: a technical writer for a solar energy company, for example, and a social media intern for a business that offers travel programs. His messages are not spam. The gigs are legitimate. And yet I'm not in the least interested. I already have several jobs I enjoy, like writing these horoscopes. I suspect that you, too, may receive worthy but ultimately irrelevant invitations in the coming days, Capricorn. My advice: If you remain faithful to your true needs and desires, more apropos offers will eventually flow your way.
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HOMEWORK:
What part of yourself are you scared of? Is it time to give that part a peace offering? 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, 2017 Rob Brezsny
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