Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
February 21, 2018
FreeWillAstrology.com
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The quirky and elegant Conduit magazine (www.conduit.org) did a ten-page interview with me in its recent issue. Here's a brief excerpt:
CONDUIT: Can you talk about your relationship with intuition?
ROB BREZSNY: One reliable source of intuition is formulating good questions and having an intention behind the questions: "What is it that I need to learn today?", "What is it that I need to learn today?", "What is it that I need to learn to live my life better?", "What is it that I need next to write my book?"
My sense is that intuition often reveals what you need to do next, although not necessarily the big picture. And if we're content with not pressuring intuition to always give us a mountaintop perspective, but rather just to answer for us, "What happens next? What do I need to do next?", I think that's a better relationship with intuition.
Four more things I'll mention about intuition: Working with dreams is fraught with the possibility of descending into chaos, but with practice and the development of skills, it can become a crucial source of intuition. I really value my ability to do one of the primary Jungian practices, which is shadow work -- dealing with those aspects of me that are unripe and dumb. Dreams have been crucial in helping me unlock the magic of dealing with my shadow and transforming my shadow.
Another good practice for intuition is to ask the question, "What does my death say?" On one's deathbed, what does one want to look back at and say, "That was important. That was important. That was important. No, that wasn't so important." So one's death can be a tonic informant that helps intuition really focus and come into maximum usefulness.
The other thing is that intuition is aided immeasurably by moving, by walking. I don't know if that's true for everybody. Walks and nature are important for me being able to tune into intuition that turns out to be useful and enduring. So often I'll take a notebook with me, or a recorder with me, to capture those intuitions that come to me while I'm walking.
There's one other thing. The practice of intuition takes place best when you have gone as far as you can with your intellect. In other words, I can't skip the stage of the process of research, of thinking hard, of using my logic, of being reasonable. That's crucial for generating intuition that's accurate and useful.
And once I've done the research, once I've tried to think my way to being as objective as possible -- and that involves using the scientific method -- then I hand it over to intuition and say, "Well, what more can you tell me, given that I've come this far with all this analysis? What can you add to it?"
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Here's more of the interview that Conduit magazine did with me.
CONDUIT: Can you say what you mean by "Free Will Astrology"? It sounds like an oxymoron.
ROB BREZSNY: My approach to astrology is quite different from a lot of mainstream astrologers. I'm not alone in that. There are a few colleagues who share what I might call an allergy to how traditional astrology is practiced. I already had that allergy when I was young, when I first began writing the column many years ago.
Back then, I didn't like astrology columns, and I didn't like a lot of the ways astrology was practiced. Then as now, astrology in the hands of many practitioners tends to make people afraid of the future, fills them with ideas about there being some sort of fixed destiny that they're being pulled toward and that they're helpless to resist. That kind of thinking was and still is repulsive to me.
I didn't like astrology columns, because they were watered-down versions of the complex art of astrology, which was practiced, after all, by seminal psychologist Carl Jung.
So when I first got the opportunity to write an astrology column -- I was dirt poor and didn't have a job -- I decided if somebody's going to do it, it might as well be me, someone who's trained in poetry, loves language, and respects the free will of the people who might be my audience.
The bedrock of my practice has always been the idea that the planets may impel, but they don't compel. A study of the configurations of planets shows us the archetypal forces that are coalescing, dissolving, and becoming active in our lives. That can instruct us on how to use our free will to best activate the best versions of those archetypal forces as they coalesce and dissolve.
So for me, "free will astrology" conveys the notion that we have far more power than we might imagine over the way that we express the bigger forces that are at work in our lives.
My aspiration is not to condemn my readers to a particular fate that they can't avoid, but rather to show them the options that are available: the higher level, the mid-level, and the low-level ways in which they might express the archetypal forces, and to nudge them in the direction of finding where the highest-level expression of those forces might be.
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For more of my description on how I got started writing my column "Free Will Astrology," go here: bit.ly/8TIj9u
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For more of my views on the difference between fearful fantasies and accurate intuitions, go here: bit.ly/1K3B1mq
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
A class at Yale University tries to teach students how to lead a happier, more satisfying life.
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It's amazing what happens when boys are actually taught to respect women.
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One More Benefit of Nature: It Makes You Like Your Body Better. Researchers say the outdoors can help mute internal criticism.
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(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 February 22
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In her novel The Round House, writer Louise Erdrich reminisces about how hard it was, earlier in her life, to yank out the trees whose roots had grown into the foundation of her family's house. "How funny, strange, that a thing can grow so powerful even when planted in the wrong place," she says. Then she adds, "ideas, too." Your first assignment in the coming weeks, my dear Pisces, is to make sure that nothing gets planted in the wrong place. Your second assignment is to focus all your intelligence and love on locating the right places for new seeds to be planted.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
When you're playing poker, a wild card refers to a card that can be used as any card the cardholder wants it to be. If the two of hearts is deemed wild before the game begins, it can be used as an ace of diamonds, jack of clubs, queen of spades, or anything else. That's always a good thing! In the game of life, a wild card is the arrival of an unforeseen element that affects the flow of events unpredictably. It might derail your plans, or alter them in ways that are at first inconvenient but ultimately beneficial. It may even cause them to succeed in an even more interesting fashion than you imagined they could. I bring this up, Aries, because I suspect that you'll be in the Wild Card Season during the next four weeks. Any and all of the above definitions may apply. Be alert for unusual luck.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
If you gorge on ten pounds of chocolate in the next 24 hours, you will get sick. Please don't do that. Limit your intake to no more than a pound. Follow a similar policy with any other pleasurable activity. Feel emboldened to surpass your normal dosage, yes, but avoid ridiculous overindulgence. Now is one of the rare times when visionary artist William Blake's maxim is applicable: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." So is his corollary, "You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough." But keep in mind that Blake didn't say, "The road of foolish, reckless exorbitance leads to the palace of wisdom."
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Have you ever had a rousing insight about an action that would improve your life, but then you failed to summon the willpower to actually take that action? Have you resolved to embark on some new behavior that would be good for you, but then found yourself unable to carry it out? Most of us have experienced these frustrations. The ancient Greeks had a word for it: akrasia. I bring it up, Gemini, because I suspect you may be less susceptible to akrasia in the next four weeks than you have ever been. I bet you will consistently have the courage and command to actually follow through on what your intuition tells you is in your best interests.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
"There is no such thing as a failed experiment," said inventor Buckminster Fuller, "only experiments with unexpected outcomes." That's an excellent guideline for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. You're entering a phase of your astrological cycle when questions are more important than answers, when explorations are more essential than discoveries, and when curiosity is more useful than knowledge. There will be minimal value in formulating a definitive concept of success and then trying to achieve it. You will have more fun and you will learn more by continually redefining success as you wander and ramble.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
During World War II, British code-breakers regularly intercepted and deciphered top-secret radio messages that high-ranking German soldiers sent to each other. Historians have concluded that these heroes shortened the war by at least two years. I bring this to your attention, Leo, in the hope that it will inspire you. I believe your own metaphorical code-breaking skills will be acute in the coming weeks. You'll be able to decrypt messages that have different meanings from what they appear to mean. You won't get fooled by deception and misdirection. This knack will enable you to home in on the elusive truths that are circulating -- thus saving you from unnecessary and irrelevant turmoil.
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MAYBE JOY AND PLEASURE ARE ESSENTIAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure and happiness isn't a barrier to your spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it. Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and compassionate person. Imagine that feeling good has something important to teach you every day.
For inspiration in practicing this approach, tune in to your 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.
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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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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In April 1972, three American astronauts climbed into a spacecraft and took a trip to the moon and back. On the second day of the 11-day jaunt, pilot Ken Mattingly removed and misplaced his wedding ring. In the zero-gravity conditions, it drifted off and disappeared somewhere in the cabin. Nine days later, on the way home, Mattingly and Charlie Duke did a space walk. When they opened the hatch and slipped outside, they found the wedding ring floating in the blackness of space. Duke was able to grab it and bring it in. I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will recover a lost or missing item in an equally unlikely location, Virgo. Or perhaps your retrieval will be of a more metaphorical kind: a dream, a friendship, an opportunity.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
According to British philosopher Alain de Botton, "Maturity begins with the capacity to sense and, in good time and without defensiveness, admit to our own craziness." He says that our humble willingness to be embarrassed by our confusion and mistakes and doubts is key to understanding ourselves. I believe these meditations will be especially useful for you in the coming weeks, Libra. They could lead you to learn and make use of robust new secrets of self-mastery.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
During the next four weeks, there are three activities I suspect you should indulge in at an elevated rate: laughter, dancing, and sex. The astrological omens suggest that these pursuits will bring you even more health benefits than usual. They will not only give your body, mind, and soul the precise exercise they need most; they will also make you smarter and kinder and wilder. Fortunately, the astrological omens also suggest that laughter, dancing, and sex will be even more easily available to you than they normally are.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The little voices in your head may have laryngitis, but they're still spouting their cracked advice. Here's another curiosity: You are extra-attuned to the feelings and thoughts of other people. I'm tempted to speculate that you're at least temporarily telepathic. There's a third factor contributing to the riot in your head: People you were close to earlier in your life are showing up to kibitz you in your nightly dreams. In response, I bid you to bark "Enough!" at all these meddlers. You have astrological permission to tell them to pipe down so you can hear yourself think.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Paleontologist Jack Horner says that developmental biologists are halfway toward being able to create a chickenosaurus -- a creature that is genetically a blend of a chicken and a dinosaur. This project is conceivable because there's an evolutionary link between the ancient reptile and the modern bird. Now is a favorable time for you to contemplate metaphorically similar juxtapositions and combinations, Capricorn. For the foreseeable future, you'll have extra skill and savvy in the art of amalgamation.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"Be stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods." That's the message I saw on a woman's t-shirt today. It's the best possible advice for you to hear right now. To further drive home the point, I'll add a quote from productivity consultant David Allen: "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind." Are you willing to be loyal and true to your high standards, Aquarius, even as you improvise to uphold and fulfill them?
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HOMEWORK:
Is it possible there's something you really need but you don't know what it is? Can you guess what it might be? Go to FreeWillAstrology.com and click on "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 2018 Rob Brezsny
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