Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 25, 2018
FreeWillAstrology.com
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I invite you to write down descriptions of the five most pleasurable moments you've ever experienced in your life. Let your imagination dwell lovingly on these memories for, say, 20 minutes. And keep them close to the surface of your awareness in the next three days.
If you ever catch yourself slipping into a negative train of thought, interrupt it immediately and compel yourself to fantasize about those Big Five Ecstatic Moments.
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BEAUTIFUL BLEMISH
So it turns out that the "blemish" is actually essential to the beauty. The "deviation" is at the core of the strength. The "wrong turn" was crucial to you getting you back on the path with heart.
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THE KINDNESS OF HONESTY
"In a world where people all around us are lying and confusing us, to be honest is a great kindness."
- David Edwards, Burning All Illusions
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ORIGINS OF GENEROSITY
Anything about me that seems to be generous can also be understood as my natural longing to give back to the world in return for all the world has given me.
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WE NEED DREAMS
"Modern post-industrial societies tend to produce un-sane populations -- multitudes of people who are unbalanced in their adaptation to the destructive stress of daily existence. One of the symptoms of this un-sanity is the loss of contact between the waking ego and the depths of the self, a contact that requires involvement in dream experiences and information.
"Cultures generally resist change, and modern materialist societies are no different in this respect. Devaluation of dreaming and other spiritually efficacious experiences is part of the foundation of 'false consciousness' required by capitalist/materialist political economies.
"Materialist cultures require that the focus of awareness be upon the material conditions of life and away from involvement with the inner being which is the only road to spiritual maturation."
- Charles D. Laughlin, Communing with the Gods: Consciousness, Culture and the Dreaming Brain - tinyurl.com/moeah6v
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TALKING TO TREES
Red K Elders says: "People sometimes don’t believe that it is possible to commune with anything other than human. “I sat for an hour talking to a tree, and it didn’t say anything to me”, they tell me.
"I ask them what did they give to the tree? Did they make offerings of food or drink or bodily emanations? Did they play it music or sing it a song? Did they dance for it so beautifully or gently ask if they may lovingly touch or hold it? Did they even introduce themselves properly and share a delicate secret from their innermost being?
"Other-than-human relationships are like any other in this respect. We have to show our caring, dare to reveal ourselves and continually build trust with each other over time.
"And let go of expecting anything from the other. Go with the attitude of ‘what I can do for this tree today that will honour it, express my gratitude for all its whole beingness and support its growth?’ Go continually, answering that question for yourself, before you even start expecting any interaction or answers from the tree.
"Then one day, the tree may speak to you, but it may not be with words, and it may happen so quickly you’ll miss it the first few times. Slow your whole body and elongate it into tree-time. Go again like a child, playful and with reverence. Pay exquisite attention to every nuance of the entire scene with all your senses wide open."
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I AM A BAOBAB TREE
My dream: I dream I am a baobab tree on a giant floating island. My life is long -- more than eleven hundred years so far. The name I go by is Rumble Balm.
I have a thick, bulbous trunk. Centuries ago, it got partially hollowed out by a stroke of lightning. Didn't kill me! Made me more useful! The spaciousness inside me is so welcoming that people and baboons and monkeys find shelter here. Sometimes they spend the night.
I love it when you come. You sing to me. Your fragrances remind me of how much I love everything: amber and cinnamon and pearly pomegranate and honeycomb of bees that specialize in the nectar of ylang-ylang flowers.
I have a large capacity for storing water. This enables me to survive during draughts. People carve and paint my fruits, fashioning them into ornaments, or they use the fruit's pulp to make porridge and a delicious sour drink. If they steep my seeds in water and drink the potion, crocodiles will not attack them. It's one of my magic properties.
Fibers from my inner bark are good for weaving baskets and ropes and fishing nets. If I don't get too many fibers stripped away, I can regrow myself.
People who have malaria can drink my pulverized roots and feel better, and they like to bathe their babies in the water where my roots have soaked. My leaves are like a tasty vegetable, and can also be brewed into soup and sauce. They are good medicine, too. People use them to stop sneezing, cough up excessive phlegm, cure asthma, soothe insect bites.
My large white flowers open only at night, and are pollinated by fruit bats.
Tonight the waning gibbous moon is high overhead. You come to see me with your eyes like jasmine flames. You circle my entire body, patting and caressing, then curl up inside me and sing me a song, a lullaby: "I Want Everybody":
I want to be free
in the mystery of love
I want to be wild
when the world begins again
I want to wake up and listen
Be in love with my life and death
and I want you to be there with me
I want all the children
to have enough to eat
I want all the angry men
to destroy their own pain
I want us all to be happy
and crazy and safe and real
I want everybody to be loved
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P.S.: Hear the song here: bit.ly/1Mrkck6
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Tribes Build a Traditional Watch House to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion.
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The Catholic Sisters Empowering Women Around the World.
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Scotland Just Powered More Than 5 Million Homes In One Month Using Renewable Energy
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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 April 26
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The Simpsons is the longest-running American TV sitcom and animated series. But it had a rough start. In the fall of 1989, when producers staged a private pre-release screening of the first episode, they realized the animation was mediocre. They worked hard to redo it, replacing 70 percent of the original content. After that slow start, the process got easier and the results got better. When the program completes its thirtieth season in 2019, it will have aired 669 episodes. I don't know if your own burgeoning project will ultimately have as enduring a presence, Taurus, but I'm pretty sure that, like The Simpsons, it will eventually become better than it is in the early going. Stick with it.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The coming weeks might be an interesting time to resurrect a frustrated dream you abandoned in a wasteland; or rescue and restore a moldering treasure you stopped taking care of a while back; or revive a faltering commitment you've been ignoring for reasons that aren't very high-minded. Is there a secret joy you've been denying yourself without good cause? Renew your relationship with it. Is there a rough prize you received before you were ready to make smart use of it? Maybe you're finally ready. Are you brave enough to dismantle a bad habit that hampers your self-mastery? I suspect you are.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
The Hollywood film industry relies heavily on recycled ideas. In 2014, for example, only one of the ten top-grossing movies -- Interstellar -- was not a sequel, remake, reboot, or episode in a franchise. In the coming weeks and months, Cancerian, you'll generate maximum health and wisdom for yourself by being more like Interstellar than like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the six other top-ten rehashes of 2014. Be original!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Long ago, in the land we now call Italy, humans regarded Mars as the divine protector of fields. He was the fertility god who ripened the food crops. Farmers said prayers to him before planting seeds, asking for his blessings. But as the Roman Empire arose, and warriors began to outnumber farmers, the deity who once served as a kind benefactor evolved into a militant champion, even a fierce and belligerent conqueror. In accordance with current astrological omens, Leo, I encourage you to evolve in the opposite direction. Now is an excellent time to transmute aggressiveness and combativeness into fecundity and tenderness.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
You sometimes get superstitious when life is going well. You worry about growing overconfident. You're afraid that if you enjoy yourself too much, you will anger the gods and jinx your good fortune. Is any of that noise clouding your mood these days? I hope not; it shouldn't be. The truth, as I see it, is that your intuition is extra-strong and your decision-making is especially adroit. More luck than usual is flowing in your vicinity, and you have an enhanced knack for capitalizing on it. In my estimation, therefore, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to build up your hunger for vivid adventures and bring your fantasies at least one step closer to becoming concrete realities. Whisper the following to yourself as you drop off to sleep each night: "I will allow myself to think bigger and bolder than usual."
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The bad news is that 60 percent of Nevada's Lake Mead has dried up. The good news -- at least for historians, tourists, and hikers -- is that the Old West town of St. Thomas has re-emerged. It had sunk beneath the water in 1936, when the government built the dam that created the lake. But as the lake has shrunk in recent years, old buildings and roads have reappeared. I foresee a comparable resurfacing in your life, Libra: the return of a lost resource or vanished possibility or departed influence.
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ARE YOU THE HERO OF YOUR OWN LIFE?
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." So begins Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield.
I'd like to inspire you to write a story of your own that begins like that. That's why I provide these free horoscopes for you.
If you'd ever like even more assistance from me, tune into your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, which I create for you each week. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
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 bring out more of the patient counselor in me, and have a bit less of the poet.
To buy and listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to RealAstrology.com. Register and/or log in through the main page.
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"The best part about your audio horoscopes is that they pat me on the head and kick me in the ass at the same time." - Rita L., San Diego
"Your audio oracles go beyond helping me find the truth -- they inspire me to find the WILD truth." - Patrick K., Montreal
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
I hope the next seven weeks will be a time of renaissance for your most engaging alliances. The astrological omens suggest it can be. Would you like to take advantage of this cosmic invitation? If so, try the following strategies. 1. Arrange for you and each of your close companions to relive the time when you first met. Recall and revitalize the dispensation that originally brought you together. 2. Talk about the influences you've had on each other and the ways your relationship has evolved. 3. Fantasize about the inspirations and help you'd like to offer each other in the future. 4. Brainstorm about the benefits your connection has provided and will provide for the rest of the world.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Now is one of the rare times when you should be alert for the potential downsides of blessings that usually sustain you. Even the best things in life could require adjustments. Even your most enlightened attitudes and mature beliefs may have pockets of ignorance. So don't be a prisoner of your own success or a slave of good habits. Your ability to adjust and make corrections will be key to the most interesting kind of progress you can achieve in the coming weeks.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn author Simone de Beauvoir was a French feminist and activist. In her book A Transatlantic Love Affair, she made a surprising confession: Thanks to the assistance of a new lover, Nelson Algren, she finally had her first orgasm at age 39. Better late than never, right? I suspect that you, too, are currently a good candidate to be transported to a higher octave of pleasure. Even if you're an old pro at sexual climax, there may be a new level of bliss awaiting you in some other way. Ask for it! Seek it out! Solicit it!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Can you afford to hire someone to do your busy work for a while? If so, do it. If not, see if you can avoid the busy work for a while. In my astrological opinion, you need to deepen and refine your skills at lounging around and doing nothing. The cosmic omens strongly and loudly and energetically suggest that you should be soft and quiet and placid. It's time for you to recharge your psychospiritual batteries as you dream up new approaches to making love, making money, and making sweet nonsense. Please say a demure "no, thanks" to the strident demands of the status quo, my dear. Trust the stars in your own eyes.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I believe it's a favorable time for you to add a new mentor to your entourage. If you don't have a mentor, go exploring until you find one. In the next five weeks, you might even consider mustering a host of fresh teachers, guides, trainers, coaches, and initiators. My reading of the astrological omens suggests that you're primed to learn twice as much and twice as fast about every subject that will be important for you during the next two years. Your future educational needs require your full attention.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Imagine you're one of four porcupines caught in frigid weather. To keep warm, you all have the urge to huddle together and pool your body heat. But whenever you try to get close, you prick each other with your quills. The only solution to that problem is to move away from each other, even though it means you can't quell your chill as well. This scenario was used by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud as a parable for the human dilemma. We want to be intimate with each other, Freud said, but we hurt each other when we try. The oft-chosen solution is to be partially intimate: not as close as we would like to be, but only as much as we can bear. Now everything I just said, Aries, is a preface for better news: In the coming weeks, neither your own quills nor those of the people you care about will be as sharp or as long as usual.
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HOMEWORK:
Choose two ancestors with whom you'd like to have closer relationships. Contact their spirits in your dreams. 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 2018 Rob Brezsny
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