Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
August 29, 2018
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Bless your appetite. May it be voracious and unapologetic.
Much respect for your buried needs and secret yearnings. May they flow into plain view for you to embrace and celebrate.
Congratulations for your willingness to name the unspeakable truths and acknowledge the embarrassing fears. May you be willing to rebel against your self-image for the sake of gaining access to deeper reserves of power and competence.
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ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR DEMONS
You have to recognize the demons or else they'll annoy you like mosquitoes, But if you acknowledge their existence, if you say, "All right, here's a cookie, go sit in the corner." then you can go about your work and you don't have to go into depression about it. —James Broughton
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SUPPORT
I was born under the sign of Cancerian the Crab. One of the potential weaknesses of our tribe is that we can tend to be almost pathologically self-sufficient. Some of us may find it challenging to ask for help and support. In my continuing effort to overcome this inclination, I'm asking for your support!
If you would like to contribute to me and my ongoing work, please visit my Virtual Tip Jar at Paypal. It's here: paypal.me/FreeWillAstrology
You can also contribute to my well-being by buying the Expanded Audio Horoscopes I create every week. These forecasts are different in tone and content from the written horoscopes I provide here. They're my four- to five-minute-long ruminations about the current chapter of your life story. They're available at freewillastrology.sparkns.com
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING A LIFE
Poet Mary Oliver provides us with this excellent guidance:
Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
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Here are some suggestions I would add:
Make the invisible dark force beautiful.
Create a song out of your moans.
Brag about your wounds.
Sneak a gift to your bad self.
Dissolve the ties that bind you to hollow intelligence.
Train yourself in the art of unpredictability.
Play forever in time's blessing.
Lift up your heart unto the wild sun.
Distribute your favors to the little ones who can never pay you back.
Fall out of love with fear.
Make beautiful messes in the midst of ugly messes.
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THE SUBVERSIVE POWER OF JOY
by Janey Stephenson:
"The unexpected, spontaneous and pleasantly disruptive nature of collective celebration is one of the great equalizers of social and political struggle.
"Holding onto and centering joy is a vital tactic for personal and group resilience, as well as political resistance to an agenda that seeks to enforce hierarchy and division through mass fear.
"Authoritarianism is directly incompatible with collective joy; it demands fear, obedience, hierarchy and an obsession with security and preparation for war.
"The unexpected, spontaneous and pleasantly disruptive nature of collective joy takes people off guard and is one of the great equalizers of social and political struggle."
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DANCING TO DISSOLVE HIERARCHY
"Liberation movements have a long history of communal dance. The writer Barbara Ehrenreich has documented the history of collective joy in her book "Dancing In The Streets." She argues that collective and ecstatic dancing is a nearly universal "biotechnology" for binding groups together.
"Physical movement—a powerful escalation of typical protest chanting—not only releases emotion, it also creates bonding, trust and equality, dissolving hierarchy and increasing a sense of community."
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MANY KINDS OF MEDITATION, NOT JUST ONE
"Lama Surya Das, the "Buddha from Brooklyn," is one of the handful of Westerners who have been teaching meditation for decades. And yet, he says we’re doing it wrong.
Lama Surya Das says there are other ways to meditate besides those that are currently popular: "So many people seem to be moving narcissistically into self-centered happiness-seeking and quietism, not to mention the use of mindfulness for mere effectiveness," he says. "True meditation generates wisdom and compassion, which may be very disquieting, at least in the short term."
"'Quiet your mind' or 'calm and clear your mind' are instructions I hear way too much," he says. "Some teachers actually encourage people to try to stop thinking, when in fact meditative awareness means being mindful of thoughts and feelings, not simply trying to reduce, alter or white them out and achieve some kind of oblivion."
"The anti-intellectual meditators, thought-swatters and imagination-suppressors have long ruled meditation-oriented circles in the West," he says. "But authentic meditative practices can enhance and even unleash the creativity and imagination.'
You don’t have to quiet the mind to do many of the types of meditation he proposes. They don't involve trying to find a quiet 'moment of Zen' apart from the messy, noisy world of work, family and children, but rather inviting all of the noise into meditation.
These thoughts are from an article by Jay Michaelson in huffingtonpost.com. More here: tinyurl.com/o8yl9jc
Lama Surya Das's book: tinyurl.com/ooltqx2
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life. There hasn’t been a single scientific study in the last few decades that has demonstrated that plants or animals are dumber than we think. It’s always the opposite. We're at the edge of a wonderful revolution in understanding the sentience of other beings.
tinyurl.com/y8wzp2zc
A forester explains, scientifically, how individual trees in forests actually communicate intelligently, and interact with each other, and with subterranean fungi, for the mutual benefit of the forest community:
tinyurl.com/y8edv3fn
How can we make people more aware on a feeling level the global ecocide that’s underway? How can we heal the human race’s alienation from, and destruction of, the natural environment?
tinyurl.com/ycjmdjg6
(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.
Read old but still useful archives of Pronoia Resources: pronoiaresources.com
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning August 30
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran loved the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. "Without Bach, God would be a complete second-rate figure," he testified, adding, "Bach's music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded as a complete failure." I invite you to emulate Cioran's passionate clarity, Virgo. From an astrological perspective, now is an excellent time to identify people and things that consistently invigorate your excitement about your destiny. Maybe you have just one shining exemplar, like Cioran, or maybe you have more. Home in on the phenomena that in your mind embody the glory of creation.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I foresee the withering of a hope or the disappearance of a prop or the loss of leverage. This ending may initially make you feel melancholy, but I bet it will ultimately prove beneficent—and maybe lead you to resources that were previously unavailable. Here are rituals you could perform that may help you catalyze the specific kind of relief and release you need: 1. Wander around a graveyard and sing songs you love. 2. Tie one end of a string around your ankle and the other end around an object that symbolizes an influence you want to banish from your life. Then cut the string and bury the object. 3. Say this ten times: "The end makes the beginning possible."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"If a man treats a life artistically, his brain is his heart," wrote Oscar Wilde. I'll translate that into a more complete version: "If a person of any gender treats life artistically, their brain is their heart." This truth will be especially applicable for you in the coming weeks. You'll be wise to treat your life artistically. You'll thrive by using your heart as your brain. So I advise you to wield your intelligence with love. Understand that your most incisive insights will come when you're feeling empathy and seeking intimacy. As you crystallize clear visions about the future, make sure they are generously suffused with ideas about how you and your people can enhance your joie de vivre.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"My tastes are simple," testified Sagittarian politician Winston Churchill. "I am easily satisfied with the best." I propose that we make that your motto for now. While it may not be a sound idea to demand only the finest of everything all the time, I think it will be wise for you to do so during the next three weeks. You will have a mandate to resist trifles and insist on excellence. Luckily, this should motivate you to raise your own standards and expect the very best from yourself.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov articulated a principle he felt was essential to telling a good story: If you say early in your tale that there's a rifle hanging on the wall, that rifle must eventually be used. "If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there," declared Chekhov. We might wish that real life unfolded with such clear dramatic purpose. To have our future so well-foreshadowed would make it easier to plan our actions. But that's not often the case. Many elements pop up in our personal stories that ultimately serve no purpose. Except now, that is, for you Capricorns. I suspect that in the next six weeks, plot twists will be telegraphed in advance.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Would it be fun to roast marshmallows on long sticks over scorching volcanic vents? I suppose. Would it be safe? No! Aside from the possibility that you could get burned, the sulfuric acid in the vapors would make the cooked marshmallows taste terrible, and might cause them to explode. So I advise you to refrain from adventures like that. On the other hand, I will love it if you cultivate a playful spirit as you contemplate serious decisions. I'm in favor of you keeping a blithe attitude as you navigate your way through tricky maneuvers. I hope you'll be jaunty in the midst of rumbling commotions.
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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.
To 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 cost is $6 per sign on the Web, AND discounts ARE available for bulk purchases.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888. The cost is or $1.99 per minute, and each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
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"I don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the way of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio horoscopes."
- A. Arrosto, Indianapolis
"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself. Thanks for the gentle shocks."
- T. Preneris, Toronto
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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
People will be thinking about you more than usual, and with greater intensity. Allies and acquaintances will be revising their opinions and understandings about you, mostly in favorable ways, although not always. Loved ones and not-so-loved ones will also be reworking their images of you, coming to altered conclusions about what you mean to them and what your purpose is. Given these developments, I suggest that you be proactive about expressing your best intentions and displaying your finest attributes.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, our heroine encounters a talking caterpillar as he smokes a hookah on top of a tall mushroom. "Who are you?" he asks her. Alice is honest: "I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." She says this with uneasiness. In the last few hours, she has twice been shrunken down to a tiny size and twice grown as big as a giant. All these transformations have unnerved her. In contrast to Alice, I'm hoping you'll have a positive attitude about your upcoming shifts and mutations, Aries. From what I can tell, your journey through the Season of Metamorphosis should be mostly fun and educational.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Juan Villarino has hitchhiked over 2,350 times in 90 countries. His free rides have carried him over 100,000 miles. He has kept detailed records, so he's able to say with confidence that Iraq is the best place to catch a lift. Average wait time there is seven minutes. Jordan and Romania are good, too, with nine- and twelve-minute waits, respectively. In telling you about his success, I don't mean to suggest that now is a favorable time to hitchhike. But I do want you to know that the coming weeks will be prime time to solicit favors, garner gifts, and make yourself available for metaphorical equivalents of free rides. You're extra magnetic and attractive. How could anyone resist providing you with the blessings you need and deserve?
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
One of the big stories of 2018 concerns your effort to escape from a star-crossed trick of fate—to fix a long-running tweak that has subtly undermined your lust for life. How successful will you be in this heroic quest? That will hinge in part on your faith in the new power you've been developing. Another factor that will determine the outcome is your ability to identify and gain access to a resource that is virtually magical even though it appears nondescript. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because I suspect that a key plot twist in this story will soon unfold.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Potential new allies are seeking entrance to your domain. Existing allies aspire to be closer to you. I'm worried you may be a bit overwhelmed; that you might not exercise sufficient discrimination. I therefore urge you to ask yourself these questions about each candidate. 1. Does this person understand what it means to respect your boundaries? 2. What are his or her motivations for wanting contact with you? 3. Do you truly value and need the gifts each person has to give you? 4. Everyone in the world has a dark side. Can you intuit the nature of each person's dark side? Is it tolerable? Is it interesting?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
While a young man, the future Roman leader Julius Caesar was kidnapped by Sicilian pirates. They proposed a ransom of 620 kilograms of silver. Caesar was incensed at the small size of the ransom—he believed he was worth more—and demanded that his captors raise the sum to 1,550 kilograms. I'd love to see you unleash that kind of bravado in the coming weeks, Leo—preferably without getting yourself kidnapped. In my opinion, it's crucial that you know how valuable you are, and make sure everyone else knows, as well.
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HOMEWORK:
What pose would it be a relief for you to drop? How are you faking, and what could you do to stop? 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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