Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 5, 2018
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Cosmic Joke Alert: Long-term luck may initially be disguised as short-term upheaval.
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All your adult life, the universe has played tricks on you. Some of them have been so convoluted and enigmatic that you didn't even get the joke. But lately the universe's pranks have become more comprehensible, and have even seemed to display a touch of kindness.
What's going on? Have you finally paid off your ancient karmic debt? Has your sense of humor expanded so much that you can now laugh at what once made you cringe?
Maybe you're simply beginning to cash in on the strength and smarts you've been forced to cultivate over the years in order to deal with all of God's mischief.
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HOW DO I LOVE THEE?
I love your pilgrim soul and I love your ever-deepening eyes.
I love how unflinchingly you peer into the heart of your own darkness.
I love how you're making yourself more and more receptive to truths in their wild states.
I love how you can lose yourself in passion but never shirk your commitment to the good and the true.
I admire the way you never bear a grudge against the mountains that are in your way, but rather just set to work getting around them.
I love your commitment to deciphering the code you left for yourself before you came into this life.
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THE ART OF INTIMACY
Gertrude Stein said love thrives through "the skillful audacity to share an inner life."
It suggests that expressing the truth about who you are is not something that amateurs do well. Disciplined practice and ingenuity are required. It also implies that courage is an essential element of successful intimacy. You may have to be adventurous if you want to weave your life together with another's.
Comments? Refutations? Action steps?
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PLEASURE AS A KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH?
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure 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.
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HOW DID YOU FIND MY HOROSCOPES?
I'd like to hear your story about how and where you first discovered my horoscopes. Tell me at Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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I'm sad to hear that New York's Village Voice is closing down forever. I learned a lot about writing by reading the Voice in the 1980s, then experienced the great fortune of having my column Free Will Astrology published in its pages every week from 1999 to 2013.
Many people who first found out about my column did so by reading it in the Village Voice.
More: tinyurl.com/VillageVoiceCloses
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
How Meditation Practice Can Impact Deforestation.
tinyurl.com/yc86vu3h
Berry Farmers Break Free From Big Agriculture.
These farmworkers created an organic co-op that guarantees fair wages and healthy working conditions while preserving indigenous heritage.
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Why Mister Rogers Is the Role Model We Need Right Now.
The unconventional children’s television pioneer celebrated dignity and kindness in the age of mass media.
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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 September 6
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
By volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. But where does it originate? Scientists have squabbled about that issue for over 300 years. Everyone agrees the source is in southwestern Peru. But is it the Apurímac River? The Marañón? The Mantaro? There are good arguments in favor of each. Let's use this question as a poetic subtext as we wonder and meditate about the origin of your life force, Virgo. As is the case for the Amazon, your source has long been mysterious. But I suspect that's going to change during the next 14 months. And the clarification process begins soon.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
When Warsan Shire was a child, she immigrated to the UK with her Somalian parents. Now she's a renowned poet who writes vividly about refugees, immigrants, and other marginalized people. To provide support and inspiration for the part of you that feels like an exile or fugitive or displaced person, and in accordance with current astrological omens, I offer you two quotes by Shire. 1. "I belong deeply to myself." 2. "Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself—what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Once in a while came a moment when everything seemed to have something to say to you." So says a character in Alice Munro's short story "Jakarta." Now I'm using that message as the key theme of your horoscope. Why? Because you're at the peak of your ability to be reached, to be touched, to be communicated with. You're willing to be keenly receptive. You're strong enough to be deeply influenced. Is it because you're so firmly anchored in your understanding and acceptance of who you are?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In 1928, novelist Virginia Woolf wrote a letter to her friend Saxon Sidney Turner. "I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading," she confided, "since one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time." My usual inclination is to counsel you Sagittarians to focus on one or two important matters rather than on a multitude of semi-important matters. But in accordance with current astrological omens, I'm departing from tradition to suggest you adopt Woolf's approach to books as your approach to everything. Your life in the coming weeks should be less like an acoustic ballad and more like a symphony for 35 instruments.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Not many goats can climb trees, but there are daredevils in Morocco that do. They go in quest of the delicious olive-like berries that grow on argan trees. The branches on which they perch may be 30 feet off the ground. I'm naming them as your power creature for the coming weeks. I think you're ready to ascend higher in search of goodies. You have the soulful agility necessary to transcend your previous level of accomplishment.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
From 49-45 BC, civil war wracked the Roman Republic. Julius Caesar led forces representing the common people against armies fighting for the aristocracy's interests. In 45 BC, Caesar brought a contingent of soldiers to Roman territory in North Africa, intent on launching a campaign against the enemy. As the general disembarked from his ship, he accidentally slipped and fell. Thinking fast, he exclaimed, "Africa, I have tight told of you!" and clasped the ground, thus implying he had lowered himself on purpose in a ritual gesture of conquest. In this way, he converted an apparent bad omen into a positive one. And indeed, he won the ensuing battle, which was the turning point that led to ultimate victory and the war's end. That's good role modeling for you right now.
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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.
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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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"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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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Below are sweet words I've borrowed from poets I love. I invite you to use them to communicate with anyone who is primed to become more lyrically intimate with you. The time is right for you to reach out! 1. "You look like a sea of gems." —Qahar Aasi 2. "I love you with what in me is unfinished." —Robert Bly 3. "Yours is the light by which my spirit's born." —E. E. Cummings 4. "Tell me the most exquisite truths you know." —Barry Hannah 5. "It's very rare to know you, very strange and wonderful." —F. Scott Fitzgerald 6. "When you smile like that you are as beautiful as all my secrets." —Anne Carson 7. Everything you say is "like a secret voice speaking straight out of my own bones." —Sylvia Plath
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Now is an excellent time to feel and explore and understand and even appreciate your sadness. To get you in the mood, here's a list of sadnesses from novelist Jonathan Safran Foer: sadness of the could-have-been; sadness of being misunderstood; sadness of having too many options; sadness of being smart; sadness of awkward conversations; sadness of feeling the need to create beautiful things; sadness of going unnoticed; sadness of domesticated birds; sadness of arousal being an unordinary physical state; sadness of wanting sadness.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Do you have any feral qualities lurking deep down inside you? Have you ever felt a mad yearning to communicate using howls and yips instead of words? When you're alone, do you sometimes dispense with your utensils and scoop the food off your plate with your fingers? Have you dreamed of running through a damp meadow under the full moon for the sheer ecstasy of it? Do you on occasion experience such strong erotic urges that you feel like you could weave your body and soul together with the color green or the sound of a rain-soaked river or the moon rising over the hills? I ask these questions, Taurus, because now is an excellent time to draw on the instinctual wisdom of your feral qualities.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"Close some doors today," writes novelist Paulo Coelho. "Not because of pride, incapacity, or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere." I endorse his advice for your use, Gemini. In my astrological opinion, you'll be wise to practice the rough but fine art of saying NO. It's time for you to make crisp decisions about where you belong and where you don't; about where your future fulfillment is likely to thrive and where it won't; about which relationships deserve your sage intimacy and which tend to push you in the direction of mediocrity.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
To casual observers you may seem to be an amorphous hodgepodge, or a simmering mess of semi-interesting confusion, or an amiable dabbler headed in too many directions at once. But in my opinion, casual observers would be wrong in that assessment. What's closer to the symbolic truth about you is an image described by poet Carolyn Forché: grapes that are ripening in the fog. Here's another image that resonates with your current state: sea turtle eggs gestating beneath the sand on a misty ocean beach. One further metaphor for you: the bright yellow flowers of the evening primrose plant, which only bloom at night.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I want to make sure that the groove you're in doesn't devolve into a rut. So I'll ask you unexpected questions to spur your imagination in unpredictable directions. Ready? 1. How would you describe the untapped riches in the shadowy part of your personality? 2. Is there a rare object you'd like to own because it would foster your feeling that the world has magic and miracles? 3. Imagine the perfect party you'd love to attend and how it might change your life for the better. 4. What bird most reminds you of yourself? 5. What's your most evocative and inspiring taboo daydream? 6. In your past, were there ever experiences that made you cry for joy in ways that felt almost orgasmic? How might you attract or induce a catharsis like that sometime soon?
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HOMEWORK:
What good old thing could you give up in order to attract a great new thing into your life? 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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