Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 19, 2018
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Readers of my horoscope column "Free Will Astrology" are sometimes surprised when I say I only believe in astrology about 80 percent. "You're a quack?!" they cry. Not at all, I explain. I've been a passionate student of the ancient art for years. About the time my over-educated young brain was on the verge of desertification, crazy wisdom showed up in the guise of astrology, moistening my soul just in time to save it.
"But what about the other 20 percent?" they press on. "Are you saying your horoscopes are only partially true?"
I assure them that my doubt proves my love. By cultivating a tender, cheerful skepticism, I inoculate myself against the virus of fanaticism. This ensures that astrology will be a supple tool in my hands, an adaptable art form, and not a rigid, explain-it-all dogma that over-literalizes and distorts the mysteries it seeks to illuminate . . .
Read the rest of this essay: tinyurl.com/yd69jy9z
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UNCONDITIONAL by Jennifer Welwood:
Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,
I gain the embrace of the universe;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me,
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed
Into its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so,
Who has crafted this Master Game;
To play it is purest delight;
To honor its form – true devotion.
—Jennifer Welwood
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UPLIFTING GOSSIP
I imagine the possibility of helping to establish a tradition of uplifting gossip, full of praise and gratitude. What about, if instead of naming the shadowy aspects of our friends and acquaintances behind their backs, we identified, celebrated, and propitiated their divine glory and shining wonder?
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WHAT DO YOU WORSHIP?
"In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
"If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness."
—David Foster Wallace
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ASKING FOR SUPPORT!
It's hard for me to ask for help. One of my character flaws is that I feel like I'm burdening people if I seek their support. That's not very pronoiac, I know!
But I'm overcoming my neurotic tendency right now by asking for help and 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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HAVE YOUR OWN KIND OF FUN
Have Fun, even if it’s not the same kind of fun everyone else is having.
—C. S. Lewis
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DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF OPITMISM
The writing is on the wall. I'll tell you part of what it says: Be a crafty, discerning optimist who champions social and economic justice, not a careless, gullible optimist who basks in privilege and entitlement.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Three women walk into a bar, utterly subverting a male-dominated joke paradigm.
tinyurl.com/y74xbxlw
Remember that at any moment, there are a thousand things you can love.
tinyurl.com/ya3asaom
Scientist Whose Male Boss Won Nobel For Her Work Is Giving New $3 Million Prize Away. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is creating a scholarship for women, refugees and minorities to study physics.
tinyurl.com/ya2kte6q
(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 20
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
As he stepped up to use an ATM in a supermarket, a Scottish man named Colin Banks found £30 (about $40 U.S.) that the person who used the machine before him had inadvertently neglected to take. But rather than pocketing it, Banks turned it in to a staff member, and eventually the cash was reunited with its proper owner. Shortly after performing his good deed, Bank won £50,000 (about $64,500 U.S.) in a game of chance. It was instant karma in dramatic action—the positive kind! My analysis of the astrological omens reveals that you're more likely than usual to benefit from expeditious cosmic justice like that. That's why I suggest you intensify your commitment to doing good deeds.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
As you dive down into your soul's depths in quest for renewal, remember this testimony from poet Scherezade Siobhan: "I want to dig out what is ancient in me, the mistaken-for-monster . . . and let it teach me how to be unafraid again." Are you brave and brazen enough to do that yourself? It's an excellent time to douse your fear by drawing wild power from the primal sources of your life. To earn the right to soar through the heights in November and December, delve as deep as you can in the coming weeks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
According to author Elizabeth Gilbert, here's "the central question upon which all creative living hinges: do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?" When I read that thought, my first response was, why are the treasures hidden? Shouldn't they be completely obvious? My second response was, why do you need courage to bring forth the treasures? Shouldn't that be the easiest and most enjoyable task imaginable? Everything you just read is a perfect riddle for you to contemplate during the next 14 months, Sagittarius.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
A blogger named Sage Grace offers her readers a list of "cool things to call me besides cute." They include dazzling, alluring, sublime, magnificent, and exquisite. Is it OK if I apply those same adjectives to you, Capricorn? I'd like to add a few more, as well: resplendent, delightful, intriguing, magnetic, and incandescent. I hope that in response you don't flinch with humility or protest that you're not worthy of such glorification. According to my astrological analysis, now is one of those times when you deserve extra appreciation for your idiosyncratic appeal and intelligence. Tell your allies and loved ones that I said so. Inform them, too, that giving you this treatment could help mobilize one of your half-asleep potentials.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Many educated Americans and Europeans think of reincarnation as a loony delusion, even though it's a cornerstone of spiritual belief for over 1.5 billion earthlings. I myself regard it as a hypothesis worthy of intelligent consideration, although I'd need hundreds of pages to explain my version of it. However you imagine it, Aquarius, you now have extra access to knowledge and skills and proclivities you possessed in what we might refer to as your "past lives"—especially in those past lives in which you were an explorer, maverick, outlaw, or pioneer. I bet you'll feel freer and more experimental than usual during the next four weeks.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"When the winds of change blow," says a Chinese proverb, "some people build walls while others build windmills." Since the light breezes of change may soon evolve into brisk gusts of change in your vicinity, I wanted to bring this thought to your attention. Will you be more inclined to respond by constructing walls or windmills? I don't think it would be foolish for you to favor the walls, but in the long run I suspect that windmills would serve you better.
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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. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
To buy and 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 Audio Horoscopes provide me with the Rest of the Story. I'm not necessarily a believer in the scientific accuracy of astrology, but I do think you've got a lot of practical wisdom to impart."
- M. Tennenbaum, New York
"No one knows more about me than me. But you're right up there near the top of the list of people who do understand something about how I tick. How is that possible?"
- R. Goren, Albuquerque
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ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"The flower doesn't dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes." So says poet and philosopher Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening. Now I'm transmitting his observation to you. I hope it will motivate you to expend less energy fantasizing about what you want and devote more energy to becoming the beautiful, useful, irresistible presence that will attract what you want. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to make plans to produce very specific blossoms.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Budi Waseso, the former head of the Indonesian government's anti-narcotics division, had a radical plan to prevent escapes by people convicted of drug-related crimes. He sought to build detention centers that would be surrounded by moats filled with crocodiles and piranhas. But his replacement, Heru Winarko, has a different approach. He wants addicts and dealers to receive counseling in comfortable rehabilitation centers. I hope that in the coming weeks, as you deal with weaknesses, flaws, and sins—both your own and others'—you'll opt for an approach more like Winarko's than Waseso's.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In one sense, a "patron saint" is a Catholic saint who is a heavenly advocate for a person, group, activity, thing, or place. St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, for instance. St. Francis of Assisi is the guardian of animal welfare and St. Kentigern is the protector against verbal abusers. "Patron saint" may also be invoked poetically to refer to a person who serves as a special guide or influence. For example, in one of his short stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne refers to a veteran nurse as "the patron saint of young physicians." In accordance with current astrological omens, I invite you to fantasize about persons, groups, activities, things, or places for whom you might be the patron saint. To spur your imagination, here are some appropriate possibilities. You could be the patron saint of the breeze at dawn; of freshly picked figs; of singing humorous love songs in the sunlight; of unpredictable romantic adventures; of life-changing epiphanies while hiking in nature; of soul-stirring music.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
In August 1933, author Virginia Woolf wrote a critical note to her friend, the composer Ethel Smyth, lamenting her lack of emotional subtlety. "For you," Woolf told Smyth, "either things are black, or they're white; either they're sobs or shouts—whereas, I always glide from semi-tone to semi-tone." In the coming weeks, fellow Cancerian, you may encounter people who act like Smyth. But it will be your sacred duty, both to yourself and to life, to remain loyal and faithful to the rich complexity of your feelings.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
"People think of education as something they can finish," said writer and scientist Isaac Asimov, who wrote or edited over 500 books. His point was that we're wise to be excited about learning new lessons as long as we're on this earth. To cultivate maximum vitality, we should always be engaged in the processes of absorbing new knowledge and mastering new skills and deepening our understanding. Does that sound appealing to you, Leo? I hope so, especially in the coming weeks, when you will have an enhanced ability to see the big picture of your future needs for education.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo businessman Warren Buffet is among the top five wealthiest people on the planet. In an average year, his company Berkshire Hathaway adds $36 billion to its already swollen coffers. But in 2017, thanks to the revision of the U.S. tax code by President Trump and his buddies, Buffet earned $65 billion—an increase of 83 percent over his usual haul. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you're entering a year-long phase when your financial chances could have a mild resemblance to Buffet's 2017. I'm not predicting your earnings will increase by 83 percent. But 15 percent isn't unreasonable. So start planning how you'll do it!
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HOMEWORK:
Imagine you get three wishes on one condition: they can't benefit you directly, but have to be wished on someone else's behalf. 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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