Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 3, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Since 1995, I've been offering my written horoscopes on the Internet for free. I love doing that. It's relaxing to be able to offer you my oracles without asking for anything in return. It's healthy for my soul and yours.
But I also don't mind earning money from doing what I love to do. That's why I make it possible for you to bless me with donations. If you would like to contribute to me and my well-being, please visit my Gift Page: paypal.me/GiftsForRob
Give your gift via the "Friends and Family" option.
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In addition to the free written horoscopes I provide in this newsletter, I also offer two other sources of astrological information that cost money: my Expanded Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes.
I love you just as much if you don't buy my extra stuff as if you do! No pressure! But if you would like the extra stuff, here's how to get it:
Go to freewillastrology.sparkns.com. Register or log in. On the new page, you have two choices: Expanded Audio Horoscopes or Daily Text Message Horoscopes.
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If you know someone who might like to receive this free weekly newsletter, direct them to this page: www.freewillastrology.com/newsletter/
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YOUR PATH
"If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.“
— Joseph Campbell
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WILDER, WETTER, MORE INTERESTING PROBLEMS
Conventional wisdom implies that the best problems are those that place you under duress. There's supposedly no gain without pain. Stress is allegedly an incomparable spur for calling on resources that have been previously unavailable or dormant. Nietzsche's aphorism, "That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger," has achieved the status of a maxim.
There's some truth in that perspective. But it's clear that stress also accompanies many mediocre problems that have little power to make us smarter. Pain frequently generates no gain. We're all prone to become habituated, even addicted, to nagging vexations that go on and on without rousing any of our sleeping genius.
There is, furthermore, another class of difficulty—let's call it the delightful dilemma—that neither feeds on angst nor generates it. On the contrary, it's fun and invigorating, and usually blooms when you're feeling a profound sense of being at home in the world. The problem of writing my books is a good example. I have abundant fun handling the perplexing challenges with which they confront me.
Imagine a life in which at least half of your quandaries match this profile. Act as if you're most likely to attract useful problems when joy is your predominant mood. Consider the possibility that being in unsettling circumstances may shrink your capacity to dream up the riddles you need most; that maybe it's hard to ask the best questions when you're preoccupied fighting rearguard battles against boring or demeaning annoyances that have plagued you for many moons.
Prediction: As an aspiring lover of pronoia, you will have a growing knack for gravitating toward wilder, wetter, more interesting problems. More and more, you will be drawn to the kind of gain that doesn't necessarily require pain. You'll be so alive and awake that you'll cheerfully push yourself out of your comfort zone in the direction of your personal frontier well before you're forced to do so by fate's kicks in the ass.
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NO SUCH THING AS PREDESTINATION
Contrary to what some horoscope fans believe, there’s no such thing as predestination. Fate is a tricky, wiggly sucker that keeps changing its inclination about where it wants to go. Your willpower has a role to play in that drama. As the astrological saying goes, “The stars may impel, but they don’t compel.”
That’s why I’ve never really considered myself a fortuneteller. I prefer to think that my service is as a psychic intelligence agent, helping you expose the hidden patterns and unconscious forces that may be affecting your life without your knowledge. If I “predict” anything, it’s not so much the future as the missing part of the present.
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35 STEPS MEN CAN TAKE TO SUPPORT FEMINISM
by Pamela Clark:
tinyurl.com/SupportFeminism
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BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD
The startling truth is that our best efforts for civil rights, international peace, population control, conservation of natural resources, and assistance to the starving of the earth—urgent as they are—will destroy rather than help if made in the present spirit.
"For, as things stand, we have nothing to give. If our own riches and our own way of life are not enjoyed here, they will not be enjoyed anywhere else. Certainly they will supply the immediate jolt of energy and hope that methedrine, and similar drugs, give in extreme fatigue.
"But peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
- Alan W. Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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LOVING ANIMALS
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
~Anatole France
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See wonderful photos of beloved animals by Rob MacInnis: www.robmacinnis.com/
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
For more about the good news stories below, plus links to the articles that provide full evidence, go here: tinyurl.com/ya8kb4rh
1. Thanks to tightening restrictions, the United Kingdom reported a 12% drop in vehicle emissions since 2012, as well as significant overall drop in air pollutants.
2. 250 of the world’s major brands, including Coca-Cola, Kellogs, and Nestle, agreed to make sure that 100% of their plastic packaging will be reused, recycled, or composted by 2025.
3. The European Parliament passed a full ban on single-use plastics, estimated to make up over 70% of marine litter. It will come into effect in 2021.
4. As of the end of 2018, at least 32 countries around the world had plastic bag bans in place—and nearly half are in Africa. Kenya enacted the world’s toughest plastic bag ban, and has reported that its waterways are clearer, the food chain is less contaminated—and there are fewer ‘flying toilets.’
5. China said it had seen a 66% reduction in plastic bag usage since the rollout of its 2008 ban, and that it has avoided the use of an estimated 40 billion bags.
6. India’s second most populous state, Maharashtra, home to 116 million people, banned all single use plastic (including packaging) on June 23 of 2018.
7. India’s environment minister also announced the country would eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022. Oh, and three years after India made it compulsory to use plastic waste in road construction, there are now 100,000 kilometers of plastic roads in the country.
8. Four years after imposing a levy, the United Kingdom said it had used nine billion fewer plastic bags, and the number being found on the seabed has plummeted.
9. Following a ban by two of its biggest retailers, Australia cut its plastic bag usage by 80% in three months, saving 1.5 billions bags from entering the waste stream.
10. There is now a giant 600-meter-long boom in the Pacific that uses oceanic forces to clean up plastic, and you can track its progress here. Despite a few early setbacks, the team behind it thinks they can clean up half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the next seven years.
(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 4
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
A mushroom shaped like a horse's hoof grows on birch trees in parts of Europe and the U.S. If you strip off its outer layer, you get amadou, spongy stuff that's great for igniting fires. It's not used much anymore, but it was a crucial resource for some of our ancestors. As for the word "amadou," it's derived from an old French term that means "tinder, kindling, spunk." The same word was formerly used to refer to a person who is quick to light up or to something that stimulates liveliness. In accordance with astrological omens, I'm making "Amadou" your nickname for the next four weeks.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them," wrote novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Life obliges them over and over to give birth to themselves." Here's what I'll add to that: As you mature, you do your best to give birth to ever-new selves that are in alignment with the idealistic visions you have of the person you want to become. Unfortunately, most of us aren't skilled at that task in adolescence and early adulthood, and so the selves we create may be inadequate or delusory or distorted. Fortunately, as we learn from our mistakes, we eventually learn to give birth to selves that are strong and righteous. The only problem is that the old false selves we generated along the way may persist as ghostly echoes in our psyche. And we have a sacred duty to banish those ghostly echoes. I tell you this, Taurus, because the coming months will be en excellent time to do that banishing. Ramp up your efforts NOW!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"When spring came, there were no problems except where to be happiest," wrote Ernest Hemingway in his memoir. He quickly amended that statement, though, mourning, "The only thing that could spoil a day was people." Then he ventured even further, testifying, "People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself." I bring these thoughts to your attention so as to prepare you for some good news. In the next three weeks, I suspect you will far exceed your quota for encounters with people who are not "limiters of happiness"—who are as good as spring itself.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
It's time to prove that Cancerians have more to offer than nurturing, empathizing, softening the edges, feeling deeply, getting comfortable, and being creative. Not that there's anything wrong with those talents. On the contrary! They're beautiful and necessary. It's just that for now you need to avoid being pigeonholed as a gentle, sensitive soul. To gather the goodies that are potentially available to you, you'll have to be more forthright and aggressive than usual. Is it possible for you to wield a commanding presence? Can you add a big dose of willfulness and a pinch of ferocity to your self-presentation? Yes and yes!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
General Motors manufactured a car called the Pontiac Aztek from 2001 to 2005. It wasn't commercially successful. One critic said it looked like "an angry kitchen appliance," and many others agreed it was exceptionally unstylish. But later the Aztek had an odd revival because of the popularity of the TV show Breaking Bad. The show's protagonist, Walter White, owned one, and that motivated some of his fans to emulate his taste in cars. In accordance with astrological omens, Leo, I suspect that something of yours may also enjoy a second life sometime soon. An offering that didn't get much appreciation the first time around may undergo a resurgence. Help it do so.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
"Of all the female sins, hunger is the least forgivable," laments feminist author Laurie Penny. She's referring to the hunger "for anything, for food, sex, power, education, even love." She continues: "If we have desires, we are expected to conceal them, to control them, to keep ourselves in check. We are supposed to be objects of desire, not desiring beings." I've quoted her because I suspect it's crucial for you to not suppress or hide your longings in the coming weeks. That's triply true if you're a woman, but also important if you're a man or some other gender. You have a potential to heal deeply if you get very clear about what you hunger for and then express it frankly.
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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 freewillastrology.sparkns.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 On the Web. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.) You can also access them for $1.99 per minute by phone
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"Your long-range audio horoscopes encouraged me to think bigger about my life. As I listened, I could feel shrunken expectations melting away."
—Therese Pembroke, San Diego
"I love the soothing kindness of your long-range audio horoscopes. I also love their invigorating encouragement and surprising inspiration!" —Franny Kaiser, Minneapolis
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Only one of Nana Mouskouris's vocal cords works, but over the course of an almost 60-year career, the Libran singer has sold over 30 million records in twelve different languages. Many critics speculate that her apparent disadvantage is key to her unique style. She's a coloratura mezzo, a rare category of chanteuse who sings ornate passages with exceptional agility and purity. In the coming weeks, I suspect that you will be like Mouskouris in your ability to capitalize on a seeming lack or deprivation.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Your tribe is symbolized by three animals: the scorpion, the eagle, and the mythological phoenix. Some astrologers say that the scorpion is the ruling creature of "unevolved" or immature Scorpios, whereas the eagle and phoenix are associated with those of your tribe who express the riper, more enlightened qualities of your sign. But I want to put in a plug for the scorpion as being worthy of all Scorpios. It is a hardy critter that rivals the cockroach in its ability to survive—and even thrive in—less than ideal conditions. For the next two weeks, I propose we make it your spirit creature.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian novelist Gustave Flaubert declared that "our duty is to feel what is sublime and cherish what is beautiful." But that's a demanding task to pull off on an ongoing basis. Maybe the best we can hope for is to feel what's sublime and cherish what's beautiful for 30-35 days every year. Having said that, though, I'm happy to tell you that in 2019 you could get all the way up to 95-100 days of feeling what's sublime and cherishing what's beautiful. And as many as 15 to 17 of those days could come during the next 21.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Sommeliers are people trained to perceive the nuances of wine. By sampling a few sips, the best sommeliers can discern facts about the type of grapes that were used to make the wine and where on earth they were grown. I think that in the coming weeks you Capricorns should launch an effort to reach a comparable level of sensitivity and perceptivity about any subject you care about. It's a favorable time to become even more masterful about your specialties; to dive deeper into the areas of knowledge that captivate your imagination.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Every language is a work-in-progress. New words constantly insinuate themselves into common usage, while others fade away. If you traveled back in time to 1719 while remaining in your current location, you'd have trouble communicating with people of that era. And today linguistic evolution is even more rapid than in previous ages. The Oxford English Dictionary adds more than a thousand new words annually. In recognition of the extra verbal skill and inventiveness you now possess, Aquarius, I invite you to coin a slew of your own fresh terms. To get you warmed up, try this utterance I coined: vorizzimo! It's an exclamation that means "thrillingly beautiful and true."
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
One of history's most audacious con men was George C. Parker, a Pisces. He made his living selling property that did not legally belong to him, like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Statue of Liberty. I suspect you could summon his level of salesmanship and persuasive skills in the coming weeks. But I hope you will use your nearly magical powers to make deals and perform feats that have maximum integrity. It's OK to be a teensy bit greedy, though.
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HOMEWORK:
Name a beautiful thing you were never capable of doing until now. FreeWill Astrology.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 2019 Rob Brezsny
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