Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 10, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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How’s your fight for freedom going? Are you making progress in liberating yourself from your unconscious obsessions, bad habits, conditioned responses, and oppressive memories?
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UNUSUAL AND UNEXPECTED JOY
Guidelines to celebrate "Loving the Luxurious Hole at the Heart of Luminous Nothingness," a six-hour jubilee to be performed once every season for as long as you live.
• Empty yourself out completely, and do it gladly.
• With impish daring, lower your expectations all the way down to zero.
• Surrender every remnant of hope you might be tempted to cling to.
• With a jaunty nonchalance, pretend you have nothing to lose.
• Open an enormous welcome in your heart for the messy, unpredictable sweetness of life exactly as it is.
• Say yes to the hilarious beauty of ambiguity and paradox.
• Free yourself to accept every person and every situation on their own terms.
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THE MORE ACCIDENTAL, THE MORE TRUE
"The more accidental, the more true," wrote Boris Pasternak. Scholar Mikhail Epstein expanded this observation: "The more accidental the phenomenon, the more divine its nature, for the divine is what has not been envisioned, what cannot be deduced from general rules, nor irreducible to them."
If we pursue this line of thought to its logical conclusion, we may decide that the most useful sources of illumination are not always holy books, revered dogma, and great truths that everyone has heard. They might also be serendipitous anomalies that erupt into the daily routine and break the trance of ordinary awareness.
"The tiny spark," Epstein writes, "is the precise measure of the holiness of the world."
(Source: Mikhail Epstein, "Judaic Spiritual Traditions in the Poetry of Pasternak and Mandel'shtam." Translated from Russian by Ruth Rischin.)
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DREAMWORK AS A FOUNDATION FOR ACTIVISM
Some people imagine I'm an unruly drug-user with a deranged view of reality. They don't seem cognizant of the fact that parts of reality are deranged, not me.
I assume that maybe they also can't tell the difference between the impact of taking drugs and the influence of doing dreamwork. The latter has been instrumental in shaping my unusual perspectives. I've remembered and recorded and learned from my dreams virtually every single night since I was 19 years old. They've been creative disruptors and rigorous educators.
I'm certainly not a perfect master of transmuting the unripe and less beautiful aspects of my psyche, but I have developed some skill—and working with my dreams has been crucial in that quest.
I am eternally perplexed by how few people draw on the challenging wisdom of their own dreams. More and more of us seem to have come to appreciate the value of meditation and mindfulness, but a comparable embrace of dreamwork hasn’t happened.
(Meditation is a wonderful tool for clearing away the monkey mind's chatter and tuning in to interesting modes of consciousness beyond our default everyday awareness. Dreamwork, on the other hand, helps us work with and transform what's painful and unripe in our own make-up.)
This cultural blindspot, the neglect of our dreams, seems like an unrecognized form of insanity to me. I'm convinced that if dreamwork were a more regular practice—if people were constantly working on wrestling with their shadows and redeeming the toxins in their souls—some of our massive collective problems would dramatically diminish.
Here's my hypothesis: To the degree that we stop projecting evil onto others and face it and deal with it in ourselves, we are far more likely to act with moral equanimity toward everyone else.
So yes, I recommend dreamwork as a foundation for effective activism. Our effort to wrangle compassionately with the shadow within us is an effective ground-level way to purify and strengthen our efforts to help and redeem the outer world.
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"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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A Charm Against the Language of Politics
by Veronica Patterson
Say over and over the names of things,
the clean nouns: weeping birch, bloodstone, tanager,
Banshee damask rose. Read field guides, atlases,
gravestones.
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At the store, bless each apple by kind:
McIntosh, Winesap, Delicious, Jonathan.
Enunciate the vegetables and herbs: okra, calendula.
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Go deeper into the terms of some small landscape:
spiders, for example. Then, after a speech on
compromising the environment for technology,
recite the tough, silky structure of webs:
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tropical stick, ladder web, mesh web, filmy dome, funnel,
trap door. When you have compared the candidates’ slippery
platforms, chant the spiders: comb footed, round headed,
garden cross, feather legged, ogre faced, black widow.
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Remember that most short verbs are ethical: hatch, grow,
spin, trap, eat. Dig deep, pronounce clearly, pull the words
in over your head. Hole up
for the duration.
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SOUL AND SPIRIT
"I call the high and light aspects of my being spirit," says Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, "and the dark and heavy aspects soul."
To his formula I would add my notion that the spirit is about rising above and seeking what's most noble, while the soul is about diving in and wrestling with exactly what is.
Neither realm is better or more important than the other.
Synergize!
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MY DAUGHTER ZOE'S CURATION
On Tuesday, April 16 at 7 pm, my daughter Zoe Brezsny is curating a poetry reading by Jackie Wang, Gabby Bess, and Audrey Wollen. The event is at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, 548 West 22nd Street in New York City. It's free.
Jackie Wang is a black studies scholar, prison abolitionist, student of the dream state, poet, filmmaker, trauma monster, and PhD candidate at Harvard University in African and African American Studies. She is the author of punk zines, including On Being Hard Femme, and a collection of dream poems titled Tiny Spelunker of the Oneiro-Womb. In her recent work she is researching the bail bonds industry and the history of risk assessment in the criminal legal system.
Gabby Bess was the long-time curator of Illuminati Girl Gang, a publication dedicated to showcasing female-identified artists working within the context of internet culture. She has also published Alone with Other People, a collection of her poetry and short stories.
Audrey Wollen is a feminist theorist and visual artist. She uses Instagram, where she has over 25,000 followers, as a platform for her work on Sad Girl Theory, which includes the notion of sadness as a form of power.
Wang, Bess, and Wollen offer inspiration to a new generation of young poets seeking to fuse activism with their writing. They shift with lyrical fluidity from interior to exterior landscapes.
More info: tinyurl.com/FuturePoetics
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
A 96-year-old self-taught conservationist dedicated the last 40 years of his life to saving North American bluebird populations, building and monitoring 350 nest boxes all across southeast Idaho. In part from his conservation efforts, bluebird populations have significantly rebounded. (audubon.org)
tinyurl.com/ybgsqz5j
Environmental activist elected as Slovakia's first female president.
tinyurl.com/y6ghz3ot
History is full of well-documented human atrocities, but what are the stories about when large groups of people or societies did incredibly nice things?
tinyurl.com/y6zqn8hf
(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 11
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The Qing Dynasty controlled China from the mid-seventeenth century to the early twentieth century. It was the fifth biggest empire in world history. But eventually it faded, as all mighty regimes do. Revolution came in 1911, forcing the last emperor to abdicate and giving birth to the Republic of China. I'm inclined to think of your life in 2019 as having some similarities to that transition. It's the end of one era and the beginning of another; a changing of the guard and a passing of the torch. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to be very active in deciding and visualizing the empire you want next.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I hope that sometime soon you'll acquire a new source of support or inspiration. Now is a phase of your astrological cycle when you're likely to attract influences that are in alignment with your deep values. This addition might be a person or animal. It could be a vibrant symbol or useful tool. It may even be a fantasy character or departed ancestor that will stimulate vitality you haven’t been able to summon on your own. Be on the lookout for this enhancement.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Poet David Hinton analyzed the Chinese word for "poetry." Its etymological meaning is "words spoken at the fertility altar." Let's make that your theme, even if you don't write or read poetry. I suspect the coming weeks will be a favorable time to take a vow or utter a solemn intention in front of a homemade fertility altar. The oath you speak might express a desire to boost your use of your physical vitality: your lust for life, your adoration of the natural world, or your power to produce new human life. Or your vow to foster your fertility could be more metaphorical and symbolic in nature: the imaginative intimacy you will explore or the creativity you'll express in future works of art or the generous effects you want to have on the world.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne, who wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. He said there are two ways to navigate through life. Either you "take a bearing on something in the future and steer towards it, or take a bearing on something in the past and steer away from it." So in his view, "There are those who look ahead and pull and those who look behind and push." I'm hoping that in the coming weeks and months, you will make a delighted commitment to the first option: taking a bearing on something in the future and steering towards it. I think that approach will inspire you toward the most interesting success.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The national insect is the ladybug and the national instrument is a stringed instrument known as the kantele. As for the national author, it's Aleksis Kivi, who produced just one novel that took him ten years to write. He also published a short collection of odes and a few plays, adding up to a grand total of less than 800 pages of work. I think that the efforts you make in the coming weeks could have a disproportionately large impact, as well, Leo. What you lack in quantity will be irrelevant compared to the sheer quality you generate.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
I follow the blogger Evanescent Voyager because she makes me cry with sad joy and exultant poignance on a regular basis. One of her other fans wrote her a love note I could have written myself. It said, "Your emotional brilliance and thoughtful passion break me into pieces and then weave me back together with more coherence than I had before reading you. I revere your alchemical talent for undoing me so you can heal me; for lowering my defenses so I can be open to your riches; for demolishing my habitual trance so you can awaken my sleeping genius." I believe that in the coming weeks, life itself will offer to perform these same services for you, Virgo. I urge you to accept!
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OUR COLLABORATION
I really do feel that you're here with me as I create these horoscopes. In a sense, you're my assistant. Our telepathic connection is utterly palpable and practical. The hopes and questions you project my way stream into my higher mind, coloring my psychic environment and enriching my desire to give you exactly what you need.
If you ever want more inspiration generated in that same collaborative spirit—beyond the horoscopes you're reading here—keep in mind that every week I also offer EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for you. 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.
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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"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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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"Love is no assignment for cowards." That's a quote attributed to the ancient Roman poet Ovid. What did he mean? Was he foreshadowing the wisdom of pop singer Pat Benatar, who in 1983 told us, "Love is a battlefield"? Was Ovid implying that to succeed in the amorous arts we must be heroic warriors prepared to overcome fears and risk psychological dangers? Probably. But I will also point out that it takes as much courage to create fun, interesting togetherness as it does to wrestle with the problems that togetherness brings. You need just as much bravura and panache to explore the sweet mysteries of intimacy as you do to explore the achy mysteries of intimacy. Keep these thoughts in mind as you marshal your audacity to deepen and expand your best relationships in the coming weeks.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
The literal meaning of the French term jolie-laide is "pretty and ugly." Bloggers at wordsnquotes.com define it as follows: "It's a fascinating quirkiness that's irresistible, like a face you want to keep looking at even if you can't decide whether it is beautiful or not." Jolie-laide overlaps with the Japanese term wabi-sabi, which describes a person or thing that is lovely because of its imperfection and incompleteness. I bring these facts to your attention because I think you have extraordinary potential to be a master embodier of both jolie-laide and wabi-sabi in the coming weeks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
As Czech playwright Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) matured, he became a political dissident who opposed the Soviet Union's authoritarian grip on his country. Eventually he was a key player in the Velvet Revolution that banished Communism. When Czechoslovakia emerged as a new democracy, its people elected him president. Havel later thanked Lou Reed and the band the Velvet Underground for fully awakening his liberationist leadership. He said their unruly music stoked his longing to establish a culture where total creative freedom was possible. I mention this, Sagittarius, because now is a favorable time to identify the music or art or films or literature that might fuel your emancipation in the coming months.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn author J. R. R. Tolkien toiled on his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings for twelve years. Once he finished, it wasn't published for more than five years. So seventeen years passed between the time he launched his precious project and the time when it reached an audience. I don't think you will need that much patience in shepherding your own venture to full expression, Capricorn. But I hope you'll summon as much faith in yourself as Tolkien had to rouse in himself. To do so will bring out the best in you!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Released in 1998, The Prince of Egypt is an animated film that tells the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses. In the climactic event, the hero uses magic to part the waters of the Red Sea, allowing his people to run across the sea floor and escape the army that's chasing them. To make that seven-minute scene, 28 professional animators labored for 318,000 hours. In the coming months, you could create your own version of that marvel, Aquarius. But you'll need a team to help you, and that team is not yet ready to go. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to get it ready, though.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Piscean businessman Steve Jobs testified that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things" he ever did in his life. It opened his mind in ways he felt were crucial to his development. What are the three most important things you've ever done, Pisces? I invite you to revisit at least one of them, and see if you can take it to the next step of its power to inspire you. What if it has even more to offer you in your efforts to become the person you want to be?
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HOMEWORK:
What other sign would you want to be if you could take a vacation from your actual sign? Why? Write 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 2019 Rob Brezsny
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