Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 15, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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In a wheat field, a rose is a weed—even if that rose is voluptuous and vibrant. Translation: it's your sacred duty to identify the contexts in which you can thrive and then put yourself in those contexts.
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CONGRATULATIONS if you've been having any of the following symptoms:
• spontaneous eruptions of gratitude
• a declining fascination with conflict
• seemingly irrational urges that lead to interesting discoveries
• yearnings to peer more deeply into the eyes of people you care about
• a mounting inability to tolerate boring influences that resist transformation
• an increasing knack for recognizing and receiving the love that's available to you
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PEOPLE WHO HATE ASTROLOGY . . .
People who hate astrology assert that consulting a horoscope column or getting a reading from a professional astrologer is not a sound approach to making good decisions abut one's life.
The haters never follow up that assurance with a detailed revelation of what ARE valid ways to gather the data and insights and ideas so as to make good decisions about one's life.
Do they know about some Bureau of Acceptable Life Information that can help us determine what is and what is not worth consulting as we chart the course of our destiny?
I don't mean to be glib. I am honestly puzzled by the apparent certainty that there are unambiguous methods.
Would the astrology haters approve of the guidance and inspiration we have gleaned from our high school teachers? From our parents? From our friends? In my opinion, none of them are entirely reliable narrators; they are not to be trusted to deliver 100% accurate and wise counsel on how best to live our lives.
And how about the music of Florence and the Machine, and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, and the movies of Akira Kurosawa? Is it a big mistake for us to eagerly take on influences from them, allowing their art to infiltrate our subconscious minds and subtly skew and shift our attitudes? Are we deluded?
Or how about the philosophy of the Upanishads or Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Susan Sontag? Or the psychological ideas of Carl Jung or Clarissa Pinkola Estes or Erik Erikson? Or the writing of Joan Didion or Pema Chodron or Kurt Vonnegut? Or the social science of Malcolm Gladwell? Or the economic theories of Paul Krugman? Are they all foolproof, unimpeachable sources of wise guidance that we can unconditionally rely on to steer our personal lives in a righteous direction?
Or should we be ruthlessly careful to draw our guidance and inspiration only from paragons of reason and science? Should our night tables be stacked with books by Stephen Hawking and Charles Darwin and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and mathematician Terence Tao? Should we read passages from their teachings every night in the expectation that they will shape us into paragons of reason and science? That they will unfailingly guide us to make good decisions about how to live?
I don't think so. It's fine if those tomes and others like it constitute part of our own personal Bureau of Acceptable Life Information. But we need to draw inspiration and education from a variety of other sources, as well—each of which, like Hawking and Darwin and Kasparov and Tao, is imperfect and incomplete.
It's perfectly reasonable to look to astrology as one of our sources, because astrology is a branch of psychology, as well as an art form—a mode of storytelling. It's designed to stimulate our imaginations as we ruminate on what it means to be a human being. It's an evocative mytho-poetic system that helps us identify and transform our subconscious patterns and have fun speculating about the big picture of our destinies.
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THIS WORLD IS ASTONISHING
When poet Wislawa Szymborska delivered her speech for winning the Nobel Prize, she said that "whatever else we might think of this world—it is astonishing." She added that for a poet, there really is no such thing as the "ordinary world," "ordinary life," and "the ordinary course of events."
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In fact, "Nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world."
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BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB
(Listen to this as a song: bit.ly/WelcomeBeauty)
Welcome to the Beauty and Truth Lab.
We're coming to you live from your repressed memories of paradise, reminding you that you can have anything you need if you will just ask for it in an unselfish way.
Welcome to the end of your nightmares, beauty and truth fans!
The world is young, your soul is free, and a naked celebrity is dying to talk to you about your most intimate secrets right now.
Just kidding.
In fact, the world is young, your soul is free, and at any moment you will feel a flood of ecstatic compassion for salamanders, oak trees, clouds, toasters, convenience store clerks, and even the ocean itself.
I'm your host. My name is the Sacred Janitor at the Edge of Time, and I'm proud to announce that this is a perfect moment.
It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because you are on the verge of finally figuring out exactly what it is you really want more than anything else.
Bravo! Viva! Whoopee! Oooo Eureka! Hallelujah! Abracadabra!
Bravo! Viva! Whoopee! Oooo Eureka! Hallelujah! Abracadabra!
The Beauty and Truth Lab's experiments are brought to you by the pine trees whose seeds are so tightly compacted within their protective covering that only the intense heat of a forest fire can free them and allow them to sprout.
Listen to this as a song: bit.ly/WelcomeBeauty
Listen and download (free) lots more of my music and spoken word: soundcloud.com/sacreduproar
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
More of what has been going right in the world:
Fresh evidence pointed to continuing recovery of the ozone layer
Colombia created the world's largest tropical rainforest national park
The Virginia legislature voted to expand Medicaid, as did voters in Idaho, Utah and Nebraska.
Floridians voted overwhelmingly (64 percent) to restore voting rights to felons once they have completed their sentences.
Voters in Utah, Missouri, Colorado and Michigan approved redistricting reforms. That means less gerrymandering and fairer elections.
The impunity of powerful men to harass and assault women continued to be challenged by the #MeToo movement
The EU voted for a total ban on bee-harming insecticides
In April, the EU agreed to ban a group of insecticides that have been linked to a dramatic reduction in bee numbers.
Pakistan pledged to plant ten billion trees.
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning May 16
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I think it's time for a sacred celebration: a blow-out extravaganza filled with reverence and revelry, singing and dancing, sensual delights and spiritual blessings. What is the occasion? After all these eons, your lost love has finally returned. And who exactly is your lost love? You! You are your own lost love! Having weaved and wobbled through countless adventures full of rich lessons, the missing part of you has finally wandered back. So give yourself a flurry of hugs and kisses. Start planning the jubilant hoopla. And exchange ardent vows, swearing that you'll never be parted again.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The Louvre in Paris is the world's biggest art museum. Over 35,000 works are on display, packed into 15 acres. If you wanted to see every piece, devoting just a minute to each, you would have to spend eight hours a day there for many weeks. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because I suspect that now would be a good time for you to treat yourself to a marathon gaze-fest of art in the Louvre—or any other museum. For that matter, it's a favorable phase to gorge yourself on any beauty anywhere that will make your soul freer and smarter and happier. You will thrive to the degree that you absorb a profusion of grace, elegance, and loveliness.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
In my astrological opinion, you now have a mandate to exercise your rights to free speech with acute vigor. It's time to articulate all the important insights you've been waiting for the right moment to call to everyone's attention. It's time to unearth the buried truths and veiled agendas and ripening mysteries. It's time to be the catalyst that helps your allies to realize what's real and important, what's fake and irrelevant. I'm not saying you should be rude, but I do encourage you to be as candid as is necessary to nudge people in the direction of authenticity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
During summers in the far northern land of Alaska, many days have twenty hours of sunlight. Farmers take advantage of the extra photosynthesis by growing vegetables and fruits that are bigger and sweeter than crops grown further south. During the Alaska State Fair every August, you can find prodigies like 130-pound cabbages and 65-pound cantaloupes. I suspect you'll express a comparable fertility and productiveness during the coming weeks, Leo. You're primed to grow and create with extra verve. So let me ask you a key question: to which part of your life do you want to dedicate that bonus power?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
It's time for you to reach higher and dig deeper. So don't be a mere tinkerer nursing a lukewarm interest in mediocre stories and trivial games. Be a strategic adventurer in the service of exalted stories and meaningful games. In fact, I feel strongly that if you're not prepared to go all the way, you shouldn't go at all. Either give everything you've got or else keep it contained for now. Can you handle one further piece of strenuous advice, my dear? I think you will thrive as long as you don't settle for business as usual or pleasure as usual. To claim the maximum vitality that's available, you'll need to make exceptions to at least some of your rules.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful," wrote author Flannery O'Connor. I think that's an observation worth considering. But I've also seen numerous exceptions to her rule. I know people who have eagerly welcomed grace into their lives even though they know that its arrival will change them forever. And amazingly, many of those people have experienced the resulting change as tonic and interesting, not primarily painful. In fact, I've come to believe that the act of eagerly welcoming change-inducing grace makes it more likely that the changes will be tonic and interesting. Everything I've just said will especially apply to you in the coming weeks.
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ASTROLOGY FOR YOUR SOUL
Astrology is not a science. It's an elegant system of symbols, an art form with a special capacity to feed your soul and educate your imagination. When used with integrity, it engenders poetic approaches for deepening your connection to life's great mysteries, not predictions of literal events.
It's meant to open your mind to the mythic patterns that underlie the surface-level interpretations of what you're all about, not compete with scientists' logical analyses of why things are the way they are.
ASTROLOGY IS NOT A SCIENCE! Nor is depth psychology, mythology, dream interpretation, or poetry. It makes as much sense to criticize astrology for not being scientific as it does to deride a Kandinsky painting because it isn't the binomial theorem. We need both: the mytho-poetic and the logically analytical.
If you ever want more information and inspiration generated in this 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. They tend to bring out more of the patient counselor in me, and have a bit less of the poet.
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.
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 Expanded Audio Horoscopes seem to have the effect of activating my inner teacher. Thanks!" - Eleanor A., Toronto
"Your expanded audio horoscopes are the next best thing to actually having you here next to me to remind me who I really am." - Alyssa R., Des Moines, Iowa
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
There's a certain problem that has in my opinion occupied too much of your attention. It's really rather trivial in the big picture of your life, and doesn't deserve to suck up so much of your attention. I suspect you will soon see things my way, and take measures to move on from this energy sink. Then you'll be free to focus on a more interesting and potentially productive dilemma—a twisty riddle that truly warrants your loving attention. As you work to solve it, you will reap rewards that will be useful and enduring.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Author Hélène Cixous articulated a poetically rigorous approach to love. I'll tell you about it, since in my astrological opinion you're entering a phase when you'll be wise to upgrade and refine your definitions of love, even as you upgrade and refine your practice of love. Here's Cixous: "I want to love a person freely, including all her secrets. I want to love in this person someone she doesn't know. I want to love outside the law: without judgment. Without imposed preference. Does that mean outside morality? No. Only this: without fault. Without false, without true. I want to meet her between the words, beneath language."
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn author Henry Miller wrote that his master plan was "to remain what I am and to become more and more only what I am—that is, to become more miraculous." This is an excellent strategy for your use. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to renounce any tendency you might have to compare yourself to anyone else. You'll attract blessings as you wean yourself from imagining that you should live up to the expectations of others or follow a path that resembles theirs. So here's my challenge: I dare you to become more and more only what you are—that is, to become more miraculous.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
London's British Museum holds a compendium of artifacts from the civilizations of many different eras and locations. Author Jonathan Stroud writes that it's "home to a million antiquities, several dozen of which were legitimately come by." Why does he say that? Because so many of the museum's antiquities were pilfered from other cultures. In accordance with current astrological omens, I invite you to fantasize about a scenario in which the British Museum's administrators return these treasures to their original owners. When you're done with that imaginative exercise, move on to the next one, which is to envision scenarios in which you recover the personal treasures and goodies and powers that you have been separated from over the years.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"I hate it when people tell me that I should 'get out of my comfort zone,'" writes Piscean blogger Rosespell. "I don't even have a comfort zone. My discomfort zone is pretty much everywhere." I have good news for Rosespell and all of you Pisceans who might be inclined to utter similar testimony. The coming weeks will feature conditions that make it far more likely than usual that you will locate or create a real comfort zone you can rely on. For best results, cultivate a vivid expectation that such a sweet development is indeed possible.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
According to humorist Dave Barry, "The method of learning Japanese recommended by experts is to be born as a Japanese baby and raised by a Japanese family, in Japan." As you enter an intensely educational phase of your astrological cycle, I suggest you adopt a similar strategy toward learning new skills and mastering unfamiliar knowledge and absorbing fresh information. Immerse yourself in environments that will efficiently and effectively fill you with the teachings you need. A more casual, slapdash approach just won't enable you to take thorough advantage of your current opportunities to expand your repertoire.
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HOMEWORK:
Describe what you'd be like if you were already the person you'll be five years from now. 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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