Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 11, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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I invite you to write the following declaration out in longhand: "I'm doing everything in my power to summon the energy and help and resources I need as I fulfill the following aim:"
Then compose a declaration describing the experience you're most excited to cultivate at the center of your life
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MY UPCOMING PERFORMANCE IN NEW YORK CITY
Join me as I read poetry
at The Strand bookstore
828 Broadway, New York City
7:30 pm on Friday, September 13
I'll be opening for three crazy-good poets:
Ariana Reines
and
CAConrad
and
Zoe Brezsny
Here's the info: https://tinyurl.com/PoetryNYC
In the meantime, check out Ariana Reines' sensational new book
A Sand Book, and read my review of it:
https://tinyurl.com/PoetryMedicine
Here's my favorite book by CAConrad:
ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness: tinyurl.com/Ecodeviance
Find poetry by Zoe Brezsny right here: zoebrezsny.com
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SLOW BUT SURE BREAKTHROUGHS
Now and then you may be able to whip up a wonderful breakthrough in a magic moment. But more often it's the case that beauty and truth and love and justice emerge in their full glory only over the course of a painstaking, step-by-step, trial-and-error process.
"All that I made before the age of 65 is not worth counting," wrote Japanese painter Hokusai. "At 73 I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects. At 90 I will enter into the secret of things. At 110 everything—every dot, every dash—will live."
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LOVERS FIND SECRET PLACES
Lovers find secret places
inside this violent world
where they make transactions
with beauty.
Reason says, Nonsense.
I have walked and measured the walls here.
There are no places like that.
Love says, There are.
— Rumi, from “Secret Places,” Bridge to the Soul: Journeys Into the Music and Silence of the Heart - as rendered by Coleman Barks
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THE WORLD DESIRES YOU
Jane Brunette, aka Flamingseed, suggests this game: Instead of being the one who does the desiring, imagine instead that everything desires you.
Your morning coffee really wants you to taste it.
The trees are yearning for you to notice the bright green of their leaves.
The breeze wants you to enjoy it’s soft touch on your cheek.
Even the ground under your shoes is waiting for you to notice the lively sensation it creates as you walk.
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Suddenly, the world lights up — and so do you. When we feel wanted, it’s natural to feel enlivened in response. Our desire takes its rightful place as the fire of presence and enjoyment of what is, instead of the burning need to get what’s not here.
Doing this practice, we will derive satisfaction from a whole variety of ordinary things that we normally overlook, since our attention won’t be occupied with waiting for a specific object to please us. Now, there is no need to wait, because everything we encounter has satisfaction built into it. With desire spread out all over the world, its enlivening quality is no longer confined to one object that we may or may not get.
This little game can trick you into mindful presence, even as it helps wear down your usual relationship to desire. It is a simple, playful way to meditate as you go about your daily life. Try it for short little bursts — and rather than thinking of it as a task, let the enjoyment that comes be the fuel that naturally makes you want to do it more and more.
More: tinyurl.com/y6np62lz
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REAL LISTENING
Abraham Maslow's definition of real listening: to listen "without presupposing, classifying, improving, controverting, evaluating, approving or disapproving, without dueling what is being said, without rehearsing the rebuttal in advance, without free-associating to portions of what is being said so that succeeding portions are not heard at all."
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EVERYONE'S A NOBODY AND NOBODY'S PERFECT
Keep two pieces of paper in your pockets at all times. One says "I am a speck of dust," and the other, "The world was created for me."
- Rabbi Bunim of P’shiskha
P.S.: Neither is true and both are true.
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HOW TO TUNE IN TO THE HIDDEN BEAUTY
What do you need to kill off in yourself in order to tune in to the beauty that's hidden from you? What worn-out shticks are blinding you to the blessings that life is conspiring to give you?
Which of your theories may have been useful and even brilliant in the past but are now keeping you from becoming aware of the ever-fresh creation that unfolds before you?
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
How Cultural Differences Shape Your Gratitude
Americans say thanks a lot, but other cultures may have a deeper understanding of gratitude.
tinyurl.com/y5otfv8l
Wyoming Billionaire Plans To Buy Around 15% Of The Planet To Protect Its Nature.
tinyurl.com/y2763mxh
In Texas, wind energy production has surpassed coal energy for the first time ever.
tinyurl.com/yxqpbq4t
(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 12
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Novelist Wallace Stegner wrote, "Some are born in their place, some find it, some realize after long searching that the place they left is the one they have been searching for." I hope that in the last nine months, Virgo, you have resolved which of those three options is true for you. I also trust that you have been taking the necessary actions to claim and own that special place—to acknowledge it and treasure it as the power spot where you feel most at home in the world. If you have not yet fully finished what I'm describing here, do it now.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Earth's species are going extinct at a rate unmatched since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. Among the creatures on the verge of being lost forever are birds like the cryptic treehunter and spix's macaw, as well as the northern white rhino and the vaquita, a type of porpoise. So why don't we clone the last few individuals of those beleaguered species? Here are the answers. 1. Cloned animals typically aren't healthy. 2. A species needs a sizable population to retain genetic diversity; a few individuals aren't sufficient. 3. Humans have decimated the homes of the threatened species, making it hard for them to thrive. Conclusion: Cloning is an inadequate stopgap action. Is there a better way to address the problem? Yes: by preserving the habitats of wild creatures. Inspired by this principle, Libra, I ask you to avoid trying halfway fixes for the dilemmas in your personal sphere. Summon full measures that can really work.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Though patched together and incomplete, the 2,200-year-old marble sculpture known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace is prominently displayed at Paris's Louvre Museum. It's a glorious depiction of Nike, the winged goddess of victory, and is regarded as one of ancient Greece's great masterpieces. For hundreds of years it was missing. Then in 1863, an archaeologist discovered it, although it was broken into more than a hundred pieces. Eventually, it was rebuilt, and much of its beauty was resurrected. I see the coming weeks as a time when you, too, could recover the fragments of an old treasure and begin reassembling it to make a pretty good restoration.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me," said actor Sidney Poitier. That can be a dynamic meditation for you during the next three weeks. I think you will derive substantial power from putting it into action. If you're ingenious and diligent about finding those positive outlets, your anger will generate constructive and transformative results.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In 1905, at the age of 30, Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote the novel Anne of Green Gables. It was a tale about an orphan girl growing up on Prince Edward Island. She sent the manuscript to several publishers, all of whom rejected it. Discouraged, she put it away in a hatbox and stored it in a closet. But two years later, her ambitions reignited when she re-read the story. Again she mailed it to prospective publishers, and this time one liked it enough to turn it into a book. It soon became a bestseller. Since then it has sold over 50 million copies and been translated into 36 languages. I figure you Capricorns are at a point in your own unfolding that's equivalent to where Anne was shortly before she rediscovered the manuscript she'd put away in the hatbox.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
The Toxorhynchites are species of large mosquitoes that don't buzz around our heads while we're trying to sleep and will never bite our skin or suck our blood. In fact, they're our benefactors. Their larvae feast on the larvae of the mosquitoes that are bothersome to us. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose that you be alert for a metaphorically comparable influence in your own life: a helper or ally that might be in disguise or may just superficially seem to be like an adversary.
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PRAYERS FOR YOU
An interviewer once asked me if there's any special ritual I do before writing my weekly horoscopes.
I told her that I say a prayer in which I affirm my desire to provide you with these three services:
1. that what I create will be of practical use to you;
2. that it will help you cultivate your relationship with your inner teacher;
3. that it will inspire you to tap into and use the substantial freedom you have to create the life you want.
If you ever want more inspiration generated in that same spirit—beyond the horoscopes you're reading in this newsletter—keep in mind that every week I also create 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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"Your long-range audio horoscopes encouraged me to think bigger about my life. As I listened, I could feel my 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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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Audre Lord identified herself as a black writer, lesbian, librarian, mother, feminist, civil rights activist, and many other descriptors. But as ardent as she was in working for the political causes she was passionate about, she didn't want to be pigeonholed in a single identity. One of her central teachings was to celebrate all the different parts of herself. "Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat," she testified. These approaches should be especially fun and extra meaningful for you in the coming weeks, Pisces. I encourage you to throw a big Unity Party for all the different people you are.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Hi, I'm your sales representative for UnTherapy, a free program designed to provide healing strategies for people who are trying too hard. Forgive me for being blunt, but I think you could benefit from our services. I don't have space here to reveal all the secrets of UnTherapy, but here's an essential hint: every now and then the smartest way to outwit a problem is to stop worrying, let it alone, and allow it to solve itself.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
People in Northeast India weave long, strong suspension bridges out of the living roots of fig trees. The structures can measure up to 150 feet and bear the weight of hundreds of people. In accordance with astrological omens, let's make these marvels your metaphors of power for the coming weeks. To stimulate your meditations, ask yourself the following questions. 1. How can you harness nature to help you to get where you need to go? 2. How might you transform instinctual energy so that it better serves your practical needs? 3. How could you channel wildness so that it becomes eminently useful to you?
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
If you climb to the top of Mt. Everest, you're standing on land that was once on the floor of a shallow tropical sea. Four-hundred-million-year-old fossils of marine life still abide there in the rock. Over the course of eons, through the magic of plate tectonics, that low flat land got folded and pushed upwards more than five miles. I suspect you Geminis will have the power to accomplish a less spectacular but still amazing transformation during the next ten months. To get started, identify what you would like that transformation to be.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
In 1996, when Gary Kasparov was rated the world's best chess player, he engaged in a series of matches with a chess-playing computer named Deep Blue. Early on in the first game, Deep Blue tried a move that confused Kasparov. Rattled, he began to wonder if the machine was smarter than him. Ultimately, his play suffered and he lost the game. Later it was revealed that Deep Blue's puzzling move was the result of a bug in its code. I'll encourage you to cultivate a benevolent bug in your own code during the coming weeks, Cancerian. I bet it will be the key to you scoring a tricky victory.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
American hero Harriet Tubman escaped slavery as a young woman. She ran away from the wealthy "master" who claimed to "own" her, and reached sanctuary. But rather than simply enjoy her freedom, she dedicated herself to liberating other slaves. Nineteen times she returned to enemy territory and risked her life, ultimately leading 300 people out of hellish captivity. Later she served as a scout, spy, and nurse in the Union Army during the Civil War, where her actions saved another 700 people. In 1874, the U.S. Congress considered but then ultimately rejected a bill to pay her $2,000 for her numerous courageous acts. Don't you dare be like Congress in the coming weeks, Leo. It's crucial that you give tangible acknowledgment and practical rewards to those who have helped, guided, and supported you.
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HOMEWORK:
"We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings," wrote Audre Lourde. True for you? 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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