Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 2, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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The key to the future of the world is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known.
—Pete Seeger
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WE ARE THE SUN
The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.
—John Muir
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DEAR READERS -
Thank you for the generous gifts you sent me in response to last week's request for help. I'm deeply appreciative of your kindness!
If you would still like to donate, please visit my Gift Center at Paypal: paypal.me/GiftsForRob
You can also contribute to my well-being by buying the Expanded Audio Horoscopes I create. They're my four- to five-minute-long ruminations about the current chapter of your life story. Access them here: freewillastrology.sparkns.com/
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LOVE KEEPS COMING
I invite you to meditate on the relentlessness of your yearnings to give love and receive love.
Recognize the fact that your urge to merge will never leave you in peace, will never allow you to remain static, will always ask you to outgrow and transcend the current version of You.
Accept that your yearnings to blend your fate with the fates of others will forever torment you, delight you, bewilder you, and inspire you.
Understand that your desire for intimate connection will just keep coming and coming and coming, teaching you new secrets and keeping you creatively off-balance and stimulating you to constantly revise your ideas about who you are and what you purpose is .
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THE JOYS OF TEARS
It's life-affirming to cry when you're sad about your life. There are many other good reasons to cry, too.
Have you ever burst into tears after having a sudden rush of insight into a nagging problem?
If you traveled to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and stood in front of the artist's paintings, chances are you would sob in appreciation for the raw beauty.
I have a friend who regards her crying spells as surrogate orgasms. They bring a surging release of pent-up emotions, and leave her deeply relaxed and in love with life.
NASA's chief scientist for Mars exploration confessed what stirs his emotions up from the depths. "When I first gazed at the images of the Martian landscape from Surveyor's camera," said Jim Garvin, "I was moved to tears."
Myself, I experience my tears as a well-earned triumph, whether they're driven by loss or fullness and joy; they're the sign of the inner work I've done to feel things deeply.
I've found, too, that sadness is often at the root of my anger.
When I feel rage at Trump's latest cruel and ignorant behavior, for example, it's because I'm profoundly sad about the dire consequences that his actions have and will have for human beings. I'm heartbroken about the suffering he perpetrates.
I'm not saying that sadness is "better" than anger. But I think it's important to understand that our anger often comes out of our sadness, and that we need to feel the sadness as much as the anger.
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TREMBLING TRUTHS
Each morning is all mornings.
The oak tree's shadow is the messiah.
The elephant shrew and the supernova are equals.
The Honda Accord is as natural as the Grand Canyon.
The skin is a temporary boundary, and so is the planet's surface.
The swallowtail butterfly is a savant.
Logic is crazy love.
The bat-eared fox is a razor-backed musk turtle.
Jubilation is an ecologically sound strategy.
No one knows how to sing the end of time because there is no end of time.
The critically endangered white rhinoceros is a forgotten birthday.
The vulnerable arctic wolf is emancipated from sin.
Purity is a sacrilegious vortex of panic.
Listening is the apotheosis of arrogance.
Our serpent thoughts keep us linked to original mirth.
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YOU'RE INVITED
I invite you to launch a new tradition or instigate a fresh trend or make a beautiful thing that will last for a thousand years. I'm talking about an amazing marvel or useful innovation or unique creation that will improve the lives of countless humans all over the planet for the next 40 generations.
Does that feel too ambitious? How about this: Launch a new tradition or instigate a fresh trend or create a beautiful thing that will last for the rest of your long life -- an amazing marvel or useful innovation or unique creation that will continue to teach and amuse you all along the way—and maybe a few people whom you will inspire, as well.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Denmark Shatters World Record: 42% of its Electricity Is From Wind!
tinyurl.com/yyxr3rlm
Gorillas sing happy songs while they eat. They don't sing the same song every time and they even sing louder while eating their favorite food.
tinyurl.com/y4u5wbe5
Scientists working with the Florida Aquarium have pulled off something no one else ever has: They coaxed imperiled Atlantic Ocean coral into spawning in a laboratory. The fact that this can be done in a lab is a hopeful sign for saving the Florida coral reef that stretches along the state’s Atlantic coast from Martin County south to the Keys.
The corals there have been suffering from the effects of warming water and acidification due to climate change, as well as a disease that has left them in danger of extinction. Scientists hope to cultivate enough lab-spawned pillar coral to rebuild the reef.
tinyurl.com/y4pmum2s
(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 October 3
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Every time my birthday season comes around, I set aside an entire day to engage in a life review. It lasts for many hours. I begin by visualizing the recent events I've experienced, then luxuriously scroll in reverse through my entire past, as if watching a movie starring me. It's not possible to remember every single scene and feeling, of course, so I allow my deep self to highlight the moments it regards as significant. Here's another fun aspect of this ritual: I bestow a blessing on every memory that comes up, honoring it for what it taught me and how it helped me to become the person I am today. Dear Libra, now is an excellent time for you to experiment with a similar celebration.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Depression is when you think there's nothing to be done," writes author Siri Hustvedt. "Fortunately I always think there's something to be done." I offer this hopeful attitude to you, Scorpio, trusting that it will cheer you up. I suspect that the riddles and mysteries you're embedded in right now are so puzzling and complicated that you're tempted to think that there's nothing you can do to solve them or escape them. But I'm here to inform you that if that's how you feel, it's only temporary. Even more importantly, I'm here to inform you that there is indeed something you can do, and you are going to find out what that is sooner rather than later.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"How inconvenient to be made of desire," writes Sagittarian author Larissa Pham. "Even now, want rises up in me like a hot oil. I want so much that it scares me." I understand what she means, and I'm sure you do, too. There are indeed times when the inner fire that fuels you feels excessive and unwieldy and inopportune. But I'm happy to report that your mood in the coming weeks is unlikely to fit that description. I'm guessing that the radiant pulse of your yearning will excite you and empower you. It'll be brilliant and warm, not seething and distracting.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
I envision the next twelve months as a time when you could initiate fundamental improvements in the way you live. Your daily rhythm twelve months from now could be as much as twenty percent more gratifying and meaningful. It's conceivable you will discover or generate innovations that permanently raise your long-term goals to a higher octave. At the risk of sounding grandiose, I predict you'll welcome a certain novelty that resembles the invention of the wheel or the compass or the calendar.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Modern literary critic William Boyd declared that Aquarian author Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was "the best short-story writer ever," and "the first truly modern writer of fiction: secular, refusing to pass judgment, cognizant of the absurdities of our muddled, bizarre lives and the complex tragi-comedy that is the human condition." Another contemporary critic, Harold Bloom, praised Chekhov's plays, saying that he was "one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre." We might imagine, then, that in the course of his career, Chekhov was showered with accolades. We'd be wrong about that, though. "If I had listened to the critics," he testified, "I'd have died drunk in the gutter." I hope that what I just said will serve as a pep talk for you as you explore and develop your own original notions in the coming weeks.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Pisces-born Dorothy Steel didn't begin her career as a film actress until she was 91 years old. She had appeared in a couple of TV shows when she was 89, then got a small role in an obscure movie. At age 92, she became a celebrity when she played the role of a tribal elder in Black Panther, one of the highest-grossing films of all time. I propose that we make her one of your inspirational role models for both the coming weeks and the next twelve months. Why? Because I suspect you will be ripening fully into a role and a mission you were born to embody and express.
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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less information and stimuli. 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
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
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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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ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In 1956, the U.S. federal government launched a program to build 40,000 miles of high-speed roads to connect all major American cities. It was completed 36 years later. In the coming months, I'd love to see you draw inspiration from that visionary scheme. According to my analysis, you will generate good fortune for yourself as you initiate a long-term plan to expand your world, create a more robust network, and enhance your ability to fulfill your life's big goals.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Taurus-born Youtube blogger Hey Fran Hey has some good advice for her fellow Bulls, and I think it'll be especially fresh and potent in the coming weeks. She says, "Replacing 'Why is this happening to me?' with 'What is this trying to tell me?' has been a game changer for me. The former creates a hamster wheel, where you'll replay the story over and over again. Victimized. Stuck. The latter holds space for a resolution to appear."
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them." So declared French author Victor Hugo. I don't share his view. In fact, I regard it as an insulting misapprehension. The truth is that the soul achieves flight through vivid fantasies and effervescent intuitions and uninhibited longings and non-rational hypotheses and wild hopes—and maybe also by a few illusions. I bring this to your attention because now is an excellent time to nurture your soul with vivid fantasies and effervescent intuitions and uninhibited longings and non-rational hypotheses and wild hopes.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I know people of all genders who periodically unleash macho brags about how little sleep they need. If you're normally like that, I urge you to rebel. The dilemmas and riddles you face right now are very solvable IF and only IF you get sufficient amounts of sleep and dreams. Do you need some nudges to do right by yourself? Neuroscientist Matthew Walker says that some of the greatest athletes understand that "sleep is the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug." Top tennis player Roger Federer sleeps 12 hours a day. During his heyday, world-class sprinter Usain Bolt slept ten hours a night and napped during the day. Champion basketball player LeBron James devotes 12 hours a day to the rejuvenating sanctuary of sleep.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Actor and dancer Fred Astaire was a pioneer in bringing dance into films as a serious art form. He made 31 musical films during the 76 years he worked, and was celebrated for his charisma, impeccable technique, and innovative moves. At the height of his career, from 1933 to 1949, he teamed up with dancer Ginger Rogers in the creation of ten popular movies. In those old-fashioned days, virtually all partner dancing featured a male doing the lead part as the female followed. One witty critic noted that although Astaire was a bigger star than Rogers, she "did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and while wearing high heels." According to my reading of the astrological omens, you may soon be called on to carry out tasks that are metaphorically comparable to those performed by Rogers.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Your number one therapy in the coming weeks? Watching animals. It would be the healthiest thing you could undertake: relax into a generously receptive mode as you simply observe creatures doing what they do. The best option would be to surrender to the pleasures of communing with both domesticated AND wild critters. If you need a logical reason to engage in this curative and rejuvenating activity, I'll give you one: It will soothe and strengthen your own animal intelligence, which would be a tonic gift for you to give yourself.
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HOMEWORK:
"Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it's not a problem for you." Comment. 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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