Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
November 27, 2019
FreeWillAstrology.com
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It’s never too late to have another rebellious adolescence—bigger and better and smarter than the first one.
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GOOD PROBLEMS
Is there anything more dangerous than getting up in the morning and having nothing to worry about, no problems to solve, no friction to heat you up? That state can be a threat to your health, because if untreated it incites an unconscious yearning for any old dumb trouble that might rouse some excitement.
Acquiring problems is a fundamental human need. It's as crucial to your well-being as getting food, air, water, sleep, and love. You define yourself--indeed, you make yourself--through the riddles you attract and solve. The most creative people on the planet are those who frame the biggest, hardest questions and then gather the resources necessary to find the answers.
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 an ultimate truth.
I half-agree. 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 book is a good example. I've had a good time handling the perplexing challenges with which it has confronted 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 state of mind. 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 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 divine kicks in the ass.
The above is excerpted from my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. Available here:
bit.ly/Pronoia
bit.ly/PowellsPronoia
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ROMANCING THE PARADOX
How do we summon the right blend of practical love and constructive
anger?
How do we refrain from hating other people even as we fight fiercely
against the hatred and danger they have helped unleash?
How do we cultivate cheerful buoyancy even as we neutralize the bigoted,
autocratic poisons that are on the loose?
How can we be both wrathful insurrectionaries and exuberant lovers of
life?
How can we stay in a good yet unruly mood as we overthrow the mass
hallucinations that are metastasizing?
In the face of the danger, how do we remain intensely dedicated to
building beauty and truth and justice and love even as we keep our
imaginations wild and hungry and free?
Can our struggle also be a form of play?
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I DON'T KNOW!!!
I celebrate the mantra, "I don't know." It's a source of power, a declaration of independence from the pressure to have an opinion about every single subject.
It's fun to say. "I don't know."
I love to let go of the drive to have it all figured out: "I don't know."
I exult in proclaiming the only truth I can be totally sure of: "I don't know."
I empty my mind and lift my heart: "I don't know."
I use it as a battle cry, a joyous affirmation of my oneness with the Great Mystery: "I don't know."
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MOTHER'S PRAYER by Rebecca Solnit
Our mother who art underfoot,
hallowed be thy names.
Thy seasons come, thy will be done,
within us as around us.
Thank you for our daily bread, our water, our air,
and our lives and so much beauty.
Lead us not into selfish craving and the destructions
that are the hungers of the glutted,
but deliver us from wanton consumption
of thy vast but finite bounty.
For thine is the only sphere of life we know,
and the power and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen
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ACTING GENEROUSLY
Acting generously helps many of us feel increasingly purposeful and coherent. Could we think up and fashion a worldwide culture based on practicing extreme altruism at every opportunity?
—William Kittredge
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
New Catalyst Efficiently Produces Hydrogen from Seawater. Holds Promise for Large-Scale Hydrogen Production, Desalination
tinyurl.com/wscrhx2
The astonishing success of fossil fuel fights in Europe:
tinyurl.com/wscsjgf
Baltimore Museum of Art will only acquire works from women next year: "You have to do something radical."
tinyurl.com/tv8azrr
(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 November 28
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian composer Ludwig van Beethoven was inclined to get deeply absorbed in his work. Even when he took time to attend to the details of daily necessity, he allowed himself to be spontaneously responsive to compelling musical inspirations that suddenly welled up in him. On more than a few occasions, he lathered his face with the nineteenth-century equivalent of shaving cream, then got waylaid by a burst of brilliance and forgot to actually shave. His servants found that amusing. I suspect that the coming weeks may be Beethoven-like for you, Sagittarius. I bet you'll be surprised by worthy fascinations and subject to impromptu illuminations.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
During the next eleven months, you could initiate fundamental improvements in the way you live from day to day. It’s conceivable you'll discover or generate innovations that permanently raise your life's possibilities to a higher octave. At the risk of sounding grandiose, I’m tempted to predict that you’ll celebrate at least one improvement that is your personal equivalent of the invention of the wheel or the compass or the calendar.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history. Philosopher Georg Hegel said that. But I think you will have an excellent chance to disprove this theory in the coming months. I suspect you will be inclined and motivated to study your own past in detail; you'll be skilled at drawing useful lessons from it; and you will apply those lessons with wise panache as you re-route your destiny.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In his own time, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was acclaimed and beloved. At the height of his fame, he earned $3,000 per poem. But modern literary critics think that most of what he created is derivative, sentimental, and unworthy of serious appreciation. In dramatic contrast is poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886). Her writing was virtually unknown in her lifetime, but is now regarded as among the best ever. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to sort through your own past so as to determine which of your work, like Longfellow's, should be archived as unimportant or irrelevant, and which, like Dickinson's, deserves to be a continuing inspiration as you glide into the future.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Humans invented the plow in 4,500 BC, the wheel in 4,000 BC, and writing in 3,400 BC. But long before that, by 6,000 BC, they had learned how to brew beer and make psychoactive drugs from plants. Psychopharmacologist Ronald Siegel points to this evidence to support his hypothesis that the yearning to transform our normal waking consciousness is a basic drive akin to our need to eat and drink. Of course, there are many ways to accomplish this shift besides alcohol and drugs. They include dancing, singing, praying, drumming, meditating, and having sex. What are your favorite modes? According to my astrological analysis, it'll be extra important for you to alter your habitual perceptions and thinking patterns during the coming weeks.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
What's something you're afraid of, but pretty confident you could become unafraid of? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to dismantle or dissolve that fear. Your levels of courage will be higher than usual, and your imagination will be unusually ingenious in devising methods and actions to free you of the unnecessary burden. Step one: Formulate an image or scene that symbolizes the dread, and visualize yourself blowing it up with a "bomb" made of a hundred roses.
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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 here -- 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.
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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"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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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The word "enantiodromia" refers to a phenomenon that occurs when a vivid form of expression turns into its opposite, often in dramatic fashion. Yang becomes yin; resistance transforms into welcome; loss morphs into gain. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you Geminis are the sign of the zodiac that's most likely to experience enantiodromia in the coming weeks. Will it be a good thing or a bad thing? You can have a lot of influence over how that question resolves. For best results, don't fear or demonize contradictions and paradoxes. Love and embrace them.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
There are Americans who speak only one language, English, and yet imagine they are smarter than bilingual immigrants. That fact amazes me, and inspires me to advise me and all my fellow Cancerians to engage in humble reflection about how we judge our fellow humans. Now is a favorable time for us to take inventory of any inclinations we might have to regard ourselves as superior to others; to question why we might imagine others aren't as worthy of love and respect as we are; or to be skeptical of any tendency we might have dismiss and devalue those who don't act and think as we do. I'm not saying we Cancerians are more guilty of these sins than everyone else; I'm merely letting you know that the coming weeks are our special time to make corrections.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
"Erotic love is one of the highest forms of contemplation," wrote the sensually wise poet Kenneth Rexroth. That's a provocative and profitable inspiration for you to tap into. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you're in the Season of Lucky Plucky Delight, when brave love can save you from wrong turns and irrelevant ideas; when the grandeur of amour can be your teacher and catalyst. If you have a partner with whom you can conduct these educational experiments, wonderful. If you don't, be extra sweet and intimate with yourself.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In the follow-up story to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, our heroine uses a magic mirror as a portal into a fantastical land. There she encounters the Red Queen, and soon the two of them are holding hands as they run as fast as they can. Alice notices that despite their great effort, they don't seem to be moving forward. What's happening? The Queen clears up the mystery: In her realm, you must run as hard as possible just to remain in the same spot. Sound familiar, Virgo? I'm wondering whether you've had a similar experience lately. If so, here's my advice: Stop running. Sit back, relax, and allow the world to zoom by you. Yes, you might temporarily fall behind. But in the meantime, you'll get fully recharged. No more than three weeks from now, you'll be so energized that you'll make up for all the lost time—and more.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Most sane people wish there could be less animosity between groups that have different beliefs and interests. How much better the world would be if everyone felt a generous acceptance toward those who are unlike them. But the problem goes even deeper: Most of us are at odds with ourselves. Here's how author Rebecca West described it: Even the different parts of the same person do not often converse among themselves, do not succeed in learning from each other. That's the bad news, Libra. The good news is that the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to promote unity and harmony among all the various parts of yourself. I urge you to entice them to enter into earnest conversations with each other!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Poet Cecilia Woloch asks, "How to un-want what the body has wanted, explain how the flesh in its wisdom was wrong?" Did the apparent error occur because of some "some ghost in the mind?" she adds. Was it due to "some blue chemical rushing the blood" or "some demon or god"? I'm sure that you, like most of us, have experienced this mystery. But the good news is that in the coming weeks you will have the power to un-want inappropriate or unhealthy experiences that your body has wanted. Step one: Have a talk with yourself about why the thing your body has wanted isn't in alignment with your highest good.
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HOMEWORK:
You have the power to re-genius yourself. Guidance: tinyurl.com/ReGeniusYourself
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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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