Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
July 15, 2020
FreeWillAstrology.com
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THIS IS THE LAST WEEK THE BIG-PICTURE AUDIO HOROSCOPES WILL BE AVAILABLE!
EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Second Half of 2020. This is the last week they will be available.
How can you exert your free will to create the adventures that will bring out the best in you, even as you find graceful ways to cooperate with the tides of destiny?
To listen to my IN-DEPTH, LONG-TERM AUDIO FORECAST for YOUR LIFE during the next six months and beyond, go here, then register and/or sign in:
RealAstrology.com
After you log in through the main page, click on the link "Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2020."
The horoscopes cost $6 apiece. Discounts are available for multiple purchases.
You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (July 14, 2020)."
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ACTIVISM AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill once spent two years living in a redwood tree she named "Luna." Her goal was to save it from being cut down by a logging company.
Here's her manifesto: "I didn't climb the tree because I was angry at corporations and government; I climbed the tree because when I fell in love with the redwoods, I fell in love with the world. My feelings of connection drive me, not my anger and feelings of being disconnected."
On this July 4, I reaffirmed my goal to have my activism inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill: to cultivate activism as a spiritual practice that keeps me focused on the transformative power of love.
I will certainly fight and struggle against racism, militarism, misogyny, ecocide, oligarchy, homophobia and transphobia.
But I swear that at least 60% of my motivation will always be to express my love and care and empathy and compassion for all those humans and creatures who need and deserve justice.
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MY FAVORITE TV SHOW EVER
I just finished watching my favorite TV show ever, Sense8.
Eight "Sensate" people in different parts of the world are connected with each other more than merely telepathically. Each is intimately linked to the minds and bodies of the other seven. They can share sensations and knowledge, and participate in each other's experiences even if they are physically far away. Every Sensate person inhabits all of the others while also being himself or herself.
Sense8 is unbashedly optimistic in its portrayal of gender multiplicity and a variety of sexual modes. It's the first TV show ever written and directed by two transgender creators and starring a transgender character played by a transgender actor.
Aside from those exhilarating nuances, no TV show has ever portrayed emotionally rich love between humans with so much joyous desire and intelligent delight.
Bonus: At the climax of the final episode, the trans woman Sensate named Nomi gets married to her cis gendered Black lesbian partner Amanita in a party on an upper level of the Eiffel Tower!
More info: lwlies.com/articles/sense8-season-2/
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REVERENCE IS A HEALTHY EMOTION
Reverence is one of the most useful emotions. When you respectfully acknowledge the sublime beauty of something greater than yourself, you do yourself a big favor. You generate authentic humility and sincere gratitude, which are healthy for your body as well as your soul.
Please note that reverence is not solely the province of religious people. A biologist may venerate the scientific method. An atheist might experience a devout sense of awe toward geniuses who have bequeathed to us their brilliant ideas.
What about you? What excites your reverence? I invite you to explore the deeper mysteries of this altered state of consciousness.
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DEAR EARTH
When I dream you, I dream everything I'm afraid of losing—the shadowy shimmer of the reef-building elkhorn corals in the Caribbean, the croaks of the precious few Sehuenca water frogs fading in their Bolivian freshwater marshes, the aroma of longleaf pine trees dying out in the southern Appalachians, the precious mud of the Los Cerritos wetlands encroached by seeping oil spills.
I call you by their names. I hear them in your songs. I pray to them through your ears. "Dear Earth I love as much as my birth, please resurrect our lives together."
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STANDING STRONG AGAINST THE DANCE OF DEATH
Ieshia L. Evans, nurse and mother, stands strong and unbowed against the dance of death.
tinyurl.com/y9exp5cv
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RAIN DANCE
Nigerian boy doing an exquisite dance in the rain on the mud:
tinyurl.com/y8y3rxcd
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THE FREEDOM TO LOVE EACH OTHER
Dear Rob: I follow your writing, and like a lot of it. But you seem to have gone off the rails and jumped the shark in your support of the dumb experts who advocate the lockdowns and mask-wearing and social-distancing as a way to allegedly foil the spread of the coronavirus. I thought you supported freedom. I thought your concept of "pronoia" was about liberating us from control and manipulation. Why do you support the government telling us what to do? —Confused in Tampa
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Dear Confused: My approach to freedom derives its inspiration from the freedom to love and care for and protect and help other people and all the creatures of the earth. The lockdowns and mask-wearing and social-distancing serve the cause of cherishing life—thereby honoring and celebrating my freedom.
I don't mean to minimize the challenges of the lockdowns. Many of us are separated from loved ones and have lost our jobs or had our incomes reduced. Many of us feel alone and have faced dilemmas in our efforts to remedy non-COVID-19 health concerns.
But those are different issues from the minor inconvenience of having to wear protective masks in public and being careful to keep sufficient distance between ourselves and others. They're different from the very small problems of not being able to gather in groups at indoor dance parties, salons, and tattoo parlors.
Those modest constraints on our freedom enable us to express a far-more robust kind of freedom, which is the freedom to take care of each other, to ensure we do no harm.
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BONOBOS AND US
Bonobo apes and humans share 98 percent of the same genes, leading some biologists to suggest that they, along with chimpanzees, should be reclassified as members of the human genus. While their gestures, postures, walk, and facial expressions have remarkable similarities to ours, however, their social behavior is quite different.
Bonobos live in a peaceful matriarchy characterized by egalitarian relationships. Power and status are of minimal concern. They build and maintain social rapport with frequent erotic exchanges of every variety. Homosexual contact is common.
"Bonobos use sex to appease, to bond, to make up after a fight, to ease tensions, to cement alliances," writes Natalie Angier in 'The New York Times.' Because it's their social glue, says primatologist Dr. Frans de Waal, author of 'Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape,' sex is casual and free of elaborate taboos. Unlike humans, bonobos are not obsessed with orgasm. Their reproductive rate is similar to that of other primates.
"All of this has relevance for understanding the roots of human nature," concludes Angier. "De Waal corrects the image of humanity's ancestors as driven by aggression, hierarchical machinations, hunting, warfare, and male dominance."
(Source: Natalie Angier, The New York Times)
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Five Ways to Encourage Safe Behavior During the Pandemic.
tinyurl.com/y8bwpvc9
Four Ways to Feel Good on a Hard Day in Lockdown.
tinyurl.com/ycp79zbe
How the Pandemic Can Teach Kids About Compassion. What if this crisis became an opportunity for children to deepen their sense of care?
tinyurl.com/ybsygxrd
(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 July 16
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
As a Cancerian, you have a natural propensity to study and understand what author Margaret Atwood describes as "echoes and emptiness and shadow." I believe this aspect of your repertoire will be especially active and available to you in the coming weeks. For best results, regard your attunement to these echoes and emptiness and shadow as an asset, even a precious talent. Use it to discern what's missing or lost but could be recovered. Invoke it to help you navigate your way through murky or confusing situations. Call on it to help you see important things that are invisible to others.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
"Time can turn a scab into a beauty mark," said actor and screenwriter Nia Vardalos. That's a rousingly poetic speculation—and more metaphorically true than literally. But I suspect that if it ever might have a useful and meaningful application to an actual human struggle, it will be yours in the coming months. In my view, you are in fact capable of harnessing the magic necessary to transform a wound into a lovely asset. Be bold and imaginative as you carry out this seemingly improbable feat—which is actually not improbable.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Would you like to boost your mental and physical health in the coming weeks? Try this: Immerse yourself in the understanding that you're interconnected with everything in the world. Tell yourself stories about how the atoms that compose your body have previously been part of many other things. This isn't just a poetic metaphor; it's scientific fact. Now study this passage by science writer Ella Frances Sanders: "The carbon inside you could have existed in any number of creatures or natural disasters before finding you. That particular atom residing somewhere above your left eyebrow? It could well have been a smooth riverbed pebble before deciding to call you home. You are rock and wave and the peeling bark of trees, you are ladybirds and the smell of a garden after the rain."
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
It's a favorable time to celebrate the fantastic privilege of being alive. Are you willing to believe that? Will you cooperate with my intention to nudge you in the direction of elation and exaltation? Are you open to the possibility that miracles and epiphanies may be at hand for you personally? To help get yourself in the proper mood, read this passage by Libran author Diane Ackerman: "The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sunstruck hills every day."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Deciding to remember, and what to remember, is how we decide who we are," writes poet Robert Pinsky. That's useful counsel for you right now, Scorpio. You're entering a phase when you can substantially reframe your life story so that it serves you better. And one of the smartest ways to do that is to take an inventory of the memories you want to emphasize versus the memories you'd like to minimize. Another good trick is to reinterpret challenging past events so that you can focus on how they strengthened you and mobilized your determination to be true to yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"A person must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur," wrote Sagittarian author and activist Jean Genet. "And dreaming is nursed in darkness." According to my analysis of your astrological omens, this is an apt description of what has been unfolding for you, Sagittarius—and will continue to play out for you in the next two weeks. If you're aligned with cosmic rhythms, you have been nursing your dreams in darkness—exploring and cultivating and learning from the raw creative energy that is simmering and ripening in your inner depths. Keep doing this important work, even if there are not yet any productive results. Eventually, it will enable you to "act with grandeur," as Genet said.
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BRAINSTORM ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Second Half of 2019 and beyond:
RealAstrology.com
What will be the story of your life during the rest of 2020? How can you exert your free will to create the adventures that will bring out the best in you, even as you find graceful ways to cooperate with the tides of destiny?
If you'd like a high-octane boost of inspiration to fuel your quest to create your most interesting and meaningful destiny, tune in to my meditations on your long-term outlook.
Go here: RealAstrology.com Then register and/or log in and click on this link:
"Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2020"
You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (July 14, 2020)."
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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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The horoscopes cost $6 apiece. Discounts are available for multiple purchases.
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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau said, "There are truths that one can only say after having won the right to say them." In my estimation, you have recently earned the right to express a fresh batch of scintillating and useful truths. Please do us all a favor and unveil them—preferably with both candor and tact. In behalf of everyone who will benefit from your insights, I'm sending you congratulations for the work you've had to do on yourself so as to win them.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works," testifies musician and singer Gwen Stefani. In my own life, I've had to make a fool of myself more than a few hundred times to learn what works. My number is closer to a thousand—and I'm still adding new examples on a regular basis. In the coming weeks, Aquarius, I highly recommend that you try what has served me and Gwen Stefani so well. You're entering a phase when your foolishness will generate especially useful lessons. Being innocent and wildly open-minded will also be very useful.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution," wrote author and futurist Alvin Toffler. While I hesitate to declare that idea to be absolutely and always true, I do recommend it to you in the coming weeks. Given the fact that you have recently been expanding possibilities and cultivating breakthroughs, I'd love to see you keep on pushing forward until you climax your momentum. To boost your courage, try to think of a crazy cry of exhilaration you might exclaim as you make your leaps, like "YAHOO!" or 'HELL YES!" or HERE I COME!"
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time," wrote Aries educator and activist Dorothy Height. This approach worked well during her 98 years on the planet. Her pioneering advocacy for African American women generated a number of practical improvements in their employment opportunities and civil rights. In accordance with the current astrological omens, Aries, I highly recommend her guiding principle for your use. You now have the power to ripen the time, even if no one else believes the time is ripe.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'" A wise and talented woman said that: Nobel Prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it's excellent advice for you to embrace during the coming weeks. You're close to finding and accessing a mother lode of inspiration, and one of the best ways to ensure that happens in an optimal way is to make "I don't know" your mantra. In other words, be cheerfully devoted to shedding your certainties. Lose your attachment to the beliefs and theories you tend to overly rely on. Make yourself as empty and clear and spacious as you possibly can.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Gemini-born author Djuna Barnes (1892–1982) was a world traveler who wrote in several different genres, ranging from lesbian fiction to essays on boxing to plays that used poetic language. She was experimental and empirical and experiential. On one occasion, she voluntarily submitted to the force-feeding endured by hunger-striking suffragists so she could write about what it was like to be tortured. Another fun fact about Djuna: Every morning, she did up her hair and put her make-up on, then climbed into bed and wrote for many hours. In the coming weeks, Gemini, I recommend you draw inspiration from every aspect of her life—except the torture part, of course. The coming weeks will be a fine time to be versatile, exploratory, and committed to expressing yourself purely in whatever ways make you comfortably excited.
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HOMEWORK:
What's the best change you've experienced since the beginning of the pandemic? 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 2020 Rob Brezsny
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