Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
March 24, 2021
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!
—Allen Ginsberg
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SALUTATIONS !!!
Below is a list of possible salutations. Any you'd like to add?
• Good fortune and long life to you.
• I wish you many beautiful things.
• Do no harm but take no sh--.
• May your forge burn bright.
• Here's to your health and joy.
• May guidance and clarity find you.
• Ride hard. Live free.
• Boomshakalaka flashbang!
• May the forces of evil never know how to find you.
• May the Divine Wow give you what you want, exactly when you want it. Forever. Now. Once upon a time.
• Have fun storming the castle.
• I see the divine spark within you.
• Nice mask!
• My ancestors honor your ancestors. My descendants bless your descendants.
• Many bright blessings to you and yours.
• Happy eternal world orgasm!
• Hope you have sweet and provocative dreams.
• Be wild and free and mysterious.
• I bet marvels and wonders are coming your way.
• May your journey be fun.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY is TRANSLATED every week
into Italian, French, Dutch, and Japanese
If you prefer to read my Free Will Astrology horoscopes in English, they're here: FreeWillAstrology.com
To read my horoscopes in French: courrierinternational.com/horoscope
in Italian: internazionale.it/oroscopo/
in Dutch: tinyurl.com/DutchFWA
in Japanese: courrier.jp/news/tag/free-will-astrology/
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HEALTHY, EXALTED, POSITIVE STATES
Here's an excerpt from my compendium of healthy, exalted, positive states of being.
JOYFUL POIGNANCE. Feeling buoyantly joyful about the beauty and mystery of life while remaining aware of the sadness, injustices, wounds, and future fears that form the challenges in an examined life.
NOT HAVING TO BE RIGHT. Fostering an ability, even a willingness, to be proven wrong about one of your initial perceptions or pet theories; having an eagerness to gather information that may change your mind about something you have fervently believed; cultivating a tendency to enjoy being corrected, especially about ideas that are negative or hostile.
RELENTLESS UNPRETENTIOUSNESS. Possessing a strong determination to not take yourself too seriously, not take your cherished beliefs too literally, and not take other people's ideas about you too personally.
ACUTE FLUENCY. Happily immersed in artistic creation or scientific exploration; lost in a trance-like state of inventiveness that's both blissful and taxing; surrendered to a state of grace in which you're fully engaged in a productive, compelling, and delightful activity. The joy of this demanding, rewarding state is intensified by a sense that time has been suspended, and is rounder and deeper than usual.
AUTONOMOUS NURTURING. Not waiting for someone to give you what you can give yourself.
BLASPHEMOUS REVERENCE. Acting on the knowledge that the most efficacious form of devotion to the Divine Wow is tinctured with playful or mischievous behavior that prevents the buildup of fanaticism.
COMIC INTROSPECTION. Being fully aware of your own foibles while still loving yourself tenderly and maintaining confidence in your ability to give your specific genius to the world. To paraphrase Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral: following the Byzantine ploys of your ego with compassion and humor as it tries to make itself the center of everything, even of its own suffering and struggle.
FRIENDLY SHOCK. Welcoming a surprise that will ultimately have benevolent effects.
ECSTATIC GRATITUDE. Feeling genuine thankfulness with such resplendent intensity that you generate a surge of endorphins in your body and slip into a full-scale outbreak of euphoria.
INGENIOUS INTIMACY. Having an ability to consistently create deep connections with other human beings, and to use the lush, reverential excitement stimulated by such exchanges to further deepen the connections. A well-crafted talent for dissolving your sense of separateness and enjoying the innocent exultation that erupts in the wake of the dissolution.
NONRESENTMENT SYNDROME. Having an ability to be friendly, open, and helpful to people with whom you disagree.
RADICAL CURIOSITY. Characterized by the following traits: an enthusiasm for the mystery embedded in the mundane; a preference for questions over answers; an aversion to stereotyping, generalizations, and jumping to conclusions; a belief that people are unsolvable puzzles; an inclination to be unafraid of both change and absence of change; a strong drive to avoid boredom; a lack of interest in possessing or dominating what you are curious about
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For more of these healthy states, check here: tinyurl.com/aawxbjxm
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MY MOST RECENT BOOK
The writing above, about healthy, exalted, positive states, is excerpted from my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
It's available at Barnes & Noble:
tinyurl.com/PronoiaBN
Also available at Bookshop.org:
tinyurl.com/BookshopPronoia
Available at Powells:
bit.ly/PowellsPronoia
Also available at Amazon:
bit.ly/Pronoia
A free preview of the book is available here:
tinyurl.com/PronoiaPreview
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Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings is translated into Italian: tinyurl.com/ItalianPronoia
Pronoia is translated into Spanish:
tinyurl.com/PronoiaInSpanish
and
tinyurl.com/PronoiaSpanish
Pronoia is translated into Greek: tinyurl.com/PronoiaGreek
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An Italian journalist interviews me: tinyurl.com/ItalianInterview
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MILITANTS FOR KINDNESS
We have to be militants for kindness, subversive for sweetness and radicals for tenderness.
—Cornel West
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THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING TO DO
There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well.
And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.
—Nikki Giovanni
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WHAT EXACTLY ARE BLESSINGS?
Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy that's guaranteed to keep you well supplied with blessings.
What kind of blessings? Ten million dollars, a gorgeous physique, a perfect marriage, a luxurious home, and high status?
Maybe. But it's just as likely that the blessings will be interesting surprises, dizzying adventures, gifts you hardly know what to do with, and conundrums that dare you to get smarter.
Novelist William Vollman referred to these types of blessings when he said that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is grappling with a complicated, tricky problem that you don't know how to solve."
Sculptor Henry Moore had a similar idea. He said, "The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is -- it must be something you cannot possibly do."
So in other words, pronoia does not guarantee that you will forevermore be free of all difficult experiences.
It doesn't ask you to pretend that everything is sweet and harmonious all the time.
On the contrary, when you embody the spirit of pronoia, you build your optimism by loving your challenges, not repressing them.
You know that your problems are gifts from the Goddess that are designed to make you smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier.
You welcome each fresh puzzle as a potential source of your future bliss, as an exciting teaching that will usher you to your next breakthrough.
Now here's a spell to commit pronoia created by psychotherapist Jennifer Welwood. I invite you to say it aloud.
Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within me;
Opening to my loss and pain and ignorance,
I remember who I am and what I'm here for.
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me,
Each condition I welcome transforms me
and becomes itself transformed
into the blessing it always was.
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Hear this as a spoken word piece with music: tinyurl.com/ShadowBlessings
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
A stand of trees that has cultural important to the Squamish people has been protected from timber harvesting.
tinyurl.com/x8sn6n5p
Anyone in These States Can Get a Covid-19 Vaccine, Thanks to Several Native Tribes.
tinyurl.com/7t6udwrr
To Save the Cherokee Language, There's a Program That Pays People to Learn It. With only 2,000 fluent speakers left, the tribe wants those who love the culture to help preserve it.
tinyurl.com/29ban659
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Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning March 25
Copyright 2021 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the novel House of Leaves, the hero Johnny Truant describes his friend Lude as wanting "more money, better parties, and prettier girls." But Johnny wants something different. What is it? He says, "I’m not even sure what to call it except I know it feels roomy and it’s drenched in sunlight and it’s weightless and I know it’s not cheap." In my opinion, that declaration is far too imprecise! He'll never get what he wants until he gets clearer about it. But his fantasy is a good start. It shows that he knows what the fulfillment of his yearning feels like. I suggest you get inspired by Johnny Truant's approximation to conjure up one of your own. Gaze ahead a few years, and see if you can imagine what your best possible future feels like. Then describe it to yourself as precisely as possible.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
How distraught I was when I discovered that one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda, was an admirer of the murderous dictator Joseph Stalin. It broke my heart to know I could never again read his tender, lyrical poetry with unconditional appreciation. But that's life: Some of our heroes and teachers disappoint us, and then it's healthy to re-evaluate our relationships with them. Or maybe our own maturation leads us to realize that once-nurturing influences are no longer nurturing. I recommend that sometime soon, you take a personal inventory with these thoughts in mind. I suspect there may be new sources of inspiration headed your way. Get ready for them.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Self-help author Steve Maraboli has useful advice for you to consider in the coming weeks. I hope you'll meditate on what he says and take decisive action. He writes, "Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t." To get started, Gemini, make a list of three things you do have power over and three things you wish you did but don't have power over.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
While he was alive, Cancerian author Franz Kafka burned 90% of everything he wrote. In a note to a friend before he died, he gave instructions to burn all the writing he would leave behind. Luckily, his friend disobeyed, and that's why today we can read Kafka's last three novels and a lot more of his stuff. Was his attitude toward his creations caused by the self-doubt that so many of us Cancerians are shadowed by? Was he, like a lot of us Crabs, excessively shy about sharing personal details from his life? In accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to at least temporarily transcend any Kafka-like tendencies you have. It's time to shine brightly and boldly as you summon your full powers of self-expression.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
To create your horoscope, I've borrowed ideas from Leo-born author Cassiano Ricardo. He speaks of a longing "for all that is tall like pine trees, and all that is long like rivers, and all that is purple like dusk." I think yearnings like those will be healthy and wise for you to cultivate in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you need expansive influences that stretch your imagination and push you beyond your limitations. You will benefit from meditations and experiences that inspire you to outgrow overly small expectations.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault (1910–1994) aspired to "wake up a virgin each morning." He wanted "to feel hungry for life," as if he had been reborn once again. In order to encourage that constant renewal, he regarded going to sleep every night as "a small death." I recommend his approach to you during the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, the cosmic rhythms will be conspiring to regularly renew your desires: to render them pure, clean, raw, and strong. Cooperate with those cosmic rhythms!
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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less facts. 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 RealAstrology.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
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The cost is $6 per sign online. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888. The cost is $1.99 per minute. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
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"The best part about your audio horoscopes is that they pat me on the head and kick me in the butt at the same time."
—Rita Lazarus, San Diego
"Your audio oracles often go beyond helping me find the truth -- they inspire me to find the useful, practical truth."
—Patrick Kinder, Montreal
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Is there anything more gratifying than being listened to, understood, and seen for who you really are? I urge you to seek out that pleasure in abundance during the coming weeks. My reading of the astrological omens tells me you need the nurturing jolt that will come from being received and appreciated with extra potency. I hope you have allies who can provide that for you. If you don't, search for allies who can. And in the meantime, consider engaging the services of a skillful psychotherapist or life coach or some other professional listener.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Blobs, spots, specks, smudges, cracks, defects, mistakes, accidents, exceptions, and irregularities are the windows to other worlds," writes author Bob Miller. I would add that all those things, along with related phenomena like fissures, blemishes, stains, scars, blotches, muck, smears, dents, and imperfections, are often windows to very interesting parts of this seemingly regular old ordinary world—parts that might remain closed off from us without the help of those blobs and defects. I suggest you take full advantage of the opportunities they bring your way in the coming weeks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Innovative psychologist Carl Jung had a nuanced understanding of the energies at work in our deep psyche. He said our unconscious minds are "not only dark but also light; not only bestial, semi-human, and demonic, but also superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, 'divine.'" I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because now is a favorable time to get better acquainted with and more appreciative of your unconscious mind. For best results, you must not judge it for being so paradoxical. Don't be annoyed that it's so unruly and non-rational. Have fun with its fertility and playfulness and weirdness.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The fantasy drama Game of Thrones appeared on TVs all over the world. But the audience that watched it in China got cheated out of a lot of essential action. Government censorship deleted many scenes that featured nudity and sex, fighting and violence, and appearances by dragons, which play a starring role in the story. As you can imagine, Chinese viewers had trouble following some of the plot points. Telling you about this, Capricorn, is my way of nudging you to make sure you don't miss any of the developments going on in your own personal drama. Some may be hidden, as in China's version of Game of Thrones. Others might be subtle or disguised or underestimated. Make it your crusade to know about everything.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind," wrote author Rudyard Kipling. Yes, they are. I agree. They change minds, rouse passions, build identities, incite social change, inspire irrationality, and create worlds. This is always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. The ways you use language will be key to your health and success. The language that you hear and read will also be key to your health and success. For best results, summon extra creativity and craftsmanship as you express yourself. Cultivate extra discernment as you choose what you absorb.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Piscean linguist Anna Wierzbicka says the Russian expression Dusha naraspashku means "unbuttoned soul." She continues, "The implication is that it is good, indeed wonderful, if a person’s 'soul,' which is the seat of emotions, is flung open in a spontaneous, generous, expansive, impetuous gesture, expressing full trust in other people and an innocent readiness for communion with them.” I wouldn't recommend that you keep your soul unbuttoned 24/7/365, but in the coming weeks, I hope you'll allocate more time than usual to keeping it unbuttoned.
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HOMEWORK:
Send ideas for April Fool pranks that fulfill the following prescription: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Truthrooster@gmail.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 2021 Rob Brezsny
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