Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Fr** Will Astrology Newsletter
is brought to you by
your struggle to reinvent your freedom
every day
+
February 4, 2004
www.freewillastrology.com
+
My website has some new stuff that doesn't appear in this newsletter,
including a "Sense & Spirituality" column by my colleague,
D. Patrick Miller.
+
NEVER SAY IT IS NOT GOD
by Hafiz
translated by Daniel Ladinsky
I taste what you taste. I know the kind of lyrics your
Soul most likes. I know which sounds will become
Resplendent in your mind and bring such pleasure
Your feet will jump and whirl.
When anything touches or enters your body
Never say it is not God, for He is
Just trying to get close.
I have no use for divine patience -- my lips are always
Burning and everywhere. I am running from every corner
Of this world and sky wanting to kiss you;
I am every particle of dust and wheat -- you and I
Are ground from His Own Body. I am rioting at your door;
I am spinning in midair like golden falling leaves
Trying to win your glance.
I am sweetly rolling against your walls and shores
All night, even though you are asleep. I am singing from
The mouths of animals and birds honoring our
beloved's promise and need: to let
you know the Truth.
My dear, when anything touches or enters your body
Never say it is not God, for He and I are
Just trying to get close to you.
God and I are rushing
From every corner of existence, needing to say,
"We are yours."
-by Hafiz
translated by Daniel Ladinsky
from the book *The Subject Tonight Is Love*
*********************************************
FR** WILL ASTROLOGY
Week of February 5
Copyright 2004 by Rob Brezsny
www.beautyandtruth.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Writing in "The Week" magazine, editor-
in-chief Bill Falk reminisced about how earlier in his career he churned
out three opinion columns a week for newspapers. It was tough. "The truth
is," he said, "there were many weeks in which I didn’t have three fresh
opinions of any value." These days, he added, he couldn't handle a gig like
that. As he's matured, he has become suspicious of his own certainties.
"Opinions are highly overrated," he concludes. "Most concern passing
phenomena that, six months or six years from now, become utterly
irrelevant." I propose that we make Falk your patron saint for February,
Aries. The astrological omens suggest that this is a perfect moment to
enjoy the humility and grace that come from nurturing compassionate
ideals instead of agitated opinions.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You might want to get a history book and
read up on the Greek army's defeat of the invading Persian forces at
Marathon in 490 B.C. While you're at it, look into the ragtag band of
Texan soldiers that won independence from Mexico at San Jacinto in
1836, or the continental army's pivotal victory over the British redcoats
at Saratoga in 1777. I make these suggestions not because I think you will
literally be going into battle, Taurus, but because I believe you'll soon be
moved to defend and even expand your freedom. Meditating on history's
successful struggles for liberation might inject an inspirational dose of
martial energy into your campaign.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You're in a phase of your yearly cycle when
fate will conspire to expand your perspective, get you naturally high, and
turn you into an explorer. To align yourself with these cosmic tendencies,
you might want to charter a supersonic MiG-25 Foxbat plane to ferry you
to the upper edge of the atmosphere, where you can see the curvature of
the Earth. Other good ideas: Sail over Tanzania's Serengeti Plains in a hot-
air balloon; paraglide off the sea cliffs at Oahu's Makapuu Point; or take a
class in shamanism at a local yoga center.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I predict that in 2004 you will become far
more discriminating about what images and information you allow to
enter into the holy temple of your mind. You may even put up protective
barriers that keep out the media's toxic psychic wastes and your friends'
bad moods. I also predict that if you *don't* become more discriminating,
you will lose touch with your own deepest desires and end up trying to be
something you're not. In conclusion, fellow Cancerian, you sure as hell
better remember how naturally telepathic you are, and how easily you
take on other people's feelings as if they were your own.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): After English, astrology is my second language.
Like a language, it's both logical and messy; it's useful in making sense of
the world, yet full of crazy-making ambiguities. At its best, astrology is a
playful study of the metaphorical link between the human psyche and the
sun, moon, and planets. It's not a science. It's an elegant system of
symbols, an art form with a special capacity to feed the soul and educate
the imagination. When regarded as a precise method for predicting the
future or when used to pander to the ego's obsessions, it becomes a
deserving target for satire. So there you have it, Leo. I've clarified the
essential views that underlie all I do in this horoscope column, and which
therefore color the relationship between you and me. Now I challenge you
to do what I just did: Get together with the people you care about and
articulate the fundamental assumptions that form the basis of your
connection.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I rarely employ my mediumistic skills, but a
host of spirits was just clamoring to address you this week. So I agreed to
channel five of them, on the condition that they'd be brief and to the point.
Here, then, are your advisors from the other side of the veil. First,
Wernher von Braun: "Research is what you do when you don't know what
you're doing." Second, A.A. Milne: "One of the advantages of being
disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." Next,
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis."
Casey Stengel: "You're lost but you're making good time." Harry S.
Truman: "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em."
***************************************************
*
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES
For web access to my Expanded Audio Horoscopes, go here:
http://www.relationshipnetwork.com/horo/index.asp?client_id=50700
You can also hear my IN-DEPTH, LONG-TERM FORECASTS for your life in
2004 .
To hear your long-term forecast, go here:
http://www.relationshipnetwork.com/horo/index.asp?client_id=50700
Then click on your sign.
Then click on "Part 1 (from 12/16/2003)" to hear Part One of my
LONG-TERM FORECAST for your life in 2004.
Click on "Part 2 (from 12/23/2003)" to hear Part Two of my LONG-
TERM FORECAST for your life in 2004.
Click on "Part 3 (from 12/30/2003)" to hear Part Three of my LONG-
TERM FORECAST for your life in 2004.
or click on "Hear This Week's Horoscope" to hear this week's horoscope.
Each reading costs $6.
You can also access the weekly forecasts on the phone for $1.99 per
minute.
From the United States, call
1-900-950-7700.
If you live in Canada, call 1-888-499-4425 to purchase a Block of
Time.
If you have a 900# block on your phone or prefer to use your credit card,
there's another way to access the Expanded Audio Horoscopes by phone.
Call 1-877-873-4888 to buy the amount of time that best suits you.
***************************************************
*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic." So proclaimed science fiction writer
Arthur C. Clarke in his book *Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the
Limits of the Possible.* To a medieval peasant, for instance, television
would have appeared to be pure sorcery. Here's my corollary to Clarke's
principle, Libra, just in time for your season of wonder and mystery:
"Any sufficiently unexpected blessing is indistinguishable from a
miracle."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "How can one's heart and brain stand all the
things that are crowded into them?" wrote nineteenth-century composer
Robert Schumann. "Where do these thousands of thoughts, wishes,
sorrows, joys, and hopes come from? Day in, day out, the procession goes
on." Sound familiar, Scorpio? If I'm reading the astrological omens
correctly, the flood that Schumann described has recently reached
tsunami proportions in you. You simply can't go on like this. As the
closest thing you have to a soul doctor, I regard it as my duty to prescribe
massive doses of spacious silence. Quiet your thoughts, slow down your
pace, and drop out of every frenetic game, at least for now.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Back in the 1980s, an old pal of mine
was a girlfriend of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry. I'm
hoping if he's elected in November, she'll arrange for me to get a tryout as
his astrological advisor. Who knows? Maybe he already reads this column.
You there, John? Here's my counsel for you and your fellow Sagittarians.
As tempting as it might be to dramatize the differences between you and
your competitors, your best bet in the short run is to be an emblem of
unity. Don't let your powerful moral vision get bogged down in detailing
what's wrong. Instead, be passionate about beauty and truth and justice.
Strong women are the key to your next success. Ask more from them than
ever before. And make sure that in the midst of your noble push to the
frontier, you keep nourishing your roots.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here's Big Secret of Life #27, crucial
for your meditations in the coming weeks: Whatever you choose to focus
your attention on, you will get more of it. So for example, if you often
think of everything you lack and how sad you are that you don't have it,
you will tend to receive abundant evidence of how true that is. If, on the
other hand, you dwell on the good things that make you feel grateful to be
alive, they will probably multiply. You are a great wizard, Capricorn.
Why not use your powers to practice white magic on yourself instead of
the other kind?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): This will be an elephant-wearing-a-
parachute-as-it-falls-through-the-sky kind of week for you, Aquarius.
It'll be a successfully-shoplifting-a-Bible kind of week, a using-bottles-
of-Dom-Perignon-champagne-to-put-out-a-fire kind of week, a
rewriting-a-Shakespeare-play-and-selling-it-to-a-Hollywood-
producer kind of week. "Improbable" should be your nickname.
"Prodigious" should be your word of power. If you don't receive a magic
pretzel or a golden booger from a talking raven in your dreams, I'll be
shocked.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Red alert! Your behavior is beginning to
have an eerie resemblance to the guy who regularly stands on a street
corner in Beijing and offers himself up as a punching bag. At least he
makes money from it, charging stressed-out jerks about $6 to smack him
around for two minutes. But I can't see *any* benefit coming to you for
the way you're letting yourself be abused. Please stop this perverse form
of entertainment immediately. Find a better strategy for encouraging
intimate contact with people.
*********************************************
HOMEWORK: Around February 2 every year, pagans make a pledge to the
Goddess about what their main intention will be in the coming year.
What's yours? Testify by going to www.beautyandtruth.com and clicking
on "Email Rob."
**********************************************
WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing charts these days. In addition to writing my weekly column
and expanded audio horoscopes, I'm also working on a book and CD.
But I can recommend a colleague whose astro-aesthetics closely match my
own. She's RO LOUGHRAN.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and a
high degree of technical proficiency in horoscope interpretation; she is
skilled at exploring the mysteries of your life's purpose and nurturing
your connection with your own inner wisdom. In addition to over 20 years
of astrological experience, Ro is also a licensed psychotherapist, allowing
her to integrate psychological insight with the cosmological perspective
that astrology offers.
Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.
Ro's website is at
http://www.astrology-psychotherapy.com/
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
Namaste,
Rob
**********************************************
NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, or to change the address
where you receive it, go to:
http://www.freewillastrology.com/newsletter/
I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to
anyone.
********************************************
Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
or in response to "homework assignments" and contests may be
published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
including but not limited to newsletters, books, Rob Brezsny's column,
and website. We reserve the right to edit such
submissions for length, style, and content. Requests for anonymity will be
honored with submissions; otherwise, reader names, screen names, or
initials will be used. Please be sure to note your preference when sending
to us. We' are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative
material.
Contents of Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2004 Rob Brezsny
********************************************