Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
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August 18, 2004
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http://www.freewillastrology.com
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If you're going to BURNING MAN this year, consider coming to my
performance on Friday, September 3 between 4 and 6 pm. It'll be at
PLANET WOW, which will be located at 3:30 and Esplanade. Check
my website for updates: http://www.freewillastrology.com
For more info on BURNING MAN, see the website at
http://www.burningman.com
PLANET WOW is at http://www.planetwow.org
See you there,
Rob
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning August 18
Copyright 2004 by Rob Brezsny
www.freewillastrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Get used to the fact that you're going to feel
good about your life and bad about your life maybe eight times a day every
day," advises healer Carolyn Myss, "and clear about your life and confused
about your life 25 times a day. Your journey is to get to the point where
you realize: 'Hey, this is just passing through me.'" While I personally
think there's more to your journey than that, it's an excellent discipline
that will serve you exceedingly well. And the coming weeks happen to be a
perfect time, Aries, to improve your mastery of this subtle yet heroic
art.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): There are no longer enough Catholic priests
in North America to fulfill all the requests for divine intervention that
are received from parishioners. The requests are therefore outsourced to
churches in India, where up-and-coming young clergy pray over them at
$5 a pop. It's too bad the powers-that-be apparently don't know about me
and my team of Prayer Warriors, because we perform the same service
absolutely free. To demonstrate our effectiveness, we plan to unleash a
series of powerful prayers on your behalf. Specifically, we will beseech
God to bless you in the coming weeks with cathartic pleasures that will
permanently expand your capacity for happiness.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Most of us cannot imagine the wheat beyond
the bread, or the farmer beyond the wheat, or the history beyond the
farm," writes Wendell Berry in *Resurgence* magazine. "Most people
cannot imagine the forest and the forest economy that produced their
houses and furniture and paper; or the streams and the weather that fill
their pitchers and bathtubs and swimming pools with water." In my
astrological opinion, Gemini, you can't afford to be like the people that
Berry describes. To give your life the ballast it will need in the coming
weeks, you've got to have a vivid appreciation of all the good things that
sustain you, as well as a more intimate understanding of their origins.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You haven't been singing and dancing and
laughing and playing enough lately. You haven't been telling yourself jokes
as you drop off to sleep or leaping off the couch during the exciting parts
of your favorite TV shows or going ten miles out of your way to track down
the exotic sensation you're in the mood for. Either get more serious about
having fun, Cancerian, or I swear I'll show up in your dreams in the form
of a giant crab running amok in a place where you take everything too
seriously.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I have nothing against Leo diva Jennifer Lopez,
but I wouldn't normally recommend her as a role model for you. She's a
bit chilly and remote and self-absorbed, whereas I always like to
encourage you Leos to cultivate warmth and conviviality and generosity of
spirit. But after seeing the magazine ad for Lopez's perfume, I'll make an
exception. "In the eye of the storm," the text reads, "I am still Jennifer
Lopez." Please adopt this for your own use in the coming week. Say to
yourself ten times a day, "In the eye of the storm, I am still [your name
here]."
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Some astrologers say that Virgos tend to be so
obsessed with small details that they neglect to focus on the big picture;
that they get so bound up in seeking perfection that they miss out on life's
messy beauty and slightly flawed glories. But even if there is a grain of
truth in those ideas, they've temporarily become irrelevant. In the
coming weeks, you'll be drawn to carry out the task Henry Miller
described as follows: "to keep the miracle alive, to live always in the
miracle, to make the miracle more and more miraculous, to swear
allegiance to nothing, but live only miraculously, think only
miraculously."
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EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES
Since I put all my heart and soul into the written horoscopes I send out in
this newsletter, they're pretty nutritious. You may never need any of the
other stuff I create.
But if you ever do crave an added boost, you may want to sample my
Expanded Audio Horoscopes. They're different in tone and intent than the
written scopes, imbued with a little more of the psychologist in me, and a
little less of the poet.
The Expanded Audio horoscopes cost $6 if you access them on the Web via
RealAudio, or $1.99 per minute if you want them over the phone.
For Web access, go here:
http://www.relationshipnetwork.com/horo/index.asp?client_id=50700
From the United States, call
1-900-950-7700
or if you prefer to pay by credit card
1-877-873-4888
If you live in Canada, call 1-888-499-4425 to purchase a Block of Time
with your credit card.
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You may think you need a teacher or genie or
rescuer, but I say you don't. I say that what you need most is to realize
that right now you are your own best teacher and genie and rescuer. In my
astrological opinion, you should drop any fantasies you have that there's
someone out there who will save you or give you what you lack or reveal
the secrets that will fix everything. For the foreseeable future, you won't
get what you need until you're prepared to provide it entirely by yourself.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Are you Scorpios controlling manipulators?
You can be, yes. But sometimes that's a good thing. Here's an example.
When you have a leadership role in a group project, you may *have* to be
a bit controlling and manipulative in order to keep other people's raging
egos from sabotaging the goals of the project. In a case like that, however,
you also have a great responsibility to monitor your own power drives.
You've got to make sure you don't get so juiced up by the battle of wills
that you end up sabotaging the goals of the project yourself. The whole
point of being a benevolent manipulator is to serve the greater good, not
your own selfish needs. These meditations will be crucial for you to keep
in mind in the coming weeks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson had
little interest in traditional religion. She referred to the Bible as "an
antique volume written by faded men," and called the god worshiped by
her conventional parents many unflattering names, including "The
Eclipse." And yet, writes critic John Burt, "her poetry is charged with an
anguished, naked, mystical confrontation with the divine." This is a
perfect astrological time for you to shift towards a more Dickinsonian
approach, Sagittarius. I dare you to renounce any dry, timid, safe, lifeless
abstractions you might have about the Divine Wow, and instead seek out
raw, sweet, wild, direct communion.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here's one of the few mottoes it would be
healthy for all of us to live by: *Wash your brain once a month, whether
you think it needs it or not.* I hope you've faithfully followed that rule in
recent months. If not, please do the job with extra vigor in the coming
week. Scrub and dry-clean and disinfect your brain until it's purged of all
shoddy theories, decrepit dogmas, and ill-fitting beliefs borrowed from
people you no longer trust. It's especially important to do this now
because you'll soon be in astrological phase when your capacity for
expanding your worldview will be at a peak. To make yourself as
receptive as possible to all the good ideas that will be ready to flow into
your imagination, you need to clear out some space.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Through a friend of a friend of a friend in
the publishing business, I've caught wind of a mysterious manuscript that
may soon be turned into a book. It's called *I'm the Boss of My
Underpants.* My source was maddeningly vague about the subject matter,
but it sounds like something I'd love you to get your hands on as soon as
possible. In the coming weeks, you'll need to get crystal clear about who
exactly *is* the boss of your underpants. You should also devote a lot of
thought to defining the rules that will govern your underpants in the
future, including the important issues of where and when and with whom
you'll take them off.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): One of my specialties is trying to be
tolerant of people who are intolerant of me. My motto is "I refuse to
dehumanize anyone, even those who dehumanize me." I recommend that
you practice this difficult art in the coming week, Pisces. You're in a
phase when it's crucial to bolster your integrity, and playing nice with
those who don't play nice would be great exercise. But there's another
important reason to do this: Feeling even low levels of contempt and
disdain would shut down your intuition. And that's something you can't
afford as you come to a turning point in your work on the dark side of
your life.
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HOMEWORK:
What are the conditions you'd need in your world in order to feel like you
were living in paradise? Testify by going to www.freewillastrology.com
and clicking on "Email Rob."
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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
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2004 Rob Brezsny
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