Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
"Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the
most desperate, admirable, and noble kind of love."
—Delmore Schwartz
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December 14, 2005
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http://www.freewillastrology.com
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Dear Beauty and Truth and Love Fans,
I'm offering two special deals if you want copies of my book
PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
1. Buy the book and mail it to me. I'll autograph it and inscribe it with a
rowdy blessing for you or for someone you want to give it to, and then I'll
mail it back to you. (You can also send me multiple copies, of course.)
Please provide me with a large self-addressed envelope stamped with the
appropriate postage. (Or if you live in Canada, send $10 Canadian worth
of International Reply Coupons per book.) Send it all to me at P.O. Box
150628, San Rafael, CA 94915.
2. Go into one of your local stores or to an online bookstore and buy at
least five books to give as gifts to your friends and loved ones. Mail me
the receipt. As your reward, I'll send you the following:
(a) a copy of my last book, *The Televisionary Oracle;*
(b) a copy of my music CD, *Give Too Much,*
(c) a Karmic Credit Card
Let me know if you want me to sign (a) or (b).
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MP3s of all 22 tracks of my band's CD are now available free here:
http://snipurl.com/krjo
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I'll be interviewed by HealthyLife.net on Wednesday, December 14 at 7
pm Pacific Time (10 pm Eastern time). You can tune in to the live
broadcast at http://www.healthylife.net
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EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES FOR THE COMING YEAR
What hidden factors will be massaging your destiny in 2006? Could you
use some hints about how to prepare for the adventures awaiting you in
the next 12 months? Are there any lingering secrets about 2005 you'd
like to pry loose before leaping into the new year?
Beginning next week, I'll be exploring the BIG PICTURE of your life in my
Expanded Audio Horoscopes. If, like most of us, you slip into a
philosophical, visionary mood at the end of each year, you might
appreciate my perspectives on your long-term destiny.
The BIG PICTURE horoscopes will be available beginning December 21
here:
http://snipurl.com/krjm
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Here's an excerpt from my book
*PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings*
available at http://snipurl.com/krjj
or get direct links at http://www.freewillastrology.com
PRONOIA NEWS NETWORK
These are our top stories.
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CONVERSATIONS WITH ETERNITY
Beauty and Truth Laboratory researcher Firenze Matisse traveled to
Antarctica. On the first day, the guide took him and his group to a remote
area and left them alone for an hour to commune with the pristine air and
unearthly stillness. After a while, a penguin ambled up and launched into a
ceremonial display of squawks and stretches. Firenze responded with
recitals of his favorite memorized poems, imagining he was "engaged in a
conversation with eternity." Halfway through his inspired performance of
Thich Nhat Hanh's "Please Call Me by My True Names," the penguin sent a
stream of green projectile vomit cascading against his chest, and shuffled
away.
Though Firenze initially felt deflated by eternity's surprise, no harm was
done. He soon came to see it as a first-class cosmic joke, and looked
forward to exploiting its value as an amusing story with which to regale
his friends back home.
Beauty and Truth Laboratory researcher Michael Logan was the first
person to hear Firenze's tale upon his return from Antarctica. "You might
want to consider this, Firenze," Michael mused after taking it all in.
"Penguins nurture their offspring by chewing food—mixing it up with all
God's enzymes—and then vomiting it into the mouths of the penguin
babies. Perhaps you weren't the butt of a cosmic joke or some Linda Blair-
esque bad review, but in fact the recipient of a very precious gift of love.
Who knows?"
Now Firenze has two punch lines for his tale of redemptive pronoia.
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DOMESTIC BLISS
"For the first time in history, more than half of central city households are
homeowners. This increase has been led by African-American and Hispanic
families, whose homeownership rates have been increasing the fastest."
—http://www. goodnewsnetwork.org
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NAKED HEROISM
The ancient Celts used to go into battle stark naked. They believed that
only utter vulnerability demonstrated their total trust in the gods, who
alone could make them invincible and who alone determined whether they
would live or die. This brazen yet humble show of confidence often
provoked primal fear in their enemies.
In 2002, 600 women from Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta invoked a similar
approach to combat, launching a protest against U.S. oil giant
ChevronTexaco. The women wanted the company to plow back some of
its profits into their impoverished community, from whose land it was
taking the oil. To drive home their demands, they threatened to commit a
traditional shaming gesture—taking off their clothes.
Nigerian tribes regard public displays of nudity by wives, mothers, and
grandmothers as a damning protest that casts shame on those at whom
the action is directed.
The tactic worked. To prevent the show of nakedness, ChevronTexaco
gave in to the women, agreeing to hire villagers and build schools and
electrical and water systems.
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DRUIDIC ENGINEERING
A 275-meter section of Austria's A9 highway was the most dangerous in
the country. Accidents occurred there at an alarming rate.
"We had put up signs to reduce speed, renewed the road surface and
made bends more secure, but we still kept getting accidents," said an
engineer from the motorway authority.
Finally, archdruid Gerald Knobloch was summoned. To heal and revitalize
the natural flow of "earth energy," he directed pillars of white quartz to
be placed alongside the road. Traffic carnage soon disappeared.
"I located dangerous elements that had disrupted the energy flow,"
Knobloch said. "The worst was a river which human interference had
forced to flow against its natural direction. By erecting two stones of
quartz the energy lines were restored."
The pillars had a similar function to acupuncture, he said. "Acupuncture
needles also restore broken energy lines.
What acupuncture does for the body, the stones do for
the environment." (Source: London's The Telegraph,
www.telegraph.co.uk)
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STEALTH TECHNOLOGY
Fourteenth-century Qabalists calculated the number of angels as
301,655,722. But the radiant homeless guy who begs for money in front
of the post office says the current total is 677,323,117,002. If he's
right, it means that in a mere six centuries, the angel community has
grown 225,000 percent. That's an astounding population explosion.
Unlike the rapid proliferation of humans, the swelling tribe of heavenly
hosts is good news. It means there are now 112 divine messengers-cum-
guardian spirits for every person on the planet.
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PALINDROME NEWS
1. A Santa lived as a devil at NASA. 2. He maps spam, eh? 3. Rot can rob
a born actor. 4. A slut nixes sex in Tulsa. 5. Revolt, lover! 6. Rise, sir
lapdog! God, pal, rise, sir! 7. Bombard a drab mob! Egad—no bondage! 8.
Go hang a salami—I'm a lasagna hog. 9. Was it a rat I saw?
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ABUNDANCE STUDIES
"Case Western University's School of Medicine in Cleveland has provided
$1.7 million in research grants to seek 'clinically documented evidence of
the positive effects and transformative power of unconditional love.' The
school's Institute for Research on Unlimited Love will fund 21 studies into
the scientific nature of volunteerism, organ donations, rescue work, and
other acts of selfless altruism, compassion, and service."
—www.goodnewsnetwork.org
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MIRABILIA REPORT
Mirabilia n. beguiling ephemera, inexplicable joys, changes that inspire
quiet awe; from the Latin mirabilia, "marvels."
The largest living thing in the world is a 2,400-acre underground fungus in
Oregon. It has no name yet.
A chemist in Australia finally succeeded in mixing oil and water.
For $900, you can arrange for the manufacture of 12 action figures that
look like you.
Black sheep have a better sense of smell than white sheep.
Some Christians really do love their enemies, as Jesus recommended.
In 2001, 16 refugees from the Dominican Republic were lost at sea for 12
days while fleeing across shark-infested waters to a better life in Puerto
Rico. To save themselves from death by dehydration, they sucked milk
from the breasts of a nursing mother who was among them.
There are about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Every square
inch of your body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
Anthropologists say that in every culture in history, children have played
the game hide and seek.
The seeds of some trees are so tightly compacted within their protective
covering that only the intense heat of a forest fire can free them, allowing
them to sprout.
In his book *The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the
Resurrection of the Dead,* physicist Frank J. Tipler offers what he says is
scientific proof that every human being who has ever lived will be
resurrected from the dead at the end of time.
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RATTLESNAKE SLACK
Scientists now know that rattlesnakes would actually prefer to lie back
and relax than to rattle and attack.
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THIS EON IN PRONOIAC HISTORY
In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, the hero and heroine fall in love
without ever gazing upon each other, simply by hearing tales about each
other's good deeds.
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PNN is brought to you by by the mummified middle finger of Galileo's
right hand, which is on display at a museum in Florence, Italy. May it
inspire you to flip the metaphorical bird at anyone who proudly embodies
the kind of high-level idiocy Galileo had to endure.
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There are hundreds more stories like this in *PRONOIA Is the Antidote for
Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with
Blessings*
To read other pieces from the book, go here:
http://freewillastrology.com/beauty/beauty.main145.shtml
To buy the book, use the links to Amazon.com and Powells, which are on
my homepage at http://www.freewillastrology.com
Or cut and paste the direct links below:
AMAZON
http://snipurl.com/krjj
BARNES & NOBLE
http://snipurl.com/krjn
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
WEBSITE
http://www.seacology.org
pronoiac environmental writing from Indonesia by Jeff Greenwald
MAGAZINE
*Ode* magazine
http://www.odemagazine.com
for intelligent optimists
BOOK
*False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear* by Dr. Marc K. Siegel
http://www.doctorsiegel.com/
SONG
"Ode to Joy" by Beethoven
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They're not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning December 15
Copyright 2005 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): It's possible there's still enough oil buried in
the earth to sustain our civilization's exorbitant appetite for material
comforts for another 100 years. Or it may be true, as some researchers
suggest, that global reserves of black gold are rapidly dwindling, and 20
years from now we'll all be farmers and hunters sitting around campfires
at night telling stories. Whichever scenario comes to pass, Aries, you'll be
happiest and smartest and healthiest if you cultivate a simple and earthy
relationship with luxury--maybe something akin to poet Omar Khayyam's
notion, which was "a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou beside me
singing in the wilderness." The coming week is a perfect time for you to
practice this approach.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your self-image is too small, in my opinion.
You've crammed your identity into a few pigeonholes, and it's dying to
escape. To launch you on the path to expansion, let's stimulate your
imagination with some exercises. Start by visualizing yourself as being the
opposite gender. What would your name be? Now picture yourself as
being a different race and having an alternate ethnic background. How
would that affect your philosophy of life? Imagine yourself working at a
job or career other than the one you actually have, and living in a
different city, and making $20,000 more a year than you actually do.
Now dream up some more fantasies about other selves who might be
lurking within you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I've lived in the same house for ten years, but
it was only yesterday I noticed that the top of my kitchen sink had a word
engraved on it: *Lustertone.* The discovery was embarrassing, since it
revealed how unperceptive I can be. But it was also a sign that maybe I'm
waking up from my everyday trance and ready to register details that
have been invisible to me before. I believe that a similar development is
imminent in your life, Gemini. You're primed to start gathering in the open
secrets that have been hidden in plain view. Here's your word of power:
*lustertone.*
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian hero Nelson Mandela spent 27
years in a South African jail as a political prisoner. Once he was released,
he became his country's first democratically elected president, helped
abolish its system of apartheid, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. You, my
friend, are at a point comparable to the one Mandela was at right before
he was freed. Although your confinement hasn't been nearly as dire or as
long as his, your release will be pretty glorious. I hope that in the ensuing
weeks you will demonstrate at least a fraction of his ability to triumph
over the adversity you've had to endure.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Kiss the back of your hand and remember a
moment in childhood when you felt the perfect joy of being at home in
the world. Give a gift to a river, lake, or ocean. Treasure the unique shape
and contours of your beautiful face. For just 48 hours, be inflamed with
the hypothesis that your soul will live forever. Imagine that your place of
power is where the tree joins the earth. Playfully lower your expectations
all the way down to the bottom, and tune in to the shattering sweetness
of life exactly as it is. Put yourself under the protection of the raw
elements. Write an epic three-page autobiography while sitting in the
pitch dark. Seize the power to create magic that has always seemed
impossible before.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A while back you heard a commotion coming
from behind the door of opportunity. It momentarily buoyed you. But the
silence since then has been disheartening. Now you may even be on the
verge of giving up. But here's my advice to you: Start knocking on that
door and don't stop until it opens. Keep knocking patiently and politely
for an hour, for a day, for three weeks or six months--for as long as it
takes. I don't know if the answer you'll receive when the door opens will
be exactly the one you want, but it will provide you with the precise
information you need to decide what to do next. And you'll never get that
insight if you walk away now.
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AUDIO LOVE LETTERS
In addition to the horoscopes that come to you in this newsletter, I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes for your inspiration. I think of them as
my love letters to you. They're $6 if you access them on the Web, or
$1.99 per minute over the phone.
For Web access, go here:
http://snipurl.com/krjm
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.
"Your audio horoscopes help me tune in to my own inner wisdom. It's like
you're the UNteacher teaching me how to teach myself." —Rose F.,
Ypsilanti, MI
"Why spend $80 an hour on a therapist when I can spend $6 for a few
minutes with you and get the same boost?" —Roger H., Colorado Springs,
CO
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When T.S. Eliot wrote the first draft of his
famous poem "The Waste Land," it was about a thousand lines long.
Wondering if maybe it was too sprawling, he asked another poet, Ezra
Pound, to edit it. Pound crossed out more than half of the original, and
Eliot published it in that slimmed-down form. I encourage you to locate
your own personal equivalent of Ezra Pound right now, Libra. You need
help in extracting your future masterpiece from the dross in which it's still
half-buried.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): This is prime time for you to burn away
delusions that cripple your ability to act with maximum freedom. There
are two particular misconceptions that you have special power to
eradicate. The first is the belief that you can help someone else by
diminishing yourself. The second is the notion that you can somehow
benefit from the losses of other people. The truth in both cases is exactly
the opposite: If you really want to contribute to anyone's well-being, you
have to do it in such a way that you, too, thrive. And vice versa.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Greenland is literally covered with rubies.
"You can't set foot anywhere without stepping on five or six rubies," says
gemstone hunter Andrew Lee Smith, quoted in *Discover* magazine. This
omnipresence of valuable beauty is an apt metaphor for your fate in the
coming week, Sagittarius. Everywhere you turn, you will see treasure. You
may find the abundance hard to believe. Ironically, your incredulity is the
only possible obstacle that could interfere with you gathering up and
enjoying the riches.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The British edition of *Cosmopolitan* still
provides women with practical, no-nonsense advice like "How to love
yourself after a pig-out" and "8 sizzling sex lessons your man needs to
learn," but it has also added a spirituality column. "I've come to the
painful realization that men and shoes are not enough to make me
happy," wrote Hannah Borno, introducing the new section. "The key to
true contentment lies elsewhere." Cosmo readers now get helpful tips on
consulting their guardian angels, tapping into the wisdom of dreams, and
trying out various meditation techniques. If this renowned hotbed of the
sensual approach to life has finally acknowledged the subtler dimensions,
maybe you Capricorns, traditionally the hard-core materialists of the
zodiac, might also be inspired to expand your spiritual perspective. I hope
so. It's a perfect moment for you to get delightfully zapped with a sacred
epiphany.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A friend gave me a live rosebush in a
planter for my birthday last June. After a few weeks, its five red flowers
withered and turned brown but didn't fall off their stems. I left them
there, perversely fascinated by the dead blooms that wouldn't let go.
Months later, in late November, five new flowers blossomed, and now the
bush displays a mix of the living and the dead. It sort of reminds me of
you, Aquarius. But I suggest that you do what I haven't done yet: Start
plucking off the dried-up old parts of your life today. Give the fresh parts
more room to grow and shine.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels
responsible," wrote French philosopher Voltaire. I hope you will contradict
him, Pisces, both in the coming weeks and throughout 2006. To be in
alignment with the most exalted astrological possibilities, you should be
the snowflake that at least tries to question the avalanche, and even
makes an effort to stop it or reroute it. Maybe you don't realize how
much power your seemingly little crystalline self has to change history,
but I'm here to tell you it's more than you imagine.
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HOMEWORK:
Make three predictions about yourself and three about the world. What
amazing events will occur in 2006? Testify by going to
http://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 CD and promoting
my new book.
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.
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
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where you receive it, go to:
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If my emails don't reach your inbox, you should also look in your "Bulk
Mail" or "Junk Mail" folder.
I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to
anyone.
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Submissions sent to the Free Will Astrology Weekly 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
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Requests for anonymity will be honored with submissions;
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Please be sure to note your preference when sending to us. We
are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative
material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2005 Rob Brezsny
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