Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
"In mythology, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, human hero or
anthropomorphic animal who plays pranks or otherwise disobeys normal
rules and norms of behavior.
"The trickster breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes
maliciously but usually with ultimately positive effects. Often, the rule-
breaking takes the form of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or
foolish or both; they are often very funny even when considered sacred or
performing important cultural tasks. An example of this is the sacred
Heyoka, whose role is to play tricks and games and by doing so raises
awareness and acts as an equalizer."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster
August 23, 2006
http://www.freewillastrology.com
Dear Readers,
Circumstances have conspired to prevent me from attending the Burning
Man festival this year.
What, then, should I do with the ticket I bought? Give it away free to one
of my readers, of course. That's obviously the best solution.
I know it's late notice, but if anyone wants the ticket, let me know. I'll
FedEx it free to whomever writes me the most entertaining email about
why they want it and deserve it. Write to sacreduproar@comcast.net.
Rob
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ROB'S UPCOMING PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Inside Story Time
Thursday, September 21st, 7 - 9 pm
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell Street (@ Van Ness)
San Francisco, CA
http://www.insidestorytime.com/
Rob will do 20 minutes, sharing the night with four great authors:
Peter Beagle, Judy Budnitz, Charlie Anders, and Sona Avakian
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Read stories about me and pronoia:
Boulder Weekly
http://tinyurl.com/qopkk
Fort Collins Weekly
http://tinyurl.com/lt9pv
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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 find out more at http://www.freewillastrology.com
+
LOVE BOMB
I feel closer to you when I imagine that all of us are collaborating to fight
monumental dangers. The telepathic links among us heat up when our
emotions register the possibility that a global cataclysm could wipe us
out.
That's why I think of the nuclear bomb as a gift. It's a terrible and sacred
taboo that mobilizes our love for each other better than any other
symbol. It's the superhuman profanity on which all life depends and
against which all values must be tested. Shadowing every one of our
personal actions, the bomb is the fascinating blasphemy that won't stop
ranting unless we're all very, very good.
In the quiet abyss of our imaginations, we unconsciously worship it,
believing in its extravagant potency as if it were a god. It is the most
spiritual, most supernatural material object in the world, a fetish that has
the power to literally change all life on earth instantly and forever. We
agree to be possessed by it, to be haunted by its apparition above all
other apparitions. No other spectacle inspires more perverse attraction.
And yet it's secret. How few of us have ever stood next to the magic
body of a hydrogen bomb in a missile silo or laboratory—breathed in its
smell, touched it, communed with its actual life. Its presence among us is
rumor and mystery, like flying saucers and the afterlife. We hear stories.
At night our dreams turn the bomb into the philosopher's stone, the pearl
of great price, the doppelganger of the messiah, the violent ecstasy of
religious conversion. Our blood is alive to its alchemy, alert to its offer of
the blinding flash of irreversible illumination. We recognize the bomb as
our impossible teacher because it harbors a dangerous light that seems to
mimic the sun.
It's ours. We made it. We imagined it into existence so we could
remember that we are all one body. When I fantasize the bomb vaporizing
me into its pure primeval heat and radiation, I remember that you and I
are made of the same stuff. The bomb frees us to imagine that we all live
and die together, that we are all born out of Adam, the indivisible
hermaphrodite god of our species. And we can return now because we
never left.
We need the bomb. We need the bomb because only the tease of the
biggest, most original sin can heal us. The bomb is a blind, a fake, a trick
memory we're sending ourselves from the future that shocks us better
than all the abstract devils.
Let's call the bomb a love that's too big for us to understand yet. Let's
say it's the raging creative life of a cleansing disease that wants to cure
us so it doesn't have to kill us. Let's say it's the last judgment that
promises not to come true if we can figure out what it means.
*
We have genetic potentials and divine powers so undreamed of that they
will feel like magic when they finally bloom. But they may remain partially
dormant in us until we're terrified not just of our individual deaths but
also of the extinction of the human archetype.
Bless the fear. Praise the danger. O God of Good and Evil Light, let the
ugly power fascinate us all now. Let it fix our dread so precisely that we
become one ferocious, potently concentrated magician, a single guerrilla
mediator casting a spell to bind the great Satan bomb. There will be no
nuclear war.
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To read other news and features from my book, go here:
http://snipurl.com/l9o3
or
http://freewillastrology.com/beauty/beauty.main145.shtml
To buy the book, use the links to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble,
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
LITERATURE
"19 Proofs That Despite (or Because?) of Our Political Decline We Live in
A Literary Golden Age" by James Warner
http://www.jameswarner.net/
ARTICLE
"Evolution, Jung, UFOs, Near Death Experiences, Virtual Reality,
and the Approaching Singularity at the End of Human History" by
Jonathan Zap
http://tinyurl.com/jhhq4
FILM FUND-RAISING EVENT
"Meditate and Destroy"
Film Fundraiser
Saturday, August 26, 2006, 6:30-9pm
An event to benefit the work-in-progress MEDITATE AND DESTROY, a 75-
minute documentary film that focuses on meditation teacher and author,
Noah Levine, who has synthesized his punk rock rebellious urges with
community service and Buddhist practice.
Yoga Sangha
3030-A 16th Street
San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $15-45 sliding scale
http://www.yogasangha.com
(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 August 24
Copyright 2006 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Baksheesh" is a term derived from the
Persian term for "gift." Among travelers in the Third World, it has several
meanings, among which are these: (1) bribes paid to authorities to get
them to stop hassling you; (2) tips given to strangers who insist on being
of assistance by, say, opening a door for you even if you don't want them
to. I believe baksheesh will soon serve as an apt metaphor for you, Aries.
Be ready to offer compensation to people in order to get them to both
stop bothering you and stop "helping" you. (P.S.: The compensation you
give may not necessarily be in the form of cash. It could be flattery,
presents, or useful information.)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The biggest food fight on the planet will soon
take place. More than 20,000 lunatic combatants will gather in the
Spanish town of Buñol to hurl 45 tons of overripe tomatoes and other
veggies at each other. Maybe you should book a flight there, Taurus.
You'd do yourself a big favor by indulging in senseless but harmless
mayhem that allows you to lose control in the name of fun. Nothing would
be more healing than a big dose of maniacal fervor.
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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. They're $6 if you
access them on the Web, or $1.99 per minute 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.
"You told me the truth when no one else in my life would." -Darren H.,
Minneapolis
"Your wake-up calls keep me from getting stale." -Arris T., Aspen, CO
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Russ Kick searches for messy facts that lie
half-hidden beneath the official versions of reality. In his two volumes
entitled *50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know,* he reveals, for
example, that most corporations don't pay federal income taxes, George
Washington embezzled government money, a third of all American
homeless men are military veterans, and Shakespeare filled his plays with
sexual references. Russ Kick is your role model, Gemini. May he inspire you
to find out about at least three things you're not "supposed" to know.
May you adopt his brazen approach as you breeze in to off-limits areas to
get the scoop on tantalizing truths that have been missing in action.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Throughout history there have been secret
schools that don't advertise their existence. To enroll, students must
either be invited or else stumble on them by chance. In post-Renaissance
Europe, for example, Rosicrucian mystery schools taught an esoteric form
of Christianity at odds with the Church. Seventeenth-century English poet
Andrew Marvell and his cohorts had their underground School of the
Night, and ancient Greek poet Sappho stealthily gathered young women
at her Moisopholon, "House of the Muses." In recent years the Sexy
Bratty Genius School has periodically convened classes at 3 a.m. under a
highway overpass in San Francisco. According to my reading of the
current omens, Cancerian, you're close to making contact with a similar
source of teaching. Whether you end up actually matriculating depends
on how you answer the question, "Do you want to learn about things
you've considered impossible?"
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Psychologists Ed Diener and Martin E.P. Seligman
cite 150 studies that suggest economic factors have little to do with
happiness levels. For example, the Masai of Kenya, whose per capita
income is under $300 a year, are as satisfied with their lives as the 400
wealthiest plutocrats in America. People living in the slums of Calcutta are
slightly less filled with well-being, but not much. Your assignment, Leo, is
to explore the personal implications of this. Can you get to the point
where you truly feel that your ability to enjoy life has little to with how
much money you have?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Philosopher George Gurdjieff declared that
most of us are essentially asleep, even as we walk around in broad
daylight. We're ignorant about the higher levels of awareness we're
capable of; we're blind to the continuous flow of life's miraculous
blessings. He said that in order to wake up and stay awake we need
regular shocks. Some of these are uncomfortable, forcing us to face our
own stupidity. But other shocks are delightful. They're doses of sacred
medicine that entice us to shake off our sleepiness and come to attention
in pleasurable ways. I believe that in the coming weeks you'll be offered a
steady supply of the latter.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): At the BFD concert near San Francisco in June,
Yeah Yeah Yeahs' lead singer Karen O screamed for two minutes and 17
seconds straight. (I timed it.) I recommend that you set aside some
quality time in the next two weeks to experiment with big outbreaks of
self-expression that resemble hers. It's the Purge and Purify Season for
you--a time when you should indulge in high-spirited activities that
exorcise your demons, wash your brain, and incite toe-curling, sweat-
inducing, soul-animating catharses.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): An artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico built a
replica of England's famous Stonehenge. But instead of using huge slabs
of rock to mimic the original, Adam Horowitz erected his spectacular
monument with 200 old refrigerators. Hence its name: Stonefridge. This
would be a perfect time for you to draw inspiration from his efforts,
Scorpio. Create your own personal imitation of a resource you love--a
beautifully funky, playfully accessible substitute for a marvel that is
impossible for you to own or control.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): As I contemplate your week ahead, I
can't help but think of the Butthole Surfers' song "Pepper": "They were
drinking from a fountain / that was pouring like an avalanche / coming
down the mountain." Are you ready for much, much more of everything
that interests and stimulates you, Sagittarius? Can you imagine what
you'd have to do to expand your capacity for big emotions and
provocative sensations? Of course not: No one can be fully prepared for
an avalanche. But do the wildest best you can, and your lust for life will
provide you with all the intuitions you need.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): It's Fake Smile Week. On the one hand,
that means you should be on guard for people who are pretending to feel
better than they actually do. I urge you to forgive them for their
deception, but don't get derailed by it. On the other hand, you yourself
should put on a happy face as a disguise when you're not sure what
exactly is going on. In other words, it's best to act agreeable until you
gather all the information necessary to make a sound decision. Is the
advice I'm offering hypocritical? Only if you use it to serve your narrow
self-interests. But if you're intent on doing what's best for all concerned,
my counsel is ethically impeccable.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): At the Coachella music festival, I found
myself next to a guy sporting a rainbow mohawk and wearing a red, white,
and blue speedo, black socks, golf shoes, a striped necktie, angel wings, a
red clown nose, and a battered hard hat with a sticker that read "Martinis
and brown rice." At one point he turned to me and said, "You know what I
like most about being an Aquarius? It's a never-ending opportunity to
send out mixed messages in a friendly, non-manipulative way." That got
me to thinking about how most of us are addicted to thinking in simplistic
categories and obsessed with making sense. Sending out mixed messages,
therefore, can be valuable if it's done in a spirit of compassionate play,
because it subverts those bad habits. Of all the signs in the zodiac, you
Aquarians do this best. I hope you ply your specialty lavishly in the
coming weeks. People in your life have an acute need to get their
certainties scrambled.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You've entered the Intimacy Intensification
Season. Are you ready to dive deeper into the mysteries of togetherness?
If so, you'll meet provocative candidates for future alliances, and people
you already know and love will become more available. As you can
imagine, it'll be crucial for you to study the truths of your own heart with
ruthless honesty. There'll be no excuse for getting tangled up with so-
called "pleasures" that don't really activate your most fervent zeal.
Exercise extreme discrimination, please, even as you seek out thrills that
make you brilliantly crazy.
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HOMEWORK:
Identify the part of you that you trust the least. Then think up a test
whereby that part of you will be challenged to express maximum integrity.
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.yoursouljourney.com/
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
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I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to
anyone.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2006 Rob Brezsny
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